Daily Bible Readings Monday March 2 2009 First Week of Lent

March 2 2009 Monday First Week of Lent
Saint of the Day – St. Agnes of Bohemia

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/030209.shtml

Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18
Douay-Rheims Challoner

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel. And thou shalt say to them: Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy.

• You shall not steal. You shall not lie: neither shall any man deceive his neighbour.
• Thou shalt not swear falsely by my name, nor profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord.
• Thou shalt not calumniate thy neighbour, nor oppress him by violence.
• The wages of him that hath been hired by thee shall not abide with thee until the morning.
• Thou shalt not speak evil of the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind: but thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, because I am the Lord.
• Thou shalt not do that which is unjust, nor judge unjustly. Respect not the person of the poor: nor honour the countenance of the mighty. But judge thy neighbour according to justice.
• Thou shalt not be a detractor nor a whisperer among the people. Thou shalt not stand against the blood of thy neighbour. I am the Lord.
• Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: But reprove him openly, lest thou incur sin through him.
• Seek not revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of thy citizens. Thou shalt love thy friend as thyself. I am the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm 18:8-10, 15 (Ps 19 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls:
the testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones.
The justices of the Lord are right, rejoicing hearts:
the commandment of the Lord is lightsome, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for ever and ever:
the judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves.
And the words of my mouth shall be such as may please:
and the meditation of my heart always in thy sight.
O Lord, my helper and my Redeemer.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 25:31-46
Haydock New Testament

And Jesus said:

And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty: And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand:

Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you clothed me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me.

Then shall the just answer him, saying:

Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee: thirsty, and gave thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in: or naked, and clothed thee? Or when did we see thee sick, or in prison, and came to thee?

And the king answering, shall say to them:

Amen, I say to you: as long as you did it to one of these, my least brethren, you did it to me.

Then shall he say to them also, that shall be on his left hand:

Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink: I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me.

Then shall they also answer him, saying:

Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee?

Then he shall answer them, saying:

Amen, I say to you: as long as you did it not to one of these least ones, neither did you do it to me.

And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.

Haydock Commentary Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 11. Lie. “When no injury is done to another, it is a great question whether a lie can ever be justified. The case would perhaps be easily decided, if we considered the commandments alone, and not the examples,” of those holy men who seem to have sometimes thought it lawful. S. Aug. q. 68. But is it not better to allow that these were under an inculpable mistake, than to defend one fault, because it is not attended with the guilt of another, by hurting others? Even lies of jest and of excuse, are contrary to the gravity and open-dealing of a Christian; and God never speaks of lying without marks of disapprobation. H. — Heb. “you shall not deny, or refuse” to restore, what has been entrusted to you; (Grotius) “nor deal falsely, or extenuate yourselves,” pretending that you cannot give alms. Oleaster.
• Ver. 12. Profane. No greater indignity can be offered to God, than to solicit Him, as it were, to assist us in doing evil, by attesting falsehood. Philo.
• Ver. 13. Morning. Pay what is due to the labourer, immediately, if he desire it. H. — It was customary among the Jews to pay their workmen in the evening. Matt. xx. 8.
• Ver. 14. Deaf. The word Kophos, used by the Sept. means also the dumb, as these defects are generally found in the same person. Nothing can be more base, than to attack those who are unable to defend themselves. Solon forbids anyone “to speak ill of the dead,” though he may receive an injury from his children. Those who undermine and ruin the reputation of the absent, are no less to be condemned.
• Ver. 16. Detracter, whisperer. Heb. rakil, stands for both these terms. Some translate a parasite, a merchant, vilifying the goods of others to enhance the price of his own; or a spy, seeking to discover and laugh at others’ faults. — Neighbour; accusing him wrongfully, to the danger of his life; or lying in wait for him like an assassin. But strive rather to rescue those who are attacked. Those who neglect this duty, are responsible for the consequences, according to the Jews, (Seld. Jur. iv. 3,) and the laws of the Egyptians. Diodor. 1.
• Ver. 17. Openly, is not in the Heb. or other versions. Instead of bearing malice at the heart, we are authorized to demand our right in a legal manner, or to correct in a fraternal matter, the person who may have injured us, lest we incur sin for our neglect, and the offender continue impenitent. Jesus Christ instructs us to do this with as little disturbance as possible. Matt. xviii. 15. Yet public sins must undergo a public correction. 1 Tim. v. 20. S. Aug. ser. 82. Love should regulate our complaints. Id. q. 70.
• Ver. 18. Revenge, by private authority, or out of passion, which the pagans themselves acknowledged was more becoming a brute than a man, feræ est. Muson. Sen. de ira ii. 32. — Citizens. Heb. “observe or lie not in wait.” Sept. “act not with fury against the son of thy people.” C. — Heb. notor, means to upbraid when doing a kindness. — Thy friend. Heb. rehaka, may denote thy neighbour, or any one with whom we have any thing to do. Thus God orders us to love strangers as ourselves, (v. 34,) and to help our enemy. Ex. xxiii. 4. The false insinuations of the Jews are fully exploded by Jesus Christ. Matt. xxii. 39. We must love the offender, but detest the offence. S. Aug. c. Faust. xix. 24. If God required his people to exterminate the Chanaanites, he did not authorized them to entertain any personal animosity against their persons, but they were to act as ministers of his justice. “O Lord, (said Philo very justly) we do not rejoice at the misfortune of our enemy, (Flaccus) having learnt from thy holy laws to compassionate the distress of others. But we thank thee for…delivering us from our afflictions.” C.

