Wednesday, August 2 : Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Our Lord Jesus Christ ordained the disciples to be guides and teachers of the world, and to be “stewards of God’s mysteries” (1Cor 4:1). He also bade them… like lights to illuminate and give light, not merely to the Jewish people… but everywhere under the sun and to peoples scattered over all the earth (cf. Mt 5:14)… For if he desired to send out his disciples even as the Father had sent him (Jn 20:21), was it not necessary for those who were destined to imitate his mission to ascertain what it was that the Father sent the Son to do? In various ways, then, he expounded the character of his mission. And on one occasion he said: “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Lk 5:32); and again: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (Jn 6:38); and yet once more: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17). By saying that he is sending them as the Father has sent him, therefore, he summarized in a few words the character of the apostles’ mission. In this way they would know that they were bound to call sinners to repentance, to heal the sick, whether of body or soul, and in all their dealings as stewards not by any means to follow their own will but the will of him who sent them and, finally, to save the world insofar as it received the teachings of the Lord.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team