Traditional Catholic Teaching - THE SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION

THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

They began all at once to make excuse.

Luke 14: 18.

Our time is spent in all sorts of different occupations; we think one thing very important and another absolutely necessary, and we are only too apt to devote all our attention to what appears
indispensable, and to overlook what is really of supreme importance. Our Lord told us what the most important of all things was when He said: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2: 49) All that concerns our Father's business and our own eternal salvation ought to take precedence of our worldly interests. Not that we are required to neglect our ordinary occupations, but our care for what is eternal should sanctify all our work, stimulate our energy, and guard us from sin whilst engaged in our ordinary pursuits.

Why are we bound to busy ourselves with what concerns God, rather than with anything else? We belong to Him with all that we are and all that we have. "In Him we live and move and be," as St. Paul said (Acts 17: 28), Our chief duty therefore is, as our Lord Himself taught us, to render to God the things that are God's. Whatever tends to God's honour must be done first of all. If anyone thinks more of what is temporal than of what is eternal, more of what concerns himself than of what concerns God, he is robbing God and is horribly ungrateful towards Him, and such ingratitude will sooner or later be punished. We enjoy the greatest happiness of which we are capable on earth only if we give ourselves wholly to God. What is earthly and temporal cannot really make us happy, because it can not satisfy the human heart. Some times we cherish some earthly desire in our hearts, and imagine that we should be perfectly happy if that wish were gratified, but it is not so, and we are deceiving ourselves. If we obtained what we desired, we should find that the fulfilment of our wish was attended by certain circumstances that we had not taken into consideration, but that greatly diminished, or altogether destroyed, the pleasure which we anticipated. Many a man fancies that he would be happy if only this or that circumstance could be altered; the world may deem Jim happy, but it knows nothing of his secret troubles. As long as we live in this world there will always be something that we wish to be otherwise; here every day has its end, every blossom withers and dies, and earth with all its joys cannot satisfy us; so that, whoever seeks happiness in earthly pleasures has only himself to blame if he is never quite happy. God alone with His infinite love is able to satisfy the craving of the human heart; and, we shall enjoy happiness proportionate to our love of Him. The desire for happiness is implanted within us, and ought to urge us on to busy ourselves chiefly with things that concern our Father in heaven.

Such an effort to reach higher things is alone worthy of creatures endowed with reason. If we pursue earthly pleasures and occupy ourselves exclusively with what is temporal, what have we at last? Everything passes away, and what we acquired with so much exertion vanishes, and our labour is wasted. No trace remains even in our memory of many days spent in fruitless toil, and many a man who has worn himself out in the pursuit of earthly riches has to acknowledge, when he comes to die, that all has been in vain; his efforts have been unprofitable, he came into the world poor, and he must leave it poor. He, on the other hand, who has cared most for what concerns his Father in heaven, has been striving after what is eternal, and not after what is temporal; and he does not leave the results of his labour in this world; they have gone before him into the world to come, and there before the throne of God are all his prayers, all the mourners' tears that he has dried, all the thanks that he has deserved during his life, all the instances of self-denial practised unknown to men, but known to God – all these are stored up for him in heaven, ready to afford him eternal happiness when he has reached his home above.

O, let us beware of bartering what is eternal for what is temporal! Let us engrave deeply on our hearts the words: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, but to love God and serve Him alone." Let us serve God and busy ourselves chiefly about that concerns Him, and then all that we do, whether great or small, will win us merit for eternity. "To them that love God all things work together unto good" (Rom. 7: 28), and St. Paul is perfectly right in making this assertion, for they are helped in all their undertakings by the Divine grace that Christ obtained for us, and whatever is done with the help of God's grace merits an eternal reward. What does a lover of the world secure by all his work and trouble? If successful, he enjoys a little money and a little honour, and often he gets nothing at all. Which is preferable, the gold of earth or the infinite treasure of God's grace? The esteem of men or the honour of being God's child for ever? Let us therefore do our utmost to busy ourselves chiefly about matters concerning our heavenly Father. Let us do our everyday work, whatever it may be, for love of Him, and then we shall be serving His interests. Even if all our toil and efforts meet with no temporal reward, if they are unappreciated by men and bring us nothing but poverty, contempt, ingratitude and insults, we need not be disturbed, for we know that we shall not have our reward here, but, when nothing remains to a worldly minded man but the grave, when perhaps his soul is irretrievably lost, we shall be admitted to the Paradise of God's infinite love.

Indeed, even on earth those who busy themselves with the things of God, enjoy great consolation. A worldling may complain of being disappointed, but one who seeks God is sure of his reward. A worldling is despondent in time of tribulation, but one whose conversation is in heaven sees in his trials only a fresh admonition to occupy himself with his heavenly Father's interests, and so to store up merit for himself. He is reminded to be submissive to God's will, to be gentle and patient, and to make progress in the practice of all virtues pleasing to Him. Let us aim first at God and His interests, and then life will become to us a ladder, up which we shall climb higher day by day towards our goal, which can be none other than to become more and more like God, and more and more worthy of His eternal glory.

Let us therefore ask God for grace to occupy ourselves principally with the things of eternity. The more our hearts are filled with this spirit, the more blessed and pleasing to God will our whole lives become, and the greater will be our joy in heaven. Amen.

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