Daily Bible Readings Friday May 1 2009 Third Week of Easter

May 1 2009 Friday Third Week of Easter
Saint of the Day – St. Joseph the Worker

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/050109.shtml

Acts 9:1-20
Haydock New Testament

AND Saul, still breathing out threatening, and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, And asked of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues: that if he found any men and women of this way, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew near to Damascus: and suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him:

Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?

And he said:

Who art thou, Lord?

And he:

I am Jesus, whom thou persecutes. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.

And he, trembling and astonished, said:

Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

And the Lord said to him:

Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do.

Now the men who went in company with him, stood amazed, hearing indeed a voice, but seeing no one. And Saul arose from the ground, and his eyes being open, he saw nothing. But they leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus. And he was there three days, without sight, and he neither eat nor drank. Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, by name Ananias: and the Lord said to him in a vision:

Ananias.

And he said:

Behold I am here, Lord.

And the Lord said to him:

Arise, and go into the street, that is called Strait, and seek in the house of Judas, one named Saul, of Tarsus: for behold he prayeth.

Ananias Restoring the Sight of St Paul - Pietro da Cortona 1631

(And he saw a man named Ananias coming in, and laying his hands upon him, that he might receive his sight.) But Ananias answered:

Lord, I have heard from many of this man, how great evils he hath done to thy saints in Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all, that invoke thy name.

And the Lord said to him:

Go, for this man is a vessel of election to me, to carry my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and children of Israel. For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name.

And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house: and laying his hands upon him, he said:

Saul, brother, the Lord Jesus hath sent me, he who appeared to thee in the way as thou camest, that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight: and rising up, he was baptized. And when he had taken meat, he was strengthened. And he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, for some days. And immediately he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

Responsorial Psalm 116:1bc, 2 (Ps 117 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

O Praise the Lord, all ye nations:
praise him, all ye people.
For his mercy is confirmed upon us:
and the truth of the Lord remaineth for ever.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint John 6:52-59
Haydock New Testament

Jesus said:

If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread which I will give, is my flesh for the life of the world.

The Jews, therefore, disputed among themselves, saying:

How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

Then Jesus said to them:

Amen, amen, I say to you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh, is meat indeed: and my blood, is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and died. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.

Haydock Commentary Acts 9:1-20
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 4. Why dost thou persecute me? My disciples, my brothers, and my friends. The head speaks for the members, and by a figure of speech, calls them itself. S. Aug. in Ps. xxx. — Here Jesus Christ identifies himself with his Church, as on a former occasion, when he said: he that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me. Lu. x. 16.
• Ver. 5. To kick against the goad. Others translate against the pricks; others, against the sting. The metaphor is taken from oxen kicking, when pricked to go forward. Wi.
• Ver. 7. There it shall be told thee, &c. The Almighty having established a Church, and ministry, the depositories of his doctrines, does not, even on this extraordinary occasion, transgress his own laws; but sends him to the ministers of religion, that instruction may be imparted through them, as through its proper channel. This observation is worthy the notice of the self-inspired of the present day, who pretend to receive their light direct from heaven. Nothing can be more opposite to the spirit of the gospel than such delusion. A. — Hear the great S. Augustin: “Paul, though with the divine and heavenly voice prostrated and instructed, yet was sent to a man to receive the sacraments, and to be joined to the Church.” De Doct. Chris. l. i. in prœm. — Hearing, &c. This may be reconciled with what is said in the 22d chap. by supposing they heard only S. Paul speak, or heard only a confused noise, which they could not understand. Calmet.
• Ver. 8. And his eyes being open, either by himself, or by others, he saw nothing. See the circumstances related again, c. xxii. and xxvi. Wi.
• Ver. 9. Three days. During the time, he neither eat nor drank, to testify his sorrow for his past conduct. He likewise spent the time in prayer, to prepare himself for the reception of grace. S. Chrys. hom. xix.
• Ver. 12. And he saw a man, &c. This verse, which is by way of a parenthesis, contains the words of the historian, S. Luke, telling us what S. Paul saw in a vision, and what the Spirit at the same time revealed to Ananias. Wi. — This verse is a parenthesis. It contains not the words of Christ to Ananias, but S. Luke here relates what was shewn to Paul, at the time Ananias entered. This vision was shewn to him, that he might know Ananias was sent by God. Menochius.
• Ver. 15. A vessel of election. A chosen elect vessel, and minister of the gospel. Wi. — SkeouV ekloghV, an organ, or instrument. Thus Polybius uses the word, speaking of Damocles, ode hn uphretikon skeuoV, he was an excellent and choice character.
• Ver. 17. Laying his hands on him. This imposition of hands, made use of on different occasions, was to pray that he might receive his sight, as well as the grace of the Holy Ghost, which God sometimes gave to persons not yet baptized, as to Cornelius. Acts x. 44. Wi. — This imposition of hands, was not the same as that, by which the faithful were confirmed, or ordained ministers, but a ceremony commonly used by the apostles to restore health to the sick. If Saul, in consequence, receives the Holy Ghost, it was an extraordinary miraculous event, which was not an unfrequent circumstance in the infancy of Christianity. The Almighty, who establishes the laws of grace, can dispense with them himself whenever he pleases. Calmet.

