Tuesday Op the Second Week after Easter

f. In resurrectione tua, % In thy resurrection, O hriste, alleluia. Christ, alleluia.

R. Cceli et terra laetentur, R/. Let heaven and earth re*

What are these wounds in the midst of thy luxnds V — Such was the exclamation of the Prophet Zacharias, who lived five hundred years before the Birth of our Emmanuel : and we are almost forced to use it, now that we behold the Wounds that shine so brightly in the glorified Body of our Risen Lord. His hands and feet bear the mark of the Nails, and his side that of the Spear ; the Wounds are as visible and as deep as when he was first taken down from the Cross. Put in thy finger hither, said Jesus, holding out his wounded hands to Thomas ; put thy hand into my Side !%

We assisted at this wonderful interview on Sunday last ; — the incredulity of the Disciple was made an occasion for the most incontestable proof of the Resurrection : but it also taught us, that, when our Lord arose from the Tomb, he retained in his glorified Flesh the stigmata of his Passion. Consequently, he will retain them for ever, inasmuch as no change can have further place in his Person. What he was the moment after his Resurrection, that will he be for all eternity. But we are not to suppose that these

1 Zach. ziii. 6. * St. John, xx. 27. joice, alleluia. sacred stigmata, which tell of his humiliation on Calvary, are, in the slightest degree, a lessening of his glory. He retains them, because he wishes to do so ; and he wishes it, because these Wounds, far from attesting defeat or weakness, proclaim his irresistible power and triumph. He has conquered Death ; the Wounds received in the combat are the record of his victory. He will enter heaven on the day of his Ascension, and the rays of light which beam from his Wounds will dazzle the eyes of even the Angels. In like manner, as the Holy Fathers tell us, his Martyrs, who have imitated him in vanquishing Death, will also shine with special brightness in those parts of their bodies where they were tortured.

And is not our Risen Jesus to exercise, from his throne in heaven, that sublime Mediatorship for which he assumed our Human Nature ? is he not to be ever disarming the anger of his Father justly irritated by our sins ? is he not to make perpetual intercession for us, and obtain for mankind the graces necessary for salvation ? Divine Justice must be satisfied ; and what would become of poor sinners, were it not that the Man-God, by showing the precious Wounds on his Body, stays the thunderbolts of heaven, and makes mercy preponderate over judgment ?* O sacred Wounds ! the handiwork of our sins, and now our protection ! we shed bitter tears when we first beheld you on Calvary ; but we now adore you as the five glories of our Emmanuel ! Hail most precious Wounds ! our hope and our defence !

And yet, the day will come, when these sacred Stigmata, which are now the object of the Angels' admiration, will be again shown to mankind, and many will look upon them with fear ; for, as the Prophet says : They slwU look upon Him, whom they

1 St. Augustine, De CivitcUe Dei, Lib. xxii. Cap. xxix. St.

9 St. James, ii. 13.

PASCHAL TIME. have pierced. These men, who, during life, heeded neither the Sufferings of the Passion, nor the Joys of the Resurrection, but rather despised and insulted them, will have treasured up for themselves the most terrible vengeance ; — for could it be, that a God could be crucified, and rise again, and both to no purpose ? We can understand how sinners will say, on that last day : Fall upon us, ye mountains ! and ye hills, cover us/2 — "hide us from the sight of these Wounds, which " now dart upon us the lightnings of angry justice !"

O Sacred Wounds of our Risen Jesus ! be a source of mercy and joy, on that dread day, to all them that spent the Easters of their earthly pilgrimage in rising to a holy life ! Happy the Disciples who were privileged to gaze upon you, during these forty days ! and happy we, if we venerate and love you ! — Let us here borrow the devout words of St. Bernard: " Where can I that am weak find security and rest, " but in the Wounds of Jesus ? The greater is his " power to save, the surer am I in my dwelling there. " The world howls at me, the body weighs me down, " the devil sets snares to take me ; but I fall not, for " I am on the firm Rock. I have sinned a grievous " sin ; my conscience will throw me into trouble, but u not into despair, for I will remember the Wounds u of my Lord. Yes, he was wounded for our iniqui- " ties /* What I have not of mine own, I take to " myself from the Heart of my Jesus, for it is oversowing with mercy. Neither are there wanting "outlets, through which it may flow: — they have "pierced his Hands and Feet,b and, with a spear, " they have opened his Side, enabling me, through " these chinks, to suck honey out of the rock, and oil " (Mb of the hardest stone? that is, to taste and see " how sweet is the Lord. He thought thoughts of

1 Zaoh. xii. 12. 3 In Cantica, Serin, lxi 6 Ps. xxi. 17.

• St. Luke, xxiiL 30. 4 Is. liii. 5. 6 Deut. xxxiL 13.

• Ps. xxxiii. 9.

"peace,* and I knew it not, for who hath known the u mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? " But the Nail that wounded, is the key that opened " to me to see the design of the Lord. I looked " through the aperture, and what saw I ? The Nail " and Wound both told me that truly God was in " Christ reconciling the world to himself? The Iron " pierced his soulf and reached even to his Heart, " so that henceforth he cannot but know how to com- " passionate with me in my infirmities. The secret " of his Heart is revealed by the Wounds of his Body ; " the great mystery of mercy is revealed, — the bowels " of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from " on high hath visited us? What, O Lord, could " more clearly show me, than do thy Wounds, that " thou art sweet and mild, a/ad plenteous vn " mercy t

Let us express our Paschal joy, to-day, in the words of a charming Sequence of the eleventh century. We have taken it from a Missal of the Abbey of Murbach.

SEQUENCE.

Carmen suo dilecto Ecclesia Christi canat, Ob quam patrem matremque deserens, Deus nostra Se vestiit natura, gogue. Et synagogam respuit

Let the Church of Christ sing a canticle to her Beloved, who out of love for her, left father and mother, and, God as be is, clad himself with our Nature, and cast off the Syna-

Tuo sacro latere Sacramenta manarunt il- Tui ligni adminiculo

The Sacraments of thy Christe, Church, O Christ, flowed from thy Sacred Side. She safely sails through this world's sea, line ; on the wood of thy Cross.

Conservatur in salo saeculi

Out of tender love for this Hanc adamans conjugem, thy Spouse, thou wast shut up Clauderis Gazae,

1 Jerem. xxix. 11. 3 IL Cor. v. 19. 0 St. Luke, i. 78.

» Rom. xi. 34. * Pb. civ. 18. 6 Ps. lxxxv. 6.

PASCHAL TIME.

Sed portas otfracturus

Illius, Hanc etiam hostibus Eruiturus, Es coogressus Tyranno Goliath,

Quern lapillo Prostemis unica

Ecce sub vite Amcena, Cbriste, Ludit in pace Omnis Ecclesia tute horto ; Resurgens, Christe, Hortum florentis Paradisi tuis Obstruct um Diu, reseras,

Domine, Hex regum. in Gaza ; but thou didst break its gates : and, to deliver her from her enemies, thou confrontedst the tyrant Goliath, and with a single stone didst lay him low.

Behold, O Christ, the whole Church, under the shade of the pleasant Vine, enjoys in peace, and safely lives in the garden. By thy .Resurrection, O Lord, King of kings, thou openest the long-closed garden of thy flowery raradis^