| Welcome, Guest |
You have to register before you can post on our site.
|
| Online Users |
There are currently 116 online users.
» 0 Member(s) | 112 Guest(s)
Bing, Facebook, Google, Yandex
|
| Latest Threads |
Archbishop Lefebvre: The ...
Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 08:16 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 3,536
|
Dr. Carol Byrne: A Series...
Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 07:48 AM
» Replies: 138
» Views: 250,028
|
Pope Francis says ‘conser...
Forum: Pope Francis
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 06:59 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 43
|
Warsaw mayor orders remov...
Forum: Global News
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 06:52 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 38
|
Fr. Ruiz Mass will be off...
Forum: May 2024
Last Post: Stone
05-17-2024, 07:15 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 113
|
Humility of Heart by Fr. ...
Forum: Resources Online
Last Post: Stone
05-17-2024, 05:48 AM
» Replies: 19
» Views: 1,075
|
Pope Francis calls for ‘g...
Forum: Pope Francis
Last Post: Stone
05-17-2024, 05:46 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 70
|
Fr. Hewko's Sermons: Octa...
Forum: May 2024
Last Post: Stone
05-17-2024, 05:39 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 74
|
Fr. Hewko's Sermons: Feas...
Forum: May 2024
Last Post: Stone
05-15-2024, 06:52 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 85
|
Fr. Hewko's Sermons: Anni...
Forum: May 2024
Last Post: Stone
05-15-2024, 06:51 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 91
|
|
|
| How To Set Up Your Home For Mass |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-27-2024, 07:41 AM - Forum: Resources Online
- No Replies
|
 |
Taken from The Recusant - #61 Lent 2024 [slightly adapted]:
How To Set Up Your Home For Mass
So you’re about to have your first visit from a priest of the Resistance. Mass is scheduled to take place and you’re hosting. What do you need to do to prepare? Here is a an idea of what you may wish to do. These are just some thoughts, nothing comprehensive, but it ought to give you some ideas. Not everything will be possible, but at the same time it is our duty to make things as dignified and worthy as possible for Our Lord when He visits.
1. The Altar
Most of us don’t have an altar, or even an altar stone, readily to hand, so you’ll want to start off with a table. The priest will usually have a Greek corporal with him (you may want to check, however), which contains the relics of martyrs and which allows him to say Mass on a table which is not otherwise an altar. That’s fine, but we owe it to Our Blessed Lord to make the setting for his holy Mass as dignified as possible - anything beyond our capabilities He will surely understand, this is about seeing what is possible and making improvements as and when we are able.
a. Shape: ideally you want a rectangular table, avoid a circular one if at all possible. Ideally you want eight feet in length (from left to right as you look at it) but six feet or even five will do just fine. I have seen smaller altars than that used, it can be done, it just isn’t ideal. As for the depth, you can judge it by eye if you stand at the altar in the centre, where the priest will stand during most of the Mass and try to imagine the priest unfolding the corporal on the altar top. An unfolded corporal might take up sixteen inches or slightly less, meaning you’ll want roughly that in depth: ten inches is a bit cramped, more than twenty-six inches is too much.
b. Height: in an ideal world your table-soon-to-be-altar would be exactly forty inches high and certainly you wouldn’t want it much higher than that - most tables and desks are nowhere near that high. If yours isn’t, don’t worry too much: any attempt to make it higher will be appreciated by the priest who won’t have to bend so low during Mass. Thirty-eight or even thirty-six inches will usually work well. Waist height or slightly above is what you’re aiming for. Without a tape measure, you can judge it like this: stand in front and without bending down, see if you can place your hands on it. If you can’t, or if you can only place your fingers on it but not the flat of your palm without bending forwards, then it’s too low. If possible, take into account how tall the priest is, because if he’s quite short, then you’ll get away with the altar being a bit lower, but if he’s 6’3, then you really won’t!
Some men who are hobby craftsmen and carpenters may wish to have a go at building a wooden frame to precise dimensions. For those so inclined, a copy of St Charles Borromeo’s book on how to build churches, Instructiones Fabricae et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae may come in useful. It was published in 1577 and, I gather, was in use right up to Vatican II. It will be out there somewhere on the internet, though you may have to track it down and buy it. (If you do, please drop us a line and let us know!)
For the rest of us lesser mortals who haven’t the time, the patience, the tools, the skills or the real estate, you might want to find something to place under the table legs to raise its height a little. Anything that is stable: four bricks (or four piles of bricks, two or even three high, to achieve the right height!), four plastic stools, four books, very thick volumes of the same thickness, in the past we even used an ingenious contraption made out of drainpipes with a thick bolt inserted through it near the bottom. Whatever works. Once you think you’ve achieved what you’re after, test it out to see how stable it is. It shouldn’t be too wobbly or liable to collapse - and if for some reason you can’t fully avoid that, then at the very least warn the priest, but while you still have the opportunity you should try to find a solution.
c. Covering & Decoration: a white sheet is something indispensable. A linen table cloth is far preferable to a bedsheet. There are supposed to be three altar cloths, so if you are going to have Mass regularly you should try to acquire these and (of course, as with everything) once they been used for Mass, if possible they should be set aside and not used for anything else. The white cloth should hang down on each side, either to the floor or to just above the floor. If the front of the table is also covered, this will hide the fact that it is a table and hide the books or bricks (or drainpipes!) under the legs. If you can find something of the right liturgical colour, something precious-looking (gold?) or what have you, to go under the cloths and hang down in front, like an altar frontal or antependium, so much the better. But failing that, a white sheet will do. Just bear in mind that if it is a single, thin sheet, it may end up looking a bit see-through depending on the lighting. In the long run it may be worth looking at a high-street fabric shop for something which looks nice enough to be used on the altar, damask for instance. Are there any Indian shops where you live? Why not take a look.
Whenever you think you’ve finished arranging this part, always take one last opportunity to double check that it isn’t crooked before you start putting things onto the altar.
What needs to be placed on the altar? The first and most obvious thing is a crucifix. You can have a hanging-on-the-wall type of crucifix, (make sure it hangs above the centre of your altar) but more common is to have a stand-up crucifix placed on the altar. In that case, the danger is that it is not tall enough and can barely be seen. As a rule of thumb, any stand-up crucifix will need to be raised higher, what you’re aiming for ideally is the top of the priest’s head or slightly higher, but if it’s not that high in the first instance, don’t worry too much. But do try to find something for it to stand on, to raise it up a bit higher. As with altar legs, there are a number of solutions: an old biscuit tin, a Tupperware box, a solid block of wood or even a pile of books are some examples I’ve seen used at Resistance Masses, all of which worked and whose presence can be disguised by the altar cards.
The two candles and their candlesticks (for low Mass) can be placed on the altar at the extreme left and right, either side of the crucifix and will be useful as something to prop the altar cards against. Nice brass candlesticks, ideally, with proper candles in them, do try to avoid those awful tea lights. Two vases of flowers can also be placed on the altar during most of the year (flowers aren’t allowed if it’s Lent or Advent, with the exception of Laetare Sunday and Gaudete Sunday). Try to use two matching vases to keep things symmetrical, brass is preferable but glass will do pro tem. A church antiques shop or certain internet websites (etsy or ebay, for instance) will have brass vases for sale fairly cheaply - if they are old they may benefit from a thorough application of brasso. If you have them and there is enough space, then two statues of saints can go somewhere in between, one on either side. Again, in the interests of symmetry, you want your two statues to be of roughly the same height. All those three things, candles, vases and statues, will look even better if they, like the crucifix, are raised up slightly. To do that you will need something to serve as a gradine, the “step” on the back of the altar. Because these need to be long and flat and fairly stable it is difficult to know what to use, and it may be that you’ll have to do without. I have seen these made by placing two fairly thick planks of wood, one either side of the crucifix. Upturned window box flower pots might work, but you’d want to cover them with some sort of fabric to disguise them and check that they don’t wobble a lot. An identical pair of drawers removed from a cabinet and upturned is another thing I have seen. Or just do
without for the meantime.
![[Image: Screenshot-2024-02-27-061526.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/yYGFfCfH/Screenshot-2024-02-27-061526.jpg)
An example of an altar from the early days of the Resistance. This was a chest of drawers, minus the drawers. No gradines yet, and only a white cloth to cover the front, but it works well enough. Statues either side but not on the altar.
On the topic of altar cards, the now defunct website resistere.org used to carry pdf files of the altar cards which could be printed and laminated. They can still be found using the internet archive (archive.org) here. If you can stick the print-out onto a card backing before laminating, the effect is even better. Another option is to put them in picture frames (A4 for the centre card, and A5 for the two smaller ones, for instance). A high street picture shop will do this for a small fee, or you can do it yourself. The priest will usually have his own altar cards in his Mass kit anyway, but the more things you have of your own, the better. The priest’s travel altar cards will likely be small and light to save space like everything else in his travel Mass kit, whereas your ones, if they are only every going to be kept at home and don’t need to be packed for travel, can afford to be bigger and nicer-looking.
2. Location and Surroundings: obviously your table-turned-altar should be against the wall, this isn’t the Novus Ordo! Stand and face the altar from roughly where you think people assisting at Mass will find themselves. What can you see that might be a distraction? Pictures on the walls which aren’t holy pictures, family photos and so on, can be taken down temporarily and put safely out of the way somewhere. Bookcases can be covered with a cloth, a blanket or similar. If you are unfortunate enough to have a television, you can throw it in the bin; but if, for whatever unhappy reason, you really feel you can’t do that just yet, then at least cover it too. If there are windows in front or to the side, then closed curtains means less chance of distraction. If a telephone is located in the room or in the hall just outside, or if it rings especially loud, consider taking it off the hook just before Mass begins. One other thing to check is that there is enough light: it may not be obvious to you, but the priest will have to read the text from the missal without having to strain his eyes. If the light is a little dim, do you have a lamp which can be placed somewhere nearby should he want it?
3. Besides the Altar: you will want to have a credence table, where the cruets (water and wine) will be. This ought normally to be to the right of the altar (the epistle side) and it can be a lot smaller and lower-to-the-ground than the altar. Even a coffee table or bedside cabinet will work. Cover it in a white cloth, if you have one. On it will be the cruets, bowl and finger towel, the bell, the communion plate and anything else.
You should also think about where the priest will vest before and after Mass. If there really is nowhere obvious, or the accommodation is cramped, then he can always vest and unvest at the altar. But if there is a table in another room, then that could serve as a sacristy. Often this will also double-up as the confessional, for which you will need two chairs and a crucifix. For whoever is going to serve Mass, you should try to acquire your own cassock and cotta. If it’s your first time, then you can be forgiven for serving in smart lay clothes, but if you know that this is going to be the first of several such occasions, then you should start looking. Finding them isn’t too difficult, finding them cheaply may be another question, and may vary by country and region. You can always ask the priest if he knows somewhere, or someone.
4. Other Things Which Will Be Appreciated, but aren’t essential. Presumably the priest is going to preach. A music stand makes a decent pulpit, if you have one. If not, don’t worry. On a Sunday, he will want to read the Epistle and Gospel in English right before the sermon - do you have a layman’s missal to hand to him at that moment, for him to read from? If others are visiting you for Mass do you have holy water to offer them? If you don’t, think about finding a large container and asking the priest to make you some holy water to last until the next visit. You can never have too much holy water! Are you going to sing a hymn before or after Mass, or both? Picking something everyone knows is the easy option, but it may be an idea to print out the words for people, if you are able. Cushions will be greatly appreciated by those with bad knees, especially on a hard wooden or stone floor.
In the Long Run, you will want to acquire a full set of everything if you are going to have regular visits from a priest. That way he won’t need to worry, you will always have a spare, and you may one day end up welcoming a priest who doesn’t have a travel Mass kit at all.
A list of what ought to be found in a Mass kit will be attached here. You won’t always be able to acquire everything in one go, but if you keep an eye out you will find that it can be built up bit-by-bit as the months go by. With vestments, for instance, most of us won’t be able to afford a full set of every colour, so I would start by getting a cheap, reversible purple/ white set of travel vestments as your first purchase, and maybe a green/red reversible set as your second. After a few years you might find yourself looking at those rose vestments for Gaudete or Laetare Sundays, just in case! And *cough* if the ladies step up to the mark, we ought eventually to be at the stage where we no longer need to purchase what can be made by our own skill and craft... But of course that is easier said than done, and in the meantime needs must and every little helps.
The most important thing is that you see Mass not just as an opportunity for you to benefit yourself (although it is that), but also as an opportunity to give something to Our Lord by way of service and self-sacrifice, in whatever way you are able, to contribute to making His worship that little bit more dignified and worthy. I am convinced that one of the reasons the English and Irish seem to prefer Low Mass is that we feel self-conscious singing, as though everyone were looking at us. Even the mortification of forcing oneself to sing the hymn at the end in a loud, clear voice when they really don’t want to, can be a significant sacrifice for some people.
If you are not hosting the Mass but only attending it, and you have something which you think might help improve things (some nice fabric, for instance, or a pair of statues roughly the same size), speak to the person hosting the priest and offer to bring them. Just remember, if the answer is yes, try not to turn up at the last minute or after Mass has begun!
Serving and Singing
If you are a young man and you don’t yet know how to serve Mass, you should try to learn. Even if you think that you are not needed to serve right now, there is always going to be at least one occasion in your life where you will be the only person able to serve and the priest (and Our Lord Himself) will be grateful. There are books to teach you (“How to Serve Low Mass and Benediction” by Angelus Press has been a staple for many over the years) or better still, get someone to show you. If you are already the server, offer to teach the other men how to serve. Two servers at Mass, one who knows what he is doing and the other who is a beginner, is possibly the best way to learn: books can be a great help, but there is no substitute for monkey-see-monkey-do, as they say. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, and don’t be overcome by thoughts of how unworthy you are either. We’re all unworthy, including the priest, but we are also obliged to put ourselves at Our Lord’s service as far as possible.
The same applies to singing. Why are there so many low Masses and so comparatively few sung Masses? If you have a singing voice and can sing in tune, and if you are familiar with the Traditional Mass and know your way around a layman’s missal, you can start by looking up in your missal the Introit for your next Mass. A youtube search for the first three words in Latin will usually bring up several Gregorian chant videos with both music and text on the screen, which you can have a go at singing along to whilst trying your best to read the music. I understand why relatively few people ever do this: it isn’t easy and if you have never done it before it will take time to rehearse it again and again until you feel you’re getting it, but just remember that your efforts are for Our Lord Himself and just think of what He has already done for you. As a first-timer you can be forgiven if you only manage to sing the Introit this way and have to resort to singing a single tone for the other propers (the Gradual, the Alleluia or Tract, the Offertory and the Communion). A sung Mass done this way is still more worthy for Our Lord than a low Mass, especially on Sundays and feast days and many a Traditionalist layman who today can confidently sing Gregorian chant at sung Mass started out this way. Somebody has to do it and if Our Lord doesn’t want that person to be you, ask yourself why He hasn’t arranged for someone else to be doing it already? For the ordinary, use Kyrie 8 (the Missa de Angelis) which everyone seems to know, until you feel more confident.
One thing which you will find invaluable for singing at Mass is a Liber Usualis, a big fat book like a giant missal which contains all the chant you could ever possibly need. Any Catholic press which sells Traditional Missals will usually also sell these. To get you started though, or if your budget is tight, the website resistere.org (now defunct, but you can access it via the internet archive at archive.org here) has a free, downloadable pdf of the 1962 Liber.
To return one last time to the chapel and its furnishings, let us finish by saying that there will be ways of making even more worthy for Mass, even if the room is permanently left as a chapel and you think you have the altar ideally set up. An altar rail enclosing the sanctuary, a raised platform under the altar extending out into a step on which the priest will stand, a baldacchino or similar above the altar with an image of the Holy Ghost… and many other small improvements. Perhaps one day you will reach that stage, but in the meantime any small steps we can make will be appreciated by Our Lord and will help increase the devotion of all who assist at that Mass.
