25 MARCH – THE ANNUNCIATION

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This is a great day, not only to man, but even to God Himself, for it is the anniversary of the most solemn event that time has ever witnessed. On this day the Divine Word by which the Father created the world was made flesh in the womb of a virgin and dwelt among us (John i. 14). We must spend it in joy. While we adore the Son of God who humbled Himself by thus becoming Man let us give thanks to the Father who so loved the world as to give His Only Begotten Son (John iii. 16). Let us give thanks to the Holy Ghost whose almighty power achieves the great mystery. We are in the very midst of Lent and yet the ineffable joys of Christmas are upon us: our Emmanuel is conceived on this day, and nine months hence will be born in Bethlehem, and the Angels will invite us to come and honour the sweet babe.

During Septuagesima Week we meditated on the fall of our First Parents and the triple sentence pronounced by God against the serpent, the woman and Adam. Our hearts were filled with fear as we reflected on the divine malediction, the effects of which are to be felt by all generations, even to the end of the world. But in the midst of the anathemas then pronounced against us, there was a promise made us by our God. It was a promise of salvation, and it kindled hope within us. In pronouncing sentence against the serpent, God said that his head should one day be crushed, and that, too, by a woman.

The time has come for the fulfilment of this promise. The world has been in expectation for four thousand years, and the hope of its deliverance has been kept up in spite of all its crimes. During this time God has made use of miracles, prophecies and types as a renewal of the engagement He has entered into with mankind. The blood of the Messiah has passed from Adam to Noah; from Sem to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; from David and Solomon to Joachim. And now it flows in the veins of Mary, Joachim’s daughter. Mary is the woman by whom is to be taken from our race the curse that lies upon it. God has decreed that she should be Immaculate, and thereby has set an irreconcilable enmity between her and the serpent. She, a daughter of Eve, is to repair all the injury done by her mother’s fall. She is to raise up her sex from the degradation into which it has been cast. She is to co-operate, directly and really, in the victory which the Son of God is about to gain over His and our enemy.

A tradition which has come down from the Apostolic Ages tells us that the great mystery of the Incarnation was achieved on the twenty-fifth day of March. It was at the hour of midnight when the most Holy Virgin was alone and absorbed in prayer that the Archangel Gabriel appeared before her and asked her, in the name of the Blessed Trinity, to consent to become the Mother of God. Let us assist, in spirit, at this wonderful interview between the Angel and the Virgin. And at the same time let us think of that other interview which took place between Eve and the serpent. A holy Bishop and Martyr of the second century, Saint Irenaeus — who had received the tradition from the very disciples of the Apostles — shows us that Nazareth is the counterpart of Eden. In the garden of delights there is a virgin and an angel. And a conversation takes place between them. At Nazareth, a virgin is also spoken to by an angel, and she answers him. But the angel of the earthly Paradise is a spirit of darkness, and he of Nazareth is a spirit of light. In both instances it is the Angel that has the first word. “Why,” said the serpent to Eve, “why has God commanded you that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?” His question implies impatience and a solicitation to evil. He has contempt for the frail creature to whom he addresses it, but he hates the image of God which is upon her.

See, on the other hand, the Angel of light. See with what composure and peacefulness he approaches the Virgin of Nazareth, the new Eve. And how respectfully he bows himself down before her: “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women!” Such language is evidently of Heaven: none but an Angel could speak thus to Mary.

Eve imprudently listens to the tempter’s words. She answers him. She enters into conversation with one that dares to ask her to question the justice of God’s commands. Her curiosity urges her on. She has no mistrust in the serpent. This leads her to mistrust her Creator.

Mary hears what Gabriel has spoken to her, but this Most Prudent Virgin is silent. She is surprised at the praise given her by the Angel. The purest and humblest of virgins has a dread of flattery, and the heavenly Messenger can get no reply from her until he has fully explained his mission by these words: “Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and will bring forth a son: and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father: and he will reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” What magnificent promises are these, which are made to her in the name of God! What higher glory could she, a daughter of Judah, desire? knowing, too, as she does, that the fortunate Mother of the Messiah is to be the object of the greatest veneration! And yet, it tempts her not. She has forever consecrated her virginity to God in order that she may be the more closely united to Him by love. The grandest possible privilege, if it is to be on the condition of her violating this sacred vow, would be less than nothing in her estimation. She thus answers the Angel: “How will this be done because I know not man?”

The first Eve evinces no such prudence or disinterestedness. No sooner has the wicked spirit assured her that she may break the commandment of her divine benefactor and not die, that the fruit of her disobedience will be a wonderful knowledge which will put her on an equality with God Himself, than she immediately yields. She is conquered. Her self-love has made her at once forget both duty and gratitude: she is delighted at the thought of being freed from the two-fold tie which binds her to her Creator.

Such is the woman that caused our perdition! But how different is She that was to save us! The former cares not for her posterity. She looks but to her own interests. The latter forgets herself to think only of her God, and of the claims He has to her service. The Angel, charmed with this sublime fidelity, thus answers the question put to him by Mary and reveals to her the designs of God: “The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And therefore also the Holy which will be born of you will be called the Son of God. And behold your cousin Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her that is called barren, because no word will be impossible with God.” This said, he is silent and reverently awaits the answer of the Virgin of Nazareth.

Let us look once more at the Virgin of Eden. Scarcely has the wicked spirit finished speaking than Eve casts a longing look at the forbidden fruit: she is impatient to enjoy the independence it is to bring her. She rashly stretches forth her hand. She plucks the fruit. She eats it and death takes possession of her: death of the soul, for sin extinguishes the light of life, and death of the body, which, being separated from the source of immortality, becomes an object of shame and horror, and finally crumbles into dust.

But let us turn away our eyes from this sad spectacle and fix them on Nazareth. Mary has heard the Angel’s explanation of the mystery. The will of Heaven is made known to her and how grand an honour it is to bring upon her! She, the humble maid of Nazareth, is to have the ineffable happiness of becoming the Mother of God, and yet the treasure of her virginity is to be left to her! Mary bows down before this sovereign will and says to the heavenly Messenger: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to your word.”

Thus, as the great Saint Irenaeus and so many of the Holy Fathers remark, the obedience of the second Eve repaired the disobedience of the first: for no sooner does the Virgin of Nazareth speak her fiat — be it done — than the Eternal Son of God (who, according to the divine decree, awaited this word) is present by the operation of the Holy Ghost in the chaste womb of Mary, and there He begins his human life. A Virgin is a Mother, and Mother of God. And it is this virgin’s consenting to the divine will that has made her conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost.

This sublime Mystery puts between the Eternal Word and a mere woman the relations of Son and Mother. It gives to the Almighty God a means by which He may, in a manner worthy of His Majesty, triumph over Satan who had hitherto seemed to have prevailed against the divine plan. Never was there a more entire or humiliating defeat than that which was this day gained over Satan. The frail creature, over whom he had so easily triumphed at the beginning of the world, now rises and crushes his proud head. Eve conquers in Mary. God would not choose man for the instrument of his vengeance. The humiliation of Satan would not have been great enough. And therefore she who was the first prey of Hell, the first victim of the tempter, is selected as the one that is to give battle to the enemy. The result of so glorious a triumph is that Mary is to be superior not only to the rebel angels, but to the whole human race, yes, to all the Angels of Heaven. Seated on her exalted throne, she, the Mother of God, is to be the Queen of all creation. Satan, in the depths of the abyss, will eternally bewail his having dared to direct his first attack against the woman, for God has now so gloriously avenged her. And in Heaven the very Cherubim and Seraphim reverently look up to Mary and deem themselves honoured when she smiles upon them, or employs them in the execution of any of her wishes, for she is the Mother of their God.

Therefore is it that we, the children of Adam who have been snatched by Mary’s obedience from the power of Hell, solemnise this day of the Annunciation. Well may we say of Mary those words of Deborah when she sang her song of victory over the enemies of God’s people: “The valiant men ceased, and rested in Israel, until Deborah arose, a Mother arose in Israel. The Lord chose new wars, and He Himself overthrew the gates of the enemies” (Judges v. 7, 8). Let us also refer to the holy Mother of Jesus these words of Judith who by her victory over the enemy was another type of Mary: “Praise the Lord our God, who has not forsaken them that hope in Him. And by me, His handmaid, He has fulfilled His mercy, which He promised to the house of Israel; and He has killed the enemy of His people by my hand this night... The Almighty Lord has struck him, and has delivered him into the hands of a woman, and has slain him” (Judith xiii. 17, 18; xvi. 7).

