Saturday, January 13, 2007

The Doctor Is In

"There are some strong men...who place their confidence in their own justice. They claim to be just by their own means, and since they considered themselves healthy people, they refused the remedy and killed the doctor himself. This is why, in fact, the Lord came to call not these strong men, but the weak...

Oh! You the strong, who do not need the doctor! Your strength does not come from health but from insanity...The Master of humility, who shared our weakness and who made us take part in his divinity, came down from heaven to show us the way and to be himself our way. Most of all, he wanted to leave us the example of his humility...to teach us to confess our sins, to humble ourselves and become strong, and to make ours the words of the apostle: “Therefore I am content with weakness...for when I am powerless, it is then that I am strong”...

As for those who pride themselves on being strong, who, in other words, claim being just by their own virtue, “stumbled over the stumbling stone”...It is these strong men who attacked Christ, as they boasted themselves on their justice...They had placed themselves above the crowd of weak people who hurried to the doctor. Why? Simply because they thought they were strong...They killed the doctor of all men. But he, by dying, prepared through his blood a remedy for all the sick."

-St. Augustine

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