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THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ TRIBUTE TO CEASAR

(Read Matt. xxii, 15-22.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the admirable answer given us by our Blessed Lord to the malicious question of the Pharisees, as to whether it was right to pay tribute to Caesar or not. They wished to make Him hated either by the Romans by saying, No! or by the Jews if He replied in the affirmative. Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s: and to God the things that are God’s. (Matt. xxii, 21.)

APPLICATION: This is what all the faithful servants of God should do, i.e., leave to the world the things of the world. To the world belong honours, pomp, riches. Such things then you should leave to those who are in the world and who are of the world. Consider seriously and see id there be in your heart any inordinate affections for these things. Do you aim at withdrawing your heart from worldly things, or do you try, as far as you can, to procure honours or riches or ease for yourself? Be ashamed of having lived a life contrary to the maxims of Christ our Lord.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Shall not my soul be subject to God? For from him is my salvation. (Ps. lxi, 2.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that it is not enough to leave to the world that which is the world’s, but that you must also give to God what is God’s. You belong to God by many titles, and especially those of creation and of redemption. By the right of creation, for God made you out of nothing and gave you a perfect body, together with an immortal soul made to the image of God. By the title of your redemption, for He bought you back from the slavery of sin, and from the slavery of the devil, at the cost of His own most precious Blood, and of His own life.

APPLICATION: Not withstanding so many favours as these, how many times have you not left the service of God in order to follow your own disorderly inclinations? How often have you used your faculties and your talents to please creatures by displeasing your Creator?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Be thou, O my soul, subject to God: For he is my God and my Saviour: he is my helper, I shall not be moved. (Ps. lxi, 6,7.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY in what this rendering to God the things that are God’s consist. It consists in seriously persuading yourself that all you have and all you are belongs to God. Your body, soul, senses and faculties all belong to God, Who have them to you; and to God you must render them by using them in His service and to His glory. Powers of mind and body, health and strength, and all the other gifts of nature, are all God’s, as well as all the good that you can achieve by means of them. Render it then all to God by recognising it as His gift alone, and attributing to Him alone the glory. From God especially came the gift of grace, for of your own and of yourself you have nothing but sin.

APPLICATION: Learn then once for all to recognise all as coming from God, and thank Him for it. Confess that in yourself there is nothing of Good, that by yourself you are only able to do what is evil. If you are faithful in rendering to God all that He has given you, He will be ever still more liberal in enriching you with His gifts. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I am thy servant: give me understanding. (Ps. cxviii, 125.)

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MONDAY AFTER THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE DIVINE JUDGMENT

They shall render account for it in the day of judgment. (Matt. xii, 36.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how the saints have all feared the divine judgment. St. Hilary after seventy years of faithful, service to God trembled and was afraid. If then you do not fear it, you need to fear it all the more, because you are far from being like the saints. And first you should fear this judgment on account of yourself. For if there are none, even among the saints, who can say: My heart is clean (Prov. xx, 9), how can you say it, who more than once perhaps have by sin lost your innocence and baptismal grace, and who now cannot be certain of having regained it by due repentance? And if you have recovered it, who can assure you that you will not lose it again? Do you not hear what holy Job says: Behold, among his saints none is unchangeable. (Job xv, 15.)

APPLICATION: If even among the holy there have been terrible falls, what should you not fear for yourself? All your life you have so badly corresponded to the lights, the invitations, and the inspirations of God. You who have been so negligent in good, so ungrateful for benefits received, and who daily commit so many venial sins. Now see whether you yourself have not reason to fear the divine judgment.

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

CONSIDER SECONDLY that you should fear this judgment still more on account of the judge. In Himself He is perfect holiness, and supremely abhors every stain of sin. He most thoroughly searches it out, and punishes it most severely. I am he that searcheth the reins and the heart. (Apoc. ii, 23.) How much you should guard against all those evil movements of the heart! These movements are so insidious and so hard for you to judge of. And yet it is of these that our Lord will make the most solemn examination: He searcheth the reins and the heart, leaving not the least atom of evil unpunished.

