31 MARCH – MONDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – 3 Kings iii. 16‒28

In those days two women that were harlots came to King Solomon and stood before him, and one of them said: “I beseech you, my lord, I and this woman dwelt in one house, and I was delivered of a child with her in the chamber. And the third day after that I was delivered she also was delivered, and we were together, and no other person with us in the house, only we two. And this woman’s child died in the night, for in her sleep she overlaid him. And rising in the dead time of the night she took my child from my side while your handmaid was asleep and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold it was dead. But considering him more diligently when it was clear day, I found that it was not mine which I bore.” And the other woman answered: “It is not so as you say, but your child is dead, and mine is alive.” On the contrary she said: “You lie, for my child lives and your child is dead.” And in this manner they strove before the king. Then said the king: “The one says my child is alive, and your child is dead, and the other answers: No, but your child is dead, and mine lives.” The king therefore said: “Bring me a sword.” And when they had brought a sword before the king, “Divide,” said he, “the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.” But the woman whose child was alive said to the king (for her bowels were moved upon her child), “I beseech you, my lord, give her the child alive, and do not kill it.” But the other said: “Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.” The king answered and said: “Give the living child to this woman and let it not be killed, for she is the mother thereof.” And all Israel heard the judgement which the king had judged, and they feared the king, seeing that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Saint Paul explained to us in yesterday’s Epistle the antagonism that there is between the Synagogue and the Church. He showed us how Sarah’s son, who was the father’s favourite, was persecuted by the son of Agar. The two women who appear before Solomon are another figure of the same truth. The child they both lay claim to is the Gentile people which has been brought to the knowledge of the true God. The Synagogue, typified by the woman who has caused death to her child, has misled the people confided to her care and now unjustly claims one that does not belong to her. And whereas it is not from any motherly affection, but only from pride that she puts forward such a claim, it matters little to her what becomes of the child, provided only he be not given to the true mother, the Church. Solomon, the King of Peace, who is one of the Scriptural types of Christ, adjudges the child to her that has given him birth and nourished him, and the pretensions of the false mother are rejected. Let us, then, love our mother, the Holy Church, the Spouse of Jesus. It is she that has made us children of God by Baptism. She has fed us with the Bread of Life. She has given us the Holy Spirit and, when we had the misfortune to relapse into death by sin, she, by the divine power given to her has restored us to life. A filial love for the Church is the sign of the Elect. Obedience to her commandments is the mark of a soul in which God has set His kingdom.

Gospel – John ii. 13‒25

At that time the Pasch of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple them that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when He had made as it were a scourge of little cords He drove them all out of the temple, the sheep also and the oxen. And the money of the changers He poured out, and the tables He overthrew. And He said to them that sold doves: “Take these things hence, and make not the house of my Father a house of traffic.” And His disciples remembered that it was written: The zeal of your house has eaten me up. Then the Jews answered, and said to Him: “What sign do you show us, seeing you do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said: “Six and forty years was this temple in building, and will you raise it in three days?” But He spoke of the temple of His body. When therefore He was risen again from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture, and the word that Jesus had said. Now when He was at Jerusalem at the Pasch on the festival day, many believed in His name, seeing His signs which He did. But Jesus did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all men, and because He needed not that any should give testimony of man, for He knew what was in man.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

We read in the Gospel of the first Tuesday of Lent that Jesus drove from the Temple them that were making it a place of traffic. He twice showed this zeal for his Father’s House. The passage we have just read from Saint John refers to the first time. Both occasions are brought before us during this Season of Lent because this conduct of our Saviour shows us with what severity he will treat a soul that harbours sin within her. Our souls are the Temple of God, created and sanctified by God to the end that He might dwell there. He would have nothing to be in them which is unworthy of their destination. This is the Season for self-examination, and if we have found that any passions are profaning the sanctuary of our souls, let us dismiss them. Let us beseech our Lord to drive them out by the scourge of His justice, for we, perhaps, might be too lenient with these sacrilegious intruders. The day of pardon is close at hand. Let us make ourselves worthy to receive it. There is an expression in our Gospel which deserves a special notice. The Evangelist is speaking of those Jews who were more sincere than the rest and believed in Jesus because of the miracles He wrought, he says: Jesus did not trust Himself to them because He knew all men. So that there may be persons who believe in and acknowledge Jesus yet whose hearts are not changed! Oh the hardness of man’s heart! Oh cruel anxiety for God’s priests! Sinners and worldlings are now crowding round the Confessional: they have faith and they confess their sins! And the Church has no confidence in their repentance! She knows that a very short time after the Feast of Easter they will have relapsed into the same state in which they were on the day when she marked their foreheads with ashes. These souls are divided between God and the world, and she trembles as she thinks on the danger they are about to incur by receiving Holy Communion without the preparation of a true conversion. Yet, on the other side, she remembers how it is written that the bruised reed is not to be broken, nor the smoking flax to be extinguished. Let us pray for these souls whose state is so full of doubt and danger. Let us also pray for the priests of the Church that they may receive from God abundant rays of that light by which Jesus knew what was in man.

10 MARCH – FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT (LAETARE SUNDAY)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This Sunday, called, from the first word of the Introit, Laetare Sunday, is one of the most solemn of the year. The Church interrupts her Lenten mournfulness. The chants of the Mass speak of nothing but joy and consolation. The organ which has been silent during the preceding three Sundays now gives forth its melodious voice. The deacon resumes his dalmatic, and the subdeacon his dunic, and instead of purple, rose-coloured vestments are allowed to be used. These same rites were practised in Advent, on the third Sunday, called Gaudete. The Church’s motive for introducing this expression of joy in today’s Liturgy is to encourage her children to persevere fervently to the end of this holy Season. The real Mid-Lent was last Thursday, as we have already observed, but the Church, fearing lest the joy might lead to some infringement on the spirit of penance, has deferred her own notice of it to this Sunday, when she not only permits, but even bids, her children to rejoice!

