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THE TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE LAST JUDGMENT

(Read Matt. xxiv, 15-35.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that, at the end of each one’s life, God passes the particular judgment on his individual soul, and that at the end of the world He will hold the universal judgment of all men. Then will the glory and the reward of the elect be increased, as will also the confusion and punishment of the reprobate. Then will appear the justification of divine Providence which is now so utterly misunderstood. The good are seen to be oppressed while the wicked are in prosperity; the virtuous are despoiled of this world’s good’s and the bad are often enriched. Then however these dispositions of divine Providence, which now seem to us so unequal, will be seem to have been all ordered with supreme wisdom for the divine glory and for our good.

APPLICATION: When at times then you may seem to see something, which to your little understanding appears ill regulated in the government or order of the world, recall to mind the warning of the Apostle: Judge not before the time, until the Lord come. (1 Cor. iv, 5.) Only on that day will the wise ordering of Providence be perfectly apparent in all that may now seem disorder, just as a piece of tapestry, which if seen on the reverse side seems to be a confusion of ill-ordered stitches and texture, proves, when seen on its right side, to be a most artistically arranged piece of work.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: He shall judge the world with equity, and he shall judge the people in justice. (Ps. ix, 9.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that when man is near to death his eyes become dimmed, his complexion pale, and his senses and his strength are all seen to fail. So likewise at the end of the world all the elements will be cast into confusion. The sun, the moon and the stars will be eclipsed; the earth will be shaken by horrible earthquakes; a most terrible fire will destroy woods, houses, cities and all that is found upon earth. Then will be seen clearly what was the worth of that earth that was so passionately beloved of men. All its pomp and all its riches will in a moment be devoured by fire.

APPLICATION: How you should thank God that He has thus beforehand made you know the true value of the goods of this world. All will be so shortly and so suddenly reduced to ashes and mere nothingness!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for ever and ever; the judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves. (Ps. xviii, 10.) 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that, when the earth shall be destroyed by the devouring fire, the trumpet shall sound from the four quarters of the world and summon the dead from their graves to judgment: Arise ye dead, and come to the judgment. In a moment by the ministry of angels the bodies of the dead shall be seen, re-united to their souls and assembled in the valley of Jehosaphat. At that gathering there will be no distinction between the rich and the poor, noble and plebeian, monarch and vassal, but only between the good and the bad. Then will it be clear that the only true good is the goodness of virtue, and the only real evil that of sin. Consider, too, the great difference that will be seen between the reprobate and the elect. The souls of the elect will be re-united to bodies more resplendent than the sun, adorned with the four gifts of glory, and raised aloft so as to be nearer the throne of the Most High; the souls of the reprobate will be re-united to loathsome bodies resembling firebrands of hell and will remain in the company of the devils.

APPLICATION: One of these two lots must be yours. Choose now which it is to be. For if now in this world you strive so eagerly to attain an honourable position, and if it si displeases you to be ignored, or to have a sickly or an ill-disposed body, with how much more ardour, then, should you strive in that day of judgment to have a position of true honour and a glorious body. The good and glory of that day will be never-ending.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Let death come upon them: and let them go down alive into hell. But I have cried: and the Lord will save me. (Ps. liv, 16, 17.)

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MONDAY AFTER THE TWENTY- FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ OUR LORD COMING AS JUDGE

They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven. (Matt. xxiv, 30.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that, with very different sentiments, the elect and the reprobate will await the coming of the Son of God. He will descend from heaven with great majesty, accompanied by all the angels in visible form, who in great state will bear the standard of the cross. At the sight of the cross, says the Gospel, all the elect and the reprobate will weep, the elect from joy that they had embraced it in this life with so much profit to themselves, the reprobate because to their loss they had rejected it.

APPLICATION: In the state which you now find yourself, were you to see it in the great valley of Jehosaphat this sign of the cross descending from heaven as the sign of Christ the judge, would you weep for joy or from sorrow and fear? You also must be present at this scene one day. Therefore strive now to be among the lovers of the cross, and not among those who hate it, whose end is destruction. (Philipp. Iii, 19.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  My soul hath coveted to long for thy justifications, at all times. (Ps. cxviii, 20.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that by the cross will be seen the Judge, seated on a throne of clouds with great majesty in His divine nature, and with such great glory in His glorified Humanity, that neither sun, moon, nor stars shall appear bright in His presence. At this sight what will be the terror and the fear of the reprobate! What a boon it would be for them on that day to be buried under the ruins of the mountains, that so they might not see the face of Jesus, Whom they have so grievously offended, turned away from them in disdain!

