THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME SUNDAY
First Reading
Jeremiah 23:9-17.21-29
Responsory Lam
2:14; Jer 23:21
The visions your prophets saw for you were false and deceptive.
+They did not expose your sin, so as to reverse your fortunes.
V. I did not send these prophets; I did not speak to them. +They did not ...
Second
Reading
From a
commentary on Psalm 118 by Saint Ambrose
Expositio in Psalmum 118, 19, 36-39: CSEL 62, 440-442
Expositio in Psalmum 118, 19, 36-39: CSEL 62, 440-442
You are near, Lord, and all your commandments
are true. The Lord is near to all of us, because he is everywhere. We cannot escape
him if we offend him, nor deceive him if we sin, nor lose him if we worship
him. God watches everything, he sees everything. He is close to each one of
us; as he says: I am a God who is close at hand. How can God fail to
be everywhere, when you read of the Spirit of God that the Spirit of the
Lord has filled the whole world? For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is the Lord God. I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord. Where then can he
fail to be who fills everything? Or how can we all share in his fullness unless
he is near all of us?
So, knowing that God is everywhere, and
fills the sky, the earth, and the sea, David says: Where can I escape
from your Spirit, where flee from your face? If I go up to heaven you are
there; if I go down to Sheol you are there; if I take flight before
dawn to dwell at the sea's furthest end, even there your hand will lead me and
your right hand hold me fast. In what few words he has shown that God is
everywhere, and that wherever the Spirit of God is, there is God, and where God
is there is his Spirit! The union of the indivisible Trinity is portrayed here,
since it is the Son of God who pronounced these words through the mouth of the
prophet. He spoke in his human nature, for he descended to earth in the
incarnation, ascended to heaven in the resurrection, and through his bodily
death went down to the underworld to free the prisoners. Or if you prefer to
ascribe these words to the
prophet, you notice it is clearly shown that
wherever God the Father and God's Holy Spirit are, Christ is near as the hand,
and the right hand of God.
Since we know that the sun shines
everywhere, can we doubt that the splendor of God's glory and the image of his
being shines everywhere? What could the Word of God, the eternal splendor, not
penetrate, when he illuminates even the hidden mind, which the sun itself
cannot penetrate?
He penetrates the soul, then, and
illuminates it as with the brightness of eternal light. But although his virtue
is poured out among all and into all and over all, since he was born of the
Virgin for the sake of all, both good and bad, just as he commands his sun to
rise over good and bad, nevertheless he warms only those who come near to him.
For just as people shut out the sun's brightness when they close the windows of
their houses and choose to live in darkness, so those who turn their backs on
the Sun of Righteousness cannot see its splendor. They walk in darkness, and it
is plain to everyone that they themselves are the cause of their blindness. Open
your windows, then, so that your whole house shines with the brightness of the
true Sun; open your eyes so that you can see the Sun of Righteousness rising
for you.
Responsory Jer
23:23-24; Ps 139:7
Am I a God when near at hand,
and not a God when far away? Can
anyone hide in a dark corner without my
seeing him? + Do I
not fill heaven and earth?
V. Where can I escape from your Spirit? Where flee from your face?
+ Do I not fill ...
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