Second Sermon for the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Let them sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.’ —Ps. cxxxvli. 5.

All thanks to our Saviour for having so abundantly “prevented us with the blessings of sweetness” (Ps. xx. 4), by multiplying our joys in the mysteries of His infancy! It is but a few weeks ago we were celebrating the feasts of His Nativity, Circumcision, and Manifestation to the Gentiles, and lo! another of these most sweet solemnities has dawned upon us to-day, the solemnity of His Presentation in the temple. For on this day was offered to the Creator “the noble fruit of the earth ” (Is. iv. 2) ; on this day the “ atoning Victim’”’ (Num. v. 8), the “Victim acceptable to God”’ (x Peter ii. 5), was brought into the temple by His parents, was awaited by the holy elders, and was presented to the Lord by Mary’s virginal hands. Mary and Joseph came to “ offer the sacrifice of praise ”’ (Ps. cvi. 22), the true ‘‘ morning oblation’’ (Exod. XX1x. 41), whilst Simeon and Anna received the Saviour Child into their arms. These four persons formed the procession which is commemorated to-day with joyous festivities throughout the four quarters of the earth. And inasmuch as we ourselves also, contrary to our custom on other solemnities,* are to have a festive but banished processions from their solemnities: ‘Processionum fere totam venerationem a vobis exclusistis” (Ep. v.

sf procession to-day, it will be well, I think, to consider | with attention the manner and the order in which we shall proceed. We shall walk two and two, holding in our hands lighted candles, lighted not from ordinary fire, but from fire that has been previously consecrated in the church by the blessing of the priest. More ver, the last shall be first and the first last (Matt. xx. 16) in our procession, and we shall “ sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord” (Ps. cxxxvii. 5). There is a special significance, my brethren, in our proceeding thus, two and two; for it was in this order and with the purpose of commending fraternal love* and community life that Christ sent forth the seventy-two disciples, as the Evangelist informs us (Luke x. 1). They who insist on walking alone in the ad Bernardum). It might be answered that a main point in the Cistercian reform was the retrenchment of all luxuries, even in the domain of ceremonial worship, and the adoption of an austere simplicity in everything. Besides, the sons of Citeaux, having to live by the labour of their hands, had no time for such magnificent liturgical pageants as might be witnessed at Cluny and other places: they were often even compelled, particularly during the harvest season, when the crops had to be saved and gathered in, to intermit the celebration of Mass and to recite the diurnal hours in the open fields. Cf. Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, vol. ii. p. 73 (Mount Melleray Translation.)—(Translator.)

procession spoil the order of the procession, and become troublesome, not only to themselves but to the whole community as well. “ These are they who separate themselves, sensual men, not having the Spirit ” (Jude 19), nor “ careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ”?” (Ephes. iv. 3). But as “it is not good for man to be alone” (Gen. ii. 18), so neither is it permitted him to appear before the Lord with empty hands (Exod. xxiii. 15). For if even those whom “ no man hath hired” are rebuked for remaining idle (Matt. xx. 6), what do not they deserve who, although they have been hired, are found idle still? For “faith without good works is dead ”’ James ii. 26). But our good works must be done in the fervour of charity and with an ardent desire to please God, in order that we may be found with “ lamps burning in our hands ” (Luke xii. 35). Otherwise there _is much reason to fear that He Who has said in the Gospel, “I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be enkindled?”’ (ibid. 49), finding us lukewarm will begin to vomit us out of His mouth (Apoc. iii. 16). That fire whereof the Saviour speaks is the holy and blessed Fire Which the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world and Which we bless in the churches, according to what is written, ‘‘In the churches bless ye God the Lord” (Ps. lxvii. 27). Our adversary also—that malicious emulator of the works of God—he also, I say, has a fire of his own: the fire of carnal concupiscence, the fire of envy and ambition, which the Saviour came not to enkindle but to quench. And whosoever shall presume to “offer before the Lord this strange fire” (Levit. x. 1), even though he should have Aaron for his father (ibid.), he “shall die in his iniquity ” (Jer. xxxi. 30).

But in addition to the common life, and the fraternal charity, and the good works, and the holy fervour of which I have been speaking, we require also humility, one of the greatest and the most necessary of the virtues, in order that “ with honour we may prevent one another ”’ (Rom. xii. 10), and that each one may prefer to himself even his juniors: for that is the perfection of humility and the fulness of justice. Furthermore, since “ God loveth a cheerful giver ” (2 Cor. ix. 7), and since one of the fruits of charity is “joy in the Holy Ghost ” (Rom. xiv. 17), let us “sing’’ as I have said, “in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord,” let us “ sing to the Lord a new canticle, because He hath done wonderful things ” (Ps. xcvil. 1). But if in all these practices of devotion any of us should neglect to advance and to “ go forward from virtue to virtue ” (Ps. Ixxxiii. 8): let such a one know that he belongs not to the Saviour’s procession, but is standing still, or rather is going backwards. For in the way of life not to advance is to fall back: there “a man never continueth in the same state” (Job xiv. I). Now our spiritual progress—as I remember to have told you often already—mainly consists in this: that we never ‘“‘count ourselves to have apprehended,” but that “forgetting the things that are behind and stretching forth ourselves to those that are before ” (Phil. iii. 13), we strive unceasingly to become better, and keep our imperfections constantly exposed to the eyes of divine mercy.

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