TWO YEAR LECTIONARY
PATRISTIC VIGILS READINGS
YEAR 1

Patristic

A Two Year Patristic Lectionary for the Divine Office

Edited by Stephen Mark Holmes
University of Edinburgh School of Divinity
For Pluscarden Abbey, Scotland

The History of the Patristic Lectionary

A ‘patristic lectionary’ is a series of readings from the fathers (in Latin patres) of the Church. Scripture has always been read in the Church in the context of tradition. With the development of the Divine Office (services of prayer celebrated at different times of each day) the daily cycle of Scripture reading came to be accompanied by commentaries from the fathers of the Church, as St Benedict wrote in the middle of the sixth century, ‘Let the inspired books of both the Old and the New Testaments be read at Vigils, as also commentaries on them by the most eminent orthodox and catholic fathers’ (Rule of Benedict, IX). The main surviving early Latin collections of readings from the fathers, or patristic lectionaries, are those of Alan of Farfa and Paul the Deacon from the eighth century. These formed the basis of the patristic lectionary used in the Roman Breviary and many other Latin Breviaries. Over time the readings from the fathers were cut back in length with no thought to their meaning. Attempts were made to improve the patristic lectionary by Cardinal Quiñonez in the sixteenth century, the monks of Cluny in the seventeenth century and Archbishop Vintimille of Paris in the eighteenth, but the inadequate patristic lectionary of the Breviarium Romanum (1568) and Breviarium Monasticum (1612) continued in use until the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

The Twentieth Century Reform

After the Second Vatican Council the Holy See produced two Lectionaries of Scripture readings for use with the Liturgy of the Hours, a one-year cycle and a two-year cycle. The one-year cycle of Scripture with an accompanying patristic reading for use each day at the Office of Readings was published in the editio typica of the Liturgia Horarum and translated into the various vernaculars, including the three volume English ‘Divine Office’. This is the version used by most priests, religious and laity today. Some find the one-year cycle of Scripture and the choice of patristic readings unhelpful after many years repetition; it is certainly not suitable for monastic communities.

The two-year cycle of Scripture readings was published in Notitiae, the Journal of the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW), with the intention of publishing it as a supplement to the Liturgia Horarum. Work was also done on a two year cycle of patristic texts to accompany this lectionary. Changes at the CDW, however, resulted in the suspension of the work but religious in various language groups produced their own versions of the two-year cycle which have been approved by the competent authorities. Volumes of this two-year cycle of Scripture and patristic readings for the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) have been published in Italian, French and German which are used by the secular clergy and laity as well as by religious communities. A good example is the Italian L’ora dell’ascolto. Lezionario biblico-patristico (1989) which uses the two-year patristic lectionary developed by the CDW.

The English Two-Year Patristic Lectionary

In the English-speaking world there was an attempt to produce a two-year patristic lectionary led by Henry Ashworth which became the eight volume series of books ‘A Word in Season’, most recently published by Augustinian Press. The later volumes in this series, however, departed from the strict concept of a ‘patristic’ lectionary and took the majority of readings from later periods of Church history. Given the special place of the fathers in the history and theology of the Church and the fact that they are part of the patrimony of all Christians, some felt it would be better to have a two-year lectionary which drew most of its readings from the early Church. On this basis Abbot Hugh Gilbert OSB of Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland asked me to create a two-year cycle of patristic readings for use at the Abbey. We did not wish to use the cycle developed by the CDW and utilised in the Italian volume because many of its patristic readings were insufficiently connected to their Scripture readings and because certain patristic books were read in sequence over a number of days (lectio continua), a practice that is impractical because it would be interrupted by the readings for Saint’s days.

The aim of the Two Year Patristic Lectionary is thus:

To have each patristic reading either related to the Scripture reading or to the season of the Church’s year.

To have a reading for every day of the Temporal cycle (i.e. including days such as Christmas, Ascension, Sacred Heart).

To have the vast majority of the ‘patristic’ readings from the Fathers of the Church, although following medieval precedent writers such as Origen have been included. This gives it ecumenical value.

To use readings from the one-year cycle in the Divine Office and the two-year cycle of Word in Season whenever possible.

To include the texts of a complete two-year Scripture cycle, as approved by the Holy See, for use with the patristic readings.

The lectionary is composed of 772 units, each consisting of a Scripture reading with accompanying reading from the Fathers, and it is arranged in files for the seasons of the Church’s year. There are a total of 1544 readings; as each is roughly 500 words long, the total lectionary consists of about three quarters of a million words. All the files are edited, formatted and ready for use. As a commentary by the Fathers of the Church on almost the whole of Scripture this should be a great resource for homilies and catechetics, as well as a text for the liturgy.

Stephen Mark Holmes
New College (School of Divinity), University of Edinburgh.
Feast of St Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx, 2010.

Scripture texts are taken from The Revised Standard Version: Old Testament Section, 1952; New Testament, Second Edition, 1971; Deuterocanonical Books, 1957 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Table of Contents

TWO YEAR LECTIONARY PATRISTIC VIGILS READINGS YEAR 1 Patristic

Advent Week 1

Advent Week 2

Advent Week 3

17-24 December

Christmas

Epiphany

Season of Lent

Lent Week 1

Lent Week 2

Lent Week 3

Lent Week 4

Lent Week 5

Passiontide

Season of Easter

Easter Week 2

Easter Week 3

Easter Week 4

Easter Week 5

Easter Week 6

Easter Week 7

Feasts after Pentecost

Season of the Year

Season of the Year | Week 02

Season of the Year | Week 03

Season of the Year | Week 04

Season of the Year | Week 05

Season of the Year | Week 06

Season of the Year | Week 07

Season of the Year | Week 08

Season of the Year | Week 09

Season of the Year | Week 10

Season of the Year | Week 11

Season of the Year | Week 12

Season of the Year | Week 13

Season of the Year | Week 14

Season of the Year | Week 15

Season of the Year | Week 16

Season of the Year | Week 17

Season of the Year | Week 18

Season of the Year | Week 19

Season of the Year | Week 20

Season of the Year | Week 21

Season of the Year | Week 22

Season of the Year | Week 23

Season of the Year | Week 24

Season of the Year | Week 25

Season of the Year | Week 26

Season of the Year | Week 27

Season of the Year | Week 28

Season of the Year | Week 29

Season of the Year | Week 30

Season of the Year | Week 31

Season of the Year | Week 32

Season of the Year | Week 33

Season of the Year | Christ the King & Week 34

Eastertide Year 2

Advent Week 1

Sunday of the First Week in Advent

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX

The present holy season which we call Advent directs our thoughts to our Lord’s twofold coming. We have therefore a double reason for rejoicing because we are meant to derive from it a double benefit.

Advent calls to mind the two comings of our Lord: first the coming of the fairest of the sons of men and the desire of all nations, so long awaited and so fervently prayed for by all the fathers when the Son of God graciously revealed to the world his visible presence in the flesh, that is to say when he came into the world to save sinners; the other that second coming to which we look forward no less than did our fathers of old. While we await his return our hope is sure and firm, yet we also frequently remind ourselves with tears of the day when he who first came to us concealed in our flesh will come again revealed in the glory which belongs to him as Lord. Of that day the psalmist sings: God will come openly; it is the Day of Judgment when Christ will come as judge in the sight of all. Our Lord’s first coming was indeed known only to a small number of good people, but his second will be evident to good and bad alike, as is known to us by the prophet’s announcement: All flesh will see the salvation of God.

To speak more precisely, however, the day we are shortly to celebrate in memory of our Lord’s birth brings him before us as a newborn child, that is to say it more expressly signifies the day and the hour when he first came into the world, whereas the season we keep beforehand represents him to us as the longed-for Messiah and reminds us of the yearning that filled the hearts of those holy fathers of ours who lived before his coming.

How beautifully then at this season the Church provides that we should recite the words and recall the longing of those who lived before our Lord’s first advent! Nor do we commemorate that desire of theirs for a single day, but share it so to speak for a long period of time, because when something we greatly love and long for is deferred for a while it usually seems sweeter to us when it does arrive.

It is our duty then to follow the example and recall the longing of the holy fathers and so inflame our own souls with love and longing for Christ. You must understand that the reason why this season was instituted was to inspire us to remember the desire of our holy fathers for our Lord’s first coming, and through their example learn to have a great longing for the day when he will come again. We should consider how much good our Lord did us by his first coming, and how much more he will do for us by his second. This thought will help us to have a great love for that first coming of his and a great longing for his return. And if our conscience is not so perfect that we dare entertain such a desire, we ought at least to fear his second coming and by means of that fear to correct our faults, so that if perhaps we cannot help being afraid here and now, we shall at least be secure and fearless when he comes again.

St Aelred, Sermo 1 in adventu Domini 1-6: CCCM IIA from Word in Season 1

Monday of the First Week of Advent

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Some of those who have translated the divine Scriptures have rendered this text: ‘Behold a young woman shall conceive.’ It seems to the Jews that the mother of the Lord should be indicated by the expression ‘young woman’ rather than be called a virgin. For they think it possible to invalidate the power of the mystery if she is called a young woman rather than a virgin. One may note their ignorance on a number of levels. First, even if the virgin is called a young woman, that does not exclude her from being a virgin. Secondly, they say that the prophet uttered these words about the wife of Ahaz, so that we should take this to refer to the birth of Hezekiah. But, my friends, one might say to them, who has called Hezekiah Emmanuel? Or how can it be proved that before he had knowledge of good and evil he rejected wickedness and chose the good? We therefore say farewell to their quibbling and welcome what is right and true, believing that in this prophecy God is indicating the Holy Virgin to us.

For in this way there will truly be a miracle and a great sign, in both its depth and its height, that has come about in accordance with the divine promise. For he who is from above, and is by nature the only-begotten Son of God the Father, emptied himself and was brought forth from a virginal womb according to the flesh, receiving his generation not from the human emission of seed but from the power and energy of the Holy Spirit. For that is why it was said to the holy Virgin by the mouth of the blessed Gabriel: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. She will in consequence, he says, bear a son.

See how, in order to show that he was truly God as well as man, the prophet assigned to him attributes that were both divine and human. For when he says that he was given food suitable for infants, namely butter and honey, he is trying to assure us that he came to be in the flesh in reality. Then he teaches that although he did indeed become flesh he was nonetheless as God superior to sin, for he adds at once: For before the child knows good and evil, he will reject evil and choose the good. For men who have not yet arrived at puberty cannot discern what is vicious and what is good. This phrase therefore signifies that it belongs to the divine nature to be irrevocably fixed on the good. This is also true of Christ as, though he came into being according to the flesh through the Holy Virgin, he was holy as God both from the womb and before it, seeing that he did not lose his own prerogatives on account of his human nature. Neither did he ignore what pertains to human nature on account of the dispensation of the Incarnation, in order that he might be believed to have become like us in reality, and might sanctify this created nature of ours.

St Cyril of Alexandria, In Isaiam 1.4 (PG 70, 204A-205D), tr. Norman Russell (2000)

Tuesday of the First Week of Advent

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BERNARD

If we celebrate the Lord’s advent with grateful hearts we shall be doing no more than our duty, for not only did he come to us but he came for our sake, having no need of anything we can give. Moreover the very generosity with which he is pleased to treat us clearly shows up the measure of our need, for just as the danger of an illness can be inferred from the cost of medicine, so the number of infirmities is indicated by the diverse remedies required. Why should a variety of graces be dispensed, if we did not suffer multiple distress?

It is certainly difficult within the compass of one sermon to detail all the needs we experience, but at present three spring to mind; they are the principal ones and common to us all. There is no one to be found among us who will not on occasion feel the need for counsel, for strengthening, and for protection. Unquestionably, a threefold wretchedness is innate in human nature. All of us who dwell in the region of the shadow of death, in weakness of body and exposed to temptation, will agree, if we consider the matter carefully, that we labour wretchedly under this triple handicap. We are easily led astray, feeble in our striving and frail when it comes to resistance. If we wish to distinguish between good and evil we are deceived; if we attempt to do good we fai1; if we try to resist evil we are overthrown and defeated.

The coming of a saviour was necessary, then; the presence of Christ is indispensable for men harassed like this. O that he may so come to us in his gracious bounty that dwelling in us through faith he may enlighten our blindness, abiding with us and taking the field for us protect and guard our frailty! If he is in us who can ever deceive us? If he is with us, what can we still find too hard in him who strengthens us? If he is for us, who is against us? He is a trusty counsellor incapable of deceiving or being deceived, a mighty ally who does not grow weary, an effective champion who will swiftly crush Satan under our feet and shatter all his stratagems.

Christ is the Wisdom of God, so it is simple for him to instruct the ignorant; he is the Power of God, so it is easy for him to restore those who sin and to rescue those in peril. Let us have recourse to this great teacher in all our uncertainties, invoke this ready helper in all our labour, and commit our souls to this trusty defender in all our struggles. He came into the world for this very purpose, so that by living among us, with us and for us, he might enlighten our darkness, alleviate our toil, and ward off the dangers that threaten us.

St Bernard, Sermo 7 de adventu Domini (PL 183, 54-56), from Word in Season 1

Wednesday of the First Week of Advent

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST ODILO OF CLUNY

The light that was to enlighten the whole world was about to shine upon it, driving away the thick, loathsome gloom of death and ignorance in which the author of darkness had enveloped it. And since that light was eternal and incomprehensible, it was preceded by a number of shorter-lived luminaries whose rays were more readily intelligible to men. I refer to our fathers of the Old Testament through whose virtue, teaching, and example the Lord’s faithful people were enlightened and instructed and the shadows of their age-old blindness dispersed, so that, if not entirely, at least in part, they would be able to recognise the light when it shone upon them.

Not from themselves, nor from any other man did these lesser luminaries derive their light, but from the Supreme Light itself. They were the ones who followed the path of God’s commandments, some prior to the law, some under the law, some in the days of the judges, the kings, or the prophets but all heralding the mysteries of our Lord’s birth, passion, resurrection, and ascension. And after them all came John, the Lord’s forerunner, a beacon whose clear light led the people to the one whom the patriarchs had proclaimed and the prophets foretold.

There are certain testimonies proclaimed by the Holy Spirit through the mouths of Isaiah and Jeremiah which, though properly referring to the person of our Lord and Saviour, are also by the Church’s divinely given authority and the consensus of the faithful fittingly applied to the forerunner. But even more clearly has the Holy Spirit borne witness to John. The Gospel tells us how John was filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb and leapt for joy in the presence of the mother of his Lord, moved by no natural impulse but by the stirring of divine grace. Later John bore witness to Christ the Lord in the words: Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! And Christ in his own preaching gave testimony to John, saying: Among the sons of women there has never arisen a greater than John the Baptist.

Calling him the greatest among those born of women, he drew attention to John’s constancy and austere manner of life and declared him to be a prophet and more than a prophet. By his own divine power Christ endowed John with privileges and graces in excess of all others, describing him, through the lips of the prophet Malachi, as the messenger who was to go before him to prepare the path of his salvation.

St Odilo, Sermo 10 (PL 142, 1019-1020), from Word in Season 1

Thursday of the First Week of Advent

A READING FROM A SERMON BY PETER OF BLOIS

Our task in this world, according to Saint Paul, is to live sober, upright, and godly lives as we look forward to the coming of our blessed hope, the appearing in glory of almighty God.

The Lord’s coming is threefold. He came the first time in the flesh, the second time he comes to the individual soul, a third coming will be at the Last Judgment. The first took place at midnight, the second occurs in the early morning, the third will be at noon. With reference to the first we have the infallible words of the Gospel: A cry went up at midnight, ‘the Bridegroom is coming!’ From this I note that the first coming was at midnight, the time when, in deep silence, night was pursuing its course. Jew and Greek alike walked in darkness. Then came the bridegroom. A cry went up, shattering the silence of the night. He who lights up the things that are hidden in the dark had come to dispel the night and create the day. The prophets foresaw that the almighty Word was resolved to descend from his royal throne. Realizing that Christ was to come, they broke that profound silence by bursting into shouts of joy. Individually and in chorus the prophets raised their voices, and what a cry that was!

Our experience of the Lord’s second coming depends on whether we live in such a way as to make him willing to come to us. If we love him we need have no fear; he will surely come and make his home with us. However, there is always an element of uncertainty about this coming, whereas of the third coming there is no doubt whatever. The only thing we do not know is when it will be. There is nothing more certain than that we shall die, yet the hour of our death is unknown to us. Our only security in this life comes from knowing that we are never safe. We vacillate between health and sickness, good fortune and adversity. One minute we are alive, the next we are not. Death spares neither age nor sex.

How blessed is he who can confidently say: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready! Having gathered the fruit of grace from the Lord’s first coming, they will reap a harvest of salvation and glory from the second; for the first opens up the way for the second, and the second prepares us for the third. Lowly and unspectacular in his first coming, secret and gentle in his second, Christ will come openly the third time, and his final coming will fill the world with dread. He came to us at his first coming in order to come into us at the second, and he comes into us at his second coming in order not to have to come against us at the third. At his first coming he showed mercy, in the second he brings grace, at the third he will give glory, for Scripture says: The Lord will confer grace and glory.

Peter of Blois, Sermo 3 de adventu Domini (PL 207, 569-572), from Word in Season 1

Friday of the First Week of Advent

A READING FROM A SERMON BY BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY

Be ready to go and meet the Lord, O Israel, for he is coming. You too must be ready, for at a time when you do not expect it the Son of Man will come. Nothing is more certain than that he is coming, nothing more uncertain than when he is coming. So far is it from being our province to know the times and seasons which the Father has appointed by his own authority, that not even to the angels who stand in his presence is it granted to know that day and hour.

As for our own last day, it is most sure that this will come upon us, but most unsure when, or where, or from what quarter it will come. All we know is that, as the traditional saying has it, ‘what is knocking at the door of the elderly lies in ambush for the young’. Death which lurks in ambush is the more to be feared in that it can the less be seen and guarded against. There is only one security, and that is never to feel secure. Thus our fear, prompting us to watch ourselves carefully, keeps us always prepared until fear gives way to security, not security to fear. How beautiful a thing it is, how blessed, not merely to face death without anxiety, but through the testimony of a good conscience to triumph gloriously in it! Then, alas, you will see people like me trembling, seeking a reprieve but not getting it, wishing to buy the oil of repentance for a lamenting conscience but finding that there is not enough time.

It belongs to our human condition, I know, to quail before the wrench of death, since even the perfect are unwilling to have the old body stripped off and would rather wish to have the new body put on over it; while those who are not conscious of any sin, knowing that they are not thereby justified, must dread the verdict of which they are still ignorant. Yet whether my distress arises from my human feelings or from my falling short in holiness or from my fear of judgment, I can say with the righteous psalmist: You, O Lord, will be mindful of your mercy; you will display your tender love and faithfulness and snatch my soul from the midst of the young lions. Then after my dismay sleep will come at once and I shall find rest.

Do you, then, Lord, rise up to meet me as I run to meet you. Since I have not the strength to scale your summits unless you stretch out your right hand to me whom your hands have made, rise to meet me, and see whether there is any sinful way in me. If you find any sinful way at all, then take it from me; grant me the grace to live by your law and lead me in the way of eternity, that is, in Christ who is the way by which we journey and the eternity which is our journey’s end: an undefiled way and a blessed dwelling place.

Bd Guerric of Igny, Sermo 3 de adventu Domini (PL 185, 18-20), from Word in Season 1

Saturday of the First Week of Advent

A READING FROM A SERMON BY BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY

Among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Solomon advised, Let your praise come from your neighbour’s lips, but how much happier and more glorious it is for someone to be praised by the lips of his God! God cannot be deceived nor does he flatter. He is not quick to praise anyone whom he sees could be puffed up by it, or whom he foresees will merit final reprobation. You, as a human assessor, are rightly warned to praise no one in your lifetime, for just as you cannot know another’s innermost heart, so you cannot foreknow the way he will end. Even in your own case you must confess, though I am not conscious of any sin, this of itself does not justify me. There are righteous and wise men whose actions are in the hand of God, and they do not know whether they deserve love or hate; all things are kept in uncertainty against the future.

Happy is the man, then, who has come to know himself worthy of love by the declaration of the judge. It is true that a testimonial to present righteousness does not relieve a fickle man of all fear and misgiving about the future; nonetheless it is an unquestionable mark of outstanding virtue and great perfection whenever that sovereign judgment of God deems one still mortal fit for his commendation.

Assuredly it was a remarkable eulogy of Noah’s justice when the Most Just One said to him, I have seen you to be just before me. It was a sign of Abraham’s high merit when God swore to him that for his sake the promises made to him would be fulfilled. Again, what pre-eminent grace God vouched for in Moses by being jealous on his behalf and routing those who were jealous of him! If anyone among you is a prophet of the Lord, he said, I will appear to him in a vision or speak to him in a dream. But not so with my servant Moses, the most faithful man in my whole household. I speak to him face to face, plainly and not in riddles, and he sees God. Why then were you not afraid to disparage my servant Moses? Finally, who has there ever been to compare with David, over whom the Lord rejoices because he has found a man after his own heart?

Yet however great they all were, these people and others, there is not one among them or among any born of woman who, as he who was born of the Virgin testifies, is greater than John the Baptist. Even though star differs from star in brightness, and in that dance of holy constellations which lit up the night of this world before the rising of the true Sun there were some shone out with a marvellous radiance, still there was not one in their whole company greater or more splendid than that morning star, that burning and shining lamp which the Father prepared for his Anointed.

Bd Guerric, Sermo 3 in nat. S. Ioannis Baptistae (PL 185, 169-70), from Word in Season 1

Advent Week 2

Sunday of the Second Week in Advent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 118 BY ST AMBROSE

How abundant is the grace of the Church, how great the rewards of a living faith! Since these invite us, let us forestall the rising sun to greet Christ, the Sun of justice, before he can say: See, here I am. He both wants and expects us to be there before him.

You can hear Christ’s desire and expectation expressed in his words to the angel of the church of Pergamum: Repent, or I will soon come to you, and to the angel of Laodicea: Be zealous and repent. See, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him. He will have no difficulty in entering; no barrier of closed doors was able to shut out his body after he had risen from the dead. Suddenly, unexpectedly, he was present in the room where the Apostles were gathered. He had already tested the Apostles; he wants now to test your zeal and devotion. In time of persecution he may take the initiative; where all is tranquil, he wants you to be ready and waiting for him.

Be on the watch before the sun is visible in the sky. Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead, so that Christ may shine on you. If you are vigilant you will receive Christ’s light before sunrise. Before daybreak he will shine into the depth of your heart. Even as you say: My spirit watches for you in the night, Christ will make the light of morning illuminate your nocturnal meditation on the word of God. As you meditate, light will dawn. Seeing the light - not of the day but of grace - you will exclaim: Your commandments are my light! When day finds you meditating on God’s word and the pleasant task of prayer and psalmody delights your mind, you will once more say to the Lord Jesus: You fill both morning and evening with joy.

In obedience to their master Moses, the Jewish people have the sacred Scripture recited continuously, night and day, by elders appointed for this purpose. Ask an elder about anything else and you will find this is his only skill: to recite the Scriptures in sequence. With the Jewish elders there is no worldly conversation: Scripture alone is their occupation; voice follows voice in turn so that the holy sound of God’s commandments knows no holiday. How then can you, a Christian, with Christ as your master, take your sleep without fear of having it said to you: This people does not even honour me with its lips. The Jewish people do so, but you do not. What a length of time you are sunk in sleep, in secular affairs, in the cares of this life, in things of earth! At least divide your time between God and the world. When you cannot carry out the business of this world in public and are hindered from pursuing it by the darkness of night, give time to God, give yourself to prayer. To keep yourself from dropping off to sleep, recite a psalm, cheat sleep with holy guile. In the morning hurry off to church, offer the first fruits of your prayers, and after that, if the world and its needs call you, you will be able to say: My eyes are watchful in the morning, to meditate on your words. Then you can attend to your affairs with a serene mind.

St Ambrose, Sermo 19, 30-32 (CSEL 63, 437-439), from Word in Season 1

Monday of the Second Week of Advent

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BERNARD

We must now give some thought to the timing of our Saviour’s visitation, for, as I am sure you know, it was not at the beginning of time nor at some intermediate epoch that he came to us, but at the end of the ages. This was no mere whim of his, but a wise disposition of providence that determined to wait until the sons of Adam were experiencing their greatest need before he brought them help, since he well knew how prone men were to ingratitude. Evening was already drawing on and the day was almost over; the sun of justice had begun to sink beneath the horizon and now shed very little of its light and warmth upon the earth, for the light of the knowledge of God had become feeble, and with the increase of sin charity had grown cold. No longer were angels seen or prophetic voices heard; it seemed as if the stiff-necked obduracy of the human race had driven both angels and prophets to despair of intervening further in its affairs. But it was at this point that the Son of God announced: See, I am coming! Well-timed indeed was the entrance of eternity upon the earthly scene, when temporal prosperity was at its zenith. To give but one illustration, peace itself at that period was so universal that it was possible for the decree of a single man to impose a general census upon the whole world.

You already know who it is that comes, where he comes from and to whom, together with the why, the wherefore, and the when. The one thing still to learn is the road by which he comes, and this we must diligently search out so that we can run to meet him and give him a fitting welcome. However, just as he once came on earth in the flesh to accomplish our salvation, so he comes daily in the spirit to save each individual soul; the difference is that his first coming was visible to the eye, whereas the second is unseen. As Scripture says: Christ the Lord is the breath of life to us, and the hidden nature of this spiritual coming is shown in the continuation of the same text: Under his shadow we shall live among the nations. For this reason, even if you are too sick to go very far to meet the Lord, it is appropriate for you to respond to the great physician’s visit by making an effort at least to raise your head and lift yourself up a little to greet him on his arrival. The road pointed out to you is not a long one; you do not have to cross the seas or pierce the clouds or climb mountains to meet your God. Enter into your own soul and you will find him, for his word is near you; it is on your lips and in your heart. Go down deep into your heart until you are stirred to compunction; make your confession, and so at least turn your back on a conscience so defiled as to be unworthy of entertaining the author of purity.

These are the thoughts I put before you in respect to the coming of our Lord to each individual soul and the enlightenment his powerful presence brings us.

St Bernard, Sermo I in adventu Domini, 9-10; Opera omnia, 4 [1966] 167-169, from WS 1

Tuesday of the Second Week in Advent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA.

Let the thirsty land rejoice, let the wilderness exult and flower like the lily. The desert regions of the Jordan shall blossom and be glad. The glory of Lebanon is given to it and the honour of Carmel. My people shall see the glory of the Lord and the majesty of our God.

In inspired Scripture it is usually the church drawn from the Gentiles that is described as barren and sterile; the church, that is, which once existed among the pagans, the church which had not received Christ, her spiritual bridegroom from heaven, and was still deprived of every blessing. Dry and thirsty, she was like ground that brings forth thorns. Then Christ came to her. She took him to herself through faith, and the divine stream that flows from him enriched her, for he is the fountain of life and a torrent of delight. It was he himself who said through one of the prophets: Behold, 1 visit them like a river of peace and like a torrent pouring out on them the glory of the nations. After that she was no longer sterile and barren, but had a husband and many children and bloomed with spiritual flowers.

Let her who used to thirst rejoice greatly, says Scripture; let her flower like the lily and put forth blossoms both beautiful and fragrant. We know from Paul that this was Christ’s fragrance, for he wrote: To God, we have the fragrance of Christ.

The desert regions of the Jordan of which Scripture speaks are those bordering the river. The river Jordan has been given to us Gentiles, or at least to those among us who have believed, and it is in our territory. We have been baptized in it, and so as I said this sacred stream is ours.

To this desert, then, formerly parched but now watered by the renowned river Jordan, the glory of Lebanon and the honour of Carmel have been given. Lebanon and Carmel are names often used for Jerusalem and the temple of God itself. But the glory which once belonged to the holy city and the temple of God has been given to the Church drawn from the Gentiles, and in it we have seen the glory of the Lord and the majesty of God. The Jews treated the Lord as a mere man in no way superior to other men but we have seen the majesty of his glory. We know that he is God - by divine dispensation God made man, but nevertheless still God.

A pure highway shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way. By a pure highway, the prophet means either the power of a life lived according to the Gospel or, alternatively, the purification accomplished by the Spirit. For the Spirit cleanses human souls of their stains, frees them from sins, and gives them mastery over whatever could pollute them. It is therefore rightly called a holy and pure way. It is a way inaccessible to those as yet unpurified, for no one can live according to the Gospel who has not first been enriched by the purification of holy baptism; nor therefore can any unbeliever.

St Cyril of Alexandria, In Is. Lib. 3, t. 3 (PG 70, 749-754), from Word in Season 1

Wednesday of the Second Week in Advent

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ABBOT GODFREY OF ADMONT

In the Book of Ruth we can find something that may rather fittingly be applied to the Mother of God. In her own person Ruth was quite praiseworthy; in her family she was conspicuous, being born of the base and accursed people of Moab. She chose to leave her relatives and the land of her birth and to reside in a land not her own. There, because of the great integrity of her life and habits, she was joined in marriage to a distinguished man of the Israelite people, named Boaz, and by him she had a son named Obed, who was father of the father of King David, of whose seed Christ, the Son of God, was born.

The name ‘Ruth’ means ‘hastening’, and the name, we think, is suited to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was always ‘hastening’, that is, fervent in holy and good works. Ruth was descended from the base and accursed race of the Moabites; Mary was born of that people whom the blame for original sin had rendered ignoble and accursed. Ruth left her native land and her relatives in order to practice the faith of her mother-in-law, and she resided in a land not her own. Mary left her native place and her parents when, in order to remain faithful to God the Father and preserve her own chastity, she separated herself from the common life of the world. She regarded herself as an exile and pilgrim in this world, for she contemned everything that the present world loves, and she was hastening to the only true and endless glory of the heavenly homeland. From the lineage of Ruth King David was born; from the virginal flesh of the Virgin Mary was born our true David, of strong arm and comely face, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the entire world has been saved.

Tamar, the ancestor of Boaz, prayed: Most merciful Judge, recognize in me faith and hope and love of you. These are your gifts, which you have given to me; as best I could, with your help, I have preserved them as a testimony to my salvation and have brought them back to you. Since these gifts have been acknowledged by Judah, that is, by God the Father, the soul shall be received into the joys of everlasting blessedness through him who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

Abbot Godfrey of Admont, Homiliae Festivals (PL 174, 1026-1028), from Word in Season 2

Thursday of the Second Week in Advent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST AUGUSTINE

God had a time for making his promises and a time for fulfilling them. His time for making promises was from the days of the prophets until the coming of John the Baptist. His time for fulfilling them was from then until the end of the world.

God is faithful and he has put himself in our debt, not by receiving anything from us but by promising so much. Nor was a promise sufficient for him; he even bound himself in writing, giving us as it were a pledge in his own hand. He wanted us to see from Scripture, when the time for fulfilment came, how he was carrying out his promises one by one.

God promised us eternal salvation, everlasting bliss with the angels, an incorruptible inheritance, endless glory, the joyful vision of his face, his holy dwelling in heaven, and after the resurrection from the dead no further fear of dying. This is what he holds out to us at the end as the goal of all our striving. When we reach it we shall ask for nothing more. But as to how we are to reach our final goal, he revealed this too by promises and prophecies.

God promised men divinity, mortals immortality, sinners justification, outcasts glory. But because his promise that we who are mortal, corruptible, weak and of low estate, mere dust and ashes, were to be equal to the angels seemed incredible, God not only made a written covenant with us to win our faith, but he also gave us a mediator of his pledge. This mediator was not a prince, an angel, or an archangel, but his only Son; through his own Son he meant both to show us and give us the way by which he would lead us to the promised goal. He was not satisfied with sending his Son to show us the way. He made him the way itself.

God’s only Son, then, was to come among us, take our human nature, and in this nature be born as a man. He was to die, to rise again, to ascend into heaven, to sit at the right hand of the Father, and to fulfil his promises among the nations. After that he was also to fulfil his promise to come again, to demand what he had previously requested, to separate those deserving his anger from those deserving his mercy, to give the wicked what he had threatened and the just what he had promised.

All this had to be prophesied, foretold, and impressed on us as an event in the future so that we should not be terrified by its happening unexpectedly, but wait for it with faith.

St Augustine, In ps. 109, 1-3 (CCL 40, 1601-1603), from Word in Season 1

Friday of the Second Week in Advent

A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

The Lord came visibly to his own domain, and was sustained by his own creation which he himself sustains in being. By his obedience upon a tree he reversed the disobedience shown because of another tree. The seduction to which the betrothed virgin Eve had miserably fallen victim was remedied by the truth happily announced by the angel to Mary, another betrothed virgin.

As Eve, seduced by an angel, turned away from God by disobedience to his word, so Mary, receiving the good news from an angel, bore God in her womb in obedience to his word; and as Eve had been led to disobey God, so Mary was persuaded to obey him. Thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve.

Christ recapitulated all things in himself, including our war against the enemy. He challenged and defeated him who in the beginning had taken us captive in Adam, and he crushed his head in accordance with God’s words to the serpent in Genesis: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, he shall lie in wait for your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel.

From that time on, he who was to be born of a virgin in the likeness of Adam was foretold as the one who would lie in wait for the serpent’s head. This is the descendant to whom Paul refers when he says in his letter to the Galatians: The law of works was in force until the coming of the descendant to whom the promise had been made. Paul is still more explicit when he says in the same letter: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman. The enemy would not have been defeated fairly if his vanquisher had not been a man born of a woman, because it was through a woman that he gained mastery over the human race in the beginning, and set himself up as our adversary.

That is why the Lord proclaims himself the Son of Man, who recapitulates in himself that first man from whom the race born of woman was formed: as by a man’s defeat our race fell into the bondage of death, so also by a man’s victory we were to rise again to life.

St Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. Lib.5,19,1; 20,2; 21,1 (SC 153, 248-250,260-264), fr. Word in Season 1

Saturday of the Second Week in Advent

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Let us make every effort to purify our hearts, exert ourselves to stay alert, and as far as in us lies gain this grace by constant prayer. And if we wonder about external purity, the Lord tells us: Clean the inside, and then the outside will be clean as well.

Some may think that Scripture refers to the body as much as to the heart, for it is written: All mankind will see God’s salvation. How then can there be any doubt that the sight of God is promised to us, unless there is doubt as to the meaning of God’s salvation. But since there is no uncertainty about this, there is no doubt: God’s salvation is Christ the Lord. The divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ can be seen by the eyes of the heart when they are pure, perfect, and full of God; and he was seen also in the body according to the text: Afterward he was seen on earth and lived among men. Thus the meaning of the text: All mankind will see the salvation of God is clear: let no one doubt that it means that we shall see Christ.

Uncertainty remains, however, as to whether we shall see the Lord Christ in the body, or as the Word who was in the beginning, the Word who was with God and who was God, and into this we must inquire. All mankind will see God’s salvation is said to mean that all mankind will see God’s Christ. But Christ was also seen in a body that was no longer mortal, a body that had undergone a spiritual transformation. After his resurrection he himself said to those who saw and touched him: Handle and see, for spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. This is how he will be seen: not only how he was seen in the past but how he will be seen in the future. And then surely the words all mankind will be more perfectly fulfilled. For people see him now, but not all people. On the Day of judgement, however, when he comes with his angels to judge the living and the dead, when all who are in their graves hear his voice and come forth, some rising to life, others to condemnation, they will see the very form which he deigned to assume for our sake. Not only will the righteous see it but also the wicked, both those on the right hand and those on the left, for even those who killed him will see him whom they pierced.

All mankind, then, will see God’s salvation. Both those who see and he who is seen will be in the body because it is in his real body that he will come to judge. But to those placed on his right and sent to the kingdom of heaven he will show himself in the way he promised when he was already seen in the body: Those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and show myself to them.

St Augustine, Sermo 277, 15-16 (PL 38, 1266-1267), from Word in Season 2

Advent Week 3

Sunday of the Third Week in Advent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY BY ST AMBROSE OF MILAN

When Boaz, the great-grandfather of David, saw Ruth’s behaviour, her devotion to her mother-in-law, her loyalty to her dead husband, and her fear of God, he chose her for his wife in accordance with the law of Moses which bade him raise up offspring for his next of kin. That this marriage was symbolic is shown by the blessing given by the elders: May the Lord make this woman who is about to come into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May she make you powerful in Ephrathah and renowned in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman. And Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife, and she bore Obed, the father of Jesse and grandfather of David.

Matthew did well, then, when about to summon all nations to the Church through the Gospel, to recall that the Lord who brings about this gathering of the nations was himself, in his human body, of alien origin. Matthew thus made known that it was from this lineage that he would come who was to summon the nations – he whom we desire to follow, we of alien origin who were gathered together when we left our native land and said to whoever called us to worship the Lord, Paul, for example, or any bishop: Your people shall be my people, your God my God. So did Ruth, like Leah and Rachel, forget her own people and her father’s house and, freeing herself from the fetters of the law, she entered the Church.

What good reason there was for inserting Ruth’s name in the lineage of the Lord is shown by the revelation of a still more profound mystery, for in the words: May the Lord give you power in Ephrathah and make your name renowned in Bethlehem it is prophesied that Christ should be her descendant. For what is this power if not that by which the Christ gathered together all the nations of the world? Whence is this renown if not in the fact that Bethlehem became the Lord’s hometown when he was born as a man. As the prophecy proclaims: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the towns of Judah, for from you shall come the prince who will rule my people Israel.

St Ambrose, In S. Luc III, 31-35 (SC 45, 123-124), from Word in Season 2

Monday of the Third Week in Advent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON MICAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

The mystery of Christ is truly a matter for marvelling, and the excellence of it is beyond the wondering utterance of anyone who knows the mercy shown to us. Habakkuk too, an inspired man of God, stood in awe at the manner of the incarnation and cried out, Lord, I harkened to your tidings, and I was afraid; I considered your works, and I marvelled. The only Son of God, who is in the form of God and equal to God the Father, rich though he was in his divinity, made himself poor, that we might be enriched by his poverty. So he willed to save the lost, strengthen the weak, bind up the shattered, give life to the dead, purify the defiled, and adorn with the honour of being God’s children by adoption those who by nature were slaves. Let everyone hear the words: Who is God like unto you? For he is good and forgiving and refrains from punishing the faults that stand against the remnant of his inheritance. By this remnant are to be understood those few of Israel who have believed because by not believing the majority are clearly heading for destruction. Christ said, He who believes in the Son is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in God’s name.

God passes over our sins and overlooks our faults. He keeps no angry score against us. We were cast out in Adam, but welcomed again in Christ. As by the transgression of one man many died, says Scripture, so by the righteous deed of one man many will live. God has ceased to be angry, because he is a God who wishes to show mercy. When he turned back to us again at the time of his incarnation it was as though he sank all our sins into the sea.

And so, the prophet continues, since God promised to the holy fathers Abraham and Jacob that he would multiply their offspring like the stars of heaven, he will indeed give them what was promised. They shall be called fathers of many nations, which evidently means that they are fathers not merely to those who are counted among Abraham’s children because they are of Israelite blood, but also to the children of the promise. The children of faith, both those who come from what are called the uncircumcised and those who are circumcised according to the law, are fused together in a unity in the Spirit. For it is written, Not all those who are of Israelite descent really belong to Israel; it is the children of the promise who are reckoned as the true race. Now as many as are children of Abraham by faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, and we can understand how this promise of blessing is fulfilled by the grace bestowed in Christ, through glory to God the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for endless ages. Amen.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Cap. 7, 72 (PG 71, 774-775), from Word in Season 1

Tuesday of the Third Week in Advent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

In the last days the mountain of the Lord will stand out clearly and the house of the Lord will be on top of the mountain. It will be raised high above the hills, and all nations will stream toward it. This prophecy came true for the benefit of the whole human race in the last days, that is to say, in the final age of this world, when the Word of God, his only Son, appeared, born of a woman. Then, as Scripture says, he presented to himself the Church, the spiritual Judea or Jerusalem, as a pure virgin without stain or wrinkle or any other imperfection, holy and unblemished.

All nations will stream toward it and many peoples will come and say: Let us go up to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his way and we will walk in it. There is no need of a lengthy argument to prove that, through faith, all nations have been brought together into the Church. The fact speaks for itself. This great multitude of peoples was called together not by instruction in the law, nor by the holy prophets, but by the secret working of God’s grace enlightening their minds and making them long for Christ to save them.

First they climb the mountain and then they seek to have the word of God preached to them. They promise to walk in the way the Lord, which is that of the Gospel, the entry to which is through the purification accomplished by faith. For those seeking to learn the way of the Lord must first renounce their past errors. We cannot long for something better until we reject what we held before.

Who was their spiritual guide who brought them to a knowledge of the truth and persuaded them to regard as ridiculous their old way of thinking and to adopt a new one? Who but God? It was he who illumined their minds and hearts and led them both to say and to believe that the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

The blessed prophet announced that the time was determined for the calling and the conversion of the Gentiles. This would take place, he said, when the God of the whole world, the universal King and Lord, judges all the nations and establishes justice among them. Previously, injustice was rampant as the nations plundered one another and practised every kind of cruelty and excess. But when such things are done away with, justice will be given us by God. When Christ, who is peace, rules the nations all discord, strife, contention, and every kind of oppression will be banished, together with the injuries that give rise to war and the terrors that follow in its wake. The will of him who said, I leave you peace, my peace I give you, will be victorious.

St Cyril of Alexandria Lib. 1, Oratio 2 (PG 70, 67-74), from Word in Season 1

Wednesday of the Third Week in Advent

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE TRINITY BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

When all things are made subject to him, save the one who made them subject, then the Son himself will be subject to the one who made all else subject to him, so that God may be all in all. The first stage of the mystery is that all is made subject to the Son; the second is that the Son himself then becomes subject to him who reigns in his glorious body, by the same dispensation he himself, now reigning in bodily glory, will be subject to the one who subjected all else to him. We are subject to his glorious body, in order that we may share in the glory by which he now reigns in the body; for our bodies shall become like his.

The Gospels are not silent about the bodily glory of the reigning Lord. It is written that he said: Amen I tell you, some those standing here will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. The bodily glory of him who comes was made known to the Apostles when the Lord stood before them gloriously transfigured and showed the brilliance his body would have when he came to rule. He promised the Apostles that they would share in his glory: The Son of Man will send his angels to collect from his kingdom all who give scandal and all evildoers, and he will cast them into the fiery furnace, where there will he weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the just will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

But do not all of us have our natural bodily ears alert to hear what is said, and is not the Lord’s warning about hearing therefore unnecessary? The Lord is referring, however, to a knowledge of the mystery of his divine plan when he insists on our hearing his teaching. At the end of the world, then, all who give scandal shall be removed from his kingdom. The Lord will reign in bodily glory and remove every cause of scandal. And we shall resemble him in bodily glory in the Father’s kingdom, where we shall be radiant as the sun, for when Christ was transfigured on the mountain he showed the Apostles that such splendour is the raiment proper to his kingdom.

He will hand over the kingdom to God the Father: not in the sense that he will be handing over his power, but in the sense that he will make us like himself in bodily glory and hand us over to God as his kingdom. He will hand us over to reign with him, according to his words in the Gospels: Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of world. The just, then, shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, for the Son shall hand over to God, as his kingdom, those he called into the kingdom and to whom he promised the blessedness proper to this mystery when he said: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.

St Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, Lib. 11, 36-40 (PL 10, 423-425), from Word in Season 1

Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST AUGUSTINE

The main reason why Christ came was so that men might learn how much God loves them; and that they might learn this so as to glow with love for the God by whom they were first loved, and so as to love their neighbour, following the direction and example of him who made himself their neighbour by loving them at a time when they were not close to him but were wandering far from him. All divine Scripture that was written before the Lord’s coming was written to announce that coming, and whatever has since been committed to writing and invested with divine authority speaks of Christ and teaches us love. In view of this, it is plain that on these two commandments of love for God and neighbour rest not only the whole law and the prophets – which at the time of Christ were as yet the only holy Scripture – but also all the books of divine writings which were later set apart for our salvation and handed down to us.

Hence, in the Old Testament is hidden the New, and in the New Testament is revealed the Old. In keeping with that hiddenness, those who live and understand according to the flesh have been made subject to the fear of punishment, both then and now. In keeping with this revelation, on the other hand, those who live and understand according to the Spirit are set free thanks to the gift of love. This includes both those who in former times knocked devoutly at the door and had opened to them even things that were hidden, and those who in our own times seek without pride so that they will not find closed to them even things that were unhidden.

Therefore, since nothing is more opposed to love than envy, and the mother of envy is pride, the same Lord Jesus Christ, God-man, is both the disclosure of divine love for us and the example of human humility among us, in order that the swelling of our arrogance, great as it is, may be healed by an even stronger antidote. For the proud human being is a great affliction, but the humble God is an even greater mercy.

Keep this love before you then as a goal to which you refer all that you say, and whenever you speak, speak in such a way that your listeners by hearing may believe, by believing may hope, and by hoping may love.

St Augustine, De catechizandibus 4, 8, 8 (CCL 46, 128-129), from Word in Season

Friday of the Third Week in Advent

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE INCARNATION BY ST ATHANASIUS

Only the Word of the Father, who is exalted above all, could recreate all, suffer for all, and intercede for all with the Father. Therefore, the incorporeal, incorruptible, immaterial Word of God entered our world, although he was not far from it before. Indeed, no part of creation has ever been without him, for even while remaining with his Father he has always filled all things everywhere. But now in his love for us he has condescended to come and reveal himself.

He saw that the human race was perishing and that it was under the reign of death because of its corruptibility. He saw the firm hold that corruptibility had on us as the penalty for our transgression and that it would be monstrous for the law to come to nothing before ever having been fulfilled. He also saw the unseemliness of what was happening, of his own creatures ceasing to exist. He saw the excessive wickedness of the human race and how little by little it was mounting up against us and becoming intolerable. He saw that all men were subject to death.

Therefore, he had mercy on our race and in his pity for our weakness he descended to our corruptible condition. He could not allow death to have the mastery, for fear that creation should perish and his Father’s work for the human race come to nothing. And so he took a body for himself, a body no different from ours. For he did not wish simply to become embodied and to make himself visible. If he had wished merely to become visible he could have manifested himself by means of some nobler instrument. But no; he took a human body, and took it moreover from a spotless, immaculate virgin, without the intervention of a man. He who is powerful and who created the whole universe fashioned for himself in the Virgin a body to be his temple, making it his own as the instrument through which he could be known and in which he could dwell.

Since all men were subject to death, after taking from us a body like ours he delivered it up to death in the place of us all, offering it to the Father. He did this because of his love for us, so that we might all die in him, for then the law imposing death on us would be abrogated.

The Word knew that there was absolutely no way of delivering us from our state of corruptibility except by dying. Since he himself, being immortal and the Son of the Father, was incapable of dying, he took to himself a body which could die. Its participation in the Word who is above all would make it worthy to die for all. Because of the Word dwelling in it, it would remain incorruptible and all others would be freed from corruptibility by the grace of resurrection.

St Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 7-9, from Word in Season 1

17-24 December

17 December

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

In earlier days a life of moral excellence was a road difficult of access to nearly everyone and evangelical behaviour a path untrodden. All minds were ruled by worldly and earthbound desires and were swept away by the inordinate impulses of the flesh. But when God became man – or was made flesh, as the Scripture says – he abolished sin in the flesh: he overthrew the principalities and powers and the world rulers of this universe. He made our path to godliness into a level road on which travelling is easy, where nothing is too steep or too high, and nothing lies down in a hollow: a road smoothed out into a plain. All the devious tracks have been straightened.

But there is more: The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see the salvation of God, because the Lord has spoken. The prophet says that the glory will be revealed, but how will this be done? Christ is the only Son of the Father and the Word of God, subsisting as God and born of the Father in a way no words can explain in the sublimity of the Godhead, far above all heavenly rulers, authorities, thrones, and dominations and every title that can be given in this world or the next. He is the Lord of glory, and we have come to recognize his glory even though formerly we did not know it, because by becoming a man like us he revealed himself in his incarnation. He was revealed who is equal in power to God the Father, equal to him in action and equal in glory; he was revealed who upholds the universe by his mighty word, accomplishes miracles with ease, rebukes inanimate creation, raises the dead, and achieves without effort all the rest of his wonderful works.

Thus the glory of the Lord has been revealed, and all flesh has beheld with wonder the salvation of God; that is, the saving act of the Father who sent his Son from heaven to be our saviour and redeemer. For since the law brought nothing to perfection and since the sacrifices that were only types had no power to cleanse us from sins, we were made perfect in Christ, freed from every stain and honoured by the gift of the Spirit who makes us by adoption sons of God. And in the intention of the One who saves, the grace given in Christ will extend to all flesh; that is, to the whole human race.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Is. 3,4 (PG 70, 802-803), from Word in Season 1

18 December

A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST LEO THE GREAT

It is of no avail to say that our Lord, the son of the Virgin Mary, was true and perfect man, if he is not believed to be man of that stock from which the Gospel tells us he came. Matthew says: The book of the genealogy of Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. He then follows the order of Christ’s human origin and traces the line of his ancestry down to Joseph, to whom the Lord’s mother was betrothed. Luke, on the other hand, works backwards step by step; and traces his succession to the first of the human race himself, to show that the first Adam and the last Adam were of the same nature.

The almighty Son of God could have come to teach and justify men with only the outward appearance of our humanity, exactly as he appeared to patriarchs and prophets. This he did when he wrestled with Jacob, or entered into conversation, or when he did not refuse hospitable entertainment, and even partook of the food set before him. Those outward appearances pointed to this man. They had a hidden meaning which proclaimed that his reality would be taken from the stock of his forefathers.

Hence God’s plan for our reconciliation, formed before all eternity, was not realized by any of these prefigurations. As yet, the Holy Spirit had not come upon the Virgin nor had the power of the Most High overshadowed her. Only then, would the Word become flesh within her inviolate womb, in which Wisdom would build a house for herself. Then, too, the creator of ages would be born in time and the nature of God would join with the nature of the slave in the unity of one person. He through whom the world was created would himself be brought forth in the midst of all creation.

If the new man, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, had not taken our old nature; if he, one in substance with the Father, had not accepted to be one in substance with the mother; if he who was alone free from sin had not united our nature to himself, – then men would still have been captive under the power of the devil. We would have been incapable of profiting by the victor’s triumph if the battle had been fought outside our nature.

But, by means of this marvellous sharing, the mystery of our rebirth shone out upon us. We are reborn in newness of spirit through the same Spirit through whom Christ was conceived and born. Consequently the evangelist speaks of those who believe as those who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

St Leo the Great, Ep. 31, 2-3, from The Divine Office Vol. I

19 December

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST MAXIMUS OF TURIN

Even if I were to keep silence, my friends, the season would warn us that the birthday of Christ our Lord is at hand. Thes coming to an end and forestalls the subject of my sermon. The depressing shortness of the days itself testifies to the imminence of some event which will bring about the betterment of a world urgently longing for a brighter sun to dispel its darkness. In spite of fearing that its course may be terminated within a few brief hours, the world still shows signs of hope that its yearly cycle will once more be renewed. And if creation feels this hope, it persuades us also to hope that Christ will come like a new sunrise to shed light on the darkness of our sins, and that the Sun of Justice, in the vigour of his new birth, will dispel the long night of guilt from our hearts. Rather than allow the course of our life to come to an end with such appalling brevity, we are confident that he will extend it by his powerful grace.

Since even the physical world informs us that our Lord’s birthday is at hand, let us follow the earth’s example. I mean that as from Christmas Day onward the earth enjoys lengthening periods of daylight, so we too should imitate it by growing in holiness. And as rich and poor alike share the same light of Christmas, so we should share what we have with the needy and with strangers. From Christmas Day onward the earth begins to throw off its nocturnal gloom, and we in our turn should curtail the darkness of our greed.

So, my brothers, let us array ourselves in clear and shining garments to welcome the Lord’s birthday. The garments I speak of are for the soul, not the body. Our care must be lavished on the precious works of love, not on robes of silk. Beautiful clothes may cover our limbs, but they leave our conscience unadorned. In fact, to parade about with one’s body splendidly attired brings a person even greater disgrace if, in so doing, his heart is inwardly defiled. We must first ennoble our inward desires, then our outward apparel will be beautiful. We must cleanse ourselves of spiritual stains if our bodily raiment is to appear bright and shining. It is useless to wear dazzling clothes while our souls are squalid with sin; a darkened conscience means that the whole body is plunged in gloom.

However, we have in our possession the means of washing away the stains from our conscience. Scripture tells us: give alms, and then everything will be clean for you. How precious an injunction this is! By giving alms with our hands, we are cleansed in our inmost hearts.

St Maximus of Turin, Sermo 61a, 1-3 (CCL 23, 249.250-251), from Word in Season 1

20 December

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

In the book of Isaiah it is written: Behold, the virgin will be with child, and will give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel. Yet when blessed Gabriel revealed this mystery to the holy Virgin who was to be the Mother of God, he said: Do not he afraid, Mary, for you have found favour in God’s sight. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will name him Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins. How is this? Does the message of the holy angel contradict that of the prophet?

By no means. Speaking mysteries in the Spirit, the inspired Prophet foretold that God would be with us, naming him “Emmanuel” in consideration of his divine nature and of the plan whereby he became incarnate. The blessed angel on the other hand called him by a name that signified his function: he has in fact saved his people, and on this account he is called “Saviour” This is how hosts of angels announced the Good News to the shepherds at the time when he humbled himself to be born in the flesh for our sake: Be not afraid, they said; today we bring you good tidings of a great joy for the whole people: a saviour has been born this day in the city of David, and he is Christ the Lord. Rightly then is he named Emmanuel, because being God by nature he became God-with-us when he was made man. And yet he is also named Jesus, because being God, and being made man, he had the task of saving the world.

So when he came forth from his mother’s womb (for according to the flesh he was truly born of her) his name was conferred on him. It was inappropriate for God the Word to be named “Christ” before his birth in the flesh: how should he be called Christ, the Anointed One, when he had not yet been anointed? But when he was born as man, then there was given to him the name that belonged to him in virtue of his human condition.

Scripture says that his mouth was made into a sharp sword, and this is true as well. Elsewhere in the same prophecy of Isaiah we are told, Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, truth will be his vesture, and with the breath of his lips he will destroy the impious. God’s message from heaven, that Good News proclaimed by the mouth of Christ, has become a sharp sword in play against the devil’s tyranny, a sword to slay the rulers of this world of darkness and the spiritual of wickedness. For he dispersed the mist of deceit and irradiated all human hearts with true knowledge of God. He sheared off the sin of the world, justifying the impious by faith, filling those who draw near with the Holy Spirit and making them sons of God. He instilled into them a strong and most valiant purpose, and put into their hands the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, so that they might withstand the foes who had once prevailed and run unhindered toward the prize of their heavenly calling.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Lib. 4, Oratio 4 (PG 70, 1035-1038), from Word in Season 1

21 December

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST ODILO OF CLUNY

Know that I am with you every day until the end of the world. If our Lord has promised to be with his faithful people every day, we can expect him to be even closer to us on the day of his birth; the greater our eagerness to serve him, the more we shall perceive his presence among us. Yes, he who spoke through Solomon, saying: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, as the firstborn of all creation, and again; The Lord possessed me when his purpose first unfolded, before the earliest of his works; from everlasting I was firmly established; he who said through Isaiah: Do I not fill heaven and earth? – he it is who, in the mysterious plan of his own providence, is born on earth and laid in a manger.

While Solomon’s words teach us that Christ was eternally in existence before the world began, Isaiah’s declare that there is no place in the whole of creation from which he is absent. And if he exists always and everywhere, he cannot be absent from ourselves. The testimony of the ancient prophets to Christ’s eternal being and his boundless divine presence is indeed trustworthy. Our Saviour himself tells the Jews in the Gospel: Before Abraham ever existed, I am. With God the Father from all eternity, before Abraham existed (more accurately, before anything existed) he had his eternal being; and yet he chose to be born in time from the stock of Abraham – Abraham who was told by God the Father: In your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

The blessed patriarch David was also granted privilege of a similar promise. Revealing to him hidden secrets of his wisdom, God the Father told him: The fruit of your body I will set upon your throne. These two received the promise of the Saviour’s coming more plainly than any of our other fathers, and so they deserved to be given the first and most important place in the records of our Lord’s ancestry according to the evangelist Matthew, the opening words of whose Gospel are: The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. With these sacred words of the evangelist both the prophetic oracles and the apostolic preaching are in accord.

The man in the Gospel who was freed from the darkness of ignorance and enlightened by faith addressed God’s Son as Son of David. Not only did he receive spiritual insight, but he also deserved to have his bodily sight restored. Christ the Lord desires to be called by this name, knowing that there is no other name by which the world can be saved. And if we ourselves wish to be saved by him who is the one and only Saviour, each of us must also say to him: Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. Amen.

St Odilo of Cluny, Sermo 1 in nativitate Domini (PL 142, 993-994), from Word in Season 1

22 December

A READING FROM AN ANCIENT SERMON

Now that the season has arrived for me to speak to you about the Lord’s incarnation and his coming among us, it would not be right to let these days pass by in silence. Rejoice, Zion! Your King is coming. Let Zion rejoice, I say; and by Zion I mean our own souls. Let our souls reject all that is evil and fix their gaze on the blessings that are to come. See, he is coming to dwell among you. To dwell among us? But who? None other than the God who would make us his own possession, desiring to gather a people to himself and establish them as his chosen portion. The God who would dwell in our midst is the subject of another prophetic text that reads: I shall walk among them and dwell in their midst; I shall be their God and they will be my people.

When he has established his dwelling place within us and taken full possession of our souls, he will make our whole being holy, perfect, and blameless. Let him come then and take possession of those he has redeemed; let him dwell in their hearts and complete the work he has begun in them; let him go ahead of them, leading the way for them out of the land of Babylon. He will find his resting place among us and be glorified in our midst when other people see our good works and glorify our heavenly Father, whose sons we have become not through anything we have done to deserve it, nor on account of our good deeds, but solely because of his mercy. Yes, it is through God’s mercy that we have received our freedom and are counted among his adopted sons.

God is glorified among us when we grow in love and compassion, when we carry out his commands and persevere in doing his will; these are the ways in which he is glorified. Now we know that the Lord has been sent to us as our redeemer, our life, and our healing, bringing us his loving mercy and grace beyond all our deserts. So when we see ourselves lifted up from the dust of the earth to receive a heavenly prize, let all of us believers be glad of heart and rejoice, and, as living souls raised up from the dead, let each one of us seek the Lord.

What return shall we make to the Lord for such blessings? All we can do is to bow our heads and beat our breasts, saying with the publican: O God, be merciful to me a sinner! Rejoice, then, my friends, at these great gifts of his, exult in such great blessings! Take care not to ascribe to yourselves the good things you have received from him, for if you do, you will lose what you have. You must be convinced that you possess nothing that you have not received. And if you have received it, do not boast as though you had not. If you keep to this rule the gifts you have received will be preserved among you, and anything you now lack will be granted to you in full.

An ancient sermon, Sermo 12 (PLS 4, 770-771), from Word in Season 1

23 December

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST JEROME

There are two peoples who believe in the one God, those of Gentile origin and the Jews. To the Jews it was promised that a saviour would come, but to us who were outside God’s law no such promise was made. This means that mercy has been shown to the Gentiles, but God has kept faith with the Jews by sending them what he had promised. The promise made to the fathers has come to fulfilment in their sons.

When the psalm says: Justice and peace have embraced it is telling us that mercy and truth have made friends, and that means that Gentiles and Jews are now united under a single shepherd, Christ.

Truth has grown up from the earth. Jesus Christ said: I am the way, the truth, and the life. Truth incarnate has grown up from the earth, for Scripture says: There shall come forth a shoot from Jesse’s stock, and out of his root a flower shall blossom: and another text says: God has wrought salvation in the heart of the earth. These texts show us that the truth that has grown up from the earth is our Saviour, born of Mary.

And justice looked down from heaven. That the Saviour should have mercy on his people was indeed an act of justice. See what the Scripture says: O how just are God’s judgments and how unsearchable his ways! On the one hand truth, that is, a saviour, has grown up from the earth, and on the other justice looks down from heaven in the person of that same Saviour who is himself justice.

It is right and just for a potter to treat his works of art gently and for a shepherd to show compassion on his flock And so, because we are the Lord’s people and the work of his own hands, he grew up from the earth and looked down from heaven at one and the same time, in order to give full scope to his justice and show pity to his handiwork

Finally, look at the words: The Lord will show his kindness, and you will hear a note of mercy, not of harshness, in the word justice, because the very reason for justice looking down from heaven was to show pity to his handiwork And our earth will yield its fruit. Truth has indeed grown up from the earth: that is a historical fact. But when the psalm goes on to speak of the earth yielding fruit, the verb is in the future tense. So do not be disheartened by the fact that Christ’s birth from Mary is an unrepeatable event of the past. He is also born in us every day. Our earth will yield its fruit; we too can give birth to Christ if we wish. Our earth will yield the fruit from which the bread of heaven is made, the bread of which Jesus said: I am the bread of heaven.

St Jerome, Tract. In ps. 84 (CCL 78, 107-108), from Word in Season 1

24 December

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 118 BY ST AMBROSE

The divine Word, coming and knocking at the door of our soul, challenges our indolence and rouses us from slumber. His desire is always to enter and make his home with us. It is our own fault, therefore, if he does not always do so, or if, having once entered, he does not always stay with us.

Let your door stand open to receive him, unlock your soul to him, lay bare the hidden recesses of your mind. Show him the coffers of innocence, the treasure house of peace; let him see how beautiful his grace has made you. Throw wide the gate of your heart, run toward the sun whose unfailing light shines on every man. That true light shines for everyone, but those who close their windows deprive themselves of its eternal radiance. If you shut the door of your mind you shut out Christ. Though he has the power to enter, he does not care to burst in uninvited or to force himself upon us against our will.

Born of a virgin, Christ came forth from the womb to shed his light over the whole world, so that everything might be illumined by his rays. His light is received by all who long to see the splendour of that everlasting glory which no darkness can ever dim. Here, the sun of our daily experience is succeeded by the darkness of night; but the sun of holiness knows no setting since wisdom can never give place to evil.

Blessed is the soul at whose door Christ stands and knocks. Our door is faith; if faith is strong enough, the whole house is safe. That is the door by which Christ enters. Let us be alert, then, otherwise the Bridegroom may come and find himself shut out, and so take his departure. But if your heart is watchful, he will knock and ask you to open your door to him.

Our soul has its door, our soul has its gates – gates of which Scripture says: Swing back your gates, captains of the guard; swing back, everlasting gates! Let the King of glory enter! Heaven must surely lie within those souls whose gates are everlasting. If you will swing back the gates of your faith, the King of glory will enter your house in triumphal procession, bearing the insignia of his own passion.

Holiness too has its gates. We find in Scripture those words that the Lord Jesus spoke through his prophet: Open for me the gates of holiness, and that other text: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem; Zion, praise your God, for he has strengthened the bars of your gates.

It is the soul, therefore, that has its door, its gates, and to this door and these gates Christ comes and knocks. Open up to him; his desire is to enter, to find his bride watching and waiting for his coming.

St Ambrose, Sermo 12, 13-15 (CSEL 62, 258-260), from Word in Season 1

Christmas

Christmas Day

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST LEO THE GREAT

Rejoice, dearly beloved, for today our Saviour is born! There can be no place for sadness on the birthday of life itself. For this day has swallowed up all fear of death, and in its promise of eternity has replaced fear with joy. No one at all is excluded from todays festive celebration, for there is a single great cause of joy which applies to everyone alike. For our Lord is the destroyer of sin and death; and since he found no one at all free from guilt, so he came in order to set all alike free. Let the Saint then be filled with joy, for he is hastening to receive his palm. Let the sinner rejoice, for he is invited to receive pardon. Let the gentile be filled with eager hope, for he is called to life.

According to the inscrutable disposition of Divine Providence, so far beyond our capacity to fathom, when the fullness of time had come, the Son of God took upon himself the nature of the human race, in order to reconcile us with our Creator. He did this so that the devil, through whom death entered the world, might be conquered in the very nature which he himself had conquered.

Thus the Word of God, the Son of God, who is himself God, in order to free mankind from eternal death, became a man. He bent down in order to take our lowliness upon himself, yet without in any way diminishing his own majesty. Remaining what he was he took upon himself what he was not. The divine and human natures came together in him in such a way that the lower would not be annihilated by the glory conferred upon it, nor the superior diminished by what it had assumed.

If Christ were not true God, dearly beloved, he could never have conferred upon us the remedy we need. On the other hand, if he were not true man, he could have offered us no example for our imitation. It was in recognition of this that on the day of his birth the exulting Angels first of all sang Glory be to God on high; and then they announced: Peace on earth to men of good will. These Angels could see the heavenly Jerusalem being constructed out of every nation on earth. If they, from their lofty height, rejoice so much before this ineffable work of divine love, how much more ought we to be glad, we who contemplate it from the lowliness of our mortality?

Dearly beloved, let us together give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit: for in his great mercy and love he has made us a new creation. Let us put aside the old man with his actions. Now that we have been made participants in the generation of Christ, let us renounce all works of the flesh. O Christian: recognise your dignity! You have been made a sharer in the divine nature! Do not then by an unworthy way of life return to your former wretchedness! You have been snatched from the power of darkness, and transferred into the light and the Kingdom of God. You have been made a temple of the Holy Spirit: do not by your behaviour drive him away again, and subject yourself once more to the tyranny of the devil! For Christ who has redeemed you in mercy will judge you in truth: he who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

St Leo the Great, Sermon 21 (1 On the Nativity) tr. Pluscarden.

The Christmas Octave: The Holy Family

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Strange and wonderful is the mystery I behold. In my ears rings the sound of shepherds, not piping a lonely melody but chanting a heavenly hymn. Angels carol, archangels celebrate with song and dance, the cherubim sing hymns, the seraphim give praise, all of them keeping festival as they contemplate God on earth and our nature in heaven. By divine decree he who dwells on high is now here below; by God’s love those who dwell below are raised on high.

Bethlehem today is like heaven: instead of stars it has welcomed angels praising God. Everyone is leaping for joy, so I too want to leap for joy; I want to dance, I want to join the festival; but as I dance I do not pluck the lyre, nor carry pipes, nor kindle torches. Instead of musical instruments I bear Christ’s swaddling clothes, for they are my hope, my life, my salvation; they are my pipe and my lyre. Carrying them I come that endowed with eloquence by their virtue I may say with the angels, Glory to God in the highest; and with the shepherds, Peace on earth for men on whom his favour rests.

Today he who was inexpressibly begotten by the Father is marvellously brought forth by a virgin for my sake. In his nature he was begotten by the Father before all ages in a manner known only to the One who engendered him; outside his nature he is today brought forth anew in a manner known only to the Holy Spirit’s grace. His birth on high was real; his birth here below is real. He was truly begotten as God from God and he is truly brought forth by the Virgin as man. In heaven he is the Father’s only Son, Unique from the Unique; on earth he is the Virgin’s only Son, unique from her who is also unique.

I know a virgin bore a son today and I believe that God begot a son before time was, but the manner in which this happened I have learned to venerate in silence and I have been taught not inquisitively to inquire by busy reasoning. Where God is concerned we should not regard the order of nature, but believe in the power of the One at work therein.

St John Chrysostom, Oratio in natalem Christi diem (PG 56, 385-388), from Word in Season 1

Sixth Day of the Octave of Christmas 30 December

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON FIRST PRINCIPLES BY ORIGEN

When we reflect upon statements in holy Scripture concerning the majesty of our Lord and Saviour and consider that he is called the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation, and that in him all things visible and invisible were created: thrones, dominations, principalities, and powers, all were created through him and for him; that before anything was created he already existed and he holds all things in unity – when we reflect upon all this we cannot doubt that he is the one of whom Scripture says: I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that might be written about the glory and majesty of the Son of God. To put into writing everything that relates to our Saviour’s glory would be impossible.

When we ponder these tremendous truths concerning the nature of the Son of God, we are struck with profound amazement at one who is thus exalted above all others, stripping himself of his majesty to become a man and live among men.

But of all the great and wonderful things related of our Saviour, what completely overwhelms the human mind with wonder and is beyond understanding or conception by a weak mortal intelligence is that the mighty Power of the divine Majesty, the very word of the Father, the very Wisdom of God in whom everything visible and invisible was created, is believed to have been confined in a man who appeared in Judea; that the Wisdom of God entered the womb of a woman, was born a baby and cried like a baby; that he was troubled in the face of death, for he himself said: My heart is heavy, even to the point of death; and, finally, that he was brought to what was regarded as the most shameful of deaths, although he rose again on the third day.

When we thus see in him some marks of human frailty that make him seem no different from any other man and others so divine as to befit none but the supreme and inexpressible nature of the Godhead, the feeble human intellect is dumbfounded; it does not know in its amazement what to hold on to or where to turn. If it thinks of God it sees a mortal man. If it takes Christ for a man, it sees this man destroying the sovereignty of death and returning from among the dead with spoils of victory.

This mystery, then, should be contemplated with the most profound awe and reverence. Both natures have to be shown as really present in the one Christ. Nothing unworthy of it must be attributed to the impenetrable divine essence; nor on the other hand must the events of history be regarded as mere illusions.

To make known these things to other people and to explain them in words is far beyond the power of our rank, our intellect, or our language. I think it was beyond the ability even of the holy Apostles. It may be that the entire creation of heavenly powers is unable to comprehend this mystery.

Origen, On First Principles, Lib. 2, cap. 6, 1-2 (PG 11, 200-211), from Word in Season 1

Seventh Day of the Octave of Christmas: 31 December

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST LEO THE GREAT

The infancy which the Son of God did not think beneath his glory, grew over the years to mature manhood. When the triumph of his passion and resurrection was completed, all the actions of humility which were undertaken for us ceased. However, today’s feast renews for us the holy infancy of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary. And as we adore the birth of our Saviour we find that we are celebrating our own beginnings.

For the birth of Christ is the origin of the people of Christ, and the birthday of the head is the birthday of the body. It is true that each of those who are called is allotted a particular place, and that all the sons of the Church are separated from each other by intervals of time. However, just as all the faithful together, born of the waters of baptism, are crucified with Christ in his passion, raised with him in his resurrection, and given a place with him at the Father’s right hand in his ascension, so too, with him they are born in this his birth.

Throughout the world, every one of the faithful is reborn in Christ, and leaving the path of his old origins passes by rebirth into a new man. No longer is he reckoned among his human father’s stock but among the seed of the Saviour, who became the Son of man in order that we might have the power to be the sons of God.

If he had not come down to us by this humility, no one could have come to him by any merits of his own. Hence the very greatness of the gift conferred demands of us reverence worthy of its splendour. As the blessed Apostle teaches, we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. He can in no other way be rightly worshipped, except by offering him what he himself bestowed on us. But, in the treasury of the Lord’s generosity what can we find more suitable to honour the present feast than the peace first proclaimed by the angels’ chorus at the Lord’s nativity?

Peace it is that gives birth to the sons of God. Peace is the nurse of love, the mother of unity, the repose of the blessed, and our eternal home. The real work and special blessing of peace is to join to God those whom it sets apart from the world.

Let those then who are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God, offer to the Father the oneness of heart of peace-loving sons. Let all the members of adoption come together in the first-born of the new creation, who came to do not his own will but the will of him who sent him. The grace of the Father has not adopted as his heirs those who divided among themselves and at odds with each other, but those who are one in mind and heart. Remodelled according to the one image, they should have a spirit in conformity with it.

The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace. As Apostle says, He is our peace, who made us both one. For, whether we be Jew or Gentile, through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

St Leo the Great, Sermon 6 On the Nativity, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Octave of Christmas: Mary, Mother of God

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Mary, Mother of God, we salute you. Precious vessel, worthy of the whole world’s reverence, you are an ever-shining light, the crown of virginity, the symbol of orthodoxy, an indestructible temple, the place that held him whom no place can contain, mother and virgin. Because of you the holy Gospels could say Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

We salute you, for in your holy womb he, who is beyond all limitation, was confined. Because of you the holy Trinity is glorified and adored; the cross is called precious and is venerated throughout the world; the heavens exult; the angels and archangels make merry; demons are put to flight; the devil, that tempter, is thrust down from heaven; the fallen race of man is taken up on high; all creatures possessed by the madness of idolatry have attained knowledge of the truth; believers receive holy baptism; the oil of gladness is poured out; the Church is established throughout the world; pagans are brought to repentance.

What more is there to say? Because of you the light of the only-begotten Son of God has shone upon those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death; prophets pronounced the word of God; the Apostles preached salvation to the Gentiles; the dead are raised to life, and kings rule by the power of the holy Trinity.

Who can put Mary’s high honour into words? She is both mother and virgin. I am overwhelmed by the wonder of this miracle. Of course no one could be prevented from living in the house he had built for himself, yet who would invite mockery by asking his own servant to become his mother?

Behold then the joy of the whole universe. Let the union of God and man in the Son of the Virgin Mary fill us with awe and adoration. Let us fear and worship the undivided Trinity as we sing the praise of the ever-virgin Mary, the holy temple of God, and of God himself, her Son and spotless Bridegroom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Hom. 4 (PG 77, 991.995-996), from Word in Season 1

Before Epiphany: 2 January

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST BASIL THE GREAT

If a man no longer lives according to the flesh, but is led by the Spirit of God and is called son of God and is conformed to the image of God, he is described as a spiritual man. As the power of seeing is to be found in the healthy eye, so the working of the Spirit is to be found in the purified soul.

The word is in the soul; sometimes as the thought of the heart, sometimes as spoken by the tongue. So too the Holy Spirit is in the soul: at one time he joins with our spirit in bearing witness and cries out in our hearts: Abba, Father; at another time he speaks on our behalf, as we are told: It is not you who will be speaking: it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking in you.

Again, the Spirit is understood, in relation to the distribution of gifts, as a whole in its different parts. We are all joined to one another as different parts of one body, and have different gifts in accordance with the grace God has given us. Therefore, the eye cannot say to the hand: ‘I do not need you’, nor can the head say to the feet: ‘I do not need you.’ On the contrary, all the members together make up the body of Christ in the unity of the Spirit, and mutually contribute the necessary service in accordance with the gifts received.

God arranged the organs of the body, each one of them, as he chose; but these different parts have the same concern for one another in accordance with their sympathetic interaction, born of the spirit which they share. And so, if one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is honoured, all the other parts share its joy. As parts in the whole, so are we, individually, in the Spirit, because we were all baptized in one body into the one Spirit.

Just as the Father is seen in the Son, so the Son is seen in the Holy Spirit. Worship in the Spirit suggests the activity of our intelligence, which is carried on, as it were, in the light, as may be learned from the words spoken to the woman of Samaria. She was misled by the custom of her country into the belief that God was worshipped in a place. Our Lord corrected her; he said that men must worship in Spirit and in truth, and by ‘truth’ he clearly meant himself.

We speak of worship in the Son, which is worship in the one who is the image of God the Father. Similarly we speak of worship in the Spirit, as the one who shows in himself the divinity of the Lord. So then, to express it properly and in order, through the illumination of the Spirit we behold the radiance of God’s glory, the Son; and through the Son, the stamp of God’s very being, we are brought to the one to whom belong the stamp and the identical seal.

St Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit 26, 61.64, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Before Epiphany: 3 January

A READING FROM THE TREATISES ON ST JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

The Lord himself comes, the teacher of love, full of love, ‘shortening the word upon the earth’, as was foretold of him. He shows that the law and the prophets depend on the two precepts of love.

What those two commandments are, brethren, recall with me. They ought to be most familiar, and not come to mind just when they are mentioned by us; rather, they should never be blotted out from your hearts. Always, at all times, reflect that you must love God and your neighbour: God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; your neighbour as yourself.

At all times these must be pondered, they must be meditated and retained, they must be practised and fulfilled. The love of God comes first in the order of command, but the love of neighbour first in the order of action. The man who would teach you this love in two commandments should not commend to you first your neighbour and then God, but first God and then your neighbour.

You do not yet see God, but by loving your neighbour you gain the sight of God; by loving your neighbour you purify your eye for seeing God, as John says clearly: If you do not love the brother whom you see, how will you be able to love God whom you do not see?

You are told: love God. If you say to me: ‘Show me the one I am to love’, what shall I answer, except what John himself says: No one has ever seen God? Do not think that you are altogether unsuited to seeing God – no, for John states: God is love, and he who dwells in love is dwelling in God. Love your neighbour therefore, and observe the source of that love in you; there, as best you can, you will see God.

So then, begin to love your neighbour. Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; if you see the naked, cover him, and do not despise the servants of your kinsfolk. If you do this, what will you obtain? Then shall your light break forth like the morning. Your light is your God to you he is ‘morning light’, because he will come to you after the night of the world; he neither rises nor sets, because he abides always.

By loving your neighbour and being concerned about your neighbour, you make progress on your journey. Where is your journey, if not to the Lord God, to him whom we must love with all our heart, and with all soul, and with all our mind? We have not yet reached the Lord, but we have our neighbour with us. So then, support him with whom you are travelling so that you may come to him with whom you long to dwell.

St Augustine, In Ev Jo 17, 7-9 (PL 35), from The Divine Office Vol. I

Before Epiphany: 4 January

A READING FROM THE FIVE ‘CENTURIES’ OF ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

The Word of God, born once on the level of the flesh, is always born willingly for those who desire it on the level of the spirit, because of his love for men. He becomes an infant, forming himself in them by the virtues; he manifests himself in just the measure of which he knows the one who is receiving him is capable. It is not through any ill-will that he diminishes the manifestation of his own majesty; it is rather that he weighs the capacity of those who desire to see him. And so, though the Word of God is always manifested in the life of those who share in him, yet because the mystery is transcendent, he remains always invisible to all.

Thus the holy Apostle, in wise consideration of the meaning of the mystery, says: ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever’ – he knows that the mystery is always new, that the mind in understanding it will never deprive it of its freshness.

Christ God is born, made man by the assumption of flesh endowed with an intelligent soul, he who brought things from nothing into existence. A star from the east appears by day and guides the Magi to the place the Word has taken flesh. This conveys a hidden meaning: it shows that the word of the law and the prophets surpasses the experience of the senses, and guides the gentiles to the greatest light of knowledge. The word of the law and the prophets, like a star devoutly observed, is a clear guide to the knowledge of the incarnate Word for those who are called according to God’s purpose by the power of grace.

God becomes perfect man, then, leaving aside no element of nature – except sin, and this does not belong to nature. He offered his flesh as a bait, to provoke the insatiable dragon to devour the flesh which he was greedily pursuing. This flesh would be poison to the dragon, destroying him utterly by the power of the divinity in it. But it would be a medicine for human nature, restoring it to its original grace by the power of the divinity in it.

By smearing the tree of knowledge with his poison of evil, the dragon destroyed man when he tasted it. But having chosen to devour the Lord’s flesh, he too was destroyed, by the power of the divinity in it.

The great mystery of the divine incarnation always remains a mystery. In his essence the Word exists personally in the Father to the full: how is he in his person essentially in the flesh? How can the same person be God by nature and become fully man by nature, in no way deprived in either nature, neither in the divine nature by which he is God, nor in ours by which he became man?

Only faith can grasp these mysteries, since it is the substance of things which are beyond intelligence and reason.

St Maximus the Confessor, Cent. 1, 8-13, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Before Epiphany: 5 January

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

What man knows all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ and concealed in the poverty of his flesh? Though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich. When he made mortality his own and made away with death, he appeared in poverty; but he promised riches, riches that were only deferred – he did not lose riches that were taken way from him.

How great is the abundance of his goodness which he hides for those who fear him, which he perfects for those who hope in him! Our knowledge is partial until what is perfect comes. To make us fit to receive this perfection, he who is equal to the Father in the form of God and made like to us in the form of a slave, transforms us to the likeness of God. The only Son of God, made son of man, makes many sons of men sons of God. The slaves, sustained by the visible form of the slave, he frees and makes children so that they may see the form of God.

We are God’s children; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. What are those measures of wisdom and knowledge, what are those divine riches, except what is sufficient for us? What is that abundance of goodness, except what fills us? Show us the Father, then, and it is sufficient for us.

In one of the psalms someone says to him from among us or within us or for us: I shall be filled when your glory is manifested. He and the Father are one: whoever sees him sees the Father also. So then, he, the Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory. He will bring us back, he will show us his face; and we shall be saved, we shall be filled, he will be sufficient for us.

Until this happens, until he shows us what is sufficient for us, until we drink him as the fountain of life and are filled, – until then we are exiles from him and walk by faith, until then we hunger and thirst for justice, and long with a passion beyond words for the beauty of the form of God; – until then, let us celebrate his birth in the form of a slave with humble devotion.

We are not yet able to contemplate the fact that he was begotten by the Father before the dawn, but let our minds dwell on the fact that he was born of the Virgin during the hours of night. We do not yet grasp that his name endures before the sun, but let us acknowledge his tent placed in the sun.

Though we still do not behold the only Son abiding in his Father, let us remember the Bridegroom coming out from his bridal room. Though we are still unready for our Father’s banquet, let us acknowledge the manger of our Lord Jesus Christ.

St Augustine, Sermon 194, 3-4, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Before Epiphany: 6 January

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

The Word of God, born of the Virgin, was and is eternally King and Lord of all, but when he became man he made the limitations of humanity his own. For man he truly was; we must unhesitatingly believe that he became like us. Consequently, when it is said that all power has been given to him, this means that it has been given to him in the human nature he assumed, not in his divine pre-eminence in virtue of which he is the acknowledged Lord of all.

Christ is named ‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel’ because by physical descent he was the blood relative of Jacob, who received the new name Israel. I will help him, God says, and calls him his chosen one. For the Father cooperated with the Son, performing the mighty works he did as works of his own power; and Christ is in truth the chosen one, since he is the fairest of the sons of men and accepted as God’s beloved. The Father rejoiced in him and declared: This is my beloved Son in whom 1 am well pleased.

In his human nature Christ was anointed and can be said to share in the Holy Spirit, even though he is the giver of the Spirit and the sanctifier of all creation. This is shown clearly by the words, I have put my Spirit upon him. The Gospel says that when Jesus was baptized the Spirit, in the form of a dove, came to him from heaven and remained on him.

This anointing was to enable him to bring justice to the nations, which he did by condemning Satan, their tyrant. Christ taught us this himself when he said: Now is the time for this world to be judged, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out. And 1, when I am lifted up form the earth, will draw all things to myself. He passed sentence of destruction on Satan who had held this world in thraldom, and by that righteous sentence saved those who had been deceived.

But he will not shout, says Scripture, or raise his voice, or let it be heard in the street. The Saviour and Lord of all came to dwell among us in profound lowliness and humility, one might say without making a sound, and he did no harm to anyone. He came in silence and peace, so as not to crush the bruised reed or extinguish the smouldering wick.

What will his work be, what will he do for the nations? He will bring judgement to the truth. By judgement the prophet seems to mean the law, for it is written about Israel and about God, the ruler of all: You have established judgment and justice in Jacob. So now he will bring judgement, or the law which was concerned with shadows and types, to the truth of the Gospel. Through the Gospel he has shown the way of life that is pleasing to him and has changed worship according to the letter of the law into worship in truth.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Lib. 3, t. 5 (PG 70, 850-851), from Word in Season 1

Before Epiphany: 7 January

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

My dearest brethren, today our Lord Jesus Christ, who is for ever the creator of all things, has become saviour for us by being born of a mother. Today by his own free will he was born for us in time, that he might lead us to the eternity of the Father. God was made man that man might become God; that man might partake of the bread of angels, the Lord of angels was today made man.

Today the prophecy has been fulfilled: Pour down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain justice: let the earth open, and let it bring forth a saviour. Therefore he who had made was himself made that he who had been lost might be found. This is what man confesses in the Psalms: Before I was brought low, I sinned. Man sinned, and was made the accused: God was born as man that the accused might be freed. Man therefore fell down but God came down. Man fell pitifully, God came down in pity: man fell through pride, God descended with grace.

My brethren, see what miracles and wonders are here. The laws of nature are changed in a man; God is born, a virgin conceives without a man: the Word of God plays a husband’s part to one who knows not a man: she becomes at the same time mother and virgin; made a mother and yet uncorrupted, a virgin having a son, and yet not knowing a man, ever sealed, and yet not barren. For he alone was born without sin whom she brought forth without a husband’s embrace, not by the desire of the flesh, but by the obedience of the mind.

St Augustine, Sermon 13 On the Seasons, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Epiphany

The Epiphany

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST LEO THE GREAT

God’s providence of mercy, having determined to save in the last days the world which was perishing, fore-ordained the salvation of all nations in Christ. In this connection, countless descendants to be begotten not by fleshly seed but by fertile faith, were promised of old to the most blessed patriarch Abraham. This posterity was therefore compared to the stars in multitude so that the father of all nations might hope not for an earthly but for a heavenly succession.

Let the whole pagan world enter into the family of the patriarchs, yes, let it enter, and let the children of the promise receive in Abraham’s seed the blessing which his children according to the flesh rejected. In the three Magi let all the nations worship the Author of the universe; and let God be known, not in Judaea alone but throughout the whole world, so that everywhere his name may be great in Israel.

Schooled, then, dearly-beloved, by these mysteries of divine grace, let us celebrate with spiritual joy the day of our first-fruits and the commencement of the nations, giving thanks to the merciful God for making us fit to share the light which saints inherit, for rescuing us from the powers of darkness, and transferring us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. For, as Isaiah prophesied the people of the nations that sat in darkness, have seen a great light and they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shone. Of these he also says to the Lord, nations which knew you not, shall call on you and peoples which were ignorant of you shall run to you.

This is the day which Abraham saw and was glad, when he understood that the sons of his faith would be blessed in his seed which is Christ, and foresaw that by believing he should be the father of the nations, ‘giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

This is the day which David sang of in the psalms: All the nations you have made shall come and worship you, O Lord, and glorify your name; and again, The Lord has made his salvation known; in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.

This indeed we know to be taking place ever since the three Magi were called from their far-off land and were led by the star to recognize and worship the king of heaven and earth. And surely their worship of him exhorts us to imitation; that, as far as we can, we should be at the service of this grace which invites all men to Christ.

You ought to help one another, dearly-beloved, in this zeal, so that in the kingdom of God, which is reached by right faith and good works, you may shine as children of the light, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

St Leo the Great, Sermon 3, Epiphany, 1-3, 5, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Monday after Epiphany

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS

The distinguishing marks of the Godhead were always clearly present in the very mystery of the Lord’s incarnation. But today’s feast especially shows and reveals that God came into a human body so that mortal man, who is continually in confusion and darkness, should not lose through ignorance what he merited to have and possess through grace alone.

He who willed to be born for us, was unwilling that we should be ignorant of him. Hence, he chose this way of revelation so that the great mystery of love would not become the occasion of a great mistake.

Today the Magus, the wise man, finds weeping in a crib him whom he sought for shining in the stars. Today the wise man reveres clearly revealed in swaddling clothes him whom he had long patiently awaited unseen in the heavens.

Today the wise man ponders in profound amazement over what he sees there: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, and him whom the whole universe cannot contain, confined in a tiny body. And immediately on seeing, he professes with mystical gifts that he believes and does not argue: he acknowledges God with frankincense, the King with gold, with myrrh the mortal one destined to die. So it is that the Gentile, who was last, has become first: for then the belief of the nations began from the faith of Magi.

Today Christ entered the riverbed of the Jordan, to wash away the world’s sin: John himself bears witness that he came for this: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Today the servant holds the Lord, man holds God, John holds Christ: holds him, as about to receive, not to grant forgiveness.

Today as the prophet says: The Lord’s voice is on the waters. What voice? This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Today the Holy Spirit floats over the waters in the form of a dove, so that by this sign it might be known that the world’s universal shipwreck has ceased, as the dove had announced to Noah that the world’s flood had subsided. Nor does this dove carry a branch of the old olive, but it pours the whole richness of the olive on the head of the author of the new anointing, in order to fulfil what the prophet foretold: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above other kings.

Today Christ gives the beginnings of the signs from heaven, when he changes water into wine. But water was to be changed into the mystery of the blood, so that Christ, from the goblet of his Body, might give pure draughts to those who drink, to fulfil that saying of the prophet: My chalice which inebriates me, how good it is.

St Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 160, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Tuesday after Epiphany

A READING FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE HOLY THEOPHANY, ATTRIBUTED TO ST HIPPOLYTUS

Jesus came to John, and received baptism at his hands. Could anything be more wonderful? The boundless river that gladdens the City of God is washed by a few drops of water. The source without limits that engenders life for all mankind and is beyond all understanding is covered by the poor waters of this world. He who is present everywhere and is absent nowhere, incomprehensible to the angels and withdrawn from the gaze of man, has come to baptism as was his good pleasure, And behold the heavens were opened to him, and a voice was heard saying: This is my beloved Son with whom am well pleased.

One who is loved generates love, and an immaterial light generates light inaccessible. This is he who is called the son of Joseph, and he is my only-begotten according to the divine essence. This is my beloved Son. Hungry is he who nourished unnumbered thousands, toiling is he who refreshes the toilers; he has nowhere to lay his head but controls all things by his hand; he suffers and yet heals all suffering; he is buffeted by blows and presents the world with freedom; he is pierced in his side and restores the side of Adam.

But attend carefully to me, I pray, for I wish to return to the fountain of life, and contemplate the fountain which gushes forth and brings its remedies. The Father of immortality sent his immortal Son and Word into the world. He came to men to wash them with the Spirit. To regenerate us to incorruptibility, of mind and body, he breathed into us the spirit of life, and clothed us with the armour of incorruptibility.

If then a man has been made immortal, he will also be divine. If indeed he becomes divine by water and by the Holy Spirit by regeneration from the font, he is also found to be joint heir with Christ after the resurrection from the dead. Therefore I proclaim with the voice of the herald: Come, all ye tribes of the nations, to the immortality of baptism. For this is the water combined with the Spirit – water by which Paradise is watered, the earth is enriched, the plants receive increase of growth, the animals bring forth young, and, to put it comprehensively, water through which man is reborn and made alive, in which Christ was baptized; into which the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove.

For he who descends with faith into this laver of regeneration renounces the devil and commits himself to Christ; he denies the enemy and confesses Christ to be God; he lays aside slavery, he puts on adoption; he returns from his baptism gleaming like the sun, pouring out rays of righteousness, and, what is the most important point, he is returning as a son of God and a joint heir with Christ. To him be glory and power with his sacred, good and quickening Spirit, both now and always and to all ages of eternity. Amen.

St Hippolytus attr., On the Holy Theophany 2. 6-8, 10, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Wednesday after Epiphany

A READING FROM THE ORATIONS OF ST PROCLUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Christ appeared to the world, and putting order into the disordered world he made it resplendent. He took upon himself the sin of the world and cast down the enemy of the world. He sanctified the founts of water, and enlightened the souls of men. He surrounded miracles with still greater miracles.

For today both earth and sea have shared between them the grace of the Saviour, and over the whole world joy is spread, and today’s feast manifests a greater increase of miracles than the festival we held before.

For in the former festival day of the Saviour’s nativity the earth was joining in the gladness, because she carried the Lord in a crib; but on this present day of the Epiphany the sea leaped with the highest joy and danced with delight – delighting indeed that it had received the blessing of sanctification in the midst of Jordan.

In the former celebration an imperfect infant was exhibited witnessing to our imperfection, but on the present festival day a full-grown man is to be seen, in obscure fashion pointing to him who being perfect proceeds from the perfect God. There the King puts on the purple robe of a body; here the fount forms round him a river as if to clothe him.

Come then and see new and overwhelming miracles: the sun of righteousness bathing in Jordan, the fire immersed in water and God being sanctified by human ministry.

Today all creation resounding with hymns cries: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is he who comes at all times: for this is not the first time that he has come.

And now who is this? Speak more clearly, I pray, blessed David. God is the Lord, and he has given us light. Nor does David alone as prophet speak thus, but in fact Paul the Apostle, agreeing with him in his own testimony, says the following words: There has appeared the grace of God, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us. Not to some men, but to all – to all, that is, both Jews and Greeks equally, he pours out salvation through baptism, offering to all men a common blessing in baptism.

Come, see the strange and new flood, greater and more excellent than that in the days of Noah. There the water of the flood destroyed the human race; but here the water of the baptism, by the power of him who is baptized in it, has called back the dead to life. There the dove carrying the olive branch in its beak denotes the fragrance of the sweet-smelling savour of the Lord Christ, but here the Holy Spirit coming in the form of a dove reveals to us our merciful God.

St Proclus of Constantinople, Or. 7, Theophany, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Thursday after Epiphany

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

When the Maker of the universe designed, in a beautiful arrangement, to gather up all things in Christ and to restore again the nature of man to its pristine state, he promised along with the other gifts to give it also the Holy Spirit abundantly, because in no other way could it be reinstated in a peaceful and stable possession of good things.

He therefore defines the time when the Spirit will descend on us, that is the coming of Christ, and promises saying: In those days (that is, of the Saviour), I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.

When the time of this munificence brought the Only-begotten upon earth with flesh – that is, made man of a woman according to the holy Scripture – the God and Father began to give the Spirit again, and Christ received the Spirit first as First-fruits of the renewed nature. John bore witness to this, saying: I saw the Spirit descend from heaven, and it remained on him.

Christ is said to have received the Spirit, because he became man, and it was fitting for man to receive. Although he is the Son of the God and Father, and begotten of his substance even before the incarnation– or rather, before all ages – he does not take it amiss to hear the God and Father address him after he became man: You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

For he says that he has today begotten him, who before all ages was God begotten of him, so that in him he may receive us into sonship; for the whole human nature is found in Christ, because he is man. Since the Father has his own Spirit, he is said to give it again to the Son, so that in him we may gain the Spirit. For this reason therefore taking the seed of Abraham, as it is written, he was made like to his brethren in every respect.

The Only-begotten therefore receives the Holy Spirit not for himself; for the Spirit is his, and is given in him and through him, as we said before; but because he was man he had the whole nature in himself, that he might renew it all and restore its integrity.

Besides what has been said, we must consider this too. For we shall see, if we use right reasoning and the testimonies of Scripture, that Christ did not receive the Spirit for himself, but rather for us in himself: for all good things flow through him also into us.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Com. In Jo. 5, 2 (PG 74), from The Divine Office Vol. I

Friday after Epiphany

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST MAXIMUS OF TURIN

In the Gospels, Scripture reports that the Lord made his way to the Jordan to be baptized, and that he wished himself to be consecrated with heavenly mysteries in the same river.

Reason demands that after the birthday of the Lord, at the same period of the year, even though a space of years intervened, this festival should follow, which I think ought also to be called a festival of birth. Then he was born to men, today he is reborn in the sacraments; then he was born of a virgin, today he is generated through a mystery.

Then when he is born in human fashion, his mother Mary fondles him in her bosom; now when he is generated according to a mystery, God the Father embraces him with his voice; for he says: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; hear him. The mother therefore cherishes her offspring in her soft lap, the Father attends on the Son with affectionate witness. The mother, I say, presents him to the Magi for adoration; the Father manifests him to the nations for worship.

Therefore the Lord Jesus came to baptism, and willed to have his body washed with water.

Perhaps some one will say: ‘He who is holy, why did he wish to be baptized?’ Pay attention therefore! Christ is baptized, not that he may be sanctified in the waters, but that he himself may sanctify the waters, and by his own purification may purify those streams which he touches. For the consecration of Christ is the greater consecration of another element.

For when the Saviour is washed, then already for our baptism all water is cleansed and the fount purified, that the grace of the laver may be administered to the peoples that come after. Christ therefore takes the lead in baptism, so that Christian peoples may follow after him with confidence.

I understand the mystery: for the column of fire went first through the Red Sea, that the children of Israel might tread the hazardous journey without fear; and it, itself, went first through the waters, so that for those coming after it, it might prepare a way to pass. Which event, as the Apostle says, was a symbol of baptism. Clearly baptism in some sort of way has been carried out when the cloud overshadowed the men, and the wave bore them.

But the one who performed all these things was still the same Lord Christ, who as he then went before the children of Israel in a pillar of fire, now by baptism goes before Christian peoples in the pillar of his body. This is the very pillar I maintain which then supplied light to the eyes of those who followed, and who now furnishes light to the hearts of believers; who then in the waves of the sea made firm the pathway, and now in the laver strengthens the footprints of faith.

St Maximus of Turin, Sermon 100, Epiphany, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Saturday after Epiphany

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST LEO THE GREAT

Calling to mind all that has been accomplished by the Saviour of the human race will be of great profit to us, beloved, if we set ourselves to imitate what we believe and venerate. Even his first moments when the Son of God was born from his virgin mother can further our devotion. For the upright of heart behold in one and the same person both human lowliness and divine majesty. He who is seen in the cradle as a newborn child is proclaimed by heaven and the heavenly hosts as their creator. This child with its tiny body is the lord and ruler of the world. His mother holds in her bosom him whom no limits can contain. But therein lies the healing of our wounds and the reversal of our abasement, for without the union of such diversity humankind could never have been reconciled to God.

It is not without reason that when the brilliance of a new star led the three Magi to worship Jesus they did not see him commanding demons, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, enabling the lame to walk or the dumb to speak, or performing any other act pertaining to divine power. Instead, they saw a child silently resting under his mother’s watchful care – a child who showed no sign of power, but only the great marvel of humility.

So it was that the sight of this holy babe to whom the divine Son of God was united presented our eyes with a teaching that was not yet proclaimed in our ears. For the whole victory of the Saviour by which he overcame the devil and the world was begun in humility and consummated in humility. He began his allotted days under persecution and he ended them under persecution. The child was not without suffering, nor was he who was destined to suffer without the submissiveness of childhood. For by a unique abasement of his majesty the only Son of God freely undertook to be born as a human being and to be put to death by human beings.

If then almighty God has changed our wretched condition into a happy one by the singular grace of his humility, and if he has destroyed death and the author of death by not refusing any of the sufferings inflicted on him by his persecutors but calmly enduring in obedience to the Father the cruelties of those who raged against him, how humble and patient should we not be who never suffer any misfortune without deserving it? Thus the whole practice of Christian wisdom, beloved, consists not in many words, nor in skilful argument, nor in a desire for praise and glory, but in the genuine and voluntary humility which, in preference to any kind of power, our Lord Jesus Christ chose and taught from his mother’s womb to his death upon the cross.

St Leo the Great, In Epiphania Solemnitate sermo VII, 1-3 (SC 22, 276-280), from Word in Season 2

The Baptism of the Lord

A READING FROM THE ORATIONS OF ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN

Christ is illumined, let us shine forth with him; Christ is baptized, let us descend with him, that we may also ascend with him.

John baptizes, Jesus comes to him; perhaps to sanctify the Baptist himself, but certainly to bury the whole of the old Adam in the water; and before this and for the sake of this, to sanctify Jordan. As he is Spirit and flesh, so he consecrates us by Spirit and water.

John will not receive him: Jesus contends. I have need to be baptized by you, says the lamp to the Sun, the voice to the Word, the friend to the Bridegroom; he that is above all those who are born of women to him who is the First-born of every creature; he that leaped in the womb to him who was adored in the womb; he who was and is the Forerunner to him who was and is to be manifested. I have need to be baptized by you; add to this and for you; for he that he would be baptized by martyrdom, or, like Peter, that he would be cleansed not only as to his feet.

But further – Jesus goes up out of the water; for with himself he carries up the world and sees the heaven split open which Adam had shut against himself and all his posterity, as the gates of Paradise by the flaming sword.

And the Spirit bears witness to his Godhead, for he descends upon One that is like him, as does the Voice from heaven (for he to whom witness is borne comes from thence) and like a dove seen in bodily form it bestows honour on his body, since this is also God by being deified. And moreover, the dove has from distant ages been wont to proclaim the end of the Deluge.

Let us however today venerate the Baptism of Christ, and let us celebrate the feast honourably.

Wash yourselves and keep yourselves clean. God rejoices in nothing so much as in the amendment and salvation of men, on whose behalf is every word and all the sacraments. Be cleansed so that you may be like lights in the world, a life-giving force to all other men, and stand as perfect lights beside that great Light, and learn the mystery of the illumination of heaven, enlightened by the Trinity more purely and clearly, of which even now you are receiving in a measure the One Ray from the one Godhead in Christ Jesus our Lord; to whom be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

St Gregory Nazianzen, Or 39, 14-16. 20, from The Divine Office Vol. I

Season of Lent

Ash Wednesday

A READING FROM THE LETTER OF CLEMENT OF ROME TO THE CORINTHIANS

Let us fix our thoughts on the blood of Christ; and reflect how precious that blood is in God’s eyes; inasmuch as its outpouring for our salvation has opened the grace of repentance to all mankind. For we have only to survey the generations of the past to see that in every one of them the Lord has offered the chance of repentance to any who were willing to turn to him. When Noah preached repentance, those who gave heed to him were saved. When, after Jonah had proclaimed destruction to the people of Nineveh, they repented of their sins and made atonement to God with prayers and supplications, they obtained their salvation, notwithstanding that they were strangers and aliens to him.

All those who were ministers of the grace of God have spoken, through the Holy Spirit, of repentance. The very Lord of all himself has spoken of it, and even with an oath: By my life, the Lord declares, it is not the sinner’s death that I desire, so much as his repentance; and he adds this gracious pronouncement, Repent, O house of Israel, and turn from your wickedness. Say to the children of my people, Though your sins may stretch from earth to heaven, and though they may be redder than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, yet if you turn wholeheartedly to me and say ‘Father’, I will listen to you as I would to a people that was holy. Thus, by his own almighty will, he has confirmed his desire that repentance should be open to every one of his beloved. Let us bow, then, to that sovereign and glorious will. Let us entreat his mercy and goodness, casting ourselves upon his compassion and wasting no more energy in quarrels and a rivalry which only ends in death.

My brothers, do let us have a little humility; let us forget our self-assertion and stupid quarrelling, and do what the Bible tells us instead. The Holy Spirit says, The wise man is not to brag of his wisdom, nor the strong man of his strength, nor the rich man of his wealth; if a man must boast, he should boast of the Lord, seeking him out and acting with justice and uprightness. More particularly, let us remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said in one of his lessons on mildness and forbearance. Be merciful he told us that you may obtain mercy; forgive that you may be forgiven. What you do yourself will be done to you; what you give, will be given to you; as you judge, so you will be judged; as you show kindness, so it will be shown to you. Your portion will be weighed out for you in your own scales. May this precept, and these commands, strengthen our resolve to live in obedience to his sacred words, and in humility of mind; for the holy word says, Whom shall I look upon but him that is gentle and peaceable and trembles at my sayings?

Thus there exists a vast heritage of glorious achievements for us to share in. Let us then make haste and get back to the state of tranquillity which was set before us in the beginning as the mark for us to aim at. Let us turn our eyes to the Father and Creator of the universe, and when we consider how precious and peerless are his gifts of peace, let us embrace them eagerly for ourselves.

Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians 7:4-8:3, 8:5-9:1, 13:1-4, 19:2; from The Divine Office II.

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

A READING FROM QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY BY THEODORET OF CYRRHUS

After the Lord God had brought the people out of Egypt, he gave them, on Mount Sinai, the Law that was to govern the behaviour of the children of Israel. Then, in the second year, he sent them to take possession of the land he had promised their fathers he would give them. But they absolutely refused to set out on the conquest of the country. Then God swore he would not give this land to any of those whom Moses, the lawgiver, had counted but would let them all perish in the wilderness. After forty more years had passed and that entire generation had died in accordance with God’s decree, the Lord ordered a census of their children; the latter were then at the age their fathers had been at the time of the first census.

