Commentary: Wayback Machine.
'Tis also the festival of Saint Paphnutius of Thebes, Bishop (floruit third century): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.
'Tis also the festival of Blesseds John Bathe, S.J. & Thomas Bathe, Priests & Martyrs (died 1649), martyred by "Roundheads" (Parliamentarians) during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, two of the Irish Martyrs: Martyr-link Juliett Bravo, Martyr-link Tango Bravo, & Wikipedia-link; Martyr-links & Wikipedia-link Irish.
'Tis also the festival of Saint Jean-Gabriel Perboyre, Priest & Martyr, C.M. (1802-1840), martyred in the reign of the Daoguang Emperor: Martyr-link ūnus, Martyr-link duo, & Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: The Prayer of St. Jean-Gabriel Perboyre (Wikipedia-link Prayer):
O my Divine Saviour,
Transform me into Yourself.
May my hands be the hands of Jesus.
Grant that every faculty of my body
May serve only to glorify You.
Above all,
Transform my soul and all its powers
So that my memory, will and affection
May be the memory, will and affections
Of Jesus.
I pray You
To destroy in me
All that is not of You.
Grant that I may live
But in You, by You and for You,
So that I may truly say,
With St. Paul,
"I live - now not I -
But Christ lives in me".
Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Feria
The Letter to the Colossians, chapter one, verse twenty-four thru chapter two, verse three;
Psalm Sixty-two, verses six & seven, & nine;
The Gospel according to Luke, chapter six, verses six thru eleven.
Commentary: Reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):
Friends, in our Gospel today Jesus heals a man with a withered hand. As I've said many times before, we tend to domesticate Christ, reducing him to a guru or a teacher, one spiritual guide among many. But this is to do violence to the Gospel, which presents him not simply as teacher but as savior.Video reflection by Monsignor James Vlaun: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
I realize that the culture militates against Christianity at this point, for it steadily teaches the ideology of self-esteem and self-assertion. "I'm okay and you're okay. Who are you to tell me how to behave?"
But this sort of thing—whatever value it might have politically or psychologically—is simply inimical to a Biblical Christianity. The Biblical view is that we have, through the abuse of our freedom, gotten ourselves into an impossible bind. Sin has wrecked us in such a fundamental way that we have become dysfunctional. Until we truly feel what it means to be lost and helpless, we will not appreciate who Jesus is and what he means.
Jesus is someone who has rescued us, saved us, done something that we could never, even in principle, do for ourselves.
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