Live good lives, and you are the day which the Lord has made...

St. Augustine of Hippo

Preached on Holy Easter Sunday

Sermon 229B, Date: uncertain

Live good lives, and you are the day which the Lord has made

In seeing the risen Christ, Saint Theresa of Avila experienced a mystical transverberation, which she described as the piercing of her heart by an angel. She called this spiritual union with God, her "mystical marriage."

The Lord has indeed made every day – and not only has made, but also continues to make; I mean, He makes every day as follows: He makes His sun rise on the good and the bad, and sends rain on the just and the unjust (Mt 5:45).  So we are not to imagine that this ordinary kind of day, which is common to good and bad alike, is meant in this place, where we heard,This is the day which the Lord has made.  A particular sort of day is being proclaimed more formally, and our attention is being drawn to a particular sort of day by its saying, This is the day which the Lord has made. What sort of day can it be, when it says Let us exult and be joyful in it (Ps 118:24)?  What sort, but a good one?  What sort but a very choice, lovable, desirable one, the sort about which Saint Jeremiah said, And the day of men I have not yearned for, you know it well (Jer 17:16)?

So what is this day which the Lord has made?  Live good lives, and you will be this day yourselves.  The apostle, you see, was not talking about the day which begins with sunrise and ends with sunset, when he said Let us walk honorably, as in the day (Rom 13:13); where he also said, For those who get drunk are drunk at night (1 Thes 5:7).  Nobody sees people getting drunk at the midday meal; but when this does happen, it is a matter of the night, not of the day which the Lord has made.  You see, just as that day is realized in those who live godly, holy, and religious lives, marked by moderation, justice, sobriety; so too on the contrary, for those who live in an ungodly, loose-living, proud, and irreligious manner – for that sort of night, the night will undoubtedly be a thief: The day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night (1 Thes 5:2) – that’s what’s written, after all.

But after reminding us of this testimony, the apostle turned to those to whom he had elsewhere said You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8) – that is where the day was made which the Lord has made.  He turned to them, after saying, You know, brothers, that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night, and he said to them, You, however, are not in darkness, that that day should catch you out like a thief.  For you are all children of the light and children of the day; we are not of the night nor of the darkness (1 Thes 5:4-5).  So this song we sing over and over again is a constant reminder to us to live good lives.  When we all say together with harmonious voices, joyful spirits, hearts beating together, This is the day which the Lord has made, let us fit ourselves to the sound we make, or else our tongues may be giving evidence against us.  You’re going to drink yourself silly today, and you still say This is the day which the Lord has made?  Aren’t you afraid He may answer you, ‘This is certainly not the day which the Lord has made’?  And can it be called a good day, when by self-indulgence and loose living it has made it into the worst possible day for itself?”

2. Here we have such joy, my brothers and sisters, joy in your coming together, joy in the psalms and hymns, joy in the memory of Christ’s passion and resurrection, joy in the hope of future life.  If what we are still hoping for fills us with such tremendous joy, what will it be like when we actually posses it?  Just look how these days, when ‘Alleluia’ is ringing in our ears, our spirits soar!  Isn’t it as though we were getting I don’t know what little taste of that city beyond the stars?  If these days fill us with such tremendous joy, what will that day be like when we are told, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom (Mt25:34); when all the saints are gathered together there in unity; where in that great reunion those who hadn’t met before now see each other; where those who had known each other now recognize one another; where they will all be together in such a way that a friend is never lost, an enemy never to be feared?

I mean, here we are, saying Alleluia; it’s good, it’s enjoyable, it’s full of happiness, delight, pleasure. And yet, if we said it all the time, we would get bored.  But when it recurs at a fixed season of the year, with what delight its return is greeted, with what wistfulness its departure!  Will enjoyment be like that there, and will there be boredom then?  There won’t be.

Someone says, perhaps, ‘And how can it happen that this goes on all the time, and never gets boring?’  If I can show you something in this life that can never get boring, will you believe that there everything will be like that?  Yes, food can get boring, drink can get boring, entertainment can get boring, this, that and the other can get boring; good health, though, has never been found boring.  So just as in this time of the mortality of the flesh, this time of frailty, this time of the weariness of the burden of the body, it has never been possible to get bored with good health; so there, in the same way, there will never be any boredom with charity, with immortality, with eternity.

