To Set This One Truth Before Their Eyes

Oh, I love this from today's Office of Readings!  It's from a sermon on the Ascension by Pope St. Leo the Great:

Beloved, the days which passed between the Lord’s resurrection and his ascension were by no means uneventful; during them great sacramental mysteries were confirmed, great truths revealed. In those days the fear of death with all its horrors was taken away, and the immortality of both body and soul affirmed. It was then that the Lord breathed on all his apostles and filled them with the Holy Spirit; and after giving the keys of the kingdom to blessed Peter, whom he had chosen and set above all the others, he entrusted him with the care of his flock.   

During these days the Lord joined two of his disciples as their companion on the road, and by chiding them for their timidity and hesitant fears he swept away all the clouds of our uncertainty. Their lukewarm hearts were fired by the light of faith and began to burn within them as the Lord opened up the Scriptures. And as they shared their meal with him, their eyes were opened in the breaking of bread, opened far more happily to the sight of their own glorified humanity than were the eyes of our first parents to the shame of their sin.  

Throughout the whole period between the resurrection and ascension, God’s providence was at work to instill this one lesson into the hearts of the disciples, to set this one truth before their eyes, that our Lord Jesus Christ, who was truly born, truly suffered and truly died, should be recognized as truly risen from the dead. The blessed apostles together with all the others had been intimidated by the catastrophe of the cross, and their faith in the resurrection had been uncertain; but now they were so strengthened by the evident truth that when their Lord ascended into heaven, far from feeling any sadness, they were filled with great joy.  

Indeed that blessed company had a great and inexpressible cause for joy when it saw man’s nature rising above the dignity of the whole heavenly creation, above the ranks of angels, above the exalted status of archangels. Nor would there be any limit to its upward course until humanity was admitted to a seat at the right hand of the eternal Father, to be enthroned at last in the glory of him to whose nature it was wedded in the person of the Son.

Remain Firm in the Unity of Christ's Body through the Enduring Bond of Love

From St. Fulgentius of Ruspe in the Office of Readings for today:

"The spiritual building up of the body of Christ is achieved through love. As Saint Peter says: Like living stones you are built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And there can be no more effective way to pray for this spiritual growth than for the Church, itself Christ’s body, to make the offering of his body and blood in the sacramental form of bread and wine. For the cup we drink is a participation in the blood of Christ, and the bread we break is a participation in the body of Christ. Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, since we all share the same bread. And so we pray that, by the same grace which made the Church Christ’s body, all its members may remain firm in the unity of that body through the enduring bond of love.

"We are right to pray that this may be brought about in us through the gift of the one Spirit of the Father and the Son. The holy Trinity, the one true God, is of its nature unity, equality and love, and by one divine activity sanctifies its adopted sons. That is why Scripture says that God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit he has given us. The Holy Spirit, who is the one Spirit of the Father and the Son, produces in those to whom he gives the grace of divine adoption the same effect as he produced among those whom the Acts of the Apostles describes as having received the Holy Spirit. We are told that the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, because the one Spirit of the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is one God, had created a single heart and soul in all those who believed.

"This is why Saint Paul in his exhortation to the Ephesians says that this spiritual unity in the bond of peace must be carefully preserved. I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, he writes, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, with all humility and meekness and with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit.

"God makes the Church itself a sacrifice pleasing in his sight by preserving within it the love which his Holy Spirit has poured out. Thus the grace of that spiritual love is always available to us, enabling us continually to offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to him for ever."

An Ennobled Existence

"A happy death is a masterpiece and no masterpiece was ever perfected in a day...our death at the end of our natural existence must appear as a ravishing perfection of the many years of labor we have given over to it's mold by dying daily...Most of us die only once when we should have died a thousand times-- aye when we should have died daily. Death is a terrible thing for him who dies only when he dies; but it is a beautiful thing for him who dies before he dies...There is no other way of entering into a higher life except by dying to the lower; there is no possibility of man's enjoying an ennobled existence in Christ unless he is torn up from the old Adam."

+Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Let us fall into the hands of the Lord

Sirach Chapter 2:

My child, when you come to serve the Lord,

prepare yourself for trials.

 

Be sincere of heart and steadfast,

and do not be impetuous in time of adversity.

 

Cling to him, do not leave him,

that you may prosper in your last days.

 

Accept whatever happens to you;

in periods of humiliation be patient.

 

For in fire gold is tested,

and the chosen, in the crucible of humiliation.

 

Trust in God, and he will help you;

make your ways straight and hope in him.

 

You that fear the Lord, wait for his mercy,

do not stray lest you fall.

 

You that fear the Lord, trust in him,

and your reward will not be lost.

 

You that fear the LORD, hope for good things,

for lasting joy and mercy.

 

Consider the generations long past and see:

has anyone trusted in the Lord and been disappointed?

Has anyone persevered in his fear and been forsaken?

has anyone called upon him and been ignored?

 

For the Lord is compassionate and merciful;

forgives sins and saves in time of trouble.

 

Woe to timid hearts and drooping hands,

to the sinner who walks a double path!

 

Woe to the faint of heart! For they do not trust,

and therefore have no shelter!

 

Woe to you that have lost hope!

what will you do at the Lord’s visitation?

 

Those who fear the Lord do not disobey his words;

those who love him keep his ways.

 

Those who fear the Lord seek to please him;

those who love him are filled with his law.

 

Those who fear the Lord prepare their hearts

and humble themselves before him.

 

Let us fall into the hands of the Lord

and not into the hands of mortals,

 

For equal to his majesty is his mercy;

and equal to his name are his works.