The Conversion of St. Paul: Bede and Augustine

 

On the Conversion of St. Paul: Homily of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest

 

He is a perfect man who, going, sells all that he has and gives to the poor, and coming, follows Christ, for he shall have a never- ending treasure in heaven. And hence at Peter's well-chosen question Jesus says to men of this kind, "Amen I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

 

He taught those who labor for His name's sake in this life to hope for a reward in the next; that is, in the regeneration, when they who were born as men into this frail life shall have been regenerated into life eternal by rising again. And truly it is a just reward that they, who here disregard the glory of human greatness for the sake of Christ, who could not be drawn away from following His footsteps by any motive, should there sit With Him as glorified judges.

 

But let no one think that only the twelve apostles (for Matthias was chosen in the place of the apostate Judas) will be judges; just as not only are the twelve tribes of Israel to be judged. Otherwise, the tribe of Levi, which is the thirteenth, would escape judgment. And Paul, who is the thirteenth Apostle, would be deprived of his privilege of judging, although he himself says, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more the things of this world?"

 

For you should know that all who, after the example of the apostles, have left all things and followed Christ, are going to sit in judgment with Him, just as every race of mortal men- is to be judged. For since universality is often denoted in Scripture by the number twelve, the great number of all those who are to judge is shown by the twelve seats of the Apostles, just as by the twelve tribes of Israel the universality 'Of all those to bo judged is designated.

 

On the Conversion of St. Paul: Sermon of St. Augustine, Bishop

 

We have heard today from the Acts of the Apostles how the Apostle Paul was changed from a persecutor of the Christians to A preacher of Christ. Christ struck down the persecutor that He might raise him up a teacher of His Church. He struck him and healed him; He slew him and re-enlivened him. For Christ is the Lamb that was slain by the wolves and that now changes the wolves into lambs. In Paul was fulfilled that which was clearly prophesied by the Patriarch Jacob at the time when he blessed hig sons, laying hands on those who were then present, but looking forward to the happenings of the future.

 

Paul tells us himself that he was of the tribe of Benjamin. When Jacob, blessing his sons, came to Benjamin, he said, "Benjamin, a ravenous wolf." What then? Shall Benjamin always be a ravenous wolf? God forbid.  "In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil." This is exactly what was fulfilled in Paul.

 

Now, if it please you, we will consider how he devoured the prey in the morning, and how he divided the spoil at night. Here morning and evening signify beginning and end. So we may read, "In the beginning he shall devour the prey, and in the end he shall divide the spoil." First, then, in the beginning he devoured the prey, as we read that he, having received letters from the chief priests, went forth in order that, if he should find any Christians, he might bring them to the priests for punishment. He went breathing out threats and slaughter; Indeed, he was devouring the prey. When the first martyr, Stephen, was stoned for confessing the name of Christ, Saul gave his consent to the crime, and, as though it were not enough for him to cast stones, he kept the garments of all those who did it, thus venting his rage more than if he had cast stones with his own hands. Thus, in the morning he devoured the prey. How did he divide the spoil in' the evening? Struck down by the voice of Christ from heaven, and receiving from above a prohibition to further raging, he fell upon his face, first to be prostrated, then to be raised up; first to be wounded, then to be healed.

St. Paul

 Ad Officium lectionis: saec XVIII

 

Pressi malórum póndere

te, Paule, adímus súpplices,

qui certa largus désuper

dabis salútis pígnora.

 

Nam tu beáto cóncitus

divíni amóris ímpetu,

quos insecútor óderas,

defénsor inde amplécteris.

 

Amóris, eia, prístini

ne sis, precámur, ímmemor,

et nos supérnæ lánguidos

in spem redúcas grátiæ.

 

Te deprecánte flóreat

ignára damni cáritas,

quam nulla turbent iúrgia

nec ullus error sáuciet.

 

O grata cælo víctima,

te, lux amórque Géntium,

o Paule, clarum víndicem,

nos te patrónum póscimus.

 

Laus Trinitáti, cántica

sint sempitérnæ glóriæ,

quæ nos boni certáminis

tecum corónet præmiis. Amen.

 

Pressed down by the weight of evil, O Paul, we come to you praying that you will give us from above sure pledges of our salvation. For you aroused by the blessed blow of divine love, first persecuted those whom you hated and then as their defender embraced them.  Ah, do not forget your first love, we pray, and lead us back in our weakness to the hope of heavenly grace. By your prayers may love, which knows not damnation, flourish, love which is disturbed by no murmuring and which no error can wound.  O victim pleasing to heaven, light and love of the Gentiles, O Paul, we pray to you, our glorious avenger and patron. A hymn of praise to the eternal glory of the Trinity, who crowns us with you, the reward for those who have fought the good fight. Amen.

 

Ad Laudes matutinis: saec. VIII-IX

 

Doctor egrégie, Paule, mores ínstrue

et mente polum nos transférre sátage,

donec perféctum largiátur plénius,

evacuáto quod ex parte gérimus.

 

Sit Trinitáti sempitérna glória,

honor, potéstas atque iubilátio,

in unitáte, cui manet impérium

ex tunc et modo per ætérna sæcula. Amen

 

Doctor without equal, Paul, instruct  our life and mind that we be set on the path to heaven;  grant that we may more fully  possess what has been perfected and what we now know only in part.  Glory be to the eternal Trinity, honor, power and praise in the Unity, whose authority abides now and for eternal ages. Amen.

 

Ad Vesperas: Petrus Damianus

 

Excélsam Pauli glóriam

concélebret Ecclésia,

quem mire sibi apóstolum

ex hoste fecit Dóminus.

 

Quibus succénsus æstibus

in Christi nomen sæviit,

exársit his impénsius

amórem Christi prædicans.

 

O magnum Pauli méritum!

Cælum conscéndit tértium,

audit verba mystérii

quæ nullus audet éloqui.

 

Dum verbi spargit sémina,

seges surgit ubérrima;

sic cæli replent hórreum

bonórum fruges óperum.

 

Micántis more lámpadis

perfúndit orbem rádiis;

fugat errórum ténebras,

ut sola regnet véritas.

 

Christo sit omnis glória,

cum Patre et almo Spíritu,

qui dedit vas tam fúlgidum

electiónis géntibus. Amen.

 

The Church celebrates the most high glory of Paul, an enemy, whom the Lord wondrously made an apostle. Burning with zeal he savagely raged against the name of Christ; aroused by a more intense fire he preached the love of Christ. O great merit of Paul! He ascended to the third heaven, he hears the words of the mystery, which he dares not tell anyone. While he scattered the seed of the word, a very rich harvest arouse; thus he filled the granaries of heaven with the fruit of good works. As a bright lamp he poured rays of light upon the world; he put to flight the darkness of error that the truth alone should reign. To Christ be all glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who gave to the Gentiles such resplendent vessel of election. Amen.

John Saward, The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty

 

 

 

The Beauty of Humility     

Pride is ugly. It inflates and swells, brings disorder and deformity into the soul. Humility, by contrast, is the reassertion of order. St Bernard saw a deep correspondence between the beauty of Our Lady's virginity and the humility of her approach to the Father. The spotless virginity of her body was, in a way, a sacrament of the childlike humility of her soul. According to St Bernard, there was a beautiful mingling ('pulchra permixtio') of virginity and humility in Our Lady; without humility, her virginity would not have pleased God.   She was humble of heart, emptied of self and therefore ready to be filled by God. Yes, virginity and humility coincide in this quality that, for want of a better word, the English Catholic writer Caryll Houselander called  emptiness'.

 It is not a formless emptiness, a void without meaning; on the contrary, it has a shape, a form given to it by the purpose for which it is intended. It is emptiness like the hollow in the reed … like the hollow in the cup . . .like that of the bird's nest. .

