Passion Sunday

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INSTRUCTION ON THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT [PASSION SUNDAY]. (JUDICA.)

Taken from Fr. Goffine's Explanations of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, Holydays, and Festivals throughout the Ecclesiastical Year, 36th edition, 1880

THIS Sunday, called Judica from the first word of the Introit, is also called Passion Sunday, because from this day the Church occupies herself exclusively with the contemplation of the passion and death of Christ. The pictures of Christ crucified are covered today in memory of His having hidden Himself from the Jews until His entrance into Jerusalem, no longer showing Himself in public. (John xi. 54.) In the Mass the Glory be to the Father, &c. is omitted, because in the person of Christ the Holy Trinity was dishonored. The psalm Judica is not said to-day, because on this day the high priests held council about our Lord, for which reason the Church in the name of the suffering Saviour uses these words at the Introit: Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy: deliver me from the Unjust and deceitful man, for Thou art my God and my strength. Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have con- ducted me, and brought me unto thy holy hill, and into thy tabernacles. (Ps. xlii. i. 3.)


PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. We beseech Thee, Almighty God, graciously to look upon Thy family; that by Thy bounty it may be governed in body, and by Thy protection be guarded in mind. Through.&c.

EPISTLE. (Heb. ix. 11 — 15.) Brethren, Christ being come, a high-priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is. not of this creation, neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of a heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are denied, to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, by the Holy Ghost, offered himself without spot to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? And therefore he is the Mediator of the new testament; that by means of his death, for the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former testament; they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

EXPLANATION. St. Paul here teaches, that Christ as the true high-priest of the New Testament, through His Precious Blood on the altar of the cross, has indeed made perfect satisfaction for sins, but that the sinner must also do his own part, by cooperating with Christ to make himself less unworthy of participating in His passion and merits, and to appropriate to himself its fruits. This is done when he diligently and devoutly assists at the unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass by which the fruits of the death on the cross are attributed to us; when, according to the will of the Church, he purifies his conscience by true contrition and confession; and when he seeks by trust in Christ's merits to render some satisfaction for his sins through voluntary penance and faithful following of Christ.

ASPIRATION. Grant us; O meek Jesus, Thy grace, that through perfect sorrow for our sine and the exercise of good works we may become participators in the merits of Thy bitter passion.

GOSPEL. (John viii. 46 — 59.) At that time, Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews: Which of you shall convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me? He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. The Jews therefore answered, and said to him: Do not we say well, that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: I have not a devil; but I honor my Father, and you have dishonored me. But I seek not my own glory; there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Amen, amen, I say to you, if any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever. The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever. Art thou greater than our Father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself? Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God. And you have not known him; but I know him. And if I shall say that I know him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know him, and do keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad. The Jews therefore said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.


Why did Christ ask the Jews, which of them should convince Him of sin?

To show us that he who would teach and punish others, should strive to be irreproachable himself; and to prove that He, being free from sin, was more than mere man, and therefore, the Messiah, the Son of God, as He repeatedly told the Jews, especially in this day's gospel, and substantiated by His great and numerous miracles.


Why did He say: He that is of God, heareth the words of God?

To prove that the Jews on account of their stubbornness and unbelief were not the children of God, but of the devil. "Therefore," St. Gregory says, "let every one when he hears the word of God, ask himself, of whom he is. Eternal truth demands that we be desirous of the heavenly fatherland, that we tame the desires of the flesh, be indifferent to the praises of the world, covet not our neighbor's goods, and give alms according to our means. Therefore examine yourself, and if you find in your heart this voice of God, then you will know that you are of God."

CONSOLATION UNDER CALUMNY

WHEN Christ told the Jews the truth, He received insults and calumny; they called Him a Samaritan, that is, an unbeliever, a heretic, one possessed of a devil. This was a terrible slander, and it must have pained Him exceedingly, but at the same time it is a great consolation to those who are innocently calumniated, when they consider that Christ Himself received nothing better. St. Augustine consoles such by saying: "O friend, what is there that can happen to you that your Saviour did not suffer before you? Is it slander? He heard it, when He was called a glutton, a drunkard, a heretic, and a rebel, a companion of sinners, one possessed of a devil; He even heard, when casting out devils, that He did so by Beelzebub, prince of devils." (Matt. ix. 34.) He therefore comforts His apostles, saying, If they have called the good man of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household? (Matt. x. 25.) Are the pains bitter? There is no pain so bitter that He has not endured it; for what is more painful, and at the same time more ignominious, than the death of the cross? For think, says St. Paul, diligently upon him who endured such opposition from sinners against himself: that you be not wearied (by all contempt and calumny), fainting in your minds. (Heb. xii. 3.)


How and why did Christ defend Himself against those who slandered Him?

Only by denying with the greatest modesty the things with which they reproached Him, saying that He had not a devil, that He was not a Samaritan, because He honored His Father not in their manner, but in His own. In repelling this calumny while He left the rest unanswered, Christ removed all doubt in regard to His divine mission, thus Vindicating the honor of God, and securing the salvation of man. Christ thus teaches us by His own conduct to defend ourselves only against those detractions and insults which endanger the honor' of God and the salvation of man, and then to defend ourselves with all modesty; by no means however to do it, if they injure only our own good name, for we should leave the restoration of that to God, as exemplified by Christ, who knows better than we how to preserve and restore it.


How had Abraham seen Christ's day?

In spirit, that is, by divine revelation he foresaw the coming of Christ and rejoiced; also, he heard, by revelation from God, with the other just in Limbo, that Christ's coming had taken place, and derived the greatest comfort from it.


Why did Christ withdraw Himself from the Jews, instead of taking vengeance?

Because the time of His death had not come; because He would show His meekness and patience and teach us that we should avoid our enemies rather than resist them or take vengeance on them; Christ wished to instruct us to avoid passionate and quarrelsome people, for it is an honor for a man, to separate from quarrels: but all fools are meddling with reproaches. (Prov. xx. 3.)


PETITION. When Thine enemies calumniated Thee, most meek Jesus, Thou didst answer them with tender words, and when they were about to stone Thee, Thou didst depart from them, whilst we can scarcely bear a hard word, and far from yielding to our neighbor, defend and avenge ourselves most passionately. Ah! pardon us our impatience, and grant us the grace to bear patiently the wrongs done us, and when necessary, answer with gentleness for Thy glory and the salvation of our neighbor.

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Passion Sunday

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

Hodie, si vocem Domini audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra. Today, if ye shall hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.

The Holy Church begins her Night Office of this Sunday with these impressive words of the royal Prophet. Formerly, the faithful considered it their duty to assist at the Night Office, at least on Sundays and Feasts; they would have grieved to have lost the grand teachings given by the Liturgy. Such fervor has long since died out; the assiduity at the Offices of the Church, which was the joy of our Catholic forefathers, has now become a thing of the past; and even in countries which have not apostatized from the faith, the clergy have ceased to celebrate publicly Offices at which no one assisted. Excepting in Cathedral Churches and in Monasteries, the grand harmonious system of the Divine Praise has been abandoned, and the marvelous power of the Liturgy has no longer its full influence upon the Faithful.

This is our reason for drawing the attention of our readers to certain beauties of the Divine Office, which would otherwise be totally ignored. Thus, what can be more impressive than this solemn Invitatory of today’s Matins, which the Church takes from one of the psalms, and which she repeats on every Feria between this and Maundy Thursday? She says: Today, if ye shall hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts! The sweet voice of your suffering Jesus now speaks to you, poor sinners! be not your own enemies by indifference and hardness of heart. The Son of God is about to give you the last and greatest proof of the love that brought him down from heaven; his Death is nigh at hand: men are preparing the wood for the immolation of the new Isaac: enter into yourselves, and let not your hearts, after being touched with grace, return to their former obduracy—for nothing could be more dangerous. The great anniversaries we are to celebrate have a renovating power for those souls that faithfully correspond with the grace which is offered them; but they increase insensibility in those who let them pass without working their conversion. Today, therefore, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts!

