Dom Prosper Guéranger:
On this day which is sacred to Mary let us open the holy Gospel according to Saint John. There, in the second chapter we find these words: “There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the Mother of Jesus was there” (John ii. 1). The sacred text goes on to say that Jesus also and His disciples were among the guests, but the Holy Spirit, who guided the Evangelist’s hand, would have him first make mention of Mary. It was to teach us that this our Blessed Mother extends her protection to those who enter on the married life with worthy dispositions, that is, with such dispositions as to draw down upon themselves the blessing of her divine Son.
Marriage is a sacred state, for it was instituted by God. The first marriage was celebrated in the earthly Paradise between Adam and Eve when yet they were innocent. It was God Himself who dictated the conditions of marriage. Unity was to be its very basis. In other words, the wife was to have but one husband, the husband was to have but one wife. It was the type of a still more glorious unity, which was not to be revealed till a later period. The Mystery of Unity typified by marriage being part of the Christian Revelation, we deem it a duty to put it before our readers by the following considerations.
The Angels were all created at one and the same time: but the members of the human race were to be born, each indeed from their respective parents, but yet so as that Adam and Eve were to be the common parents to whom all were to owe their origin. Such was our Creator’s design, and marriage was the means He selected for its fulfilment. An immense multitude of the Angels having fallen, the places destined for them in Heaven were to be filled up by the elect of Earth. Again, it was marriage that was to provide these citizens for Heaven. Hence, God blessed marriage at the very commencement of the world, and with a blessing which was to be permanent for, as the Church teaches us in the Liturgy, “it was not recalled, either by the punishment inflicted on original sin, or by the sentence which destroyed the world by the deluge” (Missale Romanum. Praefatio Super Sponsam).
Even before this second great chastisement came upon the Earth, “all flesh had corrupted its way” (Genesis vi. 12). Marriage had fallen from the elevated dignity given to it by the Creator. The end for which He instituted it was forgotten. It was debased into a mere sensual gratification. It lost the sacred Unity, which was its glory. Polygamy and Divorce destroyed its primitive character, and two frightful evils ensued: family ties were at an end, and woman’s position was degraded into that of a being which must minister to man’s passions. The lesson intended to be conveyed by the Deluge was soon lost sight of. The world again became depraved, so much so indeed, that when the Mosaic Law came with its reforms, it had not power to restore to marriage the dignity of its first institution.
To effect this it was requisite that God Himself should descend upon the Earth. When the miseries of humanity had reached their height, the Word, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, assumed our human nature and dwelt amongst us. He called Himself the Bridegroom (Matthew ix. 15). The Prophets and the Canticle of Canticles had foretold that He would take to Himself a Spouse from among mortals. This Spouse is the Church, that is, the human race purified by Baptism and enriched with supernatural gifts. As a dowry, He gave her His own Precious Blood and Merits, and then united her to Himself forever. This Spouse is One: He affectionately calls her His Only One (Canticles vi. 8). On her part, she has no other but Him. Here we have revealed to us the divine type on which Marriage was formed, and which, as the Apostle teaches us, derives its holiness and dignity from its resemblance to the union existing between Christ and His Church (Ephesians v. 32). The two unions are for the same end, and bear a mutual relation to each other. Jesus loves His Church with the tenderest affection, but His Church is the issue of human marriage, for it is marriage that provides the Church with her Children, and thus perpetuates her existence upon the earth. Let us not be surprised, therefore, that Jesus restored marriage to its primitive condition, and that He honours it as being His powerful aid in the accomplishment of His designs.
We have already seen on the second Sunday after the Epiphany how He selected the Nuptial Feast at Cana as the occasion of His working His first public miracle. By His accepting the invitation to assist, in company with his Blessed Mother, at the marriage, it is evident that He wished to honour, by His divine presence, the sacred engagement which was to unite the two spouses. It is evident that He intended to renew, in their persons, the ancient Blessing given in Paradise. Having, by His miracle at Cana, proved himself to be truly the Son of God, He began His public life and preaching. His object being to reform fallen man to the noble end for which he had been created, He frequently made marriage the subject of His instructions. He spoke of its being divinely instituted on the basis of unity. He authoritatively repeated the command given at its first institution: “They will be two in one flesh” (Matthew xix. 5; Genesis i. 24), two, and only two. Speaking of the indissolubility of the marriage tie, He told His hearers that no power on earth, not even the unfaithfulness, however criminal, of the husband or wife, could sever the bond. These were his words: “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Matthew xi. 6). Thus did He restore marriage to its normal state. Thus did He abrogate the degrading liberty, or more correctly, the libertinism, of polygamy and divorce — those sad proofs of the hardness of man’s heart (Matthew xi. 8) and of the need he had of a Redeemer. Thus did the New Law bring back to Marriage its primal blessing and make it, once more, a holy state, which so far from its being an obstacle, is a means to virtue, and peoples both Earth and Heaven with Elect.