The pre-Advent emptiness of Our Lady's purposeful virginity was indeed like those three things. She was a reed through which the Eternal Love was to be piped as a shepherd's song. She was the flowerlike chalice into which the purest water of humanity was to be poured, mingled with wine, changed to the

66 Ibid., ad 2, quoting St Ambrose, (Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam 2, 1, 27; PL 15, 1553.) crimson blood of love, and lifted up in sacrifice. She was the warm nest rounded to the shape of humanity to receive the Divine Little Bird.

Our Lady's virginity is good earth made ready by God to receive the seed of His Word. The Akathist Hymn of the Byzantine Church praises this beautiful receptiveness in the Virgin: 'As a clear and untilled space thou madest the divine Ear of Corn to burst forth; hail, thou living table having space for the Bread of Life ' 69 The world may see virginity or celibacy as something negative, a void. But the Mother of God reveals that it is empty only as everything receptive is empty, as a chalice is empty so it may contain first wine and then the Blood of Christ.

 

St. Augustine, Homily 200 for the Epiphany

Magi come from the East to adore the Virgin's Child. Today we celebrate this event; we pay our respects and deliver a sermon in keeping with the feast. This day first shone resplendently for the Magi; its anniversary is renewed by us with a festal rejoicing. They were the first-fruits of the Gentiles; we are a nation of Gen- tiles. The words of Apostles announced His birth to us; a star was, as it were, the language of heaven for them; like the heavens, therefore, the Apostles announced the glory of God to us. Why should we not recognize as heavens those who have become the abode of God, as it is written: The soul of the just is the seat of wisdom? [Wis. 71] For, through these heavens [the Apostles], the One who made and who dwells in the heavens has sounded forth. The earth trembled at the sound and now, behold, it believes. O mighty mystery! The Lord lay in a manger, yet He drew the Magi from the East. He was hidden in a stable, yet He was acknowledged in the heavens, so that, thus recognized in the heavens, He might be manifested in the stable and that this day might be called the Epiphany or, in the Latin derivative, the Manifestation. Thus, at one and the same time, He set His seal of approval on His high and His lowly estate, so that He to whom the heavens bore witness by a starry sign might, when sought, be found in an insignificant dwelling where, helpless in His tiny frame and wrapped in swaddling clothes, He might be adored by the Magi and feared by the wicked.

Now, then, my dearly beloved sons and heirs of grace, look to your vocation and, since Christ has been revealed to both Jews and Gentiles as the cornerstone, cling together with most constant affection. For He was manifested in the very cradle of His infancy to those who were near and to those who were afar—to the Jews whose shepherds were nearby; to the Gentiles whose M gi were at a great distance. The former came to Him on the very day of His birth; the latter are believed to have come on this day. He was not revealed, therefore, to the shepherds because they were learned, nor to the Magi because they were righteous, for ignorance abounds in the rusticity of shepherds and impiety amid the sacrileges of the Magi. He, the cornerstone, joined both groups to Himself since He came to choose the foolish things of the world in order to put to shame the wise and to call sinners, not the just [Mt. 9, 13], so that the mighty would not be lifted up nor the lowly be in despair.

 

 

Vesperas I & Laudes: Prudentius

 

From Cantus XII of The Cathemerinon.  

 

Quicúmque Christum quæritis, (1)

óculos in altum tóllite:

illic licébit vísere

signum perénnis glóriæ.

 

Hæc stella, quæ solis rotam

vincit decóre ac lúmine,

venísse terris núntiat

cum carne terréstri Deum.

 

En, Pérsici ex orbis sinu,

sol unde sumit iánuam,

cernunt períti intérpretes

regále vexíllum magi.

 

«Quis iste tantus — ínquiunt —

regnátor astris ímperans,

quem sic tremunt cæléstia,

cui lux et æthra insérviunt?

 

Illústre quiddam cérnimus

quod nésciat finem pati,

sublíme, celsum, intérminum,

antíquius cælo et chao.

 

Hic ille rex est géntium

populíque rex Iudáici,

promíssus Abrahæ patri

eiúsque in ævum sémini».

 

Iesu, tibi sit glória,

qui te revélas géntibus,

cum Patre et almo Spíritu,

in sempitérna sæcula. Amen.

