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Treasure in Earthly Vessels:
Wisdom from the Catholic Tradition
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Annunciation, |
St. Cyril of Alexandria
from Commentary on St. John's Gospel, 11, 7 (PG 74, 497-499)
"Father, I revealed your name to men"
The Son made known the name of God the Father to teach us and make us fully comprehend not that he is the only God, for inspired Scripture had proclaimed that even before the coming of the Son, but that besides being truly God he is also rightly called "Father." This is so because in himself proceeding from himself he has a Son possessed of the same eternal nature as his own.
To call God "Father" is more exact than to call him "God." The word "God" signifies his dignity, but the word "Father" points to the distinctive attribute of his Person. If we say "God" we declare him to be Lord of the universe; if we call him "Father" we show the way in which he is distinct as a Person, for we make known the fact that he has a Son. The Son himself gave God the name of Father, as being in some sense the more appropriate and truer appellation, when he said, not "I and God" but, I and the Father are one (Jn 10,30), and also, with reference to himself, "On him has God the Father set his seal" (Jn 6,27).
But when he commanded his disciples to baptize all nations, he did not tell them to do this in the name of God, but expressly ordained that they were to do it in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28,19).
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St. Augustine
from Homilies on St. John, no. 115
"They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world."
Listen everybody, Jews and Gentiles... Listen, all the kingdoms of the earth! I am not preventing you from ruling over this world, "my kingdom is not of this world." (Jn 18:36) So don't be afraid with that senseless fear which seized Herod when my birth was announced to him... "No," the Savior says, "my kingdom is not of this world." All of you, come to a kingdom, which is not of this world; come by faith. May you not be made cruel by fear. It is true that the Son of God, speaking of the Father, says in a prophecy: "Through him, I was established as king on Zion, his holy mountain." (Ps 2:6) But that Zion and that mountain are not of this world.
And what is his kingdom? It is they who believe in him, those to whom he says: "You are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." But he nevertheless wants them to be in the world; he prays to his Father: "I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but to protect them from the evil one." For he did not say: "My kingdom is not in this world," but rather: "It is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over." (Jn 18:36)
For his kingdom really is here on earth until the end of the world and up until the harvest the weeds are mingled with the good seed (Mt 13:24f.)... His kingdom is not from here, for he is like a traveler in this world. To those over whom he reigns, he says: "You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world." (Jn 15:19) So they did belong to this world when they were not yet his kingdom, and they belonged to the prince of this world (Jn 12:3)... All who are born of Adam's sinful race belong to this world; all who were reborn in Jesus Christ belong to his kingdom and no longer belong to this world. For "God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son." (Col 1:13)
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Blessed Pope John XXIII
from Journal of a Soul
"Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?... Do you love me?... Do you love me?"
Peter's successor knows that in his person and in all that he does there is the grace and the law of love, which sustains, inspires and adorns everything; and in the eyes of the whole world it is this mutual love between Jesus and himself, Simon or Peter, the son of John, that is the foundation of Holy Church, a foundation which is at the same time visible and invisible, Jesus being invisible to the eyes of our flesh, and the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, being visible to the whole world. When I ponder this mystery of intimate love between Jesus and his Vicar I think what an honor and what a joy it is for me, but at the same time what a reason for shame for my own littleness and worthlessness!
My life must be filled with the love of Jesus and also with a great outpouring of goodness and sacrifice for individual souls and for the whole world. From the Gospel episode which proclaims the Pope's love for Jesus, and through him for souls, it is but a short step to the law of sacrifice. Jesus himself foretold this to Peter: "Truly, truly, I say to you: when you were young you girded yourself and walked where you would, but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go".
By God's grace I have not yet entered upon helpless old age; but having now completed my eighty years, I am on the threshold. So I must hold myself ready for this last phase of my life, in which restrictions and sacrifices await me, until the sacrifice of my bodily existence and the opening of eternal life. O Jesus, I am ready to stretch out my hands, now weak and trembling, and allow others to dress me and support me along the way. O Lord, to Peter you added: "and to carry you where you do not wish to go". After so many graces showered upon me during my long life, there is nothing now I can refuse. You have shown me the way, O Jesus. "I will follow you wherever you go" (Mt 8.19).
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St. Teresa of Avila
from Poem " Vuestra soy, para vos nací "
"What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours?"
I am thine and born for thee,
What wilt thou do with me?
Sovereign Lord upon thy throne,
Endless Wisdom, one and whole,
Goodness that dost feed my soul,
Good and great, one God alone,
As I sing my love for thee.
What wilt thou do with me?
Thine I am, for thou didst make me;
Thine, for thou alone didst save me;
Thine – thou couldst endure to have me;
For thine own didst deign to take me.
Never once didst thou forsake me.
Ruined were I if not for thee:
What wilt thou do with me?
What, O good and loving Lord,
What wilt thou have this creature do?
This thy slave, a sinner too,
Waiting till she hears thy word?
With thy will in close accord,
Sweetest Love, I come to thee:
What wilt thou do with me?
Take, O Lord, my loving heart:
See, I yield it to thee whole,
With my body, life and soul
And my nature's every part.
Sweetest Spouse, my life thou art;
I have given myself to thee:
What wilt thou do with me?
Let me live or let me die;
Give me sickness, give me health;
Give me poverty or wealth;
Let me strive or peaceful lie.
Weakness give or strength supply –
I accept it all of thee:
What wilt thou do with me?...
I am thine and born for thee,
What wilt thou do with me?
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Account of the three companions of St. Francis of Assisi (ca. 1244), §7-8
The beginning of the conversion of St. Francis
One evening after returning to Assisi, young Francis’ companions chose him to be their group leader. So, just as he had often done before, he had a sumptuous banquet prepared. Once they were satiated, everybody left the house and went all over the town singing. Francis’ companions went before him as a group; he himself, holding the leader’s baton, ended the procession a little behind them; he didn’t sing because he was deep in thought. And thus the Lord suddenly visited him and filled his heart with such sweetness that he could no longer speak or move…
When his companions turned around and saw him so far away from them, they came back to him frightened, and they found him as if he were already changed into a different person. They questioned him: “What were you thinking about so that you forgot to follow us? Were you by any chance planning on taking a woman?” “You are right! I was planning on taking a wife, one who is nobler, wealthier and more beautiful than any whom you have ever seen.” They made fun of him…
From that moment on, he worked to place again at the center of his soul Jesus Christ and the pearl which he wanted to buy after selling everything (Mt 13:46). Shying away from the eyes of those who scoffed at him, he often – almost every day – went to pray in secret. He was pushed to do so as it were by the foretaste of that sweetness which came to him quite often and which pulled him away from the public square or other public places towards prayer.
For some time already he had been a benefactor of the poor, but he promised himself even more firmly that he would never again refuse a poor person requesting alms, but rather that he would give more generously and more abundantly. Thus, whoever the poor person was who asked him for alms outside of the house, he always gave him money if he could. If he didn’t have any money, he gave him his hat or his belt so as not to send him away empty-handed. But if he didn’t even have that, he withdrew to a hidden place, removed his shirt, and secretly sent it to the poor person, asking him to take it for God’s sake.
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Bl. John Henry Newman
from Parochial and Plain Services, vol. 8, no. 2 “Divine Calls”
“We have put aside everything to follow you”
In truth we are not called once only, but many times; all through our life Christ is calling us. He called us first in Baptism; but afterwards also; whether we obey His voice or not, He graciously calls us still. If we fall from our Baptism, He calls us to repent; if we are striving to fulfil our calling, He calls us on from grace to grace, and from holiness to holiness, while life is given us.
Abraham was called from his home (Gn 12:1), Peter from his nets (Mt 4:18), Matthew from his office (Mt 9:9), Elisha from his farm (1 K 19:19), Nathanael from his retreat (Jn 1:47); we are all in course of calling, on and on, from one thing to another, having no resting-place, but mounting towards our eternal rest, and obeying one command only to have another put upon us.
He calls us again and again, in order to justify us again and again, - and again and again, and more and more, to sanctify and glorify us. It were well if we understood this; but we are slow to master the great truth, that Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us follow Him. We do not understand that His call is a thing which takes place now. We think it took place in the Apostles' days; but we do not believe in it, we do not look out for it in our own case.
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St. Alphonsus Liguori
from Works, vol.14
"To give his life as a ransom for many"
A God who serves, who sweeps the house and gives himself to the most onerous work – a single one of these reflections should be enough to fill us with love! When our Savior began preaching his Gospel he made himself "the servant of all", himself asserting that "he had not come to be served, but to serve". It was as though he had said he wanted to be servant to everyone. And St. Bernard says that, at the end of his life, he was not satisfied "with having taken the condition of a servant that he might place himself at our service but he wanted to take on the appearance of an unworthy slave and be struck and undergo the punishment due to us by reason of our sins."
See how our Lord, as an obedient servant to all, undergoes the sentence of Pilate, unjust as it is, and yields to his executioners... In this way has this God so loved us that, out of love for us, he wanted to obey like a slave even to death and die a death that was both painful and humiliating: the torture of the cross (Phil 2,8).
Yet in all this he obeyed, not as God but as man, as the slave whose condition he had assumed. There are holy men who have surrendered themselves as slaves in order to redeem a poor man and have won the world's admiration by this heroic act of charity. But what sort of charity is this compared with that of the Redeemer? Being God; desiring to redeem us from the slavery due to us to the devil and death, he made himself as slave, allowing himself to be bound and nailed to the cross. "That the servant might become lord," St. Augustine says, "God willed to make himself a servant."
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St. Gregory the Great
from Homilies on the Gospels, no. 2
“Son of David, have pity on me”
Scripture rightly presents us with this blind man seated at the edge of the path and asking for alms, for Truth itself said, “I am the way” (Jn 14:6). Thus, whoever does not know the clarity of eternal light is blind.
Even if he already believes in the Redeemer, he is seated at the edge of the path. If he already believes but neglects to ask that eternal light be given to him, and if he neglects to pray, this blind person can be seated at the edge of the path, but he is not asking for alms. But if he believes, if he knows the blindness of his heart and prays so as to receive the light of truth, then he really is that blind man, who is seated at the edge of the path and also asking for alms.
Thus, may the person who recognizes the darkness of his blindness and who feels deprived of eternal light cry out from the bottom of his heart, may he cry with all his soul: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”
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John Tauler
from Sermon 46
“Does not Scripture have it: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples’ - ? but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
Then Our Lord entered the Temple and lashing a whip, he threw out everyone who was buying and selling, and he said: “My house shall be a house of prayer. But you have turned it into a den of thieves.” What is this temple that has become a den of thieves? It is the soul and the body of a person, which are much more truly God’s temple than all the temples that were ever built (1 Cor 3:17; 6:19).
When Our Lord wants to come into this temple, he finds it changed into a lair of thieves and a merchants’ bazaar. But what is a merchant? It is they who give what they have – their free will – for what they do not have – the things of this world. How full of these merchants is the whole world! They are among the priests and the lay people, among the religious, the monks and the nuns. What a huge research topic for someone who wants to study how so many people are so full of their own will! … Everywhere, there is nothing but nature and people’s own desire; so many people seek their interest in everything. If, on the contrary, they wanted to make a deal with God by giving him their will, what a wonderful deal they would be making!
A person must want, must pursue, must seek God in everything he does. And when he has done all that – drinking, sleeping, eating, speaking, listening – then let him entirely leave the images of things and see to it that his temple remains empty. Once the temple is emptied, once you have chased out that band of salespeople, the imaginings that clutter it up, you will be able to be a house of God (Eph 2:19), but not before, whatever you might do. Then you will have peace and joy of heart, and nothing of what constantly worries you and depresses you and makes you suffer now will trouble you anymore.
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St. Hilary
from De Trinitate, VII, 26-27
"On what authority are you doing these things?"
He really does belong to the Father, this Son who is like him. He comes from him, this Son who can be compared to him, for he is like him. He is his equal, this Son who accomplishes the same works as he (Jn 5:36)... Yes, the Son accomplishes the Fathers' works; and he asks us to believe that he is the Son of God. In so doing, he is not assuming a title to which he has no right; he is not basing his claim on his own works.
No! He bears witness to the fact that these are not his own works, but those of his Father. And he thus testifies that the brilliance of his actions comes to him from his divine birth. But how could men have been able to recognize in him the Son of God, in the mystery of the body hehad assumed, in this man born of Mary? The Lord accomplished all those works so that faith in him could penetrate their hearts. "If I perform the works of my Father, even though you put no faith in me, put faith in these works." (Jn 10:38)
If the humble condition of his body seems to be an obstacle to believing in his word, he asks us to believe at least in his works. For why should the mystery of his human birth prevent us from perceiving his divine birth? ... "If you do not want to believe in me, believe in my works so as to know and to acknowledge that the Father is in me and I in the Father."...
Such is the nature which he has by birth; such is the mystery of a faith which will ensure salvation for us: not to divide those who are one, not to deprive the Son of his nature, and to proclaim the truth of the Living God born of the Living God... "Just as the Father who has life sent me, so I have life because of the Father." (Jn 6:57) "Just as the Father possesses life in himself, so has he granted it to the Son to have life in himself." (Jn 5:26)
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William of Saint-Thierry
from The Mirror of Faith, 6 (PL 180, 384)
"The Spirit of truth will guide you to all truth"
"Who knows what pertains to a person except the spirit of the person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God" (1Cor 2,11). Run, then, to enter into communion with the Holy Spirit. No sooner do we call on him than he is there, and if we call on him it is because he is already present to us. When called, he comes; he comes in the abundance of divine blessings. He it is who is that rushing river giving joy to God's city (Ps 46[45],5).
If, when he has come, he finds you to be humble and without anxiety, fearing God's word, then he will come to rest on you and reveal to you those things that God hides from the wise and learned of this world (Mt 11,25). Then all those truths will begin to shine out before you that Wisdom spoke to the disciples while on earth but which they could not bear before the coming of the Spirit of truth that was to teach them all truth...
Just as those who worship God must necessarily worship him "in spirit and truth" (Jn 4,24), so those who would know him have only to seek an understanding of the faith in the Holy Spirit... In the midst of this life's darkness and ignorance, he himself is the light that shines out for the poor in spirit (Mt 5,3), the charity that attracts and sweetness that ravishes the soul, the love of those who love and the devotion of those who yield themselves without reserve. He it is who reveals God's justice from conviction to conviction; who gives grace in return for grace (Jn 1,16) and the faith of enlightenment to the faith of those who listen to the Word.
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Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
from No Greater Love
“Mary set out, proceeding in haste”
As soon as the angel had visited Mary, she went with haste to her cousin Elizabeth, who herself was expecting a child. And the child to be born, John the Baptist, leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb. How marvelous! The all-powerful God chose a child yet to be born to announce his Son’s coming!
In the mystery of the Annunciation and the Visitation, Mary is the very model of the life we should lead. First of all, she welcomed Jesus in her existence; then, she shared what she had received. Every time we receive Holy Communion, Jesus the Word becomes flesh in our life – gift of God who is at one and the same time beautiful, kind, unique. Thus, the first Eucharist was such: Mary’s offering of her Son in her, in whom he had set up the first altar. Mary, the only one who could affirm with absolute confidence, “this is my body”, from that first moment offered her own body, her strength, all her being, to form the Body of Christ.
Our mother the Church raised women to a great honor before the face of God by proclaiming Mary as Mother of the Church.
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St. Columbanus
from Instruction 11, 1-4 (PL 80, 250-252)
"Whose image is this?"
Moses wrote in the Law that: "God created man in his image and likeness" (Gn 1,26). I would ask you to reflect on the importance of this saying. God, who is almighty, invisible, incomprehensible and without compare, when he fashioned man of clay, ennobled him by the image of his own greatness. What is there in common between man and God, clay and spirit? For "God is spirit" (Jn 4,24). Therefore is represents a great sign of his esteem for man that God should have rewarded him with the image of his eternity and the likeness of his own life. The greatness of man lies in his likeness to God, so long as he preserves it...
So long as a soul makes good use of the virtues sown in it, it remains like God. All the virtues God placed in us at our creation he has taught us to repay to him. In the first place he requires us to love God with all our heart (Dt 6,5) since, from the beginning, even before we existed, "he loved us first" (1Jn 4,10). To love God, then, is to restore his image within us. Now, he loves God who keeps his commandments...
Therefore it is for us to reflect to our God, to our Father, the unsullied image of his own holiness since he is holy and has said: "Be holy as I am holy" (Lv 11,45); with love since he is love and John has said: "God is love" (1Jn 4,8); with kindness and in truth since God is good and true. Let us not become depicters of a false image... And lest we insinuate the image of pride within ourselves let us allow Christ to paint his image within us.
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St. Justin Martyr
from Treatise on the Resurrection, 2.4.7-9
" I believe in the resurrection of the flesh"
People who are in error say there is no resurrection of the body and that it is impossible for it to be restored to its integrity once it has been destroyed and reduced to dust. According to these same people the salvation of the flesh would not only be impossible but even harmful. They blame the flesh, accuse its faults and make it responsible for sin and thus they say that, if this flesh is to rise again, its faults will rise with it...
Further, our Savior said that: "Those who rise from the dead do not marry but are like angels in heaven". But angels, they say, have no flesh, nor do they eat or unite in marriage. Therefore, they say, there will be no resurrection of the flesh...
How blind are the eyes of the intellect on its own! For they have not noticed that "the blind see, the lame walk" (Mt 11,5) on earth at the Savior's word... so that we might believe that the flesh in its entirety will rise again at the resurrection. If he cured diseases of the flesh on this earth and restored wholeness to the body, how much more will he do so at the moment of resurrection so that the flesh might rise again wholly and without blemish ... It seems to me that such people fail to look at the divine action in its totality at the beginning of creation, in the forming of man. They don't attend to the reason why earthly things were made.
The Word said: "Let us make man in our image and likeness" (Gn 1,26)... Obviously man, formed in the image of God, was flesh. Therefore how absurd it is to claim that flesh formed by God in his own image is despicable and worthless! Clearly flesh must be precious in God's eyes since it is his creation. And since the culmination of his plan for all the rest of creation is to be found in it, this is what has the greatest worth in the eyes of the Creator.
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St. Augustine
from De Trinitate, VIII, 12 (PL 42, 958B-959A)
“This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it.” (Mt 22:38-39)
“Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten of God and has knowledge of God. The man without love has known nothing of God, for God is love.” (1 Jn 4:7-8) In this text, the apostle John with his great authority shows clearly that fraternal love not only comes from God, but that this fraternal love, which causes us to love one another, is God himself.
Consequently, when we love our brother with a genuine love, we are loving our brother according to God, through God. And it is impossible not to love above everything that love itself, thanks to which we love our brother. From which we can conclude that these two precepts cannot exist one without the other.
Since “God is love”, the person who loves love certainly loves God; and the person who loves his brother necessarily loves love. That is why the apostle John says a little later: “One who has no love for the brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.” (1 Jn 4:20). What stops him from seeing God is that he does not love his brother. The person who does not love his brother is not in love; and the person who is not in love, is not in God, for “God is love.”
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St. Cyril of Jerusalem
from Baptismal Catechesis 10, 2-5 (PG 33, 662f)
His name is "King of kings and Lord of lords." (Rv 19:16)
If any one wishes to show piety towards God, let him worship the Son; otherwise the Father does not accept his homage. The Father spoke with a loud voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Mt 3:17). The Father was well pleased with the Son... who is called "Lord" (Lk 2:11), not improperly as those who are so called among men, but as having a natural and eternal lordship...
While remaining who he is and truly holding unchanged the dignity of his Sonship, he adapts himself to our infirmities, like an excellent physician or a compassionate teacher. He is truly Lord; he did not receive this title by some sort of advancement.
The dignity of lordship is his by nature. He was not given the title"lord" as we are, but he is so in truth, since by the Father's bidding he is Lord over his own works. Human lordship is exercised over people of dignity and weakness equal to our own, even over our elders; often a young master rules over aged servants. But in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, lordship is not of this nature: he is first Maker, then Lord. First he made all things by the Father's will, then, he is Lord of the things which were made by him.
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Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
from A Simple Path
"They have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty"
You must give what will cost you something. This, then, is giving not just what you can live without but what you can't live without or don't want to live without, something you really like. Then your gift becomes a sacrifice, which will have value before God... This is also what I call love in action. Every day I see this love-in children, men, and women.
I was once walking down the street and a beggar came to me and he said, "Mother Teresa, everybody's giving to you, I also want to give to you. Today, for the whole day, I got only twenty-nine paise and I want to give it to you." I thought for a moment: If I take it he will have nothing to eat tonight, and if I don't take it I will hurt him. So I put out my hands and I took the money. I have never seen such joy on anybody's face as I saw on his-that a beggar, he too, could give to Mother Teresa.
It was a big sacrifice for that poor man who'd been sitting in the sun all day and had only received twenty-nine paise. It was beautiful: twenty-nine paise is such a small amount and I can get nothing with it, but as he gave it up and I took it, it became like thousands because it was given with so much love.
