Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Holy Orders

Consider what is involved in the administration of the kingdom of God on earth. The Church is the instrument of God's operations among men, and she carries them out by means of certain selected ones of her members. Their duties are the consecration, distribution and guardianship of the Body of Christ, the enrolling of new members, the conferring of the Holy Ghost, the forgiveness of sins and conveyance of other graces, the task of instructing with the guarantee of inerrancy, and with an authority that men may reasonably bow to. No self-appointment or human appointment can convey these powers; they can come only from the original appointment by God and direct transmission from hand to hand. God has not left the pastorate and government of His Church to human initiative. He has Himself given it its constitution, assured it of His continual presence, promised it infallibility and indefectibility. These gifts and graces and duties cannot be claimed by any man at his fancy, but only by him "that is called by God as Aaron was" (Heb. v. 4), and who is indued with them by the Sacrament of Holy Order. Thank God for the great powers thus communicated, and venerate the recipients of them.



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Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Extreme Unction


The most important moment of life is the last one. A good beginning avails nothing unless it be followed by a good ending; on the other hand a good death will remedy all the deficiencies and sins of a life-time. Judas began well and ended badly; the penitent thief ended well and retrieved the past. The last moment is the point to which all the threads of life converge, and from which the future life begins and takes its character. The myriad graces and actions of a life-time sum up all their effects in the moment before death, and the net resultant of these forces deter mines our eternal weal or woe. Everything in life becomes to us then either an assistance or a danger. How much we shall stand in need of special strength and guidance! The last moment is the most anxious and thrilling moment of life. A few minutes more, and the impenetrable secret will be unveiled to our eyes, the great problems of life will suddenly be solved, the supreme question of our destiny will be irrevocably determined. We shall be cut adrift from the whole world that we know, from all that we value, friends, possessions, occupations; we shall enter on an existence that we cannot now picture to ourselves, where there is neither time nor space, where all our present senses will cease, where God will be all in all. How important must be the sacrament which is adapted for such a crisis! Thank God for it; and pray unceasingly that you may have the happiness of receiving it at the end.



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Monday, November 28, 2022

Indulgences


There are two things to be considered with regard to sin and its remission: 
1. the guilt, with the naturally inexhaustible consequences or punishment; 
2. the temporal or exhaustible impressions and punishments which survive its forgiveness, and which are expiated by works of satisfaction. In the Sacrament of Penance, the guilt and extreme penalty are remitted by the absolution; the penance imposed remits part of the temporal consequences; but there remains another part to be expiated by other good works. The wound has lost its mortal character, but some scars and blemishes remain. For the completion of the expiation, we are not left entirely to our own merits and sufferings; there is a further application of the blood and merits of Jesus Christ, which supplements the Sacrament of Penance, and this is the Indulgence. The power of binding and loosing in earth and heaven includes not only the greater power of remitting guilt, but the lesser and supplementary power of purging away the last remnants of sin. Indulgences are the necessary corollary of the Sacraments. How wonderfully God's care extends to all your needs! The blood of Jesus suffices for every purpose; it does not stop short of a completed work; and, through the medium of your good works, it is capable of saving you from all the penal consequences of sin.


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Sunday, November 27, 2022

First Sunday of Advent

 

Confidence in the Messias Who is to come.

The liturgy for Advent constantly speaks to us of mercy, redemption, salvation, deliverance, light, abundance, joy, peace. "Behold the Saviour cometh; on the day of His Birth, the world shall be flooded with light"; "exult then with joy, O Jerusalem, for the Saviour shall appear"; "peace shall fill our earth when He shews Himself."

Christ brings with Him all the blessings that can be lavished upon a soul: Cum illo omnia nobis donavit.

Let then our hearts yield themselves up to an absolute confidence in Him Who is to come. It is to render ourselves very pleasing to the Father to believe that His Son Jesus can do everything for the sanctification of our souls. Thereby we declare that Jesus is equal to Him, and that the Father "hath given all things into His hand."

Such confidence cannot be mistaken. In the Mass for the first Sunday in Advent, the Church three times gives us the firm assurance of this. "None of them that wait on Thee shall be confounded": Qui te exspectant non confundentur.  

Christ in His Mysteries, p. 110
D. Columba Marmion









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Purgatory


Purgatory, like all other doctrines, is marked by its beautiful harmony with God's other works and His divine perfections. It is a marvel of justice and regular law. Purgatory is the prison of the great King, and "thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing" (Matt. v. 26). Thus no one escapes the consequences of his evil deeds by a fortunately premature death. There is a continuity of cause and effect that is not broken by passing into the other world; the force of a man's misdeeds, so far from being checked by sudden interference, works itself out upon him to the last. So does God in the natural sequence of events render to every man exactly according to his deeds. The deliberate sinner, forgiven before his death, does not go scot free, rejoicing that he has outwitted divine justice, and that his life of self-indulgence has ended no otherwise than the life of the ascetic and the apostle and the martyr. How terrible will be that exact retribution when each will reap what he has sown! Be sure that every sin will one day find you out. "We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that do such things. And thinkest thou this, O man . . . that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?" (Rom. ii. 2, 3).


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Saturday, November 26, 2022

Liabilities After Forgiveness


In its effect sin is like a wound. First there is the open gash drawing away the life-blood; this closes, the mortal danger ceases, but a crusted cicatrice remains ; after it has healed, there is still a scar left, which is disfiguring although not dangerous. So after the mortal guilt of sin has been remitted, there remain certain vestiges of sin, the habit or inclination to repeat it, and noxious impressions which remain in the character as they do in the brain cells. To efface all this is a work of time. New tendencies have to be nurtured till virtue becomes a spontaneous instead of a forced growth, new impressions must overgrow the old, both in the physical and the spiritual being. This cannot be done in a moment. There may indeed be a degree of grief which is adequate punishment in itself, and of love uniting so closely with God as to destroy at once all that is alien to Him in the soul. But normally, growth is slow. The tree felled in a day cannot be replaced for centuries. Many graces of action, many infusions of sanctifying grace, many sacraments are needed for the rehabilitation of the soul. You may be sure that you have much work of this kind to do. Continue for ever paying off your debts and effacing the traces of sin in your soul. You can never do too much. "Be not afraid to be justified even to death" (Eccli. xviii. 22).


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Friday, November 25, 2022

Satisfaction


There is a third element of the Sacrament of Penance, viz., Satisfaction. Satisfaction is a voluntary endurance of suffering, or doing of good, in order to expiate part of the consequences of sin. It is a kind of penalty for sin, completing the form of a judicial trial in the Sacrament of Penance. This Satisfaction or penalty is spoken of as "the penance" in a third sense of the word. The Satisfaction makes the difference between the restitution of the sinner in the Sacrament of Penance, and the regeneration which takes place in Baptism. Our first deliverance from that Original Sin which was incurred without personal guilt, requires less in the way of preparatory dispositions, and nothing in the way of Satisfaction. The spiritual effect is completed at once, and heaven is opened straightway. No partial expiation remains to be accomplished by satisfaction here or purgatory hereafter. But after deliberate infidelity and backsliding, more is required of us in the way of preparatory dispositions and works of atonement. We may compare this with the grant of the Law of God to Moses. On the first occasion God provided the stone tablets of the law; but when these had been destroyed through the idolatry of the Israelites, it was required that Moses should hew two other tablets, and carry them up to the summit to receive the law for the second time. Do not forget your increased liability. It is a debt that remains on you, and is not fully defrayed in the Sacrament of Penance.


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Thursday, November 24, 2022

November 24, 2022

the Blessed Mother takes care of us too. When she sees that we are in trouble and need help, she will ask Jesus to help us. And because Jesus loves Mary so much, He will do what she asks Him to do. 
                           (the catholic mother's helper, 1948)

