Occurring Scripture for the
Hour of Matins
Sunday
Lesson i
A reading from the book of Exodus Exod 3:1-6 1
Now Moses fed the sheep of Jethro his
father-in-law, the priest of Madian: and he drove the flock to the inner
parts of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb. And the
Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he
saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt. And Moses said: "I
will go and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." And when
the Lord saw that he went forward to see, He called to him out of the midst
of the bush, and said: "Moses, Moses." And he answered: "Here I am."
And He said: "Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet: for the
place whereon thou stand is holy ground." And He said: I am the God of
thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Moses hid his face: for he durst not look at God.
Lesson ii
Exodus 3:7-10
And the Lord said to him: "I have seen
the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of
the rigor of them that are over the works: And knowing their sorrow, I
am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring
them out of that land into a good and spacious land, into a land that flows
with milk and honey, to the places of the Chanaanite, and Hethite, and
Amorrhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite. For the cry of the
children of Israel is come unto me: and I have seen their affliction,
wherewith they are oppressed by the Egyptians. But come, and I will
send thee to Pharao, that thou may bring forth my people, the children of
Israel out of Egypt."
Lesson iii
Exodus 3:11-15
And Moses said to God: "Who am I that I
should go to Pharao, and should bring forth the children of Israel out of
Egypt?" And he said to him: "I will be with thee: and this thou shall
have for a sign, that I have sent thee: When thou shalt have brought my
people out of Egypt, thou shalt offer sacrifice to God upon this mountain."
Moses said to God: "Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to
them: 'The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they should say to
me: What is his name? what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses: "I
AM WHO AM." He said: "Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: 'HE WHO
IS, hath sent me to you'". And God said again to Moses: Thus say to
the children of Israel: "'The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me to you': This is my
name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations."
Lesson iv
From the Sermons of Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop
1st on Fasting.
We know that it was with and by fasting
that Moses went up into the Mount, for he had not dared to go up to that
smoking summit, nor to have entered that darkness, except he had been made
strong by a Fast. It was with fasting that he received the Commandments,
written by the finger of God upon tables of stone. Upon the mountain, that
Fast made interest with Him Whose law was given unto it; but, below,
gluttony was leading the people to the worship of idols and polluting them.
It is written: "The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to
play" (Exodus xxxii: 6). That one fit of drunken frenzy, on the part of the
people, made void and of none effect all the toil and patience of the forty
days, during the which the servant of God had fasted and prayed unceasingly.
To the Fast had been given those tables of stone written on with the finger
of God; the Feast's work was to break them, by the hand of the most holy
prophet, who deemed a nation of drunkards a nation unmeet to receive law
from God.
Lesson v
In a moment of time, that people, who
had by great wonders been taught to worship God, were, by gluttony, dropped
back into the cesspool of Egyptian idolatry. Which things if thou will
consider, thou shall see that the tendency of fasting is God-ward, and that
that of feasting hell-ward. What was it that degraded Esau, and made him a
slave to his brother? Was it not that one dish of pottage for which he sold
his birthright? Was it not prayer when joined to fasting that gave Samuel to
his mother? What made the mighty Samson invincible? Was it not the fast
during the which he was conceived in his mother's womb? The fast it was
which made him to be conceived; the fast, which fed him; the fast, which
made a man of him, even as the Angel of the Lord commanded his mother,
saying She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her
drink wine or strong drink. Fasting is the mother of prophets, the strength
and stay of mighty men.
Lesson vii
It is fasting which gives wisdom to
lawgivers; fasting which is the trustiest keeper of the soul, and the safest
companion for the body. It is fasting which is strength and armor to mighty
men; fasting which makes supple those who run and who wrestle. It is fasting
which makes a man strong to strive against temptation, and which is to
godliness as a fenced city; even fasting, whose fellow is soberness, and her
work temperance. It is fasting which makes men to I wax valiant in fight;
fasting which teaches to rest in time of peace. Fasting makes a Nazarite to
be holy, and a priest perfect. Without a fast it is unlawful to touch the
Sacrifice, not only in that mystic and true worship of God which now is, but
also according to the law, in those sacrifices which were offered of old
time as figures of the true. It was fasting which opened the eyes of Elias
to look upon the visions of God, even as it is written, that when he had
fasted forty days and forty nights he was on Horeb, the mount of God, and he
was made able, so far as man may be made able, to see God (3 Kings xix.
seq.). Even so also was Moses in that Mount forty days and forty nights,
fasting, at what time he again received the Law (Exodus xxxiv:28). Unless
the Ninevites had fasted, both man and beast, herd and flock, they had not
escaped from the ruin that hung over them (Jonah iii: 7). In the wilderness
fell some and who were they? Yea, they were such as lusted after flesh meat
(Numbers xi: 33).
