Do not allow pride to swell in you, let it shrivel instead, and rot. Be disgusted by
it, throw it out. Christ is looking for a humble Christian. Christ in heaven,
Christ with us, Christ in hell – not to be kept there, but to release others
from there. That’s the kind of leader we have. He is seated at the right hand
of the Father, but he is gathering us up together from the earth: one in this
way, one in that; by favoring this one, chastising that one, giving this one
joy and that one trouble. May he that gathers gather us up, otherwise we are
lost; may he gather us together where we can’t get lost, into that land of the
living where all deserts are acknowledged and justice is rewarded.
Shunning all that could keep us from Christ, we long to be filled more and more with the ardor that so formed the heart of Saint Mary Magdalene.
Fresco from the Arena Chapel in Padua by Giotto. Excerpts from Saint
Augustine, Sermon 70A, 1-2
