Daily Bible Readings Thursday February 20 2008 2nd Week Lent Catholic Commentary

February 21 2008 Thursday 2nd Week of Lent

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/022108.shtml – Note. The Official Liturgical readings may not match the current NAB you may have.

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Jeremiah 17:5-10
Douay-Rheims Challoner

5 Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
6 For he shall be like tamaric in the desert, and he shall not see when good shall come: but he shall dwell in dryness in the desert in a salt land, and not inhabited.
7 Blessed be the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence.
8 And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots towards moisture: and it shall not fear when the heat cometh. And the leaf thereof shall be green, and in the time of drought it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it cease at any time to bring forth fruit.
9 The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it?
10 I am the Lord who search the heart, and prove the reins: who give to every one according to his way, and according to the fruit of his devices.

Responsorial Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
DR Challoner Text Only

Blessed is the man
who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor stood in the way of sinners,
nor sat in the chair of pestilence:
But his will is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he shall meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree
which is planted near the running waters,
which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season.
And his leaf shall not fall off:
and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper.

Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust,
which the wind driveth from the face of the earth.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the just:
and the way of the wicked shall perish.

The Gospel According To Saint Luke 16:19-31
Haydock New Testament

19 There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen: and feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And there was a certain beggar, by name Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, 21 Desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table; and no one did give him: moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 And it came to pass that the beggar died, and he was carried by Angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man died: and he was buried in hell. 23 And lifting up his eyes when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom: 24 And he cried, and said:

Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.

25 And Abraham said to him:

Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy life-time, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither.

27 And he said:

Then, Father, I beseech thee that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house: 28 For I have five brethren, that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torments.

29 And Abraham said to him:

They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

30 But he said:

No, father Abraham; but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance.

31 And he said to him:

If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again from the dead.

Haydock Commentary Jeremiah 17:5-10

• Ver. 5. Thus. Sept. continue from the last chap. “cursed,” &c. H.—Sedecias had formed alliances with several princes, instead of turning to the Lord. C. xxvii. And xxxvii. C.—Our chief dependence must be on God, not on human policy. W.
• Ver. 6. Tamaric. A barren shrub, that grows in the driest parts of the wilderness. Ch.—Harhar denotes some sort (H.) of “useless wood.” Sym. See C. xlviii. 6. Isaiah. xvii. 2.—Salt, like the environs of Sodom, the fruits of which were bad.
• Ver. 8. Fruit. See Ps. i. 3. Pindar, Nem. viii. How different from the wicked! C.
• Ver. 9. Perverse. Sept. “deep.”—Unsearchable. Sept. “man, who shall know him?” H.—God alone can search the heart by his own power. He enables saints to do it by the light of glory, or of prophecy; as Elisha and S. Peter knew secret transactions. W.

 

Haydock Commentary Luke 16:19-31

• Ver. 19. There was a certain rich man, &c. By this history of the rich man and Lazarus, he declares that those who are placed in affluent circumstances, draw upon themselves a sentence of condemnation, if seeing their neighbor in want, they neglect to succour him. S. Cyril, in Cat. Graec. Partum.—He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shut up his bowels against him, how doth the charity of God abide in him? John, 1 Ep. iii. 17. A received tradition of the Jews informs us, that this Lazarus was a beggar, then at Jerusalem, suffering in the most wretched condition of poverty, and infirmity: him our Saviour introduces, to manifest more plainly the truth of what he had been saying. S. Cyril, ut supra.—By this, we are not to understand that all poverty is holy, and the possession of riches criminal; but, as luxury is the disgrace of riches, so holiness of life is the ornament of poverty. S. Ambrose.—A man may be reserved and modest in the midst of riches and honours, as he may e proud and avaricious in the obscurity of a poor and wretched life.—Divers interpreters have looked upon this as a true history; but what is said of the rich man seeing Lazarus, of his tongue, or his finger, cannot be literal: souls having no such parts. Wi.—In this parable, which S. Ambrose takes to be a real fact, we have the name of the poor mendicant; but our Lord suppresses the name of the rich man, to signify that his name is blotted out of the book of life: besides, the rich man tells Abraham, that he has five brothers, who were probably still living; wherefore, to save their honour, our Lord named not their reprobated brother.
• Ver. 22. —Abraham’s bosom. The place of rest, where the souls of the saints resided, till Christ had opened heaven by his death. Ch.—It was an ancient tradition of the Jews, that the souls of the just were conducted by angels into paradise. The bosom of Abraham (the common Father of all the faithful) was the place where the souls of the saints, and departed patriarchs, waited the arrival of their Deliverer. It was thither that Jesus went after his death; as it is said in the Creed, “he descended into hell,” to deliver those who were detained there, and who might at Christs’s ascension enter into heaven. Calmet. See 1 Pet. iii. 19.—“Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham.” Matt. viii. 11.
• Ver. 25. It appears from Philo, (de Execrat. p. 9, 37 b.) that the Jews not only acknowledged the existence of souls, and their state of happiness or misery after this life, but also that the souls of the saints and patriarchs interceded with God for their descendants, and obtained for them the succour they stood in need of. Calmet.
• Ver. 26. Between us and you is fixed a great chaos, or gulf; i.e. God’s justice has decreed, that the bad should forever be separated from the good. We may here take notice that the Latin and Greek word, (v. 22) translated hell, even in the Prot. translation, cannot signify only the grave. Wi.
• Ver. 27. If they hear not Moses, &c. We think that if we saw a man raised from the dead, who should tell us what he had seen and suffered in another world, it would make more impression upon us than past miracles, which we hear of, or the promises and threats of the prophets, apostles, and our blessed Saviour, which are contained in the Scripture; but it is a false notion, a vain excuse. The wicked, and unbelievers, would even in that case find pretexts and objections for not believing. S. Chrys. hom. iv.—They would say that the dead man was a phantom; that his resurrection was not real; his assertion nugatory. When Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, the miracle was known, evident and public, yet we find none of the Pharisees converted by it. They were even so mad as to enter into a design to kill Lazarus, to get rid of a witness who deposed against their incredulity. How many other miracles did he not perform in their sight, which they attributed to the prince of darkness, or to magic? Christ raised himself from the dead. This fact was attested by many unexceptionable witnesses. And what do the hardened Jews do? They object, that his disciples, stealing away the body, maliciously persuaded the people that he had risen again. Such is the corruption of the human heart, that when once delivered up to any passion, nothing can movie it. Every day we see or hear of malefactors publicly executed yet their example has no effect on the survivors, nor does it prevent the commissions of fresh crimes. Calmet.—“We have also the more firm prophetical word; whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts.” 2 Pet. i. 19.—We may learn many very instructive lessons from this affecting history of Lazarus.—The rich may learn the dreadful consequences to be apprehended from riches, when made subservient to sensuality, luxury, and ambition. The poor may learn to make their poverty and sufferings however grievous the nature, instrumental to their future happiness, by bearing them with patience and resignation and resignation to the will of heaven. The former are taught that to expose a man to eternal misery, nothing more is required than to enjoy all the good things of this world according to their own will; the latter that however they may be despised and rejected of men, they may still have courage, knowing that the short day of this fleeting life, with all its apparent evils will soon be over; and that the day of eternity is fast approaching, when everyone shall receive according as he has done good or evil in his body.