The Eighteenth Sunday Aftee Pentecost

more than ever dread honour of the priesthood; that He infuse into them His divine prudence, whereby they may be able to disconcert the plans of the impious ; His untiring zeal for the conversion of ungrateful souls; His perseverance even unto death, in maintaining without reticence or compromise the plenitude of that truth which He has destined for the world, and the unviolated custody of which is to be, on the last day, the solemn testimony of the bride's fidelity.

THE EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTEE PENTECOST

The paralytic carrying his bed is the subject of this day's Gospel, and gives the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost its title. This Sunday is inserted in the missal immediately after the Ember-days of autumn. We will not, like the liturgists of the Middle Ages, discuss the question of its having taken the place of the vacant Sunday, which formerly used always to follow the ordination of the sacred ministers, in the manner we have elsewhere described. Manuscript sacramentaries and lectionaries of very ancient date give it the name, which was so much in use, of Dominica vacat. Whatever may be the conclusion arrived at, there is one interesting point for consideration, viz., that in the Mass of this day the order of the lessons taken from St. Paul is broken. The Letter to the Ephesians, which has furnished the Epistles since the sixth Sunday after Pentecost, is to-day interrupted, and in its stead we have some verses from

• 1 Beeno Aug., cap. v , etc.

2 Microlog., cap. xxix.

3 Advent : Ember Saturday.

• Thomasi Opp. Edit. Vezzosi, t. v., p. 148, 149, 309. the first Epistle to the Corinthians, wherein the apostle gives thanks to God for the manifold gratuitous gifts granted, in Christ Jesus, to the Church. Now, the powers conferred by the imposition of the bishop's hands on the ministers of the Church are the most marvellous gift that is known on earth, yea, in heaven itself. The other portions of the Mass, too, are, as we shall see further on, most appropriate to the prerogatives of the new priesthood. So that the liturgy of the present Sunday is particularly interesting when it immediately follows the Ember -days of September. But this coincidence is not of very frequent occurrence, at least as the liturgy now stands ; nor can we dwell longer on these subjects without going too far into archaeology, and exceeding our limits.

MA88

The Introits of the Sunday Masses since Pentecost have hitherto been taken from the Psalter. From Ps. xii. to Ps. cxviii. the Church, without ever changing the order of these sacred canticles, chose from each of them, as its own turn came, the verses most appropriate to the liturgy of each Sunday. But, dating from to-day, she is going to select her Introits elsewhere, with one exception, however, when she will again turn to this, the Book by excellence of divine praise. Her future opening anthems for the dominical liturgy to the end of the year will be taken from various other Books of the old Testament. For this eighteenth Sunday we have Jesus, son of Sirach, the inspired writer of Ecclesiasticus, asking God to ratify the fidelity of His prophets by the accomplishment of what they fooBtold. The present interpreters of the divine oracles

1 Ecclus. xxxvi. 18. are the pastors, whom the Church sends, in her own name, to preach the word of salvation and peace: let us, her children, pray with her that their words may never be void.

INTROIT

Da pacem, Domine, sustinentibus te, ut prophetae tui fideles inveniantur; exaudi preces servi tui et plebis tuae Israel.

P*. Laetatus sum in his, quae dicta sunt mini: in domum Domini ibimus. Gloria Patri. Da pacem.

The surest way to obtain grace is to be ever humbly acknowledging to our God our deep conviction that, of ourselves, we cannot please His divine Majesty. The Church continues to give us, in her Collects, the most admirable expressions of such an avowal.

Give peace, 0 Lord, to those who patiently wait for thee, that thy prophets may be found faithful ; hear the prayers of thy servant, and of thy people Israel.

Ps. I rejoiced at the things that were said unto me : we shall go into the house of the Lord. Glory, etc. Give peace.

COLLECT

Dirigat corda nostra, quaesumus Domine, tuae miserationis operatio : quia tibi sine te placere non possumus. Per Dominum.

May the influence of thy mercy, 0 Lord, direct our hearts : for, without thy help, we cannot please thee. Through, etc.

The other Collects, as on page 120.

EPISTLE

Lectio Epistolae beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios.

1 Caput J.

Fratres, Gratias ago Deo meo semper pro vobis in gratia Dei, quae data est vobis in Christo Jesu : quod

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

1 Chapter I,

Brethren : I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God, that is given you in Christ Jesus; that in in omnibus divites facti estis all things you are made rich in in illo, in omni verbo, et in him, in all utterance, and in all omni scientia : sicut testi- knowledge, as the testimony of monium Christi confirma- Christ was confirmed in you. turn est in vobis : ita ut So that nothing is wanting to nihil vobis desit in ulla gra- you in any grace, waiting for tia, exspectantibus revela- the manifestation of our Lord tionem Domini nostri Jesu Jesus Christ. Who also will

Christi, qui et confirmabit confirm you unto the end with- vos usque in finem sine cri- out crime, in the day of the mine, in die adventus Do- coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, mini nostri Jesu Christi.

The last coming of the Son of Man is no longer far off ! The approach of that final event, which is to put the Church in full possession of her divine Spouse, redoubles her hopes; but the last judgment, which is also to pronounce the eternal perdition of so great a number of her children, mingles fear with her desire ; and these two sentiments of hers will henceforth be continually brought forward in the holy liturgy.

It is evident that expectation has been, so to say, an essential characteristic of her existence. Separated from her Lord, she would have been sighing all day long in this vale of tears, had not the love which possesses her driven her to spend herself, unselfishly and unreservedly, for Him who is absolute Master of her whole heart. She, therefore, devotes herself to labour and suffering, to prayers and tears. But her devotedness, unlimited as it has been, has not made her hopes less ardent. A love without desires is not a virtue of the Church ; she condemns it in her children as being an insult to the Spouse.

