The Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 24 November 2015

The Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 24 November 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]

Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time

Saints of the day:
St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions, martyrs (1745-1862) - Memorial 

SAINTS ANDREW DUNG-LAC
Priest,
AND HIS COMPANIONS
(18th and 19th centuries)

This feast day celebrates all of the martyrs of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (1745-1862) who shed their blood in the remote Far East, particularly in Vietnam. Many of the martyrs were priests of the Dominican order. Others belonged to the Paris Society for Foreign Missions, while still others, including Andrew Dung-Lac, were Vietnamese.
Paul Le-Bao-Tinh, a Vietnamese seminarian, wrote in a letter of 1843, shortly before his martyrdom:
"I, Paul, chained for the name of Christ, wish to tell you the tribulations in which I am immersed every day, so that you, inflamed with love for God, may also lift up your praise to God, 'for his mercy endures forever'. This prison is truly the image of the eternal Hell: to the cruelest tortures of all types, such as fetters, iron chains and bonds, are added hate, vindictiveness, calumny, indecent words, interrogations, bad acts, unjust oaths, curses and finally difficulties and sorrow. But God, who once freed the three boys from the path of the flames, is always with me and has freed me from these tribulations and converted them into sweetness, 'for his mercy endures forever.... 
Assist me with your prayers so that I may struggle according to the law, and indeed 'fight the good fight' and that I may be worthy to fight until the end, finishing my course happily; if we do not see each other again in this life, in the future age, nonetheless, this will be our joy, when standing before the throne of the spotless Lamb, with one voice we sing his praises, exulting in the joy of eternal victory. Amen."

Saints Flora & Mary
Feastday: November 24
Death: 856
Christian martyrs of Cordoba, Spain. Flora was raised a Christian in secret by her mother, who was married to a Muslim. Betrayed by her brother, she was beaten and given to him to abuse because of her faith. Escaping, Flora met Mary, the sister of a martyred deacon. They surrendered to Muslim authorities and were placed in a brothel. Still clinging to the faith, Flora and Mary were beheaded.
Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
The Book of Daniel 2:31 “Your majesty had a vision of a statue, very large and extremely bright; it stood in front of you and its appearance was terrifying. 32 The head of the statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its trunk and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 As you watched, a stone separated itself without any human hand, struck the statue on its feet made of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken into pieces which became like the chaff on a threshing-floor in summer; the wind blew them away without leaving a trace. But the stone which had struck the statue grew into a huge mountain that filled the whole earth.

36 “That is what you dreamt, and now we will give the king its interpretation. 37 Your majesty, king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; 38 so that wherever people, wild animals or birds in the air live, he has handed them over to you and enabled you to rule them all — you are the head of gold. 39 But after you another kingdom will rise, inferior to you; then a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule the whole world. 40 The fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron. Iron can break anything into pieces, pulverize it and crush it. So just as iron can crush anything, this kingdom will break the other kingdoms into pieces and crush them. 41 Finally, you saw the feet and toes made partly of pottery clay and partly of iron; this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the firmness of iron, since you saw the iron mixed with clay from the ground. 42 Just as the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay, this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 You saw the iron mixed with clay; that means that they will cement their alliances by intermarriages; but they won’t stick together any more than iron blends with clay.

44 “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not pass into the hands of another people. It will break to pieces and consume all those kingdoms; but it, itself, will stand forever — 45 like the stone you saw, which, without human hands, separated itself from the mountain and broke to pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold. The great God has revealed to the king what will come about in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is reliable.”

(Psalm) The Book of Daniel 3:57 Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

58 Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

59 You heavens, bless the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.a

60 All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

61 All you powers, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

The Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Luke 21: 5 As some people were remarking about the Temple, how beautiful its stonework and memorial decorations were, he said, 6 “The time is coming when what you see here will be totally destroyed — not a single stone will be left standing!” 7 They asked him, “Rabbi, if this is so, when will these events take place? And what sign will show that they are about to happen?” 8 He answered, “Watch out! Don’t be fooled! For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time has come!’ Don’t go after them. 9 And when you hear of wars and revolutions, don’t panic. For these things must happen first, but the end will not follow immediately.”

10 Then he told them, “Peoples will fight each other, nations will fight each other, 11 there will be great earthquakes, there will be epidemics and famines in various places, and there will be fearful sights and great signs from Heaven.

Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day:
Origen (c.185-253), priest and theologian 
Commentary on Saint John’s Gospel, 10, 226s ; PG 14, 369f.  The sign of the Temple

« Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up again. » To be sure, the Savior was capable of showing thousands of other signs, but to show “why he was acting like this” none other was possible. That is why, very appropriately, his answer concerned the Temple rather than other signs without any connection to it. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the Temple and the body of Jesus should be interpreted as a symbol of the Church since the latter is built with “living stones, a spiritual building for a holy priesthood.” It is built “upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone,” the true temple. 
Since you are « Christ’s body and individually parts of it”, even if we witness the stones of the temple, strongly compact, destroyed and, as it is written in Psalm 21[22], we see all Christ’s bones racked under the assault of his trials and tribulations… and the persecutions that come together against the temple’s unity, yet the temple will be raised up and the body will rise again on the third day after the day of iniquity, which would have destroyed it, and after the day of fulfilment that is to follow. For there will be a third day in a new heaven and new earth when the dry bones… will stand up on the Day of the Lord following his victory over death. Christ’s resurrection, following his Passion and his cross, embraces the whole mystery of the resurrection of Christ’s Body. (Biblical references: Jn 2,18-19; 1P 2,5; Ep 2,20; 1Co 12,27; Ps 21,15; 2P 3,3-10.13; Ez 37,11)

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