Thursday, March 31 : Saint Augustine

Your heart is imperiled, your heart is taking a battering. On hearing yourself insulted, you long to retaliate; but the joy of revenge brings with it another kind of misfortune – shipwreck. Why is this? Because Christ is asleep in you. What do I mean? I mean you have forgotten his presence. Rouse him, then; remember him, let him keep watch within you, pay heed to him… You have forgotten that when Christ was being crucified he said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23,34). Christ, the sleeper in your heart, had no desire for vengeance in his. Rouse him, then, call him to mind. (To remember him is to recall his words; to remember him is to recall his commands.) Then, when he is awake within you, you will ask yourself, “Whatever kind of wretch am I to be thirsting for revenge?… He who said, ‘Give and it shall be given you; forgive and you will be forgiven,’ would indeed decline to acknowledge me. So I will curb my anger and restore peace to my heart.” Now all is calm again. Christ has rebuked the sea… This is the moment to awaken Christ and let him remind you of those words: “Who can this be? Even the winds and the sea obey him” Who is this whom the sea obeys? “It is he to whom the sea belongs, for he made it” (Ps 95[94],5); “all things were made through him” (Jn 1,3). Try, then, to be more like the wind and the sea; obey the God who made you. The sea obeys Christ’s command, and are you going to turn a deaf ear to it?… Words, actions, schemes, what are all these but a constant huffing and puffing, a refusal to be still at Christ’s command? When your heart is in a troubled state, do not let the waves overwhelm you. If, since we are only human, the driving wind should stir up in us a tumult of emotions, let us not despair but awaken Christ, so that we may sail in quiet waters and reach at last our heavenly homeland.

maronite readings – rosary,team