+++AMDG+++

THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS

(Read Matt. vi, 24-33.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the saying of our Lord, No man can serve two masters, concerns everyone of us, but more especially those who would wish to serve God and the world at the same time. This is an impossibility for, as St. James tells us, whosoever will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God. (James iv, 4.) Christ has declared war with the world, and the world with Christ, and it is not possible for any one to stand well with both. Above all, Christ will not be served in part: He wills to have all. He then, who will have part with the world, will be the servant of the world and not of Christ.

APPLICATION: In embracing a good and a more perfect life, you have proposed to embrace the service of Christ and to abandon the world. Let, then, those who want to be friends of the world serve the world. Do you them attend well to the service of Christ, in order that you may be the friend of Christ, without being solicitous about the things of the world. Say to Him, with all your heart: I am thy servant.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I am thy servant: O give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies. (Ps. cxviii, 125.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY the great contrast there is between Christ and the world. Christ invites you to serve Him in poverty, in humiliation, in hatred and abnegation of yourself. The world, on the contrary, would have you serve it by seeking pleasures and delights, honours and position. How then can the service of Christ ever be in agreement with that of the world? Christ not only proposes to you to embrace His cross, but He sweetens it by internal consolations and with the helps of His grace, with peace of heart, and with the hope of eternal reward, whereas the world promises you pleasures, and gives nothing but affliction and distress. It mingles much disquiet of spirit with the goods it gives, that even one of its sorrows is sufficient to embitter all its joys.  

APPLICATION: Think of any one who serves Christ with all his heart. See how much more contentedly he always lives than does any other who seeks only after the things of this world.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Turn away mine eyes lest they behold vanity; quicken thou me in thy way. (Ps. cxviii, 3.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY the reward which the world gives its followers in this life, and the reward that Christ gives. The world, after having afflicted you, will in the next life let you find nothing better than flames and acute suffering. Christ, on the contrary, in the midst of the crosses of this life gives His servants to enjoy an abundance of peace and consolation that sweetens every trouble. In the future life He gives them an eternal kingdom, and a beatitude so great, that it will cause them to be immersed in an ocean of endless joy.

APPLICATION: Does not therefore the service of Christ seem to you more desirable than that of the world? Leave then altogether the ways of the world and consecrate all your service to Christ. Thank Him that, by means of His divine grace and your faithful correspondence to it, He has led you to renounce the spirit of the world in order the better to follow Him.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Give me understanding, and I will search thy law; and I will keep it with my whole heart. (Ps. cxviii, 34.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

 

MONDAY AFTER THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ ETERNITY

These shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting. (Matt. xxv, 46.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the house you here inhabit is not your real home, but only a lodging which gives you shelter for a short time. Nor is your real resting-place the sepulchre, from which, indeed, you will not issue except at the universal destruction of the world, then to find all, that you once so admired and made so much of, reduced to ashes. Man, says Ecclesiates, shall go into the house of his eternity. (Eccles. Xii, 5.) For you shall not go into the sepulchre nor dwell there; you’re your already decaying body will be taken there. Your real eternal house to which you will go, will be either heaven or hell, but with what difference!

APPLICATION: Can you now say which will be yours? May it please God that you may not have reason to answer me, Hell is my house. (Job xvii, 13.) 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thy mercy will follow me all the days of my  life, and that I may dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days. (Ps. xxii, 6.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that it for you now to choose that which you desire. Behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death. (Jer. xxi, 8.) Will you be so foolish as to choose rather to lose your soul than to save it? Before, however, making so fatal a choice, consider seriously on the one hand what it means to be surrounded in hell by all that fire for all eternity, so that there, after you have passes thousands and millions of years, your sufferings will only be beginning. You who fear so much and tremble at the slight and brief pains of this life, are you not dismayed at the inconceivable torments of eternity? On the other hand, lift up your eyes to heaven to see the eternal peace and perpetual joy that each one of the blessed souls enjoys in that abode of happiness. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. (Isa. xxxv, 10.)

APPLICATION: Think well about this, and as it were in the very sight of such different dwelling-places, choose which pleases you most whilst still you may.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. (Ps. xxvi, 4.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY how many there are, who labour and struggle more to deserve hell, than you are obliged to labour and to suffer in order to gain heaven. What folly then is not yours if, when choosing between two houses of eternity that differ as much as do heaven and hell, you do not endeavour to secure for yourself the former withy less labour than the others will use to get the latter.

APPLICATION: Ponder well, for example, upon the difference there is between the trouble that many persons endure in order to be revenged, or in order to give vent to their evil passions, and that which you have to bear to lead a fervent life, and you will perceive how far less is that of yours. If the constant observances of God’s commandments and the laws of the Church seem hard or painful to you, reflect on the eternal suffering, from which it is sure to deliver you, and the eternal blessings that you will gain by this subjection to the cross of Christ. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Decline from evil and do good, and dwell for ever and ever. (Ps. xxvi, 27.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

 

TUESDAY AFTER THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ RICHES

Woe to you who are rich, for you have your consolation. (Luke vi, 24.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that our Blessed Lord does not use the word Woe here merely to denote some horrible and deplorable evil. It is a threat and prediction of woe to the rich; not indeed because they rob, nor because they oppress the poor, but because they have their consolation in this world. For you have your consolation.

APPLICATION: Can it be then that instead of pitying the rich, you envy them and their greatness? When therefore you behold the pomp of their palaces and the magnificence of their courts, be not borne away by admiration, but say rather: Woe to you who are rich!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Better is little to the just than the great riches of the wicked. (Ps. xxxvi, 16.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY why is it that the rich are to be pitied. It is because their consolation here is a sign that they will not have it hereafter, as it was said to the rich glutton: Thou didst receive good things in thy life time. (Luke xvi, 25.) And it is especially so with the rich because of the great ease with which, by reason of their money, they can give vent to their passions, and satisfy the irregular cravings of their corrupt nature. Thus it is that they fall into innumerable sins and hsten onwards to perdition. How much better is it, then, not to have here the consolations of living as one wills. For it is an inviolable law that we cannot rejoice both in this world and in the next!

APPLICATION: Thank rather our Blessed Lord with all your heart for having drawn you out of this peril. The less consolations you shall have here, the more you shall enjoy hereafter. Woe to you rich! Blessed are the poor! Oh what difference between these two sentences that issue from the mouth of uncreated Wisdom itself!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Behold these are the sinners, and yet prospering in the world they have obtained riches! (Ps. lxxii, 12.) 

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that Christ, in pronouncing the rich unhappy, intended to denote those who have their hearts attached to their riches, and have placed in them all the means of satisfying their desires. He sis not speak of the wealthy whose hearts are not set upon their riches, and who use them in the ways that God permits and intends and commands. So likewise He only calls those blessed who are voluntarily or who are spiritually poor. Blessed are the poor in spirit and not those who are poor quite against their will, and who love, and who desire to have, riches and the goods of this world.

APPLICATION: To which class of the poor do you belong? Do you still let your heart be attached to money, and envy those who possess it? This most terrible threat of Christ, Woe to you, may be directed against you, more than against many a man of wealth. For many such live with their hearts more detached from riches than is yours.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: He shall spare the poor and needy; and he shall save the souls of the poor. (Ps. lxxi, 13.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

 

WEDNESDAY AFTER THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ REWARD OF HUMILITY

I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. (Luke x, 21.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY why this confession of praise and thanksgiving was made by Christ to his Father. It was because He had hidden from the wise those admirable truths and doctrines which appeal to the understanding and had been so foolishly despised by men, because beyond their capacity. He had hidden also from the prudent those truths and doctrines, which concern the will and which also had been arrogantly derided by them, because they are contrary to their perverted ideas. On the other hand, He praised and thanked the Father in that He had revealed all these same truths to the humble who promptly embraced them. Consider therefore how beneficial is humility in the school of Christ, how prejudicial id pride. True wisdom and true prudence exist not except in Christian humility, which makes one a little child and one dear to Christ.

APPLICATION: Reflect therefore how necessary for you is this humble simplicity. It is opposed to that empty esteem of self, which in reality is no more than the most foolish and fatal ignorance.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The law of the Lord is without spot converting souls, the testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones. (Ps. xviii, 8.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY in what manner the Father hides truths and doctrines from the proud, and reveals them to the humble. He reveals them to the humble, by giving them clear and special light so that they may know and understand them. To the proud He denies such special light, but gives light sufficient to understand if they will but heed, and thus renders them inexcusable. For this it is that Christ praises and thanks His Father, for having shown mercy to the humble and His justice to the proud.

APPLICATION: What a great motive then we have to be humble! By yourself you are unable to do one single act that is of any worth, if God did not show His mercy to you by giving you that light and that special aid, which He always gives to the humble and denies to the proud, not being by justice bound to give it you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The declarations of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to little ones. (Ps. cxviii, 130.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that Christ calls Father by the name of Father and also of Lord. Father, Lord of heaven and earth. (Luke x, 21.) He is Lord in the justice which He exercises towards the proud, Father in the mercy He shows to the humble: God resisteth the proud, as Lord, but to the humble He giveth grace. (1 Peter v. 5.)

APPLICATION: If you desire that he should be to you also a loving Father in all your needs, you must humbly and trustfully go to Him even as a little child runs to the arms of its parents. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord is my helper and my protector; in him hath my heart confided, and I have been helped. (Ps. xxvii, 7.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

 

THURSDAY AFTER THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ FEAR OF THE LORD

I will show you whom you shall fear. (Luke xii, 5.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY what great efforts are needful in order to raise the spiritual edifice. How many acts of self-abnegation, of obedience and of humiliation, of mortification and of penance! And yet this edifice, that take so many years to raise with so much pains and suffering, can all be destroyed in a moment. One mortal sin, even one of thought, will do it. And if the moment after the sin God sent death to you, or if He did not help you with the abundance of His grace to rise again, you would assuredly be lost.

APPLICATION: O how many spiritual edifices far more beautiful than yours have been thus destroyed! Think of the falls of many who were once so fervent. And you who have not done even a small part of that good which they did, should you not in all justice fear for yourself?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The gentiles shall fear thy name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. (Ps. ci, 16.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY what is the reason of this great danger. It is because God, without  doing you the least injustice, might at any time deprive you of those special helps of grace of which you stand in need at every moment, in order to prevent you from falling into mortal sin. The good you may have done in the past does not in the least oblige God to give you that fresh grace, which you need from moment to moment if you are to persevere in good. 

APPLICATION: Thus perseverance is a gratuitous gift of God not only for the end of your life, but for every moment of it. He might deny you this gift without doing you any wrong, since He has not received from you any benefit. On the contrary He has bestowed on you innumerable benefits for which you behave been ungrateful to Him. Oh how this truth should make you humble and fearful!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Lord, what is man that thou makest thyself known to him?. . . Man is like to vanity: his days pass away as a shadow. (Ps. cxliii, 3-4.) 

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that in this great danger your greatest safety lies in continual fear. Even as a person who has to cross a high and narrow bridge, under which rushes a roaring torrent, grasps tightly by the hand and clings to the person who guides him, so must you hold fast to the fear of God and have always before your eyes the necessity of the help of God, and be always earnestly asking for it. Perseverance is indeed a free gift of God, but one which he who asks aright will infallibly receive. Some He answers more quickly, some more slowly according to His good pleasure.

APPLICATION: You cannot know when or where God will answer you. Therefore, no matter how much you may have prayed to God up to the present moment, you cannot be sure to persevere. Cease not therefore to plead with great and ever increasing earnestness. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I, O Lord, have cried to thee; and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee. (Ps. lxxxvii, 14.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

 

FRIDAY AFTER THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ JESUS CHRIST OUR MODEL

He that followeth me walketh not n darkness. (John viii, 12.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the eternal Father sent His divine Son on earth to clothe Himself with our flesh, principally in order that He might be our example and model. To this model therefore we must conform our lives, because all our perfection consists in reproducing in ourselves, as far as we may, the divine perfections and in making ourselves images of Jesus Christ. Every faithful soul is bound to conform himself to this divine exemplar, if he would be among the number of the elect. Much more so is every one bound, who desires and professes to be a more intimate follower and companion of Jesus.

APPLICATION: How have you striven up till now to conform yourself to the example of Jesus? Can you truthfully say with holy Job: My foot hath followed His steps, I have kept His way? (Job xxiii, 11.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. I have sworn, and am steadfastly purposed to keep thy judgements of thy justice. (Ps. cxviii, 105-106.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY in what things Jesus should be especially imitated, namely, in all that which He ceaselessly made profession of from His birth even unto death, poverty, suffering, pain and contempt. During the thirty-three years that he dwelt on earth He did not always teach, or preach, or heal the sick, or work miracles; but always did He live in poverty, in suffering and in contempt.

APPLICATION: What kind of attachment have you to these three inseparable companions of Christ? How far do you seek them? How do you accept them when you meet them, by feeling some of the effects of poverty, in suffering some illness, in receiving some wrong or some insult? These are the marks and features most proper to make you like the image of Jesus Christ. Made conformable to the image of his Son. (Rom. viii, 29.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I am poor and in labours from my youth. (Ps. lxxxvii, 16.) 

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY how you ought to imitate Him. Does it seem to you to be an undertaking beyond your strength to copy the virtues of Christ? Do not lost heart, for equality is not asked of you but only likeness, that consists in following Christ at least from afar. (4 Kings xviii, 6.) Neither does our Lord require that you imitate Him in everything, but only in that which is proper to your own state of life. All the faithful are members of the mystical body of Christ: We are one body in Christ. (Rom. xii, 5.)

APPLICATION: All the members of our body have different functions, the eye one, the hand another, the foot a third: All the members have not the same office. Your function, as a member of the mystical body of Christ, will be to conform yourself to Jesus in the observance of God’s laws, the mortifications, the duties and labour, which are proper to your state of life, making it your study in all to form yourself to the image of the divine model: To be made conformable to the image of his Son.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Perfect thou my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps be not moved. (Ps. xvi, 5.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

 

SATURDAY AFTER THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ PEACE IN GOD

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. (John xiv, 27.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that those on whom Isaias says My people shall sit in the beauty of peace (Isa. xxxii, 18.) are those who have fought for a long time and conquered their inclinations, and who now possess joy in the conquest of themselves. Peace is the tranquillity of order. And this peace is enjoyed by him who has conquered his own inclinations. For he stands well in regards his neighbour, whom he does not envy, with whom he disputes not, over whom he does not domineer, knowing how to live in peace with all. He is well with himself, for his appetites are under the control of reason. He is well with God, because he is in all things subject and submissive to Him.

APPLICATION: Oh how blessed are you if, by the conquest of your own inclinations, you know how to obtain this so desirable state of peace!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Great peace have they that love thy law; and for them there is no stumbling block. (Ps. cxviii, 165.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that, by this conquest of self, you will not only live in peace now but after death shall, as Isaias goes on to say, dwell in the tabernacles of confidence. These tabernacles are the sacred wounds of your divine Lord, where you will experience so much the greater confidence in Him as in life your reverential fear for Him was the greater.

APPLICATION: You will come to learn that so good a father will not abandon you in your extreme need at your death. He will then give you defence from your enemies in the shelter of His sacred wounds, and you will be like the dove in the clefts of the rock. (Cant. Ii, 14.) Thus though you are never secure until the very end, you will be filled with entire confidence in that hour in the merits of Jesus.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I cried unto thee, O Lord, and said: thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living. (Ps. cxli, 6.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that after this peace which you will enjoy in life, and after this confidence in death you will dwell in the full repose of paradise. This will render you absolutely content and filled with satisfaction in seeing God. For as God has no need of anything outside Himself, so in heaven you will have no need of anything outside of Him, for you will have God within you and the certainty of never losing Him.

APPLICATION: But, in order to attain to that truly precious repose, it is necessary that you should not desire to rest before the time. If you wish for peace, it is often necessary that you should wage war, by conquering your passions and by mortifying your inclinations. If you would have confidence in death, it is necessary that you should first have fear, and live with solicitude not to offend your Lord Who defends you, and has so often pleaded for you. If you desire  rest after death, it is needful that labour should now precede it, so that you must spend yourself wholly in the service of God, until you shall rest from your labours. (Apoc. Xiv, 13.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Do ye manfully, and let you heart be strengthened, all ye that hope in the Lord. (Ps. xxx, 25.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

+++AMDG+++