DAILY GOSPEL: 23/08/2010
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Monday of the Twenty-first week in Ordinary Time
Second Letter to the Thessalonians 1:1-5.11-12.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
grace to you and peace from God (our) Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought to thank God always for you, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater.
Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God regarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you endure.
This is evidence of the just judgment of God, so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering.
To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith,
that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalms 96(95):1-2.3.4-5.
Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless his name; announce his salvation day after day.
Tell God's glory among the nations; among all peoples, God's marvelous deeds.
For great is the LORD and highly to be praised, to be feared above all gods.
For the gods of the nations all do nothing, but the LORD made the heavens.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 23:13-22.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
)
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.
Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.'
Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred?
And you say, 'If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.'
You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it;
one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it;
one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
grace to you and peace from God (our) Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought to thank God always for you, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater.
Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God regarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you endure.
This is evidence of the just judgment of God, so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering.
To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith,
that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalms 96(95):1-2.3.4-5.
Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless his name; announce his salvation day after day.
Tell God's glory among the nations; among all peoples, God's marvelous deeds.
For great is the LORD and highly to be praised, to be feared above all gods.
For the gods of the nations all do nothing, but the LORD made the heavens.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 23:13-22.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
)
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.
Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.'
Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred?
And you say, 'If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.'
You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it;
one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it;
one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.
Mt 23,13-22
Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), laywoman, mystic
On Free Will
God addresses our freedom
God prompts man to rise up from his sins... The more swiftly a man acknowledges his wretchedness, the more swiftly, too, he humbles himself and abandons himself to God knowing that the work of converting him belongs to God alone. He becomes aware of it by degrees through the constant inspirations God sends him and, noticing this work and the benefits he gains from it, he says to himself: «It honestly seems to me that God has nothing else to do but take care of me. How sweet and loving God's working is on our behalf!»...
Already in this life the service of God is truly to reign. When God frees man from the sin that holds him captive, he looses him from all bondage and sets him in true liberty. Otherwise man is always going from one desire to another without finding rest; the more he has the more he wants; seeking satisfaction for himself, he is never content. Indeed, whoever desires is possessed by that desire; he is sold over to the thing he loves; seeking his own liberty, offending God by following his own appetites, he endlessly becomes its slave.
Therefore consider what is the strength and power of our free will, which contains within itself two such opposed and contrary things: eternal life or eternal death. It cannot be forced by any creature if we do not want it to be; which is why, so much as in your power, you should ponder well and be careful what you do.
Already in this life the service of God is truly to reign. When God frees man from the sin that holds him captive, he looses him from all bondage and sets him in true liberty. Otherwise man is always going from one desire to another without finding rest; the more he has the more he wants; seeking satisfaction for himself, he is never content. Indeed, whoever desires is possessed by that desire; he is sold over to the thing he loves; seeking his own liberty, offending God by following his own appetites, he endlessly becomes its slave.
Therefore consider what is the strength and power of our free will, which contains within itself two such opposed and contrary things: eternal life or eternal death. It cannot be forced by any creature if we do not want it to be; which is why, so much as in your power, you should ponder well and be careful what you do.
 St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (1586-1617)SAINT ROSE OF LIMA Virgin (1586-1617) This lovely flower of sanctity, the first canonized Saint of the New World, was born at Lima in 1586. She was christened Isabel, but the beauty of her infant face earned for her the title of Rose, which she ever after bore. As a child, while still in the cradle, her silence under a painful surgical operation proved the thirst for suffering already consuming her heart. At an early age she took service to support her impoverished parents, and worked for them day and night. In spite of hardships and austerities her beauty ripened with increasing age, and she was much and openly admired. From fear of vanity she cut off her hair, blistered her face with pepper and her hands with lime. For further security she enrolled herself in the Third Order of St. Dominic, took St. Catherine of Siena as her model, and redoubled her penance. Her cell was a garden hut, her couch a box of broken tiles. Under her habit Rose wore a hair-shirt studded with iron nails, while, concealed by her veil, a silver crown armed with ninety points encircled her head. More than once, when she shuddered at the prospect of a night of torture, a voice said, "My cross was yet more painful." The Blessed Sacrament seemed almost her only food. Her love for it was intense. When the Dutch fleet prepared to attack the town, Rose took her place before the tabernacle, and wept that she was not worthy to die in its defence. All her sufferings were offered for the conversion of sinners, and the thought of the multitudes in hell was ever before her soul. She died in 1617, at the age of thirty-one. | |
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