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Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 07-01-11, Solemnity, Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
USCCB.org/New American Bible ^ | 07-01-11 | New American Bible

Posted on 06/30/2011 9:52:40 PM PDT by Salvation

July 1, 2011


 

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

 
Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel


Reading 1

Dt 7:6-11
Moses said to the people:
"You are a people sacred to the LORD, your God;
he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth
to be a people peculiarly his own.
It was not because you are the largest of all nations
that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you,
for you are really the smallest of all nations.
It was because the LORD loved you
and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn your fathers,
that he brought you out with his strong hand
from the place of slavery,
and ransomed you from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
Understand, then, that the LORD, your God, is God indeed,
the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant
down to the thousandth generation
toward those who love him and keep his commandments,
but who repays with destruction a person who hates him;
he does not dally with such a one,
but makes them personally pay for it.
You shall therefore carefully observe the commandments,
the statutes and the decrees that I enjoin on you today."

 

103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 10
Responsorial Psalm

R. (cf. 17) The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.

 

1 Jn 4:7-16
Reading II

Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.
In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.

This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,
that he has given us of his Spirit.
Moreover, we have seen and testify
that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.
Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God remains in him and he in God.
We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.

God is love, and whoever remains in love
remains in God and God in him.


Mt 11:25-30
Gospel

At that time Jesus exclaimed:
"I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."


TOPICS: Catholic; General Discusssion; Prayer; Worship
KEYWORDS: california; catholic; ijuniperoserra; juniperoserra; ordinarytime; popefrancis; prayer; romancatholicism; saints
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To: All

Devotion to the Sacred Heart

July 1st, 2011 by Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.

Dt 7:6-11 / 1 Jn 4:7-16 / Mt 11:25-30

Now as the devotion to the Sacred Heart makes us true and faithful adorers of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and as it consecrates us in a special way to this mystery, it procures for us the greatest sweetness from it.

One would say that our Savior measures the special favors which He confers in this Sacrament by the number of insults which He has endured in it, and as there is no mystery in which He has received so many outrages, there is also no other mystery in which He fills with such sweet consolations those who do all in their power to make reparation for these outrages.

As the motive of this holy practice is so pure and agreeable to Jesus Christ, we should not be surprised if the best and holiest of all masters shows such sweetness to His grateful and faithful servants, especially at a time when gratitude is rare, and when so little eagerness to serve Him and so little true love are found even in those who make a profession of loving Him.

From The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ


41 posted on 07/01/2011 10:37:05 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: All
One Bread, One Body

One Bread, One Body

 


<< Friday, July 1, 2011 >> Sacred Heart of Jesus
Saint of the Day
 
Deuteronomy 7:6-11
1 John 4:7-16

View Readings
Psalm 103:1-4, 8, 10
Matthew 11:25-30

 

BE-LOVED

 
"Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God." —1 John 4:7
 

God calls us "beloved" (1 Jn 4:7, 11). This not only means that He loves us; it also means that He loves us every moment forever. We can live on in His love (Jn 15:10). "Trial, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword" cannot separate us from God's love (Rm 8:35). We can be perfectly secure in God's love and be "certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord" (Rm 8:38-39).

In this permanent state of being perfectly and infinitely loved by Love Himself (see 1 Jn 4:16), we are transformed into "more than conquerors" (Rm 8:37). Because we are beloved to this "breadth and length and height and depth" (Eph 3:18), we live lives of constant thanksgiving (see Lk 7:42, 47) and perfect joy (Jn 15:11). Even the worst series of tragedies is dwarfed by the awesome reality of being God's beloved. We have been loved into life, new life, and eternal life. Experiencing God's incarnate, personal, crucified, and glorified love for us, we "attain to the fullness of God Himself" (Eph 3:19). Choose to live forever in His love. Be beloved.

 
Prayer: Sacred Heart of Jesus, on this day of prayer for the sanctification of priests, penetrate the hearts of priests so that they will know and proclaim Your love.
Promise: "Take My yoke upon your shoulders and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart." —Mt 11:29
Praise: Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.

42 posted on 07/01/2011 10:39:02 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: All
Compline -- Night Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer)


Introduction
O God, come to my aid.
  O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
  as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
  world without end.
Amen. Alleluia.