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St. Thomas Aquinas
from Prayers
“The bread of angels becomes food for pilgrims, true bread of God’s children”
Almighty and ever-living God, I approach the sacrament of your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I come sick to the doctor of life, unclean to the fountain of mercy, blind to the radiance of eternal light, and poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth.
Lord, in your great generosity, heal my infirmity, wash away my defilement, enlighten my blindness, enrich my poverty, and clothe my nakedness. May I receive the bread of angels (Ps 78:25), the King of kings and Lord of lords (1Tm 6:15), with humble reverence, with the purity and faith, the repentance and love, and the determined purpose that will help to bring me to salvation.
May I receive the sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood, and its reality and power. Kind God, may I so receive the Body of your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which was born from the womb of the Virgin Mary, that I be received into his mystical Body and numbered among his members.
Loving Father, as on my earthly pilgrimage I now receive your beloved Son under the veil of a sacrament, may I one day see him Face to face in glory, who lives and reigns with you for ever. Amen.
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Chromacus of Aquilaea
from Sermon 39 (CCL 9A, 169-170)
“For while the law was given through Moses, this enduring love came through Jesus Christ”
It is good that the new law is proclaimed on a mountaintop, since the law of Moses was given on a mountaintop. The one consists in ten commandments given to form people’s behavior in the present life; the other consists in eight beatitudes, for it leads those who follow it to eternal life and the heavenly homeland.
“Blest are the lowly; they shall inherit the land.” Thus, we must be lowly people, who are peaceful in our souls and sincere in our hearts. The Lord shows clearly that the merit of such people is not small when he says: “They shall inherit the land.” Without doubt, he is talking about the land of which is written: “I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Ps 27:13) The heritage of that land is the immortality of the body and the glory of eternal resurrection. For gentleness knows nothing of pride, of boastfulness, of ambition. And so it is not without reason that the Lord exhorts his disciples saying: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest.” (Mt 11:29)
“Blest are the sorrowing; they shall be consoled.” Not those who sorrow over the loss of what is dear to them, but those who sorrow over their sins, who wash themselves of their faults by means of tears, and without doubt those who sorrow over the iniquity of this world or who lament because of the faults of others.
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St. Augustine
from Sermon 289, 6 (PL 38, 1311-1312)
The light of Christ on its lampstand
Brethren, the apostles are lamps enabling us to wait for the coming of Christ's day. Our Lord tells them: "You are the light of the world." And since they cannot believe themselves to be a light like that of which it is said: "He was the true light who enlightens everyone" (Jn 1,9), he at once teaches them what that true light is.
Having declared to them: "You are the light of the world", he continues: "No one lights a lamp to put it under a bushel basket." I have called you lights, he says, but I must clarify: you are only lamps. So don't give in to the stirrings of pride if you don't want to see this wick burning out. I'm not putting you under the bushel basket but on the lampstand to cast light over everything with your rays.
What sort of candlestick is this that bears such a light? I will teach you. Be lamps yourselves and you will have a place on this lampstand. Christ's cross is one great lampstand. Whoever wants to shine out should not be ashamed of this wooden candlestick. Listen to me and you will get the point: the candlestick is the cross of Christ...
"So will your light shines before others so that they may see your good works and glorify" Glorify whom? Not yourself since to seek your own glory is to want to be extinguished! "Glorify your heavenly Father." Yes, that they may glorify him, your heavenly Father when they see your good works... Listen to the apostle Paul: "May I never glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6,14).
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St. Caesarius of Arles
"Go first and be reconciled with your brother"
You know what it is we pray to God before going up to communion: "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." So prepare yourselves interiorly to forgive since those are the words you are going to encounter in prayer. How are you going to say them? Are you perhaps not going to say them? In the last resort this is indeed my question: are you going to say those words, yes or no? You hate your brother yet you declare: "Forgive us as we forgive." You will say: I avoid those words. But in that case, are you really praying? Pay good attention, my brothers. In a short time you are going to pray; forgive with all your hearts!
Do you indeed want to accuse your enemy? First of all accuse your own heart. Say to that heart: "Stop hating"... But then, since you don't want to forgive, your soul is saddened when you say to it: "Stop hating". Well then, answer it: "Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why do you sigh within me? Hope in God" (Ps 42[41],6).
You are uneasy, you sigh, your sickness wounds you, you don't manage to throw off your hatred. Hope in God: that is the remedy. He was hung on the cross for your sake yet without claiming his revenge. As for you, it is your revenge you are looking for since that is the real meaning of your rancor. Look at your God on the cross: it is for your sake he suffers that his blood might become your cure. Do you want to avenge yourself? Look at Christ hanging there, hear him pray: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Lk 23,34).
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Blessed John XXIII
from Journal of a Soul, 1901-1903
'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.'
I feel that my Jesus is drawing ever closer to me. These last days he has let me fall into the sea and drown in the consideration of my wretchedness and pride so as to make me understand just how much I need him. Just as I am on the verge of being overcome, Jesus, walking on the water, comes smiling to meet me so that I may be saved. With Peter I should like to say to him: "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man" (Lk 5,8) but I am forestalled by the gentleness of his heart and sweetness of his words: "Fear not" (Lk 5,10).
Ah! Beside you I am not afraid of anything! I snuggle up against you and, like the lost sheep, hear the beating of your heart. Jesus, yet again I am yours, yours for ever. With you I am truly great; without you, nothing but a weak reed; upheld by you, I am a pillar. I must never forget my wretchedness, not so as to be constantly trembling but so that, regardless of my lowliness and confusion, I may, with ever greater confidence, draw close to your heart. For my wretchedness is the throne of your mercy and love.
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Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity
from Last Retreat, 15th day
" Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart" (Lk 2,19)
"The Virgin kept all these things in her heart." Her whole history can be summed up in these few words! It was within her heart that she lived, and at such a depth that no human eye can follow her. When I read in the Gospel "that Mary set out in haste to the hill country of Judea" (Lk 1,39) to perform her loving service for her cousin Elizabeth, I imagine her passing by so beautiful, so calm and so majestic, so absorbed in recollection of the Word of God within her.
Like Him, her prayer was always this: "...Here I am" Who? ''The handmaid of the Lord," (Lk 1,38) the lowliest of His creatures: she, His Mother! Her humility was so real for she was always forgetful, unaware, freed from self. And she could sing: "The Mighty One has done great things for me, from now on all peoples will call me blessed" (Lk 1,49.48).
This Queen of virgins is also Queen of martyrs; but again it was in her heart that the sword pierced, for with her everything took place withinl ... Oh! How beautiful she is to contemplate during her long martyrdom, so serene, enveloped in a kind of majesty that radiates both strength and gentleness! She learned from the Word Himself how those must suffer whom the Father has chosen as victims, those whom He has decided to associate with Himself in the great work of redemption, those whom He "has foreknown and predestined to be conformed to His Christ," (Rom 8,29) crucified by love. She is there at the foot of the Cross, standing, full of strength and courage.
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St. Ambrose
from On Repentance, II:8
"Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
"Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do." (Mt 9:12) Show your wound to the physician, then, that he may heal it. Even if you do not show it, he knows of it but is waiting to hear your voice. Cleanse your wound with your tears. This is what the woman in the Gospel did so as to be freed from sin and its stench: she washed away her guilt when she washed the feet of Jesus with her tears.
O Jesus, may you set aside for me the task of washing those feet of yours that you dirtied while you were walking in me!... But where shall I find that living water with which to wash your feet? If I have no water, I have tears. Grant that, while I wash your feet with them, I may be purifying myself as well. What must I do to hear you say to me; "His many sins are forgiven, because he has loved much"?
I confess that my debt is great indeed, and that more has been forgiven me who have been called to the priesthood from the tumult and strife of the law courts and of public administration. Therefore I fear being thought ungrateful if I, to whom more has been forgiven, were to love the less.
I am unable to compare that woman with anyone else at all, she who was so rightly preferred to that Simon the Pharisee who was giving the feast to the Lord. Yet she gave a lesson to all those who desire to gain forgiveness by kissing Christ's feet, washing them with her tears, wiping them with her hair, and anointing them with ointment... And if we are unable to equal her, the Lord Jesus knows how to come to the aid of the weak. Wherever there is no one who can prepare a meal, or bring ointments, or carry a spring of living water (Jn 4:10)along with her, there he comes himself.
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St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus
from Poems "Vivre d'amour" and "Pourquoi je t'aime, ô Marie"
"Hand him your cloak as well"
Living on Love is giving without limit
Without claiming any wages here below.
Ah! I give without counting, truly sure
That when one loves, one does not keep count!...
Overflowing with tenderness, I have given everything,
To his Divine Heart... lightly I run.
I have nothing left but my only wealth:
Living on Love.
Living on Love is banishing every fear,
Every memory of past faults.
I see no imprint of my sins.
In a moment, Love has burned everything...
Divine Flame, O sweetest Blaze!
I make my home in your hearth.
In your fire I gladly sing: (cf Dn 3,51)
I live on Love!..."
"Living on Love – what strange folly!"
The world says to me, "Ah! stop your singing,
Don't waste your perfumes, your life.
Learn to use them well..."
Loving you, Jesus, is such fruitful loss!...
All my perfumes are yours forever.
I want to sing on leaving this world:
"I die of Love!"
To love is to give everything. It's to give oneself.
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Gregory of Narek
from Book of Prayers, no.74 (SC 78)
"That you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good"
How many are my debts, beyond all counting,
yet they are not so amazing as your mercy.
Numerous are my sins but yet they are miniscule
by comparison with your forgiveness...
What could a little darkness do
to your divine light?
How can a little bit of shadow
compete with your rays, who are so great!
How could my weak body's earthly desires
be weighed in the balance
with your Passion and cross?
How would the whole world's sins appear
before the eyes of your goodness, O Mighty One?
Behold they are like... a drop of water
swallowed up by the outpouring
of your plentiful rain...
It is you who give sunshine
to both evil and good
and cause rain to fall on both without distinction.
The peacefulness of some is great because they expect their reward;...
but those who preferred earth
you forgive with mercy:
and you give them the medicine of life with the first
in constant expectation of their turning back to you.
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St. John of the Cross
from Spiritual Canticle B,1, 8-9
"Pray to your Father in secret"
What else do you search for outside, O soul!, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness and kingdom – your Beloved whom you desire and seek?... There is but one difficulty: even though he does abode within you, he is hidden...
Yet you inquire: Since he whom my soul loves is within me, why don't I find him or experience him? The reason is that he remains concealed and you do not also conceal yourself in order to find and experience him. If you want to find a hidden treasure you must enter the hiding place secretly, and once you have discovered it, you will also be hidden just as the treasure is hidden.