Before God led them into the promised land, he taught them, through his minister, Moses the prophet, the Law he had given to their fathers and which their fathers had disobeyed. This is why Deuteronomy contains a recapitulation of the events and legal codes found in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. There was no question of giving them a second law but of reminding them of the first set of laws, as the book itself tells us at its beginning: Moses began to teach this law clearly to them, saying: The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb. Moses reminds them of how the Lord had told them to enter the promised land and take possession of it and how he himself had appointed Joshua, son of Nun, to succeed him as leader of the people.

Then Moses reminds them of how the God of the universe had shown himself to them: he had spoken to them from the midst of fire, but without displaying any form. They are therefore forbidden to fashion any image or to try making for themselves a representation of God, for they had not seen any form of him who is the archetype of all things. “Everything under heaven,” he tells them, “has been made by the creator for the use of men. Do not turn into gods that which the God of the universe has destined to serve the needs of man.”

You realise, of course, that the prophet did not address all these words to the people in a single day, but rather explained them day after day. This fact explains why he often repeats the same ideas, in order that persistent repetition might strengthen their memory of them. Elsewhere the words of the prophet himself show that he is not here giving a new law but instructing in the first law those who, because they were so young, had not been able to hear its promulgation: The Lord your God, he says, made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with your fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with you. Since these fathers had perished because of their sin, it was to them, their children, that the Lord was giving the land once promised to their fathers, that is, to those to whom he was giving the Law.

Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Questions on Deuteronomy 1 (PG 80:401-408); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.

Friday after Ash Wednesday

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

There are many different ways of showing repentance, all of which lead to heaven. Let us consider them.

The first is condemnation of our own sins. Begin by confessing your sins, Scripture says, if you wish to be justified. This is what prompted the prophet’s words: I said, I will confess my sins to the Lord, and you, Lord, have forgiven the wickedness of my heart. If we condemn our own sins, therefore, we already have a sufficient claim to forgiveness. By doing so we shall less easily fall into them again. We must make our own conscience our accuser if we wish to avoid being accused before the Lord’s tribunal.

This first way of showing repentance is an excellent one, but there is a second, in no way inferior to it, and that is to dismiss from our minds any injuries our enemies may have done us, to overcome anger, to forgive the sins of our neighbours. Thus we shall be forgiven our own offences against the Lord. This, then, is the second way of making amends for our sins. If you forgive others their sins, our Lord said, your heavenly Father will also forgive yours.

A third way of showing repentance is open to you if you are willing to take it: it is to pray fervently and attentively from your inmost heart. And if you are interested in a fourth, I suggest you will find an extremely powerful one in the practice of giving generously to those in need. It is also true, however, that if we live a life of simplicity and humility it will wear down our inclination to sin just as effectively as any of the four ways I have already mentioned. Remember that tax collector who had nothing to offer but his humility; it was enough to free him of his heavy burden of guilt.

We have now described five ways of showing repentance. The first lies in condemnation of sins, the second in forgiving the offences of others, the third in prayer, the fourth in giving to the poor, the fifth in humility. There is therefore no room for idleness; we must follow these ways day after day. They are easy enough; poverty is no excuse. Even if we live a life of the utmost destitution, we shall still be able to restrain our anger, to be humble, to pray unceasingly, and to condemn our own sins, and in no way does our empty purse cause any difficulty. Even when we follow the way that involves giving to the poor, poverty is no obstacle to carrying out the command. Remember the widow who could give only two small coins.

Now that we have learnt the remedies for our ills, let us continually put them to good use. Then, when we are fully restored to spiritual health, we shall be ready to take part in the heavenly banquet with complete confidence. In great happiness we shall come face to face with the king of glory and gain everlasting blessings through the grace and merciful love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

St John Chrysostom Hom. de diabolo tentatore 2.6 (PG 49:263-264); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

In Deuteronomy Moses says to the people, The Lord Your God made a covenant with you in Horeb, not with your fathers did the Lord make this covenant but with you.

Why did the Lord not make the covenant with your fathers? Because The Law is not laid down for the just. Your fathers lived just lives because they had the meaning of the decalogue implanted in their hearts and minds – that is, they loved God, who made them, and they did their neighbour no injury. So they did not need to be warned by written prohibitions; for they had the righteousness of the Law in their hearts. When, however, in Egypt this righteousness and this love towards God were forgotten and became extinct, God was compelled by his deep love towards men to reveal himself by a voice.

With power he led his people out of Egypt, so that man again might become the disciple of God and follow him So that they might not despise their creator, he punished those who were disobedient. He fed them with manna so that they might have spiritual food, as Moses says in Deuteronomy, He fed you with manna, which your fathers did not know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone; but that man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. He taught them to love God, and instilled in them that righteousness which is towards their neighbour. By the Decalogue he instructed men to be friends with himself and in harmony with their neighbour. Man is greatly helped by these things. God, however, stands in need of nothing from man.

These blessings made man glorious, giving him what he lacked: friendship with God. They bestowed nothing on God, for God did not stand in need of man’s love. Man did not have the glory of God. The only way that man could receive this glory was by obeying God. Therefore Moses said, Choose life that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God and obeying his voice and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days.

To prepare man for this life, God himself spoke the words of the Decalogue, to all men alike. And so these words remain with us too. By his coming in the flesh God did not abrogate them; he extended and augmented them. As for the precepts which enslaved, however, God imposed these on his people separately through Moses. These precepts were well devised to instruct or punish them, as Moses himself said, The Lord commanded me, at that same time, to teach you statutes and ordinances. But by the new covenant of liberty God cancelled those provisions which he had given to his people to enslave them and serve the purpose of a sign. At the same time the laws, which are natural and appropriate to free men and are applicable to all without distinction, were amplified and widened. Out of the abundance of his love, without grudging, God adopted men as his sons, and granted that they might know God as Father and love him with all their heart, and follow his Word without turning aside.

St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 4.16.2-5; from The Divine Office II.

Lent Week 1

Sunday of the First Week of Lent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST AMBROSE

Our hearts must constantly dwell on the thought of wisdom, our lips repeat its lessons. Let your tongue pronounce right judgements and the law of your God be in your heart. This is the way to understand that verse of Scripture: You shall speak of these things when you sit in your house and when you walk along the way, and when you rise. Let us, then, speak of the Lord Jesus, for Jesus is wisdom in person; he is the Word, the very word of God.

There is another text that says: Open your mouth and let it be filled with God’s word. To be filled with God’s word is to repeat Christ’s message and dwell continually upon his teaching. Christ should always be the theme of our conversation. Whenever we speak of wisdom, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak of virtue, it is of Christ we speak. When we discuss justice or peace, we are discussing Christ and when our talk is of truth and life and redemption, Christ is our subject, for he is all these things.

Open your mouth, Scripture says, and let it be filled with God’s word. You must do the opening, but it is God who makes his voice heard. That is why David said: I will hear what the Lord says in my heart, and the invitation: Open your mouth and I will fill it is made by the Son of God himself. Not everyone can arrive at the perfection of wisdom that Solomon or Daniel attained, but upon all of us, according to our capacity, the Spirit of wisdom is poured out, provided we have faith. If you believe, you possess the Spirit of wisdom, and faith gives you the grace to speak out.

As you sit in your house, then, meditate unceasingly on the things of God and make them the subject of your discourse. By house we can understand either the Church or that secret place in our hearts where we commune with ourselves. Choose your words prudently for fear of sin and beware of falling through overmuch talk. Speak too when you are walking along the way, so as never to be idle; and as you walk speak now to yourself, now to Christ. How should you address him? Listen to what Scripture says: I desire that the men should pray in every place, lifting their hands in reverence, without anger or quarrelling.

Speak also, my friend, when you lie down, or the sleep of death may steal upon you. Be instructed once more by Scripture: I will not give sleep to my eyes nor allow my eyelids to slumber until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. Overcome your natural inclinations and shorten the time you give to sleep, like David who kept the Lord in mind as he lay on his bed, waking early in order to hear Christ’s voice and perceive his light in the darkness. Do not wait for Christ to wake you; it is you who should rouse him by cherishing the thought of him even during sleep. If you do this, he himself will rouse you from slumber and wake you from the sleep of death. Speak of him then, when you rise, whether it is from your bed or from the grave, and so fulfil what the word of God commands.

St Ambrose, In psalmis 36.65-66 (CSEL 64:123-125); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Monday of the First Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

At all times and in every race, anyone who fears God and does what is right has been acceptable to him. He has, however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge him and serve him in holiness. He therefore chose the Israelite race to be his own people and established a covenant with it. He gradually instructed this people - in its history manifesting both himself and the decree of his will - and made it holy unto himself. All these things, however, happened as a preparation and figure of that new and perfect covenant which was to be ratified in Christ, and of the fuller revelation which was to be given through the Word of God made flesh. Christ instituted this new covenant, namely the new covenant in his blood; he called a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which would be one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit, and this race would be the new People of God. For those who believe in Christ, who are reborn, not from a corruptible seed, but from an incorruptible one through the word of the living God, not from flesh, but from water and the Holy Spirit, are finally established as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, who in times past were not a people, but now are the People of God.

That messianic people has as its head Christ, who was delivered up for our sins and rose again for our justification, and now, having acquired the name which is above all names, reigns gloriously in heaven. The state of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple. Its law is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us. Its destiny is the kingdom of God which has been begun by God himself on earth and which must be further extended until it is brought to perfection by him at the end of time when Christ our life, will appear and creation itself also will be delivered from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God. Hence that messianic people, although it does not actually include all men, and at times may appear as a small flock, is, however, a most sure seed of unity, hope and salvation for the whole human race.

As Israel according to the flesh which wandered in the desert was already called the Church of God, so too, the new Israel, which advances in this present era in search of a future and permanent city, is called also the Church of Christ. It is Christ indeed who had purchased it with his own blood; he has filled it with his Spirit; he has provided means adapted to its visible and social union. All those, who in faith look towards Jesus, the author of salvation and the principle of unity and peace, God has gathered together and established as the Church, that it may be for each and everyone the visible sacrament of this saving unity.

Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 9-10; tr. Christopher O’Donnell.

Tuesday of the First Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE

First of all, notice that we conclude our prayer by saying ‘through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord’ but never by saying, ‘through the Holy Spirit’. It is not for nothing that the Catholic Church is united in this practice, based on the mystery that the man Jesus Christ was made mediator between God and men. He is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek, who, taking his own blood, entered once for all into the Holy Place not made with hands; not into a copy of the true one but into heaven itself where, at the right hand of God, he intercedes for us.

The Apostle expressed his insight into the priesthood of Jesus with the words: Through him let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Through him, then, we offer a sacrifice of praise and prayer, because through his death we, while we were yet enemies, have been reconciled. For it is through him who became a sacrifice on our behalf that our sacrifice can be found acceptable in the sight of God. It is for this reason that St Peter urges us, to be built up as living stones into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. This, therefore, is the reason why we say to God the Father, ‘through Jesus Christ our Lord’.

When mention is made of the Priest, this refers to the mystery of the Lord’s incarnation, whereby the Son of who, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; and in that way humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Though he possessed equality with the Father’s divinity, for a little while he was made lower than the angels. For, while remaining equal to the Father, the Son was made lower in that he was born in the likeness of men. He it was who lowered himself when he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. The lowering of Christ is precisely this emptying. And the emptying is nothing other than his acceptance of the form of a servant.

So, while remaining in the form of God, Christ is the only-begotten Son of God, to whom, together with the Father, we offer sacrifices; but by taking the form of a servant, Christ was made a Priest through whom we can offer a living, holy sacrifice, pleasing to God. Indeed, if Christ become a victim for us, we could not offer any sacrifice; for it is in him that human nature becomes a true and saving sacrifice.

When we affirm that our prayers are offered through our Lord the eternal Priest, we profess our faith that the true flesh of our race is in him, according to the words of the Apostle: For every High Priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. Hence, we do not only say ‘your Son’, but add: ‘who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit’. In this way we commemorate that unity which belongs to the nature of the Father and the Son and the Spirit: and we profess that it is one and the same Christ, one in nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who exercises the priestly office on our behalf.

St Fulgentius of Ruspe, Letter 14.36-7; from The Divine Office I.

Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON PERFECTION BY BISHOP DIADOCHUS OF PHOTIKE

He who holds himself dear cannot love God; but he who, for the sake of the immeasurable riches of divine love, does not hold himself dear, he it is who loves God. That is why such a one never seeks his own glory, but rather the glory of God; for he who holds himself dear seeks his own glory. He who holds God dear loves the glory of his Creator.

It is the mark of the soul that is sensitive to the love of God ever to seek the glory of God in its fulfilment of every commandment, and to delight in its own abasement, since to God, on account of his greatness, belongs glory, and to man belongs abasement whereby we become members of the household of God. If we do that, we will rejoice like Saint John the Baptist in the glory of the Lord, and begin to say unceasingly: He must increase, but I must decrease.

I know someone who so loves God, although he feels compunction about not loving him as he wants to, that his soul is constantly in the grip of a fervent desire to see God glorified in him and to see himself as if he were not. Even when he is praised with words this person does not recognize it, since in his great desire for abasement he does not think of his own dignity. He celebrates the liturgy as the Law prescribes for priests but he is so intent on the love of God that he loses all awareness of his own dignity in the depths of his love for God. He buries any glory that would come to him in a spirit of humility, so that at all times in his own eyes and estimation he seems to be only a useless servant, estranged, as it were, from his own dignity by his desire for abasement. We too should act like this, so that we flee from all honour and glory because of the immeasurable riches of the Lord who has so loved us.

He who has a heartfelt love for God is know-n by him. For a person grows in the love of God in the measure in which he takes that love into his inmost soul. This is why, afterwards, such a man passionately longs, for the illumination of knowledge to the point of feeling in his very bones no longer aware of himself but wholly transformed by the love of God.

Such a man is in this life without being in it. He still lives in his own body but unceasingly goes out to God through love by the very momentum of his soul. Henceforward, his heart burning with the fire of love he adheres to God with a sort of irresistible desire, as if quite torn away from the love of self by the love of God. For if we are beside ourselves, says the Apostle, it is for God; if we are in our right mind it is for you.

Bishop Diadochus of Photiké, On Perfection 12,13,14; from The Divine Office I.

Thursday of the First Week in Lent

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS

Perseverance in faith, devotion, and virtue is assured by three things: prayer, fasting, and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting gains entrance, mercy receives. These three things, prayer, fasting, and mercy are all one and they give life to each other.

Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them, for this is impossible. If we have only one of them, if we have not all three together, we have nothing. Whoever prays, then, must also fast; whoever fasts must also show mercy. If we want our own petitions heard we must hear the petitions of others. God’s ear will be open to us if we do not turn a deaf ear to other people.

When we fast we should understand what it means to be really hungry. If we want God to take account of our hunger we must feel for the hunger of others. If we hope for mercy we must show mercy. If we look for kindness we must show kindness. If we want to receive we must give. Only a shameless person would ask for himself what he refused to give to others. In showing mercy this should be the rule: show it in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness as you would wish it to be shown to you.

Let prayer, mercy, and fasting, then, be one single appeal to God on our behalf, one speech in our defence, one threefold plea in our favour. What we have lost by despising others let us regain by fasting. By fasting let us offer our souls in sacrifice, for we can make no better offering to God, as is proved by the prophet’s words: A sacrifice pleasing to God is a contrite spirit. A contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not spurn.

Offer your soul to God, make him an oblation of your fasting so that your soul may be a pure offering, a holy sacrifice, a living victim, remaining your own and at the same time made over to God. Whoever fails to give this gift to God will not be excused for you are never without the means of giving if the gift to be given is yourself.

To make these offerings acceptable mercy must be added. Fasting bears no fruit unless it is watered by mercy. When mercy dries up fasting is arid. Mercy is to fasting as rain is to the earth. However much you may cultivate your heart, clear the soil of your nature, root out your vices and sow virtues, if you do not release the springs of mercy your fasting will bear no fruit. When you fast a thin sowing of mercy will mean a thin harvest. When you fast what you pour out in mercy overflows into your barn. So do not lose by saving, but gather in by scattering. Give to the poor and you give to yourself. You will not be allowed to keep what you have refused to give to others.

St Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 43 (PL 52:320, 322); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Friday of the First Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE ADORATION AND WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

In many ways there is in the Old Testament a real foreshadowing of the mystery of Christ and a certain prefiguration of his saving passion, which has freed us from all that had power to harm us and to plunge us into evils from which there was no escape.

One example was the remission of debts at the end of every seventh year, pointing toward the time of universal remission of sins. Another was the law that no one should give or receive more than forty strokes of the scourge, signifying the eagerly awaited time when God’s only Son would become incarnate and we should be healed by his wounds. When the leaders of Israel insulted him and Pilate ordered him to be scourged, he was made weak on account of our sins, but we were delivered from punishment. In the past sinners were frequently scourged, but Christ suffered punishment for our sake. Just as he died for the whole human race, so he was scourged for all, since he by himself was a worthy ransom for all of us. By allowing no more than forty strokes of the scourge, the Law foreshadowed the time when Christ’s coming would bring remission of sins and the end of all punishment, for beneath symbols there lies the beauty of truth.

We must know also that after the Israelites had offended him, God swore an oath that he would not lead them into the promised land and they spent forty years wandering in the wilderness. At the end of that time, however, he relented and their descendants were able to cross the Jordan to enter the promised land. God’s anger lasted for forty years and no longer.

The fact that a person received up to forty strokes of the scourge is thus a clear symbol of the remission of sins after the lapse of forty years. This remission brings us to the spiritual crossing of the Jordan and to the stone knives that signify spiritual circumcision. It places us under the command of Jesus, for Moses and the Law have been superseded, and Christ has become our guide.

St Cyril of Alexandria, The Adoration and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth, Bk. 8 (PG 68:573-576); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Saturday of the First Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

God regards the Church’s oblation, which the Lord said was to be offered all over the world, as a pure and acceptable sacrifice. He has no need of sacrifice from us, but it is an honour for the person offering it to have his gift accepted. We show reverence and love for the King by this gift, which the Lord wishes us to offer in all simplicity and innocence. His own words were: If you remember when you are offering your gift at the altar that your brother has some grievance against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar while you go and make peace. Then come back and offer it.

We have a duty then to offer God the firstfruits of his creation and, as Moses said, not to come empty-handed into the presence of the Lord our God. For thanking God by means of his own gifts to us we shall be honoured by him

The offering of sacrifice has not been brought to an end. In former ages sacrifice was offered by the people of Israel; it is still offered in the Church. Only the nature of the offering has changed now that it is made not by slaves but by men who are free. One and the same Lord receives the sacrifices, but there is a difference in kind between the offering of a slave and that of a free man, since the latter’s gift manifests his liberty. Indeed, nothing in God’s eyes is without import and significance. So it is that whereas men formerly offered tithes to God, those who have now received their liberty place all they have at the Lord’s disposal. Gladly and freely they give lesser things in the hope of receiving far greater. The poor widow put into God’s treasury all she had to live on.

We are bound then to offer sacrifice to him and always to show our gratitude to the God who created us by making this offering of the firstfruits of his own creation with pure intention, genuine faith, firm hope, and heartfelt love. Only the Church offers the Creator this pure sacrifice, presenting to him with thanksgiving the works of his own hand.

By offering God the things that are his we proclaim in an appropriate way the communion and unity of the flesh and the Spirit. Just as earthly bread after the epiclesis is no ordinary bread but the Eucharist, made up of two elements, one earthly, the other heavenly, so also our bodies after receiving the Eucharist are no longer corruptible, but have the hope of resurrection.

St Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 4.18.1-2,4-5 (SC 100:596-598, 606, 610-612); from Word in Season I, 1st ed.

Lent Week 2

Sunday of the Second Week in Lent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Deuteronomy is a kind of review and summary of the Mosaic books. Again the mystery of Christ is plainly revealed to us, skilfully presented from close consideration of the resemblance of Christ to Moses. For the Lord your God, said Moses, will raise up for you a prophet of your own race, like myself.

Between God and the people of those days Moses was the appointed mediator. It was his task to help their infirmity by communicating to them the divine decrees. This symbol, understood in terms of the reality it foreshadows, will show you that Christ is the true mediator between God and man. When for our sake he was born of a woman, he communicated to the more teachable with a human voice the hidden will of God the Father, which was known to him alone. In his nature as Son of the Father and as Wisdom he knows all things, even the depths of God.

The divine, the inexpressible glory of the supreme Being could not be seen and unveiled by bodily eyes, for Scripture says, No one can see my face and live. The only-begotten Word of God had therefore to become like us in our weakness by clothing himself in a human body, according to the mysterious plan of God’s providence, and so make known to us the will of heaven, that is, the will of God the Father. I make known to you, he said, all that I have heard from the Father; and in another place, I have not spoken on my own authority. The Father who sent me has told me what to say and how to speak.

In his role as mediator Moses of old may be regarded as a type of Christ, for he faithfully communicated to the people the divine decrees. But the mediation of Moses was that of a servant, whereas the mediation of Christ was free and also deeply mysterious. He was in contact by his very nature with those between whom he mediated; in his own person he linked the humanity that was reconciled and God the Father. In Christ the teaching of the Law reached its consummation, for as Scripture says, Christ is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets.

St Cyril of Alexandria, In Jo. Ev., 3.3 (PG 73:428-433); from Word in Season I, 1st ed.

Monday of the Second Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER VERITATIS SPLENDOR OF POPE JOHN PAUL II

Once one has renounced one’s own wealth and one’s very self, the way of perfection consists in the following of Jesus. This is precisely the conclusion of Jesus’ conversation with the young man: Come, follow me. The marvellous grandeur of this invitation will only be fully perceived by the disciples after Christ’s Resurrection, when the Holy Spirit leads them to all truth. Being a follower of Christ means becoming conformed to him who became a servant even to giving himself on the Cross. This is the effect of grace, of the active presence of the Holy Spirit in us. Having become one with Christ, the Christian becomes a member of his Body, which is the Church. By the work of the Spirit, Baptism radically configures the faithful to Christ in the Paschal Mystery of his death and resurrection. Having died to sin, those who are baptized receive new life: alive for God in Christ Jesus, they are called to walk by the Spirit and to manifest the Spirit's fruits in their lives.

The conclusion of Jesus’ conversation with the rich young man, however, is very poignant: When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions. Not only the rich man but the disciples themselves are taken aback by Jesus’ call to discipleship, the demands of which transcend human aspirations and abilities: When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ But the Master refers them to God’s power: With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

In the same chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus, interpreting the Mosaic Law on marriage, rejects the right to divorce, appealing to a ‘beginning’ more fundamental and more authoritative than the Law of Moses: God’s original plan for mankind. This is a plan which man, after sin, has no longer been able to live up to: For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Jesus’ appeal to the ‘beginning’ dismays the disciples, who remark: If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry. And Jesus, referring specifically to the charism of celibacy for the Kingdom of Heaven, but stating a general rule, indicates the new and surprising possibility opened up to man by God’s grace. He said to them: ‘Not everyone can accept this saying, but only those to whom it is given.’

To imitate and live out the love of Christ is not possible for man by his own strength alone, he becomes capable of this love only by virtue of a gift received. As the Lord Jesus receives the love of his Father, so he in turn freely communicates that love to his disciples: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. Christ’s gift is his Spirit, whose first fruit is charity: God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. Love and life according to the Gospel cannot be thought of first and foremost as a kind of precept, because what they demand is beyond man's abilities. They are possible only as a result of a gift of God who heals, restores and transforms the human heart by his grace: For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

St Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor 19, 21-23.

Tuesday of the Second Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST MARCION BY TERTULLIAN

What shall we say of the burden of sacrifices and observances and of the detailed ritual for offerings? We ought not to condemn them, as though God were calling for them out of self-interest, for he explains with utter clarity: What need have I of your multitude of victims? Who asked you to bring these offerings?

Let us rather marvel at the divine wisdom. Knowing only too well the inclination of the people to idolatry and sin, God in his wisdom took care to bind them to true worship by celebrations of the same kind as those connected with pagan superstitions. By requiring these gifts of them as though he desired them, God meant to turn Israel away from making sinful offerings to idols.

Even in everyday relationships and in the midst of ordinary occupations, both at home and outside it, God set down a countless variety of regulations having to do with many objects, in order that the children of Israel, being surrounded by these legal observances, might not lose sight, even for a moment, of the presence of God. In fact, what other means do men have of being happy except by finding their happiness in the Law of the Lord and meditating on his Law day and night? This Law was not promulgated by a harsh and stern author. On the contrary, it was the work of his immense kindness. This kindness was at work overcoming the stubbornness of the people and sanding down, as it were, through difficult exercises, a faith still not used to submission.

I say nothing here about the mystical meaning of this Law, which was entirely spiritual, entirely prophetic, and had symbols hidden in its least regulations. It is enough for the moment to show that its purpose was simply to bind men to God; nor can anyone find fault with it for this, except those who do not desire to serve God.

The Lord had certainly no personal interest in those ceremonies, for, he says: I do not drink the blood of bulls, and elsewhere: The eternal God neither hungers nor thirsts. He looked with pleasure on the victims offered by Abel and accepted favourably the holocausts of Noah, but could he find anything pleasing in the entrails of sheep or in the smell of the burnt flesh of victims? The single and God-fearing hearts of those who offered the Lord the gifts his generosity had given – there you have what he regarded as the most delightful food and a sweet-smelling perfume. It was not the offerings themselves that God wanted but the intention in the hearts of those who presented them, namely, his glory.

Tertullian, Against Marcion II, 18-22 (CCL 1:495); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.

Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST APHRAATES OF PERSIA

The Passover of the Jews is celebrated on the fourteenth day during the night and on the following day. Our Passover is celebrated on the day of the passion, the Great Friday, on the fifth day, with its night and daytime. At Passover, the Jews escaped from slavery to the Pharaoh; on the day of the crucifixion we were delivered from captivity to Satan. They slaughtered a lamb from the flock and by means of its blood were kept safe from the destroyer; by the blood of the well-beloved Son we have been rescued from the corrupt works we used to do. They had Moses as their leader; we have Jesus as leader and Saviour. For their sake, Moses parted the sea and brought them across; our Saviour opened up the lower world and broke down its gates when he made his way into the depths of the abyss, opened its approaches and cleared a way for those who believed in him. To the Jews manna was given; to us the Saviour has given his body to eat. For them water gushed from a rock; for us the Saviour causes floods of living water to gush from his bosom. To them the land of Canaan was promised as an inheritance; to us the Lord has promised to give the land of Life.

For the sake of the Jews Moses set up the bronze serpent in order to heal from serpents’ bites those who gazed on it; for our sake, Jesus nailed himself to the Cross in order that looking at it we might be saved from the wound of the serpent, that is, Satan. For them Moses set up the tent of covenant, in order that by offering sacrifices and oblations there they might be cleansed of their sins; Jesus, for his part, by rising from the dead raised up the fallen tent of David. He had told the Jews: When you have destroyed this temple which you see, I will raise it up in three days. The disciples understood him to be speaking of his body: when the Jews would destroy it, he would raise it up in three days. In this Tent he promised us Life, for in it our sins have been expiated. He called the tent of the Jews a ‘temporary tent’, since it was useful only for a short time; ours he called a temple of the Holy Spirit, and an everlasting one.

As for the Passover lamb, listen to the Most Holy One ordering that it be eaten in a single house and not in several. This single house is the Church of God. In it, we eat the Passover lamb in haste, with fear and trembling, while remaining standing, for we are hastening to eat the Life given by the Spirit we have received.

According to the prophecy of Jeremiah the people would be given a new covenant: I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah. It will not be like the covenant which I made with their ancestors on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt; it was they who broke that covenant of mine, therefore I rejected them! The God who promised to give a new covenant is the same God who called Abraham and gave this promise and blessing: Instead of being called Abram, as you have been until now, your name henceforward will be Abraham, for I will make you the father of a great number of people. Then he added: In your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

St Aphraates of Persia, Sermon 12 (Easter) 8-9, 11 (PS 1:522-534); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.

Thursday of the Second Week in Lent

A READING FROM A LETTER OF BARNABAS

There are two ways, each with its own teaching and governing authority: the way of light and the way of darkness. There is a vast difference between these two ways. In charge of the first are the angels of God, bearers of light; in charge of the second are the angels of Satan. One is Lord from eternity and unto eternity; the other is prince of the time of wickedness through which we are living.

Listen now to the way of light. If any desire to travel it to the appointed goal, they must fervently practise the works proper to it. And this is the teaching given us that we may walk on this way: you shall love the one who created you, you shall fear him who formed you, you shall glorify him who ransomed you from death. You must be single of heart and rich in the Spirit. You shall not join those who are travelling the way of death. You shall hate everything that is displeasing to God; you shall hate all hypocrisy. You shall not abandon the commandments of the Lord. You shall not rise above yourself, but shall be humble in everything. You shall not claim any glory for yourself. You shall not make any evil plan against your neighbour. You shall not give yourself up to arrogance.

You shall not engage in prostitution or adultery or homosexuality. You shall love your neighbour more than yourself. You shall not kill an infant by aborting it nor suffocate it at birth. You shall not give in to your son and daughter but shall teach them the fear of the Lord from their infancy. You shall not covet your neighbour’s possessions. You shall not seek to enrich yourself by any and every means. You shall not give your heart to the great ones of this world but shall rather seek the company of decent and modest persons.

Whatever befalls you, accept it as something good, knowing that nothing happens outside the will of God. You shall not be two-faced in either thought or word, for duplicitous language is a deadly snare. You shall submit to your teachers with respect and reverence, looking upon them as images of God. You shall not issue harsh commands to your servants, men or women, who have placed their hope in the same God that you have; otherwise you both risk losing the fear of your common Master, who pays no heed to the exterior and came to call those whom the Spirit has made ready. You shall have everything in common with your neighbour, claiming nothing as your own possession; if you share imperishable goods, how much more those that are corruptible! Do not have hands stretched out to receive but closed against giving. You shall give unhesitatingly and without complaint; you will thereby have experience of him who gives generously You shall safeguard what has been entrusted to you, neither adding to it or taking anything away from it. You shall have an utter hatred of evil. You shall judge with equity. You shall not incite to division but shall take the side of peace by reconciling enemies. You shall confess your sins and not come to prayer with a bad conscience.

Such is the way of light. The way of the prince of darkness, however, is tortuous and full of curses; it is wholly a way of everlasting death and torment.

Letter of Barnabas, 18:1-21:1 (SC 172:194-214); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.

Friday of the Second Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JOSHUA BY ORIGEN

It is necessary to make some comments on the death of Moses, because unless we understand in what sense Moses is said to be dead, we shall not be able to grasp the sense in which the leadership is said to have passed to Joshua (whose name in Greek is Jesus).

I would ask you, then, to consider the present condition of Jerusalem. The city has been destroyed and its altar abandoned. There are no more sacrifices, no victims or libations, no high priest or temple priesthood, no levitical ministry. Now, having considered all this, say to yourself: Moses, the servant of God, is dead.

No longer can anyone be observed presenting himself three times a year before the Lord, making offerings in the temple, slaying the Passover lamb, eating unleavened bread, bringing the firstfruits of his harvest or consecrating his firstborn. Take note of this, and say: Moses, the servant of God, is dead.

In place of these things, I ask you to observe how the Gentiles are turning to the faith and building churches. Altars are not sprinkled with the blood of dumb beasts any more; they are consecrated by the precious blood of Christ. Instead of the blood of bulls and goats, priests and deacons minister the word of God through the grace of the Holy Spirit. All this must lead you to conclude that Jesus has taken the place of Moses as leader of the people – not Jesus who is called Joshua, the son of Nun, but Jesus the Son of God.

Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed and we now eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The good soil yields a thirty, sixty, or hundredfold harvest in the Church; the descendants of Israel have been multiplied by the adoption of all those born not of blood or of the will of man or of the will of flesh, but of God himself. God’s scattered children have been reunited. His people now keep the Sabbath not by abstaining from their ordinary work but by refraining from sinful practices. After taking all these things into consideration, say to yourself: Moses, the servant of God, is dead, and Jesus has taken over the leadership.

There exists a little work that treats of this mystery in figurative language, though admittedly it does not form part of the canon of Scripture. This book describes the appearance of two Moses figures, one a living spirit, the other a dead body. Surely this vision has a prophetic meaning. The letter of the Law, lifeless and empty of all those things of which we have just spoken, may be regarded as the dead body of Moses. But if you know how to remove the veil from the Law and understand that the Law is spiritual, there you have the Moses who continues live in the spirit.

Origen, On Joshua, Homily 2.1 (SC 71:116-118); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Saturday of the Second Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE LIFE OF MOSES BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

Moses drew near the mountain of rest. He would never set foot on the valley spread out beneath him, toward which the people below looked for the fulfilment of the promise. Earthly food was no longer to his taste, for he had trained himself to live on the food that comes down from heaven.

History relates that Moses, the servant of God, died at the Lord’s command and no one knew his burial place. His sight was not dimmed nor his face touched by decay.

We learn from this that after his many labours Moses was judged worthy of the exalted title, ‘Servant of God’, which is the same as saying that he was above all earthly concerns. No one can serve God without rising above every worldly preoccupation. This was also for him the consummation of his life of virtue, brought about by the word of God. The history calls this death, but it was a death in which he still lives, for no burial followed it, no monument was built. It left his sight undimmed and his face untouched by corruption.

Moses had achieved the highest possible perfection. What more trustworthy witness of this could we find than the voice of God, which said to him: I have loved you more than all others. Moses was called the friend of God by God himself. Moreover, because he would rather have perished with all the people than have lived without them, he begged God by his favour toward himself to pardon those who had sinned. He thus checked God’s anger against the Israelites, for God withdrew his condemnation so as not to grieve his friend. All these things are clear evidence and proof that the life of Moses reached the summit of the mountain of perfection.

And so we have learned from what has been said how a life of virtue is brought to perfection, which was what we set out to discover. It is time now for you, my generous friend, to study the model carefully. The lessons we have learned from our spiritual contemplation of historical happenings you must apply to your own life, so that you may be loved by God and become his friend.

True perfection does not consist in abandoning a life of sin as a slave might for fear of punishment; nor in doing good in the hope of receiving a reward. Expecting the virtuous life to yield a profit would be making it a matter of trade and commerce. No, it seems to me that to be perfect we must look beyond even the hoped-for blessings which we have been promised are stored up for us. Our only fear should be the loss of God's friendship, and the only honour or pleasure we covet should be that of becoming God’s friend. You can attain such perfection – and I know that you will attain it abundantly – if you raise your mind to the majesty of God. The gain will surely be shared by all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

St Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, 2.313-14, 319-21 (SC 1:131-135); Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Lent Week 3

Sunday of the Third Week in Lent

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

The Son of God sustains the whole universe by his word of power. In the beginning God said: Let there be light. But here we see that the Son also acts by the power of his word, sustaining the whole universe, controlling and supporting what would otherwise disintegrate. The preservation of the world is, in fact, no less a task than its creation. If so bold a statement may be allowed, it is even greater, for in the one instance something is produced from nothing, while in the other created things are preserved from falling apart and returning to non-existence. This is indeed a great and wonderful work, a proof of immense power

In saying that he sustains the whole universe, therefore, Scripture is telling us that the Lord makes light of the great burden of creation; it is no effort to him, for, the text adds, he does it by his word of power. Yes, truly: by his word. We may think of a word as something insubstantial, but Scripture shows us that it is not so with God. The expression used in the Letter to the Hebrews: he sustains the whole universe by his word of power, has the same significance as Saint John’s message: In him was life. Both indicate the power of the Word to preserve his creation, since he is himself the life of the whole universe.

The text continues: In his own person he has made purification for our sins. Thus after speaking of these great and wonderful matters, Scripture goes on to describe God’s providential care for the human race. He sustains the whole universe is, indeed, an all-embracing statement; but the continuation is greater still and no less universal, since the salvation offered to all of us comes through the Son of God. Moreover, when John had pointed out God’s providence in the words In him was life, he went on to say: And in him was light. The same declaration is made here to the Hebrews: When he had made purification for our sins, he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Here we are given two signs of God’s care for us: we are cleansed from sin, and this is brought about through the Son of God himself. How many texts there are that glory not only in our reconciliation with God but in its accomplishment through his Son! So immense a gift becomes even greater when it is given us through him.

Now when Scripture says that after making purification for our sins, he took his seat at God’s right hand, it recalls the Cross to our minds and then proceeds at once to teaching on the resurrection and ascension.

Since we know these things, therefore, let us be neither ashamed nor presumptuous. He who was Lord and God and Son of God did not refuse to assume the condition of a slave; surely then we ought to embrace every task that is laid upon us, no matter how humble and lowly it may be.

St John Chrysostom, In Heb. 2, 3 (PG 63:23-25); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Monday of the Third Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE PASCHAL HOMILIES OF ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

For our sake Christ became a merciful high priest. The Law given to the people of Israel through the mouths of angels ordered the immediate punishment of those who fell into sin. Paul tells us that anyone who violates the Law of Moses is put to death on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Under the Law, therefore, priests never had the least thought of showing mercy to anyone convicted of negligence. But Christ became a merciful high priest. He did not punish people for their sins, but justified all by his grace and compassion. Moreover, he taught us how to worship in a spiritual way, and by giving us a clear vision of the truth, he showed us how to live worthily. This is the message of the Gospel.

Nevertheless, by teaching us the truth he did not mean to censure the Law of Moses, or to refute the ancient Prophets. It was a question rather of removing the shadow that overlay the writings of the Law, and of replacing symbols by worship in spirit and in truth. He made this perfectly plain when he said: Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfil them. I assure you that the Law will not lose a single dot or stroke until its purpose is achieved.

Changing types into the reality they signified was not nullifying, but fulfilling them. A painter, by covering his basic design with a variety of colour, does not destroy it but brings it out more clearly, and this is what Christ did when he transformed the crudity of symbols into the reality they represented.

Yet the people of Israel failed to understand this mystery, even though it had been foretold in many ways by both the Law and the Prophets. Indeed, Christ our Saviour himself tried to show them through many marvellous deeds that although for our sake he had become a man according to the divine dispensation, he was still God as he had always been. To help them to realize this he did things that were beyond the power of any man – God alone could perform such miracles. He raised the dead from their graves when they were already in a state of corruption; like the Creator, he made the blind see the light of day; he rebuked unclean spirits with authority; he cured lepers by a word of command; and there were other things he did that were marvellous beyond description. Therefore, if I am not acting as my Father would, he said to them, do not believe in me. But if I am, even if you do not believe in me, accept the evidence of my deeds.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Paschal Homilies 26.3 (PG 77:925); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Tuesday of the Third Week in Lent

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST LEO THE GREAT

True worshippers of the Lord’s Passion should fix the eyes of their heart on Jesus Crucified and recognizing in him their own flesh. Let the earthly nature tremble at the punishment of its Redeemer. Let stony, unbelieving souls burst asunder. Let all who are entombed in their mortality throw off the weight that oppresses them and come forth, appearing even now in the holy city, the Church of God, as signs of the resurrection to come. Let what must be done in the body come about in our hearts.

No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the Cross, nor is anyone beyond the help of the prayer of Christ. Even his many tormentors received the benefit of Christ’s prayer; all the more powerfully will it avail those who turn to him in repentance. Ignorance has been dispelled, ill-will restrained, and the flaming sword barring the way to the land of the living extinguished by the sacred blood of Christ. The dark night of the past has yielded to the true light of day. Christian people are now invited to enjoy the treasures of Paradise, and the way to their lost fatherland is open once more to all who have been reborn. Provided they do not close off for themselves that way which could be opened by the faith of a thief.

As we celebrate the wonderful mystery of this Paschal Feast, dearly beloved, we must not allow the affairs of this present life to consume us with anxiety or pride, and so prevent us from striving with our whole heart to be like our Redeemer and to follow his example, since the sole aim of everything he did and suffered was our salvation, and the communication to his members of the power that belongs to him as Head.

Was anyone, from the very first, excluded from the mercy shown to the human race when God assumed our nature, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us? None but the unbeliever. Who, accepting Christ as the incarnate Word, does not share a common nature with him and is not born again of the same Spirit by which Christ himself was conceived? Again, is there anyone whose own weakness is not recognizable in Christ’s? Surely in one who needed food and sleep, who was troubled and sorrowful and could be moved to tears, we can see the condition of our own servitude. Because that nature of ours cried for the healing of its age-old wounds and the cleansing of its sinful stains, God’s only Son became the Son of Man, lacking neither the full reality of our humanity nor the plenitude of his Godhead.

The body that lay lifeless in the tomb was ours; the body that rose again on the third day was ours; the body that ascended above the heavens to the right hand of the Father’s majesty was ours. If, then, we walk in the way of Christ’s commandments and are not ashamed to confess the price he paid for our salvation in bodily humiliation, we too shall be brought into the company of his glory. Then all creation will see his promise fulfilled: Everyone who acknowledges me in the presence of men will be acknowledged by me in the presence of my heavenly Father.

St Leo the Great, Sermon 66 (Good Friday 453) 3-4 (CCL 138A, 403-4); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Wednesday of the Third Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD BY ST AMBROSE

Where a man’s heart is, there will be his treasure be also, for God does not refuse a good gift to those who ask. So because God is good and especially good to those who serve him, we must cling to him and be with him with all our soul and with all our heart and with all our strength. This we must do if we are to be in his light, and see his glory, and enjoy the grace of heavenly joy. To this happiness we must lift our minds, we must be in God, and live in him and cling to him, for he is beyond all human thought and understanding and he dwells in endless peace and tranquillity. This peace passes all understanding, passes all perception.

This is the good which permeates everything. All of us live in it, depend on it. It has nothing above itself, but is divine. No one is good but God alone, because the good is divine and the divine is good. So the psalmist says, When you open your hand all creatures are filled with goodness. Through God’s goodness all the truly good things are given to us, and among them is no mixture of evil.

These are the good things that scripture promises to the faithful in the words, You shall eat the good of the land. We are dead with Christ; in our bodies we carry the death of Christ, so that the life of Christ also may be manifested in us. We do not live any longer our own life, but the life of Christ, the life of innocence, chastity, simplicity, and of every virtue. We have risen with Christ; we must live in Christ; we must ascend in Christ, so that the serpent can no longer find our heel on earth to wound.

We must flee from here. You can flee in your mind, even though you are still held back in the body. You can be both here and you can be present with the Lord if in your soul you cling to him, if in all your thoughts you walk after him, if in faith and not in outward appearance merely you follow his ways, if you fly to him; he is our refuge and our strength. It was to God that David said, In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; I have not been put to shame.

Because God is our refuge and God is in heaven and above the heavens, we must flee from here and come to that place where there is peace and rest from our labours, where we may enjoy the great sabbath feast, as Moses said, The sabbath of the land shall provide for you. To rest in the Lord and to gaze upon his loveliness is truly a feast and full of delight and peacefulness.

We must flee like deer running to the fountains of water. The thirst which David felt, let our soul too feel. Who is that fountain? David said, For with you is the fountain of life. My soul must say to the fountain, When shall I come and behold your face? For the fountain is God.

St Ambrose, On Flight from the World 6.36, 7.44, 8.45, 9.52; from The Divine Office II.

Thursday of the Third Week in Lent

A READING FROM A LETTER BY ST AMBROSE

Our Lord was the good physician who bore our infirmities and cured our ills; yet he did not arrogate to himself the glory of becoming high priest; this was conferred on him by the Father when he said: You are my Son, today 1 have begotten you. He also says elsewhere: You are a priest for ever in the order of Melchizedek. Since as a priest he was to be the model of all priests, he became one of us, so that during his earthly life he might offer up prayer and entreaty, with loud cries and tears, to God his Father; and, Son though he was, he might learn obedience through suffering. This obedience was his lesson to us; in this way he became the source of salvation for us all. When at last he had reached the full measure of his sufferings and his obedience had been perfected, he healed us and took away our sins.

In the same way, it was God himself who chose Aaron to be the high priest making it clear that the choice would not depend on the will of man but on the favour of God. None was to propose himself for the priesthood or take it upon himself: it was to be a heavenly vocation. The one who was to offer sacrifice for sins would be someone capable of sympathizing with sinners, aware, as Scripture says, that he too was beset by weakness. No one may confer the honour of the priesthood on himself; it is for the one called to it by God, as Aaron was. Even Christ did not arrogate the priesthood to himself; it was conferred on him. Since succession in the office of high priest was reckoned by descent from Aaron, those who were descended from him did not necessarily inherit his holiness. This is why Christ came as the fulfilment of what was foreshadowed in Melchizedek, the true king of peace; his very name means true king of holiness. He has no father, no mother, no genealogy; his years have no beginning, his life no end. All of this applies to the Son of God, who had no mother in his divine generation, no father when born of the Virgin Mary; begotten of the Father alone before time began, born of a virgin alone when he entered this world of time. Since there can be no doubt that he who is from eternity had no beginning, how can there be any ending for him who gives its being to everything that exists? He is truly the beginning and end of all things. These words also point to the ideal for every priest, namely, that he should be, as it were, without father or mother; that is, chosen not by reason of his aristocratic birth, but because of his moral integrity and outstanding virtue.

A priest should be a person of faith and mature character. It is not enough for him to have only one of these qualities; he must have both, together with good deeds to prove it. And so the apostle Paul would have us imitate those who, through faith and long-suffering, have inherited the promises made to Abraham, the man who, by his patient endurance, deserved to receive the blessings promised him and the grace which sanctified him. And the prophet David urges us to emulate the holiness of Aaron a man he placed among the Lord’s saints when he said: Moses and Aaron are among his priests, and Samuel among those who call on his name.

St Ambrose, Letter 63:47-50 (PL 16:1253-1254); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Friday of the Third Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE TREATISE CONTRA CELSUM OF ORIGEN

It is not the same thing to call men who are sick in their souls to be cured, as it is to call healthy men to a knowledge and understanding of deeper spiritual truths. We take account of both of these. At the beginning, when we call men to be cured, we encourage sinners to come and hear words which teach them not to sin; the unwise are taught to hear words which will implant in them understanding, children are taught to advance towards a manly character, and those who are in a wretched state are led to happiness, or, to use a more appropriate word, to blessedness. But when some of those who have been thus encouraged make progress and show that they have been purified by the Logos, and do all in their power to live better lives, then we call them to our mysteries. For we speak wisdom among the perfect.

As we teach that, into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter, nor dwell in the body that is subject to sin, we say: Let anyone come to us who has pure hands and so lifts up holy hands to God; anyone who, because he offers sublime and heavenly sacrifices, can say, The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice; anyone who has a wise tongue because he studies the Law of the Lord day and night, and has his senses exercised to discern good and evil. Such a man should not fear to go on to solid, rational food, which is suited to athletes of piety and every virtue. And since the grace of God is with all who love the teacher of the doctrines of immortality, let anyone who is pure not only from all defilement, but also from what are regarded as minor sins, be boldly initiated into the mysteries of the religion of Jesus which are delivered only to the holy and pure.

Celsus’ priest says: Anyone whose soul knows nothing of evil, let him come. But according to Jesus’ teaching the one who leads to God initiates who have been purified in soul will say: Anyone whose soul has for a long time known nothing of evil, and especially since he came to be healed by the Logos, let him hear even those doctrines which were privately revealed by Jesus to his genuine disciples. Accordingly, in his contrast between the exhortations of those who initiate men among the Greeks and those who teach the doctrines of Jesus, he does not know the difference between calling bad men to be cured and calling those already pure to more mystical doctrines.

It is not, therefore, to mysteries and to share in wisdom hidden in a mystery which God foreordained before the ages to the glory of his saints that we call the dishonest man, the thief, the burglar, the poisoner, the grave-robber, and any others whom Celsus might name for rhetorical effect, but it is for healing. There are some characteristics in the divine nature of the Logos which help to cure those who are sick, of whom the Logos says: They who are strong need no physician, but they who are sick. But there are other characteristics of the Logos which show to those who are pure in soul and body, the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence through times eternal, but is now manifested, both by the prophetic scriptures and by the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ; this is made clear to each one of the perfect, and illuminates the mind so that it grasps the true knowledge of reality.

Origen, Contra Celsum III 59-61; tr. Chadwick (1953).

Saturday of the Third Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES ON THE PSALMS BY ST AUGUSTINE

This is the greatest gift which God could give to men: he made his Word, through whom he created all things, head over them and joined them to him as his members, so that he might be Son of God and son of man, one God with the Father, one man with men. So when we turn to God in prayer, we do not separate the Son from him, and when the body of the Son prays, it does not separate its head from itself: it is the one Saviour of his body, our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, who prays for us and prays in us and is prayed to by us.

He prays for us as our priest; he prays in us as our head; he is prayed to by us as our God. So we must recognize our voices in him and his voices in us. When something is said of the Lord Jesus Christ, particularly in prophecy, which would refer, as it were, to a certain lowliness unworthy of God, we must not hesitate to attribute it to him, since he did not hesitate to join himself to us. For the whole creation is at his service since the whole creation was made through him.

Accordingly, when we behold his exaltation and his divinity, when we hear the words: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made, when we behold this supreme divinity of the Son which surpasses all that is exalted in creatures, we also hear him in some part of the Scriptures as it were sighing, praying, confessing.

We hesitate to attribute these words to him, because our reflection has just been contemplating him in his divinity and is slow to descend to his lowliness. It directed its words to him when it was praying to God, and now it wavers, as if it would be doing him a wrong to acknowledge his words as man, and it tries to change their meaning; and yet it meets with nothing in Scripture except what always returns to him, and does not allow it to turn away from him.

Let our mind wake up then and keep watch in its faith. Let it see that he whom it was contemplating a little earlier in the form of God took on the form of a servant; made in the likeness of man and found in human form, he humbled himself, made obedient to death; and he wished to make his own the words of the psalm, as he hung on the Cross and said: My God, my god, why have you forsaken me?

So he is prayed to in the form of God; he prays in the form of a servant: in the first case as Creator, in the latter as created, the unchanged taking on the creature that the creature may be changed, and making us with himself one man, head and body. We pray to him, through him, in him; we speak with him, he speaks with us.

St Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 85.1; from The Divine Office II.

Lent Week 4

Sunday of the Fourth Week in Lent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON GENESIS BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

No high priest takes such an honour upon himself, but each one is called by God as Aaron was. Even Christ did not give himself this, he received it from the One who said to him: ‘You are my son, today I have begotten you,’ and who also declared: ‘You are a priest for ever, a priest of the order of Melchizedek.’

We have to understand that even the Son himself, the Word of God the Father, is not said to be a priest and to belong to a priestly order except in so far as he has become like one of us. It was his human nature that made it possible for him to be called a prophet and an apostle, and it also enabled him to be a priest. When he had taken upon himself the nature of a slave, then servile duties were suitable for him. This is what is meant by his stripping himself of his divine dignity. He was one in nature with the Father and his equal, he had even the heavenly seraphim as his attendants and he was waited on by angels in their thousands. But as Scripture says, it was when he had stripped himself of all his glory that he was proclaimed our priest, the priest of the true tabernacle.

It was then too that he who is above the whole universe was sanctified together with us: as it is written, He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all members of the one human race. That is why he is not ashamed to call us his brothers: ‘I will proclaim your name’ he declares ‘to my brothers.’ He who, as God, sanctifies men, became a man and dwelt among us; and being a man he called himself our brother, and was sanctified together with us. He was a priest, therefore, and he was sanctified with us in virtue of his having taken a human body.

Now the reason Paul saw a likeness to Christ in Melchizedek is that he was called king of justice and peace. This title, in its deeper, spiritual sense, is fitting for none but Emmanuel. who was proclaimed prince of justice and peace to all who dwell upon earth. Through him we have shaken off the burden of sin and have been justified. The impurity of our lives, which separated us from God the Father, has now been washed away and we are at peace with him; indeed we have, in a sense, been made one with him through the Spirit, according to the words of Scripture: He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

Melchizedek gave Abraham his blessing and offered him bread and wine. Christ, the great and true priest, gives us a similar blessing in the Eucharist, the heavenly gift that supports us on our journey through life. Saint Paul therefore took Melchizedek’s blessing as a symbol of the priesthood that is greater than the Law. And so Paul saw Melchizedek as a foreshadowing of Christ, both because of the interpretation of his name, and because of his offering of bread and wine, which showed quite clearly the kind of priesthood that Christ would exercise. Moreover, he reveals that Christ’s priesthood was to be eternal by saying of Melchizedek that he has neither beginning nor end but, like the Son of God, he remains a priest for ever.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphororum in Genesim 2.7-9 (PG 69:99-108); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Monday of the Fourth Week in Lent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 33 BY ST AUGUSTINE

As you know, the Jews of old offered sacrifices proper to the order of Aaron, using animals as victims. This was a mysterious prophetic sign. The sacrifice of the Lord’s body and blood had not yet been offered; the faithful know about this, as do all who have read the Gospel, and this sacrifice is now widespread throughout the world. Keep both kinds of sacrifice before your mind’s eye, the one after the order of Aaron, the other after the order of Melchisedek; for Scripture says, The Lord has sworn, and will not change his mind: you are a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek.

Now of whom is it said, You are a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek? Of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who was Melchisedek? He ws King of Salem. Salem was the original city, but the later city in the same place was called Jerusalem, according to the experts. So before ever the Jews established their Kingdom the Priest Melchisedek was there, and Genesis describes him as a Priest of God Most High.

So great was Melchisedek that he could confer a blessing on Abraham. He set forth bread and wine, and blessed Abraham; and Abraham gave him tithes. Consider what he set forth and to whom he gave his blessing. Later on David says in the Spirit to someone, You are a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek. This was said long after Abraham’s day, yet Abraham was Melchisedek’s contemporary. To whom, then, does the prophesy refer? To whom else, but he whose sacrifice is known to you?

The sacrifice of Aaron was therefore superseded and the sacrifice according to the order of Melchisedek came into being. Our Lord Jesus Christ willed us to find salvation in his body and blood. But how could he make his body and blood available to us? Through his humility; for if he had not been humble, he could not have been eaten and drunk. Contemplate his lofty Divinity: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God; he was God. That is eternal food, the angels eat it and in eating they are totally satisfied. What man could aspire to that food? Where could a human heart be found fit to eat food like that?

It was necessary for the banquet to be converted into milk if it was to become available to little ones. But how can food be turned into milk, except by being passed through flesh? This is what a mother does. What the mother eats, the baby eats too, but since the baby is unable to digest bread, the mother turns the bread into her own flesh, and through the humility of her breast and its supply of milk she feeds her baby with the same bread. How does the Wisdom of God feed us with bread? The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The eternal Word, equal to the Father, on whom the angels feed, has been eaten by men. He humbled himself and was made obedient unto death, even death on a cross, so that from the cross the Lord’s flesh and blood might be delivered to us today as the new sacrifice.

St Augustine, First Exposition of Psalm 33.5-6; WSA (2000) tr. Maria Boulding.

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION

On the day of his ascension Christ, the supreme high priest of the human race, having conferred on us a legal title, bears us up with him in hope to heaven. We must never forget that it is only through him that we can gain entrance there. No human being can penetrate the Holy of Holies except with him; no creature can enjoy eternal happiness except in the wake of Jesus; it is his precious merits that win us infinite bliss. For all eternity we shall say to him, ‘Because of you, Jesus Christ, because of the blood you shed for us, we stand before God’s face. It is your sacrifice, your immolation, that wins our every moment of glory and happiness. To you, the Lamb that was slain, be all honour and praise and thanksgiving!’

In this interval of time until Christ comes to fetch us as he promised, he is preparing a place for us, and above all he is supporting us by his prayer. Indeed, what is our High Priest doing in heaven? The Letter to the Hebrews gives the answer: he has entered heaven in order to stand now in God’s presence our behalf. His priesthood is eternal, and therefore eternal too is his work as mediator. How infinitely powerful is his influence! There he stands before his Father, unceasingly offering him that sacrifice recalled by the marks of the wounds he has voluntarily retained; there he stands, alive for ever, ever interceding for us.

As high priest he is unfailingly heard, and for our sake he speaks again the priestly prayer of the last supper: Father it is for them that I pray. They are in the world. Guard those whom you have given me. I pray for them, that they may have in themselves the fullness of joy. Father, I will that they may be with me where I am.

How could these sublime truths of our faith fail to inspire us with unwavering confidence? People of scanty faith though we are, what have we to fear? And what may we not hope? Jesus is praying for us, and praying always. Let us then trust absolutely in the sacrifice, the merits, and the prayer of our High Priest. He is the beloved Son in whom the Father delights; how could he be refused a hearing, after showing his Father such love?

Father, look upon your Son. Through him and in him grant us to be one day where he is, so that through him and with him we may also render to you all honour and glory.

Bl. Columba Marmion, Christ in his Mysteries, 2.16.5; from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.

Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Lent

A READING FROM A TREATISE ON FAITH ADDRESSED TO PETER BY ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE

The sacrifices of animal victims which were imposed on our forefathers by the Holy Trinity itself, the one God of the Old and New Testaments, foreshadowed the most acceptable gift of all. This was the offering which in his compassion the only Son of God would make of himself in his human nature for our sake.

The Apostle teaches that Christ offered himself for us to God as a fragrant offering and sacrifice. He is the true God and the true High Priest who for our sake entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, taking with him not the blood of bulls and goats but his own blood. This was foreshadowed by the High Priest of old when each year he took blood and entered the Holy of Holies.

Christ is therefore the one who in himself alone embodied all that he knew to be necessary to achieve our redemption. He is at once priest and sacrifice, God and temple. He is the priest through whom we have been reconciled, the sacrifice by which we have been reconciled, the temple in which we have been reconciled, the God with whom we have been reconciled. He alone is priest, sacrifice, and temple because he is all these things as God in the form of a servant; but he is not alone as God, for he shares the divine nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Hold fast to this and never doubt it: the only-begotten Son, God the Word, becoming man offered himself for us to God as a fragrant offering and sacrifice. In the time of the Old Testament, patriarchs, prophets, and priests sacrificed animals in honour of the Son as well as the Father and the Holy Spirit. Now in the time of the New Testament the holy Catholic Church throughout the world never ceases to offer the sacrifice of bread and wine, in faith and love, to him and to the Father and the Holy Spirit, with whom he shares one Godhead.

In those ancient victims the body and blood of Christ were prefigured: the body which the sinless one would offer as propitiation for our sins, and the blood which he would pour out for our forgiveness. The Church’s sacrifice, on the other hand, is an act of thanksgiving and a memorial of the body Christ has offered for us and the blood he has shed for us. With this in mind, blessed Paul says in the Acts of the Apostles: Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as bishops to rule the Church of God, which he won for himself by his blood.

Those sacrifices of old pointed in sign to what was to be given to us. In this sacrifice we see plainly what has already been given to us. Those sacrifices foretold the death of the Son of God for sinners. Here he is proclaimed as already slain for sinners, as the Apostle testifies: Christ died for the wicked at a time when we were still powerless, and when we were enemies we were reconciled with God through the death of his Son.

St Fulgentius of Ruspe, On Faith, To Peter 22.62 (CCL 91A:726,750-751); Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Thursday of the Fourth Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE HOMILY On THE PASCH BY ST MELITO OF SARDIS

A work of art is constructed only with the help of a preliminary model, and is seen in advance by means of this image which represents it. That is why a design is traced out beforehand in wax or clay or wood: thanks to this frail little model the real artefact may be seen taking shape, loftier in stature and more durable, beautiful in form and richly equipped. But as soon as the final product for the sake of which the model existed has come into being, the preliminary draft is disposed of as something which is of no further use, for it has yielded to the real thing that semblance of reality which it bore. So what was once precious becomes worthless when what is essentially precious has made its appearance.

Now the principle valid for perishable things in this example holds good too for those which are imperishable. As it is with earthly matters, so it is with the things of heaven. For the Lord’s salvation and his truth were prefigured in the chosen people, and the precepts of the Gospel were proclaimed beforehand in the Law. The chosen people served as a roughed-out plan, and the Law as a written parable, but the Gospel is the explanation and fulfilment of the Law, and the Church is the place to which the reality is entrusted. The type was held in honour before the coming of the reality, and the parable was admirable before it was interpreted; that is to say, the chosen people was honoured before the Church was raised up, and the Law was admirable before the Gospel dawned. But when the Church was founded and the Gospel promulgated then the type lost its meaning, for it ceded its right to the reality, and the Law was fulfilled in yielding its force to the Gospel Like a sketch that has served its purpose or a parable superseded by its interpretation, the Law was fulfilled when the dawn of the Gospel broke, and the chosen people lost its privileges once the Church was set up. The type was abolished when the Lord was manifested. What was once so precious has today become worthless, now that those mysteries which are truly precious have been revealed.

For of old the slaying of the sheep was a precious thing, but now it is worthless because of the life of the Lord. Precious was the sheep’s death, but now it is worthless because of the Lord’s revelation. Precious was the blood of the sheep, but now it is of no value because of the Spirit of the Lord. The uncomplaining lamb was once precious, but now worthless because of the unblemished Son. The temple here on earth was precious, but worthless now because Christ has ascended. Jerusalem here below was precious, but worthless now because of the Jerusalem on high. The narrow heritage of Israel was precious once, but worthless now that grace has been spread far and wide. For not in that one place only not in that meagre strip of land is the glorious presence of God established; his grace has been poured out over all the region; of the earth, and there almighty God has pitched his tent through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto all eternity Amen.

St Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha 36-37. 39-45 (SC 123:78-84); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.

Friday of the Fourth Week in Lent

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us, and if you ask where he was sacrificed, it was upon a high scaffold. This was a new kind of altar of sacrifice because the sacrifice itself was new and amazing. The victim and the priest were the same. Victim in his humanity, priest in his divinity, Christ both offered and in his human nature was offered. Listen to Paul’s explanation of both these truths. He says: Every high priest taken from among the people is appointed to act on their behalf. This high priest too must have something to offer, then, and so he offers himself. But in another place Paul says: Christ, having been offered once for all to take away the sins of many, will appear to those who await him to save them.

Perhaps you will ask why the sacrifice was offered outside the city walls and not in the temple. It was to fulfil the text of Scripture that says: He was reckoned among the wicked. It was offered outside the walls to show you the universal nature of the sacrifice. The purification was not for only a few as with the Jews, but for everyone. God had commanded the Jews to offer sacrifice and prayer in one place on earth to the exclusion of all others, because the whole world was polluted by the smoke and fat of burnt offerings and all the other defilements of pagan sacrifice. But for us the whole world has been purified by the coming of Christ, so that every place has become a place of prayer. And so Paul boldly urges us to feel free to pray everywhere. In every place, he says, I want the men to lift up reverent hands in prayer.

Do you not see then how the world has been purified? We are able in every place reverently to raise our hands to God because the whole world has become holy, holier than the inmost shrine of the Temple. The sacrifice offered in the Temple was an irrational beast but that offered on the Cross was divine, and the more perfect the victim, the more perfect too is the sanctification.

St John Chrysostom, Hom. de cruce et latrone 1.1-2 (PG 49:400); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Saturday of the Fourth Week in Lent

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS BY ORIGEN

Let us examine each of the names which Scripture gives to the Saviour, and study carefully the meaning expressed in them. We shall find that because it was God’s will and pleasure to embody the fullness of divinity in him, Christ in his own person was at one and the same time the throne of mercy, the High Priest, and the victim offered for the people.

David in the psalms and the Apostle writing to the Hebrews both clearly describe Christ as High Priest. That he is also a sacrificial victim is declared in the words of John the Baptist: This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. As victim, by the shedding of his own blood he becomes the atoning sacrifice which procures forgiveness of past offences. Nevertheless, this atonement comes to each individual believer through faith, for unless it brought him forgiveness of his past offences, it would remain ineffective for him. Since his sins have been forgiven, it is absolutely certain that atonement for them has been accomplished by the shedding of blood in sacrifice. As the Apostle says: Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins.

Saint Paul is not alone in representing Christ as the atoning sacrifice for our past sins; Saint John shares the same understanding, as you can judge from the following passage: I write these things to you, my children, to keep you from sin. But if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Just One. He is the expiation for our sins, and not our sins only but those of all the world. It is through the atoning sacrifice of Christ’s blood that we receive forgiveness of our past offences in the merciful forbearance of God; so is his justice made manifest.

When God refrains from punishing sinners at once, he exhibits that divine patience which Saint Paul says is meant to lead us to repentance, and, as the Apostle rightly adds, this is how God demonstrates his justice at the present time. As long as this world endures, God’s justice is at work in his forbearance, but in the world to come it will be manifested in the payment to each of us of our just deserts.

Origen, In Rom. 3.8 (PG 14:950-951); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Lent Week 5

Sunday of the Fifth Week in Lent

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

In his letter to the Hebrews the Apostle says that they need endurance to do God’s will and obtain what he has promised. The only thing they have to endure is delay; there is no need for a renewed struggle. He means they are on the very threshold of victory; they have undergone all the contests, they have suffered imprisonment, affliction, and confiscation of their possessions, until finally here they stand awaiting their reward, with nothing but this delay still to be endured before they receive it. These words are a great encouragement. One could imagine them spoken to an athlete who has overthrown all contestants, and then, when it comes to being crowned, cannot wait for the arrival of the judge to place the wreath on his brow. Impatience makes him want to run away, as if the heat and thirst are no longer bearable. The Apostle hints at this in his next words, when he says: In a little while he who is to come will be here; he will not delay. So then, the waiting in itself brings no small reward.

Again he quotes: The righteous shall live by faith; no one who shrinks back in fear can please me. This is an exhortation and warning to those who have won through to the end that a moment’s carelessness can still lose them everything. But, he continues, we are not among those who shrink back and are lost; we have the faith that leads to life. These words were addressed to the Hebrews in the first place, but may equally well be used to encourage many of those gathered here, when they are downcast and tempted to lose heart. People are often troubled and find it hard to endure the sight of the wicked flourishing when they themselves are not succeeding. They long for vengeance and punishment to be inflicted on sinners, and to be rewarded far their own pains. And then it is that the Apostle speaks his words of comfort: In a little while he who is to come will be here; he will not delay.

We ourselves can also assure the listless and negligent that there will be a time for punishment, the Lord will certainly come; the resurrection and all its consequences are close at hand. If you wonder how we know this, I do not say: from the prophets. Christ himself foretold many things. If his predictions of immediate events were false, we need not believe what he foretold of the last days. But if they have all come true, we can entertain no doubts about the things that are still to come. Let a few examples prove my point. Christ foretold the fall of Jerusalem, declaring that the city would suffer a defeat unlike anything ever experienced before, and never rise again. This prediction has been truly fulfilled. He foretold a time of great distress, which indeed came. He also described how the Gospel would spread abroad like a mustard plant grown from a tiny seed. And so in fact we see it being carried day after day to the ends of the earth. Experience bears witness to the fulfilment of these prophetic words.

St John Chrysostom, In Heb. 21.2-3 (PG 63:150-152); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Monday of the Fifth Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE PASCHAL HOMILIES OF ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

In the account of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac, the Bible portrays the mystery of our Saviour in all its aspects. Because I want you to have a clear understanding of this deep mystery of our religion, I must show you the connection between the events that typified the truth and the beauty of truth itself, and explain how each part of the story should be interpreted.

The holy Abraham took his son and hastened to the place that God had shown him. The fact that the boy was brought to be sacrificed by his father is meant to teach us, by way of type or sign, that the Lord Jesus Christ was not raised upon the Cross by any human power, nor by the wickedness of those who laid snares for him, but by the will of the Father, whose providential plan permitted him to suffer death for the whole world. The Saviour himself said as much when he answered Pilate: You would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above. At another time, speaking to his Father in heaven, he said: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by; but your will, not mine, be done.

Abraham laid the wood for the sacrifice on his son’s shoulders. In the same way, the Jews laid the wood of the Cross on the Saviour’s shoulders, and they did this with the consent, one might almost say the cooperation of the Father; for it is not possible to compel the divine power. The prophet Isaiah bears reliable witness to this when he says: He bore the punishment that brings us peace, and by his wounds we are healed. We had all strayed like sheep, every one had gone his own way and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

When the patriarch eventually arrived at the appointed place, he put all his skill into building a good altar. This too we are meant to interpret in a spiritual way, and so to understand that what appears to human eyes as a cross and a gibbet is in fact, in the eyes of the Father of the whole universe, a vast and towering altar, an altar raised up for the salvation of the world, and blackened by the smoke of a pure and most holy sacrifice.

By his words, I bared my back to the scourge, and let myself be struck on the face, Isaiah foretold the blows that his enemies would shamelessly inflict on the Saviour’s body, and their spitting upon it. For there is one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever, amen. Our Lord Jesus Christ, disregarding the shame, humbled himself in obedience to the Father even to the extent of dying for our salvation. He died to give us life through the Holy Spirit and to raise us up with himself, to open the gates of heaven to us and lead us in, thus restoring to the Father the human race whose sin had long ago made it fly from his presence.

Therefore, beloved, let this great work of our Saviour be acclaimed by every voice, let his praise be on every tongue. Let the sweet sound of that ancient song be heard again: God has gone up with shouts of jubilation, the Lord has ascended with a fanfare of trumpets. He completed the work of our salvation and then ascended; indeed he not only ascended but he also led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Paschal Homilies 5.7 (PG 77:492-497); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE FIRST CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION BY ST AUGUSTINE

There are two cities, the city of the godly and the city of the ungodly. These have been with us since the human race began, and will continue to the end of the world. For the time being, as far as outward appearances go, they are indistinguishable, but their aspirations are very different. On the Day of Judgment they will be separated bodily for all to see. One fellowship consists of all those men and angels who humbly seek God’s glory rather than their own, and follow him with laving devotion. Yet in his abundant mercy God bears patiently with the ungodly, giving them time to repent and change their ways.

We have an illustration of this in God’s decision to destroy the entire human race by the flood, with the exception of one just man and his family, who were to be kept safe in the ark. God knew the wicked would not change their ways; even so, during the hundred years it took to build the ark, they were clearly warned that his wrath would descend upon them They were assured, too, that if they turned to God he would spare them, as he later spared the penitent Ninevites. At the same time the mystery of the flood prefigures the Church to come: as the wood of the ark saved the just from drowning, so too, by the mystery of his wooden Cross, Christ, the Church’s God and King, saves us from drowning in the sea of this world. God well knew that from those saved in the ark evil men would be born who would fill the earth once again with their wickedness; nevertheless, in the symbol of a thing made of wood he gave men a foreshadowing of both the judgment to come and the salvation of the just.

We know that among those who lived after the flood, there were at least some good people who enjoyed the freedom of the holy city. The Spirit had made known to them the coming self-abasement of Christ their King; through this healing revelation they were enabled to conquer that pride which originated with the devil and to seek God with loving devotion. From their number God chose Abraham, a man of faith who served God with all his heart; to him he revealed the mystery of his Son, so that believers of all nations, by imitating his faith, would be called the children of Abraham.

From Abraham arose a people who worshiped the one true God, maker of heaven and earth. In this people the Church to come was much more clearly prefigured; it included the earthly-minded majority who served God for his material benefits, as well as the minority who looked forward to God’s eternal rest and were in search of their heavenly country. To the latter, however, the Prophets revealed the meekness of their future king, Christ Jesus our Lord and God, so that through faith in him they might rid themselves of all pride and self-importance.

Not only by their words, but still more by the symbolism of their lives, their marriages, and their children, these devout men who lived before the birth of our Lord point toward the time when through faith in the passion of Christ the pagans would be incorporated into the Church. All these things signified the mystery of Christ and his Church, of which those Old Testament saints were members, even though they lived before Christ our Lord was born according to the flesh.

St Augustine, First Catechetical Instruction, 31-32.39 (CCL 46:155-158,164); Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

There is nothing that God has not done for us. He made the world corruptible on our account, and on our account again he made it incorruptible. For our sake he allowed his prophets to be ill-treated; for our sake he let them be taken into captivity, fall into the furnace, and undergo countless other afflictions. Indeed it was for our sake that he called them to their prophetic task and summoned others to be apostles. It was for us that he gave up his only Son, and placed us at his right hand. For our sake the Son of God suffered opprobrium; in the words of Scripture: Taunts against you have fallen on me. And when we still rebel, even after receiving such great blessings, God does not abandon us, but calls us once more and raises up others to intercede for grace on our behalf. Moses was one of these; for it was only in order to move him to make entreaty for the people that God said to Moses: Let me destroy these people altogether.

Even now God acts in the same way. He grants the gift of prayer not because he needs our supplication, but to prevent our growing careless through receiving salvation that costs us no effort. Therefore he declares he has often been reconciled with his people for the sake of David or for the sake of this person or that; by such means he seeks to show the principle on which reconciliation with God is established. His love for his people might have appeared greater if he had told them that his anger was appeased on his own account instead of for the sake of someone else; but this would not have furthered his purpose, since he did not want reconciliation with God to be a matter of indifference to those who were saved.

This is the explanation of his saying to Jeremiah: Do not pray for these people, because 1 will not listen to you. His intention was to put fear into the people, rather than to stop Jeremiah praying; the prophet understood, and continued to plead for them. Just as God pronounced his decree to the Ninevites without qualification or offer of hope, and thus led them through fear to repentance, so his purpose in this episode was to stir up the people and inspire greater respect for their prophet, in order to induce them at least by this means to pay attention. Then, as their frenzy proved incurable and they were not brought to their senses even by the deportation of their compatriots, he first of all exhorted them to remain where they were. They refused to do so, and went of their own accord to Egypt. Even this he tolerated, but begged them not to involve themselves in impiety as well as deserting to Egypt. And when they disobeyed again, he sent the prophet with them to prevent their complete and final ruin.

Was there anything the prophets did not suffer on account of the people? They were sawn asunder, driven out, reproached, stoned; they bore innumerable other injuries but each time they went back to the people again. Jeremiah composed and wrote down lamentations for the Jews, and although the Persian governor would have allowed him to live in security and complete freedom wherever he wished, he preferred to share the people’s maltreatment and to endure the miseries of exile with them, rather than stay at home.

St John Chrysostom, in Rom. 14.8 (PG 60:534-535); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

We must persevere patiently in the course we have begun, without growing faint or discouraged. Let us run the race that lies ahead of us, the Apostle urges. Then, as the highest encouragement, the supreme exhortation, the first and last of all the examples he proposes to us, he goes on to say: We must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus who leads us in our faith and brings if to perfection. Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus means that we must observe the example Christ gave us if we are to learn to run our race. In all arts and athletics the skill of our instructors is impressed upon our minds as we watch them, and we ourselves become proficient by observing these masters in action. So also, in the race of life, if we want to run well and learn to keep a straight course, we must fix our eyes on Jesus who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection.

What does this imply? Surely it means that Christ has given us our faith, and we owe its very first movement within us to his inspiration. As he said to his disciples: You did not choose me, I chose you. In a similar manner Saint Paul declares: Then I shall know just as I am known. If Christ has given our faith its first impetus, he himself will direct it to its goal. He endured the Cross and thought nothing of the shame of it for the sake of the joy that lay ahead of him. He had committed no sin and there was no deceit on his tongue; this means he could have avoided suffering if he had so wished. The Gospel records Jesus’ own statement that the prince of this world was on his way, but he had no power over him. And so, in fact, it was open to Christ to refuse the Cross if he chose. I have the power to lay down my life, he says, and I have the power to take it up again. He was under no necessity of being crucified; he was crucified for our sake. Surely then it is only reasonable that we should bravely endure all the trials that we ourselves encounter.

And so Scripture tells us that for the sake of the joy that lay ahead of him Christ endured the Cross thinking nothing of the shame of it. What exactly is meant by thinking nothing of the shame? The simple fact, as Saint Paul says, that Christ chose an ignominious death, that he chose it in full freedom because he was not subject to sin. By so doing Christ has taught us to face disgrace boldly and make light of it Let me remind you of the goal he achieved: he has taken his seat at the right hand of God. You see the prize to be won in this conflict. Therefore, whenever we ourselves have to suffer some disgrace, let us think of Christ, remembering that his whole life was filled with insults. He was continuously hearing himself called a madman, deceiver, and sorcerer, by the very people among whom he went about doing good, for whom he performed miracles, and to whom he revealed the works of God.

St John Chrysostom, in Heb. 28.2 (PG 63:195); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Friday of the Fifth Week in Lent

A READING FROM a sermon by THE VENERABLE John Henry Newman

In the text, Holiness without which no one will see the Lord, it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit to convey a chief truth of religion in a few words. It is this circumstance which makes it especially impressive; for the truth itself is declared in one form or other in every part of Scripture.

When, then, we think to take part in the joys of heaven without holiness, we are as inconsiderate as if we supposed we could take an interest in the worship of Christians here below without possessing it in our measure. A careless, a sensual, an unbelieving mind, a mind destitute of the love and fear of God, with narrow views and earthly aims, a low standard of duty, and a benighted conscience, a mind contented with itself, and unresigned to God’s will, would feel as little pleasure, at the last day, at the words, Enter into the joy of your Lord, as it does now at the words, ‘Let us pray’. Nay, much less, because, while we are in a church, we may turn our thoughts to other subjects, and contrive to forget that God is looking on us; but that will not be possible in heaven.

Perhaps, however, some may say: ‘We know something of the power of religion – we love it in a measure – we have many right thoughts – we come to Church to pray; this is a proof that we are prepared for heaven; – we are safe, and what has been said does not apply to us.’ But be you not, my brethren, in the number of these. One principal test of our being true servants of God is our wishing to serve him better and be quite sure that a man who is contented with is own proficiency in Christian holiness is at best in a dark state, or rather in great peril. If we are really imbued with the grace of holiness, we shall abhor sin as something base, irrational, and polluting. Many men, it is true, are contented with partial and indistinct views of religion, and mixed motives. Be you content with nothing short of perfection; exert yourselves day by day to grow in knowledge and grace; that, if so be, you may at length attain to the presence of Almighty God.

Lastly, while we thus labour to mould our hearts after the pattern of the holiness of our heavenly Father, it is our comfort to know that we are not left to ourselves, but that the Holy Spirit is graciously present with us, and enables us to triumph over, and to change our own minds. It is a comfort and encouragement, while it is an anxious and awful thing, to know that God works in and through us. We are the instruments, but we are only the instruments, of our own salvation. Let no one say that I discourage him, and propose to him a task beyond his strength. All of us have the gifts of grace pledged to us from our youth up. We know this well; but we do not use our privilege. We form mean ideas of the difficulty, and in consequence never enter into the greatness of the gifts given us to meet it. Then afterwards, if perchance we gain a deeper insight into the work we have to do, we think God a hard master, who commands much from a sinful race. Narrow, indeed is the way of life, but infinite is his love and power who is with the Church, in Christ’s place, to guide us along it.

Ven. J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons 1:6-7.13-14; from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.

Saturday of the Fifth Week in Lent

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Leaving types and figures behind, the Apostle directs his teaching on sacrifice toward what they foreshadowed, as follows: the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the High Priest as a sacrifice for sin are burnt outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate, in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. We learn, therefore, that the former rites were a prefiguring of events to come, and Christ fulfilled them all by suffering outside the city gates. The text also shows that he suffered of his own free will, by intimating that the rites of the old Law were not without meaning but were a prophetic sign. In their accomplishment Christ suffered outside the city boundaries, but his blood was taken up to heaven.

You see then that we have a share in the blood that was brought into the Holy Place – the true Holy Place – and in the sacrifice which the High Priest alone had the right to consume. We have a share, therefore, in the reality that was signified. Our fellowship is in sanctification rather than in shame, but shame was the cause of this sanctification. As Christ himself was scorned and reproached, so also must we be. If we go outside the camp, therefore, we shall have fellowship with him.

Yet what does the text mean when it says Let us go forth to him? It means surely that we should take our share of his sufferings and accept our part in his shame, since it was no chance happening that he suffered outside the gate. We also must strive to carry his Cross and go out from the world, keeping ourselves free from worldly entanglements. Christ endured disgrace as a condemned man, and so must we.

Through him then let us offer a sacrifice to God. As to what sort of sacrifice this should be, the Apostle himself explains: A verbal sacrifice of praise to his name – in other words, prayers, hymns, and thanksgiving. These things are the fruit of our lips. The people of the Old Testament offered sheep, oxen, and calves, which they gave to the priest. None of these must we offer. Thanksgiving and, as far as in us lies, the imitation of Christ, are what we must bring to the Lord. May our lips yield fruit of this kind! Let these be the sacrifices we bring to Christ for him to offer to his Father. There is no other way in which sacrifice may be offered except through the Son, and through a contrite heart.

Since, then, the fruit of lips that praise his name is to thank him for all he has given us and for what he suffered on our account, let us accept everything gratefully, whether it be poverty, sickness, or anything else; he alone knows what is best for us. Let us endeavour, therefore, to give thanks for all things, and with a generous heart to accept whatever comes to us.

St John Chrysostom, in Heb. 33.3-4 (PG 63:229-230); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Passiontide

Passion Sunday

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

The passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is for us both a pledge of glory and a lesson in endurance. Is there anything that the faithful cannot expect from the grace of God, when for their sake the only-begotten, co-eternal Son of the Father was not only born into the human race but even allowed himself to be put to death by the very men he had created?

However great the promises the Lord has made us for the future, we must realize that the things he has already done for us are greater still. Can anyone doubt that he will share his life with the saints, when he has already given them his death? Why is our weak humanity so slow to believe that men will one day live with God? Surely something far harder to believe has already taken place: God has died for men.

Who indeed is Christ but the Word that was already in existence at the beginning, the Word who lived with God and was God himself? That Word of God became man and lived among us. Unless he had first assumed our mortal flesh he could not have died for us; only in that way was the immortal God able to die and to give life to mortal men. By first sharing their nature, he could in return give them a share in his. In ourselves we had no power to live, and in him there was nothing that could die. And so by this double sharing he brought about a wonderful exchange: we made death possible for him, and he made life possible for us.

Not only, therefore, need we feel no shame for the death of the Lord our God: we should put all our trust in it and take pride in it, since having taken upon himself the death he found in us, he has promised that we shall find our life in him, a life we could never have of ourselves. If he who was sinless so loved us as to be willing to suffer what we had deserved for our sins, then surely he who has justified us will gladly give us the recompense of the just. Will he not reward his saints according to his faithful promise, when he took upon himself, guiltless though he was, the punishment due to the guilty?

And so, let us confidently acknowledge and openly declare that Christ was crucified for our sake, proclaiming it with joy and pride, not with fear and shame. The apostle Paul saw in this reason for boasting. He could have told us many great and holy things about Christ: how as God he shared with his Father the work of creation, and how as man like us he was master of the world. But he would not glory in any of these wonderful things. God forbid that 1 should boast of anything, he said, except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

St Augustine, Sermo Guelferbytanus 3 (PLS 2:545-546); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Monday in Holy Week

A READING FROM THE MIRROR OF CHARITY BY ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX

We can find no greater inspiration to love even our enemies as brothers - as we must if our love is to be perfect - than grateful remembrance of Christ’s wonderful patience. He who was the fairest of the children of men offered his beautiful face to be spat upon by sinners; he allowed those eyes whose glance rules the universe to be blindfolded by wicked men; he bared his back to the scourges; he submitted that head which strikes terror into principalities and powers to the sharpness of thorns; he gave himself up to be mocked and reviled, and at the end endured the Cross, the nails, the lance, the gall, the vinegar, while remaining always gentle, kindly, and serene. In short, he was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before the shearers he was silent, not opening his mouth.

Who could listen to that wonderful prayer, so full of affection, love and imperturbable calm - Father, forgive them - and not at once embrace his enemies with all his love? Father, he says, forgive them. Could any prayer be more full of gentleness and love?

Yet he added something more. It was not enough to pray for them: he wished also to excuse them. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. They are great sinners, yes, but they have little understanding. Therefore, Father, forgive them. They are nailing me to the Cross, but they do not know who it is they are nailing to the Cross. If they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Therefore, Father, forgive them. They think it is a lawbreaker, an impostor claiming to be God, a seducer of the people. I have hidden my face from them, and they do not recognize my glory. Therefore, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

If we wish to experience fully the joy of loving our brothers, we must embrace with real love even our enemies. To prevent this fire of divine love from being cooled by the injuries we receive, let us keep the eyes of our soul always fixed on the serene patience of our beloved Lord and Saviour.

St Aelred of Rievaulx, The Mirror of Charity 3.5: (PL 195:582); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Tuesday in Holy Week

A READING FROM THE BOOK On the Holy Spirit by st Basil THE GREAT

The providence of our God and Saviour in regard to man consists of his recall from the fall and his return to close communion with God from the estrangement caused by his disobedience. This was the purpose of Christ’s dwelling in the flesh, the pattern of his life described in the Gospels, his sufferings, the Cross, the burial, the resurrection; so that man could be saved, and could recover, through imitating Christ, the adoption of former times.

So, for perfection of life it is necessary not only to imitate Christ, in the examples of gentleness, and humility, and patience which he gave us in his life, but also to imitate him in his death, as Paul the imitator of Christ, says: Becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

How then do we become like him in his death? By having been buried with him through baptism. But how does this burial take place? What benefit has this imitation? First of all one must break with one’s life of the past. This is impossible, unless one is born again, as the Lord said. For regeneration, as is evident from the word itself is the beginning of a second life. Consequently, before beginning this second life, we must bring the first to an end. As in the race called the double course (where the competitors must run to the turning point and back to the start again) a halt, a brief respite separates the outward run and the return, so also for a change of life it seemed necessary that death intervene between the two lives, to make an end of all that went before and a beginning of all that follows.

How do we accomplish the descent into hell? By imitating through baptism the burial of Christ. For the bodies of the baptized are buried as it were in the water. Baptism then indicates symbolically the laying aside of the works of the flesh, as the Apostle says: You were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism. Baptism, as it were, cleanses the soul of the pollution which comes from the mind set on the flesh, as it is written, You will wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Consequently, we know only one baptism which saves, since there is one death on behalf of the world and one resurrection from the dead, and baptism is the figure of these.

St Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit 15.35; from The Divine Office II.

Wednesday in Holy Week

A READING FROM A SERMON BY BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY

It seems to me that during these days when we are solemnly observing the annual commemoration of our Lord’s passion and crucifixion, I cannot speak to you on a more appropriate subject than that of Jesus Christ himself, and him crucified. Even at another season of thet would be hard to find a worthier theme. Could you hear anything more salutary or occupy your minds with anything more profitable? Surely nothing can so sweetly stir the hearts of the faithful or exert so wholesome an influence on their lives; nothing has such power to cut off their sins, root out their vices, nourish and strengthen their virtues, as the remembrance of Jesus crucified.

To those who have reached maturity Saint Paul may preach about the hidden wisdom of God; but to me, whose shortcomings are visible to all, let him speak of the crucified Christ, who indeed seems mere foolishness to those who are on the road to perdition, but is the power and the wisdom of God to those who are on the way to salvation. For me this is the highest and noblest philosophy, in the light of which all worldly and human wisdom is of no account.

How perfect I might think myself, how advanced in wisdom, if only I could qualify as a true disciple of Jesus crucified, for God has made him not only our wisdom but also our righteousness, our holiness and our freedom! If anyone is nailed to the Cross with Christ he is altogether wise, righteous, holy and free. Wise, because he has been raised with Christ above the earth, and now seeks and understands the things of heaven; righteous, because sin has been put to death in him and he is no longer enslaved to it; holy, because he has offered himself to God as a living sacrifice, consecrated and acceptable to him; free, because the Son of God has redeemed him, and in freedom of spirit he can now boldly repeat the Son’s confident words: The prince of this world is on his way, but he has no claim on me.

Truly there is mercy and fullness of redemption with our crucified Lord. So completely has he redeemed Israel from all its iniquity that it is now acquitted of any accusation that the prince of this world could make against it. The Lord has redeemed his people from the land of the foe and gathered them from far-off lands. Let them be of one mind with their teacher, Saint Paul, in declaring: God forbid that 1 should boast of anything but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Bd Guerric of Igny, Sermo 2, In ramis palmarum 1 (PL 185:130-131); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Maundy Thursday

A READING FROM THE HOMILY ON THE PASCH BY ST MELITO OF SARDIS

The Prophets announced many wonderful things about the Passover mystery which is Christ. To him be glory forever. Amen.

He descended from heaven to earth for the sake of suffering mankind, clothed himself with a human nature through the Virgin Mary, and appearing in our midst as a man with a body capable of suffering, took upon himself the suffering of those who suffered. By his Spirit which could not die, he slew death, the slayer of men. Led forth like a lamb, slain like a sheep, he ransomed us from the servitude of the world, just as he ransomed Israel from the land of Egypt. He freed us from the slavery of the devil, just as he had freed Israel from the hand of Pharaoh; and he has marked our souls with the signs of his own blood. He has clothed death with dishonour and he has grieved the devil, just as Moses dishonoured and grieved Pharaoh. He has punished wickedness and taken away the children of injustice, just as Moses punished Egypt and caused its children to be taken away. He has brought us from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light, from death to life, from tyranny to an eternal kingdom.

He is the Passover of our salvation. He was present in many so as to endure many things. In Abel he was slain; in Isaac bound; in Jacob a stranger; in Joseph sold; in Moses exposed; in David persecuted; in the Prophets dishonoured. He became incarnate of the Virgin. Not a bone of his was broken on the tree. He was buried in the earth, but he rose from the dead, and was lifted up to the heights of heaven. He is the silent lamb, the slain lamb, who was born of Mary the fair ewe. He was seized from the flock and dragged away to slaughter. Towards evening he was sacrificed, and at night he was buried. But he who had no bone broken upon the Cross, was not corrupted in the earth, for he rose from the dead and raised up man from the depths of the grave.

St Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha 65-71; from The Divine Office II.

Good Friday

A READING FROM THE BAPTISMAL CATECHESES OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Do you wish to know of the power of Christ’s blood? Let us go back to the ancient accounts of what took place in Egypt, where Christ’s blood is foreshadowed.

Moses said: Sacrifice a lamb without blemish and smear the doors with its blood. What does this mean? Can the blood of a sheep without reason save man who is endowed with reason? Yes, Moses replies, not because it is blood but because it is a figure of the Lord’s blood. So today if the devil sees, not the blood of the figure smeared on the doorposts, but the blood of the reality smeared on the lips of the faithful, which are the doors of the temple of Christ, with all the more reason will he draw back.

Do you wish to learn from another source the power of this blood? See where it began to flow, from what spring it flowed down from the Cross, from the Master’s side. The Gospel relates that when Christ had died and was still hanging on the Cross, the soldier approached him and pierced his side with the spear, and at once there came out water and blood. The one was a symbol of baptism, the other of the mysteries. That soldier, then, pierced his side: he breached the wall of the holy temple, and I found the treasure and acquired the wealth. Similarly with the lamb. The Jews slaughtered it in sacrifice, and I gathered the fruit of that sacrifice – salvation.

There came out from his side water and blood. Dearly beloved, do not pass the secret of this great mystery without reflection. For I have another secret mystical interpretation to give. I said that baptism and the mysteries were symbolized in that blood and water. It is from these two that the holy Church has been born, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, by baptism and by the mysteries. Now the symbols of baptism and the mysteries came from his side. It was from his side, then, that Christ formed the Church, as from the side of Adam he formed Eve.

That is why in his account of the first man Moses has the words, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, giving us a hint here of the Master’s side. For as at that time took a rib from Adam’s side and formed woman, so Christ gave us blood and water from his side and formed the Church. Just as then he took the rib while Adam was in a deep sleep, so now he gave the blood and water after his death.

Have you seen how Christ has united his bride to himself? Have you seen with what kind of food he feeds us all? By the same food we are formed and are fed. As a woman feeds her child with her own blood and milk, so too Christ himself continually feeds those whom he has begotten with his own blood.

St John Chrysostom, Catechesis 3:13-19; from The Divine Office II.

Holy Saturday

A READING FROM AN ANCIENT HOMILY FOR HOLY SATURDAY

What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam’s son. The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his Cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: ‘My Lord be with you all.’ And Christ in reply says to Adam: ‘And with your spirit.’ And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.

‘I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise. I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.

‘For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form, that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden.

‘Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to my own image. See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one. I slept on the Cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.

`But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God. The cherubim throne has been prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness, the treasures of good things have been opened; the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages.’

An ancient homily for Holy Saturday; from The Divine Office II.

Season of Easter

Easter Monday

A READING FROM on the pasch BY ST melito of sardis

You must understand, dearly beloved, how the mystery of the Pasch is new and old, eternal and transient, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal.

It is old according to the Law, but new according to the Word. It is transient in its prototype, but eternal in grace. It is corruptible in the immolation of the sheep, but incorruptible in the life of the Lord. It is mortal because of his burial in the earth, but immortal because of his resurrection from the dead.

The Law is old, but the Word new; the prototype is transient, but grace eternal; the sheep is corruptible, the Lord incorruptible, who was sacrificed as a lamb, but rose as God.

He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, but he was not a sheep; he was as a lamb without voice, but he was not a lamb. The figure has passed away, the reality has come: it is God who has come in place of the lamb, man in place of the sheep, and in the man is Christ, who contains all things.

So the immolation of the sheep, and the solemn rite of the Pasch, and the letter of the Law have come to accomplishment in Christ Jesus. Everything in the old Law, and more particularly everything in the new, was directed towards him.

For the Law has become the Word and the old new (each coming from Sion and Jerusalem); the commandment has become grace, and the type reality, the lamb has become Son, the sheep a man, and man has become God.

Though Lord, he became man; he suffered for those who were suffering, he was bound for the captive, judged for the condemned, buried for the one who was buried; he rose from the dead and cried out: ‘Who shall contend with me? Let him stand up to face me. I have freed the condemned, brought the dead to life, raised up the buried. Who will speak against me?’ ‘I am the Christ’, he says, ‘It is I who destroyed death, who triumphed over the enemy, who trampled Hades underfoot, who bound the strong one and snatched man away to the heights of heaven; I am the Christ.’

‘Come then, all you nations of men defiled by sin, receive the forgiveness of sin. For it is I who am your forgiveness, the Pasch of your salvation, the lamb slain for you; it is I who am your ransom, your life, your resurrection, your light, your salvation, your king. I am bringing you to the heights of heaven, I will show you the Father who is from all eternity, I will raise you up with my right hand.’

St Melito of Sardis, On the Pasch 2-7, 100-103; The Divine Office II

Easter Tuesday

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY BY ST BEDE ON THE FIRST LETTER OF ST PETER

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. This compliment was addressed through Moses in time gone by to God’s ancient people, and now the Apostle Peter rightly addresses it to the Gentiles. For they have come to believe in Christ, who as the cornerstone has associated the Gentiles with the salvation which belonged to Israel.

He calls them a ‘chosen race’ on account of their faith, to distinguish them from those who rejected the living rock and themselves have been rejected.

He calls them a ‘royal priesthood’ because they are members of the body of the supreme King and true Priest. As king he grants to his people a kingdom; as High Priest he washes away their sins by the sacrifice of his own blood. He names them a ‘royal priesthood’ as a reminder to hope for an eternal kingdom, and to offer to God without ceasing the sacrifice of a sinless life.

They are called also ‘a holy nation and God’s own people’, in accordance with the Apostle Paul’s explanation of the teaching of the Prophet: “My righteous one lives by faith; and if he shrinks back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and keep their souls. And in the Acts of the Apostles St Paul says: The Holy Spirit has made you guardians to rule the Church of the Lord which he obtained with his own blood.

We have become ‘God’s own people’ through the blood of our Redeemer; for in time gone by the people of Israel was redeemed from Egypt by the blood of the lamb.

Accordingly in the following verse he once more recalls the mystical sense of this event in the Old Testament, and explains that it is to be fulfilled again spiritually by the new people of God in these words: That you may declare his wonderful deeds. The people who were freed by Moses from slavery in Egypt, after the crossing of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh's army, sang a hymn of triumph to the Lord; so too, since we have received pardon for our sins in Baptism, we should express due thanks for the heavenly graces we have received.

For the Egyptians, who oppressed God’s people, and who stand for darkness and suffering, are an apt symbol for the sins which harass us, but which have been destroyed in Baptism.

The liberation of the children of Israel, and the journey by which they were led to the homeland they had long ago been promised, correspond to the mystery of our redemption through which we make our way to the brightness of our heavenly home, with the grace of Christ as our light and our guide. The light of grace is symbolized by the pillar of cloud and fire which throughout their journey protected them from the darkness of the night, and led them along their secret path to their home in the promised land.

St Bede, Commentary on 1 Peter 2; The Divine Office II

Easter Wednesday

A READING FROM A PASCHAL HOMILY BY AN ANCIENT AUTHOR

Paul rejoices that we are restored to spiritual health and cries out: As through Adam death came into this world, so through Christ salvation was restored to the world, and again: The first man was from the earth, earthly, the second man is from heaven, heavenly.

And he adds: As we have borne the image of the man of the earth, that is, of the old sinful nature, so let us bear the image of the man of heaven, that is, let us hold fast in Christ to the nature that is saved, accepted, redeemed, restored and purified. For Paul says: First there is Christ, that is, the author of resurrection and life; then those who are Christ’s, that is, those who live in imitation of his purity, those who live in unshakeable hope because of his resurrection, those who are to possess with him the glory promised to us in heaven. As the Lord himself says in the Gospel: He who has followed me will not perish, but will pass from death to life.

Thus the passion of the Saviour is salvation for mankind. This was why he willed to die for us, that we should believe in him, and live for ever. He willed to become for a time what we are, so that we should receive the promise of his eternity and live with him for ever.

This is the feast of the year for which we long, the beginnings of life-giving realities. Here is given us the grace of the heavenly mysteries, the gift of the Pasch. In this feast infants come to birth in the bath of life of holy Church; they are reborn with the simplicity of babes and cry out with the voice of an innocent conscience. Here chaste fathers and pure mothers present by faith a new family beyond numbering.

In this feast the baptismal font, the womb which begets pure life, is ablaze with the light of candles under the cross, the tree of faith. Here men are sanctified by the gift of heavenly grace and fed by the spiritual sacrament, the sacred mystery. Here the Church, gathered in brotherhood and unity, is nourished. Adoring the substance of the one Godhead and the powerful name of the three persons, they join with the Prophet in singing the psalm of the annual feast: This is the day which the Lord made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it.

What is this day? It is he who is the source of life, the beginning of brightness, the author of life-our Lord Jesus Christ, who said of himself: ‘I am the day: he who walks by daylight does not stumble.’ That is to say, if a man follows Christ in all things, he will cross over in Christ’s steps to the very throne of eternal light. While Christ was still in this bodily life, he prayed to the Father for us in these words: Father, I desire that those who have believed in me may be with me where I am, that even as you are in me, and I in you, so they too may remain in us.

Ancient Paschal Homily; The Divine Office II

Easter Thursday

A READING FROM A PASCHAL HOMILY BY ST HESYCHIUS OF JERUSALEM

The festival we celebrate today, is one of victory – the victory of the Son of God, king of the whole universe. On this day the devil is defeated by the crucified one; our race is filled with joy by the risen one. In honour of my resurrection in Christ this day cries out: ‘In my journey I beheld a new wonder – an open tomb, a man risen from the dead, bones exulting, souls rejoicing, men refashioned, the heavens opened, and powers crying out: Lift up your gates, you princes; be lifted up, you everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in. On this day I saw the King of Heaven, robed in light, ascend above the lightning and the rays of the sun, above the sun and the sources of water, above the dwelling place of the angelic powers and the city of eternal life.’

Hidden first in a womb of flesh, he sanctified human birth by his own birth; hidden afterward in the womb of the earth, he gave life to the dead by his resurrection. Suffering, pain, and sighs have now fled away. For who has known the mind of God, or who has been his counsellor if not the Word made flesh, who was nailed to the cross, who rose from the dead, and who was taken up into heaven?

This day brings a message of joy: it is the day of the Lord’s resurrection when, with himself, he raised up the race of Adam. Born for the sake of men, he rose from the dead with them. On this day paradise is opened by the risen one, Adam is restored to life and Eve is consoled. On this day the divine call is heard, the kingdom is prepared, we are saved and Christ is adored. On this day, when he had trampled death under foot, made the tyrant a prisoner, and despoiled the underworld, Christ ascended into heaven as a king in victory, as a ruler in glory, as an invincible charioteer. He said to the Father: Here am I, O God, with the children you have given me and he heard the Father’s reply: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. To him be glory, now and for ever, through endless ages, amen.

St Hesychius of Jerusalem, Paschal Homily (SC 187:66-69); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Easter Friday

A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY DIDYMUS THE BLIND

The true Baptism, which was instituted after the manifestation of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, frees from all sin everyone who at any time goes down into the font. Moreover, to all, both old and young, it gives a new birth by grace that makes them brethren of the firstborn. The whole wealth of heaven is deposited quite safely even with those whom civil law regards as too old or too young to be entrusted with the goods of this world. Therefore they sing with joy, The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing 1 shall want. He places me in green pastures, he leads me to still waters; and, You have spread a table for me in the sight of my enemies; you have anointed my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.

The consecrated oil that we receive, though applied to our bodies, is for the benefit of our souls. When faith in the blessed Trinity enters our hearts and we profess this faith and our foreheads are marked with the seal of Christ, when we receive Baptism and are strengthened by chrism, immediately the gracious Trinity, whose very nature it is to give good gifts, comes down to us; impure spirits instantly retreat before our purity, worldly cares leave us, bodily passions of whatever kind are banished; our sins are all forgiven, our names are indelibly inscribed in the book of life, all the blessings of heaven are bequeathed to us. Desiring to be always supreme in goodness and generosity, the Trinity even anticipates our own free decision by inspiring it.

In his first letter, Peter shows that since people were saved in the past by a baptism which was only a type, much more will the true Baptism make us both immortal and divine. The water that saved eight people in the ark was a figure of the Baptism that saves you now. This Baptism is not merely the washing away of dirt from the body, but the promise made to God from a clear conscience. It saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who, having gone into heaven, sits at God’s right hand, ruling over all angels, dominations, and powers.

Blessed are the eyes that see the things that you see, said the Lord. We who have become spiritual not only see and hear these things but, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we actually enjoy them. We communicate in the body of Christ, and drink from the fountain of immortality.

Didymus the Blind, On the Trinity, II.14 (PG 39:710-718); Word in Season III, 2nd ed.

Easter Saturday

A READING FROM THE MYSTAGOGICAL CATECHESES OF ST CYRIL OF JERUSALEM

You were conducted by the hand to the holy pool of sacred Baptism, just as Christ was conveyed from the cross to the sepulchre close at hand.

Each person was asked if he believed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You made the confession that brings salvation, and submerged yourselves three times in the water and emerged: by this symbolic action you were secretly re-enacting the burial of Christ three days in the tomb.

Just as our Saviour spent three days and nights in the womb of the earth, so you upon first emerging were representing Christ’s first day in the earth, and by your immersion his first night. For at night one can no longer see but during the day one has light; so you saw nothing when immersed as if it were night, but you emerged as if to the light of day. In one and the same action you died and were born: that water of salvation became both tomb and mother for you.

What Solomon said in another context is apposite to you: There is a time to be born, and a time to die, but the opposite is true in your case – there is a time to die and a time to be born. A single moment achieves both ends, and your begetting was simultaneous with your death.

What a strange and astonishing situation! We did not really die, we were not really buried, we did not really hang from a cross and rise again. Our imitation was symbolic, but our salvation a reality.

Christ truly hung from a cross, was truly buried, and truly rose again. All this he did gratuitously for us, so that we might share his sufferings by imitating them, and gain salvation in actuality.

What boundless love! The innocent hands and feet of Christ were pierced by the nails: he suffered the pain. I suffer neither pain nor anguish: yet by letting me participate in his pain he gives me the free gift of salvation.

