Basilica of Saint Paul
Outside the Walls -
TUESDAY IN
EASTER WEEK
Our Pasch is the Lamb, let us
attentively consider those words of sacred Scripture, where, speaking of the Pasch, it says: ‘It is the Phase,
that is, the passage of the Lord.’ God Himself adds these words: ‘I will pass
through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every first-born in the land
of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute
judgments.’ So that the Pasch is a day of judgment, a day of terrible justice
upon the enemies of God; but, for that very reason, it is a day of deliverance
for Israel. The lamb is slain; but his immolation is the signal of redemption
to the holy people of the Lord.
The people of Israel are slaves to the cruel Pharaoh. Their bondage is
the heaviest that can be. Their male children are to be put to death. The race
of Abraham, on which repose the promises of the world’s salvation, is doomed.
It is time for God to interpose: the Lion of the tribe of Juda, He whom none
can resist, must show Himself.
But in this, the Israelites are a type of another and a far more
numerous people,—the whole human race; and it is the slave of satan, a tyrant
worse than Pharaoh. Its bondage is at its height. It is debased by the vilest
idolatry. It has made every base thing its god; and the God that made all
things is ignored or blasphemed. With a few rare exceptions out of each
generation, men are the victims of hell. Has God’s creation of man, then, been
a failure? Not so. The time is come for Him to show the might of His arm: He
will pass over the earth, and save mankind.
Jesus, the true Israelite, the true Man come down from heaven, He too is
made a captive. His enemies have prevailed against Him, and His bleeding,
lifeless Body has been laid in the tomb. The murderers of the just One have
even fixed a seal upon the sepulchre, and set a guard to watch it. Here again,
the Lord must pass, and confound His enemies by His triumphant passage.
In that Egypt of old, each Israelite family was commanded to slay and
eat the Paschal Lamb. Then, at midnight, the Lord passed, as He had promised, over
this land of bondage and crime. The destroying Angel followed, slaying with his sword
the first-born of the Egyptians, ‘from the first-born of Pharaoh, who sat on his
throne, unto the first-born of the captive woman that was in prison, and all the
first born of the cattle.’ A cry of mourning resounded through Mesraim: but God
is just, and His people was made free!
The same victory was gained in the Resurrection which now gladdens us.
The midnight was over, and the last shades of darkness were fleeing
from before the rising light: it was then that our Lord passed through the
sealed stone of His tomb, unperceived by his guards. His Resurrection was a
stroke of death to His first-born people,who had refused to receive Him as their
Messias, or to ‘ know the time of their visitation.’ The Synagogue was hard-of
heart, like Pharaoh; it would fain have held captive Him of whom the prophet had
said, that He would be ‘free among the dead.’ Hereupon, a cry of impotent rage
was heard in Jerusalem: but God is just, and Jesus made Himself free! And oh!
what a happiness was this passage of our Lord for the human race! He had
adopted us as His brethren, and loved us too tenderly to leave us slaves of
satan: therefore, He would have His own Resurrection be ours too, and give us
light and liberty. The first-born of satan were routed by such a victory; the
power of hell was broken. Yet a little while, and the altars of the false gods
shall everywhere be destroyed; yet a little while, and man, regenerated by the
preaching of the Apostles, shall acknowledge his Creator and abjure his idols:
for this is the day which the Lord hath made: ‘it is the Phase, that is, the
passage of the Lord!’
But observe how the two mysteries,—the Lamb and the Passover,—are united
in our Pasch. The Lord passes, and bids the destroying Angel slay the first-born
in every house, the entrance of which is not marked with the blood of the lamb.
This is the shield of protection; where it is, there divine justice passes by
and spares. Pharaoh and his people are not signed with the blood of the lamb:
yet have they witnessed the most extraordinary miracles, and suffered
unheard-of chastisements. All this should have taught them that the God of
Israel is not like their own gods, which have no power; but their heart is hard
as stone, and neither the works nor the words of Moses have been able to soften
it. Therefore does God strike them and deliver His people.