So just and, at the same time, so intense were, from the very first, these her aspirations that eternal Wisdom wished to spare His bride, by concealing from her the duration of her exile. The day and hour of His return is the one sole point upon which, when questioned by His apostles, Jesus refused to enlighten His Church. That secret constituted one of the designs of God's government of the world ; but, besides that, it was also a proof of the compassion and affection of the Man-God ; the trial would have been too cruel ; and it was better to leave the Church under the impression, which after all was a true one, that the end was nigh in God's sight, with whom a thousand years are as one day.

This explains how it is that the apostles, the interpreters of the Church's aspirations, are continually recurring to the subject of the near approach of our Lord's coming. St. Paul has just been telling us, and that twice over in the same breath, that the Christian is he who waiteth for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the day of His coming. In his Epistle to the Hebrews, he applies to the second coming the inflamed desires of the ancient prophets for the first, and says: 'Yet a little, and a very little while, and He that is to come, will come, and will not delay.'3 The reason is that, under the new Covenant as under the old, the Man-God is called, on account of His final manifestation, which is always being looked for, He that is coming, He that is to come. The cry which is to close the world's history is to be the announcement of His arrival : ' Behold ! the Bridegroom is coming.'6

And St. Peter, too, says : ' Having the loins of your mind girt up, think of the glory of that day whereon the Lord Jesus is to be revealed ! Hope for it, with a perfect hope! The prince of the apostles foresaw the contemptuous way in which future false teachers would scoff at this long-

1 St. Matt. xxiv. 3, 36. 3 Hab. ii. 3 ; Heb. x. 37. 5 St. Matt. xxv. 6.

2 2 St. Pet. iii. 8.

4 St. Matt. xi. 3 ; Apoc. i. 8.

6 1 St. Pet. i. 5, 7, 13. expected, but always put-off, coming: 4 Where is His promise, or His coming? For, since the fathers slept, all things continue so, from the beginning of the creation I'1 Yes, he foresaw this, and forestalled their sarcasm, by answering it in the words which his brother Paul had previously used: 'The Lord delayeth not His promise, as some imagine ; but dealeth patiently, for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance. But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence ; and the elements shall be melted with heat ; and the earth, and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up. Seeing, then, that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness, looking for, and hastening unto, the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat of fire ? But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promises, in which justice dwelleth. Wherefore, dearly beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent that ye may be found undefiled and unspotted to Him in peace. . . . Wherefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed lest, being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own steadfastness.'4

If, in .those last days, the danger is to be so great that the very powers of heaven shall be moved, our Lord, as we are told in our Epistle, has providentially confirmed in us His testimony and our faith, by continual manifestations of His power. And, as if to verify that other word of the same Epistle, that He will thus confirm unto the end i 2 St. Pet. iii. 3, 4. 2 Ibid. 15. 3 Rom. ii. 4.

4 2 St. Pet. iii. 9-17. 5 St. Matt. xxiv. 29. them that believe in Him, He redoubles His prodigies in these our times, as though they were precursors of the end. Miracles are forcing themselves on the world's unwilling notice; and our modern facilities for propagating news are made to tell this glory of the Lord all over His earth ! In the name of Jesus, in the name of one or other of His saints, but especially in the name of His Immaculate Mother, who is preparing the final triumph of the Church, the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, every misery of both body and soul is suddenly made to yield. So incontestable, indeed, and so public, is the manifestation of supernatural power, that business-managers of all kinds, though they must, out of regard for incredulity, laugh at the facts, yet are most serious in turning the occasion to their profit. Such very material agencies as railway companies have been glad to accommodate the faithful thousands, and carry them as quickly as they could to the favoured sanctuaries, where the holy Mother of God has appeared. It is not in Catholic countries only that the divine power has made itself felt. Quite recently, in the very centre of Mohammedan infidelity, the city of the Sultans rejoiced at hearing of the marvels done by the Queen of heaven within its own walls. The water of the miraculous fountain has been carried even into the city of Mecca, where is the tomb of the founder of Islam, and into which, until but lately, it was death for any Christian to enter.

The infidel may say in his heart : ' There is no God!'1 If he hears not the divine testimony, it is because corruption, or pride, has more power over him than the light of reason, just as it had over the enemies of Jesus during His life upon earth. He is like to the asp of the Psalm, which

1 Ps. xiii. i. 2 Ps. lvii. 5, 6. maketh itself deaf ; it stoppeth its ears, that it may never hear the voice of the divine Enchanter, who speaketh that He may save. His life is one piece of madness and folly; he has done his best to draw down vengeance upon himself.

Let us not be like him, but, with the apostle, let us thank God for the rich profusion of grace which He has so mercifully poured out upon us. Never were His gratuitous gifts more necessary than in these our miserable times. True, the Gospel does not now need to be promulgated ; but the efforts of hell against it have become so violent that, in order to withstand them, there is need of a power from on high equal in some sense to that we read of as granted in the beginning of the Church. Let us beseech our Lord to bless us with men powerful in word and work. Let us, by the fervour of our fastings and prayers, obtain from His divine Majesty that the imposition of hands may produce, now more than ever, in them that are called to the priesthood, its full result : that it may make them rich in all things, and especially in all utterance, and in all knowledge. May these days, in which all principles are growing shadowy, find that the supernatural light is kept up, in full splendour and purity, by the zeal of the guides of Christ's flock. May the compromises and flinchings of a generation, in which all truth is being etiolated and diminished, never lead our newly ordained priests, either themselves to shorten, or to permit anyone else to curtail, the measure of the perfect "man, which was bestowed on them, in order that they might apply it to every Christian who is desirous of observing the Gospel ! In spite of all threats, in spite of the noisy passions which are boisterous against any priest who dares to preach the truth, let their voice be what it should be — that is, an

1 Pb. lvii. 5, 6. 2 Ps. xiii. 1. 3 Eph. iv. 13. echo of the Word: let it vibrate with the holy firmness of the saints !

In the Gradual, the Church repeats the Introitverse, to celebrate once more the joy felt by the Christian people at hearing the glad tidings, that they are soon to go into the home of the Lord. That home is heaven, into which we are to enter on the last day, our Lord Jesus Christ leading the way. But the home is also the temple in which we are now assembled, and into which we are introduced by the representatives of that same Lord of ours, that is, by His priests.

