JULY 5TH, SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST;

Commemoration of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, Confessor

Month in honor of the Most Precious Blood of OLJC.

Homily by St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.

Bk. vi. on Luke ix.

After that woman, who is a type of the Church, was healed of the issue of blood Luke viii. 43-48; the Lord had sent His disciples to preach the kingdom of God ix. 2. His heavenly tenderness gave food. But consider who they were unto whom He gave it. He gave it not to such as dwell at ease, not to men in cities, not to such as sit in places of worldly splendour, but to men seeking Christ in a desert place. Such as are not given to niceness are they whom Christ receiveth, and unto whom the Word of God speaketh, not of earthly things, but of the kingdom of God. And if any bear in them the running sores of fleshly passion, He healeth them. And then it came to pass that, as He had healed them that had need of healing, He fed their hunger with ghostly meat. Thus it is that no man taketh Christ's meat, unless he be first healed, and they, that are bidden to the supper, are first cured by the invitation. The lame receive the power to walk, that they may be able to come; the blind cannot see the door of the house of the Lord, unless light be given them. Everywhere is preserved the order of the Sacraments. The sinful soul is first healed by the remission of sins, and afterward is filled at the Table of the Lord albeit this multitude now present is of such as do not yet feed on those strong meats, nor pasture their starving spirits upon the Body and Blood of Christ, as do they of a manlier faith. To use the words of Paul, I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 1 Cor. iii. 2. The five loaves are, as it were, your milk; the stronger meat will be the Body of Christ; the more generous cup, the Blood of the Lord.