Daily Bible Readings Ash Wednesday February 25 2009

February 25 2009 Ash Wednesday
Go get your ashes…

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/022509.shtml

Joel 2:12-18
Douay-Rheims Challoner

Now, therefore, saith the Lord. Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and mourning.
And rend your hearts, and not your garments and turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil. Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God?
Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, Gather together the people, sanctify the church, assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones, and them that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from his bed, and the bride out of her bridal chamber. Between the porch and the altar the priests, the Lord’s ministers, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people: and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathens should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God? The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared his people.

Responsorial Psalm 50 LXX/Vulgate 51 Hebrew
Douay-Rheims Challoner – Full Psalm, no Comments

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy.
And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.
Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.
To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee:
that thou mayst be justified in thy words,
and mayst overcome when thou art judged.
For behold I was conceived in iniquities;
and in sins did my mother conceive me.
For behold thou hast loved truth:
the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom
thou hast made manifest to me.
Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed:
thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness:
and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.
Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create a clean heart in me, O God:
and renew a right spirit within my bowels.
Cast me not away from thy face;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,
and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.
I will teach the unjust thy ways:
and the wicked shall be converted to thee.
Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall extol thy justice.
O Lord, thou wilt open my lips:
and my mouth shall declare thy praise.
For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it:
with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.
A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit:
a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion;
that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.
Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice,
oblations and whole burnt offerings:
then shall they lay calves upon thy altar.

2 Corinthians 5:20—6:2
Haydock NT

We are, therefore, ambassadors for Christ, God as it were exhorting by us. For Christ, we beseech you, be ye reconciled to God. Him, who knew no sin, he hath made sin for us, that we might be made the justice of God in him.
And we helping, do exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith:

In an accepted time have I heard thee: and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time: behold, now is the day of salvation.

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Haydock NT – Catena Aurea Available for this Gospel reading Click Here

Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall have no reward of your Father, who is in heaven. Therefore when thou dost an alms-deed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth: That thy alms may be in secret, and thy Father, who seeth in secret will repay thee. And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, who love to pray standing in the synagogues, and at the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men: Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father, who seeth in secret, will reward thee.

And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear fasting to men. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face, That thou appear not fasting to men, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee.

Haydock Commentary Joel 2:12-18

• Ver. 12. Mourning. For moving the heart to repentance these external works are requisite, at least in will: if they be wilfully omitted, it is a sure sign that the heart is not moved. S. Jerome. W.
• Ver. 13. Garments, as was customary in great distress. God will not be satisfied with mere external proofs of repentance. C.—Evil. He will forego his threats if we do penance. S. Jer.—He punishes unwillingly. Is. xxviii. 21.
• Ver. 14. Who knoweth. Confidence in God and repentance must accompany prayer.—Blessing; plentiful crops, so that the usual sacrifices may be performed again. C. i. 9.
• Ver. 15. Trumpet. Thus were festivals announced. Num. x. 7.
• Ver. 16. Sanctify. Let all make themselves ready to appear.—Ones. Their cries would make an impression on men, and prevail on God to shew mercy. Judith. iv. 9.
• Ver. 17. Altar of holocausts. They turned towards the holy place, lying prostrate. 1 Esd. x. 1. and 2 Mac. x. 26. C.—Hither the victim of expiation was brought, and the high priest confessed. Maimon.—Over them, as they might easily have done during the famine. C.
• Ver. 18. Zealous. Indignation is excited when a person perceives any thing contemned which he loves. So God resented the injuries done maliciously by the Gentiles otwards his people; though he often punished them for their correction or greater merit. W.—He will resent the blasphemies uttered by infidels against his holy name, and will restore fertility to the land. C.

Haydock Commentary 2 Corinthians 5:20—6:2

• Ver. 20. Be not deaf to this voice, harden not your hearts, suffer yourselves to be moved to the charity of God: it is immense, it is infinite. V.
• Ver. 21. Him (Christ) who knew no sin, (who had never sinned, nor was capable of sinning) he (God) hath made sin for us. I had translated, with some French translators, he hath made a sacrifice for sin, as it is expounded by S. Augustin and many others, and grounded upon the authority of the Scriptures, in which the sacrifices for sins are divers times called sins, as Osee (Hosea) iv. 8. and in several places in Leviticus, by the Hebrew word Chattal, which signifies a sin, and is translated a victim for sin. But as this is not the only interpretation, and that my design is always a literal translation of the text, not a paraphrase, upon second thoughts I judged it better to follow the very words of the Greek, as well as of the Latin text. For besides the exposition already mentioned, others expound these words, him he hath made sin for us, to signify that he made Christ like unto sinners, a mortal man, with the similitude of sin. Others that he made him reputed a sinner; with the wicked was he reputed; (Mar. xv. 28) God having laid upon him all our iniquities. Isaiah liii. 6.—That we might be made the justice of God in him; that is, that we might be justified and sanctified by God’s sanctifying grace, and the justice we receive from him. Wi.—Sin for us. That is, to be a sin-offering, a victim for sin. Ch.
• Ver. 1. We helping, or in the Greek, working together, that is, with God, as employed by him, or as his ministers, and ambassadors, we exhort you not to receive the grace of God in vain, by resisting his interior graces, by an idle, or a wicked life. Wi.
• Ver. 2. Now is the day of salvation, by the coming of your Redeemer. Wi.

