Words of the Word

Memorial
Saint Martha

“As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he spoke with the LORD. ” (Exodus 34:29.)

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

“Every soul is beautiful which is considered by the standard of its own virtues. But most beautiful, true and lovely, which can be contemplated by him alone who has purified his mind, is that of the divine and blessed nature. He who gazes steadfastly at the splendor and graces of it receives some share from it, as if from an immersion, tinging his own face with a sort of brilliant radiance. Whence Moses also was made resplendent in face by receiving some share of beauty when he held converse with God. Therefore he who is conscious of his own beauty utters this act of thanksgiving: “O Lord, in your favor, you gave strength to my beauty.” (Exegetic Homilies, 14)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
whose Son was pleased to be welcomed
in Saint Martha’s house as a guest,
grant, we pray,
that through her intercession,
serving Christ faithfully in our brothers and sisters,
we may merit to be received by you
in the halls of heaven.
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.

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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Ordinary Time
Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week

“Moses used to pitch a tentc outside the camp at some distance. It was called the tent of meeting. Anyone who wished to consult the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.” (Exodus 33:7.)

Saint Ambrose of Milan offers the following insight on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“For that reason Jesus departed from the city, so that when you depart from this world, you may be above the world. Moses, who alone saw God, kept the tabernacle outside the camp when he spoke with God. And while the blood of the sacrificial victims, which was shed for sin, was carried to the altars, the carcasses, however, were burnt beyond the camp, because no one located within the vices of this world puts off sin nor is his blood accepted by God, unless he departs from the filth of this body.” (Letter 14)

Collect

O God, protector of those who hope in You
without Whom nothing has firm foundation,
nothing is holy,
bestow in abundance Your mercy upon us
and grant that,
with You as our ruler and guide,
we may use the good things that pass
in such a way as to hold fast even now
to those that ever endure.
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.

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

Growth in Jesus Christ

“And through my growth in faith, the Lord Jesus Christ has constantly become greater for me in spirit and mind. For no one who believes in Christ can deny that along this path he becomes more fired with longing, so that after long contemplation and exaltation he perceives that Jesus alone should be loved. With joy he abandons all else and embraces him as the true life and the everlasting joy. Everything else gives way before anyone who thus enters into Christ, and neither anything written nor this world can offer any difficulties to him, for he is transformed into Jesus on account of the Spirit of Christ that dwells within him and that is the goal of spiritual desire. May you, most reverend Father, pray to him without ceasing and with a humble heart for me, a poor sinner, that we may both be found worthy to enjoy him eternally.” (Nicholas of Cusa, Docta ignorantia quoted in God Sent His Son by Christoph Cardinal Schönborn.)

Divine and human mercy

Today’s Second Reading from the
Office of Readings (Liturgy of the Hours)

Ordinary Time
Monday of the Seventeenth Week

An excerpt from
Sermon 25

Saint Caesarius of Arles
(6th Century Ancient Christian Writer)

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. My brothers and sisters, sweet is the thought of mercy, but even more so is mercy itself. It is what all men hope for, but unfortunately, not what all men deserve. For while all men wish to receive it, only a few are willing to give it.

How can a man ask for himself what he refuses to give to another? If he expects to receive any mercy in heaven, he should give mercy on earth. Do we all desire to receive mercy? Let us make mercy our patroness now, and she will free us in the world to come. Yes, there is mercy in heaven, but the road to it is paved by our merciful acts on earth. As Scripture says: Lord, your mercy is in heaven.

There is, therefore, an earthly as well as heavenly mercy, that is to say, a human and a divine mercy. Human mercy has compassion on the miseries of the poor. Divine mercy grants forgiveness of sins. Whatever human mercy bestows her on earth, divine mercy will return to us in our homeland. In this life God feels cold and hunger in all who are stricken with poverty; for, remember, he once said: What you have done to the least of my brothers you have done to me. Yes, God who sees fit to give his mercy in heaven wishes it to be a reality here on earth.

What kind of people are we? When God gives, we wish to receive, but when he begs, we refuse to give. Remember, it was Christ who said: I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. When the poor are starving, Christ too hungers. Do not neglect to improve the unhappy conditions of the poor, if you wish to ensure that your own sins be forgiven you. Christ hungers now, my brethren; it is he who deigns to hunger and thirst in the persons of the poor. And what he will return in heaven tomorrow is what he receives here on earth today.