Lesson – Isaias vii.

In those days the Lord spoke to Achaz, saying: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God, either to the depth of Hell, or to the height above.” And Achaz said: “I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.” And he (Isaias) said: “Hear, therefore, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself gives you a sign. Behold: “a Virgin will conceive and bear a son, and his name will be called Emmanuel. He will eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Prophet is speaking to a wicked king who refused to accept a miraculous proof of God’s merciful protection over Jerusalem. And he makes this an opportunity for announcing to Judah the great portent which we are celebrating today: “A Virgin will conceive and bear a son.” And when was it that God fulfilled the prophecy? It was in an age when mankind seemed to have reached the highest pitch of wickedness, and when idolatry and immorality reigned throughout the whole world. The fullness of time came, and the tradition which had found its way into every country, that a Virgin should bring forth a Son, was exciting much interest. This is the day on which the mystery was accomplished. Let us adore the power of God and the fidelity with which He fulfils His promises. The author of the laws of nature suspends them. He acts independently of them: Virginity and Maternity are united in one and the same creature, for the child that is to be born is God. A Virgin could not bring forth other than God Himself: the Son of Mary is therefore called Euunanuel, that is, God with us.

Let us adore this God, the Creator of all things visible and invisible, who thus humbles Himself. Henceforth, He will have every tongue confess not only His Divinity, but also His Human Nature, which He has assumed in order that He might redeem us. From this day forward He is truly the Son of Man. He will remain nine months in His Mother’s womb, as other children. Like them, He will, after His birth, be fed on milk and honey. He will sanctify all stages of human life, from infancy to perfect manhood, for He is the New Man who has come down from Heaven that he might restore the Old. Without losing anything of His Divinity, He shares in our weak finite being that He may make us partakers of the divine nature (1 Peter i. 4).

Gospel – Luke i.

At that time the Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said to her: “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the Angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with God. Behold you will conceive in your womb, and will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father: and he will reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the Angel: “How will this be done, because I know not man?” And the Angel answering, said to her: “The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And therefore also the Holy which will be born of you will be called the Son of God. And behold your cousin Elizabeth she also has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: because no word will be impossible with God.” And Mary said: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

By these last words of yours, Mary, our happiness is secured. You consent to the desire of Heaven, and your consent brings us our Saviour. Virgin-Mother! Blessed among women! We unite our thanks with the homage that is paid you by the Angels. By you is our ruin repaired. In you is our nature restored, for you have wrought the victory of man over Satan! Saint Bernard, in one of his Homilies on this Gospel thus speaks: “Rejoice, our father Adam! But you, mother Eve, still more rejoice! You were our Parents, but you were also our destroyers. And what is worse, you had wrought our destruction before you gave us birth. Both of you must be consoled in such a Daughter as this: but you, Eve, who was the first cause of our misfortune, and whose humiliation has descended upon all women, you have a special reason to rejoice in Mary. For the time is now come when the humiliation is taken away, neither can man any longer complain against the woman as of old when he foolishly sought to excuse himself, and cruelly put all the blame on her, saying: “The woman whom you gave me, gave me of the Tree, and I did eat. Go, Eve, to Mary. Go, Mother, to your Daughter. Let your Daughter take your part, and free you from your disgrace, and reconcile you to her father: for, if man fell by a woman, he is raised up by a woman. What is this you say, Adam? The woman whom you gave me, gave me of the Tree, and I did eat? These are wicked words. Far from effacing your fault, they aggravate it. But divine Wisdom conquered your wickedness by finding in the treasury of His own inexhaustible mercy a motive for pardon which He had in vain sought to elicit by questioning you. In place of the woman of whom you complain He gives you another: Eve was foolish, Mary is wise. Eve was proud, Mary is humble. Eve gave you of the tree of death, Mary will give you of the Tree of life. Eve offered you a bitter and poisoned fruit, Mary will give you the sweet Fruit she herself is to bring forth, the Fruit of everlasting life. Change, then, your wicked excuse into an act of thanksgiving, and say: The woman whom you have given me, Lord, has given me of the Tree of Life, and I have eaten thereof. And it is sweeter than honey to my mouth, for by it you have given me life.”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Quirinus, martyr, who after losing his goods, suffering imprisonment in a dark dungeon, and being severely scourged, was put to death with the sword and thrown into the river Tiber. Christians found his body on the Island of St. Bartholomew and buried it in the Pontian cemetery.

In the same city, two hundred and sixty-two holy martyrs.

At Sirmium, the martyrdom of St. Irenaeus, bishop. In the time of the emperor Maximian under the governor Probus, after undergoing bitter torments and a painful imprisonment for many days, he was beheaded.

At Nicomedia, St. Dula, the servant of a soldier, who was killed for the preservation of her chastity and deserved the crown of martyrdom.

At Jerusalem, the commemoration of the Good Thief who confessed Christ on the cross and deserved to hear from Him the words, “This day you will be with Me in Paradise.”

At Laodicea, St. Pelagius, bishop, who having endured exile and other afflictions for the Catholic faith under Valens, rested in the Lord.

At Pistoja, the holy confessors Barontius and Desiderius.

In Indre, an island of the Loire, the abbot St. Hermelandus, whose glorious life is attested by signal miracles.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

25 MARCH – WEDNESDAY IN PASSION WEEK

Lesson – Leviticus xix. 1‒18 

In those days the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to all the assembly of the children of Israel, and you will say to them: ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not steal. You must not lie: neither may any man deceive his neighbour. You must not swear falsely by my name, nor profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. You must not calumniate your neighbour, nor oppress him by violence. The wages of him that has been hired by you will not abide with you until the morning. You must not speak evil of the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind: but you must fear the Lord your God, because I am the Lord. You must not do that which is unjust, nor judge unjustly. Respect not the person of the poor, nor honour the countenance of the mighty. Judge your neighbour according to justice. You must not be a detractor nor a whisperer among the people. You must not stand against the blood of your neighbour. I am the Lord. You must not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you incur sin through him. Seek not revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of your citizens. You must love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord. Keep my laws, for I am the Lord your God.’”

Thanks be to God. 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This passage from Leviticus in which our duties to our neighbour are so clearly and so fully defined, is read to us today in order that we may see how we fulfil these important duties and correct whatever shortcomings we may discover in ourselves. It is God who here speaks. It is God who commands. Observe that phrase: “I am the Lord.” He repeats it several times to show us that if we injure our neighbour, He, God himself, will become the avenger. How strange must not such doctrine have seemed to the catechumens who had been brought up in the selfish and heartless principles of paganism. Here they are told that all men are brethren, and that God is the common Father of all, commanding all to love one another with sincere charity, and without distinction of nation or class. Let us Christians resolve to fulfil this precept to the letter: these are days for good resolutions. Let us remember that the commandments we have been reading were given to the Israelite people many ages before the preaching of the Law of Love. If, then, God exacted from the Jew a cordial love of his fellow-men, when the divine law was written on mere tablets of stone, what will He not require from the Christian who can now read that Law in the Heart of the Man-God who has come down from heaven and made Himself our brother in order that we might find it easier and sweeter to fulfil the precept of charity? Human nature united in his Person to the Divine, is henceforth sacred. It has become an object of the heavenly Father’s love. It was out of fraternal love for this our nature that Jesus suffered death, teaching us, by His own example, to have such love for our brethren, that, if necessary, we ought to lay down our lives for them (John iii. 16). It is the Beloved disciple that teaches us this, and he had it from his Divine Master.

