Rev. Fr.
Leonard Goffine's The Church's
Year
INSTRUCTION ON THE NINTH SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST
Implore God for
help and protection against all temptations both visible and
invisible, and say with the priest at the Introit:
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 etc.
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 etc.
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. |