Daily Bible Readings Tuesday February 24 2009 Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

February 24 2009 Tuesday Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – Blessed Luke Belludi

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/022409.shtml

Sirach or Ecclesiasticus 2:1-11
Douay-Rheims Challoner

Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation. Humble thy heart, and endure: incline thy ear, and receive the words of understanding: and make not haste in the time of clouds. Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God, and endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end.

Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience. For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. Believe God, and he will recover thee: and direct thy way, and trust in him. Keep his fear, and grow old therein.

Ye that fear the Lord, wait for his mercy: and go not aside from him lest ye fall. Ye that fear the Lord, believe him: and your reward shall not be made void. Ye that fear the Lord hope in him, and mercy shall come to you for your delight. Ye that fear the Lord, love him, and your hearts shall be enlightened.

My children behold the generations of men: and know ye that no one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded.

Responsorial Psalm 36:3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40 (Ps 37 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

Trust in the Lord, and do good, and dwell in the land,
and thou shalt be fed with its riches.
Delight in the Lord,
and he will give thee the requests of thy heart.
The Lord knoweth the days of the undefiled;
and their inheritance shall be for ever.
They shall not be confounded in the evil time;
and in the days of famine they shall be filled:
Decline from evil and do good,
and dwell for ever and ever.
For the Lord loveth judgment,
and will not forsake his saints:
they shall be preserved for ever.
The unjust shall be punished,
and the seed of the wicked shall perish.
But the salvation of the just is from the Lord,
and he is their protector in the time of trouble.
And the Lord will help them and deliver them:
and he will rescue them from the wicked,
and save them because they have hoped in him.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Mark 9:30-37 (29-36 Haydock/DR)
Haydock New Testament

And departing from thence, they passed through Galilee, and he would not that any man should know it. And he taught his disciples, and said to them:

The Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise again the third day.

But they understood not the word: and they were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capharnaum. And when they were in the house, he asked them:

What did you treat of in the way?

But they held their peace: for in the way they had disputed among themselves, which of them should be the greatest. And sitting down, he called the twelve, and saith to them:

If any man desire to be first, he shall be the last of all, and the servant of all.

And taking a child, he set him in the midst of the them: and when he had embraced him, he saith to them:

Whosoever shall receive one such child as this in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.

Haydock Commentary Sirach Ecclesiasticus 2:1-11
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 1. God. All must be tried. Tob. xii. 13. Heb. xii. 6. Lu. xxiv. 46. But God will grant sufficient grace. 1 Cor. x. 13. C.
• Ver. 2. Humble. Gr. “regulate thy heart, and endure, and make not haste in the time of trouble,” (H.) inflicted by God. Grot. — But not impatient. Is. xxviii. 16. — Clouds. Lit. “overcast,” obductionis. H. — Desire not death, in order to be covered from the miseries of life; for that would (W.) border on despair. H.
• Ver. 3. Patience. Or expectation of being relieved. M.
• Ver. 5. Humiliation. It shews what they really are. C.
• Ver. 10. Enlightened. With joy. Is. lviii. M. — This verse is not in Greek. To avoid such frequent repetitions, it would be well to mark the passage in different characters, (H.) or between crotchets, as in the French version. C. — Yet the Greek editions are not uniform. See Drusius and Hæschel.

Haydock Commentary Mark 9:29-36

• Ver. 31. They could not comprehend what he said; and this not so much through the dulness and stupidity of their understandings, as through their personal affection to him; and because knowing him to be God, they could not conceive how a God could die. Nic. de Lyra.

