Catholic Caucus - Daily Mass Reading - Thursday, July 10, 2003

USCCB ^ | July 10, 2--3

[NYer]

July 10, 2003
Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Psalm: Thursday 30

Reading I Responsorial Psalm

Gospel

Reading I
Gn 44:18-21, 23b-29; 45:1-5

Judah approached Joseph and said: "I beg you, my lord,
let your servant speak earnestly to my lord,
and do not become angry with your servant,
for you are the equal of Pharaoh.
My lord asked your servants, ‘Have you a father, or another brother?'
So we said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father,
and a young brother, the child of his old age.
This one's full brother is dead,
and since he is the only one by that mother who is left,
his father dotes on him.'
Then you told your servants,
‘Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him.
Unless your youngest brother comes back with you,
you shall not come into my presence again.'
When we returned to your servant our father,
we reported to him the words of my lord.

"Later, our father told us to come back and buy some food for the family.
So we reminded him, ‘We cannot go down there;
only if our youngest brother is with us can we go,
for we may not see the man if our youngest brother is not with us.'
Then your servant our father said to us,
‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons.
One of them, however, disappeared, and I had to conclude
that he must have been torn to pieces by wild beasts;
I have not seen him since.
If you now take this one away from me, too,
and some disaster befalls him,
you will send my white head down to the nether world in grief.'"

Joseph could no longer control himself
in the presence of all his attendants,
so he cried out, "Have everyone withdraw from me!"
Thus no one else was about when he made himself known to his brothers.
But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him,
and so the news reached Pharaoh's palace.
"I am Joseph," he said to his brothers.
"Is my father still in good health?"
But his brothers could give him no answer,
so dumbfounded were they at him.

"Come closer to me," he told his brothers.
When they had done so, he said:
"I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt.
But now do not be distressed,
and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here.
It was really for the sake of saving lives
that God sent me here ahead of you."

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 105:16-17, 18-19, 20-21

R (5a) Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
or:
R Alleluia.
When the LORD called down a famine on the land
and ruined the crop that sustained them,
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.
R Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
or:
R Alleluia.
They had weighed him down with fetters,
and he was bound with chains,
Till his prediction came to pass
and the word of the LORD proved him true.
R Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
or:
R Alleluia.
The king sent and released him,
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions.
R Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
or:
R Alleluia.

Gospel
Mt 10:7-15

Jesus said to his Apostles:
"As you go, make this proclamation:
‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts;
no sack for the journey, or a second tunic,
or sandals, or walking stick.
The laborer deserves his keep.
Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it,
and stay there until you leave.
As you enter a house, wish it peace.
If the house is worthy,
let your peace come upon it;
if not, let your peace return to you.
Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words–
go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.
Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment
than for that town."

Lectionary for Mass, Copyright © 1970, 1986, 1992, 1998, 2001 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

[NYer]

Please remember Salvation in your prayers today.

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[NYer]

REFLECTION

Psalms
Chapter 145

1

¹ Praise. Of David. I will extol you, my God and king; I will bless your name forever.

2

Every day I will bless you; I will praise your name forever.

3

Great is the LORD and worthy of high praise; God's grandeur is beyond understanding.

4

One generation praises your deeds to the next and proclaims your mighty works.

5

They speak of the splendor of your majestic glory, tell of your wonderful deeds.

6

They speak of your fearsome power and attest to your great deeds.

7

They publish the renown of your abounding goodness and joyfully sing of your justice.

8

The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love.

9

The LORD is good to all, compassionate to every creature.

10

All your works give you thanks, O LORD and your faithful bless you.

11

They speak of the glory of your reign and tell of your great works,

12

Making known to all your power, the glorious splendor of your rule.

13

Your reign is a reign for all ages, your dominion for all generations. The LORD is trustworthy in every word, and faithful in every work.

14

The LORD supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

15

The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you give them their food in due season.

16

You open wide your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

17

You, LORD, are just in all your ways, faithful in all your works.

18

You, LORD, are near to all who call upon you, to all who call upon you in truth.

19

You satisfy the desire of those who fear you; you hear their cry and save them.

20

You, LORD, watch over all who love you, but all the wicked you destroy.

21

My mouth will speak your praises, LORD; all flesh will bless your holy name forever.

Here is a translation of John Paul II's address at today's general audience, which he dedicated to a reflection on Psalm 145(146).

* * *

1. Psalm 145[146], which we just heard, is an "alleluia," the first of five Psalms that close the whole collection of the Psalter. Hebrew liturgical tradition already used this hymn as a song of praise for the morning: It reaches its culmination in the proclamation of the sovereignty of God over human history. In fact, at the end of the Psalm, it is declared that "the Lord shall reign forever" (verse 10).

A consoling truth is derived from this: We are not abandoned to ourselves, the vicissitudes of our day are not dominated by chaos or fate, the events do not represent a mere succession of acts deprived of any meaning or goal. Starting from this conviction, a true and proper profession of faith in God is developed, celebrated with a kind of litany in which the attributes of love and goodness are proclaimed which are proper to him (see verses 6-9).

2. God is the creator of heaven and earth, and the faithful custodian of the covenant that binds him to his people. It is he who does justice to the oppressed, gives bread to sustain the hungry, and sets prisoners free. It is he who opens the eyes of the blind, raises the one who falls, loves the righteous, protects the stranger, and upholds the orphan and the widow. It is he who disturbs the way of the wicked and reigns sovereign over all beings and all times.

