Thursday, January 20, 2005

7:19 pm

DAILY GOSPEL
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
    
 
Friday, 21 January 2005
Friday of the 2nd week in Ordinary Time
Today the Church celebrates : St. Agnes  
 

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux : “He called those whom he wanted...so that they would be with him”



Letter to the Hebrews 8,6-13.

Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second one. But he finds fault with them and says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they did not stand by my covenant and I ignored them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his fellow citizen and kinsman, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know me, from least to greatest. For I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more." When he speaks of a "new" covenant, he declares the first one obsolete. And what has become obsolete and has grown old is close to disappearing.

Psalms 85,8.10-14.

Show us, LORD, your love; grant us your salvation.
Near indeed is salvation for the loyal; prosperity will fill our land.
Love and truth will meet; justice and peace will kiss.
Truth will spring from the earth; justice will look down from heaven.
The LORD will surely grant abundance; our land will yield its increase.
Prosperity will march before the Lord, and good fortune will follow behind.


Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 3,13-19.

He went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons: (he appointed the twelve:) Simon, whom he named Peter; James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day :

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
Homilies on the Song of Songs, n° 84, 1.5

“He called those whom he wanted...so that they would be with him”


Nightlong in my little bed I sought him whom my soul loves” (Sg 3,1). It is a great good to seek God; in my opinion the soul knows no greater blessing. It is the first of its gifts and the final stage in its progress. It is inferior to none, and it yields place to none. What could be superior to it, when nothing has a higher place? What could claim a higher place, when it is the consummation of all things? What virtue can be attributed to anyone who does not seek God? What boundary can be set for anyone who does seek him? The psalmist says: “Seek his face always” (Ps 104,4). Nor, I think, will a soul cease to seek him even when it has found him.

It is not with steps of the feet that God is sought but with the heart's desire; and when the soul happily finds him its desire is not quenched but kinkled. Does the consummation of joy bring about the consuming of desire? Rather it is oil poured upon the flames. So it is. Joy will be fulfilled (Ps 15,11) but there will be no end to desire, and therefore no end to the search...

That every soul among you who is seeking God may know that she has been forestalled, and that she was found before she was sought...This is what you are urged to do by the goodness of him who anticipates you, who sought him, and loved you before you loved him (1Jn 4,10). You would not seek him or love him unless you had first been sought and loved. Not only in one blessing have you been forestalled but in two, being loved as well as being sought. For the love is the reason of the search, and the search is the fruit of the love, and its certain proof. You are loved so that you may not suppose you are sought to be punished. You are sought so that you may not complain you are loved in vain.


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