The Eleventh Sunday Aftee Pentecost

With the Greeks, this Sunday— their eleventh of Saint Matthew — is called the Parable of the King, who calls his servants to account. In the western Church, it has gone under the name of Sunday of the deaf and dumb, ever since the Gospel of the pharisee and the publican has been assigned to the tenth. To-day's Mass, as we now have it, still gives evidence as to what was its ancient arrangement. Our commentary on to-day's liturgy will show us this very plainly.

In the years when Easter falls nearest to March 21 the Books of Kings are continued as lessons of Matins up to, but never beyond, this Sunday. The sickness of the good king Ezechias, and the miraculous cure he obtained by his prayers and tears, are then the subject of the first lessons of the night-Office.

MASS

The learned and pious Abbot Eupert, writing on this Sunday's Mass previous to the change made in the order of the Gospel lessons, thus explains the Church's reason for selecting the following Introit : ' The publican in the Gospel accuses himself,

1 St. Matt, xviii. 28-85. 1 4 Kings xx. saying : "lam not worthy to lift up mine eyes to heaven." St. Paul, in the Epistle, does in like manner, and says : "I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God." As, then, this humility, which is set before us that we may practise it, is the guardian of the union between the servants of God, because it keeps them from being puffed up one against the other, it is most appropriate th&t we should first sing the Introit, which tells us that God maketh men, in His house, abide together as though they were all but one soul.'2

INTROIT

Deus in loco sancto suo : God in his sanctuary : God,

Deus, qui inhabitare facit who maketh brethren abide unanimes in domo : ipse together in the house : he will dabit virtutem et fortitudi- give might and strength to his nem plebi suae. people.

P*. Exsurgat Deus, et P*. Let God arise, and his dissipentur inimici ejus ; et enemies shall be dispersed ; fugiant, qui oderunt eum, and let those that hate him a facie ejus. Gloria Patri. flee before his face. Glory,

Deus. etc. God.

The Collect which follows is most touching, when we see it in the light of the Gospel formerly fixed for this Sunday. Though that connexion has now been broken, yet the appropriateness is still very striking ; for the Epistle, as Abbot Eupert was just telling us, continues to urge us to humility by proposing to us the example of St. Paul ; the humility of the repentant publican has been anticipated. Our mother the Church is all emotion at beholding this publican, this object of contempt to the Jew, striking his breast, and scarce able to put his sorrow into words : she, with motherly tenderness, comes and takes up his faltering prayer, and gives it her own eloquence. Nothing could exceed the delicate way in which she

1 1 Cor. iv. 6. 2 Bup., Be Div. Off., xii. 11. asks of the Omnipotent that, in His infinite mercy, He would restore peace to troubled consciences, by pardoning them their sins, and granting them what they, poor sinners, are too afraid to presume to ask for.

COLLECT

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui abundantia pietatis tuse et merita supplicum excedis et vota : effunde super nos misericordiam tuam ; ut dimittas quae conscientia metuit, et adjicias quod oratio non praesumit. Per Domlnum.

0 almighty and eternal God, who, by the abundance of thy goodness, exceedest both the merits and the requests of thy suppliants : pour forth thy mercy upon us : that thou mayst pardon what our conscience fears, and mayst grant what our prayer presumes not to ask. Through, etc.

The other Collects, as on page 120.

EPISTLE

Lectio Epistolae beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios.

1 Caput XV

Fratres, Notum vobis facio Evangelium, quod praedicavi vobis, quod et accepistis, in quo et statis, per quod et salvamini : qua ratione praedicaverim vobis, si tenetis, nisi frustra eredidistis. Tradidi enim vobis, in primis quod et accepi : quoniam Christus mortuus est pro peccatis nostris secundum Scri - pturas : et quia sepultus est, et quia resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas : et quia visus est Cephas, et post hoc undecim. Deinde visus est plus quam quingentis fratribus simul : ex quibus multi manent usque

Lesson of the Epistle of St* Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians.

1 Chapter XV.

Brethren : I make known unto you the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved : if you hold fast after what manner I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received : how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures : and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures : and that he was seen by Cephas ; and after that by the eleven. Then he was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once ; of whom adhuo, quidam autem dor- many remain until this pre- mierunt. Deinde visus est sent, and some are fallen

Jacobo, deinde apostolis asleep. After that he was seen omnibus : novissime autem by James, then by all the omnium tamquam abortivo apostles; and last of all, he visus est et mihi. Ego was seen also by me, as by one enim sum minimus apo- born out of due time. For I stolorum, qui non sum di- am the least of the apostles, gnus vocari apostolus, quo- who am not worthy to be called niam persecutus sum Eccle- an apostle, because I persecuted siam Dei. Gratia autem the Church of God. But by

Dei sum id quod sum, et the grace of God I am what I gratia ejus in me vacua non am ; and his grace in me hath fuit. not been void.

Last Sunday the publican reminded us of the humility which should exist in the sinner ; to-day the Doctor of the Gentiles shows us, by his own example, that this virtue is quite as suitable to a man who, though now justified, never forgets how, in the past, he offended his Maker. The sins of the now just man, even though long since forgiven, are always before him, Having a tendency to be his own accuser, he finds, in the fact that God has pardoned and forgotten his sins, nothing but an additional motive for his own unceasing remembrance of them. Heavenly favours may sometimes be granted him as a recompense for the sincerity of his repentance ; the manifestation of the secrets of eternal Wisdom may be accorded him ; he may, perhaps, be permitted to enter into the powers of the Lord, and obtain a keen insight into the rights of infinite justice ; yet all these favours do but help him to see more clearly the enormity of those voluntary sins of his, which added their own malice to the original stains he was born with. As he progresses in sanctity, humility becomes to him something more than a satisfaction paid to justice and truth, by a mind enlightened from on high : in

1 Ps. 1. 5. 2 prov. xviii. 17. 3 Ezech. xviii. 22.

• Ps. 1. 8. 6 Ps. lxx. 16. 6 Ps. 1. 6, 7.

19—2 proportion as he lives with God in closer and closer union, and, by contemplation, goes up higher 1 in light and love, divine charity, which is ever pressing him 2 on every side, turns the very remembrance of his past sins into what will make that charity more ardent. That burning charity fathoms the deep abyss whence grace has drawn him ; and then she darts upwards from those depths of hell, more vehement, more imperious, more active, than ever. Gratitude for the priceless riches he now possesses by the munificence of his divine Benefactor does not satisfy that sinner of former days ; the avowal of his past miseries must and does escape from his enraptured soul as a hymn to his God.

