Sunday Bible Readings April 19 2009 Divine Mercy Sunday

April 19 2009 Divine Mercy Sunday
About Divine Mercy Sunday

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/041909.shtml

Acts 4:32-35
Haydock New Testament

And the multitude of the believers had but one heart and one soul: neither did any one say, that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them. And with great power did the apostles give testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord: and great grace was in them all. For neither was there any one among them that wanted. For as many as were owners of lands, or houses, sold them, and brought the price of the things they sold, And laid it down before the feet of the apostles. And distribution was made to every one, according as he had need.

Responsorial Psalm 117:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 (Ps 118 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

Let Israel now say, that he is good: that his mercy endureth for ever.
Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
Let them that fear the Lord now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
Being pushed I was overturned that I might fall: but the Lord supported me.
The Lord is my strength and my praise: and he is become my salvation.
The voice of rejoicing and of salvation is in the tabernacles of the just.
The stone which the builders rejected; the same is become the head of the corner.
This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us be glad and rejoice therein.

1 John 5:1-6
Haydock New Testament

EVERY one who believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And every one that loveth him that begot, loveth him also who was born of him. In this way we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the charity of God that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not heavy. For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in water only, but in water and blood. And it is the spirit that testifieth, that Christ is the truth.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint John 20:19-31
Haydock New Testament

Now when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews: Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them;

Peace be to you.

And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands, and his side. The disciples, therefore, were glad, when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to them again;

Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.

When he had said this, he breathed on them, and he said to them:

Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose you shall retain, they are retained.

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples, therefore, said to him;

We have seen the Lord.

But he said to them;

Unless I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hands into his side, I will not believe.

And after eight days, his disciples were again within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said;

Peace be to you.

Then he saith to Thomas;

Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands, and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side: and be not incredulous, but faithful.

Thomas answered, and said to him;

My Lord, and my God.

Jesus saith to him;

Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.

Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God: and that believing you may have life in his name.

Haydock Commentary Acts 4:32-35
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 32. All things were common. Happy would it be for society, if the rich of the present day were to imitate, in some degree, this charity of the first disciples, by distributing to those that want. Both would hereby become more happy; nor would the rich derive less pleasure from such actions, than the poor. S. Chrys. hom. xi. in Acts. — That cold and fatal word, mine, and thine, which has caused so many misfortunes and wars, was banished from among them. Id. hom. de S. Philogon. — Some take this to be the origin of a monastic life: but according to the Fathers, it is rather its progress and increase; for it began in the family of Jesus Christ. The apostles, indeed, may be said to institute here that common life, which they led under Christ, our Lord, and of which Peter speaks: behold, we have left all. This life, by S. Augustin and others, is called apostolic, and there among all, wives are particularly specified. Cajetan thinks no vow was required: S. Augustin is of a different sentiment. Serm. de diversis & alibi.
• Ver. 33. And great grace was in them all. All of them were present, were replenished with extraordinary graces of charity, zeal, &c. Wi.

