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Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day
Saint Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-395), monk and Bishop
Sermons on the Song of Songs, no.11, 1 ; PG 44, 996

“Gird your loins and light your lamps”
It is so that our spirit may be detached from its fantasies that the Word invites us to shake off this heavy sleep from the eyes of our souls, so that we may not slide away from the true reality by clinging to what lacks substance. That is why he sets before us an image of vigilance when he says: “Let your loins be girt and your lamps lit”... The meaning of these symbols is clear enough. Someone who is girded with temperance lives in the light of a pure conscience because filial trust enlightens his life like a lamp. Lit up by the truth, that person’s soul is detached from the sleep of illusion because no empty dreams are leading it astray. As the Word says: if we do this we shall enter into a life like that of the angels...

Indeed, these are they who wait for the Lord at his return from the wedding and who are seated by the heavenly gates with watchful eyes so that the King of Glory (Ps 24[23],7) might once more pass through when he returns from the marriage feast and enters again into the beatitude above the heavens. “Coming forth like the groom from his bridal chamber” (Ps 19[18],6)..., he united to himself like a virgin the nature we had prostituted to idols, once he had restored its virginal integrity through sacramental regeneration. The nuptials having now been accomplished, since the Church has been espoused by the Word... and brought into the chamber of his mysteries, the angels awaited the return of the King of Glory to the blessedness that matches his nature.

Hence the text says that our lives ought to be like those of the angels. Just as they live far from vice and self-deception, ready to welcome the second coming of the Lord, so we too ought to remain awake at the doors of our dwellings and stand ready to obey when he comes and knocks at the door.