"All that Thou hast to us, O Lord, Thou hast done in true judgment: because we have sinned against Thee, and have not obeyed Thy commandments: but give glory to Thy Name, and deal with us according to the multitude of Thy mercy. Blessed are the undefiled in the way: who walk in the law of the Lord." Introit for today's Mass.
This week is the 20th after Pentecost. We hear yet again about the stubborn Jews, who are represented by the sick boy. We learn what we already know, to go to Jesus. Our Faith will help us and save us, and only by this will we be saved. The Jews knew the eternal secret in the olden days, but seemed to have lost it, although some still tried to hold on to it. The secret is this, as it was then, is now, and will be for all ages till the end of time: it consists in the humble avowal of the sinner's falls, in the regret of the culprit, and in the sure confidence that God's mercy is infinitely above the sins of men, however grievous those sins may have been.
God's will is that we all will be with Him for all eternity. However, we know that 'all' will NOT be there! As our beloved Abbot Gueranger states:
'It was our Lord Who bought time, and at a great price; and He bought it for us, that it might be employed by His faithful servants in procuring glory for God. By most men it is squandered away in sin or folly; but those who are united to Christ, as living members to the Spouse of their souls, will redeem it--that is, they will put such an intensity into their faith and their love that, as far as it is possible for human nature, not a moment of their time shall be anything but an earnest tribute of service to their Lord. To the insolent and blasphemous things which are then to be spoken by the beast, these determined servants of God will give, for their brave answer, the cry of St. Michael the Archangel, which he uttered against satan, the helper of the beast: "Who is like unto God"?
...There is one remedy for all this, and only one: it is the zeal of the pastors, and the prayers of that portion of Christ's flock which has withstood the torrent of universal corruption. But it is of the utmost importance that, on this point, the faithful and their pastors should lay aside all personal considerations, and thoroughly enter into the spirit which animates the Church herself. Though treated with the most revolting ingratitude, and injustice, and calumny, and treachery of every sort, this mother of mankind(the Church) forgets all these her own wrongs, and thinks only of the true prosperity and salvation of the very countries which despise her. She is well aware that the time is at hand when God will make justice triumphant; and yet she goes on struggling, as Jacob did, with God, until the dawn of that terrible day, foretold by David and the Sibyl. At the thought of the pool of fire, into which her rebellious children are to be plunged, she seems to have almost forgotten the approach of the eternal nuptials, and lost her vehement longings as a bride. One would say that she thinks of nothing but of her being a mother; and, as such, she keeps on praying as she has always prayed, only more fervently than ever, that the end may be deferred (pro mora finis).
That we may fulfill her wishes, let us, as Tertullian says, 'assemble together in one body, that we may, so to speak, offer armed force to God by our prayers. God loves such violence as that.' But that our prayer may have power of that kind, it must be inspired by a Faith which is thorough, and proof against every difficulty. As it is our Faith which overcomes the world, so it is, likewise, our Faith which triumphs over God, even is cases which seem beyond all human hope. Let us do as our mother does, and think of the danger incurred by those countless, who madly play on the brink of the precipice, into which, when they fall, they fall forever. It is quite true they are inexcusable; it was only last Sunday that they were reminded of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, in the exterior darkness, which they will undergo that despise the call to the King's marriage-feast. But, they are our brethren, and we should not be quietly resigned to see them lose their souls. Let us hope against all hope. Did our Lord, Who knew with certainty that obstinate sinners would be lost, hesitate, on that account, to shed all His Blood for them?
It is our ambition to unite ourselves to Him by the closest possible resemblance; let us, then, be resolved to imitate Him in that also; at all events, let us pray without ceasing for the Church's and our enemies, so long as we are not assured of their being lost. Such prayer is never useless, never thrown away; for, come what may, God is greatly honored by their Faith, and by the earnestness of our charity.
Only, let us be careful not to merit the reproach uttered by our Redeemer against the halting faith of the fellow townsmen of the ruler of Capharnaum. We know that our Jesus has no need to come down from heaven to earth, in order to give efficiency to the commands of His gracious will. If He deign to multiply signs and wonders around us, we will rejoice at them, because of our brethren who are weak of faith; we will make them an occasion for exalting His holy Name; but we will lovingly assure Him that our soul has no need of new proofs of His power, in order to believe in Him!'
(Of course, in these days, these enemies are within the walls of the Church! They most certainly need prayers for their conversion. Our Lord said: "...he is either with Me or against Me..." and "...not everyone who says "Lord, Lord' will enter in heaven..." )
Following is how we should use our time wisely:
How may we redeem time?
