Prosper Guéranger: His Visible Presence would have Checked the Generosity of Our Faith Wednesday, May 23 2012

Let us see what effects the mystery of the Ascension has produced on this land of our exile. These effects are of the most extraordinary nature.

[...] Our Saviour Himself explains it to us, by the words He spoke to His apostles after the last Supper: “It is,” said He, “expedient to you that I go.”

What means this, but that there is something more advantageous to us than having Him visibly present amongst us?

This mortal life is not the time for seeing and contemplating Him, even in His human Nature. To know Him, and relish Him, even in His human Nature, we stand in need of a special gift; it is faith.

Now, faith in the mysteries of the Incarnate Word did not begin its reign upon the earth, until He ceased to be visible here below.
Who could tell the triumphant power of faith? St. John gives it a glorious name; he says: “It is the victory which overcometh the world.”

It subdued the world to our absent King; it subdued the power and pride and superstitions of paganism.

It won the homage of the earth for Him who has ascended into heaven, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, Jesus.

[...] The departure of our Emmanuel was…the opening of that reign of faith, which is to prepare us for the eternal vision of the sovereign Good.

And this blessed faith, which is our very life, gives us, at the same time, all the light compatible with our mortal existence, for knowing and loving the Word consubstantial with the Father, and for the just appreciation of the mysteries which this Incarnate Word wrought here below in His Humanity.

It is now eighteen hundred years since He lived on the earth; and yet we know Him better than His disciples did before His Ascension.

Oh! Truly it was expedient for us that He should go from us; His visible presence would have checked the generosity of our faith.

And it is our faith alone that can bridge over the space which is to be between Himself and us until our ascension comes, and then we shall enter within the veil.

[...] Glory, then, and thanks to Thee O Jesus, who to console us in Thine absence, hast given us faith, whereby the eye of our soul is purified, the hope of our heart is strengthened, and the divine realities we possess tell upon us in all their power!

Preserve within us this precious gift of Thy gratuitous goodness; give it increase; and when our death comes—that solemn hour which precedes our seeing Thee face to face—Oh, give us the grand fullness of our dearest faith!

Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875): The Liturgical Year @ The Traditional Latin Mass in Michiana (which contains a fuller version of this reflection, in addition to other related and beautifully presented material).

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Leo the Great: That Which Before was Visible of Our Redeemer was Changed into a Sacramental Presence Sunday, May 20 2012

Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the fortieth day after the Resurrection in the presence of the disciples, was raised into heaven, and terminated His presence with us in the body, to abide on the Father’s right hand….

And so that which till then was visible of our Redeemer was changed into a sacramental presence.

So that faith might be more excellent and stronger, sight gave way to doctrine, the authority of which was to be accepted by believing hearts enlightened with rays from above.

This faith, increased by the Lord’s Ascension and established by the gift of the Holy Ghost…cast out spirits, drove off sicknesses, raised the dead.

Through it the blessed Apostles themselves also, who had…been panic-stricken by the horrors of the Lord’s Passion and had not accepted the truth of His resurrection without hesitation, made such progress after the Lord’s Ascension that everything which had previously filled them with fear was turned into joy.

For they had lifted the whole contemplation of their mind to the Godhead of Him that sat at the Father’s right hand.

And they were no longer hindered by the barrier of corporeal sight from directing their minds’ gaze to That Which had never quitted the Father’s side in descending to earth, and had not forsaken the disciples in ascending to heaven.

The Son of Man and Son of God, therefore, dearly-beloved, then attained a more excellent and holier fame, when He betook Himself back to the glory of the Father’s Majesty….

A better instructed faith then began to draw closer to a conception of the Son’s equality with the Father without the necessity of handling the corporeal substance in Christ whereby He is less than the Father.

For, while the Nature of the glorified Body still remained the faith of believers was called upon to touch not with the hand of flesh, but with the spiritual understanding the Only-begotten, Who was equal with the Father.

Hence comes that which the Lord said after His Resurrection, when Mary Magdalene, representing the Church, hastened to approach and touch Him:  Touch Me not, for I have not yet ascended to My Father.

It was as if He had said: “I would not have you come to Me as to a human body, nor yet recognize Me by fleshly perceptions:  I put thee off for higher things, I prepare greater things for thee.

“When I have ascended to My Father, then thou shalt handle Me more perfectly and truly, for thou shalt grasp what thou canst not touch and believe what thou canst not see.”

Leo the Great (c.400-461): Sermon 74, 2-4.

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Thomas Aquinas: Jesus the Pioneer and Perfecter of Our Faith Tuesday, Apr 3 2012

… looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).

For He is the author [pioneer] of faith in two ways: first, by teaching it by word: ‘He has spoken to us by His Son’ (Heb. 1:2); ‘The only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him’ (Jn. 1:18);

Secondly, by impressing it on the heart: ‘Unto you it is given for Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him’ (Phil 1:29).

Likewise, He is the finisher [perfecter] of our faith in two ways: in one way by confirming it through miracles: ‘If you do not believe me, believe the works’ (Jn. 10:32);

And in another way by rewarding faith. For since faith is imperfect knowledge, its reward consists in perfectly understanding it: ‘I will love him and will manifest myself to him’ (Jn. 14:21).

This was signified by Zechariah (4:9) where it says: ‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of his house,’ namely, the Church, whose foundation is faith, ‘and his hands shall finish it.’

For the hands of Christ, Who descended from Zerubbabel, founded the Church and will finish the faith in glory: ‘We see now through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12);

‘Contemplation is the reward of faith, by which reward our hearts are cleansed through faith,’ as is says in Acts (15:9): ‘purifying their hearts by faith.’ (Augustine, On the Trinity, c. 10).

Three things should be considered in the passion of Christ: first, what He despised; secondly, what He endured; thirdly, what he merited.

As to the first he says, ‘who for the joy set before him endured the cross.’ That joy was earthly joy, for which He was sought by the crowd, when they wished to make Him king; but He scorned it by fleeing into the mountain (Jn. 6:15); [...] For having set before him the joy of eternal life as a reward, he endured the cross.

This is the second thing He endured, namely, the cross: ‘He humbled himself, being made obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross’ (Phil 2:8).

In this is shown the bitterness of His torment, because His hands and feet were nailed to the cross; and the shame and ignominy of His death, because this was the most shameful of deaths: ‘Let us condemn him to a most shameful death’ (Wis. 2:20).

In regard to the third, namely, what He merited was to sit at the right hand of the Father; hence, he says, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

For the exaltation of Christ’s humanity was the reward of His passion: ‘He sits on the right hand of the majesty on high’ (Heb. 1:3).

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): Commentary on Hebrews, cap. 4, lect.1.

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Gregory of Nyssa: Moses Entered Into the Darkness and There He Saw God Sunday, Mar 11 2012

“Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was” (Exodus 20:21).

Moses entered into the darkness and there he saw God.

What does this signify? This present account seems in a way to con­tradict that of the first theophany.

Then God appeared in light, but now he appears in darkness.

Yet we must not imagine this to be at variance with our normal experience of spiritual con­templation.

By this statement the text teaches us that religious knowledge is first experienced as light.

All that is seen to be opposed to religion is darkness, and darkness vanishes when we receive the light.

But the more the mind advances and by ever increasing and more perfect application attains an intellec­tual comprehension of realities and approaches contemplation, the more clearly it sees that the divine nature is invisible.

Having left behind all appearances, not only those perceived by the senses but also those the intellect seems to see, it plunges ever deeper within itself, until by spiritual effort it penetrates to the invisible and the unknowable, and there it sees God.

This is the true knowledge of what is sought.

This is the seeing that consists in not seeing, because that which is sought transcends all knowledge, being separated on all sides by incomprehensibility as by a kind of darkness.

This is why John the contemplative, who had penetrated this luminous darkness, said that no one had ever seen God, declaring by this negation that the divine essence is beyond the reach not only of men but of every rational nature as well.

And so, when Moses had advanced in knowledge he declared that he saw God in the darkness, or in other words that he recog­nized that the Divinity is essentially that which transcends all knowledge and which no mind can apprehend.

The text says: Moses entered into the darkness where God was.

What God? He who has made the darkness his covering, as David declared, who had himself been initiated into the divine mysteries in that same sanctuary.

When Moses arrived there, he was taught by word what he had formerly learned from darkness, so that, I think, the doctrine on this matter may be made more firm for us by the witness of the divine voice.

The divine word at the beginning forbade that the Divine be likened to any of the things known by men, since every concept which comes from some comprehensible image constitutes an idol of God and does not proclaim God.

Gregory of Nyssa (c 335 – after 394): The Life of Moses, 2.162-66; from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Friday of the Second Week in Lent, Year 2.

