1 JUNE – SATURDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Man has been cast forth from Eden, and is gone into the dreary land of his exile. He has nothing left him of the Tree of Life but the recollection that it was once his. It remains in the happy land where it was first planted. How could it go after the sinner man now that he is banished into the vale of tears?

No, it remains in Paradise, far from the abode of suffering. And out of mortals’ sight it continues in all its loveliness, bearing testimony to the primitive intentions of God, which were peace, innocence and love. The day will come when we will see it again, for it is to be one of the charms of the new Earth into which our Lord will lead His chosen people on the day of the great Pasch, and the restoration of all things (Apocalypse xxii. 2) Happy day, after which, as the Apostle tells us, every creature longs, bowed down as it now is, and made subject, by reason of a fault which was not its own, to the inconstancy of ceaseless change. Man, who, against the creature’s will, subjected it to the servitude of corruption, that same man keeps up within it the hope that the time of deliverance being come, it, too, will partake, in its own way, of the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans viii. 19-22). The glory of the new Paradise will be greater than that of the one of old, for it is not under the veil of symbols or in a passing way that the deifying union is to be fulfilled, but divine Wisdom will give Himself, and forever, and without veil, to man, and in an eternal embrace. And yet, this union whose permanent enjoyment is to make the eternal bliss of heaven is to be contracted even now, and on this very Earth of ours: for it is the economy of the divine plan that in all things, the future life should have its roots in the present one, and should be but the revelation, in the light of glory, of the ineffable realities formed here by grace. What, then, after the Fall, will be the conditions of the alliance from which eternal Wisdom has not been turned by the sin committed by His creature Man?

O the depth of the riches of this Wisdom of God! (Romans xi. 33). His love is strong as death (Canticles viii. 6), and even after man’s disloyalty will be infinitely admirable in its delicate ways of gaining its object. There is to be nothing unbecoming in the alliance He is bent on! He will admit no compromise with the depravity which has befallen our now sinful race! His mercy is infinite and, through that, He has pardoned the offence the moment the offender expressed his sorrow. But the pardon is not one which was to mean no compensation, no expiation, on man’s side. That would have ill-suited the dignity of such a Spouse as He. And since sinful man cannot offer an adequate expiation, He, Wisdom, undertakes to pay the culprit’s whole debt and give Him back the holiness he has forfeited. This done, Ge will take our human nature and espouse her to Himself as His much loved Bride. “I will espouse you to me, injustice and judgement,” says this God to man, by His prophet Osee (Osee ii. 19). And He adds: “I will espouse you to me in faith” (Osee ii. 20).

For, just as the entrance of divine Wisdom into this world, which He comes to save from pride by humility, is to be without exterior parade or glory, so, likewise, the divine union is to be accomplished in the mystery of the sacred species of the nuptial banquet, and these species will offer nothing to view but the appearance of bread and wine, such as one could find on any table. But Faith will see through that veil and the unspeakable dignity conferred on the children of men by this heavenly food will reflect its brightness on the whole creation. The whole world of creatures, each in its own way, was in expectation of this marvellous manifestation which was to be made on the sons of God (Romans viii. 19) by the union to be contracted between Wisdom and Man. The Prophet thus speaks of this universal expectation: “And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, says the Lord, I will hear the heavens; and they will hear the earth; and the earth will hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and these will hear Jezrahel” (Osee ii. 21-22). Jezrahel means “the seed, or race, of God.” God will give to man, through corn and wine, the substance to be offered in the mysteries, and through oil, the priesthood, which is to transform them into the marriage-dowry, in the very action of the Sacrifice. It is to be by the Sacrifice, and by Blood that this alliance of justice and love is to be contracted.

We read in Scripture that Moses was one day traversing the desert. He had on him a legal transgression. Tthe Angel of the Lord met him and was about to slay him, when Sephora, the wife of this future leader of Israel, averted the divine vengeance by the rough and speedy circumcision of her son Eliezer: then marking with his blood the feet of the guilty one, she said to him: “A Spouse of blood are you to me” (Exodus iv. 24-26).Thus, and with far greater truth, could divine Wisdom say to the human race, for He is not to save, He is not to be united with man, except by the Blood of this Son of Man, who is one in person with that same Wisdom.