Christ is Risen: The world below lies desolate
Christ is Risen: The spirits of evil are fallen
Christ is Risen: The angels of God are rejoicing
Christ is Risen: The tombs of the dead are empty
Christ is Risen indeed from the dead,
the first of the sleepers,
Glory and power are his forever and ever

St. Hippolytus (AD 190-236)

source: http://blog.augustineinstitute.org/

The passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

St. Augustine of Hippo

On the Lord’s Passion

Sermon 218C, Date: about 412

The passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ constitutes a guarantee of glory and a lesson in patience.  What, after all, can the hearts of the faithful not promise themselves from God’s grace, seeing that it was not enough for the only Son of God, co-eternal with the Father, to be born for them as human being from a human being, without His also dying at the hands of the human beings He created?  It’s a great thing that the Lord promises us for the future; but it’s a much greater thing which we recall He has already done for us.  When Christ died for the ungodly, where were they, or what were they?  Who can doubt that He is going to endow His holy ones with His life, when He has already endowed them, while they were still ungodly, with His death?  Why should human frailty hesitate to believe that it is going to happen sometime or other that human beings will live with God?  Something much more incredible has happened, that God has died for the sake of human beings.

Who, after all, is Christ, but that Word which was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1)?  This Word of God became flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14).  You see, He would not have in Himself the wherewithal to die for us, unless He had taken mortal flesh from us.  That was how the immortal one was able to die, that was how He wished to bestow life on mortals; aiming later on to give us shares in Himself, having first of all Himself taken shares in us.  I mean, we had nothing of our very own by which we could really live, and He had nothing of His very own by which He could really die.  Accordingly, He struck a wonderful bargain with us, a mutual give and take: ours was what He died by; His was what we might live by.

All the same, He too gave even the flesh which He took from us in order to die in it, because He is its creator; while on the other hand He in no way received from us the life by which we are going to live in Him and with Him.  And thus, as regards our nature, by which we are human beings, He died from what is ours, not His, since in His own nature by which He is God, He is quite unable to die.  But insofar as it is His creation, which He made as God, then He did die from what is His; since He Himself also made the flesh in which He died.

“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another;

as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

BEHIND THE RESIGNATION ... Dom Fernando Rifan

BEHIND THE RESIGNATION ...

Reverend Bishop D. Fernando Rifan cumpliments the Pope

who supported him all the time to lead the clergy and faithful of the

Apostolic Administration Saint John Mary Vianney as the 

Shepherd of such Traditional Catholic Personal Prelazia

Campos - RJ Brazil

            The Church is full of mysteries, the Church  itself is a mystery in comparison with a sacrament.  One thing  is what this represents to be, another thing it is what this really is. And the Church, like His Divine Founder, has its divine and human sides. Divine in their institution, doctrine and saving grace that given us, and human in its members, often sinners, she "is at once holy and always in need of purification" (LG 8).

            It happens to people that is not always imbued with the spirit of Faith to speculate the problems of the Catholic Church, people who is too focused on his  human and organizational and structural part, forgetting the divine part, which is much more important, and the presence in it of its Founder, assisting it through the Divine Holy Spirit. But already for two thousand years, it "continues its pilgrimage amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God" (LG 8).

            Then, what's ultimately is behind the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. Besides the visible reasons, appointed by the Pope himself - "forces no longer enough, vigor of body and spirit, due to old age" - there are other hidden factors. All are curious and I'm going to reveal what is really behind the attitudes of the Pope.

            Is only able to give up this position of magnitude importance and influence who, looking beyond the human perspectives, has a deep faith in God, the divinity of his Church and the assistance of the One which the Pope is the representative on earth 'trust Holy Church's solicitude for her Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ "(Benedict XVI). 

            The faith is the basis of hope and confidence, and behind this resignation there is a clear sublime trust in  God: The barque of Peter will never sink in the stormy sea, nor depend on us for that, "...and.the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Mt 16, 18).  Behind this waiver, we see a great love for God and his Church, "a decision of great importance to the life of the Church," as he said.

The Pope has declared his act as "a detachment of high office and influential position, saying he was just a "humble servant", a deep humility from his site, judging himself  not necessary and recognizing his own weakness and inability of body and spirit to properly exercise the Petrine ministry, by asking his forgiveness - "I ask forgiveness for all my shortcomings."

Alongside the heroism of Blessed John Paul II to take personal suffering to end, we have the great heroism of Benedict XVI to resign for love of the Church, to avoid any suffering for it. In the early Church, in time of persecution, there were Christians who decided to stay where they were and face martyrdom. Example of fortitude. 

There were other Christians who, fearing persecution and their perseverance, decided to   flee persecution and seek refuge in the desert to pray and do penance, away from the world. Example of humility. 

There were saints in both positions, some of those were brave, while some withdrew. Heroism of fortitude and heroism of humility, fruits of Faith Church made them heroes of the Faith!

