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The Time After Pentecost
opportunities that present themselves in daily life, are but means towards the end. They effectually
serve us only after we are moving on the sure way to God. They can be correctly used only by
him who “doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven.” This is the correct and sure way; it is the
only way which we are bound to search out and follow. In order to find God’s will and to follow
it, we must know it. It reveals itself to us in our reason and in the dictates of common sense.
Revelation speaks of it in the Ten Commandments, and it is further made known to us in the
commandments of the Church: in the commandments of fasting and abstinence, the obligation
of attending Mass on Sundays, of receiving the sacraments of penance and the Holy Eucharist
at least once a year. It is made known to us in the regulations of Canon Law and the rules and
constitutions of religious communities. We fulfill the will of God in the duties of our profession,
whatever it may be. We find it in our vocation as a father, a mother, an official, an employer or
employee, as a working man or a maid servant. God’s will has been revealed to each one of us; it
is the road that leads to heaven. All that matters is our will to seek it and follow it. “He that doeth
the will of My Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
In baptism the Lord has lifted us up to His level in order that He may continually live His life
within us. “I am the vine, you the branches” ( Jn 15:5). His life was one of continuous and unswerving
devotion to the will of the Father. “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Mt 26:39). “My
meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me” ( Jn 4:34). We also live our lives in harmony with
His if we unite our desires, plans, and intentions with whatever the Father wills.
“Come ye to Him” by uniting your wills with His will. “Come ye to Him and be enlightened;
and your faces shall not be confounded” (Gradual). The complete subjection of our will
to His good pleasure must be the fruit of our attendance at Mass and of our reception of Holy
Communion. In Holy Communion, He daily kindles anew within us the holy fire of His spirit
and of His loving devotion to the Father. Through us, His members, “the world may know that
I love the Father” ( Jn 14:31). We should so live that the world may see in us Christ’s love for
the Father.
Prayer
O God, whose providence in the ordering of all things never fails, we humbly beseech Thee
to put away from us all harmful things and to give us those things which are profitable for us.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
The Mass
The call to Christianity in baptism has placed tremendous responsibilities on man, obliging
him to discharge duties that go with him through his entire life, daily and hourly. God has
given us the lifetime duty to develop within ourselves the divine life we received from Christ
at baptism. Whence is man to draw the strength and courage to preserve this supernatural life
of the children of God and to overcome the obstacles and resist the hostility of the powers of
this world? How can he preserve the goods of supernatural life and increase them? He surely
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