12 APRIL – LOW SUNDAY (QUASIMODO)

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

This, then, is the eighth day for us who kept the Pasch on the Sunday, and did not anticipate it on the vigil. It reminds us of all the glory and joy of that Feast of Feasts which united the whole of Christendom in one common feeling of triumph. It is the day of light which takes the place of the Jewish Sabbath. Henceforth, the first day of the week is to be kept holy. Twice has the Son of God honoured it with the manifestations of His almighty power. The Pasch, therefore, is always to be celebrated on the Sunday, and thus every Sunday becomes a sort of Paschal Feast as we have already explained in the Mystery of Easter.

Our Risen Jesus gave an additional proof of His wishing the Sunday to be, henceforth, the privileged day. He reserved the second visit He intended to pay to all His disciples for this the eighth day since his Resurrection. During the previous days He has left Thomas a prey to doubt, but, today He shows Himself to His Apostle, as well as to the others, and obliges him, by irresistible evidence, to lay aside his incredulity. Thus does our Saviour again honour the Sunday. The Holy Ghost will come down from Heaven upon this same day of the week, making it the commencement of the Christian Church: Pentecost will complete the glory of this favoured day.

Jesus’ apparition to the Eleven, and the victory He gains over the incredulous Thomas, these are the special subjects the Church brings before us today. By this apparition, which is the seventh since His Resurrection, our Saviour wins the perfect faith of His disciples. It was impossible not to recognise God in the patience, the majesty and the charity of Him who showed Himself to them. Here again, our human thoughts are disconcerted. We should have thought this delay excessive. It would have seemed to us that our Lord ought to have, at once, either removed the sinful doubt from Thomas’ mind, or punished him for his disbelief. But no: Jesus is infinite wisdom and infinite goodness. In His wisdom He makes this tardy acknowledgement of Thomas become a new argument of the truth of the Resurrection. In His goodness He brings the heart of the incredulous disciple to repentance, humility and love, yes, to a fervent and solemn retractation of all his disbelief. We will not here attempt to describe this admirable scene which holy Church is about to bring before us. We will select, for our today’s instruction, the important lesson given by Jesus to His disciple, and through Him, to us all. It is the leading instruction of the Sunday, the Octave of the Pasch, and it behoves us not to pass it by for, more than any other, it tells us the leading characteristic of a Christian, shows us the cause of our being so listless in God’s service, and points out to us the remedy for our spiritual ailments.

Jesus says to Thomas: “Because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed!” Such is the great truth spoken by the lips of the God-Man: it is a most important counsel given, not only to Thomas, but to all who would serve God and secure their salvation. What is it that Jesus asks of His disciple? Has He not heard him make profession that now, at last, he firmly believes? After all, was there any great fault in Thomas’ insisting on having experimental evidence before believing in so extraordinary a miracle as the Resurrection? Was he obliged to trust to the testimony of Peter and the others, under penalty of offending his divine Master? Did he not evince his prudence by withholding his assent until he had additional proofs of the truth of what his brethren told him? Yes, Thomas was a circumspect and prudent man, and one that was slow to believe what he had heard: he was worthy to be taken as a model by those Christians who reason and sit in judgment on matters of faith. And yet, listen to the reproach made him by Jesus. It is merciful, and, withal, so severe! This Jesus has so far condescended to the weakness of His disciple, as to accept the condition on which alone he declares that he will believe: now that the disciple stands trembling before his Risen Lord, and exclaims, in the earnestness of faith: “My Lord! and my God!” oh! see how Jesus chides him! This stubbornness, this incredulity, deserves a punishment: the punishment is to have these words said to him: “Thomas! You have believed because you have seen!”

Then was Thomas obliged to believe before having seen? Yes, undoubtedly. Not only Thomas, but all the Apostles were in duty bound to believe the Resurrection of Jesus, even before He showed Himself to them. Had they not lived three years with Him? Had they not seen Him prove Himself to be the Messiah and Son of God by the most undeniable miracles? Had he not foretold them that He would rise again on the third day? As to the humiliations and cruelties of His Passion, had He not told them, a short time previous to it, that He was to be seized by the Jews, in Jerusalem and be delivered to the Gentiles? That He was to be scourged, spit on and put to death? (Luke, xviii. 32, 35).

