Daily Bible Readings Saturday February 14 2009 Memorial of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius

February 14 2009 Saturday Memorial of Saint Cyril, monk, and Saint Methodius, bishop
Saint of the Day – Sts. Cyril and Methodius

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/021409.shtml

Genesis 3:9-24
Douay-Rheims Challoner

And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him:

Where art thou?

And he said:

I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.

And he said to him:

And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?

And Adam said:

The woman, whom thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

And the Lord God said to the woman:

Why hast thou done this?

And she answered:

The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.

And the Lord God said to the serpent:

Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

To the woman also he said:

I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over thee.

And to Adam he said:

Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.

And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, and clothed them. And he said:

Behold Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil: now therefore lest perhaps he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.

And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken. And he cast out Adam: and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Responsorial Psalm 89:2, 3-4abc, 5-6, 12-13 (Ps 90 NAB/Hebrew)
DR Challoner Text Only

Before the mountains were made,
or the earth and the world was formed;
from eternity and to eternity thou art God.
Turn not man away to be brought low:
and thou hast said: Be converted, O ye sons of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday, which is past.
And as a watch in the night,
Things that are counted nothing, shall their years be.
In the morning man shall grow up like grass;
in the morning he shall flourish and pass away:
in the evening he shall fall, grow dry, and wither.
Can number thy wrath? So make thy right hand known:
and men learned in heart, in wisdom.
Return, O Lord, how long?
and be entreated in favour of thy servants.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Mark 8:1-10
Haydock New Testament

IN those days again, when there was a great multitude, and they had nothing to eat; calling his disciples together, he saith to them:

I have compassion on the multitude: for behold they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint in the way; for some of them came from afar off.

And his disciples answered him:

From whence can any one satisfy them here with bread in the wilderness?

And he asked them:

How many loaves have ye?

And they said:

Seven.

And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and taking the seven loaves, giving thanks, he broke, and gave to his disciples to set before them, and they set them before the people. And they had a few little fishes: and he blessed them, and commanded them to be set before them. And they did eat and were filled, and they took up that which was left of the fragments, seven baskets. And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away. And immediately going up into a ship with his disciples, he came into the parts of Dalmanutha.

