📜St. Silvester Gozzolini, born in Osimo, Italy, around 1177, was of noble lineage and initially distinguished himself in the studies of law and theology, becoming a canon, but his life underwent a radical transformation upon contemplating, in an open grave, the deformed corpse of a relative who had been known for his beauty; struck by the transience of earthly glory, he exclaimed the famous phrase: "What he was, I am; and what he is, I shall be," deciding to abandon the world to live in extreme solitude and penance. Retiring to the desert and living initially as a hermit, he attracted disciples inspired by his holiness and austerity, which led him to found, on Monte Fano, the Order of Sylvestrines, a reformed branch under the Rule of St. Benedict that emphasized strict poverty and the contemplative life, a work he consolidated until his death in 1267, leaving a legacy of spiritual renewal and worldly detachment.
📖Epistle (Sirach 45:1-6)
He was beloved of God and men, whose memory is in benediction. He made him like the Saints in glory, and magnified him in the fear of his enemies, and with his words he made peace to take effect. 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
💀Today's liturgy confronts us with the radical nature of following Christ, exemplified in the conversion of St. Silvester before the reality of death and the corruption of the flesh, a "memento mori" that echoes the nullity of temporal vanities in the face of eternity. The Gospel presents Peter's inquiry about the reward of those who have left everything, and Christ's response illuminates the nature of true wealth; by abandoning finite goods, the soul is not impoverished but emptied to be filled by the Infinite, for he who clings to the world embraces what perishes, while he who renounces for the love of Jesus' Name anticipates the possession of the Supreme Good. Renunciation is not an end in itself, but the indispensable means for the interior freedom that allows man to order himself entirely to God, as the Angelic Doctor teaches when stating that the perfection of charity consists in detachment from everything that retards the mind from being carried wholly to God (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 184).
🌫️In the Epistle, the figure of Moses entering the cloud and speaking face to face with God foreshadows the monastic and contemplative vocation embraced by St. Silvester and his monks, where isolation from the world is not a cowardly escape, but an entry into the divine mystery. The "cloud" represents the obscuring of carnal senses so that the eyes of the spirit may open to the "law of life and instruction," indicating that true wisdom is infused into those who, through meekness and fidelity, separate themselves from the secular tumult to hear the voice of God in silence. St. Augustine reminds us that this vision of God is the final reward of faith, and that in this life we purify the heart through good works and asceticism so that, on the day of regeneration, we may see Him whom we now contemplate only through a mirror and in an enigma (St. Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John).
⚖️The promise of the "hundredfold" and "life everlasting" establishes the eschatological dimension of Christian hope, where the saints, having participated in Christ's humiliation on earth, will participate in His government and glory in heaven, sitting on thrones to judge. This judgment is not merely a forensic sentence, but the manifestation of the victory of holiness over sin; those who judged themselves rightly in this life, condemning their own vices and choosing poverty of spirit, will receive the authority to judge the world they despised. As the Carmelite mystic teaches us, God alone suffices, and he who possesses God lacks nothing, experiencing already on this earth the hundredfold of a peace that the world cannot give, a prelude to that eternal beatitude where the soul will be immersed in the ocean of divinity (St. Teresa of Avila, Poems).
🇺🇸See English version of the critical articles here
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