9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
the Christian who has fallen into sin, the unfaithful one who has forsaken his vocation. At the
foot of the bier stands the sorrowing mother, weeping and praying. She is the Church lifting
her hands to the Lord and imploring grace and mercy for her many children who are spiritually
dead. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to Thee all the day” (Introit). Kyrie eleison,
Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison! What would become of these children who are spiritually dead, did
not our Holy Mother the Church remain at their side praying unceasingly for them? Our Lord
sees this sorrowing mother, and has compassion on her, and says to her, “Weep not.” And as
He approaches the bier, those who carry it stand still, and He says: “Young man, I say to thee,
arise.” And he that is dead sits up and speaks, and is delivered to his mother. She has regained
life for her dead child through her sorrow and through her prayer.
This restoration to life is repeated today and every day in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
There are many Christians who are spiritually dead. They appear to be alive, but they are actually
spiritually dead and laid out on their biers. Only our Holy Mother the Church is aware of their
miserable condition. During the Holy Sacrifice she cries out to Him who alone can restore them
to life. She asks for mercy and for the grace of God, that the sinner may recognize his error, that
he may break the bonds of sin, and that he may turn finally to do good. Our Holy Mother the
Church believes that her tears and her prayers, supported by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, are
effective, for at that time Christ does come to restore life and strength to those dead in sin. We
are members of this praying and sacrificing Church. Our prayers and sacrifices are effective in
so far as we are united to the Church. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to Thee all
the day.” Our cries to the Lord will be heard if we in our charity remember to pray for the dead
and offer the Holy Sacrifice for them.
“Young man, I say to thee, arise.” We have already arisen, for we possess the life of grace.
As living creatures of God, we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice. But with most of us the Lord has
still to make the life that is in us fruitful. We can still arise to a more active and fruitful life.
There is still within us much that hinders and checks the growth of Christ’s life in us. We
still long for empty honors, envy one another, and deceive ourselves by imagining ourselves
to be greater than we really are. We see the faults of our neighbor, but neglect to instruct
them in the spirit of charity. We refuse to share the burdens of our neighbor, and thus fail
to fulfill the law of Christ. We allow ourselves to be flattered by others and misled by them,
instead of following our own conscience and the will of God. We refuse to live by the spirit,
and we forget that he who sows in the flesh, “of the flesh also shall reap corruption, but he
that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Epistle). Woe unto us if our
Holy Mother the Church did not lift up her hands in prayer for us, beseeching the Lord to
restore the dead to life! She prays for us in the Divine Office, through the prayers of her holy
priests and religious; she prays for us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. There the Lord says
to us, “Young man, I say to thee, arise.” Christ in the company of His Church stands before
the throne of the Father, offering sacrifice and working in us through the power of grace,
that we may this day apply ourselves to the things of God in the spirit of charity, devotion,
and sacrifice. At Holy Communion He communicates to us His own divine life.
“It is good to give praise to the Lord, and to sing to Thy name, O Most High. To show forth
Thy mercy [Thy grace] in the morning, and Thy truth in the night. Alleluia, alleluia. For the
Lord is a great God and a great King over all the earth, alleluia” (Gradual). The Lord is more
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