Like Augustine, who was but imitating Paul, 'he glorifies the just and the good God by publishing both the good he has received and the evil of his own acts ; and this in order to win over to the one sole Object of his praise and his love the minds and hearts of all who hear him.'4 This illustrious convert of Monica and Ambrose headed the magnificent book of his ' Confessions ' with these words of Psalm xlvii., which so admirably express the object he proposed to himself by thus telling all about himself : ' Great art Thou, 0 Lord, and exceedingly to be praised. Great is Thy power, and of Thy wisdom there is no number. ' And yet,' says the saint, * man wishes to praise Thee — man, a mere speck of Thy creation, who carries about him his own mortality, and the testimony of his sin, and the testimony that thou resistest the proud ; and yet this man wishes to praise Thee — man, a mere speck of Thy creation. Thou excitest him to take delight in praising Thee. Eeceive, then, the homage which is offered Thee by the

1 St. Luke xiv. 10. 2 2 Cor. v. 14.

8 1 Cor. xv. 8-10. 4 St. Aug., Betract., ii. 6.

6 Ps. xlvii. 2 ; oxlvi. 5. 6 St. Jas. iv. 6. tongue that was formed for the purpose of praising Thee. Let my flesh and all my bones, that have been healed by Thee, cry out : " Who, 0 Lord, is like unto Thee T 1 Let my soul praise Thee, that she may love Thee; and, that she may praise Thee, let her confess Thy mercies. I wish now to go over in my mind all my long wanderings, and I will confess the things which fill me with shame, and will make of them a sacrifice of joy. Not that I love my sins, but it is that I may love Thee, 0 my God, that I recall them to mind ; it is out of love of Thy love that I now recur to those bitter things, that I may taste Thy delights, 0 Sweetness that never deceives ! Blissful Sweetness, that has no dangers ! 0 Thou that collectest all my powers, and recallest them from the painful scattering into which they had been thrown by my separation from Thee, 0 Thou one centre of all being ! What am I to myself, when I have not Thee, but a guide that leads me to the abyss ? Or what am I, when all is well with me, but a little one that is sucking in the milk which Thou providest, or enjoying Thee, the Food that knows not corruption? And what manner of man is any man, for he is but a man ? Let them that are strong and mighty — them that have not as yet had the happiness of being laid low and cast down — let them laugh at me! I am a weak man, and poor, and I give Thee praise. For that I need neither voice nor words ; the cries of the thought are what Thou hearest. For when I am wicked, my being displeased with myself is a real praise to Thee ; but when I am pious, my not attributing it to myself is again a real praise to Thee; for if Thou, 0 Lord, bless the just man, it is because Thou hast first justified 4 him when he was ungpdly.' 5

1 Ps. xxxiv. 10. 1 Ps. cxv. 17.

8 Ps. v. 13. 4 Rom. iv. 5.

6 St. Aug., Confessions, i. 1, ii. 1, iv. 1, v. 1, x. 2.

' By the grace of God, I am what I am.' The just man should make this language of the apostle be his own, and when this fundamental truth is thoroughly impressed upon his soul, then may he fearlessly add with him : ' His grace in me hath not been void.' For humility is based upon truth, as we said last Sunday ; and, as it would be contrary to truth were one to refer to man what man has from God, so likewise would it be an injury to truth not to recognize, as the saints did, the works of grace where God has wrought them. In the former case justice, in the latter gratitude, would be offended, as well as truth. Now, humility, whose direct aim is to avoid these unjust infringements on the glory due to God, by repressing the risings of pride, is also the earnest prompter of gratitude — so truly so, indeed, that a proud man can never be a grateful one, or, to say it in other words, the greatest enemy to the generous virtue of gratitude is pride.

It is quite true that it is good, and prudent, and, generally speaking, necessary, for souls to dwell on the consideration of their faults rather than upon the favours they have received from God, and this more especially in the first beginning of their conversion ; still, it is never lawful for any man to forget that, besides being grieved for his past sins and being vigilant as to present temptations, he has also the bounden duty of ceaselessly thanking the divine Benefactor, who gave him both the grace of a change of life and the subsequent progress in virtue. When a Christian cannot see a grace or any good in himself without having immediately to struggle against self-complacency and a tendency to prefer himself to others, he must not be troubled, of course, for the sin of pride is not in, the evil suggestions which may arise within him, but in the 1 Ps. 1. 16, 17. consent which is yielded to such suggestions ; and yet this weakness which accompanies the thought of God's graces is not without its dangers in the spiritual life ; and the Christian who is resolved on making any advance in perfection must gently endeavour to get altogether rid of such weakness. Aided by grace, he will gradually find the eye of his soul growing stronger by the infirmity of nature being cured, and by the removal of the involuntary remnants of sin, which, as so many vicious humours, falsify the beautiful light of God's gifts, or even sometimes distort it altogether by an unhappy refraction. * If thine eye be single,' says our Lord, * thy whole body will be lightsome, having no part of darkness ; the whole shall be lightsome '; the light shall enlighten thee completely and surely, because it will come to thee without obstacle and without deviation.

It is holy simplicity, daughter and inseparable companion of humility, that will show us how, when a soul is what she should be, these two things coexist, and mutually tell on each other, viz., the close, deliberate consideration of the favours she has received from heaven, and the clear consciousness of her own miseries. This admirable simplicity will lead us to the school of the Scriptures and of the saints, there to teach us that the soul's being praised in the Lord, and our glorying in the Lord, is really a giving praise and glory to God Himself. When our Lady declared, in her canticle, that all generations would call her blessed, the divine enthusiasm which was inspiring her was quite as fully the ecstasy of her humility as of her love. The lives of God's best servants are, at every turn, showing us these sublime transports, wherein they make the Magnificat of their

1 St. Luke. xi. 34 36. 2 Ps. xxxii. 8.

8 1 Cop. i. 31. 4 St. Luke. i. 48.

Queen become their own hymn of praise to God, magnifying Him for all the great things which He, the mighty One, has vouchsafed to do through their instrumentality. When St. Paul, after having expressed the low estimation he had of himself compared with the other apostles, adds that grace had not been a failure in him, and that he had even laboured more abundantly than all of them, we are not to suppose that he has changed his tone, or that the holy Spirit, who guides him, now wishes to recall his previous words. No ; it is one and the same conviction, one and the same desire, which inspires these words, apparently so different and so contrary ; the conviction and the desire that God must not, and shall not, be disappointed in His gifts, either by the self-appropriation of pride, or by the silence of ingratitude.

We have purposely limited our reflexions to the truths suggested by the concluding lines of our Epistle, because they complete what we had to say on humility, that indispensable virtue, on which depends, not only all progress, but even all security, in the Christian life. What St. Paul here says regarding the Resurrection of our Lord, which is the basis of the apostolic preaching and of the faith of mankind, is a subject of quite equal importance ; but this grand doctrine has been treated of during the Easter octave, with all the fullness it deserved ; and even were we not compelled from want of space, we could not do better than refer our readers to the paschal volume.

The Gradual, according to some of our most esteemed liturgists, expresses the thanksgiving of i St. Luke. i. 49. 8 1 Cor. xv. 10.