Gospel – John x. 22‒38

At that time it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. The the Jews therefore came round about Him, and said to him: “How long do you hold our souls in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them: “I speak to you and you believe not. The works that I do in the name of my Father, they give testimony of me. But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me: and I give them eternal life: and they will not perish forever, and no man will pluck them out of my hand. That which my Father has given me, is greater than all: and no man can snatch it out of the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one.” The Jews then took up stones to stone him. Jesus answered them: “Many good works I have showed you from my Father: for which of those works do you stone me?” The Jews answered Him: “For a good work we stone you not, but for blasphemy: and because that you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them: “Is it not written in your law: I said you are gods? If he called them Gods, to whom the word of God was spoken, and the Scripture cannot be broken; do you say of him, whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world: You blaspheme; because I said I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you will not believe me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.
 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

After the Feast of Tabernacles came that of the Dedication, and Jesus remained in Jerusalem. The hatred His enemies bore Him is greater than ever. They come round about him, that they may make Him say he is the Christ, and then accuse Him of claiming a mission which does not belong to Him. Jesus deigns not to reply to their question, but tells them that they have seen His works, and that these give ample testimony of His being Christ, the Son of God. It is by faith, and by faith alone, that man can here know his God. God manifests Himself by His divine works: man sees them, and is bound to believe the truth to which they bear testimony. By thus believing, he has both the certitude of what he believes, and the merit of his believing. The proud Jew rebels against this: he would fain dictate to God how he should act, and sees not that such a pretension is impious and absurd.

But if Jesus openly declares the truth, He will scandalise these evil-minded men! Be it so. The truth must be preached. Our Lord has others to consult besides them. There are the well-intentioned, and they will believe what He teaches. He therefore utters these sublime words by which He declares not only that He is Christ, but that He is God: “I and the Father are one.” He knew that this would enrage His enemies, but He had to make Himself known to the world and arm the Church against the false doctrines of heretics who were to rise up in future ages. One of these is to be Arius, who will teach that Jesus is not God, but only the most perfect of creatures. The Church will answer that Jesus is one with the Father — consubstantial to the Father, and, then, after causing much trouble and sin, Arianism will die out and be forgotten. The Jews mentioned in today’s Gospel are the fore-runners of Arius. They understand what our Lord says — He says He is God, and they seek to stone Him. Jesus gives them a fresh grace. He shows them why they should receive what He here teaches: He reminds them, by the Scriptures they knew off by heart, that the name god has sometimes been applied, in a limited sense, to men who had certain high offices put upon them by heaven, and then He bids them think of all the miracles they have seen Him work, which so plainly testify to His being assisted by His Father, and once more declares Himself to be God, saying: “The Father is in me, and I in the Father.” But men hardened in obstinacy as these are cannot be convinced, and the sin they have committed against the Holy Spirit is working its effects. How different is it with the sheep of this divine Shepherd! They hear His voice. They follow Him. He gives them eternal life: no man will pluck them out of His hand. Happy sheep indeed! They believe because they love, and as it is through the heart that truth gains ascendency over them, so is it by pride of intellect that darkness gets admission into the soul of the unbeliever, and lasts as long as pride lasts. Alas, poor unbeliever! He loves his darkness. He calls it light. He blasphemes when he thinks he reasons, just as these Jews crucified the Son of God, that, as they said, they might give glory to God.

24 MARCH – SAINT GABRIEL THE ARCHANGEL

 Dom Prosper Guéranger:

So far in the Church’s Calendar we have not met with any feast in honour of the Holy Angels. Amid the ineffable joys of Christmas night, we mingled our timid but glad voices with the hymns of these heavenly Spirits who sang around the crib of our Emmanuel. The very recollection brings joy to our hearts, saddened as they now are by penitential feelings and by the near approach of the mournful anniversary of our Jesus’ death. Let us, for a moment, interrupt our sadness and keep the feast of the Archangel Gabriel. Later on we will have Michael, Raphael and the countless host of the Angel Guardians. But today, the seventh from the Annunciation, it is just that we should honour Gabriel. Yes, a week hence and we will see this heavenly Ambassador of the Blessed Trinity coming down to the Virgin of Nazareth. Let us, therefore, recommend ourselves to him and beseech him to teach us how to celebrate, in a becoming manner, the grand Mystery of which he was the Messenger.

Gabriel is one of the first of the Angelic Kingdom. He tells Zachary that he stands before the face of God (Luke i. 19). He is the Angel of the Incarnation because it is in this Mystery, which apparently is so humble, that the power of God is principally manifested and Gabriel signifies the strength of God. We find the Archangel preparing for his sublime office even in the Old Testament. First of all, he appears to Daniel after this Prophet had the vision of the Persian and Grecian Empires. And such was the majesty of his person that Daniel fell on his face trembling (Daniel vii. 17). Shortly afterwards he appears again to the same Prophet, telling him the exact time of the coming of the Messiah: “Know and take notice: that from the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again, to Christ the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks (Daniel ix. 25) that is, sixty-nine weeks of years.

When the fullness of time had come and Heaven was about to send the last of the Prophets — he, who after preaching to men the approach of the Messiah is to show Him to the people, saying: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” — Gabriel descends from Heaven to the Temple of Jerusalem and prophesies to Zachary the birth of John the Baptist (Luke i. 13) which was to be followed by that of Jesus Himself. Six months later on the holy Archangel again appears on the Earth, and this time it is Nazareth that he visits. He brings the great message from Heaven. Angel as he is, he reveres the humble maid whose name is Mary. He has been sent to her by the Most High God to offer her the immense honour of becoming the Mother of the Eternal Word. It is Gabriel that receives the great Fiat, the consent of Mary. And when he quits this Earth, he leaves it in possession of Him, for whom it had so long prayed in those words of Isaiah: “Drop down dew, ye heavens!” (Isaias xlv. 8).

The hour at length came when the Mother of the Emmanuel was to bring forth the Blessed Fruit of her virginal womb. Jesus was born amid poverty, but Heaven willed that His crib should be surrounded by fervent adorers. An Angel appeared to some shepherds, inviting them to go to the stable near Bethlehem. He is accompanied by a multitude of the heavenly army sweetly singing their hymn: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will” Who is this Angel that speaks to the shepherds, and seems as the chief of the other blessed Spirits that are with him? In the opinion of several learned writers, it is the Archangel Gabriel who is keeping up his ministry as Messenger of the Good Tidings (Luke ii. 10).

Lastly, when Jesus is suffering His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemani, an Angel appears to Him, not merely as a witness of His suffering, but that He might strengthen Him under the fear His human nature felt at the thought of the chalice of the Passion He was about to drink (Luke xxii. 42, 43) Who is this Angel? It is Gabriel, as we learn not only from the writings of several holy and learned authors, but also from a hymn which the Holy See has permitted to be used in the Liturgy. These are the claims of the great Archangel to our veneration and love. These are the proofs he gives of his deserving his beautiful name — the Strength of God. God has employed him in each stage of the great work in which He has chiefly manifested His power, for Jesus, even on His Cross, is the power of God (1 Corinthians i. 24), as the Apostle tells us. Gabriel prepares the way for Jesus. He foretells the precise time of His Coming. He announces the birth of His Precursor. He is present at the solemn moment when the Word is made Flesh. He invites the shepherds of Bethlehem to come to the crib and adore the Divine Babe and when Jesus, in His Agony, is to receive strength from one of His own creatures, Gabriel is found ready in the Garden of Gethsemani, as he had been at Nazareth and Bethlehem.

* * * * *

The whole human race is indebted to you, Gabriel, and on this day we would fain pay you the honour and gratitude we owe you. You were moved to holy compassion when seeing the miseries of the world, for all flesh had corrupted its way, and the forgetfulness of God increased with each new generation of men. Then did the Most High commission you to bring to the world the good tidings of its salvation. How beautiful your steps, Prince of the heavenly court, as you came down to this our humble sphere! How tender and fraternal is your love of man whose nature, though so inferior to your own, was to be raised by the mystery of the Incarnation to union with God Himself! With what respectful awe did you not approach the Virgin who surpassed all the Angels in holiness! Blessed Messenger of our Redemption whom God selects as His Minister when He would show His power, we beseech you, offer the homage of our gratitude to Him that thus sent you. Help us to pay the immense debt we owe to the Father who so loved the world as to give it His only begotten Son (John iii. 16): to the Son, who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians ii. 7), and to the Holy Ghost who rested on the Flower that sprang up out of the root of Jesse (Isaias xi. 1).

