Simple Thoughts on the Rosary: Glorious Mysteries: The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin
Of his fourteen Epistles St. Paul begins all but one with the salutation: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” His great heart was ever in closest sympathy with those it loved, weak with the weak, weeping with those in sorrow. It was not one to mock the sorely tried by wishing them a gift beyond their reach. But he sees nothing in their life of outward persecution and inward strife that need disturb their peace. Writing to his converts in Rome who were in the very furnace of tribulation—“famine, persecution, the sword,” he says: “Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” (Rom. 15).
VII.—“Well done, good and faithful servant!”—Matth. xxv.
The longest life in the service of God is well repaid at last by those words: “Well done!” Or rather there is no proportion at all between the most protracted service, fifty years of the most heroic sacrifice, and the recompense—those words from the lips of Christ. Whatever happens to me in this life, whatever else of consolation or of happiness I may miss, may I not miss those words when life is done.
What must I do, Lord, to deserve this welcome from Thee at the last?
One essential condition is to remember and thoroughly realize that it has to be deserved. It is not enough to desire, I must deserve. Five virgins out of ten were ready to cry out: “Lord, Lord, open to us!” But the preparation was wanting. Their lamps had gone out. And the answer to their knocking and their cry was: “Amen, I say to you, I know you not.”
How dost Thou know us, Divine Bridegroom, so as to admit us to Thy presence?
Thou knowest the careful trimming of the lamp in spite of the weariness of monotony and delay. Thou knowest the fidelity of love that through hours of darkness watches on in silence and in hope. Thou knowest the regularity in religious duties that does not look for sweetness and consolation as its pay; the diligence that works cheerfully and conscientiously because it works for Thee; the courage that without the sustaining force of example holds on its course.
Those who watch thus are ready at Thy coming. They meet Thee joyfully. They go with Thee to the marriage. They hear from Thy lips “Well done!”
Thou, who a lowly bride to woo and gain A treasury of love divine wouldst drain, A human lot embrace, weep human tears, Have fellowship with me in hopes and fears, Toil at my side, a daily burden bear, Nor quivering flesh, nor quailing spirit spare; Planing, Thy feet, where’er my feet have trod, Lifting, Thy lever-life, my life to God:
Where, Lord and Bridegroom, where the guerdon won At such stupendous cost? Hath fraud undone Thine expectation, dared Thy suit to thwart, And Lia proffer, for the Rachel sought?
Long years of labour as a single day Thy love hath counted: have they borne away The prize on which Thy faithful Heart is set, Or is my strange, dull heart unconquered yet?
O Christ, sole Lover that may love constrain, Abandon not, nor let Thy quest be vain;
By Bethlehem’s joys, by Calvary’s bitter death, By the sweet memories of Nazareth, Give me the lesson of Thy life to learn;
Give me the love that would Thy love return; Though cold my heart, unworthy, selfish, small, Have patience with me till I pay Thee all!
VIII.—“I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee taking pity on thee.”—Jer. xxxi.
I. Who is it that has drawn me? II. Whence has He drawn me? III. Whither is He drawing me?
I. God, the Almighty, the All Wise, the All Good, who infinitely happy in Himself, is also infinitely liberal, and desires to make others, to make me a sharer in His happiness—He it is that draws me.
To this end He created my soul out of nothing and gave it a likeness to Himself that it might be capable of participating in His blessedness. This likeness is in the natural order, because by its three powers my soul resembles Him in His Three Persons. Still more is it in the supernatural order by the gift of sanctifying grace which makes my soul a sharer in the Divine Nature, a child of God, having a distinct right to call him Father.
This grace given in Baptism is increased in every Sacrament, and it is always in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity that it is bestowed.
The priest’s words to us at our Baptism were: “I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” When we were confirmed the bishop said: “I confirm thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” As children of God we have in a sense a right to the children’s Bread in which we receive the Giver of grace Himself, Jesus Christ, with whom are present by circumincession the Father and the Holy Ghost. If by mortal sin we lose grace, it is in the Name of the Blessed Trinity that it is restored to us: “I absolve thee from thy sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
And when at last the end shall come, and Holy Church has to pour out all her treasures to strengthen us for our passage into the life beyond the grave, it is again in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity that she gives us the Sacrament of Extreme Unction: “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” the priest will say, “may all the power of the devil be extinguished in thee by the imposition of our hands.”
More tenderly still the Church will commend our departing soul to God: “Go forth, O Christian soul, from this world, in the Name of the Father Almighty who created thee, in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who suffered for thee, in the Name of the Holy Ghost who was poured out upon thee.” And again: “We commend to Thee, O Lord, the soul of Thy servant N.... For although he hath sinned he hath not denied the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.”
“Go forth.” What daring words. Yet why should it fear to go, that Christian soul, so loved by God, so compassed throughout its course by graces! Why should not the Church break forth into a song of triumph over her weak trembling child, even in the hour when all is failing it! Why should she not summon to meet and welcome it Angels and Archangels, Apostles, white-robed Martyrs, Confessors crowned with lilies, the choir of Virgins singing jubilees! Is this too much for me? No, for I am a child of the Church and when my time is come I have a right to pass from the Church Militant and Suffering to the Church Triumphant. I have a right to see at last and know Him in whom I have believed. That His Countenance should be mild and festive when I appear before him, and that He should award me a place among those that are to stand before Him for ever. That He should place me within the ever-verdant gardens of His Paradise. That He, the true Shepherd, should acknowledge me for one of His sheep, and place me at His right hand in the lot of His elect. I have a right to behold my Redeemer face to face, and standing always in His Presence to gaze with blessed eyes on the open Vision of Truth. And set thus among the troops of the Blessed, to enjoy the sweetness of Divine contemplation for ever and ever.
All this is my right as a child of the Church—if only I persevere to the end as her faithful child. It is my right and the Justice of God will award it to me. But I must so live that His Justice may be able to bestow it on me. Now is the time of His Mercy. Now He will give me all manner of good things to which I have no right. But at death this sovereignty of Mercy ceases. He must be just then, just only. Whatever in His Justice He can give me, I shall have. Oh let me make such good use of His Mercy now that I may be able to bear, nay that I may gladly welcome whatever His Justice may decree for me hereafter!
IX.—We are the children of Saints and look for that life which God will give to those that never change their faith from Him,—Tobias ii.
(1) I saw a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands (Apoc. 7).
(2) They shall be His people, and God Himself with them shall be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away (Apoc. 21).
(3) The small and great are there (Job 3).
(4) There the wicked cease from troubling, and the wearied are at rest (Job 38).
(5) Alleluia shall be sung in its streets (Tobias 13).
(6) Many are the afflictions of the just but out of them all will the Lord deliver them (Ps. 38).
(7) My elect shall not labour in vain (Isaias 65).
(8) Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love Him (I. Cor. 2).
(9) Afflicted in few things in many they shall be well rewarded, because God hath tried them and found them worthy of Himself (Wisd. 3).
(10) Then we set forward... to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of our God was upon us and delivered us from the hand of the enemy and of such as lay in wait by the way. And we came to Jerusalem (Esdras 8).