No one should think, then, that his Baptism is merely for the remission of sins and for adoption as sons in the way that John’s Baptism brought only remission of sins. We know well that not merely does it cleanse sins and bestow on us the gift of the Holy Spirit – it is also the counterpart of Christ’s suffering. This is why, as we heard just now, Paul cried out: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by Baptism into death.

St Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catecheses 2.4-6; The Divine Office II

Easter Week 2

Low Sunday

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

I address myself to you, newly-baptized infants, little ones in Christ, new offspring of the Church, grace of the Father, fruitfulness of the Mother’s womb, holy children, new swarm, flower of our honour, and fruit of our labour, my joy and my crown, all of you who stand upright before the Lord.

I address to you the words of the Apostle: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires, so that you may put on the life which you have put on by this sacrament. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Such is the efficacy of this sacrament. It is the sacrament of the new life which begins at the present time by the forgiveness of all past sins, but will only be completed in the resurrection of the dead. We have been buried with Christ by Baptism into death, so that as Christ has arisen from the dead, we too may walk in newness of life.

Now you walk by faith, as long as you journey in this mortal body far from the Lord. But Jesus Christ towards whom you are moving is a sure way. He is this in his humanity which he took on for us. He has in reserve an abundance of sweetness for those who fear him, which he will manifest and perfect in those who hope in him, when we shall receive in reality what we have now received in hope.

Today is the octave of your birth; today is perfected in you the seal of faith which was given among our fathers of old on the eighth day after physical birth through physical circumcision. So too the Lord himself by rising cut away mortality from the flesh and raised up, not a different body, but one that would die no more. This he did on the Lord’s day, the third day after his passion, the eighth day after the Sabbath, which is also the first.

So you have not yet received in fact the glory of the resurrection but you have the sure hope of receiving it since you have the sacrament of that reality and the pledge of the Spirit. If you have risen with Christ, seek the thing, that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

St Augustine, Sermon 8 in Octave of Easter; The Divine Office II

Monday of the Second Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ

He has made us a royal race of priests to the honour of God, his Father. In this text Scripture shows us Christ's marvellous kindness and condescension. Our minds are too limited to grasp a statement of such magnitude, our tongues too weak to render adequate praise. The truth is that when Christ bought us at such great cost to himself - at the cost indeed of his most precious blood - it was not with the intention of making us his slaves; his purpose was to create a royal race of priests to the honour of God his Father. We were to be his Father’s kingdom, and priests in the service of God. He alone was King and Priest in his own right, yet he resolved to make kings of the slaves of sin and priests of the children of death. To that end he shed his blood.

O Lord our God, how wonderful is your name, how wonderful the majesty and honour with which you have crowned the Lord Jesus as King of kings! You have set on his head the crowns of all those kings who form your kingdom, for yours is a kingdom of kings, resplendent in their regalia, each consecrated to you by the blood of Christ.

We are also told that he has made us priests who share in that sacrifice by which Christ himself triumphed over the devil and so destroyed the dominion of sin. We do not all possess the fullness of the priesthood here on earth, with the power to bring about the real presence of our Lord’s body and blood by pronouncing the words of consecration, but all of us are called to exercise a priestly function by offering ourselves to God according to that exhortation of the Apostle Paul: I beseech you to present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him, since this is the service required of rational beings. In no other way shall we be permitted to enter into the celestial Holy of Holies, by which I mean heaven itself.

In heaven the sacramental species of bread and wine, which constitute our present sacrifice, will find no place. None of us, however, will ever lack matter for sacrifice there. Our lips will always be able to offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, a hymn of rejoicing and the proclamation of God’s mighty works. Indeed the next verse from the Apocalypse supplies us with a model for such a heavenly sacrifice in the acclamation: Glory and power to him for ever and ever! Amen. And this is certainly what the law of justice requires of us, namely, that creatures should return thanks and praise to their creator for all the benefits they have received. As an example, we can take Moses and the children of Israel. When they had been delivered from bondage in Egypt by the immolation of the passover lamb, and had seen Pharaoh and his army drowned in the Red Sea, they sang a canticle of praise to the Lord.

To keep one’s mouth closed and to silence one’s tongue, instead of voicing one’s thanks in acknowledgment of a favour received, is a sure sign of ingratitude. Therefore when John intones this short hymn of praise and thanksgiving, Glory and power to him forever and ever! let us all reply: Amen. In the words of the Apostle Paul: Let every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Abbot Rupert of Deutz, In Apoc. (PL 169:841-842); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Tuesday of the Second Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ABBOT GEOFFREY OF AUXERRE

I know your affliction and your poverty. How is it he says in the psalm, A people I did not know has served me? He seems not to recognise those of his own whose suffering he does not relieve; he seems unaware of the harm to his own that he does not avenge; he seems to ignore those whose obedience he does not repay. Antony, sorely beaten by evil spirits, recognised the Saviour’s presence as a heavenly light fell on him. From the midst of his misery, he said, ‘Where were you, good Jesus, where were you?’ And a voice came to him, ‘Antony, I was here, but I was waiting to see your fight’

And so he who began to do and to teach, he who first suffered in himself the affliction of death and the cross – as he now lives in his own person, so too does he live in every one who belongs to him, even to the least member of his body – tells the angel of Smyrna that after their afflictions and deaths they will be victorious forever. I know your affliction. He says: Even though I hesitate, even though I defer consolation, I know it and keep it in mind; indeed, I even suffer in you the affliction you suffer because of me. Although I was rich, for your sake I became poor; I know and I affirm your poverty.

He is not speaking of universal poverty as did Tobias’ father when he reminded the boy, Remember, son, we lead a poor life. He is not speaking of that mother of wretched anxiety which a mendicant people bears under dire necessity. He has in mind that poverty which by his counsel and grace the perfect embrace in spiritual devotion. He once commended that poverty to his disciples when he opened his mouth at the beginning of his sermon, blessing the poor in spirit with the promise, indeed the conferral, of a heavenly kingdom, just as he commended those suffering persecution for righteousness’ sake. Of both he says, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They have no regrets for having renounced the deceitful riches of this world, or for having been driven from their earthly dwellings by persecutors, for a kingdom is given them hereafter in heaven. And so, after commending poverty to this angel, he immediately adds that he is rich.

I know your affliction and your poverty, but, he says, you are rich. Is the one who possesses the kingdom of heaven not rich? How much richer is he than if he possessed some earthly kingdom! Beloved, let us embrace the poverty that makes people rich. What wonder is it that plenty can at times make people poor, and opulence create paupers? Just as drink stimulates the thirst of dropsy victims, so for the greedy, their love of gain increases as much as money itself increases. Contempt for riches makes people rich just as yearning for it makes paupers. Yet it is not out of their own poverty that the faithful grow rich, but out of the Lord’s, as the Apostle says: Although he was rich, he became poor for our sakes, that by his poverty we may be enriched. No wonder we are enriched by his poverty, for we are filled by his self-emptying, and quickened by his death.

Abbot Geoffrey of Auxerre, On the Apocalypse, Sermon 11; CF 42 (2000) tr. Gibbons.

Wednesday of the Second Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM CHRIST IN HIS MYSTERIES BY BD. COLUMBA MARMION

If we do consider the Eucharist as a Sacrament, we shall discover in it wonderful properties which only a God could invent.

I have often said following St Paul, to whom this idea is dear, that the chief events in the history of the Jewish people under the old Law were symbols, sometimes hidden and obscure, sometimes apparent and luminous, of the realities that were to be the light of the New Testament established by Christ. Now, according to Our Lord’s own words, one of the most characteristic figures of the Eucharist was the manna; with a special insistence, our Divine Saviour established comparisons between this food which came down from heaven to nourish the Hebrews in the desert, and the Eucharistic bread which he was to give to the world. Therefore it is to enter into the intentions of Christ if we study the figure and symbol the better to grasp the reality.

Now see in what terms the sacred writer, the instrument of the Holy Spirit, speaks to us of the manna. You fed your people with the food of angels, and gave them bread from heaven prepared without labour, having in it all that is delicious and the sweetness of every taste. For your sustenance showed your sweetness to your children, and serving every man’s will, it was turned to what every man liked. The Church in the office of the Blessed Sacrament applies these magnificent words to the Eucharist. We are about to see with what truth and fullness they express the properties of the Eucharistic Bread; we shall see with how much more reason we can sing of the Sacred Host what the inspired author sings of the manna.

Like manna, the Eucharist is a food, but a spiritual food. It is in the midst of a meal, under the form of food, that Our Lord chose to institute it. Christ Jesus gives Himself to us as the nourishment of our souls: My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed.

Again like the manna, the Eucharist is bread come down from heaven. But the manna was only an imperfect figure; that is why Our Lord said to the Jews who recalled to him the miracle of the desert: Moses gave you bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Of all the properties that Holy Scripture attributes to the manna, there is one which is particularly remarkable. The manna was a food which accommodated itself to the taste and wishes of the one who partook of it: serving every man’s will, it was turned to what every man liked. In the heavenly Bread, the Eucharist, we can also find, if I may thus express myself, the savour of all the mysteries of Christ, and the virtue of all His states. We are not here considering the Eucharist any longer as a memorial, but as source of grace, and this is a fruitful aspect of the Eucharistic mystery. If we allow it to penetrate our souls, we shall feel the love and desire for this divine food increase within us.

These are some of the marvels figured by the manna and brought about, for the life and joy of our souls, by the wisdom and bounty of our God. How call we fall to surround these sacred mysteries with all our reverence and adoration? Grant us, we beseech you, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of your body and blood!

Blessed Columba Marmion, Christ in His Mysteries 2.18.2-3.

Thursday of the Second Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE DIALOGUE OF COMFORT AGAINST TRIBULATION OF ST THOMAS MORE

Let us all who cannot now conceive such delight in the consideration of the joys of heaven as we should, have often in our eyes by reading, often in our ears by hearing, often in our mouths by rehearsing, often in our hearts by meditation and thinking, those joyful words of Holy Scripture by which we learn how wonderfully large and great those spiritual heavenly joys are, of which our fleshly hearts have so feeble and so faint a feeling, and our dull worldly wits so little ability to conceive as much as a shadow of the right imagination. A shadow, I say, for as for the actual thing as it is, not only can no fleshly fantasy conceive it, but even more, no spiritual holy person either, as long as he is still living in this world. For since the very essence and substance of all the celestial joy consists in the blessed beholding of the glorious Godhead face to face, no one can presume or expect to attain it in this life, for God has said so himself: No one shall see me and live. And therefore we may well know that while in this state of life we are not only shut out from the fruition of the bliss of heaven, but also that the very best man living here upon earth (the best, I mean, who is not more than human) cannot, I think, imagine it aright. Even the very virtuous are, in a way, as far from conceiving it as one born blind is from having the right imagination of colours.

The words that Saint Paul repeats from the Prophet Isaiah prophesying Christ’s incarnation may properly be applied to the joys of heaven: No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has anyone imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. For surely, while in the state of this world, the joys of heaven are by our mouths unspeakable, to our ears not audible, to our hearts inconceivable, so far do they excel all that we have ever heard of, all that we can ever speak of, all that by our natural powers we can ever think on.

And yet, although the joys of heaven are thus prepared for every saved soul, our Lord says, by the mouth of Saint John, that he will give his holy martyrs that suffer for his sake many a special kind of joy. For he says: To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life. And also, He who conquers shall be clothed in white garments, and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. And also he says: fear none of those things that you suffer, but be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.

St Thomas More, A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation 3.26; Word in Season III, 2nd ed.

Friday of the Second Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ST BEATUS OF LIÉBANA

And I saw in the midst of the throne and around the throne four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The four living creatures signify the four evangelists because, being full of eyes in front and behind, it seems that they contain the mysteries of God both past and future. The first has the form of a lion, the second of an ox, the third of a man, the fourth of an eagle.

A question arises: how are these four living creatures both in the midst of the throne and also around the throne? These locations must be understood spiritually, because it would be an error to understand them according to the letter. Now, it had previously been said that Christ was sitting in the midst of the throne and around the throne were the Elders, but now the living creatures are in these places. If you apply the ear of your heart, you will know all these things to be spiritual because they are said solely about the Head and the members. The throne where Christ sits is the Church and the living creatures are said to be in the midst of the throne and around it. This means that the Gospels are in the midst of the Church and also in the Elders. How can the living creatures and the Elders both be around the throne unless they are one and the same?

The strength of the Church is shown in the lion, as it is said: behold the lion of the tribe of Judah conquers. In the second animal it is shown how the Church is strong, for the ox is a sacrificial victim. The third shows how it is both lion and ox: it has the face of a man. This speaks of the humility of the Church which, as it has the adoption of the sons of God, seems to be like a man possessing nothing but humanity, as it is said of the Lord, although he was in the form of God… he emptied himself taking the form of a servant… and being found in human form he humbled himself and was made obedient unto death. These three living creatures are completed in the fourth which is like a flying eagle. In this eagle there is nothing earthly, unless it concerns him who was strong in his Passion like a lion; who offered himself once as a holocaust like an ox; and who is rational and was sent forth to perform his work as a man.

In Ezekiel through the Holy Spirit of prophecy these flying winged-creatures are subtly described so that they signify the persons of the evangelists as is shown by the beginnings of each Gospel. Because he begins with a human genealogy, Matthew is rightly signified by a man; because he begins with the crying in the wilderness, Mark is rightly signified by a lion; because he begins with a sacrifice, Luke is rightly signified by an ox; and because he begins with the divinity of the Word, John is rightly signified by an eagle. And because all the elect are members of our Redeemer, as he is the Head of all, there is nothing wrong if he himself is signified by these living creatures: by being born he is made a man; by dying, an ox; by rising, a lion; and by ascending to heaven, an eagle.

St Beatus of Liébana, In Apocalipsin, 3.3.1-2, 17-24, 28-30, 33-38 (ed. Sanders 1930); tr. Pluscarden.

Saturday of the Second Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.

We are told to sing to the Lord a new song. A new man knows a new song. A song is a thing of joy and, if we think carefully about it, a thing of love. So the man who has learned to love a new life has learned to sing a new song. Therefore we need to be told the nature of this new life, for the sake of the new song. For a new man, a new song and the New Testament all belong to the same kingdom. So the new man will sing a new song and belong to the New Testament.

Everyone loves; the question is, what does he love? Consequently we are not told not to love, but to choose what to love. But how can we choose, unless we are first chosen? We cannot love unless we are first loved. Listen to the words of John the Apostle: We love, because he first loved us. If you search for the reason why a man loves God you will find no other reason at all, save that God first loved him. He gave us himself as the object of our love, and he gave us the source of our love. If you wish to know what he gave as the source of our love, you can find a clearer explanation in the words of the Apostle Paul: The love of God is poured out in our hearts. Where does it come from? From ourselves? No. Where then? Through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Since, then, we have such an assurance, let us love God by the gift of God. As Saint John himself expresses it more clearly: God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. It is not enough to say: ‘Love comes from God.’ Which of us would dare to say what Saint John said: God is love? He knew what he was saying, for he experienced this love himself.

God offers himself to us; there is no need to offer us more. He calls out to us: ‘Love me and you will possess me, because you cannot love me unless you possess me.’

My brothers, my sons, children of the Catholic Church, holy seeds of heaven, you who have been born again in Christ, born from above, listen to me, or rather, through me: Sing to the Lord a new song. ‘But I do sing’, you may reply. You sing, of course you sing, I can hear you; but make sure that your life sings the same tune as your mouth.

Sing with your voices, sing with your hearts, sing with your lips, sing with your lives. Sing to the Lord a new song. Do you ask what you should sing about the one whom you love? Of course you want to sing about the one you love. Do you ask what you should sing in praise of him? Listen: Sing to the Lord a new song. Are you looking for praises to sing? His praise is in the assembly of the saints. The singer himself is the praise contained in the song. Do you want to speak the praise of God? Be yourselves what you speak. If you live good lives, you are his praise.

St Augustine, Sermon 34.1-3, 5-6; The Divine Office II

Easter Week 3

Sunday of the Third Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE MORALS ON JOB BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT

What can we say of the prayer for vindication made by the souls of the martyrs beneath the altar, other than that it is a longing for the Last Judgment and the resurrection of the dead? Their loud outcry expresses their tremendous longing; a less insistent cry would be a sign of a weaker desire. The more a soul pours out its longing for God, the louder the sound of its voice in the ears of God’s infinite Spirit, for desire is the language of the soul. In fact, if desire were not tantamount to speech, the Prophet would not have said: Your ear has heard the desire of their heart.

Now it not infrequently happens that the person to whom a request is addressed takes a different view of the matter from the petitioner. The souls of the saints, however, find rest through cleaving to God in their inmost being. How, then, can we speak of their praying for something, when their will cannot be at variance with the will of God? In what sense do we say that they pray, when we know for certain that they are fully aware not of God’s will but also of what is going to take place in the future?

The answer is that, united to God, they pray to him not because they want something they know to be contrary to his will, but because the more closely they are bound to him in love the more he inspires them to pray for what they know he wants to give them. And so they drink the water for which God himself makes them crave and, in a way we cannot now understand, the hunger they express in their prayer is satisfied by the knowledge they have of what lies in the future. Therefore they would be at variance with their creator’s will if they did not pray for what they knew was in accordance with it, and they would not be perfectly united to him if they were slow to express their longing for what he wanted to give them.

God’s reply to them is this: Be patient a little longer, until the number of your companions in the Lord’s service is complete. To tell these yearning souls to be patient a little longer is to refresh and console them in their burning desire with the foreknowledge of what is yet to come. Their cry is then the expression of a loving heart’s aspiration, and God’s answer is to give them the assurance that their longing for vindication will be fulfilled. For him to answer that they must wait for the gathering together of their fellow servants is to instil into their minds the willing acceptance of delay and the knowledge that while they long for the resurrection of the dead they can rejoice at seeing their company grow in number.

St Gregory the Great, Moralia 2.11 (SC 32:188-190); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Monday of the Third Week of Easter

A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE SACRED LITURGY OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

‘They continued steadfastly in the teaching of the Apostles and in the communion of the breaking of bread and in prayers … praising God and being in favour with all the people’. From that time onward the Church has never failed to come together to celebrate the Paschal Mystery: reading those things ‘which were in all the Scriptures concerning him’, celebrating the Eucharist in which ‘the victory and triumph of his death are again made present’, and at the same time giving thanks ‘to God for his unspeakable gift’ in Christ Jesus, ‘in praise of his glory’, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of his minister, ‘the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross’, but especially under the Eucharistic species. By his power he is present in the sacraments, so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his Word, since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, lastly, when the Church prays and sings, for he promised: ‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.’

Christ indeed always associates the Church with himself in this great work wherein God is perfectly glorified and men are sanctified. The Church is his beloved Bride who calls to her Lord, and through him offers worship to the Eternal Father.

Rightly, then, the liturgy is considered as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy the sanctification of the man is signified by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way which corresponds with each of these signs; in the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the head and his members.

From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of his body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree.

In the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, a minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle; we sing a hymn to the Lord’s glory with all the warriors of the heavenly army; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part and fellowship with them; we eagerly await the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, until he, our life, shall appear and we too will appear with him in glory.

Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium 6-8

Tuesday of the Third Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

With respect to the unity of will which Our Lord always had with his Father, this is sung in his person by the blessed David in the thirty-ninth psalm: My God, I have desired to do your will. For if we read of the Father: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, we nevertheless find it also written with regard to the Son: Who gave himself for our sins. And just as it is said of the former: Who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all, it is likewise recounted of the latter: He was offered because he himself willed it. The will of the Father and that of the Son are understood to be so completely united that their operation even in the mystery of the Lord’s very resurrection, so we are taught, was harmonious. For just as the blessed Apostle declares that the Father accomplished the resurrection of his body when he says: God the Father, who raised him from the dead, so also the Son bears witness that he will raise the temple of his body when he says: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And therefore, instructed by these examples of the Lord that we have spoken of, we should ourselves conclude all our entreaties with a similar prayer and always add these words to every petition of ours: Yet not as I will but as you do.

Before anything else, we must carefully observe the Gospel command which says that we should go into our room and pray to our Father with the door shut. We shall fulfil this in the following way. We pray in our room when we withdraw our hearts completely from the clatter of every thought and concern and disclose our prayers to the Lord in secret and, as it were, intimately. We pray with the door shut when, with closed lips and in total silence, we pray to the searcher not of voices but of hearts. We pray in secret when, intent in heart and mind alone, we offer our petitions to God alone, so that even the enemy powers cannot discover the nature of our petition. We must pray with the greatest silence, therefore, not only so that we may not disturb our brothers standing nearby with our murmurings and outcries and distract the minds of those who are praying, but also so that what we are petitioning for may be hidden from our enemies, who plot against us greatly as we pray. Thus we shall fulfil the command: Keep the door of your mouth from her who sleeps in your bosom. For this reason prayer should be made frequently but briefly, lest if we take our time the lurking enemy be able to put something in our heart.

This is the true sacrifice, for a contrite spirit is a sacrifice to God. This is the saving oblation, these the pure libations, this the sacrifice of righteousness, this the sacrifice of praise, these the true and fatted offerings which are offered by contrite and humble hearts and which, thanks to this disciplined and attentive spirit that we have spoken of, we shall be able to sing when we have grown strong in virtue: Let my prayer come like incense into your presence, the raising of my hands like an evening sacrifice.

St John Cassian, Conferences 9.34.11-36.1; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Wednesday of the Third Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

If our flesh is not saved, then the Lord has not redeemed us with his blood, the Eucharistic chalice does not make us sharers in his blood, and the bread we break does not make us sharers in his body. There can be no blood without veins, flesh, and the rest of the human substance, and this the Word of God actually became: it was with his own blood that he redeemed us. As the Apostle says: In him, through his blood, we have been redeemed, our sins have been forgiven.

We are his members and we are nourished by creation, which is his gift to us, for it is he who causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall. He declared that the chalice which comes from his creation was his blood and he makes it the nourishment of our blood. He affirmed that the bread which comes from his creation was his body and he makes it the nourishment of our body. When the chalice we mix and the bread we bake receive the word of God, the Eucharistic elements become the body and blood of Christ, by which our bodies live and grow. How then can it be said that flesh belonging to the Lord’s own body and nourished by his body and blood is incapable of receiving God’s gift of eternal life? Saint Paul says in his Letter to the Ephesians that we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones. He is not speaking of some spiritual and incorporeal kind of person, for spirits do not have flesh and bones. He is speaking of a real human body composed of flesh, sinews, and bones, nourished by the chalice of Christ’s blood and receiving growth from the bread which is his body.

The slip of a vine planted in the ground bears fruit at the proper time. The grain of wheat falls into the ground and decays only to be raised up again and multiplied by the Spirit of God who sustains all things. The Wisdom of God places these things at our service and when they receive God's word they become the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ. In the same way our bodies which have been nourished by the Eucharist will be buried in the earth and will decay, but they will rise again at the appointed time, for the Word of God will raise them up to the glory of God the Father. Then the Father will clothe our mortal nature in immortality and freely endow our corruptible nature with incorruptibility, for God’s power is shown most perfectly in weakness.

St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 5.2.2-3 (SC 153:30-38); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Thursday of the Third Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST EPHREM

Death trampled our Lord underfoot, but he in his turn treated death as a highroad for his own feet. He submitted to it, enduring it willingly, because by this means he would be able to destroy death in spite of itself. Death had its own way when our Lord went out from Jerusalem carrying his cross; but when by a loud cry from that cross he summoned the dead from the underworld, death was powerless to prevent it.

Death slew him by means of the body which he had assumed, but that same body proved to be the weapon with which he conquered death. Concealed beneath the cloak of his manhood, his Godhead engaged death in combat; but in slaying our Lord, death itself was slain. It was able to kill natural human life, but was itself killed by the life that is above the nature of man.

Death could not devour our Lord unless he possessed a body, neither could the world of the dead swallow him up unless he bore our flesh; and so he came in search of a chariot in which to ride to the underworld. This chariot was the body which he received from the Virgin; in it he invaded death’s fortress, broke open its strong-room, and scattered all its treasures.

At length he came upon Eve, the mother of all the living. She was that vineyard whose enclosure her own hands had enabled death to violate, so that she could taste its fruit; thus the mother of all the living became the source of death for every living creature. But in her stead Mary grew up, a new vine in place of the old. Christ, the new life, dwelt within her. When death, with its customary impudence, came foraging for her mortal fruit, it encountered its own destruction in the hidden life that fruit contained. All unsuspecting, it swallowed him up, and in so doing released life itself and set free a multitude of men.

He who was also the carpenter’s glorious son set up his cross above death’s all-consuming maw, and led the human race into the dwelling place of life. Since a tree had brought about the downfall of our race, it was upon a tree that we crossed over to the realm of life. Bitter was the branch that had once been grafted upon that ancient tree, but sweet the young shoot that has now been grafted in, the shoot in which we are meant to recognize the Lord whom no creature can resist.

We give glory to you, Lord, who raised up your cross to span the jaws of death like a bridge by which souls might pass from the region of the dead to the land of the living. We give glory to you who put on the body of a single mortal man and made it the source of life for every other mortal man. You are incontestably alive. Your murderers sowed your living body in the earth as farmers sow grain, but it sprang up and yielded an abundant harvest of men raised from the dead. Come then, let us offer our Lord the great and all-embracing sacrifice of our love, pouring out our treasury of hymns and prayers before him who offered his cross in sacrifice to God for the enrichment of us all.

St Ephrem, Sermo de Domino nostro 3-4.9 (Lamy 1:152-158.166-168); Word in Season III,1st ed.

Friday of the Third Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE sermonS on the song of songs by abbot gilbert of hoyland

You have heard praise for the teeth of the bride. And rightly, for no small measure of beauty is attributed to teeth if they are white and evenly matched. Not only is evenness pleasing in teeth but also usefulness. What is the reason? How was John to devour the rolled-up scroll offered him by the angel in the Apocalypse, without teeth fit for such food? An entire book seemed to be tough food and therefore teeth were needed to break the whole into small pieces and to soften what was hard that it might be swallowed more easily.

Surely a good tooth is a trained understanding which is spiritual, which judges everything, examines everything, chews on and scrutinizes everything, even the abyss of God, which chews even the very marrow of the rolled up scroll and consumes the vitals of wisdom. The fool, we read, folds his hands and consumes his own vitals. That is gory food, carnal food, food which perishes, or rather which destroys. How much more appetizing and healthful it is to consume the vitals of wisdom and the mysteries of the sacred word. The word cannot be touched with gory teeth but only with teeth washed and white, because it is the brightness of eternal light and the teeth of the Bridegroom himself are called whiter than milk. Accordingly he praises in the bride teeth like his own. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes which have come up front the washing. Anyone must have mental faculties not only washed but also freed, who intends to scrutinize the word of God.

Each bears twins and not one among them is barren. Barrenness is attributed to you, if you are content with even a single offspring. If you have been able to arrive at some holy understanding in the Scriptures, you have already given birth to one offspring. This is a good, a giant step, but not enough for a holy appreciation, if affection does not match it. Barren is that understanding which is not paired with a contemporary and kindred devotion. Everywhere in the Scriptures, seed is sown for you, as it were, from which you may conceive this twin offspring. There all things are not only subtle but also sweet. The command of the Lord is full of light and his word full of fire. Sterile in you is the word of God, so far as it fails to produce either light or fire. If you see with your understanding but are still chilled with icy feelings, is not the flaming power of God’s word considered barren and ineffective in you?

Abbot Gilbert of Hoyland, Sermon 24 On the Song of Songs; CF 20 (1974) tr. Bruceland.

Saturday of the Third Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE CITY OF GOD BY ST AUGUSTINE

The Devil is bound throughout the whole period embraced by the Apocalypse, that is, from the first coming of Christ to the end of the world, which will be Christ’s second coming. The meaning of this binding is not that he ceases to seduce the Church during that interval called ‘the thousand years’, as is shown by the fact that when unloosed he is evidently not destined to lead it astray. For assuredly if his binding meant that he is unable, or not allowed, to lead it astray, his unloosing can only mean that he is now able, or permitted, to do so. But God forbid that this should be the case!

Instead, what the binding of the Devil means is that he is not permitted to exert his whole power of temptation either by force or by guile to seduce men to his side by violent compulsion or fraudulent delusion. For if he were permitted for so long a time, a time when so many were so insecure, he would overthrow very many of the faithful or prevent very many from believing, and those would be the kind of men to whom God did not will that this should happen. It was to prevent his achieving this that he was bound.

But the Devil will be unloosed when the ‘short time’ comes; for we are told that he is going to rage with all his strength and with the strength of his supporters for three years and six months. And yet those against whom he has to wage war will be the kind of people who cannot be conquered by his great attack and all his stratagems. But if he had never been unloosed his malign power would not have been so clearly seen, and the endurance of the Holy City would never have been so clearly proved in its utter faithfulness; above all it would not have been so manifest what good use the Almighty was to make of the Devil’s great wickedness.

The Almighty did not prevent him altogether from putting the saints to the test; but he threw out the Devil from their inner man, the seat of belief in God, so that they might profit from his outward assault. And he tied him up among those who belong to his party, lest by pouring out his malice to the utmost of his power he should hinder or break down the faith of countless weak persons, by whom the Church was to be filled up and multiplied, destroying the faith of some who already believed, hindering the faith of others who were on the point of believing. In the end the Almighty will unloose him, so that the City of God may see how powerful a foe it has overcome, to the immense glory of its Redeemer.

What are we in comparison with the saints and believers of the future, seeing that so mighty an adversary will be let loose against them, whereas we have the greatest peril in our struggle with him although he is bound? And yet there is no doubt that even during this period of time there have been, and there are today, some soldiers of Christ so wise and brave that even if they were living in this mortal condition at the time when the Devil is to be unloosed, they would take the most prudent precautions against his stratagems, and withstand his assaults with the utmost steadfastness.

St Augustine, The City of God 20.8; Penguin (1972) tr. Bettenson.

Easter Week 4

Sunday of the Fourth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST EPIPHANIUS OF SALAMIS

This is the day that the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it, with a spiritual gladness pleasing to God. This is our greatest feast, one that is celebrated by all the world, a feast of renewal and salvation. Today God has fulfilled all types, symbols, and prophecies. Christ our Passover, the true Passover, is sacrificed, and in Christ all is made new: there is a new creation, a new faith, new laws, a new people of God, a new Israel in place of the old, a new Passover, a new and spiritual circumcision, a new and unbloody sacrifice, a new divine covenant.

We too must be renewed today; we must renew a right spirit within our hearts and so prepare to enter into the mysteries of this new and perfect feast and to exult in this day’s heavenly joy. We shall then depart as initiates of the mysteries of the new Passover, mysteries fulfilling those of the old dispensation and which will never be superseded. We shall see how great the difference is between the Jewish mysteries and ours and be able to compare the type with the reality. With these thoughts, let us begin our meditation upon Christ, our Passover, and upon his mission.

Of old, Moses, the lawgiver, was sent by God from a high mountain to save his people and to symbolize the Law. The Lord, the Lawgiver, was also sent, God by God, mountain from the highest mountain of heaven, to save our people and to be the Law. Moses delivered his people from Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but Christ has made peace between his two peoples and united heaven and earth.

Israel kept the symbolic Passover by night: we celebrate the true Passover by the light of day. They kept it in the evening of the day: we keep it in the evening of the world. Then the doorposts and lintels were sprinkled with blood: now it is the hearts of the faithful that are sealed with the blood of Christ. Then the sacrifice was offered by night and the crossing of the Red Sea took place at night, but now we are saved by the Red Sea of Baptism that glows with the fire of the Spirit. In Baptism the Spirit of God truly descends and appears in the waters in which the head of the serpent, the prince of serpents and demons, is crushed. Moses gave Israel its baptism by night and a cloud overshadowed the people, but it is the power of the Most High that overshadows the people of Christ.

Moses had recourse to a rock of this creation, but we turn to the rock of faith. Then, the tablets of the Law were broken in pieces as a sign that the Law would be abrogated: now, the Laws of God stand forever. Then, the making of a molten calf brought retribution on the people: now, the sacrifice of the Lamb of God is the salvation of the people. Then, water poured from the rock when it was struck by a rod: now, from the pierced and life-giving side of the rock which is Christ, both blood and water flow. The Jews of old were given quails from heaven: our gift from on high is the Dove, the Holy Spirit. They fed on perishable manna and died: the bread that we eat brings us everlasting life.

St Epiphanius, Homily 3 in Sanctam Christi Resurrectionem (PG 43:466-470); Word in Season III, 2nd ed.

Monday of the Fourth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

Just as in this world some persons turn to the light, and by faith unite themselves with God, but others shun the light and separate themselves from God, so the Word of God comes to prepare a fit dwelling for both. On this account he says that those on the right hand are called into the kingdom of heaven, but those on the left will be sent into eternal fire, for they have deprived themselves of all good.

When the Antichrist comes and concentrates in his own person the apostasy, he shall accomplish his deeds according to his own will and choice, sitting in the Temple of God so that those he has deceived may adore him as the Christ. Thus shall he deservedly be cast into the lake of fire. John described his coming in these words in the Apocalypse: And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth; and to it the dragon gave his own power and his throne and great authority. After this he likewise describes his armour-bearer, whom he also terms a false prophet: He spoke like a dragon, and exercised all the power of the first beast in his presence, and caused the earth and those that dwell therein, to adore the first beast. Let no one imagine that he performs these wonders by divine power. He performs them by the working of magic for, since the demons and apostate spirits are at his service, it is through them that he performs the wonders by which he deceives the inhabitants of the earth.

The number of the beast is six hundred and sixty-six, that is, six times a hundred, six times ten, and six units, as a summing up of the whole of that apostasy which has taken place during six thousand years. For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded. For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed: it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the six thousandth year.

Man who was moulded at the beginning by the hands of God, that is the Son and the Spirit, is made after the image and likeness of God. The chaff, which is the apostasy, will be cast away, but the wheat, those bringing forth fruit to God in faith, will be gathered into the barn. It is for this reason that tribulation is necessary for those who are saved: that having been in a sense broken up and ground down fine, and sprinkled over by the patience of the Word of God, and then set on fire, they may be made ready for the royal banquet. As a certain man of ours once said when condemned to the wild beasts because of his witness to God: ‘I am the wheat of Christ, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of God.’

When the Beast comes, he shall make a recapitulation of all sorts of iniquity so that all apostate power, flowing into and being shut up in him, may be sent into the furnace of fire. Fittingly, therefore, shall his name possess the number six hundred and sixty-six, since he sums up in his own person all the wickedness, due to the apostasy of the angels, performed previous to the deluge. It is therefore less hazardous to await the fulfilment of the prophecy than to be making conjectures about names of men who may possess the number of the coming Antichrist.

St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 5.28.1-30.3

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST PETER DAMIAN

It is well worth the effort to constantly keep in mind the promised rewards of chastity. If you are seeking the happiness that is not attained except by death, the pangs of dying become light, just as the ditch digger eases the tedium of his work by eagerly anticipating the wage that is his due. Ponder what the Prophet says of the knights of chastity: The Lord says this to the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths and resolve to do what pleases me and cling to my covenant: I will give them a place in my house and within my walls, and a name better than sons. They indeed are eunuchs who repress the excessive demands of the flesh and cut away from themselves the longing for wicked behaviour. Many of those who are in bondage to the delights of carnal pleasure long to perpetuate their own memory through their posterity. This they pursue through every waking moment, since they are sure that they will not be wholly dead in this world if they continue their name in a fruitfully surviving progeny.

But much more eminently and happily do celibates achieve this objective toward which those who have children strive with such burning ambition. This is because they are always remembered by him who, because of the condition of eternity, is not restrained by the laws of time. A name better than that of sons is promised to eunuchs by the Word of God because, without any threat of oblivion, they deserve to have their name remembered forever, something that generations of children succeed in achieving only for a brief time. John says in the Apocalypse: Because they are worthy, they will come with me, dressed in white, and I shall not blot their names out of the book of life. Again in the same work it says, These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins; they follow the Lamb wherever he goes; and they sing a hymn that can be sung only by the hundred and forty-four thousand. Only those who have kept their virginity sing this unique song to the Lamb, because they, more than all the faithful, rejoice with him forever.

Thus one must make every effort to reinforce the thought of the great excellence of being ranked with these, where being even in the last place is perfect joy. Of course, just as Truth itself testified, not everyone in this world can accept what I have said. So also, in the future not everyone achieves this glorious reward. Consider these points, my dear brother, whoever you may be, and with all your effort be quick to immunize your flesh from the attack of passion. If you still stand firm, beware of failing; if you have fallen, reach out with confidence for the anchor of repentance that is always at hand. If, like Abraham, you are unable to live away from Sodom, you might, like Lot, move out when the heat of the fire nearby becomes intense. And if it is not your fate to reach shore without harm, you may, as you lie out of danger on the beach, wish to sing with an eager voice that rhythmic chant of blessed Jonah: All your waves and your billows washed over me. And I said, I am cast out from your sight, but I shall look again on your holy temple.

St Peter Damian, Letter 31; FoCMC (1990) tr. Blum.

Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ

Let us sing to the Lord, great is his renown! Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

It is common knowledge that the song of Moses recorded in the Book of Exodus can be understood in a spiritual sense as pointing forward to the Gospel teaching on regeneration. It has a special relevance for baptismal candidates emerging from the font. The author of the Apocalypse is therefore correct in describing the hymn sung by the saints in heaven as the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. By giving it this title, he is linking together a historical event and a spiritual reality. The crossing of the sea under the leadership of Moses is seen as a foreshadowing of what Christ, the Lamb of God, does for us in the regenerating waters of Baptism.

‘Lamb of God’ is used here as a richly evocative designation for the son of God, into whose death we have been baptized. When Moses first intoned his song, he did so in honour of an event that had begun with the slaying of a lamb. God himself had ordained that on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month a lamb should be sacrificed. The slaughter of that lamb prefigured the death of Christ, the Son of God, who was destined to be slain in expiation of our sins.

In John’s vision the saints were singing: Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty; just and true are your ways, O King of the ages! These may not be the exact words of the song of Moses, the servant of God, but their substance is the same. The Old Testament singers were not content with a single acclamation; they praised the Lord over and over again for his mighty deeds. Great is the Lord’s renown, they proclaimed; his right hand is glorious in its strength. And again, Who is as powerful as you, O Lord? Who can rival your illustrious holiness?

The saints, therefore, are described as singing the song of Moses because they resemble Moses both in their singing and in the subject matter of their song. But while they too praise the Lord with joy and thanksgiving to the accompaniment of harps, their song consists of one short verse only. This single verse contains none the less two all-important themes: the power of God and the justice of the Eternal King. Great and wonderful are your deeds is a proclamation of God’s power. Just and true are your ways is an acknowledgement of his justice. Of the two it is surely more meritorious to confess the second than the first. If we fear and praise God as the most powerful of spirits because we witness his marvellous deeds, our confession is certainly not lacking in merit. But if we can discern the divine justice underlying these same deeds and strenuously uphold it in the face of every denial, we shall gain a far greater blessing. And the same is true even when discernment fails us: we are blessed indeed if we still bow down in loving adoration of God’s justice, worshiping him in the words the Apostle Paul teaches each one of us to say: O the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, how unfathomable his designs!

Abbot Rupert of Deutz, In Apoc. 9.15 (PL 169:1109-1110); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Thursday of the Fourth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

‘I am dying’; said the Lord, ‘for all men, so that through me all may have life; by my flesh I have redeemed the flesh of all men. For in my death, death will die, and fallen human nature will rise again with me. In this way l have become, like you, a man descended from Abraham, so that I may be made like my brethren in every respect.’

Saint Paul understood this well when he said: Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. There was never any other way to destroy the one who had the power of death, and therefore death itself. Christ who had to give himself up for us; the one had to be the ransom for all, for he was the head of all.

Accordingly, he said in another place, namely in the psalms, when he offered himself to God his Father as a spotless sacrifice on your behalf: You wanted no sacrifice or oblation, but you prepared a body for me. You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin. Then I said, “Here I am.” He was crucified on behalf of us all and for the sake of us all, so that, when one had died instead of all, we all might live in him. For it was impossible that he should be defeated by death or that one who is life by its very nature should yield to corruption. Indeed, Christ’s own words prove to us that he offered his flesh for the life of the world: Holy Father, keep them. And again: For their sake I make myself holy.

He said, I make myself holy, meaning ‘I consecrate and offer myself as a spotless sacrifice with a sweet savour.’ For what was offered on the altar was made holy or called holy according to the Law. Therefore Christ gave his body or the life of all, and through his body planted life among us again. How this came about I shall explain as best I can. When God’s life-giving Word came to dwell in human flesh, he remade it for its good, that is, for its life. Being linked with flesh in this unique form of union, he made it a source of life, just as he is by his own nature, a source of life.

Thus the body of Christ gives life to those who share with him. By being among those who are liable to death, his body drives death out; by bringing forth in itself a principle capable of utterly destroying corruption, his body expels corruption.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on St John’s Gospel 4.2; The Divine Office II

Friday of the Fourth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE THEOLOGICAL AND ECUMENICAL CHAPTERS OF ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

For the fall and resurrection of many in Israel is the Lord appointed, says the Holy Gospel. We should ask consequently whether he may not be appointed for the fall of those who contemplate the visible creation solely according to their senses and of those who stick to the mere letter of Holy Scripture, not being able in their folly to go further and grasp the new spirit of grace. And we should ask whether he may not be appointed for the resurrection of those who contemplate God’s creatures and listen to his words in a spiritual manner, cultivating in appropriate ways only the divine image that is within the soul. If the Lord’s being appointed for the fall and resurrection of many is understood in the right way, then the fall will refer to that of the passions and of evil thoughts in each of the faithful, and the resurrection to that of the virtues and of every thought that enjoys God’s blessing.

Those who think of the Lord only as the creator of things which are generated and which decay mistake him, as Mary Magdalene did, for the gardener. It is therefore for their own good that the Master avoids contact with such persons, saying, Do not touch me; for they are not yet capable of ascending with him to the Father. He knows that those who are predisposed to think of him in such mean terms will suffer harm if they draw near to him. The Lord does not ascend to the Father for those who explore divine truth with their faculties as they are in their fallen state; but he does ascend to the Father for those who seek out the truth in the Spirit by means of the higher forms of contemplation. The Logos came down out of love for us. Let us not keep him down permanently, but let us go up with him to the Father, leaving the earth and earthly things behind.

The land of the Chaldeans is a way of life dominated by the passions, in which the idols of sin are fashioned and worshipped. Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers, is a way of life that vacillates between opposites. The promised land is a state filled with every blessing. Everyone, then, who like ancient Israel neglects this state, loses the freedom which he has been granted, and allows himself once more to be dragged off into slavery to the passions.

It should be noted that none of the saints went down to Babylon of his own accord. For it would be inept and inane for those who love God to choose what is bad rather than what is good. If some of them were taken there by force along with the people, they are to be understood as those who, not premeditatedly but at a time of crisis, and for the sake of saving those who needed their help, abandoned their the higher principle of spiritual knowledge in order to give instruction concerning the passions. For this reason St Paul felt that he would be more useful if he was in the flesh – that is, engaged in giving moral instruction to the disciples – although his whole desire was to be set free from moral teaching and to be with God through pure intellectual contemplation which transcends the world.

St Maximus, Theological & Ecumenical Chapters 43-49 (PG 90:1084-1173); The Philokalia 2 (1981).

Saturday of the Fourth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE ASCETICON OF ST BASIL THE GREAT

Retirement to a secluded dwelling is a great help to the soul in avoiding distraction. For to have one’s life always mixed up with those who are fearlessly and scornfully disposed towards the exact observance of the commandments is shown to be harmful by the words of Solomon who teaches us, Do not make friends with an angry man, nor be a companion of a wrathful man; lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare. And the saying, Come out from amongst them and be separate, says the Lord, points in the same direction.

Accordingly, that we may not through eyes or ears receive incitements to sin and imperceptively become accustomed to it; and that the impression and forms of things seen or heard may not burrow into the soul causing destruction and loss; and in order that we may be able to continue in prayer, we ought first of all to seek to live apart. For in this way we shall overcome those previously formed habits in which we lived alienated from the commandments of Christ. This means no small struggle, to overcome one’s usual mode of life, for habit strengthened by lapse of time gains the strength of nature. We shall be able to rub out the stains of sin by toiling in prayer and steadfast meditation on the will of God. It is impossible to attain to this meditation and prayer in a crowd which distracts the soul and introduces worldly cares. Whoever in a crowd could fulfil this saying: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself? For we must deny ourselves and take up the cross of Christ and thus follow him. But to deny oneself means complete forgetfulness of the past and withdrawal from one’s own will, in which it is very hard, almost impossible, to succeed if one is living with unrestricted communication. Indeed mixing in such a life even hinders the taking up of one’s cross and following Christ. To take up one’s cross means being ready to die on Christ’s behalf, it means putting to death what is earthly in you and standing in the battle line to meet every danger that comes upon us for the name of Christ. We see that the obstacles put in the way of this by the communications of the common life are great.

In addition to all the many other things, the soul, looking at the crowd of offenders, in the first place has no opportunity to become aware of its own sins and to become contrite by repentance of its misdeeds, but by comparison with worse people it actually acquires pretensions to virtue. Secondly, led away from the precious memory of God by the tumults and distractions which common life produces, it is not only deprived of exultation and joy in God, and tasting the sweetness of his words, so as to say, I remembered God and rejoiced and, How sweet are your words to my throat, sweeter than honey to my mouth. It also grows accustomed to complete contempt and forgetfulness of his judgements, than which it could suffer no greater or more deadly evil.

St Basil of Caesarea, Great Asceticon, Longer Response 6, tr. Pluscarden

Easter Week 5

Sunday of the Fifth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST AUGUSTINE

Our thoughts in this present life should turn on the praise of God, because it is in praising God that we shall rejoice for ever in the life to come; and no one can be ready for the next life unless he trains himself for it now. So we praise God during our earthly life, and at the same time we make our petitions to him. Our praise is expressed with joy, our petitions with yearning. We have been promised something we do not yet possess, and because the promise was made by one who keeps his word, we trust him and are glad; but insofar as possession is delayed, we can only long and yearn for it. It is good for us to persevere in longing until we receive what was promised and yearning is over; then praise alone will remain.

Because there are these two periods of time – the one that now is, beset with the trials and troubles of this life, and the other yet to come, a life of everlasting serenity and joy – we are given two liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after. The season before Easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing.

Both these periods are represented and demonstrated for us in Christ our head. The Lord’s passion depicts for us our present life of trial – shows how we must suffer and be afflicted and finally die. The Lord’s resurrection and glorification show us the life that will be given to us in the future.

Now therefore, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbour, ‘Praise the Lord!’ and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each of us urges the other to do. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives, and all your actions.

We are praising God now, assembled as we are here in Church: but when we go our various ways again, it seems as if we cease to praise God. But provided we do not cease to live a good life, we shall always be praising God. You cease to praise God only when you swerve from justice and from what is pleasing to God. If you never turn aside from the good life, your tongue may be silent but your actions will cry aloud, and God will perceive your intentions; for as our ears hear each other’s voices, so do God’s ears hear our thoughts.

St Augustine, In Ps. 148, 1-2 (CCL 40:2165-2166); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Monday of the Fifth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN BY ORIGEN

To advance in understanding the matters pertaining to the ‘Word of God’, we must contemplate what is suggested by the heaven being opened, the white horse, and the fact that the one called the Word of God, who, in addition to being the Word of God, is also said to be faithful and true, and one who judges and fights with justice, is seated on the white horse.

Now I think that heaven has been closed to those who are impious and who bear ‘the image of the earthly’, but opened to those who are just and who have been adorned with ‘the image of the heavenly’. For the higher things have been closed to the first group, inasmuch as they are below and are still in the flesh, because they cannot understand them nor their beauty, for they do not wish to perceive them. But he opened the heavenly places with the key of David to be contemplated by the superior group, inasmuch as they have citizenship in heaven. The divine Word opens them and explains them by riding a horse. The horse is the words which proclaim the meanings. He is white because the nature of the knowledge is remarkable and white and luminous.

And he who is called ‘faithful’ sits on the white horse, seated on words which cannot be overturned, words which run faster and swifter than any horse, and which surpass every opponent in their rush, that is, every supposed word which is a dissembler of the Word. But he who is on the white horse is called ‘faithful’, not so much because he trusts, as because he is trustworthy, for according to Moses, the Lord is faithful and true. For he is also true in distinction to a shadow and a type, and he is an image since the Word in the opened heaven is an image. For the Word on earth is not like the Word in heaven, inasmuch as he has become flesh and is expressed by means of a shadow and types and images.

Further, John says most admirably in his statements about the Word mounted on the white horse, His eyes were as a flame of fire. For as the flame is bright and at the same time illuminating, and further also has a nature that is fiery and consumes the more material elements, so the eyes of the Word with which he sees, and everyone who participates in him, destroy and obliterate the more material and gross elements of thoughts by grasping them by means of the spiritual powers inherent in him. He is also said to have a name written which no one knows except himself, for this living Word alone understands some things because of the natural inferiority in those who came into existence after him. None of them can contemplate all the things which he grasps. And perhaps also only those who share in the Word, in contradistinction to those who do not, know what the latter are missing.

Now John does not see the Word of God mounted on a horse naked. He is clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood, since the Word who became flesh, and died because he became flesh, is invested with traces of that passion, since his blood also was poured forth upon the earth when the soldier pierced his side. For, perhaps, even if in some way we obtain the most sublime and highest contemplation of the Word and of the truth, we shall not forget completely that we were introduced to him by his coming in our body.

Origen, In Joh. 2:46-49, 56-57, 59-61; FoC 80 (1989), tr. Heine.

Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE TWOFOLD RESURRECTION BY ARCHBISHOP BALDWIN OF CANTERBURY

Our Lord’s glorious resurrection teaches us that the fruit of obedience is resurrection and life. These were the fruit of the obedience practised by Christ, who is the resurrection and the life personified.

However, Christ died only once, and rose again once only. A single resurrection answered to a single death. But for us who have been dragged down to the depths by the burden of a twofold mortality, one resurrection cannot suffice. Because we have fallen so low, a single resurrection is not enough to bring us to the blessed life of heaven. We need two.

Nevertheless the resurrection of Christ is the cause and exemplar, the model and the effective sign of both our resurrections, first and second alike. It is by our faith in and our sacramental imitation of the resurrection of Christ that we are recreated, justified, sanctified, and raised from death. This is our first resurrection, the resurrection of our soul, through which we are now dead to sin and live for holiness, walking in newness of life as we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that we have at last fully realized our adoption as God’s sons. That will take place at the second resurrection, when Christ will refashion these wretched bodies of ours and make them resemble his own glorious body.

Our first resurrection begins when we first show obedience to God, and is brought to completion by our perseverance in doing his will. Our second resurrection begins with our glorification and endures for all eternity. If we continue in obedience till the end of our lives, then we shall also abide in a glory that knows no end.

The first resurrection has a glory of its own, something in which both body and soul can rejoice. On this subject we may consult the Apostle Paul. Where bodily glory here below is concerned he has this to say: Far be it from me to glory in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. As for the glory enjoyed by the soul, he explains that, our glory is in the hope of our adoption as God’s sons.

But the glory belonging to the second resurrection will be the glory of the soul that sees God in the glory of his divinity, and the glory of the body in its state of incorruptibility, when this perishable nature of ours puts on imperishability and this mortal nature puts on immortality. In that future life the saints will be doubly clad. Robed in white and holding lyre and harp, they will sing and play in their glory, praising God together for all eternity. Their mouths will be filled with songs of rejoicing and their lips with hymns of gladness, as they praise and honour our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God enthroned over all, blessed for evermore. Amen.

Archb. Baldwin of Canterbury, Tract. 4 (PL 204:429-431.441-442); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST PETER DAMIAN

Let your soul be directed to the things that are promised in the fatherland so that as an exile you may minimize the difficulty that looms on the way. When one looks up and sees a lump of glittering gold, the burden of the journey grows lighter. Call to mind, therefore, how fortunate is he who wins the right to enter the marriage banquet in the splendid company of the elect while a vast crowd of the damned is turned away. What an honour it is to be ever in attendance in sight of the Creator; to contemplate the spectacle of truth present before you; to behold God face to face, associated with angelic choirs.

There those involved are so filled with attendant joys that they are never concerned about future hardships. There, while the soul enjoys to the full the quiet pleasure of unlimited light, it is unspeakably happy over the rewards of its companions. There the thirsty drink from the fount of life, and as they drink, they thirst for more. There, indeed, it is impossible for either desire to beget lust or for gratification to turn into loathing. Here one discovers the eternal greening of the bloom of youth, the charm of beauty, and the unceasing vigour of good health. In effect, from this eternal source they acquire the power to live forever and to rejoice ineffably and, what is far more important, to grow into the likeness of the Creator himself. For, as John the Evangelist states, When it is revealed, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.

John says of this city, Each of its gates was made of a single pearl, and the streets of the city were pure gold, transparent as glass. And at once he adds, The city did not need the sun nor the moon, since it was lit by the radiant glory of God, and the lamb was a lighted torch for it. There, moreover, tainted human nature, cleansed of all the filth of passion, will leap for joy, and will endure unsullied in its moral purity and sincerity. In fact, as the body becomes spiritual, it will be in harmony with the soul, and the whole man will in no way disagree with the will of its Creator. All that the Creator has made will remain, while whatever the devil has added will be taken away. There each one’s secrets will be laid bare before the eyes of all. There, with all hearts united by the bond of mutual love, none will differ from another in any way, but all will associate unanimously in a common exercise of will. When we celebrate a feast here, all others are omitted; there, however, one always experiences the collective happiness of all festivals, because they who are in fact the cause for celebration are present.

In heaven there is an absence of ignorance and of impossibility, because, by their union with wisdom, the blessed know all things and are able to do all things. There we will be face to face with things revealed: how the Father ineffably begets the Son, and how the Holy Spirit proceeds from both of them. There melodious instruments caress the ears of the blessed with sweet harmony. There, amid green pastures that fill one with pleasant delight, snow-white lilies never wither and dark red roses and flowering crocus never waste away. Certainly, the reality of the everlasting happiness of the heavenly Jerusalem is incomparably greater than the mind of man can ever conceive, and the mind grasps more than can ever be put in words.

St Peter Damian, Letter 66; FoC MC 3 (1992) tr. Blum.

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE SERMONS ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST BERNARD

Contemplate what a glory is hers who compares herself to heaven, even to that heaven who is so much more glorious as he is divine. This is no rashness, taking her comparison from whence her origin comes. For if she compares herself to the tents of Kedar because of her body drawn from the earth, why should she not glory in her likeness to heaven because of the heavenly origin of her soul, especially since her life bears witness to her origin and to the dignity of her nature and her homeland? She adores and worships one God, just like the angels; she loves Christ above all things, just like the angels; she is chaste, just like the angels, and that in the flesh of a fallen race, in a frail body that the angels do not have. But she seeks and savours the things that they enjoy, not the things that are on the earth. What can be a clearer sign of her heavenly origin than that she retains a natural likeness to it in the land of unlikeness, than that as an exile on earth she enjoys the glory of the celibate life, than that she lives like an angel in an animal body? These gifts clearly indicate that a soul thus endowed is truly from heaven.

But Scripture is clearer still: I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne saying: “Behold the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell among them”. But why? In order to win a bride for himself from among men. How wonderful this? He came to seek a bride, but did not come without one. He sought a bride, but she was with him. Had he then two brides? Certainly not. My dove is only one, he says. Just as he wished to form one flock of the scattered flocks of sheep, that there might be one flock and one shepherd, so, although from the beginning he had for bride the multitude of angels, it pleased him to summon the Church from among men and unite it with the one from heaven, that there might be but the one bride and one Bridegroom. The one from heaven perfects the earthly one; it does not make two. Hence he says: My perfect one is only one. Their likeness makes them one, one now in their similar purpose, one hereafter in the same glory.

These two then have their origin in heaven: Jesus the Bridegroom and Jerusalem the bride. He, in order to be seen by men, emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. But the bride – in what form or exterior loveliness, in what guise did St John see her coming down? Was it perhaps in the company of the angels whom he saw ascending and descending upon the Son of Man? It is more accurate to say that he saw the bride when he looked on the Word made flesh, and acknowledged two natures in the one flesh. For when that holy Emmanuel introduced to earth the curriculum of heavenly teaching, when we came to know the visible image and radiant comeliness of that supernal Jerusalem, our mother, revealed to us in Christ and by his means, what did we behold if not the bride in the Bridegroom? He who descended is also he who ascended, since no one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven. The one and same Lord who as head of the Church is the Bridegroom, as body is also the Bride.

St Bernard, In Cant. 27:6-7; CF 7 (1976) tr. Walsh.

Friday of the Fifth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ

The angel showed me a river of life-giving water, clear as crystal, issuing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and flowing down the centre of the city street. On both banks of the river grew the tree of life, bearing its fruit twelve times a year, one crop for each month. The leaves of that tree are destined for the healing of the nations.

The river here depicted is none other than the torrent of gladness and joy described in one of the psalms as the fast-flowing river that gladdens the City of God, the river of which another psalm proclaims: They shall be filled with the abundance of your house, O Lord, and you will give them water from the flowing stream of your delights. The same figurative language was used by Isaiah to console the people of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord, he announced, I will make peace flow over her like a river; the wealth of the nations shall pour into her like a torrent in full spate.

The river of John’s vision, therefore, represents the Lord. More specifically, we can see in it an image of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who is the river of peace, the torrent of wealth, the river of gladness, the flowing stream of delight, and the abundance of God’s house, for he is himself the love that unites bride and Bridegroom in the city of glory and constitutes the entire happiness of all who live there.

That love which is the Holy Spirit is the life of the holy angels and of all saintly souls. Consequently the river shown to John by the angel is called a river of life-giving water. Because its water imparts light and strength it is said to be clear as crystal. This is a beautiful comparison. Crystal is a substance which is translucent yet very durable, qualities which we ourselves shall possess in the life of glory. Our minds will be wholly irradiated with the divine light, and our bodies will gain a crystalline strength through the gift of blessed immortality in that state of eternal happiness where there will be no more dying.

Now we know that in the Gospel of Saint John our Lord speaks of the procession of the Holy Spirit. When the Advocate comes whom I shall send you, he says, the Spirit of Truth who issues from the Father. Nor does John neglect that teaching in the Apocalypse. In fact, he affirms it precisely in this very passage, where he tells us that the river issues from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Abbot Rupert of Deutz, In Apoc. 22 (PL 169:1206); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Saturday of the Fifth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ABBOT ACHARD OF ST VICTOR

Come, Lord Jesus. John placed these three words at the end of his Apocalypse, at the end of the entire canonical Scriptures, in order to impress our minds more sharply and profoundly so that we might unflaggingly long for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Woe to the person who does not long for him! Whoever loves him longs for him, and the more one loves, the greater is one’s longing. He should be deeply desired, because he will not come empty-handed, but will hold in his hand the kingdom and the ruling authority. We are asking for this kingdom when we say: Your kingdom come; that is, that we may reign in him, or rather, he in us; he in us through righteousness, we in him through beatitude.

He came first to bestow on us original righteousness, which consists of participation in the merits of Christ. Christ himself granted us his merits, so that what would have been done to him on account of them, if he had need, might be done to us. We obtain this original righteousness when we are reborn in water and the spirit; through them we are made unworthy of death and worthy of everlasting life, just as through our first birth, with which we are by nature children of wrath, we incur a certain original unrighteousness called original sin, through which we are unworthy of life and worthy of death.

My point is that he first came into flesh to confer this original righteousness on us; then he comes in spirit into our spirit to add a certain actual righteousness, which the grace of Christ effects in us, but not apart from us. First, through the grace called operant or prevenient, which works in us but apart from us, the will is healed, liberated, and given the capacity to act rightly. Then, after the will has been healed, free choice begins to act with grace. The will does not do one thing and grace another, but the will does one and the same thing grace does. This grace, with which the will co-operates, or which co-operates with the will, is called subsequent or co-operating grace. What is to co-operate if not to operate with another? Finally, Christ will come to glorify us on account of both kinds of righteousness. He first came into flesh in order to give for us the price of our redemption, and to liberate us from the yoke of sin and wretched slavery to the devil. Then he comes in the spirit into our spirit, in order to confer on us the effect of our redemption, that is, to lead us out of prison. Finally he will come in flesh to lead us home and into all truth.

Abbot Achard of St Victor, Sermon On the Coming of the Lord; CS165 (2001) tr. Feiss.

Easter Week 6

Sunday of the Sixth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE 1st LETTER OF JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

We, my friends, are travellers, making our way with all speed toward our homeland; and if we give up hope of reaching it, our very despair causes us to faint by the wayside. But it is God’s will that we should arrive; he gives us nourishment for our journey in order to have us safe with him in our heavenly country. Listen, then, to the word he gives us: If we claim to have fellowship with him while we are still walking in the dark we are liars; we are not practising the truth. My friends, let us avoid saying we have any fellowship with him if we are walking in the dark. But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light; then we have fellowship with one another.

But what of our sins? The answer is in the next sentence: And the blood of his Son Jesus Christ will cleanse us from every transgression. What is meant by every transgression? Listen carefully: the newly-baptized, whom we call ‘little children’, having made their declaration of faith in the name of Christ, have had all their sins washed away by his blood. They entered the baptismal font veterans in sin, and came out filled with new life – they entered full of years, and came out little children. Their former life was a feeble old age; their new life is the childhood of rebirth

We must remember, however, that not only the newly baptized but we ourselves have had our past sins forgiven, and yet after all our guilt has been pardoned and washed away we may have fallen into fresh sins, through having to live in the midst of this world’s temptations. All of us, then, must do what lies in our power; we must admit our own condition so that we may be healed by the one who never changes, the one who has always existed and is being itself, whereas we have come into being out of non-existence.

See what the Scripture says: If we deny our sins we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth does not abide in us. This means that if you confess yourself to be a sinner the truth does abide in you. Your life may not yet be perfectly free from blemishes, since there are still some sins in it; but your enlightenment has begun, because the acknowledgment of these sins is also there. Read what follows: If we confess our transgressions, he who is faithful and just will forgive them and cleanse us of all iniquity. This applies not only to our past sins but also to any that our life in this world may have caused us to commit; for as long as we are made of flesh and blood, we cannot avoid at any rate the lesser sins. However, though we may call them lesser sins, that does not mean they are of no account. We may think little of their gravity, but we must tremble at their number. Many lightweight objects put together make up a considerable mass; many drops of water fill up a river; many grains of wheat form a heap.

In that case, what hope is there for us? First of all, confession. Let no one consider himself blameless. A person who has been brought into being out of nothing may not hold up his head in the sight of God, who sees him for what he is. Confession of our guilt, then, must come first, and be followed by love. It is said of charity that it covers a multitude of sins.

St Augustine, On 1 John 1:5-6 (SC 75:124-126); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Monday of the Sixth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE 1st LETTER OF JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

This is the test by which we can be sure that we know God, says St John: Do we keep his commandments? But which commandments? The person who claims to know God and disobeys his commandments is a liar; but in the one who keeps God’s word divine love has reached perfection. May we not infer from this that God’s actual commandment is to love? You have only to turn to the Gospel for confirmation. I give you a new commandment, Jesus says; love one another. We can know we are abiding in God if we have been made perfect in him – perfect, that is, in love. The perfection of love is to love one’s enemies, and so transform them into brothers.

Our love must not be merely natural affection. We must love our enemies with the kind of love that longs to have them as brothers and to welcome them into our community. Such love was shown by the Lord as, hanging on the cross, he said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. By this prayer, so full of compassion, and by his own mighty power, he was saving them from everlasting death. Many among them believed, and received forgiveness for their part in shedding the blood of their Messiah. We can know, then, that we are abiding in God if we have been made perfect in him. When he says: Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect, our Lord is calling us to the perfection which consists in loving one’s enemies.

He who loves his brother dwells in the light and has no occasion for stumbling. Those who either stumble themselves or are a cause of stumbling to others are those who are scandalized by Christ and by the Church. If you hold fast to charity you will find no stumbling block in either, nor will you abandon them. How can anyone be in Christ if he leaves the Church? No longer counted among Christ’s members, he cannot be in Christ since he is not part of his body. Those who stumble, then, are the people who abandon Christ or the Church. They are like someone being cauterised, who cries out: ‘I cannot bear it, I will not endure it’, and walks out. Yes, those who cannot put up with certain things in the Church and no longer profess themselves Christians or Catholics, they are the ones who are scandalised and stumble.

See how scandalised were those carnal-minded people to whom Christ announced the giving of his flesh as food! When he told them: Anyone who does not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood will not have life within him, well nigh seventy of them replied: This is an intolerable doctrine, and withdrew from his company, leaving only the twelve. And in case anyone should imagine that the latter were doing Christ a favour by believing in him, rather than receiving a grace from him, he said to the twelve who remained: Will you also go away? I want you to understand that it is you who need me, not I who need you. Peter spoke for them all when he replied: Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.

St Augustine, On 1 John 1:9-12 (SC 75:132-144); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE 1st LETTER OF JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

How can we love God if we love the world? There are two kinds of love, love of the world and love of God. Where love of the world is in possession, there is no room for love of God. Love of the world must give place to the higher love which is the love of God. You used to love the world; love it no longer. When you have emptied your heart of earthly love you will drink your fill of the love that is divine. Charity will now begin to dwell in you, and from charity no evil can come. Listen then to the words of the Apostle who would now make you clean and pure. The human heart is like a field to him. In what condition does he find it? If it is overgrown, he weeds it, if the ground is already cleared, he plants it with charity, for charity is the tree he desires to establish there. The undergrowth he would eliminate is the love of the world. Listen to him as he roots up the brushwood, Love not the world, nor the things of the word. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Would you have the love of the Father, and so be a fellow heir with the Son? Love not the world. Reject the world’s wicked love and be filled with the love of God. You are a vessel, but not yet an empty one; pour out what you contain, so that you may have room for what you do not yet possess. We know that our brothers have been born again of water and the Spirit, just as we ourselves were years ago. It is good for us not to love the world, otherwise the sacraments we then received may remain in us only as a sign of condemnation instead of a healing support.

Let us have no love for the world, or the things of the world. All that the world contains is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. By these three things the devil tempted our Lord. He tempted him to lust of the flesh when he said to him: If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into bread. Now take note of the method Jesus used to rebuff the tempter; it is the way he taught his followers to resist him. Man does not live by bread alone, he retorted, but by every word that comes from God.

The devil also tempted our Lord to lust of the eyes for the sight of a miracle, when he suggested to him: Cast yourself down, for it is written, He has given his angels charge over you; they shall bear you up, in case you dash your foot against a stone. But Jesus refused to listen to the tempter.

And how did the devil tempt him to the pride of life? By taking him up onto a high mountain and telling him: All this will I give you if you will bow down and worship me. The prestige of an earthly kingdom as a bait for the King of the ages! But he who made heaven and earth trod the devil under his feet. Is there anything extraordinary in the fact that the Lord should get the better of the devil? The lesson for us is in the way he answered him; it is the way we too must answer. It is written, The Lord your God you shall worship, and him only shall you serve.

St Augustine, On 1 John 2.8-14 (SC 75:166-181);Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE 1st LETTER OF JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

Children, it is the last hour. In this passage John exhorts us as his children to grow up quickly, because the last hour has come. Bodily age is not determined by will power. No one can grow physically whenever he pleases, any more than he can choose the time of his birth. But where birth lies in the domain of the will, so also does growth. A man is only born of water and the Spirit by an act of his will. If he chooses to grow, he grows; if he chooses to decline, he declines. What does growing or declining mean? To grow means to go forward; to decline means to go backward.

If anyone is indolent about going forward, let him heed the warning: Children, it is the last hour. This last hour may be a long one, but it is definitely the last. It is St John’s expression for the last days, during which our Lord Jesus Christ will come. Some will ask: ‘How can these be the last days or the last hour? We know that Antichrist must come first, and then the Day of Judgement.’ John foresees this objection and, to shake the false security of those who would thus argue, he tells them: You have heard that Antichrist is to come, and already many antichrists have appeared.

Who are these antichrists he refers to? He goes on to explain. This is how we know it is the last hour – because many antichrists have appeared. They went out from our own ranks, leaving us to lament their loss. Yet we take comfort from what follows: But they never truly belonged to us. The proof is that if they had really belonged to our company they would have remained with us.

From this, my friends, you can see that many who are not of our company join us in receiving the sacraments. Together with us they receive Baptism and what the faithful know they are receiving – blessing, Eucharist, and all that is contained in the Sacred Mysteries. They even communicate at the altar alongside us, and yet they do not belong to us. This is borne out in the time of trial; when the test comes, they are scattered abroad as though blown by a gust of wind, because they are chaff not wheat. Yes, never forget it; they will all be blown away on the Day of Judgement as soon as the harvest is winnowed on the Lord’s threshing floor. They went out from our ranks, but they never truly belonged to us; if they had really belonged to our company they would have remained with us. They went out so that it would be clear that they did not belong to us.

As for you, you have an anointing from the Holy One, which makes you known to one another. This spiritual anointing is the Holy Spirit himself; its sacramental sign is a visible unction. John says that all who have Christ’s anointing can discern who are wicked and who are good. They need no other instructor; the anointing itself teaches them all they need to know.

St Augustine, On 1 John 3.1-5 (SC 75:186-194); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

The Ascension

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE 1st LETTER OF JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

At his ascension into heaven on the fortieth day, our Lord Jesus Christ commended to the world the body in which he would remain here below. He did this because he saw that many people would honour him on account of his ascension, but that such honour would be worthless if they were trampling on his members on earth. He wished to forestall the error of worshipping him as head in heaven and at the same time trampling on his feet on earth, and so he indicated where his members were to be found.

As he was about to ascend, he spoke the last words he was to utter on earth. At the moment of going up to heaven, the head commended to our care the members he was leaving on earth, and so departed. No longer will you find Christ speaking on earth; in the future he will speak from heaven. Why will he speak from heaven? Because his members are being trampled underfoot on earth. He spoke to Saul the persecutor from above, saying: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? I have ascended to heaven, but I still remain on the earth. Here at the Father’s right hand I sit, but there I still hunger and thirst and am without shelter’.

In what way, then, did Christ commend to us the body he was leaving on earth at the moment of his ascension?

When his disciples asked him: Lord, has the time come for you to reveal yourself, and when will the kingdom be restored to Israel? his parting words were: It is not for you to know that time which the Father has reserved to his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses. Observe the area his body is to cover, mark the places where he is loath to be trampled underfoot: ‘You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in the whole of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. That is where I remain on earth even when I ascend to heaven. I ascend because I am the head; my body still remains.’ Where is it? Everywhere, to the ends of the earth. Take care not to strike it or violate it or trample it underfoot. These are Christ’s last words at the moment of his departure for heaven

My friends, you have Christian hearts. Think, then; if the words of one who is on the way to the grave are so sweet, so precious, so important to his heirs, what must the last words of Christ mean to his heirs as he departs, not for the grave but for heaven! When a person has lived and died his soul is borne away to another place while his body is laid in the ground. Whether his last request is carried out or not, it matters little to him now. He has other things to do or suffer. His corpse lies in the grave, feeling nothing. And yet his dying wishes are carefully obeyed! If that is so, what will be the lot of those who fail to observe the parting words of the one who is seated in heaven and who looks down to see whether they are flouted or not – the words of him who said: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? and who reserves for the Day of Judgement all that he sees his members suffer?

St Augustine, On 1 John 10.9 (SC 75:432-436); Word in Season III, 1st ed

Friday of the Sixth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE 1st LETTER OF JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called and should be the children of God! What use is it to people who are not what they are called to have the name without the reality? There are many so-called doctors who cannot cure, many so-called watchmen who sleep all night. So also there are many so-called Christians who do not prove to be such in reality; their life and conduct do not justify the name they bear, nor do they show themselves to be Christians by their faith, hope, and charity. The whole world is Christian, and the whole world is godless, for there are both godless and devout people everywhere in the world, and the former do not know the latter. The reason why the world does not know us is because it never knew him. The Lord Jesus Christ himself walked on earth; he was God, hidden in the weakness of our flesh. And why was he not recognized? Because he convicted men of every sin they were harbouring. Loving the pleasures of sin, they did not recognize God; loving their own feverish desires, they did violence to their physician.

What then of ourselves? We are already born of him, but because we are at present in the domain of hope, St John says to us: Beloved, we are now the children of God. Already? What then are we waiting for, if we are already the children of God? It has not yet been shown us what we shall be in the future, he tells us. Can we become anything more than children of God? Listen to what follows: We know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. What is this that we are promised? My friends, the tongue has done all it can; the rest is for the heart to ponder. In comparison with him who is, what could even John say, let alone we who are so far beneath John in merit?

We must return to that anointing which teaches us inwardly what cannot be expressed in words and since you are unable to see as yet, your task must lie in desiring. The entire life of a good Christian is a holy desire. You cannot at present see what you desire, but the desire creates in you a capacity which will be filled when what you desire to see has come. So then, my brothers, let us desire, because we are meant to be filled.

See how Paul stretches forward, so that he will be able to take hold of the prize that is to come. He says: Not that I have already achieved it or am already perfect. I do not reckon I have already attained my goal. What are you doing in this life then, I ask, if you have not yet attained it? One thing only: I forget what is behind me and, stretching forward to what lies ahead, I press on with all my might toward the prize of our heavenly calling. Paul described himself as stretching out and pressing forward with all his might, for he felt himself too small to take in what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived. Such is our life, to exert ourselves in desire; and the more we detach our desire from the love of this world, the more shall we be occupied by holy desires. Let us then stretch ourselves out toward Christ, so that when he comes he may satisfy our desire. We shall then be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

St Augustine, On 1 John 4.4-6 (SC 75:224-232); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Saturday of the Sixth Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE 1st LETTER OF JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

By this we know what love is (John is here speaking of perfect love, that perfect love to which we have already paid tribute): That he laid down his life for us, and we too ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Here we have the key to the Lord’s words: Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Peter was meant to feed the Lord’s sheep even to the laying down of his life for them, as we may learn from the sentence that follows: When you were a young man you girded yourself and went where you pleased; but when you have grown older another will gird you and take you where you would rather not go. This he said, the Evangelist tells us, to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Such was his way of teaching the man whom he had charged with the feeding of his sheep that he would have to die for them.

How does charity begin? Listen carefully for a moment. You have heard how it is brought to perfection; the end and the manner of it have been enjoined on us by the Lord in the Gospel. Greater love has no man than this, he says, that he lay down his life for his friends. He shows us what perfect love is, then, in the Gospel, and here we are invited to embrace it. But you will ask yourselves, ‘When shall we be able to love like that?’ Do not despair of yourselves too soon. Perhaps charity is already born in you, but it has not yet grown to maturity. Foster it; do not let it be stifled. But you may say, ‘How shall I know? We have been told how love is perfected; what we want to learn is how it begins.’

The text goes on: If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how can the love of God abide in him? There is where charity begins. If you are not yet capable of dying for your brothers at least be capable of sharing your possessions with them.

Your brothers are hungry and in need; they may be racked with anxiety, hard pressed by some creditor. They have no money; you have. They are your brothers; you were ransomed together, bought at the same price, all redeemed by the blood of Christ See if you cannot have pity on them, you who possess this world’s goods. You may ask, ‘What business is that of mine? Am I to give my money to save them from trouble?’ If that is the way your heart answers you, the Father’s love does not dwell in you. And if the Father’s love does not dwell in you, you are not a child of God. How can you boast of being a Christian? You have the name, but not the practice. But if the name is endorsed by action, anyone who likes may call you a heathen, but you will show yourself to be a Christian by your deeds. And if your actions do not prove your Christianity, the whole world may call you a Christian, but the name will be of no profit to you without the reality. Little children, let us not love in words or speech only, but in deed and in truth.

St Augustine, On 1 John 5.11-13 (SC 75:266-271); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Easter Week 7

Sunday of the Seventh Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE 1st LETTER OF JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

And this is the commandment of God, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another. You see that this is God’s commandment, and you see that anyone who breaks it commits the sin that every child of God avoids. Whoever carries out his commandment – you realize that nothing else is enjoined on us except the love of one another – whoever carries out his commandment abides in God, and God in him. And we can tell that we are dwelling in him by the Spirit he has given us.

Is it not clear that it is the work of the Spirit to implant love and charity in human hearts? Is it not clear that, in the words of the Apostle Paul, the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us? For it was of charity that John was speaking when he said that each of you ought to examine his own heart in the sight of God. If our heart does not reproach us means: if our heart bears witness that love of our brothers is the source of any good work we do. Again we find that when John speaks of God’s commandment, he says: His commandment is this, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another. Whoever carries out his commandment abides in God and God in him. And we can tell that we are dwelling in him by the Spirit he has given us. If you find charity in yourself, you have the Spirit of God to give you understanding, a thing most necessary.

How can we know whether or not we have received the Holy Spirit? Let each one question his own heart. If he loves his brothers then the Spirit of God dwells in him. Let him examine and test himself in God’s sight, to discover whether he harbours in his heart a love of peace and unity, a love of the Church as it extends throughout the length and breadth of the world. Let him not look for love only of the brother who is present, for we have many whom we do not see, but with whom we are united in the Spirit. There is nothing strange in that. They are not all here with us, but we all belong to the one Body and have a single Head in heaven. So then, if you would know whether you have received the Spirit, ask your own heart: do you perhaps have the outward sign of the sacrament without the virtue of the sacrament? Ask your heart: if the love of your brothers is there, you can be at peace. There can be no love without the Holy Spirit, for Paul cries out to us: The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit he has given us.

St Augustine, On 1 John 6.9-10 (SC 75:296-300); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Monday of the Seventh Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST BERNARD

No one who loves God need have any doubt that God loves him. God gladly returns our love, which was preceded by his own. How could he be reluctant to love us in response to our love for him, when he already loved us before we ever loved him at all. Yes, I say, God loved us. We have a pledge of his love in the Spirit and a faithful witness to it in Jesus – a double and irrefutable proof of the love God bears toward each one of us.

Christ died, and so deserves our love. The Spirit moves us by his grace and so enables us to love. Christ gives us the reason, the Spirit gives us the power. The one sets before us the example of his own great love, the other gives us the love itself. In Christ we see the object of our love, by the Spirit we are empowered to love him. We can say then that the former supplies the motive for charity, the latter the volition.

How shameful it would be to see God’s Son dying for us without being moved to gratitude! Yet this could easily happen if the Spirit were lacking. Now, however, the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit he has given us, and so we love him in return for his love, and by loving him we deserve to be loved still more. If while we were still his enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved through his Son’s life! God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all; how could he fail to accompany such a gift with everything else we need?

We possess, then, a double token of our salvation, the twofold outpouring of blood and Spirit. Neither is of any profit to us without the other. The Spirit is only given to those who believe in the Crucified, and faith is only effective when it works through love. But love is the gift of the Spirit. The second Adam, I mean Christ, became not merely a living being but also a life-giving spirit. As a living being he died; as a life-giving spirit he raises the dead. The mortal principle in him cannot help me without the life-giving principle. The flesh is of no avail; it is the Spirit that gives life. And to say that the Spirit gives life is only another way of saying that the Spirit justifies us by rectifying our relationship with God. Since the death of the soul is sin, as Scripture says: The soul that sins shall die, it is beyond dispute that the life of the soul is justice or righteousness, because, again as Scripture says, The just shall live by faith.

And who are the just? Are they not those who pay their debt of love to the God who loves them? Now it is impossible for them to do this unless they have received in faith the Spirit’s revelation of God’s eternal plan for their future salvation. That revelation is none other than an infusion of spiritual grace, through which, as we mortify the works of the flesh, we are made ready for the kingdom which flesh and blood cannot possess. In the one Spirit we receive both the audacity to believe ourselves loved and the power to love in return, so that God’s love for us may not go unrequited.

St Bernard, Letter 107.8-9 (PL 182:246-247); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A DISCOURSE BY ST DOROTHEUS OF GAZA

St John in one of his epistles says, Perfect love drives out fear. What does the holy man signify to us by this? What sort of love and what sort of fear is he talking about? The psalmist says, Fear the Lord all you who love him, and we find thousands of similar sayings in Holy Scripture. If, therefore, the saints who so loved him feared him, how can he say, Love casts out fear? St John wishes to show us that there are two kinds of fear: one preliminary, the other perfect; the one found in beginners-as someone called it ‘of the devout’; the other in those perfected in holiness, of those having arrived at true love.

One man forms a desire for God through fear of condemnation; this is, as we have said, the starting point. His starting point is not ‘what is good’ but the fear of torments. Another forms a desire for God because he loves God himself, loves him and knows what is acceptable to God. Such a man is goodness itself, knowing what it is to be with God. See! This is the man who has true love, which St John calls perfect love, and that love leads a man on to perfect fear. Such a man fears and keeps to God’s will, not for fear of punishment, not to avoid condemnation, but, as we have said, because he has tasted the sweetness of being with God; he fears he may fall away from it; he fears to be turned away from it. This is the perfect fear which is generated from perfect love and throws out that preliminary fear. And this is why he says that perfect love casts out fear. But it is impossible to come to perfect fear except through that preliminary fear.

There are, as St Basil says, three states through which we can be pleasing to God. The first, that of fearing punishment; this makes us acceptable and we are in the state of slaves. The second, the state of servants working for wages, fulfilling orders for our own advantage and, by doing so, earning our wages. The third is the state of sons, where we strive for the highest good. For a son, when he comes to maturity, does his father’s will not for fear of being beaten, nor to receive a reward from him, but because he knows he is loved. He loves and honours his father, and is convinced that all his father possesses is his own.

Such a man is worthy to hear, You are no longer a slave, but a son, an heir of God through Christ. As we said, he no longer fears God with that preliminary fear, but really loves him, and so blessed Anthony can say, ‘I no longer fear God’, and when the Lord said to Abraham after the immolation of his son. Now I know that you fear God, this signifies that perfect fear that is generated out of love. Abraham was charitable, he did so many things at God’s bidding, and after them all, God said to him, Now I know that you fear God; clearly he meant that perfect fear that belongs to the saints. So no longer through fear of punishment nor to receive reward do they do the will of God, but loving, they fear to do anything apart from the will of the Beloved, and so he says, Love casts out fear. No longer do they act from fear, but they fear out of love.

St Dorotheus of Gaza, Discourse IV On the Image of God; Cistercian Studies 33 (1977) tr Wheeler.

Wednesday of the Seventh Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST AUGUSTINE

My command to you, says the Lord, is to love one another. This is the fruit we are asked to bear, according to that other statement of his: I have chosen you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will endure. And when he adds, so that the Father may give you whatever you ask in my name, he clearly means that the Father will readily grant our requests provided that we love one another. But surely this love is his own gift to us, for he chose us while we lacked fruit of any sort – remember that it was he who chose us and not we him – and made it possible for us to bear fruit, in other words to love one another. We can never hope to bear such fruit unless he helps us with his grace – just as no branch can produce fruit unless it forms part of a living vine. Love, then, is our fruit; love that St Paul describes as springing from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. Such is the source of our love for one another, and the source of our love for God.

Only if we love God can our love for one another be true love. If we love God, then we shall also love our neighbour as ourselves. Anyone who has no love for God has none for himself either. On the twofold precept of charity depends the whole of the Law and the Prophets. This love is the fruit the Lord has in mind when he says to us: My command to you is to love one another. That is why the Apostle Paul, contrasting the fruits of the Spirit with the works of the flesh, begins by saying: The fruit of the Spirit is love, and then enumerates all the rest as though they flowed from love and looked to it as their source; they are, he says, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control.

For who can properly rejoice, if they do not love some good in which to find their joy? Who can experience true peace, if they cannot be at peace with their beloved? Who will have the patience to persevere in doing good, if they are not constantly urged onward by love’s prompting? Who will show kindness if they do not love those they set out to benefit? Who will be good if they are not made so by loving? Whose faith will profit them, but those whose faith works through love? How wise was our good Master when he so persistently recommended love to us as the one thing necessary, a treasure without which all other virtues avail us nothing, yet which cannot itself be had except in company with those other qualities which perfect us in virtue.

St Augustine, Tract. 87.1 (CCL 36:543-544); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Thursday of the Seventh Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A SERMON ON THE LAST DISCOURSE BY BLESSED OGERIUS

I will ask the Father, Jesus said to his Apostles, and he will give you another advocate to be your comforter. The Holy Spirit, who is called the Advocate or Comforter, is the counsellor of believers, the defender and protector of those who hope in him. Without him there is neither strength nor holiness. He shields and guards his own, making himself the champion of all whom he has destined for eternal glory. He is the comforter of the afflicted, the father of orphans, the husband of widows.

He does indeed comfort the afflicted, by whom I mean those who grieve for their sins and the suffering they must endure as a result; those who are distressed not only because they have ruined their lives by their evil deeds, but because they have incurred the anger of Christ, the King of glory; those who are heartbroken because through their wrongdoing they have set at naught the Saviour who died for them upon the cross. The afflicted are those who weep over their inability to see the face of Christ, the source of their salvation and their only hope of life. The Spirit of Jesus comforts all these souls. In this present life he gives them the consolation of hope; in the blessed life of eternal joy he will give them the solace of what they hoped for.

The Spirit of truth shuns those whose love does not reach beyond themselves. His will is that he, and he alone, should be loved for his own sake. Not only does he desire to be the sole object of our love, but our love for him must be total. He will have no rival in love, any more than he can be rivalled in the generosity with which he rewards those who love him

Yet God desires to be loved by us in such a way that we love everything else together with him, and love nothing apart from him. As their Creator he is the source of all created things, and every created thing is good simply because he made it. In loving created things, therefore, we should love their Creator. We must not love them for their own sake, but for the sake of him who gave them existence. Anyone who sets his heart on gold or silver, material goods, or possessions of whatever kind for their own sake is a stranger to the Father’s love. It is the Creator we must love in all created things, and all created things in him. By loving him in this way we love everything else too, yet God is really and truly the sole object of our love.

No one is capable of seeing God if the eye of his soul is diseased. Our inward vision must be purified before we can perceive the Spirit of truth. Our bodies also must be cleansed and refined before they can be worthy temples of the Holy Spirit. Let us do all in our power to acquire that purity which will prepare us for the vision of his glorious beauty. Then, like the Apostles of Jesus, we shall know him; he will dwell with us in this present life, and be with us for ever in the life to come.

Bd Ogerius of Locedio, Sermon 8.2-3 (S. Bernardi Opera [1667], 5:618-619); Word in Season III, 1st ed.)

Friday of the Seventh Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST AUGUSTINE

After the Last Supper the Lord Jesus addressed his disciples. His passion was then at hand and he was about to depart, withdrawing from them his physical presence, though his spiritual presence would remain with his own until the end of time. In his discourse he exhorted them to endure the persecutions of those wicked people whom he called ‘the world’, though at the same time he reminded them how it was from that very ‘world’ that he had chosen them. This he did to make them realize that it was due entirely to God’s grace that they had come to be what they now were, while they had only their own sins to thank for having kept them where they were before. Then he went on to say: But when the Advocate comes whom I shall send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth proceeding from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you too will be my witnesses, because you have been with me from the first.

Now what connection can this have with that earlier statement in which he says: But now that they have seen me, they hate both me and my Father. Thus are fulfilled the words that are written in their holy book: They have hated me without cause? Can it be that at his coming the Advocate, the Spirit of truth, by some yet more cogent proof convicted those people of hating God’s Son when they saw him? No; rather, those in whom sight had only given rise to hatred were converted by the coming of the Spirit to the faith that works through love. So much we gather from the story of the day of Pentecost, where we are told that the Holy Spirit came down on a hundred and twenty disciples, among whom were all the apostles, gathered together in one place. Filled with the Spirit, they began to speak in various tongues, and many of those who had previously harboured hatred for the Lord Jesus were so moved by this outstanding miracle that they were cut to the heart and turned to him in repentance. At once their guilt was forgiven. Through their wickedness his precious blood had been shed; now they were themselves redeemed by the very blood for the shedding of which they were responsible. And so it was because he foresaw their conversion that the Lord had said: They hated me without cause, but when the Spirit comes, he will bear witness to me, as much as to say: They hated me, and killed me when they saw me; but so powerful a witness will the Spirit bear to me that these same people will be brought to believe in me even though they see me no more.

And you, he said to his disciples, you too will be my witnesses, because you have been with me from the first. If the Holy Spirit is to bear his witness to me, so shall you bear yours. And why? Because, having been with me from the beginning, you can speak with firsthand knowledge of me. If up to the present time you have not done this, that is because you have not yet received the fullness of the Spirit. He will bear witness to me, and so shall you; for you will gain the confidence you need to be my witnesses from the love of God poured into your hearts by the Holy Spirit whom God will give you.

St Augustine, Tract. 92.1-2 (CCL 36:555-556); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Saturday of the Seventh Week in Easter tide

A READING FROM THE CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS OF ST CYRIL OF JERUSALEM

The water that I shall give them will become in them a fountain of living water, welling up into eternal life. This is a new kind of water, a living, leaping water, welling up for those who are worthy. But why did Christ call the grace of the Spirit water? Because all things are dependent on water; plants and animals have their origin in water. Water comes down from heaven as rain, and although it is always the same in itself, it produces many different effects, one in the palm tree, another in the vine, and so on throughout the whole of creation. It does not come down, now as one thing, now as another, but while remaining essentially the same, it adapts itself to the needs of every creature that receives it.

In the same way the Holy Spirit, whose nature is always the same, simple and indivisible, apportions grace to each person as he wills. Like a dry tree which puts forth shoots when watered, the soul bears the fruit of holiness when repentance has made it worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit. Although the Spirit never changes, the effects of his action, by the will of God and in the name of Christ, are both many and marvellous.

The Spirit makes some teachers of divine truth, inspires others to prophesy, gives others the power of casting out devils, enables others to interpret holy Scripture. The Spirit strengthens the self-control of some, shows others how to help the poor, teaches others to fast and lead a life of asceticism, makes others oblivious to the needs of the body, trains others for martyrdom. His action is different in different people, but the Spirit himself is always the same. In each man, Scripture says, the Spirit reveals his presence in a particular way for the common good.

The coming of the Spirit is gentle, his presence fragrant, his weight very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before him as he approaches. The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend and protector to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, to console. The Spirit comes to enlighten the mind first of the one who receives him, and then through that person the minds of others as well. As light strikes the eyes of those who come out of darkness into the sunshine and enables them to see clearly things they could not discern before, so does light flood the souls of those counted worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit and enables them to see things beyond the range of human vision of which they had previously been ignorant.

St Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. 16.11-12, 16 (Rupp. 2:216-226); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Pentecost

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST LEO THE GREAT

The whole world keeps solemn festival on this day, which was hallowed fifty days after our Lord's resurrection by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other believers who were assembled in the hope of his coming. Their hope was founded on the promise of the Lord Jesus, not that the Saints would experience a hitherto unknown indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but that hearts already dedicated to him would be enkindled to greater fervour and know a more abundant outpouring, an increase rather than a first reception of his gifts. Though more freely and generously bestowed, this gift of the Spirit was not a new operation, for the sovereign Spirit is never separated from the almighty power of Father and Son, and whatever work God does in the ruling and ordering of creation proceeds from the whole Trinity, the single source of merciful love and righteous judgment. The three divine Persons are no more divided in action than they are in will. The soul that is enlightened by the Father is also enlightened by the Son and the Holy Spirit; and since there is one Person who is sent, another who sends, and a third who promises, unity and trinity are revealed to us at one and the same time. Enjoying absolute equality and excluding isolation, the Blessed Trinity in its essence is understood to be single in nature, but not in person.

Granting the common action of the indivisible Godhead, we acknowledge that certain operations belong particularly to the Father, others to the Son, and others to the Holy Spirit. These pertain to the plan of our redemption; our salvation is the reason for them. For if the first man, who was created in the image and likeness of God, had preserved the dignity of his own nature, if he had refused to allow the devil to seduce him into yielding to concupiscence and so transgressing the law laid down for him, the Creator of the world would not have become a creature, the Eternal would not have entered the sphere of time, nor would God the Son, equal in Godhead with the Father, have assumed the form of a slave and the likeness of sinful flesh. But because through the devil's malice death had entered the world, there was only one way for captive humanity to be set free. Our cause must be espoused by one who, without loss of majesty, would truly become man and yet, alone of all human beings, be without taint of sin.

And so, in compassion, the three divine Persons divided up the work of our restoration between them: the Father would accept the atoning sacrifice offered by the Son and the Holy Spirit would bring fire. For it was necessary that men should play some part in their own salvation; their task was to elude the enemy's clutches by turning in repentance to their Redeemer. As the Apostle says: God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying: Abba, Father! Now where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And no one can say: “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

St Leo the Great, Tract. 77.1-3 (CCL 138A:487-489); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Feasts after Pentecost

Holy Trinity

A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER TO SERAPION BY ST ATHANASIUS

It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles, and guarded by the Fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built and if anyone were to lapse from it, that person would no longer be a Christian either in fact or in name.

We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit; and in this way the unity of the Holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly in the Church one God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as Father, for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit

Writing to the Corinthians about spiritual matters, Paul traces all reality back to one God, the Father, saying: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in everyone.

Even the gifts that the Spirit dispenses to individuals are given by the Father through the Word. For all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son, and so the graces given by the Son in the Spirit are true gifts of the Father. Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word who bestows the Spirit is in us too, and the Father is present in the Word. This is the meaning of the text: My Father and I will come to him and make our home with him. For where the light is, there also is the radiance; and where the radiance is, there too are its power and its resplendent grace.

This is also Paul’s teaching in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. For grace and the gift of the Trinity are given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Just as grace is given from the Father through the Son, so there could be no communication of the gift to us except in the Holy Spirit But when we share in the Spirit we possess the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Spirit himself.

St Athanasius, Letter 1.28-30 (PG 26:594-595, 599); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

Corpus Christi

A READING FROM THE WORKS OF ST THOMAS AQUINAS

Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that we should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make us divine. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.

O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old Law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.

It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfilment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.

St Thomas Aquinas, Opusculum 57 in festo Corporis Christi 1-4; Word in Season III, 1st ed.

The Sacred Heart

A READING FROM THE WORKS OF ST BONAVENTURE

You who have been redeemed, consider who it is who hangs on the cross for you, whose death gives life to the dead, whose passing is mourned by heaven and earth, when even the hard stones are split. Consider how great he is; consider what he is.

In order that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept on the cross, in order that the word of Scripture might be fulfilled – They shall look on him whom they have pierced – God’s providence decreed that one of the soldiers should open his sacred side with a spear, so that blood with water might flow out to pay the price of our salvation. This blood, which flowed from its source in the secret recesses of his heart, gave the sacraments of the Church power to confer the life of grace, and for those who already live in Christ was a draught of living water welling up to eternal life.

Arise, then, bride of Christ, be like the dove that nests in the rock-face at the mouth of a cavern, and there, like a sparrow which finds its home, do not cease to keep vigil; there, like a turtle-dove, hide the fledglings of your chaste love; place your lips there to draw water from the wells of your Saviour. For this is the spring flowing from the middle of paradise; it divides and becomes four rivers, then spreads through all devout hearts, and waters the whole world and makes it fruitful.

O soul devoted to God, whoever you may be, run to this source of life and light eager longing. And with the power of your inmost heart cry out to him: O indescribable beauty of God most high! O pure radiance of everlasting light! O life that gives life to all life! O light that illuminates every light, and preserves in its undying splendour the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your Godhead from the dawn of time!

‘O water eternal and inaccessible, clear and sweet, flowing from the spring that is hidden from the eyes of all mortal men; the spring whose depths cannot be plumbed, whose height cannot be measured, whose shores cannot be charted, whose purity cannot be muddied.’

From this source flows the river which makes glad the city of God, so that with glad shouts we sing to you our hymns of praise, and by experience prove that with you is the fountain of life; and in your light we shall see light.

St Bonaventure, Opusculum 3.29-30, 47; The Divine Office III

Season of the Year

Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ROMANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

As I keep hearing the Letters of the Blessed Paul read, sometimes twice a week and often three or four times when we are celebrating the memory of the Holy Martyrs, I rejoice and enjoy hearing this spiritual trumpet, and my desire is inflamed. I recognise this voice which is so dear to me and imagine him all but present to my sight and I see him conversing with me. But I am sad that all people do not know this man as well as they ought. Some are so ignorant of him that they do not even know for certain how many letters he wrote! And this comes not from inability, but from their not having the will to be continually conversing with this holy man.

It is not through any natural ability or sharpness of wit that even I am acquainted with as much as I do know, if I do know anything, but my knowledge comes from a constant use of his writings and a great love for the man. For those who love know best what belongs to their beloved, as they have them constantly in their thoughts. This is shown by the holy man himself to the Philippians, when he says: It is right for me to feel thus about you, because I hold you in my heart, in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel.

And so you too, if you are willing to apply yourselves to reading him with a ready mind, will need no other help. For the word of Christ is true: Seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened to you. For from ignorance of the Scriptures have the countless evils of our time arisen; from this ignorance the plague of heresies has broken out among us so violently; from this ignorance so many live negligent lives. Just as men deprived of daylight would not walk straight, so those who do not look to the shining of the Holy Scriptures must needs be frequently sinning as they are walking in the worst of darkness.

So that this may not be the case with us, let us open our eyes to the bright shining of the Apostle’s words; for this man’s tongue shone forth above the sun, and he abounded more than all the rest in the word of doctrine. For such was this holy soul that he embraced the whole world and carried about all men within himself. And he loved them more than any father loves his children, it was as if he had begotten them all himself; for such is the grace of the Spirit that it exceeds the bonds of the flesh.

From: Commentarius in Epistolam ad Romanos, Argumentum Epistolae; Joannis Chrysostomi Opera Omnia (Paris 1837) 9: 461-5.

Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFESSIONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

Wherever I look, heaven and earth and all that is in them tell me that I should love you, Lord; and they cease not to tell it to all men, so that there is no excuse for them. But what is it that I love when I love you? Not the beauty of any bodily thing, nor the order of seasons, not the brightness of light that rejoices the eye, nor the sweet melodies of all songs, nor the sweet fragrance of flowers and ointments and spices: not manna nor honey, not the limbs that carnal love embraces. It is not these I love when I love God. Yet in a sense I do love light and melody and fragrance and food and embrace when I love my God - the light and the voice and the fragrance and the food and embrace in the soul, when that light shines upon my soul which no place can contain, that voice sounds which no time can take from me, I breathe that fragrance which no wind scatters, I eat the food which is not lessened by eating, and I lie in the embrace which satiety never comes to sunder. It is this that I love, when I love my God.

And what is the object of my love? I asked the earth and it answered: “I am not he”; and all things that are in the earth made the same confession. I asked the sea and the depths and the creeping things, and they answered: “We are not your God; seek higher.” I asked the winds that blow, and the whole air with all that is in it answered: “Anaximenes was wrong; I am not God.” I asked the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and they answered: “Neither are we God whom you seek.” And I said to all the things that throng about the gateways of the senses: “Tell me of my God, since you are not he. Tell me something of him.” And they cried out in a great voice: He made us. My question was my gazing upon them, and their answer was their beauty. I asked the whole frame of the universe about my God and it answered me: “I am not he, but he made me.”

Surely this beauty should be self-evident to all of sound mind? Then why does it not speak to everyone in the same way? Animals great and small see it, but cannot put a question about it; for in them reason does not sit in judgement upon the evidence of their senses. But men can question it, and so should be able clearly to see the invisible things of God understood by things which are made; but they love created things too much and become subject to them, and subjects cannot judge. All these things refuse to answer those who ask, unless they ask with power to judge. If one person merely sees the world, while another not only sees but questions it, the world does not change its speech – that is, its outward appearance which speaks – in such a way as to appear differently to the two people; but it presents exactly the same face to each, saying nothing to the one, but answering the other: or rather it gives its answer to all, but it is only understood by those who hear its outward voice through their senses and compare it with the truth within themselves. For truth says to me: “Your God is not heaven or earth or any corporeal thing.”

St Augustine, Confessions X.6; Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS BY ORIGEN

In the Scriptures a hard heart refers to a human mind which, like wax hardened by the cold of wickedness, cannot receive the imprint of God’s image. Its opposite is a soft heart, which in the Scriptures is called a heart of flesh. When someone knows what is good and does not do it, he is said to be contemptuous of all good things because of the hardness of his heart. For hardness of heart occurs when the mind has no feeling for a refined and spiritual understanding.

The day of wrath will be a day of vengeance and judgment, as is clear from many passages of Scripture. But note that it will also be a day of revelation, when all things are to be revealed. Some people want to know why this day has been fixed for the end of the world, so that everyone who has died from the beginning to the end of time is held over for judgment on the last day. It is certain that the real reasons for this are concealed in the secret mysteries of God, but we shall try to give some explanation for it insofar as it is possible to do so in writing.

There are many who, when they leave this life, leave behind them seeds of good or evil that will sprout after their deaths and become occasions either for salvation or for damnation for those who are left behind. I would say, for instance, that this applies to all those philosophers who founded depraved sects which are far from God, or who practised astrology, not to mention those among us who promoted heresies by the books they wrote, or who have brought about divisions in the Church. On the other side there is the work of the apostolic writings and the emergence through them of the universal Church. These things will go on to the end of time, and therefore the judgment of God will not be just until the final results are known. It may also be that the saints who are outside the body and who dwell with Christ may be doing something and working on our behalf like the angels, who minister to us for our salvation. On the other hand, perhaps sinners who have also left the body are doing something in line with the disposition of their mind, like the fallen angels. These things too are among the hidden things of God and have not been committed to writing. But they will be made known on the day of wrath and revelation.

Now let us consider what is meant by the just judgment of God, in which he will reward each one according to his works. First of all, we must reject the heretics who say that souls are good or evil by nature and maintain instead that God will reward each one according to his deeds and not according to his nature. Second, believers are to be instructed not to think that it is enough merely to believe; they ought to realise that the just judgment of God will reward each one according to his works. Finally even unbelievers are not excluded from this, if they do good.

Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans 2.4.1, 5, 7; FoC 103 (2001) tr. Scheck.

Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE MIRROR OF CHARITY BY ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX

Charity – a short word indeed, but with its meaning of perfect and unalloyed love it sums up the whole human attitude to God and his creatures; or, to use our Lord’s own explanation, it is on charity that all the Law and the Prophets depend. Surely for us, then, there can be no need to demand great signs and miracles as the Jews were wont to do. For charity gives the soul a spiritual circumcision: the delights of a never ending sabbath, the saving victims offered by the loving soul to God, the perfumed incense and fragrant smoke of sacrifice – these are merely some of the fruits of charity when it is firmly rooted in the soul. Yet none can flourish or even live in a soul where charity is not present.

The circumcision effected in the soul by charity is the complete casting off of our baser inclinations as they affect both body and soul. The result is that the flames of lust are quenched and anger’s heat is cooled. Tempering also the appetites of gluttony, charity further roots out all envy and banishes completely the mother of all vices, pride. And it so soothes the sting of melancholy in the soul that even accidie, that spiritual torpor which is the aftermath of melancholy, is waylaid. Yet another effect of charity’s circumcision of the soul is that munificence cuts the shackles of graspingness so that nothing – least of all the desire for wealth – can take God’s place in the soul’s devotion.

Surely no physical operation could have greater effect than this spiritual circumcision which amputates vice, drains the pus of sin, removes the dead skin of original sin, and burns away the gangrene of long-standing evil. Then the mind is untroubled by fear or worry, for the calm of perfect love reigns there. Lust’s evil desires can leave no stain, anger’s raging will never again sear the soul, nor will pride inflate it with self-importance. Gone is the blinding desire for earthly glory together with the heat of anger and the sting of ambition. No longer does the soul yearn for masses of worldly wealth, no more can sadness make it downcast nor envy gnaw at it. For as Saint Paul tells us, when charity reigns in the soul, there is no envy or double-dealing, no arrogance or self-centredness, no self-pity or self-aggrandizement.

