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Christ, the Crown of All the Saints

SUMMARY. — Christ is inseparable from His mystical body. — I. The motives that we have for tending to perfection : the will of God and the infinite price that Jesus paid for our perfection. — II. Fundamental character of our holiness : it is the supernatural realisation of the Divine plan of our free predestination in Jesus Christ. — III. How Christ is for us the source of all holiness in being the Way, the Truth, and the Life. — IV. Dispositions that we ought to have in our seeking after holiness : profound humility and absolute confidence. — V. Practical conclusions: to honour the Saints: to seek to imitate them, by remaining united to Jesus Christ ; not to allow ourselves to be cast down by our miseries and trials. — VI. The end of the eternal plan for our holiness is to magnify the power of the grace of Jesus : In laudem gloriae gratiae suae.

HE God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ... hath subjected all things under His feet, and hath made Him Head over all the Church which is His body, and the fulness of Him Who is filled all in all” ?.

These words of St. Paul show us the mystery of Christ Jesus considered in His Mystical Body which is the Church.

In all the preceding conferences, we have had the joy of contemplating the Person of Jesus Himself, His states, His abasements, His conflicts, His greatness, His triumph ; we have not been able to turn our gaze away from this adorable Humanity which is for us the example of every virtue and the one source of every grace.

But all the mysteries of the Man-God tend to. the establishment and sanctification of the Church : Propter nos et propter nostram salutem?. Christ came in order to form to Himself a society which might appear glorious before1

Him “not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing ; but holy and without blemish ” *.

So close and intimate is the union contracted with the Church that He is the Vine and she forms the branches ; that He is the Head and she forms the body ; that He is the Bridegroom and she has the rank of Bride. United together they compose what St. Augustine so well calls the “Whole Christ ” ?.

Christ and the Church are inseparable ; one is not to be conceived of without the other. This is why, at the end of these conferences upon the Person of Jesus Christ and His mysteries, we must speak of this Church that St. Paul calls the “completing” of Christ, and without which the mystery of Christ does not attain its perfection.

Here below, as you know, this ineffable union is wrought by faith, grace and charity ; it is consummated in the splendours of heaven and the Beatific Vision. Thus, having reached the end of the Liturgical cycle, the Church celebrates in one solemn feast—the feast of All Saints— © the glory of the kingdom of Jesus. It reunites in the same praise the entire multitude of the company of the elect in order to exalt their triumph and their joy, and at the same time to excite us to follow their example so that we may partake of their felicity.

For this company is one, as Christ is one. To time succeeds eternity ; here below souls are formed to perfection, but the term is only to be found in this glorious company ; moreover, our degree of beatitude is measured by the degree of charity attained at the hour when we leave this earth,

I will first point out the reasons we have for tending to this heavenly beatitude ; we will afterwards see the means of coming to it.

I

‘The first reason that we have for tending to holiness is “the will of God” : Haec est voluntas Dei, sanctificatio vestra*®, God not only wills that we should be saved, but that we should become saints. And why does God will this ? Because He Himself is holy : Sancti estote quomiam ego sanctus sum*. God is holiness itself ; we are His creatures ; He wishes the creature to reflect His image ; still more, He wills that, being His children, we should be perfect as He, our Heavenly Father, is perfect ?. Such is the very precept of Jesus.2

God finds His glory in our holiness. Never let us forget this truth : each degree of holiness to which we attain, each sacrifice we make in order to acquire it, each virtue which is to adorn our souls will be a glory for God eternally.

We sing every day, and it seems to me that every day it is with more gladness : Tu solus sanctus Jesus Christe? : “Thou only art holy... O Jesus Christ”. And that is why Jesus Christ is the great glory of God. Throughout all eternity, He will give infinite glory to His Father, He will stand before the face of His Father, showing Him His five Wounds, the magnificent expression of the sovereign fidelity and perfect love with which He always did that which His Father required of Him: Quae placita sunt ei facio semper *,

It is the same with the saints. They stand “ before the throne of God” ®, and unceasingly render Him glory. The burning zeal of the apostles, the testimony of the martyrs, the profound knowledge of the doctors, the dazzling purity of the virgins constitute so much pleasing homage to God.

In this “ multitude which no man could number” ®, each saint shines with a special splendour; and God will eternally look with complacency upon each saint’s efforts, the conflicts, the victories which are so many trophies laid down at His feet to honour His infinite perfections and to acknowledge His rights.

It is, then, a lawful ambition for us tc tend with all our strength to procure this glory which God derives from our holiness ; we ought ardently to aspire to make a part of that blessed company in which God Himself takes His delight : this is truly a motive for us not to be contented with a mediocre perfection, but continually to have it in view to

I. Levit. XI, 44 ; XIX, 2. — 2. Matth. v, 48. — 3. Gloria of the Mass. — 4. Joan. vul, 29. — 5. Apoc. vu, 9. — 6. Ibid.

Christ in His Mysteries. 25 respond as fully as possible to God’s desire : Sancti estote quia ego sanctus sum.

Another reason is that the higher our holiness, the more we exalt the price of the blood of Jesus.

St. Paul tells us that Christ delivered Himself up to death and the death of the Cross in order to sanctify the Church. That was the end of His sacrifice.

Now one of the sources of the most poignant distress for the Heart of Jesus during His agony in the Garden of Olives was the perspective of the unavailingness of His Blood for so many souls who were to refuse the Divine gift: Quae utilitas in sanguine meo*? Christ knew that a single drop of His Blood would have sufficed to purify whole worlds, and sanctify multitudes of souls ; out of obedience to His Father He consented with unspeakable love to shed, to the last drop, that Blood which contained the infinite virtue of the Divinity. And yet it might well be - asked : “ What profit is there in this blood” ?

