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

Quote:Yesterday, the Church made known to our Catechumens that the day of their Baptism was at hand; today she reads them a passage from the Old Testament which relates a history that admirably symbolizes the saving Font prepared for them by divine Mercy. Naaman’s leprosy is a figure of sin. There is but one cure for the loathsome malady of the Syrian officer: he must go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and he shall be made clean. The Gentile, the infidel, the infant, with its stain of original sin—all may be made just and holy; but this can only be effected by water and the invocation of the Blessed Trinity. Naaman objects to the remedy as being too simple; he cannot believe that one so insignificant can be efficacious; he refuses to try it; he expected something more in accordance with reason—for instance, a miracle that would have done honor both to himself and the Prophet. This was the reasoning of many a Gentile, when the Apostles went about preaching the Gospel; but they that believed, with simple-hearted faith, in the power of Water sanctified by Christ, received Regeneration; and the Baptismal Font created a new people, composed of all nations of the earth. Naaman, who represents the Gentiles, was at length induced to believe; and his faith was rewarded by a complete cure. His flesh was restored like that of a little child, which has never suffered taint or disease. Let us give glory to God, who has endowed Water with the heavenly power it now possesses; let us praise him for the wonderful workings of his grace, which produces in docile hearts that Faith whose recompense is so magnificent.

Quote:Here again, we find our Savior proclaiming the mystery of the Gentiles being called to take the place of the incredulous Jews; and he mentions Naaman as an example of this merciful substitution. He also speaks, in the same sense, of the widow of Sarephta, whose history we had a few days ago. This terrible resolution of our Lord to transfer his light from one people to another irritates the Pharisees of Nazareth against the Messias. They know that Jesus, who has only just commenced his public life, has been working great miracles in Capharnaum: they would have him honor their own little city in the same way; but Jesus knows that they would not be converted. Do these people of Nazareth so much as know Jesus? He has lived among them for eighteen years, during all which time he has been advancing in wisdom and age and grace before God and men; but they despise him, for he is a poor man, and the son of a carpenter. They do not even know that, though he has passed so many years among them, he was not born in their city, but in Bethlehem. Not many days before this, Jesus had gone into the synagogue of Nazareth, and had explained, with marvelous eloquence and power, the Prophet Isaias; he told the audience that the time of mercy was come, and his discourse excited much surprise and admiration. But the Pharisees of the city despised his words. They have heard that he has been working great things in the neighborhood; they are curious to see one of his miracles; but Jesus refuses to satisfy their unworthy desire. Let them recall to mind the discourse made by Jesus in their synagogue, and tremble at the announcement he then made to them, that the Gentiles were to become God’s chosen people. But the divine Prophet is not accepted in his own country; and had he not withdrawn himself from the anger of his compatriots of Nazareth, the blood of the Just would have been shed that very day. But there is an unenviable privilege which belongs exclusively to Jerusalem;—a Prophet cannot perish out of Jerusalem!

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

Quote:It is not difficult to unravel the mystery of this day’s Lesson. Man’s creditor is Satan; our sins have made him so. Go, says the Prophet, and pay the creditor. But how is this to be done?—We shall obtain the pardon of our sins by works of mercy, of which Oil is the symbol. Blessed are the Merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Let us, then, during these days of salvation, secure our reconciliation and forgiveness by doing all we can to assist our brethren who are in want; let us join Almsdeeds to our Fasting, and practice works of mercy. Thus shall we touch the heart of our Heavenly Father. Putting our debts into His hands, we shall take away from Satan all the claims he had upon us. Let us learn a lesson from this woman. She lets no one see her as she fills the vessels with oil: let us also shut the door when we do good, so that our left hand shall know not what our right hand doth. Take notice, too, that the woman goes on pouring out the oil as long as she has vessels to hold it. So our mercy towards our neighbors must be proportionate to our means. The extent of these means is known to God, and he will not have us fall short of the power he has given us for doing good. Let us, then, be liberal in our alms during this holy Season; let us make the resolution to be not so at all times. When our material resources are exhausted, let us be merciful in desire, by interceding with those who are able to give, and by praying to God to help the suffering and the poor.

