Daily Gospel for Friday, 1 April 2016

Daily Gospel for Friday, 1 April 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Easter Friday

Friday in the Octave of Easter

This Friday we read John 21, 1-14.  Next to the Sea of Tiberias, "the net full of big fish" and the meal prepared by Jesus, we shall respond to the invitation: "Come and have breakfast".  Do we still need to ask: "Who are you?" We know it is the Lord.
Preface of Easter I
Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, 
we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus christ our Lord.   
We praise you with greater joy than ever on this Easter day, 
when christ became our paschal sacrifice.   
He is the true Lamb who took away the sins of the world. 
By dying he destroyed our death; 
by rising he restored our life.   
And so, with all the choirs of angels in heaven
we proclaim your glory!
Saint(s) of the day : St. Hugh, Bishop (1053-1132)

SAINT HUGH
Bishop
(1053-1132)

It was the happiness of this Saint to receive from his cradle the strongest impressions of piety by the example and care of his illustrious and holy parents. He was born at Chateau-neuf, in the territory of Valence in Dauphiné, in 1053. His father, Odilo, who served his country in an honorable post in the army, labored by all the means in his power to make his soldiers faithful servants of their Creator, and by severe punishments to restrain vice.
By the advice of his son, St. Hugh, he afterwards became a Carthusian monk, and died at the age of a hundred, having received Extreme Unction and Viaticum from the hands of his son. Our Saint likewise assisted, in her last moments, his mother, who had for many years, under his direction, served God in her own house, by prayer, fasting, and plenteous alms-deeds. Hugh, from the cradle, appeared to be a child of benediction. He went through his studies with great applause, and having chosen to serve God in an ecclesiastical state, he accepted a canonry in the cathedral of Valence.
His great sanctity and learning rendered him an ornament of that church, and he was finally made Bishop of Grenoble. He set himself at once to reprove vice and to reform abuses, and so plentiful was the benediction of Heaven upon his labors that he had the comfort to see the face of his diocese in a short time exceedingly changed. After two years he privately resigned his bishopric, presuming on the tacit consent of the Holy See, and, putting on the habit of St. Bennet, he entered upon a novitiate in the austere abbey of Casa-Dei in Auvergne. There he lived a year, a perfect model of all virtues to that house of Saints, till Pope Gregory VII. commanded him, in virtue of holy obedience, to resume his pastoral charge.
He earnestly solicited Pope Innocent II. for leave to resign his bishopric, that he might die in solitude, but was never able to obtain his request. God was pleased to purify his soul by a lingering illness before He called him to Himself. Some time before his death he lost his memory for everything but his prayers.
He closed his penitential course on the 1st of April in 1132, wanting only two months of being Eighty years old, of which he had been fifty-two years bishop. Miracles attested the sanctity of his happy death, and he was canonized by Innocent II. in 1134.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
St. Mary of Egypt, Hermit (c.344-421)

SAINT MARY OF EGYPT
Hermit
(c. 344-421)

At the tender age of twelve, Mary left her father's house that she might sin without restraint, and for seventeen years she lived in shame at Alexandria. Then she accompanied a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and entangled many in grievous sin.
She was in that city on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and went with the crowd to the church which contained the precious wood. The rest entered and adored; but Mary was invisibly held back. In that instant her misery and pollution burst upon her. Turning to the Immaculate Mother, whose picture faced her in the porch, she vowed thenceforth to do penance if she might enter and stand like Magdalen beside the Cross. Then she entered in. As she knelt before Our Lady on leaving the church, a voice came to her which said, "Pass over Jordan, and thou shalt find rest."
She went into the wilderness, and there, in 420, forty-seven years after, the Abbot Zosimus met her. She told him that for seventeen years the old songs and scenes had haunted her; ever since, she had had perfect peace. At her request he brought her on Holy Thursday the sacred body of Christ.
She bade him return again after a year, and this time he found her corpse upon the sand, with an inscription sayings "Bury here the body of Mary the sinner."
The Bollandists place her death on April 1, 421. The Greek Church celebrates her feast on 1 April, while the Roman Martyrology assigns it to 2 April, and the Roman Calendar to 3 April. The Greek date is more likely to be correct; the others may be due to the fact that on those days portions of her relics reached the West.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Easter Friday
Acts of the Apostles 4:1 Kefa and Yochanan were still speaking to the people when the cohanim, the captain in charge of the Temple police, and the Tz’dukim came upon them, 2 very annoyed that they were teaching the people the doctrine of resurrection from the dead and offering Yeshua as proof. 3 The Temple police arrested them; and since it was already evening, they put them in custody overnight. 4 However, many of those who heard the message trusted; the number of men alone was about five thousand.