 All you who seek Christ, raise your eyes to the sky, there you will see a sign of eternal glory. This star, which in beauty and light triumphs over the rotation of the sun, proclaims to earth that God has come with earthly flesh. Look, Persians come from the part of earth where the sun makes its entrance, the Magi skilled in interpreting signs come to find the banner of the King. They ask “where is such a great Ruler of the stars who commands that the heavens tremble before him, whom the light and sky obey?

The brightness we found will know no end: the most high, heavenly, infinite, older than heaven and the formless void. This is the King of the nations, the King of the Jews, promised to Father Abraham and his seed forever. O Jesus, to you be glory, you who revealed yourself to the Gentiles, with the Father and loving Spirit for eternal ages. Amen.

 

Ad Officium lectionis: Prudentius

 

The continuation of Quicumque Christum quaeritis.

 Magi vidéntes párvulum

eóa promunt múnera,

stratíque votis ófferunt

tus, myrrham et aurum régium.

 

Agnósce clara insígnia

virtútis ac regni tui,

Puer, cui trinam Pater

prædestinávit índolem:

 

Regem Deúmque annúntiant

thesáurus et fragrans odor

turis Sabæi, at mýrrheus

pulvis sepúlcrum prædocet.

 

O sola magnárum úrbium

maior Bethlem, cui cóntigit

ducem salútis cælitus

incorporátum gígnere!

 

Hunc et prophétis téstibus

îsdémque signatóribus

testátor et sator iubet

adíre regnum et cérnere:

 

Regnum quod ambit ómnia

dia et marína et térrea

a solis ortu ad éxitum

et tártara et cælum supra.

 

Iesu, tibi sit glória,

qui te revélas géntibus,

cum Patre et almo Spíritu,

in sempitérna sæcula. Amen.

The Magi seeing the baby present him with gifts from the East, prostrate they offer prayers incense, myrrh and gold fit for kings. Child, recognize these clear signs of your power and your kingdom, to you the Father predestined a threefold nature. The treasure of gold and the fragrant smell of the incense of Sheba proclaim you King and God, while the myrrh dust foretells the tomb. Bethlehem, greater than all great cities, where the Captain of heavenly salvation took flesh and was born.  Here in accord with prophetic testimony and witness the Father and Testator commands that the kingdom come and be seen.  A kingdom which encompasses all things, divinity, sea and earth from the rising of the sun to its setting both the underworld and the heaven above.  O Jesus, to you be glory, you who revealed yourself to the Gentiles, with the Father and loving Spirit for eternal ages. Amen.

 

 

Vesperas II: Sedulius

This hymn continues A solis ortus cardine. The manifestation of Christ as threefold: to the Gentiles in the Magi; to the Jews in the baptism of Christ in the Jordan; and to the Apostles at the wedding in Cana. The three middle stanzas each in turn address the Magi, the Baptism and Wedding at Cana.

 

Hostis Heródes ímpie,

Christum veníre quid times?

Non éripit mortália

qui regna dat cæléstia.

 

Ibant magi, qua vénerant

stellam sequéntes præviam,

lumen requírunt lúmine,

Deum faténtur múnere.

 

Lavácra puri gúrgitis

cæléstis Agnus áttigit;

peccáta quæ non détulit

nos abluéndo sústulit.

 

Novum genus poténtiæ:

aquæ rubéscunt hýdriæ,

vinúmque iussa fúndere

mutávit unda oríginem.

 

Iesu, tibi sit glória,

qui te revélas géntibus,

cum Patre et almo Spíritu,

in sempitérna sæcula. Amen.

Why, O impious Herod, do you fear the coming of Christ? He who gives a heavenly kingdom does not usurp mortal ones. Following the lead of the star, the Magi came to worship, by light they seek light, by their gifts they profess him to be God. The heavenly Lamb touched Jordan’s cleansing waters; by washing he took washed us from sins that were not his own. A new type of power: the water in the jars becomes red and by his command wine flows out, its nature transformed. O Jesus, to you be glory, you who revealed yourself to the Gentiles, with the Father and loving Spirit for eternal ages. Amen

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