Daily Gospel (Wednesday 26/3/2014)

Wednesday of the Third week of Lent 

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5:17-19. 
Jesus said to his disciples: «Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 

Commentary of the day: 
Saint Cyprian (c.200-258), Bishop of Carthage and martyr 
Jealousy and envy, 12-15; CSEL 3, 427-430 (trans. ©Friends of Henry Ashworth)

The fulfilment of the Law : loving in deed

To assume the name of Christ without following the way of Christ -what else is that but to make a sham of the divinely given name and to abandon the path of salvation? When Christ himself teaches that the person who keeps his commandments will have life (Mt 19,17) and that wisdom belongs to the one who not only listens to his words but acts on them (Mt 7,24), that the distinction of being called the greatest teacher in the kingdom of heaven is awarded to the one who not only teaches but acts in accordance with his teaching, then he means that if anything good and useful has been preached it will benefit the preacher only insofar as he lives by what he preaches.

Now is there anything the Lord more frequently urged on his disciples, any salutary counsel or heavenly precept he wanted them to cherish and observe more assiduously than his commandment that we should love one another with the same love as he himself showed for his disciples? (Jn 13,34; 15,12) Yet how can anyone preserve the peace and love of the Lord if jealousy has rendered him incapable of being either peaceable or loving toward his neighbor?

This is why the apostle Paul gave a eulogy of peace and charity and made an uncompromising assertion that neither faith nor alms nor even the suffering of the confessor or martyr would be of any value unless we observe the claims of love in their entirety (1Cor 13,1-3).

Daily Gospel (Friday 21/3/2014)

Friday of the Second week of Lent:
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 21:33-43.45-46. 

 Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: «Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.' They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?" They answered him, "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times." Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes'? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.



Commentary of the day:
 Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274), Franciscan, Doctor of the Church
 The Mystical Vine, ch. 3, § 5-10 

"They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him"

 “I am the true vine,” Jesus says (Jn 15,1)... People dig trenches around this vine; that is to say, cunningly dig traps. When they plot to make someone fall into a snare it is as if they dug a pit in front of him. That is why he mourns about it, saying: “They have dug a pit before me” (Ps 56[57],7)... Here is one example of these snares: “They brought a woman who had been caught in adultery” to our Lord Jesus, “saying: 'Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?' ” (Jn 8,3f.)... And here is another: “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to the Emperor or not?” (cf. Mt 22,17)...
However they discovered that these traps caused no harm to the vine. To the contrary, in digging these pits they themselves fell into them (Ps 56[57],7)... Then they kept on digging: not just his hands and his feet (Ps 21[22],17) but they pierced his side with a lance (Jn 19,34) and uncovered the interior of that sacred heart, which had already been wounded by the spear of love. The Bridegroom says in the song of his love that: “You have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse” (Sg 4,9 Vg.). O Lord Jesus, your heart has been wounded with love by your spouse, your friend, your sister. Why, then, was it necessary for your enemies to wound you again? O you enemies, what are you doing?... Do you not know that this heart of our Lord Jesus', already pierced, is already dead, already open and cannot be touched by any other suffering? The heart of the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus, has already received the wound of love, the death of love. What other death could touch him?... The martyrs also laugh when they are threatened, rjoice when they are struck, triumph when they are killed. Why? Because they have already died through love in their hearts, “dead to sin” (Rm 6,2) and to the world...
Thus Jesus' heart has been wounded and put to death for our sake... Physical death triumphed for a moment but only to be conquered for ever. It was blotted out when Christ rose from the dead because “death has no power over him any more” (Rm 6,9).