DAILY GOSPEL

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

Thursday, 23 August 2007

Thursday of the Twentieth week in Ordinary Time

Today the Church celebrates : St. Rose of Lima

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Jacob of Sarug : "Come to the feast"

Book of Judges 11,29-39.

The spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and through Mizpah-Gilead as well, and from there he went on to the Ammonites. Jephthah made a vow to the LORD. "If you deliver the Ammonites into my power," he said, "whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites shall belong to the LORD. I shall offer him up as a holocaust." Jephthah then went on to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his power, so that he inflicted a severe defeat on them, from Aroer to the approach of Minnith (twenty cities in all) and as far as Abel-keramin. Thus were the Ammonites brought into subjection by the Israelites. When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came forth, playing the tambourines and dancing. She was an only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her. When he saw her, he rent his garments and said, "Alas, daughter, you have struck me down and brought calamity upon me. For I have made a vow to the LORD and I cannot retract." "Father," she replied, "you have made a vow to the LORD. Do with me as you have vowed, because the LORD has wrought vengeance for you on your enemies the Ammonites." Then she said to her father, "Let me have this favor. Spare me for two months, that I may go off down the mountains to mourn my virginity with my companions." "Go," he replied, and sent her away for two months. So she departed with her companions and mourned her virginity on the mountains. At the end of the two months she returned to her father, who did to her as he had vowed. She had not been intimate with man. It then became a custom in Israel

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 22,1-14.

Jesus again in reply spoke to them in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast."' Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.' The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, 'My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?' But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.' Many are invited, but few are chosen."

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB

Commentary of the day :

Jacob of Sarug (around 449 – 521), Monk and Syrian bishop
Homily on the veil of Moses

"Come to the feast"

Women are not so closely united to their husbands as the Church is to the Son of God. What husband other than our Lord ever died for his wife, and what wife ever chose as husband someone crucified? Who has ever given his blood as a present to his wife, otherthan the one who died on the cross and sealed his bridal union by his wounds? Who have we ever seen dead, lying at the banquet of his wedding, with, beside him, his wife who embraces him to be consoled? At what other feast, at what other banquet, has anyone ever distributed to the guests, under the form of bread, the body of the husband?

Death separates wives from their husbands, but here it unites the Spouse to her Beloved. He died on the cross, gave his body for his glorious Spouse, and now, at his table, day after day, she receives him for food … She is nourished by him under the form of the bread which she eats and under the form of the wine which she drinks, so that the world may recognize that they are not anymore two, but only one.

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