Liturgical Fabric:
(for altar frontals, vestment making, etc.)
https://www.ecclesiasticalsewing.com/products/lichfield
https://www.wattsandco.com/collections/l...al-fabrics
https://www.etsy.com/uk/market/liturgical_brocade
https://www.catholicliturgicals.com/inde...me=Fabrics
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TopFabrics?...t-shopname
Altar Cards:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140713112546/
http://www.resistere.org/resources.html
Priest’s Vesting Prayers:
https://web.archive.org/web/201410090151...TIONES.pdf
Vestments:
https://www.catholicliturgicals.com/ (“Catholic Liurgicals” - Indian)
https://vestment.co.uk/contact-eng.html (“Ackermann Vestments” - Polish)
What a Mass Kit Should Contain:
Larger Altar Crucifix
Smaller (confessional) Crucifix
3 X White Altar Cloths
Altar Covering(s) / large sheets
Small White Cloth (credence)
Altar Missal
Missal Stand / Small Cushion
2 X Cruets
Bowl
Finger Towel
Bell
Communion Plate
Altar Cards
2 X Candles
2 X Candlesticks
Matches/lighter
Altar Wine
Large Hosts, Small Hosts
www.TheRecusant.com
Depending - ask your priest:
Patten
Chalice
Greek Corporal
Not necessary, but can be useful:
Square Box/Tin, Gradines
Statues/Holy Images
Copies of music/hymns
Printed: Prayers After Low Mass
Vases
Collection bag
Safety Pins, strong tape
Collapsible table
4 X Stools to raise the table
Chamois leather
|
|
|
| The Recusant #61 - Lent 2024 |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-25-2024, 08:07 AM - Forum: The Recusant
- Replies (7)
|
|
Contents
• Are we “excommunicated” or in “schism” from modern Rome?
- Arguments from Canon Law
- The Case of the “Hawaii Six”
- Arguments from Common Sense
• Catholic Social Action:
- Book Review: Ousset’s “Action”
- LFSPN: A Call to Action!
• Preparing your Home for Mass
• Ten Years Ago - Part 3
|
|
|
|
| NATO Gives Ukraine the Go-Ahead to Cross Putin's Red Line |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-23-2024, 07:05 AM - Forum: Global News
- No Replies
|
|
NATO Gives Ukraine the Go-Ahead to Cross Putin's Red Line
![[Image: BB1iJzZu.img?w=534&h=329&m=6&x=1354&y=593&s=528&d=528]](https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1iJzZu.img?w=534&h=329&m=6&x=1354&y=593&s=528&d=528)
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks at a press conference at the 60th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany, on February 16, 2024. Stoltenberg said this week that Ukraine has the right to defend itself against Russia even if it means attacking inside Russian territory. © THOMAS KIENZLE/AFP via Getty Images
Newsweek | February 22, 2024
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine has a right to use its Western-supplied weapons to defend itself against Russia, even if that includes striking targets within Russia's borders.
"This is Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine, which is a blatant violation of international law," Stoltenberg told Radio Liberty during an interview on Tuesday.
"And according to international law, Ukraine has the right to self-defense. And it also includes strikes against legitimate military targets, Russian military targets outside of Ukraine. That's international law, and of course, Ukraine has the right to do that to defend itself."
A NATO official confirmed with Financial Times on Thursday that Stoltenberg meant that Kyiv's right to self-defense included striking Russian military targets outside of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned against Ukraine using its Western-supplied equipment to launch attacks on Russian territory, saying that doing so could risk escalating the conflict. The warnings had originally made allies like the United States hold off on supplying Kyiv with long-range weapons capable of reaching Russia, but NATO allies have since given Ukraine such arms.
Putin said last month that Russian investigators found that a U.S.-made Patriot air defense system was used to shoot down an Ilyushin II-76 military transport plane while it was in Russian territory. Washington has provided Kyiv with several of the surface-to-air systems and additional artillery for the weapons.
Moscow officials claimed that everyone on board the II-76, which crashed inside the Belgorod region on January 24, was killed, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war. Kyiv has not accepted responsibility for the crash, and Newsweek was not able to verify Russia's claims.
Stoltenberg noted during his interview with Radio Liberty that it was up to each NATO ally to decide "for itself whether it has any reservations about what it supplies" to Ukraine in light of Putin's warnings, and said that "different allies have slightly different policies on this."
Newsweek reached out to Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry for comment on Thursday.
The NATO secretary general also spoke about the effort to deliver F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, saying that it was "impossible to say exactly" when the aircraft would be ready for battle.
"We all want the F-16s to be there as soon as possible," Stoltenberg told Radio Liberty. "At the same time, of course, the effect of the F-16 will be stronger and better with more trained pilots. And not only pilots, but also maintenance, personnel and all the support systems that must be in place."
F-16 jets have been provided to Ukraine by a variety of NATO members, and training programs on the modern aircraft are taking place in the U.S., United Kingdom, Denmark and Romania.
|
|
|
|
| The Station Churches of the Ember Days of Lent |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-23-2024, 06:22 AM - Forum: The Liturgical Year
- No Replies
|
|
The Station Churches of the Ember Days of Lent
NLM | February 21, 2024
During all four sets of Ember Days, the stations are held at the same three churches: on Wednesday at St Mary Major, on Friday at the church of the Twelve Apostles, and on Saturday at the basilica of St Peter in the Vatican. In Advent, Pentecost week, and September, there is often no clear connection between the station church and the actual text of the day’s Mass. On the Lenten Ember Days, however, the Gospel of the Mass each day makes a clear reference to the saint or saints in whose church it was intended to be said.
![[Image: 08%2B-%2BMary%2BMajor%2B5.jpg]](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zq_mhpyFCUg/WMBdndegMhI/AAAAAAAALFY/iLzT0hl0_AYR81t_lwLPp3CXLpTOOonNACLcB/s400-rw/08%2B-%2BMary%2BMajor%2B5.jpg)
The high altar of St Mary Major, decorated with relics for the Lenten station in 2017. Photo by the great Agnese.
On Ember Wednesday, the Gospel is St Matthew 12, 38-50, in which the Lord rebukes the Pharisees who wish to see Him perform a sign. “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign; and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was in the whale’s belly three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.”
In the Christian perspective, Jonah is unique and uniquely important among the prophets for two reasons. First, he personally does not say anything about Christ, as, for example, Isaiah says that a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son. In Jonah’s case, it is what happens to his body that prophesies the destiny of Jesus’ body, His death and Resurrection. Secondly, this prophetic explanation of his story is given to us by Christ Himself. He therefore became at a very early period one of the most frequently represented subjects in Christian art.
![[Image: Jonah+Fresco+-+Catacomb+of+Callixtus.jpg]](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rkl4u_jS6T4/T06shyVOAWI/AAAAAAAABCU/PJu24BZUAzs/s400-rw/Jonah+Fresco+-+Catacomb+of+Callixtus.jpg)
Stories of Jonah, from a late 2nd century fresco in the Catacomb of Callixtus. From right to left, Jonah is thrown into the sea, where a monster is about to swallow him; Jonah is spat out of the sea-monster; Jonah rests under the vine. The Greek and Latin words for “whale” can also mean “sea-monster”, and the creature that swallows the prophet is usually shown as such in early Christian art.
In the ancient paintings and sarcophagi from the catacombs of Rome and elsewhere, Jonah is almost invariably shown nude, whether he is depicted being thrown into the water, swallowed by the whale, vomited out by the whale, or lying down under the vine that God uses to shield him from the sun. His nudity emphasizes the reality of his human nature, and therefore emphasizes the reality of Christ’s human nature. It must be born in mind that early heretics like the Docetists, Gnostics, and later the Arians, were concerned to deny not so much the divinity of Christ as the humanity of God. In antiquity, the idea of a savior, sage or miracle-worker sent from heaven was not particularly difficult to accept; what many in the Roman world found much harder to believe was that God took such interest in the welfare of the human race that He actually joined it. The nude figure of Jonah, therefore, is as much an assertion of the Incarnation, against the early heresies, as it is a proclamation of the death and resurrection of Christ.
![[Image: Jonah+Sarcophagus.jpg]](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7v6ALdkFai4/T06tu11wjEI/AAAAAAAABCc/rnkqNdnADqE/s1600/Jonah+Sarcophagus.jpg)
A third-century sarcophagus in the Vatican Museums’ Pio-Christian collection. This is one of the most elaborate versions of the Jonah story, and is therefore known as the Jonah Sarcophagus, although there are many other ancient representations of the prophet. Note that Noah is seen standing in a square ark above the sea-monster on the right, a clever use of the extra space to add another important Biblical episode.
This tradition was already well established when the basilica of Saint Mary Major was built right after the ecumenical council of Ephesus, both to honor the chosen vessel of God’s Incarnation, and to re-assert this dogma of our salvation against the heretic Nestorius; the station is kept at the natural choice of church in which to read this crucial Gospel passage. Oddly enough, the traditional Roman Rite uses only one passage from the book of Jonah itself at Mass in the whole of the year; chapter 3, in which Jonah preaches repentance to the Ninivites, is read on the Monday of Passion week, and repeated at the Easter Vigil. In the traditional Ambrosian liturgy, on the other hand, the entire book (actually one of the shortest in the Bible, only 48 verses) is the first reading of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper; in the Byzantine Rite, it is read at the Easter vigil.
At the end of the same Gospel, the Mother of God Herself appears in person: “And one said unto him, ‘Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, seeking thee.’ But He answering… said: ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?’ And stretching forth His hand towards His disciples, He said: Behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.’ ” These words are explained by St Gregory the Great to mean that the disciples of Christ are His brethren when they believe in Him, and His Mother when they preach Him; “For as it were, one gives birth to the Lord when he brings Him into the heart of his listener, and becomes His Mother by preaching Him, if through his voice the love of God is begotten in the mind of his neighbor.” (Homily 3 on the Gospels).
![[Image: 4+-+apse+of+Mary+Major.jpg]](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QR-r1GVQPEk/T06xNUojGYI/AAAAAAAABCk/Ruht498yKig/s400-rw/4+-+apse+of+Mary+Major.jpg)
The Coronation of the Virgin, apsidal mosaic of St. Mary Major by Jacopo Torriti, 1296
On Friday is read at the basilica of the Twelve Apostles the Gospel of the man healed at the pool of Bethesda, John 5, 1-15, wherein “lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, of withered.” This healing may be seen as a prophecy of the mission given by Christ Himself to the Apostles, and in them to the whole Church. During His earthly ministry, when He first sent the Apostles forth, He “gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases, and all manner of infirmities. And the names of the twelve Apostles are these: The first, Simon who is called Peter, etc. (saying) ‘Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils.’ ” (Matthew 10, 1-2 and 8). Likewise, on the feast of the Ascension, we read that He renewed this commission to the Apostles, giving as one of the signs that shall follow those that believe in Him, “they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover.” Here, when Christ heals the man who is too lame to reach the pool as the Angel of the Lord stirs the water, He says to him, “Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.” In the Acts of the Apostles, the very first miracle of healing reported after the first Pentecost is that of the lame man to whom their leader says “Arise and walk.” (chapter 3, 1-16)
![[Image: healing+images+from+sarcophagus.JPG]](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d8sHTCGhVf4/T06yfKkDH6I/AAAAAAAABCs/XBtDja4-mBM/s400-rw/healing+images+from+sarcophagus.JPG)
Three images of Christ as healer on a 3rd-century sarcophagus, also in the Pio-Christian Collection of the Vatican Museums. From left to right, the healing of the paralytic, who is shown carrying his bed; the healing of the blind man; the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. The fourth image is Christ transforming water into wine at the wedding of Cana. In antiquity, Christ was often shown holding a magic wand to indicate that He is working a miracle; some commentators have most unfortunately chosen to understand this to mean that the early Christians thought of Christ principally as a magician.
The Synoptic Gospels tell the story of another paralytic healed at Capharnaum, whose friends had to take the roof off the building to lower him down into the place where Jesus was preaching. (Mark 2, 1-12 and parallels) When Christ says to him first “Son, thy sins are forgiven thee.” the Pharisees grew indignant at this usurpation of God’s prerogatives. He therefore heals the man of his bodily infirmities to show that “the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins,” and then addresses him in the same terms He uses with the man at the pool of Bethesda, “Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house.”
The healed paralytic carrying his bed is another motif of great importance in early Christian art, representing the forgiveness of sins, an article of the faith which we still profess in every recitation of the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. Such images usually consist only of Christ and the man carrying his bed, and it is impossible to say whether we are meant to see him as the paralytic of Capharnaum or Bethesda. More likely, we are meant to think of them both at once.
![[Image: S.+Apollinare+Nuovo+-+Healing+the+Paraly...a.+500.jpg]](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FN4E-HTppyg/T061jrXo38I/AAAAAAAABDM/a_pqqaLgR9o/w400-h319-rw/S.+Apollinare+Nuovo+-+Healing+the+Paralytic+of+Bethesda,+ca.+500.jpg)
The healing of the paralytic of Bethesda, from the basilica of Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, ca. 550 A.D. In the same church, the paralytic of Capharnaum is shown being lowered through the roof, a rare case in which the two are clearly distinguished.
The latter, however, represents another idea of great importance to the early Church, namely, that gentiles are not obliged to live according to the religious laws of the Jews. In the early centuries, many Christians still felt themselves to be very close to their Jewish roots, and continued to follow the Mosaic law; a small but apparently rather vocal minority of these held that the same law should be binding upon all Christians. The paralytic of Bethesda, however, when reproved for violating the strict interpretation of law that no work may be done on the Sabbath, replies “He that made me whole said to me, ‘Take up thy bed, and walk.’ ” He therefore symbolizes the fact that Christ Himself has given the Church a new law, by which Christians are freed from the observance of the law of Moses.
The same idea is expressed by another common motif in early Christian art, the scene referred to as the Traditio Legis – the Handing-Down of the Law. In these images, Jesus is shown with a scroll representing the new law of the Christian faith, in the company of at least the Apostle Peter, usually also Paul, and sometimes all twelve; very often, He is passing the scroll directly to them. The Apostles, who had of course discussed this same question at the very first Council of the Church, that of Jerusalem (Acts 15), hand down to the Church and its members the new law that permanently dispenses us from the religious observances of the Old Covenant. This is certainly one of the reason why the story of the paralytic of Bethesda is read in the basilica of the Twelve Apostles.
![[Image: 8+-+Traditio+legis+-+Rome,+Museo+di+Civi...Bassus.jpg]](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-amQOm_BAj6o/T068bMxShzI/AAAAAAAABD8/Vr4OPh6i-1s/s400-rw/8+-+Traditio+legis+-+Rome,+Museo+di+Civilt%C3%A0+Romana,+copy+of+the+sarcophagus+of+Junius+Bassus.jpg)
The Traditio Legis with Ss. Peter and Paul, from the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (prefect of Rome, died 359 A.D.) Note that as Christ is handing the scrolls of the law to the Apostles Peter and Paul, He is also stepping on the face of the sky god, here used as a symbolic figure, to represent His dominion over the heavens.
![[Image: 9+-+San+Lorenzo+in+Milano+-+Chapel+of+St...entury.jpg]](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7HULwo6RZXg/T068kan5RCI/AAAAAAAABEE/kABmgLaoNl0/s400-rw/9+-+San+Lorenzo+in+Milano+-+Chapel+of+St.+Aquilinus,+Traditio+Legis,+4th+century.jpg)
The Traditio Legis with all twelve Apostles, from a late-4th century imperial mausoleum in Milan, now the chapel of St Aquilinus in the basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore. Here, Christ has one scroll in His hand, and six in the case at His feet, a total of seven; this number symbolizes perfection, and hence the perfection of the new law.
