The Catholic Calendar for Saturday, August 27, 2005
Saturday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary time
St. Monica

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
Psalm 98:1, 7-9
Matthew 25:14-30

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

The Thessalonians were noted for strict sexual morality as well as for great charity. Our society tends to see them as contradictory, whereas true love respects not only one's own body, but the bodies of others as temples of the Holy Spirit. St. Monica, whose feast we celebrate today showed true charity toward her gifted son, St. Augustine, for she offered the last years of her life to constant prayer for his conversion to Christianity. Rarely has a mother's love been better exemplified than through this heroic woman's sacrifice. The most touching scene in Augustine's “Confessions” reveal the mutual love of mother and son. With her last breath, she urges her son not to shed useless tears over her grave, for she knows her work is finished, and she is at joyful peace.

And how well the Gospel parable fits with this heroic woman who must have recognized very early how extraordinarily talented a son she had borne. Rather than leave him to shine as a brilliant pagan teacher of rhetoric, she persisted in persuading him to exchange his beloved classics for the treasures of Scripture. While we ourselves could never equal his colossal gifts, we can certainly imitate his wisdom in preferring always the Word of God to the attractions of worldly learning and earthly success. And when our hearts finally grasp the beauty and depth of Gospel truth, may we then cry with Augustine, "Too late have I loved thee, O beauty ever ancient, ever new.”

- Msgr. Paul Whitmore
(smartins@frontiernet.net)

____________________

These meditations are also available by email subscription
©1986-2005 The Way, The Truth, The Life