Haydock Commentary John 6:52-59

• Ver. 52. The bread which I will give, is my flesh for the life of the world.[2] In most Greek copies we read, is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. Christ here promised what he afterwards instituted, and gave at his last supper. He promiseth to give his body and blood to be eaten; the same body (though the manner be different) which he would give on the cross for the redemption of the world. The Jews of Capharnaum were presently scandalized. How (said they) can this man give us his flesh to eat? But notwithstanding their murmuring, and the offence which his words had given, even to many of his disciples, he was so far from revoking, or expounding what he had said of any figurative or metaphorical sense, that he confirmed the same truth in the clearest and strongest terms. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat, &c. And again, (v. 56.) For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. I cannot omit taking notice of what S. Chrysostom and S. Cyril, in their commentaries on this place, have left us on these words, How can this man do this? These words which call in question the almighty and incomprehensible power of God, which hinder them, says S. Chrysostom, from believing all other mysteries and miracles: they might as well have said: How could he with five loaves feed five thousand men? This question, How can he do this? Is a question of infidels and unbelievers. S. Cyril says that How, or, How can he do this? cannot, without folly, be applied to God. 2dly, he calls it a question of blasphemy. 3dly, a Jewish word, for which these Capharnaites deserved the severest punishments. 4thly, He confutes them by the saying of the prophet Isaias, (lv. 9.) that God’s thoughts and ways are as much above those of men, as the heavens are above the earth. But if these Capharnaites, who knew not who Jesus was, were justly blamed for their incredulous, foolish, blasphemous, Jewish saying, how can he give us his flesh to eat? much more blameable are those Christians, who, against the words of the Scripture, against the unanimous consent and authority of all Christian Churches in all parts of the world, refuse to believe his real presence, and have nothing to say, but with the obstinate Capharnaites, how can this be done? Their answers are the same, or no better, when they tell us that the real presence contradicts their senses, their reason, that they know it to be false. We may also observe, with divers interpreters, that if Christians are not to believe that Jesus Christ is one and the same God with the eternal Father, and that he is truly and really present in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, it will be hard to deny but that Christ himself led men into these errors, which is blasphemy. For it is evident, and past all dispute, that the Jews murmured, complained, and understood that Christ several times made himself God, and equal to the Father of all. 2ndly, When in this chapter, he told them he would give them his flesh to eat, &c. they were shocked to the highest degree: they cried out, this could not be, that these words and this speech was hard and harsh, and on this very account many that had been his disciples till that time, withdrew themselves from him, and left him and his doctrine. Was it not then at least high time to set his complaining hearers right, to prevent the blasphemous and idolatrous opinions of the following ages, nay even of all Christian Churches, by telling his disciples at least, that he was only a nominal God, in a metaphorical and improper sense; that he spoke only of his body being present in a figurative and metaphorical sense in the holy Eucharist? If we are deceived, who was it that deceived us but Christ himself, who so often repeated the same points of our belief? His apostles must be esteemed no less guilty in affirming the very same, both as to Christ’s divinity, and his real presence in the holy sacrament, as hereafter will appear. Wi. — Compare the words here spoken with those he delivered at his last supper, and you will see that what he promises here was then fulfilled: “this is my body given for you.” Hence, the holy Fathers have always explained this chapter of S. John, as spoken of the blessed sacrament. See the concluding reflections, below.
• Ver. 53. Because the Jews said it was impossible to give them his flesh to eat, Christ answers them by telling them, that so far from being impossible, it is very necessary that they should eat it. “Unless you eat,” &c. S. Chrys. — It is not the flesh of merely a man, but it is the flesh of a God, able to make man divine, inebriating him, as it were, with the divinity. Theophy. See Maldonatus.
• Ver. 54. Unless you eat . . . and drink, &c. To receive both the body and blood of Christ, is a divine precept, insinuated in this text; which the faithful fulfil, though they receive but in one kind; because in one kind they receive both the body and blood, which cannot be separated from each other. Hence life eternal is here promised to the worthy receiving, though but in one kind: (ver. 52.) If any man eat of this bread he shall life for ever: and the bread which I will give, is my flesh for the life of the world: (ver. 58.) He that eateth me, the same also shall live by me: (ver. 59.) He that eateth this bread shall live for ever. Ch.
• Ver. 55. Jesus Christ, to confirm the notion his disciples had formed of a real eating of his body, and to remove all metaphorical interpretation of his words, immediately adds, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. . . . For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed;” which could not be so, if, as sectarists pretend, what he gives us in the blessed sacrament is noting but a bit of bread; and if a figure, certainly not so striking as the manna.
• Ver. 58. As the living Father hath sent me, his only, his true Son, to become man; and I live by the Father, proceeding always from him; so he that eateth me, first by faith only, by believing in me; and secondly, he that eateth my body and blood, truly made meat and drink, though after a spiritual manner, (not in that visible, bloody manner as the Capharnaites fancied to themselves) shall live by me, and live for ever, happy in the kingdom of my glory. Wi.