Sin is a revolt against God, an assertion of our independence against Him, an act of arrogance and pride. The adequate reaction that corresponds to it is humiliation, the bending of the stiff neck, the offering of a contrite spirit. The principal form of humiliation proceeding immediately from sin is the manifestation to oneself and others of its horror and shamefulness. This is the consequence and one of the punishments of sin: "For there is nothing hid that shall not be made manifest" (Mark iv. 22). Unforgiven sins will be manifested to all men at the day of judgment; and the full knowledge of them in all their bearings will be the chief element of the worm of conscience that never dieth. A recognition and modified manifestation of sin would be the proper form for the sinner's voluntary atonement to take. As conquered rebels of old knelt before their lord with bared head and ropes round their necks, offering themselves for punishment that they might escape it; so man submits himself to an ordeal now which takes the place of the manifestation before the judgment-seat of Christ (2 Cor. v. 10). The Apostle says: "If we would judge ourselves we should not be judged" (1 Cor. xi. 31). By confession we show ourselves to be conscious of guilt, judge ourselves deserving of punishment, and so, fitly prepare the way for forgiveness. Thank God for accepting a small humiliation from you instead of that which is due. Indeed "it is good for me that Thou hast humbled me" (Ps. cxviii. 71).


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Wednesday, November 23, 2022

November 23, 2022

the Blessed Mother takes care of us too. When she sees that we are in trouble and need help, she will ask Jesus to help us. And because Jesus loves Mary so much, He will do what she asks Him to do. 
                           (the catholic mother's helper, 1948)


Our Lord does not engage visibly in the external administration of His Church. He commits this duty to the charge of weak and erring men, with the assurance, however, of His guidance to them, and of our security in obeying them. "He that heareth you heareth me" (Luke x. 16). The Apostle says therefore, "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor. iv. 1). And again : God "hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. . . . For Christ therefore we are ambassadors, God as it were exhorting by us" (2 Cor. v. 18, 20). Men are the ministers of God towards men in all things, as ruling, teaching, giving daily bread, administering the divine gifts of justice, order, and truth; and in the spiritual sphere as conferring Baptism, and communicating the Holy Ghost, the bread of the word, and the bread of the Blessed Sacrament. It is in harmony with all this that confession of sin should be made to certain delegated men, and forgiveness conveyed through their ministry. The spirit of pride spoke in the Pharisees when they said, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (Luke v. 21). Our Lord, in asserting that power for Himself without declaring Himself to be God the Son, lays down the principle that underlies the practice of confession, viz., that God has the power to delegate men to convey His forgiveness of sins. Greater is this spiritual authority than that of all monarchs or leaders of men. Glorify "God who gave such power to men" (Matt. ix. 8).
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Tuesday, November 22, 2022

November 22, 2022


The same object may be looked at from different points of view. We may consider God objectively or from our subjective aspect, as He is in Himself or as He is towards us, as the Supreme Life or as our particular spiritual life, as the Infinite and Perfect who transcends all things, or as the source of our individual perfection and happiness. Parallel to the aspects of God are the aspects of sin. We may take it as an outrage against the Supreme Majesty and highest Law, or as the cause of personal evils, intense and eternal. Hence the two kinds of sorrow of sin, Contrition and Attrition. There is much in common be tween the two. Each is supernatural; each has the same ultimate object, viz., God as the source of the supernatural order and of salvation; each rests on motives made known by faith; each includes love, i.e., adhesion to Life and striving for its maintenance. But there are important differences between Contrition and Attrition. The one looks at sin from the point of view of God, the other from the point of view of man; the one looks to God directly in Himself, the other indirectly through our own hopes and fears; the one is inspired by love of the absolute infinite Life, the other by love of the communicated life which we possess; one is more disinterested, the other more personal. Contrition is primarily a love which leads to affliction: Attrition is an affliction which leads to love. You are happy if you have Attrition even; but aspire to the highest sorrow and love.
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Monday, November 21, 2022

