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THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ PARABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED

(Read Matt. xiii, 31-32.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the Father’s of the Church have seen many meanings of this grain of mustard seed, but chiefly that of the evangelical truths and doctrines which Jesus came to sow in the minds of men. These in spite of being despised by the wise ones of this world because of the humble, lowly appearance which they present, yet have so grown and spread throughout the world as to have discredited all worldly wisdom and to have drawn innumerable souls to lead even a heavenly life upon earth.

APPLICATION: Do you realise why until now you have been so far from Christian or religious perfection? It is because the truths and the maxims of the Gospel are not deeply rooted in your soul, because you think of things that are of no importance, and not about those that alone matter. You think only of the present and little or nothing about the future. You are guided in your actions by the impulse of your feelings and by worldly principles, and not by the light of faith and of the teaching of Christ.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Direct me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art God my Saviour. (Ps. xxiv, 5.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that in order that the maxims of the Gospel may be well planted and take root in your soul, you must empty yourself of so many worldly thoughts and so many earthly affections which are the thorns which will not let the former take root and increase. Moreover it is necessary for you to tend specially to the frequent meditation of those primary and more important maxims of the Gospel, remembering that they all are the teachings of Jesus Christ, the uncreated wisdom Who cannot deceive nor be deceived.

APPLICATION: Set yourself seriously to think of this truth, What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul? And upon other similar truths, and you will gather therefrom great fruit for your soul.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord, in the land of the living. (Ps. xxvi, 13.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that once these truths are firmly rooted in your mind, the result will be that your heart will be entirely detached from the base things of this earth and from the deceitful goods of this world, and that your soul will be raised to heavenly things.

APPLICATION: By such detachment will it come to pass that if till now you have been as it were creeping along the ground, you will now become like to the eagle soaring aloft, by your devout affections, towards the Divine Sun and contemplating His beauty. And this is what is meant by those words of the Gospel: The birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof. (Matt. xiii, 32.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest? (Ps. liv, 7.)

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MONDAY AFTER THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ THE DIVINE PUNISHMENT

Fear ye him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. (Luke xii, 5.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY what a strange thing it is that you should fear God so little. If someone held you suspended from the top of a high tower so that by the mere opening of his hand you must needs be dashed down into a pit filled with scorpions and with dragons, would you dare at such a crisis to insult or to anger him?

APPLICATION: How then is it that you do not fear by your sins and offences to anger God Who, by the mere withdrawal of His hand from you for a moment, can let you fall into the most awful and terrible depths, can cast you into hell? Would you be of the number of those who provoke God boldly? (Job xii, 6.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what man can do unto me. (Ps. cxvii, 6.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the gehenna here means a vast deep pit of fire, where are collected all torments as it were in a centre, and where consequently they attain a greater intensity and a greater bitterness. This is the pit or the abyss into which on the Day of Judgment shall be cast the bodies of all the lost. What unutterable woe will it be for those unhappy beings to remain there for ever amidst suffering so great!

APPLICATION: You also in very truth are hanging over that great abyss, supported only by the hand of God Who could let you fall at any moment. Have you not reason to fear? How many far better than you, perhaps, have there been, who after provoking God’s anger against them by their ingratitude, have been permitted by Him to fall into grave sins, and to be cast into that abyss! Often reflect on this if you would learn to fear as you ought.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Unless the Lord had been my helper, my soul had almost dwelt in hell. (Ps. xciii, 17.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that God often inspires you with fear of this abyss, seeing that you stand so much in need of it, in order that you may be ever watchful and never give Him occasion to forsake you. Remember however that your fear may be of two kinds. You may fear to sin only because of the punishment, or you may fear the penalty also because of the sin that deserves it. If you fear to sin because of its necessary punishment you do well. This however is only servile fear and consequently one that is less worthy of you. If you would have true filial fear you must dread the pains of hell because of the sins which cannot be separated from it.

APPLICATION: Cultivate all you can this holy and salutary fear. It will grow and increase in you in proportion as the love of God deepens and increases in your heart.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling. (Ps. ii, 11.)

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TUESDAY AFTER THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY~ GOOD EXAMPLE

So let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven. (Matt. v, 16.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that these words are addressed to all the faithful, because all, as children of light, are bound to do their actions in such a way as to edify their neighbour and with the motive of praising God; Let your modesty be known to all men says the Apostle. Nevertheless this counsel is especially addressed ecclesiastics and to religious, who, as God’s best-loved children having been called into His admirable light, are in duty bound to spread and show forth the glory of their Heavenly Father to the very utmost of their power.

APPLICATION: In what way do you try to give good example to those of your own household and to others outside? It is not enough that you should be good yourself. You must give outward proof of your virtue, so as to serve as a light to others by your actions, your demeanour, and by all your words, so that those who see you may praise your Heavenly Father.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou hast delivered my feet from falling, that I may be pleasing before God in the sight of the living. (Ps. lv, 13.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that since you are strictly bound by the teaching of Jesus Christ to show good example to all men, so for the same reason you are strictly bound never to do anything that might give cause for scandal or bad example to your neighbour or to bring dishonour to God. Do you not realise what a power bad example has when one openly acts in opposition to his profession of a virtuous life before the eyes of others? These will thereby encourage themselves to make their own actions even still more at variance with their profession of Christians.

