Vol 8 Issue 37 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier

September 12, 2015 ~ 
Most Holy Name of Mary

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (33)
2. Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
3. St. Eulogius
4. Christ in the Home (8)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

One thing faithful Catholics must always remember is that priests are not happiologists. Somehow the common masses, of which spirit the majority of pagan Catholics have absorbed, believe that the Church is there to make them happy. If they mess up their lives, the Church is there to take away the consequences and restore them to happiness. If their marriage is unhappy, the Church is there to remove the husband or wife or children that are making them unhappy and give them another husband or wife or children that will make them happy. If they become diseased because of their lifestyle, the Church is there to miraculously restore their health so they can continue to live happily in their lifestyle. The latest attempt of the Conciliar Church—to grant a divorce (yes, I know, it is an “annulment”—but you cannot say something is not when it is just to make people happy like theEmperor’s New Clothes.) They have taken on this being happiologists and are failing miserably because they cannot make people happy, people choose to be happy and for which reason even the poorest are sometimes happier than the wealthiest. No, the Church is here to take away sin and in doing that must tell people they are in sin and need to get out of sin whether they want to hear it or not, whether it makes them happy or not, whether they do it or not. When a priest, knowing this his obligation, does so he knows that he will probably be hated especially by those wanting to be of this world (sinners) but that is why Our Divine Redeemer warned His disciples: If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you. (John 15:18) It is surprising that nobody understands that the popularity polls are just that: How much does the world love me? Therefore the fear of a disciple of Christ to even want to have a poll measuring the love of the world for him let alone trying to rise in these polls by pleasing the world. Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you. (1 John 3:13) The priest doesn’t preach happiness, he preaches blessedness for he has to preach Christ Crucified (1 Cor 1:23) for  Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’ s sake. (Luke 6:22) This does not mean a sense of self-righteousness, rather it means a union with Christ Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf John 14:6) that brings joy and peace (cf. Gal. 5:22).

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

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Baptism

Means of Salvation

Sacrament of Baptism

What is Baptism?

In order to have a clear understanding of baptism, it is well both to know what baptism means etymologically as well as the definitions the Church has given for Sacramental Baptism to bring to the mind of the faithful what she intends when baptizing. It is one of seven sacraments. The Sacraments are outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace (cf. Balt. Cat., 23, n. 308). This definition is based on the Roman Catechism, which defines a Sacrament as a thing subject to the senses; and, possessing by divine institution, at once the power of signifying sanctity and justice, and of imparting both to the receiver(Rom. Cat., 101). Saint Thomas amplifies the understanding:

[A] sacrament properly speaking is that which is ordained to signify our sanctification. In which three things may be considered; viz. the very cause of our sanctification, which is Christ’s passion; the form of our sanctification, which is grace and the virtues; and the ultimate end of our sanctification, which is eternal life. And all these are signified by the sacraments. Consequently a sacrament is a sign that is both a reminder of the past, i.e. the passion of Christ; and an indication of that which is effected in us by Christ’s passion, i.e. grace; and a prognostic, that is, a foretelling of future glory. (Summa Theol., III, q. 60, a. 3) 

And Joseph Pohle, in his Dogmatic Treatise on the Sacraments takes these seven reasons for the fitness of the Sacraments:

(1) the need of visible signs, owing to the peculiar constitution of human nature, which makes the spiritual soul dependent on the senses; (2) the consoling assurance to be derived from the use of concrete pledges guaranteeing God’s fidelity to His promises; (3) the need of healing medicines to recover or preserve the health of the soul; (4) the desire of belonging to a visible society, knit, as it were, into one body by the bond of visible signs; (5) the necessity of an external profession of faith to distinguish Christians from infidels; (6) the advantage of having sacred mysteries to excite and exercise the faith; and (7) the repression of pride and the exercise of humility involved in availing oneself of sensible elements in obedience to God. (cf. Cat. Rom., P. II, c. 1, n. 9.)