But our Risen Jesus would do more than repair the injuries brought upon Marriage by human frailty. He raised to the dignity of a Sacrament the solemn and irrevocable contract by which a man and woman take each other for husband and wife. The moment that two Christians are thus irrevocably united, a Sacramental grace descends upon them and cements their union, which there and then becomes a sacred thing. The Apostle, speaking of Christian Marriage, says: “It is a great Sacrament; but I speak in Christ, and in the Church” (Ephesians v. 32) The meaning of these words is that marriage is the type of the union which exists between Christ and His Spouse the Church. There is one and the same object and end in the two Unions — in that of Christ with the Church, and in that of the Husband with his Wife: this object, this end, is to people Heaven with Elect. Hence it is, that the Holy Ghost puts his Divine seal on both these unions.
But the grace of the seventh Sacrament does more than cement the indissoluble union of husband and wife. It gives them every help they stand in need of for the fulfillment of their sacred mission. First of all, it infuses into their hearts a mutual love which is strong as death, and which many waters cannot quench (Canticles viii. 6, 7), so long as they make religion the ruling principle of their lives. This love is mingled with a sentiment of chaste respect, which serves as a check upon evil concupiscence. It is a love, which time, far from impairing, makes purer and stauncher. It is a love calm like that which is found in Heaven. When sacrifices are to be made, it makes them almost without an effort, and is intensified by the making.
The sacramental grace also fits the husband and wife for the great duty of educating their children. It gives them an untiring devotedness for their welfare, an affectionate patience with their faults, a supernatural discernment for treating them according to their age and dispositions, a ceaseless remembrance of these dear ones being created for Heaven and, finally, a deep-rooted sentiment of their belonging to God more truly than to the parents through whom he gave them life.
Thus was the married state transformed by the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony. The Christian Law restored to it the dignity of which the vile egotism of pagan passion had deprived it. After so long a period of degradation, mankind was again brought to the knowledge of what marriage really is, namely, Love surrounded by Sacrifice, and Sacrifice prompted and aided by Love. Truly, a Sacrament was needed for the bringing about such a change as this! The change came, and admirable indeed it was. Two centuries had not elapsed since the promulgation of the Gospel, and paganism was still powerful. And yet we find a writer of those days giving the following description of a Christian husband and wife:
“How shall I find words to describe the happiness of a marriage whose tie is formed by the hands of the Church, which is confirmed by the sacred Oblation, sealed by the Blessing, proclaimed by the Angels, and ratified by the Heavenly Father? How wonderful a yoke is that which is taken up by two of the faithful united together in the same hope, in the same law, in the same duty! They have the same God for their Father, they serve the same Master, they are two in one flesh, they are one heart and soul. They pray together, they prostrate together, they fast together. They instruct each other, they exhort each other, they encourage each other. You see them together in the Church, and at the Holy Table. They share in each other’s trials, persecutions and joys. There are no secrets between them, no such thing as shunning each other, or being wearied of each other’s company. They have not to hide from each other, in order to visit the sick or the needy. Their alms excite no disputes. They approve of each other’s sacrifices. They interfere not with each other’s practices of piety. They have no need to make the sign of the Cross stealthily, " neither are they afraid to give way, in each other’s presence, to feelings of love and gratitude for their God. They sing together the Psalms and Canticles, and if there be any rivalry between them, it is which of them will best sing the praises of God. Oh! These are the marriages which gladden the eyes and ears of Christ. These are the marriages to which He imparts His blessing of Peace. He has said that He would be where two are united together. Therefore, He is in such a house as the one we are describing, and the enemy of man is not there” (Tertullian, Ad uxorem. Lib. ii., cap. ix.)
