Part ten, Chapter XII: "he Hath Filled the Hungry with Good: Things: and the Rich He Hath Sent

"he Hath Filled the Hungry with Good

Things: and the Rich He Hath Sent

Empty Away"

SOME Doctors of the Church explain these prophetic words with reference to the good and the bad angels, the humble and the proud angels, the angels obedient to God and the angels in revolt against God. The good angels, acknowledging that God brought them out of nothingness and drew all their perfections from His divine Bounty, return all things to God and use their angelic qualities to pay Him homage, keeping-for themselves only their nothingness. For that reason God allows them to pass from the state of grace in which they are into the state of glory, showering upon them the inestimable blessings that constitute the blessed eternity.

The bad angels, on the contrary, contemplating the excellence with which God has endowed their creation, find self-satisfaction in them, appropriating their perfections and glorifying themselves as if they possessed these excellences in themselves. By insupportable pride and arrogance they oblige Divine justice to strip away their brilliance and perfections, to reduce them to an extreme wretchedness and barrenness, and to cast them into the depths of hell.

Other Doctors explain these words with reference to the Gentiles converted to God by the Christian faith, and to the Jews remaining in their blindness. The Gentiles before the coming of the Son of God on earth existed in extreme poverty (which is indicated by the word esurientes), because they had no knowledge of their Creator and adored no other god but the devil. And when they embraced the Christian religion, God enriched them with its inconceivable treasures. The Chosen People, on the contrary, having uncompromisingly rejected the Saviour of the world and remaining obdurate, were stripped of all the gifts, graces and favors with which God had honored them: "The rich he hath sent empty away.

Still other Fathers of the Church understand them words to mean the

holy patriarchs, prophets and all the just of Elie Old Law who felt an insatiable hunger, a burning thirst and a most vehement desire for the coming of the Redeemer, and were thereby filled with grace and holiness: "He hath filled the hungry with good things." On the other hand, the arrogant priests of the Jews and the proud Pharisees, convinced as they were of their own wealth of virtue and holiness, and scorning the graces that the Son of God offered them, miserably lost the Law, the faith and the eternal salvation which God had placed in their hands.

The Blessed Virgin possessed such perfect faith and such an ardent love for the Saviour Who was to come on earth, that her hunger, her thirst and her desires were much greater and livelier than the desires of all the patriarchs, prophets and saints who had preceded her or who were living in her time. Thus is it true that our adorable Saviour, so long anticipated, so fervently desired, so ardently begged of God, the Only-begotten and beloved Son of her virgin womb, overwhelmed Mary with an infinity of inconceivable and inexplicable blessings during the nine months that she carried Him within her in the world, when, later, she received him so many times into her immaculate breast and motherly Heart in the Blessed Eucharist after his Ascension, and above all since she possesses Him perfectly in Heaven.

St. Augustine applies the word esurientes to the humble, and divites to the proud. "The humble," he says, "realize that of themselves they are nothing, and that they stand in extreme need of the help and grace of heaven; but the proud are convinced that they are full of grace and virtue. That is why God takes pleasure in showering His gifts on the former and in depriving the latter of His bounty." (1)

These same words are also understood to mean all the poor whose hearts are detached from the things of earth, who love and embrace poverty for the love of Him who, possessing all the treasure of divinity, willed to become poor for love of us so that we might possess eternal riches. But we must understand the text to refer particularly to those who have voluntarily stripped themselves of all things through the holy vow of poverty, in order to imitate our divine Saviour and His most holy Mother more perfectly in their state of poverty, which was so extreme that the Son of God uttered them words: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the son of man hath not where to lay his head." (2) Oh, what great treasures are encompassed by this voluntary poverty, since our Lord Himself mid: "Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the (1). In Magnif. (2). Matt. 8, 20.

Kingdom of God."(3) Oh, how dangerous is the possession of worldly wealth, since He Who is eternal truth also said: "Woe to you that are rich, for you have your consolation!" (4) And speaking through St. Paul, He utters these terrible words: "They that will become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition." (5) That is why, if you love riches, do not love the false riches of this world but the true wealth of heaven, which is the fear and love of God, charity toward your neighbor, humility, obedience, patience, purity, and the other Christian virtues which will lead you to the possession of an eternal empire.

This explanation of the aforementioned word, esurientes, is highly comforting. It is also a prophecy of the most holy Mother of God, referring to the enormous~ task yet to be accomplished of converting infidels, Jews, heretics and false Christians throughout the world. It was foretold and proclaimed long ago by the oracle of holy Scripture, by the mouth of the Church, and by the voices of the Fathers, Doctors and saints through whom the Spirit of God has spoken.

