Treasure in Earthly Vessels: Wisdom from the Tradition (Part 7)

St. Amadeus of Lausanne
from 4th Sermon on Mary (SC 72)

The finger of God

“May your hand be ready to help me!” (Ps 119[118],173). The Father’s beloved Son is he whom we call the hand of God, he through whom God created all things. This hand intervened when it took our flesh, not simply without injury to his mother, but still more, according to the prophet’s testimony, by taking on himself all our sicknesses and bearing our sufferings (Is 53,4).

Indeed, this hand laden with medicines and dressings has healed every ill. It has removed everything that leads to death and has raised people who were dead; it has broken the gates of hell, bound the strong one and stripped him of his weapons; it has opened heaven and poured out the Spirit of love into the hearts of its own. This hand sets prisoners free and gives light to the blind; it raises those who have fallen; it loves the just and protects the stranger; it welcomes the orphan and widow.

It snatches from temptation those in danger of giving way to it, restores with its comforting those who suffer; it gives joy back to the afflicted and shelters the weary in its shade; it writes for those desiring to meditate its Law and touches and blesses the hearts of those who pray, strengthening them in love by its touch; it makes them progress and persevere in their works. Finally, it leads them to their homeland; it brings them back to the Father.

For if it has become flesh it is so that it may draw man through a man, joining our flesh to his flesh so as lovingly to bring back to God, the almighty and invisible Father, the straying sheep. Because this sheep had fallen in the flesh by abandoning God, the mystery of this hand’s Incarnation had to guide it, to lift it up and lead it back to the Father (Lk 15,4f.).

_____

St. Augustine
from On the Spirit and the Letter, 28-30 (PL 44, 217f.)

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill”

Grace, which was formerly veiled, so to speak, in the Old Testament, has been fully revealed in the Gospel of Christ by a harmonious disposition of the times, just as God usually disposes of everything with harmony…

But within this wonderful harmony we notice a great difference between the two ages. On Sinai the people did not dare draw near the place where the Lord was giving his Law; in the Upper Room, the Holy Spirit comes down on all those assembled there while waiting for the fulfilment of the promise (Ex 19,23; Acts 2,1).

In the first instance the finger of God inscribed the laws on tablets of stone; but now it is in human hearts that he writes it (Ex 31,18; 2Cor 3,3). Formerly the Law was written without and brought fear to sinners; but now it has been given to them within to make them righteous…

Indeed, as the apostle Paul says, everything written on the stone tablets, “you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill…, you shall not covet, and whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this saying: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfilment of the Law” (Rm 13,9f.; Lv 19,18)… This charity has been “poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rm 5,5).

_____

St. Francis de Sales
from Sermon for Good Friday, March 25, 1622

Forgiving our brother with all our heart

The first word our Lord spoke on the cross was a prayer for those who were crucifying him; thus he carried out what St. Paul wrote: “In the days of his flesh he offered prayer and sacrifice” (Heb 5,7).

It is true that those who were crucifying our divine Savior did not know him… for if they had known him they would not have crucified him (1Cor 2,8).

Therefore our Lord, seeing the ignorance and weakness of those torturing him, began to make excuses for them and offer this sacrifice to his heavenly Father for them – for prayer is a sacrifice…:

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23,34).

How great was the flame of love burning in our sweet Savior’s heart, since amidst the strongest of his pains, at the time when the strength of his sufferings seemed to take from him even the ability to pray for himself, he came, through the strength of charity, to forget himself but not those he had created…

By this he wanted to make us understand the love he bore for us, a love that could not be lessened by any kind of suffering, and to teach us, too, what our hearts ought to be with regard to our neighbor…

Now, since this divine Lord had been occupying himself in asking forgiveness for us, it is absolutely certain that his request was granted. For his divine Father honored him too much to refuse him anything he asked.

_____

St. John Chrysostom
from Homilies on Conversion, 3

Welcoming Christ

The poor standing before the church are asking for an alms. How much should you give? It’s up to you to decide; I’m not going to fix a sum so as to avoid your having any embarrassment. Purchase according to your means. Do you have a coin? Buy the heavens! Not that heaven is on offer in the open market, but it is the goodness of the Lord that allows you to do so. Are you without a coin? Give a glass of cold water (Mt 10,42)…

We can purchase heaven and yet we fail to do so! For one loaf of bread that you give you gain paradise in return. Offer even items of small value and you will receive a treasure. Make a gift of transitory things and you will obtain immortality; give perishable goods and receive imperishable in exchange…

When it is a question of perishable goods you know well how to manifest a good deal of forethought, so why do you show such indifference when it’s a question of eternal life?…

We could also make a parallel between the water vessels found at the entrance of churches in which to cleanse your hands and the poor who sit outside the building so that you can cleanse your soul by their means. You have washed your hands in water; wash your soul in the same way by giving alms…

A widow, who had been reduced to extreme poverty, showed hospitality to Elijah (1Kgs 17,9f.): her own necessity did not prevent her from welcoming him joyfully. She then received many gifts as an indication of thanks, which symbolized the fruits of her gesture.

Perhaps this example may make you desire to welcome an Elijah. Why ask for Elijah? I set before you Elijah’s Lord and you do not show him hospitality… This is what Christ, the Lord of the universe, says: “Every time you did it for one of these least brothers of mine, you did it for me” (cf. Mt 25,40).
Origen
from Commentary on St. John’s Gospel, 10

“In three days I will raise it up”

The mystery of our resurrection is great indeed and extremely difficult to fathom. It is foretold in many texts of Scripture but, above all, in Ezekiel…: “The Spirit of the Lord set me down in a valley full of bones…; they were completely dry. The Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, can these bones come to life?’ ‘Lord God,’ I answered, ‘you alone know that!’ Then he said to me: ‘Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!’ (Ez 37,1-4)…

So what are those bones to which it is said: “Hear the word of the Lord”… if not the Body of Christ, of which the Lord said: “All my bones are racked” (Ps 22[21],15)… Just as the resurrection of Christ’s true and perfect body came about, so the members of Christ will one day… be reunited, bone to bone, ligament to ligament.

Anybody without this ligament will not come to “mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ’s body” (Eph 4,13). Then… “all the parts of the body, though many, will make one body” (1Cor 12,12)…

I tell you this with respect to the Temple – of which our Lord said: “Zeal for your house has consumed me” (Ps 69[68],10) – and to the Jews who asked him for a sign and with respect to his reply:…: “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” For everything that disavows reason and arises from business affairs must be cast out of this temple, which is the Body of Christ, so that in future this temple will not be a house of buyers and sellers any more.

Furthermore… after its destruction by those who turn away from God’s word, it is to be raised up again on the third day… Following Jesus’ purification, his disciples, having forsaken all senseless things and every sort of business, and as a consequence of their zeal for God’s Word present within them, will be “destroyed” so as to be “raised up again” by Jesus in three days… For three whole days are necessary for this rebuilding to be fulfilled.

Hence we can say that, on the one hand, the resurrection has taken place and, on the other, that it is still to come. In truth, “we have been buried with Christ” and “we shall be raised up with him” (cf. Rm 6,4)… “In Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one according to its proper order: Christ the firstfruits and then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ” (1Cor 15,22-23).

_____

Blessed Pope John Paul II
from Apostolic Exhortation “Reconciliatio et paenitentia,” 5-6

“A man had two sons”

This prodigal son is man every human being: bewitched by the temptation to separate himself from his Father in order to lead his own independent existence; disappointed by the emptiness of the mirage which had fascinated him; alone, dishonored, exploited when he tries to build a world all for himself sorely tried, even in the depths of his own misery, by the desire to return to communion with his Father.

Like the father in the parable, God looks out for the return of his child, embraces him when he arrives and orders the banquet of the new meeting with which the reconciliation is celebrated…

But the parable also brings into the picture the elder brother, who refuses to take his place at the banquet. He rebukes his younger brother for his dissolute wanderings, and he rebukes his father for the welcome given to the prodigal son while he himself, a temperate and hard-working person, faithful to father and home, has never been allowed-he says to have a celebration with his friends. This is a sign that he does not understand the father’s goodness.

To the extent that this brother, too sure of himself and his own good qualities, jealous and haughty, full of bitterness and anger, is not converted and is not reconciled with his father and brother, the banquet is not yet fully the celebration of a reunion and rediscovery. Man every human being-is also this elder brother. Selfishness makes him jealous, hardens his heart, blinds him and shuts him off from other people and from God…

The parable of the prodigal son is above all the story of the inexpressible love of a Father… But when the parable evokes, in the figure of the elder son, the selfishness which divides the brothers, it also becomes the story of the human family…

It portrays the situation of the human family, divided by forms of selfishness. It throws light on the difficulty involved in satisfying the desire and longing for one reconciled and united family. It therefore reminds us of the need for a profound transformation of hearts through the rediscovery of the Father’s mercy and through victory over misunderstanding and over hostility among brothers and sisters.

_____

St. Maximus of Turin
from Sermon for the Feast of St. Cyprian

Bearing fruit

“The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel” says the prophet (Is 5,7). We ourselves are this house… and, since we are his Israel, we are the vineyard. So let us take good care that grapes of wrath (Rv 14,19) rather than sweetness, do not grow from our branches, so that no one may say to us: “I expected grapes but it yielded wild grapes” (Is 5,4).

What fruitless soil! The soil that should have presented its master with fruits of sweetness, pierced him with its sharp thorns. In the same way his enemies, who ought to have welcomed our Savior with all the devotion of their faith, crowned him with the thorns of his Passion. In their eyes this crown expressed insult and abuse, but in the Lord’s eyes it was the crown of virtue…

My brethren, take good care that no one says with regard to you: “He expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes” (Is 5,2)… Let us take care that our evil deeds do not rub against our Lord’s head like thorns. There are thorns in the heart that have even wounded the word of God, as our Lord says in the gospel when he relates how the sower’s seed fell among thorns that grew and choked what had been sown (Mt 13,7)…

So take care that your vineyard does not bring forth thorns instead of grapes and your vintage produce vinegar instead of wine. Anyone who gathers in the grapes without sharing them with the poor is collecting vinegar instead of wine; and anyone who stores his harvests without sharing them with needy is not setting aside the fruit of almsgiving but the briers of greed.

_____

St. Nerses Chnorhali
from Jesus, Only Son of the Father, 624f. (SC 203)

“He raised his eyes”

Like the rich man who loved a life of pleasure
I, too, have loved pleasures that pass away
With this animal body of mine,
In the pleasures of that fool.

And from so many and such great blessings
That you have so freely given me
I have not paid back the tenth
From your own gifts.

But, out of everything under my roof,
Gathered from earth and sky and sea,
I believed your numberless blessings
To be my own possession.

Nothing of these have I given to the poor,
Nor set anything aside for his needs:
Neither food for the hungry
Nor covering for the naked body,

Neither shelter for the homeless
Nor abode for the foreign guest,
Nor visit to the sick
Nor even concern for the prisoner (Cf Mt 25,31f.).

I was not saddened for the sorrow
Of the one cast down by his burdens,
Nor shared the joy of the joyful
But burned with jealousy against him.

All of them were another Lazarus…
They lay outside at my gate…
Yet I, deaf to their appeal,
Never gave them the crumbs from my table…

The dogs of your Law outside
Comforted them, at least, with their tongues;
Yet I, who listened to your commandment,
Wounded the one who bore your likeness with my tongue (Mt 25,45)…

Yet only grant me repentance here below
That I may make reparation for my sins…
That these tears may extinguish the blazing furnace
With its burning flames…

And, instead of acting like the merciless,
Set merciful compassion within me,
That, by showing mercy to the poor,
I may obtain your mercy.

Blessed Titus Brandsma from The Mysticism of Suffering

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem”

Jesus declared himself to be head of the mystical Body of which we are the members. He is the vine, we the branches (Jn 15,5). He stretched himself out on the winepress and began to tread it. Thus he gave us the wine by which we might, by drinking, live his life and share his sufferings.

“If anyone wishes to do my will, let him take up his cross daily. Whoever follows me has the light of life. I am the Way. I have given you an example that you also might do what I have done for you” (Lk 9,23; Jn 8,12; 14,6; 13,15).

And as his disciples themselves did not understand that his way was to be a way of suffering, he explained it to them, saying: “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and so enter into his glory?” (Lk 24,26).

Then the disciples’ hearts burned within them (v.32). God’s Word inflamed them. And when the Holy Spirit came down like a divine flame upon them to set them on fire (Acts 2), then they were happy to suffer scorn and persecution (Acts 5,41) since in this way they would become like him who had gone before them on the path of suffering. The prophets had already foretold this path of Christ’s suffering and the disciples finally understood that he had not avoided it.

From the crib to his agony on the cross, poverty and incomprehension had been his lot. He had spent his life teaching that God’s view of suffering, poverty and human incomprehension is different to the world’s foolish wisdom (1Cor 1,20)… In the cross is salvation. In the cross is victory. This is how God wanted it to be.

_____

St. [Padre] Pio de Pietrelcina

“Whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”

Do not cease to do acts of humility and love towards God and human beings. For God speaks to the person who keeps his heart humble before him, and God enriches him with his gifts.

If God has the sufferings of his Son in store for you and wants to let you touch with your finger your own weakness, it is better to make an act of humility than to lose courage. Let a prayer of surrender and hope rise up to God when your fragility causes you to fall, and thank the Lord for all the graces with which he enriches you.

_____

John Tauler
from First Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, 1

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful”

It is a perilous and dangerous thing for someone to judge another; we should all take care to keep ourselves from this sin. For he who is the Truth has said: “It is with the measure you have measured that you will be repaid.” If you are abundantly merciful, you will find abundant mercy; if you show little, you will find little; if you have no mercy at all, you will not find any for yourself.

We are to feel and exercise this mercy within, in our deepest will, in such a way that we experience deep, sincere compassion for our neighbor wherever he is seen to suffer and ask God to comfort him with all our heart.

If you are able to help exteriorly with some advice or gift, by word or deed, you will do so far as you are able. If you are unable to do much, yet do something, whether it is an interior or exterior work of mercy: at the least, speak a good word. In this way you will fulfil what you owe and will find a merciful God.

_____

Anastasius of Sinai
from A Sermon for the Feast of the Transfiguration

“They [were] questioning what rising from the dead meant”

Jesus manifested himself in glory on Mount Thabor, giving his disciples a divine revelation, a foreshadowing of the kingdom of heaven. It was as if he said: “So that you may not fall into disbelief as time goes by, now, at this moment, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in the glory of his Father” (Mt 16,28)… These are the miracles of our present feast… For it is this celebration, this feast of Christ, which has brought us together here today.

In order to penetrate into the heart of these awe-inspiring mysteries with the disciples whom our Lord chose, let us listen to the holy voice of God which summons us from on high…: “Come, shout aloud to the mountain of the Lord, on the day of the Lord, to the place of the Lord and in the house of your God.”

Let us give heed that, illumined by the vision, transformed and transported… we may invoke this light, saying: “How awesome is this place; this is nothing other than the house of God and the gate of heaven” (Gn 28,17).

There we must hasten like Jesus who is our leader and has gone before us into heaven. There, with him, may the eyes of our mind shine with his light and the features of our soul be made new; may we be transfigured with him and moulded to his image, ever becoming divine, being transformed in an ever greater degree of glory…

Let us run there, eager and joyful, and let us be enveloped in the cloud, like Moses and Elijah, or James and John. Be like Peter, rapt at the divine vision, transfigured by the glory of the transfiguration, lifted high above the things of this world. Let us leave the flesh and creation behind and turn to the Creator, to whom Peter in ecstasy said: “Lord, it is good for us to be here!” Yes indeed, Peter, it is good for us to be here with Jesus and to remain here for ever.

_____

Blessed Titus Brandsma
from Invitation to Heroism in Faith and Love

“But I say to you… pray for those who persecute you”

You have often heard it said that we are living through a marvellous time, a time of great men… It is easy to understand why people long for a strong and capable leader to arise… This kind of neo-paganism [Nazism] believes all nature to be an emanation of the divine…; it admires a race that is nobler and purer than any other… From this comes the cult of race and blood, the cult of its own people’s heroes.

