DAILY READING and REFLECTIONS For Friday, September 12, 2014 23rd Week in Ordinary Time - Psalter 3 (White) Feast of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Priest Readings: 1 Cor 10;14-22; Ps 116:12-18; Lk 6:43-49 Response: I will offer a sacrifice of praise. Rosary: Joyful Mysteries Verse Highlight: There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. SAINT OF THE DAY: Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Priest Birth: 344 - Death: 407 St. John, named Chrysostom (golden-mouthed) on account of his eloquence, came into the world of Christian parents, about the year 344, in the city of Antioch. His mother, at the age of 20, was a model of virtue. He studied rhetoric under Libanius, a pagan, the most famous orator of the age. In 374, he began to lead the life of an anchorite in the mountains near Antioch, but in 386 the poor state of his health forced him to return to Antioch, where he was ordained a priest. In 398, he was elevated to the See of Constantinople and became one of the greatest lights of the Church. But he had enemies in high places and some were ecclesiastics, not the least being Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, who repented of this before he died. His most powerful enemy, however, was the empress Eudoxia, who was offended by the apostolic freedom of his discourses. Several accusations were brought against him in a pseudo-council, and he was sent into exile. In the midst of his sufferings, like the apostle, St. Paul, whom he so greatly admired, he found the greatest peace and happiness. He had the consolation of knowing that the Pope remained his friend, and did for him what lay in his power. His enemies were not satisfied with the sufferings he had already endured, and they banished him still further, to Pythius, at the very extremity of the Empire. He died on his way there on September 14, 407. READINGS FROM THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE: READING 1, First Corinthians 10:14-22 14 For that reason, my dear friends, have nothing to do with the worship of false gods. 15 I am talking to you as sensible people; weigh up for yourselves what I have to say. 16 The blessing-cup, which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ; and the loaf of bread which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 And as there is one loaf, so we, although there are many of us, are one single body, for we all share in the one loaf. 18 Now compare the natural people of Israel: is it not true that those who eat the sacrifices share the altar? 19 What does this mean? That the dedication of food to false gods amounts to anything? Or that false gods themselves amount to anything? 20 No, it does not; simply that when pagans sacrifice, what is sacrificed by them is sacrificed to demons who are not God. I do not want you to share with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons as well; you cannot have a share at the Lords table and the demons table as well. 22 Do we really want to arouse the Lords jealousy; are we stronger than he is? RESPONSORIAL PSALM, Psalms 116:12-13, 17-18 12 What return can I make to Yahweh for his generosity to me? 13 I shall take up the cup of salvation and call on the name of Yahweh. 17 I shall offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of Yahweh. 18 I shall fulfil my vows to Yahweh, witnessed by all his people, GOSPEL, Luke 6:43-49 43 There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. 44 Every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. 45 Good people draw what is good from the store of goodness in their hearts; bad people draw what is bad from the store of badness. For the words of the mouth flow out of what fills the heart. 46 Why do you call me, Lord, Lord and not do what I say? 47 Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and acts on them -- I will show you what such a person is like. 48 Such a person is like the man who, when he built a house, dug, and dug deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. 49 But someone who listens and does nothing is like the man who built a house on soil, with no foundations; as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became! REFLECTIONS: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God) OPENING PRAYER: God our Father, you redeem us and make us your children in Christ. Look upon us, give us true freedom and bring us to the inheritance you promised. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ON READING 1: 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 (Idolatry and the Eucharist, Incompatible) After illustrating the general principles by reference to what he himself does and the lessons of the history of Israel (cf. note on chaps. 