What a picture! And how great must be the Sacrament which can bring about such results as this! Here is the secret of the world’s regeneration: it was our Lord Jesus Christ Himself who created the beautiful existence of a Christian family and implanted it on our earth. Long ages passed, and this was the type which, in spite of human frailty, was the only one acknowledged either by the consciences of individuals or by the public laws of nations. But the pagan element — which may be repressed, but which never dies — strove to regain what it had lost and, at length, the time came, when it succeeded in falsifying, in the majority of Christian countries, the notion of marriage. Faith teaches us, that this contract now become a Sacrament comes under the jurisdiction of the Church in what regards the bond, which constitutes its very essence: but the modern world looks on the Church as a power incompatible with the progress of liberty and enlightenment, and therefore the State takes the Church’s place, as often as it is deemed good for society! — and marriage has been debased into a civil act. The immediate consequence of this has been that the State can legalise divorce and therefore paganise society. The influence exercised over the world by the long predominance of the Christian spirit has not been entirely removed by this iniquitous secularisation of marriage. Still, from the principles laid down by our modern governments we have this logical and practical result: that a marriage may be indissoluble and sacramental in the eyes of the Church, and null in the eyes of the civil power. And again, a marriage held to be legal by the State, may be counted as invalid by the Church, and therefore not binding on the conscience. The rupture between Church and State is therefore consummated.
And yet, that which Christ has appointed cannot be effaced by man. What Jesus has instituted is to last to the end of time. Therefore, let Christians fear not: let them continue to receive from their mother, the Church, the doctrine of the Sacraments. Let them continue to look on marriage as a divine institution, such as we have been describing it to be, and thus they may save society and re-Christianise it — or, if that cannot be, they will save their own and their children’s souls.
The close of this week, and these reflections on the divine Sacrament of Matrimony, lead us to think of you, dear Mother of Jesus! The Marriage-feast at Cana which was honoured by your presence and blessing, is one of the great facts of the holy Gospel. Why, O the purest of Virgins, who would have refused the dignity of being Mother of God had it called for the sacrifice of the Treasure already conferred on you — why were you present at these Nuptials, if not to teach a sublime lesson? This lesson is, that holy and perfect continence is a state far superior to that of marriage. It is a lesson which exercises an immense influence on the married life, inasmuch as it secures to it its Christian dignity and happiness. Who, then, could have been more appropriately chosen by God than you, to bless a union which is so holy in itself, and instituted for such a sublime end? Shield it with your protection now more than ever, for the world’s laws have legislated for its ruin, and sensualism has destroyed in thousands of Christians the sense of right and wrong. There are exceptions: there are some who receive this sacrament with the holiest of dispositions. Upon these, O Mary, lavish your blessing. They are the inheritance of your divine Son. They are the salt of the earth, to keep it from universal corruption. They are the pledge of a better future. They are your children, sweet Mother! Then watch over them, add to their number, that so the world may not perish.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
We have reverently followed our Redeemer in His institution of the Sacramental helps by which man is placed and kept in the state of sanctifying grace, from his first entrance into this life to his leaving it for the eternal enjoyment of the beatific vision. We must now speak of that sublime Sacrament which was instituted by Jesus as the source whence mankind is to receive the other Sacraments.
This Sacrament is Holy Orders, and it is so called because of its being conferred in several distinct degrees upon those who receive it. As in Heaven the Angels are arranged in different ranks according as they have been endowed with a greater or less degree of light and power, in such wise, that they who are higher act upon those that are lower: so is it in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. There is order in the several ranks, and the higher act upon the lower by the communication of light and power. It is this that constitutes the hierarchy of the Church. Hierarchy means Sacred Government. It comprises three degrees: the Episcopate, Priesthood, and Diaconate, in which last are included the Orders below it. This is called the Hierarchy of Order, to distinguish it from the Hierarchy of Jurisdiction. This second, which is entrusted with the government of the Church, is composed of the Pope, of the Bishops, and of the inferior Clergy to whom the Pope and Bishops delegate a part of their power of government. We have already seen how this hierarchy takes its origin from that sovereign act by which our Lord Jesus, the Shepherd of men, gave to Peter the Keys of the Kingdom of God. The Hierarchy of Order is intimately connected with the first, and its object is the sanctification of men by the administering to them the treasures of grace confided to its keeping. As we have already said, Jesus appeared to His Apostles on the day of His Resurrection, and said to them: “As the Father has sent me, I also send you” (John xx. 21).
Now the Father sent His Son that He might be the Shepherd of men, and we have heard Jesus bidding Peter to feed His lambs and His sheep. The Father sent His Son that He might be the Teacher of men, and we have seen Jesus entrusting to His Apostles the truths which were to be proposed to us as the object of our faith. But the Father sent the Son that He might also be the High Priest of men. Jesus must therefore leave this same Priesthood on earth, that it may be continued among us to the end of time. Now, what is a Priest? He is the mediator between heaven and earth. He reconciles man to his God by offering a Sacrifice that gives infinite honour to God and atones for man’s sin. He cleanses the sinner’s conscience and makes him a just man. He, in a word, unites man to his God by the mysteries of which he is the dispenser.
