18th Sunday after Pentecost –
September 30, 2012
Epistle 1 Corinthians 1: 4-6 Gospel Matthew 9: 1-8
St. Paul urges the Corinthians to
remain true in their faith to “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The coming
of our Lord is the end of time as we know it and it is close. Even if it’s
3,000 years away it is close because to God “a thousand years is as one day.” (2 Peter 3: 8)
His coming will be accompanied by great
violence. St. Peter tells us that the earth we live on will be completely burnt
up and everything on it. (2 Peter 3: 9-17) Remember this if you ever want to join
the infidels in saying, “There is no God.” (Psalm 13:
1) It is pride and the
corruption of sin that causes people to reject the light of reason in denying
God’s existence. They misuse reason to try to prove God does not exist, but
reason only leads to God and His One True Church and so their lives are folly.
St.
Paul gives thanks for the Corinthians who “are made rich in [Christ], in all
utterance, and in all knowledge, as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in”
them. This leads Abbot Guéranger to pray that in these days when faith is being
greatly weakened that it be kept in full splendor and purity by Christ’s
priests. “In spite of all threats, in spite of the noisy passions which are
boisterous against any priest who dares to preach the truth, let their voice be
what it should be – that is, an echo of
the Word: let it vibrate with the holy firmness of the saints!” (The Liturgical Year, 18th Sunday after
Pentecost)
Abbot
Rupert wrote that “pastors of souls should not be ignorant of the reason why
they are placed higher than other men: it is not so much that they may govern
others, as that they may serve them.” (Rupert, Divine Offices 12: 18) He adds that priests should do what it
is their duty to do so that they may afterwards preach with authority. Priests
are to bear on themselves the sins of the people confided to their care in
order that they all may avert the wrath of God. This is actually the example
given to us in today’s Offertory prayer where Moses “made an evening sacrifice
to the Lord God for an odor of sweetness, in the sight of the children of
Israel,” where the “evening sacrifice” is the life of prayer and contemplation
of the priest, and the “odor of sweetness” is the forgiveness of sin.”
From the beginning of the Church heretics have
denied that priests had the power given them by Christ of forgiving sin,
thereby condemning all those millions who had fallen into sin after their
Baptism. However, they can be restored to Sanctifying Grace and to a place in
His Kingdom by the Sacrament of Penance. How do we know this? Jesus said to His
disciples: “Whose sins you shall
forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall
retain, they are retained.” (John 20: 23)
The
paralytic in today’s Gospel represents the human race. His physical cure was
also proof of the spiritual cure of his soul which prior to this had suffered
the paralysis of sin. What happened to the paralytic then happens to the world today
when it receives the Sacrament of Penance, it rises up from its bed of sin,
roles it up and carries it into the House of God, the Church. This confounds
philosophers and skeptics and devils, as still today we continue rising up from
our bed of sin and walking toward heaven. Even angels, who watch this
happening, are amazed and sing glory to “God, who gave such power to men.”
At
Apocalypse 3: 15, 16 Christ, through St. John, addresses the
Angel of the Church at Laodicea. It is addressed to all the faithful, but
particularly to the Bishop of Laodicea, as he is the angel, the messenger, of
Christ’s Church. “I know thy works,” the
bishop is told, “that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold,
or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin
to vomit thee out of my mouth.” This was a warning to the Church at Laodicea, and
it is a warning to all of us today.
Are you bad or
good or lukewarm and how do we know which category we are in? Consider those
who never go to Confession or Communion. These are not lukewarm. They are cold.
Also, consider those who want to belong to the world and also belong to God.
One moment they’re on their knees before God, and the next on their knees to
the things of the world. Promising to give themselves to both God and the
world, they finally tire of this impossible task and give themselves entirely
to the world. These are also cold.
The faith of a good
soul is not content just to believe all the truths of our faith. He loves them
and tries to learn what he can about them. The more he hears the Word of God,
the more he wants to hear. He trembles at the thought of his judgment, so he
seeks to improve himself every day and find new ways to do penance. His hope is
firm and his trust in God is never shaken. He never forgets the sufferings of
Jesus. He remembers the happiness of those who prefer God above all things. He
will do whatever is necessary to avoid the near occasions of sin. He sees
himself on the bottom rung of a ladder and knows that there is no time to lose
to reach the top. So every day he advances from rung to rung, from virtue to
virtue, until he enters eternity. This is a good soul.
The
lukewarm soul is not yet dead in the eyes of the Lord because faith, hope and
charity are not completely extinguished. However, his faith is without much
enthusiasm or devotion. His hope is without much ambition or achievement. His
charity is without much generosity or warmth. He is not seriously interested in
making himself acceptable to God. If you wish to shake yourself out of
lukewarmness, then take your thoughts occasionally to the gates of hell. Listen
to the howling and shrieking of the lost souls there and you will get an idea
of what suffering they go through because during their lives they neglected
their salvation. Raise your thoughts also to heaven to behold the glory of the
Saints who during their lives fought the devil at every opportunity, who lived
for God, and who loved their neighbors as themselves. Think about how the
Saints forgave those who persecuted them,
how they carefully avoided even the smallest sin, and how they shed tears
over their past sins. Let us pray with our whole hearts that God will grant us
the grace to follow in the footsteps of the Saints and that at the end of life
we find ourselves in the state of a good soul and so gain eternal bliss with
God in heaven. +++
We
Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass
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