The Station at Rome is in the Basilica of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, one of the seven principal Churches of the Holy City. It was built in the fourth century by the Emperor Constantine in one of his villas, called Sessorius, on which account it goes also under the name of the Sessorian Basilica. The Emperor’s mother, Saint Helena, enriched it with most precious relics, and wished to make it the Jerusalem of Rome. It was with this intention that she ordered a great quantity of earth taken from Mount Calvary to be put on the site. Among the other relics of the Instruments of the Passion which she gave to this Church was the Inscription which was fastened to the Cross. It is still kept there and is called the Title of the Cross. The name of Jerusalem — which has been given to this Basilica, and which recalls to our minds the heavenly Jerusalem, towards which we are tending —suggested the choosing it as today’s Station. Up to the fourteenth century (when Avignon became, for a time, the City of the Popes), the ceremony of the Golden Rose took place in this Church. At present it is blessed in the Palace where the Sovereign Pontiff happens to be residing at this Season.

The blessing of the Golden Rose is one of the ceremonies peculiar to the Fourth Sunday of Lent, which is called on this account Rose Sunday. The thoughts suggested by this flower harmonise with the sentiments with which the Church would now inspire her children. The joyous time of Easter is soon to give them a spiritual Spring, of which that of nature is but a feeble image. Hence, we cannot be surprised that the institution of this ceremony is of a very ancient date. We find it observed under the Pontificate of Saint Leo the Ninth (eleventh century), and we have a Sermon on the Golden Rose preached by the glorious Pope Innocent the Third on this Sunday and in the Basilica of Holy Cross in Jerusalem.

In the Middle Ages, when the Pope resided in the Lateran Palace, having first blessed the Rose, he went on horseback to the Church of the Station. He wore the mitre, was accompanied by all the Cardinals, and held the blessed flower in his hand. Having reached the Basilica, he made a discourse on the mysteries symbolised by the beauty, the colour and the fragrance of the rose. Mass was then celebrated. After the Mass the Pope returned to the Lateran Palace. Surrounded by the sacred College, he rode across the immense plain which separates the two Basilicas, with the mystic flower still in his hand. We may imagine the joy of the people as they gazed on the holy symbol. When the procession had got to the Palace gates, if there were a Prince present, it was his privilege to hold the stirrup and assist the Pontiff to dismount, for which filial courtesy he received the rose which had received so much honour and caused such joy.

At present, the ceremony is not quite so solemn. Still the principal rites are observed. The Pope blesses the Golden Rose in the vestiary. He anoints it with Holy Chrism, over which he sprinkles a scented powder, as formerly, and when the hour for Mass is come, he goes to the Palace Chapel, holding the flower in his hand. During the Holy Sacrifice it is fastened to a golden rose-branch prepared for it on the Altar. After the Mass, it is brought to the Pontiff, who holds it in his hand as he returns from the Chapel to the vestiary. It is usual for the Pope to send the rose to some prince or princess, as a mark of honour. Sometimes, it is a city or a church that receives the flower. We subjoin a free translation of the beautiful prayer used by the Sovereign Pontiff when blessing the Golden Rose. It will give our readers a clearer appreciation of this ceremony, which adds so much solemnity to the Fourth Sunday of Lent.

“O GOD, by whose word and power all things were created, and by whose will they are all governed! You that are the joy and gladness of all your faithful people, we beseech your Divine Majesty, that you vouchsafe to bless and sanctify this rose, so lovely in its beauty and fragrance. We are to bear it, this day, in our hands, as a symbol of spiritual joy, that thus, the people that is devoted to your service, being set free from the captivity of Babylon, by the grace of your only-Begotten Son, who is the glory and the joy of Israel, may show forth, with a sincere heart, the joys of that Jerusalem, which is above, and is our Mother. And whereas your Church seeing this symbol, exults with joy, for the glory of your Name — do, Lord, give her true and perfect happiness. Accept her devotion, forgive us our sins, increase our faith. Heal us by your word, protect us by your mercy. Remove all obstacles. Grant us all blessings that thus, this same your Church may offer to you the fruit of good works, and walking in the odour of the fragrance of that flower which sprang from the Root of Jesse and is called the Flower of the Field, and the Lily of the Valley, may she deserve to enjoy an endless joy in the bosom of heavenly glory, in the society of all the Saints, together with that Divine Flower, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.”

We now come to the explanation of another name given to the Fourth Sunday of Lent, which was suggested by the Gospel of the day. We find this Sunday called in several ancient documents, the Sunday of the Five Loaves. The miracle alluded to in this title not only forms an essential portion of the Church’s instructions during Lent, but it is also an additional element of today’s joy. We forget for an instant the coming Passion of the Son of God to give our attention to the greatest of the benefits He has bestowed on us, for under the figure of these loaves multiplied by the power of Jesus, our faith sees that Bread which came down from heaven, and gives life to the world (John vi. 33). The Pasch, says our Evangelist, was near at hand, and in a few days our Lord will say to us: With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you (Luke xxii. 15). Before leaving this world to go to His Father, Jesus desires to feed the multitude that follows Him, and in order to this He displays His omnipotence. Well may we admire that creative power which feeds five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes, and in such wise, that even after all have partaken of the feast as much as they would, there remain fragments enough to fill twelve baskets. Such a miracle is, indeed, an evident proof of Jesus’ mission, but He intends it as a preparation for something far more wonderful: He intends it as a figure and a pledge of what He is soon to do, not merely once or twice, but every day, even to the end of time. Not only for five thousand men, but for the countless multitudes of believers. Think of the millions, who, this very year, are to partake of the banquet of the Pasch, and yet, He whom we have seen born in Bethlehem (the House of Bread), He is to be the nourishment of all these guests. Neither will the Divine Bread fail. We are to feast as did our fathers before us and the generations that are to follow us will be invited as we now are, to come and taste how sweet is the Lord (Psalm xxxiii. 9). But observe, it is in a desert place, (as we learn from Saint Matthew (xiv. 13)) that Jesus feeds these men, who represent us Christians. They have quitted the bustle and noise of cities in order to follow Him. So anxious are they to hear his words, that they fear neither hunger nor fatigue, and their courage is rewarded.

