The truth of the Lord endures for ever

You thunder your judgments upon me, O Lord; you shake all my bones with fear and dread, and my soul becomes severely frightened. I am bewildered when I realize that even the heavens are not pure in your sight.

If you discovered iniquity in the angels and did not spare them, what will become of me? The stars fell from heaven, and I, mere dust, what should I expect? Those whose works seemed praiseworthy fell to the depths, and I have seen those who once were fed with the bread of angels delighting in the husks of swine.
There is no holiness where you have withdrawn your hand, O Lord; no profitable wisdom if you cease to rule over it; no helpful strength if you cease to preserve it. For if you forsake us, we sink and perish; but if you visit us, we rise up and live again. We are unstable, but you make us firm; we grow cool, but you inflame us.

All superficial glory has been swallowed up in the depths of your judgment upon me.
What is all flesh in your sight? Can the clay be glorified in opposition to its Maker?
How can anyone be aroused by empty talk if his heart is subject in the truth to God?
The whole world cannot swell with pride the man who is subject to truth; nor will he be swayed by the flattery of all his admirers, if he has established all his trust in God.For those who do all the talking amount to nothing; they fail with their din of words, but the truth of the Lord endures for ever.

Let us gain eternal wisdom

From the Confessions of Saint Augustine, bishop

The day was now approaching when my mother Monica would depart from this life; you knew that day, Lord, though we did not. She and I happened to be standing by ourselves at a window that overlooked the garden in the courtyard of the house. At the time we were in Ostia on the Tiber. We had gone there after a long and wearisome journey to get away from the noisy crowd, and to rest and prepare for our sea voyage. I believe that you, Lord, caused all this to happen in your own mysterious ways. And so the two of us, all alone, were enjoying a very pleasant conversation, forgetting the past and pushing on to what is ahead. We were asking one another in the presence of the Truth–for you are the Truth–what it would be like to share the eternal life enjoyed by the saints, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, which has not even entered into the heart of man. We desired with all our hearts to drink from the streams of your heavenly fountain, the fountain of life.

That was the substance of our talk, though not the exact words. But you know, O Lord, that in the course of our conversation that day, the world and its pleasures lost all their attraction for us. My mother said: “Son, as far as I am concerned, nothing in this life now gives me any pleasure. I do not know why I am still here, since I have no further hopes in this world. I did have one reason for wanting to live a little longer: to see you become a Catholic Christian before I died. God has lavished his gifts on me in that respect, for I know that you have even renounced earthly happiness to be his servant. So what am I doing here?”
I do not really remember how I answered her. Shortly, within five days or thereabouts, she fell sick with a fever. Then one day during the course of her illness she became unconscious and for a while she was unaware of her surroundings. My brother and I rushed to her side but she regained consciousness quickly. She looked at us as we stood there and asked in a puzzled voice: “Where was I?” We were overwhelmed with grief, but she held her gaze steadily upon us and spoke further: “Here you shall bury your mother.” I remained silent as I held back my tears. However, my brother haltingly expressed his hope that she might not die in a strange country but in her own land, since her end would be happier there.

When she heard this, her face was filled with anxiety, and she reproached him with a glance because he had entertained such earthly thoughts. Then she looked at me and spoke: “Look what he is saying.” Thereupon she said to both of us: “Bury my body wherever you will; let not care of it cause you any concern. One thing only I ask you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.” Once our mother had expressed this desire as best she could, she fell silent as the pain of her illness increased.

You, O God, are everything to us

From an instruction by Saint Columban, abbot

Brethren, let us follow that vocation by which we are called from life to the fountain of life. He is the fountain, not only of living water, but of eternal life. He is the fountain of light and spiritual illumination; for from him come all these things: wisdom, life and eternal light. The author of life is the fountain of life; the creator of light is the fountain of spiritual illumination. Therefore, let us seek the fountain of light and life and the living water by despising what we see, by leaving the world and dwelling in the highest heavens. Let us seek these things, and like rational and shrewd fish may we drink the living water which wells up to eternal life.
Merciful God, good Lord, I wish that you would unite me to that fountain, that there I may drink of the living spring of the water of life with those others who thirst after you. There in that heavenly region may I ever dwell, delighted with abundant sweetness, and say: “How sweet is the fountain of living water which never fails, the water welling up to eternal life.”

O God, you are yourself that fountain ever and again to be desired, ever and again to be consumed. Lord Christ, always give us this water to be for us the source of the living water which wells up to eternal life. I ask you for your great benefits. Who does not know it? You, King of glory, know how to give great gifts, and you have promised them; there is nothing greater than you, and you bestowed yourself upon us; you gave yourself for us.

Therefore, we ask that we may know what we love, since we ask nothing other than that you give us yourself. For you are our all: our life, our light, our salvation, our food and our drink, our God. Inspire our hearts, I ask you, Jesus, with that breath of your Spirit; wound our souls with your love, so that the soul of each and every one of us may say in truth: Show me my soul’s desire, for I am wounded by your love.