Haydock Commentary Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

• Ver. 1. Your justice; in the common Greek copies, your alms, which seems to be the sense in this place. Wi.—Hereby it is plain that good works are justice, and that man doing them doth justice, and is thereby just and justified, and not by faith only. All which justice of a Christian man, our Saviour here compriseth in the three eminent good works, alms deeds, prayer and fasting. Aug. l. perf. just. c. viii. So that to give alms is to do justice, and the works of mercy are justice. Aug. in ps. xlix, v. 5. B.—S. Gregory says, that the man who by his virtuous actions would gain the applause of men, quite at an easy rate a treasure of immense value; for, with what he might purchase the kingdom of heaven, he only seeks to acquire the transitory applause of mortals. This precept of Christ, says S. Chrysostom, beautifully evinces the solicitude and unspeakable goodness of God, lest we should have the labour of performing good works, and on account of evil motives be deprived of our reward. Hom. xix. “Shut up alms in the heart of the poor.” Eccles. xxix. 15.
• Ver. 2. This must be understood figuratively, that we must avoid all ostentation in the performance of our good works. Many respectable authors are of opinion, that it was customary with the Pharisees and other hypocrites, to assemble the poor they designed to relieve by sound of trumpet. M.—Let us avoid vain glory, the agreeable plunderer of our good works, the pleasant enemy of our souls, which presents its poison to us under the appearance of honey. S. Bas.
• Ver. 3. Be content to have God for witness to your good works, who alone has power to reward you for them. They will be disclosed soon enough to man, when at the day of general retribution the good and the evil will be brought to light, and every one shall be rewarded according to his works. A.
• Ver. 4. This repaying or rewarding of good works, so often mentioned here by Jesus Christ, clearly evinces that good works are meritorious, and that we may do them with a view to a reward, as David did, propter retributionem. A.
• Ver. 5. Hypocrisy is forbidden in all these three good works of justice, but not the doing of them openly for the glory of God, the edification of our neighbour, and our own salvation. Let your light so shine before men, i.e. let your work be so done in public, that the intention remain in secret. S. Greg.
• Ver. 6. Because he who should pray in his chamber, and at the same time desire it to be known by men, that he might thence receive vain glory, might truly be said to pray in the street, and sound a trumpet before him: whilst he, who though he pray in public, seeks not thence any vain glory, acts the same as if he prayed in his chamber. M.—Jesus Christ went up to the temple, to attend public worship on the festival days.
• Ver. 16. He condemns not public fasts as prescribed to the people of God, (Jud. xx. 26. 2 Esdras ix. Joel ii. 15. John iii.) but fasting through vain glory, and for the esteem of men. B.
• Ver. 17. The forty days’ fast, my dear brethren, is not an observance peculiar to ourselves; it is kept by all who unite with us in the profession of the same faith. Nor is it without reason that the fast of Christ should be an observance common to all Christians. What is more reasonable, than that the different members should follow the example of the head. If we have been made partakers with him of good, why not also of evil. Is it generous to exempt ourselves from every thing that is painful, and with to partake with him in all that is agreeable? With such dispositions, we are members unworthy of such a head….. Is it much for us to fast with Christ, who expect to sit at the table of his Father with him? Is it much for the members to suffer with the head, when we expect to be made one day partakers with him glory? Happy the man who shall imitate such a Master. He shall accompany him whithersoever he goes. S. Bern. Serm, in Quad.—Wherefore, my dear brethren, if the taste only has caused us to offend God, let the taste only fast, and it will be enough. But if the other members also have sinned, let them also fast. Let the eye fast, if it has been the cause of sin to the soul; let the ear fast, the tongue, the hand, and the soul itself. Let the eye fast from beholding objects, which are only calculated to excite curiosity and vanity; that being now humbled, it may be restrained to repentance, which before wandered in guilt. Let the ear fast from listening to idle stories and words that have no reference to salvation. Let the tongue fast from detraction and murmuring, from unprofitable and sacrilegious discourse; sometimes also, out of respect to holy silence, from speaking what appears necessary and profitable. Let the hand also fast from useless works, and from every action that is not commanded. But above all, let the soul fast from sin and the doing of its own will. Without these fasts, all others will not be accepted by the Lord. S. Bern. Serm. 2. de Jejun. Quad.—Fast from what is in itself lawful, that you may receive pardon for what you have formerly done amiss. Redeem an eternal fast by a short and transitory one. For we have deserved hell fire, where there will be no food, no consolation, no end; where the rich man begs for a drop of water, and is not worthy to receive it. A truly good and salutary fast, the observance of which frees us from eternal punishment, by obtaining for us in this life the remission of our sins. Nor is it only the remission of former transgressions, but likfewise a preservative against future sin, by meriting for us grace to enable us to avoid those faults we might otherwise have committed. I will add another advantage, which results from fasting, one which I hope I am not deceived in saying you have frequently experienced. It gives devotion and confidence to prayer. Observe how closely prayer and fasting are connected. Prayer gives us power to fast, fasting enables us to pray. Fasting gives strength to our prayer, prayer sanctifies our fast, and renders it worthy of acceptance before the Lord. S. Bern. Serm. de Orat. & Jejun (last word unintelligible – I guessed)