Daily Bible Readings Saturday October 7 2009 31st Week in Ordinary Time

November 7 2009 Saturday Thirty First Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – St. Didacus

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/110709.shtml

Romans 16:3-9, 16, 22-27
Haydock New Testament

Salute Prisca, and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, (Who have for my life laid down their own necks: to whom not I only give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles) And the church which is in their house.  Salute Epænetus, my beloved, who is the first-fruits of Asia, in Christ. Salute Mary, who hath laboured much among you. Salute Andronicus, and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-captives: who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Salute Ampliatus, most beloved to me in the Lord. Salute Urbanus, our helper in Christ Jesus, and Stachys, my beloved.

Salute one another with a holy kiss.  All the churches of Christ salute you.

I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord. Caius, my host, and the whole church, saluteth you.  Erastus, the treasurer of the city, saluteth you, and Quartus, a brother. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.  Amen.

Now to him that is able to establish you, according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret from eternity, (Which now is made manifest by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, for the obedience of faith) known among all nations; To God, the only wise, through Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever.  Amen.

Responsorial Psalm 144:2-5, 10-11 (Ps 145 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

Every day will I bless thee:
and I will praise thy name for ever;
yea, for ever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised:
and of his greatness there is no end.
Generation and generation shall praise thy works:
and they shall declare thy power.
They shall speak of the magnificence of the glory of thy holiness:
and shall tell thy wondrous works.
Let all thy works, O Lord, praise thee:
and let thy saints bless thee.
They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom: and shall tell of thy power:

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Luke 16:9-15
Haydock New Testament

Jesus said:

And I say to you: Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings. He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater: And he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in that which is greater.

If then you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon, who will trust you with that which is the true? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s: who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other: you cannot serve God and mammon.

Now the Pharisees who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. And he said to them:

You are they who justify yourselves before men: but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is high to men, is an abomination before God.

Haydock Commentary Romans 16:3-9, 16, 22-27
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 4. It is not exactly known to what the apostle here refers.  Orig. thinks that they delivered the apostle from the snares of the Jews.  Others, that they exposed themselves for him in the sedition raised at Corinth, or in that at Ephesus, when he was in such danger, on account of the outcry of the silversmiths.  The obligations of the Churches of the Gentiles towards them must be understood of the hospitality, which these faithful servants of Christ exercised to all.  Calmet. — Ton eautwn trachlon upeqhkan, a proverbial expression, as in Latin, præbere cervices, caput objicere periculis, to support any thing, or person, that is in a sinking way, or in great danger.
• Ver. 5. This means the assembly of Christians, who probably resorted to the house of Prisca and Aquila, as to a place of retreat, and there held their religious assemblies.  Or it may mean their family only, which was as regular and holy as an assembly of saints.  The apostle, in another place, salutes the Church in the house of Nympha, and writing to Philemon, salutes the Church in his house.  1 Cor. xvi. 19.
• Ver. 16. Thus the primitive Christians express their concord and benevolence, as also their perfect equality.  For it was customary with the Persians, and all oriental nations, to salute only their equals thus; though, to their inferiors, the presented their hand to be kissed.  S. Clem. Pædog. and Polus.
• Ver. 22. This Tertius was the amanuensis, or secretary of S. Paul, and wrote this epistle as S. Paul dictated.  It is not on that account less divinely inspired than the rest.  Estius.
• Ver. 25-27. Now to him that is able, &c.  These three last verses, in divers Greek copies, were found at the end of the 14th chapter, where we find them expounded by S. Chrysostom. — According to the . . . mystery kept secret from eternity, now made manifest; he means the mystery of Christ’s incarnation, and man’s redemption, formerly revealed indeed to the prophets, but now made known to all nations, in order to bring all men to the obedience of the gospel, by embracing the faith and doctrine of Christ.  Wi.

