℣. In resurrectione tua, Christe, alleluia. ℟. Cœli et terra laetentur, alleluia.
℣. In thy resurrection, O Christ, alleluia. ℟. Let heaven and earth rejoice, alleluia.
THE first week has been devoted to the joyous celebration of our Emmanuel’s return to us. He has been visiting us each day, in order to make us sure of his Resurrection. He has said to us: See me! Touch me! Feel! it is indeed I![1] But we know that his visible presence among us is not to last beyond forty days. This happy period is rapidly advancing; the time seems to go so quickly! In a few weeks, he, for whom the whole earth has been in such expectation, will have disappeared from our sight. O Expectation and Saviour of Israel! why wilt thou he as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man turning in to lodge? Why wilt thou be as a wanderer?[2]—So much the more precious are the hours, then! Let us keep close by his side; when we cannot hear his words, let us fix our eyes upon him; but when he does speak, let us treasure up the beautiful words, for they are as the last will of our dearest Master.
During these forty days he is continually with his disciples, not indeed to persuade them of his Resurrection (for of that they had no longer any doubt), but, as St Luke says, that he might speak to them of the Kingdom of God.[3] He has redeemed man by his Blood, and his victory over death; he has wrought reconciliation between heaven and earth—all that now remains to be done is the organization of the Church. The Church is the Kingdom of God; for it is in and by her that God is to reign upon the earth. The Church is the Spouse of the risen Jesus; it is he that raised her up to so exalted an honour; and now he would give her the dowry which will prepare her for that glorious day when the Holy Ghost is to descend upon her, and proclaim her to all nations as Spouse of the Incarnate Word, and Mother of the elect.
Three things are needed by the Church in order that she may carry on her mission: a constitution framed by the very hand of the Son of God, whereby she will become a visible and permanent society; the possession of all the truths which her divine Lord came upon this earth to reveal or confirm—and in this is included the right to teach, and teach infallibly; thirdly, the means whereby she may efficaciously apply to the faithful the fruit of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, that is to say, the graces of salvation and sanctification. Hierarchy, Doctrine, Sacraments—these are the all-important subjects upon which our Lord instructs his disciples during the forty days between his Resurrection and Ascension.
But before following him in his divine work of organizing the Church, let us spend the rest of this week in considering him as the Risen Jesus, dwelling among men, and winning their admiration and love. We have contemplated him in the humility of his swathing-bands and Passion; let us now exultingly feast on the sight of his glory.
He presents himself to us as the most beautiful of the sons of men.[4] He was always so, even when he veiled the splendour of his beauty under the infirmity of the mortal flesh he had assumed; but what must not this splendour be now that he has vanquished death, and permits the rays of his glory to shine forth without restraint? His age is for ever fixed at that of thirtythree: it is the period of life wherein man is at the height of his strength and beauty, without a single sign of decay. It was the state in which God created Adam, whom he formed to the likeness of the Redeemer to come; it will be the state of the bodies of the just on the day of the general Resurrection—they will bear upon them the measure of the perfect age[5] which our Lord had when he arose from his tomb.
But it is not only by the beauty of his features that the Body of our Risen Jesus delights the eye of such as are permitted to gaze upon him: it is now endowed with the glorious qualities of which the three Apostles caught a glimpse on Mount Thabor. In the Transfiguration, however, the Humanity shone as the sun because of its union with the Person of the Word; but now, besides the Brightness due to it by the Incarnation, the glorified Body of our Redeemer has that which comes from his being Conqueror and King. His Resurrection has given him such additional resplendence that the sun is not worthy to be compared with him; and St John tells us that he is the Lamp that lights up the heavenly Jerusalem.[6]
To this quality which the Apostle of the Gentiles calls Brightness,[7] is added that of Impassibility, whereby the Body of our Risen Lord has ceased to be accessible to suffering or death, and is adorned with the immortality of life. This Body is as truly and really a Body as ever; but it is now impervious to any deterioration or weakness; its life is to bloom for all eternity. The third quality of our Redeemer’s glorified Body is Agility, by which it can pass from one place to another, instantly and without effort. The Flesh has lost that weight which, in our present state, prevents the body from keeping pace with the longings of the soul. He passes from Jerusalem to Galilee in the twinkling of an eye, and the Spouse of the Canticle thus speaks of him: The voice of my Beloved! Behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills![8] Finally, the Body of our Emmanuel has put on the quality of Subtility (which the Apostle calls ‘Spirituality’),[9] whereby it is enabled to penetrate every material obstacle more easily than a sunbeam makes its way through glass. On the morning of his Resurrection, he passed through the stone that stood against the mouth of the sepulchre; and on the same day he entered the Cenacle, though its doors were shut, and stood before his astonished disciples.
