Aquinas-Wednesday after 4th Sunday of Lent

The Divine Friend

His sisters sent to Him saying : 'Lord, behold, he whom
Thou lovest is sick'.--John xi. 3.



Three things here call for thought.

1. God's friends are from time to time afflicted in the body. It is not, therefore, in any way a proof that a man is not a friend of God that he is from time to time sick and ailing. Eliphaz argued falsely against Job when he said, 'Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?' (Job iv. 7).

The Gospel corrects this when it says, Lord, behold, 'he whom thou lovest is sick', and the Book of Proverbs, too, where we read, 'For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth: and as a father in the son He pleaseth himself'(Prov. iii. 12).

2. The sisters do not say, "Lord, come and heal him." They merely explain that Lazarus is ill, they say, he is sick. This is to remind us that, when we are dealing with a friend, it is enough to make known our necessity, we do not need to add a request. For a friend, since he wills the welfare of his friend as he wills his own, is as anxious to ward off evil from his friend as he is to ward it off from himself. This is true most of all in the case of Him who, of all friends, loves most truly. The Lord keepeth all them that love him (Ps. cxliv. 20).

3. These two sisters, who so greatly desire the cure of their sick brother, do not come to Christ personally, as did the centurion and the man sick of the palsy. From the special love and familiarity which Christ had shown them, they had a special confidence in Him. And, possibly, their grief kept them at home, as St. Chrysostom thinks: 'A friend if he continue steadfast, shall be to thee as thyself, and shall act with confidence among them of thy household'(Ecclus. vi. 11).

Canada and Euthanasia

THIS IS DISTURBING, TO SAY THE LEAST.




Canada Proposes Forcing Doctors and Nurses to Euthanize Patients


Wesley Smith Mar 7, 2016 | 5:58PM Ottawa, Canada



I have never seen a society jump so enthusiastically into the abyss that is the culture of death as Canada has in the last year.


Once the (Canadian) Supreme Court ended the assisted suicide debate by fiat, euthanasia boosters stopped pretending to want a limited death license and let their true agenda out.

Based on government and medical association proposed guidelines, Canada’s euthanasia regime will soon include:
•Death on demand for those with medically diagnosed serious sicknesses;
•Death on demand for those with disabilities;
•Death on demand for those with medically diagnosed mental illnesses.
•Death on demand for “mature” children with the above conditions, perhaps with parental consent required;
•Nurses ordered to participate in euthanasia under the direction of a doctor, normalizing killing as an answer to suffering and making it easier for doctors to avoid the dirty work of homicide;
•Government-paid euthanasia.

There will also, apparently, be no effective conscience exemptions for religious or morally opposed doctors, nurses, and religious medical institutions–even though Canada’s governing Charter explicitly protects “freedom of religion and conscience.”

Doctors will be legally required to offer “effective referral” for patients who want to be killed.

Nurses ordered to kill a patient by a doctor will have no options to resist other than active insubordination.

Religious facilities will be required by law to permit euthanasia on premises if they receive public money–which includes most facilities as Canada has a socialized, single-payer health financing system. No escape.

This authoritarianism is the subject of my current First Things article, in which I urge dissenting medical professionals to take the hard course of peaceful civil disobedience rather than acquiesce to the culture of death, or simply quit. From, “Canada Declares War on Christian Doctors and Nurses:”


The difficult but most righteous course would be to engage in a policy of total non-cooperation with the culture of death, forcing the national and provincial governments and medical colleges either to turn a blind eye or to inflict unjust punishments on doctors for refusing to kill.

Perhaps such Draconian measures would bring the country to its senses.


I also offer this faint hope for heading off the looming religious oppression brewing in Canada:


Some notable Canadian prelates and other faith leaders have spoken out strongly against the pending coercion. But in Canada’s highly secularized society, it will probably require louder voices than these—for example those of Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama—to turn the tide.

But the hour is very late. The embarrassment caused by the wildly popular pope condemning a nation that considers itself the epitome of reasonableness might be the only preventative measure that can save religious liberty in what used to be the free country of Canada.

And here’s another sobering thought: Canada is the US’s closest cultural cousin. What happens in Canada, may not stay north of the 49th Parallel.

LifeNews.com Note: Wesley J. Smith, J.D., is a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture and a bioethics attorney who blogs at Human Exeptionalism.

Aquinas-Tuesday after 4th Sunday of Lent

The Example of Christ Crucified


Christ assumed human nature in order to restore fallen humanity. He had therefore to suffer and to do, according to human nature, the things which could serve as a remedy against the sin of the fall.

