Vol 13 Issue 8 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
February 22, 2020 ~ Saint Peter’s Chair at Antioch
1. What is the Holy Eucharist
2. Quinquagesima Sunday
3. Saint Peter Damian
4. Family and Marriage
5. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:Here is a continuation of last week’s reflection on the Works of Mercy.
This inspired saying found in the Book of Proverbs is an axiom: He that is inclined to mercy shall be blessed: for of his bread he hath given to the poor. (Prov. 22:9) As such, Our Lord not only gives the account of the Good Samaritan (cf. Luke 10.), but shows mercy Himself: The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them. (Matthew 11:5) He commands His disciples to practice mercy: Then came Peter unto him and said: Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith to him: I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times. (Matt. 18:21-22; cf. Matt. 6:13-14) Finally, the scene Christ presents of the just before the tribunal of justice is found to be a seat of mercy for the merciful:
For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee? Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee? And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me. (Matt. 25:35-39)
Mercy to the merciful is followed by a condemnation of the unmerciful, of who did not perform these works of mercy:
Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you covered me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. Then they also shall answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee? Then he shall answer them, saying: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me. And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting. (Matt. 25:41-46)
The Church, therefore, sets forth these Seven Corporal Works of Mercy and Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy to be performed by Christians, the members of the Mystical Body of Christ:
The Corporal Works of Mercy are:
1. To feed the hungry;
2. To give drink to the thirsty;
3. To clothe the naked;
4. To shelter the homeless;
5. To visit the sick;
6. To visit the imprisoned (or ransom the captive);
7. To bury the dead.
The Spiritual Works of Mercy are:
1. To instruct the ignorant;
2. To counsel the doubtful;
3. To admonish sinners;
4. To bear wrongs patiently;
5. To forgive offences willingly;
6. To comfort the sorrowful;
7. To pray for the living and the dead.
The quotes above mention most of these works of mercy, the others may be found in various other passages, such as Matthew 18:15: But if thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother. 2 Machabees 12:46: It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins. Wisdom 18:21: For a blameless man made haste to pray for the people, bringing forth the shield of his ministry, prayer, and by incense making supplication, withstood the wrath, and put an end to the calamity, shewing that he was thy servant. Proverbs: 29:17: Instruct thy son, and he shall refresh thee, and shall give delight to thy soul. Isaias 61:2: To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn.
Is one obliged to perform all these works of mercy? The Book of Tobias tells us: According to thy ability be merciful. If thou have much give abundantly: if thou have a little, take care even so to bestow willingly a little. (Tob. 4:8-9) Many religious orders and congregations were founded to perform a particular work of mercy, founding hospitals, schools, hostels, and caring for the poor. The Trinitarians would gather alms to free the captives in Mohammedan captivity—and even offer themselves in exchange for their freedom. Whatever we do, we can be assured it is nothing comparable to the many Saints who devoted their lives to works of mercy—they being holy, whereas we have so many sins for which to repent and do penance. May we be merciful in providing the alms, in opening our homes, in at least forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently as also always praying for the living and the dead.
As always, enjoy the readings provided for your benefit.—The Editor
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WHAT IS THE HOLY EUCHARIST
By Rev. Courtney Edward Krier
PART II
Institution
Old Testament Prefigurements of the Holy Eucharist
Old Testament Sacrifices
Bread and Wine
In the setting of God feeding His people with Bread from heaven and giving drink from the rock, which is Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 10:4), the Old Testament describes a banquet that is prepared. This does not mean that it would be separate from a sacrifice, for the figure of Melchisedech, which has been covered earlier, spoke of sacrifice with bread and wine. This is followed by the Passover, which is also the chief sacrifice of the Israelites which includes bread and wine. Solomon speaks, then, of sacrifice (the Temple had seven pillars—prefigures of the seven Sacraments) along with the sacrificial banquet where is bread and wine in the following words from Proverbs:
Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn her out seven pillars. She hath slain her victims, mingled her wine, and set forth her table. She hath sent her maids to invite to the tower, and to the walls of the city: Whosoever is a little one, let him come to me. And to the unwise she said: Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you. (Prov. 9:1-5)
In instructing the faithful in the Sacraments, Saint John Chrysostom, writes:
You have seen in connection with Baptism what the figure is and what the reality. Look, I will show you the table also and the communion of the sacraments outlined therein, if as before, you do not ask to find it whole and entire, but rather that you examine the events as it is natural they should happen in the figure. Indeed, after his passage on the cloud and the sea, St. Paul says: ‘And they all drank of the same spiritual drink.’ In the same way, he says that you come out of the pool of water and go in haste to the Table, as they came out of the sea and went toward a new and marvelous table, that is, the manna. And as you have a mysterious drink, the saving Blood, so they had a marvelous kind of drink, finding water in abundance flowing out of a dry rock there where there was no spring nor running water (P.G., LI, 247, A-C).
