Sunday, October 29 : Saint Gregory of Nyssa

“Since, then,” she says, “I have entered the house of wine, subject me to love,” or set love in order upon me. Here, perhaps, by this turn of phrase, we are also taught a basic truth of unusual subtlety, namely, what sort of love we ought to extend to God and how we are to relate ourselves to other human persons. For if it is necessary that everything be done in order and decently (cf. 1 Cor 14:40), how much more is a fitting order required in such matters as these! So one must be aware of the order of love that the law lays down: how it is right for God to be loved on the one hand, and how it is right for neighbor, wife, and enemy to be loved on the other, lest one’s fulfillment of love become something disordered and inverted. For one ought to love God with the whole heart and soul and power and perception; and one’s neighbor as oneself; and one’s wife, if one is truly pure in soul, as Christ loved the church (cf. Eph 5:25), or else, if one is more subject to passion, as one’s own body (cf. Eph 5:28), for so Paul, the ordainer of such things, commands; and one’s enemy by not returning evil for evil but by repaying injustice with kindness. As it is, though, anyone can see that love is in most instances confused and disordered—exercised in a way that goes wrong because it is inappropriate and contrary to the rule. People love things and honors and wives (if they happen to be warmly disposed toward them) with their entire soul and strength, so that they are willing to give up life on their account, but God they love as much as seems good to them. And where their neighbor is concerned, they scarcely even exhibit the love prescribed for enemies. Their disposition toward one who hates them is to requite those who have injured them previously with a greater evil. So the Bride says: “Set love in order upon me, so that I may dedicate to God as much as is owed him and may not, in the case of each of the others, diverge from the proper measure of love.”

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team