APPLICATION: On the right of the Judge, will stand that day the Most Blessed Virgin, she who has ever been the advocate of sinners; on the left, the Apostles like assessors, true to their Lord, and with them all the apostolic followers of Christ who forsaking all things on earth for God, embraced the Evangelical Counsels. Oh how in that day will virtue and the true imitation of Christ be honoured! How unhonoured will vice and the service of the world! 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened. (Ps. cxxxviii, 17.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that on that day the books will be opened, that is, the conscience of all will be made manifest. Each one will most clearly see, not only every good and bad deed done by himself in this life, but also those done by others. Thus before the eyes of men and of angels will be laid bare all your works, all your thoughts, all your words; the good that they may be approved, the evil that they may be condemned. This good and evil will not be estimated as the world now reckons it, but precisely as it is estimated in the divine mind. What confusion it will then be for the wicked to have all their most secret sins ma infested to all in that assembly! What honour for the good to see even their most secret virtues proclaimed! And even their sins, that have been cleansed away by contrition and penance, will cause, not shame but consolation.

APPLICATION: Now you fear so much the judgment of men about your life and your actions. How is it that you think so little of the judgment that will hereafter be made in the valley of Jehosaphat? Think of this often and seriously, so that the remembrance of it may conquer all human respect. Strive to do only that which will bring you honour at the last day, and fly all that will cause you any confusion then.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Thy knowledge has become wonderful unto me: it is high, and I cannot reach unto it. (Ps. cxxxviii, 6.)

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TUESDAY AFTER THE TWENTY- FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ SENTENCE AT THE LAST JUDGMENT

Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom … Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. (Matt. xxv, 34, 41.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the judgment that will be pronounced, and firstly, that in favour of the elect. To them with a loving and joyous mien He will say: Come, ye blessed of my Father, from your labours to rest, from weeping to rejoicing, from warfare to a crown. Possess you the kingdom, showing by this word “possess” the perpetuity and security with which they shall enjoy the blessed and glory for all ages. He that shall overcome shall possess these things. (Apoc. xxi, 7.) The beatific vision is called the kingdom, to denote the greatness and magnificence that the just will have in possessing every good gift of God.

APPLICATION: . Think here of the feelings of joy in the hearts of the elect as they hear themselves called to the possession of such a kingdom, and an eternal one, given them in justice for those short and light afflictions, which they suffered in serving faithfully their Lord and God. You too shall participate in this joy, if you now share in their sufferings. 

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 SECONDLY how the Judge, when He has pronounced the judgment in favour of the elect, will turn to the reprobate. In tones of indignation He will utter their sentence of condemnation: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. And what misery, besides being exiles, to burn in fire for ever! Depart from me into everlasting fire.  

APPLICATION: And all this will be most just. For the wicked in sinning have done two evils: on by impiously turning their backs upon God, the other in opening their hearts to creatures in open defiance of God. Therefore, according to their hatred of God, will their punishment be meted out to them: He shall not see the glory of God. (Isa. xxvi, 10.) The pain of sense too will correspond to their sinful love of creatures here: They shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Apoc. xx, 10.) Resolve to escape at any cost so dreadful a sentence.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  The sorrows of death surrounded me: and the torrents of iniquity troubled me. The sorrows of hell encompassed me. (Ps. xvii, 5-6)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that Christ will summon the elect to His kingdom, and cast away the reprobate into their eternal prison. Thus will the elect be more honoured in the presence of their adversaries, who on earth had persecuted and despised them, and the reprobate the more tormented at seeing the glory of the elect and realising their own misery. The first go to their kingdom in company with Christ and His angels; the second are swallowed up by the earth and buried in hell: These shall go into everlasting punishment; but the just into life everlasting. (Matt. xxv, 46.)

APPLICATION: Think of these two lots! Which shall be yours on the day of judgment, when one of them must be yours? You must be on the right hand or the left: you must either reign and rejoice eternally in heaven, or weep and lament for ever in hell. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. (Ps. xxvi, 4.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE TWENTY- FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ ALWAYS WATCHING

Take ye heed, watch and pray. For you know not when the time is. (Mark xiii, 33.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that in these three things, take heed, watch, and [ray, is comprised all that is necessary that you may be prepared for death and save your soul. The first is that you should take heed. Ponder seriously on the shortness of this present life which passes away, the uncertainty of death which comes swiftly, and the eternity of the future life which must be yours. Observe how quickly these twenty, thirty, or forty years of your life have already passed. Still more quickly will fly the few remaining years you may have to live.

