Lessons 4-6 from the Divine Office of Second Sunday after Epiphany: Preface to the Epistles of Paul by St. John Chrysostom.
Lessons 4-6 from the Divine Office of Second Sunday after Epiphany: Preface to the Epistles of Paul by St. John Chrysostom.
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Whenever I listen to the reading of the Epistles of blessed Paul (often two or three or four times a week, whenever we commemorate the holy Martyrs), I am filled with joy, delighting in the sound of that spiritual trumpet. Which same I do recognize as the voice of a friend; whereby I am roused, and enkindled with love, so that I almost seem to see him present, and to hear him speaking. But nevertheless I am also grieved and troubled, that all do not know this great man as he deserveth to be known. Indeed, many are so ignorant as not even to know how many Epistles he wrote. But this ignorance is not due to an inability to learn of him, but to their lack of interest in his writings.
It is not due to any superlative talent, or penetration, on our part that we know anything concerning this great man, if perchance we do know something of him. Rather, it is because we are strongly drawn to him, and therefore apply ourselves to the reading of his words. For those who love know more than all others, concerning the deeds of those whom they love, because they take the trouble to learn all about them. Blessed Paul himself calleth this to mind, when he saith to the Philippians: It is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.
And so it is that if ye also will give diligent heed to the reading, ye will have no need of other instruction. Most true are those words of Christ: Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. And although many of those who are assembled here are charged with the care of a wife, and with providing for a family, and with the bringing up of children, and therefore cannot devote themselves wholly to this study, they can at least bestir themselves to receive what others have gathered; shewing as much eagerness in listening to what is said about him as to the earning of money. For though it is unseemly to ask of you no more attention to spiritual gain than this, yet it is desirable that ye have the will to do at least this much.