Nay, far from lessening, this very sight of man’s misery has increased the ardour of his love. Later on this Man-God will say: “I have a baptism, with which I am to be baptised: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished!” (Luke xii. 50). It was the same from the very first: no sooner has expiation been shown as the royal way by which humanity is to be restored to Him and again made worthy of Him by the shedding of divine Blood — Wisdom has ever had that thought before Him. He is impatient for the great immolation of Calvary, and until its time is come He will suggest to His people rites and sacrifices figurative of that one Sacrifice, and of the banquet of the adorable Victim, the Marriage-Feast.

His garden, the place of his delight, is no longer Paradise. It is this parched Earth of ours where man has now, more than ever, need of being loved of God. “You Cherubim, whom God has stationed to guard the Tree of Life, 'tis well that sinful man be kept from approaching it; But the flaming sword you hold in your hands will not prevent divine Wisdom from leaving Paradise and joining our human race here in its banishment. He was not only the Tree, but He is, likewise, the River of Life.” Speaking of Himself, He says in the Book of Ecclesiasticus: “like a brook out of a river of a mighty water, as though I were but a mere channel of a river, I came out of Paradise. I said: ‘I will water my garden of plants, and I will water abundantly the fruits of my meadow.’” “And behold, my brook became a great river, and my river became like a sea; for I make doctrine to shine forth to all, as the morning light, and I will declare it afar off, yes, even to the most distant ages. I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the Earth, and will visit all that sleep, and will enlighten all that hope in the Lord” (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 41-45).

This living Light, which from early morning enlightens the whole Earth with divine Wisdom, is the varied teaching of prophecies and figures which were given by God through the course of ages and, from the very moment of man’s creation, put the shadow of the Messiah on the whole universe. By means of this manifold teaching, Wisdom conveys Himself through nations into holy souls (Wisdom vii. 27), rouses man up, when discouragement makes him slumber (Psalms cxviii. 28), cherishes his hopes, and bids him hope, by looking at the future. Those bloody sacrifices which were prescribed immediately after man’s departure from Eden as the ritual expression of his early worship of God will be offered up by all after generations and, even when idolatry will have led mankind into the abyss of every crime, those sacrifices will raise up their voice and keep up the prophecy which they are intended to proclaim — the prophecy of a Victim who will be one of infinite worth. The stream of primitive traditions will, as it flows through time and space, get impregnated with foreign elements, and transmit many worthless or even dangerous material. Still, it is through the rite of Sacrifice, observed as it is by the whole world, that the desire and expectation of Christ will be maintained among all nations (Genesis xlix. 10) Satan, that old serpent thief, may succeed in inducing men to build altars to himself, and on those altars offer him sacrifice which is due to God alone: but he cannot stifle the voice of truth which accompanies every sacrifice, the voice which teaches that an innocent and pure victim may be substituted in place of guilty man and work his expiation. This will arouse the notion of the promised Mediator in many a soul that had got bewildered amid the orgies of this satanic worship. And here again the very sight of the serpent was made to be the cure of them he had stung, and became the sign and ensign of the son of Jesse (Numbers xxi. 6-9; Isaias xi. 10). O root of Jesse! Root of the Wisdom of the Most High! Who is there that can understand the depth of His counsels, or penetrate the devices of His immense love? (Ecclesiasticus i. 6) Verily you are more beautiful than any light of day, for that light yields when night comes on, whereas you, Wisdom, are overcome by no evil, be it as black as sin! (Wisdom vii. 29, 30).

All those ancient Sacrifices were powerless to produce grace. Their very multiplicity proved their inability to do so (Hebrews x. 1-4), but what they could and did effect was the keeping alive in mankind the remembrance of the Fall, and the expectation of a Redeemer. They were, likewise, the basis of those supernatural acts which are requisite for man’s justification and salvation. But, besides their representing the redemptive element, which the Fall of man has introduced into the plan of God, these bloody Sacrifices express also the union of that God with His creature, which was the primary and chief object of creation. That union was to be effected in the banquet prepared by Wisdom, the Eucharistic banquet, in which He, Wisdom, the Son of God, was to be received by man, and thus united with him. Yes, this sublime mystery was also expressed by those figurative Sacrifices in which the people partook of the victims offered: for in the Eucharist the Victim is Man-God, offered to God, and eaten of by man. The Deity is appeased by the Blood of the divine Lamb, and mankind is restored, because nourished by His Flesh, which thus feeds him to a new and a divine life.

