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The Easter Cycle
are commanded to be subject to authority, whether that authority treat us justly or unjustly:
“Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle but also to the
forward. For this is thankworthy.” How diligently Joseph and Mary followed such a life of perfect
submission! They feared God, prayed, rendered perfect obedience externally and internally to
legitimate authority, were humbly subject to all men, often under the most trying circumstances.
Such a life of submission is the fruit of Easter, the fruit of baptism, of the Eucharist, and of the
grace we received through our resurrection with Christ. Why should not this life be possible
to me? “The Lord hath sent redemption to His people.”
“The Lord hath sent redemption to His people.” Therefore “shout with joy to God, all the earth,
alleluia; sing ye a psalm to His name, alleluia, alleluia” (Introit).
Though man is weak and helpless, the Christian can become mighty. He has only to learn
the secret of his strength and his greatness, which lies in the light, the grace, the power, the
new life, which results from his incorporation in the risen Christ. We know that we have been
redeemed, that we are living branches united to the vine and growing by virtue of this union
with Christ in His Church. I am not an isolated branch, torn from the vine and choked to death
by enveloping thorns; I am a living branch of a great, living organism which shoots its roots
deep into the earth, and whose limbs reach upward until they touch the very throne of God.
I am a member of that great community which comprises all the strong, pure, noble souls in
whom Christ lives, and who share His strength, His spirit, and His life. Indeed, “The Lord hath
sent redemption to His people.”
How I should rejoice, thank God, and trust in Him! How I should pray and strive to conquer
the tyranny of carnal lusts by becoming strong, holy, and perfect before God and men!
Prayer
O God, who dost show to them that are in error the light of Thy truth, that they may return
to the way of righteousness: grant to all those who profess to be Christians the grace to reject
those things which are contrary to that name, and to follow such things as are agreeable to it.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Wednesday
Octave of the Solemnity of St. Joseph
Today we celebrate the octave of the Solemnity of St. Joseph. The lessons at Matins, taken from
the Book of Genesis, tell the story of the Old Testament. Let us consider for a moment this story.
The first type. Joseph is sold by his brethren to the Ismaelites and is carried by them into Egypt.
There he becomes the slave of Putiphar, an official of the king of Egypt. “And the Lord was with
him, and he was a prosperous man in all things; and he dwelt in his master’s house, who knew
very well that the Lord was with him and made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph
found favor in the sight of his master and ministered to him; and being set over all by him, he
governed the house committed to him and all things that were delivered to him. And the Lord
blessed the house of the Egyptian for Joseph’s sake, and multiplied all his substance, both at
home and in the fields” (Gn 39:2–5). Here we have a type of the Joseph of the New Testament,
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