Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
25 August
2013
“But I say: Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfil
the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit
against the flesh...” Gal. 5:16-7
In today’s liturgy, we are given passages from
the scriptures which remind us of the great struggle we have in life between
the flesh and the spirit. In the
Epistle (Gal. 5:16-24), St. Paul tells us that those who give into bodily desires will suffer the slavery of
sin:
“Now the works of flesh are manifest, which are immorality, uncleanness,
licentiousness, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, jealousies,
anger, quarrels, factions, parties, envies, murders, drunkenness, carousing,
and suchlike.” Gal. 5:19-21 But those who live according to the spirit
and aim at adorning the soul will enjoy the fruits of the Holy Spirit: “But
the fruit of the Spirit is: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faith, modesty and continency.” Gal. 5:22 In today’s Gospel (Mt. 6: 24-33, part of the Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus tells us that we cannot serve two masters: “No man can serve two masters; for
either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will stand by the
one and despise the other. You
cannot serve God and mammon.” Mt. 6:24 These two masters, “God and mammon,” are the same as
the ‘spirit’
and the ‘flesh’; they represent the basic struggle which all men have in life. As man is made up
of body and soul, and as the body knows through the senses and the soul through the mind, there “arises in each person a double source of
knowledge or appetite, that of the body and its passions which desire that good
from the senses, and that of the soul, which wills the good known to the mind.”
(The
Preacher’s Encyclopedia, p. 106)
Both the Epistle and the Gospel give us the only resolution possible for
those who follow Christ. St.
Paul tells us: “And
they who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and
desires.” Gal. 5:24 Jesus
tells us not to worry about the desires of the body but seek the things of God:
“But
seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things will be
given you besides.” Mt. 6: 33
Joys
of the Spirit
For those who live by the Spirit, there are the special joys of the spiritual
life which only the Holy Spirit gives to His beloved spouses. Dom Prosper
Gueranger in his book, The Liturgical Life Vol. 13, comments
on how the Spirit fills His bride with His spiritual fruits: “The
bride, who came from the top of Sanir and Hermon that she might be crowned (cf.
Cant. 4:8), knows not the servitude of Sinai (cf. Gal. 4:24-6), still less is
she under the slavery of the senses.
On the mountain, where her tent is fixed for ever (cf. Is. 2:2), her
Spouse, has broken the fetters of the Jewish Law, and that more galling chain
which tied all people down—the network of sin that covered all the nations of
the earth (cf. Is. 25:7). She the
bride is queen; her sons kings (cf. I Pt. 2:9), the milk whereon she feeds them
(cf. Is. 66: 8-12) infuses liberty within them (cf. Gal. 4:31). Filled with the holy Spirit, who is
their glory and their strength (cf. Rom. 8:14, 26), they have the Lord of hosts looking on them, as they bravely
engage in battles such as princes should fight (cf. Eph. 4:8, 6:12). Satan, too, has beheld their glorious
struggles, and his kingdom has been shaken to its foundation (cf. Jn.
12:31). Two Cities now divide the
world between them (St. Augustine, De
Civitate Dei); and the holy city, made up of vanquishers over the devil, the
world and the flesh, is full of admiration and joy at seeing that the noblest
of the nations flock to her (cf. Is. 60:5). The law which reigns supreme within her walls is love, for
the holy Spirit, who rules her happy citizens, takes them far beyond the
injunctions or prohibitions of any law. Together with charity, there spring up
joy, peace, and those other fruits, here enumerated by the apostle (cf. Gal.
5:22); they grow spontaneously from a soil which is saturated with the glad
waters (cf. Ps. 64:11) of a stream, which is no other than sanctifying Spirit,
who inundates the city of God” (cf. Ps. 45:5). Gueranger, p. 329-30.