These are 12 theological affirmations that, with their perfect number, wish to express the fullness and perfection of divine action. The Lord is not a sovereign who is distant from his creatures, but is involved in their history, like one who defends justice, aligning himself with the last, the victims, the oppressed, the unhappy.

3. Man finds himself, then, before a radical choice between two contrasting possibilities: On one hand is the temptation to "trust in princes" (see verse 3), adopting their criteria inspired by wickedness, egoism and pride. In reality, this is a slippery and ruinous way, it is "a crooked path and devious way" (see Proverbs 2:15), which has despair as its end.

In fact, the Psalmist reminds us that man is a fragile and mortal being, as the word "'adam" expresses, which in Hebrew refers to earth, matter, dust. Man, the Bible often repeats, is like a palace that crumbles (see Ecclesiastes 12:1-7), a cobweb that the wind rends (see Job 8:14), a blade of grass that is green at dawn and dry at night (see Psalm 89[90]:5-6; 102[103]:15-16). When death comes upon him, all his plans disintegrate and he returns to dust: "When they breathe their last, they return to the earth; that day all their planning comes to nothing" (Psalm 145[146]:4).

4. However, man has another possibility before him, exalted by the Psalmist with a beatitude: "Happy those whose help is Jacob's God, whose hope is in the Lord, their God" (verse 5). This is the way of trust in the eternal and faithful God. The amen, which is the Hebrew word of faith, means precisely to be based on the indestructible solidity of the Lord, on his eternity, on his infinite power. But above all it means to share his choices, which the profession of faith and praise, first described by us, has brought to light.

It is necessary to live in adherence to the divine will, to offer bread to the hungry, to visit prisoners, to support and comfort the sick, to defend and welcome strangers, to be dedicated to the poor and miserable. In reality, it is the same spirit of the beatitudes; to decide in favor of that proposal of love that saves us at the end of this life and will then be the object of our examination in the Last Judgment, which will seal history. Then we will be judged on the choice to serve Christ in the hungry, in the thirsty, in the stranger, in the naked, in the sick, in the imprisoned. "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40), the Lord will then say.

5. Let us conclude our meditation of Psalm 145[146] with an idea for reflection offered to us by the subsequent Christian tradition.

Origen, the great writer of the third century, when commenting on Verse 7 of the Psalm, which says: "The Lord gives food to the hungry and sets prisoners free," perceived an implicit reference to the Eucharist: "We are hungry for Christ, and he himself will give us the bread of heaven. 'Give us this day our daily bread.' Those who speak this way, are hungry; those who feel the need for bread, are hungry." And this hunger is fully satiated by the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which man is nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ (see Origen -- Jerome, "74 Omelie sul Libro dei Salmi" [74 Homilies on the Book of Psalms], Milan, 1993, pp. 526-527).

[Translation by ZENIT]

[At the end of the audience, the Holy Father gave this summary in English:]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today's Psalm is the first of the five "alleluias" that close the Book of Psalms. It praises God who reigns sovereign over all creation and is faithful to his covenant. God is ever attentive to the sufferings of his creatures; he acts with justice and shows compassion. We too are called, in the spirit of the Beatitudes, to share with the poor, to defend the oppressed, and to show compassion to those who reflect in their lives the face of the suffering Christ.

I offer a warm welcome to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present in today's audience, especially those from Sierra Leone, England, Scotland, Canada and the United States. I thank the choirs for their praise of God in song. In a special way, I greet the many student groups present. Upon all of you I cordially invoke joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.

[dansangel]

Thank you for this Reflection. It is very timely for me and someone else that I am concerned about. I will share it with her.

God Bless You.

[NYer]

Thank you, dansangel, for your comments. This obviously was "inspired" as a post for you.

Each week, the pope gives a reflection on one of the Psalms. I am considering posting them on Thursday. I love the Psalms.

[NYer]

Your thoughts?

[drstevej]

***Origen, the great writer of the third century, when commenting on Verse 7 of the Psalm, which says: "The Lord gives food to the hungry and sets prisoners free," perceived an implicit reference to the Eucharist: "We are hungry for Christ, and he himself will give us the bread of heaven. 'Give us this day our daily bread.' Those who speak this way, are hungry; those who feel the need for bread, are hungry." And this hunger is fully satiated by the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which man is nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ ***

I disagree with Origen's reading the Eucharist into this statement. This is eisegesis not exegesis. I don't want a debate on Eucharistic theology (been there done that around here), but you asked my opinion. And my opinion is that the Psalmist is not speaking about Eucharistic theology in the passage. That is similar to seeing the ark as a type of Mary's womb -- speculation to buttress one's predecided theology.

[dansangel]

I am considering posting them on Thursday. I love the Psalms.

Please do. I copied that post and gave it to a co-worker with several items highlighted. She called me later and said in her finest GA drawl, "That ain't nothing but God speaking" meaning that He knew I would see it and pass it on to her.

You sent us a blessing, NYer. Thank you.

[NYer]

I disagree with Origen's reading the Eucharist into this statement.

I am more interested in your thoughts on the pope's own reflection, not on the final summary.

[drstevej]

The Pope I assumed was the one who quoted Origen in his summary. And I took exception to that.

Otherwise, I think his comments on the text are good. This is a Psalm where Protestant and Catholic interpreters are on common ground (few controversial points here).