“Arise, Little Lamb”

Vol 8 Issue 12 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
March 21, 2015 ~Saint Benedict, opn!

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (11)
2. Passion Sunday
3. St. Nicholas of Flue
4. Marriage and Parenthood (12)
5, Articles and notices 

Dear Reader:

This Sunday the crucifixes and statues are covered with purple. The Gospel reminds the Christian that the world hates the Truth and seeks to destroy Him Who reminds them of the purpose of their creation: To know, love and serve God. Whether it be the defense of the unborn, the defense of the family, the defense of the innocence of children who go to public school, the defense of the ability of the Church to teach all nations and bring all men to the knowledge of the Truth, the world will deny the right to the Catholic to speak the truth. The world will shout: Are we not right in saying thou art a Samaritan [in error, not who we are of the world, the enemy], and hast a devil? (John 8:48) As Christ, as the saints, the Catholic must honor God the Father (cf. John 8:49) first and foremost—even at the cost of life—which belongs to God and Who will not allow it to be lost eternally.

May Catholics be strong in expressing the Truth that abortion is murder, sodomy is perversion and against nature, fornication destroys families and it is not the place of public schools to teach children it is normal and how to engage in these immoral acts, and the Church will and must condemn sin.

As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor

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Baptism

Means of Salvation

Original Innocence Lost

The Original Sin (f)

And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. (Gen. 3:14-15)

God speaks to the serpent as he addressed the fish in the story of Jonas, Chapter 2:

Now the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonas: and Jonas was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And Jonas prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish. . . . And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited out Jonas upon the dry land. (vs. 1, 2, 11)

Even when one reflects on the choice of God allowing the devil to choose a serpent as a medium, it was both fitting to the end the devil wanted in tempting the woman and the perception one has of the serpent: “Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made.” (Gen. 3:1)  In the book of Wisdom the inspired author writes; “Through the envy of the devil death has come into the world.” (2:24) and the apostle John marks the words of Christ calling the devil a “murderer from the beginning” (8:44), making clear the devil was who tempted the woman. The snake as a vertebrate has a skeleton that allows it to move in all directions, making it subtil; but it is also subtil, if another definition is allowed, of being crafty, sly—due to its crawling movement. The squamata, in which order the serpentes is found, is such that the woman particularly has a general fear—and man—, a fear that raises the desire to rid the earth of such reptiles and that puts in context the “enmity” in a concrete application. Saint Augustine provides the following explanation for understanding the serpent by writing as follows:

For this power or facility [of speaking] certainly does not belong to the bodily member which we call the tongue but rather to the spirit which uses it. Similarly, we also say that the pens of certain writers lie, whereas in reality the ability to lie belongs only to living and thinking agents. But a pen is said to be lying when a liar tells his lies with it; and this would be the case if the serpent were called a liar because the Devil used it like a pen for his deceitful purpose.

I have thought it well to insist on this point lest anyone think that irrational beings have human intellects or that they are suddenly turned into rational animals. I should not like to see anyone seduced by that ridiculous and mischievous opinion about the transmigration of human souls into beasts or of bestial souls into humans. The serpent, therefore, spoke to the woman just as the ass spoke to Balaam as he sat on it, [Num. 22:28ff.] the difference being that in the former case it was the work of the Devil, in the latter case the work of an angel. Good and bad angels perform certain actions that are similar, just as did Moses and the magicians of Pharaoh. [7:8-13.] But in these wondrous works the good angels are more powerful, and the bad angels are unable to do any of even these acts except for what God permits through the good angels, so that He may give to everyone according to the disposition of the heart or according to the grace of God. In both cases He acts with justice and goodness through the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. [cf. Rom. 11:33] (Augustine 11, 29, 36)

As Saint Augustine mentioned, one reads in Numbers chapter 22 the following:

Balaam arose in the morning, and saddling his ass went with them. And God was angry. And an angel of the Lord stood in the way against Balaam, who sat on the ass, and had two servants with him. The ass seeing the angel standing in the way, with a drawn sword, turned herself out of the way, and went into the field. And when Balaam beat her, and had a mind to bring her again to the way, The angel stood in a narrow place between two walls, wherewith the vineyards were enclosed. And the ass seeing him, thrust herself close to the wall, and bruised the foot of the rider. But he beat her again: And nevertheless the angel going on to a narrow place, where there was no way to turn aside either to the right hand or to the left, stood to meet him. And when the ass saw the angel standing, she fell under the feet of the rider: who being angry beat her sides more vehemently with a staff. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said: What have I done to thee? Why strikest thou me, lo, now this third time? Balaam answered: Because thou hast deserved it, and hast served me ill: I would I had a sword that I might kill thee. The ass said: Am not I thy beast, on which thou hast been always accustomed to ride until this present day? tell me if I ever did the like thing to thee. But he said: Never.