GRADUAL

Laetatus sum in his, qu£B dicta sunt mihi : in domum Domini ibimus.

V. Fiat pax in virtute tua, et abundantia in turribus tuis.

Alleluia, alleluia.

V. Timebunt gentes nomen tuum, Domine : et o runes reges terree gloriam tuam. Alleluia.

I rejoiced at the things that were said unto me : we shall go into the house of the Lord.

F. Let peace be in thy strength, and abundance in thy towers.

Alleluia, alleluia.

V. The Gentiles shall fear thy name, 0 Lord : and all the kings of the earth thy glory. Alleluia.

GOSPEL

Sequentia sancti Evangelii Sequel of the holy Gospel acsecundum Mattheeum. cording to Matthew.

Caput IX. In illo tempore : Ascendens Jesus in naviculam, transfretavit, et venit in civitatem suam. Et ecce offerebant ei paralyticum jacentem in lecto. Et videns Jesus fidem illorum, dixit paralytico : Confide, fili, remittuntur tibi peccata tua. Et ecce quidam de scribis dixerunt intra se : Hie blasphemat. Et cum

Chapter IX.

At that time : Jesus entering into a boat, passed over the water and came into his own city. And behold they brought to him one sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. And Jesus seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy : Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. And behold some of the scribes said within themselves: He blasphemeth. vidisset Jesus cogitationes And Jesus seeing their thoughts, eorum, dixit : Ut quid co- said : Why do you think evil in gitatis mala in cordibus your hearts ? Whether is it vestris ? Quid est facilius easier to say : Thy sins are for- dicere : Dimittuntur tibi given thee ; or to say : Arise peccata tua : an die ere : and walk ? But that you may

Surge et ambula? Utautem know that the Son of man hath sciatis, quia films hominis power on earth to forgive sins, habet potestatem in terra (then said he to the man sick of dimittendi peccata, tunc ait the palsy,) Arise, take up thy paralytico : Surge, tolle le- bed, and go into thy house, ctum tuum, et vade in do- And he arose and went into his mum tuam. Et surrexit, et house. And the multitude see- abiit in domum suam. Vi- ing it, feared and glorified God dentes autem turbae timue- that gave such power to men. runt, et glorificaverunt Deum, qui dedit potestatem talem hominibus.

In the thirteenth century, in many Churches of the west, the Gospel for to-day was that wherein our Lord speaks of the scribes and pharisees as seated on the chair of Moses. The Abbot Eupert, who gives us this detail in his book on the Divine Offices, shows how admirably this Gospel harmonized with the Offertory, which is the one we still have, and which alludes to Moses. 'This Sunday's Office,' says he, ' eloquently points out, to him who presides over the house of the Lord and has received charge of souls, the manner in which he should comport himself in the high rank, where the divine call has placed him. Let him not imitate those men, who unworthily sat on the chair of Moses ; but let him follow the example of Moses himself, who, in the Offertory and its verses, presents the heads of the Church with such a model of perfection. Pastors of souls ought, on no account* to be ignorant of the reason why they are placed higher than other men : it is not so much that they may govern others, as that they may serve them.'2 Our Lord, speaking of the Jewish

1 St. Matt. xxiu. H2. 2 Kup., Div. Off., xii. 18. doctors, said: 'All whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do ; but according to their works, do ye not: for they say, and do not.'1 Contrariwise to these unworthy guardians of the Law, they that are seated on the chair of doctrine ' should teach, and act conformably to their teaching/ as the same Abbot Eupert adds. 'Or, rather/ says he, ' let them first do what it is their duty to do, that they may afterwards teach with authority; let them not seek after honours and titles, but make this their one object, to bear on themselves the sins of the people, and to merit to avert the wrath of God from those who are confided to their care. Such, we are told in the Offertory, is the example given them by Moses/2

The Gospel which speaks of the scribes and pharisees who were seated on the chair of Moses has now been appointed for the Tuesday of the second week of Lent. But the one which is at present given for this Sunday equally directs our thoughts to the consideration of the superhuman powers of the priesthood, which are the common boon of regenerated humanity. The faithful, whose attention used formerly, on this Sunday, to be fixed on the right of teaching which is confided to the pastors of the Church, are now invited to meditate upon the prerogative which these same men have of forgiving sins and healing souls. Even if their conduct be in opposition to their teaching, it in nowise interferes with the authority of the sacred chair, from which, for the Church and in her name, they dispense the bread of doctrine to her children. Moreover, whatever unworthiness may happen to be in the soul of a priest, it does not in the least lessen the power of the keys which have been put into his hands to open heaven and to shut hell. For it is the Son of Man, Jesus, who, 1 St. Matt, xxiii. 3. 2 Bup., ubi mpra.

27—2 by the priest, be he a saint, or be he a sinner, rids of their sins His brethren and His creatures, whose miseries He has taken upon Himself, and whose crimes He has atoned for by His Blood.

The miracle of the cure of the paralytic, which gave an occasion to Jesus of declaring His power of forgiving sins inasmuch as he was Son of Man, has always been especially dear to the Church. Besides the narration she gives us of it from St. Matthew in to-day's Gospel, she again, on the Ember Friday of Whitsuntide, relates it in the words of St. Luke. The Catacomb frescoes, which have been preserved to the present day, equally attest the predilection for this subject, wherewith she inspired the Christian artists of the first centuries. From the very beginning of Christianity, heretics had risen up denying that the Church had the power, which her divine Head gave her, of remitting sin. Such false teaching would irretrievably condemn to spiritual death an immense number of Christians, who, unhappily, had fallen after their Baptism, but who, according to Catholic dogma, might be restored to grace by the sacrament of Penance. With what energy, then, would our mother the Church defend the remedy which gives life to her children ! She uttered her anathemas upon, and drove from her communion, those Pharisees of the new law, who, like their Jewish predecessors, refused to acknowledge the infinite mercy and universality of the great mystery of the Bedemption.

Like to her divine Master, who had worked under the eyes of the scribes, His contradictors, the Church, too, in proof of her consoling doctrine, had worked an undeniable and visible miracle in the presence of the false teachers ; and yet she had failed to convince them of the reality of the miracle 1 Heb. ii 10-18. * St. Luke v. 17-26. of sanctification and grace invisibly wrought by her words of remission and pardon. The outward cure of the paralytic was both the image and the proof of the cure of his soul, which previously had been in a state of moral paralysis ; but he himself represented another sufferer, viz., the human race, which for ages had been a victim to the palsy of sin. Our Lord had already left the earth, when the faith of the apostles achieved this, their first prodigy, of bringing to the Church the world grown old in its infirmity. Finding that the human race was docile to the teaching of the divine messengers, and was already an imitator of their faith, the Church spoke as a mother, and said ; Be of good heart, son ! thy sins are forgiven thee ! At once, to the astonishment of the philosophers and sceptics, and to the confusion of hell, the world rose up from its long and deep humiliation ; and, to prove how thoroughly his strength had been restored to him, he was seen carrying on his shoulders, by the labour of penance and the mastery over his passions, the bed of his old exhaustion and feebleness, on which pride, lust, and covetousness had so long held him. From that time forward, complying with the word of Jesus, which was also said to him by the Church, he has been going on towards his house, which is heaven, where eternal joy awaits him ! And the angels, beholding such a spectacle of conversion and holiness, are in amazement, and sing glory to God, who gave such power to men.

Let us also give thanks to Jesus, whose marvellous dower, which is the Blood He shed for His bride, suffices to satisfy, through all ages, the claims of eternal justice. It was at Easter time that we saw our Lord instituting the great Sacrament, which thus in one instant restores the sinner to

1 St. Luke v. 26. life and strength. But how doubly wonderful does its power seem, when we see it working in these times of effeminacy and of well-nigh universal ruin ! Iniquity abounds ; crimes are multiplied ; and yet, the life -restoring pool, kept full by the sacred stream which flows from the open side of our crucified Lord, is ever absorbing and removing, as often as we permit it, and without leaving one single vestige of them, those mountains of sins, those hideous treasures of iniquity which had been amassed, during long years, by the united agency of the devil, the world, and man himself.

The Offertory speaks to us of the figurative altar, which was set up by Moses for the reception of the oblations of the figurative Law, which oblations foreshadowed the great and only true sacrifice, at which we are now present. After the anthem which is still in use, we will append the verses which were anciently added. Moses is there represented as the type of those faithful prophets mentioned in the Introit ; he is shown to us as the model of those true leaders of God's people, who devote themselves in order to procure mercy and peace for those whom they guide. God sometimes seems to resist them, but He always suffers Himself to be overcome ; and in return for their fidelity, He admits them into the most intimate manifestations of His light and His love. The first verse shows us the priest in his public life of intercession and devotedness for others; the second reveals to us his private life, of which prayer and contemplation are the main occupation. We shall not be surprised at the length of these verses — the singing of which would far exceed the time for offering the Host and chalice, such as is now the custom — if we remem-

1 Wednesday of the fifth week after Easter. 3 Rup., ubi supra. ber how it was the ancient usage that the whole assembly of the faithful present at the holy Sacrifice took part in the oblation of the bread and wine needed for the liturgy. So likewise the Communion, which at present consists of only a few lines, was originally nothing but the antiphon to an entire psalm, which in the ancient antiphonaries was appointed for each day, when it was not the same as the Introit-psalm ; the psalm was sung, repeating the antiphon after each verse, until all had communicated.

Sanctificavit Moyses altare Domino, offerens super illud holocausta, et immolans victima : fecit sacrificium vespertinum in odorem suavitatis Domino Deo, in conspectu filiorum Israel.

V. I. Locutus est Dominus ad Moysen dicens : Ascende ad me in montem Sina, et stabis super cacumen ejus. Surgens Moyses, ascendit in montem, ubi constituit ei Deus ; et descendit ad eum Dominus in nube}et adstitit ante faciem ejus. Videns Moyses, procidens adoravit, dicens: Obsecro, Domine, dimitte peccata populi tut. Et dixit ad eum Dominus : Faciam secundum verbum tuum.

Tunc Moyses fecit sacrificium vespertinum.

V. II. Oravit Moyses Dominum, et dixit : Si inveni gratiam in conspectu tuo, ostende mihi teipsum manifeste, ut videam te. Et locutus est ad eum Dominus

Moses consecrated an altar unto the Lord, offering whole-burnt offerings thereon, and slaying victims : he made an evening sacrifice for a sweet odour unto the Lord God, in the sight of the children of Israel.

F. I. The Lord spake unto Moses saying : Come up tmto me, upon mount Sina,and thou shall stand on the top thereof. Moses rising up, went up the mountain, where the Lord had appointed him : and the Lord came down unto him in a cloud, and stood before his face. Which Moses seeing, fell down and adored, saying : I beseech thee, 0 Lord, forgive the sins of thy people. And the Lord said unto him : I will do according to thy word.

