Smith: the feasts and the fasts

Sunday, June 5, 2011
    Feast of Boniface (Wynfrith) of Crediton, Archbishop of Mainz, Apostle of Germany, Martyr, 754
Meditation:
    My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
    —James 2:1-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The observances of the Church concerning feasts and fasts are tolerably well kept, upon the whole, since the rich keep the feasts and the poor keep the fasts.
    ... Sydney Smith (1771-1845), quoted in A Sketch of the Life and Times of the Rev. Sydney Smith, Stuart Johnson Reid, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1884, p. 127-128 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am rich, and I am ashamed of my attitude—deliver me from the sin of discrimination. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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