Chapter
V. THE CHURCH IN THE AGE OF THE GREAT PATRIARCHS ABRAHAM,ISAAC
AND JACOB,THE INTERVENTION OF THE DIVINE SOULS OF CHRIST AND MARY.
1. In the previous
chapter we have treated and defined the Priest-hood according to the Order
of Melchisedech as received by the three Pa-triarchs Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. In the same chapter we
have also treated the sacrifice corresponding to that Priesthood, as well
as the relation of that Priesthood to the Mystery or Sacrament of
Antiquity, along with other aspects of those great privileges.
With the help of the Sacred Texts and of other approved mystical
revelations, we wish now to treat more fully and to elucidate further
several matters already presented, which for their vital importance and
great consequence, merit additional atten-tion and study.
2. We commence with
the special vocation of Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees, related in Genesis,
which was the direct call of God to the Pa-triarch to accomplish in the
future an eminently priestly mission, one which with his faith in Jesus
Christ, would make him spiritual father of all who believe.
To that end, the Most High prepared the righteous and virtuous soul
of Abraham endowing it with the most beautiful and precious jewel that one
can possess on earth, Sanctifying Grace, which transformed his soul and
raised him to the dignity of Divine Sonship.
The moment when God called him was that in which the exalted
Patriarch received in his soul the extraordinary and sublime grace of
Divine Life by means of the Triple Benediction or Mysterious Sacra-ment.
This Mystery the Most Divine Soul of Christ deposited within his
body at the solemn moment related in Genesis (XII, 3), the moment which
coincided precisely with the utterance of these decisive words: "And
IN THEE shall all the kindred of the earth be b-lessed".
When Abraham had thus received the indwelling of the Holy Ghost and
his whole being had become a living Tabernacle of the Holy Mys-tery or
Sacrament, there was opened through him a communicating door be-tween God
and His people and a most powerful light came to shine in the Church of
the Old Testament.
3. Having compared the
revelations of the Holy Doctor Catherine Emmeri-ck with the Sacred Text,
and having given to her words their due in-terpretati-on, we teach that
they correspond admirably with the narration in Genesis, in which they are
myster-iously contained. Moreover
the Holy Doctor adds details of inestimable value and significance
expressed with sublime beauty: "A
luminous Cloud came down from heaven upon Abraham and an Angel Messenger
of God came and spoke to him. And
when He deposited within him the Triple Benediction, He communicated to
him a luminous Gift which made him radiant."
4. When one truly
views this brief and inspiring account of the Holy Doctor in the light of
our interpretation, how is one to express in human language, with due
elevation and eloquence, the
sublime grandeur of the event narrated,-particularly since the language of
angels would be required in order not to blur the translucence of so
wondrous and singular an intervention of the Divine Souls of Christ and
Mary?
5. With the splendour
of majesty the luminous Cloud of the pre-sence of the Soul of Mary comes
down from heaven and envelops with the glorious light of the Soul of
Christ in angelic form, the ecstatic figure of the Holy Patriarch and
penetrates his being with the Mysterious Sacra-ment, which, with the fire
of Sanctifying Grace, purifies and transforms his soul, impresses upon it
a singular character and raises him to the high dignity of living temple
of the Holy Ghost, exalted throne of the August Trinity. Abraham's soul was thus duly prepared for the worthy
re-ception of yet another most special grace reserved for him in the
Divine plans,- that is, the Priesthood, which later he was to receive at
the Sacrifice of Melchisedech. It
is here that Abraham attains the sublime dignity of the fullness of the
eternal Priesthood according to the Order of Melchisedech,- understood in
that degree of Priesthood which pertains to him.
Through his Priesthood, the Patriarch is constituted a powerful
mediator between God and His People with the consequent ministry of
em-bracing in his mystical heart the sacrifice of the Church of the Old
Testament and of offering it to the Most High in the sacrifice of bread
and wine. Clear proof of
Abraham's office of mediator between God and man in virtue of his
Priesthood, we find in the account of his interces-sion for the
inhabitants of the corrupt cities of Sodom and Gomorrha.