Quote:The Mercy which God commands us to show our fellow creatures does not consist only in corporal and spiritual almsdeeds to the poor and the suffering; it includes, moreover, the pardon and forgetfulness of injuries. This is the test whereby God proves the sincerity of our conversion. With the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again. If we, from our hearts, pardon our enemies, our Heavenly Father will unreservedly pardon us. These are the days when we are hoping to be reconciled with our God; let us do all we can to gain our brother; and for this end, pardon him, if needs be, seventy times seven times. Surely we are not going to allow the miserable quarrels of our earthly pilgrimage to make us lose heaven! Therefore, let us forgive insults and injuries, and thus imitate our God himself, who is ever forgiving us.

But how grand are these other words of our Gospel: Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven! Oh! the hope and joy they bring to our hearts! How countless is the number of sinners who are soon to feel the truth of this consoling promise! They will confess their sins and offer to God the homage of a contrite and humble heart; and at the very moment that the hand of the Priest shall loosen them upon earth, the hand of God will loosen them from the bonds which held them as victims to eternal punishment.

And lastly, let us not pass by unnoticed this other sentence, which has a close relation with the one we have just alluded to: If a man hear not the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen and publican. What is this Church? Men to whom Jesus Christ said: He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me. Men from whose lips comes to the world the Truth, without which there is no salvation: Men who are the only ones on earth who have the power to reconcile the sinner with his God, save him from the hell he has deserved, and open to him the gates of heaven. Can we be surprised, after this, that our Savior—who would have these Men to be his instruments, and as it were, the communication between himself and mankind—should treat as a heathen, as one that has never received Baptism, him that refuses to acknowledge their authority? There is no revealed truth, except through their teaching; their is no salvation, except through the Sacraments which they administer; there is no hoping in Christ Jesus, except where there is submission to the spiritual laws which they promulgate.

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

Quote:The Church reminds us today of the divine Commandments which relate to our duties towards our neighbor, beginning with that which enjoins respect to Parents. Now that the Faithful are intent on the great work of the conversion and amendment of their lives, it is well that they should be reminded that their duties towards their fellow men are prescribed by God himself. Hence, it was God whom we offended when we sinned against our neighbor. God first tells us what he himself has a right to receive from our hands: he bids us adore and serve him; he forbids the worship of idols; he enjoins the observance of the Sabbath, and prescribes Sacrifices and Ceremonies: but at the same time, he commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and assures us that he will be their avenger when we have wronged them, unless we repair the injury. The voice of Jehovah on Sinai is not less commanding when it proclaims what our duties are to our neighbor, than when it tells us our obligations to our Creator. Thus enlightened as to the origin of our duties, we shall have a clearer view of the state of our conscience, and of the atonement required of us by Divine Justice. But if the Old Law that was written on tablets of stone thus urges upon us the precept of the love of our neighbor, how much more will not the New Law—that was signed with the blood of Jesus when dying upon the Cross for his ungrateful brethren—insist that our observance of fraternal charity? These are the two Laws on which we shall be judged; let us, therefore, carefully observe what they command on this head, that thus we may prove ourselves to be Christians, according to those words of our Savior: By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.

Quote:The Law that was given by God to Moses enjoined a great number of exterior practices and ceremonies; and they that were faithful among the Jews, zealously and carefully fulfilled them. Jesus himself, though he was the Divine Lawgiver, most humbly complied with them. But the Pharisees had added their own superstitious traditions to these divine laws and ordinances, and made religion consist in the observance of these fanciful inventions. Our Savior here tells the people not to be imposed upon by such teaching, and instructs them as to what is the real meaning of the external practices of the Law. The Pharisees prescribed a great many ablutions or washings to be observed during the course of the day. They would have it that they who eat without having washed their hands (and indeed the whole body, some time during the day), were defiled, and that the food they thus partook of was unclean, by reason, as they said, that they themselves had become defiled by having come near or touched objects which were specified by their whims. According to the Law of God, these objects were perfectly innocent; but according to the law of the Pharisees, almost everything was contagious, and the only escape was endless washings! Jesus would have the Jews throw off this humiliating and arbitrary yoke, and reproaches the Pharisees for having corrupted and made void the Law of Moses.

