June 13, 2009 Gospel

DAILY GOSPEL
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68


Saturday, 13 June 2009
Saturday of the Tenth week in Ordinary Time

Today the Church celebrates : St. Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church (1195-1231)

See commentary below or click here
Origen : «Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law...: I have come not to abolish but to fulfil» (Mt 5,17)


Second Letter to the Corinthians 5:14-21.

For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Psalms 103(102):1-2.3-4.9-10.11-12.

Of David. Bless the LORD, my soul; all my being, bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, my soul; do not forget all the gifts of God,
Who pardons all your sins, heals all your ills,
Delivers your life from the pit, surrounds you with love and compassion,
God does not always rebuke, nurses no lasting anger,
Has not dealt with us as our sins merit, nor requited us as our deeds deserve.
As the heavens tower over the earth, so God's love towers over the faithful.
As far as the east is from the west, so far have our sins been removed from us.


Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5:33-37.

Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.' But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the evil one.









Commentary of the day :


«Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law...: I have come not to abolish but to fulfil» (Mt 5,17)


I should like to remind the disciples of Christ of God's goodness: let no one among you let yourselves be shaken by the heretics if, in controversy, they say that the God of the Law is not good but just and that the Law of Moses does not teach goodness but justice. Let these detractors of both God and the Law take note of how Moses himself and Aaron fulfilled, as precursors, what the Gospel would later teach. Consider how Moses «loves his enemies and prays for those who persecute him» (Mt 5,44)...; see how, «falling prostrate», they both pray for those who grumbled and wanted to kill them (Nb 17,10f.). Thus we find the Gospel powerfully present in the Law and should understand that the Gospels are supported on the foundation of the Law.

As for me, I do not apply the name 'Old Testament' to the Law when I consder it spiritually. The Law only becomes an 'Old Testament' for those unwilling to understand it according to the spirit. For them, it has necessarily become 'old' and has aged because it cannot preserve its strength. But for us who understand and expound it in spirit and according to the sense of the Gospel, it is always new. The two Testaments are one new Testament for us, not according to date but in the newness of their meaning.

Doesn't the apostle John also think of it in this way when he says in his epistle: «Children, I give a new commandment to you, let us love one another»? (cf. 1Jn 2,8; 4,7; Jn 13,34). He knew that the love commandment had long ago been given in the Law (1Jn 2,7f.; Lv 19,18). But since «love never fails» (1Cor 13,8)..., he asserts the perpetual newness of this precept that never grows old... For sinners, and for those who fail to keep the bond of charity, even the Gospels grow old. There can be no New Testament for anyone who does not «put away the old self and put on the new self, created in God's way» (Eph 4,22.24).