This is an excellent moment for an examination of conscience. In a communal celebration of Compline, one of the penitential acts given in the Missal may be recited.


Hymn
Now that the daylight dies away,
By all thy grace and love,
Thee, Maker of the world, we pray
To watch our bed above.
Let dreams depart and phantoms fly,
The offspring of the night,
Keep us, like shrines, beneath thine eye,
Pure in our foe’s despite.
This grace on thy redeemed confer,
Father, co-equal Son,
And Holy Ghost, the Comforter,
Eternal Three in One.

Psalm 87 (88)
The prayer of one gravely ill
Lord my God, I call for help by day, I cry at night before you.
Lord God, my saviour,
  I have cried out to you by day and by night.
Let my prayer come before you:
  turn your ear to my request.
For my soul is full of evils,
  my life has come close to its end.
I am counted with those who go down to the pit:
  I am left without help.
I am one of the dead,
  like the murdered who sleep in their tombs,
who lie there forgotten,
  cut off from your care.
You have thrust me down into the pit,
  to the gloom and the shadow of death.
Your anger weighs heavy upon me;
  you have drowned me under your waves.
You have taken my friends away from me:
  you have made me hateful in their sight,
  I am shut in, I may not go out.
My eyes are weak from my sufferings.
I have called to you, Lord, all the day;
  I have stretched out my hands to you.
Is it for the dead that you perform your wonders?
  Will the ghosts rise up and proclaim you?
In the tomb, will they tell of your kindness?
  Will they tell of your faithfulness in the place of the lost?
Will your wonders be known in the darkness,
  or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
And so I have called out to you, Lord,
  and in the morning my prayer will come before you.
With what purpose, Lord, do you reject my soul?
  Why do you hide your face from me?
I am poor; from my youth I have been dying;
  I have borne the terrors you sent, I am lost in confusion.
Your anger has overrun me, your terrors have broken me:
  they have flowed round me like water,
  they have besieged me all the day long.
You have taken my friends and those close to me:
  all I have left is shadows.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
  as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
  world without end.
Amen.
Lord my God, I call for help by day, I cry at night before you.

Reading (Jeremiah 14:9) ©
Lord, you are in our midst, we are called by your name. Do not desert us, O Lord our God!

Short Responsory
Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
You have redeemed us, Lord, God of faithfulness.
Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

Canticle Nunc Dimittis
Keep us safe, Lord, while we are awake, and guard us as we sleep, so that we can keep watch with Christ and rest in peace.
Now, Master, you let your servant go in peace.
  You have fulfilled your promise.
My own eyes have seen your salvation,
  which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples.
A light to bring the Gentiles from darkness;
  the glory of your people Israel.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
  as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
  world without end.
Amen.
Keep us safe, Lord, while we are awake, and guard us as we sleep, so that we can keep watch with Christ and rest in peace.

Let us pray.
Lord, let us be so united with your only Son that we become worthy to rise with him into new life, who lives and reigns for ever and ever, Amen.

May the almighty Lord grant us a quiet night and a perfect end.

AMEN


Salve Regina
Hail to you, O Queen, mother of loving kindness,
  our life, our happiness, our hope.
Hear us cry out to you,
  children of Eve in our exile.
Hear as we sigh, with groaning and weeping
  in this life, this valley of tears.
Come then, our Advocate, turn towards us
  the gaze of your kind and loving eyes.
And show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb,
  when at last our exile here is ended.
O gentle, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.
Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae;
vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, advocata nostra,
illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.

43 posted on 07/01/2011 10:41:38 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: All
Blessed Junipero Serra, Priest

Blessed Junipero Serra, Priest
[In the diocese of the United States]
Optional Memorial
July 1st

Portrait discovered in a Zacatecas, Mexico second-hand store in 1954 by Harry Downie.

History:
Blessed Junipero Serra was born at Petra, Island of Majorca, November 24, 1713; he died at Monterey, California, August 28, 1784.

