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TTHE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE MARRIAGE FEAST

(Read Matt. xxii, 2-24.)

Extirpating means to root out and destroy completely.

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that God invites all men to the supper, prepared for them, at the nuptials of the Word with the most Sacred Humanity. Those however are most especially called to the joyful participation in this supper who have cast away as far as possible the impediments of worldly cares, and sit down at this table to partake most joyfully of the holy sacraments which God provides for them in His holy Church.

APPLICATION: God’s great goodness and mercy to you are an act of His special grace, without any predisposition of merit on your part. How many, who are much better and more deserving than you, have not received such favours from God! Recognise His great goodness, and thank Him daily from your heart for His divine bounty.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: He hath looked forth from his high sanctuary: from heaven the Lord hath looked upon the earth. (Ps. ci, 20.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the greater the goodness of God towards you, so much the less can He permit you to appear before Him without the wedding garment, that is to say, the garment of virtue proper to your state in life. Consider then seriously what is your conduct and behaviour. If they are not those that become a true servant of God, fear lest it be said to you: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment?

APPLICATION: Observe in the gospel how much more severely punished was he, who went into the supper without a wedding garment, than were those who rudely refused the invitation? So likewise will you be more severely punished if you live so tepidly and carelessly, while God is bestowing so many graces upon you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou art a strong helper. Let my mouth be filled with praise, that I may sing thy glory: thy greatness all the day long. (Ps. lxx, 7-8.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that many are called to give God a higher and more generous service, but few are those who respond fully to the invitation and grace given to them. May are called but few are chosen. (Matt. xx, 16.) Hence it belongs to every one now to co-operate with divine grace in the acquisition of habits of virtue, and in extirpating the vices of the old man.

APPLICATION: Now because this co-operation so needful is found in only to few, do not take example from those who live indifferent lives but from those who lead the more fervent ones. Remember that you will have no excuse before the tribunal of God for having let yourself be influenced by the majority, since you have heard the words: Many are called but few are chosen. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have followed all thy commandments: I have hated all wicked ways. (Ps. cxviii, 128.)

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MONDAY AFTER THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ DEATH OF THE LORD

He that beleiveth in me, the works that I do he also shall do. (John xiv, 12.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY who are the happy ones who die in the Lord. (Apoc. xiv, 13.) They are those who, if they do not die for God like the martyrs, do at least die as the saintly confessors did, in the Lord. They die in a total abandonment of self; they die in the wounds of our Lord’s blessed side, in His sacred heart, and in the embrace of His holy arms.

APPLICATION: What a blessed death this is! How it is to be longed for! But it is not enough to desire it; you must also merit it. 

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

CONSIDER SECONDLY that this precious death is not the portion even of all those who die in the state of grace, but it is that of those who have first died to themselves in order to live wholly to the Lord. What is it to die to oneself? It is t detach oneself beforehand from everything that death will eventually take from us, such as our possessions, our relatives, our diversions, and above all from irregular love of self; in a word it is to live in the body as far as possible as if without a body.

APPLICATION: It is not enough to have begun; you must continue to the end with constancy. Of what use will it be if, having once died to yourself in order to live to God, you afterwards turn back and live to yourself? You seek once more your ease, your satisfaction in everything, and you give away to the disorderly inclinations of self-love. It is necessary that you be constant in remaining dead to yourself, until you come to die in the Lord.

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.) 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that if this first death to self somewhat dismays you, you should console yourself by the thought of the second death, which follows it and by which you enter into eternal rest. From henceforth now saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours. (Ibid.) Here notice that it is the Spirit of God Who urges you to suffer much for God, to labour, to overcome yourself, now, and then when death comes He will bid you rest. On the contrary that spirit, that before death bids you cease from your labours and from mortification, is not the Spirit of God. It is the spirit of self, the spirit of the world and of evil.

APPLICATION: How then can you reasonably hope for such rest, without having accomplished faithfully your labours? See how much the saints toiled to obtain this rest, how much our Blessed Lord also laboured in order to merit it for you. But this labour of our Lord will not suffice for you without your own also; consequently He says: They that may rest from their labours. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My heart hath been glad, and my tongue hath re4joiced: moreover my flesh also shall rest in hope. (Ps. xv, 9.) 

