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THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN

(Read Luke  xviii, 9-14.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY in this Pharisee of the gospel the true picture of a proud and haughty spirit. Proud in his outward bearing, in his arrogance he did not deign to humble himself or to bow down even in the presence of God: Standing he prayed. Still more proud interiorly, he praised and flattered himself for the littler good he had done, without ever reflecting at all upon his faults and his pride. As for others, on the contrary, he considers only their faults; he thinks the worst of each, preferring himself to all: I am not as the rest of men. In his prayer he does not beseech God for anything, as if he would say: I am sufficient for myself. (Ecclus. xi, 26.)

APPLICATION: Turn your eyes now on yourself and see if your outward bearing before God and men is that of a proud man, or of one who is humble. See whether you are vain and praise yourself for the good you do, and pay no attention to your own sins; whether you easily condemn the faults of others and reckon yourself their superior. Then ask yourself, if this spirit of pride displeases God so greatly in the Pharisee, what must it do in one who calls himself a follower of Christ?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord looketh on the lowly and the lofty he knoweth afar off. (Ps. cxxxvii, 6.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY in the poor publican the bearing of a truly humble man. He stands there in the temple humbling himself before God and men: standing afar off. Even as one excommunicated and unworthy to associate with others: he would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven. Filled with confusion, bowed down to the earth, he did not dare to lift up his eyes towards heaven. He struck his breast in his deep sorrow for his sins; he confessed himself the worst of sinners; and he begged mercy of God. O God be merciful to me a sinner.

APPLICATION: Such is the manner you should imitate in making your supplications to God and in pleading for mercy. The prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds. (Ecclus. xxxv, 21.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: He hath had regard unto the prayer of the lowly, and hath not despised their petition. (Ps. ci, 18.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY how in this proud Pharisee and the humble publican are verified the words: Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. For pride is the vice that is most hated of all in heaven and that most of all keeps us estranged from God; whereas humility is the virtue which is most pleasing to heaven and unites is most closely to God. He would rather tolerate men that are full of sin than those who are swelled with pride; and He hates less sin that is joined with humility than innocence joined with pride. God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. (James iv, 6). Hence as by humility sin is cast out and the soul purified, so by pride virtue itself is poisoned and vice generated.

APPLICATION: Learn them to have a great horror of the vice of pride, and a great love for the virtue of humility. This is the virtue which Jesus by His example made Himself most especially our Master. He wished to eradicate that first sin of pride brought by Lucifier from the first into the earthly paradise, and transmitted to all of us by our first parents. Consider attentively the examples of humility which your Redeemer has given you, that so you may the more desire to be the disciple of Jesus Who was a teacher of humility, rather than that of Lucifer who was a master of pride.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:Thou wilt save the humble people, but will bring down the eyes of the proud. (Ps. xvii, 28.)

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MONDAY AFTER THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ SELF-CONFIDENCE

To some who trusted in themselves as just . . . he spoke this parable. (Luke xviii, 9.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the lesson which Jesus Christ taught in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican is summed up by St Paul in the words: He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. (1 Cor. x, 12.) And here let it be observed that the Apostle  directs his solemn warning not to him who stands, but to him who thinketh himself to stand. For who is there who may in his spiritual life stand in such a way as not to be in danger of falling? Perhaps you may imagine that in your present state you are already secure. But oh how you are deceived! Think of Lucifer, who fell from heaven, of Solomon, of David. Do not think therefore that those who fall are only those who are beginners in the way of the Lord; there are many also among the most advanced.

APPLICATION: You should in consequence not only have a holy fear in youth, but keep it all your life even unto your old age, as Ecclesiasticus says, Keep his fear and grow old therein. (Ecclus. ii, 6.)

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

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the Apostle likewise says, let him take heed, that is, that we must watch and be on our guard, to observe wherein may lie the greatest danger of our falling. Is it in the over-great confidence of not falling or in presuming to trust in your own strength? Is it in wilful negligence in the exercise of prayer, or of recourse to God? Is it in the too delicate treatment of your body or the neglect of the custody of the senses? Is it in occasions of danger which you should flee or from the example of evil companions from whom you should keep aloof? Is it by negligence in resisting the assaults of diabolical temptations, and of irregular inclinations of your senses?

