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THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE TEN LEPERS

(Read Luke  xvii, 11-19.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that to turn to God for help in public or private calamities is a thing common to all men. But these lepers, who had recourse to Jesus in order to be cleansed, show you the way in which you ought to go to God in order to obtain the graces you ask for. They stood a long way off, deeming themselves unworthy to approach Him because of their loathsome disease. They lifted up their voices, showing thereby a great desire to be healed. Master, have mercy on us, and thus they made their supplication with faith together with resignation.

APPLICATION: You should do likewise when you beg the help of God in your necessities. You must acknowledge that you are unworthy to appear in the divine presence, a leper as you are, infected by so many sins. You should show your intense desire to be healed by fervent and constant prayers, and with perfect confidence resign yourself to the good pleasure of God. If your prayers to God are accompanied by real humility, a lively desire, and perfect confidence and resignation, you will obtain a favourable response.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Do with me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake, for thy mercy is sweet. Do thou deliver me. For I am poor and needy. (Ps. cviii, 21-22.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that these ten lepers obtained the grace they asked of Jesus, of being cleansed from their leprosy, and this in the act of going to the priests as they had been commanded to do. Our Lord would hereby teach you, that in order to obtain from God what you ask, you must do what He commands you. The petitions which you present to God will certainly be heard if your actions correspond with your prayers.

APPLICATION: By the very act of praying to God, you acknowledge Him as supreme Lord and Giver of all good, and declare that you are dependent upon Him for everything. But if in your actions you obey Him not and desire to go your own way, you contradict your prayers by your actions and so render your supplications less efficacious.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I cried unto thee, O Lord, and said: thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living. (Ps. cxli, 6.) 

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that of the ten lepers only one, who was a Samaritan, returned to give thanks to God for the benefit he had received. Were not ten made clean, and where are the nine? Thus Jesus Christ gives us to see how much more anxious we are to go to God in our necessities, than to show ourselves grateful afterwards for having been aided and delivered in them.

APPLICATION: For how many benefits are you not indebted to God? And how little gratitude perhaps have you shown Him hitherto! Gratitude moreover opens the channels for the reception of new and greater gifts. Therefore this Samaritan who went back with a loud voice glorifying God, giving thanks, obtained the health of his soul besides the health of his body. Thy faith hath made thee whole. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Give glory to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever. (Ps. cv, 1.) 

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MONDAY AFTER THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ DEATH

Lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven. (Matt. vi, 20.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how great is the misery of him, who has placed all his peace in the good things of this earth, in its honours, pleasures, riches. He cannot think of death. He cannot think of that for which alone life was given him, the preparation for that passage on which depends a whole eternity of reward or of punishment. And observe that in Holy Writ it is not the expectation, but the remembrance, of death that is said to be bitter to such a man: O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee! (Ecclus, xli, 1.) For such men never expect it and never prepare themselves for it. If they hear, or see under their very eyes the death, now of a friend, now of a fellow-citizen, now of a relative, great is the anguish that fills them. Immediately they think out some reason, by which they promise themselves not to die, at least of that sickness, or in that way.

APPLICATION: Deplore the misery of so great a part of mankind, and strive to avoid it yourself.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Remember what my substance is, for hast thou made all the children of men in vain? Who is the man that shall live and shall not see death? (Ps. lxxxviii, 48.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY the intense bitterness men so unprepared will feel when death separates them not only from their bodies, but from all those good things that they loved even as much as their bodies, and far more than they loved their souls. Then indeed those miserable people will cry out: Doth bitter death separate in this manner? (1 Kings xv, 32.) They will reply each time: Yes, even so: in this manner it separates from all the pleasures of this world: it separates from friends, from relatives, from country: it separates from honours, dignities and riches.

APPLICATION: Oh how much better would those unhappy ones have done to have separated themselves voluntarily beforehand little by little, and that with merit, from those things, from which at last they will be torn forcibly by death to their great sorrow.

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

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY how you are bound to thank God, if He has given you the grace of detachment in heart and spirit from these goods of earth now before your death. The good things of the earth the world imagines it cannot subsist without, and therefore it cannot cease from loving them. But he who has proved that it is possible so to live, and even to live contentedly, oh how much more easily then he separates himself from them.

APPLICATION: If you desire that death should not bring you sorrow, act now in such a manner that you may have nothing which it shall take you from you against your will. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Consider, and hear me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes that I may never sleep in death. (Ps. xii, 4.)  

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TUESDAY AFTER THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ FORGIVENESS OF ENEMIES

Love your enemies. (Matt. v, 44.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that this precept of loving one’s enemy is in itself difficult because self-love and human nature incline to the contrary. But in reality it is not difficult as it might appear, because He Who gave this precept gives together with the precept the grace to fulfil it, and grace gives strength to triumph over nature and self-love: I can do all things in him who strengthens me. (Phil. iv, 13.)

APPLICATION: Reflect how many have by the help of grace conquered themselves, even so far as to shed their blood for love of Jesus. And cannot you by the help of grace attain to that degree of self- conquest, that will enable you to forgive your enemy? 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou art, O God, my strength. (Ps. xlii, 2.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that by this precept Christ does not demand that you love the evil will of your enemy. He wishes only that you love him as your neighbour, as a creature and the image of God, and as a redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, Who for you His enemy went so far as to give His blood and His life. This precept of loving your enemy obliges you to love him even as the rest of mankind, not excluding him from the ordinary benevolence you show towards your neighbour. Thus then you cannot lawfully deny your enemy those marks of kindness, which you ordinarily show towards those whom you live.

APPLICATION: Observe well what your disposition and practice is, in showing these acts of common benevolence towards those who dislike you, or do you wrong. Do not say that you pardon them because this is not enough, if you do not show it by external acts. Our Lord says: By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for another. (John xiii, 35.) Thus it is necessary that you manifest to all that you love and do not hate your enemy.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Blessed is he that considereth the needy and the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the evil day. (Ps. xl, 2.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY  that Christ demands by this precept that you should not only love your enemy but also that you should do him good, so that you be not like the sterile fig tree which He cursed. There are two ways in which you must do him good, the one negative, by not offending him: The love of our neighbour worketh no evil. (Rom. xiii, 10), the other positive: Do good to them that hate you. (Matt. v, 44.)  The former is a precept, the latter of counsel.

APPLICATION: No benefit you could render your neighbour will bring so much merit and consolation to your soul, as the good you do your enemy for the love of Jesus. For this is the most certain sign that you are a child of God: that you may be children of your Father; and it is at the same time the most sure sign that you truly love our Blessed Lord. The stronger the fire the further it extends its flames; and the love of God is so much the more robust, the more it is extended by the grace of God to benefit also your enemy.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: God is merciful and will forgive their sins; and will not destroy them. (Ps. lxxvii, 38.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE BENIGNITY OF GOD

One is good, God. (Matt. xix, 17.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how advantageous it is for you to realise how patiently God bears with your many sins, defects, and negligences. He bears with you, not because He cannot abandon you and let you utterly fall away, but because He will not do so. He awaits, that in the meantime you may repent and amend.

APPLICATION:   Observe that the goodness of God not only invites you to amend and do penance, but as far as depends on Him, urges you, stimulates and forces you with His lights and inspirations. How then can you resist, when you consider that a God of so great majesty tolerates all the contempt that you show, only in order that you, vile creature that you are, may not perish? Is not such marvellous goodness enough to move a heart of stone? Therefore the Lord waiteth that He may have mercy on you. (Isa. xxx, 18.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My eyes have sent forth springs of water: because they have not kept thy law. (Ps. cxviii, 136.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY  the great evil that you do, in presuming to offend your God the more freely because He has shown Himself so benign in bearing with you. Have you in mind to be more wicked because He has been so good to you? It was for you that He clothed Himself in human flesh; for you He poured forth so much sweat and so much blood, dying on the cross for you.

APPLICATION: Consider well what a heartless return is this of yours! And if you carefully weigh it, such it really is, because the goodness of God does not move you to penitence, but rather to impenitence, by multiplying your sins. Knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance? (Rom. ii, 4.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify they name for ever. For great is thy mercy towards me, and thou hast delivered my soul out of the lower hell. (Ps. lxxxv, 12-13.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the benignity of God is a favour given quite freely, and that consequently it may abandon you when it pleases Him. How is it possible that you do not tremble to think of this? What would become of you did He abandon you, as you too truly deserve? Do you imaging that the benignity of God has no limits within which to be contained? Has it not number and time prescribed by His inscrutable ordinance?

APPLICATION: And who can say whether that number and that time be not already completed for you! The divine mercy is in itself unlimited, but it is limited in its acts and in its effects. Do not then any longer abuse the goodness of God with which until now He has borne with you. Endeavour without delay to avail yourself of it in order to compensate for the sins you have committed, and to amend your life.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Turn not away thy face from me, lest I be like them that go down into the pit. (Ps. cxlii, 7.)

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THURSDAY AFTER THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL

Fear him that can destroy both soul and body into hell. (Matt. x, 28.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the fire of hell is called by the Prophet a devouring fire (Isa. xxxiii, 14.) not because it consumes and destroys the damned, but to show forth its action and its fierceness. Our fire consumes little and little, but do not devour at once. The fire of hell does all in one instant; and with that same fierceness with which it first acts upon the damned it will act eternally, without ever remitting any degree of its activity. What then will be the lot of the poor wretch who is condemned to have his place in such fire for ever? Were you condemned to remain in a prison, the walls, the floor, the roof of which were all on fire, and where there was no air to breathe except that of fire, hoe would it be with you? What will it be then to have a still more dreadful fire, one that penetrates internally even to our innermost being?

APPLICATION: Will you then for a fleeting vapour of glory, for a caprice, for a momentary pleasure, put yourself in danger of going for ever and ever to that most terrible dwelling place?

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

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY what horror would be yours, if you were condemned to love enclosed within a den of fierce beasts. Think then what it will be to dwell in hell confined in a similar way. Furthermore every damned soul will be to the other as it were a fiery wild beast seeking to devour them.