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TUESDAY AFTER THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE VOICE OF CHRIST

Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. (John xviii, 37.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that our Blessed Lord often comes to call you with His voice, and to knock at the door of your heart, that you may open unto Him the entrance and admit Him into your house every time He makes you hear His inspirations or awakens in you remorse of conscience. He will not enter by force. He leaves you master of your own liberty, that you may have the merit of welcoming Him of your own free will.

APPLICATION: You who so often hear this call, and our Lord’s knock at the door of your heart, are you attentive to His voice? Are you prompt in opening to Him? At His first call do you hasten to the door of your heart, to hear with quiet and recollection the voice of your Lord? Do you not rather divert your mind so as not to hear Him? What wonder is it then that you do not open to Him and that He at last goes away?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:. Hearken and consider and incline thine ear. (Ps. xliv, 11.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that, when Jesus Christ calls you, it is not enough that you should attentively listen to His inspiration. It is necessary that you open Him the entrance if you desire that He should enter your house. This opening consists in offering your will promptly to Him to do whatever He wishes you to do, and in asking His grace to fulfil it perfectly, saying with St. Augustine: Give what you command and command what you will.

APPLICATION: Although perhaps you have heard the voice of your Lord, yet, instead of promptly offering to Him your will you allowed yourself to be dismayed by the difficulties which self-love alleges, and have not thought of the great blessings He brings with Him. Think then seriously Who it is Who thus comes to you, and why He comes, and then when He comes you will not delay to open to Him.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I am thy servant: give me understanding. (Ps. cxviii, 125.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that on the entrance of Christ into your heart a double repast is prepared, one by you for our Lord, the other by our Lord for you. I will sup with him, and he with Me. (Apoc. iii, 20.) The supper that you prepare for our Lord consists in the delight you give Him by the fruit of your good works, and by obeying His holy inspirations. That which our Blessed Lord prepares for you consists in the spiritual consolations and the strength of grace, which He give you just in proportion to the sumptuousness of the feast you have prepared for Him. After that He prepares for you a banquet that you will partake of not by the light of faith, but in the light of glory.

APPLICATION: Blessed indeed are you if you are admitted to sit at this glorious banquet! But you must first prepare yours for Him, by obeying His voice and by admitting Him into your heart. For if you are now deaf to His calls, how easily you may be excluded from His glory hereafter! 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou hast multiplied thy magnificence: and turning to me thou hast comforted me. (Ps. lxx, 21.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ GOD’S VIEWS AND THAT OF MAN

That which is high to men is an abomination before God. (Luke xvi, 15.)

Ostentation means excessive display : vain and unnecessary show especially for the purpose of attracting attention, admiration, or envy  Opprobrious means something taunting, abusive or shameful

CONSIDER FIRSTLY these words which came forth from the mouth of Incarnate Wisdom, in which He declares that all that which is high to men, such as high position, grandeur and honour, is accounted before God an abomination. Before men it is esteemed great to rule over others and that with ostentation and arrogance. It is accounted noble to flaunt and to squander wealth with vanity and pride. It is deemed a glory to humiliate a rival and to render life more miserable for one’s enemy. And all this which is high to men, all, without any exception, is an abomination before God.

APPLICATION: You who belong to the school of Christ, what think you or what do you understand by all this? Do you rule your conduct according to the judgement of men or of that of Jesus Christ? Do you make more account of talents than of virtue? Examine you thoughts and your aspirations and see to which side you tend.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I am well pleased with thy truth. I have not sat with the council of vanity: neither will I go in with the doers of unjust things. (Ps. xxv, 3, 4.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY by whom the great and the good things of this world are prized, and by whom also they are counted an abomination. They are prized by some men, but not by all. Not indeed by those who are spiritual or rightly reasonable, but only by those men who rather are deceived themselves and who deceive others, who are rather guided by their  lower and animal passions. On the contrary, see by whom these things are counted an abomination. It is by God Himself, as Christ Himself assures us.

