Daily Bible Readings Thursday July 2 2009 13th Week in Ordinary Time

July 2 2009 Thursday 13th Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – St. Oliver Plunkett

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/070209.shtml

Genesis 22:1b-19
Douay-Rheims Challoner

God tempted Abraham, and said to him:

Abraham, Abraham.

And he answered:

Here I am.

He said to him:

Take thy only begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of vision; and there thou shalt offer him for an holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will shew thee.

So Abraham rising up in the night, saddled his ass, and took with him two young men, and Isaac his son: and when he had cut wood for the holocaust, he went his way to the place which God had commanded him. And on the third day, lifting up his eyes, he saw the place afar off. And he said to his young men:

Stay you here with the ass; I and the boy will go with speed as far as yonder, and after we have worshipped, will return to you.

And he took the wood for the holocaust, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he himself carried in his hands fire and a sword. And as they two went on together, Isaac said to his father:

Sacrifice of Issac - Alessandro Allori

My father.

And he answered:

What wilt thou, son?

Behold, saith he, fire and wood: where is the victim for the holocaust?

And Abraham said:

God will provide himself a victim for an holocaust, my son.

So they went on together. And they came to the place which God had shewn him, where he built an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it; and when he had bound Isaac his son, he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood. And he put forth his hand, and took the sword, to sacrifice his son. And behold, an angel of the Lord from heaven called to him, saying:

Abraham, Abraham.

And he answered:

Here I am.

And he said to him:

Lay not thy hand upon the boy, neither do thou any thing to him: now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake.

Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw behind his back a ram, amongst the briers, sticking fast by the horns, which he took and offered for a holocaust instead of his son. And he called the name of that place, The Lord seeth. Whereupon, even to this day, it is said: In the mountain the Lord will see. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, saying:

By my own self have I sworn, saith the Lord: because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake: I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore; thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Abraham returned to his young men, and they went to Bersabee together, and he dwelt there.

Responsorial Psalm 114:1-6, 8-9 (Ps 115 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

I have loved, because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer.
Because he hath inclined his ear unto me:
and in my days I will call upon him.
The sorrows of death have compassed me:
and the perils of hell have found me.
I met with trouble and sorrow:
And I called upon the name of the Lord.
O Lord, deliver my soul.
The Lord is merciful and just, and our God sheweth mercy.
The Lord is the keeper of little ones:
I was humbled, and he delivered me.
For he hath delivered my soul from death:
my eyes from tears, my feet from falling.
I will please the Lord in the land of the living.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew 9:1-8
Haydock New Testament

AND entering into a boat, he passed over the water, and came into his own city. And behold they brought to him a man sick of the palsy lying on a bed. And Jesus seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy:

Son, be of good heart, thy sins are forgiven thee.

And behold some of the scribes said within themselves:

This man blasphemeth.

And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said:

Why do you think evil in your hearts? Which is easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins,

then saith he to the man sick of the palsy:

Arise, take thy bed, and go into thy house.

And he arose, and went into his house. And the multitude seeing it, feared, and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