The great ambition of the Heart of Christ is to glorify His Father ; this is why He desires with so much vehemence, quomodo coarctor?, to give His life so as to bring to His Father innumerable souls who will bear much fruit of life and holiness : Jn hoc clarificatus est Pater meus, ut fructum PLURIMUM afferatis °.

But how many understand the ardour of the love of Jesus ? how many respond to the desires of His Heart ? So many souls do not observe the divine laws! Others keep the commandments ; but very few yield themselves up to Jesus and the action of His Spirit with that fulness which leads to holiness.

Happy are those souls that give themselves up unreservedly to the divine good pleasure !_ United to Christ, Who is the Vine, they bear much fruit and glorify the heavenly Father ; they proclaim, above all, the virtue of the Blood of Jesus.

What in fact is the song that is sung by the elect whom St. John shows us, in his Apocalypse, casting themselves down before the Lamb? “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God in Thy Blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation... To Him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb, benediction, and honour, and glory, and power, for ever and ever”?. The saints confess that they are the trophies of the Blood of the Lamb, trophies so much the more glorious in proportion to the greatness of their holiness.3

Let us then seek with all the ardour of our souls to purify ourselves more and more in the Blood of Jesus, to bring forth those fruits of life and holiness that Christ Jesus has merited for us by His Passion and Death. If we become saints, our hearts will thrill, throughout eternity, with the joy that we shall give to Christ in singing the triumph of His Precious Blood and the almighty power of His grace.

II

You will ask how we are to attain this holiness so pleasing to God, so glorious for Jesus, and, for our souls, such an inexhaustible spring of eternal joy of which we cannot fathom the depths ? For, says St. Paul, it has not entered into the heart of a man to conceive the beatitude that God has prepared for them that love Him’?. What path is to be followed by which to arrive at that blessed state where the soul will contemplate all truth and rejoice in the fulness of all good °

This question is of capital importance, but before replying to it, I would first of all show what is the proper character of our holiness. We can, in fact, only choose our way in all security if we first recognise the end that is to be attained. If we well understood what is the character that, according to God’s plan, our holiness is to assume, the path to be followed in order to come to it would no longer be a secret for us.

What then is this character ? What is the essential quality that God requires of our perfection ?

It is that this perfection be supernatural.

You are aware of this truth which I have set forth at length elsewhere ; but it is so vital that it will not be without interest to return to it for some moments.4

As I have often said, the dawn of the divine mercies towards us dates from the eternal choice that God, freely, and out of love, made of us : Elegit nos... ante mundi constitutionem ut essemus sancti’.

Let us consider this election for an instant.

You know that the Eternal Father has ever contemplated, and unceasingly contemplates His Word, His Son ; in Him, He sees Himself, with His infinite perfections, for this single Word expresses in divine language all that God is. Our own thoughts are finite, bounded, paltry, and yet, in order to express them, we must have recourse to a great variety of words ; with a single word, God expresses His thought which is infinite ; He comprehends Himself in His Word.

In order to understand anything fully, St. Thomas somewhere says, it is necessary to know likewise the manifold imitations of which this thing is susceptible®. God, Who comprehends Himself perfectly, sees in His Word all the different manners in which creatures can reflect or reproduce His perfections. God did not throw things into space hap-hazard : He did not create with a blind strength. Being Infinite Intelligence, He made all things according to the plans conceived in His Eternal Wisdom. In contemplating His Word, God sees, with a single glance, the boundless multitude of possible beings ; and, from all eternity, He decided to choose, out of this multitude, creatures which should realise in themselves and outwardly manifest, although in a limited degree, the infinite perfections of His Word.

In the ‘present order of the divine dispensation, God foresaw that man, made by Him the king of the earthly creation, would not maintain himself at the height of his election and would err from the plan that his Creator had traced in order to unite him to Himself. Divine Wisdom was not taken unprepared ; to bring back fallen man, the thought of God rested before all upon Him Whom St. Paul calls “ the Firstborn of every creature” : Primogenitus ommis creaturae+, and this is the Incarnate Word.5

The Father contemplated His Incarnate Word, made flesh. He saw in this Humanity hypostatically united to His Word the sum, the complete synthesis of all created | perfection ; God revealed to us on Thabor that this Man- God was the master-piece of His designs and the object of all His complacency : Hic est Filius meus dilectus in quo mihi bene complacui ®.

This Humanity of Christ expresses outwardly the Divine Word ; it was freely chosen, out of love.

That is not all. God willed to give a train of followers. to His Son : that is the unnumbered multitude of the saints. The saints are so many reproductions of the Word, under a less perfect form. The ideal for each one of us is in the Word ; each of us ought to be for God a special interpretation of one of the infinite aspects of His Word. This is why we sing of each saint : “ There is not found one like to him” : Non est inventus similis illi*. There are not two saints who interpret and manifest Christ with the same perfection.

When we are in heaven, we shall contemplate, in the midst of unspeakable joy, the Blessed Trinity. We shall see the Word, the Son, proceeding from the Father as the archetype of all possible perfection ; we shall see that the Sacred Humanity of Jesus interpreted in a universal manner the perfections of the Word to Whom it was united ; we shall see that God has associated with Christ so many brethren who reproduce in themselves the divine perfections, manifested and made tangible here below in Christ Jesus. So that Christ is “the firstborn amongst many brethren” who are to be like unto Him: Ut tpse primogenitus in multis fratribus °.

