Saturday, April 25, 2020

St. Gregory the Great: Homily 23 on the Gospels





For you who take the trouble to participate in the festivals of each day, it is not appropriate to say many; and the little that I say will perhaps be more useful, because it often happens that we eat as much better appetite as food is served in less quantity. I therefore resolved to give you the general meaning of the gospel read to you, without following it word by word, so as not to risk being dependent on your charity by an interminable explanation of the text.

You have just heard it, dear brothers: to the two disciples who were walking on the road and who, while not believing in him, yet spoke of him, the Lord appeared, without showing himself to them in a form that they could recognize. So the Lord realized on the outside, in the eyes of the body, what was in them within, in the eyes of the heart. Within themselves, the disciples loved and doubted all at once; on the outside, the Lord was present to them without however manifesting who He was. To those who spoke of him, he offered his presence; but to those who doubted him, he hid his familiar aspect, which would have enabled them to recognize him. He exchanged a few words with them, reproached them with their slowness in understanding, explained to them the mysteries of Holy Scripture concerning him, and yet, their hearts remaining foreign to him for lack of faith, he pretended to go further. Feindre [Fingere] can also mean [in Latin] modeling; that's why we call potters' clay modelers [Figuli]. Truth, which is simple, did not do anything with duplicity, but it simply manifested itself to the disciples in its body as it was in their minds.

It was necessary to test them to see if, not yet loving him as God, they were at least capable of loving him as a traveler. Truth journeying with them, they could not remain strangers to love: they offered him hospitality, as one does for a traveler. Why, moreover, do we say that they proposed to him, as it is written in our gospel, "They pressed him." This example shows us that we should not only offer hospitality to travelers, but to accept it.

The disciples set the table, offer food; and God, whom they did not recognize in the explanation of Holy Scripture, they recognize it in the breaking of bread.



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