Vol 9 Issue 12 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
March 19, 2016 ~ Saint Joseph, opn!

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (60)
2. Holy Week
3. St. Martin of Braga
4. Christ in the Home (35)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

Palm Sunday begins Holy Week. It will be a test of our Faith as we choose to be absorbed in the worldly preoccupations of Basketball (even on Good Friday) and the continuous blabber of the Media over the regurgitated nonsense of political opinion concerning the non-fit candidates running for office. It doesn’t mean that we as Catholics should not participate in the political debate—but are we willing to waste the holiest of weeks given us to obtain grace and to express gratitude to Our Lord in the distractions provided to take us away from reflecting upon our salvation? The world can wait and we should make it wait. Why do we let it control us to the loss of our Faith? Therefore, my dear Faithful Catholics, let us begin this Holy Week by being present at the liturgy where Holy Mother Church is with her Bridegroom as He gives His life for her: Entering Jerusalem and greeted as King, Instituting the Holy Eucharist, praying in Agony in the Garden, on Calvary and, finally, greeting Him as He rose from the dead. To pass over these anniversarial events without any regard would wound any relationship between Bride and Groom—and we, as members of the Church, can only join with her.

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

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Baptism

Means of Salvation

Sacrament of Baptism

Church Teaching from the Fourteenth Century until the Council of Trent

Saint Thomas (1225-1274) was a Dominican whose manner and understanding of Church teaching (Thomistic) was not fully accepted by all, especially the Franciscans, who followed in the footsteps of Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274) and the Scotists (Duns Scotist). Simply it may seem the difference is one of following the Platonism of Saint Augustine or the Aristotelianism of Saint Albert Magnus and Saint Thomas Aquinas, but actually the Scotists also used Aristotelianism. The Thomists and Scotist would frequently issue condemnations of the other or take issue, such as the Scotists defending the Immaculate Conception or the Thomists defending predestination. These divisions later between the Molinists and Thomists on theological questions came to a climax in the discussion about grace during the 16th and 17th centuries. The Church never defined the doctrine of grace explicitly as to declare either position right or wrong, but that both the Molinists and Thomists were free to hold to the opinion of the teaching of their school of theology (cf. D 1097). Those belonging to any of the schools of theology who did stray from the teaching of the Church were censured or condemned by the Popes and Councils, such as John Peter Olivi (1248-1298). Olivi denied children received the infused virtues of faith, hope and charity when receiving baptism. The Council of Vienne (France), in 1312, gave the following teaching:

Besides, one baptism which regenerates all who are baptized in Christ must be faithfully confessed by all just as “one God and one faith” [Eph. 4:5], which celebrated in water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit we believe to be commonly the perfect remedy for salvation for adults as for children. (Cf. D 482)

But because certain theological doctors are found to have contrary opinions as to how great the effect of baptism (is) in the case of children, certain of these saying that through the power of baptism indeed sin is remitted to children, but grace is not conferred, others asserting on the contrary that sin is remitted for them in baptism and virtues and forming grace are infused as a habit [see n. 410], although not for them at the time as a function, we, however, considering the general efficacy of the death of Christ, which through baptism is applied equally to all the baptized, with the approval of the sacred council, consider the second opinion to be preferred, which says that forming grace and virtue are conferred on children as on adults, as more probable, more consonant and more in agreement with the words of the saints and the modern doctors of theology.(Fidei catholicae; Cf. D 483)

John XXII (1316-1334) taught that no one saw the Beatific Vision before the General Judgement, and he continued to state this erroneous opinion in his sermons. Theologians rose up and declared this was heretical. John XXII said that there was no decision of the matter and therefore he was free to express his opinion. The Catholic theologians at Paris, in 1333, declared that the faithful departed who were in heaven did see the Beatific vision before the General Resurrection, though acknowledging that there was no definitive declaration and requested John XXII to now give a definitive teaching. Since the Fraticelli, or Spirituals, found support in Louis of Bavaria who was attacking the papacy, and enjoined by claiming the papacy ended with Clement V, i.e., John XXII was not Pope, John XXII called a consistory not only to oppose the Fraticelli, but to consider the matter of defining when the blessed (those in heaven) saw the Beatific Vision. On January 3, 1334, John XXII declared in a consistory he had no intention to teach contrary to Scripture or the Faith and stated his belief that the faithful departed, separated from their bodies, see the Beatific Vision immediately upon entering heaven. His successor, Benedict XII, defined all those who are in heaven see the Beatific Vision in the Constitution Benedictus Deus (January 29, 1336):

