Daily Bible Readings Saturday December 13 2008 Memorial of St Lucy Second Week of Advent

December 13 Saturday Memorial of Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr
Saint of the Day – St. Lucy

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/121308.shtml

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 48:1-4, 9-11
Douay-Rheims Challoner

And Elias the prophet stood up, as a fire, and his word burnt like a torch. He brought a famine upon them, and they that provoked him in their envy, were reduced to a small number, for they could not endure the commandments of the Lord. By the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven, and he brought down fire from heaven thrice. Thus was Elias magnified in his wondrous works. And who can glory like to thee?

Who wast taken up in a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot of fiery horses. Who art registered in the judgments of times to appease the wrath of the Lord, to reconcile the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob. Blessed are they that saw thee, and were honoured with thy friendship.

Responsorial Psalm 79:2ac and 3b, 15-16, 18-19 (Ps 80 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

Give ear, O thou that rulest Israel.
Thou that sittest upon the cherubims, shine forth
Stir up thy might.
Turn again, O God of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see,
and visit this vineyard:
And perfect the same which thy right hand hath planted:
and upon the son of man
whom thou hast confirmed for thyself.
Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand:
and upon the son of man
whom thou hast confirmed for thyself.
And we depart not from thee,
thou shalt quicken us: and we will call upon thy name.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 17:9a, 10-13
Haydock New Testament

And as they came down for the mountain, his disciples asked him, saying:

Why then do the Scribes say that Elias must come first?

But he answering, said to them:

Elias indeed shall come, and restore all things. But I say to you, that Elias is already come, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they had a mind. So also the Son of man shall suffer from them.

Then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them of John the Baptist.

Haydock Commentary Ecclesiasticus 48:1-4, 9-11
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 1. Torch. He was animated with a burning zeal, (M.) like John the Baptist, admonishing kings, &c. Jo. v. 35. Lu. i. 17. C.
• Ver. 2. And they. Gr. “and by his zeal he diminished them. By,” &c. H. — He slew the priests of Baal, and many perished by famine. 4 K. xviii. Grot. C.
• Ver. 3. Heaven. That it should not rain for three years and a-half. 3 K. xvii. 1. — Thrice. First upon his sacrifice, and twice to destroy fifty soldiers. Ib. 38. and 4 K. i. 10. C. W.
• Ver. 10. Jacob. Prot. reject the authority of this book, partly (H.) on account of this (W.) ancient tradition. Enoch and Elias will appear in the days of antichrist, to convert many. The Jews will then agree with the Patriarchs, and embrace the religion of Christ. C. — Elias came in the person of John the Baptist, at the first coming of our Saviour, but he will come in person before his second appearance. H. — The application which Christ makes of the prediction of Malachy (iv. 6.) to the Baptist, does not exclude this more distant accomplishment. Elias is still alive in some part of the world, as well as Enoch, whom S. Aug. styled “the first-born (primogenitor) of our resurrection.” De Civ. Dei. xv. 19. 4 K. ii. 11.
• Ver. 11. Friendship. Like Eliseus, or the disciples of both. C. — Gr. “who slept in love, for we also shall live indeed; (13.) Elias,” &c. H. — When we shall witness thy return, if we prove faithful, we may expect an immortal name, and not otherwise. C. — He speaks in the person of those who shall live at that time. H.

Haydock Commentary Matthew 17:9a, 10-13

• Ver. 10. Elias must come first. The prophet Elias will come again in person before my second coming to judgment, and will re-establish all things, by the conversion of the Jews to the Christian faith, according to the common opinion. But John the Baptist who was Elias in spirit, is already come. See Matt. xi. 14. Wi. — This was a vulgar error spread by the Scribes among the Jewish people. It proceeded from an erroneous interpretation of Scripture. They confounded the two comings of our Saviour. The Baptist was the precursor of Christ at his first coming, and was styled by our Lord Elias, because he performed the office of Elias; and he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias. Luke i. 17. — But this prophet in person will be the precursor of the second coming of Christ. Whereby Malachias, predicting this coming of Christ, says: I will send to you Elias the Thesbite; thus evidently distinguishing him from the Baptist, who was also Elias in spirit and in the dignity of his office. S. Chry. hom. lviii. — Jesus Christ here confirms the literal sense of the prophecy; (Malac. iv. 5,) but in the next verse, he shews a prior, though less perfect accomplishment of the same in the person of John the Baptist, who was raised by God to prepare the ways of the Lord.
• Ver. 11. Shall . . . restore all things. According to S. Chry. Theophylactus, and others, these words signify that Elias shall restore all the Jews to the one true faith towards the end of the world; or, according to S. Augustine, he shall strengthen those that shall be found wavering in the persecution of Antichrist.
• Ver. 12. So also shall the Son of man. Jesus in a most beautiful manner takes advantage of this conversation, to remind them of his future passion, and from the recollection of the sufferings of John, affords them comfort in his own. S. Chry.