 

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John Henry Newman: The Creator Spirit Changes the Self-Satisfied Pharisee into the Broken-Hearted Publican Monday, Feb 20 2012

It is the ignorance of our understanding, it is our spiritual blindness, it is our banishment from the presence of Him who is the source and the standard of all Truth, which is the cause of this meagre, heartless religion of which men are commonly so proud.

Had we any proper insight into things as they are, had we any real apprehension of God as He is, of ourselves as we are, we should never dare to serve Him without fear, or to rejoice unto Him without trembling.

And it is the removal of this veil which is spread between our eyes and heaven, it is the pouring in upon the soul of the illuminating grace of the New Covenant, which makes the religion of the Christian so different from that of the various human rites and philosophies, which are spread over the earth.

[...] That awful Creator Spirit, of whom the Epistle of this day speaks so much, He it is who brings into religion the true devotion, the true worship, and changes the self-satisfied Pharisee into the broken-hearted, self-abased Publican.

It is the sight of God, revealed to the eye of faith, that makes us hideous to ourselves, from the contrast which we find ourselves to present to that great God at whom we look.

It is the vision of Him in His infinite gloriousness, the All-holy, the All-beautiful, the All-perfect, which makes us sink into the earth with self-contempt and self-abhorrence.

We are contented with ourselves till we contemplate Him. Why is it, I say, that the moral code of the world is so precise and well-defined? Why is the worship of reason so calm?

Why was the religion of classic heathenism so joyous? Why is the framework of civilized society all so graceful and so correct?

Why, on the other hand, is there so much of emotion, so much of conflicting and alternating feeling, so much that is high, so much that is abased, in the devotion of Christianity?

It is because the Christian, and the Christian alone, has a revelation of God; it is because he has upon his mind, in his heart, on his conscience, the idea of one who is Self-dependent, who is from Everlasting, who is Incommunicable.

He knows that One alone is holy, and that His own creatures are so frail in comparison of Him, that they would dwindle and melt away in His presence, did He not uphold them by His power.

[...] He knows that there is just One Being, in whose hand lies his own happiness, his own sanctity, his own life, and hope, and salvation.

John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890): Sermons Preached on Various Occasions 2: The Religion of the Pharisee, the Religion of Mankind.

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Gregory the Great: Jacob Contending with the Angel Represents the Soul who in Contemplation has Come Face to Face with God with God Wednesday, Feb 1 2012

The pursuit of the contemplative life is something for which a great and sustained effort on the part of the powers of the soul is required:

an effort to rise from earthly to heavenly things,

an effort to keep one’s attention fixed on spiritual things,

an effort to pass beyond and above the sphere of things visible to the eyes of flesh.

[...] There are times indeed when one succeeds, overcoming the opposing obscurity of one’s blindness and catching at least a glimpse, be it ever so fleeting and superficial, of boundless light.

But the experience is momentary only, so that all too quickly the soul must again return to itself.

[...] We have a beautiful illustration of all this in the sacred history of the Scriptures where the story is told of Jacob’s encounter with the angel, while on his return journey to the home of his parents.

On the way he met an angel with whom he engaged in a great struggle and, like anyone involved in such a contest, Jacob found his opponent, now stronger, now weaker than himself.

Let us understand the angel of this story as representing the Lord, and Jacob who contended with the angel as representing the soul of the perfect individual who in contemplation has come face to face with God.

This soul, as it exerts every effort to behold God as he is in himself, is like one engaged with another in a contest of strength.

At one moment it prevails so to speak, as it gains access to that boundless light and briefly experiences in mind and heart the sweet savour of the divine presence.

The next moment, however, it succumbs, overcome and drained of its strength by the very sweetness of the taste it has experienced.

The angel, therefore, is, as it were, overcome when in the innermost recesses of the intellect the divine presence is directly experienced and seen.

Here, however, it is to be noted that the angel, when he could not prevail over Jacob, touched the sciatic muscle of Jacob’s hip, so that it forthwith withered and shrank. From that time on Jacob became lame in one leg and walked with a limp.

[...] Previously we walked about on two feet, as it were, when we thought, so it seemed, that we could seek after God while remain­ing at the same time attached to the world.

But having once come to the knowledge and experience of the sweetness of God, only one of these two feet retains its life and vigour, the other becoming lame and useless.

For it necessarily follows that the stronger we grow in our love for God alone, the weaker becomes our love for the world.

Gregory the Great (c.540-604): Homilies on Ezekiel, 1.12 (PL 76:955) from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Thursday of the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year 2.

