Dom Prosper Gueranger:
Let us think for a moment of the countless sins that are being committed day and night. Let us sue for mercy. In the days of Noah, all flesh had corrupted its way (Genesis vi. 12), but men thought not of asking for mercy. The flood came and destroyed them all (Genesis vii. 11), says our Saviour. Had they prayed, had they begged God’s pardon, the hand of His justice would have been stayed, and the flood-gates of heaven would not have been opened. The day is to come when, not water, as heretofore, but fire is suddenly to be kindled by the Divine wrath, and is to burn the whole earth. It will burn even the foundations of the mountains (Deuteronomy xxxii. 22). It will devour sinners, who will be resting then, as they were in the days of Noah, in a false security. Persecuted by her enemies, decimated by the martyrdom of her children, afflicted by numerous apostasies from the faith, and deprived of every human aid, the Church will know that the terrible chastisement is at hand, for prayer will then be as rare as faith.
Let us therefore pray that thus the day of wrath may be put off, the Christian life regain something of its ancient vigour, and the end of the world not be in our times. There are even yet Catholics in every part of the world, but their number has visibly decreased. Heresy is now in possession of whole countries that were once faithful to the Church. In others, where heresy has not triumphed, religious indifference has left the majority of men with nothing of Catholicity but the name, seeing that they neglect even their most essential obligations without remorse. Among many of those who fulfil the precepts of the Church, truths are diminished (Psalms xi. 2). The old honesty of Faith fas been superseded by loose ideas and half-formed convictions. A man is popular in proportion to the concessions he makes in favour of principles condemned by the Church. The sentiments and actions of the saints, the conduct and teaching of the Church, are taxed with exaggeration, and decried as being unsuited to the period. The search after comforts has become a serious study. The thirst for earthly goods is a noble passion. Independence is an idol to which everything must be sacrificed. Submission is a humiliation which must be got rid of, or, where that cannot be, it must not be publicly avowed. Finally, there is sensualism, which, like an impure atmosphere, so impregnates every class of society, that one would suppose there was a league formed to abolish the Cross of Christ from the minds of men.
What miseries must not follow from this systematic setting aside the conditions imposed by God upon His creatures? If the Gospel be the word of Infinite Truth, how can men oppose it without drawing down upon themselves the severest chastisements? Would that these chastisements might work the salvation of them that have provoked them! Let us humble ourselves before the sovereign holiness of our God, and confess our guilt. The sins of men are increasing both in number and in enormity. The picture we have just drawn is sad enough. What would it not be, had we added such abominations as these, which we purposely excluded: downright impiety, corrupt doctrines which are being actively propagated throughout the world, dealings with Satan which threaten to degrade our age to the level of pagan times, the conspiracy organised against order, justice and religion by secret societies? Oh, let us unite our prayer with that of holy Church, and say to our God: “From your wrath, deliver us, Lord!”
The Rogation Days were instituted for another end besides this of averting the Divine anger. We must beg our Heavenly Father to bless the fruits of the earth. We must beseech Him, with all the earnestness of public prayer, to give us our daily bread. “The eyes of all,” says the Psalmist, “hope in you, Lord, and you give them food in due season. You open your hand, and fill with blessing every living creature” (Psalms cxliv. 15, 16) In accordance with the consoling doctrine conveyed by these words, the Church prays to God that He would, this year, give to all living creatures on earth the food they stand in need of. She acknowledges that we are not worthy of the favour, for we are sinners: let us unite with her in this humble confession. But, at the same time, let us join her in beseeching our Lord to make mercy triumph over justice. How easily could He not frustrate the self-conceited hopes, and the clever systems of men! They own that all depends on the weather, and on whom does that depend? They cannot do without God! True, they seldom speak of Him, and He permits Himself to be forgotten by them: but “He neither sleeps nor slumbers, that hears Israel” (Psalms cxx. 4) He has but to withhold His blessing, and all their progress in agricultural science by which they boast to have made famine an impossibility, is of no effect. Some unknown disease comes upon a vegetable. it causes distress among the people, and endangers the social order of a world that has secularised itself from the Christian Law, and would at once perish, but for the mercy of the God it affects to ignore.
If, then, our Heavenly Father deigns this year to bless the fruits of the earth, we may say in all truth that He gives food to them that forget and blaspheme Him, as well as to them that make Him the great object of their thoughts and service. Men of no religion will profit of the blessing, but they will not acknowledge it to be His. They will proclaim louder than ever that nature’s laws are now so well regulated by modern science, that she cannot help going on well! God will be silent, and feed the men that thus insult Him. But why does He not speak? Why does He not make His wrath be felt? Because His Church has prayed, because He has found the ten just men (Genesis xviii. 32), that is the few for whose sake He mercifully consents to spare the world. He therefore permits the learned economists, whom He could so easily stultify to go on talking and writing. Thanks to this His patience, some of them will grow tired of their impious absurdity. An unexpected circumstance will open their eyes to the truth, and they will, one day, join us both in faith and prayer. Others will go deeper and deeper into blasphemy. They will go on to the last, defying God’s justice, and fulfilling in themselves that terrible saying of holy Scripture: “The Lord has made all things for Himself; the wicked also for the evil day” (Proverbs xvi. 4).
As to us, who glory in the simplicity of our faith, who acknowledge that we have all from God and nothing from ourselves, who confess that we are sinners and undeserving of His gifts — we will ask Him during these three days to give us the food we require. We will say to Him with holy Church: “That you vouchsafe to give and preserve the fruits of the earth: We beseech you, hear us!” May He have pity on us in our necessities!
