March 17 2010 Wednesday Fourth Week of Lent
Saint of the Day – St. Patrick

About the sources used. The readings on this site are from the Haydock Bible according to the daily Lectionary readings for the American Roman Catholic Church. The Haydock Bible contains traditional Catholic commentary and is free from copyright. Due to verse numbering differences and pastoral deletions in the actual Lectionary, these readings may at times vary from the actual readings.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/bible/

Isaiah 49:8-15
Douay-Rheims Challoner Text

Thus saith the Lord:

In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee: and I have preserved thee, and given thee to be a covenant of the people, that thou mightest raise up the earth, and possess the inheritances that were destroyed: That thou mightest say to them that are bound: Come forth: and to them that are in darkness: Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in every plain.
They shall not hunger, nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun strike them: for he that is merciful to them, shall be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he shall give them drink. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths shall be exalted. Behold these shall come from afar, and behold these from the north and from the sea, and these from the south country.

Give praise, O ye heavens, and rejoice, O earth, ye mountains, give praise with jubilation: because the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his poor ones. And Sion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me.

Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.

Responsorial Psalm 145:8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18 (Ps 145 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy.
The Lord is sweet to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
The Lord is faithful in all his words: and holy in all his works.
The Lord lifteth up all that fall: and setteth up all that are cast down.
The Lord is just in all his ways: and holy in all his works.
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him: to all that call upon him in truth.

The Gospel According to John 5:17-30
Haydock NT

But Jesus answered them:

My Father worketh until now, and I work.

Hereupon, therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal to God. Then Jesus answered, and said to them:

Amen, amen, I say unto you: the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things which himself doth; and greater works than these will he shew him, that you may wonder. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. For neither doth the Father judge any man: but hath committed all judgment to the Son. That all men may honour the Son, as they honour the Father who hath sent him.

Amen, amen, I say unto you, that he who heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath everlasting life; and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say unto you, that the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

For as the Father hath life in himself; so he hath given to the Son also to have life in himself: And he hath given him power to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man.

Wonder not at this, for the hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done good, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life: but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing of myself. As I hear, so I judge: and my judgment is just: because I seek not my own will, but the will of him that sent me.

Haydock Commentary Isaiah 49:8-15

  • Ver. 9. Ways. The captives shall find every convenience. C.
  • Ver. 12. South. Heb. Sinim; (H.) China, (S. Jer.) or rather Sin, or Pelusium, and Sinai, in Egypt and Arabia. Sept. “Persians.” C.
  • Ver. 14. Sion, the Jews, who will at last be converted in great numbers. Houbigant.