APPLICATION: Bear always in mind then that, before the divine Presence, the sins and imperfection of even the holiest shall be discovered. The heavens are not pure in his sight. (Job xv, 15.) O how much then it is to your advantage to keep yourself far from the danger of such a judgment!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:Judge me, O Lord, according to my justice, O God who searchest the hearts and reins. (Ps. vii, 10-11.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY what is the true and only way of escaping this most terrible judgment of God. It is by confessing now that you are ashamed of your conduct, by declaring to Him now beforehand that you are guilty. If you do this God will not enter into judgment with you, because you are already judged by yourself. Such is the benefit that accrues to him who from his heart confesses himself to be guilty, that he is thereupon absolved. If we would judge ourselves we shall not be judged. (1 Cor. xi, 31.)

APPLICATION: Strive to keep keenly alive before the eyes of your soul the knowledge of your own misery. Recall it often before God. Acknowledge it before Him, saying with a contrite heart: Enter not into judgment with thy servant. (Ps. cxlii, 2.) You will see how salutary this will be to you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves. (Ps. xviii, 10.)

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TUESDAY AFTER THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ CHRIST’S REWARD TO THE FAITHFUL

You are they who have continued with me in my temptations; and I dispose to you, as my Father has disposed to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table. (Luke xxii, 28-30.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that Christ promised the Apostles that in heaven He would refresh them at His table, not indeed that in heaven they eat or drink, for the kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking (Rom. xiv, 17), but, as the Apostles were still unlearned in spiritual things, He would have them understand, under the figure of a meal, that they should hereafter rejoice in a repast of most joyous delights. Moreover, that they would have the glory of being ever with Him at table, i.e., of being as near as possible to Him in His kingdom. At the universal judgment also, the Apostles would sit on thrones of power like unto His, judging with Him the human race. For He intended to dispose to them His kingdom, as His divine Father had disposed to Him a kingdom: and I dispose to you, as my Father has disposed to me, a kingdom (Luke xxii, 29), with the same love, and conferring the same intense happiness of seeing God.

APPLICATION: What think you of this recompense, this glory, this kingdom given by Christ to His Apostles? You too will partake of the same, but exactly in the measure in which you shall have been faithful to Christ in life.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I shall be satisfied when the glory shall appear. (Ps. xvi, 15.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY the reason why the Blessed Redeemer willed to raise the Apostles to so sublime a position. It was because they had been faithful to Him in His afflictions: You are they who have continued with me in my temptations. Admire here the liberality of so great a Lord towards His servants. Because the Apostles had shown faithfulness to Him in His afflictions and sufferings, He would make them, as far as possible, His equals in His heavenly kingdom.

APPLICATION: Do you not then feel anxious to accompany Him and to remain faithful to Him? Wherever He leads with His cross, endeavour to stay near to Him after the example of the Apostles.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord is faithful in all His words: and holy in all his works. (Ps. cxliv, 13.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the holy apostles were in fact faithful to Jesus in His afflictions during those three first years, and yet forsook Him in His sacred Passion. Nevertheless our Lord declared them to have been faithful, because at His Resurrection they would immediately return to Him more faithful even than at first, like sheep that have wandered from their shepherd. For our Lord makes no account of those sins which are truly repented of with tears.

APPLICATION: If, to your shame, you have gone away from Christ by a sinful or a careless life, so little conformable to one who professes to be a follower of Him, do not put off your return: Delay not to be converted to the Lord. (Ecclus. v, 8.) For if in spite of such a departure you repent sincerely from your heart, He will treat you as if you had never abandoned Him.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Turn, O my soul, into thy rest: for the Lord hath been bountiful unto thee. (Ps. cxiv, 7.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ PATIENCE

In your patience you shall possess your souls. (Luke xxi, 19.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the patient man is said by the Wise Man (Prov. xvi, 32.) to be better than the valiant. He who bears patiently the disasters he meets with, is better than him who voluntarily goes forth to seek and meet tribulation. For the former gives proof of more solid virtue. Perhaps you love to suffer by self-inflictions, but, if God sends you some adversity, if you receive some mortification from superiors, or meet with some offence, you resent it at once.

APPLICATION: Realise however that there is far greater merit and virtue in your accepting, with perfect resignation to the will of God, those occasions of suffering that daily come to you unbidden, than in your going in search of them by your own will and caprice. Your own will is easily to be found in sufferings that you choose yourself: but, in those that you bear with patience at another’s will, you exercise great humility and other virtues too.

