Low Sunday-Sunday after Easter

LOW SUNDAY--Quasimodo Sunday

This Sunday is called 'Low Sunday.' It is apparent that this name signifies the octave of the Easter celebrations, and because it is on a lower scale than the Highness of last Sunday. We hear about 'Doubting' Thomas. He didn't believe the Apostles when they said they had seen our Lord Jesus, he just didn't believe them. Jesus wouldn't do a miracle for Herod, and He won't do one now just to make us believe. The following Sunday, Thomas did see and then believed. Jesus told him: "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed. blessed are they who have not seen and have believed."



According to our beloved Abbot, Gueranger:

'Such is the great Truth, spoken by the lips of the God-Man: it is a most important counsel, given, not only to Thomas, but to all who would serve God and secure their salvation. What is it that Jesus asks of His disciple (Thomas)? Has He not heard him make profession that now, at last, he firmly believes? After all, was there any great fault in Thomas' insisting on having experimental evidence before believing in so extraordinary a miracle as the Resurrection? Was he obliged to trust to the testimony of Peter and the others, under penalty of offending his divine Master? Did he not evince his prudence, by withholding his assent until he had additional proofs of the truth of what his brethren told him? Yes, Thomas was a circumspect and prudent man, and one that was slow to believe what he had heard; he was worthy to be taken as a model by those Christians who reason and sit in judgment upon matters of Faith. Jesus is merciful, and has condescended to the weakness of His disciple as to accept the condition on which alone he declares that he will believe: now the disciple stands trembling before his risen Lord...This stubbornness, this incredulity, deserves a punishment: the punishment is, to have these words said to him: "Thomas! thou hast believed, because thou hast seen! Blessed are they who believe and have not seen."

Then was Thomas obliged to believe before having seen? Yes, undoubtedly. Not only Thomas, but all the Apostles were in duty bound to believe the Resurrection of Jesus even before He showed Himself to them...'

(I myself have often wondered about what Thomas received as a punishment, as it were. He wasn't present on Easter Sunday evening, when the others had Jesus breathe on them and give them the power to forgive or bind sins by the Holy Spirit. Did he, as a kind of punishment, have to wait until Pentecost to receive these gifts? Just wonderin')

Our belief has not been perfect at all times. After hearing about an Apostle, Thomas, let us strive to do better. As our beloved Abbot states: 'Let us go to our Jesus, and say to Him: 'Thou art my Lord and my God! But alas! I have many times thought and acted as though thou were my Lord and my God in some things, and not in others. Henceforth I will believe without seeing; for I would be of the number of those whom thou callest blessed!'

NOTE TO SELF:
We believe first, and then we see things more clearly. It's like our Blessed Mother says in her Magnificat, when she states: "My soul magnifies the Lord". Meaning: If we look closer at her, maybe we can see clearer things concerning her son, Christ.

My Lord and my God, help my unbelief.



Also, on this, which is called a Greater Double rite; it is such a solemn day, that NO feast, however great, is supposed to be kept on it. 'Mercy Sunday'? Could it be that JP2 bypassed the Church Canons and history when he started this, just as he did when he started the 'Luminous' mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of our Blessed Mother Mary. I think she knew what she was doing and how she wanted it said; far better than the Holy Father; when she asked for this devotion to begin in the 13th century. JPII knows better now, wherever he ended up, doesn't he?

We used to participate in this Novena. However, upon reading that NO feast can be held in place of 'Low Sunday' no matter how great we are told it is, I began to wonder if this novena was all that good. NOTE!: all of these intentions which are prayed for during this novena are prayed for on Good Friday. Well, they USED to be. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the prayers for the conversion of the Jews are conveniently missing in the novena. The prayers during this novena are, basically, good. We desperately need to pray for all to convert; and come to the entire Truth, throughout the world.

I guess we are to accept them as they are, instead of fulfilling our Lord's command to convert them and everyone else on the planet. Maybe we should all get together and sing 'Everything is Beautiful'. Maybe this would satisfy our Lord?! The perpetrators will find out some day when they go before the Divine Judge as to whether they have served Him well or not. Final thoughts: GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!


Another take on this Sunday, but saying the same thing.

Image above: St. Augustine presents himself as a catechumen to be baptized by the Bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, during the Easter Vigil, 387 AD.


Pastor's Corner for Low Sunday (2014)

“Lo and behold” must have been the instinctive reaction of St. Thomas. This man who appears before my eyes, whom my finger and hands are touching and scrutinizing, this is my Rabboni, Jesus! Thanks to this special apparition of the risen Christ to his faithless apostle, Thomas the incredulous was suddenly converted. “My Lord and my God”: he saw a man and he believed God. He was instantaneously turned into a real “apostle”, who was to carry the Good News of Christ. And this conversion would lead him to the bottom tip of India, converting souls by the thousands to the King of Glory!

“Low” is a comparative term which qualifies it relatively to what is “high”! The high Sunday is Easter, certainly the greatest of all liturgical feast. Christ’s resurrection in the flesh was probably the most unbelievable dogma for the Western pagan world, as St. Paul soon found out in Athens, which used to be the center of Western wisdom. The risen Christ is the foundation of our faith: “If Christ has not risen from the dead, our faith is vain!” (On a side note; back when I was still new to the Church in the early 80's, we had a priest, on Easter Sunday, tell us that the stories in the Bible were just that, stories! I didn't know that much about the Catholic Faith then and didn't say anything. Now, I would stand up and say this verse from St. Paul. This priest has moved up in the diocese, but I don't know where. He definitely needs prayers. Or, better yet, a board upside his head. Just sayin') The fact of Easter being a Sunday is also the main reason for moving the day of worship from the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday.

“Low” is probably said also of the end of the octave of the white catechumens parading in their bright and splendid garments of the faith, not unlike newborns. Low is said of them because it is the day when the neophytes (literally "new plants") shed their new skin and are considered now ordinary Christians, lost in the mass of God’s chosen ones.


Oremus pro Regnante Pontifice!

Oremus pro Sancta Ecclesia Catholica!

 

Thank you Fr. Perrone (at Assumption Grotto in Detroit) for this last part.