Daily Gospel for Friday, 12 June 2015

Daily Gospel for Friday, 12 June 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus - Solemnity - Year B
Feast of the Church:

The Sacred Heart of Jesus   SolemnityLetter of his Holiness Benedict XVI on occasion of the 50th anniversary of the encyclical "Haurietis Aquas"
Today, 50 years later, the Prophet Isaiah's words, which Pius XII placed at the beginning of the Encyclical with which he commemorated the first centenary of the extension of the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus to the entire Church, have lost none of their meaning:  "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation" (Is 12: 3).    
By encouraging devotion to the Heart of Jesus, the Encyclical Haurietis Aquas exhorted believers to open themselves to the mystery of God and of his love and to allow themselves to be transformed by it. After 50 years, it is still a fitting task for Christians to continue to deepen their relationship with the Heart of Jesus, in such a way as to revive their faith in the saving love of God and to welcome him ever better into their lives.    
The Redeemer's pierced side is the source to which the Encyclical Haurietis Aquas refers us:  we must draw from this source to attain true knowledge of Jesus Christ and a deeper experience of his love.   Thus, we will be able to understand better what it means to know God's love in Jesus Christ, to experience him, keeping our gaze fixed on him to the point that we live entirely on the experience of his love, so that we can subsequently witness to it to others.    
Indeed, to take up a saying of my venerable Predecessor John Paul II, "In the Heart of Christ, man's heart learns to know the genuine and unique meaning of his life and of his destiny, to understand the value of an authentically Christian life, to keep himself from certain perversions of the human heart, and to unite the filial love for God and the love of neighbour".  
Thus:  "The true reparation asked by the Heart of the Saviour will come when the civilization of the Heart of Christ can be built upon the ruins heaped up by hatred and violence" (Letter to Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, Superior General of the Society of Jesus for the Beatification of Bl. Claude de la Colombière, 5 October 1986; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 27 October 1986, p. 7).  
In the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, I cited the affirmation in the First Letter of St John:  "We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us", in order to emphasize that being Christian begins with the encounter with a Person (cf. n. 1).  
Since God revealed himself most profoundly in the Incarnation of his Son in whom he made himself "visible", it is in our relationship with Christ that we can recognize who God really is (cf. Haurietis Aquas, nn. 29-41; Deus Caritas Est, nn. 12-15).  
And again:  since the deepest expression of God's love is found in the gift Christ made of his life for us on the Cross, the deepest expression of God's love, it is above all by looking at his suffering and his death that we can see God's infinite love for us more and more clearly:  "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3: 16).   Moreover, not only does this mystery of God's love for us constitute the content of the worship of and devotion to the Heart of Jesus, but in the same way it is likewise the content of all true spirituality and Christian devotion. It is consequently important to stress that the basis of the devotion is as old as Christianity itself.   Indeed, it is only possible to be Christian by fixing our gaze on the Cross of our Redeemer, "on him whom they have pierced" (Jn 19: 37; cf. Zc 12: 10).  
The Encyclical Haurietis Aquas rightly recalls that for countless souls the wound in Christ's side and the marks left by the nails have been "the chief sign and symbol of that love" that ever more incisively shaped their life from within (cf. n. 52).   
Recognizing God's love in the Crucified One became an inner experience that prompted them to confess, together with Thomas:  "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20: 28), and enabled them to acquire a deeper faith by welcoming God's love unreservedly (cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 49).   
The deepest meaning of this devotion to God's love is revealed solely through a more attentive consideration of its contribution not only to the knowledge, but also and especially to the personal experience of this love in trusting dedication to its service (cf. ibid., n. 62).   It is obvious that experience and knowledge cannot be separated:  the one refers to the other. Moreover, it is essential to emphasize that true knowledge of God's love is only possible in the context of an attitude of humble prayer andgenerous availability.  
Starting with this interior attitude, one sees that the gaze fixed upon his side, pierced by the spear, is transformed into silent adoration. Gazing at the Lord's pierced side, from which "blood and water" flowed (cf. Jn 19: 34), helps us to recognize the manifold gifts of grace that derive from it (cf. Haurietis Aquas, nn. 34-41) and opens us to all other forms of Christian worship embraced by the devotion to the Heart of Jesus.  
Faith, understood as a fruit of the experience of God's love, is a grace, a gift of God. Yet human beings will only be able to experience faith as a grace to the extent that they accept it within themselves as a gift on which they seek to live. Devotion to the love of God, to which the Encyclical Haurietis Aquas invited the faithful (cf. n. 72), must help us never to forget that he willingly took this suffering upon himself "for us", "for me".  
When we practise this devotion, not only do we recognize God's love with gratitude but we continue to open ourselves to this love so that our lives are ever more closely patterned upon it. God, who poured out his love "into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (cf. Rom 5: 5), invites us tirelessly to accept his love. The main aim of the invitation to give ourselves entirely to the saving love of Christ and to consecrate ourselves to it (cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 4) is, consequently, to bring about our relationship with God.  
This explains why the devotion, which is totally oriented to the love of God who sacrificed himself for us, has an irreplaceable importance for our faith and for our life in love.   Whoever inwardly accepts God is moulded by him. The experience of God's love should be lived by men and women as a "calling" to which they must respond. Fixing our gaze on the Lord, who "took our infirmities and bore our diseases" (Mt 8: 17), helps us to become more attentive to the suffering and need of others.   Adoring contemplation of the side pierced by the spear makes us sensitive to God's salvific will. It enables us to entrust ourselves to his saving and merciful love, and at the same time strengthens us in the desire to take part in his work of salvation, becoming his instruments.  
The gifts received from the open side, from which "blood and water" flowed (cf. Jn 19: 34), ensure that our lives will also become for others a source from which "rivers of living water" flow (Jn 7: 38; cf. Deus Caritas Est, n. 7).  
The experience of love, brought by the devotion to the pierced side of the Redeemer, protects us from the risk of withdrawing into ourselves and makes us readier to live for others. "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (I Jn 3: 16; cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 38).  
It was only the experience that God first gave us his love that has enabled us to respond to his commandment of love (cf. Deus Caritas Est, n. 17).   So it is that the cult of love, which becomes visible in the mystery of the Cross presented anew in every celebration of the Eucharist, lays the foundations of our capacity to love and to make a gift of ourselves (cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 69), becoming instruments in Christ's hands:  only in this way can we be credible proclaimers of his love.   However, this opening of ourselves to God's will must be renewed in every moment:  "Love is never "finished' and complete" (cf. Deus Caritas Est, n. 17).  
Thus, looking at the "side pierced by the spear" from which shines forth God's boundless desire for our salvation cannot be considered a transitory form of worship or devotion:  the adoration of God's love, whose historical and devotional expression is found in the symbol of the "pierced heart", remains indispensable for a living relationship with God (cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 62).  
From the Vatican, 15 May 2006
BENEDICTUS Pages XVI - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Saints of the day:

