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THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE UNJUST STEWARD

(Read Luke  xvi, 1-9.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the steward spoken about in to-day’s Gospel. Fearing to be dismissed and punished by his master for his careless management, gave himself to serious thought about his present state, and how he could best provide for the needs of the future. And you, who have wasted so many gifts of God, fear you not the irreparable evil and punishment which is impending over you at the day of reckoning? How often have you not, merely for your bodily pleasure, to gratify your irregular desires, for your self-love, diverted so many gifts of soul and body, of nature and of grace, which God has bestowed upon you that you might spend them in His service and employ them to His glory?

APPLICATION: For such wrong then so basely done to God, you know that you must soon render a most strict account. Do you then never think of it, or strive to make reparation for so much evil done? Oh how true indeed it is that the children of this world are wiser!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou hast caused judgment to be heard from heaven: the earth trembled and was still, when God arose in judgment. (Ps. lxxv, 9, 10.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  the ingenious expedient made use of by this steward, to his own profit indeed, but to the loss of his master, who nevertheless praised his steward’s foresight in making friends betimes with his master’s debtors by remitting part of their debts, so that, after his dismissal, they would give him wherewith to live. How much dost thou owe my lord? A hundred barrels of oil. Write fifty. You on the contrary cannot inflict loss on God by providing for your own advantage, but you do Him grievous wrong by injuring yourself. Why then do you neglect those means, by which you may provide for all the necessities of your last moments, to your own profit and happiness, and at the same time to the glory of God?

APPLICATION: Consider attentively how much worldly men fatigue and spend themselves for temporal interest, how much they labour that they may not lose what they already possess, how much they work in order to gain what they ambition, and how much they strive to provide for all their future possible needs. Yet these earthly things all pass speedily away and all are ended at death. Blessed are you if you study and strive as much to acquire and secure the true treasures of heaven, which will never end!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I thought upon the days of old: and I had in my mind the eternal years. (Ps. lxxvi, 6.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that life is short and the time of death uncertain, and that soon it may surprise you! And then, now you can be steward no longer. Then you will have no more time to adjust your accounts, or to accumulate merits of good works, in order to compensate for the waste you have made. So many gifts were received from God in the course of your life, so much light, so many inspirations, and so much good example.

APPLICATION: For all of these must you give a most strict account at the moment of death; according to the solemn words of the gospel: Unto whomsoever much is given of him much shall be required. (Luke xii, 48.) Be up then and doing, for the time is near at hand when thou canst be steward no longer.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me. Fear and trembling have come upon me. (Ps. liv, 5, 6.)

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MONDAY AFTER THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ MERCIFULNESS

Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful. (Luke vi, 36.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that true mercifulness, by which you should resemble your divine Father, is not that quality which comes from simple tenderness of sentiment and compassion for the distress of your neighbour, but is that which arises from the virtue of charity, which moves you to help him from love of God. When the affection of compassion is awakened in you from this motive, then your mercy is complete and perfect. For you not only desire to assuage the distress of others but you also wish to feel then and to share them. This is the mercy which God has shown towards you. For whilst helping you in your infirmities, He willed at the same time in His humanity to realise the sentiments of true compassion for you: It behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren that He might become a merciful High-Priest. (Heb. ii, 17.)

APPLICATION: It is then this complete and perfect mercifulness that you should exercise towards your neighbour. Help him for the love of God, and feel his sorrows as if they were your own.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the evil day. (Ps. xl, 2.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that you should not only exercise this mercy and compassion towards your friends and your relatives, but also towards the unworthy, towards strangers, and towards your enemies, for whom naturally you would not feel compassion and pity. Thus will your mercifulness be the more perfect and more like the divine mercy, which so intensely pities and helps the sinful and those who are enemies of God. Do you not notice that Christ when He bids you imitate the mercifulness of God, calls Him by the name of Father? Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful. For God most tenderly pities His children and He helps them to the uttermost, even when they are unruly and proud.

APPLICATION: How often instead of feeling pity and compassion for the evils which you perceive your enemies and unworthy persons to suffer, you have rather rejoiced in their misfortune! If you cannot sympathise with them with a tender affection, at least try to help and aid them with your prayers, for the love of God our Lord. For, when you were most unworthy and ungrateful, He has shown you such mercifulness in sympathising with all your afflictions and alleviating them, at the cost of His blood.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth  for ever and ever. (Ps. cxi, 9.) 