For Baptism its effect is apparent from its name. Baptism derives from the Greek word, bapto (βαπτω), or baptize (βαπτίζω; modern Greekβουτώ, βυθίζω), which has the meaning to wash or immerse in water (for cleansing). St. Mark, in his Gospel, using the Greek, calls the washing of the hands a baptism (Mark vii. 4): καὶ ἀπὸ ἀγορᾶς, ἐὰν μὴ βαπτίσωνται, οὐκ ἐσθίουσιν· καὶ ἄλλα πολλά ἐστιν ἃ παρέλαβον κρατεῖν, βαπτισμοὺς ποτηρίων καὶ ξεστῶν καὶ χαλκίων καὶ κλινῶν. And when they come from the market, unless they be washed, they eat not: and many other things there are that have been delivered to them to observe, the washings of cups and of pots, and of brazen vessels, and of beds. 

Adam and Eve had committed an offense against God that was infinite. It placed a mark on all humanity, a stain that was to mar the relationship between God and man, an obstacle to God being able to give man eternal life and man to approach God as acceptable to His justice. In the Old Testament, an outward sign to show the mark was removed was the rite of circumcision, expression the cutting away, the removal of flesh, which signified the cutting away of sin which is in the flesh and transmitted by the act of procreation. It also expresses submission to God, a humbling that conquers the pride and rebellion of Adam. Thomas Aquinas states:

It was fitting for circumcision to be performed on the virile member. First, because it was a sign of that faith whereby Abraham believed that Christ would be born of his seed. Secondly, because it was to be a remedy against original sin, which is contracted through the act of generation. Thirdly, because it was ordained as a remedy for carnal concupiscence, which thrives principally in those members, by reason of the abundance of venereal pleasure. (Summa Theol. III, Q. 70, a. 3)

In the New Testament, Christ came to take away sin (cf.  John 1:29), and that sign which best expressed the removal of sin is a washing away, a cleansing of the stain. Therefore, prefiguring that washing were the rites of purification by the Israelites, and more closely, the Baptism of John. John the Baptist replies to the Pharisees and Sadducees:

I indeed baptize you in the water unto penance, but he that shall come after me, is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire. [12] Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Matt.3:11-12)

This washing, or cleansing was foretold in IV Kings 5:14, where Namaan is cleansed of his leprosy: Then he (Namaan) went down, and washed in the Jordan (καὶ κατέβη Ναιμὰν καὶ ἐβαπτίσατο ἐν τῷ ᾿Ιορδάνῃ—here the Greek word baptizato is used for washed)

Christ, in choosing to be baptized by John, gives visible evidence of what John spoke to the Pharisees and Sadducees in the vision John has when Christ is baptized:

“And John gave testimony, saying: I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven, and he remained upon him. [33] And I knew him not; but he who sent me to baptize with water, said to me: He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God. (John 1:32-34)

Or, as Matthew gives his account:

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan, unto John, to be baptized by him. But John stayed him, saying: I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering, said to him: Suffer it to be so now. For so it becometh us to fulfill all justice. Then he suffered him. And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him. And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.(Matt. 3:13-17; cf. Mark 9-11; Luke 3:21-22)

So the visible sign that Christ institutes to show that Original Sin (and all sin) is removed, then, is this sign of cleansing, of washing that, as Namaan was restored like a little child, and he was made clean (IV Kings 5:14), therefore a man or woman (cf. Gal. 3:28) would be born again of water and the Holy Ghost (John 3:5). This new creature (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15) restored to original justice could once more partake in the divine life.

This is what the Council of Trent (Session V, June 17, 1546, Decree On Original Sin) imposes for Catholics to believe:

Canon 5. If anyone denies that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism, the guilt of original sin is remitted, or even asserts that the whole of that which has the true and proper nature of sin is not taken away, but says that it is only touched in person or is not imputed, let him be anathema. For in those who are born again, God hates nothing, because “there is no condemnation, to those who are truly buried together with Christ by baptism unto death” [Rom. 6:4], who do not “walk according to the flesh” [Rom. 8:1], but putting off “the old man” and putting on the “new, who is created according to God” [Eph. 4:22 ff.; Col. 3:9 ff.], are made innocent, immaculate, pure, guiltless and beloved sons of God, “heirs indeed of God, but co-heirs with Christ” [Rom.8:17], So that there is nothing whatever to retard their entrance into heaven.

