Category: Gospels

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Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

MARIUS VICTORINUS:

Let us understand that we arrive at the full mystery of God by two routes: We ourselves by rational insight may come to understand and discern something of the knowledge of divine things. But when there is a certain divine self-disclosure God himself reveals his divinity to us. Some may directly perceive by this revelation something remarkable, majestic and close to truth.… But when we receive wisdom we apprehend what is divine both through our own rational insight and through God’s own Spirit. When we come to know what is true in the way this text intends, both these ways of knowing correspond. read more

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Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

AMBROSE:

God at times opens the heart through trials. Then the heart becomes so vast that, like the sands of the sea, it cannot be measured. Listen to holy Solomon, who speaks to us of this openness: “Therefore I prayed, and in me prudence was increased. I implored, and the Spirit of wisdom came to me.” So as to receive wisdom from God, he did not ask for riches or noble descendants or power, but he asked for wisdom. And he obtained everything that he did not ask for. For this reason Scripture says that the vastness of his heart was so great that, like the sand of the sea, it could not be measured. So that you would understand this greatness, he consciously says of himself, “Write it in the vastness of your heart.” Therefore, one who has wisdom should not keep it hidden, not even for an instant, but should celebrate it in public. He should proclaim everywhere, with authority, what prudence inspires in him. read more

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Friday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Paul must address Christians strongly about the transition between living under the yoke of the Law, and living under the yoke of grace.  The Law says that we must not sin, and that the punishment due the sinner is eternal and without remedy.  Certainly there remains hope in God’s mercy even under the Law, but one’s life is spent relentlessly attempting to correct one’s behavior so as to maintain some sort of peace of mind that all is not lost. Grace, which we receive by faith in Jesus – His passion, death and resurrection – progressively heals us of our attempts to save ourselves.  Sin gradually disappears from our lives by the grace of God and not because we try harder not to sin.  Grace is not just the help of salvation, but it is more importantly a growing relationship of intimacy with our Creator and Redeemer.  Grace allows us to love and cling to God more than we worry about ourselves and try to stand on our own two feet. read more