Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 2, Chapters 17–18
Augustine, The Confessions, Book 10, Chapter 31 (Section 46)
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 90, Article 1
When our understanding of the divine feels too high, it is Christ’s condescension that lifts us up—not by crushing mystery, but by inviting awe. Today’s readings show this from every angle. Irenaeus continues his attack on gnostic pride by grounding true knowledge in the humility of the Incarnation—affirming that God is not discovered by speculation, but revealed through His Son. Augustine reflects on the nature of purity and temptation, confessing that it is not food that defiles, but the desires that twist it. And Aquinas, ever the steady hand, opens Question 90 by addressing whether the soul is created or divine in origin, showing that the soul is not a fragment of God's essence, but a work of His will. Then we meet Zachary, a young man struggling to believe his individuality matters. Everyone kept telling him he had “a spark of the divine” in him—but it only made him feel more lost, like a borrowed flame. When his mentor walked him through Aquinas’s answer—that the soul is not part of God, but made by God—he wept. It meant he was willed into being, not scraped from something else. He was not borrowed. He was wanted. (Romans 14:14; 1 Timothy 4:4; 1 Corinthians 8:8; Colossians 2:16; Romans 14:3; Genesis 9:3; 1 Kings 17:6; Matthew 3:4; Genesis 25:29–34; 2 Samuel 23:15–17; Matthew 4:4; Exodus 16)
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