Since, then, your beloved Bridegroom is the treasure hidden in a field for which the wise merchant sold all his possessions [Mt. 13:44], and that field is your soul, in order to find him you should forget all your possessions and all creatures and hide in the secret inner room of your spirit
There, closing the door behind you (your will to all things), you should "pray to your Father in secret". Remaining hidden with him, you will experience him in hiding, that is, in a way transcending all language and feeling.
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Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [Pope Benedict XVI]
from Der Gott Jesu Christi
"This is how you are to pray: Our Father..."
Without Jesus we cannot know what a "Father" really is. It was in his prayer that it was manifested, and this prayer is intrinsically a part of him. A Jesus who was not continuously immersed in the Father, or not in permanent, intimate communication with him, would be someone wholly different from the Jesus of the Bible and from the authentic, historical Jesus. His life emerges from the central point of his prayer and it was from it that he understood God, the world and human persons...
A new question then arises: was this communication... equally essential to the Father he addresses in such a way that he, too, would be different if he were not prayed to under this name? Or does it simply touch him without entering into him? The answer to this is as follows: it belongs to the Father to say "Son" just as it belongs to Jesus to say "Father". Without this invocation he would not be who he is, either. Jesus does not just have external contact with him; he participates intimately as Son in God's divine nature.
Before ever the world was created God was already the Love of the Father and the Son. And if he can be our Father and the measure of all paternity this is because he himself is Father from all eternity. Therefore God's own interiority becomes visible in the prayer of Jesus and we see what God looks like. Faith in the Trinitarian God is nothing other than the explanation of what takes place in Jesus' prayer. In that prayer the Trinity appears in all its clarity...
Thus to be christian means to participate in the prayer of Jesus, entering into his example of life, namely his example of prayer. To be christian means to say "Father" along with him and thus become child, son of God – God! – in the unity of the Spirit who enables us to be ourselves and, in this way, admits us into the unity of God. To be christian means to perceive the world from within this intimate participation and in this way become free, hopeful, resolute, confident.
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St. Basil
from Sermon on Charity (PG 31, 266-267; 275)
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth"
Why distress yourself and go to such effort to conceal your wealth behind bricks and mortar? "A good name is more desirable than great riches" (Prv 22,1). The reason you love money is because of the attention it wins you. But think how much greater your renown will be if you can be called the father and protector of thousands of children rather than by keeping thousands of gold pieces in your money-bags.
Whether you like it or not, one of these days you will have to leave your money there; whereas you will take with you the glory for all the good things you have done before our sovereign Lord, while a whole lot of people, rushing to your defence before the judge of us all, will call out the names that declare you have fed them, helped them, and shown them kindness.
How thankful, happy and proud must you be for the honor shown you: it isn't you who must go to pester others at their door, others will come flocking to your own. Yet right now you are grumpy, you make yourself inaccessible, you run away from encounters for fear of having to let go of a little of what you are so jealously guarding. And you only have one thing to say: "I haven't anything, I won't give you anything, because I am poor." You are poor indeed, poor of everything good: poor in love, poor in goodness, poor in trust in God, poor in your everlasting expectations.
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Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
from No Greater Joy
“The measure with which you measure will be used to measure you”
For every illness, there are several medicines and treatments. But so long as there is no gentle hand swift to serve and no generous heart swift to cherish, I don’t think that a person can ever be healed of that terrible illness which is lack of love.
No one among us has the right to condemn anyone. And that even when we see people foundering without understanding why. Does not Jesus invite us not to judge? Perhaps we had a part in making those people the way they are. We have to understand that they are our brothers and our sisters. That leper, that drunkard, that sick person are our brothers because they, too, were created for a greater love. We should never forget this.
Jesus Christ himself identifies himself with them when he says: “As often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me.” (Mt 25:40) And maybe those people are in the street, deprived of all love and of every care, because we refused to give them our love and care, our affection. Be gentle, infinitely gentle towards the poor person who is suffering. We understand so little of what he is going through. The most difficult is not to be accepted.
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St. Vincent de Paul
from Conference of May 30, 1659
"Do to others whatever you would have them do to you"
What is charity's first action? What does a heart moved by it produce? What emerges from it by contrast with someone who lacks it? It is certainly to do to everyone what within reason we would wish to be done to ourselves. In this is charity summed up. Is it true that I do to my neighbor what I myself wish from him? Ah! here there is a great examination of conscience to be done...
Let us consider the Son of God: what a heart of charity, what a flame of love! My Jesus, be pleased to tell us something about what it was that drew you down from heaven to come and suffer earth's misfortune, the many persecutions and torments you received here? O Savior, O source of love, humbled even to us, even to infamous suffering: who has loved their neighbor more than you? You came to expose yourself to all our wretchedness, to take on the form of a sinner, to lead a suffering life and suffer a humiliating death for our sake. Is there any love like this?... There is no one but Our Lord who has been so seized with love for creatures that he abandoned his Father's throne to come and take on a body subject to infirmity.
And why? To establish amongst us, by his example and word, love of neighbor... O friends, if only we had a little of that love would we stand by with our arms folded?... No! charity cannot remain idle. It sets us to work for the healing and comforting of others.
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St. Ignatius of Antioch
from Letter to the Ephesians, 13-15
We shall be known by our fruit
Try to gather together more frequently to give thanks to God and to praise him. For when you come together frequently, Satan’s powers are undermined, and the destruction he threatens is done away with in the unanimity of your faith. Nothing is better than peace, in which all warfare between heaven and earth is brought to an end.
None of this will escape you if you have perfect faith and love toward Jesus Christ. These are the beginning and the end of life: faith the beginning, love the end. When these two are found together, there is God, and everything else concerning right living follows from them. No one professing faith sins; no one possessing love hates. “A tree is known by its fruit”. So those who profess to belong to Christ will be known by what they do. For the work we are about is not a matter of words here and now, but depends on the power of faith and on being found faithful to the end.
It is better to remain silent and to be than to talk and not be. Teaching is good if the teacher also acts. Now there was one teacher who “spoke, and it was made” (Ps 33:9), and even what he did in silence is worthy of the Father. He who has the word of Jesus can truly listen also to his silence, in order to be perfect, that he may act through his speech and be known by his silence. Nothing is hidden from the Lord, but even our secrets are close to him. Let us then do everything in the knowledge that he is dwelling within us so that we may be his temples and he may be God within us.
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Origen
from Homilies on St. Luke, no. 4, 4-6
“The Lord called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.” (Isa 49:1)
The birth of John the Baptist is full of miracles. An archangel announced the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus; similarly, an archangel announced the birth of John (Lk 1:13) and said: “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb.” The Jewish people did not see that our Lord did “signs and wonders” and healed their illnesses, but John leapt for joy when he was still in his mother’s womb. It was impossible to hold him back, and when the mother of Jesus arrived, the child already tried to come out of Elizabeth’s womb. “The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby leapt in my womb for joy.” (Lk 1:44) Still in his mother’s womb, John had already received the Holy Spirit…
Scripture then says: “Many of the sons of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God.” (Lk 1:16) John brought back “a large number”; the Lord brought back not a large number but everyone. For it is his task to bring all men back to God the Father…
I for my part think that the mystery of John is being fulfilled in the world until the present. The spirit and the power of John must first fill the soul of whoever is destined to believe in Christ Jesus, “to prepare for the Lord a people well-disposed” (Lk 1:17) and to “make ready the way of the Lord, [to] clear him a straight path” (Lk 3:5) in the roughness of their heart. Not only at that time were “the windings … made straight and the rough ways smooth”; rather, the spirit and the power of John still go before the Lord and Savior’s coming today. Oh greatness of the Lord’s mystery and of his plan for the world!
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St. Symeon the New Theologian
from Hymn 30
"Jesus touched him, and said, 'I will do it. Be made clean' "
" Jésus le toucha et lui dit : ' Je le veux ; sois purifié ' "
Until there shone the light divine
I knew not myself.
Then, seeing myself in darkness and the dungeon,
Caught in the mire, covered with muck,
Wounded, bloated...,
I fell at the feet of the one who had enlightened me,
and he who had enlightened me
touched my bonds and injuries
with his hands.
Where his hand touched and his finger drew near
At once my bonds fell from me,
My wounds and all my uncleanness disappeared.
My fleshly filth vanished...
So as to become like his divine hand.
What an extraordinary marvel:
My flesh, soul and body,
Have a share in divine glory!
No sooner was I purified, freed from my bonds,
Than he appeared who held out to me his divine hand.
He drew me out completely from the mire,
Embraced and hugged me,
Covering me with kisses (Lk 15,20).
And I who had been altogether spent
And had lost my strength,
he took upon his shoulders (Lk 15,5),
and carried me away from my tortures...
It was light that bore me away, upholding me,
drawing me towards a great light...
It enabled me to contemplate by what mysterious refashioning
he himself had formed me once again (Gn 2,7),
snatching me away from corruption.
He granted me the gift of life immortal
and clothed me with a garment, insubstantial and shining,
giving me sandals, a ring and a crown,
incorruptible and everlasting (Lk 15,22).
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St. John Chrysostom
“He cured all who were afflicted.”
“As evening drew on, they brought him many who were possessed. He expelled the spirits by a simple command and cured all who were afflicted.” Do you see how the crowd’s faith gradually grew? In spite of the late hour, they did not want to leave the Lord; they thought that in the evening it would be possible to bring him those who were afflicted. Think of the many healings of which the evangelists don’t speak. They don’t tell us about all of them, one by one; rather, in a single sentence, they let us see an infinite ocean of miracles.
So that the greatness of the marvel doesn’t lead us to incredulity, so that people aren’t troubled at the thought of such a crowd who are struck with so many varying ills and all healed in one instant, the gospel brings the testimony of the prophet, which is as extraordinary and as surprising as the deeds themselves: “…thereby fulfilling what had been said through Isaiah the prophet: ‘It was our infirmities he bore, our sufferings he endured.’” (Lk 8:17; Isa 53:4) It does not say “he destroyed”, but “he bore” and “he endured”, thus showing, in my opinion, that the prophet was speaking more of sin than of bodily illnesses. And that is in conformity with John’s words: “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29)
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St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein]
from Meditation for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
“Follow me”
The Savior preceded us on the path of poverty. All the possessions of heaven and earth belonged to him. They presented for him no danger; he could make use of them while keeping his heart completely free. But he knew that it is almost impossible for a human being to have possessions without subjecting ourselves to them and becoming a slave. That is why he gave up everything and so showed us by his example even more than by his words that only the one who possesses nothing possesses everything. His birth in a stable and his flight to Egypt already showed that the Son of the Man had nowhere to rest his head. Whoever wants to follow him must know that we have here below no permanent dwelling. The more deeply we become aware of it, the more ardently we shall aim towards our future dwelling, and we shall exult in the thought that we will find our home in heaven.