ThenMoses made an evening sacrifice.

V, II. Moses prayed to the Lord and said : If I have found favour in thy sight, show me thyself openly, that I may see thee. And the Lord spake unto him,saying : For man shall not see me, and live; but be thou on the Jieight of the rock, and my right hand shall protect thee, till I pass : whilst I pass I will take away my hand, and then shalt thou see my glory : but my face shall not be seen by thee; for I am God, showing wonderful things in the earth. Then Moses made. dicens : Non enim videbit me homo, et vivere potest : sed esto super altitudinem lapidis, etprotegat te dextera mea donee pertranseam : dum pertransiero, auferam manum meam, et tunc videbis gloriam meam : facies autem mea non videbitur tibi quia ego sum Deus ostendens mirabilia in terra. Tunc Moyses fecit.

The sublime eloquence of the Secret is beyond all comment. Let us get thoroughly imbued with the high teaching here so admirably summed up in a few short words : let us come to understand that our life and conduct should have something divine about them, in response to the mysteries which are revealed to our understanding and incorporated into us by the venerable communication of this Sacrifice.

SECRET

Deus, qui nos per hujus sacrificii veneranda commercia, unius summse divinitatis participes efficis : prsesta quaesumus ; ut, sicut tuam cognoscimus veritatem, sic earn d ignis moribus assequamur. Per Dominum.

0 God, who, by the venerable communication of this sacrifice, makest us partakers of the one supreme divine nature : grant, we beseech thee, that as we know thy truth, so we may follow it up by a worthy conduct of life. Through, etc.

The other Secrets, as on page 180.

The Communion-anthem is addressed to the priests, and, at the same time, to us all : for if the priest offers the Victim, which is the holiest that can be, we should not think of accompanying him into the court of our God, without bringing up, that they may be united to the divine Host, other victims, that is ourselves. It is God's injunction : Thou shalt not appear empty before me I1

COMMUNION

Tollite hostias, et introite in atria ejus : adorate Dominum in aula sancta ejus.

Bring up sacrifices, and come into his courts : adore ye the Lord in his holy court,

Whilst giving thanks in the Postcommunion for the priceless gift of the sacred mysteries, let us beseech our God to perfect within us the grace of always receiving it worthily.

POSTCOMMUNION

Gratias tibi referimus, Being fed, O Lord, with the

Domine, sacro munere ve- sacred gift, we give thee getati, tuam misericordiam thanks, humbly beseeching deprecantes: ut dignos nos thy mercy, that thou wouldst ejus participatione perficias. make us worthy of its recep-

Per Dominum. tion. Through, etc.

The other Postcommunions, as on page 181.

VESPEBS

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

ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT

Tulit ergo paralyticus The paralytic took up his lectum suum in quo jace- bed, on which he had been bat, magnificans Deum ; ot lying, magnifying God ; and all omnis plebs, ut vidit, dedit the people, as soon as they saw laudem Deo. this, gave praise unto God. o REMUS

Dirigat corda nostra, quaesumus Domine, tuse miserationis operatio: quia tibi sine te placere non possumus. Per Dominum.

LET US PRAY

May the influence of thy mercy, O Lord, direct our hearts : for, without thy help, we cannot please thee. Through, etc.

1 Exod. xxiii. 15.

THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

MASS

The divine Leader of God's people is their salvation in all their distress. Did we not last Sunday see Him prove Himself such, and in a very telling way, by curing both body and soul of the poor paralytic, who was a figure of the whole human race ? Let us hear His voice, in the Introit, with love and gratitude ; let us promise Him the fidelity He asks of us ; His Law, if we will but observe it, will preserve us from a relapse.

The anthem which follows is made up of several passages of holy Writ, without being exactly that of any one of them. The verse is taken from Psalm lxxvii.

INTROIT

Salus populi ego sum, I dicit Dominus : de quacumque tribulatione clamaverint ad me, exaudiam eos : me, I et ero illorum Dominus in perpetuum. am the salvation of the people, saith the Lord : in what distress soever they call upon will hear them : and will be their Lord for ever,

P*. Attendite, popule me- Ps. legem meam : inclinate aurem vestram in verba oris mei. Gloria PatrL Glory, etc. I Salus.

Attend, 0 my people, us, unto my law : incline your ear to the words of my mouth, am the salvation.

Free both in mind and body by the omnipotent word of the Son of Man, the human race can devote itself, with all activity, to the service of God. Let us obtain from His divine Majesty, by uniting our prayer with that of the Church in her Collect, that the fatal paralysis, which was once so cruel a tyrant over our souls and faculties, may never return.

COLLECT

Omnipotens et misericors Deus, universa nobis adversantia propitiatus exclude : lit mente et corpore pariter expediti, qu» tua sunt liberis mentibus exsequamur. Per Dominum.

O almighty and merciful God, graciously keep away from us all things that are adverse : that being free in mind and body, we may, with unimpeded minds, attend to the things that are thine. Through, etc.

The other Collects, as on page 120.

EPISTLE

Lectio Epistolse beati Pauli Apostoli ad Ephesios.

Caput IV.

Fratres, Renovamini spi ritu mentis vestrse, et induite novum hominem, qui secundum Deum creatus est in justitia, et sanctitate veritatis. Propter quod deponentes mendacium, loquimini veritatem unusquisque cum proximo suo : quoniam sumus invicem membra. Irascimini, et nolite peccare: sol non occidat super iracundiam vestram. Nolite locum dare diabolo : qui furabatur, jam non furetur : magis autem laboret, operando manibus suis, quod bonum est, ut habeat unde tribuat necessitatem patienti.

