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Tuesday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day
Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274), Franciscan, Doctor of the Church
From the spiritual exercises of the soul, ch 2 rev. (Book II of The life of Perfection)

God, the guest of our souls

Hear, O my soul, what is your dignity! The simplicity of your nature is so great that nothing can inhabit the dwelling place of your spirit nor make its abode there except the purity and simplicity of the eternal Trinity. Listen to your Bridegroom’s words: “My Father and I will come to her and make our dwelling in her” (cf. Jn 14:23), and elsewhere he says: “Hurry and come down quickly for today I must stay at your house.” God who created you can truly come down into your spirit since, according to Saint Augustine, he claims to be closer to you than you are to yourself.

Be glad, then, O happy soul, that you can become host to such a guest. “O happy soul who daily make your heart pure to receive the God who gives it a home, the God from whom the host has need of nothing because he possesses within himself the Author of all good.”

How happy she is, that soul in whom God finds his rest, for she can say: He who created me reposes within my tent. Therefore he will not be able to refuse the repose of heaven to one who offers him repose in this life.

You are far too greedy, O my soul, if the presence of such a visitor is not sufficient for you. Know well, he is so generous that he will enrich you with his gifts. Would it not be unworthy of such a monarch to leave his hostess in need? So adorn your bridal chamber and receive Christ your king whose presence will bring joy and gladness to all your household.

O Word most wonderful and truly amazing! The King whose splendor the sun and moon admire, whose majesty both heaven and earth adore, whose wisdom illumines the hosts of heavenly spirits and whose mercy fills the assembly of all the blessed: this King himself is asking you for hospitality, he desires and longs for your house more than his own celestial palace, for his delight is to dwell with the children of men.

'I have often thought of, and meditated on, the holy eagerness of the patriarchs who so sighed for the coming of the Messiah; and I felt confused, and was, moreover, so penetrated with grief, that I could scarcely refrain from weeping, so much was I ashamed to see the tepidity and indifference of these unhappy days.

For who amongst us is filled with so much joy in the fulfillment of this mystery, as did the saints of the Old Testament, at the promises which so called forth their longing desires?

Many, it is true, may rejoice at the celebration of this feast; but I am much afraid that it is less on account of the feast, than through vanity.'

St. Bernard of Clairvaux