DAILY GOSPEL Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. John 6:68 Thursday, 08 January 2015 Thursday after Epiphany Saint(s) of the day : St. Apollinaris, the Apologist, Bishop (2nd century), St. Severin, Abbot (410-482) See commentary below or click here Rupert of Deutz : The Spirit of the Lord is upon me First Letter of John 4:19-21.5:1-4. Beloved, we love God 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(71):1-2.14-15bc.17. O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the kings son; He shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment. From fraud and violence he shall redeem them, and precious shall their blood be in his sight. May they be prayed for continually; day by day shall they bless him. May his name be blessed forever; As long as the sun his name shall remain. In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed; All the nations shall proclaim his happiness. 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, Isnt this the son of Joseph? Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB Commentary of the day : Rupert of Deutz (c.1075-1130), Benedictine monk On the Blessed Trinity, 42 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me “Today…”(Is 61,1). It is just as though Christ were saying: Because the Lord has anointed me, I have said – yes, indeed, I have said and will say it again now: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. So when was the precise moment when the Lord anointed me? He did so when I was conceived, or rather, he did so in order that I might be conceived in my mother’s womb. For it was not by the seed of man that a woman conceived me, but I was conceived by a Virgin through the Holy Spirit’s anointing. Then it was that the Lord set upon me the royal anointing; he consecrated me as king and priest at the same time. A second time the Lord consecrated me in the Jordan through the same Spirit… Why, then, is the Spirit of the Lord upon me?… “He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the broken hearted,” (Is 61,1). He has not sent me on behalf of the proud and self-sufficient but as a doctor to the sick and downcast. He has not sent me “for the righteous” but “for sinners” (Mk 2,17). He has made me “a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,” (Is 53,3), someone “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11,29). “He has sent me to preach liberty to captives and release to prisoners”… To which prisoners or, rather, out of which prison should I preach release? To which captives preach liberty? Since “through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death” (Rm 5,12) all men are prisoners of sin, all are captives of death… I have been sent “to comfort all those who mourn in Zion” (Is 61,3), all those who are afflicted at having been taken away and separated from their mother, the “Jerusalem above” (Ga 4,26), because of their sins… Yes, I will console them by giving them “a diadem of glory instead of the ashes” of penitence; the “oil of gladness” – that is to say, the consolation of the Holy Spirit – “in place of the mourning” of being orphaned and exiled, and “a glorious mantle”, namely the glory of the resurrection, “instead of a listless spirit” (Is 61,3).
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 01:52:37 +0000
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