Saturday, July 22 : Saint Ambrose

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do” (Mt 9,12). Therefore show your wound to the physician that it may be healed. Even if you don’t show it, he knows all about it. However, what he wants of you is that you make your voice heard by him. Cleanse your wounds with your tears. This is how the woman the Gospel speaks of got rid of her sin and the evil smell of her going astray. This is how she was purified of her sin as she washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. O Jesus, may you reserve for me, too, the task of washing your feet, soiled as you walked along within me!… But where will I find fresh water with which to wash your feet? If I have no water, I have my tears. Grant that, in washing your feet with those, I may cleanse myself! What am I to do that you may say in me: “His many sins are forgiven him because he loved much”? I confess that my debt is great and has been “paid back” to me even more – to me who have been taken out of the turmoil of arguments in the public square and from the responsibilities of government to be called to the priesthood. Therefore I fear lest I be thought ungrateful if I should love less when it has been paid back even more. I can’t compare to just anyone this woman who, with good reason, was preferred to Simon the Pharisee who received the Lord at his dinner. However, to all those who would like to be worthy of forgiveness, she imparts a teaching by kissing Christ’s feet, washing them with her tears, wiping them with her hair, anointing them with perfume… If we are unable to equal her, our Lord Jesus knows how to come to the help of the weak. Where there is no one who knows how to prepare a meal, bring along perfume, carry with them a fountain of living water (Jn 4,10), he himself will come.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team