Words of the Word

Easter Week 5: Friday

“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” (John 15:16)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“You did not choose me, but I chose you.” That is amazing grace! For what were we before Christ had chosen us besides being wicked and lost? We did not believe in him, so as to be chosen by him. For if he chose those who already believed, then he was [in effect] chosen himself prior to his choosing [them]. This passage refutes the vain opinion of those who say that we were chosen before the foundation of the world because God foreknew that we should be good, not that he himself would make us good. For if he had chosen us because he foreknew that we should be good, he would have foreknown also that we should first choose him. For without choosing him we cannot be good, unless indeed someone can be called good who has not chosen good. What then has he chosen in those who are not good? You cannot say, I am chosen because I believed. For if you believed in him, you had already chosen him. Nor can you say, Before I believed I did good works and therefore was chosen. For what good work is there before faith when the apostle says, “Whatever is not of faith is sin”? What is there for us to say, then, but that we were wicked and were chosen, that by the grace of having been chosen we might become good?” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 86)

Easter Collect

Grant us, Lord, we pray,
that, being rightly conformed to the paschal mysteries,
what we celebrate in joy
may protect and save us with perpetual power.
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.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Week 5: Thursday

“As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” (John 15:9-10)

Saint Basil the Great offers the following insight on these verses from today's Gospel:

“Now, if observing the commandments is the essential sign of love, it is very greatly feared that without love even the most effective action of the glorious gifts of grace — even of the most sublime powers and even of faith itself and the commandment that make a person perfect — will not be of help. It is evident, therefore, and undeniable that without charity — even though ordinances are obeyed and righteous acts are performed, even though the commandments of the Lord have been observed and great wonders of grace effected — they will be considered as works of iniquity because those who perform these acts have as their aim the gratification of their own will.” (Concerning Baptism, 1)

Easter Collect

O God, by Whose grace,
though sinners, we are made just
and, though pitiable, made blessed,
stand, we pray, by Your works,
stand by Your gifts,
that those justified by faith
may not lack the courage of perseverance.
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.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Week 5: Wednesday

“You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.” (John 15:3)

Saint Basil the Great offers the following insight on this verse from today's Gospel:

“The world, that is, life enslaved by the affections of the flesh, can no more receive the grace of the Spirit than a weak eye the light of a sunbeam. But the Lord, who by his teaching bore witness to purity of life, gives to his disciples the power of now both beholding and contemplating the Spirit. For “now,” he says, “you are clean through the word that I have spoken to you,” wherefore “the world cannot receive him, because it does not see him . . . but you know him. For he dwells with you.” And this is what Isaiah says, “He who spread forth the earth and that which comes out of it; he who gives breath to the people on it, and Spirit to them that trample on it.” For those who trample down earthly things and rise above them are shown to be as worthy of the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (On the Holy Spirit, 22)

O God,
Restorer and lover of innocence,
direct the hearts of your servants
towards Yourself,
that those You have set free
from the darkness of unbelief
may never stray from the light of Your truth.
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.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Week 5: Tuesday

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” (John 14:27)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“And yet it is in him and from him that we have peace, whether it is the peace he leaves with us when going to the Father or that which he will give us when we ourselves are brought by him to the Father. And what is it he leaves with us, when ascending from us, other than his own presence, which he never withdraws? For he himself is our peace who has made both one. It is he, therefore, who becomes our peace, both when we believe that he is and when we see him as he is. For if — so long as we are in this corruptible body that burdens the soul and are walking by faith, not by sight — he does not forsake those who are sojourning at a distance from himself, how much more, when we have attained to that sight, shall he fill us with himself?” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 77)

Easter Collect

O God, Who restore us to eternal life
in the Resurrection of Christ,
grant Your people constancy in faith and hope,
that we may never doubt the promises
of which we have learned from You.
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.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Week 5: Monday

“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” (John 14:21)