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St. Clare
from 1st Letter to Agnes of Prague, 15-23
"Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."
O blessed poverty, who bestows eternal riches on those who love and embrace her! O holy poverty, to those who possess and desire you God promises the kingdom of heaven and offers, indeed, eternal glory and blessed life! O God-centered poverty, whom the Lord Jesus Christ who ruled and now rules heaven and earth, "Who spoke and things were made," (Ps 33[32],9) condescended to embrace before all else! "The foxes have dens," he says, "and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man," Christ, "has nowhere to lay His head" (Mt 8:20), but "but bowing his head, gave up his spirit" (Jn 19:30).
If so great and good a Lord, then, on coming into the Virgin's womb, chose to appear despised, needy, and poor in this world, so that people who were in utter poverty and want and in absolute need of heavenly nourishment might become rich in him by possessing the kingdom of heaven, then rejoice and be glad!
Be filled with a remarkable happiness and a spiritual joy! Contempt of the world has pleased you more than [its] honors, poverty more than earthly riches, and you have sought to store up greater treasure in heaven rather than on earth, "where rust does not consume nor moth destroy nor thieves break in and steal" (Mt 6:20). "Your reward," then, "is very great in heaven" (Mt 5:12)!
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St. Aelred of Rielvaux
from Sermon 16, for the Feast of St.s Peter and Paul (PL 195, 298-302)
"Upon this rock I will build my church"
Pillars of the earth (Ps 75[74],4): this is what the apostles are, but those whose feast we celebrate in the first place. They are the two pillars who support the Church by their teaching and prayer and example of steadfastness. It was the Lord himself who set up these two pillars. To begin with they were weak and unable to support either themselves or anyone else.
And in this the Lord's great plan was made manifest: for if they had always been strong then one might have thought their strength came from themselves. And so, before he strengthened them, our Lord wanted to show what they were capable of so that everyone would know their strength came from God.
It was the Lord who set up these pillars of the earth, that is to say, of the Holy Church. And hence we are heartily to extol our holy fathers who underwent so many sufferings for the Lord and who persevered with such strength. To persevere in times of joy, prosperity and patience is nothing. But this is what greatness is: when one is stoned, lashed, beaten for Christ's sake and one perseveres with Christ in spite of it (2Cor 11,25).
With Paul it is greatness to be cursed and to bless..., to be like the world's rubbish and make it our glory (1Cor 4, 12-13)... And what shall we say about Peter? Even if he had not endured anything for Christ, yet he suffered that we might celebrate him because today he was crucified for him. The cross was his way.
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Isaac of Stella
from Sermon 11
"Who but God alone can forgive sins?" (Mk 2:7)
The prerogative of receiving the confession of sin and the power to forgive sin are two things that belong properly to God alone. We must confess our sins to him and look to him for forgiveness. Since only he has the power to forgive sins, it is to him that we must make our confession.
But when the Almighty, the Most High, wedded a bride who was weak and of low estate, he made that maid-servant a queen. He took her from her place behind him, at these feet, and enthroned her at his side. She had been born from his side, and therefore he betrothed her to himself (Gn 2:22; Jn 19:34). And as all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son because by nature they are one (Jn 17:20), so also the bridegroom gave all he had to the bride and he shared in all that was hers. He made her one both with himself and with the Father...
And so the bridegroom is one with the Father and one with the bride. Whatever he found in his bride alien to her own nature he took from her and nailed to his cross when he bore her sins and destroyed them on the tree. He received from her and clothed himself in what was hers by nature and gave her what belonged to him as God...
Thus, sharing as he did in the bride's weakness, the bridegroom made his own her cries of distress, and gave his bride all that was his. Therefore, she too has the prerogative of receiving the confession of sin and the power to forgive sin, which is the reason for the command, "Go, show yourself to the priest." (Mk 1:44)
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St. Bede the Venerable
from Homilies on the Gospels, I, 21 (CCL 122, 149-151)
At table with Jesus
"While he was at table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples." Let us try to understand what we are told here at a deeper level. Matthew did not simply offer a material meal to the Lord in his earthly home but, even more importantly, he prepared a feast in the house of his heart through his faith and love like the one who bore witness, saying: "I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him and he with me" (Rv 3,20).
Our Lord does indeed stand at the door and knock when he makes our hearts attentive to his will, whether through the words of teachers or through an interior inspiration. We open our door to the sound of his voice when we freely accept his teachings, whether interior or exterior, and when, after understanding what we are to do, we carry them out. And he comes in to share our meal, he with us and we with him, because he dwells in the hearts of his friends, thanks to his love, to feed them constantly with his own hand by the light of his presence. Thus he causes their desires to rise up by degrees while he himself feeds on their earnest desire for heaven as on the most delicious food.
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St. Basil of Seleucia
from Sermon for the Resurrection, 1-4
Become a believer and be my apostle
"Put your finger into the marks of the nails". You looked for me when I wasn't there, now take advantage of it. I understand your desire despite your silence. Before you tell me them I already know your thoughts. I heard you speak and, even though unseen, I was beside you, beside your doubts. Without revealing myself I made you wait so as better to consider your eagerness. "Put your finger into the marks of the nails. Put your hand into my side; do not be unbelieving any longer, but believe."
Then Thomas touched him and all his mistrust fell away. Full of genuine faith and all the love owing to God, he cried out: "My Lord and my God!" And the Lord said to him: "You believe because you have seen me; happy are those who have not seen and yet believe!"
Thomas took the news of the resurrection to those who had not seen. Draw the whole earth to believe, not by its own sight but at your word. Go through peoples and cities far away. Teach them to carry the cross rather than weapons on their shoulders. Only proclaim me: they will believe and worship. They will demand no other proof. Tell them they are called by grace and, with your own eyes, behold their faith. Truly, blessed are those who did not see and yet believed!
This is the army the Lord raises; these are the children of the baptismal font, the works of grace, the fruit of the Spirit. They have followed Christ without having seen him; they sought him and believed. They recognised him with the eyes of faith not those of the body. They have not put their finger into the mark of the nails but they have bound themselves to his cross and embraced his sufferings. They have not seen the Lord's side but, by grace, they have become members of his body and have made his words their own: "Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe!"
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Pope Benedict XVI
from Message for the World Mission Day 2006
"Charity: soul of the mission"
Unless the mission is oriented by charity, that is, unless it springs from a profound act of divine love, it risks being reduced to mere philanthropic and social activity. In fact, God's love for every person constitutes the heart of the experience and proclamation of the Gospel, and those who welcome it in turn become its witnesses. God's love, which gives life to the world, is the love that was given to us in Jesus, the Word of salvation, perfect icon of the Heavenly Father's mercy.
The saving message can be summed up well, therefore, in the words of John the Evangelist: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him" (I Jn 4: 9). It was after his Resurrection that Jesus gave the Apostles the mandate to proclaim the news of this love, and the Apostles, inwardly transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, began to bear witness to the Lord who had died and was risen. Ever since, the Church has continued this same mission, which is an indispensable and ongoing commitment for all believers.
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St. Francis of Assisi
from Letter to the Whole Order
"If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured."
Listen, my brothers: If the blessed Virgin is so honored, as it is right, since she carried him in her most holy womb; if the blessed Baptist trembled and did not dare to touch the holy head of God; if the tomb in which he lay for some time is so venerated, how holy, just, and worthy must be the person who touches him with his hands, receives him in his heart and mouth, and offers him to others to be received. This is he who is now not about to die, but who is eternally victorious and glorified, upon whom the angels desire to gaze.
Look at your dignity, you brothers who are priests, and be holy since He is holy (1Pt 1,16)... It is a great misery and a miserable weakness that when you have Him present with you in this way, you concern yourselves with anything else in this entire world!
Let the whole of mankind tremble, the whole world shake and the heavens exult when Christ, the Son of the living God, is present on the altar in the hands of a priest. O admirable heights and sublime lowliness! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles himself that for our salvation he hides himself under the little form of bread! Look, brothers, at the humility of God and pour out your hearts before him! Humble yourselves, as well, that you may be exalted by him. Therefore, hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that he who gives himself totally to you may receive you totally.
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Pope John-Paul II
from Message for the XXXVIII World Day of Prayer for Vocations 2001
“Ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers"
Holy Father, eternal source of existence and love,
who, in living man, show the splendour of your glory,
and who put in his heart the seed of your call,
let no-one, by reason of our negligence, ignore or lose this gift,
but may everyone walk, with wholehearted generosity,
towards the realisation of your Love.
Lord Jesus, who in your pilgrimage along the roads of Palestine,
chose and called the apostles and entrusted to them their task
of preaching the Gospel, feeding the faithful and celebrating divine worship,
ensure that today, too, your Church may not lack
numerous holy priests, who can bring to all
the fruits of your death and resurrection.
Holy Spirit, who sanctify the Church
with the constant pouring out of your gifts,
place into the hearts of those called to the consecrated life
a deep-rooted and resolute passion for the Kingdom,
so that with a generous and unconditioned "yes",
they may place their entire existences at the service of the Gospel.
Most holy Virgin, who without hesitation
offered yourself to the Almighty
for the carrying out of his plan of salvation,
pour trust into the hearts of young people
so that there may always be zealous pastors
who are able to guide the Christian people on the way of life,
and consecrated souls who may know how to witness,
in chastity, poverty, and obedience,
to the freeing presence of your risen Son.
Amen.
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Isaac of Stella
from Sermon 35 (SC 202, 259)
Sent to the lost sheep
Christ came in search of the one sheep that was lost (Mt 18,12). It was for this sheep that the Good Shepherd, promised from eternity, was sent in time, for this one that he was born and given. This sheep is one alone, taken out from among the Jews and from peoples...; taken out of all nations; one in its mystery, many in persons; according to its body by nature, one according to its spirit by grace, in short, a single sheep and a multitude without number. That is why he who came to seek the one sheep was sent "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 15,24)... Now, whatever the Shepherd acknowledges as his own "no on can take them out of his hands" (Jn 10,28). For no one can force the powerful, deceive wisdom, or destroy charity.
That is why he speaks with confidence when he says: "Father, I have lost none of those you have given me" (cf. Jn 17, 11-12)... And so he was sent as truth for the deceived, path for the straying, life for the dead, wisdom for the ignorant, medicine for the sick, ransom for captives and food for those dying of hunger. In the person of all these it could be said that he was sent to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" that they might not be lost for ever.