8 Ibid. 14. 4 ' Paschal Time,' vol. i. the humble, who are healed by God, according to the hope they had put in Him.

GRADUAL

In Deo speravit cor meum, et adjutus sum: et refloruit caro mea : et ex voluntate mea confitebor iUi.

V. Ad te, Domine, clamavi : Deusmeus, nesileas: ne discedas a me.

Alleluia, alleluia.

V. Exsultate Deo, adjutori noetro: jubilate Deo Jacob, Bumite psalmum jucundum cum cithara. Alleluia.

My heart trusted in God, and I was relieved ; and my body hath recovered its strength: and I will praise him, with my whole heart.

V. To thee, O Lord, have I cried out : be not silent, O my God : nor depart from me.

Alleluia, alleluia.

F. Exult in God, our helper : joyfully sing to the God of Jacob : sing a hymn of joy upon the harp. Alleluia.

GOSPEL

Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Mar cum.

Caput VIL In illo tempore : Exieng Jesus de finibus Tyri, venit per Sidonem ad mare Galilseae inter medios fines Decapoleos. Et adduount ei surdum et mutum, et deprecabantur eum, ut imponat illi manum. Et apprehendens eum de turba seorsum, misit digitos suos in auriculas ejus : et exspuens, tetigit linguam ejus : et suspicions in coelum, ingemuit, et ait illi : Ephpheta, quod est, adaperire. Et statim apertse sunt aures ejus, et solutum est vinculum linguae ejus, et loquebatur recte. Et prsecepit illis, ne cui dicerent. Quanto autem

Sequel of the holy Gospel according to Mark. jOhapter VIL At that time: Jesus going out of the coasts of Tyre, came T>y Sidon to the sea of Galilee through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring to him one deaf and dumb : and they besought him that he would lay his hand upon him. And taking him from the multitude apart, he put his fingers into his ears, and spitting, he touched his tongue ; and looking up to heaven, he groaned and said to him : Ephpheta, which is, Be thou opened. And immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke right. And he charged them that they

1 Rup., ubi twpra; Durand., Bation., vi. 125. eis prsecipiebat, tanto magis plus prsedicabant : et eo amplius admirabantur, dicentes : Bene omnia fecit : et surdos fecit audire, et mutos loqui. should tell no man. But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal did they publish it. And so much the more did they wonder, saying : He hath done all things well ; he hath made both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.

Jesus is no longer in Judea ; the names of the places mentioned in the beginning of to-day's Gospel tell us that the Gentile world has become the scene of the divine operations for man's salvation. What manner of man, then, is this who is led to the Saviour, and the sight of whose miseries makes the Incarnate Word heave a sigh ? And what is the meaning of the extraordinary circumstances which produce the cure? A single word of Jesus could have done it all, and His power would have shone forth all the more brightly. But the miracle which is here related contains a great mystery ; and the Man-God; who aims mainly at giving us a lesson by this His mercy, makes the exercise of His power subordinate to the teaching which He desires to convey to us.

The holy fathers tell us that this man represents the entire human race, exclusive of the Jewish people. Abandoned for four thousand years in the sides, that is, in the countries of the north, where the prince of this world was ruling as absolute master, it has been experiencing the terrible effects of the seeming forgetfulness on the part of its Creator and Father, which was the consequence of original sin. Satan, whose perfidious craftiness caused man to be driven out of Paradise, has made him his own prey, and nothing could exceed the artifice he has employed for keeping him in his grasp. Wisely oppressing his slave, he adopted

1 Ludolph. Carth., Vita J. Chr.y i. 90. 2 Isa. xiv. 13. 8 Exod. i. 10. the plan of making him deaf and dumb, for this would hold him faster than chains of adamant could ever do. Dumb, he could not ask God to deliver him; deaf, he could not hear the divine voice ; and thus the two ways for obtaining his liberty were shut against him. The adversary of God and man, satan, may boast of his tyranny. The grandest of all God's creations looks like a failure ; the human race, in all its branches, and in all nations, seems ruined ; for even that people which God had chosen for His own, and which was to be faithful to Him when every other had gone astray, has made no other use of its privileges than to deny its Lord and its King, more cruelly than all the rest of mankind.

What, then? Is the bride, whom the Son of God came to seek upon the earth — is the society of saints, to be limited to those few who declared themselves His disciples during the years of His mortal life ? Not so ; the zeal of the newly formed Church, and the ineffable goodness of God, produced a far grander result. Driven from Jerusalem, as her divine Spouse had been, the Church met the poor captive of satan beyond the boundaries of Judea ; she would fain bring him into the kingdom of God: and, through the apostles and their disciples, she brings him to Jesus, beseeching Him to lay His divine hand upon him. No human power could effect his cure. Deafened by the noise of his passions, it is only in a confused way that he can hear even the voice of his own conscience ; and, as to the sounds of tradition, or the speakings of the prophets, they are to him but as an echo, very distant and faint. Worst of all, as his hearing, that most precious of our senses, is gone, so, likewise, is gone the power of making good his losses ; for, as the apostle teaches, the one thing that 1 Deut. xxxii. 9. could save him is faith, and faith cometh by hearing.

Our Jesus groans when they have brought this poor creature before Him. He is grieved at seeing the cruelties the enemy has inflicted on this His own privileged being, this beautiful work, of which He Himself served as model and type to the blessed Trinity, at the beginning of the world. Raising up to heaven those eyes of His sacred Humanity — those eyes whose language has such resistless power — He sees the eternal Father acquiescing in the intentions of His own merciful compassion. Then, resuming the exercise of that creative omnipotence which, in the beginning, had made all things to be very good, and all His works to be perfect, He, as God and as the Word, utters the mighty word of restoration: Ephpheta/ Be thou opened ! Nothingness, or rather (in this instance) ruin, which is worse than nothingness, obeys the well-known voice; the ears of the poor sufferer are opened, joyfully opened to the teachings, which his delighted mother the Church pours into them. She is all the gladder, because it is her prayers that have won this deliverance ; and he, to whom faith comes now through hearing, finding that his tongue can speak, speaks, or rather sings, a canticle of praise to his God.

And yet, as we were observing, our merciful Lord, by this cure, aims not so much at showing the power of His divine word as at giving a glorious teaching to His followers ; He wishes to reveal to them, under certain visible symbols, the invisible realities produced by His grace in the secret of the sacraments. It is for the sake of such teaching that the Gospel has mentioned such an apparently trifling detail as this — that when the deaf and

• Rom. x. 17. 2 Gen. i. 26. 8 St. John. xi. 42.

