obedient. "She rested on the Sabbath day, according to the
commandment." Here is a test of true love. We want to do
something very much; we think the motive is good; but there comes
a providential obstacle in the way. We cannot do it just now. We
cannot do it just in the way we want. And too often our love is
not pure enough for this test. We murmur and complain, and commit
a thousand disobediences, and show how much self-love had to do
with our undertakings. It was not so with this holy woman. She
waited all the Sabbath day. It was God's command. The seventh day
was kept by the Jews with a ceremonial strictness that forbade
all work; and she would keep the commandment to the letter. So
not a step would she take on the Sabbath, not even to the
Saviour's grave. I am sure that Sabbath was a long one to her.
Never was time's foot so heavy. Never did the hours go so slow.
Never were the sacred services so tedious. A thousand times she
goes to the window to see if the shadows were getting long, and
each time it seems to her that the sun is standing still. O
loving heart! loving in what she did not do, as well as in what
she did. She will not take liberties with her conscience.
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She will not be officious or intrusive. She will not please
herself on pretence of doing something for God. And so, though
her heart is at the sepulchre all day, though she yearns to go
thither, not a foot will she stir, not a hand will she lift, till
she knows that the fitting time is come. Her love was that
_orderly charity_ of which the Holy Scripture speaks.
[Footnote 109]
[Footnote 109: Cant. ii. 4.]
But the longest day has an end, and the end of that Sabbath at
last arrived. The sun sinks beneath the horizon. The evening
sacrifice is over. Darkness falls upon the temple aisles, and the
last worshipper departs. By degrees the streets of Jerusalem
become silent and deserted. It is night, a glorious night; for
the full paschal moon pours down its floods of light upon the
holy city. And now the good woman, laden with her ointments and
spices, sets out for the sepulchre. Alone, or only with a feeble
woman like herself, she goes out late at night, and whither? To a
garden outside the city, where a band of soldiers keep watch over
a grave, closed with a great stone, and sealed with the seal of
state. Is she not afraid? Docs she not run a thousand risks? Even
supposing she reaches the place in safety, will she be permitted
to approach the grave? Who will roll the stone from the door? Who
will dare to break the seal? O holy boldness of love! which, when
a duty is to be done, asks no questions, and knows no
difficulties. O love! stronger than death, despising torments and
casting out fear! Here is the wisdom of the saints. Here is the
secret of all the great things that have been done for God. There
is a higher wisdom and a higher prudence than the wisdom and the
prudence of this world. There is a trust in God which is ever
regarded as daring and enthusiastic, but which God justifies, and
men themselves are forced at last to applaud.
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Such were the sentiments with which St. Mary Magdalene went to
the sepulchre. But here a new circumstance demands our attention.
She set out, we are told, "while it was yet dark." It was night,
the dead of night, when she left her house, and she did not reach
the sepulchre till "the sun was risen." How did this happen? The
place in which our Lord was crucified was, as the evangelist tell
us, "near the city." And, one reason why Pilate suffered the
disciples to lay our Lord's body in Joseph's tomb was, because it
was close to the place of crucifixion, and the body could be laid
there before the Passover began. What, then, delayed St. Mary
Magdalene so long? What is the meaning of this? so prompt and
eager in setting out, so tardy in arriving? Love, again, my
brethren, is the explanation. She had to pass through the city.
Her road was what is called the "Way of Sorrows," which Jesus
took when He was led to Calvary, and along which she had followed
Him on Good Friday. How could she go fast? Every step brought its
own memories. There was the house of Caiaphas. There the
judgment-hall of Pilate. There the balcony at which Jesus had
been presented to the crowd, clad in a purple robe and crowned
with thorns. There stood the pillar at which He had been
scourged, and there was the spot at which he had fallen under the
weight of His cross, and it was given to Simon of Cyrene to
carry. No, her course was a pilgrimage. Each step was a holy
station, at which she stopped awhile to pray and call to mind the
events of that dreadful morning. And when she came to Calvary,
where the cross was still standing, and threw herself on the
ground to kiss the sod still wet with the Saviour's Blood, the
hours pass by unheeded, for Jesus hangs there again, and Mary,
His mother, is by her side, and each tender word, each look of
sorrow is again repeated. Love meditates. Love lingers in the
footsteps of its beloved, and the shortest, sweetest hours it
finds on earth are hours of prayer. What wonder, then, that Mary
kneels, embracing the foot of the cross, in perfect forgetfulness
of all else besides, until, as she raises her eyes to cast an
adoring glance, she sees that the cross is gilded by the red
gleam of the coming Easter sun--that it is already day. Thus
recalled to herself, she kisses that sacred tree for the last
time, tears herself from it, and hurries off to fulfil the work
she had in hand.
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And she arrived at the sepulchre just in time, or rather God was
there to meet her to reward her love. For the moment she arrived,
"there was a great earthquake, and an angel of the Lord descended
from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.
And his countenance was like lightning and his raiment as snow.
And for fear of him the guards were struck with terror, and
became as dead men. And the angel, answering, said to the woman:
'Fear not you, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. Come and see the
place where the Lord was laid. And go quickly, tell his disciples
that He is risen, and behold, He will go before you into Galilee.
And they went out quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great
joy, running to tell his disciples.' [Footnote 110]
[Footnote 110: St. Matt. xxviii. 2-8.]
See her running from the sepulchre as fast as she had so lately
run to it; for love easily changes its employment at the voice of
its beloved. She had come to anoint the body of Jesus; there is
no need of that now, for Jesus is alive; but still there is
something to do for Jesus--to tell His disciples. Peter, James,
John, and the other disciples are at home, sorrowful and fearful.
He whom they loved and trusted is no more; and they, whither
shall they go? Besides this, there was an additional sorrow. They
had forsaken their good Master in the day of His distress; Peter
had even denied with an oath that he knew Him; and they now sat
depressed and anxious in that upper chamber in which so lately
they had eaten the Passover with Him. But He is alive! and Mary
knows it! Shall she wait to see Him?
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No, she must go _quickly_ and tell His disciples. "This
commandment have we from God, that He that loveth God, love his
brother also." [Footnote 111]
[Footnote 111: I. St. John iv. 21.]
And Mary leaves the sepulchre, leaves Christ, to go and carry the
joyful news to His afflicted brethren. With nimble feet, with
eager countenance, she returns to the city, seeks out the
well-known house, and appears in the midst of the sorrowing
group, with the exclamation: "Jesus is alive! He is risen from
the dead!"
Alas! poor Magdalene! "Her words seemed to them as an idle tale."
To us, familiar with the doctrine and proofs of our Lord's
Resurrection, it is wonderful how slow the apostles were to
believe it. No doubt, their slowness to believe is a benefit to
us, because it was the occasion of multiplying the proofs.
Perhaps, too, it was not unnatural; for faith does not come all
at once. There is often a period between doubt and faith, a
period of inconsistency; in which one is at one moment all
Christian, and at another believes nothing. Certainly it was so
with the apostles on Easter Day, and Mary Magdalene seems to have
shared their infirmity. The apostles, as soon as they had heard
the news that Christ has risen, set out for the sepulchre. When
they came to the place, they found indeed the grave open, and the
linen cloths, in which the Lord's body had been wrapped, lying in
it, and the guard gone; but Him they saw not. Mary Magdalene
accompanied them, and when she saw neither the Lord Himself, nor
the angel who had spoken to her, and when she saw the incredulous
looks of the disciples, she herself began to doubt. But though
her faith was weak, her love was strong; and she stood at the
door of the sepulchre, weeping. At least she will not give up the
idea of finding the Lord's body, and carrying out her first
intention of embalming it. So she stands at the sepulchre, and
looks in.
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She had looked in many times already; she had every corner of it
by heart; but she looks in again. She will see the place where
the Lord lay, if she cannot see Himself: and lo! this time she
sees a new sight. There are two angels, in white, sitting, one at
the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had
lain. Angels again! but this time not angels of fear, with a
terrible countenance, as the first had been, but angels of
comfort and peace. And they spoke to her: "Woman, why weepest
thou? Why dost thou seek the living among the dead?" One would
have thought it was something to see an angel, and hear his
voice: but this good woman makes very little of it. No angel will
satisfy her now. "They have taken away my Lord," she replies,
"and I know not where they have laid Him." Is not this grief
enough to have lost a Lord, a Friend, a Saviour, such as Jesus
was, and not even to have so much as His lifeless body left on
which to lavish her endearments. O my brethren, no created thing
can satisfy the soul. I say not, though we had all the treasures
of earth, but though we had all the treasures of heaven; though
angels and saints were ours; though we had visions and
revelations; yet all would be nothing if we had not God. Heaven
would be hell without Him, and at the very gate of Paradise the
soul would weep and say, "They have taken away my Lord."
But at this point a new actor appears on the scene. A man
approaches, and addresses Magdelene in the same words that the
angels had used: "Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?"
She takes him for the gardener, and suddenly a suspicion seizing
her that he might know something of the treasure she had lost,
turned upon him and said: "Sir, if thou hast borne Him away, tell
me where thou hast laid Him; and I will take Him away." She does
not answer his question. She does not tell him whom she is
seeking. For, as St. Bernard observes, "Love imagines everyone is
as full of the object of its love as it is itself;" and so she
says: "If thou hast borne _Him_ away, tell me where thou
hast laid _Him_, and I will take _Him_ away."
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No need to mention His Name. All things knew it. The sun
publishes it. It is written on the leaves. The wind utters it. It
is the Name that is above every name--the Name at which every
knee must bow. "Tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will go
and carry Him away." What, you! a weak woman! Can you carry away
a heavy corpse? Yes, she can; and they that doubt it do not know
how strong love is, how great a weight it can carry, what hard
things it can do, and how it makes a man do what is above nature,
or, rather, how, with faith and grace, it brings out the power
that is in these human hearts of ours, and awakens their latent
energies.
And now Jesus can restrain Himself no longer; for Jesus it is who
now speaks with her. She had charged Him with taking away the
Sacred Body, and she was right. He it was who had taken it from
the grave. "I have power to lay it down," said He, "and I have
power to take it up again. [Footnote 112]
[Footnote 112: St. John x. 18.]
Yes, it was Jesus. He had seen her tears, listened to her
complaint, watched her efforts, and now the time had come when He
would disclose Himself to her. He said to her: "Mary!" Oh! what
voice is that? What sweet and tender memories it wakes up! The
home of Bethany, the banqueting-hall of Simon, Mount Calvary, all
are brought before her. She turns and looks keenly at the
speaker, and one look is enough. It is He, the same--the very
same who spoke pardon and peace to her soul, when first, a guilty
woman, she had washed His feet with her tears. It is Jesus. He
lives again. And, with her accustomed salutation, she kneels
before Him, and says: "Rabboni!" which is to say, Master!
{369}
How much is expressed in this brief interview. "Mary!" It is a
word of gentle reproach. Mary, dost thou not remember My
words--My promise--that I would rise again? Mary,--dost thou not
believe My angels, bearing testimony to My Resurrection? Mary,
whose brother Lazarus I have raised from the grave, dost thou not
think that I am as powerful to rise from the dead as to restore
life to others? "_Mary!_" It is a term of affection. As much
as to say: I am risen; but I am still thy friend. I do not forget
the past, and now, on this glorious morning of My Resurrection, I
tell thee that I know thee by thy name, and love thee with the
same love with which I loved thee in the days of My sorrow'. And,
"_Master!_" is her fitting reply. "Master of my heart, whom
only I have loved!" "Master of my faith, whom now' I acknowledge
as indeed risen from the dead!" "Master, whose Truth and Power I
have been so slow to understand!" "Master, whom all my future
life shall honor and obey!" O happy Magdalene! Her search is
ended. Her tears are dried. O joy beyond all thought! She has
seen Him, and talked with Him!
O my brethren, need I say more? Has not St. Magdalene preached an
Easter sermon? Love is the way to keep this feast. Love is the
way to faith and joy. It is the way to faith, for our Lord says:
"If any man shall do the will of God he shall know of the
doctrine, whether it is of God." [Footnote 113]
[Footnote 113: St. John vii. 17.]