These are the wounds I wish for Lord. Blessed is the soul so wounded by love. Such a soul seeks the fountain of eternal life and drinks from it, although it continues to thirst and its thirst grows ever greater even as it drinks. Therefore, the more the soul loves, the more it desires to love, and the greater its suffering, the greater its healing. In this same way may our God and Lord Jesus Christ, the good and saving physician, wound the depths of our souls with a healing wound—the same Jesus Christ who reigns in unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

The weakness of God is stronger than men

From a homily on the first letter to the Corinthians by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop

It was clear through unlearned men that the cross was persuasive, in fact, it persuaded the whole world. Their discourse was not of unimportant matters but of God and true religion, of the Gospel way of life and future judgment, yet it turned plain, uneducated men into philosophers. How the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and his weakness stronger than men!

In what way is it stronger? It made its way throughout the world and overcame all men; countless men sought to eradicate the very name of the Crucified, but that name flourished and grew ever mightier. Its enemies lost out and perished; the living who waged a war on a dead man proved helpless. Therefore, when a Greek tells me I am dead, he shows only that he is foolish indeed, for I, whom he thinks a fool, turn out to be wiser than those reputed wise. So too, in calling me weak, he but shows that he is weaker still. For the good deeds which tax-collectors and fishermen were able to accomplish by God’s grace, the philosophers, the rulers, the countless multitudes cannot even imagine.

Paul had this in mind when he said: The weakness of God is stronger than men. That the preaching of these men was indeed divine is brought home to us in the same way. For how otherwise could twelve uneducated men, who lived on lakes and rivers and wastelands, get the idea for such an immense enterprise? How could men who perhaps had never been in a city or a public square think of setting out to do battle with the whole world? That they were fearful, timid men, the evangelist makes clear; he did not reject the fact or try to hide their weaknesses. Indeed he turned these into a proof of the truth. What did he say of them? That when Christ was arrested, the others fled, despite all the miracles they had seen, while he who was leader of the others denied him!

How then account for the fact that these men, who in Christ’s lifetime did not stand up to the attacks by the Jews, set forth to do battle with the whole world once Christ was dead—if, as you claim, Christ did not rise and speak to them and rouse their courage? Did they perhaps say to themselves: “What is this? He could not save himself but he will protect us? He did not help himself when he was alive, but now that he is dead he will extend a helping hand to us? In his lifetime he brought no nation under his banner, but by uttering his name we will win over the whole world?” Would it not be wholly irrational even to think such thoughts, much less to act upon them?

It is evident, then, that if they had not seen him risen and had proof of his power, they would not have risked so much.

Reference: http://divineoffice.org/

Five paths of Repentance

From a homily by Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop

 

Would you like me to list also the paths of repentance? They are numerous and quite varied, and all lead to heaven.

A first path of repentance is the condemnation of your own sins: Be the first to admit your sins and you will be justified. For this reason, too, the prophet wrote: I said: I will accuse myself of my sins to the Lord, and you forgave the wickedness of my heart. Therefore, you too should condemn your own sins; that will be enough reason for the Lord to forgive you, for a man who condemns his own sins is slower to commit them again. Rouse your conscience to accuse you within your own house, lest it become your accuser before the judgment seat of the Lord.That, then, is one very good path of repentance. 

Another and no less valuable one is to put out of our minds the harm done us by our enemies, in order to master our anger, and to forgive our fellow servants’ sins against us. Then our own sins against the Lord will be forgiven us. Thus you have another way to atone for sin: For if you forgive your debtors, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 

Do you want to know of a third path? It consists of prayer that is fervent, careful and comes from the heart.

If you want to hear of a fourth, I will mention almsgiving, whose power is great and far-reaching. If, moreover, a man lives a modest, humble life, that, no less than the other things I have mentioned, takes sin away. Proof of this is the tax-collector who had no good deeds to mention, but offered his humility instead and was relieved of a heavy burden of sins.

Thus I have shown you five paths of repentance; condemnation of your own sins, forgiveness of our neighbor’s sins against us, prayer, almsgiving and humility. 

Do not be idle, then, but walk daily in all these paths; they are easy, and you cannot plead your poverty. For, though you live out your life amid great need, you can always set aside your wrath, be humble, pray diligently and condemn your own sins; poverty is no hindrance. Poverty is not an obstacle to our carrying out the Lord’s bidding, even when it comes to that path of repentance which involves giving money (almsgiving, I mean). The widow proved that when she put her two mites into the box!Now that we have learned how to heal these wounds of ours, let us apply the cures. Then, when we have regained genuine health, we can approach the holy table with confidence, go gloriously to meet Christ, the king of glory, and attain the eternal blessings through the grace, mercy and kindness of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Reference: http://divineoffice.org/

The Enemy In Us

by: Fr.Basil Cole, OP (few of the context of this blog was taken from the book of "The hidden enemy of priesthood: The contribution of St. Aquinas")


As followers of Christ, we need to be aware of our enemy. We must understand him and must know how to deal our enemy. Most people find easier to recognize other people’s negativity but find it much harder to deal with their own negative thoughts, emotions and judgment. The reason is that we are able to recognize easily when other people are criticizing and judging us. We may not know exactly how to deal with it, but we are aware of it. In fact we tend to overlook that we are already sinning and fall into temptation. Pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, sloth and avarice are the deadly sins that we need to recognize and confront them within ourselves because they may already become our vices but we are still not aware.