By this edict which will prevail forever, with apostolic authority we declare: that according to the common arrangement of God, souls of all the saints who departed from this world before the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ; also of the holy apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, virgins, and the other faithful who died after the holy baptism of Christ had been received by them, in whom nothing was to be purged, when they departed, nor will there be when they shall depart also in the future; or if then there was or there will be anything to be purged in these when after their death they have been purged; and the souls of children departing before the use of free will, reborn and baptized in that same baptism of Christ, when all have been baptized, immediately after their death and that aforesaid purgation in those who were in need of a purgation of this kind, even before the resumption of their bodies and the general judgment after the ascension of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, into heaven, have been, are, and will be in heaven, in the kingdom of heaven and in celestial paradise with Christ, united in the company of the holy angels, and after the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ have seen and see the divine essence by intuitive vision, and even face to face, with no mediating creature, serving in the capacity of an object seen, but divine essence immediately revealing itself plainly, clearly, and openly, to them, and seeing thus they enjoy the same divine essence, and also that from such vision and enjoyment their souls, which now have departed, are truly blessed and they have eternal life and rest; and also [the souls] of those who afterwards will depart, will see that same divine essence, and will enjoy it before the general judgment; and that such vision of the divine essence and its enjoyment makes void the acts of faith and hope in them, inasmuch as faith and hope are proper theological virtues; and that after there has begun or will be such intuitive and face-to-face vision and enjoyment in these, the same vision and enjoyment without any interruption [intermission] or departure of the aforesaid vision and enjoyment exist continuously and will continue even up to the last judgment and from then even unto eternity. (cf. D 530)

In 1341, Benedict XII sent Iam Dudum to the Armenian Church where he rejects teachings that were preached by certain Armenians, such as:

. . . [T]hat the souls of children who are born from Christian parents after the passion of Christ, if they die before they are baptized, go to a terrestial Paradise in which Adam was before sin; but the souls of children who are born after the passion of Christ from non-Christian parents and who die without baptism go to the place where the souls of their parents are. (6; Cf. D 534)

The Church has not given a definitive teaching on what happens to each individual child that dies without baptism.

Also, in this list of errors, that:

. . . [F]or what is true baptism, these three things are required: namely water, chrism . . . and the Eucharist, so that if anyone should baptize another in water while saying: “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen” and afterwards he should not be anointed with the (aforesaid) chrism, he would not be baptized. . . . (58, cf. D 542)

In the Armenian Church, as in other Orthodox and Eastern Rite Churches, Baptism consists of being baptized, signed with oil or Chrismation, and receiving the Eucharist. Erroneously the Chrismation—which symbolizes the Holy Ghost descending on Christ at His Baptism, and which is done even in the Latin Rite—is considered equal to Confirmation in the Armenian Church. Also, according to some Armenians, necessary for initiation into the Church and the omission of which would invalidate baptism. Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition has not placed these three immediately together, but as separate Sacraments received at separate moments. Confirmation is not seen as the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Christ at His Baptism, but the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles at Pentecost.

Clement VI (1342-1352) continued in the attempt to bring the Armenians back into the Faith and Union with the Church. It must not be forgotten that at this time the Mohammedans were invading Asia Minor (present Turkey and Armenia) and the rulers in these regions were begging for assistance—yet did not forget the catastrophic invasion by the Crusaders initiated by the Venetians in 1204. The following provides another insight inasmuch as the Pope is saying these are part of the Catholic Faith the Armenians must believe and are in error if they reject them. Among which are these:

First, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

Third, that children contract original sin from their first parents.

Twelfth, that baptism destroys original and actual sins.

Thirty-ninth, that having been baptized in the Catholic Church, if they become unfaithful and afterwards are converted, they must not be baptized again.

Fortieth, that children can be baptized before the eighth day and that baptism cannot be by any liquid other than pure water. (Super quibusdam, September 29, 1351; Cf. D 574a)

That is, this is what Catholics believe and hold within the Deposit of Faith.