Such is our Saviour, now that he is set free from the shackles of mortality. Well may the little flock that is favoured with his visits exclaim on seeing him: How fair and comely art thou,[10] O dearest Master! Let us join our praises with theirs, and say: Yes, dearest Jesus, thou art beautiful above all the sons of men! A few days back and we wept at beholding thee covered with wounds, as though thou hadst been the worst of criminals: but now our eyes feast on the resplendent charm of thy divine beauty. Glory be to thee in thy triumph! Glory, too, be to thee in thy generosity, which has decreed that these our bodies, after having been purified by the humiliation of the tomb, shall one day share in the prerogatives which we now admire in thee!
Let us, destined as we are to share in the glory of our Jesus, offer to him this beautiful canticle, which used to be sung in the churches of Germany during the Middle Ages:
Sequence
Rex regum, Dei Agne, Leo Juda magne, crucis virtute Mors peccati, vita justitiæ.
Dans fructum jam ligni vitæ Pro gustu scientiae, medicina gratiae Pro rapina gloriae.
Haec dies Domini celebris; Pax est in terris, fulgur inferis, Et lux superis; Dies duplicis baptismi, Legis et Evangelii.
Christus Pascha est homini: Dum vetus transit, novum surgit. Haec dies Domini, Gaude mens expers fermenti, plena panis azymi.
Submersis hostibus, Signatis postibus, assum Pascha Nocte domo una, Jam cum lactucis ede agrestibus.
Accinctis renibus, Pellitis pedibus, cum baculo propera, Et caput cum intestinis Et pedibus vora.
Hac die nos lava, Christe, mundans hyssopo, Fac et dignos hoc mysterio; Mare siccans, Leviathan perforans Maxillam hamo armilla.
Calice nos inebria, Sopi, suscita; De torrente bibens in via Damna nostra; Tu Pontifex, hostia, Torcular calcans, tu uva.
O flos virgineae virgae fragrans, Plena septemplici rore, Specie rosæ rubor, Lilii candor, Quo te tantæ clementiae Consilio, Microcosmi inclinaveras Auxilio, Ut miseris particeps Redemptor esses, Absque peccati naevo, Gestans formulam peccati?
O consanguinee Servi, Domine, Spes anastaseos primae, Ultimae, per jusjurandum Semini Abrahæ firma et nos. Dux athanatos, Nos tuo convivificans corpori, Commortuos Adæ parent veteri; Tu membris fortioribus Jungens infirma, Vitæ æternæ des pascua, tu Pascha.
Amen.
O King of kings! Lamb of God! Strong Lion of Juda! by the power of the Cross, |thou art the Death of sin, and the Life of justice.
To repair the evil done by Adam's eating of the Tree of Knowledge, thou now givest us the fruit of the Tree of Life: to remedy the theft committed by his ambition for glory, thou givest the medicine of grace.
Thy Blood quenched the fiery sword which justly menaced us. Thou openest heaven to us, O Root of obedience! O Medicine of Grace!
This is the great day of the Lord, which brings peace to earth, and terror to hell, and light to heaven. It is the day of the twofold baptism—of the Law and the Gospel.
Christ is our Pasch: the old one passes away, and the new rises in its stead. This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us, who have put away the old leaven and feed on the unleavened, let us rejoice!
Thine enemies, my soul, are drowned in the sea; thy threshold is signed with the Blood of the Lamb: eat the Pasch prepared by fire in the night; eat it in the One House; yea, eat it with wild lettuce.
Gird thy reins, shoe thy feet, and, with a stave in thy hand, hasten and eat the head and entrails and feet of the Lamb.
Cleanse us, O Jesus, this day, with hyssop; make us worthy of the Mystery. Dry up the sea that we may pass; and with the hook (of thy Cross) take the Leviathan.
Inebriate us, lull us to rest, inspirit us with thy chalice, O thou that didst drink of the torrent of our miseries in the way! O thou our High Priest, our Victim, our Wine-presser, our Vine!
O fragrant Flower of the Virgin-Branch! rich with the dew of the seven gifts, ruddy as the rose, and fair as the lily! —whence that merciful design of thine, that made thee stoop to aid this little world, sharing our nature that thou mightest redeem us miserable men, and taking the likeness of sin, O thou the sinless God!
O Sovereign Lord! thou that hast made thyself Brother of thy creature man! O Hope of our first and eternal Resurrection! we beseech thee, by the promise made to Abraham’s seed, give us strength, O immortal King! and make us, who were sharers in our First Parent’s death, to be fellow-members of thy life. Unite our weakness with thy strength, and bless us, O Blessed Paschal Lamb! with the pastures of eternal Life.
Amen.
[1] St Luke xxiv 39. [2] Jer. xiv 8, 9. [3] Acts i 3. [4] Ps. xliv 3. [5] Eph. iv 13. [6] Apoc. xxi 23. [7] Phil. iii 21. The Vulgate has Claritas. [8] Cant, ii 8. [9] 1 Cor. xv 44. [10] Cant. i 15.
IT is through a martyr's palm-branch that we must to-day see the Paschal Mystery. Hermenegild, a young Visigoth prince, is put to death by his heretical father, because he courageously refused to receive his Easter Communion from an Arian bishop. The martyr knew that the Eucharist is the sacred symbol of Catholic unity; and that we are not allowed to approach the Holy Table in company with those who are not in the true Church. A sacrilegious consecration gives heretics the real possession of the divine Mystery, if the priestly character be in him who dares to offer sacrifice to the God whom he blasphemes; but the Catholic, who knows that he may not so much as pray with heretics, shudders at the sight of the profanation, and would rather die than share by his presence in insulting our Redeemer in that very Sacrifice and Sacrament which were instituted that we might all be made one in God.
The blood of the martyr produced its fruit: Spain threw off the chains of heresy that had enslaved her, and a Council, held at Toledo, completed the work of conversion begun by Hermenegild's sacrifice. There are very few instances recorded in history of a whole nation rising up as one man to abjure heresy; but Spain did it, for she seems to be a country on which heaven lavishes exceptional blessings. Shortly after this she was put through the ordeal of the Saracen invasion; she triumphed here again by the bravery of her children; and ever since then, her faith has been so staunch and so pure as to merit for her the proud title of The Catholic Kingdom.
St Gregory the Great, a contemporary of St Hermenegild, has transmitted to us the following account of the martyrdom. The Church has inserted it in her Lessons of today's Matins.
Ex libro Dialogorum sancti Gregorii Papæ.
Hermenegildus rex, Leovigildi regis Visigothorum filius, ab ariana hæresi ad fidem catholicam, viro reverendissimo Leandro Hispalensi Episcopo, dudum mihi in amicitiis familiariter juncto, prædicante, conversus est. Quem pater arianus, ut ad eamdem hæresim rediret, et præmiis su adere, et minis terrere conatus est. Cumque ille constantissime responderet numquam se veram fidem posse relinquere, quam semel agnovisset: iratus pater eum privavit regno, rebusque exspoliavit omnibus. Cumque nec sic virtutem mentis illius emollire valuisset; in arcta ilium custodia concludens, collum manusque illius ferro ligavit. Coepit itaque Hermenegildus rex juvenis terrenum regnum despicere, et forti desiderio coeleste quærens, in ciliciis vinculatus jacens, omnipotenti Deo, ad confortandum se, preces effundere; tantoque sublimius gloriam transeuntis mundi despicere, quanto et religatus agnoverat nihil fuisse, quod potuerit auferri.
