Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/20

 mercy, with mercy and truth. Christ came to us in these two ways, and so we ought to go to Him. Ps. xxv. 10, "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth." To celebrate the day of grace with purity and humility, for these two graces make acceptable grace. Of the first, Prov. xxii. 11, "He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the King shall be his friend." Of the second, James iv. 6, " God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." The Church celebrates the day of judgment with meditation and fear. As S. Jerome says, "Whether I eat or drink, that voice seems ever to resound in my ears, 'Rise up, ye dead, and come to judgment.' "On the contrary, it is said of the wicked, Prov. xxviii. 5, "Evil men understand not judgment." We ought to hasten to run to meet the day of glory with righteousness. Heb. iv. 11, "Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest." To four Christian virtues the Apostle exhorts us in this epistle. To mercy and truth in the words, "Let us put on the armour of light." For the arms of light are mercy and truth; for mercy is the shield by which we are defended from the enemy, and truth is the power by which we overcome all things. Of the first, Eccl. xxix. 12, 13, "Shut up alms in thy store-houses, and it shall deliver thee from all affliction. It shall fight for thee against thine enemies better than a mighty shield and a strong spear." Of courage, Eccles. iii. 4, " Truth is great, and will prevail; it is great, and stronger than all things; the whole earth invokes truth, and it blesses heaven itself; it moves all work, and they tremble because of it, and there is no iniquity in it. A wicked banquet, a wicked king, wicked women, all wicked sons of men, and all their wicked works, and truth is not in them, and they shall perish in their iniquity, and truth shall remain." The epistle further exhorts us impurity and humility, " Not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying" (v. 13). Chambering and wantonness are acts of riot which make impurity. Strife and envying proceed from pride. In prohibiting immodesty it exhorts to purity; in prohibiting pride it exhorts to humility. In the words, " Let us walk honestly, as in the day," it awakens us to reflection upon and to fear of the judgment; that is, that we should so live as it is meet to live in the day of judgment. A man is in the judgment by thinking upon the judgment; he lives honestly by fearing the judgment. It exhorts us to justice and despatch