Words of the Word

Easter, Week 2:Saturday
Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on these verses from today’s Gospel:

“But there is still something to excite thought in his doing such greater works by the apostles. For he did not say, as if merely with reference to them, “the works that I do shall you do also. And greater works than these shall you do,” but wishing to be understood as speaking of all that belonged to his family, he said, “He who believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he do.” If, then, he who believes shall do such works, he who shall not do them is certainly no believer, just as “He who loves me, keeps my commandments” implies, of course, that whoever does not keep them does not love. In a similar way, also, it is said here, “He who believes in me shall do such works.” The one who does not do good works, therefore, is no believer. What have we here, then, brothers? Is it that one is not to be counted among believers in Christ who will not do greater works than Christ? It would be hard, unreasonable, intolerable to suppose so, that is, unless it is rightly understood. Let us listen, then, to the apostle when he says, “To him who believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” This is the work in which we may be doing the works of Christ, for even our very believing in Christ is the work of Christ.” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 72)

Set aside, O Lord,
the bond of sentence written for us by the law of sin,
which in the Paschal Mystery you canceled
through the Resurrection of Christ your Son.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

- OR -

O God, who willed that through the paschal mysteries
the gates of mercy should stand open for your faithful,
look upon us and have mercy,
that as we follow, by your gift, the way you desire for us,
so may we never stray from the paths of life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O God, who gladden us each year
with the feast day of the Apostles Philip and James,
grant us, through their prayers,
a share in the Passion and Resurrection
of your Only Begotten Son,
so that we may merit to behold you for eternity.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI devoted General Audiences to the life and significance of Saint Philip and Saint James (‘the Lesser’) back in 2006. An excerpt from Tertullian’s On the Prescription of Heretics offers insights to ponder on this apostolic feast day.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter, Week 2: Friday
Voices ever ancient, ever new: St Augustine
Memorial: St Athanasius of Alexandria, bishop

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” (John 6:9)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on these verses from today’s Gospel:

“To provide a brief explanation: the five loaves are understood as the five books of Moses; rightly they are not wheat but barley because they belong to the Old Testament. For you know that barley was created in such a way that one can scarcely get to its kernel. For this kernel is clothed with a covering of husk, and this husk is tenacious and adhering, so that it is stripped off with effort. Such is the letter of the Old Testament, clothed with the coverings of carnal mysteries; but if one gets to its kernel, it feeds and satisfies. And so a boy was carrying five loaves and two fishes. If we should seek to know who this boy was, perhaps he was the people of Israel, carrying the loaves and fish with a childlike understanding and not eating of them itself. For those things that it was carrying, when kept shut, were a burden, but when opened, were food. Moreover, the two fish seem to us to signify those two sublime personages in the Old Testament who were anointed to make holy and rule the people, the priest and king.” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 24)

O God, hope and light of the sincere,
we humbly entreat you to dispose our hearts
to offer you worthy prayer
and ever to extol you
by dutiful proclamation of your praise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Almighty
ever-living God,
Who raised up the Bishop
Saint Athanasius
as an outstanding
champion of
Your Son’s divinity,
mercifully grant,
that, rejoicing in his teaching and his protection,
we may never cease to grow in knowledge and love of You.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI devoted a General Audience to the life and significance of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (297-373) back in June 2007. On the Incarantion of the Word is one of Saint Athanasius’ more famous works wherein he defends the genuine humanity and divinity of Jesus, the Divine Person Who became flesh for our salvation.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter, Week 2: Thursday.
Voices ever ancient, ever new: Saint John Chrysostom
Optional memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker

“The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven [is above all].” (John 3:31)

Saint John Chrysostom comments on this verse from today’s Gospel reading:

“As the worm gnaws through the wood from which it is born, and rust destroys the iron from which it came, and moths consume fleece, so pride destroys the soul that nourishes it. Therefore we need perseverance to get rid of it. John himself can hardly subdue it in his disciples even with all of his cogent arguments. He has to say again what he has said above, “He that comes from above is above all.” He means: you make much of my testimony and say that the witness is more worthy to be believed than Jesus to whom I bear witness. Know this, that it is impossible for the one who comes from heaven to be accredited by an earthly witness. He is above all, being perfect in himself and above comparison.” (Homilies on the Gospel of John, 30)

O God, Who for the salvation of the world
brought about the paschal sacrifice,
be favorable to the supplications of Your people,
so that Christ our High Priest, interceding on our behalf,
may by His likeness to ourselves
bring us reconciliation,
and by His equality with You
free us from our sins.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

God our Father
You gave to us
the just-man
Saint Joseph,
who was completely
obedient to the call
of the Holy Spirit,
by being spouse to the Virgin Mother of God
and watching like a father over Jesus,
Your Only Begotten Son.

