Fulgentius of Ruspe: Through Christ We Offer Our Sacrifice of Praise to God Thursday, Jan 19 2012

Through the mystery of the Incarnation, Jesus Christ became man, the mediator of God and man.

He is a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.

By shedding his own blood he entered once and for all into the Holy Places.

He did not enter a place made by human hands, a mere type of the true one.

Rather, he entered heaven itself, where he is at God’s right hand interceding for us.

Quite correctly, the Church continues to reflect this mystery in her prayer.

This mystery of Jesus Christ the high priest is reflected in the apostle Paul’s statement:

Through him, then, let us always offer the sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of lips that profess belief in his name.

We were once enemies of the Father, but have been reconciled through the death of Christ.

Through him then we offer our sacrifice of praise, our prayer to God.

He became our offering to the Father, and through him our offering is now acceptable.

It is for this reason that Peter the apostle urges us to be built up as living stones into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.

This then is the reason why we offer prayer to God our Father, but through Jesus Christ our Lord.

When we speak of Christ’s priesthood, what else do we mean than the incarnation?

Through this mystery, the Son of God, though himself ever remaining God, became a priest. To him along with the Father, we offer our sacrifice.

Yet, through him the sacrifice we now offer is holy, living and pleasing to God.

Indeed, if Christ had not sacrificed himself for us, we could not offer any sacrifice.

For it is in him that our human nature becomes a redemptive offering.

When we offer our prayers through him, our priest, we confess that Christ truly possesses the flesh of our race.

Clearly the Apostle refers to this when he says: Every high priest is taken from among men.

He is appointed to act on behalf of these same men in their relationship to God; he is to offer gifts and sacrifices to God.

We do not, however, only say “your Son” when we conclude our prayer.

We also say, “who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit”.

In this way we commemorate the natural unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It is clear, then, that the Christ who exercises a priestly role on our behalf is the same Christ who enjoys a natural unity and equality with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Fulgentius of Ruspe (462/467—527/533): Epist. 14, 36-37 (CCL 92, 429-431) from the Office of Readings for Thursday in the 2^nd week of Ordinary Time @ Crossroads Initiative.

 

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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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John Henry Newman: The Prophet Elisha and the Comfortable Christian Doctrine of the Communion of Saints Monday, Aug 8 2011

Next I observe on the especial communion, or (as I may call it) citizenship, which Elisha enjoyed with the unseen world.

Elijah thought himself solitary, though he was not so; the world invisible was hid from him.

Though ministered to by Angels, though sustained miraculously by Almighty God, yet, like St. John Baptist, when he sent to ask Christ, Art Thou He that should come? he seemed to himself one against many.

But Elisha had the privilege of knowing that he was one of a great host who were fighting the Lord’s battles, though he might be solitary on earth.

To him was revealed in its measure the comfortable Christian doctrine of the Communion of Saints. His eyes were purged to see sights which the world could not see….

Hear Elijah’s words—I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away (1 Kings 19:10).

On the other hand, when Elisha’s servant, on finding the host of the Syrians round about them, said to the Prophet, Alas! my master, how shall we do? Elisha answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them (2 Kings 6:15-17).

And then he besought Almighty God to give to his servant for an instant a glimpse of that glorious vision which he in faith, or by inspiration, enjoyed continually.

He prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

How well does this vision correspond to that blessed privilege which, as the Apostle assures us, is conferred upon us Christians:

Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,

and to an innumerable company of Angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all,

and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant,

and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel!

An innumerable company of Angels, and the Spirits of the just;—we dwell under their shadow; we are baptized into their fellowship; we are allotted their guardianship; we are remembered, as we trust, in their prayers.

We dwell in the very presence and court of God Himself, and of His Eternal Son our Saviour, who died for us, and rose again, and now intercedes for us before the Throne.

We have privileges surely far greater than Elisha’s; but of the same kind.

John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890): Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 13. Elijah a Type of Christ and His Followers.

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Benedict XVI: Inexhaustible Font of Life That Unceasingly Gives Itself Monday, Jun 20 2011

Following Eastertide, which culminates with the feast of Pentecost, the liturgy foresees these three solemnities of the Lord…:

the Most Holy Trinity; on Thursday, that of Corpus Domini, which, in many countries, Italy among them, is celebrated next Sunday; finally, on Friday in two weeks, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Each one of these liturgical observances manifests a perspective from which the whole mystery of the Christian faith is embraced:

respectively, the reality of God one and three, the sacrament of the Eucharist and the divine-human center of the Person of Christ.

They are in truth aspects of the one mystery of salvation, which, in a certain sense, summarize the whole path of the revelation of Jesus, from the incarnation to the death and resurrection to the ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Today we contemplate the Most Holy Trinity as it was made know to us by Jesus.

