Monday, June 26 : Saint Gregory of Nyssa

“Who is my neighbor?” In answer the Word explained, in the form of a story, God’s entire economy of salvation. He told of man’s descent from heaven, the robbers’ ambush, the stripping of the garment of immortality, the wounds of sin, the progress of death over half of man’s nature while his soul remained immortal. Then came the passage of the Law that brought no help—neither the priest nor the Levite tended the wounds of the man who fell among robbers—for “it was impossible for the blood of goats and oxen to remove man’s sin” (Heb 10,4). And then he came, clothed in our human nature as the first-fruits of the mass in which there was a portion of every race, Jewish, Samaritan, Greek—all mankind. With his body (that is, the beast of the story) he proceeded to the place of man’s disaster, healed his wounds and set him upon his own beast. He created for him the inn of his loving providence, in which all those who labor and are burdened can find rest (Mt 11,28)… “Whoever abides in me, and I in him” (Jn 6,56)… Whoever finds shelter in Christ’s mercy accepts two denarii form him, one of which signifies the love of God with one’s whole heart, and the other the love of one’s neighbor as oneself, according to the lawyer’s reply (Mk 12,30f). But “not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Rm 2,13). Hence we must not merely accept these two coins… but we must by our own good deeds cooperate in the fulfilment of these two commandments. And so the Lord says to the inn-keeper that whatever he does in caring for the wounded man will be made up to him at the Lord’s second coming according to the measure of his devotion.
maronite readings – rosary,team