Thursday, 2/15/18
In the First Reading Isaiah
told us that God wants us to pursue holiness not by fasting and and undergoing
stiff penances; but rather by helping those in need.
The saints in our church's early
centuries were famous for their extreme penances. St. Anthony cut himself off
from all human contacts, living on scraps people threw his way. A saint named Simon for twenty years isolated
himself on the top of a stone pillar.
Our saints from later
centuries, men like Francis of Assisi, would eat a fine meal if it were put before him. You might not want to go
along with this, but the difference between holiness in the early church and
later church was somewhat philosophical. It was the difference between Plato
and Aristotle.
Plato believe that our souls
were created before our bodies, and our bodies are prisons from that our souls
must overcome.
The writings of Aristotle
were lost for a thousand year. He believed that our bodies and soul are created
together at the same instant. For Aristotle holiness came from healthy minds in
healthy bodies.
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