Rev. Fr.
Leonard Goffine's
The Church's Year
INSTRUCTION
ON EASTER MONDAY
In the Introit of
this day's Mass, the Church compares the opening of the entrance
into heaven which has been effected by the death and Resurrection
of Christ, with the entrance of the chosen people of Israel into
the Promised Land, which was effected by Josue:
INTROIT
The Lord hath brought you into a land flowing with milk and honey,
alleluia: let then the law of the Lord be ever in your mouth, alleluia,
alleluia. (Exod: XIII.) Give glory to the Lord, and call upon his
name: publish his works among the Gentiles. (Ps. CIV.) Glory be
to the Father, &c.
COLLECT
O God, who by the Paschal solemnity, hast bestowed remedies on the
world, continue, we beseech Thee, Thy heavenly blessings on Thy
people, that they may deserve to obtain perfect liberty, and advance
towards eternal life. Through.
LESSON
(Acts, X. 37-43) In those days,
Peter standing up in the midst of the
people said: You know the word which hath
been published through all Judea: for
it began from Galilee, after the baptism
which John preached, Jesus of Nazareth:
how God anointed him with the Holy Ghost,
and with power, who went about doing good
and healing all that were oppressed by
the devil, for God was with him. And we
are witnesses of all things that he did
in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem,
whom they killed, hanging him upon a tree.
Him God raised up the third day, and gave
him to be made manifest, not to all the
people, but to witnesses pre-ordained
by God: even to us, who did eat and drink
with him after he rose again from the
dead. And he commanded us to preach to
the people, and to testify that it is
he who was appointed by God to be judge
of the living and of the dead. To him
all the Prophets give testimony, that
by his name all receive remission of
sins, who believe in him.
INSTRUCTION
St. Peter concludes his sermon on the Resurrection with the declaration,
that all who believe in Christ will through Him receive forgiveness
of their sins. To obtain this remission a faith actuated by love
is necessary, which will manifest itself in the exercise of good
works. Endeavor to have this faith, if you wish to obtain the forgiveness
of sin and eternal happiness, for without good works faith is dead,
and forgiveness of sin and eternal salvation are promised only to
those who possess an active faith.
GOSPEL
(Luke XXIV. 13-35.) At that time,
Two of the disciples of Jesus went the
same day to a town which was sixty furlongs
from Jerusalem, named Emmaus; and they
talked together of all these things which
had happened. And it came to pass, that
while they talked and reasoned with themselves,
Jesus himself also drawing near went with
them: but their eyes were held that they
should not know him. And he said to them:
what are these discourses that you hold
one with another as you walk, and are
sad And the one of them, whose name was
Cleophas, answering, said to him: Art
thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and
hast not known the things that have been
done there in these days? To whom he said:
What things? And they said: Concerning
Jesus of 'Nazareth, who was a prophet,
mighty in work and word before God and
all the people: and how our chief priests
and princes delivered him to be condemned
to death, and crucified him. But we hoped
that it was he that should have redeemed
Israel: and now besides all this today
is the third day since these things were
done. Yea and certain women also of our
company, affrighted us, who before it
was light, were at the sepulchre, and
not finding his body, came, saying that
they had also seen a vision of angels,
who say, that he is alive.
And
some of our people went to the,
sepulchre and found it so as the women
had said, but him they found not. Then
he said to them: O foolish, and slow of
heart to believe in all things which the
prophets have spoken ! Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, and so
to enter into his glory? And beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded
to them in all the scriptures the things
that were concerning him. And they drew
nigh to the town, whither they were going:
and he made as though he would go farther.
But they constrained him, saying: Stay
with us, because it is towards evening,
and the day is now far spent. And he went
in with them. And it came to pass, whilst
he was at table with them, he took bread,
and blessed and brake, and gave to them.
And their eyes were opened, and they knew
him: and he vanished out of their sight.
And, they said one to the other: Was not
our heart burning within us; whilst he
spoke in the way, and opened to us the
scriptures? And rising up the same hour
they, went back to Jerusalem: and, they
found the eleven gathered together, and
those that were with them, saying: the
Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared
to Simon. And they told what things were
done in the way: and how they knew him
in the breaking of bread.
Why
did Christ appear as a stranger to these two disciples?
Christ
conformed himself to their state of mind;
for these disciples, as it appears, did
not yet believe that He was God, although
He had often declared that He was; and
proved it beyond contradiction; they regarded
Him as a prophet and doubted His Resurrection.
They looked at Him up to this time only
with their outward eyes., that is, without
faith in His divinity, and therefore the
Saviour did not reveal Himself to their
soul. It is thus that God generally proceeds
towards us. He makes Himself known to
us and gives us His graces in proportion
to our faith, hope, love, and fidelity.
Then
Christ did not suffer voluntarily, but by compulsion, since He says:
Ought not Christ to have suffered?
Christ gave Himself voluntarily
up to death, as said by Isaias; (LIII. 7.) but at the same time
He was obliged to suffer, that the decree of His Father, and the
prophecies might be fulfilled; that our redemption, which required
the price of His death upon the cross, might be effected; and that
we might learn from His example to enter heaven by suffering.
How
did Christ expound the Scriptures to these disciples?
It
is probable that He showed them how His
passion and death were foretold and prefigured
in various ways; that He was sold like
Joseph, and that His scourging was prefigured
by the blood-stained coat of Joseph. He
probably drew their attention to the ram
which was ensnared in the thornbush, and
His crowning with thorns; He carried His
cross to Mount Calvary as Isaac, loaded
with the wood on which He was to be sacrificed;
was deprived of His clothes and derided
in His nakedness, as Noah by his son.
His crucifixion was prefigured by the
serpent Moses set up in the desert. The
animals prepared for sacrifice in the
Old Testament, and especially the Paschal
lamb, were types of Him, who, like them,
was killed and sacrificed on the cross,
without having His bones broken; finally,
Jonas who was three days in the whale
and then came forth again, imaged Christ's
death, burial; and resurrection. He showed
them, also, how clearly David and Isaias
foretold and described His passion.
Why
did Jesus appear to be going farther?
To give them an occasion
of showing their love for Him a stranger, whom they did not recognize
as God; and also to give them an opportunity of practicing a work
of charity, for it is pleasing to God that we hospitably invite
and entertain strangers. Thus did Abraham and Lot entertain angels
in the form of strangers, and saints in the New Testament have done
likewise to Christ Himself.
How
did the disciples recognize Him in the breaking of bead?
Because, as the holy Fathers
believe, He gave them then His sacred body as He did to the apostles
at the Last Supper, the description of which they had undoubtedly
heard.
What
else have we to learn from this gospel?
That when we have received
Christ at Easter in the Blessed Sacrament, we should beg Him to
stay with us, for the evening of our life draws near.
PETITION
O Jesus, the evening of our life: is drawing nearer and nearer:
remain with us by virtue and through the effects of Thy Blessed
Sacrament that we, who like the disciples going to Emmaus, are in
need of constancy and understanding, may have our faith strengthened
by Thy most holy body, become fixed in hope, and so united with
Thee in love that nothing can ever again separate us from Thee.
Amen:
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