8-10), St. Paul returns to the subject of food sacrificed to idols. Christians may not attend the banquets which take place at pagan shrines, for that would amount to idolatry. By eating the meat of animals offered to Yahweh, Jews participated in the sacrifice and worship in his honor; and, by receiving the body and blood of the Lord, Christians unite themselves to Christ; similarly, those who take part in idolatrous banquets are associating themselves not with false gods -- which have no existence -- but with demons. In the Old Testament it is pointed out that things sacrificed to idols are in fact being offered to demons, who are enemies of the worship of God (cf. Deut 32:17; Ps 106: 36-38; Bar 4:7). St. Pauls words confirm basic truths of faith connected with the sublime mystery of the Eucharist -- its sacrificial character, adverted to here by drawing a parallel between it and pagan sacrifices (cf. v. 21; Council of Trent, De SS. Missae Sacrificio, chap. 1), and the real presence of Christ, as can be seen by the reference to the body and blood of Christ (v. 16). The Churchs faith has always maintained that the holy sacrifice of the Mass is the renewal of the divine sacrifice of Calvary; in every Mass Christ once again offers God the Father His body and blood, as a sacrifice for all men, with the difference that what was offered on the cross in a bloody manner is offered on the altar in an unbloody manner. In the divine sacrifice that is offered in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is present and is offered in an unbloody manner (cf. Heb 9: 27). For it is one and the same victim -- He who now makes the offering through the ministry of priests and He who then offered Himself on the cross; the only difference is in the manner of the offering (De SS. Missae Sacrificio, chap. 2). The Eucharist is above all a sacrifice -- the sacrifice of Redemption and at the same time the sacrifice of the New Covenant (Bl. John Paul II, Letter To All Bishops, 24 February 1980). See also the notes on Mt 26:26-29 and par. The principal effect of the Blessed Eucharist is intimate union with Jesus. The very name communion -- taken from this passage of St Paul (cf. St Pius V Catechism, II, 4, 4) -- points to becoming one with our Lord by receiving his body and blood. What in fact is the bread? The body of Christ. What do they become who receive Communion? The body of Christ (Chrysostom, Hom. on 1 Cor, 24, ad loc.). St. Augustine places these words on Jesus lips to describe what happens at Holy Communion: You will not change me into you as happens with bodily food; rather, you will be changed into me (Confessions, VII, 10, 16). Due to this intimate union with Christ, the Eucharist is at one and the same time the sacrament where the entire Church demonstrates and achieves its unity, and where a very special kind of solidarity is developed among Christians. That is why it is called a symbol of unity and a bond of love; (Council of Trent, De SS. Eucharistia, chap. 8 ; cf. Lumen Gentium, 7; Unitatis Redintegratio, 2). The Fathers of the Church have seen a symbol of this union in the very materials -- bread and wine -- used to make the Eucharist. The St. Pius V Catechism sums up this as follows: the body of Christ, which is one, consists of many members (cf. Rom 12:4-5; 1 Cor 10:17; 12:12), and of this union nothing is more strikingly illustrative than the elements of bread and wine; for bread is made from many grains and wine is pressed from many clusters of grapes. Thus they signify that we, though many, are most closely bound together by the bond of the divine mystery and made, as it were, one body (II, 4,18 ). We who are many ...: the literal translation would be We the many .... The text derives from a Hebrew expression indicating plurality or even totality as distinct from a single entity or a minority; the RSV catches this idea. The same turn of phrase is found, for example, in Mt 20:28 ; Mk 10:45; Is 53:11. ON THE GOSPEL: Luke 6:43-49 (Integrity - Continued) In today’s Gospel we have the last part of the Discourse of the Plains that is, the version which Luke presents in the Sermon on the Mountain of the Gospel of Matthew. And Luke puts together what follows: Luke 6, 43-45: The parable of the tree that bears good fruit. “There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. Every tree can be known by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, or gather grapes from brambles”. To distinguish the good tree from the bad tree we need to look at the fruit the tree produces (deeds) and not at its foliage (words). For there is no lack of people here on earth who, on being approached, turn out to be nothing but large, shiny, glossy leaves. Foliage, just foliage and nothing more. Meanwhile, many souls are looking at us hoping to satisfy their hunger, which is a hunger for God. We must not forget that we have all the resources we need. We have sufficient doctrine and the grace of God, in spite of our wretchedness (St. J. Escriva, Friends of God, 51). Jesus is giving us two similes--that of the tree which, if it is not good, produces good fruit, and that of the man, who speaks of those things he has in his heart. The treasure of the heart is the same as the root of the tree, St Bede explains. A person who has a treasure of patience and of perfect charity in his heart yields excellent fruit; he loves his neighbor and has all the other qualities Jesus teaches; he loves his enemies, does good to him who hates him, blesses him who curses him, prays for him who calumniates him, does not react against him who