Easter Day

The Easter Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

Are there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!

Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!

If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour,
let him with gratitude join in the Feast!
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,
let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any delayed until the ninth hour,
let him not hesitate; but let him come too.
And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.
For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,
as well as to him that toiled from the first.

To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows.
He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor.
The deed He honors and the intention He commends.
Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!

First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!

Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
He destroyed Hell when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.

Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."
Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.

Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Holy Saturday

The Hiatus

Arnold Böcklin, The Deposition

If without the Son no one can see the Father (John 1:18), nor anyone come to the Father (John 14:6), and if, without him, the Father is revealed to nobody (Matthew 11:27), then when the Son, the Word of the Father is dead, then no one can see God, hear of him or attain him. And this day exists, when the Son is dead, and the Father, accordingly, inaccessible. Indeed, it is for the sake of this day that the Son became man—as Tradition has shown us. One can, no doubt, say: he came to bear our sins on the Cross, to take up the account-sheet of our debt, and to triumph thereby over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:14f): but this "triumph" is realized in the cry of God-forsakenness in the darkness (Mark 15:33–37), in "drinking the cup" and "being baptized with the baptism" (Mark 10:38) which lead down to death and hell. Then the silence closed around, as the sealed tomb will close likewise. At the end of the Passion, when the Word of God is dead, the Church has no words left to say. While the grain of corn is dying, there is nothing to harvest. This state of being dead is not, for the Word made man, one situation among others in the life of Jesus—as if the life thus briefly interrupted were simply to resume on Easter Day (though certain sayings of Jesus aimed at consoling his disciples about the "little while" may sound like that). Between the death of a human being, which is by definition the end from which he cannot return, and what we term "resurrection" there is no common measure. In the first place, we must take with full gravity this affirmation: in the same way that a man who undergoes death and burial is mute, no longer communicating or transmitting anything, so is with this man Jesus, who was the Speech, the Communication and the Mediation of God. He dies, and what it was about his life that made it revelation breaks off. Nor is this rupture simply the quasi-natural one of the dying man of the Old Testament who descends into the grave, returning to the dust from which he was made. This is the plunging down of the "Accursed One" (Galatians 3:13) far from God, of the One who is "sin" (II Corinthians 5:21) personified, who, falling where he is "thrown" (Apocalypse 20:14) "consumes" his own substance (Apocalypse 19:3); "Thou hast made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin" Isaiah 25:2):

Terror, and the pit, and the snare

are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!

He who flees at the sound of the terror

shall fall into the pit:

and he who climbs out of the pit

shall be caught in the snare.

(Isaiah 24:17f; =Isaiah 48:43f)

This is the essence of the second death: that which is cursed by God in his definitive judgment (John 12:31) sinks down to the place where it belongs. In this final state, there is no time.

The danger is very real that we, as spectators of a drama beyond our powers of comprehension, will simply wait until the scene changes. For in this non-time there appears to be no possibility of following him who has become non-Word. In Hymn 35 Romanos ho Melodos sang of Mary at the foot of the Cross, and, in the dialogue between Mother and Son, he has the Son explain to his Mother how, like a doctor, he must strip off his clothes, so as to reach that place where the mortally ill are lying, and there heal them. The Mother pleads to be taken with him. He warns her: the whole creation will be shaken, earth and sea will flee away; the mountains will tremble, the tombs will be emptied . . . Then the dialogue is broken off, and the poet directs his prayer to the Son as "the owner of agony." We are not told whether all that remains is the anguished following gaze of Mary as her Son disappears into the inaccessible darkness where no one can reach him. The apostles wait in the emptiness. Or at least in the non-comprehension that there is a Resurrection and what it can be (John 20:r; Luke 24:21). The Magdalen can only seek the One she loves—naturally, as a dead man—at the hollow tomb, weeping from vacant eyes, groping after him with empty hands (John 20:11, 15). Filmed over with an infinite weariness unto death, no stirring of a living, hoping faith is to be found.

The poet makes Christ say:

I descended as low as being casts its shadows its shadows. I looked into the abyss, and cried, "Father, where are you?" But I only heard the everlasting ungovernable storm . . . And when I looked from the unmeasurable world to the eye of God, it was an empty socket, without foundation, that stared back at men. And eternity rested on the chaos, gnawing at it ruminating.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mysterium Paschale,
 translated by Aidan Nichols, O.P.

Good Friday

Grunewald, Crucifixion

 He is despised and rejected of men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:

and we hid as it were our faces from him;

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:

yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

 But he was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities:

the chastisement of our peace was upon him;

and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned every one to his own way;

and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth:

he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment:

and who shall declare his generation?

for he was cut off out of the land of the living:

for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death;

because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Isaiah 53:39 (Authorzed Version)

Maundy Thursday

Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium

Now, my tongue, the mystery telling,

Of the glorious body sing,

And the blood, all price excelling,

Which all mankind’s Lord and King,

In a virgin’s womb once dwelling,

Shed for this world’s ransoming.

Given for us and condescending

To be born for us below,

He, with men in converse blending,

Dwelt the seed of truth to sow,

Till He closed with wondrous ending

His most patient life below.

That last night, at supper lying

’Mid the twelve, His chosen band,

Jesus, with the law complying,

Keeps the feast its rites demand;

Then, more precious food supplying,

Gives Himself with His own hand.

