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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
 Posted - 12/04/2008 : 12:55:52
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THE following sermons, taken from the Epistles and Gospel read during the catholic Traditional Latin Mass (also known as the Tridentine Mass), make for excellent spiritual reading. The Epistles and Gospels at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass is the same through out the world, and this feat is one of the manifestations of the oness of the Catholic Church.
This is also an excellent opportunity for the protestant reader to compare the uniform interpretation and teaching of the Catholic Church, with the wildly differing personal interpretations of the same Bible verses, by the pastors of the ever increasing number of protestant denominations.
In each sermon, passages from Scripture and the holy Fathers are adduced as proof, supplimented by arguments from reason, as well as illustrations and examples.
Dear reader, dying a happy death is to be favoured with a foretaste of eternal salvation. Yet, it is exceedingly difficult to die a happy death after living a wicked life. For example: the person who is addicted to a bad habit is with difficulty saved, because the bad habit (1) darkens the understanding, (2) hardens the heart. So, he/she dies hardened in sin. We all know from experience that, it is well nigh impossible to convince someone to abandon fornication/adultery, sodomy, pornography, drunkenness, because their understanding has been darkened, and the heart has become harder than granite. One could mentin countless examples but one that immediately comes to mind is Hugh Hefner, that eighty-two year old king of pornography. How is it that he has persisted in pornography for so long? Dear reader, this is what is meant by being dark of understanding and hard of heart. Of course conversion is possible because with God all things are possible. But I ask you dear reader, what are the odds of that happening with modern men who are so esconsed in a life of riches, pleasure, and/or luxury?
Mortal sin is a great evil, because it is an injury done to God's infinite Majesty. The gravity of an offense is proportional to the greatness of the person against whom it is committed. It is a sin to murder your neighbour. The gravity of that sin changes, however, if that neighbour happens to be your parent. Imagine what it would be, if the person you murder, is your king. And what happens when that king is the Lord our God, Creator of the universe?
Yes, dear reader, there are countless men in this world, who would murder The Lord our God, if it were possible. These are they who advocate, and condone, abortion. For had Jesus been born in modern times, He would have most likely been aborted. These are they who would like to see religion banned, because they wish to freely and openly sin without restraint. These are they who hate God, because He forbids that which they will.
SERMON I.
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT - Spiritual Awakening
Sunday, 30th November 2008, the First Sunday of Advent, the very first day of the new Catholic Liturgical Year begins the one-year cycle anew picking up with the apocalyptic warning Christ echoed in the Last Sunday of Pentecost's Gospel and Epistle. With the world, especially America ignoring the Scriptures of "not rioting and drunknenness," "not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy" should we follow the PC police and policies or Christ? That is a no-brainer to those who take their Faith seriously. Unless we "put on Christ" in all we do, we had better be prepared to put on an asbestos suit for we're going to need it when "the powers of Heaven shall be moved" and many will realize it's too late. For those who have clothed themselves in the armor of Faith and grace, there will be nothing to fear for "the kingdom of God is at hand."
Have we not seen the signs? There have been signs and we fail to see what they mean as the rest of the world goes merrily on its way toward perdition. Today's Gospel and Epistle forewarns us and yet so many opt to be politicaly correct rather than Christ-correct!.
At Christmas, Jesus will be born in our hearts, for at that time the annivesary of His birth will be celebrated. He refuses nothing to the prayer (i.e Holy Mass) of the Church, His spouse, and thus He will grant to our souls the same graces which He gave the shepards and the wise Kings.
Christ will come again also, at the end of all time, to "condemn the guilty to the flames, and to call the just with a loving voice to Heaven"
Therefore, the whole of today's Mass is a preparation for this double advent of Mercy and Justice. The same welcome will be given to us by our Lord when He comes to judge us, as we give to Him now when coming to redeem us. Therefore, let us prepare for the Christmass feast by holy prayers and aspirations and by reforming our lives, that we may be ready for that last great assize upon which depends the fate of our soul for all eternity.
EPISTLE: Romans 13: 11-14
Brethren, knowing that it is now the hour for us to rise from our sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is past and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy:but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
GOSPEL: Luke 21: 25-33
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves; Men withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of Heaven shall be moved; And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with great power and majesty. 28 But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand. And He spoke to them in a similtude. See the fig tree, and all the trees: When they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that summer is nigh; So you also, when you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Amen, I say to you, this generation shall not pass away, till all things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
We read in the Epistle: "Your salvation is near", "the day is at hand"; and again in the Gospel, "Your redemption is at hand." "The kingdom of God is at hand." The Divine Judge will come soon, for death lies in wait for us and "a thousand years are as yesterday" in the sight of God. At this, His second Advent, Christ will come to render to each according to his works. The Jewish race will continue to the end of the world to witness to this fact and to be converted. Earthly kingdoms will then come to an end , while the Heavenly kingdom will begin, to last eternally.
The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans, is an admirable little sermon preached by St. Paul to the Romans. After showing them the evil he wishes them to correct, he proceeds to convince them with argument, and finally persuades them by a practical exhortation. The crying evil of those days, he says, and I may add, the crying evil of to-day is a forgetfulness of the main issue. " Brethren," he says, " it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep."
"From the heights of heaven", says St Ambrose, "Jesus comes. Let the sluggish soul at last arise, no longer stretched out upon the ground, for behold, the Divine Sun, already shines forth to banish all things hurtful to us. ST Leo adds: "It behooves all men to prepare for the saviours coming, lest they be found given up to greed, or entangles in the cares of the world".
Sleep of the body is not nearer akin to bodily death than is the callous indifference of mankind about things spiritual, to the eternal death of their souls. As in natural sleep the eyes see not, and all our bodily members lie listless and dead so in this spiritual sleep, this lethargy of the soul, the spiritual senses lie dormant; the eye of faith is closed and charity hath lost its strength, whereby we should be guided and moved to avoid evil and do good. And oh how true was then and how true is now the melancholy reflection of St. Paul when he sadly says: "and many there are who sleep."
Many, indeed, not merely the souls shrouded in the night of Paganism; not merely those slumbering in the darkness of infidelity and heresy but many Christians and Catholics, Catholics sunk in the deep sleep of mortal sin; Catholics given to the lighter slumbers of venial faults; in a word Catholics, awake, alive to the duties of this world, but asleep, dead to the main issue, the salvation of their immortal souls. Sleeping Christians! dead Catholics! they are like the five foolish virgins in the Gospel, who*, though faithful in starting out to meet the bridegroom, yet lacked the sustaining power of charity, and so slept and were late, and were driven away by their Lord in the words: "Amen, I know you not." Some day when you are on Washington Street, stand and look at the crowd surging up and down. The world commends them as a very intelligent, industrious people. But what does God think of them? He says of them as He said of His chosen people of old:
they have gone astray because there is not one of them who thinks thinks of the one thing worth thinking about.
The great heart of God as vainly yearns after them now as it did after the Israelites when He said:
Oh, that they would be wise and understand and provide for their last end.
In all that throng is there one single thought of God or heaven, of religion or the soul? You hear every topic discussed but these, and if perchance you hear them mentioned at all, it is only one poor old beggar who begs an alms for God's sake and invokes the blessing of Heaven on the giver; or, more frequently, a blasphemer who asks Christ to damn his brother's soul for jostling him. Talk to them of death and judgment, heaven or hell, and, if they do you no bodily injury, be assured they will laugh at you as a fanatic and a madman. Tell them of the saints who gave up all to follow Christ; of the martyrs who were consistent enough to purchase, with their temporal lives, life eternal and they will tell you that that doctrine was good enough for the Middle Ages those thoughts suited to Sunday only; but that the week-day cares of this practical age are very different and vastly more important.
There is a stringency in the money market, for example, and immediately the whole country is intensely interested; but the selfsame people look on with unruffled calmness at the daily spread of infidelity and the hourly ravages of immorality. A few shiploads of gold are sent abroad, and soon return in answer to a universal cry of protest, but though the gold of faith, the basis of religion, is fast dwindling away, scarce a single voice is raised in opposition. The lack of currency causes a widespread panic, but a falling off in the currency of good deeds, deeds of mercy and charity though never more general or more direful, causes no concern to any but the starving poor.
Men make wry faces at the files of bills that come in month after month and they strain every nerve to make ends meet, but they never reflect what would happen were God to hand down to each of us a monthly report, showing how much He paid out to us day by day and how little the nothing the worse than nothing we did for Him in return! The debit and credit column of day-book and ledger are carefully told up and squared day by day and month by month and year by year, but how hopelessly do the same men neglect their spiritual accounts how recklessly do they rush into spiritual bankruptcy and what a sorry tangle their accounts will present on the great reckoning day!
Again, cholera or smallpox threatens the country and we move heaven and earth to keep it off; our children are sick, we send for the doctor and give medicine; a friend dies, we lift up our voice and weep ; but the cholera of sin runs riot among us, and we let it pass quarantine, forgetting an ounce of pevention is worth a pound of cure; we dose our children's souls with the poison of bad example, and when our nearest and dearest dies by mortal sin, we shed never a tear. We take care to have our property and lives safely insured, but when that great Spiritual Insurance Company the Church sends her agent to insure us for eternity, we either neglect or refuse, though the policy she offers is infinitely desirable, her reliability infallible, and the premium ridiculously small.
There is something fairly ghastly in our indifference to the issue of the death and judgment that await us; as there is in the picture of a pleasure party on the St. Lawrence, carousing in their frail bark as it sweeps downward to the falls; or a criminal singing a ballad on his way to the gallows. If God were, in an instant, to petrify this age, and one man were left to go around and inspect the stony figures, how many, think you, would he find to have been engaged at the last moment in the service of the world, and how few in the service of God? The reason is because we are asleep to the main issue; we have forgotten the one thing to be remembered. And our folly is without excuse. For, as surely as the sun rises and sets, so sure are we that the evening of time is coming, and thereafter the dawn of eternity. The dreary rain prefigures the tears to be shed over us; the snow that mantles blighted Nature reminds us of the shroud that awaits us and the decay that is our common lot.
When the thunder booms we seem to hear the angel's trumpet calling the dead to judgment, and in the lightning's flash, which cometh out of the east and appeareth even unto the west, we are reminded of the coming of the Son of man. In the midst of life there is death; the grave is dug by the cradle's side, and the mother's lullaby is but the prelude to the funeral dirge. And when life shall have merged into death, time into eternity, then, as the Scripture says:
The worldlings shall have slept their sleep and awakening shall find nothing in their hands.
Then looking at those who, while here, were dead to the world but awake to God and the best interests of their souls, the worldlings shall say:
These are they whom we had sometime in derision and for a parable of reproach. We fools esteemed their life madness and their end without honor, and, behold, now they are numbered among the children of God.
Brethren, if the householder only knew when the thief would come, he would sit up and prevent his house being robbed. We know that the Lord will come like a thief in the night surely come, but when, we know not; and blessed is that servant whom He shall find watching. Therefore, St. Paul's first reason for our spiritual awakening is, that being vigilant in time, we may provide for our last end, lest awakening only in eternity we find the folly of our lives irreparable. " Now is the hour for rising," he says, " now is the day of salvation." Our age, the Christian era, is as it were the morning of God's own day midway between, the night of infidelity that preceded it, and the full noontime of the beatific vision that is to come. " Before Christ," as Isaias says, " darkness covered the earth and a shadow over the people," so that they saw and knew little or nothing of God's transcendent glory. The blessed in heaven, on the other hand, see God as He is in the full noonday of His splendor; while we, by the aurora of christian truth, as St. Paul says, see God in part only but hereafter face to face. Our time, therefore, is the morning, the time to rise from sleep. For all of us the night is past, and for many or all the day is at hand.
We should awake, therefore, spiritually, and even as the aurora develops into the brightness and warmth of the. perfect day, so should we advance from one light of virtue to another, from fervor to fervor, until we arrive even at the everlasting day of God's heavenly presence. Worldly Christians and bad Catholics, on the contrary, go down from the twilight, from darkness to darkness, until they are finally swallowed up in the everlasting darkness of hell. " The path of the just," says Solomon, " is like a radiant dawn that advances and increases to a perfect day, but the way of the wicked is dark and its end unknown." His second reason for our spiritual awakening, St. Paul takes from the nearness of the end: " For now," he says, " our salvation is nearer than when we believed."
Before Christ's coming, belief in the future Messias was the key to salvation, but it was only hundreds and thousands of years after their death that heaven was opened to the patriarchal saints of God. Now, however, it is but a step from life through death into eternity, so that the world's salvation, now that it has seen Christ, is nearer than when men merely believed in His coming. And hence, just as the aerolite falls the faster the nearer it approaches its resting place on the earth; as the racer makes his supreme effort on the home stretch; as the eleven struggle all the more fiercely the nearer they come to their goal; so we, seeing the goal of our lives, our salvation, so much nearer and clearer, should be the more eager and vigilant in its attainment. To these reasons of St. Paul for our spiritual awakening, I would venture to add a third.
To-day is the first day the dawn of the Ecclesiastical Year. To-day we begin to prepare for Christ's spiritual coming at Christmas. Now is the hour for us to rise from the sleep of sin, and relight the lamp of God's grace in our souls and lovingly keep vigil against the coming of Our Lord. As at His first coming the tidings of great joy were told 'only to the watching shepherds, and the star of hope shone only on the wakeful seers; so now none but those vigilant in the service of God can realize the full benefit of Christ's spiritual coming. Never was this call to awake more appropriate, or neglect of it more culpable, than now. As the brightness and heat of the sun grow less age by age, so does faith grow dim and charity lose its ardor, and our souls, like ice-bound explorers benumbed with cold, sink into the fatal sleep of death. Hence, we are inclined even more than the people of St. Paul's time, to forget God in our devotion to the world, the flesh, and the devil. And our folly is more guilty than theirs. For, in the beginning of time and of Christianity, men did not know the world as they know it now; they had not, like us, a past history from which to learn its hollowness, nor had they, as we, learned from bitter personal experience that it is all vanity of vanities, and gives naught to its votaries but vexation of spirit.
In the beginning, man's animal passions were as a mighty fire just sprung and raging fiercely, but God subdued them by the waters of the Deluge and tempered them still more since by the waters of Baptism. The devil's powers, too, have been curtailed since the woman Mary crushed the serpent's head, and her divine Son placed at our disposal the means of repelling him. In fine, the way to heaven has been made so smooth by the feet of innumerable saints; so easily traced, deeply dyed as it is with the blood of Christ and the martyrs; and the end has been shown so clear to our view, that the wonder is how, how we can possibly stray from that path; how we can have a single thought but for God and the soul; a single aspiration but one to " dwell all our days in the house of the Lord." Brethren, know that it is now the hour for us to rise from the sleep of sin now, next week, this Advent. And first, you poor soul given to many and serious habits of sin, in God's name cast off now the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Walk honestly, as in the day; thinking nothing, desiring nothing, saying or doing nothing you would be ashamed to exhibit to the world in broad daylight.
Free your soul, for good and all, from those sins of drunkenness and impurity, contention and envy. Make it so pure against the coming of your Lord that it will not quail even before the search-light of God's omniscience. In short, in the words of St. Paul, strip yourselves of the old man with his deeds and put on the new; viz., the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, you who are given to the habit of only one mortal sin oh, remember! that as it is not necessary to have all diseases to die, so neither must one be wholly bad to be condemned. One tag on an article will bring it to its destination, and sin is the label of the soul expressed to hell, the label nothing can remove but the blood of Jesus Christ. And lastly, you who are given only to venial faults oh beware! Like St. Peter you follow Christ but afar off. Take care lest your next act be to deny your Lord. Because you are neither hot nor cold, the Lord will spit you out of His mouth as a loathsome thing, not to be taken back without an effort, without disgust. While the clouds of God's wrath are gathering above you, you, because of your one or two good qualities, send up the lightning-rod of self-conceit and feel perfectly secure. Your danger is greater than that of the out and out sinner; for often the very enormity of a sin will drive the sinner up to the highest virtue, while the mediocre remain in their mediocrity, thus verifying Our Lord's words " that the first shall be last and the last first."
Brethren, may we, one and all, spend the Advent so awake to our most important duties as to merit to receive Christ worthily at Christmas; and may we spend our lives so vigilant in God's service that, at His final coming, we may be among His blessed servants whom He shall find watching.
.....continues
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 12/13/2008 : 11:03:29
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SERMON II - SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Faith And Miracles.
Blessed is he that shall not be scandalised in Me. (Matt. xi. 6)
The whole of today's liturgy is filled with the though of Isaias (whose name means 'the lord saves'), since he is beyond all others, the prophet who proclaims the coming of christ the Redeemer. He foretold seven centuries before that "a virgin should conceive and bear" a son " Emmanuel" (Isa VII, 14), and that God would send His "angel"; that is John the Baptis who should "prepare His way before Him", and the Messiah should come clothed with the power of God Himself to free all the nations from the bondage of satan. "The ox," says Isaias, meaning the Gentiles, "knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib, but israel hath not known me and my people have not understood" (Isa I, 3). "The root of Jesse," he goes on, "shall rise up to rule the nations, and the deaf and the blind, plunged in darkness, that is the heathen, shall hear the words of release and shall see. Then shall the true Jerusalem, that is the Church, "tremble with joy", for all the nations sactified by Christ shall flow unto it.
"The Messias,", as Isaias explains, "will establish salvation in Sion and glory in Jerusalem," "Sion shall be strong, for the Lord shall be its wall and its bulwark," that is, its powerful protector.
EPISTLE : Romans 15: 4-13
Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Romans. Brethren, What things soever were written, were written for our learning: that, through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope. Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of one mind one towards another, according to Jesus Christ: that with one mind and with one mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive one another, as Christ also hath received you unto the honor of God. For I say that Christ Jesus was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: but that the Gentiles are to glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: Therefore will I confess to Thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and will sing to Thy name. And again He saith: Rejoice ye Gentiles, with His people. and again, praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and magnify Him, all ye people. And again, Isaias saith: There shall be a root of Jesse and He that shall rise up to rule the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles shall hope. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing: that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost. Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL : Matthew 11: 2-10
At that time, when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, sending two of his disciples, he said to Him: Art thou He that art to come, or look we for another? And Jesus, making answer, said to them: "Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them: and blessed is he who shall not be scandalized in Me." And when they went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: "What went you out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to see? A prophet? Yea I tell you and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my Angel before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee. Praise be to Christ
In the Epistle, we see St. Paul's words to the Romans, first prophesied by Isaias: "There shall come forth a root out of the rod of Jesse and a flower shall rise up out of his root."
This root, as St. Jerome explains, is the Blessed Virgin Mary and "by the flower we understand the Lord our Savior." Moreover, the epistle is taken from the passage where St. Paul, speaking of this same root of Jesse, exhorts all who are called to the same glory to be of one mind one towards another according to Jesus Christ.
In the Gospel, again Isaias is referenced for the Gentiles will enter Heaven together with the people of God. This has no reference to Paul VI's abominable "People of God" which has been so skewered. Isaias foretold taht the Messias would be known by His miracles, and when John the Baptist himself, as the same prophet predicted, a messenger from Almighty God, sent "to prepare the way" of the Messias, caused our Blessed Lord to be asked if He were indeed "He Who art to come," Christ proved His Divine Mission by the miracles worked by Him. "But," as St. Gregory the Great explains, "after so many wonders the death of Jesus caused great scandal in the hearts of men faithless to God; and Christ Himself forewarned us against this stumbling block to which the Jews fell victim," and still do.
Holy Mother Church's counsel is therefore to welcome our Lord in the lowliness of His manger, for then, He will welcome us in His glory when He comes again to judge the world.
BRETHREN, an ancient tradition has it, that of the two disciples sent to Jesus by John, one was a Jew and the other a converted Gentile. They were, therefore, a representative committee of two on behalf of the whole human race, Jews and Gentiles alike, destined to bear ocular evidence to the fact that Jesus was in very truth the long-promised Messias, the Saviour of the world, the Son of the living God. Consequently, through them Christ in to-day's Gospel preaches to us and to all a little sermon on the grounds and the examples and the rewards of faith in His divinity.
Stiff-necked and slow to believe as we are, Christ gives us proof of His Godhead suited to our capacity in the multitude and variety and magnitude of His miracles. But faith begot of signs and wonders is not the faith He craves, and, hence, secondly, He points out to us John the Baptist whom He styles " the greatest born of woman," aye, a very angel, because without the carnal realism of miracles, John was quick to recognize the Lamb of God and, through the storms and disappointments of his brief and tragic life, clung to Him with unwavering fidelity. Lastly, for all who imitate John's constancy in faith no human vicissitudes can change, Christ declares the reward in those words aptly styled the ninth beatitude: Blessed are they that shall not be scandalized in Me.
Brethren, no assertion proven by a miracle can possibly be false, provided it be a genuine and true miracle. I say genuine and true, for there are miracles that are not really such, but deserve rather to be called wonders. As Shakespeare says, there are many things in heaven and earth not dreamt of in our philosophy many occult powers of Nature, Which, when called into play by divine permission or by Satanic agency, popularly pass for miracles. By such-like prodigies mere men are frequently deceived, but angels and devils, with their keener insight into Nature, know them to be false.
They are phenomena of Nature, that spring from hidden causes, and without divine consent could never be evoked. Such was the calling down from heaven, by Satan's power, of fire upon the flocks and shepherds of holy Job, and the changing of the rods into dragons by the Egyptian seers. Such, too, are the undeniable prodigies often wrought by modern magicians, and such will be the arts wherewith, at the end of time, Antichrist will try to deceive even the elect. God, for His own wise purposes, deigns to permit such things, false though they be, and doubly false since claiming falsely to be miracles and used to prop up falsehood. But it is of the very essence of a true miracle that the performing of it fall within the power of God alone.
Not only to men, but to devils and angels as well, does a true miracle bring wonder and amaze, for the cause thereof lies not in Nature but in God alone. Since, therefore, God can neither deceive nor be deceived, and since the working of true miracles is His exclusive prerogative, whateverassertion He confirms with a real miracle must essentially be true. See, then, what proof we have of His divinity. " Go," He says, " and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the dead rise again." And not alone those seen by John's two disciples, not alone those recorded in the Gospels, but such numberless others, says St. John the Evangelist, that were they each recorded and described not the world itself would hold the books they would fill. They are as countless as the stars of heaven, and the glory of them outshines those of all the saints as does the noonday sun the other luminaries. It was Christ's strongest indictment against the Jews that having done works such as no man ever did before, they still rejected Him. His very enemies confessed His power, for while refusing to believe Him the Messias, they were secretly whispering one to the other: "When Christ really comes, will He, think you, do greater miracles than these ?"
After their multitude, the next strongest argument for Christ's divinity is their magnitude. " Such works I do," says He, " as no man ever did before . . ." and we may add, or since. True, Christ promised that whosoever believed in Him would have the power to work equal and even greater prodigies than He, but we must not forget that whatever is accomplished by God's servants in the way of miracles is really done by power not theirs but Christ's. Christ taught this when He said :
I go to the Father and whatever you ask in My name that I will do
Peter and John showed how well they had learned when they declared to the Jews that not by their power, but in the name of Jesus, had they cured the infirm man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. Besides, Christ calls the effects of apostolic ministry greater miracles than His to show that the conversion and the cleansing of a soul from sin is a greater miracle than the raising of the dead to life.
