+++AMDG+++

THE TWENTY- THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ MIRACLE OF THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS

(Read Matt. ix, 18-26.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that Jesus, when about to perform the striking miracle of recalling to life the little daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, commanded all the people to leave the room of the dead child, where they were making a tumult and weeping. He so acted because He did not wish to have spectators of this wondrous work. Our Blessed Lord gives you in this example that good works should not be done with the view that they may be seen and praised by men. You must distinguish between two sorts of good works, those that are common and prescribed by your state of life, others that are private and extraordinary. The first, which are common, you should perform in public, as ordinary Christian duties. The second, which are extraordinary, you should perform, as far as possible, secretly, so as to avoid all danger of vainglory.

APPLICATION: If then sometimes you must do your good works in public, for the sake of good example for others, be careful that the motive is the honour of God, and the good of your neighbours, and not your own self-love. Otherwise it will be said of you, They have received their reward. (Matt. vi, 2.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him; and on them that hope in his mercy. (Ps. xxxii, 18.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that our Lord sent away the crowd of people, when He desired to raise the child to life. Thus He teaches you that, if you would rise from your miseries, and from your tepidity and disorderly affections, that tumult also of useless and of superfluous conversations. All such matters disrupt the heart and distract the mind, and prevent you from being sufficiently retired and recollected within yourself.

APPLICATION: By doing so you will dispose yourself to receive clearer lights and stronger helps from heaven as God promised by Osee (ii, 14.) I will allure her into the wilderness; and I will speak to her heart.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My eyes are ever towards the Lord. (Ps. xxiv, 15.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the raising to life of the child was accomplished by our Lord, by the act of stretching out His arms, and taking her by the hand: He took her by the hand and the maid arose. (Matt. ix, 25.) By that omnipotent touch He infused into her the spirit of life, and awakened her from the sleep of death. Oh omnipotent touch of the right hand of God!

APPLICATION: For you it is also needful that our Lord should stretch out His hand, in order to awaken you from the sleep of your tepidity and to raise you to the life of fervour of spirit. If He stretched not out His holy hand to lift you out of your miseries, you too might cry out: Save me, O God, for the waters are come in even unto my soul, and there is no sure standing. (Ps. lxviii, 2,3.) But as the hand of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save (Isa. lix, 1),  plead earnestly that He will stretch out His merciful hand and touch your heart, rising you from the mire of sin, so that you may walk in the way of greater care and perfection.  

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Their own arm did not save them. But thy right hand, and thy arm, and the light of thy countenance: because thou was pleased with them. (Ps. xliii, 4.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

MONDAY AFTER THE TWENTY- THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ WORKING OUT OUR SALVATION

Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all those things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke xxi, 36.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that, by these words, our Lord would have you understand that your eternal salvation is not a work that depends altogether upon yourself, nor yet altogether upon Him. You have to do all you can on your part, and for this reason He says that you must watch. Watch ye by being on your guard, never giving place to temptation, and by being diligent to do your actions well. Then, as if you had done nothing, you must pray and have recourse to God, praying, humbly beseeching Him to protect you by His most holy grace.

APPLICATION: Hence the rule for working out your salvation, is to labour as if all depended on yourself and yet to look to God as if all depended upon Him.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day and in the night before thee. (Ps. lxxxvii, 2.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that it is not enough merely to have begun in this way. You must go on unceasingly and indefatigably to the very end: at all times. It will not be sufficient to watch and pray in times of temptation only. You must pray and watch at the same time. Shepherds watch their flocks even when the wolves and thieves are far away, so that they may never be in danger. So too you have to act with regard to your soul. Watch and pray so that temptation may not come. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. (Matt. xxvi, 41.)

APPLICATION: When, then, you do not keep sufficient guard over yourself, and neglect prayer, when you do not often during the day turn to God, or recommend yourself to Him, temptation need not come to seek you, but you go into it of yourself. You have already thrown away your arms and have rendered yourself incapable of defence. As there is no time when, if left to your own weak strength, you would not undoubtedly fall and perish, so too there is no time when it is not necessary to watch and to pray.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: . Have mercy upon me, for unto thee I have cried all the day. (Ps. lxxxv, 3.) 