Haydock Commentary Genesis 22:1b-19
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 1. God tempted, &c.  God tempteth no man to evil, James i. 13.  But by trial and experiment, maketh known to the world and to ourselves, what we are; as here by this trial the singular faith and obedience of Abraham was made manifest.  Ch.
• Ver. 2. Thy only begotten, or thy most beloved, as if he had been an only child; in which sense the word is often taken, 1 Par. xxix. 1.  Ismael was still living; but Isaac was the only son of Sara, the most dignified wife. — Lovest. Heb. “hast loved” hitherto; now thou must consider him as dead.  He has been to thee a source of joy, but now he will be one of tears and mourning. — Of vision. Sept. “high,” being situated on Mount Moria, by which name it was afterwards distinguished, ver. 14.  M. — Every word in this astonishing command, tended to cut Abraham to the heart; and thence we may the more admire his strength and disinterestedness of his faith.  He could hope, in a manner, against hope, knowing in whom he had trusted, and convinced that God would not deceive him, though he was at a loss to explain in what manner Isaac should have children after he was sacrificed.  H.
• Ver. 3. In the night: de nocte, Heb. “very early in the morning.” — His son, 25 years old, without perhaps saying a word to Sara about the intended sacrifice; though some believe, he had too great an opinion of her faith and constancy, not to reveal to her the order of God.  The Scripture is silent.  C.
• Ver. 5. Will return. He hoped, perhaps, that God would restore Isaac to life: (Heb. xi. 19.) and he could not well express himself otherwise to the men, who were not acquainted with the divine decree.  C.
• Ver. 7. Holocaust.  These were probably the only sacrifices yet in use.  C. — The conversation of Isaac could not fail to pierce the heart of his father.  M.
• Ver. 9. The place. Mount Moria, on part of which the temple was built afterwards; and on another part, called Calvary, our Saviour was crucified, having carried his cross, as Isaac did the wood for sacrifice. — His son: having first explained to him the will of God, to which Isaac gave his free consent; otherwise, being in the vigour of his youth, he might easily have hindered his aged father, who was 125 years old, from binding him.  But in this willingness to die, as in many other particulars, he was a noble figure of Jesus Christ, who was offered because it was His will. H.
• Ver. 10. To sacrifice; a thing hitherto unprecedented, and which God would never suffer to be done in his honour, though he was pleased to try the obedience of his servant so far.  The pagans afterwards took occasion, perhaps, from this history, to suppose, that human victims would be the most agreeable to their false deities: (C.) but in this misconception they were inexcusable, since God prevented the sacrifice from being really offered to  him, in the most earnest manner, saying, Abraham, Abraham, as if there were danger lest the holy man should not hear the first call.  H.
• Ver. 12. Hast not spared.  Thus the intentions of the heart become worthy of praise, or of blame, even when no exterior effect is perceived.  H.
• Ver. 13. He took; God having given him the dominion over it.  C.
• Ver. 14. Will see. This became a proverbial expression, used by people in distress, who, remembering how Abraham had been relieved, endeavoured to comfort themselves with hopes of relief.  Some translate the Lord will be seen, which was verified when Christ was crucified.  M. — Or, he will provide, alluding to what was said, v. 8.
• Ver. 16.  Own self; as he could not swear by any one greater. Heb. vi. 13.  Jer. xxii. 5.
• Ver. 17. Stars and dust, comprising the just and sinners. — Gates, shall judge and rule.  H.