Again the manner of Christ's miracles distinguishes them from miracles of saints and further proves Him God, for they by prayer and fasting accomplished gradually their results, but Christ not so, but instantly and by His sole command. The variety of His miracles, too, attests the self-same truth of His divinity, for in every creature of the universe, animate and inanimate, He showed His almighty power. Of inanimate objects the star led to His birthplace, and the sun was darkened at His death; the loaves were multiplied; the water saw its Lord and blushed ; He trod upon the waves and stilled the winds and seas. Of animate objects, the fig-tree withered at His touch and the fishes filled the net; He cured the humanly incurable ills of flesh; He raised the dead to life; He drove the demons from their writhing victims and angels came and ministered to Him. Were Christ a mere impostor and God permitted Him to do the prodigies He did, the imposition and deception would be attributable primarily to God, which is absurd and blasphemous.
True, many unworthy men have had the power of miracles, but the reason it was given them was that they exercised it not to glorify themselves, which would be to deceive, but for the glory of God. These are they who, as the Gospel says, will at the Last Judgment try to justify themselves, saying: "Lord, Lord, did we not do miracles in Thy name?" and whom He shall answer thus:
Amen, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity.
These are the terrible words that all the false miracle workers of this world, will hear on that terrible day. For, their power proved God's holiness, not theirs. But miracles permitted or wrought by God to prove directly man's sanctity or God's divinity are necessarily infallible arguments. With reason, then, could Christ turn to the Jews and say:
If you believe not in My divinity on the testimony of My words, believe at least My works.
Brethren, here, naturally, recur to our minds those other words of Our Lord: Blessed are they who have not seen and have believed.
Blessed John the Baptist is, after the Blessed Virgin Mary herself, the most illustrious example of perfect faith in Christ, and as such he is held up to us by Our Saviour in to-day's Gospel. From the moment of his birth aye from that day when at the approach of the unborn Saviour he leaped for joy in his mother's womb, the one overmastering principle of his life was to prepare the way of the Lord, to point out to the world the Lamb of God, its Redeemer. This is the key to the mystery of his life. All his other thoughts were so absorbed in this one that his time not having yet come and having nothing else in life to accomplish, he, while yet a boy, fled from home and his aged parents and sought communion with God in the wilderness. He is the companion of wild beasts; his garb of skins, his girdle of leather, and his food of locusts and wild honey. Talk of vocation for the priesthood, and sacrificing all to follow Christ, but did ever other minister of Christ follow the promptings of the spirit as fully and as faithfully as did the Baptist? And when at length the time was ripe and the kingdom of God was at hand, how earnestly he threw himself into the work of preparing the way of the Lord, levelling the hills by his fierce denunciation of the empty externalism of the proud Scribes and Pharisees, filling up the valleys by his kindly bearing towards the despised publicans, his consoling words of counsel to the soldiers, and his promises of better things to come; making the crooked way straight by his baptism of repentance and the rough ways plain by his touching appeals to all! No wonder people flocked by the thousands to hear him, no wonder they loved him. God bless the people for it now, as then, for let a man but throw himself into a work body and soul and with true sincerity, and straightway he finds the people at his back. At last for John came that great day when he and Jesus met, and instantly he cried: " Behold the La"mb of God! " No need of miracles to rouse his faith; rather it was his faith that cleft the heavens and brought the Spirit and the voice proclaiming Christ to be the Son of God. John's work was done; thenceforth he must decrease and Christ increase.
But before retiring from the scene he fearlessly denounced the incestuous union of Herod with his brother Philip's wife. A dungeon in the strongest fortress of Judea was soon John's home, and there took place his passion the trial of his faith. Born and bred a Jew, he doubtless looked as all Jews did for a conquering Messias one who should establish one kingdom, the kingdom of God on earth forever. Yet what a disappointment! Here was he, a prisoner, seemingly abandoned by the man he himself had called the Son of God; half his disciples deserted to the Nazarene, the other half reporting daily that Christ was either fleeing from His enemies, outraging the sacred laws of the Sabbath, and of handwashing, or consorting with the wicked and feasting with the publicans and sinners John's enemies.
Was this the man for whom he (John) had sacrificed so much? Was this the Christ of God? What weight such thoughts would have with you and me were we behind John's prison bars! But not so John. His faith was founded not on signs and wonders but on the words of God, and naught but God's own word in contradiction could ever shake his trust. He sent his two disciples, not to question Christ for his own instruction but for theirs and his very sending of them, his sublime confidence in the ability of Christ to give them an answer, satisfactory and essentially true, proves the depth and height of John the Baptist's faith. Hence it was that Christ commended him, his austere self-denial and firm constancy amid seeming contradictions. No reed was he, shaken by every wind of circumstance. Little cared he for worldly ease and preferment, yet was he greater than the greatest more than a prophet because more deeply imbued with the spirit of God an angel, because he came from God and lightly touched the earth and flew to heaven again. As in his dungeon he bends his neck to the executioner's axe, John is a sublime figure of faith and hope and love of faith, for he believed when doubt would have triumphed in most men of hope, for he trusted when it seemed hope had fled of charity, for he gave the highest proof of love by giving his life for his friend.
ln tribulations God enriches his beloved souls with the greatest graces. Behold, St. John in his chains comes to the knowledge of the works of Jesus Christ: When John had heard in prison the works of Christ... Great indeed are the advantages of tribulations. The Lord sends them to us, not because he wishes our misfortune, but because he desires our welfare. Hence, when come upon us we must embrace them with thanksgivitnhge,y and must not only resign ourselves to the divine Will but must also rejoice that God treats us as he treated his Son Jesus Christ, whose life upon this earth was always full of tribulation.
Brethren, great as was the Baptist, still Christ asserts that the least in the kingdom of God the Catholic Church can become greater still. John was of the Old Law, but we are of the New, with all its superior advantages and graces. Now, to best achieve our glorious possibilities we must first of all grasp firmly such fundamental truths of faith as Christ's divinity, and try to realize the overwhelming force of arguments such as His wondrous miracles. The human mind, if anything, is logical, and given first principles, it is sure to draw a practical conclusion; but from ignorance of fundamental truths result irreligion, indifferentism, and lukewarm Catholics. And after the foundation comes the superstructure, a life as like as may be that of John. To see one's duty and to do it come what may; to realize the importance of salvation and subordinate all other thoughts to that; to recognize the duty of preparing the Lord's way and leading others to Him by word and golden example ; to cling fast to the Church in word and deed, believing her divine whatever scandal stain her human side ; to do all this and to persevere unto death is to carry out Our Lord's instructions; is to imitate the Baptist ; is to be an ideal Christian.
....coming up next The Third Sunday of Advent - THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2008 : 07:18:11
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THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
In the tribunal of the divine will, as the inevitable source and universal cause of the whole creation, all things with their conditions and circumstances, are decreed and determined, so that nothing is forgotten and no created power can in the least impede the fulfillment of the decree. All the spheres and the inhabitants contained in them are dependent on this ineffable government that rules them and cooperates with the natural causes unfailingly and unerringly in all that must be done. God works in all and sustains all by his sole will; in Him lies the preservation of all things or their annihilation, for without Him they would return to the non-existence, from which they were drawn. But since He has created the universe for his glory and for the glory of the incarnate Word, therefore He has from the beginning opened the paths and prearranged the ways by which the same Word should lower Himself to assume human flesh and to live among men, and by which they might ascend toward God, know Him, fear Him, seek Him, serve Him, love Him, praise Him and enjoy Him eternally.
When the opportune and preordained time had arrived, the three divine Persons conferred with each other saying:
Now is the time to begin the work of our pleasure and to call into existence that pure Creature and that soul, which is to find grace in our eyes above all the rest. Let Us furnish Her with richest gifts and let Us deposit in Her the great treasures of our grace. Since all others, whom We called into existence, have turned out ungrateful and rebellious to our wishes, frustrating our intention and impeding by their own fault our purpose, namely, that they conserve themselves in the happy state of their first parents, and since it is not proper, that our will should be entirely frustrated, let Us therefore create this being in entire sanctity and perfection, so that the disorder of the first sin shall have no part in Her. Let Us create a soul according to our pleasure, a fruit of our attributes, a marvel of our infinite power, without touch or blemish of the sin of Adam. Let Us perfect a work which is the object of our Omnipotence and a pattern of the perfection intended for our children, and the finishing crown of creation. All have sinned in the free will and resolve of the first man (Rom. 5, 12); let Her be the sole creature in whom We restore and execute that which they in their aberration have lost. Let Her be a most special image and likeness of our Divinity and let Her be in our presence for all eternity the culmination of our goodwill and pleasure. In Her We deposit all the prerogatives and graces which in our first and conditional resolve We had destined for the angels and men, if they had remained in their first estate. What they have lost We renew in that Creature and We will add to these gifts many others. Thus our first decree shall not be frustrated, but it shall be fulfilled in a higher manner through this our first and chosen One (Cant. 6, 8). And since We assigned and prepared the most perfect and estimable of our gifts for the creatures who have lost them, We will divert the stream of our bounty to our Well-beloved. We will set Her apart from the ordinary law, by which the rest of the mortals are brought into existence, for in Her the seed of the serpent shall have no part. I will descend from heaven into her womb and in it vest Myself from her substance with human nature.
It is befitting and due to the infinite goodness of our Divinity, that It be founded and enclosed in the most pure matter, untouched and unstained by fault. Nor is it proper that our equity and providence overlook what is most apt, perfect and holy, and choose that which is inferior, since nothing can resist our will (Esther 13, 9). The Word, which is to become man, being the Redeemer and Teacher of men, must lay the foundation of the most perfect law of grace, and must teach through it, that the father and mother are to be obeyed and honored as the secondary causes of the natural existence of man. The law is first to be fulfilled by the divine Word by honoring Her as his chosen Mother, by exalting Her with a powerful arm, and lavishing upon Her the most admirable, most holy and most excellent of all graces and gifts. Among these shall be that most singular honor and blessing of not subjecting Her to our enemy, nor to his malice; and therefore She shall be free from the death of sin.
On earth the Word shall have a Mother without a father, as in heaven He has a Father without a mother. And in order that there may be the proper correspondence, proportion and consonance in calling God his Father and this Woman his Mother, We desire that the highest correspondence and approach possible between a creature and its God be established. Therefore at no time shall the dragon boast of being superior to the Woman, whom God will obey as his true Mother. This dignity of being free from sin is due and corresponds to that of being Mother of the Word, and it is in itself even more estimable and useful. It is a greater good to be holy than to be only mother; but all sanctity and perfection is nevertheless due to the motherhood of God. The human flesh, from which He is to assume form, must be free from sin. Since He is to redeem in it the sinners, He must not be under the necessity of redeeming his own flesh, like that of sinners. Being united to the Divinity his humanity is to be the price of Redemption, wherefore it before all be preserved from sin, and We have already foreseen and accepted the merits of the Word in this very flesh and human nature. We wish that for all eternities the Word should be glorified through this tabernacle and habitation of the human nature.
She is to be the daughter of the first man; but in the order of grace She is to be singularly free and exempt from fault; and in the order of nature She is to be most perfect, and to be formed according to a special providence. And since the incarnate Word is to be the Teacher of humility and holiness and for this end is to endure labors, confounding the vanity and deceitful fallacies of mortals by choosing for Himself sufferings as the treasure most estimable in our eyes. We wish that She, who is to be his Mother, experience the same labors and difficulties, that She be singularly distinguished in patience, admirable in sufferings, and that She, in union with the Onlybegotten, offer the acceptable sacrifices of sorrow to Us for her greater glory.
Now the time has arrived which was resolved upon by our Providence for bringing to light the Creature most pleasing and acceptable to our eyes. That Creature, in whom the human nature is freed from its first sin, who is to crush the head of the dragon, who was typified by that singular sign, the Woman that appeared in the heavens in our presence, and who is to clothe the eternal Word with human flesh. The hour is at hand, so blessed for mortals, in which the treasures of our Divinity are to be opened and the gates of heaven to be unlocked. Let the rigor of our justice be softened by the chastisements, which we have until now executed upon the mortals; let the attribute of our mercy become manifest; let the creatures be enriched, and let the divine Word merit for them the treasures of grace and of eternal glory.
Now let the human race receive the Repairer, the Teacher, the Brother and Friend, to be life for mortals, a medicine for the sick, a consoler for the sorrowful, a balsam for the wounded, a guide and companion for those in difficulties. Let now the prophecies of our servants and the promises made to them that We would send a Savior to redeem them, be fulfilled. And in order that all may be executed according to our good pleasure, and that We may give a beginning to the mystery hidden since the constitution of the world, We select for the formation of our beloved Mary the womb of our servant Anne; in her be She conceived and in her let that most blessed Soul be created. Although her generation and formation shall proceed according to the usual order of natural propagation, it shall be different in the order of grace, according to the ordainment of our Almighty power.
You do already know how the ancient serpent, since he saw the sign of this marvelous Woman, attempts to circumvent all women, and how, from the first one created, he persecutes all those, whom he sees excelling in the perfection of their works and life, expecting to find among them the One, who is to crush his head (Gen. 3, 15). When he shall encounter this most pure and spotless Creature, he shall find Her so holy that he will exert all his powers to persecute Her in pursuance of the concept which he forms of Her. But the arrogance of this dragon shall be greater than his powers (Is. 12, 7); and it is our will that you have particular charge of this our holy City and tabernacle of the incarnate Word, protecting, guarding, assisting and defending Her against our enemies, and that you enlighten, strengthen and console Her with all due solicitude and reverence as long as She shall be a wayfarer among the mortals.
At this proposal of the Most High all the holy angels, prostrate before the royal throne of the most holy Trinity, avowed their promptitude and eagerness to obey the divine mandate. Each one desired in holy emulation to be appointed, and offered himself for such a happy service; all of them gave to the Almighty praise and thanksgiving in new songs, because the hour had arrived for the fulfillment of that for which they had, with the most ardent desires, prayed through many ages. I perceived on this occasion that from the time of that great battle of saint Michael with the dragon and his allies, in which they were hurled into everlasting darkness while the hosts of Michael remained victorious and confirmed in grace and glory, these holy spirits commenced immediately to pray for the fulfillment of the mysteries of the Incarnation of the Word, of which they became cognizant at that time. And they persevered in these oft repeated prayers up to the hour in which God manifested to them the fulfillment of their desires and petitions.
On this account the celestial spirits at this new revelation conceived an additional joy and obtained new accidental glory, and they spoke to the Lord:
Most High and incomprehensible God and Lord, Thou art worthy of all reverence, praise and eternal glory; and we are thy creatures and made according to thy divine will. Send us, most powerful Lord, to execute thy most wonderful works and mysteries, in order that in all things thy most just pleasure may be fulfilled.
In such terms of affection the heavenly princes acknowledged themselves as subjects; and if it had been possible, they desired to increase in purity and perfection in order to be more worthy guardians and servants of Mary.
Then the Most High chose and appointed those who were to be occupied in this exalted service (the guardianship of Mary) from each of the nine choirs of angels. He selected one hundred, being nine hundred in all. Moreover he assigned twelve others who should in a special manner assist Mary in corporeal and visible forms; and they were to bear the emblems or escutcheons of the Redemption. These are the twelve which are mentioned in the twenty-first chapter of the Apocalypse as guarding the portals of the city; of them I will speak in the explanation of that chapter later on. Besides these the Lord assigned eighteen other angels, selected from the highest ranks, who were to ascend and descend by that mystical stairs of Jacob with the message of the Queen to his Majesty and those of the Lord to Her.
In addition to all these holy angels the Almighty assigned and appointed seventy seraphim, choosing them from the highest ranks and from those nearest to the Divinity, in order that they might communicate and converse with this Princess of heaven in the same way as they themselves have intercourse with each other, and as the higher communicate with the lower ones.
In order that this invincible warrior-troop might be well appointed, saint Michael, the prince of the heavenly militia was placed at their head, and although not always in the company of the Queen, he was nevertheless often near Her and often showed himself to Her. The Almighty destined him as a special ambassador of Christ our Lord and to act in some of the mysteries as the defender of his most holy Mother. In a like manner the holy prince Gabriel was appointed to act as legate and minister of the eternal Father in the affairs of the Princess of heaven. Thus did the most holy Trinity provide for the custody and the defense of the Mother of God.
The divine wisdom had now prepared all things for drawing forth the spotless image of the Mother of grace from the corruption of nature. The number and congregation of ancient Patriarchs and Prophets had been completed and gathered, and the mountains had been raised, on which this mystical City of God was to be built (Ps. 86, 2). By the power of his right hand He had already selected incomparable treasures of the Divinity to enrich and endow Her. A thousand angels were equipped for her guard and custody, that they might serve as most faithful vassals of their Queen and Lady. He had provided a noble and kingly ancestry from whom She should descend and had selected for Her most holy and perfect parents, than whom none holier or more perfect could be found in the world. For there is no doubt that if better and more apt parents existed, the Almighty would have selected them for Her, who was to be chosen by God as his Mother.
In the formation of the body of the most holy Mary the wisdom and power of the Almighty proceeded so cautiously that the quantities of the four natural elements of the human body, the sanguine, melancholic, phlegmatic and choleric, were compounded in exact proportion and measure; in order that by this most perfect proportion in its mixture and composition it might assist the operations of that holy Soul with which it was to be endowed and animated. This wonderfully composed temperament was afterwards the source and the cause, which in its own way made possible the serenity and peace that reigned in the powers and faculties of the Queen of heaven during all her life. Never did any of these elements oppose or contradict nor seek to predominate over the others, but each one of them supplemented and served the others, continuing in this well ordered fabric without corruption or decay. Never did the body of the most Holy Mary suffer from the taint of corruption, nor was there anything wanting or anything excessive found in it; but all the conditions and proportions of the different elements were continuously adjusted, without any want or excess in what was necessary for her perfect existence and without excess or default in dryness or moisture. Neither was there more warmth than was necessary for maintenance of life or digestion; nor more cold than was necessary for the right temperature and for the maintenance of the bodily humors.
On the Saturday next following, the Almighty created the soul of his Mother and infused it into the body; and thus entered into the world that pure Creature, more holy, perfect and agreeable to His eyes than all those He had created, or will create to the end of the world, or through the eternities. God maintained a mysterious correspondence in the execution of this work with that of creating all the rest of the world in seven days, as is related in the book of Genesis. Then no doubt He rested in truth, according to the figurative language of Scripture, since He has now created the most perfect Creature of all, giving through it a beginning to the work of the divine Word and to the Redemption of the human race. Thus was this day a paschal feast for God and also for all creatures.
By the force of this divine pronouncement and through the love with which it issued from the mouth of the Almighty, was created and infused into the body of most holy Mary her most blessed Soul. At the same time She was filled with grace and gifts above those of the highest seraphim of heaven, and there was not a single instant in which She was found wanting or deprived of the light, the friendship and love of the Creator, or in which She was touched by the stain or darkness of original sin. On the contrary She was possessed of the most perfect justice, superior to that of Adam and Eve in their first formation. To Her was also concealed the most perfect use of the light of reason, corresponding to the gifts of grace, which She had received. Not for one instant was She to remain idle, but to engage in works most admirable and pleasing to her Maker.
Although She was adorned as the Bride, descending from heaven, endowed with all perfections and with the whole range of infused virtues, it was not necessary that She should exercise all of them at once, it being sufficient that She exercise those, which were befitting her state in the womb of her mother. Among the first thus exercised were the three theological virtues, faith, hope and charity, which relate immediately to God. These she at once practiced in the most exalted manner recognizing by a most sublime faith the Divinity with all its perfections and its infinite attributes, and the Trinity with its distinction of Persons. This knowledge by faith was not impeded by the higher knowledge which God gave her, as I will soon demonstrate. She exercised also the virtue of hope, seeing in God the object of her happiness and her ultimate end. Toward this her sanctified Soul at once hastened and aspired with the most intense desires of uniting Herself with God and without having for one moment turned to any other object or tarried one moment in her upward flight. At the same instant also She put into action the virtue of charity, seeing in God the infinite and highest Good, and conceiving such an intense appreciation of the Divinity, that not all the seraphim could ever reach such an eminent degree of fervor and virtue.
The other virtues which adorn and perfect the rational part of the creature, She possessed in a proportion corresponding to the theological virtues. The moral and natural virtues were hers in a miraculous and supernatural measure, and in a still more exalted manner was She possessed of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost in the order of grace. She had an infused knowledge and habit of all these virtues and of all the natural arts, so that She knew and was conversant with the whole natural and supernatural order of things, in accordance with the grandeur of God. Hence from her first instant in the womb of her mother, She was wiser, more prudent, more enlightened, and more capable of comprehending God and all his works, than all the creatures have been or ever will be in eternity, excepting of course her most holy Son.
In correspondence with this wonderful knowledge of her most holy soul at the instant of its union with the body, Mary exerted Herself by eliciting heroic acts of virtue, of incomparable admiration, praise, glorification, adoration, humility, love of God and sorrow for the sins committed against Him whom She recognized as the Author and end of these admirable works. She hastened to offer Herself as an acceptable sacrifice to the Most High, beginning from that instant with fervent desire to bless Him, love Him and honor Him, because She perceived that the bad angels and men failed to know and love Him. She requested the holy angels whose Queen She already was, to help Her to glorify the Creator and Lord of all, and to pray also for Her.
The Lord in this instant showed Her also her guardian angels, whom she recognized and accepted with joyful submission, inviting them to sing canticles of praise to the Most High alternatively with Her. She announced to them beforehand that this was to be the service which they were to render Her during the whole time of Her mortal life, in which they were to act as her assistants and guards. She was informed moreover of her whole genealogy of all the rest of the holy people chosen by God, the Patriarchs and Prophets, and how admirable his Majesty was in the gifts, graces and favors wrought in them. It is worthy of admiration, that, although the exterior faculties of her body at the creation of her most holy Soul were hardly large enough to be distinguished, nevertheless, in order that none of the miraculous excellence with which God could endow his Mother might be wanting, He ordained by the power of right hand, that in perceiving the fall of man She shed tears of sorrow in the womb of her mother at the gravity of the offense against the highest Good.
In this wonderful sorrow at the instant of her coming into existence, She began to seek a remedy for mankind and commenced the work of mediation, intercession and reparation. She offered to God the clamors of her ancestors and of the just of the earth, that his mercy might not delay the salvation of mortals, whom she even looked upon as her brethren. Before She ever conversed with them with the most ardent charity and with the very beginning of her existence She assumed the office of Benefactress of men and exercised the divine and fraternal love enkindled in her heart. These petitions the Most High accepted with greater pleasure than the prayers of all the saints and angels and this pleasure of God was also made known to Her, who was created to be the Mother of God. She perceived the love of God and his desire to descend from heaven in order to redeem men, though She knew not how it should be consummated. It was befitting that God should feel Himself impelled to hasten his coming on account of the prayers and petitions of this Creature; since it was principally for the love of Her that He came, and since in Her body He was to assume human flesh, accomplish the most admirable of all his works, and fulfill the end of all other creatures.
