We shall see Christ (Augustine), Jesus said to the crowds: “Come to me, (Gospel Mt 11:28), Sr. Wendy 'Come to me'

 Night Office, Patristic Reading, 

WEDNESDAY 10/12/2014    Year I

First Reading

Ruth 3:1-18

Responsory      1 Sm 2:7.8; Lk 1:48

The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He humbles, he also exalts.

+ From the dung-heap he raises the needy to seat them with rulers and give them a throne of glory.

V. He has looked with favor on his lowly servant; from this day all generations shall call me blessed. + From the dung-heap ...

Second Reading

From a sermon by Saint Augustine of Hippo (Sermo 277,15-16: PL 38,1266-1267)

We shall see Christ   

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Let us make every effort to purify our hearts, exert ourselves to stay alert, and as far as in us lies gain this grace by constant prayer. And if we wonder about external purity, the Lord tells us: Clean the inside, and then the outside will be clean as well.

Some may think that scripture refers to the body as much as to the heart, for it is written: All humankind will see God's salvation. How then can there be any doubt that the sight of God is promised to us, unless there is doubt as to the meaning of God's salvation. But since there is no uncertainty about this, there is no doubt: God's salvation is Christ the Lord. The divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ can be seen by the eyes of the heart when they are pure, perfect, and full of God; and he was seen also in the body according to the text: Afterward he was seen on earth and lived among human beings. Thus the meaning of the text: All hu­mankind will see the salvation of God is clear: let no one doubt that it means that we shall see Christ.

Uncertainty remains, however, as to whether we shall see the Lord Christ in the body, or as the Word who was in the beginning, the Word who was with God and who was God, and into this we must inquire. All humankind will see God's salvation is said to mean that all humankind will see God's Christ. But Christ was also seen in a body that was no longer mortal, a body that had undergone a spiritual transformation. After his resurrection he himself said to those who saw and touched him: Handle and see, for spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. This is how he will be seen: not only how he was seen in the past but how he will be seen in the future. And then surely the words all humankind will be more perfectly fulfilled. For people see him now, but not all people. On the Day of Judgment, however, when he comes with his angels to judge the living and the dead, when all who are in their graves hear his voice and come forth, some rising to life, others to condemnation, they will see the very form which he deigned to assume for our sake. Not only will the righteous see it but also the wicked, both those on the right hand and those on the left, for even those who killed him will see him whom they pierced.

All humankind, then, will see God's salvation. Both those who see and he who is seen will be in the body because it is in his real body that he will come to judge. But to those placed on his right and sent to the kingdom of heaven he will show himself in the way he promised when he was already seen in the body:

Those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and show myself to them.

Responsory      See [er 31:10; 4:5

Listen to the word of the Lord, all you peoples; proclaim it to the ends of the earth. + Say to the distant islands: Our Saviour is coming.

V. Proclaim the good news, let it be heard; tell it to everyone, shout

it aloud. + Say to the ...

Jesus said to the crowds: “Come to me, all you who labour and are ...

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 11:28-30.

MEDITATION     OF           THE       DAY

Courtesy of MAGNIFICAT com

 

•Sr. Wendy Beckett. (Spiritual Letters)

"Come to me"

... What we cannot accept is that we are the beloved, or to put it more concretely, speaking as Everyman, that I am the beloved. God longs for me, he presses on my heart with a tender, humble hunger for me. He wants to possess me: when I let him, it is prayer. Always his love drives him to possess-one might call this the prayer of living? And when we have time, he enters into his own like a king-what one might call pure prayer. The pain of prayer is frustrating his love, and the joy is assuag­ing it, however feebly. To be so loved and so wanted is so terrifying and so awful that we can see why we shrink from believing it.

Another thing we are chary of believing is that prayer is gift. We don't choose our own prayer (or it might be different!). God is the prayer, the Pray-er. All he wants is that we accept, suffer, be involved, be le

~

SISTER WENDY BECKETT Sister Wendy Beckett is a South African-born British art expert, a consecrated virgin, and contemplative hermit who lives under the protection of a Carmelite monastery in Norfolk, England.