The Epistle to the Ephesians, which was interrupted last Sunday in the manner we then described, is continued to-day by the Church. The apostle has already laid down the dogmatical principles of true holiness; he now deduces the moral consequences of those principles.

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

Chapter IV.

Brethren : be renewed in the spirit of your mind ; and put on the new man, who, according to God, is created in justice, and holiness of truth. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak ye the truth every man with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger. Give not place to the devil. He that stole, let him now steal no more ; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth need.

Let us call to mind how the holiness, which is in God, is His very truth — truth living and harmonious, which is no other than the admirable concert of the Three divine Persons, united in love. We have seen that holiness, as far as it exists in us men, is also union, by infinite love, with the eternal and living Truth. The Word took a Body unto Himself in order to manifest in the Flesh this sanctifying and perfect truth, of which He is the substantial expression; His Humanity, sanctified directly by the plenitude of the divine life and truth, which dwell within Him, became the model, as well as the means, the way, of all holiness to every creature. It was not sin alone, but it was, moreover, the finite nature of man that kept him at a distance from the divine life ; but he finds in Christ Jesus, .just as in God, the two elements of that life : truth and love. In Jesus, as the complement of His Incarnation, Wisdom aspires at uniting with herself all the members, also, of that human race, of which He is the Head, and the First-born ; by Him the Holy Ghost, whose sacred fount He is, pours Himself out upon man, whereby to adapt him to his sublime vocation, and to consummate, in infinite love (which is Himself), that union of every creature with the divine Word. Thus it is that we verily partake of that life of God, whose existence and holiness are the knowledge and love of His own Word; thus it is "that we are sanctified in truth by the participation of that very holiness wherewith God is holy by nature.

The Son of Man, being God, participates for us His brethren in the life of union in the truth which constitutes the holiness of the blessed Trinity.

1 St. John i. 14. 2 Heb. i. 3. 3 Col. ii. 3, 9, 10.

• St. John xiv. 6. * Eph. iv. 18. 6 Ibid. i. 10. 7 Col. i. 15-20. 8 Cf. St. John iv. 14 ; vii, 37, 39. 9 Ibid. xvii. 17.

But He communicates that life, that truth, that deifying union, to none save those who have truly become His members, and who, in Him, reproduce between one another, by the operation of the Spirit of tmth and love, that unity of which that sanctifying Spirit is the almighty bond in the Godhead. * May they all be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee/ said Jesus to His eternal Father, ' that they also may be * one in us. I have given unto them the glory (that is to say, the holiness) which Thou hast given unto Me, that they may be one, as we also are one ; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be consummated (that is, be made perfect) in unity.'2 Here we have, and formulated by our Lord Himself, the simple but fruitful axiom, the foundation of Christian dogma and morals. By that sublime prayer, He explained what He had previously been saying : ' I sanctify Myself for them, that they, also, may be sanctified in truth/3 Let us now understand the moral doctrine given us by St. Paul in our to-day's Epistle. What does he mean by that justice, and that holiness of tmth, which is that of Christ, of the new man, whom everyone must put on, that aspires to the possession of the riches spoken of in the passages already read to us from this magnificent Epistle ? Let us re-read the Epistle for the seventeenth Sunday, and we shall find that all the rules of Christian asceticism, as well as of the mystic life, are to St. Paul's mind summed up in those words : Be careful to keep unity ! It is the principle he lays down for all, both beginners and the perfect. It is the crowning of the sublimest vocations in the order of grace, as well as the foundation and reason of all God's commandments ; so truly so, indeed, that, if we are commanded to abstain from lying,

1 Cf. St. John xv. 26. a Ibid.*xvii. 21-23. « Ibid. 19. 4 Rom. xiii. 14. 5 Eph. iv. 3. and to apeak the truth to them that live with us, the motive is that we are membera one of another.

There is a holy anger, of which the Psalmist speaks, and which is the outcome, on certain occasions, of zeal for the divine law and charity ; but the movement of irritation excited in the soul must, even then, be speedily calmed down ; to foster it would be to give place to the devil, to give him an opportunity of weakening, or - even destroying, within us, by bitterness and hatred, the structure of holy unity.

Before our conversion our neighbour, as well as God, was grieved by our sins ; we cared little or nothing for injustice, provided it was not noticed; egotism was our law, and it was proof enough of the reign of satan over our souls. Now that the Spirit of holiness has expelled the unworthy usurper, the strongest evidence of His being our rightful master is that not only the rights of others are sacred in our estimation, but our toil and our labours are all undergone for the purpose of being serviceable to our neighbour. In a word, as the apostle continues a little farther on, we walk in love, because, as most dear children, we are followers of God.

It is by this means alone, says St. Basil, that the Church manifests the many and great benefits bestowed on the world by the Incarnation. The Christian family, which, heretofore, was split up into a thousand separate fragments, is now made one, one in itself, and one in God ; it is the repetition of what our Lord did, by assuming Flesh and making it one with Himself.

Our Jesus has restored to our handa, which once were paralyzed for every supernatural work, the full freedom of their movements; let us, then,

1 Ps. iv. 5. 2 S. Cheys., in ep. ad Eph. Horn., xiv.

3 Eph. v. 1, 2. 4 S. Basil, Const, mon., xviii. raise them up spiritually in prayer, giving glory to God by this our homage, which He graciously accepts as a fragrant sacrifice. The Church gives us this teaching in the Gradual, and by her own example as well.

GRADUAL

Dirigatur oratio mea, sicut incensum in conspectu tuo, Domine.

V. Elevatio manuum mearum sacrificium vespertinum.

Alleluia, alleluia.

