ORDINARY TIME


Saturday of Week XXV


“... and he said to the latter, “Run, speak to that official: Jerusalem will be unwalled, because of the abundance of people and beasts in its midst.” (Zechariah 2:9.)

Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“Another example to prove the same point may be found in a passage of Zechariah where the “Almighty” sends the “Almighty.” This can only mean that God the Father sends God the Son. The text runs, “So says the Lord Almighty: ‘After the glory he has sent me to the nations that have robbed you; for he that touches you touches the apple of my eye. For behold, I lift up my head upon them, and they shall be a prey to those who served them; and you shall know that the Lord almighty sent me.’” In this case, the Lord almighty says that he is sent by the Lord almighty. How can anyone doubt that it is Christ who is speaking and, in fact, speaking to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Remember what is said in the Gospel: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The comparison of these lost sheep to the apple of God’s eye is explained by the perfection of God’s love. And, of course, it was to this flock of sheep that the apostles belonged. “After the glory” of his resurrection—a glory alluded to in the words “Jesus had not yet been glorified” — it was in the person of these apostles that Jesus was sent to the Gentiles. And this was to be the fulfillment of what the psalmist had prophesied: “You will deliver me from the contradictions of the people; you will make me head of the Gentiles.” (City of God, 20.)


Collect
O God,
Who founded all the commands
of Your sacred Law
upon love of You and of our neighbor,
grant that, by keeping Your precepts,
we may merit to attain eternal life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen


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