In writing of these sacraments of the King, howsoever honorable it is to reveal his works, I confess my inaptitude and incapacity, being only a woman, and I am afflicted, because I am speaking in such common and vague terms, which fall entirely short of that, which I perceive in the light given to my soul for the understanding of these mysteries. In order to do justice to such sublimity, there were need of other words, more particular and especially adapted terms and expressions, which are beyond my ignorance. And even if they were at my service, they would be weighed down and made insipid by human weakness. Let therefore this human imbecility acknowledge itself unequal and incapable of fixing its eyes on this heavenly sun, with which the rays of the Divinity break upon the world, although yet beclouded in the maternal womb of holy Anne. If we seek permission to approach this wonderful sight, let us come near free and unshackled. Let us not allow ourselves to be detained, neither by our natural cowardice nor by a base fear and hesitation, even though it be under the cloak of humility. Let us all approach with the greatest devotion and piety, free from the spirit of contention (Rom. 13, 12); then we will be permitted to examine with our own eyes the fire of the Divinity burning in the bush without consuming it (Exodus 2, 2).
WORDS OF THE QUEEN
It is an act of justice due to the eternal God that the creature coming to the use of reason, direct its very first movement toward God. By knowing, it should begin to love Him, reverence Him and adore Him as its Creator and only true Lord. The parents are naturally bound to instruct their children from their infancy in this knowledge of God and to direct them with solicitous care, so that they may at once see their ultimate end and seek it in their first acts of the intellect and will. They should with great watchfulness withdraw them from the childishness and puerile trickishness to which depraved nature will incline them if left without direction. If the fathers and mothers would be solicitous to prevent these vanities and perverted habits of their children and would instruct them from their infancy in the knowledge of their God and Creator, then they would afterwards easily accustom them to know and adore Him. My holy mother, who knew not of my wisdom and real condition, was most solicitously beforehand in this matter, for when She bore me in her womb, she adored in my name the Creator and offered worship and thanks for his having created me, beseeching Him to defend me and bring me forth to the light of day from the condition in which I then was. So also parents should pray with fervor to God, that the souls of their children, through his Providence, may obtain Baptism and be freed from the servitude of original sin.
And if the rational creature has not known and adored the Creator from the first dawn of reason, it should do this as soon as it obtains knowledge of the essential God by the light of faith. From that very moment the soul must exert itself never to lose Him from her sight, always fearing Him, loving Him, and reverencing Him.
(To Be Continued)
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 12/23/2008 : 13:42:59
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Brethren, God destined from all eternity that Mary would be the Mother of all the just which we witness from the very beginning of Scripture (Genesis 3:15), it was also prophesied by Isaias (7:14), and finally affirmed by Christ as He gave His mother to St. John (John 19:26-27) in order that she may be our mother also.
If Christ Jesus is the Son of God by His eternal and ineffable birth in the Bosom of the Father, He is also the Son of Man by His temporal birth in the womb of a woman. This woman is Mary and she is also a Virgin. It is from her, and from her alone, that Christ takes His human nature. It is to her that He owes His nature as the Son of Man. She is truly the Mother of God.
For this reason Mary occupies a position in Christianity which is unique, exalted and essential. Just as Christ's character as the 'Son of Man' cannot be separated from that of the 'Son of God,' so also is Mary united to Jesus; in fact, the Virgin Mary shares in the mystery of the Incarnation by a claim which belongs to the very essence of that mystery. This is why the Virgin Mary is associated by such close ties with the economy of the fundamental mystery of Christianity, and, consequently, with our supernatural life that Divine life which comes to us from Christ, the God-Man, and which Christ gives us as God, but through the instrumentality of His human nature. Like Jesus, we too should be a 'Son of God' and also a 'Son of Mary.' He is both the one and the other in a perfect manner. If we wish to reproduce His likeness in ourselves, we should likewise have this two-fold character.
Our piety would not be truly Christian if it did not include the Mother of the Incarnate Word. Devotion to the Virgin Mary is not only important, but essential, if we want to draw abundantly from the fountain of Divine life. Separating Christ from His Mother in our devotion is tantamount to dividing Christ. To do this is to lose sight of the essential role of His sacred humanity in the dispensation of Divine grace. When the Mother is abandoned, the Son is no longer understood. Has this not been the fate of Protestant peoples? By rejecting devotion to Mary under the pretext of preserving intact the dignity of the one and sole Mediator, have they not ended by losing their faith even in the Divinity of Christ Himself?
If Christ Jesus is Our Savior, our Mediator, our Eldest Brother, in as much as He assumed our human nature, how shall we really love Him or attain a perfect likeness to Him unless we have a very special devotion to her from whom He received this human nature? We ought to imitate Jesus in all things. The Eternal Word chose Mary for His Mother. In like manner we should choose her for our Mother and have a childlike devotion to her.
The Annunciation
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women (Luke i. 28).
Dear reader, picture the scene of the Annunciation. God proposes the mystery of the Incarnation which He will accomplish in the Virgin Mary. But not until she has given her consent. The accomplishment of the mystery is held in suspense awaiting the free acceptance of Mary. At this moment Mary represents all of us in her own person; it is as if God is waiting for the response of the humanity to which He longs to unite Himself. This is a solemn moment because upon this moment depends the decision of the most vital mystery of Christianity.
However, the Blessed Virgin, like all human beings was created with a free will; she was free not to consent to the Divine will. Free will is so sancrosant that even The Creator Himself will not violate it. This is clearly demonstrated by the fat that The Most Holy Trinity first seeks Mary's consent. Imagine the Creator asking His creature for permission. Which man would first seek the permission of his dog before taking it for a walk. This is an incomprehensible lesson in humility from The Almighty and Powerful God. And this was not be all. The ultimate example in humility would be demonstrated by our saviour Himslef later on by suffering a most shameful death on the Cross.
But what would have happened if Mary had not consented ? Dear Reader, see how Mary responds. Full of faith and confidence in the heavenly message and entirely submissive to the Divine Will, the Virgin Mary replies in a spirit of complete and absolute abandonment: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to Thy word.
This "Fiat" is Mary's consent to the Divine Plan of Redemption. It is an echo of the "Fiat" of the creation of the world. But this is a new world, a world infinitely superior, a world of grace, which God will cause to arise in consequence of Mary's consent, for at that moment the Divine Word, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, becomes Man in Mary: And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us.
Mary's place in Redemption
The work of our Redemption, christianity in its final analysis, must always bring us back to Mary. " All generations," she says, " shall call me blessed." (Luke 1:48). Twice blessed rather, for virginity and fruitful maternity are woman's greatest blessings, and Mary, the virginal Mother of the Man of men, became in the birth of her first-born the spiritual Mother of us all. Holiness becometh Thy house, O Lord(Psalms 92:5) says the Psalmist. Mary's body was the house of the Lord; the material from which He built Him an earthly habitation. Christ was the wisdom of the Father, and Holy Writ has it that wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul nor dwell in a body subject to sin (Wisdom 1:4).
To deny the Immaculate Conception of Mary is scarcely less blasphemous than to assert that the humanity of Christ Himself was stained with original sin, for did He not become flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone? And who does not recoil in horror from the thought that even the adorable body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the altar should have had its origin in anything defiled by sin?
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a necessary corollary of Christ's absolute sinlessness. It was asserted by John the Baptist when he refused to baptize the Saviour in the Jordan. It was asserted by Christ Himself when He demanded of His enemies: Which of you shall convince Me of sin? (John 8:46). And what fellowship is there of God with Belial? (2 Corinthians 6:15).
Apart from her divine Son, Mary in the Scripture vindicates in her own person this article of our faith. Mary's destiny was to undo what Eve had done, and whatever in the order of grace Eve lost, Mary regained. Mary is the direct antithesis of Eve. It was due to God's dignity and power that His fair creation should be restored by exactly the same means wherewith by the demon it had been destroyed. Eve sprang from Adam and became his mother in error and death; Eve consented to the prince of darkness, but it was to an angel Mary said: Be it done unto me according to thy word(Luke 1:38).
Mary brought forth her Son without loss of virginity and without pain, whereas had she ever even for an instant been the subject of original sin, God's words would have been verified of her as of every daughter of Eve: I will multiply thy sorrows and in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children. Eve filled the world with human afflictions and sorrows, but the Canticle, speaking of Mary's conception, says: The winter is now past, the rain is over and gone, and the flowers have appeared in our land(Canticles 2:11).
There is one more text of Scripture from many that might be adduced concerning the Immaculate Conception. In the sixth Canticle we read:
Who is she that cometh forth as the dawn; fair as the moon, bright as the sun; terrible as an army set in array?.
Millions stand aloof in proud self-sufficiency, sneering at what they consider weak puerility of Catholics venerating this most chaste Virgin. But be not deceived. Christ, pointing to a group of children, said to His followers: To be My true disciples, you must be as these. And St. Paul says, For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6).
Mary was full of grace because the Lord regarded the humility of His handmaid. Never be ashamed or afraid to profess yourselves children of Mary. If you are married, pray to Mary the Mother of God, the spouse of the Holy Ghost; if you are single, let Mary, the Virgin of virgins, be your ideal. If you are rich, be a lady-in-waiting on the Queen of heaven, or a member of her royal guard; if you are poor you will find congenial company in the humble home of Nazareth; if
you are a sinner and who of us is not? turn to Mar the Refuge of sinners, the Mother of mercy. Fidelity to the Blessed Virgin is a mark of predestination. It means following Christ with His Mother and the pious women of Jerusalem, to wipe His agonized face like Veronica, or like Simon, to help Him carry His cross.
Faithfulness and perseverance in Her intercession gains for Her spiritual children the privilege of being among the first to meet Him at the general resurrection: among the first to reenter with Jesus and Mary into the kingdom of heaven.
The Apostle John's vision
"A great sign," thus the Apostle St. John describes a vision divinely sent him, appears in the heavens: A woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head (Apoc. xii., 1). Well, who is this woman ?
"Everyone knows that this woman signified the Virgin Mary, the stainless one who brought forth our Head." (Pope St. Pius X, Ad Diem illum Laetissimum)
The book of the Apocalypse poses a major difficulty for protestants because in attempting to interpretrete it, they often fail to keep in mind that many of the terms used are symbolic. For example it is clear that the dragon (Apoc 12: 4) is satan yet in this dragon is also embodied all the Children of the Devil (John 8:44), what we might term the kingdom of Satan. St Thomas states that: "Prophecies are sometimes uttered about things which existed at the time in question but are not uttered primarily with reference to them but in so far as they are a figure of things to come. Therefore the Holy Ghost has provided that when such prophecies are uttered some details should be inserted which go beyond the actual thing done so that our mind may raised to the thing signified "
This "Woman clothed with the sun, and with moon under her feet" has traditionally been interpreted by numerous Church Fathers and saints as being the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, for example St. Augustine (Tract. De Symbolo ad Catechumenos, Lib. IV, Cap. I; cap. I;), St. Bernard (Sermo Super Signum magnum, no. 3.), St. Epiphanius (Adv. Haeres. 78, 11.), etc.
Mary is described as the Woman clothed with the sun of God's effulgent grace, the moon the changeful moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of stars the brightest star of them all her Immaculate Conception. Alone of mortals, she, from the instant of her creation, was preserved from the stain of original sin. We read that the prophet Jeremias and John the Baptist were sanctified in their mother's womb, but still each was created, each conceived, in sin. In fact, with Mary as a solitary exception, every child of Adam is heir to Adam's guilt. In the beginning God made man right, says Ecclesiasticus, right with the rectitude of order his soul and its higher powers subject to God, his lower nature subject to his reason and will, and the whole visible universe subject to the composite man.
Doctrine of original sin and its transmission
Before the fall of man, the world was once an an earthly paradise, no labor, no want, no affliction from without, no misery from within, but happiness and immortality here, and the assured vision of God hereafter. But man, like the angels, was tried, and just like the angels, fell. The Lucifer and his followers sought equality with God in power. Man, equally guilty, sought equality with God in knowledge. And as in their case, and in all cases: self-exaltation ended in humiliation, for God anathematized man and freed his subjects from their allegiance to him. Cursed be the earth," He said, "thorns and thistles will it bear thee. Man was not only banishment from paradise but he also heard the words: Thou shalt labor and toil all the days of thy life, and as dust thou art, so unto dust thou shalt return.
Original sin, with its effects, was the complete subversion of the primitive harmony established between God and man, between man's higher and lower natures, and between man and the world. This sin and its effects we all inherit. The Psalmist laments, Behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sin did my mother conceive me(Psalms 50:7). The Apostle of Gentile, St Paul, forcefully drives this point home when he says: as by one man sin entered this world, and by sin death; so death hath passed upon all men from him in whom all men have sinned (Romans 5:12).
As the wages of sin is death, and as all men die, we must naturally conclude that all men are conceived children of wrath in original sin. It stains the unborn, and the newly-born. It stains man in whatever stage of unbaptized existence he may be, for only sin excludes from happiness, and Christ has said: Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he can never enter the kingdom of heaven. The Church attests this fundamental dogma by celebrating the feasts of the saints, not on the day when in sin they came into this world, but on the day of their death, when, sinless, they passed to glory.
St. Jerome discourages inquiry as to how original sin is transmitted, saying: " It is as though one fallen overboard were asked ' How came you there? 'and should reply,' Ask not how I came here, but seek rather how you may get me out.' Anyhow, our natures were corrupted in Adam and Eve as waters in their source, with this difference, that human nature is not purified in transmission.
For Catholics, the ultimate proof that Mary, by a singular Divine priviledge, was immaculately conceived, that is conceived WITHOUT original sin, must ever be the fact that for centuries this truth was accepted by the entire Catholic world, and made an article of our faith in 1854 by Pius IX. Nor are we without reasons for the faith that is in us. This privilege of Mary was foreshadowed in the words of God to Lucifer, the seducer of our first parents Adam and Eve:
I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed, and she shall crush thy head (Genesis 3:15).
Who are the the seed of the Woman? The answer should be more than evident as it is Mary's Spiritual Children since it is she who is the Mother of Our Head (Jesus Christ) and hence our mother also. We can readily understand the enmity between Mary's Son and Satan, but that Mary herself should, as promised, vanquish the serpent, is explainable only on the Truth that she was never for an instant subject to the devil by sin, that she was immaculately conceived. Further we read in Genesis when God is passing Judgment on the devil he says:
I shall put enmity between you and the Woman, and between your seed and Her seed; she shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel ("her seed" - "her offspring" battle the devil) (Gen. 3.15).
We know that this refers to Mary, as it would be understandable for God to mention the serpent's seed. But the seed of the Woman? It may be noted that the word Speramatos (seed) offspring can have two meanings in Scripture one is literal and the other Symbolic as we see this in Galatians 3:29 where St. Paul he says that the Gentiles who have faith are of the Seed of Abraham.
Nowhere else in the Old Testament does one ever come across an expression like that. It's always the man's seed, the husband's seed, and the father's seed. Never the woman's seed. But, yes, God's going to elevate that "woman" and give to her a seed (Jesus Christ our redeemer) through which the serpent's head will be crushed.
St. Irenaus (a disciple of St. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John the Evangelist) points out that Mary is the New Eve from brought us the salvation of Christ by her obedience as he affirms that "Even as Eve, having become disobedient, was made the cause of death both to herself and to the entire human race, so also did Mary, by being obedient, become the cause of salvation both to herself and to the whole human race. And therefore, as the human race was made subject to death by a virgin, so is it saved by a virgin." (Against Heresies, Bk. III:22, v.19; PG 7:959)
As we see from the words of the Protogospel, the victory of the woman's Son will not take place without a hard struggle, a struggle that is to extend through the whole of salvation history. The "enmity," foretold in Genesis, is only confirmed in the Apocalypse (the last book of Scripture). As the devil continues to pursue the woman we read that he pours out water like a flood (by the word "flood" St. John indicates the strength or the might of the waters) after the woman and yet the earth opened its mouth to swallow the water. The waters here refers to many people as we read in Apocalypse 17:15 that waters refers to "peoples and nations" which have always sought to destroy the Church (See also Isaias 8:8, Ezechiel 29:3).
The waters pouring forth from the mouth of the devil explains the constant persecution that the Church of God shall receive from her numerous enemies who throughout every generation seek to destroy her. Dear brethren, we must pause here and ask ourselves, exactly which church is being referred to here? Now, reason tells us that it cannot be any church, other than the one and only true chruch founded by Jesus Christ Himself.
The Devil is not only the Father of lies but also the origin of all heresies. Heresy is the rejection of Divine Truths revealed to mankind by whichever means God chooses to reveal them. Lucifer raises heresies in order to divide the Church founded by Christ, very well knowing that any house divided against itself shall fall. The Catholic Church alone has battled heresies right from Her infancy to this day. Simon Magus, the first heretic who disturbed the Church in the first century, was born in Samaria. He was called Magus, or the Magician, because he made use of spells to deceive people, and hence he acquired among his countrymen the extraordinary name of " The Great Power of God " (Acts, viii, 1 0).
We see Heresies in every age, from the days of the Apostles themselves down to our own time, rising up, and vanishing after a while, but the Church of God is always the same, her Chief Pastors, the popes, speaking with the same authority, and teaching the same doctrine to the trembling Neophites in the Catacombs, and to the Ceasars, Neros, Hitlers, Stalins, George Bushes, UN, and EU on the throne of the world. The Church not only combats the usual Heresies, such as those opposed to the Real Presence, the Authority of the Church, the doctrine of Justification, but those abstruse heretical opinions concerning - Grace, Free Will, the Procession of the Holy Ghost, the Mystery of the Incarnation, and the two Natures of Christ, right up to the outright rejection of Christ, and the Holy Trinity.
We also note that the waters pour forth from his " mouth" that is, the water from his mouth is, a representation of all the lies and heresies that the devil introduces in order to undermine and eventually destroy this Church.
How is it that the Catholic Church has withstood heresies throughout the ages and continues to do so ? We know that "the Virgin Mother of God has destroyed all heresies throughout the world" (Pope Pius IX, Quanta Cura) since by her powerful intersession God has always raised up faithful witness of the Truth. For this reason does the Church attribute metaphorically the following verse to the blessed Virgin Mary:
Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array (Canticle of Canticles 6: 9)
The earth swallowing up the water may be also seen as the Blessed Virgin Mary who "allows herself to be entered by all, shows herself most clement towards all, and takes under her pitying care all our necessities with a most ample affection" (St. Bernard, Sermo de duodecim praerogativis B.V.M in Verbis Apocalyp)
That Lucifer is the Father of all heresies, is not only confirmed by Scripture, and the Church Fathers, but also the following excerpt from THE MYSTICAL CITY OF GOD pretty much confirms it all.
And can this Woman, his Mother and my Enemy, be so mighty and invincible in her opposition to me? New is such power in a mere creature, and no doubt She derived it from the divine Word, whom She clothed in human flesh. Through this Woman the Almighty has ceaselessly waged war against me, though I have hated Her in my pride from the moment I recognized Her in her image or heavenly sign. But if my proud indignation is not to be assuaged, I benefit nothing by my perpetual war against this Redeemer, against his Mother and against men. Now then, ye demons who follow me, now is the time to give way to our wrath against God. Come all of ye to take counsel what we are to do; for I desire to hear your opinions.
Some of the principal demons gave their answers to this dreadful proposal, encouraging Lucifer by suggesting diverse schemes for hindering the fruit of the Redemption among men. They all agreed that it was not possible to injure the person of Christ, to diminish the immense value of his merits, to destroy the efficacy of the Sacraments, to falsify or abolish the doctrine which Christ had preached; yet they resolved that, in accordance with the new order of assistance and favor established by God for the salvation of men, they should now seek new ways of hindering and preventing the work of God by much the greater deceits and temptations. In reference to these plans some of the astute and malicious demons said "It is true, that men now have at their disposal a new and very powerful doctrine and law, new and efficacious Sacraments, a new Model and Instructor of virtues, a powerful Intercessor and Advocate in this Woman; yet the natural inclinations and passions of the flesh remain just the same, and the sensible and delectable creatures have not changed their nature.
Let us then, making use of this situation with increased astuteness, foil as far as in us lies the effects of what this Godman has wrought for men. Let us begin strenuous warfare against mankind by suggesting new attractions, exciting them to follow their passions in forgetfulness of all else. Thus men, being taken up with these dangerous things, cannot attend to the contrary.
Acting upon this counsel they redistributed the spheres of work among themselves, in order that each squadron of demons might, with a specialized astuteness tempt men to different vices. They resolved to continue to propagate idolatry in the world, so that men might not come to the knowledge of the true God and the Redemption. Wherever idolatry would fail, they concluded to establish sects and heresies, for which they would select the most perverse and depraved of the human race as leaders and teachers of error. Then and there was concocted among these malignant spirits the sect of Mahomet, the heresies of Arius, Pelagius, Nestorius, and whatever other heresies have been started in the world from the first ages of the Church until now, together with those which they have in readiness, but which it is neither necessary nor proper to mention here. Lucifer showed himself content with these infernal counsels as being opposed
to divine truth and destructive of the very foundation of man's rescue, namely divine faith. He lavished flattering praise and high offices upon those demons, who showed themselves willing and who undertook to find the impious originators of these errors.
Some of the devils charged themselves with perverting the inclinations of children at their conception and birth; others to induce parents to be negligent in the education and instruction of their children, either through an inordinate love or aversion, and to cause a hatred of parents among the children. Some offered to create hatred between husbands and wives, to place them in the way of adultery, or to think little of the fidelity promised to their conjugal partners. All agreed to sow among men the seeds of discord, hatred and vengeance, proud and sensual thoughts, desire of riches or honors, and by suggesting sophistical reasons against all the virtues Christ has taught; above all they intended to weaken the remembrance of his Passion and Death, of the means of salvation, and of the eternal pains of hell. By these means the demons hoped to burden all the powers and the faculties of men with solicitude for earthly affairs and sensual pleasures, leaving them little time for spiritual thoughts and their own salvation.
Lucifer heard these different suggestions of the demons, and answering them, he said: "I am much beholden to you for your opinions: I approve of them and adopt them all; it will be easy to put them into practice with those, who do not profess the law given by this Redeemer to men, though with those who accept and embrace these laws, it will be a difficult enterprise. But against this law and against those that follow it, I intend to direct all my wrath and fury and I shall most bitterly persecute those who hear the doctrine of this Redeemer and become his disciples; against these must our most relentless battle be waged to the end of the world. In this new Church I must strive to sow my cockle (Matth. 14, 25), the ambitions, the avarice, the sensuality, and the deadly hatreds, with all the other vices, of which I am the head. For if once these sins multiply and increase among the faithful, they will, with their concomitant malice and ingratitude, irritate God and justly deprive men of the helps of grace left to them by the merits of the Redeemer. If once they have thus despoiled themselves of these means of salvation, we shall have assured victory over them. [THE DIVINE HISTORY AND LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD MANIFESTED TO MARY OF AGREDA FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF MENTRANSLATED from the Original Spanish BY FISCAR MARISON, (Rev. Geo. J. Blatter)]
It is not possible to rehearse all the schemes of this dragon and his allies concocted at that time against the holy Church and her children, in order that these waters of Jordan might be swallowed up in his throat (Job 40, 18). It is enough to state that they spent nearly a full year after the Death of Christ conferring and considering among themselves the state of the world up to that time and the changes wrought by Christ our God and Master through his Death and after having manifested the light of his faith by so many miracles, blessings and examples of holy men. If all these labors have not sufficed to draw all men to the way of salvation, it can be easily understood, that Lucifer should have prevailed and that his wrath should be so great, as to cause us justly to say with saint John: Woe to the earth, for satan is come down to you full of wrath and fury!