Forthwith the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel standing in the way with a drawn sword, and he worshipped him falling flat on the ground. And the angel said to him: Why beatest thou thy ass these three times? I am come to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse, and contrary to me: And unless the ass had turned out of the way, giving place to me who stood against thee, I had slain thee, and she should have lived. Balaam said: I have sinned, not knowing that thou didst stand against me: and now if it displease thee that I go, I will return. The angel said: Go with these men, and see thou speak no other thing than what I shall command thee. He went therefore with the princes. [Verses 21-35]

Therefore, one is not astonished that God speaks to the serpent, in the same sense that He wills the serpent to have the physical qualities expressive of being used by the tempter. Saint Ambrose, in his work, Paradise, takes the words of Ezechiel, “Thou wast in the pleasures of paradise of God” (28:13) to reference that as Ezechiel equates the Prince of Tyre with the Devil, so it was the Devil who tempted the woman through the serpent.

In the Bible the serpent always appears as an agent of evil, of malice, and of wickedness—lurking in the background, then stealthily striking in attack. Creeping on the belly was regarded as something contemptible. [vide Gen. 49:17; Is. 59:5; Mich. 7:17; Job 20 :14, 16; Ps. 140 :4.] The expression “to eat dust” originally meant “to die,” to “descend into the underworld”; in the Babylonian mind the inhabitants of the underworld nourished themselves on ground, “earth is their food, clay their nourishment.” [Descent of Ishtar, V 8.] A secondary meaning for the expression would be to crouch in abject humiliation. In Messianic times the Gentiles will do homage before the Israelites “with their faces upon the ground, kissing the dust upon their feet.” [Is. 49:23.] Prophetically the psalmist describes how “enemies will lick the dust” in the Messiah’s presence. [Ps. 72:9] Micheas begs God to make the pagan nations “lick the dust like snakes, like worms in the ground”; literally he simply wanted all men to be made subject to the Messiah. [Mich. 7:17.] The same phraseology may be found in the Amarna letters: “while our enemies look on and eat dust.” [Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln, no. 100, 36, p. 452.] In the Genesis text the sacred writer’s judgment consisted in that the tempter would be despised by all and at all times—”all the days of your life.” (Heinish, 23-24.)

Knowing that even though God created the serpent to crawl on its belly to remind mankind it was the serpent the devil used to bring the downfall of mankind, it is actually to Lucifer that God is speaking to in verse 15 of this chapter. In this verse God not only reveals the concrete enmity but the supernatural enmity between the serpent and the woman. Therefore the plural, enmities, is used: I will put enmities between thee and the woman. . . . (Gen.3:15)

In addressing Lucifer, that ancient serpent (cf. Apoc. 12:9; 20:2), God announces the good news, the proto-gospel, that He will send a Redeemer: I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. (Gen. 3:15)

God does not ask the serpent why. There can be no call to repentance, no salvation for the devil. But God does tell Lucifer that in the end he will not be victorious.

After our first parents had heard God inflicting an eternal curse upon the tempter who by ruse had incited them to disobey, there came a pronouncement that contained much consolation and comfort for them: God would maintain a state of enmity between the tempter and the “woman,” by whom Eve is meant in the context. She had associated with the serpent, had lent a ready ear to his solicitations, had believed him rather than the divine warning: “the day when you eat of it, you must die.” This friendly relationship with Satan was now replaced by a state of hostility. The woman need not fear that she would remain permanently under the influence of the tempter because of her error; in the future she would have the strength to withstand his enticements. And if thenceforth she refused to listen to his whisperings, she could regain God’s friendship; for Yahweh and the serpent stood opposed to each other as good against evil. Hostility toward the serpent was certainly not directed against an animal, but against the tempter; it arose from ethical and moral considerations, not from repugnance or physical appearance. The woman is addressed directly because it was she who had first given ear to the tempter; indirectly the encouraging words apply to the man too, who also sinned. (Heinish, 24)