It is said of Magdalene that she loved much because she was
pardoned much; I say she believed much because she loved much.
And love is the way to joy. Who are they that are truly happy on
this day? They who with Magdalene have sought Jesus; they who by
a true confession and a devout communion have united themselves
to the risen Saviour, and conversed with him in sweet
familiarity. For to them our Lord speaks and says: "Fear not, I
have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. I am the Lord, thy
Saviour, thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. Behold My hands
and feet, that it is I Myself! Fear not, Israel my chosen, and
Jacob mine elect, for I am He that liveth and was dead, and have
the keys of hell and death. And behold! I am alive for ever
more!"
-----------------------------
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Sermon XVI.
The Preacher, The Organ Of The Holy Ghost.
(Fourth Sunday After Easter.)
"When He the Spirit of Truth shall come,
He will lead you into all truth."
St. John XVI. 13.
I need hardly say that the words "_all truth_" in this
promise mean all truth relating to our salvation. It is no part
of our Lord's plan to teach us the truths of natural science. He
leaves us to discover these by our own intelligence. He comes to
teach us faith and morals--what we are to believe, and what we
are to do, in order to be saved. He did this while He was on
earth by His conversations with His disciples, and by His public
sermons to the Jews; but He promised that this work should be
carried on after His death more extensively and systematically.
Thus, in the words of the text: "When He the Spirit of Truth
shall come He will lead you into all truth." [Footnote 114] And
again: "_The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will
send in My name, He will teach you all things and will bring all
things to your mind whatsoever I shall have said to
you_."[Footnote 115] It cannot but be a matter of interest to
inquire in what manner this promise has been fulfilled.
[Footnote 114: St. John xvi. 13.]
[Footnote 115: St. John xiv. 26.]
I answer, the Holy Ghost leads us into all truth necessary to our
salvation by the public preaching of the Word of God. If we
examine our Lord's words attentively, we shall be led to the
conclusion that the ministry of the Holy Ghost to which He
alludes is a public ministry. His own ministry was a public one,
and in promising that the Holy Ghost should carry it on and
complete it, He leads us to anticipate that the ministry of the
Holy Ghost would also be public.
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And His own subsequent language shows that this is really so, and
acquaints us with the way in which this ministry is to be
exercised. Just before our Lord's Ascension He met the Apostles
on a mountain in Galilee, and said to them: "_All power is
given to Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach
all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold I am with you all
days, even to the consummation of the world_." [Footnote 116]
August and extensive as this commission was, it did not by itself
qualify the Apostles for their great work. They were to wait in
Jerusalem "till they were endued with power from on high." This
"power" was the Holy Ghost which actually did descend on them at
the feast of Pentecost. Here we find a company of men
commissioned by Christ to teach the world in His name, and
empowered by the Holy Ghost for that purpose. We find these men
afterward everywhere claiming to be the organs of the Holy Ghost.
Thus, at the council of Jerusalem, they did not hesitate to
publish their decrees with this preface: "_It hath seemed good
to the Holy Ghost and to us_." [Footnote 117] And St. Paul
tells the bishops of Ephesus, that they were placed over the
Church "_by the Holy Ghost_." [Footnote 118]
[Footnote 116: St. Matt. xxviii. 18-20.]
[Footnote 117: Acts xv. 28.]
[Footnote 118: Acts xx. 28.]
Now, who does not see here the realization and fulfilment of the
great promise of Christ which I have quoted as my text? That
teaching of the Holy Ghost which was to follow His, which was to
bring all things to remembrance which He had said, which was to
abide forever, and which was to make known all necessary truth,
was the teaching of the Apostles and their successors. It is the
teaching of the Holy Ghost, because the Holy Ghost moves them to
preach, furnishes them with the rule of their doctrine, and gives
them their warrant and authority. In this sense it is that our
Lord's promise is to be understood. It is a promise that reaches
to all time.
