Tenth Tuesday of the Year
- Category: wisemanop
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- Written by Fr. Wiseman Op
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“You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp to put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Mt 5:14-16).
“Now it is not a sin to know and approve of one’s own good, for it is written: ‘Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God, that we may know the things that are given us from God’ (1 Cor2:12). Likewise it is not a sin to be willing to approve one’s own good works, for it is written: ‘Let your light shine before men’ (Mt 5:16). Hence the desire for glory does not, of itself, denote a sin, for it is sinful to desire anything vain…”
“Glory may be called vain in three ways. First, on the part of the thing for which one seeks glory: as when a man seeks glory for that which is unworthy of glory, for instance when he seeks it for something frail and perishable: secondly, on the part of him from whom he seeks glory, for instance a man whose judgement is uncertain: thirdly, on the part of the man himself who seeks glory, for that he does not refer the desire of his own glory to a due end, such as God’s honor or the spiritual welfare of his neighbor” (2a2ae. 132, 1)
“It is requisite for man’s perfection that he should know himself; but not that he should be known by others, wherefore it is not to be desired in itself. It may, however, be desired as being useful for something, either in order that God may be glorified by men, or that men may become better by reason of the good they know to be in another man, or in order that man knowing by the testimony of others’ praise the good which is in him, may himself strive to persevere therein and to become better. In this sense it is praiseworthy that a man should take care of his good name, and that he should provide good things in the sight of God and men, but not that he should take empty pleasure in human praise” (2a2ae. 132, 1, ad 3) [Second part of the Second part, question 132, article 1, response to the first objection]
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Vol. II trans. English Dominicans (New York: Benzinger Brothers, 1947), 1738.
“I have chosen My ministers for your salvation in order that through them may be ministered to you the blood of the humble and immaculate Lamb, My only-begotten Son. I have given to them to minister the Sun, giving them the light of learning, the warmth of the divine charity, and the color joined with the heat and with the light, that is the blood and the body of My Son. This body is a sun because He is one thing with Me, the true Sun. …. I am that sun, God eternal, from whom proceeds the Son and the Holy Spirit. To the Holy Spirit is appropriated the fire, to the Son, wisdom. In this wisdom My ministers receive a light of grace because they have ministered this light with light and with gratitude for the blessing received from Me, the eternal Father, following the teaching of this Wisdom, My only-begotten Son. This is that light that has in itself the color of your humanity, the one united with the other. So the light of My Godhead was that light united with the color of your humanity. This color became luminous when it was made impassable in the power of the Godhead, the divine nature.”
St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, 110.
Daily Reflections