Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 11 November 2014

Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 11 November 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)
Tuesday of the Thirty-second Week of Ordinary Time
Feast of the Church:
Saints of the Day:
SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS
Bishop
(† 397)
When a mere boy, Martin became a Christian catechumen against his parents' wish; and at fifteen was therefore seized by his father, a pagan soldier, and enrolled in the army.
One winter's day, when stationed at Amiens, he met a beggar almost naked and frozen with cold. Having no money, he cut his cloak in two and gave him the half. That night he saw Our Lord clothed in the half cloak, and heard Him say to the angels: "Martin, yet a catechumen, hath wrapped Me in this garment." This decided him to be baptized, and shortly after he left the army.
He succeeded in converting his mother; but, being driven from his home by the Arians, he took shelter with St. Hilary, and founded near Poitiers the first monastery in France.
In 372 he was made Bishop of Tours. His flock, though Christian in name, was still pagan in heart. Unarmed and attended only by his monks, Martin destroyed the heathen temples and groves, and completed by his preaching and miracles the conversion of the people, whence he is known as the Apostle of Gaul.
His last eleven years were spent in humble toil to atone for his faults, while God made manifest by miracles the purity of his soul.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Tuesday of the Thirty-second Week of Ordinary Time
Letter to Titus 2: A God-Filled Life
1-6 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.
7-8 But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, incorruptible in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.
11-14 God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.
Psalms 37:3-4 Get insurance with God and do a good deed,
    settle down and stick to your last.
Keep company with God,
    get in on the best.
18-19 God keeps track of the decent folk;
    what they do won’t soon be forgotten.
In hard times, they’ll hold their heads high;
    when the shelves are bare, they’ll be full.
23-24 Stalwart walks in step with God;
    his path blazed by God, he’s happy.
If he stumbles, he’s not down for long;
    God has a grip on his hand.
27-28 Turn your back on evil,
    work for the good and don’t quit.
God loves this kind of thing,
    never turns away from his friends.
28-29 Live this way and you’ve got it made,
    but bad eggs will be tossed out.
The good get planted on good land
    and put down healthy roots.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 17:7-10 “Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat’? Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper’? Does the servant get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him? It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.’”

Tuesday of the Thirty-second Week of Ordinary Time

Commentary of the Day:
Isaac the Syrian (7th century), monk near Mosul, saint of the Orthodox churches 
Discourses, 1st series, no.5
"Say, 'We are unprofitable servants"
The eyes of the Lord look on the lowly to make them glad. But the face of the Lord turns away from the proud to humble them. The lowly always receive pity from God… Make yourself small before everyone and you will be raised up higher than this world’s princes. Make all creatures go before you, embrace them, humble yourself before them, and you will be honored more than those who make an offering of gold. Descend lower than your own self and you will see God’s glory within you. For where humility sprouts, God’s glory spreads… If you have humility in your heart, God will reveal his glory to you in it…
Do not love honor and you will not be dishonored. Honor flees before someone who runs after it. But honor pursues the one who flees it and makes known to everyone his humility. If you despise yourself so as not to be honored, God will make you known. If you accuse yourself for love of the truth, God will permit you to be praised in front of every creature. They will open before you the door to the glory of your Creator and praise you. For you are truly made in his image and likeness (Gn 1,26).
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