It is easy to see, then, that the circumcision of the soul destroys all evil at the same time as it purifies all the senses of the body, just as the surgeon’s knife cores out a poisoned wound.

St Aelred of Rievaulx, Speculum Caritatis 10-11; Word In Season V.

Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY BY ST AUGUSTINE

Some think that passages like: No one will be justified in God’s sight by the Law, for through the Law comes knowledge of sin, must be intended as a reproach to the Law. Such passages need to be read carefully, for otherwise the Apostle may seem either to condemn the Law, or to take away human free will.

The Law is good because it forbids what ought to be forbidden and commands what ought to be commanded. But when men imagine that they can fulfil the Law by their own strength without the grace of their Saviour, this presumption proves useless, and in fact even harms them, for they are then seized by a stronger desire to sin, and through their sins they also become transgressors. For where there is no Law, neither is there transgression.

Therefore, let the prostrate sinner, knowing that he cannot rise by his own strength, implore the aid of the Saviour. Then he will be given grace which will forgive past sins, assist his own efforts, bestow a love of righteousness, and take away fear. Even after this happens, various desires of the flesh will continue to battle against our spirit as long as we are in this present life, and will try to lead it into sin, but the spirit, firmly established in the grace and love of God, will resist these desires and cease to sin. For we sin not by having evil desires, but by consenting to them.

Another saying of the Apostle is relevant here: Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey its desires. He shows here that we still have evil desires, but by refusing to yield to them we prevent sin from reigning within us. These desires spring from our mortal condition, being inherited from the original sin of the first man, to whom we owe our physical birth. Consequently, they will not cease until we have earned the transformation promised us in the resurrection of the body, when there will be perfect peace because nothing will resist us once we cease to resist God. This is the teaching of the Apostle: The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If then the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will give life even to your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you.

Free will, then, existed perfectly in the first man; but in us, before we receive grace, free will does not enable us to avoid sin, but only to want to avoid it. When we have grace, however, we not only want to act rightly, but we can; not by our own strength, but by the help of the Saviour, who at the resurrection will also grant us the perfect peace that results from good will, according to the text: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to men of good will.

St Augustine, Expositio quarundam propositionum ex Epistola ad Romanos 13-18 (PL 35:2065-6); Word in Season V.

Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

The highest blessedness of any creature is to be under the Law, the highest glory is obedience. It is our shame, not our privilege, that we do not obey as the angels do. Men speak as if the Gospel were glorious, because it destroyed the law of obedience. No; it destroyed the Jewish Law, but not the holy Law of God therein contained and manifested. And if that holy Word, which endures forever in heaven, which is co-eternal with God, is a bondage to us, as it is by nature, so much the more shame for us. It is our great sinfulness, not any inherent defect in the Law, which makes it a bondage; and the message of the Gospel is glorious, not because it releases us from the Law, but because it enables us to fulfil it – fulfil it (I do not say wholly and perfectly), but with a continual approximation to perfect obedience, with an obedience running on into perfection, and which in the next world will rise into and result in perfection. This is Saint Paul’s account of it, Being not without Law to God, he says, but under the Law to Christ. Again, Not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, that is, that kind of obedience to the Law to which he by himself attained, but that which is through the faith of Christ, that high and spiritual obedience which faith in Christ, aided by the grace of Christ, enabled him to accomplish.

When then I say that religion, considered as a Law or code of morals, is a bondage, let no one suppose me to countenance that presumptuous and unchristian spirit, which seems to exult in being through Christ free (as it thinks) from the Law, instead of being bound and able through Christ to obey it more perfectly. The glory of the Gospel is, not that it destroys the Law, but that it makes it cease to be bondage; not that it gives us freedom from it, but in it; and the notion of the Gospel which I would describe as cold and narrow is, not that of supposing Christianity a law, but of supposing it to be scarcely more than a law, and thus leaving us where it found us.

Ven. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons IV, 142-7; Word in Season V.

Season of the Year | Week 02

Sunday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JOHN BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

It is written in a book of Moses that Abraham believed in God and that his faith was counted as righteousness and he was called a friend of God. How did he show his faith, and why was he called God’s friend? He heard God say to him: Leave your own land and your kindred, and go to the land that I will show you. When he was commanded to sacrifice his only son as a type of Christ, he learned God’s hidden purpose. Hence the Saviour’s remark about him to the Jews: Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.

It was therefore through obedience and sacrifice that Abraham came to be called a friend of God, and won his glorious crown of righteousness. Nor was this all; he was even deemed worthy to converse with God, and he knew God’s plan, which was to be accomplished in the last days. For in the fullness of time Christ died for us, he who was the truly sacred and holy sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world.

But now see how events have repeated themselves for those who rise through faith to the friendship of our Saviour Christ. They too heard the command to leave their country, and that they left it eagerly we know from their own declaration that We have here no lasting city, but seek one that is to come, whose builder and maker is God. For those who are citizens of heaven are strangers and sojourners on earth; so great is their love for God that they have abandoned as it were their native land, and long for the resting place above. The Saviour gave them a glimpse of this when he said to them: I am going to prepare a place for you; and when I come again I will take you with me, so that where I am you may be also. They heard the command to leave their kindred. How shall we show this? We will refer to Christ’s own words: Anyone who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. There can be no doubt that relationship with God comes before earthly and physical relationship, and that among his followers love for Christ is far stronger than any other love. Blessed Abraham was commanded to offer his own son to God as a fragrant odour; others, girded with the righteousness of faith, are commanded to offer only themselves. Present your bodies, wrote the Apostle, as a living sacrifice, holy and well pleasing to God – that is your spiritual worship. Of these it is also written: Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh, with its passions and desires.

Such people know the mystery that is in Christ, since they know the powers of the age to come, and what will happen at the end of time, when they will receive the rewards of their labours, and the recompense for their devotion to Christ. Thus, like Abraham, we shall be called righteous and friends of God.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John X (PG 74:386-7); Word in Season V.

Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST AUGUSTINE

To learn that the love of which we speak belongs to the Holy Spirit, listen to St. Paul, when he says, The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Why, then, was it the will of the Lord, that he gave the Spirit only after his Resurrection, seeing what great benefits are given to us when the Spirit is poured into our hearts? What is the meaning of this? It was so that in our earnest desire for our own resurrection we should be detached from the world in order to hasten towards God. Let us not set our hearts on anything here, where we are born, and where we die. Rather, by love let us pass from hence, and through that love we have for God, dwell in heaven through love. In our pilgrimage through this life let our hearts be set only on this, that we are not to stay in this world for ever, but by living a good life, there shall be prepared for us a dwelling place from which we will never depart. Our Lord Jesus Christ, since he is risen again, dies no more. As St. Paul says, Death no longer has any dominion over him. This is where we must set our love.

See what the Lord has promised us, instead. Not earthly and temporal riches, not honour and power in the world. For these things are given to evil men, so that good men may think less of them. He has not promised bodily health, which he gives even to animals. Not a long life, for how can that be called long, which comes to an end? He has not promised us believers long life, or old age, as if they were something important. After all, people wish to live to old age, but when it comes, they find it a matter for grumbling. He has not promised physical beauty, which disease, or that longed-for old age destroy. People wish to be beautiful, and want to live to old age, but the two desires are not compatible! If you live to be old, you will not be beautiful. When old ages comes, beauty flees away. Flourishing beauty, and old age with its complaints are not found together in one body. Christ has promised none of these things. Rather, what he has promised is that those who believe in him should come to him and drink. From his heart flow streams of living water. He has promised us eternal life, where we shall no longer be afraid, suffer no disturbance.

We shall never pass from thence, for there will be no dying or weeping for one who is dead, while at the same time hoping for someone to succeed the person who has died. Such things he has promised us: things which fill us with fervent love, the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is why it was not his good pleasure to give us his Spirit until he had been glorified. In his Risen Body he shows us the life which we do not yet possess, but which we hope to have through our own Resurrection.

St Augustine, Tractatus in Evangelio Johannis 32.9 (CCL 36:305-6); Word in Season V.

Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 61 BY ST AMBROSE

When our Lord Jesus assumed our human nature in order to purify it in his own person, his first task was surely to destroy the primary infection of original sin. It was through disobedience and challenging of God’s command that wrongdoing had crept in, and obedience had to be restored before anything else if transgression was to be denied room in which to develop. It was through disobedience that the canker of sin had spread, and therefore our Lord’s first duty as a good physician must be to cut out the tumour at the roots, so that the surface of the wound may feel the healing effect of his medicine. And so Jesus accepted obedience for himself in order to impart it to us. It was only right that as through one man’s disobedience all men were reckoned as sinners, so through one man’s obedience all should be reckoned just.

This means that those who maintain that Christ assumed our carnal nature but not our passions are very far from the truth; indeed they contravene our Lord’s own intention by depriving him of his manhood, for without human passions he could not be a man at all. Human nature without human passions would incur neither merit nor guilt. What Christ had to take upon himself and heal was the actual fountainhead of guilt, in order to stop up the source of transgression and any further outlets for wrongdoing.

It was as man, then, that he was made weak, as man that he suffered, as man that we thought of him in his sufferings; but he overcame his weaknesses instead of being overcome by them. It was for us he suffered, not for himself. He was made weak not account of any sins of his own but on account of our sins, so that by his stripes we might be healed. He took our sins upon himself both to assume the burden of them and to purge them away, and because of this he shall obtain many for his inheritance and share out the spoils of the strong. His acceptance of the burden of our sins is bound up with their remission, his purging of them with their correction. And so in taking it upon himself to suffer with us he took it upon himself to accept our own subjection; and whereas his subjection of all things to himself is his divine prerogative, his own acceptance of subjection belongs to the human nature he shares with us.

St Ambrose, Commentary on Psalm 61 (PL 14:1224-5); Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS BY ORIGEN

Pondering deeply on the Apostle’s words about being buried with Christ in Baptism we can gather this: that just as no one who is still alive can be buried with someone who is dead, so no one who is still alive to sin can through Baptism be buried with Christ who is dead to sin. Therefore those who are hastening to Baptism take care that they die to sin beforehand, and are thus able to be buried with Christ in Baptism; then they too will have the right to say, We always carry about in our body the death of Jesus Christ, so that in our mortal flesh the life of Jesus Christ may be manifested.

Now Paul himself shows how the life of Jesus Christ is manifested in the body when he says, I live, but it is no longer I: it is Christ who lives in me. The Apostle John is saying the same thing when he writes in his letter, Every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Of course this does not imply that any person who has pronounced these syllables and uttered them in a public profession of faith will be deemed to be moved by the Spirit of God; it refers rather to one who has shaped his life in such a way, and borne such fruit in good works, as to demonstrate by the very religious value of his actions and sensitivity that Christ has come in the flesh, has died to sin and is alive to God.

Let us look now at a further saying of Paul’s: So that as Christ rose from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too may walk in newness of life. If we have been buried with Christ in the sense already mentioned – that is, by the fact that we have died to sin – then it certainly follows that as Christ rises from the dead we too shall rise together with him; as he ascends to heaven we too shall ascend together with him; as he sits at the right hand of the Father, we too shall be said to sit with him in heaven. Indeed, the same Apostle teaches elsewhere: He has raised us with Christ, and made us sit together with him in the heavenly places. Christ rose through the Father’s glory; if we too have died to sin and been buried with Christ, if all who see our good works glorify our Father in heaven, then it can rightly be said of us that we have risen with Christ by the Father’s glory, to walk in newness of life.

Let us walk then in newness of life, showing ourselves new every day to him who has raised us to life with Christ; new, and, if I may so put it, daily more beautiful, as our faces reflect the radiance of Christ. As we gaze on the glory of the Lord, in him let us be transformed into his likeness, for Christ, having risen from the dead and from his earthly abasement, has ascended to the glorious majesty of the Father.

Origen, Commentary on Romans, V.8 (PG 14:1041-2); Word in Season V.

Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE PUNISHMENT AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS BY ST AUGUSTINE

The Apostle refers to the law of sin as ‘sin’, when he says, Let sin, then, not reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. It does not remain in the members of those who have been reborn of water and the Spirit, as though it were not forgiven, once they received the full and complete forgiveness of sins. Rather, it remains in the old condition of the flesh as something overcome and destroyed, provided it does not to some extent revive through our consenting to what is wrong and it is not recalled into its own kingdom and dominion.

The Apostle sharply distinguished the life of the Spirit, in whose newness the baptized are reborn through the grace of God, from this old condition of the flesh in which this law of sin, or sin, has already been forgiven. It was not enough for him to say that such persons were not in sin; he also added that they were no longer in the flesh, even before they departed from this mortal life. He said, But those who are in the flesh cannot please God; you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, provided that the Spirit of God dwells in you. And yet, those who apply its members to good works make good use of this flesh, corruptible as it is, though they are not in this flesh, because they neither think nor live in accord with it.

Believing married couples make good use even of that law of sin which remains in the old condition of the flesh, though already forgiven, for, inasmuch as they are in the newness of Christ, they do not allow lust to rule over them. But inasmuch as they still bring with them the old condition of Adam, they bear children subject to death who need to be reborn for immortality. The law of concupiscence, then, remains in the members, but, despite its remaining, its guilt is removed. It is removed in one who has received the Sacrament of rebirth and has begun to be renewed. But one who is born from that old condition of concupiscence that remains needs to be reborn in order to be healed, because believing parents who have been born in the flesh and reborn in the Spirit have begotten children in the flesh. But how could children in any sense be reborn before they are born?

Do not be surprised that I said that, although the law of sin remains in concupiscence, its guilt is removed by the grace of the Sacrament. For wicked thoughts, words, and deeds have passed away and no longer exist in terms of any movement of the mind and body they involved. But though they have now passed away and no longer exist, their guilt remains, unless it has been removed by the forgiveness of sins. So, conversely, this law of concupiscence has not passed away, but still remains, though its guilt is removed and no longer exists, when the full forgiveness of sins takes place in Baptism. Just as, then, it is not surprising that the guilt of past thoughts, words, and deeds remains prior to the forgiveness of sins, so it ought, conversely, to come as no surprise that after the forgiveness of sins the guilt ceases, while the concupiscence remains.

St Augustine, The Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins 2.28.45-46; WSA (1997) tr. Teske.

Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

The reading that I have undertaken to explain, with the help of God’s mercy, is this obscure and troublesome passage of the Apostle’s letter, which is, however, very helpful and wholesome to those who understand it rightly.

For when we were in the flesh, he says, the passions of sins which came through the Law were working in our members, to bear fruit for death. Here it seems that the Apostle is blaming and finding fault with the Law of God. The Manichees say that the Law of God which was given through Moses was not in fact given by God and is contrary to the Gospel. But read on, go a little further, listen to the whole passage with patience; What therefore are we to say, he continues, that the Law is sin? Perish the thought. At a stroke he has acquitted the Law and condemned its accuser. Perish the thought that the Law may be sin. But I would never have known about sin, he goes on, except through the Law. For I would not know about lust, unless the Law said: You shall not lust. Is the Law bad that says, You shall not lust? Not even the most shameless of lechers will give me that answer. After all, even the most dissolute rakes blush when they are rebuked for their behaviour; and when they are in the company of clean-living people, they don’t dare to indulge in loose behaviour. So if you say that the Law is bad which says, You shall not lust, it means you want to lust with impunity.

But seizing its opportunity, sin through the commandment worked in me every kind of lust. There was less lust when you were sinning before hearing the Law; but now that the Law's barricades have been set in place against you, the stream of lust has been checked a little as by a dam, but not dried up. When there were no barriers it used to carry you along; now its pressure builds up, it bursts the barriers and overwhelms you. But what are you to do, O man? The reason you haven’t been victorious is that you have been presumptuously self-reliant. Your lust has conquered you because it found you in a bad place; it found you in the flesh. Emigrate from there. Don’t panic, I haven’t told you to die – or rather I have the nerve to say, yes, I have told you to die. If you have died with Christ, seek the things that are above. While living in the flesh, don’t go on being in the flesh; start being in the Spirit instead.

To heal sinners, the Saviour came from the virgin; he didn’t come to you the way you came, seeing that he didn’t originate from the sexual appetite of male and female, not from that chain of lust. Because of this he sets you free. Where did he find you? Sold under sin, lying in the death of the first man, having guilt before you could have any free choice. He found you as a baby, but you have got beyond your infant years, you've grown up: to the first sin you have added many more, you have received the Law, you have turned out a transgressor. But don’t worry: Where sin abounded, grace has abounded even more.

St Augustine, Sermon 153; WSA (1992) tr. Hill.

Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON NATURE AND GRACE BY ST AUGUSTINE

Let us now see whether Scripture says that the flesh is opposed to the baptized as well. Where and to whom did the Apostle speak these words? The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other so that you do not do those things which you will. He wrote them to the Galatians, I believe, the same people to whom he said, Did he who gave you the Spirit and worked miracles among you do this because of the works of the Law or because of the acceptance of the faith?. From these passages it is clear that he is speaking to Christians and to people to whom God has given the Spirit; he is speaking, then, to those who have been baptized.

See, we have discovered that the flesh is opposed even to the baptized and they do not have that ability which he says is inseparably implanted in nature. What has happened to his question, ‘How is it possible that the flesh is opposed to anyone who has been baptized?’ The term ‘flesh’ in this passage, in fact, refers not to the nature of the flesh, which is good, but to its defects. But no matter how he might understand ‘flesh’, notice that the flesh is, nonetheless, opposed even to the baptized. How is it opposed? So that they do not do what they will. See, the will is present in the human being; where is that ability of nature? Let us admit that grace is necessary; let us cry out, Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? And our answer is: The grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

After all, when one asks these people, as it is perfectly correct to do, ‘Why do you claim that apart from the help of God’s grace a human being can be without sin?’, the question does not have to do with the grace by which human beings were created, but with the grace by which they are saved through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Moreover, in prayer the faithful say, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. If they have the ability, why do they make this prayer? Or from what evil do they ask to be set free if not especially from the body of this death, from which they are set free only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. They do not ask to be set free from the substance of the flesh which is good, but from the defects of the flesh from which human beings are not set free without the grace of the Saviour, not even when they leave the body through the body's death. In order to make this point, what did the Apostle previously say? I see another law in my members that resists the law of my mind and holds me captive in the law of sin which lies in my members. See the injury which the will’s disobedience has inflicted upon human nature. Let him pray to be healed! Why does he expect so much from the ability of nature? It is wounded, injured, beaten, ruined; it is in need of a true confession, not of a false defence. Let it ask, then, for the grace of God, not that by which it is created, but that by which it is restored.

St Augustine, from On Nature and Grace 53.61; WSA (1997) tr. Teske.

Season of the Year | Week 03

Sunday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ROMANS OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The Spirit you have received does not enslave you and make you afraid. No; you have received the Spirit of sonship so that you cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ The baptized know the power of this word, for they are rightly instructed to use it for the first time when they say the Lord’s prayer after their Baptism. You may ask if the Jews did not also call God Father, if Moses did not say, You forsook the God who was your Father and if Malachi did not remind those he was reproaching that they all had one Father and were created by one God. But despite these and many similar texts, we never find them actually addressing God thus in prayer.

Yet this is how we, both priests and lay people, both rulers and subjects, are all commanded to pray. Our Father is the first word we speak after our marvellous rebirth in Baptism. We have been taught that as the Spirit gives the wisdom that enlightens the foolish, the power by which weak human beings have raised the dead and cast out devils, the gifts of healing, of prophecy and of tongues, so also the Spirit makes us sons of God. And just as we recognize the Spirit’s gift of prophecy from the fact that those possessing it foretell the future, speaking not from their own knowledge but under the inspiration of grace, so also we recognize the Spirit’s gift that makes us God’s sons from the fact that he inspires whoever receives it to call God ‘Father’. In his desire to make us realize that we really are sons of God, Paul made use of a Hebrew word. He said not only ‘Father’, but ‘Abba, Father’, which is the word used in addressing a father by one who is in actual fact his son.

Then, after speaking of what we gain from our new way of life with its gift of grace and freedom, he shows in still another way the dignity of divine adoption. He says: The Spirit of God joins with our spirit to declare that we are sons of God. But if we are sons we are also heirs, heirs of God. And we are not only heirs but something even greater: we are coheirs with Christ. See how he strives to bring us close to the Lord! Since not all sons are heirs, he declares that we are both sons and heirs. And since not all heirs have a very great inheritance, he shows the greatness of ours by saying that we are heirs of God. If it is an inexpressible grace to be a son of God, think what it means to be also an heir! And if this is something great, how much greater it is to be a coheir with God’s only Son!

Then, to show that grace is not the only factor upon which this gift depends and at the same time to make his words more credible, he continues: provided we suffer with Christ, in order that we may also be glorified with him. In other words, if we share with him in what is painful, much more shall we share in what is blissful. Since God bestowed such great blessings upon those who had no good deeds to their credit, when he sees that they have endured trials and much suffering he can hardly fail to repay them with even greater blessings.

St John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 14.3 (Bareille 16:36-8); Word in Season V.

Monday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY THEODORET OF CYRRHUS

Our Saviour wishes us to use the Cross as a sign in all our meditations and actions and imprint it as a symbol of himself on everything we do or say, just as the portrait of a monarch is on all genuine royal coinage. It will not be difficult for you to do this, he says, if you continue in your love for me, because love is as strong as death. As by God’s decree death conquers everything, so too does love overcome all things, proving stronger even than death itself. Think of the Cross as a example to inspire you. If the thought of it remains strong in your hearts, you will refuse to regard anything else as more precious; or to let anything dishearten or discourage you. The sign of the Cross will put you in communion with me.

Many waters, says Scripture, cannot quench love nor can rivers overwhelm it. All the holiest people in the Old Testament as well in the New bear witness to this truth. Abraham’s love for God could not be extinguished by his removing and settling in a foreign land nor by the hardship which poverty and hunger brought nor by the taking away of his wife nor by the sacrifice of his son nor by the dispute about wells. Nor could Isaac’s love be destroyed by the troubles which afflicted him. Nor was Jacob’s love weakened by the unceasing labours and sorrows of his life. What could be more bitter than the trials to which Joseph was subjected? He was sold by his brothers, deprived of the love of his parents and the house of his fathers and forced into slavery. His purity earning him only calumny, he was thrown into prison and subjected to innumerable hardships, yet in all these troubles his love for God shone the brighter.

Then, passing over other saints, the blessed Paul will be enough to demonstrate to us the power of love since he gave more proof of it than anyone else. What can separate us from the love of God? he asks. Can tribulation, hardship or persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger or the sword? As Scripture says, ‘For your sake we are being put to death all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ But in all these trials, he says, we have complete victory because of Christ’s love for us.

Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Commentary on the Song of Songs, 4 (PG 81:205-8); Word in Season V.

Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ST AUGUSTINE’S ANSWER TO 2 LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS

Why does God make certain men sheep and not others, since there is no partiality in him? This is the question which certain people pose with more curiosity than mental capacity, and the blessed Apostle answers, Who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Does the clay pot say to its maker: Why have you made me so?. This is the question involving that depth at which, when he tried to examine it, the same Apostle gasped and cried out, Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and unsearchable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? Or who has first given him something so that he will be repaid? For from him and through him and in him are all things; to him be glory for ever.

And so, let these people not dare to search out this unsearchable question, for in defending merit before grace and, therefore, in opposition to grace, they want first to give God something so that they will be repaid. They want first to give him something from their free choice so that grace might be given to them in return as a reward. Let them understand with wisdom or believe with faith that they received from him from whom are all things, through whom are all things, and in whom are all things, even what they suppose that they first gave him. But as for the question why this one receives and that one does not receive, when neither of them merits to receive and whichever of them receives does not receive something owed to him, let them take measure of their powers and not search out mysteries that are beyond them.

Let it suffice for them to know that there is no injustice in God. For when the Apostle found no merits by which Jacob was preferred before God over his twin brother, he said, What then shall we say? Is there injustice in God? Heaven forbid! For he said to Moses, I shall take pity on whom I shall take pity, and I shall show mercy, to whom I shall show mercy. Therefore, it does not depend on the one who wills or runs, but upon God who takes pity. Let his gratuitous mercy, then, be gratefully received, even if this profound question remains unsolved. It is, nonetheless, solved to the extent that the Apostle solved it, when he said, What if in wishing to show his anger and demonstrate his power, God tolerated with great patience the vessels of anger which were made for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory toward the vessels of mercy which he prepared for glory. He does not, of course, reveal his anger unless it is deserved so that there is no injustice in God, but his mercy, even when it is offered without being deserved, is not injustice in God. From this the vessels of mercy understand how gratuitously he shows them his mercy, because he reveals his deserved and righteous anger to the vessels of anger with whom they form a common mass and share the same grounds for their destruction. And let this answer suffice against those who want to destroy the generosity of grace through the freedom of choice.

St Augustine, An Answer to the Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.6.16; WSA (1998) tr. Teske.

Wednesday on the Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST GAUDENTIUS OF BRESCIA

It is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs. We who were once Gentiles were dogs, and the Jews of that time were the children; the Lord was therefore unwilling to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs. But once the heavenly bread itself came to his own domain, and his own people did not accept him; once this same Lord of ours was acknowledged by the Gentiles, who were formerly dogs, while the children barked blasphemy against him; and once these same children cried out, We have no King but Caesar when Pilate objected to pronouncing sentence of crucifixion against Christ whom he thought to be their King – then God once again said of them through the Prophet: I begot children and brought them up, but they have scorned me.

But they shall be converted in the evening, as the Prophet says, and suffer hunger like dogs. The Jews themselves will also be converted, but belatedly, in the evening of the world. For it is written: Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sands of the sea, a remnant of them will be saved. And the Apostle Paul proclaims that the Jews will be stricken with blindness until the full number of the Gentiles has entered in. They shall be converted at the end of the world and will hunger for the word of God like the dogs that wanted to fill themselves with the crumbs that fell from their master’s table. The Gentiles who were once dogs are thus adopted as children, while the children are compared to dogs. All unbelievers are surely beasts, not indeed in their natures but by reason of their way of life; for when they prospered people lacked wisdom; they became like ignorant beasts.

Therefore, even though the Jews had acted impiously like the Gentiles, but with a greater measure of guilt, Christ nonetheless continued to love them, not for their own sake but for the sake of their righteous ancestors; though they were still unworthy, he called them children in order to convert them; being compassionate and sharing the Father’s love for them he was unwilling hastily to deprive them of himself, the heavenly bread and author of life, and give himself to the Gentiles, until the latter by their steadfast faith should have put the unbelieving children to shame, and until he himself should have come in the flesh to teach and instruct the children. He would chastise them with gifts of healing; because they remained ungrateful, he would pass judgment on them by divine miracles; since they disdained to be converted to the faith, he would condemn them. And when at last their wickedness had reached its extreme in his Passion, he would, after his own resurrection, turn to the Gentiles, give himself to them as the bread of life, and grant them the cup of the Holy Spirit to drink in the water of Baptism.

St Gaudentius of Brescia, Sermon 9 (PL 20:902-6); Word in Season V.

Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

When Saul was persecuting the Church he was stumbling over the stone of stumbling. Christ was lying, lowly and humble, on the ground; he was also, to be sure, in heaven, his flesh that had been raised from the dead having been lifted up there. But unless Christ were also lying on the ground, he wouldn’t cry out to Saul, Why are you persecuting me?

But those now who stumbled over the stone of stumbling; what does the same Apostle say about them? Because not from faith, he says, but as though from works. Because they, as though through their own justice, stumbled at the stone of stumbling; as it is written: Behold, l am placing in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal; and whoever believes in him shall not be confounded. Whoever believes in him, you see, will not have his own justice, which is from the Law, though the Law is good; but he will fulfil that very Law not with his own justice but with that given by God.

So those men stumbled over the stone of stumbling and the rock of scandal. And he says about them, Brothers, the good will of my heart and my prayer to God is for them unto salvation. The Apostle is praying for those who don’t believe, that they may believe; for those who have turned away, that they may turn back to God. You can see how not even this turning back or conversion happens without God’s help. My prayer, he says, to God is for them unto salvation. For I bear them witness that they have the zeal of God. Just as he too used to have it himself; he used to have the zeal of God. But not according to knowledge. What’s this, not according to knowledge? For being ignorant of God’s justice, and wishing to establish their own.

Remove yourself, remove, I repeat, yourself from yourself; you just get in your own way. If it’s you that are building yourself, it’s a ruin you’re building. Unless the Lord has built the house, they have laboured in vain, who build it. So stop wishing to have your own justice. It’s the Apostle Paul speaking; those who love their own justice mustn't put the blame on me. Here’s where you can find him. Open it, read, listen, see. Don’t have your own justice; the Apostle counts it as dung, even though it’s from the Law, but still because it’s his own. For being ignorant of God’s justice, and wishing to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the justice of God.

Don’t think that just because you call yourself a Christian, you cannot for that reason stumble over the stone of stumbling. When you disparage his grace, you stumble over him. It’s less serious to stumble at Christ hanging on the Cross than at Christ seated in heaven. Let there be justice in you, but let it be from grace, let it come to you from God; don’t let it be your own. This is what the Apostle Paul preached: ‘Let it come to you from God.’ Sigh to obtain it, weep to obtain it, believe in order to obtain it. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, he says, shall be saved.

St Augustine, Sermon 153; WSA (1992) tr. Hill.

Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS OF BLESSED WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY

God’s people was the Jewish nation, to which belonged the adoption, the glory, the covenant, and the Law. That people had been given all the signs that promised the Saviour. Well then, has that entire nation been condemned? By no means! But the threshing floor has been winnowed and the mass of grain has settled, while the chaff lies outside. If you see any Jews who are reprobate, they are chaff. Those however who were foreknown and predestined have not been rejected. The rest, God says, are mine. What does he mean by saying, The rest are mine? He means: I chose them because I saw that they do not rely on themselves or on Baal. They have not degenerated, but are as I made them. Thus a remnant has been saved, chosen by grace.

Christian, be on guard against pride. Even if you imitate the saints, attribute it all to grace because it was grace and not your merits that caused you to be of the remnant. It is of this remnant that the Prophet speaks. If you rely on your merits or works, then longer grace that is given to you but a reward which you have earned. But if the choice is based on grace, then it is not due to your works; otherwise grace would cease to be grace.

The words, chosen by grace, mean that we who were evil were to be good by the grace of him who makes the choice. Grace does not find merits already there but creates them. What then? Israel did not obtain what it sought. What did Israel seek that it did not obtain? Paul said earlier that though Israel looked for a righteousness based on the Law it failed to fulfil the Law because it tried to do so not by faith but by works. It followed the Law that prescribes works, and sought righteousness therein, but did not find it. The elect, on the other hand, whether from among the Jews or from the Gentiles, attained to it by following the law of grace, the law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life. The rest, however, because they refused to believe when they could have done so, were hardened, that is, they became unable to believe. For those who freely sin are punished in their very freedom; just as those who deliberately call false what is true are afterward unable to comprehend the truth. Such is the reward not of simple ignorance but of deliberate bad will.

Bd. William of Saint-Thierry, Commentary on Romans 6.11 (PL 180:658-9); Word in Season V.

Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

To save us from forfeiting life by losing the Spirit who possesses us, and to exhort us to share in the Spirit, the Apostle declares that it is impossible for flesh and blood to gain possession of the kingdom of God. In other words: Do not deceive yourselves, for if the Word of God and the Spirit of the Father do not dwell in you, and you lead a life of vanity and carelessness, as though you were merely flesh and blood, you cannot obtain the kingdom of God.

He says this to prevent us from indulging our physical nature and spurning the grafting of the spirit, for when you were a wild olive, he says, you were grafted into the cultivated olive and came to share that olive’s rich sap. So just as with a grafted wild olive, if the graft fails to take it is cut off and thrown into the fire, but if the graft is successful and the wild olive takes on the qualities of the cultivated one, it develops into a fruitful olive, like one planted in a royal garden, so we too, if faith leads us to reform and we receive the Spirit of God and produce the fruit of that Spirit, we too shall be spiritual, as if planted in the garden of God; but if we spurn the Spirit and remain what we were before, choosing to belong to the flesh rather than the Spirit, we would rightly be told: It is impossible for flesh and blood to gain possession of the kingdom of God: in other words, no wild olive will be admitted into God’s garden. Thus in comparing flesh and blood with the wild olive, the Apostle has given us a wonderful picture of our nature and of the whole of God’s plan for us.

The olive, if neglected and left to grow for a time in some deserted spot, becomes a wild olive again and produces poor fruit, but if it is taken care of once more and grafted, it returns to its earlier fertility. And it is the same with us. We too may become careless and allow the bad fruit of worldly desires to grow in us, and by our own fault fail to bear the fruits of righteousness. While we sleep the enemy sows weeds, which is why the Lord commanded his disciples to be watchful. If, however, when we have become barren of righteousness and as it were entangled in brambles, we are cared for again and receive the word of God like a graft, we then return to our original nature, the nature created in the image and likeness of God.

St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 5.9.4-10 (SC 153:122-6); Word in Season V.

Season of the Year | Week 04

Sunday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE DECLARATION ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

The Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to the mystery of God’s saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are already found among the patriarchs, Moses, and the Prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ, the sons of Abraham according to faith, are included in the same patriarch’s call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church was mystically foreshadowed by the chosen people’s exodus from the land of bondage.

The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in his inexpressible mercy deigned to establish the ancient covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that good olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild olive branches of the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by his Cross Christ, our peace, reconciled Jew and Gentile, making them both one in himself.

Also, the Church ever keeps in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen, who have the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenant and the legislation and the worship and the promises; who have the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh, the son of the Virgin Mary. The Church recalls too that from the Jewish people spring the Apostles, her foundation stones and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ to the world.

As holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation, nor did the Jews in large number accept the Gospel; indeed, not a few opposed the spreading of it. Nevertheless, according to the Apostle, the Jews still remain most dear to God because of their fathers, for he does not repent of the gifts he makes nor of the calls he issues. In company with the Prophets and same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and serve him with one accord.

Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate 4; Word in Season V.

Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

Practical perfection, or praktiké, which leads to the higher step of contemplation, is divided among many professions and pursuits. For some people are completely set upon the remoteness of the desert and on purity of heart, as we know Elijah and Elisha were in times past and the blessed Antony and others were in our own day, pursuing the same chosen orientation and attaching themselves very closely to God by the silence of the desert. Some have devoted every painstaking effort of theirs to the instruction of the brothers and to the constant care of the cenobia, as we recall was the case lately with Abba John. The kindly duty of welcoming strangers is attractive to some. This was how, also in times past, the patriarch Abraham and Lot pleased the Lord, and lately there was the blessed Macarius, a man of extraordinary gentleness and patience. He presided over a hostel in Alexandria in such a way that he should not be considered inferior to any of those who pursued the remoteness of the desert. Some choose the care of the sick, some are intent upon teaching, and others give alms to the poor, and among great and noble men they have flourished by reason of their love and their goodness.

Therefore it is beneficial and proper for each person, in accordance with the orientation that he has chosen and the grace that he has received, to strive most zealously and diligently to attain to perfection in the work that be has undertaken. He may praise and admire the virtues of others, but he should never depart from the profession that he has once chosen, knowing that, according to the Apostle, the body of the Church is indeed one, although its members are many, and that it has, gifts differing according to the grace which has been given to us; whether prophecy, in proportion to our faith; or service, in our serving; or he who teaches, in teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation. Some members cannot claim for themselves the ministries of other members, for the eyes cannot perform the function of the hands nor the nose of the ears. Therefore not all are Apostles, not all are Prophets, not all are teachers.

Those who are not yet established in the profession that they have undertaken are accustomed, when they hear some people commended for their different virtues, to be so taken up with their praise that they immediately desire to imitate their practices. In such cases human frailty inevitably expends its efforts in vain. For it is impossible for one and the same person to shine simultaneously in all the virtues that I have listed above. If someone wants to strive after all of them together, in his pursuit of them he will of necessity not possess a single one completely, and he will suffer loss rather than make gain as a result of this diversity and variation. For there are many ways that lead to God, and therefore each person should finish the one that he has taken up, intent upon his course, so that he may be perfect in his profession, whatever it may be.

St John Cassian, Conference 14, 4-6; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFESSIONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

A huge storm blew up within me and brought on a heavy rain of tears. In order to pour them out unchecked with the sobs that accompanied them, I arose and left Alypius; for solitude seemed to me more suitable for the business of weeping. I withdrew far enough to ensure that his presence – even his – would not be burdensome to me. This was my need, and he understood it, for I think I had risen to my feet and blurted out something, my voice already choked with tears. He accordingly remained, in stunned amazement, at the place where we had been sitting. I flung myself down somehow under a fig-tree and gave free rein to the tears that burst from my eyes like rivers, as an acceptable sacrifice to you. Many things I had to say to you, and the gist of them, though not the precise words, was: O Lord, how long? How long? Will you be angry for ever? Do not remember our age-old sins. For by these I was conscious of being held prisoner. I uttered cries of misery: “Why must I go on saying, ‘Tomorrow ... tomorrow’? Why not now? Why not put an end to my depravity this very hour?”

I went on talking like this and weeping in the intense bitterness of my broken heart. Suddenly I heard a voice from a house nearby – perhaps a voice of some boy or girl, I do not know – singing over and over again, “Pick it up and read, pick it up and read.” My expression immediately altered and I began to think hard whether children ordinarily repeated a ditty like this in any sort of game, but I could not recall ever having heard it anywhere else. I stemmed the flood of tears and rose to my feet, believing that this could be nothing other than a divine command to open the book and read the first passage I chanced upon; for I had heard the story of how Antony had been instructed by a Gospel text. He happened to arrive while the Gospel was being read, and took the words to be addressed to himself when he heard, Go and sell all you possess and give the money to the poor: you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. So he was promptly converted to you by this plainly divine message. Stung into action, I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting, for on leaving it I had put down there the book of the Apostle’s letters. I snatched it up, opened it and read in silence the passage on which my eyes first lighted: Not in dissipation and drunkenness, nor in debauchery and lewdness, nor in arguing and jealousy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh or the gratification of your desires. I had no wish to read further, nor was there need. No sooner had I reached the end of the verse than the light of certainty flooded my heart and all dark shades of doubt fled away.

St Augustine, Confessions VIII, 28-29; WSA (1997) tr. Boulding.

Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS BY ORIGEN

In the exposition of this epistle, we have repeatedly spoken about what it means to live in Christ and what it means to die in Christ. We did this especially in that passage where we attempted to explain the Apostle’s words, But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with him. If we call to mind what was said in that passage, then the words the Apostle has set forth in the present passage will become clearer: how none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself. For no one provides a pattern of death for himself, he takes it from Christ who alone has died for sin, so that he too, by imitation of Christ, can become estranged from sin and dead to it. Moreover, we do not have the pattern of life from ourselves, but we have received it from the resurrection of Christ, as the same Apostle says, In order that, as Christ rose again from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also you might walk in newness of life.

So then, the newness of life by which we live in Christ through faith in his resurrection is attributed to the Lord, since it began with him not with us. And for that reason, whether we live, we live to the Lord; whether we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. He calls “death” that by which we have died to sin, having been buried together with Christ and baptized into his death. And he calls “life” that by which we have become strangers to this world. We who are alive from the dead live not for ourselves, that is for the flesh, but for God, as Paul adds: For to this end Christ died and lived, so that he might be Lord of the dead and the living.

He says that Christ has died, doubtless by the dispensation of suffering; but he lives through the mystery of the resurrection. Whence also he has left a pattern for us: first of suffering and mortification, then later of resurrection and newness of life. It is accepted that Christ’s dominion is over all creation in two ways. First, as the Creator of all things and bearing authority over all things, he holds all things under subjection by the force of his majesty and by the compulsion of power. In this way he exercises lordship not only over good and holy minds and spirits, but also over bad and apostate spirits, and over those whom Holy Scripture has designated as evil angels.

But there is another way by which, as the Good and the Son of the good Father, he does not want to influence rational spirits toward obedience to his Law by compulsion, but he waits for them to seek the Good willingly and come of their own accord. It is for this reason, after all, that he thinks it worthy to go to death, so that he might leave behind a pattern of obedience and a type of dying for those who are willing to die to sin and to the vices. Thus the Apostle writes in the present passage that the reason he died and lived was that he might be Lord over both the living and the dead: of the living, that is those who, by the pattern of his resurrection, lead a new and heavenly life on earth; of the dead, doubtless those who carry around the mortification of Christ in their own body and who put to death their own members that are on the earth.

Origen, Commentary on Romans 9.39.2-4; FoC 104 (2002) tr. Scheck.

Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

Our Lord and Saviour instructed us thoroughly in the virtue of patience and mildness when he gave us this formula for gospel perfection: If anyone strikes you on your right cheek, offer him the other as well. In doing this he did not want us to follow it by mere lip service but to remove completely the dregs of wrath from the inmost depths of the soul. Thus, if your outer right cheek has received a blow, the inner man should also humbly offer his right cheek to be struck, suffering along with the outer man. The inner man therefore submits its own body to the injustice of the striker, so that he may not be disturbed even silently within himself at the blow dealt to the outer man.

Thus we shall conquer the attacker’s rage with our mildness, and thus we shall also fulfil the apostolic words: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This can by no means be fulfilled by those who utter words of mildness and humility in a proud spirit. They not only do not calm the fiery rage that has been conceived; on the contrary, they cause it to flare up more in their own mind than in that of their enraged brother. Yet, even if in some way they could remain gentle and calm, they would never receive any fruits of righteousness thereby because they are claiming the glory of patience for themselves by way of their neighbour’s loss. Thus they are very far indeed from that apostolic love which does not seek what is its own but rather what belongs to others. For it does not want riches in such a way as to make a profit for itself at its neighbour’s expense, nor does it desire to acquire anything to someone else’s impoverishment.

It should certainly be known that, as a rule, he who submits his own will to his brother’s will acts a stronger part than he who is more obstinate in defending and holding on to his own opinions. For the former, in putting up with and tolerating his neighbour, obtains the status of one who is healthy and strong; whereas the latter has the status of one who is somehow weak and sickly, who must be so flattered and coaxed that even essential things must be changed for the sake of his calm and peace. In this, to be sure, the strong man should not believe that his perfection is at all diminished, although by giving in he has somewhat mitigated his intended strictness. On the contrary he should realise that he has gained much more by his tolerance and patience. For the apostolic precept has it: You who are strong should bear with the infirmities of the weak, and: Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfil the Law of Christ. For one weak man never puts up with another weak person, nor will someone who is sick be able to endure or heal someone else who is ailing in the same way. Rather, it is he who is himself not subject to infirmity who bestows healing on the infirm. Rightly is it said to him: Physician, heal yourself.

St John Cassian, Conference 16.22-23; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramesy.

Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS BY ORIGEN

I beg you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to help me with your prayers to God. Who that reads of Paul asking the brethren in Rome to pray for him will be too proud to ask for the Church’s prayers, even if those whose prayers they request seem to be lower in merit than themselves? Here is Paul, endowed with the merits of an Apostle, urging not only the Romans but even the Corinthians to pray for him! Observe, moreover, the strong religious obligation by which he binds them to do so: I beg you, he says, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to help me with your prayers to God.

The Latin words for to help me with your prayers translate a much stronger Greek term which means to strive together with me by your prayers. He thus reveals that his own prayer is a conflict, a struggle, probably against those of whom he said: Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, of this world of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. For it is certain that just as all these powers are hostile to faith and opposed to religion and make war on justice and truth and everything that is good, so too they obstruct and oppose prayer.

If Paul thinks it necessary to ask the Romans to help him in this struggle, then clearly the struggle involved in prayer is no minor one. The first way in which the demons and hostile powers obstruct prayer is by trying to ensure that those who exert themselves in this struggle will be unable to lift up hands that are clean and free from anger. Furthermore, even if those praying manage to be free from anger, they will hardly avoid distractions, that is superfluous and empty thoughts. You will scarcely find anyone who is not subject in prayer to some empty and irrelevant thoughts that turn aside and interrupt the attention of the mind to God and carry it away by inappropriate reflections.

Prayer, then, is a mighty struggle. A mind always fixed on God contends with unwavering attention against the enemies opposing it, who try to steal away the spirit of prayer by wandering thoughts. It can then say in all honesty: I have fought the good fight; 1 have finished the race.

Origen, Commentary on Romans 10 (PG 14:1276-7); Word in Season V.

Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the Church at Cenchreae: she has been a helper to many people, including myself. What are you saying, Paul – a woman has been your assistant, and you are not ashamed, you do not blush to admit it? Far from being ashamed, he says, I am proud of it. My Master was not ashamed to have a woman as his mother.

After this Paul praises another woman, and for the same reason. Salute Priscilla and Aquila, he says. Notice the prominence given to the woman: they are a single couple, but the woman is placed before the man. Paul did not say Aquila and Priscilla, but Priscilla and Aquila. Who were they? Tent-makers, whose home was their workshop. But neither their trade nor their poverty was any barrier for Paul. On the contrary, the blessed Apostle requested their hospitality, preferring their house to any other in the city. Why did he do so? Not because of its pillars, its marble, its floor with mosaic decorations, its roof of gold, its numerous slaves, but rather because it was a house which was free from all these things. By hard and honest work this woman and her husband made their house a Church; they were neither grasping nor greedy, but content simply to earn their living. And for all these reasons Paul regarded their house as a suitable lodging.

And so that you may understand that he stayed there because he knew the virtue of this couple, listen to his next words: They risked their necks for my life; it is not only I myself who am grateful to them, but all the gentile Churches. Did you notice that nothing hindered them on the path of virtue, neither the fact that one was a woman, nor their trade, nor their poverty? Did you notice the warmth of their hospitality, and how they not only welcomed the Apostle to their table but would have shed their blood for him? For what matter if they were not actually killed? They did everything in their power; again and again they were ready at any time to die for Paul. For he did not say: They squandered their money on me, or they opened their house to me, but gave first place to what was greater than anything else, the sacrifice of life, so that he said in effect: They were willing even to die for me.

Priscilla and Aquila gave up their possessions, their bodies and their very lives. Do you realize what a great thing it is for a woman to love virtue, and for a man to live in poverty in a humble trade? Let us vie with them and follow their example. Let us also despise the goods of this world, and give everything we have to be among those whom God thinks well of. Then we too shall obtain the good things of the life to come, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and forever. Amen.

St John Chrysostom, Last Homilies 5 (Bareille 20:513-5); Word in Season V.

Season of the Year | Week 05

Sunday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS BY ST CLEMENT OF ROME

Let anyone truly possessed by the love of Christ keep his commandments. Who can express the binding power of divine love? Who can find words for the splendour of its beauty? Beyond all description are the heights to which it lifts us. Love unites us to God; it cancels innumerable sins, has no limits to its endurance, bears everything patiently. Love is neither servile nor arrogant. It does not provoke schisms or form cliques, but always acts in harmony with others. By it all God’s chosen ones have been sanctified; without it, it is impossible to please him. Out of love the Lord took us to himself; because he loved us and it was God’s will, our Lord Jesus Christ gave his life’s blood for us – he gave his body for our body, his soul for our soul.

See then, beloved, what a great and wonderful thing love is, and how inexpressible its perfection. Who are worthy to possess it unless God makes them so? To him therefore we must turn, begging of his mercy that there may be found in us a love free from human partiality and beyond reproach. Every generation from Adam’s time to ours has passed away; but those who by God’s grace were made perfect in love have a dwelling now among the saints, and when at last the kingdom of Christ appears, they will be revealed.

Blessed are we, beloved, if love enables us to live in harmony and in the observance of God's commandments, for then it will also gain for us the remission of our sins. Scripture pronounces blessed those whose transgressions are pardoned, whose sins are forgiven. Blessed is the man, it says, to whom the Lord imputes no fault, on whose lips there is no guile. This is the blessing given those whom God has chosen through Jesus Christ our Lord. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

St Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians 49-50; Word in Season V.

Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY EUSEBIUS OF EMESA

Supposing two men come to a city without food, money, or a change of clothes. Who do you think would welcome them, where would they find an open door? Who would want to know them? What sort of lodging would they find and where would they start to look for it? One must surely marvel at the power of one who could send his disciples out in such a way, and at the faith of those whom he sent.

What had these men to offer? What was their message? “He was crucified,” they said. The preachers were Jews, men of lowly station, ignorant, illiterate, poor. Their teaching was about a Cross: hence the need for faith. But power triumphs through difficulties. The Cross was proclaimed and temples were destroyed; the Cross was proclaimed and kings were conquered; the Cross was proclaimed and the worldly-wise were put to shame, pagan festivals were abolished, and pagan deities destroyed. Why be so amazed that the Apostles were believed, or that they themselves could believe, and that they returned home safely after being welcomed everywhere? But these are truly great marvels and we should not fail to realize this. Unknown strangers, poorly dressed and without contacts, travelled all over the world proclaiming someone who had been crucified, and offering a life of fasting in place of drunkenness, and irksome self-restraint in place of sensuality. It can hardly have been easy for those addicted to such vices to receive these exhortations to renounce them and live upright lives. And yet whole peoples seized upon this teaching, whole nations embraced it.

What was the treasure these men cherished? The power of the Cross. Before the crucifixion the disciples did nothing, or if they did it was not known; but after the crucifixion they accomplished marvels, that is to say, after the sacred blood had cancelled the bond that stood against us; after that blood had cleansed us from our uncleanness; after death had been dealt a death-blow by a death; after God, through his humanity, had conquered him who was destroying humanity; after sin had been put to death through obedience; after Adam had been restored to grace by the second Adam; after error had been corrected through the Virgin.

The Apostles obeyed and their very shadows raised the sick, for Christ filled with his power those with whom he dwelt. They were not what they were before, what we all were, but were clothed with Christ. And as a bar of iron before heat is applied to it is cold and just like any other iron, but becomes glowing hot when placed in a fire, laying aside its natural coldness and burning with heat itself, so when mortal men are clothed with Jesus they perform the same works as he does. This is what Paul teaches when he says: I live, but it is not I – he has undergone a blessed death – but Christ lives in me.

Eusebius of Emesa, Sermon 14.7-8; Word in Season V.

Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ST PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

We impart the wisdom of God in a mystery. A mystery does not need to be proved, but simply proclaimed. It would not be a wholly divine mystery if you added to it anything of your own. Besides, the reason it is called a mystery is that we cannot penetrate its depths: what we see is one thing, what we believe is another. In this lies the very nature of our mysteries.

My reactions to them are therefore different from the reactions of an unbeliever. When I hear that Christ was crucified I am filled with amazement at his love for us, but to the unbeliever this shows weakness. When I hear that Christ became a servant I am astonished at his solicitude for us, but to the unbeliever this is a disgrace. When I hear that Christ died I marvel at his power, since he was not conquered by death, but instead put an end to death. The unbeliever, however, sees Christ’s death as a sign of helplessness.

The unbeliever regards the resurrection as pure fiction, but I accept the proven facts and venerate God’s saving plan. In Baptism the unbeliever sees only water, but I perceive not only what meets the eye, but also the purification of the soul by the Holy Spirit. The unbeliever thinks only the body is cleansed, but I believe that the soul also is made pure and holy, and I am reminded of the tomb, the resurrection, our sanctification, justification, redemption, adoption, and inheritance, of the kingdom of heaven and the gift of the Holy Spirit. I judge outward appearances not by what I see but by the eyes of the mind. When the body of Christ is mentioned, the words have one meaning for me, another for the unbeliever.

Just as the letters on a page are meaningless to a child who has not learned to read, so it is with the Christian mystery. Unbelievers are deaf to what they hear, whereas the experience of the Spirit empowers believers to perceive its hidden meaning. Paul made this clear when he said: Our preaching is obscure, but only for those on the way to perdition. Something proclaimed everywhere without being understood by those lacking an upright spirit is undoubtedly a mystery. For to the extent that we are able to receive it, it is revealed not by human wisdom but by the Holy Spirit. Rightly therefore, is the mystery said to be a secret, for even we believers have not been given a completely clear and accurate knowledge of it. As Paul said: Our knowledge and our prophesying are imperfect. We see now as it were a dim reflection in a mirror, but then face to face. This is why he said: We impart the wisdom of God in a mystery predestined by God before all ages for our glory.

St John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Corinthians 7.1-2 (Bareille 16:393-6); Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS BY ST CLEMENT OF ROME

Why are there quarrels among you, outbursts of anger, dissentions, fighting? Have we not one God, one Christ, one Spirit of grace poured out upon us and one vocation in Christ? Why should we rend and tear asunder the limbs of Christ? Why rise up against our own body, reaching such a point of madness as to lose sight of the fact that we are members of one another? Remember the words of Jesus our Lord: Woe to that man; it would have been better for him never to have been born than to have caused one of my elect to stumble, better for him to have been thrown into the sea with a great millstone hung about him than to have depraved one of my elect. Your bickering has depraved many; it has cast many into doubt and all of us into grief. Yet your turbulence still persists!

Take up again the letter of the blessed Apostle Paul. What was it that he wrote to you at the beginning, when you first heard the Good News? Truly, it was under the guidance of the Spirit that he sent you that letter about himself and Cephas and Apollos, because you were engaged in partisan strife even then. And yet those factions brought on you a lighter sin, for at least you were taking sides in favour of accredited Apostles and of a man approved by them.

Let us put a speedy end to this and cast ourselves in tears at the Lord’s feet, begging him to be graciously reconciled to us and to restore us to the noble and pure way of life that was ours, the way of love for one another.

This is the gate of righteousness that opens onto life, just as it written: Open to me the gates of righteousness; l will enter through them and give praise to the Lord. This is the Lord’s own gate, through which the just shall enter. Many gates stand open, but the gate of righteousness is the gate of Christ. Blessed are those who enter it and direct their course in holiness and justice, carrying out all they have to do calmly. One may be full of faith, speak with power of the knowledge one has received, be skilful in the interpretation of discourse, and chaste in conduct; but the greater one is accounted, the more one is bound to be humble-minded, and to seek the common advantage rather than one’s own.

St Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians 46-48 (SC 167:176-80); Word in Season V.

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE PUNISHMENT AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS BY ST AUGUSTINE

We men strive to find in our will some good that is ours and that we do not have from God, but I do not know how one can find such a good. We have heard the words of the Apostle, when he was speaking about human goods, After all, what do you have that you have not received? But if you have received, why do you boast as if you have not received? But the path of reason, upon which people like us can enter, presses each of us investigating this question not to defend grace in such a way that we seem to destroy free choice and not to stress free choice in such a way that we are judged ungrateful to the grace of God because of our wicked pride.

Some want to defend the words of the Apostle I mentioned by saying that we should attribute whatever good will we have to God, because it could not exist in us if we did not exist. Why shouldn’t we attribute to God as its author whatever good will we have, since we have it from God alone that we are anything at all? It would not, after all, exist, unless we existed in whom it is found? But in that way one could also say that we should also attribute to God our bad will, because it could not exist in a man, unless the man existed in whom it is found. God is the author of the existence of the man. Thus, one would have to credit God with being the author of this bad will too, since it could not exist if it did not have a man in which to exist. But it is utterly wrong to say that!

Hence, we must maintain not only that the choice of the will, which freely turns this way and that and which belongs to the natural goods which a bad person can misuse, but also that the good will, which already belongs to those goods which cannot be misused, can come to us only from God. Otherwise, I do not know how we are going to defend the words of Scripture, After all, what do you have that you have not received?. For, if we have from God a free will that can become either good or bad, while the good will comes from us, what comes from us is better than what comes from God. If, then, the will is either good or bad and if we certainly do not have a bad will from God, it remains that we have a good will from God. Otherwise, I do not know what other gift of his we ought to rejoice in, when we are made righteous by him. And for this reason, I believe, Scripture says, The will is prepared by the Lord, and the Apostle also says, It is God, after all, who produces in you the willing and the action in accord with good will.

Our turning away from God is our own doing, and this turning is an evil will. But our turning toward God is something we cannot do unless he rouses us and helps us, and this turning is a good will. Hence, what do we have that we have not received? But if we have received, why do we boast as if we had not received? And for this reason, Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.

St Augustine, On the Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins 2.18.28-31; WSA (1997) tr. Teske.

Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

From the first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces the Father’s plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission. The desire to embrace his Father’s plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus’ whole life, for his redemptive Passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. After agreeing to baptise him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel’s redemption at the first Passover. Christ’s whole life expresses his mission: to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

By embracing in his human heart the Father’s love for men, Jesus loved them to the end, for greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men. Christ’s death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men, through the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and the sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the blood of the covenant which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices. First, it is a gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile us with himself. At the same time it is the offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience. It is love to the end that confers on Christ’s sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.

The Cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the one mediator between God and men. But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to take up their cross and follow him, for Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example so that we should follow in his steps. Apart from the Cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) 606-618.

Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS

I say to you: Do not resist an evil man. When Christ says this, he means that we should not repay one offence with another but overcome it by virtue, thus extinguishing the fire of anger while it is still only a spark, for if it becomes a full raging blaze it will not be put out without blood being shed. Anger is overcome by mildness, rage is extinguished by gentleness, cruelty is subverted by goodness; patience punishes impatience, the acceptance of insults halts strife, and humility overthrows pride. Therefore, if you wish to overcome offences, take up the weapons not of rage but of religion. Now let us look further and see the reason for this command.

When the sickness of sin, vice, wickedness and impiety entered the deranged souls of men and with its savage rage drove out all knowledge, sense, and reason, it caused the nations of the world to flee from God, follow demons, and worship creatures; to spurn the creator, desire evil and bring death to the living. Consequently, the only way of healing the race was to send men, armed with all the devotion and patience of the heavenly physician, who would endure the insults of their frenzied fellows, put up with their curses, bear their blows, and let themselves be wounded by them, until they could bring them back to sobriety and sense and thus enable them to seek God, flee demons, realise their illnesses, desire healing, reject vice, acquire virtue, cease from wounding others, abhor bloodshed, reject killing, and restore life.

I ask you, what greater madness, what fiercer rage, or even comparable delirium, than to strike the cheek of a holy person, inflict a blow on the face of a gentle brother, vent grim spite against a winning, peaceful countenance, strip men of their only garment, and, out of vile greed, pay no heed to God, man, nature, or modesty; to commandeer the service of people going about their own work, and find one’s solace in the sufferings of others? Therefore, since we know that those who do such things suffer from a very severe derangement, let us obey Christ and with all the strength afforded by religion let us put up with the bites and blows and burdens heaped on us by frenzied brethren; in this way we may deliver them from punishment and win an everlasting reward for our patience.

Let us not refuse to accept from our fellow servants what our Lord deigned to accept from and for his servants. He did not withdraw his face from their blows; to those who took his tunic and his coat he gave his body as well; and when they imposed forced labour on him, he freely and gladly followed them to death. Therefore, if the Lord thought it right that he should suffer, can a servant consider it beneath him or her? If we think so, we are mistaken, brethren, we are mistaken; for those who will not do what the Lord commanded will wait in vain for what he promised.

St Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 38 (CCL 24:217-9); Word in Season V.

Season of the Year | Week 06

Sunday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF MACARIUS

When the soul is devoted to the Lord, and the Lord in mercy and love comes to her and is united with her, and when her intention thereafter remains continually in the grace of the Lord, then the soul and the Lord become one spirit, one unity, and one mind; and though her body is prostrate on the earth, her mind lives wholly in the heavenly Jerusalem, mounting even to the third heaven, where it clings to the Lord and serves him. And he, while sitting on the throne of majesty on high, in the heavenly city, is wholly with the soul in her bodily existence. For he has placed her image above, in Jerusalem, the heavenly city of the saints, and he has placed his own image, the image of the unspeakable light of his godhead, in her body. He ministers to her in the city of the body, while she ministers to him in the heavenly city. She has inherited him in heaven, and he has inherited her upon earth. The Lord becomes the soul’s inheritance, and the soul becomes the inheritance of the Lord.

In heart and mind, sinners living in darkness can be far from the body, can live at a great distance from it; they can travel in a moment of time to remote lands, so that often, while the body lies stretched out upon the earth, the mind is in another country with its beloved, and sees itself as living there. If then the soul of a sinner is so light and swift that his mind speeds without let or hindrance to far-away places, how much easier it must be for the soul from whom the veil of darkness has been lifted by the power of the Holy Spirit, whose mental eyes have been illuminated by heavenly light, who has been completely delivered from shameful passions and made pure by grace, to be at once wholly in heaven serving the Lord in Spirit, and wholly in the body serving him. The mental faculty of such a soul is so greatly expanded that she is present everywhere, and can serve Christ wherever and whenever she wishes.

Truly, the soul is a great and wonderful divine work. God created her according to the image of the virtues of the Spirit, without any evil in her nature. He placed in her the laws of the virtues, discernment, knowledge, understanding, faith, love, and the rest of the virtues, according to the image of the Spirit. Even now the Lord is found and revealed to the soul in knowledge, understanding, love and faith; he has placed in her intelligence, imagination, will, and reason to rule them. He has given her the ability to come and go in a moment, and to serve him in thought wherever the Spirit wills. In a word, he created her as one who was to become his bride and companion, so that he might be united with her and she might be one spirit with him, according to the word of Scripture: whoever is united to the Lord is one spirit with him. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Macarian Homilies 46.3-6 (PG 34:794-6); Word in Season V.

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A LETTER TO ST EUSTOCHIUM BY ST JEROME

Concerning virgins, says the Apostle, I have no commandment of the Lord. And why? Because he too was a virgin – not by compulsion but of his own free will. Nor should we pay any attention to those who pretend that Paul had a wife. When he discusses continence and recommends perpetual chastity, he says: For I wish that all were as I myself am; and later: But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them to remain single as I do. And in another passage: Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a sister as a wife just like the rest of the Apostles? Why, therefore, does he not have a commandment of the Lord concerning virginity? Because that which is not taken by force but is voluntary has more value. Because if virginity had been commanded, marriage would seem to have been forbidden. And it would have been very hard to impose what is against nature and to require of mankind the life of angels, and in a certain manner to condemn the plan of creation.

Under the Old Law there was a different conception of happiness. Blessed is he who has seed in Sion and a family in Jerusalem, and cursed is the barren who did not bear children. And: Your children shall be like olive plants, around your table. But now the saying is: Do not think that you are a dry tree; you have an eternal place for sons and daughters in the heavens. Now the poor are blessed, and Lazarus is preferred to the rich in his purple. Now he that is weak is the stronger. The world used to be empty and – to say nothing of those who were types – the only blessing was that of children. But as the crop gradually increased, a reaper was sent in. Elijah was a virgin, Elisha was a virgin, many sons of the Prophets were virgins. To Jeremiah it is said: You shall not take a wife. Having been sanctified in the womb, he was forbidden to take a wife as the time of the captivity drew near.

The Apostle says the same thing in other words: I think, therefore, that this is good for the present necessity, that it is good for a person to remain as he is. What necessity is this that takes away the joys of marriage? It is the shortening of the time: It remains that they also who have wives be as if they had none. Nebuchadnezzar is near: The lion is come up out of his den. What end is to be served by my marrying a wife who will become the slave of a most haughty King? Or children, of whom the Prophet says, bewailing them: The tongue of the sucking child has stuck to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the little ones have asked for bread, and there was none to break it unto them. So then, as we have said, this virtue of continence used to be found solely in men, and Eve continuously bore children in sorrow. But after a virgin conceived in the womb and bore for us a Son upon whose shoulders is the government, God the mighty, the Father of the world to come, the curse has been abrogated. Death came through Eve, life through Mary. And therefore a richer gift of virginity has flowed upon women, because it began with a woman. Immediately after the Son of God set foot on earth, he established a new household for himself, so that he who was adored by angels in heaven might have angels also on earth.

St Jerome, Letter 22, 20.2-21.7; ACW 33 (1963) tr. Mierow & Lawler.

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST LEO THE GREAT

Narrow and difficult is the way that leads to life. No one would set foot upon it, no one would advance one step, if Christ himself had not opened the difficult entrance by making himself the way. So it is that he who bids us make the journey also enables us to do so; he both persuades us to undertake the labour and leads us to our rest. We make a vain pretence if we fail to follow the teaching of him in whose name we glory, teaching which would not be burdensome and would free us from all perils if only we loved nothing but what he commanded us to love.

For there are two kinds of love from which proceed all desires, and they are as different in nature as they are in origin: the rational mind, which cannot exist without love, loves either God or the world. In the love of God there can be no excess, but the love of the world is harmful in every way. We must therefore cling inseparably to the good things that are eternal but, like passers-by, make use of those that are temporal; then, as pilgrims hastening to our homeland, we shall use any worldly good fortune that comes to us as a means to further our journey, not as an enticement to detain us. The time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as though they had none; and those who mourn as though they were not mourning; and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing; those who buy should live as though they had no possessions, and those who have to deal with this world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away.

But because the world attracts us by its beauty, abundance, and variety, it is not easy to turn away from it unless, in the beauty of visible things, one loves the Creator rather than the creature; for when the Creator says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength, he shows that it is not his will that we should loosen the bonds of our love for him in any respect whatever. And by joining to this precept love of our neighbour, he commands us to imitate his own goodness, loving what he loves and doing what he does.

It is true that we are God’s field, God’s building, and neither is the one who plants of any importance, nor the one who waters, but God who makes things grow. Nevertheless, in all his work he requires our ministry and service, and desires us to be the stewards of his gifts, so that those who bear God's image may do his will. This is why in the Lord’s prayer we say with great devotion: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What do we ask for in these words but that God should subject to himself those who are not yet subject to him, and that he should make men ministers of his will upon earth, as he does his angels in heaven? In making this petition we show that we love God and also our neighbour; our love is one and undivided, since our desire is that the servant should serve, and the Master command.

St Leo the Great, Sermon 90.2-3 (CCL 138A:558-61); Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY ST AUGUSTINE

Now it is the turn of wisdom to be discussed. I do not mean God’s Wisdom, which is undoubtedly God; it is his only begotten Son that is called God’s Wisdom. What we are going to talk about is man’s wisdom. This obviously means true wisdom which is in accordance with God and is in fact the true and principal worship of him. In Greek this is the single noun theosebeia. Our people translated this by ‘piety’, as they too wanted to find a single noun for it. But piety is more usually called eusebeia in Greek; and as theosebeia cannot be completely translated by one word, it is better to use two for it and say ‘God’s worship’. That this is the wisdom of man, is proved on the authority of holy Scripture in the book of God’s servant Job, where we read that God’s Wisdom said to man, Behold piety is wisdom, while to abstain from evils is knowledge. So God himself is supreme Wisdom; but the worship of God is man’s wisdom, and it is that which we are now talking about. As for the wisdom of this world, it is folly with God; but concerning that wisdom which is the worship of God, holy Scripture says, a multitude of wise men is the health of the world.

But what are we to do if the discussion of wisdom is the prerogative of the wise? Will we have the nerve to profess wisdom, and if not will our discussion of it not be sheer impertinence? Will the example of Pythagoras not frighten us off? Not daring to profess to be wise, he answered that he was rather a philosopher, that is, a lover of wisdom. From him onward this name found favour among his successors, so that however outstanding a man might seem to be, either in his own or other people's opinion, as a teacher of matters that belong to wisdom, he would never be called anything but a philosopher, a lover of wisdom. Or possibly the reason why none of these men dared to profess to be wise was that they thought a wise man would be entirely without sin. But our Scriptures do not say this, because they say, Rebuke a wise man and he will love you; and presumably they judge a man who is considered to be worthy of rebuke to have sin. Even so, I for one do not dare to profess to be wise. It is enough for me that it is also the business of the philosopher, that is of the lover of wisdom, to discuss wisdom, which even these old philosophers cannot deny. After all, they did not stop doing this, even though they professed to be lovers of wisdom rather than wise men.

St Augustine, de Trinitate XIV. 1.1-2; WSA (1991) tr. Hill.

Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF MACARIUS

All the observable works which are done in this world are done in the hope of receiving a return for the labours they involve. If there were no assurance that it would be profitable, work would be pointless. The farmer sows his seed in the hope of a harvest, and this expectation encourages him in his labour. As Saint Paul says, The ploughman ploughs in hope. A man marries in the hope of having heirs. The merchant risks death at sea for the sake of gain. And it is the same in the kingdom of heaven. People dedicate themselves to God in the hope that the eyes of their heart will be enlightened. They withdraw from worldly activities and give themselves up to prayer and supplication, waiting for the Lord to come and reveal himself to them and purify them from their sins.

For they do not rely solely on their own labours and conduct to obtain what they hope for, namely, that the Lord will come and dwell in them with the full experience and energy of the Spirit. And when they experience the Lord’s goodness and delight in the fruits of the Spirit, and when the veil of darkness is lifted and the light of Christ shines upon them to their unspeakable joy, they are completely satisfied because they have the Lord with them in much love; they are like the merchant we mentioned rejoicing in his gains. But even so they still have to struggle and they go in fear of the robber spirits of wickedness causing them to grow slack and lose their labour before they obtain the kingdom of heaven, the Jerusalem above.

Let us too, then, beseech God to strip off our old nature and clothe us in the heavenly Christ even now, so that the joy of being led by him may bring us great tranquillity. For, in his desire to fill us with longing for the kingdom, the Lord says: Without me you can do nothing.

Nevertheless he was able to enlighten many people through the Apostles. In spite of being merely creatures, they fed their fellow-servants. Through their good example and teaching the Lord restored to life minds that were dead and corrupted; for it is possible for one creature to nourish and give life to another: though only creatures, the clouds, when so commanded, bring seeds of wheat or barley to life. Like light coming in through a window and the sun shedding its radiance over all the world, the Prophets were lights to their own house of Israel, but the Apostles are suns with rays reaching every corner of the earth.

Macarian Homilies 14 (PG 34: 569-73); Word in Season V.

Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE INSTITUTES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

When the desire of the belly has been overcome, thanks to our delight in the beauty of heavenly things, and, as in the Olympic disciplines, we have been declared neither slaves of the flesh nor men of bad repute from having been tainted with vice, we ourselves shall be judged worthy to compete in the higher contests. Once we have established our credentials in this way, we too shall be believed capable of contending against the evil spirits, which deign to struggle only with the victorious and with those who deserve to fight in the spiritual combat. For the very first thing that must be done in every struggle, so to speak, is to destroy the impulses of the fleshly desires. For no one whose own flesh has not been overcome will be able to compete lawfully, and he who does not compete lawfully will certainly be unable to engage in the contest or to be victorious and win a glorious crown.

Do you want to listen to the true athlete of Christ as he engages by lawful right in the combat? I do not run, he says, in uncertainty. I do not fight as one beating against the air. But I chastise my body and subject it to servitude, lest when preaching to others I be rejected myself. You see that he has found the most important aspect of the struggle within himself – that is, in his own flesh; and you see that he has linked the outcome of the fight solely to the chastisement of his flesh and the subjection of his body. And so he does not run in uncertainty because, in looking upon the heavenly Jerusalem, he is clear as to where his undeviating heart should be directed. He does not run in uncertainty because, forgetting what is behind, he stretches himself out to what is before, pressing on to the goal, to the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus. Ever directing his mind’s gaze to this and hastening to it with utter alacrity of heart, he cried out confidently: I have fought the good fight, I have won the race, I have kept the faith. And because he knew that he had won the contest and the spiritual struggle, he confidently adds these words: Now, a crown of righteousness has been set aside for me, which the Lord, the just judge, will bestow on me on that day. And, in order to open to us as well a similar hope of reward, if we should wish to imitate him in his strenuous race, he added: But not only on me but on all who love his coming. Thus he declares that we shall have a part in his crown on the day of judgment if we love the coming of Christ – not only when he will appear even to the unwilling but also as he daily visits holy souls – and if we obtain victory in the contest by chastising our bodies.

Victory in the contests is never wanting to the athlete of Christ as he dwells in the flesh, but the stronger he grows through successive triumphs, the more demanding the series of struggles that awaits him. For once he has subjected and conquered his flesh, how many enemy armies rise up against the victorious soldier of Christ, spurred on by his triumphs! Otherwise the soldier of Christ would yield to the slackness of peace, begin to forget his glorious struggles and contests, and be deprived of the tributes of his prizes and the desserts of his triumphs.

St John Cassian, Institutes 5.16.1-19.1; ACW 58 (2000) tr. Ramsey.

Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON PSALM 1 BY ST AMBROSE

First drink from the Old Testament, so that you may drink from the New as well. You cannot drink from the second without drinking from the first. Drink from the Old Testament to slake your thirst, and from the New to quench it completely. Compunction is found in the Old Testament; joy in the New.

Notice how the Lord, on his servants’ behalf, countered the wiles of the devil. With deceitful cunning the devil beguiled one man in order to overthrow all mankind in his person; but with salutary food Jesus redeemed all mankind, in order to restore with him all, even him who had been beguiled.

The Lord Jesus poured out water from the rock and everyone drank. Those who drank from the symbol were satisfied, but those no drank from the reality were inebriated. That was a good inebriation that steadied the walk of the sober mind; that was a good inebriation that watered the gift of eternal life. Drink of this cup, then, of which the Prophet said: Your cup that inebriates, how noble it is! Drink the cup of the Old Testament and of the New, for in both you drink Christ.

Drink Christ because he is the vine; drink Christ because he is the rock that poured out water. Drink Christ because he is the fountain of life; drink Christ because he is the river whose running waters give joy to the city of God, and because he is peace, and because out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Drink Christ to drink the blood which redeemed you; drink Christ to drink his words: the Old Testament is his word; the New Testament is his word. Holy Scripture is drunk and swallowed when the power of the eternal Word penetrates the depths of the mind and the virtue of the soul. In short, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Drink this word, but according to its own order. Drink it first in the Old Testament; then hasten to drink it also in the New.

St Ambrose, Explanatio in Psalmo 1, 33 (CSEL 64:28-30); Word in Season V.

Season of the Year | Week 07

Sunday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ST PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? Do you seek, blessed Paul, to rouse your hearer to a sense of reverence when you mention tremendous mysteries, and call this fearful and awe-inspiring cup a cup of blessing? Yes, he replies, it is no small matter I have touched on. For when I speak of blessing, I mean to unfold the whole treasure of God’s goodness to us, and call to mind his wonderful gifts. It is in gratitude for these and all other such blessings that we approach the Sacrament.

Why then, you Corinthians, asks Paul, is your behaviour so inconsistent? You praise God for having delivered you from idols, and then you run back to their tables. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? What great confidence and awe there is in these words! Paul means that in the cup is the same blood that flowed from Christ’s side, and it is that of which we partake. He called it a cup of blessing because, when we hold it in our hands, we raise our hearts to God in wonder and amazement at his unspeakable gift. We praise him because Christ shed this very blood so that we might not remain in error; and not only did he shed his blood, but he gave all of us a share of it.

The bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? The Apostle did not say ‘a participation’, because he wanted to signify something more than this. For when we communicate it is not merely a matter of sharing and partaking, but of being united. In the same way as a body was united with Christ, so we are united with him by this bread. But why did he add, which we break? This we can see is done at the Eucharist, but it was not so on the Cross; rather the contrary, for Scripture says: Not a bone of his shall be broken. But although he did not suffer this on the Cross, he suffers it now in his offering on your behalf; he allows himself to be broken so that all may be filled. Paul used the phrase: a communion in the body; but there is a difference between communicants and the body we receive in communion, and so he set about removing even this distinction, small as it might seem. For after he had spoken of a communion in the body, he still sought to define his meaning more accurately, and therefore added, Because there is one bread, we although many are one body.

Why then do I say ‘communion’? he asks. We are that very body. For what is the bread? It is the body of Christ. And what do those who partake of it become? The body of Christ. Not many but one body. Just as bread consists of many grains formed into a whole, so that the separate grains are invisible (for although they are certainly there, they cannot be distinguished from the whole), in the same manner are we united both with one another and with Christ. That is why the Apostle continued: for we all partake of one bread. But if we all partake of the same bread, and all become the same body, why do we not show the same love, and become one in that respect also? Formerly it was so, in the time of our fathers, for Scripture says: The multitude of believers were of one heart and soul.

St John Chrysostom, Homilies Ad Corinthios 24.1-2 (PG 61:199-201); Word in Season V.

Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY ST AUGUSTINE

Man having been made in the image of the supreme Trinity, that is in the image of God, should not be understood as meaning that this image is to be found in three human beings. This is particularly so in view of what the Apostle says about the man who is the image of God removing the covering from his head while the woman is warned to wear it: The man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. Now what are we to say to this? We must see how this avoids contradicting what is written in Genesis: God made man to the image of God; he made him male and female; he made them and blessed them. It says here that what was made in the image of God is the same human nature that is realised in each sex, and this does not exclude the female. For after saying God made man to the image of God, it says he made him male and female. So how are we to take what we have heard from the Apostle?

The authority of the Apostle as well as plain reason assures us that man was not made to the image of God as regards the shape of his body, but as regards his rational mind. God is not confined within the limits of a body with features and limbs. Does not the blessed Apostle say, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, the one who was created according to God; and even more clearly elsewhere, Putting off the old man, he says, with his actions, put on the new who is being renewed for the recognition of God according to the image of him who created him? If then we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind, and if it is this new man who is being renewed for the recognition of God according to the image of him who created him, then it is clear that man was not made in the image of his Creator as regards his body or any old part of his consciousness, but as regards the rational mind, which is capable of recognising God.

Now we are made sons of God through Baptism by this renewal, and when we put on the new man it is of course Christ that we put on through faith. Would anyone exclude females from this association, seeing that together with us males they are fellow heirs of grace; for the same Apostle says: You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus; for all who were baptized in Christ thereby put on Christ. There is no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free, no male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Surely this does not mean that female believers have lost their bodily sex? It is in the spirit of men’s minds, where there is no sex, that they were made in the image of God and that they are being renewed to the image of God who has no sex. Why is it then that the man ought not to cover his head because he is the image and glory of God, while the woman ought to, as though the woman were not being renewed in the spirit of her mind? Well, it is only because she differs from the man in the sex of her body that her bodily covering could suitably be used to symbolise that part of the reason which is diverted to the management of temporal things. This means that the human mind only remains the image of God in the part which contemplates the eternal ideas: and it is clear that females have this as well as males. So in their minds a common nature is to be acknowledged; but in their bodies the different parts of the one mind are symbolised.

St Augustine, de Trinitate XII.2.9-3.12; WSA (1991) tr. Hill.

Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM CHRIST IN HIS MYSTERIES BY BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION

No Mass is celebrated, no communion made without our being enabled to remember that Jesus delivered himself up to death for the redemption of the world. For, says St Paul, as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until He come. Thus is perpetuated, living and fruitful, until the end of time, the remembrance of Christ among those whom he came to redeem by his immolation.

The Eucharist is then truly the memorial that Christ has left to us of his Passion and his Death: it is the testament of his love. Wherever the bread and wine are offered, wherever the consecrated Host is found, there appears the remembrance of Christ’s immolation: do this for a commemoration of me. The Eucharist recalls to us above all the memory of the Passion of Jesus. It was on the eve of his death that he instituted it; he left it to us as the testament of his love.

But it does not exclude the other mysteries. See what the Church does. She is the Bride of Christ, none knows better than she the intentions of her Divine Head; in the organisation of the public worship which she renders to him, she is guided by the Holy Spirit. Now what does she say? Directly after the Consecration, she first of all recalls the words of Jesus: As often as you do these things, you shall do them in remembrance of me. And at once she adds, to show how closely she enters into the sentiments of her Spouse: ‘Wherefore, O Lord, we your servants together with your holy people, in memory of the blessed Passion of the same Christ Our Lord, and of his Resurrection from hell, also of his glorious Ascension into Heaven offer unto your most excellent Majesty … the holy bread of eternal life, and the chalice of everlasting salvation.’ After the mention of ‘the Ascension to the right hand of the Father’, the Greeks likewise add, ‘that of the second and glorious coming of Christ’.

So then, although the Eucharist recalls the Passion of Jesus, it does not exclude the remembrance of the glorious mysteries which are linked so closely to the Passion of which they are, in a sense, the crown. Since it is the Body and Blood of Christ that we receive, the Eucharist supposes the Incarnation and the mysteries which are founded upon or flow from it. Christ is upon the altar with the divine life which never ceases, with his mortal life of which the historical form has doubtless ceased, but of which the substance and merits remain, with his glorious life which shall have no end.

All this, as you know, is really contained in the Sacred Host and given in Communion to our souls. In communicating himself to us, Christ Jesus gives himself in the substantial totality of his works and mysteries, as in the oneness of his Person. Yes, let us say, with the Psalmist who sings in prophecy the glory of the Eucharist, the Lord has made a remembrance of His wonderful works, being a merciful and gracious Lord, he has given food to them that fear him. The Eucharist is like the synthesis of the marvels of the love of the Incarnate Word towards us.

Blessed Columba Marmion, Christ in His Mysteries, 2.18.1.

Wednesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY ST AUGUSTINE

The Apostle Paul says: To each of us is given grace according to the measure of the donation of Christ, and to show that the donation of Christ is the Holy Spirit he went on to add, That is why it says, he ascended on high, he took captivity captive, he gave gifts to men. But it is public knowledge that when the Lord Jesus had ascended to heaven after his resurrection from the dead he gave the Holy Spirit; and being filled with it those who believed began to speak with the tongues of all peoples. And do not let it worry you that he says ‘gifts’, not ‘gift’. He was quoting the text from a psalm: you have ascended on high, you have taken captivity captive, you have received gifts among men.

Elsewhere he mentions many gifts, and then says, All these does one and the same Spirit achieve, distributing them severally to each as he wills. The same word is found in the Letter to the Hebrews, where it is written, God bearing witness with signs and portents and various mighty deeds and distribution of the Holy Spirit. In this place too, after saying he ascended on high, he took captivity captive, he gave gifts to men, he goes on, But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who ascended above all the heavens that he might fill all things; and he gave some to be Apostles, some evangelists, some shepherds and teachers. So there you have the reason why he talked about gifts. Just as he says elsewhere, Are all of us Apostles, are all Prophets?, so here he added for the perfection of the saints toward the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. This is the house which, as the psalm declaims, is being built after the captivity; and this house is called the Church, because the body of Christ is built out of those who have been delivered from captivity to the devil.

The Apostle Peter, speaking about Christ to the Jews who were moved in their hearts and saying, What shall we do, brothers? said to them, Repent, and let each one of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And there is a lot more scriptural evidence which all conspires to prove that the Holy Spirit is the gift of God, in that he is given to those who love God through him. But it would take far too long to collect it all. And what could satisfy people anyway, if they are not satisfied by the evidence I have quoted?

Insofar as people now see that the Holy Spirit is called the gift of God, they must realize of course that when they hear the phrase, the gift of the Holy Spirit, they are to recognize the same figure of speech as in the phrase, in the stripping of the body of flesh. Just as the body of flesh is nothing but flesh, so the gift of the Holy Spirit is nothing but the Holy Spirit. So he is the gift of God insofar as he is given to those to whom he is given; but in himself he is God even if he is not given to anyone, because he was God, co-eternal with the Father and the Son, even before he was given to anyone. Nor is he less than the Father and the Son because they give and he is given: he is given as God's gift in such a way that as God he also gives himself.

St Augustine, de Trinitate XV; WSA (1991) tr. Hill.

Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

What you can see on the altar, you also saw last night; but what it was, what it meant, of what great reality it contained the Sacrament, you had not yet heard. So what you can see, then, is bread and a cup; that’s what even your eyes tell you; but as for what your faith asks to be instructed about: the bread is the body of Christ, the cup the blood of Christ. It took no time to say that, and, perhaps, that may be enough for faith; but faith desires instruction. The Prophet says, you see, Unless you believe, you shall not understand. I mean, you can now say to me, “You’ve bidden us believe; now explain, so that we may understand.”

Some such thought as this, after all, may cross somebody’s mind: “We know where our Lord Jesus Christ took flesh from; from the Virgin Mary. He was suckled as a baby, was reared, grew up, came to man’s estate, suffered persecution from the Jews, was hung on the tree, was slain on the tree, was taken down from the tree, was buried; rose again on the third day, on the day he wished ascended into heaven. That’s where he lifted his body up to; that's where he’s going to come from to judge the living and the dead; that’s where he is now, seated on the Father’s right. How can bread be his body? And the cup, or what the cup contains, how can it be his blood?”

The reason these things, brethren, are called Sacraments is that in them one thing is seen, another is to be understood. What can be seen has a bodily appearance, what is to be understood provides spiritual fruit. So if you want to understand the body of Christ, listen to the Apostle telling the faithful: You are the body of Christ and its members. So if it’s you that are the body of Christ and its members, it’s the mystery meaning you that has been placed on the table of the Lord; what you receive is the mystery that means you. It is to what you are that you reply Amen, and by so replying you express your assent. What you hear, then, is The body of Christ, and you answer, Amen. So be a member of the body of Christ, in order to make that Amen true.

So why in bread? Let’s go on listening to the Apostle himself, who said when speaking of this Sacrament: We being many are one bread, one body. Understand and rejoice. Unity, truth, piety, love. One bread; what is this one bread? The one body which we, being many, are. Remember that bread is not made from one grain, but from many. When you were being exorcised, it’s as though you were being ground. When you were baptised it’s as though you were mixed into dough. When you received the fire of the Holy Spirit, it’s as though you were baked. Be what you can see, and receive what you are.

That’s what the Apostle said about the bread. It’s the same with the wine. Just remind yourselves, brethren, what wine is made from; many grapes hang in the bunch, but the juice of the grapes is poured together in one vessel. That too is how the Lord Christ signified us, how he wished us to belong to him, how he consecrated the Sacrament of our peace and unity on his table. Any who receive the Sacrament of unity and do not hold the bond of peace, do not receive the Sacrament for their benefit, but a testimony against themselves.

St Augustine, Sermon 272 On the Day of Pentecost. WSA (1993) tr. Hill.

Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE MIRROR OF CHARITY BY ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX

The Lord’s yoke is easy; the Lord’s burden is light. For what can be more agreeable, what more delightful than to find that by renouncing the world we have been raised above it? As we stand on the lofty height of a clear conscience, we have the whole world under our feet. When insults have no effect on us, when persecutions and penalties have no terror for us, when prosperity or adversity has no influence on us, when friend and foe are viewed in the same light, when we follow the example of him who makes his sun rise on the wicked and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust alike, do we not come close to sharing the serenity of God? All such dispositions spring from charity and charity alone, in which is true peace and contentment; for it is the Lord’s yoke, and if we follow his call to bear it our souls will find rest, because his yoke is easy and his burden light.

Charity is patient and kind, it is not jealous or boastful, it is not conceited or rude. The other virtues are to us as a carriage bearing the weary traveller, as provisions fortifying the wayfarer, as a lamp for those in darkness, or as arms for combatants. But charity, although it must be present in all the other virtues, is yet in a special way rest for the weary, shelter for the traveller, fullness of light for one who arrives, and a glorious crown for the victor.

For what is faith but the carriage that bears us to our native land? What is hope but the food we take for our journey through life’s hardships? And those other virtues of temperance, prudence, fortitude and justice – what are they but the weapons given us for the struggle? But when death has been swallowed up by that perfection of charity which is achieved in the vision of God there will be no more faith, because faith was the preparation for that vision, and there will be no need to believe what we see and love. And when we embrace God with the arms of our charity, there will be no more hope, for there will be nothing left to hope for. And as for the other virtues, temperance is our weapon against lust, prudence against error, fortitude against adversity, justice against injustice. But in charity there is also perfect chastity, and so no lust for temperance to combat; in charity there is the fullness of knowledge, and so no error for prudence to guard against; in charity there is true blessedness, and so no adversity for fortitude to overcome; in charity all is peace, and so there is no injustice for justice to withstand.

Faith is not even a virtue unless it is expressed by love; nor is hope unless it loves what it hopes for. And if we look more closely, do we not see that temperance is only love that no pleasure can seduce; that prudence is only love that no error can mislead; that fortitude is only love courageously enduring adversity, and that justice is only impartial love mitigating the injustices of this life? Charity therefore begins with faith, is exercised through the other virtues, but achieves perfection in itself.

St Aelred of Rievaulx, Speculum Caritatis 1.31 (CCM 1:51-2); Word in Season V.

Saturday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF MACARIUS

Our prayer should not be a matter of going through habitual bodily motions, crying out, keeping silence, or kneeling, but of sober attending, waiting for God to come and visit the soul by means of all its openings and paths and senses. Then whether it is fitting to be silent or to call out and pray with loud cries, the mind will be concentrated on God. Just as when the body works at some task it is entirely occupied with the work and all its members help one another, so too should the soul be totally concentrated on offering its petition and love to the Lord; it should not be distracted by wandering thoughts, but entirely bent upon waiting for Christ. Then he will enlighten it, teaching it the right way to petition him, giving it pure prayer which is spiritual and worthy of God, and enabling it to worship in spirit and in truth.

When the Lord sees that to the best of its ability the soul recollects itself, always seeking the Lord night and day, and crying out to him according to his command to pray without ceasing, he will vindicate it as he promised, cleansing it from the evil within it, and will present it to himself as a bride without spot or blemish. Now if you believe this to be true, as indeed it is, examine yourself to see whether your soul has found its guiding light, and the real food and drink which is the Lord. If not, seek night and day that you may receive it. When you see the sun, seek the true Sun, for you are blind. When you behold the light, look into your soul to see whether you have found the true and good Light. For all visible things are but shadows of realities pertaining to the soul. We have another person within us besides the one who is seen; we have eyes that Satan has blinded, and ears that he has deafened, and Jesus came to make this inner person healthy. To him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory and power forever. Amen.

Macarian Homilies, 33.1-2, 4 (PG 34:742-3); Word in Season V.

Season of the Year | Week 08

Sunday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE BOOK DOMINUS VOBISCUM BY ST PETER DAMIAN

The Church of Christ is united by a bond of mutual love so strong that not only is it a single entity subsisting in many members, but in each member it is also mysteriously present in its plenitude. So it is that the entire universal Church is rightly said to be the one and only bride of Christ, and each person, through the mystery of the Sacrament, is believed to be the Church in its fullness. One in all and entire in each, holy Church is single in the plurality of its members thanks to the unity of faith, and manifold in each of them thanks to the bond of charity and the diversity of charisms, for they all come from One.

Although holy Church is thus diversified by the multiplicity of its members, it is nevertheless entirely fused into one by the fire of the Holy Spirit; and therefore even though its various parts seem to be spatially separated from one another, the mystery of its interior unity is in no way diminished; for the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. This Spirit, therefore, is undoubtedly both one and multiple, one in majestic essence, multiple in diverse gifts; he fills the Church, and causes it to be both one in its universal extension, and whole in each of its parts. The secret of this indivisible unity was revealed by the Word when, speaking of his disciples, he said to the Father: Not for them alone do 1 pray but for those also who through their word will believe in me. May they all be one; as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe it was you that sent me. I, for my part, have given them the glory which you gave to me, so that they may be one as we are one. If those who believe in Christ are one, then through the mystery of the Sacrament the entire Body is present where bodily eyes see but a single member. Solitude prevents no one from speaking in the plural; nor is it inappropriate for the multitude of believers to speak in the singular, for through the power of the Holy Spirit, who is present in each and fills all, it is clear that the solitude is full of people and the multitude forms a unity.

Our holy Fathers regarded this intimate relationship and communion of believers in Christ as so certain that they included it in the creed stating the Catholic faith, and commanded us frequently to call it to mind along with the other basic elements of Christian belief. For immediately after we say: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Church” we add: “the communion of saints”. Thus in the very act by which we bear witness to the God in whom we believe, we also affirm the communion that marks the Church which is one with him. For this communion of saints in the unity of faith is such that, because they believe in one God, are reborn in one Baptism, and are strengthened by the one Holy Spirit, they are admitted, through the grace of adoption, into the one everlasting life.

St Peter Damian, Liber Dominus Vobiscum, 5-6, 10 (PL 145:235-6, 239); Word in Season V.

Monday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON ON PSALM 147 BY ST AUGUSTINE

If our hope in Christ is for this life only, of all mankind we are the most wretched. There is, then, another life. Gaze with the eyes of faith on the future life, for the sake of which you believed and were signed with the sign of him who lived an earthly life in order to show you how lightly you should esteem the life you used to love and how earnestly you should hope for the life in which you used to disbelieve.

Rouse your faith and turn the eyes of faith to the last things and the world to come, where we shall rejoice after the Lord’s Second Coming, after the Judgment, after the kingdom has been delivered to the saints. Think of that life and that life’s leisure, beloved. Our life then will not be storm-tossed. It will be a life of leisure, a leisure full of nothing but pleasantness. There will be no vexations to disturb us, no fatigue to tire us, no storm clouds to trouble us.

What will be our occupation in that life? To praise God, to love and to praise: to praise by loving, and to love by praising. Blessed are they who dwell in your house: they shall praise you forever and ever. Why, if not because they shall love you forever and ever? Why, if not because they shall gaze upon you forever and ever? If we remember that we are members of the Saviour, if we yearn and persevere, we shall see and rejoice. The citizens of that city will all be purified, and none there will be subversive or disturbers of the peace. The enemy who now hinders us from reaching that homeland can lay no snares for anyone there, for entrance is denied him. If he is now barred from the breasts of believers, how much more will he not be barred from the city of the living? My brethren, I ask you, what will it be like in that city, when it is such a joy even to speak of it now? We must prepare our hearts for that future life. Those who do so are detached from everything in this present life, and this detachment enables them to look forward with confidence to that day which the Lord bade us await with fear and trembling.

St Augustine, Enarratio In Ps. 147, 3 (CCL 40:2140-2141); Word in Season V.

Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A TREATISE ON HOLY SCRIPTURE BY ST GREGORY OF ELVIRA

The Son of God clothed himself in human flesh and in that flesh suffered and rose from the dead, in order to show in his own body what our resurrection will be like. This is why he is called the mediator between God and mankind, for while living in heaven, he preserves as his own the human nature entrusted to him. Moreover, he possesses this human nature as a universal pledge: just as in Christ flesh and blood already possess the kingdom of God, so we too, when we rise from the dead in that same flesh, shall obtain the kingdom of God through Christ.

God formed the human body with his own sacred hands, treating it as his very own work, and breathed into it a soul in the likeness of his own life; he then set it over his whole creation to dwell in it as its ruler and make it fruitful. In addition he fortified it through his Sacraments and teaching, and gave it eternal life in the resurrection. Thus, the body is washed so that the soul may be purified; the body is anointed so that the soul may be consecrated; the body is signed so that the soul may be saved; the body is overshadowed by the laying on of hands so that the soul may be enlightened by the Holy Spirit; the body eats and drinks the body and blood of Christ so that the soul may feed itself on God. In the time of reward, therefore, these two that have been united in their actions are not to be separated.

Look, moreover, at how for our consolation the whole of nature rehearses the future resurrection. The sun sets and then is born again; the stars disappear and then return; the flowers die and come to life again. So it will be with the bodies of the dead in their graves. As trees hide their greenery in winter and display their withered branches, so all things that die are preserved and raised to life again. Much more then is this true of men, who were given mastery over everything that dies, so that they might have mastery also over everything that rises to new life. This is why the Son of God clothed himself in human nature and raised it from the dead.

Therefore, since the resurrection of the body is certain, and since punishment awaits the faithless while the faithful have the promise and hope of a heavenly kingdom, it remains for us to devote ourselves to good works and persevere in all holiness, faith, and uprightness, so that we may rise not to punishment but to glory.

St Gregory of Elvira, Treatise on Holy Scripture (PLS 1:458-9); Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS

Today we have heard from the blessed Apostle that there were two founders of the human race, Adam and Christ; two men alike in body but unlike in dignity; completely similar in physical makeup but totally dissimilar in origin. He says that the first man, Adam, became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. The first was made by the second from whom he also received the breath of life; the second was his own creator and fashioner, for he did not look for life from another, but was himself the sole source of life for everyone. The first was moulded from the common earth; the second came forth from the blessed womb of the Virgin. In the first earth became human; in the second human nature was raised to divinity. What more can I say? It was the second Adam who stamped his own image upon the first when he created him. That is why he assumed the role of the first Adam, so that what he had fashioned in his own image should not perish.

There was then a first Adam and a last Adam. The first had a beginning, the last is unbounded, for the last Adam is in fact the first, as he himself says: I am the first and the last. I am the first, because I have no beginning; I am the last, because I have no end. But it is not the spiritual that comes first, says the Apostle, but the physical, and then the spiritual. The earth exists before the fruit, though it is of less value than the fruit. The earth exacts toil and sighs, whereas the fruit provides nourishment and vitality. Rightly does the Prophet glory in such fruit when he says: Our earth has brought forth its fruit. What sort of fruit? Clearly, that of which he says elsewhere: A son, the fruit of your body, I will place upon my throne.

The first man, says the Apostle, being made of the earth is earthly; the second who comes from heaven is heavenly. The earthly man is the pattern for earthly people; the heavenly man for heavenly people. But how is it possible to receive a nature with which one is not born? How if not by ceasing to be what we were and persevering in what we have become through rebirth? For this, my friends, the heavenly Spirit fructifies the virginal womb of the font with the invisible communication of his radiance, so that it may bring forth as heavenly offspring, and transform into the likeness of their Creator, those who had sunk into a miserable earthly condition because they were fashioned from slime.

Therefore, now that we have been reborn and refashioned in the image of our Creator, let us do as the Apostle says: As we have borne the image of the earthly man, so let us also bear the image of the heavenly man. Let us be completely like our Creator, not in the majesty which belongs to him alone, but in the innocence, simplicity, gentleness, patience, humility, and friendliness which he has deigned to share with us.

St Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 117, 1-2, 4-6 (CCL 24A:709-12); Word in Season V.

Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

Plenty of strangers wander the roads, and everywhere we see their outstretched hands begging for help. Their home is the open air; they shelter in porticos, streets, and deserted corners of the marketplace, lurking in nooks and crannies like owls, and clothed in tattered rags. Their food is whatever they may get from a passer-by, and they drink from the fountains with animals, using the hollow of their hands as a cup. Their storeroom is their pockets if these are not too torn to hold anything. For a table they use their knees pressed together; their bed is the pavement, and to bathe they have simply a river or pool which God gives for the use of everyone. Such is the rough, wandering path they follow, not because their life was like that from the start, but because misfortune has driven them to it.

You can help them through your fasting. Be generous to your brothers who are in trouble, giving to the hungry what you deny yourself, and making a fair distribution in the fear of God. By prudent self-control reconcile two contrary conditions, your surfeit and another's hunger. Let reason open the doors of the rich, and good advice lead the needy to the gates of the prosperous. Remember too that many of the poor are ill and bed-ridden. Let all keep a watchful eye on their neighbours, and let no one deprive you of the care of even one of them, thus stealing the treasure out of your very hands. Embrace everyone you find in distress; value such a person like gold. Look after him in his sickness as you would look after yourself, as you would care for your wife, your children and servants, and the whole of your household.

Anyone who is both poor and ill is doubly in need of assistance. The poor who are able-bodied can take themselves to the houses of the rich and beg from door to door, or sit at the crossroads and appeal to all who pass by. But those crippled with illness are hidden away in cramped and obscure lodgings, like Daniel in the lions’ den, and there they wait for you, with your devotion and love, as Daniel waited for Habakkuk. By almsgiving, then, follow the Prophet’s example: without hesitation go with all speed to the help of the needy and provide them with food. A gift is no loss. Have no fear, for almsgiving yields a plentiful harvest. Give alms and you will fill your house with sheaves of blessings.

St Gregory of Nyssa, De pauperibus amandis, Sermon 1 (PG:46:447-60); Word in Season V.

Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY BY DENYS THE AREOPAGITE

Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. But there is something more. Inspired by the Father, each procession of the Light spreads itself generously toward us, and, in its power to unify, it stirs us by lifting us up. It returns us back to the oneness and deifying simplicity of the Father who gathers us in. For, as the sacred Word says, from him and to him are all things.

Let us, then, call upon Jesus, the Light of the Father, the true light enlightening every man coming into the world, through whom we have obtained access to the Father, the light which is the source of all light. To the best of our abilities, we should raise our eyes to the paternally transmitted enlightenment coming from sacred Scripture and, as far as we can, we should behold the intelligent hierarchies of heaven and we should do so in accordance with what Scripture has revealed to us in symbolic and uplifting fashion. We must lift up the immaterial and steady eyes of our minds to that outpouring of Light which is so primal, indeed much more so, and which comes from that source of divinity, I mean the Father. This is the Light which, by way of representative symbols, makes known to us the most blessed hierarchies among the angels. But we need to rise from this outpouring of illumination so as to come to the simple ray of Light itself.

All this accounts for the fact that the sacred institution and source of perfection established our most pious hierarchy. He modelled it on the hierarchies of heaven, and clothed these immaterial hierarchies in numerous material figures and forms so that, in a way appropriate to our nature, we might be uplifted from these most venerable images to interpretations which are simple and inexpressible. For it is quite impossible that we men should, in any immaterial way, rise up to imitate and to contemplate the heavenly hierarchies without the aid of those material means capable of guiding us as our nature requires. Hence, any thinking person realizes that the appearances of beauty are signs of an invisible loveliness. Order and rank here below are a sign of the harmonious ordering toward the divine realm. The reception of the most divine Eucharist is a symbol of participation in Jesus. And so it goes for all the gifts transcendently received by the heavenly beings, gifts which are granted to us in a symbolic mode.

The source of spiritual perfection provided us with perceptible images of these heavenly minds. He did so out of concern for us and because he wanted us to be made godlike. He made the heavenly hierarchies known to us. He made our own hierarchy a ministerial colleague of these divine hierarchies by an assimilation, to the extent that is humanly feasible, to their godlike priesthood. He revealed all this to us in the sacred pictures of the Scriptures so that he might lift us in spirit up through the perceptible to the conceptual, from sacred shapes and symbols to the simple peaks of the hierarchies of heaven.

Denys the Areopagite, The Celestial Hierarchy, Ch 1; CWS (1987) tr. Luibheid.

Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE INSTITUTES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

In the fourth struggle the deadly poison of anger must be totally uprooted from the depths of our soul. For as long as it resides in our hearts and blinds our mind’s eye with its harmful darkness, we shall be able neither to acquire the judgment of a proper discretion nor to possess a good contemplative vision, because, as it is said, my eye has been disturbed by anger. Nor shall we share in wisdom, even though we seem to be declared wise in the opinion of all, because anger reposes in the breast of the foolish, and we shall certainly be unable to attain to a life of immortality, although we seem to be considered prudent in the understanding of men, because anger destroys even the prudent. And we shall not be able to be untouched by harmful disturbances nor be free of sin, even though no one ever causes us annoyance, because the passionate man begets quarrels, and the wrathful man digs up sins.

We have heard that some people try to excuse this most destructive disease of the soul by attempting to excuse it by a detestable interpretation of Scripture. They say it is not harmful if we are angry with wrongdoing brothers, because God himself is said to be enraged with those who do not want to know him or who, knowing him, disdain him. For example: The Lord was angry and enraged against his people. And when the Prophet prays: Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor in your anger correct me. They do not understand that, in their eagerness to concede men the opportunity for pernicious vice, they are mixing the injustice of fleshly passion into the divine limitlessness and the source of all purity.

For if these things that are said of God are to be accepted according to the letter and with a carnal and crass understanding, then he of whom it is said: Behold, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep also sleeps, since it is said: Arise, Lord, why do you sleep? And he stands and sits, since it is said: Heaven is my seat, and the earth is a footstool for my feet – he who measures the heavens with his palm and encloses the earth in his fist. And he gets drunk with wine, since it is said: And the Lord rose up as if from slumber, like a strong man drunken with wine – he who alone has immortality and dwells in inaccessible light.

