DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION

JUNE 5 - FRIDAY - ST. BONIFACE, BISHOP, MARTYR (MEMORIAL)

FIRST READING

2 Timothy 3:10-17

10 Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions, my sufferings, what befell me at Antioch, at Ico'nium, and at Lystra, what persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Psalm 118(119):157, 160, 161, 165, 166, 168

Response: O Lord, great peace have those who love thy law.

Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
but I do not swerve from thy testimonies.

R. O Lord, great peace have those who love thy law.

The sum of thy word is truth;
and every one of thy righteous ordinances endures for ever.

R. O Lord, great peace have those who love thy law.

Princes persecute me without cause,
but my heart stands in awe of thy words.

R. O Lord, great peace have those who love thy law.

Great peace have those who love thy law;
nothing can make them stumble.

R. O Lord, great peace have those who love thy law.

I hope for thy salvation, O Lord,
and I do thy commandments.

R. O Lord, great peace have those who love thy law.

I keep thy precepts and testimonies,
for all my ways are before thee.

R. O Lord, great peace have those who love thy law.
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GOSPEL

"The Christ is the Son of David"

Mark 12:35-37

35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared, `The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put your enemies under your feet.' 37 David himself calls him Lord; so how is he his son?" And the great throng heard him gladly.

The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: Jesus is Son of David and Son of God, by Cyril of Alexandria, 375-444 A.D.

"We also will ask the Pharisees of today a similar question. They deny that he who was born of the holy Virgin is very Son of God the Father and himself also God. They also divide the one Christ into two sons. Let these people explain to us how David's Son is his Lord, not so much as to human lordship as divine. To sit at the right hand of the Father is the assurance and pledge of supreme glory. Those who share the same throne are equal also in dignity, and those who are crowned with equal honors are understood of course to be equal in nature. To sit by God can signify nothing else than sovereign authority. The throne declares to us that Christ possesses power over everything and supremacy by right of his substance.
"How is the Son of David David's Lord, seated at the right hand of God the Father and on the throne of Deity? Is it not altogether according to the unerring word of the mystery that the Word as God sprung from the very substance of God the Father? Being in his likeness and equal with him, he became flesh. He became man, perfectly and yet without departing from the incomparable excellence of the divine dignities. He continued in that state in which he had always been. He still was God, although he became flesh and in form like us. He is David's Lord therefore according to that which belongs to his divine glory, nature and sovereignty. He is his son according to the flesh."

(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 137.52)
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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.