Daily Gospel for Sunday, 1 March 2014

Daily Gospel for Sunday, 1 March 2014
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Second Sunday of Lent - Year B
Saints of the day:

SAINT ALBINUS
Bishop
(469- 550)

Saint Albinus was of an ancient and noble family in Brittany, and from his childhood was fervent in every exercise of piety. He ardently sighed after the happiness which a devout soul finds in being perfectly disengaged from all earthly things.

Having embraced the monastic state at Tintillant, near Angers, he shone a perfect model of virtue, living as if in all things he had been without any will of his own; and his soul seemed so perfectly governed by the spirit of Christ as to live only for Him.

At the age of thirty-five years he was chosen abbot, in 504, and twenty-five years afterwards Bishop of Angers. He everywhere restored discipline, being inflamed with a holy zeal for the honor of God. His dignity seemed to make no alteration either in his mortifications or in the constant recollection of his soul. Honored by all the world, even by kings, he was never affected with vanity. Powerful in works and miracles, he looked upon himself as the most unworthy and most unprofitable among the servants of God, and had no other ambition than to appear such in the eyes of others as he was in those of his own humility.

In the third Council of Orleans, in 538, he procured the thirtieth canon of the Council of Epaone to be revived, by which those are declared excommunicated who presume to contract incestuous marriagesin the first or second degree of consanguinity or affinity. He died on the 1st of March, in 550.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

SAINT DAVID
Bishop
(+ 561)

Saint David, son of Sant, Prince of Cardigan and of Non, was born in that country in the fifth century, and from his earliest years gave himself wholly to the service of God.

He began his religious life under St. Paulinus, a disciple of St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, who had been sent to Britain by Pope St. Celestine to stop the ravages of the heresy of Pelagius, at that time abbot, as it is said, of Bangor.

On the reappearance of that heresy, in the beginning of the sixth century, the bishops assembled at Brevi, and, unable to address the people that came to hear the word of truth, sent for St. David from his cell to preach to them. The Saint came, and it is related that, as hepreached, the ground beneath his feet rose and became a hill, so that he was heard by an innumerable crowd. The heresy fell under the sword of the Spirit, and the Saint was elected Bishop of Caerleon on the resignation of St. Dubricius; but he removed the see to Menevia, a lone and desert spot, where he might, with his monks, serve God away from the noise of the world.

He founded twelve monasteries, and governed his Church according to the canonssanctioned in Rome.

At last, when about eighty years of age, he laid himself down, knowing that his hour was come. As his agony closed, our Lord stood before him in a vision, and the Saint cried out: "Take me up with Thee," and so gave up his soul on Tuesday, March 1, 561.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Second Sunday of Lent - Year B
Book of Genesis 22:1 (vii) After these things, God tested Avraham. He said to him, “Avraham!” and he answered, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Yitz’chak; and go to the land of Moriyah. There you are to offer him as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will point out to you.”

9 They came to the place God had told him about; and Avraham built the altar there, set the wood in order, bound Yitz’chak his son and laid him on the altar, on the wood. 10 Then Avraham put out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

11 But the angel of Adonai called to him out of heaven: “Avraham? Avraham!” He answered, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy! Don’t do anything to him! For now I know that you are a man who fears God, because you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 Avraham raised his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. Avraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son.

15 The angel of Adonai called to Avraham a second time out of heaven. 16 He said, “I have sworn by myself — says Adonai — that because you have done this, because you haven’t withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will most certainly bless you; and I will most certainly increase your descendants to as many as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the cities of their enemies, 18 and by your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed — because you obeyed my order.”

Psalms 116:10 I will keep on trusting even when I say,

“I am utterly miserable,”

15 From Adonai’s point of view,

the death of those faithful to him is costly.

16 Oh, Adonai! I am your slave;

I am your slave, the son of your slave-girl;

you have removed my fetters.

17 I will offer a sacrifice of thanks to you

    and will call on the name of Adonai.

18 I will pay my vows to Adonai

in the presence of all his people,

19 in the courtyards of Adonai’s house,

there in your very heart, Yerushalayim.

Halleluyah!

Letter to the Romans 8:31 What, then, are we to say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up on behalf of us all — is it possible that, having given us his Son, he would not give us everything else too? 33 So who will bring a charge against God’s chosen people? Certainly not God — he is the one who causes them to be considered righteous! 34 Who punishes them? Certainly not the Messiah Yeshua, who died and — more than that — has been raised, is at the right hand of God and is actually pleading on our behalf!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 9:2 Six days later, Yeshua took Kefa, Ya‘akov and Yochanan and led them up a high mountain privately. As they watched, he began to change form, 3 and his clothes became dazzlingly white, whiter than anyone in the world could possibly bleach them. 4 Then they saw Eliyahu and Moshe speaking with Yeshua. 5 Kefa said to Yeshua, “It’s good that we’re here, Rabbi! Let’s put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moshe and one for Eliyahu.” 6 (He didn’t know what to say, they were so frightened.) 7 Then a cloud enveloped them; and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Yeshua.

9 As they came down the mountain, he warned them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept the matter to themselves; but they continued asking each other, “What is this ‘rising from the dead’?”

Second Sunday of Lent - Year BCommentary of the day:

Saint Leo the Great (?-c.461), Pope and Doctor of the Church 

Homily 51/38 on the Transfiguration

"Jesus charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead"

Jesus wanted to arm his apostles with great strength of soul and with a constancy that would allow them to take up their own cross without fear, in spite of its harshness. Nor did he want them to blush over his death or that they consider a shame the patience with which he had to undergo such a cruel passion, without in any way losing the glory of his power. So “Jesus took Peter, James, and John … and led them up a high mountain,” and there he showed them the brilliance of his glory. Even if they had understood that divine majesty was in him, they did not yet know the power that was contained in this body, which concealed the divinity…

Thus the Lord revealed his glory in the presence of the witnesses he had chosen, and he spread such splendor over his body, which was like all other bodies, that “his face became as dazzling as the sun, his clothes as radiant as light.” Without doubt, the aim of this transfiguration was above all to remove the scandal of the cross from the heart of his disciples, not to overwhelm their faith by the humility of his voluntary passion…, but this revelation also gave foundation in his Church to the hope that was to uphold it. All the members of the Church, his Body, would thus understand what transformation would be worked in them one day, since the members have been promised that they will participate in the honor that shone forth in the head. When speaking of the majesty of his coming, the Lord himself had said: “Then the saints will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom.” (Mt 13:43) And the apostle Paul in turn affirmed: “I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us.” (Rom 8:18) … It is also written: “You have died! Your life is hidden now with Christ in God. When Christ our life appears, then you shall appear with him in glory.” (Col 3:3-4)

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