APPLICATION: Remember now that of you go to hell you will not be alone. Does it however seem to be any solace to have companions such as these? 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: They are laid in hell like sheep; death feed upon them. (Ps. xlviii, 15.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that this fire is called devouring, because it possesses only the torment of fire without its splendour. The voice of the Lord divideth the flame of fire. (Ps. xxviii, 7.) God has ordained that its flame should have as it were a divided power of burning and of tormenting, but not of lighting or illuminating.

APPLICATION: Think then how it would be, if it were your lot to remain eternally burning in that profound darkness. Imaging rightly that there are many perhaps like unto yourself buried in the lowest depths of this abyss! Ponder deeply, make practical resolutions of amendment, begin at once to put them into execution. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The wicked shall be turned into hell. (Ps. ix, 18.) 

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FRIDAY AFTER THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE CHARITY OF CHRIST

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

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that it was by dying a most painful death for you upon the tree of the cross, that Christ rescued you from the slavery of hell, though He could have done so by a single tear or a sigh. He wished, however, to win your heart so securely, that you would be unable to live any more for yourself, but would be forced of sheer necessity to live for Him alone. This is what the Apostle would signify by saying: The charity of Christ presseth all. For it urged him to labour incessantly in the service of our Lord, and to spend his whole being in winning souls that are so dear to Him.

APPLICATION: How far do you experience this desire within yourself? If you do not feel it, you should at least strive to obtain it, as your name of follower of Jesus Christ demands.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: He is my God and my Saviour; he is my protector; I shall be moved no more. (Ps. lxi, 3.)

 

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the Apostle does not say, the death of Christ presseth us, but The charity. For if all that Christ suffered for you should greatly move you, much more so should that love which made Him endure His sufferings for you. All that Christ deigned to suffer for your salvation is as nothing in comparison to what He would have suffered had such been the will of His Father. All those rivers of affliction and opprobrium were insufficient to quench the thirst of His unquenchable love.

APPLICATION: If then all that Christ suffered for you should move you to live only for Him, the love with which He bore these sufferings should even compel you to do so. For the suffering had their end, but His love was unending. He bears towards you also to-day, whole and entire, all that love which made Him descend from the bosom of the divine Father, to clothe Himself in human flesh, to ascend the cross, and sacrifice Himself for your redemption. Jesus Christ yesterday and to-day.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (Ps. cii, 2.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY what it is to live for yourself. It is to live according to your own will, for your own glory, and at your ease. This should have all come to an end in you, seeing that Christ has gone so far as to die for you with so much love. Since then He has given His own life of infinite value for you, what great thing is it that you should give your life for Him, you who are worthless and worthy even of death?

APPLICATION: If, however, you cannot have the glory of dying for Him, you are bound at least to live for Him. You must live to love Him, live in order to seek that He be loved by others, and to promote to your utmost His divine glory. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Let all that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee; and let such as love thy salvation say always: The Lord be magnified. (Ps. xxxix, 37.)

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SATURDAY AFTER THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ HUMILITY

He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke xiv, 11.)

 

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that, inn order to find matter for humiliation, you have no need to seek outside of yourself; it is within you. Thy humiliation shall be in the midst of thee (Mich. Vi, 14.) Were you to look outside of yourself it might be easy to become proud, because possibly you might see yourself to a certain extent set in authority, praised, appreciated and loved by others. But such will not be the case if you look well within yourself.

APPLICATION: It will suffice if you consider seriously what in fact you were in truth, what you are, and what you will be. Each of these three considerations will be enough to humble you. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I am poor and needy and my heart is troubled within me. (Ps. cviii, 22.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY the sins of your past life. To what a miserable condition were you reduced when you fell into the power of Satan, and then became his vile slave, deserving those flames prepared for him and you in hell? Now, God grant that by His infinite mercy you are out of that state. Reflect, however, how ungrateful you have shown yourself to Him Who rescued you from it.

APPLICATION: Consider then how far you correspond to the mercy and love of God. See to what extent you are still a slave to your disorderly affections, how vain, unmortified, impatient and inclined to commit the worst possible sins. How will it go in the future with your unstable and weak will? The pillars of the firmament have fallen; what will then become of you who are such a frail reed? May not a strong temptation be perhaps enough to overthrow you? And once overcome, who knows if you will ever be able to rise again, or how you will die? Is not all this enough to humble you?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord preserves the little ones; I was humbled and he delivered me. (Ps. cxiv, 6.)

 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that if in you there is anything of good, it has not its source within or from you. It all comes to you from above, for the arid soil of your soul is not capable of itself of producing anything but thorns. There in the midst of thee you have nothing but matter for self-humiliation. But this humility must not be merely speculative; it must also be practical.

APPLICATION: Within your heart therefore entertain a really low esteem of yourself. Attach no importance whatever to external praise that may be given you, but refer it all at once to God in thought, in affection, and in word. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I am needy and poor; O God help me. Thou art my helper and my deliverer: O Lord, make no delay. (Ps. lxix, 6.)

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