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that of all the divine virtues, Christ expressly proposes in the gospels this virtue of mercifulness in particular for your imitation. For it is the one that will make you most resemble God. The mercy of God, as seen in its effects, may be said to be the greatest virtue of all, because it moved Him to redeem the whole human race with His blood. According to his mercy, he saved us. (Titus iii, 5.)

APPLICATION: And for you also it should be the greatest virtue. For the exercise of mercifulness towards one’s neighbour for the love of God is true charity. It unites you to God and your neighbour, and gives you a larger field in which to exercise towards those who are most afflicted, many acts of virtue, without any danger of self interest or of self love. Do you not feel attracted to the love of this virtue, in order to become more like unto your heavenly Father?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord is in his holy temple: The Lord’s throne is in heaven. His eyes look on the poor man; his eyelids examine the sons of men. The Lord trieth the just and the wicked. (Ps. x, 5, 6.)

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TUESDAY AFTER THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ OUR FUTURE LOT

Lay up to yourself treasures in heaven. (Matt. vi, 20.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY those words of Ecclesiastes (xi, 3), If the tree falls to the south, or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall, there shall it be, and that you are the tree here spoken of. If you be cut down by the sickle of death and fall to the south there will you remain; but if you fall to the north, there too must you in like manner remain. Never more will there be any hope of your changing place. Either for ever a prince on his throne, or ever a slave in chains; either for ever rejoicing, or always tormented; either for ever glorified, or for ever disgraced.

APPLICATION: Are you not moved at the thought of these different destinies? You bestow much thought and reflection so as to secure, or at least not to lose, some portion, or some comfort, which will be all over in a few days. Do you then think so little about which of these two eternal destinies is to be yours, and that in so short a time?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The death of the wicked is very evil. (Ps. xxxiii, 22.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that if you are at all anxious to know to which side you will then fall, you must watch and see to which side you lean. When a tree is cut down it falls to that side to which before it inclined. If it inclines to the south, it will fall to the south; if it inclines to the north, it will fall to the north.

APPLICATION: That which causes you like the tree to bend towards one side rather than another, is the weight of your inclinations and of your affections. If these make you bend towards the chilly north of worldliness, O how justly you may fear for your future lot. For there are not a few who, turning their affections to the things of earth, have at death met  the most terrible fate.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments I have not forgotten. (Ps. cxviii, 30.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that you are, if you wish, still in a position to chose the right direction by doing violence to your evil inclinations and to all your irregular affections. Do not however delay, because habits are like trees, inasmuch as the older they grow the harder to change they become.

APPLICATION:   Begin by turning your heart to God, your thoughts to eternal things, and care not too much for transitory things. Thus you may hope at death to enjoy a happy lot. You sincerely wish to secure your eternal happiness? Why then pay so much attention to that which is unworthy of you, and which places you in danger of losing it? You can never understand enough what a difference the force of habits, whether good or bad, which you have formed in life, will make at the approach of death.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Set before me for a law the way of thy justifications, O Lord: and I will always seek after it. (Ps. cxviii, 33.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE IDOLS OF OUR HEART

Jesus seeing their thoughts said: Why do you think evil in your heart? (Matt. ix, 4.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY what we read in Isaias (xix, 1.) Behold the Lord will. . . enter Egypt and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the interpretation of some that when Jesus Christ, hidden under the cloud of His humanity, entered as a little child into Egypt, all the idols of that country were thrown down and fell to the earth.

APPLICATION: You may look upon your own heart also as a land of Egypt, where as many idols reign as there are ill-regulated affections which you worship. In this Egypt, too, God does not disdain, to enter under the cloud of the sacramental accidents, not indeed in order to save His own life from the sword of Herod, but to save your life, and that every time you communicate. And are you not amazed at this His entrance? Are you not moved to do Him honour?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: In God is my salvation and my glory: he is the God of my help, and my hope is in God. (Ps. lxi, 8.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that all the idols of Egypt were moved at the presence of the Lord: Before the face of God. How much more just then is it that the sinful affections of your heart should likewise be moved, and should fall to the ground in the presence of the Lord, and before the divine example that is given you in this blessed sacrament of love. An idol in your heart is the vice of pride; another is you anger and your impatience; another is your excessive love of your reputation and of doing your own will. Now how can it be that all these idols stand erect and firm, and that they do not fall down at seeing your God so greatly humiliated for you in the host, in seeing Him bearing for you with invincible meekness the insults He receives under the sacred species. For you He submits Himself in all obedience to His ministers, even though they be unworthy, descending from the bosom of the divine Father at the mere call of their voice.