He revealed to us that God is love “not in the unity of a single person, but in the Trinity of a single substance” (Preface):

the Trinity is Creator and merciful Father; Only Begotten Son, eternal Wisdom incarnate, dead and risen for us; it is finally the Holy Spirit, who moves everything, cosmos and history, toward the final recapitulation.

Three Persons who are one God because the Father is love, the Son is love, the Spirit is love. God is love and only love, most pure, infinite and eternal love.

The Trinity does not live in a splendid solitude, but is rather inexhaustible font of life that unceasingly gives itself and communicates itself.

[...] All comes from love, tends toward love, and is moved by love, naturally, according to different grades of consciousness and freedom: “O Lord, our Lord, how wondrous is your name over all the earth!” (Psalm 8:2)….

[...] “In him,” St. Paul says, on the Areopagus in Athens, “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

The strongest proof that we are made in the image of the Trinity is this: only love makes us happy, because we live in relation, and we live to love and be loved.

[...] The Virgin Mary, in her docile humility, made herself the handmaid of divine Love: she accepted the will of the Father and conceived the Son by the work of the Holy Spirit.

In her omnipotence made a temple worthy of himself, and made her the model and image of the Church, mystery and house of communion for all men.

May Mary, mirror of the Most Holy Trinity, help us to grow in the faith of the Trinitarian mystery.

Benedict XVI (b. 1927): Trinity Sunday Angelus Address, June 7^th, 2009 (translation by Zenit).

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Maximus of Turin: If a Thief Could Receive the Grace of Paradise, How Could a Christian Be Refused Forgiveness? Sunday, May 22 2011

Christ is risen! He has burst open the gates of hell and let the dead go free.

He has renewed the earth through the members of his Church now born again in Baptism, and has made it blossom afresh with men brought back to life.

His Holy Spirit has unlocked the doors of heaven, which stand wide open to receive those who rise up from the earth.

[...] In one and the same movement our Saviour’s Passion raises men from the depths, lifts them up from the earth, and sets them in the heights.

Christ is risen! His rising brings life to the dead, forgiveness to sinners, and glory to the saints.

And so David the prophet summons all creation to join in celebrating the Easter festival: Rejoice and be glad, he cries, on this day which the Lord has made.

The light of Christ is an endless day that knows no night.

Christ is this day, says the Apostle; such is the meaning of his words: Night is almost over; day is at hand.

He tells us that night is almost over, not that it is about to fall.

By this we are meant to understand that the coming of Christ’s light puts Satan’s darkness to flight, leaving no place for any shadow of sin.

His everlasting radiance dispels the dark clouds of the past and checks the hidden growth of vice.

The Son himself is the day to whom The Day, his Father, communicates the mystery of his Divinity.

He it is who says through the mouth of Solomon, I have caused an unfailing light to rise in heaven.

And as in heaven no night can follow day, so no sin can overshadow the justice of Christ.

The celestial day is perpetually bright and shining with brilliant light; clouds can never darken its skies.

In the same way, the light of Christ is eternally glowing with luminous radiance, and can never be extinguished by the darkness of sin.

This is why John the Evangelist says: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to overpower it.

And so, my friends, each of us ought surely to rejoice on this holy day.

Let no one, conscious of his sinfulness, withdraw from our common celebration, nor let anyone be kept away from our public prayer by the burden of guilt.

Sinner one may indeed be, but no one must despair of pardon on this day which is so highly privileged.

For if a thief could receive the grace of Paradise, how could a Christian be refused forgiveness?

Maximus of Turin (d. between 408 and 423): Sermon 53, 1-2 (CCL 23:214-216); from the Office of Readings for Sunday of the 5^th week of Easter @ Crossroads Initiative.

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Rupert of Deutz: “He has Made Us a Royal Race of Priests to the Honour of God His Father” Thursday, May 5 2011

He has made us a royal race of priests to the honour of God, his Father.

In this text Scripture shows us Christ’s marvellous kindness and condescension.

[...] When Christ bought us at such great cost to himself – at the cost indeed of his most precious blood – it was not with the intention of making us his slaves.

His purpose was to create a royal race of priests to the honour of God his Father.

We were to be his Father’s kingdom, and priests in the service of God.

He alone was King and Priest in his own right, yet he resolved to make kings of the slaves of sin and priests of the ­children of death.

To that end he shed his blood.

O Lord our God, how wonderful is your name, how wonderful the ­majesty and honour with which you have crowned the Lord Jesus as King of kings!

You have set on his head the crowns of all those ­kings who form your kingdom, for yours is a kingdom of kings, resplendent in their regalia, each consecrated to you by the blood of Christ.

We are also told that he has made us priests who share in that sacrifice by which Christ himself triumphed over the devil and so destroyed the dominion of sin.

