9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
The death of sin was effected in baptism. But the law of salvation demands that the life of grace
be incessantly fostered, renewed, and confirmed. Through Adam’s sin we lost all supernatural
goods with one stroke. Though God returns to us through the sacrament of baptism the divine
gift of His grace and sonship, we do not receive it with the perfection and strength that was
given to Adam. Despite the fact that Original Sin and all personal sins are forgiven by baptism,
and that sanctifying grace is again poured into our soul, evil concupiscence remains within
us, and as the source of sin it threatens to destroy the divine life within us. By impairing the
judgment, it makes us amenable to the allurements of this world and of the flesh, and places
us in continual danger of being unfaithful to God and our baptism. Even after baptism evil
concupiscence remains in our hearts that we may always remember our fallen state and learn
to understand what bottomless depths of moral corruption and depravity there are within us.
This understanding should help us to recognize our helplessness and sinfulness so that we may
cling to God and seek His grace. It should aid us, furthermore, in our continual struggle against
sin, passion, and the allurements of the world, so that we may, of our own accord, determine to
adhere to God and a virtuous life.
Though we are really dead to sin, our dying to ourselves must continue because of the
concupiscence we carry within us, which captivates us as “the law of sin that is in my members”
(Rom 7:23). We must maintain a persevering and unyielding resistance to Satan and a continual
renunciation of the insinuations of the devil and the allurements of the flesh and the world.
“Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, who according to
God is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Eph 4:23 f.). Grace, the source of our supernatural
life, urges us to become men of action. The kingdom of God is within us. Being
but a germ, however, like the mustard seed of the Gospel, it must grow into a great tree. “He
that is just, let him be justified still” (Apoc 22:11). No one in this world is so perfect that
he cannot attain greater perfection. We have an obligation to strive for perfection. There is
no fixed measure of virtue or faith or love for God and men, to which more cannot still be
added. If we stop striving after perfection in grace and virtue, we cease to be perfect; that is,
we no longer are what we ought to be according to the commandment of God. For this is
our perfection on earth, that we make the life of grace and virtue within us grow each day.
Such growth requires continual progress. Once we lag behind or start losing ground, it is
our duty to take up our struggle with renewed zeal. To stand still is impossible for us, for
nothing created remains unchanged. Either it grows or it languishes; we either go ahead,
or we fall back. We must either penetrate deeper into God and Christ, or God and Christ
will withdraw. With good reason, then, many saints bound themselves by vow to progress
unceasingly in grace and virtue. Knowing the weakness of human nature, its cowardice
and inconstancy, they were aware how easily they might start to waste time and grace, and
fall far short of their fixed goal. “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new
man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Eph 4:23 f.). By
baptism we become members of the body of Christ, called upon to live His life so that we
are gradually “transformed into the same image” (2 Cor 3:18). To reflect the fullness of
Christ’s grace and virtue is our foremost obligation.
Death and life renew themselves again and again in our life since the hour of our baptism. We
must put life to death for life’s sake. “He must increase, but I must decrease” ( Jn 3:30). “As many
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