Daily Gospel for Sunday, 26 October 2014

Daily Gospel for Sunday, 26 October 2014
"Peter replied, 'Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.'"(John 6:68-69)
The Tnirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
Feast of the Church:
Saints of the Day:
SAINT EVARISTUS 
Pope and Martyr
(† 112)
St. Evaristus succeeded St. Anacletus in the see of Rome, in the reign of Trajan, governed the Church nine years, and died in 112. The institution of cardinal priests is by some ascribed to him, because he first divided Rome into several titles or parishes, assigning a priest to each; he also appointed seven deacons to attend the bishop.
He conferred holy orders thrice in the month of December, when that ceremony was most usually performed, for holy orders were always conferred in seasons appointed for fasting and prayer.
St. Evaristus was buried near St. Peter's tomb on the Vatican.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Saint Demetrius
Feastday: October 26
Patron of Thessaloniki, Greece patron of soldiers, patron of the Crusades
Birth: 270
Death: 306

Called a military martyr, and "the Megalomartyr" by the Greeks. He was a deacon martyred at Sirmium, in the former Yugoslavia. Early legends about Demetrius credit him with a military career. He was extremely popular in the Middle Ages, and with St. George, he was the patron of the crusades.
The Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
Book of Exodus 22:20 “Anyone who sacrifices to a god other than God alone must be put to death.
21 “Don’t abuse or take advantage of strangers; you, remember, were once strangers in Egypt.
22-24 “Don’t mistreat widows or orphans. If you do and they cry out to me, you can be sure I’ll take them most seriously; I’ll show my anger and come raging among you with the sword, and your wives will end up widows and your children orphans.
25 “If you lend money to my people, to any of the down-and-out among you, don’t come down hard on them and gouge them with interest.
26-27 “If you take your neighbor’s coat as security, give it back before nightfall; it may be your neighbor’s only covering—what else does the person have to sleep in? And if I hear the neighbor crying out from the cold, I’ll step in—I’m compassionate.
Psalms 18: A David Song, Which He Sang to God After Being Saved from All His Enemies and from Saul
1-2 I love you, God—
    you make me strong.
God is bedrock under my feet,
    the castle in which I live,
    my rescuing knight.
My God—the high crag
    where I run for dear life,
    hiding behind the boulders,
    safe in the granite hideout.
3 I sing to God, the Praise-Lofty,
    and find myself safe and saved.
4-5 The hangman’s noose was tight at my throat;
    devil waters rushed over me.
Hell’s ropes cinched me tight;
    death traps barred every exit.
46-48 Live, God! Blessings from my Rock,
    my free and freeing God, towering!
This God set things right for me
    and shut up the people who talked back.
He rescued me from enemy anger,
    he pulled me from the grip of upstarts,
He saved me from the bullies.
51 You have given great victories to your king,
and shown mercy to his anointed,
to David and his posterity forever.
First Letter to the Thessalonians 1: Convictions of Steel
2-5 Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.
5-6 You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble.
7-10 Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message! People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the true God. They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 22: The Most Important Command
34-36 When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”
37-40 Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
The Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
Commentary of the Day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church 
Unpublished Sermon on the Letter of St. James
Three loves, two commandments
God does not ask many things of you, for charity alone fulfills the whole Law. But that love is double: love of God and love of the neighbor… When God tells you to love your neighbor, he does not tell you to love him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. Rather, he tells you to love your neighbor as yourself. Thus, love God with all that you are, because he is greater than you are; love your neighbor as yourself, because he is what you are…
Thus our love has three objects. But why are there only two commandments? I will tell you: God did not consider it necessary to commit you to loving yourself, since there is no one who doesn’t love himself. But many people lose themselves because they love themselves in a bad way. By telling you to love God with all that you are, God gave you a rule according to which you must love yourself. Without doubt you want to love yourself? So love God with all that you are. For it is in him that you will find yourself and avoid losing yourself in yourself… Therefore, the rule according to which you must love yourself is given to you: love the one who is greater than you and you will love yourself.
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