Jesus exercised all these functions of Priest, agreeably to the mission given Him by the Father, but the Father would have them to be continued, even after His Son should have ascended into Heaven. For this it was necessary that Jesus should communicate His Priestly character by a special Sacrament to a few chosen men, just as by Baptism He conferred on all His faithful the dignity of being His members. Here again it will be the Holy Ghost that will act, and in each stage or degree of the Sacrament. It was by His divine operation that the Incarnate Word entered into Mary’s womb. It is His action that will imprint on the souls of them that are presented the Priestly character of this same Jesus our Lord. Hence, after using the words just cited, Jesus breathed on His Apostles and said to them: “Receive the Holy Ghost!” hereby showing, that it is by a special infusion of Him who is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, that men are fitted for being sent by the Son, as the Son was sent by the Father.
And yet, the Apostles and their successors are to confer this Sacrament, not by a breath — that is the prerogative of the Word, the author of life — but by the imposition of hands. It is at the solemn moment of the imposition of the Bishop’s hands over them who are to be ordained that the Holy Ghost comes down upon them. Thus will be transmitted the heavenly gift from generation to generation. It will be conferred in its several degrees, according to the will of the Hierarch, by and with whom the Holy Ghost acts. So that when Jesus comes on the last day to judge the world, He will find on Earth the sacred character which He conferred on His Apostles when He gave them the Holy Ghost.
Let us attentively and devoutly contemplate the mystic ladder of the Hierarchy established by our Jesus, by which we might ascend to Heaven. At the very summit is the Episcopate, holding in itself the plenitude of Holy Orders, and having the power to produce other Pontiffs, and Priests, and Deacons. He holds the Keys of which our Lord speaks when He says: “Whatever you will bind upon Earth, will be bound also in Heaven, and whatever you will loose on Earth, will be loosed also in Heaven” (Matthew xviii. 18). He can administer all the Sacraments. The consecration of the Chrism and Holy Oils belongs to his office. He can not only bless, he can also consecrate.
Next comes the Priest, who truly looks upon the Bishop as his spiritual Father, seeing that it was by the imposition of the Bishop’s hands that he received the dignity and character of Priesthood. The Priest, however, does not possess the plenitude of Jesus’ Priesthood. His hands, though most holy, have not the power to produce other Priests. He blesses, but he does not consecrate. He must look to the Bishop for holy Chrism, for he himself cannot make it. Notwithstanding this, his dignity is great, for he has power to offer the Holy Sacrifice, and his offering is the same as that of the Bishop. He forgives the sins of those whom the Bishop has put under his care. The solemn administration of Baptism is entrusted to him when the Bishop himself does not perform it. And as to Extreme Unction, it is essentially a Priest’s function.
The next lower Order is that of Deacon, who is, as the Greek name implies, the servant of the Priest. Not having the Priesthood, he cannot offer Sacrifice, nor remit sins, nor give Extreme Unction to the dying but he assists and serves the Priest at the Altar, and stands by his side during the solemn moment of Consecration. He reads the holy Gospel from the ambo to the people. The Blessed Sacrament is entrusted to his care and, failing a Priest, he is He has the power of offering up the holy Sacrifice, allowed to distribute it to the faithful. In similar circumstances, he could solemnly administer Baptism. He has also the power of preaching the word of God to the people.
These are the three degrees of the Hierarchy of order. They correspond, as the great Saint Denis teaches, with the three degrees whereby man attains to union with God: namely, purification, illumination and perfection. The Deacon prepares the Catechumen and the sinner, by instructing them in the word of God, which will purify their minds from error, and incite them to the repentance of their sins and to a desire of being freed from them. The Priest enlightens these same by the illumination of holy Baptism, by the remission of their sins, and by admitting them to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Bishop pours out upon them the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and raises them, by their seeing his own super-eminent prerogatives, to union with Christ. Such is the Sacrament of Holy Orders. It is the essential means established for the salvation of mankind, the channel through which God has ordained that the infinite graces of the Incarnation should flow upon the earth, and the medium by which is perpetuated among us the presence and action of our Redeemer.
Let us give thanks to our Jesus for this unspeakable blessing. Let us honour the Priesthood of the New Law: it is Jesus who inaugurated it in His own person, and who afterwards entrusted it to men chosen by Him for continuing the mission given to Him by His Father. The Sacraments are the true life of the world. But who are the ministers of these Sacraments? The Priests of the Church. Let us pray for those who are in Holy Orders, for their responsibilities are great, their dignity is divine, and yet they themselves are but men. They are not a tribe or a caste, as were the Priests in the Old Law, but they are taken from every race and family. Finally, a Priest, though inferior to the Angels by nature, is, by the office he holds, superior to these blessed Spirits.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
By the first four Sacraments our Saviour provided for the several spiritual necessities of man during this mortal life. Baptism gives him spiritual birth, Confirmation arms him for the battle, the Eucharist is his food, Penance is his cure. But the last moment of life — that most important and terrible of all, and on which depends eternity — does it not seem to require a special sacramental aid?