“Born of the Spirit, they are Spirit”
Dom Gueranger continues with the true liberty
of the spiritual souls: “Flesh and blood have had no share in their
divine birth (cf. Jn. 1:12). Their
first birth being in the flesh, they were flesh, and did the works of death and
ignominy mentioned in the Epistle, showing at every turn that they were from
the slime of the earth (cf. Gen. 2:7); but, born of the Spirit, they are spirit
(cf. Jn. 3:6), and do the works of the spirit, in spite of the flesh which is
always part of their being (cf. II Cor. 10:3). For, by giving them, of His own
life, the Spirit has emancipated them,
by the power of love, from the tyranny of sin (cf. Rom 8:2) which held dominion over their members
(cf. Rom. 7:28); and, having been grafted on Christ, they bring forth fruit
unto God (cf. Rom. 7:4). Gueranger, p. 330-1
Myrrh
of Suffering
Dom Gueranger
reminds us that the joys of the spirit are not possible without suffering. This is why St. Paul reminds us: “And
they who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and
desires.” Gal. 5:24. This
is why Dom Gueranger speaks of the suffering which is offered to the bride by her beloved spouse: “Even when the trials of purification are
all over, the place of meeting is invariably that which the inspired Canticle
calls the Mount of myrrh (cf. Cant. 4:6), which is but another name for
suffering. Myrrh is the first fragrant herb culled by the divine Word in the mystic garden; nay, it is
the only one He expressly mentions.
Myrrh distils from the bride’s hands, and her fingers are full of it
(cf. Cant. 5:5); her Spouse is the bouquet she clasps to her heart, but that
bouquet is one of myrrh (cf. Cant. 1:12); and His lips are as lilies dropping
choice myrrh (cf. Cant. 5:18).”
Gueranger, p. 335-6 Only
those who share in the sufferings of Christ will share in His glory
“No man can serve two masters.” Mt. 6:24
If we wish to be united with God, as we have
just seen in the Canticle of Canticles, then we need to serve God alone. If we love the world, especially money
which will bring us this world’s goods in abundance, we will be serving the
world and not God. Dom Gueranger comments on the covetous man by quoting the
Old Testament: “nothing is more wicked than the covetous man...; there is not a more
wicked thing than to love money.”
Ecclus. 10:10 Too much solicitude for this world’s goods shows
a want of trust in God. This is
what Jesus tells us of when he says:
“Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, what you
shall eat; nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life a greater
thing than the food, and the body than the clothing. Look at the birds of the
air; they do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father
feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they.” Mt. 6:25 In order to achieve union with God and the fruits of the
Holy Spirit, even in this life, we need to be detached from everything in this
life which could prevent us from
going to God. “No man can serve two masters; for either he
will hate the one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and
despise the other. You cannot
serve God and mammon.” Mt. 6:24
Those who “have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal.
5:24) and seek God alone and His
kingdom will be given the fruits
of the Holy Spirit in this life and the kingdom of heaven in the next life: “But
seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things will be
given you besides.” Mt. 6: 33
Holy
Mass on Sunday 25 August here in St. Joseph and St Anne Chapel here in Lanherne
will be the Ordinary Form
No
Mass Next Week, -26th of
August
There
will be no Holy Mass here in our chapel from Monday 26th to August to Saturday 31st August.
Holy Mass will be available in Most Holy Trinity Parish in Newquay on Sunday at 8:30 AM and 10:30 AM and
on each day next week at 9:30 AM. We apologize for any inconvenience to your
schedule.
How to
attend Holy Mass
“The Holy Mass is a prayer itself, even the
highest prayer that exists. It is the sacrifice, dedicated by our Redeemer at
the Cross, and repeated every day on the altar. If you wish to hear Mass, as it should be heard, you must
follow with eye, heart, and mouth all that happens at the altar. Further, you
must pray with the Priest the holy words said by him in the Name of Christ and
which Christ says by him. You have
to associate your heart with the holy feelings which are contained in these
words, and in this manner you ought to follow all that happens at the altar.
When acting in this way, you have prayed Holy Mass.”
His Holiness, Pope St Pius X
The Five First Saturdays
Our Lady told Sr. Lucia in
1925 “…I promise to assist at the
hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who,
on the first Saturday of five consecutive months go to confession and receive
Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for a
quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the
intention of making reparation to me." If only we would do what Our Lady asks, we would be
assured of eternal salvation. Our
Lady promises us all the graces necessary for our salvation if we keep The
Five
First Saturdays!
