Sunday, July 09, 2006

From yesterday's Liturgy Readings

Yesterday's Readings included Romans 6:11-17, which includes: "[P]resent...your members to God as weapons of righteousness."

Members are body-parts, and weapons are "arms" for the battle, as St. John Chrysostom reflects in his Homily XI on Romans VI:

The body, then, is indifferent between vice and virtue, as also are instruments (or arms) ...For if the eye is curious after the beauty of another {ie, than the person you are married to}, the eye becomes an instrument of iniquity ...But if you bridle it, it becomes an instrument of righteousness: the same with the tongue, and with the hands, and with all the other members ...But by calling it an arm, [Paul] makes it clear that there is hard warfare at hand for us. And for this reason, we need ...a noble spirit ...and above all we need a Commander ...Moreover, we need a purpose of mind to handle them properly, so that we may both obey our Commander, and take the field for our country.

(As in The Bible and the Holy Fathers for Orthodox, comp. and ed. Johanna Manley, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Saturday of the 4th Week after Pentecost.)

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