Thursday, September 23 : Saint Augustine

[John] says: “We announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested in us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you (1 Jn 1:2-3). Let Your Charity pay heed: “What we have seen and heard we announce to you.” They saw the Lord himself present in the flesh, and they heard words from the Lord’s mouth, and they announced them to us. We also have heard, then, but we haven’t seen. Are we therefore less fortunate than those who saw and heard? And why does [John] add: “So that you also may have fellowship with us”? They saw; we didn’t see, and yet we are in fellowship because we maintain a common faith. To the disciple who wished to touch and thus to believe, the Lord – consoling us who are unable to touch him with our hand as he is now seated in heaven, although we can touch him by faith – said, “Blessed are those who do not see and who believe” (Jn 20:29). It is we who were described, we who were designated. May there be in us, then, the blessedness that the Lord foretold would come to be! Let us hold firmly onto what we don’t see, because those who have seen it are announcing it so that we also may have fellowship with them and so that “our joy may be full” (v. 4).

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

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