But alas! that truths so infallible and so much to be dreaded and avoided by men, should in our days be blotted from the minds of mortals to the irreparable danger of the whole world! Our enemy is astute, cruel and watchful: we sleepy, lukewarm and careless! What wonder that Lucifer has intrenched himself so firmly in the world, when so many listen to him, accept and follow his deceits, so few resist him, and entirely forget the eternal death, which he so furiously and maliciously seeks to draw upon them? I beseech those, who read this, not to forget this dreadful danger. If they are not convinced of this danger through the evil condition of the world and through the evils each one experiences himself, let them at least learn this danger by the vast and powerful remedies and helps, which the Savior thought it necessary to leave behind in his Church. For He would not have provided such antidotes if our ailment and danger of eternal death were not so great and formidable.
The Early Church Fathers Speak
St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho (155 A.D.): "For Eve, a Virgin and undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent,and bore disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith andjoy when the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spiritof the Lord would come upon her and the power of the Most High God. Andshe replied: 'Be it done unto me according to thy word.'"
St. Irenaeus (180 A.D.): "Consequently, then, Mary the Virgin is found to be obedient, saying:'Behold, O Lord, your handmaid; be it done to me according to your word.'Eve, however, was disobedient; and when yet a Virgin, she did not obey.So also Mary, betrothed to a man but nevertheless still a virgin, beingobedient, was made the cause of salvation for herself and for the wholehuman race...Thus, the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosedthrough faith." (Against Heresies)
Tertullian (210 A.D.): "Likewise, through a Virgin, the Word of God was introduced to setup a structure of life. Thus, what had been laid waste in ruin by thissex, was by the same sex re-established in salvation. Eve had believedthe serpent; Mary believed Gabriel. That which the one destroyed by believing, the other, by believing, set straight." ( The Flesh of Christ)
St. Ambrose of Milan, The Virgins (377 A.D.): "Mary's life should be for you a pictorial image of virginity. Herlife is like a mirror reflecting the face of chastity and the form of virtue. Therein you may find a model for your own life...showing what to improve,what to imitate, what to hold fast to."
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, (431 A.D.): "The Word, then, was God, and He became also Man; and since He was born according to the flesh for the sake of mankind, it is necessary that she who bore Him is the Mother of God. For if she did not bear God, neither is He that was born of her to be called God. If the divinely inspired Scriptures name Him God, as God having been made man and incarnate, He could not become Man in any other way than through birth from a woman: how then should shewho bore Him not be the Mother of God?" (Scholia on the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten)
St John Chrysostom: "though the redeemerappeared to refuse the favor, saying: Woman, whatis to me and to thee? My hour has not yet come, still he granted thepetition of his mother. "
St. Sophroniu (640 A.D): My sister, My spouse, is a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up, (Cant4:12). Mary was this enclosed garden and sealed fountain, into which no guile could enter, against which no fraud of the enemy could prevail, andwho always was holy in mind and body.
St Antonine: " Her Prayers partake of a command , because they are the prayers of a mother"
St Ephrem: " You Jesus and your mother are the only ones who are beautiful in allaspects, because in you O lord there is no deformation and in Your Motherthere is no stain"
St Ildephonsus (667 AD): "No one will ever be servant of the Son without serving the Mother."
St Jerome: "Every torture inflicted on the body of Jesus was a wound in the heartof the mother".
St. Bede the Venerable (A.D 735): Blessed is the Fruit of your womb, (Luke 1:43). By the entrance of His only-begotten Son, the Lord consecrated by the grace of the Holy Ghost the temple of the virginal womb. And our earth will give its fruit, becausethe same Virgin, who had Her body from the earth, brought forth a Son,co-equal indeed in divinity with GOD the Father, but in the reality ofHis flesh consubstantial with me.
St John Damascene (749 A.D): "Those who Do not serve Mary Will not be saved, for those who are deprivedof the help of this great Mother are deprived also of that of Her Son and of the Whole Court of Heaven."
THE PROTESTANT REFORMERS ON MARY
When Fundamentalists study the writings of the "Reformers" (or founders of their particular sect) on Mary, the Mother of Jesus, they will find that the "Reformers" accepted almost every major Marian doctrine and considered these doctrines to be both scriptural and fundamental to the historic Christian Faith.
Martin Luther
On Mary the Mother of God
Throughout his life Luther maintained without change the historic Christian affirmation that Mary was the Mother of God:
"She is rightly called not only the mother of the man, but also the Mother of God ... It is certain that Mary is the Mother of the real and true God." (Martin Luther, Weimar edition of Martin Luther's Works, English translation edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], volume 24, 107)
On Her Perpetual Virginity
Again throughout his life Luther held that Mary's perpetual virginity was an article of faith for all Christians - and interpreted Galatians 4:4 to mean that Christ was "born of a woman" alone.
"It is an article of faith that Mary is Mother of the Lord and still a Virgin." (Martin Luther, op. cit., Volume 11, 319-32)
On The Immaculate Conception
Yet again the Immaculate Conception was a doctrine Luther defended to his death (as confirmed by Lutheran scholars like Arthur Piepkorn). Like Augustine, Luther saw an unbreakable link between Mary's divine maternity, perpetual virginity and Immaculate Conception. Although his formulation of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was not clear-cut, he held that her soul was devoid of sin from the beginning:
"But the other conception, namely the infusion of the soul, it is piously and suitably believed, was without any sin, so that while the soul was being infused, she would at the same time be cleansed from original sin and adorned with the gifts of God to receive the holy soul thus infused. And thus, in the very moment in which she began to live, she was without all sin..." (Martin Luther, Weimar edition of Martin Luther's Works, English translation edited by J.Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], Volume 4, 694)
On Her Assumption
Although he did not make it an article of faith, Luther said of the doctrine of the Assumption:
"There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know." [Martin Luther, Weimar edition of Martin Luther's Works Translation by William J. Cole) 10, p. 268)]
On Honor to Mary
Despite his unremitting criticism of the traditional doctrines of Marian mediation and intercession, to the end Luther continued to proclaim that Mary should be honored. He made it a point to preach on her feast days.
"The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart."[Martin Luther, Weimar edition of Martin Luther's Works (Translation by William J. Cole) 10, III, p.313]
"Is Christ only to be adored? Or is the holy Mother of God rather not to be honoured? This is the woman who crushed the Serpent's head. Hear us. For your Son denies you nothing." Luther made this statement in his last sermon at Wittenberg in January 1546. (Martin Luther, Weimar edition of Martin Luther's Works, English translation edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], Volume 51, 128-129).
John Calvin
It has been said that John Calvin belonged to the second generation of the Reformers and certainly his theology of double predestination governed his views on Marian and all other Christian doctrine . Although Calvin was not as profuse in his praise of Mary as Martin Luther he did not deny her perpetual virginity. The term he used most commonly in referring to Mary was "Holy Virgin".
"Elizabeth called Mary Mother of the Lord, because the unity of the person in the two natures of Christ was such that she could have said that the mortal man engendered in the womb of Mary was at the same time the eternal God." (John Calvin, Calvini Opera [Braunshweig-Berlin, 1863-1900], Volume 45, 35)
"Helvidius has shown himself too ignorant, in saying that Mary had several sons, because mention is made in some passages of the brothers of Christ." (Bernard Leeming, "Protestants and Our Lady", Marian Library Studies, January 1967, p.9) Calvin translated "brothers" in this context to mean cousins or relatives.
"It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of his Son, granted her the highest honor." (John Calvin, A Harmony of Matthew, Mark and Luke (John Calvin, Calvini Opera [Braunshweig-Berlin, 1863-1900], Volume 45, 348)
"To this day we cannot enjoy the blessing brought to us in Christ without thinking at the same time of that which God gave as adornment and honour to Mary, in willing her to be the mother of his only-begotten Son." (John Calvin, A Harmony of Matthew, Mark and Luke (St. Andrew's Press, Edinburgh, 1972), p.32.)
Ulrich Zwingli
"It was given to her what belongs to no creature, that in the flesh she should bring forth the Son of God." (Ulrich Zwingli, In Evang. Luc., Opera Completa [Zurich, 1828-42], Volume 6, I, 639)
"I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin."(Ulrich Zwingli, Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Volume 1, 424). Zwingli used Exodus 4:22 to defend the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity.
"I esteem immensely the Mother of God, the ever chaste, immaculate Virgin Mary." [E. Stakemeier, De Mariologia et Oecumenismo, K. Balic, ed., (Rome, 1962), 456)]
"Christ ... was born of a most undefiled Virgin." (Ibid)
"It was fitting that such a holy Son should have a holy Mother." (Ibid)
"The more the honor and love of Christ increases among men, so much the esteem and honor given to Mary should grow." [(Ulrich Zwingli, Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Volume 1, 427-428)]
It is clealry evident that the Marian affirmations of the Reformers did not survive in the teaching of their heirs, particularly modern-day Fundamentalist protestant sects. The Reformers themselves took a benign even positive view of Marian doctrine, although they did reject Marian mediation because of their rejection of all human mediation.
Unfortunately the Marian teachings and preachings of the Reformers have been covered up" by their most zealous followers, with damaging theological and practical consequences. This "cover-up" can be detected even in Chosen by God: Mary in Evangelical Perspective, an Evangelical critique of Mariology. One of the contributors admits that "Most remarkable to modern Protestants is the Reformers' almost universal acceptance of Mary's continuing virginity, and their widespread reluctance to declare Mary a sinner". He then asks if it is "a favourable providence" that kept these Marian teachings of the Reformers from being "transmitted to the Protestant churches" (David F. Wright, ed., Chosen by God: Mary in Evangelical Perspective (London: Marshall Pickering, 1989), 180)
WORDS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
This close imitation and living reproduction of Christ, confronting the demons in the first children of the Church, they feared so much, that they dared not approach and they precipitously fled from the Apostles and the just ones imbued with the doctrines of my divine Son. In them were offered up to the Almighty the first fruits of grace, and of Redemption. What is seen in the saints and in perfect Christians in those times, would happen in the present times with all the Catholics if they would accept grace and work with it instead of permitting it to go to waste, and if they would seek the way of the Cross; for Lucifer fears it as much now as in the times thou hast been writing of. But soon the charity, zeal and devotion in many of faithful began to grow cold and they forgot the blessings of the Redemption; they yielded to their carnal inclinations and desires, they loved vanity and avarice and permitted themselves to be fascinated and deceived by the false pretenses of Lucifer, obscuring the glory of their Savior and inveigling them into the meshes of their mortal enemies.
This foul ingratitude has thrown the world into the present state and has encouraged the demons to rise up in their pride against God, audaciously presuming to possess themselves of all the children of Adam on account of this forgetfulness and carelessness of Catholics. They presume to plot the destruction the whole Church by the perversion of so many who have fallen away from it; and by inducing those who are in it, to think little of it, or by hindering them from producing the fruits of the blood and death of their Redeemer. The greatest misfortune is, that many Catholics fail to recognize this great damage and do not seriously think of a remedy, although they can presume that the times, of which Jesus forewarned the women of Jerusalem, have arrived; namely, those in which the sterile should be happy, and in which many would call upon the mountains and |
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2008 : 09:05:39
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THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness : Make straight the day of the Lord (John i, 23)
"The Lord is now at hand, come lets adore Him."
The First Coming
It is the most Holy Virgin Mary, who gives us Jesus: "Blessed at though, Mar...those things shall be accomplished in thee, which were spoken to thee by The Lord
It is from Bethlehem that the King, the Ruler, shall go forth who is to bring peace to all nations and will deliver His people from the power of their enemies. In a special way, our souls share in this deliverance during christmas celebrations which mark the anniversary of the entrance into the world of Christ, the vanquisher of satan. "Grant we beseech Thee", says the Church in Her liturgy, "that the new birth of Thy only-begotten Son may set us free, whom the old bondage doth hold under the yoke of sin." In the same way that St. John the Baptists prepared the Jews for the coming of the Messias, so he prepares us for the union, closer every year, which our Lord forms with our souls at Christmas. " Make straight the way of the Lord, " cried the forerunner of Christ. So let us make straight the way into our hearts, that our Savior may enter and gives us His graces of life and freedom.
The Second Coming
It is our Lord coming at the end of the world that St. Gregory alludes in his explanation of the Gospel: "John," he says, " the forerunner of Christ, goes before our Lord in the spirit and power of Elias who will be the forerunner of Christ as Judge. " John the Baptist is NOT Elias in person, but in spirit (St. Luke 1. 17). If we feel great joy at the approach of Christmas, reminding us once more of the lowly Infant in the manger, how much more should the thought of His coming in all the splendour of His power and majesty fill us with a holy sense of triumph, since only then will our redemption be fully accomplished.
Epistle: Philippians 4: 4-7
Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Philippians. Brethren, Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men: for the Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous: but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Commentary:St Paul urges the faithful to greatly rejoice at the though of the Second Coming of Christ, for which Advent prepares us, and to make ready to keep the anniversary of His First Coming.
Gospel: John 1: 19-28
At that time the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and levites to John, to ask him: Who art thou? And he confessed: I am not the Christ. And they asked him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the Prophet? And he answered: No. They said therefore unto him: Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the Prophet Isaias. And they that were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him: Why then dost thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the Prophet? John answered them, saying: I baptize with water: but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not. The same is He that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. Praise be to Christ
Commentary: The Jews seek to know who John the Baptist really is to whom the people are crowding for Baptism; "If you wish to know," Jesus had already told them: "John himslef is Elias" (St. Matt xvii, 13). "There is here," St Gregory explains, "no sort of contradiction of the words of John himself, for without being Elias in person, he has the power and spirit of Elias and is the forerunner of Christ in His First Coming as Elias will be in the Second"
The following sermon is taken from THE ASCETICAL WORKS, Volume XVI, of St Alphonse de Liguori, Church Doctor and founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
The Means Necessary for Salvation
ALL would wish to be saved and to enjoy the glory of paradise ; but to gain heaven, it is necessary to walk in the straight road that leads to eternal bliss. This road is the observance of the divine commandments. Hence, in his preaching, the Baptist exclaimed: Make straight the wav of the Lord. In order to be able to walk always in the way of the Lord without turning to the right or to the left, it is necessary to adopt the proper means. These means are, first, diffidence in ourselves; secondly, confidence in God; thirdly, resistance to temptations.
1. DIFFIDENCE IN OURSELVES
With fear and trembling, says the Apostle, work out your salvation (Phil. ii. 12). To secure eternal life, we must be always penetrated with fear, we must be always afraid of ourselves with fear and trembling and distrust altogether our own strength, for, without the divine grace we can do nothing. Without Me, says Jesus Christ, you can do nothing (John xv. 5).
We can do nothing for the salvation of our own souls. St. Paul tells us, that of ourselves we are not capable of even a good thought. Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God (2 Cor. iii. 5). Without the aid of the Holy Ghost, we cannot even pronounce the name of Jesus so as to deserve a reward. And no one can say the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. xii. 3).
Miserable is the man who trusts to himself in the way of God. St. Peter experienced the sad effects of self-confidence. Jesus Christ said to him : this night before cock crow thou wilt deny me thrice (Matth. xxvi. 34). Trusting in his own strength and his good-will, the Apostle replied : Yea, though I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee (Matth. v. 35). The result? On the night on which Jesus Christ had been taken, Peter was reproached in the court of Caiphas with being one of the disciples of the Saviour. The reproach filled him with fear : he thrice denied his Master, and swore that he had never known him. Humility and diffidence in ourselves are so necessary for us, that God permits us sometimes to fall into sin, that by our fall we may acquire humility and a knowledge of our own weakness. Through want of humility David also fell . hence, after his sin, he said : Before I was humbled, I offended (Ps. cxviii. 67).
Hence the Holy Ghost pronounces blessed the man who is always in fear: Blessed is the man who is always fearful (Prov. xxviii. 14). He who is afraid of tailing distrusts his own strength, avoids as much as possible all dangerous occasions, and recommends himself often to God, and thus preserves his soul from sin. But the man who is not fearful, but full of self-confidence, easily exposes himself to the danger of sin: he seldom recommends himself to God, and thus he tails. Let us imagine a person suspended over a great precipice by a cord held by another. Surely he would constantly cry out to the person who supports him: Hold fast, hold fast; for God s sake, do not let go. We are all in danger of falling into the abyss of all crime, if God does not support us. Hence we should constantly beseech him to keep his hands over us, and to succor us in all dangers.
In rising from bed, St. Philip Neri used to say every morning: Lord, keep Thy hand this day over Philip; if Thou do not, Philip will betray Thee. And one day as he walked through the city reflecting on his own misery, he frequently said, " I despair, I despair." A certain religious who heard him, believing that the saint was really tempted to despair, corrected him, and encouraged him to hope in the divine mercy. Hut tin; saint replied, " I despair of myself, but I trust in God. " Hence, during this life, in which we are exposed to so manv dangers of losing God, it is necessary torus to live always in great diffidence of ourselves, and full of confidence in God.
2. CONFIDENCE IN GOD
St. Francis do Sales says, that the mere attention to self-diffidencc on account of our own weakness would only render us pusillanimous, and expose us to great danger of abandoning ourselves to a tepid life, or even to despair. The more we distrust our own strength, the more we should confide in the divine mercy. This is a balance, says the same saint, in which the more the scale of confidence in God is raised, the more the scale of diffidence in ourselves descends.
Listen to me, O sinners who have had the misfortune of having hitherto offended (rod, and of being condemned to hell: if the devil tells you that but little hope remains of your eternal salvation, answer him in the words of the Scripture. No one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded (Ecclus.ii. 11). No sinner has ever trusted in God and has been lost. Make, then, a firm purpose to sin no more: abandon yourselves into the arms of the divine goodness; and rest assured that God will have mercy on you, and save you from hell. Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee (Ps.liv 23). The Lord, as we read in Blosius, one day said to St. Gertrude: " who confides in Me, does Me such violence that I cannot but hear all his petitions.
But, says the prophet Isaias, they that hope in the. Lord shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as Eagles, they shall run and not he weary; they shall walk and not faint (Is xl 31). They who place their confidence in God shall renew their strength; they shall lay aside their own weakness, and shall acquire the strength of God; they shall fly like eagles in the way of the Lord, without fatigue; and without ever failing. David says, that Mercy shall encompass him that that hopeth in the Lord shall (Ps xxi. 10). He that hopes in the Lord shall be encompassed by his mercy, so that he shall never be abandoned by it.
St. Cyprian says, that the divine mercy is an inexhaustible tountain. They who bring vessels of the greatest confidence, draw from it the greatest graces", the Royal Prophet has said: Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we hare hoped in Thee (Ps xxxii. 22). Whenever the devil terrifies us by placing before our eyes the great difficulty of persevering in the grace of God in spite of all the dangers and sinful occasions of this life, let us, without answering him, raise our eyes to God, and hope that in his goodness he will certainly send us help to resist every attack. I have lifted up mine eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me (Ps cxx. 1). And when the enemy represents to us our weakness, let us sav with the Apostle: I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me (Phil. iv. 13). Of myself I can do nothing; but I trust in God, that by his grace I shall be able to do all things.
Hence, in the midst of the greatest dangers of perdition to which we are exposed, we should continually turn to Jesus Christ, and throwing ourselves into the hands of Him who redeemed us by his death, should say: Into Thy hands I commend my spirit: Thou Jiast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth. This prayer should be said with great confidence of obtaining eternal life, and to it we should add: To Thee, O Lord, I have hoped; let me not be confounded forever.
3. RESISTANCE TO TEMPTATIONS
It is true that when we have recourse to God with confidence in dangerous temptations., he assists us; but, in certain very urgent occasions, the Lord sometimes wishes that we co-operate, and do violence to ourselves, to resist temptations. On such occasions it will not be enough to have recourse to God once or twice; it will be necessary to multiply prayers, and frequently to prostrate ourselves, and send up our sighs before the image of the Blessed Virgin and the crucifix, crying out with tears: Mary, my mother, assist me; Jesus, my Saviour, save me, for Thy mercy's sake; do not abandon me, do not permit me to lose Thee.
Let us keep in mind the words of the Gospel: How narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it (Matth. vii. 14). The way to heaven is straight and narrow: they who wish to arrive at that place of bliss by walking in the paths of pleasure shall be disappointed: and therefore few reach it, because few are willing to use violence to themselves in resisting temptations. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away (Matth. xi. 12). In explaining this passage, a certain writer says: " It must be sought and obtained by violence."; He who wishes to obtain it without inconvenience, or by leading a soft and irregular life, shall not acquire it, he shall be excluded from it. To save their souls, some of the saints have retired into the cloister; some have confined themselves in a cave; others have embraced torments and death. Heaven is to be obtained by using violence upon ourselves, that is by mortification and penance, and resisting our perverse inclinations.
Some complain of their want of confidence in God; but they do not perceive that their diffidence arises from the weakness of their resolution to serve God. St. Teresa used to say: " Of irresolute souls the devil has no fear. " And the Wise Man has declared, that desires kill the slothful (Prov. xxi. 25). Some would wish to be saved and to become saints, but never resolve to adopt the means of salvation, such as meditation, the frequentation ot the sacraments, detachment from creatures; or, if they adopt these means, they soon give them up. In a word, they are satisfied with fruitless desires, and thus continue to live at enmity with God, or at least in tepidity, which in the end leads them to the loss of God. Thus in them are verified the words of the Holy Ghost, desires kill the slothful.
If, then, we wish to save our souls, and to become saints, we must make a strong resolution not only in genera] to give ourselves to God, but also in particular to adopt the proper means, and never to abandon them after having once taken them up. Hence we must never cease to pray to Jesus Christ, and to his holy Mother for holy perseverance.
Thank you for sparing your valuable time to read these sermons. I pray that the Lord, who rewards even the smallest effort taken in search of Truth, rewards you abundantly. For He wills that none be lost.