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St. Gregory the Great
from Homilies on the Gospels, 5
"Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give"
You too, if you wish it, can deserve the exalted quality of the name of God's angel. Each one of you, in so far as he can, in so far as he receives an inspiration from on high, if he recalls his neighbor from his wickedness, takes care to encourage him to do good, proclaims the eternal kingdom or eternal punishment to one astray - each one of you is truly an angel of Jesus' holy words.
No one should say, I am unable to give counsel, I am not qualified to encourage anyone. Do as much as you can, lest you be tormented for having badly kept what you received. He who was given only one talent was more eager to hide it than to distribute it (Mt 25,14f.)...
Draw others as far as you consider you have advanced; desire to have comrades on your way toward God. If any of you, my friends, is going to the market, or perhaps to the public baths, he will invite someone whom he sees to have nothing else to do to come with him. That earthly kind of action is habitual among you. So, if you are going toward God, take care not to go to him alone. The one who has already received in his heart a word of heavenly love may also return to his neighbors an external word of encouragement.
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St. Francis Xavier
from Letter 131, October 22, 1552
"I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves"
According to the people here we run two dangers. The first is that, after taking our money, our guide may leave us on some deserted island or throw us into the sea so as to escape the governor of Canton. The second is that, supposing he leads us to Canton and we come into the governor's presence, the latter will treat us badly or throw us into prison. For our proceeding is unheard of.
Numerous decrees prevent any one at all from gaining access to China and it is strictly forbidden for foreigners to make their way in without the king's authorization. Besides these two dangers there are many other even greater ones, that the locals know nothing about. It would take a good deal of time to describe them all; however, I will not pass by without citing some of them.
The first is to lose our hope and trust in God's mercy. It is for his love and service that we go to make known his law and Jesus Christ his Son, our Redeemer and Lord. He well knows this since it was he, in his blessed mercy, who gave us these desires. But to lack confidence in his mercy and might in the midst of the hazards into which we may fall for his service' sake is an incomparably greater danger than all the evils the enemies of God might raise up against us. For indeed, if his greater service requires it, he will keep us from the dangers of this life, while without God's permission and authorization, the devils and their attendants can do nothing at all to harm us.
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St. Ambrose
from Sermon 20 on Psalm 118 (CSEL 62, 467f.)
Acknowledging Christ before others
You can be a witness to Christ every day. You were tempted by the spirit of impurity but... you considered that chastity of spirit and body should not be soiled: you are a martyr or, in other words, a witness to Christ... You were tempted by the spirit of pride but, seeing the poor and needy, you were seized by tender compassion and preferred humility to arrogance: you are a witness to Christ. Better still: you have not given your witness in word alone but in deed as well.
What is the surest kind of witness? "Anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came among us in the flesh" (cf. 1Jn 4,2) and who keeps the commands of the Gospel... How many there are each day of these hidden martyrs of Christ who confess the Lord Jesus! The apostle Paul knew that kind of martyrdom and witness of faith rendered to Christ, he who said: "Our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience" (2Cor 1,12).
For how many people have made a confession of faith exteriorly but denied it interiorly!... So be faithful and courageous in interior persecutions so that you may also win the victory in exterior persecutions. There are "kings and rulers", judges of formidable power, in the persecutions within, likewise. You have an example of these in the temptations undergone by our Lord (Mt 4,1ff.)
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St. Severus of Antioch
from Homily 89
"He came down from heaven"
“A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho." Christ did not say, "somebody went down" but " a man went down", because this passage concerns all humanity. For humanity, as a result of Adam's sin, left Paradise, our tranquil home on high, where there was no suffering and which was filled with wonders; this place was rightly called Jerusalem, a name which means "God's Peace."
And all mankind fell towards Jericho, a hollow and low country, where the heat is stifling. Jericho is the feverish life of this world, a life that separates us from God... And once humanity had thus turned away from the right road towards this life, a troop of wild demons came to attack us like a band of robbers. They stripped us of the clothing of perfection, and left us no trace of the strength of mind, purity, justice, or prudence, or anything else which characterizes the divine image (Gn 1:26); but striking us repeatedly by the blows of various sins, they knocked us down and finally left us half dead...
The Law given by Moses passed by, but it lacked strength; it did not lead humanity to a complete cure; it did not raise us up from where we lay… For the Law offered sacrifices and offerings "which could not make perfect those who practised this worship" for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins" (He 10:1.4)...
Finally a Samaritan came to pass. Christ deliberately gives himself the name Samaritan… For he himself came to us, carrying out the intention of the Law and showing by his acts "who is our neighbor" and what it is "to love others as oneself".
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St. John Chrysostom
from Homily 45 on the Acts of the Apostles (PG 60: 318-320)
"Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to drink... will surely not lose his reward."
"I was a stranger," Christ says, "and you took me in" (Mt 25:35). And again, "In so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me." (Mt 25:40). In every believer and brother, though they be least of all, Christ comes to you. Open your house, take them in. "Whoever receives a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward."...
These are the qualities that ought to be in those who welcome strangers: readiness, cheerfulness, liberality. For strangers feel abashed and ashamed, and unless their host shows real joy, they feel slighted and go away, and their being received in this way makes it worse than not to have received them.
Therefore, set aside a room in your house, to which Christ may come; say, "This is Christ's room; this is set apart for him." Even if it is very simple, he will not disdain it. Christ goes about "naked and a stranger"; he needs shelter: do not hesitate to give it to him. Do not be uncompassionate, nor inhuman. You are earnest in worldly matters, do not be cold in spiritual matters... You have a place set apart for your chariot, but none for Christ who is wandering by?
Abraham received strangers in his own home (Gn 18); his wife took the place of a servant, the guests the place of masters. They did not know that they were receiving Christ, that they were receiving angels. If Abraham had known it, he would have lavished his whole substance. But we, who know that we receive Christ, do show not as much zeal as he did, who thought that he was receiving mere men.
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St. Isaac the Syrian
from Spiritual Discourses, 1st series, 72
"Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented"
Repentance after baptism has been given to us as an added grace. For repentance is like a second birth coming from God. What we received in earnest through baptism we receive as a complete gift through repentance. Repentance is the door of compassion, open to those who seek it. By this door we enter into divine compassion but outside it we do not find compassion. "For all have sinned," Holy Scripture says, "and all are freely justified by his grace" (Rom 3,23-24). Repentance is a second grace. It comes to birth in the heart from faith and fear. Fear is the fatherly crook that guides us until we reach the spiritual paradise. When we arrive then it leaves us and goes away.
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St. Augustine
from Sermon 34 (CCL 41, 423-426)
"I give praise to you, Father"
We are invited to sing a new song to the Lord (Ps 149,1). The new man is the man who knows this new song. Singing is joy and, if we consider the matter more closely, love. Someone who understands about loving this new life knows the new song, and so we need to be informed as to what the new life is for the sake of the new song. All these things belong to the same Kingdom: new man, new song, new covenant. The new man will sing a new song and be a member of the new covenant...
"See!" you will say, "I am singing." You are singing; yes, you are singing, I can hear you. But be careful that your life doesn't bear witness against your tongue. Sing with your voice, sing with your heart, sing with your mouth, sing in your conduct: "sing to the Lord a new song." You are wondering what you are to sing for him whom you love and you cast about for the praises to sing to him. "His praise is in the assembly of the St.s" (Ps 149,1). The praise to be sung is that of the singer. Do you want to sing praise to God? Be yourself what you sing. You are his praise if you live uprightly.
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St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus
from Prayer for Acquiring Humility, Prayer no. 20
"Be my disciples"
O Jesus! when you were a Pilgrim on earth, you said: "Learn of Me for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls." 0 Mighty Monarch of Heaven, yes, my soul finds rest in seeing you, clothed in the form and nature of a slave (Phil 2,7), humbling yourself to wash the feet of your apostles.
I recall your words that teach me how to practice humility: "I have given you an example so that you may do what I have done. The disciple is not greater than the Master .... If you understand this, happy are you if you put them into practice" (Jn 13,15-17). Lord, I do understand these words that came from your gentle and humble Heart and I want to practice them with the help of your grace.
I want truly to humble myself and to submit my will to that of my sisters. I do not wish to contradict them nor seek to see whether or not they have the right to command me. O my Beloved, no one had this right over you and yet you obeyed not only the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph but even your executioners. Now in the Sacred Host I see you at the height of your annihilations. How humble you are, O divine King of Glory... O my Beloved, how gentle and humble of heart you seem under the veil of the white Host!... O Jesus, gentle and humble of heart, make my heart like yours.
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St. Aelred of Rielvaux
from The Mirror of Charity, III, 3,4
Keeping the Sabbath
We must expend our energy in good works before we can take our rest with a peaceful conscience... And this is the joyful solemnity of our first day of rest, on which day we put aside servile works... casting down the burden of our passions.
When we have celebrated our first Sabbath in the peace of our own hearts, we can go on to consider how this heart of ours must be enlarged, so as to become a great hospice in which to "rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep" (Rom 12,15).
If our brethren are weak, we must be weak with them, and when they are led to sin, we must be indignant (cf. 2Cor 11,29). Each of us must feel in soul how charity binds us to all our fellows. There must be no room in our hearts for envy or indignation, for suspicion or moroseness. On the contrary, we must gather everyone to our hearts to share in our peace, and embrace and cherish them so as to have "one heart and mind" (Acts 4,32) with them all. In our hearts there will be absolute peace from everything evil and vicious and selfish, as we rest in the gentle enjoyment of fraternal love...
In this Sabbath we have... the prophet David to sing to us in a joyful strain: "Behold how good it is, how pleasant, to dwell in unity!" (Ps 133[132],1).
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Origen
from Commentary on the Gospel of John 32, 4 (PG 14, 741-752)
"See my servant"
During a meal Jesus rose from table and set aside his outer garments, assuming the appearance of a slave, as these words show: "He took a towel and tied it around his waist" so as not to be completely naked and to use his own towel to wipe his disciples' feet (Jn 13,2-5). See from this how greatly the greatness and glory of the Word made flesh humbles itself! He "poured water into a basin" to wash his disciples' feet.
"Abraham looked up and saw men standing before him. He ran from the entrance of his tent to greet them; and bowing to the ground, he said: 'Sir, if I may ask this favor, please do not go on past your servant'" (Gn 18,2-3). However, Abraham did not himself fetch water, nor did he announce that he himself was going to wash the strangers' feet on their coming to him, but he said: "Let some water be brought that your feet may be washed." In the same way, neither did Joseph bring water to wash the feet of his eleven brothers himself, but it was his steward who "brought them water to wash their feet" (Gn 43,24).