This verse, 3:15 of Genesis is a verse that is frequently quoted and frequently commented on, for it contains a promise of redemption even before mankind receives its sentence. Adam and the woman are not cursed, though they will suffer for their offense. The devil struck a relationship with the woman (Eve) and now there would be an enmity between the woman (Mary) and the serpent. The devil deceived the woman (Eve) and it would be the woman (Mary) who crushes the serpent. The Hebrew word, זַרְעֲךָ֖, would only be used to refer to human offspring outside of the physical seed of plants, never animals. Therefore it would not refer to the serpent, but to the offspring of the devil, that is, those who follow him, as “her seed” would refer the children of the woman who resisted the temptations of the devil.

The force of the prediction is not exhausted by the hostility foretold between the human race and the race of serpents. The serpent symbolized the power of evil (see on 3:1) and God promises that he will put enmity between it and their respective seeds. The initiative is therefore taken by God, which is itself a guarantee of continued divine help and of final victory. The words were spoken in the presence of Adam and Eve and were intended to be understood by them, though not necessarily in the fullness of their signification. . . . In the case of the devil ‘seed’ is doubly metaphorical as his ‘offspring’ are the spiritual beings who follow his leadership. Now as the seed of the serpent is collective, so also is the seed of the woman; and Eve ‘was the mother of all the living’, 3:20. God promises enmity, therefore, between the human race on the one hand and the devil and his spiritual accomplices on the other. (Orchard, 186)

Rebecca, who is united with Isaac (the promised and only begotten son), is the only other woman to whom the same word “seed” is granted:

And they [her mother and brothers] called her, and when she was come, they asked: Wilt thou go with this man? She said: I will go. So they sent her away, and her nurse, and Abraham’ s servant, and his company, Wishing prosperity to their sister, and saying: Thou art our sister, mayst thou increase to thousands of thousands, and may thy seed [זַרְעֵ֔ךְ] possess the gates of their enemies. (Gen. 24:58-60)

It is clear, however, in the full light of later revelation that what has been said does not exhaust the full meaning of the prophecy. For Jesus Christ was not only part of the human race to whom victory was thus promised, he was not only its leader in the victorious struggle, the victory was rendered possible solely by him. ‘For this purpose the Son of God appeared that he might destroy the works of the devil’, 1 Jn 3:8. So too St Paul teaches that Christ became man that ‘he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil’, Heb 2:14. But the victory is ours with Christ. So St Paul alluding to the Protoevangelium: ‘The God of peace crush Satan under your feet speedily’, Rom 16:20. But we are one with Christ, he the head and we the members. ‘He saith not, And to his seeds, as of many, but as of one And to thy seed, which is Christ’, Gal 3:16. Yet after this emphatic statement that the seed is one and is Christ Paul goes on to say that if they are Christ’s, the faithful are also the seed, 3:29; cf. Rom 9:7 f. This rests on the doctrine of the spiritual union of all in Christ’s mystical Body. In this true sense, as St Paul teaches, Christ is the seed. And from this it follows that the Woman is his Blessed Mother. This follows also from the typical relation existing between Eve and Mary a relationship on which the Fathers loved to dwell and which is summed up in her title of the Second Eve. As Eve was the mother of all the living in the physical order, so Mary is the Mother of all the living in the spiritual order, just as Christ for an analogous reason is the Second Adam having in the first Adam ‘a figure of him who was to come’, Rom 5: 14. These considerations explain, as it seems, why the prophecy is addressed, not as we should have expected to Adam, the head of the race, but to Eve, and why use is made of the unusual expression of the seed of the woman. (Orchard, 187-88)

(To be continued)

