November 17

Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. S. Matthew 22:37.

THOSE who are specially dedicated to God are called to aim at a special sanctification of their lives. As temptations beset every state of life, those who have dedicated themselves to God, whether in the religious life, in holy orders, or less openly, but not less deliberately, while living in the world, are liable to imagine that such acts of dedication will of themselves lead to the desired result, and that having made them, the way of sanctification is clear, and no further efforts needed. O grievous mistake! All souls are God's, and owe Him their undivided allegiance; but those who have voluntarily renewed their self-dedication, their lives and faculties to His service, whether living in the world or apart from it, are bound to a closer, more earnest watchfulness, lest they fall from their high aim. The very fact of such a dedication involves a nearer approach to that kingdom wherein nothing impure can enter. We are His creatures, already brethren of Christ through His Incarnation, members of His mystical Body by Baptism, His friends through participation of Eucharistic Communion; but there is yet another tender title which He takes, suggesting a dearer relationship still, He calls Himself the Bridegroom of His Church. As a bride gives herself up lovingly and heartily in all obedience to her husband, so the soul that plights itself to a heavenly Bridegroom gives itself up in a total devotion, active and passive, to Christ. The simplest duties, the most transient enjoyments, ordinary work, intercourse with other men,—all will be referred to Him. If the tree be the Lord's, are not the leaves and the fruit His also?

Give Him thy first thoughts, then so shalt thou keep Him company all day, and in Him sleep.