Never let us forget that God chose us in His Son Jesus : Elegit nos in ipso”. In that eternal decree, we find the source of our true greatness. When, by our holiness, we fulfil God’s decree concerning us, we become for Him like a part of the glory that His Son Jesus is for Him : Splen- dor gloriae*. We are like the prolongation, the rays of this glory, when we strive, each one in his place, to interpret and to realise in ourselves the divine ideal, of which the Incarnate Word is the unique Exemplar.6

Such is-the divine plan ; such is our predestination ; that we should be conformed to the Incarnate Word, Son of God by nature, and our model of sanctity : Praedestinavit (nos) conformes fieri imaginis Filii sua?.

It is from this eternal decree, from this predestination full of love that for each one of us dates the series of all God’s mercies. In order to carry out this plan, in order that His designs for us may be completed, God gives us grace, a mysterious participation in His nature ; by grace we become, in His Son Jesus Who has merited it for us, the true adoptive children of God.

We have then not only the simple relation of creatures with God ; we have not only to unite ourselves to Him by the homage and the duties of a natural religion based upon our condition of created beings. Without anything pertaining to these relations or duties being destroyed or diminished, we enter into more intimate relations with God, those of children, which create in us special duties towards a Father Who loves us: Estote imitatores Dei sicut fil carissimi*®. Relations and duties wholly supernatural, be- ~ cause they exceed the exigences and rights of our nature, and because the grace of Jesus alone renders them possible.

You now understand what is the fundamental character of holiness for us.

We can only be saints if we are so according to the Divine plan : that is to say by the grace that we owe to Christ Jesus. That is the primordial condition. Therefore His grace is called sanctifying. This is so true that outside this grace even salvation is not possible. In the kingdom of the elect there are only souls that resemble Jesus ; now the fundamental similitude which we must have with Him is only brought about by grace.7

As you see, God: has Himself determined the character of our holiness ; to wish to give it another character is, as St. Paul says “to beat the air” : Aerem verberans? ; God Himself has traced the way that we must follow ; not to take it is to err and finally be lost : Ego sum via: nemo venit ad Patrem nisi per me? ; He Himself has laid the foundation of all perfection, outside of which we only build upon sand : Fundamentum aliud nemo potest ponere praeter _ id quod positum est, quod est Christus Jesus *.

This is true of salvation, this is true of holiness : holiness only draws its principle and finds its support in the grace of Christ Jesus.

III

We must go to God in His way ; we shall only. be saints in the measure wherein we adapt ourselves to the divine plan. I have pointed out the broad outline of this magnificent plan ; let us see more in detail how Christ Jesus is for us the source of all sanctity.

Let us suppose a soul who in an impulse of generosity, acting under the influence of the Holy Spirit, kneels before the Heavenly Father and says to Him : “O Father, I love Thee, I desire nothing so much as Thy glory ; I wish during all eternity to glorify Thee by my holiness ; what am I to do ¢ show me what Thou dost expect of me”. What would the Father answer ? He would show His Son, Christ Jesus, and would say : “ Behold My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him”. Then He would leave this soul at the feet of Jesus.

And what does Jesus say ? Ego sum via, et veritas, et vita* : “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. These three words have such a depth of meaning that I would like to meditate on them with you. They are words which ought to remain engraved in the depths of our hearts.

You desire to go to My Father ? says Jesus. You wish to unite yourself to Him Who is the Fountainhead of all good, and the principle of all perfection ? You do well ; it is I Who have made this desire arise in your heart ; but you can only bring it into effect by Me. Ego sum via: nemo venit ad Patrem nisi per me.8

~ As you know, there is an infinite distance between the creature and the Creator ; between the one who has only being in participation and He Who is the Being subsistant of Himself. Take the angel that is the highest in the heavenly hierarchies : between him and God there is an abyss that no created strength can cross.

But God has thrown a bridge across this abyss. Christ, the Man-God, binds man to God. The Word is made Flesh: in Him a human nature is united to the Divinity : the two natures, Divine and Human, are united in an embrace, so intimate, so indissoluble that there is only one Person, that of the Word, in which the human nature subsists. The abyss of separation is filled up.

Christ being God, being one with His Father, is the way that leads to God. If then we would go to God, let us strive to have boundless faith in the power that Jesus has to unite us to His Father. What indeed does Our Lord say? “Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given me may be with me” : Pater, volo ut ubi sum ego, et ili sint mecum+*. And where is Christ ? “Tn the bosom of the Father ”.

When our faith is intense, and we give ourselves wholly to Jesus, He draws us with Him Jn sinu Patris?. For Jesus is at the same time the Way and the End. He is the Way by His Humanity, via qua imus ; He is the End by His Divinity, patria quo imus*. It is this that makes the great security of this way : it is perfect, and contains in it the term itself.

It is an excellent thing in prayer to make acts of faith in the almighty power that Jesus has of leading us to His Father.

O Christ Jesus, I believe that You are true God and true Man, that You are the Divine Way, the Way of an infinite efficacy for making me bridge the gulf that separates me from God ; I believe that Your sacred Humanity is perfect and so powerful that, despite my miseries, my shortcomings, my weaknesses, it can bring me thither where You are in the Father’s bosom. Grant that I may listen to Your words, that I may follow Your example and never be separated from You !9

It is a precious grace to have found the way that leads to the end ; but it is needful too to walk therein in the light. This end is supernatural, above our created powers ; therefore the light which must bathe our path with its brightness must likewise come to us from on high.