But he who declared: "I have come not to be served but to serve" (Mt 20,28) and very rightly said: "Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart" (Mt 11,29), himself poured water into the basin. He knew there was no one else but he who could wash the disciples' feet if that purification was to enable them to have a part with him. The water, I think, was a word able to wash the disciples' feet when they came to the basin Jesus had put there for them.
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St. Teresa of Avila
from Way of Perfection, ch. 17, 5-7
Martha and Mary
St. Martha was a saint, even though they do not say she was contemplative. Well now, what more do you want than to be able to resemble this blessed woman who merited so often to have Christ our Lord in her home, give him food, serve him, and eat at table with him [and even from his plate]?? If she had been enraptured like the Magdalene, there wouldn't have been anyone to give food to the divine Guest.
Well, think of this congregation as the home of St. Martha and that there must be people for every task. And those who are led by the active life shouldn't complain about those who are very much absorbed in contemplation... and let them consider themselves lucky to serve with Martha. Let them consider how true humility consists very much in great readiness to be content with whatever the Lord may want to do with them and in always finding oneself unworthy to be called his servant.
If contemplating, practicing mental and vocal prayer, taking care of the sick, helping with household chores, and working even at the lowliest tasks are all ways of serving the Guest who comes to be with us and eat: and recreate, what difference does it make whether we serve: in the one way or the other?
I don't say that we shouldn't try; on the contrary, we should try everything. What I am saying is that this is not a matter of your choosing but of the Lord's... Leave it up to the Lord of the house.
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St. Peter Chrysologus
from Sermon 3 (PL 52, 303-306, CCL 24, 211-215)
The sign of Jonah
See how the prophet Jonah's flight away from God (Jon 1,3) is transformed into a prophetic image, and what was described as a fatal shipwreck is turned into the sign of the Lord's Resurrection. The very text of the story of Jonah clearly shows him to be a perfect image of our Savior. It is written that Jonah "fled from before the face of God."
And did not our Lord himself flee from the condition and appearance of the divine nature to assume the condition and appearance of man? This is how the apostle Paul puts it: "Though he was divine he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the condition of a slave" (Phil 2,6-7).
He who is Lord put on the condition of a slave; to go unrecognised in the world, to conquer the devil, he fled from himself within man... God is everywhere: it is impossible to flee from him. To "flee far away from the face of God" Christ hid himself, not spatially, but as it were through appearance - under the appearance of our slavery, which he wholly assumed.
The text then continues: "Jonah went down to Joppa to escape to Tarshish." This is the person who came down: "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven" (Jn 3,13). Our Lord came down from heaven to earth; God came down to man; the almighty has come down to our servitude. But the Jonah who came down to the ship had to go up for the voyage; so too Christ, after coming down to this world, went up into the ship of the Church through his virtues and miracles.
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St. [Padre] Pio de Pietrelcina
from GC,21; AdFP,563; GC,24
"Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother"
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, well knew it would be by her son's death that redemption would have to be accomplished, yet she too wept and suffered immensely!
If our Lord shows himself to you, give thanks; and if he hides, do likewise. All this is love's game. In her kindness may the Virgin Mary continue to gain for you from our Lord the strength to bear without flinching the many proofs of love he shows you. My wish is that you may come to die on the cross with him and may cry out in union with him: "It is finished".
May Mary transform all the sufferings of your life into joy.
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St. Augustine
from Sermons on St. John's Gospel, no. 121, 3 (PL 35)
Spiritually Touching Christ
"Jesus said to her: "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father." These words contain a truth we need to consider attentively. Jesus is teaching faith to this woman who had recognised him as her Lord and given him this title. The divine gardener was sowing a grain of mustard seed in Mary Magdalene's heart just as he would have done in a garden... So what does it mean: "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father"?...
By these words Jesus intended that faith in him, faith by which he is touched spiritually, should extend even as far as believing that he and his Father are one (Jn 10,30). Because whoever proceeds into him until they recognize him to be equal to his Father rises up to the Father, after a fashion, within the depths of their soul. Otherwise Christ is not touched as he desires; in other words, we do not have the faith in him he is asking for.
Mary could have believed in him while still not thinking him to be the Father's equal, which is what these words prevent her doing: "Stop holding on to me." Namely: "Don't believe in me according to your present mind. Don't stop short at thinking about what I became for your sake without rising up to consider him by whom you were made." How could she not believe - as yet in an only too human fashion - him for whom she wept simply as a man? "I have not yet risen to my Father." "You will touch me when you believe that I am God and am wholly equal to the Father."
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St. [Padre] Pio de Pietrelcina
from Epistle 3: 579; (CE 54)
To bear fruit, free from worldly anxiety
Advance with simplicity on the pathways of God, and do not worry. Hate your defects, yes, but quietly, without excitement, nor anxiety. It is necessary to be patient with them and to benefit from them through holy humility. For if you lack of patience, your imperfections, instead of disappearing, will only grow. Because there is nothing which strengthens our defects as much anxiety and obsession to be rid of them.
Cultivate your vineyard together with Jesus. To you the task of removing stones and pulling up brambles. To Jesus, that of sowing, planting, cultivating and watering. But even in your work, it is still him who acts. Because without Christ, you could do nothing whatsoever.
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St. John Chrysostom
from Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew, 46, 1-2
The parable of the weeds
It is always the devil's way to mix the truth with errors draped in the outward appearance and hues of truth, in such a way as more easily to lead astray those who permit themselves to be deceived. That is why Our Lord only speaks of weeds since these are plants that look like wheat. He then describes how he goes about deceiving "while people are sleeping".
From this we see the serious danger run by leaders, especially those to whom has been entrusted the care of the field. Moreover, this danger does not only threaten leaders but their subordinates too. And this also shows us how error follows truth... Christ tells us this to teach us not to fall asleep..., from which there arises the need of vigilant watching. Which is why he said: "Whoever stands firm to the end will be saved" (Mt 10,22)...
Now consider the servants' zeal: they want to collect the weeds at once. Even if they fall short in reflexion this does at least prove their care for the harvest. They are only concerned about one thing: not to avenge themselves on the one who had sown the weeds but to save the harvest – hence they attempt to get rid of the evil altogether...
What does the Lord say then?... He stops them for two reasons: first, from fear of harming the wheat; second, the conviction that punishment will inevitably strike down those afflicted by this mortal sickness. If we want them to be punished without the harvest suffering from it, let us wait for the proper moment... Moreover, perhaps some portion of those weeds will be turned into wheat? So if you pull them up now you will damage the future harvest by pulling up the ones that may change to something better.
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St. John Chrysostom
from Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew, 46, 2-3
The
parable of the leaven
Our Lord then discusses the image of the leaven:... Just as leaven communicates its force to the dough, so will you, too, transform the whole world... Don't object: 'What can we do who are but twelve, sent out into the midst of such a great crowd of people?' Precisely what will make your power burst forth will be your confronting the multitude without flinching...
Christ alone is the one who gives its force to the leaven and, so that we might transmit our knowledge to others, he has mixed into the crowd people destined to have faith in him. So let no one criticize him for the small number of these disciples since the power of the message is great, and when the mass has fermented it will become leaven, in its turn, for what remains...
Yet if twelve men have leavened the whole world, how wretched are we who, in spite of our great numbers, can't even succeed in converting those around us even though such numbers should be enough to become leaven for thousands of worlds! 'But those twelve were the apostles!' you say. So what? Weren't they in exactly the same state as ourselves? Didn't they live in towns? Didn't they share our lot? Didn't they carry on with their jobs? Were they angels from heaven, then? Are you going to say they worked miracles? But that isn't the reason for our admiring them. How long are we going to talk about their miracles to hide our own laziness?... So, then, where does the greatness of the apostles come from? From their disdain for wealth and glory... It is our way of living that conveys true splendor and brings down the Spirit's grace.
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Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
from A Simple Path
"The good seed is the children of the kingdom"
There aren't two worlds – the physical and the spiritual – there's only one: God's Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven (Mt 6,10).
Many of us pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven," thinking that God is up there, which creates the duality of two worlds. A lot of people in the West like to keep matter and the spirit very comfortably and conveniently apart. All truth is one, all reality is one. As soon as we take the enfleshment of God, the incarnation, which for Christians is represented by the person of Jesus Christ, then we start taking things seriously.
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St. Bonaventure
from Life of St. Francis, Legenda Major, ch. 7
The pearl of great price
Among the gifts of grace which Francis received from God the generous Giver, he merited as a special privilege to grow in the riches of simplicity through his love of the highest poverty. The holy man saw that poverty was the close companion of the Son of God, and now that it was rejected by the whole world, he was eager to espouse it in everlasting love. For the sake of poverty he not only left his father and "mother, but also gave away everything he had. No one was so greedy for gold as he was for poverty; nor was anyone so anxious to guard his treasure as he was in guarding this pearl of the Gospel.
In this especially would his sight be offended if he saw in the friars anything which did not accord completely with poverty. Indeed, from the beginning of his religious life until his death, his only riches were a tunic, a cord and underclothes; and with this much he was content. He used to frequently call to mind with tears the poverty of Jesus Christ and his mother, claiming that it was the queen of the virtues because it shone forth so preeminently in the King of kings (1Tm 6,15) and in the Queen, his mother.
When the friars asked him at a gathering what virtue does more to make one a friend of Christ, he replied as if opening the hidden depths of his heart: "Know, brothers, that poverty is the special way to salvation, as the stimulus of humility and the root of perfection, whose fruit is manifold but hidden. This is the Gospel's treasure "hidden in a field" (Matt. 13:44); to buy this we should sell everything, and in comparison to this we should spurn everything we cannot sell."
St. Augustine
from Sermons on St John's Gospel, 49,15
"Whoever believes in me will live"
"Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live; and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." What is being said? "Whoever believes in me, even if he is dead like Lazarus, will live" because God is not God of the dead but God of the living. Already concerning Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, those long-dead patriarchs, Jesus had given the same reply: "He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob; he is not God of the dead but of the living, for to him all are alive" (Lk 20,37-38).
Believe, then; and though you were dead, you will live! But if you do not believe, then although you may be living, actually, you are dead... From where comes death in the soul? From the fact that faith is no longer there. From where comes the death of the body? From the fact that the soul is no longer there. The soul's soul is faith.
"Whoever believes in me, even though he die in body will be alive in soul until the body itself rises again to die no more. And whoever lives in the flesh and believes in me, although he must die in his body for a season, will not die for ever because of the life of the Spirit and immortality of the resurrection."
