And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous, and despised others.
(St. Luke xviii. 9)
 
         The Lectionary for Trinity Tide is rooted in love of God, duty towards God, and the Grace that enables us to love God and do our duty. On the 11th Sunday after Trinity we are taught the tools to embrace God’s Grace. The Gospel exhorts us to conquer pride and embrace humility. Pride is the deadliest of all the mortal sins and threatens to land us in Hell Fire and Damnation. Humility is the chief of all virtues, which opens our souls to God’s Grace. Humility must conquer all pride if we hope to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. Pride is a difficult habit to shake. Humility is an equally hard habit to acquire. Aristotle reminds us that we become good by doing good things. His point is that we must form and practice good habits.
        
In this morning’s Gospel, Christ shares a parable with us to reveal the cause for either pride or humility. He pictures the vice and the virtue in two very different men. We read that two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. (ibid, 10) We shall learn much from the way that each man prays. Their words will indicate where their souls are in relation to God.
Jesus tells us about the first man, a Pharisee.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. (ibid, 11,12)
 
That the Pharisee is standing should not surprise us. Both ancient Jews and Christians stood to pray; kneeling was a later custom in the Western Church. But the Pharisee here takes his stand to pray. (Notes on the Parables, Ch. 29) No doubt, he chose a place of prominence so that others might see and notice him at prayer. He is much like contemporary Christians who have their seat in church, front and center, marked out for prominence, so that people may see how important they imagine themselves to be. The Pharisee segregates himself from all others, at a noticeable distance from all immoral and unclean sinners who must pray in the back. The Pharisee is full of pride. Pride is superbia in Latin and means haughtiness or pomposity. We hear about it in his words. God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are. (ibid, 11) The Pharisee considers himself to be better than and superior to all other men. He doesn’t measure his life against God’s perfect purity but in relation to other men. Since he is unconscious of any sin that would need any mercy, he thanks God that he is not a sinner. God is his cheerleader who is called in to bless his good life. Like all proud and arrogant men, he vaunts himself and boasts, to convince himself of his own goodness. I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican. (idem) He judges himself in comparison to notorious sinners. He notices the Publican at the back of the church and is sure that he is not as sinful as he. Because the Publican looks down and beats his breast, the Pharisee concludes that sins must be notorious.
        
If that wasn’t enough, the Pharisee will not only tell us what sins he never commits but what virtues he exemplifies. I fast twice in the week (ibid, 12). More than Moses’ fasting once a year on the Day of Atonement, the Pharisee does better. I give tithes of all that I possess. (idem) He gives not only one-tenth of his produce and cattle, but he even gives gold. The Pharisee thinks himself not just good but very good. He is determined to hide any hint of weakness or sin from all other men, from himself, and from God. He is full of arrogant hubris, or pride. At the root of his soul, we surmise that he must be a very insecure person. Insecure people have to count up and calculate evidence of their quantitative goodness.

Next, we see the Publican. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. (ibid, 13) The Publican has nothing to count up. He has little to say on his own behalf. He can lift neither his head nor his hands up to Heaven. He is full of remorse and sadness because he knows himself to be a sinner in need of God’s Grace. He reminds us of the prophet Ezra.
O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. (Ezra ix. 6)
 
His sins are too many to name. He is honest about himself and the condition of his soul. He dares not count up any good deeds because, still, he could be so much better and needs to perfect so much more virtue. Father, I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. (St. Luke xv. 21) Compared to what God expects of him, he has failed. In the presence of God, he is worm and no man; the very scorn of men and outcast of the people. (Ps. xxii. 6) He judges himself by God alone and cannot compare himself with all other men. From God alone he begs mercy, because from God alone can he find Grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews iv. 6) He has humbled himself under the Mighty Hand of God. (1 Peter v. 6) His prostration in humility alone can open to the door of God’s healing. He stood afar off, not because he was forbidden to come closer, for he was a Jew. His own humility keeps him at a distance from the front rows of the church because that might make him proud and arrogant. To come up higher or take a prominent seat is God’s alone to give. He smote upon his breast, knowing that God should smite him into Hell. He is not insecure but honest. He cannot tell us how good he is since in relation to God he is a sinner. But he does not despair. As far from God as he has traveled, still he pleads for God’s mercy.
        
