PASSION
SUNDAY
The Liturgical Year
Ven. Abbot Dom Guéranger
Today, if ye shall hear the voice of the
Lord, harden not your hearts.
Hodie, si vocem Domini audieritis, nolite
obdurare corda vestra.
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 lose 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 will 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
a 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 favour of the Son of David; and they should consult these divine prophecies
which, up to the present time, have been so literally fulfilled in His person.
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 bid themselves
because a guilty conscience told them they were naked. Jesus has 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 for ever. The day will come when sinners, from whose anger
He now flees, will pray to the mountains to fall on them and 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.
In the Greek Church, this Sunday
goes under the simple name of the Fifth Sunday of the Holy Fests.
________
PASSION SUNDAY
Violet - 1st Class
MISSA ‘Judica me’
STATION AT ST. PETER’S
(Indulgence of 10 years and 10 quarantines)
INTROIT - Psalm 42: 1, 2
Judica me,
Deus, et discérne causam meam de gente non sancta: ab hómine iníquo et dolóso
éripe me: quia tu es Deus meus et fortitúdo mea. Ps. 42.3. Emítte lucem tuam et
veritátem tuam: ipsa me deduxérunt et adduxérunt in montem sanctum tuum et in
tabernácula tua.
Júdica me, Deus…
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. V.
Send forth Thy light and Thy truth: they have conducted me, and brought me unto
Thy holy hill, and into Thy tabernacles.
Judge me O God…
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
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
Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the
Holy Ghost, one God Forever and ever.
EPISTLE - Hebrews 9: 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
defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through 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.
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 mil 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 fulness 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
contra diction? 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 - Psalm 142: 9; 17: 48-49
Deliver me
from my enemies, O Lord: teach me to do Thy will. Ps. Thou art my deliverer, O Lord,
from the angry nations: Thou wilt lift me up above them that rise up against
me: from the unjust man Thou wilt deliver me.
TRACT - Psalm 128: 1-4
Often have
they fought against me from my youth.
V. Let Israel now say: Often have they fought against me
from my youth.
V. But they could not prevail over me: the wicked have
wrought upon my back.
V. They have lengthened their iniquities: The Lord, who is
just, will cut the necks of sinners.
GOSPEL - John 8: 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 dishonoured 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.
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 his
lot 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 honouring; 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, 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 - Psalm 118:17,107
I will
confess to Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: render to Thy servant, I shall
live and keep Thy words: enliven 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.
SECRET
May these
offerings, we beseech Thee, O Lord, loosen the bonds of our wickedness, and
procure for us the gifts of Thy mercy. Through our Lord.
PREFACE OF THE HOLY CROSS
It is
truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times,
and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty,
everlasting God; Who didst establish the salvation of mankind on the tree of
the Cross; that whence death came, thence also life might arise again, and that
he, who overcame by the tree, by the tree also might be overcome: Through
Christ our Lord. Through whom the Angels praise Thy Majesty, the Dominations
worship it, the Powers stand in awe. The Heavens and the heavenly hosts
together with the blessed Seraphim in triumphant chorus unite to celebrate it.
Together with these we entreat Thee that Thou mayest bid our voices also to be
admitted while we say with lowly praise:
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 - 1 Corinthians 11: 24, 25
This is My
Body which shall be delivered for you: this chalice is the new testament in My
Blood, saith, the Lord: do this, as often as you receive it, in commemoration
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.
POSTCOMMUNION
Draw near
to us, O Lord, our God, and by Thy unfailing help defend those whom Thy
mysteries have refreshed. Through our Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment