Wednesday 17 July 2013

Night Office a riveting reading on Ps. 131 by St. Hilary

Remember David and his Affliction



Psalm 132:3Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; 4I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids,5Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. …

Psalm 26:8 LORD, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells.

                                                                   
15th Week Ord Time Wednesday 17 July 2013
First Reading
2 Samuel 6:1-23

                                                         Responsoru   Ps 132:13-14; 150:4
The Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling. + This
is my resting-place forever; here I have chosen to live.
V. Praise him with tambourines and dancing; praise him with strings and pipe. + This is my ...


Second Reading
From a sermon on Psalm 131 by Saint Hilary

I will not enter my house, nor will I go to bed; I will give myself no rest, nor allow myself to sleep, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the God of Jacob.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, whom the prophet David foreshadowed, carried out as though under oath all the mysteries of human salvation. His principal work was to make human beings, once instructed in divine knowledge, into worthy dwelling-places for God. We are taught that the human person is the seat and dwelling-place of God, for God himself says through the Prophet: I will dwell in their midst and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. The Apostle, too, says: You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Having assumed a body, therefore, the only-begotten Son of God swears that he and his human nature will not enter his house, that is, will not return to his heavenly dwelling-place, until he has found a place for the Lord in devout hearts.
Arise, Lord, and go to your resting-place, you and the ark which you have sanctified-not the ark of the covenant, nor the ark of the law, but the ark which you have sanctified. We recall that the ark of the covenant, containing the stone tablets, the holy writings, the book of the covenant, and the omer of manna, was gold inside and out. But all these were types of the body which the Lord assumed and which contains the whole mystery of the law. Now because of the presence of the divine Spirit and because of the way the flesh originated, this body is gold both within and without, for it is the Lord Jesus who is in the glory of the Father; it contains the ever­lasting manna, for he is the living bread; it preserves within itself the tablets of the covenant and the book of the law, for in him are the words of life. The prophet prays, therefore, that this holy ark may arise and go to rest along with the Lord, for according to the gospels God the Father put his seal upon him.

The dignity of those who will sit upon thrones in the world to come is shown in the words: The Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his home. "This shall be my resting-place forever; here I have chosen to dwell." He has chosen as his Zion the holy and heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the throng of believers who dwell in harmony, the souls sanctified by the sacraments of the Church, for in these as in a rational and intelligent house, cleansed and made eternal by the glory of the resurrection, the rational and intelligent and unpolluted and ineffable eternal nature of the divinity takes its rest. This does not mean that he ceases to exist in the immensity of his infinity, in which he now is, in order to be confined within narrow human spirits; it means rather that by residing in a dwell­ing worthy of him, he who is everywhere and always identical and whole takes his rest in holy and acceptable souls in whom there is no cause of offense, no instability, but a worthy, pleasing, and chosen dwelling-place for him for endless ages, that is, for all eternity.

Rs/ 1Cor 3:16-17




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