Thursday, February 1 : Saint Augustine

Your faith recognizes what is this grain of wheat that fell to the ground and died there before producing much fruit: it dwells in your soul. No Christian doubts that Christ was not speaking about himself… Now listen to me, you holy grains of wheat who are here, I have no doubt… or rather, listen to the first grain of wheat through me saying to you: do not love your life in this world; do not love it if you really love it, for it is in not loving it that you will be saved… “Those who love their life in this world will lose it.” The one who speaks in this way is the seed who fell to the ground, he who died so as to produce much fruit. Listen to him since what he speaks he has first done. He teaches us and shows us the way by his example. Indeed, Christ did not claim his life in this world — he came in order to lose it, to lay it down for our sakes and to take it up again when he willed… “I have the power to lay down my life and the power to take it up again. No one takes it from me but lay it down on my own” (Jn 10:18). So how was it that, with such a divine power, he could say: “I am troubled now”? How, with such a power, can this Man-God be troubled if not that he bears the image of our weakness? When he says: “I have the power to lay down my life and the power to take it up again”, Christ is shown for what he is in himself. But when he is troubled by the approach of death, Christ is shown as he is in you.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team