With the Avignon Captivity (1309-1377), that is, the Pope living in Avignon under the patronage of the King of France, dissension resulted within Catholic Europe as the Political foes of both France and the Pope supported the enemies of the Church in their rejection of Catholic Doctrine. This discord would develop into the Western Schism (1378-1417) and engender not just the Fraticelli and like movements opposed to possessions, but national church movements by John Wycliffe (England) and Jan Hus (Bohemia) which eventually rejected the Priesthood with Mass and Transubstantiation. Unfortunately, the disparity of wealth and particularly the wealth of Clergy has always been used as a springboard to draw people away from not just the Church, but against all authority—not understanding that in society it is necessary that there be authority and a source of wealth to develop the community as also the right to private property. That what is good can be abused cannot lead to its abolishment for history has proven that these attempts have only brought greater harm to society. With the Council of Constance (1414-18) and the election of Martin V, the Church was able to once again deal with the errors that had been entrenched into the Catholic populace due to the political and ecclesiastical upheaval (The Hundred Years War between France and England began in 1337 and did not end until 1453). Martin V approved the Council of Constance’s condemnation of the Wycliffe teaching (Donatist), If a bishop or priest is living in mortal sin, he does not ordain, nor consecrate, nor perform, nor baptize. (Sess. VIII, 4; Cf. D 584) Later, it would publish the Document, Inter cunctas(Feb. 22, 1418), proposing the following inquisitorial question to both the followers of Wycliffe and Hus: Likewise, whether he believes that a bad priest, employing the proper matter and form and having the intention of doing what the Church does, truly consecrates, truly absolves, truly baptizes, truly confers the other sacraments. (Sess. XV, 22; cf. D 672.) It would also inquire: Likewise, whether he believes that anyone deliberately despising the rite of the Church, the ceremonies of exorcism and catechism, of consecrated baptismal water, sins mortally. (Sess. XV, 15; cf. D 665.) The ceremonies are a display to the senses, but they are sacramentals that help the faithful by instruction and actual grace. The Church, guided by the Holy Ghost and following the Apostolic tradition has preserved these ceremonies and to reject them is to deny the divine guidance of the Church and her authority. It can be seen, then, that the rejection of the autonomy of the Church from the state leads to rejection of her authority which becomes the denial of her right to teach and to administer the Sacraments and concludes with the condemnation of all her rites and ceremonies and the closure of churches. The objections may differ, but the goal is always the same: rejection of the Roman Catholic Faith.

The fall of Constantinople was imminent and the only hope was both Occidental and Oriental Catholics to unite against the Mohammedan infidels. There was no confidence on either side as long as the Church leaders, who still held moral dominance over the Christian population, were divided. Europe was still Catholic, though divided in Church authority as the Eastern Catholics refused to submit to the authority of the Pope. The reigning Pope, Eugenius IV (1431-47)  knew that a union that denied differences would be no union at all and worked unceasingly to convince the Oriental separatists to accept the Catholic Faith in its entirety. The fruit of his effort was the Council of Florence (1438-45), which brought about a temporary unity—too late. The Hundred Years War had weakened the West and only ended just before the Mohammedan conquest of Constantinople. Yet, the Council gave the Catholic Church the following:

It has likewise defined, that, if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by the worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission, the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments; and so that they may be released from punishments of this kind, the suffrages of the living faithful are of advantage to them, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, and almsgiving, and other works of piety, which are customarily performed by the faithful for other faithful according to the institutions of the Church. And that the souls of those, who after the reception of baptism have incurred no stain of sin at all, and also those, who after the contraction of the stain of sin whether in their bodies, or when released from the same bodies, as we have said before, are purged, are immediately received into heaven, and see clearly the one and triune God Himself just as He is, yet according to the diversity of merits, one more perfectly than another. Moreover, the souls of those who depart in actual mortal sin or in original sin only, descend immediately into hell but to undergo punishments of different kinds. (Bull, Laetentur coeli, July 6, 1439; cf. D 693)

In the fifth place we have reduced under this very brief formula the truth of the sacraments of the Church for the sake of an easier instruction of the Armenians, the present as well as the future. There are seven sacraments of the new Law: namely, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony, which differ a great deal from the sacraments of the Old Law. For those of the Old Law did not effect grace, but only pronounced that it should be given through the passion of Christ; these sacraments of ours contain grace, and confer it upon those who receive them worthily. Of these the five first ones are ordained for the spiritual perfection of each and every one in himself, the last two for the government and increase of the entire Church. For, through baptism we are spiritually reborn; through confirmation we increase in grace, and are made strong in faith; reborn, however, we are strengthened and nourished by the divine sustenance of the Eucharist. But if through sin we incur the disease of the soul, through penance we are spiritually healed; spiritually and corporally, according as is expedient to the soul, through extreme unction; through orders the Church is truly governed and spiritually propagated; through matrimony corporally increased. All these sacraments are dispensed in three ways, namely, by things as the matter, by words as the form, and by the person of the minister conferring the sacrament with the intention of doing as the Church does; if any of these is lacking the sacrament is not fulfilled. Among these sacraments there are three, baptism, confirmation, and orders, which imprint an indelible sign on the soul, that is, a certain character distinctive from the others. Hence they should not be repeated in the same person. The remaining four do not imprint a sign and admit of repetition.

