Tuesday of the Second Week Op Lent

The Station is in the church of Saint Balbina. This holy virgin of Eome was the daughter of the tribune Quirinus, and suffered martyrdom during the pontificate of Alexander I., in the second century. She consecrated her virginity to God, and led a life rich in good works.

COLLECT

Perfioe, quaesumus, Domine, benignus in nobis observantiae sanctse subsidium : ut quae, te auctore, facienda cognovimus, te operante impleamus. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Grant us, O Lord, we beseech thee, thy assistance, whereby we may go through the observance of this holy fast, that what we have undertaken by thy appointment, we may accomplish by thy grace. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

EPISTLE

Lectio libri Begum. Lesson from the Book of Kings.

HE. Cap, xvii.

In diebus illis: Faotus est sermo Domini ad Eliam Thesbiten, dicens: Surge, et vade in Sarephta Sidoniorum, et manebis ibi : praeoepi enim ibi mulieri viduae ut pasoat te. Surrexit et abiit in Sarephta. Cumque venisset ad portam civitatis, apparuit ei mulier vidua colligens ligna, et vocavit earn, dixitque ei: Da mihi paululum aquaB in vase, ut bibam. Cumque ilia pergeret ut afferret, clamavit m. Ch. xvii.

In those days : The word of the Lord came to Elias the Thesbite, saying: Arise, and go to Sarephta of the Sidonians, and dwell there; for I have commanded a widow woman there to feed thee. He arose and went to Sarephta. And when he was come to the gate of the city, he saw the widow woman gathering sticks, and he called her, and said to her : Give me a little water in a vessel that JL may drink. And when she was going to fetch it, he called after her, saying : Bring me also, I beseech thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she answered: As the Lord thy God liveth, I have no bread, but only a handful of meal in a pot, and a little oil in a cruse ; behold I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elias said to her : Fear not, but go, and do as thou hast said ; but first make for me of the same meal a little hearth cake, and bring it to me : and after, make for thyself and thy son. For thus saith the Lord the God of Israel : The pot of meal shall not waste, nor the cruse of oil be diminished, until the day wherein the Lord will give rain upon the face of the earth. She went, and did according to the word of Elias; and he ate, and she, and her house : and from that day the pot of meal wasted not, and the cruse of oil was not diminished, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke in the hand of Elias.

The instruction of the catechumens is continued by means of the Gospel facts, which are each day brought before them ; and the Church reads to them the prophecies from the old Testament, which are to be fulfilled by the rejection of the Jews, and the vocation of the Gentiles. Elias, who is our faithful companion during Lent, is represented to us to-day as foreshadowing, in his own conduct, the treatment which God is one day to show towards His ungrateful post tergum ejus dicens: Affer mihi, obsecro, et bucellam panis in manu tua. Quae respondit : Vivit Dominus Deus tuus, quia non habeo panem, nisi quantum pugillus capere potest farinae in hydria, et paululum olei in lecytho : en colligo duo ligna ut ingrediar et faciam illud mihi et filio meo, ut comedamus, et moriamur. Ad quam Elias ait : Noli timere, sed vade, et fac sicut dixisti : verumtamen mihi primum fac de ipsa farinula subcinericium panem parvulum, et affer ad me: tibi autem et filio tuo facies postea. Haec autem dicit Dominus Deus Israel: Hydria farinae non deficiet, nec lecythu olei minuetur usque ad diem in qua Dominus daturas est pluviam super faciem terrae. Quae abiit, et fecit juxta verbum Eliae; et comedit ipse, et ilia, et domus ejus: et ex ilia die hydria farinae non defecit, et lecythus olei non est imminutus, juxta verbum Domini, quod locutus fuerat in manu Eliae.

Googk

LENT people. A three years' drought had been sent upon the kingdom of Israel ; but the people continued obstinate in their sins. Elias goes in search of some one that will provide him with food. It is a great privilege to entertain the prophet ; for God is with him. Then, whither will he go ? Is it to any family in the kingdom of Israel ? Or will he pass into the land of Juda ? He neglects them both, and directs his steps towards the land of the Gentiles. He enters the country of Sidon ; and coming to the gates of a city called Sarephta, he sees a poor widow ; it is to her that he transfers the blessing which Israel had rejected. Our Lord Himself has taken notice of this event in the prophet's life, which portrays, in such strong colours, the justice of God towards the Jews, and His mercy towards us Gentiles : ' In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel : and to none of them was he sent, but to Sarephta of Sidon, to a widow woman.'1

So, then, this poor woman is a figure of the Gentiles, who were called to the faith. Let us study the circumstances of this prophetic event. The woman is a widow ; she has no one to defend or protect her : she represents the Gentiles, who were abandoned by all, and had no one that could save them from the enemy of mankind. All the mother and her child have to live upon, is a handful of meal and a little oil : it is an image of the frightful dearth of truth, in which the pagans were living at the time when the Gospel was preached to them. Notwithstanding her extreme poverty, the widow of Sarephta receives the prophet with kindness and confidence ; she believes what he tells her, and she and her child are saved : it is thus that the Gentiles welcomed the apostles, when these shook the dust from their feet and left the faithless Jerusalem. But what mean the two pieces of wood, which the widow holds in her hands ?

1 St. Luke iv. 26, 26.

St. Augustine, St. Cesarius of Aries, and St. Isidore of Seville (who, after all, are but repeating what was the tradition of the early Church), tell us that this wood is a figure of the cross. With this wood the widow bakes the bread that is to support her ; it is from the cross that the Gentiles receive life by Jesus, who is the living Bread. Whilst Israel dies of famine and drought, the Gentile Church feeds abundantly on the heavenly wheat, and on the oil, which is the symbol of strength and charity. Glory then be to Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light of faith ! But let us tremble at witnessing the evils which the abuse of grace has brought upon a whole people. If God in His justice has not spared a whole nation, but cast it off ; will He spare you or me, if we dare to resist His call ?

GOSPEL

Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Matthaeum.

Cap, xxiii. In illo tempore: Locutus est Jesus ad turbas, et ad discipulos suos, dicens: Super cathedram Moysi sederunt seribse et pharisaei. Omnia ergo quaecumque dixerint vobis, servate et facite: secundum opera vero eorum nolite facere: dicunt enim et non faciunt. Alligant enim onera gravia, et importabilia, et imponunt in humeros hominum : digito autem suo nolunt ea movere. Omnia vero opera sua faciunt ut videantur ab hominibus: dilajant enim phylacteria sua, et magnificant fimbrias. Amant autem primos recubitus in ccenis,et primas cathe-

Sequel of the holy Gospel according to Matthew. Ch. xxiii. At that time : Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying : The scribes and the pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do ; but according to their works, do ye not ; for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men's shoulders; but with a finger of their own they will not move them. And all their works they do to be seen of men : for they make their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes. And they love the

1 1 St. Peter ii. 9.

LENT dras in synagogis, et saluta- first places at feasts, and the tiones in foro, et vocari ab first chairs in the synagogues, hominibus Rabbi. Vos autem and salutations in the market- nolite vocari Rabbi. Unusest place, and to be called by enim Magister vester, omnes men, Rabbi. But be not autem vos fratres estis. Et you called Rabbi ; for one is patrem nolite vocare vobis your master, and all you are super terram : unus est enim brethren. And call none

Pater vester qui in ccelis est. your father upon earth ; for

Nec vocemini magistri: quia one is your Father, who is

Magister vester unus est, in heaven. Neither be ye

Chnstus. Qui major est ve- called masters ; for one is strum, erit minister vester. your Master, Christ. He that

Qui autem se exaltaverit, hu- is the greatest among you, miliabitur : et qui se humilia- shall be your servant. And

The doctors of the law were sitting on the chair of Moses ; therefore, Jesus bids the people abide by their teachings. But this chair — which, in spite of the unworthiness of them that sit on it, is the chair of truth — is not to remain long in Israel. Caiphas, because he is a high priest for the year, will prophesy ; but his crimes have rendered him unworthy of his office ; and the chair, on which he sits, is to be taken away and set in the midst of the Gentiles. Jerusalem, which is preparing to deny her Saviour, is to be deprived of her honours ; and Eome, the very centre of the pagan world, is to possess within her walls that chair which was the glory of Jerusalem, and from which were proclaimed the prophecies so visibly fulfilled in Jesus. Henceforth, this chair is never to be moved, though all the fury of the gates of hell will seek to prevail against it ; it is to be the unfailing source, at which all nations are to receive the teaching of revealed truth. The torch of faith has been removed from Israel, but it has not been extinguished. Let us live in its light, and merit by our humility that its rays ever shine upon us. verit, exaltabitur. whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

What is it that caused Israel's loss ? His pride. The favours he had received from God excited him to self-complacency ; he scorned to recognize any one for the Messias, who was not great in this world's glory ; he was indignant at hearing Jesus say that the Gentiles were to participate in the grace of redemption ; he sought to imbrue his hands in the Blood of the God-Man, and this because He reproached him for the hardness of his heart. These proud Jews, even when they saw that the day of God's judgment was close upon them, kept up their stubborn haughtiness. They despised the rest of the world as unclean and sinners. The Son of God became the Son of Man. He is our Master, and yet He ministered to us, as though He were our Servant. Does not this show us how precious a virtue is humility ? If our fellow-creatures call us master or father, let us not forget that no one is master or father but by God's appointment. No one deserves to be called master, but he by whose hps Jesus gives us the lessons of divine wisdom ; he alone is truly a father, who acknowledges that his paternal authority comes from God alone ; for the apostle says : ' I bow my knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named.'1

Humiliate capita vestra Bow down your heads to

Deo. God.