APPLICATION: Is it not therefore just and reasonable that these your idols should fall down, and that Jesus should receive in your heart the recognition and the triumph He received in Egypt?  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: He hath had regard to the prayer of the humble; and he hath not despised their petition. (Ps. ci, 18.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the prophet does not say that the images of Egypt were struck and cast down by force by the Lord, but that they themselves were moved and fell down at the sight of the true God. So in a similar manner must the sins and evil inclinations of your heart fall. You must not expect that the Lord will cast them down by force, but you yourself must strive that they should be moved by your own good will, and thus fall to the earth, offering to our Lord out of love this spontaneous homage.

APPLICATION: Make therefore all your evil affections fall to the earth of your own free will. Otherwise your idols will become more hardened, and even less docile than those idols of stone which rendered Him such glory in Egypt.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I will freely sacrifice to thee, and will give praise, O God, to thy name: because it is good. (Ps. liii, 8.)

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THURSDAY AFTER THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE CROWN OF VICTORY

He that shall preserve to the end he shall be saved. (Matt. x, 22.) 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that in order to be crowned you must fight against your own disorderly inclinations. For the crown of glory is prepared for holiness, and for perfection, and is not attained by the performance of devotions and mortifications and fastings done at our own caprice. It is gained by the perfect victory over oneself, all other things being merely helps or means to arrive at this victory.

APPLICATION: Of what value will these external acts be ti you if interiorly through untamed passions you are ever thinking of yourself better than others, judging them, being upset at every slightest word, unwilling to submit and obey, seeking yourself in everything? It is not in this way the crown is won.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God. (Ps. lxxxiii, 3.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that, in order to be crowned, it is not enough merely to strive, but necessary to strive constantly. St. Augustine says our efforts must be indefatigable as long as we are in the arena of this life. You must never lay aside the lance from out of your hand.

APPLICATION: If at times you receive some little hurt, have but patience. God does not bid you to crush your appetites in such a manner that they will not make themselves felt any more; but He does wish you to strive without any thought of truce. Strive for justice for thy soul even unto death. (Esslus. Iv, 33.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Deliver my soul from the fear of the enemy. Thou hast protected me from the assembly of the malignant: from the multitude of the workers of iniquity. (Ps. lxiii, 2, 3.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that this continuous strife against your evil inclinations should not alarm you. If you give them any truce they do but gain strength. Moreover these spiritual combats are dissimilar from all material warfare. In the latter the longer you fight, the more tired, the weaker you become; whilst in the former, the longer you combat, the stronger you grow, For divine grace which is your only strength is always increased therein.

APPLICATION: The weapon then with which you are to fight are distrust of self, confidence in God, and prayer. Distrust of yourself will cause you not to presume. You will proceed with reflection and circumspection, and if sometimes you fall, you will then humble yourself. You will not give way to disquiet, being convinced that of yourself you can do nothing. Confidence in God will result in God’s giving you the victory, which He alone can give and which He so much desires to give you. Prayer will ensure your receiving all the help you need. In the Olympian games the prize was given by the judge, but he gave no help to the wrestlers; whereas God promises you the crown of glory, and gives you the help of His grace, provided you ask it faithfully and continually.    

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: They are many who make war against me; but I will trust in thee. (Ps. lv, 3-4.) 

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FRIDAY AFTER THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ DEATH OF THE GOOD AND THE BAD

I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you also may be. (John xiv, 3.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that though death comes to all men without distinction, there is nevertheless a great difference between the death of a fervent Christian and the death of a lax one. The death of the latter is called an awakening: when he shall sleep he shall open his eyes and find nothing (Job xxvii, 19), but the death of a fervent soul is called a rest: that they may rest from their labours. (Apoc. Xiv, 13.) The death of a lax and sinful soul is an awakening, because death opens the eyes of the mind. He sees disappearing as a dream  those satisfactions which he allowed his flesh; vanishing those liberties he took contrary to his conscience; vanishing the praise he sought with so great offence to God: He shall open his eyes and find nothing. Job (Ib.) The death of the fervent, on the contrary, is a rest, because it puts an end to his anxieties, to his penances, to his crosses: he sees himself despoiled of nothing by death but what he had already despised for God’s sake and had changed into a treasury of merits: their works follow them. (Apoc. Xiv, 13.)