By employing, as St. Augustine says, every moment, even with the loss of all temporal advantages, to gain the eternal goods, by letting no opportunity pass to do good, to labor and suffer through love for God, to improve our lives and increase in virtue.
"Do you wish to know," says the pious Cornelius a Lapide, "how precious time is: Ask the damned, for these know it from experience. Come, rich man, from the abyss of hell, tell us what you would give for one year, one day, one hour of this time! I would, he says, give the whole world, all pleasures, all treasures, and bear all torments. O, if only one moment were granted me to have contrition for my sins, for the forgiveness of my crimes, I would purchase this moment with every labor, with any penance, with all punishments, torments, and tortures, which men ever suffered in purgatory or in hell, even if they lasted hundred, yes a thousand million of years! O precious moment upon which whole eternity depends!"
O, how many moments did you, my dear Christian, neglect, in which you could have served God, could have done good for love of Him, and gained eternal happiness for them, and you lost these precious moments. Remember: with one moment of time, if you employ it well, you can purchase eternal happiness, but with whole eternity not one moment of precious time!
Most bountiful God and Lord! I am heartily sorry, that I have so badly employed the time, which Thou hast given me for my salvation. In order to supply what I have neglected, as far as I am able, I offer up to Thee all that I have done or suffered from the first use of my reason, as if I had really to do and suffer it still; and, indeed, I offer it up in union with all the works and sufferings of our Saviour, and beg fervently, that Thou wilt supply, through His infinite merits, my defects, and wilt be pleased with all my actions and sufferings.
I'm going to end with words from St. Athanasius, who, speaking to those with the true Faith, but were almost to the point of despair:
Words of Encouragement from St. Athanasius
... to the early Christians of the 4th century who refused to accept the Arian heresy, Christians who had lost their Church buildings to the heretics, but Christians who kept the faith. In the 21st century, we are in a quite similar situation.
St. Athanasius is a Doctor of the Church. He lived from 296 to 373 A.D.
“May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the Churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises -- but you have the apostolic faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the faith? The true faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in this struggle -- the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the faith?
“True, the premises are good when the apostolic faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ...
“You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the faith which has come down to you from apostolic tradition, and if an execrable jealously has tried to shake it in a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis.
“No one, ever, will prevail against your faith, beloved brothers, and we believe that God will give us our Churches back some day.
“Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church but in reality they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray.
“Even if Catholics faithful to tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the True Church of Jesus Christ."
We learn from this day's Gospel that the son grew better; for, as the ruler "was going down, his servant met him, and they brought him word that his son lived; and the father therefore knew that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, 'thy son liveth.'" Would that, from all here present, who are in mortal sin, the priest, in the tribunal of penance, could receive the blessed assurance, that during this sermon, " at the same hour" that you listened to my words, you resolved, within your hearts: "I will delay no longer; I will make a good confession, and save my soul." To which the whole celestial host cry: Amen!
God's will is that we all will be with Him for all eternity. However, we know that 'all' will NOT be there! As our beloved Abbot Gueranger states:
'It was our Lord Who bought time, and at a great price; and He bought it for us, that it might be employed by His faithful servants in procuring glory for God. By most men it is squandered away in sin or folly; but those who are united to Christ, as living members to the Spouse of their souls, will redeem it--that is, they will put such an intensity into their faith and their love that, as far as it is possible for human nature, not a moment of their time shall be anything but an earnest tribute of service to their Lord. To the insolent and blasphemous things which are then to be spoken by the beast, these determined servants of God will give, for their brave answer, the cry of St. Michael the Archangel, which he uttered against satan, the helper of the beast: "Who is like unto God"?
...There is one remedy for all this, and only one: it is the zeal of the pastors, and the prayers of that portion of Christ's flock which has withstood the torrent of universal corruption. But it is of the utmost importance that, on this point, the faithful and their pastors should lay aside all personal considerations, and thoroughly enter into the spirit which animates the Church herself. Though treated with the most revolting ingratitude, and injustice, and calumny, and treachery of every sort, this mother of mankind(the Church) forgets all these her own wrongs, and thinks only of the true prosperity and salvation of the very countries which despise her. She is well aware that the time is at hand when God will make justice triumphant; and yet she goes on struggling, as Jacob did, with God, until the dawn of that terrible day, foretold by David and the Sibyl. At the thought of the pool of fire, into which her rebellious children are to be plunged, she seems to have almost forgotten the approach of the eternal nuptials, and lost her vehement longings as a bride. One would say that she thinks of nothing but of her being a mother; and, as such, she keeps on praying as she has always prayed, only more fervently than ever, that the end may be deferred (pro mora finis).
