Fourth Sermon for the Feast of All Saints: On the Mystical Altar and Abraham’s Bosom

` “ Wheresoever the Body shall be, thithey shall the eagles also be gathered togethey’’-—-Luke xvii. 37.

In my last sermon I broke off, as I think your charity will remember, on coming to that celestial altar under which the blessed John heard the voices of the saints ; to the end that, having sought heaven’s assistance in humble prayer, we might thus find open to us a way more secure to this holy and secret sanctuary. It is now time to communicate to you what light has been vouchsafed me on this matter: without prejudice, however, to that which some other may have received. Well, then, the first difficulty to be faced is the fact that St. John testifies he saw the souls of the saints under the altar of God (Apoc. vi. 9), whereas the Saviour in the Gospel, speaking of the soul of Lazarus, affirms that it “ was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom ” (Luke xvi. 22). And holy Job did not presume (as it seems) to aspire to this altar of God, for he said, “ Who will grant me this, that Thou mayest protect me in hell, and hide me till Thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when Thou wilt remember me?” (Job xiv. 13). But, dearest brethren, that time had already come, the time prayed for by the holy Patriarch ; the time of remembering, “ the time to have mercy ” (Ps. ci. 14) had already come when the blessed John heard the voices of the saints under the altar. Before the advent of Him who was “‘the Desired of all nations ” (Agg. ii. 8), before He had with His own Blood “ blotted out the handwriting ” (Col. ii. 14) of our condemnation, and, extinguishing the “ flaming sword ” (Gen. iii. 24), “ opened to believers the kingdom of heaven” (Te Deum), none of the saints could by any possibility enter that abode of bliss; but God had provided for them a place of peace and refreshment in the very midst of hell, “ fixing a great chaos ” (Luke xvi. 26), however, between these blessed souls and the souls of the damned. For although all were in darkness, not all were in pain: the wicked indeed suffered torment, but there was consolation for the just. That even the souls of the saints dwelt in darkness we learn from the testimony of holy Job, who announced that he was going “to a land that is dark and covered with the mist of death ” (Job x. 21). This, then, is the place, dim yet peaceful, which the Lord referred to as Abraham’s bosom; for the reason, as I suppose, that Abraham was the type of all who rested in the faith and expectation of a Redeemer. For the faith of this father was so well proved and found so perfect that he deserved to be the first to receive the promise of the future incarnation of Christ (Gen. xxii. 18).*

The Saviour, therefore, descending into this place, “broke in pieces the gates of brass and burst the bars of iron”’ (Ps, cvi. 16; Is, xlv. 2), and “ bringing forth the prisoners from the prison-house ” (Is, xlii. 7) where they sat indeed, that is to say, rested, but “in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Ps. cvi. 10), set them at last beneath the altar of God, “ hiding | them in His tabernacle in the day of evils, protecting them in the secret place of His tabernacle ” (Ps. xxvi. 5), until the time comes when the number of “ their brethren shall be filled up” (Apoc. vi. 11) and they shall issue forth to receive “the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world ” (Matt. xxv. 34). But if you sometimes happen to hear even the present repose of the saints designated Abraham’s bosom, this custom doubtless is derived from the Scriptures. Nevertheless we must hold it for certain that there is a wide difference between the former abode of the blessed and the present, since that was in darkness whilst this is in great light, that was in hell whilst this is in heaven. Not without reason, however, are the children of the Patriarch said to be received into their father’s bosom even now, when * they merit to pass from this world to the society of the saints.

Now with regard to that mystical altar which is the special subject of my discourse to-day, in my opinion it ought to be understood as nothing other than the Body of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And I think that in taking it thus I am not out of harmony with the Lord’s own mind, the more especially as I hear Him promising in the Gospel, ““Wheresoever the Body shall be, thither shall the eagles also be gathered together’ (Luke xvii. 37). In the meantime, accordingly, the saints are in blissful repose under the Humanity of Christ, on which the very “ angels desire to look ”? (r Peter i. 12), until the day dawns when they shall be placed no longer beneath but

‘upon the altar. But what have I said? Which of the angels, not to speak of men, shall ever be able to reach, much less transcend that altar of the glory of the Humanity of Christ? In what sense therefore can it be said that the souls of the saints now resting under the altar shall hereafter be raised above it? Only by vision and contemplation, not in honour or dignity. For the Son will then manifest Himself to us (John xiv. 21) not as now, in the form of a servant, but in the form of God (Phil. ii. 6,¹), according to His promise. He will also reveal to us the Father and the Holy Ghost, for without that vision nothing could satisfy us (ibid. 8) ; for “ this is eternal life: that we may know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom He hath sent” (John xvii. 3), and in Them—as is evident— the Third Person also, the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Then, “ passing He will minister unto us” (Luke xii. 37): replenishing our souls with the new and heretofore untasted delights springing from the contemplation of His unclouded majesty. Hence St. John the Evangelist says, in one of his Epistles, “Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be” (x John iii. 2). And he adds, “ We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like to Him: because we shall see Him as He is” (ibid.). Hear also the Spouse in the Canticle, exclaiming with confidence, and already in hope raised above the altar, “‘ His left hand is under my head and His right hand shall embrace me ” (Cant. il. 6).