God is so magnificent that He will be Himself our light : in Heaven, our holiness will be to contemplate the infinite light, to derive from its splendour the source of all life and all joy : Jn lumine tuo videbimus lumen’,

Here below, this light is inaccessible to us on account of its brilliance, our sight is too feeble to bear it. And yet it is necessary for us in order to attain the end. Who will be our light ? Christ Jesus. Ego sum veritas : “I am the Truth”. He alone can reveal the infinite light to us. He is God come forth from God, Light arising from Light : Deus de Deo, lumen de lumine?... Being true God, He is Light itself, without shadow of darkness : Deus lux est, et tenebrae in eo non sunt ullae *.

This light has come down into our valleys, tempering the infinite splendour of its beams beneath the veil of the Sacred Humanity. Our eyes, which are so feeble, can contemplate this divine light which is hidden and revealed at the same time under the weakness of passible flesh : [/luxit in cordibus nostris... in facie Christi Jesu * ; it “ enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world” : Lux vera quae illuminat omnem hominem ®.

Christ Jesus, the Eternal Word, teaches us to look upon God, He reveals Him to us. He says to us: I am the Truth ; if you believe in Me, not only shall you learn to know the truth concerning all things, but you are in the truth : “He that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life” °.

Hence what have we to do so as to walk in the light ?10

To be guided according to the words of Jesus, according to the maxims of His Gospel, to consider all things in the light of the words of the Incarnate Word. Jesus tells us, for example, that the blessed who possess His Kingdom are the poor in spirit, the meek, those that mourn, those that hunger and thirst after justice, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, those that suffer persecution for justice’ sake?. We must believe Him, unite ourselves to Him by an act of faith, lay down at His feet, in homage, the assent of our intelligence to His Word. We must strive to live in humility, gentleness, mercy, purity, to keep peace with all, to bear contradiction with patience and confidence.

If we thus live in faith, the Spirit of Christ will little by little take possession of our soul to guide it in all things, to direct its activity, according to the Gospel. The soul, putting aside the merely natural lights of self judgment, sees all things through the eyes of the Lord : Erit T1B1 Dominus in lucem?. . Living in the Truth, the soul constantly advances in the Way ; united to the Truth, she lives by the Spirit of Truth : the thoughts, affections, desires of Jesus become her thoughts, her affections, her desires ; she does nothing that is not fully in accord with Christ’s will. Is not this the very foundation of all holiness ?

It is not enough for us to have found the way, to walk in the light, we need besides the food that sustains us on our pilgrimage. Again it is Christ Who gives it to us : Et vita,

In God is infinite life: Apud te est fons vitae . The torrent of this ineffable life has filled Christ’s soul with the fulness of its power : Sicut Pater habet vitam in semetipso, sic dedit et Filio habere vitam in semetipso *.

The Son comes to give us a share in this Divine life : Ego veni ut vitam habeant, et abundantius habeant®. He tells us : “ As I live by the Father, so He that eateth Me, the same shall live by Me” : Et qui manducat me, et ipse vivet propter me ®.

To live on this Divine life is holiness. Indeed to put away all that can destroy or diminish the supernatural life within us—sin, infidelity, attachment to creatures, purely natural views ;—to develop the supernatural life by the virtues of faith, hope and charity which unite us to God, is for us, as I have said?, the double element of our holiness.11

In being Himself the Life, Christ Jesus becomes our holiness, because He is the very source thereof : Christus Jesus factus est nobis... sanctificatio®. In giving Himself to us in Communion, He gives us His Humanity, His Divinity ; He makes love active ; He transforms us little by little into Himself, so that we live no longer for ourselves, but by Him and for Him. He establishes between our desires and His desires, between our will and His will, such a likeness, such accordance, that it is no longer we who live, but He Who lives in us : Vivo autem jam non ego, vivit vero in me Christus*. No formula is more expressive than these words of the Apostle, to sum up all the work of holiness.

IV

From this doctrine arise the sentiments that ought to animate us in seeking after holiness : a deep humility on account of our weakness, an absolute confidence in Christ Jesus. Our supernatural life oscillates between two poles : on the one hand we ought to have the intimate conviction of our powerlessness to attain perfection without God’s help ; on the other hand we ought to be filled with an unshaken hope of finding everything in the grace of Christ Jesus.

Because it is supernatural, because God—sovereignly Master of His designs and gifts—has placed it above the exigencies and rights of our created nature, the holiness to which we are called is inaccessible without divine grace. Our Lord has told us : “ Without Me you can do nothing ”’, Sine me NIHIL potestis facere®. St. Augustine® remarks that Christ Jesus did not say : “ Without Me you cannot do great things”, but : “ Without me you can do nothing” which will bring you to eternal life. St. Paul has explained in detail this doctrine of our Divine Master : we are incapable of having “of ourselves” quasi ex nobis, a single thought that is of any value for heaven ; in this domain all “our sufficiency is from God” : Sufficientia nostra ex Deo est?, It is He Who gives us the power to will, and to bring all things to their supernatural end: Deus est qui operatur in vobis et velle et perficere, pro bona voluntate *. So, then, we cannot do anything for our holiness, without divine grace.12

Ought we therefore to be cast down? Quite the contrary. The intimate conviction of this powerlessness should neither lead us to discouragement, nor serve to excuse our idleness. If we cannot do anything without Christ, with Him we can do all things. Ommia possum in eo qui me confortat® : “I can do all things in Him Who strengtheneth me”, St. Paul tells us again. Whatsoever be our trials, our difficulties, our weakness, we can, through Christ, reach the highest sanctity.

