Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Quote:Such was the prayer and lamentation of Daniel, during the captivity in Babylon. His prayer was heard; and after seventy years’ exile, the Jews returned to their country, rebuilt the Temple, and were once more received by the Lord as his chosen people. But what are the Israelites now? What has been their history for the last nineteen hundred years? If we apply to them the words of Daniel’s lamentation, they but faintly represent the sad reality of their present long chastisement. God’s anger lies heavily on Jerusalem; the very ruins of the Temple have perished; the children of Israel are dispersed over the whole earth, a reproach to all nations. A curse hangs over this people; like Cain, it is a wanderer and fugitive; and God watches over it, that it become not extinct. The Rationalist is at a loss how to explain this problem; whereas the Christian sees in it the punishment of the greatest of crimes. But what is the explanation of this phenomenon? The Light shone in darkness; and the darkness did not comprehend it! If the darkness had received the Light, it would not be darkness now; but it was not so; Israel, therefore, deserved to be abandoned. Several of its children did, indeed, acknowledge the Messias, and they became children of the Light; nay, it was through them that the Light was made known to the whole world. When will the rest of Israel open its eyes? When will this people address to God the prayer of Daniel? They have it; they frequently read it; and yet it finds no response in their proud hearts. Let us, the Gentiles, pray for the Jews—the younger for the older. Every year there are some who are converted, and seek admission into the new Israel of the Church of Christ. Right welcome are they! May God, in his mercy, add to their number; that thus, all men may adore the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, together with Jesus Christ, his Son, whom he sent into this world.

Quote:I go: could Jesus say anything more awful? He is come to save this people; he has given them every possible proof of his love. A few days ago, we heard him saying to the Canaanite woman that he was sent not but for the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel. Alas! these lost sheep disown their Shepherd. He tells the Jews that he is soon going to leave them, and that they will not be able to follow him; but it makes no impression on them. His works testify that is from above; they, the Jews, are of this world, and they can think of no other. The Messias they hope for is to be one of great earthly power; he is to be a great conqueror. In vain, then, does Jesus go about doing good; in vain is nature obedient to his commands; in vain do his wisdom and teaching exceed all that mankind has ever heard—Israel is deaf and blind. The fiercest passions are raging in his heart; nor will he rest, till the Synagogue shall have imbrued its hands in the blood of Jesus. But then, the measure of iniquity will be filled up, and God’s anger will burst upon Israel in one of the most terrible chastisements that the world has ever witnessed. It makes one tremble to read the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem, and the massacre of that people that had clamored for the death of Jesus. Our Lord assures us that nothing more terrible had ever been from the beginning of the world, or ever would be.

God is patient; he waits a long time: but when his anger bursts upon a guilty people like the Jews, the chastisement is without mercy, and one that serves as an example to future generations. O sinners! you who, so far, have turned a deaf ear to the admonitions of the Church, and have refused to be converted to the Lord your God—tremble at these words of Jesus: I go. If this Lent is to be spent like so many others, and leave you in your present state—are you not afraid of that terrible threat: You shall die in your sin? By remaining in your sins, you number yourselves with those who cried out against Jesus: Crucify him, Crucify him! Oh! if he chastised a whole people—a people that he had loaded with favors, and protected and saved innumerable times—think you, he will spare you? He must triumph; if it is not by mercy, it will be by justice.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Quote:The instruction of the Catechumens is continued by means of the Gospel facts, which are each day brought before them; and the Church read to them the prophecies from the Old Testament, which are to be fulfilled by the rejection of the Jews, and the vocation of the Gentiles. Elias, who is our faithful companion during Lent, is represented to us today as foreshadowing, in his own conduct, the treatment which God is one day to show towards his ungrateful people. A three years’ drought had been sent upon the kingdom of Israel; but the people continued obstinate in their sins. Elias goes in search of someone that will provide him with food. It is a great privilege to entertain the Prophet; for God is with him. Then whither will he go? Is it to any family in the kingdom of Israel? Or will he pass into the land of Juda? He neglects them both, and directs his steps towards the land of the Gentiles. He enters the country of Sidon; and coming to the gates of a city called Sarephta, he sees a poor widow; it is to her that he transfers the blessing which Israel had rejected. Our Lord himself has taken notice of this event in the Prophet’s life, which portrays, in such strong colors, the justice of God towards the Jews, and his mercy towards us Gentiles: In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel: and to none of them was he sent, but to Sarephta of Sidon, to a widow woman.