Catena Aurea Mark 9:30-37
From Catechetics Online

• Theophylact: It is after miracles that the Lord inserts a discourse concerning His Passion, lest it should be thought that He suffered because He could not help it.
• Wherefore it is said, “And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and He would not that any man should know it. For He taught His disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him.”
• Bede, in Marc., 1, 39: He always mingles together sorrowful and joyful things, that sorrow should not by its suddenness frighten the Apostles, but be borne by them with prepared minds.
• Theophylact: After, however, saying what was sorrowful, He adds what ought to rejoice them; wherefore it goes on: “And after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day;” in order that we may learn that joys come on after struggles. There follows: “But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask Him.”
• Bede: This ignorance of the disciples proceeds not so much from slowness of intellect, as from love for the Saviour, for they were as yet carnal, and ignorant of the mystery of the cross, they could not therefore believe that He whom they had recognized as the true God, was about to die; being accustomed then to hear Him often talk in figures, and shrinking from the events of His death, they would have it that something was conveyed figuratively in those things, which He spoke openly concerning His betrayal and passion. It goes on: “And they came to Capernaum.”
• Pseudo-Jerome: Capernaum means the city of consolation, and agrees with the former sentence, which He had spoken: “And after that He is killed, He shall arise the third day.”
• There follows: “And being in the house He asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace.”
• Pseudo-Chrys., Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.: Matthew however says that the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” [Mat_18:1]
• The reason is, that He did not begin the narrative from its commencement, but omitted our Saviour’s knowledge of the thoughts and words of His disciples; unless we understand Him to mean, that even what they thought and said, when away from Christ, was said unto Him, since it was as well known to Him as if it had been said to Him.
• It goes on: “For by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest.” But Luke says [ed. note: Luk_9:46, Vulgate] that “the thought entered into the disciples which of them should be the greatest;” for the Lord laid open their thought and intention from their private discourse according to the Gospel narrative.
• Pseudo-Jerome: It was fit also that they should dispute concerning the chief place by the way; the dispute is like the place where it is held; for lofty station is only entered upon to be quitted: as long as a man keeps it, it is slippery, and it is uncertain at what stage, that is, on what day, it will end.
• Bede: The reason why the dispute concerning the chief place arose amongst the disciples seems to have been, that Peter, James and John, were led apart from the rest into the mountain, and that something secret was there entrusted to them, also that the keys of the kingdom of heaven were promised to Peter, according to Matthew.
• Seeing however the thoughts of the disciples, the Lord takes care to heal the desire of glory by humility; for He first, by simply commanding humility, admonishes them that a high station was not to be aimed at.
• Wherefore it goes on: “And He sat down, and called the twelve and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.”
• Jerome: Where it is to be observed, that the disciples disputed by the way concerning the chief place, but Christ Himself sat down to teach humility; for princes toil while the humble repose.
• Pseudo-Chrys., Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.: The disciples indeed wished to receive honour at the hands of the Lord; they also had a desire to be made great by Christ, for the great a man is, the more worthy of honour he becomes, for which reason He did not throw an obstacle in the way of that desire, but brought in humility.
• Theophylact: For His wish is not that we should usurp for ourselves chief places, but that we should attain to lofty heights by lowliness. He next admonishes them by the example of a child’s innocence. Wherefore there follows, “And He took a child, and set him in the midst of them.”
• Chrys., Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc. see Chrys., Hom. in Matt., 58: By the very sight, persuading them to humility and simplicity; for this little one was pure from envy and vain glory, and from a desire of superiority. But He does not only say, If ye become such, ye shall receive a great reward, but also, if ye will honour others, who are such for My sake.
• Wherefore there follows: “And when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name, receiveth Me.”
• Bede: By which, He either simply shews that those who would become greater must receive the poor of Christ in honour of Him, or He would persuade them to be in malice children, to keep simplicity without arrogance, charity without envy, devotedness without anger. Again, by taking the child into His arms, He implies that the lowly are worthy of his embrace and love.
• He adds also, “In My name,” that they might, with the fixed purpose of reason, follow for His name’s sake that mould of virtue to which the child keeps, with nature for his guide. And because He taught that He Himself was received in children, lest it should be thought that there was nothing in Him but what was seen, He added, “And whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me.;” thus wishing that we should believe Him to be of the same nature and of equal greatness with His Father.
• Theophylact: See, how great is humility, for it wins for itself the indwelling of the Father, and of the Son, and also of the Holy Ghost.