243 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year TUESDAY AFTER PENTECOST102 Before Holy Communion 1. “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). Consider that Christ the Lord is a good Shepherd, as He Himself testified in these words: “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11). For there is nothing amiss with the goodness of a shepherd if He looks after the life of His flock and provides it with ample pastures. Notice that He did both things most eagerly, for He both gained life for us by His own death, and He likewise procures most abundantly for us, His sheep, the food of His Most Holy Body and the drink of His Most Sweet Blood, which continue to be the great and wholesome nourishment for our souls, as He stated: “[M]y flesh is food indeed and [M]y blood is drink indeed” (Jn 6:55). What a fare! What sustenance! O Most Blessed Food, which not only purges the inmost part of a soul, but also nourishes! It drives away spiritual illness and pours in new strength. It is medicinal and nourishing! Therefore, take up your work, lest you consume this heavenly food in vain. For the servants do not eat fruitlessly the food generously given by their masters; but the more often and more sumptuously they are treated, the quicker, more diligent, and more zealous they are in fulfilling their duties. Would you sleep at the table of Christ? 2. “I am the door; if anyone enters by [M]e, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (Jn 10:9). Ponder that which a certain spiritual man rightly observed: Christ the Lord, His life and teaching is the gate; while the Church, or a religious institute or some pious sodality is the sheepfold.103 Therefore, those who enter through this gate, which 102 Before the changes to the liturgical calendar in 1969, this was Tuesday in the Octave of Pentecost, but in the Novus Ordo it is part of Ordinary Time. 103 Cf. Ioannes Busaeus, Feria III. Pentecostes, in: Enchiridion piarum meditationum in omnes dominicas, Sanctorum Festa, Christi passionem, etc., Officina Typographica Balthasaris Lippij, Moguntiæ 1606, p. 65. From a marginal annotation we know that the “spiritual man” who made this observation was Johannes Busaeus, Jesuit author and theologian (1547-1611). Cf. J. Daoust, New Catholic
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