At the Mass of Ember Saturday, the Church reads St Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration (chapter 17, 1-9) at the basilica of St Peter in the Vatican. In his homilies on this Gospel, St. John Chrysostom teaches that the purpose of the Transfiguration was to strengthen the Apostles’ faith in Christ’s divinity, so that they might not be overwhelmed with sorrow at His Passion or lose faith in His Resurrection. The Greek Church instituted a feast of the Transfiguration long before it was adopted by the West, fixing the day to August 6th, forty days, the length of Lent, before the Exaltation of the Cross. This association of the Transfiguration with the Passion is beautifully expressed by the early Byzantine mosaic in the apse of Sant’ Apollinare in Classe near Ravenna, built in the mid-6th century. The witnesses of the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah above, the Apostles Peter, James and John below, represented as three sheep, are standing around a great jeweled Cross, rather than Christ in in His glory and majesty; only the face of the Lord appears, within a small medallion in the middle of the Cross, an expression of the humility with which He accepted the Passion.
The three witnesses of the Transfiguration, Ss Peter, James and John, often appear together in the Gospels as the disciples closest to Christ. Along with Peter’s brother St Andrew, they were the first disciples called to follow Him, and were present for the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4, 38-39); they were also the witnesses of the healing of the daughter of Jairus, (Mark 5, 37) and the agony in the garden (Mark 14, 33). They alone receive new names from Christ as a sign of their mission, (Mark 3, 16-17) Peter, “the Rock”, being the name given to Simon, James and John receiving the name Boanerges, “sons of thunder”. But at the Transfiguration, as in so many other places, it is Peter alone whose words the Evangelists record for us, words which the church of Rome sings this days at his very tomb, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.”
|
|
|
|
| Papal Documents on Church and State |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-22-2024, 07:55 AM - Forum: Papal Documents and Bulls
- Replies (4)
|
|
To the Clergy of Switzerland.
Venerable Brothers and Dearly Beloved Sons, Greetings and Apostolic Benediction.
The duty of the apostolic office which God entrusted to Us demands that We continually watch over the Lord’s flock. We especially direct all Our zeal and thoughts to provide as much assistance as We can whenever the eternal salvation of the sheep and the Catholic religion seem to be in danger.. We are aware of and deplore the fact that Our enemies cunningly try many things, and not without success. Their works are an open blow against the Christian flock and an injury to the Catholic cause. This sorrow is aggravated because those who want to deceive the unwary claim that they do not intend to subtract anything from the integrity of the faith. They pretend to have as their only purpose the protection of the rights of the laity. They attempt, by a false pretense of public interest, to introduce, widely disseminate, establish, and somehow sanction the erroneous and wicked teachings which they follow.
2. Hence they dared to call together an assembly to deliberate, and to fabricate a rule whereby aspects of the temporal power in ecclesiastical affairs were revealed and defined. You already know that We are speaking about those things which were nefariously accomplished during January of last year in Baden in the canton of Aargau. Because of them you experienced sharp sorrow and even now they make you anxious and concerned. We cannot keep secret the fact that in the beginning We were influenced to do nothing. We believed that the laymen gathered in the appointed place with no other intention than to study those matters which concern religion. We further believed they wanted to proceed so that they might not only discuss the many aspects of the ecclesiastical power, but also so that they might offer plans to those who wield high civil authority; those persons might then confirm and sanction the plans by force of law.
3. The acts of that meeting were recently published by Gynopedius at Frauenfeld. These acts contain the names of the men who were present at the meeting, the speeches given by some of them in the sessions, and the articles passed there. We were horrified in reading those speeches and articles and the principles contained in them. We knew then that novelties were being introduced in the Catholic Church which are contrary to its teaching and discipline and which lead to the destruction of souls. We cannot allow this in any way.
4. He who made everything and who governs by a prudent arrangement wanted order to flourish in His Church. He wanted some people to be in charge and govern and others to be subject and obey. Therefore, the Church has, by its divine institution, the power of the magisterium to teach and define matters of faith and morals and to interpret the Holy Scriptures without danger of error. It also has the power of governance to preserve and strengthen in the true doctrine those whom it welcomes as children and to make laws concerning all things which pertain to the salvation of souls, the exercise of the sacred ministry, and divine worship. Whoever opposes these laws makes himself guilty of a very serious crime.
5. This power of teaching and governing in matters of religion, given by Christ to His Spouse, belongs to the priests and bishops. Christ established this system not only so that the Church would in no way belong to the civil government of the state, but also so that it could be totally free and not subject in the least to any earthly domination. Jesus Christ did not commit the sacred trust of the revealed doctrine to the worldly leaders, but to the apostles and their successors. He said to them only: “Whoever hears you, hears Me; whoever rejects you, rejects Me.” These same apostles preached the Gospel, spread the Church, and established its discipline not in accordance with the pleasure of lay authority, but even in spite of it. Moreover, when the leaders of the synagogue dared command them to silence, Peter and John, who had used the evangelical freedom, responded: “You be the judge of whether it is right in the eyes of God to listen to you rather than to God.” Thus, if any secular power dominates the Church, controls its doctrine, or interferes so that it cannot promulgate laws concerning the holy ministry, divine worship, and the spiritual welfare of the faithful, it does so to the injury of the faith and the overturning of the divine ordinance of the Church and the nature of government.
6. These principles are firm, unchangeable, and supported by the authority and tradition of the ancient Fathers. Bishop Ossius of Cordoba wrote to Emperor Constantius: “Do not become involved in ecclesiastical matters nor give us orders concerning these affairs. But rather learn this from us: God gives you the empire; He entrusts ecclesiastical power to us. Whoever secretly tries to snatch the empire away from you opposes God. By the same token, take care that you do not draw ecclesiastical power to yourself and become guilty of a great crime.” The Christian leaders were aware of this and they considered it a glorious thing to acknowledge publicly. Among them was the great leader Basil who said in the eighth synod: “What more can I say about you lay people? I have nothing else to say except that it is not permitted for you to speak concerning ecclesiastical matters. It is the duty of patriarchs, popes, and priests, to whom the duty of governing has been entrusted, to investigate and study these matters. They have the power of binding and loosing and of sanctifying. They are the ones who have the ecclesiastical and heavenly keys, not those who must be fed, sanctified, bound, and loosed.”
7. However, in the Baden meeting the matter was discussed differently. The articles which came forth from it attack the sound doctrine of ecclesiastical power and lead the Church itself into a scandalous and unjust slavery. It is even subject to the judgment of lay authority in the promulgation of decrees concerning dogma, and its disciplinary laws are declared to lack force and effect unless they are promulgated by the agreement of secular authority with an added proposition concerning the penalties against those who disobey. What then? Power is given to that same civil authority either to approve or to oppose the celebration of the diocesan synods, to inspect the synods, to oversee seminaries, and to confirm the system of their internal governance established by bishops, to remove clerics from ecclesiastical duties, to govern the religious and moral instruction of the people, and finally to regulate everything which, they claim, pertains to the external discipline of the Church, although these things may be of a spiritual nature or character and may concern the worship of God and the salvation of souls.
8. There is nothing which belongs more to the Church and there is nothing Jesus Christ wanted more closely reserved for its shepherds than the dispensation of the sacraments He instituted. The power to judge concerning their dispensation belongs only to those whom He established as ministers of His work on earth. It is wicked if the civil authority appropriates for itself anything in this holy office! It is wicked if the civil authority prescribes anything at all concerning it or gives orders to the ministers of the sacraments! It is wicked if it tries with its laws to oppose the rules handed down to Us in writing or by oral tradition from the early Church concerning the distribution of the sacraments to the Christian people. Our predecessor St. Gelasius said in his letter to Emperor Anastasius: “You know, most merciful son, that you are allowed to rule over the human race. Nevertheless, submit yourself to the bishops and seek from them the means of your salvation. In receiving the heavenly sacraments and in distributing them appropriately, you know that you should be subject rather than govern. You know therefore that in these things you depend on their judgment and that they do not want to be subjected to your power.” What seems to be incredible and portentous is that the meeting at Baden progressed to the point that even the right and office of dispensing the sacraments was attributed to secular authority. The articles which were rashly written concerning the sacrament of marriage in Christ and the Church certainly incline in this direction as does the support given for contracting mixed marriages. The requirement that Catholic priests bless these marriages while ignoring the religious differences between the spouses and the threats of punishment for those who refuse to do this illustrate this tendency.
9. These things ought to be condemned because the civil authority makes laws concerning the celebration of a divinely established sacrament and dares to order the priests in such a serious matter. But they ought to be reproached even more so because they foster an absurd and impious idea which they call “indifferentism;” indeed they depend on it as necessary. Moreover, they oppose Catholic truth and Church doctrine which forbids mixed marriages as disgraceful because of the communion in holy things and because of the serious danger of the perversion of the Catholic spouse and the perverted education of the future children. Nor did the Church ever grant the free power to contract such a marriage unless conditions were added which prevented the causes of danger and deformity.
10. Jesus Christ conferred on His Church the supreme power of administering religion and governing Christian society. This is not subject to the civil authority. In his letter to the Ephesians the Apostle teaches that Christ established this ecclesiastical power for the benefit of unity. And what is this unity unless one person is placed in charge of the whole Church who protects it and joins all its members in the one profession of faith and unites them in the one bond of love and communion? The wisdom of the Divine Lawgiver ordered that a visible head be placed over a visible body so that “once so established, the opportunity for division might be removed.” Wherefore, although for all the bishops whom the Holy Spirit placed as governors of the Church of God there is a common dignity and in matters of rank there is nevertheless equal power, there is not the same rank in the hierarchy for all and they do not all have the same extent of jurisdiction.
Using the words of St. Leo the Great; “Among the holy apostles there was a similarity of honor but a distinction of power: while the election of all was equal, it was given only to one to have preeminence among the others … because the Lord wanted the sacrament of evangelical duty to belong to the office of the apostles; thus He placed it principally in St. Peter, the head of all the apostles.” He granted this to Peter alone out of all the apostles when He promised him the keys of the kingdom of heaven and entrusted to him the obligation of feeding the Lord’s sheep and lambs and the duty of strengthening his brothers. He wanted this to extend to Peter’s successors whom He placed over the Church with equal right. This has always been the firm and united opinion of all Catholics. It is Church dogma that the pope, the successor of St. Peter, possesses not only primacy of honor but also primacy of authority and jurisdiction over the whole Church. Accordingly the bishops are subject to him.
11. In the words of St. Leo, who continues speaking about the Holy See of Peter: “It is necessary that the Church throughout the world be united and cleave to the center of Catholic unity and ecclesiastical communion, so that whoever dares to depart from the unity of Peter might understand that he no longer shares in the divine mystery.” St. Jerome adds: “Whoever eats the lamb outside of this house is unholy. Those who were not in the ark of Noah perished in the flood.” Just as he who does not gather with Christ, so he who does not gather with Christ’s Vicar on earth, clearly scatters. How can someone who destroys the holy authority of the Vicar of Christ and who infringes on his rights gather with him? It is through these rights that the pope is the center of unity, that he has the primacy of order and jurisdiction, and that he has the full power of nurturing, ruling, and governing the universal Church.
12. We tearfully admit that this was attempted at the meeting in Baden. The pope alone and no bishop has the right to transfer the days fixed by the Church for celebrating feasts and observing fasts and to annul the precept of attending Mass. This was clearly established in the constitution Auctorem fidei published by Our predecessor Pius VI on August 28, 1794, against the Pistoians.
13. The items contained in the Baden articles are contrary to this and are much more harmful because on the issue of discipline they reserve the right for the civil authority. The special privilege of removing religious congregations which live under a rule from the jurisdiction of the bishops and subjecting these congregations directly to himself belongs to the pope-a right popes have used from the earliest times. The articles of the Baden convention abridge this right. They make no mention of the necessity of asking and obtaining the permission of the Holy See. Thus plans may be undertaken by a secular authority through which, after the exemption of the monastic orders is abolished in Switzerland, regular congregations can be made subject to the authority of the ordinary bishops.
14. To these, We should add those things which they indicate have been authorized concerning the rights of bishops. If these things are examined mote deeply and referred back to the principles from which the articles made in the Baden conference proceed, they seem to confirm that the jurisdiction of the bishops neither can nor should be swayed by the supreme authority of the pope. Nor should they be circumscribed by any limitations. Neither should We omit those things which were proposed concerning either the erection of a metropolitan see or the unification of some of those dioceses to another cathedral church located beyond the boundaries of Switzerland. The rights of the Holy See in this matter were ignored. Thus civil authority acted as if it were totally free in these serious issues to establish by its own right those things which it considered to be advantageous for the spiritual needs of the people. We pass over many other things which would be too tiresome to enumerate individually. However, they inflict great harm on this Holy See of Peter and threaten, violate, and despise its dignity and authority.
15. Since this is the situation and the Church is confronted by so great and open a disturbance of sound doctrine and ecclesiastical rights and by so great and serious a danger to the Catholic cause in these regions, it behooved Us to raise Our voice from this holy mountain soon after the meeting of Baden was held and to openly criticize, reprove, and condemn those articles to everyone who participated in the conference. We delayed Our decision on their wickedness up until now because We hoped that those who administer civil affairs would totally reject and disapprove of them. The matter did not, for the most part, come to pass according to Our expectation. On the contrary, We, greatly sorrowing, learned that laws were enacted which confirmed those articles and protected them by public decree.
16. We, in Our role as teacher and universal doctor, ought diligently to beware lest anyone be led into error by Our action and conclude that the articles of the Baden meeting are not inconsistent with the teaching and discipline of the Church. We know that We cannot hesitate or be silent any longer. As this is a matter of very serious importance, We subjected these articles to a careful examination. We have heard the advice and received the opinions of the cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and have considered the entire matter carefully by Our own will and with sure knowledge. With the fullness of the apostolic power, We reprove and condemn the aforementioned articles of the meeting of Baden as containing false, rash, and erroneous assertions; as detracting from the rights of the Holy See, overthrowing the government of the Church and its divine constitution, and subjecting the ecclesiastical ministry to secular domination; and as proceeding from condemned premises. We decree that they should forever be considered condemned.
17. While We intend to point these things out openly because of Our apostolic duty, it remains for Us to speak with paternal affection to you who have taken on a part of His governance, the fullness of which the Prince of Shepherds entrusted to Us. Among so many evils which besiege the Catholic Church in these evil times, what great trials press upon Our heart! We have experienced great sadness, especially from those things which were daringly attempted recently. It should be enough to direct your attention to it, and it should not be necessary to explain the details.
18. In Our sorrow We must not neglect to mention that what you did in guarding the Catholic cause and caring for the salvation of the flock entrusted to your care brought Us great solace. Therefore, We give thanks to the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation who comforted Us with you while We were oppressed by such tribulation. We must arouse your devotion. We exhort you to fight for the cause of God and the Church with greater zeal as the attacks of the enemy become more severe. It is your duty to stand as a wall so that no other foundation can be placed other than the one which has already been laid. It is also your duty to keep the faith undefiled. There is another sacred trust which you should firmly defend, namely, the holy laws by which the Church establishes its discipline, and the rights of this Apostolic See. Therefore, act according to the position which you hold, according to the dignity with which you are vested, according to the authority which you received, according to the sacrament by which you bound yourselves in solemn consecration. Unsheathe the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Denounce, beseech, rebuke in all patience and teaching. Labor and struggle for the Catholic religion, for the divine authority and laws of the Church, for the See of Peter and its dignity and rights “so that not only those who are upright may remain safe but also so that those who were deceived by seduction may be called back from error.”
19. Moreover, so that the desired outcome may result from these cares and labors under taken by Our venerable brothers, We also address those of you who are ministers of the sacraments, shepherds of souls, and preachers of the divine word. It is your duty to be totally united with them in will, to be inflamed with the same zeal, and to be in harmony with them in this work so that the people might be protected from all danger of error and contamination. Exert yourselves so that everyone thinks the same thing and no one allows himself to be led astray by strange teachings. Let everyone avoid profane novelties, cling to the Catholic faith, and submit himself to the power and authority of the Church. Each person should bind himself ever more firmly to this See which the strong Redeemer of Jacob placed as an iron pillar and as a bronze wall against the enemies of religion. You should receive these enemies as people who ought to be educated in the law of Christ and of the Church.