Such was the general law observed by all nations when offering Sacrifice: the portion intended for God was consumed by fire, and this was a transmitting it to Heaven. But another portion of the same victim was taken and eaten by the people: and all this signified that there was communion between Heaven and Earth, and that the receivers were all made one because they all partook of the same sacred food. How admirably are thus grouped together all the mysteries of God’s goodness towards his creature man! And what a prophecy this was! It was unceasing, for it was proclaimed each time a sacrifice was offered up, and there were thousands every day. It was in these that the divine Lamb, whom they foretold, was slain from the very beginning of the world (Apocalypse xiii. 8). His Blood, in all those early ages, was applied, through hope and faith, on the souls of men, and cleansed them from their sins. And the mysterious ritual with its inspired code of prescriptions was keeping man on the alert, and preparing him for the banquet of the Nuptials of the Lamb (Apocalypse xix. 7-9). Then, let Wisdom extol His own triumph! It is He that made that in the heavens there should rise a light which never fails, and covers the whole earth as with a cloud. He alone has compassed the circuit of heaven, has penetrated into the bottom of the deep, has traversed the waves of the sea, and has stood in all the earth, and in every people, as the King of all, holding the chief rule, and vanquishing, strongly and sweetly, the hearts of all, both high and low (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 6-11).

Meanwhile, the time of banishment is running on. The long period of expectation is more than half over. The nearer the realisation of the promised Alliance comes, the more ardent are the longings of chosen souls. As to our Jesus Himself, that is, Wisdom, He seems to desire a preparation of a more telling kind than any of these others that have preceded. He will turn his attention to the very spot where He is to dwell on this Earth. And where is that? His Father, the Creator of all things —that Father, whose every word is fulfilled by His Son — has a chosen people,; and among these He would have His Son be nationalised, if we may reverently use such a word. He said to Him: “Let your dwelling be in Jacob, and your inheritance in Israel!” (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 12, 13). In obedience to this His Father’s will, He establishes Himself in Sion, He takes his rest in the holy City, and fixes His power in Jerusalem (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 15). Jerusalem, it is the City of Peace, and is to be the scene of such stupendous mysteries! It was here that Isaac, the child of promise, had come carrying on his shoulders the wood for his self-sacrifice. Here his father is about to slay him, when a ram is mysteriously substituted , and the Mount of the one true Sacrifice is thus selected. It was here, also, that there then lived a King-Priest who bore the likeness of the Son of God (Hebrews vii. 3): it was Melchisedech, and when Abraham, the father of believers, came to him, this Melchisedech offered what was to be the sacrifice of the Alliance to come. He offered a sacrifice of bread and wine, and thereby showed to Abraham, who saw into the future, the day of Christ, his Son (John viii. 56).

It is at the very period, when the world, at large has fallen into idolatry and offered to false gods the homage of its sacrifices, that divine Wisdom leads into this chosen dwelling-place the people of whom He is to be born as Man. It is the fulfilment of the command: “Let your dwelling be in Jacob! Let your inheritance be in Israel!” In this one people, Wisdom will maintain His Father’s claims, and keep alive and pure the light of the expectation of nations. He delivers it, at the cost of countless prodigies, from the Egyptian bondage (Wisdom x. 15). The feast of the Paschal Lamb, slain the same day on which, at a future time, is to be celebrated the true Supper of the Lord and the immolation of the Lamb — the feast of the Paschal Lamb is the signal of the deliverance, and the triumphant march through the waters of a sea, to the Mount where is to be contracted, through the blood of victims, the union between God and the house of Jacob: the chosen people becomes the Bride of God (Ezechiel xvi; Osee ii.), the priestly kingdom, and the holy nation (Exodus xix. 6). Figure, in all things, of God’s true people traversing the desert of this world, Israel drinks of the waters which come from the Rock, and the Rock is Christ (1 Corinthians x. 4, 11); a bread rained down daily from Heaven, strengthens him amid the fatigues of journey and battle, and this “bread of Angels,” as the Scripture terms it, took the taste of anything the eater wished it to have (Wisdom xvi. 20-22). God Himself dwells with Israel, under his tents. He has had a tabernacle made for Him, on the plan of one shown by God on the mount. And in front of this tabernacle there is an altar on which a chosen family, consecrated by oil of unction, may alone offer, under the direction of a high-priest, the manifold legal sacrifices, each of which points to some excellency or other, of the one great Sacrifice of the future. From this altar on which burns a fire that is never quenched, here goes up to Heaven without interruption the smoke of the flesh and blood of the victims slain. They are a supplication for the coming of that saving Host which is to put an end to these hecatombs. There are also offerings of flour and wine. They are the necessary accompaniment of holocausts and peace offerings. They prefigure the august Memorial which is to keep up and perfect the divine Sacrifice of the Cross by an unbloody application of it. There is, in these early days, a sacrifice which goes under the name of a memorial. It is an offering by itself, consisting of fine flour and unleavened loaves and wafers (Leviticus ii. 2, 9). Then there are the proposition loaves. They are kept within the veil as the most holy of the sacrifices, as being a perpetual memorial of sacrifice and covenant (Leviticus xxiv. 7-9) and what a mysterious, yet unmistakeable, figure is all this of the future Eucharistic Presence, kept up in the Church under the sacred species even when the celebration of the mysteries is over?