During the preceding four weeks, we have noticed how the malice of Jesus’ enemies has been gradually increasing. His very presence irritates them; and it is evident that any little circumstance will suffice to bring the deep and long nurtured hatred to a head. The kind and gentle manners of Jesus are drawing to him all hearts that are simple and upright; at the same time, the humble life he leads, and the stern purity of his doctrines, are perpetual sources of vexation and anger, both to the proud Jew that looks forward to the Messias being a mighty conqueror, and to the Pharisee, who corrupts the Law of God, that he may make it the instrument of his own base passions. Still, Jesus goes on working miracles; his discourses are more than ever energetic; his prophecies foretell the fall of Jerusalem, and such a destruction of its famous Temple that not a stone is to be left on stone. The doctors of the Law should, at least, reflect upon what they hear; they should examine these wonderful works which render such strong testimony in favor of the Son of David, and they should consult those divine prophecies which, up to the present time, have been so literally fulfilled in his person. Alas! they themselves are about to carry out to the very last iota. There is not a single outrage or suffering foretold by David and Isaias, as having to be put upon the Messias, which these blind men are not scheming to verify.

In them, therefore, was fulfilled that terrible saying: He that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. The Synagogue is nigh to a curse. Obstinate in her error, she refuses to see or to hear; she has deliberately perverted her judgment: she has extinguished within herself the light of the Holy Spirit; she will go deeper and deeper into evil, and at length fall into the abyss. This same lamentable conduct is but too often witnessed nowadays in those sinners who, by habitual resistance to the light, end by finding their happiness in sin. Neither should it surprise us that we find in people of our own generation a resemblance to the murderers of our Jesus: the history of his Passion will reveal to us many sad secrets of the human heart and its perverse inclinations; for what happened in Jerusalem happens also in every sinner’s heart. His heart, according to the saying of St. Paul, is a Calvary where Jesus is crucified. There is the same ingratitude, the same blindness, the same wild madness, with this difference—that the sinner who is enlightened by faith knows Him whom he crucifies; whereas the Jews, as the same Apostle tells us, knew not the Lord of Glory. While, therefore, we listen to the Gospel, which relates the history of the Passion, let us turn the indignation we feel for the Jews against ourselves and our own sins: let us weep over the sufferings of our Victim, for our sins caused him to suffer and die.

Everything around us urges us to mourn. The images of the Saints, the very crucifix on our Altar, are veiled from our sight. The Church is oppressed with grief. During the first four weeks of Lent, she compassionated her Jesus fasting in the desert; his coming Sufferings and Crucifixion and Death are what now fill her with anguish. We read in today’s Gospel that the Jews threaten to stone the Son of God as a blasphemer: but his hour is not yet come. He is obliged to flee and hide himself. It is to express this deep humiliation that the Church veils the Cross. A God hiding himself, that he may evade the anger of men—what a mystery! Is it weakness? Is it that he fears death? No—we shall soon see him going out to meet his enemies: but at present, he hides himself from them, because all that had been prophesied regarding him has not been fulfilled. Besides, his death is not to be by stoning; he is to die upon a Cross, the tree of malediction which, from that time forward, is to be the Tree of Life. Let us humble ourselves, as we see the Creator of heaven and earth thus obliged to hide himself from men who are bent on his destruction! Let us go back in thought to the sad day of the first sin, when Adam and Eve hid themselves because a guilty conscience told them they were naked. Jesus is come to assure us of our being pardoned! and lo! he hides himself, not because he is naked—He that is to the Saints the garb of holiness and immortality—but because he made himself weak, that he might make us strong. Our First Parents sought to hide themselves from the sight of God; Jesus hides himself from the eye of men; but it will not be thus forever. The day will come when sinners, from whose anger he now flees, will pray to the mountains that they fall on them to shield them from his gaze; but their prayer will not be granted, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with much power and majesty.

This Sunday is called Passion Sunday, because the Church begins on this day to make the Sufferings of our Redeemer her chief thought. It is called also Judica, from the first word of the Introit of the Mass; and again, Neomania, that is, the Sunday of the new (or, the Easter) moon, because it always falls after the new moon which regulates the Feast of Easter Day.

In the Greek Church, this Sunday goes under the simple name of the Fifth Sunday of the Holy Fests.

MASS

At Rome, the Station is in the Basilica of St. Peter. The importance of this Sunday, which never gives way to any Feast, no matter what its solemnity may be, required that the place for the assembly of the Faithful should be in one of the chief Sanctuaries of the Holy City.

The Introit is taken from the first verses of the 42nd Psalm. The Messias appeals to God’s tribunal, and protests against the sentence about to be pronounced against Him by men. He likewise expresses His confidence in His Father’s help, who, after His sufferings and death, will lead Him in triumph into the Holy Mount.

Introit
Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta: ab homine iniquo et doloso eripe me: quia tu es Deus meus, et fortitudo mea. 
Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy; deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man; for thou art my God and my strength.

Ps. Emitte lucem tuam et veritatem tuam: ipsa me deduxerunt et adduxerunt in montem sanctum tuum, et in tabernacula tua. Judica me. 
Ps. Send forth thy light and thy truth; for they have conducted me, and brought me to thy holy mount, and into thy tabernacles. Judge me, &c.

The Gloria Patri is not said during Passion tide and Holy Week, (unless a Saint’s Feast be kept,) but the Introit is repeated immediately after the Psalm.


In the Collect, the Church prays that there may be produced, in her children, that total reformation which the holy Season of Lent is intended to produce. This reformation is such that it will not only subject the body to the spirit, but preserve also the spirit itself from those delusions and passions to which it has been, hitherto, more or less a slave.

Collect
Quæ, omnipotens Deus, familiam tuam propitius respice: ut, te largiente, regatur in corpore, et, te servante, custodiatur in mente. Per Dominum. 
Mercifully look down on thy people, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that, by thy bounty and protection, they may be governed and guarded both in body and soul. Through, &c.

Then is added one of the following Prayers:

Against the Persecutors of the Church
Ecclesiæ tuæ, quæsumus, Domine, preces, placatus admitte: ut, destructis adversitatibus et erroribus universis, secura tibi serviat libertate. Per Dominum. 
Mercifully hear, we beseech thee, O Lord, the prayers of thy Church: that, all oppositions and errors being removed, she may serve thee with a secure liberty. Through, &c.

For the Pope
Deus, omnium fidelium Paster et Rector, famulum tuum N., quem Pastorem Ecclesiæ tuæ præsse voluisti, propitius respice; da ei, quæsumus, verbo et exemplo, quibus præest, proficere; ut ad vitam, una cum grege sibi credito, perveniat sempiternam. Per Dominum. 
O God, the Pastor and Ruler of all the Faithful, look down, in thy mercy, on thy servant N., whom thou hast appointed Pastor over thy Church; and grant, we beseech thee, that both by word and example, he may edify all those that are under his charge; and, with the flock entrusted to him, arrive at length at eternal happiness. Through, &c.


Epistle
Lesson from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews. Ch. IX.