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Week of Passion Sunday

Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

WEDNESDAY OF PASSION WEEK

Christ’s lambs

1. Today with the holy pope and martyr, St. Marcellus, we take part in the scrutinium, the examination of the catechumens. They are to be examined regarding the commandments of God, which fourteen days ago they were given to learn. This is a day of examination for us also. We must inquire of ourselves how we have kept the commandments which we vowed to keep at the time of our baptism.
2. “My sheep hear My voice, . . . and they follow Me” (Gospel). Christ is the shepherd; the Church is the flock. She listens to His voice, and for two thousand years she has conformed herself to His wishes. He commanded her, “Going, therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father” (Matt. 28: 19). The Church has conscientiously carried out this command of the Lord. “This is My body. . . . This is the chalice of My blood. . . . Do this in commemoration of Me.” This commission she fulfills faithfully in the daily celebration of the holy mystery of the Eucharist. She receives His word, His teachings and admonitions, from the lips of His apostles through the Gospels. She accepts them in humble faith and obedience.

“My sheep hear My voice.” Through baptism we become members of the flock of Christ, and as members of His flock we listen to His voice and follow Him. We follow Him in His commandments, in His love of poverty, humiliation, and suffering, and in His love of the cross. We should examine ourselves in all sincerity to see if we have listened to His voice in all things. We ask ourselves if we have been faithful to His will and His commandments, or whether we have been listening rather to the voice of the world and arranging our life according to its spirit, its principles, and its allurements. “My sheep hear My voice, . . . and they follow Me.”

“And I know them.” He is concerned about all His sheep, about all those who are baptized. He cares for them that He may not lose one of them, but that they may all have eternal life. “No man shall pluck them out of My hand” (Gospel). Christ’s sheep are so dear to Him because they have cost Him so dearly. He won them by much toil, by terrible suffering, by immeasurable sacrifices. He sacrificed His life in order to win for them the grace of baptism. “I give them life everlasting” (Gospel). “I know them”; I love them. I give them My merits, My satisfactions, My blood, My life. “My deliverer from the angry nations, Thou wilt lift me up above them that rise up against me. . . I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my firmament, and my refuge, and my deliverer” (Introit). “I will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast upheld me, and hast not made my enemies to rejoice over me” (Gradual).

3. Today is a day of earnest self-examination. “My sheep hear My voice.” Do we listen to His voice? Are we numbered among His sheep?

Today the Epistle is applied to the catechumens and to us: “I am the Lord . . . . Thou shalt not calumniate thy neighbor, nor oppress him by violence. . . . Respect not the person of the poor [to treat him unjustly], nor honor the countenance of the mighty; but judge thy neighbor according to justice. Thou shalt not be a detractor nor a whisperer among the people. . . . Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; but reprove him openly, lest thou incur sin through him. . . .Thou shalt love thy friend as thyself. I am the Lord. Keep ye My laws; for I am the Lord your God.”

This is a day of thanksgiving. Christ knows us and gives us eternal life through the ministration of the sacraments of the Church. I “will compass Thy altar, . . . that I may. . . . tell of all Thy wondrous works” (Communion).

This is a day of salutary fear in view of what the Gospel relates to us concerning the Jews. They see Christ and hear His words; they behold His miracles, His virtue, His holiness, His freedom from sin; yet they do not believe in Him but turn away from Him. We, too, can abuse the grace that is given us. “He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall” (I Cor. 10:12). Lord, protect us from the evil of the abuse of grace, from the evil of spiritual blindness, from the spirit of unbelief. Grant that we may always and everywhere listen to Thy voice and follow Thee, our true shepherd.

PRAYER

Enlighten the hearts of Thy faithful by this sanctified fast, O God of mercy, and in Thy kindness turn a pitying ear to the suppliants to whom Thou givest the spirit of devotion.

Give ear unto our supplications, O almighty God, and benignly grant the effect of Thy accustomed mercy to those whom Thou hast allowed to be confident in the hope of Thy good will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

THURSDAY OF PASSION WEEK 

“Thy sins are forgiven thee”

1. On the last Thursday before Holy Thursday, the day of the reconciliation of penitents, we celebrate Mass in the church of the holy bishop and martyr, St. Apollinaris. Today we are the sinner who sheds tears and confesses her sins in penance and contrition at the feet of the Savior.
2. “At that time one of the Pharisees desired Jesus to eat with him; and He went into the house of the Pharisee, and sat down to meat. And behold a woman that was in the city, a sinner,” learned that Jesus was in the house of Simon. She came to Christ, for her conscience was giving her no rest. She was not invited to this banquet; but she came in and in the sight of all present she cast herself down and washed Christ’s feet with her tears and dried them with her hair; she then kissed His feet and anointed them with oil. Simon, the host, looked upon this scene with suspicion and said to himself: “This man, if He were a prophet, would know surely who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him; that she is a sinner,” a fallen woman (Gospel).

