LORD, BY THIS TIME THERE IS A STENCH

4th Sunday of Abib

(ST. CYRIL THE GREAT)

As those, in whom Christ dwells...

have an exalted and high thought,

that keep them from creeping on the dust; and…they would refuse to remain on earth, seeking always exaltness in

virtue… So, while they walk on earth, their thoughts are far in the

highs.

WORTHY CONDUCT Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one

spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of

salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer

for His sake,

DISOBEDIENCE

2 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,[a] 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. ...7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,

“The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone,”1 Pet 2: 1-3, 7

LIES AND DEFEAT 11 Now God worked unusual miracles by the

hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We[a] exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

BLESSED HOPE

Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works

        Which You have done;

        And Your thoughts toward us

        Cannot be recounted to You in order;

        If I would declare and speak of them,

        They are more than can be numbered. Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;

        Let such as love Your salvation say continually,

        "The LORD be magnified!"

FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST

14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and

through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved

and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the

aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these

things? 2 Cor 2 :14-16

NO MORE STENCH

He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"

And he who had died came out bound hand and foot

with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them,

"Loose him, and let him go."

St Augustine

"I (Christ) am the food of full-grown men. Grow and you shall

feed on me. But you shall not change me into your own

substance, as you do with the food of your body, instead you shall

be changed into me“. Confessions, VII 10 (PL 32, 742) ed & trs. R.S. Pine-Coffin, Penguin 1971, p. 147.