Daily Bible Readings Friday July 4 2008 13th Week of Ordinary Time

July 4 2008 Friday 13^th Week of Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – St. Elizabeth of Portugal

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/readings/070408.shtml – Note. The Official Liturgical readings may not match the current NAB you may have.

Amos 8:4-6, 9-12
DR Challoner Text

Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail, Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances, That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn?

And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light: And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

Responsorial Psalm 118:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131 (Ps 119 NAB/Hebrew)
DR Challoner Text ONLY

Blessed are they that search his testimonies:
that seek him with their whole heart.
With my whole heart have I sought after thee:
let me not stray from thy commandments.
My soul hath coveted to long for thy justifications,
at all times.
I have chosen the way of truth:
thy judgments I have not forgotten.
Behold I have longed after thy precepts:
quicken me in thy justice.
I opened my mouth, and panted:
because I longed for thy commandments.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 9:9-13
Haydock New Testament

And when Jesus passed on from thence, he saw a man sitting in the custom-house, named Matthew: and he saith to him:

Follow me.

And he rose up, and followed him. And it came to pass as he was sitting at table in the house, behold many publicans and sinners came, and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees seeing it, said to his disciples:

Why doth you master eat with publicans, and sinners?

But Jesus hearing it, said:

They that are in health, need not a physician, but they that are ill. Go then and learn what this meaneth: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the just, but sinners.

Haydock Commentary Amos 8:4-6, 9-12
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 5. Mouth: the first day was observed as a festival. Num. x. 10. H. — At the expiration of the month usurers demanded their money. Hor. i. sat. 3. Aristoph. Nub. ii. 1. — Corn, to sell after the sabbatical year, when it was dearest. Sabbath also denotes all “festivals.” These misers think that there are too many. — Sicle. Having a large measure to buy, and a small one to sell again. Deut. xxv. 13. Prov. xx. 10.
• Ver. 6. Shoes, for almost nothing. Thus they forced the poor to serve, or to sell their effects.
• Ver. 9. Light. Usher (A. 3213.) explains this of an eclipse, at Pentecost. The Fathers generally understand that which accompanied the death of Christ; but it only implies great desolation and terror. Jer. xv. 9. Joel iii. 11. S. Jer. &c. C. — In their greatest prosperity, calamities shall unexpectedly fall upon them. W.
• Ver. 10. Baldness, the hair being cut in mourning. Job i. 20. — Son, most afflicted. Zac. xii. 10. Jer. vi. 26. C.
• Ver. 11. Lord. During the siege provisions were wanting, but instruction still more so. W. — Israel had banished Amos. They would be left destitute. We find no prophet among the during the captivity, except Tobias. C. xiii. 3. We may apply this to the state of the Jews since the death of Christ. They have no guides. C. — They read incessantly, and do not understand (S. Jer. Mercer.) the Bible, which non will ever penetrate who refuse to receive the key from the Church. H.
• Ver. 12. Sea to sea: from west to south, or to the ocean; in whatever part of the world they may be. C.

Haydock Commentary Matthew 9:9-13

• Ver. 9. Named Matthew. ‘Tis remarked by S. Jerom, that the other evangelist, out of respect to this apostle, did not call him Matthew, (the name he generally went by) but Levi; whereas he, in his own gospel, to shew the goodness of God who from a publican had made him an apostle, styles himself Matthew the publican. S. Thos. Aquin. — S. Austin. de Concor. Evan. It is most probable, says S. Austin, that S. Matthew does not mention what had happened to him, before he began to follow Jesus; for it is supposed that this evangelist was called antecedent to the sermon on the mount; for S. Luke named the 12 that were chosen, and calls them apostles. S. Matthew mentions his vocation to the apostleship as one of the miracles that Jesus performed, for certainly it was a great miracle for a publican to become an apostle. — Rose up, and followed him. When we hear the voice of God calling us to virtue, we must not delay. The devil, says S. Basil, does not advise us to turn entirely from God, but only to put off our conversion to a future time. He steals away our present time, and gives us hopes of the future. But when that comes, he steals that also in the same manner; and thus by giving us present pleasure, he robs us of our whole life. S. Basil. — Sitting in the custom-house. Jesus called S. Matthew with two words only, follow me; and presently he left all, and became his disciple; doubtless by a particular inspiration and motive of divine grace. Wi.
• Ver. 12. They that are in health. The explication of which is, I converse with sinners, that I may heal their souls from incredulity. M.
• Ver. 13. I am not come. The just appear to be mentioned ironically, as it is said in Genesis, Behold Adam is become as one of us: and if I hunger, I will not tell thee. (Psalm xlix.) For S. Paul asserts, that none on earth were just: all have sinned, and need the glory of God. Rom. iii. S. Chrysos. hom. xxxi. — Christ came to call all men, both just and unjust, since he called Nathanael, who was a just man. But the meaning of these words is, I came not to call you, Scribes and Pharisees, who esteem yourselves just, and despise others, and who think you have no need of a physician; but I came to call those who acknowledge themselves sinners. Theophylactus. — Or the meaning may be, “I came not to call the just to penance, of which they have no need;” thus in S. Luke, (c. v.) I came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance. Or again, the meaning may be, I came not to call the just, because there are not just of themselves, and who stand not in need of my coming. S. Paul says, All have sinned, as above. M. — Mercy, and not sacrifice. Christ here prefers mercy to sacrifice; for, as S. Ambrose says, there is no virtue so becoming a Christian as mercy, but chiefly mercy to the poor. For if we give money to the poor, we at the same time give him life: if we clothe the naked, we adorn our souls with the robe of justice: if we receive the poor harbourless under our roof, we shall at the same time make friends with the saints in heaven, and shall afterwards be received by them into their eternal habitations. S. Ambrose. — I will have mercy and not sacrifice: these words occur in the prophet Osee, c. vi. The Pharisees thought they were making a great sacrifice, and acceptable to God, by breaking off all commerce with sinners; but God prefers the mercy of the charitable physician, who frequents the company of sinners; but merely to cure them. V.