By starting out from so mistaken an idea, this view of things can lead to capital errors. It is tragic to see how much enthusiasm, how many efforts are placed at the service of such an erroneous and baseless ideal! However, we can learn from our enemy.

We can learn from his deceitful philosophy how to purify and improve our own ideal; we can learn how to develop great love for this ideal; how to arouse immense enthusiasm and even a readiness to live and die for it; how to strengthen our hearts to incarnate it in ourselves and in others…

When we talk about the coming of the Kingdom and pray for its coming we are not thinking of a discrimination according to race or blood but of the brotherhood of all, for all men are our brothers – not excluding even those who hate and attack us – in a close bond with the one who causes the sun to rise on the good and on the wicked alike (Mt 5,45).

_____

St. Cyril of Jerusalem
from Catechesis before Baptism, 1, 5

Lent: the “favorable time ” for confession et forgiveness before coming to the altar of the Lord

This is now the time for confession. Confess your sins of word and deed, of night and day. Confess them at this “favorable time” and “day of salvation” (Is 49,8; 2Cor 6,2) and receive the heavenly treasure…

Leave the present behind and believe in what is to come. Have you passed so many years without ceasing in your empty works here below and can you not stop for forty days to occupy yourself with your final end? “Be still and know that I am God,” Scripture says (Ps 46[45],11). Give up your floods of useless words; do not lie nor listen to the liar but rather be ready for prayer. Show by self-denial the fervor of your heart; cleanse this organ that you may receive an even more abundant grace.

For the remission of sins is given equally to all but participation in the Holy Spirit is granted according to the measure of each one’s faith. If you take little trouble you will garner little; if you work hard your reward will be great. It is you yourself who are in the balance; watch out for your own interest.

If you have a grudge against someone else, forgive him. You have just received pardon for your own faults; it follows that you should also forgive the sinner, for how will you say to our Lord: “Take away my many sins” if you yourself have not even forgiven your fellow servant his few wrongs against you? (cf. Mt 18,23f).

_____

St. John Chrysostom
from Homilies on the Incomprehensibility of God, 5

“Everyone who asks, receives”

Prayer is indeed a powerful weapon, an unfailing treasure, inexhaustible wealth, safe harbor from the storm, a reservoir of calm; prayer is the root, the source and the mother of good things without number… But the kind of prayer I am talking about is neither mediocre nor careless; it is fervent prayer, springing from the soul’s affliction and the spirit’s efforts.

This is the prayer that rises up to heaven… Hear what the sacred author says: “To the Lord in the hour of my distress I called and he answered me” (Ps 120[119],1). Whoever thus prays in their distress will, when their prayer is over, taste great joy in their souls…

By “prayer” I don’t mean that which is in the mouth only but that which wells up from the heart. As trees whose roots are deeply buried are neither broken nor rooted up, even if the wind unlooses against them a thousand buffets, because their roots are firmly embedded in the depths of the earth, so prayers that come from the depths of the heart, so rooted, rise up securely to heaven and are not turned aside by any thought of lack of assurance or merit. That is why the Psalmist says: “Out of the depths I cried to you, O Lord” (Ps 130[129],1)…

If the fact of telling people about your personal misfortunes and describing to them the trials that have assailed you brings some relief to your troubles, as though a refreshing breeze were breathing through the words, how much more, if your share your soul’s troubles with your Lord, will you find plentiful consolation and comfort!

Indeed, people often find it hard to bear with those who come to them moaning and weeping; they turn them away and repulse them. But God does not act like this. To the contrary, he makes you come to him and draws you to himself. And even if you spend all day showing him your sorrows, he will only be even more disposed to love you and to grant your requests.

_____

St. Peter Chrysologus
from Sermon 37 (PL 52, 304-306)

The sign of Jonah

The whole history of Jonah shows him to us as the perfect prefiguration of our Savior… Jonah went down to Joppa to board a ship for Tarsis…; our Lord came down from heaven to earth, divinity came down to humanity, majestic power to our lowliness…, to board the ship of his Church…

It was Jonah himself who made the decision to have himself thrown into the sea: “Pick me up and throw me into the sea”; thus he announced the Lord’s freely willed Passion. When the salvation of a great many depends on the death of one then that death is in the hands of that man who can freely withhold or, alternatively, hasten it to forestall the danger. The whole mystery of the Lord is prefigured here.

Death is no necessity for him; it results from his free choice. Hear him: “I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up again: no one takes it from me” (Jn 10,18)…

See the great fish, a horrible and cruel image of hell. As it devours the prophet it feels the strength of the Creator… and fearfully offers the resting place of its belly to this traveller from on high… And after three days… it returns him to the light to give him to the pagans…

Such is the sign, the only sign, Christ consented to give the scribes and Pharisees (Mt 12,39) so as to make them understand that the glory they themselves hoped for from Christ would also be turned towards the gentiles: the Ninivites are the symbol of the nations who believed in him… O my brethren, what happiness this is for us! What was foretold and promised in symbol we venerate, see, possess face to face in all truth.

_____

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus
from Autobiographical Manuscript C, 25 r°-v°

“You are to pray: ‘Our Father'”

Outside the Divine Office which I am very unworthy to recite, I do not have the courage to force myself to search out beautiful prayers in books. There are so many of them it really gives me a headache! and each prayer is more beautiful than the others…

However, I would not want you to believe, dear Mother, that I recite without devotion the prayers said in common in the choir or the hermitages. On the contrary, I love very much these prayers in common, for Jesus has promised to be in the midst of those who gather together in His name. (Mt 18,19-20).

I feel then that the fervor of my Sisters makes up for my lack of fervor; but when alone (I am ashamed to admit it) the recitation of the rosary is more difficult for me than the wearing of an instrument of penance. I feel I have said this so poorly! I force myself in vain to meditate on the mysteries of the rosary; I don’t succeed in fixing my mind on them.

For a long time I was desolate about this lack of devotion which astonished me, for I love the Blessed Virgin so much that it should be easy for me to recite in her honor prayers which are so pleasing to her. Now I am less desolate; I think that the Queen of Heaven, since she is my Mother, must see my good will and she is satisfied with it.

Sometimes when my mind is in such a great aridity that it is impossible to draw forth one single thought to unite me with God, I very slowly recite an “Our Father” and then the angelic salutation; then these prayers give me great delight; they nourish my soul much more than if I had recited them precipitately a hundred times.

_____

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
from Jesus, the Word to Be Spoken, 8th Month

“You did it for me”

Jesus says: “Whatever you do to the least of your brothers is in my name. When you receive a little child, you receive me. If, in my name, you give a glass of water you give it to me” (Mk 9,37 ; Mt 10,42). And to make sure that we understand what he is talking about he says that at the hour of death we are going to be judged only that way. “I was hungry, you gave me to eat. I was naked, you clothed me. I was homeless, you took me in.”

Hunger is not only for bread; hunger is for love. Nakedness is not only for a piece of clothing; nakedness is lack of human dignity, and also that beautiful virtue of purity, and lack of that respect for each other. Homelessness is not only being without a home made of bricks; homelessness is also being rejected, unwanted, unloved.

_____

Origen
from Commentary on the Song of Songs, 3, 27-33 (SC 376)

“This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand”

Mortal life is full of obstacles to stumble over, covered with the snares of deception… And because the enemy had spread out these snares everywhere and caught practically everyone in them, it was necessary that someone stronger should appear to master and break them and thus destroy the path of those who were following them.

For this reason, before coming to unite himself with the Church as his bride, our Savior was also tempted by the devil… In this way he taught the Church that it is not by luxuriousness and pleasure but through many trials and temptations she must come to Christ.

Indeed, there was no one else who could have overcome these snares. “For all have sinned”, as it is written (Rm 3,23)… Our Lord and Savior, Jesus, is the only one who “committed no sin” (1Pt 2,22). But the Father “made him to be sin for our sake” (2Cor 5,21) so that “in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin” (Rm 8,3). Thus Jesus walked into these snares but was not himself entangled in them.

More, when he had broken and destroyed them, he heartened the Church to the extent that, from now on, she would dare to crush obstacles underfoot, climb over the snares and say, in all happiness: “Our soul, like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the fowlers. The snare has been broken and we have been saved” (Ps 124[123],7).

However, he himself underwent death, yet voluntarily and not, as we do, bound by sin. For he is the only one to have been “free among the dead” (Ps 87,6 LXX). And because he was free among the dead he conquered “the one who had the power of death” (Heb 2,14) and “took prisoners captive” from him (Eph 4,8), those who were held in death.

It was not just that he himself was raised from the dead but, at the same time, he “brought to life those who were captives in death and seated them with him in the heavens” (Eph 2,5f.); “ascending on high, he took prisoners captive” (Eph 4,8).

_____

St. Cyril of Jerusalem
from Catechesis before Baptism, 1

“Leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him”: Lent leads to baptism

You are catechumens, those who are preparing for baptism, disciples of the New Covenant and sharers in Christ’s mysteries. Already – now by your call and soon also by grace – you have been made “a new heart and a new spirit” (Ez 18,31) to the joy of the dwellers in heaven.

For if, according to the Gospel, the conversion of one sinner stirs up this joy (Lk 15,7), how much more will the salvation of so many souls not stir up the heavenly inhabitants to rejoicing?

You have undertaken a good, a most splendid journey: set yourselves to running the race of enthusiasm. The only Son of God is waiting ready to redeem you: “Come,” he says, “you who are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11,28).

You who labor under sin, bound with the shackles of your misdeeds, hear what the voice of one of the prophets says: “Wash, make yourselves clean, put away your misdeeds from before my eyes” (Is 1,16) that the choir of angels may cry to you: “Happy are they whose transgression is taken away, whose sin is remitted!” (Ps 32[31],1).

You who have come precisely to light the lamps of faith let your hands be diligent in guarding the flame so that he who, on our most holy hill of Golgotha, opened up paradise to the malefactor through faith (Lk 23,43) may grant you to sing the wedding song.

If there is anyone here who is a slave of sin, let him prepare himself by means of baptismal faith for the new birth that will make a free man of him, one of the children of adoption. Let him forsake the lamentable slavery of his sins to win the blessed slavery of the Lord… By faith acquire the first fruits of the Holy Spirit” (2Cor 5,5) so that you can be received into everlasting dwellings. Come to the sacrament that will seal you with a view to making you intimates of our Lord.

_____

 

St. Peter Chrysologus
from Sermon 50 (PL 52, 339)

“Who but God alone can forgive sins?”

“Child, your sins are forgiven.” By these words Christ wished to be acknowledged as God even while concealing himself from people’s eyes in the appearance of a man. He was likened to the prophets because of his demonstrations of power and his miracles, and yet it was due to him and to his own power that they, too, had worked their miracles.

To bestow forgiveness for sins is not in human power; it is the sign that distinguishes God. So it was in this way that Jesus began to reveal his divinity in human hearts – and this made the Pharisees mad with rage. They replied: “This man is blaspheming! Who but God alone can forgive sins?”

Oh you Pharisee! You think yourself knowledgeable but you are only an ignoramus! You think you are honoring God but you fail to recognise him! You think you are bearing witness but you are bearing the blows! If God is truly he who forgives sins, why do you not admit to Christ’s divinity?

Since he is able to bestow forgiveness on a single sin therefore it is he who wipes out the sins of the whole world: “See the Lamb of God! This is he who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1,29). Listen to him so that you may be able to grasp his divinity, for he has entered into the depths of your being. Behold him: he has reached to the deep places of your thoughts. Understand the one who exposes the secret intentions of your heart.

_____

 

Peter the Venerable
from Sermon 1 for the Transfiguration (PL 189, 95)

“It is good that we are here”

“His face shone like the sun” (Mt 17,2)… Covered with the cloud of the flesh, today the light that enlightens every man (Jn 1,9) has shone forth. Today it gives glory to this same flesh, displaying its glorification to the apostles so that the apostles might make it known to the world.

As for you, O blessed City, you will enjoy the contemplation of this Sun forever when you “come down out of heaven, prepared by God as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21,2). Never again will this Sun set upon you; forever remaining itself, it will cause an eternal dawn to shine forth. Nevermore will this Sun be veiled with clouds but, shining forever, will give you the joy of a light that never sets.

Never again will this Sun blind your eyes: it will give you the strength to look upon it, enrapturing you with its divine glory… “There shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain” (Rev 21,4) able to darken the splendour God has given you, for, as was said to John: “The old order has passed away.”

This is the Sun of which the prophet speaks: “No longer shall the sun be your light by day, nor the brightness of the moon shine upon you at night. The Lord shall be your light forever” (Is 60,19). This is the everlasting light that shines for you upon the face of the Lord. You hear the Lord’s voice, you behold his radiant face and you become as the sun. For we recognise a person by his face and to recognise him is the same as being illumined by him.

Here below you believe in the faith; there you will see. Here you grasp something with the mind; there you yourself will be grasped. Here you see “as in a mirror”; there you will see “face to face” (1Cor 13,12)… Then will be accomplished the prophet’s desire: “May he let his face shine upon us” (Ps 67[66],2)… You will be glad without end in that light; you will walk in that light without wearying. In that light you will see light eternal.

_____

 

Pope Benedict XVI
from Encyclical “Deus caritas est,” 5-6

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it”

The contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive… This is hardly man’s great “yes” to the body. On the contrary, he now considers his body and his sexuality as the purely material part of himself, to be used and exploited at will…

Christian faith, on the other hand, has always considered man a unity in duality, a reality in which spirit and matter compenetrate, and in which each is brought to a new nobility. True, eros tends to rise “in ecstasy” towards the Divine, to lead us beyond ourselves; yet for this very reason it calls for a path of ascent, renunciation, purification and healing.

Concretely, what does this path of ascent and purification entail? How might love be experienced so that it can fully realize its human and divine promise…? The word agape, as we have seen, becomes the typical expression for the biblical notion of love… This word expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other…

Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice…

Love is indeed “ecstasy”, not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God: “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it”… (Mt 10,39; 16,25; Mk 8,35; Lk 9,24; 17,33), as Jesus says throughout the Gospels.

In these words, Jesus portrays his own path, which leads through the Cross to the Resurrection: the path of the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, and in this way bears much fruit (Jn 12,25). Starting from the depths of his own sacrifice and of the love that reaches fulfilment therein, he also portrays in these words the essence of love and indeed of human life itself.

_____

Venantius Fortunatus
Passiontide Hymn: Vexilla Regis

“He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly… and be killed, and rise after three days”

The Royal banners forward go,
The Cross shines forth in mystic glow,
Where he in flesh, our flesh who made,
Our sentence bore, our ransom paid.

Where deep for us the spear was dyed,
Life’s torrent rushing from his side,
To wash us in that precious flood,
Where mingled water flowed, and blood.

Fulfilled is all that David told
In true prophetic song of old,
The universal Lord is he,
Who reigns and triumphs from the tree.

O Tree of beauty, Tree of light,
O Tree with royal purple dight,
Elect on whose triumphal breast
Those holy limbs should find their rest!

On whose dear arms, so widely flung,
The weight of this world’s ransom hung,
The price of humankind to pay
And spoil the spoiler of his prey.

O Cross, our one reliance, hail!
So may thy power with us prevail
To give new virtue to the saint,
And pardon to the penitent.

To Thee, eternal Three in One,
Let homage meet by all be done:
Whom by thy Cross thou dost restore,
Preserve and govern evermore.

