17th Sunday after Pentecost

This Sunday is the 17th after Pentecost. We hear about humbling oneself again, which is the way it is supposed to be. Last Sunday, Jesus tells us: "When thou art invited to a wedding, sit down in the lowest place!" This week, St. Paul tells us to 'walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, yes, walk in that vocation with all humility!' He is saying that we must practice these virtues--humility, mildness, and patience. These are the means for gaining the end that is so generously proposed to us. God asks one condition of us--that we maintain harmony among ourselves, that will make one body and one spirit of all, in the bond of peace. Our beloved Abbot Gueranger continues:

'The strength of this bond is the strength of the Holy Spirit Himself, Who is all holiness and love; for it is that Holy Spirit Who forms these spiritual and divine ties; He it is who, with the countless multitude of the baptized, does the work which the soul does in the human body--that is, gives it life, and unites all the members into oneness of person. It is by the Holy Ghost that young and old, poor and rich, men and women, distinct as all these are in other respects, are made one, fused, so to say, in the fire which eternally burns in the blessed Trinity. But, in order that the flame of infinite love may thus draw into its embrace our regenerated humanity, we must get rid of selfish rivalries, and grudges, and dissensions, which, so long as they exist among us, prove us to be carnal, and therefore unfit for the divine flame to touch, or for the union which that flame produces. The most hateful of all the obstacles which divine love has to encounter upon earth is the jealousy of satan, who endeavors, by an impious usurpation, to rob God of the possession of our souls--souls, that is, which were created by and for Him alone.'

Our 'Collect' for this Sunday says it all:

'Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that thy people may avoid all the contagions of the devil; and, with a pure mind, follow Thee, Who alone art God.'

In the Gospel from St. Matthew, we hear about the Commandments. The Two Great Commandments, as they are called, are to love God, then love our neighbor. These two actually encompass the entire Ten Commandments. The first takes care of the first three Commandments, while the second one takes in all the others. Jesus was taking questions from the Pharisees, who are only doing it to try to trip Him up. He confounds them. He pretty much tells them that this second Commandment, like the first, this one concerning charity of loving our neighbor, which is the one these Jews were convicted of. They were convicted of neither loving their neighbor, nor God Himself, for the first Commandment cannot be observed if the second, which flows from and completes it, be broken. These hypocrites couldn't see that the God who created them was standing right in front of them. They claimed to obey God, but as Jesus told them, they knew Him not! Ouch! That must have hurt. But, it only made them more obstinate in their thoughts.

The Abbot continues: The Jews, by rejecting Christ Jesus, sinned against both of the commandments which constitute charity, and embody the whole law; and we, on the contrary, by loving that same Jesus, fulfill the whole law. As St. Augustine says, 'God loves men only inasmuch as they either are, or may one day become, members of His Son; it is His Son that He loves in them; thus He loves, with one same love though not equally, His Word, and the Flesh of His Word, and the members of His Incarnate Word. Now, charity is love--love such as it is in God, communicated to us creatures by the Holy Ghost.' Therefore, what we should is the divine Word, either as being, or, according to another expression, 'that He may be', in others and in ourselves.

Anyway, on these two Great Commandments depends the whole law and the prophets. The fulness of the law, which is the rule of mens conduct, is in charity, of which Christ is the end; just as the object of the revealed Scriptures is not other than the God-Man, Who embodies in His own adorable unity, for us His followers, all moral teaching, and all dogma. He is our Faith and our Love. St. Augustine again: "He is the end of all our resolutions; for all our efforts tend but to this--to perfect ourselves in Him; having reached Him, seek NO farther, for He is your End. He says that when we have reached this point: "Let us cling to One, let us enjoy One, let us all be one in Him. 'haereamus Uni, fruamur Uno, permaneamus Unum.'"

Let us ask from our Lord forgiveness of our past sins, and preservation from future ones.

Let us also pray for the holy souls of the city of Maaloula, Syria. It seems to have been one of the last, if not the last, cities in which Christians live without harassment in an arab country. They are Melkite and Orthodox Christians, speak the Aramaic language that Our Lord used, and have recently been attacked, and taken over, by, of course, radical muslims. These brothers and sisters of ours are being martyred while we speak, and yet, NOT one single word from our 'beloved' media. Let us pray for these souls as Our Lord wishes, as well for those doing the crime.

Keep in mind that NO prophet in the history of the world claimed to be equal to God or to be God except Jesus Christ! He proved it by miracles and by His words. He is the One told of by the prophets of old, right up to John the Baptist. The Baptist even pointed Him to the crowd! It's just that many refused to believe Him or His words. They claim to know God and His teachings, by their pride allowed them to NOT believe as they should. And, this continues today. Pray a lot for these to believe before their death, when they will meet the God Who will judge them and is responsible for their existence, and they will find out it was Jesus all along.