Haydock Commentary Matthew 9:1-8

• Ver. 1. The cure of the paralytic (v. 2), is generally supposed to have been anterior in point of time, to the cure of two possessed persons, chap. viii.  Carrieres supposes the contrary.  V. — Into his own city. Not of Bethlehem, where he was born, nor of Nazareth, where he was brought up, but of Capharnaum, says S. Chrysostom, where he is said to have dwelt since he began to preach.  See Matt. iv. 13.  Wi. — S. Jerom understands this city to be Nazareth, which was Christ’s own, because he was conceived there.  S. Austin, S. Chrysos. Euthy. Theophylactus, think it was Capharnaum, because this miracle was performed at the last mentioned place, according to S. Mark’s relation; and S. Matthew calls it Christ’s own city, because after leaving Nazareth, he chose Capharnaum for the chief place of his abode.  If S. Jerom’s interpretation be admitted, we must suppose that S. Matthew having told us that Christ came to his own city, Nazareth, and omitting to relate what happened there, passed immediately to the history of the cure of the paralytic, which took place at Capharnaum.  Such omissions and change of place without the reader’s being informed of the transition, are not unfrequent in the evangelists.  We must likewise observe that they frequently invert the order of facts, as to the time of their happening.  Jansen. — Christ may be said to have had three cities: Bethlehem, in which he was born; Nazareth, in which he was educated; and Capharnaum, in which he most frequently resided, during his sacred ministry.  It is most probable, and most generally understood, that in this place of the Scripture Capharnaum is meant; though several understand it of Nazareth, and some few with Sedulius, li. 3. carn.
• Intravit natale solum, quo corpore nasci
• Se voluit, patriamque sibi pater ipse dicavit.
• Ver. 2. Thy sins are forgiven thee. We do not find that the sick man asked this; but it was the much greater benefit, and which every one ought to prefer before the health of the body.  Wi. — He says this, because he wished to declare the cause of the disease, and to remove it, before he removed the disease itself.  He might also desire to shew the paralytic, what he ought to have prayed for in the first place.  M. — The sick man begs for corporal health, but Christ first restores to him the health of his soul, for two reasons: 1st. That be might insinuate to the beholders, that the principal intent of his coming into the world was to cure the evils of the soul, and to let them know that the spiritual cure ought most to be desired and petitioned for.  Corporal infirmities, as we learn in many places of the sacred text, are only the consequences of the sins of the patient.  In S. John (ch. iii.), Christ bids the man whom he had healed, to sin no more, lest something worse should befall him; and S. Paul says, that many of the Corinthians were afflicted with various diseases, and with death, on account of their unworthily receiving the body of the Lord.  A second reason why Christ forgave the sick man his sins, was, that he might take occasion from the murmurs of the Pharisees, to speak more plainly of his power and divinity, which he proved not only by restoring the man instantaneously to health, but by another miracle equally great and conclusive, which consisted in seeing the thoughts they had never expressed; for the evangelist observes, that they murmured in their hearts.  He afterwards cures the sink man to shew, says he, that the Son of man has power to forgive sins.   Jansen. — We may here observe likewise, that when Christ afterwards gave his apostles their mission, and empowered them to preach to the whole world, he communicates this same power to them, and seems to refer to the miracles which he had wrought, to prove that he himself had the power which he gave to them.  All power, says he, is given to me in heaven and on earth.  As the Father sent me, so I send you. . . . Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven.  A. — Seeing their faith. It does not follow from hence, as Calvin would have it, that faith alone will save us.  For S. Chrysos. says, “Faith indeed is a great and salutary thing, and without it there is no gaining salvation.”  But this will not of itself suffice without good works; for S. Paul admonishes us, who have made ourselves deserving a participation of the mysteries of Christ, thus, (Heb. c. iv.) “Let us hasten, therefore, to enter into that rest.”  He tells us to hasten, that is, faith alone will not suffice, but we must also strive all our life by good works to render ourselves worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven: for if those Israelites, who murmured and would not bear the calamities of the desert, were not, on that account, permitted to enter the land of promise, how can we think ourselves worthy of the kingdom of heaven, (figured by the land of promise) if we will not in this world undergo the labours of good works.  S. Chrysos. — From hence S. Ambrose concludes, that our Saviour is moved to grant our petitions through the invocation of saints, as he even forgave this man his sins through the faith of those that brought him.  Of how much greater efficacy then will not the prayers of the saints be?  Barardius. — Christ does not always require faith in the sick who desire to be cured, but seems to have dispensed with it on many occasions; for example, in the cases of those he cured possessed by the devil.  S. Chrys. — Son, &c.  O the wonderful humility of the God-man!  Jesus looks with complacence on this miserable wretch, whom the Jewish priests disdain to look upon, and in the midst of all his miseries calls him his son.  S. Tho. Aquin. — They had read what Isaias had said: I am, I am he who destroyeth thy sins: ego sum, ego sum ipse, qui deleo iniquitates tuas, xliii. 25.: but they had not read, or, at least they had not understood what the same prophet says, liii. 6.  The Lord hath heaped upon him the iniquity of us all: posuit Dominus in eo iniquitatem omnium nostrum.  Nor had they remembered the testimony of the Baptist: behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sins of the world.  John i. 29.  Mald.
