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The Time After Pentecost
each other, “for unto this [we] are called, that [we] may inherit a blessing.” Then we shall also
“refrain [our] tongue from evil, and [our] lips that they speak no guile” (Epistle).
“Except your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven” (Gospel). What is it that makes Christian justice and perfection
tower so far above the so-called justice of the scribes and Pharisees? Is it not that we take the
proper attitude toward charity? “You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not
kill. And whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whosoever
is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. . . . And whosoever shall say:
Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Gospel). “A new commandment I give unto you: That
you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another” ( Jn 13:34).
The measure of our love for God and our Savior, of our entire interior life, and of our piety, is
determined by the degree of our charity towards our fellow man. “We know that we have passed
from death to life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death” (1 Jn 3:14).
Prayer
O God, who hast prepared invisible goods for those who love Thee, 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, which exceed all our desires. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
The Mass
On this Sunday the Easter motif resounds through the texts and songs of the Mass. The graces
given to us through baptism and the Holy Eucharist at Easter and planted in our hearts as living
seeds, are to grow and ripen under the breath of the Spirit of Pentecost.
Filled with gratitude as we enter the house of God, we look back at all the aids to salvation we
received on Easter. Through holy baptism we became “His people,” “His anointed,” and He
became our “strength,” “the protector of [our] salvation” (Introit). How could we ever preserve
the wonderful gift of supernatural life without His aid? To our gratitude for the past days of grace
we add our prayers for the future: “Save, O Lord, Thy people, and bless Thy inheritance, and rule
them forever” (Introit). Here we ask that the supernatural goods of Easter may be preserved and
increased. We fortify this prayer with our Kyrie eleison and Gloria in excelsis: “Thou who takest
away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.” “Implant in our hearts the love of Thy name,
increase in us true religion” (Collect).
The first and most fundamental of the supernatural gifts is the grace of baptism, by which
we are made Christians. “All we who are baptized in Christ Jesus are baptized in His death; for
we are buried together with Him by baptism unto death” (Epistle). We are buried, but only in
order to rise with Him to a truly supernatural and divine life that is not of this world. That is the
meaning of baptism and the essence of our Christian life. “If we be dead with Christ, we believe
that we shall live also together with Christ” (Epistle). When the natural man within us has been
changed and we become other Christs, the supernatural food given us by Christ bears fruit a
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