DAILY GOSPEL: 26/08/2010
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Thursday of the Twenty-first week in Ordinary Time
First Letter to the Corinthians 1:1-9.
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
to the church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge,
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus (Christ).
God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalms 145(144):2-3.4-5.6-7.
Every day I will bless you; I will praise your name forever.
Great is the LORD and worthy of high praise; God's grandeur is beyond understanding.
One generation praises your deeds to the next and proclaims your mighty works.
They speak of the splendor of your majestic glory, tell of your wonderful deeds.
They speak of your fearsome power and attest to your great deeds.
They publish the renown of your abounding goodness and joyfully sing of your justice.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 24:42-51.
Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,'
and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour
and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
to the church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge,
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus (Christ).
God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalms 145(144):2-3.4-5.6-7.
Every day I will bless you; I will praise your name forever.
Great is the LORD and worthy of high praise; God's grandeur is beyond understanding.
One generation praises your deeds to the next and proclaims your mighty works.
They speak of the splendor of your majestic glory, tell of your wonderful deeds.
They speak of your fearsome power and attest to your great deeds.
They publish the renown of your abounding goodness and joyfully sing of your justice.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 24:42-51.
Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,'
and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour
and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
Mt 24,42-51
Saint Ambrose (c.340-397), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church
12th sermon on Psalm 118; CSEL 62,258
"Be prepared"
You are happy indeed when Christ knocks at your door. As for the door – this is the faith that safeguards the whole house, provided it is firm. By this door Christ makes his entry and therefore the Church declares in the Song of Songs: «I hear my brother's voice as he knocks at the door.» Listen to him who is knocking; listen to him who seeks to enter: «Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is wet with dew, my locks with the moisture of the night» (Sg 5,2). Consider what time God the Word knocks at your door: it is when his head is covered with the moisture of nighttime. For he condescends to visit those undergoing trial and temptation in order that none, overcome by its difficulties, may give way. Thus his head is covered with dew, or moisture, when his body suffers.
Then is the time you should keep watch for fear that, when the Bridegroom comes, he may withdraw again on finding your house shut. Thus, if you sleep and your heart does not awake (Sg 5,2) he will go away before he has knocked; if your heart is awake he will knock and request that the door be opened to him. And so the door of our soul is at our disposal as also are the gates of which it is written: «Lift up, O gates, your lintels; reach up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may come in» (Ps 24[23],7).
Then is the time you should keep watch for fear that, when the Bridegroom comes, he may withdraw again on finding your house shut. Thus, if you sleep and your heart does not awake (Sg 5,2) he will go away before he has knocked; if your heart is awake he will knock and request that the door be opened to him. And so the door of our soul is at our disposal as also are the gates of which it is written: «Lift up, O gates, your lintels; reach up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may come in» (Ps 24[23],7).
St. Zephyrinus, Pope and Martyr († 217)SAINT ZEPHYRINUS Pope and Martyr († 217) Zephyrinus, a native of Rome, succeeded Victor in the pontificate, in the year 198, in which Severus raised the fifth most bloody persecution against the Church, which continued not for two years only, but until the death of that emperor in 211. Under this furious storm this holy pastor was the support and comfort of the distressed flock of Christ, and he suffered by charity and compassion what every confessor underwent. The triumphs of the martyrs were indeed his joy, but his heart received many deep wounds from the fall of apostates and heretics. Neither did this latter affliction cease when peace was restored to the Church. Our Saint had also the affliction to see the fall of Tertullian, which seems to have been owing partly to his pride. Eusebius tells us that this holy Pope exerted his zeal so strenuously against the blasphemies of the heretics that they treated him in the most contumelious manner; but it was his glory that they called him the principal defender of Christ's divinity. St. Zephyrinus filled the pontifical chair nineteen years, dying in 217. He was buried in his own cemetery, on the 26th of August. He is, in some Martyrologies, styled a martyr, which title he might deserve by what he suffered in the persecution, though he perhaps did not die by the executioner. Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894] | |
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