That is to say, the beatified soul shall be lifted above the mysteries of Christ’s incarnation and His holy Humanity, which is justly called His left hand, to the loftier contemplation of His Divinity, called with equal justice His right hand.*

My brethren, in that everlasting and blissful beatitude we shall enjoy our God in three different ways; for we shall see Him in all His creatures, we shall possess Him in ourselves, and—what is incomparably better and sweeter than either of these—we shall also con- . template the Trinity in Itself, gazing upon that supreme glory with the eye of a pure heart (Matt. v. 8), without any intermediary symbols (Num. xii. 8, r Cor.

• In this paragraph the Saint seems to subscribe the view condemned as heretical by the Councils of Florence and Trent : that the Beatific Vision of God is withheld from the souls of the just until their reunion with the body. But that such is not his meaning is made abundantly evident from numerous passages in his works. Thus in his Epistle to the Religious Communities in Ireland (cf. Vol. II. of this series, pp. 464-5), he cries out, addressing the soul of St. Malachy : “ God forbid that we should consider Thy prayers less efficacious now, O holy soul, when in the very presence of the Divine Majesty, thou canst be more instant in supplication, when thou no longer walkest by faith but art crowned already with the vision of glory’”’; and in his second sermon on the same Saint he says: “ Malachy now enjoys a glory and a happiness equal to that of the angels.” How, then, are we to understand what is said here? The explanation is found in these words from Sermon LXXXVII de Diversis: ‘* Before the general resurrection the souls of the saints can drink indeed but not to inebriation, because they cannot attain to the most perfect contemplation of God whilst yearning for re-union with the body.” St. Bernard teaches, therefore, with SS, Augustine and Bonaventure, that although the souls of the saints already enjoy the intuitive vision of God and so have fulfilled their present capacity for happiness, they shall enjoy that vision more perfectly after the resurrection and by consequence a more perfect happiness— not only extensive as St. Thomas allows (I. 2, q. 4, a. 5) but also intensive. How it is that yearning for the body impedes perfect contemplation in the case of the just soul our Saint explains by telling us (De Diligedo Deo, c.xi.) that such yearn-

‘ing prevents the soul from forgetting herself utterly, as in complete inebriation, and so from passing wholly into God. This view thus explained is quite orthodox. Cf. Hurter, Theol. Dogmat. iii. 791, also note at page 323 Vol. I. of present series.-—(Translator).

xiii, 12). For in this shall consist the eternal and perfect life we long for: that we shall know the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit, and that we shall see God as He is: I mean, not alone shall we see Him as He is in us and in His other creatures, but as He is in Himself. It is possible, therefore, to regard the two former modes of vision as constituting a rind or shell and enclosing this third, in which alone is found perfect beatitude: this is the marrow of the wheat, the fat of the corn, wherewith the holy city of Jerusalem is satiated (Ps. cxlvii. 14). But the greater is that felicity, the more it is now concealed from our eyes, for “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man ” (r Cor. ii. 9) to conceive what glory, what joy, what gladness is laid up for us in that vision. It is “ the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding ” (Phil. iv. 7): how much more all powers of expression? Consequently, let no one attempt to describe what it has been granted to none to experience. “Full (plenam) measure,” says the Lord, “‘ and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom” (Luke vi. 38): “full measure” as including the totality of creatures, ‘“‘ pressed down”’ in our “interior man ” (Ephes. iii. 16), “shaken together” as regards our exterior, “ running over” in the direct vision of God. There, indeed, shall be found a superabundance of joy, glory excelling, and bliss overflowing.

How God shall be contemplated in His creatures and how we are to possess Him in ourselves, it is possible to conceive at least in some manner from those “ first-fruits of the Spirit” (Rom. viii. 23) which we have already obtained. But as for the direct intuition of the Divine Majesty, that is as yet altogether beyond our experience: it “is become wonderful to me, it is high and I cannot reach to it” (Ps. cxxxviii. 6). The case is different, as I have just said, with the vision of Him in creatures: we can understand to some extent how this shall be, because, namely, He is even now visible to us in this way. Hence even the pagan philosophers, as the Apostle bears witness, “understood the invisible things of God from the things that are made” (Rom. i. 20). Nevertheless, however far a man may go in comprehending with his mind the marvellous power and wisdom and benevolence wherewith that Eternal Majesty has made all things, governs and disposes all things, he shall never attain to anything more than the most inadequate idea of what He is in Himself. The time will come, however, when—as I remarked in the preceding discourse—we shall “ follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth ” (Apoc. xiv. 4) and we shall find Him more perfectly in all His creatures, so that we shall rejoice in all, that is, we shall enter fully into the joy of the Lord our God (Matt. xxv. 21). Yes, we shall rejoice indeed in all things, but only because of Him, just as He is to Himself also the only motive of the joy He finds in His creatures.

We are also able to understand in some degree how we are to have Him in ourselves. It is evident that the soul is possessed of a threefold power: hence even the wise of this world have taught their disciples that the human soul is rational, irascible, and concupiscible ; and we have proof of the truth of this in the nature of the soul as well as in our daily experience. It is further evident that, in the same way in which knowledge and ignorance stand related to our reasoning faculty as perfection and privation, so do desire and disgust appertain to the concupiscible appetite, and joy and anger to the irascible. God, therefore, will replenish our understanding with the light of wisdom so that nothing whatever shall be wanting to us in any knowledge (x Cor. i. 7). He will fill our concupiscible appetite from the fountain of justice, so that we shall long for it and be satiated with it, according to what is written, “ Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice for they shall have their fill” (Matt. v. 6). For nothing else can satisfy the desire of the soul, nothing but justice can ever make her happy. When, therefore, our concupiscible appetite has been filled by God with justice, the soul will reject whatever ought to be rejected and will desire whatever ought to be desired; and amongst the various objects presented for her choice, she will always prefer that which ought to get the preference. Nor is it without reason I have assigned justice to the concupiscible faculty, since it is according to the disposition of this we are reputed just or unjust. Furthermore, when God fills what is called our irascible appetite we shall have in ourselves the most perfect tranquillity : divine peace shall overflow in us, producing unutterable gladness and joy. And consider if perfect beatitude, in as far as the soul is concerned, does not consist in this threefold endowment: the fulness of knowledge, — of justice, and of joy: especially when knowledge cannot inflate us (xr Cor. viii. 1) on account of justice, or sadden us because of the joy: so that no longer applicable to us will be the saying of the Wise Man, “He that addeth knowledge addeth also sorrow”

(Eccles. i. 18, juxta LXX); when justice cannot any more be imprudent because of knowledge, or oppressive because of joy; and when joy in its turn shall be sobered by knowledge and purified by justice.

But all these graces are for the soul, and as yet our exterior man has received nothing. Therefore, in order “that glory may dwell in our earth” (Ps. Ixxxiv. 10)

. that is, in our body also, and, as the same Prophet sings in another psalm, that “the whole earth may be filled with the majesty of the Lord” (Ps. lxxi. 19), four gifts are required for the body, which, as you know, is compounded of four elements.* And be not surprised that what is the more miserable in itself has need of more numerous endowments: for you have read what the Royal Prophet says in one of the psalms: “For Thee my soul hath thirsted; for Thee my flesh —Oh, how many ways!”’ (Ps. lxii. 2). Therefore, let this earth of our body be given immortality, so that it need no longer be afraid of being again reduced to dust. For the body “rising again from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no longer have dominion over it ” (Rom. vi. 9). But what avails this gift of immortality if our bodies are destined to live forever in the miseries and woes of this passible existence, in which, namely, our corruptible flesh is exposed to incessant affliction : if instead of dying once and for all they are destined to die eternally ? Consequently, they require also the endowment of absolute impassibility to safeguard them from all kinds of suffering, which have their cause, as we are told, in some disorder of the bodily humours. But the body wants another gift, even the gift of lightness—proper to that portion of itself which consists of air—so that it may not burden us with its weight. We must therefore believe that the glorified bodies of the blessed shall be so light and agile as to be able, if it is desired, to follow everywhere the rapid movements of thought, without the least delay or difficulty. Is there anything more required for the perfect beatitude of the body ? One thing only, beauty. This quality, too, we shall possess in the highest degree ; and I think we may justly attribute it to that one of our bodily elements which is of the nature of fire. Hence the Apostle says, “ We look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of His glory” (Phil. iii. 20,²), thus fulfilling what He has Himself promised: ‘‘ Then shall the just shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father ” (Matt. xiii. 43).

In this way, then, shall God fill our souls by infusing into them perfect knowledge, perfect justice, and perfect joy. In this way also shall “ the whole earth be filled with His majesty °” when this earth of our body is rendered incorruptible, impassible, agile, and “ made like to the Body of His glory.” And see, my brethren, whether these seven graces be not the seven loaves wherewith the Saviour is recorded to have satisfied the hunger of four thousand men, and with the fragments of which the Apostles filled seven baskets, to be reserved for a future time (Matt. xv. 36-38). For we are even now nourished with these loaves, whilst we ponder in joyous meditation the happiness

FOR THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS 38r which is the object of our hope; and we await the hour when, rejoicing no longer in hope but in actual possession and fruition, we shall be found worthy to receive the seven full baskets, as it were, in place of that which is our Present portion, the seven single loaves. Amen.

Footnotes

1. Exactly the same explanation is given by St. Thomas in IV. dist. 45 q. 1, a. 2. ↩

2. The doctrine of four primitive substances, earth, air, fire and water, which in varying proportions enter into the constitution of all bodies, appears to have been first put forward by Empedocles of Agrigentum, 490-430 B.C. This author represents them as the four roots of all things—réocepa tay mávræv pi(opara- The name “elements ”— groryeta—was given them by Plato.—(Translator ) ↩