317 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year 3. “so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Mt 24:27). Certainly, a man does not know and cannot know when a thunderbolt will burst forth from the clouds, but detects it only as it resonates and strikes something. Thus, nobody knows when Christ will to come to judge all men. [f.92v] He will appear at the time when He strikes sinners with a very severe sentence, as if with a thunderbolt. Wherefore, since the hour of His judgment is wholly hidden from you, you should behave every day as if you were to be judged on that day. Live so that at any given moment, you would be able to render fearlessly to God the Judge an account of your every single action, thought, and word. SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY136 Before Holy Communion 1. “The kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed” (Mt 13:31). 136 Rev. F. X. Lasance and Rev. Francis Augustine Walsh, The New Roman Missal: In Latin and English, reprint of 1945 ed., Christian Book Club of America, Palmdale, CA, 1993, pp. 1622-1623: [In reference to the old liturgical calendar:] “The Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost.—Easter may occur as early as March 22, and as late as April 25. This movable feast determines the date of other movable feasts such as the Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, and so forth. When Easter is exceedingly early there is not sufficient time between Epiphany and Septuagesima Sunday for the six Sundays, as found in the liturgy, after Epiphany, whereas after Pentecost more than the twenty-four prescribed Sundays will be needed to complete the ecclesiastical year. It may happen, too, when Easter is late that there are not twenty-four Sundays after Pentecost. "The Sundays omitted after Epiphany are employed, as far as necessary, to make up the number required after Pentecost, that is, the liturgical parts with some slight changes are transferred. When one Sunday only is required, the sixth Sunday after Epiphany is taken; if two are necessary to fill out the ecclesiastical year, the fifth and sixth Sundays after Epiphany are transferred, or, if necessary, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. "[However, b]ecause of the special liturgical features of the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, this Sunday comes last, though it be the twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, and so forth.The Sundays transferred as above are placed after the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost.…There may be as few as twenty-three Sundays after Pentecost, and as many as twenty-eight. When there are only twenty-three Sundays after Pentecost, the twenty-fourth will retain Sunday, while the twenty-third will be observed, rubrics permitting, on the day before (Saturday).”
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