Thursday, November 2 : Aphrahat

Devout, wise and good people are not afraid of death in view of the great hope they have in what lies before them. Every day they think of death as of a departure and of the last day as when the offspring of Adam will be born. The apostle Paul says: “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin, as has happened with all the children of Adam” (Rm 5,14.12)… It has happened, too, in all Moses’ descendants to the end of the world. However, Moses declared that its rule would be destroyed; death thought to hold everyone captive and rule over them for ever…, but when the Holy One  called to Moses from the heart of the bush he said to him: “I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob” (Ex 3,6). When it heard these words, death was terrified, it trembled with fear understanding that… God is Lord over the dead and the living and would come one day when men would escape from its darkness. Now Jesus our Savior has repeated these words to the Sadducees and said: “He is not God of the dead, for all are alive for Him” (Lk 20,38)… For Jesus has come, the one who has put death to death. He put on a body of Adam’s race, has been nailed to the cross and tasted death. It has understood that he would be descending to its abode. Anxiously death fastened its gates but he has broken down its gates, entered in and started to seize those it was holding there. The dead, seeing light in the darkness, raised their heads from their prison house and saw the glory of the Messiah King… And death, seeing how the darkness began to disperse and the righteous to rise, knew that at the end of time he would release every prisoner from its power.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team