Brethren: Christ being come, an High Priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, neither by the blood of goats or of the calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For, if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh; how much more shall the Blood of Christ (who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God), cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And therefore, he is the mediator of the New Testament; that by means of his death, for the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former testament, they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

It is by Blood alone that man is to be redeemed. He has offended God. This God cannot be appeased by anything short of the extermination of his rebellious creature who, by shedding his blood, will give an earnest of his repentance and his entire submission to the Creator, against whom he dared to rebel. Otherwise, the justice of God must be satisfied by the sinner’s suffering eternal punishment. This truth was understood by all the people of the ancient world, and all confessed it by shedding the blood of victims, as in the sacrifices of Abel, at the very commencement of the world; in the hecatombs of Greece; in the countless immolations whereby Solomon dedicated the Temple. And yet, God thus speaks to his people: Hear, O my people, and I will speak: O Israel, and I will testify to thee: I am God thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, and thy burnt-offerings are always in my sight. I will not take calves out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy flocks. I need them not: for all the beasts of the woods are mine. If I should be hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks? or shall I drink the blood of goats? Thus, God commands the blood of victims to be offered to him, and at the same time, declares that neither it nor they are precious in his sight. Is this a contradiction? No: God would hereby have man understand that it is only by Blood that he can be redeemed, but that the blood of brute animals cannot effect this redemption. Can the blood of man himself bring him his own redemption, and appease God’s justice? No, not even man’s blood, for it is defiled; and even were it undefiled, it is powerless to compensate for the outrage done to God by sin. For this, there was needed the Blood of a God, that was the Blood of Jesus, and he has come that he may shed it for our redemption.

In him is fulfilled the most sacred of the figures of the Old Law. Once each year, the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies, there to make intercession for the people. He went within the Veil, even to the Ark of the Covenant; but he was not allowed to enjoy this great privilege unless he entered the holy place carrying in his hands the blood of a newly offered victim. The Son of God, the true High Priest, is now about to enter heaven, and we are to follow him thither; but unto this, he must have an offering of blood, and that Blood can be none other than his own. We are going to assist at this his compliance with the divine ordinance. Let us open our hearts, that this precious Blood may, as the Apostle says in today’s Epistle, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

The Gradual is taken from the Psalms. Our Saviour here prays to be delivered from His enemies, and protected from the rage of them that have risen up against Him; yet, is He ready to do the will of His Father, by whom He will be avenged.

In the Tract, which is also taken from the Psalms, the Messias, under the name of Israel, complains of the persecution He has met from the Jews, even from His youth. They are now about to scourge Him in a most cruel manner. But He also foretells the punishment their deicide is to bring upon them.

Gradual
Eripe me, Domine, de inimicis meis: doce me facere voluntatem tuam. 
Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; teach me to do thy will.

℣. Liberator meus, Domine, de gentibus iracundis: ab insurgentibus in me exaltabis me: a viro iniquo eripies me. 
℣. Thou, O Lord, art my deliverer from the enraged Gentiles: thou wilt put me out of the reach of those that assault me; and thou wilt rescue me from the unrighteous man.

Tract
Sæpe expugnaverunt me a juventute mea. 
Many a time have they fought against me from my youth.

℣. Dicat nunc Israël: Sæpe expugnaverunt me a junventute mea. 
℣. Let Israel now say: They have often attacked me from my youth.

℣. Etenim non potuerunt mihi: supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt peccatores. 
℣. But they could not prevail over me: the wicked have wrought upon my back.

℣. Prolongaverunt iniquitates suas: Dominus justus concidet cervices peccatorum. 
℣. They have lengthened their iniquity: the Lord, who is just, will cut the necks of sinners.


Gospel
Sequel of the Holy Gospel according to John. Ch. VIII.

At that time: Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews: Which of you shall convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me? He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore, you hear them not, because you are not of God. The Jews, therefore, answered, and said to him: Do not we say well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: I have not a devil: but I honor my Father, and you have dishonored me. But I seek not my own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Amen, amen, I say to you: If any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever. The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever. Art thou greater than our Father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself? Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God; and you have not known him, but I know him. And if I should say that I know him not, I should be like to you, a liar. But I do know him, and do keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad. The Jews then said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you, before Abraham was made, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.

The fury of the Jews is evidently at its height, and Jesus is obliged to hide himself from them. But he is to fall into their hands before many days are over; then will they triumph and put him to death. They triumph, and Jesus is their victim; but how different is to be hislot from theirs! In obedience to the decrees of his heavenly Father, and out of love for men, he will deliver himself into the hands of his enemies, and they will put him to death; but he will rise victorious from the tomb, he will ascend into heaven, he will be throned on the right hand of his Father. His enemies, on the contrary, after having vented all their rage, will live on without remorse, until the terrible day come for their chastisement. That day is not far off, for observe the severity wherewith our Lord speaks to them: You hear not the words of God, because you are not of God. Yet there was a time when they were of God, for the Lord gives his grace to all men; but they have rendered this grace useless; they are now in darkness, and the light they have rejected will not return.

You say, that my Father is your God, and you have not known him; but I know him. Their obstinacy in refusing to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias has led these men to ignore that very God whom they boast of honoring; for if they knew the Father, they would not reject his Son. Moses, and the Psalms, and the Prophets, are all a dead letter to them; these sacred Books are soon to pass into the hands of the Gentiles, who will both read and understand them. If, continues Jesus, I should say that I know him not, I should be like to you, a liar. This strong language is that of the angry Judge who is to come down, at the last day, to destroy sinners. Jerusalem has not known the time of her visitation: the Son of God has visited her, he is with her, and she dares to say to him: Thou hast a devil! She says to the Eternal Word, who proves himself to be God by the most astounding miracles, that Abraham and the Prophets are greater than He! Strange blindness, that comes from pride and hardness of heart! The Feast of the Pasch is at hand: these men are going to eat, and with much parade of religion, the flesh of the figurative lamb; they know full well that this lamb is a symbol, or a figure, which is to have its fulfillment. The true Lamb is to be sacrificed by their hands, and they will not know him. He will shed his Blood for them, and it will not save them. How this reminds us of those sinners for whom this Easter promises to be as fruitless as those of the past years! Let us redouble our prayers for them, and beseech our Lord to soften their hearts, lest trampling the Blood of Jesus under their feet, they should have it to cry vengeance against them before the throne of the Heavenly Father.

At the Offertory, confiding in the merits of the Blood that has redeemed us, let us, in the words of the Psalm, give praise to God, and proclaim him to be the author of that New Life, of which the sacrifice of the Lamb is the never-failing source.

Offertory
Confitebor tibi, Domine, in toto corde meo: retribue servo tuo; vivam, et custodiam sermones tuos: vivifica me secundum verbum tuum, Domine. 
I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: reward thy servant: I shall live, and keep thy commandments: save me according to thy word, O Lord.


The sacrifice of the spotless Lamb has produced two effects upon the sinner: it has broken his fetters, and has made him the object of God’s love. The Church prays, in the Secret, that the Sacrifice she is about to offer, and which is one with that of the Cross, may work these same results in us.

Secrets
Hæc munera, quæsumus, Domine, et vincula nostræ pravitatis absolvant, et tuæ nobis misericordiæ dona concilient. Per Dominum. 
May these offerings, O Lord, both loosen the bonds of our wickedness, and obtain for us the gifts of thy mercy. Through, &c.

Against the Persecutors of the Church
Protege nos, Domine, tuis mysteriis servientes: ut divinis rebus inhærentes, et corpore tibi famulemur et mente. Per Dominum. 
Protect us, O Lord, while we assist at thy sacred mysteries: that being employed in acts of religion, we may serve thee both in body and mind. Through, &c.

