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.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God – Solemnity
Book of Numbers 6:22-27.
The LORD said to Moses:
“Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them:
The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!
So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

Psalms 67(66):2-3.5.6.8.
May God be gracious to us and bless us; may God’s face shine upon us. Selah
So shall your rule be known upon the earth, your saving power among all the nations.
May the nations be glad and shout for joy; for you govern the peoples justly, you guide the nations upon the earth. Selah
May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us still; that the ends of the earth may revere our God.

Letter to the Galatians 4:4-7.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption.
As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 2:16-21.
So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.
When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.
And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.
When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Commentary of the day : John-Paul II
Mother of God, Mother of the Prince of Peace

The 7th Day in the Octave of Christmas
First Letter of John 2:18-21.
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour.
They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number.
But you have the anointing that comes from the holy one, and you all have knowledge.
I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.

Psalms 96(95):1-2.11-12.13.
Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless his name; announce his salvation day after day.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them. Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice
before the LORD who comes, who comes to govern the earth, To govern the world with justice and the peoples with faithfulness.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 1:1-18.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be
through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'”
From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.
Commentary of the day : William of Saint-Thierry
«The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.»