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This day is known as "Quasimodo Sunday" from the first two words of the opening
Antiphon at Mass that speak especially to those baptized at
Easter:
I Peter 2:2
Quasi modo geniti infantes, rationabile, sine dolo lac concupiscite ut in
eo crescatis in salutem si gustastis quoniam dulcis Dominus.
As newborn babes, alleluia, desire the rational milk without guile, alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia. Rejoice to God our helper. Sing aloud to the God of Jacob.
It is the day that
the newly baptized officially put away their white robes, hence, it is known
liturgically as "Dominica in albis depositis" or the "Sunday of putting away
the albs."
The day's
Gospel reading is John 20: 19-31, which focuses, in part, on the doubts of
St. Thomas at hearing the news of the risen Christ:
Now when it was
late that 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 saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see my
hands; and bring hither thy 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.
Customs
As you will note,
the Gospel reading concerns not only the story of "Doubting Thomas," but
also the merciful institution of Confession. Because
of this and the particular devotions set in motion by Saint Faustina, today
is also known officially (but non-liturgically) since 23 May 2000 as "Divine
Mercy Sunday." Today, a plenary indulgence is granted to those who, under
the usual conditions, take part in the public devotion to His
Divine Mercy or who, in the presence of the
Blessed Sacrament (in the tabernacle or exposed), recite the Our Father,
the Creed, and a prayer to Jesus appealing to His mercy.
And yes, the name of this Feast is the origin of the name of the hunchback,
Quasimodo, in Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Poor Quasimodo
was a foundling who was discovered at the cathedral on Low Sunday and so
was named for the Feast. He is introduced in Hugo's book like this:
Sixteen years
previous to the epoch when this story takes place, one fine morning, on Quasimodo
Sunday, a living creature had been deposited, after Mass, in the church of
Notre- Dame, on the wooden bed securely fixed in the vestibule on the left,
opposite that great image of Saint Christopher, which the figure of Messire
Antoine des Essarts, chevalier, carved in stone, had been gazing at on his
knees since 1413, when they took it into their heads to overthrow the saint
and the faithful follower. Upon this bed of wood it was customary to expose
foundlings for public charity. Whoever cared to take them did so. In front
of the wooden bed was a copper basin for alms.
The sort of living being which lay upon that plank on the morning of Quasimodo,
in the year of the Lord, 1467, appeared to excite to a high degree, the curiosity
of the numerous group which had congregated about the wooden bed. The group
was formed for the most part of the fair sex. Hardly any one was there except
old women.
In the first row, and among those who were most bent over the bed, four were
noticeable, who, from their gray cagoule, a sort of cassock, were recognizable
as attached to some devout sisterhood. I do not see why history has not
transmitted to posterity the names of these four discreet and venerable damsels.
They were Agnes la Herme, Jehanne de la Tarme, Henriette la Gaultière,
Gauchère la Violette, all four widows, all four dames of the Chapel
Etienne Haudry, who had quitted their house with the permission of their
mistress, and in conformity with the statutes of Pierre d'Ailly, in order
to come and hear the sermon.
However, if these good Haudriettes were, for the moment, complying with the
statutes of Pierre d'Ailly, they certainly violated with joy those of Michel
de Brache, and the Cardinal of Pisa, which so inhumanly enjoined silence
upon them.
"What is this, sister?" said Agnes to Gauchère, gazing at the little
creature exposed, which was screaming and writhing on the wooden bed, terrified
by so many glances.
"What is to become of us," said Jehanne, "if that is the way children are
made now?"
"I'm not learned in the matter of children," resumed Agnes, "but it must
be a sin to look at this one."
Note: In England,
at one time anyway, on the Monday after Low Sunday, between the hours of
9 and noon, there was the strange custom by which men "captured" women (often
by lifting them up in chairs) for a ransom which was given to the Church.
On Tuesday the women reciprocate by capturing the men. These two days became
known as "Hocktide."
