On the Feast of All the Saints, the Church rejoices with its fully divinized and purified members in Heaven. The joy they have of being finally free from temptation, worldly allurements and the chaos of the passions expresses only a comparatively insignificant fraction of their happiness. Their joy comes from an unobstructed vision of the Trinity, whose eternal glory has thickened their souls with love. Heaven is filled with beings whose purity and perfection are the burning reality of God’s love that has completely transformed their essence. The lives of the Saints as they were known on earth are but a depressing and sad shadow of their heavenly bliss.
Saturday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time
CHRYSOSTOM:
The man who is wise according to the standards of this world is really very foolish, because he will not cast away his corrupt teaching. A little learning is a dangerous thing, because it makes those who have it unwilling to learn more. The unlearned are more open to conviction, because they are not so foolish as to think that they are wise.
AMBROSIASTER:
The two most “foolish things of the world” are in particular the virgin birth of Christ and his resurrection from the dead. The wise are confounded because they see that what a few of them deny, the many profess to be true. There is no doubt that the opinions of the many faithful take precedence over those of a small number. Likewise, those who are mighty in this world can easily see the so-called weak things of Christ overturning demons and performing miracles. To the world the injuries and sufferings of the Savior are weak things, because the world does not understand that they have become the source of power through Christ who submitted to suffering in order to overcome death.
Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Whenever we hear two groups being compared in the Gospels by Jesus, we know that He is inviting us to make a discernment for our own lives. We could be tempted to use the comparison to judge or condemn others, but if we interpret it in that way we only condemn ourselves. Ten virgins waiting for Christ. Ten who have consecrated themselves, who have renounced the life of indulgence in the pleasures of the flesh. Jesus is telling us that even among those who have pledged fidelity and taken measures to conform their lives to the coming Kingdom, half are wise and half are foolish. Wisdom for the Christian, as we saw in the first reading from St. Paul, is the Cross: precisely the opposite of what the world considers intelligent. Foolishness has to do, according to the Gospel, with not having any oil for the lamp. How can a lamp burn brightly without any oil? Where did the wise virgins get their oil?