He tells them that there is no creature which is intrinsically and of its own nature unclean; and that a man’s conscience cannot be defiled by the mere fact of his eating certain kinds of food. Evil thoughts and evil deeds, these, says our Savior, are the things that defile a man. Some heretics have interpreted these words as being an implicit condemnation of the exterior practices ordained by the Church and more especially of Abstinence. To such reasoners and teachers we may justly apply what our Savior said to the Pharisees: They are blind and leaders of the blind. From this, that the sins, into which a man falls by his use of material things, are only sins on account of the malice of the Will, which is spiritual—it does not follow that therefore, man may, without any sin, make use of material things, when God or his Church forbid their use. God forbade our First Parents, under pain of death, to eat the fruit of a certain tree; they ate it, and sin was the result of their eating. Was the fruit unclean of its own nature? No; it was a creature of God as well as the other fruits of Eden; but our First Parents sinned by eating it, because their doing so was an act of disobedience. Again, when God gave his Law on Mount Sinai, he forbade the Hebrews to eat the flesh of certain animals; if they ate it, they were guilty of sin, not because this sort of food was intrinsically evil or cursed, but because they that partook of it disobeyed the Lord. The commandments of the Church regarding Fasting and Abstinence are of a similar nature with these. It is that we may secure to ourselves the blessing of Christian Penance—in other words, it is for our spiritual interest that the Church bids us abstain and fast at certain times. If we violate her law, it is not the food we take that defiles us, but the resisting a sacred power, which our Savior, in yesterday’s Gospel, told us we are to obey under the heavy penalty which he expressed in those words: He that will not hear the Church, shall be counted as a heathen and publican.

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

Quote:Let us here admire the goodness of our Redeemer, who deigns to exercise his power for the cure of bodily infirmities. How much more ready will he not be to heal our spiritual ailments! Our fever is that of evil passions; Jesus alone can allay it. Let us imitate the eagerness of these people of Galilee, who brought all their sick to Jesus; let us beseech him to heal us. See with what patience he welcomes each poor sufferer! Let us also go to him. Let us implore of him not to depart from us, but abide with us forever; he will accept our petition, and remain. Let us pray for sinners: the days of the great Fast are quickly passing away: we have reached the second half of Lent, and the Passover of our deliverance will soon be here. Look at the thousands that are unmoved, with their souls still blind to the light, and their hearts hardened against every appeal of God’s mercy and justice; they seem resolved on making their eternal perdition less doubtful than ever, by neglecting both the Lent and the Easter of this year. Let us offer up our penances for them; and beg of Jesus, by the merits of his sacred Passion, to redouble his mercies towards them, and deliver from Satan these souls, for whose sakes he is about to shed his Blood.

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

Quote:Here we have one of the most expressive figures of the Old Testament: it symbolizes the Sacrament of Baptism, for which our Catechumens are now preparing. A whole people asks for Water; if it be denied them, they must perish in the wilderness. St. Paul, the sublime interpreter of the types of the Old Testament, tells us that the Rock was Christ, from whom came forth the fountain of living Water, which quenches the thirst of our souls and purifies them. The Holy Fathers observe that the Rock yielded not its water until it had been struck with the Rod which signifies the Passion of our Redeemer. The Rod itself, as we are told by some of the earliest commentators of the Scriptures, is the symbol of the Cross; and the two strokes, wherewith the Rock was struck, represent the two parts of which the Cross was formed. 

