• Wednesday after the Fourth Sunday in Lent

  The Divine Friend His sisters sent to Him saying : Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.–John xi. 3.

  Three things here call for thought. 1. God’s friends are from time to time afflicted in the body. It is not, therefore, in any way a proof that a man is not a friend of God that he is from time to time sick and ailing. Eliphaz argued falsely against Job when he said, Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed? (Job iv. 7). The gospel corrects this when it says, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick, and the Book of Proverbs, too, where we read, For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth: and as a father in the son He pleaseth himself (Prov. iii. 12). 2. The sisters do not say, “Lord, come and heal him.” They merely explain that Lazarus is ill, they say, he is sick. This is to remind us that, when we are dealing with a friend, it is enough to make known our necessity, we do not need to add a request. For a friend, since he wills the welfare of his friend as he wills his own, is as anxious to ward off evil from his friend as he is to ward it off from himself. This is true most of all in the case of Him who, of all friends, loves most truly. The Lord keepeth all them that love him (Ps. cxliv. 20). 3. These two sisters, who so greatly desire the cure of their sick brother, do not come to Christ personally, as did the centurion and the man sick of the palsy. From the special love and familiarity which Christ had shown them, they had a special confidence in Him. And, possibly, their grief kept them at home, as St. Chrysostom thinks. A friend if he continue steadfast, shall be to thee as thyself, and shall act with confidence among them of thy household (Ecclus. vi. 11).

Saint for the Day

• March 18 – St. Cyril of Jerusalem

  March 18

  St. Cyril of Jerusalem

    Cyril was born at or near the city of Jerusalem, about the year 315.  He was ordained priest by St. Maximus, who gave him the important charge of instructing and preparing the candidates for Baptism.  This charge he held for several years, and we still have one series of his instructions, given in the year 347 or 348.  They are of singular interest as being the earliest record of the systematic teaching of the Church on the creed and sacraments, and as having been given in the church built by Constantine on Mount Calvary.  They are solid, simple, profound; saturated with Holy Scripture; exact, precise, and terse: and, as a witness and exposition of the Catholic faith, invaluable.  On the death of St. Maximus, Cyril was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem.  At the beginning of his episcopate a cross was seen in the air reaching from Mount Calvary to Mount Olivet, and so bright that it shone at noonday.  St. Cyril gave an account of it to the emperor; and the faithful regarded it as a presage of victory over the Arian heretics.  While Cyril was bishop, the apostate Julian resolved to falsify the words of Our Lord by rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem.  He employed the power and resources of a Roman emperor; the Jews thronged enthusiastically to him and gave munificently.  But Cyril was unmoved.  “The word of God abides,” he said; “one stone shall not be laid on another.”  When the attempt was made, a heathen writer tells us that horrible flames came forth from the earth, rendering the place inaccessible to the scorched and scared workmen.  The attempt was made again and again, and then abandoned in despair.  Soon after, the emperor perished miserably in a war against the Persians, and the Church had rest.  Like the other great bishops of his time, Cyril was persecuted, and driven once and again from his see; but on the death of the Arian Emperor Valens he returned to Jerusalem.  He was present at the second General Council at Constantinople, and died in peace A.D. 386, after a trouble episcopate of thirty-five years.   Reflection—“As a stout staff,” says St. John Chrysostom, “supports the trembling limbs of a feeble old man, so does faith sustain our vacillating mind, lest it be tossed about by sinful hesitation and perplexity.”    

  Taken from the “Pictorial Lives of the Saints: with Reflections for Everyday in the year

Sunday Sermon

• Fourth Sunday in Lent~ The Happiness of True Repentance

  

  Rejoice Jerusalem. ~Introit of the Mass for the Day.

  This is called “Lætare, or rejoicing Sunday.” It may surprise you, dear brethren, to be told that this is a day of rejoicing; you will be amazed, no doubt, that, in the midst of the rigorous Lenten fast, when men should bewail their sins and do penance for them, and sounds of mirth and joy are hushed, the church should bid us rejoice. Yet thus she does today. In mid-Lent even she would have her children rejoice, would have them forget for the moment penance and turn their hearts to thoughts of gladness, that, by so doing, she may teach them that the rigors of this season, the self-denial and curbing of the flesh she imposes on us, is undergone that we may realize more fully the spirit of her teaching—that we may, in truth, preserve, or get back if we have lost it, that interior joy, that spiritual jubilation which is the portion of every one who serves Christ as he should be served. Our religion is one of joy, because we are Christ’s and He is ours; and what more can we ask, or what greater can be bestowed upon us, than the having of Christ; Christ, at once perfect man and true God; Christ, whose life is the model of our lives, whose grace is the source of all joy; Christ, to have whom is to have a brother, and, at the same time, the eternal God; the God by whose word were made all things that are, who knows no limit to his power, who has in himself all perfections that man can desire or conceive of; a brother—a man like ourselves, with a human heart like our own, with affections like those of other men; a brother burning with tender love for us, knowing our weakness, knowing our wants and ready to succor us; a man who was himself tempted, who has himself suffered the miseries of this life, who, in a word, was made like to us in all save sin. This is whom we have when we have Christ, and should we not rejoice at having such a one? We should and do rejoice; our hearts are always full of gladness when we are in God’s grace, and Christ is ours and we are his; and this is what the church wishes for all her children—the friendship and the love of God. She ever has Christ herself, and so is never sad; though she may mourn with him suffering, still there is joy behind all her sorrow. If she puts on sombre garments, if she calls man to penance, if she fasts and covers her head with ashes, she is still glad in the depths of her heart. She is calling you and me to share the gladness, to get it back if we have lost it by mortal sin; she is bidding you and me to keep that gladness by chastising our bodies; she is warning us that we may lose God’s grace, as, alas! too many before us have lost it, unless we are vigilant. Dear brethren, listen to the church’s voice today; come, all of you, come and share her joy. If you are not in God’s grace do not let another day go by without making your peace with God. Oh! how much you are losing, and for what? For some trifling satisfaction which cannot bring true happiness; some mean gratification of your lower nature; for sin you are letting slip by the offer of God’s friendship and the joy of a good conscience. Do you want to die as you are living? If you do not, repent of your sins today; before you leave this church promise God that you will sin no more; that you will be in fact what you are in name—a Christian.

  

  Five Minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year  Volume 2

  Imprimatur 1886