Collect: Father, you show your almighty power in your mercy and forgiveness. Continue to fill us with your gifts of love. Help us to hurry toward the eternal life you promise and come to share in the joys of your kingdom. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Wednesday of the Twenty-Six Week of Ordinary Time
Old Calendar: St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, virgin
Before the reform of the General Roman Calendar today was the feast of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus. Her feast is now celebrated on October 1.
The Good Samaritan
According to the interpretation of the Fathers, our father Adam, and hence the whole human race is to be understood by the one who had fallen among robbers. The human race, which through the disobedience of Adam fell into the power of Satan and his angels, was robbed of original justice and the grace of God, and moreover, was wounded and weakened in all the powers of the soul by evil concupiscence. The priest and the Levite who represent the Old Law, would not and could not repair this misfortune; but Christ, the true Samaritan, embraced the interests of the wounded man, inasmuch as He poured the oil of His grace, and the wine of His blood into the wounds of man's soul, and thus healed him, and inasmuch as He led him by baptism into the inn of His Church, and there entrusted him to His priests for further care and nursing. Thank Christ, the good Samaritan, for this great love and care for you, and endeavor to make good use of His blessings by your co-operation. — The Church's Year by Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine
Things to Do:
- Meditate on the following questions:
How should we love our neighbor?
As we love ourselves, that is, we should wish him everything good, and when in necessity do to him as we would wish others to do to us, and, on the contrary, not wish nor do to him anything that we do not wish to be done to ourselves. In this way the Samaritan loved his neighbor, and in this he was far superior to the priest and the Levite.How can we especially practice love for our neighbor?
By the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Besides which we must rejoice at the spiritual and corporal graces of our neighbor, which God communicates to him; we must grieve for his misfortunes, and, according to the example of St. Paul (I Cor. 1:4), have compassion for him; we must bear with the faults of our neighbor, as St. Paul again admonishes us: Bear ye one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2).Why should we love our neighbor?
We should love him because God commands it; but there are also other reasons which should induce us to do so. We are not only according to nature brothers and sisters in Adam, but also according to grace, in Christ, and we would have to be ashamed before animals, if we would allow ourselves to be surpassed in the love which they bear one to another (Eccles. 13:19); all our neighbors are the image and likeness of God, bought by the blood of Jesus, and are adopted children, called to heaven, as we are; the example of Christ who loved us, when we were yet His enemies (Rom. 5:10), and gave Himself for us unto death, ought to incite us to love them. But can we be His disciples, if we do not follow Him, and if we do not bear in us the mark of His disciples, i.e., the love of our neighbor (Jn. 13:35)? Finally, the necessity of the love for our neighbor ought to compel us, as it were, to it; for without it, we cannot be saved. He that loveth not, says St. John, abideth in death (I Jn. 3:14), and he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not (I Jn. 4:20)? Because he transgresses one of the greatest commandments of God, and does not fulfill the law (Rom. 13:10).