Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time



“He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:21)

Saint John Chrysostom comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed during today’s Mass:

“Can you hear the intense displeasure in His voice? For nowhere else does He appear to have rebuked them so strongly. Why now? In order to cast out their prejudices about clean foods. For not everywhere is permissiveness a good thing. As He earlier had allowed them to speak freely, now He reproves them. He even reminds them of the specific numbers of loaves and of persons fed, both to bring them to recall the past, and to make them more attentive to the future.” (Gospel of Saint Matthew, Homily 53)



O God,
Who teach us that You abide
in hearts that are just and true,
grant that we may be so fashioned by Your grace
as to become a dwelling pleasing to You.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.


Collect from optional Mass for today:
Votive Masses,
5. The Most Holy Eucharist

O God,
Who have accomplished the work of human redemption
through the Paschal mystery of Your only Begotten Son,
graciously grant that we, who confidently proclaim,
under sacramental signs, the Death and Resurrection of Christ,
may experience continued increase of Your saving grace.
Through our lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.


Glory to You Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia!





We know the Father through creative and incarnate Wisdom



Saint Athanasius of Alexandria
Bishop and Great Easter Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Oration 2 Against the Arians

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

The only-begotten Son, the Wisdom of God, created the entire universe. Scripture says: You have made all things by your wisdom, and the earth is full of you creatures. Yet simply to be was not enough: God also wanted his creatures to be good. That is why he was pleased that his own wisdom should descend to their level and impress upon each of them singly and upon all of them together a certain resemblance to their Model. It would then be manifest that God’s creatures shared in his wisdom and that his works were worthy of him.

For as the word we speak is an image of the Word who is God’s Son, so also is the wisdom implanted in us an image of the Wisdom who is God’s Son. It gives us the ability to know and understand and so makes us capable of receiving him who is the all-creative Wisdom, through whom we can come to know the Father. Whoever has the Son has the Father also, Scripture says, and Whoever receives me receives the One who sent me. And so, since this image of the Wisdom of God has been produced in us and in all creatures, the true and creative Wisdom rightly takes to himself what applies to his image and says: The Lord created me in his works.

But because the world was not wise enough to recognize God in his wisdom, as we have explained it, God determined to save those who believe by means of the “foolish” message that we preach. Not wishing to be known any longer, as in former times, through the mere image and shadow of his wisdom existing in creatures, he caused the true Wisdom himself to take flesh, to become man, and to suffer death on the cross so that all who believed in him might be saved by faith.

Yet this was the same Wisdom of God who had in the beginning revealed himself and his Father through himself by means of his image in creatures (which is why Wisdom too is said to be created). Later, as John declares, that Wisdom, who is also the Word, became flesh, and after destroying the power of death and saving our race, he revealed himself and his Father through himself with greater clarity. Grant, he prayed, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

So now the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God, since it is one and the same thing to know the Father through the Son, and to know the Son who comes from the Father. The Father rejoices in his Son, and with the same joy the Son delights in the Father and says: I was his joy: every day I took delight in his presence.



Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 






Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time



“He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.” (Mark 8:12-13)

Saint John Chrysostom comments on these verses from the Gospel proclaimed during today’s Mass:

“But for what sign from heaven were they asking? Maybe that he should hold back the sun, or curb the moon, or bring down thunderbolts, or change the direction of the wind, or something like that? In Pharaoh’s time there was an enemy from whom deliverance was needed. But for one who comes among friends, there should be no need of such signs.

No sign more impressed the crowds than the miracles of the loaves. Not only did they want to follow him, but also seemed ready to make him a king. In order to avoid all suspicion of usurping civil authority, he made a speedy exit after this wonderful work. He did not even leave on foot, lest they chase after him, but took off by boat.” (Gospel of Saint Matthew, Homily 53)



Collect
O God,
Who teach us that You abide
in hearts that are just and true,
grant that we may be so fashioned by Your grace
as to become a dwelling pleasing to You.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.




Glory to You
Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia!





On the search for wisdom



Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Abbot and Doctor of the Church

An excerpt from his Sermo de diversis

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Let us work for the food which does not perish—our salvation. Let us work in the vineyard of the Lord to earn our daily wage in the wisdom which says: Those who work in me will not sin. Christ tells us: The field is the world. Let us work in it and dig up wisdom, its hidden treasure, a treasure we all look for and want to obtain.

