Wednesday, January 21 : Saint Anthony of Padua

A serious lack of harmony reigned between God and ourselves. The Son of God had to espouse our nature if he was to bring peace to the situation and restore good understanding… To this the Father gave his consent and sent his Son. He, in the nuptial bed of the Blessed Virgin, united our nature to his own. Such was the wedding the Father then made for his Son. John Damascene says that the Word of God took on everything God had placed in our nature: both body and rational soul. He took it all that all of me might be saved by his grace. Divinity stooped down even to this marriage; flesh could not have engaged in a marriage more glorious. A wedding is celebrated again when the Holy Spirit’s grace comes down to work the sinful soul’s conversion. We read in the prophet Hosea: “I will go back to my first husband for then it will be better for me than it is now” (cf. Hos 2:9). And further on: “She shall call me ‘My husband’ and never again ‘My baal’. Then I will remove from her mouth the names of the Baals… I will make a covenant for them…” (vv.18-20). The souls’ husband is the Holy Spirit, by his grace. When his interior inspiration calls the soul to repentance then every enticement of vice is in vain. The pride that wants command, the greed and lust that consumes everything: this was the master that used to control and ravage the soul. Their very names have been removed from the repentant sinner’s mouth… When grace is poured into the soul and gives it light, God makes a covenant with sinners. He is reconciled with them… Then is celebrated the wedding of the bridegroom with his bride in the peace of a pure conscience. Finally, a wedding is celebrated on the day of judgement when Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom, comes. “Behold, the Bridegroom comes,” it is said; “go out to meet him.” Then he will take the Church, his Bride, with him. “Come here,” says Saint John in the Book of Revelation, “I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven” (21:9-10)… At the present time we are living in heaven only by faith and hope, but very soon the Church will celebrate her wedding with the Bridegroom: “Blessed are those who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb” (Rv 19:9).

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team