Jesus tells us that this man, the Publican, went down to his house justified (ibid, 14) and not the Pharisee. Justified means made right with God. Went down to his house means having received the forgiveness of God in time and space, and not only in Heaven. This man was justified as forgiven and, thus, senses the inward presence of God’s Grace.
        
The virtue of humility is reinforced by St. Paul in today’s Epistle. He writes, For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (1 Cor. xv. 9) St. Paul was originally a proud Pharisee who also persecuted Christians. More than just comparing himself with the Publicans as their superior, he persecuted them. The Publican is a model for the humble Christian who absolutely needs God’s Grace. St. Paul rounded Christians up for persecution and even consented to their deaths. (Acts viii. 1) Of course, eventually, Christ finally slew Paul in the spirit, on the Road to Damascus. This Pharisee of the Pharisees would be thrown off the high horse of his own pride. This Pharisee of the Pharisees would discover humility. Paul would have to be humbled to become a true Christian. He tells us that
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (ibid, 10)
 
Finally, St. Paul embraced the Grace of God like today’s publican. Only God’s Grace could make Paul good. He was justified, or made right with God, only once he realized that his self-conscious righteousness must be put to death. His humility enabled him to receive God’s Grace. St. Paul, with today’s Publican, knew that humility alone can pray
Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy Grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure.
(Collect: Trinity XI)
 
God’s Grace alone enables us to move and even run in the way of His commandments. God’s Grace alone begins to bring His promises to life in our hearts. God’s Grace alone showers us with heavenly treasures. We must pray for this Grace. But first, with today’s Publican, we must sit at the back of the church, beat our breasts, confess our sins, claim no goodness, compare ourselves with no other men, but admit who and what we are in the presence of God’s perfect purity. Only then can the sweet forgiveness of God pass from Him to us as the gift of love for our salvation. God be merciful to me a sinner.

Amen.
©wjsmartin

Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail,
they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
(St. Luke xvi. 9)     
 
In last week’s Gospel, we prayed that God’s never-failing providence that ruleth all things both in heaven and in earth [might] put away from us all hurtful things and [might] give to us those things which are profitable (Collect: Trin. VIII) for our salvation. And this week Jesus shows us how God’s providence demands stewardship and responsibility. Through the Parable of the Unjust Steward, Christ commends the virtue of prudence for our consideration.
         
The Parable of the Unjust Steward tells how the steward of a rich man’s treasure has been accused of wasting his master’s goods and mismanaging his estate. The rich man summons his employee to call him to account. How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. (St. Luke xvi. 2) The rich man has discovered a truth about his steward that shocks him. He placed great trust in his steward only to learn that his monies have been misused. The employee is struck dumb with fear over what his master has learned and what steps he might take. He can make no excuse for his sin. So, he says to himself, What shall I do? For my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. (Ibid, 3) Digging ditches will not make him right with his lord. Begging will likewise only humiliate him. He has a good mind and so intends to make right with his master.

I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. 
                                                                                                   (Ibid, 4-7)

Though he has failed to manage the rich man’s business properly in the past, he will nevertheless use prudence to make up for his corruption by calling in some portion of his master’s debts. So, he makes a deal with others who have loans with his master to repay what they can. He ends up collecting fifty percent of what one man owed, eighty percent from another, and returns to give an account of his stewardship. So, the lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. (Ibid, 8) He has used unrighteous mammon and made friends through it to win back some favor with his lord. He has made friends through the mammon of unrighteousness (Ibid, 9) that his employer might show some mercy and forgiveness.
          
But what does Jesus mean when he says that in this instance the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light? (Ibid, 8) And why does He say that we are to make us friends with the mammon of unrighteousness? (Ibid, 9) It seems contrary to His habitual claim that ye cannot serve God and Mammon. (St. Matthew vi. 24) First, Jesus is not commending the children of this world’s wisdom absolutely. He is making a comparison to exhort us to use prudence. Insofar as the children of this world are prudent in their use of earthly mammon, they are to be commended. If mammon is king, they are prudent in finding ways to rescue themselves from the misuse of it. The children of this world are wiser [or more prudent] in their generation [or in their worldly things] than the children of light are in heavenly things, as Archbishop Trench writes. (Notes on Parables: Chapter xxv) Unrighteous mammon is a term used to describe material wealth. In the Parable, Jesus suggests that the prudence of the unjust steward is a virtue to be imitated. Of course, it is not the unjust steward’s end, his own earthly occupation, that interests Jesus. It is the prudence used in calling in his master’s material debts to regain favor with his earthly master. The unjust steward is still unjust, and the unrighteous mammon is a real threat to the greatest treasure to be found in Heaven. It is false mammon, ‘the meat that perishes’, the riches of this world, perishing things that disappoint those who raise their expectations from them. (M. Henry. Comm. Luke xvi.) But Jesus does insist that worldly men are more prudent over earthly and temporal mammon than Christians are in acquiring its heavenly equivalent. Again, with Trench, [here] the children of light [are] thus rebuked that they give not half the pains to win heaven which ‘the children of this world’ do to win earth. (Idem)
        