20. It should be obvious that the secular power and those laws enacted by it concerning the welfare of civil society ought to be obeyed, not only because of the fear of wrath but also because of conscience. It is never permitted, however, to shamefully abandon the faith because of it. Since the spirits of the people are trained in this way, consider your labors to be both for the tranquility of the citizens and the welfare of the Church; these two things cannot be separated from one another.
21. May the most merciful God, from whom comes every perfect gift, accomplish these Our wishes. May Our apostolic blessing which We lovingly impart to you, venerable brothers, to Our brothers in the Lord, and to the faithful be a sign of good things which We ardently desire for this part of the Catholic flock.
Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, on the 17th day of May in the year 1835, the fifth year of Our Pontificate.
|
|
|
|
| Pius XII: Haureietis Aquas - On Devotion to the Sacred Heart |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-22-2024, 07:41 AM - Forum: Encyclicals
- No Replies
|
|
HAURIETIS AQUAS
ON DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART
Venerable Brethren: Health and Apostolic Benediction.
1. "You shall draw waters with joy out of the Savior's fountain."(1) These words by which the prophet Isaias, using highly significant imagery, foretold the manifold and abundant gifts of God which the Christian era was to bring forth, come naturally to Our mind when We reflect on the centenary of that year when Our predecessor of immortal memory, Pius IX, gladly yielding to the prayers from the whole Catholic world, ordered the celebration of the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Universal Church.
2. It is altogether impossible to enumerate the heavenly gifts which devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has poured out on the souls of the faithful, purifying them, offering them heavenly strength, rousing them to the attainment of all virtues. Therefore, recalling those wise words of the Apostle St. James, "Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights,"(2) We are perfectly justified in seeing in this same devotion, which flourishes with increasing fervor throughout the world, a gift without price which our divine Savior the Incarnate Word, as the one Mediator of grace and truth between the heavenly Father and the human race imparted to the Church, His mystical Spouse, in recent centuries when she had to endure such trials and surmount so many difficulties.
3. The Church, rejoicing in this inestimable gift, can show forth a more ardent love of her divine Founder, and can, in a more generous and effective manner, respond to that invitation which St. John the Evangelist relates as having come from Christ Himself: "And on the last and great day of the festivity, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and let him drink that believeth in Me. As the Scripture saith: Out of his heart there shall flow rivers of living waters.' Now this He said of the Spirit which they should receive who believed in Him."(3)
4. For those who were listening to Jesus speaking, it certainly was not difficult to relate these words by which He promised the fountain of "living water" destined to spring from His own side, to the words of sacred prophecy of Isaias, Ezechiel and Zacharias, foretelling the Messianic Kingdom, and likewise to the symbolic rock from which, when struck by Moses, water flowed forth in a miraculous manner.(4)
5. Divine Love first takes its origin from the Holy Spirit, Who is the Love in Person of the Father and the Son in the bosom of the most Holy Trinity. Most aptly then does the Apostle of the Gentiles echo, as it were, the words of Jesus Christ, when he ascribes the pouring forth of love in the hearts of believers to this Spirit of Love: "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is given to us."(5)
6. Holy Writ declares that between divine charity, which must burn in the souls of Christians, and the Holy Spirit, Who is certainly Love Itself, there exists the closest bond, which clearly shows all of us, venerable brethren, the intimate nature of that worship which must be paid to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. If we consider its special nature it is beyond question that this devotion is an act of religion of high order; it demands of us a complete and unreserved determination to devote and consecrate ourselves to the love of the divine Redeemer, Whose wounded Heart is its living token and symbol. It is equally clear, but at a higher level, that this same devotion provides us with a most powerful means of repaying the divine Lord by our own.
7. Indeed it follows that it is only under the impulse of love that the minds of men obey fully and perfectly the rule of the Supreme Being, since the influence of our love draws us close to the divine Will that it becomes as it were completely one with it, according to the saying, "He who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit."(6)
8. The Church has always valued, and still does, the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus so highly that she provides for the spread of it among Christian peoples everywhere and by every means. At the same time she uses every effort to protect it against the charges of so-called "naturalism" and "sentimentalism." In spite of this it is much to be regretted that, both in the past and in our own times, this most noble devotion does not find a place of honor and esteem among certain Christians and even occasionally not among those who profess themselves moved by zeal for the Catholic religion and the attainment of holiness.
9. "If you but knew the gift of God."(7) With these words, venerable brethren, We who in the secret designs of God have been elected as the guardians and stewards of the sacred treasures of faith and piety which the divine Redeemer has entrusted to His Church, prompted by Our sense of duty, admonish them all.
10. For even though the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has triumphed so to speak, over the errors and the neglect of men, and has penetrated entirely His Mystical Body; still there are some of Our children who, led astray by prejudices, sometimes go so far as to consider this devotion ill-adapted, not to say detrimental, to the more pressing spiritual needs of the Church and humanity in this present age. There are some who, confusing and confounding the primary nature of this devotion with various individual forms of piety which the Church approves and encourages but does not command, regard this as a kind of additional practice which each one may take up or not according to his own inclination.
11. There are others who reckon this same devotion burdensome and of little or no use to men who are fighting in the army of the divine King and who are inspired mainly by the thought of laboring with their own strength, their own resources and expenditures of their own time, to defend Catholic truth, to teach and spread it, to instill Christian social teachings, to promote those acts of religion and those undertakings which they consider much more necessary today.
12. Again, there are those who so far from considering this devotion a strong support for the right ordering and renewal of Christian morals both in the individual's private life and in the home circle, see it rather a type of piety nourished not by the soul and mind but by the senses and consequently more suited to the use of women, since it seems to them something not quite suitable for educated men.
13. Moreover there are those who consider a devotion of this kind as primarily demanding penance, expiation and the other virtues which they call "passive," meaning thereby that they produce no external results. Hence they do not think it suitable to re-enkindle the spirit of piety in modern times. Rather, this should aim at open and vigorous action, at the triumph of the Catholic faith, at a strong defense of Christian morals. Christian morality today, as everyone knows, is easily contaminated by the sophistries of those who are indifferent to any form of religion, and who, discarding all distinctions between truth and falsehood, whether in thought or in practice, accept even the most ignoble corruptions of materialistic atheism, or as they call it, secularism.
14. Who does not see, venerable brethren, that opinions of this kind are in entire disagreement with the teachings which Our predecessors officially proclaimed from this seat of truth when approving the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.? Who would be so bold as to call that devotion useless and inappropriate to our age which Our predecessor of immortal memory, Leo XIII, declared to be "the most acceptable form of piety?" He had no doubt that in it there was a powerful remedy for the healing of those very evils which today also, and beyond question in a wider and more serious way, bring distress and disquiet to individuals and to the whole human race. "This devotion," he said, "which We recommend to all, will be profitable to all." And he added this counsel and encouragement with reference to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: ". . .hence those forces of evil which have now for so long a time been taking root and which so fiercely compel us to seek help from Him by Whose strength alone they can be driven away. Who can He be but Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God? 'For there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.'(8) We must have recourse to Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life."(9)
15. No less to be approved, no less suitable for the fostering of Christian piety was this devotion declared to be by Our predecessor of happy memory, Pius XI. In an encyclical letter he wrote: "Is not a summary of all our religion and, moreover, a guide to a more perfect life contained in this one devotion? Indeed, it more easily leads our minds to know Christ the Lord intimately and more effectively turns our hearts to love Him more ardently and to imitate Him more perfectly."(10)
16. To Us, no less than to Our predecessors, these capital truths are clear and certain. When We took up Our office of Supreme Pontiff and saw, in full accord with Our prayers and desires, that the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus had increased and was actually, so to speak, making triumphal progress among Christian peoples, We rejoiced that from it were flowing through the whole Church innumerable and salutary results. This We were pleased to point out in Our first encyclical letter.(11)
17. Through the years of Our pontificate--years filled not only with bitter hardships but also with ineffable consolations these effects have not diminished in number or power or beauty, but on the contrary have increased. Indeed, happily there has begun a variety of projects which are conducive to a rekindling of this devotion. We refer to the formation of cultural associations for the advancement of religion and of charitable works; publications setting forth the true historical, ascetical and mystical doctrine concerning this entire subject; pious works of atonement; and in particular those manifestations of most ardent piety which the Apostleship of Prayer has brought about, under whose auspices and direction local gatherings - families, colleges, institutions - and sometimes nations have been consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To all these We have offered paternal congratulations on many occasions, whether in letters written on the subject, in personal addresses, or even in messages delivered over the radio.(12)
18. Therefore when We perceive so fruitful an abundance of healing waters, that is, heavenly gifts of divine love, issuing from the Sacred Heart of our Redeemer, spreading among countless children of the Catholic Church by the inspiration and action of the divine Spirit; We can only exhort you, venerable brethren, with fatherly affection to join Us in giving tribute of praise and heartfelt thanks to God, the Giver of all good gifts. We make Our own these words of the Apostle of the Gentiles: "Now to Him Who is able to do all things more abundantly than we desire or understand, according to the power that worketh in us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations world without end. Amen."(13)
19. But after We have paid Our debt of thanks to the Eternal God, We wish to urge on you and on all Our beloved children of the Church a more earnest consideration of those principles which take their origin from Scripture and the teaching of the Fathers and theologians and on which, as on solid foundations, the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus rests. We are absolutely convinced that not until we have made a profound study of the primary and loftier nature of this devotion with the aid of the light of the divinely revealed truth, can we rightly and fully appreciate its incomparable excellence and the inexhaustible abundance of its heavenly favors. Likewise by devout meditation and contemplation of the innumerable benefits produced from it, we will be able to celebrate worthily the completion of the first hundred years since the observance of the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was extended to the Universal Church.
20. Moved therefore by this consideration, to the end that the minds of the faithful may have from Our hands salutary food and consequently after such nourishment be able more easily to arrive at a deeper understanding of the true nature of this devotion and possess its rich fruits, We will undertake to explain those pages of the Old and New Testament in which the infinite love of God for the human race (which we shall never be able adequately to contemplate) is revealed and set before us. Then, as occasion offers, We shall touch upon the main lines of the commentaries which the Fathers and Doctors of the Church have handed down to us. And finally, We shall strive to set in its true light the very close connection which exists between the form of devotion paid to the Heart of the divine Redeemer and the worship we owe to His love and to the love of the Most Holy Trinity for all men. For We think if only the main elements on which the most excellent form of devotion rests are clarified in the light of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of tradition, Christians can more easily "draw waters with joy out of the Savior's fountains."(14) By this We mean they can appreciate more fully the full weight of the special importance which devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus enjoys in the liturgy of the Church and in its internal and external life and action, and can also gather those fruits of salvation by which each one can bring about a healthy reform in his own conduct, as the bishops of the Christian flock desire.
21. That all may understand more exactly the teachings which the selected texts of the Old and New Testament furnish concerning this devotion, they must clearly understand the reasons why the Church gives the highest form of worship to the Heart of the divine Redeemer. As you well know, venerable brethren, the reasons are two in number. The first, which applies also to the other sacred members of the Body of Jesus Christ, rests on that principle whereby we recognize that His Heart, the noblest part of human nature, is hypostatically united to the Person of the divine Word. Consequently, there must be paid to it that worship of adoration with which the Church honors the Person of the Incarnate Son of God Himself. We are dealing here with an article of faith, for it has been solemnly defined in the general Council of Ephesus and the second Council of Constantinople.(15)
22. The other reason which refers in a particular manner to the Heart of the divine Redeemer, and likewise demands in a special way that the highest form of worship be paid to it, arises from the fact that His Heart, more than all the other members of His body, is the natural sign and symbol of His boundless love for the human race. "There is in the Sacred Heart," as Our predecessor of immortal memory, Leo XIII, pointed out, "the symbol and express image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love in return."(16)
23. It is of course beyond doubt that the Sacred Books never make express mention of a special worship of veneration and love made to the physical Heart of the Incarnate Word as the symbol of His burning love. But if this must certainly be admitted, it cannot cause us surprise nor in any way lead us to doubt the divine love for us which is the principal object of this devotion; since that love is proclaimed and insisted upon in the Old and in the New Testament by the kind of images which strongly arouse our emotions. Since these images were presented in the Sacred Writings foretelling the coming of the Son of God made man, they can be considered as a token of the noblest symbol and witness of that divine love, that is, of the most Sacred and Adorable Heart of the divine Redeemer.
24. We do not think it essential to Our subject to cite at length passages from the Old Testament books which contain truths divinely revealed in ancient times. We consider it sufficient to call to mind that the covenant made between God and the people and sanctified by peace offerings - the first Law of which was written on two tablets and made known by Moses(17) and explained by the prophets -was an agreement established not only on the strong foundation of God's supreme dominion and of man's duty of obedience but was also based and nourished on more noble considerations of love. The ultimate reason for obeying God, for the people of Israel, was not the fear of divine vengeance which the rumble of thunder and the lightning flashing from the top of Mount Sinai struck into their souls, but was rather the love they owed to God. "Hear, O Israel ! The Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and thy whole strength. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart."(18)
25. We do not wonder then, that Moses and the prophets, whom the Angelic Doctor rightly names the "elders" of the chosen people,(19) perceived clearly that the foundation of the whole Law lay on this commandment of love, and described all the circumstances and relationships which should exist between God and His people by metaphors drawn from the natural love of a father and his children, or a man and his wife, rather than from the harsh imagery derived from the supreme dominion of God or the obligation of subjecting ourselves in fear. And so, to take an example, when Moses himself was singing his famous hymn in honor of the people restored to freedom from the slavery of Egypt, and wished to indicate it had come about by the power of God; he used these symbolic and touching expressions: "As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, (God) spread his wings, and hath taken him (Israel) and carried him on his shoulders."(20)
26. But perhaps none of the holy prophets has expressed and revealed as clearly and vividly as Osee the love with which God always watches over His people. In writings of this prophet, who is outstanding among the minor prophets for the sublimity of his concise language, God declares that His love for the chosen people, combining justice and a holy anxiety, is like the love of a merciful and loving father or of a husband whose honor is offended. This love is not diminished or withdrawn in the face of the perfidy or the horrible crimes of those who betray it. If it inflicts just chastisements on the guilty, it is not for the purpose of rejecting them or of abandoning them to themselves; but rather to bring about the repentance and the purification of the unfaithful spouse and ungrateful children, and to bind them once more to itself with renewed and yet stronger bonds of love. "Because Israel was a child, and I loved him; and I called my son out of Egypt. . .And I was like a foster father to Ephraim, and I carried them in my arms, and they knew not that I healed them. I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bonds of love. . .I will heal their wounds, I will love them; for My wrath is turned away from them. I will be as a dew, Israel shall spring up as a lily, and his root shall shoot forth as that of Libanus."(21)
27. Similar sentiments are uttered by the prophet Isaias when he introduces a conversation in the form of question and answer, as it were, between God and the chosen people: "And Sion said, 'the Lord hath forsaken me; the Lord hath forgotten me.' Can a woman forget her infant so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee."(22)
28. No less moving are the words which the author of the Canticle of Canticles, employing comparisons from conjugal affection, describes symbolically the bonds of mutual love by which God and his chosen people are united to each other: "As the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters. . .I to My beloved and My beloved to Me, who feedeth among the lilies. . .Put Me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is hard as hell, the lamps thereof are lamps of fire and flames."(23)
29. This most tender, forgiving and patient love of God, though it deems unworthy the people of Israel as they add sin to sin, nevertheless at no time casts them off entirely. And though it seems strong and exalted indeed, yet it was only an advance symbol of that burning charity which mankind' s promised Redeemer, from His most loving Heart, was destined to open to all and which was to be the type of His love for us and the foundation of the new covenant.
