LVII. Mathias, sanctus (Ymnus de sancto Mathia)
The Fallen Place Prepared
Saint Matthew was called as a warrior after the Lamb's blood, yet slow in awareness, because God had foreseen him from the mud when the first angel fell in his pride.
Saint Matthew, through his election a warrior by his victory, did not receive his election before the blood of the Lamb, but he was slow in knowledge, as it were a man who doesn't fully keep watch. The gift of God stirred him up, and he rose up like a giant in his own strength out of joy, because God foresaw him as the man whom he had formed from the mud when the first angel fell, the one who denied God. The man who saw his election — woe, woe — fell.
Renunciation and Burning Desire
Matthew turned away from earthly possessions and threw himself into the fire of purified desire as though embracing Olympus.
He had oxen and rams, but he turned his face away from them and sent them off. And so he fell upon a pit of burning coals and kissed his own desires in his fervor, as if she were Olympus, raising them up.
Raised Up as a Giant
Matthew rose like a giant through divine election, filling the place the lost one refused, a wonderful miracle of unmerited grace.
Then Matthew rose up like a giant through the election of divinity, because God placed him in the place that the lost man refused. O wonderful miracle, which shone forth so in him! For God foresaw him in his miracles when he had not yet earned any merit, but the mystery of God brought him joy that he had not received through his own instruction.
Joy Beyond Knowing
God gives grace to the unknowing, and delights in the one who cries out in humble self-forgetfulness.
O joy of joys, the way God works this way: when he bestows his grace on someone who doesn't know what's happening, so that the little one has no idea where the great one flies — the one whose wing God has granted to the little one. For God has a taste of the one who doesn't know himself, because his voice cries out to God — just as Matthias did when he said: O God, my God, you who created me, all my works are yours.
The Church Rejoices
The Church is called to rejoice in Matthias, whom God chose in the opening of a dove.
Now then, let all the Church rejoice in Matthias, whom God chose in the opening of a dove. Amen.
Read the original Latin
Mathias, sanctus per electionem, vir preliator per victoriam, ante sanguinem agni electionem non habuit, sed tardus in scientia fuit quasi homo, qui perfecte non vigilat. Donum dei illum excitavit, unde ipse pre gaudio sicut gygas in viribus suis surrexit, quia deus illum previdit sicut hominem, quem de limo formavit, cum primus angelus cecidit, qui deum negavit. Homo, qui electionem vidit, ve, ve, cecidit. Boves et arietes habuit, sed faciem suam ab eis retrorsum duxit et illos dimisit. Unde foveam carbonum invasit, et desideria sua osculatus in studio suo, illa sicut Olimpum erexit. Tunc Mathias per electionem divinitatis sicut gygas surrexit, quia deus illum posuit in locum, quem perditus homo noluit. O mirabile miraculum, quod sic in illo resplenduit. Deus enim ipsum previdit in miraculis suis, cum nondum haberet meritum operationis, sed misterium dei in illo gaudium habuit, quod idem per institutionem suam non habebat.
O gaudium gaudiorum, quod deus sic operatur, cum nescienti homini gratiam suam impendit, ita quod parvulus nescit, ubi magnus volat, cuius als deus parvulo tribuit. Deus enim gustum in illo habet, qui seipsum nescit, quia vox eius ad deum clamat, sicut Mathias fecit, qui dixit: O deus, deus meus, qui me creasti, omnia opera mea tua sunt. Nunc ergo gaudeat omnis ecclesia in Mathia, quem deus in foramine columbe sic elegit. Amen.
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