📜Epistle (Ecclus 45:1-6)
He [Moses] was beloved of God and men, whose memory is in benediction. The Lord made him like the saints in glory, and magnified him in the fear of his enemies, and with his words He made prodigies to cease. He glorified him in the sight of kings, and gave him commandments in the sight of his people, and showed him his glory. He sanctified him in his faith and meekness, and chose him out of all flesh. For He heard him and his voice, and brought him into a cloud. And He gave him commandments before his face, and a law of life and instruction.
👑Gospel (Mt 19:27-29)
At that time, Peter said to Jesus: Behold we have left all things, and have followed thee: what therefore shall we have? And Jesus said to them: Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.
🤔Reflections
✝️Peter's question, "we have left all things... what therefore shall we have?", echoes in the heart of every disciple and finds its living answer in the figure of Saint Hilarion. The day's liturgy presents us with the Gospel of radical detachment and the heavenly promise, embodied by a man who left everything, not out of obligation, but for love of Christ's Name. Saint Hilarion exchanged the securities of the world for the uncertainty of the desert, and there he found true wealth. The Epistle, in describing Moses as "beloved of God and men" for his "faith and meekness," draws the profile of a true spiritual leader. Just as Moses was chosen to receive the law, Hilarion was chosen to incarnate the law of the Gospel, showing that holiness flourishes in obedience and total detachment. His life is a living commentary on Christ's promise: whoever leaves everything for Him receives not only eternal life but a spiritual fruitfulness that surpasses any earthly bond.
✨The promise of the "hundredfold" is one of the deepest mysteries of the Christian vocation. It is not about a divine mathematics that returns material goods, but a transfiguration of existence itself. Saint Augustine meditates on this passage, stating that the reward is God Himself. He says: "God will give us Himself, He who gave all things. He will be our hundredfold" (St. Augustine, Sermon 100). Saint Hilarion experienced this in a palpable way: he left an earthly family and became the father of thousands of monks; he abandoned a small piece of land and conquered the desert for Christ, turning it into a spiritual garden. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, when speaking of the evangelical counsels, teaches that the consecrated life "foretells the resurrected state and the glory of the heavenly Kingdom" (CCC 932). Hilarion's life was this eschatological sign, a proof that renunciation for Christ is not a loss, but the gain of an infinitely superior reality: communion with God and participation in His family, the Church.
⚖️The promise to "sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel" points to the dignity and responsibility conferred upon those who follow Christ radically. This "judging" should not be understood as an act of condemnation but, as Saint Thomas Aquinas explains, a judgment by conformity and example. The lives of the saints, fully conformed to Christ, will be the standard by which the world will be judged (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Suppl., q. 89, a. 1). Saint Hilarion, with his life of prayer and penance, already "judges" our complacency and lack of faith. He reminds us that the "day of regeneration" is near and that we were created for the glory of God's throne, not for the mediocrity of the world. His fidelity unto death, even in exile, is the seal of one who lived in expectation of eternal life and already participated, on earth, in the glory promised to those who leave all for the love of Jesus' Name.
🇺🇸See English version of the critical articles here.
He [Moses] was beloved of God and men, whose memory is in benediction. The Lord made him like the saints in glory, and magnified him in the fear of his enemies, and with his words He made prodigies to cease. He glorified him in the sight of kings, and gave him commandments in the sight of his people, and showed him his glory. He sanctified him in his faith and meekness, and chose him out of all flesh. For He heard him and his voice, and brought him into a cloud. And He gave him commandments before his face, and a law of life and instruction.
👑Gospel (Mt 19:27-29)
At that time, Peter said to Jesus: Behold we have left all things, and have followed thee: what therefore shall we have? And Jesus said to them: Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.
🤔Reflections
✝️Peter's question, "we have left all things... what therefore shall we have?", echoes in the heart of every disciple and finds its living answer in the figure of Saint Hilarion. The day's liturgy presents us with the Gospel of radical detachment and the heavenly promise, embodied by a man who left everything, not out of obligation, but for love of Christ's Name. Saint Hilarion exchanged the securities of the world for the uncertainty of the desert, and there he found true wealth. The Epistle, in describing Moses as "beloved of God and men" for his "faith and meekness," draws the profile of a true spiritual leader. Just as Moses was chosen to receive the law, Hilarion was chosen to incarnate the law of the Gospel, showing that holiness flourishes in obedience and total detachment. His life is a living commentary on Christ's promise: whoever leaves everything for Him receives not only eternal life but a spiritual fruitfulness that surpasses any earthly bond.
✨The promise of the "hundredfold" is one of the deepest mysteries of the Christian vocation. It is not about a divine mathematics that returns material goods, but a transfiguration of existence itself. Saint Augustine meditates on this passage, stating that the reward is God Himself. He says: "God will give us Himself, He who gave all things. He will be our hundredfold" (St. Augustine, Sermon 100). Saint Hilarion experienced this in a palpable way: he left an earthly family and became the father of thousands of monks; he abandoned a small piece of land and conquered the desert for Christ, turning it into a spiritual garden. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, when speaking of the evangelical counsels, teaches that the consecrated life "foretells the resurrected state and the glory of the heavenly Kingdom" (CCC 932). Hilarion's life was this eschatological sign, a proof that renunciation for Christ is not a loss, but the gain of an infinitely superior reality: communion with God and participation in His family, the Church.
⚖️The promise to "sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel" points to the dignity and responsibility conferred upon those who follow Christ radically. This "judging" should not be understood as an act of condemnation but, as Saint Thomas Aquinas explains, a judgment by conformity and example. The lives of the saints, fully conformed to Christ, will be the standard by which the world will be judged (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Suppl., q. 89, a. 1). Saint Hilarion, with his life of prayer and penance, already "judges" our complacency and lack of faith. He reminds us that the "day of regeneration" is near and that we were created for the glory of God's throne, not for the mediocrity of the world. His fidelity unto death, even in exile, is the seal of one who lived in expectation of eternal life and already participated, on earth, in the glory promised to those who leave all for the love of Jesus' Name.
🇺🇸See English version of the critical articles here.