Coming Up Next ... Sermon For The 4th Sunday Of Advent
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 02/08/2009 : 10:48:47
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Sermon For The 4th Sunday Of Advent
Abbe Dom Prosper Gueranger provides us with some valuable reflections for the season:
We have now entered into the week which immediately precedes the birth of the Messias. That long-desired coming might be even tomorrow So that the Church now counts the hours. She watches day and night, and since December 17 her Offices have assumed an unusual solemnity Today, she makes a last effort to stir up the devotion of her children. She leads them to the desert; she shows them John the Baptist, upon whose mission she instructed them on the third Sunday. The voice of the austere Precursor resounds through the wilderness, and penetrates even into the cities. It preaches penance, and the obligation men are under of preparing by self-purification for the coming of Christ. Let us retire from the world during these next few days; or if that may not be by reason of our external duties, let us retire into the quiet of our hearts and confess our iniquities, as did those true Israelites, who came, full of compunction and of faith in the Messias, to the Baptist, there to make perfect their preparation for worthily receiving the Redeemer on the day of His appearing to the world (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, v. 1, p. 233).
Like the whole liturgy of this season, the purpose of the Fourth Sunday of Advent is to prepare us for the twofold coming Christ: His coming in mercy at Christmas; and in justice at the end of the world.
In today's Mass, we meet, once again, with the three great figures that are before the mind of the Church throughout advent, Isaias, St John The Baptist, and Our Lady. The prophet Isaias foretells of St john The Baptist, that he will be "A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His path...and all flesh shall see the salvation of the God." And "the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary in the desert. And he come into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the Baptism of penance for the remission of sins". St Gregory explains that "John told those who hurried in crowds to be baptized: Ye brood of vipers, who hath told you to flee from the wrath to come?"
Now, the wrath to come is the final chastisement, which the sinner will not be able to escape, unless he have recourse now to the lamentations of penance. The fried of the Bridegroom warns us bring forth not fruits merely of penance but worth fruits. These words are a call to each man's conscience , bidding him lay up by means of penance a treasure of good works, the greater in proportion to the ravages of sin which caused it. St Leo says, God Himself teaches us by the prophet Isaias: I will lead the blind in a way that they know not, and I will turn the darkness before then into light and I will not forsake them.
The Apostle St John makes clear to us, the way in which this mystery is fulfilled, when he says, And we know that the son of God is come. And He hath given us understanding that we may know the true God and may be in His true Son. The liturgy continues: Because of the great love that God has manifested to us, He has sent on earth His only-begotten Son to be born of the Virgin Mary. The Church also recalls to us the prophecy of Isaias: Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son: and His name shall be called Emmanuel.
St Gregory writes: "Gabriel, whose name means Strength of God, is sent to Mary, since he comes to announce the Messias whose will it is, to appear in humiliation and abasement, in order to subdue all the powers of the air.
Just as we are often reminded of the display of our Lord's "great might", which will take place at the time of second coming, when as supreme Judge, He will come in the splendor of His Divine Majesty to render to each according to his works, so we find an allusion to this same great power manifested in His first coming. It was as one clothed in His weak and mortal human nature that our Lord put the Devil to flight (St Andrew's Daily Missal).
EPISTLE: 1 Corinthians 4: 1-5
Lesson from the Epistle of Bl. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians. Brethren, Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God. Here now it is required among the dispensers that man be found faithful. But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you or by man's day but neither do I judge my own self. For I am not conscious to myself of anything: yet am I not hereby justified, but He that judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge not before the time, until the Lord come: Who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise from God. Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL: Luke 3: 1-6
Make Straight His Paths
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Csar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina, under the high priests Annas and Caiphas; the word of the Lord came to John the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins; as it is written in the book of the sayings of Isaias the prophet: A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths. Every valley shall be filled; and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: t he crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways plain, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Praise be to Christ
In the closing days of 2008 we see more and more how Lucifer, the prince of this world, is doing everything possible to obliterate any memory of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
We must face a terrible reality - mankind does not even want to know or hear about The King of Kings. There should be panic and holy fear, and a mad rush to get ready for the terrible day of the Lord's coming. Mankind should be sitting in dust and ashes like the people of Nineveh, repenting of their sins and begging God for mercy. Instead there is only indifference, unbelief, in fact disdain, even hatred for the Son of God."
No king or foreign dignitary is entertained at the White House without elaborate preparations. These days an army of bodyguards and security personnel is required. Another army of protocol experts, newsmen, photographers, entertainers, chauffeurs, cleaners, decorators, chefs, waiters and maids goes into action. Finally, the honorable gentleman or lady is announced by a herald amid fanfare or applause: "The King of Jordan," or "The President of the Philippines," as the case may be.
If this is done for earthly dignitaries, think of what preparations are necessary to entertain the One Who is greater than all - Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In fact, God had prepared a worthy welcome for His Son, providing Him with a Mother like no other, The Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, with her holy spouse St. Joseph, and a herald to announce His coming in St. John the Baptist, not clothed in silk and fine linen, it is true, but in the resplendent garment of grace. "Make ready the way of the Lord," thundered the Baptist, "make straight His paths" (Lk.3:4).
The preparation for the coming of our Lord must include repentance and conversion, since all men are sinners. Our Lord was to make this clear later in speaking of the Galileans who had been put to the sword by Pontius Pilate: Unless you repent, you will all perish in the same manner (Luke 13: 3). Although we speak of the innocence of childhood, no one is born in innocence, because of Original Sin, but we can speak of baptismal innocence, since Baptism takes away Original Sin. Until the coming of the New Adam, Jesus Christ, and the New Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary, over whom sin had no power, only Adam and Eve were born in original justice, which they forfeited through the sin of disobedience (by Father Louis J. Campbell).
Coming Up Next ... Sermon For Septuagesima Sunday |
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 10:58:13
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SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY February 8, 2009
The three Sundays preceding Ash Wednesday are called SEPTUAGESIMA, SEXAGESIMA and QUINQUAGESIMA, which mean, respectively, the seventieth, sixtieth, and fiftieth day, that is, before Easter. They are mere names to correspond with the name of Lent (Quadragesima in Latin: fortieth). Obviously they do not actually correspond with the period they indicate.
Man, victim of the sin of Adam and of his own sins, is justly afflicted; groans and sorrows encompass him. The holy Church calls us together today in order that we may hear from her lips the sad history of the fall of our first parents. This awful event implies the Passion and cruel Death of the Son of God made Man, who has mercifully taken upon Himself to expiate this and every subsequent sin committed by Adam and us his children. It is of the utmost importance that we should understand the greatness of the remedy. We must, therefore, consider the grievousness of the wound of Sin inflicted. For this purpose, we will spend the present week in meditation on the nature and consequences of the sin of our first parents.
In the beginning, we read, God created heaven and earth and upon the earth He made man.... and He placed him in the garden of paradise to be mindful of it and tend it.
All this is a figure. Here is St Gregory's exposition. "The kingdom of heaven is compared to the proprietor who hires laborers to work in his vineyard. Who can be more justly represented as head of a household than our Creator who governs all creatures by His providence and who, just as a master has servants in his house, has His elect in this world from the just Abel to the last of His chosen, destined to be born at the very end of time? The vineyard which He owns is His Church, while the laborers in this vineyard are all those who with a true faith have set themselves, and urged others, to the task of doing good. By those who came at the first, as well as at the third, sixth and ninth hours, are mean the ancient people of the Hebrews, who from the beginning of the world, striving in the person of their Saints to serve God with a right faith ceased not, as it were, to work in cultivation of the vineyards. But at the eleventh hour, the Gentiles are called and to them are spoken the words, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" Thus all are called to work in the Lord's vineyard, by sanctifying themselves and their neighbor in glorifying God, since sanctification consists in searching for our supreme happiness in Him alone.
Adam failed in his task and God told him: "Because thou hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shalt it bring forth to thee...In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken.
"Being exiled from Eden," says St Augustine, "the first man involved all his descendants in the penalty of death and reprobation, being corrupted in the person of him from whom they sprung. The whole mass of condemned humanity was therefore, plunged in misery, enslaved and cast headlong from one evil to another."
The venerated Abbe Dom Prosper Gueranger comments on today's Epistle with these words:
In the Epistles, Christian life is represented by St Paul as an Arena where a man must take pains and strive to carry off the prize, while the Gospel bears witness that the reward of eternal life is only given to those who work in God's vineyard where the work is hard and painful since the entrance of sin.
Let us, therefore, rid ourselves of everything that could impede us, and make us lose our crown. Let us not deceive ourselves: we are never sure until we reach the goal. Is our conversion more solid than St. Paul's? Are our good works better done, or more meritorious, than were his? Yet he assures us that he was not without the fear that he might perhaps be lost; for which cause he chastised his body and kept it in subjection to the spirit. Man, in his present state, has not the same will for all that is right and just, which Adam had before he sinned, and which, notwithstanding, he abused to his own ruin. We have a bias which inclines us to evil; so that our only means of keeping our ground is to sacrifice the flesh to the spirit. To many this is very harsh doctrine. Thence, they are sure to fail; they never can win the prize. Like the Israelites spoken of by our apostle, they will be left behind to die in the desert, and so lose the promised land. Yet they saw the same miracles that Josue and Caleb saw! So true is it that nothing can make a salutary impression on a heart which is obstinately bent on fixing all its happiness in the things of this present life. And though it is forced, each day, to own that they are vain, yet each day it returns to the, vainly but determinedly loving them.
Gueranger adds his inspired wisdom to today's Gospel:
"It is of importance that we should well understand this parable of the Gospel, and why the Church inserts it in today's liturgy. Firstly, then, let us recall to mind on what occasion our Savior spoke this parable, and what instruction He intended to convey by it to the Jews. He wishes to warn them of the fast approach of the day when their Law is to give way to the Christian Law; and He would prepare their minds against the jealousy and prejudice which might arise in them, at the thought that God was about to form a Covenant with the Gentiles. The vineyard is the Church in its several periods, from the beginning of the world to the time when God Himself dwelt among men, and formed all true believers into one visible and permanent society. The morning is the time from Adam to Noah. The third hour begins with Noah and ends with Abraham. The sixth hour includes the period which elapsed between Abraham and Moses. And lastly, the ninth hour opens with the age of the prophets, and closes with the birth of the Savior. The Messias came at the eleventh hour, when the world seemed to be at the decline of its day. Mercies unprecedented were reserved for this last period, during which salvation was to be given to the Gentiles by the preaching of the apostles. It is by this mystery of mercy that our Savior rebukes the Jewish pride. By the selfish murmurings made against the master of the house by the early laborers, our Lord signifies the indignation which the scribes and pharisees would show at the Gentiles being adopted as God's children. Then He shows them how their jealousy would be chastised: Israel, that had labored before us shall be rejected for their obduracy of heart, and we Gentiles, the last comers, shall be made first, for we shall be
EPISTLE: 1 Corinthians 9. 24-27; 10. 1-5
Lesson from the Epistle of blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians. Brethren: Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And everyone that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air; but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud and in the sea : and did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink : (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ). But with most of them God was not well pleased.
Thanks be to God.
Commentary: Eve saw that "the fruit of the tree was good to eat, fair to the eyes and delightful to behold, and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat and gave to her husband who also did eat."
"Driven from paradise by a lack of self denial," says St Gregory, "it is in our persons practicing self-restraint that they must return thither." St Paul also urges us to abstinence and bodily mortification, adding that although the people of Israel had profited by all the Divine favors which were figures of the sacraments, they had not corresponded with their vocation. Out of six hundred thousand men who crossed the Red Sea, only two entered the promised land.
Nor did our Lord find the Jews of His day much more faithful, for although invited to enter the "kingdom of heaven", which is the Church, the majority of them remained obstinate in their blindness, while the highest places where given to the heathen, the labourers of the last hour. "Many (Jews) are called," we shall find our Lord saying, "but few are chosen."
GOSPEL: St. Matthew 20 1-16
At that time Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: 'The kingdom of Heaven is like to an householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place idle, and he said to them : Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour: and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he said to them: "Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man has hired us. He said to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward: Call the laborers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received everyman a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: and they also received every man a penny. And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering said to one of them : Friend, I do thee no wrong: did thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what thine and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thy eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.'
Praise be to Christ
Commentary: "By the morning of the world," says St Gregory, "can be understood the time from Adam to Noah; the third hour from Noah to Abraham; the sixth from Abraham to Moses; the ninth from Moses and the prophets to coming of the Redeemer and the eleventh from the Messias coming until th ened of the world." All men, therefore, are called to work for God's glory and to receive as wages for their labour, the reward of eternal life.
This is the interpretation of our parable given by St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great, and the majority of the holy Church Fathers. But it conveys a second instruction, as we are assured by the two holy doctors just named. It signifies the calling GIVEN BY God to each of us individually, pressing us to labor, during this life, for the kingdom prepared for us. The morning is our childhood. The third hour, according to the division used by the ancients in counting their day, in sunrise; it is our youth. The sixth hour, by which name they called our midday, is manhood. The eleventh hour, which immediately preceded sunset, is old age. The Master of the house calls His laborers at all these various hours. They must go that very hour. They that are called in the morning may not put off their starting for the vineyard, under pretext of going afterwards, when the Master shall call them later on. Who has told them that they shall live to the eleventh hour? They that are called at the third hour may be dead at the sixth. God will call to the labors of the last hour such as shall be living when that hour comes. But, if we should die at midday, that last call will not avail us. Besides, God has not promised us a second call, if we excuse ourselves from the first.
Dear Reader, in these our times it is common to hear preachers of all calibers saying that we need only "accept Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior" to be saved. However by meditating on the Gospels and Epistles, and indeed on the whole of Scripture, we see that this is NOT true. He who wishes to be counted among the elect must toil in the vineyard of the Lord, by sanctifying ourselves. This is the The will of God that we sanctify ourselves (Thess. iv. 3). In this modern world, with all the temptations that flood our senses, experience shows that avoiding sin is anything but easy. It is in this that toiling consists.
Next...SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY February 15, 2009
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2009 : 09:40:05
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SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY February 15, 2009
The Church offers to our consideration, during this week of Sexagesima, the history of Noah and the deluge. Man has not profited by the warnings already given him. God is obliged to punish him once more, and by terrible chastisement. There is found out of the whole human race one just man; God makes a covenant with him, and with us through him. But, before He draws up this new alliance, He would show that He is the sovereign Master, and that man, and the earth whereon he lives, subsist solely by His power and permission.
God seeing that man's wickedness was great upon the earth said, " I will destroy man whom I have created" and He told Noah, "I will establish my covenant with thee and thou shalt enter into the ark."
For forty days and nights rain on earth, while the ark floated on the waters which rose above the mountain tops and covered them; and in this whirlpool all men where carried away like "stubble"; only Noah and his companions in the ark remaining alive.
The just wrath of the Creator drowned the guilty world in the vengeful waters of the flood, only Noah being saved in the ark. But then the admirable power of love saved the world in blood. It was the wood of the ark which save the human race and it is that of the cross which in its turn, saved the world. "Thou alone," says the Church, speaking of the cross, "hast been found worthy to be, for this shipwrecked world, the ark which brings safely into port."
The open door in the side of the ark by which those enter who are to escape from the flood, and who represent the Church, are a type of the mystery of redemption. For on the Cross, our Lord had His sacred side open and from this gate of life, went forth the sacraments, giving true life to souls. Indeed the blood and water which flow from thence are symbols of the Eucharist and of Holy Baptism (lessons from St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine). In the days of Noah," says St. Peter, "eight souls were saved by water, whereunto Baptism being of the like form, now saveth you also."
Above all, however, in his divinely appointed mission as father of all succeeding generations, Noah is a figure of Christ; he was truly the second father of the human race and remains the type of life continually renewed. We are told in the Liturgy that the olive branch by means of its foliage is a symbol of the prosperous fertility bestowed by almighty God upon Noah when he came forth from the ark, and the ark itself is called by St. Ambrose, the "seminarium," or nursery, that is, the place containing the seed of life which is to fill the world.
Now, Christ, much more than Noah, was the second Adma, peopling the world with a race of believing souls, faithful to God. On Holy Saturday, in the prayer following the second prophecy which is concerned with Noah, the Church humbly asks almighty God to "peacefully effect," by His eternal decree, "the work of humna salvation," and to "let the whole world experience and see that what was fallen is raised up, what was old is made new," and that "all things are re-established, through Him from Whom they received their first being, our Lord Jesus Christ." It was through the Word that God made the world in the beginning, and it is by the preaching of His Gospel that our Lord came to bring men to a new birth. Being "born again," says St. Peter, "not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God who liveth for ever...
From this we can see why to-day's Gospel's is taken from the parable of the sower, for "the seed is the word of God". If in Noah's days men perished, St. Paul tells us it was because of their unbelief, while at the same time it was by faith that Noah "framed the ark...(Heb. xi, 7) In the same way, those who believe in uur Lord's words will be saved.
According to St. Augustine's exposition, "as the were three floors in the ark, so there are three different spiritual harvests". In to-day's epistle St. Paul recounts all that he did and suffered in the course of preaching the faith to the Gentiles and indeed he, the Apostle to the Gentiles, was the outstanding preacher to the world. He is the minister of Christ, that is the one whom God has chosen to unfold to all nations the good news of the Incarnate word.
EPISTLE: 2 Corinthians 11: 19-33; 12: 1-9
Lesson from the Epistle of blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians. Brethren: you gladly suffer the foolish : whereas yourselves are wise. For you suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take from you, if a man be lifted up, if a man strike you on the face. I speak according to dishonor, as if we had been weak in this part. Wherein if any man dare (I speak foolishly), I dare also. They are Hebrews, so am I. They are Israelites, so am I. They are the seed of Abraham, so am I. They are the ministers of Christ (I speak as one less wise), I am more: in many ore labors, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea : in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren : in labor and painfulness, in much watching, in hunger and cold and nakedness; : besides those thing which are without, my daily instance, the solicitude for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever, knoweth that I lie not. At Damascus the governor of the nation under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes, to apprehend me : and through a window in a basked was I let down by the wall, and so escaped his hands. If I must glory (it is not expedient indeed) but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ about fourteen years ago, whether in the body I know not, of out of the body I know not, God knoweth; such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I know not, God knoweth: that he was caught up unto paradise, and heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter. For such an one I will glory: but for myself I will glory nothing but in my infirmities. For though I should have a mind to glory, I shall not be foolish : for I will say the truth : but I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth in me, or anything he heareth from me. And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, thee was given ne a sting of my flesh, an angel of satan, to buffet me. For which thing, thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart from me. And He said to me; My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Thanks be to God.
Commentary: Certain perverse teachers of Judaizing tendency were endangering the very existence of the Corinthian Church. By comparing his own ministry with theirs, St. Paul destroys the influence of these false prophets, who were entangling God's people in a spiritual bondage. But the Apostle ends this self-praise with an act of humility by which he shows that he glorifies himself only in Christ Jesus. We may say of the Apostle, as the Gospel does of our Lord, that he passed by scattering the seed of truth.
GOSPEL: Luke 8: 4-15
At that time, when a very great multitude was gathered together and hastened out of the cities unto Jesus, He spoke by a similitude: 'The sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And other some fell upon a rock: and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And other some fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with it choked it. And other some fell upon good ground: and being sprung up yielded fruit a hundredfold.' Saying these things, He cried out:'He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.' And His disciples asked Him what this parable might be. To whom He said: 'To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables : that seeing they may not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. And they by the wayside are they that hear: then the devil cometh and taketh the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be saved. Now they upon the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no roots: for they believe for a while, and in time of temptation they fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they who have heard and, going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit. But that on the good ground are they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience.' Praise be to Christ
Commentary: Seated on the side of a boat, our Lord preached on the shore of Lake of Galilee, and the seed which he scattered fell into hearts more or less favourably disposed to receive it. Matthew xiii, 18 and Mark iv, 13 tell us that, so to speak, three of the resulting crops failed iin different ways according as the good seen fell on ground which was rocky (hearts hardened by pride), barren (dried up by self-interest), or full of thorns (where sins of sensuality flourish); while three produced excellent results, the word of God in the ground bringing forth fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred-fold.
St. Gregory the Great justly remarks, that the Sower's parable needs no explanation, since eternal Wisdom Himself has told us its meaning. All that we have to do, is to profit by this divine teaching, and become the good soil, wherein the heavenly seed may yield a rich harvest. How often have we, hitherto, allowed it to be trampled on by them that passed by, or to be torn up by the birds of the air! How often has it found our heart like a stone, that could give no moisture, or like a thorn plot, that could but choke! We listened to the word of God; we took pleasure in hearing it; and from this we argued well for ourselves. Nay, we have often received this word with joy and eagerness. Sometimes, even, it took root within us. But, alas! Something always came to stop its growth. Henceforth, it must both grow and yield fruit. The seed given to us is of such quality, that the divine Sower has a right to expect a hundred-fold. If the soil, that is, our heart, be good; if we take the trouble to prepare it, by profiting by the means afforded us by the Church; we shall have an abundant harvest to show our Lord on that grand day, when rising triumphant from His tomb, He will come to share with His faithful people the glory of His Resurrection.
Here is a plan for us to follow. In our spiritual life, lets us at least produce sixty-fold, that is, receiving the word of God in a good and perfect heart, lets us cause it to bear fruit by our patience so that He, who spent His life scattering His holy teaching among souls, and who carries on the same work by His Apostles and His Church, may bestow upon us the reward promised to those who persevere in the generous practice of the Faith.
He that is willing to hear the word of God, and diligently comply with what is therein commanded, let him be attentive to the words of Christ. For the sight, hearing, and other senses, were not given to man to be used only as beasts use them, but likewise that they might profit his soul to eternal life. (Tirinus)
Next... QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2009 : 14:00:00
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QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY February 22, 2009
During the Septuagesima season, our attention is called to the Patriarchs Adam, Noah and Abraham, known respectively by the Church, as the father of the human race, the father of future generations and the father of those who believe.
Adam, Noah and Abraham were types of Christ in the paschal mystery, a fact which we have already shown known to be true in the case of the first two, in our notes on Septuageisma and Sexageisma Sunday. That it is true of Abraham also, we see in the following explanations.
The Church gives us today another subject for our meditation: it is the vocation of Abraham. When the waters of the deluge had subsided, and mankind had once more peopled the earth, the immorality, which had previously excited God's anger, again grew rife among men. Idolatry, too, into which the antediluvian race had not fallen, now showed itself, and human wickedness seemed thus to have reached the height of its malice. Foreseeing that the nations of the earth would fall into rebellion against Him, God resolved to select one whom should be preserved those sacred truths, of which the Gentiles were to lose sight. This new people were to originate from one man, who would be the father and model of all future believers. This was Abraham. His faith and devotedness merited for him that he should be chosen to be the father of the children of God, and the head of that spiritual family, to which belong all the elect of both the old and the new Testament.
It is necessary, therefore, that we should know Abraham, our father and our model. This is his grand characteristic: fidelity to God, submissiveness to His commands, abandonment and sacrifice of everything in order to obey His holy will. Such ought to be the prominent virtues of every Christian. Let us, then, study the life of our great patriarch, and learn, the lessons it teaches in Genesis 12.
"Abraham your father," says the Lord, "rejoiced that he might see my day, he saw it and was glad... Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am." God had indeed promised Abraham that the Messias should descend from him, and he was overwhelmed with great joy, when with by faith he contemplated beforehand the day of the Redeemer's coming. Again, when this was fulfilled, he still contemplated it with great joy in Limbo, where he was waiting with the just men of the Old Law for Jesus to come and deliver them after His Passion.
