Thursday, May 18 : Saint Augustine

Our Lord Jesus Christ has risen up to heaven today; may our hearts rise up to heaven along with him! Let us hear what the apostle Paul says to us: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Col 3,1). Just as Jesus ascended without, however, departing from us, so we too already live with him above even though what we have been promised has not yet come to pass in our flesh. He is already raised up above the heavens and yet he suffers on earth all the pains that we, his members, feel. To this he bore witness when he called out from above: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9,4), and again: “I was hungry and you gave me food” (Mt 25,35). Why not work together with him on this earth in such a way that, through the faith, hope and charity that unite us to him, we may even now find rest with him in heaven? He who is there is likewise here with us; and we who are here are likewise there with him. He can do all this by means of his divinity, power and love; and we, if we cannot like him do it through divinity, can do it in him through love. He did not leave heaven when he came down to us and he has not left us when he went up to heaven… That he would remain with us even when above, he promised before his Ascension when he said: “Behold I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28,20).
maronite readings – rosary,team