V. Confitemini Domino, et invocate nomen ejus : annuntiate inter gentes opera ejus. Alleluia.

Let my prayer be directed as incense, in thy sight, O Lord.

V. May the lifting up of my hands be as an evening sacrifice.

Alleluia, alleluia.

V. Give glory to the Lord, and call upon his name : proclaim among the gentiles his works. Alleluia.

Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Matthaeum.

Caput XXIL

In illo tempore; Loquebatur Jesus principibus sacerdotum, et pharisaeis in parabolis, dicens : Simile factum est regnum ccelorum homini regi, qui fecit nuptias filio suo. Et misit servos suos vocare invitatos ad nuptias, et nolebant venire. Iterum misit alios servos, dicens : Dicite invitatis : Ecce prandium meum paravi; tauri mei, et altilia occisa sunt, et omnia parata ; venite ad nuptias. IUi autem neglexerunt, et abierunt, alius in villam suam, alius vero ad negotiationem suam : reliqui vero tenuerunt servos ejus, et contumeliis affectos occiderunt.

Sequel of the holy Gospel according to Matthew.

Chapter XXIL

At that time : Jesus spoke to the chief priests and the pharisees in parables, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king, who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants, to call them that were invited to the marriage : and they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying : Tell them that were invited: Behold, I have prepared my dinner : my beeves and f atlings are killed, and all things are ready: come ye to the marriage. But they neglected, and went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands on his servants, and having treated them contumeliously, put them to death. But when the king had heard of it, he was angry, and sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city. Then he saith to his servants : The marriage indeed is ready : but they that were invited were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways; and as many as ye shall find, call to the marriage. And his servants going forth into the ways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good : and the marriage was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests : and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he saith to him : Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment? But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters : Bind his hands and his feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.

This Gospel has given to the present Sunday the name of the Sunday of the invited to the marriage. And yet, from the very opening of the dominical series, which began with the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Church gave us the Gospel teaching which she offers to us, now a second time, for our consideration. On the second Sunday after Pentecost, she related to us, from St. Luke, the parable of the great supper, to which many were invited, and which St. Matthew, entering into fuller details, calls a marriage-feast.

1 St. Luke xiv. 16-24.

Bex autem cum audisset, iratus est : et missis exercitibus suis, perdidit homicidas illos, et civitatem illorum succendit. Tunc ait servis suis : Nuptiae quidem paratae sunt, sed qui invitati erant, non fuerunt digni. Ite ergo ad exitus viarum, et quoscumque inveneritis, vocate ad nuptias. Et egressi servi ejus in vias, congregaverunt omnes, quos invenerunt, malos et bonos : et impletae sunt nuptise discumbentium. Intravit autem rex ut videret discumbentes, et vidifc ibi hominem non vestitum veste nuptiali. Et ait illi: Amice, quomodo hue intrasti^ non habens vestem nuptialem ? At ille obmutuit. Tunc dixit rex ministris : Ligatis manibus et pedibus ejus, mittite eum in tenebras exteriores : ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium. Multi enim sunt vocati, pauci vero electi.

Set thus before us, both at the beginning and at the close of the liturgical season over which the holy Spirit reigns supreme, this parable is, as it were, the interpreter of the whole portion of the year which it thus hems in : it is an additional revelation of the true aim of the Church. But how much has the light increased, since the first time we had these mystery-telling allegories ! The certain man (homo quidam), who made a great supper, and invited many, has become the King, who makes a muniage for His Son, and, in this marriage, gives us an image of the kingdom of heaven. The world's history, too, has been developing, as we gather from the terms respectively used by the two Evangelists. Those who were the first invited, and contented themselves with declining the kindness of the Master of the house, have grown in their impiods ingratitude ; laying hands on the messengers sent them by the loving kindness of the King, they treat them with contumely, and put them to death ! We have seen the merited punishment inflicted on these deicides, by this Man, who was God Himself, the Father of Israel, now become King of the Gentiles : we have seen how He sent his armies to destroy them, and bum their city. And now at last, in spite of the refusal of the invited of Juda, in spite of the treacherous opposition put by them against the celebration of the nuptials of the Son of God, all things are ready for -the marriage, and the banquet-hall is filled with guests.

Our heavenly King has confided, to the ministers of His love, the work of calling from every people the new guests. But now that His ambassadors, according to His command, have traversed the

1 See Time after Pentecost, vol. i., p. 358.

2 See Ninth Sunday after Pentecost. whole earth, bringing together all nations for this day of the joy of His heart, He Himself is coming in person, to see that nothing is wanting to the due preparation for the feast, and to give the signal for the eternal banquet of the divine nuptials. Now, for such a feast, and in such a place, if there be any deficiency, it can only be on the part of the guests. Let them, then, be careful not to draw down upon themselves, in this general and last examination, the displeasure of the great King, who has called them to an alliance with Himself. Though He has condescended to call them, notwithstanding their extreme poverty, from the public streets and highways, He has given them abundant time to lay aside their tatters ; and knowing that they could not get ready of themselves, He has placed at their disposal, for the marriage-feast, the richest garments of His grace and virtues. Woe, then, to him who on the last day shall be found not having the wedding garment of charity ! Such a want would admit of no excuse ; and the King would justly punish it, by excluding the guilty man from the feast, as one that had insulted His Son.

