10 APRIL – EASTER FRIDAY

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Eight days ago we were standing near the Cross on which died the Man of Sorrows (Isaias liii. 3) abandoned by his Father, and rejected, by a solemn judgment of the Synagogue, as a false Messiah: and lo! this is the sixth time the sun has risen on our earth since the voice of the Angel was heard proclaiming the Resurrection of this adorable Victim. The Church, His widowed spouse, then lay prostrate before that justice of the Eternal God and Father who spared not even His own Son (Roman viii. 32) because He had taken upon Himself the likeness of sin: but now she is feasting in the sight of the triumph of her Jesus, for He bids her be exceeding glad. But if within this glad Octave there be one day, rather than another, on which she should proclaim this triumph, it assuredly is the Friday, for it was on that day she saw Him filled with reproaches (Lamentations iii. 30) and crucified.

Today, therefore, let us meditate on our Saviour’s Resurrection as being the zenith of His own dear glory, and as the chief argument on which rests our faith in His Divinity. “If Christ be not risen again,” says the Apostle, “our faith is vain,” (1 Corinthians xv. 17) but because He is risen again our faith rests on the surest of foundations. Our Redeemer owed it to us, therefore, that our certainty with regard to His Resurrection should be perfect. In order to give this master truth such evidence as would preclude all possibility of doubt, two things were needed: His death was to be certified, and the proofs of His Resurrection were to be incontestable. Jesus fulfilled both these conditions, and with the most scrupulous completeness. Hence, His triumph over death is a fact so deeply impressed on our minds that even now, [two thousand] years since it happened, we cannot celebrate our Easter without feeling a thrill of enthusiastic admiration akin to that which the guards of His tomb experienced when they found their captive gone.

Yes, Jesus was truly dead. The afternoon of Friday was at its close, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took down the body from the Cross. They gave it, stiff and covered with blood as it was, to His afflicted Mother. Who could doubt of His death? The terrible agony of the previous night when His human nature shrank at the foresight of the cup He had to drink; the treachery of one, and the infidelity of the rest of his Apostles which broke His sacred Heart; the long hours of insult and cruelty; the barbarous scourging, which Pilate devised as a means for softening brutal Jews to pity; the Cross to which He was fastened with nails that opened four founts of blood; the anguish of His agonising Heart when He beheld his Mother at the foot of the Cross; the burning thirst, which choked the throbs of life still left; the spear that pierced His side through to the very heart, and drew from it a stream of blood and water —these are proofs enough that death had made God his victim. Dear Jesus! they are now but so many motives for us to love your beautiful glory. How could we, for whom you suffered death, be unmindful of the sufferings that caused it? How could we forget them now, for they enhance the splendour of your Resurrection?

He, therefore, gained a true victory over death: He appeared on the earth as a conqueror of a very different kind from what had hitherto been known. Here was a fact which it was impossible to deny: a man whose whole life had been spent in obscurity was put to death by the most cruel tortures and amidst the insulting shouts of His unworthy fellow-citizens. Pilate sent to the Emperor Tiberius an official account of the judgment and death of one whom he represented as calling himself the King of the Jews. What would men think, after all this, of them that professed themselves followers of this Jesus? The philosophers, the wits, the slaves of the world and pleasure, would point the finger of scorn at them, and say: “Lo! these are they that adore a God who died on a Cross!” But, if this God rose again from the grave, is not His death an evidence of His divinity? He died, and He rose again; He foretold His Death and His Resurrection. Who but a God could thus hold in His power the keys of death and Hell? (Apocalypse i. 18)

Yet so it was: Jesus was put to death and rose again from the grave. How do we know it? By the testimony of His Apostles. They saw Him after He had risen, they touched Him, they conversed with Him for forty days. But are these Apostles to be credited? Surely they are, for never was there a testimony that bore such internal evidence of truth. What interest could these men have in publishing the glory of their Master, who had been put to a death that brought ignominy both upon Himself and them, if they knew that He never rose again, as He promised He would? We can understand the Chief Priests bribing the soldiers to say that while they were asleep His disciples, poor timid men as they were, came during the night and stole away the body. They thought by this to throw discredit upon the testimony of the Apostles, but what folly! We may justly address to them the sarcastic words of Saint Augustine: “What! do you adduce, sleeping witnesses? Surely, you yourselves must have been asleep, to have had recourse to such a scheme as this!” But, as for the Apostles, what motive could they have for preaching the Resurrection, if it never took place? “In such a supposition,” says Saint John Chrysostom, “they would have looked upon their Master as a false prophet and an impostor: and is it likely they would go and defend Him against the accusations of a whole nation? Would they expose themselves to all manner of suffering for one who had so cruelly deceived them? What was there to encourage them in such an undertaking? The rewards He had promised them? But if He had not fulfilled His promise of rising again, how could they trust to the rest of His promises?” No: we must either deny every principle of nature and common sense, or we must acknowledge the testimony of the Apostles to be a true one.

Moreover, this testimony was the most disinterested that could be, for it brought nothing but persecution and death upon them that gave it. It was a proof that God was with such men as these who, but a few hours before, were timid cowards, and now are fearless of every danger, asserting their conviction with an intrepidity which human courage could never inspire, and this, too, in cities which were very centres of civilisation and learning. The world is made to listen to their testimony, which they confirm by miracles, and thousands of every tongue and nation are converted into believers of Jesus’ Resurrection. When at length these Apostles laid down their lives for the doctrines they preached, they left the world in possession of the truth of the Resurrection, and the seed they had sown in lands, where even the Roman Empire had not extended its conquests, produced a quick and world-wide-harvest. All this gave to the astounding fact which they proclaimed, a guarantee and certainty beyond suspicion. It was impossible to refuse such evidence without going against every principle of reason. Yes, Jesus! your Resurrection is as certain as your death. Your Apostles could never have preached, they could never have converted the world, as they did, unless they had had truth on their side. But the Apostles are no longer here to give their testimony: the equally solemn testimony of the Church has succeeded to theirs, and proclaims, with a like authority, that Jesus is no longer among the dead. By the Church, we here mean those hundreds of millions of Christians who have proclaimed the Resurrection of Jesus by keeping, for now [two thousand] years, the Feast of the Pasch. And can there be room for doubt here? Who is there that would not assent to what has been thus attested every year since the Apostles first announced it? Among these countless proclaimers of our Lord’s Resurrection, there have been thousands of learned men, the bent of whose mind led them to sift every truth, and who, before embracing the faith, had examined its tenets in the light of reason. There have been millions of others, whose acceptance of a dogma like this, which puts a restraint on the passions was the result of the conviction, that the only way to eternal happiness was in the due performance of the duties this dogma imposes, and finally, there have been millions of others who by their virtues were the support and ornament of the world, but who owed all their virtues to their faith in the death and Resurrection of Jesus.

Thus, the testimony of the Church, that is, of the wisest and best portion of mankind, is admirably united with that of the Apostles whom our Lord Himself appointed as His first witnesses. The two testimonies are one. The Apostles proclaimed what they had seen. We proclaim, and will proclaim to the end, what the Apostles preached. The Apostles made themselves sure of the Resurrection which they had to preach to the world, to make ourselves sure of the veracity of their word. They believed after experience. So so also do wee. They had the happiness of seeing, hearing and touching the Word of Life (1 John i. 1). We see and hear the Church, which they established throughout the world, although it was but in its infancy when they were taken from the earth. The Church is that tree of which Jesus spoke in the parable, saying, that though exceeding small in its first commencement, it would afterwards spread out its branches far and wide (Matthew xiii. 31, 32.; Mark, iv. 31, 32). Saint Augustine in one of his Easter Sermons has these fine words: “As yet, we see not Christ, but we see the Church: therefore, let us believe in Christ. The Apostles, on the contrary, saw Christ, but they saw not the Church except by faith. They saw one thing, and they believed another: so, likewise, let us do. Let us believe in the Christ whom as yet we see not, and by keeping ourselves with the Church which we see, we will come at length to see Him whom, as yet, we cannot see.”

