and join together the active and the contemplative life, as He did. " Let nothing," says Ecclesiasticus, " hinder thee from praying always." (Ecclus. xviii. 22.)
TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.
Christ the Good Samaritan.
" The Lord shall bind up the wounds of His people, and shall heal the stroke of the wound." (Is. xxx. 26.)
I. We read in the gospel of to-day, that a traveller fell among thieves; that they wounded him and left him half dead; and that a Samaritan passed by and bound up his wounds. (Luke x. 30.) By this man our first parent Adam is represented; the thieves are the infernal spirits, who, by inducing him to commit original sin, despoiled him, and in him all mankind, of all grace and other free gifts, and wounded him, as divines teach, in all his natural faculties. The four wounds of our nature are, according to St. Thomas, ignorance in the understanding, perversity in the will, weakness in the irascible power, and unlawful concupiscence in the concupiscible power. Such is the condition of all the descendants of Adam.
II. This pious Samaritan will visit you to-day in the Holy Eucharist, to bind up your wounds and to heal you. He will pour into them " wine springing forth virgins," (Zac. ix. 17) and the oil of His mercy with which He comforts sinners. He will apply His own precious flesh to your wounds, and unless you impose an impediment, He will enlighten your understanding, as the eyes of Jonathan were enlightened, (1 Kings xiv. 27) with the honey which he took. He will rectify your will, as the