On September 14, 1730, he entered the Franciscan Order. For his proficiency in studies he was appointed lector of philosophy before his ordination to the priesthood. Later he received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the Lullian University at Palma, where he also occupied the Duns Scotus chair of philosophy until he joined the missionary college of San Fernando, Mexico (1749). While traveling on foot from Vera Cruz to the capital, he injured his leg in such a way that he suffered from it throughout his life, though he continued to make his journeys on foot whenever possible. At his own request he was assigned to the Sierra Gorda Indian Missions. He served there for nine years, part of the time as superior, learned the language of the Pame Indians, and translated the Catechism into their language. Recalled to Mexico, he became famous as a most fervent and effective preacher of missions. His zeal frequently led him to employ extraordinary means in order to move the people to penance. He would pound his breast with a stone while in the pulpit, scourge himself, or apply a lighted torch to his bare chest. He was appointed superior of a band of fifteen Franciscans for the Indian Missions of Lower California. Early in 1769 he accompanied Portolá's land expedition to Upper California. On the way he established the Mission San Fernando de Velicatá, Lower California. He arrived at San Diego on July 1, and on July 16 founded the first of the twenty-one California missions, which accomplished the conversions of all the natives on the coast as far as Sonoma in the north.

In 1778 he received the faculty to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation. After he had exercised his privilege for a year, Governor Neve directed him to suspend administering the sacrament until he could present the papal Brief. For nearly two years Father Serra refrained, and then Viceroy Majorga gave instructions to the effect that Father Serra was within his rights. During the remaining three years of his life he once more visited the missions from San Diego to San Francisco, six hundred miles, in order to confirm all who had been baptized. He suffered intensely from his crippled leg and from his chest, yet he would use no remedies. He confirmed 5309 persons, who, with but few exceptions, were Indians converted during the fourteen years from 1770. Besides extraordinary fortitude, his most conspicuous virtues were insatiable zeal, love of mortification, self-denial, and absolute confidence in God. His executive abilities has been especially noted by non-Catholic writers. A bronze statute of heroic size represents him as the apostolic preacher in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. In 1884 the Legislature of California passed a concurrent resolution making August 29 of that year, the centennial of Father Serra's burial, a legal holiday.

He was beatified September 25, 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

(Principal source - Catholic Encyclopedia - 1913 edition)


Collect:
God most High,
your servant Junipero Serra
brought the gospel of Christ
to the peoples of Mexico and California
and firmly established the Church among them.
By his intercession,
and through the example of his apostolic zeal,
inspire us to be faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

Readings: From the Common of Pastors: for Missionaries or Holy Men and Women: for religious


44 posted on 07/02/2011 6:58:35 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation
Matthew
  English: Douay-Rheims Latin: Vulgata Clementina Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
  Matthew 11
25 At that time Jesus answered and said: I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to the little ones. In illo tempore respondens Jesus dixit : Confiteor tibi, Pater, Domine cæli et terræ, quia abscondisti hæc a sapientibus, et prudentibus, et revelasti ea parvulis. εν εκεινω τω καιρω αποκριθεις ο ιησους ειπεν εξομολογουμαι σοι πατερ κυριε του ουρανου και της γης οτι απεκρυψας ταυτα απο σοφων και συνετων και απεκαλυψας αυτα νηπιοις
26 Yea, Father; for so hath it seemed good in thy sight. Ita Pater : quoniam sic fuit placitum ante te. ναι ο πατηρ οτι ουτως εγενετο ευδοκια εμπροσθεν σου
27 All things are delivered to me by my Father. And no one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth any one know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal him. Omnia mihi tradita sunt a Patre meo. Et nemo novit Filium, nisi Pater : neque Patrem quis novit, nisi Filius, et cui voluerit Filius revelare. παντα μοι παρεδοθη υπο του πατρος μου και ουδεις επιγινωσκει τον υιον ει μη ο πατηρ ουδε τον πατερα τις επιγινωσκει ει μη ο υιος και ω εαν βουληται ο υιος αποκαλυψαι
28 Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis, et onerati estis, et ego reficiam vos. δευτε προς με παντες οι κοπιωντες και πεφορτισμενοι καγω αναπαυσω υμας
29 Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. Tollite jugum meum super vos, et discite a me, quia mitis sum, et humilis corde : et invenietis requiem animabus vestris. αρατε τον ζυγον μου εφ υμας και μαθετε απ εμου οτι πραος ειμι και ταπεινος τη καρδια και ευρησετε αναπαυσιν ταις ψυχαις υμων
30 For my yoke is sweet and my burden light. Jugum enim meum suave est, et onus meum leve. ο γαρ ζυγος μου χρηστος και το φορτιον μου ελαφρον εστιν

45 posted on 07/04/2011 10:22:19 AM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: annalex
25. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes.
26. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in your sight.

