June 30, 2014
Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Thus says the LORD:
For three crimes of Israel, and for four,
I will not revoke my word;
Because they sell the just man for silver,
and the poor man for a pair of sandals.
They trample the heads of the weak
into the dust of the earth,
and force the lowly out of the way.
Son and father go to the same prostitute,
profaning my holy name.
Upon garments taken in pledge
they recline beside any altar;
And the wine of those who have been fined
they drink in the house of their god.
Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorites before them,
who were as tall as the cedars,
and as strong as the oak trees.
I destroyed their fruit above,
and their roots beneath.
It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt,
and who led you through the desert for forty years,
to occupy the land of the Amorites.
Beware, I will crush you into the ground
as a wagon crushes when laden with sheaves.
Flight shall perish from the swift,
and the strong man shall not retain his strength;
The warrior shall not save his life,
nor the bowman stand his ground;
The swift of foot shall not escape,
nor the horseman save his life.
And the most stouthearted of warriors
shall flee naked on that day, says the LORD.
R. (22a) Remember this, you who never think of God.
“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”
R. Remember this, you who never think of God.
“When you see a thief, you keep pace with him,
and with adulterers you throw in your lot.
To your mouth you give free rein for evil,
you harness your tongue to deceit.”
R. Remember this, you who never think of God.
“You sit speaking against your brother;
against your mother’s son you spread rumors.
When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.”
R. Remember this, you who never think of God.
“Consider this, you who forget God,
lest I rend you and there be no one to rescue you.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
R. Remember this, you who never think of God.
When Jesus saw a crowd around him,
he gave orders to cross to the other shore.
A scribe approached and said to him,
“Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
Another of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But Jesus answered him, “Follow me,
and let the dead bury their dead.”
Vultus Christi
Be the priest of His Precious Blood
Monday, 30 June 2014 20:22
Again, this year, for my friend, Father J.K., C.PP.S., on this Feast of the Most Precious Blood.
Priest of Jesus Christ,
you are forever marked by His Blood.
The Blood of the Lamb flows through you:
It sanctifies your touch;
It comes to flower on your lips;
It purifies and quickens all that you do
in your sacred ministry.
In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
you offer the Blood of Christ to the Father.
In the Sacrament of Penance
you apply the healing balm of the Precious Blood to souls
and wash them in It’s laver.
Your purity, priest of Christ,
is itself the fruit of your intimacy with the Precious Blood.
It manifests the power of the Precious Blood,
making you, in spite of all your weaknesses,
victorious over the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Cultivate, then, a strong a lively devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Christ.
Apply it mystically — that is, through your priestly intercession –
to souls in need of healing, deliverance, and inner cleansing.
You are the guardian of the Blood of the Lamb,
responsible for It being treated with the utmost reverence and adoration.
Preach often on the power of the Precious Blood
received in Holy Communion.
Tell souls that the Most Precious Blood of Jesus is
the price of our redemption.
the salvation of the world,
the glory of the Holy Sacrifice,
the vesture of Christ’s priesthood,
the beauty of His altar,
the splendour of His saints,
the defeat of Satan,
the reconciliation of sinners,
the healing of those wounded by the evil serpent,
the shining purity of priests,
the life of those who follow the Lamb,
the peace of the troubled,
the remedy for every ill,
the soul’s desire,
the astonishment of the angels,
and the joy of the Church.
Priest of Jesus Christ,
you are His minister, set apart to handle and to dispense His Precious Blood.
In making you the minister of His Blood,
Jesus entrusts you with His Life,
so that through you His life might be communicated to souls.
You are the guardian and dispenser of His Blood:
heaven’s greatest treasure and the salvation of the universe.
He is the Lamb once slain Who lives forever.
His Blood flows still from the wound in His Side;
It is the stream that irrigates the Church
and brings health to souls weakened by sin.
Cultivate an intense devotion to the Precious Blood.
The Blood of Jesus is the power of your priesthood
and, where His Blood is, there too is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is communicated most richly in the mystery of the Blood.
When you receive the Blood of Jesus
you receive an infusion of the Holy Spirit;
the Life of Jesus courses in your veins,
making you with Him one Priest, one Victim,
one Son eternally beloved of the Father.
Speak of the power of the Blood of Christ
to heal the soul’s wounds,
to bring peace to troubled hearts,
to reconcile enemies,
to transform sinners into saints,
to lift those degraded by vice into the pure and holy happiness of virtue.