For the Pope
Oblatis, quæsumus, Domine, placare muneribus: et famulum tuum N. quen Pastorem Ecclesiæ tuæ præesse voluisti, assidua protectione guberna. Per Dominum. 
Be appeased, O Lord, with the offering we have made: and cease not to protect thy servant N., whom thou hast been pleased to appoint Pastor over thy Church. Through, &c.


The Communion-Antiphon is formed out of the very words spoken by Jesus, when instituting the august Sacrifice that has just been celebrated, and of which the Priest and people have partaken, in memory of the Passion, for it renews both the remembrance and the merits of the Passion.

Communion
Hoc corpus, quod pro vobis tradetur: hic calix novi testamenti est in meo sanguine, dicit Dominus: hoc facite, quotiescumque sumitis in meam commemorationem.
This is the body which shall be delivered up for you; this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, saith the Lord. As often as you receive them, do it in remembrance of me.


In the Postcommunion, the Church prays to God, that he would maintain in the Faithful the fruits of the visit he has so graciously paid them, for, by their participation in the Sacred Mysteries, he has entered into them.

Postcommunions
Adesto nobis, Domine Deus noster: et, quos tuis mysteriis recreasti, perpetuis defende subsidiis. Per Dominum. 
Help us, O Lord our God, and for ever protect those whom thou hast refreshed with thy sacred mysteries. Through, &c.

Against the Persecutors of the Church
Quæsumus, Domine Deus noster: ut quos divina tribuis participatione gaudere, humanis non sinas subjacere periculis. Per Dominum. 
We beseech thee, O Lord our God, not to leave exposed to the dangers of human life, those whom thou hast permitted to partake of these divine mysteries. Through, &c.

For the Pope
Hæc nos, quæsumus, Domine, divini Sacramenti perceptio protegat: et famulum tuum N. quem pastorem Ecclesiæ tuæ præesse voluisti, una cum commisso sibi grege salvet semper et muniat. Per Dominum. 
May the participation of this divine Sacrament protect us, we beseech thee, O Lord; and always procure safety and defense to thy servant N., whom thou hast appointed Pastor over thy Church, together with the flock committed to his charge. Through, &c.

The following appropriate prayer is from the Mozarabic breviary.

CAPITULUM

The course of the year has brought us to the time for celebrating, with devout hearts and offices, the feast of thy Passion, O Jesus, Son of God! wherein, for our sake, thou didst suffer the calumnies of thine enemies, and wast crucified by the wounds of them that betrayed thee. We pray and beseech thee, that thou depart not from us; and whereas tribulation is nigh at hand, and there is none to help us, do thou, by the help of thy Passion, become our sole protector. Deliver us not, therefore, into the hands of our enemies unto evil, but receive us, as thy servants unto good; that the haughty ones who calumniate us, namely the enemies of our souls, may be repelled by the might of thy power. Thou, by the human nature thou has assumed, art the lamp set on the stand of the cross: we beseech thee, therefore, that thou enkindle us by thy flame, lest we become a prey to punishment. Behold us now entering, with devout hearts, upon the feast of thy Passion; oh! grant that we may partake of the merits of thy Passion: that thus, being delivered from the error of our darkness, we may be fortified by the help of thy light.

That we may the better honour the Holy Cross, we give, for each day of this week, an appropriate hymn from one or other of the various ancient liturgies.
The one we have selected for today is the composition of St. Venantius Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers.

HYMN

Brightly shineth the blessed Cross, whereon hung the body of Our Lord, when, with His Blood, He washed our wounds.

Become, out of tender love for us, a meek Victim, this Divine Lamb did, by the Cross, rescue us His sheep from the jaws of the wolf.

‘Twas there, with His Hands nailed to the wood, that He redeemed the world from ruin, and by His own Death, closed the way of death.

Here was fastened with cruel nails that Hand, which delivered Paul from sin, and Peter from death.

O sweet and noble Tree! how vigorous is thy growth, when, on thy branches, hang Fruits so rare as these!

Thy fresh fragrance gives resurrection to many that lay in the tomb, and restores the dead to life.

He that shelters beneath Thy shade, shall not be scorched either by the moon at night or by the mid-day sun.

Planted near the running waters, Thou art lovely in thy verdure, and blossoms ever fresh blow on each fair branch.

Between Thine arms hangs the pendant Vine, whence wine most sweet flows in a ruddy stream.

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Passion Sunday: The Obdurate Sinner

by Bishop Ehrler, 1891

God, in creating us to His own image and likeness, has given us an immeasurable, almost infinite, scope for the cultivation and development of our souls. Our will, especially, possesses capabilities that can elevate us to the highest degree of perfection, and debase us into the most profound abyss of vice. By the assistance of God's grace, it is ours to decide so firmly and unalterably on the side of virtue that we rarely falter in its practice; but we may also wander so far away from God, and lose ourselves in sin, that we appear to be irredeemably lost to Him and to His holy kingdom.

Today's Gospel refers to this latter state--obduracy in sin. "Which of you shall convince me of sin?" said our Lord Jesus to the Jews, a short time before His crucifixion: "I seek not my own glory, but, of my Father. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that He is your God." They could not answer Him; and again he said to them: "Abraham, your father, rejoiced that he might see my day; He saw it and was glad. Amen, Amen, I say unto you, before Abraham was made, I am." But the unbelieving descendants of Abraham took up stones to cast at Him. And "Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple." The downfall of the Jewish nation was sealed by their hardness of heart.

Of obdurate sinners, the Inspired Writer declares: "They leave the right way, and walk by dark ways: they are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things." (Prov. 2: 13, 14.) In all ages, there have been such men, who never arose after they once fell. All the admonitions and reproaches of their conscience are in vain; all the exhortations of the Church to penance, and amendment of life are fruitless; all God's threats fall ineffectually upon hearts enclosed, as it were, in a coat of mail. The happiness the Lord sends them, in order to touch them by His benefits, makes them frivolous and misfortunes, instead of converting, embitter them. Without prayer, or contrition for their crimes, without the fear of God or the use of the holy Sacraments, they go through life like beasts, given up entirely to the lusts of the flesh.

That you may not be as these abandoned sinners, that you may not imitate the hard-hearted Jews, but listen with fruit to the admonitions of holy Church calling you at this solemn time to fasting and repentance, I will explain to you today,


I. The causes of obduracy in sin

I. To sin is easy. Numberless are the dangers and attractions to evil, which surround us on all sides. We carry the inflammable material of the passions constantly within our bosoms, and it needs, at times, but a tiny spark of temptation, to cause them to blaze up into a raging and destructive fire. At first, however, sin, especially sensual sin, creates a loathing and abhorrence in a hitherto innocent soul. At the opening of a vicious life, there arises in the sinner a longing to be freed from the gross and leprous weight of increasing sin. He is ready to cry out with the royal penitent of old: "My iniquities are gone over my head: and as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me. I am become miserable, and am bowed down even to the end." (Ps. 37 : 4, 6.) But if he goes on groveling in habitual sin, if he continues turning a deaf ear to the holy inspirations of divine grace, he grows accustomed, by degrees, to his terrible state; and, sinking lower and lower in crime, he ends by becoming utterly obdurate and callous in evil; insensible, deaf, and dead to the motions of the better part of his soul. That which one sin is unable to accomplish, is effected by a longer chain of evil, and a continued habit of wrong-doing.