Holy baptism, which is the gateway to the spiritual life, holds the first place among all the sacraments; through it we are made members of Christ and of the body of the Church. And since death entered into the universe through the first man, “unless we are born of water and the Spirit, we cannot,” as the Truth says, “enter into the kingdom of heaven” (cf. John 3:5). The matter of this sacrament is real and natural water; it makes no difference whether cold or warm. The form is: I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Yet we do not deny that through these words: Such a (this) servant of Christ is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Holy Ghost or: Such a one is baptized by my hands in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, a true baptism is administered since the principal causes, from which baptism has its power is the Holy Trinity; the instrumental cause, however, is the minister, who bestows the sacrament externally; if the act which is performed through the minister himself, is expressed with the invocation of the Holy Trinity, the sacrament is effected. The minister of this sacrament is a priest, who is competent by office to baptize. In case of necessity, however, not only a priest or a deacon, but even a layman or a woman, yes even a pagan and a heretic can baptize, so long as he preserves the form of the Church and has the intention of doing as the Church does. The effect of this sacrament is the remission of every sin, original and actual, also of every punishment which is due to the sin itself. Therefore, no satisfaction must be enjoined for past sins upon those who immediately attain to the kingdom of heaven and the vision of God. (Bull, Exultate Deo, Nov. 22, 1439; cf. D 695, 696)

Later, in the Bull Cantata Domino, February 4, 1442, the Council would further elaborate with these teachings to the Jacobites, or Syrians:

It firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosiac law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed until they were believed to be in no way necessary for salvation; but after the promulgation of the Gospel it asserts that they cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation. All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors. Therefore, it commands all who glory in the name of Christian, at whatever time, before or after baptism to cease entirely from circumcision, since, whether or not one places hope in it, it cannot be observed at all without the loss of eternal salvation. Regarding children, indeed, because of danger of death, which can often take place, when no help can be brought to them by another remedy than through the sacrament of baptism, through which they are snatched from the domination of the Devil and adopted among the sons of God, it advises that holy baptism ought not to be deferred for forty or eighty days, or any time according to the observance of certain people, but it should be conferred as soon as it can be done conveniently, but so that, when danger of death is imminent, they be baptized in the form of the Church, early without delay, even by a layman or woman, if a priest should be lacking, just as is contained more fully in the decree of the Armenians (supra, D 696; cf. D 712).

The Church would be preoccupied for the next several decades fighting the forces of the Mohammedans and confronted with the conversion of a New World to the faith following Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the Americas. An Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, in 1517, would bring her back to fighting for that Faith she had so well preserved and spread.

(To be continued)

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Holy Week

Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

GOOD FRIDAY

Jesus dies upon the cross 

1. This is a day of mourning for the Church and for the faithful. The cross occupies the most prominent place in the liturgy of the day. It was on the cross that the Lord carried out the will of the Father to its last detail by giving up His life for our sins. He “loved me and delivered Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
2. “And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, they crucified Him there; and the robbers, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. But they, dividing His garments, cast lots. And the people stood beholding, and the rulers with them derided Him saying: He saved others; let Him save Himself if He be the Christ, the elect of God. And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him and offering Him vinegar, and saying: If Thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And also there was a superscription written over Him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. And one of those robbers who were hanged blasphemed him, saying: If Thou be Christ, save Thyself and us. . . . And it was almost the sixth hour; and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said: Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit. And saying this, He gave up the ghost’” (Luke 23:33 ff.). “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8).

“O Lord, who hath believed our report? [of the suffering of the Messias]. And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground. There is no beauty in him nor comeliness; and we have seen him and there was no sightliness that we should be desirous of him. Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity. And his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not” (Isa. 1 :53 ff.). “O all ye that pass by the way, attend and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow” (Lam. 1:12).