30. Assuredly, when He who is the only begotten of the Father and the Word made flesh "full of grace and truth"(24) had come to men weighed down with many sins and miseries it was He alone, from that human nature united hypostatically to the divine Person, Who could open to the human race the "fountain of living water" which would irrigate the parched land and transform it into a fruitful and flourishing garden.
31. That this most wondrous effect would come to pass as a result of the merciful and everlasting love of God the prophet Jeremias seems to foretell in a manner in these words: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore I have drawn thee taking pity on thee. . .Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Juda. . .this will be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord; I will give My law in their bowels, and will write it in their heart, and I will be their God and they shall be My people. . .for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more."(25)
32. But it is only in the Gospels that we find definitely and clearly set out the new covenant between God and man; for that covenant which Moses had made between the people of Israel and God was a mere symbol and a sign of the covenant foretold by the prophet Jeremias. We say that this new covenant is that very thing which was established and effected by the work of the Incarnate Word Who is the source of divine grace. This covenant is therefore to be considered incomparably more excellent and more solid because it was ratified, not as in the past by the blood of goats and calves, but by the most precious Blood of Him Whom these same innocent animals, devoid of reason, had already prefigured: "The Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world."(26)
33. The Christian covenant, much more than that of the old, clearly appears as an agreement based not on slavery or on fear, but as one ratified by that friendship which ought to exist between a father and his children, as one nourished and strengthened by a more generous outpouring of divine grace and truth according to the saying of St. John the Evangelist: "And of his fulness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the Law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."(27)
34. Since we have been introduced, venerable brethren, to the innermost mystery of the infinite charity of the Word Incarnate by these words of the disciple "whom Jesus loved and who also leaned on His breast at the supper,"(28) it seems meet and just, right and availing unto salvation, to pause for a short time in sweet contemplation of this mystery so that, enlightened by that light which shines from the Gospel and makes clearer the mystery itself, we also may be able to obtain the realization of the desire of which the Apostle of the Gentiles speaks in writing to the Ephesians. "That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts, that being rooted and founded in charity you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth; to know also the charity of Christ which surpasseth all knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fulness of God."(29)
35. The mystery of the divine redemption is primarily and by its very nature a mystery of love, that is, of the perfect love of Christ for His heavenly Father to Whom the sacrifice of the Cross, offered in a spirit of love and obedience, presents the most abundant and infinite satisfaction due for the sins of the human race; "By suffering out of love and obedience, Christ gave more to God than was required to compensate for the offense of the whole human race."(30)
36. It is also a mystery of the love of the Most Holy Trinity and of the divine Redeemer towards all men. Because they were entirely unable to make adequate satisfaction for their sins,(31) Christ, through the infinite treasure of His merits acquired for us by the shedding of His precious Blood, was able to restore completely that pact of friendship between God and man which had been broken, first by the grievous fall of Adam in the earthly paradise and then by the countless sins of the chosen people.
37. Since our divine Redeemer as our lawful and perfect Mediator, out of His ardent love for us, restored complete harmony between the duties and obligations of the human race and the rights of God, He is therefore responsible for the existence of that wonderful reconciliation of divine justice and divine mercy which constitutes the sublime mystery of our salvation. On this point the Angelic Doctor wisely comments: "That man should be delivered by Christ's Passion was in keeping with both His mercy and His justice. With His justice, because by His Passion Christ made satisfaction for the sins of the human race, and so man was set free by Christ's justice; and with His mercy, for since man of himself could not satisfy for the sin of all human nature, God gave him His Son to satisfy for him. And this came of a more copious mercy than if he had forgiven sins without satisfaction: Hence St. Paul says: 'God, who is rich in mercy, by reason of His very great love wherewith He has loved us even when we were dead by reason of our sins, brought us to life together with Christ.'"(32)
38. But in order that we really may be able, so far as it is permitted to mortal men, "to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth"(33) of the hidden love of the Incarnate Word for His heavenly Father and for men infected by the taint of sins, we must note well that His love was not entirely the spiritual love proper to God inasmuch as "God is a spirit."(34) Undoubtedly the love with which God loved our forefathers and the Hebrew people was of this nature. For this reason the expressions of human, intimate, and paternal love which we find in the Psalms, the writings of the prophets, and in the Canticle of Canticles are tokens and symbols of the true but entirely spiritual love with which God continued to sustain the human race. On the other hand, the love which breathes from the Gospel, from the letters of the Apostles and the pages of the Apocalypse, all of which portray the love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, expresses not only divine love but also human sentiments of love. All who profess themselves Catholics accept this without question.
39. For the Word of God did not assume a feigned and unsubstantial body, as already in the first century of Christianity some heretics declared and who were condemned in these solemn words of St. John the Apostle: "For many seducers are gone out into the world, who do confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Here is a seducer and the antichrist,"(35) but He united to His divine Person a truly human nature, individual, whole and perfect, which was conceived in the most pure womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost.(36)
40. Nothing, then, was wanting to the human nature which the Word of God united to Himself. Consequently He assumed it in no diminished way, in no different sense in what concerns the spiritual and the corporeal: that is, it was endowed with intellect and will and the other internal and external faculties of perception, and likewise with the desires and all the natural impulses of the senses. All this the Catholic Church teaches as solemnly defined and ratified by the Roman Pontiffs and the general councils. "Whole and entire in what is His own, whole and entire in what is ours."(37) "Perfect in His Godhead and likewise perfect in His humanity."(38) "Complete God is man, complete man is God."(39)
41. Hence, since there can be no doubt that Jesus Christ received a true body and had all the affections proper to the same, among which love surpassed all the rest, it is likewise beyond doubt that He was endowed with a physical heart like ours; for without this noblest part of the body the ordinary emotions of human life are impossible. Therefore the Heart of Jesus Christ, hypostatically united to the divine Person of the Word, certainly beat with love and with the other emotions- but these, joined to a human will full of divine charity and to the infinite love itself which the Son shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit, were in such complete unity and agreement that never among these three loves was there any contradiction of or disharmony.(40)
42. However, even though the Word of God took to Himself a true and perfect human nature, and made and fashioned for Himself a heart of flesh, which, no less than ours could suffer and be pierced, unless this fact is considered in the light of the hypostatic and substantial union and in the light of its complement, the fact of man' s redemption, it can be a stumbling block and foolishness to some, just as Jesus Christ, nailed to the Cross, actually was to the Jewish race and to the Gentiles.(41)
43. The official teachings of the Catholic faith, in complete agreement with Scripture, assure us that the only begotten Son of God took a human nature capable of suffering and death especially because He desired, as He hung from the Cross, to offer a bloody sacrifice in order to complete the work of man's salvation. This the Apostle of the Gentiles teaches in another way: "For both He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, 'I will declare thy name to My brethren'. . .And again, 'Behold I and My children, whom God hath given Me.' Therefore, because the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also in like manner hath been partaker of the same. . .Wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, that He might be a propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that wherein He Himself hath suffered and been tempted He is able to succor them who are tempted."(42)
44. The holy Fathers, true witnesses of the divinely revealed doctrine, wonderfully understood what St. Paul the Apostle had quite clearly declared; namely, that the mystery of love was, as it were, both the foundation and the culmination of the Incarnation and the Redemption. For frequently and clearly we can read in their writings that Jesus Christ took a perfect human nature and our weak and perishable human body with the object of providing for our eternal salvation, and of revealing to us in the clearest possible manner that His infinite love for us could express itself in human terms.
45. St. Justin, almost echoing the voice of the Apostle of the Gentiles, writes: "We adore and love the Word born of the unbegotten and ineffable God since He became man for our sake, so that having become a partaker of our sufferings He might provide a remedy for them."(43)
46. St. Basil, the first of the three Cappadocian Fathers declares that the feelings of the senses in Christ were at once true and holy: "It is clear that the Lord did indeed put on natural affections as a proof of His real and not imaginary Incarnation, and that He rejected as unworthy of the Godhead those corrupt affections which defile the purity of our life."(44)
47. Similarly that light of the Church of Antioch, St. John Chrysostom, admits that the emotion of the senses to which the divine Redeemer was subject made obvious the fact that He assumed a human nature complete in all respects: "For if He had not shared our nature He would not have repeatedly been seized with grief."(45)
48. Among the Latin Fathers one may cite those whom the Church today honors as the greatest doctors. Thus St. Ambrose bears witness that the movements and dispositions of the senses, from which the Incarnate Word of (God was not exempt, flow from the hypostatic union as from their natural source: "And therefore He put on a soul and the passions of the soul; for God, precisely because He is God, could not have been disturbed nor could He have died."(46)
49. It was from these very emotions that St. Jerome derived his chief proof that Christ had really put on human nature: "Our Lord, to prove the truth of the manhood He had assumed, experiences real sadness."(47)
50. But St. Augustine, in a special manner, notices the connections that exist between the sentiments of the Incarnate Word and their purpose, man's redemption. "These affections of human infirmity, even as the human body itself and death, the Lord Jesus put on not out of necessity, but freely out of compassion so that He might transform in Himself His Body, which is the Church of which He deigned to be the Head, that is, His members who are among the faithful and the saints, so that if any of them in the trials of this life should be saddened and afflicted they should not therefore think that they are deprived of His grace. Nor should they consider this sorrow a sin, but a sign of human weakness. Like a choir singing in harmony with the note that has been sounded, so should His Body learn from its Head."(48)
51. More briefly, but no less effectively, do the following passages from St. John Damascene set out the teaching of the Church: "Complete God assumed me completely and complete man is united to complete God so that He might bring salvation to complete man. For what was not assumed could not be healed."(49) "He therefore assumed all that He might sanctify all."(50)
52. However, it must be noted that although these selected passages from Scripture and the Fathers and many similar ones that We have not cited give clear testimony that Jesus Christ was endowed with affections and sense perceptions, and hence that He assumed human nature in order to work for our eternal salvation, yet they never refer those affections to His physical heart in such a way as to point to it clearly as the symbol of His infinite love.
53. Granted that the Evangelists and other sacred writers do not explicitly describe the Heart of our Redeemer, living and throbbing like our own with the power of feeling, and ever throbbing with the emotions and affections of His soul and the glowing charity of His twofold will, yet they often set in their proper light His divine love and the sense emotions which accompany it; that is, desire, joy, weakness, fear and anger, as shown by His face, words or gesture. The face of our adorable Savior was especially the guide, and a kind of faithful reflection, of those emotions which moved His soul in various ways and like repeating waves touched His Sacred Heart and excited its beating. For what is true of human psychology and its effects is valid here also. The Angelic Doctor, relying on ordinary experience, notes: "An emotion caused by anger is conveyed to the external members, and particularly to those members in which the heart's imprint is more obviously reflected, such as the eyes, the face, and the tongue."(51)
54. For these reasons, the Heart of the Incarnate Word is deservedly and rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that threefold love with which the divine Redeemer unceasingly loves His eternal Father and all mankind.
55. It is a symbol of that divine love which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit but which He, the Word made flesh, alone manifests through a weak and perishable body, since "in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily."(52)
56. It is, besides, the symbol of that burning love which, infused into His soul, enriches the human will of Christ and enlightens and governs its acts by the most perfect knowledge derived both from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused.(53)
57. And finally - and this in a more natural and direct way - it is the symbol also of sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so than any other human body.(54)
58. Since, therefore, Sacred Scripture and the official teaching of the Catholic faith instruct us that all things find their complete harmony and order in the most holy soul of Jesus Christ, and that He has manifestly directed His threefold love for the securing of our redemption, it unquestionably follows that we can contemplate and honor the Heart of the divine Redeemer as a symbolic image of His love and a witness of our redemption and, at the same time, as a sort of mystical ladder by which we mount to the embrace of "God our Savior."(55)
59. Hence His words, actions, commands, miracles, and especially those works which manifest more clearly His love for us - such as the divine institution of the Eucharist, His most bitter sufferings and death, the loving gift of His holy Mother to us, the founding of the Church for us, and finally, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and upon us - all these, We say, ought to be looked upon as proofs of His threefold love.
60. Likewise we ought to meditate most lovingly on the beating of His Sacred Heart by which He seemed, as it were, to measure the time of His sojourn on earth until that final moment when, as the Evangelists testify, "crying out with a loud voice 'It is finished.', and bowing His Head, He yielded up the ghost."(56) Then it was that His heart ceased to beat and His sensible love was interrupted until the time when, triumphing over death, He rose from the tomb.
61. But after His glorified body had been re-united to the soul of the divine Redeemer, conqueror of death, His most Sacred Heart never ceased, and never will cease, to beat with calm and imperturbable pulsations. Likewise, it will never cease to symbolize the threefold love with which He is bound to His heavenly Father and the entire human race, of which He has every claim to be the mystical Head.
62. And now, venerable brethren, in order that we may be able to gather from these holy considerations abundant and salutary fruits, We desire to reflect on and briefly contemplate the manifold affections, human and divine, of our Savior Jesus Christ which His Heart made known to us during the course of His mortal life and which It still does and will continue to do for all eternity. From the pages of the Gospel particularly there shines forth for us the light, by the brightness and strength of which we can enter into the secret places of this divine Heart and, with the Apostle of the Gentiles, gaze at "the abundant riches of (God's) grace, in his bounty towards us in Christ Jesus."(57)
63. The adorable Heart of Jesus Christ began to beat with a love at once human and divine after the Virgin Mary generously pronounced Her "Fiat"; and the Word of God, as the Apostle remarks: "coming into the world, saith, 'Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst not; but a body thou hast fitted to Me; holocausts for sin did not please thee. Then said I, "Behold I come"; in the head of the book it is written of Me, "that I should do thy will, O God!"'. . .In which will we are sanctified by the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ once."(58)
64. Likewise was He moved by love, completely in harmony with the affections of His human will and the divine Love, when in the house of Nazareth He conversed with His most sweet Mother and His foster father, St. Joseph, in obedience to whom He performed laborious tasks in the trade of a carpenter.
65. Again, He was influenced by that threefold love, of which We spoke, during His public life: in long apostolic journeys; in the working of innumerable miracles, by which He summoned back the dead from the grave or granted health to all manner of sick persons; in enduring labors; in bearing fatigue, hunger and thirst; in the nightly watchings during which He prayed most lovingly to His Father; and finally, in His preaching and in setting forth and explaining His parables, in those particularly which deal with mercy--the lost drachma, the lost sheep, the prodigal son. By these indeed both by act and by word, as St. Gregory the Great notes, the Heart of God Itself is revealed: "Learn the Heart of God in the words of God, that you may long more ardently for things eternal."(59)
66. But the Heart of Jesus Christ was moved by a more urgent charity when from His lips were drawn words breathing the most ardent love. Thus, to give examples: when He was gazing at the crowds weary and hungry, He exclaimed: "I have compassion upon the crowd";(60) and when He looked down on His beloved city of Jerusalem, blinded by its sins, and so destined for final ruin, He uttered this sentence: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that slayest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not!"(61) And His Heart beat with love for His Father and with a holy anger when seeing the sacrilegious buying and selling taking place in the Temple, He rebuked the violators with these words: "It is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves."(62)
67. But His Heart was moved by a particularly intense love mingled with fear as He perceived the hour of His bitter torments drawing near and, expressing a natural repugnance for the approaching pains and death, He cried out: "Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me."(63) And when He was greeted by the traitor with a kiss, in love triumphant united to deepest grief, He addressed to him those words which seem to be the final invitation of His most merciful Heart to the friend who, obdurate in his wicked treachery, was about to hand Him over to His executioners: "Friend, whereto art thou come? Dost thou betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"(64) It was out of pity and the depths of His love that He spoke to the devout women as they wept for Him on His way to the unmerited penalty of the Cross: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. . .For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?"(65)
68. And when the divine Redeemer was hanging on the Cross, He showed that His Heart was strongly moved by different emotions - burning love, desolation, pity, longing desire, unruffled peace. The words spoken plainly indicate these emotions: "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!"(66) "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"(67) "Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise."(68) "I thirst."(69) "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit."(70)
69. But who can worthily depict those beatings of the divine Heart, the signs of His infinite love, of those moments when He granted men His greatest gifts: Himself in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, His most holy Mother, and the office of the priesthood shared with us?