Having thus, Jesus, the certainty of your glorious Resurrection, as well as that of your death on the Cross, we confess you to be the great God, the Creator and sovereign Lord of all things. Your death humbled, your Resurrection exalted you: but you yourself were the author both of humiliation and exaltation. You said to your enemies: “No man takes my life away from me, but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again” (John x. 18) None but a God could have such power, none else but a God could have exercised it as you have done: we, therefore, are confessing your divinity when we confess your Resurrection. We beseech you, make worthy of your acceptance this humble and delighted homage of our faith!

Epistle – 1 Peter iii. 18‒22

Dearly beloved, Christ died once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the Spirit. In which also coming, He preached to those spirits that were in prison, which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noah, when the ark was building; wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. Where to baptism being of the like form, now saves you also; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the examination of a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is on the right hand of God.

Thanks be to God. 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Again it is the Apostle Saint Peter who speaks to us, and his instructions are of peculiar interest to our neophytes. He begins by telling them how the soul of our Redeemer descended into Limbo and how, among the prisoners detained there, were some of those who had perished in the deluge, yet had found salvation in its waters. They were, at first, incredulous, and despised the threats made known to them by Noah, but when the Flood came and swept them away, they repented them of their sin and asked and obtained pardon. The Apostle then goes on to speak of the favoured inhabitants of the Ark: they are a type of our neophytes whom we have seen pass through the waters of the font and thereby become, as did the sons of Noah, fathers of a new generation of children of God. Baptism, says the Apostle, is not like other washings of the body. It is the cleansing of the soul, provided she be sincere in the solemn promise she makes at the font to be faithful to the Christ who saves her, and to renounce Satan and all that is his. The Apostle concludes by telling us that the mystery of our Saviour’s Resurrection is the source of the grace of Baptism: hence the Church has chosen the Feast of Easter for the solemn administration of this Sacrament.

Gospel – Matthew xxviii. 16‒20

At that time, the eleven disciples went into Galilee, into the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And seeing Him they adored, but some doubted. And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying, “All power is given to me in Heaven and on Earth. Going, therefore, teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, until the consummation of the world.”

Praise be to you, O Christ. 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Saint Matthew’s description of the Resurrection is shorter than those given by the other Evangelists. His few brief words on the appearing of Jesus to the Apostles in Galilee are the subject of today’s Gospel. It was in Galilee that our Lord vouchsafed to show Himself, not only to the Apostles, but, moreover, to several other persons. The Evangelist tells us how some of those that were thus favoured readily believed and how others doubted before yielding the assent of their faith. He then relates the words with which Jesus gave His Apostles the mission to preach the Gospel to all nations, and since He is to die no more, He promises to be with them forever, even to the end of the world. But the Apostles are not to live to the end of the world: how, then, will He fulfil His promise? The Apostles, as we said before, are perpetuated by the Church. The two testimonies of the Apostles and of the Church are inseparably linked together, and our Lord Jesus Christ preserves this united testimony from error or interruption. The liturgy of today brings before us a proof of its irresistible power. Peter, Paul and John preached the Resurrection of Jesus and established the Christian faith, in Rome: five centuries after, the Church which continued their work received from an Emperor the gift of the temple which had once been consecrated to all the false gods, but which Saint Peter’s successor dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, and to that legion of witnesses of the Resurrection whom we call martyrs. At the sight of this magnificent edifice which for three hundred years had been deserted by the pagans, but now is reconciled by the Church, and holds within its walls the Christian people, our neophytes could not refrain from exclaiming: “Oh! truly is Christ risen, who, after being put to death on the Cross, thus triumphs over the Caesars, and over the gods of Olympus!”

9 APRIL – EASTER THURSDAY

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

After having glorified the Lamb of God and the Passover by which our Lord destroyed our enemies, and after having celebrated our deliverance by water and our entrance into the Promised Land, let us now fix our respectful gaze on Him whose triumph is prefigured by all these prodigies. So dazzling is the glory that now beams from this Man-God that, like the Prophet of Patmos, we will fall prostrate before Him. But He is so wonderful, too, in His love that He will encourage us to enjoy the grand vision: He will say to us, as He did to His disciples: “Fear not! I am the First, and the Last, and alive, and was dead, and behold! I am living forever and ever, and have the keys of death and of Hell” (Apocalypse i. 17, 18.) Yes, He is now Master of death, which had held Him captive. He holds in His hand the keys of Hell. These expressions of Scripture signify that He has power over death and the tomb — He has conquered them. Now the first use He makes of His victory is to make us partakers of it. Let us adore His infinite goodness and, in accordance with the wish of holy Church, let us meditate today on the effects wrought in each one of us by the mystery of the Pasch. Jesus says to His beloved disciples: “I am am alive, and was dead.” The day will come when we also will triumphantly say: “We are living, and we were dead!”

Death awaits us. It is daily advancing towards us. We cannot escape its vengeance. The wages of sin is death (Romans vi. 23). In these few words of Scripture we are taught how death is not only universal, but even necessary, for we have all sinned. This, however, does not make the law less severe. Nor can we help seeing a frightful disorder in the violent separation of soul and body which were united together by God Himself. If we would truly understand death, we must remember that God made man immortal: this will explain the instinctive dread we have of death — a dread which only one thing can conquer, and that is the spirit of sacrifice. In the death, then, of each one of us there is the handiwork of sin, and consequently a victory won by Satan: no, there would be a humiliation for our Creator Himself were it not that, by sentencing us to this punishment, He satisfied His Justice. This is man’s well-merited, but terrible, condemnation. What can he hope for? Never to die? It would be folly: the sentence is clear, and none may escape. Can he hope that this body, which is to become first a corpse and then be turned into a mere handful of dust, will one day return to life and be re-united to the soul for which it was made? But who could bring about the re-union of an immortal substance with one that was formerly united with it but has now seemingly been annihilated? And yet, man, this is to be your lot! You will rise again: that poor body of yours which is to die, be buried, forgotten and humbled, will be restored to life. Yes, it even now comes forth from the tomb in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ: our future resurrection is accomplished in His: it is today that we are made as sure of our resurrection as we are of our death. This, too, makes part of our glorious feast — our Pasch!

God did not, at the beginning, reveal this miracle of His power and goodness: all He said to Adam was: “In the sweat of your face will you eat bread, till you return to the earth, out of which you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you will return” (Genesis iii. 19). Not a word, not an allusion, which gives the culprit the least hope with reference to that portion of himself which is thus doomed to death and the grave. It was fitting that the ungrateful pride which had led man to rebel against his Maker should be humbled. Later on, the great mystery was revealed, at least partially. Four thousand years back, a poor sufferer whose body was covered with ulcers speaks these words of hope: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the last day I will rise out of the earth. And I will he clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see God: this my hope is laid up in my bosom” (Job xix. 25‒27). But in order that Job’s hope might be realised, this Redeemer of whom he spoke had to come down to this earth, give battle to death, feel its pang and finally conquer it. He came at the time fixed by the divine decree: He came, not indeed to prevent us from dying (for the sentence of God’s justice was absolute), but to die Himself, and so take away from death its bitterness and humiliation. Like those devoted physicians who have been known to inoculate themselves with the virus of contagion, our Jesus swallowed down death (1 Peter iii. 22), as the Apostle forcibly expresses it. But the enemy’s joy was soon at an end for the Man-God had risen, to die no more, and by His Resurrection He won that same right for us.