The holy body has been torn by the cruel scourge until it is one mass of burning and bleeding wounds. The terrible crown of thorns has pierced His head, and He is consumed by thirst. To this unspeakable physical pain is added an anguish of soul that is even more terrible. He hears the shocking cry of His blinded people: “His blood be upon us and upon our children” (Matt. 27:25). He hears the exultant yells of His enemies, and He looks into the future and sees that millions of men will repay His suffering and His love with the basest ingratitude and the cruelest indifference. Why do they act thus? They have no time to attend to Christ. The grace which He won for them with such prodigal suffering and with so much love they neglect or abuse, and thus run the risk of losing their immortal souls. The immense inheritance which He purchased by His blood they allow to slip through their fingers. How this ingratitude and blindness torture Him! With Mary and John we stand under His cross today to share His agony.

Christ died in our stead. “Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows; and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our iniquities; he was bruised for our sins; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone hath turned aside into his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:4-6). No mortal man could satisfy for the insult offered to God by sin; not even the highest of the angels could make adequate satisfaction. “Search not for a man to redeem you; Christ the God-man alone can perform works of sufficient value” (St. Basil). He takes our indebtedness upon Himself and lifts it up to His cross. “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the tradition of your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled” (I Pet. 1:18 f.). The penalties which Christ suffered should have been our penalty. “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

3. Christ has died for each one of us personally. The wages of sin is death. All the penalties of sin press upon us at death. God’s justice has not prepared anything so frightening as the prospect of death. Every creature shrinks from the thought of it. Nothing is so surely a punishment for sin as is death. Death cuts the bonds that secure the body and soul to the earth, just as sin first severed the bond which bound men to God. Christ the Lord delivers Himself up freely to death for our sake. His love is “strong as death.” His submission to this most terrifying of God’s punishments is the highest token of His love. He chooses the most terrible prospect of death that He may give me the surest sign of His love.

In giving over His body to death, He destroys the body of sin and death on the cross. Having bathed mankind in His precious blood, He has provided humanity with a new and holy body. Men thus reborn are worthy to become the sons of God and merit eternal life and eternal glory.

Christ died for us on the cross. What a mysterious dispensation of God’s providence! The unjust man commits the sin, but the Just One satisfies for it. The guilty one escapes the penalty of sin, but the Innocent One pays the penalty. The Lord and Master pays the debts which were contracted by the servant. What a contrast between the wickedness of man, and the goodness and justice and mercy of God! God has done all this for us; what have we done for Him?

PRAYER

We beseech Thee, O almighty God, to look down upon Thy family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ freely delivered Himself into the hands of sinners, and for whom He suffered the martyrdom of the cross. Who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen.

O My people, what wrong have I done? When have I ever grieved you? Answer Me! I led you out of the land of Egypt: is this why you have prepared a cross for your Savior? Forty years I led you through the desert, fed you with manna, and then brought you into a fair and fertile land: is this why you have prepared a cross for your Savior? What more should I have done for you that I have not done? I planted you to be My very own and most choice vine, but you have borne Me bitter fruit: for with vinegar you have quenched My thirst and with a spear you have pierced your Savior’s side. For your sake I scourged Egypt and its first-born: and you have handed Me over to be scourged. O My People, what wrong have I done you? When have I ever grieved you? Answer Mel I led you out of the land of Egypt: is this why you have prepared a cross for your Savior? I led you out of Egypt and drowned Pharao in the Red Sea: and you have handed Me over to the chief priests. I opened up the sea as a path before you: and you have opened up My side with a spear. I went before you in a pillar of bright cloud: and you have led me into the judgment hall of Pilate, I nourished you with manna in the desert: and you have rained blows and stripes upon me. I gave you life-restoring water from the rock to drink: and you have quenched my thirst with gall and vinegar. For your sake I struck down the kings of Canaan: and you kept striking Me on the head with a reed, I gave you a royal sceptre: and you have placed a crown of thorns on My head. I raised you up above all others by My mighty power: and you have hung Me on the high gibbet.

O My people, what wrong have I done you? When have I ever grieved you? Answer Me!

We answer this anguished cry of Our Lord with the words; “O holy God! O holy, mighty God! O holy, immortal God, have mercy on us.”

GOOD FRIDAY

Jesus the King, and Son of God

1. Jesus is condemned to death and is crucified! Pilate, the representative of Rome in Jerusalem, presents Christ to the Jews as their king. But the Jewish people rejected Him on Good Friday and exchanged the rule of God for the rule of the Roman emperor. “We have no king but Caesar.” With this rejection of Jesus the stricken nation has sealed its fate forever. No one can reject Christ without at the same time rejecting and destroying himself.
2. The people reject Christ as their king. When St. John gives us his account of the passion, he seems to be trying to portray the royal manner in which Christ enters upon His suffering, the princely dignity with which He bears His sufferings, and the kingly demeanor with which He reappears again after three days among His apostles. “Art thou the king of the Jews?” asks Pilate. Jesus answers, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Then Pilate continues, “Art thou a king then?” Jesus replies, “Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth.”