70. Even before He ate the Last Supper with His disciples Christ Our Lord, since He knew He was about to institute the sacrament of His body and blood by the shedding of which the new covenant was to be consecrated, felt His heart roused by strong emotions, which He revealed to the Apostles in these words: "With desire have I desired to eat this Pasch with you before I suffer."(71) And these emotions were doubtless even stronger when "taking bread, He gave thanks, and broke, and gave to them, saying, 'This is My body which is given for you, this do in commemoration of Me.' Likewise the chalice also, after He had supped, saying, 'This chalice is the new testament in My blood, which shall be shed for you.'"(72)
71. It can therefore be declared that the divine Eucharist, both the sacrament which He gives to men and the sacrifice in which He unceasingly offers Himself from the rising of the sun till the going down thereof,"(73) and likewise the priesthood, are indeed gifts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
72. Another most precious gift of His Sacred Heart is, as We have said, Mary the beloved Mother of God and the most loving Mother of us all. She who gave birth to our Savior according to the flesh and was associated with Him in recalling the children of Eve to the life of divine grace has deservedly been hailed as the spiritual Mother of the whole human race. And so St. Augustine writes of her: "Clearly She is Mother of the members of the Savior (which is what we are), because She labored with Him in love that the faithful who are members of the Head might be born in the Church."(74)
73. To the unbloody gift of Himself under the appearance of bread and wine our Savior Jesus Christ wished to join, as the chief proof of His deep and infinite love, the bloody sacrifice of the Cross. By this manner of acting He gave an example of His supreme charity, which He had proposed to His disciples as the highest point of love in these words: "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends."(75)
74. Thus the love of Jesus Christ the Son of God, by the sacrifice of Golgotha, cast a flood of light on the meaning of the love of God Himself: "In this we know the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."(76) And in truth it was more by love than by the violence of the executioners that our divine Redeemer was fixed to the Cross; and His voluntary total offering is the supreme gift which He gave to each man, according to that terse saying of the Apostles, "He loved me, and delivered Himself for me."(77)
75. The Sacred Heart of Jesus shares in a most intimate way in the life of the Incarnate Word, and has been thus assumed as a kind of instrument of the Divinity. It is therefore beyond all doubt that, in the carrying out of works of grace and divine omnipotence, His Heart, no less than the other members of His human nature is also a legitimate symbol of that unbounded love.(78)
76. Under the influence of this love, our Savior, by the outpouring of His blood, became wedded to His Church: "By love, He allowed Himself to be espoused to His Church."(79) Hence, from the wounded Heart of the Redeemer was born the Church, the dispenser of the Blood of the Redemption--whence flows that plentiful stream of Sacramental grace from which the children of the Church drink of eternal life, as we read in the sacred liturgy: "From the pierced Heart, the Church, the Bride of Christ, is born....And He pours forth grace from His Heart."(80)
77. Concerning the meaning of this symbol, which was known even to the earliest Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, St. Thomas Aquinas, echoing something of their words, writes as follows: "From the side of Christ, there flowed water for cleansing, blood for redeeming. Hence blood is associated with the sacrament of the Eucharist, water with the sacrament of Baptism, which has its cleansing power by virtue of the blood of Christ."(81)
78. What is here written of the side of Christ, opened by the wound from the soldier, should also be said of the Heart which was certainly reached by the stab of the lance, since the soldier pierced it precisely to make certain that Jesus Christ crucified was really dead. Hence the wound of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, now that He has completed His mortal life, remains through the course of the ages a striking image of that spontaneous charity by which God gave His only begotten Son for the redemption of men and by which Christ expressed such passionate love for us that He offered Himself as a bleeding victim on Calvary for our sake: "Christ loved us and delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness."(82)
79. After our Lord had ascended into heaven with His body adorned with the splendors of eternal glory and took His place by the right hand of the Father, He did not cease to remain with His Spouse, the Church, by means of the burning love with which His Heart beats. For He bears in His hands, feet and side the glorious marks of the wounds which manifest the threefold victory won over the devil, sin, and death.
80. He likewise keeps in His Heart, locked as it were in a most precious shrine, the unlimited treasures of His merits, the fruits of that same threefold triumph, which He generously bestows on the redeemed human race. This is a truth full of consolation, which the Apostle of the Gentiles expresses in these words: "Ascending on high, He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to men. . .He that descended, is the same also that ascended above all the heavens that He might fill all things."(83)
81. The gift of the Holy Spirit, sent upon His disciples, is the first notable sign of His abounding charity after His triumphant ascent to the right hand of His Father. For after ten days the Holy Spirit, given by the heavenly Father, came down upon them gathered in the Upper Room in accordance with the promise made at the Last Supper: "I will ask the Father and He will give you another Paraclete so that He may abide with you forever."(84) And this Paraclete, who is the mutual personal love between the Father and the Son, is sent by both and, under the adopted appearance of tongues of fire, poured into their souls an abundance of divine charity and the other heavenly gifts.
82. The infusion of this divine charity also has its origin in the Heart of the Savior, "in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."(85) For this charity is the gift of Jesus Christ and of His Spirit; for He is indeed the spirit of the Father and the Son from whom the origin of the Church and its marvelous extension is revealed to all the pagan races which had been defiled by idolatry, family hatred, corrupt morals, and violence.
83. This divine charity is the most precious gift of the Heart of Christ and of His Spirit: It is this which imparted to the Apostles and martyrs that fortitude, by the strength of which they fought their battles like heroes till death in order to preach the truth of the Gospel and bear witness to it by the shedding of their blood; it is this which implanted in the Doctors of the Church their intense zeal for explaining and defending the Catholic faith; this nourished the virtues of the confessors, and roused them to those marvelous works useful for their own salvation and beneficial to the salvation of others both in this life and in the next; this, finally, moved the virgins to a free and joyful withdrawal from the pleasures of the senses and to the complete dedication of themselves to the love of their heavenly Spouse.
84. It was to pay honor to this divine charity which, overflowing from the Heart of the Incarnate Word, is poured out by the aid of the Holy Spirit into the souls of all believers that the Apostle of the Gentiles uttered this hymn of triumph which proclaims the victory of Christ the Head, and of the members of His Mystical Body, over all which might in any way impede the establishment of the kingdom of love among men: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword?. . .But in all these things we overcome because of Him that hath loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."(86)
85. Nothing therefore prevents our adoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ as having a part in and being the natural and expressive symbol of the abiding love with which the divine Redeemer is still on fire for mankind. Though it is no longer subject to the varying emotions of this mortal life, yet it lives and beats and is united inseparably with the Person of the divine Word and, in Him and through Him, with the divine Will. Since then the Heart of Christ is overflowing with love both human and divine and rich with the treasure of all graces which our Redeemer acquired by His life, sufferings and death, it is therefore the enduring source of that charity which His Spirit pours forth on all the members of His Mystical Body.
86. And so the Heart of our Savior reflects in some way the image of the divine Person of the Word and, at the same time, of His twofold nature, the human and the divine; in it we can consider not only the symbol but, in a sense, the summary of the whole mystery of our redemption. When we adore the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, we adore in it and through it both the uncreated love of the divine Word and also its human love and its other emotions and virtues, since both loves moved our Redeemer to sacrifice Himself for us and for His Spouse, the Universal Church, as the Apostle declares: "Christ loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish."(87)
87. Just as Christ loved the Church, so He still loves it most intensely with that threefold love of which We spoke, which moved Him as our Advocate(88) "always living to make intercession for us"(89) to win grace and mercy for us from His Father. The prayers which are drawn from that unfailing love, and are directed to the Father, never cease. As "in the days of His flesh,"(90) so now victorious in heaven, He makes His petition to His heavenly Father with equal efficacy, to Him "Who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting,"(91) He shows His living Heart, wounded as it were, and throbbing with a love yet more intense than when it was wounded in death by the Roman soldier's lance: "(Thy Heart) has been wounded so that through the visible wound we may behold the invisible wound of love."(92)
88. It is beyond doubt, then, that His heavenly Father "Who spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,"(93) when appealed to with such loving urgency by so powerful an Advocate, will, through Him, send down on all men an abundance of divine graces.
89. It was Our wish, venerable brethren, by this general outline, to set before you and the faithful the inner nature of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ and the endless riches which spring from it as they are made clear by the primary source of doctrine, divine revelation. We think that Our comments, which are guided by the light of the Gospel, have proved that this devotion, summarily expressed, is nothing else than devotion to the divine and human love of the Incarnate Word and to the love by which the heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit exercise their care over sinful men. For, as the Angelic Doctor teaches, the love of the most Holy Trinity is the origin of man's redemption; it overflowed into the human will of Jesus Christ and into His adorable Heart with full efficacy and led Him, under the impulse of that love, to pour forth His blood to redeem us from the captivity of sin(94): "I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?"(95)
90. We are convinced, then, that the devotion which We are fostering to the love of God and Jesus Christ for the human race by means of the revered symbol of the pierced Heart of the crucified Redeemer has never been altogether unknown to the piety of the faithful, although it has become more clearly known and has spread in a remarkable manner throughout the Church in quite recent times. Particularly was this so after our Lord Himself had privately revealed this divine secret to some of His children to whom He had granted an abundance of heavenly gifts, and whom He had chosen as His special messengers and heralds of this devotion.
91. But, in fact, there have always been men specially dedicated to God who, following the example of the beloved Mother of God, of the Apostles and the great Fathers of the Church, have practiced the devotion of thanksgiving, adoration and love towards the most sacred human nature of Christ, and especially towards the wounds by which His body was torn when He was enduring suffering for our salvation.
92. Moreover, is there not contained in those words "My Lord and My God"(96) which St. Thomas the Apostle uttered, and which showed he had been changed from an unbeliever into a faithful follower, a profession of faith, adoration and love, mounting up from the wounded human nature of his Lord to the majesty of the divine Person?
93. But if men have always been deeply moved by the pierced Heart of the Savior to a worship of that infinite love with which He embraces mankind -- since the words of the prophet Zacharias, "They shall look on Him Whom they have pierced,"(97) referred by St. John the Evangelist to Jesus nailed to the Cross, have been spoken to Christians in all ages -- it must yet be admitted that it was only by a very gradual advance that the honors of a special devotion were offered to that Heart as depicting the love, human and divine, which exists in the Incarnate Word.
94. But for those who wish to touch on the more significant stages of this devotion through the centuries, if we consider outward practice, there immediately occur the names of certain individuals who have won particular renown in this matter as being the advance guard of a form of piety which, privately and very gradually, has gained more and more strength in religious congregations. To cite some examples in establishing this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and continuously promoting it, great service was rendered by St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great, St. Gertrude, St. Catherine of Siena, Blessed Henry Suso, St. Peter Canisius, St. Francis de Sales. St. John Eudes was responsible for the first liturgical office celebrated in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus whose solemn feast, with the approval of many Bishops in France, was observed for the first time on October 20th, 1672.
95. But surely the most distinguished place among those who have fostered this most excellent type of devotion is held by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque who, under the spiritual direction of Blessed Claude de la Colombiere who assisted her work, was on fire with an unusual zeal to see to it that the real meaning of the devotion which had had such extensive developments to the great edification of the faithful should be established and be distinguished from other forms of Christian piety by the special qualities of love and reparation.(98)
96. It is enough to recall the record of that age in which the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus began to develop to understand clearly that its marvelous progress has stemmed from the fact that it entirely agreed with the nature of Christian piety since it was a devotion of love. It must not be said that this devotion has taken its origin from some private revelation of God and has suddenly appeared in the Church; rather, it has blossomed forth of its own accord as a result of that lively faith and burning devotion of men who were endowed with heavenly gifts, and who were drawn towards the adorable Redeemer and His glorious wounds which they saw as irresistible proofs of that unbounded love.
97. Consequently, it is clear that the revelations made to St. Margaret Mary brought nothing new into Catholic doctrine. Their importance lay in this that Christ Our Lord, exposing His Sacred Heart, wished in a quite extraordinary way to invite the minds of men to a contemplation of, and a devotion to, the mystery of God's merciful love for the human race. In this special manifestation Christ pointed to His Heart, with definite and repeated words, as the symbol by which men should be attracted to a knowledge and recognition of His love; and at the same time He established it as a sign or pledge of mercy and grace for the needs of the Church of our times.
98. In addition, that this devotion flows from the very foundations of Christian teaching is clearly shown by the fact that the Apostolic See approved the liturgical feast before it approved the writings of St. Margaret Mary; for without exactly taking account of any private revelation from God, but rather graciously acceeding to the petitions of the faithful, the Sacred Congregation of Rites - by a decree of the 25th of January 1765, which was approved by Our predecessor, Clement XIII, on the 6th of February of the same year - granted the liturgical celebration of the feast to the Polish Bishops and to what was called the Archconfraternity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at Rome. The Apostolic See acted in this way so that the devotion then existing and flourishing might be extended, since its purpose was "by this symbol to renew the memory of that divine love"(99) by which Our Savior was moved to offer Himself as a victim atoning for the sins of men.
99. This first approval, granted as a privilege and restricted within limits, was followed about a century later by another of far greater importance and couched in more solemn terms. We mean the decree, which We referred to above, of the Sacred Congregation of Rites of the 23rd of August 1856 by which Our predecessor of immortal memory, Pius IX, in answer to the prayer of the French Bishops and of almost the whole Catholic world, extended the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the Universal Church and ordered it to be fittingly observed.(100) This act richly deserved to be commended to the lasting memory of the faithful, for as we read in the liturgy of the same feast: "From that time the devotion to the Sacred Heart, like a stream in flood sweeping aside all obstacles, spread out over the whole world."
100. From what We have so far explained, venerable brethren, it is clear that the faithful must seek from Scripture, tradition and the sacred liturgy as from a deep untainted source, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus if they desire to penetrate its inner nature and by piously meditating on it, receive the nourishment for the fostering and development of their religious fervor. If this devotion is constantly practiced with this knowledge and understanding, the souls of the faithful cannot but attain to the sweet knowledge of the love of Christ which is the perfection of Christian life as the Apostle, who knew this from personal experience, teaches: "For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened by His Spirit with might unto the inward man; that Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts; that, being rooted and founded in charity. . .you may be able to know also the charity of Christ which surpasseth all knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God."(101) The clearest image of this all-embracing fullness of God is the Heart of Christ Jesus Itself. We mean the fullness of mercy which is proper to the New Testament, in which "the goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared,"(102) for "God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved by Him."(103)
101. The Church, the teacher of men, has therefore always been convinced from the time she first published official documents concerning the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that its essential elements, namely, acts of love and reparation by which God's infinite love for the human race is honored, are in no sense tinged with so-called "materialism" or tainted with the poison of superstition. Rather, this devotion is a form of piety that fully corresponds to the true spiritual worship which the Savior Himself foretold when speaking to the woman of Samaria: "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore Him. God is a spirit; and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth."(104)
102. It is wrong, therefore, to assert that the contemplation of the physical Heart of Jesus prevents an approach to a close love of God and holds back the soul on the way to the attainment of the highest virtues. This false mystical doctrine the Church emphatically rejects as, speaking through Our predecessor of happy memory, Innocent XI, she rejected the errors of those who foolishly declared: "(Souls of this interior way) ought not to make acts of love for the Blessed Virgin, the Saints or the humanity of Christ; for love directed towards those is of the senses, since its objects are also of that kind. No creature, neither the Blessed Virgin nor the Saints, ought to have a place in our heart, because God alone wishes to occupy it and possess it."(105) It is obvious that those who think in this way imagine that the image of the Heart of Jesus represents His human love alone and that there is nothing in it on which, as on a new foundation, the worship of adoration which is exclusively reserved to the divine nature can be based. But everyone realizes that this interpretation of sacred images is entirely false, since it obviously restricts their meaning much too narrowly.
