Saturday 30 April 2022
Saturday of the 2nd week of Eastertide
or Saint Pius V, Pope
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Saturday of the 2nd week of Eastertide
From the constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council
God's plan of salvation
In his desire that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, God spoke in former times to our forefathers through the prophets, on many occasions and in different ways. Then, in the fullness of time he sent his Son, the Word made man, anointed by the Holy Spirit, to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted as the physician of body and spirit and the mediator between God and men. In the unity of the person of the Word, his human nature was the instrument of our salvation. Thus in Christ there has come to be the perfect atonement that reconciles us with God, and we have been given the power to offer the fullness of divine worship.
This work of man’s redemption and God’s perfect glory was foreshadowed by God’s mighty deeds among the people of the Old Covenant. It was brought to fulfilment by Christ the Lord, especially through the paschal mystery of his blessed passion, resurrection from the dead and ascension in glory: by dying he destroyed our death, and by rising again he restored our life. From his side, as he lay asleep on the cross, was born that wonderful sacrament which is the Church in its entirety.
As Christ was sent by the Father, so in his turn he sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit. They were sent to preach the Gospel to every creature, proclaiming that we had been set free from the power of Satan and from death by the death and resurrection of God’s Son, and brought into the kingdom of the Father. They were sent also to bring into effect this saving work that they proclaimed, by means of the sacrifice and sacraments that are the pivot of the whole life of the liturgy.
So, by baptism men are brought within the paschal mystery. Dead with Christ, buried with Christ, risen with Christ, they receive the Spirit that makes them God’s adopted children, crying out: Abba, Father; and so they become the true adorers that the Father seeks.
In the same way, whenever they eat the supper of the Lord they proclaim his death until he comes. So, on the very day of Pentecost, on which the Church was manifested to the world, those who received the word of Peter were baptized. They remained steadfast in the teaching of the apostles and in the communion of the breaking of bread, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people.
From that time onward the Church has never failed to come together to celebrate the paschal mystery, by reading what was written about him in every part of Scripture, by celebrating the Eucharist in which the victory and triumph of his death are shown forth, and also by giving thanks to God for the inexpressible gift he has given in Christ Jesus, to the praise of God’s glory.
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Other choices for today:
Saint Pius V, Pope
16th-century portrait of Pope Pius V by Scipione Pulzone (1550-1598). Collection of Palazzo Colonna.
From a treatise on John by St Augustine
The Church is founded upon the rock which Peter acknowledged
God never ceases to provide the human race with consolations in misfortune. But in addition to these, in the fullness of time, when he himself knew it should be done, he sent his own only-begotten Son through whom he created all things. While remaining God, his Son was to become man and be the mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.
Those who believed in him through baptism were freed from the guilt of all their sins, freed from eternal damnation to live in faith, hope and love. On their journey among the trials and dangers of this world, they received the consolations of God, both in body and in spirit. They were to walk in his sight, keeping to the path which Christ made for them.
But even while walking on this path they were not without sin, since it develops subtly out of human weakness. Therefore Christ gave the saving remedy of charity to help them in their prayers, for he taught them to say: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Such is the practice which the Church in blessed hope carries out in this life of suffering. Now the apostle Peter, because of the primacy of his apostleship, stood as a symbol of the entire Church.
In himself he was by nature one man, by grace one Christian, by a more abundant grace an apostle and the chief of the apostles. But Christ said to him: To you I shall give the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you will bind upon the earth will be bound also in heaven and whatever you will forgive upon the earth will be forgiven also in heaven. Now these words applied to the entire Church. In this life it is shaken by various trials, as if by rains, floods and tempests, but it does not fall because it is founded upon the rock from which Peter received his name.
The Lord said: Upon this rock I shall build my Church because Peter has first said: You are Christ, the Son of the living God. The Lord was really saying: I shall build my Church upon the rock which you have acknowledged. For the rock was Christ, and upon this foundation even Peter himself was raised up. Another foundation indeed no one can lay except that which was laid, which is Jesus Christ.
The Church, which is founded upon Christ, received from him the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that is, the power of binding and forgiving sins, in the person of Peter. Therefore this Church, by loving and following Christ, is set free from evil. But this is even more the case with those who fight on behalf of truth even to the death.
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.