The Daily Gospel for Sunday, 8 November 2015

The Daily Gospel for Sunday, 8 November 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
Saints of the day:

St. Godfrey, Bishop (1066-1115)

SAINT GODFREY
Bishop
(1066-1115)

St Godfrey was born in 1066 in the diocese of Soissons (France). At the age of 25, he was ordained priest and became the abbot of the Abbey of Nogent-sous-Coucy.

He was named bishop of Amiens (France) in 1104. He was noted for his rigid austerity with himself, those around him, and in his approach to his mission as bishop.

He was an enforcer of clerical celibacy and an opponent of drunkenness and simony.

For most of his time as bishop, he wished to resign and retire as a Carthusian monk. In 1114 he moved to a monastery, but a few months later he was called back to his post by the people of Amiens, and he agreed. He also took part in the Council of Chálons.

He fell sick and took refuge in the abbey of Saint Crépin in Soissons, where he died in 1115.

Bl. John Duns Scotus, O.F.M. (c.1266-1308)

Blessed John Duns Scotus
Franciscan Theologian
(c. 1266 - 1308)

Blessed John (Johannes) Duns Scotus was one of the more important theologians and philosophers of the High Middle Ages. Born at Duns in the county of Berwick, Scotland around 1266, John was descended from a wealthy farming family. John received the habit of the Friars Minor at Dumfries, where his uncle Elias Duns was superior. After novitiate he studied at Oxford and Paris and was ordained to the priesthood on 17 March 1291.

He was nicknamed Doctor Subtilis (the "Subtle Doctor") for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought and he was remembered mostly for his defense of the doctrine of Immaculate Conception. During the night of Christmas, 1299 at the Oxford Convent, Bl. John, immersed in his contemplation of the adorable mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, was rapt in ecstasy. The Blessed Mother appeared to him and placed on his arms the Child Jesus who kissed and embraced him fondly.

He died in 1308 and he is buried in the Franciscan church near the famous Cologne cathedral.

Drawing on the work of John Duns Scotus, Pope Pius IX solemnly defined the Immaculate Conception of Mary in 1854. On March 20, 1993 John Duns Scotus, the "Subtle Doctor," was beatified in 1993 by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Bl. John Duns Scotus, "The minstrel of the Word Incarnate" and "Defender of Mary's Immaculate Conception" was presented by Pope John Paul II to our age "wealthy of human, scientific and technological resources, but in which many have lost the sense of faith and lead lives distant from Christ and His Gospel," as "a Teacher of thought and life." For the Church, he is "an example of fidelity to the revealed truth, of effective, priestly, and serious dialogue in search for unity."

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
The First Book of the Kings 17:10 So he set out and went to Tzarfat. On reaching the gate of the city, he saw a widow there gathering sticks. He called out to her, “Please bring a little water in a container for me to drink.” 11 As she was going to get it, he called after her, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.” 12 She answered, “As Adonai your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a pot and a little oil in the jug. Here I am, gathering a couple sticks of wood, so that I can go and cook it for myself and my son. After we have eaten that, we will die.” 13 Eliyahu said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go; and do what you said; but first, use a little of it to make me a small loaf of bread; and bring it out to me. After that, make food for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what Adonai the God of Isra’el, says: ‘The pot of meal will not get used up, nor will there fail to be oil in the jug, until the day Adonai sends rain down on the land.’” 15 She went and acted according to what Eliyahu had said; and she, he and her household had food to eat for a long time. 16 The pot of meal did not get used up, nor did there fail to be oil in the jug, in fulfillment of the word of Adonai spoken through Eliyahu.
Psalm 146:7 He secures justice for the oppressed,

he gives food to the hungry.

Adonai sets prisoners free,

8 Adonai opens the eyes of the blind,

Adonai lifts up those who are bent over.

Adonai loves the righteous.

9 Adonai watches over strangers,

he sustains the fatherless and widows;

but the way of the wicked he twists.

10 Adonai will reign forever,

your God, Tziyon, through all generations.

Halleluyah!

The Letter to the Hebrews 9:24 For the Messiah has entered a Holiest Place which is not man-made and merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God.25 Further, he did not enter heaven to offer himself over and over again, like the cohen hagadol who enters the Holiest Place year after year with blood that is not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer death many times — from the founding of the universe on. But as it is, he has appeared once at the end of the ages in order to do away with sin through the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as human beings have to die once, but after this comes judgment, 28 so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,[Hebrews 9:28 Isaiah 53:12] will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to deliver those who are eagerly waiting for him.
The Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Mark 12:38 As he taught them, he said, “Watch out for the kind of Torah-teachers who like to walk around in robes and be greeted deferentially in the marketplaces, 39 who like to have the best seats in the synagogues and take the places of honor at banquets, 40 who like to swallow up widows’ houses while making a show of davvening at great length. Their punishment will be all the worse!”

41 Then Yeshua sat down opposite the Temple treasury and watched the crowd as they put money into the offering-boxes. Many rich people put in large sums, 42 but a poor widow came and put in two small coins. 43 He called his talmidim to him and said to them, “Yes! I tell you, this poor widow has put more in the offering-box than all the others making donations. 44 For all of them, out of their wealth, have contributed money they can easily spare; but she, out of her poverty, has given everything she had to live on.”

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

Commentary of the day:
Thomas of Celano (c.1190-c.1260), biographer of Saint Francis and Saint Clare
« Vita prima » of Saint Francis, §76

Giving up everything because Christ gave up everything for us

Francis, the poor little one and father of the poor, wanted to live like a poor man in every way. He suffered if he met someone poorer than himself, not out of vanity but because of the tender compassion he bore them. He only wanted a plain, very rough tunic, but still it very often happened that he shared it with some unfortunate creature. But he himself was a very rich poor man since, forced by his great charity to come to the help of the poor insofar as he could, he went about amongst the rich of this world during the times of greatest cold and asked them to lend him a cloak or fur trimmed coat. They would bring them to him all the more readily in that he hadn’t begun to ask for them. Then he would say: “I accept on condition that you don’t expect to see them again.” Then Francis, with a glad heart, offered what he had just received to the first poor man he encountered.
Nothing caused him greater pain than to see a poor person insulted or any kind of creature blasphemed. One day a brother let fly against a poor person who asked for an alms with wounding words. “Aren’t you by any chance rich while pretending to be one of the poor?” he said to him. These words upset Francis, father of the poor, very much. He inflicted a terrible reprimand on the culprit then commanded him to take off his outer garments in the poor man’s presence and to kiss his feet while asking his forgiveness. “Anyone who speaks unkindly to a poor man,” he used to say, “injures the Christ of whom the poor represent the noble symbol, for Christ made himself poor in this world for our sake” (cf. 2Cor 8,9). ____________________________