APPLICATION: In all these dangers amidst which you continually live, you must take heed lest you fall, and lest you think yourself secure and safe from them.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The just shall see and fear. (Ps. li, 8.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that in order to insure yourself against falling, it is not enough to see these dangers; you must remove yourself from them as far as is possible. Yet you can never render yourself safe from all these obstacles, if you do not provide yourself with a guide and a support. Your guide must be a good confessor or spiritual father who will direct you in the safe way, and your support will be in the help of God which you must assiduously ask for.

APPLICATION: Thus will you safely traverse the road, where without guidance and without protection you could not make a single step in the way of salvation, which might not be full of the greatest danger to you.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I was sore pressed, and overthrown that I might fall; but the Lord held me up. (Ps. cxvii, 13.)

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TUESDAY AFTER THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE YOKE OF CHRIST

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart. (Matt. xi, 29.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the evangelical counsels are in fact the yoke of Christ. They are called a yoke because the oblige us to live, not indeed as we would choose, but under the rule of Him who governs us in the place of God. They are also called the yoke of Christ; my yoke. For as God He taught them, and as Man He practiced them thirty-three years, living in strictest mortification, and perfect subjection. This is not a yoke for irrational but for rational beings, and therefore it must be borne voluntarily of one’s own free will. Consequently He says: Take my yoke upon you, so that you may understand that you should submit without waywardness not only your bodily faculties, but also that higher nature which is proper to man. Your reasonable service. (Rom. xii, 1.)

APPLICATION: Reflect well and see if you bear the yoke of Christ unwillingly and with repugnance, as an unreasonable creature might do, or if you, in the far more noble nature of man, submit not only the flesh, but your spirit also to this yoke with a good will: Submit your neck to the yoke, and let your soul receive discipline. (Ecclus. li, 34.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Shall not my soul be subject to God? For from him is my salvation. (Ps. lxi, 1.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that there are two sins which make us bear Christ’s yoke unwillingly, viz, impatience and pride; impatience because it makes it seem too heavy, and pride which makes it appear too humiliating. Consequently Christ bids us to learn patience and humility from Him. For if we become patient and humble after His example, the yoke will seem light and we shall enjoy rest.  

APPLICATION: Go then to the feet of Jesus and there learn true meekness and humility. By so doing you will feel no burden.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Be thou, O my soul, subject to God, for from him is my patience. (Ps. lxi, 6.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY how all things, that can annoy and disquiet the soul, come either from within itself or from without. From without come contempt, ill-treatment and disasters; from within come moral and physical defects. Against these intrinsic and extrinsic evils, the best and the most necessary weapons are meekness against contempt and other ills that come to you from outside, humility against the moral and physical evils which come from within.

APPLICATION: With these two virtues and with these alone will you be tranquil and safe, even as a rock in the storm. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord will exalt the meek unto salvation. (Ps. cxlix, 4.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ CITIZENS OF HEAVEN

I shall prepare a place for you. . . that where I am you also may be . (John xiv, 3.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that as the Apostle tells (Heb. xiii, 14) this wretched earth is not our abiding city. Our city is heaven. How much then are you not bound to thank God, for having called you to so blessed a destiny! You must in spirit forget your earth country, so that you may not recognise any country as your own except heaven: The city of perfect beauty! St. Francis of Assisi rejoiced greatly as he renounced all right to his heritage in the presence of his bishop, because thus despoiled he could now recognise no one as his father except only his heavenly Father.

APPLICATION: Do you likewise rejoice, that the true followers of Christ have no other country than heaven to recognise as their own.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I was glad at the things that were said unto me. We will go into the house of the Lord. (Ps. cxxi, 1.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that you have therefore to live in this world as a stranger does in a city, where he has no abiding home. He pays little attention to its affairs nor does he in any way attach himself to it. He regards it as a place that nowise concerns him. So have you to act as long as you live on this earth. This is not your city; you are here as a stranger.  

