Third Sunday after Easter, April 21, 2013

Third Sunday after Easter, April 21, 2013

Epistle 1 Peter 2: 11-19       Gospel John. 16: 16-22

            “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep . . . but your sorrow will be turned into joy . . . and your joy no man shall take from you.” That joy our Lord speaks of is the Hope of Christians.

            The holy man Job tells us that life is a continuous misery. Where do we see so much misery? Go down the street from house to house. In the first house they suffer the loss of their fortune, the result of an injustice. In the second, there’s a illness which confines a person to a bed of suffering. In the third, a wife is in sorrow because of a drinking and abusive husband. In the fourth house, a poor older couple have been thrown upon the charity of the world by their ungrateful children. In the next is a man accused of misdeeds which he did not commit. In the next is a family in deep sorrow because of a death of a child, a parent or grandparent. You will find the Cross of Christ wherever you look.

            If we look at life from a worldly standpoint it will seem miserable indeed. But if we look at life from the standpoint of our Faith, we see that we are miserable only so long as we brood over and complain about our troubles. Why? Because we allow our thoughts to drag us down and not carry us up. A poor man in the misery of his poverty will not think of those who are gravely ill and worse off than himself. No, he may think of those who are very wealthy, enjoying the pleasures of the world. This breeds envy and makes the poor man’s poverty and misery ten times worse. A man suffering a painful illness does not think of the souls in hell who suffer intense and eternal pain for their sins. Instead, he thinks about the lucky few who have never had a sick day in their lives, and so he considers his suffering unbearable.

What is the consequence of this? Our grumbling and complaining deprives us of all the merits which we might gain in heaven by offering our suffering to God in atonement for our sins along with our prayer for forgiveness. With this we have Hope, but it is our lack of submission to the will of God, our lack of confidence in God, that makes us so unhappy.

            Look up to heaven to see the good Father Who has a glorious mansion ready for you in His kingdom. God chastises us in order to heal the wounds which we inflict upon ourselves. God sends us suffering in order  to crown us with everlasting glory. Look to Blessed Job to learn how to pick up your Cross every day. Job lost all his possessions, a house fell on his children and killed them, fire from heaven destroyed most of his livestock and robbers drove off the rest. Job’s response was not despair, merely, “Alas, the hand of the Lord lies heavy upon me!” Deprived of everything, Job lay on a dunghill for years without any help or consolation, his body covered with sores. He was deserted even by his wife who mocked him: “Why don’t you pray to your God for death so you will be delivered from all this misery? Don’t you see how the God you served so faithfully now tortures you?” Job simply said to her, “ You speak foolishly. If we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not accept the bad?”

            Some might respond, “God is our Father and loves us with an infinite love. I cannot understand why He would send such suffering to us.” This is the same as asking, how is it possible that a father can chastise his own child or a physician give a bitter medicine to his patient? Do you think it’s better to allow a child to grow up unrestrained and without discipline or to punish his wrongdoing in order to lead him to virtue and through virtue to heaven? Or is it better for a physician to allow his patient to die rather than prescribe a bitter but lifesaving medicine? God must chastise us. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven would be only for those who suffer and fight until the end (Matthew 24: 13). He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, so when Jesus said that He spoke truly. We can persevere, we can stick to it, and all our lives we can take heart in the words of Christ at John 16: 33: “In this world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world.” +

Last Wednesday was the Feast of the Solemnity of St. Joseph and St. John Chrysostom in a sermon spoke about the virginal conception and about St. Joseph’s role in the Holy Family at that time. It was the custom in those days for betrothed brides to live in the house of their bridegroom, and it would seem Mary lived with Joseph then. This is not permitted today. But in this situation we can find an answer to the question: why didn’t the virginal conception take place before Mary was wedded? It was in order that the mystery of this would be kept hidden for a while, and that Mary might escape all danger of evil suspicion,  because their neighbors would naturally assume her conception took place in the normal manner in marriage.

Joseph  knew he and Mary were celibate, so he had a right, looking at this situation through the eyes of the world,  to be moved by jealousy at the father of the child. But Joseph did not look at the world this way at all. He saw everything through the eyes of his great faith, so he did not send his espoused away from him, and did not brand her with scandal, but took Mary as his own and cherished her after she had conceived.

St. Matthew tells as at Ch. 1, v. 19 that Joseph was a just man, and because he was a just man it is clear to us that he would not have kept Mary in his house or provided for her needs if he had not clearly known that she had conceived by the Holy Ghost.

Matthew brings testimony from another source to confirm the virginal conception. In case anyone would say, how can it be proved that Mary conceive by the Holy Ghost? Who saw it? Who even heard of such a thing happening?  It’s as if Matthew is saying: if you won’t believe me, then believe the grief of Joseph and what Joseph did afterwards which confirms the virginal conception.  

St. Matthew writes: “Joseph, her husband, being a just man . . .” To be just, as the word is used here, implies a full growth of righteousness which comes from loving and serving God with all our heart, all our mind and all our strength. It is because Joseph was just that he was of a mind to put Mary away privately. This was the grief of Joseph, that this unbelievable situation presented itself to him. While he was thinking about all this Joseph was told the secret of the virgin conception by an angel in a dream, in case anyone should have doubts about what he did after he knew the secret.

If Mary had sinned with another man she would have deserved to be denounced and punished under the authority of the Law of Moses, but St. Joseph, now knowing that the child she carried was by the Holy Ghost, loved and cared for Mary as his wife, not condemning or denouncing her.

We see in St. Joseph then a man full of spiritual understanding and free from the tyranny of suspicion. Joseph was so pure, and free from that kind of jealousy, that he would not cause Mary even the slightest grief. And although Joseph lived under the Law of the Old Covenant, his spiritual understanding was above that Law, because now that the Reign of Grace was approaching it was fitting that there should be a shining example of a more magnificent and holy spirituality than was commonly seen under the yoke of the Law of Moses.  +++

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass