Monday of the Twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time Letter to the Romans 4:20-25. Brothers and sisters: Abraham did not doubt God’s promise in unbelief; rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God and was fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to do. That is why it was credited to him as righteousness. But it was not for him alone that it was written that it was credited to him; it was also for us, to whom it will be credited, who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1:69-70.71-72.73-75. He has raised up for us a mighty savior, Born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old That he would save us from our enemies, From the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers And to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: To set us free from the hands of our enemies, Free to worship him without fear, Holy and righteous in his sight All the days of our life. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12:13-21. Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me. He replied to him, Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator? Then he said to the crowd, Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, ones life does not consist of possessions. Then he told them a parable. There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest? And he said, This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry! But God said to him, You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong? Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God. Commentary of the day Isaac the Syrian (7th century), monk near Mosul, saint of the Orthodox churches Ascetical discourses, 1st series, no. 38 This night your life will be demanded of you O Lord, make me worthy of renouncing my own life for the life that is yours. The life of this world is like that of those who serve as letters for making up words. But the life of the world to come is like something written without a single mistake in books sealed with the royal seal in which there is nothing to add and nothing missing. And so, so long as we are in the midst of change, let us pay attention to ourselves. So long as we have control over the manuscript of our lives, over what we have written with our own hands, let us strive to add to it whatever good we have done and erase the mistakes of our former behavior. So long as we are in this world God does not set his seal on either good or evil. He does so only at the moment of our passing when our work has been accomplished, at the time we are about to leave. As Saint Ephrem says: we must imagine our souls as being like a ship ready for the voyage but not knowing when the wind will come, or like an army that does not know when the trumpet will sound to call to battle. If this is what he says about the ship and the army waiting for something that will possibly never happen, how much more should we not prepare ourselves before that day comes suddenly, before the bridge is lowered and the harbor of the new world opened. May Christ, the mediator of our life, grant we may be ready.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 20:19:23 +0000