Haydock Commentary Luke 16:9-15

• Ver. 9. Make for yourselves friends, &c.  Not that we are authorized to wrong our neighbour, to give to the poor: evil is never to be done, that good may come from it.  D. Thoma. — But we are exhorted to make the poor our friends before God, by relieving them with the riches which justly indeed belong to us, but are called the mammon of iniquity, because only the iniquitous man esteems them as riches, on which he sets his affections; whilst the riches of the virtuous are wholly celestial and spiritual.  S. Aug. de quæst. Evang. — Of the mammon of iniquity. Mammon is a Syriac word for riches; and so it might be translated, of the riches of iniquity. Riches are called unjust, and riches of iniquity, not of themselves, but because they are many times the occasion of unjust dealings, and of all kind of vices.  Wi. — Mammon signifies riches. They are here called the mammon of iniquity, because oftentimes ill-gotten, ill-bestowed, or an occasion of evil; and at the best are but worldly, and false: and not the true riches of a Christian. — They may receive. By this we see, that the poor servants of God, whom we have relieved by our alms, may hereafter, by their intercession, bring our souls to heaven.  Ch. — They may receive you into their eternal tabernacles.  What a beautiful thought this!  What a consolation to the rich man, when the term of his mortal existence is approaching, to think he shall have as many advocates to plead for his admittance into the eternal mansions of rest, as he has made friends among the poor by relieving their temporal wants.  The rich give to the poor earthly treasures, the latter return in recompense eternal and infinite happiness.  Hence we must infer, that the advantage is all on the side of the giver; according to the saying of our Lord, happier is the condition of him who gives, than of him who receives.  A.
• Ver. 10. He that is faithful in that which is least. This seems to have been a common saying, and that men judged of the honesty of their servants by their fidelity in lesser matters.  For example, a master that sees his servant will not steal a little thing, judges that he will not steal a greater, &c. — And he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in that which is greater. The interpreters take notice, that here temporal goods are called little, and spiritual goods are called greater; so that the sense is, that such men as do not make a right use of their temporal goods, in the service of God, will not make a good use of spiritual graces as they ought to do.  See Maldonatus.  Wi.
• Ver. 11. If then you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon;[2] i.e. in fading and false riches, which are the occasion of unjust and wicked proceedings. — Who will trust you with that which is the true? i.e. God will not intrust you with the true and spiritual riches of his grace.  Wi.
• Ver. 12. And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s: so again is called false worldly wealth, which passeth from one to another; so that it cannot be called a man’s own, who will give you that which is your own? i.e. how can you hope that God will bestow upon you, or commit to your care, spiritual riches or gifts, which, when rightly managed, would by your own for all eternity?  See S. Aug. l. ii. qq. Evang. q. 35. p. 263.  Wi. — That which is another’s. Temporal riches may be said to belong to another, because they are the Lord’s; and we have only the dispensing of them: so that when we give alms, we are liberal of another’s goods.  But if we are not liberal in giving what is another’s, how shall we be so in giving our own?  Nothing one would have thought so properly belonged to the Jews, as the kingdom of heaven, the preaching of the gospel, and the knowledge of heavenly things.  But they were deprived of all for their infidelity in the observance of the law, which was first intrusted to them.  Calmet.
• Ver. 13. No servant can serve two masters, &c.  This is added to shew us, that to dispose of our riches according to the will of the Almighty, it is necessary to keep our minds free from all attachment to them.  Theophylactus. — Let the avaricious man here learn, that to be a lover of riches, is to be an enemy of Christ.  Ven. Bede.
• Ver. 14. Now the Pharisees, &c.  Christ had admonished the Scribes and Pharisees not to presume too much on their own sanctity, but to receive repenting sinners, and to redeem their own sins with alms.  But they derided these precepts of mercy and humility; either because they esteemed what he commanded them to be useless, or because they thought they had already complied with them.  Ven. Bede. — The Pharisees considered temporal riches as true goods, and the recompense which God had promised to such as observed his laws; they therefore laughed at the doctrine of Jesus Christ, which extolled liberality and alms-deeds, and despised the Master who, on all occasions, testified his great regard for poverty in his discourses, in his conduct, in the choice of his apostles, who were all poor, and had no pretensions whatever to exterior pomp or show.  Calmet.
• Ver. 15. Who justify yourselves, &c.  But our Lord, detecting their hidden malice, shews that their pretended justice is all hypocrisy.  Theophylactus. — But God knoweth, &c.  They justify themselves before men, whom they look upon as despicable, and abandoned sinners, and esteem themselves as not standing in need of giving alms as a remedy of sin; but he who shall lay open the secrets of hearts, sees the base atrocity of that pride which thus blinds them, and swells within their breasts.  Ven. Bede. — Yes, all those exterior actions which appeared great, and which were admired by men, being vitiated with improper motives and sinister designs, are an abomination in the sight of God.  A.