Haydock Commentary Genesis 3:9-24
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 9. Where. In what state have thy sins placed thee, that thou shouldst flee from thy God? S. Amb. C. 14. Some think it was the Son of God who appeared on this occasion, S. Aug. &c. or an Angel. C.
• Ver. 10. Afraid. The just man is first to accuse himself: but Adam seeks for excuses in his sin: he throws the blame on his wife, and ultimately on God. M. — Thou gavest me. Heretics have since treated the Sovereign Good with the like insolence; saying plainly, that God is the author of sin, and that the crime of Judas is no less his work than the conversion of S. Paul. See Calvin’s works, and many of the first reformers, Luther, &c. cited. Ex. 8. 15. H.
• Ver. 13. The serpent, which thou hast made so cunning, and placed with us, deceived me. God deigns not to answer their frivolous excuses. M.
• Ver. 14. Cursed. This curse falls upon the natural serpent, as the instrument of the devil; who is also cursed at the same time by the Holy Ghost. What was natural to the serpent and to man in a state of innocence, (as to creep, &c. to submit to the dominion of the husband, &c.) becomes a punishment after the fall. S. Chrys. — There was no enmity, before, between man and any of God’s creatures; nor were they noxious to him. T. — The devil seems now to crawl, because he no longer aspires after God and heavenly things, but aims at wickedness and mean deceit. M.
• Ver. 15. She shall crush. Ipsa, the woman: so divers of the fathers read this place, conformably to the Latin: others read it ipsum, viz. the seed. The sense is the same: for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman crushes the serpent’s head. Ch. — The Hebrew text, as Bellarmine observes, is ambiguous: He mentions one copy which had ipsa instead of ipsum; and so it is even printed in the Hebrew interlineary edition, 1572, by Plantin, under the inspection of Boderianus. Whether the Jewish editions ought to have more weight with Christians, or whether all the other MSS. conspire against this reading, let others inquire. The fathers who have cited the old Italic version, taken from the Sept. agree with the Vulgate, which is followed by almost all the Latins; and hence we may argue with probability, that the Sept. and the Hebrew formerly acknowledged ipsa, which now moves the indignation of Protestants so much, as if we intended by it to give any divine honour to the blessed Virgin. We believe, however, with S. Epiphanius, that “it is no less criminal to vilify the holy Virgin, than to glorify her above measure.” We know that all the power of the mother of God is derived from the merits of her Son. We are no otherwise concerned about the retaining of ipsa, she, in this place, that in as much as we have yet no certain reason to suspect its being genuine. As some words have been corrected in the Vulgate since the Council of Trent by Sixtus V. and others, by Clement VIII. so, if, upon stricter search, it be found that it, and not she, is the true reading, we shall not hesitate to admit the correction: but we must wait in the mean time respectfully, till our superiors determine. H. Kemnitzius certainly advanced a step too far, when he said that all the ancient fathers read ipsum. Victor, Avitus, S. Aug. S. Greg. &c. mentioned in the Douay Bible, will convict him of falsehood. Christ crushed the serpent’s head by his death, suffering himself to be wounded in the heel. His blessed mother crushed him likewise, by her co-operation in the mystery of the Incarnation; and by rejecting, with horror, the very first suggestions of the enemy, to commit even the smallest sin. S. Bern. ser. 2, on Missus est. “We crush,” says S. Greg. Mor. 1. 38, “the serpent’s head, when we extirpate from our heart the beginnings of temptation, and then he lays snares for our heel, because he opposes the end of a good action with greater craft and power.” The serpent may hiss and threaten; he cannot hurt, if we resist him. H.
• Ver. 16. And thy conceptions. Sept. “thy groaning.” The multifarious sorrows of childbearing, must remind all mothers (the blessed Virgin alone excepted) of what they have incurred by original sin. If that had not taken place, they would have conceived with out concupiscence, and brought forth without sorrow. S. Aug. C. D. xiv. 26. — Conceptions are multiplied on account of the many untimely deaths, in our fallen state. Power, which will sometimes be exercised with rigor. H. — Moses here shews the original and natural subjection of wives to their husbands, in opposition to the Egyptians, who, to honour Isis, gave women the superiority by the marriage contract. Diod. i. 2. C.
• Ver. 17. Thy work, sin; thy perdition is from thyself: this is all that man can challenge for his own. H.