A like recompense will crown our labours — our fasting and abstinence — which are now more than half over. Let us, then, rejoice, and spend this day with the light-heartedness of pilgrims who are near the end of their journey. The happy moment is advancing, when our soul, united and filled with her God, will look back with pleasure on the fatigues of the body, which, together with our heart’s compunction, have merited for her a place at the Divine Banquet. The primitive Church proposed this miracle of the multiplication of the loaves as a symbol of the Eucharist, the Bread that never fails. We find it frequently represented in the paintings of the Catacombs and on the bas-reliefs of the ancient Christian tombs. The fishes, too, that were given together with the loaves, are represented on these venerable monuments of our faith for the early Christians considered the fish to be the symbol of Christ, because the word fish in Greek, is made up of five letters, each of which is the initial of these words: Jesus Christ, Son (of) God, Saviour.

The Greek Church, too, keeps this Sunday with much solemnity. According to her manner of counting the days of Lent, this is the great day of the week called, as we have already noticed, Mesonestios. The solemn adoration of the Cross takes place today and breaking through her rule of never admitting a saint’s feast during Lent, this mid-Lent Sunday is kept in honour of the celebrated Abbot of the Monastery of Mount Sinai, Saint John Climacus, who lived in the sixth century.

Epistle – Galatians iv. 22‒31

Brethren, it is written that Abraham had two sons. One by a bondwoman and the other by a free-woman. But he who was of the bond-woman was born according to the flesh. He of the free-woman was by promise. Which things are said by an allegory. For these are the two testaments. The one from Mount Sinai, engendering to bondage, which is Agar, for Sinai is a mountain in Arabia which has affinity to that Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother. For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren that bear not. Break forth and cry, you that travail not, for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that has a husband.” Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born according to the flesh persecuted him that was after the spirit, so also it is now. But what said the Scripture? “Cast out the bond-woman and her son, for the son of the bond-woman will not be heir with the son of the free-woman.” So, then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free, by the freedom with which Christ has made us free.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us, then, rejoice! — we are children, not of Sina, but of Jerusalem. Our mother, the holy Church is not a bond-woman, but free and it is to freedom that she has brought us up. Israel served God in fear. His heart was ever tending to idolatry, and could only be kept to duty by the heavy yoke of chastisement. More happy than he, we serve God through love. Our yoke is sweet and our burden is light (Matthew xi. 30). We are not citizens of the earth: we are but pilgrims passing through it to our true country, the Jerusalem which is above. We also have too long been grovelling in the goods of this world: we have been slaves to sin, and the more the chains of our bondage weighed on us, the more we talked of our being free. Now is the favourable time. Now are the days of salvation: we have obeyed the Church’s call and have entered into the practice and spirit of Lent. Sin seems to us now to be the heaviest of yokes: the flesh, a dangerous burden, the world, a merciless tyrant. We begin to breathe the fresh air of holy liberty, and the hope of our speedy deliverance fills us with transports of joy. Let us, with all possible affection, thank our Divine Liberator who delivers us from the bondage of Agar, emancipates us from the law of fear, and making us his new people, opens to us the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, at the price of His Blood.

Gospel – John vi. 1‒15

At that time Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is that of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed Him because they saw the miracles which He did on them that were diseased. Jesus therefore went up into a mountain and there He sat with his disciples. Now the Pasch, the festival day of the Jews, was near at hand. When Jesus therefore had lifted up His eyes and seen that a very great multitude came to Him, He said to Philip: “Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?” And this He said to try him, for He Himself knew what he would do. Philip answered, “Two hundred penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that everyone may take a little.” One of His disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to Him, “There is a boy here that has five barley loaves and two fishes, but what are these among so many?” Then Jesus said, “Make the men sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. The men therefore sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves and when He had given thanks, He distributed to them that were set down. In like manner, also of the fishes, as much as they would. And when they were filled He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, lest they be lost.” They gathered up, therefore, and filled up twelve baskets with fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above to them that had eaten. Now those men, when they had seen what a miracle Jesus had done said, “This is of a truth the prophet that is to come into the world.” Jesus therefore, when He knew that they would come to take Him by force and make Him king, fled again into the mountains Himself alone.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

These men whom Jesus has been feeding by a miracle of love and power are resolved to make Him their King. They have no hesitation in proclaiming Him worthy to reign over them, for where can they find one worthier? What, then, shall we Christians do, who know the goodness and the power of Jesus incomparably better than these poor Jews? We must beseech Him to reign over us, from this day forward. We have just been reading in the Epistle that it is He who has made us free by delivering us from our enemies. O glorious liberty! But the only way to maintain it is to live under His Law. Jesus is not a tyrant, as are the world and the flesh. His rule is sweet and peaceful, and we are His children rather than His servants. In the court of such a King “to serve is to reign.” What, then, have we to do with our old slavery? If some of its chains be still on us, let us lose no time — let us break them, for the Pasch is near at hand: the great feast day begins to dawn. Onwards, then, courageously to the end of our journey! Jesus will refresh us. He will make us sit down as He did the men of the Gospel, and the bread He has in store for us will make us forget all our past fatigues.

29 MARCH – SATURDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Daniel xiii. 1‒62

In those days there was a man that dwelt in Babylon, and his name was Joachim, and he took a wife whose name was Susanna, the daughter of Helcias, a very beautiful woman, and one that feared God. For her parents being just, had instructed their daughter according to the law of Moses. Now Joakim was very rich, and had an orchard near his house. And the Jews resorted to him because he was the most honourable of them all. And there were two of the ancients of the people appointed judges that year, of whom the Lord said: “Iniquity came out from Babylon from the ancient judges, that seemed to govern the people.” These men frequented the house of Joachim, and all that had any matters of judgement came to them, and when the people departed away at noon, Susanna went in, and walked in her husband’s orchard. And the old men saw her going in every day, and walking, and they were inflamed with lust towards her, and they perverted their own mind, and turned away their eyes, that they might not look to heaven, nor remember just judgements.