We do not all possess the fullness of the priesthood here on earth, with the power to bring about the real presence of our Lord’s body and blood by pronouncing the words of consecration.

But all of us are called to exercise a priestly function by offering ourselves to God according to that exhortation of the Apostle Paul:

I beseech you to present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him, since this is the service required of rational beings.

In no other way shall we be permitted to enter into the celestial Holy of Holies, by which I mean heaven itself.

In heaven the sacramental species of bread and wine, which constitute our present sacrifice, will find no place.

None of us, however, will ever lack matter for sacrifice there.

Our lips will always be able to offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, a hymn of rejoicing and the proclamation of God’s mighty works.

Indeed the next verse from the Apocalypse supplies us with a model for such a heavenly sacrifice in the acclamation: Glory and power to him for ever and ever! Amen.

And this is certainly what the law of justice requires of us, namely, that creatures should return thanks and praise to their creator for all the benefits they have received.

Rupert of Deutz (c.1075–1129): Commentary on the Apocalypse, (PL 169:841-842); from the Monastic Office of Vigils for Monday of the Second Week in Eastertide, Year 1.

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Columba Marmion: Trusting in the Prayer of Jesus Our High Priest Monday, Mar 21 2011

On the day of his ascension Christ, the supreme high priest of the human race, having conferred on us a legal title, bears us up with him in hope to heaven.

We must never forget that it is only through him that we can gain entrance there.

No human being can penetrate the Holy of Holies except with him; no creature can enjoy eternal happiness except in the wake of Jesus; it is his precious merits that win us infinite bliss.

For all eternity we shall say to him, “Because of you, Jesus Christ, because of the blood you shed for us, we stand before God’s face.

“It is your sacrifice, your immolation, that wins our every moment of glory and happiness.

To you, the Lamb that was slain, be all honour and praise and thanksgiving!”

In this interval of time until Christ comes to fetch us as he promised, he is preparing a place for us, and above all he is supporting us by his prayer.

Indeed, what is our High Priest doing in heaven? The Letter to the Hebrews gives the answer: he has entered heaven in order to stand now in God’s presence our behalf.

His priesthood is eternal, and therefore eternal too is his work as mediator. How infinitely powerful is his influence!

There he stands before his Father, unceasingly offering him that sacrifice recalled by the marks of the wounds he has voluntarily retained; there he stands, alive for ever, ever interceding for us.

As high priest he is unfailingly heard, and for our sake he speaks again the priestly prayer of the last supper:

Father it is for them that I pray. They are in the world. Guard those whom you have given me. I pray for them, that they may have in themselves the ­fullness of joy. Father, I will that they may be with me where I am.

How could these sublime truths of our faith fail to inspire us with unwavering confidence?

People of scanty faith though we are, what have we to fear? And what may we not hope?

Jesus is praying for us, and praying always. Let us then trust absolutely in the sacrifice, the merits, and the prayer of our High Priest.

He is the beloved Son in whom the Father delights; how could he be refused a hearing, after showing his Father such love?

Father, look upon your Son. Through him and in him grant us to be one day where he is, so that through him and with him we may also render to you all honour and glory.

Columba Marmion (1858-1923): Christ in His Mysteries, 2.16.5; from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent, Year 1.

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Cyprian of Carthage: Let Him Who Dwells Within in Our Breast Himself Dwell in Our Voice Wednesday, Feb 16 2011

Jesus had foretold that the hour was coming “when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23).

And He fulfilled what He previously promised so that we who by His sanctification have received the Spirit and truth, may also by His teaching worship truly and spiritually.

For what can be a more spiritual prayer than that which was given to us by Christ, by whom also the Holy Spirit was given to us?

What praying to the Father can be more truthful than that which was delivered to us by the Son who is the Truth, out of His own mouth?

[...] Let us therefore, brethren beloved, pray as God our Teacher has taught us.

It is a loving and friendly prayer to beseech God with His own word, to come up to His ears in the prayer of Christ.

Let the Father acknowledge the words of His Son when we make our prayer, and let Him also who dwells within in our breast Himself dwell in our voice.

And since we have Him as an Advocate with the Father for our sins, let us, when as sinners we petition on behalf of our sins, put forward the words of our Advocate.

For since He says, that “whatsoever we shall ask of the Father in His name, He will give us” (John 16:23), how much more effectually do we obtain what we ask in Christ’s name, if we ask for it in His own prayer!

[...] Moreover, in His teaching the Lord has bidden us to pray in secret – in hidden and remote places, in our very bed-chambers.

This is best suited to faith, that we may know that God is everywhere present, and hears and sees all, and in the plenitude of His majesty penetrates even into hidden and secret places.

[...] And when we meet together with the brethren in one place, and celebrate divine sacrifices with God’s priest, we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline.