103. Quite the contrary is the thought and teaching of Catholic theologians, among whom St. Thomas writes as follows: "Religious worship is not paid to images, considered in themselves, as things; but according as they are representations leading to God Incarnate. The approach which is made to the image as such does not stop there, but continues towards that which is represented. Hence, because a religious honor is paid to the images of Christ, it does not therefore mean that there are different degrees of supreme worship or of the virtue of religion."(106) It is, then, to the Person of the divine Word as to its final object that that devotion is directed which, in a relative sense, is observed towards the images whether those images are relics of the bitter sufferings which our Savior endured for our sake or that particular image which surpasses all the rest in efficacy and meaning, namely, the pierced Heart of the crucified Christ.
104. Thus, from something corporeal such as the Heart of Jesus Christ with its natural meaning, it is both lawful and fitting for us, supported by Christian faith, to mount not only to its love as perceived by the senses but also higher, to a consideration and adoration of the infused heavenly love; and finally, by a movement of the soul at once sweet and sublime, to reflection on, and adoration of, the divine love of the Word Incarnate. We do so since, in accordance with the faith by which we believe that both natures - the human and the divine - are united in the Person of Christ, we can grasp in our minds those most intimate ties which unite the love of feeling of the physical Heart of Jesus with that twofold spiritual love, namely, the human and the divine love. For these loves must be spoken of not only as existing side by side in the adorable Person of the divine Redeemer but also as being linked together by a natural bond insofar as the human love, including that of the feelings, is subject to the divine and, in due proportion, provides us with an image of the latter. We do not pretend, however, that we must contemplate and adore in the Heart of Jesus what is called the formal image, that is to say, the perfect and absolute symbol of His divine love, for no created image is capable of adequately expressing the essence of this love. But a Christian in paying honor along with the Church to the Heart of Jesus is adoring the symbol and, as it were, the visible sign of the divine charity which went so far as to love intensely, through the Heart of the Word made Flesh, the human race stained with so many sins.
105. It is therefore essential, at this point, in a doctrine of such importance and requiring such prudence that each one constantly hold that the truth of the natural symbol by which the physical Heart of Jesus is related to the Person of the Word, entirely depends upon the fundamental truth of the hypostatic union. Should anyone declare this to be untrue he would be reviving false opinions, more than once condemned by the Church, for they are opposed to the oneness of the Person of Christ even though the two natures are each complete and distinct.
106. Once this essential truth has been established we understand that the Heart of Jesus is the heart of a divine Person, the Word Incarnate, and by it is represented and, as it were, placed before our gaze all the love with which He has embraced and even now embraces us. Consequently, the honor to be paid to the Sacred Heart is such as to raise it to the rank - so far as external practice is concerned - of the highest expression of Christian piety. For this is the religion of Jesus which is centered on the Mediator who is man and God, and in such a way that we cannot reach the Heart of God save through the Heart of Christ, as He Himself says: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one cometh to the Father save by Me."(107)
107. And so we can easily understand that the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of its very nature, is a worship of the love with which God, through Jesus, loved us, and at the same time, an exercise of our own love by which we are related to God and to other men. Or to express it in another way, devotion of this kind is directed towards the love of God for us in order to adore it, give thanks for it, and live so as to imitate it; it has this in view, as the end to be attained, that we bring that love by which we are bound to God to the rest of men to perfect fulfillment by carrying out daily more eagerly the new commandment which the divine Master gave to His Apostles as a sacred legacy when He said: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. . .This is My commandment that you love one another as I have loved you."(108) And this commandment is really new and Christ's own, for as Aquinas says, "It is, in brief, the difference between the New and the Old Testament, for as Jeremias says, 'I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.'(109) But that commandment which in the Old Testament was based on fear and reverential love was referring to the New Testament; hence, this commandment was in the old Law not really belonging to it, but as a preparation for the new Law."(110)
108. Before We conclude Our treatment of the concept of this type of devotion and its excellence in Christian life, which We have offered for your consideration - a subject at once attractive and full of consolation - by virtue of the Apostolic office which was first entrusted to Blessed Peter after he had made his threefold profession of love, We think it opportune to exhort you once again venerable brethren, and through you all those dear children of Ours in Christ, to continue to exercise an ever more vigorous zeal in promoting this most attractive form of piety; for from it in our times also We trust that very many benefits will arise.
109. In truth, if the arguments brought forward which form the foundation for the devotion to the pierced Heart of Jesus are duly pondered, it is surely clear that there is no question here of some ordinary form of piety which anyone at his own whim may treat as of little consequence or set aside as inferior to others, but of a religious practice which helps very much towards the attaining of Christian perfection. For if "devotion" - according to the accepted theological notion which the Angelic Doctor gives us - "appears to be nothing else save a willingness to give oneself readily to what concerns the service of God,"(111) is it possible that there is any service of God more obligatory and necessary, and at the same time more excellent and attractive, than the one which is dedicated to love? For what is more pleasing and acceptable to God than service which pays homage to the divine love and is offered for the sake of that love--since any service freely offered is a gift in some sense and love "has the position of the first gift, through which all other free gifts are made?"(112)
110. That form of piety, then, should be held in highest esteem by means of which man honors and loves God more and dedicates himself with greater ease and promptness to the divine charity; a form which our Redeemer Himself deigned to propose and commend to Christians and which the Supreme Pontiffs in their turn defended and highly praised in memorable published documents. Consequently, to consider of little worth this signal benefit conferred on the Church by Jesus Christ would be to do something both rash and harmful and also deserving of God's displeasure.
111. This being so, there is no doubt that Christians in paying homage to the Sacred Heart of the Redeemer are fulfilling a serious part of their obligations in their service of God and, at the same time, they are surrendering themselves to their Creator and Redeemer with regard to both the affections of the heart and the external activities of their life; in this way, they are obeying that divine commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole Strength."(113)
112. Besides, they have the firm conviction that they are moved to honor God not primarily for their own advantage in what concerns soul and body in this life and in the next, but for the sake of God's goodness they strive to render Him their homage, to give Him back love for love, to adore Him and offer Him due thanks. Were it not so, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ would be out of harmony with the whole spirit of the Christian religion, since man would not direct his homage, in the first instance, to the divine love. And, not unreasonably as sometimes happens, accusations of excessive self-love and self-interest are made against those who either misunderstand this excellent form of piety or practice it in the wrong way. Hence, let all be completely convinced that in showing devotion to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus the external acts of piety have not the first or most important place; nor is its essence to be found primarily in the benefits to be obtained. For if Christ has solemnly promised them in private revelations it was for the purpose of encouraging men to perform with greater fervor the chief duties of the Catholic religion, namely, love and expiation, and thus take all possible measures for their own spiritual advantage.
113. We therefore urge all Our children in Christ, both those who are already accustomed to drink the saving waters flowing from the Heart of the Redeemer and, more especially those who look on from a distance like hesitant spectators, to eagerly embrace this devotion. Let them carefully consider, as We have said, that it is a question of a devotion which has long been powerful in the Church and is solidly founded on the Gospel narrative. It received clear support from tradition and the sacred liturgy and has been frequently and generously praised by the Roman Pontiffs themselves. These were not satisfied with establishing a feast in honor of the most Sacred Heart of the Redeemer and extending it to the Universal Church; they were also responsible for the solemn acts of dedication which consecrated the whole human race to the same Sacred Heart.(114)
114. Moreover, there are to be reckoned the abundant and joyous fruits which have flowed therefrom to the Church: countless souls returned to the Christian religion, the faith of many roused to greater activity, a closer tie between the faithful and our most loving Redeemer. All these benefits particularly in the most recent decades, have passed before Our eyes in greater numbers and more dazzling significance.
115. While We gaze round at such a marvelous sight, namely, a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus both warm and widespread among all ranks of the faithful, We are filled with a sense of gratitude and joy and consolation. And after We have offered thanks, as We ought, to our Redeemer Who is the infinite treasury of goodness, We cannot help offering Our paternal congratulations to all those, whether of the clergy or of the laity, who have made active contribution to the extending of this devotion.
116. But although, venerable brethren, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has everywhere brought forth fruits of salvation for the Christian life, all are aware that the Church militant on earth -and especially civil society - has not yet attained in a real sense to its essential perfection which would correspond to the prayers and desires of Jesus Christ, the Mystical Spouse of the Church and Redeemer of the human race. Not a few children of the Church mar, by their too many sins and imperfections, the beauty of this Mother's features which they reflect in themselves. Not all Christians are distinguished by that holiness of behavior to which God calls them; not all sinners have returned to the Father ' s house, which they unfortunately abandoned, that they may be clothed once again with the "first robe"(115) and worthily receive on their finger the ring, the pledge of loyalty to the spouse of their soul; not all the heathen peoples have yet been gathered into the membership of the Mystical Body of Christ.
117. And there is more. For if We experience bitter sorrow at the feeble loyalty of the good in whose souls, tricked by a deceptive desire for earthly possessions, the fire of divine charity grows cool and gradually dies out, much more is Our heart deeply grieved by the machinations of evil men who, as if instigated by Satan himself, are now more than ever zealous in their open and implacable hatred against God, against the Church and above all against him who on earth represents the Person of the divine Redeemer and exhibits His love towards men, in accordance with that well-known saying of the Doctor of Milan: "For (Peter) is being questioned about that which is uncertain, though the Lord is not uncertain; He is questioning not that He may learn, but that He may teach the one whom, at His ascent into Heaven, He was leaving to us as 'the representative of His love.'"(116)
118. But, in truth, hatred of God and of those who lawfully act in His place is the greatest kind of sin that can be committed by man created in the image and likeness of God and destined to enjoy His perfect and enduring friendship for ever in heaven. Man, by hatred of God more than by anything else, is cut off from the Highest Good and is driven to cast aside from himself and from those near to him whatever has its origin in God, whatever is united with God, whatever leads to the enjoyment of God, that is, truth, virtue, peace and justice.(117)
119. Since then, alas, one can see that the number of those whose boast is that they are God's enemies is in some places increasing, that the false slogans of materialism are being spread by act and argument, and unbridled license for unlawful desires is everywhere being praised, is it remarkable that love, which is the supreme law of the Christian religion, the surest foundation of true and perfect justice and the chief source of peace and innocent pleasures, loses its warmth in the souls of many? For as our Savior warned us: "Because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold."(118)
120. When so many evils meet Our gaze - such as cause sharp conflict among individuals, families, nations and the whole world, particularly today more than at any other time - where are We to seek a remedy, venerable brethren? Can a form of devotion surpassing that to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus be found, which corresponds better to the essential character of the Catholic faith, which is more capable of assisting the present-day needs of the Church and the human race? What religious practice is more excellent, more attractive, more salutary than this, since the devotion in question is entirely directed towards the love of God itself?(119)
Finally, what more effectively than the love of Christ - which devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus daily increases and fosters more and more - can move the faithful to bring into the activities of life the Law of the Gospel, the setting aside of which, as the words of the Holy Spirit plainly warn, "the work of justice shall be peace,"(120) makes peace worthy of the name completely impossible among men?
121. And so, following in the footsteps of Our immediate predecessor, We are pleased to address once again to all Our dear sons in Christ those words of exhortation which Leo XIII, of immortal memory, towards the close of last century addressed to all the faithful and to all who were genuinely anxious about their own salvation and that of civil society: "Behold, today, another true sign of God's favor is presented to our gaze, namely, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. . .shining forth with a wondrous splendor from amidst flames. In it must all our hopes be placed; from it salvation is to be sought and hoped for."(121)
122. It is likewise Our most fervent desire that all who profess themselves Christians and are seriously engaged in the effort to establish the kingdom of Christ on earth will consider the practice of devotion to the Heart of Jesus as the source and symbol of unity, salvation and peace. Let no one think, however, that by such a practice anything is taken from the other forms of piety with which Christian people, under the guidance of the Church, have honored the divine Redeemer. Quite the opposite. Fervent devotional practice towards the Heart of Jesus will beyond all doubt foster and advance devotion to the Holy Cross in particular, and love for the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. We can even assert - as the revelations made by Jesus Christ to St. Gertrude and to St. Margaret Mary clearly show - that no one really ever has a proper understanding of Christ crucified to whom the inner mysteries of His Heart have not been made known. Nor will it be easy to understand the strength of the love which moved Christ to give Himself to us as our spiritual food save by fostering in a special way the devotion to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, the purpose of which is - to use the words of Our predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII - "to call to mind the act of supreme love whereby our Redeemer, pouring forth all the treasures of His Heart in order to remain with us till the end of time, instituted the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist."(122) For "not the least part of the revelation of that Heart is the Eucharist, which He gave to us out of the great charity of His own Heart."(123)
123. Finally, moved by an earnest desire to set strong bulwarks against the wicked designs of those who hate God and the Church and, at the same time, to lead men back again, in their private and public life, to a love of God and their neighbor, We do not hesitate to declare that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the most effective school of the love of God; the love of God, We say, which must be the foundation on which to build the kingdom of God in the hearts of individuals, families, and nations, as that same predecessor of pious memory wisely reminds us: "The reign of Jesus Christ takes its strength and form from divine love: to love with holiness and order is its foundation and its perfection. From it these must flow: to perform duties without blame; to take away nothing of another's right; to guide the lower human affairs by heavenly principles; to give the love of God precedence over all other creatures."(124)
124. In order that favors in greater abundance may flow on all Christians, nay, on the whole human race, from the devotion to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, let the faithful see to it that to this devotion the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God is closely joined. For, by God's Will, in carrying out the work of human Redemption the Blessed Virgin Mary was inseparably linked with Christ in such a manner that our salvation sprang from the love and the sufferings of Jesus Christ to which the love and sorrows of His Mother were intimately united. It is, then, entirely fitting that the Christian people - who received the divine life from Christ through Mary - after they have paid their debt of honor to the Sacred Heart of Jesus should also offer to the most loving Heart of their heavenly Mother the corresponding acts of piety affection, gratitude and expiation. Entirely in keeping with this most sweet and wise disposition of divine Providence is the memorable act of consecration by which We Ourselves solemnly dedicated Holy Church and the whole world to the spotless Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.(125)
125. Since in the course of this year there is completed, as We mentioned above, the first hundred years since the Universal Church, by order of Our predecessor of happy memory, Pius IX, celebrated the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, We earnestly desire, venerable brethren, that the memory of this centenary be everywhere observed by the faithful in the making of public acts of adoration, thanksgiving and expiation to the divine Heart of Jesus. And though all Christian peoples will be linked by the bonds of charity and prayer in common, ceremonies of Christian joy and piety will assuredly be carried out with a special religious fervor in that nation in which, according to the dispensation of the divine Will, a holy virgin pointed the way and was the untiring herald of that devotion.
126. Meanwhile, refreshed by sweet hope and foreseeing already those spiritual fruits which We are confident will spring up in abundance in the Church from the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus -provided it is correctly understood according to Our explanation and actively put into practice - We make Our prayer to God that He may graciously deign to assist these ardent desires of Ours by the strong help of His grace. May it come about, by the divine inspiration as a token of His favor, that out of the celebration established for this year the love of the faithful may grow daily more and more towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus and its sweet and sovereign kingdom be extended more widely to all in every part of the world: the kingdom "of truth and life; the kingdom of grace and holiness; the kingdom of justice, love and peace."(126)
127. As a pledge of these favors with a full heart We impart to each one of you, venerable brethren, together with the clergy and faithful committed to your charge, to those in particular who by their devoted labors foster and promote the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Our apostolic benediction.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, the 15th of May, 1956, the eighteenth year of Our Pontificate.
PIUS XII, POPE
FOOTNOTES
1. Is. 12:3.
2. Jas. 1:17.
3. Jn. 7:37-39. (Translator's note: In this passage, Pope Pius XII uses the punctuation favored by St. Irenaeus and St. Cyprian and some other ancient authorities. The translation therefore follows this and not the Douay version.)