And it fell out, as they watched a fit day, she went in on a time, as yesterday and the day before, with two maids only, and was desirous to wash herself in the orchard for it was hot weather. And there was nobody there but the two old men that had hid themselves and were considering her. So she said to the maids: “Bring me oil and washing balls, and shut the doors of the orchard, that I may wash me.” And they did as she bade them, and they shut the doors of the orchard and went out by a back door to fetch what she had commanded them, and they knew not that the elders were hid within. Now when the maids were gone forth, the two elders arose, and ran to her, and said: “Behold the doors of the orchard are shut, and nobody sees us, and we are in love with you. Wherefore consent to us, and lie with us. But if you will not, we will bear witness against you, that a young man was with you, and therefore you sent away thy maids from you.” Susanna sighed, and said: “I am straitened on every side, for if I do this thing it is death to me, and if I do it not, I will not escape your hands. But it is better for me to fall into your hands without doing it, than to sin in the sight of the Lord.” With that Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and the elders also cried out against her. And one of them ran to the door of the orchard and opened it. So when the servants of the house heard the cry in the orchard, they rushed in by the back door to see what was the matter. But after the old men had spoken, the servants were greatly ashamed, for never had there been any such word said of Susanna.

And on the next day, when the people were come to Joakim her husband, the two elders also came, full of their wicked device against Susanna, to put her to death. And they said before the people: “Send to Susanna, daughter of Helcias, the wife of Joakim.” And they presently sent, and she came with her parents and children and all her kindred. Therefore her friends and all her aquaintances wept. But the two elders, rising up in the midst of the people, laid their hands on her head. And she weeping looked up to heaven, for her heart had confidence in the Lord. And the elders said: “As we walked in the orchard alone, this woman came in with two maids, and shut the doors of the orchard, and sent away the maids from her. Then a young man that was there hid, came to her and lay with her. But we that were in the corner of the orchard, seeing this wickedness, ran up to them, and we saw them lie together. And as for him we could not take him, because he was stronger than we, and opening the doors he leaped out. But having taken this woman, we asked who the young man was, but she would not tell us. Of this thing we are witnesses.” The multitude believed them, as being the elders and judges of the people, and they condemned her to death. Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said: “Eternal God, who knows hidden things, who knows all things before they come to pass, you know that they have borne false witness against me, and behold I must die, whereas I have done none of these things, which these men have maliciously forged against me.” And the Lord heard her voice. And when she was led to be put to death, the Lord raised up the holy spirit of a young boy, whose name was Daniel, and he cried out with a loud voice: “I am clear from the blood of this woman.” Then all the people turning towards him, said: “What means this word that you have spoken?” But he standing in the midst of them, said: “Are you so foolish, you children of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the truth, you have condemned a daughter of Israel? Return to judgement, for they have borne false witness against her.” So all the people turned again in haste.

And Daniel said to the people: “Separate these two far from one another, and I will examine them.” So when they were put asunder one from the other, he called one of them and said to him: “O you that are grown old in evil days, now are your sins come out which you have committed before, in judging unjust judgements, oppressing the innocent and letting the guilty go free, whereas the Lord says: ‘The innocent and the just you must not kill.’ Now then, if you saw her, tell me under what tree you saw them conversing together.” He said: “Under a mastick tree.” And Daniel said: “Well have you lied against your own head, for behold the Angel of God, having received the sentence of him, will cut you in two.” And having put him aside, he commanded that the other should come, and he said to him: “You seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you, and lust has perverted your heart. Thus did you do as to the daughters of Israel, and they for fear conversed with you, but a daughter of Judah would not abide your wickedness. Now, therefore, tell me under what tree did you take them conversing together?” And he answered:” Under a holm tree.” And Daniel said to him: “Well have you also lied against your own head, for the Angel of the Lord waits with a sword to cut thee in two, and to destroy you.” With that all the assembly cried out with a loud voice, and they blessed God, who saves them that trust in Him. And they rose up against the two elders, (for Daniel had convicted them of false witness by their own mouth), and they did to them as they had maliciously dealt against their neighbour, and they put them to death, and innocent blood was saved in that day.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

If you would understand the mystery, read and meditate on the Sacred Scriptures, for there you will learn that there is a salvation which comes from justice, and a salvation that proceeds from mercy. Today we have an example of both. Susanna, who is unjustly accused of adultery, receives from God the recompense of her virtue. He avenges and saves her. Another woman, who is really guilty of the crime, is saved from death by Jesus Christ himself. Let the just, therefore, confidently and humbly await the reward they have merited, but let sinners also hope in the mercy of the Redeemer, who is come for them rather than for the just.

In this history of Susanna, the early Christians saw a figure of the Church, which, in their time, was solicited by the pagans to evil, but remained faithful to her Divine Spouse, even though death was the punishment of her resistance. A holy Martyr of the third century, Saint Hippolytus, mentions this interpretation. The carvings on the ancient Christian tombs, and the frescoes of the Roman Catacombs, represent this history of Susanna's fidelity to God’s law, in spite of the death that threatened her, as a type of martyrs preferring death to apostacy, for apostacy, in the language of the Sacred Scriptures, is called adultery, which the soul is guilty of by denying her God, to whom she espoused herself when she received Baptism.

Gospel – John viii. 1‒11

At that time Jesus went to Mount Olivet. And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him, and sitting down He taught them. And the Scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery, and they set her in the midst, and said to Him: “Master, this woman was now taken in adultery. Now. Moses in the law commanded us to stone such a one: but what say you?” And this they said tempting Him, that they might accuse Him. But Jesus, bowing Himself down, wrote with his finger on the ground. When therefore they continued asking Him, He lifted up Himself and said to them:” He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” And again stooping down, He wrote on the ground. But they hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, and Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus lifting up Himself, said to her: “Woman, where are they that accused you? Has no man condemned you?” Who said: “No man, Lord.” And Jesus said: “Neither will I condemn you. Go, and now sin no more.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This is the Salvation that proceeds from mercy. The woman is guilty. The Law condemns her to he put to death. Her accusers are justified in insisting on her being punished, and yet, she will not die. Jesus saves her, and all He asks of her is, that she sin no more. What must have been her gratitude! How must she not have desired to obey, henceforward, that God, who would not condemn her, and to whom she owed her life! Let us enter into the like dispositions towards our Redeemer, for we, too, are sinners. Is it not He that has stayed the arm of Divine Justice, when it was raised to strike us? Has He not turned the blow on Himself? Our salvation, then, has been one of mercy. Let us imitate the penitents of the primitive Church, and, during these remaining days of Lent, consolidate the foundations of the new life we have begun. The answer made by Jesus to the Pharisees who accused this woman deserves our respectful attention. It not only shows His compassion for the humble sinner, who stood trembling before Him: it contains a practical instruction for us. He that is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone at her.