As there is but one altar in Jacob which, by its oneness, points towards Him who at a future time is to be both victim and altar, so there is but one place, the tabernacle and its surroundings and, later on, the temple and holy city, where it is lawful to celebrate those sacred banquets of communion which according to universal custom close the sacrifice in which they are offered. The last time that Moses had his people assembled around him in the plains of the Jordan he thus spoke to them: “Beware lest you offer your holocaust in every place that you will see. In the place which the Lord your God will choose, that His name may be therein, there will you bring your holocausts, and victims, and tithes, and the first-fruits of your hands. There will you feast before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your men-servants and maid-servants, and the Levite that dwells in your cities, and you will rejoice, and be refreshed, before the Lord your God, in all things, whereunto you will put your hand” (Deuteronomy xii. 7, 11-13).

The material prosperity promised to the Jewish people as a reward of his faithfully observing the numerous figurative prescriptions of the law of Sinai was itself but a figure of the spiritual blessings which were to transform the soul, and prepare it for the coming of Divine Wisdom in the flesh. But Israel is slow to raise himself above material things. He easily falls a prey to all the scandals he witnesses among the Gentiles. Severe punishments teach him that he is not safe, except in his keeping the law given to him. He keeps it, that is, he keeps the letter of the ritual precepts with scrupulous exactitude, but sees nothing of their chief meaning, which is the Redeemer to come, and the spiritual dispositions which those outward observances were intended to prompt. God is continually warning him by the Prophets, and seeking to reclaim him to the spirit of his divine institutions. Thus, in the Psalms, he remonstrates with him, but, with such paternal affection, that one can scarcely suspect a complaint, though there is a most bitter one: “Hear, my people! and I will speak: Israel! And I will testify to you. I am God, your God. I will not reprove you for your sacrifices; and your burnt-offerings are always in my sight. I will not take calves out of your house, nor he-goats out of your flocks, for all the beasts of the wood are mine, the cattle on the hills, and the oxen. I know all the fowls of the air, and with me is the beauty of the field. If I should be hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bullocks? or will I drink the blood of goats? Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High!... The sacrifice of praise will glorify me; and there is the way by which I will show him the salvation of God” — show him, that is, my Christ, who is the Saviour signified by all these sacrifices (Psalms xlix. 7-14, 23).

Later on, however, to this people, stiff necked as it is, and uncircumcised in heart and ears (Acts vii. 51), which has gone deeper and deeper into outward formalism, and knows no other virtue or perfection, God speaks in strong language, expressing His disgust for sacrifices which they have robbed of the only worth they possessed in His sight, that is, their prophetic sense. “To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims,” says He by the Prophet Isaias, “I am full; I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck-goats. When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk, (defiling), my courts? Offer sacrifice no more in vain: your incense is an abomination to me! (Isaias i. 11-13). But these warnings are not heeded. Pride increases in the carnal Jew in proportion to his narrow heart and views. He dreams of a Messiah who is to be an earthly conqueror. As to the true Messiah, whose divine characteristics are foretold by the victims offered in sacrifice, this Jew will deny Him, for he finds Jesus too closely resembling those poor victims by his sufferings and meekness.

