Daily Contemplation
May 26, 2022 ~ Pashons 18, 1738
The hope of resurrection is the root of every kind of good work,
for the expectation of reward braces the soul to productive toil.
And whereas every worker is ready to sustain his toil if he can look forward to being repaid for his labors,
where toil has no recompense the soul is soon discouraged and the body flags with it.
A soldier who expects his share of the spoils is ready for war.
But no one is prepared to die serving a king so undiscerning that he does not provide rewards for labors.
In the same way, any soul that believes in resurrection takes care for itself, as is right,
but any soul that disbelieves the resurrection abandons itself to destruction…
While many deny [the resurrection of the dead], the truth claims credence for it…
Truth never appears but in one shape, while contradiction assumes a hundred.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
(Lk 14:12-15)