THE Gospel, which is now assigned to the Mass of the seventeenth Sunday, has given it the name of the Sunday of the love of God, dating, that is, from the time when the Gospel of the cure of the dropsy and of the invitation to the wedding-feast, was anticipated by eight days. Previously, even, to that change, and from the very first, there used to be read, on this seventeenth Sunday, another passage from the New Testament, which is no longer found in this serial of Sundays: it was the Gospel which mentions the difficulty regarding the resurrection of the dead, which the Sadducees proposed to our Lord.1

MASS.

The judgments of God are always just, whether it be, in his justice, humbling the proud, or, in his mercy, exalting the humble. This day, last week, we saw this Sovereign disposer of all things, allotting to each his place at the divine banquet. Let us recal to mind the behaviour of the guests, and the respective treatment shown to the humble and the proud. Adoring these judgments of our Lord, let us sing our Introit; and, as far as regards our own selves, let us throw ourselves entirely upon his

mercy.

1 St. Matth. xxii. 23-33.

INTROIT.

Thou art just, O Lord, and thy judgment is right; deal with thy servant according to thy mercy.

Ps. Blessed are the undefiled in the way: who walk in the law of the Lord. Glory, etc. Thou.

Justus es, Domine, et rectum judicium tuum: fac cum servo tuo secundum misericordiam tuam.

Ps. Beati immaculati in via: qui ambulant in lege Domini. Gloria Patri. Justus es.

The most hateful of all the obstacles which divine love has to encounter upon earth, is the jealousy of Satan, who endeavours, by an impious usurpation of his own, to rob God of the possession of our souls,— souls, that is, which were created by and for Him alone. Let us unite with holy Church, in praying, in the Collect, for the supernatural assistance we require, for avoiding the foul contact of the hideous serpent.

cum patientia, supportantes invicem in charitate, soliciti servare unitatem spiritus in vinculo pacis. Unum corpus, et unus spiritus, sicut vocati estis in una spe vocationis vestræ. Unus Dominus, una fides, unum baptisma. Unus Deus et Pater omnium, qui est super omnes, et per omnia, et in omnibus nobis. Qui est benedictus in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity. Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all, who is blessed for evermore.

The Church, by thus giving these words from St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, again takes up the subject so dear to her, the dignity of her children. She beseeches them, to correspond, in a becoming manner, to their high Vocation. This Vocation, this Call, which God gives us, is, as we have been so often told, the call, or invitation, made to the human family, that it would come to the sacred nuptials of divine Union; it is the Vocation given to us to reign in heaven with the Word, who had made himself our Spouse, and our Head. The Gospel read to us eight days ago, which was, formerly, the one appointed for this present Sunday, and was thus brought into close connection with our Epistle,-that Gospel, we say, finds itself admirably commented by these words of St. Paul to the Ephesians, and it, in turn, throws light on the Apostle's words about the Vocation. When thou art INVITED to a Wedding ("cum VOCATUS fueris") sit down in the lowest place! These were our Lord's words to us, last Sunday; and now, we have the Apostle saying to us: Walk worthy of the VOCATION in which ye are CALLED, yes, walk in that VOCATION with all humility!

Let us now attentively hearken to our Apostle,

telling us what we must do, in order to prove ourselves worthy of the high honour offered to us by the Son of God. We must practise, among other virtues, these three, humility, mildness, and patience. These are the means for gaining the end that is so generously proposed to us. And, what is this end? It is the UNITY of that immense body, which the Son of God makes his own, by the mystic nuptials he vouchsafes to celebrate with our human nature. This Man-God asks one condition from those whom he calls, whom he invites, to become, through the Church, his Bride, bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. This one condition is, that they maintain such harmony among them, that it will make one body and one spirit of them all, in the bond of peace. "Bond most glori"ous!" cries out St. John Chrysostom, "bond most "admirable, which unites us all mutually with one "another, and then, thus united, unites us with "God." The strength of this bond, is the strength of the Holy Spirit himself, who is all holiness and love; for it is that Holy Spirit who forms these spiritual and divine ties; He it is, who, with the countless multitude of the Baptised, does the work which the soul does in the human body, that is, it gives it life, and it unites all the members into oneness of person. It is by the Holy Ghost, that young and old, poor and rich, men and women, distinct as all these are in other respects, are made one, fused, so to say, in the fire which eternally burns in the blessed Trinity. But, in order that the flame of infinite love may thus draw into its embrace our regenerated humanity, we must get rid of selfish rivalries, and grudges, and dissensions, which, so long as they exist among us, prove us to be carnal,3 and, therefore, that we are unfit material for either the divine flame to touch, or for the Union which

'Eph. v. 30. 2S. CHRYS. in Ep. ad Eph. Hom. ix. 3. 1 Cor. iii. 3.

that flame produces. According to the beautiful comparison of St. John Chrysostom,'-when fire lays hold of various species of wood which have been thrown into it, if it find the fuel properly dry, it makes one burning pile of all the several woods; but, if they are damp and wet, it cannot act on them separately, nor reduce the whole to one common blaze: so is it in the spiritual order; the unhealthy humidity of the passions neutralises the action of the sanctifying Spirit; and Union, which is both the means and end of love, becomes an impossibility.

Let us, therefore, bind ourselves to our brethren by that blessed link of charity, which, if it fetters at all, fetters only our bad tempers; but, in all other respects, it dilates our hearts, by the very fact of its giving free scope to the Holy Ghost to lead them safely to the realisation of that one hope of our common vocation and calling,-which is to unite us to God by love. Of course, charity, even with the Saints, is, so long as they are on this earth, a laborious virtue; because, even with the best, grace seldom restores to a perfect equilibrium the faculties of man, which were put out of order by original sin. From this it follows, that the weaknesses of human nature will sometimes show themselves, either by excess or by deficiency; and when these weaknesses do crop up, it is not only the saint himself is humbled by their getting the better of him, but, as he is well aware, they, who live with him, have to practise kindness and patience towards him. God permits all this, in order to increase the merit of us all, and make us long more and more for heaven. For it is there alone, that we shall find ourselves not only totally, but without any effort, in perfect harmony with our fellow-men; and this, because of the perfect peaceful submissiveness of our entire being under the absolute

'S. CHRYS. ubi supra.