During these days of conversion and repentance, let us recall to mind the detractions we have been guilty of against our neighbour. Alas, these sins of the tongue are looked on as mere trifles. We forget them almost as soon as we commit them, so deeply rooted in us is the habit of finding fault with everyone, that we scarcely know ourselves to be detractors. If this saying of our Redeemer had made the impression it ought to have done on us. If we had thought of our own numberless defects and sins, how could we have dared to criticise our neighbour, publish his faults, and pass judgement on his very thoughts and intentions? Jesus knew what sort of life these men had led, who accuse the woman. He knows what ours has been! Woe to us, if, henceforth, we are not indulgent with others! And lastly, let us consider the malice of Jesus’ enemies: what they said, they said, tempting Him, that they might accuse Him. If He pronounces in the woman’s favour, they will accuse him of despising the Law of Moses, which condemns her to be stoned. If He answer in conformity with the Law, they will hold Him up to the people as a man without mercy or compassion. Jesus, by His divine prudence, eludes their stratagem, but we can foresee what He will have to suffer at their hands, when, having put Himself in their power, that they may do with Him what they please, He will make no other answer to their calumnies and insults than the silence and patience of an innocent victim condemned to death.

28 MARCH – SAINT JOHN OF CAPISTRANO (Confessor)

St. John was born at Capistrano in the Abruzzi in Italy on 24 June 1385 and entered the Order of Friars Minor at the age of 18. God chose him to help deliver Europe from the Turks who threatened to invade in the fifteenth century. Mohammed II had taken Constantinople and was marching to Belgrade, Serbia. Pope Callistus III decreed a Crusade, and St. John preached the Gospel in Pannonia and other provinces and managed to enrol 70,000 Christians to fight the Turks and defeat them. St. John died in 1456.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Caesarea in Palestine, the birthday of the holy martyrs Priscus, Malchus and Alexander. In the persecution of Valerian they were dwelling in the suburbs of Caesarea, but knowing that in the city the heavenly crown of martyrdom was to be gained, and burning with the divine ardour of faith, they went to the judge of their own accord, rebuked him for shedding the blood of the faithful in torrents, and were forthwith condemned to be devoured by beasts for the name of Christ.

At Tarsus in Cilicia, the holy martyrs Castor and Dorotheus.

In Africa, the holy martyrs Rogatus, Successus and sixteen others.

At Rome, St. Sixtus III, pope and confessor.

At Norcia, the abbot St. Speus, a man of extraordinary patience, whose soul at its departure from this life was seen by all his brethren to ascend to heaven in the shape of a dove.

At Chalons in France, the demise of St. Gontram, king, who devoted himself to exercises of piety, renounced the pomps of the world, and bestowed his treasures on churches and the poor.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 MARCH – FRIDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT

 

Lesson – Numbers xx. 2‒13

In those days the children of Israel came together against Moses and Aaron, and making a sedition they said: “Give us water to drink.” And Moses and Aaron leaving the multitude, went into the tabernacle of the covenant and fell flat on the ground, and cried to the Lord and said: “O Lord God, bear the cry of this people and open to them your treasure, a fountain of living water, that being satisfied, they may cease to murmur.” And the glory of the Lord appeared over them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Take the rod and assemble the people together, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before them, and it will yield waters. And when you have brought forth water out of the rock, all the multitude and their cattle will drink.” Moses therefore took the rod, which was before the Lord, as He had commanded him, and having gathered together the multitude before the rock, he said to them: “Hear, ye rebellious and incredulous. Can we bring you forth water out of this rock?” And when Moses had lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with the rod, there came forth water in great abundance, so that the people and their cattle drank. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: “Because you have not believed me, to sanctify me before the children of Israel, you must not bring these people into the land which I will give them.” This is the water of contradiction, where the children of Israel strove with words against the Lord, and he was sanctified in them.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Here we have one of the most expressive figures of the old Testament: it symbolises the Sacrament of Baptism, for which our Catechumens are now preparing. A whole people asks for water: if it be denied them, they must perish in the wilderness. Saint Paul, the sublime interpreter of the types of the Old Testament, tells us that the rock was Christ (2 Corinthians x. 4), from whom came forth the fountain of living water which quenches the thirst of our souls and purifies them. The Holy Fathers observe that the rock yielded not its waters until it had been struck with the rod which signifies the Passion of our Redeemer. The rod itself, as we are told by some of the earliest commentators of the Scriptures, is the symbol of the Cross, and the two strokes, with which the rock was struck, represent the two parts of which the Cross was formed. The paintings which the primitive Church has left us in the Catacombs of Rome frequently represent Moses in the act of striking the rock, from which flows a stream of water, and a glass found in the same Catacombs bears an inscription telling us that the first Christians considered Moses as the type of Saint Peter, who in the New Covenant opened to God’s people the fountain of grace when he preached to them on the day of Pentecost, and gave also to the Gentiles to drink of this same water when he received Cornelius the centurion into the Church. This symbol of Moses striking the rock, and the figures of the Old Testament, which we have already come across, or will still meet with, in the Lessons given by the Church to the Catechumens — are not only found in the earliest frescoes of the Roman Catacombs, but we have numerous proofs that they were represented in all the Churches both of the East and West. Up to the thirteenth century and even later, we find them in the windows of our Cathedrals, and in the traditional form or type which was given to them in the early times. It is to be regretted, that these Christian symbols, which were so dear to our Catholic forefathers should now be so forgotten, as to be almost treated with contempt. Let us love them, and, by the study of the holy liturgy, let us return to those sacred traditions which inspired our ancestors with heroic faith, and made them undertake such grand things for God and their fellow-men.

