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THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ PARABLE OF THE LOST SHEEP

(Read Luke  xv, 1-10.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that you are this lost sheep of the gospel. The divine Shepherd has sought you with much labour and toil , has brought you back to the fold, and has placed you in safety. For often in the past you have alas! gone far from your Shepherd, walking amidst a thousand perils into which you fell and were lost. Then our Blessed Saviour leaving so many others amid the dangers that surrounded them also, sought you out especially and strove with much love and much care to lead you back into the way of salvation.

APPLICATION:  Strive to recognise the great benefit which our Lord has done you, and thank Him with all your heart. If you have served Him badly in the past, resolve now to begin a new life and to be more generous for the future.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost: seek thy servant, because I have forgotten thy commandments. (Ps. cxviii, 176.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  all that it cost our Lord to withdraw you from the path of sin and to bring you to a life of virtue. How many inspirations has He whispered in your heart which you have neglected, how many lights has He given you, and how many impulses has He not employed, to which you have made a long resistance. In the meantime in His love He did not cease to repeat His invitations and to multiply His graces. But in order to merit these inspirations and graces for you, what labours, what afflictions and what torments did He not suffer for you, all though His life and in His death? All that He did and suffered for the whole world, He did and suffered for your salvation in particular, as if there had been no one else in the world to save. He loved me, and delivered Himself for me. (Gal. ii, 20.)

APPLICATION:  It is thus that He may be truly said to have carried you upon His own shoulders. Neither was Jesus induced to show this special love towards you because He had any need of you, but only because you had the utmost need of this His special love. And to so great mercy and such great love how far have you corresponded up till now?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou hast conducted thy people like sheep. (Ps. lxxvi, 21.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that we read of the shepherd of the gospel that he received congratulations when he brought back the lost sheep in the fold. So too do all the angels rejoice with Christ our Lord, when they see a soul raised again to life from sin and rescued from the danger of perishing. In your case too there is great joy in heaven at seeing you come forth from sin and being a new life in service of God. Beware however lest this joy be turned into mourning: My harp is turned to mourning (Job xxx, 31.), at seeing that you again serve the world rather than God.

APPLICATION:    If you wish that this joy over your return should continue in heaven, resolve to set yourself earnestly to acquire those virtues that belong to your state in life, to correct your faults and your defects. Thus will you give complete joy to Christ and to all the court of heaven.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Better is one day in thy courts above thousands. I have chosen to be an abject in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacle of sinners. (Ps. lxxxiii, 11.)

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MONDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ RIGHT INTENTION IN OUR ACTIONS

Take heed that you do not your justice before man, to be seen by them. (Matt. vi, 1.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that by justice is meant all good works, which may be reduced to three kinds: fasting, under which are comprised all the penitential works which render us just in the sight of God; almsgiving, which includes all the works of charity, which make us just towards our neighbour; and prayer, which comprehends all the works of religion, which regulate our conduct in regard to God.

APPLICATION:   Now God so willed that all these works of virtue and merit be seen in order that a good example be thereby given. However He wills not that you do them that you may be gain praise of men, to be seen of men. Reflect on what your intention is in doing these works.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have kept thy commandments and thy testimonies: because all my ways are in thy sight. (Ps. cxviii, 168.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that there are two sorts of good works: some ordinary, such as belong to your state of life, others particular and out of the ordinary. These latter are safer and more solid when you perform them in secret, so as to fly the notice and praise of men. To your ordinary works however, on the contrary, you must give that publicity which all good servants of God observe, that thereby He may be praised.

APPLICATION:  How easy however it is for you often to neglect them, not in order to avoid vain-glory, but because of carelessness and the love of your own ease and convenience! Beware of such neglect.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have sworn, and am determined to keep thy judgments of thy justice. (Ps. cxviii, 106.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY how important it is for you to have this right intention in all your actions. Every act of vanity that influences you to do good actions deprives you of their merit. For then your reward for them will be the praise of men on earthy, which you have valued more than the good pleasure of God. Thus they will gain you nothing from God or for eternity. Observe, nevertheless, that every act of vanity does not always rob you of your whole merit before God. Only that act of vanity which precedes the action and which has for its end to please men alone, is a worm  that vitiates the entire good work. An act of vanity however which is part accompanies the good work, or follows it, does not entirely spoil it, although it be blameworthy and perhaps sinful.

