Monday, December 18 : Saint Anthony of Padua

“The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all” (Phil 4,5-6). This is what God the Father says in the prophet Isaiah: “I am bringing on my justice,” – that is to say, his Son; “my salvation shall not tarry. I will put salvation within Zion and give to Israel my glory” (46,13). It is what today’s gospel says: “One is standing in your midst, one whom you do not know”, Mediator between God and men, a man (1Tim 2,5), Christ Jesus, arises in the camp of this world to fight the devil. As victor he rescues man and reconciles him with God our Father. But you do not know him. “Sons have I raised and reared but they have disowned me. An ox knows its owner and an ass, its master’s manger. But Israel does not know me and my people has not understood” (Is 1,2-3). How close the Lord is to us! And we do not know him! “I have fed my children with my blood,” he says to us, “as a mother feeds her children with her milk. I have raised above the choirs of angels the human nature I have taken, to which I am united.” Could he show us greater honor? “And they have rejected me. See whether there is any sorrow like mine” (Lam 1,12)… So, then, “have no anxiety at all”, for it is anxiety concerning material things that makes us forget the Lord.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team