Monday, May 30 : Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [Pope Benedict XVI]

To be a Christian is first of all and always to tear oneself away from the selfishness that lives only for itself, so as to enter into a great fundamental orientation of life for one another. Basically, all the great scriptural images transmit this reality. The image of Easter…, the image of the Exodus…, which begins with Abraham and which remains a fundamental law throughout sacred history. All that is an expression of the same basic movement, which consists in becoming detached from an existence that is folded in upon itself. The Lord Jesus spoke most deeply of this reality in the law concerning the grain of wheat, which at the same time shows that this essential law not only dominates all of history, but marks all of God’s creation since the beginning: “I solemnly assure you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.” In his death and resurrection, Christ fulfilled the law of the grain of wheat. In the Eucharist, in the bread of wheat, it has truly become the hundredfold fruit (Mt 13:8), of which we still and always live. But in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, in which he remains forever the one who is truly and fully “for us”, he invites us to enter every day into that law, which ultimately is nothing but the expression of the essence of true love…: to leave oneself in order to serve the others. In the final analysis, Christianity’s fundamental movement is nothing but the simple movement of love, by means of which we participate in the creative love of God himself.

maronite readings – rosary,team