Dominica III Adventus: "While he humbly strove to confess his own weakness, he earned by his simplicity a part in the grandeur of his Master."

From the Holy Gospel according to John
John 1:19-28
In that time were sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to John, to ask him: Who art thou? And so on.

Homily by Pope St. Gregory (the Great)
7th on the Gospels
Dearly beloved brethren, the first thing which striketh us in today's Gospel is the lowly-mindedness of John. He was so great that it was thought he might be the Christ; yet he soberly chose rather to seem only what he really was, than to let the belief of men invest him with a dignity which did not belong to him; for he confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ, at the same time he would not deny what he was in reality; and thus his very truth-speaking made him a member of Him Whose title he would not by falsehood take. In that he arrogated not to himself the name of Christ, he became a member of Christ. While he humbly strove to confess his own weakness, he earned by his simplicity a part in the grandeur of his Master.

(Homily by Pope St. Gregory the Great)

Dominica I Adventus: "if we will not fear God in our prosperity, we may at least be scourged into fearing His judgment when it is at hand"

Reading 3
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke
Luke 21:25-33
In that time, Jesus said to his disciples: And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations. And so on.

Homily by Pope St. Gregory the Great,
1st on the Gospels.
Our Lord and Saviour wisheth to find us ready at His second coming. Therefore He telleth us what will be the evils of the world as it groweth old, that He may wean our hearts from worldly affections. Here we read what great convulsions will go before the end, that, if we will not fear God in our prosperity, we may at least be scourged into fearing His judgment when it is at hand.


Homily by Father Kevin M. Cusick

What is this "scourging" of which he speaks?

Scourges are suffering, another’s if not our own. Suffering can be accepted with merit as a sign of the detachment necessary even from this life and all that is a part of it if we are to be saved, share forever in the eternal life of God.

In the Holy Eucharist the Judge Himself becomes Savior through His own suffering, scourging and death, to prepare us for the life He promises and which awaits us.

Dominica XXIV et ultima post Pentecosten: "ye shall see the abomination of desolation"

From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
Matt 24:15-35
At that time, Jesus said unto his disciples: When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in the Holy Place, (whoso readeth, let him understand.) And so on.

Homily by St. Jerome, Priest at Bethlehem.
Bk. iv. Comm. on Matth. xxiv.
This injunction to whoso readeth, to understand, showeth that there is here something mysterious. In Daniel we read as followeth: "And in the midst of the week the sacrifice and the oblations shall be taken away and in the temple there shall be the abomination of desolation, even until the consummation of the time and a consummation shall be given to the desolation." ix. 27. It is of this same thing that the Apostle speaketh, when he saith that a man of iniquity, even an adversary, shall be exalted against whatsoever is called God, or is worshipped so that he shall even dare to stand in the temple of God, and to show himself as God whose coming shall, according to the working of Satan, destroy and banish away from God all who shall receive him.

Dominica XVIII Post Pentecosten: "Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven you."

From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
Matt 9:1-8
At that time: Jesus entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city. And so on.

Homily by St. Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Ravenna.
Sermon 50.
This day's reading hath shown us an instance of how Christ, in those things which He did as Man, worked deep works of God, and by things which were seen wrought things which were not seen. The Evangelist saith Jesus "entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His Own city." Was not This He Who had once parted the waves hither and thither, and made the dry ground appear at the bottom of the sea, so that His people Israel passed dry-shod between masses of water standing still, as through an hollow glen in a mountain? Was not This He Who made the depths of the sea solid under the feet of Peter, so that the watery path offered a firm way for human footsteps?

Dominica XVII post Pentecosten: "Which is the great commandment in the law?"

From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
Matt 22:34-46
At that time, the Pharisees came unto Jesus, and one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, saying: Master, which is the great commandment in the Law? And so on.

Homily by St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople.
72nd on Matthew.
When the Pharisees had heard that Christ had put the Sadducees to silence, they gathered themselves together for a fresh attack just when it behoved them to be quiet, they willed to contend and so they put forward one of themselves who professed skill in the law, not wishing to learn, but to lay a snare. This person therefore proposed the question: "Which is the great commandment in the law?” The first and great commandment is: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," but they expected that He would make some exception or addition to this in His Own case, since He made Himself God. John x. 33. With this expectation they asked Him the question, but what said Christ? To show that they had adopted this course, because they were loveless, and sick with envy, He answered: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

Dominica X post Pentecosten: "Jesus spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others"

From the Holy Gospel according to Luke
Luke 18:9-14
At that time: Jesus spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the Temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. And so on.

Homily by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
Serm 36 of the Word of the Lord
The Pharisee might at least have said: "I am not as many men are." But what meaneth "other men"? All other men except himself. "I," said he, "am righteous; others are sinners." "I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers," and then he took occasion, from the neighborhood of the publican, to plume himself "or even," quoth he, "as this publican." "I am alone," he thought, "that publican" is one of the others. Mine own righteousness maketh the gulf between me and the wicked, such as he is.

Dominica IX post Pentecosten: "Jesus...wept"

From the Holy Gospel according to Luke
Luke 19:41-44
At that time: When Jesus was come near to Jerusalem, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. And so on.

Origen
I do not deny then that the former Jerusalem was destroyed because of the wickedness of its inhabitants, but I ask whether the weeping might not perhaps concern this your spiritual Jerusalem. For if a man has sinned after receiving the mysteries of truth, he will be wept over. Moreover, no Gentile is wept over, but he only who was of Jerusalem, and has ceased to be.

Gregory
For our Redeemer does not cease to weep through His elect whenever He perceives any to have departed froma good life to follow evil ways. Who if they had known their own damnation, hanging over them, would together with the elect shed tears over themselves. But the corrupt soul here has its day, rejoicing in the passing time; to whom things present are its peace, seeing that it takes delight in that which is temporal. It shuns the foresight of the future which may disturb its present mirth; and hence it follows, But now they are hid from thine eyes.

Origen
But our Jerusalem is also wept over, because after enemies surround it, (that is, wicked spirits,) and cast a trench round it to besiege it, an dleave not a stone behind; epseically when a man after long contingency, after years of chastity, is overcome, ad enticed by the blandishments of the flesh, has lost his fortitude and his modesty, and has committed fornication, they will not leave on him one stone upon another , according to Ezekiel, His former righteousness I will not remember.