Commentary of the day
Saint Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-395), monk and Bishop
Homily 11 on the Song of Songs
“They were eating, drinking, buying, selling”
The Lord gave his disciples important recommendations so that they might shake off everything earthly in their nature like dust and might thus be raised to desire for supernatural realities. According to one of these recommendations, those who turn towards the life on high must be stronger than sleep and always remain watchful… I am talking about the drowsiness that arises among those who are plunged in life’s lie through illusory dreams such as honors, riches, power, pomp, the fascination of pleasure, ambition, the thirst for enjoyment, vanity and everything that their imaginations lead superficial people to seek after madly. All these things pass away with the fleeting nature of time; they belong to the domain of appearances… Hardly have they seemed to exist when they disappear like the waves of the sea…
The above quote was posted as a commentary on today’s Gospel for Friday, Nov. 14, 2014. As I read it after reading today’s Gospel from Luke 17:26-37:So that our minds might be free of these illusions, the Word invites us to shake this deep sleep from the eyes of our soul, so that we might not slip away from the true realities by becoming attached to that which has no consistency. That is why he suggests that we be watchful when he says: “Let your belts be fastened around your waists and your lamps be burning ready.” (Lk 12:35) For when the light shines before our eyes, it chases sleep away, and when our loins are held tight by a belt, they prevent the body from succumbing to it… The person who has fastened on the belt of temperance lives in the light of a pure conscience; the trust of a child illuminates his life like a lamp… If we live in this way, we will enter a life like that of the angels.
Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, a person who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise a person in the field must not return to what was left behind.
Remember the wife of Lot.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.
I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left.
And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left."
I thought to myself, how timeless is God’s Word – and how timeless are the words of the saints who pondered and kept His Word in their Hearts, living His Life as Mary did! May we pray daily to the Holy Spirit that we may hear and to do the Truth of Jesus.They said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.”
Dear hazcompat,Abandonment to Divine Providence
Jean-Pierre de Caussade
God continues to speak to-day as He spoke in former times to our fathers when there were no directors as at present, nor any regular method of direction. Then all spirituality was comprised in fidelity to the designs of God, for there was no regular system of guidance in the spiritual life to explain it in detail, nor so many instructions, precepts and examples as there are now. Doubtless our present difficulties render this necessary, but it was not so in the first ages when souls were more simple and straightforward. Then, for those who led a spiritual life, each moment brought some duty to be faithfully accomplished. Their whole attention was thus concentrated consecutively like a hand that marks the hours which, at each moment, traverses the space allotted to it. Their minds, incessantly animated by the impulsion of divine grace, turned imperceptibly to each new
duty that presented itself by the permission of God at different hours of the day. Such were the hidden springs by which the conduct of Mary was actuated. Mary was the most simple of all creatures, and the most closely united to God. Her answer to the angel when she said: “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum”: contained all the mystic theology of her ancestors to whom everything was reduced, as it is now, to the purest, simplest submission of the soul to the will of God, under whatever form it presents itself. This beautiful and exalted state, which was the basis of the spiritual life of Mary, shines conspicuously in these simple words, “Fiat mihi” (Luke i, 38). Take notice that they are in complete harmony with those which Our Lord desires that we should have always on our lips and in our hearts: “Fiat voluntas tua.” It is true that what was required of Mary at this great moment, was for her very great glory, but the magnificence of this glory would have made no impression on her if she had not seen in it the fulfilment of the will of God. In all things was she ruled by the divine will. Were her occupations ordinary, or of an elevated nature, they were to her but the manifestation, sometimes obscure, sometimes clear, of the operations of the most High, in which she found alike subject matter for the glory of God. Her spirit, transported with joy, looked upon all that she had to do or to suffer at each moment as the gift of Him who fills with good things the hearts of those who hunger and thirst for Him alone, and have no desire for created things.
Ave Maria
Peace
By God’s Grace, may we choose to die to our lives of selfishness and self-centeredness, may God reveal to us our hidden sins, that we may die to them and begin to live the life of Christ as we are called to live. To abandon ourselves to God’s Will requires us to die to all that is not His Will. Mary shows us how a simple human person can grow in faith, hope and above all charity, because nothing is impossible with God.Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.