Saturday, December 9, 2017

Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474-1548)

 Saturday of the First Week of Advent

Readings of the day: RB 56
Mass: Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26; Resp. Psalm 147; Matthew 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8
 
St Juan Diego
At the sight of the crowds,
his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.

The scene in today’s Gospel directs me to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and his first Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas Est (2005). There, one reads: ‘Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave’ (18). The Pope goes on to say: ‘If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God’ (18).

If you find these words compelling, you may be interested to read the whole of paragraph 18 in the Encyclical.

Behold, I am coming soon and my recompense is with me, says the Lord,
to bestow a reward according to the deeds of each.
(Communion Antiphon, Mass)

MARANATHA.


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