• Gen. i. 81. 8 Deut. xxxii. 4. 8 St. John. i. 1. dumb man was brought before Him, He took him apart — apart, so to say, from the multitude of the noisy passions and the vain thoughts 1 which had made him deaf to heavenly truths. After all, would there be much good in curing him if the occasion of his malady were not removed, and he were to relapse perhaps that same day ? So, then, having by this separation taken precautions for the future, Jesus inserts into the man's ears His own divine fingers which bring the Holy Ghost, and make to penetrate right to the ears of his heart the restorative power of this Spirit of love. And finally, more mysteriously, because the truth which was to be expressed is more profound, He touches with the saliva of His sacred mouth that tongue which had become incapable of giving glory and praise ; and Wisdom (for* it is she that is here mystically signified) — Wisdoin, 'that cometh forth from the mouth of the Most High/3 and flows for us from the Saviour's fountains as a life-giving drink — openeth the mouth of the dumb man, just as she maketh eloquent the tongues of speechless infants.

Therefore it is that the Church — in order to show us that the event recorded in to-day's Gospel is figurative, and regards not merely one individual' man, but all of us — has prescribed that the circumstances which accompanied the cure of this deaf and dumb sufferer shall be expressed in the ceremonies of holy Baptism. The priest, before pouring the water of the sacred font on the person who is presented for Baptism, puts on the catechumen's tongue the salt of wisdom, and touches his ears, saying : Ephpheta ! that is, Be opened ! 7

There is an instruction of another kind included in our Gospel, and worthy of our notice, as closely

1 V. Bed., vn Afore, ii. 2 Cf . St. Luke. xi. 20 ; St. Matt. xii. 28. 8 Ecclus. xxiv. 5. 4 Isa. xii. 8. 6 Ecclus. xv. 8. 8 Wisd. x. 21. 7 Bit, rom., Ordo baptism. bearing on what we have been saying regarding humility. Our Lord imposed silence on those who had been witnesses of the miraculous cure, although He knew that their praiseworthy enthusiasm could never allow them to obey Him. By this injunction, He wished to give a lesson to His followers, that if, at times, it is impossible to keep men from being in admiration at the works they achieve — if, sometimes, the holy Spirit, in opposition to their wishes, forces them to undergo public applause for the greater glory of the God whose instruments they are — yet must they always do all in their power to avoid being noticed; they must prefer to be despised, or, at least, not talked of ; they must love to be hidden in the secret of the face of God ; 2 and, after the most brilliant, just as truly as they would after the most menial, duties, they must say from the heartiest conviction : ' We are unprofitable servants, we have but done what we ought to do.'3 It is again the hymn of the humble, whether delivered, or healed, or glorified, by God, which is sung in the Offertory.

Exaltabote, Domine, quo- I will extol thee, O Lord, niam suscepisti me : neo because thou hast upholden delectasti inlmicos meos su- me, and hast not gratified the per me : Domine, clamavi desire of mine enemies against

The assembly of God's servants beseech Him, in the following Secret, graciously to accept their gifts ; and, in this holy sacrifice, to turn them into the homage of their delighted service, and the support of their weakness.

Kespice, Domine, queesu- Look down, 0 Lord, we bemus, nostram propitius ser- seech thee, on our homage'

1 Ps. lxxxiii. 11. a Ps. xxx. 21. 3 St. Luke xvii. 10.

OFFERTORY ad te, et sanasti me. me. Lord, I cried out to thee, and thou healedst me.

SECRET vitutem : ut quod offerimus, that the gifts we offer thee may sit tibi munus acceptum, et be acceptable to thee, and a sit nostra fragilitatis subsi- help to our weakness. Through, dium. Per Dominum. etc.

The other Secrets, as on page 130.

No more appropriate anthem than the following could have been selected as the Communion for the season which finds men busy in harvesting the fruits of the earth. We should make it our first thought to give to God, through His Church and the poor, the first fruits of these blessings which He has bestowed upon us. But, in order becomingly to honour the Lord in this, we must take care not to boast, as the pharisee did, of fulfilling a duty so imperative, and yet so very profitable to ourselves who obey it.

Honora Dominum de tua 'Honour the Lord out of thy substantia, et de primitiis substance, and with the first frugum tuarum : et imple- fruits of thy crops ; and thy buntur horrea tua saturita- barns shall be filled abundantly, te, et vino torcularia redun- and thy wine - presses shall dabunt. overflow.

The heavenly remedy of these sacred mysteries acts upon our body and soul : it is for the salvation of both, and, therefore, we should love these mysteries as our best glory* on earth. In the Postcommunion, the Church prays that her children may be blessed with the whole fullness of these blessings.

Sentiamus, quaesumus May we experience, by the

Domine, tui perceptione sa- participation of these thy cramenti, subsidium men- mysteries, we beseech thee, 0 tis et corporis : ut in utro- Lord, help in body and mind : que salvati, ccelestis remedii that, in the salvation of both, plenitudine gloriemur. Per we may enjoy the full effect

The other Postcommunion, as on page 131.

COMMUNION

POSTCOMMUNION

Dominum. of this heavenly remedy. Through, etc.

VESPEBS m

The psalms, capitulum, hymn and versicle, as above, pages 71-81.

ANTIPHON OP THE MAGNIFICAT

Bene omnia fecit, et sur- He hath done all things well : dos feeit audire, et mutos he hath made both the deaf to loqui. hear, and the dumb to speak.

ORBMUS LET US PRAY

Omnipotens sempiterne 0 Deus, qui abundantia pietatis tuae et cum excedis et vota : effunde super nos misericordiam suppliants : tuam, ut dimittas quae conscientia metuit, et adjicias conquod oratio non praesumit. Per Dominum. almighty and eternal God, who, by the abundance of thy merit a suppli- goodness, exceedest both the merits and the requests of thy pour forth thy mercy upon us : that thou mayst pardon what our science fears, and mayst grant what our prayer presumes not to ask. Through, etc.

THE TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTEE PENTECOST

MASS

On this Sunday, which is their twelfth of Saint Matthew, the Greeks read in the Mass the episode of the young rich man who questions Jesus, given in the nineteenth chapter of the Saint's Gospel. In the west, it is the Gospel of the Good Samaritan which gives its name to this twelfth Sunday after Pentecost.

The Introit begins with that beautiful verse of Psalm lxix. : ' Come to mine assistance, O God ! O Lord, make haste to help me /' Cassian, in his tenth Conference, has admirably drawn out the beauty of these words, and shows how they are appropriate for every circumstance of life, and how fully they respond to every sentiment of the Chris- tian soul. Durandus applies this Introit to Job, because the lessons for the Divine Office, which are taken from that Book of Scripture, sometimes, though not often, coincide with this Sunday. Rupert looks on this Introit as the fitting prayer of the deaf and dumb man, whose cure was the subject of our reflexions this day last week. He says : ' The human race, in the person of our first parents, had become deaf to the commandments of God, and dumb in His praise; the first use he makes of his untied tongue, is to call upon the God who has healed him.'3 The same words are the Church's first address, each morning, to her Creator, and her opening of each of the canonical hours, both day and night.

INTROIT

Deus,inadjutorinmmeam intende : Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina : confundantur, et revereantur inimici mei, qui quaerunt animam me

Incline unto mine aid, 0 God ! O Lord, make haste to help me ! Let mine enemies be confounded and ashamed that seek my soul, am.