_____

St. Gertrude of Helfta
from The Exercises, 6 (SC 127)

” Then shall you be radiant at what you see ” (Is 60,5)

What will be my joy, my bliss, my ecstasy, when you disclose to me the beauty of your Godhead and my soul shall see you face to face?… Then, O my soul, “you shall see and abound; and you, my wondering heart, shall be enlarged, when this torrent of riches and delights shall be emptied out before you”; when the glory of the august Trinity, like “a mighty sea”, shall engulf you; when “the wealth of the nations” will come to you, whom “the King of kings and Lord of lords” (Is 60,5; 1Tm 6,15) has redeemed from the power of the enemy by the strength of his almighty arm; when the rushing flood of the divine mercy and love will cover you…

Then shall be given to you the cup of the vision of God and you shall be inebriated (Ps 23[22],5 Vg.) – this is the sublime, inebriating cup of the glory of the face of God. Then you shall quench your thirst at the “torrent of eternal delights” (Ps 36[35],9); and he who is the very source of light shall fill you with his fulness forever.

Then you shall see the heavens all filled with the glory of the God who dwells in them, and your eyes shall look upon that virgin star [Mary] which, the brightest next to God, fills heaven with the splendor of its pure lustre; you shall see all the wondrous works of God’s hands [the saints: Gn 2,7] and “the morning stars”, who always stand joyfully before the face of God and serve him [the angels: Jb 38,7; Tb 12,15].

Alas, alas, 0 God of my heart and my portion for ever (Ps 73[72],26): how long shall my soul languish after the presence of your dear face?… Be pleased to draw me quickly to yourself, O my God, the “source of life” (Ps 37[36],10), that I may drink from you eternal life. “Let your face shine on me” (Ps 31[30],17) without delay so that I may have the joy of seeing you face to face. Come quickly, show yourself to me, that I may rejoice in you in happiness everlasting.

_____

St. John of the Cross
from The Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 3

“Do you not yet understand or comprehend?”

Faith, the theologians say, is a certain and obscure habit of soul.! It is an obscure habit because it brings us to believe divinely revealed truths that transcend every natural light and infinitely exceed all human understanding. As a result the excessive light of faith bestowed on a soul is darkness for it; a brighter light will eclipse and suppress a dimmer one.

The sun so obscures all other lights that they do not seem to be lights at all when it is shining, and instead of affording vision to the eyes, it overwhelms, blinds, and deprives them of vision since its light is excessive and unproportioned to the visual faculty. Similarly, the light of faith in its abundance suppresses and overwhelms that of the intellect…

Another clearer example…: If those born blind were told about the nature of the colors white or yellow, they would understand absolutely nothing no matter how much instruction they received since they never saw these colors… Only the names of these colors would be grasped since the names are perceptible through hearing…

Such is faith to the soul; it informs us of matters we have never seen or known… The light of natural knowledge does not show them to us… Yet we come to know it through hearing, by believing what faith teaches in blinding our natural light and bringing it in to submission.

St. Paul states: “Faith comes through hearing” (Rm 10:17). This amounts to saying that faith is not a knowledge derived from the senses but an assent of the soul to what enters through hearing…

Faith, manifestly, is a dark night for souls, but in this way it gives them light. The more darkness it brings on them, the more light it sheds. For by blinding it illumines them, according to those words of Isaiah: “If you do not believe, you will not understand” (cf. Is 7,9).

_____

St. Teresa of Avila
from The Book of her Life, ch. 25, 17

“If you wish, you can”

O my Lord, how you are the true friend; and how powerful! When you desire you can love, and you never stop loving those who love you! All things praise you, Lord of the world! Oh, who will cry out for you, to tell everyone how faithful you are to your friends! All things fail; you, Lord of all, never fail!

Little it is, that which you allow the one who loves you to suffer! O my Lord! How delicately and smoothly and delightfully you treat them! Would that no one ever pause to love anyone but you!

It seems, Lord, you try with rigor the person who loves you so that in extreme trial he might understand the greatest extreme of your love. O my God, who has the understanding, the learning, and the new words with which to extol your works as my soul understands them? All fails me, my Lord; but if you do not abandon me, I will not fail you…

I already have experience of the gain that comes from the way you rescue the one who trusts in you alone. While in [a] great affliction … these words alone were enough to take it away and bring me complete quiet: “Do not fear, daughter; for I am, and I will not abandon you; do not fear”… And behold, by these words alone, I was given calm together with fortitude, courage, security, quietude and light, so that in one moment I saw my soul transformed.

_____

Odes of Solomon, 12

“His speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly”

The Lord has filled me with words of truth,
that I may proclaim him.
And like the flowing of waters, truth flows from my mouth,
and my lips declare his fruits.
And he has caused his knowledge to abound in me.

For the mouth of the Lord is the true word,
and the door of his light.
And the Most High has given his Word to his generations,
(which are) the interpreters of his beauty,
and the narrators of his glory,
and the confessors of his thought,
and the preachers of his mind,
and the teachers of his works.

For the subtlety of the Word is inexpressible…
for limitless is his path.
He never falls but remains standing,
and one cannot know his descent or his way…
He is the light and dawning of thought.
And by him the generations spoke to one another,
and those that were silent acquired speech.
And from him came love and harmony.

They spoke one to another whatever was theirs.
And they were stimulated by the Word,
and knew him who made them,
because they were in harmony,
for the mouth of the Most High spoke to them…

For the dwelling place of the Word is man,
and his truth is love.
Blessed are they who by means of him
have recognizedi everything,
and have known the Lord in his truth.
Hallelujah!

_____

St. John Chrysostom
from Homilies on St. Matthew’s Gospel, 52, 2 (PG 58, 520)

“The dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps”

When she came up to Jesus the Canaanite woman just said these words: “Have pity on me” (Mt 15,22) and her repeated cries drew a large crowd of people. It was a touching sight to see this woman crying out with such great feeling, a mother pleading on behalf of her daughter, a child who was so severely possessed…

She didn’t say: “Have pity on my daughter” but “Have pity on me”. “My daughter is not aware of her plight, but I, I experience sufferings in profusion; it makes me ill to see her in such a state; I am almost out of my mind at seeing her like this”…

Jesus answered her: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15,24). Now what did the Canaanite woman do when she heard these words? Did she lose heart? Not in the least! She urged him even more. This is not what we do when our prayers are not answered: we turn away in discouragement whereas we ought to be pleading even more insistently. Who, it is true, would not be discouraged by Jesus’ response? His silence would have been enough to take away all hope…

This woman, however, does not lose heart; to the contrary, she comes nearer to him and bows to the ground, saying: “Lord, help me (v.25)… If I am a little dog in this house then I am no longer a foreigner. I well know that food is necessary for children…, but it cannot be forbidden to give away crumbs. They should not be refused me… because I am a little dog who cannot be pushed aside.”

It was because he foresaw her answer that Christ delayed to grant her prayer… His replies were not intended to cause this woman pain but to reveal this hidden treasure.

_____

St. Gregory of Nyssa
from Homilies on the Beatitudes, 6

“A pure heart create for me, O Go ” (Ps 51[50],12)

“Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God” (Mt 5,8). For no one doubts that a man becomes blessed if his heart is purified; but how any­one should cleanse it from its stains, this is what seems to oppose itself to the ascent to Heaven.

What then is the Jacob’s ladder? How can we find such a fiery chariot by which the prophet Elias was carried up to Heaven, and by which our heart, too, could be lifted up towards the mar­vels that are above, and shake off this earthly heaviness?…

Virtue is hard for us to attain; even with much sweat and pain, zeal and fatigue, one can hardly establish it. This we are taught in many passages of the Divine Scriptures, when we are told that the way of the Kingdom is strait and passes through narrow paths, whereas the way that leads through a life of wickedness to perdition is broad and runs down­hill with ease (Mt 7,13-14).

Yet Scripture affirms that the higher life is not altogether impossible… How you can become pure, you may learn through almost the whole teaching of the Gospel. You need only peruse the precepts one by one to find clearly what it is that purifies the heart…

Therefore Christ does good to our nature by promising good things as well as by giving us the teaching that answers this purpose. But if the pursuit of goodness seem irksome to you, compare it with the opposite way of life, and you will find how much more painful it is to be wicked, that is, if you look not to the present but to what comes hereafter…

For those with sordid minds are altogether miserable, because they look at the face of the adversary. On the other hand the Divine character itself is impressed on the virtuous life…

Hence, as we have learned what is an evil life and what is a good one – for we have it in the power of our free will to choose either of these – let us flee from the form of the devil, let us lay aside the evil mask and put on again the Divine Image. Let us become clean of heart, so that we may become blessed when the Divine Image is formed in us through purity of life, in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

_____

St. Augustine Discourses on the Psalms, Ps. 99, 5
“This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”

Who created everything? Who created you yourself? What are all these creatures? What are you? And how are we to say who he is who created all this? To speak it your thought must conceive it…: so let your thought move towards him, draw close to him. If you want a close look at something, you draw close to it…

But God is not discerned except by the mind, he is not grasped except by the heart. And where is this heart with which one can see God? “Happy the pure in heart, they shall see God” (Mt 5,8)…

In one of the Psalms we read: “Come close to him and you will be enlightened” (Ps 34[33],6 Vg). To come close so as to be enlightened you must hate the darkness… You are a sinner, you must become righteous. But you won’t be able to receive righteousness if evil still gives you pleasure.

Destroy it within your heart and cleanse it; cast sin from your heart where He whom you desire to see desires to dwell. The human soul, our “inner self” (Eph 3,16), draws as close to God as it can: that inner self recreated in God’s image, which was created in God’s image (Gn 1,26) but fell away from God into unlikeness.

It is true that we don’t either draw nearer or fall away from God in space: you distance yourself from God if you no longer resemble him; if you come close to him then you do resemble him. Notice how our Lord wishes us to draw close to him: first of all he makes us like him so that we can be near him. He tells us: “Be like your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good.” Therefore, love your enemies (Mt 5,45.44).

To the extent that this love increases within you it will bring you back and reshape you in God’s likeness…; and the closer you come to this likeness by growing in love, the more you will begin to feel the presence of God. But who is it you are feeling? The One who is coming to you or the One to whom you are returning? He has never been far from you; it is you who fell away from him.

_____

St. Teresa of Avila
from The Way of Perfection, ch. 34

“As many as touched it were healed”

Now if, when Jesus went about in the world, the mere touch of his robes cured the sick, why doubt, if we have faith, that miracles will be worked while he is within us and that he will give what we ask of him since, in eucharistic communion, he is in our house? His Majesty is not accustomed to paying poorly for his lodging if the hospitality is good. If it pains you not to see him with your bodily eyes, con­sider that seeing him so is not fitting for us…

But our Lord reveals himself to those who he sees will benefit by his presence. Even though they fail to see him with their bodily eyes, he has many methods of showing himself to the soul, through great interior feelings and through other different ways. Be with him will­ingly; don’t lose so good an occasion for conversing with him as is the hour after having received Communion.

_____

John Tauler
from Sermon 15, for the Vigil of Palm Sunday

“Jesus went off to a deserted place, where he prayed”

When the Son of God “raised his eyes to heaven and said: ‘Father, glorify your Son'” (Jn 17,1), he taught us by this action that we should raise on high all our senses, our hands, our faculties and our soul and pray in him, with him and through him. This was the most loving and holy deed the Son of God could have done here below: to worship his beloved Father.

However, this far surpasses any intellectual reasoning and we cannot in any way reach and understand it except in the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine and St. Anselm tell us concerning prayer that it is “a raising of the soul to God”…

For my part, I tell you only this: truly detach yourself from yourself and from all created things and raise your soul wholly to God above all creatures, into the deep abyss. There, immerse your spirit in God’s spirit in true abandonment…, in a real union with God…

Ask God there for everything he wants us to ask him, what you desire and what other people desire from you. And hold this as certain: what a tiny, little coin is with regard to a hundred thousand gold pieces, that is what all external prayer is with regard to this prayer, which is a real union with God, and with regard to this inflowing and fusion of the created spirit in the uncreated spirit of God…

If someone asks you for a prayer, it is a good thing to do so in an external way as you were asked and as you promised to do. But, as you do so, draw your soul to the heights and into this interior desert drive your whole flock as Moses did (Ex 3,1)… “True worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4,23).

In this interior prayer every practice, every formula, and all those kinds of prayer that, from Adam until now, have been offered and will yet be offered until the last day, are fulfilled. All of them are brought to perfection in a moment in this true and essential recollection.

_____

Isaac the Syrian
from Ascetical Discourses, 1st series, 60

“His heart was moved with pity for them”

Don’t just call God righteous. It isn’t with regard to what you do that he reveals his righteousness. If David calls him just and upright (cf. Ps 33[32],5), his Son has revealed to us that, to an even greater degree, he is good and kind: “He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked” (Lk 6,35)…

In what does the justice of God consist? Isn’t it in the fact that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”? (Rm 5,8). And if God shows himself compassionate here below then let us believe he has been so from all eternity.

May the unjust thought that God does not show compassion be far from us! God’s own being does not change as beings change who die…; nothing is lacking nor added to what he has when he comes to us creatures. But the compassion God has from the beginning, he will continue to have for eternity…

As blessed Cyril says in his commentary on Genesis: worship God for love and not because of that unyielding name of justice we have placed on him. Love him as he should be loved: not for the reward he will give you but for what we have received, the world he created in order to offer it to us.

Who could give back anything to him in return for what he has done for us? What is there among all our works that we might bestow on him? Who induced him to create us in the beginning? And who is it who prays for us when we fall short in acknowledgment? O how wonderful is God’s compassion! How marvelous the grace of God, our creator!… Who can tell his glory?

_____

St. Cyprian
from Exhortation to Martyrdom, 13 ( CSEL 3, 346)

John the Baptist, martyr for the truth

“The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us” (Rm 8,18). Who then does not labor in every way to arrive at such a glory as to become a friend of God, as to rejoice at once with Christ, as to re­ceive the divine rewards after earthly torments and punishments?

If it is glorious for the soldiers of this world to return to their fatherland triumphant after vanquishing the enemy, how much better and greater is the glory for one who, after over­coming the devil, returns triumphant to heaven, and after laying him low who had formerly deceived us, brings back the trophies of victory there whence Adam, the sinner, had been ejected?

To offer the Lord the most acceptable gift of an uncorrupted faith, an unshaken virtue of the mind, an illustrious praise of devotion?… To become co-heir of Christ, to be made equal to the angels, to rejoice with the patriarchs, with the apostles, with the prophets in the possession of the heavenly kingdom? What persecution can conquer these thoughts, what torments can overcome them?…

The lands are shut off in persecutions, heaven is open… How great a dignity and, how great a security it is to go forth hence happy, to go forth glorious in the midst of difficulties and affliction! For a moment to shut the eyes with which men and the world are seen; to open them immediately that God and Christ may be seen!…

If persecution should come upon such a soldier of God, virtue made ready for battle will not be able to be overcome him. Or if the summons should come beforehand, the faith which was prepared for martyr­dom will not be without its reward… In persecution God crowns loyal military service; in peace purity of conscience is crowned.

_____

Adam of Perseigne
from Sermon 4 for the Purification

“Here is our God coming in power; he comes to enlighten our eyes” (cf. Is 35,4-5)

The “Father of lights” (Jam 1,17) is inviting the children of light (Lk 16,18) to celebrate the feast of light: “Look to him that you may be radiant with joy” says the Psalm (34[33],6). In fact, he who “dwells in unapproachable light” (1Tm 6,16) has condescended to become approachable.

He has come down in the cloud of his flesh that the weak and small might mount up to him. What a descent of mercy! “He inclined the heavens,” that is to say, the heights of his divinity, “and came down” by becoming present in the flesh, “with dark clouds under his feet” (Ps 18[17],10)…

A necessary darkness to turn us to light! The true light was hidden beneath the cloud of his flesh (cf. Ex 13,21) – a dark cloud by reason of its “likeness to sinful flesh” (Rm 8,3)… Since the true Light has made flesh his hiding place let us, who are beings of flesh, draw near to the Word made flesh… that we may learn to pass by degrees to the spiritual flesh.