The Lord knew very well the thoughts of His host and spoke a parable: “A certain creditor had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And whereas they had not wherewith to pay, he forgave them both. Which therefore of the two loveth him most? Simon answering, said: I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And He said to him: Thou hast judged rightly. . . . Dost thou see this woman? I entered into thy house, thou gavest Me no water for My feet; but she with tears hath washed My feet and with her hairs hath wiped them. Thou gavest Me no kiss; but she, since she came in, hath not ceased to kiss My feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but she with ointment hath anointed My feet. Wherefore I say to thee: Many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much; but to whom less is forgiven, he loveth less.” Then Christ turned to the sinful woman. “Thy sins are forgiven thee. . . . Thy faith hath made thee safe. Go in peace” (Gospel). We, too, are like the sinner at the feet of our Lord. We acknowledge with tears of sorrow and love our many sins, and with the sinner of the Gospel we beg to be forgiven. “Deliver us not up forever, for Thy name’s sake, and abolish not Thy covenant. . . . In a contrite heart and humble spirit let us be accepted” (Epistle).

“Give glory to Thy name, and deal with us according to the multitude of Thy mercy” (Introit). The grace and mercy of the Lord work in the sinner the miracle of conversion. Through the mysterious working of His graces He opens the eyes of the unfortunate woman and allows her to see the baseness and shamefulness of her life. He implants in her heart the thought of changing her life, of seeking pardon, and of doing penance for her past offenses. He gives her the courage to brave the wrath of the Pharisee, and the humility to cast herself down and confess her guilt before all who are present. How graciously and lovingly Christ received her confession of guilt! He offers her no reproach, He uses no harsh words, but sends her away with the assurance, “Thy sins are forgiven thee. . . . Thy faith hath made thee safe. Go in peace.” How full of understanding He is! He longs to forgive us and make us happy. “I am not come to call the just, but sinners” (Matt. 9: 13), those who admit their guilt and are sorry.

3. Today we are penitent, like the sinful woman of the Gospel. We come with her to the feet of the Lord, in the congregation of the Church, to hear His consoling words, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.”

“Because she hath loved much,” Magdalen received pardon. “But to whom less is forgiven, he loveth less.” Precisely because his love is meager, little is forgiven him. The remission of sin depends on the degree of love. Perfect love, with a contrite heart, is capable of remitting all sins and the temporal punishment due to them, both here and in purgatory.

Magdalen brought with her a box of ointment to anoint the feet of Jesus. Previously she had used this precious ointment only for her own adornment, that she might please men. Today she lays at the feet of Christ that which she had formerly squandered on her body, on vanity, on sin. With perfect sincerity she sets aside her old life of sin. Her perfect conversion and repentance are a model for us also.

“Remember Thy word to Thy servant O Lord.” Thy words “Thy sins are forgiven thee”—”This hath comforted me in my humiliation” (Communion). We should be most grateful for the sacrament of penance.

PRAYE

Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that the dignity of humanity, impaired by excessive indulgence, may be restored by the earnest practice of healing restraint.

Be merciful, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to Thy people, that rejecting the things which displease Thee, we may rather be filled with the delights of Thy commandments. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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MARCH 22

St. Nicholas of Flue, Confessor,

1. On May 15, 1947, Pope Pius XII solemnly canonized Blessed Brother Klaus, who for centuries had been honored in Switzerland as the peacemaker and father of that country. Nicholas was born on March 21, 1417, of simple Swiss farmers, Henry of Flue and his wife Henna. He grew up with his brothers and sisters in the austere circumstances of a pious Christian home of that time. He was an industrious lad who willingly worked in the house and in the field and was obedient to his parents in every way. He was gracious and kind and liked to help his brothers and sisters with the tasks around the home. The good example of his namesakes, Nicholas of Myra and Nicholas of Tolentino, he kept clearly in mind, and already in his early years he began to imitate some of their austere practices. He preferred prayer to anything else. In an amiable way he made it a point to avoid conversation whenever possible, so that he might find silent solitude.