APPLICATION: Yet do you not strive much to fix your abode here below? You interest yourself as much in the affairs of your relatives, of your house and of your country as is you were never to leave them. Oh how much out of all due order is this! How prejudicial and detrimental to your true profit!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Woe to me that my sojourn is prolonged. (Ps. cxix, 5.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that you are not only a stranger on this earth, but a pilgrim: We seek one (a city) that is to come. A pilgrim, who passes many places on his way, does not trouble to take with him more than is necessary for his daily support. He goes forward with haste, unencumbered, and seeks the most direct was to the desires destination.

APPLICATION: This too is how it behoves you to conduct yourself in the pilgrimage of this life, to remain here in body indeed, but in your soul to soar up to heaven, just as the pilgrim himself is in the city through which he passes, whilst his spirit is in the place he longs for. But how differently do you proceed! You think as little of heaven as if it were not your true country at all. 

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

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THURSDAY AFTER THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE SEED TIME OF LIFE

The son of man . . . will render to every man according to his works. (Matt. xvi, 27.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the present life is the time for sowing and the future that for reaping. The seed is the work done; the harvest the reward or the punishment. He who has sown good seed, that is who has done well. Will receive blessings; he who has sown tares, that is done evil, will receive punishment. This is a law that admits of no exceptions; it applies to all. Be you prince or be you peasant, there is no difference.

APPLICATION: Why then do you take so little care as to what you do? Your actions are seeds that cannot be without fruit for eternity. Make sure therefore whether they be good or bad. If they are bad, unhappy indeed are you, and how much evil awaits you! If they are good, scatter them plenteously and with joy, that you may reap a blessed eternity. 

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

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that in order to have a good harvest it is not enough to sow good seed; it must be sown in good soil: They have sown wheat and reaped thorns. (Jer. xii, 13.) Within yourself there is a twofold soil, the good one which is the spirit and the bad one which is the flesh. Therefore the Apostle says: He that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall he reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. (Gal. vi, 8.) Therefore it suffices not that your actions be good. You must direct them to the good of your spirit and not to that of the flesh.

APPLICATION: When with pure intention you discharge the duty imposed upon you by obedience, as when you study or when you preach, you sow good seed; but if you do all this from motives of pride or ambition you sow in the flesh, and as such you will reap corruption. If then you would reap a profitable harvest, sow for the good of the spirit, and not in order to pander to the disorderly desires of the flesh.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:I set the Lord always in my sights, for he is at my right hand. (Ps. xv, 8.) 

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that is the man who does well were immediately to receive good things in this world, and he who does evil should receive evil, men would assuredly walk more cautiously. But such is not the case. The life work od man resembles the sowing of seed, and so for the reward or punishment he must await the future harvest in eternity.

APPLICATION: If then you have done evil, do not say: I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me? (Ecclus. v, 4.) For it is but true that in due time you must reap its punishment. But if you have done well, be also assured that you will reap your eternal reward. Do you not see with what patience the husbandman awaits the harvest? Do you likewise have patience: For the coming of the Lord is at hand. (James v, 8.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord knoweth the way of the just; and the way of the wicked shall perish. (Ps. I, 6.)

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FRIDAY AFTER THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ STRENGTH IN CHRIST’S SUFFERINGS

Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John xv, 13.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that Christ suffered o grievously in the flesh, not indeed because He had need to subdue it, for it was always most pure and most obedient, but because it was necessary to conquer and subdue your flesh, which is ever recalcitrant and rebellious. Hence it is with reason that St. Peter exhorts you to bring your flesh into subjection by similar sufferings: Christ therefore having suffered in the flesh, be you also armed with the same thought. (1 Peter iv, 1.)

