Wednesday, March 29 : Saint Ambrose

“Oh you Pharisees! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish.” As you see, it is our bodies that are referred to here by the names of fragile, earthenware things that a simple fall can break. And the soul’s intimate feelings are indicated by bodily expressions and gestures, just as what is contained within the cup is made known outside it… Thus you see that it is not the exterior of this cup or plate that soils us, but the interior. Like a good master, Jesus teaches us how to clean away the marks on our bodies by saying: “Give alms, and behold everything will be clean for you”. You see how many remedies there are! Mercy cleanses us; God’s word cleanses us, too, as it is written: “You are already clean because of the word I spoke to you” (Jn 15,3)… This begins a very lovely passage: the Lord invites us to look for simplicity and he condemns attachment to what is superfluous and earthly. Because of their feebleness the Pharisees are compared, not without reason, to the cup and the dish: they observe details without any use to us and they neglect those in which the fruit of our hope is to be found. And so they are guilty of a grave fault by despising the better part. Even so, even for such a fault,forgiveness is promised if it is followed by the merciful act of almsgiving.

maronite readings – rosary,team