Please pray with me the ancient prayers of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on this special 9th Sunday after Pentecost which are perfectly gifted to us by the Holy Ghost for conflicts just such as these that our country faces now.
Pray that what happened to the city of Jerusalem does not happen to America, and that the people of America wake up and see this before it's too late.
INTROIT Behold,
God is my helper, and the Lord is the protector of my soul: turn back
the evils upon my enemies, and cut them off in thy truth, O Lord, my
protector. (Ps. LIII.) Save me, O God, by thy name, and deliver me in
thy strength. Glory
be to the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the
beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.
COLLECT Let
the ears of Thy mercy, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy
suppliants: and that Thou mayest grant them their desires, make them to
ask such things as please Thee.Through
Our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who livest and reignest with Thee, in
the unity of the Holy Spirit, God world without end, Amen.
EPISTLE (I
Cor. X. 6-13.) Brethren, Let us not covet evil things, as they also
coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them: as it is written:
The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let
us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there
fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ,
as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you
murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Now all these things happened to them in figure, and they are written
for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore
he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. Let
no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human: and God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are
able but will make also with temptation issue that you may be able to
bear it.
Can we sin by thought and desire?
Yes, if we desire
evil and forbidden things, or voluntarily think of them with pleasure,
for God prohibits not only evil deeds, but evil thoughts and desires
inregard to our neighbor's wife or goods. (Exod. XX. 17.) Christ says,
(Matt. V. 28.) that he who looks upon a woman with evil desire, has
already committed adultery. But wicked thoughts and imagination are
sinful only when a person consents to, or entertains them deliberately.
They become, however, an occasion of gaining merit, if we earnestly
strive against them. For this reason God sometimes permits even the just
to be tempted by them.
What is meant by tempting God?
Demanding
presumptuously a mark or sign of divine omnipotence, goodness or
justice. This sin is committed when without cause we desire that
articles of faith should be demonstrated and confirmed by a new miracle;
when we throw ourselves needlessly into danger of body or soul
expecting God to deliver us; when in dangerous illness the ordinary and,
natural remedies are rejected, and God's immediate assistance expected.
Is it a great sin to murmur against God?
That it is such
may be learned from the punishment which God inflicted on the murmuring
Israelites; for besides Kore, Dathan, and Abiron whom the earth
devoured, many thousands of them were consumed by fire; and yet these
had not murmured against God directly, but only against Moses and Aaron
whom God had placed over them as their leaders. From this it is seen
that God looks upon murmuring against spiritual and civil authority,
instituted by Him, as murmuring against Himself. Hence Moses said to the
Israelites: Your. murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord.
(Exod. XVI. 8.)
ASPIRATION Purify
my heart, I beseech. Thee; O Lord, from all evil thoughts and desires.
Let it never enter my mind to tempt Thee, or to be dissatisfied with Thy
fatherly dispensations. Suffer me not to be tempted beyond my strength,
but grant me so much fortitude, that I may overcome all temptations,
and even derive benefit from them for my soul's salvation.
GOSPEL (Luke
XIX. 41-47.) At that time, when Jesus drew near Jerusalem, seeing the
city, he wept over it, saying: If thou also hadst known, and that in
this thy day, the things that are to thy peace: but now they are hidden
from thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall
cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on
every side, and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are
in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone, because
thou hast not known the time of thy visitation. And entering into the
temple, he began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that
bought, saying to them: It is written, My house is the house of, prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves. And he was teaching daily in the
temple.
Why did our Saviour weep over the city of Jerusalem?
Because of the
ingratitude and obduracy of its inhabitants who would not receive Him as
their Redeemer, and who through impenitence were hastening to
destruction.
When was the time of visitation?
The period in
which God sent them one prophet after another who urged them to penance,
and whom they persecuted, stoned, and killed. (Matt. XXIII. 34.) It was
especially the time of Christ's ministry, when He so often announced
His salutary doctrine in the temple of Jersualem, confirmed it by
miracles, proving Himself to be the Messiah, the Saviour of the world,
but was despised and rejected by this hardened and impenitent city.
Who are prefigured by this hardened and impenitent city?
The hard-hearted,
unrepenting sinners who will not recognize the time of God's visitation,
in which He urges them by the mouth of His preachers, confessors, and
superiors, and by inward inspiration to reform their lives and seek the
salvation of their soul, but who give no ear to these admonitions, and
defer conversion to the end of their lives. Their end will be like to
that of this impious city; then the enemy, that is, the evil spirit,
will surround their soul, tempt, terrify, and drag it into the abyss of
ruin. Oh, how foolish it is to squander so lightly, the time of grace,
the days of salvation! Oh, how would the damned do penance, could they
but return to earth! Oh, how industriously would they employ the time to
save their soul! Use, then, my dear Christian, the time of grace which
God designs for you, and which, when it is run out or carelessly thrown
away, will not be lengthened for a moment.
Will God conceal from the wicked that which serves for their salvation?
No; but while they
are running after the pleasures of this life, as St. Gregory says, they
see not the misfortunes treading in their footsteps, and as
consideration of the future makes them uncomfortable in the midst of
their worldly pleasures, they remove the terrible thought far from them,
and thus run with eyes blindfolded in the midst of their pleasure into
eternal flames. Not God, but they themselves hide the knowledge of all
that is for their peace, and thus they perish.
ASPIRATION.
I beseech Thee, O Lord, who didst weep over the city of Jerusalem,
because it knew not the time of its visitation, to enlighten my heart,
that I may know and profit by the season of grace.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY AND TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM
Has our divine Savior's prophecy concerning, the city of Jerusalem been fulfilled?
Yes, and in the
most terrible manner. The Jews, oppressed by the Romans their cruel
masters, revolted, killed many of their enemies, and drove them out of
Jerusalem. Knowing well that this would not be permitted to pass
unavenged, the Jews armed themselves for a desperate resistance. The
Emperor Nero sent a powerful army under the command of Vespasian against
the city of Jerusalem, which first captured the smaller fortresses of
Judea, and then laid siege to the city. The want and misery of the
inhabitants had already reached the highest pitch; for within the city
ambitious men had caused conflicts; factions had been formed, daily
fighting each other, and reddening the streets with blood, while the
angry Romans stormed outside. Then a short time of respite was granted
to the unfortunate Jews. The Emperor Nero was murdered at Rome in the
year of our Lord 68; his successor Galba soon died, and the soldiers
placed their beloved commander Vespasian upon the imperial throne. He
then left Jerusalem with his army, but in the year he sent his son Titus
with a new army to Judea, with orders to capture the city at any price,
and to punish its inhabitants.
It was the time of
Easter, and a multitude of Jews had assembled from all provinces of the
land, when Titus appeared with his army before the gates of Jerusalem,
and surrounded the city. The supply of food was soon exhausted, famine
and pestilence came upon the city and raged terribly. The leader of the
savage revolutionists, John of Gischala, caused the houses to be
searched, and the remaining food to be torn from the starving, or to be
forced from them by terrible tortures: To save themselves from this
outrageous tyrant, the Jews took the leader of a band of robbers, named
Simon, with his whole gang into the city. John and Simon with their
followers now sought to annihilate each other. John took possession of
the temple. Simon besieged him; blood was streaming in the temple and in
the streets. Only when the battle-din of the Romans was heard from
without, did the hostile factions unite, go to meet the enemy, and
resist his attack. As the famine increased, many Jews secretly left the
city to seek for herbs. But Titus captured them with his cavalry, and
crucified those who were armed. Nearly five hundred men, and sometimes
more, were every day crucified in sight of the city, so that there could
not be found enough of crosses and places of execution; but even this
terrible sight did not move the Jews to submission. Incited by their
leaders to frenzy, they obstinately resisted, and Titus finding it
impossible to take the city by storm, concluded to surround it by walls
in order to starve the inhabitants. In three days his soldiers built a
wall of about ten miles in circumference, and thus the Saviour's
prediction was fulfilled: Thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee,
and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side.
The famine in this
unfortunate city now reached its most terrific height; the wretched
inhabitants searched the very gutters for food, and ate the most
disgusting things. A woman, ravenous from hunger, strangled her own
child, roasted it, and ate half of it; the leaders smelling the horrible
meal, forced a way into the house, and by terrible threats compelled
the woman to show them what she had eaten; she handed them the remaining
part of the roasted child, saying.: "Eat it, it is my child; I presume
you are not more dainty than a woman, or more tender than a mother."
