Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Source of Collect: Very earliest of the Sacramentaries [440]. 1 Corinthans 13:13 "now abideth faith, hope, and charity... There are two petitions, to "give us increase", and secondly to "make us to love" reminds us of Romans 6:17... being "obedient from the heart" [Barbee and Zahl]
For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth
WEEKLY BULLETIN
quotation
"The precepts of law are about acts of virtue. But the divine law contains precepts about the acts of faith, hope, and charity…Therefore, faith, hope and charity are virtues directing us to God. Therefore they are theological virtues. "
[Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica, Question LXII]
calendar
Julian, Centurion of Brioude (Auvergne), Martyr - August 28thcommentary
The homily of Augustine selected this day is onPsalm 74. This psalm has been dated from the period of the exile. The psalm is in two equal themes: verses 1-11 ask the why and wherefore of their condition; verses 12-23 remember the great triumphs of God in the past. The center verse in Hebrew is key to the psalm, and is used in this place as a literary device. It says,
For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth
Augustine writes:
Asaph hath understood, because on the Title of the Psalm there is, "understanding of Asaph." And what saith he? "But God, our King before the worlds, hath wrought Salvation in the midst of the earth" On the one hand we cry, "No longer is there prophet, and us He will not know as yet:" but on the other hand, "our God, our King, who is before the worlds" (for He is Himself in the beginning of the Word by whom were made the worlds), "hath wrought Salvation in the midst of the earth." "God therefore, our King before the worlds," hath done what? "hath wrought Salvation in the midst of the earth:" and I am yet crying as if forsaken!...Now the Gentiles are awake, and we are snoring, and as though God hath forsaken us, in dreams we are delirious. "He hath wrought Salvation in the midst of the earth."
Augustine points this verse directly to the Word, to Christ, the second person of the Trinity. God came down from Heaven, incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, into the very midst of the civilized earth, to "wrought salvation". There, in that time and place, through the Jews, Jesus did that which his Father had commanded [Jn 10:18]. By laying down his life he wrought salvation in the world, once done and for all who would accept it, on that Friday at Calvary. His is a perfect and sufficient oblation for the sin of the whole world. The debt is paid. Salvation is won and the folk set free. Satan is defeated for those in Christ.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Finis
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