Let us now draw near for today a new sun is shining even more than is its wont. Up till now he was enclosed in the narrowness of a crib in Bethlehem and was known by hardly anyone, but today, at Jerusalem, he is presented in front of a great number of people in the Temple of the Lord… Today the Sun breaks out to shine over the whole world…

If only my soul could burn with the desire that inflamed Simeon’s heart that I, too, might be worthy of becoming the bearer of so great a light! But unless the soul has first of all been purified from its sins it cannot go “to meet Christ on the clouds” of true freedom (1Thes 4,17)… Only then will it be able to rejoice in the true light with Simeon and, like him, to depart in peace.

_____

St. José Maria Escriva de Balaguer
from Homily of March 19, 1963, in “Christ is Passing By”

“Is he not the carpenter?”

Joseph loved Jesus as a father loves his son and he cared for him, giving him the best he had. Joseph took charge of this child as he had been commanded and turned Jesus into a workman, passing on his craft to him. That is why their neighbors in Nazareth, when they spoke of Jesus, called him, roughly speaking, a “carpenter” or “the son of a carpenter” (Mt 13,55)…

Jesus must have resembled Joseph in his traits of character and ways of working and talking. His realism, his powers of observation, his way of sitting at table and breaking bread, his attraction for explaining his teaching in a concrete way by taking his examples from everyday things, reflect what Jesus’ childhood and youth were like and therefore his relationship with Joseph. What depths there are in this mystery!

This Jesus, who is a man, who speaks with the accent of a particular region of Israel, who resembles a workman named Joseph, is indeed the Son of God. And who can teach God anything? Nevertheless, he is truly man and his life is a normal one: first a child, then a young man who helps Joseph in the workshop, and finally a mature man in the fullness of age: “Jesus advanced in wisdom and grace before God and men” (Lk 2,52).

At the human level Joseph was Jesus’ master. Day by day he surrounded him with tender affection and cared for him with joyful self-denial. Is this not a very good reason for thinking this man to be just (Mt 1,19): this saintly patriarch in whom the Old Testament faith reaches its climax as a master of the interior life?

_____

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus
from Story of a Soul; Manuscript A, 75 v° – 76 r°

“Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion”

I should have spoken to you about the retreat preceding my Profession, dear Mother…; it was far from bringing me any consolations since the most absolute aridity and almost total abandonment were my lot. Jesus was sleeping as usual in my little boat; ah! I see very well how rarely souls allow him to sleep peacefully within them.

Jesus is so fatigued with always having to take the initiative and to attend to others that he hastens to take advantage of the repose I offer to him. He will undoubtedly awaken before my great eternal retreat, but instead of being troubled about it this only gives me extreme pleasure.

Really, I am far from being a saint, and what I have just said is proof of this; instead of rejoicing, for example, at my aridity, I should attribute it to my little fervor and lack of fidelity; I should be desolate for having slept (for seven years) during my hours of prayer and my thanksgivings after Holy Communion; well, I am not desolate.

I remember that little children are as pleasing to their parents when they are asleep as well as when they are wide awake; I remember, too, that when they perform operations, doctors put their patients to sleep. Finally, I remember that: “The Lord knows our weakness,” that “he is mindful that we are but dust” (Ps 103[102],14).

Just as all those that followed it, my Profession retreat was one of great aridity. God showed me clearly, however, without my perceiving it, the way to please him and to practice the most sublime virtues. I have frequently noticed that Jesus doesn’t want me to lay up provisions; he nourishes me at each moment with a totally new food; I find it within me without my knowing how it is there. I believe it is Jesus himself hidden in the depths of my poor little heart: he is giving me the grace of acting within me, making me think of all he desires me to do at the present moment.

_____

St. Ambrose
from Commentary on St. Luke’s Gospel, 8, 179-182 (SC 52)

Christ sown in the earth

It was in a garden that Christ was both arrested and buried: he grew in this garden and there he was also brought back to life. Thus he became a tree… You too, then, should sow Christ in your garden…

With Christ grind the mustard seed, tread it down and sow faith. Faith is hard pressed when we believe in Christ crucified. Paul pressed faith hard when he said: “When I came to you proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1Cor 2,1-2)…

Now, we sow faith when we believe in the Lord’s Passion following the Gospel or the readings from the apostles and prophets. In a manner of speaking, we sow faith when we cover it with soil that has been dug over and broken up with the flesh of the Lord… For whoever has believed that the Son of God became man believes that he died for us and believes that he was raised for us. Therefore, I am sowing faith when I set the sepulchre of Christ in the middle of my garden.

Do you want to know that Christ is a seed and that it is he who is sown? “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies it bears much fruit” (Jn 12,24)… It is Christ himself who says so. So he is both a grain of wheat since he “fortifies the hearts of men” (Ps 104[103],15), and a mustard seed, since he warms men’s hearts…

He is a grain of wheat when it is a matter of his resurrection, since the Word of God and the proof of his resurrection nourish the soul, increase hope and strengthen love – for Christ is “the bread of God come down from heaven” (Jn 6,33). And he is a mustard seed because there is no more bitterness or harshness in speaking about the Passion of the Lord.

_____

St. Cyril of Jerusalem
from Catechesis before Baptism, 18, 23-25

Timothy and Titus spread the faith of the apostles throughout the world

The Church is called catholic (or universal) because she exists throughout the world, from end to end of the earth, and because she teaches universally, without fail, every doctrine we need to know concerning both visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly realities.

Besides this she is called catholic because she submits all humanity, both leaders and subjects, learned and unlearned, to the true religion; because she tends and heals throughout the world every kind of sin committed by soul or body; and finally, because she possesses in herself every kind of virtue, in deed or word, whatever names they bear, and all the various sorts of spiritual gift.

This name ‘Church’ – which means ‘assembly’ – suits it perfectly since she assembles and gathers everyone together as the Lord commands in Leviticus: “Assemble the whole community at the entrance of the Meeting Tent” (Lv 8,3)…

And in Deuteronomy. God says to Moses: “Assemble the people before me; I will have them hear my words” (Dt 4,10)… The Psalmist also says: “I will give you thanks in the vast assembly; in the mighty throng I will praise you” (Ps 35[34],18)…

But subsequently the Savior instituted a second assembly from among the gentiles: our own holy Church, the church of Christians, concerning which he said to Peter: “Upon this rock I will build my Church and the power of death shall not prevail against it” (cf Mt 16,18)… When the first assembly that used to be in Judaea was destroyed, the churches of Christ were multiplied through all the earth.

It is of these that the Psalms speak when they say: “Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints” (Ps 150[149],1)… And it was of the same holy, catholic Church that Paul writes to Timothy: “You should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth” (1Tim 3,15).

_____

St. Fulgentius of Ruspe
from A sermon attributed to, 59 Appendix (PL 65, 92)

“On his journey, as Paul was nearing Damascus, alight from the sky suddenly flashed around him” (Acts 9,3)

Saul was sent on the road to Damascus to become blind since, if he was blinded, it was to see the real Way (Jn 14,6)… He lost his bodily sight but his heart was enlightened so that the true light might shine in the eyes of both his heart and his body… He was sent into his own interior to seek himself… He was straying in his own company, an unthinking traveller, and he did not find himself because, interiorly, he had lost his way.

Therefore he heard a voice saying to him…: “Turn aside from the way of Saul to find the faith of Paul. Take off the tunic of your blindness and clothe yourself with the Savior (cf. Gal 3,27)… In your flesh I have wanted to manifest the blindness of your heart that you might see what you did not see and might not be like those who “have eyes but see not and ears and hear not” (Ps 115[113],5-6). Let Saul return with his futile letters (Acts 22,5) that Paul might write his most necessary letters. Let the blind Saul vanish… that Paul might become the light of believers”…

Paul, who has transformed you in this way? “Would you like to know who has done this? The man people call Christ… He anointed my eyes and said to me: ‘Go to the pool of Siloam, wash and you will see.’ I went; I washed, and now I see (Jn 9,11). Why this surprise? Behold, he who created me has re-created me and with the same power with which he created me he has now healed me. I had sinned but he has cleansed me.”

Come along, then, Paul; leave old Saul behind; soon you will see Peter, too… Ananias, touch Saul and give us Paul; dismiss the persecutor far away from us, send out the preacher on his mission. The lambs will no longer be afraid, Christ’s sheep will be full of joy. O touch the wolf who used to pursue Christ so that now, with Peter, he may lead the sheep to pasture.

_____

Isaac of Stella from Sermon 39, 2-6 (SC 207)

“Envy: a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”

“It is by Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he casts out devils”… It is the characteristic of evildoers, stirred by envy, to shut their eyes as much as they can to other people’s merits and when, overcome by the evidence, they cannot do so any longer, to depreciate or undervalue it. Thus, when the crowd rejoiced in devotion and marvelled at the sight of Christ’s works, the scribes and Pharisees either closed their eyes to what they knew to be true, or brought down what is great, or undervalued what is good.

Once, for example, feigning ignorance, they said to him who had worked so many wonderful signs: “What sign can you do that we may believe in you?” (Jn 6,30). In this case, unable to blatantly deny the facts, they wickedly depreciate them…, and they devalue them by saying: “It is by Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he casts out devils”.

Now this, dear brethren, is the blasphemy against the Spirit that binds all those he has seized with the bonds of an eternal sin. This is not to say that it would be impossible for the repentant to gain forgiveness for it all if he “produces fruit as evidence of his repentance” (Lk 3,8). The only thing is that, crushed beneath such a weight of malice, he lacks the strength to reach out to that honorable repentance that isworthy of forgiveness…

He who, perceiving the proofs of grace and the Holy Spirit’s working in his brother…, is not afraid to undermine and calumniate and brashly ascribe to the evil spirit what he clearly knows to be of the Holy Spirit: such a one has been so forsaken by this Spirit of grace that he no longer desires the repentance that would obtain his pardon.

He is completely in the dark, blinded by his own malice. Indeed, what could be more serious than to dare, out of envy for the brother one had been commanded to love as oneself (Mt 19,19), to blaspheme God’s goodness… and insult his majesty by wanting to discredit a man?

_____

St. Leo the Great
from Sermon 1 for the Nativity of the Lord, III (PL 54, 190)

“Repent, and believe in the gospel”

Let us then, dearly beloved, give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, who “for the great mercy wherewith He has loved us,” has had pity on us, and “when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life in Christ,” (Eph 2,5) that we might be in him a new creation and a new production. Let us put off then the old man with his deeds (Col 3,9), and having obtained a share in the birth of Christ let us renounce the works of the flesh.

Christian, acknowledge your dignity, and since you have become a partner in the Divine na­ture (2Pt 1,4), refuse to return to the baseness you were in before. Remember whose is the head and body of which you are a member (Eph 4,15-16).

Recollect that you were “rescued from the power of darkness and have been brought into God’s light and kingdom” (Col 1,13). By the mystery of baptism you were made the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Cor 6,19); do not put so great a guest to flight by evil deeds and so subject yourself once more to the devil’s thraldom, because you have been redeemed by the blood of Christ.

_____

Blessed Pope John XXIII from Journal of a Soul

Jesus loved us to the end (Jn 13,1)

O Jesus, divine food of the soul, this immense concourse turns to you. It wishes to give to its human and Christian vocation a new, vigorous power of interior virtue, and to be ready for sacrifice, of which you were such a wonderful pattern in word and example. You are our elder brother; you have trodden our path before us, O Christ Jesus, the path of every one of us; you have forgiven all our sins; you inspire us, each and all, to give a nobler, more convinced and more active witness of Christian life.

O Jesus, our “bread of life” (Jn 6,35) and the only substantial food for our souls, gather all peoples around your table. Your altar is divine reality on earth, the pledge of heavenly favours, the assurance of just understanding among peoples, and of peaceful rivalry in the true progress of civilization. Nourished by you and with you, O Jesus, men will be strong in faith, joyful in hope, and active in the many and varied expressions of charity.

Our wills will know how to overcome the snares of evil, the temptations of selfishness, the listlessness of sloth. And men who love and fear the Lord will hear arising from earth the first mysterious and sweet voices of the City of God, of which the wayfaring Church militant is the image. O Jesus, you guide us to fresh pastures and watch over us. Grant that we may see good things in the land of the living, (Ps 27 [26], 13).

_____

St. Gertrude of Helfta
from Exercises, 7 (SC 127)

“They watched him closely… so that they might accuse him”

At the hour of Terce you will place yourself in presence of the divine peace and of love…: O peace of God, you pass all understanding (Phil 4,7), you are unutterably sweet and fair and full of charms. Wherever you penetrate reigns untroubled security. You alone can stay the wrath of the sovereign king; you adorn with clemency the king’s throne; you illumine his glorious kingdom with pity and mercy.

Come, then, and take my cause in hand, the cause of a wretch most guilty and most forlorn… Already the creditor is at the door… if I speak with him, I am undone, for I have nothing with which to repay my debt. Sweetest Jesus, my peace, how long will you keep silent?…

Be pleased to speak on my behalf, uttering that word of love: “I myself will redeem her.” Most surely you yourself are the refuge of all the poor. You never pass by anyone without granting them healing. Oh, you have never let anyone who has sought refuge at your side leave you without being reconciled…

Be pleased, my love, my Jesus at this hour when you were scourged for my sake, crowned with thorns, pitifully drowned in suffering. You are my true king and, apart from you, I know none other. You made yourself the insult of the people, abject and repulsive like a leper (Is 53,3), so that the Jews refused to acknowledge you as their king (Jn 19,14-15).

By your grace, grant that I, at least, may acknowledge you as my king! O my God, give to me that innocent, so greatly beloved, my Jesus, who so fully “paid” for my sake “what he had not stolen” (Ps 69[68],5);give him to me to be my soul’s stay. May I receive him into my heart; may he console my spirit by the bitterness of his pains and Passion…

As for you, O peace of God: be the dear bond binding me to Jesus for ever. Be the support of my strength… that I may be but “one heart and soul” with Jesus (Acts 4,32)… Through you shall I be bound to my Jesus for ever.

_____

St. Ambrose
from Commentary on St.Luke’s Gospel, 5, 11-13 (SC 45)

Seeing their faith, he forgave him

“Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic: ‘Your sins are forgiven you’.” The Lord is great: for the sake of the former he forgives the latter; he answers the prayer of the first and pardons the sins of the second. O men, why is it that today your fellow traveller is unable to do anything for you when, with the Lord, his servant has the right to intervene and to receive?

You who judge, learn to pardon; and you who are ill, learn to beseech. If you have no hope of immediate pardon for grave sins, turn to intercessors, turn to the Church who will pray for you. Then, for her sake the Lord will grant you the pardon he could have denied you. We don’t ignore the historical truth of the paralytic’s cure, but, above all, we acknowledge the healing of his interior self, whose sins are forgiven…

The Lord wants to save sinners; he demonstrates his divinity by his knowledge of what is secret and by the wonders of his deeds. “Which is easier to say,” he asks: “‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Rise and walk’? Here he gives us a complete image of the resurrection since, in healing the wounds of soul and body…, the whole man is healed.

_____

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
from Letter of April 10, 1974 to her co-workers

“Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him”

The poor are thirsty for water but also for peace, truth and justice. The poor are naked and need clothing, but also need human dignity and compassion for those who sin. The poor have no shelter and need shelters made of bricks, but also of a joyful heart, compassionate and full of love. They are sick and need medical attention, but also a helping hand and welcoming smile.

The outcasts, those who are rejected, the unloved, prisoners, alcoholics, the dying, those who are alone and abandoned, the marginalized, the untouchables and lepers…, those in doubt and confusion, those who have not been touched by the light of Christ, those starving for the word and peace of God, sad and afflicted souls…, those who are a burden to society, who have lost all hope and faith in life, who have forgotten how to smile and no longer know what it means to receive a little human warmth, a gesture of love and friendship – all of them, they turn to us to receive a little bit of comfort. If we turn our backs on them, we turn our backs on Christ.

