Through the Church Fathers: July 31

Today’s readings invite us to consider how God’s justice operates across time, nature, and salvation. Irenaeus defends God’s command to the Israelites to take from the Egyptians—not as theft, but as just compensation for generations of slavery, and as a symbol of how believers now repurpose worldly goods for divine ends. Augustine, meanwhile, wrestles with the elusive nature of time itself. What we call "long" or "short" only makes sense in the present moment, which vanishes even as we try to grasp it. Finally, Aquinas shows us that if humanity had never fallen, every child would have been born both righteous and confirmed in grace—growing up with a will naturally inclined to good, free from the struggle we now face within. Together, the Fathers draw us into a deeper awareness of how God shapes our world, our history, and our very selves.

Readings for July 24

• Irenaeus – Against Heresies 4.30–32
• Augustine – Confessions Book 11, Chapter 15 (Sections 18–19)
• Thomas Aquinas – Summa Theologica I, Q100, Articles 1–2

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