What do you wish for, what do you pray for, my dear brothers and sisters, when you come to church? Is it mercy? How can it be anything else? Show mercy, then, while you are on earth, and mercy will be shown to you in heaven. A poor person asks you for something; you ask God for something. He begs for a morsel of food; you beg for eternal life. Give to the beggar so that you may merit to receive from Christ. For he it is who says: Give and it will be given to you. It baffles me that you have the impudence to ask for what you do not want to give. Give when you come to church. Give to the poor. Give them whatever your resources will allow.

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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Seventeenth Sunday
Words of THE WORD

Antiphon

“God is in His holy place, God Who unites those who dwell in His house; He Himself gives might and strength to His people. (Psalm 68:6-7)

Collect

O God, protector of those who hope in you,
without whom nothing has firm foundation, nothing is holy,
bestow in abundance your mercy upon us
and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide,
we may use the good things that pass
in such a way as to hold fast even now
to those that ever endure.
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.

Responsorial Psalm

The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs. (Psalm 145:16).

Gospel Excerpt

After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee [of Tiberias]. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs (σημεῖα, semeia) he was performing on the sick (John 6:1-2).
When the people saw the sign (σημεῖον, semeion) he had done, they said, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone (John 6:14-15).

Reflection

What is a sign? In 1971 “Signs,” a popular song by Five Man Electrical Band, sung of the plethora of these visible markers as well as in their estimation, the restrictions ‘signs’ attempted to impose on people and life. As we begin listening to the “Bread of Life” discourse in the Gospel according to Saint John this Sunday, we are immediately hit with the reality of “sign,” a term very important in the Johannine Gospel as well as in Sacramental Theology.

In antiquity, σημεῖον (semeion) meant “to mark,” “to indicate” or “to identify.” These meanings suggest that σημεῖον is a reality that ‘hits the senses.’ While we tend to connect “sign” to a visual experience, in the Greco-Roman world of the first century “sign” could be any reality that stimulated the senses. Biblical scholars note that when used throughout the pages of the New Testament, σημεῖον always involves people who then have a responsibility to act in a particular way because of the “sign.”

The difficulty of “sign” is that it is powerless in-and-of-itself to effect (to cause) what it signifies. For example, many are familiar with that red, octagon “sign” that appears on the corner of many intersections: the ‘Stop Sign.’ Of itself, the ‘stop sign’ does not cause a vehicle to stop. The driver must see the sign and decide to act in a way commensurate with the content or message of the sign. In terms of action, the “sign” expresses what is to be done, but it is up to the recipient to do what the sign communicates.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus performs key works that are termed “signs.” The Evangelist John does not use the term “miracle,” a word that comes into the theological vocabulary a bit later. For Saint John, Jesus’ “signs” are sensible realities; they impact the senses. People see what Jesus does. People hear was Jesus says. People taste the bread and the fish that are taken, blessed and given. But what do the people do with this particular “sign” or “signs”? The response to that question is the work of the next 4 Sundays as the “Bread of Life” discourse unfolds, ultimately posing a question – not only to the followers of Jesus in the first century but to us of the twenty-first century as well.

— The Lord’s Day —

Ordinary Time
Sunday of the Seventeenth Week

“A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing the man of God twenty barley loaves made from the first fruits, and fresh grain in the ear. Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat.” (II Kings 4:42)

Saint Ephrem the Syrian offers the following insight on these verses from today’s First Reading:

“Elisha corrects the nature of the cooked foods with some flour and gives them a new taste. Our Lord did the same according to the [divine] economy, so that he might be imitated, as he said for our exhortation, with the result that we might walk the path of the righteous and the pious, and might rejoice because of the great reward he promised us and might heal the diseases and the anguish and the tribulations that constantly surround us from the beginning of our life. The father of our race, Adam, gathered those [bitter] fruits as a consequence of his sin and proposed and offered them to us in the hour in which he heard [these words] from his Creator: “The ground is cursed because of you; it will bring forth thorns and thistles for you. You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”” (On the Second Book of Kings, 18.)

