Tuesday 13 April 2021
Tuesday of the 2nd week of Eastertide
or Saint Martin I, Pope, Martyr
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Tuesday of the 2nd week of Eastertide
From a book addressed to Monimus by Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe, bishop
The sacrament of unity and love
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.
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Other choices for today:
Saint Martin I, Pope, Martyr
A letter of Pope St Martin I
The Lord is close, and why am I anxious?
Our constant desire in our letters to you, my beloved brethren, is to console you and to relieve the anxiety you have for us. And this applies to all our brethren and the holy men who are worrying about me for the sake of the Lord. I am writing now at the moment to you about the difficulties that are pressing in on me. In the name of Christ our God, I am telling the truth.
We are not only far removed from all the turmoil of the world and destroyed by our sins, but we have been deprived even of the means to live. For the natives of this region are all heathens and those who account themselves resident here have also all adopted heathen customs; they are completely lacking in that human kindness which even among barbarians human nature always leads men to display in frequent acts of compassion.
I have been, and am still, amazed at the lack of sensitivity and compassion among all those who once had to do with me — both my friends and relations. They have so completely forgotten me in my misfortune, and do not want to know how I am faring, whether indeed I am alive or not.
What sort of defence will we have to show at the tribunal of Christ, when all men will be mutually accusing and defending themselves, all of them of the same stuff and clay? What fear was it which fell on men to prevent them carrying out God’s command, a groundless fear? Or is it that evil spirits make me a forgotten man by removing me to such a remote place? Have I appeared such an enemy to the whole Church, so hostile to them?
However, may God, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, make their hearts firm in the orthodox faith by the intercession of Saint Peter; may he strengthen them against every heretic, and anyone who is an enemy of our Church. May he keep them unmoved, especially the pastor who has now emerged as their leader, so that they may not fall directly away, or even incline to do so; may they forsake none of those things which they have professed in the sight of the Lord and of his holy angels in their writings, even in the slightest degree. So may they receive, along with me in my lowliness, the crown of righteousness of the orthodox faith from the hand of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
As for this, my lowly body, it will be the concern of the Lord, to direct it as it pleases him, whether my troubles continue unbroken or I enjoy some measure of relief. The Lord is near. Why then am I anxious? I put my hope indeed in his mercies that the Lord will not delay to bring my course to an end in whatever way he has commanded.
Greet then all those who are yours for the sake of the Lord, and all who for the love of God have pity on me in my bonds. May God in heaven protect you with the power of his hand from every temptation, and bring you to salvation in his kingdom.
Copyright © 1996-2021 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.