Page images
PDF
EPUB

PROPER OF THE TIME.

The Liturgical Season, over which presides the Spirit of sanctification and love, has commenced its career amidst the brightness of a light which is new, both for the Church and the christian soul. The weak eye of our intellect, veiled by the protecting cover of faith, has ventured to gaze on the deep things of God; in the midst of the eternal relations which make up the holy Trinity, we have been enabled to discern those sublime links which exist between each of the Divine Persons and man, nothingness though he be by his own origin. Then, too, we have been given to know Him who is Eternal Wisdom: this Wisdom is the Incarnate Word; and the time for man's coming to know that Wisdom was the Feast of the Eucharist; it was through the revelation then made known to him of the divine love for mankind, that man understood why it was that the world had been created. Beyond these grand teachings given to us by the bright Festivals, first of Trinity Sunday, and then of Corpus Christi, we had the Sacred Heart of Jesus repeating to us, and summing up in itself, all these mysteries; that Divine Heart was revealed to us as the source of supernatural life, as the organ of praise, as the centre where the love of God for man, and the love of man for God, were united. All this has filled the whole earth with the magnificence of the supernatural order.

It was with these three bright mysteries, as celebrated by the Church immediately after Pentecost Sunday, that the reign of the Holy Ghost was begun for us this Year of Grace. Our Emmanuel himself,

11 Cor. ii. 10.

during the years of his sojourn upon our earth, had not shed such light as this upon us. True, our Emmanuel was himself the Light; and the Holy Ghost, far from revealing to us any new dogmas, did but remind the world' of the truths taught it by Him who is ever the true Master and Teacher of his Church.3 How then, is it, that the light becomes doubly strong immediately that this Jesus of ours leaves us? How comes it, that the Holy Ghost, who was not to speak of himself, no sooner descends upon us, than we are enabled to see the heavenly mysteries with such intensified clearness ? Let us master the lesson involved in all this.

Yes, the Holy Ghost is not to speak of himself, and yet he teaches divinely." It is from the Word that he receives what he tells to this earth of ours; he hearkens to that Word, and will say the same things himself," but he will say them in his own way.

8

The Eternal Word is the one only word; it had spoken from the very commencement of creation; its varied utterances had filled the whole earth; its divine teaching had been heard, day telling it unto day, and night unto night. And yet, this almighty voice of Wisdom, which penetrateth into the bottom of the deep,10 was but too frequently allowed to speak unnoticed. The light shone in the darkness, but the darkness would not be removed," as the Church reminded us during the Season of Advent, when the four weeks of those wintry and dark days told us how man, for four thousand years, had abased the very light of his reason, by making it serve to put out the light of the divine Word which God had been giving him." During all this long period, the Word had

[blocks in formation]

7

sought, though in vain, to put the imprint of himself upon the successive generations;' that period transpired, and he came down upon earth, there to take up his abode, and converse with men,2 and, with his own lips, to give to the world the unreserved3 heavenly message of light and truth. The children of Adam heard with their own ears, and saw with their own eyes, and touched with their very hands, the word of life, the Word made Flesh. And yet, even with all this condescension and intimacy, even the very men who enjoyed most of his presence,-those men who were selected to become the messengers of his word,'— who were to be his heralds and his witnesses to the nations, even they failed to take in the light of that kingdom of God, which shone so strongly, so directly, upon them.8 Yes, even for these future sowers of the Word in the souls of men,' our Emmanuel, during his mortal life among them was always a hidden God; 10 he was a Word not understood by them.11 lovingly complains of all this, when wishing them farewell at the Last Supper !12 But, if we rightly appreciate that complaint, it was not so much a reproach made to his Disciples, as an earnest prayer offered to his Father, beseeching him to send down that creating Spirit,14 who alone could transform those hearts, rid them of their innate weakness, and "fill" them, as the Church expresses it,15 15 with the warmth of the Word."

13

He

For, there is the secret of success, the incomparable teaching of the Spirit of love. How universal and how grand soever was the manifestation of himself, offered to the minds of men by the Word; how

[blocks in formation]

16

11 St. Luke, xviii. 34.

12 St. John, xiv. 9.

8 St. Luke, viii. 10. 13 Ibid. 16.

9 Ibid. 11.

10 Is. xlv. 15. 16 St. John, i. 9.

14 Ps. ciii. 30.

15 Hymn for Matins of Whit-Sunday. H

intimate and familiar soever were the conversations of our Emmanuel with those whom he had graciously selected as his Friends,1-yet, in both cases, the truth made no way beyond the outside; the Teaching went no further than the exterior; like the material sun, the reflection of the eternal Light was but on the surface, it did not penetrate into the depths of men's souls. The Holy Ghost, on the contrary, like an impetuous stream, flowed into man's heart, bringing with himself, into the inmost recesses of the creature, substantial and living Truth. The ManGod had foretold this to his disciples. He had said to them: "These things which I have spoken unto you, "whilst abiding with you, the Paraclete will teach them "all to you more efficaciously, for he will not only "abide with you; but shall be in you. The truths "which you could not bear now, you shall have from "Him; He will lead you into the whole truth."5

3

It is the office of the Holy Ghost to act, rather than to speak. He is, so to say, less intent on proclaiming the truth, than on the realising it, by sanctification, in the Church and in the soul. “ The Spirit," says St. Cyril of Alexandria,6 "has a marvel"lous school of his own in the Saints: he does more "than speak; he produces knowledge by an efficient "demonstration, that is, he passes on to the creature "what belongs to God; he makes us partakers of "the divine nature." Not only, therefore, does he purify the senses, and cleanse the interior eye from its imperfections; but, moreover, in virtue of that sanctifying action, which is his special attribute, he establishes, in the very midst of the regenerated creature, that kingdom of God whose hidden excellencies were declared by Jesus to the as yet ignorant

1 St. John, xv. 15. 2 Ps. xlv. 5.

3 St. John, xiv. 25. Ibid. 17.

5 Ibid. xvi. 12, 13,
juxta græc.

6 In Johan. Lib. x. et
xi., passim.

71 St. Pet. i. 4.
8 St. Luke, xvii, 21.
9 St. John, i, 18.

« PreviousContinue »