CONSIDER THIRDLY that all your diligence is not enough to make you worthy of salvation. Consequently, you have to beseech God by unremitting prayers, that you may be made worthy. Thus, by His mercy, He may consider you as if you really were worthy to escape the evil lot at the last day, and to stand before the Son of man (Luke xxi, 36.) At that great tribunal the just will stand firm, because of their good conscience: Then the just will stand with great constancy (Wisd. v, 1), while the wicked shall fall without hope of ever rising again: The wicked shall not rise again in judgment. (Ps. i, 5.)

APPLICATION: Let us beg the good God, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and of all the Saints, that we may be found worthy to stand with constancy before the tribunal of Christ upon the great Judgment Day. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer, and attend to the voice of my petition. I have called upon thee in the day of my trouble: because thou hast heard me. (Ps. lxxxv, 6-7.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

TUESDAY AFTER THE TWENTY- THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ IMPATIENCE

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

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the great evil to which the impatient man is subject. He is not master of himself. For he is not the master of his understanding, but acts precipitously, and even foolishly, without hearkening to the dictates of reason. He is not master of his will, for he is ruled by the ill-regulated affections of annoyance, of sadness, of fear, which change and turn him about like a small craft tossed about by the winds. Our Lord had reason then to say: In your patience you will possess your souls. (Luke xxi, 19.)

APPLICATION: Reflect on yourself and strive to amend yourself efficaciously, if you are in any way dominated by this vice. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My soul is continually in my hands: and I have not forgotten thy law. (Ps. cxviii, 109.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that an impatient man is necessarily unstable in good. Directly he begins to feel the tedium and fatigue of the work he has undertaken, he wearies of it. Whether it be study, prayer, or reading, he at once gives up. If it be the spirit of penance or of mortification, he soon begins to neglect it. Neither does he remain long firm in his good resolutions.

APPLICATION: What good then can the impatient person hope for? For it is perseverance in good, that ordinarily disposes us more than anything else to final perseverance. Therefore although you read: He that shall persevere to the end shall be saved. (Matt. xxvi, 13), elsewhere you likewise read: He that shall endure to the end he shall be saved, so that there cannot be perseverance without endurance.   

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord is the support of them that fear him, mine eyes are ever towards the Lord. (Ps. xxiv, 14, 15.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that there are three means you should take, in order to obtain this patience which is so necessary. The first is to ask for it often of God in prayer with great earnestness. The second is to foresee and prepare for those incidents that may perturb you, such as injuries or humiliations, sickness, difficult orders and the like, and so be forearmed. For it is the unexpected that puts even the greatest strongholds in danger. Remember that on this earth you are on a field of battle; hereafter will come to you peace and the reward The third means id that you should exercise yourself as much as possible in acts of patience, on occasion of the little contrarieties of your neighbours, trials of the weather, discomforts of body, affliction of soul, that come upon you so often.

APPLICATION: When you perceive any trial about to come upon you, recollect yourself awhile, recommend yourself to God, and imaging that with His own mouth He says to you: In your patience you shall possess your souls. (Like xxi, 19.) 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have put my trust in thee, O Lord. Thou art my God; My lot is in thy hands. (Ps. xxx, 15, 16.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

WEDNESDAY AFTER THE TWENTY- THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ LIFE WITHOUT SOLICITUDE

Be not solicitous for your life. (Matt. vi, 25.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that in Holy Writ those are justly censured who are never content with their present state, in which God has placed them. (cf. Eccles. Vii, 1.) They are ever striving to push forward, without knowing whether the dignity, or duty, or position they seek after, would be beneficial or harmful to them. God alone knows which is the way by which you are sure to be saved. Therefore, as a pilgrim, who knows not the road that leads to his country, must let himself be guided by one who does know, so likewise you must let yourself be guided by God, and by him who on earth holds the place of God to you.

APPLICATION: Is it not utter folly, to try to regulate yourself by your own caprice, in striving after this or that position or employment, in disregard and even in defiance of God? Let yourself rather be guided, if possible, by the sure rule of obedience: for it will never prove hurtful to you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Let me know that this is thy hand, and that thou, O Lord, hast done it. (Ps. cviii, 27.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that if the attainment of this place or of that office, which you so anxiously seek after, brings you no harm, at any rate it may harm you to be seeking for it. The anxiety for it distracts your thoughts from your present clear duties, and from the pursuit of that which really matters to you, which is the business of your eternal salvation. You should never cease to make that your chief study. The more it is in doubt, the more supremely important it is also that you should ever strive after it. 

