Saint Alphonsus Liguori

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS:

Such is our life, we whose existence is so transitory. Such is the game we play on earth. We do not exist, and we are born, and being born, we disintegrate and disappear. We are a fleeting dream, an apparition without substance, the flight of a bird that passes, a ship that leaves no trace on the sea. We are dust, a vapor, the morning dew, a flower growing but a moment and withering in a moment. “A person’s days are as grass. As the flower of the field, so shall he flourish,” beautifully, as described by holy David in meditating on our weakness. And again in these words: “Declare to me the fewness of my days.” And he defines the days of people as the measure of a span. What would you say to Jeremiah, who, complaining about his birth, even blames his mother, and that, too, for the failings of others. I have seen all things, says the Preacher, I have reviewed in thought all human things, wealth, pleasure, power, unstable glory, wisdom that evades us rather than is won; then pleasure again, wisdom again, often revolving the same objects, the pleasures of appetite, orchards, numbers of slaves, store of wealth, serving men and serving maids, singing men and singing women, arms, spearmen, subject nations, collected tributes, the pride of kings, all the necessaries and superfluities of life, in which I surpassed all the kings that were before me. And what does he say after all these things? Vanity of vanities.¹

JEROME:

The saint does not look for rest but for tribulation. He knows “tribulation works out endurance, and endurance, tried virtue, and tried virtue, hope. And hope does not disappoint.” This is parallel to what Jeremiah says: “I have called on tribulation and misery, for your bitter word was to me joy and gladness.” In this world I desire nothing but tribulation that I may have happiness and repose in the next. That is why, he says, “I now bear with bitterness, that afterwards I may have all sweetness.” The people of the Lord coming out of Egypt came to Mara, which means “bitter,” and from Mara into Sinai, which means “temptation.” Again, Jeremiah says, “I sat alone because I was filled with bitterness.”²

ORIGEN:

For this I am blasphemed. And thus let all of us, as far as our ability allows, strive for the prophetic life, for the apostolic life, not avoiding what is troublesome. For if the athlete avoids what is troublesome about the contest, the sweetness of the crown will never be his.³

CHRYSOSTOM:

Consider to what a dignity one exalts himself who esteems others’ salvation to be of great importance. Such a person is imitating God as far as lies within the power of humankind. Hear what God says speaking through his prophet: “He who separates the worthy from the vile shall be as my mouth.” What God says is that one who is eager to save a brother who has fallen into careless ways, one who hastens to snatch his brother from the jaws of the devil, that person imitates me as far as lies within human power. What could equal that? This is greater than all good deeds. This is the peak of all virtue.⁴

CHRYSOSTOM:

If you also speak in this way, if you speak for your neighbor’s betterment, you will obtain a tongue like that tongue. And these things God says: “For he that brings out the precious from the vile shall be like my mouth”; such are his words.⁵

HILARY:

Indeed, the preaching of the Gospels has no strings attached, but the power to use and own this treasure with the field comes at a price, for heavenly riches are not possessed without a worldly loss.⁶

GREGORY THE GREAT:

We must let our work be in the open in such a way that our intention remains secret. Then we provide an example to our neighbors from our good work, and yet by the intention by which we seek to please God alone we always choose secrecy. The treasure is heavenly delight, and the field in which the treasure is hidden is the discipline of the pursuit of heaven. One who renounces the pleasures of the body and conquers all earthly desires by observing the heavenly discipline, so that nothing his body favors is compelling any longer and his spirit no longer fears anything that might destroy his bodily life, is truly one who sells everything and buys the field.⁷

HILARY:

For he carried on business for a long time and found the pearl that his heart was set on. He must pay the price of this one pearl he desired at the expense of all his other work.⁸

GREGORY THE GREAT:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is said to be like a merchant who is seeking fine pearls. He finds one really precious pearl, and, having found it, he sells everything he has in order to buy it. In the same way, he who has a clear knowledge of the sweetness of heavenly life gladly leaves behind all the things he loved on earth. Compared with that pearl, everything else fades in value. He forsakes those things that he has and scatters those things that he has gathered. His heart yearns for heavenly things, and nothing on earth pleases him. The allure of earthly things has now dissipated, for only the brilliance of that precious pearl dazzles his mind. Solomon justly says of such love, “Love is strong as death,” because just as death destroys the body, so ardent desire for eternal life cuts off the love for material things. For love makes insensitive to extraneous earthly desires the person whom it has swept off his feet.⁹

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS:

He flaunts not a display of sensual pleasure but the earmarks of discipline. Therefore this merchant exhibits pearls of heart and body, not in human trading but in heavenly commerce. He displays them not to trade for a present advantage but for a future one. He trades in order to gain not earthly but heavenly glory. He seeks to procure the kingdom of heaven as the reward of his virtues and to buy, at the price of innumerable other goods, the one pearl of everlasting life.¹⁰

1. ON HIS BROTHER ST. CAESARIUS 7.19.  Wenthe, D. O. (Ed.). (2009). Jeremiah, Lamentations (p. 120). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
2. HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 39 (Ps 114).  Wenthe, D. O. (Ed.). (2009). Jeremiah, Lamentations (p. 121). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
3. HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14.14.4–5.  Wenthe, D. O. (Ed.). (2009). Jeremiah, Lamentations (p. 121). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
4. BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 6.19.  Wenthe, D. O. (Ed.). (2009). Jeremiah, Lamentations (p. 123). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
5. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 78.2.  Wenthe, D. O. (Ed.). (2009). Jeremiah, Lamentations (p. 123). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
6. ON MATTHEW 13.7.  Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 286). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
7. FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 11.1.  Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 286). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
8. ON MATTHEW 13.8.  Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 287). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
9. FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 11.2.  Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 287). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
10. SERMONS 47.2.  Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 287). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.