Daily Gospel for Sunday, 5 January 2014

Daily Gospel for Sunday, 5 January 2014

“Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life.”(John 6:68, The Message).

The Epiphany of the Lord - Solemnity

Saint of the Day:

SAINT JOHN NEPOMUCENE NEUMANN

Bishop

(1811-1860)

John Neumann was born in Bohemia on March 20, 1811. Since he had a great desire to dedicate himself to the American missions, he came to the United States as a cleric and was ordained in New York in 1836.

In 1840, he entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists). He labored in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

In 1852, he was consecrated bishop of Philadelphia. There he worked hard for the establishment of parish schools and for the erection of many parishes for the numerous immigrants.

He died on January 5, 1860; he was beatified in 1963 and canonized in 1977.

Saint Genoveva Torres Morales

Foundress of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Angels

(The Angélicas)

(1870-1956)

Genoveva Torres Morales was born on 3 January 1870 in Almenara, Castille, Spain, the youngest of six children. By the age of eight, both her parents and four of her siblings had died, leaving Genoveva to care for the home and her brother, José. Although he treated her with respect, José was very demanding and taciturn. Being deprived of affection and companionship from her early years, Genoveva became accustomed to solitude.

When she was 10, she took a special interest in reading spiritual books. Through this pursuit she came to understand that true happiness is doing God's will, and it was for this reason that each one of us is created. This became her rule of life.

At the age of 13, Genoveva's left leg had to be amputated in order to stop the gangrene that was spreading there. The amputation was done in her home, and since the anaesthesia was not sufficient, the pain was excruciating. Throughout her life her leg caused her pain and sickness, and she was forced to use crutches.

From 1885 to 1894 she lived at the Mercy Home run by the Carmelites of Charity. In the nine years she lived with the sisters and with other children, the young Genoveva deepened her life of piety and perfected her sewing skills. It was also in these years that Fr Carlos Ferrís, a diocesan priest and future Jesuit and founder of a leprosarium in Fontilles, would guide the "beginnings" of her spiritual and apostolic life.

God also gave Genoveva the gift of "spiritual liberty", and this was something she would endeavour to practise throughout her life. Reflecting on this period at the Mercy Home, she later would write: "I loved freedom of heart very much, and worked and am working to achieve it fully.... It does the soul so much good that every effort is nothing compared with this free condition of the heart".

Genoveva intended to join the Carmelites of Charity, but it seems she was not accepted due to her physical condition. She longed to be consecrated to God and, being of a decided and resolute nature, she continued to be open to his guidance.

In 1894 Genoveva left the Carmelites of Charity's home and went to live briefly with two women who supported themselves by their own work. Together they "shared" the solitude and poverty.

In 1911, Canon Barbarrós suggested that Genoveva begin a new religious community, pointing out that there were many poor women who could not afford to live on their own and thus suffered much hardship. For years, Genoveva had thought of starting a religious congregation that would be solely concerned with meeting the needs of such women, since she knew of no one engaged in this work.

With the help of Canon Barbarrós and Fr Martín Sánchez, S.J., the first community was established in Valencia. Shortly thereafter, other women arrived, wanting to share the same apostolic and spiritual life. It was not long before more communities were established in other parts of Spain, despite many problems and obstacles.

A constant source of suffering for Mother Genoveva was her involvement in external activity and the new foundations. She desired to return to her characteristic interior solitude and remain alone with the Lord, but she accepted her calling as God's will and did not let her physical or interior suffering stop her.

She would say: "Even if I must suffer greatly, thanks be to God's mercy, I will not lack courage".

She was known for her kindness and openness to all, and for her good sense of humour - she would even joke about her physical ailments.

In 1953, the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Angels received Pontifical approval. Mother Genoveva died on 5 January 1956. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 29 January 1995 and canonized on 4 May 2003 at Madrid. - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana

SAINT SIMEON STYLITES

(c.401 - 460)

One winter's day, about the year 401, the snow lay thick around Sisan, a little town in Cilicia. A shepherd boy, who could not lead his sheep to the fields on account of the cold, went to the church instead, and listened to the eight Beatitudes, which were read that morning. He asked how these blessings were to be obtained, and when he was told of the monastic life a thirst for perfection arose within him. He became the wonder of the world, the great St. Simeon Stylites. He was warned that perfection would cost him dear, and so it did. A mere child, he began the monastic life, and therein passed a dozen years in superhuman austerity. He bound a rope round his waist till the flesh was putrefied. He ate but once in seven days, and, when God led him to a solitary life, kept fasts of forty days.