Complying with the wish of his parents, he married Dorothea Wyssling, a girl from nearby Sachseln, in 1444. Ten children were born to them. As husband and father he never ceased to be a man of prayer. Patriot that he was, he served his canton in several local wars, and he won the confidence of his commander so completely that the latter promoted him to the rank of captain. On his return from the war his fellow citizens elected him magistrate and a member of the cantonal council. On one occasion the council adopted a decision which offended Nicholas sense of justice and, characteristically, he resigned his public offices. More and more he desired to leave everything to live for God alone. Finally, he revealed his desire to his wife. She recognized that God was calling her husband and consented to the separation. On October 16, 1467, Nicholas, now fifty years of age, took leave of his wife and children. Barefooted and bareheaded he made his way northward toward a distant land. However, near Basel he suddenly resolved to stay in Switzerland, turned back, and settled down near his own home. Here, in his hillside cell, he lived a solitary and blessed life for twenty years.

All kinds of people came to seek his counsel and help-the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the devout and the worldly-and Nicholas received all graciously. All his leisure time he devoted to prayer. Every Sunday and feastday the hermit was present for divine services at Sachseln and received Holy Communion. Throughout the twenty years of his solitary life he needed no earthly food, but found his entire sustenance in the Eucharist. He died on March 21, 1487, in the presence of his wife and children. He was declared blessed by Pope Clement IX in 1669, and in 1947 Pope Pius XII canonized him. His feast is celebrated in Switzerland on September 25.

2. “How distant would my journey be, how long I would remain there, out in the wilderness” (Introit; d. Ps. 54: 8). This was the deep longing that Nicholas had even as a boy. It drew him toward God and away from the innocent but aimless conversation and amusements around him. Even after he had become head of a family, he frequently hastened down into the lone valley of the Melcha, near his home, there to pray. For, at the age of sixteen he had had a vision here, in which he saw a chapel with a cell adjoining it, and he had realized even then that he was being called by God to a life of higher perfection. The oftener he retired to this spot and prayed, the more clearly did God reveal to him his future vocation. “Cast your every care on the Lord and surrender yourself entirely to Him.” Now he took the great step. His family was provided for; the education of his children lay in good hands; everything was set in order. Dorothea recognized in the resolution of her husband the call and will of God. She had the faith to consent and to make the great sacrifice. “My confidence in your prayers,” she told Nicholas, “gives me the hope that God will unite us again in heaven, where there will be no more separation.” Thus, with a good conscience he could go into solitude, and with St. Peter say: “Behold, we have left everything and followed Thee.” This was an heroic sacrifice offered according to God’s will. “Every man that has forsaken home . . . wife . . . or children for my name’s sake, shall receive his reward a hundredfold and obtain everlasting life (Gospel). Nicholas had no sooner entered upon his solitary life than one night, upon awakening, he saw himself surrounded by a heavenly brilliance. A severe pain was ranging throughout his body. From this moment on he felt no further need of food or drink. For twenty years he lived without any bodily nourishment. Holy Communion was his only food; it marvelously satisfied him and gave him ample strength. Indeed, this was the promised hundredfold for his soul and body.

Moreover, the hermit exercised a fruitful apostolate. Hundreds and thousands came to Nicholas with their cares and needs, doubts and questions. Soon it was the common practice to stop at the hermitage to seek the counsel and prayers of this holy recluse whenever one was making a pilgrimage to Maria Einsiedeln. That the cantons in central Switzerland in later times remained steadfast in spite of the invasion of heresies, and to this day have faithfully kept the Catholic faith, is due in good part to the silent apostolate of Hermit Nicholas and the powerful influence he had on all who came to him. Nicholas accomplished a great work in renewing and deepening the Christian life of his people. In the war Switzerland waged against Austria, and in the quarrels between the confederacies, the holy hermit served as peacemaker by his prayer, his sacrifices, and his counsel. Always, at the critical time, he calmed and reconciled excited minds and thus averted further dissensions and wars within Switzerland.

