Jesus confronts the Pharisees with God’s own perspective on what is needed to receive grace and salvation. The people demanded a temple in which to perform their liturgies and sacrifices – this was not God’s demand. God had something else in mind, but in His Providence He made provision for what the people thought they needed to render God fitting worship. “Will you build me a house?” The Law was given for instruction – it was never intended to be used against man. It was given so that he might see clearly the burden he carries – his sin, his mortality, his essential solitude before the Judge of all. It was given to make clear to man the difference between the ways of eternal life and death. The Law was never intended to become a refuge for the perfect, the proud, the strong, as a weapon of subjugation to be used against the weak and broken.
Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
NICETAS OF REMESIANA:
And now, beloved, I ought to say a word about the antiquity of the tradition and the utility of vigils. It is easier to begin a work if we keep before our eyes how useful it is. The devotion to vigils is very old. It has been a household tradition among the saints. It was the prophet Isaiah who cried out to the Lord: “My soul has yearned for you in the night. Indeed, my spirit within me seeks you early in the morning.”
CHRYSOSTOM:
[In monasteries] at the crowing of the rooster their leader comes, and gently touching the sleeper with his foot, rouses them all. For there are none sleeping naked. Then as soon as they have arisen they stand up and sing the prophetic hymns with much harmony and well-composed tunes. And neither harp nor pipe nor other musical instrument utters such sweet melodies as you hear from the singing of these saints in their deep and quiet solitudes. And the songs themselves too are suitable and full of the love of God. “In the night,” they say, “lift up your hands to God. With my soul have I desired you in the night; truly with my spirit within me will I seek you early.”
Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
JEROME:
All other failings deserve the mercy of the Lord because, in humility, they are submitted to the tribunal of God; pride alone, because it honors itself beyond its power, resists God. The adulterer or the fornicator does not dare to raise his eyes to heaven; in defection of soul, he looks for God’s mercy; yet this one whom conscience bows down and humbles to the ground, it also elevates to heaven. When pride and inordinate desire for glory raise up a person, they at the same time abase him, for by his sin they make him an enemy of God.