Why is this ? Because in Him “are hid all the trea- - sures of wisdom and knowledge” * ; because, “in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporally ” > and being our Head He has the power of making us partakers of this fulness of life and holiness®, so that nothing is wanting to us in any grace: J/ta ut nihil vobis desit in ulla gratia? !

What assurance faith gives to us in these truths ? Christ Jesus is ours, and in Him we find all. Quomodo non etiam cum illo omnia nobis donavit® ? What then can prevent us from becoming saints ? If at the last judgment God asks us : “ Why have you not reached the height of your vocation ? why have you not attained the holiness whereunto I called you” ? We have no right to reply : “ Lord, my weakness was too great, the difficulties insurmountable, the trials above my strength”. God would answer us: “ Of yourselves, it is but too true, that you can do nothing, but I have given you My Son ; in Him nothing has been lacking to you of that which was needful ; His grace is all-powerful, and through Him you could have united yourself to the very source of life”.13

That is so true! A great genius, the greatest perhaps that the world has known, a man who had passed his youth in sin, who had emptied the cup of pleasure, whose mind was attracted by all the errors of His time, Augustine, overcome by grace, was converted and reached the highest sanctity. One day, as he himself relates, urged by grace, and held back by evil inclinations, he saw children, young girls, virgins shining with purity, widows venerable by their virtue ; and he seemed to hear this gentle invitation given by a voice that said to him: Tu non poteris quod isti, quod istae + ? “What these children, these maidens do, cannot you do ; what they are, cannot you become”? And despite the ardour of the blood that beat in his veins, despite his strong passions and long habits of sin, Augustine yielded himself up to grace, and grace made of him, for all eternity, one of its most magnificent trophies.

When we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, we ought to repeat to ourselves the words that St. Augustine heard : Cur non poteris quod istt, quod istae ? What reasons have we for not tending to holiness ? Oh, I know it well ; each one is tempted to say : “I have such or such a difficulty, I have such or such a trial to contend with, I cannot become a saint”. But be sure that all the saints have met with such difficulties, such trials, and much greater ones than yours.

Thus then none can say : holiness is not for me. What can make it impossible ? God desires it for us: He wills us to be saints for His glory and our joy : Haec est voluntas Dei, sanctificatio vestra®. God does not mock us. When Our Lord says to us, “ Be perfect” * He knows all that He is asking of us, and that He requires nothing above our power when we rely upon His grace.

He who would attempt to arrive at perfection by his own strength, would commit the sin of Lucifer, who said : “JT will exalt my throne above the stars of God... I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High” *. Satan was overthrown and cast down into the abyss.

As for us, what shall we say ? what shall we do? We nourish the same ambition as this proud angel ; we wish to reach the same height contemplated by him. But whilst . he claimed to attain it of himself, we declare that without Christ Jesus we can do nothing. We say that it is with Christ and through Him that we can enter into the heavens, “ © Christ Jesus, I have such faith in You that I believe You powerful enough to work this marvel of raising a finite creature, such as I am, not only up to the hierarchies of angels, but up to God Himself ; it is by You alone that we can reach this divine height. I aspire, with all the energies of my soul, to that sublimity to which Your Father has predestined us. I long ardently, as You have asked for us, to be a partaker in Your own glory, to share the joy You have Yourself as Son of God. I aspire to this supreme felicity, but only through You ; I desire that my eternity should be spent in singing Your praises, and in ceaselessly repeating with the elect : Redemisti nos, Domine, in sanguine tuo. Yes, Lord, it is You Who have saved us, - it is Your Precious Blood shed for us that has opened to us. the gates of Your Kingdom and prepared for us a place in the incomparable company of Your saints ; to You be praise, honour, and glory for ever” !14

A soul that lives ever with a like sense of humility and confidence gives great glory to Christ Jesus, because her whole life is the echo of the Saviour’s own words : “ Without me you can do nothing” ; because she declares that He is the source of all salvation and all holiness, and refers all glory to Him.

“OQ God”, let us say with the Church, in the spirit of one of her most beautiful prayers, ‘““O God, I believe that Thou art Almighty, that Thy grace is efficacious enough to raise me, miserable as I am, to a high degree of holiness ; I believe that Thou art likewise infinite mercy, — and that even though I have often left Thee, Thy love full of mercy never forsakes me. It is from Thee, O my God, Heavenly Father, that every perfect gift comes down ; it — is Thy grace that makes us Thy faithful servants pleasing to Thee by works worthy of Thy majesty and praise. Grant that, detached from myself, and from creatures, I may run without stumbling in the way of holiness, the way wherein Thy Son, like a giant goes before us ; so that by Him and with Him, I may come to the happiness that ‘Thou hast promised ’’? !

The saints lived on these truths ; therefore they have reached the height where we contemplate them to-day. The difference that exists between them and us does not arise from the greater number of difficulties that we have to overcome, but from the intensity of their faith in the word of Jesus Christ, and in the power of His grace, as. * besides from their greater generosity. We can, if we will, experience this for ourselves : Christ remains ever the same, as powerful, as magnificent in the distribution of His grace; the obstacles to the outpouring of His gifts only lie in ourselves.

Souls of little faith, why do we doubt God, our own God?

