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Thoughts from the
Early Church
3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time
Year A
January 26, 2020

John Justus Landsberg
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea … that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled. (Mt 4:13)

  “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” Everyone knows that we were all born in darkness, and once lived in darkness. But now that the Sun of Righteousness has risen for us, let us see that we no longer remain in darkness.

Christ came to enlighten those who lived in darkness, overshadowed by death, and to guide their feet into the way of peace. Do you ask what darkness?

In himself Christ brought us light which would enable us to see our sins, and hate our darkness.

Whatever is present in our intellect, in our will, or in our memory that is not God, or which has not its source in God; that is to say, whatever in us is not for God’s sake, is a barrier between God and the soul—it is darkness.

In himself Christ brought us light which would enable us to see our sins, and hate our darkness. His freely chosen poverty, when there was no place for him in the inn, is for us a light by which we can now learn that the poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs, are blessed.

The love with which Christ offered himself to instruct us, and to endure for us injuries, ostracism, persecution, lashes, and death upon a cross; the love finally which made him pray for those who crucified him—that love is for us a light by which we may learn to love our enemies.

The humility with which “he emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave,” and with which he scorned the glory of the world, and willed to be born, not in a palace but in a stable, and to die ignominiously on a gibbet—that humility is for us a light showing us what a detestable crime it is for clay, that is to say, for poor weak creatures, to be proud, to exalt themselves, or to refuse submission, when the infinite God was humbled, despised, and subject to human beings.

The meekness with which Christ endured hunger, thirst, cold, harsh words, lashes, and wounds, when he was “led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before his shearer opened not his mouth”—that meekness is for us a light.

By it we see how useless it is to be angry, how useless to threaten. By it we accept our own suffering, and do not serve Christ merely from routine. By it we learn how much is required of us, and that when suffering comes our way we should bewail our sins in silent submission, since he endured affliction with such patience and long-suffering, not for his own sins, but for ours.

Reflect then, beloved, on all the virtues which Christ taught us by his example, which he recommends by his counsel, and which he enables us to imitate by the assistance of his grace.

Sermon 5, volume 3, 315-317



Landsberg, John Justus (1489/90-1539), so called from the place of his birth in Bavaria, received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Cologne, and then entered Saint Barbara, the celebrated charterhouse there. He made his profession in 1509, and in due course was ordained a priest.

From 1530 to 1534/35 he was prior of the charterhouse of Vogelsang, and at the same time preacher at the court of John III, duke of Juliers, Cleeves, and Berg, an unusual function for a Carthusian.

He was one of the best spiritual writers of his day, the chief characteristic of his spirituality being the contemplation of Christ, the man-God, in his life, and in his passion and death.

Landsberg was the editor of the works of Saint Gertrude, the great apostle in the Middle Ages of devotion to the Heart of Jesus, and he himself was one of the earliest promoters of this devotion.

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Edith Barnecut, OSB, a consultant for the International Committee for English in the Liturgy, was responsible for the final version of many of the readings in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Journey with the Fathers
Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels
- Year A.
To purchase or learn more about
this published work and its companion volumes,
go to http://www.newcitypress.com/

Art by Martin Erspamer, OSB
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org
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