DAILY GOSPEL: 24/11/2010
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Revelation 15:1-4.
Then I saw in heaven another sign, great and awe-inspiring: seven angels with the seven last plagues, for through them God's fury is accomplished.
Then I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire. On the sea of glass were standing those who had won the victory over the beast and its image and the number that signified its name. They were holding God's harps,
and they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: "Great and wonderful are your works, Lord God almighty. Just and true are your ways, O king of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord, or glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."
Psalms 98:1.2-3.7-8.9.
Sing a new song to the LORD, who has done marvelous deeds, Whose right hand and holy arm have won the victory.
The LORD has made his victory known; has revealed his triumph for the nations to see,
Has remembered faithful love toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.
Let the sea and what fills it resound, the world and those who dwell there.
Let the rivers clap their hands, the mountains shout with them for joy,
Before the LORD who comes, who comes to govern the earth, To govern the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 21:12-19.
Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name.
It will lead to your giving testimony.
Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,
for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.
You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
By your perseverance you will secure your lives.
Then I saw in heaven another sign, great and awe-inspiring: seven angels with the seven last plagues, for through them God's fury is accomplished.
Then I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire. On the sea of glass were standing those who had won the victory over the beast and its image and the number that signified its name. They were holding God's harps,
and they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: "Great and wonderful are your works, Lord God almighty. Just and true are your ways, O king of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord, or glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."
Psalms 98:1.2-3.7-8.9.
Sing a new song to the LORD, who has done marvelous deeds, Whose right hand and holy arm have won the victory.
The LORD has made his victory known; has revealed his triumph for the nations to see,
Has remembered faithful love toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.
Let the sea and what fills it resound, the world and those who dwell there.
Let the rivers clap their hands, the mountains shout with them for joy,
Before the LORD who comes, who comes to govern the earth, To govern the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 21:12-19.
Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name.
It will lead to your giving testimony.
Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,
for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.
You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
By your perseverance you will secure your lives.
Lc 21,12-19
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 306
"By your perseverance you will secure your lives"
Do you want to come to that life where you will be sheltered from error forever? Who does not want this?... We all desire life and truth but how are we to attain it? What path are we to follow? Certainly, we have not reached the end of the journey yet we can already see it..., we yearn for life and truth. Christ is both one and the other. What is the way to it? «I am the way,» he says. To what will we come? «I am the truth and the life» (Jn 14,6).
This is what the martyrs loved; this is why they looked beyond the love of present goods that pass away. Don't be astonished at their bravery: in them love overcame suffering... Let us walk in their footsteps, our eyes fixed on him who is both their Leader and ours. If we would come to so great a happiness, let us not be afraid of treading difficult paths. He who has promised is true; he is faithful; he could not deceive us... Why fear the hard road of suffering and tribulation? Our Savior in person has trodden it.
You answer: «But that was him, the Savior!» Know that the apostles passed that way too. Now you're going to say: «But they were apostles!» Yes, I know. But don't forget that a great many people like yourself have trodden it in their turn..., women have trodden it, too... children, even young girls have gone that way. How could the road that so many passers-by have levelled still be too hard?
This is what the martyrs loved; this is why they looked beyond the love of present goods that pass away. Don't be astonished at their bravery: in them love overcame suffering... Let us walk in their footsteps, our eyes fixed on him who is both their Leader and ours. If we would come to so great a happiness, let us not be afraid of treading difficult paths. He who has promised is true; he is faithful; he could not deceive us... Why fear the hard road of suffering and tribulation? Our Savior in person has trodden it.
You answer: «But that was him, the Savior!» Know that the apostles passed that way too. Now you're going to say: «But they were apostles!» Yes, I know. But don't forget that a great many people like yourself have trodden it in their turn..., women have trodden it, too... children, even young girls have gone that way. How could the road that so many passers-by have levelled still be too hard?
St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions, martyrs (1745-1862) - Memorial
SAINTS ANDREW DUNG-LAC
Priest,
AND HIS COMPANIONS
(18th and 19th centuries)
Priest,
AND HIS COMPANIONS
(18th and 19th centuries)
This feast day celebrates all of the martyrs of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (1745-1862) who shed their blood in the remote Far East, particularly in Vietnam. Many of the martyrs were priests of the Dominican order. Others belonged to the Paris Society for Foreign Missions, while still others, including Andrew Dung-Lac, were Vietnamese.
Paul Le-Bao-Tinh, a Vietnamese seminarian, wrote in a letter of 1843, shortly before his martyrdom:
"I, Paul, chained for the name of Christ, wish to tell you the tribulations in which I am immersed every day, so that you, inflamed with love for God, may also lift up your praise to God, 'for his mercy endures forever'. This prison is truly the image of the eternal Hell: to the cruelest tortures of all types, such as fetters, iron chains and bonds, are added hate, vindictiveness, calumny, indecent words, interrogations, bad acts, unjust oaths, curses and finally difficulties and sorrow. But God, who once freed the three boys from the path of the flames, is always with me and has freed me from these tribulations and converted them into sweetness, 'for his mercy endures forever....
Assist me with your prayers so that I may struggle according to the law, and indeed 'fight the good fight' and that I may be worthy to fight until the end, finishing my course happily; if we do not see each other again in this life, in the future age, nonetheless, this will be our joy, when standing before the throne of the spotless Lamb, with one voice we sing his praises, exulting in the joy of eternal victory. Amen."
Paul Le-Bao-Tinh, a Vietnamese seminarian, wrote in a letter of 1843, shortly before his martyrdom:
"I, Paul, chained for the name of Christ, wish to tell you the tribulations in which I am immersed every day, so that you, inflamed with love for God, may also lift up your praise to God, 'for his mercy endures forever'. This prison is truly the image of the eternal Hell: to the cruelest tortures of all types, such as fetters, iron chains and bonds, are added hate, vindictiveness, calumny, indecent words, interrogations, bad acts, unjust oaths, curses and finally difficulties and sorrow. But God, who once freed the three boys from the path of the flames, is always with me and has freed me from these tribulations and converted them into sweetness, 'for his mercy endures forever....
Assist me with your prayers so that I may struggle according to the law, and indeed 'fight the good fight' and that I may be worthy to fight until the end, finishing my course happily; if we do not see each other again in this life, in the future age, nonetheless, this will be our joy, when standing before the throne of the spotless Lamb, with one voice we sing his praises, exulting in the joy of eternal victory. Amen."
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario