Saturday, April 22 : Saint Ambrose

Be mindful of the mystery of Christ! Born from the Virgin’s womb, both Servant and Lord: Servant to work, Lord to command so that he might plant a Kingdom for God in men’s hearts. Twofold in origin but one in nature, he is not one thing when he comes from the Father, another when he comes from the Virgin. He is the very same, the one born from the Father before all ages, who has taken flesh of the Virgin in the course of time. And that is why he is named both Servant and Lord: Servant for our sake but, due to the unity of the divine substance, God from God, Principle from Principle, Son equal in all things to the Father who is his equal. For the Father has not begotten a Son different to himself – the Son of whom he asserted: “In him I am well pleased” (Mt 3,17)… In every respect the Servant preserves his titles of dignity. God is great and the Servant is also great: when he came in the flesh he did not lose this “greatness that has no limit” (Ps 145[144],3)… “Though he was in the form of God he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (Phil 2,6-7)… Therefore, as Son of God, he is equal to God; he took the form of a slave by becoming incarnate; he whose greatness has no limit “tasted death” (Heb 2,9)… How good is the condition of a Servant that has set us all free! Yes, how good it is! It won for him “the name which is above all other names”! How good this humility is! It was through it that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2,10-11).
maronite readings – rosary,team