🕯️St. Eusebius, born in Sardinia around the year 283 and raised to the see of Vercelli in 345, stands out in Church history as an intrepid defender of the Nicene faith and the first to introduce monastic life among the secular clergy in the West. His tireless fight against the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ, led him to confront Emperor Constantius II, resulting in a painful exile in Scythopolis, Cappadocia, and Thebaid, where he endured hunger and mistreatment with heroic patience. After the emperor's death, he returned to his diocese, working alongside St. Hilary of Poitiers to restore orthodoxy and peace in the Church, until his death on August 1, 371. Although he did not die violently, the Church venerates him with the honors of a martyr due to the sufferings endured for the faith, celebrating his feast in the traditional calendar on December 16.
📜Epistle (II Cor 1, 3-7)
Brethren: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation; that we also may be able to comfort them who are in all distress, by the exhortation wherewith we also are exhorted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us: so also by Christ doth our comfort abound. Now whether we be in tribulation, it is for your exhortation and salvation: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation: or whether we be exhorted, it is for your exhortation and salvation, which worketh the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. That our hope for you may be steadfast: knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
✠ Gospel (Mt 16, 24-27)
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it. For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works.
💭The Cross as the Guarantee of Truth
Today's liturgy weaves a deep connection between the vicarious suffering described by St. Paul and the radical renunciation demanded by Christ, perfectly incarnated in the life of St. Eusebius. The Apostle recalls that tribulation is not a sterile end, but the mysterious means by which we participate in the "sufferings of Christ" so that, subsequently, we may overflow with divine consolation; thus, Eusebius's exile was not a political defeat, but the necessary participation in the Cross that generates life for the Church. St. Augustine teaches, commenting on the martyrs, that "it is not the punishment that makes the martyr, but the cause," and Eusebius, by upholding the consubstantiality of the Word against Arianism, demonstrated that the "loss of life" in this world—that is, the loss of status, comfort, and homeland—is the non-negotiable price for possessing eternal Truth. The rhetorical question of the Gospel, "what exchange shall a man give for his soul?", echoes like thunder against worldly conveniences and doctrinal relativism, reminding us, with the precision of St. Thomas Aquinas, that the virtue of fortitude consists not only in attacking evil but principally in holding the spirit immovable before dangers that threaten life, making the confessor a living mirror of eternity in time, for by losing the world, one gains God Himself.
🇺🇸See English version of the critical articles here.
f1descatholica.blogspot.com