A typical meal, specifically at the time of Christ, would consist of having present bread and wine for consumption. There would be no significance if this was the intent of Christ to provide His followers with bread and wine in a meal as a reminder of Him if it was an ordinary occurrence, nor when He does not provide the bread and wine for it is truly obtained through natural means. There must be a supernatural element and that is seen in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel and in the words of Christ when instituting the Holy Eucharist as also Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11). This is seen if the types are understood as partaking in a sacrificial meal, the sacrifice being the Sacrifice of Christ’s Body and Blood; the partaking of the sacrifice the reception of the Body and Blood of Christ. The supernatural element being the reception of the Body and blood of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine as foreshadowed in the Old Testament: And shalt offer thy oblations the flesh and the blood upon the altar of the Lord thy God: the blood of thy victims thou shalt pour on the altar: and the flesh thou thyself shalt eat. (Deut. 12:27) In Exodus there is this passage:
This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, and seventy of the ancients of Israel went up: And they saw the God of Israel: and under his feet as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as the heaven, when clear. Neither did he lay his hand upon those of the children of Israel, that retired afar off, and they saw God, and they did eat and drink. (Exod. 24:8-11)
Returning to Deuteronomy, the partaking of the sacrifice offered is described as follows:
You shall come to the place, which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, and to dwell in it: And you shall offer in that place your holocausts and victims, the tithes and firstfruits of your hands and your vows and gifts, the firstborn of your herds and your sheep. And you shall eat there in the sight of the Lord your God: and you shall rejoice in all things, whereunto you shall put your hand, you and your houses wherein the Lord your God hath blessed you. (Deut. 12:5-7)
Isaias prophesies the following of the Messias saying:
All you that thirst, come to the waters: and you that have no money make haste, buy, and eat: come ye, buy wine and milk without money, and without any price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which doth not satisfy you? Hearken diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and your soul shall be delighted in fatness. Incline your ear and come to me: hear and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies of David. (Isa. 55:1-3)
And later, Isaias expressing the rejection of the sacrifices of the Jews offered unworthily, then continues:
Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold my servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry: behold my servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty. Behold my servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded: behold my servants shall praise for joyfulness of heart, and you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for grief of spirit. (Isa. 65:13-14)
The vision of Isaias regarding the messianic banquet is echoed in the New Testament Apostles. Isaias gives this other description:
And the Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees. And he shall destroy in this mountain the face of the bond with which all people were tied, and the web that he began over all nations. He shall cast death down headlong for ever: and the Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face, and the reproach of his people he shall take away from off the whole earth: for the Lord hath spoken it (Isa. 25:6-8; cf. 1 Cor. 15:54-55: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?)
Saint Luke shows its fulfillment in the words of Christ, when, after the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, Jesus says to His disciples: And I dispose to you, as my Father hath disposed to me, a kingdom; That you may eat and drink at my table, in my kingdom: and may sit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:29-30) And from John:
They shall no more hunger nor thirst, neither shall the sun fall on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall rule them, and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. (Apoc. 7:16)
Therefore, one cannot separate the bread and wine from its character of being changed into the Body and Blood of Christ and, as the Body and Blood of Christ, being offered as an oblation which is then given to the children of Israel, the servants, the people for supernatural nourishment.
The lamb with bread and wine were sacrificed from remotest history, all other offerings were secondary—one foretold the crucifixion, the other the Eucharist; they were always intermingled, mixed in mystic ceremony foretelling Christ’s one sacrifice, of Calvary and the Mass which form not two, but one act of divine worship. (Meagher, 33-34)
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The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers
M. F. Toal
THE GOSPEL OF THE SUNDAY
LUKE xviii. 31-43
At that time, Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said to them: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished, which were written by the prophets, concerning the Son of man. For he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit upon: and after they have scourged him, they will put him to death; and the third day he shall rise again.
And they understood none of these things, and this word was hid from them, and they understood not the things that were said.
Now it came to pass, when he drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the way side, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And they that went before, rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried out much more: Son of David, have mercy on me.
And Jesus standing, commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he asked him, saying: What wilt thou that I do to thee? But he said: Lord, that I may see. And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight: thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw, and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
EXPOSITION FROM THE CATENA AUREA
GREGORY: Because the Disciples were yet carnal men, they could not understand words of mystery, and so a miracle is performed. Before their eyes a blind man receives sight, so that their faith might be made firm through signs from heaven. Hence it is narrated: Now it came to pass, when he drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the way side, begging.
THEOPHYLACTUS: And that His entry might not be without profit, He wrought on the way the miracle of the blind man, giving His Disciples by this a lesson, that we must turn all things to profit, and be never wholly idle.
AUGUSTINE, de Quaest. Evang. II, 48: We could understand regarding those approaching Jericho in this manner, that they had already left it, but were still close to that city; which is not a usual manner of speaking. But it seems that it can be said, since Matthew says, that as they were going out from Jericho, two blind men who sat by the way side were given sight. There is indeed no question as to the number, if another of the Evangelists is silent concerning one and mentions the other. For Mark also speaks of one blind man, since he says that he was healed of his blindness as they were going out from Jericho; and mentions his name, and also his father’s, so we may believe the man was well known, and that the other was unknown, and so it was reasonable that only the one who was known should be commemorated. But since the events which follow, in the Gospel according to Luke, very plainly show that what he describes took place while they were yet approaching Jericho, there is no alternative but to believe that this miracle took place twice: once for a single blind man, whilst they were yet going into that city, and again for two blind men when He was going out from it; and that Luke records one event, and Matthew another.
CYRIL: There were many people around Jesus, and the blind man had not known Him, but he felt His presence, and laid hold of Him with his heart whom his eye could not see: and so there follows: And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And those who could see were speaking of Him according to common report; for there follows: And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. But the blind man cried out that which was true. Told one thing, he proclaims another: And he cried, saying: Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me. Who has taught you to speak thus, O man? Have you, though deprived of sight, read the Scriptures? How have you discerned the Light of the world? Truly the Lord enlighteneth the blind (Ps. cxlv. 8).
CYRIL: Nurtured in Judaism, he knew that God would be born, according to the flesh, from the family of David; and so he speaks to Him as to God, saying: Have mercy on me. Let them imitate him who divide Christ in two: for he comes to Christ as to God, and calls Him Son of David. Let them admire the urgency of his confession: for while he proclaims his faith, some rebuked him. Then follows: And they that went before, rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But his courage was not hindered by their rebukes, for faith learns to withstand all things, and to overcome all things; and in the service of God it is profitable to put aside timidity. For if many thrust themselves forward for the sake of gain, should not a man put timidity aside for his soul’s salvation? Hence: But he cried Out much more: Son of David, have mercy on me.
The voice of the man crying out in faith causes Christ to stand, and He looks back to those crying to Him in faith: and He calls the blind man, and bids him come to Him; so there follows: And Jesus standing, commanded him to be brought to Him, so that he who had drawn nigh to him in faith, might now come near to Him in body. The Lord questions him as He comes near; for there follows: And when he was come near, He asked Him, saying: What wilt thou that I do to thee? He asked him for a purpose, not as though He were ignorant, but so that those who stood about Him might learn that the blind man was seeking, not money, but a divine remedy, as from God; and so there follows: But he said: Lord, that I may see.
CHRYSOSTOM: Or because the Jews being betrayers of the truth, might say, as they said of the man born blind: it was not this man, but one like him (Jn. ix). He desired the blind man might first show the nature of his infirmity, and then learn the greatness of the favour. And when the blind man had made evident the nature of his petition then, with supreme power He commanded him to see: so there follows: And Jesus said to him: receive thy sight; a sign which recoiled on the deceitfulness of the Jews; for who among the prophets had said a thing of this kind?
Note what the Physician claims from him to whom He has given health; for there follows: Thy faith hath made thee whole. Favours are given in exchange for faith. Grace is poured out, which faith receives. And as from a fountain some draw a little water in little vessels, and others draw more in bigger vessels, the fountain not distinguishing between the one vessel and the other, since it is the vessels, not the fountain, that measures the water, and each draws according to his measure; and as the splendour of light enters to a greater or less degree according to the dimensions of the window, so is grace received according to the measure of our desire. The voice of Christ, becomes now the light of the blind, for it is the word of the true light; and so there follows: And immediately he saw. And as the blind man showed a vigorous faith before he received this favour, so afterwards he failed not to give thanks; for the Gospel relates: And he followed Him, glorifying God.
CYRIL: From which it appears that he was delivered of a twofold blindness; one corporal, the other intellectual; for he would not have glorified Him as God unless he truly saw. To others he became a reason for giving glory to God; for there follows: And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. BEDE: Not alone for the gift of sight for which he had prayed, but also and with reason for the faith of the man who had prayed.
CHRYSOSTOM: Here we must ask why it was that Christ forbade the man from whom He had cast out a devil to follow Him, yet does not so forbid the man now cured of blindness? I do not believe that either decision was without purpose. For He sent the one as His herald, so that in his new delivered state he may proclaim his Benefactor. For it was a striking miracle, to see one who before was raging mad now made sound in mind. But He permitted the blind man to follow Him as He was going up to Jerusalem, to complete by means of the Cross, His profound mystery. so that His Disciples having before them this reminder of the miracle would not think that He suffered through infirmity, and not through compassion.
AMBROSE: But in the blind man we see a figure of the Gentiles, who, under the rule of the Lord, received back the brightness of the lost light. It matters not whether the healing was wrought in one blind man or in two; since, descending from Chem and Japhet, the two sons of Noah, in the two blind men they reached back to the two authors of their generation.
GREGORY: Or the blind man is the human race which, in its first parent, turned from the brightness of the heavenly light, and suffered the darkness of its own banishment. Jericho however is interpreted as the moon which, diminishing in its monthly course, symbolises the eclipse of our mortality. As our Saviour therefore draws nigh to Jericho, the blind man returns to the light; because when divinity assumed to itself the failing of our flesh, mankind received back the light it had lost. He therefore that knows not the brightness of the eternal light is blind. But if he believes in the Redeemer Who said I am the way (Jn. xiv. 6), he is sitting by the way side; if he has believed, and now earnestly implores that he may receive the eternal light he is sitting by the way side, begging.
They who walked in front of Jesus, signify the crowds of carnal desires, and the tumult of the vices, which, before Christ makes entry to our heart, scatter our thoughts, and torment us even in our prayer. But he cried out much more; because the more we are afflicted by the excessive troubling of our thoughts, the more earnestly ought we to persevere in prayer. But when in our prayer we still suffer the thronging images of the senses, we are in a manner hearing Jesus passing by. But when we are earnestly insistent in our prayer, God is held fast in our heart, and the lost light is restored.