Invoke the power of the Blood of Christ to defeat Satan,
to liberate souls from bondage to sin,
and to establish peace where there is unrest and disquiet.
Have a boundless confidence in the might of the Precious Blood.
Wheresoever you invoke the Blood of Jesus,
there will He establish the peace and joy of His Kingdom,
casting out the spirits of darkness who labour incessantly
to bring about the ruin of families,
and of communities,
and of every attempt to overcome evil with good
by living in prayer and in charity.
The Precious Blood is the most potent remedy
for the ills that cause so much suffering in the world;
and that remedy has been given to you, priest of Jesus Christ, in a limitless way.
You are a physician of souls,
sent out to bring healing to the brokenhearted
and freedom to those enslaved by sin.
When the Precious Blood of Jesus touches the lips of a priest,
it purifies them of sin,
and descending into his heart, makes him fit for the Work of God.
Reflect on the immense grace that is yours, day after day, at the altar.
You are marked by Christ’s Most Precious Blood in the eyes of the Father.
That same mark of the Precious Blood terrifies demons,
and It accredits you to do all that Christ commands you to do
through His Holy Church.
Priest beloved of the Heart of Jesus,
adore His Precious Blood.
Make known It’s power.
Teach souls to have the greatest reverence for the mystery of the Blood.
Call down upon yourself and upon souls
the protection and infinite merits of the Blood of the Lamb.
The Blood of Jesus Christ is fire in the soul of the priest who acknowledges It’s power.
Be the priest of His Precious Blood,
just as you are the priest of His Heart,
and of His Eucharistic Face.
These are the mysteries by which you are sanctified
and configured to Him,
Who is eternally Priest and Victim.
18. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him He gave commandment to depart to the other side.
19. And a certain Scribe came, and said to him, Master, I will follow you wherever you go.
20. And Jesus says to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
21. And another of his disciples said to him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
22. But Jesus said to him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
CHRYS. Because Christ not only healed the body, but purified the soul also, He desired to show forth true wisdom, not only by curing diseases, but by doing nothing with ostentation; and therefore it is said, Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he commanded his disciples to cross over to the other side. This He did at once teaching us to be lowly, softening the ill-will of the Jews, and teaching us to do nothing with ostentation.
REMIG. Or; He did this as one desiring to shun the thronging of the multitude. But they hung upon Him in admiration, crowding to see Him. For who would depart from one who did such miracles? Who would not wish to look upon His open face, to see His mouth that spoke such things? For if Moses' countenance was made glorious, and Stephen's as that of an Angel, gather from this how it was to have been supposed that their common Lord must have then appeared; of whom the Prophet speaks, Your form is fair above the sons of men.
HILARY; The name disciples is not to be supposed to be confined to the twelve Apostles; for we read of many disciples besides the twelve.
AUG. It is clear that this day on which they went over the lake was another day, and not that which followed the one on which Peter's mother-in-law was healed, on which day Mark and Luke relate that He went out into the desert.
CHRYS. Observe that He does not dismiss the multitudes, that He may not offend them. He did say to them, Depart you, but bade His disciples go away from thence, thus the crowds might hope to he able to follow.
REMIG. What happened between the command of the Lord given, and their crossing over, the Evangelist purposes to relate in what follows; And one of the Scribes came to him and said, Master, I will follow you wherever you go.
JEROME; This Scribe of the Law who knew but the perishing letter, would not have been turned away had his address been, 'Lord, I will follow You.' But because He esteemed the Savior only as one of many masters, and was a man of the letter (which is better expressed in Greek,) not a spiritual hearer, therefore He had no place where Jesus might lay His head. It is suggested to us that He sought to follow the Lord, because of his great miracles, for the sake of the gain to be derived from them; and was therefore rejected; seeking the same thing as did Simon Magus when he would have given Peter money.
CHRYS. Observe also how great his pride; approaching and speaking as though he disdained to be considered as one of the multitude; desiring to show that he was above the rest.
HILARY; Otherwise; This Scribe being one of the doctors of the Law, asks if he shall follow Him, as though it were not contained in the Law that this is to whom it were gain to follow. Therefore He discovers a feeling of unbelief under the diffidence of his inquiry. For the taking up of the faith is not by question but by following.
