Saturday, October 7 : Saint Gregory of Nyssa

“Catch us the small foxes that ravage the vines, because our vines are in bloom” (CT 2,15). Can we precisely penetrate the depth of this thought? What a wonder of divine grandeur is here locked up, what transcendence of the power of God is revealed to us in this text! The one of which it is spoken with so strong expressions, homicide, the powerful in malice (…) the dominator of the power of darkness (EP 6,12), the one who has the power of death (he 2,14) , (…) The Word finally describes the formidable nature to us, showing it so great and powerful, chief of the demonic legions, how does the true and the only power name it? A small fox. The whole army he has at his service, this is how, in an equal contempt, the one who encourages hunting hunts. (…) Perhaps we can say that these hunters are the holy apostles that he sent to hunt such animals and to whom he said: “I will make you fishermen of men” (Mt 4,19). Indeed, they could not have carried out their fishing of men and to take the souls of the saved in the net of their message, if they had previously chased these animals, these small foxes, to their dens, I want to say pure hearts where they make a place, there where the Son of God could rest His head, when the breed of the foxes would no longer have a home in hearts. (…) The Word says to them: all these powers of the earth against which man leads his struggle, (…) are only small foxes, cunning but pitiful if compared to your power. If you master them, then our vineyard, that is to say human nature, will cover its own beauty, and it will prelude to the clusters by the flowers of virtuous life. “Catch us the little foxes that ravage the vines, because our vines are in bloom”.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team