“Blessed Brother Klaus” lies buried in Sachseln, and many pilgrims of Switzerland and from foreign lands visit his tomb. They come uninterruptedly to see the places where the Saint lived, prayed, offered himself to God, and achieved sanctity; to find edification in his holy life; to imitate his example, and to ask his intercession and advice. The entire Church enjoys the hundredfold fruit of Nicholas’ sacrifice, the fruit of his noble consent to the call and will of God, the fruit of his sanctity and union with God.

3. Nicholas, a man of faith, prayer, and sacrifice, was a shining model of the Christian man. His life exemplifies the truth that the genuine greatness of man does not lie in great external accomplishments, in business success, in official positions or wealth, but in a life for God and with God.

Nicholas was a man of concord and peace. “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking this or that; it means rightness of heart, finding our peace and our joy in the Holy Spirit” (Epistle; Rom. 14:17). Nicholas was always a generous helper in time of need. In 1468 a ravaging fire broke out in nearby Sarnen. The citizens soon realized that it was impossible to extinguish the conflagration. In desperation they rushed a messenger to the holy man. Nicholas climbed to the summit of a hill overlooking Sarnen and made the sign of the cross over the town. At once the fire decreased in fury and was easily extinguished.

Nicholas can teach us how to pray: “My God and Lord, take everything from me that separates me from You. My God and Lord, give me everything that will hasten my advance to You. My God and Lord, take me from myself and give me to Yourself!”

Collect: O God, Who in a wonderful manner didst nourish St. Nicholas with the Bread of Angels, and adorn him with all heavenly gifts, grant, we beseech Thee, that through his intercession we may merit to receive the body and blood of our Lord worthily here on earth, and to behold it glorious in heaven. Amen.

MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD

The Catholic Ideal

By the Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard

(1911)

CHAPTER VI

BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE

THERE is a very old Hindu legend in which the making of the first woman is described in this wise. When the creator Twashtri had made man he gathered together a million contradictory elements, and out of them he made a woman whom he presented to the man. After eight days the man became dissatisfied.

“My lord,” he said, “the creature you gave me poisons my existence. She babbles unceasingly, she takes all my time, she grumbles at nothing, and is always ill.”

So Twashtri took the woman away. But after another eight days the man became again uneasy. “My lord,” he said, “my life is very solitary since I returned this creature.”

So Twashtri gave him the woman back again.

This time, however, only three days had gone by when the man came once more to the god.

“My lord,” he said, “I do not know how it is, but somehow the woman gives me more annoyance than pleasure. I beg of you to take her away.”

But Twashtri would not. “Go and do your best,” he said.

“But I cannot live with her,” cried the man.

“Neither can you live without her,” cried the god.

“Woe is me!” mourned the man, “I can neither live with nor without her.”

Since that story was written thousands upon thousands have felt the conflicting experience which the story expresses. The underlying truth is that when man and woman are joined together in matrimony neither of them is perfect. It is their mutual life and constant adjustment of mind and heart, under the influence of matrimonial grace, which is to make them perfect. Marriage is one of the means of their salvation. Let us refer to St. Paul to see how the grace acts. He touches two sensitive nerves when he says: “Wives, be obedient to your husbands as you should be in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter toward them.”

Doubtless the Apostle was writing to correct certain abuses prevalent among the people to whom he wrote. He was not necessarily giving a full and comprehensive description of the marriage ideal. Forgetting this, many people have misunderstood the Apostle’s words, especially that portion of them which speaks of the obedience of wives. How many women there are now who, reading the epistle in the light of present day abuses, “cannot stand that man Paul!” Let our consideration then be confined to these two virtues of conjugal relationship, love and obedience, for it is the failure to appreciate their true nature which issues in multitudes of other evils, affecting not only individual families, but communities, nations, nay, the whole human race.

“Husbands, love your wives.” The Apostle is evidently referring to a neglect on the part of the husbands. He is not talking as if love were to be a one-sided affair. The very nature of love requires that it should be reciprocal, and should exist at least between two persons. The ideal love requires three persons. In God it is the love of the blessed Trinity. In the religious it is the love of God and of one’s neighbor. In the family it is the love of husband, wife, and child. The love between two is the inchoate and root love which issues in the perfect love between three. The love of the Father and the Son issues in the personal Spirit of love. A religious must love God before she can love her neighbor. Husband and wife must love each other before they can love their children perfectly. It often happens that a wife who is without a husband’s love can take refuge in the love of her children. But she can love her children more when she knows that she possesses also the love of their father.