I pass over ignorance and forgetfulness, which we read are frequently attributed to him in Holy Scripture, and also bodily parts, which are described in terms of human shape and arrangement – namely, hair, head and nose, eyes and face, hands and arm, fingers, belly, and feet. If we wished to take all of this in a crude literal way, it would be necessary to think of God as formed of bodily parts and a bodily shape. But far be it from us to say such a wicked thing.

And so, since these things cannot without horrible sacrilege be literally understood of him who is declared by the authority of Holy Scripture to be invisible, ineffable, incomprehensible, inestimable, simple, and uncomposite, the disturbance of anger (not to mention wrath) cannot be attributed to that immutable nature without monstrous blasphemy.

St John Cassian, Institutes, 8.1.1-4.1; ACW 58 (2000) tr. Ramsey.

Season of the Year | Week 09

Sunday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A LETTER FROM ST AUGUSTINE TO ST JEROME

How, I ask you, are we to understand the words, Whoever has observed the whole Law, but offends on one point, has become guilty of all? Is a man who commits theft, or even someone who says to a rich man, Sit here, but to a poor man, You, stand over there, also guilty of murder, adultery and sacrilege? But if he is not, how has someone who offends on one point become guilty of all?

To summarise, virtue is the love by which one loves what should be loved. This is greater in some, less in others, and not at all in still others, but it is not so perfect in anyone that it cannot be increased in him as long as he lives. But as long as it can be increased, then of course that which is less than it ought to be comes from a vice. Because of that vice, there is not a righteous man on earth who will do good and not sin. On account of that vice, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. On its account, however much progress we make, we must also say, forgive us our trespasses, though all our sins have been forgiven in Baptism.

Since this is so, how does someone become guilty of all the commandments if he who has observed the whole Law offends on one of them? Is it perhaps because the fullness of the Law is love that one who acts against that love on which all the commandments depend rightly becomes guilty of all? No one sins except by acting against that love, because you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment is summed up in these words: you shall love your neighbour as yourself. Yet no one loves his neighbour without loving God, so that he pours out his love as much as he can upon his neighbour whom he loves as himself in order that his neighbour might love God. And for this reason a man who has observed the whole Law becomes guilty of all the commandments if he offends on one of them, because he acts against the love on which the whole Law depends.

But why are the sins not said to be equal? Is it perhaps because a man acts against love more when he sins more gravely and that he acts against love less when he sins less gravely? And does he sin more or less and by that very fact become guilty of all the commandments, but more guilty by sinning more gravely or by sinning against more commandments, less guilty by sinning more lightly or against fewer commandments? And yet even if he sins against one commandment, is he guilty because he acts against that love on which all depend?

If there is something in this that offends your learning, please write back and warn me and do not hesitate to correct me. For in the name of the Lord and with his help your teaching has contributed to the growth of the literature of the Church in the Latin language more than had ever before been the case. I especially ask that if you know any other way in which this statement, Whoever has observed the whole Law, but offends on one point, has become guilty of all, can be better explained, you be so good as to share it with us.

St Augustine, Letter 167, 3, 15-17, 21; ACW (2004) tr. Teske.

Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST CAESARIUS OF ARLES

Not all who say to me: Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven.

Pay careful attention, for according to this text it is useless for people to say they have faith, if what they promise in words they fail to fulfil in deeds. As Scripture says: If you have made a vow to God, do not be slow in fulfilling it; for a faithless and foolish promise displeases him. It is much better not to make a vow, than after making it to break your promise. And so that we may clearly recognise that this is true even in regard to ourselves and our own servants, let anyone tell me if it is enough for him that his servant calls him master all day long, and never stops singing his praises, and yet does none of the work he has ordered him to do. Well then, if words without deeds are unacceptable to us, how much more useless will faith without works be in the sight of God?

What we must fear above all is being so sure of receiving God’s mercy that it never occurs to us to fear his justice. That would not be faith. Nor would it be faith to be so afraid of his justice that we despair of his mercy. And so, since God is not only merciful but also just, we must believe he is both. Our fear of his justice must not make us despair of his mercy; nor must our love of his mercy cause us to forget his justice. We must neither wrongly hope nor wrongly abandon hope. It would be wrongly hoping to think that one deserved mercy without repenting or doing good works; and it would be wrongly abandoning hope not to believe that after doing good works one would receive mercy.

And so what we have to watch out for and fear above all is the belief that faith without works can suffice us. Let us rather fear the saying of the Apostle James: Just as the body without a soul is dead so faith without works is dead.

St Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 12, 5 (SC 175:408-10); Word in Season V.

Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE PASTORAL RULE BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT

The tongue should be prudently restrained, but not completely tied up. It is written: Whoever is wise will keep silence until the right moment. In other words, when it is seen that speech would be opportune the censorship of silence is relaxed, and an effort made to speak some appropriate word. Elsewhere it is written: There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak. Different circumstances should be prudently judged; the tongue should not be unprofitably loosened in speech when it ought to be restrained; nor should it indolently withhold speech when it could speak with profit. Reflecting well upon these things, the psalmist says: Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord, and a door of discretion before my lips. He does not ask for a wall to be set before his lips but a door, in other words, something that can be opened and closed. We must take care to learn, then, when we should discreetly and at the proper time open our mouths to speak, and when we should keep them closed and preserve a fitting silence.

On the other hand, those given to talkativeness should be made to realise how great is their plunge from rectitude when they fall into using a flood of words. For the mind of man is like water: when enclosed it raises itself to higher levels, seeking the heights from which it descended; but when released it loses itself, being uselessly dispersed through the lower levels. For all the words wasted when the censorship of silence is relaxed are like so many streams carrying the mind away from itself. The result is that it becomes incapable of returning within to knowledge of itself: it is so dissipated by talkativeness that it cannot enter the secret place of deeper thoughts. By not enclosing itself within the defences of watchfulness, it lays itself completely open to the blows of the enemy who lies in wait for it.

Very often slothfulness in guarding against idle words proves to be our downfall, for little by little we come to utter harmful ones. At first we enjoy talking about other people’s affairs; then through detraction we belittle the lives of those we discuss; and finally we break out into open slander. Under this provocation quarrels arise, hatred is kindled, and peace of heart is destroyed.

This is why James says: Let everyone be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and why Truth himself warns us that on the Day of judgment people will have to render an account for every idle word they have spoken. An idle word is one for which there is no real necessity, or any kind intention of being helpful. If then an account is to be demanded for idle words, let us consider what penalty is in store for talkativeness involving the additional sin of speaking injurious words.

St Gregory the Great, Regula Pastoralis, 3.14 (PL 77:72-4); Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION

As to faults against charity, they are of two kinds. The first are faults of weakness, whereby the will is taken by surprise: movements of temper or impatience, unkind words, heat in discussion. It is such as these that the great Patriarch so well names “thorns of scandal”. These slight frictions “are wont to arise”, he adds, above all in a rather numerous community. Such faults are not grave, because they generally arise without premeditated intention.

On these occasions, when we are the object of them, we ought not to be touchy. If we take these little failings in a high and mighty way, if we turn over in our mind the offence that has been done to us, we shall always live in trouble; even to think of it once is once too often. Our holy Lawgiver wishes, like St Paul, that we should very readily forgive one another these small offences. He wishes the Abbot, the father of the monastic family, to sing the Pater Noster from beginning to end in the choir twice a day during the Divine Office in order that in asking God to forgive us our faults, we may thereby be ready likewise to forgive our brethren.

Other faults which in the long run can become grave, because they are deliberate, are those of wilful coldness towards anyone, the cherishing of resentment, prolonged indifference, and other forms of evil which St. Benedict names in order to combat them in his list of the tools of good works: “Not to give way to anger; not to harbour a desire of revenge; not to foster guile in one’s heart; not to give false tokens of friendship.” Such faults are too contrary to the spirit of Jesus for it to be necessary to insist more upon this.

We need a forcible reminder that such failings in charity paralyse the soul and hinder spiritual progress. And what is the reason for this great wrong thus done to oneself? It is that Christ Himself is the object of this coldness, this resentment. If you wound me in one of my members, the eye or the hand, it is myself you wound. Now, says St. Paul, you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it. This language is that of faith. Do we live by this faith? Do we always reflect that all we think, all we say, all we do against our neighbour, we do and say against Christ himself? If our faith is weak, we do not live by these truths; we easily offend our neighbour and, in him, Christ in person.

Blessed Columba Marmion, Christ, the Ideal of the Monk, 2.17.4.

Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE INSTITUTES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

It is very clearly shown from scriptural examples that, although the disgrace of pride is last in the order of battle, it is nonetheless first in terms of origin and is the source of all sins and misdeeds. Unlike the other vices, it does not do away merely with its opposite virtue – that is, humility – but is actually the destroyer of all the virtues together. It also afflicts not only the mediocre and the small but especially those who stand at the summit of strength. For so the Prophet says of this spirit: His foods are choice. Hence, although blessed David guarded the recesses of his heart with great care - so that he boldly declared to him from whom the secrets of his conscience were not hidden: Lord, my heart has not grown proud, nor have my eyes been lifted up; neither have I walked in great matters, nor in marvels beyond me. If I did not feel humble - he knew nonetheless how difficult it was even for the perfect to keep up this guard. He did not presume on his own effort alone but, in order to be able to escape unharmed this enemy’s dart, he prayerfully implored the Lord’s help saying: Let the foot of pride not come upon me. And he was frightened lest there befall him what was said of the proud: God is set against the proud.

How great the evil of pride is, that it deserves to have as its adversary not an angel or other virtues contrary to it but rather God himself! For it must be noted that it is never said of those who are caught up in the other vices that the Lord resists them, or that the Lord is set against the gluttonous, or fornicators, or the angry, or the avaricious; this is true of the proud alone. For those vices only turn back upon wrongdoers or seem to be committed against those who have a part in them - that is, against other men. This one, however, of its very nature touches God, and therefore it is specially worthy of having God opposed to it.

And so God, the Creator and Physician of the universe, knowing that pride is the cause and source of our maladies, saw to it that contraries would be healed by contraries, so that what had collapsed through pride would rise again through humility. For the one says: I will go up to heaven. But the other says: My soul has been humbled to the ground. The one says: I will be like the Most High; the other, although he was in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and humbled himself and became obedient unto death. The one says: I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. The other says: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.

If we understand the cause of the original fall and the foundations of our salvation, and by whom and how the latter were laid and the former came about, we shall learn from the fall of the one and the example of the other how we are to escape such a horrible death as that of pride.

St John Cassian, Institutes, 12.6-8; ACW 58 (2000) tr. Ramsey.

Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON PSALM 83 BY ST AUGUSTINE

When we are afflicted and oppressed, it is in order that instead of being swept away by love of things worldly, secular, and temporal, things fleeting and doomed to perish, things that make us suffer torments, tribulations, and many temptations in this life, we might now begin to seek a peace which this life or this earth cannot give. Then the Lord will become for us what the Scriptures say he is, a refuge for the poor.

But who are the ‘poor’? Those who live as though they were destitute, without resources, without help, without anything on this earth upon which they can rely. To such poor people God is present. For even if they have plenty of money, they are mindful of what the Apostle says: Tell the rich of this world not to be proud or to put their trust in wealth, which is so uncertain. Considering now unreliable are the things that gave them pleasure before they came to the service of God, that is, before they entered the presses of tribulation, they see that their wealth brings with it the pressure of worry about its management and preservation; and if they yield a little to desire so as to love this wealth, instead of enjoying it they are filled with fear. For what is so unreliable as something that can roll away? It is quite fitting that coined money should be round, since it refuses to stay in one place. Such men, then, in spite of their possessions, are poor. On the other hand, those who have nothing but desire possessions are counted among the reprobate rich. God, after all, is concerned not about our property but about our will.

The poor, then, are destitute of all worldly riches because, even though they be surrounded by wealth, they realize how unreliable it is. They cry to God, for they have nothing in this world to delight or hold them but are subject to many tribulations and temptations. They are in the presses, as it were, and emit streams of wine and oil. What is this wine, this oil, but good desires? For their desire for God remains. They no longer love the world: they love him who made heaven and earth. They love him, but are not yet with him. The satisfaction of their desire is delayed so that the desire may intensify; it intensifies so that it may be capable of receiving God. For it is no small thing that God intends for those who desire, and no little training is required if we are to be able to receive so great a good. God’s gift will not be something he has made, but himself, who made all things. Train yourselves, then, to embrace God; long practised be your desire for what you will possess without end.

St Augustine, Enarratio in Ps. 83 (CCL 39:1147-8); Word in Season V.

Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS BY ORIGEN

Perhaps the hearers of the Church may say, generally it was better with the ancients than with us, when pardon for sinners was obtained by offering sacrifices in a diverse ritual. Among us, there is only one pardon of sins, which is given in the beginning through the grace of Baptism. After this, no mercy nor any indulgence is granted to the sinner. Certainly, it is fitting that the Christian, for whom Christ died, has a more difficult discipline. For the ancients, sheep, he-goats, cattle, and birds were killed and fine wheat flour was moistened. For you, the Son of God was killed. How could it please you to sin again? And yet, lest these things not so much build up your souls for virtue as cast them down to despair, you heard how many sacrifices there were in the Law for sins. Now hear how many are the remissions of sins in the Gospel.

First is the one by which we are baptised for the remission of sins. A second remission is in the suffering of martyrdom. Third, is that which is given through alms. For the Saviour says, but nevertheless, give what you have and, behold, all things are clean for you. A fourth remission of sins is given for us through the fact that we also forgive the sins of our brothers. For thus the Lord and Saviour himself says, If you will forgive from the heart your brothers’ sins, your Father will also forgive you your sins. But if you will not forgive your brothers from the heart, neither will your Father forgive you. And thus he taught us to say in prayer, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. A fifth forgiveness of sins is when someone will convert a sinner from the error of his way. For thus divine Scripture says, Whoever will make a sinner turn from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

There is also a sixth forgiveness through the abundance of love as the Lord himself says, Truly I say to you, her many sins are forgiven because she loved much. And the Apostle says, Because love will cover a multitude of sins. And there is still a seventh remission of sins through penance, although admittedly it is difficult and toilsome, when the sinner washes his couch in tears and his tears become his bread day and night, when he is not ashamed to make known his sin to the priest of the Lord and to seek a cure according to the one who says, I said, ‘I will proclaim to the Lord my injustice against myself,’ and you forgave the impiety of my heart. What the Apostle James said was fulfilled in this: But if anyone is sick, let that person call the presbyters of the Church, and they will place their hands on him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and if he is in sins, they will be forgiven him.

Origen, Homilies on Leviticus, 2.4-6; FoC (1990) tr. Barkley.

Season of the Year | Week 10

Sunday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JOSHUA BY ORIGEN

Our Lord gave the name that is above every other name to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For this name that is above every other name is Jesus, and because this is the name that is above every other name, for many generations it was given to no one. But in the Book of Exodus I find the name of Jesus, or Joshua, for the first time, and I want to consider closely when it was first given.

Scripture says, Amalek came and was fighting against Israel, and Moses spoke to Jesus in Raphidim. This is the first mention of the name Jesus. Moses said, Choose mighty men for yourself from among all the sons of Israel, and go out and fight tomorrow with Amalek. Thus we first become acquainted with the name Jesus when we see him as the leader of the army; not as one with whom Moses joined his leadership, but the one to whom Moses granted primacy. Moses was not able to choose mighty men. Therefore, when I become acquainted with the name Jesus for the first time, I also immediately see the symbol of a mystery. Indeed Jesus leads the army.

To what do all these things lead us? Obviously to this, that the book does not so much indicate to us the deeds of Jesus, or Joshua, the son of Nun, as it represents for us the mysteries of Jesus my Lord. For he himself is the one who assumes power after the death of Moses; he is the one who leads the army and fights against Amalek. Thus Moses is dead; for the Law has ceased, because, the Law and the Prophets extend only up to John.

Moses did not say, Let the sun stand still, nor command the greatest elements as Jesus did. Jesus says, Let the sun stand still over Gibeon and the moon over the valley of Aijalon. Scripture adds to this and says, Never in this way did God listen to a man. Not only at that time did my Jesus make the sun to stand, but also, and in a much greater way at his coming. When we wage war against our enemies and fight against principalities and powers and rulers of these dark things, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavens, the sun of our righteousness constantly stands by and never, at any time, deserts us or hastens to go down. For he himself says, behold I am with you for all days. He is not only with us for a doubled day, but he is with us for all days until the end of the age until we prevail over our adversaries.

In the time of Moses it was not said, as in Jesus’ time, the land rested from wars. It is certain also that this land of ours, in which we have struggles and endure contests, will be able to rest from battles and by the strength of the Lord Jesus alone. Within us indeed are all those breeds of vices that continually attack the soul. Within us are the Canaanites; within us are the Perizzites; here are the Jebusites. In what way must we exert ourselves, how vigilant must we be or for how long must we persevere, so that when all these breeds of vices have been forced to flee, our land may rest from wars at last?

Origen, Homily 1 on Joshua, l , 3, 5, 7; FoC (2002) tr. Bruce.

Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A TREATISE ON THE MYSTERIES BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

After God had spoken at length to Moses and told him to do everything on earth in accordance with the model he had seen on the mountain, Moses gave the name ‘Jesus’ to the man previously known as Hoshea who was to lead the people on their journey to the promised land. Having been commanded to arrange everything according to the model in the heavenly vision, Moses gave to the future leader the name already stored up in heaven for the eternal leader.

For as the one was head of the synagogue, the other is head of the Church. As the one was the guide to the promised land, the other is the guide to the land we are to inherit, of which the Lord said: Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the land. As the one came after Moses, the other comes after the Law. As the one was ordered to renew the rite of circumcision with a stone knife, the Lord, who is both cornerstone and sharp word that pierces to the division of the soul, inaugurates the spiritual circumcision of the heart. As the one divided the water, the other divides peoples, for he says: I have not come to bring peace but division.

How evident and complete the division of the waters was, since one part stood still while the other flowed away to the sea, leaving the river bed dry and the Ark of the Lord with its priests occupying the ground between! This figure teaches us that at the coming of the Ark of the Lord, that is, at the Lord’s coming in the flesh, one part of the people would separate itself from the current of sin and its own death, while the other part would flow into the sea, that is, would share in this world’s condemnation.

St Hilary of Poitiers, A Treatise on the Mysteries, 2.5-7 (SC 19bis 150-2); Word in Season V.

Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A TREATISE ON HOLY SCRIPTURE BY ST GREGORY OF ELVIRA

Although Rahab is described as a harlot, she nonetheless prophetically signified the virginal Church and foreshadowed what was to come at the end of the ages, for she alone was protected and kept alive when all others perished. So too when God told the Prophet Hosea: Take to yourself a wife who is a harlot, the woman prefigured the Church that comes together out of the nations, since it was from the harlotry of the nations and their fornication with idols – Scripture says, They have gone fornicating after other gods; – that a people was to be gathered together. Ekklesia, the Greek word for Church, means “a gathering of the people”.

For Christ has bestowed great grace, great virtue, great forgiveness, and great felicity on the Church drawn from the Gentiles in order that, being restored to integrity through observance of the Law and sanctified by the blessings of the Gospel, this Church that was at one time base and despicable might become the chaste spouse of the one Holy Spirit. It is washed in the sacred bath and cleansed of its filthy stains, and so changes from a sinful harlot into a virgin – as the Lord himself said to the Jews: The harlots will enter the kingdom of heaven before you. United to the holy body of Christ by faith and cleansed by the sanctifying and life-giving bath, the Church is said to lead the way into the kingdom of heaven.

Rahab, a type of the Church, hung a scarlet cord from her window as a sign of her promised safety, thus signifying that the Passion of Christ is the salvation of the nations. Therefore, just as only the house of Rahab and its residents were saved by the sign of the scarlet cord when Jericho was razed and burned and its king slain, so when this world is consumed by fire and the devil is slain, none will be saved for eternal life except those within the house of the Church, which will be marked by the scarlet sign, the blood of Christ.

St Gregory of Elvira, Tractates of Origen on Holy Scripture, 12:129-31, 139; Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JOSHUA BY ORIGEN

At the Jordan the Ark of the Covenant was carried at the head of the people of God. And when the Priests and the Levites halted, the waters held back and heaped up, as if out of respect for God’s ministers, thus allowing the people of God a safe crossing. We Christians should not be surprised to read about the things that were done for an earlier people. For in Baptism we too have passed through the waters of the Jordan and God has promised us far greater and higher blessings: we have been promised a passage through the very air itself.

Listen to what Paul has to say about the just: We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. There is nothing whatever for the just man to fear, because the whole of creation is at his service.

Listen too to what God promises the just by the mouth of the Prophet: When you walk through fire, the flame shall not consume you, for I am the Lord your God. So we see that the just man is able to go everywhere in safety and that every creature gives him the service that is his due. But you must not think that these things happened only in earlier times and that nothing of this sort will happen to you who are now listening to these stories. In fact, all things come true in you in a mystical way. When you left the darkness of idolatry and were anxious to reach the understanding of the divine Law, you began your exodus from Egypt.

When you were numbered among the catechumens and first undertook to obey the laws of the Church, you crossed the Red Sea. As you halt each day on your journey through the desert, you devote some time to listening to God’s Law and looking on the face of Moses, unveiled for you by the glory of the Lord. And if you come to the spiritual waters of Baptism and in the presence of the Priests and Levites, are initiated into those great and awe-inspiring mysteries (which are familiar to those who have the right to know about them), then you too will cross the Jordan through the ministry of the Priests. You will enter the promised land, where Jesus, following Moses, takes you in his charge, and becomes your leader on this new journey.

Mindful of all these great signs of God’s power, how the sea was parted for you and how the river waters stood still, you will turn to them and say: What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? And you will hear the divine answer: The earth has trembled at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

Origen, Homily 4 on Joshua, 1; The Divine Office III.

Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JOSHUA BY ORIGEN

Jericho is surrounded and must be captured. But how is Jericho captured? No sword is drawn, no battering ram is used against it, no spear is brandished. Only the priestly trumpets are brought up, and they cause the walls of Jericho to collapse.

In Scripture we often find Jericho standing for the world. For example, in the Gospel story of the man on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho falling among thieves, it is clear that the man represents Adam driven from Paradise into the exile of this world. And when Jesus went to Jericho and restored the sight of the blind men, they represented all those who in this world suffer from the blindness of ignorance, to whom the Son of God comes. So this Jericho, by which we understand this world, is going to collapse, for the consummation of the age has long been forecast by the Sacred Books.

But how is this consummation going to come about? By what means? At the sound of the trumpet, we read. What trumpet? Paul gives you the solution to this mystery. Listen to what he says: The trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with the archangel’s call, and with the sound

of the trumpet of God. So it is then that Jesus Our Lord will conquer Jericho with trumpet blast and destroy it, And the only survivors will be the harlot and all her household. The Lord Jesus will come, he says, and he will come with trumpet blast.

May he save that one woman who welcomed the men he sent to spy out the land, who received his Apostles in faith and obedience and hid them in the roof, and may he give this harlot a share with the house of Israel. But we must not go over this story again and reproach her for this sin of the past. She was once a harlot but now she is joined to Christ, a chaste virgin to one chaste spouse. Listen to what the Apostle says about her: I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband. And he was also speaking of her when he said: We ourselves were foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures.

Do you want to know more about how the harlot ceased a harlot? Then listen again to Paul: Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. To enable her to escape the destruction of Jericho the spies gave her the surest sign of safety, the scarlet rope. For it is through the blood of Christ that this whole Church is saved, in Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom belong glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

Origen, Homily 6 on Joshua, 4; The Divine Office III.

Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A DIALOGUE OF COMFORT BY ST THOMAS MORE

Well-deserved tribulation comes upon some people through their own undoubted deed of which they are well aware, as when sickness overtakes us after gluttonous feasting, or when we are punished for something that is obviously our own fault. These tribulations and others like them, even though they may seem to contain no comfort because it hurts to think that we have brought them on ourselves, may yet be a comfort to us if we consider that they may bring us healing if we wish them to.

For there are undoubtedly many who without tribulation would live and die in their deadly sin. In tribulation, however, they feel their own frailty so keenly, and the false flattering world failing them, that they wholeheartedly turn to God and call for mercy. Taking their trouble humbly, by grace they make a virtue of necessity and a medicine of their malady, and make a right godly end.

Consider well the story of Achan whose sacrilege committed at the great city of Jericho made God take a great vengeance upon the sons of Israel. Afterward God told them the reason for it and bade them seek out the offender by lots, and the lot fell upon the very man that did it. When it fell first upon his tribe, and then upon his family, and then upon his house, and finally upon his person, he might well consider that he was apprehended and taken against his will; but yet at the good exhortation of Joshua, My son, give glory to the God of Israel, and make your confession to him. Tell what you have done and do not hide it, he humbly confessed the theft, and meekly accepted his death for it, and I have no doubt that he had both strength and comfort in his pain, and died a very good man. If tribulation had never come his way, he might have been in danger of never having a just remorse for his deed in all his whole life, and of dying wretchedly and going to the devil eternally. Thus this thief made a good medicine of his well-deserved pain and tribulation.

Consider the well converted thief that hung at Christ’s right hand. Did not he, by his patient suffering and humble acknowledgment of his fault in asking forgiveness of God, while being content to suffer for his sin, make of his just punishment and well-deserved tribulation a very good and special medicine to cure him of all pain in the other world, and win him eternal salvation?

And so I say that this kind of tribulation, though it seem the most degrading and quite comfortless, is yet, if we will so make it, a truly marvellous and wholesome medicine, and may therefore be to anyone that will take it in this way a great cause of comfort and spiritual consolation.

St Thomas More, A Dialogue of Comfort, 1.9; Word in Season V.

Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JOSHUA BY ORIGEN

When people ally themselves with the Word of God, let them not doubt that they will immediately have enemies and that their former friends will turn to foes. Not only must they expect this from men; they must also know for sure that the evil powers and wicked spirits are ready to respond in the same way. Those therefore who seek the friendship of Jesus should realise that they will have to face much hostility, The Apostle Paul confirms this statement when he says: All who wish to live a godly life in Christ will suffer persecution. Solomon says the same thing: My son, when you enter the service of God, prepare yourself to be tested.

The Gibeonites, however lowly, are still under siege today because of their friendship with Jesus; this is true even though they are only wood-cutters and water-carriers. In other words, even though you are the least in the Church, you will be attacked by the five Kings for belonging to Jesus.

But Jesus and the leaders of Israel do not abandon or spurn the Gibeonites; on the contrary they assist them in their weakness. Does it not seem to you that these things happen among us, and that this is what the Apostle commands when he says: Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient with all, and elsewhere: You who are stronger must support the weak in their infirmity. In this way, then, Jesus with his leaders and generals is present to those who for his name’s sake are attacked by hostile powers; not only does he help them in battle, but he also lengthens the day, and by prolonging the time of light, delays the coming of darkness.

We should like to show, if we can, how our Lord Jesus Christ prolonged the light and extended the day in order to save humankind and destroy the hostile forces.

Once the Saviour had come the world was already at its end. He himself said: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But he delayed the day of consummation, he held it off and forbade its appearance. For God the Father saw that the salvation of the nations could come only through him, and therefore he said to him: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession.

And so, until the Father’s promise is fulfilled, until the Churches increase by the addition of the various peoples and all the fullness of the nations enter them so that then at last all Israel may be saved, the day will be prolonged and its end postponed, nor shall the sun ever set. On the contrary, as long as the Sun of Justice pours into believing hearts the light of his truth it will always be morning.

Origen, Homily 11 on Joshua, 2-3 (SC 71:284-6); Word in Season V.

Season of the Year | Week 11

Sunday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

We are told that Joshua did not accomplish all the work that was to be done, but left a remnant of it to those who came after him. And yet in one sense he did it all, for all these Kings and their land did Joshua take at one time. And, accordingly, he divided out even the country which he had not conquered; for what he had done involved and secured, as far as God’s aid was necessary, the doing of the rest. Behold, he says, I have divided unto you by lot these nations which remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes … And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you …Be ye therefore very courageous.

And so in like manner Christ has done the whole work of redemption for us; and yet it is no contradiction to say that something remains for us to do: we have to take the redemption offered us, and that taking involves a work. We have to apply his grace to our own souls, and that application implies pain, trial and toil in the midst of its blessedness. He has suffered and conquered, and those who become partakers in him undergo in their own persons the shadow and likeness of that Passion and victory. In them, one by one, is acted out over again and again the history of the Son of God, so that as he died they die to sin – as he rose again, so they rise again to righteousness; and in this imitation of his history consists their participation in his glory. He truly has planted us in the land of promise, and has given our enemies into our hands; but they are still in it, and they have to be expelled from it; and as the Israelites after Joshua’s death entered into a truce with them instead of obeying his command, so we too, after our Lord’s departure instead of making that righteousness our own, which he has of his free grace imputed to us at the first, too often are content with the nominal imputation, and think it enough that he has divided out the nations which remain, careless about fulfilling his directions in destroying them.

Though Joshua is a figure of Christ and his followers in that he is a combatant and a conqueror, in one point of view he plainly differs from them. He was commanded to use worldly weapons in his warfare; but of ours Saint Paul says, the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but possess divine power to demolish fortresses. Such is the rule of our warfare. We advance by yielding; we rise by falling; we conquer by suffering; we persuade by silence; we become rich by bountifulness; we inherit the earth through meekness; we gain comfort through mourning; we earn glory by penitence and prayer. Heaven and earth shall sooner fall than this rule be reversed; it is the Law of Christ’s kingdom, and nothing can reverse it but sin. As Achan could cause the defeat of the armies of Israel, so sin, indeed, of whatever kind, may disturb this divine provision, but nothing else. Let us pray that we may all of us be kept pure from sin; let us pray that at last, when we are well stricken with years, we may be a Joshua, not gifted with riches of this world, but with a name better than that of sons, the eternal God for our refuge, and underneath the everlasting arms.

Ven. John Henry Newman, Sermons on the Subjects of the Day, 160-3; Word in Season V.

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

Three reasons have been handed down by our forebears for this mental barrenness of which you speak. It comes either from our own negligence or from an attack of the devil or as the Lord’s design and trial.

But there is a twofold reason for the design and trial. First, so that, by being forsaken by the Lord for a short while and humbly seeing the frailty of our spirit, we may not become proud because of any previous purity of heart which has been granted us by his visitation; and so that, by proving to us that when we are forsaken by him we cannot regain that condition of joy and purity by any effort of our own, we may understand that even our previous joy of heart was conferred on us not by our own doing but by his condescension, and that present joy must be sought anew from his grace. The second reason for this trial is to put to the proof our perseverance and desire, and also to manifest in us with what yearning of heart and earnestness of prayer we must look for the visitation of the Holy Spirit when he has left us. For it seems to be the case that whatever is in the habit of being poorly guarded is believed to be able to be easily retrieved.

We read something like this in mystical fashion in the Book of Judges with respect to the extermination of the spiritual nations that are opposed to Israel: These are the nations that the Lord forsook, so that by them he might instruct Israel, so that they might grow accustomed to fighting with their enemies. God did not begrudge Israel their peace nor look with malice upon them, but he planned this conflict in the knowledge that it would be beneficial. Thus, constantly oppressed by the onslaught of the nations, they would never feel that they did not need the Lord’s help. Hence they would always meditate on him and cry out to him, and they would not lose their ability to fight and their training in virtue. For frequently security and prosperity have brought low those whom adversities cannot overcome.

We also read in the Apostle that this conflict has been set in our members too for our advantage: For the desire of the flesh is against the spirit, and that of the spirit against the flesh. But these are opposed to one another, so that you may not do what you want to do. Here you have conflict deeply rooted in our body, so to say, according to the design of the Lord. For how can whatever is true in each case and admits of no exceptions be considered other than attributable by nature to the very stuff of humanity after the fall of the first man? This conflict, which is beneficial in some way, has been put in us by the Creator’s design, provoking and compelling us to a better condition. If it were removed there is little doubt that a dangerous repose would take its place.

St John Cassian, Conference 4.3-4, 6.4-7.2 ; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

So perish all thine enemies, O Lord! But let thy friends be like the sun as it rises in its might. And the land had rest for forty years.

What a contrast do these words present to the history which goes before them! It came to pass, says the Sacred Writer, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out. Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer … Neither did Zebulon drive out the inhabitants of Kitron … Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho. Here is the picture of indolence and unfaithfulness leading to cowardice, to apostasy, and to national ruin.

On the other hand, consider, by way of contrast, the narrative contained in the chapter which ends with the text. Ephraim and Benjamin, Machir and Zebulon, Issachar and Naphtali, rousing, uniting, assailing their enemies, and conquering; conquering in the strength of the Lord. Their long captivity was as nothing, through God’s great mercy, when they turned to him. In vain had their enemies trod them down to the ground; the Church of God had that power and grace within it, that whenever it could be persuaded to shake off its lassitude and rally, it smote as sharply and as effectively as though it had never been bound with the new ropes of the Philistines. So it was now. Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam. Such was the inspired cry of war: and it was obeyed. In consequence the Canaanites were discomfited in battle and fled; and the land had rest for forty years. Here is a picture of manly obedience to God’s will - a short trial of trouble and suffering – and then the reward, peace.

What the Old Testament especially teaches us is this: that zeal is as essentially a duty of all God’s rational creatures, as prayer and praise, faith and submission; and, surely, if so, especially of sinners whom he has redeemed; that zeal consists in a strict attention to his commands – an intense thirst for the advancement of his glory – a shrinking from the pollution of sin and sinners – an indignation, nay impatience, at witnessing his honour insulted – a quickness of feeling when his name is mentioned, and a jealousy how it is mentioned – a fullness of purpose, an heroic determination to yield him service at whatever sacrifice of personal feeling – a carelessness of obloquy, or reproach, or persecution, a forgetfulness of friend and relative, nay, a hatred (so to say) of all that is naturally dear to us, when he says, Follow me. These are some of the characteristics of zeal. Such was the temper of Moses, Phineas, Samuel, David, Elijah; it is the temper enjoined on all the Israelites, especially in their conduct toward the abandoned nations of Canaan. The text expresses that temper in the words of Deborah: So perish all thine enemies, O Lord! But thy friends be like the sun as it rises in its might.

Ven. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 3.173-5; Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JUDGES BY ORIGEN

The Midianites are said not to have prevailed over the Lord’s people as long as that people obeyed the Lord’s commandments. But when they began to be heedless of the divine commandments the hand of their enemies grew stronger and more powerful against them. It was bodily enemies that rose up against the first people of God when they transgressed; against us, however, who are called the Israel according to the Spirit, it is undoubtedly a spiritual enemy that arises. When we fail to heed the commandments of God, when we spurn Christ, the hand of the demon, grows stronger against us; then, when grace deserts us, we too are handed over to the enemy.

But let us see what happened to those who were handed over for their sins. They sowed the land, but because they had been handed over to the enemy on account of their sins, they reaped a harvest of corruption. Let us consider how the same thing can happen to us, who are the Israel according to the spirit. There are times when we sow, and the enemy cannot spoil the seed we plant or ambush us as we cultivate it. There are other times, however, when the seed we sow is ruined. Let the Apostle Paul instruct us on the difference between the two sowings. Here is what he says: He who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

He, then, who sows to his own flesh is the one whose seed the Midianites ruin. His crop is destroyed and he perishes. But the Midianites cannot destroy the seed of him who sows to the Spirit. The hostile forces cannot go up into the fields of the Spirit, nor can they desecrate the new spiritual fields of those who do not sow their seed in thorny ground but take new unploughed fields for themselves.

A further remark is called for. I wish to warn both you and myself of the care to be taken of the seed and the diligence to be expended on spiritual fruits. Not infrequently men labour mightily in spiritual works and bear abundant fruits and fill their barns with the produce of their uprightness and store away many good works in the secure chamber of their conscience. Afterward, however, they become negligent; after their labours they lapse into pleasure seeking and extravagance. Then lust takes control, and all the seeds of their good works, all the fruits of their holy labour, are ruined. For when sin creeps in and captures men’s minds so that they no longer heed God’s commandments and willingly climb the steep path of virtue, everything that was gathered into the barns of conscience is lost. We must therefore heed the warning of the sacred Scriptures when they say: keep a close guard over your heart.

Origen, Homily 8 on Judges (PG 12:979-80); Word in Season V.

Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JUDGES BY ORIGEN

The Lord said to Gideon: Make a proclamation for all the people to hear that anyone who is faint-hearted and afraid is to return home. Today also the leader of our host, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ cries out to his soldiers: No one who is faint-hearted and afraid may come to my wars. That is what he is saying, though in other words, in the Gospel text: Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. By these words is not Christ obviously separating and dissociating from his camp those who are faint-hearted and afraid?

All of you, therefore, who wish to follow Christ in his warfare and desire to be in his camp, put far from you any timidity, banish any fear, so that you may be his soldiers, and say confidently: Even if an army encamped camp against me my heart would not fear. Even if war broke out against me still I would trust.

The thought of such warfare should not dishearten us, for it presents nothing difficult or hard or impossible. Do you wish to know how easy it is to carry out Christ’s bidding for those who do battle with faith? Even women frequently win the victory in this army, for the battle is fought not with bodily muscle but with strength born of faith. Earlier in this book of Judges we read of the victory of Deborah, and of how, though she was a woman, she did not suffer from a woman’s fear. Shall I remind you of Judith, that high-minded lady, that noblest of women? When the cause was almost lost she did not hesitate to go alone to its defence and alone to risk herself and her life in order to slay cruel Holofernes; she went to war not in armour or on steeds of battle or weighed down with the weapons on which soldiers rely, but with strength of soul and the confidence of faith, and she destroyed the enemy by resolution and courage. A woman restored the freedom of her country, which men had lost.

But I need not invoke the example of those far distant from us in the past. With our own eyes we have often seen women and still youthful maidens endure the torments of tyrants in witness to their faith. What is needed in those who do battle for the truth and for God is courage not of body but of spirit. For victory is to be sought by the darts of prayer, not by iron javelins, and it is faith that enables one to endure the combat. Hence the holy Apostle teaches the soldiers of God the proper armour for this kind of warfare: Stand fast, then, in the breastplate of righteousness, your loins girt with the truth; receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit; above all, take the shield of faith by which you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one. And let your feet be shod with zeal for the gospel of peace. Thus armed, take up the standard of Christ’s Cross and follow him.

Origen, Homily 8 on Judges (PG 12:986-88); Word in Season V.

Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LORD’S PRAYER BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

There is one true and perfect power which is above all things and governs the whole universe. But it does not rule by violence and tyrannical dictatorship, which enforces the obedience of its subjects through fear and compulsion. For virtue must be free from the fear of a taskmaster, so as to choose the good by a voluntary act, since it is a principle that all that is good should be subject only to the power that gives life.

Now since human nature was deceitfully led astray from the discernment of the good, the inclination of our free will has been directed to the opposite and our life subjected to every base thing; our nature has been mixed up with death in a thousand ways, for every form of evil is, as it were, a way of death for us. Since, then, we are hard pressed by such tyranny and become slaves to death through the assaults of the passions, which attack us like executioners and enemies in war, we rightly pray that the kingdom of God may come to us. For we cannot escape the wicked dominion of corruption except the life-giving power take over the government in its place.

So if we ask that the Kingdom of God may come to us, the meaning of our request is this: I would be a stranger to corruption and liberated from death; would that I were freed from the shackles of sin and that death no longer lorded it over me. Let us no more be tyrannised by evil so that the adversary may not prevail against me and make me his captive through sin. But may thy kingdom come to me, so that the passions which still rule me so mercilessly may depart from me, or rather may be altogether annihilated.

Thy kingdom come. By this sweet word we obviously offer God this prayer: Let the opposing battle front be broken and the hostile phalanx destroyed. Bring to an end the war of the flesh against the spirit and let the body no longer harbour the enemy of the soul. Oh let them appear, the royal force, the angelic band, the thousands of rulers, the myriads of those who stand on thy right hand, that a thousand warriors may fall on the front of the enemy! Strong, indeed, is the adversary, formidable, yea, invincible to those bereft of thy help. Yet only as long as one is fighting alone; when thy kingdom comes, the pangs and sighs of sorrow vanish, and life, peace, and rejoicing enter instead.

St Gregory of Nyssa, Homilies on the Lord’s Prayer (ACW 18:50-2); Word in Season V.

Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE DUTIES OF MINISTERS BY ST AMBROSE

Our sentiments should be pure and sincere so that we can speak with simplicity, have a holy mastery over our bodies, and not deceive a brother with dishonest words or the promise of anything shameful. If such a promise is made it is better not to keep it than to do anything dishonourable. People often bind themselves by oaths and even though they realize they should not have done so they fulfil their promise because they have sworn. Herod acted in this way when he made a shameful promise to reward a dancer and then cruelly fulfilled it. It was shameful to promise a kingdom for a dance; cruel to slay a Prophet out of respect for his oath. How much better it would have been to have broken his oath – if indeed an oath sworn by a drunkard in his cups, a promise given by a weakling amid troops of dancers, had any binding force. The Prophet’s head was carried in on a dish, and this was regarded as honourable when in fact it was madness!

Nor shall I ever be convinced that the chieftain Jephthah’s promise to sacrifice the person who met him on his doorstep when he returned home was not imprudent. He repented of his vow when it was his daughter that met him. Then he tore his garments and said: Alas, my daughter, you have ensnared me, you have become a cause of sorrow for me. Out of a devout fear and dread he sorrowfully fulfilled his cruel promise. A cruel promise it was, and a very bitter fulfilment, which grieved even him who made it. From then on it was commanded and decreed that the daughters of the Israelites should go into mourning for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days in each year.

I cannot condemn a man who thought it necessary to do as he had vowed; but surely it was a wretched necessity that required a father to slay his daughter. It is better not to vow than to vow something that he to whom the vow is made does not wish to be done.

The maiden said to her grieving father: Do to me as you have said. But she asked for two months during which she might wander in the mountains with her companions and bewail her virginity which was foreordained to death. The tears of her contemporaries did not deter the girl nor their grief sway her nor their laments hold her back. The appointed day did not pass nor the hour go unheeded. She returned to her father like one returning to fulfil a vow; she freely spurred him on when he delayed, and of her own will she turned what would have been an unwilling act of impiety into a devout sacrifice.

St Ambrose, De Officiis Ministrorum, 3.9 (PL 16:167); Word in Season V.

Season of the Year | Week 12

Sunday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JUDGES BY RABANUS MAURUS

Let me summarise briefly everything that is said about Samson. Samson, who in his day was a Nazirite of the Lord, is allegorically a type of Christ; first, because his birth was foretold by an angel; secondly, because he was called a Nazirite and delivered Israel from its foes; and, finally, because he overthrew their Temple, causing many thousands of people who had mocked him to perish.

As the birth of Samson was foretold by an angel, so the Lord’s bodily birth was foretold by the Prophets, as well as by the angel who said to Mary: Hail, Mary, full of grace; you have conceived in your womb and will bear a son, and you shall call him ‘Emmanuel’, for he shall save his people from their sins.

The name ‘Samson’ means ‘sun’. But our Redeemer too is called ‘sun’; listen to how the Prophet thus names the Lord Jesus: The sun of righteousness shall rise over you, and there will be healing in its wings. The Lord Jesus is truly the Sun of Righteousness, for he enlightens the minds of all believers with heavenly light. He is the true Nazirite and Holy one of God, and it is only by analogy with him that this other man was called a Nazirite.

When Samson was travelling to the wedding he encountered a roaring lion. As he travelled to a foreign people in quest of a wife, a lion came out to meet him and he killed it. Who should we see foreshadowed by Samson if not Christ who, when about to gather the Church from among the Gentiles, said: Rejoice, for I have overcome the world.

What does it mean that Samson took honey from the mouth of the slain lion except that, as we ourselves see, the nations of the earthly kingdom who formerly raged against Christ have lost their savagery and, moved by the sweetness of the Gospel preaching make their votive offerings? Also significant is what we see in Samson’s own person: he killed few in his lifetime, but countless were the enemies he slew when he died by destroying the Temple. So too the Lord in his lifetime rescued few from the arrogance of unbelief, but he rescued many when the temple of his body was destroyed; and those Gentiles who were arrogant and whom he bore with in his lifetime, he laid low by his death.

Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Judges, 2.20 (PL 108:1198); Word in Season V.

Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST PAULINUS OF NOLA

Samson’s blindness, by which he lost his bodily but not his spiritual eyes, enlightens me to right understanding, so that by his example I may know which eyes I should prefer to have. For Samson would not have called upon the Lord to lend aid to his strength if his inward eyes had not been sound. It is possible that once Samson had recovered the strength of his hair to achieve the mystery to come, he ceased to long for the recovery of his lost sight, because the strength of heavenly grace, so healthy in inward vision, did not need bodily sight.

Accordingly we should follow this example and train our senses on the Lord, blinding our bodily eyes by turning away from the things of the world. It was the eyes of the body which the Prophet longed to lose when he said: Turn away my eyes that they may not behold vanity. And the Lord himself preferred blindness to the seeing eyes of the Jews when he said: If you were blind, you should not have sin.

Let us recall the loss with which those in Paradise had their eyes opened, eyes which had a clear vision of God as long as they were closed to sin. They experienced shame in their puberty only when through the sin of their transgression they lost the purity of a good conscience, the light of which had clothed them. To use one’s eyes for the purposes of darkness, therefore, and to blind them to heavenly things by keeping them bent on things of earth, is to lose one’s real sight. The soul is given clear sight to behold God by the blindness with which it holds the world in contempt. For all that is in the world, says Scripture, is the concupiscence of the eyes; and because of this the Apostle teaches us to close our vision to this world and to open it to Christ, who enlightens every one who comes into this world.

The Apostle rouses us from our vision of immediate things to look up to eternal ones, saying: Seek not the things which are in this world, for the form of this world is passing away. And again Paul says: Seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. In the words of Ecclesiastes: All things under the sun are vanity. And by the same token, truth lies beyond the sun. So, too, those who reside in the truth, though their physical dwelling is within the world, lie outside the world in their heavenly conversatio. Their spirit flies forth, and they mount and go beyond the dancing stars or the poles of the heavens; they rise higher than the elements, not being subject to material things or to the wearing out of the elements. Their life is joined to Christ and they are above the world, abiding in him who is the blessed God over all ages.

St Paulinus of Nola, Letter 2, 23.18, 21-2; Word in Season V.

Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON HANNAH BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

As Hannah continued praying in the presence of the Lord, says Scripture, Eli watched her mouth. The writer bears witness here to two virtues in the woman: her perseverance in prayer and her attentiveness. He refers to the first by saying, She continued, and to the second by adding, in the presence of the Lord; for we all pray, but not all of us pray in the presence of the Lord. Though our bodies may be in an attitude of prayer and our mouths babbling some pious formula, can we really claim to be praying in the presence of God when our minds are wandering hither and thither in home and market-place? Those people pray in the presence of the Lord who pray with complete recollection; who, having no worldly attachments, have removed from earth to heaven and banished all human preoccupations, just as this woman did then. Recollecting herself completely and concentrating her mind, she called upon God in her deep distress.

But why does Scripture say she continued praying when actually her prayer was very short? She made no long speeches, she did not spin out her plea to great length, but spoke few and simple words. What then could the writer have meant by saying, She continued? Surely he meant that she said the same thing over and over again; she spent a long time ceaselessly repeating the same words. That indeed is how Christ also commanded us to pray in the Gospels. When he told his disciples not to pray like the Gentiles and not to use empty repetitions, he also taught them the right way to pray, showing them that it is not a multiplicity of words but mental alertness that wins us a hearing.

Why then, you may ask, if prayer should be brief, did Christ tell them a parable to show that it should be continuous? There was a widow, he said, who by her persistent requests, by her going to him again and again, overcame a cruel and inhuman judge who neither feared God nor regarded other people. And why does Paul also urge us to keep praying, to pray without ceasing? Is it a contradiction to tell us not to make long speeches, and yet to pray continually?

No; there is no contradiction – God forbid! The two commands are in complete agreement. Christ and Paul commanded us to make our prayers short, and to say them frequently, at brief intervals. For if you spin out your words to any length you are often inattentive, and so give the devil freedom to approach and trip you up and divert your mind from what you are saying. But if you pray continuously and frequently, repeating your prayer at brief intervals, you can easily remain recollected and fully alert as you pray. That indeed is just what this woman did, not making long speeches but drawing near to God frequently, at brief intervals. That is true prayer, when its cries come from the depths of one’s being.

St John Chrysostom, De Anna, Sermon 2.2; (Bareille 8:419-21); Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON HANNAH BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

So Hannah went up to transplant the fine shoot; and just as hardworking farmers sow in the earth the seeds of cypresses and other such trees, then when they see the seed grown into a tree do not leave it in the same soil but pull it up from there and transfer it to another spot, so that the fresh soil may welcome it into its bosom and make available its own resources for the root’s nourishment, so this woman also did. That is to say, the child that against all hope was sown in her womb she transferred from her home and planted in the Temple, where there were constant sources of spiritual irrigation.

You can see the inspired statement being fulfilled in their case which David uttered in singing thus, Blessed the man who did not walk in the counsels of the unholy, did not take his place in the way of sinners, nor take a seat in pestilence; instead, his pleasure is in the Law of the Lord, and he will meditate on his Law day and night, and he will be like the tree planted on water courses, producing his fruit in due season. You see, it was not a case of his coming to freedom from vice after experience of vice, but of his choosing virtue right from infancy; far from having a share in gatherings notorious for godlessness, from his very childhood he advanced from his mother’s breast to a different breast of a spiritual kind. As a tree bedewed with constant moisture rises up to a great height, so this man reached the summit of virtue, by drinking constantly from attention to the divine sayings.

Let us note, however, how she planted him; let us follow the woman, let us enter into the Temple with her. She went up with him, the text says, to Shiloh with a three year-old heifer. Then the double offering occurred: one was irrational, a heifer, the other rational; while the priest sacrificed the former, the woman offered the latter – or, rather, the woman’s sacrifice was better than the sacrifice the priest offered. She was, in fact, a priestess in her very being, imitating the Patriarch Abraham and rivalling him for preeminence: whereas he took his son and descended, she let hers stay permanently in the Temple – or, rather, he also made the offering in a broad sense; not in the fact that he took no life, but in the fact that he saw to its completion in his will. Do you see the woman rivalling the man? Do you see there was no obstacle on the part of nature to her emulating the Patriarch?

Let us note, however, how she offered him. She approached the priest and said to him, ‘It is I, sir – may you live long – I am the woman who was standing in your presence in praying to the Lord for this child. I prayed to the Lord, and he granted the request I made of him. I lend him to the Lord all the days of his life to serve the Lord. She did not say, ‘I am the woman you reproached for drunkenness and intoxication – God showed you I am not drunk; it was rash of you to accuse me.’ She reproached the priest with none of these sharp remarks; instead, she replies with great mildness, mentioning only God’s beneficence.

St John Chrysostom, De Anna, Sermon 3 (Bareille 8:419-21); (2003) tr. Hill.

Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST PETER DAMIAN

Eli, because he was aware of his sons’ sins yet did not correct them with the sharpness that they deserved, fell backwards from his seat, broke his neck, and died, when these sons were killed in battle by the Philistines. Then the Ark of the Lord was captured by the enemy, and four thousand fell in the first encounter while, afterwards, thirty thousand more were killed by the Philistines. Eli did indeed reprimand his sons and correct them, but with the mild leniency of a father and not with the severity and authority of a High Priest: Why, he said, Do you do these things? I hear from all the people how wickedly you behave. Have done with it, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear. For as Scripture relates, he had heard how they had slept with women who were serving at the entrance of the Tabernacle. Moreover, those whom he saw as enemies of God, in his death he recognised to be his sons; and those he should have violently attacked with the sword, he lightly patted on the head like a flattering father.

It was not so with Moses, that faithful servant in the household of the Lord, and the teacher of the noble Phinehas. Taking his place at the gate of the camp, he said, Who is on the Lord’s side? Come here to me. And the Levites all rallied to him. He said to them, These are the words of the God of Israel: ‘Arm yourselves, each of you, with the sword. Go through the camp from gate to gate and back again. Each of you kill his brother, his neighbour, and his friend.’ After twenty-three thousand men had been slain, Moses said, Today you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, because you have turned each against his own son and his own brother and so brought a blessing upon yourselves.

Obviously, just as they who corrected sins were worthy of receiving a blessing, so too those who dealt lightly with sinners were likely to be cursed, as the Prophet said, A curse on him who withholds his sword from bloodshed. One surely withholds his sword from bloodshed if he refrains from inflicting fitting punishment on the wicked. He who fails to correct, when it is possible far him to do so, makes himself guilty of the other’s fault. And so a man of God, who was thought to have been Phinehas, said to Eli whom I mentioned above, This is the word of the Lord: ‘Why do you show disrespect for my sacrifices and for my Temple-offerings that I have ordained, and honour your sons more than me?’ Therefore, if Eli perished with his sons, together with such a vast number of others, only because he did not correct his two sons as harshly as they deserved, what sort of sentence, do we think, will be given those who preside at the bench of justice in an ecclesiastical court and remain silent when confronted with the recognized crimes of evil men?

St Peter Damian, Letter 61. 8-9; FoCMC 3 (1992) tr. Blum.

Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

Abba Moses taught that, despite the bad example of the other old man, not only are someone’s openly confessed sins not to be reproached, but also that the pain of a suffering person is not to be despised. Therefore do not let the ignorance or shallowness of one old man or of a few deter you. The clever enemy misuses their grey hairs to deceive the young. But everything should be revealed to the elders without any embarrassment, and from them one may confidently receive both healing and example. Thanks to them we shall experience the same assistance if we aim at nothing by our own judgment.

It is evident that this understanding is greatly pleasing to God, for we find this same instruction even in Holy Scripture. Thus, the Lord did not desire of himself to teach the boy Samuel through divine speech, once he had been chosen by his own decision, but he was obliged to return twice to the old man. He willed that one whom he was calling to intimate conversation with himself should even be instructed by a person who had offended God, because he was an old man. And he desired that one whom he judged most worthy to be selected by himself should be reared by an old man so that the humility of him who was called to a divine ministry might be tested and so that the pattern of this subjection might be offered as an example to young men.

Also, when Christ himself called and spoke to Paul, even though he could have revealed to him the way of perfection then and there, he willed to send him to Ananias and he ordered him to learn the way of truth from him when he said: Rise and enter the city, and there you will be told what you must do. Him too he sent to an old man, then, and determined that he must be instructed by his teaching rather than by his own. Otherwise what might have been rightly done with regard to Paul would have given a bad example of presumption to those who came after him, since each individual would conclude that he too should be trained in similar fashion under the guidance and by the teaching of God alone rather than by the instruction of his elders.

The Apostle himself teaches that this presumption is to be utterly detested. He says that he went up to Jerusalem for this reason alone – so that in a kind of private and familial session he might communicate with his fellow Apostles and predecessors the Gospel which he was preaching to the Gentiles, lest perhaps I might be running or might have run in vain. Who, then, would be so presumptuous and blind as to dare to trust in his own judgment and discretion when the vessel of election testifies that he needed to confer with his fellow Apostles? From this it is clearly proven that the Lord shows the way of perfection to no one who has the means of being educated but who disdains the teaching and the instruction of the elders, as it is said: Ask your father and he will declare it to you, your elders, and they will tell you.

St John Cassian, Conference 2.13.12 - 15.3; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Saturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST ISAAC THE SYRIAN

The limitless power of God dwells in the Cross, just as it resided in an incomprehensible way in the Ark which was venerated amidst great honour and awe by the Jews.

What then was in the Ark to make it so awesome and filled with all manner of power and signs, apart from the Jar of Manna and the Tablets of the Law which Moses wrote, and Aaron’s staff which sprouted? Did not Moses and the people prostrate before the Ark in great awe and trembling? Did not Joshua son of Nun lie stretched out on his face before it from morning until evening? Were not God’s fearful revelations; manifested there as if to provide honour for the object, seeing that the Shekhinah of God was residing in it? This Shekhinah, which now resides in the Cross, has departed from there and has resided mysteriously in the Cross.

Satan himself with all his tyranny is in terror of the form of the Cross when it is depicted by us against him. And listen to what is greater than all these things: in the ministry of the Old Testament, for all the signs and wonders that took place, they were unable to eradicate even the smallest kind of sin; whereas in the ministry that takes place with the Cross, sin has become like a spider’s web on which a heavy object is hung and it no longer succeeds in standing up. And as for death, which had been so fearful for human nature, now even women and children can hold up their heads against it. Death which reigns over all has now proved easier, not only for believers, but also for pagans as well: fear of it has been greatly diminished from what had been the case previously.

In front of that wooden construction in which it is said that God’s Shekhinah existed, adoration was offered up continuously to God by Moses and all the people. Here too, in the case of the Cross, the moment this form of the Cross is depicted on a wall or on a board, or is fashioned out of some kind of material, it is filled with the divine power and becomes a place of God’s Shekhinah, even more so than the Ark. Just as the ministry of the New Covenant is more honourable before God than the things which took place in the Old Covenant, just as there is a difference between Moses and Christ, so is this form of the Cross much more honourable because of the honour of the Man whom the Divinity took from us for his dwelling.

St Isaac the Syrian, ‘The Second Part’, 11.4-12; (1995) tr. Brock.

Season of the Year | Week 13

Sunday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

The Ark is for us a figure and image of Christ. For if we consider the way in which God’s only-begotten Son became man, we shall see that the Word of the Father dwelt in the Temple which he received from the Virgin as in the Ark. For the whole fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him in bodily form, as Scripture says. And the testimonies placed in the Ark were the word of God.

Moreover, the wood of the Ark was incorruptible, being adorned both within and without by the purest and finest gold, just as Christ’s body was incorruptible, being preserved incorrupt, as by gold, by the power and glory of the indwelling Word, and by the nature and life-giving action of the Holy Spirit. Therefore Christ too is said to give life. For the Word of God the Father, being life by nature, by the power of his own Spirit restored his own Temple to life, making it incorruptible. As Saint Paul says, his body did not experience corruption. Moreover, he himself said to the Jews in reference to his own body: Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And Peter adds his witness: He was put to death in the body but raised to life in the Spirit.

Gold, then, is a symbol of the great brilliance of the Godhead, which was, as it were, inlaid in the sacred body, and which endowed it with its own glory and incorruptibility in an ineffable manner known only to that divine nature which is beyond all understanding. For if in time to come the righteous will shine like the sun in the Father's kingdom, what will be the glory of Christ himself? Surely its brilliance is beyond all our powers to conceive or describe. Then, too, the poles by which the Ark was carried were of gold and so were the rings that held them in place, and everything in it was of gold. For those around Christ share his glory, and are, as it were, attached to him and serviceable through love and sanctity. Such were the blessed disciples, who received divine power from him, and shared so abundantly in his glory and majesty, that they were able to work miracles.

St Cyril of Alexandria, The Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth, 8 (PG 68:597-600); Word in Season V.

Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 55 BY ST AUGUSTINE

Who is this people mentioned in the title of this psalm, who moved far away from the saints over the writing of a title? It is the mention of a title that gives us the clue to the identity of the people. At the time of the Lord’s Passion, when he was about to be crucified, a certain title was penned, and it was inscribed in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. On reading this title the Jews were indignant, and said to Pilate, Do not put “The King of the Jews”; put “He said, I am the King of the Jews.” But another psalm rightly warns, Do not tamper with the title that has been inscribed; and Pilate therefore retorted, What I have written, I have written. But the Jews continued to be angry and persisted in their blasphemy, protesting, We have no king but Caesar, and so they moved far away from the saints by taking offence at the title.

Let all those who acknowledge Christ as their King, and desire to have him ruling over them, draw near to the saints and bind themselves inseparably to the holy people. But let those others move further off from the saints, those who by disputing the title have rejected God as King and chosen a mere man as their King instead. Any race that finds its full satisfaction in human sovereignty, and refuses to have the Lord reign over it, is far removed from the saints. What it has rejected is a subjection to God’s lordship that would have enabled his subjects themselves to exercise dominion over their wayward desires.

Do not suppose, brothers, that such a refusal is to be observed in the Jews alone. They stood as a kind of primordial example, so that their conduct might show up plainly what we must all avoid. They openly refused to have Christ as their King, and chose Caesar instead. Caesar is indeed sovereign, but only as a man over other men to regulate the affairs of men. There is another King for the things of God. There is a King with responsibility for temporal life, but another for the life of eternity; an earthly King, but a heavenly King too: an earthly King who is subject to the heavenly King, and a heavenly King who is sovereign over all. They sinned, therefore, not in acknowledging Caesar as their King, but in rejecting the kingship of Christ. So too today many people refuse to have Christ as their King, even though he is enthroned in heaven and his reign is universal. And these are the very people who harass us.

Against people of this sort the present psalm gives us strength. It is necessary for us to go on bearing with them to the very end; we should not have to put up with them if it were not for our good. Every trial we undergo is designed to prove us, and all such probation is fruitful. We are for the most part an unknown quantity to ourselves; we do not know what we can bear and what we cannot.

St Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 55.2; WSA (2001) tr. Boulding.

Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

We should not cling stubbornly to our promises, but they should be tempered by reason and judgment. What is better should always be chosen and preferred and we should pass over without any hesitation to whatever is proven to be more beneficial. This invaluable judgment also teaches us above all that, although each person’s end may be known to God before he was born, he so disposes everything with order and reason that he determines all things not only by his power or in accordance with his foreknowledge but, based upon the deeds of human beings at the time, he either rejects them or daily pours out grace upon them or turns them away.

The choosing of Saul demonstrates that this is so. Although, indeed, the foreknowledge of God could not be ignorant of his miserable end, he chose him from among many thousands of Israelites and anointed him King. In doing this he rewarded him for his deserving life at the time and did not take into consideration his future sin. And so, after he became reprobate, God as it were repented of his choice and complained of him with, so to speak, human words and feelings, saying: I repent that I set up Saul as King, because he has forsaken me and not carried out my words.

In the case of Judas, the power of the prophetic curse was clearly fulfilled. For, once he had committed the crime of betrayal, he killed himself by hanging, lest after his name was blotted out he turn again to repentance and deserve to be enrolled with the righteous in heaven. For there is no doubt that even the name of Judas was written in the book of the living at the time when he was chosen by Christ, and that he heard along with the others: Do not rejoice because the demons are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. But since he was corrupted by the plague of avarice and was cast down from a heavenly enrolment to earthly things, it is appropriately said of him and of others like him by the Prophet: Lord, let all those who abandon you be confounded. Let those who depart from you be written in the earth, because they have abandoned the Lord.

Even if we have bound ourselves by a vow at the instigation of anger or some other passion, which indeed must never be the case with a monk, nonetheless the alternatives should be weighed, and the thing that we have decided upon should be compared with the other option, and after more mature reflection we should unhesitatingly go over to what is preferable. For it is better to go back on our word than to suffer the loss of something good. We do not recall that the reasonable and proven fathers were ever hard and inflexible in decisions of this sort but that, like wax before a fire, they were softened by reason and by the intervention of more salutary counsel and unhesitatingly yielded to what was better.

St John Cassian, Conference 17, 25.14-15, 18; 26; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A RETREAT FOR PRIESTS BY RONALD KNOX

King Saul had a genuine vocation if ever man had one. It was no selfish ambition, it was no rash presumption, that made him undertake the leadership of the Israelites, at a time when they had been crushed in battle by the Philistines, their powerful neighbours on the seaboard to the south and west of them. Only a short time before, the Ark of God had been taken in battle, and it seemed as if the chosen people had been altogether deserted by Providence. He was called quite unmistakably when, as a young man, he went to visit the Prophet Samuel on a simple domestic errand, to recover some asses belonging to his father that had gone astray. Samuel was warned of his visit by a divine revelation, and greeted him with the words, Upon whom is the desire of all Israel?

There, then was his vocation; and in accordance with that divine command Samuel proceeded there and then to anoint him, in private; his unction, corresponding to the ordination of a priest, came from God’s favoured Prophet. Nor was God slow to supply him with the graces he needed in his new state of life; as he went back to his father’s house, he fell in with a company of wandering prophets and suddenly began to prophesy with the rest; the validity of the unction he had received was guaranteed by inspiration. And finally, when Samuel collected all Israel, and cast lots between them tribe against tribe, family against family, man against man, the lot fell upon Saul. Could there be any doubt that this man had a true mission from God?

And here’s another thing; all that we are told about Saul at that time seems to give promise of a successful reign. When the lots were being cast, he went away and hid himself; he was at last dragged reluctantly to his coronation. He was not evidently, an ambitious man, he did not try to force God’s hand in any way, he did not enter upon his duties in any light-hearted spirit. Greatness was thrust upon him. He began his reign by undertaking a punitive war against the Ammonites, in which he swept everything before him. It really looked, now, as if Samuel could sing his Nunc dimittis: Israel had found a King, and that King was the right man in the right place.

Perhaps this is one of the most mysterious of all God’s dealings in the economy of grace – that he knows beforehand the history of every soul, knows exactly who will fail him, who will not manage to rise to the full heights of their vocation; and yet he calls them. Nay, it appears that he has a whole programme mapped out for them, of the things they are meant to do for him, if they will only be true to their vocation - though he knows that they will not. You have not kept the commandments of the Lord, Samuel tells Saul; if you had done thus, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. We know from other references that God had, before this, promised the kingdom to Judah; Saul’s vocation, therefore, was only a conditional one. God knew that Saul would be a failure, and yet he called him to be a success. That is a terrible thing to think of.

Mgr Ronald Knox, A Retreat for Priests, 118-119; Word in Season V.

Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT

My dear brethren, I urge you to meditate seriously on the word of God, and not to think lightly of the writings which your Creator has bequeathed to us. Beyond all doubt they afford warmth to hearts which would otherwise be numb with cold because of our sins. When we read of the heroic deeds of our saintly forefathers, their holy example inspires us and gives us the courage to do whatever is right.

Are we trying to avoid sin and endure humbly even when we are injured by someone in our own family? Let us remember Abel. Scripture says that his brother killed him, but we read nothing about Abel offering any resistance.

Are we striving to put God’s commands before our own immediate advantage? Let us think of Noah. At the command of almighty God he put aside his own domestic concerns and spent a hundred years building the Ark.

Are we endeavouring to acquire the virtue of obedience? We should look at Abraham. He left his home, kindred, and native land out of obedience to the command to go to a land which he was to receive as an inheritance, and he set out not knowing where he was going. He was ready to kill the beloved heir he had received for the sake of an eternal inheritance; and because he did not hesitate to offer his only son to the Lord, he received the whole multitude of nations as his offspring.

Remember Joseph. When tempted by his master’s wife he was determined to preserve his chastity even at the risk of his life. And so, since he knew how to rule his body well, he was made ruler of all Egypt.

Do we seek to acquire gentleness and patience? Let us call Moses to mind, the ruler of six hundred thousand armed men, as well as their women and children. He is described as the most gentle person living on the whole face of the earth.

Do we long to rid ourselves of animosity and become large-hearted and kind? Let us think of Samuel. When the people who ousted him from the leadership asked him to pray to the Lord for them, he answered: Far be it from me to sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. The holy man really thought he would be committing a sin if he did not show kindness and goodwill by praying for those whose opposition he had endured even to the point of being deposed by them.

St Gregory the Great, Homilies on Ezekiel, 2.3.18-21 (CCL 142:250-3); Word in Season V.

Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY JOHN JUSTUS LANDSBERG

Because Saul did what he wished and not what he was commanded to do, the Lord rejected him. And indeed, if the Prophet had not ordered otherwise and if we simply compared the two actions, the one Saul chose would seem the better, namely, to sacrifice the cattle to the Lord instead of simply slaughtering them apart from any act of worship. But once the Lord issued his command through the Prophet, the action which in other circumstances would have been of less worth was no longer of less worth but rather more worthy; it was no longer a matter of choice but necessary. Therefore Saul sinned because in the very act of sacrificing to God he neglected God’s will; instead of profiting him, his action harmed him.

How dreadful it is, brothers, and how sad that many people not only lose their toil, their prayers, and their otherwise good works but often, by acting in contempt of God, even incur punishment because they neglect their duty in order to perform these works of theirs, which at the moment are not their duty.

We came to the monastery in order to follow in the footsteps of Christ and walk the strait and narrow way. This following entails chiefly the renunciation of self, as Christ tells us: Those who would come after me must renounce themselves and take up their cross and follow me. There is no heavier cross for those who love their own will than to renounce themselves.

Since, then, the desire and aim of monastic life is purity of heart, almost all religious exercises and methods aim at renunciation of self, for if this is lacking no purity of heart can be expected. Because self-renunciation yields the richest harvest of all the virtues, the devil hates it more than any other and by various means maliciously strives to lead the monk away from it. If he cannot entice novices to carnal vices, he persuades them that in the world they would have many finer opportunities for doing good and winning souls to God – opportunities which would make use of their talents and in which they would show more dedication if not under the control of another’s will than if they bound themselves to what he falsely calls these cold and useless monastic observances.

Dear brothers, we have embraced the narrow way: let us walk in it. Let no temptation overcome us, no distress break our spirit, no faintheartedness cast us down, no spiritual torpor, weary us. The way seems narrow, but hope and love broaden it. And the journey is a short one, to be followed by the joy of a life of eternal blessedness; an immense, a boundless joy. We have the good fortune of being called to that joy by our Lord Jesus Christ, who has brought us here and set us on the path, indeed almost at the gate, by which we shall soon enter that happy rest. May he be blessed forever! Amen.

John Justus Landsberg, Opera Omnia, 3.386-8; Word in Season V.

Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY FAUSTINUS LUCIFERANUS

Our Saviour was truly made the Anointed One according to the flesh, becoming true King and true Priest. He was both so that nothing might be lacking in the Saviour. Notice therefore that he became King, when he says: I have been appointed by the Lord as King on Sion, his holy mountain. Learn that he is also Priest from the witness of the Father: You are a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. Aaron was made the first Priest of the Law by being anointed with chrism, but the Father did not say, “after the order of Aaron”, in case it might be thought that our Saviour’s priesthood also was derived. The priesthood which Aaron possessed was hereditary; but our Saviour’s priesthood is not passed on to anyone else because he will continue for ever as Priest, as Scripture says: You are a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

He is therefore our Saviour according to the flesh, and both King and Priest, but his anointing is spiritual and not bodily. The Kings and Priests of the Jews were given their position by bodily anointing with oil. One man was not both: each was either King or Priest. To Christ alone belong perfection in all things, for he came to fulfil the Law also.

Although they could not as individuals be both at the same time, they were called ‘messiahs’ or ‘anointed ones’ because they had received bodily anointing as Kings or Priests. Our Saviour, on the other hand, who is truly Christ, the Anointed One, was anointed by the Holy Spirit, that he might fulfil what was written of him: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. That he was anointed more than those who share the same name ‘Messiah’ lies in the fact that he was anointed with the oil of gladness, which properly means the Holy Spirit.

We learn that this is the case from our Saviour himself. When he took and opened the book of Isaiah, and read: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, he said that the prophecy was fulfilled then in the presence of his hearers. Peter too, the chief of the Apostles, taught that the chrism which shows our Saviour to be the Anointed One is the Holy Spirit himself, which is also the power of God, when in the Acts of the Apostles he spoke to that most faithful and merciful man, the centurion. Among other things, he said: Beginning from Galilee after the Baptism which John preached, Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, went about doing great and wonderful things, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil.

You notice that Peter said Jesus was anointed according to the flesh with the Holy Spirit and with power. And so this same Jesus truly became Christ, the Anointed One, according to the flesh, being made by the anointing of the Holy Spirit both King and Priest for ever.

Faustinus Luciferanus, On the Trinity, 39-40; The Divine Office III.

Season of the Year | Week 14

Sunday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

Let no one think the history of David’s calling, and his victory over Goliath, of little importance to himself; it is indeed interesting to read for its own sake; it raises the mind of the Christian to God, shows us his power, and reminds us of the wonderful deliverances with which he visits his Church in every age; but besides all this, this history is useful to us Christians, as setting before us our own calling, and our conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil.

David was first anointed with God’s Holy Spirit, and then, after a while, brought forward to fight Goliath. We too are first baptised and then brought forward to fight the devil. We are not brought to fight him at once; for some years we are almost without a fight when we are infants. By degrees our work comes upon us; as children we have to fight with him a little; as time goes on, the fight opens; and at length we have our great enemy marching against us with sword and spear, as Goliath came against David. And when this war has once begun, it lasts through life.

What then ought you to do, my brethren, when thus assailed? How must you behave when the devil comes against you? He has many ways of attack; sometimes he comes openly, sometimes craftily, sometimes he tempts you, sometimes he frightens you, but whether he comes in a pleasing or a frightful form, be sure, if you saw him himself with your eyes, he would always be hateful, monstrous, and abominable. Therefore he keeps himself out of sight.

Be like David, very courageous to do God’s will. Think what would have happened had David played the coward, and refused to obey God’s inward voice stirring him up to fight Goliath. He would have lost his calling, he would have been tried, and have failed. The Prophet’s oil would have profited him nothing, or rather would have increased his condemnation. The Spirit of God would have departed from him as he departed from Saul, who also had been anointed.

So, also, our privileges will but increase our future punishment, unless we use them. That person is truly and really born of God in whom the divine seed takes root; others are regenerated to their condemnation. Despise not the gift that is in you: despise not the blessing which by God’s free grace you have, and others have not. There is nothing to boast in, that you are God’s people; rather the thought is an anxious one; you have much more to answer for.

When, then, Satan comes against you, recollect you are already dedicated, made over, to God; you are God’s property, you have no part with Satan and his works, you are servants to another, you are espoused to Christ. When Satan comes against you, fear not, waver not; but pray to God, and he will help you. Say to Satan with David, You come against me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but 1 come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts.

Ven. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 3.48, 58-60; Word in Season V.

Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST PETER DAMIAN

What could be worse than anger, which is spewed forth with the venom of the ancient dragon, and like a deadly poison ravages the heart of every madman? Anger, as it is written, is possessed by a devil. This we will be able to prove if we carefully study the history of the irascible Saul. For Scripture says that when the women of the Israelites, playing on their tambourines, sang joyfully to the accompaniment of their timbrels, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’, Saul was furious and the words displeased him. And then it continues, Next day an evil spirit from God seized upon Saul, and he fell into a frenzy in his house. First, anger entered Saul’s heart and let in the spirit of iniquity; following that, his raving flared up into a passion of insane fury and incited him to kill David in whom the Holy Spirit dwelt. For according to Scripture, Saul had his spear in his hand, and he hurled it at David, meaning to pin him to the wall. The inspiring spirit of anger was enraged within its host, causing him to seethe with the wildest envy because of this blameless man.

Something just about like this took place some ten years ago in the principality of Urbino. One day, late in the afternoon, sunset found the hearts of two priests still filled with anger, and the provoking spirit of discord incited them to mutual insults. As one of the priests heaped indignities on the other, and both exchanged offensive epithets, one of them menacingly snatched up his spear and went on his way gnashing his teeth. His home was some distance away, and his fury accompanied him with every step. As he went along, night overtook him, and his interior darkness grew deeper in his heart. Suddenly five black riders on equally black horses met him on the road, and the one who appeared to be their leader insolently spoke to him: “I have often urged you,” he said, “to enter my service and to come along with my followers, but now you will find it impossible to evade my authority.” He seemed to be Lord Romanus, who had frequently asked him to become his subject.

The priest was struck with a horrible fear and bound himself by feudal oath to the service of his lord. The priest said, “Are you not my Lord Romanus?” The other answered, “Not at all, I am the devil to whom you have just bound yourself by inseparable ties. Remain faithful in your fealty.” After this, the devil promptly disappeared.

Trembling at this encounter, the priest in horror and confusion arrived at his home, overwhelmed with fear. Shortly after, while I was present, he approached his bishop, whose name was Teuzo, and begged for a penance. He was at once deprived of his priestly rank. As the heat of summer was upon us and it was almost time for the harvest, I ordered that he be jailed and observe a Lenten fast of forty days; and I exhorted him that he should not despair of returning to good health. In this event we obviously see that an angry man, burning with a frenzy of unbridled fury, as Scripture says, is possessed by the devil.

St Peter Damian, Letter 80, 10-13; FoCMC 3 (1992) tr. Blum.

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIP BY ST AELRED

Jonathan, that most excellent young man, made a pact with David, but not in the hope of obtaining the royal crown nor in expectation of the kingdom. Making the servant equal to the master in friendship, he placed above himself the man who had been driven out by his father, who was hiding in the desert, condemned to death, marked out for execution. He humbled himself and exalted David. You shall be King, he said, and I shall be next to you.

What a marvellous example of real friendship! What a wonderful thing! The King was raging against his servant and stirring up the whole country as though against a rival for the kingdom. Out of mere suspicion he massacred priests, accusing them of treachery. He searched the forests, spied out the valleys, posted armed bands on the mountains and cliffs. All swore that they would avenge the King’s anger. Only Jonathan, who alone had the right to be envious, thought it right to resist his father, to give his friend news, to offer him advice in his great adversity, and preferring friendship to the kingdom he said: You shall be King, and I shall be next to you. Notice how the father tried to excite the envy of the young man against his friend, attacking him with insults, threatening to dispossess him of the kingdom, reminding him that he would be deprived of honour.

Even when Saul had issued the death sentence against David, Jonathan did not fail his friend. Why should David be put to death? What wrong has he done? He took his life in his hands and struck down the Philistine, and you rejoiced. Why, therefore, should he be put to death? At these words the King was driven mad. He sought to pin Jonathan to the wall with his spear, adding insults : You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, he said. Do I not know that you love him to your own shame and to the shame of your wanton mother? Then he poured out all his venom on the young man, adding a word to stimulate ambition and stir up envy, bigotry and jealousy: As long as the son of Jesse lives, your kingdom shall not be established.

Who would not be moved and made envious by these words? Whose love, whose esteem, whose friendship would they not corrupt, lessen and destroy? But that most devoted young man, keeping the oaths of friendship, was strong in the face of threats, patient before insults. Because of his friendship he despised the kingship and forgot the glory, but remembered the love. You shall be King, he said, and I shall be next to you.

This is true, perfect, enduring and eternal friendship which envy does not corrupt, nor suspicion lessen nor ambition dissolve. When thus put to the test it does not cease, thus assailed it does not fall in ruins. Although a prey to so much abuse, it is seen to be unyielding and remains unmoved when attacked by so many insults. Go, therefore, and do likewise.

St Aelred of Rievaulx, On Spiritual Friendship, 3; The Divine Office III.

Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 51 BY ST AUGUSTINE

While the holy man David was on the run from Saul’s persecution, he fled to a place where he thought he would be safe. He passed by the house of a priest named Ahimelech, and accepted loaves from him. In doing so he acted in the role not only of a king, but also of a priest, because he ate the Bread of the Presence which it was unlawful for anyone other than the priests to eat, as the Lord reminds us in the Gospel. Saul, when later he began to hunt him, was angry with his retainers because none of them was willing to betray David.

But there was a man present that day named Doeg, who was an Edomite and the principal herdsman in Saul’s service; he too had come to Ahimelech the priest. He was present again when Saul raged against his followers because none of them would betray David. Doeg revealed where he had seen him. Saul immediately sent for the priest and all his family to be brought before him, and ordered that they be killed. None of Saul’s entourage dared raise a hand against the priests of the Lord, even under orders from the King. But this Doeg, who betrayed David’s whereabouts, was like Judas; he persisted in bringing forth fruit from that same root even to the end, the kind of fruit typical of a rotten tree, and so at the King’s orders Doeg slew the priest and all his family.

Thus this man Doeg was the enemy of both David the King and Ahimelech the priest. Doeg was a single man, but he represents a whole class of men. Similarly David embodies both king and priest, like one man with a dual personality, though the human race is one. So, too, at the present time and in our world let us recognise these two groups of people, so that what we sing may profit us. Let us recognise Doeg still with us today, as we recognise the kingly and priestly body today.

Doeg is said to mean ‘movement’ and Edomite signifies ‘earthly’. You can see what kind of people this ‘movement’ symbolises: why expect heavenly fruit from an earthly man. To put it briefly, there is an earthly kingdom in this world today, but there is also a heavenly kingdom. For the present the citizens of both are thoroughly mixed together in this world. The heavenly kingdom groans and the citizens of the earthly kingdom surrounds it. And from time to time the earthly kingdom presses the citizens of the heavenly kingdom into service as the heavenly kingdom for its part also commandeers the citizens of the earthly kingdom. Christ showed up such people when he said, The scribes and Pharisees have taken their place on the chair of Moses; do what they tell you but do not imitate what they do, for they talk but they do not act accordingly. He says: ‘What they say belongs to David; what they do, to Doeg. Listen to me through them but beware of imitating them’. These two categories of people thus exist on earth today, and of them our psalm sings.

St Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 51.3-4; WSA (2001) tr. Boulding.

Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

Who could count all the almost innumerable patriarchs and holy men who have sought protection, so to speak, in lying – some in order to save their lives, some out of desire for a blessing, some out of mercy, some in order to conceal a mystery, some out of zeal for God, and some in probing the truth? Just as all of these cannot be numbered, so neither should they all be completely omitted.

What about Solomon, who received the gift of wisdom from God and who made his first judgment with the help of a lie? For, in order to elicit the truth that was hidden by a woman’s lie, he himself also made use of a very cleverly thought-out lie when he said: Bring me a sword, and cut the living infant in two pieces, and give half to one and half to the other. When this semblance of cruelty profoundly shook the real mother but was praised by the one who was not the mother, he at once, as a result of this most astute discovery of the truth, handed down the sentence that everyone believes was inspired by God: Give the living infant to this woman, he said, and do not let it be slain. This is its mother.

Further, we are taught at considerable length by other texts of Scripture, too, that we neither should nor can fulfil everything that we decide upon whether with tranquil or upset mind. In them we frequently read that holy men or angels or even Almighty God himself altered the things that they had promised. For blessed David determined with the promise of an oath and said: May God do this and add more to the enemies of David if, of all that belongs to Nabal, I leave one male until morning. But when his wife Abigail interceded and entreated on his behalf, he immediately ceased his threats, softened his words, and preferred to be considered a transgressor of his own intention than to be true to his oath by cruelly carrying it out, and he said: As the Lord lives, unless you had come quickly to meet me, there would not have been left to Nabal one male until the morning light. As we do not at all consider the promptness of his rash vow, which proceeded from an upset and disturbed mind, as something to be imitated, so likewise we judge that the cessation and correction of the thing that was decided on is to be pursued.

St John Cassian, Conference 17, 25.1, 4-5; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON DAVID AND SAUL OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Is that your voice, David my son? What a sudden change! He who could never even bear to call him by his name, so much did he detest it, now adopts him into his family, calling him his son! What could surpass the happiness of this prophet, who in an instant could so transform his enemy as to draw cries of lamentation from him who was thirsting for blood and slaughter?

The fact that David did not plunge his sword into his enemy or cut off his head is praiseworthy and most admirable, but he deserved to be rewarded even more for so changing his enemy’s dispositions, reforming him, and converting him to his own gentleness. The second service is greater than the first. There is no comparison between sparing a life and showing someone how to lead a good life. When an enraged man is bent on murder, it is one thing to save his life and another to free him from the passion that leads to such a crime. For when David prevented his bodyguard from killing Saul, he rendered him a service for this present life, but by expelling evil from his soul by the gentleness of his words he gave him, as far as he was able, the future life and eternal blessings. Therefore, when you praise David for his gentleness, praise him even more for the change he brought about in Saul.

And when your enemy falls into your hands, do not consider how you can pay him back and let him feel the sharp edge of your tongue before sending him packing; consider rather how you can heal him and restore him to a better frame of mind. Continue to make every effort by both word and deed until your gentleness has overcome his aggressiveness. Nothing has more power than gentleness. As someone has said: A soft word will break bones. And what is harder than bone? Well then, even if someone is as hard and inflexible as that, he will be conquered if you treat him gently. There is another saying: A soft answer turns away wrath. It is obvious, therefore, that whether your enemy continues to rage or whether he is reconciled depends much more on you than on him. For it rests with us, not with those who are angry, either to destroy their anger or to inflame it.

St John Chrysostom, De David et Saule, 3.6-7 (Bareille 8.513, 517-8); Word in Season V.

Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL BY ORIGEN

Who, after departing from this life, would care to be under the control of a demon? This would seem to be the case if a necromancer could summon up, not just any believer, but the prophet Samuel. Given this, some of our brothers doubt the Scriptures and say, “I do not believe the medium; when she says she has seen Samuel, she lies.” Why should Samuel be in hell? If Samuel is in hell, why not Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in hell?

I ask the person who says this: who is better, Samuel or Jesus Christ? No one who has once come to know that Jesus Christ is the Lord foretold by the prophets will dare to say that Christ is less than the prophets. So was Christ in hell or not? If you answer that Christ did descend into hell, what did he do: did he go to defeat death or be defeated by it? The Saviour descended in order to save. Did he descend there after being announced beforehand by the prophets, or not? On earth he was announced beforehand by the prophets, did he descend to this other place without making use of prophets? If Moses announced him here on earth, why do you not want him to descend there also – that he might prophesy Christ’s coming? Jesus came to be in hell, and the prophets were there before him. They were there to announce in advance the advent of Christ.

Why are you afraid to admit that every place has need of Jesus Christ? He who needs Christ also needs the prophets. If all the prophets descended into hell as forerunners of Christ, then it is clear that Samuel also descended there. He did not descend in the ordinary way, but he descended as a holy man. Whatever else a holy man is, he is holy. When prophets like Samuel descended to where the souls are below, they were below according to place, but not below according to their freedom.

Now I cannot allow a demon such great power to prophesy concerning Saul and the people of God, and about David’s kingship. Samuel never rejected the prophetic gift of grace, and St Paul teaches that the one prophesying builds up the Church. Who then was Samuel to build up? The angels did not need it. Israel here needed the prophet, but the Israel that had fallen asleep also needed prophets, so that the prophets might again proclaim to them the advent of Christ.

Before the advent of my Lord Jesus Christ, it was impossible for anyone to pass to the place of the tree of life, for he posted cherubim and a turning fiery sword to guard the way. Samuel could not pass, and Abraham could not pass. That was why Abraham was seen by the rich man who was being punished. There is therefore no stumbling block in this passage, but everything can be understood by those to whom God reveals the interpretation. And in addition, if we depart from this life without the burden of sin, we ourselves shall pass by the fiery sword and not descend to that place where those waited who had fallen asleep before Christ's coming. Neither the patriarchs nor the prophets could say what we can say, if we live well: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is better.

Origen, Homily 5 on I Samuel; (1998) tr. Trigg.

Season of the Year | Week 15

Sunday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY AND ITS WORKS BY RUPERT OF DEUTZ

David made this lamentation over Saul, and Jonathan his son: “Your glory, Israel, is slain upon your high places.” Who was it who mourned? One who was himself an anointed King, one in no way doubtful of his own election, one who knew that Saul’s death left the throne vacant for him, one who after being a fugitive could now return to his own land. This is innocence indeed, and wonderful freedom from ambition. In comparison with this it was a small thing that he had earlier spared Saul, saying, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing, to put forth my hand against the Lord's anointed; for he might have said that and yet longed all the while for Saul’s death. But now his conduct shows what was indeed in his heart, for he lamented, and by punishing the messenger who brought the news made sure that none of his followers should rejoice at it.

Over what did David grieve? Over this undoubtedly, that Saul who was the Lord’s anointed should have deserved by his pride to be cast out from the Lord’s presence, and that with him all Israel should have fallen before its enemies, as its mighty men were slain. This was matter for mourning indeed for a wise man who in his deep humility recognized in Saul's example a warning to himself.

This lament of David mysteriously sketches in advance the lament of the true David, Christ, who wept for the ruin of his people. Oh, if only you had known.... David wept for Saul and the fallen heroes of Israel; Christ wept for the human pride of the Jews, the misdirected fortitude of those who put their trust in their own righteousness rather than in the grace of God. As David wept, he commanded that the sons of Judah be taught his lament, so that the followers of Christ in their turn might not glory in their own merits but submit themselves to the grace of God.

The Israelites possessed true glory, but because God’s free gifts became for them a cause of pride they fell, and this especially though the fault of their priests. Wherefore it is said, O mountains of Gilboa, let there be no rain or dew upon you; you are proud and lifted high, and so you shall not receive the dew of the Holy Spirit, nor shall the words of life rain down upon you: I will command my Apostles to abandon you in your pride and to pour the rain of the Gospel upon the Gentiles. You will not be a field of first-fruits, nor an early harvest to be stored in heavenly granaries until the fullness of the nations is brought in. But when they have at last entered, a remnant among you shall be saved.

Rupert of Deutz, De sancta Trinitate et operibus eius (PL 167:1118-22);Word in Season V.

Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 51 BY ST AUGUSTINE

Saul was chosen as King by the Lord, but not with a view to permanence; he had been granted to the people at the request of their hard, stubborn hearts, and granted to them not because he was good for them but to teach them a lesson, as Scripture indicates when it says of God, He raised a hypocrite to royal rank because of the people’s perversity. Saul was a man of this character, so he kept on persecuting David. But in David God was foreshadowing a reign of eternal salvation, and he has chosen David to abide forever in his posterity.

Our King, the King of the ages, with whom we shall reign eternally, was descended from David according to the flesh. Now since God had chosen David, chosen him in advance and predestined him to be King, it was not God’s will that David should take possession of his kingdom until he had freed him from his persecutors. Such was the divine decision, so that in this respect David might prefigure us, the body of which Christ is the Head. Think about it: if even our Head willed to reign in heaven only after he had completed his travail on earth, and willed only by way of suffering to raise to glory the body he had received below, what business have the members to hope that they will be more fortunate than their Head? Let us not hope for an easier path; let us go where he went first, let us follow where he led. If we stray from the path he traced, we are lost.

So you see what was foreshadowed in David, and you see what was foreshadowed in Saul: a bad kingdom in Saul, a good kingdom in David; death in Saul, life in David. The only thing that really persecutes us is death: death over which we shall triumph in the end, demanding: O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For in dying Christ became death’s slayer, and death died in him rather than he in death.

Now the name itself is fraught with mysterious meaning: Saul is interpreted as ‘request’ and that implies desire for something. It can hardly be doubted that we brought death on ourselves, for death was born from the sin of man. It is true to say, then, that men themselves desired death, and so death’s name is also ‘request’. Scripture tells us, by deeds and words the godless invited death, and believing it to be their friend, they were submerged. They sank in the Red Sea by desiring it and rushed towards death thinking it their friend, just as the people thought they were getting a friend when they begged for a King who turned out to be their enemy. They begged a King from the Lord, and they were given Saul; they invited death and they were delivered into death’s hands: in getting Saul they found death. Why does the title of this psalm say ‘from the hands of Saul’? Because Christ has plucked us from hell and freed us from the clutches of death.

St Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 51.1-2; WSA (2001) tr. Boulding.

Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF MACARIUS

Mature Christians who are deemed worthy to attain perfection, and to come close to the King, are always consecrated to the Cross of Christ. As in prophetic times anointing was regarded as a most honourable rite, since kings and prophets were anointed, so now spiritual men are anointed with a heavenly unction and become Christians by grace so that they too may be kings, and prophets or heavenly mysteries. They are sons and lords and gods, bound, held captive, overwhelmed, crucified and consecrated.

Anointing with oil from a visible plant, a tree that could be seen, had such virtue that those anointed received an undisputed dignity, for this was the recognized way of appointing kings. David, for example, after his anointing, was immediately exposed to persecutions and afflictions, and then after seven years he became King. How much more, then, do those who are anointed in mind and heart with the sanctifying and cheering oil of gladness, the heavenly and spiritual unction, receive the seal of that kingdom of incorruptible and eternal power, namely the pledge of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit? And this Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete because of the encouragement and grace he gives to those who suffer.

Anointed with ointment from the tree of life, Jesus Christ, the heavenly plant, these men are counted worthy to attain perfection, to become kings and adopted sons of God, sharing in the secrets of the heavenly King and enjoying free access to the Almighty. Even while still in this world they enter his palace, the dwelling-place of the angels and the spirits of the Saints. For although they are not yet in possession of that perfect inheritance prepared for them in the age to come, they are as fully assured of it through the pledge they have received here on earth as though they were already crowned, already reigning.

Christians find nothing strange in the fact that they are destined to reign in the world to come, since they have known the mysteries of grace beforehand. When man transgressed the commandment, the devil shrouded the soul with a covering of darkness. But with the coming of grace the veil is entirely stripped away, so that with clear eyes the soul, now cleansed and restored to its true nature, which was created pure and blameless, ever clearly beholds the glory of the true light, the true Sun of Righteousness, brilliantly shining in its inmost being.

Macarian Homilies, 17.1-4 (PG 34:623-6); Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON ON PSALM 131 BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

I will not enter my house, nor will I go to bed; l will give myself no rest, nor allow myself to sleep, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the God of Jacob.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, whom the Prophet David foreshadowed, carried out as though under oath all the mysteries of human salvation. His principal work was to make men, once instructed in divine knowledge, into worthy dwelling-places for God. We are taught that the human person is the seat and dwelling-place of God, for God himself says through the Prophet: I will dwell in their midst and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. The Apostle, too, says: You are the Temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Having assumed a body, therefore, the only-begotten Son of God swears that he and his human nature will not enter his house, that is, will not return to his heavenly dwelling-place, until he has found a place for the Lord in devout hearts.

Arise, Lord, and go to your resting-place, you and the Ark which you have sanctified – not the Ark of the Covenant, nor the Ark of the Law, but the Ark which you have sanctified. We recall that the Ark of the Covenant, containing the Stone Tablets, the Holy Writings, the Book of the Covenant, and the omer of Manna, was gold inside and out. But all these were types of the body which the Lord assumed and which contains the whole mystery of the Law. Now because of the presence of the divine Spirit and because of the way the flesh originated, this body is gold both within and without, for it is the Lord Jesus who is in the glory of the Father; it contains the everlasting Manna, for he is the living Bread; it preserves within itself the Tablets of the Covenant and the Book of the Law, for in him are the words of life. The Prophet prays, therefore, that this holy Ark may arise and go to rest along with the Lord, for according to the Gospels God the Father put his seal upon him.

The dignity of those who will sit upon thrones in the world to come is shown in the words: The Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his home. “This shall be my resting-place forever; here I have chosen to dwell.” He has chosen as his Zion the holy and heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the throng of believers who dwell in harmony, the souls sanctified by the Sacraments of the Church, for in these as in a rational and intelligent house, cleansed and made eternal by the glory of the resurrection, the rational and intelligent and unpolluted and ineffable eternal nature of the divinity takes its rest.

St Hilary of Poitiers, Sermon on Psalm 131 (CSEL 22:664-80); Word in Season V.

Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CITY OF GOD BY ST AUGUSTINE

The word of the Lord came to Nathan the Prophet, who was to convey it to the King. The Lord said: When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body; he shall build a house for my name, his family shall be faithful and his kingdom will be established forever in my sight.

Those who think that this magnificent promise was fulfilled in Solomon are greatly mistaken. They notice the words: He shall build me a house and think this refers to Solomon – for Solomon did indeed build the famous Temple – but they fail to mark the words: His family will be faithful, and his kingdom will be established forever in my sight. Let them notice, let them bear in mind how Solomon filled his house with foreign women who worshipped false gods and how they seduced the once wise King into the same idolatry and brought him low. On the other hand, let them not dare to suppose that God made a promise he had no intention of keeping, or that he was unable to foresee what Solomon and his house would be like. Nor should we ourselves doubt as if we had not seen these promises fulfilled in Christ our Lord, who, by physical descent, was of David’s family.

Of course there was even in Solomon some adumbration of the future. He built the Temple and there was peace in his time (the name Solomon means peace-maker), and at the beginning of his reign his life was most praiseworthy. But he did not manifest in his own person the one whom he foreshadowed and foretold, namely Christ the Lord. Therefore some things written of him are in fact prophecies of Christ, for holy Scripture, prophesying even by events, gives us in Solomon a symbol of what lay in the future. Clearly, therefore, there was in Solomon a certain foreshadowing of the truth manifested in Christ. For example, the boundaries of Solomon’s kingdom are well known, and yet, to select but one point, the psalm says: He shall reign from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. This we see fulfilled in Christ. His reign began at the river where, when he had been baptised and pointed out by John, his disciples acknowledged him not simply as Teacher but also as Lord.

The reason why Solomon began to reign during the lifetime of his father David (something not seen in any other King) was simply to show clearly that he was not the one referred to in the prophecy addressed to his father: When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body; and I will establish his kingdom. The coming of Jesus Christ was certainly after, indeed a long time after, the death of King David, to whom the promise was made that he was to come and build a house for God, not of wood and stones but of men. We rejoice that he has built such a house, for to it, that is to those who believe in Christ, the Apostle says: The Temple of God is holy, and you are that Temple.

St Augustine, The City of God, 17.8 (CSEL 48:570-72); Word in Season V.

Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 50 BY CASSIODORUS

Unto the end, a psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him after he had sinned with Bathsheba. It is worth examining this psalm a little more carefully, so that we may deserve to learn through the Lord’s kindness the deep mysteries of its power. Because the King and Prophet prostrated himself in making humble satisfaction, as the history of the Kings attests, and because he rebuked his sin and was not ashamed to confess it publicly, the most holy Fathers decreed that he was worthy to be honoured as a specially consecrated type. For blessed Jerome among others points out that Bathsheba manifested a type of the Church or of human flesh, and says that David bore the mark of Christ.

Just as Bathsheba when washing herself unclothed in the brook of Cedron delighted David and deserved to attain the royal embraces, and her husband was slain at the Prince’s command, so too the Church, the assembly of the faithful, once she has cleansed herself of the foulness of sins by the bath of sacred Baptism, is known to be joined to Christ the Lord. It was indeed appropriate in those days that the future mysteries of the Lord should be manifested by a deed of this kind, and that what men considered a blameworthy act should be shown to point in a spiritual sense to a great mystery. For God also ordered the Prophet Hosea to take a harlot to wife so that it might become clear that the Church of the Gentiles, befouled by its sins, would be cleansed by union with the Lord; as Paul says: All these things happened to them in figure.

I ask you, how great was the blessed man’s humility in acknowledging his fault when he showed such constancy in making satisfaction after he was pardoned? That sin of adultery is shown to have been foreign and uncharacteristic, since it was lamented with such concentration of mind. The sudden confession of the thief attracts us; we rejoice that Peter’s tears were quickly in evidence! But David with his more prolonged attempt to wipe away his sins afforded all men a chance to absolve themselves. He ensured that his tears, running down the faces of people who came after him, are dried with no lapse of time.

Let us note also the Prophet’s humility. An inner voice terrified his heart and he directed his anger at himself, for he knew that the rebuke by which he was blamed was just. Then that ruler over huge nations became his own harshest torturer, demanding from himself a punishment which he could scarcely have borne at another’s command. So he deserved absolution from the Lord because he did not defend his faults. It is in most joyful times that we must chiefly be on our guard against sins. When persecuted by Saul, he who had sinned in the security of his kingdom practised many virtues. We are instructed by this that we ought not to seek happiness in this world, since we make more progress in affliction and we sin more in good times.

Cassiodorus, Commentary on Psalm 50, 1-2; ACW (1990) tr. Walsh.

Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE APOLOGY FOR THE PROPHET DAVID BY ST AMBROSE

How many sins each of us commits every hour, yet people feel no need to confess their sins! By contrast, the great and mighty King David could not abide the awareness of his sin even for a moment, but immediately confessed it and with immense sorrow laid it before the Lord. Can you show me nowadays any wealthy and distinguished person who will not take it amiss if he or she is accused of some sin? Yet that renowned King, approved by so many divine oracles, was not displeased and angered at being charged by a private person with grave sin, but admitted it and sorrowfully lamented his guilt. The result was that his deep sorrow moved the Lord, so that Nathan could say: Because you have repented the Lord has taken away your sin. The King’s prompt pardon was proof of the depth of his repentance, since it could remove even an offence as heinous as his was.

Others, when reproached by priests, make their sin worse by trying to deny or defend it, so that when one might have expected a change of heart their guilt is actually increased. By contrast, when the Lord’s saints, who long to fight the holy combat to the finish and to run the race of salvation, happen to fall through the frailty of human nature rather than from any inclination to sin, their sense of shame brings them to their feet again, more eager than ever to run the race; their energy is renewed for even harder struggles, so that their fall, far from being a hindrance, becomes the motive for an even speedier advance.

We can see another way in which sin can benefit us, and how it is providential that it surprised the saints. They are set before us as models, and therefore the Lord has seen to it that they too should sometimes fall; for if they had run their course untouched by faults despite the many hazards of this world, they would have made us who are weaker think of them as possessed of a higher and even superhuman nature that prevented them from sinning and sharing the experience of guilt. Such a view would deter those lacking this nature from imitating them, for they would regard it as impossible. The grace of God therefore passed them by momentarily, so that their lives might be models for us to follow, and we might learn from their actions not only to be blameless, but also to repent.

St Ambrose, Apologia prophetae David, 1.2, 5-7 (CSEL 32.2.301-3); Word in Season V.

Season of the Year | Week 16

Sunday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE INSTITUTES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

True, we have the healthy instinct of anger given us for a valid reason, for which alone it is useful and healthy to feel anger. This is when we are aroused to combat the evil passions of our own hearts, and are indignant that our secret thoughts turn to things which we would be ashamed to do or even speak of before men. In the presence of the angels, and in the sight of God who penetrates all things, we are afraid and tremble because nothing can remain hidden in our consciences.

Indeed we may be indignant at anger itself, when it grows against our brother, and we may angrily drive out its deadly urgings, allowing it no hidden foothold in the depths of our hearts. The Prophet teaches us to be angry in this sense, of driving anger out of his feelings so as not to desire retribution against his own enemies or those shown him by God, when he says, be angry and sin not. For when David longed for some water from the cistern in Bethlehem, and it was brought to him by the heroes through enemy lines, he poured it out on the earth at once, offering it to the Lord to extinguish the passion of desire against which he was wrathful, refusing to indulge his yearnings. He said, May the Lord be good to me be-cause I have done this, for shall I drink the blood of these men who have brought it me, at the peril of their lives? And again when Shimei hurled stones and abuse at King David in his hearing, and his general Abishai the son of Zeruiah wanted to avenge the insult to the King by cutting off his head, the holy David was greatly indignant against his evil suggestion, and preserved his humility and patience unperturbed, mildly saying, What does it matter to me and you, son of Zeruiah? Let him curse, if the Lord has told him to curse David. See, my own son, the fruit of my loins, seeks my life; how much more this son of Benjamin! Leave him, let him curse at the Lord’s command – perchance the Lord will look upon my affliction and render me good in return for the curses of today.

We are therefore commanded to be angry in a right sense, against our own selves and the evil thoughts that occur to us, and not to sin, that is not to let them come to effect. St Paul too quotes this verse as a witness, Be angry and sin not, saying, Let not the sun go down upon your anger, and give no place to the devil. If it is evil to let the sun set on our anger, and anger gives the devil immediate entrance into our hearts, how are we previously commanded to anger when it says Be ye angry and sin not? Does it not clearly mean to be angry with your vices and your wrath, lest Christ the Sun of Righteousness begin to set with your connivance because of the anger which darkens your minds, until with his departure you make space for the devil in your hearts?

St John Cassian, Institutes, 8.7-9; ACW 58 (2000) tr. Ramsey.

Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON PSALM 7 BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Has any of you defrauded another? It is yourself you have ruined. Such an action often turns to the profit of its victim, but its perpetrator has lost his own soul. Has any of you injured another? You have run a sword through yourself. For it is not by being maltreated but by maltreating others that one suffers the most harm. That is why Paul urged us to endure injuries rather than cause them; and Christ told us not to return blow for blow, but to submit to ill-treatment. To do so is a sign of great strength, it accustoms us to patient endurance, it makes the soul strong and raises it above its passions. For those who injure others, whether by striking or insulting them, first fall victim to passion themselves and become its slaves; they then seem to be causing injury to their neighbours, but they themselves have suffered a greater injury and are reduced to the worst kind of servitude.

His mischief will recoil on himself, his wickedness come down on his own head. Commentators say this refers to Ahithophel and Absalom, for the heads of both suffered punishment. The first hanged himself; the second was caught up by his hair as he rode under a tree, and he hung there for a long time. And Judas also hanged himself, knowing that his crime had brought evil on his own head. It was the same with Ahithophel; when he saw that David would certainly come off best he hanged himself. As for Absalom, his hanging was against his will and he was not killed immediately, but appeared to be suspended and fixed to the tree awaiting judgment. By the judgment of God he remained hanging there for a long time, while his conscience added to his torments. He had longed to plunge his sword into his father’s throat; but even so his father urged his soldiers to spare him, and was so devoid of vainglory as even to lament his son’s death. And to make you understand that what happened to Absalom was not the result of human zeal but entirely a divine judgment, it was his own hair and a tree that bound him, and a beast of burden that delivered him up; his own hair was his rope, the tree was the beam from which he hung, and it was not a soldier but a mule that brought him to this.

St John Chrysostom, Homily on Psalm 7 (Bareille 9:41-2); Word in Season V.

Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

Saul offered sacrifice on one occasion, not having a commission; this was a sin; yet what was his excuse? – a very fair one. Samuel had promised to come to offer the sacrifice, and did not. Saul waited some days, the people grew discouraged, his army fell off, and the enemy was at hand – so, as he says, he “forced himself”.

Such is the conduct of insincere people in difficulty. Perhaps their difficulty may be a real one; but in this they differ from the sincere – the latter seek God in their difficulty, feeling that he only who imposes it can remove it; but insincere men do not like to go to God; and to them the difficulty is only so much gain, for it gives them an apparent reason, a sort of excuse, for not going by God’s rule, but for deciding in their own way. When Hezekiah was in trouble, he took the letter of Sennacherib, and went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And in like manner holy David, after he had sinned in numbering the people, and was told to choose between three punishments offered him, showed the same honest and simple-hearted devotion in choosing that of the three which might be the most exactly called falling into the Lord’s hands. If he must suffer, let the Lord chastise him – I am in a great strait, he says; let us fall now into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hands of men.

Great, then, is the difference between sincere and insincere Christians, however like their words may be to each other. Everyone, even after the gift of God’s grace, sins: God's true servants profess and sin – sin and are sorry; and hypocrites profess and sin – sin and are sorry. Thus the two parties look like each other. But the word of God discriminates one from the other by this test – that Christ dwells in the conscience of one, not of the other; that the one opens his heart to God, the other does not; the one views almighty God only as an accidental guest, the other as Lord and owner of all that he is; the one admits him as if for a night, or some stated season, the other gives himself over to God, and considers himself God's servant and instrument now and forever.

Not more different is the intimacy of friends from mere acquaintances; not more different is it to know a person in society, to be courteous and obliging to him, to interchange civilities, from opening one’s heart to another, admitting him into it, seeing into his, loving him, and living in him, than the external worship of hypocrites from the inward devotion of true faith; approaching God with the lips, from believing in him with the heart; so opening to the Spirit that he opens to us, from so living to self as to exclude the light of heaven.

Ven. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 5:232-4; Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON ON PSALM 126 BY ST AUGUSTINE

Solomon had built a Temple for the Lord that was a type and figure of the future Church and of the Lord’s body. That is why the Lord says in the Gospel: Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Since Solomon had built that Temple, Jesus Christ, the true Solomon, the true man of peace, also built a Temple for himself.

The name ‘Solomon’ means ‘man of peace’; but the true man of peace is he of whom the Apostle says: He is our peace, who made the two one. He is the true man of peace who united in himself as their cornerstone the two walls coming from different directions – the believers coming from the Jews and the believers coming from the Gentiles. Out of these two peoples he made a single Church with himself as its cornerstone; that is why he is the true man of peace.

Since, then, he is the true Solomon and since the earlier Solomon, David’s son by Bathsheba and King of Israel, simply prefigured this true man of peace when he built a Temple, do not think that Solomon was the real builder of God’s house, for Scripture shows

you a different Solomon at the beginning of the psalm: unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain. It is the Lord, then, who builds the house; the Lord Jesus Christ builds his own house. Many labour to build it, but if he does not build it, its builders labour in vain.

Who are the labourers engaged on the building? All those in the Church who preach the word of God, and all the ministers of God’s Sacraments. We all run, we all toil, we are all building in our own day; and before us others have run and toiled and built. But unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain. We speak to the outer ear: he builds within. We notice whether you are listening, but only he who sees your thoughts knows what you are thinking. He builds, he teaches, he frightens; he opens your minds and draws your thoughts toward faith.

The house of God is also a city. For the house of God is God’s people; and because they are God’s house, they are his Temple. What does the Apostle say? The Temple of God is holy, and you are that Temple. All believers form the house of God, not only those now living, but those who came before us and have fallen asleep, and those who will come after us, who from now until the end of time await their birth among mankind – believers gathered into unity, countless in number, though the Lord has counted them, for the Apostle says of them: The Lord knows his own. The grains now groaning amid the chaff, grains which will form a single mass when the threshing floor is winnowed at the end; all the holy believers who are to be taken from mankind to be the equals and companions of God’s angels, who are not pilgrims now but await us when we return from our pilgrimage – all these together form a single house of God and a single city.

St Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 126.2-3 (CSEL 40:1857-8); Word in Season V.

Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

In many ways King Solomon can be taken as a type of the true King – in the many ways, that is, in which the nobler aspect of his character are portrayed in holy Scripture. For he is said to have been a man of peace; he built the Temple; he possessed inexhaustible wisdom; he ruled over Israel and judged the people justly, and he was of David’s line. Then there was the Ethiopian Queen who came to visit him. All these things we are told about Solomon, and others like them, were symbols portraying in advance the characteristics of the Gospel.

For who was such a man of peace as he who destroyed enmity, nailing it to the Cross, he who reconciled us who were his enemies, or rather, the whole world to himself, breaking down the barrier of hostility between Jew and Gentile so as to make from the two a single new man in himself? So he made peace, and proclaimed peace to those far off and those near at hand through the preachers of the Gospel. Who can so justly be called the builder of the Temple as he who laid its foundations on the holy hills, that is on the Prophets and Apostles – building, as the Apostle says, on the foundations of the Apostles and Prophets living stones who draw their life from him and who move of their own accord to form solid walls, so that joined in the unity of faith and the bond of peace, they grow into a holy Temple and become a spiritual dwelling-place for God?

That Solomon by his wisdom points to the true Wisdom no one who has a regard for historical truth can deny. That the Lord was King of Israel even his enemies admitted, for the inscription on the Cross: This is the King of the Jews, acknowledged his kingship.

Solomon’s zeal for just judgment signifies the true Judge of the whole world, who said, The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son; and, I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just. For the best rule for forming a just judgment is not to decide the case of the accused according to one’s own preconceived ideas, but to record one’s verdict only after listening to the evidence. The power of God confesses there are certain things it cannot do, because truth has no power to override justice and falsify judgment.

Who does not know that the Church of the Gentiles, before it became a Church, was blackened by idolatry, and during a long period of ignorance dwelt far from knowledge of the true God? But with the revelation of the grace of God and the dawn of Wisdom, when the true light cast its rays upon those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, then the Ethiopians, that is those from among the Gentiles who came to the faith, who had once been far off, drew near, and the blackness of their sins was washed away in the sacramental water. Thus Ethiopia stretched out her hands to God and offered gifts to the King: the spices of devotion, the gold of her knowledge of God, and the precious stones of her obedience to God’s commands and her pursuit of virtue.

St Gregory of Nyssa, Commentary on the Song of Songs, 7 (Jaeger 6:201-5); Word in Season V.

Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

The King’s wisdom which had been given him by God’s favour is wonderfully highlighted in this judgment between the two women who were quarrelling over a baby son. It was only right and proper to judge none to be the mother of the child but the one who in a manner of speaking conceived him a second time when she realised he had been taken from her. But, since the divine books of the Old Testament normally provide not only a faithful record of past events but also an intimation of the mysteries to be revealed in future ones, we should consider whether this passage of Scripture is pointing in these two women to something else represented and symbolised by them.

The first idea that occurs to me on consideration is that the two women are the Synagogue and the Church. For the Synagogue is convicted of having killed Christ her son, born of the Jews according to the flesh, in her sleep; that is, by following the light of this present life and not perceiving the revelation of trust in the sayings of the Lord. That they were two and that they were alone, living in one house, may be taken to mean without being far-fetched that besides the circumcision and the uncircumcision there is no other kind of religion to be found in this world.

But they were both harlots. Well, the Apostle says that Jews and Greeks are all under sin. Every soul which forsakes eternal truth for base earthly pleasures is whoring away from the Lord. Now about the Church that comes from the whoredom of the Gentiles, it is clear that it did not kill Christ. But we have to think about how it too may be the mother of Christ. Pay attention to the Gospel and listen to what the Lord says: Whoever does the will of my Father, this is my mother and brother and sister.

Again, I see these two women in one house as representing two kinds of people in one Church: one of them dominated by insincerity, the other ruled by charity. Insincerity, of course deceitfully imitates love. That’s why the Apostle warns us against her when he says, Let love be without insincerity. Although the two live in one house as long as that gospel net is in the sea, enclosing good and bad fish together until it is brought ashore, yet each is doing her own thing. They were both harlots, though, because everyone is converted to the grace of God from worldly desires, and nobody can properly boast about any prior justice and its merits. A harlot’s committing fornication is her own doing; her having a son is God’s.

But if a harlot is willing to have the child she has conceived, and is not driven by lust or avaricious concern for her shameful earnings to take an abortifacient and eliminate what she has conceived from her womb, in case her fertility should interfere with her sinning; then the appetite which had been dissipated among a great many is now concentrated on the one gift of God, and will no longer be called greed, but love. So the harlot’s son is rightly understood as representing the sinner’s grace; the new creature born of the old shame is the forgiveness of sins.

St Augustine, Sermon 10,1-2, 5; WSA (1990) tr. Hill.

Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

In order to indicate that the possibility for good lay in them, the Lord said when he rebuked the Pharisees: Why do you not of yourselves judge what is just? He certainly would not have said this to them if he had not known that they could discern what was correct by natural judgment.

Therefore, we must be on the watch lest we attribute all the good works of holy men to the Lord in such a way that we ascribe nothing but what is bad and perverse to human nature. Herein, indeed, we are refuted by the testimony of the most wise Solomon, or rather by that of the Lord, whose words these are. For when the building of the Temple was finished, he prayed and said: David my father wished to build a house to the name of the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said to David my father: You have done well to think in your heart about building a house to my name, and to reflect on this in your mind. But you shall not build a house to my name. Should it be said, then, that this thought and this reflection of King David was good and from God or bad and from man? For if this thought was good and was from God, why was its being brought to fulfilment denied by the one by whom it was inspired? But if it was bad and was from man, why was it praised by the Lord? It remains, then, that it should be believed to be both good and from man.

This is the way that we too can judge our daily thoughts. For it was not given to David alone to think good of himself, nor is it denied us by nature ever to perceive or to think what is good. It cannot be doubted, therefore, that the seeds of virtue exist in every soul, having been placed there by the kindness of the Creator. But unless they have been germinated by the help of God they will not be able to increase in perfection, because, according to the blessed Apostle, neither is the one who plants anything, nor the one who waters, but God who gives the increase. The book entitled The Shepherd also teaches very clearly that freedom of will is at a man’ s disposal to a certain degree. In it two angels – good and bad – are said to be attached to each one of us; but it is up to the man to choose which to follow.

Consequently there always remains in man a free will that can either neglect or love the grace of God. For the Apostle would not have commanded and said: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, if he had not known that it could be either tended or neglected by us. But lest they believe that they do not stand in need of the divine help for the work of salvation, he adds: It is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish, for the sake of his good pleasure.

And so the grace of God always works together with our will on behalf of the good, helping it in everything and protecting and defending it, so that sometimes it even demands and expects from it certain efforts of a good will, lest it seem to bestow its gifts wholly on one who is asleep. But the grace of God nonetheless remains free, since with inestimable generosity it confers on meagre and small efforts such immortal glory and such gifts of everlasting blessedness.

St John Cassian, Conferences 13.12.5-8, 13.1; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Season of the Year | Week 17

Sunday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE HOLY TRINITY BY RUPERT OF DEUTZ

Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the sight of the assembly of Israel, and raising his hands to heaven he said: “Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you.”

The true Solomon, Christ the King, at the dedication of his Temple, which he consecrated by his physical suffering, stood before the altar of the Lord, before the eyes of the Father, before the sacrificial table of the Cross, and prayed. Indeed, he even cried out in a loud voice: During his earthly life, the Apostle says, he offered prayers and petitions, with a loud cry and tears, to him who could save him, and he was heard because of his reverence. And there is indeed no doubt that when he was actually hanging on the Cross he uttered a loud cry; but since the cry of the heart is audible to God alone, he had a short time before expressed in words what his cry would be and why he who was both Priest and saving Victim would ascend the Cross. For having raised his eyes to heaven, he said: Holy Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

There is one passage in this prayer of Solomon that I cannot pass over. He says among other things: When foreigners, who are not of your people Israel, come from a distant land because of your name (for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your arm that reaches everywhere) – when they come and pray in this place, hear in heaven your dwelling-place, and do everything the foreigners ask of you.

In their inner meaning these are the words of our Lord, for in the prayer already quoted he says: Holy Father, keep in your name those whom you have given to me. I do not pray for them alone but for all who will believe in me because of their words. He knew that because of his Passion people everywhere would hear of the Father’s great name and mighty hand and arm that reaches everywhere, and that when we foreigners, who did not belong to the people of Israel, had heard, we would come to him from a distant land and bow down to worship him, the holy Temple, professing our faith in his name.

Rupert of Deutz, De sancta Trinitate et operibus eius, 24 (CCCM 22:1331-2); Word in Season V.

Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM HOLY PAGANS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT BY JEAN DANIÉLOU

In a mysterious passage of the Gospel, Christ shows us the Queen of Sheba glorified, in the day of the great assizes of the Judgment, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, while the sons of Abraham are condemned because they rejected him who is greater than Solomon. We are justified from this in regarding the Queen of Sheba, side by side with Enoch and Melchisedek, as a saint of the cosmic religion. She is a stranger to the revelation of Israel and her religion was that of the Arabs of Yemen, where the kingdom of Sheba was situated, a country of gold and spices.

It was the quest of divine Wisdom that had from the first led the Queen of Sheba across the desert routes. Does this mean to say that she was converted to the God of Israel? There is nothing to tell us this was the case. She was already worshipping the true God through the medium of his revelation in the world and in her conscience. She paid tribute to a more perfect revelation in Solomon, but stayed at the level of revelation which was hers. In the same way Melchisedek, priest of the Most High God, paid tribute to a new covenant in Abraham, but remained a priest according to his own order. So too with Saint John the Baptist who bows to the coming of a still more wonderful order of things, but remains in his own, less than the least of the children of the Kingdom.

Thus the Old Testament gives us in the Queen of Sheba a model of the right-minded pagans who are sincere in their search for God. But it remained for the New Testament and Christian tradition to draw all the conclusions that follow. The Queen of the south shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon is here.

A primary meaning of this text is that the Kingdom of God is not the privilege of the Jews, but that all the peoples of the earth are called to it. The Queen of Sheba coming to Jerusalem to adore, her caravan loaded with gold and spices, thus stands as a mystical anticipation of the entry of the Gentiles into the Church.

The next thing that Christ’s word teaches us is that not only have all the peoples to be called one day to the Kingdom, but that the pagans who have sought wisdom are already the children of the Kingdom. The Queen of Sheba is not, in fact, considered by Christ historically, as a simple prefiguration, but is shown to us in the future, on the day of resurrection, sharing the glory of the Saints. In this way Christ testifies to the fact that the pagans who have sought for God in sincerity of heart belong to his Church, by what theology calls the baptism of desire, and form part of the elect.

Jean Daniélou, Holy Pagans of the Old Testament, 122-5; Word in Season V.

Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL BY ST JOHN OF THE CROSS

Desires blind the soul and leave it in the dark. As fog darkens the air and keeps the bright sun from shining through, or as a mirror with spots on it cannot receive a clear image of the face, or muddy water reflect the face of one who looks in it, so also the understanding of the soul in the grip of desire is so clouded that neither the light of the sun of natural reason nor that of the wisdom of God can penetrate to it.

If only people realised what a great blessing is the divine light, of which the blindness caused by their inclinations and desires deprives them! You should not trust the good understanding and the gifts you have from God so far as to think that indulging your inclinations and desires would not blind you and leave you in the dark, and little by little ruin you.

Who would have said that a man as wise and highly gifted by God as Solomon would be reduced to such blindness and weakness of will as to raise altars to all those idols – and adore them himself in his old age? And no more was needed to bring him to this than the affection he had for his women, and his failure to deny his desires and the delights of his heart. For he said of himself in Ecclesiastes that he did not refuse his heart anything it asked. To be sure, he was a man of prudence at the outset; but he was capable of being so completely carried away by his passions that, because of his failure to resist them, little by little they blinded him and clouded his understanding; so much so that in the end they extinguished the great light of wisdom which God had given him; and in his old age he abandoned God.

And if unmortified desires could have such an effect upon this man possessed of such great powers of discrimination between good and evil, what may they not do to us in our ignorance? For we, as God said of the Ninevites to the Prophet Jonah, cannot tell our left hand from our right, and at every step take evil for good and good for evil when left to our own devices. What results, then, if unrestrained desire is added to our natural darkness is that, as Isaiah says: We grope like blind men touching a wall, and feel our way with unseeing eyes; we stumble at midday as if in the dark. Men blinded by desire, though surrounded by truth and by what is good for them, can no more see it than if they were in the dark.

St John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 8; Word in Season V.

Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD BY ST BASIL OF CAESAREA

Thanks to the kindness and mercy of the good God shown in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit, I was delivered from the deceitfulness of the tradition of those outside, having been brought up from the very beginning by Christian parents. From childhood they taught me the Holy Scriptures which led me to a knowledge of the truth. When I became a man, being often away from home engaged in the arts and branches of knowledge, I noticed the great harmony among those who made an exact study of each of these. But in the Church of God alone, for which Christ died and on which he poured out the Holy Spirit richly, I saw a great discord among men, both in their relations with one another and in their views about the divine Scripture. And what was most horrible of all, I saw its very leaders differing so much from one another in sentiment and opinion that now was fulfilled the saying, from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

Wondering what was the cause of so great an evil, after living for a time in profound darkness, I remembered the Book of Judges which tells how each did what was right in his own eyes and gives the reason saying, In those days there was no King in Israel. I then considered the present situation, that perhaps even now, because of the neglect of the one great true and only King and God of all, each man deserts the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and, arbitrarily claiming the right to definitions of his own, wishes to rule over the Lord rather than be ruled by him. I became all the more convinced, even from secular affairs, that this cause was the true one. For I beheld on the one hand the good order of the multitude that prevails as long as the common obedience of the others towards a single head is preserved; and on the other hand all the disagreement and division, and even mob rule, which proceeds from lack of obedience to rulers.

I once saw a swarm of bees flying in military formation according to the law of their nature and following their King in good order. Those who have studied these matters know still more examples, so that from investigation what I have said is shown to be true. For if those who obey one command and have one King are characterised by good order and agreement, then all discord and division is a sign that there is no one to rule. In the same way such disagreements regarding both the commandments of the Lord and one another, if found in our midst, lay us open to the accusation that we have either deserted our true King or denied him.

St Basil of Caesarea, De Iudicio Dei (PG 31:213E-215A); tr. Clarke (1925).

Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

That Jeroboam was an instrument in God’s hand to chastise Solomon’s sin is plain; and there is no difficulty in conceiving how a wicked man, without its being any excuse to him, still may bring about the divine purposes. But in Jeroboam’s particular case there is this difficulty at first sight: that almighty God had seemed to sanction his act by promising him, in Solomon’s lifetime, the kingdom of the ten tribes. The Prophet Ahijah had met him, and delivered to him a message from the Lord, the God of Israel. I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to you. And it was on account of this prophecy that Jeroboam lifted up his hand against the King.

On a little consideration, however, we shall find no difficulty here: for though almighty God promised him the kingdom, he did not tell him to gain it for himself; and, if we must not do evil that good may come, surely we may not do evil that a promise may be fulfilled; and to rebel against his lord (in the words of Scripture) was a plain indisputable sin. God, who made the promise, could course fulfil it in his own time. He did not require man’s crime to bring it about. It was, of course, an insult to his holiness and power to suppose he did. Jeroboam ought to have waited patiently God’s time; this would have been the part of true faith. Israel never would be still and know that he was God, wait for his word and follow his guidance. And Jeroboam, in this instance, as a special emblem of the whole people in the rebellion itself, had not patience to wait, and faith to trust God, that what he had promised he was able also to perform. Had he withstood the temptation, and restrained himself till lawfully called to reign, untold blessings might have been showered on him and on his people who, in the actual history, were all cut off for their sins.

Jeroboam, then, is not excused, though Ahijah prophesied; but next, let us inquire how he acted when at length seated on the throne. It is not surprising, after such a beginning, that he sinned further and more grievously. When a man begins to do wrong, he cannot answer for himself how far he may be carried on. For a while, indeed, he seemed to prosper, but soon a difficulty arose which he had thought light of, if he thought of it at all. The Jewish nation was not only a kingdom, but a church, a religious as well as a political body; and Jeroboam found, before long, that in setting up a new kingdom in Israel, he must set up a new religion too.

Here, then, a second false step was necessary to complete the first. He, doubtless, argued that he was obliged to do what he did, that he could not help himself. It is true – sin is a hard master; once sold over to it, we cannot break our chain; one evil concession requires another. In consequence of these impious proceedings, not only the Priests and Levites, that were in Israel, left his kingdom and retired to Judea, but also, after them, out of all the other tribes, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers.

Ven. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 3. 65-68, 71; Word in Season V.

Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST CHROMATIUS OF AQUILEIA

Elijah was sent to a widow in the Sidonian village of Zarephath to give her food and save her from starving. Let us consider how perfectly this woman prefigures the Church. Before Elijah came to her, she and her children were suffering from hunger. Undoubtedly she suffered also from the worst kind of hunger, because Christ the bread of life had not yet descended from heaven; the Word of God had not yet taken a body from the Virgin. Listen to the Prophet’s saying: I shall send famine on the land; not hunger for bread or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord. Any who suffer hunger for lack of the divine word do indeed risk dying of starvation. There is a great difference between being deprived of earthly bread and being deprived of the divine word. Lack of earthly bread can kill only the body, but lack of the divine word ruins the soul as well as killing the body. Unsatisfied hunger for earthly bread removes us from this present life; but unsatisfied hunger for the divine word excludes us from eternal life. Such was the peril faced by the Church before she received Christ, but when she received him she escaped the danger of everlasting death.

Before the coming of Christ, this woman did indeed have a little flour and oil, that is, the teaching of the Law and the Prophets, but that could not have saved her if the grace of Christ had not fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. Hence the Lord’s saying in the Gospel: I have come not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfil them. The Law and the Prophets were powerless to save us from death, except through the Passion of Christ. So it was that when the Church received Christ, flour, oil, and wood began to abound; flour signifying the bread of the word; oil the gift of divine mercy; and wood the mystery of the venerable Cross through which the heavenly rain is given to us. For this is what Elijah says to the woman: You shall not lack flour or oil until the Lord brings rain upon the land. Our Lord and Saviour brought us rain from heaven, that is, the teaching of the Gospel, and by it he refreshed human hearts, dry as a thirsty land, with the waters of eternal life.

St Chromatius of Aquileia, Sermon 25, 5-6 (SC 164:84-88); Word in Season V.

Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

The sacrifice offered by the old Tishbite, wonderful and beyond all human understanding, what was it but a prophecy of faith in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the redemption? When the whole Hebrew people had treated their ancestral religion with contempt, falling into the error of believing in many gods, and Ahab the King had been cajoled into idolatry because the hateful Jezebel, the utterly abominable teacher of wickedness, was the evil partner of his life, the Prophet, filled with spiritual grace, came to a meeting with Ahab; and then, with the King and all the people as witnesses, he confronted the priests of Baal in a marvellous and extraordinary contest.

His challenge to them to sacrifice a bull without fire showed them ridiculous and miserable, vainly praying and crying out to non-existent gods. At last he himself invoked his own true God, and with far greater additions to his original challenge brought the contest to a wonderful end. For he did not simply pray and bring down fire from heaven onto dry wood, but ordered his helpers to fetch him a great quantity of water. Three times he emptied the jars over the firewood, and then by prayer kindled fire from water. So did the natural opposition of the elements and their miraculous mingling in friendly cooperation show in an overwhelming manner the power of his own God.

Thus Elijah gave us a clear prophecy in that wonderful sacrifice of the institution that would come later of the Sacrament of Baptism. Fire was kindled by pouring water over wood three times, to show that where there is sacramental water there is also a kindling spirit with the warmth of fire, burning the wicked and illuminating the faithful.

St Gregory of Nyssa, On the Baptism of Christ (PG 46:592); Word in Season V.

Season of the Year | Week 18

Sunday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE GNOSTIC CHAPTERS OF ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

The meaning of Holy Scripture reveals itself gradually to the higher senses of the more discerning mind when the mind has put off the complex bodily form of the words which are formed in it. This revelation is like a still small voice. Through a supreme abandonment of its natural activities, such a mind has been able to perceive the meaning only in a simplicity which reveals the divine Word. This is the way that the great Elijah was granted the vision in the cave at Horeb.

For ‘Horeb’ means ‘newness’, which is our virtuous condition in the new spirit of grace. The cave is the hiddenness of spiritual wisdom in which the one who enters will mystically experience the knowledge which goes beyond the senses. This is the knowledge in which God is found. Therefore anyone who truly seeks God, as did the great Elijah, will come upon him not only on Horeb; that is, as an ascetic in the practice of the virtues. He will also encounter him in the cave of Horeb, that is as a contemplative in the hidden place of wisdom which can exist only in the habit of the virtues.

When the mind shakes off the many distractions about things which are pressing on it, then the clear meaning of truth appears and gives it pledges of genuine knowledge. These are given after it has driven off its recent preoccupations which were like scales on the eyes, just as in the case of the great and holy Apostle Paul. For thoughts about the mere letter of Scripture and the consideration of those visible things that hinder understanding are indeed scales which cling to the clear-sighted part of the soul and hinder the passage to the pure meaning of truth

St Maximus the Confessor, Gnostic Chapters 74-75; CWS (1985) tr. Berthold.

Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON KINGS BY ST RABANUS MAURUS

Jezebel sent letters to the elders and the nobles of the city, instructing them to bribe lying witnesses who would falsely testify against Naboth that he had cursed God and the King, and then bring him outside the city and stone him to death. In the same way the Synagogue in the person of the high priests, scribes, and Pharisees planned the death of Christ; as it is written in the gospel: The chief priests and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two false witnesses came forward with the assertion: “This man said: ‘I can destroy the Temple of God and in three days build it again.’”

Two lying witnesses falsely testified against Naboth that he had cursed God and the King. Similarly, the Jewish leaders used two lying witnesses to assert that Christ was ascribing to himself the power and nature of God. When Pilate said to them: “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no fault in him”, they answered: “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”

At the instigation of Jezebel, Naboth was stoned outside the city in order that after his death Ahab might take possession of his vineyard. So too our Saviour suffered outside the city, being crucified at the place called ‘The Skull’. With fanatical zeal the Synagogue pressed the people to demand his death, so that when he was gone they might live more securely. Taking counsel together, the Pharisees said: Look, the whole world is going after him; and, If we let him go on like this everyone will believe in him. So it was that Christ came into his inheritance, which is the Church drawn from all nations. It was left to him by his Father, though his Father did not die. In a wonderful way Christ acquired it himself by his own death, and took possession of it when he rose from the dead.

St Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Kings (PL 109:217-218); Word in Season VI.

Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

It is impossible for the mind not to be troubled by thoughts, but accepting them or rejecting them is possible for everyone who makes an effort. It is true that their origin does not in every respect depend on us, but it is equally true that their refusal or acceptance does depend on us. By saying that it is impossible for the mind not to be attacked by thoughts, however, we do not mean that this must be attributed to an invasion evil spirits. Otherwise there would be no free will in a man, nor would it be worthwhile trying to correct ourselves. Therefore we practise the frequent reading of and meditation on Scripture, so that we may be open to spiritual things; we frequently chant the psalms, so that we may continually grow in compunction; and we are diligent in vigils, fasting, and praying, so that the mind which has been stretched to its limits may not taste earthly things but contemplate heavenly ones.

Above all we should know what the three sources of our thoughts are: they come from God, from the devil, and from ourselves. They are from God when he visits us by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, which raises us up; when he chastens us with compunction when we have been lazy and been overcome; and when he opens to us the heavenly mysteries and changes our chosen orientation to better acts and a better will. This was the case when King Ahasuerus was chastised by the Lord and was moved to examine the annals, whereupon he remembered the good deeds of Mordechai, exalted him to the highest degree of honour, and immediately recalled his exceedingly cruel sentence concerning the killing of the Jewish people.

From the devil a whole series of thoughts is born, when he attempts to subvert us by delight in wickedness and hidden snares; by fraudulently passing off evil things for good; and by transforming himself for us into an angel of light. Thus it is said: When supper was finished and the devil had already put it in the heart of Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray the Lord. And: After the morsel, Satan entered into him. Peter also says to Ananias: Why has Satan tempted your heart, to lie to the Holy Spirit? An unclean spirit also says to God against Ahab in the Third Book of Kings: I will go out and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.

Thoughts also come from us, however, when we spontaneously remember things that we are doing or have done or have heard. Concerning such things the blessed David says: I thought of ancient days, and I kept the eternal years in mind, and I meditated. At night I was exercised in my heart, and I examined my spirit. Also in the Gospel the Lord say is to the Pharisees: Why do you think evil in your hearts?

We should, then, be continually aware of this threefold distinction and with a wise discretion examine all the thoughts that emerge in our heart, first tracing their origins and causes and their authors, so that, in accordance with the status of whoever is suggesting them, we may be able to consider how we should approach them.

St John Cassian, Conference 1; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ST JEROME'S LETTER OF CONSOLATION TO HELIODORUS ON THE DEATH OF HIS NEPHEW

I shudder when I think of the catastrophes of our time. For twenty years and more the blood of Romans has been shed daily between Constantinople and the Julian Alps. The Roman world is falling: yet we hold up our heads instead of bowing them. The East seemed to be immune from these dangers and was only dismayed by the news that reached her. But behold, last year the wolves were let loose upon us from the distant crags of the Caucasus, and in a short time overran whole provinces. How many monasteries did they capture, how many rivers were reddened with men’s blood!

But it is not my purpose to write a history: I only wish to shed a few tears over your troubles and mine. Happy is your nephew Nepotian, he neither sees these things nor hears them. We are unhappy for either we suffer ourselves or we see our brethren suffer. Yet we desire to go on living, and regard those beyond the reach of these evils as miserable rather than blessed. We have long felt that God is angry, yet we do not try to appease him. It is our sins which make the barbarians strong, it is our vices which bring defeat to the armies of Rome; and as if this were not enough of carnage, civil wars have spilt almost more blood than the enemy’s sword.

Miserable were the Israelites, in comparison with whom Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God: unhappy are we, who have so displeased God that his anger vents its fury on us by the barbarians’ mad attacks. Hezekiah repented, and one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians were destroyed by one angel in a night. Jehosaphat sang the praises of the Lord, and the Lord gave his worshippers the victory. Moses fought against Amalek, not with the sword but with prayer. If we wish to be lifted up, let us first prostrate ourselves. Shame on us who are too stupid for belief!

St Jerome, Letter 60; The Loeb Classical Library (1933).

Thursday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES TO THE PEOPLE OF ANTIOCH OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Who has ever lived in greater poverty than Elijah? And yet he outdid all the rich, since he had chosen his poverty, great as it was, because he was rich in spirit. He embraced such poverty because in his greatness of soul he considered all the things of this world beneath him, and unworthy compared to the truths of his religion. If he had valued such things he would not have been content to possess nothing but a cloak. He owned only one garment because he despised all worldly trumpery and had no more regard for gold than for the mud beneath his feet. That is why the king had need of this poor man, and why the possessor of so much gold hung on the words of one who had only a cloak: the cloak was more resplendent than the purple; the cave of the just man than the courts of kings. That is also why, when he ascended to heaven, he left his disciple nothing but his cloak. ‘With this,’ he said, ‘I wrestled with the devil; take it and it will also protect you against him.’ For poverty is a powerful weapon, an unconquerable shelter, an unassailable tower.

Elisha received the cloak as the most precious inheritance, and a precious inheritance it was indeed, worth more than any amount of gold. And thereafter there were two Elijahs, one in heaven and one on earth.

Now I know that you consider that righteous man blessed, and that all of you would like to resemble him. What then if I show you that all of us who participate in the holy mysteries have received a much greater gift than he did? Elijah left his disciple a cloak, but when the Son of God ascended to heaven he left us his body. Elijah took his cloak off, but Christ left us his body and also ascended with it. So let us not be downcast, or lament, or be afraid of difficult times; for what will he refuse to do for our salvation who did not refuse to shed his blood for all, and who gave us his body and blood again?

Trusting in this hope, then, let us call on him continually, and devote ourselves to prayer and intercession, while diligently practicing all the other virtues, that by so doing we may escape present dangers and obtain future blessings. May we all be deemed worthy of this by the grace and goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit through endless ages. Amen.

St John Chrysostom, Ad populo Antiochenum, homily 3.9; Word in Season VI.

Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE HOLY TRINITY BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ

Now bring me a minstrel, said Elisha. And when the minstrel played, the power of the Lord came upon Elisha, and he gave the command: “Dig many holes in this wadi; for this is what the Lord says: ‘You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this wadi shall be filled with water.’ Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Moab into your hands.” And that is what happened.

From one miracle of the man of God we may learn two lessons. The first is that the Spirit was not always present in the prophets. There was only one prophet, the great Lord of the prophets, from whom the Spirit was never absent, and this was his distinguishing mark: The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. For the man who says, Now bring me a minstrel, shows that the prophetic grace does not remain in him; he prepares himself for its coming by praying for it through the music of the minstrel.

Secondly, we learn from this how very effective is the sound of sweet music, accompanied by divine praise, for invoking the Holy Spirit. When the minstrel played, Scripture says, the power of the Lord came upon Elisha. For music has a certain power, an innate quality that moves the human spirit to its depths, and when suitably joined to words or thoughts of divine praise, it touches the heart and revives in people the grace of God’s Spirit which they have received. In the words of the most famous minstrel, speaking of what he well knew by experience: I opened my mouth, and drew the Spirit toward me.

Abbot Rupert of Deutz, De Sancta Trinitate 26 (CCLCM 22:1439-40) ; Word in Season VI.

Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY BASIL OF SELEUCIA

Let us consider why Elisha did not raise the Shunammite’s son from the dead by prayer, the way Peter raised Dorcas, but by placing himself full length on the boy’s dead body. Let us try to discover the symbolic meaning of Elisha and of the Shunammite’s dead son.

Elisha is a type of Christ; and the boy stands for the Gentile people, who were dead because of their sins. The spiritual Elisha came and found all his members dead, mouth, eyes, hands and feet – the whole body was dead. The mouth was dead that gave no praise to God, but said to a block of wood: You are my father; and to a stone: You have begotten me. The eyes were dead that did not turn toward the God of the universe, but worshiped the creation instead of the Creator. The hands were dead that made offerings to demons; the feet were dead that bent to worship the devil.

The whole body was rotten and in need of a mighty physician, one who could even raise the dead. The desired physician came, the spiritual Elisha, the Lord Christ, and he found the dead body. What did he do? He placed his whole being over the whole body. In other words, the whole fullness of his Godhead was clothed in the whole of our human nature: in him, as the Apostle says, the whole fullness of the divine nature dwelt embodied. He had eyes as men have, and hands and feet. It was no illusion that met the eyes: what they saw was real. For he did not lay claim to equality with God but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant: life wore a dead garment, to transform death into life’s own immortality.

When the Godhead came down into the body, all the body’s members were sanctified and transformed, so that henceforward they could be put to better use. The mouth was taught to say: Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. The eyes learned to praise God: The eyes of all creatures look to you, and you give them their food in due season. The hands, stretched out to God, praised their Lord: Lift up your hands in the holy place, and praise the Lord through the night, and, Let the lifting up of my hands be like an evening sacrifice. The feet standing in Church offered thanksgiving saying: Our feet were standing in your courts, O Jerusalem.

You may say, ‘You have told us how the outer members praise God; what of the inner members? Are they excused from service?’ By no means. The soul in its turn, with the inner members, cried out to the Lord: Bless the Lord, my soul, and let all that is within me bless his holy name.

Basil of Seleucia, Oratio 10 (PG 85:137-142); Word in Season VI

Season of the Year | Week 19

Sunday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE DIALOGUES OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT

As Benedict’s influence spread over the surrounding countryside because of his signs and wonders, a great number of men gathered around him to devote themselves to God’s service. Christ blessed his work and before long he had established twelve monasteries there, with an abbot and twelve monks in each of them. There were a few other monks whom he kept with him, as he felt that they still needed his personal guidance.

At one time a simple, sincere Goth came to Subiaco to become a monk, and blessed Benedict was very happy to admit him. One day he had him take a brush hook and clear away the briers from a place at the edge of the lake where a garden was to be planted. While the Goth was hard at work cutting down the thick brush, the iron blade slipped off the handle and flew into a very deep part of the lake, where there was no hope of recovering it.

At this the poor man ran trembling to Maurus and after describing the accident told him how sorry he was for his carelessness. Maurus in turn informed the servant of God, who on hearing what had happened went down to the lake, took the handle from the Goth and thrust it in the water. Immediately the iron blade rose from the bottom of the lake and slipped back on to the handle. Then he handed the tool back to the Goth and told him, ‘Continue with your work now. There is no need to be upset.’

Peter said: This whole account is really amazing. The water streaming from the rock reminds me of Moses, and the iron blade that rose from the bottom of the lake, of Elisha. The walking on the water recalls St Peter; the obedience of the raven, Elijah; and the grief at the death of an enemy, David. This man must have been filled with the spirit of all the just.

Gregory replied: actually, Peter, blessed Benedict possessed the Spirit of only one Person, the Saviour who fills the heart of all the faithful by granting them the fruits of his Redemption. For St John says of him, There is one who enlightens every soul born into the world; he was the true light. And again, Of his fullness we have all received. Holy men were never able to hand on to others the miraculous powers which they received from God. Our Saviour was the only one to give his followers the power to work signs and wonders, just as he alone could assure his enemies that he would give them the sign of the prophet Jonah. Seeing this sign fulfilled in his death, the proud looked on with scorn. The humble, who saw its complete fulfilment in his rising from the dead, turned to him with reverence and love. In this mystery, then, the proud beheld him dying in disgrace, while the humble witnessed his triumph over death.

St Gregory the Great, Dialogues II, 3.13, 6.1-2, 8.8-9; tr. Zimmerman & Avery.

Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON LUKE BY ST AMBROSE

There were many lepers in the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian. Clearly this saying of our Lord and Saviour teaches and exhorts us to be zealous in worshiping God; it shows that no one is healed and set free from a disfiguring illness without having earnestly striven for health by acts of piety. Divine blessings are not accorded to the somnolent, but to the persistent.

The Lord uses an apt comparison to deflate his envious townsmen and to show that his actions are in harmony with the ancient scriptures. We read in the Book of Kings that a Gentile called Naaman was cleansed of leprous spots by the word of a prophet, although leprosy of body and soul was carrying off many Israelites; in fact the history relates that the four men were lepers who, driven by hunger, were the first to enter the camp of the King of Syria. Why then did the prophet not cure his brothers, his compatriots and comrades, when he healed foreigners, men who did not observe the law or share his religion, if not because healing depends upon the will, not upon one’s nationality, and because the divine gift is gained by prayer, not granted as a birthright. Learn to ask for what you wish to obtain; heavenly blessings are not bestowed upon the proud.

A simple exposition can form a man’s moral attitude, without concealing the grace of the mystery; for as what follows comes from what precedes, so what precedes is confirmed by what follows. Rightly, therefore, was Naaman said to be greatly esteemed by his lord, and in high favour, for he foreshadowed the future salvation of the Gentiles. A devout slave-girl captured by the enemy when her country was defeated advised him to seek healing from a prophet; and he was healed not by order of an earthly King, but by the generous mercy of God.

What is the reason for the mysterious number of times he was required to immerse himself? Why was the river Jordan chosen? As Naaman said: Are not Abanna and Pharphar, the rivers of Damascus, better than the Jordan? Anger made him prefer those rivers, but reflection led him to choose the Jordan: wrath remains ignorant of the mystery, but faith understands it. Understand from this the saving grace of baptism: he entered the water a leper and came forth a believer. Recognise the symbol of the spiritual sacraments: Naaman sought healing for his body and won it for his soul. His flesh was bathed and his wrong dispositions were cleansed. In my view he was cleansed as much of the soul’s leprosy as the body’s, for after his baptism, when the impurities of his former false religion had been washed away, he declared that he would no longer offer sacrifices to alien gods, but promised them to the Lord.

St Ambrose, In Lucam, 4.49-50 (SC 45:170-171); Word in Season VI.

Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

Elijah thought himself solitary, though he was not so; the world invisible was hid from him. Though ministered to by angels, though sustained miraculously by almighty God, yet, like Saint John Baptist when he sent to ask Christ, Art thou he that should come, he seemed to himself one against many. But Elisha had the privilege of knowing that he was one of a great host who were fighting the Lord’s battles, though he might be solitary on earth.

To him was revealed in its measure the comfortable Christian doctrine of the communion of saints. His eyes were purged to see sights which the world could not see; and that so clearly, that he could even comfort his attendant, who felt that fear which had overtaken Elijah when he fled from Jezebel. Hear Elijah’s words – I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. On the other hand, when Elisha’s servant, on finding the host of the Syrians round about them, said to the prophet, Alas! my master, how shall we do? Elisha answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And then he besought almighty God to give to his servant for an instant a glimpse of that glorious vision which he in faith, or by inspiration, enjoyed continually. He prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

How well does this vision correspond to that blessed privilege which, as the Apostle assures us, is conferred upon us Christians! You are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel!

An innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of the just - we dwell under their shadow; we are baptized into their fellowship; we are allotted their guardianship; we are remembered, as we trust, in their prayers. We dwell in the very presence and court of God himself, and of his eternal Son, our Saviour, who died for us, and rose again, and now intercedes for us before the throne. We have privileges surely far greater than Elisha’s; but of the same kind. Angels are among us, and are powerful to do anything. And they do wonders for the believing, which the world knows nothing about. According to our faith, so it is done unto us. Only believe, all things are ours. We shall have clear and deeply-seated convictions in our minds of the reality of the invisible world, though we cannot communicate them to others, or explain how we come to have them.

Ven. John Henry Newman, Sermons on the Subjects of the Day, 170-171, 179: Word in Season VI

Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE DUTIES OF THE CLERGY BY ST AMBROSE

The prophet David taught us that we should go about in our heart as though in a large house; that we should converse with it as with some trusty companion. Scipio, therefore, was not the first to know that he was not alone when he was alone, or that he was least at leisure when he was at leisure. For Moses knew it before him, who, when silent, was crying out; who, when he stood at ease, was fighting, and not merely fighting but triumphing over enemies whom he had not come near. So much was he at ease, that others held up his hands Which is the most glorious, to bring a battle to an end by the strength of a great army, or by merits before God alone?

Elisha rested in one place while the King of Syria waged a great war against the people of our fathers; but the prophet found out all their preparations, and, being by the grace of God present everywhere in mental vigour, he told the thoughts of his enemies to his countrymen. And when this was made known to the King of Syria he sent an army and shut in the prophet. Elisha prayed and caused all of them to be struck with blindness and enter Samaria as captives.

Let us compare this leisure of his with that of others. Other men for the sake of rest are accustomed to withdraw their minds from business, and to retire from the company of men; to seek the retirement of the country or the solitude of the fields. But Elisha was ever active. In solitude he divided the river Jordan in passing over it. On Carmel he promised the woman that a son now unhoped for should be born to her. He raised the dead to life, he corrected the bitterness of the food, he made the iron head of the axe to swim by putting the wooden handle in the water. He changed leprosy for cleanness, drought for rain, famine for plenty.

When can the upright man be alone, since he is always with God? When is he ever left forsaken, he who is never separated from Christ? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I am confident that neither death nor life nor angel shall do so. For the upright man regards nothing but what is consistent and virtuous. And so although he seems poor to another, he is rich to himself, for his worth is taken not at the value of the things that are temporal, but of the things that are eternal.

St Ambrose: On the Duties of the Clergy 3.1; NPNF X (1989) tr. de Romestin.

Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST PETER DAMIAN

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee and, as the evangelist reports, Jesus with his disciples had been invited. In that wedding of former times, Jesus changed water into wine; but here at the spiritual wedding the same Jesus makes of himself wine and food. He becomes food because he is the living bread that comes down from heaven; he is the wine that cheers the heart of man. It is of his Spirit that it is said again, your cup makes one drunk, how goodly it is! The Spirit of God, indeed, inebriates the hearts of men, so that, like strangers to themselves, they might disdain the riches of this world – honour and glory – that they might burn with ardent desire to undergo all that is harsh and burdensome for the sake of God.

The Apostles were drunk with the new wine; the Jews, thinking them to be out of their minds and in a frenzy said, They have been drinking too much new wine. The man who belonged to the prophetic brotherhood, whom Elisha sent to anoint Jehu king, had also drunk of this new wine, and they who thought him crazy said to him, Why did this madman come to you? Why, then, should we wonder that men who are pure of heart and are filled with the Spirit of God should be judged insane by the wise of this world? They also said that the Lord of the angels himself was possessed by a devil and, what is more, as Mark the evangelist testifies, thought him to be a madman.

This inebriation of the Holy Spirit you, too, venerable lady, experienced with full control of your senses when you decided to leave the world: and spreading your wings like a simple dove, you flew to the nest of the innocent and guileless. This inebriation, too, has compelled you to despise your spacious and fertile lands, so rich in produce; to turn away from the fortified towers and defences of your castles; and, what is more important than all of these, to leave your only son, still in his youth, without the comfort of family ties. And you, who once moved in the company of a host of attendants, have now learned to reside humbly in the narrow confines of the monastery with holy women who are poor in spirit. And, that your conversion might appear that much more admirable, the world did not expel you, but the ardour of God’s Spirit alone attracted you.

St Peter Damian: Letter 66.3-5, to Countess Blanche, now a nun at Milan; FoCMC (1992) tr. Blum.

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE HOLY TRINITY AND ITS WORKS BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ

A flow of blood, in accord with the meaning of the name of Jezabel, began to pour out from her into Judah and Jerusalem, and right into the inner parts of the Temple of the Lord. This was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, who was the wife of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat King of Judah. And Jehoram killed all his brothers with the sword, as well as some of the leading men of the Kingdom. He walked in the ways of the Kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had acted, for Ahab's daughter was his wife, as we have said. Therefore his descendants are removed from the genealogy of Christ the Son of God up to the fourth generation. This is shown when it is said at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, and ,Iehoram begat Uzziah, for the three names Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah have been cut out of the list.

For just as Jezebel had raged in Samaria, her daughter Athaliah also raged in Jerusalem and in all Judah. She incited her son Ahaziah to act wickedly. After he died at the hand of Jehu, King of Israel, Athaliah arose and killed all the royal stock of the house of Jehoram. Then Jehosheba, the King's daughter and wife of Jehoiada the High Priest took Joash, Ahaziah’s son, and removed him secretly from among the King’s sons who were being slaughtered and hid him with his nurse in the sleeping quarters. This was so that, through the Lord’s providence, the lamp of his servant David might not be put out in order that our Lord Jesus Christ might be brought forth from the descendents of David.

In the seventh year Jehoiada led our Joash openly with the chief men and the commanders of hundreds and they placed a crown on his head and the Law in his hand to keep. They established him as King and Athaliah was killed by the sword. But Joash returned evil for good. As long as Jehoiada lived he did what was good before the Lord, but after he died he abandoned the Lord God of his fathers and served the sacred groves and graven images. Amaziah his son also deserted the Lord and was not afraid to stop up the mouths of the prophets. His son Uzziah succeeded him and under him Isaiah began to prophesy.

Abbot Rupert of Deutz: De sancta trinitate et operibus eius, 38 (PL 167 1270-1271); tr. Pluscarden.

Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A POEM BY ST EPHREM

Our generation is like a leaf whose time, once it falls, is over,
but though the limit of our life is short, praise can lengthen it,
for, corresponding to the extent of our love,
we shall acquire, through praise, life that has no measure.
For it is in our Lord that the root of our faith is grafted;
though far off, he is still close to us in the fusion of love.
Let the roots of our love be bound up in him,
let the full extent of his compassion be fused in us.
O Lord, may the body be a temple for him who built it,
may the soul be a palace full of praise for its architect!
Let not our body become a hollow cavity,
let our souls not be a harbour of loss.
And when the light of this temporal breath flickers out
do you relight in the morning the lantern that was extinguished in the night.
The sun arrives and with the warmth of its rising
it revives the frozen and relights what has been extinguished.
It is right that we should acknowledge that Light which illumines all,
for in the morning, when the sun has gone up, lanterns are extinguished,
but this new Sun has performed a new deed,
relighting in Sheol the lanterns that had been extinguished.
In place of death who has breathed the smell of mortality over all,
he who gives life to all exhales a life-giving scent in Sheol;
from his life the dead breathe in new life,
and death dies within them.
The scent of the buried Elisha who gave life to a dead man provides a type for this:
a man dead but a day breathed in life from him who was long dead;
the life-giving scent wafted from his bones and entered the dead corpse – a symbol of him who gives life to all.
Jesus has elucidated for us the symbols that took place at Elisha’s grave,
how from an extinguished lantern a lantern can be relit,
and how, while lying in the grave, he could raise up the fallen,
himself remaining there, but sending forth a witness to Christ’s coming.

St Ephrem; The Harp of the Spirit, 77-78, tr. Brock; Word in Season VI.

Season of the Year | Week 20

Sunday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

This Word of God which dwelt in man was made Son of man to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom God to dwell in man, according to the good pleasure of the Father.

And he recapitulated in himself the work he originally fashioned, because, just as through the disobedience of one man sin entered in, and through sin death prevailed, so also through the obedience of one man justice was brought in and produced the fruit of life for men who were formerly dead. Just as the first-formed Adam received his substance from uncultivated and still virgin earth and was fashioned by the hand of God, that is, by the Word of God, so also the Word, recapitulating Adam in himself, rightly received from Mary ever-virgin the conception that is the recapitulation of Adam. If then the first Adam had had a man for father and had been born of the seed of a man, the heretics could rightly say that the second Adam was generated by Joseph. But if the first Adam was taken from the earth and fashioned by the Word of God, it was necessary that the Word himself, working in himself the recapitulation of Adam, possessed a similar origin. One might object, why did God not take dust anew and why did he make what he fashioned proceed from Mary? The reason is so that there would not be another creation nor another work made to be saved, but that the same creature might be recapitulated, with the likeness preserved.

Why would Christ have come down into her if he was to receive nothing from her? And if he had received nothing from Mary he would never have taken foods derived from the earth; after fasting forty days like Moses and Elijah he would not have felt hunger because his body needed food; John his disciple would not have written of him: Jesus sat, wearied from the journey; nor would David have proclaimed, They have added to the pain of my wounds; he would not have wept over Lazarus; he would not have sweated drops of blood; he would not have said, My soul is sorrowful, nor would blood and water have come forth from his pierced side. All these are signs of the flesh taken from the earth, which he recapitulated in himself, saving what he had formed.

This is why Luke presents the genealogy of seventy-two generations from the birth of our Lord back to Adam, linking the end to the beginning. He shows that Christ is the one who recapitulated in himself, with Adam, all the nations and languages and generations of men dispersed after Adam. Therefore Paul calls Adam, the figure of the one to come because the Word, Fashioner of all, established in Adam the future divine plan for humanity to come to perfection in the Son of God, since from the very beginning God obviously predestined the physical man to be saved by the spiritual man. Since he who would save pre-existed, what would be saved had to come into existence so that the Saviour would not be in vain.

St Irenaeus: Adversus Haereses 3.20.2, 21.9-22.3; (1997) tr. Grant.

Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST LEO THE GREAT

Those who are not disillusioned by the death of Christ and not deceived about his human birth are the true witnesses and worshippers of his Resurrection. Those who are ashamed of the Gospel of the Cross of Christ, so as foolishly to empty of its meaning the suffering undertaken for the redemption of the world, have denied the very nature of the Lord’s true flesh. They do not understand that the unchangeable Divinity of the Word of God, subject to no suffering, so humbled itself for the salvation of humanity that in power it did not lose its own nature but in mercy it took up ours. So there is one Person of the twofold nature in Christ, and the Son of God, also the son of man, is one Lord, in the wisdom of his mercy taking on the form of a servant.

Thus, dearly beloved, if in reading or hearing the Gospel you recognise certain things in our Lord Jesus Christ that are subject to injury, and certain things illumined by miracles, as if he at one time appeared human and at another time shone as divine, do not consider anything of this are false – as if in Christ there was humanity alone or divinity alone – but in faith believe both and in humility worship both. In the unity of the Word and flesh there is no division. The testimony for each nature is true and abundant in him, coming together from the height of divine wisdom to teach that the divinity in the flesh and the flesh in the divinity take part in every way in the inviolable Word, unseparated from the suffering of the flesh.

Thus, Christian soul, disciple of truth, you have fled deceit; now use the Gospel story with faith, and note carefully, here with a spiritual mind and there with bodily sight, what things were visibly done by the Lord, as if you yourself were there together with the Apostles. Give to the man what as a child he took from a woman; give to God the fact that his Mother’s virginity was in no way harmed by his Conception nor by his Birth.

It is characteristic of true man to relieve the tired body in quiet sleep; but of true God to restrain the force of raging storms by the rebuke of his command. It is the work of human kindness and a responsible spirit to provide food for the hungry; but to satisfy five thousand men, as well as their wives and children, with five loaves and two fish, who would dare to deny that this is the work of the divinity which, these functions of true flesh cooperating with divinity, showed itself to be in man and man in itself? In no other way could the ancient wounds of original sin be healed in human nature but by the Word of God assuming flesh from the womb of the Virgin and, in one and the same Person together, both being born as flesh and being the Word.

Keep in a firm heart this faith of the Lord’s Incarnation, dearly beloved, keep it safe from all the deceits of the heretics. Cast out those questions of worldly wisdom, hateful to the Lord, for by it, no one can come to the knowledge of truth. Rather, hold fixed in your mind what you have learned in the Creed.

St Leo the Great: Sermon 46; FoC 93 (1996) tr. Freeland & Conway.

Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON NATURE AND GRACE BY ST AUGUSTINE

Human nature was in the beginning created blameless and without any defect. But that human nature, in which each of its is born of Adam, now needs a physician, because it is not in good health. All the goods which it has in its constitution: life, the senses, and the mind, it has from the sovereign God, its creator and maker. But the defect which darkens and weakens those natural goods so that there is need for enlightenment and healing did not come from its blameless maker. It came from the original sin which was committed by free choice. And thus a nature subject to punishment is part of a punishment that is completely just. After all, if we are now a new creature in Christ, we were, nonetheless, by nature children of anger, just as the others. But God who is rich in mercy, on account of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead by sins, brought us to life with Christ, by whose grace we have been saved.

This grace of Christ without which neither infants nor adults can be saved is not a recompense for our merits, but a free gift. This is the reason it is called grace. Paul says that they have been gratuitously justified by his blood. Hence, those who are not set free by it are rightly condemned. It makes no difference whether it is due to the fact that they are still unwilling to hear the word or that they are unwilling to obey or even that, though they could not hear the word by reason of their age, they did not receive the bath of regeneration which they could receive and by which they might be saved. They are rightly condemned because they are not free from sin, either that which they contracted from their origin or that which they have added to it by their evil lives. All have, after all, sinned – whether in Adam or in their own persons – and lack the glory of God.

The whole mass of humanity owes a debt of punishment, and if all suffered the penalty of damnation they deserved, they certainly would not be paying an unjust penalty. Those then who are set free from it by grace are not called vessels of their own merits, but vessels of mercy. Of whose mercy, if not the mercy of him who sent Christ Jesus into this world to save the sinners? He foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified them. Who then is going to be so wildly insane as not to offer inexpressible thanks to the mercy of God, if he sets free those whom he wills, since one could in no way find fault with his justice, if he condemned absolutely everyone?

If we hold this in accord with the Scriptures, we are not forced to argue against the grace of Christ and to say things by which we try to prove that in little ones human nature has no need of a physician, because it is healthy, and that in adults it is able to be self-sufficient for righteousness, if it wants. These claims have the semblance of cleverness, but they are spoken with that worldly wisdom that does away with the cross of Christ. Such wisdom does not came down from above. I do not want to mention what follows for fear of being thought to do an injustice to our friends, for we want their vigorous and quick minds to move in the right direction, not in the wrong one.

St Augustine: De Natura et Gratia 3.3 – 6.6; WSA (1997) tr. Teske.

Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON PSALM 126 BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

God chose Sion for his abode and his dwelling-place. But Sion came to be destroyed. Where, then, is now the everlasting throne of the Lord, where his eternal resting-place, where the Temple in which he can reside? You, says the Apostle, are the Temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells within you. This is the house and this the Temple of God, filled with divine knowledge and virtue, made fit for God’s indwelling by holiness of heart; to which the prophet bore witness: Holy is your Temple, wonderful in justice. It is the holiness, the justice, the purity of man that is a Temple for the Lord.

This Temple must be built by God. Raised by man’s endeavour, it will never last; founded on worldly wisdom, it will never hold together; kept by our foolish exertions and care, it will never be preserved. On no shifting sand is it to be founded, but set firm on the foundation of the prophets and the Apostles; with living stones must it take shape, held fast by the Corner-Stone. With its materials securely joined together it must grow unto the perfect man, unto the stature of the body of Christ, and its adorning must lie in the beauty and splendour of spiritual gifts.

Israel is now in captivity, but when the full host of Gentiles is come then it will pursue the building of this house. By the multifarious labours of the faithful it will grow into as many houses, will become a great and beautiful city. For long now, has the Lord kept faithful watch over his city: guarding Abraham on his pilgrimage, preserving Isaac from immolation, rewarding Jacob for his years of service, giving power to Joseph. a slave in Egypt. He strengthens Moses in his conflict with Pharaoh, makes Joshua a leader in battle, rescues David from every danger, confers on Solomon the gift of wisdom. He is there among his prophets, taking up Elijah, choosing Elisha, feeding Daniel, bringing refreshment to the children in the fiery furnace. Joseph he tells by an angel of his virgin birth, Mary he reassures, John he sends before him. He chooses the Apostles and prays to his Father: Holy Father, keep them safe … while I was with them I kept them in thy name. And after his passion he promises that he himself will have an everlasting care of us: Behold, I am with you always, even until the end of the world. Such is the everlasting protection of this blessed and holy city which, made up of many come together in one, and found in each one of us, forms indeed the city of God.

St Hilary of Poitiers, Treatise on Psalm 126, 7-9; (1950) tr. Sheppard.

Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

Somewhere in his letter to the Ephesians, when speaking of that great divine plan by which God appeared in the flesh, the Apostle says that it was not only mankind which was taught the divine mysteries through grace: the manifold wisdom of God as revealed through Christ’s life among men was also made known to the heavenly principalities and powers. The text says: so that now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly realms, according to the eternal purpose which he fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have free access to God with the confidence born of faith in him.

It is indeed through the Church that the heavenly powers discover the manifold wisdom of God that accomplished great wonders by contrary means: how life resulted from death, righteousness from sin, a blessing from a curse, glory from disgrace, power from weakness. In earlier times the heavenly powers were aware only of the simple, unqualified wisdom of God working wonders in a manner appropriate to its nature. There was nothing complex in what they saw when in its mighty power the Godhead created the universe by a simple act of will, bringing the natural world into being and endowing all things with the great beauty that springs from the source of all beauty.

Now, however, through the Church, they have been clearly shown this manifold kind of wisdom which consists in the combination of opposites. They have learned how the Word became flesh; how life mingled with death; how Christ healed our wounds by his own bruises; and how by the weakness of the cross he overcame the power of the adversary. They have learned how the Invisible was revealed in flesh; how he redeemed captives, being himself both the Redeemer and the price, since he gave himself up to death to pay our ransom; how he also entered the realm of death without abandoning life, and became a servant without ceasing to be a king. All these and similar things contained in the manifold and not simple works of Wisdom the friends of the Bridegroom learned through the Church, and were fascinated to perceive in the mystery yet another mark of the divine Wisdom. Indeed, if it is not too bold a thing to say, perhaps in gazing at the beauty of the Bridegroom reflected in the bride, they beheld with wonder that which is invisible and incomprehensible to all created beings.

For God, whom no one has ever seen, as John says, or can see, as Paul testifies, has made the Church his body, and by the addition of those who are saved he builds it up in love until we all attain full maturity, measured by nothing less than the full stature of Christ. If then the Church is the body of Christ, and Christ is the body’s head who impresses his own features on its face, this may explain why the friends of the Bridegroom were fascinated to see the Church, since through her they beheld more clearly the invisible Bridegroom. Just as one cannot look straight at the sun but can see its brilliance reflected on water, so they too see the Sun of Righteousness in the clear mirror of the Church, in which they contemplate him through his reflection.

St Gregory of Nyssa: On the Song of Songs, 8 (Jaeger, 6:254-7); Word in Season VI.

Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

Listen to the Apostle saying to you, But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us too make it our boast, if only because we lean totally upon it. Perhaps it is there that we shall find both width, and length, and height, and depth. These words of the Apostle, you see, somehow set up the cross before our very eyes. I mean, it has width, where the hands are fixed; it has length, where the post goes down from there to the ground; it also has height, which goes up a little from the crossbar on which the hands are fixed, where the head of the crucified is laid; and it also has depth, that is, the part fixed in the ground which cannot be seen. Notice what a great, significant mystery it is; from that depth which you cannot see rises everything that you can see.

So where is the width? Turn your mind to the life and behaviour of the saints, who say, Far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We find in their way of life and behaviour the width of charity; which is why the Apostle himself gives them this advice: Open yourselves wide, lest you should be bearing the yoke with unbelievers. So width means charity, which alone does good works.

But because the Lord said, When iniquity abounds, the charity of many will grow cold, he gave me also length. What is meant by length? Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved. This is the length of the cross, where the whole body is stretched; where after a fashion it is standing, the kind of standing by which one perseveres. So if you are seeking, you that make the cross your boast, to have the width of the cross, make sure you have the virtue to do good. If you want to have the length of the cross, make sure you have the long suffering capacity to persevere.

But if you want to have the height of the cross, make sure you know the meaning of the words you hear, ‘Lift up your hearts’, and of where you hear them. Well, what does it mean, ‘Lift up your hearts’? Place your hope up there, place your love up there, ask for strength from up there, look for your reward from up there. Because if you do good, and give cheerfully, you seem to have the width; if in the same good works you persevere to the end, you seem to have the length. But if you don’t do any of this for the sake of the reward up above, you won’t have the height; which means you won’t have the real width and real length either.

Then there is also the frightening passage of the gospel: To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, will be given. But who does have, so as to be given, except the one to whom it has been given? But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. But who doesn’t have, except the one to whom it has not been given? So why was it given to this one, and not given to that one? It doesn’t embarrass me to say, this is the depth of the cross. From heaven knows what depths of God’s judgements, which we are quite unable to scrutinise or contemplate, proceeds everything that we can scrutinise. Why this person is saved and not that – it is too much for me, it is an abyss, the depth of the cross; I can cry out in wonder, I cannot explain by reasoned argument.

St Augustine: Sermon 165, 1-5, 9; WSA (1992) tr. Hill.

Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH TO THE EPHESIANS

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, sends good wishes for unalloyed joy in Jesus Christ to the Church at Ephesus in Asia; a Church deserving of felicitation, blessed, as she is, with greatness through the fullness of God the Father; predestined, before time was, to be – to her abiding and unchanging glory – for ever united and chosen, through real suffering, by the will of the Father and Jesus Christ our God.

Since affection does not permit me to be silent where you are concerned, I am at once taking this opportunity to exhort you to live in harmony with the mind of God. Surely, Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, for his part is the mind of the Father, just as the Bishops, though appointed throughout the vast, wide earth, represent for their part the mind of Jesus Christ. Hence it is proper for you to act in agreement with the mind of the Bishop; and this you do. Certain it is that your presbytery is a credit to God; for it harmonises with the Bishop as completely as the strings with a harp. This is why in the symphony of your concord and love the praises of Jesus Christ are sung. But you, the rank and file, should also form a choir, so that, joining the symphony by your concord, and by your unity taking your key note from God, you may with one voice through Jesus Christ sing a song to the Father. Thus he will both listen to you and by reason of your good life recognize in you the melodies of his Son. It profits you, therefore, to continue in your flawless unity, that you may at all times have a share in God.

For in fact, if I in a short time became so warmly attached to your Bishop – an attachment based not on human grounds but on spiritual – how much more do I count you happy who are as closely knit to him as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is to the Father! As a result, the symphony of unity is perfect. Let no one deceive himself: unless a man is within the sanctuary, he has to go without the Bread of God. Assuredly, if the prayer of one or two has such efficacy,-how much more that of the Bishop and the entire Church! It follows, then: he who absents himself from the common meeting, by that very fact shows pride and becomes a sectarian; for the Scripture says: God resists the proud. Let us take care, therefore, not to oppose the Bishop, that we may be submissive to God.

Furthermore: the more anyone observes that a Bishop is discreetly silent, the more he should stand in fear of him. Obviously, anyone whom the Master of the household puts in charge of his domestic affairs, ought to be received by us in the same spirit as he who has charged him with this duty. Plainly, then, one should look upon the Bishop as upon the Lord himself. Now your Bishop Onesimus for his part overflows with praise of the good order that, thanks to God, exists in your midst. Let no one, then, deceive you, as indeed you are not being deceived, belonging wholly to God. For as long as no dissension calculated to plague you has taken firm root among you, it follows that you are leading a life conformable to God. Your lowliest servant, I also consecrate myself to you Ephesians – that Church whose renown will go down the ages.

St Ignatius of Antioch: Ephesians, 1, 3-6, 8; ACW 1 (1946) tr. Kleist.

Season of the Year | Week 21

Sunday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

Suppose then I'm a popular singer – what more could I sing to you? Here you are – I have brought a harp; it has ten strings. You were singing this yourselves a little earlier on, before I began to speak. You were my chorus. O God, I will sing you a new song, on a harp of ten strings I will play to you? Now I am strumming these ten strings.

You see, the decalogue of the law has ten commandments. These ten commandments are arranged in such a way that three refer to God and seven refer to men. I have already mentioned God’s three. If we were told, You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind, and nothing was said about our neighbour, it would not be a ten-stringed hut a three-stringed instrument. But because the Lord added, And you shall love your neighbour as yourself, and joined them together by saying, On these two commandments hangs the whole law and the prophets; the whole law is contained in two commandments, in love of God and love of neighbour. Three strings relate to the first, because God is three. But to the other commandment, that is, the love of neighbour, seven strings refer.

You see, the Jewish people received the Law. They did not observe what is in the decalogue. And any who did comply did so out of fear of punishment, not out of love of justice. They were carrying the harp, but they weren’t singing. If you are singing, it’s enjoyable; if you are fearing, it’s burdensome. That’s why the old man either doesn’t do it, or does it out of fear, not out of love of holiness, not out of delight in chastity, not out of the calmness of charity, but out of fear. It’s because he is the old man, and the old man can sing the old song but not the new one. In order to sing the new song, he must become the new man. How can you do this?

Listen, not to me but to the Apostle: Put off the old man and put on the new. And in case anyone should imagine, when he says Put off the old man and put on the new, that something has to be laid aside and something else taken up, where in fact he is giving instructions about changing the man, he goes on to say, Therefore, putting aside lying, speak the truth. That’s what he means by Put off the old man and put on the new. What he is saying is: ‘Change your ways.’ You used to love the world; love God. You used to love the futilities of wickedness, you used to love passing, temporary pleasures; love your neighbour. If you do it out of love, you are singing the new song. If you do it out of fear but do it all the same, you are indeed carrying the harp but you are not yet singing. But if you don’t do it at all, you are throwing the harp away. It’s better at least to carry it than to throw it away. But again, it’s better to sing with pleasure than to carry the thing as a burden. And you don’t get to the new song at all unless you are already singing it with pleasure. If you are carrying the harp with fear, you are still in the old song.

St Augustine, Sermon 9.5-8; WSA (1990) tr. Hill.

Monday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

We see that many people have so abandoned what is theirs for the sake of Christ, that they have forever cut out from their hearts not only the possession of money, but even the desire for it. If this is so, it follows that we should believe that even the fire of fornication can be extinguished in the same way. For the Apostle would not have joined something impossible to something possible. And so confident is the blessed Apostle that fornication and impurity can be rooted out of our members, that he declares that not only should they be put to death, but that they should not even be mentioned among us. As he says, Fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, nor filthiness nor foolishness nor levity, which are not fitting.

He also teaches that these things are equally destructive and cut us off from the Kingdom of God when he says, Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure man or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. Hence there must be no doubt that the contagion of fornication and impurity can be done away with in our members, since he has not commanded that they should be cut off in some other way than covetousness, foolishness and levity, which are easily cut off.

Yet we should be certain that although we undergo all the rigours of abstinence – namely, hunger and thirst, along with vigils and constant work and an unceasing pursuit of reading – we are still unable to acquire the perpetual purity of chastity through these efforts unless, while exerting ourselves constantly in them, we are taught in the school of experience that its incorruption is granted to us by the bounty of divine grace. For this reason alone everyone should realise that he must persevere tirelessly in these practices; but he must not believe that through these things he will attain by himself the unspoiled bodily chastity that he seeks.

St John Cassian, Conference XII 3.1-4.2; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Tuesday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTER TO MARCELLINUS OF ST ATHANASIUS

The Book of Psalms has a certain grace of its own. For in addition to the other things in whichit enjoys fellowship with the other books of the Bible, it possesses this marvel – that it contains all the emotions of each soul and their various changes. Thus, through hearing, it teaches us not only not to disregard passion, but also how to heal passion through speaking and acting.

There is also this astonishing thing in thePsalms. After the prophecies about the Saviour and the nations, he who recites the Psalms is uttering the rest as his own words, and each sings them as if they were written concerning him. And it seems to me that these words become like a mirror to the person singing them, so that he might perceive himself and the emotions of his soul. For in fact he who hears the cantor receives the song that is recited as being about him, and either, when he is convicted by his conscience, he will repent, or hearing of the hope that resides in God, and how this kind of grace exists for him, he exults and begins to give thanks to God. Therefore, when someone sings the third psalm, recognising his own tribulations, he considers the words in the psalm to be his own. And then when someone sings the fiftieth, he is speaking the proper words of his own repentance. If the point needs to be put more forcefully, let us say that the entire Holy Scripture is a teacher of virtue and the truths of faith, while the Book of Psalms presents the perfect image for the soul’s course of life.

Such, then, is the help for mankind to be gained from the Book of Psalms. It is important not to pass over the question of why words of this kind are chanted with melodies. For some of the simple among us, although they believe indeed that the phrases are divinely inspired, imagine on account of the sweetness of sound that the psalms are sung for the sake of the ear’s delight alone. But this is not so. For Scripture did not just seek pleasant things; even these have been fashioned for the benefit of the soul. This is because it is fitting for Divine Scripture to praise God not in compressed speech alone, but also in the voice that is richly broadened.

Some things are said in close sequence; such as the Law and the Prophets and the histories, along with the New Testament. But on the other hand, some things are expressed more broadly, such as the psalms, odes, and songs, so that men will love God with their whole strength and power. Just as the harmony that unites flutes effects a single sound, so also, seeing that different movements appear in the soul, reason intends man to be neither discordant in himself, nor to be at variance with himself.

Reason intends the soul possessing the mind of Christ to use this as a leader, and by it to be a master of its passions. A man then becomes a stringed instrument and, devoting himself completely to the Spirit, obeys the mind of Christ, which acts like a plectrum in all his members and emotions, thus enabling him to serve the will of God. The harmonious singing of the Psalms is a figure and type of such order and tranquillity. For just as we discover the ideas of the soul and communicate them through the words we put forth, so also the Lord, wishing the melody of the words to be a symbol of the spiritual harmony in a soul, has ordered that the odes be chanted tunefully, and the Psalms recited with song.

St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus, 10-12, 14, 27-29; CWS (1980) tr. Gregg.

Wednesday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

Sometimes in the Scriptures Christ is presented as the Word equal to the Father. Sometimes he is presented as the Mediator, since the Word became flesh to dwell amongst us, taking the form of a servant and becoming obedient unto death, even death on the cross. Sometimes, however, he is presented in such a way that you are to understand the head and the body together, as when the Apostle expounds what was said about husband and wife in Genesis: they shall be two in one flesh. Notice his exposition, for I don’t want to give the impression of saying something I made up myself: for they shall be two in one flesh. And he adds, this is a great sacrament. Now just in case anyone should still think this is about a husband and wife according to the natural joining of the sexes and their bodily coming together, he goes on, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church.

And just as with bridegroom and bride, so also head and body, because the head of the woman is the man. So, whether I say head and body, or whether I say bridegroom and bride, you must understand the same thing. And that’s why the same Apostle, while he was still Saul, heard the words, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?; because the body is joined to the head.

So present yourselves to such a head as a body worthy of him, to such a bridegroom as a worthy bride. To present himself, it says, with a glorious Church, without stain or wrinkle or any such thing. This is the bride of Christ, without stain or wrinkle. Do you wish to have no stain? Do what is written, wash yourselves, be clean, remove the wicked schemes from your heart. Do you wish to have no wrinkle? Stretch yourself on the cross. You see, you don’t only need to be washed, but also to be stretched, in order to be without stain or wrinkle; because by the washing sins are removed, while by the stretching a desire is created for the future life, which is what Christ was crucified for. Listen to Paul himself, once he was washed: he has saved us by the washing of rebirth; and listen to him as he is stretched: forgetting what lies behind, and stretching forward to what lies ahead I press on towards the goal for the prize of God’s calling from above in Christ Jesus.

St Augustine, Sermon 341, 12-13; WSA (1995) tr. Hill.

Thursday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE SMYRNAEANS OF ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

Let no one be deceived! Even the heavenly powers and the angels in their splendour and the principalities, both visible and invisible, must either believe in the Blood of Christ, or else face damnation. Let him grasp it who can. Let no rank puff up anyone; for faith and love are paramount – the greatest blessings in the world. Observe those who hold erroneous opinions concerning the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how they run counter to the mind of God! They concern themselves with neither works of charity, nor widows, nor orphans, nor the distressed, nor those in prison or out of it, nor the hungry or thirsty.

From the Eucharist and prayer they hold aloof, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father in his loving-kindness raised from the dead. And so, those who question the gift of God perish in their contentiousness. It would be better for them to have love, so as to share in the resurrection. It is proper, therefore, to avoid associating with such people and not to speak about them either in private or in public, but to study the Prophets attentively and, especially, the Gospel, in which the Passion is revealed to us and the Resurrection shown in its fulfilment. Shun division as the beginning of evil.

You must all follow the lead of the Bishop, as Jesus Christ followed that of the Father; follow the Presbytery as you would the Apostles; reverence the Deacons as you would God’s commandment. Let no one do anything concerning the Church, apart from the Bishop. Let that celebration of the Eucharist be considered valid which is held under the Bishop or anyone to whom he has committed it. Where the Bishop appears, there let the people be, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not permitted without authorisation from the Bishop either to baptize or to hold an agape; but whatever he approves is also pleasing to God. Thus everything you do will be proof against danger and valid.

It is consonant with reason, therefore, that we should come to our senses, while we still have time to change our ways and turn to God. It is well to revere God and Bishop. He who honours a Bishop is honoured by God. He who does anything without the knowledge of the Bishop worships the devil. May all things, then, be yours in abundance through grace, for you deserve it. You have brought relief to me in every respect, and may Jesus Christ do so to you! Whether I was absent or present, you have shown me love. Your reward is God, to whom you will come if you endure all things for his sake.

St Ignatius of Antioch: To the Smyrnaeans, 6-9; ACW 1 (1946) tr. Kleist.

Friday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LIFE OF ANTONY BY ST ATHANASIUS

Antony said: Let the contest be ours, so that anger does not rule us or desire overwhelm us. Conducting our lives in this manner, let us keep our heart in all watchfulness. For we have terrible and villainous enemies – the evil demons, and our fight is against these, as the Apostle said – not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. So the mob of them is great in the air around us, and they are not far from us. But the difference between them is great. A speech about their natures and distinctions would be lengthy, and such a discourse is for others greater than us. For the present, that which is pressing and necessary for us is simply to know their unscrupulous tricks against us.

First we ought to understand this: The demons were not created as the figures we now identify by ‘demon’, for God made nothing bad. They were made good, but falling from the heavenly wisdom and thereafter wandering around the earth, they deceived the Greeks through apparitions. And envious of us Christians, they meddle with all things in their desire to frustrate our journey into heaven, so that we might not ascend to the place from which they themselves fell. Therefore much prayer and asceticism is needed so that one who receives through the Spirit the gift of discrimination of spirits might be able to recognize their traits – for example, which of them are less wicked, and which more; and in what kind of pursuit each of them exerts himself, and how each of them is expelled. For numerous are their treacheries and the moves in their plot. Therefore I, having had my share of trial from them, address you as my children.

Should they see any Christians – monks, especially – labouring gladly and advancing, they first attack and tempt them, placing stumbling blocks in the way. Their stumbling blocks consist of evil thoughts. But we need not fear their suggestions, for by prayers and fasting and by faith in the Lord they are brought down immediately. But even after they fall they do not cease, but approach again, with malice and cunning. When they are unable to deceive the heart by conspicuous and filthy pleasure, again they make another kind of assault, and pretend to frighten it by fabricating phantasms, transforming themselves, and imitating women, beasts, reptiles, and huge bodies and thousands of soldiers. Nevertheless we need not fear their apparitions, for they are nothing and they disappear quickly-especially if one fortifies himself with faith and the sign of the cross.

It is not fitting for us, who possess the holy Scriptures and the freedom of the Saviour, to be taught by the devil, the one who did not maintain his own rank, but has turned his mind in one direction after another. The Lord, as God, silenced the demons; but it is fitting for us, since we have learned from the holy ones, to act as they acted and to emulate their courage. Since the Lord made his stay among us, the enemy is fallen and his powers have diminished. For this reason, though he is able to do nothing, nevertheless like a tyrant fallen from power he does not remain quiet, but issues threats, even if they are only words. Let everyone of you consider this, and he will be empowered to treat the demons with contempt.

St Athanasius: The Life of Antony, 21-23, 26-28; CWS (1980) tr. Gregg.

Saturday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON PSALM 118 BY ST AMBROSE

It makes a big difference whether you do what is pleasing to God willingly or from necessity. The Apostle was completely free; but freely, not from necessity, he became the servant of all in order to win over as many people as possible. He became all things to all men not because of any legal requirement but of his own free will. He has shown me the loftiness of his intention in the letter he wrote to Philemon. Because he wished another person to be like himself, he made it clear that it was out of no necessity but of his own free will that he had returned the slave Onesimus to his master. Interceding for Onesimus, he says: ‘Receive him as my own heart. I should have liked to keep him with me to serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness might not be from compulsion but of your own free will.’

How eagerly he endeavours to persuade! He was God’s chosen instrument, yet he did not disdain to share his thoughts with another, because he did not want to do him out of his reward for doing something freely.

The Lord looks for voluntary servants. In the book of Isaiah he says: ‘Whom shall I send?’ He could certainly have commanded his servant, whom he had found worthy of being sent, but he preferred not to do him out of his reward for making a spontaneous offering. He waited for him to offer himself; although he knew his good will, God still awaited his words so that he might earn a greater recompense. Thus it was that Isaiah volunteered, saying: ‘Here am I, send me’, and so was sent to the people.

Jeremiah excused himself saying: ‘Lord God, I am not a good speaker; I am too young.’ The Lord said to him: ‘You shall go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you to say.’ The prophet made his age an excuse out of diffidence, fearing that because of his youth he would be unable to carry out the divine commands. But God judged that age should be considered in terms of character rather than years, and discerned beforehand in his youthful servant the maturity of robust wisdom. He said therefore: ‘Do not say you are too young.’ In other words, he was not to judge his powers by thinking of his lack of years, for faith had given him the grey hairs of wisdom. And again, when the same prophet said later: ‘Lord, you have deceived me, and I have been deceived’, And I said: ‘I will not mention his name, or say anything else in his name,’ he added: ‘and there rose in my heart a burning like fire blazing in my bones, and I was completely broken and unable to bear it.’

We see then that even if some have reason to think they should be excused from their office, or should refuse to undertake it, our Lord nevertheless either persuades them to think better of it, or inspires them with a desire for prophetic revelation, wishing them to undertake the office freely, not from necessity, so that they may receive a greater recompense for their total dedication.

St Ambrose: Commentary on Psalm 118, 14.24-26 (CSEL 62:313-316); Word in Season VI.

Season of the Year | Week 22

Sunday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON FIRST PRINCIPLES BY ORIGEN

Let us outline what seems to us to be the marks of a true understanding of the Scriptures. In the first place we must point out that the aim of the Spirit who enlightened the servants of the truth, that is, the prophets and Apostles, was pre-eminently concerned with the unspeakable mysteries connected with the affairs of men. His purpose was that the man who is capable of being taught might, by searching out the deep things revealed in the spiritual meaning of the words, become partaker of all the doctrines of the Spirit’s counsel.

Now while these and similar subjects were in the mind of the Spirit, there was a second aim, pursued for the sake of those who were unable to endure the burden of investigating matters of such importance. This was to conceal the doctrine relating to these subjects in words forming a narrative that contained a record dealing with the visible creation, the formation of man and the first human beings until the time when they became many; and also in other stories that recorded the acts of righteous men and the sins that these same men occasionally committed, seeing they were but human, and the deeds of wickedness, licentiousness and greed done by lawless and impious men. But the most wonderful thing is, that, by means of stories of wars and the conquerors and the conquered, certain secret truths are revealed to those who are capable of examining these narratives; and, even more marvellous, through a written system of law, the laws of truth are prophetically indicated. For the intention was to make even the outer covering of the spiritual truths, I mean the bodily part of the Scriptures, capable of improving the multitude in so far as they receive it.

But if in every detail of this outer covering, that is, the actual history, the sequence of the law had been preserved and its order maintained, we should certainly not have believed that there was anything else buried within them beyond what was indicated at a first glance. Consequently the divine Wisdom has arranged for certain stumbling-blocks and interruptions of the historical sense to be found therein. A number of impossibilities and incongruities have been inserted into the text, in order that the very interruption of the narrative might as it were present a barrier to the reader and lead him to refuse to proceed along the pathway of the ordinary meaning. Thus, through the entrance of a narrow footpath, the reader might be brought to a higher and loftier road where the immense breadth of the divine Wisdom might be opened to him.

And not only did the Holy Spirit supervise the writings which were previous to the coming of Christ, but because he is one and the same Spirit and proceeds from the one God he has acted similarly in regard to the gospels and the writings of the Apostles. Even in them the Spirit has mingled not a few things by which the historical order of the narrative is interrupted and broken, with the object of turning and calling the attention of the reader, by the impossibility of the literal sense, to an examination of the inner meaning.

Origen: Peri Archón, 4. 2; (1973) tr. Butterworth.

Monday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL ON THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD

Sacred Scripture teaches the human family what the experience of the ages confirms: that while human progress is a great advantage to man, it brings with it a strong temptation. For when the order of values is jumbled, and bad is mixed with the good, individuals and groups pay heed solely to their own interests and not to those of others. Thus it happens that the world ceases to be a place of true brotherhood. In our own day, the magnified power of humanity threatens to destroy the race itself.

For a monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole history of man. The battle was joined from the very origins of the world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has attested. Caught in this conflict, man is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is to cling to what is good, nor can he achieve his own integrity without great efforts and the help of God’s grace.

That is why Christ’s Church, trusting in the design of the Creator, acknowledges that human progress can serve man’s true happiness, yet she cannot help echoing the Apostle’s warning: Be not conformed to this world. Here by the world is meant that spirit of vanity and malice which transforms into an instrument of sin those human energies intended for the service of God and man.

Hence, if anyone wants to know how this unhappy situation can be overcome, Christians will tell him that all human activity, constantly imperiled by man’s pride and deranged self-love, must be purified and perfected by the power of Christ’s cross and resurrection. For redeemed by Christ and made a new creature in the Holy Spirit, man is able to love the things themselves created by God, and ought to do so. He can receive them from God and respect and reverence them as flowing constantly from the hand of God. Grateful to his benefactor for these creatures, using and enjoying them in detachment and liberty of spirit, man is led forward into a true possession of them, as having nothing, yet possessing all things. All are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes 37.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE TREATISE OF ST CYPRIAN ON THE LAPSED

Those among you, my brothers, who are responsive to the fear of God and who despite your fall are conscious of your plight, let the sight of your sins move you to penance and sorrow; acknowledge how grievously your conscience reproaches you, open your soul to the realization of your crime, neither despairing of God’s mercy nor yet claiming instant pardon. While God in his fatherly affection is ever forgiving and kind, in his majesty as judge he deserves our fear. Let the earnestness of our repentance correspond to the gravity of our sin. When the wound is so serious, let it have the exacting and prolonged treatment it needs; let the penance meet the measure of the crime.

You must beg and pray assiduously, spend the day sorrowing and the night in vigils and tears, fill every moment with weeping and lamentation; you must lie on the ground amidst clinging ashes, chafing in sackcloth and foulness; having once been clothed with Christ, refuse all other raiment now; having supped with the devil, choose rather now to fast; apply yourself to good deeds which can wash away your sins, be constant and generous in giving alms, whereby souls are freed from death.

And the prophet Joel, at the bidding of the Lord, declares the Lord’s loving-kindness: Return, he says, to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and kind and patient and full of mercy and ready to revoke His sentence upon wicked deeds. He can be indulgent; he can revoke his own condemnation. Towards sorrow, good works, pleadings, he can show clemency and forgive; he can take into account what the Martyrs have asked for on their behalf and what the Bishops have done for them. Nay, when a man’s reparation is such as to touch his heart still more, when the sincerity of his pleading appeases his anger at the offence, he even rearms one who has suffered defeat, and restores and reinforces the vitality whereby faith is renewed and can bear fruit. A soldier once more he will return to the fray, he will engage anew and challenge the enemy-and will do so with all the more courage for his remorse. He who has made such satisfaction to God, he who by his repentance and shame for his sin, draws from the bitterness of his fall a fresh fund of valour and loyalty, shall by the help he has won from the Lord, rejoice the heart of the Church whom he has so lately pained; he will earn not merely God’s forgiveness, but his crown.

St Cyprian: De Lapsis 35-36: FoC 36 (1958) tr.Deferrari.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A LETTER TO A LAPSED MONK BY ST BASIL

I do not wish you joy, for there is no joy for the wicked. Even now I cannot believe it; my heart cannot conceive iniquity so great as the crime which you have committed: if, that is, the truth really is what is generally understood. I am at a loss to think how wisdom so deep can have been made to disappear; how such exact discipline can have been undone; whence blindness so profound can have been shed round you; how with utter inconsiderateness you have wrought such destruction of souls. Even senseless stones have shed tears at your madness; even your enemies have wept at the greatness of your iniquity.

Once more I grieve over you, unhappy man. You were proclaiming to all the power of the kingdom, and you fell from it. You were making all stand in fear of your teaching, and there was no fear of God before your eyes. How is Lucifer that was rising in the morning fallen and dashed on the ground? Both the ears of every hearer will tingle. How is the Nazirite, brighter than gold, become darker than pitch? How has the glorious son of Sion become an unprofitable vessel! Of him, whose memory of the sacred Scriptures was in all men’s mouths, the memory today has perished with the sound.

If you have any hope of salvation; if you have the least thought of God, or any desire for good things to come; if you have any fear of the chastisements reserved for the impenitent, awake without delay, lift up your eyes to heaven, come to your senses, cease from your wickedness, shake off the stupor that enwraps you, make a stand against the foe who has struck you down. Make an effort to rise from the ground. Remember the good Shepherd who will follow and rescue you. Though it be but two legs or a lobe of an ear, spring back from the beast that has wounded you. Remember the mercies of God and how he cures with oil and wine. Do not despair of salvation. Remember your recollection of how it is written in the Scriptures that he who is falling rises and he who turns away returns; the prey of beasts escapes; he who admits his sin is not rejected. The Lord wills not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn and live.

There is a time of endurance, a time of long suffering, a time of healing, a time of correction. Have you stumbled? Arise. Have you sinned? Cease. Beware lest, from your wish to keep certain obligations, you break the obligations to God which you professed before many witnesses. Pray do not hesitate to come to me for any earthly considerations. When I have recovered my dead I shall lament, I shall tend him, I will weep because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. All are ready to welcome you, all will share your efforts. Remember the days of old. There is salvation; there is amendment. Be of good cheer; do not despair. It is not a law condemning to death without pity, but mercy remitting punishment and awaiting improvement. The doors are not yet shut; the bridegroom hears; sin is not the master. Make another effort, do not hesitate, have pity on yourself and on all of us in Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and might now and for ever and ever. Amen.

St Basil: Letter 44, To a lapsed monk; NPNF2 8 (1894) tr. Jackson.

Thursday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST AMBROSE

The heretics have been accustomed to object that the Holy Spirit seems to have been created on this account, because many of them advance as an argument to establish their impiety what Amos said about the blowing of the wind, as the very words of the Prophet declare. For you have these words: Behold I am he that established the thunders, and creates the spirit, and declares his Christ to men, that makes the light and mist, and walks upon the high places of the earth; the Lord the God of hosts is his name.

If they make an argument out of this, that he said ‘spirit’ was created, Ezra taught us that spirit is created, saying in the fourth book: And again on the second day you made the spirit of the firmament; yet, to stick to the point, manifestly from these words which Amos spoke, does not the order of the words clearly prove that the Prophet spoke of the creation of this world? He begins thus: I am he that established the thunders, and creates the spirit. Let the very order of the words teach us; for, if he had wished to speak of the Holy Spirit, surely he would not have placed the thunders first. For the thunders are not more ancient than the Holy Spirit. We know from daily experience and example that, when the storms of this world take place, thunders come first, blasts of wind follow, the sky grows dark with clouds, and the light comes forth again from the darkness. For the blasts of the winds are also called spirits, as it is written: Fire and brimstone and storms of spirits.

So, as to that which the Prophet declared as the daily working of God in the firmament of thunder and in the creation of the wind, it is impious for us to consider any such thing of the Holy Spirit, whom the impious themselves cannot deny to exist before the ages. Therefore, with pious assertion we testify both that he always is and always abides. For he who before the world moved over the waters cannot seem to have begun after the world.

Yet if anyone thinks that the words of the Prophet refer to the Holy Spirit, because he says: declaring His Christ to men, he will easily divert the words to the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation. For if it troubles you that he said spirit, and so you think that this should not be diverted to the assumption of human nature, read the Scriptures further, and you will find that it agrees very well with reference to Christ, of whom it is well fitting that he established thunders by his coming, namely, the force and sound of the heavenly Scriptures, by a kind of thunder of which, as it were, our minds are struck with astonishment, so that we learn to fear and offer reverence to the heavenly pronouncements.

So we ought to refer this entire passage either to the simple understanding of that spirit or wind which is drawn in by living or to the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation, for, if he had said here that the Holy Spirit was created, surely Scripture could have declared the same elsewhere also, just as we often read about the Son of God that according to the flesh he was both made and created.

St Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit, 2.6; FoC 44 (1962) tr. Deferrari.

Friday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST JEROME

Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this world and of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. As long as we are imprisoned within this frail little body, as long as we have this treasure in earthen vessels, and the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit, there is no sure victory. Our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking what he may devour. The devil seeks not unbelievers, not those that are without and whose flesh the Assyrian king boils in a pot: he makes haste to drag victims from the Church of Christ. The elect, according to Habakkuk, are his food. The Saviour came not to send peace on the earth but the sword.

Take care, I pray, lest sometime God may say of you: The virgin of Israel has fallen; there is none to raise her up. I speak audaciously: although God can do all things, he cannot rise up a virgin after she has fallen. He has power, indeed, to free her from the penalty, but he has no power to crown one who has been corrupted. Let us fear that prophecy, lest it be fulfilled in us: and good virgins shall faint. Note what he says: good virgins shall faint – because there are also bad virgins. Whoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, he says, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Virginity, therefore, may be lost even by thinking. Those are the bad virgins, virgins in the flesh, not in the spirit: foolish virgins who, having no oil, are shut out by the bridegroom. But if those virgins are also virgins, but because of other faults are not saved by bodily virginity, what will become of those who have prostituted the members of Christ and have turned the Temple of the Holy Spirit into a brothel?

How often, when I was established in the desert and in that vast solitude which is scorched by the sun’s heat and affords a savage habitation for monks, did I think myself amid the delights of Rome! I would sit alone because I was filled with bitterness. My limbs were roughly clad in sackcloth – an unlovely sight. My neglected skin had taken on the appearance of an Ethiopian’s body. Daily I wept, daily I groaned, and whenever insistent slumber overcame my resistance, I bruised my awkward bones upon the bare earth.There was I, therefore, who from fear of hell had condemned myself to such a prison, with only scorpions and wild beasts as companions. Yet I was often surrounded by dancing girls. My face was pale from fasting, and my mind was hot with desire in a body cold as ice. Though my flesh, before its tenant, was already as good as dead, the fires of the passions kept boiling within me.

And so, destitute of all help, I used to lie at Jesus’ feet. I bathed them with my tears, I wiped them with my hair. When my flesh rebelled, I subdued it by weeks of fasting. I was even afraid even of my little cell, as though it were conscious of my thoughts. Angry at myself and tense, I used to go out alone into the desert. Whenever I saw some deep valley, some rugged mountain, some precipitous crags, it was this I made my place of prayer, my place of punishment for the wretched flesh. And – as my Lord Himself is witness – after many tears, after fixing my eyes on the heavens, I sometimes seemed to myself to be surrounded by companies of angels and rejoiced, singing happily: We run after you in the fragrance of your perfumes.

St Jerome, Letter 22; ACW 33 (1963) tr. Mieran.

Saturday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON GENESIS OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Let us not be careless, dearly beloved, in dealing with matters concerning our salvation. After all, we are warned against intemperance not only in the New dispensation by its greater attention to right thinking, its more frequent struggles and greater effort, its many rewards and ineffable consolations. Not even people living under the Old Law were permitted to indulge themselves in that way, even though they were sitting in the dark, dependant upon tapers, and brought forward gradually into the light, like children being weaned off milk.

Lest you think I am idly finding fault with intemperance in what I say, listen to what the prophet Amos says: Woe to those who fall on evil days in sleeping on beds of ivory, luxuriating on their couches, living on a diet of goats picked from the flocks and suckling calves from the herds, and drinking strained wines, anointed with precious unguents – like men treating this as a lasting city, and not seeking one to come. Do you see the heavy accusation the prophet levels against intemperance in charging the Jews with these faults of stupidity, sensuality and daily gluttony? I mean, note the accuracy of the words: after attacking their gluttony and their drinking to excess, he added, like men treating this as a lasting city, and not seeking one to come, all but stating that their satisfaction got as far as lips and palate, and they went on to nothing better. Pleasure, however, is brief and fleeting, whereas pain never lets up and has no end. The truth of this comes from experience, the true meaning of lasting realities – like men treating this as a lasting city – and fleeting things – not seeking one to come – that is, not lasting for a moment.

All human and carnal things, after all, are of this kind like pleasures, human glory and power, like wealth and all the prosperity of this present life; these things have nothing firm about them, nothing steady, nothing fixed, but shift more rapidly than the currents of a river, leaving naked and desolate those swept along in them. Spiritual things, on the other hand, are not like that, quite the opposite in fact: firm and immovable, not subject to change, lasting forever. What folly, then, would it be to exchange the immovable for the tottering, the permanent for the passing, the enduring for the fleeting, what promises to give joy in eternity for what offers us terrible punishment there?

Considering all this, therefore, dearly beloved, and placing great store on our salvation, let us despise intemperance as mindless and harmful, let us embrace fasting, and right attitudes along with it; let us display a renewed lifestyle, and address ourselves daily to performance of good deeds. In this way, having spent all the holy season of Lent dealing in spiritual goods and amassing great wealth of virtue, we would thus merit to arrive at the Day of the Lord and approach with confidence that awesome spiritual banquet, and with conscience pure share in those ineffable and immortal goods, being filled therefrom with grace and with the prayers and intercessions of those well pleasing to Christ our loving God, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power and honour, now and forever, for ages of ages. Amen.

St John Chrysostom: Homilies On Genesis, 1.10-12; FoC 74 (1985) tr. Hill.

Season of the Year | Week 23

Sunday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE ORATIONS OF ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN

The Holy Spirit shares with the Son in the work both of Creation and Resurrection, as you may see from these words of Scripture: By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the power of them by the breath of his mouth; and this, The Spirit of God that made me, and the Breath of the Almighty that teaches me; and again, You shall send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. The Holy Spirit is also the author of spiritual regeneration. Here is your proof: None can see or enter into the Kingdom, except he be born again of the Spirit and be cleansed from the first birth. This rebirth is a mystery of the night, a remoulding of the day and of the light, by which everyone individually is created anew.

This same Spirit, who is most wise and most loving, if he takes possession of a shepherd, makes him a Psalmist, subduing evil spirits by his song, and proclaims him King; if he possess a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees, he makes him a Prophet. Call to mind David and Amos. If he takes possession of a goodly youth, he makes him a Judge of Elders, even beyond his years, as Daniel testifies, who conquered the lions in their den. If he takes possession of fishermen, he makes them catch the whole world in the nets of Christ, taking them up in the meshes of the Word. Look at Peter and Andrew and the Sons of Thunder, thundering the things of the Spirit. If he takes possession of tax collectors, he makes gain of them for discipleship, and makes them merchants of souls; witness Matthew, yesterday a tax collector, today an Evangelist. If he possesses zealous persecutors, he changes the current of their zeal, and makes them Pauls instead of Sauls, and as full of piety as he found them of wickedness.

He is the Spirit of meekness, and yet is provoked by those who sin. Let us therefore prove him gentle and not wrathful, by confessing his dignity; and let us not desire to see him implacably wrathful. It is he who has made me today a bold herald to you; – if this means no rest for myself, God be thanked; but if this means that I am in danger, I thank him nevertheless. In the one case, we pray that he may spare those who hate us; in the other, we pray that we may receive this reward for our preaching of the Gospel: that he may consecrate us and make us perfect by the shedding of our blood.

St Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 41 On Pentecost, 14; NPNF2 7 (1989) tr. Brown.

Monday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON GENESIS OF ORIGEN

The time is coming, says the Lord, when I shall send a famine on the land, not the hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord.

Do you know what the hunger is that holds sinners in its grip? Do you know what kind of hunger is weighing on the land? It is those who are of the earth and care only for earthly things, being unable to accept what belongs to the Spirit of God, who suffer hunger for the word of God. They do not listen to the commandments of the law, are ignorant of the admonitions of the Prophets as also of the consolations of the Apostles, and have no experience of the healing of the Gospel. It is therefore rightly said of them: There was famine throughout the land.

But for the righteous and for those who meditate day and night on the law of the Lord, Wisdom prepares her table, kills her victims, mixes her wine in a bowl and cries with a loud voice, not to summon all, not to have the well-to-do and the wealthy and those full of the wisdom of this world turning aside to her, but Let those who are simple come to me, she says; in other words, those with humble hearts, who have learned to be gentle and humble of heart from Christ. Elsewhere referred to as the poor in spirit, though they are rich in faith – these are the people who gather at the feasts of Wisdom to be refreshed and to rid the land of the famine weighing on it.

Be careful, then, that you too do not become an Egyptian in the grip of famine. Take care not to be so involved in worldly affairs, so bound by the chains of avarice or softened by sensual indulgence, that the food of Wisdom, which is always offered in the Churches of God, becomes distasteful to you. For if you close your ears to what is read or discussed in Church, without doubt you will suffer hunger for the Word of God. But if you are of the line of Abraham, and preserve the nobility of the Israelite race, the Law and the Prophets will always nourish you, and the Apostles will also offer you sumptuous feasts. The Gospels, too, will invite you to sit at table in the company of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the Father to eat of the tree of life there, and to drink wine from the true vine, to drink the new wine with Christ in the kingdom of his Father. For it is impossible for the friends of the bridegroom to fast or suffer hunger for this food as long as the bridegroom is with them.

Origen: Homilies On Genesis, 16 (SC 7bis:382-384); Word in Season VI.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE HOLY TRINITY BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ

Look at the fields, I tell you: they are already white, ready for harvesting. The reaper is drawing his pay and bringing in a crop for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. The saying is true then: ‘One sows, another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you did not sow. Others laboured, and you have profited by their labours.

To explain briefly: those who laboured and sowed are the Patriarchs and Prophets; those who profited by their labours are the Apostles. By labouring, that is by journeying from country to country, from one kingdom to another, the Patriarchs sowed, that is, deserved to receive the promises of the blessed descendant that was to come, namely Christ. They did not, however, see him with their own eyes, but only served as ploughmen and sowers by eagerly hoping for him.

On the other hand, the Apostles had the joy of seeing Christ present with their own eyes, which is why he said to them: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that prophets and kings desired to see what you see but never saw it, and to hear what you hear, but never heard it.

Therefore, when Amos says: The ploughman shall overtake the reaper, it is as though he were saying: The Patriarchs and Apostles shall rejoice together in the descendant of Abraham, which is Christ, in whom they shall both receive the promised blessing, so that, as the Prophet says, sower and reaper may rejoice together. For the Apostles did not profit from the Patriarchs’ labours in such a way as to exclude them, but both rejoiced together, those who sowed before Christ’s coming, and those who reaped when he came.

Abbot Rupert of Deutz, De Sancta Trinitate, 4 (PL 168:376-7); Word in Season VI.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS BY ORIGEN

God says through Hosea: Those who were not my people I will call my people, and the unloved I will call my beloved. And in the very place where they were told, ‘You are not my people’, they shall be called children of the living God.

This testimony, which the Apostle takes from Hosea, seems to refer in the Prophet not to the Gentiles but to the Israelites themselves; but Paul uses a parallel situation as an example to make his point. Just as when the Israelites, abandoned and without hope, were told, You are not my people, and I am not your God, and yet in the very place where they were told, ‘you are not my people’ they will be called children of the living God, so too, he says, we whom God has called not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles, who formerly were not his people, he has now called his people, and we who were unloved he has called his beloved, and in the very place where we were told, You are not my people, we shall be called children of the living God.

