Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/66



The present instalment of the Homilies of S. Thomas is perhaps richer than the former portions of the same work in unfolding the Humanity, Divinity, and Work of the Word made Flesh. Lent, Passiontide, and Easter necessarily closely connect themselves with the humility, the sorrow, and the glory of our one Adorable Sacrifice and High Priest; and S. Thomas ever traces out the power of the “endless life” that underlies all this outward change. Yet each of these short sketches has a merit of its own, and one so seemingly incomplete and unworthy of S. Thomas as “The Government of the Tongue” (xi., Easter) presents us with a pregnant and thoughtful reading of Lam. iii. 28. Some may miss in the present outlines the copious spiritual readings of the Old Testament which formed so marked a feature in the former Homilies ; but we gain in exchange a deeper insight into the New Testament. The worlds spiritual and moral are brought very near the one to the other: the sea and mountain play their parts in Our Blessed Lord's “Works and Ways” (Hom. viii., Lent); the powers of heaven, earth, and hell enter into the triumph of this all-glorious Passion (Hom. ii., Easter); the invisible powers of darkness which take up their abode in “the Sinful Soul” (Hom. iv., Lent), when cast out by the grace of God, prepare that soul for the contemplation of the “ City of God” (Hom. vii., Lent), in which glorious City the “ Eternal Passover” (Hom. i., Easter) shall be for ever celebrated. The “ Risen Saviour” (Hom. ii., Easter), with His “ Three Witnesses” (Hom. iii., id.'), when He leaves behind Him His “Blessing of Peace” (Hom. iii., id.), teaches us both by word and example how these high mysteries of His Church and Grace may be realized by us even now in part—an earnest of that more abundant entrance which we hope will one day be ministered unto us “ into the Everlasting Kingdom of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

It is a matter of deep thankfulness with the Editor that this unprotending little publication should have called forth so many expressions of sympathy and interest; and, in some cases, in quarters where it might have been least expected.