There are other terms used for this Sacrament. The Roman Catechism, in defining baptism calls it, “the Sacrament of regeneration by water in the word.” (Part II, 113). As water is necessary and begins the regeneration of the seed of a plant, so those who are just baptized are called neophytes, which signifies new growth, or new plants, which are now to grow in mature Christians. In this same sense Tertullian used, in place of the Greek baptize, the Latin tinctio, meaning watering ormoistening (Cf. De Bapt., c. 13: Lex enim tingendi imposita est et forma praescripta: Ite, inquit, docete omnes nationes, tingentes eas in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.)

Saint Paul calls it the “laver of regeneration”: Not by the works of justice, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:5). And, again in Ephesians (5:26): That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life. Here, Saint Paul is stressing that life of Christ one now lives: And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me. And that I live now in the flesh: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself for me. (Galatians 2:20; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:15).

Saint Augustine calls baptism the Sacrament of Faith in his work On Baptism  (I, 8, 11) against the Donatists. This was to place emphasis on the necessity of faith and why baptism, though validly administered by schismatics, ought not to be sought from schismatics (separated from the faith). The Donatists, demanded re-baptism if performed by unworthy clergy. Some modern Conciliar clergymen also demand re-baptism like the Donatist when a traditional Roman Catholic priest baptizes, not because the cleric was unworthy, but because these Conciliar clergy view baptism only as an initiation rite into their Church, of which they consider (and rightly so since these Conciliar clergy no longer have the Roman Catholic Faith) traditional Roman Catholic priests not a part. If a person is validly baptized (which will be covered later), the person cannot be re-baptized and to attempt would be to deny the Church’s teaching. One who would say the same, that is, that one baptized in the Conciliar Church should be re-baptized would hold the same Donatistic heresy. As mentioned, more will be said regarding this error.

Justin, Martyr, as also Pseudo-Dionysius, saw baptism as photisma, i. e. illumination. As Baptism was more frequently administered to adults, the effect of their illumination through grace was emphasized with the washing away of the darkness of original sin. Thus, Justin writes:

And for this [rite] we have learned from the apostles this reason. Since at our birth we were born without our own knowledge or choice, by our parents coming together, and were brought up in bad habits and wicked training; in order that we may not remain the children of necessity and of ignorance, but may become the children of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the remission of sins formerly committed, there is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe; he who leads to the laver the person that is to be washed calling him by this name alone. For no one can utter the name of the ineffable God; and if any one dare to say that there is a name, he raves with a hopeless madness. And this washing is called illumination, because they who learn these things are illuminated in their understandings. And in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Ghost, who through the prophets foretold all things about Jesus, he who is illuminated is washed. (Apology I, 61)

And Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, in his work, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy (2:1) describes baptism as deification through illumination. This step of initiation was to bring one to rebirth into a spiritual life. Signs of this illumination are found in the Easter Vigil, where the Paschal Candle is brought into the Church with the words, Lumen Christi, before the ceremony of blessing the baptismal water and fount and the adult catechumens then being baptized.

In the Armenian Church is celebrated Gregory the Illuminator, or, the Baptizer. In the Catholic Encyclopedia one reads of his life of baptizing the whole of Armenia:

In this restoration [of Armenia] St. Gregory (cir. 257-337) played an important part. He had been brought up as a Christian at Caesarea in Cappadocia. He seems to have belonged to an illustrious Armenian family. He was married and had two sons (called Aristakes and Bardanes in the Greek text of Moses of Khorni; see below). Gregory, after being himself persecuted by King Trdat, who at first defended the old Armenian religion, eventually converted him, and with him spread the Christian faith throughout the country. Trdat became so much a Christian that he made Christianity the national faith; the nobility seem to have followed his example easily, then the people followed — or were induced to follow — too. This happened while Diocletian was emperor (284-305), so that Armenia has a right to her claim of being the first Christian State. The temples were made into churches and the people baptized in thousands. So completely were the remains of the old heathendom effaced that we know practically nothing about the original Armenian religion (as distinct from Mazdeism), except the names of some gods whose temples were destroyed or converted (the chief temple at Ashtishat was dedicated to Vahagn, Anahit and Astlik; Vanatur was worshipped in the North round Mount Ararat, etc.). Meanwhile Gregory had gone back to Caessarea to be ordained. Leontius of Caesarea made him bishop of the Armenians; from this time till the Monophysite schism the Church of Armenia depended on Casearea, and the Armenian primates (called Catholicoi, only much later patriarchs) went there to be ordained. Gregory set up other bishops throughout the land and fixed his residence at Ashtishat (in the province of Taron), where the temple had been made into the church of Christ, “mother of all Armenian churches”. He preached in the national language and used it for the liturgy. This, too, helped to give the Armenian Church the markedly national character that it still has, more, perhaps, than any other in Christendom. (CE, Gregory the Illuminator)

Finally, for the English speaking, the term, Christening, is applied in the sense that Baptism makes one a Christian, another little Christ in the terms of Tertullian (Cf. On Baptism, c. 1)

(To be continued)

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Week of Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Benedict Baur, O.S.B. 

Christ in our hearts

1. “The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ [grant you] . . . that Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts” (Epistle) is the second prayer addressed by the Apostle to God. The Church joins in this prayer of the Apostle for us.
2. “Christ may dwell in your hearts,” not as He is in the tabernacle, not as He becomes ours in Holy Communion, but “by faith.” The Apostle means that Christ should be in our hearts as the Lord explained in the parable of the vine and the branches: Christ must live in us as the vine lives and works in its branches, as it causes them to grow and flourish and bear fruit. So He, the glorified Lord, lives in us, the baptized; and we become the living branches united to Him, possessing and bearing His spirit. “And I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20). If we pray to the Father, then Christ prays in us. If we practice poverty as the Lord taught us to, He lives His life of poverty in us and sanctifies our poverty. If we deny ourselves in this or that, then His spirit of self-denial supports us and gives full value before God to our sacrifice. If we become apostles for the salvation of souls, then our zeal is the expression of the zeal of the Lord, who lives in us and works through us for the salvation of others. If we suffer, then He suffers mystically in us, His members. He bears part of the pains because He lives in us, the vine in the branches. “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.” In me Christ prays, works, suffers, and loves. These words, “Christ may dwell in your hearts,” give our life a new meaning and value, one immensely sublime and surpassing all that is human. Of ourselves we are nothing, full of human weaknesses, capable only of failures; therefore we trust in the Lord, in His prayers, in His charity, in which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are contained and in which the Father is well pleased. How fitting, then, is the Apostle’s prayer “that Christ may dwell . . . in your hearts.”

“By faith.” Without faith all mere human knowledge, all human effort, all natural endeavor, are useless. That Christ may dwell in our hearts is possible only through faith. When we confessed our faith in Christ at our baptism, the Lord began to dwell in our hearts. The more we live by faith in Christ through the exercise of charity, the more the life of Jesus becomes our life. “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.” The more we see Him living in us by faith, and the more attentively we listen to Him and allow Him to work in us, the more we lose ourselves. Then we no longer lean on the feeble, bending reed of self, but on the Strong One, the Holy One, who lives in us and prays, loves, and glorifies the Father in us. The more intensely we live this life of faith, the more vividly we realize our own misery and nothingness. But as we look and see Him living in us, we can use His love of the Father, His virtues, His merits, His sufferings and death, His blood, and His heart as our own. We offer Him as our sacrifice to the Father. We can offer His pure and loving heart to the Father in reparation for our deficiency in charity and purity. All we need is a living faith; in such a faith we are immensely rich. God grant “that Christ may dwell by faith in [our] hearts,” that we may see Him in ourselves through faith and know our inestimable riches.