Could it be that our Redeemer, after so lovingly supplying us with a Sacrament to meet our other wants, would leave us unprovided when we are dying, that is, when we are passing from this to another life and are weighed down with bodily and mental sufferings? No: he has provided a Sacrament for the Dying. The grace of Redemption puts on a new form that it may visit and fortify us in our last struggle.
Even before His Passion He gave us some idea of the Sacrament He intended to institute for the help of the dying. When He sent His disciples before Him, that they might prepare the people for His preaching, He commanded them to anoint the sick with oil: they did so, and the result was the cure of them that were thus anointed (Mark vi. 13). But after His Resurrection, when our Redeemer was preparing the dowry of His Church, He gave her a Sacrament with which this Mother was to administer special grace and consolation to her children when in danger of death.
Oil is the symbol of strength: hence, the wrestlers of old used it as a means for acquiring activity and nerve. Our Saviour chose it as the matter of the Sacrament of Confirmation by which our souls, after being regenerated by Baptism, are strengthened for their future combats. The hour of death is a combat, but one so terrible that it stands apart by itself. It is then that Satan, seeing how the long-coveted prey is soon to be beyond his reach, redoubles his efforts to make it his own forever. The dying Christian, standing as he does on the brink of eternity, is exposed to two temptations: presumption and despair. In a few moments he will be before the Judge, whose sentence is irrevocable. The remnants of sin are still upon him, and clog his soul. How will he comport himself in that last combat on which depends the final success of all the previous ones of his life?
Is not this an occasion for a special Sacrament by which our Jesus may provide his combatant with the help so urgently needed? Yes, and here again it is oil. The first anointing was that of Confirmation, and it gave strength: and the last, or as it is called, Extreme Unction, is equally rich in power: it is the last application made to mankind of the Redeemer’s blood, “which flows in such abundance with this holy oil” (Bossuet, Oraison funebre de Madame Henriette).
Let us consider the effects of Extreme Unction, of which the Apostle Saint James speaks to us in his Epistle. What he there tells us, he had received from Jesus’ own lips. First of all, this Sacrament brings forgiveness of sins (James v. 15), forgiveness of those sins which the conscience, however diligent it may have been in its examination, had overlooked and which, nevertheless, injure the soul: and forgiveness of those remnants of sin, which continue after the guilt of sin has been remitted, like wounds which, though cured, are not quite closed and keep the patient weak. The holy oil anoints each of the senses, each has been the source of sin. Each now receives its special purification. These doors, which, up to this moment had been open to the world, are now closed, so that the soul can be all intent upon eternal things. Let the enemy come now, if he will. His attacks can do no harm. He expected to find his adversary the poor earthly-minded creature of old on whom he had inflicted hundreds of wounds, but lo! he finds a soldier of Christ, vigorous and brave. It is Extreme Unction that has worked the change.
But the effects of this Sacrament do not stop here. Though primarily instituted for imparting strength to the soul, yet has it the power of restoring health to the body. We learn this from the same Apostle Saint James. His words are these: “Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up” (James v. 14, 15). The sacred formula which accompanies each anointing in this Sacrament has therefore the power of restoring bodily health, at the same time that it drives away the remnants of sin, which is the chief cause of all man’s miseries, whether of soul or body. Such is the interpretation put by the Church on the words of Saint James, and we have continual proofs that our Divine Master has not forgotten the promise of two-fold efficacy which He gave to this Sacrament. Hence it is, that after having anointed the several senses of the sick person, the priest addresses God in earnest prayer, that he would restore strength of body to him or her whose soul has received the efficacy of the heavenly remedy.
Nay, the Church looks upon the restoration to bodily health as so truly a Sacramental effect of Extreme Unction, that she does not consider as miracles, properly so called, the cures produced by its administration. Let us, then, offer to the Conqueror of Death the homage of our thanks for this fresh proof of His compassionate love. He would Himself experience all our miseries, not excepting even death or the agony that precedes it. When on His Cross, and enduring every anguish, as though he were a poor dying sinner and not the Saint of Saints, He thought of our deaths and mercifully blessed our last agony with an outpouring of His Precious Blood. This was the origin of the beautiful Sacrament of Extreme Unction which He gave to his Church after His Resurrection, and for which we offer Him today our humble thanks.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
Saturday brings us once more to the dear Mother of our Jesus. Last Saturday, when closing our week’s considerations upon the establishment of the Church, we reverently drew a parallel between these two Mothers — Mary and the Church. During the present week we have been considering how our Saviour confided His Doctrine, that is, the object of our Faith, to His Apostles: let us devote this last day to a loving remembrance of the dogmas which Jesus revealed to them regarding the dignity and office of Her, whom he chose for his own and our Mother.
Holy Church teaches us several truths concerning Mary, and these truths are the object of our faith on the same ground as the other articles contained in the Catholic Creed. Now they could not be the object of our faith, except inasmuch as they were revealed by the lips of our Divine Lord Himself. The Church of our days has received them from the Church of past ages, just as this last named received them from the Apostles to whom Jesus first confided them. There has been no new revelation since our Saviour’s Ascension. Consequently, the manifestation of all the dogmas transmitted to the Church and promulgated by her to the world, dates from the teaching given by Jesus to His Apostles. It is on this account that we believe them with theological faith, a faith which can only be given to truths directly revealed by God to man.
How beautiful is the affection here shown by the Son of God to His Mother! He revealed to His Apostles the impenetrable secrets of the Divine Essence, the Trinity in Unity, the eternal generation of the Word in the Father’s bosom, the eternal procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, the union of the two Natures in one Person in the Incarnate Word, the Redemption of the world by the Blood of the Man-God, the restoring of fallen man and the elevating him to a supernatural state by grace. But this same Jesus also reveals the prerogative of His dearest Mother, and we are to believe them, and with the same Faith, as we do the dogmas which relate to God Himself! Jesus, the Wisdom of the Father, the Conqueror of death, has revealed to us Mary’s dignity with the same lips that taught us what He Himself is we believe the two revelations with equal faith, because He spoke both.
Jesus said to His Apostles, and they, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, communicated His teaching to the Church: “Mary, my Mother, is a daughter of Adam and Eve, but the stain of original sin was not upon her. The decree that every human being should be conceived in sin was suspended in her regard. She was full of grace from the first moment of her Conception. Jeremias and John the Baptist were sanctified in their mother’s womb. Mary was Immaculate from the first moment of her existence.” Jesus also said to His Apostles, and commanded them to repeat His words to the Church: “Mary is truly Mother of God, and must be honoured as such by all creatures, for she truly conceived me and gave me birth, according to my human nature, which forms but one Person with my divine nature.” Jesus also said to His Apostles, and commanded them to repeat His words to the Church: “Mary, my Mother, conceived me in her chaste womb without ceasing to be a Virgin, and she gave me birth without her Virginity suffering any injury.”
Thus, Mary’s Immaculate Conception, which prepared her for her sublime office — her divine Maternity and her perpetual Virginity, are three dogmas of our faith which were revealed to the Apostles directly by our Lord. Holy Church merely repeats them after the Apostle, just as the Apostles repeated them after hearing them from their Divine Master.
But did not Jesus reveal other prerogatives of His august Mother, prerogatives which are consequences of the three magnificent gifts just mentioned? Let us ask the Church what she believes on this subject, and what she teaches, both by her doctrinal utterance, and by her equally infallible practice. Every development, which is produced in her by the action of the Holy Ghost, is based on the Word of God, which was spoken at the beginning. Thus, it is impossible to doubt but what our Saviour made known to His Apostles His intention of raising His Blessed Mother to the dignity of Queen of the universe, of Mediatrix of men, of Mother of grace, of Co-operatrix of our Redemption. Had she not, by the three unparalleled gifts just mentioned, already been raised above all other creatures? No, we cannot doubt it — these glories of the Mother of God were known, revered and loved by the Apostles. And we, who have received from the Church these same sublime and consoling truths, we, too, prize and love our knowledge. Should we not be offering violence to every noble feeling of our nature, were we to believe that Jesus ascended into Heaven without having made known to the world the glories of His Mother, whom He loved both as her Son and her God?
