Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The image is the Saint Bruno Chapel, a house built on rock, most fitting for this weekend's Gospel from Saint Matthew.

First Reading, Deuteronomy 11:18, 26-28, 32
Binding the words of Moses to the wrist and on the forehead would get the attention of any faithful Jew reading this passage from the Torah because this description would remind any faithful Jew of a phylactery. In fact, the Hebrew text translates the 'pendant on your forehead' portion of this verse as 'frontlets between your eyes'. A frontlet in Hebrew usage is a phylactery. A phylactery or tefillin, in Hebrew, is by description two small black leather cubes containing the scriptural verses of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Exodus 13:1-16. One of the leather cubes is attached to the left wrist and the other to the forehead. They are worn even to this day by Orthodox Jews during their weekday morning prayers. In Christianity, the early Church used phylacteries as containers for holy relics. A blessing or a curse solicits the free will of man. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: 'Endowed with a spiritual soul, with intellect and with free will, the human person is from his very conception ordered to God and destined for eternal beatitude' (CCC 1711). Saint Paul tells us that Christ was made a curse for us and thus has redeemed us from the curse (cf. Galatians 3:13). He surely sees these words in the Old Testament as prophetic: 'He is accursed of God that hangs on a tree' (Deuteronomy 21:23).

Second Reading, Romans 3:21-25, 28

Saint Paul has a unique and gifted way of enthusiastically showing us the path that leads to eternal blessedness, but at the same time kind of knocks us down a few pegs allowing us to experience a little humility by reminding us that we don’t deserve to be on this path. He teaches us that 'the righteousness of God' comes 'through faith in Jesus Christ' but never does he suggest that faith alone is sufficient. Faith is a gift from God and therefore must be shared which requires action. In this same book, Paul tells us that God will render to every man according to his works (cf. Romans 2:6). In that same chapter he says that it is not the hearers of the law but the doers of the law that shall be justified (cf. Romans 2:13). In his letter to the Galatians he writes that faith must include works of charity (cf. Galatians 5:6). Saint James tells us in the second chapter of his letter that faith without works is dead. In the Ten Commandments, keeping the Lord’s Day holy and honouring father and mother are acts of faith. All of the “thou shalt not” Commandments are warnings of what would be considered uncharitable, sinful acts motivating us to 'do' just the opposite. How could faith not have works? Even a contemplative monk who spends his entire day in prayer has works. And one of the mottos of monastic life is, 'ora et labora – pray and work'. Prayer is an act or work of faith. Faith and works actually do not stand side-by-side because it is more proper to say that they are a holy union and thus inseparable. The guilt of man made the written law of God necessary; but non-compliance to the written law made the guilty even guiltier. Because of the Incarnation, the justice of God and sanctification of man now comes to us by means of the graces of the Redeemer and faith in Christ Who God gave to all 'as an expiation'. For Christ alone is the Just One and the Justifier of all; and faith in Him calls us to service.