APPLICATION: Can you then fall into so great an error as to prefer the esteem of men to the esteem of God? In His judgment, too, so many millions of the noblest specimens of our race accord, and all the whole court of paradise. If you esteem that to be high, which is an abomination before God, you show that you have rather studied in the school of the world than in that of Christ.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Turn away my eyes that they may not behold vanity. (Ps. cxviii, 37.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that Christ came down from heaven in order to discredit the esteem in which so many, and even the greater part of mankind, held the high things of this world. He was born poor and an outcast in a poor stable. He was obliged to flee to Egypt by night in order to escape the anger of Herod. He lived as an unknown workman in a poor carpenter’s shop. He bore innumerable affronts and persecutions and insults from His own favoured people. Finally He gave Himself up, of His own free will, to the most opprobrious and infamous death of the cross.

APPLICATION: Do not such recollections of the life of Christ suffice to correct and to adjust the judgments of your mind, to make you abhor the pomp and vanity of the world and love humility? So Christ has taught you during the whole course of His life.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: O ye sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart? Why do you love vanity? (Ps. iv, 3.)

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THURSDAY AFTER THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ TEPIDITY

They upon the rock are they who when they hear receive the word with joy. . . they believe for a while, and in time of temptation they fall away. (Luke viii, 13.)

Chafing means to be or become annoyed or lose patience

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that these words of our Blessed Lord may be considered as directed against those who, having begun to serve God with fervour, have afterwards given themselves up to a life at least of tepidity. They seek their own ease, and avoid all mortification; they neglect the ordinary spiritual duties and they hesitate not to commit deliberate venial sins. Thou hast left thy first charity. (Apoc. ii, 4.) This tepidity is most hurtful, and that for three reasons. The first regards the tepid person himself. He may be compared to a well cultivated tree, planted in excellent ground, which does not bring forth the fruits of good works. Where now is the fruit of so many past communions, so many prayers and the examples of so many fervent companions?

APPLICATION: Let us seriously think of the damage done to a soul by such tepidity, such neglect of religious duties, so many faults and sins. Who can reckon the sum of them? Such a one lives now in very truth an unhappy life, feeling a repugnance and great weariness for the religious practices of former days, and even chafing at being deprived of many worldly consolations which vainly he would wish to have. If you could see the interior of two souls, one fervent and mortified, and the other relaxed and tepid, how much would you envy the one and pity the other!  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:. All have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good. (Ps. lii, 4.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that this tepidity also harms one’s neighbour. Every one is bound to benefit, and do good to, his neighbour, as he can do by prayer, by good conversation and especially by good example. But the tepid man helps not by his prayers, for he makes few or none, or at least he makes them carelessly; and he even does positive harm by his bad example. 

APPLICATION: Every tepid person may be regarded then as a sterile tree and a poisonous one too, or as a two-edged sword that wounds both himself and his neighbour at the same time. How many accusers such a one will find at the tribunal of God, Who will demand a strict account of him there!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? He that speaketh truth in his heart.  (Ps. xiv, 1-3.) 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that, with regard to God, a tepid person deprives Him of that glory and of that special honour, which He had a right to receive from His creature. By his ingratitude such a one restrains the divine beneficence from bestowing on him those greater gifts, which He desires to give him. Finally, he provokes the divine justice to abandon him, and to deprive him of those more powerful helps he requires to obtain final perseverance.

APPLICATION: Consider then that there are many who, by allowing themselves little by little to become relaxed and tepid, have fallen into the most dreadful sins and have made a most unhappy end! The worst is that, while many have been raised from the coldness of an ill-regulated life to heights of great sanctity, seldom on the contrary has a tepid soul been known to return to its first fervour. For such do not deserve that God should show them mercy, by reason of their immense ingratitude.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: There the workers of iniquity are fallen: they are cast out, and could not stand. (Ps. xxxv, 13.)

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FRIDAY AFTER THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ CHRIST DRAWS ALL TO HIMSELF

Now is the judgment of the world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself. (John xii, 31, 32.)

ascendancy means occupation of a position of dominant power or influence.

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that Christ in these words points out two most happy effects that His death was to gain. The first, that He would despoil the devil of that ascendancy over the human race which he had acquired; the other, that He Himself should be invested with that ascendancy and dominion, and this for having, by the merit of Hid death on the cross, satisfied the debts of our sins. For it was these same sins which had placed us under the slavery of the devil.

