Friday, June 26 : Saint Ambrose

«A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho”… Jericho is the symbol of this world where, after he had been cast out of Paradise, that is to say the heavenly Jerusalem, Adam went down… It was his change of behavior, not of place, that made his exile. And what a change! This man Adam, who enjoyed undisturbed happiness, had no sooner lowered himself to this world’s sins than he encountered some brigands… Now who are these brigands if not the angels of night and darkness who, on occasion, disguise themselves as angels of light (2Cor 11,15) but are unable to remain thus? They start by stripping us of the garments of spiritual grace we have received: this is how they usually behave so as to cause us harm… Take great care, then, not to let yourself be stripped, like Adam, deprived of the protection of God’s commandments and lacking the garment of faith. This is why he received the mortal wound to which the whole human race would have succumbed if the Samaritan had not come down to cure his frightful wound. This is not just any Samaritan: this one did not disdain the man whom the priest and the Levite disdained… This Samaritan came down. “Who has come down from heaven except the one who has gone up to heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven?” (cf Jn 3,13). Seeing that man half dead whom no one before him had been able to heal… he came up beside him. That is to say, by consenting to suffer with us he became our fellow and by showing us mercy he became our neighbor.

maronite readings – rosary,team