Our Gospel concludes with Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. (Ibid, 9) Jesus is concerned here not with the unjust steward but with just one. Something greater than what the unjust steward did must be learned by those who would be just stewards of God’s Grace. The unjust steward made friends with unrighteous mammon such that his master’s debtors were relieved and benefited of their earthly debt to his lord and would receive him into their houses because of his prudence. So, too, the just steward can have a friendship with unrighteous mammon that is spiritually sound, using earthly and temporal riches properly so that those whom he has helped might welcome him into the kingdom because of his spiritual prudence.

It turns out that unrighteous mammon figures prominently in the economy of our salvation. Because the love of money tempts all men as a chief source of damnation, we must come to understand the meaning of making friends with the mammon of unrighteousness. William Tyndale writes:
‘Make you friends of the unrighteous mammon;’ that is, shew your faith openly, and what ye are within the heart, with outward giving and bestowing your goods on the poor, that ye may obtain friends; that is, that the poor, on whom thou hast shewed mercy, may at the Day of Judgment testify and witness of thy good works…that thy faith…in thy heart before God, may there appear by thy fruits openly to all men. (W. Tyndale, The Parable of the Wicked Mammon)
 
The prudence in the parable restores the unjust steward to his lord or master. Jesus encourages us to translate the unjust steward’s prudence into Christian prudence. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that prudence is the application of right reason to action. Prudence is a virtue that makes its possessor good and his work good also. (ST: II, ii, 47, 4) Right reason will make us and others good. A prudent man, knowing the danger of using unrighteous mammon for selfish purposes, nevertheless uses reason to befriend it and make good use of it. Jesus says that he that is faithful in that which is least, is also faithful also in much. (Ibid, 10) Prudence knows that unrighteous mammon is the least of riches, to be used only as it aids the pursuit of heavenly treasure. We can use unrighteous mammon to help the poor without resentment and bitterness to reveal to them that our chief end is seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. (Matt. vi. 33) In helping others, we can make friends for Christ. Charity and generosity will overcome other men’s basic needs so that their souls can join ours in laboring [spiritually] not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life. (St. John vi. 27)

The prudent spiritual man, like the unjust steward, acknowledges his imperfect stewardship and will be determined to make right with his Master, God. The prudent spiritual man knows himself as always an unjust [spiritual] steward of God’s gifts because he is fallen. He knows that he can never repay His Master for God’s Grace and Mercy. Like today’s unjust steward, he pleads for patience and mercy from the Lord. Like the prudent unjust steward, he will help his neighbors, now with unselfish motives, because together they seek the treasure of Heaven.
Prudence is the spirit to think and do always such things that are right and what enables us to live according to [God’s] will by His Grace. (Collect: Trinity IX) Prudence is also the right reason that discerns that the Devil will tempt us to dig ditches or beg, indulging self-pity and despair. This morning, St. Paul reminds us that  

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (1 Cor. X. 13)
 
Prudence opens our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer as we plead His Grace to fight off the temptation to worship mammon. Prudence, using right reason, knows that the temptation to worship mammon is common to all men. Prudence remembers that God’s Grace will always provide a way to escape. Earthly prudence enables us to consider our fallen natures realistically and to remember that by God’s Grace we can use our earthly principles in our spiritual quest after God and His goodness. As we put our old friend mammon in his proper place and imitate the diligent and determined prudence of the unjust steward, we shall put today’s parable to work in our lives.  

