Monday, October 30 : Saint Anthony of Padua

Just as this coin bears the image of Caesar, so our soul is in the image of the Blessed Trinity, as one of the psalms says: “The light of thy countenance has been imprinted upon us” (4,6 LXX)… Lord, the light of your countenance, that is to say the light of your grace that sets your image within us and makes us become like you, has been imprinted upon us, that is to say imprinted in our rational faculty, which is the highest power of our soul and receives this light as wax receives the mark of a seal. God’s countenance is our reason because, just as we recognize someone by his face, so we recognize God through the mirror of reason. However, this reason has been deformed by human sin since sin sets us against God. The grace of Christ has put our reason right. Hence, the apostle Paul says to the Ephesians: “Be renewed in your minds” (4,23). The light in question in this psalm is thus the grace that restores God’s image imprinted in our nature… The whole Trinity has marked mankind with its likeness. With the memory it resembles the Father; with the understanding it resembles the Son; by love it resembles the Holy Spirit… From the beginning of creation man was made “in the image and likeness of God” (Gn 1,26). The image in his understanding of truth, the likeness in his love of virtue. The light on God’s countenance is thus the grace that justifies us and brings to light once again our created image. This light constitutes man’s whole good, his true good; it sets its mark on him just as the emperor’s image marked the coin. That is why the Lord adds: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar”. It was as if he said: Just as you repay Caesar with his image so repay God with your soul, beautified and marked by the light of his countenance.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team