Gospel, Saint Matthew 7:21-27

Our Lord clearly is teaching us that it is not enough to have faith in Him and hear His words, but that works must be united with faith. 'On that day' which seems to suggest the Day of Judgment, not only will our level of faith be examined but also what we did with that gift of faith. Being a doer of faith means to be a missionary of Christ’s love or charity. Saint Paul, in the thirteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, outlines very well the importance of bringing our Lord’s love: 'If I should have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing' (1 Corinthians 13:2). The intention of the heart seems to come into play as well since prophesying and doing mighty deeds, which are works, could nevertheless have our Lord saying: 'I never knew you'. Saint John Chrysostom reminds us that Balaam in the Old Testament, who was void of faith and probity, still by the will of God prophesied for the advantage of others. And Judas, our Saviour’s betrayer, was able to cast out demons (cf. homily XV, Chrysostom). Thus, the external display of good works must flow from an interior soul that is prepared to serve God unconditionally. In the Catechism are these words: 'The prayer of faith consists not only in saying Lord, Lord, but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father. Jesus calls His disciples to bring into their prayer this concern for cooperating with the divine plan' (CCC 2611). Once again from Saint John Chrysostom are these words: 'Our Saviour dispenses His rewards to such as order their lives according to His instructions; but as before He promised the Kingdom of heaven, divine consolations, and other rewards, so here He promises them the numberless blessings attendant on virtue in this life. The just alone are surrounded with virtue as with a strong guard, and amidst the high swelling waves of worldly troubles, enjoy a calm and unchanging tranquility. Thus was Job strengthened by his virtue against the attacks both of men and Satan (homily XXV, Chrysostom). In an address to young people our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI said: 'What does it mean to build a house on the rock? Building on the rock means, first of all, to build on Christ and with Christ. We are not listening to any person; we are listening to Jesus. We are not asked to commit to just anything; we are asked to commit ourselves to the words of Jesus. To build on Christ and with Christ means to build on a foundation that is called crucified love. It means to build with Someone Who, knowing us better than we know ourselves, says to us: You are precious in My Eyes and honoured, and I love you (Isaiah 43:4). It means to build with Someone, Who is always faithful, even when we are lacking in faith, because He cannot deny Himself (cf. 2 Timothy 2:13). It means to build with Someone Who constantly looks down on the wounded heart of man and says: I do not condemn you, go and do not sin again (cf. John 8:11). It means to build with Someone Who, from the Cross, extends His Arms and repeats for all eternity: O man, I give My life for you because I love you. In short, building on Christ means basing all your desires, aspirations, dreams, ambitions and plans on His will. It means saying to yourself, to your family, to your friends, to the whole world and, above all to Christ: Lord, in life I wish to do nothing against You, because You know what is best for me. Only You have the words of eternal life (cf. John 6:68). My friends, do not be afraid to lean on Christ! Long for Christ, as the foundation of your life! Enkindle within you the desire to build your life on Him and for Him! Because no one who depends on the crucified love of the Incarnate Word can ever lose” (2006 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana).

A Wholly Creative and Energizing Reality

This piece is from the first letter to Serapion from Saint Athanasius 'On the Holy Spirit'. This was part of Matins for the Carthusians this past Sunday which was Sexagesima Sunday.

Our faith is this: the Trinity, holy and perfect, consists of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and created Being.

It is a wholly creative and energizing Reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the Unity of the Holy Trinity is preserved.

Accordingly, in the Church, one God is preached, one God Who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as Father, for He is Principle and Source; He is through all things through the Word; and He is in all things in the Holy Spirit.

There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of service but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God Who inspires them all in everyone.

Even the gifts that the Spirit dispenses to individuals are given by the Father through the Word.

For all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son, and so the graces given by the Son in the Spirit are true gifts of the Father. Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word Who bestows the Spirit is in us too, and the Father is present in the Word.

For grace and the gift of the Trinity are given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Just as grace is given from the Father through the Son, so there could be no communication of the gift to us except in the Holy Spirit. But when we share in the Spirit, we posses the love of the Father, the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Spirit Himself.

Staying on a Virtuous Course

Vouchsafe not to hear, much less read, any news, tidings, or pleasant histories, which serve not to procure a compunction in your heart, but to delight a curious mind, and afterwards to leave your soul corrupted and infected with sundry imaginations and vain desires.

Fly any special familiarity, liking, or conversation with worldly men, that is to say, with those that love earthly pleasures; enter not into any league of familiarity, good and special conversation with any such men, whose words and deeds do not edify you in this virtuous course; but avoid his company; and mortify all sensual love in yourself towards any of My creatures.

