One Minute Reflection – 14 January – St Hilary (315-368) Confessor, Bishop, Father and Doctor of the Church – 2 Timothy 4:1-8, Matthew 5:13-19 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but upon a candlestick that it may shine to all that are in the house. … ” – Matthew 5:15
REFLECTION – “The lamp placed on the lampstand, of which Scripture speaks, is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father’s true Light, Who enlightens everyone coming into the world, (Jn1,9). As for the lampstand, it is the holy Church. It is upon her preaching that God’s resplendent Word rests, enlightening men the world over as inhabitants of His House and filling every soul with knowledge of God…
The Word has no wish to remain under a bushel; it longs to be set well in view, on the Church’s summit. Concealed beneath the letter of the Law, as under a bushel, the Word would have deprived everyone of Eternal Light. It would have been unable to grant spiritual contemplation to those who try to disengage themselves from the seduction of the senses, which are subject to illusion and quick to see only material, passing things. But if placed on the lampstand of the Church, that is to say, founded on worship in spirit and truth (Jn 4,24), it enlightens everyone… For the letter, unless it is understood according to the spirit, has only a material and limited value; of itself, it does not allow the mind to grasp the import of the written word…
So, let us not place the lighted lamp, that is to say the Word of God, under the bushel, by means of our thoughts and actions. Let us not be guilty of concealing, beneath the letter, the incomprehensible force of Divine Wisdom. Let us rather, set the Word on the lampstand of the Church, at the summit of pure contemplation which causes the light of Divine Revelation to shine out for everyone!” – St Maximus the Confessor (c 580-662) Abbot, Theologian, Father (Question 63 to Thalassius: PG 90, 667-670).
PRAYER – O God, Who gave to Thy people blessed Hilary, as a minister of salvation, grant we beseech Thee that we, who cherished him on earth as a teacher of life, may be found worthy to have him as an intercessor in Heaven. Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).
AnaStpaul 