Jesus gives himself wholly : he gives his own self to eat

DAILY GOSPEL: 22/01/2011

«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68

Saturday of the Second week in Ordinary Time

Letter to the Hebrews 9:2-3.11-14.
For a tabernacle was constructed, the outer one, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of offering; this is called the Holy Place.
Behind the second veil was the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies,
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation,
he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

Psalms 47(46):2-3.6-7.8-9.
All you peoples, clap your hands; shout to God with joyful cries.
For the LORD, the Most High, inspires awe, the great king overall the earth,
God mounts the throne amid shouts of joy; the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise; sing praise to our king, sing praise.
God is king over all the earth; sing hymns of praise.
God rules over the nations; God sits upon his holy throne.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 3:20-21.
He came home. Again (the) crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." 

 Mc 3,20-21

Commentary of the day 
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Dominican theologian, Doctor of the Church
Opuscule for the Feast of Corpus Christi (trans. Breviary)

Jesus gives himself wholly : he gives his own self to eat

The only-begotten Son of God, wishing to enable us to share in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, he turned the whole of our nature, which he assumed, to our salvation. For he offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation; and he shed his blood for our ransom and our cleansing, so that we might be redeemed from wretched captivity and cleansed from all sins.

Now in order that we might always keep the memory of his great act of love, he left his body as food and his blood as drink, to be received by the faithful under the appearances of bread and wine... What could be more precious than this banquet? It is not the meat of calves or kids that is offered, as happened under the Old Law; at this meal Christ, the true God, is set before us for us to eat. What could be more wonderful than this sacrament?...  No one is capable of expressing the delight of this sacrament, through which the sweetness of the Spirit is tasted at its source, and the memory is celebrated of that surpassing love which Christ showed in his Passion.

And so, in order to imprint the immensity of this love more deeply in the hearts of the faithful, at the Last Supper, when the Lord had celebrated the Pasch with his disciples and was about to pass from this world to his Father, he instituted this sacrament as a perpetual memorial of his Passion. It fulfilled the types of the Old Law; it was the greatest of the miracles he worked; and he left it as a unique consolation to those who were desolate at his departure. 

Saturday, 22 January 2011 St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr (+ 304) SAINT VINCENT Deacon and Martyr (+ 304)         St. Vincent was archdeacon of the church at Saragossa. Valerian, the bishop, had an impediment in his speech; thus Vincent preached in his stead, and answered in his name when both were brought before Dacian, the president, during the persecution of Diocletian. When the bishop was sent into banishment, Vincent remained to suffer and to die.         First of all, he was stretched on the rack; and, when he was almost torn asunder, Dacian, the president, asked him in mockery "how he fared now." Vincent answered, with joy in his face that he had ever prayed to be as he was then. It was in vain that Dacian struck the executioners and goaded them on in their savage work. The martyr's flesh was torn with hooks; he was bound in a chair of red-hot iron; lard and salt were rubbed into his wounds; and amid all this he kept his eyes raised to heaven, and remained unmoved.         He was cast into a solitary dungeon, with his feet in the stocks; but the angels of Christ illuminated the darkness, and assured Vincent that he was near his triumph. His wounds were now tended to prepare him for fresh torments, and the faithful were permitted to gaze on his mangled body. They came in troops, kissed the open sores, and carried away as relics cloths dipped in his blood.         Before the tortures could recommence, the martyr's hour came, and he breathed forth his soul in peace.         Even the dead bodies of the saints are precious in the sight of God, and the hand of iniquity cannot touch them, A raven guarded the body of Vincent where it lay flung upon the earth. When it was sunk out at sea the waves cast it ashore; and his relics are preserved to this day in the Augustinian monastery at Lisbon, for the consolation of the Church of Christ. Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]