Henceforth, then, we must see the grave under a new aspect. The earth will receive these bodies of ours, but only to yield them back again, just as she yields back the hundredfold of the seed that was confided to her. Her great Creator will at some future day bid her restore the deposit He entrusted to her. The Archangel’s trumpet will give the signal of His command and, in the twinkling of an eye, the whole human race will rise up from the grave and proclaim the final defeat of death. For the just it will be a Pasch — a continuation of the Pasch we are now celebrating. Who could describe the joy we will experience at such a meeting! Our soul after, it may be, a separation of hundreds of years, united once more to that essential part of her being, the body! She, perhaps, has been all that time enjoying the Beatific Vision, but the whole man was not there. Our happiness was not complete because that of the body was wanting, and in the midst of the soul’s rapturous felicity, there was a trace still left of the punishment to which man was condemned when our First Parents sinned. Our merciful God would not, now that His Son has opened the gates of Heaven, defer till the general Resurrection the rewarding the souls of his elect with the Vision, and yet, these elect have not their whole glory and happiness until that Last Day comes and puts the last finish to the mystery of man’s redemption.

Jesus, our King and our Head, wills that we His members will sing with Him the song that comes from His own divine lips, and that each of us will say for all eternity: “I am living, and I was dead!” Mary, who on the third day after her death was united to her sinless body, longs to see her devoted children united with her in heaven, but wholly and entirely. Soul and body: and this will be, when the tomb has done its work of purification. The holy Angels whose ranks are waiting to be filled up by the elect among men are affectionately looking forward to that happy day when the glorified bodies of the just will spring up, like the loveliest of earth’s flowers, to beautify the land of Spirits. One of their joys consists in their gazing upon the resplendent bodies of Jesus and Mary — of Jesus, who, even as man, is their King as well as ours, and of Mary, whom they reverence as their Queen. What a feast day, then, will they not count that, whereon we, their brothers and sisters, whose souls have been long their companions in bliss, will revest the robe of flesh, sanctified and fitted for union with our radiant souls! What a canticle of fresh joy will ring through Heaven as it then receives within itself all the grandeur and beauty of creation! The Angels who were present at the Resurrection of Jesus were filled with admiration at the sight of this body which was, indeed, of a lower nature than themselves, but whose dazzling glory exceeded all the splendour of the Angelic host together — will they not gladly hail our arrival, after our resurrection? Will they not welcome us with fraternal congratulations when they see us members as we are of this same Risen Jesus, clad in the same gorgeous robe of glory as His, who is their God? The sensual man never gives a thought to the eternal glory and happiness of the body: he acknowledges the Resurrection of the Flesh as an article of faith, but it is not an object of his hope. He cares but for the present. Material, carnal pleasures being all he aspires to, he considers his body as an instrument of self-gratification which, as it lasts so short a time, must be the quicker used. There is no respect in the love he bears to his body. Hence he fears not to defile it, and after a few years of insult which he calls enjoyment, it becomes the food of worms and corruption. And yet, this sensual man accuses the Church of being an enemy to the body! The Church that so eloquently proclaims its dignity, and the glorious destiny that awaits it! He is the tyrant, and a tyrant is ever an impudent calumniator. The Church warns us of the dangers to which the body exposes the soul: she tells us of the infectious weakness that came to the flesh by original sin. She instructs us as to the means we should employ for making it serve justice, unto sanctification, (Romans vi. 19), but far from forbidding us to love the body, she reveals to us the truth which should incite us to true charity — its being destined to an endless glory and happiness. When lain on the bed of death, the Church honours it with the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, fitting it for immortality by anointing it with Holy Oil. She is present at the departure of the soul from this the companion of her combats, and from which she is to be separated till the Day of the General Judgment. She respectfully burns incense over the body when dead, for, from the hour of its Baptism, she has regarded it as something holy, and to the surviving friends of her departed one, she addresses these inspired words of consolation: “Be not sorrowful, even as others, who have no hope” (Thessalonians iv. 12).

But what is this hope? That same which comforted Job: “In my flesh, I will see my God!” Thus does our holy Faith reveal to us the future glory of our body. Thus does she encourage, by supernatural motives, the instinctive love borne by the soul for this essential portion of our being. She unites together the two dogmas — our Lord’s Pasch, and the resurrection of our body. The Apostle assures us of the close relation that exists between them, and says: “If Christ he not risen again, your faith is vain; if the dead rise not again, neither is Christ risen again” (1 Corinthians xv. 14, 17), so that the Resurrection of Jesus and our resurrection seem to be parts of one and the same truth. Hence, the sort of forgetfulness which is nowadays so common, of this important dogma of the “Resurrection of the Body,” is a sad proof of the decay of lively faith. Such people believe in a future resurrection, for the Creed is too explicit to leave room for doubt, but the hope which Job had is seldom the object of their thoughts or desires. They say that what they are anxious about, both for themselves and for those that are dear to them, is what will become of the soul after this life: they do well to look to this, but they should not forget what Religion teaches them regarding the resurrection of the body. By professing it, they not only have a fresh incentive to virtue, but they also render testimony to the Resurrection of Jesus, by which He he gained victory over death both for Himself and us. They should remember that they are in this world only to confess, by their words and actions, the truths that God has revealed. It is therefore not enough that they believe in the immortality of the soul. The Resurrection of the Body must also be believed and professed.

We find this article of our holy faith continually represented in the Catacombs. Its several symbols formed, together with the Good Shepherd, quite the favourite subject of primitive Christian art. In those early ages of the Church when to receive Baptism was an open breaking with the sensuality of previous habits of life, this consoling dogma of the Resurrection of the Body was strongly urged upon the minds of the neophytes. Any of them might be called upon to suffer martyrdom: the thought of the future glory that awaited their flesh inspired them with courage when the hour of trial came. Thus we read so very frequently in the Acts of the Martyrs, how, when in the midst of their most cruel torments they declared that what supported them was the certain hope of the Resurrection of the Body. How many Christians are there nowadays who are cowardly in the essential duties of their state of life simply because they never think of this important dogma of their faith!

The soul is more than the body, but the body is an essential portion of our being. It is our duty to treat it with great respect because of its sublime destiny. If we, at present, chastise it and keep it in a state of subjection, it is because its present state requires such treatment. We chastise it because we love it. The martyrs and all the saints, loved their body far more than does the most sensual voluptuary. They, by sacrificing it, saved it. He, by pampering it, exposes it to eternal suffering. Let us be on our guard: sensualism is akin to naturalism. Sensualism will have it that there is no happiness for the body but such as this present life can give and, with this principle, its degradation causes no remorse: naturalism is that propensity we have to judge of everything by mere natural light, whereas we cannot possibly know the glorious future for which God has created us except by faith. If the Christian, therefore, can see what the Son of God has done for our bodies by the divine Resurrection we are now celebrating, and feel neither love nor hope, he may be sure, that his faith is weak and, if he would not lose his soul, let him, henceforth, be guided by the word of God, which alone can teach him what he is now, and what he is called to be hereafter.

Epistle – Acts viii. 26‒40

In those days an Angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying “Arise, go towards the south, to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza: this is desert.” And rising up, he went, and behold a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch, of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge over all her treasures, had come to Jerusalem to adore. And he was returning, sitting in his chariot, and reading Isaiah the prophet. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.” And Philip running there, heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and he said, “Do you think that you understand what you read?” Who said, “And how can I, unless some man shows me?” and he desired that Philip would come up and sit with him. And the place of the scripture which he was reading was this: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb without voice before his shearer, he opened not his mouth. In humility his judgement was taken away: his generation; who will declare; for his life will be taken from the earth?” And the eunuch answering Philip said, “I beseech you, of whom does the prophet speak this: of himself, or of some other man?” Then Philip opening his mouth, and beginning at this scripture; preached to him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came to a certain water and the eunuch said, “See here is water, what hinders me from being baptised?” And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may,” and he answering, said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptised him. And when they had come out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found in Azotus, and passing through, he preached the gospel to all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

Thanks be to God. 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Church, by this passage from the Acts of the Apostles, would remind her neophytes of the sublime grace of their Baptism, and under what condition they have been regenerated. God put the opportunity of salvation in their path, as He sent Philip to the eunuch. He gave them a desire to know the truth in the same manner as He inspired this servant of Queen Candace to read what was to occasion his being instructed in the faith of Christ. This pagan, had he chosen, might have received the instructions of God’s messenger with mistrust and indifference and so have resisted the grace that was offered him, but no, he opened his heart, and faith filled it. Our neophytes did the same: they were docile, and God’s word enlightened them. They went on from light to light until, at length, the Church recognised them as true disciples of the faith. Then came the Feast of the Pasch, and this Mother of souls said to herself: “Lo here is water — the water that purifies, the water that issued from Jesus’ side when opened by the Spear — what hinders them from being baptised? Having confessed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, they were baptised as was the Ethiopian of our Epistle in the life-giving waters: like him they are about to continue the journey of life, rejoicing, for they are risen with Christ who has graciously vouchsafed to associate the joy of their new birth with that of his own triumph.