After all this, they ought to have believed in His triumphant Resurrection the very first moment they heard of his body having disappeared. As soon as John had entered the sepulchre and seen the winding sheet, he at once ceased to doubt— he believed. But it is seldom that man is so honest as this. He hesitates, and God must make still further advances if he would have us give our faith! Jesus condescended even to this: He made further advances. He showed himself to Magdalene and her companions who were not incredulous, but only carried away by natural feeling, though the feeling was one of love for their Master. When the Apostles heard their account of what had happened, they were treated as women, whose imagination had got the better of their judgment. Jesus had to come in person: He showed Himself to these obstinate men whose pride made them forget all that He had said and done, and which ought to have been sufficient to make them believe in His Resurrection. Yes, it was pride, for faith has no other obstacle than this. If man were humble, he would have faith enough to move mountains.

To return to our Apostles: Thomas had heard Magdalene, and he despised her testimony. He had heard Peter, and he objected to his authority. He had heard the rest of his fellow-Apostles and the two disciples of Emmaus, and no — he would not give up his own opinion. How many there are among us who are like him in this! We never think of doubting what is told us by a truthful and disinterested witness unless the subject touch upon the supernatural, and then, we have a hundred difficulties. It is one of the sad consequences left in us by original sin. Like Thomas, we would see the thing ourselves: that alone is enough to keep us from the fulness of the truth. We comfort ourselves with the reflection that, after all, we are disciples of Christ, as did Thomas, who kept in union with his brother-Apostles, only he shared not their happiness. He saw their happiness, but he considered it to be a weakness of mind, and was glad that he was free from it!

How like this is to our modern rationalistic Catholic! He believes, but it is because his reason almost forces him to believe. He believes with his mind rather than from his heart. His faith is a scientific deduction, and not a generous longing after God and supernatural truth. Hence, how cold and powerless is this faith! How cramped and ashamed! How afraid of believing too much! Unlike the generous unstinted faith of the saints, it is satisfied with fragments of truth, with what the Scripture terms “diminished truths” (Psalm xi. 2). It seems ashamed of itself. It speaks in a whisper, lest it should be criticised, and when it does venture to make itself heard, it adopts a phraseology which may take off the sound of the divine. As to those miracles which it wishes had never taken place, and which it would have advised God not to work, they are a forbidden subject. The very mention of a miracle, particularly if it had happened in our own times, puts it into a state of nervousness. The lives of the saints, their heroic virtues, their sublime sacrifices — it has a repugnance to the whole thing! It talks gravely about those who are not of the true religion being unjustly dealt with by the Church in Catholic countries: it asserts that the same liberty ought to be granted to error as to truth: it has very serious doubts whether the world has been a great loser by the secularisation of society.

Now, it was for the instruction of persons of this class that our Lord spoke those words to Thomas: “Blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed.” Thomas sinned in not having the readiness of mind to believe. Like him we also are in danger of sinning, unless our faith have a certain expansiveness which makes us see everything with the eye of faith, and gives our faith that progress which God recompenses with a superabundance of light and joy. Yes, having once become members of the Church, it is our duty to look upon all things from a supernatural point of view. There is no danger of our going too far, for we have the teachings of an infallible authority to guide us. “The Just man lives by faith” (Romans i. 17). Faith is his daily bread. His mere natural life becomes transformed for good and all, if only he be faithful to his Baptism. Could we suppose that the Church, after all her instructions to her neophytes, and after all those sacred rites of their Baptism which are so expressive of the supernatural life, would be satisfied to see them immediately opt that dangerous system which drives faith into a nook of the heart and understanding and conduct, leaving all the rest to natural principles or instinct? No, it could not be so. Let us therefore imitate Saint Thomas in his confession, and acknowledge that hitherto our faith has not been perfect. Let us go to our Jesus and say to Him: “You are my Lord and my God! But, alas! I have many times thought and acted as though you were my Lord and my God in some things, and not in others. Henceforth, I will believe without seeing, for I would be of the number of them, whom you call blessed!”

Epistle – 1 John v. 4‒10

Dearly beloved, Whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory which overcomes the world, our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the spirit which testifies that Christ is the truth. And there are three who give testimony in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that give testimony on earth; the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God which is greater, because He has testified of His Son. He that believes in the Son of God has the testimony of God in himself.