Amen.
©wjsmartin  
 

O God whose never-failing providence ordereth all things
both in heaven and earth, we humbly beseech thee to put away
from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things that be
profitable for us…
(Collect: Trinity VIII)

We concluded last week’s sermon with an exhortation to zeal. Having learned that the Divine desire for all men is that they faint not but rather feed continually on the living Word of God, we opened our souls to the ongoing nutriment that overcomes sloth. With zeal, we prayed: graft in our hearts the love of thy name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and…keep us in the same. With zeal, we prayed that the providence that ordereth all things in heaven and in earth, might rule our hearts and souls.

But what is this never-failing providence that we pray should overcome things hurtful to our pious zeal? Providence comes to us from the Latin providentia, and it means looking for or seeing into. In former times the word was used to describe God’s knowledge of all things – past, present, and future – in the eternal now of His perfect vision. Some theologians used it to defend Divine Grace against the claims of free will. The doctrine of Divine providence insists that God knows everything in every age in His eternal now. Perhaps a simpler way of putting it is that nothing ever has or ever will escape His all-penetrating knowledge. Nothing escapes God’s knowing, because his never-failing providence orders all things in heaven and earth. Whether men acknowledge it or not, God’s knowledge is the cause of all created possibilities. What happens in the universe is always subject to God’s will. Even evil itself –a rejection of God’s Wisdom and Will, much to its own rage and resentment – is a product of the Divine Logic.

Now, to be sure, we might find this view of Divine Providence not a little bit disconcerting and intimidating. The all-seeing eye of God makes us nervous. And well it should. Postmodern, materialistic Christians are too apt to treat God like Santa Claus. They fancy that God’s chief role in the universe is to ensure earthly comfort. Of course, what they have forgotten is that God made things of the earth to better perfect our knowledge of and desire for heaven. Knowing what things are and for what purpose helps us see them as temporary means to an eternal end. Earthly comfort must never be our end.

Earthly temporal happiness is not what God intends for us to be consumed with in this life. God’s all-seeing eye knows the devices and desires of our own hearts, or our intentions and motives. Not only does He know, but He judges. What does He judge? He judges whom we love or what gods define our lives. God is nothing if not fair. St. Paul reminds us: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Gal. vi. 7,8) What man sows means the seeds we plant and grow for our happiness. If we are bound by earthly happiness, we sow the seeds of temporary comfort. If we intend to reach heaven, we sow the seeds of eternal joy.

The choice is ours. It would be a pity if we neglected salvation for our own selfish desires. After all, Hell is forever. What we should be working on, then, is our knowledge and desire. What I mean is that we should discover what things are and how they might affect us. Next, we must learn how to use them appropriately. Put away from us all hurtful things and give us those things which are profitable for our salvation. Providence, again, is God’s Wisdom that reveals to us what created things are and for what purposes God intends for us to use them.

The Old Testament authors tell us that man best begin to open to Divine Providence through the fear of the Lord. All wisdom cometh from God and is with Him forever. (Ecclus. i. 1) We ought to fear God’s Wisdom or knowledge. This means that in awesome wonder, we ought to be reminded that God knows perfectly how created things can be used in His service or not. Air is necessary for ongoing life. Fire is made to rise and to heat. Water is made to nourish and fertilize or to cleanse and to purge. Man is made to know also that air can contaminate, fire can burn, and that water can drown. Knowledge of other things should give us reason for caution also. The fear of the Lord is that healthy virtue that puts created things to heavenly use. Whoso feareth the Lord, it shall go well with him at the last. (Ecclus. i.  14) The fear of the Lord is a salutary reminder that we ought to use the creation only in God’s service to better enable our souls to worship Him. God has made us for Himself. I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. (Isaiah lvii. 15) The fear of the Lord engenders humility and lifts us into God’s presence. Humility of heart knows the truth and intends to will the best. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate, [saith the Lord]. (Prov. viii. 13) Pride, arrogance, and evil ways disregard God’s role as judge of all we worship and do.

