By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 6.
Passiontide & Holy Week.
The Station at Rome is in the Church of Saint Stephen on Monte Celio.
By a sort of prophetic presentiment, this Church of the great Proto-Martyr was chosen as the place where the Faithful were to assemble on the Friday of Passion Week, which was to be, at a future time, the Feast Consecrated to The Queen of Martyrs.
The Epistle is taken from Jeremias, who is one of the most striking figures of the Messias persecuted by the Jews. It is on this account, that the Church selects from this Prophet so many of her [Editor: The Church’s] Lessons during during these two weeks that are Sacred to The Passion.
In the passage chosen for today’s Epistle, we have the complaint addressed to God by the Just man against those that persecute him; and it is in the name of Christ that he speaks. He says: “They have forsaken the Lord, the vein of Living Waters”. How forcibly do those words describe the malice, both of the Jews that crucified, and of sinners that still crucify, Jesus Christ Our Lord !
As to the Jews, they had forgotten the rock, whence came to them the Living Water which quenched their thirst in the desert; or, if they had not forgotten the history of this mysterious rock, they refused to take it as a type of the Messias.
And yet, they hear this Jesus crying out to them in the streets of Jerusalem, and saying: “If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and drink”. His virtues, His teachings, His miracles, the Prophecies that are fulfilled in His person, all claim their confidence in Him; they should believe every word He says.
But they are deaf to His invitation; and how many Christians imitate them in their obduracy ! How many there are, who once drank at the “vein of Living Waters”, and afterwards turned away, to seek to quench their thirst in the muddy waters of the World, which can only make them thirst the more !
This Friday of Passion Week is Consecrated in a special manner to the sufferings which the Holy Mother of God endured at the Foot of The Cross. The whole of next week is fully taken up with the celebration of the Mysteries of Jesus’ Passion; and although the remembrance of Mary’s share in those sufferings is often brought before the Faithful during Holy Week, yet, the thought of what her Son, our Divine Redeemer, goes through for our salvation, so absorbs our attention and love, that it is not then possible to honour, as it deserves, the sublime Mystery of the Mother’s “Compassion”.
It was but fitting, therefore, that one day in the year should be set apart for this Sacred Duty; And what day could be more appropriate than the Friday of this week, which, though Sacred to the Passion, admits the celebration of Saints’ Feasts, as we have already noticed ?
As far back as the 15th-Century (that is, in the year 1423), we find the pious Archbishop of Cologne, Theodoric, prescribing this Feast to be kept by his people. It was gradually introduced, and with the knowledge of the Holy See, into several other Countries; and, at length, in the last Century [Editor: Guéranger was referring to the 18th-Century], Pope Benedict XIII, by a Decree dated 22 August 1727, ordered it to be kept in the whole Church under the name of “The Feast of the Seven Dolours of The Blessed Virgin Mary”, for, up to that time, it had gone under various names.
We will explain the Title thus given to it, as also the first origin of the Devotion of the Seven Dolours, when our “Liturgical Year” brings us to the Third Sunday of September, the second Feast of Mary’s Dolours.
What The Church proposes to her children’s devotion for this Friday of Passion Week, is that one special Dolour of Mary — her standing at the Foot of The Cross.
Among the various Titles given to this Feast before it was extended by the Holy See to the whole Church, we may mention:
“Our Lady of Pity”;
“The Compassion of Our Lady”;
and the one that was so popular throughout France,
“Notre Dame de la Pamoison”.
These few historical observations prove that this Feast was dear to the devotion of the people even before it received the solemn sanction of The Church.
That we may clearly understand the object of this Feast, and spend it, as The Church would have us do, in paying due honour to The Mother of God and of men, we must recall to our minds this great truth: That God, in the designs of His Infinite Wisdom, has willed that Mary should have a share in the work of the World’s redemption.
The Mystery of the present Feast is one of the applications of this Divine Law, a Law which reveals to us the whole magnificence of God’s plan; it is, also, one of the many realisations of the Prophecy, that Satan’s pride was to be crushed by a woman.
In the work of our redemption there are three interventions of Mary; that is, she was thrice called upon to take part in what God Himself did:
The first of these was in the Incarnation of The Word, Who would not take flesh in her virginal womb until she had given her consent to becoming His Mother; and this she gave by that solemn “Fiat” which Blessed the World with a Saviour;
The second of these was in the sacrifice which Jesus consummated on Calvary, where she was present that she might take part in the expiatory offering;
The third of these was on the day of Pentecost, when she received The Holy Ghost, as did the Apostles,, in order that she might effectively labour in the establishment of The Church.
Mary, who is, by excellence, the valiant women [Proverbs xxxi. 10 . . .“A woman of noble character, who can find ? She is worth far more than rubies.”] was with Jesus as He carried His Cross.
And who could describe her anguish and her love, as her eye met that of her Son tottering under His heavy load ? Who could tell the affection and the resignation of the look He gave her in return ? Who could depict the eager and respectful tenderness wherewith Magdalene and the other holy women grouped around this Mother, as she followed her Jesus up to Calvary, there to see Him crucified and die ?
The distance between the Fourth Station of The Cross [Editor: “Jesus Is Met By His Blessed Mother”] and the Tenth Station of The Cross [Editor: “Jesus Is Stripped Of His Garments”] is long; it is marked with Jesus’ Blood, and with His Mother’s tears.
Jesus and Mary have reached the summit of the hill that is to be the Altar of the Holiest and Most Cruel Sacrifice: But the Divine Decree permits not the Mother as yet to approach her Son. When the Victim is ready, then she that is to offer Him shall come forward.
Meanwhile, they nail her Jesus to the Cross; and each blow of the hammer is a wound to Mary’s heart. When, at last, she is permitted to approach, accompanied by the Beloved Disciple and the disconsolate Magdalene and the other holy women, what unutterable anguish must have filled the Soul of this Mother, when raising up her eyes, she sees the mangled Body of her Son, stretched upon the Cross, with His face all covered with Blood, and His Head wreathed with a Crown of Thorns !
Mary, then, is at the foot of the Cross, there to witness the death of her Son. He is soon to be separated from her. In three hours’ time, all that will be left her of this Beloved Jesus will be a lifeless Body, wounded from head to foot.
Our words are too cold for such a scene as this: Let us listen to those of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, which The Church has inserted in her Matins of this Feast:
“O, Blessed Mother ! A Sword of Sorrow pierced thy Soul, and we may well call thee more than Martyr, for the intensity of thy compassion surpassed all that a bodily passion could produce.
“Could any Sword have made thee smart so much as that word which pierced thy heart, reaching unto the division of the Soul and the Spirit: “Woman ! Behold thy Son !”
“What an exchange ! John for Jesus ! The servant for the Lord ! The Disciple for The Master ! The son of Zebedee for The Son of God ! A mere man for The Very God !
“How must thy most loving heart have been pierced with the sound of those words, when even ours, that are hard as stone, break down as we think of them ! Ah ! My brethren, be not surprised when you are told that Mary was a Martyr in her Soul. Let him alone be surprised, who has forgotten that Saint Paul counts it as one of the greatest sins of the Gentiles, that they were without affection.
“Who could say that of Mary ?
“God forbid it be said of us, the servants of Mary !”
No comments:
Post a Comment