V

What practical conclusions are we to draw from these consoling truths of our faith ?

First of all, we ought with all our hearts to celebrate the solemnities of the Saints. To honour the Saints is to declare that they are the realisation of a divine idea, masterpieces of the grace of Jesus. God places His delight in them, because they are the already glorious members of His beloved Son ; they already make part of that resplendent ‘kingdom won by Jesus for the glory of His Father : Et fecistt nos Deo nostro regnum *.

Next we ought to invoke them. Doubtless Christ Jesus is our one Mediator : ‘ One God, and one mediator of God and men” *, says St. Paul ; we have access to the Father only through Him. Christ, however,—not to diminish His mediation, but to extend it,—wills that the princes of the heavenly court should offer Him our prayers, which He Himself presents to His Father.

Moreover, the Saints have the most ardent desire for our welfare. In heaven they contemplate God, their will is ineffably united to that of God : therefore, like Him, they desire our sanctification. Thus, they form with us one mystical body ; according to St. Paul’s expression, “ we are members one of another” +?. They have towards us an immense charity which they derive from their union with Jesus, the One Head of that company whereof they are the elect and among whom God has prepared our place.15

To these relations of homage and prayer that unite us to the Saints we ought to add our efforts to resemble the Saints. Our hearts should be animated, not with vacillating desires which attain nothing, but with a firm and sincere longing for perfection, an efficacious will to respond fully | to the merciful designs of our divine predestination in Jesus: Secundum, mensuram donationis Christi ®.

And what is needed for this ? What means are to be employed in order to perfect so great a work, one so glorious for Christ and so fruitful for us ?

To remain united to Jesus Christ. He Himself has told us that if we wish to bear abundant fruit, to reach great holiness, we must abide in Him as the branches are united to the vine *. And how are we to abide in Him? Firstly by sanctifying grace which makes us living members of His mystical body. Then by that upright intention, frequently renewed, that makes us seek in everything, in the vocation where Providence has placed us, the good pleasure of our

Heavenly Father. This intention directs all our activity towards God’s glory, in union with the thoughts, feelings, and will of the Heart of Jesus, our Master and our model. Quae placita sunt ei facio semper*. “I do always the things that please Him”. This formula, in which Jesus summed — up all His relations with His Father excellently translates all the work of human holiness.

And our miseries, you may say ? They ought in nowise to discourage us. Our miseries are very real ; our weaknesses, our limitations, we know them well enough, but God knows them better than we do. And the sense of our

  1. I Cor. xu, 12 sq. Ephes. Iv, 25; V, 30. — 2. Ephes. rv, 7. — 3. Joan. Xv, 5. — 4. Joan. vu, 29. i frailty—recognised and avowed—honours God. And why so? Because there is in God one perfection wherein He wills to be eternally glorified, a perfection which is perhaps the key of all that befalls us here below: it is mercy. Mercy is love in the face of misery ; if there was no misery, there would be no mercy. The angels declare God’s holiness ; but as for us, we shall be in heaven the living witnesses of the divine mercy ; in crowning our works, God crowns the gift of His mercy : Qui coronat te in misericordia et miserationibus +, and it is this mercy that we shall exalt during all eternity in the bosom of our beatitude : Quoniam in aeternum misericordia ejus ®.

Let us no longer be discouraged by trials and disappointments. They will be so much the greater and deeper according as God calls us higher. Wherefore this law ?

Because it is the way by which Jesus passed ; and the more we wish to remain united to Him, the more we ought to resemble Him in the deepest and innermost of His mysteries. St. Paul, as you know, sums up all the inner life in the practical knowledge of Jesus, “ Jesus Crucified ” °. And Our Lord Himself tells us that the Father, Who is the Divine Husbandman, purges the branch so that it may bear more fruit : Purgabit eum ut fructum plus afferat *. God has a powerful hand, and His purifying operations reach depths that only the saints know ; by the temptations that He permits, by the adversities that He sends, by the desolations and terrible loneliness that He sometimes produces in the soul, He tries it so as to detach it from all that is created ; He digs deeply into it so as to empty it of itself. He pursues it, He “ persecutes it in order to possess it” *® ; He penetrates it to the marrow, He “ breaks its bones’, as Bossuet somewhere says, “so as to reign alone ”’.

Happy the soul that thus yields itself into the hands of , the eternal Husbandman. By His Spirit, all of fire and love, Who is the Finger of God ® the Divine Artist engraves in it the features of Christ, so as to make it resemble the

  1. Ps. ci, 4. — 2. Ibid. cxxxv, 1 sq. — 3. I Cor. 0, 2. — 4. Joan. Xv, 2. — 5. Words of D. Pie de Hemptinne, See Une dme bénédictine, 4h, edit. p. 95. — 6. Hymn Veni Creator.

Christ in His Mysteries. ‘ 26

Son of His dilection according to the ineffable design of His wisdom and mercy.

For God places His glory in beatifying us. ~All the sufferings that He permits or sends are so many titles to heavenly glory and felicity. St. Paul confesses himself powerless to describe the splendour of glory and the heights of joy which crown the least of our sufferings borne with divine grace’.

This is why he so much encourages the faithful to struggle to obtain—not the corruptible crown of this pas-— sing world’s glory and applause, but an incorruptible crown, and glory that has no end, an inamissible joy ”.