The paintings which the primitive Church has left us in the Catacombs of Rome frequently represent Moses in the act of striking the Rock, from which flows a stream of Water; and a glass, found in the same Catacombs, bears an inscription, telling us that the first Christians considered Moses as the type of St. Peter, who, in the New Covenant, opened to God’s people the fountain of grace, when he preached to them on the day of Pentecost; and gave also to the Gentiles to drink of this same Water, when he received Cornelius, the Centurion, into the Church. This symbol of Moses striking the Rock, and the figures of the Old Testament, which we have already come across, or shall still meet with, in the Lessons given by the Church to the Catechumens—are not only found in the earliest frescoes of the Roman Catacombs, but we have numerous proofs that they were represented in all the Churches both in the East and West. Up to the thirteenth century, and even later, we find them in the windows of our Cathedrals, and in the traditional form or type which was given to them in the early times. It is to be regretted that these Christian symbols, which were so dear to our Catholic forefathers, should now be so forgotten as to be almost treated with contempt. Let us love them and, by the study of the holy Liturgy, let us return to those sacred traditions which inspired our ancestors with heroic faith, and made them undertake such grand things for God and their fellow men.

Quote:Our Gospel shows us the Son of God continuing the ministry of Moses by revealing to the Samaritan woman, who represents the Gentiles, the mystery of the Water that gives life everlasting. We find this subject pained on the walls of the Catacombs and carved on the tombs of the Christians, as far back as the 5th, and even the 4th century. Let us, then, meditate upon this event of our Lord’s life, for it tells us of his wonderful mercy. Jesus is wearied with his journey; He, the Son of God, who had but to speak and the world was created, is fatigued seeking after his lost sheep. He is obliged to rest his wearied limbs; he sits; but it is near a well. He finds a Samaritan woman there; she is a Gentile, an idolatress; she comes to draw water from the well; she has no idea of there being a Water of eternal life—Jesus intends to reveal the mystery to her. He begins by telling her that he is tired and thirsty. A few days hence, when expiring on his Cross, he will say: I thirst: and so now, he says to this woman: Give me to drink. So true is it, that in order to appreciate the grace brought by our Redeemer, we must first know this Redeemer in his weakness and sufferings.

But before the woman had time to give Jesus what he asks, he tells her of a Water, of which he that drinks shall not thirst for ever; he invites her to draw from a fountain, that springeth up into life everlasting. The woman longs to drink of this Water; she knows not who he is that is speaking with her, and yet she has faith in what he says. This idolatress evinces a docility of heart which the Jews never showed to their Messias; and she is docile, notwithstanding her knowing that he who speaks to her belongs to a nation which despises all Samaritans. The confidence wherewith she listens to Jesus is rewarded by his offering still greater graces. He begins by putting her to the test. Go, he says, call thy husband, and come hither. She was living in sin, and Jesus would have her confess it. She does so without the slightest hesitation; her humility is rewarded, for she at once recognizes Jesus to be a Prophet, and she begins to drink of the Living Water. Thus was it with the Gentiles. The Apostles preached the Gospel to them; they reproached them with their crimes, and showed them the holiness of the God they had offended; but the Gentiles did not therefore reject their teaching; on the contrary, they were docile, and only wanted to know what they should do to render themselves pleasing to their Creator. The Faith had need of Martyrs; and they were found in abundance amidst these converts from paganism and its abominations.

Jesus, seeing such simple-heartedness in the Samaritan, mercifully reveals to her who he is. He tells this poor sinner that the time is come when all men shall adore God; he tells her that the Messias has come upon the earth, and that he himself is that Messias. It is thus that Christ treats a soul that is simple and obedient. He shows himself to her without reserve. When the Disciples arrived, they wondered; they had as yet too much of the Jew in them; they therefore could not understand how their Master could show anything like mercy to this Samaritan. But the time will soon come when they will say with the great Apostle St. Paul: There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.

Meanwhile, the Samaritan becomes an apostle, for she is filled with heavenly ardor. She leaves her pitcher at the well—what cares she for its water, now that Jesus has given her to drink of the Living Water? She goes back to the city; but it is that she may preach Jesus there, and bring to him, if she could, all the inhabitants of Samaria. In her humility, she gives this proof of his being a great Prophet—that he had told her all the sins of her life! These pagans, whom the Jews despised, hasten to the well, where Jesus had remained, speaking to his Disciples on the coming harvest. They acknowledge him to be the Messias, the Savior of the world; and Jesus condescends to abide two days in this city, where there was no other religion than that of idolatry, with a fragment here and there of some Jewish practice. Tradition tells us that the name of the Samaritan woman was Photina. She and the Magi were the first fruits of the new people of God. She suffered martyrdom for him who revealed himself to her at Jacob’s Well. The Church honors her memory each year, in the Roman Martyrology, on the 20th of March.

