Daily Bible Readings Thursday April 16 2009 Octave of Easter

April 16 2009 Thursday in the Octave of Easter
Saint of the Day – St. Bernadette Soubirous

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of 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 for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/041609.shtml

Acts 3:11-26
Haydock New Testament

And as he held Peter and John, all the people, amazed, ran to them to the porch which is called Solomon’s. Which Peter seeing, made answer to the people:

Ye men of Israel, why wonder you at this? Or why look you upon us, as if by our strength or power, we had made this man to walk?

The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son, Jesus, whom you indeed delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate, when he judged he should be released. But you denied the Holy and the Just one, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. But the author of life you killed, whom God hath raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And his name, through the faith of his name, hath made this man strong whom you have seen and known: and the faith which his by him, hath given this perfect soundness in the sight of you all.

And now, brethren, I know that you did it through ignorance, as also your rulers. But those things, which God had foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.

Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out: That when the times of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send him who hath been preached unto you, Jesus Christ, Whom heaven indeed must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets from the beginning of the world.

For Moses indeed said; A prophet shall the Lord, your God, raise up unto you out of your brethren, like unto me: him you shall hear, according to all things whatsoever he shall speak to you.

And it shall be, that every soul which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. And all the prophets, from Samuel and afterwards, that have spoken, have foretold these days. You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made to our fathers, saying to Abraham: And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

To you first God, raising up his Son, sent him to bless you: that every one should convert himself from his wickedness.

Responsorial Psalm 8:2ab and 5-9
DR Challoner Text Only

O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth!
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Thou hast made him a little less than the angels,
thou hast crowned him with glory and honour:
And hast set him over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast subjected all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen: moreover, the beasts also of the fields.
The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea,
that pass through the paths of the sea.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Luke 24:35-48
Haydock New Testament

And they told what things were done in the way: and how they knew him in the breaking of bread. Now whilst they were speaking these things, Jesus stood in the midst of them, and said to them:

Peace be to you; it is I, fear not.

But they being troubled and affrighted, supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them:

Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See my hands and feet, that it is I myself: feel, and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have.

And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands and his feet. But while they yet believed not, and wondered for joy, he said:

Have you here any thing to eat?

And they offered him a piece of a broiled fish, and a honeycomb. And when he had eaten before them, taking the remains, he gave to them. And he said to them:

These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me.

Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. And he said to them:

Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day: And that penance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.

Haydock Commentary Acts 3:11-26
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 11. As he held Peter and John. That is, kept close by them, and with them, out of joy and gratitude. Wi.
• Ver. 12. Peter seeing, made answer to the people. This is the second sermon, that is related, which, as S. Chrys. observes, was spoken publicly in the temple. — Why look you upon us? S. Peter, at the beginning take care to give the glory to God. Wi.
• Ver. 13. Who does not admire, in this second discourse of S. Peter, as well as in his first, the prudence and discretion, with which he blames the Jews? He reproaches them, but with such mildness, as not to offend them, and dispenses to them truths in proportion to their capacity to bear them; after the example of his master and Saviour, he sweetens the bitterness of the truth, by furnishing them with an excuse. They sinned through ignorance. Calmet.
• Ver. 14-15. The just one, and the holy one, even the author of life you killed: he that is the just one promised, the Messias, the Son of God, and true God. Wi.
• Ver. 17. You did it through ignorance, but such as could not excuse the chief of you. Wi.
• Ver. 20. The times of refreshment. The time of eternal rest and happiness, &c. — These words, you may be saved, must be understood, to make the sense complete. Wi.
• Ver. 21. Whom heaven indeed must receive, as also in the Prot. translation not contain: nor can any argument be drawn from hence, that Christ’s body cannot be truly at the same time in the holy Sacrament, especially after a different manner. The true sense of these words is, that heaven is the place of Christ’s abode, till the day of judgment, and that it was in vain for them to think that he would come to take possession of any temporal kingdom. Wi. — The restitution of all things. Jesus remains in heaven, till his second coming to judge the living and the dead. That is the great day, when every thing shall be finally settled, and restored to its proper order. He shall avenge the injuries done to God; restore peace to the afflicted just men of the earth, and justice to their persecutors. He shall exalt his Church, and himself receive the homage of adoration, from every tribe of men. Calmet. — See 2 Peter iii. 13. which text, together with what we read in this place, joins inseparably the last coming of Jesus Christ, with the universal re-establishment promised in both these passages, and completely excludes the Millennium, which some erroneously expect to take place between the accomplishment of the first and second of these events. See Bossuet’s reflexions on the 20th ch. of the Apocalypse, where the errors of many Protestant writers, especially of Dodwell, are refuted. To shew that the error of the Millennium cannot be assigned as a general cause which impelled the primitive Christians to martyrdom, it will suffice to produce this decisive passage of S. Justin, who after Papias, was the first supporter of that system: speaking to Tryphon concerning this temporal kingdom, which Christ was to enjoy here below, in the re-established Jerusalem with the saints risen from the dead, for a thousand years, he says: “I have already confessed that many others, with myself, were of this opinion; . . . but there are many others, and persons of sound faith, and exemplary conduct, who reject this opinion.” In dialog. cum Tryph. n. 84. — Clement of Alexandria, S. Cyprian, and Origen, lay down principles diametrically opposite to this system. It has also been expressly combated by Caius, and S. Denis of Alexandria, one of the greatest luminaries of the third century, as we learn from Eusebius, and S. Jerom.
• Ver. 22. Moses said. He brings them this testimony of Moses concerning the Messias, to shew the punishment they deserve for not receiving him. Wi.
• Ver. 23. Which will not hear that prophet. S. Peter’s argument is this. If disobedience to the ordinances of God by the voice of Moses, was punishable with death, how much more severe will be the punishment of those, who refuse obedience to the doctrines of Jesus, to whom all the prophets bore testimony, and whom the apostles then preached. How different is this system of submission to the teaching of the prophets, and apostles, from that libertinism, which undermines the whole fabric of religion, by taking away from the Church the power of commanding, and from the disciple the necessity of obeying. By what wonderful and progressive shades of light was the prediction of this great prophet made to man! From the fall of Adam, it was predicted, that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. Many ages after, God manifested that from Abraham’s loins the Redeemer should spring, “in whom all nations shall be blessed.” The promise is renewed to Isaac, and that he is to spring from his son, but not from Esau, but from Jacob; and of the twelve sons of Jacob, the posterity of Juda is to have the privilege of bestowing a Messias to the world, and the token of its accomplishment is, “the failure of the sceptre in the posterity of Juda.” After a long series of events, and of ages, an humble shepherd is chosen in the tribe of Juda: he is led to the throne; and to this man, David, it is repeated, that from him the Messias shall spring, and that his kingdom shall have no end. The oracle is so explicit in the psalms of that king, and in the writings of successive prophets, that it not only expresses the race, the tribe, the family, but also the character of the mother, the place of his birth, the precise period of the event, the ministry, the power, the dignity, the circumstances of his death, the change of the covenant, and conversion of the world. The particular prophecies, in their accomplishment, were a visible earnest to the Jews of the accomplishment of the prophecies relative to the Messias. Hence Pascal very justly remarks: “The prophets mingle particular prophecies with those of the Messias; that the prophecies regarding the Messias may not be without proof, and that the particular prophecies may not be without effect.” Pensées. xv. — These oracles, which during a period of four thousand years, have been delivered to the world, and which have been completely and visibly fulfilled, still exist in books, scrupulously preserved by the greatest enemies of Christ, and of his holy religion, and satisfactorily demonstrate Jesus Christ to be the great prophet, and the Christian religion to be the new covenant, which had been announced so many ages before, in so many different manners.
• Ver. 25-26. You are the children . . . to you first God raising up his Son. He gives them encouragement, that not only the promise of sending the Messias was made to them, but that he came, and is to be preached to them: and that the blessings of his coming are first offered to them. Wi.

