St. Paschal Baylon/Sunday in the Octave of Ascension
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Paschal Baylon, as well as commemorating the Sunday within the Octave of Ascension. St. Paschal Baylon was a sixteenth century Spanish saint. He thus lived at a time when the Spanish Church was at the height of its influence, the age of perhaps better known saints and mystics such as St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila. St. Paschal Baylon was born of humble parents in the kingdom of Aragon. He lived the life of a shepherd, but stood out among his contemporaries for his holiness. He was therefore able to raise the level of the society around him by his presence. He later became a lay Franciscan. He came to be admired for his wisdom, which came not from books, but from purity of heart, a reminder that it is above all the pure in heart who see God. This was the period of the crisis in the Church brought about by the Reformation, and St. Paschal sought to combat the influence of the Reformation by his holiness of life. Indeed, the great strength of the Counter Reformation in the Church at this time lay in the ability to produce saints, “the holiness without which no man will see the Lord”. St. Paschal was noted above all for his life of prayer and for his devotion to the Eucharist.
St. Paschal exemplified the Gospel precept that it is by their fruits that ye shall know them. A good tree is known by the fruits that it produces. It is ultimately by the life of holiness that the Church is marked out from the world. It is true that first and foremost the Church is a hospital for sinners, for all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We can only be saved by divine grace, and not our own human efforts. However, the Church is not only a hospital for sinners but also a school for saints, for that is what we are all called to be. The strength of the Counter Reformation lay in the ability to produce saints, those, like St. Paschal Baylon, who were the chosen vessels of God’s grace and lights to the world in their several generations.
The book of Ecclesiasticus (which we heard today) states: “Blessed is the man that is found without blemish, and that hath not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor in treasures.” He would be praised for the wonderful things that he had done in his life. He could have transgressed and done evil things, but he had abstained from them: “therefore are his goods established in the Lord, and all the Church of the saints shall declare his alms.”
Ecclesiasticus, also called the Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach, is a later example of the type of literature that had earlier been recorded in the book of Proverbs. The wisdom literature is less historically orientated than than the Law and the Prophets. It is concerned with advice about right conduct that has close parallels with the teaching of sages of other nations. Ecclesiasticus belongs to this same genre of literature but makes a much more explicit attempt to relate wise advice about good conduct with the history of Israel. The Law is seen as the embodiment of the divine wisdom. The truly wise man who has lived without blemish and not put his trust in money or treasures is the one who is faithful to the Law.
The Gospel from St. Luke (which we heard today) records that Jesus told his disciples: “Let your loins be girt and lamps burning in your hands, and you yourselves like men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding: that when he cometh and knocketh they may open to him immediately.” Those servants who were found watching when the lord returned would be blessed. “But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you then also ready, for at what hour you think not the Son of man will come.”
St. Gregory the Great states: “Now, we gird our loins about, when by continency we master the lustful inclinations of the flesh. But, forasmuch as it sufficieth not for a man to abstain from evil deeds, if he strive not to join thereto the earnest doing of good works, it is immediately added: And your lights burning. Our lights burn when, by good works, we give bright example to our neighbour… Here, then, are two commandments, to gird our loins about, and to keep our lights burning-the cleanness of purity in our body, and the light of truth in our works. Whoso hath the one and not the other, pleaseth not thereby our redeemer; that is, he pleaseth him not which doth good works, but bridleth not himself from the pollutions of lust, neither he which is eminent in chastity, but exerciseth not himself in good works. Neither is chastity a good thing without good works, nor good works anything without chastity. And if any man do both, it remaineth that he must look by hope toward our fatherland above, and not have this reason wherethrough he turneth himself away from vice, and love of honour in this present world.
The Lord cometh at the hour of judgement: he knocketh when, by the pains of sickness, he biddeth us know that death is nigh. To him open we immediately, if we receive him in love. Whoso feareth to leave this body, will not open to the judge when he knocketh, for he dreadeth to see that judge, whom he knoweth that he hath despised. But whosover knoweth that his hope and works are built on a good foundation, when he heareth the judge knock, openeth to him immediately, for to such a one that coming is blessed,- yea, when the hour of death is at hand, such a one haileth with gladness a glorious reward.”
Let us pray for grace to follow the example of St. Paschal Baylon and that we too, like the waiting servants, may at the last be found faithful.
Leave a Reply