APPLICATION: Often reflect upon this. Remember too the severe words in which our gentle Lord denounces the sin of scandal. In this very chapter of St Matthew are also read the words: He therefore that shall break one of these least commandments  and shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. (v. 19.)

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

CONSIDER THIRDLY that you should strive to give edification and good example by your conduct, not from any motive of personal glory, but in order to glorify your Heavenly Father. God indeed wishes that others should see your good works, but He does not will that you should do them in order to gain praise. He wishes that they should be seen  so that God Who is the author of all good works may Himself be praised.

APPLICATION: What intention have you in the good works which you do? Is it that they may attract the notice of others or only, as it should be, that they may give glory to God?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Let all that is within me bless His holy name. (Ps. cii, 1.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ BEARING REPROACHES

Blessed are ye when they shall revile you. (Matt. v, 11.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how harmful it is for our spiritual or religious life that we should fear the scorn of worldly men who, by their contempt and unkind words, show that they despise him who tries to live well and to act virtuously, as his profession as a Christian demands. Fear not, says God of the mouth of the prophet, the reproach of men, and be not afraid of their blasphemies (Isa. li, 7), reminding you that all such trials are caused you only by the impiety of men who must themselves soon pass away, whereas the good which you merit from these their annoyances will never end.

APPLICATION: If then the suffering, be it what it may, passes so quickly and the good that it merits for you lasts for ever, should you not then, instead of fearing these slight trials, even despise them?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Turn not away thy face from thy servant, for I an in trouble. Oh hear me speedily. (Ps. lxviii, 18.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that all these above-mentioned trials arise only from the judgment of others, and from the little esteem they show for you. If then you wish not to stand in fear of these their judgments consider within yourself who these persons are. They are men of wrong, unjust, unstable judgment, who themselves within a very short time will return to dust, and be consumed by worms.

APPLICATION: In order to heed the less of these persons, you may picture them to yourself as possibly lost hereafter in hell, for none are more in danger of going there than those who will neither do good themselves nor allow others to do it. Listen then to them as they cry out full of envy of those whom on earth they once despised: These are they whom we had some time in derision. (Wisd. v, 3.) Hence what does it matter if now the wicked despise you, since throughout all eternity they needs must envy you?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Let me not be confounded for I have called upon thee, Let the wicked be ashamed and brought down to hell. (Ps. xxx, 18.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY how lovingly God makes known to you the advantage which this scorn if patiently borne will procure for you. One is that it will detach you from the love of creatures, to which you would become too attached if you were praised for your good works. Another, that they will win you the love of your Creator if you are despised because of your service of Him. Even had it brought you the praise of men you would owe it all to Him; but if it brings you shame and contempt, then He deigns to consider Himself indebted to you.

APPLICATION: Behold then how happy you are that God should become so entirely yours when you do good for His sake and have to suffer for it. If you suffer for the name of Christ you shall be blessed.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Judge me, O Lord my God, according unto thy justice, and let them not rejoice over me. (Ps. xxxivm 24.)

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THURSDAY AFTER THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ GOD OUR FATHER

That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. v, 45.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that there are three ways in which sons may act towards their father, as slaves, as free men or as heirs. The blessed who have entered into the possession of their inheritance may be said to be in the position of heirs, Christians who have been delivered from the slavery of the world in that of free men, and those who are still ground down under its tyranny in that of slaves. The complain our Lord makes by the Prophet: I have brought up children and exalted them, but they have despised me (Isa. i, 2) is particularly addressed to Christians, who being dealt with as free men enjoy in an especial manner the noble title of children of God.

APPLICATION: Ponder seriously how God as your Father has dealt with you, and the return which you as an ungrateful son have up till now made to Him, that now you may change your mode of life and no longer grieve Him.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have said: Ye are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. (Ps. lxxxi, 6.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY God’s extremely loving-kindness towards you. He has fed you with the abundance of His spiritual gifts of grace, calling you by many lights and inspirations from a worldly to a better life, providing you with so many helps to piety, in the Holy Sacraments and the good example of others, so that you may live as His true son. He has even raised you up to the likeness and companionship of His only Son, in order that hereafter you may still be neared to Him in glory and enjoy a more intimate companionship with Him in His Kingdom. To this are you called that you may inherit a blessing. (1 Peter iii, 9.)

APPLICATION: May not then God with good reason say to you I brought up and raised up children, since as a loving Father He has placed such means at your disposal and has secured for you so glorious a destiny? What more indeed could He have done for you?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou art my Father, my God, and the support of my salvation. (Ps. lxxxviii, 27.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY the return that you have so far made, not appreciating as you should so loving a Father, nor honouring Him, nay even despising Him by your disobedience to His law. I raised up children but they have despised me. Every time that God is offended by the hardened sinner He is also despised, but not so outrageously as when He is offended by a favoured son. The former may often sin through ignorance and inadvertence, being carried away and engulfed in the cares and pleasures of the world. But the latter lives as a child in God’s own house, and should have nothing more at heart than to obey and honour Him. Oh how much more irreprehensible is his contempt of God!

