Thought for the Day – 13 January – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)
Meditations for Christmastide
“The Holy Infancy”
From “The Devout Year”
By Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)
“Their Gifts (3) Myrrh”
+1. Myrrh is the herb used most often for embalming. It has the power to prevent corruption and preserve the purity and freshness of the body with which it is in contact. It was offered to Our Lord as a testimony, not only of the perfect and unsullied purity of those to whom He is united, by the bonds of charity but too, in evidence of the power of His Sacred Body, to save from corruption, those who partake of it in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
+2. Thus Myrrh was offered to Our Lord as possessing a truly Human Body, as truly Man and too, truly God.
We must never lose sight of this fact of Christ’s Humanity, in which, He has all the sympathy and interest, in all concerning us, all His desire to help us, all His wisdom, prudence, patience, appreciation of our griefs and sorrows and all this, to a degree, compared with which, our best friend on earth does not deserve the name.
Why do I not have recourse to Him more frequently?
+3. Myrrh is too, the symbol of mortification.
If our bodies are to be pure, we must mortify our evil desires and give up that which is very attractive to our lower nature.
If we desire great purity of heart, we must mortify ourselves in things lawful and deny ourselves even that which we might enjoy without sin. Do I do this?
AnaStpaul 