Beggars at the Gate - Painting by BOURDON 1640

Do not adorn the church and ignore your afflicted brother

Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California

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Do you want to honor Christ’s body? Then do not scorn him in his nakedness, nor honor him here in the church with silken garments while neglecting him outside where he is cold and naked. For he who said: This is my body, and made it so by his words, also said: You saw me hungry and did not feed me, and inasmuch as you did not do it for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did not do it for me. What we do here in the church requires a pure heart, not special garments; what we do outside requires great dedication.

Let us learn, therefore to be men of wisdom and to honor Christ as he desires. For a person being honored finds greatest pleasure in the honor he desires, not in the honor we think best. Peter thought he was honoring Christ when he refused to let him wash his feet; but what Peter wanted was not truly an honor, quite the opposite! Give him the honor prescribed in his law by giving your riches to the poor. For God does not want golden vessels but golden hearts.

Now, in saying this I am not forbidding you to make such gifts; I am only demanding that along with such gifts and before them you give alms. He accepts the former, but he is much more pleased with the latter. In the former, only the giver profits; in the latter, the recipient does too. A gift to the Church may be taken as a form of ostentation, but an alms is pure kindness.

Of what use is it to weigh down Christ’s table with golden cups, when he himself is dying of hunger? First, fill him when he is hungry; then use the means you have left to adorn his table. Will you have a golden cup made but not give a cup of water? What is the use of providing the table with cloths woven of gold thread, and not providing Christ himself with the clothes he needs? What profit is there in that? Tell me: If you were to see him lacking the necessary food but were to leave him in that state and merely surround his table with gold, would he be grateful to you or rather would he not be angry? What if you were to see him clad in worn-out rags and stiff from the cold, and were to forget about clothing him and instead were to set up golden columns for him, saying that you were doing it in his honor? Would he not think he was being mocked and greatly insulted?

Apply this also to Christ when he comes along the roads as a pilgrim, looking for shelter. You do not take him in as your guest, but you decorate floor and walls and the capitals of the pillars. You provide silver chains for the lamps, but you cannot bear even to look at him as he lies chained in prison. Once again, I am not forbidding you to supply these adornments; I am urging you to provide these other things as well, and indeed to provide them first. No one has ever been accused for not providing ornaments, but for those who neglect their neighbor a hell awaits with an inextinguishable fire and torment in the company of the demons. Do not, therefore, adorn the church and ignore your afflicted brother, for he is the most precious temple of all.

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Saint John Chrysostom (344-407) was born at Antioch about the year 344. After an extensive education he embraced a life of asceticism. He was ordained a priest and distinguished himself by his preaching which achieved great spiritual results among those who heard him preach. He was elected bishop of Constantinople in 397 and proved himself a capable pastor, committed to reforming the life of the clergy and the faithful. Twice he was forced into exile by the hatred of the imperial court and the envy of his enemies. After he had completed his difficult labors, he died at Comana in Pontus on September 14, 407. His preaching and writing explained Catholic doctrine in a way that is unequaled to this day. As a trained orator from the best schools of his day, he presented the merits of living the Christian life in such a persuasive and eloquent way that he was called “Chrysostom” which means “Golden Mouth” by those who studied his works.

Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California

A treaties on the account found in 1 Kings: 18-24 telling of the friendship between David and Jonathan, son of Saul, the first king of Israel

King Saul and David – Oil Painting by GUERCINO, 1646

True, perfect and eternal friendship

Jonathan, outstanding among all young men, took no heed of his royal lineage or his hope of the throne, but allied himself with David the servant and made him his equal in friendship before the Lord. The king had made David a fugitive, forced him to hide in the desert, and condemned him to death. And yet Jonathan preferred David to himself, exalting him, humbling himself. You, he said, will be king and I will follow after you.

What a splendid picture of true friendship! What an astonishing situation! Here was the king, raging against his servant and stirring up the whole country as if David were aiming at the crown. He accuses the priests of treason and puts them to death on a mere suspicion. He combs and searches woods and valleys, besieges the mountains and rocky crags with troops, and every man is sworn to wreak vengeance upon the source of the King’s indignation. Only Jonathan, who alone should have had greater cause for envy, thought it right to resist his father. Putting himself at the service of his friend, he offered help and advice in his time of need. Jonathan set friendship above a kingdom. You are to be the king, he said, and I will be second to you. And still the father tried to incite his son to envy David. He covered him with abuse and frightened him by threatening to deprive him of the kingdom and strip him of his rank.

Even when the king pronounced sentence of death upon David, Jonathan still did not desert his friend. Why should David die? How has he sinned? What has he done? When he risked his life and killed the Philistine, you rejoiced. Why then should he die? So maddened was the king at these words that he tried to pin Jonathan to the wall with his spear, heaping upon him further abuse and threats: Bastard son of a wayward woman, he screamed, I know well that, to your undoing and that of your shameful mother’s, you love him. With this he spewed forth the full measure of his venom over Jonathan and uttered the words that were his final attempt to arouse bitter envy and jealous ambition: As long as the son of Jesse lives, your kingdom shall never be established.

Who would not be moved to envy by these words? Whose love, whose favor, whose abiding friendship would not be corrupted, weakened and destroyed by such an utterance? But in his great love, this young man kept faith with his friend. He was steadfast in the face of threats, unmoved by insults; forgetting renown, he thought only of service. He spurned a kingdom for the sake of friendship. You, he said, will be king, and I will be second to you.

This is what truly perfect, stable and lasting friendship is, a tie that envy cannot spoil, nor suspicion weaken, nor ambition destroy. A friendship so tempted yielded not an inch, was buffeted but did not collapse. In the face of so many insults, it remained unshaken. Go, therefore, and do likewise.

Young David and Goliath by CARAVAGGIO 1600

Saul – Painting by REMBRANDT 1660

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Saint Aelred, abbot (1110-1167)

Born in Hexham, England, Saint Aelred became master of the household in the court of King David of Scotland, revered for his piety, gentleness, and deep spirituality. Desiring a more

austere life than he could lead at the court, Aelred left Scotland at the age of twenty-four and moved to England, and there became a Cistercian monk at Rievaulx, in Yorkshire. When a new monastery was established at Revesby, in Lincolnshire, Alred, in 1142 at age 32, was appointed its abbot. Five years later he returned to Rievaulx and became abbot there. Famed for his preaching and asceticism, Aelred traveled widely in England and Scotland and was considered a saint in his own lifetime. He wrote on the spiritual life in “On Spiritual Friendship” and composed numerous sermons and prayers. He died at the age of 57 at Rievaulx in 1167. The treatise narrated here is his reflection on the friendship between David and Jonathan, the son of King Saul as found in Scripture in I Kings, Chapter 18. This discourse reveals not only his deep knowledge of Sacred Scripture but evidences also a profound reflection upon the lessons he found there.