APPLICATION:Wonder not therefore that God more readily shows His mercy towards the repentant sinner who has offended Him very gravely, than towards those who are guilty of lesser sins, for which however they show but little regret.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: As a father hath pity upon his children, so hath the Lord pity upon them who fear Him. (Ps. cii, 13.)

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FRIDAY AFTER THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ KEEPING CLOSE TO JESUS

He that taketh not up his cross and followeth me is not worthy of me. (Matt. x, 38.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how our Lord Jesus Christ died on a public hill outside the city of Jerusalem in order to show that He was dying for the welfare of all mankind, and for His own great confusion as being there exposed to the sight of all men. Think moreover of your blessed Saviour going forth from the city gate between two thieves, with the heavy cross upon His shoulders, accompanied by the noise not so much of drums and trumpets as of the hisses and insults of an immense rabble, and all this in the broad light of day.

APPLICATION: After such a sight as this will you still yearn to satisfy to the full ambition for human glory and praise which you so ardently seek?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I had rather be despised in the house of my God than to dwell in the tent of sinners. (Ps. lxxxiii, 11.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY the strength which the Apostle St. Paul drew from this example of Christ, to go out in public and bear openly the name of Christ. Let us go forth, he says, with him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. (Heb, xiii, 13.) He would declare himself a follower of the crucified, which was in those times a name of derision and contempt. In our days the name of a Christian alone is no longer a name of contempt, but the name of an exemplary Christian, of a poor, patient, humble and mortified Christian is still a word of reproach. The simplicity of the just man is laughed to scorn. (Job xii, 4.)

APPLICATION: Still you must have the courage to bear even this if you would correspond with all that Christ has deigned to suffer for love of you. You have to bear yourself as a true and faithful follower of the crucified not only in the privacy of your own chamber, but you must also go forth into the open, without the camp, and if at home or abroad they seem to deride you, it will be with Christ that you are laughed to scorn

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

CONSIDER THIRDLY how the Apostle invites you to go forth with him without the camp, because your chief consolation in accepting insults with gladness is the knowledge that you are closely following and accompanying your Lord to Calvary. You must not even wait for Christ to call you forth from the privacy of your own chamber. You must hasten to follow Him by letting those who will despise you. You must prepare your soul for any contempt that may come to you whether from those with whom you live or those outside, from your nearest relations, who will condemn you as either too scrupulous or as more zealous than prudent.

APPLICATION: In the midst of animadversions such as these remember you Saviour Jesus Christ. Say to yourself: Christ for the love of me went forth to Calvary crushed with ignominy, and can I draw back from following Him faithfully for fear of treatment like to His? No, that shall never be. Let us go forth therefore with Him.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord. (Ps. xxiv, 48.)

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SATURDAY AFTER THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY~ PROGRESS IN PERFECTION

Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt. xxiv, 15.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY what the Apostle means when he says you are in all things to grow up in Christ Jesus. (Eph. iv, 15.) It means that you be more resolute in seeking Christ, in following Christ and in embracing the things of Christ. If you are but a beginner, you will do this by forsaking all evil and giving yourself gradually more and more fully to all virtue. If you are a proficient you will try ever more to imitate the virtues of Jesus Christ. If you are among the more perfect you will live more increasingly in union with Him, desiring nothing outside of Him, nothing of the things of this world.

APPLICATION: Enter into yourself and see to which of these states you feel that you yourself belong. Be ashamed if after so many years of professing a good and virtuous life you can with difficulty say that you are i n the first of them.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Unto thee have I lifted up mine eyes, O thou who dwellest in the heavens. (Ps. cxxii, 1.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that whenever you do not seek to advance in your state, whether it be that of a beginner, of a proficient or the perfect, you fall away. Not to advance is to go back. The reason is because, as soon as you do not try to advance, it is a sign that you already believe yourself to have made sufficient progress. This is in itself to fall away, and to become like to the Pharisee who, thinking himself to have arrived at a perfection beyond that of all other men, was really inferior to the publican who stood behind.

APPLICATION: Cease but to look at the good that you imagine you have done, and turn your attention to that which is wanting to you and which you are in duty bound to perform, and you will then recognise the immense need that you have of advancing. Notice a little how much more so many others have done and still do for God than you. This will serve to put you to confusion and encourage you to advance.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Blessed is the man whose help is in thee. In his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps. (Ps. lxxxiii, 6.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that you must grow in Him in all things, striving to think always more of Christ, employing your tongue in praising Him, your hands in working and labouring for Him. As the growth of the body requires that all its members should develop in due proportion, so also must it be with the soul. All this will be doing the truth in charity, as St. Paul says (ibid.), which means that whatever you think, speak or do, you must do all as perfectly as possible, doing the truth. And above all you must do it, as you ought, for the love of God: in charity.

APPLICATION: Happy will you be if this ardent longing dwell in your heart of growing up as you should in Christ in all things. May it please God that you may not need to be ever beginning, and that up to now you may not have been always going back rather than forward in imitation of Jesus Christ.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord keepeth all them that love Him. (Ps. cxliv, 20.)

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