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The Easter Cycle
not with Me is against Me.” There can be no neutrality with Christ. There can be no halfway
mark between the service of two masters. We must choose the one or the other. This is the
charge laid upon the baptized: they must be entirely devoted to Christ. We must believe in
Him implicitly, imitating His example and obeying His commands. If one is not with Christ,
one is against Him and drives Him out of his heart. Satan then enters into such a man and takes
with him seven other spirits worse than himself, and the last condition of the man is worse than
the first. In gratitude for our baptism we assent to it again when we recite the Credo, and thus
we renew our baptismal promises and submit to the judgments of Christ, which are “sweeter
than honey and the honeycomb” (Offertory).
When we make our offering we place ourselves on the side of Christ. “He that is not with
Me is against Me.” As the drops of water used at the Offertory mingle with the wine in the
chalice, so we wish to be united with Christ in the Mass. With Him we wish to be crucified
to sin and to the world. We offer ourselves with Him, dedicating to God our thoughts, our
works, and our deeds, thus becoming with Him one holy and immaculate offering. Our
offering will be sealed by Holy Communion. The stronger one enters our hearts and subdues
by His power the strong one who lives there. He stretches forth the right hand of His majesty
to protect us. We are made secure in Christ. This is the fruit of our offering and of our
baptism. “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house” (Communion). Through our baptism,
our Mass, and our Communion we are bound to Christ and filled with Him. Renewed by
His spirit we repeat with all our heart our baptismal promises; with Christ and for Christ
we work, suffer, and pray. “My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out
of the snare” (Introit). From the struggle of Lent in this world we shall make our way to the
light and glory of eternity.
Meditation
The stational church today is that of St. Lawrence, the patron of neophytes. On his glowing
gridiron he attains his transfiguration. He looks at us also with a burning desire for our salvation.
We, too, must purify ourselves for the transfiguration of Easter morning. “My eyes are
ever toward the Lord. . . . To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul” (Introit). We beseech Him
during this holy season of Lent to perfect in us and in all faithful children of the Church the
work of regeneration.
“At that time Jesus was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb. And when He had cast out
the devil, the dumb spoke and the multitude were in admiration at it” (Gospel). In former times
the driving out of the evil spirits from those to be baptized, was undertaken in the sanctuary of
St. Lawrence. The very incident recorded in the Gospel of the Mass today, took place in our own
lives when we were baptized. In the person of the priest, who represents Him, Christ came to us
and drove out the evil spirit who had possessed us from our entry into the world. “I command
you, every unclean spirit, in the name of the Father Almighty, and in the name of Jesus Christ,
His Son, our Lord and Judge, and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to depart from this creature
of God, which our Lord has deigned to call His temple, that it may be a temple of the living
God, and that the Holy Ghost may dwell in it. Through the same Christ our Lord, who shall
come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire. Amen.”
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