Now let us start our meditations on the main norms of life written in the Gospel of Matthew.
by Fr. Melchiorre Arnoldi PIME
Jesus said, “ You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled underfoot by men” (Mt 5, 13)
EXPLANATION: Salt is symbolic of wisdom. A Christian living according to the teaching of the Gospel becomes like salt, in the sense that he makes his life meaningful and lead others to live a virtuous life as well.
EXAMPLE: All the saints were inspiring the society by leading a virtuours life. They were models of Christian life and their behaviour inspires a lot of people to follow their examples.When Saint Francis of Assisi from rich wanted to became poor for the sake of Christ, a lot of people followed him and the society of his time improved very much from the moral point of view.
EXHORTATION: In the past, the reading biographies of the saints both privitely and in the family was customary. No wonder then that there were quite a number of people who devoted their life interely to the service of God, by becoming priests nuns.
Saint Gregory the Great says, “ Words move but examples attract”. The saints are the living Gospel. By imitatine them, we get to know the real meaning of the Gospel and lead a life accordino to the spirit of Christ.
Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown our and trampled underfoot by men” (Mt 5,13).
EXPLANATION: A Christian who does not practise the Gospel is like tasteless salt. He is an hypocrit. He deserves not to be considered a Christian at all. His Christian life is meaningless. The Book of Revelation says, “Since you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other, but since you are neither, but only lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth” (3:15-16).
EXAMPLE: Saint Ignatius of Loyola once asked a Brother of his Congregation who doing his duty carelessly, “For the sake of whom are you doing your service?”. The answer was, “For the sake of the Lord”. Then he said to him, “ Get out of this Religious Congregation at once!”
EXHORTATION: Our behaviour can have a bad influence on others, whenever we lack he spirit of the Gospel. If someone, after having been admonished to correct his behaviour, does not improve, he should be avoided. He is like tasteless salt, a stambling-block for others.
3-You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp top ut it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for eveyone in the house. In the same way, your light must shine in sight of men, so that, seing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven (Mt 5: 14-16).
EXPLANATION: For a Christian the good behaviour is of paramount importance, since the Lord will be honoured through our behaviour more than through our good words. Jesus said, “It is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21-22).
EXAMPLE: Once Saint Francis of Assisi invited his friars to go out with him to preach. After having toured some villages in silente, they were led back home without any preaching. Then, some of them asked Saint Francis, “When should we start preaching?” Saint Francis answered, “ We have already preached to people through our good example”.
EXHORTATION: The first and most important form of apostolate is our good behaviour. The Church of the Origins had few preachers, but many people joined the Catholic Church, just because they were impressed by the good beahaviour of the Christians.
4-Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them (Mt 5:17).
EXPLANATION: At the time of Jesus the Old Testament was known with the name “Law and Prophets”. Jesus has come to complete the teaching of the Old Testament. Jesus said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it, You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hangs the whole Law and the Prohets “ (Mt 22:37-40).Sait Augustine says that the Old Testament trains people to love the Lord with the whole heart and to love oneself and people in the right way.
EXAMPLE. After my father had decided to read the whole Bible and wanted to read it attentively every day, I noticed that his behaviour was improving very much, because the words of God both in the Old and New Testament caused the Holy Spirit to enter into his life and to make it more spiritual.
EXHORTATION. I advise all of you to read a chapter of the Bible every day and pray over the sentences which impress you more, in order to be able to practise them. If you read a chapter a day, within four years, you will be able to complete the reading of the whole Bible and obtain great benefits.
CONCLUSION.
Please, read the teachings of this meditation and pray the Holy Spirit to help you to pratise them in your daily life. Bible should be only read, but also prayed if we want to get spiritual advantage.
STATUTE
Here are the twelve degrees of humility according to Saint Benedict. They should be practised by those who joined Evangelization and Witness spirituality
Interior humility:
1- To be respectful of the Lord and be careful not to break his Commandments.
2-Obedience to the Lord’swill beyiond the Ten Commandments.
3-Obedience to one’s superiors out of love for the Lord..
4- Patient obedience in difficult matters.
5-Confessing one’s secret faults to ones religious superiors, outside confession.
6-Cordial acceptance of deprivations and low tasks, considering oneself not apt to fulfil well more important tasks.
7-Considering ourselves great sinners, by reflecting on the gravity of one’s sins, and the lack of correspondence to God’s grace, thinking also that if the others had received the same graces that we have received ,they would be much better than us.
B) External humility:
8-Avoiding singularity to be noticed and praised.
9-Keeping silent until we are questioned or have something important to say.
10-Self-reastraint in lauphing: avoiding vulgar or mocking lauph.
11-Speaking humbly and gently.
12-Modesty in gestures.
REMEMBER
“God opposes the proud but he gives generously to the humble”(James 4:6).So, let us try our best to be humble always both in treating the Lord and people.
路21：34-36 (其他經文──達7：15-27 詠：達3：82-87)
路21：29-33 (其他經文──達7：2-14 詠：達3：75-81)
路21：20-28 (其他經文──達6：12-28 詠：達3：68-74)
