DAILY GOSPEL: 14/08/2010
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Saturday of the Nineteenth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Ezekiel 18:1-10.13.30-32.
Thus the word of the LORD came to me: Son of man,
what is the meaning of this proverb that you recite in the land of Israel: "Fathers have eaten green grapes, thus their children's teeth are on edge"?
As I live, says the Lord GOD: I swear that there shall no longer be anyone among you who will repeat this proverb in Israel.
For all lives are mine; the life of the father is like the life of the son, both are mine; only the one who sins shall die.
If a man is virtuous--if he does what is right and just,
if he does not eat on the mountains, nor raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel; if he does not defile his neighbor's wife, nor have relations with a woman in her menstrual period;
if he oppresses no one, gives back the pledge received for a debt, commits no robbery; if he gives food to the hungry and clothes the naked;
if he does not lend at interest nor exact usury; if he holds off from evildoing, judges fairly between a man and his opponent;
if he lives by my statutes and is careful to observe my ordinances, that man is virtuous--he shall surely live, says the Lord GOD.
But if he begets a son who is a thief, a murderer, or who does any of these things
lends at interest and exacts usury--this son certainly shall not live. Because he practiced all these abominations, he shall surely die; his death shall be his own fault.
Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Turn and be converted from all your crimes, that they may be no cause of guilt for you.
Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?
For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, says the Lord GOD. Return and live!
Psalms 51(50):12-13.14-15.18-19.
A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit.
Do not drive me from your presence, nor take from me your holy spirit.
Restore my joy in your salvation; sustain in me a willing spirit.
I will teach the wicked your ways, that sinners may return to you.
For you do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering you would not accept.
My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 19:13-15.
Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them,
but Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
After he placed his hands on them, he went away.
Thus the word of the LORD came to me: Son of man,
what is the meaning of this proverb that you recite in the land of Israel: "Fathers have eaten green grapes, thus their children's teeth are on edge"?
As I live, says the Lord GOD: I swear that there shall no longer be anyone among you who will repeat this proverb in Israel.
For all lives are mine; the life of the father is like the life of the son, both are mine; only the one who sins shall die.
If a man is virtuous--if he does what is right and just,
if he does not eat on the mountains, nor raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel; if he does not defile his neighbor's wife, nor have relations with a woman in her menstrual period;
if he oppresses no one, gives back the pledge received for a debt, commits no robbery; if he gives food to the hungry and clothes the naked;
if he does not lend at interest nor exact usury; if he holds off from evildoing, judges fairly between a man and his opponent;
if he lives by my statutes and is careful to observe my ordinances, that man is virtuous--he shall surely live, says the Lord GOD.
But if he begets a son who is a thief, a murderer, or who does any of these things
lends at interest and exacts usury--this son certainly shall not live. Because he practiced all these abominations, he shall surely die; his death shall be his own fault.
Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Turn and be converted from all your crimes, that they may be no cause of guilt for you.
Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?
For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, says the Lord GOD. Return and live!
Psalms 51(50):12-13.14-15.18-19.
A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit.
Do not drive me from your presence, nor take from me your holy spirit.
Restore my joy in your salvation; sustain in me a willing spirit.
I will teach the wicked your ways, that sinners may return to you.
For you do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering you would not accept.
My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 19:13-15.
Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them,
but Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
After he placed his hands on them, he went away.
Mt 19,13-15
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [Pope Benedict XVI]
Retreat preached at the Vatican, 1983
«Jesus took a child and placed it by his side and said to them: 'Whoever receives this child in my name, receives me' » (Lk 9,47-48)
We should remember that Jesus' essential attribute and the one that most calls forth his dignity is that of 'Son'... His life's orientation, the purpose for which he came and the end that gave them shape are expressed in a single word: «Abba, beloved Father». Jesus knew he was never alone and, right up to his final cry on the cross, he obeyed him whom he called Father, submitting his whole being to him. It is this alone that allows us to explain why he refused at the last to call himself king or lord or attribute to himself any other title of power but had recourse to a word that we might well translate as 'child'.