So, then, this poor woman is a figure of the Gentiles, who were called to the faith. Let us study the circumstances of this prophetic event. The woman is a widow; she has no one to defend or protect her: she represents the Gentiles, who were abandoned by all, and had no one that could save them from the enemy of mankind. All the mother and her child had to live upon was a handful of meal and a little oil: it is an image of the frightful dearth of truth, in which the pagans were living at the time that the Gospel was preached to them. Notwithstanding her extreme poverty, the widow of Sarephta receives the Prophet with kindness and confidence; she believes what he tells her, and she and her child are saved: it was thus that the Gentiles welcomed the Apostles, when these shook the dust from their feet, and left the faithless Jerusalem. But what mean the two pieces of wood, which the widow holds in her hands? St. Augustine, St. Cesarius of Arles, and St. Isidore of Seville (who, after all, are but repeating what was the tradition of the early Church) tell us that this wood is a figure of the Cross. With this wood, the widow bakes the bread that is to support her: it is from the Cross that the Gentiles receive life by Jesus, who is the Living Bread. While Israel dies of famine and drought, the Gentile Church feeds abundantly on the heavenly Wheat, and on the Oil, which is the symbol of strength and charity. Glory then be to Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light of faith! But let us tremble at witnessing the evils which the abuse of grace has brought upon a whole people. If God’s justice has not spared a whole nation, but cast it off, will he spare me or you if we dare to resist his call?

Quote:The doctors of the law were sitting on the Chair of Moses; therefore, Jesus bids the people abide by their teachings. But this Chair—which, in spite of the unworthiness of them that sit on it, is the Chair of truth—is not to remain long in Israel. Caiphas, because he is a High Priest for the year, will prophesy; but his crimes have rendered him unworthy of his office; and the Chair on which he sits is to be taken away and set in the midst of the Gentiles. Jerusalem, which is preparing to deny her Savior, is to be deprived of her honors; and Rome, the very center of the Pagan world, is to possess within her walls that Chair which was the glory of Jerusalem, and from which were proclaimed the prophecies so visibly fulfilled in Jesus. Henceforth, this Chair is never to be moved, though all the fury of the gates of hell will seek to prevail against it; it is to be the unfailing source, at which all nations are to receive the teaching of revealed truths. The torch of faith has been removed from Israel, but it has not been extinguished. Let us live in its light, and merit by our humility that its rays ever shine upon us.

What was it that caused Israel’s loss? His pride. The favors he had received from God excited him to self-complacency; he scorned to recognize anyone for the Messias who was not great in this world’s glory; he was indignant at hearing Jesus say that the Gentiles were to participate of the grace of redemption; he sought to imbrue his hands in the blood of the God-Man, and this because he reproached him for the hardness of his heart. These proud Jews, even when they saw that the day of God’s judgment was close upon them, kept up their stubborn haughtiness. They despised the rest of the world as unclean and sinners. The son of God became the Son of Man. He is our Master, and yet he ministered to us, as though he were our Servant. Does not this show us how precious a virtue is Humility? If our fellow creatures call us Master or Father, let us not forget that no one is Master or Father but by God’s appointment. No one deserves to be called Master but he by whose lips Jesus gives us the lessons of divine wisdom; he alone is truly a Father, who acknowledges that his paternal authority comes from God alone; for as the Apostle says: I bow my knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Quote:This petition, which Mardochai presented to God in favour of a whole nation that was doomed to destruction, represents the prayers which the Saints of the Old Testament offered for the salvation of the world. The human race was, to a great extent, in the power of satan, who is figured by Aman. The almighty King had given sentence against mankind: “Ye shall die the death.” Who was there, that could induce him to revoke the sentence? Esther made intercession with Assuerus, her lord; and she was heard. Mary presented herself before the throne of fhe Eternal God: and it is she that, by her Divine Son, crushes the head of the serpent, who was to have tormented us for ever. The sentence, then, is to be annulled; all shall live that wish to live.

