DAILY GOSPEL: 23/03/2010
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Tuesday of the Fifth week of Lent
Book of Numbers 21:4-9.
From Mount Hor they set out on the Red Sea road, to by-pass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!"
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people,
and the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover."
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered.
Psalms 102(101):2-3.16-18.19-21.
LORD, hear my prayer; let my cry come to you.
Do not hide your face from me now that I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.
The nations shall revere your name, LORD, all the kings of the earth, your glory,
Once the LORD has rebuilt Zion and appeared in glory,
Heeding the plea of the lowly, not scorning their prayer.
Let this be written for the next generation, for a people not yet born, that they may praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from the holy heights, viewed the earth from heaven,
To attend to the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die."
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 8:21-30.
He said to them again, "I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come."
So the Jews said, "He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?"
He said to them, "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins."
So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world."
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said (to them), "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him."
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
From Mount Hor they set out on the Red Sea road, to by-pass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!"
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people,
and the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover."
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered.
Psalms 102(101):2-3.16-18.19-21.
LORD, hear my prayer; let my cry come to you.
Do not hide your face from me now that I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.
The nations shall revere your name, LORD, all the kings of the earth, your glory,
Once the LORD has rebuilt Zion and appeared in glory,
Heeding the plea of the lowly, not scorning their prayer.
Let this be written for the next generation, for a people not yet born, that they may praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from the holy heights, viewed the earth from heaven,
To attend to the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die."
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 8:21-30.
He said to them again, "I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come."
So the Jews said, "He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?"
He said to them, "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins."
So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world."
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said (to them), "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him."
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
Jn 8,21-30
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
Sermon 1 for the first Sunday of November
"When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM"
Isaiah the prophet describes an exalted vision for us: «I saw the Lord seated on a throne» (Is 6,1). What a wonderful sight, my brethren! Happy the eyes that saw it! Who would not want with all their heart to behold the splendor of so great a glory?... Yet here I am listening to that same prophet give us an account of a very different vision of the same Lord: «We saw him; he had no beauty, no splendor: we took him for a leper» (Is 53,2f. Vg.)...
And so, if you desire to see Jesus in his glory, try first of all to contemplate him in his humiliation. Begin by gazing on the serpent raised up in the desert (cf. Jn 3,14)if you wish to see the King seated on his throne. Let the first vision fill you with humility so that the second may raise you from your humiliation. Let the former reprove and heal your pride before the latter fulfils and satisfies your desire. Do you see the Lord «emptied»? (Phil 2,7). Do not let this vision leave you untouched or you will not be able to behold him later on in the glory of his exaltation without anxiety.
«You will be like him», indeed, when you see him «as he is» (1Jn 3,2); so be like him now as you see what he became for your sake. If you do not refuse to become like him in his humiliation, he will certainly give you the likeness of his glory in return. He will never allow someone who has shared his Passion to be excluded from communion in his glory. So little does he refuse to admit someone who has shared his Passion into the Kingdom with him that the thief found himself in paradise that very day with him because he confessed him on the cross (Lk 23,42)... Yes indeed, «if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him» (Rom 8,17).
And so, if you desire to see Jesus in his glory, try first of all to contemplate him in his humiliation. Begin by gazing on the serpent raised up in the desert (cf. Jn 3,14)if you wish to see the King seated on his throne. Let the first vision fill you with humility so that the second may raise you from your humiliation. Let the former reprove and heal your pride before the latter fulfils and satisfies your desire. Do you see the Lord «emptied»? (Phil 2,7). Do not let this vision leave you untouched or you will not be able to behold him later on in the glory of his exaltation without anxiety.
«You will be like him», indeed, when you see him «as he is» (1Jn 3,2); so be like him now as you see what he became for your sake. If you do not refuse to become like him in his humiliation, he will certainly give you the likeness of his glory in return. He will never allow someone who has shared his Passion to be excluded from communion in his glory. So little does he refuse to admit someone who has shared his Passion into the Kingdom with him that the thief found himself in paradise that very day with him because he confessed him on the cross (Lk 23,42)... Yes indeed, «if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him» (Rom 8,17).
St Turibius of Mongrovejo, Bishop (1538-1606)
SAINT TURIBIUS of MONGROVEJO
Archbishop of Lima
(1538-1606)
Archbishop of Lima
(1538-1606)
Turibius Alphonsus Mongrovejo, whose feast the Church honors on April 27th, was born on the 6th of November, 1538, at Mayorga in the kingdom of Leon in Spain. Brought up in a pious family where devotion was hereditary, his youth was a model to all who knew him. All his leisure was given to devotion or to works of charity. His austerities were great, and he frequently made long pilgrimages on foot.
The fame of Turibius as a master of canon and civil law soon reached the ears of King Philip II., who made him judge at Granada. About that time the see of Lima, in Peru, fell vacant, and among those proposed Philip found no one who seemed better endowed than our Saint with all the qualities that were required at that city, where much was to be done for religion. He sent to Rome the name of the holy judge, and the Sovereign Pontiff confirmed his choice. Turibius in vain sought to avoid the honor. The Pope, in reply, directed him to prepare to receive Holy Orders and be consecrated. Yielding at last by direction of his confessor, he was ordained priest and consecrated.
He arrived at Lima in 1587, and entered on his duties. All was soon edification and order in his episcopal city. A model of all virtue himself, he confessed daily and prepared for Mass by long meditation. St. Turibius then began a visitation of his vast diocese, which he traversed three times, his first visitation lasting seven years and his second four. He held provincial councils, framing decrees of such wisdom that his regulations were adopted in many countries. Almost his entire revenues were bestowed on his creditors, as he styled the poor.
While discharging with zeal his duties he was seized with a fatal illness during his third visitation, and died on the 23d of March, 1606, at Santa, exclaiming, as he received the sacred Viaticum: "I rejoiced in the things that were said to me: 'We shall go into the house of the Lord.'"
The proofs of his holy life and of the favors granted through his intercession induced Pope Innocent XI to beatify him, and he was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in the year 1726.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
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