Church sang, as one of her finest Antiphons, the funeral ode which inspiration dictated to David, when he saw the regal crown that had been picked up from the dust and gore of the battle-field, whereon had fallen the princes of Israel: Ye mountains of Gelboe, let neither dew nor rain come upon you, for there was cast away the shield of the valiant, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil! How are the valiant fallen in battle! Jonathan slain on the high places! Saul and Jonathan exceeding lovely and comely in their life; even in death they were not divided.' The proximity of the great solemnity of the Apostles, June the 29th, to the Saturday when this Antiphon is sung, has suggested to the Church to apply its last words to Saints Peter and Paul, during the octave of their Feast: "Glorious Princes of the earth! as they "loved each other in their life, so even in their death they were not divided!" Like the Hebrew people at this period of their history, our christian armies have often had to hail their kings, almost in the same breath that said the requiem over their prede cessors. MASS. As on last Sunday, so again to-day, the Church seems to unite together the readings of the previous night and the solemn entrance of the Sacrifice. The Introit for this fifth Sunday, is taken from Psalm the 26th, which was composed by David on occasion of his coronation in Hebron. It expresses the humble confidence of him who has nothing here below to trust in; and yet he has the Lord, as his light and salvation. In the events just referred to, nothing less than a blind faith in God's promises could have kept up the courage of the young shepherd of Bethlehem, and 1 2 Kings, i. 21, 23, 25. 2 Ant. Oct. Apost. ad Benedictus. nothing less could have inspired the people who had made him their king. But we must see beyond this; we must understand that the kingship of Jesse's son and his descendants, in the ancient Jerusalem, represents, for our Mother the Church, a grander royalty, and a more lasting dynasty, the kingship of Christ and the dynasty of the Sovereign Pontiffs. INTROIT. Exaudi, Domine, vocem meam qua clamavi ad te: adjutor meus esto, ne derelinquas me, neque despicias me, Deus salutaris meus. Ps. Dominus illuminatio mea, et salus mea; quem timebo? V. Gloria Patri. Exaudi. Hear, O Lord, my voice, Iwith which I have cried to thee: be thou my helper: forsake me not: do not thou despise me, O God, my Saviour! Ps. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Glory, etc. Hear. The blessings promised to David as a recompense for his combats, were but a poor figure of those which await, in heaven, the vanquishers of the world, the flesh, and the devil. They are to be king for ever; on their thrones, they are to enjoy the fulness of those inebriating and heavenly delights, some drops of which are permitted by the divine Spouse to be tasted, here below, by souls that are faithful to him. Let us, therefore, love him who thus recompenses our love; and since, of ourselves, we can do nothing, let us, through the Spouse, ask the giver of every best gift, to bestow on us the perfection of divine charity. COLLECT. Deus, qui diligentibus. te bona invisibilia præparasti: infunde cordibus nostris tui amoris affectum; ut O God, who hast prepared invisible good things for them that love thee: pour forth into our hearts an affectionate 1 St. James, i. 17. love for thee: that, loving thee, in all things, and above all things, we may come to the enjoyment of thy promises, which surpass all that we could desire: Through, etc. te in omnibus, et super omnia diligentes, promissiones tuas, quæ omne desiderium superant, consequamur. Per Dominum. The other Collects, as given above, in the Mass of the fourth Sunday, page 125. EPISTLE. Lesson of the Epistle of St. Peter the Apostle. 1 Ch. iii. Dearly Beloved: Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, being lovers of the brotherhood, merciful, modest, humble: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but, contrariwise, blessing for unto this ye are called, that ye may inherit a blessing. For, he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him decline from evil, and do good: let him seek after peace, and pursue it because the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears unto their prayers; but the countenance of the Lord against them that do evil things. And who is he that can hurt you, if ye be jealous of good? But if also ye suffer any thing for justice sake, blessed are ye. And be not afraid of their fear, and be not troubled. But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts. Lectio Epistolæ beati Petri Apostoli. 