Then comes the last of the Prophets, Malachias. He turns to the Gentiles: they have been less favoured than Israel, but they have kept up the expectation of a Saviour, and when He comes, will lovingly receive Him. Malachias announces the final abrogation of a worship which had been so perverted, and the substitution of a divine memorial, which will be the same in all places, and will make all people one by their all partaking of the great Sacrifice to come: “I have no pleasure in you,” says the Lord of hosts, to the priests of Israel: “I will not receive a gift of your hand; for, from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation” (Malachi i. 10, 11).

The fullness of time is come. Then, bless God, you Gentiles! Make the voice of His praise to be heard! Too long life has been to you but the empty dream of night. You hungered after the fruit of life. You thirsted for living water. But like the hungry man who dreams of a sumptuous repast, yet never satisfies the hunger which gnaws him, like the thirsty man who dreams that he drinks, yet, on waking, is tormented with the same burning thirst, and finds his soul still empty — so was the multitude of your erring people (Isaias xxix. 7, 8). Yet, now, behold! The standard of Jesse appears on the mountain and rallies them around it. You Gentiles that once were strangers feed now to your heart’s content in the deserts turned into fruitfulness! (Isaias xxix. 17). The Water from the rock flows plentifully through your once parched lands. The glory of Libanus, the beauty of Carmel and Saron, adorn your hills, and refresh your lonely plain. Your wilderness will rejoice, and flourish like the lily (Isaias xxxv. 1, 7). Rain will be given to your seed, and the bread of the corn of your land will be delicious (Isaias xxx. 23). Tis just it should be so, for, will the labourer plough all day long? Will he be ever opening and harrowing his ground? No, the time comes when, having made smooth the surface of his field, he sows and scatters his seeds and puts wheat in the rows he has marked. Such is the providence shown to the Gentiles by the Lord God of hosts and, thereby, he evinces both the sureness of His divine counsels, and the magnificence of His justice (Isaias xxviii. 24, 29).

No: eternal Wisdom had not given up the mysterious designs of His love. He kept close to the fallen human race even when He severely chastised it. He owed it to Himself to put guilty man to the test, so to make him feel, before raising him up, how deep had been his fall. It was on this account that He permitted him to be overtaken by night, and fear, and anguish. He Himself sends him sufferings in order that, having thus brought him to sound the frightful depth of his misery, he might trust Himself to the safe welcome and keeping of His creature’s humility. This done, He would raise him up by repentance, and strengthen him with hope, and, joyously meeting him, disclose to him again His divine charms, and enrich him with the treasures which are in the keeping of His love (Ecclesiasticus iv. 18, 21).

This is Saturday. Let us turn to Mary who was made for us Gentiles, the Seat of Wisdom. It was in her chaste womb that was wrought the mystery of mercy which had been the expectation of all the long ages past. It was her most pure blood which provided the substance of that spotless Body with which the most beautiful of the sons of men contracted the indissoluble alliance of our nature with eternal Wisdom. Mary’s soul is enraptured at seeing the ineffable mystery of these divine nuptials effected in her chaste womb. She is that enclosed Garden where, more delightedly than in the early days of the universe, Wisdom enjoys light and love; the flowery couch of the Canticle (Canticles i. 15) perfumed, by the Holy Spirit with the sweetest fragrance; the glorious tabernacle, incomparably more holy than that of Moses. It is within her, under the immaculate veil of her flesh, that, by the unspeakable embrace of the two natures in the unity of God’s Only Begotten Son, the Holy Ghost pours forth the unction, which makes Him Spouse and, at the same time, Priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech.

Let man, then, be of good courage. The Bread of Heaven, the Bread of the Covenant, is at last come down upon our Earth. And although nine months must pass before the great night comes when He is to be made visible to us all in Bethlehem, yet even now the High Priest is at His work in this His holy temple. “Sacrifice and oblation you would not,” says He to His eternal Father, “but a body you have fitted to me. Holocausts for sin did not please you. Then said I: ‘Behold I come; in the head of the book it is written of me, that I should do your will, God!’” Hebrews x. 5, 7).