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Our Lady of Guadalupe - Feast

Commentary of the day
Saint Clement of Alexandria (150- c.215), theologian
The Protreptic, 9, 87-88 ; SC 2

"The wisdom of God is vindicated": God calls us to conversion

None will be so impressed by the exhortations of any of the saints, as they are by the words of the Lord himself, the lover of humankind. For this, and nothing but this, is his only work—our salvation. Therefore he himself, urging us on to salvation, cries: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mk 1,15). Those who come to him, he converts. Therefore also the apostle of the Lord… becomes the interpreter of the divine voice, when he says: “The Lord is at hand; take care we are not overcome unawares and found empty” (cf Phil 4,5; 1Thes 5,4).

But are you so devoid of fear, or rather of faith, as not to believe the Lord himself, or Paul who, for Christ’s sake, is in chains? “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Ps 33[34],9). Faith will lead you in; experience will teach you; Scripture, like a tutor, will train you, for it says: “Come, children, and hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” Then, as to those who already believe, it briefly adds, “Which of you desires life and loves to see prosperous days?” (Ps 33,12-13). It is we, we shall say—we who are the devotees of good, we who eagerly desire good things. Hear, then, “you who are far off”, hear “you who are near” (Is 57,19): the Word has not been hidden from anyone; light is common, it shines for all; there is no one who is a stranger to it.

Let us hasten, therefore, to salvation, to regeneration; let us who are many hasten to be brought together in one flock, (Jn 10,16). Let us pursue oneness among ourselves by following the one Christ. In this way the union of many voices in one, issuing in the production of a divine harmony out of a medley of sounds and division, becomes one symphony. And the choir, in obeying its choir-leader, the Word, will not rest except in the truth itself when it will be able to say: “Abba, Father” (Mk 14,36).