’Twas you, Gabriel, that taught us the salutation with which we should greet Mary full of grave. You were the first to pronounce these sublime words, which you brought from Heaven. The children of the Church are now, day and night, repeating these words of yours. Pray for us that we may say them in such a manner as that our Blessed Mother may find them worthy of her acceptance.

Angel of Strength, Friend of Mankind, relent not in your ministry of aiding us. We are surrounded by terrible enemies. Our weakness makes them bold. Come to our assistance, get us courage. Pray for us during these days of conversion and penance. Obtain for us the knowledge of all we owe to God in consequence of that ineffable mystery of the Incarnation of which you were the first witness. We have forgotten our duties to the Man-God, and we have offended Him: enlighten us, that so, henceforth, we may be faithful to His teachings and examples.

Raise up our thoughts to the happy abode where you dwell. Assist us to merit the places left vacant by the fallen Angels, for God has reserved them for His elect among men. Pray, Gabriel, for the Church Militant, and defend her against the attacks of Hell. The times are evil. The spirits of malice are let loose, nor can we make stand against them unless with God’s help. It is by His holy Angels that He gives victory to His Spouse. Be thou, Strength of God, foremost in the ranks. Drive heresy back, keep schism down, foil the false wisdom of men, frustrate the policy of the world, arouse the well-minded from apathy that thus, the Christ whom you announced may reign over the Earth He has redeemed, and that we may sing together with you and the whole angelic choir: Glory be to God! Peace to men!

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the holy martyrs Mark and Timothy, who were crowned with martyrdom under the emperor Antoninus.

In the same city, St. Epigmenius, priest, who consummated his martyrdom by the sword in the persecution of Diocletian under the judge Turpius.

Also at Rome, in the time of Julian the Apostate, the passion of blessed Pigmenius, a priest, who was killed for the faith of Christ by being precipitated into the river Tiber.

At Caesarea in Palestine, the birthday of the holy martyrs Timolaus, Denis, Pausides, Romulus, Alexander, another Alexander, Agapius and another Denis, who merited the crown of life by being beheaded in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Urban.

In Mauritania (Barbary), the birthday of the saintly brothers Romulus and Secundus, who suffered for the faith of Christ.

At Trent, the martyrdom of the holy child Simeon, who was barbarously murdered by the Jews. He became celebrated for many miracles.

At Synnadas in Phrygia, St. Agapitus, bishop.

At Brescia, St. Latinus, bishop. In Syria, St. Seleucus, confessor.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

24 MARCH – TUESDAY IN PASSION WEEK

 

Lesson – Daniel xiv. 28‒42

In those days the people of Babylon gathered together against the king, and said to him: “Deliver up to us Daniel who has destroyed Bel and killed the Dragon, otherwise we will destroy you and your house.” And the king saw that they pressed on him violently, and being constrained by necessity he delivered Daniel to them. And they cast him into the den of lions, and he was there six days. And in the den there were seven lions, and they had given to them two carcasses every day, and two sheep: but then they were not given to them, to the intent that they might devour Daniel. Now there was in Judea a prophet called Habacuc, and he had boiled pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl, and was going into the field to carry it to the reapers. And the Angel of the Lord said to Habacuc: “Carry the dinner which you have into Babylon to Daniel,who is in the lions’ den.” And Habacuc said: “Lord, I never saw Babylon, nor do I know the den.” And the Angel of the Lord took him by the top of his head, and carried him by the hair of his head, and set him in Babylon over the den in the force of his spirit. And Habacuc cried, saying: “O Daniel, you servant of God, take the dinner that God has sent you.” And Daniel said: “You have remembered me, O God, and you have not forsaken them that love you.” And Daniel arose and ate. And the Angel of the Lord presently set Habacuc again in his own place. And on the seventh day the king came to bewail Daniel, and he came to the den and looked in, and behold Daniel was sitting in the midst of the lions. And the king cried out with a loud voice, saying: “Great are you, O Lord, the God of Daniel.” And he drew him out of the lions’ den. But those that had been the cause of his destruction, he cast into the den and they were devoured in a moment before him. Then the king said: “Let all the inhabitants of the whole earth fear the God of Daniel, for He is the Saviour, working signs and wonders in the earth, who has delivered Daniel out of the lions’ den.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This Lesson was intended in an especial manner as an instruction to the catechumens. They were preparing to enroll themselves as Christians. It was therefore necessary that they should have examples put before them, which they might study and imitate. Daniel, cast into the lions’ den for having despised and destroyed the idol Bel was the type of a martyr. This Prophet had confessed the true God in Babylon. He had put to death a Dragon to which the people, after Bel had been destroyed, had given their idolatrous worship: nothing less than Daniel’s death could appease their indignation. The holy man full of confidence in God allowed himself to be thrown into the lions’ den, thus setting an example of courageous faith to the future Christians: they would imitate him, and for three centuries would nobly shed their blood for the establishment of the Church of Christ. In the Roman catacombs we continually meet with the representation of Daniel surrounded by lions, and many of these paintings date from the ages of persecution. Thus, the eye of the catechumens could see what their ear heard. Both told them to be ready for trial and sacrifice. It is true, the history of Daniel showed them the power of God interfering and delivering him from death, but they were fully aware that in order to merit a like deliverance they would have to show a like constancy, and be ready to suffer death, rather than deny their faith. From time to time, a Christian was led to the amphitheatre, and the wild beasts would fawn at his feet: but such miracles only put off the martyr’s sacrifice, and perhaps won others to the faith.

It was the Prophet’s courage, and not his victory over the lions, that the Church proposed to her catechumens. The great thing for them to bear in mind was this maxim of our Lord: “Fear not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body into hell” (Matthew x. 28). We are the descendants of these early Christians, but our faith has not cost us what it cost them. And yet we have a tyrant to try even ours: we have to confess our faith, not indeed before proconsuls or emperors, but before the world. Let the example of the brave martyrs send us forth from our Lent with a courageous determination to withstand this tyrant, with his maxims, his pomps, and his works. There has been a truce between him and us during these days of retirement and penance, but the battle will soon be renewed, and then we must stand the brunt and show that we are Christians.

Gospel – John vii. 1‒13

At that time Jesus walked in Galilee, for He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. Now the Jews’ feast of Tabernacles was at hand. And His brethren said to Him: “Depart from here and go into Judea that your disciples also may see your works which you do. For there is no man that does anything in secret, and he himself seeks to be known openly; if you do these things, manifest yourself to the world.” For neither did His brethren believe in Him. Then Jesus said to them: “ My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but me it hates because I give testimony of it that the works of it are evil. Go up to this festival day, but I go not up to this festival day, because my time is not accomplished.” When He had said these things, He Himself stayed in Galilee. But after His brethren had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. The Jews therefore sought Him on the festival day and said: “Where is he?” And there was much murmuring among the multitude concerning Him. For some said: “He is a good man.” And others said: “No, but he seduces the people.” Yet no man spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The facts here related refer to an earlier part of our Lord’s life, but the Church proposes them to our consideration today on account of their connection with those given us in the Gospels read to us during the last few days. We learn from these words of Saint John that the Jews were plotting the death of Jesus, not only when this the last Pasch for the synagogue was approaching, but even so far back as the Feast of Tabernacles, which was kept in September. The Son of God was reduced to the necessity of going from place to place as it were in secret. if He would go to Jerusalem, He must take precautions! Let us adore these humiliations of the Man-God who has deigned to sanctify every position of life, even that of the just man persecuted and obliged to hide himself from his enemies. It would have been an easy matter for Him to confound His adversaries by working miracles, such as those which Herod’s curiosity sought for. He could have compelled them to treat Him with the reverence that was due to Him. But this is not God’s way. He does not force man to duty. He acts and then leaves man to recognise his Creator’s claims. In order to do this man must be attentive and humble, he must impose silence on his passions. The divine light shows itself to the soul that thus comports herself. First, she sees the actions, the works, of God. Then, she believes and wishes to believe: her happiness, as well as her merit, lies in faith, and faith will be recompensed in eternity with light —with the Vision. Flesh and blood cannot understand this. They love show and noise. The Son of God having come down on this earth could not subject Himself to such an abasement as that of making a parade of His infinite power before men. He had to work miracles in order to give a guarantee of His mission, but as Man everything He did was not to be a miracle. By far the longest period of His life was devoted to the humble duties of a creature. Had it not been so, how should we have learned from Him what we so much needed to know? His brethren (the Jews gave the name of brothers to all who were collaterally related), His brethren wished Jesus to make a display of His miraculous power, for some of the glory would have accrued to them. This their ambition caused our Lord to address them in these strong words on which we should meditate during this holy season, for later on we will stand in need of the teaching: “The world cannot hate you, but me it hates.” Let us, therefore, for the time to come, not please the world. Its friendship would separate us from Jesus Christ.