Gospel ‒ John xx. 11‒18

At that time, Mary stood outside the sepulchre weeping. Now as she was weeping, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre and saw two Angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been laid. They said to her, “Woman, why do you weep?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.” When she had said this, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and she knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why do you weep? Who do you seek?” She, thinking it was the gardener, said to him, “Sir, if you have taken him from here, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turning, said to him, “Rabboni” (which is to say, “Master”). Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, for I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God.” Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples, “I have seen the Lord, and these things He said to me.”

Praise be to you, O Christ. 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Instead of putting before us any of the apparitions related by the Gospel as having been made to His Apostles by our Saviour after His Resurrection, the Church reads to us the one with which Magdalene was honoured. Why this apparent forgetting the very heralds and ambassadors of the New Law? The reason is obvious. By thus honouring her, whom our Lord selected as the Apostle of His Apostles, the Church would put before us, in their full truth, the circumstances of the Day of the Resurrection. It was through Magdalene and her companions that began the Apostolate of the grandest mystery of the life of our Jesus upon earth: they have every right, therefore, to be honoured today... God is all-powerful, and delights in showing Himself in that which is weakest. He is infinitely good and glorious in rewarding such as love Him. This explains how it was that our Jesus gave to Magdalene and her companions the first proofs of His Resurrection, and so promptly consoled them. They were even weaker than the Bethlehem shepherds. They were, therefore, the objects of a higher preference. The Apostles, themselves, were weaker than the weakest of the earthly powers they were to bring into submission. Hence, they too were initiated into the mystery of the triumph of Jesus. But Magdalene and her companions had loved their Master even to the Cross and in His tomb, whereas the Apostles had abandoned Him. They therefore had a better claim than the Apostles to the generosity of Jesus, and richly did He satisfy the claim. Let us attentively consider the sublime spectacle of the Church at this moment of her receiving the knowledge of that Mystery which is the basis of her faith — the Resurrection. Who, after Mary — in whom the light of faith never waned, and to whom, as the sinless Mother, was due the first manifestation — who, we ask, were the first to be illumined with that faith by which the Church lives? They were Magdalene and her companions.

For several hours this was the Little Flock on which Jesus looked with complacency: little indeed, and weak in the world’s estimation, but grand as being the noblest work of grace. Yet a short time, and the Apostles will be added to the number. Yes, the whole world will form a part of this elect group. The Church now sings these words in every country of the earth: “Tell us, Mary, what you saw on the way?” And Mary Magdalene tells the Church the Mystery: “I saw the sepulchre of Christ, and the glory of Him that rose.” Nor must we be surprised that women were the first to form, around the Son of God, the Church of Believers — the Church resplendent with the brightness of the Resurrection: it is the continuation of that Divine Plan, the commencement of which we have already respectfully studied. It was by woman that the work of God was marred in the beginning. He willed that it should be repaired by woman. On the day of the Annunciation we found the Second Eve making good by her own obedience, the disobedience of the First, and now, at Easter, God honours Magdalene and her companions in preference even to the Apostles. We repeat it: these facts show us, not so much a personal favour conferred on individuals, as the restoration of woman to her lost dignity. “The woman,” says Saint Ambrose, “was the first to taste the food of death. She is destined to be the first witness of the Resurrection. By proclaiming this Mystery, she will atone for her fault. Therefore is it, that she who, heretofore, had announced sin to man, was sent by the Lord to announce the tidings of salvation to men, and make known to them His grace.” Others of the Holy Fathers speak in the same strain. They tell us that God, in the distribution of the gifts of His grace, gives woman the first place. And in what happened at the Resurrection, they recognise, not merely an act of the supreme will of the Master, but moreover a well-deserved reward for the love Jesus met with from these humble women: a love which He did not receive from his Apostles, though He had treated them, for the last three years of his life, with every mark of intimacy and affection, and had every right to expect them to be courageous in their devotedness towards Him.

Magdalene stands as a queen amidst her holy companions. She is most dear to Jesus. She has loved Him more than all the rest of his friends did. Se has been more heart-broken at seeing him suffer. She has been more earnest in paying honour to the sacred body of her buried Master. She is well-nigh beside herself until she has found Him, and when she, at length, meets Him and finds that Jesus Himself, still living, and still full of love for Magdalene, she could die for very joy! She would show Him her delight, but Jesus checks her, saying: “Touch me not! For I am not yet ascended to my Father!” Jesus is no longer subject to the conditions of mortality. True, His human nature will be eternally united with His divine, but His Resurrection tells the faithful soul that His relations with her are no longer the same as before. During His mortal life He suffered Himself to be approached as man. There was little in his exterior to indicate His divinity. But now His eternal splendour gleams through His very body and bespeaks the Son of God. Henceforth, then, we must see Him with the heart rather than with the eye, and offer Him a respectful love, rather than one of sentiment, however tender it might be. He allowed Magdalene to touch Him so long as she was weak in her conversion, and He Himself was mortal, but now she must aspire to that highest spiritual good which is the life of the soul — Jesus, in the bosom of the Father.

In her first estate Magdalene is the type of the soul when commencing its search after Jesus. But her love needs a transformation: it is ardent, but not wise so that the Angel has to chide her: “Why, ”says he, “seek you the living among the dead? (Luke xxiv. 5). The time is come for her to ascend to something more perfect, and to seek in spirit Him who is Spirit. Jesus says to Magdalene: “I am not yet ascended to my Father,” as though He would say: “The mark of love you would show me is not what I now wish to receive from you. When I have ascended into heaven and you are there with me, the sight of my human nature will be no obstacle to your soul’s vision of my divinity: then you will embrace me!” Magdalene takes in the lesson of her dear Master: she loves Him more, because her love is spiritualised. After His Ascension she retires into the holy cave. There she lives, pondering on all the mysteries of her Jesus’ life. Her love feeds on the memory of all He had done for her, from His first word which converted her, to the favour He showed her on the morning of His Resurrection. Each day she advances in the path of perfect love. The Angels visit and console her. Her probation completed, she follows her Jesus to heaven, where she lavishes on Him the ardour of her love in an unrestrained and eternal embrace.

8 APRIL – EASTER WEDNESDAY

 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Hebrew word Pasch signifies Passage, and we explained yesterday how this great day first became sacred by reason of the Lord’s Passover. But there is another meaning which attaches to the word, as we learn from the early Fathers, and the Jewish Rabbis. The Pasch is, moreover, the Passage of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land. These three great facts really happened on one and the same night: the banquet of the Lamb, the death of the first-born of the Egyptians, and the departure from Egypt. Let us today consider how this third figure is a further development of our Easter Mystery.

The day of Israel’s setting forth from Egypt for his predestined country of the Promised Land is the most important in his whole history but, both the departure itself, and the circumstances that attended it, were types of future realities to be fulfilled in the Christian Pasch. The people of God was delivered from an idolatrous and tyrannical country: in our Pasch, they, who are now our neophytes, have courageously emancipated themselves from the slavish sway of Satan, and have solemnly renounced the pomps and works of this haughty Pharaoh.

