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DAY of this month expresses a desire that in the day of
trial and suffering, GOD WOULD ASSIST THE PEOPLE.
It echoes the words with which the Jews of Jerusalem
and those of Egypt mutually encouraged one another
in their common sorrows. From it we can learn how
we may profit by adversity to draw nearer to God.
Saint John Ghrysostom teaches us how we may profit
by the Lessons of this Sunday by recalling to our remem
brance the example of the Machabees. When called upon
to defend our faith and religion before engaging in
combat we must have recourse to prayer, and then,
when the hour of conflict has come, we must enter it
courageously, but unostentatiously, humbly praying
that God for whose glory we have engaged in the con
test may assist us. Distrust of self, humility, prayer,
purity of intention : these are the dispositions which
are necessary for victory in the conflict.
The antiphon of the Magnificat for the FIFTH SUNDAY
teaches us that the RIGHT AND THE POWER OF RULING
BELONG TO GOD ALONE ;
on Him all nations depend. We
must ask of Him that peace may reign amongst them.
In the Lessons for this Sunday the Church together
with the example of the seven brethren, already spoken
of, sets before us that of the holy old man, Eleazar,
faithful even unto death in his observance of the Jewish
law. The noble old man, says Saint Gregory of Na-
zianzen, appears as the precursor of all our martyrs.
Bowed down beneath the weight of years, he did not
hesitate in offering himself as a victim to serve by his
ardent zeal and courage as an example to future gene
rations. The conflicts with which this earthly life is
filled could have no happier issue, for thus terminated
they would cast us in to the bosom of God, there to
receive the victor s crown.