1 Cap. iii. Charissimi, Omnes unanimes in oratione estote, compatientes, fraternitatis amatores, misericordes, modesti, humiles: non reddentes malum pro malo, nec maledictum pro maledicto, sed e contrario benedicentes: quia in hoc vocati estis, ut benedictionem hereditate possideatis. Qui enim vult vitam diligere, et dies videre bonos, coerceat linguam suam a malo, et labia ejus ne loquantur dolum. Declinet a malo, et faciat bonum: inquirat pacem, et sequatur eam. Quia oculi Domini super justos, et aures ejus in preces eorum : vultus autem Domini super facientes mala. Et quis est qui vobis noceat, si boni æmulatores fueritis? Sed et si quid patimini propter justitiam, beati. Timorem autem eorum ne timueritis, et non conturbemini. Dominum autem Christum sanctificate in cordibus vestris. The Gospel of Sunday last showed us the Apostles hard at work drawing from the waters the living stones wherewith Jesus is to build his Church. To-day, it is the head, the one who presides over the mysterious fishing, it is Simon the Son of John, who, in our Epistle, addresses himself to those various elements which are to make up the holy city; they are sacred materials all brought together from the deep abyss, that, henceforward, they may glitter as so many bright pearls, with the marvellous light of the Lord Jesus upon them.1 The Son of God came down from heaven for no other purpose than to found on earth, a glorious city, in which God himself might delight to dwell; 2 he came, that he might build for his Father a temple of matchless beauty, where praise and love, ceaselessly sounding from the very stones which form its walls, might worthily proclaim that it possessed the sanctuary of the great Sacrifice.3 He himself made himself to be the Foundation of the thrice holy structure, wherein was to burn the eternal holocaust. He communicated this character of Foundation of the new temple to Simon his Vicar ;5 and by giving him the name of Peter or Rock, on which he built his Church, he as good as told all future generations, what was the one aim of all his divine labours,-to build, that is, here on earth, a Temple worthy of his eternal Father. Let us, with respectful gratitude, receive from this Vicar of the Man-God the practical lessons which are involved in this master-truth. And, as we are just now in the period of the Year when the Calendar brings the Prince of the Apostles into such welcome prominence, let us be led by the Church nearer and nearer to this Shepherd and Bishop of our souls." Union of true charity, concord and peace, which must, at every cost, be kept up as the condition for their being happy both now and for ever,-such is the substance of the instructions addressed by Simon, now Peter, to those other chosen stones, which rest upon him, and constitute that august Temple to be presented by the Son of Man to the glory of the Most High. Do not the solidity and duration of even earth's palaces depend on the degree of union between the materials used in their structure? Again, -it is union which gives strength and beauty to all the parts of this immense universe; let there be a cessation in that mutual attraction which combines them together in one harmonious whole,-let there be a suspension of that cohesion which holds their atoms together, and we shall have but an agglomeration of a vile impalpable something scarcely worth the name of dust. The Creator hath made peace in his high places; so that he asks: Who can make the harmony of heaven to sleep?? And yet, as the earth, in its present condition, is to have an end, so, too, the heavens are to pass away as some worn-out garment. What, then, will be the cause of the stability,—what the cement which is to hold together, -the House prepared for God to dwell in, which, when all else has crumbled into change, is to be ever the same? And that dwelling is the Church; the dwelling of the adorable Trinity, up to whose throne there is to be ascending, for all eternity, the fragrance which exhales from her Jesus, her Spouse. 3 1 Here again, it is the Holy Spirit who must explain to us the mystery of this union, which makes up the holy city, and whose duration is to last as long as eternity itself. The charity which is poured forth into our hearts the moment of our Baptism, is an emanation of the very love that reigns in the bosom of the blessed Trinity; for the workings of the Holy 'Job. xxv. 2. 2 Ibid. xxxviii. 37. Ps. ci. 26-28. 4 Ps. cxxi. 3. |