Thanks be to God. 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Apostle Saint John here tells us the merit and power of faith: it is, says he, a victory which conquers the world, both the world outside, and the world within us. It is not difficult to understand why this passage from Saint John’s Epistles should have been selected for today’s liturgy: it is on account of its being so much in keeping with the Gospel appointed for this Sunday, and in which our Lord passes such eulogy upon faith. If, as the Apostle here assures us, they overcome the world who believe in Christ, they have not sterling faith who allow the world to intimidate their faith. Let us be proud of our faith, esteeming ourselves happy that we are but Little Children when there is question of our receiving a divine Truth. And let us not be ashamed of our eager readiness to admit the testimony of God. This testimony will make itself heard to our hearts in proportion to our willingness to hear it. The moment John saw the winding-bands which had shrouded the body of his Master, he made an act of faith. Thomas, who had stronger testimony than John (for he had the word of the Apostles, assuring him that they had seen their Risen Lord), refused to believe: he had not overcome the world and its reasonings, because he had not faith.

Gospel – John xx. 19‒31

At that time, when it was late that same day, the first of the weekend and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came, and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be to you.” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” When He had said this, He breathed on them; and He said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you will forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you will retain, they are retained.” Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days, again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus came in, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace be to you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger in here and see my hands, and bring your hand here and and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “ My Lord and my God.” Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, Thomas, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.” Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name.

Praise be to you, O Christ. 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

We have said enough about Saint Thomas’ incredulity. Let us now admire his faith. His fault has taught us to examine and condemn our own want of faith. Let us learn from his repentance how to become true believers. Our Lord, who had chosen him as one of the pillars of his Church, has been obliged to treat him with an exceptional familiarity: Thomas avails himself of Jesus’ permission, puts his finger into the Sacred Wound, and immediately he sees the sinfulness of his past incredulity. He would make atonement by a solemn act of faith, for the sin he has committed in priding himself on being wise and discreet: he cries out, and with all the fervour of faith: “My Lord and my God!” Observe, he not only says that Jesus is his Lord, his Master, the same who chose Him as one of His disciples — this would not have been faith, for there is no faith where we can see and touch. Had Thomas believed what his brother-Apostles had told him, he would have had faith in the Resurrection, but now he sees, he has experimental knowledge of the great fact. And yet as our Lord says of him, he has faith. In what? In this, that his Master is God. He sees but the humanity of Jesus and he at once confesses him to be God, From what is visible, his soul, now generous and repentant, rises to the invisible: “You are my God!” Now, Thomas, you are full of faith! The Church proposes you to us, on your feast, as an example of faith. The confession you made on this day is worthy to be compared with that which Peter made, when he said: “You are Christ, the Son of the living God!” (Matthew xvi. 16) By this profession, which neither flesh nor blood had revealed to him, Peter merited to be made the Rock on which Christ built his Church: yours did more than compensate your former belief: it gave you, for the time, a superiority over the rest of the Apostles who, so far at least, were more taken up with the visible glory, than with the invisible divinity, of their Risen Lord.

11 APRIL – SAINT LEO THE GREAT (Pope and Doctor of the Church)

 

Leo I, a Tuscan by birth, governed the Church at the period when Attila, the king of the Huns, (surnamed the Scourge of God), was invading Italy. Attila pillaged and burned the city of Aquileia which he took after a three years’ siege. This done, he rushed on towards Rome as a wild firebrand. He had reached the place where the Mincio joins the Po, and was on the point of ordering his troops to pass the river, when he was met by Leo who was moved with compassion at the misfortunes that were threatening Italy. Such was his superhuman eloquence that he induced Attila to retrace his steps. When asked by his people how it was that contrary to his custom he had yielded such ready obedience to the demands of the Roman Pontiff, the king answered that he beheld, while Leo was speaking, a personage clad in priestly robes, who stood near with a naked sword in his hand and threatened him with death unless he obeyed the Pontiff. Attila then returned to Pannonia.

