Yesterday’s Gospel reading at Mass was Matthew 13:44-52, the parables of the pearl of great price, the treasure in the field, and the fish in the net.
At my parish of Immaculate Conception in Salem, Fr. Murphy gave a great homily in which he spoke extensively about St. Augustine and St. Monica, how he consistently rejected her attempts to get him to convert and how she never gave up on him. Father mentioned how Augustine knew himself to be an intellectual and didn’t go for all that religion stuff his mother was pushing on him. But in the end, he couldn’t resist the Holy Spirit. Father even quoted Augustine’s words:
Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.
Wow, how often do you get a chance to hear about the life of a saint and hear his most beautiful words quoted during a homily? It was a great homily. Wish you could have been there (unless you were, of course.)
[Thanks to Jeff Miller for having the quote on his page where I could crib it.]
Fr. Paul Weinberger gave a homily concerning the price of a great pearl and it was about the “Pearl of York”, St. Margaret Clithero.
You may have heard of Fr. Weinberger and the hurrah that came out of Dallas. Anyway his homily is excellent and can be read here.
http://www.semperficatholic.com/page5.html
Hope it is ok to post the link
Here in Mahonyland, we heard that God is love and we should not decide what is Good and what is Evil. We heard a lot about the pearl, nothing about the grinding of teeth. Pretty much business as usual.
I sent the quote to my four grown children, some of whom are believers and some not. Thank you for including it—how honest and powerful and elegant!