Haydock Commentary Luke 24:35-48

• Ver. 37. The apostles thought they saw a Spirit, either good or bad, that had taken the form of Jesus, and was come to deceive them. For that they did not doubt spirits appeared, we have abundant proofs throughout the whole New Testament: and our Saviour, instead of combating this opinion, seems rather to have confirmed it on more than one occasion. Indeed S. Aug. thinks it cannot, without temerity, be denied, that there are occasional apparitions of angels, of demons, and the souls of the dead. Calmet. — This, however, will not justify the credulity of many ignorant and weak people, who think that nobody can die, but their spirit is sure to appear; much less will it justify the superstitious observations of unusual occurrences, which are so commonly reported to happen, as significant of a departed soul. These occurrences are rare; nor should we suppose that the Almighty would be willing to suspend or change the established laws of nature without a sufficient cause, viz. some known good either to the departed soul, or surviving friends. A.
• Ver. 39. A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have. This was one argument of a true and real body. We may take notice, that Christ brought such proofs, as he knew were sufficient to convince them of his resurrection, though they were not of themselves demonstrations. For when they imagined they saw or touched a body, and that he eat with them, these things might apparently be done by a spirit. See Gen. xviii. v. 9. and Gen. xix. v. 3. and v. 16. where we read that angels, in the shape of men, eat, and took Lot and his wife, and his daughters, by the hand, and led them away from Sodom. Our senses, therefore, may sometimes be deceived, as may be shewn by divers other instances. But the arguments which Christ made us of at this time, to induce the apostles to believe his resurrection, are to be taken with all the circumstances: as 1st, with the corroborating testimonies of the Holy Scriptures, in which his resurrection was foretold; 2ndly, they called to their minds what he himself had told them so often, that he would rise again the third day; 3rdly, concurred also the testimonies already given by the angels, that he was risen; 4thly, the miracles at his death and resurrection; 5thly, Christ himself at the same time opened their understanding, to know and believe this truth, that he was truly risen. Wi.
• Ver. 43. Christ eat, not because he stood in need of food to sustain himself after his resurrection, as we sustain our bodies and lives by corporal refreshment; but he did it, to shew his disciples that his body was really risen from the dead. Ven. Bede.
• Ver. 45. If, after all the extraordinary opportunities of instruction, which the apostles had had from the mouth of our divine Saviour, it was still necessary that he should instil into them a new light, by opening their minds to understand the Scriptures; what are we to think of the presumptuous attempts of the numerous tribe of modern self-inspired interpreters, who are always ready to descant on the word of the Lord; though so perfectly ignorant that their authority, so far from being admitted, would be laughed to scorn, were they to attempt to explain the slightest difficulty, on the most indifferent subject of profane literature? To such a degree has the spirit of seduction spread itself at the present day! A.
• Ver. 47. Beginning at Jerusalem. The sense is, that they were first to preach to the Jews, and afterwards to all nations. Wi.