APPLICATION: What will death be for you? A repose or an awakening? If you wish to die the death of a fervent soul, you must live the life of the fervent.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My heart is disquieted within me, and the fear of death is fallen upon me. (Ps. liv, 5.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the death of a lax soul is an awakening, not only because of what he sees vanishing from him, but much more because of all he sees appearing before him. Wherever he turns everything makes him fear and tremble. Within him his conscience is troubled and afflicts him for his sins. Near him he sees the devil assailing him and by his suggestions increases his alarm. Above him he discerns the Judge already approaching to sentence him; and below his chastisements and punishments which he has deserved. O sad and dreadful awakening! The fervent soul on the contrary is but little troubled by his sins, because he has confessed them and has wept over them. He little fears the devil for he is under the fatherly care of his God. He awaits with longing the coming of the Judge, from Whom he will receive the reward of his faithful  service, saying with the Apostle: I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. As to the rest there is laid up for me a crown of justice. (2 Tim. Iv, 7-8.)

APPLICATION: If at the present moment death came upon you, could you also say the same and with the same confidence as the Apostle?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints. (Ps. cxv, 15.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the saddest awakening of the lax and sinful soul, and the sweetest joy of the fervent, will be what immediately follows the moment of death. The fervent will then find himself carried to rest in the bosom of God, to receive the congratulations of all the choirs of the blessed at having triumphed over the flesh, the world, and the devil. But if one dies in the state of laxness, he will see himself condemned to an awakening of most intense punishment and suffering. If by a supreme act of mercy he is happy enough to die in the grace of God, how long and bitter an awakening must he undergo! He must expiate in a prison of fire all his debts, even to the last farthing, with pains far greater than any he ever felt in this world, and perhaps for years and years.

APPLICATION: Now reflect a little. See if it be worth while, for the sake of those momentary satisfactions which the tepid and sinful soul so eagerly pursues, to be obliged to suffer such an awakening at the moment of death. Rather, by leading a more mortified life at present, enjoy then the repose of the fervent.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him: and on them that hope in his mercy, to deliver their souls from death. (Ps. xxxii, 18, 19.)

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SATURDAY AFTER THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ CONFIDENCE IN GOD

Be of good heart; it is I; fear ye not. (Matt. xiv, 27.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how justly he is called blessed, who places all his hope and confidence in Jesus Christ Who is our true Saviour, not in word only but in truth also, for he places it in Him Who is supreme power, supreme wisdom and supreme goodness. Therefore He is not only able, and knows how, to grant us every good gift, but He most intensely longs to do so. He however cannot be called blessed who puts his trust in men: rather on the contrary is he unfortunate. For men rarely desire to do good to one another, and when they do so desire, either they do not know how to do it or they have not the power.

APPLICATION: Oh you who have looked to your fellow-men in the hope of some worthless benefit, and often have not obtained it, begin at once to have recourse to Jesus Christ your Saviour. Place all your hope n Him because by so doing you wil be blessed.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou, O Lord, art my hope. (Ps. xc, 9.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that it is not so very easy after all to have this hope and confidence in God and in Jesus Christ. It requires strength to begin to hope, and strength also not to cease to hope. Many never begin to trust, because, frightened at the sight of their own miseries, they think themselves unworthy to receive great graces from God. Many others begin but do not persevere for their hope seems to be in vain, either because God makes them await His graces too long or because He bestows them secretly.

APPLICATION: Do not you ever act thus. Be always strong in hope, and turn to God with confidence amid aridities or consolations alike, ion adversity or prosperity, and so shall you obtain every grace to make you blessed. You cannot please God more, or do Him greater honour, than by trusting in Him however weak and poor you are yourself.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I will always hope, and will add to all Thy praise. (Ps. lxx, 14.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that it comes easy to him who has places all his trust in God to despise the things of this world. For Jesus crucified suffices for him; He is above all: He makes up for all, and consoles more than all. Consequently, he who possesses this firm and true hope in his heart, regards the things of this world as really worthless, reckoning them all as deceitful and foolish.

APPLICATION: In what esteem do you hold worldly things? If you have already set your hope in Jesus Christ set not your heart upon these other things. Thus they will not seduce you as they have so many others, who will discover their error when all too late and will cry out: We have erred from the way of truth and the light of justice hath not shined upon us. (Wisd. V, 6.) 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou art my hope O Lord, from my youth. (Ps. lxx, 5.)

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