Friday, March 31 : Saint Ambrose

You must recall how the first Adam was cast out of Paradise into the desert if you are to attend to the way in which the second Adam (1Cor 15,45) returns from the desert to paradise. Notice, then, how the first punishment was unloosed in just the same way as it had been knotted, and how the divine blessings were restored along the same lines as those that went before. Adam emerges out of virgin earth, Christ comes forth from a Virgin; the former was made in God’s image, the latter is God’s Image itself (Col 1,15); the former was set above all irrational beasts, the latter above every living creature. Foolishness came through a woman, wisdom through a Virgin; death came from a tree, life from the cross. The one, being divested of spiritual clothing, wove a garment of leaves from a tree; the other, divested of this world’s clothing, no longer sought material dress (Jn 19,23). Adam was cast out into the desert; Christ comes forth from the desert, for he was fully cognizant of where he would find condemned man, whom he would lead back into paradise set free from his sins… For how, without a guide, could he who had lost his way in Paradise through lack of a guide, rediscover in the desert the road he had lost? Temptations are numerous there, the struggle for virtue is difficult and false moves into error are easy… So let us follow Christ, as it is written: “The Lord your God shall you follow, holding fast to him alone” (Dt 13,5)… Let us follow in his footsteps and we shall be able to return to paradise from the desert .
maronite readings – rosary,team