• Ver. 3. This man blasphemeth, by pretending to have a power to forgive sins, which none but God can do; and they looked upon Jesus as a man only.  It is true, and what all Catholics teach, that God alone hath power of himself to forgive sins.  But Christ, who was both God and man, could, and did communicate this power of forgiving sins in his name, to bishops and priests, as his ministers and instruments in the sacraments of baptism and penance.  We have Christ’s clear words for it, (Jo. xx. 23.) whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, &c.  Wi. — And behold some of the scribes. The Jewish rulers wished to defame the character of our divine Redeemer, but by this means they rendered the miracle much more famous, and Christ turned their wicked designs to their own confusion.  S. Chrys. — For Christ says, Why do you think evil in your hearts?  in which words Jesus plainly evinces to them the reality of his divinity; for who knows the secrets of man’s heart, but God alone?  S. Jerom.
• Ver. 4. Jesus seeing their thoughts. By shewing that he knew their hidden thoughts, as well as by healing the man, to confirm his words and doctrine, he gave them a proof of his divine power.  Wi. — Not because they betrayed them by any exterior sign, but, as S. Mark says, knowing in his spirit that they so thought within themselves, because he was God, in whose hands are our hearts, (Prov. c. xv. and c. xxi,) and to whose eyes all things are naked and open.  Tostatus. — Had not our Saviour been truly God, and equal to his Father, he would have rebuked the scribes, for attributing that to God only which he exercised.  But so far from denying their assertion, he immediately admits the truth of it, and answers them by another no less wonderful act of his almighty power.  He tells them publicly the evil they had thought in their hearts, whilst the Scriptures repeatedly affirm that God alone can know the secrets of hearts.  Thou alone knowest the hearts of the children of men, 3 Kings, c. viii. and 2 of Philip. c. vi. v. 30.  And man seeth those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart. And 1st Kings, c. xvi, v. 7, The searcher of reins and hearts is God. Psalm vii, v. 10, The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable.  Who can know it?  I am the Lord that search the heart and prove the reins. Jeremias, c. xvii, v. 9. and 10.; and innumerable other texts of Scripture might be brought to prove that God only can know the minds and thoughts of men.  Our Saviour, therefore, shews himself to be equal to his Father, by thus revealing to all, the malicious murmurs of his enemies, who for fear of the multitude, dared not to publish themselves what their wicked hearts devised.  S. Chrys. hom. xxx. — Said:  Why do you think, &c.  Here S. Cyril exclaims, Oh!  thou Pharisee, who sayest, who is able to forgive sins, except God alone!  I will answer thee; who is able to search into the secrets of the heart but God alone, who calls himself, by his prophet, the searcher of the hearts and the reins of men!  S. Cyril. — If thou art incredulous about my power of remitting sin, behold I exercise another, whilst I lay open thy interior.  S. Chrysos.
• Ver. 5. The power of working miracles, and of forgiving sins, is proper to God, but can be communicated by God to man equally in the sacraments of baptism and penance.  A. — Which is easier. It is more difficult to remit sins than restore the health of the body.  S. Austin remarks, (tract. lxxii in Joannem) it is more difficult to justify a man than to create the heavens and the earth; but Christ speaks thus, because the Pharisees might otherwise have said, that as he could not confer visible health upon the body, he had recourse to the invisible remission of sins, and that it was easy to grant in words, what no one could discern whether it was really granted or not.  In this sense, therefore, the word, “Be thou healed,” is more difficult than simply to say, “Thy sins are forgiven thee;” which any one could say, though he might not effect what his word implied.  M. — Doubtless the healing of the body was easier, for as much as the soul is more excellent than the body, so much is the healing of the soul more difficult and more excellent than that of the body.  But since the one is visible, the other invisible, therefore he performs the less, but more evident miracle, in testimony of the performance of the other more excellent, but less evident exertion of his power.  Thus he truly verifies what the Baptist said of him, “This is he that taketh away the sins of the world.”  S. Chrysos. hom. xxx.
• Ver. 6. But that you may know. This may be understood differently, either as spoken by Christ to the Jews present, or by the evangelist to the people to whom he wrote his gospel.  S. Thom. Aquin. — Thus Christ proves that he had the power of remitting sins; as a falsity cannot be confirmed by a miracle, since in this case God would bear testimony to a falsity.  M. — Take thy bed, &c.  This doubtless was commanded him, to convince the whole world that this was no phantom, and to add still greater credibility to the fact, and he rose, &c. — He who was pleased to become man, is truly the Son of God; and, in this quality, he possesses all power.  This he proves by the double exercise of his power over both soul and body.  A. — Surge, tolle, and vade, Christ added these words for the greater evidence of the cure.  Maldonatus.
• Ver. 8. Feared, and glorified God. Here it may be observed, that the people, before they praised, feared God, for the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.  And S. Basil says, that fear, as a good guide, necessarily leads us to piety; and charity takes us, after having been exercised a little in fear, makes us perfect men.  S. Basil.