Category: Gospels

If you’re ever curious why Christian art depicts people in heaven carrying around harps, today’s first reading provides the origin.  In his apocalyptic vision, St. John describes those who are victorious in the struggle as holding God’s harps.  Earlier he describes them as holding “palm branches,” and then someone tells him they are those “who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  Art can help us see the symbols in context, but it doesn’t always help to explain them.  Sometimes, if we know what the symbols mean, art can help guide us into a fruitful meditation. read more

AMBROSE:

Jerusalem certainly was besieged and taken by the Roman army … then, the desolation will be near since many will fall into error and depart from the true faith.… Then the day of the Lord will suitably come, and the days will be shortened for the sake of the chosen. Since the Lord’s first coming was to atone for sins, the second will be to prevent transgressions, fearing more might fall into the error of unbelief. False prophets and then famine will come. Tell me again of the times of Elijah, and you will find prophets of confusion, Jezebel, famine and drought on earth. What was the reason? Wickedness abounded, and love grew cold. read more

AMBROSE:

What is the treasury? It is the contribution of the faithful, the bank of the poor, and the refuge of the needy. Christ sat near this and, according to Luke, gave the opinion that the two mites of the widow were preferable to the gifts of the rich. God’s word preferred love joined with zeal and generosity rather than the lavish gifts of generosity.
Let us see what comparison he made when he gave such judgment there near the treasury, for with good reason he preferred the widow who contributed the two mites. That precious poverty of hers was rich in the mystery of faith. So are the two coins that the Samaritan of the Gospels left at the inn to care for the wounds of the man who had fallen among robbers. Mystically representing the church, the widow thought it right to put into the sacred treasury the gift with which the wounds of the poor are healed and the hunger of wayfarers is satisfied. read more