June 18, 2009 Gospel

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


Thursday, 18 June 2009
Thursday of the Eleventh week in Ordinary Time

Today the Church celebrates : St. Elizabeth of Schoenau, St. Gregory Barbarigo, Bishop and Confessor (1625-1697), Sts. Marcus and Marcellianus, Martyrs (+286)


Second Letter to the Corinthians 11:1-11.

If only you would put up with a little foolishness from me! Please put up with me. For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ. For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough. For I think that I am not in any way inferior to these "superapostles." Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. Did I make a mistake when I humbled myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge? I plundered other churches by accepting from them in order to minister to you. And when I was with you and in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. By the truth of Christ in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!

Psalms 111(110):1-2.3-4.7-8.

Hallelujah. I will praise the LORD with all my heart in the assembled congregation of the upright.
Great are the works of the LORD, to be treasured for all their delights.
Majestic and glorious is your work, your wise design endures forever.
You won renown for your wondrous deeds; gracious and merciful is the LORD.
The works of your hands are right and true, reliable all your decrees,
Established forever and ever, to be observed with loyalty and care.


Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 6:7-15.

In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.


Commentary of the day :


"Our daily bread"


«Give us this day our daily bread.» This can be understood both spiritually and materially, because either understanding is of profit in divine usefulness for salvation.

For Christ is the bread of life and the bread here is not for all, but is ours. And as we say «Our Father» because he is the Father of those who understand and believe, so too we say «our bread» because Christ is the bread of those of us who attain to his body. Moreover, we ask that this bread be given daily, lest... by the intervention of some grievous sin... we be separated from the body of Christ, as he himself declares, saying: «I am the bread of life which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of my bread he shall live forever. Moreover, the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world» (Jn 6,51)... The Lord himself warns us, saying: «Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you» (Jn 6,53). And so we petition that our bread, that is Christ, be given us daily, so that we, who abide and live in Christ, may not withdraw from His sanctification and body.

But it can also be understood that we who have renounced the world and have cast aside its riches and pomps in the faith given by spiritual grace seek only food and sustenance for ourselves... Moreover, those who have begun to be disciples of Christ according to their Master's words, renouncing all things, should ask for bread daily and not put off their petition and its desires, as the Lord himself again prescribes in these words: «Be not anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will have anxieties of its own. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble» (Mt 6,34). Worthily then does the disciple of Christ ask for sustenance for the day, since he is forbidden to worry about the morrow.