Daily Gospel for Thursday, 28 May 2015

Daily Gospel for Thursday, 28 May 2015

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]

Thursday of the Eighth week in Ordinary Time

Saints of the day:

SAINT GERMANUS 
Bishop 
(c. 496 - 576)

St. Germanus, the glory of the Church of France in the sixth century, was born in the territory of Autun, about the year 496. In his youth he was conspicuous for his fervor. Being ordained priest, he was made abbot of St. Symphorian's; he was favored at that time with the gifts of miracles and prophecy. It was his custom to watch the great part of the night in the church in prayer, whilst his monks slept.

One night, in a dream, he thought a venerable old man presented him with the keys of the city of Paris, and said to him that God committed to his care the inhabitants of that city, that he should save them from perishing.

Four years after this divine admonition, in 554, happening to be at Paris when that see became vacant on the demise of the Bishop Eusebius, he was exalted to the episcopal chair, though he endeavored by many tears to decline the charge. His promotion made no alteration in his mode of life. The same simplicity and frugality appeared in his dress, table, and furniture. His house was perpetually crowded with the poor and the afflicted, and he had always many beggars at his own table. God gave to his sermons a wonderful influence over the minds of all ranks of people; so that the face of the whole city was in a very short time quite changed.

King Childebert, who till then had been an ambitious, worldly prince, was entirely converted by the sweetness and the powerful discourses of the Saint, and founded many religious institutions, and sent large sums of money to the good bishop, to be distributed among the indigent.

In his old age St. Germanus lost nothing of that zeal and activity with which he had filled the great duties of his station in the vigor of his life; nor did the weakness to which his corporal austerities had reduced him make him abate anything in the mortifications of his penitential life, in which he redoubled his fervor as he approached nearer to the end of his course. By his zeal the remains of idolatry were extirpated in France.

The Saint continued his labors for the conversion of sinners till he was called to receive the reward of them, on the 28th of May, 576, being eighty years old.

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

Thursday of the Eighth week in Ordinary Time

8th Week in Ordinary Time

Book of Sirach 42: The Works of God in Nature

15 I will now call to mind the works of the Lord,

    and will declare what I have seen.

By the word of the Lord his works are made;

    and all his creatures do his will.[a]

16 The sun looks down on everything with its light,

    and the work of the Lord is full of his glory.

17 The Lord has not empowered even his holy ones

    to recount all his marvelous works,

which the Lord the Almighty has established

    so that the universe may stand firm in his glory.

18 He searches out the abyss and the human heart;

    he understands their innermost secrets.

For the Most High knows all that may be known;

    he sees from of old the things that are to come.[b]

19 He discloses what has been and what is to be,

    and he reveals the traces of hidden things.

20 No thought escapes him,

    and nothing is hidden from him.

21 He has set in order the splendors of his wisdom;

    he is from all eternity one and the same.

Nothing can be added or taken away,

    and he needs no one to be his counselor.

22 How desirable are all his works,

    and how sparkling they are to see![c]

23 All these things live and remain forever;

    each creature is preserved to meet a particular need.[d]

24 All things come in pairs, one opposite the other,

    and he has made nothing incomplete.

25 Each supplements the virtues of the other.

    Who could ever tire of seeing his glory?[Footnotes:

Sirach 42:15 Syr Compare Heb: most Gk witnesses lack and all . . . will

Sirach 42:18 Heb: Gk he sees the sign(s) of the age

Sirach 42:22 Meaning of Gk uncertain

Sirach 42:23 Heb: Gk forever for every need, and all are obedient]

Psalm 33:2 Give thanks to Adonai with the lyre,

sing praises to him with a ten-stringed harp.

3 Sing to him a new song,

make music at your best among shouts of joy.

4 For the word of Adonai is true,

and all his work is trustworthy.

5 He loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of the grace of Adonai.

6 By the word of Adonai the heavens were made,

and their whole host by a breath from his mouth.

7 He collects the sea waters together in a heap;

he puts the deeps in storehouses.

8 Let all the earth fear Adonai!

Let all living in the world stand in awe of him.

9 For he spoke, and there it was;

he commanded, and there it stood.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Mark 10:46 They came to Yericho; and as Yeshua was leaving Yericho with his talmidim and a great crowd, a blind beggar, Bar-Timai (son of Timai), was sitting by the side of the road. 47 When he heard that it was Yeshua from Natzeret, he started shouting, “Yeshua! Son of David! Have pity on me!” 48 Many people scolded him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the louder, “Son of David! Have pity on me!” 49 Yeshua stopped and said, “Call him over!” They called to the blind man, “Courage! Get up! He’s calling for you!” 50 Throwing down his blanket, he jumped up and came over to Yeshua. 51 “What do you want me to do for you?” asked Yeshua. The blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me be able to see again.” 52 Yeshua said to him, “Go! Your trust has healed you.” Instantly he received his sight and followed him on the road.

Thursday of the Eighth week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day:

Saint Gregory the Great (c.540-604), Pope, Doctor of the Church 

Homilies on the Gospel, no.13 ; PL 76, 1081 (©Cistercian publications 1990) 

“ He shouted all the louder”

If anyone recognizes the darkness of his blindness... let him cry with his whole mind, let him say: “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” But let us hear what happened when the blind man was crying out: “And the people ahead rebuked him, that he should be silent” (Lk 18,39). What is meant by 'the people ahead' as Jesus comes if not the crowds of bodily desires and the uproar caused by our vices? Before Jesus comes into our hearts they disturb our thoughts by tempting us, and they thoroughly muddle the words in our hearts as we pray. We often wish to be converted to the Lord when we have committed some wrong. When we try to pray earnestly against the wrongs we have committed, images of our sins come into our hearts. They obscure our inner vision, they disturb our minds and overwhelm the sound of our petition... 

But let us hear what the blind man, still unenlightened, did. “But he cried out all the more: 'Son of David, have mercy on me'”... In proportion to the tumult of our unspiritual thoughts must be our eagerness to persist in prayer... It is surely necessary that the more harshly our heart's voice is repressed, the more firmly it must persist to overcome the uproar of forbidden thoughts and break in on our Lord's gracious ears by its intrepid perseverance. I believe that everyone observes what I am saying in himself, and herself. When we turn our minds from this world to God, when we are converted to the work of prayer, what we once enjoyed doing we later endure in our prayer as demanding and burdensome. Holy desire only with difficulty banishes the recollection of them from our hearts... But when we persist ardently in our prayer, we fix Jesus to our hearts as he passes by. Hence: “But Jesus stopped and ordered him to be brought to him” (v.40).

____________________________