Daily Bible Readings Thursday January 15 2009 First Week in Ordinary Time

January 15 2009 Thursday First Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – St. Paul the Hermit

About the sources used. The readings on this site are from the Haydock Bible according to the daily Lectionary readings for the American Roman Catholic Church. The Haydock Bible contains traditional Catholic commentary and is free from copyright. Due to verse numbering differences and pastoral deletions in the actual Lectionary, these readings may at times vary from the actual readings.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/011509.shtml

Hebrews 3:7-14
Haydock New Testament

Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith:

To-day, if you shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the desert, Where your fathers tempted me, proved, and saw my works, Forty years: For which cause I was offended with this generation, and I said: They always err in heart. And they have not known my ways, As I have sworn in my wrath: If they shall enter into my rest.

Take heed, brethren, lest perhaps there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God: But exhort one another every day, whilst to-day is named: lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ: yet so if we hold the beginning of his substance firm unto the end.

Responsorial Psalm 94:6-7c, 8-11 (Ps 95 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

Come let us adore and fall down:
and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God:
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.
To day if you shall hear his voice,
harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation,
according to the day of temptation in the wilderness:
where your fathers tempted me,
they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation,
and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways:
so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Mark 1:40-45
Haydock New Testament

And there came a leper to him, beseeching him; and kneeling down, said to him:

If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

And Jesus having compassion on him, stretched forth his hand; and touching him, saith to him:

I will. Be thou made clean.

And when he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was made clean. And he strictly charged him, and forthwith sent him away. And he saith to him:

See thou tell no man: but go, shew thyself to the high priest, and offer for thy cleansing the things that Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.

But he being gone out, began to publish and to blaze abroad the word: so that now he could not go openly into the city, but was without in desert places, and they flocked to him from all sides.

Haydock Commentary Hebrews 3:7-14
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 8. This alludes to the 17th chapter of Exodus, where the history of provocations and contradictions of the Israelites is related at large.
• Ver. 11. As I have sworn in my wrath:[1] if they shall enter into my rest. But if here implies the same as they shall not. See Mar. viii. 12. And that this is the sense here, appears by the 18th verse, where it is expressly said, they should not enter into his rest; i.e. to rest in the land of Chanaan, promised to them. Wi.
• Ver. 12. Take heed, &c. Not to imitate their incredulous obstinacy, lest you never enter into the place of eternal rest, by departing from God by sin. Wi. — To abandon Christ is to abandon God, since Christ is God. He who denies the Son, believes not the Father, who has wrought so many miracles to sanction his mission. 1 John ii. 23. It is of little consequence to eternity whether it be the doctrine of faith or life of faith we reject, if persons are equally lost by either practical or speculative infidelity.
• Ver. 13. To day. The duration of the present life may be accounted but a day, which God destines for the trial of our faith and obedience; we ought, therefore, to labour hard during the short time of the present day, that we may live and reign with God for all eternity. We cannot too often entertain this truth in our hearts, if we wish to square our lives after the gospel. The heart of man becomes insensibly hardened to Christian truths, when its natural corruption is not courageously attacked.
• Ver. 14. You have already been made partakers of the benefits of Christ, at your conversion and baptism, to the beginning of his substance,[2] by which seems to be understood the faith of Christ. Wi. — If to subsist in Jesus Christ, to be washed in his blood, to be animated with his spirit, to be nourished with his flesh, is but a sketch, a seed of that union with him which on a future day is to be effected, how comes it that we are so attached to this earth, how can we hazard for such a mere trifle such immense felicity?

Haydock Commentary Mark 1:40-45

• Ver. 44. It was not the intention of Christ, that he should not tell any body; had that been his wish, he would easily have realized it: he spoke thus purposely, to shew us that we ought not to seek the empty praises of men. He bade him also offer the sacrifices prescribed, because the law remained in full force till the passion of Christ, in which was offered a perfect sacrifice, that did away with all the legal sacrifices. Nic. de Lyra.