If you are looking for it, really look. Be converted and come. Converted from what? From your own willfulness. “But,” you may say, “if I do not find wisdom in my own will, where shall I find it? My soul eagerly desires it. And I will not be satisfied when I find it, if it is not a generous amount, a full measure, overflowing into my hands.” You are right, for blessed is the man who finds wisdom and is full of prudence.

Look for wisdom while it can still be found. Call for it while it is near. Do you want to know how near it is? The word is near you, in your heart and on your lips, provided that you seek it honestly. Insofar as you find wisdom in your heart, prudence will flow from your lips, but be careful that it flows from and not away from them, or that you do not vomit it up. If you have found wisdom, you have found honey. But do not eat so much that you become too full and bring it all up. Eat so that you are always hungry. Wisdom says: Those who eat me continue to hunger. Do not think you have too much of it, but do not eat too much or you will throw it up. If you do, what you seem to have will be taken away from you, because you gave up searching too soon. While wisdom is near and while it can be found, look for it and ask for its help. Solomon says: A man who eats too much honey does himself no good; similarly, the man who seeks his own glorification will be crushed by that same renown.

Happy is the man who has found wisdom. Even more happy is the man who lives in wisdom, for he perceives its abundance. There are three ways for wisdom or prudence to abound in you: if you confess your sins, if you give thanks and praise, and if your speech is edifying. Man believes with his heart and so he is justified. He confesses with his lips and so he is saved. In the beginning of his speech the just man is his own accuser, next he gives glory to God and thirdly, if his wisdom extends that far, he edifies his neighbor.




Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

 

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time



“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven...” (Matthew 5:20.)

In commenting on this verse from today’s Gospel Proclamation, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“Jesus speaks of righteousness here as virtue in its fullness. In speaking of Job, Jesus said, “He was a blameless man, righteous.” According to the same meaning of the word, Paul even called that person righteous for whom, as he said, no law is laid down: “For the law is not made for a righteous person.” One might find “righteous” in many other passages rendered as “virtuous in general.”

But I urge you to observe how grace has abounded under the new covenant. Jesus desires to have his prospective disciples considered as greater than the teachers under the old covenant. For by “scribes and Pharisees” here he meant the upright, not the lawbreakers. If they were not acting in a commendable fashion, he would not have spoken of them as righteous. Nor would he have compared the unreal to the real.

Note how Jesus also in this passage commends the old law. He does so by comparing it with the new, a comparison that implies that it is of the same family, so to speak. More or less, it does share many family resemblances. He does not find fault with the old law but in fact makes it more strict. Had it been evil, Jesus would not have accentuated it. Instead, he would have discarded it. If the law is so commendable, how is it not adequate to bring us into the kingdom? After the coming of Christ we are favored with a greater strength than law as such. Those who are adopted as children are bound to strive for greater things.” (The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 16.)




Collect
O God,
Who teach us that You abide
in hearts that are just and true,
grant that we may be so fashioned by Your grace
as to become a dwelling place to You.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.



Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 






God’s word is an inexhaustible spring of life



Saint Ephrem the Syrian
Deacon and Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Commentary on the Diatessaron

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lord, who can comprehend even one of your words. We lose more of it than we grasp, like those who drink from a living spring. For God’s word offers different facets according to the capacity of the listener, and the Lord has portrayed his message in many colors, so that whoever gazes upon it can see in it what suits him. Within it he has buried manifold treasures, so that each of us might grow rich in seeking them out.

The word of God is a tree of life that offers us blessed fruit from each of its branches. It is like that rock which was struck open in the wilderness, from which all were offered spiritual drink. As the Apostle says: They ate spiritual food and they drank spiritual drink.

And so whenever anyone discovers some part of the treasure, he should not think that he has exhausted God’s word. Instead he should feel that this is all that he was able to find of the wealth contained in it. Nor should he say that the word is weak and sterile or look down on it simply because this portion was all that he happened to find. But precisely because he could not capture it all he should give thanks for its riches.

