This Sunday we celebrate the 15th Sunday after Pentecost. We will hear about the mother of the town Naim who had a dead son, and was on the way to bury him. Jesus feels compassion on the woman and heals the child.
This epistle is taken, like that of the Sunday before last, from the epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians, in which St. Paul shows them the insufficiency of the Jewish law, and that they can only be saved by a lively faith in Christ, but now he admonishes them to the performance of good works. You now live, he tells them, in the Spirit, that is, the Holy Ghost animates your heart by His grace, enlightens, confirms, and inflames you, admonishes and teaches you, impels your heart to do good; you must, therefore, also regulate your external conduct accordingly, and in particular devote yourself to the practice of humility and charity, as the foundations of a truly spiritual life. Humility must teach and move you to think little of yourself, to avoid vain glory, and not to confide in your own strength. But charity should impel you to be meek and compassionate to all, even sinners, to correct them charitably, and lead them back to the path of virtue; since he who is harsh to the erring, despises and treats them roughly, is often permitted by God to fall into the same, nay, even into greater sins.
Particularly you must show your charity one for another, that one bears the burdens of the other: that you bear the faults and imperfections of others just as patiently as you wish others to bear with your own imperfections; thus you will fulfill the law of Christ, which commands us to love our neighbor; you will prevent many sins which are occasioned by considering yourself perfect, raising yourself above others, criticizing their failings, and causing disturbance. True glory consists in knowing ourselves, our faults and evil inclinations, and in eradicating them. Be grateful to those who instruct you in the word of God, and give to them willingly of your earthly possessions. What you sow, you shall reap; if you only follow the dictates of the flesh, do not mortify yourself, do not correct your failings, and indulge your sinful appetites, you will one day reap death, destruction and damnation, whereas, on the contrary, if you follow the dictates of the Holy Ghost, you will reap of the Spirit of life.
Let us obey this doctrine, for it is of interest to us, and impress deeply on our heart that without mortification of body and soul we cannot be saved.
GOSPEL (Luke VII. 11-16.) At that time, Jesus went into a city called Naim: and there went with him his disciples, and a great multitude. And when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only, son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a great, multitude of the city was with her. Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, said to her: "Weep not." And He came near, and touched the bier. And they that carried it stood still. And He said: "Young man, I say to thee, Arise." And he that was dead sat up,. and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on them all; and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up amongst us, and God hath visited his people.
Now, for the lesson to be learned. The mother signifies the Church, and the child is us. Remember, Jesus is the Bridegroom and the Church is the Spouse. Jesus came to live and die in order to save us, and those who have strayed. In 'The Liturgical Year' by our beloved Abbot Gueranger, an explanation of these passages was written by St. Laurence Justinian concerning these passages from the Gospel of St. Luke in regard to the Church:
'Then, all resplendent with the mystic jewels wherewith the Bridegroom had beautified her on the wedding day, she thrilled with joy at the increase of her children, both in merit and in number; she urged them to ascend to ever greater heights; she offered them to God; she raised them in her arms up towards heaven. Obeyed by them, she was, in all truth, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array. She stretched out her branches as the turpentine tree, and beneath their shadow she sheltered those whom she had begotten against the heat, and the tempest, and the rain. So long, then, as she could she was able to assemble. But her zeal, great as it was, has redoubled from the time she perceived that many, yea very many, had lost their first fervor. Now for many years she is mourning at the sight of how, each day, her Creator is offended, how great are the losses she sustains, and how many of her children suffer death. She that was once robed in scarlet has put on mourning garments; her fragrance is no longer perceived by the world; instead of the rich ornament of her breast, she is vested in haircloth. Her lamentations and tears are ceaseless. Ceaseless is her prayer, striving if, by some way, she may make the present as beautiful as times past; and yet, as though it were impossible for her to call back that lovely past, she seems wearied with such supplication. The word of the prophet has come true: "They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together; there is none that doth good, no, not one!" (Psalms 13:3) The manifold sins committed by the Church's children against the divine precepts show that they who so sin are rotten members, members alien to the body of Christ. Nevertheless the Church forgets not that she gave them birth in the laver of salvation; she forgets not the promises they made to renounce the devil, and the pomp of the world, and all sin. Therefore does she weep over their fall, being their true mother, and never losing the hope of winning their resurrection by her tears. Oh what a flood of tears is thus every day shed before God! What fervent prayers does this spotless virgin send, by the ministry of the holy angels, up to Christ, Who is the salvation of sinners! In the secret of hearts, in lonely retreats, as well as in her public temples, she cries out to the divine mercy, that they, who are now buried in the filth of vice, may be restored to life. Who shall tell the joy of her heart, when she receives back living, the children she mourned over as dead? If the conversion of sinners is such joy to heaven, what must it be to such a mother? According to the multitude of the sorrows of her heart, so will be the consolations, giving joy to her soul.'
