Daily Bible Readings Friday June 26 2009 Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

June 26 2009 Friday Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – Blessed Raymond Lull

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/062609.shtml

Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22
Douay-Rheims Challoner

And after he began to be ninety and nine years old, the Lord appeared to him: and said unto him:

I am the Almighty God: walk before me, and be perfect.

Again God said to Abraham:

And thou therefore shalt keep my covenant, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant which you shall observe between me and you, and thy seed after thee: All the male-kind of you shall be circumcised.

God said also to Abraham:

Sarai thy wife thou shalt not call Sarai, but Sara. And I will bless her, and of her I will give thee a son, whom I will bless, and he shall become nations, and kings of people shall spring from him.

Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, saying in his heart: Shall a son, thinkest thou, be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sara that is ninety years old bring forth?And he said to God:

O that Ismael may live before thee.

And God said to Abraham:

Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for a perpetual covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ismael I have also heard thee. Behold, I will bless him, and increase, and multiply him exceedingly: he shall beget twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sara shall bring forth to thee at this time in the next year.

And when he had left off speaking with him, God went up from Abraham.

Responsorial Psalm 127:1-5 (Ps 128 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

Blessed are all they that fear the Lord: that walk in his ways.
For thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands:
blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee.
Thy wife as a fruitful vine, on the sides of thy house.
Thy children as olive plants, round about thy table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.
May the Lord bless thee out of Sion:
and mayst thou see the good things of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.

Jesus Heals Leper

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 8:1-4
Haydock New Testament

AND when he was come down form the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold a leper coming, adored him, saying:

Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

And Jesus stretching for his hand, touched him, saying:

I will. Be thou made clean.

And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

And Jesus said to him:

See thou tell no man: but go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony to them.

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Haydock Commentary Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 1. Walk, &c. by assiduous meditation and advancement in virtue.  This apparition was to inform Abram, that the promised seed should be born of Sarai.  H.
• Ver. 15. Sara, princess of all the nations of the faithful, not simply of one family.  M.
• Ver. 16. Bless, and enable her to have a son, who shall also have many children. — Whom. This is referred to Sara, in Heb. and Chal.; but to Isaac, in the Syriac.  The blessing, at any rate, reverts to the mother; who was a figure of the blessed Virgin, and of the Church; both persecuted with their children; both, in the end, triumphant.  Gal. iv. 23.  C.
• Ver. 17. Laughed for joy and admiration at such unexpected news.  “He rejoiced,” says the Chal.: the faith of Abraham is never called into question.  Rom. iv. 19.
• Ver. 18. Before thee, under thy protection, and in a virtuous manner.  M. — He seems to be satisfied, though Go should not bless him with any more children, provided this one may live worthy of God.  H.
• Ver. 19. Isaac, “laughter,” alluding to the exultation of Abraham, more than to the laughter of Sara, which deserved some reprehension.  G. xxi. 6.
• Ver. 20. Nation of Arabs, who are still divided into twelve tribes.  See G. xxv. 13.  C.

Haydock Commentary Matthew 8:1-4

• Ver. 1. And when he was come down from the mountain. S. Matthew says, that Jesus Christ ascended the mountain, and sat down to teach the people; while S. Luke affirms, that he descended, and stood in a plain place.  But there is no contradiction; for he first ascended to the top of the mountain, and then descended to an even plain, which formed part of the descent.  Here he stood for a while, and cured the sick, as mentioned by S. Luke; but afterwards, according to the relation of S. Matthew, he sat down, which was the usual posture of the Jewish doctors.  S. Aug.
• Ver. 2. As the three evangelists relate the cure of the leper in nearly the same words, and with the same circumstances, we may conclude they speak of the same miracles.  S. Matthew alone seems to have observed the time and order of this transaction, viz. after the sermon of the mount; the other two anticipate it.  The Bible de Vence seems to infer, from the connection S. Matthew makes between the sermon of the mount and the cure of the leper, that it was not the same leper as that mentioned, Mark i. 40.  Luke v. 12.  V. — Adored him. In S. Mark it is said, kneeling down, c. i. 40.  In S. Luke, prostrating on his face. It is true,  none of these expressions do always signify the adoration or worship which is due to God alone, as may appear by several examples in the Old and New Testament; yet this man, by divine inspiration, might know our blessed Saviour to be both God and man.  Wi. — “Make me clean;” literally, “purify me;” the law treated lepers as impure.  V. — The leper, by thus addressing our Saviour acknowledges his supreme power and authority, and shews his great faith and earnestness, falling on his knees, as S. Luke relates it.  Chry. hom. xxvi.  Our prayer should be such with great faith and confidence, qualified with profound humility, and entire diffidence of self.
• Ver. 3. Jesus, stretching forth his hand, touched him. By the law of Moses, whosoever touched a leper, contracted a legal uncleanness: but not by touching in order to heal him, says Theophylactus.  Besides, Christ would teach them that he was not subject to this law.  Wi. — “Touched him.”  To shew, says S. Cyprian, that his body being united to the Divinity, had the power of healing and giving life.  Also to shew that the old law, which forbad the touching of lepers, had no power over him; and that so far from being defiled by touching him, he even cleansed him who was defiled with it.  S. Ambrose. — When the apostles healed the lame man, they did not attribute it to their own power, but said to the Jews:  Why do you wonder at this?  But when our Saviour heals the leper, stretching out his hand, to shew he was going to act of his own power, and independently of the law, he said:  “I will.  Be thou clean;” to evince that the cure was effected by the operation of his own divine will.  Chry. hom. xxvi.
• Ver. 4. For a testimony to them. That is, when the priest finds thee truly cured, make that offering which is ordained in the law.  Wi. — He did this to give us an example of humility, and that the priests, by approving of his miracle, and being made witnesses to it, might be inexcusable, if they would not believe him.  M. — He thus shews his obedience to the law, and his respect for the diginity of priests.  He makes them inexcusable, if they can still call him a transgressor of the law, and prevaricator.  He moreover gives this public testimony to them of his divine origin.  Chry. hom. xxvi.  S. Chrysostom, in his third book on the priesthood, says: “the priests of the old law had authority and privilege only to discern who were healed of leprosy, and to denounce the same to the people; but the priests of the new law have power to purify, in very deed, the filth of the soul.  Therefore, whoever despiseth them, is more worthy to be punished than the rebel Dathan and his accomplices.”  Our Saviour willeth him to go and offer his gift or sacrifice, according as Moses prescribed in that case, because the other sacrifice, being the holiest of all holies, viz. his body, was not yet begun.  S. Aug. l. ii. & Evang. ii. 3. & cont. adver. leg. & Proph. l. i. c. 19, 20.