Superveniente autem Paschalis festivitatis die, intempestæ noctis silentio, ad eum perfidus pater arianum episcopum misit, ut ex ejus manu sacrilegæ consecrationis communionem perciperet, atque per hoc ad patris gratiam redire mereretur. Sed vir Deo deditus, ariano episcopo venienti exprobravit ut debuit, ejusque a se perfidiam dignis increpationibus repulit: quia etsi exterius jacebat ligatus, apud se tamen in magno mentis culmine stabat securus. Ad se itaque reverso episcopo, arianus pater infremuit, statimque suos apparitores misit, qui constantissimum confessorem Dei, illic ubi jacebat, occiderent; quod et factum est.Nam mox ut ingressi sunt, securim cerebro ej us infigentes, vitam corporis abstulerunt, hocque in eo valuerunt, perimere, quod ipsum quoque qui peremptus est, in se consti terat despexisse. Sed pro ostendenda vera ejus gloria, superna quoque non defuere miracula. Nam cœpit in nocturno silentio psalmodiæ cantus ad corpus ejusdem regis et martyris audiri, atque ideo veraciter regis, quia et martyris.
Quidam etiam ferunt, quod illic nocturno tempore accensæ lampades apparebant. Unde et factum est, quatenus corpus illius, ut videlicet martyris, jure a cunctis fidelibus venerari debuisset. Pater vero perfidus et parricida commotus pœnitentia, hoc fecisse se doluit, nec tamen usque ad obtinendam salutem pœnituit. Nam quia vera esset Catholica fides agnovit, sed gentis suæ timore perterritus, ad hanc pervenire non meruit. Qui oborta ægritudine, ad extrema perductus est, etLeandro Episcopo, quem prius vehementer afflixerat, Reccaredum regem filium suum, quem in sua haeresi relinquebat, commendare curavit, ut in ipso quoque talia faceret, qualia et in fratre suis exhortationibus fecisset. Qua commendatione expleta, defunctus est. Post cujus mortem, Reccaredus rex non patrem perfidum, sed fratrem martyrem sequens, ab arianæ hæreseos pravitate conversus est, totamque Visigothorum gentem ita ad veram perduxit fidem, ut nullum in suo regno militare permitteret, qui regni Dei hostis existere per hæreticam pravitatem non timeret. Nec mirum quod veræ fidei prsedicator factus est, qui frater est martyris: cujus hunc quoque merita adjuvant, ut ad omnipotentis Dei gremium tam multos reducat.
From the book of the Dialogues of Saint Gregory, Pope.
King Hermenegild, son of Leovigild, king of the Visigoths, was converted from the Arian heresy to the Catholic faith by the preaching of the venerable Leander, bishop of Seville, one of my oldest and dearest friends. His father, who continued in the Arian heresy, did his utmost, both by promises and threats, to induce him to apostatize. But Hermenegild returned him ever the same answer, that he never could abandon the true faith, after having once known it. The father, in a fit of displeasure, deprived him not only of his right to the throne, but of everything he possessed. And when even this failed to break the energy of his soul, he had him put into close confinement with chains on his neck and hands. Hereupon the youthful king Hermenegild began to despise the earthly, and ardently to long for the heavenly, kingdom. Thus fettered, and wearing a hairshirt, he besought the omnipotent God to support him. As to the glory of this fleeting world, he nobly looked on it with disdain, the more so as his captivity taught him the nothingness of that which could thus be taken from him.
It was the Feast of Easter. At an early hour of the night, when all was still, his wicked father sent an Arian bishop to him, with this message, that if he would receive Communion from his hands (the Communion of a sacrilegious consecration!) he should be restored to favour. True to his Creator, the man of God gave a merited reproof to the Arian bishop, and, with holy indignation, rejected his sinful offer; for though his body lay prostrate in chains, his soul stood on ground beyond the reach of tyranny. The bishop therefore returned whence he had come. The Arian father raged, and straightway sent his lictors, bidding them repair to the prison of the unflinching confessor of the Lord, and murder him on the spot. They obeyed; they entered the prison; they cleft his skull with a sword; they took away the life of the body, and slew what he, the slain one, had sworn to count as vile. Miracles soon followed, whereby heaven testified to the true glory of Hermenegild; for during the night there was heard sweet music nigh to the body of the king and martyr—king indeed, because he was a martyr.
