MARCH 31, 2024 – EASTER – ST. BENJAMIN, DEACON, MARTYR.

• Bl. Jane of Toulouse (1286). Founder or Foundress. (Historical) Foundress of the Carmelite Order
• St. Benjamin (421). Deacon, Martyr. (Historical)

EASTER SUNDAY.

THE resurrection of the dead is one of the most consoling truths of Christianity. To die forever would be the most terrible of all destinies. The plant and the animal, unendowed with reason, die, never to live again; but they have not at least any apprehension as to what death is. To die is to them one of the thousand accidents bound up with life; to the plant it is as nothing, and for the animal without reason, a merely transitory pang, death itself being but the affair of a moment. For man, on the contrary, death has terrors which precede it, anguish accompanying it, and apprehensions consequent upon it. The most strongly-attempered spirit shudders on reflecting that it must incur death; the most selfish man has attachments which he with difficulty severs; the most determined unbeliever experiences doubts as to the shadowy To-morrow of death. Man would then be the most pitiable among all beings were Religion not at hand to say to him, “The grave is a place of momentary rest; you will come forth thence one day. The God that gave being to your limbs will restore it; the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives thereof an assured pledge.” 

This confidence in the future resurrection is a subject of the greatest joy to the children of God, the groundwork of their faith, the mainspring of their hope, and most lasting comfort amid the evils of this life. For if Christ had not risen, says the Apostle St. Paul, in vain should we believe in Him. He would be convicted of having been an impostor and His apostles of being mad; His death would not have availed us any thing, and we should still be dwelling in the bonds of sin. Those dying in Jesus Christ would perish, and our hope in Him not extending beyond the present life, we should be the most unfortunate of men, inasmuch as, after having had as our portion in this life, sufferings and afflictions, we should not be able to console ourselves with the expectation of future good. But Jesus Christ having come forth living from the tomb, His doctrine is confirmed by His resurrection; it establishes the certitude of His mission in His character as Son of God, the efficacy of the sacrifice He offered on the cross, the divinity of His priesthood, the rewards of the other life, and the glorified resurrection of the flesh.

REFLECTION: We shall one day rise again; but let us range by the side of such a consoling expectation that terrible warning. of the prophet Daniel, “Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach eternal.’

ST. BENJAMIN, DEACON, MARTYR.

ISDEGERDES, son of Sapor III, put a stop to the cruel persecutions against the Christians in Persia, which had been begun by Sapor II, and the Church had enjoyed twelve years’ peace in that kingdom, when, in 420, it was disturbed by the indiscreet zeal of Abdas, a Christian bishop who burned down the Pyræum, or Temple of Fire, the great divinity of the Persians. King Isdergerdes thereupon demolished all the Christian churches in Persia, put to death Abdas, and raised a general persecution against the Church, which continued forty years with great fury. Isdegerdes died the year following, in 421. But his son and successor, Varanes, carried on the persecution with greater inhumanity. The very recital of the cruelties he exercised on the Christians strikes us with horror. Amongst the glorious champions of Christ, was St. Benjamin, a deacon. The tyrant caused him to be beaten and imprisoned. He had lain a year in the dungeon, when an ambassador from the emperor obtained his release on condition he should never speak to any of the courtiers about religion. The ambassador passed his word in his behalf that he would not; but Benjamin, who was a minister of the Gospel, declared that he should miss no opportunity of announcing Christ. The king, being informed that he still preached the faith in his kingdom, ordered him to be apprehended, caused reeds to be run in between the nails and the flesh, both of his hands and feet, and to be thrust into other most tender parts, and drawn out again, and this to be frequently repeated with violence. Lastly, a knotty stake was thrust into his bowels, to rend and tear them, in which torment he expired in the year 424.

REFLECTION: We entreat you, O most holy martyrs, who cheerfully suffered most cruel torments for God our Saviour and His love, on which account you are now most intimately and familiarly united to Him, that you pray to the Lord for us miserable sinners, covered with filth, that He infuse into us the grace of Christ, that it may enlighten our souls that we may love Him.

WORD OF THE DAY

SUFFERING. The disagreeable experience of soul that comes with the presence of evil or the privation of some good. Although commonly synonymous with pain, suffering is rather the reaction to pain, and in this sense suffering is a decisive factor in Christian spirituality. Absolutely speaking, suffering is possible because we are creatures, but in the present order of Providence suffering is the result of sin having entered the world. Its purpose, however, is not only to expiate wrongdoing, but to enable the believer to offer God a sacrifice of praise of his divine right over creatures, to unite oneself with Christ in his sufferings as an expression of love, and in the process to become more like Christ, who, having joy set before him, chose the Cross, and thus "to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of His body, the Church" (I Colossians 1:24). (Etym. Latin sufferre, to sustain, to bear up: sub-, up from under + ferre, to bear.)

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

HOLY WEEK MEDITATIONS

Special meditations focused on Holy Week: EASTER SUNDAY

EASTER MEDITATIONS

Enjoy daily meditations this lent from Fr. Richard Clarke, SJ. Short and powerful, written in 1880 for busy lay people to reap rewards through Eastertide: 1. — The Resurrection.

March is the Month of St. Joseph

Daily devotional meditations on Saint Joseph: March 31st — St. Joseph, Protector of the Faithful

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