_____

St. Vincent de Paul
Instruction of August 16, 1656 to two Sisters who had been sent to Arras

“Jesus approached and grasped her hand”

It is a beautiful thing to read in the Gospel what is related about St. Peter’s mother-in-law. This good woman, being unwell with a debilitating fever, learned that our Lord was in Capharnaum, that he was working great miracles, healing the sick, casting out devils from those who were possessed and other wonderful things.

She knew that her kin was with the Son of God and was able to say to St. Peter: “My son, your master is a mighty man and has the power to free me from this illness.”

Some time afterwards, behold our Lord came into her house where she was showing not the least impatience for her affliction: she made no complaint, did not implore her kin at all, not even our Lord, for she might well have said: “I know you have the power to heal all sorts of illnesses, Lord; take pity on me.” Nevertheless, she said nothing of all that and our Lord, seeing her indifference, commanded the fever to leave her and, at that instant, she was cured.

In all the unpleasant things that come to us, let us in no way put ourselves to trouble about them, let us abandon them all to Providence and let it suffice us that our Lord sees us and knows what we are enduring for love of him and to imitate the beautiful examples he has given us, especially in the Garden of Olives, when he accepted his chalice… For, even though he asked for it to pass, if that were possible, without his drinking it, he immediately added that his Father’s will be done (Mt 26,42).

_____

Pope Benedict XVI
from Homily of January 10, 2010

“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

At the Jordan Jesus reveals himself with an extraordinary humility, reminiscent of the poverty and simplicity of the Child laid in the manger, and anticipates the sentiments with which, at the end of his days on earth, he will come to the point of washing the feet of the disciples and suffering the terrible humiliation of the Cross.

The Son of God, the One who is without sin, puts himself among sinners, demonstrates God’s closeness to the process of the human being’s conversion. Jesus takes upon his shoulders the burden of sin of the whole of humanity, he begins his mission by putting himself in our place, in the place of sinners, in the perspective of the Cross.

While absorbed in prayer he emerges from the water after his Baptism, the skies break open. It is the moment awaited by so many prophets: “O that you would rend the heavens and come down!”, Isaiah had prayed (64: 1). At that moment… this prayer is heard. Indeed, “The heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him”; and words were heard that had never been heard before: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” …

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit come down among human people and reveal to us their love that saves. If it is the Angels who bring the shepherds the announcement of the Saviour’s birth, and the star that conveys it to the Magi who came from the East, now it is the Father’s voice that indicates the presence of his Son in the world to human beings and invites them to look to the Resurrection, to Christ’s victory over sin and death.

_____

Blessed Guerric of Igny
from 3rd Sermon for Epiphany (SC 166)

“O God, on this day you revealed your Only Begotten Son to the nations” (Collect)

“Arise, be enlightened Jerusalem, for your Light has come!” (Is 60,1). Blessed is the Light which has “come in the name of the Lord”, “The Lord is God and has shone upon us” (Ps 118[117],26-27). In virtue of it this day also, sanctified by the enlightening of the Church, has shone upon us.

Thanks be to you, true Light, you that “enlighten every man coming into this world” (Jn 1,9), you who for this very purpose have come into this world as a man. Jerusalem has been enlightened, our mother (Gal 4,26), mother of all those who have deserved to be enlightened, so that she now shines upon all who are in the world. Thanks be to you, true Light, you who have become a lamp to enlighten Jerusalem and to make God’s word “a lamp for my feet” (Ps 118[117],105)…

For not only has it been enlightened: it has been “raised aloft on a candlestick”, one all of gold (Mt 5,15; Ex 25,31). The city sits on the mountain of mountains (cf. Mt 5,14)… so that its gospel may shine out far and wide, as far and as wide as the world’s empire spreads

God, you who give light to all nations, of you we will sing: “Behold the Lord will come and enlighten the eyes of his servants” (cf. Jude 14). Behold, you have come, my Light: “Enlighten my eyes, that I may never fall asleep in death” (Ps 13[12],4)… You have come, O Light of the faithful, and behold you have granted us today to rejoice at the enlightening of faith, that is, of our lamp. Grant us also to rejoice always at the enlightening of the darkness that remains to us…

This is the way in which you should advance, O faithful soul, in order that you may cast off the darkness of this world and arrive at your home country of eternal brightness, where “your darkness will be like midday” (Is 58,10) and “night will be lit up like day” (Ps 139[138],12).

Then indeed, then “you will see and be radiant, your heart will thrill and rejoice” (Is 60,5), when the whole earth is filled with the majesty of unbounded light and “his glory is seen in you” (Is 60,2)… “Come and let us walk in the light of the Lord!” (Is 2,5); as “children of light” let us walk “from brightness to brightness, as led by the Lord who is Spirit” (2Cor 3,18).

_____

St. Ephrem
from Commentary on the Diatessaron, 5, 6 (SC 121)

“Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs”

Why did our Lord change water into wine as his first sign? It was to show how God, who transforms nature into something else, also works his transformation in the womb of the Virgin. In the same way, as the crown of his miraculous deeds, Jesus opened a tomb to make known his freedom with regard to the death that is hungry to swallow up everything.

To both authenticate and confirm the twofold reversal of nature brought by his birth and his resurrection, Jesus changed water into wine without in any way altering the stone water-jars. This was the symbol of his own body, miraculously conceived and wonderfully created in a virgin without the working of a man… Contrary to their normal use, the jars… brought new wine into the world without ever repeating the same miracle again.

In the same way the Virgin conceived and brought Emmanuel into the world (Is 7,14) without afterwards conceiving again. The miracle of the stone water-jars was that what was small became great, sparseness was changed into superabundance, plain water into sweet wine… In Mary, on the other hand, the greatness and glory of the godhead changed its appearance to take on the aspect of weakness and humiliation.

Those jars were used for the Jewish purifications; into them our Lord poured his teaching: he demonstrated that he came according to the Law and the prophets but with the purpose of changing them all through his teaching as the water became wine… “The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn 1,17).

The bridegroom who lived in Cana invited the Bridegroom from heaven, and the Lord, who was ready for that wedding, answered his invitation. Those seated at table invited him who sets worlds in his Kingdom, and he sent them a wedding gift able to delight them… They had no wine even of an ordinary sort; he poured a little from his own abundance for them. In return for their invitation he himself invited them to his own wedding.

_____

St. Irenaeus of Lyons
from Against the Heresies, Book 3, 22,3; 23,1 (SC 211, 439 rev.)

“Son of Adam”

Luke gives us a genealogy that goes from Our Lord’s birth to Adam, comprising seventy-two generations. In a certain sense he joins the end to the beginning and gives us to understand that our Lord is he who recapitulated in himself every nation spread abroad since the time of Adam, every human language and generation including that of Adam himself.

For the same reason Paul calls Adam “the type of the one who was to come” (Rm 5,14) since the Word, the Creator of the universe, had sketched beforehand in Adam the future history of the humanity in which the Son of God would clothe himself…

In becoming the Firstborn from the dead (Col 1,18) and receiving the Fathers of old into his bosom, our Lord caused them to be reborn into the life of God. He became the first, the principle of the living, since Adam had become the principle of the dead…

By beginning his genealogy with the Lord to make it go back to Adam Luke shows that it was not the forefathers who had given life to the Lord but, to the contrary, that it was he who caused them to be reborn into the Gospel of life. In the same way, the knot tied by the disobedience of Eve had been untied by the obedience of Mary, since what the virgin Eve had tied by her unbelief the Virgin Mary had untied by her faith.

Thus it was indispensable that, by coming to meet the lost sheep (Mt 18,12), recapitulating such a great history, seeking out the work he himself had fashioned (Lk 19,10; Gn 2,7), the Lord should save the man made in his own image and likeness (Gn 1,26), namely Adam.

_____

St. Nerses Chnorhali
from Jesus, Only Son of the Father, 85-95 (SC 203)

“You will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending”

O Lord, you called Jacob, Isaac and Rebecca’s youngest son, your beloved; you changed his name to that of Israel (Gn 32,29). You revealed the future to him when you showed him the ladder reaching from earth to heaven: at its summit, God was standing, gazing on the world, and on the ladder angels ascended and descended… It was the symbol of a great mystery as men enlightened by the Spirit declared…

As for me, on the good side, I too am the youngest son. On the bad side, without doubt I am a mature man like the elder son Esau…: I have sold my wealth to satisfy my greed (Gn 25,33) and blotted out my name from the Book of Life where the first among the blessed are written in heaven (Ps 68,29).

I beseech you, O thou Light from on high, Prince of the fiery choirs. May the doors of heaven be opened for me too as they were opened in former times for Israel. Be pleased to make my fallen soul rise up by the ladder of light, the mysterious sign granted to men of their return from earth to heaven.

Through the wiles of the Evil One I have lost the scented unction of your Spirit; deign to anoint my head once more with your protecting right hand. I do not fight against you, O most powerful One, wrestling like Jacob (Gn 32,25), for I am nothing but weakness.

_____

St. John Chrysostom
from Homilies on the Gospel of John, 19

“We have found the Messiah”

When he had stayed with Jesus and learned a great deal, Andrew did not keep these riches to himself but made haste to run to his brother and share with him the benefits he had gained…

Now note how Peter had a docile and obedient spirit from the beginning…, since he ran back without delay: “Andrew brought him to Jesus,” the evangelist says. Yet let no one accuse him of superficiality, as though he had blindly taken up his brother’s invitation. It is very likely that the latter had spoken to him in detail and at length.

However, the evangelists suppress a great deal out of a concern for conciseness. In any case, it is not said that Peter believed on the spot but that his brother “led him to Jesus” so as to entrust him to him, so that Peter might be fully instructed by him.

When John the Baptist said: “Behold the Lamb” and “He will baptize in Holy Spirit”, he entrusted Christ with the task of more clearly teaching this doctrine himself. Even more so did Andrew do the same, for he did not consider himself capable of explaining everything. He led his brother to the very source of light, and with such great haste and joy that he did not hesitate for an instant to go there.

_____

St. Jerome
from On Isaiah, ch. 11

“He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit”

“A shoot shall sprout from the stock of Jesse (David’s father) and from his roots abud shall blossom. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him” (Is 11,1-2). This whole prophecy is about Christ…

The Jews interpret the shoot and the flower sprouting from the stock of Jesse as the Lord himself: for them, the shoot is a symbol of the royal scepter, the flower represents his beauty.

Where we Christians are concerned, in the shoot that issues from the stock of Jesse we see the holy Virgin Mary to whom none was united to make her fruitful. It is she whom the same prophet pointed to in an earlier passage: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (7,14). And in the flower we recognize our Lord and Savior, who says in the Song of Songs: “I am the flower of the field and lily of the valleys” (Sg 2,1)…

Upon this flower that suddenly sprouts from the stock and root of Jesse through the Virgin Mary, the Spirit of the Lord comes to rest, for “it pleased God to make the whole fullness of the deity dwell in him bodily” (Col 2,9). Not in a partial way as it did on other saints but as we read in the Gospel of Matthew: “Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles” (Mt 12,18; Is 42,1).

We apply this prophecy to the Savior on whom the Spirit of the Lord rested, meaning that he made his eternal dwelling in him… As John the Baptist testifies, he descended to remain always upon him: “”I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the holy Spirit'”…

This Spirit is called “a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and of strength, a Spirit of knowledge, reverence and fear of the Lord” (Is 11,2)… He is the one and only source of all gifts.

_____

Blessed Guerric of Igny
from Sermon 5 for Advent

“Make straight the Lord’s path”

“Prepare the way of the Lord.” Brothers, even if you have advanced greatly on this way, you still have to prepare it, so that from the point where you have already arrived, you might always go forward, always stretched out towards what is beyond. Thus, since the way has been prepared for his coming, with every step that you take, the Lord will come to meet you, always new, always greater.

So the righteous person is right to pray thus: “Instruct me, O Lord, in the way of your statutes, that I may exactly observe them.” (Ps 119:33) And this way is called “the path of eternity” (Ps 139:24) … because the goodness of him towards whom we are advancing is unlimited.

That is why the wise and determined traveler, even though he has arrived at the goal, will think of beginning. “Giving no thought to what lies behind,” (Phil 3:13), he will tell himself every day: “Now I begin (Ps 76:11 Vulgata) …

May it please heaven that we who talk about advancing on this path might at least have set out! To my understanding, whoever has set out is already on the good way. However, we must really begin, find “the way to an inhabited city” (Ps 107:4). For Truth says: “How few there are who find it!” (Mt 7:14) And many are those “who go astray in the desert.” (Ps 107:4) …

And you, Lord, have prepared a path for us, if we only agree to go on it… Through your Law, you have taught us the path of your will by saying: “This is the way; walk in it, when you would turn to the right or to the left.” (Isa 30:21) It is the path that the prophet had promised: “A highway will be there… No fools go astray on it.” (Isa 35:8)… I have never seen a fool going astray when following your path, Lord… But woe to you who are wise in your own sight (Isa 5:21).

Your wisdom has taken you away from the path of salvation and has not allowed you to follow the Savior’s folly… A desirable folly, which at the time of God’s judgment will be called wisdom and which does not let us go astray, away from his path.

_____

St. Ephrem
from Hymn 7 on the Virgin

“They glorified and praised God for all they had heard and seen”

Come, O Sages, let us wonder at the Virgin Mary, daughter of David, that flower of beauty who has given birth to this marvel. Let us wonder at the spring from which this stream has welled up, the ship laden with bounty bringing us the message of the Father.

In her most pure breast she has received and borne that great God who rules all creation, the God through whom peace now reigns on earth and in the heavens. She alone of all creatures has given birth without knowing man. Her soul was full of wonder and joyfully each day she gave glory to God for gifts that seemed incapable of joining in one: her virginal purity and her beloved child. Yes indeed, blessed is he who was born of her!…

She carried him and sang his praise in sweet songs…: “My son, your real place is to be raised up above all things but, because you willed it, you have found a place in me. The heavens are too narrow for your majesty, yet I, who am so small, am bearing you! Let Ezekiel come and see you on my lap; let him bow down and worship and acknowledge in you him whom he beheld seated on the chariot of the cherubim (cf. Ez 1).

Let him proclaim me blessed, thanks to him whom I bear!… Isaiah, you who proclaimed: ‘Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son’ (7,14), come and look on me, be glad with me… See how I have given birth while guarding intact the seal of my virginity. Behold Emmanuel who, in former times, was hidden from your sight…

Come to me, O Sages, singers of the Spirit, prophets who, in your visions, received the revelation of hidden realities, laborers who, after sowing, slept in hope. Arise, leap for joy as you see the harvest of fruit. See in my arms the grain of life that gives bread to the hungry and satisfies the wretched. Rejoice with me: I have received the wheatsheaf of joy!”

_____

St. Clement of Alexandria
from Homily “How can the rich man be saved?” 37

“To those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name”

Contemplate the mysteries of love and you will see “the Father’s heart” which only “the only Son has made known”, he who is God (Jn 1,18). God is love (1Jn 4,8) and, because of that love, he has allowed himself to be seen by us. In his inexpressible Being he is Father; in his compassion for us he has become our Mother. By loving, the Father is shown to be also feminine.

The overwhelming proof of this lies in him whom he begets from himself. And this Son, the fruit of his love, is love. Because of this love he himself has come down. Because of this love he has put on our humanity. Because of this love he has freely endured everything that arises from our human condition.

So, in placing himself on a level with our weakness, he has placed us, whom he loved, on a level with his own greatness in return. When he was about to offer himself in sacrifice and to give up his own self as the price of our redemption, he left us a new covenant: “My love I give you” (cf. Jn 13,34; 14,27). What love is this? What is its worth? He “laid down his life” for each one of us (1Jn 3,16), a life more precious than the whole world.

