Traditional Catholic Teaching - TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind. St. Matthew 22: 37.

When God commands us to love Him, it is not because He derives any advantage, pleasure or additional honour from our doing so; it is inevitable that a creature must glorify God, but man, who possesses reason, has it in his power to glorify Him voluntarily or involuntarily. If a man turns to God in love and seeks Him in all that he does, thinks or speaks; if he makes God's glory his aim throughout life, rather than his own welfare; if he cares little about possessing other things, and desires chiefly to be intimately united with his Creator, he is glorifying God voluntarily, and this voluntary service is meritorious to himself. If, on the other hand, he is indifferent towards God, making himself and not God the object of all his exertions, if he even goes so far as to cherish feelings of hostility to God and His holy Commandments; if he is lost in self-love or in love of created things so completely as to care nothing at all for God, and, having lost all faith, to idolize himself alone and worship material objects, he must still glorify God, although he does so involuntarily. He cannot help glorifying God's wisdom and power that are manifested in man's inability, in spite of all his efforts, to alter the decrees of God. Thus Joseph's brethren glorified God's wisdom, for, when they despised the Lord and His Commandments and sold their brother into slavery, they were actually assisting to carry out God's designs.

Goliath mocked the people of Israel and their God, but he was giving an opportunity to God's loving providence to reveal itself, and he was overcome and slain by the hand of the youngest and most insignificant among the chosen people. Nabuchodonosor commanded divine honours to be rendered to his statue, but his wickedness only contributed to God's glory, for his real weakness, and the weakness of all who rebel against God, became apparent when he went mad. Those who refuse to love God, cannot help contributing to His glory, in spite of their bad will, for in their case His justice is revealed, and after vainly struggling against His will, they are finally overtaken by eternal punishment. It depends, therefore, upon a man's will whether he loves God, and by loving Him glorifies Him and obtains his own salvation; or whether, turning away from God, he glorifies Him by his own weakness and suffering, and finally loses his own soul.

When our Saviour told us that the Commandment requiring us to love God was the first and greatest of all the Commandments, He was aiming at nothing but our good; and to-day's Gospel is a loving admonition to be careful for our own salvation. Why are we often so lukewarm, doing right in a mechanical way, by force of habit, rather than zealously and with real interest in the welfare of our souls? We act in a most contradictory way, for we forget and neglect what is indispensable to our happiness, although there is innate in all our hearts a constant craving after it. The care for our own salvation should be the most important business of our lives, for it affects something infinitely more desirable than all the advantages of this world. If we are really anxious to be saved, we shall seek the love of God, indestructible, unchanging — peace of heart and eternal bliss. Our salvation means our being united with the great, wise, loving God, our knowing Him as He is, in all His infinite grace and mercy, our recognizing in all His works the unfathomable greatness of His power, our loving Him, as children love their father, though with a far closer and more heartfelt love, having no wishes or cravings apart from this love, but being filled with peace and joy, such as our feeble, perishable hearts now can not contain.

If we think of this glory in God, this intense, ineffable love of Him, is it possible for us not to wish most earnestly to attain to it? Must not every other longing, every dream of earth vanish before it? Are we not drawn irresistibly towards Him who is our All? Can any desire for earthly things make us deaf to the call of this holy love and of eternal happiness?

Man exerts himself to win prosperity in this world, although it is often a mere phantom, so fleeting as to deserve rather to be described as misery. Our only true happiness, our only true joy, truth, clearness of vision and bliss are in heaven. Let this be our aim, let us not cast away our treasure in heaven for the sake of the filth of earth. Yet this simile is most inadequate; for we are speaking of something absolutely indescribable, the possession of God Himself. Can we throw this aside for some fleeting advantage here? No; it is indispensable for us to labour earnestly for our own salvation, in order to secure it. You all know the parable of the five foolish virgins, who, having no oil, went too late to purchase some, and consequently came to the bridegroom's door only to find it closed, and to hear Him say: "I know you not." If now, in the days of our health, whilst we have strength and vigour, we do not trouble to know Jesus and His love, if we have in our hearts no fire of love, no ardent longing to serve God and please Christ, if our good works do not shine with light, how shall we fare at the hour of death, when through our whole being rings the cry: "The Bridegroom cometh"?

Black darkness will prevail within us, for the joys of this world will no longer charm us as in our time of health; the consolations of the world will leave us cold, and even if we try to persuade ourselves that our illness is not dangerous, we shall still hear the cry: "The Bridegroom cometh." Then we shall look for the lamp that has perhaps long been extinguished; and it may be that with sorrow we shall have to confess: "It burned brightly in my childhood, but gradually I forgot this lamp of Divine love, and now it has gone out and lies neglected in some obscure corner." In our urgent need we may look for it and try to set light to it, but we shall have no oil; the good works that we have failed to do cannot then be accomplished. It is possible for the foolish virgins to find mercy at the last hour, but the merit that they failed to secure is gone forever. Let us be eager now to make our salvation sure. Let us set to work quietly, but with determination, and labour at our task by fervent prayer, by faithful fulfilment of our duties, by obedience and by conquering the enemy, who, like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Do not put off matters until tomorrow, for your enemy who desires your ruin will not postpone his assaults; he is always awake, and will miss no opportunity of destroying you when he finds you off your guard. To-morrow may never come, so do your best to-day to secure your salvation, for perhaps the night is already close at hand, when no man can work. Amen.

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