Tuesday 23 March 2021
Tuesday of the 5th week of Lent
(optional commemoration of Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo, Bishop)
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Tuesday of the 5th week of Lent
From a sermon of Saint Leo the Great, pope
The Cross of Christ is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces
Our understanding, which is enlightened by the Spirit of truth, should receive with purity and freedom of heart the glory of the cross as it shines in heaven and on earth. It should see with inner vision the meaning of the Lord’s words when he spoke of the imminence of his passion: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Afterwards he said: Now my soul is troubled, and what am I to say? Father, save me from this hour. But it was for this that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your Son. When the voice of the Father came from heaven, saying, I have glorified him, and will glorify him again, Jesus said in reply to those around him: It was not for me that this voice spoke, but for you. Now is the judgement of the world, now will the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.
How marvellous the power of the cross; how great beyond all telling the glory of the passion: here is the judgement-seat of the Lord, the condemnation of the world, the supremacy of Christ crucified.
Lord, you drew all things to yourself so that the devotion of all peoples everywhere might celebrate, in a sacrament made perfect and visible, what was carried out in the one temple of Judaea under obscure foreshadowings.
Now there is a more distinguished order of Levites, a greater dignity for the rank of elders, a more sacred anointing for the priesthood, because your cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces. Through the cross the faithful receive strength from weakness, glory from dishonour, life from death.
The different sacrifices of animals are no more: the one offering of your body and blood is the fulfilment of all the different sacrificial offerings, for you are the true Lamb of God: you take away the sins of the world. In yourself you bring to perfection all mysteries, so that, as there is one sacrifice in place of all other sacrificial offerings, there is also one kingdom gathered from all peoples.
Dearly beloved, let us then acknowledge what Saint Paul, the teacher of the nations, acknowledged so exultantly: This is a saying worthy of trust, worthy of complete acceptance: Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
God’s compassion for us is all the more wonderful because Christ died, not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the sinful, and, though the divine nature could not be touched by the sting of death, he took to himself, through his birth as one of us, something he could offer on our behalf.
The power of his death once confronted our death. In the words of Hosea the prophet: Death, I shall be your death; grave, I shall swallow you up. By dying he submitted to the laws of the underworld; by rising again he destroyed them. He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to make death a thing of time, not of eternity. As all die in Adam, so all will be brought to life in Christ.
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Other choices for today:
Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo, Bishop
Monument to St Turibius of Mogrovejo in his natal village, Mayorga (Province of Valladolid, Spain). Photograph by Rondador January 2008.
From the decree on the pastoral office of bishops in the Church of the Second Vatican Council
Ready for every good work
In exercising their duty of teaching, bishops are to proclaim the Gospel of Christ before men, a task that stands out among their principal duties. In the strength of the Spirit they are to call men to faith, or confirm them in a living faith. They are to set before them the mystery of Christ in its entirety, that is, those truths which are necessary in order to know Christ, as well as the divinely revealed way of glorifying God and so attaining to eternal happiness.
Moreover, they are to make it clear that earthly realities and human institutions are themselves directed, in the plan of God the creator, towards man’s salvation, and are thus able to make no small contribution to the building up of the body of Christ.
They should therefore insist on the value placed by the Church’s teaching on the human person, his freedom and also his physical life; on the family, its unity and stability, and the procreation and education of children; on civil society, with its laws and its professions; on work and leisure, the arts and technological developments; on poverty and affluence. They should also set forth the principles for resolving the very serious problems relating to the possession, increase and proper distribution of material goods, to peace and war, and to friendly relations among all peoples.
They should present Christian teaching in a way appropriate to the needs of the times, that is, in a way that meets the difficulties and problems that people today find a special burden and source of anxiety. They should also safeguard this teaching, instructing the faithful how to defend it and propagate it themselves. In handing on this teaching they should manifest the Church’s motherly concern for all, believers and unbelievers alike. They should show a special solicitude for the poor and less fortunate, to whom the Lord has sent them to preach the good news.
In discharging their duty as father and shepherd, bishops should be among their people as those who serve, good shepherds who know their sheep and whose sheep know them. They should be outstanding in their spirit of love and concern for all, true fathers whose God-given authority all obey with joyful heart. They should unite and mould the entire family of their flock so that all are made aware of their responsibilities and are able to live and work in loving communion with each other.
To do this effectively, bishops should order their lives in keeping with the needs of the times, and so be ready for every good work, enduring all for the sake of God’s chosen ones.
Copyright © 1996-2021 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.