Everything we have had on the preceding Sundays, has shown us how solicitous the Church ever is in preparing mankind for that wonderful marriage whose realization is the one object aimed at by the divine Word, in coming upon our earth. Puring her long exile, the bride of the Son of God has been a living model to her children ; and, by her instructions, she has been unceasingly preparing them for the understanding of the great mystery of divine union. Three weeks ago, treating more directly than she had hitherto done on the great subject of her ambition as mother and

1 Ps. xviii. 5. a Cant. iii. 11.

3 The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. bride, she reminded them of the great call. On the following Sunday, she gave them another lesson : she revealed to them the Bridegroom of the nuptials, to which they were invited, as the Man-God, the object of the twofold precept of love which embodies the whole Law. To-day, we have the teaching in all its perfection. It is condensed in the night Office, where we have St. Gregory explaining her whole teaching. The great doctor and the great Pope thus, in the name of the Church, explains our Gospel :

• The kingdom of heaven is the assembly of the just; for, the Lord says by a prophet: "Heaven is My throne 1 and Solomon says : " The soul of the just man is the throne of wisdom "; and Paul calls Christ the Wisdom of God. If, therefore, heaven be the throne of God, we must evidently conclude that, as Wisdom is God, and the soul of the just man is the throne of Wisdom, this soul is a heaven. . . . The kingdom of heaven, then, is the assembly of the just. ... If this kingdom is said to be like to a King, who made a marriage for his Son, your charity at once understands who is this King, who is the Father of a Son, King like Himself. It is He, of whom the psalmist says: " Give to the King Thy judgment, 0 God, and to the King's Son Thy justice I"4 God the Father made the marriage of God His Son, when He wished that He, who had been God before all ages, should become Man towards the end of ages. But we must not, on that account, suppose that there are two persons in Jesus Christ, our God and our Saviour. ... It is, perhaps, clearer and safer to say, that the King made a marriage for His Son, in that, by the mystery of the Incarnation, He united the Church to Him. The womb of the Virgin-

1 Isa. lxvi. 1. a Wisd. vii. 27.

3 1 Cor. i. 24. 4 Ps. bm. 2.

28—2

Mother was the nuptial-chamber of that Bridegroom, of whom the psalmist says: He hath set His tabernacle in the sun : and He, as a Bridegroom, cometh out of His bride-chamber !' 2

Notwithstanding her dignity of beloved bride of the Son of God, the Church is, none the less, subject to tribulations here below. The enemies of the Spouse, having no longer any direct power to injure our Lord, turn all their rage against her. In these trials, endured as they are by the Church with love, Jesus sees a fresh trait of that resemblance which He wishes her to have to Himself ; He, therefore, leaves her to suffer in this world, contenting Himself with ever upholding and saving her, as the Offertory says, in the midst of the evils which go on thickening around her.

OFFERTORY

Si ambulavero in medio If I should walk in the tribulationis, vivificabis me, midst of tribulation, thou, O

Domine : et super iram Lord, wilt quicken me : and inimicorum meorum ex- thou wilt stretch forth thy tendes manum tuam, et hand against the wrath of salvum me faciet dextera mine enemies, and thy right tua. hand shall save me.

The august sacrifice, which is about to be offered, always obtains its effect, as far as the glory of the divine Majesty is concerned ; but its virtue is applied to man in a greater or less degree, according to the dispositions of the creature, and depending on the divine mercy. Let us, in the Secret, beseech 6ur heavenly Father, that we may experience abundantly the effects of the divine mysteries, which are so soon to be produced on our altar.

1 Ps. xviii. 6. 2 S. Greg., Horn, xxxviii., vn Ev.

SECRET

Hsec munera, qusesumus Domine, quae oculis tuse majestatis offerimus, salutaria nobis esse concede, jesty, Per Dominum. etc.

Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, that the offerings we bring before thy divine Mamay avail unto our salvation. Through,

The other Secrets, as on page 130.

The Man-God, by His divine contact in the sacred banquet, has spiritually given vigour to our members ; let us recall to mind that we must, henceforward, consecrate them to His service, and that our feet, now made sure, must run in the way of the divine commandments.

COMMUNION

Tu mandasti mandata tua custodiri nimis : u tin dirigantur vise meae, ad custodiendas justificationes tuas ! justifications I

Thou hast commanded thy am commandments to be kept most diligently : oh ! that my ways may be directed to keep thy

The Postcommunion, again, seems to be an allusion to the Gospel of the paralytic, which used formerly to be read on this Sunday. In it, we implore the assistance of the heavenly Physician, who sets man free from the palsy, which held him a prisoner ; He also gives him the strength needed for fulfilling the law of God bravely and perseveringly.

POSTCOMMUNION

Tua nos, Domine, medi- May the healing efficacy of cinalis operatio et a nostris these thy mysteries, 0 Lord, perversitatibus clementer mercifully free us from our expediat, et tuis semper perversen9ss, and make us al- faciat inhserere mandatis. ways obedient to thy command-

Per Dominum. ments. Through, etc.

The other Postcommunions, as on page 181.

VE8PEBS

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

ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT

Intravit autem rex ut videret discumbentes : et vidit ibi hominem non vestitum veste nuptial i, et ait illi : Amice, quomodo hue intrasti non habens vestem nuptialem ?

ORBMUS

Omnipotens et misericors Deus, universa nobis adversantia propitiatus exclude : ut mente et corpore pariter expediti, quae tua sunt liberis mentibus exequamur. Per Dominum.

Now, the king went in to see the guests : and he saw there a man wh'o had not on a wedding garment, and he saith unto him : Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment ?

LET US PRAY

0 almighty and merciful God, graciously keep away from us all things that are adverse : that being free in mind and body, we may, with unimpeded minds, attend to the things that are thine. Through, etc.

THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

MASS

The Gospel of last Sunday spoke to us of the nuptials of the Son of God with the human race. The realization of those sacred nuptials is the object which God had in view in the creation of the visible world ; it is the only one He intends in His government of society. This being the case, we cannot be surprised, that the parable of the Gospel, whilst revealing to us this divine plan, has also brought before us the great fact of the rejection of the Jews, and the vocation of the Gentiles, which is not only the most important fact of the world's history, but