_____

Pope Paul VI
from Homily at Nazareth January 5, 1964

“They returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth”

The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus – the school of the Gospel. The first lesson we learn here is to look, to listen, to meditate and penetrate the meaning – at once so deep and so mysterious – of this very simple, very humble and very beautiful manifestation of the Son of God. Perhaps we learn, even imperceptibly, the lesson of imitation…

How gladly would I become a child again, and go to school once more in this humble and sublime school of Nazareth: close to Mary, I wish I could make a fresh start at learning the true science of life and the higher wisdom of divine truths…

First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us, besieged as we are by so many uplifted voices, the general noise and uproar, in our seething and over­sensitized modern life.
May the silence of Nazareth teach us recollection, inwardness, the disposition to listen to good inspirations and the teachings of true masters. May it teach us the need for and the value of preparation, of study, of meditation, of personal inner life, of the prayer which God alone sees in secret (Mt 6,6).

Next, there is a lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and inviolable character. Let us learn from Nazareth that the formation received at home is gentle and irreplaceable. Let us learn me prime importance of the role of the family in the social order.

Finally, there is a lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the ‘Carpenter’s Son’ (Mt 13,55), in you I would choose to understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work; here I would restore the awareness of the nobility of work, and reaffirm that work cannot be an end in itself, but that its freedom and its excellence derive, over and above its economic worth, from the value of those for whose sake it is undertaken. And here at Nazareth I want to greet all the workers of the world, holding up to them their great pattern, their brother who is God. He is the prophet of all their just causes, Christ our Lord.

_____

St. Cyprian
from On Mortality, 2-3

“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace”

“The kingdom of God is at hand” (Lk 21,31). The king­dom of God, beloved brethren, has begun to be at hand; the reward of life and the joy of eternal salvation and per­petual happiness and the possession of paradise once lost are now coming with the passing of the world; now the things of heaven are succeeding those of earth; great things, small, and eternal things, transitory. What place is there here for anxiety and worry?…

It is written that “the just man lives by faith” (Rm 1,17). If you are just and live by faith, if you truly believe in Jesus Christ, why do you, who are destined to be with Christ and secure in the promise of the Lord, not rejoice that you are called to Christ…?

Take the example of Simeon, the just man who was truly just, who with full faith kept the commandments of God: when the answer had been given him from heaven that he would not die before he had seen Christ, and when Christ as an infant had come into the temple with His mother, he knew in spirit that Christ was now born, concerning whom it had been foretold to him before, and on seeing him he knew that he himself would quickly die.

Happy, therefore, at the death that was now at hand and untroubled at the approaching summons, he took the child into his hands and, blessing God, he cried out and said: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation.”

Thus he proved surely and bore witness that the servants of God have peace, they have a free and tranquil repose when, on being released from the storms of this world, they have sought the harbor of our abode and eternal security… For that is our peace, that our sure tranquility, that our steadfast and firm and everlasting security.

_____

St. Peter Chrysologus
from Sermon 152 (PL 52, 604)

“On this day, Lord, the Holy Innocents gave witness to your glory, not by speaking but by dying” (Collect)

Where does this jealousy lead?… The crime committed today shows us. Fear of a rival to his earthly kingdom fills Herod with anxiety; he plots to suppress “the newborn King” (Mt 2,2), the eternal King; he fights against his Creator and puts innocent children to death… As for those children, what fault had they committed? Their tongues were dumb, their eyes had seen nothing, their ears heard nothing, their hands done nothing. They accepted death who had not known life…

Christ reads the future and knows the secrets of the heart; he weighs our thoughts and probes our intentions (cf. Ps 139[138]): why did he forsake them?… Why did the newborn heavenly King abandon these companions in innocence, forget the sentinels watching around his crib to such an extent that the foe who wanted to get at the King ravaged his whole army?

My brethren Christ did not forsake his soldiers but covered them with honor by granting them to conquer before they had lived and to carry away the prize without a fight… He wanted them to possess heaven rather than earth… He sent them before him as his heralds. He did not abandon them but saved those who went on ahead. He did not forget them…

Blessed are they who have exchanged their travail for repose, their pains for ease, their suffering for joy. They are alive! Yes, they are alive; they live indeed who have undergone death for Christ’s sake… Happy the tears their mothers shed for these infants: they have won them the grace of baptism… May he who deigned to rest in our stable be pleased to lead us also to the heavenly pastures.

_____

Origen
from Commentary on the Gospel of John, I, 21-25 (SC 120)

“The Word was made flesh, he dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory…, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1,14)

I think the four evangelists are crucial elements in the faith of the Church… and I think that the first shoot of the gospels lies… in the gospel of John who, in speaking of him of whom others gave the genealogy, begins with him who had none. Thus Matthew, writing for Jews awaiting the son of Abraham, and of David the son of Abraham, says: “The genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham” (1,1); and Mark, well aware of what he is writing, puts: “Beginning of the Gospel” (1,1).

But we find the whole end of the Gospel in John; it is: “the Word that was in the beginning”, the Word of God (1,1). Luke, too, keeps the most important and perfect discourses concerning Jesus for him who leaned on Jesus’ breast (Jn 13,35).

None of them showed his divinity in so absolute a manner than John, who makes him say: “I am the light of the world”, “I am the way, the truth and the life”, “I am the resurrection”, “I am the door”, “I am the Good Shepherd” (8,12; 14,6; 11,25; 10,9.11) and, in the Apocalypse: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (22,13).

So we must dare to say that the Gospels are the firstfruits of Scripture as a whole and that, from among the Gospels, the first place belongs to John, whose meaning no one can grasp who has not leaned on Jesus’ breast and received, from Jesus, Mary for his mother (Jn 19,27)…

When Jesus said to his mother: “Behold, your son” and not, “Behold, this man is also your son”, it is as if he said to her: “Behold the son to whom you gave birth”. Indeed, whoever has reached perfection “is no longer alive, but Christ lives in him” (Gal 2,20)…

Do we still have to say what kind of intelligence is needed for us worthily to interpret the word laid in earthern treasures (cf. 2Cor 4,7) in plain language? in the letter that can be read by anyone at all? in the word that a word can make audible and that all who listen may hear? For, to interpret John’s gospel accurately, we must be able to say: “As for us, we have the mind of Christ so that we may understand the things freely given us by God” (1Cor 2,16.12).

_____

St. John Chrysostom
from Sermon for Good Friday

“Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7,60)

Let us imitate our Lord and pray for our enemies… He was crucified yet, at the same time, prayed to his Father for the sake of those who were crucifying him. But how could I possibly imitate our Lord, one might ask? If you want to, you can. If you weren’t able to do it how could he have said: “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart”? (Mt 11,29)…

If you have difficulty in imitating our Lord, at least imitate him who is also his servant, his deacon. I would speak of Stephen. Just as Christ, in the midst of those crucifying him, without considering the cross, without considering his own predicament, pleaded with the Father on behalf of his tormentors (Lk 23,34), so his servant, surrounded by those who were stoning him, attacked by all, crushed beneath a hail of stones and without taking any account of the suffering they were causing him, said: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7,60).

Do you see how the Son spoke and how his servant prayed? The former said: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” and the latter: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Moreover, to make us realise better the fervor with which he was praying, he did not just pray as he stood beneath the blows of the stones but he spoke on his knees with sincerity and compassion…

Christ said: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. Stephen cried out: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Paul, in his turn, said: “I offer up this sacrifice for my brethren, my kin according to race” (cf. Rm 9,3). Moses said: “If you would only forgive their sin! If you will not, then strike me out of the book that you have written!” (Ex 32,32). David said: “May your hand fall on me and my kindred” (2Sam 24,17)…

What kind of forgiveness do we think we shall get if we ourselves do the opposite of what is asked of us and pray against our enemies, when the Lord himself, and his servants of both Old and New Testaments, direct us to pray on their behalf?

_____

Pope Benedict XVI
from Homily of December 24, 2005

“Today I have begotten you”

In Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God himself, God from God, became man. To him the Father says: “You are my son” (Ps 2,7). God’s everlasting “today” has come down into the fleeting today of the world and lifted our momentary today into God’s eternal today.

God is so great that he can become small. God is so powerful that he can make himself vulnerable and come to us as a defenceless child, so that we can love him. God is so good that he can give up his divine splendour and come down to a stable, so that we might find him, so that his goodness might touch us, give itself to us and continue to work through us.

This is Christmas: “You are my son, this day I have begotten you”. God has become one of us, so that we can be with him and become like him. As a sign, he chose the Child lying in the manger: this is how God is. This is how we come to know him. And on every child shines something of the splendour of that “today”, of that closeness of God which we ought to love and to which we must yield – it shines on every child, even on those still unborn.

_____

St. Bernard
from First Sermon for Christmas Eve

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests”

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! Be amazed, and let every creature, let man above all be carried away with wonder and break into praise: “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Judah”… What announ cement could be sweeter?…

Was its like ever heard before? or when did the world ever receive such tidings? “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Judah.” Such short words, telling of the Eternal Word abbre­viated for us! O word full of heavenly delights!… “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Judah.” O Nativity of spotless sanctity! O birth honorable for the world, birth pleasing and welcome to men because of the magnificence of the benefit it bestows; birth incomprehensible to the angels, by reason of the depth and sacredness of the mystery! (cf. Eph 3,10)…

“Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Judah.” Awake, you who lie in the dust; awake and give praise! Behold, the Lord comes with salvation. Behold the Anointed of the Lord, his Christ; behold him who comes with glory… Happy the soul who is drawn to “run in the odor of his ointments” (Sg 1,4 LXX): she will see “his glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father” (Jn 1,14).

Take courage, you who were lost! Jesus comes to seek and save that which was lost. You sick, return to health: Christ comes to heal the contrite of heart with the unction of His mercy. Rejoice, all you who desire great things: the Son of God comes down to you that he may make you co-heirs of his Kingdom (Rm 8,17).

I beseech you, then, O Lord: heal me, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved (Jer 7,14); glorify me, and I shall be glorious. Yes indeed: “bless the Lord my soul, and let all that is within me praise his holy Name” (Ps 103[102],1)… The Son of God became man to make men sons of God.

_____

St. Maximus of Turin
from Sermon 57, on the Birth of John the Baptist, 1 (PL 57, 647)

“Your wife will bear you a son… and you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth”

God predestined John the Baptist to come proclaiming the joy of humankind and the happiness of heaven. The world listened to the wonderful words that fell from his mouth announcing the presence of our Redeemer, the Lamb of God (Jn 1,29). When his parents had lost all hope of gaining an issue, the angel, messenger of so great a mystery, sent him to serve as a witness to the Lord even before he was born (Lk 1,41)…

He filled his mother’s womb with joy as she was bearing him… As we read in those words in the Gospel that Elizabeth spoke to Mary: “When I heard the words of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And how is it that I have this happiness that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” (Lk 1,43-44)…

Even as, in her old age, she was mourning that she had given no children to her husband, all at once she gave birth to a son who was also the messenger of eternal salvation for the whole world. And such a messenger that, even before his birth, he exercised the privilege of his future ministry when he poured out his prophetic spirit through his mother’s words.

Then, by the power of the name given to him beforehand by the angel, he opened his father’s mouth, which had been shut by his lack of faith (Lk 1,13.20) For when Zechariah became dumb it wasn’t to remain so but so as to divinely restrain the use of his speech and confirm by a heavenly sign that his son was a prophet.

Therefore the Gospel says of John: “This man was not the Light but he came to testify to it that all might believe through him” (cf. Jn 1,7-8). It is true that he who was worthy to bear testimony to the true Light was not the Light, but he was wholly in the light.

_____

A Greek Homily of the 4th Century
wrongly attributed to Gregory of Neocaesarea, called ‘Thaumaturgos’, 2 (PG 10, 1156)

“His promise to our fathers”

Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… He has helped Israel his child (Lk 1,54 Gk.), remembering his mercy and the covenant he made with Abraham and his descendants for ever.” Do you observe how the Virgin surpasses the perfection of the patriarch and seals the covenant God made with Abraham when he said to him: “This is to be the covenant between me and you”? (Gn 17,11)…

It is the song of this prophecy that the holy Mother of God addressed to God when she said: “My soul magnifies the Lord…, for he who is Mighty has magnified me; holy is his name. In making me the mother of God he preserves my virginity. The full number of every generation is summed up within my womb, that they may be made holy in it. For he has blessed all ages, men and woman, young people, children, the old”…

“He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly”… The lowly, the gentile peoples hungry for righteousness (Mt 5,6), have been exalted. By making known their lowliness and hunger for God, and by begging for God’s word just as the Canaanite woman asked for crumbs (Mt 15,27), they have been satisfied with the riches concealed within the divine mysteries.

For Jesus Christ our God, son of the Virgin, has handed out to the gentiles the whole inheritance of divine favors. “He has raised up Israel his child”: not just any Israel, but his child, on whose exalted birth he bestows honor. This is why the Mother of God calls this people her child and her heir. God, who found this people worn out by the letter, wearied by the Law, calls it to his grace.

By giving this name to Israel he raises him up, “remembering his mercy, as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.” These few words sum up the whole mystery of our salvation. Wanting to save humankind and seal the covenant established with our fathers, Jesus Christ then “inclined the heavens and came down” (Ps 18[17],10). Thus he manifested himself to us, putting himself within our reach so that we might see him, touch him and hear him speak.

_____

Byzantine Liturgy
from Acathist hymn to the Mother of God (7th c.)

“The infant in my womb leaped for joy”

Bearing God within her womb, the Virgin hastened to Elizabeth, whose unborn child, knowing at once the salutation of Mary, rejoiced and, leaping up as if in song, cried out to the Mother of God :

Hail, vine whence springs a never-withering branch.
Hail, orchard of the fruit of life.
Hail, for thou tendest the Husbandman, friend of man (Sg 1,6).
Hail, for thou hast borne the Gardener who cultivates our life.
Hail, earth yielding a rich harvest of redemption.
Hail, table laden with mercy in abundance for the forgiveness of sins.
Hail, for through thee the fields of Eden flower again:
Hail, for thou makest ready a haven of peace for our souls.
Hail, acceptable incense of intercession to God (Gn 8,21).
Hail, propitiation for the whole world.
Hail, loving-kindness of God unto mortal man:
Hail, freedom of approach for mortals unto God.
Hail, Bride without bridegroom!

Tossed inwardly by a storm of doubts, prudent Joseph was troubled: knowing thee to be unwedded, O blameless Virgin, he feared a stolen union. But when he learnt that thy conceiving was from the Holy Spirit (Mt 1,20), he said: “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!”
The shepherds heard the angels glorify Christ’s coming in the flesh. Quickly they ran to the Shepherd and beheld him as a Lamb without spot that had been pastured in the womb of Mary; and they sang praises to her, saying:

Hail, Mother of the Lamb and of the Good Shepherd (Jn 1,29; 10,14).
Hail, fold of the gathered sheep (Jn 10,16).
Hail, protection against rapacious wolves (v.12).
Hail, key to the door of Paradise.
Hail, for the heavens exult with the earth (Lk 2,14).
Hail, for things on earth rejoice with the heavens.
Hail, never-silent voice of the apostles.
Hail, unconquered courage of the victorious martyrs.
Hail, firm foundation of the faith.
Hail, shining revelation of grace.
Hail, for through thee hell is stripped bare.
Hail, for through thee we are clothed in glory.
Hail, Bride without bridegroom!…

Seeing this strange birth, let us become strangers to the world, fixing our minds in heaven. To this end has the Most High God appeared on earth as a lowly man, because he wishes to draw heavenward all who cry aloud to Him: “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!”

_____

Prudentius
Extract from a Christmas Hymn “Quid est quod artum circulum”

“He will be called Son of the Most High… he will rule forever”

Show yourself, sweet infant,
Brought to birth by a mother most pure,
Who gave birth to you not knowing man;
In both your natures show yourself, O Mediator.

Though born in time from the Father’s mouth,
Fathered by his word (Lk 1,38),
Even now you dwell in the Father’s breast (Jn 1,2)
Who are eternal Wisdom (1Cor 1,24).

