St. Josaphat

Monday of the Thirty-second week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine : Ask forgiveness and forgive others

Reading

Wisdom 1,1-7.
Love justice, you who judge the earth; think of the LORD in goodness, and seek him in integrity of heart; Because he is found by those who test him not, and he manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him. For perverse counsels separate a man from God, and his power, put to the proof, rebukes the foolhardy; Because into a soul that plots evil wisdom enters not, nor dwells she in a body under debt of sin. For the holy spirit of discipline flees deceit and withdraws from senseless counsels; and when injustice occurs it is rebuked. For wisdom is a kindly spirit, yet she acquits not the blasphemer of his guilty lips; Because God is the witness of his inmost self and the sure observer of his heart and the listener to his tongue. For the spirit of the LORD fills the world, is all-embracing, and knows what man says.

Ps 139(138),1-3.4-6.7-8.9-10.
For the leader. A psalm of David. I LORD, you have probed me, you know me: you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all. Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me. Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for me to reach. Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too. If I fly with the wings of dawn and alight beyond the sea, Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast.

Lk 17,1-6.
He said to his disciples, "Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive him." And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to (this) mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB

Commentary of the day

Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Discourse on the Psalms, Ps 60,9; CCL 39,771

Ask forgiveness and forgive others

“All the ways of the Lord are love and truth toward those who keep his covenant and decrees,” (Ps 25 [24],10). What this psalm says about love and truth is of first importance… It speaks of love because God pays no regard to our merits but to his own kindness so as to forgive us our sins and assure us of eternal life. It also speaks of truth because God never fails to hold good his promises. Let us acknowledge this divine example and imitate the God who has shown us his love and his truth… Like him, let us fulfil works full of love and truth in this world . Let us show goodness to the weak and poor and even towards our enemies.Let us live in truth by avoiding wrongdoing. Let us not increase our sins since whoever presumes on God’s kindness lets the will to make God unjust insinuate itself within him. He imagines to himself that, even if he persists in his sins and refuses to repent, God will come in any case to give him a place among his faithful servants. But would it be just for God to set you in the same place as those who have renounced their sins while you continue in your own?… Then why do you want to bend him to your will? Submit yourself, rather, to his.In this respect the psalmist rightly says: “Who will seek beside him the mercy and truth of the Lord?”… Why say “beside him”? Many seek to learn about the love of the Lord and his truth in the holy Scriptures. But once they have found them, they live for themselves, not for him. They are looking for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. They preach about love and truth but do not practice them. But he who loves God and Christ, when preaching about the divine truth and love, seeks them for God’s sake and not for his own interests. He is not preaching about them so as to draw material advantages from them but for the good of Christ’s members, namely the faithful. He distributes what he has learned among these in the spirit of truth “so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died,” (2Cor 5,15). “Who will seek the love and truth of the Lord?”