9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
things can be recognized in their real contours. So it is with love. Wherever it appears, egoism in
all its forms and camouflages is clearly recognized. Where divine love appears, it delves down into
the most hidden impulses and thoughts of men, condemning all that is obscure, dark, unrefined,
and impure in man’s heart. If the presence of a very noble and truly affectionate man makes us
aware of our own egoism and want of charity, how much more must that be the case when Christ
appears with His divine love? Is not each word He speaks to us a judgment, a judgment delving
into our most secret impulses and thoughts? Then the soul cannot help judging itself from His
point of view. The more lovingly the Lord approaches a soul, the more thoroughly He makes His
light permeate it in order to purify that soul from everything that is unholy and may impair its
peace and salvation. His love condemns everything that is unjust, egoistic, and opposed to God.
Permeating the soul, this love makes it recognize clearly all the powers of destruction working
within it, and reject everything that is unholy and displeasing to God.
God’s love cannot be separated from His justice; for only one who loves judges us truly and works
sincerely and efficaciously for our salvation. If our salvation is to be established, judgment must be
passed on all that is impure, unholy, and unjust. This rule obtains for matters of great importance
as well as for those of lesser concern. We must die in order to grow, for it is only through death
that we can reach life. Whenever the Lord visits His judgment upon us, in the catastrophes of
world events, in the various tests and trials He sends us, in difficulties and temptations, in illness
and sufferings, He wants to heal and save us by His judgment. “If thou also hadst known.”
Love without judgment is love without truth; it cannot redeem us. Only that love which
brings us self-knowledge, humiliation, contrition, and repentance, can deliver us from the fetters
of our impurity and corruption, our pride and egoism, and can lift us out of the darkness
to the light.
The Lord is the judge of the living and the dead. He judges us because He loves us. He
condemns everything within us that displeases Him. The more He loves us, the more unsparingly
He judges us.
Prayer
Let Thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy suppliant people; and that Thou
mayest grant them their petitions, make them ask such things as shall please Thee. Through
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saturday
“At that time, when Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, seeing the city, He wept over it. . . . And entering
into the temple, He began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying to
them: It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. And
He was teaching daily in the temple” (Gospel). This Gospel gives us a picture of Christ working
within the soul. He loves the soul, but His love is a severe, jealous love. If He is to enter into the
sanctuary of the soul, everything else must leave.
“I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous” (Ex 20:5). “The Lord, His name is Jealous; He is
a jealous God” (Ex 34:14). He loved His people with divine love, and He did everything to
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