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The Time After Pentecost
in the Mass, and receive Holy Communion, have wandered far from the spirit of Christ. “Be
ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man.”
“Speak ye the truth every man with his neighbor.” How simple and natural Christ was
in His words and His conduct! Every child understood Him. The saints of the Church have
imitated the example of Christ. They are characterized by a spirit of truth, righteousness, and
simplicity. Righteousness and honesty of the heart are the root of all virtue in them, a criterion
of perfection. A man may work miracles, he may be venerated as a saint; but if only once he
is caught in an untruth or in an act of deceit, he is condemned by every serious man. “For the
Holy Spirit . . . will flee from the deceitful” (Ws 1:5). “His will is in them that walk sincerely”
(Prv 11:20). Our God is a God of truth. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall
not pass away” (Lk 21:33). Truth demands that our words be in conformity with our thoughts,
that we speak exactly as we think, that we conform our actions to our mind. Our conduct must
be the expression of our inner thoughts. “Speak ye the truth, . . . for we are members one of
another.” The Christian community needs to respect the truth. What would result if we questioned
every word of our neighbor, our brother in Christ? How could any community so exist?
Misunderstandings would arise, confidence would be destroyed; anger, unjust prejudice, hate,
and enmity will rule when we can no longer depend on the word of others. How essential to
love and mutual understanding is truthfulness!
God gives us the key of truth: “My eyes are ever towards the Lord” (Ps 24:15). As long as we
adopt the attitude of the world, as long as we make use of deception, ignoring our conscience and
neglecting our duties, as long as we still have in mind any object other than the will of God, we shall
never walk the way of Christian truth. But the Epistle today exhorts us: “Put ye on the new man.”
“Thou hast commanded Thy commandments to be kept most diligently. Oh, that my ways
may be directed to keep Thy justifications!” (Communion.) All our thoughts must be directed
to the observing of God’s commandments. Uprightness and truth may at times be inconvenient,
but if we look to God and observe His commandments, we will rise above all difficulties.
Prayer
Almighty and merciful God, in Thy loving kindness shield us from all adversity, that being
prepared in soul and body, we may with free minds perform the works that are Thine. Through
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
The Mass
“Upon the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept, when we remembered thee, O Sion.” These
words of the Offertory express the theme of today’s Mass. The Church feels that she is exiled,
far from home, far from her Lord. She is oppressed, despised, persecuted, in her head and in
her members. The life of exile is hard and bitter. Therefore at the end of the ecclesiastical year
she longs for the peace of her heavenly home. Continually she directs her gaze to the Lord to
see whether He will not soon come to take possession of His kingdom.
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