Saint Mark the Hermit offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“Do you see how [Jesus] has hidden his manifestation in the commandments? Of all the commandments, therefore, the most comprehensive is to love God and our neighbor. This love is made firm through abstaining from material things and through stillness of thoughts. Knowing this, the Lord enjoins us “not to be anxious about tomorrow,” and rightly so. For if someone has not freed himself from material things and from concern about them, how can he be freed from evil thoughts? And if he is beset by evil thoughts, how can he see the reality of the sin concealed behind them? This sin wraps the soul in darkness and obscurity and increases its hold on us through our evil thoughts and actions. The devil initiates the whole process by testing a person with a provocation that the person is not compelled to accept. But the one urged on by self-indulgence and self-esteem begins to entertain this provocation with enjoyment. Even if their discrimination tells them to reject it, yet in practice they take pleasure in it and accept it. If someone has not perceived this general process of sinning, when will he pray about it and be cleansed from it? And if he has not been cleansed, how will he find purity of nature? And if he has not found this, how will he behold the inner dwelling place of Christ? For we are a dwelling place of God, according to the words of prophet, evangelist and apostle.” (No Righteous By Works, 223)

Easter Collect

May Your right hand, O Lord, we pray,
encompass Your family with perpetual help,
so that, defended from all wickedness
by the Resurrection of Your Only Begotten Son,
we may make our way
by means of Your heavenly gifts.
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.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Week 5: Sunday

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:2)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“But he is in a certain sense preparing the dwellings by preparing for them the dwellers. As, for instance, when he said, “In my Father’s house are many dwellings.” What else can we suppose the house of God to mean but the temple of God? And what that is, ask the apostle, and he will reply, “For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” This is also the kingdom of God that the Son is yet to deliver up to the Father. For it is to this kingdom, standing then at the right hand, that it shall be said in the end, “Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom.” In other words, you who were the kingdom but without the power to rule, come and reign so that what you formerly were only in hope, you may now have the power to be in reality. This house of God, therefore, this temple of God, this kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven, is as yet in the process of building, of construction, of preparation, of assembling. There will be dwellings in it even as the Lord is now preparing them. There are in fact such dwellings already even as the Lord has already ordained them.” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 68)

Easter Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
constantly accomplish
the Paschal Mystery within us,
that those You were pleased
to make new in Holy Baptism
may, under your protective care, bear much fruit
and come to the joys of life eternal.
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.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Week 4: Saturday

“If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:14)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

““Whatever you shall ask.” Then why do we often see believers asking and not receiving? Perhaps it is that they do not ask correctly. When a person would make a bad use of what he asks for, God in his mercy does not grant him it. It is even more the case that if someone asks what would, if answered, only tend to his injury, there is surely greater cause to fear, in case what God could not withhold with kindness, he should give in his anger. Still if God even in kindness often refuses the requests of believers, how are we to understand “Whatever you shall ask in my name, I will do?” Was this said to the apostles only? No. He says above, “He who believes in me, the works that I do he shall do also.” And if we go to the lives of the apostles themselves, we shall find that he who labored more than them all prayed that the messenger of Satan might depart from him but was not granted his request. Wake up then, believer, and note what is stated here: “In my name.” That [name] is Christ Jesus. Christ signifies King, Jesus signifies Savior. Therefore whatever we ask for that would hinder our salvation, we do not ask in our Savior’s name, and yet he is our Savior not only when he does what we ask but also when he does not. When he sees us ask anything to the disadvantage of our salvation, he shows himself our Savior by not doing it. The physician knows whether what the sick person asks for is to the advantage or disadvantage of his health. And [the physician] does not allow what would be harmful to him, though the sick person himself desires it. But the physician looks to his final cure. And some things we may even ask in his name, and he will not grant them to us at the time, though he will some time. What we ask for is deferred, not denied. He adds, “that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” The Son does not do anything without the Father, inasmuch as he does it in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son, for the Father and Son are one.” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 73)

Easter Collect

O God, who in the celebration of Easter
graciously give to the world
the healing of heavenly remedies,
show benevolence to your Church,
that our present observance
may benefit us for 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.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Week 4: Friday

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” (John 14:3)

Saint Cyril of Alexandria reflects on this verse from today’s Gospel, writes:

