Lord, you are good and your promises never fail. I bless you most precious God, maker and sustainer of the universe. I am learning much through Augustine right now. He fell away from you and must return, but can only do so through and because of your wondrous grace. He and I can only return to you, our Home, our eternal and perfect and blessed God, source of all good, by the condescension made by our sweet Lord, Jesus Christ.
He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but even then let it go to take on human form. Our blessed Lord became a man! And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. How great and awesome! May praises never cease to ring about this intoxicating truth.
Yet the story of redemption doesn’t end there. He did not only become a man, but lived a perfect life as a man: the life we all should have lived (and that you call us to now with all its blessings and joy in the easy yoke). Our perfect Lord did more than live a perfect life: He was obedient to death, even death on a cross. He endured unspeakable sorrow, rejected by all men, even his closest disciples. He boldly faced rejection by His Father, our Father, who is our source of good, who loves us and cares for us forever and ever. Jesus submitted to the Father’s scorn as all mankind was punished through Him as “justice cut the deepest lash.” (Herbert’s The Sacrifice) He suffered unspeakable agony on the cross, yet counted it joy for what was set before Him.
The joy is that He rose again. Life, sweet life, is now attainable through the Resurrection. He is seated at the right hand of God and sent His Spirit to help us through the rest of our journey.
Good Father, let us learn and reflect more and more upon you as we go. Let blessed Augustine be our example as he took time to be and not to be made up of a collection of doings. Let our lives be characterized by steady reflection and introspection, yielding great fruit as our meditations and disciplines allow us to love our brethren and the world around us. Let our lives look like the life lived (and died) by Jesus. Let us take up our crosses and trust that our loving Father, who loves us as His own sons, would raise us up again.
Praise God! Praise Him from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creatures here below! Praise now and always to the righteous, blessed, and glorious Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the name of Christ! Amen.