You are the Wisdom who created all (Prv 8,27):
The heavens, the light, and all that is.
You are the mighty Word who made the world (Heb 1,3),
For the Word is God himself (Jn 1,2).

When he had set in order the course of ages
And fixed the laws of the universe,
This builder and Framer of the world
Remained in the Father’s breast.

But when time had covered
Thousands of years,
You came down to visit
This world so sinful for so long a time.

Christ could not bear the fall
Of peoples who were lost,
Nor allow his Father’s work
To descend into nothingness.

He put on a mortal body
That the resurrection of our flesh
Might break the bonds of death
and bring us back to the Father…

O gracious Virgin, do you not sense how,
Despite your sorrowful presentiments,
This glorious childbearing
Increases the lustre of your virginity?

Your most pure womb contains the blessed fruit
That fills all creatures with joy.
A new world will be born through you:
Dawn of a day that shines like gold.

_____

St. Maximus of Turin
from Sermon 5 (PL 57, 863)

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard”

It was prayer, not sexual desire, that brought about John’s conception. Elizabeth’s womb was already past the age of childbearing, her body had lost all hope of conceiving, yet, in spite of this state of hopelessness, the prayer of Zachariah permitted her aged body to bear fruit once more. It was grace, not nature, that conceived John. He could not but be a saint, this child whose birth resulted less from an embrace than from prayer.

However, we shouldn’t be surprised that John was worthy of so glorious a birth. The birth of Christ’s forerunner, of him who made straight his way, had to show some resemblance to that of the Lord our Savior. Thus, if our Lord was born of a virgin, John was conceived by and old and barren woman… And we do not wonder the less at Elizabeth for conceiving in her old age than Mary giving birth in virginity.

To my mind there is something symbolic in this: John represented the Old Testament; he was born of the blood, already cold, of an aged woman. Whereas Our Lord, who announced the Good News of the Kingdom of heaven, is offspring of vigorous youth. Mary, aware of her virginity, wonders at the child curled up in her womb; Elizabeth, aware of her age, blushes at her womb swollen by pregnancy; as the evangelist says: “She went into seclusion for five months”.

We are to admire, too, the fact that the same archangel, Gabriel, announced both births: he brought consolation to Zachariah, who remained incredulous; he came to Mary, whom he found believing (Lk 1,26f.). The first lost his voice for having doubted; the second, because she believed at once, conceived the Word, the Savior.

_____

St. Bernard
from Homily 4 on the “Missus est,” 8-9

“Do not be afraid, Mary”

You have heard, O Virgin, that you are to conceive and bring forth a Son, and that it will not be through the power of man but by the virtue of the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits your reply, for it is time that he should return to God who sent him.

We, too, are waiting, O Lady, for a word of mercy: we, who are groaning under the sentence of condemnation. See, the price of our salvation is offered to you; if you consent, we shall at once be delivered. By the Eternal Word of God were we all created, and behold we will all die. By your brief answer we shall be refreshed and recalled to life…

Hasten, then, O Lady, to give your answer; hasten to speak the word so longed for by all on earth, in limbo, and in heaven. Yes, the King and Lord of all things, who has “greatly desired your beauty” (Ps 45[44],12), desires as eagerly your word of consent by which He has purposed to save the world. He whom you pleased by your silence will be yet more pleased by your reply. Hark! He calls to you from heaven: “O most beautiful among women, let me hear your voice” (Sg 1,8; 2,14)…

Answer the angel quickly, then; yes, through the angel give your consent to your God. Answer one syllable, receive the Word; utter your own word and conceive that which is Divine. Speak the word that is transitory, and embrace the Word that is everlasting…

“Behold,” she says, “the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word.”

_____

St. Leo the Great
from 3rd sermon on the Feast of the Nativity, 4-5 (SC 22)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… he chose us in him before the foundation of the world”

The Incarnation of the Word only con­tributed to the doing of those things that were done: and the mystery of humankind’s salvation was never, even in the remotest age, at a standstill. What the apostles foretold, the prophets announced: nor were those things fulfilled too late which had always been believed. But the wisdom and good­ness of God made us all the more receptive of his call… as the foretelling of it had been ancient and oft-repeated.

And so it was no new counsel, no tardy pity whereby God took thought for us, but from the foundation ofl the world he ordained one and the same cause of Salvation for all. For the grace of God, by which the whole body of the saints is continually made righteous, was increased, not initiated, when Christ was born. And this mystery of God’s great love, with which the whole world is now filled, was so effectively pre-signified that those who believed the promise obtained no less than those who were the actual recipients.

And so, dearly beloved, since that loving-kindness is now manifest with which all the wealth of divine goodness has been showered on us, whose call to eternal life has been promoted, not only by the supportive example of those who went before us but by the visible and bodily appearance of Truth itself, we are bound to keep the day of our Lord’s nativity with a joy beyond this world…

By the illumination of the Holy Spirit consider who it was who received us into himself and whom we have received, since as the Lord Jesus became our flesh by being born, so we also became his body by being re-born… For God suggested to us the standard of his own gentleness and humility… Let us imitate his humility, then, to whose glory we would wish to be conformed. He himself will help us and lead us to what he has promised.

_____

St. Maximus of Turin
from Sermon 62, 261 (PL 57, 537)

“I have prepared a lamp for my Anointed” (Ps 132[131],17)

When the whole universe was overshadowed by the darkness of the devil and sin’s gloom dominated the world, a new sun, Christ our Lord, willed in these last days, when night was nearly over, to shine forth the first rays of a new day.

But before this light appeared, that is to say before the “sun of righteousness” (Mal 3,20) arose, God had already announced it like a first gleam through his prophets: “I sent my prophets before the light” (Jr 7,25 Vg.). Later, Christ himself put forth his rays – that is to say, his apostles – to make his light shine out and fill the universe with his truth so that none might be lost in darkness…

But so as to finish doing our necessary tasks before the sun of this world arises, we mortals anticipate the light with our lamps. Likewise Christ the sun also has his lamp to precede his coming, as the prophet says: “I have prepared a lamp for my Anointed” (Ps 132[131],17).

And Our Lord shows us what this lamp is when he says with regard to John the Baptist: “He was a burning, shining light.” And John himself said, as though he were the feeble glimmering of a lantern being carried on ahead: “But one is coming who is stronger than I and I am not worthy to undo his sandal strap.

He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire” (Lk 3,16). And at the same time, knowing that his light was to be eclipsed by the sun’s rays, he prophesied: “He must increase; I must decrease” (Jn 3,30). Indeed, just as the glow of a lantern fades away at the coming of the sun, so the baptism of repentance preached by John faded before the coming of the grace of Christ.

_____

St. Ephrem
from Commentary on the Diatessaron, 9, 7-13 (SC 121)

“Yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he”

“Of all that are born of women, none is greater than John.”
Were all the saints – righteous, upright and wise – joined together and dwelling within a single man, they would not be able to equal John the Baptist… of whom it has been said that he surpasses by far all other men and belongs to the class of angels (Mk 1,2 Gk; Mal 3,1 Heb.).

“But the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he”… By what he has said concerning John’s greatness our Lord wanted to make known God’s immense generosity to us and his generosity towards his chosen ones. However great and famous John might be it is less than the least in the kingdom, as the apostle Paul said: “Our knowledge is in part… but when what is perfect has come, what is in part will pass away” (1Cor 13,9-10).

Yes, John is great – he who had the presentiment to say: “Behold, the Lamb of God” (Jn 1,29) – but this greatness is no more than a tiny foretaste compared to the glory to be revealed to those who are found worthy. To put it another way: all great and wonderful things here below appear in all their smallness and insignificance compared to the blessedness above…

John was found worthy of the great gifts of this life: prophecy, priesthood (cf. Lk 1,5) and righteousness… John is greater than Moses and the prophets yet the old Law has need of the New Covenant since he who is greater than the prophets said to the Lord: “I need to be baptized by you” (Mt 3,14).

John is great, too, because his conception was announced by an angel, his birth was surrounded with miracles, he announced the One who bestows life, he baptized for the remission of sins… Moses led the people as far as the Jordan and the Law led humankind to the baptism of John. Yet if “of all that are born of women none is greater than John”, the Lord’s forerunner, how much greater must they be whose feet the Lord washed and into whom he breathed his Spirit? (Jn 13,4; 20,22).

_____

Blessed John-Paul II
from Encyclical Dives in Misericordia, 3

“The poor have the good news proclaimed to them”

Before His own townspeople, in Nazareth, Christ refers to the words of the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk 4,18-19)…

By these actions and words Christ makes the Father present among men. It is very significant that the people in question are especially the poor, those without means of subsistence, those deprived of their freedom, the blind who cannot see the beauty of creation, those living with broken hearts, or suffering from social injustice, and finally sinners. It is especially for these last that the Messiah becomes a particularly clear sign of God who is love, a sign of the Father…

It is significant that, when the messengers sent by John the Baptist came to Jesus to ask Him: “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?”, He answered by referring to the same testimony with which He had begun His teaching at Nazareth: “Go and tell John what it is that you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” He then ended with the words: “And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.”

Especially through His lifestyle and through His actions, Jesus revealed that love is present in the world in which we live – an effective love, a love that addresses itself to man and embraces everything that makes up his humanity. This love makes itself particularly noticed in contact with suffering, injustice and poverty – in contact with the whole historical “human condition”… with man’s limitation and frailty, both physical and moral.

It is precisely the mode and sphere in which love manifests itself that in biblical language is called “mercy.” Christ, then, reveals God who is Father, who is “love,” as St. John will express it in his first letter (4,16); Christ reveals God as “rich in mercy” (Eph 2,4).

_____

St. Peter Chrysologus
from Sermon 167 (CCL 248, 1025; PL 52, 636)

“John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him”

John the Baptist is teaching in both word and deed. A true teacher, he shows by example what he describes in speech. Knowledge makes the teacher but action bestows authority…

To teach by doing is the only rule followed by one who wants to give instruction, for instructing by words is knowledge but, when it passes on into deeds, then it is virtue. Therefore that knowledge is genuine that is combined with virtue: this, and this alone, is divine rather than human…

“In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!'” “Repent”. Why did he not rather say: “Rejoice”? “Rejoice, rather, because what is human gives way to what is divine, what is earthly to what is heavenly, what is temporal to what is eternal, what is evil to what is good, what is unsure to what is certain, sadness to happiness, what is perishable to those things that endure for ever.

The Kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Repent!” Let your behavior as one who has converted be manifest. You who preferred what is human to what is divine, who desired to be the world’s slave rather than to conquer the world along with the world’s Lord: repent. You who fled the freedom that virtue would have won for you because you wished to take on the yoke of sin: repent. Repent in earnest, you who, for fear of possessing Life, have given yourself up to death.

_____

Aphrahat
from The Demonstrations, 6, 13

“Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist”

Our Lord bore witness that John is the greatest of the prophets, yet he received the Spirit according to a certain degree since John received a spirit like that of Elijah.

Just as Elijah went to dwell in solitude so God’s Spirit led John to dwell in the wilderness, mountains and caves. A raven flew to Elijah’s help by feeding him; John ate locusts. Elijah wore a leather belt and John wore a leather loincloth round his hips. Elijah was persecuted by Jezebel; Herodias persecuted John. Elijah rebuked Ahab; John rebuked Herod. Elijah divided the waters of the Jordan; John opened up baptism. Elijah’s double measure of spirit came to rest on Elisha; John placed his hands on our Lord, who then received the Spirit without measure (Jn 3,34). Elijah opened heaven and went up; John saw the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descending and resting on our Savior.

_____

St. Gregory the Great
from Homilies on the Gospel, 4

“There is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me”

“I bap­tize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know.” John did not baptize with the Spirit, but with water, since he was unable to take away the sins of those being bap­tized. He washed their bodies with water, but not their hearts with pardon.

Why did one whose baptism did not forgive sins baptize, except that he was observing his vo­cation as forerunner? He whose birth foreshadowed a greater birth, by his baptizing foreshadowed the Lord who would truly baptize; he whose preaching made him the forerun­ner of Christ, by baptizing also became his forerunner, us­ing a symbol of the future sacrament.

With these other mysteries he makes known the mystery of our Redeemer, declaring that he has stood among men and not been known. The Lord appeared in a human body: he came as God in flesh, visible in his body, invisible in his majesty. He goes on to say about him: “He who comes after me was made before me” (Jn 1,15)…; he revealed the reason for this precedence when he said: “because he was before me.”

He means, “Even though he was born after me, he surpasses me in that the time of his birth does not limit him. He who is born from his mother in time was begotten of his Father before time.”

John reveals the great humility and reverence he owes Christ by saying: “I am not worthy to undo the strap of his sandal.” It was the custom among the ancients that if someone was unwilling to take the wife he should be taking, he who should have come to her as bridegroom by right of relation­ship would undo his sandal.

How did Christ appear among men if not as the bridegroom of holy Church?… But since peo­ple considered John the Christ, a fact which he denied, he was right to declare his unworthiness to undo the strap of Christ’s sandal. It is as if he was saying…: “I am not unrightfully usurping for myself the name of bridegroom” (cf. Jn 3,29).

_____

St. John Damascene
from 1st Sermon on the Dormition

“Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

“Blest are you among women and blest is the fruit of your womb…” For all generations will call you blest, as you said (Lk 1:48). The daughters of Jerusalem, that is to say, the Church, saw you and proclaimed your happiness… For you are the royal throne near which the angels stood contemplating their Master and Creator, who was seated on it (Dan 7:9).

You have become the spiritual Eden, more sacred and more divine than the former one. The earthly Adam lived in the former; in you lives the Lord who came from heaven (1 Cor 15:47). Noah’s ark was a prefiguration of you; it saved the seed of the second creation, for you gave birth to Christ, the world’s salvation, who submerged sin and pacified the floods.

It was you whom the burning bush described ahead of time, whom the tables depicted, on which God wrote (Ex 31:18), which the ark of the covenant told about; it is you whom the golden urn, the candelabra… and Aaron’s staff that blossomed (Num 17:23) obviously prefigured…

I almost left out Jacob’s ladder. Just as Jacob saw heaven united with the earth by means of the two ends of the ladder, and the angels descending and ascending on it, and as the one who is really the strong and invincible one engaged in a symbolic struggle with him, thus you yourself became the mediator and ladder by which God came down to us and took upon himself the weakness of our substance, embracing it and closely uniting it to him.

_____

St. Alphonsus Liguori
from 1st Sermon for the Octave of Christmas

Responding to God’s call to welcome the Saviour

“O Fire ever burning,” let us say together with St. Augustine, “inflame our souls.” O incarnate Word, you became man to strike in our hearts the fire of divine love, how is it you should find in us such great ingratitude? You held nothing back to enable us to love you; you went as far as to sacrifice your blood and your life. What is the reason we humans remain unmoved by such great gifts? Is it because we know nothing about them? Not at all.

People understand and believe it is for love of them you came down from heaven to put on human flesh and take on the burden of their woes. They know it is for love of them you willed to lead a life of constant suffering and undergo a shameful death. How explain, after all this, their living in such absolute forgetfulness of your unequalled kindness? They love their family, they love their friends, they even love their livestock…; it is for you alone they are without love and without gratitude!

But what am I saying? In accusing others of ungratefulness, I condemn myself since my conduct in your regard is even worse than theirs. Nevertheless your mercy gives me courage. I know how long it has borne with me, to forgive me and set me on fire with your love if only I am willing to repent and love you.

Oh yes, my God, I want to repent…; I want to love you with all my heart. I well see how my heart… has abandoned you to love the things of this world, but I also see how, in spite of this betrayal, you yet claim it as your own. And so, with all the strength of my will, I consecrate it and offer it to you. Therefore, be pleased to inflame it wholly with your holy love and grant that from now on it may love no other thing but you… O my Jesus, I love you; I love you, my sovereign Good! I love you, sole love of my soul.

O Mary, my mother, you are the “mother of noble loving” (Sir 24,24 Vg.): grant me the grace of loving my God. It is from you that I hope to gain it.