• Ver. 18. Thorns, &c. These were created at first, but they would have easily been kept under: now they grow with surprising luxuriancy, and the necessaries of life can be procured only with much labour. All men here are commanded to work, each in his proper department. The Jews were careful to teach their children some trade or useful occupation. S. Paul made tents, and proclaims, If any man will not work, neither let him eat. 2 Thess. iii. 10. C.
• Ver. 19. Dust, as to the visible part; and thy soul created out of nothing. This might serve to correct that pride, by which Adam had fallen; and the same humbling truths are repeated to us by the Church every Ash-Wednesday, to guard us against the same contagion, the worm of pride, to which we are all so liable. Thus Adam was again assured that he should die the death, with which God had threatened him, and which the devil had told Eve would not be inflicted. V. 4. God created man incorruptible, (inexterminabilem, immortal). But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world. Wisdom ii. 23. H.
• Ver. 20. The living. Heb. chai, one who brings forth alive, (Symmachus) or one who imparts life, in which she was a figure of the blessed Virgin. C. — Adam gives his wife this new name, in gratitude for not being cut off by death on the very day of his transgression, as he had every reason to expect and fear he would have been. C. ii. 17. H. — The printed Hebrew reads here, and in many other place, Eva, he, instead of Eja, she; thus, He was the mother, v. 12. he gave, &c. an inaccuracy unknown to the Samar. and the best MS. copies. Kennicott.
• Ver 21. Of skins, which Adam took from the beasts which he offered in sacrifice to his merciful Judge, testifying thereby that he had forfeited his life, and uniting himself to that sacrifice of the woman’s promised seed, by which alone he believed the sin of the world was to be expiated. H.
• Ver. 22. Behold Adam, &c. This was spoken by way of reproaching him with his pride, in affecting a knowledge that might make him like to God. Ch. — “These are the words of God, not insulting over man, but deterring others from an imitation of his pride.” S. Aug. de Gen. xi. 39. — For ever. The sentence is left imperfect: (C.) but by driving man from Paradise, God sufficiently shewed how he would prevent from eating of the tree of life, (H.) which Adam had not yet found. As he was now condemned to be miserable on earth, God, in mercy, prevented him from tasting of that fruit, which would have rendered his misery perpetual. M. — He would suffer him to die, that, by death, he might come, after a life of 930 years, spent in sorrow and repentance, to the enjoyment of himself. H. — Lest perhaps. God does not exercise his absolute power, or destroy free-will, but makes use of ordinary means and precautions, to effect his designs. S. Aug. W.
• Ver. 24. Cherubims. Angels of the highest order, and of a very complex figure, unlike any one living creature. Theodoret supposes that God forced Adam to retire from that once charming abode, by the apparition of hideous spectres. The devils were also hindered from coming hither, lest they should pluck the fruit of the tree of life, and by promising immortality, should attract men to their service. The flaming sword, might be a fire rising out of the earth, of which Grotius thinks the pits, near Babylon, are still vestiges. These dreadful indications of the divine wrath would probably disappear, when Paradise had lost its superior beauty, and become confounded with the surrounding countries — Thus we have seen how rapidly Moses describes the creation of all things, the fall of man, and the promised redemption. But in these few lines, we discover a solution of the many difficulties which have perplexed the learned, respecting these most important subjects. We know that the world is not the effect of chance, but created and governed by divine Providence. We are no longer at the loss to explain the surprising contrast of good and evil, observable in the same man. When we have attentively considered the Old Adam and the New, we find a clue to lead us through all the labyrinths of our Holy Religion. We could wish, perhaps, for a greater detail in Moses, but he left the rest to be supplied by tradition. He has thrown light enough upon the subjects, to guide the well-disposed, and has left sufficient darkness to humble and to confound the self-conceited and wicked, who loved darkness rather than the light. C. — Concerning the transactions of these early times, parents would no doubt be careful to instruct their children, by word of mouth, before any of the Scriptures were written; and Moses might derive much information from the same source, as a very few persons formed the chain of tradition, when they lived so many hundred years. Adam would converse with Mathusalem, who knew Sem, as the latter lived in the days of Abram. Isaac, Joseph, and Amram, the father of Moses, were contemporaries: so that seven persons might keep up the memory of things which had happened 2500 years before. But to entitle these accounts to absolute authority, the inspiration of God intervenes; and thus we are convinced, that no word of sacred writers can be questioned. H.

Haydock Commentary Mark 8:1-10

• Ver. 8. After the multitude had eaten and were filled, they did not take the remains; but these the disciples collected, as in the former miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. By this circumstance we are taught to be content with what is sufficient, and to seek no unnecessary supplies. We may likewise learn from this stupendous miracle the providence of God and his goodness, who sends us not away fasting, but wishes all to be nourished and enriched with his grace. Theoph. — Thus does our Lord verify in his works what he has promised in his instructions; that if we will seek in the first instance the kingdom of God and his justice, that all necessary things shall be added unto us. By the gathering up of the fragments that remained, he not only made the miracle more striking to the multitude and to the apostles, but has also left us a practical lesson, how, in the midst of plenty, which proceeds from the munificence of heaven, we must suffer no waste. A.
• Ver. 9. S. Mat. (xv. 38.) adds, without counting either the women or the children.
• Ver. 10. Dalmanutha. S. Mat. (xv. 39.) has, to the borders of Magedan; in Greek, Magdala, or Magedan. These were two towns beyond the sea of Galilee, situated near each other; it is of little consequence which of these names the Evangelists mention; perhaps our Saviour visited both. Tir. — The major part of commentators, if we can believe the Bible of Vence, take Magedan, or Magdala, to be the the town of that name situated to the east of the lake of Tiberias, in the vicinity of Gerasa, and Dalmanutha to be the name of that part of the country in which these two towns were situated. V. — Polus in his Synopsis Criticorum, (vol. iv. p. 410.) gives three explanations for the discrepance of the names in SS. Matthew and Mark: 1. Idem locus erat binominis, the same place might have two names. 2. Propiqua erant loca, the places were near. 3. Alterum erat regio, alterum vicus, the one was the name of the territory, the other of the town or village; and concludes with asserting from Jewish authorities, that it was the same territory in which the two villages Magedan and Dalmanutha were situated; so that it miht be known by either name, as we find the territory of Gadara and of Gergesæ is one and the same. Polus.

Catena Aurea Mark 8:1-10
From Catechetics Online

• Theophylact: After the Lord had performed the former miracle concerning the multiplication of the loaves, now again, a fitting occasion presents itself, and He takes the opportunity of working a similar miracle.
• Wherefore it is said, “In those days, the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples unto Him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with Me three days, and have nothing to eat.”
• For He did not always work miracles concerning the feeding of the multitude, lest they should follow Him for the sake of food; now therefore He would not have performed this miracle, if He had not seen that the multitude was in danger.
• Wherefore it goes on: “And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.”
• Bede, in Marc., 2, 32: Why they who came from afar hold out for three days, Matthew says more fully: “And He went up into a mountain, and sat down there, and great multitudes came unto Him, having with them many sick persons, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them.” [Matt. 15:29-30]
• Theophylact: The disciples did not yet understand, nor did they believe in His virtue, notwithstanding former miracles; wherefore it continues, “And His disciples said unto Him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?”
• But the Lord Himself does not blame them, teaching us that we should not be grievously angry with ignorant men and those who do not understand, but bear with their ignorance.
• After this it continues, “And He asked them, How many loaves have ye? and they answered, Seven.
• Remig.: Ignorance was not His reason for asking them, but that from their answering, “seven,” the miracle might be noised abroad, and become more known in proportion to the smallness of the number. It goes on: “And He commanded the people to sit down on the ground.” In the former feeding they lay down on grass, in this one on the ground.
• It continues, “And He took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake.” In giving thanks, He has left us an example, that for all gifts conferred on us from heaven we should return thanks to Him. And it is to be remarked, that our Lord did not give the bread to the people, but to His disciples, and the disciples to the people.
• For it goes on, “and gave to His disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.” And not only the bread, but the fish also He blessed, and ordered to be set before them. For there comes after, “And they had a few small fishes: [p. 148] and He blessed, and commanded to set them also before them.”
• Bede: In this passage then we should notice, in one and the same, our Redeemer, a distinct operation of Divinity and of Manhood; thus the error of Eutyches [ed. note: i.e. the Monothelites], who presumes to lay down the doctrine of one only operation in Christ, is to be cast out far from the Christian pale. For who does not here see that the pity of our Lord for the multitude is the feeling and sympathy of humanity; and that at the same time His satisfying four thousand men with seven loaves and a few fishes, is a work of Divine virtue? It goes on, “And they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.”
• Theophylact: The multitudes who ate and were filled did not take with them the remains of the loaves, but the disciples took them up, and they did before the baskets. In which we learn according to the narration, that we should be content with what is sufficient, and not look for any thing beyond. The number of those who ate is put down, when it is said, “And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and He sent them away;” where we may see that Christ sends no one away fasting, for He wishes all to be nourished by His grace.
• Bede: The typical difference between this feeding and the other of the five loaves and two fishes, is, that there the letter of the Old Testament, full of spiritual grace, is signified, but here the truth and grace of the New Testament, which is to be ministered to all the faithful, is pointed out.
• Now the multitude remains three days, waiting for the Lord to heal their sick, as Matthew relates, when the elect, in the faith of the Holy Trinity, supplicate for sins, with persevering earnestness; or because they turn themselves to the Lord in deed, in word, and in thought.
• Theophylact: Or by those who wait for three days, He means the baptized; for baptism is called illumination, and is performed by true immersion.
• Greg., Mor. 1, 19: He does not however wish to dismiss them fasting, lest they should faint by the way; for it is necessary that men should find in what is preached the word of consolation, lest hungering through want of the food of truth, they sink under the toil of this life.
• Ambrose, in Luc., 6, 73: The good Lord indeed whilst He requires diligence, gives strength; nor will He dismiss them fasting, “lest they faint by the way,” that is, either in the course of this life, or before they have reached the fountainhead of life, that is, the Father, and have learnt that Christ is of the Father, lest haply, after receiving that He is born of a virgin, they begin to esteem His virtue not that of God, but of a man.
• Therefore the Lord Jesus divides the food, and His will indeed is to give to all, to deny none; He is the Dispenser of all things, but if thou refusest to stretch forth thy hand to receive the food, thou wilt faint by the way; nor canst thou find fault with Him, who pities and divides.
• Bede: But they who return to repentance after the crimes of the flesh, after thefts, violence, and murders, come to the Lord from afar; for in proportion as a man has wandered farther in evil working, so he has wandered farther from Almighty God. The believers amongst the Gentiles came from afar to Christ, but the Jews from near, for they had been taught concerning Him by the letter of the law and the prophets. In the former case, however, of the feeding with five loaves, the multitude lay upon the green grass: here, however, upon the ground, because by the writing of the law, we are ordered to keep under the desires of the flesh, but in the New Testament we are ordered to leave even the earth itself and our temporal goods.
• Theophylact: Further, the seven loaves are spiritual discourses, for seven is the number, which points out the Holy Ghost, who perfects all things; for our life is perfected in the number of seven days. [ed. note: The number seven seems to be taken in the Fathers to mean a whole, from the world having been completed in seven days; and St. Ambrose lays it down as a principle of interpretation, in Luc. 7, 95. Theophylact here alludes to the seven ages of man's life; a very similar passage is found in St. Ambrose's 44th Letter, where the whole subject is discussed.]
• Pseudo-Jerome: Or else, the seven loaves are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the fragments of the loaves are the mystical understanding of the first week.
• Bede: For our Lord’s breaking the bread means the opening of mysteries; His giving of thanks shews how great a joy He feels in the salvation of the human race; His giving the loaves to His disciples that they might set them before the people, signifies that He assigns the spiritual gifts of knowledge to the Apostles, and that it was His will that by their ministry the food of life should be distributed to the Church.
• Pseudo-Jerome: The small fishes blessed are the books of the New Testament, for our Lord when risen asks for a piece of broiled fish.
• Or else, in these little fishes, we receive the saints, seeing that in the Scriptures of the New Testament are contained the faith, life, and sufferings of them who, snatched away from the troubled waves of this world, have given us by their example spiritual refreshment.
• Bede: Again, what was over and above, after the multitude was refreshed, the Apostles take up, because the higher precepts of perfection, to which the multitude cannot attain, belong to those whose life transcends that of the generality of the people of God; nevertheless, the multitude is said to have been satisfied, because though they cannot leave all that they possess, nor come up to that which is spoken of virgins, yet by listening to the commands of the law of God, they attain to everlasting life.
• Pseudo-Jerome: Again, the seven baskets are the seven Churches. By the four thousand is meant the year of the new dispensation, with its four seasons. Fitly also are there four thousand, that in the number itself it might be taught us that they were filled with the food of the Gospel.
• Theophylact: Or there are four thousand, that is, men perfect in the four virtues; and for this reason, as being more advanced, they ate more, and left fewer fragments. For in this miracle, seven baskets full remain, but in the miracle of the five loaves, twelve, for there were five thousand men, which means men enslaved to the five senses, and for this reason they could not eat, but were satisfied with little, and many remains of the fragments were over and above.
• Theophylact: After that our Lord had worked the miracle of the loaves, He immediately retires into another spot, lest on account of the miracle, the multitudes should take Him to make Him a king.
• Wherefore it is said, “And straightway He entered into a ship with His disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha.”
• Augustine, de Con. Evan., 2, 51: Now in Matthew we read that He entered into the parts of Magdala [ed. note: Magedam]. But we cannot doubt that it is the same place under another name; for several manuscripts even of St. Mark have only Magdala.