"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) - Year B
Saints of the day:
Saints of the day:
SAINT JULIUS
Pope
(+ 352)
Pope
(+ 352)
St. Julius was a Roman, and chosen Pope on the 6th of February in 337.
The Arian bishops in the East sent to him three deputies to accuse St. Athanasius, the zealous Patriarch of Alexandria. These accusations, as the order of justice required, Julius imparted to Athanasius, who thereupon sent his deputies to Rome; when, upon an impartial hearing, the advocates of the heretics were confounded and silenced upon every article of their accusation.
The Arians then demanded a council, and the Pope assembled one in Rome in 341. The Arians instead of appearing held a pretended council at Antioch in 341, in which they presumed to appoint one Gregory, an impious Arian, Bishop of Alexandria, detained the Pope's legates beyond the time mentioned for their appearance; and then wrote to his Holiness, alleging a pretended impossibility of their appearing, on account of the Persian war and other impediments. The Pope easily saw through these pretences, and in a council at Rome examined the cause of St. Athanasius, declared him innocent of the things laid to his charge by the Arians, and confirmed him in his see.
He also acquitted Marcellus of Ancyra, upon his orthodox profession of faith.
He drew up and sent by Count Gabian to the Oriental Eusebian bishops, who had first demanded a council and then refused to appear in it, an excellent letter, which is looked upon as one of the finest monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity.
Finding the Eusebians still obstinate, he moved Constans, Emperor of the West, to demand the concurrence of his brother Constantius in the assembling of a general council at Sardica in Illyricum. This was opened in May 347, and declared St. Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra orthodox and innocent, deposed certain Arian bishops, and framed twenty-one canons of discipline.
St. Julius reigned fifteen years, two months, and six days, dying on the 12th of April, 352.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) - Year B
Acts of the Apostles 4:32 All the many believers were one in heart and soul, and no one claimed any of his possessions for himself, but everyone shared everything he had. 33 With great power the emissaries continued testifying to the resurrection of the Lord Yeshua, and they were all held in high regard. 34 No one among them was poor, since those who owned lands or houses sold them and turned over the proceeds 35 to the emissaries to distribute to each according to his need.
Psalm 118:2 Now let Isra’el say,
“His grace continues forever.”
3 Now let the house of Aharon say,
“His grace continues forever.”
4 Now let those who fear Adonai say,
“His grace continues forever.”
13 You pushed me hard to make me fall,
but Adonai helped me.
14 Yah is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.
15 The sound of rejoicing and victory
is heard in the tents of the righteous:
“Adonai’s right hand struck powerfully!
22 The very rock that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone!
23 This has come from Adonai,
and in our eyes it is amazing.
24 This is the day Adonai has made,
a day for us to rejoice and be glad.
Epistle of 1 John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Yeshua is the Messiah has God as his father, and everyone who loves a father loves his offspring too. 2 Here is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God, we also do what he commands. 3 For loving God means obeying his commands. Moreover, his commands are not burdensome, 4 because everything which has God as its Father overcomes the world. And this is what victoriously overcomes the world: our trust. 5 Who does overcome the world if not the person who believes that Yeshua is the Son of God?
6 He is the one who came by means of water and blood, Yeshua the Messiah — not with water only, but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth.
Holy Gospel According to Saint John 20:19 In the evening that same day, the first day of the week, when the talmidim were gathered together behind locked doors out of fear of the Judeans, Yeshua came, stood in the middle and said, “Shalom aleikhem!” 20 Having greeted them, he showed them his hands and his side. The talmidim were overjoyed to see the Lord. 21 “Shalom aleikhem!” Yeshua repeated. “Just as the Father sent me, I myself am also sending you.” 22 Having said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Ruach HaKodesh! 23 If you forgive someone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you hold them, they are held.”
24 Now T’oma (the name means “twin”), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Yeshua came. 25 When the other talmidim told him, “We have seen the Lord,” he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger into the place where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe it.”
26 A week later his talmidim were once more in the room, and this time T’oma was with them. Although the doors were locked, Yeshua came, stood among them and said, “Shalom aleikhem!” 27 Then he said to T’oma, “Put your finger here, look at my hands, take your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be lacking in trust, but have trust!” 28 T’oma answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Yeshua said to him, “Have you trusted because you have seen me? How blessed are those who do not see, but trust anyway!”
30 In the presence of the talmidim Yeshua performed many other miracles which have not been recorded in this book. 31 But these which have been recorded are here so that you may trust that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by this trust you may have life because of who he is.
Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) - Year B
Commentary of the Day:
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (313-350), Bishop of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church Catechetical sermons 21, 1-3
« Receive the Holy Spirit »
Having been baptized into Christ, and put on Christ (Gal 3,27), you have been made conformable to the Son of God; for God, having predestined us for adoption (Eph 1,5), formed us (Gn 2,7) according to Christ's glorious body... You have become “christs” by receiving the sign of the Holy Spirit. Everything that has happened to you has been in imitation of Christ, whose images you are. Having washed in the river Jordan… Christ came up from the waters and the Holy Spirit, in the fullness of his being, alighted on him. In the same way you, after you had come up from the baptismal pool, received the unction and were anointed with the holy chrism which is the Holy Spirit with which Christ himself was anointed... For Christ was not anointed with oil or a material ointment, but the Father, who had appointed him beforehand to be Savior of the whole world, anointed him with the Holy Spirit, as David the Prophet also cried, saying: “God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows” (Ps 44[45],8).
And as Christ was in reality crucified, and buried, and raised, so you are, in baptism, accounted worthy of sharing symbolically in his cross, his tomb and his resurrection. So it is, too, regarding the unction. Christ was anointed with a spiritual oil of gladness, that is, with the Holy Spirit, who is called oil of gladness because he is the author of spiritual gladness. In the same way you were anointed with a holy oil that made you partakers and fellows of Christ himself… And you were first anointed on the forehead, that you might be delivered from the shame of the first Adam and that with unveiled face might reflect as in a mirror the glory of the Lord (2Cor 3,16).
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