APPLICATION: Who can assure you of a few years, or even of a few days, remaining to you? Death may come and take you away when you least expect it! Think you many daily die in the flower of their life. How many people in full health die unexpectedly.  Take ye heed, for you know not when the time is, for there is no single hour which may not very easily be your last. And yet you live as if death and eternity were far away. Think rather of eternity and of death: and think of them often. Do not act as if Christ were deceiving you, when He says to you: You know not when.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  In the morning he shall flourish and pass away: in the evening he shall fall, grow dry and wither. (Ps. lxxxix, 6.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY yet another thing which is necessary. It is that you should watch. This has two meanings. The first is that you should not thoughtlessly and carelessly misuse the time, which is so precious, that has been given you to gain treasures for eternity. Watch, for there is no time to lose. Love not sleep lest poverty oppress thee. (Prov. xx, 13.) The other meaning is that you musty watch lest, by living in sloth and idleness, you lose guard and command over yourself, and become a prey to the insults of your enemies and your unregulated appetites. 

APPLICATION. Therefore stand awake and on the watch against your internal and external adversaries. For they will cause your death when you least expect it. Awake, by listening to the voice of God Who calls you to live a better life, fir He may never call you again, but leave you to sleep on in your carelessness and in your sins.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Behold thou hast made my days measurable: and my substance is as nothing before thee. (Ps. xxxviii, 6.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY the third thing that is needed, which is to pray. This means that you must not cease to command yourself to God. You cannot be always actually engaged in vocal or mental prayer, but you must above all things never neglect your prayer at the appointed times. You should also during the day often lift your heart to God, and make known to him the desire and need you have of His divine assistance. The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor. (Ps. x, 17.)

APPLICATION: The shorter these affections and desires are, the more often repeated ought they to be. Think also often of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, which is frequently so close to you. And above all think of death. For the fear of death will make you command yourself to God with all your heart both earnestly and frequently.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Hearken to my voice, when I cry to thee. Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight. (Ps. cxl, 1, 2.)

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THURSDAY AFTER THE TWENTY- FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ FINAL PERSEVERANCE

He that shall preserve to the end, he shall be saved. (Matt. x, 22.)

concomitant ~ naturally accompanying or associated.

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that your salvation is a work that belongs wholly to God, whist at the same time it belongs wholly to you. Therefore you must co-operate incessantly and with great solicitude; with fear and trembling work out your salvation. (Phil. ii, 12.)  For until the very end you will be uncertain whether you will secure it or not, because of the dangers which surround you. Beneath you is hell, from whence proceed those evil spirits that assault you; about you is the deceitful world  full of snares; and within you are your passions and evil inclinations.

APPLICATION:   In the midst of so many perils, how can you do otherwise than tremble and that with exceeding fear and dread? For it concerns a matter you must make sure of, if you wish to avoid a loss that will be eternal.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The fear of death is fallen upon me, trembling is come upon me. (Ps. liv, 5,6.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY in what this fear should principally consist. In keeping yourself humble, because, in spite of all your good works, you need always that God should work in you with the help of His efficacious grace. He gives you these of His bounty and not of necessity, and He may cease to give them to you when He wills. See then how it behoves you to fear and tremble in His presence, recognising that whatever good you do comes from God. It is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish. (Ibid.)

APPLICATION: With preventing grace God moves you to good, illuminating your intellect and inflaming your will: He worketh in you to will. By concomitant grace step by step He accompanies you: He worketh in you to accomplish. This being so, realise that you live in continual need of His efficacious grace, and that He of Himself is not obliged to give you this.

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.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that, although God can cease whenever He wills to give you His efficacious grace to act, yet never will He fail to give it to you, if you yourself fail not to have recourse to Him and to commend yourself to Him. Therefore this He desires to bring about by your fear, that you should always abide close to Him to save you from danger. He gives a first grace to those who do not ask it, but, according to St. Augustine, after the first grace He does not give any other except to those who ask for it.

APPLICATION: God gave you a great grace of the Catholic faith without you asking Him. He will not give you the grace to persevere holily in it to the end, if you do not commend yourself to Him and beg Him earnestly and perseveringly. God says: I will pour upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayers. (Zac. Xii, 10.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:   I have cried to thee, for thou, O God, hast heard me: O incline thy ear unto me, and hear my words. (Ps. xvi, 6.)