Reading
from Dom Gueranger's
"The Liturgical Year"
Our neophytes closed
the Octave of the Resurrection yesterday. They were before us in receiving
the admirable mystery; their solemnity would finish earlier than ours. This,
then, is the eighth day for us who kept the Pasch on the Sunday, and did
not anticipate it on the vigil. It reminds us of all the glory and joy of
that feast of feasts, which united the whole of Christendom in one common
feeling of triumph. It is the day of light, which takes the place of the
Jewish Sabbath. Henceforth, the first day of the week is to be kept holy.
Twice has the Son of God honoured it with the manifestation of his almighty
power. The Pasch, therefore, is always to be celebrated on the Sunday; and
thus every Sunday becomes a sort of Paschal feast, as we have already explained
in the Mystery of Easter.
Our risen Jesus gave an additional proof that he wished the Sunday to be,
henceforth, the privileged day. He reserved the second visit he intended
to pay to all his disciples for this the eighth day since his Resurrection.
During the previous days, he has left Thomas a prey to doubt; but to-day
he shows himself to this Apostle, as well as to the others, and obliges him,
by irresistible evidence, to lay aside his incredulity. Thus does our Saviour
again honour the Sunday. The Holy Ghost will come down from heaven upon this
same day of the week, making it the commencement of the Christian Church:
Pentecost will complete the glory of this favoured day.
Jesus' apparition to the eleven, and the victory he gains over the incredulous
Thomas—these are the special subjects the Church brings before us to-day.
By this apparition, which is the seventh since his Resurrection, our Saviour
wins the perfect faith of his disciples. It is impossible not to recognize
God in the patience, the majesty, and the charity of him who shows himself
to them. Here, again, our human thoughts are disconcerted; we should have
thought this delay excessive; it would have seemed to us that our Lord ought
to have at once either removed the sinful doubt from Thomas's mind, or punished
him for his disbelief. But no: Jesus is infinite wisdom, and infinite goodness.
In his wisdom, he makes this tardy acknowledgement of Thomas become a new
argument of the truth of the Resurrection; in his goodness, he brings the
heart of the incredulous disciple to repentance, humility, and love; yea,
to a fervent and solemn retractation of all his disbelief. We will not here
attempt to describe this admirable scene, which holy Church is about to bring
before us. We will select, for our to-day's instruction, the important lesson
given by Jesus to his disciple, and through him to us all. It is the leading
instruction of the Sunday, the Octave of the Pasch, and it behooves us not
to pass it by, for, more than any other, it tells us the leading characteristic
of a Christian, shows us the cause of our being so listless in God's service,
and points out to us the remedy for our spiritual ailments.
Jesus says to Thomas: 'Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed
are they that have not seen, and have believed!' Such is the great truth,
spoken by the lips of the God-Man: it is a most important counsel, given,
not only to Thomas, but to all who would serve God and secure their salvation.
What is it that Jesus asks of his disciple? Has he not heard him make profession
that now, at last, he firmly believes? After all, was there any great fault
in Thomas's insisting on having experimental evidence before believing in
so extraordinary a miracle as the Resurrection? Was he obliged to trust to
the testimony of Peter and the others, under penalty of offending his divine
Master? Did he not evince his prudence, by withholding his assent until he
had additional proofs of the truth of what his brethren told him? Yes, Thomas
was a circumspect and prudent man, and one that was slow to believe what
he had heard; he was worthy to be taken as a model by those Christians who
reason and sit in judgment upon matters of faith. And yet, listen to the
reproach made him by Jesus. It is merciful, and withal so severe! Jesus has
so far condescended to the weakness of his disciple as to accept the condition
on which alone he declares that he will believe: now that the disciple stands
trembling before his risen Lord, and exclaims, in the earnestness of faith,
`My Lord and my God!' oh! see how Jesus chides him! This stubbornness, this
incredulity, deserves a punishment: the punishment is, to have these words
said to him: `Thomas! thou hast believed, because thou hast seen!'
Then was Thomas obliged to believe before having seen? Yes, undoubtedly.
Not only Thomas, but all the Apostles were in duty bound to believe the
Resurrection of Jesus even before he showed himself to them. Had they not
lived three years with him? Had they not seen him prove himself to be the
Messias and the Son of God by the most undeniable miracles? Had he not foretold
them that he would rise again on the third day? As to the humiliations and
cruelties of his Passion, had he not told them, a short time previous to
it, that he was to be seized by the Jews in Jerusalem, and be delivered to
the gentiles? that he was to be scourged, spit upon, and put to death?
