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
