9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
and by always and everywhere renouncing isolation, all self-centeredness, and the inclination
to praise and sacrifice to God alone. Since it is the aim of grace that we be one as the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost are one, our attainment of the community spirit will be a sign of the
efficaciousness of grace in us, indicating how far the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Christ, is working
within us. Practically it will be recognized by our impulse and efforts to become united with
the thoughts, feelings, and efforts of the whole Church, the diocese, the parish, the family, or
the religious community. The more that grace (divine life) becomes efficacious within us, the
more shall we, united with Christ in the community of His Church, be able to live the life of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The way to community love is of a threefold nature. First it is the way of a hard, continuous,
and consistent asceticism. Sunday’s Epistle instructs us: “Be ye all of one mind, having compassion
one of another, being lovers of the brotherhood, merciful, modest, humble; not rendering
evil for evil, . . . but contrariwise, blessing.” The second way is set forth in the Collect: we must
pray for the spirit of community love. Although our fallen nature is given to pride, selfishness,
and self-sufficiency, it is, like grace itself, God’s gift. The Christian community spirit is born of
God in the depths of the unity of the three divine persons. The Church, therefore, has us pray:
“Pour forth Thy love into our hearts, that loving Thee in all things and above all things, we may
be worthy to receive Thy promises.” Genuine love towards God and Christ necessarily calls
for love towards our neighbor and towards the community. The third way to community love
is in the Eucharistic sacrifice and Holy Communion. When we, celebrating Christ’s sacrifice,
become united with Him in Holy Communion, we must necessarily grow into the community
of the Church. For the Holy Sacrifice is the sacrifice of the whole Church, of the community of
the body of Christ and all His members. The meal of sacrifice is a real communion, a union of
all in the living and life-giving bread that they eat. The more sincerely and the more perfectly
we offer ourselves as victims during the Sacrifice of the Mass, the purer will be our sacrifice and
the sacrifice of the Church, and the more intimate will be our union in Christ, the vine, in the
community of the Church.
“Be ye all of one mind.” That is the great objective of Holy Mother the Church during the
weeks after Pentecost. How wonderfully fruitful was the descent of the Holy Ghost on that
first Christian community! “The multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul” (Acts
4:32). How fruitful should the yearly celebration of Pentecost be in our days too, in the Church,
in religious societies, and in Christian homes. But to say that the baptized of our day have “but
one heart and one soul” has little meaning. Even those who should be devoted to piety, who
multiply their prayers and devotions, and celebrate daily the Holy Sacrifice and partake of the
holy meal, too frequently have little of that spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace,
patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity” (Gal
5:22 f.). Do I possess these fruits of Pentecost?
We pray that this spirit may be born in all of us. “Hear, O Lord, my voice with which I have
cried to Thee; be Thou my helper, forsake me not, nor do Thou despise me, O God my Savior”
(Introit). “Behold, O God our protector, and look on Thy servants” (Gradual). Destroy in all of
us the great enemy of the interior unity of the members of Thy body: pride and self-love. Give
us a new spirit, the spirit of selflessness and humility, that we may devote ourselves to Thee in
the community of Thy body, the Church.
461