5 The next day, the people’s rulers, elders and Torah-teachers assembled in Yerushalayim, 6 along with ‘Anan the cohen hagadol, Kayafa, Yochanan, Alexander and the other men from the family of the cohen hagadol. 7 They had the emissaries stand before them and asked, “By what power or in what name did you do this?”

8 Then Kefa, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done for a disabled person, if you want to know how he was restored to health, 10 then let it be known to you and to all the people of Isra’el that it is in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua from Natzeret, whom you had executed on a stake as a criminal but whom God has raised from the dead, that this man stands before you perfectly healed.

11 “This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone.[Acts 4:11 Psalm 118:22] 12 There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!”

Psalms 118:1 Give thanks to Adonai; for he is good,

for his grace continues forever.

2 Now let Isra’el say,

“His grace continues forever.”

4 Now let those who fear Adonai say,

“His grace continues forever.”

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.

25 Please, Adonai! Save us!

Please, Adonai! Rescue us!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai.

We bless you from the house of Adonai.

27 Adonai is God, and he gives us light.

Join in the pilgrim festival with branches

all the way to the horns of the altar.

Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint John 21:1 After this, Yeshua appeared again to the talmidim at Lake Tiberias. Here is how it happened: 2 Shim‘on Kefa and T’oma (his name means “twin”) were together with Natan’el from Kanah in the Galil, the sons of Zavdai, and two other talmidim. 3 Shim‘on Kefa said, “I’m going fishing.” They said to him, “We’re coming with you.” They went and got into the boat, but that night they didn’t catch anything. 4 However, just as day was breaking, Yeshua stood on shore, but the talmidim didn’t know it was he. 5 He said to them, “You don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered him. 6 He said to them, “Throw in your net to starboard and you will catch some.” So they threw in their net, and there were so many fish in it that they couldn’t haul it aboard. 7 The talmid Yeshua loved said to Kefa, “It’s the Lord!” On hearing it was the Lord, Shim‘on Kefa threw on his coat, because he was stripped for work, and plunged into the lake; 8 but the other talmidim followed in the boat, dragging the net full of fish; for they weren’t far from shore, only about a hundred yards. 9 When they stepped ashore, they saw a fire of burning coals with a fish on it, and some bread. 10 Yeshua said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 Shim‘on Kefa went up and dragged the net ashore. It was full of fish, 153 of them; but even with so many, the net wasn’t torn. 12 Yeshua said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the talmidim dared to ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Yeshua came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Yeshua had appeared to the talmidim after being raised from the dead.

Easter Friday

Commentary of the day:

Saint Maximus of Turin (?-c.420), Bishop
CC Sermon 53, on Ps 117 [118] ; Homily on Ps 14

"When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore"

This day the Lord has made (Ps 117[118]:24) penetrates everything, contains everything, encompasses everything, heaven, earth, and the underworld!... And what is this heavenly day if not Christ, of whom the prophet speaks: “Day pours out the word to day” (Ps 18[19]:3). Yes, this day is the Son to whom the Father, who is the light of day, declares the secret of his divinity. He is that day who speaks through the Wise man’s voice: “I have created a day that will rise for ever in the heavens”… Thus the light of Christ shines, radiates, blazes out forever and the darkness of sin cannot constrain it. “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1:5).
At the resurrection of Christ every element is glorified; I am certain the sun shone with a brighter light on that day. Should not that which was saddened at the death of Christ enter into the joy of the resurrection? (Mt 27:45)… Like a faithful servant it was darkened so as to accompany Christ into the tomb and now today it must shine out to greet the resurrection… Let us rejoice in this holy day, my brethren. Let none conceal themselves from the common joy at the remembrance of their sin! Let none despair of forgiveness. A great favour awaits them. If, on the cross, our Lord took pity on a robber…, with what gifts will we not be showered by the glory of his resurrection?

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