December 24

Twenty-third Tuesday after Trinity

For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. Philippians 3:18, 19.

EVEN in that saintly church of Philippi there were Christians in name who forgot the Cross. When S. Paul thought of it he wept; and it so affected him, because it touched him in the most tender point of all, his Master's Cross. He wept, because they in some mysterious sense "crucified afresh the Son of God." His wounds bleed again; His enemies are not Jews but Christians. They are the enemies of the Cross and of Him Who is seen thereon; and therefore their "end is destruction," although for them Christ died. Our King is set forth on earth nowhere else but on a cross, on the Cross His title is written. This is the King. It is written in every language, for all people are His; but the Cross is His only throne below. The Cross speaks of our God with a body full of pain, because our bodies are full of sin. But their "god" is their belly. The chief object they look to is ease and luxury, serving the fleshly mind. The carnal mind is death and enmity against God, and the reason is, because in the Cross is life. The things in which the natural man glories are a shame to the Christian. "I will not glory," says S. Paul, "except in my infirmities, and gladly in them will I glory, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

So shall voice, mind, and strength conspire

Thy praise eternal to resound;

So shall our hearts be set on fire

And kindle every heart around.