Leo was welcomed back to Rome amid the exceeding joy of all. A short time after, when Rome  was invested by Genseric, the Pontiff’s eloquence and reputation for sanctity had such influence on the barbarian that he abstained from setting fire to the buildings, and forbade his troops to insult or massacre the inhabitants. Seeing the Church attacked by several heresies, mainly by the followers of Nestorius and Eutyches, Leo called the Council of Chalcedon to remove error and vindicate the Catholic faith. Six hundred and thirty bishops assisted at this Council in which Eutyches, Dioscorus and Nestorius were condemned for the second and last time. The Decrees of the Council were confirmed by the authority of Leo.

The holy Pontiff then turned his attention to the reparation and building of churches. It was through his persuasion that a pious lady called Demetria built the Church of Saint Stephen on her own land on the Via Latina, three miles out of Rome. He himself built one on Via Appia and dedicated it to Saint Cornelius. He repaired several others and refurnished them with all the sacred vessels needed for the divine service. He built vaults under the Basilicas of Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and Saint John Lateran. He appointed guards, to whom he gave the name of Cubicularii, to watch at the tombs of the Apostles. He ordered that these words should be added to the Canon of the Mass: Holy Sacrifice, spotless Host. He decreed that a nun should not receive the blessed veil unless she had observed virginity for forty years.

After these and other similar admirable acts, and after writing much that was replete with piety and eloquence, Leo slept in the Lord on the third of the Ides of April (April 11th). He reigned as Sovereign Pontiff for 20 years, 10 months and 28 days.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

One of the grandest Saints in the Church’s Calendar is brought before us today. Leo, the Pontiff and Doctor, rises on the Paschal horizon and calls for our admiration and love. As his name implies, he is the Lion of holy Church, thus representing, in his own person, one of the most glorious of our Lord’s titles. There have been twelve Popes who have had this name, and five of the number are enrolled in the catalogue of Saints. But not one of them has so honoured the name as he whose feast we keep today: hence, he is called “Leo the Great.” He deserved the appellation by what he did for maintaining the faith regarding the sublime mystery of the Incarnation. The Church had triumphed over the heresies that had attacked the dogma of the Trinity, when the gates of Hell sought to prevail against the dogma of God having been made Man. Nestorius, a Bishop of Constantinople, impiously taught that there were two distinct Persons in Christ — the Person of the Divine Word and the Person of Man. The Council of Ephesus condemned this doctrine which, by denying the unity of Person in Christ, destroyed the true notion of the Redemption.

A new heresy, the very opposite of that of Nestorianism but equally subversive of Christianity, soon followed. The monk Eutyches maintained that in the Incarnation the Human Nature was absorbed by the Divine. The error was propagated with frightful rapidity. There was needed a clear and authoritative exposition of the great dogma which is the foundation of all our hopes. Leo arose and, from the Apostolic Chair on which the Holy Ghost had placed him, proclaimed with matchless eloquence and precision the formula of the ancient faith — ancient, indeed, and ever the same, yet ever acquiring greater and fresher brightness. A cry of admiration was raised at the General Council of Chalcedon which had been convened for the purpose of condemning the errors of Eutyches. “Peter,” exclaimed the Fathers, “Peter has spoken by the mouth of Leo!” As we will see further on, the Eastern Church has kept up the enthusiasm thus excited by the magnificent teachings given by Leo to the whole world.

The Barbarian hordes were invading the West. The Empire was little more than a ruin, and Attila, “the Scourge of God,” was marching on towards Rome. Leo’s majestic bearing repelled the invasion, as his word had checked the ravages of heresy. The haughty king of the Huns before whose armies the strongest citadels had fallen, granted an audience to the Pontiff on the banks of the Mincio and promised to spare Rome. The calm and dignity of Leo who, thus unarmed confronted the most formidable enemy of the Empire and exposed his life for his flock, awed the barbarian, who afterwards told his people that during the interview he saw a venerable person standing, in an attitude of defence, by the side of Rome’s intercessor: it was the Apostle Saint Peter. Attila not only admired, he feared the Pontiff. It was truly a sublime spectacle, and one that was full of meaning — a priest, with no arms save those of his character and virtues, forcing a king, such as Attila was, to do homage to a devotedness which he could ill understand and recognise, by submission, the influence of a power which had Heaven on its side. Leo, single-handed and at once, did what it took the whole of Europe several ages to accomplish later on.