3. Why do we so often turn to the creatures which are about us? Must we not fear that every moment we are separated from Christ we are in danger of being lost, since He is not living and working in us? A single look upon Him heals our weakness, banishes the darkness, drives away sadness, and fills the soul with unspeakable joy. Are we depressed because of our sinfulness, are we afraid of the difficulties which accumulate before us? Then let us look upon Jesus, who lives and works in us, and we shall find peace. Should we lose heart or give up the struggle because of our instability and weakness? We should remember that “I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13).

“The Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:5-7).

PRAYER

Let Thy grace, we beseech Thee, O Lord, ever go before us and follow us, and may it make us to be continually zealous in doing good works. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Rooted and founded in charity

1. “The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ [grant that you be] … rooted and founded in charity” (Epistle). In the last analysis everything depends on charity. “And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (I Cor. 13: 13).
2. “Love therefore is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13: 10). “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am becoming as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (I Cor. 13: 1-3). “God is charity; and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him” (I John 4:16). “Now the end of the commandment is charity, from a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith” (I Tim. 1:5). All good deeds are deeds of charity. It is the root, the life, the soul, the sum of all virtues, the first and last of the virtues; it is perfection itself. Where love fails, all fails; where love is, there is everything. It fulfills the commandments and the will of God, not out of fear, not out of force, not for the sake of reward, but to please Him to whom it is devoted. It gives the least of our actions an immense value in the sight of God, which by far surpasses their natural value. And such works profit not only us, but the whole Church, and are of greater value than any other works, no matter how great they may appear to men. “Now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is Charity” (I Cor. 13: 13). “Follow after charity” (I Cor. 14: 1).

“You may be able to comprehend . . . the breadth and length and height and depth” of the mystery of Christ’s humility and self-denial, as well as the mystery of His incarnation and His sufferings and death. God’s love explains the mystery of our vocation and that of the heathens, our membership in His Church, and our possession of the divine life. Charity explains the mystery of our incorporation in Christ, who is the head, “who loved me and delivered Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Who can comprehend the height and depth, the breadth and length of the charity of God? “For God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). Charity gives a clarified vision. He who lacks charity does not walk in the full light.

“To know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge” (Epistle). Human reason, human speculation, and human knowledge cannot comprehend the love of Christ’s heart, but only charity, or rather the knowledge that is born of charity, can do so. With such a knowledge the little child knows its mother. It is not a knowledge of the intellect, for the child has it before he comes to the use of reason. It is not knowledge obtained through faith or through the word or authority of others. It is knowledge of another kind: the knowledge of love. The child loves and knows himself to be loved. Instinctively it returns love for love. If it is taken away from its mother, it cries and it is not to be satisfied till it reposes again on its mother’s breast. The mother is everything to it, the whole world. Such also is the knowledge of the loving soul of God’s chosen ones. Such a soul may be unlearned, unable to say or to think great things about Him; but who will say this soul does not know God? He knows himself to be loved by God; he knows Him to be always near embracing his soul with the arms of His love. The soul feels instinc- tively that God is solicitous about it. God leads, protects, and supports; the soul finds in Him its whole pleasure, its all; it longs for God and sacrifices all for Him. God reveals Himself to such a loving soul and lets it see and taste how sweet and good He is. Such is the knowledge which the Apostle and the liturgy ask for us.

3. “Follow after charity” (I Cor. 14: 1). Are we firmly rooted and grounded in charity? We can easily test our degree of charity. The love of God expresses itself in our charity toward our fellow men. “Charity is patient, is kind; charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, . . . endureth all things” (I Cor. 13:4-7). “He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me. And he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father; and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him . . . . If anyone love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him” (John 14:21-23).

PRAYER

Let Thy grace, we beseech Thee, O Lord, ever go before us and follow us, and may it make us to be continually zealous in doing good works. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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ST EULOGIUS, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA          (c. A.D. 607)

ST EULOGIUS was a Syrian by birth and while young became a monk, and at length abbot of his monastery of the Mother of God at Antioch. Amongst the evils with which the Church was then afflicted, the disorder and confusion into which the monophysites had thrown the church of Alexandria called for strong measures, and an able pastor endowed with prudence and vigour to apply them. Upon the death of the patriarch John, in 579, St Eulogius was raised to that dignity. Two or three years later Eulogius was obliged to make a journey to Constantinople on the affairs of his church, and there he met St Gregory the Great, who was at that time the papal representative (apocrisiarius) at the Byzantine court. Between the two a friendship soon sprang up, and there are extant a number of letters which in after years Gregory addressed to Eulogius. In one of these letters St Gregory, now pope, refers to the success of the monk Augustine among the pagan Angli, “living in an angle of the world”, stating that on the preceding Christmas-eve ten thousand of them had been baptized; he goes on to use this as an encouragement for Eulogius in his efforts against the monophysites. One passage almost seems to imply that St Eulogius had something to do with originating St Augustine’s mission to England. St Gregory, who had already had to rebuke the patriarch of Constantinople, John IV the Faster, for assuming the pompous title of “Oecumenical Patriarch” and had thenceforward in protest signed himself “Servant of the Servants of God”, likewise reproved St Eulogius for addressing him as “Oecumenical Pope”. “I do not wish to be exalted in words but in virtue”, he wrote. “Away with these words which puff up pride and offend charity.” Of the numerous writings of St Eulogius, chiefly against heresies, only a sermon and a few fragments remain; one treatise was submitted to St Gregory before publication, and he approved it with the words, “I find nothing in your writings but what is adrnirable”. St Eulogius did not long survive his friend, dying at Alexandria about the year 607.

(Butler’s Lives of the Saints) 

CHRIST IN THE HOME

BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J. (1951)

MARRIAGE

THE WEDDING DAY

WHAT a marvel of grandeur and of poetry is the nuptial liturgy! The Church, full of solicitude for the two daring young souls ready to launch out on the voyage of life, is eager to prepare them as seriously and as solidly as possible, to put before them essential principles, and to petition God to take this holy couple under His especial care, and conduct it to the great eternal family after their life of reciprocal love and confiding generosity.

Is it any wonder that such a noble and meaningful ceremony should bring to mind the First Mass of a newly-ordained priest?

Unfortunately, the worldly trappings that often accompany the marriage celebration detract considerably from the sacred atmosphere of the event. Particularly true is this of the banquet which is generally a part of the celebration.

The Church has nothing against wholesome joys, particularly family feasts to commemorate an outstanding occasion in life; but she certainly does not approve of the carousings for which wedding banquets are so frequently the excuse, or the tone of certain parties held in connection with weddings. Could anyone imagine an ordination to the priesthood celebrated in such a fashion?

After the Nuptial Mass, the world takes over, there are the congratulations, the general stir to get into the line of march in order to see and be seen; there is not a minute for prayer, for recollection, for thanksgiving. The world, even during the Mass as well as after it, assumes control of the couple and their family. Events following the marriage ceremony do nothing to correct these concessions to the world. Does it not seem reasonable that when the fundamental interests of the family are impeded by the worldly spirit, the family should do everything in its power to escape from it?

There are those who understand this: Sodalists, the Jocists, members of Catholic Action groups or similar organizations, even previous to the war, wanted to break away from these pagan practices. It is not a matter of seeing in the holy place only the Church vestibule or the Church lobby. No, no, the church is the house of God. Let everything there be holy and all that is done there be done holily, the founding of the family more than anything else!

Those groups who recognize the sanctity of the marriage ceremony have set the example of communicating at their Nuptial Mass; they have suppressed boisterous and giddy celebrations. In the same spirit they decided to delay their departure for their honeymoon and postpone the distractions it entails; so beneficial is it to remain in prolonged recollection during their first days together. They remember to make their union of souls predominate. Therefore, together they restrain themselves and by mutual accord embrace sacrifice.

