Wednesday 23 March 2022
Wednesday of the 3rd week of Lent
(optional commemoration of Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo, Bishop)
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Wednesday of the 3rd week of Lent
From the book addressed to Autolycus by Saint Theophilus of Antioch, bishop
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God
If you say, “Show me your God,” I will say to you, “Show me what kind of person you are, and I will show you my God.” Show me then whether the eyes of your mind can see, and the ears of your heart hear.
It is like this. Those who can see with the eyes of their bodies are aware of what is happening in this life on earth. They get to know things that are different from each other. They distinguish light and darkness, black and white, ugliness and beauty, elegance and inelegance, proportion and lack of proportion, excess and defect. The same is true of the sounds we hear: high or low or pleasant. So it is with the ears of our heart and the eyes of our mind in their capacity to hear or see God.
God is seen by those who have the capacity to see him, provided that they keep the eyes of their mind open. All have eyes, but some have eyes that are shrouded in darkness, unable to see the light of the sun. Because the blind cannot see it, it does not follow that the sun does not shine. The blind must trace the cause back to themselves and their eyes. In the same way, you have eyes in your mind that are shrouded in darkness because of your sins and evil deeds.
A person’s soul should be clean, like a mirror reflecting light. If there is rust on the mirror his face cannot be seen in it. In the same way, no one who has sin within him can see God.
But if you will you can be healed. Hand yourself over to the doctor, and he will open the eyes of your mind and heart. Who is to be the doctor? It is God, who heals and gives life through his Word and wisdom. Through his Word and wisdom he created the universe, for by his Word the heavens were established, and by his Spirit all their array. His wisdom is supreme. God by wisdom founded the earth, by understanding he arranged the heavens, by his knowledge the depths broke forth and the clouds poured out the dew.
If you understand this, and live in purity and holiness and justice, you may see God. But, before all, faith and the fear of God must take the first place in your heart, and then you will understand all this. When you have laid aside mortality and been clothed in immortality, then you will see God according to your merits. God raises up your flesh to immortality along with your soul, and then, once made immortal, you will see the immortal One, if you believe in him now.
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Other choices for today:
Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo, Bishop
Monument to St Turibius of Mogrovejo in his natal village, Mayorga (Province of Valladolid, Spain). Photograph by Rondador January 2008.
From the decree on the pastoral office of bishops in the Church of the Second Vatican Council
Ready for every good work
In exercising their duty of teaching, bishops are to proclaim the Gospel of Christ before men, a task that stands out among their principal duties. In the strength of the Spirit they are to call men to faith, or confirm them in a living faith. They are to set before them the mystery of Christ in its entirety, that is, those truths which are necessary in order to know Christ, as well as the divinely revealed way of glorifying God and so attaining to eternal happiness.
Moreover, they are to make it clear that earthly realities and human institutions are themselves directed, in the plan of God the creator, towards man’s salvation, and are thus able to make no small contribution to the building up of the body of Christ.
They should therefore insist on the value placed by the Church’s teaching on the human person, his freedom and also his physical life; on the family, its unity and stability, and the procreation and education of children; on civil society, with its laws and its professions; on work and leisure, the arts and technological developments; on poverty and affluence. They should also set forth the principles for resolving the very serious problems relating to the possession, increase and proper distribution of material goods, to peace and war, and to friendly relations among all peoples.
They should present Christian teaching in a way appropriate to the needs of the times, that is, in a way that meets the difficulties and problems that people today find a special burden and source of anxiety. They should also safeguard this teaching, instructing the faithful how to defend it and propagate it themselves. In handing on this teaching they should manifest the Church’s motherly concern for all, believers and unbelievers alike. They should show a special solicitude for the poor and less fortunate, to whom the Lord has sent them to preach the good news.
In discharging their duty as father and shepherd, bishops should be among their people as those who serve, good shepherds who know their sheep and whose sheep know them. They should be outstanding in their spirit of love and concern for all, true fathers whose God-given authority all obey with joyful heart. They should unite and mould the entire family of their flock so that all are made aware of their responsibilities and are able to live and work in loving communion with each other.
To do this effectively, bishops should order their lives in keeping with the needs of the times, and so be ready for every good work, enduring all for the sake of God’s chosen ones.
Copyright © 1996-2022 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.