APPLICATION:  Consider therefore how important it is that you direct your intention aright at the beginning of your works. Always strive to do them not to please men, but solely in order to please God. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: That I should do thy will: O, my God, I have desired it, and thy law in the midst of my heart. (Ps. xxxix, 9.)

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TUESDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ LIFE A TIME OF REPENTANCE

Do penance for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matt. iii, 2.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY what a benefit it is that God, Who is Lord of infinite majesty and grievously offended by man, a vile worm of the earth, should still give him, not from any obligation but out of pure goodness, opportunity of repentance and of returning to His favour: He hath given place for penance (Job xxiv, 23.) Nay He gives not only time but also light, and inspirations and helps. Yet man abuses even this, and avails himself of it only to sin more boldly.

APPLICATION:   But how far greater a benefit it is, that you, who have offended your God so many times, should by His pure mercy have been spared so long and been so specially blest, in order that you might have more time and better means of repentance and amendment. Nevertheless you have abused all this by increasing your sins and by your ingratitude. Admire our Blessed Lord’s great bounty towards you, thank Him for it, and deplore your ingratitude.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: He hath not dealt with us according to our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. (Ps. cii, 10.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that the sinner misapplies the time given to him by God. For it seems to him that he has not committed any great evil, seeing that God did not immediately punish him, but allowed him still to enjoy life and prosperity. If however Almighty God had promptly punished him for his sins, Oh how he would have humbled himself: For because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the children of men commit evils without fear. (Eccles. Viii, 11.)

APPLICATION:  And would you also desire to be numbered among those who abuse the long-suffering and patience which God shows in bearing with your sins? If God, instead of calling you in His mercy to do penance for them, had cast you into hell which you have so many times deserved, then would you have understood the greatness of your offences. Then all in vain would you have detested your folly in the midst of those devouring flames. How is it now that you so badly correspond to and so greatly abuse His excessive mercy? What penance have you done up to this moment in proportion to your sins? Nay, rather how burdensome does it perhaps seem to you to live according to the commandments of God and of His holy Church!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: It is good for me that thou hast humbled me: that I may learn thy justifications. (Ps. cxviii, 71.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the sinner presumes that he will have time to set all things right at the last. For as he sees that God has borne with him so long, he rashly counts on having time and opportunity later on to attend to the affair of his salvation. But how many has not this false hope deceived? How many thus die evil deaths in consequence and are lost for ever?

APPLICATION:    Consider therefore seriously the end for which God has given you these years of life. It is none other than as a time of penance. Therefore humble yourself before God. Beware of abusing it, because this would be to do great wrong to God and to bring immense misery upon yourself.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. (Ps. l, 5.) 

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ REMEMBRANCE OF THE FOUR LAST THINGS

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

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how important it is never to sin mortally, and how constantly the saints besieged heaven with most fervent prayers in order to obtain this grace, which is also within your reach provided you resolve inn al you do to remember your last end. But the thought of death, which is the first of the last things, will not suffice without that of the judgment to follow. For the thought of death alone has served many an impious man to give himself up all the more to the enjoyment of life upon earth: Our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud: come therefore let us enjoy the good things that are present. (Wis. Ii, 5, 6.)

APPLICATION:  In order then that the thought of death may be profitable to you, you must needs recall to mind that after death follows judgment. To that judgment will be affixed the awarding either of eternal punishment or of eternal reward. Here-in lies an efficacious power to restrain you from all sin.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. (Ps. cxlii, 2.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that this great power is born also of the remembrance of all the four last things, namely death, judgment, hell and heaven. This remembrance will cause the four cardinal virtues to live in you and to guide you. Prudence will govern your reason that it may be truly wise; justice your will that it may be directed aright; temperance your desires and affections that you may reject the pleasures of sin; fortitude your passions that you may overcome the difficulty of virtue. Now the remembrance of the four last things does more than anything else to make these virtues live in you. The remembrance of death dissipates from your head those vapours of ambition and of pride, which cloud the intellect, and so gives you prudence. The remembrance of the judgment places before your mind that rigorous judge Who will pass in review your state of soul, and so increase your justice. The remembrance of hell restrains within you the craving for those pleasures which must end in such dire punishment, and this will give you temperance. The remembrance of paradise lessens the dread of the evils of this life which will be changed into eternal joys, and this will give you fortitude.

