Daily Gospel for Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Daily Gospel for Wednesday, 24 June 2015
"Shim‘on Kefa answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the word of eternal life."[John 6:68]
The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist - Solemnity
The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist - Solemnity

The Nativity of St. John the Baptist 
Solemnity

The birth of St. John was foretold by an angel of the Lord to his father, Zachary, who was offering incense in the Temple. It was the office of St. John to prepare the way for Christ, and before he was born into the world he began to live for the Incarnate God. Even in the womb he knew the presence of Jesus and of Mary, and he leaped with joy at the glad coming of the son of man. In his youth he remained hidden, because he for whom he waited was hidden also.

But before Christ's public life began, a divine impulse led St. John into the desert; there, with locusts for his food and haircloth on his skin, in silence and in prayer, he chastened his own soul. Then, as crowds broke in upon his solitude, he warned them to flee from the wrath to come, and gave them the baptism of penance, while theyconfessed their sins. At last there stood in the crowd One whom St. John did not know, till a voice within told him that it was his Lord. With the baptism of St. John, Christ began his penance for the sins of his people, and St. John saw the Holy Spirit descend in bodily form upon Him. Then the Saint's work was done. He had but to point his own disciples to the Lamb, he had but to decrease as Christ increased. He saw all men leave him and go after Christ. "I told you," he said, "that I am not the Christ. The friend of the Bridegroom rejoiceth because of the Bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled."

St. John had been cast into the fortress of Machærus by a worthless tyrant whose crimes be had rebuked, and he was to remain there till he was beheaded, at the will of a girl who danced before this wretched king. In this time of despair, if St. John could have known despair, some of his old disciples visited him. St. John did not speak to them of himself, but he sent them toChrist, that they might see the proofs of his mission.

Then the Eternal Truth pronounced the panegyric of the Saint who had lived and breathed for Him alone: "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist"

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

St. María Guadalupe García Zavala, Religious (1878-1963)

Saint María Guadalupe García Zavala
Religious 
(1878-1963)

María Guadalupe García Zavala was born on April 27, 1878 in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, to Fortino García and Refugio Zavala de García.

As a child she was known for her piety and made frequent visits to the Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan, which was located next to the religious goods shop run by her father. Her love for God was particularly demonstrated in her love for the poor. With uncommon transparency and simplicity, María treated everyone with equal love and respect.
Although as a young woman she planned to marry Gustavo Arreola, she suddenly broke off her engagement when she was 23 years old. The reason: María "understood" that Jesus was calling her to love him with an undivided heart as part of the religious life,"No' to matrimony, "yes' to Jesus. She fully believed that she was called to do this by giving assistance to the poor and sick.

When María confided to her spiritual director, Fr Cipriano Iñiguez, her "sudden change of heart", he told her that for some time he had the inspiration to found a religious congregation that would provide assistance to the hospitalized. He invited María to join him in this foundation. The new Congregation, which officially began on October 13, 1901, was known as the "Handmaids of St Margaret Mary (Alacoque) and the Poor".

"Poor with the poor"

María worked as a nurse, giving assistance to the first patients that were welcomed into "their hospital". Regardless of the poverty and lack of material goods of the patients, compassion and care for the physical and spiritual well-being of the sick were the primary concerns, and María gave of herself wholeheartedly to carry out this task of love.

Sr María was named Superior General of the quickly-growing Congregation, and taught the Sisters entrusted to her, mostly by means of her example, the importance of living a genuine and joyful exterior and interior poverty. She was convinced that it was only through loving and living poverty that one could be truly "poor with the poor". Indeed, Mother María was known for her simplicity, humility and willingness to accept all that came from the hand of God.

Risking life to help those hiding

From 1911 until 1936, the political-religious situation in Mexico became uneasy and the Catholic Church underwent persecution. Mother María put her own life at risk to help the priests and the Archbishop of Guadalajara to "go into hiding" in the hospital. She did not limit her charity simply to helping the "righteous", but also gave food and care to the persecutors who lived near the hospital; it was not long before they, too, began defending the sick in the hospital run by the Sisters.

The last two years of Mother María's life were lived in extreme suffering because of a grave illness, and on 24 June 1963, she died at the age of 85.

During the lifetime of the foundress, 11 foundations were established in the Republic of Mexico. 
Today, the Congregation has 22 foundations and is present in five different Nations: Mexico, Peru, Iceland, Greece and Italy.

