Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Tuesday of the Twentieth week in Ordinary Time
St. Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, Priest (1901-1952)
Commentary of the day
Saint Peter Damian : « Receive a hundred times more now in this present age » (Mc 10,30)
Reading
Judges 6:11-24.
Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth in Ophrah that
belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. While his son Gideon was beating out wheat
in the wine press to save it from the Midianites,
the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "The LORD is with you, O
champion!"
"My Lord," Gideon said to him, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this
happened to us? Where are his wondrous deeds of which our fathers told us
when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' For now the LORD
has abandoned us and has delivered us into the power of Midian."
The LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have and save
Israel from the power of Midian. It is I who send you."
But he answered him, "Please, my lord, how can I save Israel? My family is
the meanest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father's
house."
"I shall be with you," the LORD said to him, "and you will cut down Midian
to the last man."
He answered him, "If I find favor with you, give me a sign that you are
speaking with me.
Do not depart from here, I pray you, until I come back to you and bring out
my offering and set it before you." He answered, "I will await your
return."
So Gideon went off and prepared a kid and an ephah of flour in the form of
unleavened cakes. Putting the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he
brought them out to him under the terebinth and presented them.
The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and unleavened cakes and lay
them on this rock; then pour out the broth." When he had done so,
the angel of the LORD stretched out the tip of the staff he held, and
touched the meat and unleavened cakes. Thereupon a fire came up from the
rock which consumed the meat and unleavened cakes, and the angel of the
LORD disappeared from sight.
Gideon, now aware that it had been the angel of the LORD, said, "Alas, Lord
GOD, that I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"
The LORD answered him, "Be calm, do not fear. You shall not die."
So Gideon built there an altar to the LORD and called it Yahweh-shalom. To
this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Mt 19:23-30.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for
one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a
needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, "Who
then can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings this is impossible, but
for God all things are possible."
Then Peter said to him in reply, "We have given up everything and followed
you. What will there be for us?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in
the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will
yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or
mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred
times more, and will inherit eternal life.
But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
Commentary of the day
Sermon 9 ; PL 144, 549-553
« Receive a hundred times more now in this present age » (Mc 10,30)
We should live detached from our possessions and our own will if we
would be followers of him who had «nowhere to rest his head» (Lk 9,58) and
who came «not to do his own will but he will of the one who sent him» (Jn
6,38)... We already know by experience what the Truth promised to whoever
forsakes everything and follows him: «he will receive a hundred times more
now... and eternal life in the age to come» (Mk 10,30). Indeed, the gift of
a hundred times more sustains us on the journey and possession of eternal
life will be our joy for ever in our heavenly homeland.
But what does this hundred times more mean? Briefly, the consolations of
the Spirit, sweet as honey, his visits and his firstfruits. It is the
witness of our conscience, the happy and joyful expectation of the
righteous; it is the remembrance of God's overwhelming goodness and, in
truth, the greatness of his sweetness. Those who have had experience of
these gifts have no need for anyone to tell them about them. And as for
those who do not have it, who could describe it in plain words?
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