DAILY GOSPEL: 28/01/2011
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Friday of the Third week in Ordinary Time
Letter to the Hebrews 10:32-39.
Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a great contest of suffering.
At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and affliction; at other times you associated yourselves with those so treated.
You even joined in the sufferings of those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you had a better and lasting possession.
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence; it will have great recompense.
You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.
"For, after just a brief moment, he who is to come shall come; he shall not delay.
But my just one shall live by faith, and if he draws back I take no pleasure in him."
We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life.
Psalms 37(36):3-4.5-6.23-24.39-40.
Trust in the LORD and do good that you may dwell in the land and live secure.
Find your delight in the LORD who will give you your heart's desire.
Commit your way to the LORD; trust that God will act
And make your integrity shine like the dawn, your vindication like noonday.
Those whose steps are guided by the LORD; whose way God approves,
May stumble, but they will never fall, for the LORD holds their hand.
The salvation of the just is from the LORD, their refuge in time of distress.
The LORD helps and rescues them, rescues and saves them from the wicked, because in God they take refuge.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 4:26-34.
He said,"This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come."
He said, "To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade."
With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a great contest of suffering.
At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and affliction; at other times you associated yourselves with those so treated.
You even joined in the sufferings of those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you had a better and lasting possession.
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence; it will have great recompense.
You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.
"For, after just a brief moment, he who is to come shall come; he shall not delay.
But my just one shall live by faith, and if he draws back I take no pleasure in him."
We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life.
Psalms 37(36):3-4.5-6.23-24.39-40.
Trust in the LORD and do good that you may dwell in the land and live secure.
Find your delight in the LORD who will give you your heart's desire.
Commit your way to the LORD; trust that God will act
And make your integrity shine like the dawn, your vindication like noonday.
Those whose steps are guided by the LORD; whose way God approves,
May stumble, but they will never fall, for the LORD holds their hand.
The salvation of the just is from the LORD, their refuge in time of distress.
The LORD helps and rescues them, rescues and saves them from the wicked, because in God they take refuge.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 4:26-34.
He said,"This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come."
He said, "To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade."
With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
Mc 4,26-34
Commentary of the day
Saint Chromatius of Aquilaea (?-407), Bishop
Sermon 30, 2 (trans. SC 164, p. 137)The grain that has fallen to the ground produces much fruit (Jn 12,24)Our Lord compared himself to a mustard seed, for although he was the God of glory and eternal majesty he became completely small in that he willed to be born of a virgin in the body of a child. Thus he was placed in the earth when his body was laid in the tomb but, when he had risen from the dead through his glorious resurrection, he grew great on earth until he became a tree in whose branches nest the birds of the air.
This tree stands for the Church, which Christ's death has raised up in glory. As for its branches, these must be understood as the apostles since, just as branches are the tree's natural adornment, so the apostles are the adornment of Christ's Church through the beauty of grace they have received. And on these branches, as we know, dwell the birds of the air. Allegorically speaking, the birds of the air designate ourselves who, coming to Christ's Church, perch on the teaching of the apostles like birds on the branch.
This tree stands for the Church, which Christ's death has raised up in glory. As for its branches, these must be understood as the apostles since, just as branches are the tree's natural adornment, so the apostles are the adornment of Christ's Church through the beauty of grace they have received. And on these branches, as we know, dwell the birds of the air. Allegorically speaking, the birds of the air designate ourselves who, coming to Christ's Church, perch on the teaching of the apostles like birds on the branch.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest & Doctor of the Church (+ 1274) - Memorial
SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS
Priest and Doctor of the Church
(c. 1225-1274)
Priest and Doctor of the Church
(c. 1225-1274)
St. Thomas was born of noble parents at Aquino in Italy, in 1226. At the age of nineteen he received the Dominican habit at Naples, where he was studying.
Seized by his brothers on his way to Paris, he suffered a two years' captivity in their castle of Rocca-Secca; but neither the caresses of his mother and sisters, nor the threats and stratagems of his brothers, could shake him in his vocation. While St. Thomas was in confinement at Rocca-Secca, his brothers endeavored to entrap him into sin, but the attempt only ended in the triumph of his purity. Snatching from the hearth a burning brand, the Saint drove from his chamber the wretched creature whom they had there concealed. Then marking a cross upon the wall, he knelt down to pray, and forthwith, being rapt in ecstasy, an angel girded him with a cord, in token of the gift of perpetual chastity which God had given him. The pain caused by the girdle was so sharp that St. Thomas uttered a piercing cry, which brought his guards into the room. But he never told this grace to any one save only to Father Raynald, his confessor, a little while before his death. Hence originated the Confraternity of the "Angelic Warfare," for the preservation of the virtue of chastity.
Having at length escaped, St. Thomas went to Cologne to study under Blessed Albert the Great, and after that to Paris, where for many years he taught philosophy and theology. The Church has ever venerated his numerous writings as a treasure-house of sacred doctrine; while in naming him the Angelic Doctor she has indicated that his science is more divine than human. The rarest gifts of intellect were combined in him with the tenderest piety. Prayer, he said, had taught him more than study.
His singular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament shines forth in the Office and hymns for Corpus Christi, which he composed. To the words miraculously uttered by a crucifix at Naples, "Well hast thou written concerning Me, Thomas. What shall I give thee as a reward?" he replied, "Naught save Thyself, O Lord."
He died at Fossa-Nuova, 1274, on his way to the General Council of Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X. had summoned him.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
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