For most of the Masses this week we are in Luke chapter 12, with its theme of stewardship. On Monday (optional memorial of St Paul of the Cross) Luke 12:13–21 deals with the danger of covetousness. This is followed by a meditation from St Leo the Great on the spiritual combat necessary to resist what the Lord describes as laying up treasure for ourselves and failing to be “rich towards God”.
“When you see that you are waging a battle on many fronts, then must you also, in imitation of the martyrs, pursue a many-sided victory. Every time we die to sins, the sins die in us, and this death of his holy ones is precious in the sight of the Lord (Ps 116 [115]:15) because a human being dies to the world not by the destruction of senses, but by the death of vices.”
