The Divine Lamp

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Introit: Bow down Thy ear, O Lord, to me,: save Thy servant, O my God, that trusteth in Thee: have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to Thee all day. Give joy to the soul of Thy servant; for to Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul. (Psalm 85:1-4; Psalm 86 in some translations)

“He had compassion on her.” With these words today’s Gospel reading gives us the motivation for the action our Blessed Lord takes in raising the widow’s son. It is precisely because of God’s compassion that the Psalmist, and the Church, prays with trust in Him.

Prayer: Let Thy continual pity, O Lord, cleanse and protect Thy Church; and since it cannot continue in safety without Thee, govern it evermore by Thy help. Through our Lord, ect.

God cleanses, protects and governs His Church through the Spirit; the prayer is therefore a good preparation for the Epistle reading.

Epistle: Gal 5:25-6:10

“st Paul begins the lesson of this day, which is taken from his Epistle to the Galatians, with the words: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. To live in the Spirit, means to be animated and governed by the Holy Ghost,to possess sanctifying grace. To walk by the Spirit means to live piously and virtuously. The Apostle means to say: If the Holy Ghost lives and rules in us by his grace, we must manifest it outwardly by good conduct. Hence St Jerome says: “If we have life through the Spirit, we must live according to the Spirit, and no longer serve the flesh….”

1. St Paul warns us against ambition and pride when he says: Let us not be made desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.

To seek honor is not wrong in itself, for honor is, of all earthly things, the most excellent, and is incomparably more precious than money and goods, as we read in the Book of Proverbs (22:1): A good name is better tha great riches. Honor and a good name promote temporal welfare, for a man who enjoys a good reputation is loved y everyone, is well received everywhere and finds employment and remuneration. Honor and a good name keep man from evil and are an incentive to a blameless and upright life. Lastly, he who stands in good repute and has the confidence of people can contribute very much to their temporal and spiritual welfare. hence St Francis of Sales says: Charity compels us and humility permits us to care for our honor, because it helps us to perform services useful to our neighbor. In so far as honor is a means of doing good, i.e., of promoting the honor of God and the good of our neighbor, we must seek it and be solicitous for its preservation.

Hence the Apostle does not forbid us to seek honor, but only vain honor and vainglory. He cautions us against vainglory or ambition. Who are they that seek vainglory or are ambitious? All the proud, and especially those who have an inordinate desire for the esteem and praise of men and do all in their power to satisfy this desire. They display their good qualities and actions to gain the applause of men; they elevate themselves above others and give people to understand that no one equals them; they wish always to be honored and preferred before others. This ambition is contrary to the fundamental virtue of Christianity-namely, humility, and is particularly displeasing to God. Hence Christ severely rebuked the Apostles who from ambition quarreled about precedence, and intimated to them that unless they should become humble as a little child, they could not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Ambition is culpable, not only in itself, but also on account of its evil consequences; for it excites the mind and begets envy, discord, dissension and strife. This is the reason why the Apostle warns us against ambition. The ambitious man, seeing that others are considered equal to him or even preferred before him, is very much displeased, and ill-will and envy arise in his heart. His fellow men are also indignant when they perceive that he boasts of his prerogatives, looks down upon them with contempt and claims from them undue consideration. The ambition of me is the cause that there is so much disquietude, so much envy, strife and contention in the world. Let him who is solicitous for peace and harmony shun ambition and pride and be truly humble.

The Apostle alleges another motive why we should guard against ambition and pride when he writes: For if any man think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

St Paul declares that man is nothing. This is only too true. Of himself man is less than nothing; for he is misery and sin combined. he is born in sin, he usually lives in sin, and he may die in sin; when left to himself he is capable of nothing but of rushing headlong into all kinds of disorders. Look at your body, how frail it is! What will become of it? The food of worms, dust and ashes. Look at your soul! in the very first instant of its union with the body it was already contaminated with sin; its powers are weakened and helpless in all that concerns eternal salvation. Consider what must be done with man in order to attain his final object. He must be cleansed from sin, and be sanctified. And this can be done only by the grace of God; left to himself man remains a sinner for ever. After man is justified by the grace of God, can he persevere of his own strength in justice? By no means: he constantly needs the grace of God in order not to lose justice. Thus man of himself is a mere nothing. Why then should we yield to vain thoughts, and imagine ourselves to be something, whereas we are nothing.

And if, nevertheless, many people are so vain and proud, whence does this arise? Chiefly from self-love; for it is self-love that so blinds man that he does not see his misery and weakness, and that ascribes to himself and to his merits the good he has or does, and therefore he does not give the honor to God. Do not suffer yourselves to be blinded by self-love, but consider very often in the light of faith, that of yourselves you are nothing, and con do nothing and you will not find it difficult to suppress all pride and ambition and to remain humble.

But let everyone prove his own work; and so he shall have glory in himself only, and not in another, for everyone shall bear his own burden.

In these words the Apostle teaches us how we can guard ourselves against ambition and pride. If we prove ourselves, and seriously and impartial think of the things we have committed or omitted, we shall find very much that is wrong and sinful. This knowledge of our sinfulness, at which we arrive by this proving of ourselves, will banish all proud and vain thoughts from our hearts and cause us to humble ourselves before God and man. It will produce still another advantage, for coming therey to the knowledge of our faults, we shall feel ourselves urged to correct these faults and to labor for our perfection. When we humble ourselves sincerely and endeavor to perfect ourselves we shall have glory before God, which is incomparably more precious and valuable than all the honors of the world, for what does it profit us if all men praise us and God reprehends us? if men extol us up to heaven while God looks down upon us with detestation? if men call us blessed when God condemns us?

In proving ourselves we must not look at others and make a comparison between ourselves and them, for self-love might easily blind us to think ourselves better than they, and thus yield to vain, self-complacent thoughts. Since everyone must ear his own burden, i.e., must answer for his own faults and sins (and even for those of others, if he make himself accessory to them), he must pay attention to himself, and not to others; judge himself only and not others, and thus he will be secure against self-conceit and pride.

Examine yourselves often, that you may come to a better knowledge of yourselves, for the more you know yourselves, the clearer you will see your misery and sins, and then it will be an easy task to keep all vanity, pride, and ambition at a distance and to be truly humble. But if you must make a comparison between yourselves and others, do not consider lukewarm persons infected with the spirit of the world, but consider the saints; consider their lives, their actions, their mortifications, their contempt of the world, and their virtues, and you will blush at the comparison. I assure you, and exclaim, full of humility: “My God what are the saints, and what am I?”"-The Pulpit Orator, Father John Evangelist Zollner

Gospel Luke 7:11-16

On The Three Dead Persons Whom Jesus Raised From The Dead St Augustine.