APPLICATION:  How then can it be possible that you should ever sin? In all thy works, says Ecclesiasticus, remember thy last end and thou shalt never sin. (Ecclus. vii, 40.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff: they have comforted me. (Ps. xxii, 4.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that this promise of the sacred writer about the remembrance of our last end is of no effect in many souls, because they think of the four last things in the abstract only. They do not think of the last things as something that concerns themselves. Therefore it is said, remember thy last end. We must therefore remind ourselves that it is precisely we who in a short time shall be carried to the coffin and to the grave, This tremendous judgment is for me. These eternal punishments are for me, if I give way to temptation. For me are these heavenly rewards if I resist.

APPLICATION:   This remembrance must needs be put into practice: In all thy works remember. It is of little worth to have beautiful thoughts about the four last things. These mere imaginations are lifeless things. It is necessary that you make them live in your acts and works. Then this remembrance, which may now seem to you somewhat bitter, will hereafter be turned into sweetness. For it will keep your conscience good, and that is the chief joy of all. There is no pleasure above the joy of the heart. (Ecclus. xxx, 16.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  I remembered, O Lord, thy judgments of old, and I was comforted. (Ps. cxviii, 52.)

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THURSDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ GOD’S HATRED OF SIN

Jesus said to them: Which of you shall convince me of sin? (John viii, 46.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the hatred God bears to sin is equal to the love He must bear towards Himself, that is to say, immense, infinite, essential. This is the reason He has always pursued sin with many punishments, such as the flood, showers of fire, pestilences, earthquakes and other numberless sufferings. But this was little. To show the hatred  He bears to sin, it was necessary for God to create hell, and even after millions of centuries it could not be said that He had received sufficient satisfaction from the sinner in that horrible abyss. In order to demonstrate this intense hatred and to cause full satisfaction to be made to Himself for it, He went to the extent of punishing sin in the person of His own Son, Who in Himself had nothing of sin but its appearance and resemblance. He delivered Him up to the death of the cross.

APPLICATION:  By such considerations may we also arrive at some conception of God’s intense hatred of sin.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (Ps. xliv, 8.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that all the love God bears to all the good works that have ever been done by all His creatures, by all the patriarchs and prophets and martyrs, if places in the balance would not out-weigh the hatred that God bears to one single sin of yours. Therefore if it were possible for God to feel afflicted, He would be more grieved at your sin than He would be rejoiced at all the united good works of the saints, although these be otherwise most excellent. Consequently in order to obtain these good works, He could never will a single sin to be committed, ho0wever small it might be. He can permit you to commit it: but He cannot will that you should commit it.

APPLICATION:  If then by telling a lie it would be possible to obtain through your means the conversion of all men to the faith, you would not be justified in telling it. Oh how great then must be this hatred of God for sin.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  I have hated and abhorred iniquity: but I have loved thy law. (Ps. cxviii, 163.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY  that in the same degree in which God hates sin, He likewise hates you if you are a sinner: But to God the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike. (Wisd. Xiv, 9.) God hates nothing among all His creatures but sin. What immense misery you would esteem it were you to become an object of hatred to all your city? And is it not worst for you to be hated by God and by all the inhabitants of heaven? There is however this great difference between the hatred which God bears to sin and that which He bears the sinner. Sin itself must be always hated by God, whereas the sinner, if he only wills it, can cease to be a sinner by hating and by detesting from his heart the sin he has committed.

APPLICATION: Begin to make war against your rebellious nature, and against your ill-regulated desires, by mortifying them. In this way will you cease to sin and God will begin to love you. If you have already had the grace through the divine mercy to leave the state of sin, do not cease top thank God and to make satisfaction for the debt of your sins. Remember always, wheresoever you may be, that you are no more secure from falling than was Adam in the state of innocence, nor Lucifer in heaven itself.

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

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FRIDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ MORTIFICATION

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke ix, 23.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the sign of being very pleasing to Christ is not that of being a worker of miracles, a great preacher, or a good teacher of the true faith, but that of being greatly mortified. And this all may with God’s grace attain to, provided they efficaciously desire it. This mortification is called crucifixion: They that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh (Gal. v, 24), because it is to be done for the love of the Crucified One and in order to become more like Him. Moreover, it must be attended with sorrow and constancy as that of Jesus crucified was. For He remained immovably fixed to the cross in extreme agony until He expired.

