26 September
Saints of the day :Saints Cosmas and Damian
First Reading : Ecclesiastes 11:9—12:8
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth;
walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes.
But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Remove vexation from your mind, and put away pain from your body;
for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come,
and the years draw nigh, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;
before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain; in the day when the keepers of the house tremble,
and the strong men are bent,
and the grinders cease because they are few,
and those that look through the windows are dimmed,
and the doors on the street are shut;
when the sound of the grinding is low,
and one rises up at the voice of a bird,
and all the daughters of song are brought low;
they are afraid also of what is high,
and terrors are in the way;
the almond tree blossoms,
the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails;
because man goes to his eternal home,
and the mourners go about the streets;
before the silver cord is snapped,
or the golden bowl is broken,
or the pitcher is broken at the fountain,
or the wheel broken at the cistern,
and the dust returns to the earth as it was,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
Gospel Reading : Luke 9:43b-45
But while they were all marveling at everything he did, he said to his disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men.” But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
What do the Fathers say?
About the First Reading:
St Gregory Thaumaturgus:
It is fit that you should fear God while you are yet young, before you give yourself over to evil things, and before the great and terrible day of God comes, when the sun shall no longer shine, neither the moon, nor the rest of the stars, but when in that storm and commotion of all things, the powers above shall be moved, that is, the angels who guard the world; so that the mighty men shall fail, and the women shall cease their labours, and shall flee into the dark places of their dwellings, and shall have all the doors shut.
And the good man shall depart with rejoicing to his own everlasting habitation; but the vile shall fill all their places with wailing, and neither silver laid up in store, nor proved gold, shall be of use any more.
For a mighty stroke shall fall upon all things, even to the pitcher that stands by the well, and the wheel of the vessel which may chance to have been left in the hollow, when the course of time comes to its end and the ablution-bearing period of a life that is like water has passed away.
I, though already aged, and having passed a long life, laboured to find out those things which are well-pleasing to God, by means of the mysteries of the truth. And I know that the mind is no less quickened and stimulated by the precepts of the wise, than the body is wont to be when the goad is applied,
But in many words there is no profit. Neither do I counsel you, my friend, to write down vain things about what is fitting, from which there in nothing to be gained but weary labour.
But, in the end, I shall require to use some such conclusion as this: O men, behold, I charge you now expressly and shortly, that you fear God, who is at once the Lord and the Overseer of all, and that you keep also His commandments; and that you believe that all shall be judged severally in the future, and that every man shall receive the just recompense for his deeds, whether they be good or whether they be evil.
About the Gospel Reading:
St TITUS of BOSTRA. While all thus were wondering at the miracles, He foretels His passion. For miracles do not save, but the cross does.
ORIGEN. But it is not clearly expressed by whom He is to be delivered, for one says, that He is to be delivered up by Judas, another by the devil; but Paul says, that God the Father delivered Him up for us all; (Rom. 8:32.) but Judas, as he delivered Him up for money, did it traitorously, the Father for His mercies’ sake.
St THEOPHYLACT. Now our Lord in condescension to their infirmities and governing them with a kind of economy, did not permit them to understand what was said of the cross.
The Venerable BEDE. This ignorance of the disciples proceeds not so much from slowness of understanding as from affection, for since they were yet carnal and ignorant of the mystery of the cross, they could not believe that He whom they thought to be really God would suffer death. And because they were often accustomed to hear Him speak figuratively, they thought that He meant figuratively something else, by what He said of His betrayal.
St THEOPHYLACT. Mark also the reverence of the disciples in what follows, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying. For fear is the first step to reverence.
Saints Cosmas and Damian
Cosmas and Damian were brothers and were of the city Egea, and born of a religious mother named Theodora.
They were learned in the art of medicine, and of leechcraft, and received so great grace of God that they healed all maladies and languors, not only of men but also cured and healed beasts. And did all for the love of God without taking of any reward.
And they suffered death under Diocletian about the year of our Lord two hundred and eighty-seven.
During the Diocletianic Persecution, they were arrested by Lysias, the governor of Cilicia. According to hagiographical accounts, after surviving attempts at drowning, burning, and stoning through divine intervention, they were eventually beheaded alongside their younger brothers (Leontius, Anthimus, and Euprepius).
Sources:
Bible readings from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Second Catholic Edition, copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Quotes of the Fathers from :
Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea Translated by St John Henry Newman
A Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes by St Gregory Thaumaturgus
Jacobus de Voragine — The Golden Legend
Artwork ex Wikimedia Commons