Taste and see, Angels: Day 244

Taste and see, Angels: Day 244 March 24, 2017

angels_augustine_3The holy angels drink from the sweetness of God, says St. Ambrose—but  thsweetness is hidden from you as long as you are captive to sin. As soon as all your hope is placed in the Lord, you taste what the angels taste.

With good reason, then, is the sweetness of God hidden to you. The law placed in your members, resisting the law of your mind, brings you into captivity. The holy angels drink from that sweetness, but it is hidden from you. You cannot drink and taste that sweetness, because you are a captive.

You would not have known lust if the law had not said, “You shall not lust.” You heard, feared, tried to fight, could not win.

God forbids adultery. You have coveted another man’s wife, but you do not go in to her. You have a chance—you have time, the right place, no witnesses— and yet you don’t do it. Why not? Because you fear the punishment.  But no one will know it! Well, won’t God know it? So it’s clear that, because God knows what you are about to do, you do not do it. But here you fear the threats of God. You do not love his commandments. Why don’t you do it? Because you’ll be thrown into hell fire if you do. The fire is what you fear.

Oh, if you loved chastity, you would not do it, even if you could go com- pletely unpunished! If God said to you, “Go ahead, do it, I won’t condemn you, I won’t send you to hell, but I will withhold my face from you”—then, if you didn’t do it because of this threat,  it would be from the love of God that you refrained, not from the fear of judgment.

Charity works through you, when you act with your will. You taste the sweetness right away if you hope in the Lord. –St. Augustine, Sermon 95 on the New Testament

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

How much of what keeps me in line is love, and how much is fear? Would I have less trouble with temptation if I remembered the sweetness that the angels taste?

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, I am fearful and trembling when I stand before you. Make me worthy to taste your sweetness with your holy angels.

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