What must have been your sentiments, O Mary, you most humble of creatures, when Jesus unveiled your glories to the Disciples! They already reverenced you, but they could never have known the grand gifts bestowed on you by God, unless that God Himself had revealed them. What glorious things were said of you, City of God! (Psalms lxxxvi 3) If your humility was troubled when the Archangel called you full of grace and blessed among women, how must you not have shrunk from the homage paid you by the Apostles when they were first told that you were the Mother of God, the ever spotless Virgin, Immaculate from your very Conception! But no, Blessed Mother! You cannot shun the honours that are richly your due. The prophecy spoken by yourself in Zachary’s house must be fulfilled: All generations will call you Blessed! (Luke i. 48) The time is at hand: in a few days hence, the preaching of the Gospel will have commenced. Your name, your ministry, your glories are an essential part of the Creed which is to be carried throughout the world. Up to this time, you have been shrouded in a veil of mystery. That veil must now be drawn aside — Jesus will have it so — and you must be known as Mother of the God who, when He came to save us, disdained not to assume our human nature in your chaste womb. Dearest Mother! Queen of Angels and Men! Suffer us to unite our fervent homage with that which the Apostolic College gave you when Jesus first revealed to them your glories.
John was born at Nepomuk in Bohemia (from which he took the name of Nepomucen) and of parents who were advanced in years. His future sanctity was foretold by the appearance of bright rays miraculously shining over the house in which he was born. When an infant he was seized with a dangerous illness but was delivered from death by the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom his parents considered themselves indebted for his birth. He was blessed with an excellent disposition, and received a pious training in keeping with the indications given from Heaven. He spent his boyhood in the practice of religious exercises, among which it was his delight to be frequently at church and serve the priests when saying Mass. He went through the humanities at Zatek, and the higher studies at Prague, where he took his degrees in philosophy, theology and canon law. He was ordained a priest and being, by his proficiency in the science of the Saints, well fitted for gaining souls, he devoted himself entirely to preaching the word of God.
In consideration of the great fruits produced by his eloquence and piety which extirpated vice and brought sinners back to the way of salvation, John was made a Canon of the Metropolitan Church of Prague. Being afterwards chosen as preacher to King Wenceslaus IV, he so far succeeded that the king did many things through his advice and had a great regard for his virtue. He offered him several high dignities but John peremptorily refused to accept them, fearing that they would interfere with his preaching the divine word. He was entrusted with the distribution of the royal alms to the poor, and Queen Jane chose him as her own spiritual director. Wenceslaus having given himself up to vices which disgraced both his kingly and Christian character, and being displeased at the entreaties and counsels of his wife, he even dared to insist on John revealing to him the secrets, told to him as priest, by the queen in the sacrament of Penance. The minister of God courageously resisted the king’s impious request, and neither bribes, nor tortures, nor imprisonment, could make him yield.
Seeing that the king had got to such a pitch of rage that the laws of neither man nor God made him relent, the soldier of Christ plainly foretold in one of his sermons his own approaching death, and the calamities that were to befall the kingdom. He then set out for Buntzel, where is kept an image of the Blessed Virgin that has been venerated for centuries. There in in fervent prayer John implored Heaven to grant him the assistance he needed in order to fight the good fight. As he was returning home on the evening before the Vigil of the Ascension, the king, who was standing at the palace window, saw him and sent him word that he was to repair to the king. The king was more than ever urgent in his demand and threatened John with immediate drowning if he continued to refuse compliance. John was not to be conquered and showed the king that he was not afraid of his threats. By the King's orders John was thrown that same night into the river Moldau which flows through Prague, and he obtained the glorious crown of martyrdom. The sacrilegious crime, thus privately committed, was miraculously revealed, as was also the martyr’s great glory.
As as soon as life was extinct, and the corpse of John began to float down the stream, flaming torches were seen following on the surface of the water. The next morning the Canons went and took the body from the sand on which it lay, and heedless of the king’s displeasure, they had it carried with much solemnity to the Metropolitan Church, and gave it burial. The memory of this courageous priest became gradually most venerable, both by the miracles that were wrought, and by the devotion of the Faithful, of those especially whose good name is injured by evil report. After upwards of 300 years, a juridical examination was made of his body (which, during all that time, had lain under the ground) and his tongue was found to be incorrupt and as though it were that of a living man. Six years later on the tongue was shown to judges delegated by the Apostolic See when, by a fresh miracle, it immediately resumed the fullness of life and, from being of a brownish colour, it became perfectly red. These and other miracles having been authentically proved, John was canonised by Pope Benedict XIII on 19 March 1729 as the defender of the Sacramental Seal, and the first martyr who shed his blood for the maintenance of its holy secrecy.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
To the martyrs who were slain because they refused to adore false gods, to the Martyrs whose blood was shed by heretics, there is added today another brave soldier of Christ who won his crown in a very different sort of combat. The Sacrament of Penance by which sinners regain the Heaven they had lost claims John Nepomucen as its glorious defender. A holy secrecy shrouds the reconciliation made between God and the Penitent. This Sacramental secrecy deserved to have its martyr. When Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Penance — that second Baptism in which the Blood of our Redeemer washes away the sins of the Christian soul — he willed that man should not be deterred from confessing his humiliations to his spiritual physician by the fear of their ever being revealed. How many hidden martyrdoms have there not been, during these [two thousand] years, for the maintenance of this secret which, while it gives security to the Penitent, exposes the Confessor to obloquy, injustice and even death! But the martyr we honour today was not one of these hidden sufferers. His testimony to the inviolability of the Sacramental Seal was public. He gave it amid cruel tortures. It cost him his life. All praise, then, to the brave and faithful priest!