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Jerome: With Unveiled Faces We Contemplate the Glory of the Lord and are Transformed into the Likeness of Our Creator Tuesday, Nov 22 2011

The glory of the God of Israel enters by the East Gate through which it departed when the anger of the Lord struck the city.

It enters, or, rather, it returns to it, for this glory was the distinguishing mark of the Lord’s Temple on the mountain.

Yet something much greater follows: The Spirit of the Lord lifted me up and brought me into the outer court. And behold, the house of the Lord was filled with his glory.

First the glory of the Lord merely entered; now the fullness of the glory is said to be in the Temple.

Of this glory Isaiah wrote: I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and lifted up.

Our house is full of this glory when with unveiled faces we contemplate the glory of the Lord, and are transformed into the likeness of our Creator.

The voice of the Lord was like the sound of many waters – like the sound of many peoples throughout the world, or like the voice of an army, or of multitudes massing together as the hosts of heaven come to know the mysteries of God.

In another place it is said: The chariots of God are thousands upon thousands.

The heavenly hosts, the thousands upon thousands, all make the same utterance since all are united in the praise of God.

To the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit they sing: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; heaven and earth are full of his glory.

And the earth shone with his glory.

This was only really fulfilled in the coming of Christ when the preaching of the Apostles went forth through all the earth, and their words to the utmost bounds of the world.

It is daily fulfilled in believers, and will come to perfection when this corrupt nature puts on incorruption and this mortal nature is clothed with immortality.

I heard someone speaking to me from within the Temple.

This must surely have been the Lord, for who else could have said, Son of man, this is the place of my throne, the place where I set my feet, and where I shall dwell among the Israelites forever, but he who dwells in the Church, in the midst of the Israel that recognises the Lord, and who will dwell there, not only for a time, as he did in the Temple of Solomon, but forever.

And his dwelling-place, writes the Psalmist, will be peace, that peace which passes all understanding.

Jerome (347-420): Commentary on Ezekiel (PL 25:434-437); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Friday of Week 34 in Ordinary Time, Year 1

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Evagrius the Solitary: If You are able to Endure Patiently, You will Always Pray with Joy Tuesday, Oct 11 2011

(NB, in Greek-speaking theology, nous [together with the adjective noetic] refers to understanding, the heart, the eye of the heart, with connotations of vision and contemplation.)

If you desire to pray as you ought, do not sadden any soul, otherwise you are running in vain (cf. Gal 2:2, Phil 2:16).

“Leave your gift,” it says, before the altar, and first go away and be reconciled to your brother; (Mt 5:24) and after that you will be able to pray without disturbance.

For memory of injury blinds the mind of one who prays, and darkens his prayers.

Those who heap up sorrow and memory of injury within themselves, and then expect to pray, are like people who draw water and pour it into a perforated wine-jar.

If you are able to endure patiently, you will always pray with joy.

[...] When on occasion an angel stands for us, then all who stand against us immediately vanish, and the nous is found greatly relieved, praying soundly.

But at other times, when the usual battle is raging against us, the nous lashes out and is not permitted any concessions; for it has been prematurely aroused by the various passions.

Nevertheless, if it goes on seeking, it will find, and if it knocks vigorously, the door will be opened (Mt 7:7).

Do not pray that what you will should be done, because your will is not in full harmony with the will of God. Pray instead as you were taught, saying, Let your will be done in me (cf Mt 6:10, 24:2).

And in all matters ask of him in this way that his will be done.  He wills only what is good and profitable for the soul; but that is not always what you seek.

I have often prayed, requesting that something I thought was good for me be done for me, insisting on my request, and irrationally attempting to force God’s will.

And thus I did not leave it to him who knows what is profitable to arrange (cf 1Cor 10:23).

And when I eventually received what I asked for, I was very sorry I had asked for my own choice; for the matter did not turn out as I had imagined.

[...] Do not become distressed if you do not receive at once from God your request; he wishes to benefit you even more as you continue steadfastly in prayer (Rom 12:12).   For what is higher than enjoying conversation with God and being taken up with conversational intercourse with him?

Undistracted prayer is the highest noetic activity of the nous.

Prayer is the ascent of the nous to God.

Evagrius Ponticus (345-399): On Prayer, 21-36, translated by Luke Dysinger OSB.

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Athanasius of Alexandria: “Blessed Are the Pure in Heart, for They Shall See God” Wednesday, Sep 28 2011

Evil has not existed from the beginning, even now it is not found amongst the holy ones.