APPLICATION: Hence it follows that all those who remain under the power of the devil do so, not because the devil has over them the power that he would have had if Christ had not died for them, but because in their blindness and folly they wish to remain there. Thus they become more vile even than those slaves are, who willingly remain in slavery. Do we not deplore such disastrous and universal folly on the part of so many unbelievers, and of so many bad Catholics? What, then, if we also enter their ranks and increase their numbers?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The ways of sinners the Lord will destroy. (Ps. cxlv, 9.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that Jesus is now invested with that dominion, which the devil had before held over mankind, for He has rescued them from slavery through His death. Hence He says with reason that He will draw all men to Himself: I will draw all things to myself. For all belong to Him, all are His subjects, the saint and the sinner, the devout and indevout, the good and the bad.

APPLICATION: On the day of judgment, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ (Rom. xiv, 10), the good that they may be made partakers of His kingdom, the bad that they may be condemned for their unfaithfulness, and sentenced to eternal punishment. Enter then seriously into yourself and remember that you also will have to place yourself at the feet of Jesus Christ one day, either as His faithful follower, or as His guilty enemy. Choose now that which will be the best for you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: O hear my prayer: all flesh shall come to thee. (Ps. lxiv, 3.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY in what way in by what means our crucified Lord draws His followers to Him, in order to make them partakers of His kingdom. He draws us by gentle force of persuasion, of benefits, of sympathy. By force of persuasion, by His heavenly doctrines and much more by His example. He goes so far as even to die naked and forsaken on the tree of the cross between two thieves. By force of His benefits, He has by His death liberated us from eternal death, and opened to us the gates of heaven. By force of sympathy, He has made Himself known to be truly man by suffering death, and truly God by triumphing over death. As man He draws us to Himself, by having for love of us become like unto us; as God He draws us more strongly as our one centre and as our last end.

APPLICATION: Are then all these three ways of drawing not sufficient or convincing enough to draw you to Him, and to make you a faithful and devoted companion of our crucified Lord?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Hear, O Lord, the voice of my supplication: when I cry to thee, when I lift up my hands to thy holy temple. Draw me not away together with the wicked. (Ps. xxvii, 2,3.)

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SATURDAY AFTER THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ PROOF OF LOVE FOR JESUS CHRIST

If you love me keep my commandments. (John xiv, 15.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the love of Jesus must not be a love in appearance only, one that ends in words, in tenderness and in tears. It must be active, patient, and supreme. It must be active. From the beat of the pulse we judge of a person’s health. From his actions we know his charity or love of God. The Son of God throughout the thirty-three years of His mortal life, which He spent for your sake, was not for a moment idle. All His labours were to work out your salvation.

APPLICATION: If then you profess to love Jesus, examine how far your actions are devoted to His service and to His glory. A fire that doers not burn is not a real fire; it is but an imaginary one. So it is with love. If it does not labour, it is not love. This is the real rule by which to know if you truly love Christ Jesus. 

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

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the love of Jesus must not only be active but it must also be patient. This is a most sure and certain sign of love. For patience, as the word itself implies, means also suffering. If you are not willing to embrace and bear the cross for God, you cannot be said really to love Him. For that, which seems to you as impulse of grace and an act of love, may be perhaps only an impulse of nature and the effect of self-love.

APPLICATION: The cross then is the only true touch-stone to discern the true love from the false, the earthly from the heavenly. For, by patience and suffering, you must go against your self-love and the inclinations of corrupt nature. The gold which does not stand the test of fire is false gold and worthless.

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

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the love of Jesus must be supreme, and always triumphant. Fire vanquishes all by overcoming all, devouring all, turning all into fire. So the love of Jesus should in your heart overcome, vanquish, and rule all other affections. If then the love of God should come into competition with the love of any other created good, the love of God should always prevail, and should have the first place in your heart. And in truth the love of God should destroy in your heart every other affection, as the fire overcomes everything else and destroys it.

APPLICATION: Jesus then is the only good that will not fail you in life or in death, and Whom after death you shall enjoy to the full. Turn your eyes on all creatures; you will not find one that merits to be loved outside Jesus, or to compare with Jesus. If His love for you triumphed in His heart over every affection, why does not love for Him do as much in your heart? 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: O Lord, I will be mindful of thy justice alone. (Ps. lxx, 16.)

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