Postings for Holy Week will contain links to various resources to support your prayer and meditation. Click on the title for the link.
From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop
The passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the
hope of glory and a lesson in patience.
What may not the hearts of believers promise themselves
as the gift of God’s grace, when for their sake God’s only Son, co-eternal with
the Father, was not content only to be born as man from human stock but even
died at the hands of the men he had created?
It is a great thing that we are promised by the Lord, but
far greater is what has already been done for us, and which we now commemorate.
Where were the sinners, what were they, when Christ died for them? When Christ
has already given us the gift of his death, who is to doubt that he will give
the saints the gift of his own life? Why does our human frailty hesitate to
believe that mankind will one day live with God?
Who is Christ if not the Word of God: in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God? This Word of God
was made flesh and dwelt among us. He had no power of himself to die for us: he
had to take from us our mortal flesh. This was the way in which, though
immortal, he was able to die; the way in which he chose to give life to mortal
men: he would first share with us, and then enable us to share with him. Of
ourselves we had no power to live, nor did he of himself have the power to die.
Accordingly, he effected a wonderful exchange with us,
through mutual sharing: we gave him the power to die, he will give us the power
to live.
The death of the Lord our God should not be a cause of
shame for us; rather, it should be our greatest hope, our greatest glory. In
taking upon himself the death that he found in us, he has most faithfully
promised to give us life in him, such as we cannot have of ourselves.
He loved us so much that, sinless himself, he suffered
for us sinners the punishment we deserved for our sins. How then can he fail to
give us the reward we deserve for our righteousness, for he is the source of
righteousness? How can he, whose promises are true, fail to reward the saints
when he bore the punishment of sinners, though without sin himself?
Brethren, let us then fearlessly acknowledge, and even
openly proclaim, that Christ was crucified for us; let us confess it, not in fear
but in joy, not in shame but in glory.
The apostle Paul saw Christ, and extolled his claim to
glory. He had many great and inspired things to say about Christ, but he did
not say that he boasted in Christ’s wonderful works: in creating the world, since
he was God with the Father, or in ruling the world, though he was also a man
like us. Rather, he said: Let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Chrism Mass Readings
No comments:
Post a Comment