But this very people, this Israel, ungratefully turns against his
deliverer; he is content with the types of the good things promised; he will
have no other lamb but the material one. In vain do the prophets tell him, that
‘a Lamb is to be sent forth, who shall be King of the earth; that he shall come
from the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion.’ Israel refuses to acknowledge
this Lamb as his Messias; he persecutes Him and puts Him to death; and persists
in putting all his confidence in the blood of victims, that have no longer the
power to propitiate the anger of God. How terrible will be the Passage of the
Lord over Jerusalem, when the sword of the Roman legions shall destroy a whole
people!
Satan too, and his wicked angels, had scoffed at this Lamb, they had
despised Him, as being too meek and humble to be dreaded; and when they saw Him
shedding His Blood on the cross, a shout of exultation rang through the regions
of hell. But what was their dismay, when they saw this Lamb descending like a
lion into limbo, and setting free from their bondage the countless prisoners of
the four thousand previous years? and after this returning to our earth, and inviting
all mankind to receive ‘the liberty of the glory of the children of God?
O Jesus! how terrible is Thy Passover to Thine enemies! but how
glorious for them that serve Thee!
The people of Israel feared it not,
because their houses were marked with the blood of the figurative lamb. We are
more favoured than they: our Lamb is the Lamb of God, and Thy Blood is signed,
not upon our dwellings, but upon our souls. Thy prophet foretold the great mystery,
when he said, that on the day of Thy vengeance upon Jerusalem, they would be
spared whose foreheads should be marked with the Tau*. Israel despised the prophecy,
which is our joy. The Tau is the sign of Thy cross, dear Jesus! It is Thy cross
that shields, and protects, and gladdens us in this Pasch of Thy Passover,
wherein Thy anger is all for Thine enemies, and Thy blessings all for us!
Footnote:
* Mark Thau: Thau, or Tau, is the last letter in the Hebrew
alphabet, and signifies a sign, or a mark; which is the reason why some translators
render this place set a mark, or mark a mark without specifying what this mark
was. But St. Jerome, and other interpreters, conclude it was the form of the
letter Thau, which in the ancient Hebrew character, was the form of a cross.
At Rome, the Station for today is in the basilica of Saint Paul.
The Church is impatient to lead her white-robed troop of neophytes to the
Apostle of the Gentiles.
Though he is not the foundation of the Church,
yet is he companion of Peter’s labours in Rome, his fellow-martyr, and the preacher
of the Gospel to the Gentiles. As he says of himself, he has laboured to form
children in God—who could tell the number he has given to Christ? How must he
rejoice to see these newly made Christians approach his sacred shrine, there to
receive instruction from his epistles, wherein he still speaks to all
generations!
Very Ven. Dom Guéranger – The Liturgical year
TUESDAY IN THE
OCTAVE OF EASTER
(Indulgence
of 30 years and 30 quarantines)
Double – First Class
White
vestments
Missa’Aqua sapiéntiæ’
INTROITUS
Ecclus.
15: 3, 4
Aqua sapiéntiæ potávit eos, allelúia:
firmábitur in illis et non flectétur, allelúia: et exaltábit eos in ætérnum,
allelúia, allelúia.
Psalm
104: 1
Confitémini Dómino et invocáte nomen
ejus: annuntiáte inter gentes ópera ejus. Glória Patri.
INTROIT
Ecclus. 15: 3, 4
He gave them the water of wholesome
wisdom to drink, alleluia; and she shall be made strong in them, and shall not
be moved, alleluia: And she shall exalt them forever, allelúia, allelúia.
Psalm
104: 1
Give glory to the Lord, and call upon
his name: declare his deeds among the Gentiles. Glory be to the Father.
ORATIO
Deus, qui Ecclésiam tuam novo semper
fetu multíplicas: concéde fámulis tuis; ut sacraméntum vivéndo téneant, quod
fide percepérunt. Per Dominum.