Be glad then that you are overwhelmed, and do not be saddened because he has overcome you. A thirsty man is happy when he is drinking, and he is not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring. So let this spring quench your thirst, and not your thirst the spring. For from it you can satisfy your thirst without exhausting the spring, then when you thirst again you can drink from it once more; but if when your thirst is sated the spring is also dried up, then your victory would turn to your own harm.

Be thankful then for what you have received, and do not be saddened at all that such an abundance still remains. What you have received and attained is your present share, while what is left will be your heritage. For what you could not take at one time because of your weakness, you will be able to grasp at another if you only persevere. So do not foolishly try to drain in one draught what cannot be consumed all at once, and do not cease out of faintheartedness from what you will be able to absorb as time goes on.




Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 






Living the Kingdom of God and
the “greater righteousness”



εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”

“I tell you, unless your righteousness (δικαιοσύνη, dikaiosýnē)
surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:20
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time


θεωρέω (theoreo)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)

Spoiler alert: Jesus’ words this Sunday are particularly challenging and stinging. While there are times in the Public Ministry that Jesus does offer words and teachings that comfort, His Sermon on the Mount continuously challenges disciples to deeper and deeper levels of grafting onto and into His Divine life and love - indeed, His very Person. There is no ‘arrival point’ in living Jesus’ Sermon. There is no finish line, no graduation, no reward and certainly no stopping point. Kingdom living, in the sacred Word proclaimed by Saint Paul, is a “straining forward” - “forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14). This also underscores that Kingdom living is not earned, not self-initiated nor a work that I do on my own. Living as prescribed by Jesus in His Sermon is a gracious response to the One Who loves infinitely and wants nothing more than that love to be received and responded to by a life marked by the “greater righteousness” or “greater justice.”
Initially, a life of “greater righteousness” may seem nebulous and ethereal. To that end, Jesus offers some very concrete and very challenging examples. This Sunday we listen to His approach to anger, adultery and oaths. Known as the Antitheses of the Sermon, Jesus provides them to offer his disciples a practical start to the demands of Kingdom living, but not a sum-total or all inclusive definition of “greater righteousness/justice.” In other words, even if one were to live the summons of all Antitheses perfectly, there would still be more to do in the way of response to living Jesus’ “greater righteousness/justice.” What is this righteousness/justice that believers are call to internalize and act upon? (Given that Lent begins this Wedneday, we will not listen to the remainder of Jesus’ Sermon at Sunday Mass. A great preparation to enter Lent’s time of intense Baptismal preparation and renewal is to prayerfully ponder the rest of chapter 5 as well as 6 and 7 from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew.)

In present usage, we tend to view “righteousness” or “to do justice” as ‘being proved right,’ especially after some ordeal or confrontation. There may even be a hint of revenge or punishment added for good measure that attempts to put oneself in a good way as the person-in-the-right after a contentious argument or hurtful ‘discussion.’ Biblically though, righteousness and justice translate the Hebrew word tsedeq. Tsedeq is part of a family of Hebrew words formed from the Hebrew root word tsadaq. While conveying a legal aspect of ‘being in the clear,’ ‘being not-guilty,’ the root tsadaq fundamentally has to do with ‘right’ in the sense of ‘right-living,’ ‘right or proper order,’ ‘right, just, or proper relationship.’

Tsadaq, especially when it is applied to people throughout the Scriptures, refers often to living in proper relationship: proper relationship with God, with others, with the true self and all of creation. Used extensively by the Fathers of the Church, tsadaq (the Fathers used the Greek translation of tsadaq: dikaios, the same word that appears in the Greek New Testament) expressed the original harmony that radiated from creation. Original Justice is ‘original tsadaq’ declaring, that since all reality flowed from the hand of the Creator, all reality originally was in right-relationship with the Creator; all creation was tsadaq with the Creator. Far from a contemporary usage and understanding of ‘justice,’ biblical righteousness/justice is first and foremost about living life relationally as well as each relationship in its proper place. “Greater righteousness” does not calculate what must be done or avoided but only asks how may I love redemptively and sacrifically because of Jesus Who has loved each of us first.