On their road to the Promised Land, the Israelites had to pass through a sea of water. Their doing so was a necessity, both for their protection against Pharaoh’s army which was pursuing them, and for their entering into the land of milk and honey. Our neophytes, too, after renouncing the tyrant who had enslaved them, had to go through that same saving element of water, in order to escape their fierce enemies. It carried them safe into the land of their hopes, and stood as a rampart to defend them against invasion.

By the goodness of God, that water, which is an obstacle to man’s pursuing his way, was turned into an ally for Israel’s march. The laws it had from nature were suspended, and it became the saviour of God’s people. In like manner the sacred font which, as the Church told us on the Feast of the Epiphany, is made an instrument of divine grace, has become the refuge and fortress of our happy neophytes. Their passing through its waters has put them out of reach of the tyrant’s grasp.

Having reached the opposite shore, the Israelites see Pharaoh and his army, their shields and their chariots buried in the sea. When our neophytes looked at the holy font from which they had risen to the life of grace, they loved it as the tomb where their sins, enemies worse than Pharaoh and his minions, lay buried forever. Then did the Israelites march cheerfully on towards the Land that God had promised to give them. During the journey, they will have God as their Teacher and Lawgiver. They will have their thirst quenched by fountains springing up from a rock in the desert. They will be fed on Manna sent each day from heaven. Our Neophytes, too, will run on, unfettered, to the heavenly country, their Promised Land. They will go through the desert of this world, uninjured by its miseries and dangers, for the divine Lawgiver will teach them, not amid thunder and lightning, as He did when He gave His Law to the Israelites, but with persuasive words of gentlest love, spoken with that sweet manner which set on fire the hearts of the two disciples of Emmaus.

Springs of water will refresh them at every turn, yes, of that Living Water which Jesus, a few weeks back, told the Samaritan woman should be given to them that adore Him in spirit and in truth. And lastly, a heavenly Manna will be their food, strengthening and delighting them, a Manna far better than that of old, for it will give them immortality. So that our Pasch means all this: it is a Passing, through water to the Land of Promise, but with a reality and truth which the Israelites only had under the veil of types, sublime indeed and divine, but only types. Let then our Passover from the death of original sin to the life of grace, by holy Baptism, be a great feastday with us. This may not be the anniversary of our Baptism! It matters not. Let us fervently celebrate our exodus from the Egypt of the world into the Christian Church. Let us, with glad and grateful hearts, renew our Baptismal engagements which made our God so liberal in His gifts to us. Let us renounce Satan and all his works, and all his pomps.

The Apostle of the Gentiles tells us of another mystery of the waters of Baptism: it gives completion to all we have been saying, and equally forms part of our Pasch. He teaches us that we were hidden beneath this water, as was Christ in His tomb, and that we then died and were buried together with Him (Romans vi. 4). It was the death of our life of sin: that we might live to God, we had to die to sin. When we think of the holy font where we were regenerated, let us call it the tomb in which we buried the Old Man, who was to have no resurrection.

Baptism by immersion — which was the ancient mode of administering the Sacrament, and is still used in some countries — was expressive of this spiritual burial: the neophyte was made to disappear beneath the water — he was dead to his former life, as our buried Jesus was to His mortal life. But, as our Redeemer did not remain in the tomb, but rose again to a new life, so likewise, says the Apostle, they who are baptised rise again with Him when they come from the font. They bear on them the pledges of immortality and glory, and are the true and living Members of that Head, who dies now no more. Here, again, is our Pasch — our Passage from death to life.

Epistle – Acts iii. 12‒19

In those days, Peter opened his mouth and said, “You men of Israel, and you that fear God, hear: the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified His Son Jesus who you indeed delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate when he judged that He should be released. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted to you. But the Author of life you killed, whom God has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And now, brethren, I know that you did it through ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God before showed by the mouth of all the prophets, that this Christ should suffer, He has so fulfilled. Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Today, again, we have the Prince of the Apostles proclaiming, in Jerusalem, the Resurrection of the Man-God. On this occasion, he was accompanied by Saint John, and had just worked his first miracle, of curing the lame man, near one of the gates of the Temple. The people had crowded round the two Apostles, and Saint Peter preached to them. It was the second time he had spoken in public. His first sermon brought three thousand to receive Baptism, the one of today, five thousand. Truly did the Apostle exercise on these two occasions his office of Fisher of Men, which our Lord gave him when He first called him to be His disciple. Let us admire the charity with which Saint Peter bids the Jews acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah. These are the very men who have denied Him, and yet the Apostle, by partially excusing their crime, on the score of ignorance, encourages them to hope for pardon. They clamoured for the death of Jesus in the days of His voluntary weakness and humiliation. Let them, now that He is glorified, acknowledge Him as their Messiah and King, and their sin will be forgiven. In a word, let them humble themselves, and they will be saved. Thus did God call to Himself those who were of a good will and an upright heart. Thus does He, also, in these our days. There were some in Jerusalem who corresponded to the call, but the far greater number refused to follow it. It is the same now. Let us earnestly beseech our Lord that the nets of His fishermen may be filled, and the Paschal Banquet be crowded with guests.

Gospel – John xxi. 1‒14

At that time, Jesus showed Himself again to his disciples at the sea of Tiberias. And He showed Himself after this manner. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas, who is called Didymus, and Nathanael, who was of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee and two others of His disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will come with you.” And they went forth and entered into the ship. And that night they caught nothing. But when the morning came Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus therefore said to them, “Children, have you eaten any meat?” They answered Him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you will find.” They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it, for the multitude of fishes. That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” Simon Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, girt his coat about him (for he was naked) and cast himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the ship (for they were not far from the land, but as it were two hundred cubits) dragging the net with fishes. As soon as they came to land, they saw hot coals lying and a fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring here the fishes which you now have caught.” Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three. And although there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, “Come and dine.” And none of them who were at meat dared ask Him, “Who are you?” knowing that it was the Lord. And Jesus came and took bread, and gave it to them, and the fish in like manner. This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to his disciples after He had risen from the dead.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Jesus had shown Himself to all His Apostles on the Sunday evening. He repeated his visit to them eight days after, as we will see further on. The Gospel for today tells us of a third apparition with which seven of the eleven were favoured. It took place on the shore of Lake Genesareth, which on account of its size, was called the Sea of Tiberias, The seven are delighted beyond measure at seeing their divine Master. He treats them with affectionate familiarity and provides them with a repast. John was the first to recognise Jesus. Nor can we be surprised: his purity gave keen perception to the eye of his soul, as it is written: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew v. 8). Peter threw himself from the ship that he might the quicker reach his Lord. His natural impetuosity shows itself here as on so many other occasions, but in this impetuosity we see that he loved Jesus more than his fellow-disciples did. But let us attentively consider the other mysteries of our Gospel.

The seven Disciples are fishing — it is the Church working out her apostolate. Peter is the master fisherman. It belongs to him to decide when and where the nets are to be thrown. The other six Apostles unite with him in the work, and Jesus is with them all, looking upon their labour and directing it, for whatever is got by it is all for Him. The fish are the faithful, for, as we have already had occasion to remark, the Christian was often called by this name in the early ages. It was the font, it was water, that gave him his Christian life. Yesterday we were considering how the Israelites owed their safety to the waters of the Red Sea, and our Gospel for today speaks of a Passover — a Passing from Genesareth’s waters to a banquet prepared by Jesus. There is a mystery, too, in the number of the fishes that were taken, but what is it that is signified by these hundred and fifty-three, we will perhaps never know, until the day of Judgment reveals the secret. We doubt not but that they denote the number of tribes or nations of the human race, that are to be gradually led, by the apostolate of the Church, to the Gospel of Christ: but, once more — till God’s time is come, the book must remain sealed.