That is what Jesus' reply to Martha meant... "Do you believe this" "Yes, Lord," she answered, "I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world. Believing this, I have believed you are the resurrection; I have believed you are the life; I have believed that whoever believes in you, though he die, will live; I have believed that whoever lives and believes in you will never die eternally."
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Blessed John XXIII
from Journal of a Soul, 1901-1903
"Where did this man get such wisdom... ? Is he not the carpenter's son?"
Every time I think of the profound mystery of the obscure, humble life of Jesus, during the first thirty years, I am more and more astounded and words fail me. It is very clear that before such a shining example the judgements and way of thinking not only of this world but also of overwhelming majority of ecclesiastics lose all value and seem in contradiction to it.
As for me, I confess that I still cannot form an idea of what this humility must be like. However much I study it, I seem to achieve only the semblance of humility; its real spirit, Jesus Christ in Nazareth's love to be unknown, is known to me only by name. To think that our blessed Savior spent thirty years of his life in obscurity, and yet he was God, he was the "splendor of the substance of the Father" (Heb 1,3), he had come to save the world; and he did all this only to show us how necessary humility is and how it must be practised. And I, such a great sinner and so totally unworthy, think only of being pleased with myself and congratulating myself on my good results, all for the sake of a little worldly honour. I cannot conceive even the holiest thought without its being tinged with considerations of my own reputation with men... In the last analysis, it is only with the greatest effort that I can resign myself to the thought of real obscurity such as Jesus experienced and such as he has taught me to desire.
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St. Peter Damian
from Sermons 24-25
Precursor in life and death
Forerunner of Christ, John became so by his birth, his preaching, his baptism and his death... Can we find a single virtue or a single form of holiness that the Forerunner did not possess in the highest degree? Who among the holy hermits ever imposed on himself the rule of taking nothing as food but wild honey or that inedible dish - locusts! There are some who renounce the world and fly from men to live a holy life, but John was no more than a child... when he buried himself in the desert and determined to inhabit its solitudes. He renounced his right to succeed his father in the priestly office so that he could freely proclaim the true and supreme High Priest.
The prophets preached beforehand the coming of the Savior; the apostles and other teachers of the Church testify this coming to have truly taken place; but John shows it to be present among us. There are many who have preserved their virginity and kept unsullied the whiteness of their garment (cf. Rv 14,4), but John has forsaken all human company that he might root out the lusts of the flesh by their roots and, full of spiritual zeal, might dwell with wild beasts.
John is at the very heart of the scarlet choir of martyrs as leader of them all: bravely he fought and died for the truth. He has become the leader of all who fight for Christ and was the first to plant the triumphal standard of martyrdom in heaven.
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St. Basil
from Homily 6 (PG 31, 261f.)
"Rich in what matters to God"
"What shall I do? Where am I to find something to eat, something to wear?" This is what that rich man was saying. His heart aches and anxiety gnaws at him because those things that give pleasure to others oppress the miser. The fact that all his barns are full brings him no happiness. The over-abundance of wealth pouring out of his granary is what grievously disturbs his soul...
Think, O man, of him who has covered you with his bounty. Reflect on yourself a little. Who are you? What is it that has been entrusted to you? From whom have you received this responsibility? Why have you been chosen rather than a good many others? The God of all goodness has made you his steward; you have charge over your fellow servants: don't imagine that it's all been prepared for your stomach alone! So dispose of the good things you hold in your hand as though they belonged to others. The enjoyment they bring you does not last for long; very soon they will slip away and vanish; but of you a strict account will be demanded. But as for you, you guard it all under lock and key, and even though you have it all shut up, worry prevents you from sleeping...
"What shall I do?" The answer is close to hand: "I will satisfy the hungry soul, open my barns and invite all those in need... I will let them hear these generous words: 'All you who lack bread, come to me; take your share of the gifts God has granted, each to his satisfaction."
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St. Hilary
from Commentary on St. Matthew's Gospel, 14, 12
"Looking up to heaven, he said the blessing"
After taking the loaves our Lord raised his eyes to heaven to worship Him from whom he himself had his being. He was not obliged to look towards the Father with his fleshly eyes but he wished those present to understand who it was from whom he had received the ability to carry out a gesture of such power. Then he gave the loaves to his disciples. It wasn't through multiplication that those five loaves became many. The fragments followed one another and deceived those breaking them; it was as though they had been cut into pieces beforehand! Matter continues to be produced...
Therefore, don't be surprised that springs flow on, that there are bunches of grapes on the stock of the vine and that rivers of wine flow from the grapes. The earth's whole resources spread according to an unalterable annual rhythm. A multiplication of loaves such as this reveals the author of the world's doing. As a general rule he sets a limit to such growth since he knows in depth the laws of matter. In the visible creation an invisible work takes place. The mystery of the present deed is the work of the Lord of heavenly mysteries. The power of the One who acts surpasses all nature, and the method used by this Power goes beyond all our understanding of it. All that remains is our wonder before this power.
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A Sermon Attributed to St. Augustine
(Appendix no. 192; PL 39, 2100)
"Command me to come to you on the water"
When Peter courageously moves across the sea, his feet are unsteady but his love grows strong...; his feet sink down but he clings to the Christ's hand. Faith upholds him so long as he feels the waves making way. Troubled by the storm, he takes heart in his love for the Savior. Peter walks across the sea borne up more by love than his feet...
He pays no attention to what his feet are treading on; all he sees are the footprints of him whom he loves. He saw his Lord from his position of safety in the boat and, led by love, climbed down into the sea. He no longer sees the sea but Jesus alone.
But no sooner is he troubled by the strength of the wind and overcome by the storm than fear begins to overshadow his faith..., the water vanishes from beneath his feet. Faith weakens and the water with it. Then he cries out: "Lord, save me!" And at once Jesus, stretching out his hand, saves him and says: "O man of little faith, why did you doubt? Is your faith so small that you were unable to press on towards me? Why didn't you have sufficient faith to reach your end by relying on it? From now on keep this in mind: that it was only this faith that was holding you up above the waves." And so, my brethren, Peter doubts for an instant; he is about to drown; but he is saved by calling on the Lord... Now, this world is a sea whose waves are stirred up by the devil and where temptations increase the number of shipwrecks. We can only be saved by calling on the Lord who reaches out his hand to catch us. So continually cry out to him.
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John Tauler
from Sermon 9
"O woman, great is your faith!"
"Have pity on me, Lord, son of David!" This is a cry for help of immense force..., a groan emerging as if from fathomless depths. It greatly surpasses our nature for it is the Holy Spirit himself who puts forth this groaning within us (Rom 8,26)... But Jesus says to her: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." ... And what did she do, thus dismissed as she was?... She descended even more deeply into the abyss. Stooping down and humbling herself she continued to trust and said: "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."
Ah! If only you, too, could manage to penetrate the depths of truth so truly, not through learned treatises, grandiose words or even with the senses, but within your own real depths. Neither God nor any creature would be able to tread you under foot or crush you if only you would remain in the truth, in trustful humility.
People might affront, despise or rebuff you but you would stand firm in your perseverance, pushing down even deeper still, filled with complete confidence, and would increase in persistence even more. Everything depends on this and whoever reaches this point will succeed. These paths, and these alone, are what truly lead to God without any stopping places in between. Yet there are few who remain in this great humility in this way, with the perseverance and whole and entire confidence like this woman.
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Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
From: 'No Greater Love'
The sacrament of reconciliation: "Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven"
Confession is a splendid act, an act of great love. Confession is the only place to which we take ourselves as sinners, as bearers of sin, and come away as sinners who have been forgiven, without sin.
Confession is nothing other than humility put into action. Formerly, we used to call it "penance", but the truth is that it is a sacrament of love, a sacrament of forgiveness. When a breach opens up between me and Christ, when my love cracks, all sorts of things may come to fill up the crack. Confession is the time when I let Christ take away all cause of separation, everything that destroys. The reality of my sins has to be the first thing. For most of us the danger of forgetting we are sinners, and must go to confession as such, hangs over us. We must go to God to tell him how sorry we are for all we could have done and that has wounded him.
The confessional is not a place for trite conversations or gossip. One subject alone holds sway: my sins, my sorrow, my forgiveness, how to overcome my temptations, how to put virtue into practice, how to grow in the love of God.
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St. Cyril of Alexandria
from Homilies on the Transfiguration, 9 (PG 77, 1011)
"Moses and Elijah... spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem"
With three chosen disciples Jesus went up the mountain. Then he was transfigured by a wonderful light that made even his clothes seem to shine. Moses and Elijah stood by him and spoke with him of how he was going to complete his task on earth by dying in Jerusalem. In other words, they spoke of the mystery of his incarnation, and of his saving passion upon the cross. For the law of Moses and the teaching of the holy prophets clearly foreshadowed the mystery of Christ...
The presence of Moses and Elijah, and their speaking together, was meant to show unmistakably that the law and the prophets were the attendants of our Lord Jesus Christ... They did not simply appear in silence; they spoke of how Jesus was to complete his task by dying in Jerusalem, they spoke of his passion and cross, and of the resurrection that would follow.
Thinking no doubt that the time for the kingdom of God had already come, Peter would gladly have remained on the mountain. He suggested putting up three tents, hardly knowing what he was saying. But it was not yet time for the end of the world; nor was it in this present time that the hopes of the saints would be fulfilled - those hopes founded on Paul's promise that Christ "would transform our lowly bodies into the likeness of his heavenly body" (Phil 3,21).
Only the initial stage of the divine plan had as yet been accomplished. Until its completion was it likely that Christ, who came on earth for love of the world, would give up his wish to die for it? For his submitting to death was the world's salvation, and his resurrection was death's destruction.
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St. Thomas More
from Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation
"I do believe; help my unbelief!" (Mk 9,24)
"Lord, increase our faith" (Lk 17,5). Let us consider, by Christ's saying to them, that, if we would not suffer the strength and fervor of our faith to wax lukewarm - or rather, key-cold - and lose its vigor by scattering our minds abroad about so many trifling things that we very seldom think of the matters of our faith, we should withdraw our thought from the respect and regard of all worldy fantasies, and so gather our faith together into a little narrow room.
And like the little grain of mustard seed... we should set it in the garden of our soul, all weeds being pulled out for the better feeding of our faith. Then shall it grow and...through the true belief of God's word... we shall be well able to command a great mountain of tribulation to void from the place where it stood in our heart, whereas, with a very feeble faith and faint, we shall be scarcely able to remove a little hillock. And therefore, as for the first conclusion, since we must of necessity before any spiritual comfort presuppose the foundation of faith, and since no man can give us faith but only God, let us never cease to call upon God for it.