Saturday, 02 January 2010

Saturday before Epiphany

Today the Church celebrates : St. Basil the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (+ 379) – Memorial –,  Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop and Doctor of the Church – Memorial –,  St Macarius of Alexandria, anchorite († 394)

See commentary below or click here
Duns Scotus Erigena : “There is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me”

First Letter of John 2:22-28.

Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. No one who denies the Son has the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well. Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made us: eternal life. I write you these things about those who would deceive you. As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him. And now, children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be put to shame by him at his coming.

Psalms 98(97):1-4.

Sing a new song to the LORD, who has done marvelous deeds, Whose right hand and holy arm have won the victory.
The LORD has made his victory known; has revealed his triumph for the nations to see,
Has remembered faithful love toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.
Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth; break into song; sing praise.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 1:19-28.

And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites (to him) to ask him, “Who are you?” he admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Messiah.” So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?” He said: “I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the desert, “Make straight the way of the Lord,”‘ as Isaiah the prophet said.” Some Pharisees were also sent. They asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB

Commentary of the day :

Duns Scotus Erigena (?-c.870), Irish Benedictine
Homily on St John’s Prologue, ch. 15 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth; cf SC 151, p. 275)

“There is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me”

Into the theological plan of his gospel John the evangelist draws John the Baptist; «deep calls to deep» (Ps 42[41],8) at the utterance of divine mysteries. We hear the evangelist relating the story of the forerunner, the man whose gift it was to know the Word «as he was in the beginning» (Jn 1,1), speaking to us of the one who was commissioned to go ahead of the Word made flesh… «There was,» says the evangelist, not simply a messenger of God, but «a man» (Jn 1,6). This he said in order to distinguish the man who shared only the humanity of the one he heralded from the Man who came after him, the Man who united godhead and manhood in his own Person. The evangelist’s intention was to differentiate between the fleeting voice and the eternally unchanging Word. The one, he would suggest, was the morning star appearing at the dawning of the kingdom of heaven, while the other was the Sun of Justice coming in its wake (Mal 3,20). He distinguished the witness from the one to whom he testified, the messenger from him who sent him, the lamp burning in the night from the brilliant light that filled the whole world (cf. Jn 5,35), the light that dispelled the darkness of death and sin from the entire human race…

A man was sent. By whom? By the divine Word, whose forerunner he was. To go before the Lord was his mission. Lifting up his voice, this man called out: «The voice of one crying in the wilderness!» (Mt 3,3). It was the herald preparing the way for the Lord’s coming. «John was his name» (Jn 1,6); John to whom was given the grace to go ahead of the King of kings, to point out to the world the Word made flesh, to baptize him with that baptism in which the Spirit would manifest his divine Sonship, to give witness through his teaching and martyrdom to the eternal light.