DAILY GOSPEL:02/03/2011
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Wednesday of the Eighth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Sirach 36:1.4-5.10-17.
Come to our aid, O God of the universe, look upon us, show us the light of your mercies, and put all the nations in dread of you!
Thus they will know, as we know, that there is no God but you.
Give new signs and work new wonders; show forth the splendor of your right hand and arm;
Gather all the tribes of Jacob, that they may inherit the land as of old,
Show mercy to the people called by your name; Israel, whom you named your first-born.
Take pity on your holy city, Jerusalem, your dwelling place.
Fill Zion with your majesty, your temple with your glory.
Give evidence of your deeds of old; fulfill the prophecies spoken in your name,
Reward those who have hoped in you, and let your prophets be proved true.
Hear the prayer of your servants, for you are ever gracious to your people;
Thus it will be known to the very ends of the earth that you are the eternal God.
Psalms 79:8.9.11.13.
Do not hold past iniquities against us; may your compassion come quickly, for we have been brought very low.
Help us, God our savior, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, pardon our sins for your name's sake.
Let the groans of prisoners come before you; by your great power free those doomed to death.
Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; through all ages we will declare your praise.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10:32-45.
They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles
who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise."
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
He replied, "What do you wish (me) to do for you?"
They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared."
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Come to our aid, O God of the universe, look upon us, show us the light of your mercies, and put all the nations in dread of you!
Thus they will know, as we know, that there is no God but you.
Give new signs and work new wonders; show forth the splendor of your right hand and arm;
Gather all the tribes of Jacob, that they may inherit the land as of old,
Show mercy to the people called by your name; Israel, whom you named your first-born.
Take pity on your holy city, Jerusalem, your dwelling place.
Fill Zion with your majesty, your temple with your glory.
Give evidence of your deeds of old; fulfill the prophecies spoken in your name,
Reward those who have hoped in you, and let your prophets be proved true.
Hear the prayer of your servants, for you are ever gracious to your people;
Thus it will be known to the very ends of the earth that you are the eternal God.
Psalms 79:8.9.11.13.
Do not hold past iniquities against us; may your compassion come quickly, for we have been brought very low.
Help us, God our savior, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, pardon our sins for your name's sake.
Let the groans of prisoners come before you; by your great power free those doomed to death.
Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; through all ages we will declare your praise.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10:32-45.
They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles
who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise."
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
He replied, "What do you wish (me) to do for you?"
They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared."
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Mc 10,32-45
Saint Ephrem (c.306-373), Deacon in Syria, Doctor of the Church
Commentary on the Diatessaron, 20, 2-7 (cf. SC 121, p. 344f.)
"The Son of Man came... to give his life"
«If it is possible, let this cup pass from me» (Mt 26,39). Why did you rebuke Simon Peter when he said: «No such thing shall ever happen to you, Lord!» (Mt 16,22) when you yourself now say: «If it is possible, let this cup pass from me»? He well knew what he was saying to his Father and that it was indeed possible for the cup to pass from him, but he had come to drink it on behalf of all that with this cup he might pay the debt that the deaths of prophets and martyrs could not pay... He who had described his being put to death in the prophets and had foreshadowed the mystery of his death through the just, did not refuse to drink it when the time had come to bring this death to fulfilment. If he had not wanted to drink it but to push it aside he would not have compared his body to the Temple in the words: «Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up» (Jn 2,19), nor would he have said to the sons of Zebedee: «Are you able to drink the cup that I shall drink?» and again: «There is a baptism with which I must be baptized» (Lk 12,50)...
«If it is possible, let this cup pass from me.» He said this because of the frailty he had put on, not in semblance but in reality. Because he had made himself small and had truly put on our weakness it was necessary for him to be afraid and shaken by his weakness. Having taken flesh, having put on weakness, eating when he was hungry, worn out by work, overcome by sleep, everything arising from the flesh had to happen when the time came for his death...
To comfort his disciples by his Passion Jesus felt what they felt. He took their fear on himself to show them, through his own likeness of soul, that we should not boast about death before we have undergone it. For if he who feared nothing was afraid and begged to be delivered even while knowing it to be impossible, how much more ought not the others to persevere in prayer before the temptation so as to be delivered from it when it came... He did not conceal his own fear so as to give courage to those who are afraid of death, that they might know that this fear does not lead to sin so long as they do not remain in it. «No, Father,» Jesus said, «but may your will be done»: may I die to give life to many.
«If it is possible, let this cup pass from me.» He said this because of the frailty he had put on, not in semblance but in reality. Because he had made himself small and had truly put on our weakness it was necessary for him to be afraid and shaken by his weakness. Having taken flesh, having put on weakness, eating when he was hungry, worn out by work, overcome by sleep, everything arising from the flesh had to happen when the time came for his death...
To comfort his disciples by his Passion Jesus felt what they felt. He took their fear on himself to show them, through his own likeness of soul, that we should not boast about death before we have undergone it. For if he who feared nothing was afraid and begged to be delivered even while knowing it to be impossible, how much more ought not the others to persevere in prayer before the temptation so as to be delivered from it when it came... He did not conceal his own fear so as to give courage to those who are afraid of death, that they might know that this fear does not lead to sin so long as they do not remain in it. «No, Father,» Jesus said, «but may your will be done»: may I die to give life to many.
 St. Simplicius, Pope (+ 483)SAINT SIMPLICIUS Pope (+ 483) Saint Simplicius was the ornament of the Roman clergy under Sts. Leo and Hilarius, and succeeded the latter in the pontificate in 468. He was raised by God to corn fort and support his Church amidst the greatest storms. All the provinces of the Western Empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the hands of barbarians. The emperors for many years were rather shadows of power than sovereigns, and, in the eighth year of the pontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners. Italy, by oppressions and the ravages of barbarians, was left almost a desert without inhabitants; and the imperial armies consisted chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of auxiliaries. These soon saw that their masters were in their power. The Heruli demanded one third of the lands of Italy, and upon refusal chose for their leader Odoacer, one of the lowest extraction, but a resolute and intrepid man, who was proclaimed king of Rome in 476. He put to death Orestes, who was regent of the empire for his son Augustulus, whom the senate had advanced to the imperial throne. Odoacer spared the life of Augustulus, appointed him a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and permitted him to live at full liberty near Naples. Pope Simplicius was wholly taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, and in sowing the seeds of the Catholic faith among the barbarians. The East gave his zeal no less employment and concern. Peter Cnapheus, a violent Eutychian, was made by the heretics Patriarch of Antioch; and Peter Mengus, one of the most profligate men, that of Alexandria. Acacius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, received the sentence of St. Simplicius against Cnapheus, but supported Mongus against him and the Catholic Church, and was a notorious changeling, double-dealer, and artful hypocrite, who often made religion serve his own private ends. St. Simplicius at length discovered his artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the holy faith, which he saw betrayed on every side, whilst the patriarchal sees of Alexandria and Antioch were occupied by furious wolves, and there was not one Catholic king in the whole world. The emperor measured everything by his passions and human views. St. Simplicius, having sat fifteen years, eleven months, and six days, went to receive the reward of his labors in 483. He was buried in St. Peter's on the 2d of March. | |
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