Saturday, September 9, 2017

Dominica XIV post Pentecosten: "No man can serve two masters"

From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
Matt 6:24-33
At that time, Jesus said unto His disciples: No man can serve two masters. And so on.

Homily by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.
Bk. ii. on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, ch. xiv.

"These words of our Lord, No man can serve two masters, are explained by the following: For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. We ought carefully to weigh these words, for our Lord shows who the two masters are, saying: You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon is a term which the Hebrews are said to use for riches. It is also a Carthaginian word, for the Punic word for gain is mammon. He that serves mammon that is, loves riches serves that evil one who has perversely chosen to be the lord of these earthly things, and is called by the Lord the prince of this world (John xiv. 30). Of these two masters man will either hate the one, and love the other that is, God or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. He that serves mammon sustains a hard and pernicious master; for, led captive by his lust, he is a slave of the devil, though he love him not. Is there any one who loves the devil? Yet there are those who sustain him."

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