Thursday, 07 January 2010

Thursday after Epiphany

Today the Church celebrates : St. Raymond of Peñafort, Priest (c. 1175-1275),  St. Lucian, Priest and Martyr (+ 312)

See commentary below or click here
Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me”

First Letter of John 4:19-21.5:1-4.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the father loves (also) the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.

Psalms 72:2.14-15.17.

O God, give your judgment to the king; your justice to the son of kings; That he may govern your people with justice, your oppressed with right judgment,
From extortion and violence he frees them, for precious is their blood in his sight.
Long may he live, receiving gold from Arabia, prayed for without cease, blessed day by day.
May his name be blessed forever; as long as the sun, may his name endure. May the tribes of the earth give blessings with his name; may all the nations regard him as favored.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 4:14-22.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB

Commentary of the day :

Catechism of the Catholic Church
§ 695

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me”

Symbols of the Holy Spirit: Anointing. The symbolism of anointing with oil signifies the Holy Spirit, to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation, anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called ‘chrismation’ in the Churches of the East. Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew ‘messiah’) means the one ‘anointed’ by God’s Spirit.

There were several anointed ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant,  pre-eminently King David. But Jesus is God’s Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit established him as ‘Christ’. The Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel, proclaimed him the Christ at his birth and prompted Simeon to come to the Temple to see Christ the Lord. The Spirit filled Christ and the power of the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing and saving.

Finally, it was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. Now fully established as ‘Christ’ in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit abundantly until the ‘saints’ constitute, in their union with the humanity of the Son of God, the perfect man «to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ»: «the whole Christ», in St Augustine’s expression.

(Biblical references: 1Jn 2,20.27; 2Cor 1,21; Ex 30,22-32; 1Sm 16,13; Lk 4,18-19; 1,35; 2,11; 2,26-27; 4,1; 6,19; Rom 1,4; 8,11; Acts 2,36; Eph 4,13)