Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine)

The scribes declared that God alone can forgive sins. But Jesus, even before he forgave sins, revealed the secrets of the heart thereby showing that he also possessed that other power reserved to God (…) For it is written: “You alone, O Lord, know the secrets of humankind” and “Man sees the outward appearance but God sees the heart” (2 Chr 6:30; 1 Sam 16:7). In this way Jesus reveals his divinity and equality with the Father, uncovering the depths of their hearts to the scribes and making known those thoughts they are afraid to speak openly for fear of the crowd. And this he did with great gentleness. (…) The lame man might have made his disappointment known to Christ by saying: “OK! You have come to cure another kind of sickness and heal another kind of evil – sin. But what proof am I going to get that my sins are forgiven?” Yet he said nothing of the sort but put his trust in the one who had the power to heal him. (…) To the scribes, Christ said: “Which is easier? To say: Your sins are forgiven, or rather: Take up your stretcher and go home?” In other words: ‘What seems easier to you? To strengthen a paralyzed body or put aside the sins of the soul?’ Obviously, to heal a body since forgiveness of sins goes as much beyond the healing as the soul is above the body. But since one of these works is visible and the other not, I am equally going to carry out the work that is visible and lesser in order to prove that which is greater and unseen. At that very moment Jesus witnessed by his works that he is “He who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29).

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Nothing escaped the wisdom and power of Christ: the elements of nature lay at his service, spirits obeyed him, angels served him. (…) And yet, out of all the world, Peter alone was chosen to stand at the head for the calling of all the peoples and the oversight of all the apostles and Fathers of the Church. Thus, even though there are many priests and pastors among the People of God, Peter governed them all in person while Christ also governs them in the capacity of head. (…) The Lord asks all the apostles what people think of him and they all say the same thing so long as they are making known the doubts deriving from human ignorance. But when the Lord demands to know what the disciples themselves think, the first to confess the Lord is he who is the first in dignity of the apostles. As he had said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, Jesus answers him: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” That is to say: blessed are you because my Father taught this to you. Earthly opinion has not led you astray but it is heavenly inspiration that has instructed you. It is not flesh and blood that enabled you to discover me but He whose only Son I am. “And so I say to you”, that is to say: just as my Father has manifested my divinity to you so I am making known your superiority to you. “You are Peter”, namely: I am the unshakeable rock, the cornerstone who makes two peoples one (Eph 2:14), the foundation other than which no one can lay any other (1 Cor 3:11). But you also, you are rock since you are impregnable by my strength, and what I have by virtue of my power you have in common with me by the fact that you participate in it. “On this rock I will build my Church” (…) On the firmness of this foundation, he says, will I build an everlasting temple, and my Church, whose summit is to reach to heaven, will be raised on the strength of that faith.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

“Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic: ‘Your sins are forgiven you’.” The Lord is great: for the sake of the former he forgives the latter; he answers the prayer of the first and pardons the sins of the second. O men, why is it that today your fellow traveller is unable to do anything for you when, with the Lord, his servant has the right to intervene and to receive? You who judge, learn to pardon; and you who are ill, learn to beseech. If you have no hope of immediate pardon for grave sins, turn to intercessors, turn to the Church who will pray for you. Then, for her sake, the Lord will grant you the pardon he could have denied you. We don’t ignore the historical truth of the paralytic’s cure, but, above all, we acknowledge the healing of his interior self, whose sins are forgiven. … The Lord wants to save sinners; he demonstrates his divinity by his knowledge of what is secret and by the wonders of his deeds. “Which is easier to say,” he asks: “‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Rise and walk’? Here he gives us a complete image of the resurrection since, in healing the wounds of soul and body …, the whole man is healed.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

“Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?” God is accused of bending down to man, of sitting next to the sinner, of being hungry for his conversion and thirsty for his return, of consenting to eat the food of compassion and drink from the cup of goodness. But Christ, my brethren, came to this meal: Life came amongst these guests that those who were going to die might live with him the same life as he. The Resurrection reclined at this table that those who lay in death might rise from their tombs; Grace stooped down to raise sinners up to forgiveness; God came to man that man might attain to God; the judge came to the meal of the guilty to release humankind from the sentence of condemnation; the doctor came to the sick to restore their depleted strength by eating with them; the Good Shepherd bent down to carry the lost sheep back to salvation’s fold (Lk 15,3f.)… “Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But who is the sinner if not the one who refuses to see himself as sinful? Isn’t it to sink in one’s sins and, if the truth be told, identify oneself with sin by not recognizing oneself to be a sinner? And who is unrighteous if not the one who thinks himself righteous?… Come along, you Pharisee, confess your sin and you will be able to come to Christ’s table. Christ will become bread for your sake, the bread to be broken for the forgiveness of your sins. Christ will become drink for your sake, the drink that will be shed for the remission of your offenses. Come along, you Pharisee, share the meal of sinners that you may eat your meal with Christ. Acknowledge yourself a sinner and Christ will eat with you. Go in to the Lord’s feast along with sinners and you will be able to be a sinner no more. With the forgiveness of Christ enter into the house of mercy.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Let us look steadfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world. Let us turn to every age that has passed, and learn that, from generation to generation, the Lord has “granted a place of repentance” (Sir 17,24) to all who would be converted to him. Noah preached repentance, and as many as listened to him were saved. Jonah proclaimed destruction to the Ninevites; but they, repenting of their sins, propitiated God by prayer, and obtained salvation, although they were aliens to God. The ministers of the grace of God have, by the Holy Spirit, spoken of repentance; and the Lord of all things has himself declared with an oath regarding it, “As I live, says the Lord, I desire not the death of the sinner, but rather his repentance” (Ez 18,23) adding, moreover, this gracious declaration: “Repent O house of Israel, of your iniquity. Say to the children of my people, Though your sins reach from earth to heaven, and though they be redder than scarlet, and blacker than sackcloth, if you turn to me with your whole heart, and say: Father! I will listen to you, as to a holy people.” (cf. Is 1,16-20; Neh 9,1)… Desiring, therefore, that all his beloved should be partakers of repentance, he has, by his almighty will, established [these declarations]. So let us yield obedience to his excellent and glorious will; and imploring his mercy and loving-kindness, while we forsake all fruitless labours, and strife, and envy, which leads to death, let us turn and have recourse to His compassion.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team