Wednesday 13 April 2022
Wednesday of Holy Week
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Wednesday of Holy Week
From a treatise on John by St Augustine
The perfection of love
Dear brethren, the Lord has marked out for us the fullness of love that we ought to have for each other. He tells us: No one has greater love than the man who lays down his life for his friends. In these words, the Lord tells us what the perfect love we should have for one another involves. John, the evangelist who recorded them, draws the conclusion in one of his letters: As Christ laid down his life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. We should indeed love one another as he loved us, he who laid down his life for us.
This is surely what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: If you sit down to eat at the table of a ruler, observe carefully what is set before you; then stretch out your hand, knowing that you must provide the same kind of meal yourself. What is this ruler’s table if not the one at which we receive the body and blood of him who laid down his life for us? What does it mean to sit at this table if not to approach it with humility? What does it mean to observe carefully what is set before you if not to meditate devoutly on so great a gift? What does it mean to stretch out one’s hand, knowing that one must provide the same kind of meal oneself, if not what I have just said: as Christ laid down his life for us, so we in our turn ought to lay down our lives for our brothers? This is what the apostle Paul said: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we might follow in his footsteps.
This is what is meant by providing “the same kind of meal.” This is what the blessed martyrs did with such burning love. If we are to give true meaning to our celebration of their memorials, to our approaching the Lord’s table in the very banquet at which they were fed, we must, like them, provide “the same kind of meal.”
At this table of the Lord we do not commemorate the martyrs in the same way as we commemorate others who rest in peace. We do not pray for the martyrs as we pray for those others, rather, they pray for us, that we may follow in his footsteps. They practised the perfect love of which the Lord said there could be none greater. They provided “the same kind of meal” as they had themselves received at the Lord’s table.
This must not be understood as saying that we can be the Lord’s equals by bearing witness to him to the extent of shedding our blood. He had the power of laying down his life; we by contrast cannot choose the length of our lives, and we die even if it is against our will. He, by dying, destroyed death in himself; we are freed from death only in his death. His body did not see corruption; our body will see corruption and only then be clothed through him in incorruption at the end of the world. He needed no help from us in saving us; without him we can do nothing. He gave himself to us as the vine to the branches; apart from him we cannot have life.
Finally, even if brothers die for brothers, yet no martyr by shedding his blood brings forgiveness for the sins of his brothers, as Christ brought forgiveness to us. In this he gave us, not an example to imitate but a reason for rejoicing. Inasmuch, then, as they shed their blood for their brothers, the martyrs provided “the same kind of meal” as they had received at the Lord’s table. Let us then love one another as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us.
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On this date in other years:
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 © 1996-2022 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.