23 MARCH – MONDAY IN PASSION WEEK

 

Lesson – Jonas iii. 1‒10

In those days the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying: “Arise and go to Niniveh, the great city, and preach in it the preaching that I bid you.” And Jonas arose, and went to Niniveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Niniveh was a great city of three days’ journey. And Jonas began to enter into the city one day’s journey, and he cried and said: “Yet forty days and Niniveh will be destroyed.” And the men of Niniveh believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. And the word came to the king of Niniveh, and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in from the mouth king and of his saying: “Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste anything: let them not feed nor drink water. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we will not perish?” And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and the Lord our God had mercy on His people.

Thanks be to God. 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church’s intention in this day’s lesson is to encourage us to earnestness and perseverance in our penance. Here we have an idolatrous city, a haughty and debauched capital, whose crimes have merited the anger of heaven. God threatens it with his vengeance: yet forty days, and Niniveh and its inhabitants will be destroyed. How came it, that the threat was not carried into effect? What was it that caused Niniveh to be spared? Its people returned to the God they had left they sued for mercy, they humbled themselves, and fasted, and the Church concludes the Prophet’s account by these touching words of her own: “And the Lord our God had mercy on His people.” They are Gentiles, but they became His people because they did penance at the preaching of the Prophet. God had made a covenant with one only nation, the Jews, but He rejected not the Gentiles as often as they renounced their false gods, confessed His holy Name, and desired to serve Him. We are here taught the efficacy of corporal mortification. When united with spiritual penance, that is, with the repentance of the heart, it has power to appease God’s anger. How highly then should we not prize the holy exercises of penance put upon us by the Church during this holy Season! Let us also learn to dread that false spirituality which tells us that exterior mortification is of little value: such doctrine is the result of rationalism and cowardice.

Gospel – John vii. 32‒39

At that time the rulers and Pharisees sent ministers to apprehend Jesus. Jesus therefore said to them: “Yet a little while I am with you, and then I go to Him that sent me. You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am, there you cannot come.” The Jews therefore said among themselves: “Where will he go that we will not find him? Will he go to the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles? What is this saying that he has said: ‘You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am you cannot come?’ And on the last and great day of the festival Jesus stood and cried, saying: “If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He that believes in me, as the Scripture says, ‘Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this He said of the Spirit which they should receive who believed in Him.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The enemies of Jesus sought to stone Him to death, as we were told in yesterday’s Gospel. Today they are bent on making Him a prisoner, and send soldiers to seize Him. This time Jesus does not hide Himself, but how awful are the words He speaks: “I go to Him that sent me. You will seek me and will not find me!” The sinner, then, who has long abused the grace of God may have his ingratitude and contempt punished in this just, but terrific way, that he will not be able to find the Jesus he has despised. He will seek and will not find. Antiochus, when humbled under the hand of God, prayed, yet obtained not mercy (2 Maccabees ix. 13).

After the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, while the Church was casting her roots in the world, the Jews who had crucified the Just One were seeking the Messiah in each of the many impostors who were then rising up in Judea and fomenting rebellions which led to the destruction of Jerusalem. Surrounded on all sides by the Roman legions, with their temple and palaces a prey to flames, they sent up their cries to heaven and besought the God of their fathers to send, as He had promised, the Deliverer! It never occurred to them that this Deliverer had shown Himself to their fathers, to many even of themselves; that they had put Him to death, and that the Apostles had already carried His name to the ends of the earth. They went on looking for Him, even to the very day when the deicide city fell, burying beneath its ruins them that the sword had spared. Had they been asked what it was they were awaiting, they would have replied that they were expecting their Messiah! He had come and gone. “You will seek me and will not find me! Let them, too, think of these terrible words of Jesus who intend to neglect the graces offered them during this Easter. Let us pray, let us make intercession for them, lest they fall into that awful threat of a repentance that seeks mercy when it is too late to find aught save an inexorable Justice.

But, what consoling thoughts are suggested by the concluding words of our Gospel! Faithful souls and you that have repented, listen to what your Jesus says, for it is to you that He speaks: “If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Remember the prayer of the Samaritan woman: “Give me Lord, to drink of this water!” This water is divine grace: come and drink your fill at the fountains of your Saviour, as the Prophet Isaias bids you (Isaias vii. 3). This water gives purity to the soul that is defiled, strength to them that are weak, and love to them that have no fervour. Nay, our Saviour assures us that He who believes in Him will himself become as a fountain of living water, for the Holy Ghost will come upon him and this soul will pour out upon others of the fullness that she herself has received.

 

22 MARCH – PASSION SUNDAY

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.

The Holy Church begins her Night Office of this Sunday with these impressive words of the Royal Prophet. Formerly, the faithful considered it their duty to assist at the Night Office, at least on Sundays and Feasts. They would have grieved to have lost the grand teachings given by the Liturgy. Such fervour has long since died out. The assiduity at the Offices of the Church, which was the joy of our Catholic forefathers, has now become a thing of the past, and even in countries which have not apostatised from the faith, the clergy have ceased to celebrate publicly Offices at which no-one assisted. Excepting in cathedral churches and in monasteries, the grand harmonious system of the Divine Praise has been abandoned, and the marvellous power of the Liturgy has no longer its full influence upon the faithful.

This is our reason for drawing the attention of our readers to certain beauties of the Divine Office, which would otherwise be totally ignored. Thus, what can be more expressive than this solemn Invitatory of today’s Matins, which the Church takes from one of the psalms, and which she repeats on every Feria between this and Maundy Thursday?

She says: Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts! The sweet voice of your suffering Jesus now speaks to you, poor sinners! Be not your own enemies by indifference and hardness of heart. The Son of God is about to give you the last and greatest proof of the love that brought Him down from heaven. His Death is near at hand: men are preparing the wood for the immolation of the new Isaac. Enter into yourselves and let not your hearts, after being touched with grace, return to their former obduracy, for nothing could be more dangerous. The great anniversaries we are to celebrate have a renovating power for those souls that faithfully correspond with the grace which is offered them, but they increase insensibility in those who let them pass without working their conversion. Today, therefore, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts!

During the preceding four weeks we have noticed how the malice of Jesus’ enemies has been gradually increasing. His very presence irritates them, and it is evident that any little circumstance will suffice to bring the deep and long nurtured hatred to a head. The kind and gentle manners of Jesus are drawing to Him all hearts that are simple and upright. At the same time, the humble life He leads, and the stern purity of His doctrines, are perpetual sources of vexation and anger, both to the proud Jew that looks forward to the Messiah being a mighty conqueror, and to the Pharisee who corrupts the Law of God, that he may make it the instrument of his own base passions. Still, Jesus goes on working miracles. his discourses are more than ever energetic. His prophecies foretell the fall of Jerusalem, and such a destruction of its famous Temple, that not a stone is to be left on a stone. The doctors of the Law should at least reflect upon what they hear. They should examine these wonderful works which render such strong testimony in favour of the Son of David, and they should consult those divine prophecies which up to the present time have been so literally fulfilled in His person. Alas, they themselves are about to carry them out to the very last iota. There is not a single outrage or suffering foretold by David and Isaias as having to be put upon the Messiah which these blind men are not scheming to verify. In them, therefore, was fulfilled that terrible saying: “He that will speak against the Holy Ghost, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come” (Matthew xii. 32). The Synagogue is near to a curse. Obstinate in her error, she refuses to see or to hear. She has deliberately perverted her judgement. She has extinguished within herself the light of the Holy Spirit. She will go deeper and deeper into evil, and at length fall into the abyss. This same lamentable conduct is but too often witnessed nowadays in those sinners who, by habitual resistance to the light, end by finding their happiness in sin. Neither should it surprise us that we find in people of our own generation a resemblance to the murderers of our Jesus: the history of His Passion will reveal to us many sad secrets of the human heart and its perverse inclinations, for what happened in Jerusalem happens also in every sinner’s heart. His heart, according to the saying of Saint Paul, is a Calvary where Jesus is crucified. There is the same ingratitude, the same blindness, the same wild madness, with this difference: that the sinner who is enlightened by faith knows Him whom he crucifies, whereas the Jews, as the same Apostle tells us, knew not the Lord of Glory (1 Corinthians ii. 8). While, therefore, we listen to the Gospel which relates the history of the Passion, let us turn the indignation we feel for the Jews against ourselves and our own sins. Let us weep over the sufferings of our Victim, for our sins caused Him to suffer and die.