Lesson vii
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to
John
John 6: 1-15
After these things Jesus went over the
sea of Galilee, which is that of Tiberius. And a great multitude
followed him, because they saw the miracles which he did on them that were
diseased. Jesus therefore went up into a mountain, and there he sat
with his disciples. Now the Pasch, the festival day of the Jews, was
near at hand. When Jesus therefore had lifted up his eyes, and seen
that a very great multitude cometh to him, he said to Philip: Whence shall
we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to try him; for he
himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him: "Two hundred
denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a
little." One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter,
said to him: "There is a boy here that has five barley loaves, and two
fishes; but what are these among so many?" Then Jesus said: Make the
men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. The men therefore sat
down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves: and
when he had given thanks, he distributed to them that were set down. In like
manner also of the fishes, as much as they would. And when they were
filled, he said to his disciples: Gather up the fragments that remain, lest
they be lost. They gathered up therefore, and filled twelve baskets
with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above
to them that had eaten. Now those men, when they had seen what a
miracle Jesus had done, said: This is of a truth the prophet, that is to
come into the world. Jesus therefore, when he knew that they would
come to take him by force, and make him king, fled again into the mountain
himself alone.
Homily of Saint Augstine, Bishop
Tract on John (XXIV)
The miracles which our Lord Jesus
Christ did were the very works of God, and they enlighten the mind of man by
mean of things which are seen, that he may know more of God. God is Himself
of such a Substance as eye cannot see, and the miracles, by the which He
rules the whole world continually, and satisfies the need of everything that
He hath made, are by use become so common, that scarce any will vouchsafe to
see that there are wonderful and amazing works of God in every grain of seed
of grass. According to His mercy He kept some works to be done in their due
season, but out of the common course and order of nature, that men might see
them and be astonished, not because they are greater, but because they are
rarer than those which they lightly esteem, since they see them day by day.
Lesson viii
Or it is a greater miracle to govern
the whole universe, than to satisfy five thousand men with five loaves of
bread; and yet no man marvels at it. At the feeding of the five thousand,
men marvel, not because it is a greater miracle than the other, but because
it is rarer. For Who is He Who now feeds the whole world, but He Who, from a
little grain that is sown, makes the fullness of the harvest? God
works in both cases in one and the same manner. He Who of the sowing makes
to come the harvest, is He Who of the five barley loaves in His Hands made
bread to feed five thousand men; for Christ's are the Hands which are able
to do both the one and the other. He Who multiplies the grains of corn
multiplied the loaves, only not by committing them to the earth whereof He
is the Maker.
Lesson ix
This miracle, then, is brought to bear
upon our bodies, that our souls may thereby be quickened; shown to our eyes,
to give food to our understanding; that, through His works which we see, we
may marvel at that God Whom we cannot see, and, being roused up to believe,
and purified by believing, we may long to see Him, yea, may know by things
which are seen Him Who is Unseen. Nor yet suffices it for us to see only
this meaning in Christ's miracles. Let us ask of the miracles themselves
what they have to tell us concerning Christ for, trully, they have a tongue
of their own, if only we will understand it. For, because Christ is the Word
of God, therefore the work of the Word is a Word for us.
Let us pray Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we
who for our evil deeds are worthily punished, may, by the comfort of thy
grace, mercifully be relieved. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Monday
Lesson i
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to
John
John 2: 13-25
At that time the Pasch of the Jews was
at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple
them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting.