P*. Avertanturretrorsum, Ps. et erubescant, qui cogitant mihi mala. Gloria Patri. Deus. etc.

Let them be turned backward, and blush for shame, that desire evils to me. Glory, Incline.

It frequently happens (and we have already explained the reason), that the Collect of the Masses for the Time after Pentecost contains an allusion to the Gospel of the foregoing Sunday. The one for to-day evidently does so. Eight days back, we were taught how man, who had rendered himself incapable of serving his Creator, finds by divine mercy, that his supernatural faculties are restored to him ; and then, he gives forth the voice of praise, and that, too, rightly (loquebatur recte).

1 Cass., Collate x. 10. 2 Dub., Bat, vi. 126.

• Rup., De aw. off., xii. 12.

TIME AtfTEft PENTECOST

The Church, taking up the idea here suggested, prays thus :

COLLECT

OmDipotens et misericors Deus, de cujus munere venit, ut tibi a fidelibus tuis digne, et laudabiliter serviatur: tribue, quaesumus, nobis ; ut ad promissiones tuas sine offensione curramus. Per Dominum.

O almighty and merciful God, from whose gift it cometh, that thy faithful worthily and laudably serve thee : grant us, we beseech thee, that we may run on, without stumbling, to the things thou hast promised us. Through, etc.

The other Collects, as on page 120.

Lectio Epistolse beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios.

2 Caput III.

Fratres, Fiduciam talem habemus per Christum ad Deum : non quod sufficientes simus cogitare aliquid a nobis, quasi ex nobis : sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est : qui et idoneos nos fecit ministros novi testamenti, non littera, sed spiritu : litter a enim occidit, spiritus autem vivificat. Quod si ministratio mortis litteris deformata in lapidibus, fuit in gloria, it a ut non possent intendere filii Israel in faciem Moysi, propter gloriam vultus ejus, quse evacuatur : quomodo non magis ministratio spiritus erit in gloria ? Nam si ministratio damnationis gloria est: multo magis abundat ministerium justitiae in gloria.

Lesson of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians.

2 Chapter III.

Brethren : We have confidence through Christ towards God : not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as of ourselves : but our sufficiency is from God. Who also hath made us fit ministers of the new Testament, not in the letter but in the spirit. For the letter killeth; but the spirit quicken eth. Now if the ministration of death, engraven with letters upon stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which is made void : how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather in glory? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more the ministration of justice aboundeth in glory.

The glorious promises mentioned in the concluding words of our Collect are described to us in the Epistle, which seems, at first sight, to be entirely in praise of the apostolic ministry ; but the glory of the apostles is the glory of Him whom they announce ; and this one glory, which is His, Christ, the Head, communicates to all His members, making it also their one glory. This divine glory flows, together with the divine life, from that sacred Head ; and they both flow copiously through all the channels of holy Church. Tf they do not come to all Christians in the same proportions, such difference in no wise denotes that the glory and the life themselves are of a different kind for some from what they are for others. Each member of Christ's mystical Body is called upon to form his own degree of capacity for glory ; not, of course, as the apostle says, that we are, of ourselves, sufficient even to think anything as of ourselves — but, what diversity there is in the way in which men turn to profit the divine capital allotted to each by grace !

Oh ! if we did but know the gift of God ! 2 if we did but understand the supereminent dignity reserved, under the law of love, to every man of good will ! 3 Then, perhaps, our cowardice and sluggishness would, at last, go ; then, perhaps, our souls would get fired with the noble ambition which turns men into saints. At all events, we should then come to realize that Christian humility, of which we were speaking on the last two Sundays, is not the vulgar grovelling of a low-minded man, but the glorious entrance upon the way which leads, by divine union, to the only true greatness. Are not those men inconsistent and senseless who, longing by the very law of their nature for glory,

1 Eph. iv. 15, 16. 2 St. John iv. 10.

8 St. Luke ii. 14.

20—2 go seeking it in the phantoms of pride, and allow themselves to be diverted, by the baubles of vanity, from the pursuit of those real honours which eternal Wisdom 1 had destined for them ! And those grand honours were to have been heaped upon them, not only in their future heaven, but even here in their earthly habitation ; and God and His saints were to have been admiring and applauding spectators !

In the name, then, of our dearest and truest interests, let us give ear to our apostle, and share his heavenly enthusiasm. We shall understand his exquisite teaching all the better, if we read the sequel to the few lines assigned for to-day's Epistle. It is but fully carrying out the wishes of the Church, when her children, after or before assisting at her liturgical services, take the sacred Scriptures, and read for themselves the continuation of passages, which are necessarily abridged during the public celebrations. It were well, if they did this all through the year. What a fund of instruction they would thus acquire ! To-day, however, there is an additional motive for the suggestion, inasmuch as this second Epistle to the Corinthians is brought before us for the first and only time during this season of the liturgy.

But let us examine what is this glory of the new Testament, which so fills the apostle with ecstasy, and, in his mind, almost entirely eclipses the splendour of the old. Splendour there undoubtedly was in the Sinai covenant. Never had there been such a manifestation of God's majesty, and omnipotence, and holiness, as on that day, when, gathering together, at the foot of the mount, the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob, He mercifully renewed, with this immense family, the covenant formerly made with their fathers, 2 and 1 Ecolus. vi. 29-82. * Gen. xv. 18. gave them His Law in the extraordinarily solemn manner described in the Book of Exodus. And yet, that Law, engraven as it was on stone by God's own hand, was not, for all that, in the hearts of the receivers ; neither did its holiness prevent, though it condemned, sin — sin which reigns in man's heart. Moses, who carried the divine writing, came down from the mount, having the rays of God's glory glittering on his face ; 2 but this glory was not to be shared in by the people of whom he was the head ; it was for himself alone, as was likewise the privilege he had enjoyed of speaking with God face to face ; 3 it ceased with him, thus signifying, by its short duration, the character of that ministration, which was to cease on the coming of the Messiah, just as the night's borrowed light vanishes when the day appears. And, as it were, the better to show that the time was not as yet come, when God would manifest His glory — the children of Israel were not able to gaze steadfastly on the face of Moses ; so that, when he had to speak to the people, he had need to put on a veil. Though a mere borrowed light, the brightness of Moses' face represented the glory of the future Covenant, whose splendour was to shine, not, of course, externally, but in the hearts of us all, by giving us ' the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus.' 4 Light, living and life-giving, which is none other than the divine Word, 6 the Wisdom of the Father, 6 and which the energy of the sacraments, seconded by contemplation and love, makes to pass from the Humanity of our divine Head to the very recesses of our souls.

We shall find our Sunday giving us a second

1 Rom. vii. 12, 13. 2 Exod. xxxiv. 29-35.

3 Ibid, xxxiii. 11. 4 2 Cor. iv. 6.

5 St. John i. 4-9. 6 Wisd. vii. 25, 26. reminder of Moses; but the true and enduring greatness of the Hebrew leader lies in what we have been stating. In the same way that Abraham was grander by the spiritual progeny which was the issue of his faith, than he was by the posterity that was his in the flesh — so the glory of Moses consisted not so much in his having been at the head of the ancient Israelites for forty long years, as in his having represented, in his own person, both the office of the Messiah King, and the prerogatives of the new people. The Gentile is set free from the law of fear and sin by the law of grace, which not only declares justice, but gives it; the Gentile, having been made a son of God, communes with Him in that liberty which comes of the Spirit of love. But, this privileged Gentile has no type which so perfectly represents him, in the first Covenant, as this the very lawgiver of Israel, this Moses who finds such favour with the Most High as to be admitted to behold His glory* and converse with Him with all the intimacy of friend to friend. Whereas God showed Himself to this His servant — as far, that is, as mortal man is capable of such sight — and as He was seen by him without the intermediation of figures or images, so, when he approached thus to God, Moses took from his face the veil he wore at other times. The Jew persists, even to this very day, in keeping this veil between himself and Christ. 8 The Christian, on the contrary, with the holy daring of which the apostle speaks, removes all intermediaries between God and himself, and draws aside the veil of all figures. * Beholding the glory of the Lord with face uncovered, we are transformed into the same image

1 Kom. viii. 2. 2 Ibid. 15. 8 2 Cor. Ui. 17.

4 Exod. xxxiii. 17-19. 6 Ibid. 11. 6 Ibid. 20.

' Num. xii. 8. 8 2 Cor. iii. 14. 9 Ibid. 12. from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord,' 1 for we become other christs, and are made like to God the Father, as is His Son Christ Jesus.

Thus is fulfilled the will of the almighty Father for the sanctification of the elect. God sees Himself reflected in these predestinated, who are become, in the beautiful light divine, conformable to the image of His Son. He could say of each one of them what He spoke at the Jordan and on Thabor : ' This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.' 3 He makes them His true temple, verifying the word He spoke of old : 'I will set my tabernacle in the midst of you : I will walk among you, and will be your God ; I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west ; I will say to the north : " Give up !" and to the south : " Keep not back !" Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth !' 6

Such are the promises, for whose realization we should, as the apostle says, be all earnestness in working out our sanctification, by cleansing ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit, in the fear of God, and in His love. Such is that glory of the new Testament, that glory of the Church and of every Christian soul, which so immensely surpasses the glory of the old, and the brightness which lit up the face of Moses. As to our carrying this treasure in frail vessels, we must not, on that account, lose heart, but rather rejoice in this weakness, which makes God's power all the more evident ; we must take our miseries, and even death itself, and turn them into profit, by giving the stronger manifestation of our Lord Jesus' life in this our mortal flesh. What matters it to our

1 2 Cor. Hi. 18. 2 Bom. viii. 29. 3 St. Matt. iii. 17, xvii. 5. * 2 Cor. vi. 16. 6 Lev. xxvi. 12. * Isa. xliii. 5-7. 7 2. Cor. vii. 1. faith and our hope, if our outward man is gradually falling to decay, when the inner is being renewed day by day ? The light and transitory suffering of the present is producing within us an eternal weight of glory. Let us, then, fix our gaze, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen ; the visible passes, the invisible is eternal.

The human race, delivered from its long ages of dumbness, and blessed at the same time with God's gifts, sings, in the Gradual, the hymn of its warmest gratitude.

GRADUAL

Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore : semper laus ejus in ore meo.

V, In Domino laudabitnr anima mea : audiant mansueti, et laetentur.

Alleluia, alleluia.

F. Domine Deus salutis meae, in die clamavi et nocte coram te. Alleluia.

I will bless the Lord at all times : his praise shall be always in my mouth.

V. In the Lord shall my soul be praised : let the meek hear and rejoice.

Alleluia, alleluia.

V. 0 Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried, in the day and in the night, before thee. Alleluia.

GOSPEL

Sequentia sancti Evangelii Sequel of the holy Gospel secundum Lucam. according to Luke.

Caput X.

In illo tempore : Dixit Jesus discipulis suis : Beati oculi, qui vident quae vos videtis. Dico enim vobis, quod multi prophet©, et reges voluerunt videre quae vos videtis, et non viderunt : et audire quae auditis, et non audierunt. Et ecce quidam legisperitus surrexit tentans ilium, et

Chapter X.

At that time : Jesus said to his disciples : Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see. For I say to you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them : and to hear the things that you hear, and have not heard them. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up, tempt-

1 2 Cor. iv. 7-18, etc. dicens : Magister, quid faoiendo vitam aeternam possidebo? At ille dixit ad eum: In lege quid scriptum est ? quomodo legis ? Ille respondens dixit : Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex omnibus viribus tuis, et ex omni mente tua : et proximum tuum Bicut teipsum. Dixitque illi : Eecte respondisti : hoc fac, et vives. Ille autem volens justificare seipsum, dixit ad Jesum: Et quis est meus proximus ? Suscipiens autem J esus, dixit: Homo quidam descendebat ab Jerusalem in Jericho, et incidit in latrones. qui etiam despoliaverunt eum : et plagis impositis abierunt, seraivivo relicto. Accidit autem ut sacerdos quidam descenderet eadem via : et viso illo, prseterivit. Similiter et Levita, cum esset secus locum, et videret eum, pertransiit. Samaritanus au - tern quidam iter faciens, venit secus eum : et videns eum, misericordia motus est. Et appropians, alligavit vulnera ejus, infundens oleum, et vinum : et imponens ilium in jumentum suum, duxit in stabulum, et curam ejus egit. Et altera die protulit duos denarios, et dedit stabulario, et ait : Curam illius habe : et quodcumque supererogaveris, ego cum rediero, reddam tibi. Quis horum trium videtur tibi proxi- ing him, and saying: Master, what must I do to possess eternal life? But he said to him : What is written in the law? how readest thou? He answering said : Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind : and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said to him : Thou hast answered right : this do and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself, said to Jesus : And who is my neighbour ? And Jesus answering said : A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who also stripped him, and having wounded him, went away, leaving him half dead. And it chanced that a certain priest went down the same way: and seeing him, passed by. In like manner also a levite, when he was near the place, and saw him, passed by. But a certain Samaritan, being on his journey, came near him ; and seeing him, was moved with compassion. And going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine ; and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day, he took out two pence, and gave to the host, and said : Take care of him ; and whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I at my return will repay thee. Which of these three in thy opinion was neighbour to him that fell among the robbers? But he mus fuisse illi, qui incidit said : He that showed mercy to in latrones? At ille dixit: him. And Jesus said to him:

Qui fecit misericordiam in Go, and do thou in like manner, ilium. Et ait illi Jesus : Vade, et tu fac similiter.

