9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
representatives of the Lord, who commissioned them to go forth into the whole world and
fish for men. The Church has the right to rule men for Christ and for eternal life. We likewise
have the duty to allow ourselves to be caught by Peter in the net of the Catholic Church. “All
power is given to me in heaven and in earth; going, therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Mt 28:18 f.). “He that
heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me,
despiseth Him that sent Me” (Lk 10:16). The road to Christ and eternal life is directly through
Peter and the Church.
“Thine they were, and to Me Thou gavest them” ( Jn 17:6). But we were given to Christ, not
merely as companions of His struggles and sufferings, but as very members of His body. “Father,
I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me; that they may see
My glory which Thou hast given Me” ( Jn 17:24). We shall see and in our own body experience
and enjoy His glory with Him. We await with great longing this revelation of the glory of our
sonship in God, which will be made to us in Christ and in His Church. There we shall learn
“what the hope is of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph 1:18).
Prayer
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by Thee that Thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in quiet devotion. Through Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Tuesday
Pentecost has made us strong in the Christian life. “Launch out into the deep and let down your
nets” (Gospel). We have taken up our work each day and have exerted ourselves. But what have
we accomplished? Why have we not made some progress? What good results have we to show for
our labor? Sins, mistakes, errors, and imperfections. In Peter we recognize ourselves; we come to
our Lord and we say, “Master, we have labored all the night and have taken nothing” (Gospel).
“Master, we have labored all the night and have taken nothing.” Why is it that we have made
so little progress in spite of all the graces we have received, in spite of all our efforts, our abnegations,
prayers, meditations, examinations of conscience, confessions, and Communions?
What is wanting to us? We have been working “in the night”; we have been working without
that clear and brilliant light of a living spirit of faith, and have done all our reasoning, willing,
and acting without that necessary light. We have been living mechanically, in a routine manner,
and without a definite supernatural point of view. We have been performing our work with
predominantly natural motives: for self-love, pride, self-seeking, vanity. Like Peter, we labor
during the night and without the help of Jesus. That which guides us in our actions and intentions
is not the spirit of Jesus, His example, His love, and His operation in us and through us.
We work, pray, and suffer without a clear consciousness of our organic union with Him who
is the vine. What wonder, then, if we experience little growth and increase! “Abide in Me and
I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you
unless you abide in Me. . . . Without Me you can do nothing” ( Jn 15:4 f.). We work, just as Peter
449