And when he had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, he drove them
all out of the temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the
changers he poured out, and the tables he overthrew. And to them that
sold doves he said: Take these things hence, and make not the house of my
Father a house of traffic. And his disciples remembered, that it was
written: The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up. The Jews, therefore,
answered, and said to Him: "What sign dost thou show unto us, seeing thou
dost these things?" Jesus answered, and said to them: "Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said:
"Six and forty years was this temple in building; and wilt thou raise it up
in three days?" But he spoke of the temple of his body. When
therefore He was risen again from the dead, his disciples remembered, that
he had said this, and they believed the scripture, and the word that Jesus
had said. Now when he was at Jerusalem, at the Pasch, upon the
festival day, many believed in his name, seeing his signs which he did.
But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men,
And because he needed not that any should give testimony of man: for he knew
what was in man.
Homily by Saint Augustine, Bishop
10th Tract on John.
What hear we
now, my brethren? Behold, that temple was still but a figure, and the Lord drove
out all them that sought their own, even them that were come to deal
in merchandise. And what was it that they sold there? Only such things as were
needful to men for the sacrifices that then were. For your love knows that,
because of that people's carnal-mindedness and the stoniness of their heart,
there were commanded unto them such sacrifices as these, thereby to hold them
back from idolatry and there, according, they offered up oxen, and sheep, and
doves. This ye have read, and know.
Lesson ii
It was no great sin, therefore, if they sold in the
temple that which was bought to be offered in the temple and yet He drove them
out. If, then, the Lord drove out of His temple them which sold such things as
are lawful and right (for to buy and sell is lawful, if only it be done
honestly,) and suffered not the house of prayer to be made an house of
merchandise, what would He have done if He had found there men drunken?
Lesson iii
If the house of God must not be a house of
merchandise, must it be an house to drink in? And yet, when we say this, men
gnash upon us with their teeth. But we find consolation in remembering that so
far we are even as the Psalmist, who said: "They gnashed upon me with their
teeth" (Psalm. xxxiv. 16). Yea, we have also learnt to listen to words that heal us,
though, of a verity, the lashes that are made at His word are really made at
Christ. "Lashes," said He, "were heaped upon Me; and they knew not what they did."
He was lashed by the scourges of the Jews, and He is lashed still by the
blasphemies of false Christians; they heap lashes upon the Lord their God; and
know not what they do. As for us, we will do that which He has helped us to do;
But as for me, when they troubled me, my clothing was sackcloth, and I humbled
my soul with fasting.
Let us pray Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we
who year by year do prayerfully renew the holy observance of this thy great
Fast, may be acceptable in thy sight, as touching both our bodies and our souls.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Tuesday
Lesson i
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to
John
John 7: 14-31
Now about the midst of the feast, Jesus
went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews wondered, saying:
How doth this man know letters, having never learned? Jesus answered
them, and said: My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. If any
man do the will of Him; he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God,
or whether I speak of myself. He that speaks of himself, seeks his own
glory: but he that seeks the glory of Him that sent Him, he is true, and
there is no injustice in him. Did Moses not give you the law, and yet
none of you keeps the law? Why seek you to kill me? The multitude
answered, and said: Thou hast a devil; who seeks to kill thee? Jesus
answered, and said to them: One work I have done; and you all wonder:
Therefore, Moses gave you circumcision (not because it is of Moses, but of
the fathers;) and on the Sabbath day you circumcise a man. If a man
receive circumcision on the sabbath day, that the law of Moses may not be
broken; are you angry at me because I have healed the whole man on the
Sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge just
judgment. Some therefore of Jerusalem said: "Is not this he whom they
seek to kill? And behold, He speaks openly, and they say nothing to
Him. Have the rulers known for a truth, that this is the Christ? But
we know this man, whence He is: but when the Christ cometh, no man will know
whence he is." Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching, and
saying: "You both know me, and you know whence I am: and I am not come of
myself; but He that sent me, is true, whom you know not. I know Him,
because I am from Him, and He hath sent Me. They sought therefore to
apprehend him: and no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet
come. But of the people many believed in him, and said: "When the
Christ comes, shall He do more miracles, than these which this man does?
Homily by Saint Augsutine, Bishop
29th Tract on John.
