Saturday of the Thirtieth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day
Diadochus of Photike : "Give the first place to God"
Reading
Rm 11,1-2.11-12.25-29.
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Of course not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? Hence I ask, did they stumble so as to fall? Of course not! But through their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is enrichment for the world, and if their diminished number is enrichment for the Gentiles, how much more their full number. I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not become wise (in) your own estimation: a hardening has come upon Israel in part, until the full number of the Gentiles comes in, and thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn away godlessness from Jacob; and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." In respect to the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but in respect to election, they are beloved because of the patriarchs. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
Ps 94(93),12-13.14-15.17-18.
Happy those whom you guide, LORD, whom you teach by your instruction. You give them rest from evil days, while a pit is being dug for the wicked. You, LORD, will not forsake your people, nor abandon your very own. Judgment shall again be just, and all the upright of heart will follow it. If the LORD were not my help, I would long have been silent in the grave. When I say, "My foot is slipping," your love, LORD, holds me up.
Lk 14,1.7-11.
On a sabbath he went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, 'Give your place to this man,' and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, 'My friend, move up to a higher position.' Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
Commentary of the day
Diadochus of Photike (c.400 - ?), Bishop
On spiritual perfection, 12-15
"Give the first place to God"
No one who cares about himself can love God, but whoever takes no care for himself on account of the far greater riches of divine charity is one who loves God. Such a one never looks to his own glory but that of God, for the man who cares about himself is looking for glory for himself. Whoever cares for God loves the glory of his Creator. Indeed, it is characteristic of an interior soul, a friend of God, always to seek God’s glory in all the commands it carries out and to rejoice in its own nothingness. For glory is fitting to God because of his greatness but to man, nothingness. This is the way he becomes God’s friend. If we act like this, rejoicing like Saint John the Baptist in the glory of the Lord, then we will begin to say unceasingly: “He must increase, I must decrease,” (Jn 3,30). I know of someone who loves God so much that, even though he groans because he does not love Him as much as he would like, his soul is always burning with the desire to see God glorified in him and to see himself as though he were not. That man has no words for telling what he is, even when he is praised, for he has no thought for his own dignity in his great desire to be abased. He carries out the divine services as is fitting for a priest, but in the extremity of his attraction towards love for God he hides the memory of his own dignity in the abyss of his charity for his God, burying the glory that he might have drawn from it in the humility of his thoughts. At all times he thus seems to be, in his own eyes, nothing but an unprofitable servant: his desire for abasement excludes him, after a fashion, from his proper dignity. Here is what we also must do, in such a way as to flee all honour, all glory, on account of the overflowing riches of the love of Him who has so loved us.
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