Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

ANONYMOUS:

If anyone seeks a loan from him, let him give it. It is the law that you do not take from another, even if you do not give what is yours. It is grace, however, that you do not take from another and you give what is yours. Therefore whoever gives a loan fulfills both the law and grace. For he who gives freely of his own, would he then take the goods of another? The rich man therefore cannot be tested or proved through physical suffering. No one will likely do him violence; rather, he is tested and proved by generosity.¹

CAESARIUS OF ARLES:

What does it mean to receive the grace of God in vain except to be unwilling to perform good works with the help of his grace?²

MAXIMUS OF TURIN:

For a person wearied of his illness has found healing when he very carefully observes his doctor’s orders; but if he does one thing when another is ordered, then the transgressor and not the physician is guilty if the sickness is aggravated.³

SAHDONA:

If we go on crying out and do not receive any answer, this is for our advantage: instead of losing heart and growing weary, we should go on brazenly asking God, for it is certain that “at an acceptable time” and at the appropriate hour he will answer us and deliver us.⁴

GREGORY OF NYSSA:

Accordingly, the one who has purified his mind and rightly examined the truth of reality will go on his way in the time assigned to him from birth to death, not spoiled by pleasures or cast down by austerity, but, in accordance with the custom of travelers, he will be little affected by what he encounters. For it is customary for travelers to hasten on to the end of their journey whether they go through meadows and fertile fields or through deserts and rough terrain; pleasure does not delay them, nor does the unpleasant impede them. So he himself will also hurry on without distraction to the goal before him, turning off into none of the byways. He will pass through life looking only to heaven, just like some good captain who guides his ship to its lofty destination.⁵

CHRYSOSTOM:

It may seem that it is easier to bear honor than dishonor, but honor too has its perils, because the one who enjoys it may be thrown back and break his neck. Paul therefore glories in both circumstances, because he showed brightly in each of them.⁶

PELAGIUS:

The person who has only the bare necessities lacks nothing..⁷

AUGUSTINE:

It could happen that some public official would say to a Christian: “Either you will stop being a Christian, or, if you persist in being one, you shall have no house or property.” That will be the time when those rich men, who had decided to keep their riches in order to win merit with God by using them for good works, will choose to give them up for Christ’s sake rather than Christ for their sake.… Thus they become as men “having nothing, yet possessing all things”— and everlasting life in the world to come, lest by giving up Christ for the sake of riches they be cast into everlasting death.⁸

1. INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 12.  Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 119). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
2. SERMON 126.5.  Bray, G. L. (Ed.). (1999). 1–2 Corinthians (p. 254). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
3. SERMON 35.  Bray, G. L. (Ed.). (1999). 1–2 Corinthians (p. 256). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
4. BOOK OF PERFECTION.  Bray, G. L. (Ed.). (1999). 1–2 Corinthians (p. 256). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
5. On Virginity 4.  Bray, G. L. (Ed.). (1999). 1–2 Corinthians (p. 257). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
6. Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians 12.3.  Bray, G. L. (Ed.). (1999). 1–2 Corinthians (p. 258). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
7. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 6.  Bray, G. L. (Ed.). (1999). 1–2 Corinthians (p. 258). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
8. LETTER 157, TO HILARIUS.  Bray, G. L. (Ed.). (1999). 1–2 Corinthians (pp. 258–259). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.