Gospel – John iv. 5‒42

At that time Jesus came to a city of Samaria which is called Sichar, near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her: “Give me to drink,” for His disciples were gone into the city to buy meats. Then that Samaritan woman said to Him: “How do you, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman?” For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans. Jesus answered, and said to her: “If you knew the gift of God, and who he is that said to you, ‘Give me to drink,’ you perhaps would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him: “ Sir, you have nothing in which to draw, and the well is deep. From where then have you living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his children, and his cattle?” Jesus answered, and said to her: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but he that will drink of the water that I will give him, will not thirst forever. But the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting.” The woman said to Him: “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Jesus said to her: “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered, and said: “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her: “You have said well, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.” The woman said to Him: “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore.” Jesus said to her: “Woman, believe me, the hour comes when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father. You adore that which you know not. We adore that which we know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true adorers will adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such to adore Him. God is a spirit, and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth.” The woman said to Him: “I know that the Messiah comes, who is called Christ. Therefore when He has come, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her: “I am he, who am speaking with you.” And immediately His disciples came, and they wondered that He talked with the woman. Yet no man said: “What do you seek, or why do you talk with her?” The woman therefore left her water-pot and went her way into the city, and said to the men there: “Come and see a man who has told me all things whatever I have done. Is not he the Christ?” They went therefore out of the city and came to Him. In the meantime the disciples prayed Him, saying: “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them: “I have meat to eat which you know not of.” The disciples therefore said one to another: “Has any man brought Him to eat?” Jesus said to them: “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, that I may perfect His work. Do not you say, there are yet four months, and then the harvest comes? Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reaps receives wages and gathers fruit to life everlasting that both he that sows, and he that reaps may rejoice together. For in this is that saying true: that it is one man that sows, and it is another that reaps. I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour: others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours.” Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him, for the word of the woman giving testimony: “He told me all things whatever I have done.” So when the Samaritans were come to Him, they desired that He would tarry there. And He abode there two days. And many more believed in Him because of His own word. And they said to the woman: “We now believe, not for your saying: for we ourselves have heard Him and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Our Gospel shows us the Son of God continuing the ministry of Moses by revealing to the Samaritan woman, who represents the Gentiles, the mystery of the Water that gives life everlasting. We find this subject painted on the walls of the Catacombs, and carved on the tombs of the Christians, as far back as the fifth, and even the fourth century. Let us then meditate on this event of our Lord’s life, for it tells us of His wonderful mercy. Jesus is wearied with His journey. He, the Son of God, who had but to speak and the world was created, is fatigued, seeking after his lost sheep. He is obliged to rest his wearied limbs. He sits but it near a well. He finds a Samaritan woman there. She is a Gentile, an idolatress. She comes to draw water from the well. She has no idea of there being a water of eternal life. Jesus intends to reveal the mystery to her. He begins by telling her that He is tired and thirsty. A few days hence, when expiring on His Cross, He will say “I thirst” and so now He says to this woman: Give me to drink. So true is it, that in order to appreciate the grace brought us by our Redeemer, we must first know this Redeemer in His weakness and sufferings.

But before the woman had time to give Jesus what He asks, he tells her of a water, of which he that drinks will not thirst forever. He invites her to draw from a fountain that springs up into life everlasting. The woman longs to drink of this water. She knows not who He is that is speaking with her, and yet she has faith in what He says. This idolatress evinces a docility of heart which the Jews never showed to their Messiah, and she is docile, notwithstanding her knowing that He who speaks to her belongs to a nation which despises all Samaritans. The confidence with which she listens to Jesus is rewarded by His offering still greater graces. He begins by putting her to the test. “Go,” He says, “call your husband, and come here.” She was living in sin, and Jesus would have her confess it. She does so without the slightest hesitation. Her humility is rewarded, for she at once recognises Jesus to be a Prophet, and she begins to drink of the living water. Thus was it with the Gentiles. The Apostles preached the Gospel to them. They reproached them with their crimes and showed them the holiness of the God they had offended, but the Gentiles did not therefore reject their teaching. On the contrary, they were docile, and only wanted to know what they should do to render themselves pleasing to their Creator. The faith had need of martyrs, and they were found in abundance amidst these converts from paganism and its abominations.

Jesus, seeing such simple-heartedness in the Samaritan, mercifully reveals to her who He is. He tells this poor sinner, that the time is come when all men will adore God. He tells her that the Messiah has come upon the earth and that He Himself is that Messiah. It is thus that Christ treats a soul that is simple and obedient. He shows Himself to her without reserve. When the disciples arrived, they wondered. They had as yet too much of the Jew in them. They, therefore, could not understand how their Master could show anything like mercy to this Samaritan. But the time will soon come, when they will say with the great Apostle Saint Paul: “There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For all are one in Christ Jesus (1 Galatians iii. 28).

Meanwhile, the Samaritan becomes an apostle, for she is filled with heavenly ardour. She leaves her pitcher at the well: what cares she for its water, now that Jesus has given her to drink of the living water? She goes back to the city, but it is that she may preach Jesus there, and bring to Him, if she could, all the inhabitants of Samaria. In her humility, she gives this proof of His being a great Prophet — that He had told her all the sins of her life! These pagans whom the Jews despised hasten to the well where Jesus had remained speaking to His disciples on the coming harvest. They acknowledge him to be the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, and Jesus condescends to abide two days in this city where there was no other religion than that of idolatry, with a fragment here and there of some Jewish practice. Tradition tells us that the name of the Samaritan woman was Photina. She and the Magi were the first fruits of the new people of God. She suffered martyrdom for Him who revealed Himself to her at Jacob’s well. The Church honours her memory each year, in the Roman Martyrology, on the 20th of March.

27 MARCH – SAINT JOHN OF DAMASCUS (Confessor and Doctor of the Church)

The last of the Greek Fathers, John was born at Damascus where his father was the Caliph’s Vizier. He was educated with great care by Cosmas, a Greek monk who had been brought into Syria as a slave. On his father’s death he succeeded him as Vizier, and had thus all that the world could give him — wealth, honours, power, learning. But realising the danger of his high position at a Muslim court, he divided his riches among the poor and went as a pilgrim to Jerusalem, eventually settling in the famous Laura or monastery of Saint Sabbas. His life henceforth is a simple record of humility, prayer, labour and Obedience. He passed away 6 May 780 AD, being as is asserted one hundred and four years old. On account of the flowing eloquence of his writings Saint John acquired the surname “Chrysorrhoes”(Golden Stream). His chief work, that on the Orthodox Faith, is the first systematic Treatise on Dogmatic Theology we possess and has been a model to the writers of succeeding ages. His convincing discourses in defence of the veneration of icons marked him out as a champion of the faith against Leo the Isaurian, the iconoclast emperor of Constantinople, through whose machinations he was sentenced to have his right hand cut off. It was afterwards miraculously restored to him by Our Blessed Lady, whose devout client he ever was. Venerated from his own age as a Saint, Pope Leo XIII numbered him among the Doctors of the Church.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Drizipara in Pannonia, St. Alexander, a soldier, in the time of emperor Maximian. Having overcome many tribulations for Christ, and wrought many miracles, he completed his martyrdom by decapitation.