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

Quote:Yesterday, we shared in the joy felt by our Catechumens, as they listened to the Church describing that limpid and life-giving fountain, which flows from the Savior; in these Waters they were soon to receive a new life. Today, the instruction is for the Penitents, whose reconciliation is drawing near. But how can they hope for pardon, who have sullied the white robe of their baptism, and trampled on the precious Blood that redeemed them? And yet, they are really to be pardoned and saved. If you would understand the mystery, read and meditate upon the Sacred Scriptures; for there you will learn that there is a Salvation which comes from justice, and a Salvation that proceeds from mercy. Today we have an example of both. Susanna, who is unjustly accused of adultery, receives from God the recompense of her virtue; he avenges and saves her: another woman, who is really guilty of the crime, is saved from death by Jesus Christ himself. Let the just, therefore, confidently and humbly await the reward they have merited; but let sinners also hope in the mercy of the Redeemer, who is come for them rather than for the just. Thus does the holy Church encourage her Penitents, and call them to conversion, by showing them the riches of the Heart of Jesus, and the mercies of the New Covenant, which this same Savior has signed by his Blood.

In this history of Susanna, the early Christians saw a figure of the Church, which in their time was solicited by the Pagans to evil, but remained faithful to her Divine Spouse, even though death was the punishment of her resistance. A holy Martyr of the 3rd century, St. Hippolytus, mentions this interpretation. The carvings on the ancient Christian Tombs, and the frescoes of the Roman Catacombs, represent this history of Susanna’s fidelity to God’s law, in spite of the death that threatened her, as a type of the Martyrs’ preferring death to apostasy; for apostasy, in the language of the Sacred Scriptures, is called Adultery, which the soul is guilty of by denying her God, to whom she espoused herself when she received Baptism.

Quote:This is the Salvation that proceeds from Mercy. The woman is guilty: the Law condemns her to be put to death; her accusers are justified in insisting on her being punished—and yet she shall not die. Jesus saves her; and all he asks of her is that she sin no more. What must have been her gratitude! How must she not have desired to obey, henceforward, that God who would not condemn her, and to whom she owed her life! Let us enter into like dispositions towards our Redeemer, for we too are sinners. Is it not He that has stayed the arm of Divine Justice when it was raised to strike us? Has he not turned the blow upon himself? Our salvation, then, has been one of Mercy; let us imitate the Penitents of the primitive Church, and during these remaining days of Lent, consolidate the foundations of the new life we have begun.

The answer made by Jesus to the Pharisees, who accused this woman, deserves our respectful attention. It not only shows his compassion for the humble sinner, who stood trembling before him; it contains a practical instruction for us. He that is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone at her. During these days of conversion and repentance, let us recall to mind the detractions we have been guilty of against our neighbor. Alas! these sins of the tongue are looked upon as mere trifles; we forget them almost as soon as we commit them; nay, so deeply rooted in us is the habit of finding fault with everyone that we scarcely know ourselves to be detractors. If this saying of our Redeemer had made the impression it ought to have done upon us; if we had thought of our own numberless defects and sins—how could we have dared to criticize our neighbor, publish his faults, and pass judgment upon his very thoughts and intentions? Jesus knew what sort of life these man had led, who accuse the woman; he knows what ours has been! Woe to us if, henceforth, we are not indulgent with others!

And lastly, let us consider the malice of Jesus’ enemies; what they said, they said, tempting him, that they might accuse him. If he pronounce in the woman’s favor, they will accuse him of despising the Law of Moses, which condemns her to be stoned: if he answer in conformity with the Law, they will hold him up to the people as a man without mercy or compassion. Jesus, by his divine prudence, eludes their stratagem; but we can foresee what he will have to suffer at their hands when, having put himself in their power, that they may do with him what they please, he will make no other answer to their calumnies and insults than the silence and patience of an innocent Victim condemned to death.