Haydock Commentary 1 John 5:1-6

• Ver. 1. That Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messias, the Redeemer of the world, is born of God, is made his adoptive son by his grace in baptism. Wi. — Is born of God; that is, is justified, and become a child of God by baptism; which is also to be understood, provided the belief of this fundamental article of the Christian faith is accompanied with all the other conditions, which, by the word of God and his appointment, are also required for justification; such as a general belief of all that God has revealed and promised; hope, love, repentance, and a sincere disposition to keep God’s holy law and commandments. Ch. — Loveth him[1] that begot; i.e. the eternal Father. — Loveth him also who was born of him; i.e. loveth him who is his only begotten and eternal Son. Wi.
• Ver. 2. In this we know that we love the children of God, (that is, all men, and especially the faithful, who are made his adoptive children) when we love God, and keep his commandments, for these two branches of charity, the love of God and of our neighbour, are inseparable: the one is known and proved by the other. Wi.
• Ver. 3. And his commandments are not heavy; not burdensome. Not but that they comprehend what seems hard to human frailty, and especially to men carried away with the love of vanities in this world, who think it hard to comply with Christ’s doctrine of self-denials, of renouncing their inclinations, of suffering death, sooner than to sin against God, or to renounce their faith: but the love of God, and the promises of an eternal happiness in the next life, with the assistances which God gives them, make the yoke of Christ sweet, and his burden light. See Mat. xi. 30. How different is this doctrine from that of those late heretics, who pretend that God’s commandments are impossible, even to just men, when they employ all their endeavours. See the first proposition of Jansenius, and this heresy of Calvin condemned by the council of Trent, sess. 6, cap. xi. can. 18. Wi.
• Ver. 4. This is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith. That is, a lively faith, working by charity, makes a man victorious over the greatest temptations, and over all the adversaries of his salvation. Wi. — Our faith; Not a bare speculative or dead faith, but a faith working by charity. Gal. v. 6. Ch.
• Ver. 6. Came by water and blood. The sense seems to be, by water, with which he ordered every one to be baptized and made Christians; 2ndly, by his blood shed on the cross for our redemption. Wi. — Blood: not only to wash away our sins by the water of baptism, but by his own blood. Ch. — And it is the Spirit that testifieth that Christ[2] is the truth. By the Spirit, which is not here called the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, as in the next verse, is either meant the Spirit or soul of Christ, which dying he recommended into the hands of his Father, and which shewed that he was truly man, against Cerinthus, and some heretics of those times; or else it may signify the spirit of grace, given in this world to the faithful, in the same sense as S. Paul says, (Rom. viii. 16.) that the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our Spirit, that we are the sons of God: and of which may be understood what is said here, (v. 10.) He that believeth in the Son of God, hath the testimony of God in himself. Wi.

Haydock Commentary John 20: 20:19-31

• Ver. 19. And the doors were[1] shut, or being shut; and remaining still shut, his glorified body entered by penetration through the doors, as he did at his resurrection. Maldonate take notice, that Calvin was the first that denied this, against the belief of all the ancient Fathers and interpreters, who call this a miracle of divine power. Wi. — The same power which could bring Christ’s whole body, entire in all its dimensions, through the doors, can, without the least question, make the same body really present in the sacrament; though both the one and the other be above our comprehension. Ch. — Therefore it is a want of faith to limit the power of Christ, by the ordinary rules of place, and to deny that he can be in the blessed Sacrament, and on so many altars as he pleaseth. We do not still join the Ubiquists or Brentiani, who, quite contrary to the Zuinglians, maintain, that the humanity of Jesus Christ is in every place where his divinity is. This is contrary to faith. B.
• Ver. 21. As the Father hath sent me. The word mission, when applied to our Saviour Christ, sometimes signifies his eternal procession from the Father, and sometimes his mission, as he was sent into the world to become man, and the Redeemer of mankind: the first mission agrees with him, as the eternal Son of God; the second, as man, or as both God and man. The mission which Christ here gives his apostles, is like this latter mission, which this great difference, that graces and divine gifts were bestowed on Christ, even as man, without measure: and the apostles had a much lesser share in both these missions. See S. Aug. l. iv. de Trin. c. xix. xx. tom. 4. p. 829. and seq. Wi. — Jesus Christ here shews his commission, and so giveth power to his apostles to forgive sins, as when he gave them commission to preach and baptize throughout the world, he made mention of his own power. Hence, whosoever denies the apostles, and their successors, the right of preaching, baptizing, and remitting sins, must consequently deny that Christ, as man, had the power to do the same. S. Cyprian, in the 3d cent. ep. lxxiii. says: “for the Lord, in the first place, gave to S. Peter, on whom he built his Church, super quem ædificavit Ecclesiam, the power that what he loosed on earth, should be loosed also in heaven. And after his resurrection, he speaks also to his apostles, saying, as the Father sent me, &c. whose sins you shall forgive,” &c. Why, on this occasion, passing over the other apostles, does Jesus Christ address Peter alone? Because he was the mouth, and chief of the apostles. S. Chrys. de Sacerd. l. ii. c. 1.
• Ver. 22. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. It was said, (John vii. 39.) that the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not glorified. The sense must need be, that the holy Spirit was not given in that solemn manner, nor with so large an effusion of spiritual gifts and graces, till the day of Pentecost, after Christ’s ascension: but the just, at all times, from the beginning of the world, were sanctified by the grace of the Holy Ghost, as no doubt the apostles were, before this time. Now at this present, he gave them the power of forgiving sins. Wi. — Some say, that our Saviour did not then confer the Holy Ghost on his disciples, but only prepared them for the receiving of the Holy Ghost. But surely we may understand, that even then they received some portion of spiritual grace, the power, not indeed of raising the dead, and working other miracles, but of forgiving sins. S. Chrys. hom. lxxxv. in Joan. — S. Cyril of Alexandria, speaking of the remission of sins, promised in this text, asks, “How then, or why, did Christ impart to his disciples a power, which belongs to the divine Spirit, should likewise possess the power of forgiving sins, and of retaining such as they judged expedient; that Holy Spirit, according to his good pleasure, forgiving and retaining, through the ministry of men.” In Joan. l. xii. c. 1.
• Ver. 23. Whose sins you shall forgive,[2] &c. These words clearly express the power of forgiving sins, which, as God, he gave to his apostles, and to their successors, bishops and priests, to forgive sins in his name, as his ministers, and instruments, even though they are sinners themselves. For in this, they act not by their own power, nor in their own name, but in the name of God, who as the principal cause, always remitteth sins. This is generally allowed to be done by God’s ministers in the sacrament of baptism, as to the remission of original sin; and the Catholic Church has always held the same of God’s ministers, in the sacrament of penance. (See the Protestant Common Prayer Book, in the Visitation of the Sick. — Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained: by which we see, that to priests is given a power to be exercised, not only by forgiving, but also by retaining; not only by absolving and loosing, but also by binding, by refusing, or deferring absolution, according to the dispositions that are found in sinners, when they accuse themselves of their sins. From hence must needs follow an obligation on the sinner’s part, to declare, and confess their sins in particular, to the ministers of God, who are appointed the spiritual judges, and physicians of their souls. A judge must know the cause, and a physician the distemper: the one to pronounce a just sentence, the other to prescribe suitable remedies. Wi. — See here the commission, stamped by the broad seal of heaven, by virtue of which, the pastors of Christ’s Church absolve repenting sinners upon their confession. Ch.
• Ver. 24. Thomas . . . was not with them. Yet no doubt the like power of forgiving sins was given to him, either at this time or afterwards. See S. Cyril. Wi.
• Ver. 25. I will not believe. S. Cyril thinks, that the grief and trouble S. Thomas was under, might partly excuse his want of belief: however, we may take notice with S. Gregory, the his backwardness in believing, was permitted for the good of Christians in general, that thereby they might be more convinced of Christ’s resurrection. Wi. — The doubts of S. Thomas are of greater advantage to the strengthening of our faith, than the ready belief of the rest of the apostles. For when he proceeded to touch, to assure his faith, our minds, laying aside every, even the least doubt, are firmly established in faith. S. Greg. Great
• Ver. 27. Put in thy finger hither. Christ, to shew he knew all things, made use of the very same words in which S. Thomas had expressed his incredulous dispositions. Our blessed Redeemer would have the mark of the spear, and the prints of the nails to remain in his glorified body, to convince them it was the same body: and that they might be for ever marks of his victory and triumph over sin and the devil. The evangelist does not say, that S. Thomas went and touched Christ’s body, though it is very probable he did as he was ordered. But how could a body that entered in, when the doors were shut, be felt, or be palpable? S. Chrys.[2] answers, that Christ at that time permitted his body to be palpable, and to resist another body, to induce S. Thomas to believe the resurrection; and that when he pleased, his body could not be felt. In like manner, his body was either visible or invisible, as he had a will it should be. In fine, he could eat in their sight, though he stood not in need of any nourishment. See S. Aug.
• Be not incredulous, but faithful. In the Greek, be not an unbeliever, but a believer. — My Lord, and my God; that is, I confess thee to be my Lord, and my God; and with the Greek article, to be him, that is, the Lord, and the God. Wi.