APPLICATION:  Consider whether your mortification seems too you at all like that, or whether it be not inconstant, and a thing you try to avoid as much as possible. The less you love mortification the less will you be dear to Jesus.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God? (Ps. xli, 4.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that you should in the first place mortify your flesh in order to attack the very root of the evil. It is from the flesh that comes all the evil which the soul suffers, and therefore it is necessary to begin the remedy by subduing the flesh. Do you think of subduing the flesh or rather of caressing it?

APPLICATION:  Exterior mortification, though necessary, does not alone suffice. Of what use is it to remove the cause of the fever, if at the same time the fever itself is not allayed? Therefore to exterior mortification you must join the interior: or rather you must practice exterior mortification in order to acquire the interior, which is more important.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  How long will thou feed us with the bread of tears, and give us for our drink tears in measure? (Ps. lxxix, 6.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY what precisely are those things which you should conquer by means of interior mortification. They are the vices, as St. Paul says, that is our sins: and the concupiscences, namely our passions. We must first attack our sins, and cleanse our soul, and then our passions by brining them into subjection.

APPLICATION:   What are the passions which most reign in you? Make an effort to know them in order to mortify them, so that if they live, at least they live only on the cross. Our vices are not so much our actual sins as our habitual ones. Strive therefore by mortification to reach the degree, as far as possible, of not committing habitual sin. One may easily with God’s help succeed in ridding himself of all habitual sin. Therefore the habitual sins are those which you must more particularly mortify, be they small or great, not being content with their merely being upon the cross but determined that they should actually die there. And so this also you can attain by the divine mercy if you really wish to mortify them.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My iniquities are multiples above the hairs on my head: and my heart hath forsaken me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me, look down, O Lord, to help me. (Ps. xxxix, 13, 14.) 

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SATURDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE SENTENCE ON THE REPROBATE

Then shall he say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. (Matt. xxv, 41.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that all the suffering of sickness, of affliction, of adversities, which come to you on this earth from the hand of the Lord, are as it were so many sorrows sent from heaven either to punish or to prove you, sharp arrows which penetrate  but which finally pass away. Thy arrows pass, says the Psalmist, the voice of thy thunder in a wheel. (Ps. lxxvi, 19.) What however will that be that will pass away? It will be that terrible voice, as it were of thunder, in the ears of sinners on the last day, with which Christ will drive them away from His saying: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. (Matt. xxv, 41.). And this voice on the wheel of eternity will with perpetual movement resound eternally in the ears of the reprobate, and afflict and torment them for evermore.

APPLICATION:  Now you always stand in fear of temporal evils and are much agitated by them, though they pass away even as arrows. Why then are you not moved by eternal evils and why do you not fear them more?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:Pierce thou my flesh with thy fear: for I am afraid of thy judgments. (Ps. cxviii, 120.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that this voice with which Christ will pronounce sentence on the reprobate is called the voice of thunder: the voice of thunder. For it will be an outburst of His just anger, long restrained and repressed in His heart, and it will burst forth with all the greater fury over the wicked because so long deferred. It will fill those miserable ones with such horror that they will call on the mountains to bury them and to plunge them in the abyss.

APPLICATION:  Do you not fear now to provoke Him to anger? Pause awhile and reflect seriously on that sentence: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. In order that you may not hear it pronounce upon you, bear now willingly and patiently those sufferings which God sends you in this life.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: O Lord, rebuke me not in thy indignation, nor chastise me in thy wrath. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. (Ps. vi, 2, 3.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that it is said that the voice of this thunder will be in a wheel, and this because it will fill all the immensity of eternity. Eternity shall never have an end, since after millions and millions of centuries have passed away there will remain yet more. The wheel of eternity, whether for good or for ill, will ever continue to revolve.

APPLICATION:  What would become of you should you come to be lost? Thou shalt be destroyed for ever. (Jer. Li, 26.) Time here goes round and changes: but the condition of him who will no longer have the time to do good will never change. Endeavour therefore to make all safe for yourself by doing good now whilst still you have the time.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  I had in my mind the eternal years. (Ps. lxxvi, 6.)

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