~ Alloquia Iesu Christi ad Animam Fidelem, by Lanspergius ~

God's Mercy Spreads Its Waters Over All

I doubt if I can say enough of this on account of my wretchedness. I am a fallen angel! I have left the heights of Being where You placed me when You created me. I did not know how to remain on that divine level, where I was truly in Your presence, in order to receive and reproduce the movement of Your Spirit, and recognize Him and His praise in all the created notes which reproduced Him without their knowing it. I had received the light which reveals this Gift of Self in everything, and the upsurge, conscious, awakened and in full light, which makes it return to You. I have lost that light, and have prevented that upsurge. I turned the light on myself instead of directing it towards You. I have deprived You of that glory and have wanted it for myself. I have reduced it to the measure of my own being, which is 'nothing'. And I have remained in that 'nothingness', and all created things that I should have raised with me to You I have forced to remain there with me. What a loss for us all! The consequences of original sin - and for that matter of all sin - are terrible, if one only knew.

Our Lord knew this and bent beneath the weight of that knowledge. 'My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me'(Saint Matthew 26:39), He cried with His Face bowed down to the ground, and His whole Body sweating Blood, while His Soul was sorrowful unto death (cf. Saint Matthew 26:38). He had descended to the terrible depths of my wretchedness, and by His Incarnation used that very wretchedness to raise me up. To the abyss of my misery He opposed an abyss still more profound, that of His mercy. This latter is so deep that we meet God there, and find again our lost Paradise. Our very misery brings us back to God; it completes our movement and, without attempting to define that movement, I have the impression that nothing befits Love more than Mercy. To give Himself to our 'nothingness' is beautiful and is a revelation of God's goodness, but to give Himself to our wretchedness is even better. To raise up calls for more love - is more the gift of self - than to create. The Redemption, the Blood of Jesus which flowed in our Lord's agony, at the flagellation and on Calvary, is Love's final word - if love can have a final word!

And You are that Love: You are this culminating height, and it is there my life of praise must be spent. Nor is creation excluded. I am still the voice of all Your creation, but it is at the foot of the Cross that I must sing my praise, joined by their voices united to mine and to that of the Son of man, commending His soul into your hands (cf. Saint Luke 23:46). There all things are accomplished: all is consummated (cf. Saint John 19:30).

God's mercy, as seen on Calvary, would seem to demand some kind of qualification, an epithet which does not exist. We need something to express - what, of course, is impossible - this God Who dies. We must fathom the depths separating these two words 'God' and 'death'. We would like to have explained to us that death and all the circumstances to which He Who died was willing to submit: simple 'accidents' no doubt and more understandable than the Being Who died and the death of such a Being, but none the less beyond our imagination. We would like to know all His capacity for feeling and consequently for suffering, with a body in which all, literally all, was broken, bruised and crushed as in a winepress(cf. Isaiah 63:3), exacting the last drop of His Blood. But for that we must know the Soul that animated that Body, the Soul that felt the strokes the Body bore. But here, as always, the mind hesitates... Endless perspectives of physical torture and moral martyrdom pass before my gaze and seem to challenge it, to dare my courage - or rather my lack of courage - to gaze to the full. The saints have done it, and did nothing else. And at the end of their contemplation they declared that they had not even crossed the threshold of that abyss.

From Calvary, God's mercy spread its waters over all men, at all times and in all places. It does so still, and will continue to spread them until the end of time. But here still, here always, mystery confronts me, puzzles me, defies and overwhelms me. How is one to penetrate the marvels operated by grace in a single soul? The words of the Psalmist come back to me: 'He has rejoiced as a giant to run the way' (Psalm 18:6). The Redeemer is the Giant Who runs. I see Him set out, but the way escapes me. I only know that it is immense, that the mere idea of knowing it and following in His Steps fills my heart with joy. And yet I must resign myself ever to confess my utter powerlessness, of which every meditation adds to my conviction and awakens my sorrow, were not even this sorrow a praise to the divine Majesty. Fortunately, Holy Scripture is there with its words full of comforting light and consolation; its words telling me almost all without my seeking, at least all I need to know. Perhaps one day I shall see it all more clearly; from that spring, which seems to me so deep, I may catch glimpses of those rivers that water the City of God (cf. Psalm 45:5). For the moment, I recall just one, but one so intensely moving, that its syllables have always been to me like a mother's caress: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore have I drawn you, taking pity on you' (Jeremiah 31:3).