SAINT JOHN OF ST. FAGONDEZ
Priest
(+1479) 

St. John was born at St. Fagondez, in Spain. At an early age he held several benefices in the diocese of Burgos, till the reproaches of his conscience forced him to resign them all except one chapel, where he said Mass daily, preached, and catechised.
After this he studied theology at Salamanca, and then labored for some time as a most devoted missionary priest. Ultimately he became a hermit of the Augustinian Order, in the same city.
There his life was marked by a singular devotion to the Holy Mass. Each night after Matins he remained in prayer till the hour of celebration, when he offered the Adorable Sacrifice with the most tender piety, often enjoying the sight of Jesus in glory, and holding sweet colloquies with Him.
The power of his personal holiness was seen in his preaching, which produced a complete reformation in Salamanca. He had a special gift of reconciling differences, and was enabled to put an end to the quarrels and feuds among noblemen, at that period very common and fatal. The boldness shown by St. John in reproving vice endangered his life. A powerful noble, having been corrected by the Saint for oppressing his vassals, sent two assassins to slay him. The holiness of the Saint's aspect, however, caused by that peace which continually reigned in his soul, struck such awe into their minds that they could not execute their purpose, but humbly besought his forgiveness. And the nobleman himself, falling sick, was brought to repentance, and recovered his health by the prayers of the Saint whom he had endeavored to murder.
He was also most zealous in denouncing those hideous vices which are a fruitful source of strife, and it was in defence of holy purity that he met his death. A lady of noble birth but evil life, whose companion in sin St. John had converted, contrived to administer a fatal poison to the Saint. After several months of terrible suffering, borne with unvarying patience, St. John went to his reward on June 11, 1479.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Saint Leo III

Birth: 750

Death: 816

Leo III is remembered as Charlemagne's pope. The cardinal priest of Santa Susanna, Leo was unanimously elected to the papal see in 795. Four years later, a mob led by relatives of his predecessor, Pope Adrian I, tried to blind Leo and cut out his tongue; such mutilations would have rendered him unfit to rule. Having escaped physical danger, he was imprisoned in a monastery during an attempt to depose him. He escaped to Charlemagne's retreat at Paderborn, where Alcuin defended him against charges ofadultery and purjury on the grounds that no earthly power can judge the successor to St. Peter. Leo returned to Rome in 800, and on Christmas day, he crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor. Leo fought adoptionism in Spain and was circumspect in his judgement of the filioque, the use of which he allowed but which he considered omittable. When Charlemagne died in 814, Leo began to assert his power more directly and personally prosecuted conspirators against him. Still despised by the upper class because of his plebian origin, Leo died in 816.

