Pope's Intentions
Universal: That the unemployed may receive support and find the work they need to live in dignity.
For Evangelization: That Europe may rediscover its Christian roots through the witness of believers.
Saturday of the Tenth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
The Spirit and the letter, §27-33
« But I say to you » :the fulfillment of the Law
Grace hid itself under a veil in the Old Testament, but it has been revealed in the New Testament according to the most perfectly ordered dispensation of the ages... Now, amidst this admirable correspondence, there is at least this very considerable diversity in the cases, in that the people in the earlier instance were deterred by a horrible dread from approaching the place where the law was given; whereas in the other case the Holy Spirit came upon them who were gathered together in expectation of His promised gift. There it was on tables of stone that the finger of God operated; here it was on the hearts of men...
“Love is the fulfillment of the Law.” Now this law of love was not written on the tablets of stone, but is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. God's law, therefore, is love. “To it the carnal mind is not subject, neither indeed can be”; but when these works of love are written on tablets to caution the carnal mind, there arises the law of works and “the letter which kills” the transgressor; but when love itself is shed abroad in the hearts of believers, then we have the law of faith, and “the Spirit which gives life” to the one who loves.
Now, observe how consonant this diversity is with those words of the apostle Paul...: “You are shown to be a letter of Christ, administered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but on tablets that are hearts of flesh”... Observe this also in that testimony which was given by the prophet Jeremiah on this subject in the clearest way: “Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers... I will place my law within them, and write it in their hearts.”
(Biblical references : Mt 5,17; Ex 19; Acts 2; Lk 11,20; Ex 31,18; Rm 13,10; 5,5; 8,17; 2Cor 3,3; Jr 31,31)