COLLECT
O God, Who art ever multiplying the
children of thy Church, grant unto the same thy servants that they may hold
fast in their lives the mystery which they have received by faith. Through our
Lord.
EPISTLE
Acts 13: 16,
26-33
In those days, Paul rising up, and with
his hand bespeaking silence, said: Ye men of Israel, and you that fear God,
give ear. Men, brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among
you fear God, to you the word of this salvation is sent. For they that
inhabited Jerusalem, and the rulers thereof, not knowing him, nor the voices of
the prophets, which are read every sabbath, judging him have fulfilled them.
And finding no cause of death in him, they desired of Pilate, that they might
kill him. And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of him,
taking him down from the tree, they laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him
up from the dead the third day: Who was seen for many days, by them who came up
with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who to this present are his witnesses to
the people. And we declare unto you, that the promise which was made to our
fathers, This same God hath fulfilled it to our children, raising up our Lord
Jesus Christ.
GRADUAL
Psalm 117: 24;
106: 2
This is the day which the Lord hath
made: let us be glad and rejoice therein. V. Let them say so that have been redeemed by the
Lord, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy: and gathered out of the
nations.
ALLELUIA
Matthew
28: 2
Alleluia, alleluia. V. The Lord is risen from the sepulcher, He, who hangeth
on the tree.
SEQUENCE
Let Christians offer to the Paschal
victim the sacrifice of praise.
The Lamb hath redeemed the sheep: the
innocent Jesus hath reconciled sinners to his Father.
Death and Life fought against each
other, and wondrous was the duel: The King of Life was put to death; yet now he
lives and reigns.
Tell us, O Mary! what sawest thou on
the way? I saw the Sepulchre of the living Christ; I saw the glory of him that
had risen. I saw the Angels that were the witnesses; I saw the winding-sheet
and the cloth. Christ, my hope, hath risen! He shall go before you into
Galilee.
We know that Christ hath truly risen
from the dead. Do thou, O Conqueror and King! have mercy upon us. Amen. Alleluia.
There will be more rejoicing in heaven over
one sinner who repents
GOSPEL
Luke
24: 36-47
At that time Jesus stood in the midst
of them, and saith to them: Peace be to you; it is I, fear not. But they being
troubled and frightened, supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them:
Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See my hands
and feet, that it is I myself; handle, and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and
bones, as you see me to have. And when he had said this, he shewed them his
hands and feet. But while they yet believed not, and wondered for joy, he said:
Have you any thing to eat? And they offered him a piece of a broiled fish, and
a honeycomb. And when he had eaten before them, taking the remains, he gave to
them. And he said to them: These are the words which I spoke to you, while I
was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in
the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then
he opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. And
he said to them: Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and
to rise again from the dead, the third day: And that penance and remission of
sins should be preached in his name, unto all nations.
OFFERTORY
Psalm 17: 14,
16
And the Lord thundered from heaven, and
the highest gave his voice: Then the fountains of waters appeared, alleluia.
SECRET
Accept, O Lord we beseech thee, the
prayers with the sacrifices of the people, and grant that what we have begun at
these rites of our piety and devotion, we may pass to the glory of heaven
Through our Lord.
PREFACE OF EASTER
It is truly meet and just, right and
availing unto salvation that at all times, but more especially at this season,
we should extol Thy glory, O Lord, when Christ our Pasch was sacrificed. For He
is the true Lamb that hath taken away the sins of the world: Who by dying hath
overcome our death, and by rising again hath restored our life. And therefore
with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominations, and with all the
heavenly hosts, we sing a hymn to Thy glory, saying without ceasing:
COMMUNION
Col. 3: 1, 2
If you be risen with Christ, seek the
things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God:
alleluia. Mind the things that are above, alleluia.
POSTCOMMUNION
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God,
that the grace of the Paschal sacrament which we have received may ever abide
in our souls. Through our Lord.
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