Daily Bible Readings Wednesday April 1 2009 Fifth Week of Lent

April 1 2009 Wednesday Fifth Week of Lent
Saint of the Day – St. Hugh of Grenoble

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/040109.shtml

Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95
Douay Rheims Challoner

And Nabuchodonosor, the king, spoke to them, and said:

Is it true, O Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, that you do not worship my gods, nor adore the golden statue that I have set up? Now, therefore, if you be ready, at what hour soever, you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, harp, sackbut, and psaltery, and symphony, and of all kind of music, prostrate yourselves, and adore the statue which I have made: but if you do not adore, you shall be cast the same hour into the furnace of burning fire: and who is the God that shall deliver you out of my hand?

Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, answered, and said to king Nabuchodonosor:

We have no occasion to answer thee concerning this matter. For behold our God, whom we worship, is able to save us from the furnace of burning fire, and to deliver us out of thy hands, O king. But if he will not, be it known to thee, O king, that we will not worship thy gods, nor adore the golden statue which thou hast set up.

Then was Nabuchodonosor filled with fury: and the countenance of his face was changed against Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, and he commanded that the furnace should be heated seven times more than it had been accustomed to be heated. And he commanded the strongest men that were in his army, to bind the feet of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, and to cast them into the furnace of burning fire.

Then Nabuchodonosor, the king, was astonished, and rose up in haste, and said to his nobles:

Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?

They answered the king, and said:

True, O king.

He answered, and said:

Behold, I see four men loose, and walking in the midst of the fire, and there is no hurt in them, and the form of the fourth is like the son of God.

Then Nabuchodonosor breaking forth, said:

Blessed be the God of them, to wit, of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that believed in him: and they changed the king’s word, and delivered up their bodies, that they might not serve nor adore any god except their own God.

Responsorial Psalm Daniel 3:52-56
DR Challoner Text Only

Blessed art thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers;
and worthy to be praised, and glorified, and exalted above all for ever:
and blessed is the holy name of thy glory:
and worthy to be praised and exalted above all, in all ages.
Blessed art thou in the holy temple of thy glory:
and exceedingly to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
Blessed art thou on the throne of thy kingdom,
and exceedingly to be praised, and exalted above all for ever.
Blessed art thou that beholdest the depths,
and sittest upon the cherubims:
and worthy to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
Blessed art thou in the firmament of heaven:
and worthy of praise, and glorious for ever.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint John 8:31-42
Haydock New Testament

Then Jesus said to those Jews that believed him:

If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed: And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

They answered him:

We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to any man: how sayest thou, You shall be free?

Jesus answered them:

Amen, amen, I say unto you: that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the son abideth for ever. If, therefore, the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you are the children of Abraham: but you seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do the things that you have seen with your father.

They answered, and said to him:

Abraham is our Father.

Jesus saith to them:

If you be the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you, which I have heard from God: this Abraham did not. You do the works of your father.

They said then to him:

We are not born of fornication: we have one Father, God.

Jesus therefore said to them:

If God were your father, verily you would love me. For I proceeded and came from God: for I came not of myself, but he sent me.

Haydock Commentary Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 15. Hand? Proof of this king’s inconstancy, as he had witnessed the power of God!
• Ver. 18. He. Chal. “not.” C.—By this modest yet resolute answer, they testified their faith in God’s power, and their determination rather to suffer death (W.) than to go against their conscience. H.—They were ignorant whether God would preserve them from the flames or not, (W.) as he is said to have rescued Abraham from a similar danger. 2 Esd. ix. 7.
• Ver. 20. Strongest. Chal. “mighty in strength;” (H.) his own guards, the usual executioners.
• Ver. 91. Then hearing these praises, and seeing people walking in the fire. Grabe’s edit. after v. 24, has only, “And Nabuchodonosor heard them singing hymns, and was,” &c.
• Ver. 92. The son, or rather (H.) “a son;” Lowth’s Gram.—He supposed this was some angel or petty god, like Hercules. Carthus.—It was the same angel who descended (W.) with them v. 49. Some have taken him for Jesus Christ. But S. Aug. observes, that most of these apparitions were made by angels, (Trin. iii. 11.) who are often styled “sons of God.” Job. i. 6. T. C.
• Ver. 95. Changed, refusing to comply against their better knowledge. The force of reason extorts this concession from a wicked king. H.

Haydock Commentary

• Ver. 31. If you persevere in the true faith, and in the observance of my words, you shall be my be my disciples indeed. It is not sufficient to believe; you must likewise do what my words command you to do: nor will it be sufficient to have the true faith for a time; you must persevere in that faith to the end. S. Aug. Ven. Bede. S. Chrys. Theophyl. Euthym. &c.—Faith alone without perseverance, or abiding in God’s commandments, will not suffice. B.
• Ver. 32. And the truth shall make you free. They were affronted at these words, as if he hinted they were slaves, and not a free people. They tell him, therefore, that they were never slaves to any one. They can only pretend this of themselves: for, their forefathers were slaves to the Egyptians, to the Babylonians, &c. and besides they were now the subjects, if not slaves, to the Romans. But Christ speaks of the words of slaveries, and tells them that such as live in sin, are slaves to sin. Wi.
• Ver. 35. Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever, nor has a right to live in that manner as a son and a child of the family has to live in his father’s house. A slave or servant, though he live ever so long in his master’s house, his condition is quite different from that of a son of the family: and thus Christ puts them in mind that though they be of the race of Abraham, and in that sense can pretend to be his children, yet having made themselves slaves to sin, and remaining in that sin, by which they refuse to believe in him, their Messiah, they are not the spiritual children of Abraham, nor can they inherit the promises made to Abraham, till, by the grace of Christ, they believe in him, and become his adoptive children. Wi.
• Ver. 36. Man never was without free-will; but, having the grace of Christ, his will is truly made free from the servitude of sin. S. Austin, tract. 41. in Joan.
• Ver. 37. You. That is, many of you, seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you; that is, is not rightly understood, nor received by you: you reject my doctrine, and are displeased with it. Wi.
• Ver. 38. The things that you have seen with your father. That is, you follow the suggestions of the devil, whom, (v. 44.) in plain terms, he calls their father. Wi.
• Ver. 39. Not only faith but good works make men children of Abraham. See James, c. ii.
• Ver. 41. We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, God. These Jews perceived that Christ had hinted that they were not the true and faithful sons of Abraham; and therefore they replied in this manner. But Christ answered, if God was your Father, if you were his dutiful children, you would also believe in me, and love me; for I have proceeded from him, and am come from him, his true Son: and now sent into the world by him. But you cannot hear my word, because you will not, by your own willful obstinate blindness. Wi.