Collect

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

— Saint James, Apostle —
Feast

“But we hold this treasure* in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.” (II Corinthians 4:7.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“But just as divine providence is not proved to be a fiction, particularly for those who are convinced of its existence, because its workings and arrangements are beyond the comprehension of human minds, so neither will the divine inspiration of holy Scripture, which extends through its entire body, be supposed to be nonexistent because the weakness of our understanding cannot discover the deep and hidden thoughts in every sentence. For the treasure of divine wisdom is concealed in vessels of poor and humble words, as the apostle points out when he says: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the greatness of the divine power may shine forth the more,” when no taint of human eloquence is mingled with the truth of the doctrines.” (On First Principles, 4)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
who consecrated the
first fruits of your Apostles
by the blood of Saint James,
grant, we pray,
that your Church may be strengthened
by his confession of faith and constantly sustained by his prayers.
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.

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

Ordinary Time
Friday of the Sixteenth Week

“You shall not have other gods beside me.” (Exodus 20:3.)

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (part 2 of the background of Saint Gregory of Nyssa is found here) offers the following insight on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“Again, he who says “you shall never worship a strange god” forbids us to worship another god, and the strange god is so called in contradistinction to our own God. Who then is our own God? Clearly, the true God. And who is the strange god? Surely, he who is alien from the nature of the true God. If therefore our own God is the true God, and if, as the heretics say, the only-begotten God is not of the nature of the true God, he is a strange God and not our God.” (On Faith)

Collect

Show favor, O Lord,
to your servants and
mercifully increase the gifts
of your grace, that,
made fervent in hope, faith and charity,
they may be ever watchful
in keeping your commands.
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.

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

Christ died for all

Today’s Second Reading from the
Office of Readings (Liturgy of the Hours)

Ordinary Time
Friday of the Sixteenth Week

An excerpt from
The Confessions (Book 10)

Saint Augustine
(bishop and Father of the Church)

The true Mediator was he whom you revealed to humble men in your secret mercy, and whom you sent so they might learn that same humility by following his example. This was the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who intervened between sinful mortals and the immortal Just One, himself mortal like men, and like God, just. Thus, since life and peace are the compensation for righteousness, he could, by a justice united with God, annul the death of sinners now justified, since he willed to share death with them.

Good Father, how you loved us, sparing not your only Son but delivering him up for us sinners! How you loved us, for whose sake he, thinking it no robbery to be equal with you, was made subject to death on the cross. He alone, free among the dead, had the power to lay down his life and the power to take it up again. For our sake he became in your sight both victor and victim — victor, indeed, because he was victim. For our sake, too, he became before you both priest and sacrifice — priest, indeed, because he was a sacrifice, changing us from slaves to sons by being your Son and serving us.

Rightly then have I firm hope that you will heal all my infirmities through him who sits at your right hand and intercedes for us. Otherwise I should despair. For great and numerous are these infirmities of mine, great indeed and numerous, but your medicine is mightier. We might have thought your Word remote from any union with man, and so have despaired of ourselves, if he had not become flesh and dwelt among us.

Crushed by my sins and the weight of my misery, I had taken thought in my heart and contemplated flight into the desert. But you stopped me and gave me comfort with the words: Christ died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them.

Behold, Lord, I cast upon you my concern that I may live and I shall meditate on the wonders of your law. You know my ignorance and my weakness; teach me and heal me. Your only Son, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, redeemed me with his blood. Let not arrogant men speak evil of me. For I meditate on my ransom, and I eat it and drink it and try to share it with others; though poor I want to be filled with it in the company of those who eat and are filled and they shall praise the Lord who seek him.

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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Ordinary Time
Thursday of the Sixteenth Week

“The blast of the shofar grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking and God was answering him with thunder.” (Exodus 19:19)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“But when she [the bride] has become worthy to have it said of her, as also it was said of Moses, that “Moses spoke, and God answered him,” then there is fulfilled in her that which he says: “Make me to hear your voice.” It is indeed high praise of her that is disclosed in that saying, “Sweet is your voice.” For thus also said the most wise prophet David: “Let my speech be sweet to him.” And the voice of the soul is sweet when it utters the word of God, when it expounds the faith and the doctrines of the truth, when it unfolds God’s dealings and his judgments.” (Commentary on the Song of Songs, 3)

Collect

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