Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

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Eight Sunday after Pentecost

By Udalricus Campiliensis († c. 1358)

(AI Translation)

In this Sunday chapter sixteen of Luke is sung, where the Lord counseled, saying: Make for yourselves friends from mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles. For a steward is entrusted — that is, any man living in the world — with the goods of nature, such as the soul and body; the goods of fortune, such as temporal possessions; and the goods of grace, such as knowledge and virtue. Therefore, whoever has made good use of these combined gifts in accordance with their final purpose will securely count angels, saints, and even God himself among his friends. For the prelates have been appointed as stewards over the churches entrusted to them, to all of whom the Lord said together: Behold, the kingdom.* God gave to all people seven things they would require: namely, the body with its instruments and members; the soul with its adornments, that is, its natural faculties; the senses with their sacraments; the arts with their teachings; the world with its elements; the heavens with their stars; and the heavens with their gifts.


Old Testament (Left)

In Daniel, chapter four, we read that Daniel said to King Nebuchadnezzar: Redeem your sins with almsgiving, and your iniquities with mercy toward the poor. Just as Christ taught us to win friends through temporal goods — even those ill-gotten — so Daniel counseled the relief of one's neighbors, especially the poor, through almsgiving. Daniel signifies judgment and the preacher, who counsels each sinner to live rightly and escape judgment. And he spoke thus to Nebuchadnezzar, who was placed in the narrow agony of repentance — that is, in the anguish of a conscience stained with sin — that his sins, meaning what was wrongly acquired and wrongly kept, must be generously redeemed through alms, that is, through aid given to the poor, so that afterward the poor may serve as his intercessors before the Lord.

Old Testament (Right)

In Tobias, chapter four, we read that Tobias always said to his son: Do not turn your face away from any poor man, lest the face of the Lord be turned away from you. Tobias means "universality" and therefore signifies Christ and His holy Church — who, as lord and guide, governs it by moving it toward living works of faith. So indeed, the devotion of Tobias — that is, the Church— must not turn its face, meaning the readiness to bestow the gift of alms, away from the poor; then the mercy of the Lord God will not be turned away from us, but, drawn near by a readiness for grace, will always be most gentle.

Nature (Left)
The Liber Rerum says that the hedgehog gathers provisions for himself against the winter season using his thorns. By the hedgehog, which is a spiny creature, the wealthy of this world are signified. For just as thorns prick the body of those who touch them, so the heart of a rich man is frequently pricked by the lighter cares of watching over, and one day relinquishing, his riches and honors. Thus the wealthy, following the example of the hedgehog, must take particular care that during the summer time — in the passing of this present life — they strive to gather provisions for the soul, that is, alms for the poor, so that when winter arrives — that is, when the time of future reckoning comes — they may be found rich in an abundance of good things.

Nature (right)
Aristotle said that ants in summer gather food to lay up for their future needs. So too must every person, whether rich or poor, act in accordance with the evangelical teaching of the Lord and the counsel of the wise: just as the ant gathers provisions for itself in summertime, so must the righteous person gather, in this life, alms and the merits of other good works — so that when he arrives at the life to come, he may find there sufficient intercessors on his behalf. For the good man, whatever good he has done, will then have the poor as his intercessors and advocates before God.