Rev. Fr.
Leonard Goffine's The Church's
Year
Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost
REMARK If from Pentecost until
Advent there be only twenty-three Sundays, the following one is
omitted, and the Mass of the twenty-fourth is said.
The Introit of the Mass
consoles and incites us to confidence in God who is so benevolent
towards us, and will not let us pine away in tribulation. The Lord
saith: I think thoughts of peace, and not of affliction: you shall
call upon me, and I will hear you: and I will bring back your
captivity from all places. (Fer. XXIX. 11. 12. 14.) Lord, thou hast
blessed thy land: thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob. (Ps.
LXXXIV.) Glory etc.
COLLECT Absolve, we beseech Thee, 0
Lord, Thy people from their offences: that through Thy bountiful
goodness we may be freed from the bonds of those sins which through
our frailty we have contracted. Thro',
EPISTLE (Philipp. III 17-21.: IV, 1-3.)
Brethren, Be followers of me, and observe them who walk so as you
have our model. For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and
now tell you weeping), that they are enemies of the cross of Christ:
whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory
is in their shame, who mind earthly things. But our conversation is
in heaven: from whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus
Christ, who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the
body of his glory, according to the operation whereby also he is
able to subdue all things unto himself. Therefore, my dearly beloved
brethren, and most desired, my joy and my crown: so stand fast in
the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beg of Evodia, and I beseech
Syntyche, to be of one mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, my
sincere companion, help those women who have labored with me in the
gospel with Clement and the rest of my fellow-laborers, whose names
are in the book of life.
EXPLANATION There are unhappily many
Christians, who, as St. Paul complains, are, declared enemies of
Christ's cross, who do not wish to mortify their senses, who only
think of gratifying their lusts, and, as it were, find their only
pleasure, even seek their honor, in despising the followers of Jesus
and His saints on the narrow path of the cross, of mortification and
humiliation. What will be the end of these people? Eternal
perdition! For he who does not crucify the flesh, does not belong to
Christ. (Gal. V. 24.) He who does not bear the-marks of the
mortification of Jesus in his body, in him the life of Christ shall
not be manifested. (II Cor. IV. 10.) He who does not walk in heaven
during his, life-time, that is, who does not direct his thoughts and
desires heavenward, and despise the world and its vanities, will not
find admission there after his death.
ASPIRATION Would to God , I could say
with St. Paul: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world.
(Gal. VI. 14.)
GOSPEL
(Matt. IX. 18-26.) At that time, As Jesus was speaking to the
multitudes, behold, a certain ruler came up, and adored him, saying:
Lord , my daughter is even now dead: but come, lay thy hand upon
her, and she shall live. And Jesus, rising up, followed him, with
his disciples. And behold, a woman, who was troubled with an 'issue
of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his
garment. For she said within herself: If I shall touch only his
garment, I shall be healed. But Jesus turning and seeing her, said:
Be of good heart, daughter: thy faith hath made thee whole. And the
woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus was come into
the house of the ruler, and saw the. minstrels and the multitude
making a tumult, he said: Give place: for the girl is not dead, but
sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. And when the multitude was
put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand. And the maid arose.
And the fame hereof went abroad into all that country.
INSTRUCTIONS I. Filial was the faith, unbounded the
confidence, profound the humility of this woman, and therefore, she
received health also. Learn from this, how pleasing to the Lord is
faith, confidence and humility; let your prayer always be penetrated
by these three virtues, and you will receive whatever you
ask.
II. The devout Louis de Ponte
compares the conduct of this woman to our conduct at holy Communion,
and says: Christ wished to remain with us in the most holy
Eucharist, clothed with the garment of the sacramental species of
bread, that he who receives His sacred flesh and blood, may be
freed from evil concupiscence. If you wish to obtain the health of
your soul, as did this woman the health of the body, imitate her.
Receive the flesh and blood of Jesus with the most profound
humility, with the firmest confidence in His power and goodness, and
like this woman you too will be made whole.
III. Jesus called three dead
persons to life, the twelve year old daughter of Jairus, ruler of
the synagogue, of whom there is mention made in this gospel, the
young man at Naim, (Luke VII. 14.) and Lazarus. (John. XI- 43.) By
these three dead persons three classes of sinners may be understood:
the maiden signifies those who sin in their youth through weakness
and frailty, but touched by the grace of God, perceive their fall
and easily rise again through penance; by the young man at Naim
those are to be understood who sin repeatedly and in public, these
require greater grace, more labor and severer penance; by Lazarus,
the public and obdurate habitual sinners are to be understood who
can be raised to spiritual life only by extraordinary graces and
severe public penance.
IV. Christ did not raise the
maiden, until the minstrels and noisy multitude were removed, by
which He wished to teach us that the conversion of a soul cannot be
accomplished in the midst of the noise and turmoil of temporal
cares, idle pleasures and associations.
INSTRUCTION CONCERNING RIDICULE AND
DERISION
And they laughed him to
scorn. (Matt IX. 24.)
When Jesus told the minstrels
and the crowd that the girl was not dead, but sleeping, they laughed
at Him, because they understood not the meaning of His words.
Sensual-minded men generally act in the same manner towards the
priests and ministers of God, who by their word and example admonish
them to despise honors, riches and pleasures, and to embrace the
love of poverty, humility and mortification. This is, an
unintelligible and hateful language to them which they ridicule and
mock just as they do when they hear that death is a sleep, from
which we shall one day awake and be obliged to appear before the
judgment-seat of God. Woe to such scoffers by whose ridicule so many
souls are led from the path "of virtue! What the devil formerly,
accomplished by tyrants in estranging men from God and a lively
faith in Him and His Church, he seems to wish to accomplish in our
days by the mockery, scoffs, and blasphemies of wicked men; for at
no period have piety and virtue, holy simplicity and childlike
faith, adherence to the holy Roman Church and her laws, reverence
for her head, her ministers and priests, been more mocked, derided
and blasphemed. Unhappily many permit themselves to be induced by
mockery to abandon piety, to omit the public practice of their
faith, to conceal their Catholic conviction, and to lead a lukewarm,
careless, indeed, sinful life. Woe to the scoffers! they are an
abomination to the Lord (Prov. III. 32.) who will one day require
from their hands all the souls perverted by them. Do not permit
yourself to be led astray by those who ridicule your faith and zeal
for virtue; remember the words of Jesus: He that shall deny me
before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
(Matt. X. 33.) Let Jesus be your consolation, He was scoffed and
blasphemed for your sake, and often say within yourself:
I know, my most amiable
Jesus, that the servant cannot be more than his master. Since Thou
wert so often sneered at, mocked and blasphemed, why should I wonder
if I am derided for my faith in Thee and Thy Church, and for the
practice of
virtue! |