Stricken with horror they rushed from the house. Death now carried away
thousands daily, the streets and the houses were full of corpses: From
the fourteenth of April when the siege commenced. to the first of July,
there were counted one hundred and fifty-eight thousand dead bodies; six
hundred thousand others were thrown over the walls into the trenches to
save the city from infection. All who could flee, fled; some reached
the camp of the Romans in safety; Titus spared the helpless, but all who
fell into his hands armed, were crucified. Flight offered no better
security. The Roman soldiers had learned that many Jews had swallowed,
gold to secure it from the avarice of the robbers, and therefore the
stomachs of many were cut open. Two thousand such corpses were found one
morning in the camp of the Romans. The attempts of Titus to prevent
this cruelty were unavailing. Finally, when misery had reached its
height, Titus succeeded in carrying the fort, Antonia, and with his army
forced a passage as far as the temple which had been held by John of
Gischala with his famous band. Desirous of saving the temple, Titus
offered the revolutionists free passage from it, but his proposition was
rejected, and the most violent contest then raged; the Romans trying to
enter the temple, and being continually repulsed, at last, one of the
soldiers seized a firebrand, and threw it into one of the rooms attached
to the temple. The flames in an instant caught the whole of the inner
temple, and totally consumed it, so that this prediction of our Lord was
also fulfilled. The Romans butchered all the inhabitants whom they met,
and Titus having razed the ruins of the temple and city, ploughed it
over, to indicate that this city was never to be rebuilt. During the
siege one million one hundred thousand Jews lost their lives;
ninety-seven thousand were sold as slaves, and the rest of the people
dispersed over the whole earth.
Thus God punished
the impenitent city and nation, over whose wretchedness the Saviour wept
so bitterly, and thus was fulfilled the prediction made by Him long
before.
What do we learn from this?
That as this
prediction so also all other threats and promises of the Saviour will be
fulfilled. The destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, the
dispersion of the Jews, are historical facts which cannot be denied, and
testify through all centuries to the truth of our Lord's word: Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matt.
XXIV. 35.)
USEFUL LESSONS CONCERNING DEATH-BED REPENTANCE
Can a sinner rely upon his being converted at the end of his life?
By no means, for
this would be a sin against the mercy of God which is much the same as
the sin against the Holy Ghost. "God," says St. Augustine, "generally so
punishes such negligent sinners, that in the end they forget
themselves, as in health they forgot Him." He says: They have turned
their back to me, and not their face: and in the time of their
affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us! Where are the gods whom
thou hast made thee? Let them arise and deliver thee in the time of thy
affliction. (Jer. II. 27-28.) And although we have a consoling example
in the case of the penitent thief, yet this, as St. Augustine says, is
only one, that the sinner may not despair: and it is only one, so that
the sinner may have no excuse for his temerity in putting off his
repentance unto the end.
What may we hope of those who are converted at the close of life?
Everything that is
good if they be truly converted, but this is a very rare thing, as St.
Augustine says: "It cannot be asserted with any security, that he who
repents at the end has forgiveness;" and St. Jerome writes: "Scarcely
one out of thousands whose life was impious, will truly repent at death
and obtain forgiveness of sin;" and St. Vincent Ferrer says, "For a man
who has lived an impious life to die a good death is a greater miracle
than the raising of the dead to life." We need not be surprised at this,
for repentance at the end of life is extorted by the fear of death and
the coming judgment. St. Augustine says, that it is not he who abandons
sin, but sin abandons him, for he would not cease to offend God, if life
were granted him. What can we expect from such a conversion?
When should we repent?
While
we are in health, in possession of our senses and strength, for
according to the words of St. Augustine, the repentance of the sick is a
sickly repentance. As experience proves, man while ill is so tormented
and bewildered by the pains of sickness and the fear of death, by
remorse of conscience, and the temptations of the devil as well as by
anxiety for those whom he leaves, that he can scarcely collect his
thoughts, much less fit himself for true repentance. Since it is so hard
for many to do penance while they are in health, and have nothing to
prevent them from elevating their mind to God, how much more difficult
will it be for them, when the body is weakened and tortured by the pains
of sickness. It has been made known by many persons when convalescent,
that they retained not the slightest recollection of anything which
occurred during their illness, and although they confessed and received
the last Sacraments, they did not remember it. If then you have
committed a grievous sin, do not delay to be reconciled as soon as
possible by contrition and a sacramental confession. Do not put off
repentance from day to day, for thereby conversion becomes more
difficult, so much so that without extraordinary grace from God, you cannot repent God does not give His grace to the presumptuous scoffer.
No comments:
Post a Comment