Friday 21 May 2021
Friday of the 7th week of Eastertide
or Saint Christopher Magallanes and his Companions, Martyrs
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Friday of the 7th week of Eastertide
From the treatise on the Trinity by Saint Hilary of Poitiers
The Father's gift in Christ
Our Lord commanded us to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In baptism, then, we profess faith in the Creator, in the only-begotten Son and in the gift which is the Spirit. There is one Creator of all things, for in God there is one Father from whom all things have their being. And there is one only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist. And there is one Spirit, the gift who is in all. So all follow their due order, according to the proper operation of each: one power, which brings all things into being, one Son, through whom all things come to be, and one gift of perfect hope. Nothing is wanting to this flawless union: in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there is infinity of endless being, perfect reflection of the divine image, and mutual enjoyment of the gift.
Our Lord has described the purpose of the Spirit’s presence in us. Let us listen to his words: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. It is to your advantage that I go away; if I go, I will send you the Advocate. And also: I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth. He will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine.
From among many of our Lord’s sayings, these have been chosen to guide our understanding, for they reveal to us the intention of the giver, the nature of the gift and the condition for its reception. Since our weak minds cannot comprehend the Father or the Son, we have been given the Holy Spirit as our intermediary and advocate, to shed light on that hard doctrine of our faith, the incarnation of God.
We receive the Spirit of truth so that we can know the things of God. In order to grasp this, consider how useless the faculties of the human body would become if they were denied their exercise. Our eyes cannot fulfil their task without light, either natural or artificial; our ears cannot react without sound vibrations, and in the absence of any odour our nostrils are ignorant of their function. Not that these senses would lose their own nature if they were not used; rather, they demand objects of experience in order to function. It is the same with the human soul. Unless it absorbs the gift of the Spirit through faith, the mind has the ability to know God but lacks the light necessary for that knowledge.
This unique gift which is in Christ is offered in its fullness to everyone. It is everywhere available, but it is given to each man in proportion to his readiness to receive it. Its presence is the fuller, the greater a man’s desire to be worthy of it. This gift will remain with us until the end of the world, and will be our comfort in the time of waiting. By the favours it bestows, it is the pledge of our hope for the future, the light of our minds, and the splendour that irradiates our understanding.
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Other choices for today:
Saint Christopher Magallanes and his Companions, Martyrs
From a sermon of St Caesarius of Arles
He who bears witness to the truth will be a martyr of Christ
As often as we celebrate the feasts of martyrs, dearest brethren, we ought to consider that we are fighting under the same king under whom they merited both to fight and to conquer. We ought to reflect that we have been saved by the same baptism by which they were saved, have been confirmed by the same sacraments which they deserved to receive, and carry on our foreheads the sign of the same commander whose insignia they, too, happily bore.
Therefore as often as we desire to celebrate the feasts of the holy martyrs, the blessed martyrs ought to recognise in us something of their virtues, in order that it may please them to beseech the mercy of God on our behalf. For “every living thing loves its own kind”. If, then, like associates with like, the unlike is separated at a distance. Behold, our special blessed patron, whose feast we are eager to celebrate with joy, was temperate; how can the drunkard be associated with him? What companionship can the humble soul have with the proud, the kind with the envious, the generous with the avaricious, the meek with the angry? Without any doubt the blessed martyr was chaste; how will an adulterer be able to associate with him? And since the glorious martyrs lavished even their own possessions on the poor, dearest brethren, how will people who rob the property of another be able to be friends with them? The holy martyrs endeavoured to love even their enemies; how, then, will those who are often unwilling to make a return of love even to their friends have a part with them? Let it not grieve us, dearest brethren, to imitate the holy martyrs as far as we can, in order that we may merit to be absolved from all our sins through their merits and prayers.
Now someone says: Who is there who can imitate the holy martyrs? If not in everything, at least in many things we both can and ought to do so with the help of God.
You cannot endure the flame of fire? You can avoid dissipation. You are unable to stand the torturing claw which tears one to pieces? Despise the avarice which encourages wicked business deals and evil profits. If easy circumstances overwhelm you, how will harsh ones fail to break you? Peace also takes hold of its martyrs; for to overcome anger, to reject envy as the poison of serpents, to resist pride, to repel hatred from one’s heart, to bridle superfluous desires of the appetite, not to give way to immoderate drink – all this is a great part of martyrdom.
Whenever and wherever you see the cause of justice oppressed, if you give testimony on its behalf, you will be a martyr. Because Christ is both truth and justice, whenever either justice or truth or chastity is in difficulty, you will receive the reward of the martyrs if you have defended it with whatever strength you possess. And since in our tongue a martyr is interpreted as a witness, one who has borne witness to the truth doubtless will be a martyr of Christ, who is the truth.
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.