385 part ii: meditations for more solemn feasts more enlightened than the others, took away that faulty opinion about Jesus, declaring Him to be the Son of the living God. For this declaration he obtained the highest position in the Church (cf. Mt 16:16-19). It is fitting that you also approach the sacred table with a similar faith and that you confess that Christ, hidden under the species of bread, is true God and Man. Truly, as great as the faith is which you bring here, so great are the gifts that will you take back from here. 2. “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but [M]y Father [W]ho is in heaven” (Mt 16:17). Consider that those steeped in flesh and blood are unsuitable to comprehend heavenly things, and that divine things are grasped not so much through diligent study, as through zealous mortification. Hence, the wise man says: “the spirit of wisdom will not enter a deceitful soul, nor dwell in a body enslaved to sin” (cf. Wis 1:4). As it is rather typical of someone foolish to prefer earthly knowledge to heavenly; so it is by no means fitting for a prudent man to seek the knowledge of the mysteries of God, and yet not to strive after mortification upon attaining it. Since it was not the flesh and blood that revealed Christ’s divinity to the first Apostle, the second one said, in order to comprehend heavenly things: “I pommel my body and subdue it” (1 Cor 9:27). [f.122v] 3. “You are Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). Consider the firmness of St. Peter, with which he declares that Christ the Lord is the Son of the living God while His adversaries call Him the son of a carpenter (cf. Mt 13:55) and avow that He was casting out devils by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils (cf. Mt 9:34; 12:24). Here is a lesson for us: we should never recoil from the truth, even if our temporal life may be endangered; and we should not be afraid to advance the honor and glory of God. Because it was about loving God that Solomon sang: “love is strong as death” (Cant 8:6); from this confession it is to be understood that this love should evidently be so strong that even death cannot deter us from it.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==