He Who had
gone up unto the Feast, not openly, but as it were in secret, the Same taught,
and spoke openly, and no man laid hands upon Him. That He had hid Himself, was
for example's sake; that He manifested Himself, was to show His power. And when
He taught, the Jews marveled. As seems to my mind, they all marveled, but were
not all converted. And why did they marvel? Because many of them knew
where He was born, and how He had been brought up. They had never seen Him learn
letters; but they heard Him dispute concerning the law, and allege the testimony
of the same, as no man could do who had not read it; and no man can read unless
he learn; and therefore they marveled. But their marveling was unto the
Teacher an occasion for the revealing of higher truth.
Lesson ii
For when they marveled and whispered, the Lord said
a certain deep thing, yes, a thing worthy of very careful thought and
discussion. And what was this thing which the Lord gave for an answer to such as marveled that He knew letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them and
said "My doctrine is not Mine, but His That sent Me." Here is the first depth, for
He seemed in these few words to enunciate a contradiction. He said not This
doctrine is not Mine but My doctrine is not Mine. O how is it thine? If it be
thine, wherefore say Thou that it is not thine? For Thou say "My doctrine
is not Mine."
Lesson iii
Let us then carefully regard what this same holy
Evangelist said in the beginning of his Gospel, and we shall find there
wherewith to loose the knot of this difficulty. There it is written "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (i:1).What is the doctrine of the Father but the Word of the Father? If Christ
therefore be the Word of the Father, He is the doctrine of the Father. But a
Word cannot be of no one, but must needs, if it be a Word, have some one whose
word it is. Christ therefore said that His doctrine is Himself, and therefore
not His, forasmuch as He is the Word of the Father. And what hast thou that is
so much thine own as thy self? Or what is there that is so little thine own as
thyself, if that which thou art is another's?
Let us pray O Lord, we beseech thee that the observance of
this holy fast may avail us both to the increase of godliness in our
conversation, and the establishing upon us of the help of thy mercy. Through our
Lord Jesus Christ
Wednesday
Lesson i
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to
John
John 9: 1-38
And Jesus passing by, saw a man, who
was blind from his birth: And his disciples asked him: "Rabbi, who hath
sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?" Jesus
answered: "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works
of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of Him
that sent me, whilst it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." When he
had said these things, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle,
and spread the clay on his eyes, And said to him: "Go, wash in the
pool of Siloe, which is interpreted, 'Sent.'" He went therefore, and washed,
and he came seeing. The neighbors therefore, and they who had seen him
before that he was a beggar, said: "Is not this he that sat and begged?"
Some said: "This is he." But others said: "No, but he is like him."
But he said: "I am he." They said therefore to him: "How were thine
eyes opened?" He answered: 'That man that is called Jesus made clay,
and anointed my eyes, and said to me: 'Go to the pool of Siloe, and wash.'
And I went, I washed, and I see." And they said to him: "Where is he?"
He said: "I know not." They brought him that had been blind to the
Pharisees. Now it was the Sabbath, when Jesus made the clay, and
opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees asked him, how he had
received his sight. But he said to them: "He put clay upon my eyes, and I
washed, and I see." Some therefore of the Pharisees said: "This man is not
of God, who keeps not the Sabbath." But others said: "How can a man
that is a sinner do such miracles?" And there was a division among
them. They say therefore to the blind man again: "What say thou of Him
that opened thine eyes?" And he said: "He is a prophet." The Jews then
did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his
sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight,
And asked them, saying: "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How
then doth he now see?" His parents answered them, and said: "We know
that this is our son, and that he was born blind: But how he now sees, we
know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: ask himself: he is of
age, let him speak for himself." These things his parents said,
because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had already agreed among
themselves, that if any man should confess him to be Christ, he should be
put out of the synagogue. Therefore did his parents say: "He is of
age, ask himself." They therefore called the man again that had been
blind, and said to him: "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a
sinner." He said therefore to them: "If he be a sinner, I know not:
one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." They said then
to him: "What did He to thee? How did he open thine eyes?" [27] He answered
them: "I have told you already, and you have heard: why would you hear it
again? will you also become his disciples?" They reviled him
therefore, and said: "Be thou his disciple; but we are the disciples of
Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses: but as to this man, we know
not from whence He is. The man answered, and said to them: "Why,
herein is a wonderful thing, that you know not from whence he is, and he
hath opened my eyes. Now we know that God doth not hear sinners: but if a
man be a server of God, and doth his will, him He hears. From the
beginning of the world it has not been heard, that any man has opened the
eyes of one born blind. Unless this man were of God, He could not do
any thing." They answered, and said to him: "Thou was wholly born in
sins, and dost thou teach us?" And they cast him out. Jesus heard that
they had cast him out: and when he had found him, he said to him: "Dost thou
believe in the Son of God?" He answered, and said: "Who is he, Lord, that I
may believe in him?" And Jesus said to him: "Thou hast both seen him;
and it is he that talks with thee." And he said: "I believe, Lord."