That we may fulfill her wishes, let us, as Tertullian says, 'assemble together in one body, that we may, so to speak, offer armed force to God by our prayers. God loves such violence as that.' But that our prayer may have power of that kind, it must be inspired by a Faith which is thorough, and proof against every difficulty. As it is our Faith which overcomes the world, so it is, likewise, our Faith which triumphs over God, even is cases which seem beyond all human hope. Let us do as our mother does, and think of the danger incurred by those countless, who madly play on the brink of the precipice, into which, when they fall, they fall forever. It is quite true they are inexcusable; it was only last Sunday that they were reminded of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, in the exterior darkness, which they will undergo that despise the call to the King's marriage-feast. But, they are our brethren, and we should not be quietly resigned to see them lose their souls. Let us hope against all hope. Did our Lord, Who knew with certainty that obstinate sinners would be lost, hesitate, on that account, to shed all His Blood for them?
It is our ambition to unite ourselves to Him by the closest possible resemblance; let us, then, be resolved to imitate Him in that also; at all events, let us pray without ceasing for the Church's and our enemies, so long as we are not assured of their being lost. Such prayer is never useless, never thrown away; for, come what may, God is greatly honored by their Faith, and by the earnestness of our charity.
Only, let us be careful not to merit the reproach uttered by our Redeemer against the halting faith of the fellow townsmen of the ruler of Capharnaum. We know that our Jesus has no need to come down from heaven to earth, in order to give efficiency to the commands of His gracious will. If He deign to multiply signs and wonders around us, we will rejoice at them, because of our brethren who are weak of faith; we will make them an occasion for exalting His holy Name; but we will lovingly assure Him that our soul has no need of new proofs of His power, in order to believe in Him!'
(Of course, in these days, these enemies are within the walls of the Church! They most certainly need prayers for their conversion. Our Lord said: "...he is either with Me or against Me..." and "...not everyone who says "Lord, Lord' will enter in heaven..." )
Following is how we should use our time wisely:
How may we redeem time?
By employing, as St. Augustine says, every moment, even with the loss of all temporal advantages, to gain the eternal goods, by letting no opportunity pass to do good, to labor and suffer through love for God, to improve our lives and increase in virtue.
"Do you wish to know," says the pious Cornelius a Lapide, "how precious time is: Ask the damned, for these know it from experience. Come, rich man, from the abyss of hell, tell us what you would give for one year, one day, one hour of this time! I would, he says, give the whole world, all pleasures, all treasures, and bear all torments. O, if only one moment were granted me to have contrition for my sins, for the forgiveness of my crimes, I would purchase this moment with every labor, with any penance, with all punishments, torments, and tortures, which men ever suffered in purgatory or in hell, even if they lasted hundred, yes a thousand million of years! O precious moment upon which whole eternity depends!"
O, how many moments did you, my dear Christian, neglect, in which you could have served God, could have done good for love of Him, and gained eternal happiness for them, and you lost these precious moments. Remember: with one moment of time, if you employ it well, you can purchase eternal happiness, but with whole eternity not one moment of precious time!
PRAYER:
Most bountiful God and Lord! I am heartily sorry, that I have so badly employed the time, which Thou hast given me for my salvation. In order to supply what I have neglected, as far as I am able, I offer up to Thee all that I have done or suffered from the first use of my reason, as if I had really to do and suffer it still; and, indeed, I offer it up in union with all the works and sufferings of our Saviour, and beg fervently, that Thou wilt supply, through His infinite merits, my defects, and wilt be pleased with all my actions and sufferings.
Words of Encouragement from St. Athanasius
... to the early Christians of the 4th century who refused to accept the Arian heresy, Christians who had lost their Church buildings to the heretics, but Christians who kept the faith. In the 21st century, we are in a quite similar situation.
St. Athanasius is a Doctor of the Church. He lived from 296 to 373 A.D.
“May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the Churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises -- but you have the apostolic faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the faith? The true faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in this struggle -- the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the faith?
“True, the premises are good when the apostolic faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ...
“You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the faith which has come down to you from apostolic tradition, and if an execrable jealously has tried to shake it in a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis.
“No one, ever, will prevail against your faith, beloved brothers, and we believe that God will give us our Churches back some day.
“Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church but in reality they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray.
“Even if Catholics faithful to tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the True Church of Jesus Christ."
We learn from this day's Gospel that the son grew better; for, as the ruler "was going down, his servant met him, and they brought him word that his son lived; and the father therefore knew that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, 'thy son liveth.'" Would that, from all here present, who are in mortal sin, the priest, in the tribunal of penance, could receive the blessed assurance, that during this sermon, " at the same hour" that you listened to my words, you resolved, within your hearts: "I will delay no longer; I will make a good confession, and save my soul." To which the whole celestial host cry: Amen!
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