Thursday, September 28 : Isaac the Syrian

How can created beings behold God? The vision of God is so terrible that Moses himself said that he was afraid and trembled. Indeed, when God’s glory appeared on the mountain of Sinai (Ex 20), the mountain smoked and trembled with fear beneath the impact of the revelation; those animals died that drew near its heights. The children of Israel made themselves ready; following Moses command they purified themselves for three days in order to be worthy of hearing God’s voice and seeing his revelation. Yet, when the time came, they could neither bear the vision of his light nor support the force of his thunderous voice. Now, however, that he has poured out his grace on the world by his coming, it is neither in an earthquake nor a fire, nor by making it known in a strong and terrible voice that he has come down, but as dew upon the fleece (Jg 6,37), as a raindrop falling gently on the earth. It is in another form that he has come amongst us. In a sense, he has regained his greatness from the veil of the flesh. He has made something precious out of it; he has dwelt amongst us in the flesh that his will had formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, so that, seeing him to be of our race and living with us, we should not be shaken with fear when we look at him. And so those who are wrapped in the clothing in which the Creator himself has appeared, in the body with which he has covered himself, have put on Christ himself (Gal 3,27). For they have longed to bear the same humility in their inner selves (Eph 3,16) with which Christ was revealed to his creation and lived in it’s midst, just as he is now made known to his servants. Rather than a garment of honor and outward splendor, they are adorned with this humility.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team