Monday in the Seventh Week of Easter, May 13, 2024

John 16, 29-33

The disciples said to Jesus, “Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech. Now we realize that you know everything and that you do not need to have anyone question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now? Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

The Gospel reading again comes from Jesus’s sermon during the Last Supper.

 “Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech.”  Sometimes when we do not understand what another person is telling us, we assume it is because the other person is not speaking clearly.  We should also wonder, though, if it is not a matter of our own expectations and biases getting in the way of our comprehension.  The Lord Jesus had always spoken clearly.  Even in his parables he spoke clearly and made the dilemmas posed in them clear.  The crowds and disciples did not always accept the implications of a given parable, but they understood on one level or another what he was saying to them.  If there was a problem with how the Lord talked, in the eyes of the disciples, it was that he spoke too clearly.  We remember how the Lord condemned the Pharisees on one particular occasion, and a lawyer urged him to speak more moderately: “And one of the lawyers answering, said to him: ‘Master, in saying these things, you reproach us also.’ But he said: ‘Woe to you lawyers also.’ ”  Knowing ourselves all too well, we are also aware that when someone tells us what we do not want to hear, we go into denial, or try to reword what was said, or try to forget it.  We should never underestimate our willingness to excuse ourselves, either for what we have done or for what we are about to do.

“The hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone.”  We “scatter” to our own “homes” because of fear or guilt.  By “homes” we ought to understand mental states in which we feel safe.  Essentially, it means pretending.  Times arise in which we ought to “depart”, as when we find ourselves in an occasion of sin, but those who “scatter” do so in panic rather than in measured consideration, and arrive at their destination disheveled and in disarray.  They give up every good they possess in order to arrive at a very temporary feeling of safety.  We do this when we fail to defend the Faith or to confess that we are Christians, and when we back down from challenges to what the Lord taught.  The Lord is “alone” then, but not himself vulnerable or in actual danger, but in that his followers had failed him and themselves.  “I have told you this so that you might have peace in me.”  It is only in relying on the Lord, clinging to his friendship and his teachings, that we can have peace.  Through our sanctification we become more and more at peace, and eager to live our Faith and speak of our Lord.

“In the world you will have trouble, but take courage.”  That is, the world will seek to trouble those who believe in Jesus, but they need not be troubled by the words of others or their invitations to join in their sin, as well as by internal temptations such as to covet, to lie, to lust, or to lose our patience.  These do but knock on the doors of our soul.  But there is no rule that we have to open a door just because someone or something knocks on it.  “I have conquered the world.”  These words thrill us to hear them: our Lord has conquered the world.  By this he means that he has overcome all temptations and all the enticements our mortal life could offer.  Even that which was perfectly lawful for him as a Jew, such as marriage, he had scorned because it was not part of his Father’s plan for him.  We too can conquer the world, not by amassing power and arms, but by rejecting all that is in any way contrary to God’s plan for us, even things we can otherwise legitimately have.  We must pray for grace that we might do this, and grow in the virtues, for when we have conquered the world we are awarded a triumphal entrance into heaven.

The thirty-third article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Priest’s Vestments

In ancient times, priests, whether Jewish or pagan, wore distinctive ceremonial clothing when administering their duties.  The clothing of the Jewish priest was given in some detail in the Law of Moses.  Catholic priests too wore distinctive clothing at Mass in the early Church.  St. John may provide us with a clue as to its appearance when he wrote of his vision of Christ, the High Priest in Revelation 1, 13, where he saw him “clothed with a long robe and with a golden girdle round his breast.”  This would correspond with the alb which the priest wears, a white linen long-sleeved garment that covers his neck and goes down to his feet.  This, in turn, is covered by a chasuble (from the Latin word for “little house”) which acts as an apron, although it soon became stylized with embroidery.  The chasuble is of one of several colors, according to the feast day or liturgical season (as covered yesterday).  Beneath the alb, the priest wears an amice, a square of white linen worn around the neck to protect the collar of the alb from staining.  Over the alb and beneath the chasuble the priest wears a stole around his neck.  The stole is a long, band of cloth, usually of linen and stiffened, which indicated in Ancient Greece that a man was credentialed to speak publicly.  For us, it indicates that the wearer is permitted by the bishop to proclaim the Gospel at Mass and to preach.  A deacon wears his stole diagonally across his body so that it hangs on one shoulder.  The priest wears his straight up and down, or he may cross it across his breast.  Over this and holding everything under the chasuble together, is a cincture, a belt made from cotton or linen thread that is tied.

Each piece of the priest’s vestments signifies a virtue which the priest must possess and make progress in.  The amice, the first vestment the priest puts on, signifies fortitude against the devil’s temptations.  The prayer which the priest prays when he puts this on reference Ephesians 6, 17 and “the helmet of salvation”.  The alb signifies baptismal purity.  The cincture signifies the purity of heart which the priest must have in order to offer the .sacrifice of the Mass with his full attention.  The stole signifies the priestly authority to preach and to offer the Mass,  the chasuble, which covers all the vestments, signifies charity, which covers all the virtues.  Until 1970, when it’s use was banned without explanation, the maniple, a band of linen or silk, was worn on the left arm.  Originally it was used as a napkin or towel for the priest to wipe his face with but over the years it became an embroidered vestment without a practical use.  It signified the weeping and sorrow that a priest should feel, recollecting his sins as he performs the ceremonies of the Mass.

Next: The Orientation of the Priest at the Altar