Or again; it pertains to His Humanity that He passes by, and to His Divinity to be still. And so the Lord when passing by heard the blind man crying out, and standing He gave him sight; for suffering with us in His own humanity He hears with compassion the cries of our blindness; but it is by His Divinity that the light of His grace is poured into our souls. For this however He asks the blind man what he wishes: that He may waken our hearts to prayer.
AMBROSE: Or, He asked the blind man, so that we may believe that unless a man confesses his faith he cannot be saved. GREGORY: The blind man wishes from the Lord, not gold, but light; and let us pray, not for deceiving riches, but for that light which we alone with angels may see; and to this light the way is by faith. So rightly did He say to the blind man: Receive thy sight, thy faith hath made thee whole. He who sees and follows Him, is he who does the good he understands.
AUGUSTINE, De Quaest. Evang. II, 48: If however we interpret Jericho as the moon, and accordingly as mortality, the Lord approaching death, commands that the light of the Gospel be preached to the Jews alone, for whom this blind man stands, of whom Luke speaks; but rising from the dead, and departing from it, He commands that it be preached to both Jews and Gentiles, who are signified by the two blind men, of whom Matthew speaks.
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FEBRUARY 23
St. Peter Damian, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church
1. Peter Damian was born into a large but poor family in 1006, at Ravenna. The child was not welcome and might have died of hunger and cold, except for the charity of a neighbor. Both his parents died a few years later, and Peter went to live with an older brother. Here, his fare was meager, but beatings and scoldings abounded. Another brother, a priest, sent him to school, and he soon gave evidence of rare talents. In 1035, Peter became a monk in the monastery of Fontavellana, and in 1043 was appointed prior there.
Peter was a man of deep earnestness and strict ascetical principles; he was filled with ardent zeal and strong desire for activity; he was clear-sighted, frank, unselfish, intolerant of half measures, zealous for the interests of the Church, a powerful reformer of monastic spirit and discipline. In Italy he preached penance and strongly inveighed against simony and clerical incontinency. In this way he attracted the attention and favor of popes and emperors. In 1057 the Holy Father induced him to accept the dignity of cardinal and then made him bishop of Ostia. Repeatedly he made efforts to resign from both honors. In the struggles between Church and state, he fearlessly defended the rights of the Church and supported the reforms of Gregory VII with all his powers. The popes entrusted very important missions to him; but Peter kept repeating his request to be allowed to return to his monastery. This favor was finally granted, and he died as a simple monk at Faenza, on February 22, 1072. Leo XII declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1828. Many of his writings are still extant.
“The Lord moved him to speak before the assembled people” (Introit). Considering the circumstances of Damian’s childhood, and contrasting this unfavorable beginning with his later remarkable accomplishments, one surely must exclaim with the Psalmist: “The very stone which the builders rejected has become the chief stone at the corner” (Ps. 117:22). When men despised and mistreated him as a boy, he turned to God for comfort and consolation; and his expectations were fulfilled. God filled him “with the spirit of wisdom and discernment, clothing him in magnificent array” (Introit). He clothed him with the garment of the priest and the bishop; He clothed him with virtue, with holiness, and, finally, with heavenly glory.
“Preach the word, dwelling upon it continually, welcome or unwelcome; bring home wrongdoing, comfort the waverer, rebuke the sinner, with all the patience of a teacher” (Epistle). Peter conscientiously and courageously followed this advice as prior in his own monastery, as well as in all those houses that he reformed or founded. Nor did he alter this policy when he looked beyond cloister walls. He wrote a good many books; but he confined his writing mostly to letters to popes and bishops, princes and abbots, priests and monks; he decried the disorders rampant among them, speaking with perfect frankness and irresistible firmness. He fought with all his might against the selling and buying of spiritual offices, as well as against the public and private sins of the clergy of his time. In Peter’s mind, the dignity of a bishop was not to be measured by external appearance and pomp, but, rather, by holiness of life.
In his own behavior St. Peter was a living example of the holy, conscientious, unselfish monk, priest, and bishop. He spent all the income of his church on works of mercy; he preached frequently; he clothed the naked; he fed the hungry; he comforted the sad; he cared for the sick. He is the “faithful and wise servant, one whom his master entrusted with the care of his household, to give them their allowance of food at the appointed time” (Communion). In this man we see and marvel at the working of the Holy Spirit.
3. The Lord filled St. Peter with the spirit of wisdom. It was this spirit that induced and enabled him to despise earthly things in order to gain eternal joys. His ideal was the spirit of poverty that disengages the heart from earthly entanglements. In fact, he repeatedly urged the pope to permit him to give up his office and dignity and return to the solitude of the cloister. He well knew the worth and the worthlessness of mundane goods.
The outstanding trait of this saint is his fidelity to the Church. At his time the body of Christ was bleeding from a thousand wounds. On account of grave scandals, many people were perplexed; many priests and prelates sided with the Emperor [Henry IV], who was fighting the papacy with all his might and trying to get all ecclesiastical power into his own hands. While many stood in awe of the power of the Emperor and even sided with him against the Pope, St. Peter fearlessly defended the authority and the interest of the Holy See and the Church. We look up to this valiant saint with reverence and admiration. May he obtain for us the grace to properly evaluate earthly things and, rising above them, to find eternal treasures!
Collect: grant us, almighty God, to follow the counsel and example of thy blessed confessor bishop Peter, that by despising the things of earth, we may attain the joys of heaven. Amen.
(Benedict Baur)
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THE YEAR
AND OUR CHILDREN
Planning the Family Activities for Christian Feasts and Seasons
By Mary Reed Newland (1956)
11
ASH WEDNESDAY AND LENT
IT SEEMS such a short time ago that we sought the Infant Christ at Bethlehem, adored Him, were sure we would never offend Him; and already on Septuagesima Sunday in the Introit of the Mass He cries out with the weight of our sins: “The groans of death surrounded me and the sorrows of hell encompassed me . . .” (Ps. 17).
It is but three weeks before Lent when Septuagesima arrives, and this is a warning. We have sinned, and the time is coming when we must do penance.
When we are born, we are really very like Adam right after his sin, although there is this difference: we have been redeemed, and at that time he was not. We may do what he wished he could do. We may be born again in Baptism and start afresh, although in a fallen world, our souls now radiant with divine life burning there. Lent is the spanning of all that happened between original sin and Baptism. It is the summing up and the climax of what started with Christmas.
The greatest of all mysteries is that God should love man so much. When man sinned and forfeited his right to eternal life, and there was nowhere perfect obedience or flawless love in any man, to merit Heaven, He became a man in order that He might pay the debts of the family He had chosen to join. It is a kind of divine bargain They made, almost impossible to understand unless we put it in our own words. It is as though the Father had said to the Son: “How can We work it out so man may still live with Us forever as We planned?” And as though the Son replied: “If there were but one perfect man it could be done. One perfect sacrifice would pay their debt. One surrender of a man as perfect as Adam was when We created him. Alas, there is none.”
Then it is as though They gazed into One another with that Love that is the Spirit of both, and They knew how it could be done. In Their gaze a longing still burned for the creatures who had rebelled. With a look of infinite love, the Father sent the Son and He became the Man. “O happy fault, that merited so great a Redeemer.”
SIN AND SACRAMENTS
When we teach our children about sin, and about the difference between mortal and venial sin, it is easy to leave them with the impression that as long as it is not mortal sin, they are safe: venial sin doesn’t really count. This is a grave mistake. Each venial sin is a surrender of some of the soul’s vitality, an impairment of its splendor, for the soul, like the body, has the faculty of forming habits. Continual venial sin unresisted prepares the way for mortal sin. Every sin is a rebellion, a choice of my will instead of God’s, a repetition of Adam’s fault in the garden; and it is important that children (as well as their elders!) understand this. These choices between my way and God’s way are forming habits in me. It is not so easy to get my way this time; next time let God have His way. Having my way this time means that next time it will be even more difficult for me to give God His way.
