The Daily Gospel for Wednesday, 9 September 2015

The Daily Gospel for Wednesday, 9 September 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Wednesday of the Twenty-third week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the day:

St. Peter Claver, Priest (1580-1654) - Memorial

SAINT PETER CLAVER
Priest
(1580-1654)

Peter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit. In Majorca he fell in with the holy lay-brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, who, having already learned by revelation the saintly career of Peter, became his spiritual guide, foretold to him the labors he would undergo in the Indies, and the throne he would gain in heaven.
Ordained priest in New Granada, Peter was sent to Cartagena, the great slave-mart of the West Indies, and there he consecrated himself by vow to the salvation of those ignorant and miserable creatures. For more than forty years he labored in this work. He called himself "the slave of the slaves." He was their apostle, father, physician, and friend. He fed them, nursed. them with the utmost tenderness in their loathsome diseases, often applying his own lips to their hideous sores. His cloak, which was the constant covering of the naked, though soiled with their filthy ulcers, sent forth a miraculous perfume. His rest after his great labors was in nights of penance and prayer. However tired he might be, when news arrived of a fresh slave-ship, Saint Peter immediately revived, his eyes brightened, and he was at once on board amongst his dear slaves, bringing them comfort for body and soul.
A false charge of reiterating Baptism for a while stopped his work. He submitted without a murmur till the calumny was refuted, and then God so blessed his toil that 40,000 negroes were baptized before he went to his reward, in 1654.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Wednesday of the Twenty-third week in Ordinary Time
The Letter to the Colossians 3:1 So if you were raised along with the Messiah, then seek the things above, where the Messiah is sitting at the right hand of God.[Colossians 3:1
Psalm 110:1] 2 Focus your minds on the things above, not on things here on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. 4 When the Messiah, who is our life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory!
5 Therefore, put to death the earthly parts of your nature — sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed (which is a form of idolatry); 6 for it is because of these things that God’s anger is coming on those who disobey him. 7 True enough, you used to practice these things in the life you once lived; 8 but now, put them all away — anger, exasperation, meanness, slander and obscene talk. 9 Never lie to one another; because you have stripped away the old self, with its ways, 10 and have put on the new self, which is continually being renewed in fuller and fuller knowledge, closer and closer to the image of its Creator. 11 The new self allows no room for discriminating between Gentile and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, foreigner, savage, slave, free man; on the contrary, in all, the Messiah is everything.
Psalm 145:2 Every day I will bless you;
I will praise your name forever and ever.
3 Great is Adonai and greatly to be praised;
his greatness is beyond all searching out.
10 All your creatures will thank you, Adonai,
and your faithful servants will bless you.
11 They will speak of the glory of your kingship,
and they will tell about your might;
12 to let everyone know of your mighty acts
and the glorious majesty of your kingship.
13 Your kingship is an everlasting kingship,
your reign continues through all generations.
The Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Luke 6:20 He looked at his talmidim and said:
“How blessed are you poor!
for the Kingdom of God is yours.
21 “How blessed are you who are hungry!
for you will be filled.
“How blessed are you who are crying now!
for you will laugh.
22 “How blessed you are whenever people hate you and ostracize you and insult you and denounce you as a criminal on account of the Son of Man. 23 Be glad when that happens; yes, dance for joy! because in heaven your reward is great. For that is just how their fathers treated the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already had all the comfort you will get!
25 “Woe to you who are full now,
for you will go hungry!
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and cry!
26 “Woe to you when people speak well of you, for that is just how their fathers treated the false prophets!
Wednesday of the Twenty-third week in Ordinary TimeCommentary of the day:
Saint Ambrose (c.340-397), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church
On the Gospel of Saint Luke, V, 53-55
“Blessed are you who are poor... Blessed are you who are now weeping" “Blessed are the poor.” Not all the poor are blessed for poverty itself is a neutral thing. There may well be both good and wicked poor people… “Happy the poor man who cried out and the Lord heard him” (cf Ps 33[34],7): poor in sins, poor in vices, poor in whose house the prince of this world has found nothing (cf Jn 14,30), poor in imitation of that Poor man who, though he was rich became poor for our sakes (2Cor 8,9). For this reason Matthew gives a full explanation: “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, for the poor in spirit do not make much of themselves, do not exalt themselves in their carnal minds. Thus this is the first beatitude.
[“Blessed are the gentle,” Matthew writes next.] After forsaking sin…, being content with my simplicity, stripped of evil, I have only to moderate my character. What use is it for me to lack earthly goods if I am not gentle and peaceful? For following the right road means, of course, following him who said: “Learn of me for I am gentle and humble of heart” (Mt 11,29)…
Having done this, remember you are a sinner: weep for your sins, weep for your faults. It is good the third beatitude is for those who weep for their sins because it is the Trinity who forgives sins. Purify yourselves, then, by your tears and wash yourselves with your weeping. If you weep over yourselves then no one else will have to weep for you… Everyone has their dead to weep for; we are dead when we sin… So let he who is a sinner weep over himself and reprove himself that he may become righteous, for the just man accuses himself.
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