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Office Of Readings | Week 32, Wednesday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From A Homily Of A Second-Century Author | Let Us Be Patient And Hope In Jesus
‘Let us be patient and hope.’
The early Christian homily continues by addressing the tension between present struggle and future fulfilment. The author writes with pastoral urgency, urging the community to hold fast in faith and to persevere in virtue despite delay, doubt, and the lure of worldly ease. The dominant theme is endurance in hope—the steadfast adherence to divine promise in the face of moral testing and temporal uncertainty.
The homilist opens with a clear exhortation: obedience to the Father’s will is the path to eternal life. Hope is not passive expectation but active fidelity expressed through moral resistance. The text identifies two opposing movements of the soul—reverent fear of God and indulgent attachment to temporal pleasure. The first preserves peace, the second breeds restlessness and corruption. The contrast is drawn not merely for individual conscience but for the community’s moral integrity; those who abandon discipline also mislead others and thereby incur a ‘double condemnation’. Moral example has social weight, a recurrent emphasis in early Christian instruction.
A distinctive feature of the homily is its use of natural imagery. The homilist’s comparison of human life to a vine in its seasons—leaf-fall, budding, sour grape, and ripened fruit—renders patience as part of the created order. Growth, whether moral or biological, cannot be hurried. In this, the homily recognises the rhythm of divine providence: tribulation precedes reward, affliction matures into joy. The tone recalls scriptural wisdom literature, where the fruit of endurance is not only survival but transformation.
Faith, in this vision, is both knowledge and perseverance. To doubt divine promise is to misunderstand the nature of time and the reliability of God. The homilist rebukes those of ‘wavering faith’ who dismiss the hope of salvation as delayed or uncertain. The impatience of disbelief is answered with an appeal to the Creator’s fidelity: the God who made the promise will keep it. The passage thus forms an early meditation on divine constancy and human steadfastness, linking moral endurance with eschatological trust.
The homily proceeds to practical consequences. The believer is to live in ‘hourly expectation’ of the kingdom—an attitude that unites ethical alertness with interior humility. Repentance must be immediate and continuous; it erases past failure and renews moral purpose. The homilist warns against the desire for social approval, insisting that Christian conduct must win respect not through conformity but through integrity. The name of God must not be blasphemed on account of believers; thus Christian life carries a public witness, binding personal holiness to the credibility of faith itself.
Throughout, the homily maintains a restrained clarity. It assumes that moral endurance and hope are inseparable: endurance sustains hope through time, and hope gives endurance its meaning. Together they shape the Christian life as an ongoing contest of trust, patience, and fidelity to the unseen promise.
A Reading From A Homily Of A Second-Century Author | Let Us Be Patient And Hope In Jesus
For the sake of eternal life, my brothers, let us do the will of the Father who called us, resisting the temptations that lead us into sin and striving earnestly to advance in virtue. Let us revere God for fear of the evils that spring from impiety. If we are zealous in doing good, we shall have peace, but there is no peace for those who, governed by human respect, prefer present enjoyment to the future promises. They realize neither the torment that is laid up for them on account of these momentary pleasures, nor the joy of the promises to come. And indeed it could be endured if their conduct affected only themselves, but as it is, they persist in corrupting the innocent, unaware that they incur a double condemnation, for themselves and their disciples.
So let us serve God with a pure heart, and then we shall be living as we should. If we fail to serve him because of our disbelief, we shall only be miserable. Wretched are those of wavering faith, says the prophet, the people who double in their hearts and say: We heard all this even when our parents were alive and day after day we have waited in vain for any proof of it. O foolish ones! Think of a tree, and see how you resemble it. A vine, for example, first sheds its leaves and then the bud appears; after that there comes the sour grape and finally a cluster of ripened fruit. So it is with my people. They have had their tumults and afflictions, but afterward will come to their reward.
Therefore, my brothers, in order to obtain the reward, we must endure in hope with unwavering faith. He who made the promise to repay every man as his deeds deserve will be faithful to it. If we do what is right in God’s sight, we shall enter into his kingdom and receive the promise which no ear has heard, no eye seen, no human heart conceived.
So let us live loving and upright lives, in hourly expectation of the kingdom of God, since we do not know when it will come. Let us repent at once of our great folly and wickedness, and from now on always be ready to do good. We should blot out past sins by being truly sorry for them, and then we shall be saved. We must have no desire to curry favour with men, nor should we think only of making ourselves acceptable to our fellow Christians. We should live upright lives in order to win the respect of non-Christians as well. The Name must not be blasphemed on our account.
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
Eternal Father,
you have promised life to those who persevere in your will.
Grant us strength to endure in hope,
to resist what corrupts,
and to grow in the quiet fruitfulness of your grace.
Keep us from fear and from weariness of faith.
May our hearts remain steadfast,
our works upright,
and our lives a sign of your fidelity.
When the hour of trial comes,
sustain us with the remembrance of your promise,
that, waiting in patience,
we may at last rejoice in the harvest of your kingdom,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Eschatological hope – Confidence in the fulfilment of God’s promises at the end of time; the orientation of faith toward the future kingdom.
Endurance – Steadfast perseverance under trial; the moral strength to remain faithful through adversity.
Impiety – Irreverence or neglect of divine law; in early Christian usage, moral disorder opposed to true worship.