attacks him or robs him; he gives to those who ask, does not claim what they have stolen from him, wishes not to judge and does not condemn, corrects patiently and affectionately those who err. But the person who has in his heart the treasure of evil does exactly the opposite: he hates his friends, speaks evil of him who loves him and does all the other things condemned by the Lord (In Lucae Evangelium Expositio, II, 6). The letter of James the Apostle serves as a comment to this parable of Jesus: “Does any water supply give a flow of fresh water and salt water out of the same pipe? Can a fig tree yield olives, my brothers, or a vine yield figs? No more can sea water yield fresh water” (James 3, 11-12). A person who is well formed in the tradition of living together in community develops within self a good nature which leads him/her to do good. “The good of the treasure of his/her heart is brought out”, but the person who does not pay attention to his/her formation will have difficulty in producing good deeds. Rather, “from his/her evil treasure evil will come out evil, because the mouth speaks of the fullness of the heart”. Concerning the “good treasure of the heart” it is worthwhile to remember what the Book of Ecclesiasticus’ says on the heart, the source of good counsel: “Stick to the advice your own heart gives you, no one can be truer to you than that; since a person’s soul often gives a clearer warning than seven watchmen perched on a watchtower. And besides all this beg the Most High to guide your steps into the truth” (Si 37, 13-15). Luke 6, 46: It is not sufficient to say, Lord, Lord. What is important is not to say beautiful things about God, but rather to do the will of the Father and in this way be a revelation of his face and of his presence in the world. Jesus asks us to act in a way consistent with being Christians and not to make any separation between the faith we profess and the way we live: What matters is not whether or not we wear a religious habit; it is whether we try to practice the virtues and surrender our will to God and order our lives as His Ma- jesty ordains, and not want to do our will but his (St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, II, 6). Luke 6, 47-49: To construct the house on rock. To listen and to put into practice, this is the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mountain. Many people sought security and religious power in the extraordinary heads (gifts) or in the observance. But true security does not come from power; it does not come from any of those things. It comes from God! And God becomes the source of security, when we seek to do his will. And in this way he will be the rock which will support us, in the difficult hours and in the storms. God is the rock of our life. In the Book of Psalms, we frequently find the expression: “God is my rock, my fortress... My God, my Rock, my refuge, my shield, the force which saves me...” (Ps 18, 3). He is the defence and the force of those who believe in him and who seek justice (Ps 18, 21-24). The persons, who trust in this God, become, in turn, a rock for others. Thus the prophet Isaiah invites the people who were in exile: “Listen to me, you who pursue saving justice, you who seek Yahweh. Consider the rock from which you were hewn, the quarry from which you were dug. Consider Abraham your father and Sarah who gave you birth” (Is 51, 1-2). The prophet asks the people not to forget the past and to remember Abraham and Sarah who because of their faith in God became a rock, the beginning of the People of God. Looking toward this rock, the people should draw courage to fight and get out of the exile. And thus Matthew exhorts the communities to have as an incentive or encouragement this same rock (Mt 7, 24-25) and in this way be themselves rocks to strengthen their brothers in the faith. This is also the significance which Jesus gives to Peter: “You are Peter and on this Rock I will build my Church” (Mt 16, 18). This is the vocation of the first communities called to unite themselves to Jesus, the living Rock, so as to become themselves living rocks, listening and putting into practice the Word (P 2, 4-10; 2, 5; Ep 2,19-22). FINAL PRAYERS: Lord, you created my inmost self, knit me together in my mother’s womb. For so many marvels I thank you; a wonder am I, and all your works are wonders. (Ps 139,13-14) May I always remember, Lord, that an “eye for an eye” and a “tooth for a tooth” leaves everyone eyeless and toothless. It is so hard to forgive those who have hurt me and my loved ones; yet, I know that your mercy knows no bounds and your forgiveness is offered freely to all. May I be your ambassador of mercy this day. Amen. It is by God’s mercy that we are saved. May we never tire of spreading this joyful message to the world. -- Pope Francis Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. -- St. Jerome The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever in everlasting silence; and in silence the soul has to hear it. -- St. John of the Cross
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 08:10:49 +0000
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