The soldiers then place a crown of thorns on His head and mock Him saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” Pilate than sits upon the seat of judgment. “And it was the parasceve of the pasch [Friday] about the sixth hour, and he said to the Jews, ‘Behold your king . . . Shall I crucify your king?’ And they answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’” And it is as a king that Christ is displayed to the world on His cross. His title is inscribed on the sign they affix to his cross. “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the] Jews.” Like a king, Christ cares for His own body. When the soldiers come to remove the two thieves who were crucified with Him. “they did not break his legs . . . but one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side.” This had been foretold by the prophet: “You shall not break a bone of him” (Ps. 33:21). We recognize today in the Crucified One, a King, our True King, and we adore Him.

“He hath made himself the Son of God.” This is the accusation of the High Priest. This is the legal grounds on which they demand His death, that He had declared Himself to be the Son of God, which, they alleged, He was not. The High Priest Caiphas had bound Him by an oath to declare whether or not He was the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus answered him, “Thou hast said it. Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:64). With this, the High Priest rent his garments and exclaimed: “He hath blasphemed God; what think you?” And they answered, “He is guilty of death.” “Then they did spit in his face; and others struck his face with the palms of their hands, saying, prophesy unto us, a Christ, who is he that struck thee?” (Matt. 26:63-68.) To show that He is truly the Son of God Christ allows Himself to be put to death. He bears witness to His divinity with His blood, and we believe Him to be the very Son of God. We accept without question the words of the Apostle: “For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of man thought it not robbery to be equal with God. But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8). God’s own Son has given His life for me on the cross. Only a divine mind could have conceived it!

3. Turning our backs on the unbelief of the Jews we acknowledge: “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou alone art the Lord, Thou alone art the Most High, Jesus Christ, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.”

We have chosen the Crucified One to be our King and our Lord. For this reason we join Holy Mother Church today in the adoration of the cross, (which symbolizes Him who died on it). “Behold, the wood of the cross” on it hung the Savior of the world. Come let us adore. O holy God! O holy, mighty God! O holy immortal God! Have mercy on us.” “We adore Thy cross, O Lord, and praise and glorify Thy holy resurrection; for behold! By the wood of the cross joy came into the whole world.”

PRAYER

Look down, O Lord, we beseech Thee, on this Thy family, for which Our Lord Jesus Christ did not shrink from being delivered into the hands of the wicked, and from suffering the torments of the cross. Amen.

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ST MARTIN, ARCHBISHOP OF BRAGA (A.D. 579)

ST MARTIN OF BRAGA is said by St Gregory of Tours to have surpassed in learning all the scholars of his age, and the Christian poet Fortunatus described him as having inherited the merits as well as the name of St Martin of Tours. His early history is uncertain. The story that he was a native of Pannonia is possibly the mistake of some scribe who confused him with St Martin of Tours. He is said to have made a pilgrimage to Palestine, and it was perhaps with returning pilgrims that he made his way to Galicia in Spain. There the Suevi held the mastery and had propagated Arian doctrines. St Martin, however, by his earnest preaching brought Galicia back to the Catholic Church. He began by converting and instructing King Theodomir, and subsequently reconciled many other Arians and lapsed Catholics. He built several monasteries, the principal among which, Dumium, served him as a centre for his missionary efforts.

The Suevian monarchs out of regard for him made Dumium the seat of a bishopric (now Mondoñedo), of which he became the first occupant, and so closely did they attach Martin to their court that he was called “the Bishop of the Royal Family”. Nevertheless he never relaxed his own severe monastic rule of life, and maintained strict discipline in the government of his monks. He was afterwards promoted to the see of Braga, which made him metropolitan of the whole of /636/ Galicia, and he held that dignity until his death. Besides his main work as a missionary, St Martin rendered great service to the Church by his writings. The chief of these are a collection of eighty-four canons, aFormula vitae honestae, written as a guide to a good life at the request of King Miro, a description of superstitious peasant customs entitledDe correctione rusticorum, a symposium of moral maxims, and a selection of the sayings of the Egyptian solitaries. St Martin died in 579 at his monastery at Dumium, and his body was translated to Braga in 1606.