Having reached the shore, the Apostles surround their beloved Master, and lo, He has prepared them a repast — bread, and a fish lying on hot coals. This fish is not one of those they themselves have caught: they are to partake of it, now that they have come from the water. The early Christians thus interpret the mystery: the fish represents Christ who was made to suffer the cruel torments of the Passion, and whose love of us was the fire that consumed Him: and He became the divine Food of them that are regenerated by water. We have elsewhere remarked that in the primitive Church, the Greek word for Fish (Ikthus) was venerated as a sacred symbol, inasmuch as the letters of this word formed the initials of the titles of our Redeemer. But Jesus would unite, in the one repast, both the divine fish, which is Himself, and those other fishes, which represent all mankind, and have been drawn out of the water in Peter’s net. The Paschal Feast has the power to effect, by love, an intimate and substantial union between the food and the guests, between the Lamb of God and the other Lambs who are His brethren, between the divine fish and those others that He has associated to Himself by the closest ties of fellowship. They, like Him, have been offered in sacrifice. They follow Him in suffering and in glory.

7 APRIL – EASTER TUESDAY

Prosper Gueranger:

Our Pasch is the Lamb, and we meditated on the mystery yesterday. Now let us attentively consider those words of Sacred Scripture, where, speaking of the Pasch, it says: “It is the Phase, that is, the Passage of the Lord.” God Himself adds these words: “I will Pass through the Land of Egypt that night, and will kill every first-horn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments” (Exodus xii. 11). So that the Pasch is a day of judgment, a day of terrible justice upon the enemies of God. But for that very reason it is a day of deliverance for Israel. The Lamb is slain, but his immolation is the signal of redemption to the holy people of the Lord.

The people of Israel are slaves to the cruel Pharaoh. Their bondage is the heaviest that can be. Their male-children are to be put to death. The race of Abraham, on which repose the promises of the world’s salvation, is doomed. It is time for God to interpose: the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he whom none can resist, must show himself. But in this the Israelites are a type of another and a far more numerous people — the whole human race, and it is the slave of Satan, a tyrant worse than Pharaoh. Its bondage is at its height. It is debased by the vilest idolatry. It has made every base thing its god, and the God that made all things is ignored or blasphemed. With a few rare exceptions out of each generation, men are the victims of hell. Has God’s creation of Man, then, been a failure? Not so. The time is come for Him to show the might of His arm: He will pass over the earth and save mankind. Jesus, the true Israelite, the true man come down from heaven. He too is made a captive. His enemies have prevailed against Him, and His bleeding lifeless body has been hid in the tomb. The murderers of the Just One have even fixed a seal on the sepulchre and set a guard to watch it. Here again, the Lord must pass and confound His enemies by His triumphant passage.

In that Egypt of old each Israelite family was commanded to slay and eat the Paschal Lamb. Then, at midnight, the Lord passed as He had promised, over this land of bondage and crime. The Destroying Angel followed, slaying with his sword the first-born of the Egyptians, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the first-horn of the captive woman that was in prison, and all the first-horn of the cattle (Exodus xii. 29). A cry of mourning resounded through Mesraim: but God is just, and His people was made free!

The same victory was gained in the Resurrection, which now gladdens us. The midnight was over, and the last shades of darkness were fleeing from before the rising light: it was then that our Lord passed through the sealed stone of His tomb, unperceived by His guards. His resurrection was a stroke of death to His first-born people who had refused to receive Him as their Messiah, or know the time of their visitation (Luke xix. 44). The Synagogue was hard of heart like Pharaoh: it would fain have held captive Him of whom the Prophet had said, that he would be free among the dead (Psalm lxxxvii. 6). Hereupon, a cry of impotent rage is heard in Jerusalem: but God is just, and Jesus has made Himself free!

And oh what a happiness was this Passage of our Lord for the human race! He had adopted us as His brethren, and loved us too tenderly to leave us slaves of Satan: therefore, He would have His own Resurrection be ours too, and give us Light and Liberty. The first-born of Satan were routed by such a victory. The power of hell was broken. Yet a little while, and the altars of the false gods will everywhere be destroyed. Yet a little while, and man, regenerated by the preaching of the Apostles, will acknowledge his Creator and abjure his idols: for this is the Day which the Lord has made: it is the Phase, that is, the Passage of the Lord!

But observe how the two mysteries — the Lamb and the Passover — are united in our Pasch. The Lord passes and bids the Destroying Angel slay the first-born in every house, the entrance of which is not marked with the blood of the Lamb. This is the shield of protection. Where it is, there Divine Justice passes by and spares. Pharaoh and his people are not signed with the blood of the Lamb: yet have they witnessed the most extraordinary miracles, and suffered unheard-of chastisements: All this should have taught them that the God of Israel is not like their own gods, which have no power: but their heart is hard as stone, and neither the works nor the words of Moses have been able to soften it. Therefore does God strike them, and deliver His people.

But this very people, this Israel, ungratefully turns against his deliverer. He is content with the types of the good things promised. He will have no other Lamb but the material one. In vain do the Prophets tell him that “a Lamb is to be sent forth, who will be King of the earth; that he will come from the desert to the mount of the Daughter of Sion” (Isaias xvi. 1). Israel refuses to acknowledge this Lamb as his Messiah. He persecutes him and puts him to death, and persists in putting all his confidence in the blood of victims that have no longer the power to propitiate the anger of God. How terrible will be the Passage of the Lord over Jerusalem, when the sword of the Roman Legions will destroy a whole people! Satan too, and his wicked angels, had scoffed at this Lamb. They had despised him as being too meek and humble to be dreaded, and when they saw him shedding his blood on the Cross, a shout of exultation rang through the regions of hell. But what was their dismay when they saw this Lamb descending, like a Lion into Limbo, and setting free from their bondage the countless prisoners? And after this, returning to our earth, and inviting all mankind to receive the liberty of the glory of children of God? (Romans viii. 2)

Jesus, how terrible is your Passover to your enemies! But how glorious for them that serve you! The people of Israel feared it not because their houses were marked with the blood of the figurative Lamb. We are more favoured than they: our Lamb is the Lamb of God, and your Blood is signed, not on our dwellings, but on our souls. Your Prophet foretold the great mystery when he said that on the day of your vengeance on Jerusalem they would be spared whose foreheads should be marked with the Tau (Ezechiel ix. 6). Israel despised the prophecy which is our joy. The Tau is the sign of your Cross, dear Jesus! It is your Cross that shields, and protects, and gladdens us in this Pasch of your Passover, in which your anger is all for your enemies, and your blessings all for us!

Epistle – Acts xiii. 26‒33

In those days, Paul, standing up, and with his hand making a sign for silence, said, “Men, brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whoever among you fear God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that inhabited Jerusalem, and the rulers thereof, not knowing Jesus, nor the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, judging Him, have fulfilled them: and finding no cause of death in Him, desired of Pilate, that they might kill Him. And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of Him, taking Him down from the tree, they laid Him in a sepulchre. But God raised Him up from the dead the third day, and He was seen for many days by them that came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who to this present time are his witnesses to the people. And we declare to you that the promise which was made to our fathers, this same has God fulfilled to our children, raising up again Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

This discourse which was made at Antioch in Pisidia, in the Synagogue, shows us that the Doctor of the Gentiles followed the same method in his instructions as did the Prince of the Apostles. The great subject of their preaching was the Resurrection of Christ — for it is the fundamental truth, it is the fact above all others which proves the divine mission of the Son of God on earth. It is not enough to believe in Christ Crucified. We must also believe in Christ Risen. The Resurrection is not only the indisputable fact on which rests the whole certainty of our faith, but it is also the dogma which energises the whole Christian world. Nothing ever happened on this earth which produced a like impression. See how it is now being celebrated by millions of men of every race and nation!