Gracious Father,
charge once again Saint Joseph,
patron of our parish,
to watch over us as he watched over
Mary and Your Son, Jesus:
• to know Your Will,
• to be given the grace to carry it out faithfully, and
• the wisdom to respond to Your love for us.

Saint Joseph, patron of our parish,
guard and protect us
from all that keeps us
from following more closely
Jesus, your son and Son of God,
in the unfolding mysteries
of the Father’s plan for our salvation.

As in all things,
we make this prayer
through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God, forever and ever. Amen.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Easter, Week 2: Wednesday

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus reflects on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“Let us praise the Son first of all, venerating the blood that expiated our sins. He lost nothing of his divinity when he saved me, when like a good physician he stooped to my festering wounds. He was a mortal man, but he was also God. He was of the race of David but Adam’s creator. He who has no body clothed himself with flesh. He had a mother who, nonetheless, was a virgin. He who is without bounds bound himself with the cords of our humanity. He was victim and high priest — yet he was God. He offered up his blood and cleansed the whole world. He was lifted up on the cross, but it was sin that was nailed to it. He became as one among the dead, but he rose from the dead, raising to life also many who had died before him. On the one hand, there was the poverty of his humanity; on the other, the riches of his divinity. Do not let what is human in the Son permit you wrongfully to detract from what is divine. For the sake of the divine, hold in the greatest honor the humanity, which the immortal Son took on himself for love of you.” (Poem 2)

As we recall year by year the mysteries
by which, through the restoration of its original dignity,
human nature has received the hope of rising again,
we earnestly beseech your mercy, Lord,
that what we celebrate in faith
we may possess in unending love.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Easter, Week 2: Tuesday

“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up...” (John 3:14)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on these verses from today’s Gospel:

“Let me try to explain, as far as the Lord enables me to, what these signs mean. The rod stands for the kingdom, the snake for mortality. It was by the snake that humanity was given death to drink. The Lord was prepared to take this death on himself. So when the rod came down to earth it had the form of a snake because the kingdom of God, which is Jesus Christ, came down to earth. He put on mortality, which he also nailed to the cross. In his mercy God provided a remedy, a remedy that restored health at the time but also foretold the wisdom that was to come in the future. Whoever has been bitten by the snakes of sin need only gaze on Christ and will have healing for the forgiveness of sins. And so, brothers, it is the mortality that the Lord took on himself that the church must go on experiencing as his body, of which he is the head, as man, in heaven. So the church experiences mortality, which was inflicted through the seduction of the serpent. We owe death to the sin of the first persons, but afterward we shall reach eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But when does the church arrive at life and return to the kingdom? At the end of the world. That is why he took it by the tail, which is the end, in order to restore his rod to its original condition.” (Sermon 6)

Enable us, we pray, almighty God,
to proclaim the power of the risen Lord,
that we, who have received the pledge of his gift,
may come to possess all he gives
when it is fully revealed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O God,
Who set Saint Catherine of Siena
on fire with divine love in her contemplation
of the Lord’s Passion and
her service of Your Church,
grant, through her intercession, that your people,
participating in the mystery of Christ,
may ever exult in the revelation of His glory.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Easter, Week 2: Monday

“Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” (John 3:5)

Saint Basil the Great offers the following insight on this verse from today's Gospel:

“First of all, it is necessary that the continuity of the old life be cut. And this is impossible unless one is born again, according to the Lord’s word. For the regeneration, as indeed the name shows, is a beginning of a second life. So before beginning the second, it is necessary to put an end to the first. For just as in the case of runners who turn and take the second course, a kind of break and pause intervenes between the movements in the opposite direction, so also in making a change in lives it seems necessary for death to come as mediator between the two, ending all that goes before, and beginning all that comes after.” (On the Holy Spirit, 15)

Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that we, who have been renewed by paschal remedies,
transcending the likeness of our earthly parentage,
may be transformed in the image of our heavenly maker.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Easter 2014, the Second Sunday

“Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” (John 20:27)

Saint Gregory of Nyssa offers the following insight on these verses from today's Gospel:

“Once he had accustomed people to seeing the miracle of resurrection in other bodies, he confirmed his word in his own humanity. You already received a glimpse of that word working in others — those who were about to die, the child who had just ceased to live, the young man at the edge of the grave, the putrefying corpse, all alike restored by one command to life. Now look at him whose hands were pierced with nails, look at him whose side was transfixed with a spear. Pass your fingers through the print of the nails, thrust your hand into the spear wound. You could surely guess how far within your hand would reach by the breadth of the external scar since the wound that gives admission to the hand shows to what depth the iron entered. If he then has been raised, well may we utter the apostle’s exclamation, “How do some say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” Since, then, every prediction of the Lord is shown to be true by the testimony of events — in fact, we not only learned this from his words but also received the proof in his deeds from the very same people who returned to life by resurrection — what other occasion is left for those who do not believe? Let us rather bid farewell to those who pervert our simple faith by “philosophy and vain deceit.” Let us instead hold on to our confession [of the resurrection] in its purity, a confession that we have learned through the gracious words of the prophet, “You shall take away their breath, and they shall fail and turn to dust. You shall then send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.” (On the Making of Man, 25)

God of everlasting mercy,
Who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast
kindle the faith of the people You have made Your own,
increase, we pray, the grace You have bestowed,
that all may grasp and rightly understand
in what font they have been washed,
by Whose Spirit they have been reborn,
by Whose Blood they have been redeemed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Easter Saturday 2014

“After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country.” (Mark 16:12)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on these verses from today’s Gospel:

“Jesus appeared; he was visible to their eyes, yet he was not recognized. The master walked with them on the way; in fact, he was the way on which they were not yet walking; but he found that they had wandered some distance from the way. For when he was with them before his passion, he had foretold all — that he would suffer, that he would die, that he would rise again on the third day — he had predicted all; but his death was as a loss of memory for them. They were so disturbed when they saw him hanging on the cross that they forgot his teaching, did not look for his resurrection, and failed to keep his promises in mind.” (Sermon 235)

O God, who by the abundance of your grace
give increase to the peoples who believe in you,
look with favor on those you have chosen
and clothe with blessed immortality
those reborn through the Sacrament of Baptism.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Easter Friday 2014

“Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them, and in like manner the fish.” (John 20:13)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on these verses from today’s Gospel:

“Mystically, the broiled fish is Christ who suffered. And he is the bread that came down from heaven. The church is united to his body in order to participate in everlasting blessedness. This is why he says, “Bring of the fish that you have now caught,” in order to signify that all of us who have this hope and are in that number seven of disciples, which represents the universal church here, partake of this great sacrament and are admitted to this bliss.” (Tractate on the Gospel of John, 123)

Almighty ever-living God,
who gave us the Paschal Mystery
in the covenant you established
for reconciling the human race,
so dispose our minds, we pray,
that what we celebrate by professing the faith
we may express in deeds.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Easter Thursday 2014

“While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, He [Jesus] asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of baked fish; He took it and ate it in front of them.” (Luke 24:41-43)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on these verses from today’s Gospel:

“While they were still flustered for joy, they were rejoicing and doubting at the same time. They were seeing and touching, and scarcely believing. What a tremendous favor grace has done us! We have neither seen nor touched, and we have believed. While they were still flustered for joy, he said, “Have you got here anything to eat? Certainly you can believe that I am alive and well if I join you in a meal.” They offered him what they had: a portion of grilled fish. Grilled fish means martyrdom, faith proved by fire. Why is it only a portion? Paul says, “If I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Imagine a complete body of martyrs. Some suffer because of love, while others suffer out of pride. Remove the pride portion, offer the love portion. That is the food for Christ. Give Christ his portion. Christ loves the martyrs who suffered out of love.” (Sermon 229)

O God, who have united the many nations
in confessing your name,
grant that those reborn in the font of Baptism
may be one in the faith of their hearts
and the homage of their deeds.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!