THURSDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK
Forgiveness is promised; but atonement must be made.
Divine justice must be satisfied, and future generations be taught that sin can
never pass unpunished. Eve is the guiltier of the two, and her sentence follows
that of the serpent. Destined by God to aid man in peopling the earth with
happy and faithful children, formed by this God out of man’s own substance flesh
of his flesh, and bone of his bones, woman was to be on an equality with man.
But sin has subverted this Order, and God’s sentence is this: conjugal union,
notwithstanding the humiliation of concupiscence now brought upon it, is to be,
as before, holy and sacred; but it is to be inferior in dignity, before both
God and man, to the state of virginity, which disdains the ambitions of the
flesh.
Secondly,
woman shall be mother still, as she would have been in the state of innocence;
but her honour shall be a burden. Moreover, she shall give birth to her children
amidst cruel pains, and sometimes even death must be the consequence of her infant’s
coming into the world. The sin of Eve shall thus be memorialized at every
birth, and nature shall violently resist the first claims of him, whom sin has
made her unwelcome lord.
Lastly, she
who was at first created to enjoy equality of honour with man, is now to forfeit
her independence. Man is to be her superior, and she must obey him. For long
ages, this obedience will be no better than slavery; and this degradation shall
continue till that Virgin comes, whom the world shall have expected for four
thousand years, and whose humility shall crush the serpent’s head. She shall
restore her sex to its rightful position, and give to Christian woman that
influence of gentle persuasiveness, which is compatible with the duty imposed
upon her by divine justice, and which can never be remitted: the duty of
submission.
Paradise lost...
IN DOMINICA TYROPHAGI
O Lord! King of all ages! who didst
create me by thy love; I have been injured by
the envy of the crafty serpent, and have
provoked thee, my Saviour, to anger
but despise me not, O God! Call me back me
to thee.
Alas! my bright robe has been changed into this garb of shame. I bewail
my ruin,
O Saviour, and to thee do I cry with
confidence: My good God! Despise me not,
but call me back to thee.
How, my soul, couldst then, that wast made the lord of serpents and
beasts, treat the
soul-slaying serpent with familiarity,
and use thine enemy as a trusty counsellor? Bewail,
my wretched soul, thy fatal error!
(To thee do we sing, O Mary, full of divine grace! Hail bright
tabernacle of the
Incarnation! O fount of mercy, hope of
them that are in despair, enlighten me that am
dishonoured by the dark clouds of my
passions.)
The Liturgical Year – Ven. Dom Guéranger
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