It is the duty of us Christians, who by God's mercy have been preserved from the general decay, to share in the anguish of our mother, the Church; we should humbly but fervently co-operate with her in all her zealous endeavors to reclaim our fallen brethren. We surely can never be satisfied with not being of the number of those senseless sons who are a sorrow to their, and despise the labour of her that bore them. Had we not the Holy Spirit to tell us how he that honoureth his mother is as one that layeth up to himself a treasure, the thought of what our birth cost her would force us to do everything that lies in our power to comfort her. She is the dear bride of the Incarnate Word; and our souls, too, aspire to union with Him. Let us prove that such union is really ours by doing as the Church does; that is, by showing in our acts the one thought, the one love which the divine Spouse always imparts to souls that enjoy intimacy with Him, because there is nothing He Himself has so much at heart; the thought of bringing the whole world to give glory to His eternal Father, and the love of procuring salvation for sinners.
St. Francis of Sales says: "O man, represent to yourself in lively colors, that at your death the world will cease to exist with respect to you. For you there will no longer be any world; you will see how it perishes before your eyes. For in that last hour the pleasures, the vanities, the riches, the honors, the friendships, and all which were dear to you, will disappear before your eyes as so many shadows. Ah! fool that I am! you will then say, for what trifles and fooleries have I lost all! On the contrary piety, good works, penance, &c, will appear pleasant to you, and you will exclaim: O, why did I not travel on this blessed road! Then the sins which you consider as mere trifles, will seem to you like mountains, and all that you thought you had accomplished as great things, with regard to piety, will seem to you very little.
What terrible fear will then seize your soul, when she must all alone travel into the bottomless abyss of eternity, which, as St. Bernard says, devours all possible imaginable ages, and of which St. Gregory says, that we can easier say, what it is not than what it is. What terrors will befall her, when she must appear before the tribunal of God, whom she never really loved and honored in her life-time, and before whom she must now give the strictest account, and hear an irrevocable and just sentence!"
Should these thoughts not make an impression upon you? But how can you escape this terrible condition? By this, that you now live, as you would wish to have lived at the hour of death. Learn the science of dying a good death in your life-time, it is the highest science which we can practice only once. Die daily with St. Paul, in as much as you crucify the flesh and its lusts, and voluntarily withdraw your heart from the world, its pomps and vanities, before death will do this with violence; for, says a wise and pious man: "He who dies, before he dies, will not die, when he dies."
"Time, thou art worth as much as God," St. John Chrysostom was wont to say ; "for on every hour of time depends a crown for eternity; to win time, is to win God; to lose time, is to lose God."
"Precious in the sight of God is the death of His saints!" Amen!
PRAYER. O world! because I cannot know the hour, in which I must leave you, I will not be attached to you. O you dear friends and relatives, you, too, I will in future love only with a holy inclination, directed to God, which will not cease with death, but remain forever. O Lord! help me, that I may die totally to myself and the world, and live only for Thee, and partake of eternal happiness.
Of course, this is NOT the path the Church has taken in the past 50+ years since Vatican II. That council, which was valid, but NOT doctrinal, only pastoral, has told us to accept others as they are because everyone goes to heaven, since God loves all and would not punish them, even though Jesus Himself stated differently. We are told that others don't need to convert to the Catholic Church anymore. This is a full PANTLOAD! They DO need to convert and come to the Church that Christ Himself started. It only makes sense, people! We also need to bring back into the fold of the Church those who have left, especially if they went to Catholic schools, as well as those who have drank the coolaid of that dreadful council, which has let the prince of lies into the building. God is always a fair and merciful God, but He is also a most Just God we all have to face when we die. That no one, however young and healthy, will escape death, wherefore we should always be prepared to die, and therefore to be judged.
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