Sunday, October 12 : Saint Gregory of Nyssa

This explains why the Word, says: “Rise up”! For you it is not sufficient,” he says, “merely to be raised up from your fall. No, you are also to advance by making progress in the good as you finish your course in a state of virtue.” This we have also learned from the case of the paralytic (cf. Matt 9:5–6). For the Word does not only restore that prostrate burden but commands him to walk. And this seems to me to signify both progress toward the better and growth by way of a process of trans formation. That is why he says, Arise! and Come! O the power of this command! Truly the voice of God is a voice of power, just as the psalm says: “He will put forth his voice, a voice of power” (Ps 67:34); and again, “He spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created” (Ps 32:9). Behold, at this very point he addresses the prostrate one and says Arise! and then Come! and straight way the command becomes reality. For at the moment in which she receives the power of the Word, she stands up, and hands herself over, and comes close to the light—as is testified by the very One who calls her: for the Word says: Arise! Come! my close one, my beauty, my dove. What is the point of this order of words in our text? How is one element in it tied in with another? How is the logical sequence of the ideas kept connected as in a chain? She hears the command. She is empowered by the Word. She rises up. She moves forward. She is brought close. She becomes a beauty. She is named dove.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team