Haydock Commentary Matthew 25:31-46

• Ver. 34. Shall the king say to them . . . on his right hand. By setting forth to all the world the good works of his faithful servants, the Sovereign Judge silences the murmurs of the reprobate, who might otherwise object that they had it not in their power to do good. In the same manner, the conduct of the wise virgins was the condemnation of the foolish ones; the diligence of the faithful servant, of the sloth and drunkenness of the idle one; the zeal of the servants who multiplied the talents entrusted to them, of his that hid his talent in the ground; and the fervour of the observers of the commandments, of the negligence and remissness of those who are ever transgressing them. S. Chrys. hom. lxxx. — These works of mercy, says S. Austin, prevail towards life everlasting, and to the blotting out of former sins; in Ps. xlix.
• Ver. 35. For I was hungry, &c. We may take notice, that the wicked at the day of judgment, are said to be condemned for having omitted to perform good works. Wi. — S. Austin, in his 33d sermon, brings a beautiful reason why the kingdom of heaven is bestowed solely upon the works of mercy, and eternal damnation for the neglect of them; viz. because, however just a man may be, still he has failings to atone for, on account of which the kingdom of heaven might be justly denied him: but because he has shewn mercy to his neighbours, he deserves in like manner to have mercy shewn him. But the wicked, not having shewn mercy to their neighbours, nor redeemed their sins by alms-deeds, or the like, are thus delivered up to eternal damnation. Jans. concord. — Jesus Christ only mentions one species of good works, though others may be equally meritorious; for the means of salvation are not precisely the same for all the saints; some are saved by poverty, others by solitude, and each by that virtue which he shall have practiced in the greatest degree of perfection.
• Ver. 36. And you visited me. How easy are the things our Saviour requires at our hands! He will not say at the day of judgment: “I was in prison, and you delivered me; I was sick, and you healed me; but only this, you visited me, you came to me.” S. Chrys. hom. lxxx. — This seems particularly addressed to Christians engaged in the cares of the world, whose salvation principally depends on the practice of works of mercy.
• Ver. 40. As long as you did it to one of these, my least brethren. Can there be a more forcible motive to charity, than the assurance of revelation that the Son of God will accept all good of offices done to the afflicted, as done to himself. This condescension of the part of Jesus Christ, will fill the elect with sentiments of profound admiration and astonishment. — Then with fire in his eyes, and terror in his countenance, he shall say to the wicked: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. It was not originally created for rebellious man; for man was created subsequently to the fall and damnation of the rebel angels: and though he imitated their transgression, the sentence of everlasting burning was reversed by Jesus Christ . . . By his blood man has been redeemed from eternal punishment. If many, notwithstanding, are yet condemned to never-ending flames, they are punished under the quality of the slaves of the devil: for as they have wilfully followed his rebellious example, they must expect with him to participate in his torments. Consult. i. John iii. 8.
• Ver. 41. Prepared for the devil. When Christ invited the just to his heavenly kingdom, he calls it a kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world; a kingdom of inexpressible happiness, which from all eternity he designed for those who he knew would faithfully serve him. But, when he pronounces the sentence of the reprobate, he speaks in a widely different manner. He calls it an everlasting fire, prepared not for them, but for the devils and wicked spirits, their accomplices. They have chosen to cast themselves into it; they must therefore look upon themselves as the authors of all their miseries and sufferings. S. Chrys. hom. lxxx. — The pain of loss is here expressed by depart from me, and the pain of sense by eternal fire. M. and Maldonatus.
• Ver. 42. Gave me not. Jesus Christ chargeth them not here with a want of faith, but with a want of good works. They certainly believed, but they attended not to good works; as if a dead faith, i.e. a faith not working by charity, could bring them to heaven. S. Aug. de fide oper. c. xv. and ad Dulcit. q. 2. ad 4. — Jesus Christ suffers his members to want, in mercy to them, and to afford others an opportunity of shewing their love for him, and of redeeming their sins by alms-deeds, as was said to the king of the Chaldeans, peccata tua eleemosynis redime. Dan. iv.
• Ver. 46. Everlasting punishment. The rewards and torments of a future life are declared by Jesus Christ, who is truth itself, to be eternal. Let no one be found to argue hence against the goodness and mercy of God, for punishing sins committed in time with punishments that are eternal. For 1. according to human laws, we see forgery and other crimes punished by death, which is in some measure an eternal exclusion from society. 2. The will of the sinner is such, that he would sin eternally continuing if he could; it is an eternal God, a God of infinite majesty, who is offended. He essentially hates sin; and as, in hell there is no redemption, the sin eternally continuing, the hatred God bears to sin must eternally continue, and with it eternal punishment. The doctrine of those who pretend, with Origen, to question the eternity of the duration of hell’s torments; who can say with him, video infernum quasi senescentum, must encourage vice and embolden the sinner; for if the conviction of eternal torments is not capable to restrain his malice, the doctrine of temporal punishment would be a much lest restraint. The present world would not be habitable, were there nothing for the wicked to apprehend after this life. There are many questions often proposed with regard to the situation and nature of hell-fire, &c. &c. &c. but in all these and similar objects of curiosity, it is best to adhere to the sage reflection of S. Austin: “When we dispute upon a point very obscure, without any clear and certain documents from the holy Scripture, the presumption of man should stop short, and lean not more to one than the other side.” l. ii. de pecc. meritis et remiss. c. xxxvi. ep. 190. ad Optat. c. v. No. 16. —— On a recapitulation of this long and most interesting discourse, we may observe, that in the first place, it treats of those wars and persecutions which are to happen in the latter ages of the world; that it next proceeds to describe the heresies and schisms among Christians; the general propagation of the gospel; the great apostacy at the time of the Antichrist; and lastly, the grand and closing scene of the day of judgment. Thus these grand and momentous events are intimately connected with each other, and all materially regard the Church of Christ.