Everything around us urges us to mourn. The images of the saints, the very crucifix on our altar, are veiled from our sight. The Church is oppressed with grief. During the first four weeks of Lent she compassionated her Jesus fasting in the desert. His coming sufferings and crucifixion and death are what now fill her with anguish. We read in today’s Gospel that the Jews threaten to stone the Son of God as a blasphemer, but His hour is not yet come. He is obliged to flee and hide Himself. It is to express this deep humiliation that the Church veils the Cross. A God hiding Himself, that He may evade the anger of men — what a mystery! Is it weakness? Is it that He fears death? No, we will soon see Him going out to meet His enemies. But at present He hides Himself from them, because all that had been prophesied regarding Him has not been fulfilled. Besides, His death is not to be by stoning: He is to die on a Cross, the tree of malediction, which, from that time forward is to be the Tree of Life.

Let us humble ourselves, as we see the Creator of heaven and earth thus obliged to hide Himself from men who are bent on His destruction! Let us go back in thought to the sad day of the first sin when Adam and Eve hid themselves because a guilty conscience told them they were naked. Jesus is come to assure us of our being pardoned! and lo, He hides Himself, not because He is naked —He that is to the Saints the garb of holiness and immortality — but because He made Himself weak, that He might make us strong. Our first parents sought to hide themselves from the sight of God. Jesus hides Himself from the eye of men, but it will not be thus forever. The day will come when sinners from whose anger He now flees will pray to the mountains that they fall on them to shield them from His gaze, but their prayer will not be granted, and they will see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty.

This Sunday is called Passion Sunday because the Church begins on this day to make the sufferings of our Redeemer her chief thought. It is called also Judica from the first word of the Introit of the Mass, and again, Neomania, that is, the Sunday of the new (or the Easter) moon, because it always falls after the new moon which regulates the Feast of Easter Day.

In the Greek Church, this Sunday goes under the simple name of the Fifth Sunday of the Holy Fasts.

Epistle – Hebrews ix. 11‒15

Brethren, Christ having come, a high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by His own blood, entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who, by the Holy Spirit, offered Himself without a spot to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? And therefore He is the Mediator of the New Testament, and by means of His death, for the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former testament; they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

It is by Blood alone that man is to be redeemed. He has offended God. This God cannot be appeased by anything short of the extermination of his rebellious creature, who, by shedding his blood, will give an earnest of his repentance and his entire submission to the Creator against whom he dared to rebel. Otherwise, the justice of God must be satisfied by the sinner’s suffering eternal punishment. This truth was understood by all the people of the ancient world, and all confessed it by shedding the blood of victims, as in the sacrifices of Abel, at the very commencement of the world, in the hecatombs of Greece, in the countless immolations by which Solomon dedicated the Temple. And yet God thus speaks to His people: “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. I need them not: for all the beasts of the woods are mine. 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? (Psalm xlis. 7‒13) Thus God commands the blood of victims to be offered to Him and, at the same time, declares that neither it nor they are precious in His sight. Is this a contradiction? No. God would by this have man understand that it is only by Blood that he can be redeemed, but that the blood of brute animals cannot effect this redemption. Can the blood of man himself bring him his own redemption, and appease God’s justice? No, not even man’s blood, for it is denied, and even were it undefiled, it is powerless to compensate for the outrage done to God by sin. For this, there was needed the Blood of a God. That was the Blood of Jesus, and He has come that He may shed it for our redemption.

In Him is fulfilled the most sacred of the figures of the Old Law. Once each year, the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies, there to make intercession for the people. He went within the Veil to the Ark of the Covenant, but he was not allowed to enjoy this great privilege unless he entered the holy place carrying in his hands the blood of a newly-offered victim. The Son of God, the true High Priest, is now about to enter heaven, and we are to follow him there, but unto this, He must have an offering of blood, and that Blood can be none other than His own. We are going to assist at this His compliance with the divine ordinance. Let us open our hearts that this precious Blood may, as the Apostle says in today’s Epistle, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Gospel – John xiii. 46‒59

At that time Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews, “Which of you will convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me? He that is of God hears the words of God. Therefore you hear them not because you are not of God.” The Jews therefore answered and said to Him, “Do not we say well, that you are a Samaritan and have a devil?” Jesus answered, “I have not a devil, but I honour my Father, and you have dishonoured me. I seek not my own glory. There is one that seeks and judges. Amen, Amen, I say to you, if any man will keep my word, He will not see death forever.” The Jews therefore said, “Now we know that you have a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets. And you say, ‘If any man keeps my word, he will not taste death forever.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets who are dead. Who do you make yourself to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that He is your God. And you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I will say that I know Him not, I will be like to you, a liar. But I do know Him, and I keep His word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day. He saw it, and was glad.” The Jews therefore said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.” They took up stones therefore to cast at Him but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The fury of the Jews is evidently at its height, and Jesus is obliged to hide Himself from them. But He is to fall into their hands before many days are over. Then will they triumph and put Him to death. They triumph, and Jesus is their victim: but how different is to be his lot from their ! In obedience to the decrees of His heavenly Father, and out of love for men, He will deliver Himself into the hands of His enemies, and they will put Him to death, but He will rise victorious from the tomb, He will ascend into heaven, He will be throned on the right hand of His Father. His enemies on the contrary, after having vented all their rage, will live on without remorse until the terrible day come for their chastisement.

That day is not far off, for observe the severity with which our Lord speaks to them: “You hear not the words of God, because you are not of God.” Yet there was a time, when they were of God, for the Lord gives His grace to all men, but they have rendered this grace useless. They are now in darkness, and the light they have rejected will not return.

“You say that my Father is your God, and you have not known Him, but I know Him.” Their obstinacy in refusing to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah has led these men to ignore that very God whom they boast of honouring, for if they knew the Father, they would not reject His Son. Moses and the Psalms and the Prophets are all a dead letter to them. These sacred Books are soon to pass into the hands of the Gentiles who will both read and understand them. “If” continues Jesus, “you should say that I know Him not, I should be like you, a liar.” This strong language is that of the angry Judge who is to come down at the last day to destroy sinners. Jerusalem has not known the time of her visitation: the Son of God has visited her, He is with her, and she dares to say to Him: “You have a devil!” She says to the Eternal Word, who proves Himself to be God by the most astounding miracles, that Abraham and the Prophets are greater than He! Strange blindness, that comes from pride and hardness of heart! The Feast of the Pasch is at hand: these men are going to eat, and with much parade of religion, the flesh of the figurative lamb. They know full well that this lamb is a symbol or a figure which is to have its fulfilment. The true Lamb is to be sacrificed by their hands, and they will not know Him. He will shed his Blood for them, and it will not save them. How this reminds us of those sinners for whom this Easter promises to be as fruitless as those of the past years! Let us redouble our prayers for them, and beseech our Lord to soften their hearts, lest trampling the Blood of Jesus under their feet, they should have it to cry vengeance against them before the throne of the heavenly Father.

