Daily Gospel for Friday, 18 March 2016

Daily Gospel for Friday, 18 March 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Saints of the day: St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church (+386) 

ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM
Bishop and Doctor of the Church
(+386)

Cyril was born at or near the city of Jerusalem, about the year 315. He was ordained priest by St. Maximus, who gave him the important charge of instructing and preparing the candidates for Baptism. This charge he held for several years, and we still have one series of his instructions, given in the year 347 or 318. They are of singular interest as being the earliest record of the systematic teaching of the Church on the creed and sacraments, and as having been given in the church built by Constantine on Mount Calvary. They are solid, simple, profound; saturated with Holy Scripture; exact, precise, and terse; and, as a witness and exposition of the Catholic faith, invaluable.
On the death of St. Maximus, Cyril was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem. At the beginning of his episcopate a cross was seen in the air reaching from Mount Calvary to Mount Olivet, and so bright that it shone at noonday. St. Cyril gave an account of it to the emperor; and the faithful regarded it as a presage of victory over the Arian heretics.
While Cyril was bishop, the apostate Julian resolved to falsify the words of Our Lord by rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem. He employed the power and resources of a Roman emperor; the Jews thronged enthusiastically to him and gave munificently. But Cyril was unmoved. " The word of God abides," he said; "one stone shall not be laid on another." When the attempt was made, a heathen writer tells us that horrible flames came forth from the earth, rendering the place inaccessible to the scorched and scared workmen. The attempt was made again and again, and then abandoned in despair. Soon after, the emperor perished miserably in a war against the Persians, and the Church had rest.
Like the other great bishops of his time, Cyril was persecuted, and driven once and again from his see; but on the death of the Arian Emperor Valens he returned to Jerusalem. He was present at the second General Council at Constantinople, and died in peace in 386, after a troubled episcopate of thirty-five years.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Book of Jeremiah 20:

10 I have heard many whispering their plot:

“‘Terror in every direction’?

Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!”

Even all my close friends

are watching for me to make a false step —

“Maybe he can be tricked,

then we’ll get the better of him,

then we’ll take our revenge on him.”

11 But Adonai is with me like a dreaded warrior;

so my persecutors will stumble, defeated,

greatly ashamed because of their failure;

their lasting disgrace will not be forgotten.

12 Adonai-Tzva’ot, you who test the righteous

and see people’s hearts and thoughts,

let me see you take vengeance on them,

for I have committed my cause to you.

13 Sing to Adonai! Praise Adonai!

For he rescues those in need

from the clutches of evildoers.

Psalms 18:

2 He said:

(1) “I love you, Adonai, my strength!

3 (2) “Adonai is my Rock, my fortress and deliverer,

my God, my Rock, in whom I find shelter,

my shield, the power that saves me,

my stronghold.

4 (3) I call on Adonai, who is worthy of praise;

and I am saved from my enemies.

5 (4) “For the cords of death surrounded me,

the floods of B’liya‘al terrified me,

6 (5) the ropes of Sh’ol were wrapped around me,

the snares of death lay there before me.

7 (6) In my distress I called to Adonai;

I cried out to my God.

Out of his temple he heard my voice;

my cry reached his ears.

Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint John 10:

31 Once again the Judeans picked up rocks in order to stone him. 32 Yeshua answered them, “You have seen me do many good deeds that reflect the Father’s power; for which one of these deeds are you stoning me?” 33 The Judeans replied, “We are not stoning you for any good deed, but for blasphemy — because you, who are only a man, are making yourself out to be God [

John 10:33 Hebrew: Elohim

].” 34 Yeshua answered them, “Isn’t it written in your Torah, ‘I have said, “You people are Elohim’ ”?[

John 10:34 Psalm 82:6

] 35 If he called ‘elohim’ the people to whom the word of Elohim was addressed (and the Tanakh cannot be broken), 36 then are you telling the one whom the Father set apart as holy and sent into the world, ‘You are committing blasphemy,’ just because I said, ‘I am a son of Elohim’?

37 “If I am not doing deeds that reflect my Father’s power, don’t trust me. 38 But if I am, then, even if you don’t trust me, trust the deeds; so that you may understand once and for all that the Father is united with me, and I am united with the Father.” 39 One more time they tried to arrest him, but he slipped out of their hands.

40 He went off again beyond the Yarden, where Yochanan had been immersing at first, and stayed there. 41 Many people came to him and said, “Yochanan performed no miracles, but everything Yochanan said about this man was true.” 42 And many people there put their trust in him.

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
Saint Thomas More (1478-1535), English statesman, martyr
A Treatise upon the Passion, Christ's love unto the end, Homily 1 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth)
Christ gives his life for his enemies

Let us deeply consider the love of our Savior Christ who so “loved his own unto the end” (Jn 13,1) that for their sakes he willingly suffered that painful end, and therein declared the highest degree of love that can be. For, as he himself says: “A greater love no one has than to give his life for his friends” (Jn 15,13). This is indeed the greatest love that ever anyone had. But yet had our Savior a greater, for he gave his for both friend and foe.
But what a difference is there now, between this faithful love of his and other kinds of false and fickle love found in this wretched world... Who can in adversity be sure of many of his friends when our Savior himself was, at his capture, left alone and forsaken by his? When you go forth who will go with you? If you were a king would not all your realm send you on your way alone and then forget you? Will not your own family let you depart a naked, feeble soul, you know not whither? Let us all in time, then, learn to love as we should, God above all things, and all other things for him. And whatsoever love be not referred to that end, namely, to the good pleasure of God, is a very vain and unfruitful love. And whatsoever love we bear to any creature whereby we love God the less, that love is a loathesome love and hinders us from heaven... Now, since our Lord has so loved us, for our salvation, let us diligently call for his grace that in return for his great love we be not found ungrateful.

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