What have we that we have not received? And, if we have received, why do we glory as though we had not?

Saturday, 9/3/16

Our first reading brings us one of St. Paul’s most thought-provoking questions. “What have you that you have not received? And if you have received, why do you glory as though you had not?

Since pride is our most frequent failing, along with the one doing us the most harm, it is good for us to use Paul’s linked questions for putting us in our place.

All the genes in our bodies are inherited. Our parents kept us alive, teaching us how to walk and talk, paying for our schooling. What have we added to that other than a few extra pounds and some bad habits? Step down please!!!

St. Gregory, whom we honor today, came along almost two centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. He was the last of our popes who could write beautiful Latin and Greek.

He ran into a problem with the Mass. It was this: since the time of the Last Supper the rule had been that the one officiating had to use his own words for the proper of the Mass; but in Gregory’s time there were no priests educated enough to make up their own words. That forced Gregory into composing the Roman Canon that has come down to us with few changes.