How well You know, my God, to say these things, how delicate is Your touch. In You there is only love, and I still have not seen it clearly enough. Your mercy is but the reflection of Your love, when its light crosses the zone of the shadow cast by our sins. It is the movement of that light in the darkness(cf. Saint John 1:5). Our Lord, Who is that Light, came to enlighten that darkness. He, so to speak, left His Kingdom in order to meet that darkness and there restore the radiant Image of the Father. He came because He is Love. He is the Son of the Father Who is Love, and is that Love's perfect ray (cf. Wisdom 7:26). From the Father He received that essential movement - the need to give Himself - and thus Love gave birth, and is eternally giving birth, to Mercy. That love, that mercy, needs to spread itself, to communicate itself, to radiate its brightness. It bears this need within itself, because it is born of the paternal Bosom, whence this movement proceeds. The darkness, where that love and mercy do not shine, draws Him, appeals to this need, an appeal which seems to come from within it and says to him: 'Come....' And Mercy cannot resist this appeal, since it corresponds perfectly to this need so essential to His Being that He leaps and rejoices as a giant to run 'the way' (cf. Psalm 18:6). He becomes the Light Who gives Himself to the darkness, and shines therein becoming Mercy, the Love of 'Him Who is' for those who 'are not'.

And to this nothingness He gives the power to give itself, even as He gives Himself: that is, freely and by love. This is man's privilege, his free choice. He can welcome that Love or refuse it. If he responds, he becomes one with Him, and participates in His life and greatness. If he refuses, he remains in himself, in his nothingness, but in a nothingness shorn of all hope, a nothingness that could have been united to Being, to God. It was called to be so united by grace, and was given the necessary powers. It could have enjoyed that union of love, but has failed to fulfil God's plan for it. As a result, it has been left a failure and a ruined thing. This is the real unhappiness that the divine Mercy wants to succour.

~ Dom Augustin Guillerand ~

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading, Isaiah 49:14-15
The eighteenth-century French Oratorian biblical scholar, Charles-François Houbigant, defined 'Zion' as the Jewish people; and this Reading is their cry to God for feeling abandoned by Him, but it is a cry that prophetically speaking points to their eventual conversion to Christ in great numbers. Our Lord proclaims: 'I will never forget you'. God Himself, in the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity demonstrated His solidarity with the Jewish people as He hung on the Cross and cried out: 'My God, My God, why have You foresaken Me'? (Saint Matthew 27:46).

Second Reading, 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
William Hessels van Est was a sixteenth-century commentator on the Pauline epistles. His name most often appears under his Latin name: Estius. He has written that what Saint Paul meant by the 'mysteries of God' are the dogmas of faith revealed by the Almighty. Saint Jerome teaches us that Paul’s lack of concern for human judgment is meant to convey that Saint Paul will not be swayed by any judgment rendered by anyone in this life because he is not conscious of anything contrary to trustworthy stewardship of the mysteries of God. He is not conscious of anything that has taken his soul out of a state of grace. While this may sound a bit boastful, actually Saint Paul is instructing us by example -- and that example is: the true judgment will come in the last day and that Judge will be Almighty God Himself; and we are to live each day as if it were the last day, that is, always in a state of grace, not conscious of any mortal sins wounding our soul and separating us from God. This is not arrogance or boasting; otherwise, Saint Paul would have written that the last judgment for him is unnecessary. Again, commenting on this Reading, Estius wrote: 'If this privileged apostle was afraid to form any judgment of his own heart and thoughts, whether they were pure or not, but left the trial thereof to the day of judgment, the day of his death, how presumptuous are they, who dare to pronounce on their election and predestination'!

