sow, and a crowd of sick would obtain the grace of benefits. O Christ Jesus', BY THE WOUNDS OF THOMAS, Lest the enemy, the world, or the works of the flesh, Let the right hand of God embrace us. The satellites of Satan rushing into the temple In which the memory of Thomas lives! Happy the land which supported him in exile! Happy Father! succour us miserable, That we may be happy, and joined with those above! Seventh Lesson. Jesus said unto his disciples, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. THE HOMILY OF S. GREGORY, POPE. Ye have heard, most dear brethren, from the reading of the Gospel, your instruction; ye have heard also 1 Christe Jesu per Thomæ vulnera, Ne captivos ferant ad infera your danger. For behold! he who is not from any gift happening to him, but who is essentially good, says, I am the good shepherd; and he adds the character of the same goodness, which we may imitate, saying, The good shepherd layeth down his life for his sheep. He did what he taught; he showed what he commanded. The good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep; that in our sacrament he might change his body and blood, and satisfy, by the nourishment of his flesh, the sheep which he had redeemed. Here is shown to us the way, concerning the contempt of death, which we should follow; the character is placed before us to which we should conform. [In the first place', we should of our pity sacrifice our external good for his sheep; and at last, if it be necessary, give up our own life for the same sheep. From that smallest point we proceed to this last and greater. But since the soul by which we live is incomparably better than the earthly substance which we outwardly possess, who would not give for the sheep his substance, when he would give his life for them? And there are some who, whilst they love their earthly substance more than the sheep, deservedly lose the name of shepherd: of whom it is immediately added, But the hireling who is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth. He is called not a shepherd, but a hireling, who feeds the Lord's sheep not for inward love, but with a view to temporal wages. He is a mercenary who seeks indeed the place of shepherd, but seeks not the gain of souls.] To Thomas all things yield and are obedient: 1 The sentences between brackets are not in MS. No. 1512. Fire, air, land, and seas. Thomas filled the world with glory. The world offers obeisance to Thomas 1. Eighth Lesson. In good truth, the holy Thomas, the precious champion of God, was to be worthily glorified. For if the cause, yea, forasmuch as the cause makes the martyr, did ever a title of holy martyrs exist more glorious? Contending for the Church, in the Church he suffered; in a holy place, at the holy time of the Lord's nativity, in the midst of his fellow-priests and the companies of the religious since in the agony of the prelate all the circumstances seemed so to concur, as perpetually to illustrate the title of the sufferer, and reveal the wickedness of his persecutors, and stain their name with never-ending infamy. But so did the divine vengeance rage against the persecutors of the martyr, that in a short time, being carried away from the midst, they nowhere appeared. And some, without confession, or the viaticum, were suddenly snatched away; others tearing piecemeal their own fingers or tongues; others pining with hunger, and corrupting in their whole body, and racked with unheard-of tortures before their death, and broken up by paralysis; others bereft of their intellects; others expiring with madness ;-left manifest proofs that they were suffering the penalty of unjust persecution and premeditated murder. Let, therefore, the Virgin Mother, the Church, rejoice that the new martyr has borne away the triumph over the 1 Thomæ cedunt et parent omnia : Thomas mundum replevit gloria. Thomæ mundus præstat obsequia. enemies. Let her rejoice that a new Zacharias has been for her freedom sacrificed in the temple. Let her. rejoice that a new Abel's blood hath cried unto God for her against the men of blood. For the voice of his blood shed, the voice of his brain scattered by the swords of those deadly satellites, hath filled heaven at once and the world with its far-famed cry. Thomas shines with new miracles; He adorns with sight those who had lost their eyes; He cleanses those who were stained with the spots of leprosy; He looses those that were bound with the bonds of death. Ninth Lesson. For at the cry of this blood the earth was moved and trembled. Nay, moreover, the powers of the heavens were moved; so that, as if for the avenging of innocent blood, nation rose against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; nay, a kingdom was divided against itself, and terrors from heaven and great signs took place. Yet, from the first period of his martyrdom, the martyr began to shine forth with miracles, restoring sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, language to the dumb. Afterwards, cleansing the lepers, making the paralytic sound, healing the dropsy, and all kinds of incurable diseases; restoring the dead to life; in a wonderful manner commanding the devils and all the elements: he also put forth his hand to unwonted and unheard-of signs of his own power; for persons deprived of their eyes merited by his merits to obtain new members. But some who presumed to disparage his miracles, struck on a sudden, were compelled to publish them even unwillingly. At length, against all his enemies the martyr so far prevailed, that almost every day you might see that to be repeated in the servant which is read of the Only-begotten: "They who spoke evil of thee shall come unto thee, and adore the traces of thy feet." Now the celebrated champion and martyr of God, Thomas, suffered in the year from the incarnation of the Lord, according to Dionysius, 1171, on the fourth of the kalends of January, on the third day of the week, about the eleventh hour, that the birthday of the Lord might be for labour, and his for rest; to which rest the same our God and Lord Jesus Christ vouchsafe to bring us; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth God, for ever and ever. Amen. 1O good Jesus, BY THE MERITS OF THOMAS, Visit the house, the gate, the grave; And raise us from the threefold death. What has been lost by act, in mind, or use, Restore with thy wonted pity. Pray for us, O blessed Thomas. N.B. This appears to be the end of the first service in honour of Thomas Becket2; and at this point 1 Jesu bone per Thomæ merita Nostra nobis dimitte debita. 2 All the Lessons between this passage and "In Lauds," are wanting in MS. 1512. |