Words of the Word

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Tuesday-Week25-2013.

“He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it” (Luke 18:21)

In commenting on these verses from the Gospel according to Saint Luke from today’s Mass Readings, Cyril of Alexandria writes:

“The present lesson teaches us that obedience and listening to God are the causes of every blessing. Some entered and spoke respectfully about Christ’s holy mother and his brothers. He answered in these words, “My mother and my brothers are they who hear the word of God and do it.” Now do not let any one imagine that Christ scorned the honor due to his mother or contemptuously disregarded the love owed to his brothers. He spoke the law by Moses and clearly said, “Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you.” How, I ask, could he have rejected the love due to brothers, who even commanded us to love not merely our brothers but also those who are enemies to us? He says, “Love your enemies.” What does Christ want to teach? His object is to exalt highly his love toward those who are willing to bow the neck to his commands. I will explain the way he does this. The greatest honors and the most complete affection are what we all owe to our mothers and brothers. If he says that they who hear his word and do it are his mother and brothers, is it not plain to every one that he bestows on those who follow him a love thorough and worthy of their acceptance? He would make them readily embrace the desire of yielding themselves to his words and of submitting their mind to his yoke, by means of a complete obedience. (Commentary on Luke, Homily 42)”

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Saint Pius of Pietrelcina 2013.

“No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.” (Luke 8:16)

Origen of Alexandria offers the following insight on this verse from today's Gospel:

“Scripture does not say this about a tangible lamp but about a comprehensible one. One does not “light” the lamp and conceal it “with a vessel” or put it “under a bed, but on the lamp stand” within himself. The vessels of the house are the powers of the soul. The bed is the body. “Those who go in” are those who hear the teacher … He calls the holy church a “lamp stand.” By its proclamation, the Word of God gives light to all who are in this world and illuminates those in the house with the rays of the truth, filling the minds of all with divine knowledge. (Fragments on Luke, 120)”

Today is the memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina. Click here for a biography of Padre Pio and here for Blessed Pope John Paul II’s homily on the occasion of Padre Pio’s canonization in 2002.

Almighty ever-living God,
Who, by a singular grace,
gave the Priest Saint Pius
a share in the Cross of your Son and,
by means of his ministry,
renewed the wonders of your mercy,
grant that through his intercession
we may be united constantly to the sufferings of Christ,
and so brought happily to the glory of the resurrection.
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.

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

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Sunday-Week25-2013.

“He called in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ … ‘Then to another he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’” (Luke 16:5&7)

Origen of Alexandria offers the following insight on these verses from today's Gospel:

“What the Gospel of “the unjust steward” says is also an image of this matter. He says to the debtor [of one hundred measures of wheat], “Take your bill, sit down, and write eighty,” and the other things that are related. You see that he said to each man, “Take your bill.” It is evident from this that the documents of sin are ours, but God writes documents of justice. The apostle says, “For you are an epistle written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.” You have in yourselves documents of God and documents of the Holy Spirit. If you transgress, you yourself write in yourselves the handwriting of sin. Notice that at any time when you have approached the cross of Christ and the grace of baptism, your handwriting is fastened to the cross and blotted out in the fountain of baptism. Do not rewrite later what has been blotted out or repair what has been destroyed. Preserve only the documents of God in yourself. Let only the scripture of the Holy Spirit remain in you. (Homily on Genesis, 13)

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

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Saint Matthew 2013.

“As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.” (Matthew 9:9)

In commenting on this verse from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew from today’s Mass Readings, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“Why did Jesus not call Matthew at the same time as he called Peter and John and the rest? He came to each one at a particular time when he knew that they would respond to him. He came at a different time to call Matthew when he was assured that Matthew would surrender to his call. Similarly, he called Paul at a different time when he was vulnerable, after the resurrection, something like a hunter going after his quarry. For he who is acquainted with our inmost hearts and knows the secrets of our minds knows when each one of us is ready to respond fully. Therefore he did not call them all together at the beginning, when Matthew was still in a hardened condition. Rather, only after countless miracles, after his fame was spread abroad, did he call Matthew. He knew Matthew had been softened for full responsiveness.

We may admire, incidentally, the self-effacing temperament of Matthew, for we note how he does not disguise his own former life. In his account he freely adds his own name and his own bad profession, while the other Gospel writers had generously protected him under another name. But why did Matthew himself indicate precisely that he was “sitting at the tax office?” To point to the power of the One who called him, underscoring that he was being actively drawn away from the midst of the very evils in which he was presently engaged and that he had not already abandoned his wicked business as a tax gatherer. (The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 30 )”

O God,
Who with untold mercy
were pleased to choose as an Apostle
Saint Matthew, the tax collector, grant that,
sustained by his example and intercession,
we may merit to hold firm in following 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.

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Friday-Week24-2013.

“Indeed, religion with contentment is a great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:5)

In commenting on this verse from the First Letter of Paul to Timothy from today’s Mass Readings, Saint Augustine writes:

“He, then, is happy who has everything he wants but does not want what is not proper…. But, when men have attained that welfare for themselves and for those whom they love, shall we be able to say that they are now happy? They have something which it is proper to wish for, but if they have nothing else, either greater or better or more to their advantage and personal distinction, they are still far from happiness…. Certainly it is proper for them to wish for these things, not for the sake of the things themselves but for another reason, namely, that they may do good by providing for the welfare of those who live under them, but it is not proper to covet them out of the empty pride of self-esteem or useless ostentation or hurtful vanity. (Letters, 1305)”

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Thursday-Week24-2013.

“Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair.” (Luke 7:44)

In commenting on this verse from the Gospel according to Saint Luke from today’s Mass Readings, Saint Peter Chrysologus writes:

“With her hands of good works, she holds the feet of those who preach his kingdom. She washes them with tears of charity, kisses them with praising lips, and pours out the whole ointment of mercy, until he will turn her. This means that he will come back to her and say to Simon, to the Pharisees, to those who deny, to the nation of the Jews, “I came into your house. You gave me no water for my feet.” When will he speak these words? He will speak them when he will come in the majesty of his Father and separate the righteous from the unrighteous like a shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats. He will say, “I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not take me in.” This is equivalent to saying, “But this woman, while she was bathing my feet, anointing them and kissing them, did to the servants what you did not do for the Master.” She did for the feet what you refused to the Head. She expended upon the lowliest members what you refused to your Creator. Then he will say to the church, “Your sins, many as they are, are forgiven you because you have loved much. (Sermon 95)”

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Wednesday-Week24-2013

“They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’” (Luke 7:32)

In commenting on this verse from the Gospel according to Saint Luke from today’s Mass Readings, Saint Cyril of Alexandria writes:

“The prophet’s words will apply to us, “Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil. Who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter. Who put light for darkness, and darkness for light.” This was the character of the Israelites and especially of those who were their chiefs, the scribes, namely, and Pharisees. Christ said about them, “To what shall I liken the men of this generation? (Commentary on Luke, Homily 39)”