Vigils Reading

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Vigils Reading

October 21, 2022

 

From a letter of Saint Jerome of Jerusalem  [1]

 

Scripture says: “I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise, and condemn the intelligence of the intelligent”. True wisdom will destroy the false; and although preaching about the cross is foolishness, yet Paul speaks wisdom among the mature. “Not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, who pass away”, but he speaks “the wisdom of God which was hidden in a mystery, and which God predestined from the beginning”. The wisdom of God is Christ. For “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God”. This wisdom was hidden in a mystery, in which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were hidden, and he who was hidden in the mystery was predestined from the beginning. He was predestined and prefigured in the law and the prophets. That is why the prophets were also called seers: for they saw him whom the rest did not see. “Abraham saw his day and rejoiced”. The heavens were opened to Ezekiel on behalf of a sinful people. “Open my eyes”, said David, “so that I may gaze on the wonders of your law”. For the law is spiritual and needs to be revealed to be understood, and so that we may contemplate the glory of God when his face is revealed.

 

In the Acts of the Apostles there is a holy eunuch who was reading Isaiah, and when Philip asked him: “Do you really understand what you are reading?” he answered: “How can I without a teacher?” To speak of myself  for a moment, I am neither holier nor more zealous than that eunuch, who came to the temple from Ethiopia, that is, from the ends of the earth. He loved the law and divine knowledge so much that even when sitting in his chariot he read the sacred writings. And yet all the time that he was holding the book, ruminating on the Lord’s words, reading them fluently and out loud, he did not know whom he was unwittingly revering in the book. Then Philip came and showed him Jesus, who lay enclosed in the text in secret. The marvelous power of a teacher! In that same hour the eunuch believed, was baptized, was faithful and holy, and turned from a pupil into a master.

 

I beg you, dearest brother, to live in the midst of these things, meditate on them, know nothing else, look for nothing – does that not seem to you to be a dwelling-place in the heavenly kingdom already here on earth? The petitioner receives what he asks for; the door is opened to one who knocks; the seeker finds. Let the knowledge that we acquire on earth be such as to continue to be ours in heaven.

 

 

 

[1]  A Word in Season – vol. VIII – Augustinian Press – 1999 – p 185f

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October 21, 2022
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