We are not to throw abroad our prayers indiscriminately, with unsubdued voices, nor to cast to God with tumultuous wordiness a petition that ought to be commended to God by modesty.

For God is the hearer, not of the voice, but of the heart.

Nor need He be clamorously reminded, since He sees men’s thoughts, as the Lord proves to us when He says “Why think ye evil in your hearts?” (Matt. 9:4).

And in another place: “And all the churches shall know that I am He that searcheth the hearts and reins” (Apoc. 2:23).

Cyprian of Carthage (d.258): On The Lord’s Prayer, 2-4.

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John Paul II: Salvation, Eucharist, Divinization, Communion with the Mystery of the Trinity Tuesday, Oct 5 2010

“Everyone knows with what love the Eastern Christians celebrate the sacred liturgy, especially the Eucharistic mystery, source of the Church’s life and pledge of future glory.

“In this mystery the faithful, united with their bishops, have access to God the Father through the Son, the Word made flesh who suffered and was glorified, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

“And so, made ‘sharers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4) they enter into communion with the most holy Trinity” (Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, 15).

These features describe the Eastern outlook of the Christian. His or her goal is participation in the divine nature through communion with the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

In this view the Father’s “monarchy” is outlined as well as the concept of salvation according to the divine plan, as it is presented by Eastern theology after Saint Irenaeus of Lyons and which spread among the Cappadocian Fathers.

Participation in Trinitarian life takes place through the liturgy and in a special way through the Eucharist, the mystery of communion with the glorified body of Christ, the seed of immortality.

In divinization and particularly in the sacraments, Eastern theology attributes a very special role to the Holy Spirit:

through the power of the Spirit who dwells in man deification already begins on earth; the creature is transfigured and God’s kingdom inaugurated.

The teaching of the Cappadocian Fathers on divinization passed into the tradition of all the Eastern Churches and is part of their common heritage.

This can be summarized in the thought already expressed by Saint Irenaeus at the end of the second century: God passed into man so that man might pass over to God.

This theology of divinization remains one of the achievements particularly dear to Eastern Christian thought.

On this path of divinization, those who have been made “most Christ-like” by grace and by commitment to the way of goodness go before us: the martyrs and the saints.

And the Virgin Mary occupies an altogether special place among them. From her the shoot of Jesse sprang (cf. Isaiah 11:1).

Her figure is not only the Mother who waits for us, but the Most Pure, who – the fulfillment of so many Old Testament prefigurations – is an icon of the Church, the symbol and anticipation of humanity transfigured by grace, the model and the unfailing hope for all those who direct their steps towards the heavenly Jerusalem.

John Paul II (1920-2005): Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen, 6.

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Jacob of Serugh: Now is the Time when the Door of the Great Physician is Opened Tuesday, Jun 22 2010

O thou who art wise,…suffer thy soul to have a care for her wounds and bind them up. Say to thy soul: “O thou soul, full of sores, now is the time for thee to receive a medicine for thy wounds”.

Now is the time for thee to pour out tears before Him who binds up, and He will apply mercy to thy disease which vexes thee.

Now is the time when the door of the Great Physician is opened, and He will bind up for naught; bring in thy sore that He may find a remedy for it.

Now is the hour for thee to lift up thy voice in supplication; for now the gates on high are opened to prayers.

Now is the hour when thou mayest entreat thy Creditor to come forth and cancel the note of hand that is terrifying thee.

Now is the hour when the Son of God is sacrificed and set forth upon the table for sinners, to pardon them.

Now is the hour when the doors and curtains give way, that the sacrifice may come in and mercy go forth for sinners.

[...] O thou soul, the ewe that fell among robbers, be quiet in the fold, full of healing for the broken.

Without the door the wolf is hiding and waiting for thee; anoint thy lips with the Blood of the Shepherd, and then go forth and despise him.

For the Bridegroom has come down and given thee His Body and sealed thee with His Blood: never shouldst thou go forth from the bride-chamber to them that are without.

The way of the world is full of snares and obstacles; the devils are standing on guard at the cross-roads of the earth; and they threaten the soul with rage to destroy it, and they thirst for her blood because of the virtues which are held within her.

And with all manner of pretexts and devices they lay snares for her to corrupt her from that virtue which belongs to her.

But thou, O soul, hast an armour and a wall, yea, and a Saviour who will not fail thee in the contest.

He keeps thee from the pitfalls of the enemy; and he will shew thee a way of life to walk therein.

He brings thee in before His Father, that thou mayest see His place; and He shews thee that He is a sacrifice on behalf of sinners.

Make thy petition in the name of the Son: offer it to His Father; and He will receive it for the sake of the sign of His Only-begotten.

Jacob of Serugh (c.451-521): On the Reception of the Holy Mysteries.

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