Thirty-seven years he spent on the top of pillars, exposed to heat and cold, day and night adoring the majesty of God. Perfection was all in all to St. Simeon; the means nothing, except in so far as God chose them for him. The solitaries of Egypt were suspicious of a life so new and so strange, and they sent one of their number to bid St. Simeon come down from his pillar and return to the common life. In a moment the Saint made ready to descend; but the Egyptian religious was satisfied with this proof of humility. "Stay," he said, "and take courage; your way of life is from God."

Cheerfulness, humility, and obedience set their seal upon the austerities of St. Simeon. The words which God put into his mouth brought crowds of heathens to baptism and of sinners to penance. At last, in the year 460, those who watched below noticed that he had been motionless three whole days. They ascended, and found the old man's body still bent in the attitude of prayer, but his soul was with God. Extraordinary as the life of St. Simeon may appear, it teaches us two plain and practical lessons: First, we must constantly renew within ourselves an intense desire for perfection. Secondly, we must use with fidelity and courage the means of perfection God points out.

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

The Epiphany of the Lord - Solemnity

Book of Isaiah The Ingathering of the Dispersed

60: Arise, shine; for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
² For darkness shall cover the earth,
    and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will appear over you.
³ Nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

⁴ Lift up your eyes and look around;
    they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
    and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
⁵ Then you shall see and be radiant;
    your heart shall thrill and rejoice,^[a]
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
    the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
⁶ A multitude of camels shall cover you,
    the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
    all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
    and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

Footnotes:

a. Isaiah 60:5 Heb be enlarged

Psalm 72: Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King

Of Solomon.

¹ Give the king your justice, O God,
    and your righteousness to a king’s son.
² May he judge your people with righteousness,
    and your poor with justice.

⁷ In his days may righteousness flourish
    and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

⁸ May he have dominion from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.

¹⁰ May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles
    render him tribute,
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
    bring gifts.
¹¹ May all kings fall down before him,
    all nations give him service.

¹² For he delivers the needy when they call,
    the poor and those who have no helper.
¹³ He has pity on the weak and the needy,
    and saves the lives of the needy.

Letter to the Ephesians 3: ² for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, ³ and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, ⁵ In former generations this mystery^[a] was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: ⁶ that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Footnotes:

a. Ephesians 3:5 Gk it

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew The Visit of the Wise Men

2: In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men^[a] from the East came to Jerusalem, ² asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising,^[b] and have come to pay him homage.” ³ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah^[c] was to be born. ⁵ They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

⁶ ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
    who is to shepherd^[d] my people Israel.’”

⁷ Then Herod secretly called for the wise men^[e] and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸ Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” ⁹ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising,^[f] until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw that the star had stopped,^[g] they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹ On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Footnotes:

a. Matthew 2:1 Or astrologers; Gk magi

b. Matthew 2:2 Or in the East

c. Matthew 2:4 Or the Christ

d. Matthew 2:6 Or rule

e. Matthew 2:7 Or astrologers; Gk magi

f. Matthew 2:9 Or in the East

g. Matthew 2:10 Gk saw the star

The Epiphany of the Lord – Solemnity

Commentary of the Day:

Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890), priest, founder of a religious community, theologian

PPS, vol.2, no.3

"And the Word became flesh"

The Word was from the beginning, the Only Son of God. Before the creation of the universe, even before time was, in the bosom of the eternal Father, he already existed: God from God, Light from Light, supremely blessed in his knowledge of the Father and in the knowledge the Father had of him; receiving every divine perfection from Him yet always one with He who had begotten him. As it is written at the beginning of the Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”…

After man had fallen he could, in fact, have remained in the glory which he had with the Father. But that unfathomable love, which made itself known at the origin of our creation, not willing to see its work in ruins, caused him to come down from the bosom of his Father to carry out His will and to restore the evil caused by sin. With wonderful indulgence he came, not clothed with power but in weakness, beneath the form of a servant, in the likeness of that same fallen man it was his purpose to raise up. So he humbled himself, undergoing all the handicaps of our nature, in a sinful flesh like ours, like a sinner except without sin, innocent of all fault yet subject to every temptation and, at the end, “obedient to death, even death on a cross,” (Phil 2,8)…

Thus the Son of God became the Son of Man – mortal, yet without sin; the inheritor of our infirmities but not of our guilt; rejected by the ancient race but the source of the new creation of God (cf. Rev 3,14). Mary, his mother,… bestowed a created nature on him who was her Creator. And so he came into this world, not on the clouds of heaven, but born here below, born of a woman. He was the son of Mary, and she, the Mother of God… He was truly God and man, but one only person…, one only Christ.

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