Man's sin consists in this that he so cleaves to bodily goods that he neglects what is good spiritually. It was therefore necessary for the Son of God to show this in the humanity He had taken, through all He did and suffered, so that men should repute temporal things, whether good or evil, as nothing, for otherwise, hindered by an exaggerated affection for them, they would be less devoted to spiritual things.

Christ therefore chose poor people for His parents, people nevertheless perfect in virtue, so that none of us should glory in the mere rank or wealth of our parents.

He led the life of a poor man, to teach us to set no store by wealth.

He lived the life of an ordinary man, without any rank, to wean men from an undue desire for honours.

Toil, thirst, hunger, the aches of the body, all these He endured, to encourage men, whom pleasures and delights attract, not to be deterred from virtue by the austerity a good life entails.

He went so far as to endure even death, lest the fear of death might at any time tempt man to abandon the truth. And lest any of us might dread to die even a shameful death for the truth, He chose to die by the most accursed death of all, by crucifixion.

That the Son of God, made man, should suffer death was also fitting for this reason, that by His example He stimulates our courage, and so makes true what St. Peter said, 'Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow His steps'(I Pet. ii. 21).

Christ truly suffered for us, leaving us an example in anxieties, contempts, scourgings, the cross, death itself, that we might follow in His steps. If we endure for Christ our own anxieties and sufferings, we shall also reign together with Christ in the happiness that is everlasting. St. Bernard says, "How few are they, O Lord, who yearn to go after Thee, and yet there is no one that desireth not to come to Thee, for all men know that in Thy right hand are delights that will never fail. All desire to enjoy Thee, but not all to imitate Thee. They would willingly reign with Thee, but spare themselves from suffering with Thee. They have no desire to look for Thee, whom yet they desire to find."

St. Thomas Aquinas

Today is the day we honor one of the greatest Saints of the Catholic Church, St. Thomas Aquinas. This is the day he entered his eternity, and, because of all he did, it went well for him. In the picture, which I have as my screen-saver, St. Thomas is in the upper right corner, looking down and across at St. Dominic. In the upper right of the picture is St. Dionysius the Areopagite (mentioned in Acts), and he is looking down and across at Pope St. Clement I, the third heir to the throne of St. Peter. Notice that Dionysius and Clement seem to have the Stigmata, meaning they were probably martyred. Also notice that Dionysius has the Bishop's crozier, and Clement has the papal miter. Dominic has the rosary, while our saint of the day has his writings. The picture is called the "Madonna and Child Enthroned" with these Saints. It was painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in 1486. I love it.

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS
Doctor of the Church
(1225-1274)

The great Saint Thomas was born of noble parents at Aquino near Naples in Italy, in 1225; his century was replete with great names and Christian works, yet he dominates it by the power of his thought and the perfection of his works. In his childhood he was the provider for the poor of the neighborhood during a famine; his father, meeting him in a corridor with the food he had succeeded in taking from the kitchen, asked him what he had under his cloak; he opened it and fresh roses fell on the ground. The nobleman embraced his son and amid his tears, gave him permission to follow thereafter all inspirations of his charity.

The young student, like the holy man Job, made a pact with his eyes and forbade them to see anything which might favor in his heart any desires for a life of ease. At the University of Naples he led a retired life of study and prayer, and continued his charities, giving all he had which was superfluous. He was recognized already by his professors as a genius, but it was Saint Albert the Great who later said of his disciple whom some called "the mute ox", that "some day the lowing of this ox will resound throughout the entire world."

At the age of seventeen he received the Dominican habit at Naples. His family opposed this choice, and he was set upon by his brothers on his way to Paris. They attempted in vain to remove his holy habit, but he was taken in custody and obliged to suffer a two years' captivity in their castle of Rocca Secca. Neither the caresses of his mother and sisters, nor the threats and stratagems of his brothers, could shake him in his vocation. His older sister was won over by him and renounced a brilliant marriage to embrace religious life; later she was Abbess of her convent in Capua.

While Saint Thomas was in confinement at Rocca Secca, his brothers endeavored to entrap him into sin, but the attempt only ended in the triumph of his purity. Snatching from the hearth a burning coal, the Saint drove from his chamber the courtesan whom they had concealed there. Then marking a cross upon the wall, he knelt down to pray. Immediately, while he was rapt in ecstasy, an Angel girded him with a cord, in token of the gift of perpetual chastity which God had given him. The pain caused by the girdle was so sharp that Saint Thomas uttered a piercing cry, which brought his guards into the room. But he never related this grace to anyone save Father Raynald, his confessor, a short time before his death. Thus originated the Confraternity of the Angelic Warfare, for the preservation of the virtue of chastity.

Having at length escaped, Saint Thomas went to Cologne to study under Blessed Albert the Great, and afterwards was sent with him to Paris, where for several years he taught philosophy and theology. The Church has ever venerated his numerous writings as a treasure of sacred doctrine; in naming him the Angelic Doctor she has indicated that his science is more divine than human. The rarest gifts of intellect were combined in him with the most tender piety. Prayer, he said, had taught him more than study. His singular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament shines forth in the Office and hymns which he composed for the Feast of Corpus Christi. To the words miraculously uttered by a crucifix at Naples, "Well hast thou written concerning Me, Thomas. What shall I give thee as a reward?" he replied, "Naught save Thyself, O Lord." Saint Thomas was loved for his unfailing gentleness and his readiness to lend his services or great lights to all who sought them. He died at Fossa Nuova in 1274, on his way to the General Council of Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X had summoned him.

One time when he had written some things concerning Christ and His Church, he was dissatisfied with it and threw it on the floor. Christ saw this and asked Thomas about it. Thomas replied that after what he had seen, what he had written was mere straw. Christ answered that He was pleased with these writings, and they were gathered up by angels. Apparently Thomas had, like St. John and St. Paul (and probably many others), been taken up to some level of heaven so that he could write with more clarity.

This 'Angelic Doctor of the Church' is called upon by us if we want more knowledge. (This is probably why the 'modern' Church hates him and doesn't want anyone to learn about him or his teachings. If they did, they would have to seriously re-consider the so-called teachings of Vat. II, with its gray-area babble)

Reflection. The knowledge of God is for all, but hidden treasures are reserved for those who have ever followed the Lamb.

St. Thomas of Aquin, pray for us and help us get the knowledge we need.

Aquinas-Monday after 4th Sunday of Lent

Christ by His Passion merited to be exalted

'He became obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross: for which cause God hath exalted Him'.--Phil. ii. 8.


Merit is a thing which implies a certain equality of justice. Thus St. Paul says, 'To him that worketh the reward is reckoned according to debt' (Rom. iv. 4).

Now since a man who commits an injustice takes for himself more than is due to himself, it is just that he suffer loss even in what is actually due to him. If a man steals one sheep, he shall give back four as it says in Holy Scripture (Exod. xxii. i). And this is said to be merited inasmuch as in this way the man's evil will is punished. In the same way the man who acts with such justice that he take less than what is due to him, merits that more shall be generously superadded to what he has, as a kind of reward for his just will. So, for instance, the gospel tells us, He that humbleth himself shall be exalted (Luke xiv. 11).

Now in His Passion Christ humbled Himself below His dignity in four respects:


(i) In respect of His Passion and His death, things which He did not owe to undergo.

(ii) In respect to places, for His body was placed in a grave and his soul in hell.

(iii) In respect to the confusion and shame that He endured.

(iv) In respect to His being delivered over to human authority, as He said Himself to Pilate,"Thou shouldst not have any power against me, unless it were given thee from above" (John xix. 11).


Therefore, on account of His Passion, He merited a fourfold exaltation.

(i) A glorious resurrection. It is said in the Psalm (Ps. cxxxviii. 1), Thou hast known my sitting down, that is, the humiliation of my Passion, and my rising up.

(ii) An ascension into heaven. Whence it is said, He descended first into the lower parts of the earth: He that descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens (Eph. iv. 9, 10).

(iii) To be seated at the right hand of the Father, with His divinity made manifest. Isaias says, He shall be exalted, and extolled, and shall be exceeding high. As many have been astonished at thee, so shall his visage be inglorious among men, and St. Paul says, He became obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God hath exalted Him and hath given Him a name which is above all names (Phil. ii. 8, 9), that is to say, He shall be named God by all, and all shall pay Him reverence as God. And this is why St. Paul adds, 'That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth' (ibid. x).

(iv) 'A power of judgment. For it is said, Thy cause hath been judged as that of the wicked. Cause and judgment thou shalt recover'(Job xxxvi. 17).

LAETARE SUNDAY

This Sunday is the Fourth Sunday, Laetare or Rose Sunday. We are over half the way to Easter, and we get to relax and rejoice a little, and look forward to the Greatest day since the beginning of the world, the Resurrection. The Gospel is from St. John, and is when Jesus feeds 5000 men, plus how many other people were there with 5 loaves, and 2 fish. He's really teaching us about the Holy Eucharist and how it can feed us for ever, if we wish. And, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which means 'House of Bread.' Go figure! Our beloved Abott Gueranger, speaking about these men, says this:

