9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
He leaves Jerusalem, the state of the grace, the gifts he had possessed in Paradise, the childlike
and intimate companionship with God, and goes down to Jericho, the state of fallen
nature. The robbers are the devils who seduce him to sin, depriving him of sanctifying
grace, the sonship of God, and the other graces of life in Paradise. Human nature, which
heretofore enjoyed peace and order, becomes unsettled and restless. “When I have a will
to do good, evil is present with me. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to
the inward man. But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind,
and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members” (Rom 7:21 ff.). In Adam we
recognize the whole of humanity: in Adam all of us went down from Jerusalem to Jericho
and fell among robbers. How many of us went down from the Jerusalem of childhood with
its innocence to the Jericho of manhood and fell among robbers? How many, however, found
our way back to the holy city of Jerusalem, to the state of sanctifying grace, in the sacrament
of penance during a mission or retreat? But then we left it again for the sake of worldly and
material interests. Those of us who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among
robbers, thus losing their innocence, their interior happiness, even their God or their faith,
are a matter of gravest concern to the Church. With motherly love she has compassion on
all these unfortunate ones, and in their name she beseeches the Lord: “Incline unto my aid,
O God; O Lord, make haste to help me. Let my enemies be confounded and ashamed, who
seek my soul” (Introit). Entering into the spirit of the liturgy, we also share her concern and,
feeling the need of our brethren, we implore the Lord from the bottom of our hearts: “Lord,
have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.”
“And it chanced that a certain priest went down the same way, and seeing him, passed by.
In like manner also a Levite” (Gospel). The priest and the Levite represent the Old Testament.
Unable to save suffering humanity, it passed by. “But a certain Samaritan, being on his journey,
came near him, and seeing him, was moved with compassion, and going up to him, bound up
his wounds, pouring in oil and wine; and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an
inn.” The Samaritan is Christ the Lord. The beast of burden is His holy humanity, which the
Son of God embraced for our salvation. He laid the wounded man upon His beast of burden
by carrying our sins in His body in order to atone for them on the cross. The oil and wine He
poured into the wounds are the holy sacraments of the New Covenant. The inn is the Church.
Before ascending into heaven, this Samaritan gives His Church two pence, His doctrine and
His sacraments, commanding her to take care of the sick man. “Blessed are the eyes that see
the things which you see”; that is, God’s mercy in the Incarnation of the eternal Word, in the
redemption on the cross, in the foundation of the Church, and in the institution of the hierarchy
and the sacraments of the Church. God answered the cries of humanity fallen among robbers:
“Incline unto my aid, O God; O Lord, make haste to help me. Let my enemies be confounded
and ashamed, who seek my soul. Let them be turned backward and blush for shame, who desire
evils to me” (Introit).
“Incline unto my aid, O God; O Lord, make haste to help me.” We pray with the Church that
He may help us now when He comes down upon the altar in the Holy Sacrifice. We desire
Him to come down to us and not to pass us by. “Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy, and grant us
Thy salvation” (prayers at the foot of the altar), now, during this hour of sacrifice. Be our good
Samaritan, and “let them be turned backward and blush for shame, who desire evils to me.”
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