Thursday, November 4, 2021

 Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo, bishop

(Romans 14:7-12; Luke 15:1-10)

St. Paul asks, perhaps rhetorically, “…why do you look down on your brother and sister?’  The question is not difficult to answer.  People look down on one another in order to make themselves seem superior.  Since others, looking down upon them, made them feel subservient, they want to have the pleasure of looking down upon others.  It seems to be an endless chain of unequal relations.

Paul, however, notes that the vicious cycle has been broken.  Christ has died for all.  Those who believe in him are lifted up so high that they are not subservient to anyone.  Yet they live in humble submission to Christ.  Doing so, they do not insist on their own will, but try accommodating their will to others’.

St. Charles Borromeo at least listened to others.  He is famous for calling many councils and synods as Archbishop of Milan.  His sense of humble service was highlighted in his personal care for plague victims in the sixteenth century.

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