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It concerns us here and now. It assures us that at this day, far
removed as we are from the times of Christ, across so many
centuries, the Holy Ghost through the agency of the Church still
brings to us the echoes of His words. He does this in the most
solemn and authoritative way by those great decisions of the
Church to which He sets the seal of His Infallibility; but he
does it in less solemnity, less authoritatively, but more
frequently, by the preaching of each individual priest. It is for
this end that the priest is ordained. He is consecrated and set
apart, not merely to say Mass, not merely to receive the
confessions of penitent sinners and absolve them, but to publish
the Word of God; and He is empowered by the Holy Ghost for this
very purpose. The Christian preacher is no mere lecturer, but an
authorized agent and messenger of God, to deliver to the people
the will of God. It is chiefly by the ordinance of preaching, in
its various forms, that the Holy Ghost carries on the work of
instructing men's faith, and regulating their morals.
And here, I think, is to be found the real answer to a
misconception of our principles so common among Protestants. It
is very commonly said and believed that the Catholic Church
wishes to keep the people in ignorance of the Scriptures. Now,
this is not true. The Church does not wish to keep the Scriptures
from the people. On the contrary, in all cases in which they are
likely to prove beneficial she approves and encourages their use;
but she does not regard the reading of the Scriptures as the
necessary, or even as the ordinary mode of familiarizing the
people with the Word of God. Thousands have gone to heaven who
never read one page of the Bible. St. Irenæus instances whole
nations who professed and practised Christianity in entire
ignorance of the Divine Records. How many people in every
generation are unable to read. Now, God has not made a twofold
system of salvation; one for the ignorant and one for the
educated.
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No: according to the Catholic idea, for rich and poor, for
learned and unlearned alike, there is one way of truth--the
living voice of the preacher. This is God's way. This is the
Voice of the Holy Ghost. This is the publication of the Word of
God. This is the sword of the Spirit. The decree has never been
revoked: "_The priest's lips shall keep knowledge; and the
people shall seek the law at his mouth; because he is the
messenger of the Lord of Hosts_." [Footnote 119]
[Footnote 119: Mal. ii. 7.]
But an objection may be drawn against this high view of the
ordinance of preaching, from the infirmities of the preacher
himself. It may be said: You tell us that the Holy Ghost speaks
by the voice of the preacher, yet the preacher is but a fallible
man, ignorant of many things, liable to be deceived himself, not
free from passions which may affect his judgment. May he not
falsify his message? May He not dishonor it? I do not deny the
fact on which this objection is founded. Undoubtedly, the
preacher may be unfaithful in the delivery of his message. In the
Catholic Church, however, the watchfulness of discipline, and the
general acquaintance on the part of the people with the standards
of faith and practice, will prevent any very serious error
finding its way into the public teaching of the priest. Who
supposes, for instance, that any Catholic congregation would
tolerate from the pulpit a denial of Transubstantiation, or the
true Divinity of our Lord, or the necessity of good works? But
within a certain limit, no doubt, there may be much imperfection
in the preacher, much that detracts from the purity, the majesty,
and the dignity of the Word of God. What then? I affirm,
nevertheless, that preaching is the great instrument of the Holy
Ghost for the conversion of souls. Strange, that we should start
back at every new manifestation of a law that goes all through
Christianity, and even through all the arrangements of the
natural world.
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In every department of human life, God makes man His
representative--man fallible and weak. The judge on the bench
represents God's Wisdom and Equity, though his decisions are
often far enough from that Divine pattern. The magistrate
represents God's authority, though in his hands that authority is
sometimes made the warrant for tyranny and oppression. So, in
like manner, the preacher represents the Holy Ghost, though he
does not always represent Him worthily either in manner or
matter.
It is part of a plan. He who chooses man, sinful like ourselves,
and encompassed with infirmities, to convey His pardon to the
guilty, chooses as the organ of the Eternal Wisdom, "_holy,
one, manifold, subtle, eloquent, undefiled, having all power,
overseeing all things, the Brightness of Eternal Light, the
unspotted mirror of God's Majesty_ [Footnote 120] --man, with
stammering lips, with a feeble intellect and an impure heart.
[Footnote 120: Wisd. vii. 22-26.]