18 JUNE – THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The faithful soul has witnessed, through the sacred Liturgy, the close of the mysteries of our Redemption which were wrought, in succession, by our Jesus, and applied to us, one after the other, by His Church in her divine worship of them. The Holy Ghost has been sent, by the Father and Son, and He has lovingly and graciously come to continue among us the work of the Incarnate Word. He, the Spirit of the Father and Son, is come to support the Christian in this second portion of both time and season. It is, as far as the Year of Grace is concerned, the second portion of that Year, and the Holy Spirit is to rule it. And he does so by bringing before us gradually, we might say, week by week of this Time after Pentecost, the fullness of the Christian life as we received it from our Redeemer who has now ascended into Heaven and thence has sent us this beautiful Paraclete to form within us that life, to its full development. Among other gifts He gives us for the purpose, He shows us how to pray.

Prayer, as our Jesus told us, must be continual. We must be always praying, and not faint or fail (Luke xviii. 1). And yet, we know not what we should pray for (Romans viii. 26), nor how we should pray, so as to obtain. This is quite true. But He, the Holy Spirit, knows it all and comes to us, helping our infirmity, and Himself asking for us with unspeakable groanings (Romans viii. 26). In the Introit and the whole Mass for this Sunday, we are taught that prayer must have, among its other requisite qualities, that of humble repentance for our past sins, and of confidence in God’s infinite mercy.

Epistle – 1 Peter v. 6‒11

Dearly beloved, be humbled under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in the time of visitation: casting all your care on Him, for He has care for you. Be sober and watch; because your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour: whom you resist, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world But the God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will Himself perfect you, and confirm you, and establish you. To Him be glory and empire for ever and ever.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The miseries of this present life are the test to which God puts His soldiers. He passes judgement on them and classifies them according to the degree of courage they have shown. Therefore is it, that we all have our share of suffering. The combat has commenced. God is looking on, watching how each of us comports himself. The day is not far off when the Judge will pass sentence on the merits of each combatant, and award to each one the recompense he has won. Combat, now: peace and rest and a crown, then. Happy they who during these days of probation have recognised the mighty hand of God in all the trials they have had, and have humbled themselves under its pressure, lovingly and confidingly! Against such Christians, who have been strong in faith, the roaring lion has not been able to prevail. They were sober, they were watchful, during this their pilgrimage. They were fully convinced of this, that every one has to suffer in the present life. They therefore never sighed and moaned, as though they were the only sufferers. They did not assume the attitude of victims, and call it resignation, but they took each trial as it came and, without talking to every one about it, they quietly and joyously united it with the sufferings of Christ. O true Christians, you will be joyous for all eternity, when there will be made the manifestation of that eternal glory in Christ Jesus which He will pass on to them, that they may share it with Him forever!

Gospel – Luke xv. 1‒10

At that time the publicans and sinners drew near to Jesus to hear Him. And the pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” And he spoke to them this parable, saying, “Which of you that has a hundred sheep, and if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost until he find it? And when He has found it, lays it upon his shoulders rejoicing, and coming home calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost? I say to you, that even so there will be joy in Heaven over one sinner who does penance, more than on ninety-nine just who need not penance. Or what woman having ten groats, if she lose one groat, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house and seek diligently, until she find it? And when she has found it, calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me, because I have found the groat which I had lost? So I say to you, will there be joy before the Angels of God over one sinner doing penance.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

This parable of the Sheep that is carried back to the fold on the Shepherd’s shoulders was a favourite one with the early Christians, and they made representations of it at almost every turn. The same is put before us in today’s Gospel, that our confidence may be strengthened in God’s infinite mercy. It reminds us, in its own beautiful way, of our Lord Jesus whom we contemplated a few weeks back ascending triumphantly into Heaven, carrying there in His arms the lost human family which He had won back from Satan and death and sin. For, as Saint Ambrose says, “who is the Shepherd of our parable? It is Christ, who carries you, poor man, in His own Body and has ' taken all your sins upon Himself. The Sheep is one, not by number, but by its kind. Rich Shepherd this, of whose flock all we human beings form but the hundredth part, for He has the Angels, and Archangels, and Dominations, and Powers, and Thrones, and all the rest — all those other countless flocks whom He has left yonder up the mountain, that He might run after the one Sheep He had lost.”

But it is from Saint Gregory the Great that the Church, in her Matins of this Sunday, took the Commentary of this Gospel. And, in the sequel of that Homily, the holy Doctor gives us the explanation of the Parable of the Woman and the ten Groats. “He,” says Saint Gregory, “that is signified by the Shepherd, is also meant by the Woman. Jesus is God. He is the Wisdom of God. And because good coin must bear the image of the king upon it, therefore was it that the woman lost her groat, when Man, who had been created after God’s image, strayed from that image by committing sin. But the woman lights a lamp. The Wisdom of God has appeared in human flesh. A lamp is a light which burns in a vessel of clay, and Light in a vessel of clay is the Divinity in our flesh. It is of the vessel of His Body, that this Wisdom says: ‘My strength is dried up like a potsherd’ (Psalms xxi. 16). For, just as clay is made hard by fire, so His strength was dried up like a potsherd, because it has strengthened to the glory of His resurrection in the crucible of sufferings, the Flesh which it (Wisdom) had assumed. Having found the groat she had lost, the woman calls together her friends and neighbours, saying: ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the groat which I had lost.’ Who are these friends and neighbours, if not the heavenly Spirits who are so near to divine Wisdom by the favours they enjoy of the ceaseless vision? But, we must not, meanwhile, neglect to examine why this woman who represents divine Wisdom is described as having ten groats, one of which she loses, then looks for, and again finds it? We must know, then, that God made both Angels and Men, that they might know Him. And that having made both immortal, they were both made to the image of God. The woman, then, had ten groats because there are nine orders of Angels, and Man, who is to fill up the number of the elect, is the tenth groat. He was lost by his sin, but was found again, because Eternal Wisdom restored him by lighting the lamp, that is, by assuming his flesh and, through that, working wonderful works which led to his recovery.”