Doubtless, in these moments full of the riches of grace, the soul is plunged in sorrow and suffering and aridity. But let us remain steadfast beneath the blows of the supreme High Priest ! For God puts the unction of grace» in the very bitterness of the cross. Look at St. Paul. No one ever lived in more intimate union with God, in Christ, than he: who then could separate him from Jesus? And behold, how, by divine permission, Satan insults him, and overwhelms the Apostle’s soul and body with his darts. In his anguish St. Paul thrice beseeches the Lord. And what does Christ answer? “ My grace is sufficient for thee ; for power is made perfect in infirmity ” : Sufficit tibt gratia mea, nam virtus in infirmitate perficitur *.

VI

We here touch,—and I cannot better end this conference, —on the inmost reason of this surprising disposition of Providence which decrees that the work of our holiness should be wrought in weakness and trials.

“ By grace you are saved through faith”, said St. Paul, “not of works, that no man may glory” °.

Who then merits all praise ? To whom does the glory of our holiness return ? To Christ Jesus.

When the Apostle sets the divine plan before the faithful of Ephesus, he indicates in these words the supreme

  1. Rom. vu, 1-8; II Cor. 1v, 17. — 2.'1I Cor. ry, 25. — 3. Rom. VIII, 35. — 4. II Cor. xu, 9. — 5. Ephes. 0, 8, 9.

CHRIST THE CROWN OF ALL THE SAINTS 405 end : God has thus preordained all things “ unto the praise of the glory of His grace” : Im laudem gloriae gratiae suae*,

Thus, “that He might shew in the years to come the abundant riches of His grace”, God has predestined us to become the co-heirs of His Son : Ut ostenderet abundantes divitias gratiae suae in bonitate super nos in Christo Jesu ?.

Here below, we owe all to Jesus ; by His mysteries He has merited for us all the graces nf justification, of forgiveness, of sanctification which we need : Christ is the very principle of our perfection. As the vine pours forth its nourishing sap into the branches so that they may bear fruit, so Christ Jesus ceaselessly pours forth His grace into all those who abide in Him. It is this grace that animates the Apostles and enlightens Doctors, sustains Martyrs, makes Confessors steadfast, and adorns Virgins with incomparable purity.

In Heaven likewise all the glory of the Saints is derived from this same grace ; all the splendour of their triumph comes from this one source ; it is because they are dyed with the blood of the Lamb that the garments of the elect shine so resplendently ; ard the degree of their holiness is measured by the degree of their likeness to the Divine | Model.

Therefore, at the opening of this magnificent solemnity - of All Saints, wherein the Church joins in the same praise all the elect, she invites us to adore Him Who being their Lord is at the same time their Crown : IPSE est corona sanctorum omnium °,

In heaven, we shall comprehend that all God’s mercies had their point of departure on Calvary ; that the Blood of Jesus is the price of the heavenly happiness which we shall then for evermore enjoy. In the Heavenly Jerusalem, we shall be inebriated with divine gladness ; but every instant of this joy will have been paid by the merits of the Blood of Christ Jesus. The river of beatitude which eternally flows in this city of God* has its source in the sacrifice of our divine High Priest. It will be an immense joy for us to acknowledge this and to sing our joy and praise and thanksgiving to Jesus.16

Like the elect, we shall cast our crowns at His feet* in testimony that we owe them to Him.

It is to this last end that all the mystery of Christ tends. God wills that His Son Jesus shall be for ever exalted, because He is His own Only-begotten Son, the object of His complacency ; because this Son, although He was God, annihilated Himself so as to sanctify His Mystical Body : Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum °”.

Let us then enter with deep faith into these divine mysteries. When we celebrate the feasts of the Saints, we magnify the power of the grace that has raised them to these summits ; nothing is more agreeable to God, because by this praise we unite ourselves with the most intimate of His designs which is to glorify His Son : Clarificavi et iterum clarificabo*. Let us ourselves seek to realise, with the help of this same grace, the design of God for each one of us ; yet once more, it is in this perfect conformity that all holiness is summed up.

I have tried during these conferences to show to what a degree the Father unites us to His Son Jesus ; I have sought to place before your eyes our divine Model, at once so incomparable and so accessible; you have seen that Christ has lived each of His mysteries for us, that He unites us — to each in the closest manner in order that, little by little, we may reproduce in ourselves, under the action of His Spirit, His ineffable features, and that we may become like unto. Him, according to the decree of our predestination.

Never let us cease to contemplate this Model : Christ Jesus is God appearing and living amongst us so as to show us the way and lead us to life. For He has Himself said that eternal life consists in declaring with our lips as by our deeds, that His Father is the one God, that He is God with Him, but come into this world in our flesh in order to bring back humanity to God.

If during our life, we have faithfully followed Jesus ; if each year, with faith and love, we have contemplated Him in the cycle of His mysteries, while seeking to imitate Him and remain united to Him, let us be assured that the constant prayer that He, as our one Mediator, offers for us to His Father will-be answered. By His Spirit, He will imprint His living image upon our souls ; the Father will recognise us at the last day as the members of the Son of His Love, and will make us co-heirs with Christ.17

We shall enter into this fellowship that Christ, our Divine Head, has formed, altogether pure and resplendent, to Himself. On the day of the final triumph, He is, according to St. Paul’s? words, to deliver up this kingdom to His Father as the wonderful trophy of His grace. May we all meet there for the greatest joy of our souls, and for the glory of our Heavenly Father ! In laudem gloriae gratiae suae.