But perhaps the Jews will ask us where it was said to us that we were not the people of God, so that in the same place we might be called sons of the living God. For they claim that God said this in Judea, since only there was he known. None of this refers to us because the Law speaks to those who are under the Law.

But I will tell of a far worthier place in which it was fitting and possible for God to speak. It is hardly appropriate for God to speak in the mountains and grottos and the other places where he is said to speak, and fail to speak in the human mind, in the reason, in the sovereign place of the heart. There, when conscience condemns us, convicting us of unworthy actions that estrange us from God, there, in that same place it is declared, there it is said to each one of us: You are not my people. But if we each cleanse and purify ourselves from those actions, and if the peace of God which is beyond all understanding begins to guard our hearts, there, in the depths of hearts now at peace, we shall with the assent of our conscience be called sons of God.

Origen: Commentary on Romans (PG 14:1151-1152); Word in Season VI.

Thursday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

God’s purpose, according to which he did not make man to perish but to live forever, abides unchanging. When his kindness sees shining in us the slightest glimmer of good will, which he himself has in fact sparked from the hard flint of our heart, he fosters it, stirs it up, and strengthens it with his inspiration, desiring all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For, he says, it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. And again he says: God does not wish a soul to perish, but he withdraws and reflects, lest one who has been cast down perish utterly.

Therefore the grace of Christ is at hand every day. It calls out and says to everyone without exception: Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest, because he desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But if he does not call all universally but only a few, it follows that not all are burdened by original sin and by present sin and that these words are not true: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Nor would it be believed that death has passed through all men. And so true is it that all who perish do so contrary to God’s will that God is said not to have made death itself, as Scripture testifies: God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.

Through the prophet Hosea the divine word well expressed this concern of his for us by using the image of Jerusalem as a prostitute who is drawn with wicked ardour to the worship of idols. She says: I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. The divine condescension replies, with a view to her salvation and not to her will: Behold, I will hedge in her paths with thorns, and I will hedge her in with a wall, and she will not find her ways. And she will pursue her lovers and not lay hold of them, and she will seek them and not find them, and she will say: I will return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now.

Again, the obstinacy and contempt with which we rebelliously disdain God when he urges us to return to our own salvation is described in this way: I said that you shall call me Father, he says, and that you shall not cease to come after me. But just as a woman despises her lover, so the house of Israel has despised me, says the Lord. Since he had compared Jerusalem to an adulteress abandoning her spouse, he has also quite appropriately compared his love and abiding kindness to a man who is desperately in love with a woman. For the graciousness and love of God could not be expressed by a better comparison than the example of a man who is passionately in love with a woman and who is all the more inflamed with desire for her the more he feels that he is neglected and despised by her.

The divine protection, then, is always inseparably present to us, and so great is the love of the Creator for his creature that his providence not only stands by her but even goes constantly before her. The prophet, who has experienced this, confesses it very clearly when he says: My God will go before me with his mercy.

St John Cassian, Conferences, 13.7.1 - 8.3; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Friday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS BY ORIGEN

What is the sacrifice which is offered for sin and is very holy except the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ my Lord? He alone is the ‘sacrifice for sins’ and he is ‘a very holy offering’. But since it added that ‘the priest who offers it will eat it’, it seems to be hard to understand. For that which it says must be eaten seems to be referring to the sin; just as in another place the Prophet Hosea says concerning the priests that they will eat the sins of my people. This also shows that the priest ought to eat the sin of the one who is offering.

We frequently show from Holy Scripture that Christ is the sacrifice which is offered for the sin of the world and also the priest who brings the offering. The Apostle explains this by one word when he says, Who offered himself to God. Therefore, Christ is the priest who eats and consumes the sins of the people, about whom it is said, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchisedek. My Lord and Saviour thus eats the sins of the people. How? Hear what is written: Our God is a consuming fire. What does the God of fire consume? Will we be so senseless as to think that God consumes the firewood or straw or hay? The God of fire consumes human sins. He consumes them, devours them, purges them, as he says in another place, I will purge you with fire for purity. To eat sin is to offer a sacrifice for sin, for Christ took our sins and in himself he eats them and consumes them as if a fire.

Therefore, the Law says, The priest who offered it will eat it in a holy place, in the court of the Tent of Witness. For it is logical that the ministers and priests of the Church receive the sins of the people according to the example of the one who gave the priesthood to the Church. Imitating their teacher, let them grant the people forgiveness of sins. Therefore, these priests of the Church ought to be so perfected and learned in the priestly duties that they consume the sins of the people in a holy place, in the court of the Tent of Witness, not sinning themselves.

But what does it mean to eat the sin in a holy place? It was a holy place into which Moses came when it was said to him, For this place on which you stand is holy ground. In like manner, therefore, the holy place in the Church of God is perfect faith and love from a pure heart and good conscience. Let him who remains among these in the Church know that he stands in a holy place, because a sound faith and holy conduct are a holy place.

And so, established in this place, let the priest of the Church consume the sins of the people so that when he kills the sacrifice of God’s Word and offers sacrifices of holy doctrine he may cleanse the consciences of the hearers from sins. Thus, the priest will eat the flesh of the sacrifice in the court of the Tent of Witness when he can understand what is the reason for these mysteries which are described concerning the courts of the Tent of Witness. For to these secret and hidden courts no one approaches. These are open to no one except the priests. And yet they are only open to them if, by their wisdom and mystical understanding, they can penetrate their secrets.

Origen: Homily 5 On Leviticus, 3.2-5; FoC 83 (1990) tr. Barkley.

Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

God did not look for sacrifices or burnt offerings from his people; for their own salvation he looked for faith, obedience and holiness. He taught them what his will was in the words of the prophet Hosea: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts. Our Lord too gave them the same warning when he said: If you had understood the meaning of the words, “What I want is mercy, not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the blameless. By this testimony he confirmed the teachings of the prophets and convicted the people of culpable folly.

Nevertheless, he counselled his disciples to offer to God the first fruits of his own creation; not that God needed this, but so that they might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful. He took an element of creation, bread, and giving thanks said: This is my body. In the same way he declared the cup, which is of the same creation as ourselves, to be his blood, and taught that it was the new offering of the new covenant. It is this offering which the Church has received from the Apostles and which, throughout the whole world, it offers to the God who gives us food, as the first fruits of his own gifts under the new covenant. Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, foretold this in these words: I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. It is clearly his meaning that the former people would cease to make offerings to God but that a sacrifice would be offered to him in every place, a pure sacrifice, and that name would be glorified among the nations.

What is this name which is glorified among the nations if not that of our Lord, by whom the Father is glorified and man is glorified too? But because the name belongs to his own Son, and because by the Father the Word was made flesh, he calls it his own. Take this example. If a king paints a portrait of his son he is right to call that portrait his own for two reasons, because it is that of his son, and because it was he himself who made it. So too with the name of Jesus Christ, which is glorified throughout the whole world in the Church: the Father acknowledges this name as his own because it is the name of his Son and because it was he himself who wrote it and gave it for man’s salvation.

Since the Son’s name, then, belongs properly to the Father, and since in every place the Church makes her offering to almighty God through Jesus Christ, the Prophet’s words are doubly appropriate: In every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice. Incense is the prayer of the saints, as John says in the Apocalypse.

St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, 4.17.4-6; The Divine Office III.

Season of the Year | Week 24

Sunday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE STATUES BY S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Our city of Antioch is dearer to Christ than all others both because of the virtue of our ancestors, and of your own. And as Peter was the first among the Apostles to preach Christ, so as I said before, this city was the first of cities to adorn itself by assuming the Christian title as a sort of admirable crown. But if God promised to save all who lived in the place where only ten just men were found, why should we not expect a favourable result to the current crisis and be assured of all our lives, in this city where there are not only ten, twenty, or twice so many, but far more who are serving God with all strictness.

I have heard many full of dejection and lamentation saying, The threats of a king are like the wrath of a lion. What should we say to them? He who said, The wolves and the lambs shall feed together; and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, will be able to convert the lion into a mild lamb. Let us therefore pray to him; let us send an embassy to him; and he will doubtless allay the Emperor’s wrath, and deliver us from the impending distress. Our Father the Bishop has gone on an embassy to the Emperor. Let us go on embassy from here to the Majesty of heaven! Let us assist him by prayers! The community of the Church can do much, if with a sorrowful soul and contrite spirit we offer up our prayers! It is unnecessary to cross the ocean, or to undertake a long journey. Let every man and woman among us, whether meeting together at Church, or remaining at home, call upon God with great devotion and he will certainly accept these petitions.

Why is this so? It is because he wants us always to take refuge in him, and in everything to make our requests to him. Hear what he reproves the Jews for: You have taken counsel, but not of Me, and made treaties, but not by My Spirit. For this is the custom of those who love; they desire that all the concerns of their beloved should be accomplished by means of themselves; and that they should neither do anything, nor say anything, without them. On this account God spoke the same language in rebuke through the Prophet Hosea: They have reigned, but not by me; they have ruled, and they did not make it known to me. Let us not then be slow to take refuge in him continually: and whatever the evil is, it will find its appropriate solution.

Does a man frighten you? Hasten to the Lord above, and you will suffer no evil. Thus the ancients were released from their calamities; and not men only, but also women. Esther rescued the whole people of the Jews, when they were about to be delivered over to destruction, by prayer. Let this be the prayer which we offer to God for our Teacher. For if a woman, supplicating on behalf of the Jews, prevailed to allay the wrath of a barbarian, much rather will our Teacher, entreating on behalf of so great a city, and in conjunction with so great a Church, be able to persuade this most mild and merciful Emperor.

Let us not then despair of our safety, but let us pray; let us make invocation; let us supplicate; let us go on embassy to the King that is above with many tears!

St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Statues, 3.4-7; NPNF 9 (1889) tr. Stephens.

Monday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A LETTER BY ST PAULINUS OF NOLA

From the beginning of the world Christ has been suffering in all his people; for he is the beginning and the end, veiled in the Law, revealed in the Gospel, the Lord ever wonderful in his saints, in whom he both suffers and triumphs. In Abel he was killed by his brother, in Noah mocked by his son, in Abraham a sojourner, in Isaac offered in sacrifice, in Jacob a servant, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed and put to flight, in the Prophets stoned and sawn in two, in the Apostles buffeted on land and sea, and in the many varied torments of the blessed Martyrs put to death time and again.

And it is the same Lord who endures our sufferings and sorrows today. He identified himself with the human race and so has continually borne the maltreatment inflicted upon us; for he knows how to endure suffering, which without him we cannot endure and do not know how to endure. It is he, I say, who continues to withstand the world in us and for us today, so that, overcoming it by his patient endurance, he may bring his power to perfection in weakness. He it is who suffers the taunts you endure, and by hating you this world is hating him.

But thanks be to him, for he is vindicated when he is judged. As you read in Scripture, the Lord triumphs in us through his appearance as a slave, acquiring for his servants the gift of freedom through that mystery of his love whereby he clothed himself in the nature of a slave and for our sakes deigned to humble himself even to the extent of dying on a cross, so that by dwelling in our nature in its visible lowliness, he might win for us invisible exaltation with the blessed.

Consider the position from which we fell in the beginning, and you will realize that it is by the design of God’s wisdom and love that we are being restored to life. In Adam we were destroyed by pride, and therefore we are humbled in Christ so as to wash away the guilt of that ancient crime by practicing the opposite virtue. Having offended by arrogance, we win approval by service. Let us then rejoice and make our boast in him who made his battle and victory ours when he said: Stand firm, for I have overcome the world.

St Paulinus of Nola, Letter 38: 3-4, 6 (CSEL 29:326-327); Word in Season VI.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON HOSEA BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Exhortations are usually given in one of two ways. As a rule we either speak of the punishment awaiting those inclined to be careless, to frighten them into changing their way of life and to win them over as soon as may be to a life of virtue; or else we tell of the rewards prepared for the just, to make those we instruct eager henceforth to live a better and more upright life. That is how the God of all creation is working now. He threatened those who had gone astray with wars, disasters, exile among the Gentiles, the burning of their cities, and the brutality of their enemies. But he did not end his exhortations there; he has another way of helping them. He bids them give up the useless things that bring them nothing but misery, and choose instead what is most likely to profit them.

They should be like tillers of the soil, sowing justice, and reaping the fruit of life; for as St Paul wrote, Whatever we sow we shall also reap. Those who sow evil will reap evil, says Scripture. But the just will have salvation and life in full measure. They will be illustrious and worthy of emulation, and will gather grapes for the wine that gladdens the human heart. Besides this, however, those who want to win God’s approval must open their minds and hearts to receive the light of true knowledge, which is lacking in those who worship the creation rather than the Creator.

How we can best go about sowing justice, reaping the fruit of life, and receiving the bright light of knowledge the Prophet shows by adding the words: Seek the Lord until the fruits of justice come to you. Not that there is any special place where we should seek God – we should be foolish to think so, since the divinity is not contained in any space. No, God is to be sought by the dispositions of the soul, by the eagerness of minds inclined toward whatever pleases him and reverencing true and clear knowledge containing nothing that deserves censure. When we have found God in this way, we shall be rich in the possession of every other blessing.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Hosea (PG 71:253-256); Word in Season VI.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST GREGORY PALAMAS

Before creating us our Maker brought this whole universe into being from nothing for the sustenance of our bodily existence. But as for improving our conduct and guiding us toward virtue, what has the Lord in his love of goodness not done for us? He has made the whole of this perceptible universe a kind of mirror of heaven, so that by spiritual contemplation of the world around us we may reach up to heavenly things as if by some wonderful ladder. He has implanted in us the natural law, as an inflexible rule, an infallible judge and an unerring teacher: this is our conscience. If we look deep within ourselves, then, we shall need no other teacher to show us what is good, and if we look outside ourselves we shall find the invisible God visible in the things he has made, as the Apostle says.

After providing a school of virtue in our own nature and in the created world, God gave us the angels to protect us, he raised up the Patriarchs and Prophets to guide us, he showed us signs and wonders to lead us to faith, and gave us the written Law as a supplement to the law of our rational soul and the teaching of the world around us. Then at last, when we had scorned all this in our indolence – how different from his own continuing love and care for us! – he gave himself to us for our salvation. He poured out the wealth of his divinity into our lowly condition; he took our nature and became a human being like us, and was with us as our teacher. He teaches us the greatness of his love and proves it by word and deed, at the same time persuading those who obey him not to be hard-hearted, but to imitate his compassion.

Those who manage worldly affairs have a certain love for them, as do shepherds for their flocks and owners for their personal possessions, but this cannot be compared with the love of those who share the same flesh and blood, and especially the love of parents for their children. Therefore, to make us realize how much he loves us, God called himself our Father; for our sake he became man, and then, through the grace of the Holy Spirit conferred in baptism, he caused us to be born anew.

St Gregory Palamas, Homily 3 (PG 151:36); Word in Season VI.

Thursday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID BY ST AMBROSE

Job heeded what God had spoken to him and also knew through the Holy Spirit that the Son of God would not only come to earth but was going to descend also into hell to raise up the dead – as indeed was done at that time as a testimony of present things and a model of future ones. At the same time, in saying, You will set a time for me, when you would remember me, Job is understood to be prophesying that he was going to be raised up in the passion of the Lord, as is shown clearly in the conclusion of that book. Yet he does not cease to lament, and the more he understands that a resurrection awaits him, the greater his desire to flee from this life. For he sees that he has been given over into the hands of his adversaries and cast down into the power of the unholy. Even his friends have turned into enemies.

And so, the holy man tearfully laments the circumstances of such a life. I am dying with a tortured spirit, I pray for burial and I do not obtain it. I am supplicating in distress. And what am I to do? My days have passed in horror, the strings of my heart have been broken. Nevertheless, he does not detract from God’s judgement at any point, for he knows that the depth of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God is profound and that his judgements are incomprehensible and his ways unsearchable. Why do you wish to search with care into something which is not advantageous for you to know, nor is it given to you to be acquainted with it? Paul heard certain secrets of wisdom which he was forbidden to make known to others, and so he was caught up into paradise, caught up even to the third heaven, to hear things which he was not able to hear when he was on earth. If it was not permitted to man to speak what he heard, how does he search out that which he has not heard? It is not permitted you to know the counsels of your Emperor on earth, and do you wish to know God’s counsels?

No one could have known wisdom, because no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Therefore he revealed him to John, since wisdom was with the Apostle, and so he spoke not his own thought, but that which wisdom poured into him: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Death does not know wisdom, wickedness does not know it. Death indeed could not hold it, for wisdom said, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Wickedness does not know it, for wisdom said, The wicked will seek me and they will not find me. These can say, We have heard the fame of it. But it is only God who knows it, because God has established well its way and knows its place. Listen to the disciple the as he tells what wisdom’s receptacle is: The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed him. And so the Father, who knows all things, has seen wisdom and has revealed it through his Prophets.

St Ambrose, On the Prayer of Job and David, 8.26 – 9.31; FoC 65 (1971) tr. McHugh.

Friday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON HOSEA BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ

Israel, come back to the Lord your God, for you have fallen headlong in your sin. It is Christ himself who speaks thus at the end of the book of the Prophet Hosea – Christ, the goal of all achievement, who when sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel began his preaching with the words: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Some may reply with those who were filled with compunction and said to Peter and the other Apostles: What shall we do, brethren? To these or suchlike words from frightened, contrite people aware of their sinfulness his answer will come at once: Take words with you, return to the Lord and say to him: Take away all our iniquity, accept what is good, and we will offer the fruit of our lips.

You who are returning to the Lord, he says, take words with you. Why words rather than gifts? Precisely to show that God is not one to make difficulties. He does not require for the redemption of your souls things you might find it hard to come by. So I do not say: Take gold with you, take silver, take a great many goats or calves, or things like that, not within the means of all, but words which cost you nothing material, words of confession and supplication; take them with you and they will help you at once, for in God’s eyes they suffice to save you and atone for your sins. Provided with these return to the Lord God who has no need of your goods, and as I have already said, do not worry if you have no rich gifts of precious gold or silver to honour and propitiate such a great and powerful Lord; just say to him: Take away all our iniquity, and accept what is good.

Do not say: ‘We have no iniquity’, for that would be a lie and you would be deceiving yourselves, but say to him: Take away all our iniquity for our sins are many. Say with confidence, Accept what is good, knowing what sort of good he desires, and with this in mind add: and we will offer not the offspring of cattle, but the fruit of our lips. For you are entirely self-sufficient and have no need to eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats; all you desire is that we offer you the fruit of our lips, that is to say a sacrifice of praise. This will please you more, for it is evidence of a good will.

Abbot Rupert of Deutz, Commentary on Hosea (PL 168:198-199); Word in Season VI.

Saturday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST CAESARIUS OF ARLES

Those who close their eyes to the demands of love fall asleep in the desire for worldly pleasures. Therefore be watchful. Eating, drinking, carousing, gambling and hunting are pleasures, but evils of every kind follow in the wake of these vanities. No one can deny that they are enjoyable, but love of God’s law must come first, for to love God means to keep his commandments. Which commandments? You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

My brothers, to widen our hearts we need not depend upon ourselves. Ask God to help you love one another – to love everyone without exception, not just your friends but enemies as well; not because they are your brothers in Christ, but so that they may be. Pray that you may always have a warm fraternal love for other people, both for those who have become your brothers, and for your enemies that they may become such. Whenever you love brothers you love friends, for they are already with you, joined to you in Catholic unity. If they live virtuously you love them as people who have been changed from enemies into brothers. But suppose you love people who do not yet believe in Christ, or if they do, yet believe as the devil believes - they believe in Christ but still do not love him. You must love just the same, you must love even people like that, you must love them as brothers. They are not such yet, but you must love them so that they may become such through your kindness. All our love, then, must be fraternal.

I would ask you to consider and understand where it is that true pleasure for mind and heart is to be found. Strength of body and mind, the fruits of one’s labours, the flowering of achievement, beauty, charm, food and drink, chaste embraces – when accompanied by love, all these things bring true pleasure. If such are the pleasures granted us while yet wayfarers, what delights will not be ours when we reach our heavenly homeland? If the dew is so refreshing, how could the river fail to fulfil all our desires? Through the sweetness of love our Lord and Saviour has given us a taste of heaven. Let us, then, with his help, make every effort to preserve that love in all its perfection, so that when, after our pilgrimage through this world, we reach our eternal homeland, we may deserve to enjoy its delights more fully, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever. Amen.

St Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 137.3-6 (CCL 103:567-568); Word in Season VI.

Season of the Year | Week 25

Sunday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX

In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the whole earth filled with his glory. O longed for time, time of divine favour, time all holy people yearn for when they make the daily petition: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The whole earth was full of his glory. I see this earth I tread upon, I feel the burden of this earthly body: both mean toil and sighs for me; upon both rest the wrath of God rather than his glory. The prince of this world still holds sway over the rebellious; every day he confronts believers, and there is scarcely one among God’s holy people who does not experience his assaults. Yet the whole earth is full of his glory.

I know that this earth I tread upon will be delivered from its enslavement to decay, and that there will be a new earth and a new heaven, and he who sits upon the throne will say: See, I am making all things new. Even my earthly body will be filled with the glory of the Lord. At present the earth yields thorns and thistles for me, since Adam’s crime brought a curse upon it. My body is weak and languid, lazy and burdensome, subject to strong passions and prone to grave illnesses. But why are you cast down, my soul; why groan within me? The whole earth will be filled with his glory.

But when will this be? Undoubtedly, when the Lord takes his seat upon his throne, high and exalted, and refashions our lowly bodies to be like his own glorious body; when that glory which was revealed in the body of the Lord at his transfiguration on the mountain shines forth in our earthly bodies, now risen from the dead and endowed with immortality. Then a new song will be sung and cries of gladness and joy will be heard in the tents of the righteous, for winter is past, the rains are over and gone, and flowers have appeared in the countryside.

The cause of our joy will be the vision of the Creator in his creatures, the love of the Creator in his own being, and the praise of our Creator in both. His train filled the Temple, says Isaiah. What Temple? Scripture says: God’s Temple is holy, and you are that Temple. Now although our bodies are God’s Temple, nevertheless, because our souls control our bodies, our souls are God’s Temple in a special way. This is the Temple in which during the present life we offer God the sacrifice of a humbled, contrite heart which he does not spurn. This is the Temple in which, when the corruptible life of the body is over, and we have been carried to the kingdom of eternal glory where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, we shall offer God a sacrifice of praise. As he himself says through the Prophet: A sacrifice of praise honours me. Now, in the meantime, Lord, may our sacrifice of contrition placate you, so that, when you sit upon your throne, high and exalted, our sacrifice of praise may honour you.

St Aelred of Rievaulx, Sermo de adventu Domini (SSOC 1:32-33); Word in Season VI.

Monday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

You who desired life, or, rather, who desire it, and long for happy days, turn away from evil and do good; seek the peace which everyone longs for. Let everyone seek peace – seek peace and pursue it. Where is it? Where am I to follow it to? Which way has it passed, so that I can follow it? It has passed through you, but has not remained in you. Peace itself has passed through the human race. A blind man cried out as it passed. Where did it go? First find out what peace is, then notice where it went and follow it.

What is peace? Listen to the Apostle when he says of Christ: He is our peace, who has made us both one. So peace is Christ. Where did he go? He was crucified and buried, he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. There, that is where peace went. How shall I follow him? Lift up your heart. Learn how to follow him. You hear it in a word every day when you are invited to lift up your heart. Follow him by raising your thoughts to higher things. But there is more you will have to learn if you are to follow true peace, your own peace, the peace that faced combat for your sake, the peace that although he endured combat for your sake yet prayed for the enemies of peace, saying as he hung on the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

There was a combat, and peace passed away on the cross. He passed away, but then what happened? He ascended into heaven. You must seek peace. How are you to follow him? Listen to the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Turn your thoughts to heavenly things, away from worldly concerns, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ who is your life appears, you also will appear with him in glory. There is where happy days are – let us long for them; let us live for them, pray for them, and give alms for them.

When the gospel about Zacchaeus is read, do we not all think him blessed when Christ looks up at him as he sits in the tree hoping to see him pass by and when he looks forward to having Christ in his house? When Christ says to him: Come down, Zacchaeus, for I must stay at your house today, I know you congratulate him. You all seem to be one with him and to welcome Christ with him. You all say in your hearts: ‘How blessed Zacchaeus was to have the Lord enter his house! Oh, how blessed!’ But can the same thing happen to us? Christ is in heaven now. Read the New Testament to me, Christ. Make me blessed through your law. Read it yourselves in order to realize that Christ’s presence is not denied you. Hear what your future judge says: What you did for the least of those who belong to me, you did for me.

You all hope to receive Christ enthroned in heaven. Care for him as he lies in your doorway, care for him when he is hungry, cold, needy, a stranger. Continue to do what you did before. Begin to do what you did not do before. Your knowledge has increased – see that your good deeds increase. You praise the sower – see that you produce a harvest.

St Augustine, Sermon 25.7-8 (CCL 41:338-339); Word in Season VI.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE

When our Lord gave the commandment of love for one’s enemies, his hearers may have found it bitter: I ask you, therefore, to taste the sweetness of his promise to those who obey. Let this sweet delight abide in your heart, and the difficulty of that bitterness will be surmounted. People who love their enemies and do good to those who hate them will be children of God!

The blessed Apostle reveals the reward these children of God are to receive: The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God. But if we are children then we are heirs as well: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Pay heed, then, Christians; pay heed, children of God; pay heed, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ: If you wish to receive your patrimony, love not only your friends but also your enemies. Deny no one the love which all the righteous have as a common possession. Let everyone have it at once, and so that you may have it more fully, bestow it upon good and bad alike. Such a sharing of good things in common is by no means an earthly virtue: it is heavenly. There is therefore nothing in it to restrict those who share in it.

Love increases as cupidity decreases; moreover, love never fails to free those whom worldly desires do not hold captive. Love is a gift of God. As the Apostle says: God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Avarice is a snare of the devil, and not only a snare but a sword: by means of it he captures poor wretches and puts them to death. Love is the root of all good; avarice is the root of all evil.

Avarice brings ceaseless torment because it is never satisfied with its booty. Love, on the other hand, brings joy because the more it increases the more generously it gives. Consequently, while their acquisitions impoverish those who desire evil, charitable givers are enriched by their gifts. The greedy are troubled, seeking revenge for injuries inflicted on them; the charitable are at peace, delighting to forgive any harm done to them. The avaricious avoid practising the works of mercy, while the charitable perform them cheerfully The object of the avaricious is to injure their neighbours; the charitable do them no harm. By self-exaltation the greedy sink down into hell; by humbling themselves the charitable ascend to heaven.

But when shall I ever be able fittingly to sing the praises of love, which is not solitary in heaven or bereft on earth? For on earth it is fed by the words of God; in heaven it is filled by the words of God. On earth it has the company of friends, in heaven the fellowship of angels. It toils in the world; it finds rest in heaven.

St Fulgentius of Ruspe, Sermon 5.5-6 (CCL 91A:922-923); Word in Season VI.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF ST BERNARD ON THE GLORIES OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER

For God this kind of birth was fitting: that he should be born of none other than a Virgin; and such a childbirth was fitting for the Virgin: to bring forth none but God. Man’s maker, then, when about to be born of man in order to become man, had to choose, indeed create, a mother for himself from among all such as he knew befitted himself and would be pleasing to him.

He therefore willed a virgin to exist without stain, from whom he himself would come without stain, to cleanse away the stains of all.

He willed her humble, from whom he was to come forth meek and humble of heart, to show in himself the example of these virtues that for all men was necessary and most healthful. So the granted childbirth to the Virgin when he had already inspired in her the vow of virginity, and had granted her the merit of humility.

Moreover, how does the angel, in the passage that follows, pronounce her full of grace, if she had any, even a very little goodness that was not the effect of grace? So that she who was to conceive and bring forth the Holy of holies might be holy in body, she received the gift of virginity; that she might be holy also in mind, she received the gift of humility.

Adorned with these jewels of virtue, resplendent in the twin beauty of mind and body, and known in heaven by her radiant loveliness, the royal Virgin attracted to herself the gaze of heaven’s citizens: thus she drew the king’s heart to desire her, and from on high brought to herself the heavenly messenger.

The angel, Scripture says, was sent to a virgin. Virgin in body; virgin in mind; virgin in her own claim; virgin finally such as the Apostle describes, holy in mind and body: not newly discovered nor by chance, but chosen from all ages, foreknown by the Most High and prepared for himself; guarded by angels, prefigured by the fathers and promised by the prophets.

St Bernard: Homilies on the glories of the Virgin Mother 2, 1-2.4; The Divine Office III.

Thursday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

Whenever we suffer some distress or tribulation there we find warning and correction for ourselves. Our holy Scriptures themselves do not promise us peace, security and repose, but tribulations and distress; the gospel is not silent about scandals; but he who perseveres to the end will be saved. What good has this life of ours ever been, from the time of the first man, from when he deserved death and received the curse, that curse from which Christ our Lord delivered us?

So we must not complain, brothers, as some of them complained, as the Apostle says, and perished from the serpents. What fresh sort of suffering, brothers, does the human race now endure that our fathers did not undergo? Or when do we endure the kind of sufferings which we know they endured? Yet you find men complaining about the times they live in, saying that the times of our fathers were good. What if they could be taken back to the times of their fathers, and should then complain? The past times that you think were good, are good because they are not yours here and now.

If you have now been delivered from the curse, if you have now believed in the Son of God; if you are now well versed or trained in sacred Scripture, I am surprised that you should reckon Adam to have had good times. Your parents carried the burden of Adam as well. Indeed it was Adam who heard the words: In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, and you shall work the ground from which you were taken; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you. He deserved this, he received this, he was given this as a result of God’s just judgement. Why then do you think past times were better than yours? From that Adam to the Adam of today, toil and sweat, thorns and thistles. Have we forgotten the flood? Have we forgotten the burdensome times of famine and wars? They were written about to prevent us complaining of the present time against God.

What times those were! Do not we all shudder to hear or read of them? So we have rather cause for congratulating ourselves than grounds for complaining about our own times.

St Augustine, Sermon; The Divine Office III.

Friday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Israel was not completely destroyed: in fulfilment of the Prophet’s words a remnant was saved, for no small number came to believe in Christ. Of these the company of the holy Apostles formed the original group: they were so to speak the first-fruits. Thus Scripture says: On that day the Lord will be a crown of hope, a garland of glory for the remnant of my people.

It is the Lord of Hosts himself who will crown those who have believed with hope and glory: with hope for the blessings to come, and with the glory in which they will reign with him; and when they have attained their heavenly reward they will be the envy and admiration of all the world.

For those who hope, what could equal the glory of being crowned in Christ’s kingdom? Elsewhere Isaiah tells them: You will be a beautiful crown, a royal diadem, in the hand of your God. For Christ will crown those who believe in him with everlasting glory, while he refreshes them now with the most magnificent hopes. There will be a share in these things for the remnant of my people, says the Prophet, that is, the remnant of the Jews, as well as those belonging to another people, namely the Gentiles, who are likewise devoted to Christ and pray to God their heavenly Father crying out: Lord, you surround us with favour as with a shield.

It pleased God the Father that Christ should become for us an unbreakable shield. Placing himself between us and the darts of the devil, he saved his people from being wounded or harmed in any way by his malice. Some such meaning is implied, I think, in the words spoken about the people he had won for himself, that is, those justified by faith. They will be preserved by a spirit of justice for him who sits in judgement, and of courage for those who thrust back the attacker.

For once, long ago, Satan almost destroyed the sons of earth when he flung them into the pit of sin. There was no one who did right, not a single one; they had all left the right path, they were depraved, everyone, as the Psalmist says. But when the only-begotten Son, the Word of God, became man, he judged our case, deciding between us and the tyrant Satan. The latter he condemned to destruction, and removed him as the destroyer of earth-dwellers and a murderer, so saving us who were lost. This is his teaching when he says: Now is the hour of judgement for this world; now shall the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, shall draw the whole world to myself.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Isaiah (PG 70:617-619); Word in Season VI.

Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE ORATIONS OF ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN

Who is wise, and who will understand these things? Who will leave behind what is fleeting? Who will throw in his lot with what abides? Who will think of the present as passing away? Who will distinguish between appearance and reality, ignore the one and court the other? Who will distinguish between fact and fiction, between the tabernacle below and the city above? Who between temporary and permanent home? Who between darkness and light? Who will barter the things of the present for the future? Who will exchange the wealth that slips away from the kind that is not lost, things visible for things unseen?

Yes, blessed is the man who distinguishes between these things, dividing them in accordance with the separation of the Word that divides the better from the worse, and purposes in his heart to go up, as the divine David says at one point, and, fleeing this valley of weeping, seeks with all his might the things that are above; he takes his place at Christ’s side, crucified to the world along with Christ, and together with Christ ascends, heir to the life that no longer fails or deceives. The same David, like a herald most loud of voice booming an important public proclamation, rightly cries out to us not to cling so tightly to the visible world or to regard the sum of earthly happiness as nothing more than a full supply of perishable food and drink. And I expect the blessed Micah too has something like this in mind when he says, confronting those who make a show of virtue as they creep along the ground, Draw near to the everlasting mountains. Arise; for this is not your rest. These are almost the very words that our Lord and Saviour uses to admonish us. What does he say? Rise, let us go hence. He is not merely conducting his disciples of the moment from that specific place, as one might think, but he is drawing all his disciples as well away for all time from the earth and the things of earth to the heavens and the blessings of heaven.

So let us now follow the Word; let us seek the repose on high; let us cast aside the opulence of this world; let us have recourse to only that portion of it that serves a good end; let us gain our lives by acts of charity; let us share what we have with the poor that we may be rich in the bounty of heaven. Give a portion of your soul too, not just your body; give a portion to God too, not just the world; take something from the belly, dedicate it to the Spirit; pluck something from the fire, place it far from the devouring flame below; rob from the tyrant, commit to the Lord. Give a portion to seven, that is, to this life, and even to eight, the life that will receive us after this one; give a little to him from whom you have so much; give even the whole to him who has bestowed all. You will never surpass God’s generosity even if you hand over your entire substance and yourself in the bargain. Indeed, to receive in the truest sense is to give oneself to God.

St Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 14.21-22; FoC 107 (2003) tr. Vinson.

Season of the Year | Week 26

Sunday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS

One who questions a false prophet upon any matter is a foolish idolater, ignorant of the truth. For no spirit given by God needs to be questioned. Possessing divine authority, it always speaks spontaneously, for it comes from above, from the power of the Holy Spirit. But the spirit that has to be questioned and speaks according to human desires is earthly, fickle, and without authority; if it is not questioned it says nothing.

Then how, O Lord, I ask, are we to distinguish the true from the false prophet? Listen, he says, to what I am going to tell you about both prophets, and that will teach you how to test the true and the false. Test whether prophets have the Holy Spirit by their lives. In the first place, one who has the Spirit from above is gentle, peaceable and humble. He refrains from all evil and the vain desires of this world. He makes himself inferior to all others and gives no reply when he is questioned, nor does he speak independently. The Holy Spirit does not speak at the will of any human being, but only when God wishes him to do so.

Some who think they possess the Spirit exalt themselves, claiming the highest rank, and then immediately become bold, impudent, and loquacious. They live amid great luxury and many other delusions, accepting payment for their prophecies. Unless they are paid they refuse to prophesy. Can the divine Spirit really accept payment to prophesy? The prophet of God cannot possibly do this, but such people are possessed by an earthly spirit. So test those who claim to be inspired by the Spirit by their deeds and their lives. Trust the Spirit that comes from God and has authority, but distrust the spirit that is earthly and vain, since it has no authority, but comes from the devil.

Let me give you an illustration. Take a stone and throw it at the sky; see if you can hit it. Or again take a syringe and squirt a jet of water at the sky, and see if you can make a hole in it. How, Lord, I ask, can these things be done? They are both impossible. Just as these things are impossible, he says, so also are earthly spirits weak and powerless. Now take the power that comes from above. Hailstones are the smallest of pellets, but when they fall on your head how painful they are! Or again, take the drops of water that drip from the roof to the ground and wear a hole in the stone. You see that the smallest things falling to the earth from above have great power. So too is there power in the divine Spirit that comes from above. Put your trust in this Spirit, then, but have nothing to do with the other.

Hermas: The Shepherd, 11th Mandate, 4-8, 16-21 (SC 52:194-199); Word in Season VI.

Monday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE

Let us reflect together upon the passage from Saint Micah which we have listened to together, and as we reflect on it in words, my friends, may we fulfil it in deeds. For we have listened to the words of a holy man, a righteous man, a devout man, a man concerned for his own salvation, a man who knew he had been created by God and considered himself subject to God, a man who awaited the divine Judgement in great fear and trembling, knowing that then, before the tribunal of the just Judge, he would have to give an account not only of his words and deeds but even of his thoughts. And so, pondering on the future judgement of God – which each one of us should also fear and whatever we are doing remember with hearts full of dread – pondering on this, that holy and just man asked what he should do, or rather with what gifts he should implore the divine Judge.

But he knew that almighty God, who created the universe, who made everything from nothing, who made nothing because he felt the pinch of poverty but all from a wealth of goodness, asks not only for our gifts but for our deeds. Or rather he knew that the gifts most pleasing to God and acceptable to him were a holy life and good works. So when he asked what gift one should offer God, he said: What can I offer the Lord that is worthy? But what can be worthy to offer God but the most excellent creature he has made? And assuredly, of all the creatures God has made upon earth none better can be found than the one he created in his own image; and that earthly creature is a man.

Therefore those who want to offer God a worthy gift should begin by offering themselves. For since God made us in his own image he is delighted to be offered that image, and commands us to present it to him pure and innocent. Hence our Saviour’s answer to some who were trying to trap him: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. In other words, just as you give Caesar his image on a coin, so give God his image in yourself. And when you give your Creator his own image it must be righteous, not evil; humble, not proud; not debased by greed, deformed by rapacity, reduced by vicious anger, worn away be earthly affections, soiled by envy, defiled by debauchery; but kept undiminished by prudent care, pure by true faith, and shining by good habits and deeds. The holy Prophet tells us how to give God his own image in ourselves when he says: I will show you what is good and what the Lord requires of you. It is to act justly and righteously, to love mercy, and to walk mindfully with your God.

St Fulgentius of Ruspe, Sermon 10.1-2 (PL 65:746-747); Word in Season VI.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE ASCETICON OF ABBA ISAIAH

Before all else, the first struggle is exile. If you have fled alone, then the struggle is to leave your own people and things and move to another place. You should bear perfect faith and hope, as well as a stable heart with regard to your own desires, for thoughts will completely encircle you, frightening you about temptations, hardships in poverty, and illnesses, suggesting to you questions about how you will cope with these if you have no one who cares for, or knows you. God’s goodness is trying you in order to reveal your effort and love for him. So when you are alone in the cell, they plant inside you unbearable thoughts of fear, saying, ‘It is not only exile that saves a person, but obeying the commandments’, bringing to your heart and saying, ‘What then, are they not also servants of God?’ They sow thoughts inside your heart regarding bad weather and bodily needs, until your heart is weakened through discouragement, but, if love and hope are found and remain in you, the evil of these things will not be activated.

Therefore, your effort before God becomes clear; it is evident that you love him more than bodily rest. Those who endure the tribulation of exile are brought to the virtue of hope, and this hope protects them, at least partially, from fleshly desire, for you are not in exile for its own sake, but in order to prepare yourself, and have time to struggle against the enemy, so that you may learn how to reject each foe in its time, until you reach the rest of dispassion and are liberated as a result of being victorious at each battle, in its own time.

A man who loves human glory cannot attain apatheia, because envy and jealousy dwell in him. Such a person has sold his soul to many temptations, and his heart is slaughtered by the demons because he can never find the time to obey all his commands. If you cannot bear the word of your neighbour, and return the wrong, struggle will arise in your heart, causing you great sorrow about everything you said. This captivity will completely overcome you, and make you praise those who live alone in silence, hardening your heart toward your neighbour, as having no love.

Strive, instead, to acquire long-suffering, because it overcomes wrath, and love heals sorrow. The man who is, for the sake of God and for the peace of his own thoughts, able to bear a harsh word spoken by a difficult and unwise person, will be called a son of peace, and be enabled to acquire peace of soul, body, and spirit. If these three are all in agreement, so that those who war against the law of the intellect cease, and the captivity of the flesh is abolished, then that man will be called a son of peace, and the Holy Spirit will dwell in him, because it has become his and will not be separated from him.

Abba Isaiah, Discourse 17 ; CS150 (2002) Chryssavgis & Penkett.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM AGAINST THE PAGANS BY ST ATHANASIUS

Evil has not existed from the beginning, even now it is not found amongst the holy ones. But it was men who began to conceive of it and imagine it in their own likeness. Hence they fashioned for themselves the notion of idols, considering non-existent things as real. For God, the Creator of the universe and King of all, who is beyond all being and human thought, made mankind in his own image through his own Word, our Saviour Jesus Christ; and he also made man perceptive and able to understand reality through his similarity to him, giving him also a knowledge of his own eternity.

As long as he kept this likeness he would never abandon the concept of God or leave the company of the holy ones. Retaining the grace bestowed on him by God and also the special power given him by the Father’s Word, man could rejoice and converse with God, living an idyllic and truly blessed and immortal life. For having no obstacle to the knowledge of the divine, man could continuously contemplate in his purity the image of the Father, God the Word, in whose image he himself was made; he could be filled with admiration in grasping divine providence towards the universe. Man in this state would be superior to sensual things, and by the power of his mind could cling to the divine and intelligible realities in heaven.

For when the mind of man has no intercourse with the body, and has nothing of the latter’s desires mingled with it from outside but is entirely superior to them, it is self-sufficient as it was created in the beginning. It then transcends the senses and all human things and it rises high above the world; it beholds the Word and sees in him also the Father of the Word. It rejoices in contemplating him and is renewed by its desire for him, just as the holy Scriptures say that the first man to be created, who was called Adam in Hebrew, had his mind fixed on God in unembarrassed frankness. Adam lived with the holy ones in the contemplation of intelligible reality, which he enjoyed in that place which the holy Moses figuratively called Paradise. Indeed the purity of the soul makes it able to contemplate even God by itself, as the Lord himself said Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

In this way the Creator fashioned the human race, and thus he wished it to remain. But men, contemptuous of the better things, sought rather what was closer to themselves – and what was closer to them was the body and its sensations. So they turned their minds away from intelligible reality and began to consider themselves; they fell into selfish desires and preferred their own good to the contemplation of the divine. This is clearly seen from what the Holy Scriptures relate of Adam, the first created man. For as long as he fixed his mind on God and contemplation of him, he kept away from contemplation of the body. But when at the urging of the serpent he abandoned his thinking of God and began to consider himself, then both Adam and Eve fell into fleshly desires and realised that they were naked, and knowing it were ashamed. They realised that they were not so much stripped of clothing as stripped of the contemplation of divine things.

St Athanasius, Contra Gentes 2-3; tr. Thomson (1971)

Thursday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST LEO THE GREAT

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, as the Apostle says. Offering himself to the Father as a new and real sacrifice of reconciliation, he was crucified – not in the Temple whose due worship is now completed, nor within the enclosure of the city which was to be destroyed because of its crime, but outside and beyond the camp. That way, as the mystery of the ancient sacrifices was ceasing, a new victim would be put on a new altar, and the Cross of Christ would be the altar not of the Temple but of the world.

O wonderful power of the Cross! O indescribable glory of the Passion! In this is the tribunal of the Lord, and the judgement of the world, and the power of the Crucified. You have drawn all things to yourself, Lord, and when you had stretched out your hands all day for an unbelieving and rebellious people, all the world received the understanding to confess your majesty.

You have drawn all things to yourself, Lord, when all the elements expressed the same feeling in condemning that crime perpetrated by the Jews. With the lights of heaven darkened and day turned to night, even the earth shook with unaccustomed motions, and all creation turned its back on the practices of the wicked.

You have drawn all things to yourself, Lord, when the veil of the Temple was split apart and the Holy of Holies withdrew from unworthy priests, so that figure was turned into truth, prophecies into reality, and the law into the Gospel. You have drawn all things to yourself, Lord, so that what was once done in the one Temple of Judea with concealed meanings, the devotion of all nations everywhere now celebrates in a clear and open mystery.

Now, when the variety of animal sacrifices has ceased, the one oblation of your body and blood fulfils all the many kinds of offering. You are the true Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, and thus you perfect all mysteries in yourself. As one sacrifice is made on behalf of all victims, so there will be one kingdom for all nations.

Now there is a higher order of Levites, a worthier order of Elders, and a holier anointing of Priests, since your Cross is the fountain of all benediction, the cause of all graces, through which there is given to believers strength from weakness, glory from reproach, and life from death.

St Leo the Great, Sermon 59.5, 7; FoC93 (1996) tr. Freeland & Conway.

Friday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST JEROME

Do not, my dearest brother, estimate my worth by the number of my years. Grey hairs are not wisdom; it is wisdom which is as good as grey hairs. Do not, I repeat, weigh faith by years, nor suppose me better than yourself merely because I have enlisted under Christ’s banner earlier than you. The Apostle Paul, that chosen vessel formed out of a persecutor, the last in the apostolic order, is first in merit. For though last he has laboured more than they all.

As for you, when you hear the Saviour’s counsel, if you wish to be perfect, go and sell that you have, and give to the poor, and come follow me, you translate his words into action. Naked, following the naked cross, you mount Jacob’s ladder all the easier because you carry nothing. Your dress changes with the change in your convictions, and you aim at no showy shabbiness which leaves your purse as full as before. No, with your hands and a clear conscience you make it your glory that you are poor both in spirit and in deed. There is nothing great in wearing a sad or a disfigured face, in simulating and in showing off fasts, or in wearing a cheap cloak while you retain a large income. When Crates the Theban – a millionaire of days gone by – was on his way to Athens to study philosophy, he cast away untold gold in the belief that wealth would not be compatible with virtue. What a contrast he offers to us, the disciples of a poor Christ! When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.

What is praiseworthy is not to have been at Jerusalem but to have lived a good life while there. I assure you that nothing is lacking to your faith although you have not seen Jerusalem and that I am none the better for living where I do. Be assured that, whether you dwell here or elsewhere, a like reward is in store for your good works with our Lord. Indeed, if I am frankly to express my own feelings, when I take into consideration your vows and the earnestness with which you have renounced the world, I hold that as long as you live in the country one place is as good as another. Forsake cities and their crowds, live on a small patch of ground, seek Christ in solitude, pray on the mount alone with Jesus, keep near to holy places: keep out of cities, I say, and you will never lose your vocation. My advice does not concern bishops, priests, or the clergy, for these have a different duty. I am speaking only to a monk who having been a man of note in the world has laid the price of his possessions at the Apostles’ feet one who, to show men that they must trample on their money, has resolved to live a life of loneliness and seclusion.

It would be the height of folly first to renounce the world, to forswear one’s country, to forsake cities, to profess oneself a monk; and then to live among still greater numbers the same kind of life that you would have lived in your own country. Men rush here from all quarters of the world, and the city is filled with people of every race. So great is the throng of men and women that here you would have to tolerate to the full an evil from which you desired to flee when you found it only partially developed elsewhere.

St Jerome, Letter 58; NPNF26 (1892) tr. Freemantle.

Saturday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF PERFECTION OF BISHOP MARTYRIUS

We should not confine our ministry to the specific fixed times of the Hours; rather, it should be continuous all the time, in accordance with the Apostle’s bidding to pray at all times in the spirit, keeping vigil in prayer at every moment and praying continuously. And again he says, Let your requests be made to known before God with all sorts of supplication, and, Be constant in prayer; be filled with the Spirit; sing among yourselves with psalms and praise; sing spiritual songs in your hearts to the Lord. Everywhere in his letters he urges strongly that we be constant in prayer; for he knows that prayer is a mighty weapon for Christians, an impregnable rampart, made strong by God.

Prayer may do what it likes – just as God can. It gives orders on earth, it holds back in heaven. Prayer is a god amongst men: it forgives sins and decrees healing. For the prayer of faith heals the person who is sick, and if he has committed sins, they are forgiven. Great is the power of the prayer which the righteous man prays. Elijah was a man subject to suffering just like us, yet he prayed on earth and held back the heavens; he prayed over a dead man and brought him back to life.

Prayer sometimes does bring the dead back to life, but sometimes it may also slay the living, as happened with the godly Peter: he brought Tabitha back to life by prayer, but he effected the death of Ananias and Sapphira. Elisha, that spiritual man, brought to life the young son of the Shunamite woman, but he brought to their end the wicked children, through the bears which he brought out against them with the curse. The case of Hezekiah was also astonishing: through prayer he added to the days of his life as King, but he routed the mighty army of the Assyrian through the agency of a spiritual being.

How potent and mighty is the power of prayer! Prayer is able to put pressure on Satan who puts pressure on the human race; it can rescue from his hands and bring deliverance from all the temptations of the world. For this reason our Lord does well to bid us: Be wakeful and pray, so that you do not enter into temptation; and again: Be watchful at all times and pray, so that you may be held worthy to escape from the things to come and to take your stand before the Son of Man.

Those who stand in Christ’s presence, whose whole concern is with things divine, who are liberated from all the cares of the world, should accordingly persevere at all times in the hidden prayer of the heart and in spiritual thoughts of the mind, rejecting and pushing aside every worldly thought which darkens the soul and prevents it from engaging in thoughts of God.

Bishop Martyrius, Book of Perfection, 39-43; CS101 (1987) tr. Brock.

Season of the Year | Week 27

Sunday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent? Why not rather rejoice? Rejoice because human things are giving place to divine, earthly to heavenly, temporal to eternal, evil to good; anxiety is being replaced by security, affliction by beatitude; the perishable is yielding to the permanent. By all means let those repent whose concerns have been human rather than divine, who have chosen bondage to the world in preference to victory over the world with the Lord of the world. Let them repent who have preferred to perish with the devil rather than reign with Christ. Let them repent who have fled from the freedom that goes with virtue and voluntarily enslaved themselves to vice. Let them repent and make amends who have surrendered themselves to the service of death rather than life.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is the reward of the just but it brings judgement for sinners and punishment for the ungodly. Blessed therefore was John the Baptist for his desire that everyone should escape judgment by repenting; he did not want sinners to be condemned but rewarded; he did not want the wicked to be punished but to enter the kingdom.

The world was still young, eagerly awaiting its maturity, when John prophesied that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. But now we know that the kingdom of heaven is very near indeed, for the world is worn out with extreme old age; it has lost the use of its limbs and senses and is racked with pain and anxiety. Its life is ebbing away, only sickness remains; the failure of its powers testifies to its approaching end. Are we not harder of heart than the Jews, then, if we follow this fleeting world, forgetting the future and intent only on the present; if we are not afraid now that judgement is upon us; if we do not run to meet the Lord but prefer death to resurrection from the dead, and would rather be slaves than kings, disparaging the great kingdom offered us by our Lord? Have we forgotten the text: When you pray say: Thy kingdom come?

We need to be more penitent; the cure has to match the wound. Let us repent, my friends, let us repent quickly, for our time is running out, the hour is at hand; there will be no chance to make reparation on Judgement Day. Let us run along the path of repentance before our sentence overtakes us. The Lord has not yet come but is waiting for us, and delays because he wants us to return to him and not die. He has always spoken to us with such great love, saying: My desire is not for the death of sinners, but for them to be converted and live.

St Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 167 (PL 52:637-638); Word in Season VI.

Monday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY

Of all the human weaknesses or injuries which God deigned to bear for us, the first in time and, one might say, the greatest in humility, was, I think, that the majesty which knows no bounds allowed itself to be conceived in the womb and to be confined in the womb for the space of nine months. Where else did he so empty himself out, or when was he seen so completely eclipsed? For so long a time Wisdom says nothing, Power works nothing that can be discerned. The majesty which lies hidden and enclosed is not betrayed by any visible sign. He was not seen so weak on the Cross. What was weak in him immediately appeared stronger than all men, when he glorified the thief as he died and with his last breath breathed faith into the centurion. The sorrow of the hour of his passion not only made the elements of creation suffer with him but also subjected the opposing powers to a passion of timeless sorrow. On the other hand in the womb he is as if he were not. Almighty power lies idle as if it could do nothing. The eternal Word constrains himself to silence.

But to you, brethren, to you that silence of the Word speaks, to you it cries out, to you to be sure it recommends the discipline of silence. For in silence and hope shall be your strength as Isaiah promises, a man who defined the pursuit of justice as silence. As that Child in the womb advanced towards birth in a long, deep silence, so does the discipline of silence nourish, form and strengthen a man’s spirit, and produce growth which is the safer and more wholesome for being the more hidden. Mere man with his natural gifts, who does not take in the thoughts of God’s Spirit, does not know the way of the Spirit and how bones are built up in the womb of a woman with child. But my body was not hidden from you, the Holy Man tells God, the body you made for me in the mind’s hidden depth under the pall of silence. Neither from you is this mystery hidden, my brethren. You have shared your experience with me and have told me how a quiet and disciplined spirit is strengthened, grows fat and flourishes in silence, and how on the contrary by speaking it is broken up and dislocated as if by paralysis, grows thin and withers and dries up. If there was not strength in silence Solomon would not have said: Like an open city without any encompassing walls, so is the man who cannot restrain his spirit from speaking.

Blessed Guerric of Igny, Third Sermon for the Annunciation; CF 32 (1971) tr. MSB.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE WORKS OF ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

When any devout philosopher fortified with ascetic practice and contemplation sees the power of evil rising up against him through the passions, like the king of the Assyrians rising up against Hezekiah, he is aware that only with God’s help can he escape. He invokes God’s mercy by crying out silently and by striving to advance still further in virtue and knowledge. He then receives as an ally, or rather as his salvation, an angel: one of the higher principles of wisdom and knowledge who cuts off every mighty man, warrior, leader and commander in the camp.

Every passion has its origin in the corresponding sensible object. For without some object to attract the powers of the soul through the senses, no passion would ever be generated. In other words, without a sensible object a passion does not come into being: without a woman there is no unchastity; without food there is no gluttony; without gold there is no love of money, and so on. Thus at the origin of every impassioned stimulation of our natural powers there is a sensible object or, in other terms, a demon inciting the soul to commit sin by means of the sensible object.

The wrath of God is the painful sensation we experience when we are being trained by Him. Through this painful experience of unsought sufferings God often abases and humbles an intellect concerned about its knowledge and virtue; for such sufferings make it conscious of itself and its own weakness. When the intellect perceives its own weakness it rejects the vain pretensions of the heart.

The wrath of God is the suspension of gifts of grace – a most salutary experience for the self-inflated intellect that boasts of the blessings bestowed by God as if they were its own achievement.

The intellect of every true philosopher and gnostic possesses both Judah and Jerusalem; Judah is practical philosophy and Jerusalem is contemplative initiation. Whenever by the grace of God such an intellect repels the powers of evil with virtue and spiritual knowledge and wins a complete victory over them, yet does not thank God the true author of this victory, but boasts that the achievement is its own, it brings down the wrath of God’s abandonment not only on itself but also on Judah and Jerusalem, that is, on both its practice of the virtues and its contemplative life. It has failed to give thanks to God for the gifts that he has given. God at once permits shameful passions to vitiate its practice of the virtues and to sully its conscience, which until then was pure. He also permits false concepts to insinuate themselves into its contemplation of created beings and to pervert its spiritual knowledge, which until then had been sound. For ignoble passions immediately attack an intellect that is over-elated because of its spiritual knowledge and such an intellect will be permitted by God’s just judgement to lapse from true contemplation.

St Maximus the Confessor, Various Texts on Theology, 3.2, 3, 9-11; Philokalia 2 (1981) tr. Palmer etc.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE INSTITUTES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

Our seventh struggle is against the spirit of kenodoxia, which we can refer to as vain or empty glory. It is multiform, varied and subtle, such that it can hardly be seen or noticed by the sharpest eyes, to say nothing of being guarded against. For it strikes the monk not only in his carnal part, as the other vices do, but also in his spiritual part, pressing itself into the mind with its subtle wickedness in such a way that men who could not be deceived by carnal vices are all the more brutally hurt as a result of their spiritual successes. Like a very dangerous rock submerged under swelling waves, it threatens with an unforeseen and miserable shipwreck those who sail with a favourable wind when no foresight is exercised.

Other vices sometimes relent if the location is favourable, and they usually diminish if the matter of sin and the occasion for it and the possibility of it have been removed. But this one penetrates the desert along with him who is fleeing, and neither can it be excluded from a given place nor does it weaken if matter has been taken away. Finally, the other disturbances are easily overcome when they are opposed by their contrary virtues and are fought in the clear light of day. But this one, mingled with the virtues and entangled in the fray, contends fiercely as it were in the dark of night and deceives the unthinking and the incautious.

For thus we read that Hezekiah, the King of Judah, a man of consummate righteousness and approved by the testimony of Holy Scripture, was, after innumerable commendations of his virtue, felled by a single dart of pride. He who had been able with one prayer to obtain the destruction of one hundred and eighty-five thousand members of the Assyrian army, when an angel destroyed them in the night, was overcome by boastful vanity. This was a man who, after the end of his life had been determined and the day of his death had been set by a decree of the Lord, deserved by a single prayer to exceed the measure of his life by fifteen years.

After so many and such astonishing signs, listen to Scripture tell us how he fell as a result of his own successes: In those days, it says, Hezekiah was sick unto death, and he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord heard him and granted him a sign – namely, what we read in the Fourth Book of Kings was granted through Isaiah the prophet with respect to the sun’s return. But, it says, he made no return in proportion to the benefits that he had received, because his heart grew proud. And wrath went out against him and against Judah and Jerusalem, and thereupon he humbled himself, because his heart had grown proud, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And so the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

How dangerous is the disease of pride! Such righteousness, so many virtues, such faith and devotion, which deserved to change nature itself and the laws of the whole world – this was all destroyed by a single act of pride, in such a way that he would have been the immediate object of the Lord’s wrath, and all his virtues would have been consigned to oblivion just as if they had never existed, had he not placated it by resuming his humility. Thus he who had, at the impulse of pride, fallen from so lofty a height of virtuousness could not mount once again to the summit that he had lost except by retracing the steps of humility.

St John Cassian, Institutes, 11: 1-3, 8-10; ACW 52 (2000) tr. Ramsey.

Thursday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES OF ST AMBROSE ON THE PSALMS

When Christ reconciled the world to God, he himself certainly did not need reconciliation. For what sin of his own was he to make propitiation, when he knew no sin? When the Jews were asking for the didrachma, which according to law was given for sin, he said to Peter: ‘Simon, from whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?’ Peter answered: ‘From others.’ Jesus said to him: ‘Then the sons are free. However, not to give offence to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.

He is pointing out that he is not obliged to propitiation for sins on his own behalf, because he is not a slave of sin, but the Son of God, free from all fault. For the Son sets free; it is the slave who is guilty. So he was free from all sin, and gives no price of redemption for his own soul: the price of his blood was more than sufficient to redeem all the sins of the world. Justly then he sets others free, owing nothing for himself.

Furthermore: not only does Christ owe no price of redemption for himself or propitiation for sin, but if you take the case of any man, it can be understood that no individuals owe propitiation for themselves, since Christ is the propitiation of all, and himself the redemption of all.

What man’s blood has now the power to redeem him, when Christ shed his own blood for the redemption of all? Is there anyone’s blood comparable to the blood of Christ? What man is so mighty that he can offer propitiation for himself surpassing that which Christ offered in himself, Christ who alone reconciled the world with God through his own blood? What greater victim is there, what superior sacrifice, what better advocate than he who was made the atonement for the sins of all, and gave his life as the redemption for us?

Individual propitiation or redemption, therefore, is not to be sought, because the price of all is the blood of Christ, with which the Lord Jesus, who alone reconciled the Father, redeemed us. He laboured to the end, since he took upon himself our labours, as he says, Come to me, all you who labour, and I will refresh you.

St Ambrose, On Psalm 48, 14-15; The Divine Office III.

Friday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE GOOD OF PATIENCE BY ST CYPRIAN

We, beloved brethren, are philosophers not in words but in deeds; we exhibit our wisdom not by our dress, but by truth; we know virtues by their practice rather than through boasting of them; we do not speak great things but we live them. Therefore, as servants and worshippers of God, let us show by spiritual homage the patience that we learn from heavenly teachings. For that virtue we have in common with God. In him patience has its beginning, and from him as its source it takes its splendour and dignity. The origin and greatness of patience proceed from God its Author. The quality that is dear to God ought to be loved by man. If God is our Master and our Father, let us strive after the patience of him who is both our Master and our Father, because it is fitting that servants be obedient and it is not proper that sons be unworthy.

But how wonderful and how great is the patience of God! He endures most patiently the profane Temples, the earthly images and idolatrous rites that have been set up by men in insult to his majesty and honour. He makes the day to rise and the sun to shine equally over the good and the evil. When he waters the earth with showers no one is excluded from his benefits, but he bestows his rains without distinction on the just and the unjust alike. We see that, at the will of God - with an indivisible uniformity of patience towards the religious and the impious - the seasons obey and the elements serve, the winds blow, fountains flow, harvests increase in abundance, the fruits of the vines ripen, trees are heavy with fruit, the groves become green, and the meadows burst into flower.

Although God is provoked by frequent, yes even continual offences, he tempers his anger and patiently waits for the day of retribution which he once foreordained. And although vengeance is in his power, he prefers to be long-suffering in his patience, that is, waiting steadfastly and delaying in his mercy, so that, if it is at all possible, the long career of malice at some time may change, and man, however deeply he is infected with the contagion of error and crime, may be converted to God even at a late hour, as he himself warns and says: I desire not the death of him that dies, as much as that he may return and live. And again: Return to the Lord your God for he is merciful and loving and patient and rich in pity, and one who turns aside his judgement in respect to the evils proposed. The blessed Apostle Paul, calling back the sinner to penance by reminding him of this, putting the question says: Or do you despise the wealth of his goodness and his long-suffering and patience? Do you not know that the patience and goodness of God is meant to lead you to repentance? He said that the judgement of God is just, because it is delayed. Punishment is finally paid by the impious and the sinner when repentance of the sin can no longer avail.

St Cyprian, The Good of Patience, 3-4; FoC 36 (1958) tr. Deferrari.

Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

Realise that the one who made you the promises is truthful and trustworthy. He hasn’t yet shown you everything, because it isn’t yet time for him to do so. He has already shown you a great many things, though. He promised you his Christ, and he gave him; he promised his resurrection, and he gave it; the very afflictions and disasters piled one on top of the other in human affairs, he foretold and has shown. How much is left? What was promised has been fulfilled, what was foretold has been fulfilled. And are you on tenterhooks that perhaps what’s left may not happen?

What should really frighten you would be not seeing fulfilled what has been foretold. There are wars, there are famines, there are tribulations, there’s kingdom against kingdom, there are earthquakes, there’s calamity piled on calamity, there’s no lack of scandals, charity is cold, there’s plenty of wickedness. Read all this up, it’s been foretold. Read, observe that everything you see happening has been foretold, and believe that you are eventually going to see what hasn’t yet come about, counting up all the things that have. And do you, when you see God presenting you with what he has foretold, refuse to believe that he is going to give you what he has promised? It’s precisely what has got you upset that ought to give you grounds for trusting him.

If it’s the end of the world, then it's time to quit the world, not to love the world. Look, the world is in a state of turmoil, and everyone loves the world! Suppose the world were at peace? How you would cling to a beautiful world, seeing how fervently you embrace a world in a mess! How eagerly you would gather its flowers, seeing that you don’t pull your hand back from its thorns! You don’t want to leave the world, the world leaves you, and you follow the world.

So let us purify our hearts, dearly beloved, and not give up the virtue of endurance, but rather gain wisdom and hold on to the virtue of restraint. Toil passes away, rest is coming; deceptive delights pass away, and the good is coming which the faithful soul has been longing for, and for which every pilgrim exiled in the world is fervently sighing: the good home country, our heavenly home, our home with the angelic peoples, our home country where no citizen ever dies, where no hostile alien gains admittance, our home where you will have God as your everlasting friend, and where you need fear no enemy.

St Augustine, Sermon 38:10-11; WSA (1990) tr. Hill.

Season of the Year | Week 28

Sunday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ZEPHANIAH OF ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The plain meaning of the historical sense of these words is a promise of peace after the return from Babylon. As far as the deeper meaning of this passage is concerned, it clearly commands Jerusalem to rejoice exceedingly, to be especially glad, to be joyful wholeheartedly as its sins are wiped out through Christ. The spiritual and holy Zion – that is, the Church, the holy multitude of believers – is justified in Christ and only in him. By him and through him we are also saved as we escape from the harm of the invisible enemies, for we have a Mediator who was incarnated in our form, the King of all, who is the Word of God the Father. Thanks to him, we have been delivered from the powers of evil. The Word of God is the armour of good will, the peace, the wall, the one who bestows incorruption, the arbiter of crowns, who has ended the war of the incorporeal Assyrians and made void the schemes of the demons.

Do not fear, O Zion, let not your hands grow weak. This is a clear warning, have confidence; he who made this promise is certainly not a liar. We have heard Christ himself renewing this ancient prophecy when he says that, you will have affliction in this world but have confidence, for I have overcome the world. For now he is in our midst as a strong warrior who gives victory we have no excuse to be feeble handed and weak kneed; now we too can be confident that Christ who is the all-powerful God in our midst can redeem and save those who believe in him; for he dwells in our hearts through the Spirit and he has given us a spiritual and worthy joy.

Why had the Holy Spirit been given us except in order to be our delight and joy and the grounds of our spiritual happiness? When Christ gave us joy through the Holy Spirit he renewed us by his own love. He came among us in the flesh in the order of time and, when he was alone and dying for us all, he truly said: no one has greater love than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends. He indeed laid down his own life and was numbered for our sake among the dead. Although by nature he was Life, he returned to life and renewed our nature in newness of life and restored it to its first likeness: if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. For it pleased our God and Father to restore all things in him. Therefore Christ gathered together those who had been smashed up by sin, those Satan had torn apart and enfeebled, and, although they didn’t know what was happening, he brought them back to enter the straight paths of the way of justice.

St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentarius in Sophoniam Prophetam, 43-44 (PG 71:1013-1017); tr Pluscarden

Monday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

True patience and tranquillity are not acquired or retained without profound humility of heart. If they proceed from this source they will stand in need of neither the benefit of a cell nor the refuge of solitude. For whatever is sustained within by the virtue of humility does not require the protection of anything without. But if we are so provoked as to be angered by someone, it is certain that the foundations of humility have not been firmly established in us, and it is for that reason that our edifice is ruinously shaken by the onslaught of even an insignificant squall. For patience would not be praiseworthy or admirable if it maintained its intended tranquillity without having been assailed by any of the enemy’s darts, but it is distinguished and glorious when it remains unmoved while storms of trial break upon it. For it is strengthened at the very moment that it believes itself to be troubled and broken by adversity. Everyone knows that patience takes its name from suffering and endurance, and therefore it is clear that no one can be called patient but the man who puts up with everything that is inflicted upon him without indignation. Therefore he is deservedly praised by Solomon: Better is the man who is patient than he who is strong, and the man who restrains his anger than he who captures a city.

When, therefore, someone who has suffered mistreatment is inflamed with the fire of anger, it must not be believed that his bitterness at the abuse inflicted on him is the cause of his sin, but rather that it is the manifestation of a hidden weakness. This is in accordance with the parable of the Lord, the Saviour, which he told about the two houses – one that was established on solid rock and the other on sand, upon the both of which there fell rainstorms and torrents and tempests. But the one that was established on solid rock experienced no damage from that violent onslaught, whereas the one that was built on the uncertain and shifting sands collapsed at once. It appears to have caved in not, indeed, because it was struck by an outpouring of torrential rain but because it was foolishly built on sand.

For the holy man does not differ from the sinner in that he is not similarly tested but rather in that he is not conquered even by a great onslaught, while the other is overcome even by a slight trial. As we have said, the fortitude of a righteous man would not be praiseworthy if he were victorious without having been tried, when in fact there can be no place for victory without the adversity of a struggle. For blessed is the man who undergoes trial, because when he has been tested he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. According to the Apostle Paul too, strength is perfected not in leisure and pleasure but in weakness. For, behold, the Lord says to Jeremiah, I have made you today into a fortified city and an iron pillar and a brass wall over all the land, to the kings of Judah and to its princes and its priests and to all the people of the land. And they will fight against you and they shall not prevail, because I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.

St John Cassian, Conference 18, 13.1-5; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE INSTRUCTIONS OF ST COLUMBANUS

My dearest brethren, give ear to our words, as men about to learn something essential; slake the thirst of your mind from the streams of the divine fountain of which we now wish to speak, but do not quench it; drink, but be not sated; for now the living fountain, the fountain of life, calls us to himself, and says, Let him that is thirsty come unto me and drink. What you are to drink, take note. Let Jeremiah tell you, let the fountain himself tell you, They have forsaken me the fountain of living water, says the Lord. Thus the Lord himself, our God Jesus Christ, is the fountain of life, and so he calls us to himself the fountain, that we may drink of him. He who loves drinks of him, he drinks who is satisfied by the word of God, who sufficiently adores, who longs sufficiently, he drinks who burns with the love of wisdom.

Observe whence that fountain flows; it flows from that place whence also the bread came down; since he is the same who is bread and fountain, the only Son, our God Christ the Lord, for whom we should ever hunger. Though we eat him in loving, though we feast on him in desiring, let us still desire him as though hungering for him. Likewise as the fountain, let us ever drink of him with overflows of love, let us ever drink of him with fullness of longing, and let us be gladdened by some savour of his loveliness.

The Lord is lovely and pleasant; though we eat and drink of him, yet let us ever hunger and thirst, since our food and drink can never be consumed and drained entire; for though he is eaten he is not consumed, though he is drunk he is not lessened, since our bread is eternal, and our fountain is perennial, our fountain is sweet. Therefore the prophet says, Go to the fountain, you who thirst; for that is the fountain of the thirsting, not of the surfeited, and thus he calls to himself the hungry and the thirsty, whom he blessed elsewhere, who have never enough of drinking, but the more they quaff, so much the more they thirst.

Justly, my brethren, the fountain of wisdom, the Word of God on high, is to be desired by us, sought after and ever loved, in whom are hid, according to the Apostle’s saying, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which he calls them that thirst to drink. If you thirst, drink the fountain of life; if you hunger, eat the bread of life. Blessed are they who hunger for this bread and thirst for this fountain; ever eating and drinking they still long to eat and drink. For that is lovely to excess which is ever eaten and drunk, and ever hungered and thirsted after, ever tasted and ever desired; wherefore the prophet-king says, Taste and see how lovely, how pleasant is the Lord.

St Columbanus, Instruction 13; The Divine Office III.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF JOEL BY ST JEROME

Return to me with all your heart, and prove that your repentance is genuine by fasting and weeping and lamentation. Fast now and you will feast hereafter; weep now and you will laugh hereafter. Present mourning brings future joy. I know it is one of your customs to rend your garments as a mark of distress and anger. The high priest did this to underline the charges against the Lord our Saviour, and even Paul and Barnabas did it, though only because of the blasphemy they have heard. Well, I say it is not your garments you must rend but your sinful hearts which like the wineskin will burst unless you tear them. When you have done this you can return to the Lord your God from whom you have been estranged by your former sins. Do not let the greatness of your sin make you despair of pardon. The greater the sin, the more striking is the power of God’s mercy.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, preferring the repentance of the sinner to his death, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, not being impatient as we are but waiting a whole lifetime for our return to him. He is high above evil or rather he repents of evil, so that if we repent of our sins he repents of his threats and does not carry them out, his heart softening as we change our attitude. The evil spoken of in this context is not the opposite of virtue but simply affliction, in the sense in which our Lord said, Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Or as in that other quotation, Is there any evil in the city which the Lord has not caused.

Joel speaks of God then as gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, high above evil or rather repenting of evil. But he did not want us to make the thought of God’s great mercy a pretext for careless living and so he adds prophetically: But who can guarantee that he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him? For my part, Joel says, I beg of you to repent and I assure you that God’s mercy surpasses our wildest dreams, as David says: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. But since we cannot know the depth of the riches and wisdom and glory of God, I wish to take another look at the words, Who can guarantee that he will return and repent?, and say that while I hope God will return and repent, we cannot be sure he will. The words, Who can guarantee?, imply something difficult or impossible.

The words which follow, sacrifice and libation for the Lord your God, mean that, after he has blessed us and graciously forgiven our sins, we should offer the sacrifice to God.

St Jerome, On Joel; The Divine Office III.

Thursday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH BY ORIGEN

God condemned Jerusalem because of its sins, and sentenced its inhabitants to be delivered up to captivity. Yet when the time came, God in his love for mankind again sent the prophet Jeremiah during the third kingdom before the captivity, so that those who so wished might be led by the prophet’s words to reflect and repent. He also sent him to prophesy both in the time of the second king, and in that of the third, right up to the days of the captivity itself. For God is patient and granted the people a respite at almost the very last moment, urging them to listen and repent, so that the sufferings of captivity might be avoided. Thus it is written that Jeremiah prophesied until the captivity of Jerusalem, until the fifth month. Even after the captivity had begun he continued to prophesy in words such as: You are prisoners now but repent even so, for then the sufferings of captivity will not be prolonged, but God will have mercy on you.

We can find something useful for ourselves in this passage concerning the days of prophecy when God in his love for mankind urged his hearers not to undergo the sufferings of captivity. This warning is for us as well. If we sin we too shall become prisoners, for handing over someone to Satan is no different from handing over the people of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. Just as they were handed over to Nebuchadnezzar because of their sins, so because of our sins we are handed over to Satan, our Nebuchadnezzar. Referring to other sinners, the Apostle also speaks of those whom I have handed over to Satan to teach them not to blaspheme.

Notice then how great an evil sin is, since they were handed over to Satan, who imprisons the souls of those whom God abandons; and those whom God abandons are not abandoned without cause or unjustly, for when he sends rain on a vineyard but instead of grapes it yields thorns, what is God to do but command the clouds to withhold their rain from it?

A captivity threatens us also, then, because of our sins, and unless we repent we shall be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, the spiritual Babylonians, to be torn to pieces by them. With this punishment hanging over our heads, the words of the prophets, of the law, of the Apostles and of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ exhort us to repent and urge us to amend our lives. If we hear them let us trust him who said: I too shall repent of all the evil which I threatened to inflict on them.

Origen: Homilies on Jeremiah, 1.3-4 (SC 232:198-202); Word in Season VI.

Friday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Would you honour the body of Christ? Do not despise his nakedness; do not honour him here in Church clothed in silk vestments and then pass him by it unclothed and frozen outside. Remember that he who said, This is my body, and made good his words, also said, You saw me hungry and gave me no food, and, insofar as you did it not to one of these, you did it not to me. In the first sense the body of Christ does not need clothing but worship from a pure heart. In the second sense it does need clothing and all the care we can give it.

We must learn to be discerning Christians and to honour Christ in the way in which he wants to be honoured. It is only right that honour given to anyone should take the form most acceptable to the recipient not to the giver. Peter thought he was honouring the Lord when he tried to stop him washing his feet, but this was far from being genuine homage. So give God the honour he asks for, that is, give your money generously to the poor. God has no need of golden vessels but of golden hearts.

I am not saying you should not give golden altar vessels and so on, but I am insisting that nothing can take the place of almsgiving. The Lord will not refuse to accept the first kind of gift but he prefers the second, and quite naturally, because in the first case only the donor benefits, in the second case the poor get the benefit. The gift of a chalice may be ostentatious; almsgiving is pure benevolence.

What is the use of loading Christ’s table with gold cups while he himself is starving? Feed the hungry and then if you have any money left over, spend it on the altar table. Will you make a cup of gold and withhold a cup of water? What use is it to adorn the altar with cloth of gold hangings and deny Christ a coat for his back! What would that profit you? Tell me: if you saw someone starving and refused to give him any food but instead spent your money on adorning the altar with gold, would he thank you? Would he not rather be outraged? Or if you saw someone in rags and stiff with cold and then did not give him clothing but set up golden columns in his honour, would he not say he was being made a fool of and insulted?

Consider that Christ is that tramp who comes in need of a night’s lodging. You turn him away and then start laying rugs on the floor, draping the walls, hanging lamps on silver chains on the columns. Meanwhile the tramp is locked up in prison and you never give him a glance. Well, again, I am not condemning munificence in these matters. Make your house beautiful by all means but also look after the poor, or rather look after the poor first. No one was ever condemned for not adorning his house, but those who neglect the poor were threatened with hell fire for all eternity and a life of torment with devils. Adorn your house if you will, but do not forget your brother in distress. He is a Temple of infinitely greater value.

St John Chrysostom, Homily 50.3-4; The Divine Office III.

Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

How shall we act so as not to sin with our tongue? It is written that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and again: Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but even more because of the tongue. The Lord says the same thing: They have taught their tongues to speak lies. They have taught! You see, the tongue becomes accustomed to telling lies. It tells lies even when you do not want it to. It is like a wheel: if you spin it once, after that initial impetus its own shape and roundness or what you might call its natural instability makes it go on turning. And it is the same with our tongues: once started they run on of their own accord in the way that is easiest for them. You have one thing in your mind, but sometimes out of habit the tongue chooses another.

What is to be done? You see what a balanced judgement must be made before the tongue is allowed to say anything! For it does not in fact wag of its own accord; there is one within who wags it. There is within us a certain power which moves both itself and the members that serve it. Let the one in control be good and with the help of grace that person can overcome any bad habit whatever. Let the servant be good and the service will be peaceful. The soldier has weapons but if he does nothing neither do they. So too among our members our tongues are our souls’ weapons. Scripture calls the tongue a restless evil. O restless member! Who made this evil if not a restless person? Do not be restless yourself and this evil does not exist. Do not set it going and it will do nothing on its own. It is not a spirit to move of its own accord. It is merely a body and lies still. It will not wag if you do not wag it.

When you do use it, be careful how you do so. It is the tongue which many people make use of in the service of greed as they plot their shady deals, and when they begin some transaction they thrust out a member made for praising God and use it to blaspheme him. ‘By Christ,’ they say, ‘I bought this for so much and I am selling it for so much.’ Why? Did I ask you, ‘Swear to me how much you are selling it for?’ What I asked you was, ‘How much are you selling it for?’ ‘I am selling it for ten or twenty denarii’, you swear by Christ. Swear by your eyes, swear by your children and then your conscience will be afraid. What an impious tongue! You have despised the Creator and respected the creature! Oh that restless evil, full of deadly poison! We use it to praise our God and Father – God and also Father, God by nature, Father by grace – then we use it to call down curses on other people made in God’s image. Be careful, my friends, with what you are carrying about with you. But of course I should say, what we are carrying about with us, for I am a man just as you are.

St Augustine: Sermon 14A.2-3 (CCL 41:219-220); Word in Season VI.

Season of the Year | Week 29

Sunday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

Josiah was but eight years old when his father was slain. We hear nothing of his boyhood; but scarcely was he of age to think for himself, and to profess himself a servant of the true God, but he chose that good part which could not be taken away from him. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. Blessed are they who so seek, for they shall find. Josiah had not the aid of a revealed volume, at least not of the Law; he was surrounded by diversities of idol-worship, the sophistries of unbelief, the seductions of sinful pleasure. He had every temptation to go wrong; and had he done so, we might have made allowances, and said that he was not so bad as the other kings, for he knew no better; he had not sinned against light. Yes, he would have sinned against light – the event shows it; for if he had light enough to go right (which he had, for he did go right), it follows that if he had gone wrong, it would have been against light. Not, indeed, so strong and clear a light as Solomon disobeyed, or Joash; still against his better knowledge.

What, then, was it that guided him? Whence his knowledge? He had that which everyone has, heathen as well as Christians, till they pervert or blunt it – a natural sense of right and wrong; and he did not blunt it. His heart was tender; he acknowledged a constraining force in the divine voice within him - he heard and obeyed. And further, amid all the various worships offered for his acceptance, this same inward sense of his, strengthened by practice, unhesitatingly chose out the true one, the worship of the God of Israel.

At twenty, then, he commenced his reformation. At first, not having the Book of the Law to guide him, he took such measures as natural conscience suggested; he put away idolatry generally. Thus he set out, not knowing whither he went. But it is the rule of God’s providence that those who act up to their light shall be rewarded with clearer light. To him who has more shall be given. He set about repairing the temple; and it was in the course of this pious work that the High Priest found a copy of the law of Moses in the temple, probably the original copy which was placed in the ark.

When the King had heard the words of the book of the law, he rent his clothes. He thought far more of what he had not done, than of what he had done. He felt how incomplete his reformation had been; and he felt how far more guilty his whole people were than he had supposed, receiving, as they had, such precise guidance in Scripture what to do, and such solemn command to do it; and he learned, moreover, the fearful punishment which was hanging over them. He assembled all Judah at Jerusalem, and publicly read the words of the Book of the Law; then he made all the people renew the covenant with the God of their fathers; then he proceeded more exactly in the work of reformation in Judah and Israel, keeping closely to the directions of the law; and after that he held his celebrated passover. Thus his greater knowledge was followed by stricter obedience. Like him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses.

Ven. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8:95-100, 104-5; Word in Season VI.

Monday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM AGAINST MARCION BY TERTULLIAN

But what manner of man is this? For he commands even the winds and water! Of course the heretics say he is the new master and proprietor of the elements, now that the Creator is deposed and excluded from their possession! Nothing of the kind. The elements recognise their own Maker, just as they had been accustomed to obey his servants also. Examine well the Exodus, O Marcion; look at the rod of Moses as it waves his command to the Red Sea, which is far greater than all the lakes of Judaea. How the sea yawns from its very depths, then fixes itself in two solidified masses, and so, out of the interval between them, makes a way for the people to pass dry-shod across. Again the same rod vibrates, the sea returns in its strength, and in the concourse of the waters the army of Egypt is engulfed! To that consummation the very winds subserved!

Read, too, how the Jordan was as a sword, to help the emigrant nation in their passage across its stream; how its waters from above stood still, and its current below wholly ceased to run at the bidding of Joshua, when his priests began to pass over! What will you say to this? But I should have been content with the examples I have given without adding any more, if a prediction of the Lord’s present passage on the sea had not preceded Christ’s coming. A prophecy from a psalm is, in fact, accomplished by the Lord’s crossing over the lake. The Lord, says the Psalmist, is upon many waters. When he disperses its waves, Habakkuk’s words are fulfilled, where he says, Scattering the waters in his passage. When at his rebuke the sea is calmed, Nahum is also verified: He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, including the winds indeed, whereby it was disquieted.

With what evidence would you have my Christ vindicated? Shall it come from the examples, or from the prophecies, of the Creator? You suppose that he is predicted as a man of violence and an armed warrior, instead of one who in a figurative and allegorical sense was to wage a spiritual warfare against spiritual enemies, in spiritual campaigns, and with spiritual weapons – come now, when in one man alone you discover a multitude of demons calling itself Legion, of course comprised of spirits, you should learn that Christ also must be understood to be an exterminator of spiritual foes, who wields spiritual arms and fights in spiritual strife; it was none other than Christ himself who now had to contend with even a legion of demons. Therefore it is of such a war as this that the Psalm clearly spoke: The Lord is strong, the Lord is mighty in battle. For with the last enemy, death, did he fight, and through the trophy of the cross he triumphed.

Tertullian, Against Marcion 4.20; ANF 7 (1868) tr. Holmes.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

The archers shot at King Josiah; and the King said to his servants, Have me away, for I am badly wounded. His servants, therefore … brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. Thus the best King of Judah died like Ahab, the worst King of Israel; so little may we judge of God’s love or displeasure by outward appearances.

God continued his promised mercies to his people through David’s line till they were too corrupt to receive them; the last King of the favoured family was forcibly and prematurely cut off, in order to make way for the display of God’s vengeance in the captivity of the whole nation. He was taken out of the way; they were carried off to Babylon. As for Josiah, as it is elsewhere written of him, His remembrance … is sweet as honey in all mouths, and as music at a banquet of wine. He behaved himself uprightly in the conversion of the people, and took away the abominations of iniquity. He directed his heart unto the Lord, and in the time of the ungodly he established the worship of God. All, except David, and Hezekiah, and Josiah, were defective; for they forsook the law of the Most High; even the kings of Judah failed.

In conclusion, my brethren, I would have you observe in what Josiah’s chief excellence lay. This is the character given him when his name is first mentioned; he did … right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. He kept the narrow middle way. Now what is this strict virtue called? It is called faith. It is no matter whether we call it faith or conscientiousness, they are in substance one and the same: where there is faith, there is conscientiousness – where there is conscientiousness, there is faith; they may be distinguished from each other in words, but they are not divided in fact. They belong to one, and but one, habit of mind – dutifulness; they show themselves in obedience, in the careful, anxious observance of God’s will, however we learn it. Hence it is that Saint Paul tells us that the just shall live by faith under every dispensation of God’s mercy. And this is called faith because it implies a reliance on the mere word of the unseen God overpowering the temptations of sight. Whether it be that we read and accept his word in Scripture (as Christians do), or his word in our conscience, the law written on the heart (as is the case with heathens); in either case, it is by following it, in spite of the seductions of the world around us, that we please God.

Ven. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8:105-108; Word in Season VI.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BERNARD

We read in the Gospel that when our Lord was preaching, he urged his disciples to share in his suffering through the mystery of eating his body, and there were some who said: This is a hard saying, and from then on were no longer of his company. He asked his disciples whether they, too, wished to go away. Lord, they said, to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life.

And so too, my brothers, I tell you that to this very day it is evident that the words of Jesus are spirit and truth to some people, and for that reason they follow him. To others, his words seem hard, and they seek elsewhere a consolation that can only end in misery. Wisdom cries out loud in the street, in the wide and open way that leads to death, seeking to call back those who walk that road.

Again the Lord says: For forty years I was among this generation and I said, ‘They are a people who always err in heart.’ In another psalm you will find it written: God has spoken once. Once: yes, because always! For his word is a unity, not changing, but spoken continuously and always.

It calls the sinner back, to return to the heart; it convicts the errors of the heart, for God himself dwells in the heart and speaks in the heart. He does exactly what he taught through the Prophet in the words: Speak to the heart of Jerusalem.

You can see then, my brothers, in what a salutary way the Prophet warns us that when we hear his voice we should not harden our hearts. Almost identical words are to be read in the Gospel and in the Prophet. For in the Gospel the Lord says: My sheep hear my voice; and in the psalm holy David says: We are the people of his (he must mean the Lord’s) pasture and the sheep of his flock. O that today you would listen to his voice. Harden not your hearts.

Listen also to Habakkuk the Prophet. He does not disguise the Lord’s thought, but reflects on it with careful and thoughtful consideration. He says: I will take my stand to watch and station myself on the tower to look forth, to see what the Lord will say to me, and what I will answer to him who accuses me. I ask you then, my brothers: let us take our stand to watch, for now is the time for battle.

Let our life be in the heart, where Christ dwells; that is live in wise judgement and in justice and counsel; but always so that we place no reliance upon this, and do not trust to a weak defence.

St Bernard, Homilies De diversis, 5.1-4; The Divine Office III.

Thursday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS OF ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

I have heard of certain persons passing through Ephesus whose doctrine was bad. These you did not permit to sow their seed among you; you stopped your ears, so as not to receive the seed sown by them. You consider yourselves stones of the Father’s temple, prepared for the edifice of God the Father, to be taken aloft by the hoisting engine of Jesus Christ, that is, the Cross, while the Holy Spirit serves you as a rope; your faith is your spiritual windlass and your love the road which leads up to God. And thus you all are fellow travellers, God-bearers and temple-bearers, Christ-bearers and bearers of holiness, with the commandments of Jesus Christ for festal attire. At this I am jubilant, privileged as I am to converse with you through this letter, and to congratulate you because in your otherworldliness you have nothing but God alone.

I know who I am and to whom I am writing. I have been condemned, you have been spared; I am in danger, you are in perfect safety. You are the highway of God’s martyrs. You are fellow initiates and worthy of every felicitation, in whose footsteps I wish to be found when I come to meet God, and who in an entire epistle remembers you in Christ Jesus.

Make an effort, then, to meet more frequently to celebrate God’s Eucharist and to offer praise. For, when you meet frequently in the same place, the forces of Satan are overthrown, and his baneful influence is neutralized by the unanimity of your faith. Peace is a precious thing: it puts an end to every war waged by heavenly or earthly enemies.

It is better to keep silence and be something than to talk and be nothing. Teaching is an excellent thing, provided the speaker practises what he teaches. Now, there is one Teacher who spoke and it was done. But even what he did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has made the words of Jesus really his own is able also to hear his silence. Thus he will be perfect: he will act through his speech and be understood through his silence. Nothing is hidden from the Lord; no, even our secrets reach him. Let us, then, do all things in the conviction that he dwells in us. Thus we shall be his temples and he will be our God within us. And this is the truth, and it will be made manifest before our eyes. Let us, then, love him as he deserves.

Do not be deceived, my brethren. Those who ruin homes will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Now, if those who do this to gratify the flesh are liable to death, how much more a man who by evil doctrine ruins the faith in God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such a filthy creature will go into the unquenchable fire, as will anyone that listens to him.

St Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians, 9, 12-13, 15-16; ACW 1 (1946) tr. Kleist.

Friday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST BASIL OF CAESAREA

This question has now been proposed to me by your Intelligence as a new one. I can give in reply the answer I received when I was a boy, and which on account of my love for what is good, I have received without question. I do not expect that it can undo the shamelessness of those who fight against Christ, for where is the reasoning strong enough to stand their attack? It may, however, suffice to convince all who love the Lord, and in whom the previous assurance supplied them by faith is stronger than any demonstration of reason.

As to Coniah, whom the Prophet Jeremiah declares in these words to have been rejected from the land of Judah, the matter is plain and clear: Coniah was dishonoured like a broken pot for which there is no more use; he and his children were cast out; and none of his children shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling in Judah. When Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar the kingdom had already been destroyed and there was no longer a hereditary succession of Kings as before. Nevertheless, at that time, the deposed descendants of David were living in captivity. On the return of Shealtiel and Zerubbabel the government was to a great extent exercised by the people, and this sovereignty was afterwards transferred to the priesthood on account of the intermingling of the priestly and royal tribes. It is from this fact that the Lord, in things pertaining to God, is both King and High Priest.

Moreover, the royal tribe did indeed continue until the coming of the Christ; but nevertheless, the children of Coniah sat no longer upon the throne of David. Plainly it is the royal dignity which is described by the term ‘throne’. You remember the history, how all Judaea, Idumaea, Moab, both the neighbouring regions of Syria and the further countries up to Mesopotamia, and the country on the other side as far as the river of Egypt, were all tributary to David. None of his descendants had a sovereignty so wide, but the tribe of Judah did not fail until he for whom it was destined came. But even he did not sit upon the material throne. The kingdom of Judaea was transferred to Herod, the son of Antipater the Ascalonite, and to his sons who divided Judaea into four principalities when Pilate was Procurator and Tiberius was Master of the Roman Empire. It is the indestructible Kingdom which the Prophet calls the throne of David on which the Lord sat. He is the expectation of the Gentiles and not of the smallest division of the world, for it is written: In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek. I have called you as a covenant for the people, as a light of the Gentiles; and thus God became a priest and, although he did not receive the actual sceptre of Judah, he became King of all the earth. Thus the blessing of Jacob was fulfilled: in him shall the nations of the earth be blessed, and all the nations shall call the Christ blessed.

St Basil of Caesarea, Letter 236; cf. NPNF2 8 (1894) tr. Jackson.

Saturday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH BY ORIGEN

Then Paschor struck Jeremiah the Prophet. He even adds the phrase the Prophet. Here then he who struck Jeremiah struck the Prophet. And it is recorded in Acts that a man who was commanded by Ananias the High Priest struck Paul; therefore, Paul said, God shall beat you, you whitewashed wall! And up to the present the Ebionites, placed under the illegitimate high-priest of the Word, beat the Apostle of Jesus Christ with slanderous words. But why am I speaking about Paul and Jeremiah? My Lord Jesus Christ himself said, I have given my back for whips and my cheeks for blows, and my face I did not turn away from shame of spitting. The simple people know these things to have referred to the single time when Pilate whipped him, but I see Jesus each day giving his back for whips. Consider the Word of God being insulted, abused, hated by the unbelievers. Thus, Paschor struck Jeremiah the Prophet and threw him into the pit which was in the Benjamin gate of the upper area.

The upper area being in the House of the Lord, he threw the Prophet into the pit. Let us exhort ourselves, so that by taking Jeremiah now into the upper area, we will have ascended in the House of the Lord. No one who enacts the Passover as Jesus wishes is in a room below. But if someone celebrates with Jesus, he is in a great room above, in a furnished room adorned and prepared. But these words are regarding Paschor, for though there was available an upper area in the House of the Lord in the gate of Benjamin, he did not bring up the Prophet into the upper area, but he threw him into the pit below. Then Jeremiah says to him what Paschor will suffer. What does he say to him? He has not called your name Paschor but Exiled. Paschor will be exiled to Babylon, not only himself, but also with his friends, according to the extent of his sins. For he is delivered to Nebuchadnezzar since he threw the Prophet into the pit.

And the King of Babylon is Nebuchadnezzar according to history, but the Evil One according to the spiritual sense. And the sinner is handed over to this person. Thus Paschor of the black mouth, is delivered into the hands of the Babylonian King, and they exile him to Babylon. And they will cut them up with swords. And I will deliver all the strength of this city. It is easy to say that these things are prophesied about Jerusalem. It is easy to say that these words are prophesied about this city, which was delivered to its enemies in the times of the Saviour, and the sons of Jerusalem went away into captivity and the city was destroyed. But if you examine the circumstances and you see a city not as the stones, but as people, you will see that this very Jerusalem, the people, was delivered into the hands of the King of Babylon on account of impiety and sin with respect to Christ, and you are now Jerusalem. If then the Word now threatens Jerusalem, be fearful that you, if you sin, are a sinner like Jerusalem and are being delivered, so that you may be Jerusalem no longer but become Babylon, since Nebuchadnezzar the King of the Babylonians will have taken you over.

Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah, 19.12.2-14.4; FoC 97 (1998) tr. Smith.

Season of the Year | Week 30

Sunday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE ASCETICON OF ST BASIL THE GREAT

The Lord teaches us always to keep before our eyes the purpose of the work we are given and the intention of the one who told us to do it. He also teaches us to direct our effort towards God, for he says: I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. For just as secular crafts each have their own special purpose and the craftsman directs all his energies in accordance with these, so also there is one rule and purpose when we work hard to fulfil God’s commandments in a manner pleasing to him. It is impossible to please God in this work unless it is performed carefully in accordance with his will. Thus when we do our work with careful zeal according to his will we shall be joined to God in memory.

For a craftsman who is making an axe certainly remembers the man who set him the task and always has him in his thoughts. He makes sure the axe is the right shape and size and he directs all the work according to the will of the man who ordered it – for if he forgets any of this he will produce something different from what he set out to make. It is the same with the Christian who directs all his energies small and great to the fulfilment of God’s will, at one and the same time he does his work with care and always keeps in mind the plan of God who gave the commandments. Such a man fulfils the words of Scripture, I shall keep the Lord always in my sight, because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved. He does what is commanded in accordance with the Apostles words, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything to the glory of God; but if anyone departs from the exactness of the commandment he is trying to fulfil, clearly his memory of God is weakened.

We ought therefore to perform every act as happening beneath the eyes of the Lord and think every thought as if it were observed by him, remembering the voice of him who said, Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord, and, I am a God at hand, and not a God far off, and, where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them. If we act and think like this we will show that we truly possess the fear of God and we will come to perfect love, because we are fulfilling what was said by the Lord: I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me. He who acts thus will come to know that his good deeds are acceptable to the Judge of our life, while those who act in the opposite manner will receive condemnation from the same source.

St Basil the Great, Asceticon, Longer Response 5; tr. Pluscarden

Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON PSALM 118 BY ST AMBROSE

Your treasure is faith, devotion and mercy. Your treasure is Christ. Do not value him as you would something earthly, that is, as some created thing; for he is Lord of every creature. A curse, says God, on the man who puts his trust in man, through God alone hope comes to man. See what the Old Testament has said of Christ: And he is man, but who recognises him? This is the man who has forgiven – not by human but by divine power – all my sins. The Lord Jesus, God in bodily form, reconciles to himself the world redeemed from guilt.

Our understanding is a precious treasure. If our intellect were of the earth, if it were frail, the moth of heresy and the rust of irreverence would soon destroy it. So we must rise and build up our powers of understanding. We need not think it impossible for this feeble human nature of ours to ascend to knowledge of the heavenly mysteries. Remember that already the Lord Jesus in his divine mercy has descended to us, he in whom were hidden the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. He has come to open what was shut, to unbar what was sealed up, to reveal what was hidden. Come, then, Lord Jesus. Open to us the door of this prophetic word, for though at first sight it may appear to be open, it is closed to many.

He says: For eternity your word endured, Lord, in the heavens. You can see that what endures even in the heavens should also endure and be steadfast in you. Therefore keep the word of the Lord, keep it in your heart, and keep it in such a way that you do not forget it. Keep the law of God, meditate on it, and do not let the Lord’s precepts slip from your heart. The meaning of the letter Lamed teaches you to keep the word diligently. The Prophet teaches you where he later says: Unless your law had been my meditation, I would have perished in my abjection. For eternity I will not forget your justifications. Meditation on the Law makes us endure and bear patiently times of trial, times when we are humbled by adversity. In this way our spirit will not be broken by humiliation and dejection. The Lord never wishes us to be broken by humiliation to the point of despair. He wants only to correct us.

This is why the Prophet Jeremiah says under this same letter in his Lamentations: The Lord never said to crush all the prisoners in a country and trample them underfoot, to override a man’s rights in defiance of the Most High, or to deprive a man of justice. Therefore any humiliation that comes from the Lord is perfectly fair and just, because evil does not come from the Lord’s mouth. That is why the psalmist, when humiliated by the Lord, said: He saved me when I was humbled.

St Ambrose, Commentary on Psalm 118, 12.3-6; (1998) tr. Ni Riain.

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH BY ST RABANUS MAURUS

In the Gospel he who is Truth himself says to his disciples: When you stand before kings and princes, do not think how you are to speak, or what you are to say; what you are to say will be given you at the time, for it is not you who will be speaking but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. We must realise that the grace of the Holy Spirit is necessary not only for those who teach but also for those who are taught. Unless the Spirit is present in the heart of the listener, the teacher is wasting his breath. Unless there is a teacher within us, the teacher without works in a vacuum. In Church we all hear the same voice speaking, but all do not understand it in the same way. Since there is no difference in what is said, why is there a difference in our understanding of it, unless there is an interior teacher giving certain people special instruction through their understanding of words of admonition addressed to all?

Concerning this grace of the Holy Spirit, John says: His anointing will teach you everything. No one learns anything through speech, therefore, unless the mind is anointed with the Spirit. Because Jehoiachim and his servants were not inwardly illumined by the grace of the Holy Spirit who inspired the Prophet, their bodily ears could hear the words of God, but the ears of the heart were deaf to them. It is this interior listening which our Lord demands in the Gospel when he says: Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

One has to marvel at the blindness of the human mind and the wickedness of the hardened heart. Those whom salutary admonitions should have filled with compunction and sorrow for their sins were at pains to burn the scroll containing the words of the Lord. They also took every opportunity to insult the Prophet whom they ought to have honoured for his inspired teaching and admonitions. And why did they do this? Was it not because there was in them the sort of wicked spirit that always resists grace? Yet human pride is impotent when it sets itself to resist divine sovereignty. An earthly King gave orders for the Prophet and his scribe to be arrested and sent to prison: the King of heaven shielded his blameless saints from human malice so that they came to no harm.

Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch, son of Neriah, and he wrote on it at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words of the book that Jehoiakim King of Judah had burnt in the fire; and much more was added. Why was this done if not because, when Judah was rejected by reason of its infidelity, the books of the Law and the Prophets were preserved for the salvation of the Gentiles, to whom on Christ’s coming passed the whole glory of the Old Testament; for all these things that happened to them were symbolic, and they were written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come.

St Rabanus Maurus, Expositio super Ieremiam, 13 (PL 111:1073-75); Word in Season VI.

Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Those who are called to be converted, redeemed and purified from sin must not disbelieve in the grace that comes through Christ. This is what the Israelites did: when God called them to be converted and repent they were pricked by the accusations of their consciences, and considering it quite impossible to wash away the filth of their sins they kept saying: “Our sins are part of our nature, we are born with them. How can we have true life?”

What was God’s answer to this? “Be converted, turn back from the way you are going, house of Israel, so as not to be punished for your wickedness. When I, the Almighty, promise to cleanse you from every stain and free you from your past sins, and yet you refuse to believe, you should consider who I am and who you are, and that the difference between your ways and my ways, and your thoughts and my thoughts is as great as the difference in our natures. For you are men and I am God.”

The difference, therefore, is immense, and the things of God beyond all comparison. He is pre-eminent in strength, in glory and in kindness, and there is nothing whatever in creatures to equal his excellence, or even appear to approach it. Men are prone to anger, but the supreme Being is not subject to wrath. Men are malicious and much given to wickedness, but God is by nature good, or rather, he is Goodness itself. As God, therefore, he will forgive and justify the ungodly, burying the errors of ignorance in oblivion, and wiping away the pollution of those who have gone astray.

There is also another way of looking at this subject. Formerly the gentile multitudes lacked understanding and were easily led astray into excesses of every kind, and the desire to do what it is not right even to speak of. But when faith led them to seek God and they called upon him, abandoning their old ways and lawless impulses, they received his mercy and were transformed as if into different people living a new life. As partakers of Wisdom they became wise and had knowledge of all goodness. Shaking off the yoke of their past errors and conquering sin, they were no longer easily led but firm and strong and ready to do whatever was pleasing to God. “But when I promise these things,” God says, “do not disbelieve them or doubt that it is possible for you to have a change of heart, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”

St Cyril of Alexandria, In Isaiam, 5.2 (PG 70:1230-1231); Word in Season VI.

Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH BY ORIGEN

God sentenced Jerusalem for her sins, and those condemned were to be delivered into captivity. Nevertheless, at the appointed time, the benevolent God sends Jeremiah under the third King before the Captivity so that those who wish to consider it may repent by means of the words of the Prophet. He had charged the Prophet to prophesy under the second King also after the first King, and under the third King until the times of her captivity. For the patient God was allowing a respite even, so to speak, down to the day before the Captivity, urging hearers to repent so that he might prevent the misfortune of the captivity. Hence it is written, Jeremiah prophesied until the captivity of Jerusalem, until the fifth month. The Captivity begins, and still he prophesied, saying something like this: “Become captives, provided in such circumstances you can repent! For when you repent, the misfortunes of the captivity will not transpire, but God’s mercy will be realised for you.”

So it is also for us. If we sin, we also are liable to become captives. For to deliver such a one to Satan is no different from delivering those captives from Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. For just as they are delivered to him for their sins, so we are delivered for our sins to Satan, who is Nebuchadnezzar. And I have delivered them to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme, the Apostle says concerning other sinners. Thus a captivity is also imposed on us for our sins, and, if we do not repent, we are liable to be delivered to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in order that the spiritual Babylonians may torture us.

But later it is written, The Word of the Lord came to him, that is, to Jeremiah. And what does the Word of the Lord say to him? It is something special, beyond what is said of the other Prophets. Abraham was called a Prophet, yet God did not say to him, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you. Isaac was born from a promise, and we do not discover any such word said to him. And what need is there to recount the rest? Jeremiah obtains a special gift, which is: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came from your mother, I consecrated you.