The doctor and apostle of the Gentiles was speaking to us, in the Epistle, of the glory of the new Testament : Jesus, the Man-God, of whom Paul was but the servant, reveals to us, in the Gospel, the perfection of that Law, which He came to give to the world. And as though He would, in a certain way, unite His own divine teachings with those of His apostle, and justify that apostle's enthusiasm, it is from the very depth of His own most holy soul, and in the Holy Ghost, that, having thanked His eternal Father for these great things, He cries out, turning to His disciples : Blessed are the eyes that see the things which ye see !

The same idea was expressed by the prince of the apostolic college, alluding to the unspeakable and glorious joy, which resulted from the new Alliance, wherein figures were to be replaced by realities. In his first Epistle to the elect of the holy Spirit, Peter speaks, in the same strain as his divine Master had done, of the unfulfilled aspirations of the saints of the old Testament, — those admirable men, whom St. Paul describes as being so grand in faith, as to be both heroic in combat and sublime in virtue. St. Peter then expresses, in inspired language, how the elect of the Church of expectation were continually looking forward to the grace of the time that was to come ; how they were ever counting the years which were to intervene ; how they were carefully searching (scrutinizing, as our Vulgate words it) the long ages, to find out when that happy time would be i St. Luke x. 21-23. 3 1 St. Pet. i. 8. 3 md. 1, 2. 4 St. Amb., in Luc, x. 5 Heb. xi. realized ; although they were well aware, that the longed-for sight of the mysteries of salvation was never to be theirs, and that their mission was limited to prophesying those grandeurs to future generations.

But, who are those kings spoken of in our Gospel, as uniting with the prophets in the desire to see the things we see ? To say nothing of those holy ones who thought less of the throne they sat on, than of the divine Object of the world's expectation, — may we not say, with the holy fathers, that those well deserved to be called kings, whom St. Paul describes as, by their faith, conquering kingdoms, vanquishing armies, stopping the mouths of lions, masters of the very elements, yea, what is more, masters of themselves ? Heedless of the mockeries, as well as of the persecutions, of the world that was not worthy to possess such men, these champions of the faith were seen wandering in the deserts, sheltering in dens and caves, and yet happy in the love of One whom they knew they were not to see until long ages after their death.

Do we, then, who are their descendants, — we for whom they were obliged to wait, in order to enjoy a share of those blessings which their sighs and vehement desires did so much to hasten, — appreciate the immense favour bestowed on us by our Lord ? Our virtue scarcely bears comparison with that of the fathers of our faith ; and nevertheless, by the descent of the holy Spirit of love, we have been more enlightened than ever were the prophets, for, by that holy Spirit, we have been put in possession of the mysteries which they only foretold. How is it, then, that we are so sadly slow to feel the obligation we are under of responding, by holiness of

1 1 St. Pet. i. 10-12.

2 V. Bed a, vn Luc, iii- Homily for the day.

3 Heb. xi. 33-39.

TIME AFTBB PENTECOST life, and by an ardent and generous love, to the liberality of that God, who has gratuitously called us from darkness to His admirable light ? 2 Having so great a cloud of witnesses over our heads, let us lay aside the burden of sin which impedes us, and run, by patience, in the fight proposed to us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who, having joy set before Him, preferred to endure the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God. We know Him with greater certainty than we do the events which are happening under our eyes, for He Himself, by His holy Spirit, is ever within us, incorporating His mysteries into us.

The illumination of holy Baptism has produced within our souls that revelation of Christ Jesus which constitutes the basis of the Christian life, and on which the Man-God congratulated His disciples. It was of that revelation or knowledge that He spoke, rather than of the exterior sight of His human Nature, a sight which was common not only to His devoted followers, but to every enemy that chose to stare at Him. The apostle of the Gentiles makes this very clear, when, after the change produced in the disciples by the Holy Ghost's coming upon them, he thus spoke : * If we once knew Christ according to the flesh, now we know Him so no longer.' 4 It is literally in us, and no longer in the cities of Judea, that the kingdom of God is to be found. It is faith that shows us the Christ, who is dwelling in our hearts, that He may establish us in charity, and grow in us, by transforming us into Himself, and fill us with all the fullness of God. It is by fixing his eye on the divine image which silently lights up the soul that has been purified by Baptism that, as we were just

1 1 St. Pet. i. 13-16. 2 Ibid. ii. 9. 3 Heb. xii. 1, 2. 4 2 Cor. v. 16. » St. Luke xvii. 21. « Eph. iii. 16-19. now saying, the inner man is renewed from day to day, by incessant contemplation, and growing love, and persevering and, at last, perfect imitation, of his Creator and Saviour.

How important it is, then, to let the supernatural light have such free scope and expansion within us, that not one of our acts or thoughts, not even the -deepest recess of our hearts, may escape its sovereign influence and guidance ! It is on this point, that the Holy Ghost works prodigies in faithful souls : the unrestrained development of His highest gifts, understanding and wisdom, gives such a predominance to the divine light, that the brightness of the sun's rays pales before it. Breathing, in His omnipotent freedom, when and as He willeth, this holy Spirit does not always wait for the regular development of those gifts which He bestows upon all: the soul, drawn up to heights unreached by the ordinary paths of the Christian life, finds herself plunged in the deepest abyss of Wisdom ; there she delightedly imbibes the rays which come to her from the eternal summits, and, in their tranquil and radiant simplicity which holds all in itself, she feels that she has the secret of all things. There are moments, when, raised up still higher, — above the region of the senses and the domain of human reasoning, or, as St. Denis the Areopagite words it, above all the intelligible? — she is permitted to rest her wings on the summit, where dwells the uncreated light in its essence, and whence it streams down even to the furthest limits of creation, lending something of its divine splendour to every creature. Then it is, that mercifully acting on the soul, which cannot yet bear the direct infinite glory, the blessed Trinity shrouds her in that mysterious darkness, of which the saints speak as belonging to these

1 Col. iii. 10. 2 St. Denis Abeop., De dm. nom.} vii. 3. 8 De myst. theol., i. 1. highest degrees of mystical ascension. The darkness, beyond which is the very God of Majesty, is an obscurity which penetrates the soul with higher bliss than does light itself; it is a sacred night, whose silence is more eloquent than any sound that this earth could hear ; it is a holy of holies, where adoration absorbs the soul ; vision is not there, still less is science ; and yet, it is in this sanctuary, that understanding and love, acting together in ineffable unison, take hold of the sublimest mysteries of theology.