Open the sacred books and there you will hear the divine Spirit speaking of our Lord through the mouth of the royal prophet, assuring us that Christ will rule and reign throughout the world , ( 6 ) that all the kings of the earth will adore Him and all peoples will serve Him;(7) that all tribes will be blessed in Him and all nations will magnify Him;(8) that the whole universe will be filled with His glory; (9) that all generations without exception will adore Him and glorify His holy name:(10) that the whole world will be converted to Him; and that all the tribes of the world will fall prostrate before His face to adore Him. (11)

Do you not hear the eternal Father, speaking to His Divine Son in the second Psalm, promise Him, as His inheritance, all the nations of the world and possession of the entire earth?(12)

Do you not hear the Church so often praying thus to God: "Let all (3). Luke 6, 20. (4). Luke 6, 24. (5). Tim. 6, 9. (6).Ps. 71, 8. (7). Ibid. (8). Ibid. (9). Ibid. 19. (10). Ps. 85, 9. (11). Ps. 21, 29. (12). Ps. 2, 8.

the earth adore thee and sing to thee: let it sing a psalm to thy name?" (13) Are you not familiar with the solemn prayers offered by Holy Church each year on Good Friday for the sanctification of all her children and the conversion of all heretics, Jews and pagans? Do you not know that every day she obliges her priests to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God for all men and to implore the salvation of the world in these words: "We offer unto thee, 0 Lord, the chalice of salvation, beseeching thy clemency, that it may rise up in the sight of thy divine majesty, as a savour of sweetness, for our salvation, and for that of the whole world?" Tell me then, I beg of you, would the Holy Spirit Who animates and guides die Church in all things permit her to offer prayers that were futile and unheard?

This great general conversion has been revealed by the Spirit of God not only to the prophets of the Old Law but also to the holiest men and women of the New Law. Does not the great Apostle St. Paul assure us that all the Jews will be converted, and that their conversion will be followed by that of the whole world? There is every reason to believe that God will not refuse His Grace to all other men.

Our Lord said one day to St. Brigid, whose revelations have been approved by three Popes and two General Councils: "The time will come when there will be but one fold, one shepherd and one faith, and when God will be known to all." (14)

"You must realize," Christ revealed to her on another occasion, "that pagans will have such great devotion that Christians will be only their servants in spiritual life, and then shall we see the fulfillment of the Scriptures, which say that the people who know Me not will glorify Me, and that the deserts will be edified. At that time all will sing: Glory be to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, and honor to all the saints!" (15)

All the holy Fathers (16) agree that after the death of antichrist the whole world will be converted, and although some of them assert that the world will last but a few days after his death, while others say a few months, some authorities insist that it will continue to exist many years after. St. Catherine of Siena, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Francis of Paula and a number of other saints have predicted this ultimate universal conversion. (13). Ps. 65, 4 (14). Revel. lib. 6 Cap. 77. (15). Revel. lib. 6, cap. 83. (16). Dionysius the Carthusian in cap. 3, Epist. 1 ad Ther.; Cornelius a Lapide in cap. 2, Epist. ad Rom. vers. 15.

Then shall we witness the fulfillment of this great prophecy of the Queen of prophets, Esurientes implevit bonis, although not perhaps so perfectly as we might wish; that is, with no one left on earth who did not know and love God. But if this conversion is not completely general, it will prove, nonetheless, a delicious and magnificent feast for all those who possess a great hunger and burning thirst for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. They will be overwhelmed with inconceivable happiness and joy upon seeing their Creator and Saviour known, served and honored throughout the world, together with His most worthy Mother, and beholding the demons who now possess so many rich treasures on earth-that is, so many souls of infidels, heretics and bad Catholics-dispossessed of all, according to these divine words: "And the rich he hath sent away empty.' Even if this prophecy is not completely fulfilled on earth, it will find its entire and perfect fulfilment in heaven, where the insatiable hunger and burning thirst possessed by all the saints during their earthly lives for the glory of God and the salvation of souls will be perfectly satiated and slaked, and these words will be fulfilled in each one of them: "I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear." (17) There is no mind capable of understanding, nor tongue of expressing, the least particle of the inestimable and inexpressible blessing which God will shower upon them for their great zeal in promoting His honor on earth, and for the salvation of the souls whom they have delivered from the possession of the devil.

0 Mother of Mercy, who by thy prayers and merits didst hasten the time of the Incarnation of the Saviour of the world, hasten too, we pray thee, the desirable time of this great conversion which is so necessary for the salvation of so many souls who perish daily. Alas, take pity on them, 0 Mother of grace, and pray to thy Son to have pity on all the works of His hands, to have compassion on them because of the many sufferings which His holy humanity endured Rod the Precious Blood that He shed in order to save these souls from falling into hell. (17). Ps. 16, 15. 321-