God’s providence is His Divine Wisdom. St. Thomas Aquinas, quoting Aristotle, sets it as man’s proper end. The name of the wise man is reserved for him whose consideration is directed to the end of the universe, which is also the origin of the universe. That is why, according to the Philosopher, it belongs to the wise man to consider the highest causes. (SCG i. 1) The wise man finds his beginning and end in God’s Wisdom. The wise man knows that it belongs to the gift of wisdom to judge according to the Divine Truth. (Eth. i. 3, ST, ii, ii, xlv. 1) Of course, the pattern and model of the wise man has been given to us in the life of our Jesus Christ. In Christ, we find the Divine Wisdom ordering human life perfectly. And God intends that His Wisdom should rule us also. He teaches us that we should be debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (Romans viii. 12). Rather, the Divine providence intends that we should be illuminated and liberated by Christ the power of God and the Wisdom of God. (1 Cor. i. 24), remembering that if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live. (Romans viii. 13) Wisdom intends that we should live for salvation. In this morning’s Gospel, the wise man is compared to a good tree that bringeth forth good fruit. (St. Matthew vii. 17) The good tree bears good fruit because we have welcomed the planting of God’s Word in our souls. God’s Word, or Wisdom, intends to bear fruit in our souls meet for salvation.

So, this morning we must ask ourselves some hard questions. Do I humble myself before the never-failing providence that orders all things in heaven and earth? If not, why not? Is my intention one with God’s intention for me? Do I want to be saved for eternal bliss and happiness? Do I remember that I was born to be a child of God forever? As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Romans viii 14) Proverbs reminds us that the Spirit of Wisdom cries after us. How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. (Proverbs i. 21-23)

God’s Wisdom is a rebuke to our hellish designs. But as William Law never tired of writing, submission to Divine correction requires good intention. If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead. We must intend to please God in all our lives. (A Serious Call…) Any difficulty with it must never dissuade us. Last week’s zeal must be adjusted to God’s Wisdom in Jesus Christ to give us courage with humility, because we intend to reach His Kingdom above all else.
Amen.
©wjsmartin
 

 Graft in our hearts the love of thy name, increase in us
true religion, nourish with all goodness, and of thy great mercy
keep us in the same.
(Collect: Trinity VII)
 
         
When we read the Epistles of St. Paul, you cannot help but come away with a sense of the Apostle’s uncanny ability to unite spiritual contraries to make his point. Perhaps this is a natural consequence of his momentous conversion, when, in a fit of zealous hot pursuit of Damascene Christians, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, he was thrown down from the high horse of his feverish pride onto the dry and desolate road of his own sinful undoing. Paul the zealot, Paul the Pharisee, Paul the persecutor of Christians endured an extreme turnabout or volte-face of his entire character. He who thought he understood all things, was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. (Acts. ix 9) He who by the law judged that his righteousness gave him license to hunt sinners, became the sinner whom Christ hunted. One man, slowly but surely, became another. In time, the zeal with which he persecuted Christ became that zeal for all men’s conversion to Him. His zeal became contagious because his life testified to the power of the love of Jesus. Jesus used him as [His] chosen instrument to proclaim [His] name to the Gentiles,… their kings,… and to the people of Israel. (Acts ix. 15)    
          
Zeal is the virtue opposite to sloth. Sloth is a mortal sin, and it is to that sin that we must turn before considering the zeal that we must embrace. You might think it odd that we must study sloth today, since it seems to contradict St. Paul’s zeal before and after his conversion. In the Gospel, we read that a great multitude of people had been following Jesus for three days in the wilderness. (St. Mark viii. 2) With zeal they had been pursuing the truth that they found in Christ; with zeal they hoped that He was the promised Saviour. Like St. Paul, their zeal was the passion that comes from seeking the truth in Christ for salvation. Because of their zeal, the multitude in today’s Gospel were willing to fast as they fed on the Word of Jesus. Because of their zeal, their fast was endured with neither regret nor resentment. So intent were they upon the pursuit of their spiritual good that physical nutriment was ignored, if not entirely forgotten.  
         
But Jesus, perceiving an imminent danger, says, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. (St. Mark viii. 2, 3) Jesus comes not to destroy human nature but to redeem it. He intends to bring to completion the good work which he has begun in them. (Phil. i. 6) They are in danger of fainting. To faint in Scripture means to fall by the wayside spiritually, to lose spiritual steam, and to become weak, languid, exhausted, and feeble. To faint means to lose one’s zeal. Men faint when they are hungry. One who faints has a faith that is in danger of dying and whose pious zeal might wither because the body needs food. Jesus knows the danger that looms in the hearts of those who are pursuing Him with zeal. The author of Proverbs says, if a man faint in the day of adversity, his strength is small. (Prov. xxiv. 10) Adversity here might be as basic as physical exhaustion, hunger, or thirst – the heat of the day. Should the soul’s good be pursued at the expense of the body, the earnest pilgrim might faint, fail, and fall away from Christ. He might be overwhelmed by sloth.
          
