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The Easter Cycle
Let us adhere to the Church. She is the holy city of Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, our
mother. She will lead us by the hand through the Lent of our earthly sojourn to the heavenly
Jerusalem.
Today we think also of the many people who do not know the new Jerusalem, the Church.
Poor, misguided people! They do not have a mother at whose breasts they may be filled with
consolation.
Prayer
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who rightly suffer for our deeds, may be relieved
by Thy consoling grace. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Monday
Today the story of our Lord’s suffering for the first time appears prominently in the liturgy. We
are now called upon to share His suffering and death. “Can you drink the chalice that I shall
drink?” (Mt 20:22.) Yes, we feel that we can drink the chalice of Christ, and we desire most
earnestly to do so. For this reason we assemble in the church of the Four Crowned Martyrs for
Mass today. Christ, the great martyr, has drawn us here. We wish to share His martyrdom, His
humiliation, His rejection, His crucifixion, that we may share also His resurrection.
Jesus is the true Solomon. The Epistle tells us of the two mothers who came to Solomon for
justice. They were both living in the same house. Each of them gave birth to a child, but one of
these women overlaid her child in her sleep. She took the dead child and placed it in the arms of
the other woman while she slept. She then claimed the living child as her own. In the morning
the mother of the living child notices that the infant in her arms is not her own. Both women
come now to Solomon that he may judge their dispute. With the wisdom that God had given
him, Solomon decides the case and determines who is the mother of the living child, which
he returns to its true mother. In this story we find another significant figure of things that were
to come. The two women represent the Synagogue and the Church of Christ. The Synagogue,
the Old Testament, can no longer save souls after the coming of Christ. It can bring only death
and ruin to those who remain attached to it. But the Church can save souls. She snatches them
from the grasp of the robber, death. Christ is the judge between the two women. From the cross
He assigns to the Church the souls which He has redeemed through His blood. The veil of the
temple is rent; the Old Testament has no more to give. “Give the living child to this woman [the
Church of the New Testament] and let it not be killed; for she is the mother thereof ” (Epistle).
Christ not only pronounces judgment, as Solomon did, but takes the cross upon His shoulders
and submits to a disgraceful death in order to save us and give us to our true mother. He
also provides her with all that is necessary for her role as mother of mankind and our guide to
eternal life. By His death He gave us our mother, the Church, and in her He gave us eternal life.
Jesus is the living temple (Gospel). Israel built the temple for herself. Forty-six years she
worked to erect it. Now she has disgraced it and degraded it by the worldly traffic which she
carried on in its courts. Then Christ came, and taking cords, made a scourge with which He
drove the merchants and money-changers out of the temple. The Jews were incensed by this
act and demanded of Him, “What sign [miracle] dost Thou show unto us, seeing Thou dost
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