Thursday, June 27 : Saint John Chrysostom

Hear what the Lord says: “If you are bringing your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and first go and be reconciled with your brother. Then come and offer your gift.” “What do you mean? Am I really to leave my gift, my offering there?” “Yes,” he says, “because this sacrifice is offered in order that you may live in peace with your brother.” So if the attainment of peace with your neighbor is the object of the sacrifice and you fail to make peace, even if you share in the sacrifice your lack of peace will make this sharing fruitless. Before all else therefore make peace, for the sake of which the sacrifice is offered. Then you will really benefit from it. The reason the Son of God came into the world was to reconcile the human race with the Father. As Paul says: “Now he has reconciled all things to himself, destroying enmity in himself by the cross” (Col 1:22; Eph 2:16). Consequently, as well as coming himself to make peace he also calls us blessed if we do the same, and shares his title with us. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he says, “for they shall be called children of God” (Mt 5:9). So as far as a human being can, you must do what Christ the Son of God did, and become a promoter of peace both for yourself and for your neighbor. Christ calls the peacemaker a child of God. The only good deed he mentions as essential at the time of sacrifice is reconciliation with one’s brother or sister. This shows that of all the virtues the most important is love.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team