21 MARCH – SAINT BENEDICT OF NORCIA (Abbot)

 

Benedict was born of a noble family at Norcia. He was sent to Rome that he might receive a liberal education, but not long after he withdrew to a place called Subiaco and there hid himself in a very deep cave, that he might give himself entirely to Jesus Christ. He passed three years in that retirement, unknown to all save to a monk named Romanus, who supplied him with the necessaries of life. The devil having one day excited him to a violent temptation of impurity, he rolled himself amid prickly brambles and extinguished within himself the desire of carnal pleasure by the pain he thus endured. The fame of his sanctity, however, became known beyond the limits of his hiding-place and certain monks put themselves under his guidance. He sharply rebuked them for their wicked lives, which rebuke so irritated them that they resolved to put poison in his drink. Having made the sign of the Cross over the cup as they proffered it to him, it broke and he, leaving that monastery, returned to his solitude.

But whereas many daily came to Benedict, beseeching him to take them as his disciples, he built twelve monasteries and drew up the most admirable rules for their government. He afterwards went to Monte Cassino, where he destroyed an image of Apollo which was still adored in those parts. And having pulled down the altar and burnt the groves, he built a chapel in that same place in honour of Saint Martin, and another in honour of Saint John. He instructed the inhabitants in the Christian religion. Day by day did Benedict advance in the grace of God and he also foretold, in a spirit of prophecy, what was to take place. Totila, the King of the Goths, having heard of this and being anxious to know if it were the truth, went to visit him but first sent his sword-bearer who was to pretend that he was the king and who, for this end, was dressed in royal robes and accompanied by attendants. As soon as Benedict saw him, he said: “Put off, my son, put off this dress, for it is not yours.” But he foretold to Totila that he would reach Rome, cross the sea, and die at the end of nine years.

Several months before Benedict departed from this life, he foretold to his disciples the day on which he should die. Six days previous to his death he ordered them to open the sepulchre in which he wished to be buried. On the sixth day, he desired to be carried to the church, and there having received the Eucharist with his eyes raised in prayer towards Heaven, and held up by his disciples, he breathed forth his soul. Two monks saw it ascending to Heaven, adorned with a most precious robe and surrounded by shining lights. They also saw a most beautiful and venerable man who stood above the saint’s head, and they heard him thus speak: “This is the way by which Benedict, the beloved of the Lord, ascended to Heaven.”

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Forty days after the white dove of Cassino had mounted to Heaven, Benedict, her glorious brother, ascended by a bright path to the blissful abode where they were to be united forever. Both of them reached the heavenly country during that portion of the year which corresponds with the holy Season of Lent. It frequently happens, however, that Saint Scholastica’s feast is kept before Lent has begun whereas Saint Benedict’s day, the twenty-first of March, always comes during the Season of penance. God who is the Sovereign Master of time willed that the faithful, while practising their exercises of penance, should always have before their eyes a Saint whose example and intercession should inspire them with courage.

With what profound veneration ought we not to celebrate the festival of this wonderful Saint who, as Saint Gregory says, “was filled with the spirit of all the Just!” If we consider his virtues, we find nothing superior in the annals of perfection presented to our admiration by the Church. Love of God and man, humility, the gift of prayer, dominion over the passions, form him into a masterpiece of the grace of the Holy Ghost. Miracles seem to constitute his life: he cures the sick, commands the elements, casts out devils and raises the dead to life. The spirit of prophecy unfolds futurity to him and the most intimate thoughts of men are not too distant for the eye of his mind to scan. These superhuman qualifications are heightened by a sweet majesty, a serene gravity and a tender charity which shine in every page of his wonderful Life, and it is one of his holiest children who wrote it —Saint Gregory the Great. It is this holy Pope and Doctor who had the honour of telling posterity all the wonders which God vouchsafed to work in His servant Benedict.

Yes, posterity had a right to know the life and virtues of a man whose salutary influence on the Church and society has been so observable during the ages of the Christian era. To describe the influence exercised by the spirit of Saint Benedict we should have to transcribe the annals of all the nations of the Western Church from the seventh century down to our own times. Benedict is the Father of Europe. By his Benedictines, numerous as the stars of Heaven and as the sands of the sea-shore, he rescued the last remnants of Roman vigour from the total annihilation threatened by the invasion of Barbarians. He presided over the establishment of the public and private laws of those nations which grew out of the ruins of the Roman Empire. He carried the Gospel and civilisation into England, Germany and the Northern countries, including Sclavonia. He taught agriculture. He put an end to slavery. And to conclude, he saved the precious deposit of the arts and sciences from the tempest which would have swept them from the world and would have left mankind a prey to a gloomy and fatal ignorance.

And Benedict did all this by that little book which we call his “Rule.” This admirable code of Christian perfection and prudence disciplined the countless legions of Religious by whom the Holy Patriarch achieved all these prodigies. During the ages which preceded the promulgation of this “Rule” — so wonderful in its simple eloquence —the monastic life in the Western Church had produced some few saintly men. But there was nothing to justify the hope that this kind of life would become, even more than it had been in the East, the principal means of the Christian regeneration and civilisation of so many nations. This “Rule” once written — and all others gradually give place to it, as the stars are eclipsed when the sun has risen. The West was peopled with monasteries, and from these monasteries flowed upon Europe all those blessings which have made it the privileged quarter of the globe.

An incredible number of Saints, both men and women, who look up to Benedict as their father purify and sanctify the world which had not yet emerged from the state of semi-barbarism. A long series of Popes who had once been Novices in the Benedictine cloister preside over the destinies of this new world and form for it a new legislation which, being based exclusively on the moral law, is to avert the threatening prevalence of brutal despotism.

Bishops innumerable, trained in the same school of Benedict, consolidate this moral legislation in the provinces and cities over which they are appointed. The Apostles of twenty barbarous nations confront their fierce and savage tribes and, with the Gospel in one hand, and the “Rule” of their Holy Father in the other, lead them into the fold of Christ. For many centuries the learned men, the Doctors of the Church and the instructors of youth, belong, almost exclusively, to the Order of the great Patriarch who, by the labours of his children, pour forth on the people the purest beauty of light and truth.

This choir of heroes in every virtue, of Popes, of Bishops, of Apostles, of holy Doctors, proclaiming themselves as his disciples and joining with the universal Church in glorifying that God whose holiness and power shine forth so brightly in the life and actions of Benedict, what a corona, what an aureola of glory for one Saint to have!

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O Benedict! Vessel of Election! Palm of the Wilderness! Angel of Earth! We offer you the salutation of our love! What man was ever chosen to work on the Earth more wonders than you have done! The Saviour has crowned you as one of His principal co-operators in the work of the salvation and sanctification of men. Who could count the millions of souls who owe their eternal happiness to you, your immortal Rule having sanctified them in the cloister, and the zeal of your Benedictines having been the means of their knowing and serving the great God, who chose you? Around you, in the realms of glory, a countless number of the Blessed acknowledge themselves indebted to you, after God, for their eternal happiness. And upon the Earth whole nations profess the true faith because the Gospel was first preached to them by your disciples.

Father of so many people, look down on your inheritance and once more bless this ungrateful Europe which owes everything to you, yet has almost forgotten your name! The light which your children imparted to it has become dimmed. The warmth they imparted to the societies they founded and civilised by the Cross, has grown cold. Thorns have covered a large portion of the land in which they sowed the seed of salvation. Come and forward your own work. And by your prayers keep in its expiring life. Give firmness to what has been shaken. May a new Europe — a Catholic Europe — spring up in place of that which heresy and false doctrines have formed. Patriarch of the Servants of God, look down from Heaven on the vineyard which your hand has planted and see into what a state of desolation it has fallen. There was a time when your name was honoured as that of a Father in thirty thousand monasteries from the shores of the Baltic to the borders of Syria, and from the green Erin to the steppes of Poland. Now, alas, few and feeble are the prayers that ascend to you from the whole of that immense patrimony which the faith and gratitude of the people had once consecrated to you. The blight of heresy and the rapaciousness of avarice have robbed you of these harvests of your glory. The work of sacrilegious spoliation is now centuries old and unceasingly has it been pursued. At one time, having recourse to open violence, and at another, pleading the urgency of political interests. Sainted Father of our Faith, you have been robbed of those thousands of sanctuaries which, for long ages, were fountains of life and light to the people. The race of your children has become almost extinct: watch over them that still remain, and are labouring to perpetuate your Rule. An ancient tradition tells us how our Lord revealed to you that your Order would last to the end of the world, and that your children would console the Church of Rome and confirm the faith of many in the last great trials. Deign to protect, by your powerful intercession, the remnants of that Family which still calls you its Father. Raise it up again. Multiply it. Sanctify it: let the Spirit which you have deposited in your Holy Rule flourish in its midst, and show, by thus blessing it, that you are ever “Benedict,” the servant of God.

