12th Sunday after Pentecost

 

This Sunday is the 12th Sunday after Pentecost. Man, how time seems to be flying by this summer. Anyway, we are told of the 'Good Samaritan', and how this man who was from another country (which was despised by the Jews), helped someone in need that he happened to be passing. The Jewish nation even today refuses to see what is right in front of their faces. The Eternal Truth. We are to try to be so much better than this. According to our beloved Abbot Gueranger, from (The Liturgical Year):

'The Christian, on the contrary, with the holy daring of which the Apostle (Paul) speaks, removes all intermediaries between God and himself, and draws aside the veil of all figures. Beholding the glory of the Lord with face uncovered, we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord', for we become other christs, and are made like to God the Father, as is His Son Jesus Christ.


 Thus is fulfilled the will of the almighty Father for the sanctification of the elect. God sees Himself reflected in these predestined, who are becoming, in the beautiful light divine, conformable to the image of His Son. He could say of each one of them what He spoke at the Jordan and on Thabor: "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." He makes them His true temple, verifying the word He spoke of old: "I will set my tabernacle in the midst of you: I will walk among you, and will be your God; I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north: "Give up!" and to the south: "Keep not back!" Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth!'

Such are the promises, for whose realization we should, as the apostle says, be all earnestness in working out our sanctification, by cleansing ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit, in the fear of God, and in His love.'

The kings and prophets of the Old Testament looked ahead to what was coming, but we are the ones who see it. Speaking of these people of old, our Abbot continues:

'...Heedless of the mockeries, as well as of the persecutions, of the world that was not worthy to possess such men, these champions of the faith were seen wandering in the deserts, sheltering in dens and caves, and yet happy in the love of One whom they knew they were not to see until long ages after their death.

Do we, then, who are their descendants,--we for whom they were obliged to wait, in order to enjoy a share of those blessings which their sighs and vehement desires did so much to hasten,--appreciate the immense favor bestowed on us by our Lord? Our virtue scarcely bears comparison with that of the fathers of our Faith; and nevertheless, by the descent of the Holy Spirit of love, we have been more enlightened than ever were the prophets, for, by that Holy Spirit, we have been put in possession of the mysteries which they only foretold. How is it, then, that we are so sadly slow to feel the obligation we are under of responding, by holiness of life, and by an ardent and generous love, to the liberality of that God, who has gratuitously called us from darkness to His admirable light? Having so great a cloud of witnesses over our heads, let us lay aside the burden of sin which impedes us, and run, by patience, in the fight proposed to us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of Faith, who, having joy set before Him, preferred to endure the Cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God. We know Him with greater certainty than we do the events which are happening under our eyes, for He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, is ever within us, incorporating His mysteries into us.'

As Jesus Himself says in the Gospel according to St. Luke today: "BLESSED ARE THE EYES THAT SEE THE THINGS WHICH YOU SEE. FOR I SAY TO YOU, THAT MANY PROPHETS AND KINGS HAVE DESIRED TO SEE THE THINGS THAT YOU SEE, AND HAVE NOT SEEN THEM: AND TO HEAR THE THINGS THAT YOU HEAR, AND HAVE NOT HEARD THEM."

Christ calls His disciples blessed. This is because they had the happiness which so many patriarchs and prophets had desired in vain, namely: of seeing Him and hearing His teaching in Person. Though we have not the happiness to see Jesus and hear Him, nevertheless we are not less blessed than the apostles, since Christ pronounces those blessed who do not see and yet believe. (John XX. 29.) This is why John the Baptist was called the greatest prophet, since he saw Jesus in Person and pointed Him out to those around him. If only they had the eyes of Faith!

May we see what we are supposed to see, and hear what we're supposed to hear, and pass it on. Let us help those who are not as fortunate as us; that is, having the True Faith.