Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

The Dominical cycle of the Time after Pentecost completes today its first seven. Previous to the general adoption of the changes introduced into the Sunday Gospels for this portion of the Year, the Gospel of the multiplication of the seven loaves gave its name to the seventh Sunday, and the mystery it contains is still evident in more than one section of today’s liturgy.

As we have already seen, this mystery was that of the consummation of the perfect in the repose or rest of God Himself. It was the fruitful peace of the divine union. Nothing, then, could be more fitting than that Solomon, who is the Peaceful by excellence, the sacred and authorised chanter of the nuptial Canticle, should have been selected to come forward, on this day to speak the praises of infinite Wisdom and reveal her ways to the children of men. When Easter is kept as late in April as it is possible, the seventh Sunday after Pentecost is the first of the month of August. And the Church then begins, in her night Office, the lessons from the Sapiential Books. Otherwise, she continues the historic scriptures, and that, some years, for five weeks more — but, even in that case Eternal Wisdom maintains her rights to this Sunday, which the number of Seven had already made hers in so special a way. For, when we cannot have the inspired instructions of Proverbs, we have Solomon’s own example preaching to us in the Third Book of Kings: we find him preferring Wisdom to all other treasures, and, on the throne of his father David, making her sit there with him as his inspirer and most noble Bride.

Saint Jerome, who has been appointed by the Church herself as the interpreter of today’s scripture lessons, tells us that David, at the close of his life of wars and troubles, knew as well as Solomon the loveliness of this incomparable Bride of the Peaceful. The chill of his age was remedied by her caresses, whose very contact is purity. “That this Wisdom may be mine,” exclaims the fervent solitary of Bethlehem, “may she embrace me, and abide with me. She never grows old. She is ever the purest of virgins, fruitful yet ever immaculate. I think the Apostle meant her, when he speaks of a something that can make us fervent in spirit (Romans xii. 11): So again, when our Lord tells us, in the Gospel, that, at the end of the world, the charity of many will grow cold (Matthew xxiv. 12), I believe it will be because Wisdom will then grow rare.”
“Reckon that you are dead unto sin, but alive to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans vi. 11). The Apostle of the Gentiles enters today into the development of this leading formula of the Christian life. The Epistle of last Sunday aimed exclusively at putting it in language that could not be misunderstood. It showed us that it expresses what is meant by that Baptism which, when we are immersed in the water, unites us to Christ. There, as in a sepulchre, the death of Jesus becomes ours and delivers us from sin. Sold under sin (Romans vii. 14) by our First Parents even before we had seen the day, and branded with its infamous stigma, our whole life belonged to the cruel tyrant. He is a master who is never satisfied with our service. He is a merciless exactor. There is scarce an hour that he does not make us feel his power over the members of our body. He does not allow us to forget that our body is his slave. But, if the life of a slave is under his master’s control, death comes at last and sets the soul free. And as to the body, the oppressor can claim nothing once it is buried (Job ii. 18).

Now, it was on the Cross of the Man-God, on the Cross of that Jesus who, as the Apostle so strongly expresses it, was made sin (2 Corinthians v. 21) because of our sins — it was on that Cross that guilty human nature was considered by God’s merciful justice to have become what its divine and innocent Head was. The old man, that was the issue of Adam the sinner, has been crucified. He has died in Christ. The slave by birth, affranchised by this happy death, has had buried under the waters of Baptism the body of sin which carried in its flesh the mark of its slavery. The body of sin was indeed our flesh. Not that innocent flesh which originally came all pure from its Creator’s hands, but the flesh which, generation after generation, was defiled by the transmission of a disgraceful inheritance. In Baptism, which the Apostle calls the mysterious sepulchre, the sacred stream has not only washed away the defilement of this degraded body, but it has also set it free from those members of sin, which are the evil passions.

These passions were powers of iniquity, that is, powers which deformed and turned into uncleanness, those faculties and organs with which God had endowed us that we might fulfil all justice, to sanctification (Colossians iii. 5-9). At that moment of our Baptism the strong-armed tyrant forfeited his possession of us (Luke xi. 21). That Baptism was a death which set his slave free. Sin being thus destroyed, the head of triple concupiscence has been severed, and the monster may writhe as he can. Aided by grace, man thus liberated may always prevent, if he wishes, the coils of the serpent from again being joined with their head. Yes, this is the manifold, yet single, work of holy Baptism: in the twinkling of an eye, and by its own power, it extirpates sin and annihilates all its rights over us. But once this is achieved, man must co-operate with the grace of the sacrament. That is, he must keep watch over his treacherous inclinations to sin which comes to life again by the slightest encouragement. He must be ever keeping up the work which his baptism day began, that is, he must be ever cutting down the vile and noxious weeds which are ever cropping up.

First, then, there is the death of sin which, in its complete and sudden defeat of the old enemy, is the result of God’s divine operation. But all this is to be followed up by a work which belongs to the affranchised slave to do — the life-long work of mortification of the spirit and the senses. It is the virtue of the first sacrament which is still telling on the Christian in this work of two-fold mortification. In his mortification, the sacrament is still pushing on its ceaseless work of vengeance against sin. Holy Baptism having of itself alone operated in the wretched slave of sin what God alone could empower it to achieve, summons man, now that his chains have fallen, to join her in the glorious work of maintaining his liberty. She invites him to share with her the honour of the divine victory over Satan and his works.

The keeping down the flesh will be again brought before us next Sunday as the true indicator of liberty on this Earth, and as the authentication of our being truly children of God. As the Apostle says: “Let not sin reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts of it. Neither yield your your members as instruments of iniquity to sin, but present yourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of justice to God. For sin will not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants are you whom you obey, whether it be of sin to death, or of obedience to justice. But thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin... but being freed from sin, we have been made servants of justice” (Romans vi. 12-18).

And will we do less for Justice than is being done everywhere in favour of our enemy, Sin? Surely justice deserves that we should make greater efforts in her service than for that odious tyrant who requites his slaves with nothing but shame and death. And yet, admirable condescension of God to our weakness! We have Saint Paul telling us in today’s Epistle, in the name of the Holy Ghost, we will be saints, we will attain eternal life (Romans vi. 19-23) if we will but serve justice with as much earnestness as we once served uncleanness and iniquity.

Let us humble ourselves at hearing such words. Let us be honest, and we will feel that they contain a reproach. For many of us, we might ask: What has become of that intense ardour with which we once used to follow after sin? To say that we have converted our ways would be no answer, for a conversion does not paralyse our faculties: it enlists our natural energy in God’s service, it even intensifies it by the very fact of its now being employed as originally intended. At all events, conversion does not lessen the activity which was in us before our conversion. It would be an insult to grace to accuse it of diminishing in us the gifts of God. What lessons, then, may we not learn, by seeing how eager in the pursuit of honour, interest or pleasure are the votaries of the world! What earnestness, what toil, what perseverance, what frequent sufferings, what abnegation at every turn, what misplaced heroism, and all for the purpose of satisfying the seven heads of the beast, and tasting a few drops of the poisoned cup of Babylon! (Apocalypse xvii. 7).

There are many souls in Hell who have gone through more fatigue and pain to procure their damnation than even the martyrs endured for Christ. And even with all that, never attaining the object they sought to obtain in this world! So true is it, that the fools who are the most subservient to Satan’s wishes, do not always succeed in enjoying, not even for a single day, the vile rewards he promises his slaves. Justice treats her followers in a very different way. She does not degrade, she does not deceive them that keep her. She blesses them with peace of mind at every step they take in duty-doing. She is ever enriching their treasure of merit. She leads them safely to the perfection of love. The life of union divine then grows, almost spontaneously, on that high ground of Justice. It rests on Justice, as a flower does on its stem. “He that possesses Justice,” says the Scripture, “will lay hold on Wisdom: he will find delights in that divine Wisdom, which surpasses all that earth could procure” (Ecclesiasticus xv. 1-8).

Would it then be fair to hesitate about going through those toils which procure Heaven for us, and are a preparation made here on Earth for the glories which are to be revealed in us in our eternal home? The present life, however long it may be, seems but momentary to a faithful soul. She is glad to give this proof of the love she bears to Him she longs for. “Jacob,” says Saint Augustine, “gave his twice seven years of service (Genesis xxix. 18-30) for the sake of Rachel, whose name, they tell us, signifies, vision of the Beginning, that is, of the Word, that is, of the Wisdom which shows us God. Every virtuous man on earth loves this Wisdom. It is for her he works and suffers by serving Justice. What he, like Jacob, aims at by his labours is not the fatigue for its own sake, but the possession of that which the fatigue is to bring him, namely, the fair Rachel, that is to say, rest in the Word in whom we have the vision of the Beginning. Is there any true servant of God who can have any other thought, when he is under the influence of grace? Once converted, what is it that man wishes for? What are his thoughts on? What has he in his heart ? What is it that he thus passionately loves and desires? It is the knowledge of Wisdom. Of course, man would, if he could, avoid all fatigue and suffering and come straight to the delights which he knows are in the exquisitely beautiful and perfect Wisdom. But that cannot be in the land of the dying. ‘If you desire Wisdom, keep justice, and God will give her to you’ (Ecclesiasticus i. 33). Justice here means the commandments, and the commandments prescribe works of Justice, of that Justice which comes of Faith. And Faith lives amid the uncertainty of temptations, that by piously believing what it does not as yet understand, it may merit the happiness of understanding. We are not, therefore, to find fault with the ardour of those who are possessed by the desire to possess Truth in its unveiled loveliness. What we must do is to put order in their love by telling them to begin with faith and strive, by the exercise of good deeds, to arrive at the bliss they long for. Do you love and desire, at the very onset, and above all things, this object which is so worthy of your possession, but let the ardour which burns within you show itself, first of all, by its leading you to cheerfully endure the fatigues of the road which leads to the prize towards which your love is all directed. Yes, and when you have got up to it, remember you will never enjoy beautiful Truth in this life without having, all the same happy while, to be still cultivating laborious Justice. However comprehensive and pure may be the sight granted to mortal men of the unchangeable Good, the corruptible body is a load on the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the mind that muses on many things (Wisdom ix. 15) One, then, is that to which we must tend. But many are the things we are to bear for that one’s sake.”

For each individual Christian, as for the Church at large, the security of the spiritual building depends primarily on the firmness of the foundation, which is Faith. The Holy Ghost will not build on a foundation that is unsound or unsafe. When, especially, He is to lead a soul to the higher degrees of divine union, He exacts from her, as the first condition, that her Faith, too, be above the average — a Faith, that is, with heroism enough to fight successfully those battles which brace the soul and so render her worthy of light and love. In every stage of the Christian life, however, it is Faith that provides love with its enduring and substantial (Hebrews xi. 1) nourishment. It is Faith that gives to the virtues their supernatural motives and makes them fit to form a worthy court for their queen, Charity. A soul’s development never goes beyond the measure of her Faith. The capaciousness of Faith, and its ever growing plenitude, and its certified conformity with truth — these are the guarantee of the progress which will be made by a just man, whereas all such holiness as affects to be guided by a Faith which is cramped or false, is holiness of a very dubious kind, and one that is exposed to most fearful illusions.

It was, therefore, a good and a wholesome thing that Faith should be put to the test, for it grows brighter and stronger under trial. Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews xi. 4-40) is enthusiastic in his praise of the triumphs won by the Faith of our forefathers. Could there be denied to the new Covenant those glorious combats which constituted the eternal merit and honour of the Saints who lived in the period of expectation and figures? It is by their victorious Faith in the word of the promise that all those worthy ancestors of the Christian people merited to have God Himself as their praise-giver (Hebrews xi. 2, 39). For us who joyously have possession of that Messiah who to them was but the object of their heroic hope, our trial cannot be like theirs — the trial of expectation. This is quite true. And yet heresy, which is the offspring of man’s pride and Hell’s malice — heresy and its manifold outcomings, which are ever producing the diminution of truth in this world of ours (Psalm xi. 2) — yes, it is through these that we will win merit by our possession of what they beheld and saluted only afar off (Hebrews xi. 13). Man is ever trying to intrude his foolish ideas into the truths of divine revelation and, as to the prince of this world (John xvi. 11), he will do all in his power to encourage these audacious attempts at corrupting the purity of the Word.