  

                           * Bishop of the Apostolic Administration of St. John Vianney

http://domfernandorifan.blogspot.com.br/

http://www.adapostolica.org

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Catholic Understanding of the Eucharist

"That Bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God IS THE BODY OF CHRIST. That chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, IS THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. Through that bread and wine the Lord Christ willed to commend HIS BODY AND BLOOD, WHICH HE POURED OUT FOR US UNTO THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS." (St. Augustine, Sermons 227)

"The Lord Jesus wanted those whose eyes were held lest they should recognize him, to recognize Him in the breaking of the bread [Luke 24:16,30-35]. The faithful know what I am saying. They know Christ in the breaking of the bread. For not all bread, but only that which receives the blessing of Christ, BECOMES CHRIST'S BODY." (St. Augustine, Sermons 234:2)

"What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that THE BREAD IS THE BODY OF CHRIST AND THE CHALICE [WINE] THE BLOOD OF CHRIST." (St. Augustine, Sermons 272)

"How this ['And he was carried in his own hands'] should be understood literally of David, we cannot discover; but we can discover how it is meant of Christ. FOR CHRIST WAS CARRIED IN HIS OWN HANDS, WHEN, REFERRING TO HIS OWN BODY, HE SAID: 'THIS IS MY BODY.' FOR HE CARRIED THAT BODY IN HIS HANDS." (St. Augustine, Psalms 33:1:10)

The Priest and the Mass

"Christ is both the Priest, OFFERING Himself, and Himself the Victim. He willed that the SACRAMENTAL SIGN of this should be the daily Sacrifice of the Church, who, since the Church is His body and He the Head, learns to OFFER herself through Him." (St. Augustine, City of God 10:20)

"By those sacrifices of the Old Law, this one Sacrifice is signified, in which there is a true remission of sins; but not only is no one forbidden to take as food the Blood of this Sacrifice, rather, all who wish to possess life are exhorted to drink thereof." (St. Augustine, Questions on the Heptateuch 3:57)

"...I turn to Christ, because it is He whom I seek here; and I discover how the earth is adored without impiety, how without impiety the footstool of His feet is adored. For He received earth from earth; because flesh is from the earth, and He took flesh from the flesh of Mary. He walked here in the same flesh, AND GAVE US THE SAME FLESH TO BE EATEN UNTO SALVATION. BUT NO ONE EATS THAT FLESH UNLESS FIRST HE ADORES IT; and thus it is discovered how such a footstool of the Lord's feet is adored; AND NOT ONLY DO WE NOT SIN BY ADORING, WE DO SIN BY NOT ADORING." (St. Augustine, Psalms 98:9)

The Mass, The Eucharist and Purgatory:

"But by the prayers of the Holy Church, and by the SALVIFIC SACRIFICE, and by the alms which are given for their spirits, there is no doubt thatthe dead are aided that the Lord might deal more mercifully with them than their sins would deserve. FOR THE WHOLE CHURCH OBSERVES THIS PRACTICE WHICH WAS HANDED DOWN BY THE FATHERS that it prays for those who have died in the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, when they are commemorated in their own place in the Sacrifice itself [part of the Mass mentions the Saints who have "gone before us"]; and the Sacrifice is OFFERED also in memory of them, on their behalf. If, the works of mercy are celebrated for the sake of those who are being remembered, who would hesitate to recommend them, on whose behalf prayers to God are not offered in vain? It is not at all to be doubted that such prayers are of profit to the dead; but for such of them as lived before their death in a way that makes it possible for these things to be useful to them after death." (St. Augustine, Sermons 172:2)

"There is an ecclesiastical discipline, as the faithful know, when the names of the martyrs are read aloud in that place at the altar of God, where prayer is not offered for them. Prayer, however, is offered for other dead who are remembered. It is wrong to pray for a martyr, to whose prayers we ought ourselves be commended" (Sermons 159:1 [A.D. 411]).

"Temporal punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by some after death, by 'some both here and hereafter, but all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But not all who suffer temporal punishments after death will come to eternal punishments, which are to follow after that judgment" (The City of God 21:13 [A.D. 419]).

"The prayer either of the Church herself or of pious individuals is heard on behalf of certain of the dead, but it is heard for those who, having been regenerated in Christ, did not for the rest of their life in the body do such wickedness that they might be judged unworthy of such mercy [as prayer], nor who yet lived so well that it might be supposed they have no need of such mercy [as prayer]" (ibid., 21:24:2).

"That there should be some fire even after this life is not incredible, and it can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some of the faithful may be saved, some more slowly and some more quickly in the greater or lesser degree in which they loved the good things that perish, through a certain PURGATORIAL FIRE" (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Charity 18:69 [A.D. 421]).

"The time which interposes between the death of a man and the final resurrection holds souls in hidden retreats, accordingly as each is deserving of rest or of hardship, in view of what it merited when it was living in the flesh. Nor can it be denied that the souls of the dead find relief through the piety of their friends and relatives who are still alive, when the Sacrifice of the Mediator [Mass] is offered for them, or when alms are given in the Church. But these things are of profit to those who, when they were alive, merited that they might afterward be able to be helped by these things. There is a certain manner of living, neither so good that there is no need of these helps after death, nor yet so wicked that these helps are of no avail after death" (ibid., 29:109).

source : http://www.americancatholictruthsociety.com/articles/augustinecatholic.htm