Sunday, March 23 : Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

Man is a combination of soul and body, a body formed in the likeness of God and fashioned with both his hands, that is to say the Son and the Spirit. It was to them that he said: “Let us make man” (Gen 1:26)… But how are you to become divinised in the future if you have not yet become man? How are you going to be perfect when you have barely been created? How are you to become immortal when you have not obeyed your Creator in your mortal nature?… Since you are God’s handiwork, wait patiently for your Artist’s Hand bringing all things to pass at their proper time. Offer him a malleable and docile heart and maintain the form this Artist has given you, having that water in you that comes from him and without which, by becoming hardened, you would reject the imprint of his fingers. By letting yourself be formed by him you will rise up to perfection in that, through this art of God’s, the clay in you will be concealed; his Hand created your substance… But if, being hardened, you reject his skill and show yourself displeased with what has made you man, you will have rejected, through your ingratitude to God, not simply his handiwork but life itself. For to fashion belongs to God’s goodness and to be fashioned is proper to man’s nature. If, then, you abandon yourself to him by giving him your faith in him and submission to him, you will receive the benefit of his skill and will become God’s perfect work. But if, to the contrary, you resist him and flee his Hands then the cause of your incompletion will remain, not in him, but in you who have not obeyed.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team