Word made flesh, true bread He maketh

By His word His flesh to be;

Wine His Blood: which whoso taketh

Must from carnal thoughts be free;

Faith alone, though sight forsaketh

Shows true hearts the mystery.

Therefore we, before Him bending,

This great sacrament revere;

Types and shadows have their ending,

For the newer rite is here;

Faith, our outward sense befriending,

Makes our inward vision clear.

Glory let us give, and blessing,

To the Father and the Son;

Honor, might and praise addressing

While eternal ages run,

Ever, too, His love confessing,

Who from Both with Both is One.

St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by John Mason Neale

Spy Wednesday

From a Treatise by St. Augustine the bishop

Zurbaran,
The Crucifixion

For I have spied unrighteousness and strife in the city. Give heed unto the glory of the Cross itself. Now upon the brow of kings that Cross firmly resteth, which foes did once revile. Effect hath proven strength; it hath conquered the world, not with the sword, but with the wood. The wood of the Cross seemed worthy of scorn to his enemies, as they stood before that very wood, wagging their heads and saying, If he be the Son of God, let him come down from the Cross! He stretched forth his hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. If he is just which liveth by faith, he that hath not faith is unrighteous. What then he calleth unrighteousness, know thou to be unbelief. Therefore the Lord spied unrighteousness and strife in the city, and stretched forth his hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people; and yet, looking forth upon these very same, he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

St. Augustine, Treatise on the Psalms, the third lesson in the second nocturn of Tenebrae for Spy Wednesday

Tuesday in Holy Week

From The Tree of Life by St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor

O whoever you are,

who at the word of an insistent servant,

that is your flesh,

by will or act

have shamelessly denied Christ,

who suffered for you,

remember the passion of your beloved Master

and go out with Peter

to weep most bitterly over yourself.

When the one

who looked upon the weeping Peter

looks upon you,

you will be inebriated with the wormwood

of a twofold bitterness:

remorse for yourself

and compassion for Christ,

so that having atoned with Peter

for the guilt of your crime,

with Peter

you will be filled

with the spirit of holiness.

St. Bonaventure, The Tree of Life, in Bonaventure

(The Classics of Western Spirituality),
Paulist Press, (c) 1978.

—

Monday in Holy Week

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop 

Let us too glory in the cross of the Lord

The passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the hope of glory and a lesson in patience.

What may not the hearts of believers promise themselves as the gift of God’s grace, when for their sake God’s only Son, co-eternal with the Father, was not content only to be born as man from human stock but even died at the hands of the men he had created?

It is a great thing that we are promised by the Lord, but far greater is what has already been done for us, and which we now commemorate. Where were the sinners, what were they, when Christ died for them? When Christ has already given us the gift of his death, who is to doubt that he will give the saints the gift of his own life? Why does our human frailty hesitate to believe that mankind will one day live with God?

Who is Christ if not the Word of God: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God? This Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. He had no power of himself to die for us: he had to take from us our mortal flesh. This was the way in which, though immortal, he was able to die; the way in which he chose to give life to mortal men: he would first share with us, and then enable us to share with him. Of ourselves we had no power to live, nor did he of himself have the power to die.

In other words, he performed the most wonderful exchange with us. Through us, he died; through him, we shall live.

The death of the Lord our God should not be a cause of shame for us; rather, it should be our greatest hope, our greatest glory. In taking upon himself the death that he found in us, he has most faithfully promised to give us life in him, such as we cannot have of ourselves.

He loved us so much that, sinless himself, he suffered for us sinners the punishment we deserved for our sins. How then can he fail to give us the reward we deserve for our righteousness, for he is the source of righteousness? How can he, whose promises are true, fail to reward the saints when he bore the punishment of sinners, though without sin himself?

Brethren, let us then fearlessly acknowledge, and even openly proclaim, that Christ was crucified for us; let us confess it, not in fear but in joy, not in shame but in glory.

The apostle Paul saw Christ, and extolled his claim to glory. He had many great and inspired things to say about Christ, but he did not say that he boasted in Christ’s wonderful works: in creating the world, since he was God with the Father, or in ruling the world, though he was also a man like us. Rather, he said: Let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sermo Guelferbytanus 3: PLS 2, 545-546, second reading from the Liturgy of the Hours for Monday in Holy Week

Holy Week, 2013

It seems that people (or, more likely, spambots) are still visiting here. In honor of our new Holy Father Francis, I've decided to revive this blog. I'm beginning slowly, with a series of readings for Holy Week.

Palm Sunday

From a sermon by Saint Andrew of Crete, bishop

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the King of Israel.

Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today he returns from Bethany and proceeds of his own free will toward his holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation. He who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with himself, we are told in Scripture, above every sovereignty, authority and power, and every other name that can be named, now comes of his own free will to make his journey to Jerusalem. He comes without pomp or ostentation. As the psalmist says: He will not dispute or raise his voice to make it heard in the streets. He will be meek and humble, and he will make his entry in simplicity. 

In his humility Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world and he is glad that he became so humble for our sake, glad that he came and lived among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to himself. And even though we are told that he has now ascended above the highest heavens - the proof, surely, of his power and godhead - his love for man will never rest until he has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made it one with his own in heaven.

Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.

So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him. Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of his victory. Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children's holy song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel.
Oratio 9 in ramos palmarum: PG 97, 990-994, from the Office of Readings for Palm Sunday