The same day, the Saints Philetus, senator, his wife Lydia, and their sons Macedon and Theoprepides. Also Amphilochius, an officer in the army, and Chronidas, a notary, who were put to death for the confession of Christ.

In Persia, in the reign of King Sapor, the holy martyrs Zanitas, Lazarus, Marotas, Narses, and five others, who merited the palm of martyrdom by being barbarously murdered.

At Salzburg, St. Rupert, bishop and confessor, who spread the Gospel extensively in Bavaria and Austria.

In Egypt, the hermit St. John, a man of great holiness, who among other virtues, was replenished with the spirit of prophecy, and predicted to the emperor Theodosius that he would gain the victory over the tyrants Maximus and Eugenius.

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

Thanks be to God.

27 MARCH – THURSDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT

 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This day brings us to the middle of Lent, and is called Mid-Lent Thursday. It is the twentieth of the forty fasts imposed on us at this holy Season by the Church. The Greeks call this Thursday Mesonestios, that is, the mid-Fast. They give this name to the entire week, which in their Liturgy is the fourth of the seven which form their Lent. But the Thursday of this week is, with them, a solemn feast, and a day of rejoicing by which they animate themselves to courage during the rest of the Season. The Catholic nations of the West, though they do not look on this day as a feast, yet have they always kept it with some degree of festivity and joy. The Church of Rome has countenanced the custom by her own observance of it, but in order not to give a pretext to dissipation, which might interfere with the spirit of fasting, she postpones to the following Sunday the formal expression of this innocent joy, as we will see further on. Yet it is not against the spirit of the Church that this Mid-Day of Lent should be marked by some demonstration of gladness, for example, by sending invitations to friends, as our Catholic forefathers used to do, and serving up to table choicer and more abundant food than on other days of Lent, taking care, however, that the laws of the Church are strictly observed. But, alas! how many there are, even of them that call themselves Catholic who have been breaking for the past twenty days these laws of abstinence and fasting! Whether the dispensations they trust to, be lawfully or unlawfully obtained, the joy of Mid-Lent Thursday seems scarcely made for them. To experience this joy one must have earned and merited it by penance, by privations, by bodily mortifications, which is just what so many nowadays, cannot think of doing. Let us pray for them that God would enlighten them and enable them to see what they are bound to do consistently with the faith they profess.

Lesson – Jeremiah vii. 1‒7

In those days, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaim there this word and say: ‘Hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye men of Judah that enter in at these gates to adore the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make your ways and your doings good, and I will dwell with you in this place. Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord. For if you will order well your ways and your doings; if you will execute judgement between a man and his neighbour; if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange gods to your own hurt; I will dwell with you in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers from the beginning and forever more,’” say the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

There is not a single duty in which the Church does not instruct her children. If, on the one hand, she insists on their fulfilling certain exterior practices of penance, she, on the other, warns them against the false principle of supposing, that exterior observances, however carefully complied with, can supply the want of interior virtues. God refuses to accept the homage of the spirit and the heart if man, through pride or sensuality, refuses that other service which is equally due to his Creator, namely, his bodily service. But to make one’s religion consist of nothing but material works is little better than mockery, for God bids us serve Him in spirit and in truth (John iv. 24). The Jews prided themselves on having the Temple of Jerusalem which was the dwelling-place of God’s glory, but this privilege which exalted them above other nations was not infrequently turned against themselves, inasmuch as many of them were satisfied with a mere empty respect for the holy Place. They never thought of that higher and better duty, of showing themselves grateful to their divine benefactor by observing His Law. Those Christians would be guilty of a like hypocrisy, who, though most scrupulously exact in the exterior duty of fasting and abstinence, were to take no pains to amend their lives, and follow the rules of justice, charity and humility. They would deserve that our Lord should say of them what He said of Israel: This people glorify me with their lips, but their heart is far from me (Isaias xxix. 13). This Christian pharisaism is very rare nowadays. What we have to fear is a disregard for the exterior practices of religion. Those of the faithful who are diligent in the fulfilment of the laws of the Church, are not, generally speaking, behindhand in the practice of other virtues. Still, this false conscience is sometimes to be met with, and is a scandal which does much spiritual injury. Let us, therefore, observe the whole Law. Let us offer to God a spiritual service which consists in the heart’s obedience to all His commandments, and to this let us join the homage of our bodies by practising those things which the Church has prescribed. The body is intended to be an aid to the soul, and is destined to share in her eternal happiness. It is but just that it should share in the service of God.

Gospel – Luke iv. 38‒44

At that time, Jesus rising up out of the synagogue went into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever and they besought Him for her. And standing over her, He commanded the fever and it left her. And immediately rising, she ministered to them. And when the sun was down, all they that had any sick with various diseases brought them to Him. But He laying His hands on every one of them, healed them. And devils went out from many, crying out and saying: “You are the Son of God.” And He, rebuking them, suffered them not to speak, for they knew that He was Christ. And when it was day, going out He went into a desert place and the multitudes sought Him and came to Him: and they stayed Him that He should not depart from them. To whom He said: “To other cities also I must preach the kingdom of God: for therefore am I sent.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us here ad mire the goodness of our Redeemer who deigns to exercise His power for the cure of bodily infirmities. How much more ready will He not be to heal our spiritual ailments! Our fever is that of evil passions. Jesus alone can allay it. Let us imitate the eagerness of these people of Galilee who brought all their sick to Jesus. Let us beseech Him to heal us. See with what patience He welcomes each poor sufferer! Let us also go to Him. Let us implore of him not to depart from us, but abide with us forever. He will accept our petition and remain. Let us pray for sinners: the days of the great Fast are quickly passing away: we have reached the second half of Lent, and the Passover of our deliverance will soon be here. Look at the thousands that are unmoved, with their souls still blind to the light, and their hearts hardened against every appeal of God’s mercy and justice. They seem resolved on making their eternal perdition less doubtful than ever by neglecting both the Lent and the Easter of this year. Let us offer up our penances far them, and beg of Jesus, by the merits of His sacred Passion, to redouble His mercies towards them and deliver from Satan these souls, for whose sakes He is about to shed His Blood.