It is quite true that such favours as these are imparted to but few; and no man can lay the slightest claim to them, be his virtue ever so great, or his fidelity ever so tried. Neither does perfection depend upon them. Faith, which guides the just man, is enough to make him estimate the life of the senses for what it really is, — miserable and grovelling. With the aid of ordinary grace, he easily lives in that intimate retirement of the soul, wherein he knows that the holy Trinity resides ; he knows it, because he has it from the teaching of the Scripture. His heart is a kind of heaven, where his life is hidden in God, together with that Jesus upon whom are fixed all his thoughts : there he gives to his beloved Lord the only proof of love which is to be trusted, the only one that this Lord asks at our hands, — the keeping of the commandments. In spite of the ardent longings of his hope, he waits patiently and calmly for that final revelation of Christ, which, on the last day, will give him to appear together with Him in glory : for, as without seeing Him he believes in Him, so without seeing Him he knows that he loves Him. The ever-advancing growth in virtue, which men observe in such a man, is a more unmistakable proof of the power of faith,

1 Ps. xvii. 12. 2 St. John xiv. 23. 3 Col. iii. 3. * St. John. xiv. 21. « CoL iii. 4. * 1 St. Pet. i. 8. than can be those extraordinary manifestations of which we were just speaking, and in which the soul is so irresistibly subdued, that she has scarcely the power to refuse her love.

Hence, it is not without a reason and a connexion that the Gospel chosen for to-day passes at once, after the opening verses which we have been commenting, to the new promulgation of the great commandment, which includes the whole Law and the Prophets. Faith assures man that he may and must love the Lord his God with his wJwle heart, and with his whole soul, and his whole strength, and his whole mind, and his neighbour as himself. In the homily on the sacred text, the Church gives us the interpretation as far only as the question proposed by the Jewish lawyer : by this she insinuates that the latter portion of the Gospel, though by far the longer, is but the practical conclusion of the former, according to the saying of the apostle, that faith worketh by charity. The parable of the good Samaritan, though containing materials for the sublimest symbolic teaching, is spoken here in its literal sense by our Lord, for the one purpose of removing the restrictions put by the Jews on the great precept of love.

If all perfection be included in love, — if, without love, no virtue produces fruit for heaven, — it is important for us to remember, that love is not of the right kind unless it include our neighbour; and it is only after stating this particular, that St. Paul affirms that love fulfilleth the whole law, and taht love is the plenitude of the law. Thus we find that the greater number of the precepts of the Decalogue concern our duties to our neighbour ; and we are told, that the love we have for God is only then what it ought to be, when we love not

1 St. Matt. xxii. 36-40. 2 The Office of Matins.

3 GaL v. 6. * Rom. xiii. 8. 5 Ibid. 10. 6 Ibid. 9. only Him, but also what He loves, that is, when we love man whom He made to His own likeness. Hence, the apostle St. Paul does not explicitly distinguish, as the Gospel does, between the two precepts of love. He says : ' All the law is fulfilled in one sentence : Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 2

Such being the importance of this love, it is necessary to have a clear understanding as to the meaning and extent of the word neighbour. In the mind of the Jews, it comprised only their own race; and in this they were following the custom of the pagan nations, to whom every stranger was an enemy. But, here in our Gospel, we have a representative of this Jewish diminished law eliciting, from Him who is the author of the law, an answer which declares the precept in all its fullness. This time, He does not make His voice heard amidst thunder and fire, as on Mount Sinai. He, as Man living and conversing with men, reveals to them, and in the most intelligible way possible, the whole import of the eternal commandment which leads to life. In a parable (wherein, as many think, He is relating a fact which has really happened, and is known to those to whom He is addressing it), our Jesus describes how there was a man who went forth from the holy city, and how he fell in with a Samaritan, that is, with a stranger the most despised and the most disliked of all those whom an inhabitant of Jerusalem looked on as his enemies. And yet, the shrewd lawyer who questions Jesus, and, no doubt, all those who have been listening to the answer, are obliged to own that the neighbour, for the poor fellow who had fallen into the hands of robbers, was not so truly the priest, or the levite (though both of them were of his own race), as this

1 1 St. John iv. 20. a Gal. v. 14. 3 p8% xi. 2.

4 Baruoh iii. 88. 5 Ibid. iv. 1. • St. John iv. 9. stranger, this Samaritan, who forgets all national grudges as soon as he sees a suffering creature, and cannot look on him in any other light than as a fellow-man. Our Jesus made Himself thoroughly understood; and everyone present must have well learnt the lesson, that the greatest of all laws, the law of love, admits of no exception, either here or in heaven.

The Offertory is taken from the Book of Exodus, where Moses is described as striving with God, striving, that is, to induce Him to spare His people, after their crime of worshipping the golden calf. Moses was permitted to triumph, and God's anger was appeased. It may sometimes happen that this Sunday falls close upon, or even on, the very day when the Church, in her Martyrology (September 4), makes a commemoration of the Jewish leader ; and Honorius of Autun tells us, that this is the reason for such frequent mention being made in to-day's liturgy of this glorious lawgiver of Israel.

OFFERTOBY

Precatus est Moyses in Moses prayed in the pre- conspectu Domini Dei sui, sence of the Lord his God, et dixit: Quare, Domine, and said: Why, O Lord, art irasceris populo tuo ? Parce thou angry at thy people ?

irae animae tuse : memento Spare the wrath of thy soul :

Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, remember Abraham, Isaac, quibus jurasti dare terram and Jacob, to whom thou fluentem lac et mel. Et pla- didst swear to give a land catus factus est Dominus de flowing with milk and honey, malignitate, quam dixit fa- And the Lord was appeased, cere populo suo. and did not do the evil he had threatened his people.

The Secret prays our Lord to accept graciously the offerings of the Sacrifice — offerings which are made for the purpose of winning pardon for us, and giving honour to His divine majesty.

1 Gemm. cmim., iv. 69.

SECRET

Hostias, qusesumus Do-

Mercifully look down, O mine, propitius intende, Lord, on the offerings we lay quas sacris altaribus exhi- on thy holy altar; that tbey bemus ; ut, nobis indul- may be to the honour of thy gentiam largiendo, tuo name, by obtaining pardon for nomini dent honorem. Per us. Through, etc. Doininum.

The other Secrets, as on page 130.

As on last Sunday, so again to-day, the Communion-anthem evidently alludes to harvest-time and vintage. Bread, wine, and oil, are not only the supports of our material life; they are, also, the matter of the most august of our Sacraments. No moment is so suitable for speaking their praise as that of our having been made sharers in the sacred banquet.

De fructu operum tuorum, The earth, 0 Lord, shall be

Domine, satiabitur terra: ut filled with the fruit of thy educas panem de terra, et works : that thou mayst bring vinum lsetificet cor hominis: forth bread from the earth, ut exhilaret faciem in oleo, and that wine may cheer the et panis cor hominis con- heart of man : that he may

The life imparted to us by the sacred mysteries, finds in them its perfection, and also its protection ; for they are continually removing from us, gradually more and more, those remnants of the evil which had first brought death upon us. Such is the teaching expressed in the Postcommunion.

Vivificet nos, qusesumus May the sacred participa- Domine, hujus participatio tion of these thy mysteries, 0 sancta mysterii : et pariter Lord, we beseech thee, give us

COMMUNION firmet. make the face cheerful with oil, and that bread may strengthen man's heart.