Gospel – Luke xxiv. 36‒47

At that time, Jesus stood in the midst of His disciples, and said to them, “Peace be to you: it is I, fear not.” But they, being troubled and frightened, supposed that they saw a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts,? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see: for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me to have.” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they yet believed not, and wondered for joy, He said, “Have you here anything to eat?” And they offered Him a piece of broiled fish, and a honeycomb. And, when He had eaten before them, taking the remains, He gave to them. And He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me.” Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. And He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day; and that penance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name to all nations.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Jesus shows Himself to all His Apostles on the evening of the day on which He rose from the grave, and He greets them with the wish of Peace wishes the same to us, during this Feast of the Pasch. He desires to establish Peace among us:—Peace between Man and God, Peace in the conscience of the repentant sinner, Peace between man and man by the forgiveness of injuries. Let us welcome this wish of our Risen Lord, and jealously preserve the Peace He thus deigns to bring us. At His birth in Bethlehem the Angels announced this Peace to men of good will. But now it is Jesus Himself who brings it to us, for He has accomplished His work of pacification by dying for us on the Cross. The first word He addresses to His Apostles, and, through them, to us, is Peace! Let us lovingly accept the blessing and show ourselves to be, in all things, children of Peace.

The conduct of the Apostles on this occasion deserves our attention. They believe in their Lord’s Resurrection. They eagerly announced the great event to the two disciples of Emmaus: but how weak is their faith! They are troubled and frightened at the sudden apparition of Jesus: and when He graciously permits them to handle Him, they are overpowered joy, and yet there is a certain inexplicable doubt still lingering in their minds. Our Lord has to condescend even to eat in their presence in order fully to convince them that it is really Himself, and not a phantom. What a strange inconsistency there is in all this! Had they not already believed and confessed the Resurrection of their Master before receiving this visit?

We have a lesson to learn here: it is that there are some people who believe, but their faith is so weak that the slightest shock would endanger it. They say they have faith, but it is of the most superficial kind. And yet without a lively and vigorous faith what can we do in the battle we have to be incessantly waging against the devil, the world, and our own selves? He who wrestles with an enemy is desirous to have a sure footing. If he stand on slippery ground, he is sure to be thrown. Nothing is so common nowadays as unstable faith which believes as long as there is nothing to try it: but let it be put to the test, and it gives way. One principal cause of this weakness of faith is that subtle naturalism which now fills the atmosphere in which we live, and which it is so difficult not to imbibe. Let us earnestly pray for an invincible and supernatural faith which may be the ruling principle of our conduct, which may never flinch, and may triumph over both our internal and external enemies.

Thus will we be able to apply to ourselves those words of the Apostle Saint John: This is the victory which overcomes the world — our Faith (John v. 4).

6 APRIL – EASTER MONDAY

 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

So ample and so profound is the mystery of the glorious Pasch, that an entire week may well be spent in its meditation. Yesterday we limited ourselves to our Redeemer’s rising from the tomb and showing Himself in six different apparitions to them that were dear to Him. We will continue to give Him the adoration, gratitude and love which are so justly due to Him for the triumph, which is both His and ours: but it also behoves us respectfully to study the lessons conveyed by the Resurrection of our Divine Master, that thus the light of the great mystery may the more plentifully shine upon us, and our joy be greater.

And first of all, what is the Pasch? The Scriptures tell us that it is the immolation of the Lamb. To understand the Pasch we must first understand the mystery of the Lamb. From the earliest ages of the Christian Church we find the Lamb represented in the mosaics and frescoes of the Basilicas as the symbol of Christ’s sacrifice and triumph. Its attitude of sweet meekness expressed the love with which our Jesus shed His blood for us, but it was put standing on a green hill, with the four rivers of Paradise flowing from beneath its feet, signifying the four Gospels which have made known the glory of His Name throughout the earth. At a later period, the Lamb was represented holding a cross to which was attached a banner: and this is the form in which we now have the symbol of the Lamb of God.

Ever since sin entered the world, man has need of the Lamb. Without the Lamb he never could have inherited heaven, but would have been, for all eternity, an object of God’s just anger. In the very beginning of the world the just Abel drew down on himself the mercy of God by offering on a sod- made altar the fairest Lamb of his flock: he himself was sacrificed, as a Lamb, by the murderous hand of his brother, and thus became a type of our Divine Lamb, Jesus, who was slain by His own Israelite Brethren. When Abraham ascended the mountain to make the sacrifice commanded him by God, he immolated on the altar, prepared for Isaac, the ram he found amid the thorns. Later on God spoke to Moses and revealed to him the Pasch: it consisted of a Lamb that was to be slain and eaten. A few days back, we had read to us the passage from the Book of Exodus, where God gives this rite to His people. The Paschal Lamb was to be without blemish. Its blood was to be sprinkled as a protection against the destroying Angel, and its flesh was to be eaten. This was the first Pasch. It was most expressive as a figure, but void of reality. For fifteen hundred years was it celebrated by God’s people, and the spiritual-minded among the Jews knew it to be the type of a future Lamb.

In the age of the great Prophets, Isaias prayed God to fulfil the promise he made at the beginning of the world. We united in this his sublime and inspired prayer, when, during Advent, the Church read to us his magnificent prophecies. How fervently did we not repeat those words: “Send forth, Lord, the Lamb, the ruler of the earth” (Isaias xvi. 1) This Lamb was the long-expected Messiah, and we said to ourselves: “Oh ! what a Pasch will that not be, in which such a Lamb is to be victim! What a Feast, in which He is to be the food of the feasters!”

When the fulness of time came and God sent His Son upon our earth, this Word made Flesh, after thirty years of hidden life, manifested Himself to men. He came to the river Jordan where John was baptising. No sooner did the holy Baptist see Him than he said to his disciples: “Behold the Lamb of God! Behold him who takes away the sin of the world!” (John i. 29) By these words, the saintly Precursor proclaimed the Pasch, for it was virtually telling men that the earth then possessed the true Lamb, the Lamb of God, of whom it had been in expectation four thousand years. Yes, the Lamb — who was fairer than the one offered by Abel, richer in mystery than the one slain by Abraham on the Mount, and more spotless than the one the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice in Egypt — had come. He was the Lamb so earnestly prayed for by Isaias: the Lamb sent by God himself — in a word, the Lamb of God. A few years would pass, and then the immolation.

But three days ago, and we assisted at His sacrifice. We witnessed the meek patience with which He suffered His executioners to slay Him. We have been laved with His Precious Blood, and it has cleansed us from all our sins. The shedding of this redeeming Blood was needed for our Pasch. Unless we had been marked with it, we could not have escaped the sword of the destroying Angel. It has made us partake of the purity of the God who so generously shed it for us. Our neophytes have risen whiter than snow from the font in which that Blood was mingled. Poor sinners that had lost the innocence received in their Baptism, have regained their treasure, because the divine energy of that Blood has been applied to their souls. The whole assembly of the faithful is clad in the nuptial garment, rich and fair beyond measure, for it has been made white in the Blood of the Lamb (Apocalypse vii. 14). But why this festive garment? It is because we are invited to a great banquet: and here, again, we find our Lamb. He himself is the food of the happy guests, and the banquet is the Pasch. The great Apostle, Saint Andrew, when confessing the name of Christ before the pagan Proconsul Aegeas, spoke these sublime words: “I daily offer upon the altar the spotless Lamb, of whose Flesh the whole multitude of the Faithful eat: the Lamb, that is sacrificed, remains whole and living.”