Providence – God’s sustaining wisdom and governance over creation, guiding events toward their destined good.
Repentance – Turning of life and mind from sin toward God; the continual renewal of moral purpose.
Righteousness – Conformity of conduct to divine will; moral rectitude.
Temporal – Relating to time and the present world, as distinct from what is eternal.
Theodicy – Reflection on divine justice in the face of suffering; implicit in the homily’s treatment of trial and reward.
Virtue – Habitual disposition to act according to moral excellence.
Witness – Public expression of faith through behaviour that reflects divine truth.
In this reading concerning The Song of Songs, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux explores the relationship between human weakness and the mercy of Christ. His language is personal and contemplative, yet it expresses a clear theological conviction: the wounds of Christ are the place where fear, guilt, and insecurity are overcome [ … ]
Christian Art | Our Lord Jesus On The Cross | God The Father | God The Son Office Of Readings | Advent December 23rd | A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Hippolytus Against The Heresy Of Noetus | The Hidden Sacrament Is Revealed ‘The hidden sacrament is revealed.’ In this reading, Saint Hippolytus writes against the Noetic heresy, which denied the real distinction between the Father and the Son by treating them as the same person acting under different names. The purpose of Saint Hippolytus is to defend the Church’s confession of one God who is not solitary, but who exists with his Word and Spirit. Hippolytus begins by setting a principle: knowledge of God comes from the Holy Scriptures, not from speculation or private reasoning. Faith is not shaped by human preference but by what God has chosen to reveal. The Father determines how He is believed, the Son how He is glorified, and the Spirit how He is received. This establishes Scripture as the rule of faith and guards against theological invention. Hippolytus then affirms that God existed alone before creation, with nothing co-eternal alongside Him. At the same time, God was not without reason, wisdom, or power. Hippolytus insists that plurality within God does not compromise divine unity. God contains within himself Word, wisdom, and counsel. Creation begins when God wills and manifests His Word. The Word is not created from nothing but proceeds from God and acts as the agent of creation. The Word is first invisible to the created world, though known to God. When God chooses, He makes the Word visible, described as ‘Light of Light’. This language safeguards both distinction and unity: the Word comes from God and reveals God, without being separate from Him. The manifestation of the Word is ordered towards salvation, so that the world may see and be saved. Hippolytus identifies this Word clearly with the Son of God. Through him all things were made, and he alone comes forth from the Father. The Law and the prophets belong to the same saving plan. God speaks through them by the Holy Spirit, so that they proclaim not their own ideas but the Father’s will. Revelation is therefore coherent: creation, prophecy, and incarnation belong to one divine purpose. Hippolytus appeals to the Gospel of John to show continuity between prophecy and fulfilment. The Word spoken of by the prophets is the Word made flesh. Though the world was made through him, it failed to recognise him. This failure does not negate God’s plan but reveals the depth of the mystery now disclosed. A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Hippolytus Against The Heresy Of Noetus | The Hidden Sacrament Is Revealed There is, brethren, one God, the knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures and from no other source. Whatever things the Holy Scriptures declare, at these let us look; and whatever they teach, let us learn it; and as the Father wills our belief to be, let us believe; and as he wills the Son to be glorified, let us glorify him; and as he wills the Holy Spirit to be bestowed, let us receive him. Not according to our own will, nor according to our own mind, nor yet storming by force the things which are given by God, but even as he has chosen to teach them by the Holy Scriptures, so let us discern them. God, subsisting alone, and having nothing coeval with himself, chose to create the world. And conceiving the world in mind, and willing and uttering the Word, he made it; and at once it appeared, formed it in the way he desired. For us it is sufficient simply to know that nothing was coeval with God. Outside him there was nothing; but he, while existing alone, yet existed in plurality. For he did not lack reason, or wisdom, or power, or counsel. All things were in him, and he was the All. At a time and in a manner chosen by him he made his Word manifest, and through his Word he made all things. He bears this Word in himself, as yet invisible to the created world. He makes him visible, uttering the voice first, and begetting him as Light of Light. He presents him to the world as its Lord; and whereas the Word was visible formerly to God alone, and invisible to the world which is made, God makes the Word visible in order that the world might see him and be able to be saved. This is the mind which came forth into the world and was manifested as the Son of God. All things came into being through him, and he alone comes from the Father. He gave us the Law and the prophets; and in giving them, he made them speak by the Holy Ghost, in order that, receiving the inspiration of the Father’s power, they might declare the Father’s counsel and will. Thus, then, was the Word made manifest, even as the blessed John says. For he sums up the things that were said by the prophets, and shows that this is the Word, by whom all things were made. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him nothing was made. And later, The world was made by him, and the world did not know him; he came to his own, and his own did not receive him. Christian Prayer With Jesus Lord God,You are one, and from You come the Word and the Spirit.You have chosen to make Yourself known, not by human effort,but by what You have revealed in the scriptures. You spoke Your Word, and all things were made.You made that Word visible, so that the world might see and be saved.Grant that we may receive what You give,believe what You teach,and worship You as You have shown Yourself to be. Keep us […]
Saint Augustine’s commentary on Psalm 60 focuses on the psalmist’s words: “From the ends of the earth I call to you.” Augustine interprets this as the cry of a person who feels distant from God. He explains that this “distance” is not physical but spiritual — a condition of being separated from God by sin, suffering, or inner turmoil [ … ]