This calls for constant checking of impatience on the part of parents when they are chastising and punishing, so that they may include in their correction of children a reminder of the effect on the soul of even venial sin; how important it is to be truly sorry for sin, to do penance sincerely. Correction must be gentle and earnest, even affectionate if possible, or a child will not be able to calm his rebellion, anger, fear—whatever it is—to listen or take it seriously. Then the punishment that follows seems far more just and has a salutary purpose. I admit that this is sometimes terribly difficult because parents are not without their own weaknesses, and become involved emotionally when there has been repeated rebellion; but it is easier if we keep our gaze focused on the forming of our children’s souls first, and only secondly their bodies.
Happily we have renewal in the sacraments after we have sinned—sacraments Christ gave His Church as a bridegroom gives wedding jewels to his bride. These are splendid refreshment for His members, fountains gushing from the opened side of the Man who is God and our Brother.
Lent is our time to ponder these things, from the very beginning in sin to our renewal in Baptism. The Church says to us: “Look—you are dust. See what it has cost Him to love you!”
Until a few years ago we did not know that it was proper, if the family could not get to church Ash Wednesday, to burn the previous year’s blessed palms at home, read the blessing of the ashes, sprinkle them with holy water, and use them as a sacramental. This is not the same as having a priest bless them, but it is an acceptable substitute.
The Blessing of the Ashes (in the daily missal) has a number of parts that are very beautiful, but one that is especially interesting to our children is the Fourth Prayer of the blessing, with reference to the Ninivites: Almighty and eternal God, who didst grant the remedy of Thy pardon to the Ninivites doing penance in ashes and sackcloth, mercifully grant that we may so imitate them in our attitude that like them we may obtain forgiveness. Through Our Lord. Amen.
We have a soft spot for the Ninivites because they were Gentiles, and Jonas refused to warn them of God’s anger over their sins because of his scorn for Gentiles. The purpose of God’s command, which Jonas disobeyed with dire consequences, was to teach that the Jews, even though they were the Chosen Ones, were not to despise Gentiles. The Ninivites are a type of ourselves, and this prayer of the blessing asks that we may be given the grace to imitate in our customs the spirit of their forty days’ fast in sackcloth and ashes, which is a type of our Lent.
We have a special Jonas activity (explained later) for Holy Week which is fun and teaches well. The first reminder of it with this reference to Ninivites on Ash Wednesday helps the children to span with their minds the whole of Lent, rather than seeing it merely as endless day following endless day. We must try always to give them a sense of the whole, the great pattern: the Fall, the Promise, the Redemption.
After reading the Blessing of the Ashes, the family kneels and the father or oldest grownup present follows the example of the priest when he signs the forehead of each with a cross of ashes, saying: “Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you will return.” And the mother may mark the forehead of the kneeling father.
It is an odd smell, the smell of burning ashes. It fills the house with a faint acrid smoke. No other day do you smell it. It seems to be particularly fitting for the first day of Lent.
The Lesson for Ash Wednesday tells who is to observe these forty days:
Blow a trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather together the people, sanctify the Church, assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones and them that suck at the breast: let the bridegroom go forth from his bed and the bride out of her bridechamber … (Joel 2: 15-16).
No one is left out, not even the babies, because the terrible price paid on Good Friday was to buy freedom from exile for all, and each one is more precious to the Son of God than all the wealth of the earth.
“Do you know, dear, that if there had been no one but you, He would have done it all the same? That is how He loves you. That is how much He wants you. You are His beloved, and He would have given His Life for you alone.”
This is unbelievable, but it is true; so they must be told.
THE SPIRIT OF LENT
The young and the old may not be bound by the fast, but they are bound by its spirit, each according to his capacity. If we feel that it is unnatural to ask penances of children while they are still very young—penances within their reach—we forget that self-denial must be learned very young, that it is the forming of character, that the very grace of their Baptism flows from the Cross. The end of the penitential seasons imposed by the Church is not mere performance. The Church is a wise mother, who knows that the cutting away of self-will frees our souls for a more radiant love affair with Christ. If we think of the penance without pondering its effect, we misunderstand it. It is not over and done with the doing but will bear fruit, if it is done with the right spirit; not alone by the piling up of “treasure in Heaven” but by an increase in our taste for God, a change in the habits of our souls.
