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Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
- caelidomum
- Sep 13
- 6 min read
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Salvation.
The Gospel according to St. Matthew, vi. 24-33.
“At that time Jesus said to His disciples: No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will sustain the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat, and the body more than the raiment ? Behold the birds of the air; for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they ? And which of you, by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit ? And for raiment, why are you solicitous ? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they labor not, neither do they spin, but I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is to-day, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith ! Be not solicitous, therefore, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed ? for after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God and His justice; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation.
We will consecrate our meditation to-morrow to the sentence which occurs in the gospel of the day: “Seek ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God and His justice;” that is to say, let your salvation be your principal affair. And to excite ourselves rightly to fulfil the command of Our Saviour, we shall consider: 1st, the supreme importance of salvation; 2d, the means whereby we may save ourselves. We will thence deduce the resolution: 1st, always to keep our conscience in order, and never to remain twenty-four hours in a state which would compromise our salvation; 2d, to refer the employment of every moment to our salvation, proposing to ourselves as an end to please God in all things. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the gospel: “Seek ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God and His justice” (Matt. vi.33).
Meditation for the Morning.
Let us adore Jesus Christ teaching us in the gospel not to allow ourselves to be so taken up with the affairs of this world as to neglect our salvation. Let your first solicitude, He says to us, be your salvation, and holiness, which is the sole means of obtaining it. Let us thank Him for such useful and necessary advice.
The Supreme Importance of Salvation.
In order to fill ourselves with a lively faith in this truth, let us first question the saints — the men who studied the best during their lives, and who have learnt it by experience since their death. As long as they lived upon earth they believed that they never could do enough in regard to so serious a matter, and they were always afraid of never doing enough; the whole of their life was continually occupied in pursuing it day and night, and in constantly advancing this great affair. Abraham forsakes his country, his possessions, his family; Moses prefers the sufferings and the poverty of the people of God to all the pleasures and all the treasures of Egypt. Under the Old and the New Law hermits bury themselves in deserts, hide themselves in caverns, become extenuated by fastings and watchings; martyrs allow themselves to be devoured by flames, torn by wild beasts, deluged in blood; multitudes of others lead a life of purity, of prayer, and devotion in the midst of the world; and now that they are in heaven, far from believing that they have done too much, if they could feel any regret it would be not to have done a thousand times more for an affair in which success gives so much happiness, and in which an unhappy issue is so terrible. And I, my God ! what have I done for my salvation in comparison with Thy saints ? Are there in heaven saints who have been saved by living as I live, by praying as I pray, without mortifying themselves anymore, without being more humble, more recollected, more generous in serving Thee ? Let us consult the lost themselves on this question. Upon earth salvation was the least of their cares, but now, oh, how differently they think ! how bitterly they regret and will regret always to have esteemed anything more than they did salvation ! Let us ask these unhappy ones, in the midst of the flames which devour them, whether the sacrifices demanded by salvation are excessive, compared with hell; let us ask them what they would do if God were to put again in their hands the great affair so unhappily conducted the first time. With what ardor they would labor at it ! how they would tread all obstacles under foot ! how well they would pray ! how holily they would live ! If, after having consulted those who know by experience the importance of salvation, we consult God, He will reply that it is for our salvation He created everything; the universe, with its laws and its miracles, and the mysteries of the crib, of Calvary, of the altar, of the Church, and the sacraments; and that the greatness of the means reveals the supreme importance of the end. If afterwards we consult ourselves, our reason will tell us that salvation ought to be the great business with which we ought to be occupied at every moment, because, of all kinds of matters, it is the only personal one, the only necessary, the only urgent one. Let us meditate upon these three things. It is the sole personal affair. It is a matter which concerns me more than my fortune, my honor, my life; it has to do with my destiny during eternity, and this destiny depends so much upon myself that God, all powerful though He be, cannot save me without my co-operation. His the sole thing necessary. I can do without all the rest, but to do without heaven and to have hell in exchange is not possible. If I had to cut off my arm, tear out my eye, allow the whole world to perish, I would prefer all that, rather than lose my soul. Lastly, it is the sole thing that is urgent. No one can answer for the morrow; the more we put it off, the more difficult it is to break off habits, and the more diminished do graces become. I ought never to live for twenty-four hours in a state in which I should not desire to die. Is it thus that we understand salvation ?
The Means of Acquiring Salvation.
The first means is to say to myself before each action that I am going to perform, each decision that I am about to make, Of what use is it in regard to my salvation ? Is it a thing which will be in opposition to the interests of my salvation, or only dangerous, or even only useless in regard to my salvation ? If it be so, I ought to interdict it to myself; my salvation is my all; I ought not to amuse myself with anything which does not tend towards it, still less stop at what may expose it to risk, less still to what may compromise it. On the other hand, is it what will be advantageous for my salvation? Then I ought lovingly to embrace it, without examining whether it is a matter of precept or of counsel. The man of business always aims at the greatest gains, at the most efficacious and surest means of enriching himself. Why should I do less in regard to my salvation ? The second means is to begin from this very day ardently to pursue this great affair, and in order the better to succeed, to embrace everything which I know to be most perfect. There is no room here to say, Later on, when I am free from such or such a care, I will live in a better manner; the affair of salvation is a very urgent affair, which is compromised by any kind of delay. There is no saying, I am not obliged to aim at perfection. To aim at perfection is a strict precept, and heaven is made only for the perfect, or the saints (Matt. v. 48). The third means is to detach our hearts from everything that will not be of any use in regard to our salvation. Since salvation is all in all for us, why should we tie ourselves to anything else ? any attachment we may have which will be a tie, which will bind us and expose us to risk our salvation ? Let us here examine our conscience; are we faithful to these three means of salvation?
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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