Thus we could say what follows: if, in Jesus' preaching, childhood occupies such an extraordinarily significant place, it is because it corresponds the most profoundly to the mystery that was most personal to him, to his sonship. His highest dignity, that which refers us back to his divinity, does not consist in the end in any power he might have disposed of but was founded on his being orientated towards the other: God, the Father. The German exegete, Joachim Jeremias, has well said that to be a child in Jesus' sense means to learn to say «Father».
Thus we could say what follows: if, in Jesus' preaching, childhood occupies such an extraordinarily significant place, it is because it corresponds the most profoundly to the mystery that was most personal to him, to his sonship. His highest dignity, that which refers us back to his divinity, does not consist in the end in any power he might have disposed of but was founded on his being orientated towards the other: God, the Father. The German exegete, Joachim Jeremias, has well said that to be a child in Jesus' sense means to learn to say «Father».
St Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr (1894-1941
St. Maximilian KolbePriest and Martyr(1894-1941)
Raymond Kolbe was born on the 8th of January 1894 in Zdunska Wola, which at that time was occupied by Russia. The Kolbe home was poor but full of love. The parents, hardworking and religious, educated their three sons with rectitude.
Around 1906, an event took place that marks a fundamental milestone in the life of the young boy. His mother herself related the event a few months after her son's martyrdom.
"I knew ahead of time, based on an extraordinary event that took place in his infancy, that Maximilian would die a martyr. I just don't recall if it took place before or after his first confession. Once I did not like one of his pranks and I reproached him for it: 'My son, what ever will become of you?!' Later, I did not think of it again, but I noticed that the boy had changed so radically, he was hardly recognizable. We had a small altar hidden between two dressers before which he used to often retire without being noticed and he would pray there crying. In general, he had a conduct superior to his age, always recollected and serious and when he prayed he would burst into tears. I was worried, thinking he had some sort of illness so I asked him: 'Is there anything wrong? You should share everything with your mommy!' Trembling with emotion and with his eyes flooded in tears, he shared: 'Mama, when you reproached me, I pleaded with the Blessed Mother to tell me what would become of me. At Church I did the same; I prayed the same thing again. So then the Blessed Mother appeared to me holding in her hands two crowns: one white the other red. She looked at me with tenderness and asked me if I wanted these two crowns. The white one signified that I would preserve my purity and the red that I would be a martyr. I answered that I accepted them...(both of them). Then the Virgin Mary looked at me with sweetness and disappeared.' The extraordinary change in the boys' behavior testified to me the truth of what he related. He was fully conscious and as he spoke to me, with his face radiating; it showed me his desire to die a martyr."
When he was 13 years old he entered the Franciscan Fathers Seminary in the polish city of Lvov, which was at that time occupied by Austria. It was in the seminary where he adopted the name Maximilian. He completed his studies in Rome . Before his ordination as a priest in 1918, Maximilian founded the Immaculata Movement devoted to our Lady. He spread the movement through a magazine entitled "The Knight of the Immaculata". "We should conquer the universe and each soul, now and in the future until the end of time, for the Immaculata and through her for the Sacred Heart of Jesus." (St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, The Knight of the Immaculata)
Maximilian went to Japan and then on to India where he furthered the Movement. After a few years in Japan, St. Maximilian was summoned back to Poland, largely due to his ever-declining health.
Three years later, in the midst of the Second World War, he was imprisoned along with other friars and sent to concentration camps in Germany and Poland. In February of 1941 he was again made a prisoner and sent to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where in spite of the terrible living conditions he continued his ministry.
On July 31, 1941, in reprisal for one prisoner's escape, ten men were chosen to die. Father Kolbe offered himself in place of a young husband and father. And he was the last to die, enduring two weeks of starvation, thirst, and neglect. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982 as a Martyr of Charity.
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