April 29
The parchment has been torn up
et our hearts
and souls burst with love! Let them be quick to serve and stand in awe
of the good, gentle Jesus! For the devil was holding on to us as his own
property, as slaves and prisoners, and Jesus rescued us. He assumed responsibility
for us, paid our debt, and then tore up the bond. When did he assume responsibility
for us? When he assumed our humanity and became a servant. Ah, but that
alone would not have been enough if he had not also paid the debt we had
contracted. And when was that paid? When he gave up his life on the wood
of the most holy cross to give us back the life of grace we had lost. O
sweetest, boundless charity! You destroyed the bond by which the devil
held us, and tore it up on the wood of the most holy cross! That bond was
written on nothing less than lambskin, the skin of the spotless Lamb. He
inscribed us on himself and then tore up the lambskin! So let our souls
find strength in knowing that the parchment our bond was written on has
been torn up, and our opponent and adversary can never again demand to
have us back.
So let us run to embrace virtue with true holy desire, remembering the
gentle Lamb, who in such blazing love shed his life's blood.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from
Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman
