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THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES

(Read Luke v, 1-11.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY who those are who in the night of this world have toiled much but without fruit. They are those persons especially who busy themselves in works and worldly affairs which belong not to their state in life; those also who attend to the affairs proper to their state, not indeed for the end of serving God, but in order to gain praise and honour, to improve their position, and to promote their actions, whether good or indifferent, in such a way as not to set before themselves any virtuous or supernatural motive. All such at the end of the night of their life will find their labours and their works lost, or like useless matter fit only for burning. The labours of the people shall come to nothing, and the nations shall go to the fire and shall perish. (Jer. Li, 58.)

APPLICATION:  Enter seriously within yourself and reflect on your life in general and on your works, that you may not incur so terrible a loss and so fatal a disaster.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Man is like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow. (Ps. cxliii, 4.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  how our Blessed Lord said to St. Peter, in order that he might make a great catch of fish, after having toiled all night long and caught nothing: Launch out into the deep, that he might cast off from land and go forward out into the deep sea. So too must we do if we would labour with profit. We must detach ourselves from the love of transitory things, and lift up our mind to that which is heavenly and eternal. As long as we remain bound by affection to the goods of the present life and have no thought of future good things, we shall not be able to raise our intention to God, nor to acquire the true blessings of heaven.

APPLICATION:  If in your work then you keep your intention directed towards earthly honours, ease, benefits and advantages, you will in very truth be toiling at nothing. Therefore,  launch out into the deep, raise your thoughts, your intentions and your affections to God and to heaven.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:   The Lord will reward me according to my justice; and will repay me according to the cleanness of my hands. (Ps. xvii, 21.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the abundant draught of fish was made by St. Peter because he cast his nets in the name of our Blessed Lord and in obedience to Him. Such is the real way of becoming truly rich and of pursuing your labours with success.

APPLICATION:  Direct all your actions, however unimportant they may seem to be, to the name and glory of God: All whatsoever ye do, in word or in work, all things do ye in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Col. Iii, 17.) And by so doing your labours will amass for you a rich treasure for eternity.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:   Blessed are all they that fear the Lord: that walk in his ways. (Ps. cxxvii, 1.)

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MONDAY AFTER THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ PERSEVERANCE IN DOING GOOD

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

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the gain is so great to those who saw in the spirit (Gal. vi, 8), that it behoves us not to lose time nor to yield to weariness. For what things a man shall sow those also shall he reap. You began well in youth with fervour and with generosity. Follow on now as years advance and even unto old age: In the morning sow the seed, and in the evening let not thy hand cease. (Eccles. Xi, 6.)

APPLICATION: Do not therefore let yourself be overcome by weariness or by trouble, for he who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly. (2 Col. Ix, 6.) Those good works which you once began of mortification and penance, of charity and of devotion, see that you still pursue with earnestness and joy to the end. In doing good let us not fail. (Gal. vi, 9), for should you cease to sow, you may easily lose all.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Every day will I bless thee: and I will praise thy name for ever. Yea, for ever and ever. (Ps. cxliv, 2.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that nothing serves so much to relieve the weariness of the poor labourer on his farm as the thought of his future harvest. How much more therefore ought you to strength yourself to endure with constancy the labour of good works, by the thought of the harvest? The reward of the good works that you do will reap in eternity, will be a harvest of glory and of contentment that shall never end: he shall reap life everlasting. (Gal. vi, 8.)

APPLICATION: If then the reaping shall be perpetual, is it not but just that in these few days of life assigned to you by God, you should never for a moment withhold your hand from the work through weariness or fatigue? The labourer when sowing endures much toil, and at the reaping he rejoices, but still not without some fatigue. Whereas you will labour for a very short time in sowing, but at the harvest you will rejoice, and that without tiring ever.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. (Ps. cxxv, 5.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that in order to ensure this blessed harvest, which is not only certain but is most plentiful in the future life, it is not merely necessary to scatter now the seed of good work constantly, but it is essential to protect it from the birds of prey, even as all good labourers do, by covering it. It is in this way also that the humble act. They are anxious to cover and to hide the good they do, whereas the vainglorious would have it to be easily seen, and so if they do not lose the whole they lose a great part. You have sown much and brought in little. (Ag. I, 6.)

APPLICATION:   If you would gain much harvest by the good you do, hide it as much as you can from the eyes of men. Guard your thoughts against all vainglory, because such thoughts are the birds that will devour your good seed. The fowls of the air devoured it. (Luke viii, 5.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  The Lord is a firmament to them that fear him: My eyes are ever towards the Lord. (Ps. xxiv, 14,15.)

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TUESDAY AFTER THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ JESUS CHRIST OUR JUDGE

Give an account of thy stewardship. (Luke xvi, 2.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that Jesus came on earth to shed His blood for you , and now sits at the right hand of the Father, where He has made Himself your advocate. At the moment of your death this same Jesus will come before you, no longer as advocate, but as a judge from whom there is no appeal. What will become of you in that hour without your protector? All the good in which you now rejoice, all the patience with which divine justice bears with you, all this is yours because Jesus has constituted Himself your advocate. But at the hour of your death, Jesus will lay down this merciful office, and you will see Him before you, not as your advocate but as your judge without appeal. He will be exactly informed of all your thoughts, of all your words, of all your works, because He has seen all, He has heard all, and He has been present at all.

APPLICATION: And what will you do at His dreaded appearance? 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Then shall all the trees of the woods rejoice before the face of the Lord, because he cometh. (Ps. xcv, 12, 13.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that to no sort of expedient can you have recourse at that dreadful moment. Would you seek to appease Him, or to excuse yourself? Not indeed to appease Him, for there will be no time then for supplication; He is the judge. The more patiently He has borne with you all the days of your life, the more inexorable will He then be. Therefore it is useless to hope to obtain pardon or to make Him lay aside His anger, which is said to be that of the Lamb, precisely to denote that it will be unalterable: Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. (Apoc. Vi, 16.)

APPLICATION: Ponder well now, what then thou wilt do. You will perhaps turn and pray that the mountains may fall on you, and bury you in the depth of the earth from His anger. But to what purpose? You must hear explained most minutely to you all the details of your whole life, so that you may receive the final sentence from His divine mouth.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Clouds and darkness are round about him: justice and judgment are the establishments of his throne. A fire shall go before him, and shall burn his enemies round about. (Ps. xcvi, 2,3.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that in that hour still less will it be possible for you to defend or excuse yourself. Not to defend yourself, because your sins will then be clear and certain. Not to excuse yourself on the plea either of ignorance or of weakness. What ignorance can you allege, who have been born in the center of Christianity, who have lived surrounded by so many good examples of virtue? Have you wilfully closed your eyes that you might not see? Then will your ignorance only serve for your more severe judgment. Would you perhaps allege your weakness? But how can you do so, if your weakness arose from your not making use of the remedies and opportune helps at hand, or from not keeping yourself far from dangerous occasions?

APPLICATION:  What then will be your thoughts and feelings! You will hear yourself sentenced to expiate your sins by Him Who for you shed all His blood on the cross, and Who at the right hand of the Father had never ceased to pray and plead for you as your most merciful advocate.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:   Unto the  will I cry, O Lord; O my God, be not thou silent to me; lest I become like them that go down into the pit. (Ps. xxvii, 1.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ TRUST IN GOD

O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?. (Matt. xiv, 31.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that a great difficulty for those who serve God is never to distrust Him, either in adversity or amid aridity or darkness of mind, although He seems to have almost totally abandoned them. When we feel, as it were, and enjoy the divine presence, it is easy to do well, but it is very hard to do so when we remain so to speak in darkness.

APPLICATION: If then you find yourself in this state, be sure that our Lord is trying your fidelity and constancy. Therefore He bids you await Him patiently, and He will come. (Habak. Ii, 3.) This means, that at least you move not from your post, that you continue as usual to practice the good works of prayer, of Holy Communion, of penance, and of fidelity to your ordinary duties, although you may feel no longer the same relish for them. Oh what great merit there is in this constancy! This is to serve God for God Himself.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  With expectation I have waited for the Lord: and he was attentive to me. (Ps. xxxix, 2.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that such constancy must be accompanied also by great longanimity, for it is easy to have it for a short time, but not for a long one. Therefore you are warned by the same prophet, If it make delay, wait for it. It seems to you that it delays to come, notwithstanding that you do everything that lies in your power. You plead, you supplicate and you are on your guard lest you give God any occasion, by reason of your faults, of withdrawing Himself from you: and yet He does not make His presence sensible to you.

APPLICATION: Do not however doubt but that in the end He will return, and the longer He tarries, so much more will you enjoy the delights of His presence, in reward for having waited with a lively faith so long.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:   We have rejoiced for the days in which thou hast humbled us: for the years in which we have seen evil. (Ps. lxxxix, 15.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that even if you should have to await God’s visitation all the days of your life in a state of aridity and of desolation, a rare case indeed, you will then find Him very near to you at death. And then, Oh how He will unveil to you His face! How He will help you and make you understand that He always loved you much more than you imagined! This is often the recompense of those who have served God faithfully in times of desolation, to die in the greatest sweetness in the peace of the Lord. They lay aside all scruples at that moment, all anguish, all spiritual darkness.

APPLICATION:   Death may be for you very near at hand. Be it then far from you to lose during this so brief a space of time your constancy, your fidelity, and your unbounded hope inn God.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence shall come my help. My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. (Ps. cxx, 1-2.)

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THURSDAY AFTER THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ NEGLECT IN LITTLE THINGS

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which is greater. (Luke xvi, 10.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that when God says in Ecclesiasticus, He that contemneth small things shall fall little by little (Ecclus. xix,1), He does not say that he who commits venial sins will by little and little fall into mortal sin. He says that he who despises them, who is not solicitous to fly from them, is as one who considers them as of no consequence with regard to his salvation.

APPLICATION: If it happens that you are thus deluded, oh in what danger then are you of being lost! Because it is an infallible saying of God, that he who despises small things will little by little fall into great ones. What avails it to a ship at sea that its holes are but small. If they are neglected they will sink it little by little as much as large ones would. So will it be with you if you despise fault that are small.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. I have sworn, and am determined to keep the judgments of thy justice. (Ps. cxviii, 105,106.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that by contemning or neglecting small faults, you do yourself a double injury at one and the same time. First, by little and little you lose that fear which restrains you from greater sin. For venial sins do not show their sad effects at once as great sins do, but produce them after the manner of a blunt file or blade. Hence after awhile you begin to think they are of no consequence. And so a man does not hesitate to increase them to such a degree as will bring about mortal sin, and so the death of his soul. One avoids poison because it kills. Bitter fruit, which slowly harm us are sometimes eaten with avidity, and yet in the long run they are capable of causing death. The second injury is, that in contemning small sins the inclinations of our ill-regulated passions are increased more and more. For the more they obtain, the more audaciously they demand more, like fire which by being fed gains force and never decreases. So that not content with the lesser sensible pleasure of small faults, they seek for great in mortal sins. For this reason the devil is satisfied at first with small faults, because in this way the road is more easily opened to grave sins.

APPLICATION: Consider seriously then what you are doing if you so easily give way to the first assaults of the demon and of your passions and inclinations, which are often worst than any demon.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:   I meditated on thy commandments which I loved. (Ps. cxviii, 4.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that it is not so rare a thing as you may imagine to pass from small sins to great ones. For God often punishes small sins by permitting greater sins, when He perceives that the salutary warnings do not avail, but that venial sins are multiplied more and more without making any account of them.

APPLICATION: Possibly your sins are small, but also they are far too many. Dry grass of itself weighs little, but if it be piled up high, as is usually done, the carts will creak much more than under a load of stones. What wonder then will it be if He takes from you His protection, and deprives you of His special helps, without which you would very soon lose His grace and fall into mortal sin?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:   My iniquities have overtaken me, and I was not able to see. They are multiplied above the hairs of my head: and my heart hath forsaken me. (Ps. xxxix, 13.)

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FRIDAY AFTER THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ REWARD OF SUFFERING

Be glad and rejoice for your reward is very great in heaven. (Matt. v, 12.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the Apostle St. Paul (2 Cor. iv, 17.) call all that we suffer at the present momentary and light. For if we look at the labour that is passed, it causes us now no pain: if we look at the present, what is it? ~ momentary and light. It is labour and possibly suffering, yes, but momentary, exceedingly brief in itself, and much more so if compared with eternity. At the same time it is light in respect to the debt due for our sins; light in respect to the grace bestowed on us in order to bear it: light in regard to the reward which is prepared for us if we bear it with patience.

APPLICATION:  Endeavour to reflect on these things in the midst of the tribulations you suffer in this present life. Thus you may the more easily recognise them to be, as in reality they are, only momentary and light.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My days have declined like a shadow: and I am withered like grass. But thou, O Lord, endurest for ever. (Ps. ci, 12, 13.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  how great is the blessing that these small sufferings will gain for you. It will be a blessing above measure exceedingly, because it is far superior to your merits; because it is not subject to the changes of this world of ours, but is unchangeable, immovable, eternal. Thus the glory of paradise is called a weight of glory, not because it will prove a burden or a weariness to any one, but because it contains a delight so excessive, that human strength would be oppressed by it, were it not strengthened by the light of glory.

APPLICATION: If then you would be encouraged and animated in your sufferings, raise your mind often to dwell on those gifts and blessings which are proper to eternal glory. They are superabundant, unchangeable, eternal and immense.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Unto thee have I lifted up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest n the heavens. (Ps. cxxi, 1.) 

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that tribulation is said to work in us actually this glory, not indeed as a physical and efficient cause, but as a moral and meritorious one. Thus you will understand that glory is not so much a gift as a reward, although it is so superabundant a one. Therefore as God placed Adam in the earthly paradise to work and to keep it, so believe that He sends you tribulation, reproach and infirmity that they may work in you a still more happy [paradise in heaven.

APPLICATION: Let Him then work His divine will in you. For the more merit you acquire the greater will be your reward. Would not that plot of land or soil be foolish, which should complain of the labourer ill0treating it with his hoe or his plough?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:   Thou wilt render to every man according to his works. (Ps. lxi, 13.)

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SATURDAY AFTER THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE SUDDEN CALL OF DEATH

Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee. (Luke xii, 20.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that Christ called the rich man a fool who, without doubt, by the world would have been set down as a wise and prudent man. For, having gathered in a good harvest, he began considering within himself, how he could best preserve it and longest enjoy it, for many years. But by God he was held as a fool. He did not recognise that all those good things came from God, neither did he return thanks to Him, Who had granted him them. He planned to use all for the good of his body, nothing for the benefit of his soul.

APPLICATION: Now consider how much greater a fool is he, who is inordinately attached to and excessively craves after the good things of this present life which are worthless, and neglects those of eternity which are alone of importance. Beware less you too be of the number of those fools, who are innumerable. The number of fools is infinite. (Eccles. I, 15.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  The senseless and the fool shall perish together. And they shall leave their riches to strangers. (Ps. xlviii, 11.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  the unhappy state of this fool in the gospel. In the very night, in which he was most busily planning how to use his store of goods to the best advantage, he heard the message that his soul was to leave his body: This night do they require thy soul of thee. It does not say ask, but require, to denote that previously too he had had his warnings by the inspirations of grace, and by the examples of the sudden deaths of others which had admonished him to be prepared also to die.

APPLICATION: How many sudden deaths do not you also see or hear of among your acquaintances, friends and companions? These are all so many warnings to you to be prepared for death. How little do you think of it! How heedless you are of these graces from God!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:   To-day if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts. (Ps. xciv, 8.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY the reproof finally given to the rich man: And whose shall these things be which thou hast provided? Doubly bitter must this reproof have sounded to him. He saw all these earthly goods fail him, which with so much labour and sweat he had collected for the benefit of his body. Much more bitter still, he saw his soul, through his own neglect during life, wanting in all those spiritual goods, which in the hour of death would have served him to such good purpose.

APPLICATION:  Begin to consider seriously what alone matters, if you would not merit a similar reproof: Whose shall these things be which thou hast provided? Of what use will be all your studies and your labours which were not directed to God, but to the acquisition of some present good? Of what good to you will those positions of honour be which were gained to the prejudice of God’s holy law? Of what profit will be the ease and pleasure you procured with so much dissipation of spirit? Of what value will be those friendships which were so harmful to your soul? All that does not tend to the salvation of your soul is of no worth. There is only one thing of importance, and that is to think of eternity.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  All the foolish of heart were troubled. They have slept their sleep: and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands. (Ps. lxxv, 6.)

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