GLOSS: Because the Lord knew that many would doubt respecting the foregoing matter, namely, that the Jews would not receive Christ whom the Gentile world has so willingly received, He here makes answer to their thoughts; And Jesus answered and said, I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.

GLOSS: That is, Who makes heaven, or leaves in earthliness, whom you will. Or literally,

AUG; If Christ, from whom all sin is far, said, I confess, confession is not proper for the sinner only, but sometimes also for him that gives thanks. We may confess either by praising God, or by accusing ourselves. When He said, I confess to you, it is, I praise you, not I accuse Myself.

JEROME; Let those hear who falsely argue, that the Savior was not born but created, how He calls His Father Lord of heaven and earth. For if He be a creature, and the creature can call its Maker Father, it was surely foolish here to address Him as Lord of heaven and earth, and not of Him (Christ) likewise. He gives thanks that His coming has opened to the Apostles sacraments, which the Scribes are Pharisees knew not, who seemed to themselves wise, and understanding in their own eyes; That you have hid these things from the wise and understanding and have revealed them to babes.

AUG; That the wise and understanding are to be taken as the proud, Himself opens to us when He says, and have revealed them to babes; for who are babes but the humble?

GREG; He says not 'to the foolish', but to babes, showing that He condemns pride, not understanding.

CHRYS; Or when He says, The wise, He does not speak of true wisdom, but of that which the Scribes and Pharisees seemed to have by their speech. Wherefore He said not, 'And have revealed them to the foolish', but, to babes, that is, uneducated, or simple; teaching us in all things to keep ourselves from pride, and to seek humility.

HILARY; The hidden things of heavenly words and their power are hid from the wise, and revealed to the babes; babes, that is, in malice, not in understanding; hid from the wise because of their presumption of their own wisdom, not because of their wisdom.

CHRYS; That it is revealed to the one is matter of joy, that it is hid from the other not of joy, but of sorrow; He does not therefore joy on this account but He joys that these have known what the wise have nor known.

HILARY; The justice of this the Lord confirms by the sentence of the Father's will, that they who disdain to be made babes in God, should become fools in their own wisdom; and therefore He adds, Even so, Father: for so it seemed good before you.

GREG; In which words we have a lesson of humility, that we should not rashly presume to discuss the counsels of heaven concerning the calling of home and the rejection of others; showing that that cannot be unrighteous which is willed by Him that is righteous.

JEROME; In these words moreover He speaks to the Father with the desire of one petitioning, that His mercy begun in the Apostles might be completed in them.

CHRYS; These things which the Lord spoke to His disciples, made them more zealous. As afterwards they thought great things of themselves, because they cast out demons, therefore He here reproves them; for what they had, was by revelation, not by their own efforts. The Scribes who esteemed themselves wise and understanding were excluded because of their pride, and therefore He says, Since on this account the mysteries of God were hid from them, fear you, and abide as babes, for this it is that has made you partakers in the revelation. But as when Paul says, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, he does not mean that God did this, but they who gave Him cause, so here, You have hid these things from the wise and understanding. And wherefore were they hid from them? Hear Paul speaking, Seeking to set up their own righteousness, they were not subject to the righteousness of God.

27. All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

CHRYS; Because He had said, I confess to you, Father, because you have hid these things from the wise, that you should not suppose that He thus thanks the Father as though He Himself was excluded from this power, He adds, All things are committed to me by my Father. Hearing the words are committed, do not admit suspicion of any thing human, for He uses this word that you may not think there be two gods unbegotten. For at the time that He was begotten He was Lord of all.

JEROME; For if we conceive of this thing according to our weakness, when he who received begins to have, he who gives begins to be without. Or when He says, All things are committed to him, He may mean not the heaven and earth and the elements, and the rest of the things which He created and made, but those who through the Son have access to the Father.

