Monday, October 5 : Saint Gregory of Nyssa

“This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Wsd 5,16). The Bride of the Canticle points out him whom she sought directly, saying: “This is he whom I seek, who rose from Judah to become our Brother, and became neighbor to him who fell among robbers and healed his wounds with oil, wine and bandages; then taking him on his own beast, he set him down to rest at an inn, offering two silver pieces for his stay, and promising that on his return he would repay any service that was discharged over and above his command. The point of each of these details is surely clear. The man who was an expert in the Law wanted to test the Lord and set himself higher than the others, and in his pride had complete contempt for any equality with the rest. And so he said: “Who is my neighbor?” And then the Word explained, in the form of a story, God’s entire economy of mercy. He told of the man’s descent, 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 (since 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). He alone could do so who was clothed in the whole of human nature – Jewish, Samaritan, Greek – all humankind. With his body, the beast of burden, 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 compassion, in which all those who labor and are burdened can find rest (Mt 11,28).
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team