1. Look into your own hearts, my brethren, and realize there the sad truth of my words! When we were little innocent children, how disturbed we were over the most trifling sin! A rash jest, an unbecoming word, the mere sight of evil terrified us then! Would, alas! that our delicacy of conscience, our prudent tenderness and anxiety of soul had increased with our years! Oft repeated sins have made us familiar with evil, and consequently indifferent to it! "The wicked man when he is come into the depths of sin, contemneth; but ignominy and reproach follow him." (Prov. 18 : 3.) "Thy heart shall utter perverse things; and thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep when the stern is lost." (Prov. 23: 34.) It is on this account that St. Chrysostom says: "The evil of sin is two-fold:--first, the injury it inflicts on the soul; and secondly, the tendency it engenders to always become worse." Habitual sin, like the octopus, grasps its victim firmly with its myriad arms, and rarely releases him until he has breathed his last.

Understand me, my dear Christians, God is not wanting to the sinner. Divine grace surrounds, and presses even the most hardened to repentance. At one time, it speaks to the unjust man in soft, mild words; again, it warns and threatens him by sufferings and severe afflictions.

2. But the struggle against evil demands labor and energy. Even the most faithful servants of God need to combat continually the insidious and powerful enemy of their souls. For the habitual sinner, therefore, the warfare is doubly desperate. Darling inclinations must be renounced; evil habits stripped off, which cling as close as the fabled shirt of fire. That which has been passionately loved and desired, must be thoroughly detested and abandoned; sinful companions must be given up, after the intimate intercourse of many years; restitution must be made of ill-gotten goods; lies and calumnies against one's neighbor must be contradicted; and long-standing feuds and enmities brought to a happy end. All this involves self-sacrifice, self-denial, humiliation, and a thousand bitter battles with proud, corrupt nature. One's whole way of life must be completely changed. And this is why our Lord tells us that the Angels of heaven rejoice more over the conversion of one sinner than of ninety-nine just who need not penance.

The struggle for conversion is such a long and tremendous one. The pleasures of sin are ever ready to allure the man whom divine grace moves to escape the toils. Satan whispers with pleading tenderness in his ear: "How can you ever renounce that charming companion? How can you restore that money, those precious goods, that valuable property, to their rightful owner? You will leave yourself and your family poor and dishonored. And as to reconciling yourself to that hateful enemy, or taking back the lies you have uttered against so-and-so,--such humiliations are not to be thought of!" If the sinner consent to these suggestions of the evil one, all hope of a change for the better usually dies out. He goes on heaping sin upon sin, scoffing at every admonition of God and of His grace. He sinks rapidly from one abyss of vice into another, until he falls at last into the bottomless pit of obduracy, impenitence, and eternal perdition. In vain, at the hour of death, the priest has been summoned--in vain, the consolations of our holy religion have been offered to the dying sinner. By stratagem or gentle force, the good friends and relatives have sought to secure the holy Sacraments for the departing soul--but, to the bitter end, the obdurate man rejects the grace of God. As Holy Writ declares: "The sinner hath been caught in the works of his own hands; the wicked shall be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God." (Ps. 9: 18.) "The pride of them that hate thee ascends continually." (Ps. 73: 23.) "Thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock, and they have refused to return." (Jer. 5: 3.)

3. It is the doctrine of our holy Church that, without the grace of God, we can do nothing good. "Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God." (2 Cor. 3:5.) "God worketh in you both to will and to accomplish according to His good-will." (Phil. 2 : 13.) You know also that the ordinary grace of God, humanly speaking, does not suffice for the overcoming of very great temptations or powerful obstacles. At such moments, we need a stronger and more efficacious grace. What the sun is to the life of the earth, that the grace of God is to the soul. The blessed beams of heaven are the strength of our lives; penetrating our hearts; they rouse therein every good impulse, and nourish and ripen them to maturity. Grace is a free gift of God. It is given according to His good pleasure, as St. Paul says; and that stronger and more powerful grace which God owes in no way to man, is simply the effect of his pre-eminent love and special predilection.

4. But will Almighty God continue to offer this extraordinary grace to the man who despises even ordinary inspirations? No: He will either, as a punishment, withdraw His grace completely from him; or give him merely that insufficient grace by which he can not overcome greater temptations and dangers. Finally, that condition of soul will set in, of which the holy Scripture says: "God Himself will harden the heart of a man." He takes from his reason the light of knowledge, so that he can no longer see nor understand anything conducive to salvation, and He deprives his will of the power of discerning correctly the good, and striving to do it. In His wrath, he tears asunder the bonds which unite Him to that man, and lets him live on undisturbed in the depths of his sins. "They have mouths and speak not; they have eyes and see not; they have ears and hear not." (Ps. 113: 5, 6.) "God," says St. Augustine, " does not harden the sinner as to malice, but He justly refuses to grant him mercy."

Look at King Pharaoh, in whom this unhappy condition was realized. In his pride, he opposed God's will and would not allow the people of Israel to go forth. Desiring to soften his hard heart, God permitted wonderful and hitherto unheard-of miracles to happen in his presence. But Pharaoh would not yield to grace. "Who is the Lord," he asked of Moses, "that I should hear his voice and let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Thereupon, the Lord said to Moses, "I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servant." (10 : 1.) Pharaoh remained deaf to all the divine admonitions, and sank with his hosts into the Red sea. The magician Elymas withstood the grace of God which was offered him in the sermons and discourses of St. Paul, and he endeavored to hinder the governor of Paphos from believing. Then St. Paul said to him, "O, thou, full of all guile and of all deceit, son of the devil, enemy of all justice, thou dost not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord. And now, behold the hand of the Lord upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and going about, he sought some one to lead him by the hand." (Acts 13 : 10, 11.) Corporeal blindness was the visible sign of that wretched man's interior or spiritual darkness. "He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts: that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted and I should heal them." (John 12 : 40.)


II. The lessons we should draw from it for our own instruction.

II. What lessons should we draw from these considerations upon the obdurate sinner? We shall find them fraught with certain holy admonitions for our own personal instruction.

1. The first is, to fly from the first approach of sin; and if you have already sinned, to hasten with all possible speed to reconcile yourself with the Lord your God, so that no sinful habit may take root within you!

Never dally with evil; it is dangerous sport to play with fire or with deadly weapons. You may be maimed or disfigured for life, even if you are not instantly killed. Would you make a pet of a rattlesnake, or carry a tarantula around in your bosom? Act toward the soul as you do toward the body. Do not wait until the fire has scorched you or the revolver has been discharged. Do not suffer the snake to crawl around your feet. "Flee from sin as from the face of a serpent." (Ecclus. 21 : 2.) Remedies taken in the beginning are always the best and most salutary. One sin begets another. The brood of Satan is a prolific one. As in a chain, link is joined to link, so the fetters of hell, sin by sin, bind the unhappy sinner a captive for all eternity! St. Augustine says: "As, when a stone is thrown upon the mirror-like surface of the sea, at first only one circle appears, then two; the second forms a third and so on, up to the very brim of the water, in like manner, will each sin become the occasion of a greater one to the hardened sinner; he falls from one sin into another, until, at length, it is almost impossible for him to cease sinning."

2. He who does not tremble at the first step on the road to vice, and does not at once make efforts to return to his outraged Lord and God, by means of the Sacrament of Penance, will soon sink more and more hopelessly into the abyss of vice and crime. Behold the avalanche of the Alps rolling menacingly and destructively down into the smiling valleys! The most trifling movement, the dropping of a little stone, yes, often merely the gentle flight of a bird are sufficient to cause the downfall of that massive weight of ice. In the beginning, it was only a handful of snow; but little by little, the ice and snow began to accumulate and grow in volume, until at last, the avalanche, rushing from its dizzy height, breaks down trees like straws, and sweeping along, like a torrent, overturns into the abyss houses and entire villages. A single flake of snow is the cause of all this ruin and widespread destruction! In like manner a single wrong step often suffices to ruin the soul of a man eternally. The theft of a few pennies has aroused the cupidity of the highway robber. A thought of revenge not subdued and overcome in the outset, has produced murder. An impure desire not promptly banished has plunged its victim into the slough of licentiousness. Is not Judas, the traitor, a sorrowful example of this terrible truth ?" He loved money," says the Evangelist. From the love of money originated avarice and covetousness; from these, robbery, then betrayal of his Lord and Master, which ended in suicide and his eternal reprobation!

