The Daily Gospel for Wednesday, 5 August 2015

The Daily Gospel for Wednesday, 5 August 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Wednesday of the Eighteenth week in Ordinary Time
Feast of the Church: Dedication of St. Mary Major in Rome

THE DEDICATION OF SAINT MARY MAJOR IN ROME
(SAINT MARY AD NIVES)
(c.435)

There are in Rome three patriarchal churches, in which the Pope officiates on different festivals. These are the Basilics of St. John Lateran, St. Peter's on the Vatican Hill, and St. Mary Major.

This last is so called because it is, both in antiquity and dignity, the first church in Rome among those that are dedicated to God in honor of the Virgin Mary. The name of the Liberian Basilic was given it because it was founded in the time of Pope Liberius, in the fourth century; it was consecrated, under the title of the Virgin Mary, by Sixtus III., about the year 435.

It is also called St. Mary ad Nives, or at the snow, from a popular tradition that the Mother of God chose this place for a church under her invocation by a miraculous snow that fell upon this spot in summer, and by a vision in which she appeared to a patrician named John, who munificently founded and endowed this church in the pontificate of Liberius.

The same Basilic has sometimes been known by the name of St. Mary ad Præsepe, from the holy crib or manger of Bethlehem, in which Christ was laid at His birth. It resembles an ordinary manger, is kept in a case of massive silver, and in it lies an image of a little child, also of silver. On Christmas Day the holy Manger is taken out of the case, and exposed. It is kept in a sumptuous subterraneous chapel in this church.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Wednesday of the Eighteenth week in Ordinary Time
Book ofNumbers 13:1 Adonai said to Moshe, 2 “Send men on your behalf to reconnoiter the land of Kena‘an, which I am giving to the people of Isra’el. From each ancestral tribe send someone who is a leader in his tribe.”
25 Forty days later, they returned from reconnoitering the land 26 and went to Moshe, Aharon and the entire community of the people of Isra’el at Kadesh in the Pa’ran Desert, where they brought back word to them and to the entire community and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 What they told him was this: “We entered the land where you sent us, and indeed it does flow with milk and honey — here is its fruit! 28 However the people living in the land are fierce, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the ‘Anakim there. 29 ‘Amalek lives in the area of the Negev; the Hitti, the Y’vusi and the Emori live in the hills; and the Kena‘ani live by the sea and alongside the Yarden.”
30 Kalev silenced the people around Moshe and said, “We ought to go up immediately and take possession of it; there is no question that we can conquer it.” 31 But the men who had gone with him said, “We can’t attack those people, because they are stronger than we are”; 32 and they spread a negative report about the land they had reconnoitered for the people of Isra’el by saying, “The land we passed through in order to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there were giant! 33 We saw the N’filim, the descendants of ‘Anak, who was from the N’filim; to ourselves we looked like grasshoppers by comparison, and we looked that way to them too!”
14:1 At this all the people of Isra’el cried out in dismay and wept all night long.
(iv) 26 Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon, 27 “How long am I to put up with this evil community who keep grumbling about me? I have heard the complaints of the people of Isra’el, which they continue to raise against me. 28 Tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, Adonai swears, as surely as you have spoken in my ears, I will do this to you: 29 your carcasses will fall in this desert! Every single one of you who were included in the census over the age of twenty, you who have complained against me,
34 It will be a year for every day you spent reconnoitering the land that you will bear the consequences of your offenses — forty days, forty years. Then you will know what it means to oppose me! 35 I, Adonai, have spoken.’ I will certainly do this to this whole evil community who have assembled together against me — they will be destroyed in this desert and die there.”
Psalm 106:6 Together with our ancestors, we have sinned,
done wrong, acted wickedly.
7 Our ancestors in Egypt failed to grasp
the meaning of your wonders.
They didn’t keep in mind your great deeds of grace
but rebelled at the sea, at the Sea of Suf.
13 But soon they forgot his deeds
and wouldn’t wait for his counsel.
14 In the desert they gave way to insatiable greed;
in the wastelands they put God to the test.
21 They forgot God, who had saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wonders in the land of Ham,
fearsome deeds by the Sea of Suf.
23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them,
[and he would have,] had not Moshe his chosen one
stood before him in the breach
to turn back his destroying fury.

The Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Matthew 15:21 Yeshua left that place and went off to the region of Tzor and Tzidon. 22 A woman from Kena‘an who was living there came to him, pleading, “Sir, have pity on me. Son of David! My daughter is cruelly held under the power of demons!” 23 But Yeshua did not say a word to her. Then his talmidim came to him and urged him, “Send her away, because she is following us and keeps pestering us with her crying.” 24 He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Isra’el.” 25 But she came, fell at his feet and said, “Sir, help me!” 26 He answered, “It is not right to take the children’s food and toss it to their pet dogs.” 27 She said, “That is true, sir, but even the dogs eat the leftovers that fall from their master’s table.” 28 Then Yeshua answered her, “Lady, you are a person of great trust. Let your desire be granted.” And her daughter was healed at that very moment.
Wednesday of the Eighteenth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Hilary (c.315-367), Bishop of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church 
Commentary on Saint Matthew's Gospel, 15 ; SC 258 
"My daughter is tormented by a demon" This gentile Canaanite woman no longer needs healing herself since she confesses Christ as Lord and Son of David. But she begs for help for her daughter, that is to say, for the crowd of Gentiles held captive under the domination of unclean spirits. Our Lord is silent, preserving for Israel with his silence the honor of salvation... Bearing in himself the mystery of the Father's will, he answers that he was sent to the lost sheep of Israel so that it might be clearly seen that the daughter of the Canaanite woman is the symbol of the Church... This doesn't mean that salvation was not to be given to the gentiles but that our Lord had come “to his own and his own people” (Jn 1,11) and he was waiting for the firstfruits of the faith from the people from whom he had come forth; the rest would be saved later through the preaching of the apostles... 

And that we might understand that the Lord's silence was due to consideration of the times and not to any obstacle placed by his own will, he added: “Woman, your faith is great!”  What he meant was that this woman, who was already sure of her salvation, had – what is better still – faith in the gathering together of the gentiles at the approaching time when, through their faith, they would be set free like this young girl from all domination by unclean spirits. Indeed, confirmation of this came about: following the prefiguration of the gentiles in the Canaanite woman's daughter, people who were prisoner to all kinds of different illnesses were brought to the Lord by the crowds on the mountain (Mt 15,30). These were unbelievers, that is to say sick, who were led by believers to adoration and worship and to whom salvation was given that they might comprehend, study, praise and follow God.

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