Traditional Catholic Teaching - THE SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION

THE SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION

But when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, ..... He shall give testimony of me. John 15: 26.

In to-day's Gospel our Lord tells His Apostles that they must not expect honour, authority, riches, or the goods and pleasures of this world as a reward of their faith, but, on the contrary, He reveals to them a future full of hardships, contempt and persecution for His sake. He is, however, unwilling to leave them as orphans in the world, so, after foretelling much that is painful, He promises them sweet and sure consolation. "When the Paraclete, the Comforter, cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, He shall give testimony of me." The Holy Ghost is a Comforter to all Christians, and not only to the Apostles. Even although we are not called upon to suffer what they did, if we try to lead a really good life on earth, it will be full of trials and difficulties.

St. Paul tells us, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3: 12); but, provided that we hold fast to the Holy Ghost and His grace, we shall never be without some consolation, such as the world is unable to supply, in all the circumstances of life. The Holy Ghost alone can give the only true kind of consolation in the matter that most concerns our eternal salvation. He alone can comfort us by forgiving our sins, when we confess them.

The world has no power to comfort us when we have sinned. If it suggests that God will not judge us harshly, owing to His goodness and mercy, our own reason and faith should prevent our accepting this consolation, for they tell us with absolute certainty, "Yes, God is good and merciful, but He is also just."

Sometimes the world acknowledges that we ought to make reparation for our sins, and so it devises works of penance, and the heathen also have inflicted upon themselves fearful and yet absurd tortures in order to appease the anger of God; yet we can derive no consolation from such self-imposed penalties, for the question inevitably presents itself: "Can we determine the conditions on which God, when offended, will forgive us? Must not He decide what we ought to do to make atonement?"

If the world seeks to distract us and make us forget our sins by dragging us into the vortex of earthly pleasures and amusements, there can be no true consolation in thus stifling the voice of conscience. For a time we may forget it, but sooner or later the hour will come when we shall remember our sins, and they will disturb and torture our minds, so that no earthly pleasure and no amount of gaiety will ever allay our fears. If we were left to ourselves and the world, the thought of our own sinfulness would embitter a life otherwise happy, and what misery would await us at death! We can never be grateful enough to our Lord for the Holy Ghost, the true comforter that He has sent us. He consoles us in the Sacrament of Penance whenever we receive it worthily; He comforts us for the sake of Jesus Christ, who, in accordance with the will of His heavenly Father, made satisfaction for us by His bitter Passion and death.

For Christ's sake our sins are really forgiven. Before confession our hearts are burdened with the consciousness of guilt and with the load of sin that we have laid upon our conscience, but after it they are light and joyful. We seem to have cast aside a burden, to have forever done with a sorrowful past, so that we are, as it were, born again, looking towards a happier future. Nothing can afford so much consolation as the forgiveness of our sins, which brings with it the great joy that we are now not merely called God's children, but are such in deed and in truth. Let us, whenever we go to Confession, pray the Holy Ghost to give us this comfort, and let us receive the holy Sacrament of Penance with a good will, honestly and with contrition.

But when we have been restored to a state of grace, through the Comforter, it behooves us to remain in it by avoiding sin and doing right in future. The thought of this duty distresses us, for our tendency to sin is very strong, and we are very weak; our hindrances in the right way are many, and our power of endurance is but slight. How little is the world able to help us, when it is a question of doing what is good, and of avoiding what is evil! It can only give us a number of fine maxims, of eloquent words and well-meant counsels. These serve very well and are quite satisfactory as long as we feel in our hearts no temptation and no passionate desire to disregard them. But when the storm of passion is aroused, the fine words are of no avail, and are quickly forgotten. When temptation rages within us, and in our anxiety we think it impossible to withstand the evil one, what is the use of all the beautiful maxims that we read in worldly books? They vanish like soap bubbles, and at the moment of temptation we are exposed to sin, helpless and without comfort. The wisdom of the world can give us no consolation, none can help us save the Spirit sent us by the Eternal Word, for He supplies us with grace and strength. At the hour when we have to fight the good fight, He is with us, reminding us that what to us is impossible becomes possible by His aid. Let us hold fast to His gracious consolation and consoling grace; and then we shall succeed in doing what is right and in overcoming evil.

Let us therefore to-day have recourse to the Holy Ghost, asking Him to work in and with us. Let us promise to co-operate with Him to the best of our ability, and then we need have no fear of stumbling on the way of salvation, of abandoning what is good or of plunging into the abyss of destruction. May the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, guide us all safely to eternal comfort and eternal salvation. Amen.

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