With a desire of forming a people who should be specially His own in the midst of the idolatrous nations of the world, Almighty God chose Abraham as its head and gave him his name which means Father of many nations. "And He took him from Ur in Chaldea, and kept him from harm in all his wanderings". By faith, St Paul tells the Hebrews, Abraham, when the call came, obeyed and went into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith, he abode in the land, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the same promise; for he looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb. xi, 8-10). It was by faith that he obtained the land of Canaan, where he lived more than twenty-five years as a stranger; that in his old age he became the father of Isaac and did not hesitate to offer him in sacrifice at God's command, although he was his only son in whom lay all his hope that the divine promises concerning a numerous posterity for himself would be fulfilled. "Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Whereupon also he received him for a parable" (Heb. xi, 17-19). Indeed, it was as a type of Christ that Isaac was chosen "to be the most glorious victim of his father," that he carried the bundle of wood on which he was about to be sacrificed, just as our Lord carried the Cross on which He merited glory by His Passion; that his place was taken up by a ram caught by its horns in a thicket of brambles, just as Jesus, The Lamb of God, had His sacred Head entangled in the thorns of His Crown; and above all that, being miraculously delivered from death he was in some sense restored to life to proclaim that Christ having been put to death should rise again.
Thus, by faith, Abraham, who without hesitation believed in what was to come to pass, contemplated from afar our Lord's triumph on the Cross and rejoiced in it. It was then that God confirmed the promises to him: "Because thou hast not spared thy only-begotten son for my sake, I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is by the sea shore." It was Christ who fulfilled these promises by His passion. As St. Paul says: "Christ hath redeemed us...(for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on the tree), that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus"; that we may receive the promise of the Spirit by faith, that is, the Spirit of adoption which has been promised to us.
In reality it is by baptism with water, which was formerly administered at Easter, and of the Holy Ghost suggesting Pentecost, that having been made Children of Abraham we enter upon the inheritance promised to us, that is the Church, the Heavenly Jerusalem of which the Holy Land was a type. The Church prays on Holy Saturday: "Grant that all nations of the world may become the children of Abraham and by holy adoption, multiply the sons of the promise."
Faith in Christ, dead and risen, is the subject of the Gospel, that faith by which Abraham merited to become the Father of all nations and which enables us to become his children. We read how Christ foretold His passion and His victory and how He restored the sight of a blind man, and told him: "thy faith hath saved thee." On this St. Gregory comments: "This blind man recovered his sight under the very eyes of the Apostles so that to have seen deeds wrought by divine power might strengthen the faith of those who could not yet grasp the message that a heavenly mystery was revealed to the world. Indeed it was necessary, that when later they should see our Lord die in the very manner foretold by Him, they should have no doubt at all that He must also rise from the dead."
In the Epistle, Abraham's faith is set in all its merit, and we are told what our own faith should be like. St. James writes: "So faith also, if it hath not works, is dead in itself. Wilt thou know that faith without works is dead? Was not our father Abraham justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the alter? Seest thou, that faith did cooperate with his works; and by works faith was made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him in justice, and he was called the friend of God. Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?" (St. James ii, 19-24)
A man is not saved by being a son of Abraham according to the flesh but by being Abraham's son by means of faith like his. So St. Paul writes: "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision (to be a Jew) availeth anything, nor uncircumcision (to be a Gentile), but a new creature". (Gal iv, 15) "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness". (Eph. v, 2)
EPISTLE: 2 Corinthians 13: 1-13
Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians. Brethren: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy, and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge; and if I should have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing; Charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth: beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never falleth away; whether prophecies shall be away; whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall pass be destroyed. For we now in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. Thanks be to God.
COMMENTARY: The merit of our good works, like the light which enlightens our minds, will be in proportion to the charity which we possess. Let us therefore, dispose our will to detachment from everything in it that is opposed to divine charity, so that having seen God "through a glass as in a dark manner," by faith, here on earth, we may behold Him "face to face" in Heaven, in all the fullness of our love for Him.
GOSPEL: Luke 18: 31-43
At that time Jesus took unto Him the twelve and said to them :' Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall by accomplished which were written by the Prophets concerning the Son of Man. For He shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and scourged and spit upon: and after they have scourged Him, they will put Him to death, and the third day He shall rise again.' And they understood none of these things, and the word was hid from them, and they understood not the things that were said. Now it came to pass, when He drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying : 'Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.' And they that went before rebuked him, that he cried out much more : 'Son of David, have mercy on me.' And Jesus standing, commanded him to brought unto him. And when he was come near, He asked him, saying : 'What wilt thou that I do to thee?' But he said: 'Lord, that I may see.' And Jesus said to him: 'Receive thy sight, thy faith hath made thee whole.' And immediately he saw and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
Praise be to Christ
COMMENTARY: "The man blind from birth of whom the Gospel speaks", says St. Gregory, "is most certainly the human race. Since its expulsion from paradise in the person of our first parents, it has known nothing of the inspirations of supernatural light, and has moreover suffered from being plunged into darkness through its condemnation." It is Jesus Christ who by the merits if His passion, must open the eyes of mankind, just as He did for the blind man of Jericho, and at the same time free the human race from the captivity of error and from sin..
CONCLUSION
Could the Christian have a finer model than this holy patriarch, whose docility and devotedness in following the call of his God are so perfect? We are forced to exclaim, with the holy fathers: 'O true Christian, even before Christ had come on the earth! Was preached! He was an apostolic man before the apostles existed!' God calls him: he leaves all things-his country, his kindred, his father's house-and he goes into an unknown land. God leads him, he is satisfied; he fears no difficulties; he never once looks back. Did the apostles themselves more? But see how grand is his reward! God says to him: 'In thee shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed.' This Chaldean is to give to the world Him that shall bless and it. Death will, it is true, close his eyes ages before the dawning of that day, when one of his race, who is to be born of a Virgin and be united personally with the divine Word, shall redeem all generations, past, present, and to come. But meanwhile, till heaven shall be thrown open to receive this Redeemer and the countless just who have won the crown, Abraham shall be honored, in the limbo of expectation, in a manner becoming his great virtue and merit. It is in his bosom, (St. Luke xvi, 22) that is, around him, that our first parents (having atoned for their sin by penance), Noah, Moses, David, and all the just, including poor Lazarus, received that rest and happiness, which were a foretaste of, and a preparation for, eternal bliss in Heaven. Thus is Abraham honored; thus does God requite the love and fidelity of them that serve Him.
When the fullness of time came, the Son of God, who was also Son of Abraham, declared His eternal Father's power, by saying that He was about to raise up a new progeny of Abraham's children from the very stones, that is, from the Gentiles (St. Matthew iii, 9). We Christians are this new generation. But are we worthy children of our father? Let us, then, listen to the Apostle of the Gentiles in his epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. Xi. 8-10).
If, therefore, we be children of Abraham, we must, as the Church teaches us, look upon ourselves as exiles on the earth, and dwell by hope and desire in that true country of ours, from which we are now banished, but towards which we are each day drawing nigher, if, like Abraham, we are faithful in the various stations allotted us by our Lord. We are commanded to use this world as though we need it not (1 Cor. vii, 31) to have an abiding conviction of our not having here a lasting city (Heb. xiii, 14) and of the misery and danger we incur when we forget that death is one day to separate us from every thing we possess in this life.
Oh! That Christians would stand on their guard against such delusions as these, and gain that holy liberty of children of God (Rom. viii, 21) which consists in not being slaves to flesh and blood, and preserves man from moral degradation! Let them remember that we are now in that holy season, when the Church denies herself her songs of holy joy, in order the more forcibly to remind us that we are living in a Babylon of spiritual danger, and to excite us to regain that genuine Christian spirit, which everything in the world around us is quietly undermining. If the disciples of Christ are necessitated, by the position they hold in society, to take part in the profane amusements of these few days before Lent, let it be with a heart deeply imbued with the maxims of the Gospel. If, for example, they are obliged to listen to the music of theatres and concerts, let them imitate St. Cecilia, who thus sang, in her heart, in the midst of the excitement of worldly harmonies; 'May my heart, O God, be pure, and let me not be confounded!' Above all, let them not countenance certain dances, which the world is so eloquent in defending, because so evidently according to its own spirit; and therefore they who encourage they will be severely judged by Him, who has already pronounced woe upon the world. Lastly, let those who must go, on these days, and mingle in the company of worldlings, be guided by, who advises them to think, from time to time, on such considerations as these: that while all these frivolous, and often dangerous, amusements are going on, there are countless souls being tormented in the fire of hell, on account of the sins they committed on similar occasions; that, at that very hour of the night, there are many holy religious depriving themselves of sleep in order to sing the divine praises and implore God's mercy upon the world, and upon them that are wasting their time in its vanities; that there are thousands in the agonies of death, while all that gaiety is going on; that God and His angels are attentively looking upon this thoughtless group and finally, that life is passing away, and death so much nearer each moment (Introduction to a Devout Life,' part iii. Chapter xxiii).
We grant that, on these three days immediately preceding the penitential season of Lent, some provision was necessary to be made for those countless souls, who seem scarce able to live without some excitement. The Church supplies this want. She gives a substitute for frivolous amusements and dangerous pleasures; and those of her children upon whom faith has not lost its influence, will find, in what she offers them, a feast surpassing all earthly enjoyments, and a means whereby to make amends to God for the insults offered to His divine Majesty during these days of carnival. The Lamb, that taketh away the sins of the world, is exposed upon our altars. Here, on this His throne of mercy, He receives the homage of them who come to adore Him, and acknowledge Him for their King; He accepts the repentance of those who come to tell Him how grieved they are at having ever followed any other master but Him; He offers Himself to His eternal Father for poor sinners, who not only treat His favors with indifference, but seem to have made a resolution to offend Him during these days more than at any other period of the year. |
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2009 : 15:06:28
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First Sunday Of Lent March 8, 2009
This Sunday officially signals the beginning of the season of Lent. Now, therefore, that we are about to enter upon these days, which are so full of mystery, and were instituted for the holy purpose of purifying both our soul and body, let us, dearly beloved, be careful to do as the Apostle bids us, and cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and the spirit: that thus the combat between the two substances being made less fierce, the soul, which, when she herself is subject to God, ought to be the ruler of the body, will recover her own dignity and position. Let us also avoid giving offense to any man, so that there be none to blame or speak evil things of us. For we deserve the harsh remarks of infidels, and we provoke the tongues of the wicked to blaspheme religion, when we, who fast, lead unholy lives. For our Fast does not consist in the mere abstaining from food; nor is it of much use to deny food to our body, unless we restrain the soul from sin. [Fourth Sermon for Lent]
Each Sunday of Lent offers to our consideration a passage from the Gospel, which is in keeping with the sentiments wherewith the Church would have us be filled. To-day she brings before us the Temptation of our Lord in the Desert. What light and encouragement there is for us in this instruction!
We acknowledge ourselves to be sinners; we are engaged, at this very time, in doing penance for the sins we have committed. But, how was it that we fell into sin? The devil tempted us; we did not reject the temptation; then, we yielded to the suggestion, and the sin was committed. This is the history of our past, and such it would, also, be for the future, were we not to profit by the lesson given us, to-day, by our Redeemer.
Satan has had his eye upon Jesus, he is troubled at beholding such matchless virtue. The wonderful circumstances of his Birth - the Shepherds called by Angels to his Crib, and the Magi guided by the Star; the Infant’s escape from Herod’s plot; the testimony rendered to this new Prophet by John the Baptist - all these things which seem so out of keeping with the thirty years spent in obscurity at Nazareth, are a mystery to the infernal serpent, and fill him with apprehension. The ineffable mystery of the Incarnation has been accomplished unknown to him; he never once suspects that the humble Virgin, Mary, is she who was foretold by the Prophet Isaias, as having to bring forth the Emmanuel (Is. viii. 14); but he is aware that the time is come, that the last Week spoken of to Daniel has begun its course, and that the very Pagans are looking towards Judea for a Deliverer. He is afraid of this Jesus, and resolves to speak with Him in order to elicit from Him some expression which will show him whether He be or not the Son of God. He will tempt Him to some imperfection, or sin, which, should He commit, will prove that the object of so much fear is, after all, but a mortal Man.
The enemy of God and men was, of course, disappointed. He approached Jesus but all his efforts only turn to his own confusion. Our Redeemer, with all the self-possession and easy majesty of a God-Man, repels the attacks of Satan, without revealing His heavenly origin. The wicked spirit retires, without having made any discovery beyond this - that Jesus is a prophet, faithful to God. Later on, when he sees the Son of God treated with contempt, calumniated, and persecuted; when he finds, that his own attempts to have him put to death, are so successful - his pride and his blindness will be at their height: and not till Jesus expires on the Cross, will he learn, that his victim was not merely Man, but Man and God. Then will he discover, how all his plots against Jesus have but served to manifest, in all their beauty, the Mercy and Justice of God - His Mercy, because He saved mankind: and His Justice, because He broke the power of hell for ever.
These were the designs of Divine Providence in permitting the wicked spirit to defile, by his presence, the retreat of Jesus, and speak to him, and lay his hands upon him. Let us, however, attentively consider the triple temptation in all its circumstances. For our Redeemer only suffered it in order that he might instruct and encourage us.
We have three enemies to fight against; our soul has three dangers. For, as the Beloved Disciple says: All that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes], and the pride of life! (1 St. John ii. 16).
By concupiscence of the flesh, is meant the love of sensual things, which covets whatever is agreeable to the flesh, and, when not curbed, draws the soul into unlawful pleasures.
Concupiscence of the eyes expresses the love of the goods of this world, such as riches, and possessions. These dazzle the eye, and then seduce the heart.
Pride of life is that confidence in ourselves, which leads us to be vain and presumptuous. It makes us forget that all that we have - our life and every good gift - we have from God.
As in the case of Adam, Lucifer directs his first attack to the senses. Our Lord is very hungry and the devil tempts Him in what regards the Flesh - he suggests to him to satisfy the cravings of hunger, by working a miracle, and changing the stones into bread. If Jesus consent, and show an eagerness in giving this indulgence to his body, the tempter will conclude that he is but a frail mortal, subject to concupiscence like other men. When he tempts us, who have inherited evil concupiscence from Adam, his suggestions go further than this. He endeavors to defile the soul by the body. But the sovereign holiness of the Incarnate Word could never permit Satan to use upon Him the power which he has received of tempting man into the sin of impurity. The lesson, therefore, which the Son of God here gives us, is one of temperance: but we know, that, for us, temperance is the mother of purity, and that intemperance excites our senses to rebel. In the same way, the devil will attempt to makes us give up our fasting and mortification during these forty days. This is the concupiscence of the flesh.
The devil has promised our first parent that he should be as God. Now he takes our Lord to the pinnacle of the Temple and tries to induce Him to let Himself be carried by the angels through the air amid the applause of the crowds below. This second temptation is to pride. Cast thyself down; the Angels shall bear thee up in their hands. The enemy is anxious to see if the favors of heaven have produced in Jesus’ soul that haughtiness, that ungrateful self-confidence, which makes the creature arrogate God’s gifts to itself, and forget its benefactor. Here, also, he is foiled. Our Redeemer’s humility confounds the pride of the rebel angel. In the same way, the devil tempts us by pride, which is opposed to the spirit of prayer and humility.
Finally, just as he had promised Adam a knowledge which like that of God Himself, should enable him to know all things, the devil assures Jesus that he will make Him ruler over all created things if He will fall at his feet and worship him. He hopes to gain over by ambition Him who has given such proofs of temperance and humility. He shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and says to him: All these will I give thee, if falling down, thou wilt adore me. Jesus rejects the wretched offer, and drives from him the seducer, the prince of this world (St. John, xiv. 30), hereby teaching us, that we must despise the riches of this world, as often as our keeping or getting them is to be on the condition of our violating the law of God and paying homage to Satan.
In the same way, the devil seeks to attach us to temporal goods, when we ought by alms and works of charity, to be doing good to our neighbor. This is the concupiscence of the eyes or avarice.
Since the sword of the Spirit is the word of God (Ephesians vi. 17), our Lord made use of the ninetieth psalm against the devil. His truth shall cover thee with a shield, says the psalmist. This psalm is, therefore, the ideal psalm for Lent as a special time of warfare against the devil.
But, let us observe how it is, that our Divine Model, our Redeemer, overcomes the tempter. Does be hearken to his words? Does he allow the temptation time? and give it strength by delay? We did so, when we were tempted, and we fell. But our Lord immediately meets each temptation with the shield of God’s word. He says: It is written: Not on bread alone doth man live; It is written: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God; It is written: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve. This, then, must be our practice for the time to come. Eve brought perdition on herself, and on the whole human race, because she listened to the devil. Therefore, he that dallies with temptation is sure to fall. We are now in a Season of extraordinary grace and our hearts are on the watch. Dangerous occasions are removed, everything that savors of worldliness is laid aside. Our souls, purified by prayer, fasting, and alms deeds, are to rise with Christ to a new life. But shall we persevere? All depends upon how we behave under temptation. Here, at the very opening of Lent, the Church gives us this passage of the Holy Gospel, that we may have not only precept, but also example. If we be attentive and faithful, the lesson she gives us will produce its fruit. And when we come to the Easter Solemnity, we shall have those sure pledges of perseverance, vigilance, self-diffidence, prayer, and the never-failing help of Divine Grace.
EPISTLE: 2 Corinthians vi. 1-10
Brethren, we exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time: behold, now is the day of salvation. Giving no offense to any man, that our ministry be not blamed: but in all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prison, in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of justice on the right hand, and on the left: by honor and dishonor: by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true: as unknown, and yet known: as dying, and behold we live: as chastised, and not killed: as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing: as needy, yet enriching many: as having nothing, and possessing all things. Thanks be to God
COMMENTARY: These words of the Apostle give us a very different idea of the Christian Life from that which our own tepidity suggests. We dare not say that he is wrong, and we right; but we put a strange interpretation upon his words, and we tell both ourselves and those around us, that the advice he here gives is not to be taken literally now-a-days, and that it was written for those special difficulties of the first age of the Church, when the Faithful stood in need of unusual detachment and almost heroism, because they were always in danger of persecution and death. The interpretation is full of that discretion which meets with the applause of our cowardice, and it easily persuades us to be at rest, just as though we had no battle to fight; whereas, we have both: for there is the devil, the world, flesh and blood. The Church never forgets it; and hence, at the opening of this great Season, she sends us into the desert, that there we may learn from our Jesus how we are to fight. Let us go; let us learn, from the Temptations of our Divine Master, that the life of man upon earth is a warfare (Job, vii. 1), and that, unless our fighting be truceless and brave, our life, which we would fain pass in peace, will witness our defeat. That such a misfortune may not befal us, the Church cries out to us, in the words of St. Paul: Behold! now is the acceptable time. Behold! now is the day of salvation. Let us, in all things comport ourselves as the servants of God, and keep our ground unflinchingly to the end of our holy campaign. God is watching over us, as he did over his Beloved Son in the Desert.
We are under the protection of the Angels, and that these blessed Spirits leave us not, either day or night. During Lent, they redouble their efforts against our enemies, and rejoice at seeing us sinners accept the penance, which is to bring us to salvation. We are also inspired with confidence: we are informed of the goodness of God, and of his fatherly watchfulness over us his ungrateful children, whom he wishes to make his faithful friends and co-heirs of his kingdom.
GOSPEL: Luke 18: 31-43
At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards hungry. And the tempter coming, said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said: It is written, “Not by bread alone doth man live, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Then the devil took him into the holy city, and set him upon a pinnacle of the temple, and said to him: If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, “He hath given his Angels charge over thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Jesus said to him: It is written again, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Again the devil took him up into a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and said to him: All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt! adore me. Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan, for it is written: “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve.” Then the devil left him; and behold Angels came and ministered to him. Praise be to Christ. Praise be to Christ
COMMENTARY: Let us admire the exceeding goodness of the Son of God, who, not satisfied with atoning for all our sins by dying on the Cross, deigns to suffer a fast of forty days and forty nights, in order to encourage us to do penance. He would not that the justice of his heavenly Father should exact any punishment from us, unless he himself first suffered it, and that, too, in a thousand times severer way than we could. What are all our penances, - even were they done thoroughly, - when we compare them with the severity of this fast of Jesus in the desert? Can we have the face, to be ever seeking for dispensations from the little which our Lord asks of us in atonement for our sins, - sins, alas! which deserve such rigorous penance? Instead of complaining at our feeling a slight inconvenience of a few days’ duration, let us compassionate our innocent Jesus, who subjects himself to a forty days of most rigorous privation of food and drink.
What was it that supported him? Prayer, devotedness to us, and the knowledge of the exigencies of his Father’s justice. And when the Forty Days were over, and his Human Nature was faint from exhaustion, he is assailed by Temptation; but here again he thinks upon us, and sets us an example;- he triumphs over the temptation, calmly and resolutely, and thereby teaches us how to conquer. How blasphemous the boldness of Satan, who dares to tempt Him, who is the Just by excellence! But, how divine is the patience of Jesus, who permits the hellish monster to lay his hand upon him, and carry him from place to place! The Christian soul is oftentimes exposed to the vilest insults from this same enemy; nay, at times, she is on the point of complaining to her God, for his permitting her to have such humiliations. Let her, on these occasions, think upon Jesus, the Saint of Saints, who was given over, so to speak, to the wicked spirit; and yet, he is not the less the Son of God, the Conqueror of hell; and all that Satan gains by his attack, is utter defeat. In the same way, if the soul, when under the violence of temptation, resist with all her energy, - she is not one jot less dear to God, and Satan retires with one more eternal shame and chastisement upon him. Let us take part with the Holy Angels, who, as soon as the tempter is gone, come to our Redeemer, and respectfully administer food to him. How affectionately do they not compassionate his hunger and thirst! How zealously they make amends, by their adoration, for the frightful outrage offered to their King! How fervently they extol the charity of their God, who, out of his love for man, seems to have been forgetting his own dignity, in order to provide for the wants of the children of Adam.
In "this acceptable time" and in "these days of salvation", let us purify ourselves with the Church, "in fastings, in chastity," by zeal in hearing and meditating on the word of God, and by charity unfeigned. |
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 04/05/2009 : 12:09:16
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Second Sunday Of Lent
Just as on Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays, the subject matter of the Divine Office forms the texture of the Masses for the second, third, and fourth Sundays of Lent in such a way that past ages still carry on the work of illustrating the Paschal mystery and so preparing us for it. And indeed our Lord's ancestors, according to the flesh, are types of both Him and His Church.
Today in the breviary we read of the patriarch Jacob, model of the most complete trust in God in the midst of all adversities. Holy Scripture often called Jehovah the God of Jacob or Israel, when He is referred to as the protector of His people. At the beginning of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we say "O God of Israel deliver us from all our tribulations". It is to the God of Jacob, the God of those who server Him, that the Church addresses Herself. He who puts his trust in God will never be ashamed. We ask almighty God to keep us both inwardly and outwardly, that we may be preserved from all adversities. We beseech our Lord that He will deliver us from our troubles and visit us with His salvation. The life of the patriarch Jacob could not be summed up in a better way: he whom God always helped in the midst of his trouble and in whom, as St. Ambrose says, "we must acknowledge singular courage and great patience in labours and trials".