Memorial of the brothers
Saint Cyril (Monk) and
Saint Methodius (Bishop)



“There were about four thousand people. He dismissed them." (Mark 8:9)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“From the lesser number of men [four thousand], less remains; from the greater number [five thousand], more is left over. Four thousand men—fewer certainly in number, but greater in faith. The one who is greater in faith eats more, and because he does, there is less left over! I wish that we, too, might eat more of the hardy bread of holy writ, so that there would be less left over for us to learn.” (Tractate on the Gospel of Mark, Homily 78)



Collect
O God, Who enlightened the Slavic peoples
through the brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius,
grant that our hearts may grasp the words of Your teaching,
and perfect us as a people of one accord
in true faith and right confession.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.


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Build up your Church and gather all into unity



Saints Cyril and Methodius

An excerpt from an Old Slavonic life of Constantine

Memorial of Saints Cyril, monk, and Methodius, bishop


Constantine, already burdened by many hardships, became ill. At one point during his extended illness, he experienced a vision of God and began to sing this verse: “My spirit rejoiced and my heart exulted because they told me we shall go into the house of the Lord.”

Afterward he remained dressed in the vestments that were to be venerated later, and rejoiced for an entire day saying: “From now on, I am not the servant of the emperor or any man on earth, but of almighty God alone. Before, I was dead, now I am alive and I shall live for ever. Amen.”

The following day, he assumed the monastic habit and took the religious name Cyril. He lived the life of a monk for fifty days.

When the time came for him to set out from this world to the peace of his heavenly homeland, he prayed to God with his hands outstretched and his eyes filled with tears: “O Lord, my God, you have created the choirs of angels and spiritual powers; you have stretched forth the heavens and established the earth, creating all that exists from nothing. You hear those who obey your will and keep your commands in holy fear. Hear my prayer and protect your faithful people, for you have established me as their unsuitable and unworthy servant.

“Keep them free from harm and the worldly cunning of those who blaspheme you. Build up your Church and gather all into unity. Make your people known for the unity and profession of their faith. Inspire the hearts of your people with your word and your teaching. You called us to preach the Gospel of your Christ and to encourage them to lives and works pleasing to you.

“I now return to you, your people, your gift to me. Direct them with your powerful right hand, and protect them under the shadow of your wings. May all praise and glorify your name, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Once he had exchanged the gift of peace with everyone, he said: “Blessed be God, who did not hand us over to our invisible enemy, but freed us from his snare and delivered us from perdition.” He then fell asleep in the Lord at the age of forty-two.

The Patriarch commanded all those in Rome, both the Greeks and Romans, to gather for his funeral. They were to celebrate his funeral as if he had been a pope. This they did.




Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

 

Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time



“... and said to Jeroboam: “Take ten pieces for yourself. Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and will give you ten of the tribes.” (1 Kings 11:31.)

Saint Cyprian of Carthage comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“In the Gospel there is a proof of this mystery of unity, this inseparable bond of harmony, when the coat of the Lord Jesus Christ is not cut or rent at all. The garment is received whole and the coat taken into possession unspoiled and undivided by those who cast lots for Christ’s garment, asking who should put on Christ. Holy Scripture says of this, “But for the coat, because it was not sewn but woven from the top throughout, they said to each other: Let us not rend it but casts lots for it, whose it shall be.” He showed a unity that came from the top, that is, from heaven and the Father, a unity that could by no means be rent by one who received and possessed it. Its wholeness and unity remained solid and unbreakable forever. He who rends and divides the church cannot possess the garment of Christ. In contrast, when at Solomon’s death his kingdom and people were being rent, the prophet Ahijah, meeting King Jeroboam in the field, rent his garment into twelve pieces, saying, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord: Behold, I rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten scepters to you; but he shall have two scepters for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city that I have chosen, to put my name there.” When the twelve tribes of Israel were being rent, the prophet Ahijah rent his garment. But since Christ’s people cannot be rent, his coat, woven throughout as a single whole, was not rent by its owners. Undivided, conjoined, coherent, it proves the unbroken harmony of our people who have put on Christ. By the type and symbol of his garment he has manifested the unity of the church.” (The Unity of the Church, 7.)



Collect
Keep Your family safe, O Lord,
with unfailing care,
that, relying solely on the hope
of heavenly grace,
they may be defended always
by Your protection.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Collect from optional Mass for today:
Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions,
38. For the Forgiveness of Sins

Be merciful to Your people, O Lord,
and absolve them from all sins,
so that what we deserve by our offenses
may be avoided by Your pardon.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen


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