Friday, August 4 : Saint Paschasius Radbertus

We must always be on the lookout for Christ’s twofold coming, the one when we shall have to give an account of everything we have done, and the other when he comes day after day to stir our consciences. He comes to us now in order that his future coming may find us prepared. If my conscience is burdened with sin what good will it do me to know when the Day of Judgment will be? Unless the Lord comes to my soul beforehand and makes his home with me, unless Christ lives in me and speaks his word in my heart, it is useless for me to know if and when his coming will take place. Only if Christ is already living in me and I in him will it go well with me when he comes in judgment. If I have already died to the world and am able to say, “The world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6,14), then, in a sense, his final coming is already present to me. Consider also our Lord’s warning: “Many will come in my name” (Mt 24,5). It is only the Antichrist and his members who, albeit falsely, claim the name of Christ…You will never find the Lord in Scripture actually declaring, “I am the Christ.” His teaching and miracles revealed it clearly enough, for the Father was at work in him. Louder than a thousand acclamations his teaching and mighty works proclaimed: “I am the Christ.” And so whether or not you find him describing himself in so many words, the “works of the Father” (Jn 5,36) and his own message of love declared what he was, whereas the false Christs, who possessed neither godly deeds nor holy doctrine, loudly claimed to be what they were not.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team