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| Gracewing (Oct 2005) |
Fourth Week of Easter - SATURDAY Year II
First Reading - Acts 16:16-40
Responsory
Col1:24; Phil 3:7
I rejoice in
the sufferings I endure for you. In my body I fill up what
is lacking in
the sufferings of Christ + for the sake of his body, the Church, of which I
became a minister, alleluia.
V. My only
desire is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. I want to share his
sufferings and resemble him in his death + for the sake ...
Second Reading
From the writings of Blessed Columba Marmion,
O.S.B. (Le Christ Vie de l’Ame, 366-368). Trs. 1925
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| Marmion-abbot_circa_1918 |
We must give everything to God
We are called to be united with Christ
in his sacrifice, and with him to offer ourselves. If we are willing, he takes
us with him, immolates us with himself, and lifts us into the Father's presence
as an oblation of fragrant sweetness. It is our very selves thatwe must
offer with Jesus. If the faithful share through baptism in Christ's priesthood,
Saint Peter tells us, it is in order that they may offer spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So true is this that in a prayer between
the offertory and consecration the Church refers explicitly to the union between
our sacrifice and that of the bridegroom: Lord our God, make these gifts holy, and
through them make us a perfect offering to you.
If we are to be thus accepted by God, we
must make our self-offering one with the oblation that Christ made of himself
on the cross and renews on the altar. Our Lord substituted himself for us in
his sacrifice; he took the place of us all. That is why the blow that fell on him
has morally slain us too: If one died for all, then all have died. We shall,
however, effectively die with him only by uniting ourselves to his eucharistic
sacrifice; and how can we be identified with him in his character as victim? By
handing ourselves over, as he did, in unreserved obedience to God's good pleasure.
The victim offered to God must be fully
at God's disposal.
We must, therefore, live in this basic attitude
of giving everything, absolutely everything, to God. Out
of love for him we must carry out our acts of renunciation and self-denial, and accept daily sufferings, trials and pain, to such a point that we can say, as
Jesus said at the hour of his passion: I act like this so that the world may
realize that I love the Father. This is what self-offering with Jesus implies.
We give God the most acceptable homage he can receive from us when we offer the
divine Son to his eternal Father, and when we offer ourselves with this holy
and perfect sacrifice in the same dispositions that filled the sacred heart
of Christ on the cross: an intense love for the Father and for our brothers and
sisters, a burning desire for the salvation of all, and a total abandonment to the
divine will in all things, especially when it goes against the grain and is hard
for us.
We find in this the surest means of transformation
into Christ, particularly if we unite ourselves to him in communion, which is the
most fruitful way of sharing in the sacrifice of the altar. When Christ finds us
thus united with him he immolates us with himself, makes us pleasing to his Father,
and transforms us more and more into his own likeness.
Responsory
Col 1:24; Pilil3:7
I rejoice in the
sufferings I endure for you. In my body I fill up what
is lacking in
the sufferings of Christ, + for the sake of his body, the Church, of which I became
a minister, alleluia.
V. My only desire
is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. I want to share his sufferings,
and resemble him in his death,
+ for the sake
...
Reading from the Exordium Books 1983, 1925 translation.
Available is the newly translation by Alan Bancroft.
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