Saturday following the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost –Ember Day
EPISTLE.
Hebrews ix. 2-12.
BRETHREN : There was a tabernacle made the first, wherein were the candlesticks, and the table, and the setting forth of loaves, which is called the Holy. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the Holy of holies: having a golden censer, and the ark of the testament covered about on every part with gold, in which was a golden pot that had manna, and the rod of Aaron, that had blossomed, and the tables of the testament. And over it were the cherubim of glory, over shadowing the propitiatory : of which it is not needful to speak now particularly. Now these things being thus ordered, into the first tabernacle the priests indeed always entered, accomplishing the offices of sacrifices. But into the second, the highpriest alone, once a year : not without blood, which he offereth for his own and the people s ignorance : the Holy Ghost signifying this, that the way into the holies was not yet made manifest, whilst the former tabernacle was yet standing. Which is a parable of the time present : according to which gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot, as to the conscience, make him perfect that serveth, only in meats and in drinks, and divers washings, and justices of the flesh, laid on them until the time of correction. But Christ being come, an high-priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, that is, not of this creation : neither by the blood of goats, or of calves, but by His own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption.
GOSPEL. Luke xiii. 6-17.
At that time Jesus spoke to the multitude this parable : A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard : Behold for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and I find none. Cut it down therefore; why cumbereth it the ground? But he answering said to him : Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it and dung it. And if happily it bear fruit : but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. And He was teaching in their synagogue on the Sabbath. And behold there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years : and she was bowed together, neither could she look upwards at all. Whom when Jesus saw, He called her unto Him, and said to her : Woman, thou art delivered from thy infirmity. And He laid His hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue (being angry that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath), answering said to the multitude : Six days there are wherein you ought to work. In them therefore come, and be healed ; and not on the Sabbath-day. And the Lord answering him, said : Ye hypocrites, doth not every one of you on the Sabbath-day loose his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead them to water ? And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath-day? And when He said these things, all His adversaries were ashamed : and all the people rejoiced for all the things that were gloriously done by Him.
Practice.
This parable was a call to the Jews to do penance ; that they who, as St. Jerome says, had been warned three times through the law of Moses, through the prophets, and finally through Christ Himself might not at last go to destruction. At the same time it was a threat of approaching judgment. Let us learn hence to make good use of the days of God s long-suffering mercy, that we may not, like the unfruitful tree, be cut down and cast into the fire.
Prayer.
O almighty, eternal God, Who by salutary abstinence doth heal both our bodies and souls, we humbly entreat Thy majesty that, appeased by the pious prayers of those who fast, Thou wouldst grant us present and future support. Through Christ our Lord, etc.
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Next:Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