4. Cfr. Is. 12:3; Ex. 47:1-12; Zach. 13:1; Ex. 17:1-7; Num. 20:7-13; I Cor. 10:4; Apoc. 7:17, 22:1.
5. Rom. 5:15.
6. I Cor. 6:17.
7. Jn. 4:10.
8. Acts 4:12.
9. Encl. "Annum Sacrum," 25th May, 1899; Acta Leonis, vol. XIX, 1900, pp. 71, 77-79.
10. Pius XI, Encl. "Miserentissimus Redemptor," 8th May, 1928 A.A.S. XX, 1928, p. 167.
11. Cfr. Encl. "Sumni Pontificatus," 20th October, 1939: A.A.S. XXXI, 1939, p. 415.
12. Cfr. A.A.S. XXXII, 1940, p. 170; XXXVII, 1945, pp. 263-264; XL, 1948, p. 501; XLI, 1949, p. 331.
13. Eph. 3:20-21.
14. Is. 12:3.
15. Council Of Ephesus, can. 8; Cfr. Mansi, "Sacrorum Conciliorum Ampliss. Collectio IV," 1083 C.; II Council of Constantinople, can. 9; Cfr. Ibid. IX, 382 E.
16. Cfr. Encl. "Annum Sacrum": Acta Leonis, vol. XIX, 1900, p. 76.
17. Cfr. Ex. 34:27-28.
18. Deut. 6:4-6.
19. St. Thomas, Sum. Theol. II-II, q. 2, a. 7: ed. Leon., vol. VIII, 1895, p. 34.
20. Deut. 32:11.
21. Os. 11:1, 3-4. 14:5-6.
22. Is. 49:14-15.
23. Cant. 2:2, 6:2, 8:6.
24. Jn. 1:14.
25. Jer. 31:3, 31, 33-34.
26. Cfr. Jn. 1:29; 9:18-28, 10:1-17.
27. Jn. 1:16-17.
28. Jn. 21:20.
29. Eph. 3:17-19.
30. Sum. Theol. III, q. 48, a. 2: ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, p. 464.
31. Cfr. Encl. "Miserentissimus Redemptor": A.A.S. XX, 1928, p. 170.
32. Eph. 2:4; Sum. Theol. III, q. 46, a. 1 ad 3: ed. Leon., vol. XI, p. 436.
33. Eph. 3:18.
34. Jn. 4:24.
35. 2 Jn. 7.
36. Cfr. Lk. 1:35.
37. St. Leo the Great, Epist. dogm. 'Lectis dilectionis tuae' ad Flavianum Const. Patr., 13 June, a. 449; Cfr. P.L. XIV, 763.
38. Council of Chalcedon, a. 451.
39. Cfr. Mansi, Op. cit., Vlll, 115B.
40. Cfr. Sum. Theol. III, q. 15, a. 4; q. 18, a. 6: ed. Leon., vol. X(1) ,1903, pp.189, 237.
41. Cfr. I Cor. 1:23.
42. Heb. 2:11-14, 17-18.
43. Apol. II, 13; P.G. VI, 465.
44. Epist. 261, 3: P.G. XXXII, 972.
45. "In loann.", Homil. 63, 2: P.G. LIX, 350.
46. "De fide ad Gratianum," II, 7, 56: P.L. XVI, 594.
47. Cfr. Super Mt. 26:27: P.L. XXVI, 205.
48. Enarr. in Ps. LXXXVII, 3: P. L. XXXVII, 1111.
49. "De Fide Orth.," III, 6 P.G. XCIV, 1006.
50. Ibid. III, 20: P.G. XCIV, 1081.
51. Sum. Theol. I-II, q. 48, a. 4: ed. Leon., vol. VI, 1891, p. 306.
52. Col. 2:9.
53. Cfr. Sum Theol. III, q. 9 aa. 1-3: ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, p. 142.
54. Cfr. Ibid. Ill, q. 33, a. 2, ad 3m; q. 46, a: ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, pp. 342, 433.
55. Tit. 3:4.
56. Mt. 27:50; Jn. 19:30.
57. Eph. 2:7.
58. Heb. 10:5-7, 10.
59. Registr. epist., lib. IV, ep. 31, ad Theodorum medicum: P.L. LXXVII, 706.
60. Mk. 8:2.
61. Mt. 23:37.
62. Mt. 21:13.
63. Mt. 26:39.
64. Mt. 26:50; Lk. 22-48.
65. Lk. 23:28, 31.
66. Lk. 23:34.
67. Mt. 27:46.
68. Lk. 23:43.
69. Jn. 19:28.
70. Lk. 23:46.
71. Lk. 22:15.
72. Lk. 22:19-20.
73. Mal. 1:11.
74. "De sancta virginitate," VI .L. XL, 399.
75. Jn. 15:13.
76. I Jn. 3:16.
77. Gal. 2:20.
78. Cfr. Sum. Theol. III, q. 19, a. 1: ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, p. 329.
79. Sum. Theol., Suppl., q. 42, a. 1. ad 3m: ed. Leon., vol. XII, 1906, p. 31.
80. Hymn at Vespers, Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
81. Sum. Theol. III, q. 66, a. 3m: ed. Leon., vol XII, 1906, p. 65.
82. Eph. 5:2.
83. Eph. 4:8, 10.
84. Jn. 14:16.
85. Col. 2:3.
86. Rom. 8:35, 37-39.
87. Eph. 5:25-27.
88. Cfr. 1 Jn. 2:1.
89. Heb. 7:25.
90. Heb. 5:7.
91. Jn. 3:16.
92. St. Bonaventure, Opusc. X: "Vitis mystica," c. III, n. 5; "Opera Omnia," Ad Claras Aquas (Quaracchi) 1898, vol. VIII, p. 164.; Cfr. Sum Theol. III, q. 54, a. 4:ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, p. 513.
93. Rom. 8:32.
94. Cfr. Sum. Theol. III, q. 48, a. 5: ed. Leon., vol. XI, 1903, p. 467.
95. Lk. 12:50.
96. Jn. 20:28.
97. Jn. 19:37; Cfr. Zach. 12:10.
98. Cfr. Encl. "Miserentissimus Redemptor": A.A.S. XX, 1928, pp. 167-168.
99. Cfr. A. Gardellini, "Decreta authentica," 1857, n.4579. vol. III, p. 174.
100. Cfr. Decr. S.C. Rit., apud. N. Nilles, "De rationibus festorum Sacratissimi Cordis Jesu et purissimi Cordis Mariae," 5a ed., Innsbruck, 1885, vol. I, p. 167.
101. Eph. 3:14, 16-19.
102. Tit. 3:4.
103. Jn. 3:17.
104. Jn. 4:23-24.
105. Innocent XI, Apostolic Constitution "Coelestis Pater," 19th Nov., 1687; Bullarium Romanum, Rome, 1734, vol. VIII, p. 443.
106. Sum. Theol. II-II, q. 81, a. 3 ad 3m: ed. Leon., vol. IX, 1897, p. 180.
107. Jn. 14:6.
108. Jn. 13:34, 15:12.
109. Jer. 31:31.
110. "Comment, in Evang. S. Ioan.," c. XIII, lect. VII, 3: ed. Parmae, 1860, vol. X, p. 541.
111. Sum. Theol. II-II, q. 82, a. 1: ed. Leon., vol. IX, 1897, p. 187.
112. Ibid. I, q. 38, a. 2: ed. Leon., vol. IV, 1888, p. 393.
113. Mk. 12:30; Mt. 22:37.
114. Cfr. Leo XIII, Encl. "Annum Sacrum: Acta Leonis," vol. XIX, 1900, p. 71 sq; Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 28th June, 1899, in Decr. Auth. III, n. 3712; Encl. Miserentissimus Redemptor: A.A.S. 1928, p. 177 sq.; Decr. S.C. Rit., 29 Jan. 1929: A.A.S. XXI, 1929, p. 77.
115. Lk. 15:22.
116. Exposit. in Evang. sec. Lucam, 1, X, n. 175: P.L. XV, 1942.
117. Cfr. Sum Theol. II-II, q. 34, a. 2: ed. Leon., vol. VIII, 1895, p. 274.
118. Mt. 24:12.
119. Cfr. Encl. "Miserentissimus Redemptor": A.A.S. XX, 1928, p. 166.
120. Is. 32:17.
121. Encl. "Annum Sacrum: Acta Leonis," vol. XIX, 1900, p. 79; Encl. "Miserentissimus Redemptor": A.A.S. XX, 1928, p. 167.
122. "Litt. Apost. quibus Archisodalitas a Corde Eucharistico Jesu ad S. Ioachim de Urbe erigitur," 17th Feb., 1903; Acta Leonis, vol. XXII, 1903, p. 116.
123. St. Albert the Great, "De Eucharistia," dist. Vl, tr. 1., c. 1: Opera Omnia, ed. Borgnet, vol. XXXVIII, Paris, 1890, p. 358.
124. Encl. "Tametsi: Acta Leonis," vol. XX, 1900, p. 303.
125. Cfr. A.A.S. XXXIV, 1942, p. 345 sq.
126. From the Roman Missal, Preface of Christ the King.
|
|
|
|
| Benedict XV: On the Need to be Aware of the Socialist Propaganda |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-22-2024, 07:23 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
- Replies (1)
|
|
EPISTOLA SOLITI NOS DEL PAPA BENEDETTO XV
AL R. P. LUIGI MARIA MARELLI, VESCOVO DI BERGAMO SULLA NECESSITÀ DI DIFFIDARE DELLA PROPAGANDA DEI SOCIALISTI
![[Image: 4.jpg]](https://sensusfidelium.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/4.jpg)
The original document (in Italian) is here
ON THE NEED BE AWARE OF THE SOCIALIST PROPAGANDA
Taken from here
Venerable Brother,
health and Apostolic Blessing.
Since we are used to considering with particular satisfaction our Bergamaschi, who distinguish themselves in an exemplary way for their Christian life, with real displeasure we have learned some negative voices relating to certain popular motions that would have happened there. In truth, it is no wonder that the ” enemy», Having long envied the fertility of this field of the Lord, and carefully spying on the opportune moment to devastate it, took advantage of the crisis of these unfortunate times to sow the weeds on such fruitful soil. But since the bad seed, once it has taken root, can choke the good wheat over time, we value our strict duty – since the Lord has entrusted to us the care of the whole mystical field – to work with all our strength because it does not have to develop. We therefore address you, Venerable Brother, with this letter, not because we doubt your zeal, of which you have already given valid testimony in this regard, but because we consider it appropriate to exhort the beloved children, your medium, to remain faithful to your duty;
First of all we want everyone to know that We warmly approve what you have done, Venerable Brother, when, after the war, when everyone returned to the usual jobs, meeting new needs, with the collaboration of the Diocesan Council, you have set up a special Labor Office to cater to the needs of the various categories of workers. Really excellent and very useful institution if its functioning is regulated according to the dictates of religion; otherwise we know unfortunately which and how many disorders it can cause to society. It is therefore necessary that the managers of this Office, which has such close connection with the common good, always have before their eyes and scrupulously observe the principles of social science inculcated by the Holy See in the memorable Encyclical “Rerum Novarum or Of the new things» And in other documents. Remember especially these fundamental points: in this short mortal life, subject to all evils, no one is given to be truly happy, since true, perfect, eternal happiness awaits us only in heaven, as a reward to those who have lived well; up there, therefore, whatever we do, it must strive for all our actions; therefore, rather than being jealous of our rights, we must be considerate of fulfilling our duties; on the other hand, we are allowed to improve our condition in this mortal life and obtain greater well-being, but for the common good, nothing is more beneficial than harmony and harmony among all social classes: it is the maximum advocate of this Christian charity.
So see how the workers’ interests would hurt those who, having plans to improve the conditions, they only lent themselves to help him in the purchase of these fallen goods, and not only neglected to temper his aspirations with the reference to Christian duties, but they endeavored to incite him more and more against the rich with that ceremony of language that is usually used by our opponents to excite the crowds to the social revolution. To remedy such a serious danger, it will be your care, Venerable Brother, to make present, as you already do, to those who dedicate themselves to patronizing the cause of the workers they do, being careful not to use the intemperance of language proper to the “socialists”, they must explain an action and propaganda all pervaded by a Christian spirit; without this they will be very harmful, certainly not beneficial. However, we hope that everyone will want to be obsequious; and if someone refuses to obey, you will certainly remove him from the assignment.
Moreover, it is natural that this Christian elevation of the humble should be more widely shared by those who have been provided with greater means by Providence. So those who are higher in social position or culture, do not refuse to help the worker with the council, with authority and with the word, especially promoting those works that have been providentially instituted to his advantage. Those who are then supplied with makeshift goods do not want to regulate their interests with the proletariat according to strict law, but rather according to fairness. Indeed we warmly urge them to use even greater indulgence in this, by making the widest and most liberal concessions they can. Here what the Apostle says to Timothy: To the rich of this world … he recommends being ready to give, to be generous"[1]. In this way they will gain the soul of the poor, who had antagonized them by considering them too attached to money.
Therefore the less well-off and those in a lower position are well penetrated by this truth, that the distinction of the social classes comes from nature, and therefore itself from the will of God, since ” He himself made the little and the great”[2]; and this is wonderfully beneficial to the good of individuals and society. They are therefore persuaded that however much they can improve their condition with their own activity and with the help of the good, it will still remain to them, as to all the others, not a little to suffer. Therefore, if they wish to operate as wise men, they will not endeavor to pursue unworkable utopias, and will bear the inevitable evils of this life in peace and fortitude, awaiting immortal goods.
Therefore we pray and beg the Bergamaschi, for their singular piety and devotion to this Apostolic See, not to be fooled by the flattery of those who with fallacious promises strive to wrest their faith from their hearts to encourage them to brutal violence and upheavals. The cause of justice and truth is not defended with violence or disorder, since these are weapons that first of all hurt those who use them.
It is therefore the duty of priests and especially of parish priests to vigorously oppose these extremely dangerous enemies of the Catholic faith and of society, fighting them together and compact under your guidance, Venerable Brother. Nobody must believe that this is extraneous to the sacred ministry, being an economic question, while it is precisely for this reason that the risk for the eternal salvation of souls is looming. They consider it one of their duties to devote themselves as much as possible to science and social action with study and hard work, and to help those who worthily work in our organizations together by any means. At the same time, they should try to teach their faithful attentively the norms of Christian life, warning them against the pitfalls of the "socialists". Also promoting economic improvement, always remembering what the Church recommends: "Let us go through temporal goods, so as not to lose the eternal ones."
In the meantime, we will not cease to invoke upon you all the gifts of divine goodness in favor of which and as a testimony of Our benevolence, we impart with great affection the Apostolic Blessing to you, Venerable Brother, to the clergy and to your people.
Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, on 11 March 1920, in the sixth year of our pontificate.
Pope Benedict. 15
[ 1 ] I Tim ., VI, 17, 18.
[ 2 ] Sap ., VI, 8.
|
|
|
|
|
![[Image: Screenshot-2024-02-27-060450.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/pVcgWyGM/Screenshot-2024-02-27-060450.png)
![[Image: Screenshot-2024-02-27-060834.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/mk6DVRy1/Screenshot-2024-02-27-060834.jpg)
![[Image: Capture.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/4yNR863f/Capture.png)
![[Image: s54lbfcp9p81ttinmzkgprgb3e1nxcwjti3eprz....84&webp=on]](https://seedus0275.gloriatv.net/1z94gyaCTBei3D8MsGrYwjE6j/s54lbfcp9p81ttinmzkgprgb3e1nxcwjti3eprz.webp?secure=4hIpOqwkX-l6f8H-v-qVig&expires=1709195884&webp=on)
![[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-3Jk...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-3JkIrz6r_oU%2FU0Kz_Ta8eLI%2FAAAAAAAACTE%2Ff2PnX_QzuyU%2Fw1200-h630-p-k-no-nu%2Fgregory%2Bxvi.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
