Feria VI infra Hebdomadam I post Octavam Pentecostes
As the Church progresses through the time after Pentecost, we are continually reminded of the life we are to live in the Spirit poured out at that holy feast. The Mass readings for Feria VI infra Hebdomadam I post Octavam Pentecostes(Friday after the Octave of Pentecost) bring together two deeply complementary texts: 1 John 4:8–21 and Luke 6:36–42. Together, they teach us the heart of the Christian moral life: love rooted in God, mercy flowing from that love, and a humility that purifies the eyes of our soul.
Let us begin with the Apostle of love:
“God is charity: and he that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16, Douay-Rheims).
St. John’s epistle offers not merely a command but a revelation of the very being of God: Deus caritas est. This charity (caritas, not mere sentiment or emotional warmth) is the divine love that takes initiative, that gives without expecting return, that manifests itself supremely in the Incarnation and Passion of our Lord.
St. Augustine, commenting on this passage, writes:
“For what is love? It is the beautiful bond which joins us to God. See what love has done: God has become man. The love of God was not in word, but in deed: not only did He send His Son, but He gave Him up to death for us” (Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Tractate IX).
It is this divine charity that transforms the soul, rooting out fear, and making us bold in our love for others. As St. John says, “Perfect charity casteth out fear” (v. 18). Not the fear of reverence (timor Domini), which is holy, but the servile fear that flees punishment. This kind of love draws us into communion with God and prepares us for the moral admonitions of Christ in today’s Gospel.
In Luke 6:36–42, our Lord gives a collection of sayings on mercy and judgment:
“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36).
This is not optional. The standard of our mercy is not merely human decency, but the infinite mercy of the Father. St. Cyprian of Carthage exhorts us:
“If we are the children of God, then let us be imitators of God. Let the sons of mercy be merciful. Let us be conformed to the image of the Father who makes His sun to rise on the good and the evil” (De Opere et Eleemosynis, ch. 3).
This command to be merciful is immediately followed by warnings against rash judgment and hypocrisy: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged… Why seest thou the mote in thy brother’s eye, but the beam in thy own?” (vv. 37–42).
Here, our Lord unmasks a danger to the soul which often hides beneath zeal: a prideful judgment that sees the faults of others while remaining blind to our own sins. This pride is the great impediment to true charity. It divides, whereas charity unites.
St. Gregory the Great, with his usual pastoral wisdom, says:
“Often the evil which we see in our neighbor is our own. For that which displeases us in others often exists within us; yet because we do not strive to root it out, we despise it when seen in another” (Homilies on the Gospels, Book II, Homily 17).
How then are we to live these teachings? St. John answers: by abiding in God through charity. But such charity is not automatic. It is cultivated through the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, which is the sacramentum caritatis—the sacrament of charity, as Pope Benedict XVI reminded us in a different context.
Moreover, true charity flows from a purified heart. The soul must be cleansed by penance, humbled by self-knowledge, and illuminated by the Spirit. As St. Isaac the Syrian said, “Do not presume to guide others unless you have first wept for your own sins.”
In this liturgical season following Pentecost, when the Church is clothed in the green of spiritual growth, these readings call us to live the life of the Holy Ghost: a life of active love, concrete mercy, and humble vision. The eyes of our soul must be healed to see clearly—not so that we may condemn, but so that we may guide with compassion.
May the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Seat of Wisdom and Mirror of Charity, intercede for us, that we might love as we have been loved, and show mercy as mercy has been shown to us.