Friday, July 10th, 2020

“Be cunning as serpents and yet as harmless as doves”. Of this text Saint Jerome comments: “Wise, that they might escape snares; simple, that they might not do evil to others. The craft of the serpent is set before them as an example, for he hides his head with all the rest of his body, that he may protect the part in which life is. So ought we to expose our whole body, that we may guard our head which is Christ; that is, that we study to keep the faith whole and uncorrupt.” This is an important task. Even today the Church is not short of wolves masquerading as members of the flock: if we know our faith, we won’t be led astray by their easy deceits. And if we know Jesus, if we have a relationship with him, we avoid the maw of their jaws, and their own self-destruction.