_____

Eadmer
from The Conception of Holy Mary

“Full of grace”

O Mary, Our Lady, the Lord has made you his own mother, so establishing you as mistress and queen of all the world. It is for this reason he formed you by the working of his Spirit from the first moment of your conception in your mother’s womb. O Lady, this is what fills us with joy this day. And we ask you, most sweet Mary, prudent and noble queen, could we possibly set you alongside, or even below, other creatures?

True, the apostle of pure truth states that all men have sinned in Adam (Rm 5,12)… But when I consider the eminent quality of divine grace in you, I note how you are placed in an eminent way: apart from your son, you are above all other created things.

And from this I conclude that, in your conception, you cannot have been bound by the same law of human nature as other human beings are. By the eminent grace granted to you, you remained completely free from stain of all sin. A singular grace and divine action unfathomable to the human mind!

Sin alone can distance humankind from God’s peace. To take away this sin and bring humankind back to God’s peace, the Son of God willed to become man but in such a way that nothing in him would in any way share in what was separating us from God.

To realize this, it was fitting that his mother should be clean from all sin. For if not, how could our flesh have been so intimately united to supreme purity or man taken up into so great a union with God that all that belongs to God would belong to man and all that belongs to man belong to God?

_____

Peter of Celle
from 3rd Sermon of Advent

Lamb of God, gentle and humble of heart

Lord, send us the Lamb, for it is the lamb, not the lion, we need (Rv 5,5-6). The lamb that does not grow angry and whose gentleness is never ruffled; the lamb that will give us its wool white as snow to warm what is cold in us and cover what is bare; the lamb that will give us its flesh to eat lest we perish on the way for lack of strength (Jn 6,51; Mt 15,32).

Send it full of wisdom for, in its divine prudence, it will overcome the spirit of pride; send it full of might, for it is said that “The Lord is mighty and valiant” (Ps 24[23],8); send it full of gentleness, for “it will descend like dew upon the fleece” (Ps 72[71],6 Vg.); send it like a sacrificial victim, for it is to be sold and sacrificed for our redemption (Mt 26,15; Jn 19,36; Ex 12,46); send it, not to destroy sinners, since it is coming “to call them and not the just” (Mt 9,13); finally, send it “worthy to receive power and honor, worthy to break open the seven seals of the bound scroll” (cf. Rv 4,11; 5,9), namely the inexpressible mystery of the incarnation.

_____

St. Basil of Seleucia
from Sermon 26, on the Good Shepherd (PG 85, 299)

“He rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray”

Let us consider Christ, our shepherd; let us look at his love for us and his gentleness in leading us to pasture. He delights in the sheep around him even as he seeks for the ones that stray. Hills and forests are no obstacle to him; he runs into the valley of darkness, down to where the lost sheep is to be found.

When he finds it to be sick he does not cast it aside but heals it; taking it on his shoulders, he tends the weary sheep with his own weariness. His exhaustion makes him happy because he has found the lost sheep and this cures him of his suffering. “Which of you,” he says, “having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them does not leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness to go after the one that was lost until he finds it?”

The loss of a single sheep disturbs the happiness of the gathered flock but the joy of finding it again casts this sadness out: “When he finds it… he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep'” (lk 15,5-6). This is the reason why Christ – who is this shepherd – said: “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10,11). “The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal” (Ex 34,16).

_____

St. Gregory of Agrigente
from On Ecclesiastes, book 10, 2 (PG 98, 1138)

“We have seen incredible things today”

Light is sweet and it is good to see the sun with these eyes of flesh…; that is why Moses said: “And God saw the light and he said that it was good” (Gn 1,4)…

But how good it is for us to reflect on the great, the true and unchanging light “that enlightens everyone coming into the world” (Jn 1,9), namely Christ, the world’s Savior and redeemer. Having disclosed himself before the eyes of the prophets, he became man and entered into the lowest depths of human existence.

It is of him that the prophet David spoke: “Chant praise to God’s name. Prepare a way for him who rises towards the west, whose name is the Lord; exult in his presence” (cf. Ps 68[67],5 Vg.). And Isaiah, too, cried out: “People who sit in darkness, behold this light. For you who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, a light will shine” (cf. 9,1)…

And so the light of the sun that is seen by these eyes of flesh makes known the spiritual Sun of Righteousness (Ml 3,20), the sweetest of all to rise on those who have the happiness of being taught by him and seeing him with their fleshly eyes when he dwelt among us like any ordinary man. Nevertheless, he was not just an ordinary man in that he was born true God, able to give back sight to the blind, cause the lame to walk, enable the deaf to hear, cleanse lepers and restore the dead to life by his word (Lk 7,22).
Homily attributed to St. Gregory the Wonderworker
from Sermons on the Holy Theophany, 4 (PG 10, 1181)

“I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals”

[Jesus came to John to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying: “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” (Mt 3,13-14)] “I am the voice, the voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord.” So I cannot be silent, Lord, in your presence. I “need to be baptized by you, and do come to me?”… You existed from the beginning, you were with God and you were God (Jn 1,1).

You are the radiance the Father’s glory, the perfect image of the perfect Father (Heb 1,3). You are the true light enlightening every person who comes into the world (Jn 1,9). You were in the world yet you have come to where you were already. You have become flesh, but you have not been changed into flesh. You have lived among us, appearing to your servants in the likeness of a servant (Jn 1,14; 14,23; Phil 2,7). You by your holy name have bridged heaven and earth, and do you come to me? You, so great, to such as I? King to herald, master to servant?…

I know the distance between the earth and the Creator, between the clay and the potter. I know how far I, a lamp lit by your grace, am outshone by you, the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 3,20; Jn 5,35). You are concealed by the pure cloud of your body, but I still recognize your sovereignty. I acknowledge my servile condition; I proclaim your greatness.

I admit your absolute authority, and my own lowly estate. “I am unworthy to undo the strap of your sandal”; how then could I dare to touch your immaculate head? How could I stretch out my hand over you, who “stretched out the heavens like a tent”, and “set the earth upon the waters” (Pss. 104[103],2; 136[135],6)?… Surely it is not for me to pray over you, for you are the one who receives the prayers even of those who have no knowledge of you.

_____

St. Bernard
from 7th Sermon for Advent

“At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned”

With all our hearts from now on we celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this is nothing other than what we ought to do since he has come, not just to us, but for us. As for the Lord, he has no need of good things from us: the greatness of the grace he has shown us clearly manifests the depth of our need. We assess the gravity of a sickness by what it costs to heal it…

So we needed a Savior to come to us for the state in which we found ourselves rendered his presence indispensable. May the Savior come quickly, then! May he come to live in our midst by faith with all the wealth of his grace. May he come to draw us out of our blindness and free us from our infirmities, taking control of our weakness! If he is within us, who can lead us astray? If he is on our side, what can we not do in him who is our strength? (Phil 4,13). “If he is for us who can be against us?” (Rm 8,31).

Jesus Christ is an unfailing advocate who can neither be deceived not deceive; he is a powerful helper whose strength can never be spent… He is the very wisdom of God, the very strength of God (1Cor 1,24)… So let us all run together to such a Master; in every undertaking implore this aid; in the midst of our struggles entrust ourselves to so certain a defender. If he has come into the world already it is to live in our midst, with us and for us.

_____

St. Augustine
from Sermon 18 (PL 38, 128)

“Their eyes were opened”

“Our God will come openly and will not keep silent” (Ps 50[49],3 Vg). The first coming of Christ the Lord, God’s Son and our God, was in obscurity; the second will be in sight of the whole world. When he came in obscurity no one recognized him but his own servants; when he comes openly he will be known by both good people and bad.

When he came in obscurity, it was to be judged; when he comes openly it will be to judge. He was silent at his trial, as the prophet foretold: “He was like a sheep led to the slaughter, like a lamb before his shearers. He did not open his mouth” (Is 53,7). But, “Our God will come openly; our God will come and will not keep silence”…

Nowadays, good people and bad enjoy this world’s so-called happiness; good people and bad suffer from what are deemed this world’s misfortunes. Those whose lives are geared to the present rather than the future are impressed by the fact that this world’s blessings and sufferings fall to the lot of good and bad without distinction. If wealth is their ambition, they see it being enjoyed not only by decent folk, but also by people of the worst kind. If they are in dread of poverty and all the other miseries of this world, they also see that the good and the bad both suffer from them.

Therefore they say to themselves, “God does not see” (Ps 94[93],7); he does not care about human affairs, he exercises no control over them. On the contrary; he has sent us into the abyss of this world, and simply abandoned us to its sufferings. He shows no sign of his providence. Consequently, seeing no evidence of anyone being called to account, such people hold God’s commands in derision…

If God always gave sentence here and now, there would be nothing reserved for the Day of Judgment. That is why much is kept for that day. But in order to put the fear of God into those whose cases are deferred, and so convert them, some judgments are made here and now. For it is clear that God takes no pleasure in condemning. His desire is to save, and he bears patiently with evil people in order to make them good.

_____

Blessed John Henry Newman
from Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. 4, 22 (“Watching”)

“Only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven… will enter the kingdom of heaven”

Year passes after year silently; Christ’s coming is ever nearer than it was. O that, as He comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven! O, my brethren, pray Him to give you the heart to seek Him in sincerity. Pray Him to make you in earnest… Pray Him to give you what Scripture calls “an honest and good heart,” or “a perfect heart” (Lk 8,15; Ps 101[100],2), and, without waiting, begin at once to obey Him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none…

You have to seek His face (Ps 28[27],8); obedience is the only way of seeking Him. All your duties are obediences… To do what He bids is to obey Him, and to obey Him is to approach Him. Every act of obedience is an approach,—an approach to Him who is not far off, though He seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides Him from us.

He is behind this material framework; earth and sky are but a veil going between Him and us; the day will come when He will rend that veil, and show Himself to us. And then, according as we have waited for Him, will He recompense us. If we have forgotten Him, He will not know us; but “blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching”(Lk 12,37)… May this be the portion of every one of us! It is hard to attain it; but it is woeful to fail. Life is short; death is certain; and the world to come is everlasting.

_____

Byzantine Liturgy
from Vespers for the 30th November

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men”

When you heard the voice of the Forerunner…, when the Word became flesh and brought the Gospel of salvation to earth, you stepped forward to follow him when you offered yourself to Him as his firstfruits, as a first gift to Him whom afterwards you would make known, and you pointed him out to your brother as our God (Jn 1,35-41): beseech him to save and enlighten our souls…

You abandon your fishing to fish for men with the line of preaching and the dragnet of faith. You rescued all peoples from the pit of error, O Andrew, brother of the leader of the choir of apostles, whose voice resounds to teach the whole wide world. O come, enlighten all those who celebrate the sweetness of your memory, all those whose lives are lost in darkness…

Andrew, the first to be called of your disciples, has shared your Passion, O Lord, and in death he also made himself one like you. With your cross he fished from the depths of ignorance those who were lost there from former times that he might bring them back to you. Therefore, Good Lord, we sing to you: by his intercession give peace to our souls…

O Andrew, rejoice!, who everywhere declare the glory of our God like the eloquent heavens (Ps 19[18],2). You were the first to answer Christ’s call and became his close companion; imitating his kindness, you reflect his light on those who dwell in darkness. Therefore we celebrate your holy feast, singing: “Through all the earth their voice resounds, and to the ends of the world, their message” (Ps 19[18],5).

_____

St. Alphonsus Liguori
from 3rd Discourse for the Octave of Christmas

“You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned [and] you have revealed them to the childlike”

God has caused us to be born after the coming of Christ: what great thanks we owe him! For now redemption has been brought into effect by Jesus Christ, how much greater are the blessings we have received! Abraham, the patriarchs and prophets, all longed to see the Savior but they did not know this happiness. They wore out heaven, so to speak, with their sighs and pleas: “O heavens,”they cried, “like dew from above, like gentle rain let the skies drop down the Just One!…

Send forth the Lamb, the Ruler of the land (Is 45,8; 16,1 Vg)… Then he will rule in our hearts and free us from the slavery in which we so wretchedly dwell. Show us, O Lord, your kindness and grant us your salvation (Ps 85[84],8).”Which is to say: “Make haste, most merciful God, and make your kindness rain down upon us by sending us the chief object of your promises, he who is to save us.”Such were the sighs, such the burning pleas of the saints before the coming of Christ and yet for four thousand years they were deprived the happiness of witnessing his birth.

This happiness was reserved for us, but what are we doing about it? What gain do we draw from it? Let us learn how to love this most loving Savior now that he is here and has freed us from the hands of our enemies, now that he has delivered us from eternal death at the price of his life… and has opened paradise, now that he has furnished us with so many sacraments and with such powerful help so that we can love and serve him in peace in this life and be happy for ever in the next…

O my soul, how truly ungrateful you are if you do not love your God, this God who wanted to be shackled that you might be released from the chains of hell, weak to make you strong against your enemies, bowed down by suffering and sadness to wash your sins clean with his tears.

_____

St. Bonaventure from On the Kingdom of the Gospel
“Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline… at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven”

The Kingdom of heaven is as broad as the breadth of endless charity. Although it is composed of individuals “of every language and people, of every tribe and nation” (Rv 5,9) yet none is found wanting because, to the contrary, it expands, and the glory of each is increased all the more. Which prompted St. Augustine to say that: “When many people share the same joy, the joy of each is all the greater because each one inflames the other.”

This breadth of the Kingdom is expressed in these words of Scripture: “Ask, and I shall give you the nations for your heritage” (Ps 2,8) and: “Many shall come from east and west and take their places with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven.” Neither the multitude of those who long for it, nor the multitude of those who now live, nor the multitude of those who possess it, nor the multitude of those arriving can restrict the space in this Kingdom nor compromise anyone.

But why should I trust or hope I shall possess God’s Kingdom? Because, or course, of the generosity of the God inviting me: “Seek first the Kingdom of God” (Mt 6,33). Because of the truth that comforts me: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s will to give you the Kingdom” (Lk 12,32).

Because of the goodness and love that have redeemed me: “You are worthy, O Lord, to take the scroll and break open its seals, for you were slain and with your blood you purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue, people and nation. You made them a kingdom of priests for God and they shall reign on earth” (Rv 5,9-10).

_____

St. Aelred of Rielvaux
from Sermon for Advent

The Lord’s coming

Behold the time is now here for us, dearest brethren, when we are to “sing of kindness and judgement to the Lord” (Ps 101[100],1). This is the Lord’s Advent, the arrival of the Lord of all who comes and is to come (Rv 1,8). But how and where is he to come? How and where is he coming? Has he not said: “I fill the heaven and the earth?” (Jr 23,24).

How, then, is he who fills heaven and earth coming to heaven and earth? Listen to the Gospel: “He was in the world and world was made by him and the world did not know him” (Jn 1,10). Therefore he was both present and absent at the same time: present in that he was in the world; absent because the world did not know him… How could he who was not recognised not be far away, he in whom people did not believe, who was not feared, who was not loved?…

He comes, then, so that he who was not known might be recognized; he in whom no one believed might be believed; he who was not loved might be loved. He who was present according to his nature is coming in his mercy… Think on God a little and see what it means that he should transfer so great a might; how he humbles so great a power, weakens so great a strength, makes feeble so great a wisdom! Was this a requirement of justice towards us? Most certainly not!…

In truth, my Lord, not my righteousness but your mercy guided you; not your necessity but my need. As you have said: “My mercy is established in the heavens” (Ps 89[88],3). Rightly so, for our neediness abounds on earth. That is why “I shall sing for ever of your love, O Lord”, which you manifested at your coming.

When he showed himself humble in his humanity, powerful in his miracles, strong against the tyranny of the demons, gentle in his welcome of sinners: all these things came from his mercy, all came from his inmost goodness. That is why “I shall sing your love, O Lord” made known at your first coming. And rightly so, for “the earth is filled with the mercy of the Lord” (Ps 119[118],64).