Dominica In Albis Or Low Sunday The Gospel John 20 v.19 Wednesday Meditation

GOSPEL John 20:19-31 

At that time, when it was late the same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them: "Peace be to you." And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to them again: "Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him: "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." And after eight days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said: "Peace be to you." Then he said to Thomas: "Put in thy finger hither and see my hands. And bring hither the hand and put it into my side. And be not faithless, but believing." Thomas answered and said to him: "My Lord and my God." Jesus saith to him: "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen and have believed." Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing, you may have life in his name.

WEDNESDAY
 

Peace is so precious a thing that the Prophet David bids us seek after it, and pursue it. 

Wherefore, we will seek a little further into it, and as we have seen how to have peace with God our Superior, to wit, by not transgressing the bounds and limits of his laws, & how to have peace with our inferiors and subjects, if we be Superiors, to wit, by standing in the midst of them, as it were in the Center, drawing equal lines unto the Circumference, that is to say, doing equity and justice unto all alike without any partiality, or acceptation of perſons; So now we will consider how we may have peace with our equals and our selves: for sometimes we may be troublesome to our selves according to that of the Prophet David; why art thou sad o my soul, & why dost thou disturb me? 

S. Dionysin calleth peace the unititive, or uniting virtue, whereby many are united together, as boards are with glue, that it is hard to pluck them asunder, yea sometimes you shall sooner break the boards some where else, then pull them a sunder where they are glued together. 

So was David and Jonathan the son of king Saul glued together. 

The soul of Jonathan, saith the Scripture, was glued to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul, in so much that he broke with his father in defense of David. 

To obtain this peace with our equals, & such as we converse familiarly withall, we must be like the ark of Noe, and to have peace with ourselves, we must be like a Temple, or Church . 

God geneſ. commanded Noe to make the s.v.i.4. Ark of boardes ſmoothed and planed with a carpenters plane, that they mightioyne cloſe to- gether, & to plaiſter, them ouer with a certayne kind of bitu- mynous morter without ſyde, and within, to hold the boardes together, and to keep out the water. As the knots and barkes, and vneuennes of boards doe hunder the cloſe ioyning or gluingtogether, and therefore they muſt be planed and made euen: ſo do the inordinate and wnruly paſſions, humours and affections of men hinder perfeót vnion of their minds,and conſe- quently that peace which would enſue thereof, & therefore they are to be planed & pared away, by accommodating our ſelfes one to another, by complying with one another, and by bea- ring one anothersburthen ; * 4 2 The firit Sonday &alat. 6. W-2. Pawlexhorteth vs, and ſo ſayth he, ſhal you fulfil the law of Chriſt. 

Likewiſe,that we may continue united together, and defend our ark of Society from all such things as may annoy or breake this union, or congluti- nation togeather, we muſt plai- ſter it not only with the bitu- mynous morter or Cement of charitable attes & effectes with- out ſyde, but alſo with chari- table affection within , in our heartes. S. Iohn the Euangeliſt when he was ready to dye, his diſciples ſtanding about him, deſired him to make them an exhortation before he dyed, that they might remember his laſt wordes and keep them as his will and teſtament: his ex- hortation was nothing but this; My deare children, love one another, & this he repeated ve- ry often; they asking him why he ſaid nothing elſe, but ſtill repeated thus, he anſwered: This is the Precept of our Loisa; 1 after Easter. 23 if we do this, it is enough.

This reat Maiſter or teacher of love #. ſo he was as appeareth in his piſtles which are of nothing but loue) ſayth thus in one of 1,10h.s. his Epiſtſes: My deare children," " let vslowe asother, not in words Ö' tongue, but in heart and verity, that is to ſay: not only in out- ward ſhewes,and complements, without deedes; for that is ill nor with outward deedes and effectes of charity, without the inward affection of the heart, for that (though it be good ) will not laſt long, but with out- ward deedes and effects of cha- j. from the inward affection of the heart, then will it laſt long and be much more meri- torious vnto vs. 

A principal motive to induce vs to this in- ward affection of the heart to- wards others may be, becauſe in louing our neighbour out of charity, that is to ſay, for God, we loue God as in his Proper Image, and if we loue dog 24 The firſt soyday not our neighbour ſo, it is an tuident ſigne we loue not God. 

For as S. Iohn the aforſaid Mai- ſter of dilećtion and beloued of *loh & Chriſt ſayth : If we lowe not own ** neighbour whom weſte, how can ... God, whom we ſee not?if we loue not God, we ſoue not our ſclues, therefore if we loue not our neighbour, we loue not our ſclues. 

Furtherifve will be at peace, with our ſelfes , we muſt be Temples or Churches,as indeed our ſoules are and ought to be: *:Cor.3 know you not, ſayth's. Taal, $.” yes are the Temples of God? Tem. ples ought to be as Chriſt him- ſºlfe ſayth, houſes offrayer.and not of negotiation: our ſoules therefore being the temples of God, muſt be voyde of all man- her of impertinent negotiation and buſines, more then will well ſtand with that quiet and tranquility of mynd as is re- quiſite to prayer and deuotion; and that negotiation *; DC; after Faſter. 25 fines alſo which is not imperti- ment but requiſite to our ſtate and condition , not to make it our continuall meditation, but to allot it thoſe times, that be neceſſary for it, and to diſ- patch it with as little care and ſolicitude as will barely ſuffice, whipping out the reſt out of our mynd, as Chriſt did, the Iohn. buyers and ſellers out of the Tem- *.*.*** ple with this whip, that it tendeth to nothing but to prophane, trouble and diſturbe in vaine, the temple of our ſoules, which we muſt keep as much as we can holy to God.

Thus shall we all wayes haue peace with ourselves by making ourselves the Temples of God, and with others, by making our ſelfes, arkes of Noé.

A Plaine Path-way To Heaven Thomas Hill 1634