Gospel, Saint Matthew 6:24-34
If obsession for riches leads to hating God, can there be any more motive to serve God? What is the end result of chasing after what Saint Paul calls a corruptibilem coronam – corruptible crown (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:25)? Anxiety over life in the here and now has a way of pulling one’s heart and soul away from God. The treasures of this world are enticing and could deceive one into thinking that they are the answer to all of life’s problems – that is, what will ultimately lead to happiness. Any joy or comfort received from this life is all too fleeting because nothing in this life can last forever. In the American liturgy’s translation we read: 'Do not worry about your life' – the Latin text translates as: 'Be not solicitous for your life' and is understood to mean 'too solicitous' – in other words, 'don’t worry about your life too much'. The very essence of life on planet earth renders cause for concern. An Italian Jesuit Scripture scholar named Giovanni Stefano Menochio wrote these words in the seventeenth-century: 'Christ does not prohibit all care about temporal concerns, but only what hinders us from seeking the Kingdom of heaven in the first instance; or what makes us esteem more the things of this world, than those of the next'. Thus, living a worry-free life is virtually unattainable except perhaps for the supernaturally gifted soul immersed in constant prayer. Such a soul lived in our modern time – Saint Pio of Pietrelcina or as he is perhaps more affectionately referred to simply as Padre Pio. In fact, among the phrases that is said to have flowed from his lips is: 'Pray, hope, and don’t worry'. Another of the Church’s bible scholars, Father George Leo Haydock, wrote in the nineteenth-century: 'Why should the children of God fear want, when we behold the very birds of the air do not go without provision? Moreover, what possible good can this anxiety, this diffidence procure them? Almighty God gives life and growth, which you cannot do with all your solicitude, however intensely you think. Of how much greater consequence then is it to love and serve Him, and to live for Him alone'! Saint John Chrysostom adds: 'It is not without reason that men are in such great fear and distress, when they are so blind as to imagine that their happiness in this life is ruled by fate. But such as know that they are entirely governed by the will of God, know also that a store is laid up for them in His Hands'. And from Saint Thomas Aquinas are these words: 'He that delivers himself entirely into the Hands of God, may rest securely in both prosperity and adversity knowing that he is governed by a tender Father'. Our Saviour tells us that today has enough burdens of its own and worrying about tomorrow will only add to the load of today. Referring again to William Hessels van Est or Estius, the Pauline epistles’ commentator, he teaches us something about the great gift of faith – he wrote: 'It is the curse of the envious and wicked to be self-tormented, while they who live by faith, can always rejoice in hope, the true balm of every Christian's breast, the best friend of all in distress'.

Sober Intoxication

The Song of Songs is obscure. It indicates that these songs sung between God and a soul chosen as bride and mated and united to God in the human spirit’s chamber, united in the very Image of God are utterly mysterious and completely inexpressible. Not even the bride herself is able to express what she has perceived. When hearts have been moved to jubilation of this sort, the things that result within the spirit cannot be put into conventional and customary words. Just as people drunk with wine lose the ability to talk in a normal fashion, so the bride drunk with sober intoxication speaks in a way intelligible not to anyone and everyone, but only to lovers loving in a similar way.

~ Expositiones Mysticæ Cantica Canticorum, Dom Nicholas Kempf ~

Have No Peace with Any Vice

Many complain that they are unapt for contemplation and spiritual life, but their own negligence and sloth is the cause. They carry always about with them a heavy burden of unquiet thoughts filled with labour and vexation; but if you desire to enjoy Me have no peace at all with any vice. Banish from you all unprofitable discourses, cares, and businesses which yield no benefit at all to your soul. And never apply your mind to the thinking of any other matter, nor trouble yourself with any other affairs, but such as tend to My honour, the salvation of your own soul, or the commodity of your neighbour, that you being thus alone, and in this fort retired within yourself, may be possessed with Me, Who will never be matched with any other companion.

~ Alloquia Iesu Christi ad Animam Fidelem, by Lanspergius ~