“If there were not many mansions in God the Father’s home, he would have said that he was going on before them to prepare beforehand the homes of the saints. But since he already knew that there were many homes already fully prepared and awaiting the arrival of those who love God, he says that he will depart, but not for this purpose. Rather, he leaves in order to secure the way to the mansions above, to prepare a passage of safety for you and to smooth the paths that were formerly impassible. For in times of old, heaven was utterly inaccessible to mortals, and no flesh as yet had ever traveled that pure and all-holy realm of the angels. But Christ was the first who consecrated for us the means of access to himself and granted to flesh a way of entrance into heaven. He did this by presenting himself as an offering to God the Father, the “firstfruits of those who are asleep” and are lying in the tomb, and by presenting himself as the first human being that ever appeared in heaven. For Christ did not ascend on high in order to present himself before the presence of God the Father. He always was and is and will be continually in the Father, in the sight of him who begat him. For he is the one in whom the Father takes delight. Rather, he who of old was the Word with no part or lot in human nature has now ascended in human form so that he may appear in heaven in a strange and unusual manner. And this he has done on our account and for our sakes in order that he, though “found as a man,” may still in his absolute power as Son — while yet in human form — obey the command, “Sit at my right hand,” and in this way transfer the glory of adoption through himself to the entire human race. For because he has appeared in human form, he is still one of us as he sits at the right hand of God the Father, even though he is far above all creation. He is also consubstantial with his Father due to the fact that he has come forth from him as truly God of God and Light of Light. He has presented himself therefore as man to the Father on our behalf so that he may restore us again, as it were, to behold the Father’s face — we who were removed from the Father’s presence by the ancient transgression.

“I shall not then,” he says, “depart to prepare mansions for you. There are already enough there. There is no need to make new homes for my creation. But I go to prepare a place for you because of the sin that has mastery over you in order that those of you who are on the earth will be able to be mingled with the holy angels. Otherwise, the holy multitude of those above would never mingle with those [below] who were so defiled. But now, when I shall have accomplished the work of uniting the world below with that above—giving you a way of access to the city on high as well — I will return again at the time of regeneration and ‘receive you with myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.’” (Commentary on the Gospel of John, 9)

Easter Collect

O God,
Author of our freedom and of our salvation,
listen to the voice of our pleading
and grant that those You have redeemed
by the shedding of Your Son’s Blood
may have life through You
and, under Your protection,
rejoice for ever unharmed.
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.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Week 4: Thursday

“If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.” (John 13:17)

Saint Cyril of Alexandria reflects on this verse from today’s Gospel, writes:

“It is not the knowledge of virtue but rather the practice of it that may be appropriately called worthy of both love and enthusiasm. Whenever actions go hand in hand with knowledge, then assuredly there is no small gain. But when either is lacking, the other will be seriously crippled. And it is written, even faith apart from works is dead. Although the knowledge of God who is one even in nature, and the confession of God in guilelessness and truth is all included in faith, even this is dead if it is not accompanied by the bright light that proceeds from works. Surely, therefore, it is utterly profitless merely to know what is good and yet have no desire to practice it at once.” (Commentary on the Gospel of John, 9)

Easter Collect

O God,
Who restore human nature
to yet greater dignity than at its beginnings,
look upon the amazing mystery
of Your loving kindness,
and in those You have chosen to make new
through the wonder of rebirth
may You preserve the gifts
of Your enduring grace and blessing.
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.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Week 4: Wednesday
– Feast: Saint Matthias, Apostle –

“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” (John 15:16)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“You did not choose me, but I chose you.” That is amazing grace! For what were we before Christ had chosen us besides being wicked and lost? We did not believe in him, so as to be chosen by him. For if he chose those who already believed, then he was [in effect] chosen himself prior to his choosing [them]. This passage refutes the vain opinion of those who say that we were chosen before the foundation of the world because God foreknew that we should be good, not that he himself would make us good. For if he had chosen us because he foreknew that we should be good, he would have foreknown also that we should first choose him. For without choosing him we cannot be good, unless indeed someone can be called good who has not chosen good. What then has he chosen in those who are not good? You cannot say, I am chosen because I believed. For if you believed in him, you had already chosen him. Nor can you say, Before I believed I did good works and therefore was chosen. For what good work is there before faith when the apostle says, “Whatever is not of faith is sin?” What is there for us to say, then, but that we were wicked and were chosen, that by the grace of having been chosen we might become good?” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 86)

Today is the feast of the Apostle, Saint Matthias. In Sermon 3 on the Acts of the Apostles, Saint John Chrysostom offers a reflection on the selection of Saint Matthias to fulfill the office of Apostle.

Collect

O God,
Who assigned Saint Matthias
a place in the college of Apostles,
grant us, through his intercession,
that, rejoicing at how Your love
has been allotted to us,
we may merit to be numbered among the elect.
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.

Easter Collect

O God, Life of the faithful,
Glory of the humble, Blessedness of the just,
listen kindly to the prayers
of those who call on You,
that they who thirst for what
You generously promise
may always have their fill of Your plenty.
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.

The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!