Support the Holy Church by your powerful intercession, dear Father! Assist the Apostolic See which has been so often occupied by disciples of your School. Father of so many Pastors of your people, obtain for us Bishops like those sainted ones whom your Rule has formed. Father of so many Apostles! Ask for the countries which have no faith preachers of the Gospel who may convert the people by their blood and by their words, as did those who went out missionaries from your cloisters. Father of so many holy Doctors, pray that the science of sacred literature may revive to aid the Church and confound error. Father of so many sublime Ascetics, rekindle the zeal of Christian perfection which has grown so cold among the Christians of our days. Patriarch of the Religious Life in the Western Church, bless all the Religious Orders which the Holy Spirit has given successively to the Church. They all look on you with admiration as their venerable predecessor. Pour out upon them the influence of your fatherly love.

Lastly, Blessed favourite of God, pray for all the Faithful of Christ during these days which are consecrated to thoughts and works of penance. It was in the midst of the holy austerities of Lent that you mounted to the abode of everlasting delight. Help us Christians who are, at this very time, in the same campaign of penance. Rouse our courage by your example and precepts. Teach us to keep down the flesh and subject it to the spirit, as you did. Obtain for us a little of your blessed spirit, that turning away from this vain world, we may think on the eternal years. Pray for us that our hearts may never love, nor our thoughts ever dwell, on joys so fleeting as are those of time.

Catholic piety invokes you as one of the patrons, as well as one of the models, of a dying Christian. It loves to tell men of the sublime spectacle you presented at your death when standing at the foot of the altar, leaning on the arms of your disciples and barely touching the earth with your feet, you gave back, in submission and confidence, your soul to its Creator. Obtain for us, dear Saint, a death courageous and sweet as was yours. Drive from us, at our last hour, the cruel enemy who will seek to ensnare us. Visit us by your presence, and leave us not till we have breathed forth our soul into the bosom of the God who has made you so glorious a Saint.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Alexandria, under the emperor Constantine and the governor Philagrius, the commemoration of the holy martyrs who were attacked and murdered by the Arians and the Gentiles while they were in church on Good Friday.

The same day, the holy martyrs Philemon and Domninus.

At Catania, St. Birillus, who was consecrated bishop by the blessed Apostle St. Peter. After converting many Gentiles to the faith, in extreme old age he rested in peace.

At Alexandria, blessed Serapion, anchoret and bishop of Thmuis, a man of great virtue, who being forced into exile by the enraged Arians, went to heaven.

In the territory of Lyons, the abbot St. Lupicinus whose life was resplendent with the lustre of holiness and miracles.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

22 MARCH – SATURDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Isaias xlix. 8‒15

Thus says the Lord: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you; and I have preserved you, and given you to be a covenant of the people, that you might raise up the earth, and possess the inheritances that were destroyed, that you might say to them that are bound: ‘Come forth” and to them that are in darkness: ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed in the ways, and their pastures will be in every plain. They will not hunger nor thirst, neither will the heat nor the sun strike them: for he that is merciful to them will be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he will give them drink. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths will be exalted. Behold these will come from afar, and behold these from the north and from the sea, and these from the south country. Give praise, ye heavens, and rejoice, earth; ye mountains, give praise with jubilation, because the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His poor ones. And Sion said: ‘The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will I not forget you,” says the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Never did our heavenly Father express His tender mercy towards us in more glowing terms, and He bade His Prophet deliver them to us. He gives the whole earth to His Son, Jesus Christ, our Incarnate Lord, not that He may judge and condemn it, as it deserves, but that He may save it (John iii. 17). This divine Ambassador having come on the earth, he tells all that are galled by fetters, or that sit in the gloomy shadow of death, to come to him, promising them liberty and light. Their hunger will be appeased, and their thirst quenched. They will no longer pant under the scorching rays of the sun, but will be led by their merciful Shepherd to the cool shades on the banks of the water of life.

They came from every nation under heaven: the Fountain, the Font, will be the centre where all the human race is to meet. The Gentile world is to be henceforth called Sion, and the Lord loves the gates of this new Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob (Psalm lxxxvi. 2). No God had not forgotten her during the long ages of her idol-worship. His love is tender as that of the fondest mother; yes, and though a mother’s heart may forget her child, God never will forget His Sion. You, then, who received Baptism at your very entrance into the world but have since then served another Master besides Him to whom you swore perpetual allegiance at the font — be of good heart! If the grace of God has found you submissive, if the holy exercises of Lent and the prayers offered for you by the Church have had their effect, and you are now preparing to make your peace with God,— read these words of your heavenly Father and fear not! How can you fear? He has given you to His own Son. He has told him to save, heal, and comfort you. Are you in the bonds of sin? Jesus can break them. Are you in spiritual darkness? He is the Light of the world, and can dispel the thickest gloom. Are you hungry? He is the Bread of Life. Are you thirsty? He is the Fountain of living Water. Are you scorched, are you burnt to the very core, by the heat of concupiscence? Even so, poor sufferers, you must not lose courage. There is a cool fountain ready to refresh you, and heal all your wounds. Not indeed the First Font, which gave you the life you have lost, but the second Baptism, the divine Sacrament of Penance, which can restore you to grace and purity.

Gospel – John viii. 12‒20

At that time Jesus spoke to the multitude of the Jews, saying: “I am the light of the world. He that follows me walks not in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The Pharisees therefore said to Him: “You give testimony of yourself. Your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered and said to them: “Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true, for I know from where I came and where I go, but you know not from where I come, or where I go. You judge according to the flesh, I judge not any man. And if I do judge, my judgment is true because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. And in your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am one, that give testimony of myself, and the Father that sent me, gives testimony of me.” They said therefore to Him: “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered: “Neither me do you know, nor my Father: if you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also.” These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple, and no man laid hands on him because his hour was not yet come.

Praise be to you, O Christ. 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

What a contrast between the tender mercy of God, who invites all men to receive His Son as their Redeemer, and the obduracy of heart with which the Jews receive the heavenly Ambassador! Jesus has proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God, and, in proof of His divine origin, has, for three long years wrought the most astounding miracles. Many of the Jews have believed in Him, because they argued that God could never have authorised falsity by miracles, and they therefore accepted the doctrine of Jesus as coming from heaven. The Pharisees hate the light and love darkness. Their pride will not yield even to the evidence of facts. At one time they denied the genuineness of Jesus’ miracles, at another they pretended to explain them by the agency of the devil. Then too, they put questions to Him of such a captious nature that, in whatever way Jesus answered, they might accuse Him of blasphemy or contempt for the Law. Today they have the audacity to make this objection to Jesus being the Messiah — that He gives testimony in His own favour! Our Blessed Lord who knows the malice of their hearts deigns to refute their impious sarcasm, but He avoids giving them an explicit answer. It is evident that the Light is passing from Jerusalem and is to bless other lands. How terrible is this punishment of a soul that abuses the truth, and rejects it by an instinctive hatred! Her crime is that sin against the Holy Ghost, which will not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come (Matthew xii. 32). Happy he that loves the truth, though it condemns his evil passions and troubles his conscience! Such an one proves that he reveres the wisdom of God, and if it do not altogether rule his conduct, it does not abandon him. But happier far he that yields himself wholly to the Truth and as a humble disciple follows Jesus. He walks not in darkness. He will have the light of life. Let us then lose no time, but take at once that happy path marked out for us by Him who is our Light and our Life. Keeping close to His footsteps, we went up the rugged hill of Quarentana, and there we witnessed His rigid Fast, but now that the time of His Passion is at hand, He invites us to follow Him up another mountain, that of Calvary, there to contemplate His sufferings and Death. Let us not hesitate: we will be repaid — we will have the light of life.