Traditional Catholic Teaching - SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

They did eat and were filled,
and they took up that which was left of the fragments, seven baskets.

St. Mark 8: 8.

The miraculous feeding of the multitude, of which to-day's Gospel gives us an account, reminds us that Jesus, the true Bread of heaven, came down to earth to be the food of our souls and bring them to life everlasting. Mankind, hungering and thirsting after true justice, looks up to Him, and He satisfies all with His grace. We, too, are hungry and thirsty, looking up with earnest desire of heaven, and He will bring us thither, if we follow Him. He is no less merciful now than when He said: "I have compassion on the multitude," and by His help we shall one day reach the abode of everlasting peace, where we shall drink of the fulness of His grace and joy, that fulness which contains unspeakable happiness for all eternity. We are destined for undying glory and bliss; in this fact is the dignity of man most beautifully revealed; and we perceive our destiny if we consider the dignity conferred by God upon man even now in this world.

In the world to come, the good will enjoy great honor and glory, for they will be not angels, but like to and equal to the angels, being children of God, because the Son of God became Man. Therefore every Christian possesses great dignity even on earth, and this is the fact of which we can really be glad and proud. At the Ascension our Lord in His human nature went up to heaven in order that all who through Him have become children of God may also go whither the Son of God has gone. In heaven He is highly exalted in His human nature, in order that all who follow Him here may be assured of sharing His indescribable glory in heaven. Indescribable, indeed, is the glory reserved for the children of God, far beyond all that our imagination can picture or our hearts desire.

Therefore, whilst we are in this world, let us walk with Christ, through whom alone we can attain to that true glory. To walk with Christ is the same thing as to live like a child of God; and he only walks with Christ who seeks happiness nowhere save in God, and, like Christ, desires not his own glory, but that of his heavenly Father. One who walks with Christ looks constantly at Him, remembering that even the Son of Man had to enter into His glory through self-denial, suffering and sacrifice. One who walks with Christ aims not at the things of earth, but at those of heaven. striving ever to become more like his Divine Master. Let us often think of the glory of heaven, secured for us by our God, Brother and Saviour, for this thought will help us really to walk in the way of holiness with Him. The glory and joy of heaven consists primarily in the contemplation and possession of God. This contemplation of God includes a delight in and knowledge of His works, not merely of the things that He created, but also of His government of the universe. All that has been obscure to us here on earth will be cleared and intelligible to us there. Now we know God reflected, as it were, in the mirror of His creation, and even in this partial knowledge we find great satisfaction and joy.

Far more perfect, however, is the knowledge that we derive from revelation, and especially from Christ's teaching. Whence did we receive the grace of knowing God and His revelations? It came to us by no merit of our own, and so we are bound all the more to be thankful for it. It is only by true thankfulness, manifesting itself in a right use of His benefits, that we can become worthy of the reward promised us by God. We make a right use of the revelation that we have received through Christ, when we accept it with firm faith, letting it have a practical influence upon our actions, and when we accept with humility all those truths which, far from contradicting the reason of man, lie above it, and are inexplicable by means of it alone.

Let us firmly resolve that throughout life we will accept these truths; they will be our light on the way that we must follow in order to attain to the contemplation of God.

Inseparably connected with this contemplation will be the love of God in heaven, which corresponds with the possession of what is infinitely good. It is only by loving God here that we shall gain that entrancing love of Him in heaven. If we are too weak to love Him fervently now, Jesus will help us, so let us pray earnestly for this love on earth, for in heaven it will be transformed into the delight of possessing Him. He has given us, in His infinite love, all the means that we require to enable us to reach the joy and glory of heaven. It depends upon ourselves alone whether we obtain what He desires to give us, provided we make a good use of the means at our disposal. We resolve to use them rightly, but the world does its best to prevent us from keeping this resolution. Therefore it behooves us often to meditate quietly upon the eternal reward awaiting us. May the remembrance of it strengthen us in our endeavour to walk with Christ, and not only to be true to our holy faith, but to unite with it a really heartfelt love of God, in order that our craving after God, innate in every heart unspoiled by the world, our hunger and thirst after justice, may one day be really satisfied in heaven, where all joy and glory are made perfect. Amen.

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