Dom Prosper Guéranger:
The divine Leader of God’s people is their salvation and that in all their distress. Did we not last Sunday see Him prove Himself as such, and in a very telling way, by curing both body and soul of the poor paralytic who was a figure of the whole human race?
Epistle – Ephesians iv. 23–28
Brothers, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth. Wherefore putting away lying, speak the truth every man with his neighbour; for we are members one of another. Be angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger. Give not place to the devil. He that stole, let him now steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffers need.
Thanks be to God.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
The Epistle to the Ephesians, which was interrupted last Sunday, in the manner we then described, is continued today by the Church. The Apostle has already laid down the dogmatical principles of true holiness. He now deduces the moral consequences of those principles.
Let us call to mind how the holiness, which is in God, is His very Truth — Truth living and harmonious which is no other than the admirable concert of the Three divine Persons united in love. We have seen that holiness, as far as it exists in us men, is also Union by infinite love with the eternal and living Truth. The Word took a Body to Himself in order to manifest, in the Flesh this sanctifying and perfect Truth (John i. 14) of which He is the substantial expression (Hebrews i. 3) of His Humanity, sanctified directly by the plenitude of the divine life and truth which dwell within Him (Colossians ii. 3, 9, 10) became the model, as well as the means, the way, of all holiness to every creature (John xiv. 6). It was not sin alone, but it was moreover the finite nature of man, that kept him at a distance from the divine life (Ephesians iv. 18), but he finds, in Christ Jesus, just as they are in God, the two elements of that life: truth and love. In Jesus, as the complement of His Incarnation, Wisdom aspires at uniting with Herself all the members also of that human race, of which He is the Head (Ephesians i. 10) and the First-Born (Colossians i. 15‒20) by Him, the Holy Ghost, whose sacred fount He is (John iv. 14; vii. 37, 39), pours Himself out upon man by which to adapt him to his sublime vocation, and consummate, in infinite love (which is Himself) that union of every creature with the divine Word. Thus it is that we verily partake of that life of God whose existence and holiness are the knowledge and love of His own Word. Thus it is that we are sanctified in Truth (John xvii. 17) by the participation of that very holiness with which God is holy by nature.
But although the Son of Man, being God, participates for us His brethren in the life of union in the Truth which constitutes the holiness of the blessed Trinity, He communicates that Life, that Truth, that deifying Union, to none save but to those who are truly become His members and who, in Him, reproduce between one another, by the operation of the Spirit of Truth (John xv. 26) and love, that unity of which that sanctifying Spirit is the almighty bond in the Godhead. “May they all be one, as you, Father, in me, and I in you,” said this Jesus of ours, to His Eternal Father: “that they also may be one in us. I have given to them the glory, that is to say, the holiness which you have given to me, that they may be one as we, also, are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be consummated (that is, be made perfect) in unity” (John xvii. 21‒23). Here we have, and formulised by our Lord Himself, the simple but fruitful axiom — the foundation — of Christian dogma and morals. By that sublime prayer He explained what He had previously been saying: “I sanctify myself for them that they, also, may be sanctified in Truth” (John xvii. 19).
Let us now understand the moral doctrine given us by Saint Paul in today’s Epistle, and what it is he means by that justice, and that holiness of truth, which is that of Christ (Romans viii. 14) of the new man whom every one must put on, who aspires to the possession of the riches spoken of in the passages already read to us from this magnificent Epistle. Let us re-read the Epistle for the 17th Sunday and we will find that all the rules of Christian asceticism, as well as of the mystic life, are to Saint Paul’s mind, summed up in those words: “Be careful to keep unity!” (Ephesians iv. 3). It is the principle he lays down for all, both beginners and the perfect. It is the crowning of the sublimest vocations in the order of grace, as well as the foundation and reason of all God’s commandments: so truly so, indeed, that if we be commanded to abstain from lying and speak the truth to them that live with us, the motive for it all is because we are members one of another.
There is a holy anger of which the Psalmist speaks (Psalm iv. 5) and which is the outcome, on certain occasions, of zeal for the divine law and charity. But the movement of irritation excited in the soul must, even then, be speedily calmed down. To foster it would be a giving place to the devil. That is, it would be the giving him an opportunity for weakening, or even destroying, within us, by bitterness and hatred, the structure of holy unity. Before our conversion, our neighbour, as well as God, was grieved by our sins. We cared little or nothing for injustice, provided it was not noticed. Egotism was our law, and it was proof enough of the reign of Satan over our souls. Now that the spirit of holiness has expelled the unworthy usurper, the strongest evidence of His being our rightful master is that not only the rights of others are sacred in our estimation, but that our toil and our labours are all full of the idea of how to make them serviceable to our neighbour. In a word, as the Apostle continues a little further on, we walk in love because, as most clear children, we are followers of God (Ephesians v. 1, 2).
It is by this means alone, says Saint Basil, that the Church manifests to this Earth of ours the many and great benefits bestowed on the world by the Incarnation. The Christian family which until then was split up into a thousand separate fragments is now made one, one in itself, and one in God. It is the repetition of what our Lord did by assuming Flesh and making it one with Himself.
Gospel – Matthew xxii. 1–14
Jesus answering, spoke again in parables to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage; and they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell them that were invited, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my beeves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come to the marriage. But they neglected, and went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands on his servants, and having treated them contumeliously, put them to death. But when the king had heard of it, he was angry, and sending his armies he destroyed those murderers and burnt their city. Then he said to his servants: The marriage indeed is ready; but they that were invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the highways and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage. And his servants going forth into the ways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good: and the marriage was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests: and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he said to him: Friend, how did you come here not having on a wedding garment? But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen”.
Praise to
you, O Christ.
