Thursday, March 9 : Saint Gregory the Great

“Thou hast strengthened him for a little space, that he might pass by for ever.” Job 14:20 Man has been ‘strengthened here for a little space,’ in that he has received here powers of living for a while, that he should for ever pass away thither, where no end should bound and shut in his life, but in this moment’s space where he has been ‘strengthened,’ he extracts that wherefrom in the everlasting world he may either find how always to have joy, or not ever escape the punishments he has entered upon. And for this reason, that ‘he has been strengthened for a little space,’ to ‘pass away for everlasting,’ it is fitly added immediately; Thou wilt change his countenance, and send him away. ‘The face of man is changed,’ when his form is wasted by death; but ‘he is sent away,’ in that from those things which he kept willingly he is necessitated to pass away to the eternal world against his will, and while he is brought thereunto, these things which he held long and thought on, how it will be with them now left behind him he knows nothing. Hence it is added; Whether his sons be in honour or dishonour, he perceiveth not. For as they, who are still living, know nothing of the souls of the dead, in what place they are held; so the dead, concerning the life of those living after them in the flesh, know not at all how it is ordered; in that both the life of the spirit is far from the life of the flesh, and as the corporeal and incorporeal are things different in kind, so are they parted in knowledge. Which however is not to be imagined concerning holy souls, in that they which behold the brightness of Almighty God within, we cannot for a moment suppose that there is any thing without that they know not.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team