24 June 2018

Nativity of St. John the Baptist

1st: Isaiah 49:1-6
Ps: 138:1-3,13-15
2nd: Acts 13:22-26
Gospel: Luke 1:57-66, 80

The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy.         

Now on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up. ‘No,’ she said ‘he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘But no one in your family has that name’, and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And they were all astonished. At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God. All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him. Meanwhile the child grew up and his spirit matured. And he lived out in the wilderness until the day he appeared openly to Israel.

John, “The Grace of God”

Now in an allegory, the celebration of John’s birth was the beginning of the grace of the New Covenant. His neighbours and kinsfolk would rather have given him the name of his father Zechariah than that of John, for the Jews, who by the observance of the Law were united to John by ties of kindred, chose rather to follow the Law, than receive the grace of faith. The name, John, means “the grace of God,” which was announced by John’s mother in word and by his father in writing. The Law itself, the Psalms and the Prophets, in the plainest language, foretell the grace of Christ; and even that ancient priesthood, by the foreshadowing of its ceremonies and sacrifices, bears testimony to the same. (cf. Lk 17: 21).
St. Bede the Venerable, Catena Aurea

THIS WEEK’S FEASTS
Wed 27 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop, Doctor  
Thu 28 St. Irenaeus, Bishop, Martyr 
Fri 29 Ss. Peter and Paul, Apostles Solemnity 
Sat 30 The First Martyrs of Rome   also Memorial of the BVM  

Psalter week IV

Readings for the 13th Sunday in OT:
1st: Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Ps: 29:2,4-6,11-13
2nd: 2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15
Gospel: Mark 5:21-43

Martyrs of Rome

It is easy to understand why those who endured so much for their faith should have been so greatly venerated by their fellow Christians from even the first days of trial in the reign of Nero. The Roman officials usually permitted relatives or friends to gather up the remains of the martyrs for interment, although such permission could be refused. Christians regarded these relics as “more valuable than gold or precious stones” (Martyr. Polycarpi, xviii). Some of the more famous martyrs received special honours, for example, St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome, whose “trophies”, or tombs, are spoken of at the beginning of the third century by the Roman priest Caius (Eusebius, Church History II.21.7). Numerous crypts and chapels in the Roman catacombs, some of which, like the capella grœca, were constructed in sub-Apostolic times, also bear witness to the early veneration for those champions of the faith who won, by dying, the greatest victory in the history of the human race.

Special commemoration services were held on the anniversaries of the martyrs’ deaths, where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered over their tombs. We get from this practice the custom of consecrating altars by enclosing in them the relics of martyrs.
Cf. Honours Paid the Martyrs Cath. Encycl.

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Mass Times HERE