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God is rich in everything, says St. Ambrose. Everything belongs to him. But though Earth is beautiful, and Heaven is beautiful, and the angels are beautiful, what God promises us is not these beautiful things, but something infinitely more beautiful: himself.
And yet, Brethren, our God never can be poor. He is rich. He made all things—Heaven and Earth, the sea and the angels. In the heaven, whatever we see, whatever we cannot see—he made it.
But still, we ought not to love these riches, but him who made them. For he has promised you nothing but himself.
Find anything more precious, and he will give you that. Beauteous is the
Earth, the Heaven, and the angels; but more beauteous is he who made them.
Thus those who preach God, because they love God; who preach God, for God’s sake; feed the sheep, and are no hirelings. Our Lord Jesus Christ required this chastity of the soul when he said to Peter, “Peter, do you love me?” ( John 21:17).
What does “Do you love me” mean? It means, “Are you chaste? Is your heart not adulterous? Do you seek in the Church not your own things, but mine? If you are such a one as this and love me, feed my sheep. For you shall be no hireling, but you shall be a shepherd.” –St. Augustine, Sermon 87 on the New Testament, 10
IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Does remembering that God is more beautiful, more wonderful than Earth, Heaven, and even the angels, help me overcome unhealthy desires for material things?
CLOSING PRAYER
Let Gabriel rejoice and be exceeding glad, with the company of all the angels, in you, the Good Shepherd, who on your shoulders carried the maimed sheep, that the number of a hundred might be preserved.
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