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The Time After Pentecost
“Go and do thou in like manner.” The Lord demands both the spirit and the works
of charity. These are the corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry, to give drink to
the thirsty, to cover the naked, to shelter the homeless, to visit the imprisoned, to care
for the sick, to bury the dead. And these are the spiritual works of mercy: to guide
sinners, to instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubting, to comfort the sorrowing,
to suffer injustice patiently, to forgive those who have injured us, to pray for the living
and the dead. According to the above works we shall be judged at the hour of our death
and on the last day. These works of mercy, which we performed with the desire to help
our fellow men for Christ’s sake, to aid the members of Christ’s mystical body, and to
render to them in the spirit of Christ the service of the good Samaritan, shall determine
our place in heaven or hell. “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me
to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in;
naked, and you covered Me; sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to
Me. . . . Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: Depart from Me,
you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I
was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink;
I was a stranger, and you took Me not in; naked, and you covered Me not; sick and in
prison, and you did not visit Me” (Mt 25:34 ff.). The works of mercy open heaven; the
lack of mercy leads to eternal hell.
“Moses prayed in the sight of the Lord his God, and said: Why, O Lord, is Thy indignation
enkindled against Thy people? Let the anger of Thy mind cease. . . . And the Lord was appeased
from doing the evil which He had spoken of doing against His people” (Offertory). Such is
the power of God’s mercy. Did not Moses have reason enough for being angry with his people
dancing around a golden calf at the foot of the mountain? But he has compassion on the infatuated,
misled people, and his prayer, born out of this compassion, is answered by God. Thus can
God’s anger be allayed. “Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy” for themselves
and for others (Mt 5:7).
So we also, who are going to offer the Holy Sacrifice, are full of mercy and compassion
concerning the temporal and spiritual needs of our brethren. With a heart full of compassion we
lift up our offering to heaven: “Why, O Lord, is Thy indignation enkindled against Thy people?
Let the anger of Thy mind cease. . . . And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which He
had spoken of doing against His people.”
In Holy Communion we are filled with the Spirit of Christ. He is the Spirit of compassion
who, viewing our misery, says with the words of the Gospel: “I have compassion on the multitude”
(Mk 8:2). “Put ye on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy, and beloved, the bowels of mercy,
benignity, humility, modesty, patience” (Col 3:12).
Prayer
Almighty and merciful God, of whose gift it cometh that Thy faithful people do unto Thee true
and laudable service; grant, we beseech Thee, that we may run without hindrance toward the
attainment of Thy promises. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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