Haydock Commentary John 5:17-30

  • Ver. 17. My father worketh until now: and I work. The Jews looked upon it of obligation to do nothing on the sabbath, because God is said to have rested the seventh day; on which account the rest on the seventh day was commanded. Christ puts them in mind, that though it be said he rested the seventh day, *that is, produced no more new kinds of creatures) yet that God may be said to work always, by preserving and continually governing the world: and I, saith he, do all things that he doth, I work with him, being one and the same in nature and substance with him: nay, even as man, I do nothing but what is conformable to his will; and so you need not fear that I break the sabbath.—The Christian faith teacheth us, that Jesus Christ was both God and Man. The objections of the ancient and modern Arians, only shew that Christ was also truly a man, and that divers things which he speaks of himself, or which are said of him in the holy Scriptures, apply to him as man. Nothing is more certain, and agreed on by all. But at the same time we ought to take notice, that Christ has affirmed many things of himself, and many things are asserted of him in the Scriptures, which by no means could be applied to him unless he were also truly and properly one and the same God with his eternal Father. And these are the passages by which the Arians and Socinians might be convinced of their errors and blasphemies. Wi.—If Christ had not been the natural Son of God, these words, which he says in excuse of his seeming breach of the sabbath, would rather have increased the strength of their accusation. For no governor, when accused of any crime, excuses himself by saying the king does the same. But as the Son is equal to the Father, his excuse is a true one. S. Chrysos. Hom. xxxvii. in Joan.—The rest God entered into after the creation, and which he was pleased to honour by that of the sabbath, is no hindrance to the operations of his power in the preservation of his works, nor to the operations of his grace in the sanctification of souls.
    Ver. 18. That God was his Father, making himself equal to God. In divers places of the Old Testament, God is called the Father of the Israelites, and they his children: but here, and on several other occasions, the Jews very well saw, that he called God his Father in a quite different sense from that in which he could be said to be their Father; that his worse made him equal to God, and that he made himself God. See John x. 33. Jo. xix. 7. Luke xxii. 70. &c. And therefore S. Augustine says on this verse: (Trac. xvii. in Joan.) Behold the Jews understand what the Arians do not. Wi.
    Ver. 19. The Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. In like manner, (v. 30) Christ says, I can do nothing of myself. As I hear, so I judge. Again (C. viii. 28.) I do nothing of myself; but as the Father hath taught me, I speak these things. All these, and the like expressions, may be expounded, with Maldonat and Petavius, (l. ii. de Trin. c 4.) of Christ, as man. But the ancient Fathers commonly allowed them to be understood of Christ as God, and as the true Son of God proceeding from him from all eternity; as when it is said, the Son cannot do any thing of himself, it is true, because the eternal Son is not of himself, but always proceeds from the Father. 2. Because the works of all the three Persons, by which all things are produces and preserved, are inseparable. 3. When it is said, that the Son doth nothing, but what he seeth the Father doing: that he heareth, as the Father hath taught him, or shewed to him: these expressions bear not the same sense as when they are applied to men, or to an inferior or a scholar, who learns of his master, and follows him; but here, says S. Aug. to see, to hear, to be taught by the Father, is no more than to proceed from him, to do and produce by the same action, all that the Father doth and produceth. This is the general interpretation of the ancient Fathers: S. Athan. S. Basil, S. Greg. Naz. S. Chrys. S. Cyril, S. Amb. S. Aug. The words immediately following, confirm this exposition, when it is said: For what things soever he (the Father) doth, these also in like manner the Son doth, i.e. the very same things by an unity of nature, of will, and of action: nor could these words be true, unless the Son was the same true God with the Father. Wi.—This must be understood, that he cannot do any thing contrary to the will of the Father. He does not say, “The Son does nothing of himself, but the Son can do nothing of himself, in order to shew their likeness and perfect equality.” For by saying this, he does not betray any want of power in the Son; but, on the contrary, shews his great power; so when the Son says he cannot do any thing of himself, his meaning is, that he cannot do any thing contrary to the will of the Father; which certainly is a great perfection. S. Chrys. hom. xxxvii. in Joan.
    Ver. 20. Greater works than these will he (the Father) shew him, &c. These words may also, with Mald. Be expounded of Christ, as man; but the ancient interpreters understand them of Christ, as God, in this sense, that the Father, and the Son, or the Father by the Son, will shew greater miracles hereafter done by Christ, that more persons may admire and believe. Wi.
    Ver. 21. For as the Father … giveth life, so also the Son giveth life to whom he will; where these words, to give life to whom he will, shew the power of the Son and of the Father to be equal. Wi.—Our Saviour here mentions the greater works he spoke of in the preceding verse; for it is much more wonderful that the dead should rise, than that the sick should recover their health. We are not to understand these words, as if they meant some were raised to life by the Father, and others by the Son; but that the Father raises those whom the Son raises. And lest any one should understand this, that the Father makes use of the Son as his minister, through whose means he raises the dead, he immediately adds, &c. S. Aug. Tract. xxi. in Joan.—We see the lovers of this temporal perishable life, labour to the utmost of their power, I will not say to avoid death, but merely to prolong their frail existence. If, therefore, men labour with so much solicitude, if they strain every nerve to prolong their lives but for a few years; how foolish and blind to their interest must those be, who live in such a manner as to be deprived of the light of eternal day! S. Aug. De verb. Dni. Serm. 64.
    Ver. 22. Neither doth the Father judge any man. It is certain that God is the Judge of all, by divers places of the holy Scriptures; and to judge, belongs both to the Father and to the Son, as they are the same God; so that when it is added, that the Father hath given all judgment to the Son, this is meant of the exterior exercise of his judgment upon all mankind at the end of the world, in as much as Christ then will return, in his human body, to judge all men, even as man, in their bodies. Wi.
    Ver. 24. Hath everlasting life. That is, a title to an eternal inheritance of glory, by believing in the Father, and in the Son, and also in the Holy Ghost, as we are taught to believe at our baptism. Wi.
    Ver. 25. The hour cometh … When the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. Though some understand this of the rising of Lazarus; others of those that rose with Christ at his resurrection: yet by these words, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, seems rather to be signified the general resurrection at the end of the world. And though it be said, that now is the hour, this may be spoken of the last age of the world; and, as S. John says, (1 Ep. ii. 18.) children, it is the last hour. In fine, some interpreters understand these words of a spiritual resurrection from sin, which Christ came to bring to the world. Wi.
    Ver. 27. To execute judgment, because he is the Son of man; or, because he is God made man, and is to come to judgment in a visible manner, to judge all men. Wi.
    Ver. 29. Unto the resurrection of judgment. That is, condemnation. Ch.
    Ver. 30. I can do nothing of myself, &c. See v. 19. S. Chrys. also takes notice, that it may be no less with truth said of the Father, that he can do nothing of himself, nor without his Son, nor both of them without the Holy Ghost; because both they, and their actions, are inseparable. Wi.

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