Day: September 10, 2022

Eutychius says that Jesus uttered these words with a loud voice that all hearing Him calling upon God His Father, all might understand He was the true Son of God. But St. John Chrysostom writes that Jesus cried with a loud voice to teach us that He did not die of necessity, but of His own free will, uttering so strong a voice at the very moment when He was so weak and about to end His life. This was in conformity with what Jesus had said during His life, that He voluntarily sacrificed His life for His sheep, and not through the will and malice of His enemies: I lay down my life for my sheep … No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself (Jo. x. 15, 18).

It is certain that a child’s good or evil conduct in life depends on his being brought up well or ill. Nature itself teaches every parent to attend to the education of his offspring. He who has given them being ought to endeavour to make life useful to them. God gives children to parents, not that they may assist the family, but that they may be brought up in the fear and love of God, and be directed in the way of eternal salvation. “We have,” says St. John Chrysostom, “a great deposit in children; let us attend to them with great care.”

The great name of Mary, which was given to the Divine Mother, did not come to her from her parents, nor was it given to her by the mind or will of man, as is the case with other names given to children, but it came from Heaven, as many of the Holy Fathers tell us, and was given by a Divine ordinance. “The name of Mary came from the treasury of the Divinity.”