Jacob was chosen by almighty God to be heir of His promises, just as formerly He had selected Isaac, Abraham, Sem and Noah. The name Jacob really means "Supplanter," and he fulfilled the meaning of his name when he bought Esau's first birthright for a mess of pottage, and obtained by a trick, that blessing of the elder son which his father meant to give to Esau. Isaac indeed blessed his younger son, after having touched his hands which Rebecca had covered with goatskin, with the words: "Let peoples serve thee... and be thou lord of thy brethren."
Further, when Jacob had to flee Esau's vengeance, he saw in a dream a ladder reaching towards Heaven which angels ascended and descended. At the head of the ladder was the Lord Who told him: "In thee and thy seed all nations of the earth shall be blessed. And I will be thy keeper withersoever thou goest, and will bring thee back into this land; neither will I leave thee, till I shall have accomplished all that I have said." After twenty years Jacob returned to his own land. Then an angel wrestled him all night without overpowering him and in the morning told him: "Thy name shall not be called Jacob but Israel; for if thou has been strong against God, how much more shalt thou prevail against men?" Jacob gained his brother's confidence and they were reconciled.
Every feature of the history of this patriarch is typical of Christ and the Church in the paschal mystery. St Augustine writes: "The blessing which Isaac gave Jacob, has a symbolic meaning in which the goatskins represent sins, while Jacob clothed in these skins is the figure of Him Who having no sins of His own, bore those of others." St. Leo, in his exposition says: "That for the restoration of the human race, Christ's unchangeable Divinity stooped stooped to take the form of a slave and that this is why our Lord promised in formal and precise terms, that some of His disciples should not "taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom," that is, in the royal glory which belongs spiritually to His adopted human nature, a glory which the Lord willed to reveal to His three disciples; since "although they were aware of the divine majesty which lay hidden within Him, they were ignorant of the possibilities of the very Body which clothed the divinity.
Again, on the mountain of transfiguration, a voice was heard saying: "This is my beloved Son in Whom I am well-pleased. Hear ye Him." So God the Father blesses His Son clothed with our sinful flesh, as Isaac blessed Jacob, clothed with the goatskins. And just as Jacob was blessed in preference to his elder brother, so is Christ's blessing given also to the Gentiles in preference to the faithless Jews. When the Bishop puts on his pontifical gloves, he addresses the following prayer to almighty God: "Encompass my hands, O God, with the purity of the New Man come down from heaven, that as Jacob who had covered himself with goatskins obtained his father's blessing having offered him meats and good wine, so also may I, offering to Thee the victim of salvation at my hands, obtain the blessing of Thy grace. Through our Lord.
It is in Christ that we blessed by the Father. He is our elder brother and and our head: to Him we must listen for He has chosen us for His people. "We pray and beseech you in the Lord Jesus," says St. Paul in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, "that as you have received from us, how you ought to walk and to please God, so also you would walk, that you may abound more. For you know what precepts I have given you by the Lord Jesus... For God hath not called is unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Our Lord applies the vision of Jacob's ladder to Himself, to show that in the midst of persecutions of which He was the object, He was constantly under the protection of almighty
God and His angels. So St. Hippolytus says: "As Esau planned his brother's death, so the Jews plotted against Christ and the Church. Jacob must needs fly into a far country; in the same Christ, thrust out by the unbelief of His own nation, had to depart into Galilee where the Church, sprung from the race of Gentiles, is given to Him as His Spouse." Moreover, at the end of time, these two peoples will be reconciled as were Esau and Jacob
EPISTLE: 1 Thessalonians 4. 1-7
Lesson from the Epistle of blessed Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians. Brethren: We pray and beseech you in the Lord Jesus that, as you have received from us, how you ought to walk and to please God, so also you would walk, that you may abound the more. For you know what precepts I have given to you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification : that you should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles that know not God : and that no man overreach nor circumvent his brother in business : because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we have told you before and have testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification : in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Commentary: The apostle begins to remind them of their obligation of always striving to increase in virtue. Though he praises them through the whole epistle, he still thinks it necessary to warn them not to be surprised in uncleanness. He repeats what he had taught them before; first, that there is vengeance awaiting the workers of evil; and secondly, that the favour of God is the reward of those who deal with the brethren in simplicity, and preserve themselves from the defilements of the Gentiles. St. Ambrose.
GOSPEL: Matthew 17: 1-9
At that time Jesus taketh Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart : and He was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun : and His garments became white as snow. And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with Him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus: "Lord, it is good for us to be here: If Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moss, and one for Elias." And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying : "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him." And the disciples hearing, fell upon their face and were very much afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said to them : "Arise, and fear not." And they lifting up their eyes saw no one, but only Jesus. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying: "Tell the vision to no man till the Son of Man be risen from the dead."
Praise be to Christ
Remarks: Here is the model of what ought to be effected in our souls by the Lenten Penance, carried out after the example of Christ, Moses, and Elias, when at Easter, we celebrate the triumph of the Son of Man...risen from the dead. May the sight of the glories of our transfigured Lord prepare us to contemplate soon the humiliations of His passion.
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 04/10/2009 : 14:31:33
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Third Sunday Of Lent
Today we see The Christ in open conflict with satan. He throws him to the ground, disarms him and expels him from the body of one possessed. As He Himself explains in a parable (Gospel), satan or "Beelzebub" believed himself secure in his empire, like the strong and well-armed man who defends the entrance of his house, but the Son of God, stronger than the fallen angel, came and took from him his unjust conquest, and we become His. Also we should during Lent, which is a time when the struggle against the old man is more intense, "live as children of the light, performing actions good, just and true"
Assuredly we should be the blindest and most unhappy of men if, surrounded as we are by enemies who unceasingly seek to destroy us, and are so superior to us both in power and knowledge, we were seldom or never to think of the existence of these wicked spirits. And yet, such is really the case with innumerable Christians nowadays; for, truths are decayed from among the children of men. (Ps. xi. 2) So common, indeed, is this heedlessness and forgetfulness of truth, which the holy Scriptures put before us in almost every page, that it is no rare thing to meet with persons who ridicule the idea of devils being permitted to be on this earth of ours! They call it a prejudice, a popular superstition of the middle ages! Of course they deny that it is a dogma of faith. When they read the history of the Church or the lives of the saints, they have their own way of explaining whatever is there related on this subject. To hear them talk, one would suppose that they look upon satan as a mere abstract idea to be taken as the personification of evil.
One would scarcely have expected that this species of incredulity could have found its way into an age like this, when sacrilegious consultations of the devil have been, we might almost say, fashionable. Means which were used in the days of paganism have been resorted to for such consultations; and those who employed them seemed to forget, or ignore, that they were committing what God in the old Law punished with death, and what, for many centuries, was considered by all Christian nations as a capital crime.
It is our duty to consider what have been the causes of our past sins, what are the spiritual dangers we have to fear for the future, and what means we should have recourse to for preventing a relapse. …Being possessed by the devil is not only a fact which testifies to God's impenetrable justice; it is one which may produce physical effects upon them that are thus tried or punished. The casting out of the devil restores the use of speech to him that had been possessed. ...We would not merely show that the wicked spirits are sometimes permitted to have power over the body, and would refute, by this passage from the Gospel, the rationalism of certain Christians. Let these learn, then, that the power of our spiritual enemies is an awful reality; and let them take heed not to lay themselves open to their worst attacks, by persisting I the disdainful haughtiness of their reason.
And here we have the origin of all those diabolical practices, which, under certain scientific names, are attempted first in secret, and then are countenanced by being assisted at by well-meaning Christians. Were it not that God and His Church intervene, such practices as these would subvert society. Christians! Remember your baptismal vow; you have renounces satan: take care, then, that by a culpable ignorance you are not dragged into apostasy. It is not a phantom that you renounced at the font; he is a real and formidable being, who, as our Lord tells us, was a murderer from the beginning. (St. John viii. 44)
...During this holy season, the Church is putting within your reach those grand means of victory-fasting, prayer, and almsdeeds. The sweets of peace will soon be yours, and once more you will become God's temple, for both soul and body will have regained their purity. But be not deceived; your enemy is not slain. He is irritated; penance has driven him from you; but he has sworn to return. Therefore, fear a relapse into mortal sin; and in order to nourish within you this wholesome fear, meditate upon the concluding part of our Gospel.
We were sanctified almost as soon as we came into the world; have we been faithful to our Baptism? We, heretofore, were light; how comes it that we are now darkness? The beautiful likeness to our heavenly Father, which was once upon us, is perhaps quite gone! But, thanks to divine mercy, we may recover it. Let us do so by again renouncing satan and his idols. Let our repentance and penance restore within us that light, whose frit consists in all goodness, justice, and truth.
EPISTLE: Ephesians 5: 1-9
Lesson from the Epistle of blessed Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians. Brethren : Be ye followers of God, as most dear children : and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness. But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints: or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose : but rather giving of thanks. For know you this, and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean or covetous person, which is a serving of idols, hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words : for because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. Be ye not therefore partakers with them. For you were heretofore darkness: but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of the light : for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth.
Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL: Luke 11: 14-28
At that time Jesus was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb. And when He had cast out the devil, the dumb spoke, and the multitudes were in admiration at it. But some of them said : "He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils." And others, tempting, asked of Him a sign from Heaven. But He, seeing their thoughts, said to them : "Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation, and house upon house shall fall. And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall this kingdom stand? Because you say that through Beelzebub I cast out devils. Now If I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if I by the finger of God cast out devils : doubtless of the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things are in peace which he possesseth. But if a stronger than he come upon him and overcome him, he will take away all his armor wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils. He that is not with Me is against Me : and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest : and not finding, he saith: I will return into my house whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked then himself, and entering in they dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first." And it came to pass, as He spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to Him: "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck." But He said: "Yes, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it."
Praise be to Christ
COMMENTARY
For the Epistle: We were sanctified almost as soon as we came into the world; have we been faithful to our Baptism? We, heretofore, were light; how comes it that we are now darkness? The beautiful likeness to our heavenly Father, which was once upon us, is perhaps quite gone! But, thanks to divine mercy, we may recover it. Let us do so by again renouncing satan and his idols. Let our repentance and penance restore within us that light, whose frit consists in all goodness, justice, and truth.
For the Gospel: As soon as Jesus had cast out the devil, the man recovered his speech, for the possession had made him dumb. It is an image of what happens to a sinner, who will not, or dare not, confess his sin. If he confessed it, and asked pardon, he would be delivered from the tyranny which now oppresses him. Alas! How many there are who are kept back, by a dumb devil, from making the confession that would save them! The holy season of Lent is advancing; the days of grace are passing away; let us profit by them; and if we ourselves be in the state of grace, let us offer up our earnest prayers for sinners, that they may speak, that is, may accuse themselves in confession and obtain pardon.
Let us also listen, with holy fear, to what our Savior tells us with regard to our invisible enemies. They are so powerful and crafty, that our resistance would be useless, unless we had God on our side, and His holy angels, who watch over us and join us in the great combat. It is to these unclean and hateful spirits of hell that we delivered ourselves when we sinned: we preferred their tyrannical sway to the sweet and light yoke of our compassionate Redeemer. Now we are set free, or are hoping to be so; let us thank our divine Liberator; but let us take care not to readmit our enemies. Our Savior warns us of our danger. They will return to the attack; they will endeavor to force their entrance into our soul, after it has been sanctified by the Lamb of the Passover. If we be watchful and faithful, they will e confounded, and leave us: but If we be tepid and careless if we lose our appreciation of the grace we have received and forget our obligations to Him who has thus saved us, our defeat is inevitable; and as our Lord says, our last state will be worse than the first.
Therefore, let us be boldly and unmistakably with Christ. He that is a soldier of Jesus, should be proud of his title! |
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 04/13/2009 : 15:57:04
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Fourth Sunday Of Lent
WE read in this day’s gospel that, having gone up into a mountain with his disciples, and seeing a multitude of five thousand persons, who followed him because they saw the miracles which he wrought on them that were diseased, the Redeemer said to St. Philip: "Whence shall we huy bread, that these may eat ?" “Lord," answered St. Philip, ”two-hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient that every one may take a little." St. Andrew then said: There is a boy here that has five barley loaves and two fishes; but what are these among so many? But Jesus Christ said: ”Make the men sit down." And he distributed the loaves and fishes among them. The multitude were satisfied: and the fragments of bread which remained filled twelve baskets. ” The Lord wrought this miracle through compassion for the bodily wants of these poor people; but far more tender is his compassion for the necessities of the souls of the poor that is, of sinners who are deprived of the divine grace. This tender compassion of Jesus Christ for sinners shall be the subject of this day’s discourse.
EPISTLE: Galatians 4: 22-31
A reading from the Epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul to the Galatians. Brethren: it is written that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond-woman, and the other by a free-woman. But he who was of the bond-woman was born according to the flesh; but he of the free-woman was by promise. Which things are said by an allegory. For these are the two testaments; the one from Mount Sina, engendering unto bondage, which is Agar: for Sina is a mountain in Arabia, which hath affinity to that Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children: but that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born according to the flesh persecuted him that was after the spirit, so also it is now. But what saith the Scriptures? : Cast out the bond-woman and her son; for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman. So then, brethren, we are not the children of the bond-woman, but of the free; by the freedom wherewith Christ hath made us free.
Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL: John 6: 1-15
At that time, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee which is that of Tiberias; and a great multitude followed Him, because they saw the miracles which He did on them that were diseased. Jesus therefore went up into a mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. Now the pasch, the festival day of the Jews, was near at hand. When Jesus therefore had lifted up His eyes, and seen that a very great multitude cometh to Him, He said to Philip, "Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?" And this He said to try him; for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, Two hundred penny-worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little. One of His disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, saith to Him, There is a boy here that hath five barley loaves and two fishes; but what are these among so many? Then Jesus said: "Make the men sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. The men therefore sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when He had given thanks, He distributed to them that were set down. In like manner also of the fishes, as much as they would. And when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, lest they be lost." They gathered up therefore, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above to them that had eaten. Now those men, when they had seen what a miracle Jesus had done, said, This is of a truth the prophet that is to come into the world. Jesus therefore, when He knew that they would come to take Him by force and make Him king, fled again into the mountain Himself alone.
Praise be to Christ
Reflections on the Epistle
Let us, then, rejoice! We are children, not of Sina, but of Jerusalem. Our mother, the holy Church, is not a bond-woman, but free; and it is unto freedom that she has brought us up. Israel served God in fear; his heart was ever tending to idolatry, and could be kept to duty only by the heavy yoke of chastisement. More happy than he, we serve God through love; our yoke is sweet, and our burden is light! (St. Matt. xi: 30) We are not citizens of the earth; we are but pilgrims passing through it to our true country, the Jerusalem which is above. We leave the earthly Jerusalem to the Jew, who minds only terrestrial things, is disappont4ed with Jesus and is plotting how to crucify Him. We also have too long been groveling in the goods of this world; we have been slaves to sin; and the more the chains of our bondage weighed upon us, the more we talked of our being free. Now is the favorable time; now are the days of salvation; we have obeyed the Church's call, and have entered into the practice and spirit of Lent. Sin seems to us, now, to be the heaviest of yokes; the flesh, a dangerous burden; the world, a merciless tyrant. We begin to breathe the fresh air of holy liberty, and the hope of our speedy deliverance fills us with transports of joy. Let us, with all possible affection, thank our divine Liberator, who delivers us from the bondage of Agar, emancipates us from the law of fear, and making us His new people, opens to us the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, at the price of His Blood.
Reflections on the Gospel
1. Through the bowels of his mercy towards men, who groaned under the slavery of sin and Satan, our most loving Redeemer descended from heaven to earth, to redeem and save them from eternal torments by his own death. Such was the language of St. Zachary, the father of the Baptist, when the Blessed Virgin, who had already become the mother of the Eternal Word, entered his house. ”Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us."(Luke i. 78.)
2. Jesus Christ, the good pastor, who came into the world to obtain salvation for us his sheep, has said: ”I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly." (John x. 10.) Mark the expression, "more abundantly” which signifies that the Son of Man came on earth not only to restore us to the life of grace which we lost, but to give us a better life than that which we forfeited by sin. Yes; for as St. Leo says, the benefits which we have derived from the death of Jesus are greater than the injury which the devil has done us by sin. The same doctrine is taught by the Apostle, who says that, “where sin abounded, grace did more abound." (Rom. v. 20.)
3. But, my Lord, since thou hast resolved to take human flesh, would not a single prayer offered by thee be sufficient for the redemption of all men? What need, then, was there of leading a life of poverty, humiliation, and contempt, for thirty- three years, of suffering a cruel and shameful death on an infamous gibbet, and of shedding all thy blood by dint of torments? I know well, answers Jesus Christ, that one drop of my blood, or a simple prayer, would be sufficient for the salvation of the world; but neither would be sufficient to show the love which I bear to men: and therefore, to be loved by men when they should see me dead on the cross for the love of them, I have resolved to submit to so many torments and to so painful a death. This, he says, is the duty of a good pastor. ”I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep... I lay down my life for my sheep." (John x. 11, 15.)
4. O men, O men, what greater proof of love could the Son of God give us than to lay down his life for us his sheep?” In this we have known the charity of God; because he hath laid down his life for us." (I John iii. 16.) No one, says the Saviour, can show greater love to his friends than to give his life for them. “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John xv. 13.) But thou, O Lord, hast died not only for friends, but for us who were thy enemies by sin. “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." (Rom. v. 10.) Infinite love of our God, exclaims St. Bernard; ”to spare slaves, neither the Father has spared the Son, nor the Son himself." To pardon us, who were rebellious servants, the Father would not pardon the Son, and the Son would not pardon himself, but, by his death, has satisfied the divine justice for the sins which we have committed.
5. When Jesus Christ was near his passion he went one day to Samaria: the Samaritans refused to receive him. Indignant at the insult offered by the Samaritans to their Master, St.James and St. John, turning to Jesus, said: ”Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them ?" (Luke ix. 54.) But Jesus, who was all sweetness, even to those who insulted him, answered: ”You know not of what spirit you are. The Son of Man came not to destroy souls, but to save." He severely rebuked the disciples. What spirit is this, he said, which possesses you? It is not my spirit: mine is the spirit of patience and compassion; for I am come, not to destroy, but to save the souls of men: and you speak of fire, of punishment, and of vengeance. Hence, in another place, he said to his disciples: "Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart." (Matt. xi. 29 ) I do not wish of you to learn of me to chastise, but to be meek, and to bear and pardon injuries.
6. How beautiful has he described the tenderness of his heart towards sinners in Luke xv. 4 - 7. There is more joy in heaven at the conversion of one sinner, than upon ninety-nine just men who preserve their innocence. What sinner, then, can be so hardened as not to go instantly and cast himself at the feet of his Saviour, when he knows the tender love with which Jesus Christ is prepared to embrace him, and carry him on his shoulders, as soon as he repents of his sins? The Lord has also declared his tenderness towards penitent sinners in the parable of the Prodigal Child.
This tenderness of Jesus Christ was also experienced by the sinful woman (according to St. Gregory, Mary Magdalene) who cast herself at the feet of Jesus, and washed them with her tears. (Luke vii. 47 and 50.) It was also felt by the man who was sick for thirty- eight years, and who was infirm, both in body and soul. The Lord cured his malady, and pardoned his sins. We have also a proof of the tender compassion of the Son of God for sinners, in his conduct towards the woman caught in adultery (John viii. 4 and 5)
7. Jesus Christ has come, not to condemn, but to deliver sinners from hell, as soon as they resolve to amend their lives. And when he sees them obstinately bent on their own perdition, he addresses them with tears in the words of Ezechiel: ”Why will you die, O house of Israel?" (xviii. 31). My children, why will you die? Why do you voluntarily rush into hell, when I have come from heaven to deliver you from it by death? He adds: you are already dead to the grace of God. But I will not your death: return to me, and I will restore to you the life which you have lost. "For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: return ye and live" (v. 32). But some sinners, who are immersed in the abyss of sin, may say: Perhaps, if we return to Jesus Christ, he will drive us away. No; for the Redeemer has said: ”And him that cometh to me I will not cast out." (John vi. 37.) No one that comes to me with sorrow for his past sins, however manifold and enormous they may have been, shall be rejected.
8. Behold how, in another place, the Redeemer encourages us to throw ourselves at his feet with a secure hope of consolation and pardon. ”Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you." (Matt. xi. 28.) Come to me, all ye poor sinners, who labour for your own damnation, and groan under the weight of your crimes; come, and I will deliver you from all your troubles. Again, he says, ”Come and accuse me, saith the Lord; if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, they shall be made white as wool." (Isa. i. 18.) Come with sorrow for the offences you committed against me, and if I do not give you pardon, accuse me. As if he said: upbraid me; rebuke me as a liar; for I promise that, though your sins were of scarlet that is, of the most horrid enormity your soul, by my blood, in which I shall wash it, will become white and beautiful as snow.
9. Let us then, sinners, return instantly to Jesus Christ. If we have left him, let us immediately return, before death overtakes us in sin and sends us to hell, where the mercies and graces of the Lord shall, if we do not amend, be so many swords which shall lacerate the heart for all eternity.
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2009 : 09:59:09
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PASSION SUNDAY
With Passion Sunday the Season of Passiontide has begun and today's Mass is full of the thought of the Passion of Jesus and of the infidelity of the Jews, whose place in the Kingdom of God was taken by those who were baptized; that is to say the catechumens and the Christians.
From this point until Holy Saturday the statues and crucifixes are shrouded in violet or purple cloth and holy water fonts are emptied.
EPISTLE: Hebrews ix: 11-15
A reading from the Epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul to the Hebrews. Brethren: Christ being come, a High Priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by His own blood, entered once into the Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Holy Ghost, offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? And therefore He is the Mediator of the New Testament; that by means of His death, for the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former Testament; they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance; in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL: John viii: 46-59
At that time, Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews: "Which of you shall convince Me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God." The Jews therefore answered, and said to Him: Do not we say well, that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: "I have not a devil, but I honor My Father, and you have dishonoured Me. But I seek not My own glory; there is One that seeketh and judgeth. Amen, amen, I say to you, If any man keep My word, he shall not see death for ever." The Jews therefore said: Now we know that Thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and Thou sayest: If any man keep My word, he shall not taste death for ever. Art Thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost Thou make Thyself? Jesus answered: "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing. It is My Father that glorifieth Me, of Whom you say that He is your God. And you have not known Him; but I know Him. And if I shall say that I know Him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know Him, and do keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see My day: he saw it, and was glad." The Jews therefore said to Him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I AM." They took up stones therefore to cast at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple.
Praise be to Christ.