26 MARCH – WEDNESDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Exodus xx. 12‒24

Thus says the Lord God: “Honour your father and your mother, that you may be long lived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give you. You must not kill. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not bear false witness against your neighbour. You must not covet your neighbour’s house, neither desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his.” And all the people saw the voices and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and being terrified and struck with fear, they stood afar off, saying to Moses: “Speak to us, and we will hear. Let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die.” And Moses said to the people: “Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that the dread of Him might be in you, and you should not sin.” And the people stood afar off. But Moses went to the dark cloud in which God was. And the Lord said to Moses: “Thus must you say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. You must not make gods of silver, nor make to yourselves gods of gold. You must make an altar of earth to me, and you must offer on it your holocausts and peace-offerings, your sheep and oxen, in every place where the memory of my Name will be.’”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church reminds us today of the divine Commandments which relate to our duties towards our neighbour, beginning with that which enjoins respect to parents. Now that the faithful are intent on the great work of the conversion and amendment of their lives, it is well that they should he reminded that their duties towards their fellow-men are prescribed by God himself. Hence, it was God whom we offended, when we sinned against our neighbour. God first tells us what He Himself has a right to receive from our hands: He bids us adore and serve Him. He forbids the worship of idols. He enjoins the observance of the Sabbath, and prescribes sacrifices and ceremonies: but, at the same time, He commands us to love our neighbours as ourselves, and assures us that He will be their avenger when we have wronged them, unless we repair the injury.

The voice of Jehovah on Sinai is not less commanding when it proclaims what our duties are to our neighbour, than when it tells us our obligations to our Creator. Thus Enlightened as to the origin of our duties, we will have a clearer view of the state of our conscience, and of the atonement required of us by Divine Justice. But, if the Old Law, that was written on tablets of stone, thus urges upon us the precept of the love of our neighbour, how much more will not the New Law, that was signed with the blood of Jesus, when dying on the Cross for His ungrateful brethren, insist on our observance of fraternal charity? These are the two Laws on which we will be judged. Let us, therefore, carefully observe what they command on this head, that thus we may prove ourselves to be Christians, according to those words of our Saviour: By this will all men know that you are my dimples, if you have love one for another (Luke viii. 35).

Gospel – Matthew xv. 1‒20

At that time, the Scribes and Pharisees came from Jerusalem to Jesus, and saying to Him: “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.” But He answering, said to them: “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said: ‘Honour your father and mother’ and ‘He that will curse father or mother, let him die the death.’ But you say whoever will say to his father or mother, the gift whatever proceeds from me, will profit you, and he will not honour his father or mother, and you have made void the commandment of God for your tradition. Hypocrites, well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘This people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men.’” And having called together the multitudes to Him, he said to them: “Hear and understand. Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what cometh out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Then came His disciples, and said to Him: “Do you know that the Pharisees, when they heard this word, were scandalized?” But He answering, said: “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Leave them alone. They are blind, and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.” And Peter answering, said to Him: “Expound to us this parable.” But He said: “Are you also yet without understanding? Do you not understand that whatever enters into the mouth, goes into the belly, and is cast out into the privy? But the things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and those things defile a man. For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands, does not defile a man.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Law that was given by God to Moses enjoined a great number of exterior practices and ceremonies, and they that were faithful among the Jews, zealously and carefully fulfilled them. Jesus Himself, though He was the Divine Law-giver, most humbly complied with them. But the Pharisees had added their own superstitious tradition to these divine laws and ordinances and made religion consist in the observance of these fanciful inventions. Our Saviour here tells the people not to be imposed upon by such teaching, and instructs them as to what is the real meaning of the external practices of the Law. The Pharisees prescribed a great many ablutions or washings to be observed during the course of the day. They would have it, that they who eat without having washed their hands, (and indeed the whole body, some time during the day) were defiled, and that the food they thus partook of was unclean, by reason, as they said, that they themselves had become defiled by having come near or touched objects which were specified by their whims. According to the Law of God, these objects were perfectly innocent. But according to the law of the Pharisees, almost everything was contagious and the only escape was endless washings! Jesus would have the Jews throw off this humiliating and arbitrary yoke, and reproaches the Pharisees for having corrupted and made void the Law of Moses. He tells them that there is no creature which is intrinsically and of its own nature unclean, and that a man’s conscience cannot be defiled by the mere fact of his eating certain kinds of food. Evil thoughts and evil deeds, these, says our Saviour, are the things that defile a man. Some heretics have interpreted these words as being an implicit condemnation of the exterior practices ordained by the Church, and more especially of abstinence. To such reasoners and teachers we may justly apply what our Saviour said to the Pharisees: They are blind and leaders of the blind. From this, that the sins into which a man falls by his use of material things are only sins on account of the malice of the will, which is spiritual — it does not follow that therefore man may without any sin, make use of material things, when God, or his Church forbid their use. God forbade our first parents, under pain of death, to eat the fruit of a certain tree. They ate it, and sin was the result of their eating. Was the fruit unclean of its own nature? No, it was a creature of God as well as the other fruits of Eden, but our first parents sinned by eating it because their doing so was an act of disobedience. Again, when God gave His Law on Mount Sinai, He forbade the Hebrews to eat the flesh of certain animals. If they ate it they were guilty of sin, not because this sort of food was intrinsically evil or cursed, but because they that partook of it disobeyed the Lord. The commandments of the Church regarding fasting and abstinence are of a similar nature with these. It is that we may secure to ourselves the blessing of Christian Penance — in other words, it is for our spiritual interest that the Church bids us abstain and fast at certain times. If we violate her law, it is not the food we take that defiles us, but the resisting a sacred power, which our Saviour, in yesterday’s Gospel, told us we are to obey under the heavy penalty which He expressed in those words: He that will not hear the Church will be counted as a heathen and publican.

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.