The nature of man and woman, however, is such that the love of the man toward the woman needs a more careful watching, a more careful cultivation. A woman’s love is as a torrent which is always flowing. It has been used even by God as one of the most forceful analogies by which to make men realize His love for mankind. It is of its nature so generous and so constant as to overshadow that other endowment of woman, her intelligence.

The difference, however, between the two faculties, the faculty of loving and the faculty of thinking, is not so great as has been frequently supposed. In our endeavor to emphasize the quality of a woman’s love we may not undervalue her intelligence. We must ever remember that woman is essentially a rational being just as man is. She herself is beginning to realize this all the world over. One of the most remarkable phenomena of the age is the movement for the emancipation of women. While admitting and  asserting then the claims of woman’s intelligence, we cannot overlook the fact that it is in affairs of the heart that she is the stronger.

On the other hand it is, ordinarily speaking, the lot of the man to be the breadwinner of the family. He it is who must use his brains in the learned professions, in commerce, in the arts, and in the crafts.

There are exceptions. Oftentimes the wife is the brains of the family. Half of the teaching profession consists of women. But the lady doctor, the lady dentist, and the lady professor, usually find it more convenient to retire from their professions whenever they enter the state of matrimony. And simply because man is the working brains of the family his faculty of loving needs a special culture. He has so many outlets for his attention that if he does not take the greatest care, his love which should be devoted to his wife and family is absorbed in his business or other intellectual pursuit.

The lines upon which the cultivation of a husband’s love should take place will be decided according to the character and dispositions of the wife. Generally, however, it must have the three qualities of being affectionate, practical, and exclusive. It must be first of all affectionate. The double affection of a woman for her children and her husband springs from the same affectionate nature. If it is to flourish it must be fed. The need must be satisfied or it will shrivel away. There is a tendency among men to regard the time of courtship as the time of poetry, and the time of marriage as the time of prose. And there is an axiom among women that they are to expect about half as much affection after marriage as before. It is very sad that it should be so, although it may be excusable. There are far more cares in the married state than in the single, which of their very nature tend to take the poetry out of life. It has been divinely foretold that such shall have trouble in the flesh. But it need not be so bad as it is. Nay, the very cares which tend to lessen the affection ought to be the occasion of its increase. To cultivate such affection requires an active will and a keen intelligence. The man ought to be a man. That is, he ought not to allow himself to be moved merely by his passions and feelings. He ought to use his intelligence to find out what little acts of sympathy, kindness, interest, and attention affect his wife’s feelings toward himself. Then he ought to put forth a strong will in the frequent repetition of such acts. It is extremely beautiful when an old Darby and Joan can look back on a married life of say forty years, and tell you with a knowing smile that they have not yet finished courting. They have learnt the secret of cultivating affection, of seizing upon adversity only as an occasion for deeper sympathy, of studying each other’s likes and dislikes, of saying the word which gives pleasure, of avoiding the word which gives pain.

Secondly, a husband’s love must be practical. Here again it is a question of external attractions against the attraction of the wife at home. Some men there are so absorbed in their business or profession as to regard their wife and home as a mere accident in life. Their business is not, as it were, a means of keeping one’s self, wife, and family in comfort, but rather the wife and the family are the means of carrying on the business. Or, again, the counter attraction may be only low pleasures, the pleasure of company, the pleasure of the club, the pleasure of the public-house. All are violations of the practical love due from husband to wife. Frequently the wife can just tolerate them, provided she gets the affection. But that is only because by nature she has such a strong affection.

Nevertheless, a prolonged neglect of the practical side of a husband’s love must wear out a wife’s affection, and then there is an end of all love, the family life is broken and the strength of society is sapped at its foundations. The husband’s practical love of his wife, therefore, his care for her dress, her housekeeping, her health, her pleasures, has consequences reaching much further than would appear at first sight. His affection must be translated into action, else he fails in one of the greatest duties of his manhood.

(To be continued) 

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Father Courtney Edward will be in Eureka, Nevada, on March 31.
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