JUNE 26 – SS. JOHN AND PAUL, MARTYRS.
THESE two Saints were both officers in the army under Julian the Apostate, and received the crown of martyrdom, probably in 362. They glorified God by a double victory: they despised the honors of the world, and triumphed over its threats and torments. They saw many wicked men prosper in their impiety, but were not dazzled by their example. They considered that worldly prosperity which attends impunity in sin is the most dreadful of all judgments; and how false and short-lived was this glittering prosperity of Julian, who in a moment fell into the pit which he himself had dug! But the martyrs, by the momentary labor of their conflict, purchased an immense weight of never-fading glory; their torments were, by their heroic patience and invincible virtue and fidelity, a spectacle worthy of God, who looked down upon them from the throne of His glory, and held His arm stretched out to strengthen them, and to put on their heads immortal crowns in the happy moment of their victory.
REFLECTION: The Saints always accounted that they had done nothing for Christ so long as they had not resisted to blood, and by pouring forth the last drop completed their sacrifice. Every action of our lives ought to spring from this fervent motive, and we should consecrate ourselves to the divine service with our whole strength; we must always bear in mind that we owe to God all that we are, and, after all we can do, are unprofitable servants, and do only what we are bound to do.
WORD OF THE DAY
ARISTOTELIANISM. The system of thought of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) and his followers. Aristotle divided human knowledge into three categories: the theoretical, conceived with the truth for its own sake; the practical, directed to the guidance of conduct; and the productive, to be used in the cultivation of the arts. This division has ever since affected what may be called Christian Aristotelianism, through Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), who built on Aristotle an impressive philosophy of the Christian faith. On this level, Aristotle’s main contributions include: 1. a clear analysis of the foundations of human reasoning, through induction and deduction; 2. the theory of the four causes, material, formal, efficient, and final; 3. hylomorphism, or the theory of matter and form; 4. the principle of teleology that every being has a purpose; 5. the postulate that every living being has a principle of life, which in man is the rational soul; 6. the proof of an eternal unmoved Mover, to explain the existence of a world that is changeable, and the identification of this eternal unmoved First Mover with the god or gods of popular religion; 7. the conclusion that this First Cause is pure thought, who is pure actuality, the only being with no extension, who is the supreme object of all knowledge and the ultimate object of all desire; 8. the definition of the ethical good as that which corresponds to man as rational being and consists in the subordination of the senses to reason and in the exercise of reason to search for and contemplate the truth.
Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)
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