HILARY; (that we may not think that there is any thing less in Him than in God, therefore He says this.

AUG; For if He has anything less in His power than the Father has, then all that the Father has, are not His; for by begetting Him Father gave power to the Son, as by begetting Him He gave all things which He has in His substance to Him whom He begot of His substance.

HILARY; And also in the mutual knowledge between the Father and the Son, He teaches us that there is nothing in the Son beyond what was in the Father; for it follows, And none knows the Son but the Father, nor does any man know the Father, but the Son.

CHRYS; By this that He only knows the Father, He show covertly that He is of one substance with the Father. As though He had said, What wonder if I be Lord of all, when I have somewhat hat yet greater, namely to know the Father and to be of the same substance with Him?

HILARY; For this mutual knowledge proclaims that they are of one substance since He that should know the Son, should know the Father also in the Son, since all things were delivered to Him by the Father.

CHRYS; When He says, Neither does any know the Father but the Son, He does not mean that all men are altogether ignorant of Him; but that none knows Him with that knowledge wherewith He knows Him; which may also be said of the Son. For it is not said of some unknown God as Marcion declares.

AUG; And because their substance is inseparable, it is enough sometimes to name the Father, sometimes the Son; nor is it possible to separate from either His Spirit who is especially called the Spirit of truth.

JEROME; Let the heretic Eunomius therefore blush here at who claims to himself such a knowledge of the Father and the Son, as they have one of another. But if he argues from what follows, and props up his madness by that, And he to whom the Son will reveal him, it is one thing to know what you know by equality with God, another to know it by His vouchsafing to reveal it.

AUG; The Father; is revealed by the Son, that is, by His Word. For if the temporal and transitory word which we utter both shows itself, and what we wish to convey, how much more the Word of God by which all things were made, which so shows the Father as He is Father, because itself is the same and in the same manner as the Father.

ID; When if He said, None knows the Son but the Father. He did not add, and he to whom the Father will reveal the Son. But when He said, None knows the Father but the Son, He added, And, he to whom the Son will reveal him. But this must not be so understood as though the Son could be known by none but by the Father only; while the Father may be known not only by the Son, but also by those to whom the Son shall reveal Him. But it is rather expressed thus, that we may understand that both the Father and the Son Himself are revealed by the Son, inasmuch as He is the light of our mind; and what is afterwards added, And he to whom the Son will reveal, is to be understood as spoken of the Son as well as the Father, and to refer to the whole of what had been said. For the Father declares Himself by His Word, but the Word declares not only that which is intended to be declared by it, but in declaring this declares itself.

CHRYS; If then He reveals the Father, He reveals Himself also. But the one he omits as a thing manifest, but mentions the other because there might be a doubt concerning it. Herein also He instructs us that He is so one with the Father, that it is not possible for any to come to the Father, but through the Son. For this had above all things given offense, that He seemed to be against God, and therefore He strove by all means to overthrow this notion.

28. Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest to your souls.
30. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

CHRYS; By what He had said, He brought His disciples to have a desire towards Him, showing them His unspeakable excellence; and now He invites them to Him, saying, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.

AUG; Whence do we all thus labor, but that we are mortal men, bearing vessels of clay which cause us much difficulty. But if the vessels of flesh are straitened, the regions of love will be enlarged. To what end then does He say, Come to me, all you who labor, but that you should not labor?

HILARY; He calls to Him those that were laboring under the hardships of the Law, and those who are burdened with the sins of this world.

JEROME; That the burden of sin is heavy, the Prophet Zachariah bears witness, saying, that wickedness sits upon a talent of lead. And the Psalmist fills it up, your iniquities are grown heavy upon me.

GREG; For a cruel yoke and hard weight of servitude it is to be subject to the things of time, to be ambitious of the things of earth, to cling to falling things, to seek to stand in things that stand not, to desire things that pass away, but to be unwilling to pass away with them. For while all things fly away against our wish, those things which had first harassed the mind in desire of gaining them, now oppress it with fear of losing them.