But Wisdom, who is never overcome (Wisdom vii. 30), will turn all these impious efforts into an occasion of glorious victories for her children. Here we have the reason why God permitted from the very commencement of the Church’s existence, and still permits, that sects should be continually springing up. It is in the battle field against error that the Church brings forth the armour of God (Ephesians vi. 11-17) and shows herself all brilliant with that absolute truth, which is the brightness of the Word, her Spouse (Hebrews i. 3). It is by the personal triumph over the spirit of lying, and by the spontaneous adhesion to the teachings of Christ and his Church, that the Christian shows himself to be a true child of light (John xii. 36), and becomes himself a light to the world (Matthew v. 14).

The combat is not without its dangers for the Christian who would hold, in all its integrity, the Faith of his mother the Church. The tricks of the enemy, his studied and obstinate hypocrisy, the crafty skill with which he tries to stir up in the soul, almost without her knowing it, a score of little weaknesses of hers which more or less favour error, all this frequently ends in injuring the light, not perhaps in extinguishing it altogether, but in robbing it of some of its brilliancy. And yet, they who live on the teachings given us in today’s Gospel are sure to come off with the victory. Let us meditate on them with gratitude and love, for it is by such teachings that eternal Wisdom grants us what we so ardently ask of Him when, in Advent, we thus beseech Him: “Come, and teach us the way of prudence.” Prudence, the friend of a wise man (Proverbs vii. 4), guardian of his treasures and his surest defence, has no greater peril from which to keep him than shipwreck concerning the Faith (1 Timothy i. 19). If Faith be lost, all is lost. No price is too great to give (Proverbs iii. 13-19) for that Prudence of the serpent which, in a disciple of Christ, goes so admirably with the simplicity of the dove (Matthew x. 16).

If we are happy enough to possess Prudence, we will readily distinguish between those false teachers whom we must shun, and those we must hearken to —between the falsifiers of the Word, and his faithful interpreters. “By their fruits will you know them,” says our Gospel, and history confirms the words of our Redeemer. Under the sheep’s clothing, which they wear that they may deceive simple souls, the apostles of falsehood ever betray a stench of death. The artful language they use (Ephesians v. 6), and the flatteries they utter for gain’s sake (Jude 16) cannot hide the hollowness of their works (Ephesians v. 11). They separate themselves from the flock of Christ (Jude 19) and flee from the light, for, as the Apostle says, all things that are reproved, or deserve to be so, are made manifest by the light (Ephesians v. 13), and as to the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of them (Ephesians v. 12). Therefore, be not partakers with them (Ephesians v. 7). The useless or rotten fruits of darkness, and the trees of Autumn, twice dead (Jude 12) which bear such fruits on their withered branches, both of them will be cast into the fire. If you yourselves were heretofore darkness, now that you have become light in the Lord by Baptism, or by a sincere conversion, show yourselves to be so, and produce the fruits of light, in all goodness, and justice and truth (Ephesians v. 89).

On this condition alone can you hope to enter into the kingdom of Heaven, and call yourselves disciples of that Wisdom of the Father, who, on this seventh Sunday, asks us to give Him our love. Saint James the Apostle almost seems to be giving a commentary on the Gospel of this seventh Sunday where he says: “Can the fig-tree, my Brethren, bear grapes? or the vine, figs? So neither can the salt water yield sweet. Who is a wise man and endued with wisdom among you? Let him, by a good conversation, (that is, by his good conduct, show his work in the meekness of Wisdom... For there is a wisdom which is bitter, and misleads others. It descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish... But the Wisdom which is from above first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good (and always sides with them) full of mercy and good fruits, without judging (the conduct of others) without dissimulation. And the fruit of justice is sown in peace to them that make peace (James iii. 11-18).