Do we imagine it impossible for us to fall so low? Do we think that we never could sink as others have done, into such an abyss of ruin? Alas! like our neighbors, whose fall we lament or censure, perhaps--we bear within us, weak, unsteady, and naturally corrupt hearts. The same dreadful abyss is at our feet, its gloomy depths only veiled from us by the screen of the divine permission. The same spiritual dangers beset us that have ship-wrecked others. The same fire of lust rages within our veins. We are not holier than King David, wiser than Solomon, nor stronger than St. Peter. We are not as fervent as thousands of uncanonized saints and servants of God who have fallen into sin and vice through their imprudence and self-confidence. Nothing but vigilance and flight, prompt conversion and amendment of life after the first fall, will save us and keep us from the abyss of ruin, as St. Paul says:--" Let him that thinketh himself to stand, take heed lest he fall." (1 Cor. 10: 12.) "Watch ye and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit, indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matt. 26: 41.)

3. It certainly requires a hard struggle for one who has been a slave to sin for a long time to free himself from the wicked bondage of bad habits, and become reconciled with his Lord and God. Great labor and much moral courage are demanded, after a long period of impenitence, to descend into the depths of one's conscience, and scrutinize and unravel the sins of years or of a life-time. It is a great tax on a proud man not only to confess his hidden secret sins and vices in the holy tribunal, but, furthermore, to extinguish by years of penance and satisfaction the evil consequences of those sins. It is a battle so difficult and fierce that none but an heroic soul, a heart filled with the love of God and supported by His grace, can come forth victorious from the struggle. But the combat is necessary, nay, most indispensable. Does not everything that is good in this life cost us labor and pain? Has not our Lord said: "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away?" (Matt. 11: 12.) And if the battle is fierce and long-continued, we have no one to blame for it but ourselves. Whoever has feasted upon the pleasures of sin, who has drunk in iniquity like water, must do penance for it, by the pains of the conflict, and he who has committed an injustice during his life must make good his error, with all his might; or he will never obtain pardon here, or eternal bliss hereafter. Even if the sinner continue in his evil courses, his sins will cause him woe and suffering to which the warfare in the cause of virtue can not be compared. The latter is child's play contrasted with that which vice necessarily begets in man's heart. Outwardly, the sinner may appear prosperous, happy, and peaceful; but if you could penetrate to the interior of that guilty soul, and there behold the stings of conscience which scourge it like cruel lashes;--if you could hear the interior groans of despair which issue therefrom in moments of peril or suffering, or in the quiet watches of a sleepless night, you could cheerfully embrace all the pains and labors of the penitential warfare, sooner than live in sin and endure the agonizing torments of Satan's bondage. Penance has its sweetness and its consolation, no matter how bitter the work of self-denial may appear at first to the newly-converted soul. The grace of God softens all austerities, and graciously conducts us to the grandest and most glorious victory. But the struggles of the vicious man will become hourly more horrible and will be but the commencement of eternal misery.

4. To these admonitions, I will add another; do not oppose a single inspiration of grace, for thereby you withstand your Lord and God, and incite him to pour forth upon you the vials of his wrath. Dallying with sin and evil is dangerous sport; but to trifle with God and His grace, His love, and His justice, would be a sacrilege, that must invariably end in ruin. Grace is offered to us according to a certain measure, and that measure none save our Lord Himself can determine. "Lo! I stand at the door and knock," He says of Himself; repulsed and despised, He repeats again and again His calls to salvation. He goes out like the householder of the Gospel, up to the eleventh hour, inviting laborers into His vineyard. But a day will come when he will cease to call, cease to knock at the door of our hearts. These words of mine, to-day, dear brethren, may be your last chance of grace. Will you thrust from you this golden opportunity of salvation? Shall we reply to him who calls us, perhaps, for the last time: "Come again, and then, possibly, I may listen to you?" God's love to us is great, infinitely great, but His wrath is infinite as well, and He who despises and contemns His love, will certainly feel His anger!

Free-will may be to man either a wonderful blessing or a terrible curse. Bound by the fetters of an unchangeable and urgent necessity all lesser creatures obey the will of God; man alone can say to this all-powerful Sovereign of heaven and earth: "Non serviam--I will not serve Thee!" He alone can oppose His commands. To him, it is given of his own free choice either, like a brilliant heavenly star to revolve forever around its true center, the eternal Sun of Justice, or to leave the appointed orbit, and like a fiery comet rush afar off from its Creator into eternal destruction. God has given us this capability of exercising free-will for His greater glory and our own great reward, making us thereby as kings resembling Himself. And do we dare as His chosen children, as the sons of a heavenly Lord and Master, to do what the meanest slave in our household would not undertake to do? The love of God, His gratuitous, undeserved love, would be, in that case, our utter reprobation and ruin, inevitably precipitating us a thousand fathoms deep into the abyss of hell! But if we follow joyfully the calls of grace with our free-will, then we shall mount the celestial ladder to the infinite heights of eternal glory.

In these holy days, when in the world of nature, Spring struggles with winter; and, in the world of grace, thousands of the faithful battle with the powers of sin and evil in their own hearts, let us, if we have hitherto been insensible and dead to God and His kingdom, begin this warfare for the salvation of our souls. Let us drive out all sin from our hearts by a worthy reception of the Sacrament of Penance, that Jesus may not hide Himself or flee away from us. May the sunlight of His mercy shine forth warmly and benignly in the depths of our souls, and there awaken by true penance and amendment of life, the germs, blossoms, and fruits of all the Christian virtues! Amen.

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Fr. Hewko's Sermons for  Passion Sunday 


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SERMON XIX. PASSION SUNDAY
ON THE DANGER TO WHICH TEPIDITY EXPOSES THE SOUL
by St. Alphonsus Liguori

“But Jesus hid himself.” JOHN viii. 59.

JESUS CHRIST “is the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.” (John i. 9.) He enlightens all; but he cannot enlighten those who voluntarily shut their eyes to the light; from them the Saviour hides himself. How then can they, walking in darkness, escape the many dangers of perdition to which we are exposed in this life, which God has given us as the road to eternal happiness? I will endeavour Today to convince you of the great danger into which tepidity brings the soul, since it makes Jesus Christ hide his divine light from her, and makes him less liberal in bestowing upon her the graces and helps, without which she shall find it very difficult to complete the journey of this life without falling into an abyss that is, into mortal sin.

1. A tepid soul is not one that lives in enmity with God, nor one that sometimes commits venial sins through mere frailty, and not with full deliberation. On account of the corruption of nature by original sin, no man can be exempt from such venial faults. This corruption of nature renders it impossible for us, without a most special grace, which has been given only to the mother of God, to avoid all venial sins during our whole lives. Hence St. John has said: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John i. 8.) God permits defects of this kind, even in the saints, to keep them humble, and to make them feel that, as they commit such faults in spite of all their good purposes and promises, so also, were they not supported by his divine hand, they would fall into mortal sins. Hence, when we find that we have committed these light faults, we must humble ourselves, and acknowledging our own weakness, we must be careful to recommend ourselves to God, and implore of him to preserve us, by his almighty hand, from more grievous transgressions, and to deliver us from those we have committed.

