Tuesday, October 28 : Saint Augustine

All good and faithful Christians, but above all the glorious martyrs can say: “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom 8:31) The world conspired, peoples plotted in vain, princes formed a league against them (Ps 2:1); people invented new torments and thought up incredible forms of torture. They were covered with disgrace and deceitful accusations, they were locked into unbearable dungeons, their flesh was wracked with nails of iron, they were massacred by the sword, they were thrown to wild beasts, given up to the flames, and these martyrs of Christ called out: “If God is for us, who is against us?” The whole world is against you, and you say: “Who is against us?” But the martyrs answer: “What does this whole world matter to us, since we are dying for the One by whom the world was made?” Thus, may the martyrs say and say again, and may we hear it and say it with them: “If God is for us, who is against us?” They can let loose their fury, they can revile us, accuse us unjustly, heap calumny upon us; they can not only kill us, but torture us. What will the martyrs do? They will repeat: “But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.” (Ps 54:4). (…) But if the Lord is the upholder of my life, how can the world harm me? (…) It is he who will also restore my body (…) “The hairs of your head are all counted.” (Lk 12:7) (…) So let us say – let us say with faith, let us say with hope, with a heart on fire with love: “If God is for us, who is against us?”

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team