The Synagogue is nigh to a curse. Obstinate in her error, she refuses to see or to hear. She has deliberately perverted her judgment: she has extinguished within herself the light of the holy Spirit. She will go deeper and deeper into evil and at length fall into the abyss. This same lamentable conduct is but too often witnessed nowadays in those sinners, who, by habitual resistance to the light, end by finding their happiness in sin. Neither should it surprise us, that we find in people of our own generation a resemblance to the murderers of our Jesus: the history of His Passion will reveal to us many sad secrets of the human heart and its perverse inclinations. For what happened in Jerusalem, happens also in every sinner's heart. His heart, according to the saying of St. Paul, is a Calvary, where Jesus is crucified. There is the same ingratitude, the same blindness, the same wild madness, with this difference: that the sinner who is enlightened by faith, knows Him whom he crucifies. Whereas the Jews, as the same apostle tells us, knew not the Lord of glory (1 Cor. ii. 8)... let us turn the indignation we feel against the Jews against ourselves and our own sins. Let us weep over the sufferings of our Victim, for our sins caused Him to suffer and die.
The Message of Passiontide
"If today you shall hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts."
The sweet voice of your suffering Jesus now speaks to you, poor sinners! Be not your own enemies by indifference and hardness of heart. The Son of God is about to give you the last and greatest proof of the love that brought Him down from Heaven; His death is nigh at hand: men are preparing the wood for the immolation of the new Isaac: enter into ourselves, and let not your hearts, after being touched with grace, return to their former obduracy; for nothing could be more dangerous. The great anniversaries we are to celebrate have a renovating power for those souls that faithfully correspond with the grace which is offered them; but they increase insensibility in those who let them pass without working their conversion. Today, therefore, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your heart!
...Jesus's very presence irritates His enemies. And it is evident that any little circumstance will suffice to bring the deep and long-nurtured hatred to a head. The kind and gentle manners of Jesus are drawing to Him all hearts that are simple and upright; at the same time, the humble life He leads, and the stern purity of His doctrines, are perpetual sources of vexation and anger, both to the proud Jew that looks forward to the Messias being a mighty conqueror, and to the pharisees, who corrupts the Law of God, that he may make it the instrument of his own base passions. Still, Jesus goes on working miracles; His discourses are more than ever energetic; His prophecies foretell the falloff Jerusalem, and such a destruction of its famous temple, that not a stone is to be left on a stone. The doctors of the Law should, at least, reflect upon what they hear; they should examine these wonderful works, which render such strong testimony in favor of the Son of David. And they should consult those divine prophecies which, up to the present time, have been so literally fulfilled in His person. Alas! They themselves are about to carry them out to the very last iota. There is not a single outrage or suffering foretold by David and Isaias, as having to be put upon the Messias, which these blind men are not scheming to verify.
The Gospel shows us indeed the growing hatred of the Sanhedrin. Abraham believed the divine promises which announced Christ to him, and in limbo his soul, which eternal death could not reach, rejoiced to see them realized. And the Jews, who ought to have recognized in Jesus the Son of God, greater than Abraham and the Prophets because He is eternal, disregarded the meaning of His words. They insulted the Messiah, Whom they declared to be possessed by a devil, a blasphemer whom they would stone to death.
The Jews threaten to stone the Son of God as a blasphemer" but His hour is not yet come. He is obliged to flee and hide Himself. It is to express this deep humiliation, that the Church veils the cross. A God hiding Himself, that He may evade the anger of men - what a mystery! Is it weakness? Is it, that He fears death? No; we shall soon see Him going out to meet His enemies: but at present He hides Himself from them, because all that had been prophesied regarding Him has not been fulfilled. Besides, His death is not to be by stoning: He is to die upon a cross, the tree of malediction which, from that time forward, is to be the tree of life. Let us humble ourselves, as we see the Creator of Heaven and Earth thus obliged to hide Himself from men, who are bent on His destruction! Let us go back, in thought, to the sad day of the first sin, when Adam and Eve hid themselves because a guilty conscience told them they were naked. Jesus has come to assure us of our being pardoned, and lo! He hides Himself, not because He is naked - He that is to the saints the barb of holiness and immortality - but because He made Himself weak, that He might make us strong. Our first parents sought to hide themselves from the sight of God; Jesus hides Himself from the eye of men. But it will not be thus for ever. The day will come when sinners, from whose anger He now flees, will pray to the mountains to fall on them and shield them from His gaze; but their prayer will not be granted, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven, with much power and majesty. (St. Matt. xxiv. 30)
Reflections on the Readings for Passion Sunday
It is by blood alone that man is to be redeemed. He has offended God. This God cannot be appeased by anything short of the extermination of His rebellious creature, who, by shedding his blood, will give an earnest of his repentance and his entire submission to the Creator against whom he dared to rebel. Otherwise, the justice of God must be satisfied by the sinner's suffering eternal punishment. This truth was understood by all the people of the ancient world, and all confessed it by shedding the blood of victims, as in the sacrifices of Abel at the very commencement of the world, in the hectombs of Greece, in the countless immolations whereby Solomon dedicated the temple. And yet God thus speaks to His people: 'Hear, O My people, and I will speak: O Israel, and I will testify to thee: I am God thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, and thy burnt-offerings are always in my sight. I will not take calves out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy flocks. I need them not: for all the beasts of the woods are Mine. If I should be hungry I would not tell thee; for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof. Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks? Or shall I drink the blood of goats?'(Ps 49, 7-13) …For this there was needed the Blood of a God; such was the Blood of Jesus, and He has come that He may shed it for our redemption.
In Him is fulfilled the most sacred of the figures of the old Law. The Son of God, the true High Priest, is now about to enter heaven, and we are to follow Him thither. But unto this, He must have an offering of blood, and that Blood can be none other than His own. We are going to assist at this His compliance with the divine ordinance. Let us open our hearts, that this precious Blood may, as the apostle says in today's Epistle, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God
In obedience to the decrees of His heavenly Father, and out of love for men, He will deliver Himself into the hands of His enemies, and they will put Him to death. But He will rise victorious from the tomb, He will ascend into Heaven, He will be throned on the right hand of His Father. His enemies, on the contrary, after having vented all their rage will live on without remorse until the terrible day come for their chastisement. That day is not far off, for observe the severity wherewith our Lord speaks to them: 'You hear not the words of God, because you are not of God.' Yet there was a time when they were of God, for the Lord gives His grace to all men. But they have rendered this grace useless; they are now in darkness, and the light they have rejected will not return.
"You say that My Father is your God, and you have not known Him; but I know Him." Their obstinacy in refusing to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias, has led these men to ignore that very God, whom they boast of honoring; for if they knew the Father, they would not reject His Son. Moses, and the Psalms, and the Prophets, are all a dead letter to them; these sacred Books are soon to pass into the hands of the Gentiles, who will both read and understand them. If, continues Jesus, I should say that I know Him not, I should be like to you, a liar." This strong language is that of the angry Judge who is to come down, at the last day, to destroy sinners. Jerusalem has not known the time of her visitation: the Son of God has visited her, He is with her, and she dares to say to Him: Thou has a devil! She says to the eternal Word, who proves Himself to be God by the most astonishing miracles, that Abraham and the prophets are greater than He! Strange blindness, that comes from pride and hardness of heart! The feast of the Pasch is at hand. These men are going to eat, and with much parade of religion, the flesh of the figurative lamb. They know full well that this lamb is a symbol or a figure, which is to have its fulfillment. The true Lamb is to be sacrificed by their hands, and they will not know Him. He will shed His Blood for them, and it will not save them. How this reminds us of those sinners, for whom this Easter promises to be as fruitless as those of the past years! Let us redouble our prayers for them, and beseech Our Lord to soften their hearts, lest trampling the Blood of Jesus under their feet, they should have it to cry vengeance against them before the throne of the heavenly Father.
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2009 : 06:42:29
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PALM SUNDAY, April 5, 2009
We have reached the "apogee" - the very vertex of the penitential season of Lent when the humanity of Jesus Christ takes its toll, coming to the surface in sustaining the most brutal beating one could encounter; thus proving His unyielding, everlasting Love for us by His undertaking for us the burden of our sins and, only through His merits, making it possible that we might someday be in Paradise with Him. It begins on Palm Sunday in the streets of Jerusalem in celebratory anticipation and will climax on those very same streets less than a week later when their "Hero" is no longer fanned with palmfrons and hosannas, but spat upon and held in contempt for He failed to provide the instant gratification the people sought for they saw not with the light of faith, but of futility and fascination in someone they thought could make their lives easier, rid the Romans and call off the letter-of-the-law Sanhedrin. How many that day had regrets, saying: "if only we had known..."? We cannot make such excuses or regrets, for truly we know He was [is] the Son of God!
Palm Sunday would be in any case a great and holy day, as it commemorates the last triumph of Our Lord Jesus Christ on earth and opens the Holy Week. On this day, the Church celebrates the triumphant entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem, when the multitude, going before and following after Him, cut off branches from the trees and strewed in His way, shouting: "Hosanna [glory and praise] to the Son of David. Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord." It is in commemoration of this triumph that palms are blessed and borne in solemn procession.
The principal ceremonies of the day are the blessing of the palms, the procession, and the Mass with the reading of the Passion. The blessing of the palms follows a ritual similar to that of the Mass - having an Epistle and Gospel. The Epistle refers to the murmuring of the Israelites in the desert, and their sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt. The Gospel describes the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The prayers ask God to "bless the branches of palm...that whoever receives them may find protection of soul and body...that into whatever place they shall be brought, the inhabitants may obtain His blessing; that the devout faithful may understand the mystical meaning of the ceremony, that is, that the palms represent the triumph over the prince of death ...and therefore, the issue thereof declares both the greatness of the victory, and the riches of God's mercy."
EPISTLE: Exodus 15. 27; 16. 1-7
In those days the children of Israel came into Elim, where there were twelve fountains of water, and seventy palm trees; and they encamped by the waters. And they set forward from Elim, and all the multitude of the children of Israel came into the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai: the fifteenth day of the second month after they came out of the land of Egypt. And all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them: Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat over the fleshpots and ate bread to the full. Why have you brought us into this desert, that you might destroy all the multitude with famine? And the Lord said to Moses: Behold I will rain bread from Heaven for you; let the people go forth and gather what is sufficient for every day; that I may prove them whether they will walk in My law or not. But the sixth day let them provide for to bring in; and let it be double to that they were wont to gather every day. And Moses and Aaron said to the children of Israel: In the evening you shall know that the Lord hath brought you forth out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you shall see the glory.
Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL: Matthew 21: 1-9
At that time, when Jesus drew nigh to Jerusalem, and was come to Bethphage, unto Mount Olivet, then He sent two disciples, saying to them: "Go ye into the village that is over against you, and immediately you shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them and bring them to Me; and if any man shall say anything to you, say ye that the Lord hath need of them; and forthwith he will let them go." Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: Tell ye the daughter of Sion: Behold thy King cometh to thee meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke. And the disciples going did as Jesus commanded them. And they brought the ass and the colt, and laid their garments upon them, and made Him sit thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way, and others cut boughs from the trees, and strewed them in the way, and the multitudes that went before and that followed cried, saying: Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.
Praise be to Christ.
Commentary:
Early in the morning of this Day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus at Bethania. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive today in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosannas to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome's emperor, and of the high priests and pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.
The prophet Zachary had foretold this triumph which the Son of Man was to receive a few days before His Passion, and which had been prepared for Him from all eternity. 'Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy King will come to thee; the Just and the Savior. He is poor and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.'(Zach. ix. 9). Jesus, knowing that the hour has come for the fulfillment of this prophecy, singles out two from the rest of His disciples, and bids them lead to Him as ass and her colt, which they would find not far off. He has reached Bethphage, on Mount Olivet. The two disciples lose no time in executing the order given them by their divine Master; and the ass and the colt are soon brought to the place where He stands.
The holy fathers have explained to us the mystery of these two animals. The ass represents the Jewish people, which had been long under the yoke of the Law. The colt, upon which, as the evangelist says, no man yet hath sat (St. Mark. xi. 2), is a figure of the Gentile world, which no one had ever yet brought into subjection. The future of these two peoples is to be decided a FEW DAYS hence the Jews will be rejected for having refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias. The Gentiles will take their place, to be adopted as God's people, and become docile and faithful.
The disciples spread their garments upon the colt, and our Savior, that the prophetic figure might be fulfilled, sits upon him (St. Luke xix. 35) and advances towards Jerusalem. As soon as it is known that Jesus is near the city, the holy Spirit works in the hearts of those Jews, who have come from all parts to celebrate the feast of the Passover. They go out to meet our Lord, holding palm branches in their hands, and loudly proclaiming Him to be King
(St. Luke xix. 38). They that have accompanied Jesus from Bethania, join the enthusiastic crowd. Whilst some spread their garments on the way, others cut down boughs from the palm trees, and strew them along the road. Hosanna is the triumphant cry, proclaiming to the whole city that Jesus, the Son of David, has made His entrance as her King.
Thus did God, in His power over men's hearts, procure a triumph for His Son, and in the very city which, a few days later, was to clamor for His Blood This day was one of glory to our Jesus, and the holy Church would have us renew, each year, the memory of this triumph of the Man-God. Shortly after the birth of our Emmanuel, we saw the Magi coming from the extreme east, and looking in Jerusalem for the King of the Jews, to whom they intended offering their gifts and their adorations. But it is Jerusalem herself that now goes forth to meet this King. Each of these events is an acknowledgment of the kingship of Jesus; the first, from the Gentiles; the second homage, before He suffered His Passion. The inscription to be put upon the cross, by Pilate's order, will express the kingly character of the Crucified Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Pilate, the Roman governor, the pagan, the base coward, has been unwittingly the fulfiller of a prophecy; and when the enemies of Jesus insist on the inscription being altered, Pilate will not deign to give them any answer but this: 'What I have written, I have written.' Today, it is the Jews themselves that proclaim Jesus to be their King; they will soon be dispersed, in punishment for their revolt against the Son of David; but Jesus is King, and will be so for ever. Thus were literally verified the words spoken by the Archangel to Mary, when he announced to her the glories of the Child that was to be born of her. 'The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David, His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever.' (St. Luke i 32) Jesus begins His reign upon the earth this very day; and though the first Israel is soon to disclaim His rule, a new Israel, formed from the faithful few of the old, shall rise up in every nation of the earth, and become the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom such as no mere earthly monarch ever coveted in his wildest fancies of ambition.
Let us now go over in our minds the other events which happened to our divine Lord on this day of His solemn entry into Jerusalem. St. Luke tells us that it was on His approach to the city, that Jesus wept over it, and spoke these touching words: 'If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace! But now they are hidden from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, and thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee; and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone; because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation.'(St. Luke xix. 42-44)
In the Gospels we read how Jesus wept over the tomb of Lazarus. Today He shed tears over Jerusalem. At Bethania His weeping was caused by the sight of bodily death, the consequence and punishment of sin; but this death is not irremediable: Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and he that believieth in Him shall life. (St. John xi. 25) Whereas, the state of the unfaithful Jerusalem is a figure of the death of the soul, and from this there is no resurrection, unless the soul, while time is given to her, return to the Author of life. Hence it is, that the tears shed by Jesus over Jerusalem are so bitter. Amidst the acclamations which greet His entry into the city of David, His heart is sad; for He sees that many of her inhabitants will not profit of the time of her visitation. Let us console the Heart of our Jesus, and be to Him a faithful Jerusalem.
Sacred historians tells us that Jesus, immediately upon His entrance into the city, went to the temple, and cast out all them that sold and bought there (St. Matthew xxi 12). This was the second time that He had shown His authority in His Father's house and no one had dared to resist Him. The chief priests and pharisees found fault with Him, and accused Him to His face of causing confusion by His entry into the city; but our Lord confounded them by the reply He made. It is thus that in after ages, when it has pleased God to glorify His Son and the Church of His Son, the enemies of both have given vent to their rage; they protested against the triumph, but they could not stop it. But when God, in the unsearchable ways of His wisdom, allowed persecution and trial to follow these periods of triumph, then did these bitter enemies redouble their efforts to induce the very people that had cried Hosanna to the Son of David, to clamor for His being delivered up and crucified. They succeeded in fomenting persecution, but not in destroying the kingdom of Christ and His Church. The kingdom seemed, at times, to be interrupted in its progress; but the time for another triumph came. Thus will it be to the end; and then, after all these changes from glory to humiliation, and from humiliation to glory, the kingdom of Jesus and of His bride will gain the last and eternal triumph over this world, which would not know the time of its visitation.
We learn, in Matt. xxi. 17, that our Savior spent the remainder of this day at Bethania. His blessed Mother and the house of Lazarus were comforted by His return. There was not a single offer of hospitality made to Him in Jerusalem, at least there is mention in the Gospel of any such offer. We cannot help making the reflection, as we meditate upon this event of our Lord's life: -- an enthusiastic reception is given to Him in the morning, He is proclaimed by the people as their King. But when the evening of that day comes on, there is not one of all those thousands to offer Him food or lodging.
EPISTLE: Philippians 2: 5-11
A reading from the Epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul to the Philippians. Brethren: yours is to be the same mind which Christ Jesus showed. His nature is, from the first, divine, and yet He did not see, in the rank of Godhead, a prize to be coveted; He dispossessed Himself, and took the nature of a slave, fashioned in the likeness of men, and presenting Himself to us in human form; and then He lowered His own dignity, accepted an obedience which brought Him to death, death on a cross. That is why God has raised Him to such a height, given Him that name which is greater than any other name; [here all kneel] So that everything in heaven and on earth and under the earth must bend the knee before the name of Jesus, and every tongue must confess Jesus Christ as the Lord, dwelling in the glory of God the Father.
Thanks be to God.
In obedience to the wishes of the Church, we have knelt down at those words of the apostle, where he says that every knee should bow at the holy name of Jesus. If there be one time of the year rather than another, when the Son of God has a right to our fervent adorations, it is this week, when we see Him insulted in His Passion. Not only should His sufferings excite us to tender compassion; we should also keenly resent the insults that are heaped upon our Jesus, the God of infinite majesty. Let us strive, by our humble homage, to make Him amends for the indignities He suffered in atonement for our pride. Let us united with the holy angels, who, witnessing what He has gone through for the love of man, prostrate themselves, in profoundest adoration, at the sight of His humiliations.
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2009 : 16:03:14
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EASTER SUNDAY April 12, 2009
Throughout the paschal week, the Liturgy is entirely absorbed by two great thoughts, that of the Resurrection of Our Lord and that of the Baptism of the neophytes. These are, as it were, two mysteries which mutually complete and explain each other. Each is a symbol of the other; the one is the prototype, the other the antitype; but neither can be understood if considered by itself, for the regeneration of souls to the life of grace through the sacrament of Baptism, after a spiritual manner which yet is full of reality, is a new Resurrection of Christ in His Mystical Body.
Historical Note
In many modern languages the name given to this Feast derives from a Hebraic word Pasch or Passover; which means "passage" through the Red Seal: Pascha in Latin, Paques in French, Pasg in Welsh, Pasen in Dutch or Flemish. The English word Easter is derived from Eostre, the name of a pagan Saxon goddess, and a spring festival in her honor was Christianized so that the word became the English equivalent of the Pasch.
Doctrinal Note for Easter
Every year, in her liturgy, the Church renews the memory of the events of our Redeemers life, and calls us to take our part in them. At Easter, she keeps the anniversary of the triumph of Christ, the Vanquisher of death. This is the central event of the whole of history., towards which all things in our Lord's life converge. Our Redeemer's Resurrection is the most glorious event in His whole earthly life, the most striking proof of His divinity, and the foundation of our whole Faith. For, if Christ be not risen, then our faith is in vain (1 Cor. xv, 14).
The Pasch of Christ, finally sealed the victory which He had gained over the devil, the world and the flesh (Colossians ii, 5). It was for this that the word became incarnate, suffered and died. By legal title, so to speak, we rose with Him, but actually the power of this holy mystery is at work in the faithful through their whole life and more especially at Easter, to make them pass from sin to grace and later on from grace to glory (1 Cor. xv, 57; Colossians iii, 1, 2). The Roman Martyrology proclaims that "the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh is the Feats of Feasts and our Pasch." This formula is the fitting counterpart of that in which, at Christmas, the birth of our Lord is announced, for the Christmas cycle, although first in order of time is secondary to the Easter cycle in order of thought. For if God became man (Christmas) it was to make us gods (Easter).
Further, Easter Week was the Feast of the Baptized, when the Church concentrated all her maternal care upon those whom St. Paul calls "Her new-born babes,", strengthened them by giving them for seven days, together with the Holy Eucharist, instructions bearing upon the resurrection, the model of our supernatural life. "If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above...not the things that are upon the earth. Mortify... your members which are upon the earth;... stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds and putting on the new." (Colossians iii, 1-9). St Augustine comments: "When you put off the white garment of the baptismal ceremony, keeps its whiteness always in your heart.
Paschaltide, beginning on Holy Saturday and ending on the Saturday after Pentecost, has the character of a time of renewal. It corresponds to the forty days after the Resurrection during which He build up the one and only true Church, which is Catholic. Paschaltide reminds us more especially of the infant Church herself, and forms one single feast day in which are celebrated the mysteries of our Lord's Resurrection and Ascension, and the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Church.
On this great Feast of Easter, the Church never separates Jesus and Mary, and in one and the same triumph, honors the Mother and the Son. For, it is fitting that to her, before any other, the joys of the Resurrection should be announced, to her who more intimately than any other shared in the Passion of Jesus. But before all else, the Risen Christ offers homage of His gratitude to His Father in Heaven. In her turn the Church gives thanks to God in as much as by victory of His Son, He has reopened the way to Heaven, and implores Him to assist us that we may attain this, our final end. For this, St. Paul tells us, just the Jews eat the Paschal Lamb with unleavened bread, so we must feast on the Lamb of God, with the unleavened bread of sincerity, and truth, that is free from the leaven of sin.
EPISTLE: 1 Corinthians 5: 7-8
Lesson the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians. Brethren, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened: for Christ our Pasch is sacrificed, Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL: Mark 16: 1-7
At that time, Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came to the sepulcher, the sun being now risen. And they said one to another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And looking back, they saw the stone rolled back. For it was very great. And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe, and they were astonished. Who saith to them. Be not affrighted; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: He is risen. He is not here behold the place where they laid Him, But go, tell His disciples, and Peter, that He goeth before you into Galilee there you shall see Him, as He told you.
Praise be to Christ
Commentary
The action of the holy women, says St Gregory, calls our attention to something which out to be practiced in the Holy Church. We also shall truly come with precious perfumes to the Lord's tomb if, fragrant with the odor of virtues, we seek Him bearing the recommendation of good works. The angel appeared clothed in a white robe because he had come to be the herald of the joy of our great feast and his. Shall we call it ours or his? Let us say rather, this celebration is his and ours.
For if the resurrection of our Redeemer has been our happiness, in as much it has restored us to immortality, it has also brought joy to the angels, since it completes their number by calling us back to heaven. On this feast, the joy of which is common to him and to us, the angel appeared in white garments for our Lord's resurrection, reopening to us the gate of heaven, and repairing the loss sustained by the heavenly fatherland. |
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SERMONS FOR ALL SUNDAYS OF THE YEAR