Today, we have the Church praying for her children, who are in the state of sin. She trembles at seeing them in danger of being eternally lost. She intercedes for them, and she uses Mardochai’s prayer. She humbly reminds her Divine Spouse, that He has redeemed them out of Egypt; and, by Baptism, has made them his members, His inheritance. She beseeches Him to change their mourning into joy, even into the great Easter joy. She says to him: Oh! shut not the mouths of them that sing to thee! It is true, these poor sinners have, in past times, offended their God by word, as well as by deed and thought; but now they speak not but words of humble prayers for mercy; and, when they shall have been pardoned, how fervently will they sing to their divine deliverer, and bless him in canticles of grateful love!

Quote:This is He that gave his own life in order to appease the anger of the Almighty King, and redeem his people from death. It is Jesus, the Son of the new Esther, and the Son of God, who comes forward to humble the pride of Aman, at th every time that this perfidious enemy of ours is making sure of his victory. He goes up to Jerusalem, for it is there that the great battle is to be fought. He foretells his Disciples all that is to happen. He will be delivered up to the chief priests, who will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Roman Governor and soldiers. He will be mocked, scourged, and crucified; but he will rise again on the third day. The Apostles heard this prophecy, for the Gospel says that Jesus took the twelve apart in order to tell them these things. Judas, consequently, was present; so were Peter, James, and John, the three that had witnessed the Transfiguration of their Master on Thabor, and had a clearer knowledge of his Divinity. And yet, all abandoned him. Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him, and the whole flock fled away in fear when the Shepherd was in the power of his enemies. Not one of them recollected how he had said that, on the third day, he would rise again; unless it were Judas, who was perhaps encouraged to commit his crime by the reflection that Jesus would soon triumph over his enemies and be again free. The rest could see no further than the scandal of the Cross; that put an end to all their Faith, and they deserted their Master. What a lesson for all future generations of Christians! How very few there are who look upon the Cross, either for themselves or for others, as the sign of God’s special love!

We are men of little faith; we cannot understand the trials God sends to our brethren, and we are often tempted to believe that he has forsaken them, because he sends them the cross. We are men of little love, too; worldly tribulations seems an evil to us, and we think ourselves hardly dealt with, at the very time that our God is showing us the greatest mercy. We are like the mother of the sons of Zebedee: we would hold a high and conspicuous place near the Son of God, forgetting that we must first merit it by drinking of the chalice that he drank, that is, the chalice of Suffering. We forget too that saying of the Apostle: That we may be glorified with Jesus, we must suffer with him! He, the just by excellence, entered not into his rest by honors and pleasures—the sinner cannot follow him, save by treading the path of penance.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Quote:The Epistle and Gospel for today are intended as instructions upon Christian morality. Let us, for a moment, turn away our eyes from the sad spectacle of the plot which is being got up against our Redeemer by his enemies; let us today think of our own sins, and how to apply a remedy. The Prophet Jeremias here gives us the description of two classes of men: to which class do we belong? There are some men who make flesh their arm; that is to say, they only care for the present life and for created things; and this disposition of mind necessarily leads them to frequent violations of the commandments of their Creator. It was so with us, when we sinned: we lost sight of our last end, and the threefold concupiscence blinded us. Let us lose no time, but return to the Lord our God; a delay might bring upon us that curse which our Prophet says overtakes the unrepenting sinner: he shall not see good, when good shall come. The holy Season of Lent is fast advancing; the choicest graces are being daily offered us: woe! to the man whose mind is distracted by the fashion of this world that passeth away, and takes no thought for eternity and heaven and, even in this time of grace, is like tamaric, a worthless weed of the desert. Oh! how numerous is this class! and how terrible is their spiritual indifference! Pray for them, O ye faithful children of the Church, pray for them without ceasing. Offer up your penances and your almsgivings for them. Despair not; and remember that each year, many straying sheep are brought to the fold by such intercession as this.