Right worthy was he to hold in his hands the keys that open or shut the gate of Heaven! In this great fact of the observance of the Seal of Confession on which depends the salvation of millions of souls we have a permanent miracle. But there was one thing wanting to it —the glory of martyrdom. The holy priest of Prague gave it that glory, and he offers the fair palm to our Risen Jesus whom we have seen, during these days between His Resurrection and Ascension, mercifully instituting the Sacrament of Penance in which He communicates to men His own power of forgiving sin.
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How great, glorious Martyr, was the honour reserved for you by the Son of God when He chose you to be the one who was to attest, by laying down his life, the sacredness of the secret which protects the Sacrament of Penance! Other priests, as well as yourself, have bravely suffered persecution for the sake of the secrecy of the mystery of Reconciliation. But you were the one chosen by Heaven to give a solemn testimony of priestly discretion. Your sufferings were known to more than to Angels. Your martyrdom was a public one, and the faithful honour your courage as an eloquent proof of how truly our good Shepherd, Jesus, removes every difficulty that could deter the strayed sheep from returning to the fold.
We address ourselves to you, holy Martyr, on this the day of your triumph, and we beg of you to intercede for sinners. Admirable minister of the Sacrament of Penance, you see how many Christians there are who neglect to avail themselves of the means of salvation prepared for them by our Risen Saviour. Instead of laying hold of this “second plank after shipwreck,” they let themselves be carried on to the deep abyss by the tide of their sinful habits. There are thousands who have turned a deaf ear, even this Easter, to the call of holy Church who invited them, as an affectionate Mother, to approach the tribunal of mercy and Reconciliation. We beseech you, intercede for these blind, these unwary, these ungrateful men. Get them that grace which will lead them to the feet of the God of Mercy who is ever ready to grant pardon.
There are others, again, who go to Confession but who have not the dispositions requisite for receiving the grace of the Sacrament —the justification of their souls. Pray also for these that they may see the danger they thus incur of profaning the Blood of Christ. Obtain for all them who approach the holy tribunal an honest avowal of their sins and contrition of heart, that thus the life of our Risen Jesus may be imparted to them, and that they may never again lose it. By your powerful intercession, raise up zealous and faithful ministers of this great Sacrament of which you were the martyr. Draw down on their arduous labour the blessing of Heaven: then will the number of the children of God be increased and the grace of the Holy Ghost triumph in souls that have long been dead in sin.
Cast, too, an eye of compassion on your fatherland of Bohemia where there are so many faithful hearts that love and honour thee. Alas, there are tares which disfigure that portion of the Church. The enemy came, not many years after your glorious martyrdom and sowed the baneful weeds of heresy in your native land. The good seed claims your protection, but take pity also on the cockle, for even it may be turned by the True Faith, into wheat and be garnered into the House of our Heavenly Father.
Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
In Isauria, the birthday of the holy martyrs Aquillinus and Victorian.
At Auxerre, the passion of St. Peregrinus, first bishop of that city. He was sent into Gaul with other clerics by the blessed Pope Sixtus, and having accomplished his work of preaching the Gospel, he merited an everlasting crown by being condemned to capital punishment.
At Uzalis in Africa, the holy martyrs Felix and Gennadius.
In Palestine, the martyrdom of the holy monks massacred by the Saracens in the monastery of St. Sabas.
In Persia, the holy martyrs Audas, a bishop, seven priests, nine deacons and seven virgins who endured various kinds of torments under king Isdegerdes, and thus gloriously consummated their martyrdom.
At Amiens in France, the bishop St. Honoratus.
At Le Mans, St. Domnolus, bishop.
At Mirandola in Æmilia, St. Possidius, bishop of Calamae, discple of St. Augustine, and the writer of his glorious life.
At Troyes, St. Fidolus, confessor.
In Ireland, St. Brendan, abbot.
At Frejus, St. Maxima, virgin, who rested in peace with a reputation for many virtues.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