CHRYS; He said not, Come you, this man and that man, but all whosoever are in trouble, in sorrow, or in sin, not that I may exact punishment of you, but that I may remit your sins. Come you, not that I have need of your glory, but that I seek your salvation. And I will refresh you. Not, I will save you, only; but that is much greater, I will then refresh you, that is, I will set you in all quietness.

RABAN; I will not only take from you your burden, but will satisfy you with inward refreshment.

REMIG; Come, He says not with the feet, but with the life, not in the body, but in faith. For that is a spiritual approach by which any man approaches God; and therefore it follows, Take my yoke upon you.

RABAN; The yoke of Christ is Christ's Gospel which joins and yokes together Jews and Gentiles in the unity of the faith. This we are commanded to take upon us that is, to have in honor; lest perchance setting it beneath us, that is wrongly despising it, we should trample upon it with the miry feet of unholiness; wherefore He adds, learn of me.

AUG; Not to create a world, or to do miracles in that world; but that I am meek and lowly in heart. Would you be great? Begin with the least. Would you build up a mighty fabric of greatness? First think of the foundation of humility; for the mightier building any seek to raise, the deeper let him dig for his foundation. Whither is the summit of our building to rise? To the sight of God.

RABAN; We must learn then from our Savior to be meek in temper, and lowly in mind; let us hurt none, let us despise none, and the virtues which we have strewn in deed let us retain in our heart.

CHRYS; And therefore in beginning the Divine Law He begins with humility, and sets before us a great reward, saying, And you shall find rest for your souls. This is the highest reward, you shall not only be made useful to others, but shall make yourself to have peace; and He gives you the promise of it before it comes, but when it is come, you shall rejoice in perpetual rest. And that they might not be afraid because He had spoken of a burden, therefore He adds, For my yoke is pleasant, and my burden light.

HILARY; He holds forth the inducements of a pleasant yoke, and a light burden, that to them that believe He may afford the knowledge of that good which He alone knows in the Father.

GREG; What burden is it to put upon the neck of our mind that He bids us shun all desire that disturbs, and turn from the toilsome paths of this world?

HILARY; And what is more pleasant than that yoke, what lighter than that burden? To be made better, to abstain from wickedness, to choose the good, and refuse the evil, to love all men, to hate none, to gain eternal things, not to be taken with things present, to be unwilling to do that to another which yourself would be pained to suffer.

RABAN; But how is Christ's yoke pleasant, seeing it was said man above, Narrow is the way which leads to life? That which yoke is entered upon by a narrow entrance is in process of time made broad by the unspeakable sweetness of love.

AUG; So then the they who with an unfearing neck have submitted to the yoke of the Lord endure such hardships and dangers, that they seem beneath to be called not from labor to rest, but from rest to labor. But the Holy Spirit was there who, as the outward man decayed, renewed the inward man day by day, and giving a foretaste of spiritual rest in the rich pleasures of God in the hope of blessedness to come, smoothed all that seemed rough, lightened all that was heavy. Men suffer amputations and burning, that at the price of sharper pain they may be delivered from torments less but more lasting, as boils or swellings. What storms and dangers will not merchants undergo that they may acquire perishing riches? Even those who love not riches endure the same hardships; but those that love them endure the same, but to them they are not hardships. For love makes right easy, and almost nothing all things however dreadful and monstrous. How much more easily then does love do that for true happiness, which avarice does for misery as far as it can?

JEROME; And how is the Gospel lighter than the Law, seeing in the Law murder and adultery, but under the Gospel anger and concupiscence also, are punished? Because by the Law many things are commanded which the Apostle fully teaches us cannot be fulfilled; by the Law works are required, by the Gospel the will is sought for, which even if it goes not into act, yet does not lose its reward. The Gospel commands what we can do, as that we lust not; this is in our own power; the Law punishes not the will but the act, as adultery Suppose a virgin to have been violated in time of persecution, as here was not the will she is held as a virgin under the Gospel; under the Law she is cast out as defiled.

Catena Aurea Matthew 11
46 posted on 07/04/2011 10:23:39 AM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: annalex


Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Christ Carrying the Cross 1737-38 Oil on canvas, 450 x 517 cm Sant'Alvise, Venice

47 posted on 07/04/2011 10:24:49 AM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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