St. Thomas describes the sin of pride as a vice with its own special interest, namely an “inordinate appetite for one’s own superiority”. Any sin can be prompted by such a spirit and quite often be repulsed by the divine law which keeps a man from sinning because some proud persons want no limits to their behavior (freedom of choice without boundaries). He states that a desire for one’s own superiority pushes one to contribute to an “exaggerated self-esteem” with the harmful consequences of dwelling on other people failures. Pride leads to a boasting about “qualities one does not possess” or imagining one has a gift from oneself, or if thinking profoundly about some aspect of reality is a gift from God, “believing one deserves it” that may cause the bad habit of looking down on others and wishing to appear singularly good.

The root of pride is somehow not being subject to God and his rule. This is another ways of saying that one person exceeds unreasonably his desire for excellence even though he does not have the requisite talents for a particular goal or aim for the work in question. Pride ultimately becomes a kind of contempt of God either by not relying on his help or eventually hating God in some way. One of the few examples is rash judgment – proud person who thinks too highly of himself and less highly of others in proximity is that he is almost forced into making judgment about other people in order to raise himself above others. Instead, these harsh judgments dispose one toward hatred, envy, lack of mercy or simple neglect of friendliness. We can ultimately judge at most that certain actions are apparent mortal sins since we cannot know a person’s soul although we can determine objectively that some actions are gravely unjust. It is important to note that there is no sin called “judgemental”; this is a modern notion that negative judgments of others is somehow condemned by Christ.

 Another example is the sin of ambition; How pride can affect the judgment of other by becoming ambitious?  The desire for recognition therefore can be unbalanced in three ways: First, a person can seek recognition of an excellence which he does not possess, which means seeking more than one’s true share of recognition. Second, he can desire honor for himself without acknowledgment to God. Third, his desire can rest content with recognition itself, without applying it to the service of others. In other words, the unreasonable desire for recognition is the unreasonable desire of excellence. 

Envy, a kind of sin which helps other sins comes in its wake. As what Gregory the Great says; from envy comes hatred, gossip, detraction, gloating over our neighbors’ hard luck, and being sore at his success. Detraction which is sometimes called “backbiting” or “calumny” attempts to injure another’s character by belittling someone in secret causing others to have a bad opinion of the person about whom he is spreading his secret tales so as to take away another’s reputation. One may lie about a person’s character, exaggerating his weaknesses, telling his secrets, accusing him of bad intentions in his good deed, denying his good qualities when he is being verbally attacked or being silent in a malicious way about his good qualities.  This act of detraction is considered to be a grave sin in its species because it willfully injures a person’s reputation and thus prevents him from doing many good deeds. It is not sin however, when the truth needs to be told in a confidential manner to a higher authority for the sake of the individual himself or the common good of the Church. However, even this makes the envious person feel good. 

Gossip, which translates whispering, goes beyond harming a person’s reputation to the desire to split up friendships. This is an even worse sin objectively since a friend is better than honor and to be loved is better than to be honored according to Aristotle. Hatred must be examined first as an emotion before we can turn what it means to hate one’s neighbor as an outcome of envy. As to what St. Thomas says that “hatred is contrary to love”. Good is the object of love and hatred is the object of evil. When there is pleasure, there is the emotion of love behind it because everything is naturally in harmony with what is agreeable to it, and this constitutes “natural love”; similarly it is natural out of harmony with that which is alien and this constitutes “natural hatred”.  The emotion of hatred is not a sin unless it becomes hatred of God or neighbor. The person filled with wrongful hate wishes evil for its own sake upon another which in turn will lead to unjust acts; immoral hatred is an evil disposition which does not care, howsoever undeservedly evil befalls the person he hates.

Gloating over another’s misfortune, this is one of the great tragedies of our present time; the hidden sins of envy by the gloaters over the downfall of our neighbors. They may have been envied in their rise and now these same people delight in their misfortunes, putting their own souls in jeopardy for their lack of mercy.

Pride and vainglory can so wound a person’s virtue by the power of these desires, as to St. Paul called covetousness (greediness) the root of all evils (1 Tm 6:10) – “For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains” and yet St. Thomas teaches that pride is the beginning of all sin because the nature of moral evil begins in turning away from God. Every sin involves a turning toward a changeable good in a disordered way. This in turn disposes a person for a slow or total turning from God through venial and mortal sin, “because of riches a person acquires the power to commit any kind of sin, of satisfying his desires for every sort of sin; for money helps a man to obtain all manner of temporal goods”. Therefore, avarice (greediness) is a kind of root for sin as a turning unreasonably to material goods.