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The Time After Pentecost
and confidence, in the same measure will He exalt us “in the time of visitation”; that is, in the
time of prayer, at Mass, and at Holy Communion. To live for Christ is to love humility, to be
despised by the world, to be subject to the will of the Father, to love the cross, suffering, reverses,
and difficulties of all sorts. We are but branches of Christ, who is the vine. We must live just as
Christ lives. Our life cannot be other than a life of humility and of joyful dependence on God
and His will and His providence. “He that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Mt 23:12).
Prayer
O God, the protector of all who hope in Thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is
holy; multiply Thy mercies upon us, that having Thee for our ruler and Thee for our guide,
we may so make use of temporal goods that we lose not those which are everlasting. Through
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
The Mass
The thought of Easter appears clearly in the Mass of this Sunday. Around us is the mighty ocean
with its storms and its dangers; around us are enemies, sickness, and death. Therefore we fly to
Christ. “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?” (Introit.) We cling to the
Lord. He holds the scepter of the world in His hand. He will bring it about that “the course of
this world may be so peaceably ordered” that we may serve God “in quiet devotion” (Collect).
It is true that suffering and want must come; but for those who have given themselves to Christ,
these sufferings are not to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us (Epistle). As all
creation longs for deliverance from the slavery and the corruption of sin, so, too, we await the
moment when our adoption as the sons of God will be accomplished with all its glory. We await
our entry into the bliss of eternity, the resurrection of our flesh to life everlasting. This longing,
however, can be satisfied only by our Lord Himself. We must cling to Him.
During this week the Church sometimes celebrates the feast of SS. Peter and Paul. Therefore
we find our Lord today in the boat of Peter (Gospel). We press close to Him to hear His word,
which He speaks to the world from the bark of Peter, the Church. We are those fish who were
enclosed in Peter’s net in the early morning (in baptism), and there, having been enclosed in
the net of the Church, we found salvation. We were rescued by the bark of Peter. Let us remain
true to the salvation which we obtained in baptism and in the Church. It is for this grace that
we pray in the Offertory.
As we approach to make our offering, we place ourselves at the side of Christ, as we did on
the day of our baptism. Today in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which we celebrate with Him,
we enter into the closest union with Him and become one victim with Him. We have chosen
the way of Christ, the way of the cross, the way of renunciation of sin and of the world with all
its attractions and temptations. We know that the suffering entailed by the renunciation of sin,
the flesh, and the world, are not to be compared with the glory of the children of God, to which
we have been called. On the paten at Mass we must lay our rebellious nature and our rebellious
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