'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

New Zealand Tablet, 27 March 1913, Page 3

'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

(A Weekly Instruction specially written for the N.2. Tablet by ' Ghimel.') EASTER SUNDAY. The days of Lent are over, 'the winter is come and gone,' and our Risen Saviour brings us the joys of faster. At 2 a.m. on Easter day, in the full moonlight, our Lord raised from the tomb the sinless body that He took, some three and thirty years before, of an immaculate, mortal Mother, so that as man He might be able to die for his fellowmen. Death has no more dominion over It, for now It is gifted with immortality; suffering and sorrow shall visit It no more, for It is now impassible, ' the former things have passed away.' We have followed Him with loving eyes and sorrowing hearts through the dark days of the Passion, remembering all the while that ' He loved me and delivered Himself for me.' Now 'He is risen, He is not here,' and our Holy Mother the Church is insistent in bidding us rejoice. ' Easter-tide belongs to the Illuminative Life; nay, it is the most important part of that Life, for it not only manifests, as the last four seasons of the liturgical year have done, the humiliations and sufferings of the Man-God; it shows Him to us in all His glory; it give us to see Him expressing in His own Sacred Humanity the highest degree of the creature's transformation into his God.' And so 'of all the seasons in the liturgical year Easter-tide is by far the richest in mystery. We might even say that Easter is the summit of the mystery of the sacred Liturgy. The Christian, who is happy enough to enter with his whole mind and heart into the knowledge and love of the Paschal mystery, has reached the very centre of the supernatural life. Hence it is that the Church uses every effort in order to effect this; what she has hitherto done was all intended. as a preparation for Easter. The holy longings of Advent, the sweet joys of Christmas, the severe truths of Septuagesima, the contrition and penance of Lent, the heart-rending sight of the Passion — all were given us as preliminaries, as paths, to the sublime and glorious Pasch, which is now ours.' (Dom Gueranger.) ' Christ our Pasch is sacrificed ' —so we read in. the Epistle of the day. The Pasch is ' the Phase or Passage of the Lord.' It was in its institution a day of vengeance on the enemies of God and of His chosen people: ' I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast ; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments' (Exodus, xii., 12). But at the same time it was a day of deliverance and the signal of redemption for the Jews. Hence they were commanded to take a lamb without blemish and to sprinkle the doorposts with its blood, that the destroying Angel in his passage might leave them unmolested. The ceremony was repeated each" year, and was known amongst the Jews as the Pasch. Every sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb was a type of Christ, the true Lamb of God, shedding His Blood for men and giving His Flesh to be eaten for the life of the world.' And on Easter Sunday, when the Sacrifice of this Lamb is all over, we welcome Him with peace and joy, for the Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power and divinity, and wisdom and strength and honor, and glory and benediction. The Sequence in the Mass— so called because it is a continuation of the Alleluia after the Epistleexpresses the welcome we so readily extend to our risen Redeemer and Deliverer: Forth to the Paschal Victim, Christians, bring Your sacrifice of praise: The Lamb redeems the sheep; And Christ, the Sinless One, Hath to the Father Sinners reconciled. Together Death and Life In a strange conflict strove; The Prince of Life, Who died, Now lives and reigns.

What thou sawest, Mary, say As thou wentest on the way. ' I saw the tomb wherein the Living One had lain, I saw His glory as He rose again Napkin and linen clothes, and angels twain ; Yea, Christ is risen, my hope, and He Will go before you into Galilee. We know that Christ indeed has risen from the grave ; Hail, thou King of Victory ! Have mercy, Lord, and save. (Caswall's translation.) On Easter Sunday morning the Risen Saviour burst open the gates of Limbo, and no doubt of Purgatory also. It was the beginning of that continuous ascent of souls to Heaven which has gone on from then till now. The rapturous joy these souls feel on receiving their message of deliverance, when the Angel of Purgatory comes to wake them on the morrow and call them from their bed of sorrow, is perhaps the best key to true Easter joy and peace. For such a resurrection can take place this side of the grave as well. Our Risen Lord gives us grace to rise with Him : ' And in Christ all shall be brought to life, each in his own order the first-fruits Christ, then they are Christ's'-(1 Cor. xv., 22). He waits to share the glory of His Resurrection with His faithful ones, and the simple thought of His waiting should give our fainting hearts renewed hope and courage. The path no doubt is long, often through pain and misery, spiritual darkness and distress, but ' the longest day has its evening, the hardest work its ending, the sharpest pain its contented and everlasting rest,' and the path has been already trod by our King Himself: Master, go on and I will follow Thee To the last gasp with faith and loyalty.