Our Lord tells us how to behave during Lent when He speaks to us in the Ash Wednesday Gospel (Matt. 6: 16-21):
. . . When you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee. Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.
So let us remember, when we choose something to give up: no moaning and groaning! Hypocrites (Our Lord was talking about the Pharisees) make much of their performances because they want attention. That being their motive, He says, they already have their reward: attention. There will be opportunities, before Lent is over, for us to attract attention; but so long as this is not our motive we can accept and use whatever God permits to come to us.
A father will be asked by business associates why he, too, doesn’t order steak for lunch. One mother will be asked by fellow club-members why she doesn’t eat sandwiches and cake after their evening business meeting. Some children will be asked why they say “No, thank you,” to proffered candies at school, decline an invitation to a Lenten movie, do not join with others to watch a television show. These are the opportunities, with many more, to give reasons “for the faith that is in you.” It is as necessary to give an honest explanation if one is asked, as it is to keep quiet about it if one is not. God chooses His own time and place to teach the lesson of good example; our part is merely the good example.
“Anoint thy head; wash thy face . . . .” Be cheerful! The Pharisees wore gloomy looks and long faces to indicate the great anguish their interior purifications cost them. Not for us. Our Lord suggests that we “anoint” our heads—that is, prepare ourselves as though we were going to a banquet. Look cheery and bright even if it is Lent and we miss the between-meal snacks. Our Father in Heaven sees what it is costing us. One of the Lenten resolves in our family was to omit from all conversation the familiar groan: ‘Im starving.” Then He tells us to lay up our treasure in Heaven, because where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
(To be continued)
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The following, from a speech by Christopher Caldwell at the Hillsdale Kirby Center, must be preached on the rooftops so everyone understands what we Catholics are against in a nation that once guaranteed us freedom of religion to one now denying us our freedom. I have already been told by a police officer that a person of a certain minority can publicly call me hateful and obscene names as is his right, but I have no right to tell him he cannot because he is of a protected minority—nor may I call him names as I have no “right” (it is criminalized as racism and a hate crime). The following tells you why. There is a link to read the full article.—The Editor
01/28/2020
A Party of Bigots and a Party of Totalitarians
Let’s say you’re a progressive. In fact, let’s say you are a progressive gay man in a gay marriage, with two adopted children. The civil rights version of the country is everything to you. Your whole way of life depends on it. How can you back a party or a politician who even wavers on it? Quite likely, your whole moral idea of yourself depends on it, too. You may have marched in gay pride parades carrying signs reading “Stop the Hate,” and you believe that people who opposed the campaign that made possible your way of life, your marriage, and your children, can only have done so for terrible reasons. You are on the side of the glorious marchers of Birmingham, and they are on the side of Bull Connor. To you, the other party is a party of bigots.
But say you’re a conservative person who goes to church, and your seven-year-old son is being taught about “gender fluidity” in first grade. There is no avenue for you to complain about this. You’ll be called a bigot at the very least. In fact, although you’re not a lawyer, you have a vague sense that you might get fired from your job, or fined, or that something else bad will happen. You also feel that this business has something to do with gay rights. “Sorry,” you ask, “when did I vote for this?” You begin to suspect that taking your voice away from you and taking your vote away from you is the main goal of these rights movements. To you, the other party is a party of totalitarians.
And that’s our current party system: the bigots versus the totalitarians.
If either of these constitutions were totally devoid of merit, we wouldn’t have a problem. We could be confident that the wiser of the two would win out in the end. But each of our two constitutions contains, for its adherents, a great deal worth defending to the bitter end. And unfortunately, each constitution must increasingly defend itself against the other.
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Father Krier will be in Los Angeles March 3 and in Pahrump March 12.
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