From a letter of Saint Paulinus to Augustine of Hippo :
“It is not surprising if, despite being far apart, we are present to each other and, without being acquainted, know each other, because we are members of one body, we have one head, we are steeped in one grace, we live on one loaf, we walk on one road and we dwell in the same house” (Ep. VI, 2).
Gospel Reading : Luke 12:32-34
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
What do the Fathers say?
An excerpt from a poem by St Paulinus:
….now another power,
a greater God,
inspires my mind and demands another way of life.
He asks back from man His own gift,
so that we may live for the Father of life.
He bids us not spend our days on the emptiness of leisure and business,
or on the fictions of literature,
so that we may obey His laws and behold His light
which is clouded by the clever powers of philosophers,
the skill of rhetoricians,
and the inventions of poets.
These men steep our hearts in what is false and empty.
They form only men’s tongues,
and bring nothing to bestow salvation or to clothe us in the truth.
What good, what truth can they possess
who do not have the Head of all,
God who is the Kindling and the Source of truth and goodness,
whom no man sees except in Christ?
He is the Light of truth,
the Path of life,
the Power and Mind, Hand and Strength of the Father.
He is the Sun of justice,
Source of blessings,
Flower of God,
God’s Son,
Creator of the world,
Life of our mortality,
and Death to our death.
He is the Master of the virtues.
He is God to us
and became Man for us
by stripping off His nature and assuming ours,
forging eternal relations between man and God,
while He Himself is both.
So when He has flashed His rays over our hearts,
He cleans the enfeebling foulness from our sluggish bodies
and renews the dispositions of our minds.
All that delighted us before He draws away,
and in its stead leaves a pleasure that is chaste.
By His rights as Lord He demands wholly
our hearts, tongues, and heads.
He wishes to be the object of
our thought and understanding,
our belief and reading, our fear and love. . . .
Sources:
Bible readings from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Second Catholic Edition, copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Poem 10, from The Poems of St. Paulinus of Nola, translated by P. G. Walsh, volume 40 in the Ancient Christian Writers series
Paulinus’ Letter to St Augustine (Ep. VI, 2) as quoted in the General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI on 12 December 2007
Artwork ex Wikimedia Commons