And falling down, he adored him.
An Homily of Saint Augustine, Bishop
44th Tract on John.
Dread and
wondrous are all the things which our Lord Jesus Christ did, both His works and
His words; the works, because He wrought them; the words, because they are deep.
If, therefore, we consider the meaning of this work of His, we see that that man
which was blind from his birth was a figure of mankind. This spiritual blindness
was the consequence of the sin of the first man, from whom we all inherit by
birth, not death only, but depravity also. For if blindness be unbelief, and
faith, light, whom, when Christ came, did He find faithful? May, the Apostle who
had himself been born of the race of which the Prophets came, said "We also were
by nature children of wrath, even as others." And if children of wrath, then
children also of vengeance, children of damnation, children of hell. And
wherefore so by nature, unless it were that the sin of the first man had made
all his descendants to be born in sin, in that they partook of his nature? If,
then, our nature bring sin with it, all men, according to the spirit, are born
blind.
Lesson ii
The Lord came; and what did He do? He set before us
a great mystery. Jesus spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle for the
Word was made flesh. And He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay but
yet that man saw not. He was anointed, indeed, but yet still he saw not. And He
said unto him "Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam." Now, it was the duty of the
Evangelist to impress upon us the name of this Pool, and therefore he saith
Siloam, which is, by interpretation, "Sent." Ye, my brethren, know Who is
signified where it is written: (The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a
law-giver from his loins, until) He that shall be Sent cometh. Yea, He it is,
Who, if He had not been sent, we had never been sent loose out of the
prison-house of sin. The blind man went his way therefore, and washed his eyes
in that Pool, which is, by interpretation, "Sent" in other words, he was
baptized in Christ. When, therefore, he had figuratively been baptized in Him
Whom the Father hath Sent into the world he came seeing. When he was anointed,
he was perchance made a figure of a Catechumen.
Lesson iii
We have heard this great mystery. Ask of a man: Art
thou a Christian? He answerers thee: I am not. Then, if thou ask him: Art thou a
pagan then, or a Jew? And he still says unto thee No and thou say Art thou
then a Catechumen, though not yet one of the faithful? and he says Yea, a
Catechumen then there thou see a man anointed, but not yet washed. With what
hath he been anointed? Ask of him, and he will tell thee. Ask of him in Whom he
believeth, and, being a Catechumen, he will say: In Christ. But, behold, I speak
before both Faithful and Catechumens. What said I touching the. Spittle and the
clay? I said for 'the Word was made flesh.' This the Catechumens hear, but it is
not enough for them to be anointed; they must make haste to the washing, if they
would have their eyes opened.
Let us pray. O God, Who by mean of fasting dost give unto the
righteous the reward of their good works, and unto sinners pardon; have mercy
upon us, we beseech thee, and grant that we, humbly confessing our guiltiness,
may so be enabled to obtain thy forgiveness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thursday
Lesson i
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to
Luke
Luke 7: 11-16
And it came to pass that Jesus went
into a city that is called Naim; and there went with him his disciples, and
a great multitude. And when he came nigh to the gate of the city,
behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a
widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her. Whom when the
Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, He said to her: "Weep
not." And He came near and touched the bier. And they that carried it,
stood still. And He said: "Young man, I say to thee, arise." And he
that was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And He gave him to his mother.
And there came a fear on them all: and they glorified God, saying: "A great
prophet is risen up among us: and, God hath visited his people."
