Daily Bible Readings Friday January 16 2009 First Week in Ordinary Time

January 16 2009 Friday First Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – St. Berard and Companions

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/011609.shtml

Hebrews 4:1-5, 11
Haydock New Testament

LET us, therefore, fear, lest perhaps forsaking the promise of entering into his rest, any of you be thought to be wanting. For to us also it hath been declared as well as to them, but the word of hearing did not profit them, not being mixed with the faith of those things which they heard. For we who have believed, shall enter into rest; as he said:

As I have sworn in my wrath: If they shall enter into my rest:

and this when the works from the foundation of the world were finished. For in a certain place he spoke of the seventh day thus: And God rested the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again:

If they shall enter into my rest.

For he who is entered into his rest: he also hath rested from his works, as God from his.

Responsorial Psalm 77:3 and 4bc, 6c-8 (Ps 78 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

How great things have we heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
Declaring the praises of the Lord, and his powers,
and his wonders which he hath done.
They declare them to their children.
That they may put their hope in God
and may not forget the works of God:
and may seek his commandments.
That they may not become like their fathers,
a perverse and exasperating generation.
A generation that set not their heart aright:
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Mark 2:1-12
Haydock New Testament

AND again he entered into Capharnaum after some days. And it was heard that he was in the house, and many came together, so that there was no room, not even at the door: and he spoke to them the word. And they came to him, bringing one sick of the palsy, who was carried by four. And when they could not offer him to him for the multitude, they uncovered the roof where he was: and opening it, they let down the bed wherein the man sick of the palsy lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he saith to the sick of the palsy:

Son, thy sins are forgiven thee.

And some of the Scribes were sitting there, and thinking in their hearts:

Why doth this man speak thus? He blasphemeth. Who can forgive sins, but God only?

Which Jesus presently knowing in his spirit, that they so thought within themselves, saith to them:

Why think you these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the sick of the palsy: Thy sins are forgiven thee: or to say: Arise, take up thy bed, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say to thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house.

And immediately he arose: and taking up his bed, went his way in the sight of all: so that all wondered, and glorified God, saying:

We never saw the like.

Haydock Commentary Hebrews 4:1-5, 11
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 1. Let us, therefore, fear, &c. S. Paul continues his exhortation to them, not to be like the incredulous Jews, and so to be excluded from the place of eternal rest. Wi.
• Ver. 2. To us . . . hath been declared, as well as to them. That is, as the riches of the country of Chanaan, was told by Josue and Caleb to the people, but they would not believe them; so the happiness of the kingdom of heaven has been preached by us to you: but the word they heard (lit. the word of hearing ) did not profit them, not being mixed, or received with faith: let not this be your case. Wi. — As the want of a firm faith was the cause of the punishment of the Israelites, of their privation of a promised inheritance, so Christians will be eternally excluded from the kingdom promised them, unless they steadily believe and obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. The reason who so few profit of the word, is because few take care to meditate on it, to digest it, and as it were, incorporate it with themselves by proper considerations.
• Ver. 3, &c. It is faith that opens heaven; but faith animated by charity, nourished by good works, and perfected by mortification of the senses. God only enters into his rest after the accomplishment of his works, and shall we expect to enter before we accomplish what he has given us to do? Let us fear, but in hoping; let us hope, but in labouring. — The works . . . . were finished.[1] This place is the same, and equally obscure in the Greek as in the Latin text. The apostle here examines what David, as a prophet, could mean, when he said of some: they shall not enter, or, if they shall enter into my rest. His argument is this: David could not prophesy of that rest, by which God, after he had created all things, (Gen.s ii. 2.) is said to have rested the seventh day, when he had finished the works of creation. Nor could David speak of that other time of resting, which was promised and given to the Israelites, when, having conquered all their enemies, they were introduced by Jesus, or Josue, into the promised land of Chanaan; for these two rests were passed long before his prophesy: therefore David must speak of some rest that was to come afterwards, when he said: To-day, if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, &c. Therefore it must needs follow that some day of rest, some sabbatism, as he calls it, after his time, must remain for the people of God, that should not harden their hearts: and from hence he concludes that David had in view that eternal rest of happiness which the Messias was to obtain for us, a rest without end in the kingdom of heaven. — Let us hasten, therefore, or as it is in the Greek, let us make it our endeavour, to gain that place of rest, by our persevering in faith and good works, and take heed not to be excluded with the unbelievers. Wi.

Haydock Commentary Mark 2:1-12

• Ver. 2. Some Greek and Latin copies have, after eight days.
• Ver. 4. Such diligence ought to be used to bring sinners to Christ, by means of the sacraments, as was used to procure for this man, through Christ, the health of his body. B.
• Ver. 5. When Jesus saw their faith. Our Lord is moved to shew mercy to sinners, by the faith and desires, and prayers of others; for this man was not more helpless in his limbs, than in his soul. From this example, we are taught that in sickness the sacraments and helps of the Church, which are the medicines of the soul, should be called for in the first instance; for Christ first healed the sick man’s soul, before he removed his bodily infirmity. We also learn that many diseases originate in sin, and that we are to remove the effect by removing the cause.
• Ver. 10. The Son of man. Jesus Christ here proveth that himself as man, and not as God only, hath power to forgive sins; by this, that he was able to do miracles, and make the sick man suddenly rise; so the apostles and their successors, though they be not God, may in like manner have authority from God to remit sins, not as God, but as God’s ministers, and acting in his name, and vested with his delegated authority. — On earth. This power which the Son of man hath to remit sins on earth, was never taken from him, but is perpetuated in his sacraments and ministers, by whom he still remitteth sins in the Church, and not in heaven only. Relative to sin, there is one court of conscience on earth, and another in heaven, and the judgment of heaven followeth and approveth this on earth; as is plain by the words of our Saviour, to Peter first, and then to all the apostles: Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall by bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. See Matt. xvi. 19. and xviii. 18. Whereupon S. Jerom sayeth: that priests having the keys of the kingdom of heaven, judge in some manner before the day of judgment. Ep. v. ad Heliod; and S. Chrys. more at large, l. iii. de Sacerd.
• Ver. 12. This paralytic is not the same as that mentioned in S. John; for that distressed man had no one to assist him, whereas this person had four; the former was by the side of the Probatica, but the latter in a house at Capharnaum. Theophy.