The Prophet next describes the man that trusteth in the Lord; his whole hope is in God, and his whole care is to serve him and do his blessed will. He is like a beautiful tree that is planted near a stream of water, with its leaf ever green, and its fruit abundant. I have appointed you, says our Redeemer, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain. Let us become this favored and ever fruitful tree. The Church, during this holy time, is pouring out upon our hearts rich streams of God’s grace: let us faithful welcome them. The Lord searchest the heart: if he find that our desire to be converted is sincere, what an Easter will not the coming one be to us!

Quote:The commandments of God cannot be broken with impunity; he that sins shall be punished. This is the teaching of today’s Gospel; and after reading it, we exclaim with the Apostle: How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God! What a terrible truth is here told us! A man is in the enjoyment of every comfort and luxury this life can give; when suddenly death surprises him, and he is buried in hell! In the midst of those eternal burnings, he asks for a drop of water, and that drop is refused him. Other men, whom he knew on earth a few hours ago, are now in the abode of eternal happiness, and a great chaos separates him from them forever. Oh! what misery! To be in despair for endless ages! And yet there are men that live and die without giving so much as one day to think upon hell! Happy, then, are they that fear! for this fear will aid them to lighten that weight of their sins, which would drag them into the bottomless pit.

Alas! what strange darkness has come upon the mind of man as a consequence of sin! People that are shrewd, and prudent, and far-sighted in everything that regards their temporal concerns, are mere idiots and fools in every question that regards eternity. Can we imagine anything more frightful than their surprise when they awaken in the next world and find themselves buried in hell? Observe, too, that our Savior, in order to make his instruction more impressive, has not here described the condemnation of one of those whose crimes scandalize the neighborhood, and make even worldlings look upon him as a pure prey of hell. The history he gives us is that of a man who led a quiet life; he was agreeable in company, and sought after; he was respected, and did honor to the position he held in society. He is not accused of any public scandals; there is no mention made of any atrocious crime; our Savior simply says of him: he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day. It is true, he was not charitable to the poor man who lay at his gate; but he did not ill-treat him: he allowed him to lie there, and did not even insult his misery.

When, then, was this rich man condemned to burn eternally in that fire which God created for the wicked? It is because a man who leads a life of luxury and feasting, such as he lived—never thinking of eternity—caring for nothing but this world, which we are told to use as though we used it not—with nothing about him of the spirit of the Cross of Christ—such a man as this is already a victim to the triple concupiscence of pride, avarice, and luxury; he is their slave, and seems determined to continue so, for he never makes an effort to throw off their tyranny. He has yielded himself up to them; and they have worked their work in him—the death of the soul. It was not enough that he should not ill-treat the poor man who sat as his gate, he ought to have showed him kindness and charity, for such is God’s commandment. His very dogs had more compassion than he; therefore, his condemnation and perdition were most just. But had he been told of his duty? Yes, he had the Scriptures; he had Moses and the Prophets; nay more, he had Jesus and the Church. Men who are leading a life like him are now surrounded by the graces of the holy Season of Lent. What excuse will they have, if they so far neglect them, that they do not even give themselves the trouble to think of them? They will have turned their Lent into judgment against themselves, and it will have been but one great step nearer to eternal misery.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Quote:Today the Church reminds us of the apostasy of the Jewish nation, and of the consequent vocation of the Gentiles. This instruction was intended for the Catechumens; let us, also, profit by it. The history here related from the Old Testament is a figure of what we read in today’s Gospel. Joseph is exceedingly beloved by his father Jacob, not only because he is the child of his favorite spouse Rachel, but also because of his innocence. Prophetic dreams have announced the future glory of this child; but he has Brothers; and these Brothers, urged on by jealousy, are determined to destroy him. Their wicked purpose is not carried out to the full; but it succeeds at least this far, that Joseph will never more see his native country. He is sold to some merchants. Shortly afterwards, he is cast into prison; but he is soon set free, and is made the Ruler, not of the land of Chanaan, that had exiled him, but of a pagan country, Egypt. He saves these poor Gentiles from starvation during a most terrible famine, nay, he gives them abundance of food, and they are happy under his government. His very Brothers, who persecuted him, are obliged to come down into Egypt and ask food and pardon from their victim. We easily recognize in this wonderful history our Divine Redeemer, Son of God and Son of Mary: he was the victim of his own people’s jealousy, who refuse to acknowledge in him the Messias foretold by the Prophets, although their prophecies were so evidently fulfilled in him. Like Joseph, Jesus is the object of a deadly conspiracy; like Joseph, he is sold. He traverses the shadow of death, but only to rise again, full of glory and power. But it is no longer on Israel that he lavishes the proofs of his predilection; he turns to the Gentiles, and with them he henceforth dwells. It is to the Gentiles that the remnant of Israel will come seeking him when, pressed by hunger after the truth, they are willing to acknowledge, as the true Messias, this Jesus of Nazareth, their King, whom they crucified.