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

CONSIDER SECONDLY  that in order to attain this patience, it is necessary that you conquer yourself. If you obtain this dominion over your own self, you will not need to envy the conquerors of great cities, nor even those fervent preachers, who move and convert to tears of penance and amendment of life the people of an entire city. For any simple, unlearned soul, whop has attained to the conquest of his passions, is more esteemed of God than is the fervid worker, who has not arrived at subduing his vanity and self-interest, his anger, envy, and similar disorderly appetites which predominate in him.

APPLICATION: See then how important it is that you should seriously set yourself to overcome yourself. Thus you will obtain true patience, which is of far greater value than any strength.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:  Rule thou in the midst of thy enemies. (Ps. cix, 2.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that to make this self-conquest is all the more glorious the more difficult it is. In order to resist and conquer your appetites, you have not, as it were, the control of your entire self, for part of your fight for the victory, and part of you rebels. Moreover your self-love makes you pity yourself, and makes you tender to yourself. For even in the very act of repressing your vices you defend them with a thousand excuses.

APPLICATION: If you wish therefore to conquer your passions and your defects, you must treat them as rebels. But because you can never hope to subdue them entirely, you must weaken them by constant victories, without ever making peace or truce with them. This is the only way to master them. Conquer yourself. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Who can understand sin? From my secret ones cleanse me, O Lord. If they shall have no dominion over me, then shall I be without spot. (Ps. xviii, 13, 14.)

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THURSDAY AFTER THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ REALIZING GOD’S PRESENCE

There hath stood one in the midst of you whom you know not. (John 1, 26.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that that these words were said by St. john the Baptist to the Jews, because Christ was in the very heart of Judea, and yet most of them knew Him not, and those who did know Him paid little heed to Him. The same may happen with regard to yourself. For you have not only your Lord continually with you under the sacramental species, but you have Him also in the interior of your own heart. Yet all the time you know Him not, because you do not heed Him.                                 

APPLICATION: Is it not to your shame that our Lord has been so long within you and that you do not pay attention to Him? You do not attain to even a slight kno0wledge of Him, so that He might say: So long a time have I been with you, and have you not known me? (John xiv, 9.) Therefore strive to realise that your God is present with you, and never lose sight of Him. Would it not be impossible that you should do anything that is displeasing to Him, if you knew that He was present to you? Walk before me, and be perfect. (Gen. xvii, 1.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee for ever and  ever. (Ps. lxxxiii, 5.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that in two ways you must exercise yourself in order to acquire this excellent practice of the presence of God ~ the one by the understanding, the other by the will. With the understanding, apply yourself earnestly to realise by means of a living faith that our Lord dwells within you. You must however at the same time realise that God dwells in you as a king in his kingdom. He dwells there in many ways in His Kingly Person, both by the knowledge He has of all that concerns you, and by the power He exercises over you. He resides within you be His perfect knowledge of you, because He knows and sees everything that goes on within the most hidden recesses of your interior. He resides within you by His power, because He can dispose of you according to His good pleasure.

APPLICATION: If you will reflect seriously on this frequently and bear in mind, you will not so easily lose sight of Him. You will rejoice in the fruits that result from this His divine presence in you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou art thyself my king and my God. (Ps. xliii, 5.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY how you should also exercise yourself with your will. First by frequent and devout affections during the day, affections of love, of thanksgiving, of contrition, and similar ones. Thus you will not leave Him solitary within you. Secondly by often invoking Him that He may direct you in your ways, that He may help you in your temptations, and comfort you in your afflictions. Thus you will show how utterly you are dependent on Him. God is within you, all intent on granting you favours. He longs for nothing more than to bless you, but He wishes His favours to be asked for.

APPLICATION: Thus must you live in His presence, urged thereunto by a motive of gratitude and of necessity. For if you lose sight of your God, you are become like earth without the sun, capable only of producing thorns and thistles without any fruit. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Blessed are the undefiled in the way: who walk in the law of the Lord. (Ps. cxviii, 1.)

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FRIDAY AFTER THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ AWAITING OUR LORD

Be you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord when he shall return from the wedding. (Luke xii, 36.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the life of all the saints upon the earth has been a continually expectation. Before the coming of Christ, the saints did nothing but look for the fulfillment of the promise of the Lord Who was to come, to be the author of their faith, to redeem them from sin, to teach them by His doctrine, to strengthen them by His example. After the coming of Christ, the saints did nothing but continually look for the return of the Lord, as the consummator of their faith, Who would glorify them. My people shall long for my return. (Osee xi, 7.)

