The Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 21 April 2015

The Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 21 April 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Tuesday of the Third week of Easter
Saints of the day:

SAINT ANSELM 
Archbishop and Doctor of the Church
(1033-1109)

Anselm was a native of Piedmont. When a boy of fifteen, being forbidden to enter religion, he for a while lost his fervor, left his home, and went to various schools in France. At length his vocation revived, and he became a monk at Bec in Normandy.

The fame of his sanctity in this cloister led William Rufus, when dangerously ill, to take him for his confessor, and to name him to the vacant see of Canterbury. Now began the strife of Anselm's life. With new health the king relapsed into his former sins, plundered the Church lands, scorned the archbishop's rebukes, and forbade him to go to Rome for the pallium.

Anselm went, and returned only to enter into a more bitter strife with William's successor, Henry I. This sovereign claimed the right of investing prelates with the ring and crozier, symbols of the spiritual jurisdiction which belongs to the Church alone. The worldly prelates did not scruple to call St. Anselm a traitor for his defence of the Pope's supremacy; on which the Saint rose, and with calm dignity exclaimed, "If any man pretends that I violate my faith to my king because I will not reject the authority of the Holy See of Rome, let him stand forth, and in the name of God I will answer him as I ought" No one took up the challenge; and to the disappointment of the king, the barons sided with the Saint, for they respected his courage, and saw that his cause was their own. Sooner than yield, the archbishop went again into exile, till at last the king was obliged to submit to the feeble but inflexible old man.

In the midst of his harassing cares, St. Anselm found time for writings which have made him celebrated as the father of scholastic theology; while in metaphysics and in science he had few equals.

He is yet more famous for his devotion to our blessed Lady, whose Feast of the Immaculate Conception he was the first to establish in the West.

He died in 1109.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Tuesday of the Third week of Easter
Acts of the Apostles 7:51 “Stiffnecked people,[a] with uncircumcised hearts and ears![b] You continually oppose the Ruach HaKodesh![c] You do the same things your fathers did! 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who told in advance about the coming of the Tzaddik, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers! — 53 you! — who receive the Torah as having been delivered by angels — but do not keep it!”

54 On hearing these things, they were cut to their hearts and ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Ruach HaKodesh, looked up to heaven and saw God’s Sh’khinah, with Yeshua standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look!” he exclaimed, “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”[d]

57 At this, they began yelling at the top of their voices, so that they wouldn’t have to hear him; and with one accord, they rushed at him, 58 threw him outside the city and began stoning him. And the witnesses laid down their coats at the feet of a young man named Sha’ul.

59 As they were stoning him, Stephen called out to God, “Lord Yeshua! Receive my spirit!” 60 Then he kneeled down and shouted out, “Lord! Don’t hold this sin against them!” With that, he died;

8:1 and Sha’ul gave his approval to his murder.

Starting with that day, there arose intense persecution against the Messianic Community in Yerushalayim; all but the emissaries were scattered throughout the regions of Y’hudah and Shomron.[Footnotes:

Acts 7:51 Exodus 32:9; 33:3, 5

Acts 7:51 Leviticus 26:41; Jeremiah 6:10; 9:25(26)

Acts 7:51 Isaiah 63:10

Acts 7:56 Psalm 110:1]

Psalm 31:3 (2) Turn your ear toward me,

come quickly to my rescue,

be for me a rock of strength,

a fortress to keep me safe.

4 (3) Since you are my rock and fortress,

lead me and guide me for your name’s sake.

6 (5) Into your hand I commit my spirit;

you will redeem me, Adonai, God of truth.

7 (6) I hate those who serve worthless idols;

as for me, I trust in Adonai.

8 (7) I will rejoice and be glad in your grace,

for you see my affliction,

you know how distressed I am.

17 (16) Make your face shine on your servant;

in your grace, save me.

21 (20) In the shelter of your presence

you hide them from human plots,

you conceal them in your shelter,

safe from contentious tongues.

Holy Gospel According to Saint John 6:30 They said to him, “Nu, what miracle will you do for us, so that we may see it and trust you? What work can you perform? 31 Our fathers ate man in the desert — as it says in the Tanakh, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[a] 32 Yeshua said to them, “Yes, indeed! I tell you it wasn’t Moshe who gave you the bread from heaven. But my Father is giving you the genuine bread from heaven; 33 for God’s bread is the one who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread from now on.” 35 Yeshua answered, “I am the bread which is life! Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever trusts in me will never be thirsty.[Footnotes:

John 6:31 Psalm 78:24; Nehemiah 9:15]

John 6:35 Yeshua answered, “I am the bread which is life! Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever trusts in me will never be thirsty. 36 I told you that you have seen but still don’t trust. 37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will certainly not turn away. 38 For I have come down from heaven to do not my own will but the will of the One who sent me. 39 And this is the will of the One who sent me: that I should not lose any of all those he has given me but should raise them up on the Last Day. 40 Yes, this is the will of my Father: that all who see the Son and trust in him should have eternal life, and that I should raise them up on the Last Day.”

Tuesday of the Third week of Easter

Commentary of the day:
Baldwin of Ford (?-c.1190), Cistercian abbot, then Bishop 
The Sacrament of the Altar III, 2  “My Father gives you the true bread which comes down from heaven”

God, - whose nature is goodness, whose substance is love, and whose whole life is benevolence - sent his own Son in the world, the bread of angels, “because of the great love he had for us” (Eph 2,4), because he wanted to show us the meekness of his nature and the affection he has for his children. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (Jn 3,16). 
This is the real bread that the Lord sent from heaven so that we may eat it...; this is what God, in his goodness, has prepared for the poor (Ps 67,9s). For Christ, who came down from heaven for all men, and to the level of each one, attracts everything to him through his inexpressible goodness; he doesn't reject anybody and he receives all men who want to repent. He gives all those who receive him the most delicious taste. He is the only one who can fulfill all our desires..., and he adapts himself in different ways to one and the other, according to the tendencies, the desires and the appetites of each one...
Everyone finds in him a different taste...For he doesn't have the same flavor for the one who repents and for the beginner, for the one who progresses and for the one who is at the end. He doesn't have the same taste in an apostolic life and in a contemplative life, nor for the one who makes use of the world and for the one who doesn't, for the bachelor and for the married man, for the one who fasts and for the one who makes a distinction between the different days and for the one who considers all days alike (Rom 14,5)...This bread has a sweet taste because it delivers one from all worries, it heals sicknesses, it eases trials, it assists one's efforts and strengthens one's hopes...Those who have tasted it hunger for it, those who hunger will be satisfied.

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