Propitiare, Domine, sup- Be appeased, 0 Lord, by plicationibus nostris, et ani- our prayers, and heal the in- marum nostrarum medere firmities of our souls : that languoribus: ut remissione our sins being forgiven, we percepta, in tua semper may ever rejoice in thy bless- benedictione laBtemur. Per ings. Through Christ our

Christum Dominum no- Lord. Amen, strum. Amen.

Let us continue the hymn we began yesterday; our readers will remember it is by Prudentius, the prince of Christian poets.

1 -Eph. iii. 14, 15.

212 LENT

Helia tali crevit observantia,

Vetus sacerdos ruris hospes aridi:

Fragore ab omni quern remotum et segregem

Sprevisse tradunt criminum frequentiam,

Catso fruentem syrtium silentio.

Sed mox in auras igneis jugalibus, Curruque raptus evolavit prsepeti, Ne de propinquo sordium contagio Dirus quietum mundus af- flaret virum, Olim probatis inolytum je- juniis.

Non ante coeli Principem septemplicis Moses tremendi fidus inter- pres throni Potuit videre, quam decern recursibus Quater volutis sol peragrans sidera,

Omni carentem cerneret substantia. Victus precanti solus in lacrymis f uit : Nam flendo pernox irriga- tum pulverem, Humi madentis ore pressit cernuo : Donee loquentis voce pr»- strictus Dei Expavit ignem non feren- dum visibus. Joannes hujus artis baud minus potens, Dei perennis praecucurrit

Filium,

It was by the observance of a forty-days' fast, that Elias the venerable priest, the guest of the desert, received his great glory. We read that he fled far from the noisy world, and the wickedness of cities, and lived in the happy innocence of silent deserts.

But soon was he carried to heaven in a chariot drawn by swift fiery steeds ; for so long as he remained nigh this wretched world, it might breathe something of the contagion of its vices upon the prophet, though his life was one of retirement, and his spirit had long been fortified by holy fasts.

Moses, the faithful interpreter of the dread throne, was not permitted to see the King of the seventimes holy heaven, until the sun had forty times passed over his head and witnessed him abstaining from every food.

Prayer and weeping, these were his only nourishment. He spent the night in weeping, and lay prostrate on the' ground, which was bedewed with his tears : till at length, aroused by the voice of God, he directed his steps towards the fire on which no man could fix his gaze.

John, too, was fervent in the practice of fasting. He was the precursor of the Son of God, who was to make the

Curvos viarum qui retorsit tramites, Et flexuosa oorrigens dis- pendia,

Dedit sequendam calle recto lineam. Hanc obsequelam prsepa- rabat nuncius, Mox affuturo construens iter

Deo,

Clivosa planis, confragosa ut lenibus

Converterentur, neve quidquam devium

Illapsa terris inveniret Veritas.

Non usitatis ortus hie natalibus, Oblita lactis jam vieto in pectore

Matris tetendit serus infans ubera :

Nee ante partti de senili ef- fusus est, Quam predioaret Virginem plenam Deo. Post in patentes ille soli- tudines, Amictus hirtis bestiarum pellibus, Setisve tectus, hispida et lanugine, Secessit, horrens inquinari ac pollui Contaminatis oppidorum moribus. Ulic dicata parous absti- nentia,

Potum, cibumque vir se- verse industriae In usque serum respuebat vesperum, Parvum locustis, et favo- rum agrestium Liquore pastum corpori sue- tus dare. crooked ways straight, and the rough ways plain, and was to teach men the right path wherein to walk.

The Baptist, as a herald that was preparing the way of the Lord who was soon to come, exacted this of men : that every mountain and hill should be made low, and that all should be in the right path, when Truth should come down upon the earth.

His birth was not like that of other children. Elizabeth, old as she was, was made to bear this child within her hitherto barren womb. She fed him, too, at her own breast. Before his birth, he announced to his mother the presence of the Virgin that was full of God.

He retired into the vast wilderness, olad in the rough and bristly skins of wild beasts, and in camels' hair; for he trembled lest he might become defiled and contaminated by the wickedness of them that dwelt in cities.

There did he lead a life of fasting. This man of rigid penance neither ate nor drank till the evening was far spent ; and then, a few locusts and a little wild honey were the only refreshment he took.

LENT

Hortator ille primus et doctor novae

Fuit salutis: nam sacrato in fl umine

Veterum piatas lavit errorum notas :

Sed tincta postquam membra defaecaverat,

Ccelo refulgens influebat Spiritus.

He was the first to teach the new salvation, and the first to invite men to receive it. In the sacred stream, he washed away the stains of the old errors ; but after he had administered to men this outward baptism, the heavenly Spirit worked within their souls.