Daily Bible Readings Wednesday February 18 2009 Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

February 18 2009 Wednesday Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – Blessed John of Fiesole

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/021809.shtml

Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22
Douay-Rheims Challoner

And after that forty days were passed, Noe opening the window of the ark, which he had made, sent forth a raven: Which went forth and did not return, till the waters were dried up upon the earth. He sent forth also a dove after him, to see if the waters had now ceased upon the face of the earth. But she not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him into the ark: for the waters were upon the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and caught her, and brought her into the ark. And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark. And she came to him in the evening carrying a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves, in her mouth. Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days: and he sent forth the dove, which returned not any more unto him.

Therefore in the six hundredth and first year, the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were lessened upon the earth, and Noe opening the covering of the ark, looked, and saw that the face of the earth was dried. And Noe built an altar unto the Lord: and taking of all cattle and fowls that were clean, offered holocausts upon the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said:

I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done. All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.

Responsorial Psalm LXX 115:3-6, 9-10 (Ps 116:12-15, 18-19 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

What shall I render to the Lord,
for all the things that he hath rendered to me?
I will take the chalice of salvation;
and I will call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord before all his people:
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
I will pay my vows to the Lord in the sight of all his people:
In the courts of the house of the Lord,
in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Mark 8:22-26
Haydock New Testament

And they came to Bethsaida: and they bring to him a blind man, and they besought him to touch him. And taking the blind man by the hand, he led him out of the town: and spitting upon his eyes, laying his hands on him, he asked him if he saw any thing. And looking up, he said:

I see men, as trees, walking.

After that he laid his hands again upon his eyes, and he began to see, and was restored, so that he saw all things clearly. And he sent him to his house; saying:

Go into thy house, and if thou enter into the town, tell no body.

Haydock Commentary Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 7. Did not return. The negotiation Not, is not to be found in any Hebrew copy now extant; though it is still retained by the Septuagint, and several Latin manuscripts, according to the testimony of Liranus. If we add here, therefore, to the Hebrew text, we must translate it with S. Jerom, thus; It went forth, going and returning, (Egredicbatur exiens et revertens,) sometimes repairing to the mountains, where it found carcasses to feed on, and at other times returning not unto the ark, but to rest upon the top of it. E. Ch. — Or receded farther from it; as the Hebrew may be explained, agreeably to the Vulgate, Sept. Syr. &c. which admit the negation. C. — Till, as long as the waters covered the earth, not that it returned to the ark afterwards. M.
• Ver. 9. Whole earth, excepting the mountains; so that the dove presently returned. H.
• Ver. 11. Green leaves. The olive tree preserves its verdure and grows even at the bottom of the Red sea, and other seas in the East. Plin. xii. 25. — Many other trees and seeds will live for a long time under the waters. C. — This tender branch of the olive seems to agree better with the spring than autumn; whence Tirin infers, that the deluge began and ended in spring.
• Ver. 13. Year of Noe’s age, who, we may suppose, was born on the first day of the year. So that his 601st year corresponds with the 1657th of the world, B.C. 2343, on which day the deluge ended. Still Noe waited for God’s order to leave the ark till the 27th of the ensuing month, when the earth was more perfectly dried. H. — Covering. Some think that the window was at the top, like a sky-light. C.
• Ver. 20. Holocausts, or whole burnt offerings. In which the whole victim was consumed by fire upon God’s altar, and no part was reserved for the use of priest or people. Ch. — This is the first time we read of an altar, though Abel had surely made use of one. M. — Noe delays not to shew his gratitude to God. S. Amb. W.
• Ver. 21. Smelled, &c. A figurative expression, denoting that God was pleased with the sacrifices which his servant offered, (Ch.) and in this sense it is expressed in the Chaldee, “God received his offering gratefully.” God requires sacrifices of us, to testify his dominion, and not for any advantage he derives from them; but rather to bless us, if we perform our duty with fervour. — For the sake of, or on account of men’s sins. They are so prone to evil, that, if I were to punish them as often as they deserve, new deluges might be sent every day. I take pity on their weakness. I will punish the most criminal, but not as I have done, by cursing the earth. These words of God, are by some addressed to Noe, by others to God the Son. Heb. “he said to his heart;” Onkelos, “he said in his word;” Sept. “he said with reflection.” C. — Noe was beloved by God, and therefore may be called his heart. To speak to the heart, often means to comfort. H.
• Ver. 22. Seed-time, according to the Targum of Jonathan, is the equinox of September; harvest, that of March; winter and summer denote the solstice of December and of June. But the Hebrews probably divided the year into summer and winter; or perhaps they might also admit the season of spring, with the Egyptians and the ancient Greeks, who represented the seasons by the three hours, daughters of Jupiter. C.

Haydock Commentary Mark 8:22-26

• Ver. 23. It may be asked, why our Lord led the man from the multitude before he cured him? — It may be answered, that he did it not to seem to perform his prodigies through vain glory; and thence to teach us to shun the empty praises of men: 2dly, to facilitate recollection, and to give himself to prayer, before he cured the blind man; and lastly, he went out of the city because the inhabitants of Bethsaida had already rendered themselves unworthy of the miracles of Christ. For among them our Saviour had wrought many miracles, yet they would not believe. S. Matt. xi. 21. Tir. Theophy. — Dionysius says, that Jesus led him from the multitude to shew that if a sinner, figured by the blind man, wishes to be converted from his evil ways, he must first leave all immediate occasions and inducements to sin. D. Diony.
• Ver. 24. Man[1] as trees walking. In the Latin text, walking may agree either with men, or with trees, but the Greek shews that walking must be referred to men. Perhaps Christ restored sight in this manner to the man by degrees, to make him more sensible of the benefit; or to teach us how difficult is a sinner’s conversion; of which this was a figure. Wi.
• Ver. 25. Our Saviour made use of exterior signs in the performance of his miracles to command attention, and to signify the inward effects of the favours grants: these the Catholic Church, after the example of her Founder and Model, also uses in the celebration of her sacraments, and for the same purposes. Nor ought any supercilious and superficial reasoner to undervalue and contemn the corporal and external application of holy things, under the hollow plea, that we are exclusively to attend to the spirit and faith.