2. What then are we to understand by a tepid soul? A tepid soul is one that frequently falls into fully deliberate venial sins such as deliberate lies, deliberate acts of impatience, deliberate imprecations, and the like. These faults may be easily avoided by those who are resolved to suffer death rather than commit a deliberate venial offence against God. St. Teresa used to say, that one venial sin does us more harm than all the devils in hell. Hence she would say to her nuns: “My children, from deliberate sin, however venial it may be, may the Lord deliver you.” Some complain of being left in aridity and dryness, and without any spiritual sweetness. But how can we expect that God will be liberal of his favours to us, when we are ungenerous to him? We know that such a lie, such an imprecation, such an injury to our neighbour, and such detraction, though not mortal sins, are displeasing to God, and still we do not abstain from them. Why then should we expect that God will give us his divine consolations?

3. But some of you will say: Venial sins, however great they may be, do not deprive the soul of the grace of God: even though I commit them I will he saved; and for me it is enough to obtain eternal life. You say that, “for you it is enough to be saved.” Remember that St. Augustine says that, “where you have said, „ It is enough* there you have perished.” To understand correctly the meaning of these words of St. Augustine, and to see the danger to which the state of tepidity exposes those who commit habitual and deliberate venial sins, without feeling remorse for them, and without endeavouring to avoid them, it is necessary to know that the habit of light faults leads the soul insensibly to mortal sins. For example: the habit of venial acts of aversion leads to mortal hatred; the habit of small thefts leads to grievous rapine; the habit of venial attachments leads to affections which are mortally sinful. “The soul,” says St. Gregory, “never lies where it falls.” (Moral., lib. xxxi.) No; it continues to sink still deeper. Mortal diseases do not generally proceed from serious indisposition, but from many slight and continued infirmities; so, likewise, the fall of many souls into mortal sin follows from habitual venial sins; for these render the soul so weak that, when a strong temptation assails her, she has not strength to resist it, and she falls.

4. Many are unwilling to be separated from God by mortal sins; they wish to follow him, but at a distance, and regardless of venial sins. But to them shall probably happen what befell St. Peter. When Jesus Christ was seized in the garden, St. Peter was unwilling to abandon the Lord, but “followed him afar off.” (Matt. xxvi. 58.) After entering the house of Caiphas, he was charged with being a disciple of Jesus Christ. He was instantly seized with fear, and three times denied his Master. The Holy Ghost says: “He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little.” (Eccl. xix. 1.) They who despise small falls will probably one day fall into an abyss; for, being in the habit of committing light offences against God, they will feel but little repugnance to offer to him some grievous insult.

5. The Lord says: “Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines.” (Cant. ii. 15.) He does not tell us to catch the lions or the bears, but the little foxes. Lions and bears strike terror, and therefore all are careful to keep at a distance through fear of being devoured by them; but the little foxes, though they do not excite dismay, destroy the vine by drying up its roots. Mortal sin terrifies the timorous soul; but, if she accustom herself to the commission of many venial sins with full deliberation, and without endeavouring to correct them, they, like the little foxes, shall destroy the roots that is, the remorse of conscience, the fear of offending God, and the holy desires of advancing in divine love; and thus, being in a state of tepidity, and impelled to sin by some passion, the soul will easily abandon God and lose the divine grace.

6. Moreover, deliberate and habitual venial sins not only deprive us of strength to resist temptations, but also of the special helps without which we fall into grievous sins. Be attentive, brethren; for this is a point of great importance. It is certain, that of ourselves we have not sufficient strength to resist the temptations of the devil, of the flesh, and of the world. It is God that prevents our enemies from assailing us with temptations by which we would be conquered. Hence Jesus Christ has taught us the following prayer: “And lead us not into temptation.” He teaches us to pray that God may deliver us from the temptations to which we would yield, and thus lose his grace. Wow, venial sins, when they are deliberate and habitual, deprive us of the special helps of God which are necessary for preservation in his grace. I say necessary, because the Council of Trent anathematizes those who assert that we can persevere in grace without a special help from God. “Si quis dixerit, justificatum vel sine speciali auxilio Dei in accepta justitia perseverare posse, vel cum eo non posse; anathema sit.” (Sess. 6, can. xxii.) Thus, with the ordinary assistance of God, we cannot avoid falling into some mortal sin: a special aid is necessary. But this special aid God will justly withhold from tepid souls who are regardless of committing, with full deliberation, many venial sins. Thus these unhappy souls shall not persevere in grace.

7. They who are ungenerous to God well deserve that God should not be liberal to them. “He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly.” (2 Cor. ix. 6.) To such souls the Lord will give the graces common to all, but will probably withhold his special assistance; and without this, as we have seen, they cannot persevere without falling into mortal sin. God himself revealed to B. Henry Suso, that, for tepid souls who are content with leading a life exempt from mortal sin, and continue to commit many deliberate venial sins, it is very difficult to preserve themselves in the state of grace. The venerable Lewis da Ponte used to say: “I commit many defects, but I never make peace with them.” Woe to him who is at peace with his faults! St. Bernard teaches that, as long as a person who is guilty of defects detests his faults, there is reason to hope that he will one day correct them and amend his life: but when he commits faults without endeavouring to amend, he will continually go from bad to worse, till he loses the grace of God. St. Augustine says that, like a certain disease of the skin which makes the body an object of disgust, habitual faults, when committed without any effort of amendment, render the soul so disgusting to God, that he deprives her of his embraces. “Sunt velut scabies, et nostrum decus ita exterminant ut a sponsi amplcxibus separent.” (Hom. 1., cap. iii.) Hence the soul, finding no more nourishment and consolation in her devout exercises, in her prayers, communions, or visits to the blessed sacrament, will soon neglect them, and thus neglecting the means of eternal salvation, she shall be in great danger of being lost.

8. This danger will be still greater for those who commit many venial sins through attachment to any passion, such as pride, ambition, aversion to a neighbour, or an inordinate affection for any person. 1st. Francis of Assisium says that, in endeavouring to draw to sin a soul that is afraid of being in enmity with God, the devil does not seek in the beginning to bind her with the chain of a slave, by tempting her to commit mortal sin, Because she would have a horror of yielding to mortal sin, and would guard herself against it. He first endeavours to bind her by a single hair; then by a slender thread; next by a cord; afterwards by a rope; and in the end by a chain of hell that is, by mortal sin; and thus he makes her his slave. For example: A person cherishes an affection for a female through a motive of courtesy or of gratitude, or from an esteem for her good qualities. This affection is followed by mutual presents; to these succeed words of tenderness; and after the first violent assault of the devil, the miserable man shall find that he has fallen into mortal sin. He meets with the fate of gamesters, who, after frequently losing large sums of money, yield to an impulse of passion, risk their all, and, in the end, lose their entire property.

9. Miserable the soul that allows herself to be the slave of any passion. “Behold, how small a fire what a great wood it kindleth.” (St. James iii. 5.) A small spark, if it be not extinguished, will set fire to an entire wood; that is, an unmodified passion shall bring the soul to ruin. Passion blinds us; and the blind often fall into an abyss when they least expect it. According to St. Ambrose, the devil is constantly endeavouring to find out the passion which rules in our heart, and the pleasures which have the greatest attraction for us. When he discovers them, he presents occasions of indulging them: he then excites concupiscence, and prepares a chain to make us the slaves of hell. “Tune maxime insidiatur adversarius quando videt in nobis passiones aliquas generari: tune fomites movet, laqueos parat.”