After all this, they ought to have believed in his triumphant Resurrection,
the very first moment they heard of his Body having disappeared. As soon
as John had entered the sepulchre, and seen the winding-sheet, he at once
ceased to doubt; he believed. But it is seldom that man is so honest as this;
he hesitates, and God must make still further advances, if he would have
us give our faith! Jesus condescended even to this: he made further advances.
He showed himself to Magdalen and her companions, who were not incredulous,
but only carried away by natural feeling, though the feeling was one of love
for their Master. When the Apostles heard their account of what had happened,
they treated them as women whose imagination had got the better of their
judgment. Jesus had to come in person: he showed himself to these obstinate
men, whose pride made them forget all that he had said and done, sufficient
indeed to make them believe in his Resurrection. Yes, it was pride; for faith
has no other obstacle than this. If man were humble, he would have faith
enough to move mountains.
To return to our Apostle. Thomas had heard Magdalen, and he despised her
testimony; he had heard Peter, and he objected to his authority; he had heard
the rest of his fellow-Apostles and the two disciples of Emmaus, and no,
he would not give up his own opinion. How many there are among us who are
like him in this! We never think of doubting what is told us by a truthful
and disinterested witness, unless the subject touch upon the supernatural;
and then we have a hundred difficulties. It is one of the sad consequences
left in us by original sin. Like Thomas, we would see the thing ourselves:
and that alone is enough to keep us from the fulness of the truth. We comfort
ourselves with the reflection that, after all, we are disciples of Christ;
as did Thomas, who kept in union with his brother-Apostles, only he shared
not their happiness. He saw their happiness, but he considered it to be a
weakness of mind, and was glad that he was free from it!
How like this is to our modern rationalistic Catholic! He believes, but it
is because his reason almost forces him to believe; he believes with his
mind, rather than from his heart. His faith is a scientific deduction, and
not a generous longing after God and supernatural truth. Hence how cold and
powerless is this faith! how cramped and ashamed! how afraid of believing
too much l Unlike the generous unstinted faith of the saints, it is satisfied
with fragments of truth, with what the Scripture terms diminished truths.
It seems ashamed of itself. It speaks in a whisper, lest it should be criticized;
and when it does venture to make itself heard, it adopts a phraseology which
may take off the sound of the divine. As to those miracles which it wishes
had never taken place, and which it would have advised God not to work, they
are a forbidden subject. The very mention of a miracle, particularly if it
have happened in our own times, puts it into a state of nervousness. The
lives of the saints, their heroic virtues, their sublime sacrifice -- it
has a repugnance to the whole thing! It talks gravely about those who are
not of the true religion being unjustly dealt with by the Church in Catholic
countries; it asserts that the same liberty ought to be granted to error
as to truth; it has very serious doubts whether the world has been a great
loser by the secularization of society.
Now it was for the instruction of persons of this class that our Lord spoke
those words to Thomas: `Blessed are they who havenot seen, and have believed.'
Thomas sinned in not having the readiness of mind to believe. Like him, we
also are in danger of sinning, unless our faith have a certain expansiveness,
which makes us see everything with the eye of faith, and gives our faith
that progress which God recompenses with a super-abundance of light and joy.
Yes, having once become members of the Church, it is our duty to look upon
all things from a supernatural point of view. There is no danger of going
too far, for we have the teachings of an infallible authority to guide us.
`The just man liveth by faith.' Faith is his daily bread. His mere natural
life becomes transformed for good and all, if only he be faithful to his
Baptism. Could we suppose that the Church, after all her instructions to
her neophytes, and after all those sacred rites of their Baptism which are
so expressive of the supernatural life, would be satisfied to see them
straightway adopt that dangerous system which drives faith into a nook of
the heart and understanding and conduct, leaving all the rest to natural
principles or instinct? No, it could not be so. Let us therefore imitate
St Thomas in his confession, and acknowledge that hitherto our faith has
not been perfect. Let us go to our Jesus, and say to him: `Thou art my Lord
and my God! But alas! I have many times thought and acted as though thou
wert my Lord and my God in some things, and not in others. Henceforth I will
believe without seeing; for I would be of the number of those whom thou callest
blessed!'