"Now when God destroyed
the cities of that country, remembering Abraham, He delivered Lot out of
the destruction of the cities wherein he had dwelt" (Gen. XIX,
29).
6. Another culminating
moment in Abraham's life occurred at the renewal of the Covenant between
God and the Patriarch on the occasion of the institu-tion of
Circumcision,-external sign of the Covenant and fi-gure of Bap-tism,-
being, as Saint Paul tells us, the mark or sign of Abraham's faith and of
the inner justice of the Holy Patriarch, which, in this exceptional case
was perfect justice. Circumcision
was as well the distinguishing mark of God's people and was required for
one to enter the Church of the Old Testament and, although it lacked the
efficacy to blot out original sin, one attained thereby a bond of
relationship to her Mys-tical Soul. Circumcision
was obligatory for every male infant eight days old.
7. It is important to
define clearly the moment in which the members of the Church of Antiquity
acquired the permanent state of the grace of imperfect justice that has
been defined in the previous chapter.
It was precisely through the imperfect sacrament of circumcision
that one acquired this singular grace or state of imperfect justice. For
females, to whom circumcision did not pertain, and for males who died
before re-ceiving circumcision, it sufficed that the parents make for them
an act of faith in Christ to come, and offer sacrifice or prayer for them
or invoke God's blessing over them. Before
the institution of
circumcision, the grace of imperfect justice was acquired through another
imperfect sacra-ment, one consisting of an external act or manifes-tation
of faith in the future Redeemer,- such an act to be made by the person
himself or, in the case of children not yet come to the use of reason, by
the parents, or -lacking which - by the guardian or other competent
person. In danger of the
child's death a blessing sufficed. Once
acquired, the grace of imper-fect justice remained in the soul as long as
one committed no mortal sin. If
lost by sin, it could be recovered by an act of perfect contrition.
8. The renewal of the
Covenant between God and the Patriar-ch in-cluded as well the
reaffirmation of a numerous posterity; and, as sign of this memorable
circumstance God changes the original name of Abram, signi-fying Exalted
Father, to that of Abraham, Father of an Exalted Multitude.
One cannot doubt that the Most Divine Soul of Christ and the Divine
Soul of Mary inter-ven-al in this decisive event,- as in many others.
9. To fulfill this
promise to Abraham, it followed natural-ly that God would grant his spouse
the grace of fecundity, which she had never had.
This grace she received in the grove of Mambre near Hebron.
It is here where the Most Holy Trinity appears in the form of three
men in white gar-ments to tell Abraham of the approaching fecundity of his
spouse and the birth of Isaac,son of promise.
To round out this passage of Scripture with the revelations of
Saint Catherine Emmerick, we shall mention that the content of the Mystery
or Sacrament of the Triple Benediction was revealed to Abraham by the
three Holy Personages, and that their visit culminated in an extraordinary
vision of the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Saviour, and also of the future
work of Redemption. Our Lord
Jesus Christ in the Gospel refers to this vision when He says: "Abraham
your father desired ardently to see My day.
He saw it and rejoiced." (John VIII, 56).
10. Let us penetrate
more deeply into the Book of Genesis in order to follow the predestined
course of the Mystery or Sacra-ment, par-ticularly at the approaching
death of Abraham, even if here the Sacred Text contains no more than a
general allusion to all the doctrine which we wish to present.
There can be no doubt that the Triple Benediction passed to Isaac
through the priestly blessing of his father Abraham, and that this
Sacrament or Mystery produced its supernatural effect: the in-dwelling of
the Holy Ghost in the soul of Isaac and the marking of his soul with a
character that enabled and disposed him to receive later the Priesthood
according to the Order of Melchisedech.
The fullness of the Priesthood Abraham later conferred upon him
through another special blessing, that of the first-born.
