Thursday 3 February 2022
Thursday of week 4 in Ordinary Time
or Saint Ansgar (Oscar), Bishop
or Saint Blaise, Bishop, Martyr
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Thursday of week 4 in Ordinary Time
From the Instructions to Catechumens by St Cyril of Jerusalem
Even in time of persecution let the Cross be your joy
The Catholic Church glories in every deed of Christ. Her supreme glory, however, is the cross. Well aware of this, Paul says: God forbid that I glory in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!
At Siloam, there was a sense of wonder, and rightly so: a man born blind recovered his sight. But of what importance is this, when there are so many blind people in the world? Lazarus rose from the dead, but even this affected only Lazarus: what of those countless numbers who have died because of their sins? Those miraculous loaves fed five thousand people; yet this is a small number compared to those all over the world who were starved by ignorance. After eighteen years a woman was freed from the bondage of Satan; but are we not all shackled by the chains of our own sins?
For us all, however, the cross is the crown of victory. It has brought light to those blinded by ignorance. It has released those enslaved by sin. Indeed, it has redeemed the whole of mankind!
Do not, then, be ashamed of the cross of Christ; rather, glory in it. Although it is a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles, the message of the cross is our salvation. Of course it is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it was not a mere man who died for us, but the Son of God, God made man.
In the Mosaic law a sacrificial lamb banished the destroyer. But now it is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Will he not free us from our sins even more? The blood of an animal, a sheep, brought salvation. Will not the blood of the only-begotten Son bring us greater salvation?
He was not killed by violence, he was not forced to give up his life: his was a willing sacrifice. Listen to his own words: I have the power to lay down my life and take it up again. Yes, he willingly submitted to his own passion. He took joy in his achievement; in his crown of victory he was glad and in the salvation of man he rejoiced. He did not blush at the cross, for by it he was to save the world. No, it was not a lowly man who suffered, but God incarnate. He entered the contest for the reward he would win by his patient endurance.
Certainly in times of tranquillity the cross should give you joy. But maintain the same faith in times of persecution. Otherwise you will be a friend of Jesus in times of peace and his enemy during war. Now you receive the forgiveness of your sins and the generous gift of grace from your king. When war comes, fight courageously for him.
Jesus never sinned; yet he was crucified for you. Will you refuse to be crucified for him, who for your sake was nailed to the cross? You are not the one who gives the favour; you have received one first. For your sake he was crucified on Golgotha. Now you are returning his favour: you are fulfilling your debt to him.
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Other choices for today:
Saint Ansgar (Oscar), Bishop
St Ansgar, etching by Hugo Hamilton (1830).
From the decree on the missionary activity of the Church of the Second Vatican Council
We must boldly proclaim the mystery of Christ
Every disciple of Christ is responsible in his own measure for the spread of the faith, but Christ the Lord is always calling from among his followers those whom he wills, so that they may be with him and be sent by him to preach to the nations.
Through the Holy Spirit, who distributes gifts as he wills for the good of all, Christ implants in the hearts of individuals the vocation to be a missionary, and at the same time he raises up in the Church institutes which make their own the task of spreading the Gospel that belongs to the whole Church.
A special vocation marks out those priests, religious and lay people who are prepared to undertake the missionary task in their own country or abroad, and have the right natural disposition for it, with suitable gifts and talents. Sent by lawful authority, they go out in obedience and faith to those who are far from Christ. They have been set apart for the task to which they have been called as ministers of the Gospel, to make the Gentiles an acceptable offering, sanctified in the Holy Spirit.
Those whom God calls must answer his call in such a way that, without regard for purely human counsel, they may devote themselves wholly to the work of the Gospel. This response cannot be given except with the inspiration and strength of the Holy Spirit.
The person who is sent enters into the life and mission of him who emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave. He must be ready therefore to be true to this vocation for life, to deny himself, renouncing all that he had before, and to become all things to all men.
In preaching the Gospel to the nations he must boldly proclaim the mystery of Christ, whose ambassador he is, so that in Christ he may have the courage to speak as he ought, and not be ashamed of the scandal of the cross. He must follow in the footsteps of his Master, who was gentle and humble of heart, and reveal to others that his yoke is easy and his burden light.
By a life that is truly according to the Gospel, by much endurance, by forbearance, by kindness and sincere love, he must bear witness to his Lord, even, if need be, by the shedding of his blood.
He will pray to God for strength and courage, so that he may come to see that for one who experiences great hardship and extreme poverty there can be abundant joy.
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Saint Blaise, Bishop, Martyr
St Blaise confronting the Roman governor: Stained glass window from the area of Soissons (Picardy, France), early 13th century, now in the Louvre.
A sermon of St Augustine at the ordination of a bishop
Suffer for my sheep
The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a redemption for many. There you have how the Lord served; there you have the sort of servants he commanded us to be. He gave his life as a redemption for many: he redeemed us.
Which of us is fit to redeem anybody? It is indeed by his blood, by his death that we have been redeemed from death, by his humility when we were flat on our backs we have been set on our feet. But we too for our part ought to do our little bit for his members, because we have become his members; he is the head, we are the body.
Finally, the apostle John urges us in his letter to follow the example of the Lord, who had said, Whoever wishes to be the greater among you shall be your servant; just as the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a redemption for many; he says, then, Christ laid down his life for us; in the same way we too ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
The Lord himself too, speaking after the resurrection, said, Peter, do you love me? – and Peter answered, I do. This he said three times, this was the answer the other gave three times; and all three times the Lord added, Feed my sheep.
How will you show that you love me, except by feeding my sheep? What benefit are you going to bestow on me by loving me, seeing that you look for everything from me? So then you have something you can do out of love for me: Feed my sheep.
This once, and yet again, and a third time. Do you love me? – I do. – Feed my sheep. Three times, you see, he had denied out of fear; three times he confessed his love.
Next, after the Lord had commended his sheep to him for a third time, as he answered with a confession of his love, thus condemning and blotting out his fear, he went on straightaway to add, When you were a young man, you used to gird yourself and go where you liked; but when you have grown older, another will gird you and carry you where you do not like. Now he said this to signify by what death he was going to glorify God. He prophesied his cross to him, he foretold to him his passion. So it was pointing in that direction that the Lord said, feed my sheep: suffer for my sheep.
Copyright © 1996-2022 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.