CHRYS. So Christ answers him not so such to what He had said, but to the obvious purpose in his mind. Jesus says to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has not where to lay it is head?; as though He had said;
JEROME; Why do you seek to follow me for the sake of the riches and gain of this world, when my poverty is such that I have neither lodging nor home of my own?
CHRYS. This was not to send him away, but rather to convict him of evil intentions at the same time permitting him if he would to follow Christ with the expectation of poverty.
AUG. Otherwise The Son of man has not where to lay his head; that is, in your faith The foxes have holes, in your heart, because you are deceitful. The birds of the air have nests, in your heart, because you are proud. Deceitful and proud follows me not; for how should guile follow sincerity?
GREG. Otherwise; The fox is a crafty animal, lying hid in ditches and dens, and when it comes abroad never going in a straight path, but in crooked windings; birds raise themselves in the air. By the foxes then are meant the subtle and deceitful demons, by the birds the proud demons; as though He had said; Deceitful and proud demons have their abode in your heart; but my lowliness finds no rest in a proud spirit.
AUG. He was moved to follow Christ because of the miracles; this vain desire of glory is signified by the birds; but he assumed the submissiveness of a disciple, which deceit is signified by the foxes.
RABAN. Heretics confiding in their art are signified by the foxes, the evil spirits by the birds of the air, who have their holes and their nests, that is, their abodes in the heart of the Jewish people. Another of his disciples says to him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
JEROME; in what one thing is this disciple like the Scribe? The one called Him Master, the other confesses Him as his Lord. The one from filial piety asks permission to go and bury his father; the other offers to follow, not seeking a master, but by means of his master seeking gain for himself.
HILARY; The disciple does not ask whether he shall follow Him; for he already believed that he ought to follow, but prays to be suffered first to bury. his father
AUG. The Lord when He prepares men for the Gospel will not have any excuse of this fleshly and temporal attachment to interfere, therefore it follows; Jesus said to him, Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.
CHRYS. This saying does not condemn natural affection to our parents, but shows that nothing ought to be more binding on us than the business of heaven; that to this we ought to will apply ourselves with all our endeavors, and not to be slack, however necessary or urgent are the things that draw us aside. For what could be more necessary than to bury a father? What more easy? For it could not need much time. But in this the Lord rescued him from much evil, Weeping, and mourning, and from the pains of expectation. For after the funeral there must come examination of the will, division of the inheritance, and other things of the same sort; and thus trouble following trouble, like the waves, would have borne him far from the port of truth. But if you are not yet satisfied, reflect further that oftentimes the weak are not permitted to know the time, or to follow to the grave; even though the dead be father, mother, or son; yet are they not charged with cruelty that hinder them; it is rather the reverse of cruelty. And it is a much greater evil to draw! One away from spiritual discourse; especially when there were who should perform the rites; as here, Leave the dead to bury their dead.
AUG. As much as to say; Your father is dead; but there are also other dead who shall bury their dead, because they are in unbelief
CHRYS This moreover shows that this dead man was not his; for, I suppose, he that was dead was of the unbelieving. If you wonder at the young man, that in a matter so necessary he should have asked Jesus, and not have gone away of his own accord, for much more that he abode with Jesus after he was bidden to depart; which was not from lack of affection, that he might not interrupt a business yet more necessary.
HILARY; Also, because we are taught in the beginning of the Lord's prayer, first to say, Our Father, who art in heaven; and since this disciple represents the believing people; he is here reminded that he has one only Father in heaven, and that between a believing son and an unbelieving. father the filial relation does not hold good. We are also astonished that the unbelieving dead are not to be mingled with the memories of the saints, and that they are also dead who live out of God; and the dead are buried by the dead, because by the faith of God it behoves the living to cleave to the living (God.)
JEROME; But if the dead shall bury the dead, we ought not to be careful for the dead but for the living, lest while we are anxious for the dead, we ourselves should be counted dead.
GREG. The dead also bury the dead, when sinners protect sinners. They who exalt sinners with their praises, hide the dead under a pile of words.
RABAN. From this we may also take occasion to observe, lesser goods are to be sometimes forfeited for the sake of things greater.
AUG. Matthew relates that this was done when He gave them commandment that they should go over the lake, Luke, that it happened as they walked by the way; etch is no contradiction, for they must have walked by the way that they might come to the lake.
Catena Aurea Matthew 8
