IV — JESUS, OUR LIFE

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Presence of God. — O Jesus, life of my soul, make me rise each day to a new life of charity and fervor.

Meditation

1 — In today’s Mass there dominates a thought so often repeated by the liturgy and so dear to our heart: Jesus is our life. Everything good in us is fruit of his grace: by his grace we remain steadfast in good (Collect); by his grace we can live according to the Spirit (Epistle); by his grace we rise from sin (Gospel); and, feeding on his Flesh, we nourish his life in us (Communion). Without Jesus we would be in death; without Him we could never live that magnificent life of the spirit which St. Paul describes in today’s Epistle.

Let us gather a few thoughts from it: “Let us not be made desirous of vainglory, provoking one another. If anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Humility is presented here as the foundation of fraternal concord. Whoever is proud carries in himself a hearth of discord: by preferring himself to others he will often be provocative, envious, haughty, and contemptuous of those he thinks beneath him.

“And if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness.” Whoever seeks to scale the heights must beware not to criticize those walking lower, not to be scandalized by others’ weaknesses; and if duty requires him to correct someone, he must do so with gentleness and goodness. This gentleness too is fruit of humility, because while correcting others one must always watch oneself: “lest thou also be tempted.”

“Let us not be weary in doing good: for in due season we shall reap.” Difficulties of spiritual life must not discourage us, even when we fail to overcome them. God does not ask us to succeed, but to renew our efforts continually, even when we see no results. “In due season,” that is, when God wills and in the way pleasing to Him, we shall gather the fruits, provided we “do not lose heart.”

2 — In the Gospel the thought of Jesus our life shines in the clearest way. The Master meets the sad funeral procession carrying a young man to burial; his mother stands there weeping, and “the Lord had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Weep not.’” Then, “coming near, He touched the bier and said, ‘Young man, I say to thee, arise’” and He gave him back to his mother. Jesus is the Savior who has compassion on our miseries and uses his divine omnipotence to raise them up. Today we see Him work a miracle to console a widowed mother, restoring to her alive the son already dead.

This is one sign of the delicacy of his love for us; but how many others have flowed from his Heart, perhaps less visible, yet no less loving and life-giving! “In the Gospel we find three dead persons visibly raised by the Lord,” comments St. Augustine, “but He has raised thousands of invisible dead.” Writing these words, the Saint must have remembered with ineffable gratitude the immeasurably greater miracle Jesus worked for him, raising him from the death of sin.

St. Augustine, and with him so many other saints, are risen ones. If the saints who lived in innocence exercise great fascination over us, those raised from sin certainly have greater power to encourage us in struggle. If conquering pride, sensuality, and all other passions is hard for us, it was no less hard for them. They too knew our temptations, our battles, our falls; and if they rose, why can we not rise as well?

Thanks be to God, it is not always a matter of rising from grave sin; but it is always a matter of rising from daily little infidelities which, if not repaired, little by little weaken the fervor of spiritual life. In this sense, every day, indeed every hour, we need to rise again; yet so often we lack strength. But if we invoke Jesus, our life, He will touch us with his grace, as He touched with his hand the bier of the young man of Naim. He will infuse new vigor into us and set us once more, full of courage, on the path of perfection. The young man’s resurrection was implored by his mother’s tears; may ours be implored each day by the tears of our heart, by compunction, humility, and trust.

Colloquy

“O Lord my God, I approached the gates of death and You placed Yourself between them and me so that I should not pass through. You often drew me back even from bodily death, O my Savior, when grave illnesses afflicted me or I found myself exposed to many dangers. You knew, O Lord, that if death had surprised me then, my soul would have fallen into hell and I would have been damned forever; and your mercy and grace came before me, saving me from death of body and soul. These and many other things You did for me, O my Lord God!

“Now therefore, O light of my soul, Lord my God, my life by whom I live, I give You thanks. To You I offer them, though poor and lowly, inadequate to your benefits, such as my frailty can offer.

“I, first among sinners whom You saved, to give others an example of your most gentle mercy, will confess your great benefits; for You saved me from the deepest hell once, twice, three times, a hundred and a thousand. I was always tending toward hell and You were always drawing me out, while You could justly have condemned me a thousand times if You had so willed. You did not will it, because You love souls and overlook men’s sins so that they may do penance, O my Lord God, most merciful in all your ways.

“Now I see, and by your light I know this, O my Lord God, and my soul fails within me when I consider the greatness of your mercy. My whole life, which was perishing in my misery, has risen in your mercy; all of me was dead, and all of me You raised. Therefore may all that is in me be yours, for I offer myself wholly to You” (St. Augustine).