Quinquagesima Sunday
Be Thou unto me a God, a Protector, and a house of refuge, to save me: for Thou art my strength and my refuge: and for Thy Name's sake Thou wilt lead me, and nourish me.(From the introit of the day's Mass, Ps. 30. 3, 4)
Collect of the Day
Preces nostras, quæsumus, Dómine, cleménter exáudi: atque a peccatórum vínculis absolútos, ab omni nos adversitáte custódi. Per Dóminum...
We beseech Thee, O Lord, graciously hear our prayers: and releasing us from the bonds of our sins, guard us from all adversity. Through...
Epistle - 1 Corinthians 13. 1-13 / Gospel - St. Luke, 18. 31-43
From a Homily by St. Gregory the Great
Our Redeemer, foreseeing that his disciples would be troubled in their minds at his passion, announced to them long beforehand both the sufferings of his passion and the glory of his resurrection ; to the end that, when they should see him die, as he had foretold, they might not doubt he was likewise to rise again. But, since his disciples were yet earthly-minded, and by no means able to understand this mystery, he wrought a miracle before them. A blind man receiveth his sight before their eyes, that if they could not receive heavenly things by words, they might be persuaded of heavenly things by deeds.
But, dearly beloved brethren, the miracles of our Lord and Saviour must be accepted in a two-fold manner ; we must believe that they were actually wrought, and at the same time were intended to signify something to us. For God's works shew one thing by their power, and another by their mystery. For instance, take this present miracle. We know not historically who this blind man was, but we do know of what he was mystically the figure. Man verily is blind, driven out from Eden, the Garden of Earthly Delight, in the persons of his first parents, knowing not the light of heaven, and suffering the darkness of condemnation. But, nevertheless, through the coming of his Redeemer, he is enlightened, so that now he already seeth by hope the gladness of inward light, and walketh by good works, in the path of life.
We must note also that the blind man received his sight as Jesus drew near to Jericho. Now, this name Jericho, being interpreted, signifieth City of the Moon ; and in Holy Scripture the moon is used as a figure of our imperfect flesh, of whose gradual corruption her monthly waning is a type. As, therefore, our Maker draweth nigh to Jericho, a blind man receiveth his sight. And because the Godhead taketh into itself our weak manhood, man receiveth again the light which he had lost. By God's suffering in the Manhood, man is raised up toward God. This blind man is also well described as sitting by the wayside begging ; for the Truth saith : I am the Way.
From the Roman Breviary
From
The Liturgical Year
by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.
The Church gives us today another subject for our meditation: it is the vocation of Abraham. when the waters of the deluge ahd subsided, and mankind had once more peopled the earth, the immortality, which had previously excited God's anger, again grew rife among men. Idolatry, too, into which the antediluvian race had not fallen, now showed itself, and human wickedness seemed thus to have reached the height of its malice. Foreseeing that the nations of the earth would fall into rebellion against Him, God resolved to select one people that should be peculiarly His, and among whom should be preserved those sacred truths, of which the Gentiles were to lose sight. This new people was to originate from one man, who would be the fathers and model of all future believers. This was Abraham. His faith and devotedness merited for him that he should be chosen to be the father of the children of God, and the head of that spiritual family, to which belong all the elect of both the old and the new Testament.
It is necessary that we should know Abraham, our father and our model. This is his grand characteristic: fidelity to God, submissiveness to His commands, abandonment and sacrifice of everything in order to obey His holy will. Such ought to be the prominent virtues of every christian. Let us, then, study the life of our great patriarch, and learn the lessons it teaches.
The following passage from the Book of Genesis, which the Church gives us in her Matins of today will serve as the text of our considerations.
From
The Roman Breviary
Genesis, 12. 1-19
And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father's house, and come into the land which I shall show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed: So Abram went out as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went forth from Haran. And he took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the substance which they had gathered, and the souls which they had gotten in Haran: and they went out to go into the land of Chanaan. And when they were come into it, Abram passed through the country into the place of Sichem, as far as the noble vale: now the Chanaanite was at that time in the land.
And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: To thy seed will I give this land. And he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. And passing on from thence to a mountain, that was on the east side of Bethel, he there pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east; he built there also an altar to the Lord, and called upon his name. And Abram went forward, going, and proceeding on to the south. And there came a famine in the country; and Abram went down into Egypt, to sojourn there: for the famine was very grievous in the land. And when he was near to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife: I know that thou art a beautiful woman: And that when the Egyptians shall see thee, they will say: She is his wife: and they will kill me, and keep thee. Say, therefore, I pray thee, that thou art my sister: that I may be well used for thee, and that my soul may live for thy sake.
Could the Christian have a finer model than this holy patriarch, whose docility and devotedness in following the call of his God are so perfect? We are forced to exclaim, with the holy fathers: "O true Christian, even before Christ had come on the earth! He had the spirit of the Gospel, before the Gospel was preached! he was an apostolic man before the apostles existed!" God calls him: he leaves all things--his country, his kindred, his father's house--and he goes into an unknown land. God leads him, he is satisfied; he fears no difficulties; he never once looks back. Did the apostles themselves more? But see how grans is his reward! God says to him: "In thee shall the kindred of the earth be blessed." This Chaldean is to give to the world Him that shall bless and save it. Death will, it is true, close his eyes ages before the the dawning of that day, when one of his race, who is to be born of a Virgin and be united personally with the divine Word, shall redeem all generations, past, present, and to come. But meanwhile, till heaven shall be thrown open to receive this Redeemer and the countless just who have won the crown, Abraham shall be honored, in the limbo of expectation, in the manner becoming his great virtue and merit. It is in his bosom, that is, around him, that our first parents (having atoned for their sin by penance), Noah, Moses, David, and all the just, including poor Lazarus, received that rest and happiness, which were a foretaste of, and a preparation for, eternal bliss in heaven. Thus is Abraham honoured; thus does God requite the love and fidelity of them that serve Him.
When the fullness of time came, the Son of God, who was also Son of Abraham, declared His eternal Father's power, by saying that He was about to raise up a new progeny of Abraham's children from the very stones, that is, from the Gentiles. We Christians are this new generation. But are we worthy children of our father? Let us listen to the apostle of the Gentiles: "By faith, Abraham when called (by God), obeyed to go out into the a place, which he was to receive for an inheritance: and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith, he abode in the land, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the same promise; for he looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
If, therefore, we be children of Abraham, we must, as the Church tells us during Septuagesima, look upon ourselves as exiles o the earth, and dwell by hope and desire in that true country of ours, from which we are now banished, but towards which we are each day drawing nigher, if, like Abraham, we are faithful in the various stations allotted us by our Lord. We are commanded to use this world as though we used it not; to have an abiding conviction of our not having here a lasting city, and the misery and danger we incur when we forget that death is one day to separate us from every thing we possess in this life.
The passage of the Gospel selected by the Church, is that wherein our Saviour foretells to His apostles the sufferings He was to undergo in Jerusalem. This solemn announcement prepares us for Passiontide. We ought to receive it with feeling and grateful hearts, and make it an additional motive for imitating the devoted Abraham, and giving our whole selves to our God. The ancient liturgists tell us that the blind man of Jericho spoken of in this same Gospel is a figure of those poor sinners, who, during these days, are blind to their Christian character, and rush into excesses, which even paganism would have coveted. The blind man recovered his sight, because he was aware of his wretched state, and desired to be cured and to see. The Church wishes us to have a like desire, and she promises us that it shall be granted.
