DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
JANUARY 9, 2025
THURSDAY AFTER EPIPHANY
FIRST READING
1 JOHN 4:19--5:4
4 19 We love, because he first loved us. 20 If any one says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.5 1 Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 71(72):1-2, 14 -15, 17
Response: Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Give the king thy justice, O God,
and thy righteousness to the royal son!
May he judge thy people with righteousness,
and thy poor with justice!
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
and precious is their blood in his sight.
Long may he live,
may gold of Sheba be given to him!
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all the day!
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
May his name endure for ever,
his fame continue as long as the sun!
May men bless themselves by him,
all nations call him blessed!
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
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GOSPEL
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me"
LUKE 4:14-22
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read; 17 and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
20 And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 22 And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, "Is not this Joseph's son?"
The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
Christ brings hope of release from spiritual bondage, by Eusebius of Caesarea, 260/263-340 AD
"'The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me' (Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1). Clearly this happened to those who thought that the Christ of God was neither a mere man nor an unfleshed and unembodied Word who did not take on a mortal nature. Instead they say he is both God and human, God in that he is the only-begotten God who was in the bosom of the Father, and man... from the seed of David according to the flesh (Luke 1:32). Thus, God the Word, who through the prophecy has been called Lord, speaks out this prophecy that is preeminent among other promises: 'I am the Lord, and in the right time I will draw them together'...
"Taking the chrism in the Holy Spirit, he, chosen from among all, appears as the only-begotten Christ of God. And the verse 'he has sent me to proclaim good news to the poor' (Luke 4:18), he fulfilled in that time when he 'was preaching the kingdom of heaven' and explaining the beatitudes to the disciples by saying, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God' (Matthew 5:3)... And for those nations then imprisoned in their souls by the invisible and spiritual powers he preached release to his newly encouraged disciples... Therefore, he preached release to the prisoners and to those suffering from blindness who were those enslaved by the error of polytheism, and he creates a year that is acceptable, through which he made all time his own year. And from the passing years of humanity he provides days of created light for those close to him. He never kept hidden the age that is to come after the perfecting of the present. For that age will be a time much on the Lord's mind, being an age and day of requiting. For he will grant a change of fortune or a year of favor to those struggling in the present life."
(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2.51.5)
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Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.