to the decision of His own free will. I triest the reins and the heart: * for He suffered the ungodly hands of unto Thee have I opened My cause. raging enemies to be laid on Him, Y. Thou hast seen, O LORD, their which when busied in their own sin, iniquity against Me: avenge Thou My were the servants of the Redeemer. cause. For. And such was His loving-kindness towards His murderers, that, praying to the FATHER from the Cross, He asked AND CHRIST may well be Himself not vengeance for Himself, but forgiveness for them. Ry. Be not a terror unto Me, O LORD: thou art My hope in the day of evil. Let them be confounded that persecute Me, * but let not Me be confounded. y. Let all Mine enemies be confounded that seek after My soul. The LORD suitably goes up to the temple, leaving the Jews behind, when He was about to dwell in the heart of the Gentiles. For this is the true temple of GOD, which was founded by the succession of faith, not by the building of stones. Wherefore they who hated Him are forsaken: they who are to love Him are chosen. So it was that He came to the mount of Olives, that He might plant on the heights of virtue the young olive trees, whose mother is Jerusalem above. On this mountain, He is the Heavenly Husbandman: that all, being planted in the house of GOD, each man of of them may say: I am as a green olive tree in the house of my GOD. Ry. But the LORD is with Me as a mighty terrible one: therefore My persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: But LORD, Thou Lesson VIII. the mountain. For what other beareth such fruitful olives, not bending with the plenteousness of their berries, but with that of nations fertilized by the fulness of the SPIRIT? He it is by Whom we go up, and to Whom we go up. He is the door, He is the way, He is the opened and the opener: it is He at Whom those coming in knock, Who is worshipped by those who have won the prize. Therefore He was in a village, and the colt was tied with the ass, and could not be loosed but by the LORD'S command. They were loosed by the the act, such was the life, such was hands of the Apostles. Such was the grace. Be thou like unto them, that thou mayest be able to loose the bound. with themselves, but not aright: Let Ry. The ungodly said, reasoning us lie in wait for the righteous, because He is clean contrary to our doings: He professeth to have the knowledge of GOD: He calleth Himself the child of GOD, and maketh His boast that GOD is His Father. * Let us see if His words be true: if He be the Son of GOD, He will deliver Him from our hand: let us condemn Him with a shameful death. V. We are esteemed of Him as counterfeits: He abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: He pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed. Let us see. Lesson IX. NOW let us consider who they were, who, driven out of Paradise when their sin was disclosed, were bound in the village. And you observe how life called back those whom death had driven out. And therefore, according to Matthew, we read of both an ass feet of JESUS, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. We have heard what was done, let us examine into the mystical meaning. and a colt; in order that, as both | pistic, very costly, and anointed the sexes were driven out in the persons of two human beings, so both sexes should be called back in the persons of two animals. And therefore, on the one hand, in the she-ass there was a kind of type of our sinful mother Eve on the other, in the colt a figure of the whole Gentile race; and therefore He sitteth upon a colt, the foal of an ass. And it is well said: on which no man had sat; because no one, before CHRIST, had called the Gentile nations to the Church. So then you have it thus, according to Mark, On which no man had yet sat. R. Lying men came about Me without a cause, they smote Me with scourges: * but Thou, O LORD, My Defender, avenge Thou Me. y. For trouble is hard at hand, and there is none to help. But. Lying. MONDAY. Inv. and Hymn, p. cliii. Abs. Hear, LORD. Ben. The evangelical. Ry. Sinners said: Let us oppress the righteous Man without cause, and swallow Him alive as it were into hell: let us blot out His memorial from the earth, and divide His spoils amongst us by lot: the murderers heaped up treasure sinfully to themselves. * The foolish and wicked hated wisdom: and they waxed guilty in their imaginations. Y. Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them. The foolish. Ben. The Divine help. Lesson II. WHOEVER thou art that wouldst fain be a faithful soul, with Mary anoint the feet of the LORD with precious ointment. The ointment was righteousness, therefore it was a pound weight: it was further ointment of nard, pistic, costly. In saying pistic, we may believe it refers to some place from whence that ointment Lesson of the Holy Gospel according came. However, this word is not with to S. John. Lesson I. Chap. xii. THEN JESUS, six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. And that which follows. A Homily of S. Augustine the Bishop. Tract 50 on S. John. Lest men should fancy it was a mere delusion that the dead had risen again, Lazarus was one of them that sat at meat. He lived, spake, ate: the truth was proved, the unbelief of the Jews was confounded. JESUS then sat at meat with Lazarus and the rest. Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus, waited on them. But Mary, the other sister of Lazarus, took a pound of ointment of nard, You are re out meaning, and is in perfect agree- Anoint the feet of Ry. I became a reproach unto Mine enemies: they that looked upon Me shaked their heads. Help Me, O LORD MY GOD. V. They have spoken against Me with lying tongues; they compassed Me about with words of anger, in offering incense unto Baal. hatred. Help. Ben. The King. Lesson III. OF whom, save of His own members, will He say at the end of the world: Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me? Ye have bestowed your superfluities: but ye have done service unto My feet. For the house was filled with the perfume: the world is filled with the good report. For good perfume is good report. They who lead a bad life and are called Christians, do wrong unto CHRIST, and of such it is said: By them the name of the LORD is blasphemed. If the name of the LORD is blasphemed by some men, it is praised by others. Hear the Apostle: We are, he saith, the sweet savour of CHRIST in every place. Abs. His piety. Ben. GOD the FATHER. Of Jeremiah the Prophet. Lesson I. Chap. xi. WHAT hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest. The Lord called thy name, A green olive-tree, fair and of goodly fruit: with the noise of great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. For the LORD of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel, and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves, to provoke me to And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings. But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying: Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. But, O LORD of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed RIGHTEOUS art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee; yet let me talk with thee of thy judgements: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? Thou hast planted them; yea, they have taken root: they grow; yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins. But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep from the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter. How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein ? beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end. The Ry. O LORD God of Israel, for Thy shall be saved: for thou art my praise. Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now. As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee. Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil. Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded; let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction. I HAVE forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me; therefore have I hated it. Mine Ry. They have spoken against Me heritage is unto me as a speckled Me about also with words of hatred. with false tongues: they compassed bird; the birds round about are against her: come ye, assemble all For the love that I had unto them, the beasts of the field, come to de-lo, they take now My contrary part, * vour. Many pastors have destroyed Thou hast heard Me, O LORD my GOD. but I give Myself unto prayer, and my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made. Thus have they rewarded Me evil my pleasant portion a desolate wil- for good: and hatred for My good derness. They have made it deso- will. But. Ben. The Divine help. late, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made Lesson II. Chap. xviii. desolate, because no man layeth it to WHO hath heard such things? heart. the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burnt incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble R7. The congregation of the people compassed Me about: and I rewarded not evil unto Mine enemies. The wickedness of sinners shall perish, O LORD, but guide Thou the just. Y. Judge Me, O LORD, according to My righteousness, and according to the innocency that is in Me. The wicked-in their ways from the ancient paths, The congregation. ness. to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; to make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing: every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity. Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give and put to confusion that imagine heed to any of his words. Ry. The ungodly said. p. clxiii. GIV Lesson III. mischief for Me. Ps. lxx., Deus in adjutorium, p. 39. Ant. Deliver Me, O My GoD, out of the hand of the ungodly. Ps. lxxi., In te, Domine, p. 40. Ry. That On these three days, after the V. of the Nocturns, Our FATHER, &c. is said in silence, without pronouncing aloud, Lead us not, &c.: neither Absolutions nor Benedictions are said before the Lessons. At the end of the Lessons, But Thou, O LORD, &c. is not said, but the first three Lessons from Jeremiah are ended as below. LIVE heed to me, O LORD, and . Let them be turned backward hearken to the voice of them that and put to confusion. contend with me. Shall evil be re-imagine mischief for Me. compensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them. Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet. Yea, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger. Ry. Lying men. p. cxliv. On the three following days, the LORD's Prayer, Angelical Salutation, and Creed, having been said in silence, the Office is straightway begun with the Antiphon to the first Psalm, every thing preceding being omitted; and the Antiphons are doubled as on Double Feasts. Glory, &c. is not said at the end of the Psalms, nor in the Responses to the Lessons. MAUNDY THURSDAY. FIRST NOCTURN. Here beginneth the Lamentation of Lesson I. Chap. i. HOW doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return unto the LORD thy God. Thus are ended on these three days the Lessons from the Lamentations. |