Passages to foster a contemplative and meditative spirit on this hallowed day when Christ broke the curtain of His Body to reconcile us to His Father, and to poor out upon us poor children of wrath the riches of His life given through His Spirit, His Blood and Water, and His Body, the testimony of which is one in the Life given to us through the Eucharist. Let us remember that the humanity of Christ is the true Temple of God, the holy of holies, his Body being the curtain veiling His Divinity. He allowed the people that He had created, both Jews and Romans, to destroy the temple of His Body, to rend it asunder, in order to poor out the infinitely separate and holy God on a broken and sinful humanity. O necessary sin, O happy fault of Adam indeed; for through his sin, grace has far more abounded where there was evil; through sin God has broken the curtain to the holy of holies deep within the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, and allowed us to swim through that infinite Heart for all eternity as an infinite River of the Water of Life.
Let us remember the Cross, the true Tree of Life, the fruit of which we partake of for everlasting life in the Eucharist. St. John has told us that in the mystery of sin there are three centers and three prominent weaknesses that man succumbed to in original sin: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. In the primordial garden, the analogy of all sin and all that is wrong in our world, it is written that the first parents of our human race succumbed to the influence of the evil one through these same temptations which became our principle weaknesses. Eve, it is said, reasoned within herself that the fruit of this forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil was appealing to eat, was appealing to her eyes and to her senses, and was desirable to make one wise. It is said that the immortality that God Almighty destined man to have was blocked and taken from man by God who gave it, and that immortality which was pictured as the tree of life is blocked from man for age upon age. Until tonight. God is made manifest in the flesh for the renewal of eternal life and the restoration of the tree of life to all mankind.
But, what character does this Tree of Life take on? It comes as the absolute cancelation of the power of sin and death for those who now draw near to partake of its fruit. For the abolishment of sin and its fruit of death is also accompanied by the negation of the three weaknesses that gripped at the core of concupiscence. We behold the Cross of our Savior, Jesus Christ, let us take it in, and attempt to fathom its magnitude. The Lord reigns from the Tree, praised be He unto the ages of ages. On the Cross hung our Savior as its Fruit. This Fruit is not pleasing to the eye, it offends the eye, for as the divine prophet has said, 'So many look on in horror...was human beauty ever so defaced?' This Fruit is the annihilation of all lust, for as our Savior was crucified in the flesh but alive always in the Spirit, so those who draw near are purged of their bodily sins and their power is broken unto renewal in the Spirit. And lo! Its Fruit is foolishness to the Greeks, for who would ever have thought that a crucified Man could be desirable to make one wise - But to us who are being saved it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And accordingly, New Adam and New Eve stand at this Tree, partaking together of the suffering of sin, the Fruit, but dwelling in untouchable holiness all the while. Redeemer, have mercy on us! Coredemptrix, pray for us in His Presence. Let us draw near, for the Fruit of this Tree of Life is given at ever Mass, the cancellation of all debt and the abolishment of the three centers of concupiscence. The Divine Eucharist, the Fruit of the Tree of Life, is in our midst - let us adore Him, our Eucharistic Lord. Praised be God unto endless ages in the Church, His Mother, Bride, and Daughter. Let our solemn praise of heart be profound and new in conversion afresh, for our sin is removed! Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be white as snow - and I will remove the sins of that land in one day.
O Christ our God, glorious in your Cross, gateway to eternal life, our only Resurrection, we adore you. O you who did not abhor the waters of the All-Pure Virgin's womb for the renewal unto eternal life, but descended through the Holy Spirit and His Power, have mercy on us. For as the River of the Water of Life, your Spirit, descended in primordial time unto waters creating order out of the chaotic and dark earth, so now you have come through the the Spirit and the waters of the Holy and Sanctified Virgin's womb to make a new creation all who are mystically born of the same mother and the same womb in Baptism by the power of the Holy Spirit, children of God and Blessed Mary; new creations unto all ages; partakers of your Divinity, along with your mother, and sharers in the relationship Mary had with you, O Christ our God and our Divine Spouse.
O Christ our God, glorious in your wounds, we draw near to your Cross, have mercy on us. For never once did you, O Divine and Almighty Word of the Father, separate from your Body; accordingly we confess this mystery of you, O Christ: True Life in Death; praised be He unto all ages. You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth as a fountain of Divine Mercy and salvation for all the world. When you died, O Immortal One, Hell quaked with fear, not understanding or fathoming the mystery - for you were united to your Body and your Soul, yet Body and Soul were separated in your Infinite Majesty for a time, so that you might descend unto the realm of the dead and save men and prophets. We confess your Mystery sublime, O One dead, and yet alive and Almighty. Hell could not hold you, O True Life, for you laid down your Life that you might take it up again. Your Body we confess did not receive corruption, for the Source of all Life was united all the while to it.
It is finished!
Purge out the leaven of sin, so that you may be a new loaf unto the Lord; for Christ our Pasch has been Sacrificed.
No comments:
Post a Comment