Catena Aurea Mark 1:40-45
From Catechetics Online

• Bede, in Marc., i, 7: After that the serpent-tongue of the devils was shut up, and the woman, who was first seduced, cured of a fever, in the third place, the man, who listened to the evil counsels of the woman, is cleansed from his leprosy, that the order of restoration in the Lord might be the same as was the order of the fall in our first parents. Whence it goes on: “And there came a leper to him, beseeching Him.”
• Augustine, de Con. Evan., ii, 19: Mark puts together circumstances, from which one may infer that he is the same as that one whom Matthew relates to have been cleansed, when the Lord came down from the mount, after the sermon. [Mat_8:2]
• Bede, in Marc., i, 9: And because the Lord said that He came “not to destroy the Law but to fulfill,” [Mat_5:17] he who was excluded by the Law, inferring that he was cleansed by the power of the Lord, shewed that grace, which could wash away the stain of the leper, was not from the Law, but over the Law. And truly, as in the Lord authoritative power, so in him the constancy of faith is shewn. For there follows: “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” He falls on his face, which is at once a gesture of lowliness and of shame, to shew that every man should blush for the stains of his life. But his shame did not stifle confession; he shewed his wound, and begged for medicine, and the confession is full of devotion and of faith, for he refers the power to the will of the Lord.
• Theophylact: For he said not, If thou wilt, pray unto God, but, “If Thou wilt,” as thinking Him very God.
• Bede: Moreover, he doubted of the will of the Lord, not as disbelieving His compassion, but, as conscious of his own filth, he did not presume. It goes on; “But Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will, be thou clean.” It is not, as many of the Latins think, to be taken to mean and read, I wish to cleanse thee, but that Christ should say separately, “I will,” and then command , “be thou clean.”
• Chrys., Hom. in Matt., 25: Further, the reason why He touches the leper, and did not confer health upon him by word alone, was, that it is said by Moses in the Law, that he who touches a leper shall be unclean till the evening; that is, that he might shew that this uncleanness is a natural one, that the Law was not laid down for Him, but on account of mere men. Furthermore, He shews that He Himself is the Lord of the Law; and the reason why He touched the leper, though the touch was not necessary to the working of the cure, was to shew that He gives health, not as a servant, but as the Lord.
• Bede: Another reason why He touched him, was to proved that He could not be defiled, who free others from pollution. At the same time it is remarkable, that He healed in the way in which He had been begged to heal. “If Thou wilt,” says the leper, “Thou canst make me clean.” “I will,” He answered, behold, thou hast My will, “be clean;” now thou hast at once the effect of My compassion.
• Chrys., Hom. in Matt., 25: Moreover, by this, not only did He not take away the opinion of Him entertained by the leper, but He confirmed it; for He puts to flight the disease by a word, and what the leper had said in word, He filled up in deed. Wherefore there follows, “And when He had spoken, immediately, &c.”
• Bede: For there is no interval between the work of God and the command, because the work is in the command, for “He commanded, and they were created.” [Psa_148:5] There follows: “And He straitly charged him, and forthwith, &c.” See thou tell no man.”
• Chrys., Hom 25: As if He said, It is not yet time that My works should be preached, I require not thy preaching. By which He teaches us not to seek worldly honour as a reward for our works. It goes on: “But go thy way, shew thyself to the chief of the priests.” Our Saviour sent him to the priest for the trial of his cure, and that he might not be cast out of the temple, but still be numbered with the people in prayer. He sends him also, that he might fulfil all the parts of the Law, in order to stop the evil-speaking tongue of the Jews. He Himself indeed completed the work, leaving them to try it.
• Bede: This He did in order that the priest might understand that the leper was not healed by the Law, but by the grace of God above the Law. There follows: “And offer for thy cleansing what Moses, &c.”
• Theophylact: He ordered him to offer the gift which they who were healed were accustomed to offer, as if for a testimony, that He was not against the Law, but rather confirmed the Law, inasmuch as He Himself worked out the precepts of the Law.
• Bede: If any one wonders, how the Lord seems to approve of the Jewish sacrifice, which the Church rejects, let him remember that He had not yet offered His own holocaust in His passion. And it was not right that significative sacrifices should be taken away before that which they signified was confirmed by the witness of the Apostles in their preaching, and by the faith of the believing people.
• Theophylact: But the leper, although the Lord forbade him disclosed the benefit, wherefore it goes on: “But he having gone out, began to publish and to blaze abroad the tale;” for the person benefitted ought to be grateful, and to return thanks, even though his benefactor requires it not.
• Bede, see Greg., Moral., 19, 22: Now it may well be asked, why our Lord ordered His action to be concealed, and yet it could not be kept hid for an hour? But it is to be observed, that the reason why, in doing a miracle, He ordered it to be kept secret, and yet for all that it was noised abroad, was, that His elect, following the example of His teaching, should wish indeed that in the great things which they do, they should remain concealed, but should nevertheless unwillingly be brought to light for the good of others. Not then that He wished any thing to be done, which He was not able to bring about, but, by the authority of His teaching, He gave an example of what His members ought to wish for, and of what should happen to them even against their will.
• Bede: Further, this perfect cure of one man brought large multitudes to the Lord. Wherefore it is added, “So that He could not any more openly enter into the city, but could only be without in desert places.”
• Chrys.: For the leper every where proclaimed his wonderful cure, so that all ran to see and to believe on the Healer; thus the Lord could not preach the Gospel, but walked in desert places. Wherefore there follows, “And they came together to Him from all places.”
• Pseudo-Jerome: Mystically, our leprosy is the sin of the first man, which began from the head, when he desired the kingdom of the world. For covetousness is the root of all evil; wherefore Gehazi, engaged in an avaritious pursuit, is covered with leprosy.
• Bede: But when the hand of the Saviour, that is, the Incarnate Word of God, is stretched out, and touches human nature, it is cleansed from the various parts of the old error.
• Pseudo-Jerome: This leprosy is cleansed on offering an oblation to the true Priest after the order of Melchisedec; for He tells us, “Give alms of such things as ye have, and, behold, all things are clean unto you.” [Luk_11:41] But in that Jesus could not openly enter into the city, it is meant to be conveyed that Jesus is not manifested to those who are enslaved to the love of praise in the broad highway, and to their own wills, but to those who with Peter go into the desert, which the Lord chose for prayer, and for refreshing His people; that is, those who quit the pleasures of the world, and all that they possess, that they may say, “The Lord is my portion.” But the glory of the Lord is manifested to those, who meet together on all sides, that is, through smooth ways and steep, whom nothing can “separate from the love of Christ.” [Rom_8:35]
• Bede, in Marc., i, 10: Even after working a miracle in that city, the Lord retires into the desert, to shew that He loves best a quiet life, and one far removed from the cares of the world, and that it is on account of this desire, He applied Himself to the healing of the body.