An Homily of Saint Ambrose, Bishop
Book v. Commentary on Luke chapter vii near the beginning
The history which we here read in the
Holy Gospel has for us specially two gracious
lessons, the one from the literal, the other from the mystic interpretation
thereof. According to the letter then, we see how quickly the compassion of God
was aroused by the sorrow of this mother, who was a widow, a widow broken down
by nursing her only son, or by the bitterness of her grief for his death. She
was a widow also whose worshipful conversation is borne witness to by this,
that, much people of the city was with her. Mystically however, this widow
encompassed by the multitude was something more than a poor woman whose tears
won from the Lord the resurrection of her young and only son; for she is a type
of our holy Mother the Church, who calls back her young children to life from
the pursuit of deathly vanities, and soul-slaying honors, by bidding them look
on those tears which she sheds for such as they, and which it is unlawful for
her to shed for them of whom she knows that they will rise again.
Lesson ii
This man, then, being dead, was carried out on a
bier to the grave by four bearers, even as the sinner is borne to destruction by
the four elements of which he is composed. But there was hope in his latter end,
from this, that that whereon he was carried was of wood, and wood, albeit it had
profited us little before, is become everything to us now since Jesus touched
it, being a figure of that gibbet, the Cross, which was made thereof, and
from which salvation flows unto all people. When, therefore, the bearers
of the corpse heard the commandment of God, they stood still, and carried no
farther him who was dead through the fatal course of a material nature. And is
not our case even as that of the widow's son, when we lie, as it were, lifeless,
in our spiritual coffin, that is, in the last bed of our soul's death, consumed
by the fever of unbridled lust, or frozen by cold-heartedness, or with our whole
manliness sapped by some degrading habit of this earthly body, or starved by a
spiritual lockjaw that shuts our mouth to the bright food of our soul? These,
and such as these, are they which carry us out to burial.
Lesson iii
But even at the last hour, when the hope of life
hath been utterly extinguished, and the bodies of the dead are lying by the side
of the grave, by the word of God those carcasses live again, yea, arise and
speak. Then doth Jesus deliver the son to his mother, for Jesus called him out
of the grave, and delivered him from death. O, what is the grave of the soul
but a bad life? Sinner! thy grave is unbelief, and thy throat is a sepulcher!
Even so is it written: "Their throat is an open sepulcher" (Psalm. v. ii), where
they
breathe their pestilential words. Lo! Christ makes thee free from that grave!
If only thou wilt hear the word of God, thou shall yet arise from that
sepulcher! Yea, though thy sin be exceeding weighty, so that the tears of thine
own sorrow cannot wash it away, let thy Mother the Church weep for thee, that
longing Mother who weeps for every one of her children as though he were the
only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Believe me, her spiritual anguish
is keen like the anguish of nature, when she sees her children dead in sin, and
carried out to be buried for ever.
Let us pray O Almighty God, grant, we beseech
thee, that we who are chastened by this hallowed fast, may be gladdened by holy
earnestness, and that as earthly attractions grow dimmer, things heavenly may
grow clearer. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Friday
Lesson i
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to
John
John 11: 1-45
At that time there was a certain man
sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, of the town of Mary and Martha her sister.
(And Mary was she that anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet
with her hair: whose brother Lazarus was sick.) His sisters therefore
sent to him, saying: "Lord, behold, he whom thou love is sick." And
Jesus hearing it, said to them: "This sickness is not unto death, but for
the glory of God: that the Son of God may be glorified by it." Now
Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus. When he had
heard therefore that he was sick, he still remained in the same place two
days. Then after that, He said to his disciples: "Let us go into Judea
again." The disciples said to Him: "Rabbi, the Jews but now sought to
stone thee: and go thou there again?: Jesus answered: "Are there not
twelve hours of the day? If a man walk in the day, he stumbles not, because
he sees the light of this world: But if he walk in the night, he
stumbles, because the light is not in him." These things he said; and
after that he said to them: Lazarus our friend sleeps; but I go that I may
awake him out of sleep. His disciples therefore said: Lord, if he
sleep, he shall do well. But Jesus spoke of his death; and they
thought that he spoke of the repose of sleep. Then therefore Jesus
said to them plainly: "Lazarus is dead." And I am glad, for your
sakes, that I was not there, that you may believe: but let us go to him.
Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples: "Let
us also go, that we may die with Him. Jesus therefore came, and found
that he had been four days already in the grave. (Now Bethany was near
Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off.) And many of the Jews were come
to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Martha
therefore, as soon as she heard that Jesus had come, went to meet him: but
Mary sat at home. Martha therefore said to Jesus: "Lord, if thou had
been here, my brother would not have died. But now also I know that
whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." Jesus said to
her: "Thy brother shall rise again." Martha said to Him: "I know that
he shall rise again, in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said
to her: "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me,
although he be dead, shall live: And every one that liveth, and
believeth in me, shall not die for ever. Believe thou this?" She said
to Him: "Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of the
living God, who art come into this world." And when she had said these
things, she went, and called her sister Mary secretly, saying: "The master
is come, and calls for thee. She, as soon as she heard this, rose
quickly, and came to him. For Jesus was not yet come into the town:
but he was still in that place where Martha had met him. The Jews
therefore, who were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw
Mary that she rose up speedily and went out, followed her, saying: She goes
to the grave to weep there. When Mary therefore was come where Jesus
was, seeing him, she fell down at his feet, and said to Him: Lord, if thou
had been here, my brother had not died. Jesus, therefore, when he saw
her weeping, and the Jews that were come with her, weeping, groaned in the
spirit, and troubled Himself, And said: Where have you laid him? They
say to him: Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. The Jews
therefore said: "Behold how he loved him." But some of them said:
"Could not he that opened the eyes of the man born blind, have caused that
this man should not die?" Jesus therefore again groaning in himself,
cometh to the sepulcher. Now it was a cave; and a stone was laid over it.
Jesus said: "Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead,
said to him: Lord, by this time he stinks, for he is now of four days.
Jesus said to her: Did not I say to thee, that if thou believe, thou shall
see the glory of God?" They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus
lifting up his eyes said: "Father, I give thee thanks that thou hast heard
me. And I knew that thou hear me always; but because of the people who
stand about have I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me."
When he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come
forth." And presently he that had been dead came forth, bound feet and
hands with winding bands; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus
said to them: "Loose him, and let him go." Many therefore of the Jews,
who were come to Mary and Martha, and had seen the things that Jesus did,
believed in Him.
An Homily of Saint Augustine, Bishop
49 Tract on John.
Ye remember that in our last reading we
learnt how that the Lord escaped out of the hands of them which took up
stones to stone Him, and went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where
John at first baptized (John x. 31, 39, 40). While, then, the Lord
still tarried there, Lazarus was sick at Bethany, which was a town near to
Jerusalem. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His
Feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent
unto Him. We know already whither it was that they sent, for we know where Jesus
was: He was gone away again beyond Jordan. His sisters sent unto Him, saying:
"Lord, behold, he whom Thou love is sick," in order that, if He so pleased, He
might come and free him from his sickness. But Jesus healed not, that He might
afterward quicken.
Lesson ii
What therefore sent his sisters to say?
"Lord,
behold, he whom Thou love is sick" and no more. They said not: "Come," for Jesus
loved him; and to tell Him that he was sick was enough. They dared not to say:
"Come, and heal him," they dared not to say: "Speak the word where Thou art, and it
shall be done here." And wherefore should they not have said this if they had the
faith which won the Centurion so much praise? He had said: "Lord, I am not worthy
that Thou should come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant
shall be healed" (Matthew viii: 8). But they said none of these things, only:
"Lord,
behold, he whom Thou love is sick. It is enough that Thou should know it.
Thou art not one that loves and leaves."
Lesson iii
But some man will say: How shall
Lazarus be a type of the sinner, and yet the Lord so love him? Let such an
one hear the words of the same Lord, which He said: "I am not come to call
the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew ix: 13). For if God had not loved sinners, He had not come down from
heaven to earth. When Jesus heard that, He said: "This sickness is not unto
death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby."
Such a glorification is no increase of majesty for Him, but of profit for us. He
therefore meant to say: "This sickness is not unto death, but for the working
of a miracle, the which being wrought, if men will thereby believe in Christ,
they shall escape the real death." Note especially how the Lord doth in this
place declare Himself to be God, as it were by implication, for the sake of some
which say that He is not the Son of God.
Let us pray. O God, who dost quicken the whole world anew by
thine unspeakable Sacraments, grant, we beseech thee, that thy Church may both
profit by whatsoever Thou hast ordained touching the things which are eternal,
nor be comfortless of such help as is needful unto her touching the things which
are temporal. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Saturday