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus - Solemnity - Year B
Book of Hosea 11:1 “When Isra’el was a child, I loved him;
and out of Egypt I called my son.
3 “Yet it was I who taught Efrayim to walk;
I took them by their arms.
But they did not know that it was I
who was healing them,
4 who was guiding them on through human means
with reins made of love.
With them I was like someone removing
the yoke from their jaws,
and I bent down to feed them.
8 Efrayim, how can I give you up,
or surrender you, Isra’el?
How could I treat you like Admah
or make you like Tzvoyim?
My heart recoils at the idea,
as compassion warms within me.
9 I will not give vent to the fierceness of my rage,
I will not return to destroy Efrayim;
for I am God, not a human being,
the Holy One among you;
so I will not come in fury.
(Psalm) Isaiah 12:2 “See! God is my salvation.
I am confident and unafraid;
for Yah Adonai is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation!”
3 Then you will joyfully draw water
from the springs of salvation.
4 On that day you will say,
“Give thanks to Adonai! Call on his name!
Make his deeds known among the peoples,
declare how exalted is his name.
5 Sing to Adonai, for he has triumphed —
this is being made known throughout the earth.
6 Shout and sing for joy,
you who live in Tziyon;
for the Holy One of Isra’el
is with you in his greatness!”
Letter to the Ephesians 3:8 To me, the least important of all God’s holy people, was given this privilege of announcing to the Gentiles the Good News of the Messiah’s unfathomable riches, 9 and of letting everyone see how this secret plan is going to work out. This plan, kept hidden for ages by God, the Creator of everything, 10 is for the rulers and authorities in heaven to learn, through the existence of the Messianic Community, how many-sided God’s wisdom is. 11 This accords with God’s age-old purpose, accomplished in the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord. 12 In union with him, through his faithfulness, we have boldness and confidence when we approach God.
14 For this reason, I fall on my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its character. 16 I pray that from the treasures of his glory he will empower you with inner strength by his Spirit, 17 so that the Messiah may live in your hearts through your trusting. Also I pray that you will be rooted and founded in love, 18 so that you, with all God’s people, will be given strength to grasp the breadth, length, height and depth of the Messiah’s love, 19 yes, to know it, even though it is beyond all knowing, so that you will be filled with all the fullness of God.
The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint John 19:31 It was Preparation Day, and the Judeans did not want the bodies to remain on the stake on Shabbat, since it was an especially important Shabbat. So they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed. 32 The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been put on a stake beside Yeshua, then the legs of the other one; 33 but when they got to Yeshua and saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs. 34 However, one of the soldiers stabbed his side with a spear, and at once blood and water flowed out. 35 The man who saw it has testified about it, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he tells the truth, so you too can trust. 36 For these things happened in order to fulfill this passage of the Tanakh:
“Not one of his bones will be broken.”[a]
37 And again, another passage says,
“They will look at him whom they have pierced.”[b][Footnotes:
John 19:36 Psalm 34:21(20); Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12
John 19:37 Zechariah 12:10]
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus - Solemnity - Year B
Commentary of the day:
Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274), Franciscan, Doctor of the Church 
The Tree of Life, 29-30, 47, (Breviary) 
This is the heart which so loved the world Take thought now, redeemed man, and consider how great and worthy is he who hangs on the cross for you… Arise, then, beloved of Christ! Imitate the dove ‘that nests in a hole in the cliff’ (Jr 48:28), keeping watch at the entrance ‘like the sparrow that finds a home’(Ps 84:4). There like the turtledove hide your little ones, the fruit of your chaste love. Press your lips to the fountain, ‘draw water from the wells of your Saviour; for this is the spring flowing out of the middle of paradise, dividing into four rivers’, inundating devout hearts, watering the whole earth and making it fertile. 

Run with eager desire to this source of life and light, all you who are vowed to God’s service. Come, whoever you may be, and cry out to him with all the strength of your heart. “O indescribable beauty of the most high God and purest radiance of eternal light! Life that gives all life, light that is the source of every other light, preserving in everlasting splendour the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your divinity from the dawn of time! 
Eternal and inaccessible fountain, clear and sweet stream flowing from a hidden spring, unseen by mortal eye! None can fathom your depths nor survey your boundaries, none can measure your breadth, nothing can sully your purity. From you flows ‘the river which gladdens the city of God’(Ps 46:5) and makes us cry out with joy and thanksgiving in hymns of praise to you, for we know by our own experience that ‘with you is the source of life, and in your light we see light’ (Ps 36:10).

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