Catena Aurea Matthew 17:10-13

• Jerome: It was a tradition of the Pharisees following the Prophet Malachi, that Elias should come before the coming of the Saviour, and bring back the heart of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, and restore all things to their ancient state. The disciples then consider that this transformation which they had seen in the mount was His coming in glory, and therefore it is said, “And his disciples asked him, saying, How then say the Scribes that Elias must first come? As though they had said, If you have already come in glory, how is it that your forerunner appears not yet? And this they say chiefly because they see that Elias is departed again
• Chrys., Hom., lvii: The disciples knew not of the coming of Elias out of the Scriptures; but the Scribes made it known to them; and this report was current among the ignorant multitude, as was that concerning Christ. Yet the Scribes did not explain the coming of Christ and of Elias, as they ought to have done. For the Scriptures speak of two comings of Christ; that which has taken place, and that which is yet to be. But the Scribes, blinding the people, spake to them only of His second coming, and said, If this be the Christ, then should Elias have come before Him. Christ thus resolves the difficulty, He answered and said, “Elias truly shall come, and restore all things; but I say unto you, that Elias has already come.” Think not that here is a contradiction in His speech, if He first say that Elias shall come, and then that he is come. For when He says that Elias shall come and restore all things, He speaks of Elias himself in his own proper person, who indeed shall restore all things, in that he shall correct the unbelief of the Jews, who shall then be to be found; and that is the turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, that is, the hearts of the Jews to the Apostles
• Aug., Quaest Ev., i, 21: Or; “He shall restore all things,” that is those whom the persecution of Antichrist shall have overthrown; as He Himself should restore by His death those whore He ought.
• Chrys.: But if there shall so much good arise out of the presence of Elias, why did He not send him at that time? We shall say, Because they then held Christ to be Elias, and yet believed not on Him. But they shall hereafter believe Elias, because when he shall come after so great expectation announcing Jesus, they will more readily receive what shall be taught by Him. But when He says that Elias is come already, He calls John the Baptist Elias from the resemblance of their ministry; for as Elias shall be the forerunner of His second coming, so was John the forerunner of His first. And He calls John Elias, to shew that His first coming was agreeable to the Old Testament, and to prophecy.
• Jerome: He then who at the Saviour’s second coming should come in the truth of His body, come now in John in power and spirit. It followers, “And they knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they would,” that is, despised and beheaded him.
• Hilary: As he announced the Lord’s coming, so he was also to foreshew His passion by the example of his own suffering and wrong; whence it follows, “So also shall the Son of Man suffer of them.”
• Chrys.: He takes the opportunity from the passion of John to refer to His own passion, thus giving them much comfort.
• Jerome: It is enquired how, seeing that Herod and Herodias were they that killed John, it can be said that Jesus also was crucified by them, when we read that He was put to death by the Scribes and Pharisees! It must be answered briefly, that the party of the Pharisees consented to the death of John, and that in the Lord’s crucifixion Herod united his approval, when having mocked and set Him at nought, he sent Him back to Pilate, that he should crucify Him.
• Raban.: From the mention of His own passion which the Lord had often foretold to them, and from that of His forerunner, which they beheld already accomplished, the disciples perceived that John was set forth to them under the name of Elias; whence it follows; “Then understood the disciples that he spake to them of John the Baptist.”
• Origen: That He says of John, “Elias is already come,” is not to be understood of the soul of Elias, that we fall not into the doctrine of metempsychosis, which is foreign to the truth of Church doctrine, but, as the Angel had foretold, he came “in the spirit and spirit of Elias.”