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FRIDAY AFTER THE TWENTY- FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ FIDELITY

You are they who have continued with me in my temptations. (Luke xxii, 28.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that in the same way as the life of man is made up of days and nights, so is it also made up of prosperous and of adverse seasons. Sometimes the prosperous will prevail, and sometimes the adverse, just as sometimes it is night and sometimes day. For all are from God: Thine is day and Thine is the night. (Ps. lxxiii, 16.) If you are faithful on both times you will then receive the just reward. In order to be faithful in the night of adversity you must be content to wait patiently for God. Maintain your confidence and do not neglect your usual exercise of regular observance and of devotion. Expect the Lord (Ps. xxxvi, 34), for adversity will have its end, and very soon He will return and visit you with increased love and will console you. In order to be faithful in prosperity strive to maintain moderation in all things. Do not do as the rivers which, when they are in flood, burst forth from their beds and rush out of their course: Keep His way. (Ibid)

APPLICATION: You will be blessed if you know how to be faithful to God in whatever state you may be, whether prosperous or adverse. He will exalt you from earth to heaven. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Expect the Lord and keep his way: and he will exalt thee to inherit the land. (Ps. xxxvi, 34.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that the way God will exalt you is by giving you possession of heaven, the true land of promise and your true inheritance. But do not think to obtain this heritage without effort, without hard labour, and without meriting it. In order to obtain the inheritance of your living father you must obey him, honour him, and conduct yourself as a good son: and, as paradise is the heritage from a Father Who never dies, it behoves you all the more to secure it by due homage rendered to Him, and by fidelity when you are tried, whether by adversity or by prosperous circumstances.

APPLICATION:   Take heed then lest God may take this heritage from you, as He took the land of promise from those children of Israel, who stood not faithful top Him in the trial to which He put them in the wilderness.

AAFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: They that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the land. (Ps. xxxvi, 9.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY how God will exalt you, if indeed you are worthy of it. This you will understand at the great day of judgment, when the sinners shall perish. (Ibid.) For at the same time as you see the justice shown in condemning the sinful, you will know the mercy that is shown to you in saving you. You will see on that day the miserable lot and the confusion of the reprobate, condemned both body and soul to be buried in hell, and on the other hand, the blessings and honours of the elect raised to reign with Christ. Oh, how you will then realise the immense difference between these two lots.

APPLICATION: And how much you will then bless God. In calling you to His holy faith and the Catholic Church, He has given you grace to be faithful to Him, and to enter into the number of those who serve Him day and night (Apoc.vii, 15), as well in the day of prosperity as in the night of adversity. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Come in before his presence with exceeding great joy. (Ps. xcix, 2.)

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SATURDAY AFTER THE TWENTY- FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ HELP IN TRIBULATION

Lord save us, we perish. (Matt. viii, 25.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the hour of death is a time of special tribulation, in which you will have the very greatest need of help. Death is in truth a great tribulation for both soul and body. For the body, its sufferings give it often not one moment of repose or respite. It is a still greater trial to the soul from the fear of going out of this world, of leaving a body that is dear to it, and perhaps too from remorse of conscience, knowing that it must render a most strict account of all its life and of all its sins.

APPLICATION: Oh what a tribulation may not all this be to you in the last hour, on which depends an eternity of punishment or of reward? Pray earnestly to God everyday of your life that He may not stand afar off from you at that last dread hour. Lord save us, or else we perish!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Depart from me. For tribulation is very near: for there is none to help me. (Ps. xxi, 12.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that this tribulation accompanying death is nearer to you than you think. How many accidents might destroy you at any moment! The ten, twenty or thirty years that you imagine you may yet live, will they not fly away swiftly? Think of the years that are past, and see how quickly they have gone.

APPLICATION: Therefore lose no time. Put all things in order. Be ready for the great journey! Furnish thyself to go into captivity. (Jer. xlvi, 19.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The troubles of my heart are multiplied: deliver me from my necessities. (Ps. xxiv, 17.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the tribulation of death is at hand and that it will not bring you any help for you. If God is not there to help, woe be to you! Who is there who, at that dread hour of death, can ward off from you the assaults and the temptations of the devil so that you become not an unhappy prey to his fury? Who is there that can give you sufficient help to overcome the difficulties that you will then encounter, and to make safely the great passage to eternity? How necessary then is it that you should now stand well with your Lord. For it is He alone Who can help you in the hour of death!

APPLICATION: Take, then, often into your hands that crucifix holding which you hope to die, and kissing it devoutly promise to be always faithful to Jesus Christ. At the same time beg Him with hot tears not to leave thee nor forsake thee. (Hebr. xiii, 5.) For if in that hour Jesus be your friend, you will have no need of any other. 

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

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