November 21, 2022


Sorrow for sin is the first of the three elements in the Sacrament of Penance, and the most necessary, for it is the virtue of Penance reduced to action. Without true sorrow there can be no forgiveness of sin, and no validity in the sacramental forms; the confession, however accurate, is worthless; the sacred words of absolution are null and void; there is no sacrament, but sacrilege instead. Sin is primarily an act of the soul; consciousness and deliberate intent are necessary for responsibility; and conversely the action of the intelligence and will are the primary requirement for the reversal of sin; and without this action, any external ceremony is simply worthless, even though it be of divine institution like the sacrifices of the Jewish temple. Sorrow for sin is the human atonement to God; it is the best that man can offer: it is all that God strictly requires. Our sorrow is indeed defective and inefficacious by itself; but its union with the penance and atonement of Christ by means of the Sacrament of Penance, gives it a new value, and makes it available unto the remission of sin. Sorrow for sin is one of the great duties owing to God by man; it arises out of his offences, and should be proportioned to them. Cultivate a continual sense of your wickedness and of sorrow for it, and frequently bring it into union with Christ's atonement by means of the sacrament.
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Sunday, November 20, 2022

November 20, 2022


To understand the second effect of Penance, we must first consider one of the effects of sin. The loss caused by sin is not only that of present supernatural life and the possibility of meriting while in the state of sin, but also the loss of all the treasure of merits accumulated by past good works. All that is supernatural in the soul is ruined and lost, including all supernatural reward that had been earned. Sanctifying grace has gone, the possession of the Holy Ghost, the infused habits of Faith, Hope and Charity, the Cardinal Virtues. Sin, which is destructive of God in our souls, is destructive of all that is God-like in us of the supernatural order, and of all the consequences of our good deeds, except so far as the acquired facility of virtuous actions may aid us in turning to God by repentance. How terribly destructive is sin! What complete ruin it causes! What a squandering of precious treasures! How great will be the remorse of the soul in hell which realizes that it had done quite enough for heaven, and has neutralized it all, and sacrificed the beatitude already earned, for the sake of a few long-past moments of sinful enjoyment! "If the just man turn himself away from his justice and do iniquity, shall he live? All his justices which he hath done shall not be remembered. . . in the injustice that he hath wrought he shall die" (Ez. xviii. 24, 26). Let this increase your dread of sin.
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Saturday, November 19, 2022

November 19, 2022


The first effect of the Sacrament of Penance is the complete obliteration of mortal sin. This idea, so familiar, is exceptional in the economy of the universe, and is a reversal of the dominant law of cause and effect. In virtue of the law of the transformation of energy, every cause has its adequate effect. Some actions are fatal and final, and can never be reversed. Man can destroy life, and all the immense forces of the universe cannot restore it. God alone can recreate as He alone can create. Mortal sin is one of those fatally destructive forces; and its effect is irrevocable, except by a direct intervention of Omnipotence, to which there is no parallel in the simply natural order. Mortal sin sets up a permanent change in the soul, destroying the last germs of spiritual energy and life, as though a living tree were suddenly converted into charcoal. Without the God- Man, Jesus Christ, there could be no rehabilitation after original sin, or after one single act of mortal sin. Through Him, God has implanted a new source of energy and life in the human race; a new and dominant law comes into effect, which overrides the ordinary law of the universe for the sake of our happiness, which recalls the past, and undoes the fatal action of evil. Praise God for the mercy which surpasseth judgment and all His works (Ps. cxliv. 9).


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Friday, November 18, 2022

November 18, 2022


Penance has a further signification. It is a Sacrament in which God gives efficacy to our sentiments of Penance, and gives us assurance of pardon. One of our greatest requirements is repeated forgiveness for our daily sins, and the assurance of it. In accordance with other cases, these graces are given to us by God through certain outward observances, which remind us of our needs, indicate the nature of the grace accorded, compel us to make a definite effort, suggest the habits of mind that are required, impress our memory, and give us a certain moral assurance that the divine action and our action have been duly exercised. The Sacrament of Penance, like the other sacraments, has this further advantage, that it acts not merely in proportion to our dispositions, but with an additional efficacy implanted in it by the goodness of God. It gives us more definite and more efficacious graces of forgiveness than could be gained by the Jews of old in virtue of their repentance, or by those outside the Church, who do not know of the divine ordinance that supplements our imperfect dispositions, and gives a new value to our inadequate sorrow for sin. Admire the wise dispositions of Providence in giving us a sacrament, that is so harmonious with the rest of the divine system of religion, that conveys such important graces, and comforts us with full assurance that we enjoy the divine favour. Thank God for this gift.


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