Daily Gospel for Friday, 13 June 2014

Daily Gospel for Friday, 13 June 2014
"Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.'"(John 6:68)
Friday of the Tenth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the Day:

SAINT ANTONY OF PADUA

Priest and Doctor of the Church

(1195-1231)

In 1221 St. Francis held a general chapter at Assisi; when the others dispersed, there lingered behind, unknown and neglected, a poor Portuguese friar, resolved to ask for and to refuse nothing.
Nine months later, Fra Antonio rose under obedience to preach to the religious assembled at Forli, when, as the discourse proceeded, "the Hammer of Heretics," "the Ark of the Testament," "the eldest son of St. Francis," stood revealed in all his sanctity, learning, and eloquence before his rapt and astonished brethren.
Devoted from earliest youth to prayer and study among the Canons Regular, Ferdinand de Bulloens, as his name was in the world, had been stirred, by the spirit and example of the first five Franciscan martyrs, to put on their habit and preach the Faith to the Moors in Africa.
Denied a martyr's palm, and enfeebled by sickness, at the age of twenty-seven he was taking silent but merciless revenge upon himself in the humblest offices of his community. From this obscurity he was now called forth, and for nine years France, Italy, and Sicily heard his voice, saw his miracles, and men's hearts turned to God.
One night, when St. Antony was staying with a friend in the city of Padua, his host saw brilliant rays streaming under the door of the Saint's room, and on looking through the keyhole he beheld a little Child of marvellous beauty standing upon a book which lay open upon the table, and clinging with both arms round Antony's neck. With an ineffable sweetness he watched the tender caresses of the Saint and his wondrous Visitor. At last the Child vanished, and Fra Antonio, opening the door, charged his friend, by the love of him whom he had seen, to "tell the vision to no man" as long as he was alive.
Suddenly, in 1231, our Saint's brief apostolate was closed, and the voices of children were heard crying along the streets of Padua, "Our father, St. Antony, is dead." The following year, the church-bells of Lisbon rang without ringers, while at Rome one of its sons was inscribed among the Saints of God.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Friday of the Tenth week in Ordinary Time
1st book of Kings 19:9 He came to a cave there, and camped there; and behold, Yahweh’s word came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
11 He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.”
Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake a fire passed; but Yahweh was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a still small voice. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
15 Yahweh said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 16 Anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel; and anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to be prophet in your place.
Psalms 27:7 Hear, Yahweh, when I cry with my voice.
    Have mercy also on me, and answer me.
8 When you said, “Seek my face,”
    my heart said to you, “I will seek your face, Yahweh.”
9 Don’t hide your face from me.
    Don’t put your servant away in anger.
You have been my help.
    Don’t abandon me,
    neither forsake me, God of my salvation.
13 I am still confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living.
14 Wait for Yahweh.
    Be strong, and let your heart take courage.
Yes, wait for Yahweh.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5:27 “You have heard that it was said,[a] ‘You shall not commit adultery;’[b] 28 but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.[c] 30 If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.[d]
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,’[e] 32 but I tell you that whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries her when she is put away commits adultery.
Footnotes:
a. Matthew 5:27 TR adds “to the ancients”.
b. Matthew 5:27 Exodus 20:14
c. Matthew 5:29 or, Hell
d. Matthew 5:30 or, Hell
e. Matthew 5:31 Deuteronomy 24:1
Friday of the Tenth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the Day:

Paul VI, Pope from 1963-1978 

Address of 04/05/1970 to the Équipes Notre Dame (© copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

«God created man in his image..., man and woman he created them » (Gn 1,27)

As holy Scripture teaches us, before being a sacrament marriage is a great, earthly reality. “God created man in his image; in the image of God he created him, man and woman he created them.” We always have to go back to that first page of the Bible if we would understand what is, what should be a human couple, a home... The duality of the sexes has been willed by God that, together, man and woman might be in the image of God and, like him, a source of life: “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it” (v.28). A careful reading of the prophets, the Wisdom books, the New Testament, shows us, besides, the meaning of this fundamental reality and teaches us not to reduce it to physical desire... but to discover in it the complementarity of man and women's values, the greatness and the fragility of conjugal love, its fruitfulness and its openness to the mystery of God's plan of love. Today this teaching retains all its value and arms us against temptations to a destructive eroticism...
As Christians know, human love is good in its origins and if, like everything in man, it is wounded and deformed by sin, it finds healing and redemption in Christ... How many couples have found their way to sanctity in their conjugal life, in that community of life that is the only one to be founded on a sacrament! Work of the Holy Spirit, baptismal rebirth makes “, “a new creation” of us, “so that we too might live in newness of life” (cf Tt 3,5; Gal 6,15; Rm 6,4). In this great work of renewing all things in Christ, marriage too, purified and renewed, becomes a new reality, a sacrament of the New Covenant. And see how, at the threshold of the New Testament as at the entrance to the Old, there stands a couple. But whereas that represented by Adam and Eve was the source of the evil unleashed on the world, that of Joseph and Mary is the summit from which holiness spreads over all the earth.
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