9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
The spirit of the Church is a spirit of gratitude. The more we unite ourselves in prayer with the
liturgy of the Church, the more we become like the good leper who returned to Christ and
gave glory to God.
“Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine?” (Gospel.) With deep sorrow the liturgy
recognizes in these nine that were cleansed but did not return to the Lord, a great number of her
children who have been cleansed in baptism and have experienced the love of the Lord in their first
Holy Communion, but who have forgotten His love, the gift which, without any merits of theirs,
they received from the Lord’s boundless charity, and do not return to praise God and thank Him. If
we listen to the Gospel, we witness a sad scene: Ten lepers have been cleansed, but only one of them
returns to the Lord to give thanks for having been healed, and this one is a Samaritan, a foreigner
who does not even belong to the Lord’s chosen people. The children of predilection have been
showered with graces and benefits by God and have been cared for day after day by the Lord’s providence;
and yet they are ungrateful. They pay no attention to the privilege of having been chosen.
They live under one roof with the Lord; the tabernacle is near at hand; they have the Sacrifice of
the Mass, the blessings of the sacraments, and many other graces. And yet they do not appreciate
these blessings and do not make any use of the graces offered; they are ungrateful. “Where are the
nine?” Only one out of ten gives thanks to the Lord. Do I belong to the ungrateful nine?
Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, grant unto us an increase of faith, hope, and charity; and that we
may obtain what Thou dost promise, make us love that which Thou dost command. Through
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thursday
The liturgy of the Church works for Christ with zeal and consistency. It proves that He is the
Lord; it urges the faithful to remember that Christ must be the center of their life and that the
good they find within themselves they must ascribe to Him and the work of His grace. “Of His
fullness we all have received” ( Jn 1:16).
“Man is justified . . . by the faith of Jesus Christ” (Gal 2:16). We are not justified by the
observance of the law of Moses nor by our own poor human struggles and endeavors. “For
all have sinned and do need the glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace through
the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation,
through faith in His blood, to the showing of His justice. . . . Where is then the boasting? It
is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we account a man to be
justified by faith, without the works of the law” (Rom 3:23 ff.). “You are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put
on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither
male nor female. For you all are one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ’s, then you are the
seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:26 ff.). Here we have the essence
of God’s plan of redemption: We receive the graces He intends to give us, the sonship of
God, by faith in Jesus Christ. “You are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal
3:26). And St. John assures us that it is by faith that we receive the incarnate Word of God
557