Thursday, March 21 : Saint Gregory the Great

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Abraham saw the day of the Lord when he hospitably received three angels as a prefiguration of the most holy Trinity. After he had received them, he spoke to the three as to one (Gn 18,2-3)… But the unspiritual minds of his hearers did not raise their eyes from his body… and they said: “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Our Redeemer graciously turns their gaze away from his body and draws it to contemplation of his divinity. He says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am.” “Before” indicates past time, “I am” present time. Because divinity does not have past and future time, but always is, he did not say: “I was before Abraham” but “Before Abraham was, I am.” Hence it was said to Moses: “I am who am”, and: “You will say to the children of Israel, ‘He who is ‘ sent me to you” (Ex 3,14). Therefore he who could draw near by manifesting his presence, and depart after completing his life, existed both before and after Abraham. Truth always exists, because nothing begins before it in time, nor comes to an end after it. Their unbelieving hearts could not take in these words about eternity, and they rushed to take up stones. They sought to destroy him whom they could not understand… “But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” It is very astonishing, dearly beloved, that the Lord avoided his persecutors, by hiding himself when he could have exercised the power of his divinity… Why then, on this occasion, did he hide himself?… Our Redeemer, having become a human being among humans, teaches us some things by his words and others by his example. What does he tell us by this example, except that even when it is possible for us to resist we should humbly avoid the anger of the proud?… Let no one raise himself up against the offenses he has received, then; let no one return injury for injury. It is indeed more honorable to imitate God by fleeing silently in the face of insult than to prevail by answering back.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team