Saint Paulinus, a renowned lawyer of Bordeaux, who renounced a worldly life when he was at the height of success, and with his wife retired into the city of Nola in Campania, wrote these significant lines:

Concordes animae casto sociantur amore;

    Virgo puer Christi, virgo puella Dei. 

Which mean: “Let these souls who are one heart and soul be united in a chaste love; he, a virgin, a son of God; she, a virgin, a daughter of God.”

Why not secure for these two splendid baptized souls, these two virgin souls, whom marriage has united forever, a departure worthy of them?

TOTAL UNION

IN “Les Vergers humains,” Louis Lefebvre has this charming verse in which the poet addresses his wife:

    I speak to God most often in my verse;

    I speak to my own destiny;

    I speak to my own son;

    With every living being, I converse

    But I speak not to you; you are myself; we are but one.

There are other exquisite examples of such perfect union between husband and wife realized not only in poetry but in the prose of everyday life.

See this husband and wife seated before the fireplace watching the play of the flames.

“What are you thinking about?” queries the wife.

“And you?”

“The same thing you’re thinking of.”

Idyllic, some will say. And why not, just as truly, an exact description?

Then there is the example of another couple so completely in accord at all times that the husband one day playfully petitioned his wife, “Contradict me sometimes, so that we can be two.” These two fulfilled to the very letter the statement of the Bible, “They shall be two in one flesh.” They were one, not only in their flesh, but one in a communion of thought and opinion. They had become so thoroughly one that they forget to be two.

This could be an evil if it meant the weakening of one of the two personalities to the point of absorption by the other. Some women when first married are in such adoration before their husbands or the husbands are so infatuated with their wives that unity is effected, but it is a unity through suppression and narrowness. God grant, however, that such a unanimity never be replaced by the less happy state wherein each one clings tenaciously to self-assertion. What should be sought is unity through mutual enrichment in mutual understanding.

In some marriages this unity becomes so complete that not even death can break it. Such, for example, was the union between Queen Astrid and King Leopold III, or between Mireille Dupouey and her husband, a naval officer killed in 1915. During the seventeen years Mireille Dupouey lived after her husband’s death, she continued to write letters to him as if he were still living, and to set a place at table between herself and her son for her dear departed who was forever present to her, forever one with her.

In contrast to these families where union is complete, how many there are in which dispute rages permanently; or, if not dispute, at least misunderstanding, constant bitterness.

It has been said and truly said that it is not easy for a man and woman, two poor human beings, finite, limited, and possessed of individual faults, to spend cloudless days together. “A woman must take much upon herself, to live with a man, whoever he may be,” writes a moralist. “A man must take much upon himself to live with a woman even though she be most loving. How many perplexities between them, how many veiled enmities even in their most evident caresses! How many half-consented-to abdications on both sides!”

But live together they must. How can they achieve as perfect a harmony as possible?

Day after day they must seek it, study, meditate, resolve and act!

What does Bergoglio think of Americans? In comparison with Fidel Castro, they are the devil economically speaking according to Sandro Magister of Chiesa. Fidel Castro is the angel leading his people in the path of justice while America is the devil leading people to wealth. You can find this commentary in the following link. Note that Bergoglio has the scions of Casaroli for his Secretary of State and assistant.—The Editor.

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1351129?eng=y

United States and Cuba, the Devil and Holy Water

They are the two destinations of the next journey of Pope Francis, at the opposite poles of his geopolitical vision. The enigma of the pope’s silence on the absence of freedom in the regime of Fidel and Raúl Castro

by Sandro Magister

ROME, September 11, 2015 – The United States and Cuba, or the devil and holy water. The journey that Pope Francis has scheduled from September 19 to 27 will take him to the two opposite poles of his geopolitical vision: to the temple of the “economy that kills” and just beforehand to the outpost of the peoples on the path of redemption. . . .

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Father Courtney Edward Krier will be in Los Angeles October 6 and San Diego region October 7. He will be in Spokane on October 8 and 9 and in Eureka, Nevada, on October 13.

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