She was canonized on May 12,  2013 by Pope Francis. - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana

The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist - Solemnity
Book of Isaiah 49:1 Coastlands, listen to me;
listen, you peoples far away:
Adonai called me from the womb;
before I was born, he had spoken my name.
2 He has made my mouth like a sharp sword
while hiding me in the shadow of his hand;
he has made me like a sharpened arrow
while concealing me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
Isra’el, through whom I will show my glory.”
4 But I said, “I have toiled in vain,
spent my strength for nothing, futility.”
Yet my cause is with Adonai,
my reward is with my God.
5 So now Adonai says —
he formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Ya‘akov back to him,
to have Isra’el gathered to him,
so that I will be honored in the sight of Adonai,
my God having become my strength —
6 he has said, “It is not enough
that you are merely my servant
to raise up the tribes of Ya‘akov
and restore the offspring of Isra’el.
I will also make you a light to the nations,
so my salvation can spread to the ends of the earth.”
Psalm 139:(0) For the leader. A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai, you have probed me, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I stand up,
you discern my inclinations from afar,
3 you scrutinize my daily activities.
You are so familiar with all my ways
13 For you fashioned my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I thank you because I am awesomely made,
wonderfully; your works are wonders —
I know this very well.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Acts of the Apostles 13:22 God removed him and raised up David as king for them, making his approval known with these words, ‘I found David Ben-Yishai to be a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want.’[Acts 13:22 Psalm 89:21(20); 1 Samuel 13:14]
23 “In keeping with his promise, God has brought to Isra’el from this man’s descendants a deliverer, Yeshua. 24 Now before the coming of Yeshua, Yochanan proclaimed to all the people of Isra’el an immersion in connection with turning to God from sin. 25 But as Yochanan was ending his work, he said, ‘Who do you suppose I am? Well — I’m not! But after me is coming someone, the sandals of whose feet I am unworthy to untie.’
26 “Brothers! — sons of Avraham and those among you who are ‘God-fearers’! It is to us that the message of this deliverance has been sent!

The Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah According to Saint Luke 1:57 The time arrived for Elisheva to have her baby, and she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard how good Adonai had been to her, and they rejoiced with her.
59 On the eighth day, they came to do the child’s b’rit-milah. They were about to name him Z’kharyah, after his father, 60 when his mother spoke up and said, “No, he is to be called Yochanan.” 61 They said to her, “None of your relatives has that name,” 62 and they made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. 63 He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is Yochanan.” 64 At that moment, his power of speech returned, and his first words were a b’rakhah to God. 65 All their neighbors were awestruck; and throughout the hill country of Y’hudah, people talked about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard of them said to himself, “What is this child going to be?” For clearly the hand of Adonai was with him.
80 The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he lived in the wilderness until the time came for him to appear in public to Isra’el.
The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist - Solemnity
Commentary of the day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church 
Sermon for the Nativity of John the Baptist; Mai 109 ; PLS II, 497

"He must increase; I must decrease" (Jn 3,30)

The births and then the Passions of John and Jesus have marked out their differences. For John was born as daylight began to fade; Christ as day started to dawn. For the former, day’s diminishment is the symbol of his violent death. Its increase in the latter’s case, his lifting up on the cross.
There is also a secret meaning the Lord reveals… with regard to John’s saying about Jesus : “He must increase, I must decrease.” All human righteousness… had been consummated in John; of him Truth said: “Among those born of women none has risen greater than John the Baptist” (Mt 11,11). No man, therefore, could overtake him yet he was only a man. Now, in our Christian dispensation, we are asked not to boast in man but “whoever boasts should boast in the Lord” (2Cor 10,17): man, in his God; servant, in his master. That is why John exclaimed: “He must grow greater, I must grow less.” Of course, God is neither diminished not increased in himself, but where we humans are concerned, insofar as genuine fervor makes headway, divine grace grows greater and human will grows less until God’s home in all Christ’s members reaches its fulfillment where every tyranny and  authority and power are dead and God is all in all (Col 3,11).
John the Evangelist says: “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (1,9); but John the Baptist says: “From his fullness we have all received” (1,16). While the light, which in itself is always total, nevertheless increases in the one illuminated by it, it is diminished in itself when what is without God is extinguished within it. For a person without God can do nothing except sin but his human power grows less when divine grace, sin’s destroyer, conquers. The weakness of the creature gives way to the Creator’s power and the vanity of our egotistical feelings crumbles before universal love, while John the Baptist, from the depth of our distress, cries out to us the mercy of Jesus Christ: “He must increase and I must decrease.”

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