This Sunday, commonly called with us Low Sunday, has two names assigned to
it in the Liturgy: Quasimodo, from the first word of the Introit; and Sunday
in albis (or, more explicitly, in albis depositis), because on this day the
neophytes assisted at the Church services attired in their ordinary dress.
In the Middle Ages it was called Close-Pasch, no doubt in allusion to its
being the last day of the Easter Octave. Such is the solemnity of this Sunday
that not only is it of Greater Double rite, but no feast, however great,
can ever be kept upon it.
At Rome, the Station is in the basilica of St Pancras, on the Aurelian Way.
Ancient writers have not mentioned the reason of this Church being chosen
for to-day's assembly of the faithful. It may, perhaps, have been on account
of the saint's being only fourteen years old when put to death: a circumstance
which gave the young martyr a sort of right to have the neophytes round him,
now that they were returning to their everyday life.
Mass
The Introit repeats
those beautiful words of St Peter, which were addressed, in yesterday's Epistle,
to the newly baptized. They are like new-born babes, lovely in their sweet
simplicity, and eager to drink from the breasts of their dear mother, the
Church, the spiritual milk of faith -- that faith which will make them strong
and loyal.
The Apostle St John here tells us the merit and power of faith: it is, says
he, a victory, which conquers the world, both the world outside, and the
world within us. It is not difficult to understand why this passage from
St John's Epistles should have been selected for to-day's Liturgy: it is
on account of its being so much in keeping with the Gospel appointed for
this Sunday, in which our Lord passes such eulogy upon faith. If, as the
Apostle here assures us, they overcome the world who believe in Christ, that
is not sterling faith which allows itself to be intimidated by the world.
Let us be proud of our faith, esteeming ourselves happy that we are but little
children when there is a question of receiving a divine truth; and let us
not be ashamed of our eager readiness to admit the testimony of God. This
testimony will make itself heard in our hearts, in proportion to our willingness
to hear it. The moment John saw the winding-bands which had shrouded the
Body of his Master, he made an act of faith; Thomas, who had stronger testimony
than John (for he had the word of the Apostles, assuring him that they had
seen their risen Lord), refused to believe: he had not overcome the world
and its reasonings, because he had not faith.
The two Alleluia Versicles are formed of two texts alluding to the Resurrection.
The second speaks of the scene which took place on this day, in the cenacle.
We have said enough about St Thomas' incredulity; let us now admire his faith.
His fault has taught us to examine and condemn our own want of faith; let
us learn from his repentance how to become true believers. Our Lord, who
had chosen him as one of the pillars of his Church, has been obliged to treat
him with an exceptional familiarity: Thomas avails himself of Jesus' permission,
puts his finger into the sacred wound, and immediately he sees the sinfulness
of his past incredulity. He would make atonement, by a solemn act of faith,
for the sin he has committed in priding himself on being wise and discreet:
he cries out, and with all the fervour of faith: My Lord and my God! Observe,
he not only says that Jesus is his Lord, his Master, the same who chose him
as one of his disciples: this would not have been faith, for there is no
faith where we can see and touch. Had Thomas believed what his brother-Apostles
had told him, he would have had faith in the Resurrection; but now he sees,
he has experimental knowledge of the great fact; and yet, as our Lord says
of him, he has faith. In what? In this, that his Master is God. He sees but
the humanity of Jesus, and he at once confesses him to be God. From what
is visible, his soul, now generous and repentant, rises to the invisible:
`Thou art my God!' Now, O Thomas! thou art full of faith! The Church proposes
thee to us, on thy feast, as an example of faith. The confession thou didst
make on this day is worthy to be compared with that which Peter made, when
he said: `Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God!' By this profession,
which neither flesh nor blood had revealed to him, Peter merited to be made
the rock whereon Christ built his Church: thine did more than compensate
thy former disbelief; it gave thee, for the time, a superiority over the
rest of the Apostles, who, so far at least, were more taken up with the visible
glory, than with the invisible divinity, of their risen Lord.
The Offertory gives us another text of the Gospel relative to the Resurrection.
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