Quote:Here we have more than the mere figures of the Old Law, which show us our Redeemer in the far distant future; we have the great reality. Yet a little while, and the thrice-holy Victim will have fallen beneath the blows of his persecutors. How awful and solemn are the words of Jesus, as his last hour approaches! His enemies feel the full weight of what he says; but in their pride, they are determined to keep up their opposition to Him who is the Wisdom of the Father. They have made up their minds not to acknowledge him to be what they well know he is—the Stone on which he that falls, shall be broken, and which shall grind to powder him on whom it shall fall. But what is the Vineyard, of which our Lord here speaks? It is Revealed Truth; it is the Rule of Faith and Morals; it is the universal expectation of the promised Redeemer; and lastly, it is the family of the Children of God, his inheritance, his Church. God had chosen the Synagogue as the depository of such a treasure; he willed that his Vineyard should be carefully kept, that it should yield fruit under their keeping, and that they should always look upon it as his possession, and one that was most dear to him. But in its hard-heartedness and avarice, the Synagogue appropriated the Lord’s Vineyard to themselves. In vain did he, at various times, send his Prophets to reclaim his rights; the faithless husbandmen put them to death. The Son of God, the Heir, comes in person. Surely they will receive him with due respect, and pay him the homage due to his Divine character! But no; they have formed a plot against him; they intend to cast him forth out of the Vineyard, and kill him. Come, then, ye Gentiles, and avenge this God! Leave not a stone on stone of the guilty City that has uttered this terrible curse, May his blood be upon us and upon our Children! But you shall be more than the ministers of the divine justice; you yourselves are now the favored people of God. The apostasy of these ungrateful Jews is the beginning of your salvation. You are to be keepers of the Vineyard to the end of time; you are to feed on its fruits, for they now belong to you. From East and West, from North and South, come to the great Pasch that is being prepared! Come to the font of salvation, O ye new people, who are gathered unto God from all nations under the sun! Your Mother the Church will fill up from you, if you be faithful, the number of the elect; and when her work is done, her Spouse will return, as the dread Judge, to condemn those who would not know the time of their visitation.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Quote:The two sons of Isaac are another illustration of God’s judgments upon Israel, and his Vocation of the Gentiles. The instruction contained in this passage from Genesis was intended for the Catechumens. Here we have two brothers, Esau the elder, and Jacob the younger; Esau represents the Jewish people; he is his father’s heir, and, as such, he has a glorious future before him. Jacob, though twin brother to Esau, is the second born, and has no right to the special blessing which Esau claimed: he is the figure of the Gentiles. How, then, is it that Jacob receives the blessing, and not Esau? The sacred volume tells us that Esau is a carnal-minded man. Rather than deny himself the momentary gratification of his appetite, he sacrifices the spiritual advantages, which his father’s blessing is to bring him: he sells his birth-right to Jacob for a mess of pottage. We know the mother’s plan for the securing Jacob’s claim; and how the aged father is, unsuspectingly, the instrument in God’s hands, by ratifying and blessing this substitution, of which he himself had no knowledge. Esau, having returned home, is made aware of the greatness of his loss; but it is too late, and he becomes an enemy to his Brother. The same thing happens with the Jewish people; they are carnal-minded and lose their birth-right—their pre-eminence over the Gentiles. They refuse to acknowledge a Messias who is poor and persecuted; their ambition is for earthly triumph and earthly greatness; and the only Kingdom that Jesus holds out to his followers is a spiritual one. The Jews, then, reject this Messias; but the Gentiles receive him, and they become the first-born, the favored people. And whereas the Jews repudiate this substitution (—to which, however, they assented, when they said to Pilate: We will not have this Man to reign over us:—) they are indignant at seeing the Heavenly Father bestowing all his love and blessings on the Christian people. They that are children of Abraham, according to the flesh, are disinherited; and they that are the children of Abraham by faith only, are evidently the children of the Promise; according to those words of the Lord, which he spoke to that great Patriarch: I will multiply thy seed as the stars of Heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea-shore … In thy seed (that is, “in Him who is to be born of thy race,”) all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