The Sacred Text expresses these two distinct moments in the one
expression: "Abraham gave all
that he posses-sed to Isaac." (Gen. XXV, 5).
11. Chapter XXVII of
Genesis is particularly remarkable in
re-ferring to the two blessings which Isaac,stricken in years and aware of
his approaching death, gives to his son Jacob.
The first blessing is found in verse 23 where the text of the
Vul-gate, coinciding with the He-brew and Greek, says, in exact
trans-lation from the Latin: "and
blessing him...". This
is the moment when Isaac, through his priestly blessing, transmits the
Holy Sacrament or Mystery to Jacob, who receives in his soul Sanctifying
Grace is well as the character necessary for the future reception of the
Priesthood. In verse 27 there
occurs the second bless-ing, that of the first-born, through which Isaac
confers on his son Jacob the plenitude of the eternal Priesthood according
to the Order of Melchi-sedech. The Sacred Text says: "...
blessing him ...".
12. As was Abraham, so
also were the Patriarchs Isaac and Jacob, through the Priesthood,
constituted powerful mediators between God and man, as, in their priestly
hearts, they gathered the sacrifice of the Church of the Old Testament and
offered it to God in the sacrifice of bread and wine.
That finite sacrifice of the Church offered by the three Patriarchs
acquired infinite value long afterwards when Joseph Most Holy presented it
on Calvary to Saint John the Evangelist, who united it with the infinite
Sacrifice of Christ and Mary.
13. It had been God's
plan that the Triple Benediction should pass from first-born to first-born
until it would come to rest in the body of Saint Joachim, father of the
Virgin Mary. The same was
intended for the Priesthood according to the Order of Melchisedech, which
was to be transmitted through the Blessing of the First-b-orn to the
eldest son in each generation; and in this way the true Priesthood would
have been preserved, and authentic mediators between God and man would
never have been wanting. This loving design of God was however frustrated by human
wickedness in the abominable crime of Ruben, Jacob's first-born, who
sin-ned with Bala, one of his father's wives.
Because of this sin, the people of Israel lost that twofold grace.
This is expressed in Genesis with per-fect clarity in the words of
Jacob shortly before his death (Gen. XLIX, 3-4), "Ruben,
my first-born, thou my strength and the beginning of my sor-row: excelling
in gifts, greater in command. Thou
art poured out as water, grow thou not: because thou wentest up to thy
fathers bed, and didst de-file his couch".
Besides losing the Triple Benediction, which passed to Joseph, as
we shall see -Ruben, for his sin, lost the Priest-hood and the Kingdom.
The Priesthood passed to the tribe of Levi, but no longer
accor-ding to the Order of Melchisedech, since the character of the
Levitical Priesthood was merely temporal, external and figurative.
But this came later in the time of Moses.
As for the Kingdom, that passed to the tribe of Juda.
14. There is a passage
of profound significance in the life of Jacob, a prophetic symbol of the
future People of Israel,- that is, the wrestling of Jacob with the Angel,
where, without any doubt the Angel is the Most Divine Soul of Christ.
How truly impressive the profound symbo-lism of that contest,
during which the Angel touches the sinew of Jacob's thigh, leaving
him hurt and lame! Which we
interpret to mean that Jacob was deprived of the Sacred Mystery of the
Triple Benediction. Yet with
permission of the Divine Personage, he obtained the victory and restrained
Him from carrying off the Sacred Deposit.
In this remarkable circum-stance, the Angel, who is the Soul of
Christ, declares to Jacob that he shall be called Israel. We interpret this as a clear prophecy of the future Peo-ple
of Israel, which was to lose the grace of the Sacrament or Mystery in her
First-born, and consequently lose the true Priesthood.
But in spite of this, the People of Israel will remain strong in
defence of God against His enemies. Afterwards,
the Soul of Christ in angelic form, blesses Jacob, restores the Triple
Benediction and departs.