Teal ComXvii245

VERBUM MANENS APUD PATREM, VERITAS ET VITA ; INDUENS SE CARNE, FACTUS EST VIA. one Aa Haw, iwi Ae ae d arene ayn ‘an hahe | di, aus awe a (Ni eas es a HE ye the HR Mgt Phys spe. heiih ¢ gh eed ka ae pate hi a

Ph ge ea tS NE Ub ae hte RA mare amt 5 Le inf

By

DISTRIBUTION OF THE CONFERENCES according to the Liturgical Cycle.

Advent (four weeks).

The Mysteries of Christ are our Mysteries. . . . . 3-18

Our Contact with Mysteriesof Jesus. . . . . . . 19-31

ELSIE ia) CLAN Lg ic PITT ML AUF PG NAC SN nC aR \35-56

Divinesbreparaonsin cs) ek xa ty ee vale ahah ade Christmas (and Octave)

O admirabile Commercium . Tey ant pig ree UK Ge)

« And the Word was made Flesh » DA Ace aaa sew 57-71 Circumcision and Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.

Saviour and te ia TICB te eee Re Series Pe ain mas xcallts 72-91 LEONG A. og oe is ie ET ee ae hate Got Salta) Sunday in the Octave of the Pee

Jesus lost and foundinthe Temple . . . . . . . 163-167

Time after the Epiphany. The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mysteries of the Child- hood and Hidden Life of Christ . . . . 152-158; 167-173 phe eurificatvion (/eoruaryic)ew cu) med) |e) ee ee LOgeLOS Lent.

The Baptism and the Temptation of Jesus. . . . . 174-197 ‘Some Aspects of the Public Life.. . . .. . . . 198-228

If Sunday of Lent Onirhesicichtsiofylhabora emus Wt allen ene ceoee 4 a

Passion Sunday « Christ loved the Church and delivered Himself up

LORI L Deed ances as sete Nie Wells We p 248-265 Holy Week. In the Footsteps of Jesus, from the Pretorium to Cal- VALU hci A Wee hat eae aI. |) 6) a) ee eeene Easter (and octave). Si consurremistis cum Christo. . . . ... =. . . 285-301

Ascension (and octave). « And now, Father, glorify Thy Son» . . . . . 302-322

Pentecost (and octave).

ThesMission of the Holy,Spirity ears) pee ceo ono ue Corpus Christi (and octave).

Ineiew Memoria. = en. hee Pie eae Oc OUNE Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.

Khe Heartvot Christy) Meier me ceermin ie terete etn OL as So:

_ The time extending from Pentecost to All Saints especially symbolises the Church’s pilgrimage in this life. Christ the Life of the Soul could be read during this time.

Footnotes

    1. Ephes. I, 3, 22-23. — 2. Credo of the Mass.
    ↩
    1. Ephes. v, 27. — 2. De Unttate Eccles. 4. — 3. Thes. Iv, 3.
    ↩
    1. Ps, XXIX, Io. —2. Luc. XH, 50. — 3. Joan. Xv, 8.
    ↩
    1. Apoc. V, 9, 13. — 2. I Cor. Hf, 9.
    ↩

  5. 1 Ephes. 1, 4. — 2.1, q. XIV, a. 5 and 6; q. XV, a. 2. ↩

    1. Col. I, 15. — 2. Matth. xvi, 5. — 3. Office for Confessor Pontiff. 2. Ant. of Lauds ; cf. Eccli. xiv, 20.— 4. Rom.vm, 29. — 5. Ephes.
    ↩
    1. Hebt. I, 3. — 2. Rom. vu, 29. — 3. Ephes. Vv, 1-2.
    ↩
    1. Cor. IX, 26. — 2. Joan. XIv, 6. — 3.1 Cor. II, XI.— 4. Joan. xIv,6.
    ↩
    1. Joan. XVII, 24. — 2. Joan. I, 18. — 3.S. Aug. Seymo xcu, c. 3; Seymo CXXUI, c. 3.
    ↩
    1. Ps. XXXV, 10.— 2. Credo of the Mass. —- 3. I Joan. I, 5. — 4. IL Cor. Iv,.6. — 5. Joan. I, 9. — 6. Ebid\ Vill; 122
    ↩
    1. Matth. V, 3-11. — 2. Isa, LX, 19. — 3. Ps. XXXv,I0. — 4. Joan.v, 26. — 5. Ibid. x, 10. — 6. Ibid. vi, 58.
    ↩
    1. Cf. p. 287 & following. — 2. Cf. I Cor. 1, 30. — 3. Gal. 1, 20. — 4. Joan. XV, 5. — 5. Tract. in Joan. LXXX1, 3.
    ↩
    1. II Cor. mi, 5. — 2. Philipp. 1, 13. — 3. Philipp. rv, 13. — 4. Col. Il, 3.— 5. .bid. 9.— 6. Joan. 1, 16.— 7. I Cor. 1, 7.— 8; Rom. vim, 32.
    ↩
    1. Confess. lib. vit, c. 11. — 2.1 Thess. tv, 3. — 3. Matth. v, 48. — 4. Isa. XIV, 13-14.
    ↩
    1. Omnipotens 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. Collect of the Mass for XX Sunday after Pentecost. — 2. Apoc. v, 10. — 3. I Timoth. 0, 5.
    ↩
    1. Ephes. 1, 6. — 2. Ibid. u, 7. — 3. Invitatory of Matins. — 4. Cf. Ps. XLV, 5. ,
    ↩
    1. Cf. Apoc. Iv, Io. — 2. Philipp. uo, 9. — 3. Joan. xu, 28.
    ↩

Chapter 21 of 21