But it was men who began to conceive of it and imagine it in their own likeness.

Hence they fashioned for themselves the notion of idols, considering non-existent things as real.

For God, the Creator of the universe and King of all, who is beyond all being and human thought, made mankind in his own image through his own Word, our Saviour Jesus Christ;

and he also made man perceptive and able to understand reality through his similarity to him, giving him also a knowledge of his own eternity.

As long as he kept this likeness he would never abandon the concept of God or leave the company of the holy ones.

Retaining the grace bestowed on him by God and also the special power given him by the Father’s Word, man could rejoice and converse with God, living an idyllic and truly blessed and immortal life.

For having no obstacle to the knowledge of the divine, man could continuously contemplate in his purity the image of the Father, God the Word, in whose image he himself was made;

he could be filled with admiration in grasping divine providence towards the universe.

Man in this state would be superior to sensual things, and by the power of his mind could cling to the divine and intelligible realities in heaven.

For when the mind of man has no intercourse with the body, and has nothing of the latter’s desires mingled with it from outside but is entirely superior to them, it is self-sufficient as it was created in the beginning.

It then transcends the senses and all human things and it rises high above the world; it beholds the Word and sees in him also the Father of the Word.

It rejoices in con­templating him and is renewed by its desire for him, just as the holy Scriptures say that the first man to be created, who was called Adam in Hebrew, had his mind fixed on God in unembarrassed frankness.

[...] Indeed the purity of the soul makes it able to contemplate even God by itself, as the Lord himself said Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

[...] But men, con­temptuous of the better things, sought rather what was closer to themselves – and what was closer to them was the body and its sensations.

So they turned their minds away from intelligible reality and began to consider them­selves; they fell into selfish desires and preferred their own good to the contempla­tion of the divine.

[...] At the urging of the serpent he abandoned his thinking of God and began to consider himself.

Athanasius of Alexandria (c.293-373): Contra Gentes 2-3; from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Wednesday of the Twenty-Sixth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I.

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Teresa Benedicta of the Cross: I Will Remain With You Tuesday, Aug 9 2011

You reign at the Father’s right hand
In the kingdom of his eternal glory
As God’s Word from the beginning.

You reign on the Almighty’s throne
Also in transfigured human form,
Ever since the completion of your work on earth.

I believe this because your word teaches me so,
And because I believe, I know it gives me joy,
And blessed hope blooms forth from it.

For where you are, there also are your own,
Heaven is my glorious homeland,
I share with you the Father’s throne.

The Eternal who made all creatures,
Who, thrice holy, encompasses all being,
In addition has a silent, special kingdom of his own.

The innermost chamber of the human soul
Is the Trinity’s favorite place to be,
His heavenly throne on earth.

To deliver this heavenly kingdom from the hand of the enemy,
The Son of God has come as Son of Man,
He gave his blood as the price of deliverance.

In the heart of Jesus, which was pierced,
The kingdom of heaven and the land of earth are bound together.
Here is for us the source of life.

This heart is the heart of the triune Divinity,
And the center of all human hearts
That bestows on us the life of God.

It draws us to itself with secret power,
It conceals us in itself in the Father’s bosom
And floods us with the Holy Spirit.

This Heart, it beats for us in a small tabernacle
Where it remains mysteriously hidden
In that still, white host.

That is your royal throne on earth, O Lord,
Which visibly you have erected for us,
And you are pleased when I approach it.

Full of love, you sink your gaze into mine
And bend your ear to my quiet words
And deeply fill my heart with peace.

Yet your love is not satisfied
With this exchange that could still lead to separation:
Your heart requires more.

You come to me as early morning’s meal each daybreak.
Your flesh and blood become food and drink for me
And something wonderful happens.

Your body mysteriously permeates mine
And your soul unites with mine:
I am no longer what once I was.

You come and go, but the seed
That you sowed for future glory, remains behind
Buried in this body of dust.

A luster of heaven remains in the soul,
A deep glow remains in the eyes,
A soaring in the tone of voice.

There remains the bond that binds heart to heart,
The stream of life that springs from yours
And animates each limb.

How wonderful are your gracious wonders!
All we can do is be amazed and stammer and fall silent
Because intellect and words fail.

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942): I Will Remain With You; Copyright ICS Publications. Permission is hereby granted for any non-commercial use, if this copyright notice is included. Maintained by the Austrian Province of the Teresian Carmel

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