Potential fainting that threatens those who have followed Jesus into the wilderness is a temptation to sloth. Sloth is one of the Seven Mortal or Deadly Sins. Most people identify it as laziness or indolence that leads to physical neglect or even gluttony. The body’s vengeance upon spiritual asceticism – the imminent danger in this morning’s Gospel – certainly contributes to sloth. Physical hunger from fasting can generate ill temperedness, peevishness, and resentment. But the true nature of sloth is a far more debilitating and destructive mental condition. The fainting that Jesus seeks to combat most of all is spiritual sloth. He fears that the Word, which He has planted in the hearts of His followers, might die. Dorothy Sayers tells us that 

sloth is the sixth deadly sin. In this world it is called tolerance, but in hell it is called despair… . It is the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it would die for… . It prevents men from thinking. Sloth persuades us that stupidity is not a sin but a misfortune. (An Address… October, 1941) 
 
Sloth is a deadly sin because it refuses to consider the truth, find it, apply it, or even fight for it. Zeal’s discovery of the truth in Jesus Christ might soon wither on the vine. Zeal needs to be cultivated and grown. If the proper conditions of human life are not met, sloth might turn it quickly into a superficial and short-lived fad. Sloth convinces the soul that its zeal for the spiritual good is too hard to practice. Sloth, according to St. John of Damascus, is an oppressive sorrow. (De Fide Orth. xiv) It convinces the soul to be sad and to despair of zeal’s intention to obtain salvation.
          
Today Jesus would rescue us from sloth. He desires that we faint not by the spiritual way. He knows, with St. Paul, that we are weak because of the infirmity of our flesh and are tempted to yield our members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity. (Romans vi. 19) For St. Paul, sloth is born of despair, found in the servants of sin, [who] are free from righteousness and live in spiritual death. His extreme zeal for the Gospel is triggered by Christ, who is freeing believers from sin to become the servants of God. (idem) He has been arrested on the road to Damascus by the love of God in Jesus Christ. Paul’s love in return generates fortitude, as Chaucer says, that causes us to undertake hard things, or grievous things…wisely and reasonably. (The Parson’s Tale) Zeal conquers sloth with the courage to endure hardship and penance for salvation. Zeal is the fire that must continuously fuel the mind to know God and enjoy His truth.
         
Jesus fed the four thousand long ago to overcome their temptation to sloth and perfect the virtue of zeal. Then, He took seven loaves of bread and a few small fishes to satisfy their earthly hunger and perpetuate their zeal for the Word of God. Divine generosity triggered zeal in them and should do the same for us. Christ, who nourishes our souls with His teaching, will feed our bodies also if we believe in Him. In fact, if, with the multitude in today’s Gospel, we are so caught up in learning the truth from Him, Jesus might have to remind us that we need to eat to fend off the dangers of fainting with sloth and being tempted to despair.

St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that zeal arises from the intensity of love, because the more intensely a power tends to anything, the more vigorously it withstands opposition and resistance. (ST i. ii. 28, 4) Zeal is the virtue that arises from the intense power of love for Jesus Christ. Zeal increases in strength and desire the more intent a human being is in finding the truth from Him. If we put Jesus Christ first in our lives because we would learn the way to salvation from Him, our zeal will conquer our sloth. Zeal is a virtue when its energy is directed to being with Christ and persisting in finding what He longs to give. It will enable us to seek…. first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…. (St. Matthew vi. 33) And like the four thousand, we shall take no thought of what we shall eat, and what we shall drink. For our Heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of such things. (Ibid, 31, 32) All these things shall be added unto us as what strengthens the body that houses a soul, with zeal conquering sloth.
 
So today, let us qualify and adjust our zeal to heavenly ends. Let us not spend our zeal and spirits for earthly but for heavenly things, not for our own lust and honor but for God’s blessed will and pleasure. (Jenks, 274) Then, we shall embrace the gift of the Zeal of the Lord of Hosts in our souls, which will graft in our hearts the love of His name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of [His] great mercy, keep us in the same, for salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Collect: Trinity VII) 

Amen.
©wjsmartin.