10. St. Chrysostom asserts, that he himself knew many persons who were gifted with great virtues, and who, because they disregarded light faults, fell into an abyss of crime. When the devil cannot gain much from us, he is in the beginning content with the little; by many trifling victories he will make a great conquest. No one, says St. Bernard, suddenly falls from the state of grace into the abyss of wickedness. They who rush into the most grievous irregularities, begin by committing light faults. “Nemo repente fit turpissimus: a minimis incipiunt qui in maxima proruunt.” (Tract de Ord. vita3.) It is necessary also to understand that, when a soul that has been favoured by God with special lights and graces, consents to mortal sin, her fall shall not be a simple fall, from which she will easily rise again, but it will be a precipitous one, from which she will find it very difficult to return to God.

11. Addressing a person in the state of tepidity, our Lord said: “I would that thou wert cold  or hot; but because thou art luke-warm, and neither hot nor cold, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.” (Apoc. iii. 15, 16.)”I would thou wert cold” that is, it would be better for thee to be deprived of my grace, because there should then be greater hopes of thy amendment; but, because thou livest in tepidity, without any desire of improvement, “I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.” By these words he means, that he will begin to abandon the soul; for, what is vomited, is taken back only with great horror.

12. A certain author says, that tepidity is a hectic fever, which does not excite alarm, because it is not perceived; but it is, at the same time, so malignant that it is rarely cured. The comparison is very just; for tepidity makes the soul insensible to remorses of conscience; and, as she is accustomed to feel no remorse for venial faults, she will by degrees become insensible to the stings of remorse which arise from mortal sins.

13. Let us come to the remedy. The amendment of a tepid soul is difficult; but there are remedies for those who wish to adopt them. First, the tepid must sincerely desire to be delivered from a state which, as we have seen, is so miserable and dangerous; for, without this desire, they shall not take pains to employ the proper means. Secondly, they must resolve to remove the occasions of their faults; otherwise they will always relapse into the same defects. Thirdly, they must earnestly beg of the Lord to raise them from so wretched a state. By their own strength they can do nothing; but they can do all things with the assistance of God, who has promised to hear the prayers of all. “Ask, and it shall be given; seek, and you shall find.” (Luke xi. 9.) We must pray, and continue to pray without interruption. If we cease to pray we shall be defeated; but if we persevere in prayer we shall conquer.

Audio

[Stone]

Audio: St Francis De Sales: Passion Sunday - Hearing The Word Of God

http://traditionalcatholicsermons.org/in...dOfGod.mp3

[Stone]

Taken from By Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen's Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Everyday of the Year:

126. JESUS PERSECUTED

[PASSION WEEK]

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Jesus, help me to enter into the mystery of Your Passion; deign to associate me with it, so that I may participate in Your Resurrection.


MEDITATION

1. Today Passiontide begins, a time especially consecrated to the remembrance and loving contemplation of the sorrows of Jesus. The veiled crucifix and statues, the absence of the Gloria in the Mass and the Gloria Patri in the responsories of the Divine Office,—are all signs of mourning by which the Church commemorates Our Lord’s Passion. Pope St. Leo exhorts us to participate “in the Cross of Christ, in order that we also may do something which will unite us to what He has done for us, for as the Apostle says, ‘if we suffer with Him,
we shall be glorified with Him.’” Therefore, we must not only meditate on Jesus’ sufferings, but also take part in them; only by bearing His Passion in our heart and in our body (cf. 2 Cor 4,10) shall we be able to share in its fruits. So it is that in the liturgy of this season the Church repeats more insistently than ever : “ If you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.” The voice of the Lord makes itself heard these days, not by words, but by the eloquent testimony of deeds, by the great events of the Passion—a mystery which gives us the most convincing proof of His infinite love for us. Let us, therefore, open our heart to the sublime lessons of the Passion : let us see how much Jesus has loved us and how much we ought to love Him in return; let us learn that, if we wish to follow Him, we, too, must suffer and bear the Cross with Him and after Him. At the same time, let us open our heart to a lively hope; for our salvation is in the Passion of Jesus. In today’s Epistle (Heb 9,11-15) St. Paul presents to us the majestic figure of Christ, the Eternal High Priest, who “by His Blood, entered once into the holies, [that is, heaven] having obtained eternal redemption.” The Passion of Jesus has redeemed us; it has opened once again our Father’s house to us; it is then the motive for our hope.


2. The Gospel (Jn 8,46-59) narrates an instance of the pressing hostility of the Jews, an evident prelude to the Passion of Jesus. In their hardened hearts they had absolutely refused to acknowledge the mission of the Savior; as a result, they schemed in a thousand ways to oppose His teachings and to belittle Him before the people by declaring Him a liar and one possessed by the devil. Their animosity had increased to the point where they decided to stone Him: “They took up stones therefore to cast at Him.” Jesus’ death was already decreed by the Jews, but the hour fixed by His Father had not yet come, so “Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the Temple.”

This passage in the Gospel allows us to consider the conduct of Jesus in the presence of His persecutors: we see zeal for their souls, meekness, personal disinterestedness, and total abandonment to God. St. Gregory the Great wrote: “Consider, beloved brethren, the meekness of the Lord. He, who had come to remit sins, said, ‘Which of you will convince Me of sin?’ He, who by virtue of His divinity, could justify sinners, does not disdain to prove by reasoning that He is not a sinner.”

The calumnies continued: “Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil.” The divine Master answered, always with meekness, only what was necessary to testify to the truth: “I have not a devil, but I honor My Father, and you have dishonored Me.” ‘Then He placed His reputation and His cause in the hands of God. “I seek not My own glory; there is One that seeketh and judgeth.” In the meantime, throughout all the discussions, He did not cease to instruct and to enlighten minds, attempting to draw them away from error. Always forgetful of Himself, He thought only of the good of souls. It was precisely in these painful circumstances that Jesus gave us precious instruction : “ He that is of God, heareth the words of God.... If any man keep My word, he shall not see death forever.” Let us gather these lessons from the lips of our persecuted Master, and keep them in our heart with a jealous care. In our day, too, the world is filled with His enemies, those who oppose His doctrine and despise His Passion. Let us, at least, believe in Him and be His faithful friends.


COLLOQUY

“Praise be to You, O most merciful God, who willed to redeem us and restore us by the Passion, the sufferings, the scorn, and the poverty of Your Son, when we were wretched outcasts and condemned prisoners. I run to Your Cross, O Christ—to suffering, scorn, and poverty; with all my strength I desire to be transformed in You, O suffering God-Man, who loved me so much that You endured a horrible, shameful death for the sole purpose of saving me, and to give me an example, so that I would be able to endure adversity for love of You. It is the perfection and true proof of love to conform myself to You, O Crucified One, who for my sins willed to undergo a cruel death, delivering Yourself entirely to tortures, as a victim. O my suffering God, only by reading the book of Your life and death shall I be able to know You and to penetrate Your mystery. Grant me, then, a profound spirit of prayer, a pious, humble, attentive prayer, springing not only from my lips, but also from my heart and soul, so that I shall be able to understand the lessons of Your Passion!

“In this book, I see Your infinite goodness and mercy, which made You take upon Yourself our condemnation, our scorn, our sufferings, rather than leave us in such a wretched state. I see the unlimited bounty, the care, the diligence You showed to save us and lead us back to the heavenly kingdom. I see the infinite wisdom by which You redeemed us, saved us, and glorified us in an ineffable manner, through Your mercy, without harming Your justice. While You died a painful death, You vivified everything and destroyed that death common to us all.

“Yet more, in the book of Your Cross I see Your infinite meekness, by which, although being cursed, You did not curse nor avenge Yourself, but on the contrary, You pardoned and won heaven for the very ones who were crucifying You” (St. Angela of Foligno).