"These men, whom Jesus has been feeding by a miracle of love and power, are resolved to make Him their King. They have no hesitation in proclaiming him worthy to reign over them; for where can they find one worthier? What, then, shall we Christians do, who know the goodness and the power of Jesus incomparably better than these poor Jews:- We must beseech him to reign over us, from this day forward. We have just been reading in the Epistle, that it is He who has made us free, by delivering us from our enemies. O glorious Liberty! But the only way to maintain it, is to live under his Law. Jesus is not a tyrant, as are the world and the flesh; his rule is sweet and peaceful, and we are his Children rather than his Servants. In the court of such a King “to serve is to reign.” What, then, have we to do with our old slavery? If some of its chains be still upon us, let us lose no time, - let us break them, for the Pasch is near at hand; the great Feast-Day begins to dawn. Onwards, then, courageously to the end of our journey! Jesus will refresh us ; he will make us sit down as he did the men of the Gospel; and the Bread he has in store for us will make us forget all our past fatigues. In the Offertory, the Church again borrows the words of David, wherewith to praise the Lord; but, to-day, it is mainly his goodness and power that she celebrates."


St. Francis de Sales, speaking on today's Gospel, quotes from Ecclus. ii:xi,

'No one who hoped in Him and in His Providence has ever been disappointed.'


Thus, if we believe in Him and the Holy Eucharist, that It is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ Himself, we will be OK.



I would like to end with stanzas from the Tridion of the Greek Church:

We have passed one half of our journey through the holy fast; let us, then, as it behooves us, joyfully complete what remains. Let us anoint our souls with the oil of good works, that we may be made worthy to celebrate the divine sufferings of Christ our Lord, and to be brought to his venerable and holy Resurrection.

Jesus, he that planted the vine and hired the labourers, is near at hand. Come, ye brave fasters! let us receive the reward; for he that pays us is rich and merciful. After our short labours, he will requite our souls with his mercy.

O God! thou Giver of life! open to me the gate of penance. My spirit keepeth watch in thy holy temple; but the temple of the flesh, which I have to carry with me, is defiled with many sins. Have pity on me, notwithstanding; and in thy tender mercy, cleanse me.

Come, let us, who are in the mystic Vine, produce fruits of penance. Here labouring, let our feasting be, not in meat and drink, but in prayer and fasting and good works. Our Lord, being pleased with our labour, will pay us with that, whereby he, the one God, rich in mercy, will forgive us the debt of our sins.


Kyrie, Eleison

ASPIRATION: In Thy omnipotence and goodness, O my God, I put my trust, firmly believing that if I fear Thee, serve Thee faithfully, and avoid evil, I shall not be abandoned in poverty, but receive many good things. Amen.

Aquinas-Laetare Sunday

Christ by His Passion opened to us the gates of Heaven

>'We have a confidence in the entering into the holies by the blood of Christ'.--Heb. x. 19.


The closing of a gate is an obstacle hindering men's entrance. Now men are hindered from entrance to the heavenly kingdom by sin, for Isaias says, 'It shall be called the holy way : the unclean shall not pass over it' (Is. xxxv. 8).

Now the sin that hinders man's entrance into heaven is of two kinds. There is, first of all, the sin of our first parents. By this sin access to the kingdom of heaven was barred to man. We read in Genesis (iii. 24) that after the sin of our first parents God placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubim and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. The other kind of hindrance arises from the sins special to each individual, the sins each man commits by his own particular action.

By the Passion of Christ we are freed not only from the sin common to all human nature, and this both as to the sin and as to its appointed penalty, since Christ pays the price on our behalf, but also we are delivered from our personal sins if we are numbered among those who are linked to the Passion by faith, by charity and by the sacraments of the Faith. Thus it is that through the Passion of Christ the gates of heaven are thrown open to us. And hence St. Paul says that: 'Christ, being come an high priest of the good things to come, by His own Blood entered once into the holies, having obtained a redemption that is eternal' (Heb. ix. 11).

And this was foreshadowed in the Old Testament, where we read (Num. xxxv. 25, 28), ...'the man-slayer shall abide there, that is, in the city of refuge, until the death of the high priest, that is anointed with holy oil. And after he is dead, then shall the man-slayer return to his own country.'

The holy fathers who (before the coming of Christ wrought works of justice earned their entrance into heaven through faith in the Passion of Christ, as is written, The saints by faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice (Heb. xi. 33). By faith, too, it was that individuals were cleansed from the sins they had individually committed. But faith or goodness, no matter who the person was that possessed it, was not enough to be able to move the hindrance created by the guilty state of the whole human creation. This hindrance was only removed at the price of the blood of Christ. And therefore before the Passion of Christ no one could enter the heavenly kingdom, to obtain that eternal happiness that consists in the full enjoyment of God.

Christ by His Passion merited for us an entrance into heaven, and removed what stood in our way. By His Ascension, however, He, as it were, put mankind in possession of heaven. And therefore it is that He ascended opening the way before them.