sider the marvellous and wondrous works of GOD even in every grain of seed: according to His mercy He hath reserved certain works to Himself, which he worketh in time of need, over and above the usual course and order of nature: so that men should be amazed by beholding things not mightier, but more unusual, than those which by daily occurrence, had become of no account. Ry. The face of Moses shone, when the LORD looked upon him: when the elders of the children of Israel saw the glory of his face, they marvelled and feared greatly. . When he came down from mount Sinai, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand, he wist not that the skin of his face shone while the LORD talked with him. When. Lesson VIII. Fo OR the guiding of the whole world is a greater miracle than the satisfying of five thousand men with five loaves. And yet no one wonders Lesson IX. SOMETHING whereby the mind may be lifted up is presented to the eyes; and is presented to the eyes for the use of the understanding: that we may marvel at the invisible GOD, by beholding visible works; and, raised to faith, and cleansed by faith, may earnestly desire to behold Him, the Invisible, Whom we have known, though invisible, by things that are seen. But it will not be enough merely to see these things in the miracles of CHRIST. Let us ask the miracles themselves what they speak to us of CHRIST: since, if they are understood, they have their own tongue. For because CHRIST Himself is the Word of God, any act of the Word is a word to us. Ry. Hear My law, O My people: incline your ears to the words of My mouth. y. I will open My mouth in a parable; I will declare hard sentences of old. Incline. Incline. MONDAY. Glory. at this: men wonder at that, not Lesson of the Holy Gospel according because it is greater, but because it is unusual. For who now feedeth the whole world save He, who cre ateth the crop from a few grains? He doeth it as GOD. That by which He increaseth the crop from a few grains, by the same in His hands He increaseth the five loaves: for the power was in the hands of CHRIST. And the five loaves were to Him ás seed, not committed indeed to the earth, but increased by Him Who made the earth. Ry. Behold, I send My Angel, who shall go before thee, and watch over thee always: * observe and hear his voice, and I will be an enemy to thine enemies, and I will afflict them that afflict thee: and My Angel shall go before thee. V. O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me, there shall no strange god be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any other god, for I am the LORD. Observe. to S. John. Lesson I. Chap. ii. AT that time: The Jews' passover to Jerusalem, and found in the was at hand, and JESUS went up temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves. And that which follows. A Homily of S. Augustine the Bishop. Tract 10 on S. John. know, for ye have read. Let us act, stray after idols; and so they there | GOD, and know it not. sacrificed oxen, sheep, and doves. Ye as far as He helps. But I, when they troubled me, put on sackcloth and humbled my soul with fasting. Ry. When ye be gone over this Jordan, build an altar unto the LORD * of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD thy GOD, and peace offerings. y. When ye shall go in unto the land, which the LORD GOD giveth you, build there an altar unto the LORD. Of. IT Lesson II. R. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee, saith the LORD; be strong and of a good courage: bring My people into the land that floweth with milk and honey. Be not afraid, for I am with thee; whithersoever thou goest, I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong. Glory. Be strong. TUESDAY. was surely no great sin if they sold in the temple what was Lesson of the Holy Gospel according bought to be offered in the temple: yet nevertheless He cast them out. What then would the LORD have done, had He found drunkards in the temple, when He cast out those that sold things lawful, and not contrary to righteousness (for things that may be honestly bought are not unlawfully sold), and would not suffer the house of prayer to be made a house of merchandise? Ry. Hear, O Israel, the precepts of the LORD, and write them on thine heart as in a book, and I will give thee a land flowing with milk and honey. y. Observe, therefore, and hear My voice, and I will be an enemy to thine enemies. And. to S. John. Lesson I. Chap vii. AT that time: Now about the midst the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled. And that which follows. of the feast JESUS went up into A Homily on S. Augustine the Bishop. Tract 29 on S. John. He Who had lain hidden, taught; and spake openly, and was not taken. The fact of His hiding was for the sake of example, but the other was a sign of power. But when He taught, the Jews marvelled. All, indeed, (so I suppose,) marvelled, but not all were converted. And whence their wonder? Because many knew where He was born, and how He had been brought up. They had never seen Him learn letters; they heard Him disputing about the law, and bringing forward the testimony of the law, which no one could have brought forward unless he had read it: and no one could have read it, unless he had learned his letters; and therefore they wondered. But their wonder served their Master as an opportunity of imparting a deeper truth to them. Ry. Why go ye about to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth? * If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou Me? Y. Many good works have I shewed you: for which of those works seek ye to kill Me? Lesson II. THEIR wonder and their words gave the LORD occasion to utter a deep saying, which is meet to be very carefully looked at and discussed. What, therefore, doth the LORD answer to those who wonder how He could know letters, which He had never learned? My doctrine, saith He, is not Mine, but His that sent Me. This is the first depth; for He seemeth even in these few words to speak contraries. For He saith not: This doctrine is not Mine: but, My doctrine is not Mine. If not Thine, how is it Thine? For Thou sayest both: My doctrine, and, not Mine. Ry. I the LORD led you forty years in the wilderness, and your clothes waxed not old. * I rained down manna from heaven upon you, and ye have forgotten Me, saith the LORD. y. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage I delivered you. I rained. IF Lesson III. therefore we consider what this same holy evangelist saith at the commencement: In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with GUD, and the WORD was GOD: hence depends the solution of this question. What is the doctrine of the FATHER, Save the Word of the FATHER? CHRIST Himself therefore is the doctrine of the FATHER if He be the Word of the FATHER. But, because a word cannot belong to no one, but to some one, Himself He called His doctrine, and yet not His own, because He is the Word of the FATHER. For what is more thine own, than thou thyself? And what less thine own than thyself, if that which thou art belongs to some other? Rz. Moses, the servant. p. cxlvii. WEDNESDAY. To-day are said the Gradual Psalms. Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. John. Lesson I. Chap. ix. AT that time: As JESUS passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? And that which follows. A Homily of S. Augustine the Bishop. Tract 44 on S. John. The great and marvellous things which our LORD JESUS CHRIST wrought are both works and words; works because they are wrought, words because they are signs. Let us then consider the human race is this blind man. what this signifieth that was done : This blindness fell on the first man by sin, and from him we all draw the beginning not only of death, but of wickedness. But if blindness be unbelief, and faith illumination, whom shall CHRIST find faithful when He cometh? when even that apostle, who was born of the race of the prophets, saith: And we were sometime by nature the children of wrath, even as others. If children of wrath, then children of vengeance, children of punishment, children of hell: how by nature, save because by the sin of the first man, sin hath grown up instead of nature? If sin hath grown up instead of nature, every man is mentally born blind. Ry. The face. p. cxlviii. hath explained for us the name of | believe the Divine mercy to be readily this pool, saying: Which is by inter- swayed by the lamentations of a pretation, Sent. Who was sent ye widowed mother, especially of one who already know. For unless He had was broken down by the suffering or been sent, we should not have been death of an only son. And the crowd relieved from our sins. He washed, at the funeral expressed respect for then, his eyes in that pool which is the good character of this widow. by interpretation, Sent: he was bap- And this widow, surrounded by a tized into CHRIST. If He gave him multitude of the people, appears to us light at the time when, so to speak, more than woman, in that she was He baptized him Himself; then when able to obtain her only and dutiful He anointed him, He made him a son by her tears: to the end that catechumen. Holy Church, which forbids him to weep to whom the resurrection is promised, may call the younger people back to life from the funeral pomp Ry. Behold, I send. p. cxlvii. Lesson III. YE have heard a great mystery. Ask and from the rites of the grave, by a man: Art thou a Christian? Art He answers thee: I am not. Ry. Hear. p. cxlviii. THURSDAY. the sight of her tears. Ry. The LORD. p. cxlvi. Lesson II. AND this dead man was carried on a bier to the grave by the four elements of matter. But he had the hope of resurrection, because he was carried upon wood. And although this was of no profit to us before, yet, after JESUS touched it, it began to avail for life, to serve as a token that salvation should again be poured upon the people by the gibbet of the cross. Therefore those stern bearers of the funeral stood still when they heard the voice of God, as they were forcing on man's body with the deadly failure of human nature. For what else do we, but lie lifeless on a kind of bier, that is to say, the last instrument of burial, either when the fire of immoderate desire scorches us, or a cold moisture Lesson of the Holy Gospel according breaks out upon us, or the strength of to S. Luke. Lesson I. Chap. vii. AT that time: JESUS went into a Book 5. Comm. on S. Luke vii. This place also abounds with a double grace; and that we should our minds is enfeebled by some torpid conditions of our earthly body; or, our spirit having acquired some stain, feeds the mind when deprived of pure Ry. Moses stood. p. cxlvi. BUT although the last rites of death may have done away with all hope of life, and the bodies of the departed may lie close to the tomb, nevertheless, by the word of God, the corpses rise again, speech returns, the dead Son is restored to his mother. What is thy tomb save thy evil habits? Thy tomb is thy faithlessness; thy tomb is they throat: for their throat is an open sepulchre, whence dead words are uttered. From this grave CHRIST frees thee, from this tomb thou shalt arise, if thou hearest the word of GOD. And if thy sin be heavy, which thou canst not wash away with penitence, let Mother Church weep for thee; who, a widowed mother, intercedes for each of her sons, as though her only one. For she shares in some sort of spiritual pang of nature, when she sees her children forced on toward death, by their fatal vices. him free from his sickness. But He delayed to heal, that He might raise him from the dead. Ry. Thy way. p. cxlvii. Lesson II. BUT what message did his sister send? LORD, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick. They said not, Come: to One that loved it was only necessary to give this message. They were not bold to say, Come and heal; They were not bold to say, Command, where Thou art, and it shall be done here. But why should they not, since the faith of that centurion is therefore praised? For he said: I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. They said nothing of this kind, but only: LORD. behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick. It is enough that Thou Lesson of the Holy Gospel according knowest it: for Thou dost not love AT to S. John. Lesson I. Chap. xi. T that time: A certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, and forsake. Ry. As for them. p. cxlvii. Lesson III. the town of Mary and her sister BUT some one saith: How can a Martha. And that which follows. A Homily of S. Augustine the Tract 40 on S. John. Ye remember how ye read in a former lesson, that the LORD escaped from the hands of those who would have stoned Him, and departed beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. While the LORD was there, Lazarus fell sick in Bethany, which was a town hard by Jerusalem. It was that Mary which anointed the LORD with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto Him. We know already whither they sent, where JESUS was, because He was away; to wit, beyond Jordan. They sent unto the LORD, telling Him that their brother was sick, that, if it pleased Him, He might come and set sinner be typified by Lazarus, so loved by the LORD? Let such an one hear Him saying: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. For if GOD had not loved sinners, He would not have come down from heaven to earth. When JESUS heard that, He said: This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of GoD, that the Son of GOD might be glorified thereby. Such glorification of Himself added nothing to Him, but is profitable to us. This is then what He saith: It is not unto death: because that death itself should not be unto death, but rather unto a miracle : whereby men might believe in CHRIST, and so avoid the real death. Plainly may ye see how, as it were indirectly, the LORD called Himself GoD: because of certain who deny the Son to be GOD. Ry. Moses. p. cxlvii. |