Today’s readings draw a single line through Christian life—from visible conduct, to inward love, to the eternal source of all goodness—showing that what appears hidden now is made clear by the love that forms and sustains all things. In The Shepherd of Hermas, the righteous and the wicked appear indistinguishable in this present “winter,” yet their true condition is revealed in the world to come, where fruit exposes the life that was truly rooted in God. Augustine then turns inward, confessing how his love for beauty once bound him to lower things until he learned that love itself is awakened by grace and only finds rest when it returns to God, the source of all beauty. Thomas Aquinas completes the movement by lifting our eyes to God Himself, affirming that divine love is not a response to goodness in creatures but the very cause by which all goodness exists, ordered wisely and freely by God. Together, these readings teach that what we are becoming is shaped by what we love—and what we love is finally revealed by the God who loved us first.

Readings:

The Shepherd of Hermas — Similitudes

Augustine — The Confessions

Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 20

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