Wednesday 9 February 2022
Wednesday of week 5 in Ordinary Time
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Wednesday of week 5 in Ordinary Time
From a letter by Saint Ambrose, bishop
We are heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ
The person who puts to death by the Spirit the deeds of our sinful nature will live, says the Apostle. This is not surprising since one who has the Spirit of God becomes a child of God. So true is it that he is a child of God that he receives not a spirit that enslaves but the Spirit that makes us sons. So much so that the Holy Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are sons of God. This is the witness of the Holy Spirit: he cries out in our hearts, Abba, Father, as we read in the letter to the Galatians.
There is also that other great testimony to the fact that we are sons of God: we are heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ. A co-heir of Christ is one who is glorified along with Christ. The one who is glorified along with him is one who, by suffering for him, suffers along with him.
To encourage us in suffering, Paul adds that all our sufferings are small in comparison with the wonderful reward that will be revealed in us; our labours do not deserve the blessings that are to come. We shall be restored to the likeness of God, and counted worthy of seeing him face to face.
He enhances the greatness of the revelation that is to come by adding that creation also looks forward to this revealing of the sons of God. Creation, he says, is at present condemned to frustration, not of its own choice, but it lives in hope. Its hope is in Christ, as it awaits the grace of his ministry; or it hopes that it will share in the glorious freedom of the sons of God and be freed from its bondage to corruption, so that there will be one freedom, shared by creation and by the sons of God when their glory will be revealed.
At present, however, while this revealing is delayed, all creation groans as it looks forward to the glory of adoption and redemption; it is already in labour with that spirit of salvation, and is anxious to be freed from its subjection to frustration.
The meaning is clear: those who have the first fruits of the Spirit are groaning in the expectation of the adoption of sons. This adoption of sons is that of the whole body of creation, when it will be as it were a son of God and see the divine, eternal goodness face to face. The adoption of sons is present in the Church of the Lord when the Spirit calls out: Abba, Father, as you read in the letter to the Galatians. But it will be perfect when all who are worthy of seeing the face of God rise in incorruption, in honour and in glory. Then our humanity will know that it has been truly redeemed. So Paul glories in saying: We are saved by hope. Hope saves, just as faith does, for of faith it is said: Your faith has saved you.
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In other parts of the world and other calendars:
Saint Teilo, Bishop
A 13th-century French statue of St Teilo on his stag, from the abbey of Daoulas, Finisterre, Brittany.
From the ‘Life’ in the Book of Llandaff
The gifts of Saint Teilo
We learn that St Teilo was, from childhood, instructed in Scripture by St Dyfrig. In time, Dyfrig came to see in him unusual talent. He not only recognised that the boy’s knowledge surpassed his own but that, by the help of the Holy Spirit, Teilo was better than any other in explaining the knotty passages of Scripture. Then Dyfrig, hitherto his master, understanding he had no more to teach him, wanted the pupil to replace the master in the chair, since already he surpassed him in teaching and skill.
Teilo, however, was a youth of such gracious ways and fired by so great a zeal for holy learning, that although he could have been a master to others, he still sought one for himself. Moreover, he preferred life under discipline to independence, and he longed to understand the depths and mysteries of Scripture.
He had a simple and general mode of reasoning that was more helpful to the faithful than ever were the clever arguments of a philosopher. They seek the way, yet they wander from it, whereas he never left the way of truth, but pursued it as if a lantern went before him and no one ever hindered him. So he strove ever towards him who is the true light. He went forward by him who is the way, and was taught by him who is wisdom.
He came to hear of the reputation of a certain learned man named Paulinus. He went and stayed some time with him. In converse with him on parts of Scripture that had remained obscure, everything became clear. He also had there for a companion St David, man of most perfect life. So great a love united them, together with the grace of the Holy Spirit, that they seemed to agree in all they undertook. Behold, dearest brethren, how in this world God united two men whom he predestined to be co-citizens in heaven. He chose two, that through them he might make choice of many.
Copyright © 1996-2022 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.