Sunday 10 October 2021
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
A commentary on Haggai by St Cyril of Alexandria
My name is great among the nations
When our Saviour came, he appeared as a divine temple, glorious beyond any comparison, far more splendid and excellent than the older temple. He exceeded the old as much as worship in Christ and the gospels exceeds the cult of the laws, as much as truth exceeds its shadows.
Furthermore, I might point out that originally there was just one temple at Jerusalem, in which one people, the Israelites, offered their sacrifices. Since the only-begotten Son became like us, and as Scripture says, though he was Lord and God, he has shone upon us, the rest of the world has been filled with places of worship. Now there are countless worshippers who honour the universal God with spiritual offerings and fragrant sacrifices. This, surely, is what Malachi foretold, speaking, as if in the person of God: I am a great king, says the Lord; my name is honoured among the nations, and everywhere there is offered to my name the fragrance of a pure sacrifice.
With justice, therefore, do we say that the final temple, the Church, will be more glorious. To those who are so solicitous for the Church and labour for its construction, Haggai declares that a gift will be made, a gift from heaven given by the Saviour. That gift is Christ himself, the peace of all men; through him we have access in the one Spirit to the Father. The prophet goes on to say: I will give peace to this place and peace of soul to save all who lay the foundation to rebuild the temple. Christ too says somewhere: My peace I give you. Paul will teach how profitable this is for those who love: The peace of Christ, he says, which surpasses all understanding will keep your minds and hearts. Isaiah, the seer, made the same prayer: O Lord our God, give us peace, for you have given us everything. Once a man has been found worthy of Christ’s peace, he can easily save his soul and guide his mind to carry out exactingly the demands of virtue.
Haggai, therefore, declares that peace will be given to all who build. One builds the Church either as a teacher of the sacred mysteries, as one set over the house of God, or as one who works for his own good by setting himself forth as a living and spiritual stone in the holy temple, God’s dwelling place in the Spirit. The results of these efforts will profit such men so that each will be able to gain his own salvation without difficulty.
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In other parts of the world and other calendars:
Saint Paulinus of York, Bishop and Missionary
A statue in Rochester Cathedral, England.
St Bede, History of the English Church and People
So King Edwin, with all the nobility of his Kingdom and a large number of humbler folk, accepted the Faith and were washed in the cleansing water of Baptism in the eleventh year of his reign, which was the year of Our Lord 627, and about a hundred and eighty years after the first arrival of the English in Britain. The king’s Baptism took place at York on Easter Day, the 12th April, in the church of St Peter the Apostle, which the king had hastily built of timber, during the time of his instruction and preparation for Baptism; and in this city he established the see of his teacher and bishop Paulinus. Soon after his Baptism, at Paulinus’ suggestion, he gave orders to build on the same site a larger and more noble basilica of stone, which was to enclose the little oratory he had built before. The foundations were laid, and the walls of a square church began to rise around this little oratory; but before they reached their appointed height, the cruel death of the king left the work to be completed by Oswald his successor. Thenceforward for six years until the close of Edwin’s reign, Paulinus preached the word in that province with the King’s full consent and approval, and as many as were predestined to eternal life believed and were baptized.
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.