APPLICATION: See then that life should be an awaiting. And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord when he shall return from the wedding. (Luke xii, 36.) It is hard for you to wait patiently for your Lord and, in the meantime, top deprive yourself of all inordinate satisfactions and pleasures?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Expect the Lord: do manfully. And let thy heart take courage: and wait thou for the Lord. (Ps. xxvi, 14.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the saints were saints because they lives separated in great measure from the rest of men. They reckoned that they had little or nothing to do with the world. Like pilgrims they were always waiting and sighing after their heavenly country. It is not becoming therefore that we should basely degenerate from their example. It is not rather shameful, that we attach ourselves so much to the things of this world which is not really ours?

APPLICATION: Reflect that you spring from those who were quite detached from the world, of those who were entirely spiritual and holy, and that you likewise should be such. Of what use is it for the river to boast of the purity of its source if it is itself defiles with mud?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: What have I in heaven? And besides thee what do I desire upon earth? (Ps lxxii, 25.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY how mistaken it is of you to seek here before the time what is reserved for hereafter. All the pleasures and diversions, that you seek now, are in fact thefts of those delights that are utterly indescribable, which you are meant to enjoy hereafter to the full. Be content then to wait, and do not be impatient. Now is the time in which you must live by faith only, console yourself by faith, animate yourself by faith, and not lose faith in prosperous or adverse times. Your life will not always go on in the same even tenour. Sometimes you will be in desolation, sometimes in joy; sometimes you will have honour, sometimes contempt; sometimes you will be strong, sometimes weak.

APPLICATION: Learn then always to be equally faithful to god. Journey by the light of faith to the country, where the glory that you Lord promises to you is truly called life. How much more perfect and more happy is that life than the painful and laborious life that one leads on this earth! You should take no account of this earthly life but despise it and spend it willingly in the service of God. Thus one day you may attain to the enjoyment of that true life, which God will give to those that never change their faith from him. (Tob. li, 18.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with my whole heart: and I will glorify thy name for ever. (Ps. lxxxv, 9.)

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SATURDAY AFTER THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ LIFE A WARFARE

I also am a man subject to authority, having under me soldiers. (Matt. viii, 9.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that this life may be called, and is, a field of battle on which you have to fight against your disorderly inclinations, which are strengthened by the evil spirits who are leagued against you. Hence it follows that this is a time of labour, not of repose. Although in time of warfare the enemy be not in evidence, yet each one must be ever ready and prepared to fight. All must be in their quarters and at their posts, exposed maybe to the hardships of weather, to the discomforts of hunger and the los of sleep.

APPLICATION: What say you to this? Would you wish to pass this life in repose and to seek for yourself every satisfaction? This surely suits not one who is really on the battle-field.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou, O Lord, art most high foe evermore, for behold thy enemies, O Lord, for behold thy enemies shall perish. (Ps. xci, 9, 10.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that, as this life is warfare, it is not the time for rewards but a time for meriting them. It is a time of labour amid immense risks and dangers. It is always the very best soldiers, more than any others, who place themselves in the front ranks and at the very cannon’s mouth. Can you then so easily condemn the action of Providence, in so often allowing the most just men to have the largest share of suffering?

APPLICATION: We have then but to wait. In the end, we shall see how much more those are rewarded by God, who have laboured and fought more than all others. At present, He gives them in abundance the strength of grace, which is proportioned to the burden He lays upon them.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: See my abjection and my labour; and forgive me my sins. (Ps. xxiv, 18.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that as this life is a time of warfare, it follows that it is a time also of great danger, not one of safety. For you are continually surrounded by a thousand snares and a thousand attacks. Oh if you could only see the falls that came in the end to those miserable ones, who now mourn their eternal loss in hell! How much less you would trust in yourself, and how much less you would promise yourself safety!  For thou art going in the midst of snares, and walking upon the arms of them that are grieved. (Ecclus. ix, 20.) The way to keep yourself from perils, is never to act or live according to caprice, but to live under exact obedience to the law of God. A good soldier in battle does not stand still at his post, nor move, nor fight without his commander’s order.

APPLICATION: This life is for you a time of warfare, and therefore also a time to be obedient, and dependent in everything on the command of God and of those who are to you in His place. In this way you will be both safer in all the dangers and will gain more glorious victories. An obedient man shall speak of victories. (Prov. xxi, 28.) 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My hand shall help him: and my arm shall strengthen him. (Ps. lxxxviii, 22.)

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