That the aureola of Leo’s glory might be complete, the Holy Ghost gifted him with an eloquence which, on account of its majesty and richness, might deservedly be called Papal. The Latin language had, at that time, lost its ancient vigour. But we frequently come across passages in the writings of our Saint which remind us of the golden age. In exposing the dogmas of our holy Faith he uses a style so dignified and so impregnated with the savour of sacred antiquity that it seems made for the subject. He has several admirable Sermons on the Resurrection, and speaking of the present Season of the Liturgical Year, he says: “The days that intervened between our Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension, were not days on which nothing was done: on the contrary, great were the Sacraments then confirmed, and great were the mysteries that were revealed.”

* * * * *

Glory be to you, Jesus, Lion of the Tribe of Judah, that has raised up in your Church a Lion to defend her in those dark times when holy Faith was most exposed to danger. You charged Peter to confirm his Brethren (Luke xxii. 32), and we have seen Leo, in whom Peter lived, fulfil this office with sovereign authority. We have heard the acclamation of the holy Council which, in admiration at the heavenly teachings of Leo, proclaimed the signal favour you conferred on your flock when you bade Peter to feed both Sheep and Lambs. O holy Pontiff Leo! You worthily represented Peter in his Chair from which your apostolic teaching ceased not to flow, ever beautiful in its truth and majesty. The Church of your  own day honoured you as the great Teacher of Faith, and the Church of every succeeding age has recognised you as one of the most learned Doctors and preachers of the divine Word. From your throne in Heaven where now you reign, pour forth upon us the understanding of the great Mystery which you were called on to defend. Under your  inspired pen this mystery grows clear. We see how sublimely it harmonises with all other mysteries, and Faith delights at gaining so close a view of the divine object of its belief. Oh strengthen this Faith within us. The Incarnate Word is blasphemed in these our own times. Avenge His glory by sending us men of your zeal and learning. You triumphed over barbarian invaders: Attila acknowledged the influence of your sanctity and eloquence by withdrawing his troops from the Christian land they infested. In these our days there have risen up new barbarians — civilised barbarians who would persuade us that religion should be eliminated from education, and that the State, in its laws and institutions, should simply ignore our Lord Jesus Christ, the King to whom all power has been given, not only in Heaven but on Earth also (Matthew xxviii. 18). Oh help us by your powerful intercession, for our danger is extreme. Many are seduced, and are apostates while flattering themselves that they are still Christians. Pray that the light that is left within us, may not be extinguished, and that the public scandals which now exist may be brought to an end. Attila was but a pagan. Our modern statesmen and governments are, or, at least call themselves, Christians: have pity on them, and gain for them light to see the precipice to which they are hurrying society.

These days of Paschal Time must remind you, holy Pontiff, of the Easters you once spent here on Earth when, surrounded by the Neophytes, you gave them the nourishment of your magnificent discourses: pray for the faithful who have this Easter risen to a new life with Christ. What they most stand in need of is a fuller and better knowledge of this their Saviour, in order that they may cling more closely to Him, and persevere in His holy service. Your prayers must get them this knowledge. By your prayers you must teach them what He is both in His Divine and Human Nature: that, as God, He is their Last End and their Judge after death: as Man, their Brother, their Redeemer, their Model. Bless, O Leo,  and help the Pontiff who is now your successor on the Chair of Peter. Show now your love for that Rome whose sacred and eternal destinies were so frequently the subject of your glowing and heavenly eloquence.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Pergamus in Asia, St. Antipas, a faithful witness of whom St. John speaks in the Apocalypse. Under the emperor Domitian, he was shut up in a red-hot brazen ox and thus consummated his martyrdom.

At Salona in Dalmatia, the holy martyrs Domnion, a bishop and eight soldiers.

At Gortina in Crete, in the time of Marcus Antoninus Verus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, St. Philip, a bishop most renowned for merit and doctrine, who defended the church entrusted to his care against the fury of the Gentiles and the wiles of the heretics.

At Nicomedia, St. Eustorgius, a priest.

At Spoleto, St. Isaac, monk and confessor, whose virtues are recorded by Pope St. Gregory.

At Gaza in Palestine, St. Barsanuphius, an anchoret, in the time of the emperor Justinian.

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

Thanks be to God.