It is said that lights were seen at the same time burning in the prison. The faithful were led by these signs to revere the body as being that of a martyr. As to the wicked father, he repented having imbrued his hands in his son’s blood; but his repentance was not unto salvation, inasmuch as, whilst acknowledging the Catholic faith to be the true one, he had not the courage to embrace it, for he feared the displeasure of his subjects. When in his last sickness, and at the point of death, he commended his son Reccared, a heretic, to the care of Leander, the.bishop, whom he had hitherto persecuted, but whom he now asked to do for this son what he had, by his exhortations, done for Hermenegild. Having made this request, he died, and was succeeded on the throne by Reccared, who, taking not his wicked father but his martyred brother as his model, abandoned the impious Arian heresy, and led the whole Visigothic nation to the true faith. He would not allow any man to serve in his armies who dared to continue the enemy of the God of hosts by heresy. Neither is it to be wondered at, that being the brother of a martyr, he should have become a propagator of the true faith, for it was by Hermenegild's merits that he has succeeded in reconciling so many thousands to the great God of heaven.
Pope Urban VIII composed the two following hymns for the feast of the holy martyr: we unite them under one conclusion.
Hymn
Regali solio fortis Iberiæ Hermenegilde jubar, gloria Martyrum, Christi quos amor almis Cœli cœtibus inserit.
Ut perstas patiens, pollicitum Deo Servans obsequium! quo potius tibi Nil proponis, et arces Cautus noxia, quæ placent.
Ut motus cohibes, pabula qui parant Surgentis vitii, non dubios agens Per vestigia gressus Quo veri via dirigit!
Nullis te genitor blanditiis trahit, Non vitæ caperis divitis otio, Gemmarumve nitore, Regnandive cupidine.
Diris non acies te gladii minis, Nec terret perimens carnificis furor: Nam mansura caducis Præfers gaudia cœlitum.
Nunc nos e superum protege sedibus, Clemens, atque preces, dum canimus tua Quæsitam nece palmam, Pronis auribus excipe.
Sit rerum Domino jugis honor, Patri, Et natum celebrent ora precantium, Divinumque supremis Flamen laudibus efferant.
Amen.
The royal throne of heroic Iberia counts thee, Hermenegild, as one of its glories: so, too, do the martyrs, whose love of Christ has numbered them among the blessed of heaven.
How courageously didst thou keep thy promised allegiance to God! He was dear to thee above all things else; and as to the dangerous pleasures of this world, thou wisely didst reject them.
Thou didst restrain the passions which excite and foster vice, and march onwards, with unfaltering step, whither the path of truth leads.
Thy father's promises could not seduce thee. The luxuries of a life of ease and wealth, the glitter of diamonds, the prospect of a throne —they could not allure thee.
Thou wast not affrighted by the threat of a cruel death, nor by the executioner's merciless rage; for the everlasting joys of heaven were dearer to thee than those of time.
Do thou now kindly protect us from thy heavenly throne, and graciously receive the prayers we present to thee whilst celebrating the palm made thine by martyrdom.
To the Father, the Lord of all things, be eternal honour! Let the faithful assembled here in prayer, glorify the Son; let them sing forth endless praise to the Holy Ghost.
Amen.
We offer thee, O brave witness to the truth of our holy faith! our admiration and gratitude. Thy courageous death was proof of the love thou hadst for Christ; and thy contempt of earthly honours teaches us to despise them. Though thou wert heir to a throne, a prison was thy abode here below. It was thence that thou didst ascend to heaven, wearing on thy brow the laurels of martyrdom, a crown far brighter than that which was offered thee on condition of thy apostatizing from the faith. Pray now for us: the Church asks it of thee, by inserting thy name in the Calendar of her Saints. The Pasch was the day of thy triumph; obtain for us that this may be a true Pasch to us, a real resurrection. which may lead us to the heaven above, where we may enjoy with thee the sight of our Risen Jesus. Intercede for us, that we may be firm in the faith, obedient to the teachings of holy Church, and enemies of every error and innovation. Protect Spain, thy fatherland, which owes to thy martyrdom long centuries of loyalty to the true faith. Pray for her, that she may ever continue to merit her glorious title of Catholic Kingdom.
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