Quote:The mystery brought before us in the Epistle is repeated in our Gospel. Again, it is the history of two Brothers; the elder is angry at seeing his father show mercy to the younger. This younger Brother has gone abroad into a far country; he has quitted his father’s house, that he might be under no control, and indulge in every kind of disorder. But when a mighty famine came, and he was perishing with hunger, he remembered that he had a Father; and, at once he arose, and humbly besought his father to receive him, and give him the last place in that House which, but for his own folly, might have been all his own. The father received the prodigal with the tenderest affection; not only did he pardon him, he restored him to all his family rights; nay, he would have a feast kept in honor of this happy return. The elder Brother hearing what the father had done, was indignant, and conceives the bitterest jealousy against his younger Brother.—Let the Jews be jealous, if they will; let them be indignant with their God for showing his mercy to any but themselves. The time is come when all the nations of the earth are to be called to the One Fold. The Gentiles, notwithstanding all the misery into which their errors and their passions had led them, are to receive the preaching of the Apostles. Greeks and Romans, Scythians and Barbarians, are to come, humbly acknowledging the evil of their ways, and ask to share in the favors offered to Israel. Not only are they to be allowed to eat of the crumbs the fall from the table, which was all the poor woman of Chanaan dared to hope for; they are to be made Sons and Heirs of the Father, with all the attendant rights and privileges. Israel will be jealous, and will protest; but to no purpose. He will refuse to take part in the feast; it matters not, the feast is to be. This Feast is the Pasch. The Prodigals that have come, starved and naked, to the Father’s house, are our Catechumens, on whom God is about to bestow the grace of adoption.

But there are also the public Penitents, who are being prepared by the Church for Reconciliation; they too are the Prodigals, who come seeking mercy from their offended Father. This Gospel was intended for them as well as for the Catechumens. But now that the Church has relaxed her severe discipline, she offers this Parable to all those who are in the state of sin, and are preparing to make their peace with God. They know not as yet how good is the God from whom they have strayed by sin: let them read today’s Gospel, and see how Mercy exalteth itself above Judgment, in that God who so loved the world, as to give his Only Begotten Son. How far soever they may have gone astray, or how great soever may have been their ingratitude, let them take courage; a feast is being prepared in their Father’s House, to welcome them home again. The loving Father is waiting at the door to receive and embrace them; the first robe, the robe of innocence, is to be restored to them; the ring, which they alone wear that are of God’s family, is to be once more placed on their hand. There is a Banquet being prepared for them at which the Angels, out of joy, will sing their glad songs. Let these poor sinners, then, cry out with a contrite heart: Father! I have sinned against heaven, and before thee; I am not now worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants. This tender-hearted Father asks only this much of them: sincere sorrow for their sins, humble confession, and a firm resolution of being faithful for the time to come. Let them accept these easy terms, and he will receive them, once more, as his dearest children.