We are aware that some people refer these words, in that they surpass Jeremiah, to our Lord and Saviour. Referring these words to the Saviour is not troublesome for the interpreter, for Jeremiah in such passages is a prefiguring of the Saviour.

Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah, 1. 3-6; FoC 97 (1998) tr. Smith.

Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE SOUL AND RESURRECTION BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

“So the divine judgement,” I said, “as it seems, does not primarily bring punishment on sinners. As our discourse has just shown, it operates only by separating good from evil and pulling the soul towards the fellowship of blessedness. It is the tearing apart of what has grown together which brings pain to the one who is being pulled.”

“This is my opinion too,” said my teacher. “I also think that the measure of pain is proportional to the quantity of evil in each person. For it is not likely that the one who has gone far in forbidden evils and the one who has fallen into moderate transgressions will be distressed equally as they are purified from their wretched condition. Probably that painful fire is kindled more or less hotly depending on the quantity of matter, and it burns as long as it has fuel. So if a person’s material burden is great, the consuming flame must also become great and long-lasting; but if someone is exposed to the consuming fire more briefly, the punishment relaxes its severe and piercing operation in proportion to the smaller measure of evil in the subject. For evil must be altogether removed in every way from being, and, as we have said before, that which does not really exist must cease to exist at all. Since evil does not exist by its nature outside of free choice, when all choice is in God, evil will suffer a complete annihilation because no receptacle remains for it.”

“Freedom consists in becoming like that which has no master and is under its own control. This likeness was given to us by God at the beginning, but has been veiled by the shame of our sins. All freedom is one in nature and belongs together. Consequently, therefore, everything which is free will be joined with its like. Virtue has no master. Therefore everything free will be in virtue, for that which is free also has no master. But indeed the divine Nature is the source of all virtue. Hence those who are released from evil will be in the divine Nature, so that, as the Apostle says, God may be all in all. This word, which says that God becomes all and in all, seems to me to confirm clearly the idea which we have examined previously. For while we carry on our present life in many different ways, there are many things in which we participate, such as time, air, place, food and drink. clothing, sun, lamplight, and many other necessities of life, of which none is God. The blessedness which we await, however, does not need any of these, but the divine Nature will become everything for us and will replace everything, distributing itself appropriately for every need of that life. If God will be in everything which exists, evil obviously will not be amongst the things which exist; for if one should suppose that evil existed, how would it remain true that God is in all?

St Gregory of Nyssa, On The Soul and Resurrection; SVSP (1993) tr. Roth, pp. 84-87.

Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE INSTRUCTION OF BEGINNERS BY ST AUGUSTINE

As Jerusalem signifies the city and fellowship of the righteous, so Babylon signifies the city and fellowship of the unrighteous, since it is said to be interpreted ‘confusion’.

The captive city of Jerusalem, and the people led forth into Babylon, is bidden to go into bondage by the Lord through Jeremiah, a Prophet of that time. And there arose kings of Babylon, under whom they were in bondage, who, having been stirred by certain wonders occasioned by their presence, came to know and worship and ordered to be worshiped the one true God, the author of all creation. Moreover, they were bidden both to pray for those by whom they were held captive, and in the peace of these to hope for peace, for the begetting of children and the building of houses and the planting of gardens and vineyards. But deliverance from that captivity after seventy years was promised them.

Now all this signified in a figure that the Church of Christ, in all his saints, who are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, was to be in bondage under the kings of this world. For the teaching of the Apostle also enjoins that everyone should be subject to the governing authorities and that all should be paid what is due to them, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, and so with other things which, saving the worship of our God, we render to the rulers of the human order; since the Lord himself, that he might afford us an example of this sound teaching, did not disdain to pay poll-tax on the humanity with which he was invested. Moreover, Christian servants and the good faithful are also bidden to serve their temporal masters with patience and fidelity, whom they are to judge if they find them unrighteous to the last; or with whom they are to reign as equals if they likewise turn to the true God. And by occasion of this captivity even earthly kings, forsaking the idols for the sake of which they were wont to persecute the Christians, have come to know and worship the one true God and Christ the Lord, and it is on their behalf, even when they were persecuting the Church, that the Apostle Paul bids prayer be made. For these are his words: I desire therefore in the first place that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for Kings, for people in general, and for all that are in high station, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and charity.

And so through these very Kings peace was given to the Church, albeit temporal peace, temporal quietude for the spiritual building of houses and planting of vineyards. For, behold, we too are now building up and planting you by this discourse. And this is being done throughout the whole world with the permission of Christian Kings, even as the same Apostle says: You are God’s husbandry, God’s building.

St Augustine: The Instruction of Beginners, CUA Patr. Studs. 8:90-92; Word in Season VI.

Season of the Year | Week 31

Sunday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BERNARD

The holy city of Jerusalem still exiled in the depths of poverty is consoled by the words of the Prophet: Do not weep, for your salvation will come quickly. For by the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept. Babylon means confusion: the citizens of Jerusalem sit and weep in Babylon, or in confusion, because even if they are not confused in their actions they are in their thoughts. They want to turn their mental eye toward God but cannot because they are assailed by futile and unwanted distractions.

The rivers of Babylon are bad habits which are sweet to the memory. Quickly flowing, they sweep those whom they seduce into the sea of this world. But thanks be to God who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, for even if bad habits press upon us, we are sitting beside the rivers of Babylon, not in them; we make no answer to the allurements of a worldly life, we are deaf to its call and hardened against its blandishments. Impeded therefore by these follies, it is no wonder that we weep when we remember Zion, that is, when we call to mind the sweetness, the delightful savour of which they have a foretaste who shall one day be found worthy to gaze on the glory of God with unveiled face.

But even if I should walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I would fear no evil if you were with me, or, rather, I would have no fear because you are with me. How do I dare to entertain this hope? Because the rod of your correction and the staff of your support comfort me. For even though you correct me and check my pride by reducing me almost to the dust of death, you still sustain my life and support me, so that I do not sink into the place of the dead. I will not spurn the correction of the Lord, nor take it amiss when he reproves me, for I know that all things work together for the good of those who love God. Am I impatient then? No, I bear it patiently. Why? Because of him who made creation subject in hope. For creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Do not weep, then, city of Jerusalem, for your salvation will come quickly. If in your eyes he seems to delay, in his there will be no delay, for to him a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone.

St Bernard, In adventu, 10-11 (Opera Omnia 6.1.19-20); Word in Season VI.

Monday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT BY ST JOHN CLIMACUS

As the flower comes before every fruit, so exile of the body or will precedes all obedience. On these two virtues, as on two golden wings, the holy soul rises serenely to heaven. Perhaps it was of this the Prophet sang when, filled with the Holy Spirit, he said, Who will give me the wings of a dove? and, The active life will give me flight and I will be at rest in contemplation and lowliness.

We ought not omit in this treatise a clear description of the weapons of those noble fighters, the shield of faith which they hold up before God, and before their trainer, and with which they ward off, so to speak, all thought of unbelief or backsliding; the spiritual sword that is always drawn and lays low every selfish longing; the iron breastplate of meekness and patience to ward off every insult, every jab and missile; the protective prayer of their spiritual master which they have as a saving helmet. They do not stand with their feet close together, but one foot is advanced towards service, while the other stays firmly planted in prayer.

Obedience is a total renunciation of our own life, and it shows up clearly in the way we act. Obedience is the burial place of the will and the resurrection of lowliness. The beginning of the mortification both of the soul’s will and also of the body’s members is hard. The halfway stage is sometimes difficult, sometimes not. But the end is liberation from the senses and freedom from pain.

So you have decided to strip for the race of spiritual profession, to take Christ’s yoke on your neck, to lay your own burden on the shoulders of another, to pledge your willing surrender to slavery? And for this you want it in writing that you get freedom in return, even when you swim across this great sea borne up on the hands of others? Very well, then. But you had better recognise that you have undertaken to travel by a short and rough road, along which there is only one false turning, that which they call self-direction and if that is avoided – even in matters seemingly good, spiritual, and pleasing to God - then straightaway one has reached journey’s end. For the fact is that obedience is mistrust of self up to one’s dying day, in every matter, even the good.

Those who submit to the Lord with simple heart will run the good race. If they keep their minds on leash they will not draw the wickedness of demons onto themselves.

St John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent 4 (abr.): CWS (1982) tr. Luibhead & Russell.

Tuesday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN

So much did the evangelical and apostolic men realise that every good thing is accomplished by the Lord’s help, and so certain were they that they could not by their own power and free will preserve their faith unharmed, that they besought this as a gift to them from the Lord. If there was need of the Lord’s help in Peter so that he would not fail, who would be so presumptuous and blind as to believe that he would not need the Lord’s daily assistance to preserve this? This is especially so as the Lord himself expressed this very thing clearly in the Gospel when he said: Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides on the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. And again: Apart from me you can do nothing. How foolish and sacrilegious it is, then, to assign any of our good acts to our own effort and not to the grace of God. For every good gift and every perfect benefit is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. Zechariah also says: Whatever is good is his, and whatever is excellent is from him. And therefore the blessed Apostle says continually: What do you have that you have not received? And if you have received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

Finally the Prophet Jeremiah, speaking for God, clearly testifies that the fear of God, by which we may hold fast to him, is poured into us by the Lord when he says: And I will give them one heart and one way so that they may fear me all their days, and it shall be well with them and with their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not cease to do good to them. And I will put my fear in their heart so that they may not depart from me. Ezekiel also says: I will give them one heart, and I will place a new spirit in their bowels, and I will remove the stony heart from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh so that they may walk in my precepts and keep my laws and do them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

By these words we are very clearly taught that the beginning of a good will is bestowed upon us at the Lord’s inspiration, when either by himself or by human encouragement or through need a man draws near to the path of salvation. We are also taught by these words that the perfection of the virtues is granted by God in the same way, but that it is up to us to follow up God’s encouragement and help in either a haphazard or a serious manner. Depending on the outcome, we have been promised either a reward or punishment to the extent that we have either neglected or accepted that plan and providence of his which has been most graciously directed toward us.

St John Cassian, Conferences 3.16-19; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.

Wednesday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH BY ST JEROME

The Lord says this: I will restore the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings, and the city shall be rebuilt on its hill. There was already a symbol of these things in the time of Zerubbabel and Ezra, when the people returned to Jerusalem and the city began to be rebuilt on its hill and the law of the Temple observed, and so on as related in the book of Ezra. But the prophecy was more fully and perfectly fulfilled in the time of our Lord and Saviour, and of the Apostles, when that city of which it is written: A city built on a hill cannot be hidden was built on its hill. Moreover, the Temple was established with its rites and ceremonies, so that whatever was done outwardly among the people of the past might be fulfilled spiritually in the Church.

Then songs of thanksgiving will come from them, for all the Apostles said: Grace and peace to you. It will be the sound of people dancing, not like those who ate and drank and rose up to dance, but as David danced before the ark of the Lord. And they will increase and not diminish, so that the whole world may believe in God the Saviour. They will be honoured, so that what was written may be fulfilled: Glorious things are told of you, city of God. And its sons, that is, the Apostles, will be like the men of old, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who founded the Israelite race. At that time the Lord will punish all the hostile powers that oppressed God’s people.

And their leader will be one of themselves – undoubtedly our Lord and Saviour who was born an Israelite; their ruler will come from their own number. The Father placed him near himself, and he came so close to him that his Son could declare: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; for no one can place his heart so near the Lord, nor be as closely united to him as the Son is to the Father. And the words: You shall be my people and I will be your God we see partly fulfilled in Israel and completely in all the nations of the world.

St Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah, 6.30 (PL 24:904-905); Word in Season VI.

Thursday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON REPENTANCE BY ST AMBROSE

Let us cover our falls by our subsequent acts of repentance; let us purify ourselves by tears, that the Lord our God may hear us when we lament, as he heard Ephraim when he wept, as it is written: I have surely heard Ephraim weeping. And he expressly repeats the very words of Ephraim: You have chastised me and I was chastised, like a calf I was not trained. For a calf disports itself, and leaves its stall, and so Ephraim was untrained like a calf far away from the stall; because he had forsaken the stall of the Lord, followed Jeroboam, and worshipped the calves, a future event which was prophetically indicated through Aaron. And so repenting, Ephraim said: Turn me, and I shall be turned, for you are the Lord my God. Surely in the end of my captivity I repented, and after I learned I mourned over the days of confusion, and subjected myself to you because I received reproach and made you known.

We see how to repent, with what words and with what acts, that the days of sin are called ‘days of confusion’; for there is confusion when Christ is denied. Let us, then, submit ourselves to God, and not be subject to sin, and when we ponder the remembrance of our offences, let us blush, as though at some disgrace, and not speak of them as a glory. Let our conversion be such, that we who did not know God may now ourselves declare him to others, that the Lord, moved by such a conversion on our part, may answer to us: Ephraim is from youth a dear son, a pleasant child, for since my words are concerning him, I will truly remember him, therefore I have hastened to be over him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.

You see what God requires of you, that you remember that grace which you have received, and boast not as though you had not received it. You see by how complete a promise of remission he draws you to confession. Take heed, lest by resisting the commandments of God you fall into the offence of those to whom the Lord Jesus said: We piped to you and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not weep. The words are ordinary words, but the mystery is not ordinary. Dancing, then, which is an accompaniment of pleasures and luxury, is not spoken of, but that spiritual dance by which Paul danced, when for us he stretched forwards, and forgetting the things which were behind, and aiming at those which were before, he pressed on to the prize of Christ. You, too, when you come to baptism, are warned to raise the hands, and cause your feet to ascend to things eternal. This dancing accompanies faith, and is the companion of grace.

This, then, is the mystery. Repentance came by John, grace by Christ. He, as the Lord, gives the one; the other is proclaimed, as it were, by the servant. The Church, then, keeps both that it may both attain to grace and not cast away repentance, for grace is the gift of One who confers it; repentance is the remedy of the sinner.

St Ambrose, On Repentance 2.5-6 (36-39, 41-44): NPNF210 (1989) tr. de Romestin.

Friday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

No Prophet commenced his labours with greater encouragement than Jeremiah. A King had succeeded to the throne who was bringing back the times of the man after God’s own heart. There had not been a son of David so zealous as Josiah since David himself. The King, too, was young, at most twenty years of age, in the beginning of his reformation. What might not be effected in a course of years, however corrupt and degraded was the existing state of his people?

Whether or not, however, such hope of success encouraged Jeremiah’s first exertions, very soon, in his case, this cheerful prospect was overcast, and he was left to labour in the dark. His trials were very great, even in Josiah’s reign; but when that pious King’s countenance was withdrawn on his early death, he was exposed to persecution from every class of people. When Jerusalem had been taken by the enemy, Jeremiah was forcibly carried down to Egypt by people who at first pretended to reverence and consult him, and there he came to his end – it is believed, a violent end.

All of us live in a world which promises well, but does not fulfil; it is in our nature to begin life thoughtlessly and joyously; to seek great things in one way or other; to have vague notions of good to come; to love the world, and to believe its promises, and seek satisfaction and happiness from it. And, as it is our nature to hope, so it is our lot, as life proceeds, to encounter disappointment. That disappointment in some shape or other is the lot of man (that is, looking at our prospects apart from the next world) is plain from the mere fact, if nothing else could be said, that we begin life with health and end it with sickness; or in other words, that it comes to an end, for an end is a failure.

Here then it is that God himself offers us his aid by his Word, and in his Church. Left to ourselves, we seek good from the world, but cannot find it; in youth we look forward, and in age we look back. It is well we should be persuaded of these things betimes, to gain wisdom and to provide for the evil day. Seek we great things? We must seek them where they really are to be found, and in the way in which they are to be found; we must seek them as he has set them before us, who came into the world to enable us to gain them. We must be willing to give up present hope for future enjoyment, this world for the unseen. Let us prepare for suffering and disappointment, which befit us as sinners, and which are necessary for us as saints. Let us not turn away from trial when God brings it on us, or play the coward in the fight of faith. Watch, stand fast in the faith, acquit yourselves like men, be strong; such is Saint Paul’s exhortation. When affliction overtakes you, remember to accept it as a means of improving your hearts, and pray God for his grace that it may do so. Look disappointment in the face. Take ... the prophets ... for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy who endure.

Ven. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8:127-8; Word in Season VI.

Saturday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE MACARIAN HOMILIES

After contemplating the divinely glorious vision he had seen, the Prophet Ezekiel wrote a description of it full of unutterable mysteries. What he saw was the mystery of the soul that was to receive its Lord and become his throne of glory. For the soul that is privileged to share in the light of the Holy Spirit and is irradiated by the beauty of the unspeakable glory of him who has prepared her to be his throne and dwelling is all light, all face, all eye: there is no part of her that is not full of the spiritual eyes of light. In other words, no part of her is darkened, but through and through she has been made light and spirit; she is full of eyes all over, and has no such thing as a back part but is face forward in every direction, because the unutterable beauty of the glory of the light of Christ is mounted and riding upon her. Christ drives, guides, carries and supports the soul, gracing and adorning her with spiritual beauty: the Prophet says, A human hand was under the cherubim because it is Christ who is carried by the soul and is her guide.

The four living creatures that bore the chariot symbolise the governing powers of the soul. For just as the eagle is the king of birds, the lion of wild beasts, the bull of tame ones, and mankind of creatures in general, so the soul also has its governing powers, which are the will, the conscience, the mind, and the ability to love. By these the chariot of the soul is controlled, and God rests on them.

If, then, you have become a throne of God, and the heavenly charioteer has mounted you, and your whole soul is a spiritual eye and has become all light; and if you have been nourished with that food of the Spirit, given living water to drink, and donned the raiment of ineffable light; if your inner self is grounded in the experience and full assurance of all these things, then indeed you already live the eternal life and your soul is henceforth at rest with the Lord.

On the other hand, if you have no awareness of any of these things, then weep, mourn, and lament, because you have not yet obtained the eternal spiritual riches; you have not yet received true life. Be distressed at your poverty and pray to the Lord night and day because you have come to a halt in the dreadful penury of sin. If only we were troubled by our poverty and did not go on without a care as though we were completely satisfied! For one who is deeply troubled and seeks and prays to the Lord unceasingly will soon be delivered and gain heavenly riches. As the Lord said in his story about the unjust judge and the widow: How much more will God vindicate those who cry to him night and day? To him be glory and power forever. Amen

The Spiritual Homilies of Macarius, 1:1-3, 12 (PG 34:449-452, 461; Word in Season VI.

Season of the Year | Week 32

Sunday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT

I saw a hand stretched out towards me, holding a rolled up scroll. It then spread out the scroll before me, and I saw that it was written on within and without. In this vision the Prophet represents all preachers of the Gospel, and the scroll given to him represents holy Scripture. It is rolled up, since the words of Scripture are often obscure. Because of their profundity they are not easily understood by everyone. But the scroll is then spread out before the Prophet, because holy preachers are able to reveal the hidden meaning of Scripture to the faithful. Truth himself opened out this scroll when, He opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures.

The scroll was written on within and without because Scripture has a literal or historical sense and a spiritual or allegorical sense. The writing ‘without’ is the plain sense of the letter, attainable by the weak. The writing ‘within’ is the spiritual understanding, given only to the strong. It is ‘within’ because it promises invisible things, whereas what is written ‘without’ is visible and earthly. It is ‘within’ when it sets forth heavenly realities, and ‘without’ when it shows how earthly things should be rightly used, or properly excluded from what we may rightly desire.

The strong are able to feast on the hidden and sublime words of holy Scripture. We little ones, though, must usually find our nourishment in its more open precepts. For this reason the Psalmist said: The high mountains are a refuge for the stags, and the rock for the hedgehogs. Those who can already make the leap of divine contemplation are able to attain the mountain heights of spiritual understanding. But as for us: we are more like the hedgehogs who find refuge in the rocks, for we are covered by the spines of our sins, and so unable to understand profound truths. Nevertheless, we are safe in the haven of the Rock: that is, we are saved through our faith in Jesus Christ. St Paul therefore told some people: I did not consider myself to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Or in other words: Because I did not think you could grasp the mysteries of his divinity, I spoke to you only about his human weakness.

The Prophet goes on: There were written on the scroll lamentations, songs and woe. By this he means that holy Scripture contains everything we need to edify us and instruct us. Have you sinned, and bitterly regret what you have done? Here you will find lamentations, teaching you how to repent. Do you yearn for the consolation of heavenly joys? Here you will find a song for your comfort. Are you a sinner who not only refuses to repent, but even disdains the hope of heavenly rewards? Here you will find written the woes of your condemnation. It remains for us then, brethren, to wake up to the words of this scroll. Let us afflict ourselves with tears for the sins we remember having committed, in order that through our lamentation we may come at last to the song of life. The dreadful alternative is to experience woe without end. We do not despair of avoiding that, because the magnitude of our sickness cannot compare with the greatness of the divine doctor, to whom be praise and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

St Gregory the Great: Homily 9 on Ezekiel, tr. Pluscarden

Monday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON PSALM 125 BY ST AUGUSTINE

The Jerusalem above is eternal; the one upon earth is but its prefiguration. Therefore the earthly Jerusalem fell, while the heavenly one remains. The one lasted during the time when the Messiah was being foretold; the other endures for the eternity of our restoration. During this life we are wandering exiles from the Jerusalem above; we long to return to it and have much toil and sorrow until we are back there once more. But the angels, our fellow citizens, did not abandon us in our exile; on the contrary, they announced the coming to us of the King in person. And he did come to us, but was met with contempt among us. He was despised by us, and later he was despised with us. And he taught us to bear contempt because he had borne it, to endure because he had endured, to suffer because he had suffered. Moreover he promised that we should rise from the dead because he rose from the dead, showing in himself what we were to hope for.

If then our fathers, the prophets of old, longed for that heavenly city even before our Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, before he died, rose again, and ascended into heaven, how much more should we not long for that city to which he has gone before us and which in fact he never left? When our Lord came to us he did not leave the angels. He both remained with them and came to us: he remained with them in majesty; he came to us in his human body.

But as for us, where were we then? If we call him our Redeemer, we must have been captives. Where were we held captive so that he had to come and ransom us? Where were we held? Among the barbarians perhaps? The devil and his angels are worse than barbarians. It was they who held mankind captive; it was from them he ransomed us, not with gold or silver but with his own blood.

We were captives because we had been sold into sin. Who sold us then? We sold ourselves by consenting to our seducer. We had the power to sell ourselves but not to redeem ourselves. We sold ourselves by consenting to sin; we were redeemed by the faith that justifies. For innocent blood was shed to redeem us. Whenever the seducer shed blood by persecuting the just, what kind of blood was poured out? The blood of the righteous, certainly; the blood of the prophets, of our fathers, of the upright and of martyrs, but these all came from a race tainted by sin. Once only did he shed the blood of one who was born just and needed no justification; once that blood had been shed the seducer lost his claim upon all his captives. Those for whom innocent blood had been poured out are redeemed, and released from captivity they sing the psalm: When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage, we were like those who are consoled.

St Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 125, 1-3 (CCL 40:1844-1846); Word in Season VI.

Tuesday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM FOUR CENTURIES ON LOVE BY ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

The passions lying hidden in the soul provide the demons with the means of arousing impassioned thoughts in us. Then, fighting the intellect through these thoughts, they force it to give its assent to sin. When it has been overcome, they lead it to sin in the mind; and when this has been done they induce it, captive as it is, to commit the sin in action. Having thus desolated the soul by means of these thoughts, the demons then retreat, taking the thoughts with them, and only the spectre or idol of sin remains in the intellect. Referring to this our Lord says, When you see the abominable idol of desolation standing in the holy place (let him who reads understand)… For man’s intellect is a holy place and a temple of God in which the demons, having desolated the soul by means of impassioned thoughts, set up the idol of sin. That these things have already taken place in history no one, I think, who has read Josephus will doubt; though some say that they will also come to pass in the time of the Antichrist.

There are three things that impel us towards what is holy: natural instincts, angelic powers and rightness of intention. Natural instincts impel us when, for example, we do to others what we would wish them to do to us, or when we see someone suffering deprivation or in need and naturally feel compassion. Angelic powers impel us when, being ourselves impelled to something worthwhile, we find we are providentially helped and guided. We are impelled by rightness of intention when, discriminating between good and evil, we choose the good.

There are also three things that impel us towards evil: passions, demons and sinfulness of intention. Passions impel us when, for example, we desire something beyond what is reasonable, such as food which is unnecessary or untimely, or a woman who is not our wife or for a purpose other than procreation, or else when we are excessively angered or irritated by, for instance, someone who has dishonoured or injured us. Demons impel us when, for example, they catch us off our guard and suddenly launch a violent attack upon us, stirring up the passions already mentioned and others of a similar nature. We are impelled by sinfulness of intention when, knowing the good, we choose evil instead.

St Maximus the Confessor, Four Centuries on Love, 2.31-33; Philokalia 2 (1981) tr. Palmer etc.

Wednesday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL BY ST JEROME

The glory of the Lord and his splendour, which was at the threshold of the temple, stood over the Cherubim.... What was this unusual thing that the Prophet saw, which he perceived as Cherubim and had not previously understood? Cherubim in our language means much knowledge: the knowledge of the mysteries of God, of his throne and of his place of rest. Therefore it is said in the psalm, You who sit upon the Cherubim reveal yourself. For the glory of God always sits enthroned on much knowledge; thus it is made clear that all things are directed with wisdom and nothing happens by chance. Hence the contemplation of the Cherubim and their desire is to forget the things of the past and to stretch out towards the future.

The heavenly Word speaks to those who were captives in the land of Babylon, to the brethren of the Prophet Ezekiel, and utters these words: I shall gather you from the peoples and I shall give back the land of Israel to you. Most people think that this refers to the inhabitants of Jerusalem who were captured in the reign of King Zedekiah, or who fled to Egypt along with Jeremiah, but these were scattered among the nations and never returned to the city of Jerusalem. The true return of the captives and of the remnant of Israel is understood in Christ when the Acts of the Apostles records that many were saved and on one day three thousand believed and on another five thousand.

And the Cherubim raised up their wings and along with them, the wheels, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and rested over the mountain which is to the east of the city. Gradually the glory of the Lord withdrew from Jerusalem. Firstly, on leaving the Temple it remained in the court of the house and afterwards it was at the entrance of the East Gate. Last of all, after the wings went up with the wheels following, it lingered over the mountain, which is to the east of the city; doubtless by this mountain the Prophet means Mount Olivet, whence our Saviour ascended to the Father. The glory of the Lord, which had left the city of Jerusalem, was seen resting above Mount Olivet as a sign of the resurrection, so that by this sign Jerusalem might foresee that it would be lost and would burn. It is said in the sacred text, His glory goes up from the midst of the city, and in another place the Lord addressed his disciples, Arise, let us go from here. Elsewhere he says to the Jews, Your house will be left to you deserted, and Josephus in The Antiquities refers to the voice of angels and of the heavenly powers being heard in the Temple saying, Let us go from these dwellings.

In a marvellous way, even up to the present day, the glory of the Lord which abandoned the Temple rests over Mount Olivet and, glowing red in the sign of the Cross, gazes across at the former Jewish Temple which has been reduced to embers and ashes.

St Jerome, Commentaria in Ezechielem 3.11 (PL 25:95, 100-101); tr. Pluscarden

Thursday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON PSALM 64 BY ST AUGUSTINE

The Israelites were taken captive and transported from the city of Jerusalem to a life of servitude in Babylon. The holy man Jeremiah, however, prophesied that seventy years later they should return from captivity and the city of Jerusalem, over whose fall into enemy hands he had lamented, should be restored. At that time there were Prophets among the captive people in Babylon, and one of these was Ezekiel. The people were looking forward to the end of the seventy years predicted by Jeremiah: and indeed when the seventy years were up, the majority of the people did return and the Temple which had been destroyed was rebuilt. But since the Apostle says: These things happened to them as a warning, and were written down as a lesson for us upon whom the end of the ages has come, we too must first be aware of our captivity and then of our liberation; we must be aware of Babylon, where we are enslaved, and of the Jerusalem, to which we long to return.

Consider the names of these two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon means ‘confusion’, Jerusalem ‘vision of peace’; now take note of the city of confusion in order to understand the vision of peace. You endure the former while you long for the latter. How can these two cities be told apart? Can we possibly separate them from one another in this world? They are intermingled; they have been from the very origin of the human race, and shall remain so until the end of time. What proof have we now then that they are intermingled? The Lord will make it plain when he places some at his right hand and others at his left; Jerusalem will be on his right, Babylon on his left. Jerusalem will hear him say: Come, you who have my Father’s blessing, take possession of the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. Babylon will hear: Depart into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Nevertheless, with the Lord’s help we can suggest how believers can distinguish even now between citizens of Jerusalem and citizens of Babylon. Two loves built these two cities. Love of God built Jerusalem; love of the world built Babylon. We have only then to ask ourselves what we love, and we shall learn which city we belong to. Those who find that they are citizens of Babylon should root out avarice and plant charity; those who find that they are citizens of Jerusalem should endure their captivity, looking forward to their release.

One can truthfully say of a ship riding at anchor that it has made land: though it still moves with the waves, in a certain sense it is ashore, protected from gales and tempests. On our own pilgrimage we have a similar safeguard against temptations, for hope set fast on the city of Jerusalem will prevent our being dashed against the rocks.

St Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 64, 1-3 (CCL 39:822-825); Word in Season VI.

Friday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL BY ORIGEN

Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy from their own hearts. This saying can apply to those who teach in the Church, if their teaching is contrary to the truth. Those who teach what our Lord Jesus Christ taught speak the word of Jesus the Son of God not from their own hearts but inspired by the Holy Spirit. If they agree with the will of the Holy Spirit, who spoke through the Apostles, they speak not from their own hearts but from the heart of the Holy Spirit, who spoke through Paul, through Peter, and through the rest of the Apostles. On the other hand, those who read the Gospel and interpret it according to their own ideas, misunderstanding the Lord’s words, are false prophets, speaking against the Gospel out of their own hearts.

Woe to those who prophesy from their own hearts and follow their own spirit. There are two sins, one of the heart, the other of the spirit. Let us look first at the better alternative, so as to be able to consider also its opposite. The Apostle says: I will pray with my spirit; I will pray also with my mind. (Now the mind has its dwelling in the heart.) I will sing psalms with my spirit; I will sing them also with my mind.

We are possessed then of both spirit and mind. The saint prays with the spirit and also with the mind, and sings psalms with the spirit and also with the mind, but false prophets prophesy from their own hearts, not following the Spirit of God but their own spirit. For there is a certain spirit that dwells in men, and God forbid that I should follow it. May I, on the contrary, understand the Holy Spirit of God and follow my Lord Jesus.

The prophets, then, who prophesy from their own hearts and follow their own spirit rather than God’s see nothing at all. For we have within us other eyes that are better than the eyes of our bodies. These eyes either see the Lord Jesus, who created them to contemplate him, or else they are completely blind. If I am a sinner I see nothing; I am incapable of looking at the light of truth. As the Lord says: It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so that the blind may see, and those who see become blind. If I am righteous I receive God’s grace, and I too am called a seer just like the Prophets of old. Blessed are those whose eyes the Lord opens, so that they can see the wonders of God’s law, according to the Prophet’s entreaty: Open my eyes that I may behold the wonders of your law.

Origen, Homilies on Ezekiel, 2.1-3 (PG 13:682-685); Word in Season VI.

Saturday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A HOMILY ON PSALM 132 BY ST AUGUSTINE

This is a short psalm, very well known and frequently quoted. See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! These words of the psalm have given birth to monasteries. Brothers longed to live as one when awakened by this song; this verse roused them like a trumpet. It rang all around the world, and those who were dispersed came together into one sheepfold. What does the psalm imply by the words, in unity? Scripture tells us: They had but one mind and one heart. These, then, were the first to hear effectively the psalm’s words, See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! They were the first but not the only ones, for this love and fraternal unity did not reach them only to end there.

In case you hear anyone insulting you, Catholics, about our monks, we should point out that it is from the words of this psalm that their name is derived. Nonetheless, dearest friends there are spurious monks too. Just as there are spurious clerics, and some among believers who do not deserve the name, so too there are bogus monks. All these three classes of people have good and bad among them. These three are mentioned in the Gospel: Two men will be in the field: one will be taken, the other left. Two men will be in bed: one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be at the mill: one will be taken, the other left. The ones in the field represent those who rule the Church; this is why the Apostle says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. By the people in bed the Lord meant us to understand those who love a quiet life – for a bed symbolises restful quiet – those who do not mingle with the crowds but serve God in leisure. Then again, we are told that there will be two women at the mill. This is put into the feminine because the Lord meant ordinary laity. But why are they said to be at the mill? Because their business is in the world, a world continually revolving like a millstone – and woe betide anyone crushed by it!

Ezekiel speaks in a similar way about three typical persons who represent the same three groups. When the Lord unleashes a sword over the land, he says, even if Noah, Daniel and Job are among the people, they will not save their sons or daughters. Only they themselves will be saved. Those three individuals were indeed saved long ago, but under their three names three classes of people are typified. Noah stands for the rulers of the Church, because he steered the ark through the flood. But Daniel chose a quiet life, in which he might serve God in celibacy; he did not seek a wife. Daniel is called a man of desires – chaste and holy desires, of course – and he stands for those servants of God of whom the psalm speaks: See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! Job corresponds to the one woman who is taken and freed from toiling at the mill. He had a wife, he had children, he had a vast fortune; in fact he had so plentiful supply of worldly goods that the devil was able to accuse him of worshipping God not disinterestedly but because of all he had been given. Under these three names, then, three types of people are represented, just as they are by the three groups in the Gospel, as I have explained.

St Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 132, 1-5; WSA (2004) tr. Boulding.

Season of the Year | Week 33

Sunday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE CITY OF GOD BY ST AUGUSTINE

Now the divine oracles given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the other prophetic signs or words found in previous sacred writings, refer partly to the nation physically derived from Abraham, but partly to those descendants of his in whom all nations are blessed as co-heirs of Christ through the new covenant. The same is true of the rest of the prophecies from this period of the Kings. Thus the prophecies refer in part to the maidservant whose children are born into slavery, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, who is in slavery, as are also her sons; but in part they refer to the free City of God, the true Jerusalem, eternal in heaven, whose sons are the men who live according to God’s will in their pilgrimage on earth. There are, however, some prophecies which are understood as referring to both; literally to the bondmaid, symbolically to the free woman.

Thus the utterances of the prophets are found to have a threefold meaning, in that some have in view the earthly Jerusalem, others the heavenly, and others refer to both. It is clear to me that I ought to prove my point by examples. Nathan the Prophet was sent to convict King David of a grave sin and to predict the coming misfortunes, misfortunes which in fact followed. Can anyone doubt that these statements and others of the same tenor had reference to the earthly city?

On the other hand we have such a passage as: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I shall ratify a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah... I shall establish it by putting my laws in their minds; and I shall write them on their hearts, and I shall look on them. And I shall become their God; and they will become my people. This is, without doubt, a prophecy of the Jerusalem above, whose reward is God himself; and to possess him, and to be his possession, is the Highest Good, and the Entire Good, in that City.

But the fact that Jerusalem is called the city of God has a double reference, combined as it is with the prophecy of the future house of God in that city. This prophecy seems to have its fulfilment when King Solomon builds that renowned temple. But this was not only an event in the history of the earthly Jerusalem; it was also a symbol of the Jerusalem in heaven.

Now in my opinion it is certainly a complete mistake to suppose that no narrative of events in this type of literature has any significance beyond the purely historical record; but it is equally rash to maintain that every single statement in those books is a complex of allegorical meanings. That is why I have spoken of a triple, instead of a double classification; for this is my own considered judgement. In spite of that, I do not censure those who have succeeded in carving out a spiritual meaning from each and every event in the narrative, always provided that they have maintained its original basis of historical truth.

St Augustine, City of God, 17.3.3; (1972) tr. Bettenson.

Monday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL BY ST JEROME

The true Nebuchadnezzar takes a tender shoot from the topmost branches of the tall cedar, so that the kingdom may be brought low, unable to raise itself. But the Lord God, the almighty Father, who spoke to Ezekiel, takes a royal seed from the line of David and plants it on a high and lofty mountain. It is this seed that says in the psalm: He has made me King on Zion his holy mountain. For Judah had lacked a prince and Israel a leader, until the one came about whom the promise was made: And he will be the expectation of the nations.

He put out branches and produced fruit, and grew taller than all the cedars, so that the birds of the air all nest beneath him, protected by his shade. Habakkuk says of him: Rays of light flash from his hands; there his power is hidden. And it is he who longs to gather his people together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, so that, referring metaphorically to the faithful, all the trees of the field may know that he is the Lord.

It is he who brought down the once lofty tree of Israel, and exalted the lowly people of the Gentiles. He dried up the green tree of the Jews, which blossomed and produced fruit under the Law and the Prophets, and made the dry tree of the Gentiles green, so as to fulfil by deeds what he had always foretold. This is also the meaning of the words of Simeon in the Gospel: He is destined to cause many either to stand or to fall. We are reminded of the mustard seed which, though the smallest seed of all, grows into a plant big enough for the birds to nest in.

Some give a different interpretation of the high tree brought low and the lowly one exalted, taking it to refer to the passion of our Lord and Saviour, who though his state was divine did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself, assuming the condition of a slave. After the resurrection this tree was exalted; green at first but dried up by death, it came to life again, recovering its original vigour.

Others, after the manner of the Jews, refer both trees to Israel: at our Lord’s first coming this tree was brought low and dried up and at his second it will be restored to its original dignity, fulfilling the words of the Apostle Paul: When the Gentiles have entered in full strength, then all Israel will be saved.

St Jerome, Commentaria in Ezechielem 6 (PL 25:173-174); Word in Season VI.

Tuesday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE

A salutary conversion consists of two aspects: if neither penance deserts the one who hopes nor hope deserts the one who does penance. It also requires that one renounces his sin and with his whole heart places his hope of forgiveness in God. But sometimes either the Devil takes the hope away from a person doing penance, or he removes the penance from the one who hopes: when he burdens one, he crushes him; when he lifts up the other, he casts him down. Judas who betrayed Christ did penance for his sins but lost salvation because he did not hope for forgiveness. He repented worthily because he sinned, betraying innocent blood, but he denied himself the fruit of his penance, because he did not hope that the sin of his betrayal was to be washed away by the very blood which he had betrayed.

The Devil holds many in their sins by a vain hope for forgiveness and forces them not to fear the justice of God, and he persuades them foolishly to rejoice in God’s goodness. Such people say, according to the rebuke of the Apostle, Let us do evil that good may come of it. Their penalty is what they deserve. With these indications, we recognise clearly that a person does penance in vain if, while penance is being done, forgiveness is despaired of and forgiveness is hoped for in vain without penance for sins.

Finally, our God demonstrates that the whole time of the present life is fitting for conversions, saying, But if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and right, they shall surely live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn away from their ways and live? But when the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity and do the same abominable things that the wicked do, shall they live? None of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have committed, they shall die. Each statement is right because each is divine, whether it be that the righteous deeds of the just man will be consigned to oblivion because he has turned from justice, or whether it be that the wicked person will be saved, and all his wicked deeds forgotten, when he has converted from wickedness.

No length of time closes off either the divine justice or mercy. Penance is never late with God in whose sight things past as well as future things are always taken as present. If a long period of sinning were to overcome the mercy of God, Christ would not have come in the last age of the world to take away the sins of a perishing world, concerning which John says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, and the Saviour says of himself, The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.

St Fulgentius of Ruspe, Letter 7 To Venantia, 7-11; FoC 95 (1997) tr. Eno.

Wednesday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

The Lord told his disciples to offer to God the first-fruits of his created things, not as though he were in want, but in order that they themselves might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful. He took bread, which is part of creation, and having given thanks, said, This is my Body; in the same manner he took the cup, which is also part of that creation to which we belong, and confessed it to be his own Blood.

Thus he taught men the new oblation of the New Covenant which the Church, having received it from the Apostles, offers to God throughout the whole world. Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, spoke about this offering beforehand: My pleasure is not in you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not receive sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the sun until its going down my name is glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice: for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord Almighty. This most plainly shows that, while the former people ceased to make offerings to God, in every place a pure sacrifice shall continue to be offered to him and his name shall be glorified among the Gentiles. The offering of the Church, which the Lord has taught to be offered in the whole world, is reckoned by God as a pure sacrifice and accepted by him: not that he needs a sacrifice from us, but because he who offers receives glory because of his offering, if his gift is accepted.

We must therefore offer to God the first-fruits of his creation, as Moses says, You shall not appear empty before the Lord your God. The general concept of offerings has not been set aside, for as there were sacrifices there among the Jews, so also are there sacrifices here among the Christians in the Church. The form alone has been changed, inasmuch as the offering is now made, not by slaves, but by free men. With God nothing is insignificant, nor without symbolical meaning, for at the beginning he had respect for the gifts of Abel, because he offered with simplicity and justice, but he had no respect for the sacrifice of Cain because his heart was divided through envy and malice towards his brother. God is not appeased by sacrifice. It follows that sacrifices do not sanctify a man; for God does not need sacrifice: but the pure conscience of him who offers sanctifies the sacrifice and causes God to accept it as from a friend.

St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, 4.17.5-18.3; Pluscarden.

Thursday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW BY ORIGEN

And the Sadducees and Pharisees came, and tempting him kept asking him to show them a sign from heaven. The Sadducees and Pharisees who disagreed with each other in regard to the most essential truths, – for the Pharisees champion the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, hoping that there will be a world to come, while the Sadducees know nothing after this life in store for a man whether he has been advancing towards virtue, or has made no effort at all to come out from the mountains of wickedness, – these, I say, agree that they may tempt Jesus.

They agree together and ask him to show them a sign from heaven. For, not satisfied with the wonderful signs our Saviour showed among the people by healing all forms of disease and sickness, they wished him to show to them also a sign from heaven. And I think they suspected that the signs upon earth might possibly not be of God; for they did not hesitate indeed to say, Jesus casts out demons by Beelzebub the prince of the demons; and it seemed to them that a sign from heaven could not spring from Beelzebub or any other wicked power. But they erred in regard to both types of sign, not being approved money changers nor knowing how to distinguish between spirits from God and those that have revolted against him. And they ought to have known that even many of the portents wrought against Egypt in the time of Moses, though they were not from heaven, were clearly from God. On the other hand one should note that which is said by the Apostle about the man of sin, the son of perdition, that with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceit of unrighteousness he shall be manifested to them that are perishing, imitating all kinds of wonders, even those of truth.

Next let us note that when asked in regard to one sign from heaven, he answers the Pharisees and Sadducees, An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and there shall be no sign given to it, other that the sign of Jonah the Prophet. But the sign of Jonah was not merely a sign but also a sign from heaven, so that even to those who tempted him and sought such a sign he gave one. For if, as Jonah passed three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so the Son of man was in the heart of the earth, and after this rose up from it, – whence but from heaven shall we say that the sign of the resurrection of Christ came? In his passion, after he became a sign to the thief who entered into the paradise of God, he descended into Hades to the dead, as free among the dead. This was the sign of Jonah, the meaning of which was found in the fact that the Saviour suffered, and passed three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Seek out therefore every sign in the Old Scriptures as indicative of some passage in the New Scripture; and also take everything which is called a sign in the new covenant as indicative of something either in the age to come or in the generations after the sign has taken place.

Origen, Com. in Math., 12.1-3; ANF 10 (1995) tr. Patrick.

Friday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL BY ORIGEN

My subject is the passage in Ezekiel about the Prince of Tyre. What follows will be in obedience to the Bishops, who have expressly asked me to comment on it.

The passage has the form of a lament. Its stated subject is the Prince of Tyre: but we mustn’t think it is about any historical human person. For no man could have been created in the midst of the Cherubim, as our literal text has it, or, brought up in the paradise of God. Yet this is said of the Prince of Tyre. Who then is he? How are we to understand this lament which is made over him?

Let us note, first of all, how good is our God, who mourns even over those who have rejected him! This can only come from the impulse of love. For no one mourns over someone he hates. If he mourns over someone who is dead, even then his mourning expresses his abiding love, his desire to see that person still alive, his continued yearning for them. Jeremiah mourned in this way over Jerusalem after it had been destroyed. And Isaiah mourned over Nebuchadnezzar, as the Lord inspired him to do. Of this King of Babylon it is said: How did Lucifer fall from heaven, this day star who rose up in the morning? He has fallen to earth. This fallen King is clearly the same as the Prince of Tyre who is said to have been brought up in the paradise of delights.

Notice how both are said to have ‘fallen’ not ‘descended’ from heaven to earth. For my Lord, the Son of man, descended; but Satan fell. As Jesus said of him: I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Yet the Saviour was not the only one to have descended. On the contrary: a multitude daily descends and ascends above him. For he once told Nathaniel: You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending above the Son of Man. We too, then, await our own ascent. Like Jerusalem we hear the call: Rise up from your ruin. For we are the ones who are to enter the promise lost by the one who fell. For, salvation has come to the nations through the sin of Israel.

I am bold now to utter a great mystery. We will ascend into the very place from which the angels fell; and the mystery which had been entrusted to them will be entrusted instead to us. For we have been called ‘the light of the world’. We have therefore been appointed ‘Lucifers’ in place of him, the morning star, who fell from heaven. If we are now truly the seed of Abraham, we will be numbered among the stars of heaven. For God led Abraham outside and said to him: Look up, for your descendants will be as numerous as these stars. And Jesus indeed prophesied that the stars will fall from the sky like leaves. Paul commented: The glory of the sun is one thing, another is the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So it will be when the dead rise again. But elsewhere, when speaking about the grafting-in of olive branches, he warns us not to boast about the branches which were cut off because of their infidelity. We only stand because of our faith. It is by our faith, therefore, alone, that we will ascend.

Origen, Homilies on Ezekiel, 13.1-2; tr. Pluscarden.

Saturday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

This is not the first time, my dear people, you have learned that all our hope is in Christ, and that all real and saving glory for us is in him. For you are part of his flock, the guide and shepherd of Israel. But as there are shepherds who desire to be called shepherds, but refuse to fulfil the office of shepherds, let us recall what is said to them through the Prophet Ezekiel. For your part, listen with attention; I must listen with fear and trembling.

The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesied even to the shepherds.’ We have just heard this lesson as it was being read; hence I have decided to speak to you, good people. He himself will help me to speak the truth, if I do not speak just what is my own. For if I speak my own opinions, I shall be a shepherd feeding myself not my sheep; but if what I say is his, it is he who feeds you, no matter who is speaking. Thus says the Lord God, Ho, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? That is, shepherds feed not themselves but their sheep. This is the first reason why those shepherds are accused, that the feed themselves not the sheep. Who are those who feed themselves? Those of whom the Apostle says: All seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.

The Lord, as he thought fit, and not according to my own merits, appointed me to this position, for which the account to be rendered is fraught with danger; and I exhibit two clearly distinct features: one, that I am a Christian; two, that I am appointed overseer of others. The fact that I am a Christian is for my benefit; that I am appointed an overseer is for yours. My own good is to be considered in my being a Christian; in my being an overseer, only yours.

There are many who, as Christians and not leaders, attain to God, travelling maybe an easier road, and the more speedily, perhaps, the lighter the load they carry. But I, besides being a Christian, and for this having to render an account of my life, am a leader also, and for this shall render to God an account of my ministry.

St Augustine, Sermon 46, 1-2; The Divine Office III.

Season of the Year | Christ the King & Week 34

Christ the King

A READING FROM ON PRAYER BY ORIGEN

According to the saying of our Lord and Saviour, the Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, “Look, here it is!”, or, “There it is!”; because the Kingdom of God is within us. The word is very near us; it is on our lips and in our heart. It is clear from this that when a man prays that God’s Kingdom may come, he is praying, as he should, for the Kingdom of God which is within him, that it may rise, flourish and reach its full growth. Every saint is subject to God’s reign and obeys the spiritual laws of God who dwells in him as in a well-governed city. The Father is present within him and Christ reigns with the Father in the soul which has become perfect, as he said: We will come to him and make our home with him.

For those of us who press forward unceasingly, the Kingdom of God which is within us will reach its full competition when the Apostle’s words are fulfilled, that Christ, with all his enemies subject to him, will deliver the Kingdom to God the Father so that God maybe all in all. And so, praying unremittingly in the Spirit which the Word inspires in us, we say to our Father who is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name; thy Kingdom come.

We must understand this about the Kingdom of God – as there is no partnership between righteousness and iniquity, no fellowship of light with darkness, no accord of Christ with Belial, so the kingdom of sin cannot coexist with the Kingdom of God.

If we would have God reign over us, then, sin must have no reign in our mortal body. We must put to death what is earthly in us and bear the fruits of the Spirit, so that God may walk in us as in a spiritual garden and reign alone in us with his Christ, so that Christ may be seated within us at the right hand of that spiritual power for which we pray, seated until all his enemies within us are made a footstool for his feet and all the principalities and authorities and powers are destroyed in us.

This can happen in each one of us. The last enemy also, death, can be destroyed, so that Christ can say in us too, O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Now therefore, let what is perishable in us close itself in holiness and imperishability, let what is mortal put on the Father’s immortality when death has been destroyed, so that God may reign over us and we may live even now amid the blessings of rebirth and resurrection.

Origen, On Prayer 25; The Divine Office III.

Monday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON TEACHING CHRISTIANITY BY ST AUGUSTINE

The Lord said: I mean to display the holiness of my great name, which was profaned among the nations, which you profaned in their midst, and the nations will know that I am the Lord. Let the reader therefore take note of how a single people will be superseded and all peoples added to it, for he continues: when, through you, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

And I shall take you out of the nations and gather you from every land, and bring you to your own land; and I shall pour clean water over you, and cleanse you of all your idolatry, and I shall purify you and give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.

Now no one who looks into the matter can doubt that this is a prophecy of the New Testament, which applies not only to the remnant of that one people, of whom it is written elsewhere: Even if Israel should have as many descendants as there are grains of sand on the seashore, a remnant will be saved, but also to the other nations according to the promise made to their fathers who are also our fathers; and that it is also a promise of those waters of regeneration that we now see imparted to all nations. Thus the spiritual Israel is composed not of one people but of all peoples, who were promised to the patriarchs in their offspring, which is Christ.

This spiritual Israel is therefore distinguished from the natural Israel, which consists of one nation, by newness of grace, not nobility of descent, and by sentiments rather than race. But while the sublime prophecy speaks of or to the natural Israel, it secretly refers to the spiritual Israel, in such a way that while speaking of or to the latter it still seems to be speaking of or to the former. It does this not from an unfriendly attitude that begrudges us an understanding of the scriptures, but rather, like a physician, to exercise our understanding.

Therefore, when the Lord says: And I shall bring you to your own land, and a little later, more or less repeating himself, And you will live in the land that I gave to your fathers, we ought to understand this not literally as though it referred to the natural Israel, but spiritually, of the spiritual Israel. For the Church without spot or wrinkle, gathered from every nation and destined to reign eternally with Christ, is itself the land of the blessed, the land of the living. We are to understand that it was given to our fathers when it was promised to them by the certain and immutable will of God; for what they believed would be given in its own time was for them, on account of the firmness of the promise and predetermination, the same as if it were already given. Writing to Timothy about the grace given to the saints, the Apostle says: not for any merit of ours but for his own purpose and by the grace granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, and now revealed by the coming of our Saviour. He speaks of the grace as given when those who were to receive it did not yet exist, because by the arrangement and predetermination of God what was to take place in its own time, or, as the Apostle says, be revealed, had already been accomplished.

St Augustine, De doctrina Christiana, 3.48-49 (CCL 32:108-110); Word in Season VI.

Tuesday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM ON THE SOUL AND RESURRECTION BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

“Don’t you know,” I said, “how great a swarm of objections our opponents bring forward against this hope?” At the same time I tried to tell her how many arguments are invented by contentious people to overthrow the doctrine of the resurrection.

But Macrina answered, “I think that we should first run briefly through what is set forth in various places by the divine Scripture concerning this doctrine. I have heard, indeed, what David sings in his divine odes, when he has made the ordering of the universe the subject of his hymn. Near the end of the one hundred and third Psalm he says, You will take away their spirit, and they will die and return to their dust. You will send out your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth. He is saying that the power of the Spirit both gives life to those whom it enters and removes from life those from whom it departs. He says that the death of the living happens by the departure of the Spirit, and by its presence the renewal of the dead takes place. Because the death of those who are being renewed comes first in the order of the words, we can say that the mystery of the resurrection is being proclaimed to the Church, as David has foretold this grace by his spirit of prophecy.

“Furthermore, it is possible,” she said, “to gather many other testimonies from the holy Scriptures to support the doctrine of the resurrection. Ezekiel, for example, leaping over the whole interval of time and space by his spirit of prophecy, takes his stand at the very moment of the resurrection by his power of foreknowledge. As if already beholding that which will be, he brings it before the view of his narration. He sees a vast plain extended without limit and on it a great heap of bones, thrown about here and there haphazardly. Then he sees them moved together by divine power towards the bones which belong to them, and growing into their own joints. Then sinews, flesh, and skin enwrap them (which the psalm calls ‘covering’), and a spirit gives life and awakens all that were lying dead.

“Why should one mention the Apostle’s enumeration of the miracles connected with the resurrection, which is readily available for the reader? The Lord does not merely say in words that the dead will rise, but he brings about the actual resurrection, beginning his wonder-working with those miracles which are nearer to us and less likely to be disbelieved. First he shows his life-giving power in mortal diseases, dispelling sufferings by his word of command. Then he wakes a newly dead child. Next he raises from the coffin a young man who is already being carried to the tombs and gives him back to his mother. After this, when the dead Lazarus has already begun to decompose, after four days he leads him out living from the tombs. Then, when his own humanity has been pierced with nail and spear, he raises it from the dead on the third day, keeping the prints of the nails and the wound of the spear as evidence of his resurrection. Concerning these it is not necessary to go into detail, as there is no doubt among those who have accepted the Scriptures.”

St Gregory of Nyssa, On the Soul and Resurrection; SVSP (1993) tr. Roth, pp. 104-108.

Wednesday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL BY ST JEROME

The history of the Kings tells us that under Rehoboam, son of Solomon, the twelve tribes of Israel were divided. Two, that is Judah and Benjamin along with the Levites and the Priests, followed Rehoboam who reigned in Jerusalem, and his Kingdom was called Judah. The other ten tribes, however, bent their necks to Jeroboam son of Nebat of the tribe of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, and they were called by the ancient name of Israel. These ten tribes were taken captive by the Assyrians and some time later Judah was led as spoil to Babylon by the Chaldeans. After seventy years the tribe of Judah was returned to its ancient land: but the ten tribes of Israel serve as slaves in the mountains and cities of the Medes right up to our day.

This prophecy from the mouth of the Lord promises that the kingdoms of Judah and Israel are to be joined together. Under the sign of the Prophet, who is a type of our Lord and Saviour, they are not to be held by two hands but by the one hand of Christ. The angel in the Gospel says of Christ that, he will reign over the house of Jacob and there will be no end to his reign; and that he will possess such great mercy that he will not only be called a King but also a Shepherd, softening the proud term of sovereignty, ‘King’, with the word ‘Shepherd’. This Shepherd-King is indeed my servant David, who when he was in the nature of God, did not consider being equal to God as plunder, but he emptied himself, receiving the nature of a slave and became obedient to the Father unto death, even death on the cross. This King shall establish a covenant with them, not like the covenant of battles and wars in the Old Testament, but a covenant based on the peace he gave to the Apostles: My peace I give you, my peace I leave you. This is the Church in which his people will grow in number and in virtue, and of which he says, I shall make my holy dwelling in their midst forever. The Jews explain this as being about their Temple which was constructed under Zerubbabel. But how can this be so, as it is said to last ‘forever’ and the Temple constructed by Zerubbabel and later restored was destroyed by the Romans? We thus have to refer all these things to the Church and to the time of our Saviour, when he became our God and we his people.

He sanctified not the Israel of the flesh but the Israel of the spirit when his holy dwelling was set for ever in the midst of those who believe. Truly, at the coming of our Lord and Saviour the two rods have been joined into one sceptre. Those who were previously separated have been united by the baptism of Christ, so that they are a single new man and one nation. They will never again be polluted by idols and abominations; they are set free from sin by baptism to be the people of God governed by Christ; they live in that fruitful land which he had given to his servant Jacob who had supplanted the people of Israel in the womb of his mother.

St Jerome, Commentaria in Ezechielem, 11.37 (PL 25: 351-354); tr. Pluscarden.

Thursday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE SERMON ON GOG AND MAGOG OF ST EPHREM THE SYRIAN

O Son, who of your own goodness humbled yourself and became man, because it pleased you, and who of your own will tasted death on a Cross on Golgotha, grant me, Lord, to speak of the end of the world and of the consummation that shall come upon the whole world. Men shall fall, one upon the other, peoples shall destroy one another, iniquity wax strong upon the face of the earth, and wickedness be multiplied in the world. Then the Divine Justice shall summon kings and the mightiest armies from beyond the gates of Alexander. Armies shall pass through them, numberless as the stars of heaven; dust like smoke ascends from the earth and obscures the sun, covering the air like a thick cloud as Ezekiel, the son of Busi, has prophesied.

The rumour has scarce arisen in a country that the Huns are coming, when they appear as if by magic, on every side and from everywhere. Their chariots fly like the wind between heaven and earth. Their arms flash terrible as lightnings. For these fearful Huns terrify the whole earth, which they cover like the waters in the days of Noah. They spread to the ends of the world and there is no one to withstand them. This is the great multitude of whom Ezekiel said: in the last days Gog and Magog shall burst forth and come from the land, and Gog and Magog shall come to the mount of Jerusalem to place their camp there.

Then Divine Justice shall call upon Michael, the Leader of the Hosts, and send him to destroy their camps, as the camps of Sennacherib. At the command, and with his mighty and terrible sword, the Angel shall go forth and destroy their armies in the twinkling of an eye. The bow of Gog, the evil king, shall fall from his left hand, and the arrows from his right; and his camp shall be wholly destroyed. Then the Lord from his glorious heaven shall set up his peace. And the kingdom of the Romans shall rise in place of this latter people, and establish its dominion upon the earth. But after iniquity shall have multiplied, and all creatures have become defiled, then Divine Justice shall appear and shall wholly destroy the people and the man of iniquity shall be revealed upon the earth.

Then leaping up, Gabriel and Michael, the leaders of the heavenly hosts, shall descend and restore the Saints to life. The Evil One, together with all his followers, shall be humiliated and the Angels shall thrust them down to Gehenna. A Throne shall be prepared, and the Son shall sit upon the right hand, and twelve seats shall be placed for the Twelve Apostles. The Angels shall sound their trumpets, and the dead shall rise from their graves. The just shall fly to heaven, and sinners shall be burned with fire. The martyrs shall fly to the bridal chambers, and the evil go out into darkness. But Christ shall reign forever, and he shall be King unto generations of generations. To him be glory; and upon us be his mercy, for all time. Amen, amen.

St Ephrem the Syrian, Sermon on Gog and Magog 1, 5-8, 12; (1963) tr. Toal.

Friday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL BY ST JEROME

The glory of the God of Israel enters by the East Gate through which it departed when the anger of the Lord struck the city. It enters, or, rather, it returns to it, for this glory was the distinguishing mark of the Lord’s Temple on the mountain. Yet something much greater follows: The Spirit of the Lord lifted me up and brought me into the outer court. And behold, the house of the Lord was filled with his glory. First the glory of the Lord merely entered; now the fullness of the glory is said to be in the Temple. Of this glory Isaiah wrote: I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and lifted up. Our house is full of this glory when with unveiled faces we contemplate the glory of the Lord, and are transformed into the likeness of our Creator.

The voice of the Lord was like the sound of many waters – like the sound of many peoples throughout the world, or like the voice of an army, or of multitudes massing together as the hosts of heaven come to know the mysteries of God. In another place it is said: The chariots of God are thousands upon thousands. The heavenly hosts, the thousands upon thousands, all make the same utterance since all are united in the praise of God. To the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit they sing: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; heaven and earth are full of his glory.

And the earth shone with his glory. This was only really fulfilled in the coming of Christ when the preaching of the Apostles went forth through all the earth, and their words to the utmost bounds of the world. It is daily fulfilled in believers, and will come to perfection when this corrupt nature puts on incorruption and this mortal nature is clothed with immortality.

I heard someone speaking to me from within the Temple. This must surely have been the Lord, for who else could have said, Son of man, this is the place of my throne, the place where I set my feet, and where I shall dwell among the Israelites forever, but he who dwells in the Church, in the midst of the Israel that recognises the Lord, and who will dwell there, not only for a time, as he did in the Temple of Solomon, but forever. And his dwelling-place, writes the Psalmist, will be peace, that peace which passes all understanding.

St Jerome, Commentaria in Ezechielem (PL 25:434-437); Word in Season VI.

Saturday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

Let us sing Alleluia here below while we are still anxious, so that we may sing it one day there above when we are freed from care. Why are we troubled here? Do you not expect me to be troubled when I read: Is not a man’s life upon earth full of trial? Do you not expect me to be troubled when I hear the words: Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation? Do you not expect me to be troubled when temptation and trial so abound that the Lord’s Prayer orders us to say when we pray: Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors? Every day we pray, every day we are debtors. Do you think I can be free from care when every day I seek pardon for my sins and help in peril? When I have said for my past sins: Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors, I go on at once to add, because of perils still to come: Lead us not into temptation. But how can the congregation be in security when it cries with me: Deliver us from evil. And yet, brethren, in this evil plight of ours here below we must sing Alleluia to the good God who delivers us from evil.

Here, too, amidst the dangers and the trials we and others must sing Alleluia, for God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted to beyond your strength, as Paul says. So then we must also sing here Alleluia. Man is still a sinner, but God is faithful. Scripture does not say, He will not let you be tempted, but, He will not let you be tempted to beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. You have entered into temptation, but God will also provide a way of escape that you may not perish in temptation. As the potter makes a vase, you are to be moulded by preaching; you are to be fired by tribulation. But when you enter into temptation, think of the way of escape; for God is faithful: The Lord will keep your coming in and your going out.

And so it is too, when this body has been made immortal and incorruptible, when every trial and temptation has passed away. How happy will be our shout of Alleluia there, where there is no enemy, where no friend perishes. There praise is offered to God, and here, too; but here it is by men who are anxious, there by men who are free from care, here by men who must die, there by men who will live forever. Here praise is offered in hope, there by men who enjoy the reality, here by men who are pilgrims on the way, there by men who have reached their own country.

So, brethren, now let us sing Alleluia, not in the enjoyment of heavenly rest, but to sweeten our toil. Sing as travellers sing along the road: but keep on walking. Solace your toil by singing – do not yield to idleness. Sing but keep on walking. What do I mean by ‘walking’? I mean, press on from good to better. The Apostle says there are some who go from bad to worse. But if you press on, you keep on walking. Go forward then in virtue, in true faith and right conduct. Sing up – and keep on walking.

St Augustine, Sermon 256, 1.2.3; The Divine Office III.

Partial Table of Contents

Advent & Christmastide

Advent 1 Sunday

Is. 6:1-3

St Aelred: Sermon 1 de adventu Domini (PL 195, 209-210)

WS 1

Advent 1 Monday

Is. 7:1-17

St Cyril of Alexandria: In Is. tr. Norman Russell (2000)

Advent 1 Tuesday

Is. 8:1-18

St Bernard: Sermon 7 de adventu Domini (PL 183, 54-56)

WS 1

Advent 1 Wednesday

Is. 9:1-6

St Odilo of Cluny: Sermon 10 (PL 142, 1019-1020)

WS 1

Advent 1 Thursday

Is. 10:5-22

Peter of Blois: Sermon 3 de adventu Domini (PL 207, 569-572)

WS 1

Advent 1 Friday

Is. 11:10-16

Bd Guerric: Sermon 3 de adventu Domini (PL 185, 18-20)

WS 1

Advent 1 Saturday

Is. 13:1-22

Bd Guerric: Ser. 3 in nat. S. Jn. Baptistae (PL 185, 169-170)

WS 1

Advent 2 Sunday

Is. 14:1-21

St Ambrose: Sermon 19, 30-32 (CSEL 63, 437-439)

WS 1

Advent 2 Monday

Is. 34:1-17

St Bernard: Ser. 1 in adventu Domini 9-10 (O.O. 4:167-169)

WS 1

Advent 2 Tuesday

Is. 34:1-10

St Cyril of Alexandria: In Is. Lib. 3, t. 3 (PG 70, 749-754)

WS 1

Advent 2 Wednesday

Ruth 1:1-22

Ab. Godfrey of Admont: Hom. Fest. (PL 174, 1026-1028)

WS 2

Advent 2 Thursday

Ruth 2:1-13

St Augustine: In Ps. 109, 1-3 (CCL 40, 1601-1603)

WS 1

Advent 2 Friday

Ruth 2:14-23

St Irenaeus: A. H. 5.19.1; 21.1 (SC 153, 248-250.260-264)

WS 1

Advent 2 Saturday

Ruth 3:1-18

St Augustine: Sermon 277, 15-16 (PL 38, 1266-1267)

WS 2

Advent 3 Sunday

Ruth 4:1-22

St Ambrose: In S. Luc. III, 31-35 (SC 45, 123-124)

WS 2

Advent 3 Monday

1 Chr. 17:1-15

St Cyril of Alexandria: In Mic. Cap. 7, 72 (PG 71, 774-775)

WS 1

Advent 3 Tuesday

Mic. 4:1-7

St Cyril of Alexandria: In Is. Lib. 1, Oratio 2 (PG 70, 67-74)

WS 1

Advent 3 Wednesday

Mic. 5:1-7

St Hilary of Poitiers: In Trin. Lib. 11, 36-40 (PL 10, 423-425)

WS 1

Advent 3 Thursday

Mic. 7:7-13

St Augustine: De cat. rud. 4,8,8 (CCL 46, 128-129)

WS 2

Advent 3 Friday

Mic. 7:14-20

St Athanasius: de Incarn. 7-9 (Ox. Early Chr. Texts, 151-154)

WS 1

December 17

Is. 40:1-11

St Cyril of Alexandria: In Is. 3, 4 (PG 70, 802-803)

WS 2

December 18

Is.40:12-18,21-31

St Leo the Great: Ep. 31, 2-3

DO I

December 19

Is. 41:21-29

St Maximus of Turin: Sermon 61a, 1-3 (CCL 23, 250-251)

WS 1

December 20

Is. 41:21-29

St Cyril of Alexandria: In Is. Lib. 4, oratio 4 (PG 70, 1035-1038)

WS 1

December 21

Is. 42:10-25

St Odilo of Cluny: Sermon 1 in nat. Domini (PL 142, 993-994)

WS 1

December 22

Is. 43:1-13

An Ancient Discourse: Sermon 12 (PLS 4, 770-771)

WS 1

December 23

Is. 43:18-28

St Jerome: Tract. In ps. 84 (CCL 78, 107-108)

WS 1

December 24

Is. 44:1-8, 21-23

St Ambrose: Sermo 12 In ps. 118 13-15 (CSEL 62, 258-260)

WS 1

Christmas Day

Is. 11:1-10

St Leo the Great: Sermon 21

Holy Family

Eph. 5:21-6:4

St John Chrysostom: Oratio in nat. Christi diem (PG 56, 385-388)

WS 1

December 26

St Stephen: From the Sanctoral

December 27

St John: From the Sanctoral

December 28

Holy Innocents: From the Sanctoral

December 29

(Col. 1:1-14)

St Thomas Becket: From the Sanctoral

December 30

Col. 1:15-2:3

Origen: On First Principles Lib. 2, cap. 6, 1-2 (PG 11, 200-211)

WS 1

December 31

Col. 2:4-15

St Leo the Great: Sermon 6 In nativitate Domini

DO I

Mary, Mother of God

Heb. 2:9-18

St Cyril of Alexandria: Hom. 4 (PG 77, 991.995-996)

WS 1

January 2

Col. 2:16-3:4

St Basil the Great: de Spiritu Sancto 26, 61, 64

DO I

January 3

Col. 3:5-7

St Augustine: Tr. In Ev. Jo. 17, 7-9

DO I

January 4

Col. 3:18-4:1

St Maximus the Confessor: >Century= 1, 8-13

DO I

January 5

Col. 4:2-18

St Augustine: Sermon 194, 3-4

DO I

January 6

Is. 42:1-8

St Cyril of Alexandria: In Is. Lib. 3, t. 5 (PG 70, 850-851)

WS 1

January 7

Is. 61:1-11

St Augustine: Sermon 13 On the seasons

DO I

The Epiphany

Is. 60:1-22

St Leo the Great: Sermon 3 in Epiphania 1-3, 5

DO I

Mon. after Epiphany

Is. 61:1-11

St Peter Chrysologus: Sermon 160

DO I

Tues. after Epiphany

Is. 62:1-12

St Hippolytus (attrib.): Disc. On the Holy Theophany 2. 6-8. 10

DO I

Wed. after Epiphany

Is. 63:7-19

St Proclus of Constantinople: Oratio 7, Theophany

DO I

Thurs. after Epiph.

Is. 64:1-12

St Cyril of Alexandria: in Ev. Jo. 5, 2

DO I

Fri. after Epiphany

Is. 65:13-25

St Maximus of Turin: Sermon 100, Epiphany

DO I

Sat. after Epiphany

Is.66:10-14,18-23

St Leo: Sermo VII In Epiphania Solemn. 1-3 (SC 22, 276-280)

WS 2

Baptism of the Lord

Is. 42:1-9; 49:1-9

St Gregory Nazianzen: Oratio 39, 14-16.20

DO I

Eastertide

Easter Monday

1 Pt 1:1-21

St Melito of Sardis, On the Pasch 2-7, 100-103

DO 2

Easter Tuesday

1 Pt 1:22-2:10

St Bede, Commentary on 1 Peter 2

DO 2

Easter Wednesday

1 Pt 2:11-25

Ancient Paschal Homily

DO 2

Easter Thursday

1 Pt 3:1-17

St Hesychius of Jerusalem, Paschal Homily

WS 3/1

Easter Friday

1 Pt 3:18-4:11

Didymus the Blind, The Trinity, Lib. II, 14

WS 3/2

Easter Saturday

1 Pt 4:12-5:14

St Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catecheses 2, 4-6

DO 2

Low Sunday

Col 3:1-17

St Augustine, Sermon 8 in Octave of Easter

DO 2

Easter 2 Monday

Rev 1:1-20

Abbot Rupert of Deutz, In Apoc.: PL 169, 841-842

WS 3/1

Easter 2 Tuesday

Rev 2:1-11

Abbot Geoffrey of Auxerre, On the Apocalypse, Sermon 11

CF

Easter 2 Wednesday

Rev 2:12-29

Blessed Columba Marmion, Christ in His Mysteries 2, 18, 2-3.

Easter 2 Thursday

Rev 3:1-22

St Thomas More, A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation 3, 26

WS 3/2

Easter 2 Friday

Rev 4:1-11

St Beatus of Liebana, In Apocalipsin, 3.3.1-2, 17-24, 28-30, 33-38

SMH

Easter 2 Saturday

Rev 5:1-14

St Augustine, Sermon 34, 1-3, 5-6

DO 2

Easter 3 Sunday

Rev 6:1-17

St Gregory the Great, Moralia 2, 11

WS 3/1

Easter 3 Monday

Rev 7:1-17

Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 6-8.

Easter 3 Tuesday

Rev 8:1-13

St John Cassian, Conference 9, 34.11-36.1

ACW

Easter 3 Wednesday

Rev 9:1-12

St Iranaeus, Adv. Haer. 5, 2, 2-3

WS 3/1

Easter 3 Thursday

Rev 9:13-21

St Ephrem, de Domino nostro 3-4.9

DO 2

Easter 3 Friday

Rev 10:1-11

Abbot Gilbert of Hoyland, Sermon 24

CF

Easter 3 Saturday

Rev 11:1-19

St Augustine, The City of God 20, 8

Easter 4 Sunday

Rev 12:1-18

St Epiphanius, Hom. 3 in sanctam Christi resurrectionem

WS 3/2

Easter 4 Monday

Rev 13:1-18

St Iranaeus, Adv. Haer. 5, 28.1-30.3

Easter 4 Tuesday

Rev 14:1-13

St Peter Damian, Letter 3: FoCMC

FoC

Easter 4 Wednesday

Rev 14:14-15:4

Abbot Rupert of Deutz, In Apoc. 9, 15

WS 3/1

Easter 4 Thursday

Rev 15:5-16:21

St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on St John’s Gospel 4.2

DO 2

Easter 4 Friday

Rev 17:1-18

St Maximus, Theological & Ecumenical Chapters

Easter 4 Saturday

Rev 18:1-20

St Basil of Caesarea, Great Asceticon, Longer Response 6

SMH

Easter 5 Sunday

Rev 18:21-19:10

St Augustine, In Ps. 148, 1-2

WS 3/1

Easter 5 Monday

Rev 19:11-21

Origen, In Joh. 2, 46-49, 56-57, 59-61

FoC 80

Easter 5 Tuesday

Rev 20:1-15

Archb. Baldwin of Canterbury, Tract. 4

WS 3/1

Easter 5 Wednesday

Rev 21:1-8

St Peter Damian, Letter 66

FoCMC 3

Easter 5 Thursday

Rev 21:9-27

St Bernard, In Cant. 27: 6-7

CF 7

Easter 5 Friday

Rev 22:1-9

Abbot Rupert of Deutz, In Apoc. Cap.22

WS 3/1

Easter 5 Saturday

Rev 22:10-21

Abbot Achard of St Victor, Sermon On the coming of the Lord

CS 165

Easter 6 Sunday

1 Jn 1:1-10

St Augustine, Tract. 1, 5-6

WS 3/1

Easter 6 Monday

1 Jn 2:1-11

St Augustine, Tract. 1, 9-12

WS 3/1

Easter 6 Tuesday

1 Jn 2:12-17

St Augustine, Tract. 2, 8-14

WS 3/1

Easter 6 Wednesday

1 Jn 2:18-29

St Augustine, Tract. 3, 1-5

WS 3/1

The Ascension

Eph 4:1-24

St Augustine, Tract. 10, 9

WS 3/1

Easter 6 Friday

1 Jn 3:1-10

St Augustine, Tract. 4, 4-6

WS 3/1

Easter 6 Saturday

1 Jn 3:11-17

St Augustine, Tract. 5, 11-13

WS 3/1

Easter 7 Sunday

1 Jn 3:18-24

St Augustine, Tract. 6, 9-10

WS 3/1

Easter 7 Monday

1 Jn 4:1-10

St Bernard, Letter 107, 8-9

WS 2/1

Easter 7 Tuesday

1 Jn 4:11-21

St Dorotheos of Gaza, Discourse IV On the Image of God:

Cist.Pubs.

Easter 7 Wednesday

1 Jn 5:1-12

St Augustine, Tract. 87, 1

WS 3/1

Easter 7 Thursday

1 Jn 5:13-21

Bd Ogerius of Locedio, Sermo 8, 2-3

WS 3/1

Easter 7 Friday

2 Jn 1-13

St Augustine, Tract. 92, 1-2

WS 3/1

Easter 7 Saturday

2 Jn 1-15

St Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. 16, De Spiritu Sancto 1, 11-12. 16

WS 3/1

Pentecost

Rom 8:5-27

St Leo the Great, Sermon 77, 1-3

WS 3/1

Holy Trinity

1 Cor 2:1-16

St Athanasius, Letter 1, 28-30

WS 3/1

Corpus Christi

Ex 24:1-11

St Thomas Aquinas, Opusculum 57 in festo Corporis Christi, 1-4

WS 3/1

Sacred Heart

Rom 8:28-39

St Bonaventure, Opusculum 3, 29-30.47

DO 3

Ordinary Time Year 1

Monday 1

Rom 1:1-17

St John Chrysostom: Commentarius in Romanos, Argum.

Pluscarden

Tuesday 1

Rom 1:18-32

St Augustine: The Confessions, 10.6.

WS 5

Wednesday 1

Rom 2:1-16

Origen: On Romans, 2.4.1, 5, 7.

FoC 103

Thursday 1

Rom 2:17-29

St Aelred: The Mirror of Charity, 10-11.

WS 5

Friday 1

Rom 3:1-20

St Augustine: On Romans, 13-18.

WS 5

Saturday

Rom 3:21-31

Ven J. H. Newman: PPS, 4.142-7.

WS 5

Sunday 2

Rom 4:1-25

St Cyril of Alexandria: Commentary on John, 10.

WS 5

Monday 2

Rom 5:1-11

St Augustine: On John, 32.9.

WS 5

Tuesday 2

Rom 5:12-21

St Ambrose: On Psalm 61

WS 5

Wednesday 2

Rom 6:1-11

Origen: Commentary on Romans, 5.8.

WS 5

Thursday 2

Rom 6:12-23

St Augustine: Punishment and Forgiv. of Sins 2.28.45-46.

WSA

Friday 2

Rom 7:1-13

St Augustine: Sermon 153.

WSA

Saturday 2

Rom 7:14-25

St Augustine: On Nature and Grace, 53.61.

WSA

Sunday 3

Rom 8:1-17

St John Chrysostom: Homily on Romans, 14.3.

WS 5

Monday 3

Rom 8:18-39

Theodoret of Cyrrhus: Com. on the Song of Songs, 4.

WS 5

Tuesday 3

Rom 9:1-18

St Augustine: Answer to 2 Letters of the Pelagians, 4.6.16

WSA

Wednesday 3

Rom 9:19-33

St Gaudentius of Brescia: Sermon 9.

WS 5

Thursday 3

Rom 10:1-21

St Augustine: Sermon 169

WSA

Friday 3

Rom 11:1-12

Bd William of Saint-Thierry: Com. on Romans, 6.11.

WS 5

Saturday 3

Rom 11:13-24

St Irenaeus: Against Heresies, 5.9.4-10.

WS 5

Sunday 4

Rom 11:25-36

Vatican II: Nostra Aetate, 4.

WS 5

Monday 4

Rom 12:1-21

St John Cassian: Conferences, 14.4-6.

ACW 57

Tuesday 4

Rom 13:1-14

St Augustine: The Confessions, 8.28-29.

WSA

Wednesday 4

Rom 14:1-23

Origen: Commentary on Romans 9.39.2-4.

FoC 104

Thursday 4

Rom 15:1-13

St John Cassian: Conferences, 16.22-23.

ACW 57

Friday 4

Rom 15:14-33

Origen: Commentary on Romans, 10.

WS 5

Saturday 4

Rom 16:1-27

St John Chrysostom: Last Homilies, 5.

WS 5

Sunday 5

1 Cor 1:1-17

St Clement of Rome: Letter to the Corinthians, 49-50.

WS 5

Monday 5

1 Cor 1:18-31

Eusebius of Emesa: Sermons, 14.7-8.

WS 5

Tuesday 5

1 Cor 2:1-16

St John Chrysostom: Homilies on 1 Corinthians, 7.1-2.

WS 5

Wednesday 5

1 Cor 3:1-23

St Clement of Rome: Letter to the Corinthians, 46-48.

WS 5

Thursday 5

1 Cor 4:1-21

St Augustine: On the Pun. and Forgiv. of Sins 2.18.28-31.

WSA

Friday 5

1 Cor 5:1-13

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 606-618.

Saturday 5

1 Cor 6:1-11

St Peter Chrysologus: Sermon 38.

WS 5

Sunday 6

1 Cor 6:12-20

Macarian Homilies, 46.3-6.

WS 5

Monday 6

1 Cor 7:1-24

St Jerome: Letter 22, 20.2-21.7.

ACW 33

Tuesday 6

1 Cor 7:25-40

St Leo the Great: Sermons, 90.2-3.

WS 5

Wednesday 6

1 Cor 8:1-13

St Augustine: de Trinitate XIV.1.1-2.

WSA

Thursday 6

1 Cor 9:1-18

Macarian Homilies, 14.

WS 5

Friday 6

1 Cor 9:19-27

St John Cassian: Institutes, 5.16.1-19.1.

ACW 58

Saturday 6

1 Cor 10:1-13

St Ambrose: On Psalm 1, 33.

WS 5

Sunday 7

1 Cor 14:14-11:1

St John Chrysostom: Homilies on 1 Corinthians, 24.1-2.

WS 5

Monday 7

1 Cor 11:2-16

St Augustine: de Trinitate, 12.2.9-3.12

WSA

Tuesday 7

1 Cor 11:17-34

Bd Columba Marmion; Christ in His Mysteries, 2.18.1.

Wednesday 7

1 Cor 12:1-11

St Augustine: de Trinitate, 15.

WSA

Thursday 7

1 Cor 12:12-31a

St Augustine: Sermon 272, On the Day of Pentecost.

WSA

Friday 7

1 Cor 12:31b-13:13

St Aelred of Rievaulx; The Mirror of Charity, 1.31.

WS 5

Saturday 7

1 Cor 14:1-19

Macarian Homilies, 33.1-2, 4.

WS 5

Sunday 8

1 Cor 14:20-40

St Peter Damian: Liber Dominus Vobiscum, 5-6, 10.

WS 5

Monday 8

1 Cor 15:1-19

St Augustine: Sermon on Psalm 147, 3.

WS 5

Tuesday 8

1 Cor 15:20-34

St Gregory of Elvira; Treatise on Holy Scripture.

WS 5

Wednesday 8

1 Cor 15:35-58

St Peter Chrysologus; Sermon 117, 1-2, 4-6.

WS 5

Thursday 8

1 Cor 16:1-24

St Gregory of Nyssa: On Love of the Poor, sermon 1.

WS 5

Friday 8

Jas 1:1-18

Denys the Areopagite: The Celestial Hierarchy, 1.

CWS

Saturday 8

Jas 1:19-27

St John Cassian: Institutes, 8.1-4.1.

ACW 58

Sunday 9

Jas 2:1-13

St Augustine: Letter 167, 3,15-17, 21

WSA

Monday 9

Jas 2:14-26

St Caesarius of Arles; Sermon 12, 5.

WS 5

Tuesday 9

Jas 3: 1-12

St Gregory the Great: Pastoral Care, 3.14.

WS 5

Wednesday 9

Jas 3:13-18

Bd C. Marmion: Christ the Ideal of the Monk, 2.17.4.

Thursday 9

Jas 4: 1-12

St John Cassian: Institutes, 12.6-8.

ACW 58

Friday 9

Jas 4:13-5:11

St Augustine: Homily on Psalm 83.

WS 5

Saturday 9

Jas 5:12-20

Origen; Homilies on Leviticus, 2.4-6.

FoC

Sunday 10

Sir 46:1-10

Origen: Homilies on Joshua,1. l , 3, 5, 7.

FoC

Monday 10

Josh 1:1-18

St Hilary of Poitiers: A Treatise on the Mysteries, 2.5-7.

WS 5

Tuesday 10

Josh 2:1-24

St Gregory of Elvira: Treatise on S. Scripture, 12.129-31

WS 5

Wednesday 10

Josh 3:1-17; 4:14-19; 5:10-12

Origen: Homilies on Joshua, 4.1.

DO 3

Thursday 10

Josh 5:13-6:21

Origen: Homilies on Joshua, 6.4.

DO 3

Friday 10

Josh 7:4-26

St Thomas More: A Dialogue of Comfort, 1.9.

WS 5

Saturday 10

Josh 10:1-14; 11:15-20

Origen: Homilies on Joshua, 11.2-3.

WS 5

Sunday 11

Josh 24:1-7,13-28

Ven John Henry Newman: SSD, 160-3.

WS 5

Monday 11

Jgs 2:6-3:4

St John Cassian: Conferences, 4.3-4, 6-7.

ACW 57

Tuesday 11

Jgs 4:1-24 or 5:1-31

Ven John Henry Newman: PPS, 3.173-5.

WS 5

Wednesday 11

Jgs 6:1-6,11-24

Origen: Homilies on Judges, 8.

WS 5

Thursday 11

Jgs 6:33-35; 7:1-11,16-22

Origen: Homilies on Judges, 8.

WS 5

Friday 11

Jgs 8:22-23,30-32; 9:1-15;19-20

St Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on the Lord’s Prayer.

WS 5

Saturday 11

Jgs 11:1-9,29-40

St Ambrose: De Officiis Ministrorum, 3.9.

WS 5

Sunday 12

Jgs 13:1-25

St Rabanus Maurus: Commentary on Judges, 2.20.

WS 5

Monday 12

Jgs 16:4-6,16-31

St Paulinus of Nola: Letter 2, 23.18, 21-22.

WS 5

Tuesday 12

1 Sam 1:1-19

St John Chrysostom: Homilies de Anna, 2.2.

WS 5

Wednesday 12

1 Sam 1:20-28; 2:11-21

St John Chrysostom: Homilies de Anna , 3.

Thursday 12

1 Sam 2:22-36

St Peter Damian: Letter 61, 8-9.

FoCMC 3

Friday 12

1 Sam 3:1-21

St John Cassian: Conferences, 2.13.12-15.3.

ACW 57

Saturday 12

1 Sam 4:1-18

St Isaac the Syrian: ‘The Second Part’, 11.4-12.

Sunday 13

1 Sam 5:1-6:4, 10-12, 19-7:1

St Cyril of Alexandria: Worship of God in Sp. & Truth, 8.

WS 5

Monday 13

1 Sam 7:15-8:22

St Augustine: Homily on Psalm 55, 2.

WSA

Tuesday 13

1 Sm 9:1-6,14-10:1

St John Cassian: Conferences, 17.25.14-15, 18, 26.

ACW 57

Wednesday 13

1 Sam 11:1-15

Mgr Ronald Knox: A Retreat for Priests, 118-119.

Thursday 13

1 Sam 12:1-25

St Gregory the Great: Homilies on Ezekiel, 2.3.18-21.

WS 5

Friday 13

1 Sam 15:1-23

John Justus Landsberg: Opera Omnia, 3.386-8.

WS 5

Saturday 13

1 Sam 16:1-13

Faustinius Luciferanus: On the Trinity, 39-40.

DO 3

Sunday 14

1 Sam 17:1-10, 23-26, 40-51

Ven John Henry Newman: PPS, 3.48, 58-60.

WS 5

Monday 14

1 Sam 17:57-18:9, 20-30

St Peter Damian: Letter 80, 10-13.

FoCMC 3

Tuesday 14

1 Sam 19:8-10; 20:1-17

St Aelred of Rievaulx: On Spiritual Friendship, 3.

DO 3

Wednesday 14

1 Sam 21:1-10; 22:1-5

St Augustine: Homily on Psalm 51, 3-4.

WSA

Thursday 14

1 Sam 25:14-24, 28-39

St John Cassian: Conferences, 17.25.1, 4-5.

ACW 57

Friday 14

1 Sam 26:2-25

St John Chrysostom: De David et Saul, 3.6-7.

WS 5

Saturday 14

1 Sam 28:3-25

Origen: Homily 5 on I Samuel.

Sunday 15

1 Sam 31:1-4; 2 Sam 1:1-6

Abbot Rupert of Deutz: De Sancta Trinitate.

WS 5

Monday 15

2 Sm 2:1-11;3:1-15

St Augustine: Homily on Psalm 51, 1-2.

WSA

Tuesday 15

2 Sam 4:2-5:7

Macarian Homilies, 17.1-4.

WS 5

Wednesday 15

2 Sam 6:1-23

St Hilary of Poitiers: Sermon on Psalm 131.

WS 5

Thursday 15

2 Sam 7:1-25

St Augustine: The City of God, 17.8.

WS 5

Friday 15

2 Sm 11:1-17,26-7

Cassiodorus: Commentary on Psalm 50, 1-2.

ACW

Saturday 15

2 Sam 12:1-25

St Ambrose: Apologia prophetae David, 1.2, 5-7.

WS 5

Sunday 16

2 Sam 15:7-14, 24-30; 16:5-14

St John Cassian: Institutes, 8.7-9.

ACW 58

Monday 16

2 Sam 18:6-17, 24-19:4

St John Chrysostom: Homily on Psalm 7.

WS 5

Tuesday 16

24:1-4,10-18,24-25

Ven John Henry Newman: PPS, 5.232-4.

WS 5

Wednesday 16

1 Chr 22:2-19

St Augustine: Homily on Psalm 126, 2-3.

WS 5

Thursday 16

1 Kgs 1:11-35; 2:10-12

St Gregory of Nyssa: Com. on the Song of Songs, 7.

WS 5

Friday 16

1 Kgs 3:5-28

St Augustine: Sermon 10, 1-2, 5.

WSA

Saturday 16

1 Kgs 8:1-21

St John Cassian: Conferences, 13.12.5-8-13.1.

ACW 57

Sunday 17

1 Kgs 8:22-34, 54-61

Abbot Rupert of Deutz: De Sancta Trinitate, 24.

WS 5

Monday 17

1 Kgs 10:1-13

Jean Daniélou: Holy Pagans of the Old Testament, 122-5.

WS 5

Tuesday 17

1 Kgs 11:1-4,26-43

St John of the Cross: The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 8.

WS 5

Wednesday 17

1 Kgs 12:1-19

St Basil: De Iudicio Dei.

Thursday 17

1 Kgs 12:20-33

Ven John Henry Newman: PPS, 3.65-8, 71.

WS 5

Friday 17

1 Kgs 16:29-34; 17:1-16

St Chromatius of Aquileia: Sermon 25, 5-6.

WS 5

Saturday 17

1 Kgs18:16-40

St Gregory of Nyssa: On the Baptism of Christ.

WS 5

Holy Trinity

1 Cor 2:1-16

St Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 40, 41-44.

NPNF

Corpus Christi

Ex 24:1-11

Pope Urban IV, The Bull, Transiturus.

Sacred Heart

Rom 8:28-39

Bd C. Marmion, Christ the Ideal of the Monk, 2.17.5.

Sunday 18

1 Kgs 19:1-9,11-21

St Maximus the Confessor: Gnostic Chapters ,74-5.

CWS

Monday 18

1 Kgs 21:1-21,27-9

St Rabanus Maurus: Commentary on Kings.

WS VI

Tuesday 18

1 Kgs 22:1-9, 15-23, 29, 34-8

St John Cassian: Conferences, 1.17-20.

ACW 57

Wednesday 18

2 Chr 20:1-9,13-24

St Jerome: Letter 60.

Loeb

Thursday 18

2 Kgs 2:1-15

St John Chrysostom: Ad Populum Antiochenum, 3.9.

WS VI

Friday 18

2 Kgs 3:5-27

Abbot Rupert of Deutz: De Sancta Trinitate, 26.

WS VI

Saturday 18

2 Kgs 4:8-37

Basil of Seleucia: Oratio 10.

WS VI

Sunday 19

2 Kgs 4:38-44; 6:1-17

St Gregory the Great: Dialogues II, 3.13, 5.1-6.2, 8.8-9.

Monday 19

2 Kgs 5:1-19

St Ambrose: Commentary on Luke, 4.49-50.

WS VI

Tuesday 19

2 Kgs 6:8-23

Ven John Henry Newman: SSD, 170-171, 179.

WS VI

Wednesday 19

2 Kgs 6:24-25, 32 – 7:16

St Ambrose: On the Duties of the Clergy, 3.1.

NPNF

Thursday 19

2 Kgs 9:1-16, 22-7

St Peter Damian: Letter 66, 3-5.

FoCMC

Friday 19

2 Kgs 11:1-21

Abbot Rupert of Deutz: De Sancta Trinitate, 38.

Pluscarden

Saturday 19

2 Kgs 13:10-25

St Ephrem: The Harp of the Spirit, 77-78.

WS VI

Sunday 20

Eph 1:1-14

St Irenaeus: Adversus Haereses, 3.20.2, 21.9-22.3.

Monday 20

Eph 1:15-23

St Leo the Great: Sermon 46.

FoC 93

Tuesday 20

Eph 2:1-10

St Augustine: De Natura et Gratia 3.3 – 6.6.

WSA

Wednesday 20

Eph 2:11-22

St Hilary of Poitiers: Treatise on Psalm 126, 7-9.

Thursday 20

Eph 3:1-13

St Gregory of Nyssa: On the Song of Songs, 8.

WS VI

Friday 20

Eph 3:14-21

St Augustine: Sermon 165, 1-5, 9.

WSA

Saturday 20

Eph 4:1-16

St Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Ephesians, 1, 3-6, 8.

ACW 1

Sunday 21

Eph 4:17-24

St Augustine: Sermon 9, 5-8.

WSA

Monday 21

Eph 4:25 – 5:7

St John Cassian: Conferences, 12.3.1-4.2

ACW57

Tuesday 21

Eph 5:8-21

St Athanasius: Letter to Marcellinus, 10-12, 14, 27-29.

CWS

Wednesday 21

Eph 5:22-33

St Augustine, Sermon 341, 12-13

WSA

Thursday 21

Eph 6:1-9

St Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Smyrnaeans, 6-9.

ACW 1

Friday 21

Eph 6:10-24

St Athanasius: The Life of Antony, 21-23, 26-28.

CWS

Saturday 21

Philemon 1-25

St Ambrose: Commentary on Psalm 118, 14.24-26.

WS VI

Sunday 22

2 Kgs 14:1-21

Origen: Peri Archón, 4. 2.

Monday 22

Amos 1: - 2:3

Second Vatican Council: Gaudium et Spes, 37.

Tuesday 22

Amos 2:4-16

St Cyprian: De Lapsis, 35-36.

FoC 36

Wednesday 22

Amos 3:1-15

St Basil: Letter 44, To a lapsed monk.

NPNF² 8

Thursday 22

Amos 4:1-13

St Ambrose: On the Holy Spirit, 2.6.

FoC 44

Friday 22

Amos 5:1-17

St Jerome: Letter 22, 2.2-7.4.

ACW 33

Saturday 22

Amos 5:18 – 6:14

St John Chrysostom: Homilies on Genesis, 1.10-12.

FoC 74

Sunday 23

Amos 7:1-17

St Gregory Nazianzen: Oration 41 On Pentecost, 14

NPNF² 7

Monday 23

Amos 8:1-14

Origen: Homilies on Genesis, 16.

WS VI

Tuesday 23

Amos 9:1-15

Abbot Rupert of Deutz: De Sancta Trinitate, 4.

WS VI

Wednesday 23

Hos 1:1-9; 3:1-5

Origen: Commentary on Romans.

WS VI

Thursday 23

Hos 2:2, 4-24

St John Cassian: Conferences, 13. 7 - 8.3

ACW 57

Friday 23

Hos 4:1-10; 5:1-7

Origen: Homilies on Leviticus, 5.3.2-5.

FoC 83

Saturday 23

Hos 5:15 – 7:2

St Irenaeus: Adversus Haereses, 4.17.4-6.

DO III

Sunday 24

Hos 8:1-14

St John Chrysostom: Homilies on the Statues, 3.4-7.

NPNF 9

Monday 24

Hos 9:1-14

St Paulinus of Nola: Letter 38, 3-4, 6.

WS VI

Tuesday 24

Hos 10: 1-15

St Cyril of Alexandria: Commentary on Hosea.

WS VI

Wednesday 24

Hos 11:1-11

St Gregory Palamas: Homily 3.

WS VI

Thursday 24

Hos 13:1 – 14:1

St Ambrose: On the Prayer of Job and David, 8.26 – 9.31.

Friday 24

Hos 14:2-10

Abbot Rupert of Deutz: Commentary on Hosea.

WS VI

Saturday 24

2 Kgs 15:1-5, 32-35; 16:1-8

St Caesarius of Arles: Sermon 137, 3-6.

WS VI

Sunday 25

Is 6:1-13

St Aelred of Rievaulx: Sermo de adventu Domini.

WS VI

Monday 25

Is 3:1-15

St Augustine: Sermon 25, 7-8.

WS VI

Tuesday 25

Is 5:8-13, 17-24

St Fulgentius of Ruspe: Sermon 5, 5-6.

WS VI

Wednesday 25

Is 7:1-17

St Bernard: On the glories of the Virgin Mother, 2.1-2, 4.

DO III

Thursday 25

Is 9:7 – 10:4

St Augustine: Sermon.

DO III

Friday 25

Is 28:1-6, 14-22

St Cyril of Alexandria: Commentary on Isaiah.

WS VI

Saturday 25

Mic 1:1-9; 2:1-11

St Gregory Nazianzen: Oration 14, 21-22.

FoC 107

Sunday 26

Mic 3:1-12

Hermas: The Pastor, 11th Mandate, 4-8, 16-21.

WS VI

Monday 26

Mic 6:1-15

St Fulgentius of Ruspe: Sermon 10, 1-2.

WS VI

Tuesday 26

2 Kgs 17:1-18

Abba Isaiah: Discourse 17.

CS150

Wednesday 26

2 Kgs 17:24-41

St Athanasius: Contra Gentes, 2-3.

Thursday 26

2 Chr 29:1-2; 30:1-16

St Leo the Great: Sermon 59, 5, 7.

FoC93

Friday 26

Is 20:1-6

St Jerome: Letter 58.

NPNF²6

Saturday 26

2 Kgs 20:1-19

Bishop Martyrius: Book of Perfection, 39-43.

CS101

Sunday 27

Is 22:1-14

St Peter Chrysologus: Sermon 167.

WS VI

Monday 27

Is 30:1-18

Bd Guerric of Igny: 3rd Sermon for the Annunciation .

CF 32

Tuesday 27

2 Kgs 18:17-36

St Maximus: Various Texts on Theology, 3.2, 3, 6, 8-11

Wednesday 27

2 Kgs 18:37-19:19, 35-37

St John Cassian: Institutes, 11. 1-3, 8-10

ACW 58

Thursday 27

Is 37:21-35

St Ambrose: On Psalm 48, 14-15.

DO III

Friday 27

2 Kgs 21:1-18, 23 – 22:1

St Cyprian: The Good of Patience , 3-4.

FoC 36

Saturday 27

Zeph 1:1-7, 14 – 2:3

St Augustine: Sermon 38, 10-11

WSA

Sunday 28

Zeph 3:8-20

St Cyril of Alexandria: Commentary on Zephaniah, 43-44.

Pluscarden

Monday 28

Jer 1:1-19

St John Cassian: Conferences, 18.13.1-5.

ACW 57

Tuesday 28

Jer 2:1-13, 20-25

St Columbanus: Instruction 13.

DO III

Wednesday 28

Jer 3:1-5, 19 – 4:4

St Jerome: On Joel.

DO III

Thursday 28

Jer 4:5-8, 13-28

Origen: Homilies on Jeremiah, 1.3-4.

WS VI

Friday 28

Jer 7:1-20

St John Chrysostom: Homily 50, 3-4

DO III

Saturday 28

Jer 9:1-11, 16-21

St Augustine: Sermon 14A, 2-3.

WS VI

Sunday 29

2 Kgs 22:8, 10 – 23:4, 21-23

Ven John Henry Newman: PPS, 8:95-100, 104-5.

WS VI

Monday 29

Nah 1:1-8; 3:1-7, 12-15

Tertullian: Against Marcion, 4.20.

ANF 7

Tuesday 29

2 Chr 35:20-36:12

Ven John Henry Newman: PPS, 8:105-8.

WS VI

Wednesday 29

Hab 1:1 – 2:4

St Bernard: Homilies De diversis, 5.1-4.

DO III

Thursday 29

Hab 2:5-20

St Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Ephes., 9, 12-13, 15-16

ACW 1

Friday 29

Jer 22:10-30

St Basil of Caesarea: Letter 236.

NPNF² 8

Saturday 29

Jer 19:1-5, 10 – 20:6

Origen: Homilies on Jeremiah, 19.12.2-14.4.

FoC 97

Sunday 30

Jer 23:9-17, 21-29

St Basil the Great: Asceticon, Longer Response 5.

SMH

Monday 30

Jer 25:15-17, 27-38

St Ambrose: On Psalm 118, 12.3-6.

Tuesday 30

Jer 36:1-10, 21-32

St Rabanus Maurus: Expositio super Ieremiam, 13.

WS VI

Wednesday 30

Jer 24:1-10

St Cyril of Alexandria: In Isaiam, 5.2.

WS VI

Thursday 30

Jer 27:1-15

Origen: Homilies on Jeremiah, 1. 3-6.

FoC 97

Friday 30

Jer 28:1-17

St Gregory of Nyssa: On The Soul and Resurr., 84-87.

SVSP

Saturday 30

Jer 29:1-14

St Augustine: The Instruction of Beginners.

WS VI

Sunday 31

2 Kgs 24:20b-25:13, 18-21

St Bernard; Sermon in adventu, 10-11.

WS VI

Monday 31

Jer 37:21; 38:14-28

St John Climacus: The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 4.

CWS

Tuesday 31

Jer 32:6-10,16,24-40

St John Cassian: Conferences, 3.16-19.

ACW 57

Wednesday 31

Jer 30:18 – 31:9

St Jerome: Commentary on Jeremiah, 6.30.

WS VI

Thursday 31

Jer 31:15-22, 27-34

St Ambrose: On Repentance 2.5-6 (36-39, 41-44).

NPNF²10

Friday 31

Jer 42:1-16; 43:4-7

Ven John Henry Newman: PPS, 8.127-8.

WS VI

Saturday 31

Ez 1:3-14, 22-28

Macarian Homilies, 1.1-3, 12.

WS VI

Sunday 32

Ez 2:8-3:11, 16-21

St Gregory the Great: Homily 9 on Ezekiel

DBH

Monday 32

Ez 5:1-17

St Augustine: Enarrationes in Psalmis, 125.1-3.

WS VI

Tuesday 32

Ez 8:1-6, 16-9:11

St Maximus the Confessor: 4 Centuries on Love, 2.31-33.

Wednesday 32

Ez 10:18-22; 11:14-25

St Jerome: Commmentaria in Ezechielem, 3.11.

Pluscarden

Thursday 32

Ez 12:1-16

St Augustine: Enarrationes in Psalmis, 64.1-3

WS VI

Friday 32

Ez 13:1-16

Origen: Homilies on Ezekiel, 2.1-3.

WS VI

Saturday 32

Ez 14:12-23

St Augustine: Enarrationes in Psalmis, 132.1-5.

WSA

Sunday 33

Ez 16:3, 5b-7a, 8-15,35,37a, 40-43, 59-63

St Augustine: City of God, 17.3.3.

Monday 33

Ez 17:3-15, 9-24

St Jerome: Commmentaria in Ezechielem, 6.

WS VI

Tuesday 33

Ez 18:1-13, 20-32

St Fulgentius of Ruspe: Letter 7 to Venantia, 7-11.

FoC 95

Wednesday 33

Ez 20:27-44

St Irenaeus: Adversus Haereses, 4.17.5-18.3.

SMH

Thursday 33

Ez 24:15-27

Origen: Commentary on Matthew, 12.1-3.

ANF 10

Friday 33

Ez 28:1-19

Origen: Homilies on Ezekiel, 13.1-2

Pluscarden

Saturday 33

Ez 34:1-6, 11-16, 23-31

St Augustine: Sermon 46, 1-2.

DO III

Christ the King

Dan 7:1-17, 23-27

Origen: On Prayer, 25.

DO III

Monday 34

Ez 36:16-36

St Augustine: De doctrina Christiana, 3.48-49.

WS VI

Tuesday 34

Ez 37:1-14

St Gregory of Nyssa: On the Soul and Resurr., 104-108.

SVSP

Wednesday 34

Ez 37:15-28

St Jerome: Commmentaria in Ezechielem, 11.37.

Pluscarden

Thursday 34

Ez 38:14 – 39:10

St Ephrem the Syrian: On Gog and Magog, 1, 5-8, 12.

Friday 34

Ez 40:1-4; 43:1-12; 44:6-9

St Jerome: Commmentaria in Ezechielem.

WS VI

Saturday 34

Ez 47:1-12

St Augustine: Sermon 256, 1-3.

DO III