APPLICATION: In the search for positions which are difficult to attain, how much the good of your own soul may be neglected. Employ for it, at least, a solicitude equal to that which you use, in order to gain something as to which you cannot possibly say whether it will profit your own salvation or not. You are a pilgrim and your country is heaven. Employ, then, all necessary time and effort in learning and in finding the sure way of arriving there, for that alone is important for you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? (Ps. xli, 3.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the time given you to obtain that, which alone matters to you, is little and short. Have you then the heart to lose it in seeking after that which is of no consequence? The time is little, because there are few days, the days of the pilgrimage: and brief, because it passeth like a shadow. (Eccles. Vii, 1.) Therefore do not occupy yourself overmuch in seeking those things which pass away with time, but seek rather to walk safely in the sure road which leads to your country, and to acquire your eternal heritage.

APPLICATION: If a pilgrim has to reach his country, within a brief time which has been predetermined for him, under pain of losing an inheritance, how he uses every effort not to lose time! He robs himself of sleep, of conversation, and of all else that might otherwise interest him. You who are a pilgrim should surely do as much. For if you do not reach the end, at the time fixed for you by God, you are without any remedy, and will never reach it at all! 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Man is like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow. (Ps. cxliii, 4.)  

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

THURSDAY AFTER THE TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ GOOD USE OF TIME

Be not therefore solicitous for to-morrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. (Matt. vi, 34.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that God gives you now full and ample time to serve Him and to do good. You are to employ it only in winning heaven: I gave her time that she might do penance. (Apoc. ii, 21.) After a little while He will take this time from you, and you will not even have a moment for yourself: Time shall be no longer. (Apoc. x, 6.) And then what a strict account He will demand from you of that same time which He gave you: He hath called against me the time. (Lam. i, 15.)

APPLICATION: Think seriously how you employ your time, whether in things useful, or vain. God gives it to you that you may employ it in the acquisition of heaven; and perhaps you waste it. When time is ended for you and the time of your Lord is come, you will then recognise its real value, but then it will be too late.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: We will praise thee, O God: we will praise, and we will call upon thy name. We will relate thy wondrous works. (Ps. lxxiv, 2.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that when time is ended for you, God will take His time for judging you. But what does this mean? He says by the mouth of the Psalmist: I will judge justices. (Ps. lxxiv, 2.) It means, according to the Hebrew text, that He will judge with rectitude, with rigour, and by the most strict rules of justice. Hence in that day mercy will no more have place, and justice will be all in all.

APPLICATION. The holiest men trembled and feared at the thought of the supreme rigour with which God would judge them at the end of their lives. Wherefore they never ceased to weep for their sins, to make satisfaction for them by penance, to examine minutely their consciences, in order to be able to pay their account in this life at the tribunal of mercy, and without waiting for the dreadful day of judgment. But possibly you fear but little the judgment that divine justice will pass upon you in that last day, and waste the time that you now have given you in order to profit by the Divine mercy.

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

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the words I will judge justice also means that God in that day will not only judge your sins, but that He will also judge your just deeds, that is your good works. He will examine whether you did them at the right time, for the right end, in the right way, and under the right circumstances.

APPLICATION: You undoubtedly do many actions good in themselves in your life, such as those of praying, hearing Mass and receiving the holy sacraments. But how do you do them? With how much distraction, with how little application of mind, with how many defects mixed up with them! And for all the good works which you do so badly you will have to be judged, and that with the utmost rigour. For what matters is not the actual good work itself, but the way you do it. And do you not fear or dread this judgement? Pray to God that He may give you light to understand and realise now, how solemn it will be.

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

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

FRIDAY AFTER THE TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ AFFLICTION FROM THE HAND OF GOD

You now indeed have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice. (John xvi, 22.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the apparently strange consolation, that holy Job begged of God in the midst of all his afflictions. He asked for a fresh affliction, and together with the affliction he asked for patience: And that this may be my comfort, that in afflicting me with sorrow, he spare not, nor I contradict the words of the Holy One. (Job vi, 10.) To conform oneself to the will of God when he sends you prosperity and does not try you, is an easy thing to do, but brings little consolation to the soul. But to conform oneself to the will of God fully, and to be consoled when He presses His hand in afflictions, this is true consolation to the spirit of the perfect.

