9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
“Brethren: I make known unto you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have
received and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast after what manner
I have preached unto you” (Epistle). The things that came to pass centuries ago become a reality
again during the celebration of the Mass, though in a mystical way: Christ again dies and rises
again. With Him we died in baptism to rise again to a new life. In celebrating Mass we not only
renew Christ’s death and Resurrection, we also renew our own death and resurrection, which
began with our baptism. Today we are the deaf and dumb man of the Gospel who is healed by
the touch of Christ’s hand; a similar healing we experienced at our baptism. In the Offertory
we gratefully confess: “I will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast upheld me and hast not made
my enemies to rejoice over me.” Devoting our entire being to Him, during the Holy Sacrifice
we renew our baptism by renouncing during the coming week everything that is not pleasing
to Christ. We again consecrate everything to Him without reserve, devoting to Him our time
and our bodily and spiritual strength, our thoughts, desires, and wishes. Belonging thus to Him,
we live His life in accordance with the admonition of the Communion: “Honor the Lord with
thy substance, . . . and thy barns shall be filled with abundance.”
Meditation
“He that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Gospel of the tenth Sunday). During the past
week the Church made it clear that we, her children, are by ourselves like the publican who
struck his breast and said, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Today the Church knows
herself to be exalted by the grace of God; therefore she is full of power and life. Because
she trusted in God, she can now pray: “I have been helped; and my flesh hath flourished
again” (Gradual); “Thou hast upheld me and hast not made my enemies to rejoice over me”
(Offertory). The joy of Easter permeates today’s liturgy. The holy joy of jubilation and of
resurrection must fill our souls, too.
“Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord” (Gradual). “At that time, Jesus going out of the coasts of Tyre,
came by Sidon to the Sea of Galilee. . . . And they bring to Him one deaf and dumb, and they
besought Him that He would lay His hand upon him. And taking him from the multitude
apart, He put His fingers into his ears, and spitting, He touched his tongue; and looking up to
heaven, He groaned and said to him: Ephpheta, which is, Be thou opened; and immediately his
ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke right” (Gospel). In this
picture the Church recognizes herself and us, her children, as the deaf and dumb man. What
did any of us amount to before the Savior came down to us and filled us with His light and life
in baptism? All of us were deaf and dumb to things divine, unable to speak a single word that
could be pleasing to God, unable to call Him our Father. Such was our condition and our sad
plight after Original Sin. We would still be in this desperate state if God had not saved us, if He
had not, with divine mercy, accepted us as His children.
“I will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast upheld me” (Offertory). In baptism we, the deaf
and dumb ones, were brought to the Lord. Holy Mother the Church prayed for us to the Lord
that He might lay His hand upon us. He appeared visibly in the person of His priest, who put
his fingers into our ears and touched them with spittle, saying: “Ephpheta, which is, Be thou
opened.” And immediately our ears were opened to hear the voice of God, and the strings of our
tongues were loosed; deaf and dumb before, we began now to understand and to speak right.
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