Yesterday this banquet was celebrated throughout the entire universe: it is kept up during all these days, and by it we contract a close union with the Lamb who incorporates Himself with us by the divine food He gives us. Nor does the mystery of the Lamb end here. Isaias besought God to send the Lamb who was to be the Ruler of the earth. He comes, therefore, not only that He may be sacrificed, not only that He may feed us with His sacred flesh, but likewise that He may command the earth and be King. Here, again, is our Pasch. The Pasch is the announcement of the reign of the Lamb. The citizens of heaven thus proclaim it: “Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered!” (Apocalypse v. 5) But, if He be the Lion, how is He the Lamb? Let us be attentive to the mystery. Out of love for man who needed redemption and a heavenly food that would invigorate, Jesus deigned to be as a Lamb: but He had, moreover, to triumph over His own and our enemies. He had to reign, for all power was given to Him in Heaven and on Earth (Matthew xxviii. 18) In this His triumph and power, He is a Lion: nothing can resist Him. His victory is celebrated, this day, throughout the whole world. Listen to the great Deacon of Edessa, Saint Ephrem: “At the twelfth hour He was taken down from the Cross as a Lion that slept.” Yes, verily, our Lion slept, for His rest in the sepulchre “was more like sleep than death,” as Saint Leo remarks. Was not this the fulfilment of Jacob’s dying prophecy? This Patriarch, speaking of the Messiah that was to be born of his race, said: “Judah is a lion’s whelp. To the prey, my son, you are gone up! Resting you have couched as a Lion. Who will rouse him?” (Genesis xlix. 9) He has roused Himself, by His own power. He has risen: a Lamb for us, a Lion for His enemies, thus uniting, in His person, gentleness and power. This completes the mystery of our Pasch: a Lamb, triumphant, obeyed, adored. Let us payHhim the homage so justly due. Until we be permitted to join, in heaven, with the millions of Angels and the Four-and-twenty Elders, let us repeat, here on earth, the hymn they are forever singing: “The Lamb that was slain, is worthy to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction” (Apocalypse v. 12).

Epistle – Acts x. 37‒43

In those days, Peter, standing in the midst of the people, said, “Men, brethren, you know the word which has been published through all Judea; for it began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. Jesus of Nazareth: how God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things that He did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem; Whom they killed, hanging Him upon a tree. Him God raised up the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but to witnesses preordained by God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose again from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was appointed by God to be the judge of the living and of the dead. To Him all the prophets give testimony, that through His Name all receive remissions of sins, who believe in Him.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Saint Peter spoke these words to Cornelius, the Centurion, and to the household and friends of this Gentile, who had called them together to receive the Apostle whom God had sent to him. He had come to prepare them for Baptism, and thus make them the first-fruits of the Gentile-world, for, up to this time, the Gospel had been preached only to the Jews. Let us take notice how it is Saint Peter, and not any other of the Apostles, who throws open to us Gentiles the door of the Church, which Christ had built upon him, as upon the impregnable Rock... Let us observe... the method used by the Apostle in the conversion of Cornelius and the other Gentiles. He begins by speaking to them concerning Jesus. He tells them of the miracles he wrought. Then, having related how He died the ignominious death of the Cross, he insists on the fact of the Resurrection as the sure guarantee of His being truly God. He then instructs them on the mission of the Apostles, whose testimony must be received — testimony which carries persuasion with it, seeing it was most disinterested, and availed them nothing save persecution. He, therefore, who believes in the Son of God made Flesh, who went about doing good, working all kinds of miracles, who died on the Cross, rose again from the dead, and entrusted to certain men chosen by Himself the mission of continuing on earth he ministry He had begun — he who confesses all this is worthy to receive, by holy Baptism, the remission of his sins. Such is the happy lot of Cornelius and his companions.

Gospel – Luke xxiv. 13‒35

At that time, two of the disciples of Jesus went that same day to a town which was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, named Emmaus. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they talked and reasoned with themselves, Jesus Himself also drawing near, went with them. But their eyes were held that they should not know Him. And He said to them, “What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk, and are sad?” And one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said to Him, “Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem, and have not known the things that have happened there these days?” To whom He said, “What things?” And they said “concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people. And how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and crucified Him. But we hoped that it was He that should have redeemed Israel. And now besides all this today is the third day since these things were done. Yes, certain women also of our company frightened us, who before it was light were at the sepulchre; and not finding His body, came saying that they had also seen a vision of Angels who say that He is alive. And some of our people went to the sepulchre, and found it so as the women had said, but Him they found not.”

Then He said to them, “O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all the things which the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things that were concerning Himself. And they drew near the town where they they were going, and He made as though he would go further. But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is near evening, and the day is now far spent.” And He went in with them. And it came to pass, while He was at table with them, He took bread, and blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they knew Him. And He vanished out of their sight; And they said one to another, “Was not our heart burning within us, while He talked on the way and opened to us the scriptures?” And rising up the same hour, they went back to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together, and those that were with them saying, “The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.” And they told what happened on the way and how they knew Him in the breaking of bread.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

5 APRIL – EASTER SUNDAY – THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD

Forth to the paschal Victim, Christians bring your sacrifice of praise:

The Lamb redeems the sheep; and Christ, the sinless One has to the Father sinners reconciled.

Together Death and Life in a strange conflict strove; the Prince of Life, who died, now lives and reigns.

 What you saw, Mary, say, as you went on the way.

I saw the tomb wherein the Living One had lain; I saw his glory as he rose again;

Napkins and linen cloths, and Angels twain:

Yea, Christ is risen, my hope, and He will go before you into Galilee.

We know that Christ indeed has risen from the grave:

Hail, you King of Victory! Have mercy, Lord, and save. Amen. Alleluia!

 

Epistle – 1 Corinthians v. 7‒8

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 with (the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

God commanded the Israelites to use unleavened bread when they ate the Paschal Lamb, thereby teaching them that before partaking of this mysterious food they should abandon their sins which are signified by leaven. We Christians, who are called to the New Life which Jesus has created for us by His Resurrection must henceforth be intent on good works as the unleavened bread with which we must receive the Paschal Lamb, our Easter banquet.

Gospel – Mark xvi. 1‒7

At that time, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought sweet spices, that, coming, they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came to the sepulchre, the sun being now risen: and they said one to another, “Who will roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulchre?” And looking, they saw the stone rolled back, for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe, and they were astonished: who said to them, “Be not afraid; you 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 goes before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He told you.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

“He is risen: He is not here!” The corpse laid by the hands of them that loved their Lord on the slab that lies in that cave is risen, and without removing the stone that closed the entrance, has gone forth quickened with a life which can never die. No man has helped Him. No Prophet has stood over the dead body, bidding it return to life. It is Jesus Himself, and by His own power, that has risen. He suffered death, not from necessity, but because He so willed and, again, because He willed, He has delivered Himself from its bondage.

Jesus, you who that thus mocks death, are the Lord our God! We reverently bend our knee before this empty tomb which is now forever sacred because, for a few hours, it was the place of your abode. Behold the place where they laid Him! Behold the winding-sheet and bands which remain to tell the mystery of your having once been dead!

The Angel says to the women: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified!” The recollection makes us weep. Yes, it was but the day before yesterday that His body was carried here mangled, wounded, bleeding. Here, in this cave from which the Angel has now rolled back the stone — in this cave which his presence fills with a more than midday brightness — stood the afflicted Mother. It echoed with the sobs of them that were at the burial: John and the two disciples, Magdalene and her companions. The sun sank beneath the horizon and the first day of Jesus’ burial began. But the Prophet had said: “In the evening, weeping will have place; and in the morning, gladness.”

This glorious, happy morning has come, Jesus, and great indeed is our gladness at seeing that this same sepulchre, to which we followed you with aching hearts, is now but the trophy of your victory! Your precious wounds are healed! It was we that caused them. Permit us to kiss them. You are now living, more glorious than ever, and immortal. And because we resolved to die to our sins when you were dying in order to expiate them, you will that we too should live eternally with you, that your victory over death should be ours, that death should be for us, as it was for you, a mere passing to immortality, and should, one day, give back, uninjured and glorified, these bodies which are to be lent, for a while, to the tomb. Glory, then, and honour, and love, be to you, Jesus, who deigned not only to die, but to rise again, for us.