APPLICATION: Blessed indeed are you if you can come to this high state of seeking your consolations in fresh sufferings and in still greater afflictions! And yet you should aspire to this, for in fact we are not here to enjoy life but to suffer. Therefore you will never have true happiness, nor will you ever be content, until you come to find your comfort in suffering.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: When I was in trouble I cried unto the Lord and he heard me. (Ps. cxix, 1.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY the sincere wish of holy Job for suffering. He sat on the dung hill with sores from head to foot and, thus afflicted by God, He asked specially to suffer more. He feared lest God Who is so good, seeing him in such tribulation, might be touched. Therefore he asked, and almost encouraged, Him to continue to treat him with such rigour as would reduce him even to ashes, Now observe to what high virtue mere human nature like your own can arrive by fervour of spirit.

APPLICATION: Be ashamed of your own weakness. Pray to God to give you light to know what a great blessing it is to suffer for Him in this life. Thus by His grace will He strengthen the weakness of your flesh.

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

CONSIDER THIRDLY that holy Job in asking for sufferings, asked at the same time that he might not oppose himself to them when they came, but that he might accept them with complete resignation. Like a truly humble soul, he did not trust himself in this his longing. We very often wish to labour and to suffer much for God. However we may easily presume and trust too much in ourselves, and not pray from the heart that God would help us in the act itself. Hence our longing quickly vanishes, and we lose that perfect conformity to the divine will which we should have in our afflictions.

APPLICATION: No circumstances of time, or of lack of strength, should make trials seem inopportune, nor prevent you from accepting affliction with perfect resignation from the hand of God. This is what holy Job also asked for when he pleaded for sufferings, and this you should ask for all the more because you are so exceedingly weak. Trust less then to your desires, which, although they are good and holy, will never avail you without the special help and assistance of God. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: There also shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall hold me. (Ps. cxxxviii, 10.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

SATURDAY AFTER THE TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ~ THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST

Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. (John vi, 69.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that nothing so animates scholars in their study as the goodness and learning of their master. But what earthly master can compare with Jesus Christ, Who knows so well how to teach those who frequent His school? And yet how small is the number of those who are willing to place themselves under such a Master, whereas crowds flock to the deceitful school of the world!

APPLICATION: How much ought you therefore to thank God that he allows you to be under such a Master, and that He has called you to his Holy Church, His true and only school. Here you can, if you will, receive and rejoice in His teaching. If you do not hear the voice of your Master and profit by it, all the faults lies with yourself. 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: . Blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct, O Lord: and shalt teach him out of thy law. (Ps. xciii, 12.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that no master imparts to his scholars his more lofty teaching, unless he sees that they are well instructed in the first elements and in his more simple lessons. Think seriously how much pains God has taken with you to direct your spirit, that is to detach you from the world and from your bad inclinations of pride, ambition, and of self-love. After all the years you have passed in His school, does it seem to you that you have made much progress? Why then do you wonder that He does not give you those lessons of more sublime lights, which He usually gives in prayer to the more instructed?

APPLICATION: Never can you be fully instructed by such a worthy Master, if you are not also first well grounded in Him. Let Him therefore take from you your overwhelming affection for your own ease and you own will, so that then He may give to you higher and more noble lessons.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right land. (Ps. cxlii, 10.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the teaching most proper to such a master is that, which concerns His laws and commands. You may be saved and become holy without a deep knowledge of the higher mysteries, but you cannot be saved without the knowledge and practice of His laws and commandments. Therefore strive to perfect yourself in this knowledge. For it is that which will bring you happiness. What good will your knowledge of philosophy. of literature, of science over which you weary yourself so greatly, do you, if you come to be lost?

APPLICATION: Learn then from this divine Master the true practical science of the divine law, which He teaches you as the most important of all, and the most necessary to make you happy here and hereafter: Blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct, O Lord: and shall teach him out of thy law. (Ps. xciii, 12.) 

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: and teach me thy justifications. (Ps. cxviii, 135.)

+ + + + + + + JMJ + + + + + + +

+++AMDG+++