Vigils Reading – Memorial of BVM

ALL WHO HUNGER AND THIRST

From a homily by Ogier of Locedio7

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How sweet and delightful it is, ever to call to mind our heavenly mother,

that fragrant spikenard, about whom roses waft the scent of Paradise!… For

thus sang Mary, Queen of the world and Mother of Humility: He cast down the

mighty from their thrones and raised up the lowly… Therefore be meek of

heart, you who wear the habit of humility: let what your habit professes

outwardly preserve you inwardly in virtue… Thus you will be pleasing to God,

who emptied himself and, accepting the form of a servant, gave himself up to

suffer, dying on the rood, lest humankind die and for ever live in the abyss of

savage cruelty…

Whatever your past, take no pleasure in what is displeasing to your

Creator, but in him alone, whom you have vowed yourself to please in all your

actions. If you have lived chastely, if you have not strafed the citadel of humility

with bolts of pride, then you will be comely and beautiful in the sight of the Most

High. He himself — who filled the hungry with good things and sent away the

wealthy empty-handed –– will find it good to be your spouse.

How blessed the hungry whom the Lord fills with his lasting goodness…

All who hunger and thirst for justice will be fed by the Bread of Angels that came

down from heaven to give life to the world. These hungry ones Jesus does not

turn away empty-handed; he satisfies their desires with his goodness, by

enriching them with the good of everlasting life. They are indeed rich when they

share in the wealth of joy in the glory of heaven. There true wealth lies, where

no one is wretched or poor; for there dwell glory and life, utter joy, and total

bliss. With such good things the author of goodness will fill those who in this

life have rid themselves of sin, who suffer torment in order to possess Him, and

who find no pleasure except in the true joy of God, and the supreme bliss of

Christ.

He enriches holy paupers with his ineffable goodness, but he

impoverishes the wicked wealthy, and sends them away empty. Death separates

the rich from their passing wealth, but when the poor of Christ pass on, they

gain eternity… The true pauper has nothing of mortal sin. Even if he has earthly

riches, he reckons them as worthless, because he does not yet possess the true

wealth of the Lord Jesus. To see him, to hold him: this is the desire towards

which he labors with all his heart.

The rich…are those whose lives are doubly mortal: they covet passing

gains, and neglect to live for God. O what an evil wealth is the enormity of sin

and vice, which plunders the soul of divine riches! The greater the accumulation

of such wealth, the more its possessors will be cast down and despised by Christ,

who will dismiss them empty-handed, saying: Depart from me, workers of

iniquity; in truth I tell you, I do not know you!… Let us rid ourselves of worldly

wealth and sin. Let the rich whose true wealth is Christ bestow their goods on

the poor and needy, so that they—and we—may join the company of the angels

in the Kingdom of his Father, and he says those wondrous words of welcome:

Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you before the

beginning of the world… This promise of eternal inheritance knows no end, for

believers will want for nothing at the end of time, but will enjoy beatific glory

for ever and beyond. May the Mother of glory deign through her merits to bring

us to that bliss.

7 Ogier of Locedio. In Praise of God’s Holy Mother. CF 70. Trans. D. Martin Jenni. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian

Publications, 2006. 111, 120-122, 128.15