APPLICATION: Observe how the Apostle, knowing your weakness, desires at least that if you do not participate in the actual passion of Christ, you should arm yourself with the thought of it. Therefore what excuse can you have if you do not do it?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: There is no health for the flesh, because of thy wrath; there is no rest for my bones because of my sins. (Ps. xxvii, 4.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that this arming is to be twofold; defensive in order to resist the assaults of your rebellious flesh, and offensive so as to make war on it and bring it into obedience. The thought of what Christ suffered for you is your best armour on both ways. Defensive, such as that of which the prophet speaks: Thou shall give them a buckler of heart thy labour. (Lam. iii, 65.) For how is it possible that, contemplating Christ bathed in His blood upon the cross for your sins, you should at the same time think of giving yourself up to unlawful pleasures? It will likewise be to you an offensive armour, for you will feel yourself burning with a holy desire to ill-treat and mortify your body, inn order to inflict the just punishment that is due to your flesh.

APPLICATION: But for this, however, it is not enough to recall the passion of Christ merely in a superficial manner. You must ponder it with assiduous attention. For if the flesh is at all times ready to make war on you, you must never think of laying down these holy weapons against it.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Behold, O Lord, our protector, and look upon the face of thy Christ. (Ps. lxxxiii, 10.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that, besides reflecting on the passion, to gain much profit from it you must above all strive to understand Who it is that suffers so much for you. If the Son of God had done nothing more for you than merely taste just one drop of bitter gall, that should be sufficient motive for you to live for the love of Him in an ocean of bitterness. But what if you consider the excessive sufferings, which the Son of God endured in His body for you, and for which He had need to provide Himself with miraculous strength? Tobias fell to the ground as if dead, when he learned that his loving guide was the Archangel Raphael.

APPLICATION: Thus should it be with you, at the thought that He Who descended from heaven to earth to suffer for you, is none other than the Son of God Himself. This thought should make you live as if dead to yourself, as if your body were no longer able to burden you. I will be mindful and remember and my soul shall languish within me. (Lam. iii, 20.) 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The king of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against his Christ. (Ps. ii, 2.) 

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SATURDAY AFTER THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ STRENGTH IN TEMPTATION

Without me you can do nothing. (John xv, 5.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how in temptation St. Paul most earnestly begged God many times to free him from the sting of his flesh: For which thing thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart from me, notwithstanding that he did not yield to the temptation but chastised and kept his flesh in subjection. Yet when he understood from God that it was better for him to remain, like other men, subject to this weakness, God saying to him: My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in weakness, then he glorified in this infirmity: Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities. For he knew that by means of them the power of Christ would be established in him.

APPLICATION: Learn from this that your glory is not to consist in being free from the worst temptations, but in drawing from them that benefit which God wishes you to gain for the good of your soul.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: By thee shall I be delivered from temptation. (Ps. xvii, 30.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY what virtues of Christ the Apostle saw rooted in himself by his glorying in this weakness. They were humility regarding himself, and meekness regarding others. And these precisely were the virtues most taught and practiced by Christ: Learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart. (Matt. xi, 29.) This stimulus served at one and the same time to keep the Apostle ever humble amid the many reasons he had for vainglory, and meek towards others, sympathising with their defects and with their infirmities.

APPLICATION: If you knew how to learn from your weaknesses to be humble and meek, you also might begin to glory in them. Your infirmities are like so many windows, which let the sunlight enter into the room of your soul, to show you the low opinion you should have of yourself, and the charity you should display towards your neighbour. And do you despise so great a benefit? A grievous sickness maketh the soul sober. (Ecclus. xxxi, 2.)   

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Prove me, O God, and know my heart; examine me and lead me in the eternal way. (Ps. cxxxviii, 23, 24.) 

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY  that you have no reason to glory like the Apostle did. Hence, all the more reason not to cease to seek what will remind you of your own vileness, whilst you cease not to be foolishly proud. You think you have reached the third heaven because of a few tears shed in prayer, and still you show your hardness when reproving and correcting other. Those weaknesses in you, which are common even to great souls, were permitted in them in order that they should remain steadfast and grow in virtue; in you they are rather a chastisement, because you are so poor and yet so proud.

APPLICATION: Hence you can gather what a great blessing it is to be meek and humble.  To possess these precious virtues, it was good even for the saints to be subjected to the worst and the most troublesome temptations.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I am brought to nothing, and I knew it not. (Ps. lxxii, 22.) 

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