Tuesday, November 15 : Saint Thomas More
Let us receive Christ in the sacrament as Zacchaeus, the good publican, did. … He hastened to come down from the tree and joyfully did he welcome the Lord Jesus into his house. But he was not satisfied to welcome him with a passing joy, fruit of a slight attachment …; he proved it with works of virtue. Immediately did he set to work to render back again, not sparingly but fourfold, to all those persons unto whom he had done wrong. And immediately did he undertake, besides, to deliver to the poor the half of all he had – immediately (take heed of this!) and at once, without waiting for the morrow. … Let us not lose this time, therefore, suffer not this occasion to slip, for we can little tell whether we shall ever get it again or never. Let us receive him in such wise as did the good publican Zaccheus; with such alacrity, with such quickness of spirit, with such gladness and such spiritual rejoicing as this man received our Lord into his house, may our Lord give us the grace to receive his blessed body and blood, his holy soul and his almighty Godhead, both into our bodies and into our souls, that the fruit of our good works may bear witness unto our conscience, that we receive him worthily and in such full faith and such a stable purpose of good living as we be bound to do. And then shall God … say upon our soul, as he said upon Zaccheus: “This day is health and salvation come unto this house”.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
