This illustrious Pontiff was deservedly placed in the Calendar of the Church side by side with the glorious Bishop of Myra. Nicholas confessed, at Nicaea, the divinity of the Redeemer; Ambrose, in his city of Milan, was the object of the hatred of the Arians, and, by his invincible courage, triumphed over the enemies of Christ. Let Ambrose, then, unite his voice, as Doctor of the Church, with that of St. Peter Chrysologus, and preach to the world the glories and the humiliations of the Messias. But, as Doctor of the Church, he has special claim to our veneration it is, that among the bright luminaries of the Latin Church, four great Masters head the list of sacred Interpreters of the Faith Gregory, Augustine, Jerome and then our glorious Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, makes up the mystic number. Ambrose owes his noble position in the Calendar to the ancient custom of the Church, whereby, in the early ages, no Saint's feast was allowed to be kept in Lent. The day of his departure from this world and of his entrance into heaven was the fourth of April, which, more frequently than not, comes during Lent so that it was requisite that the memory of his sacred death should be solemnised on some other day, and the seventh of December naturally presented itself for such feast, inasmuch as it was the anniversary-day of Ambrose's being consecrated Bishop.
But Ambrose had other and fiercer contests than those of religious controversy to encounter; his very life was more than once threatened by the heretics whom he had silenced. What sublime spectacle! that of a Bishop blockaded in his church by the troops of the Empress Justina, and defended within by his people, day and night, Pastor and flock, both are admirable. How had Ambrose merited such fidelity and confidence on the part of this people? By his whole life spent for the welfare of his city and his country. He had never ceased to preach Jesus to all men and now, the people see their Bishop become, by his zeal, his devotedness, and his self-sacrificing conduct, the living image of Jesus. In the midst of these dangers which threatened his person, his great soul was calm and seemingly unconscious of the fury of his enemies. It was on that very occasion that he instituted, at Milan, the choral singing of the Psalms. Up to that time, the holy Canticles had been given from the Ambo by the single voice of a Lector but Ambrose, shut up in his Basilica with his people, takes the opportunity, and forms two choirs, bidding them respond to each other the verses of the Psalms. The people forgot their trouble in the delight of this heavenly music; nay, the very howling of the tempest, and the fierceness of the siege they were sustaining, added enthusiasm to this first exercise of their new privilege. Such was the chivalrous origin of Alternate Psalmody in the Western Church. Rome adopted the practice, which Ambrose was the first to introduce, and which will continue to be observed to the end of time. During these hours of struggle with his enemies, the glorious Bishop has another gift wherewith to enrich the faithful people who are defending him at the risk of their own lives. Ambrose is a poet, and he has frequently sung, in verses full of sweetness and sublimity, the greatness of the God of the Christians, and the mysteries of man's salvation. He now gives to his devoted people these hymns, which he had only composed for his own private devotion. The Basilicas of Milan soon echoed these accents of the sublime soul which first uttered them. Later on, the whole Latin Church adopted them; and in honour of the holy Bishop who had thus opened one of the richest sources of the sacred Liturgy, a Hymn was, for long time, called after his name, an Ambrosian. The Divine Office thus received a new mode of celebrating the divine praise, and the Church, the Spouse of Christ, possessed one means more of giving expression to the sentiments which animate her. Thus our Hymns, and the alternate singing of the Psalms, are trophies of Ambrose's victory. He had been raised up by God not for his own age only, but also for those which were to follow. Hence, the Holy Ghost infused into him the knowledge of Christian jurisprudence, that he might be the defender of the rights of the Church at a period when paganism still lived, though defeated, and imperialism, or caesarism, had still the instinct, though not the uncontrolled power, to exercise its tyranny. Ambrose's law was the Gospel, and he would acknowledge no law which was in opposition to that. He could not understand such imperial policy as that of ordering a Basilica to be given up to the Arians, for quietness' sake. He would defend the inheritance of the Church and in that defence, would shed the last drop of his blood. Certain courtiers dared to accuse him of tyranny. "No", answered the Saint, "Bishops are not tyrants, but have often to suffer from tyranny." The eunuch Calligonus, high chamberlain of the Emperor Valentinian II had said to Ambrose: "What! darest thou, in my presence, to care so little for Valentinian! I will cut off thy head." "I would it might be so", answered Ambrose, "I should then die as a Bishop, and thou wouldst have done what eunuchs are wont to do." This noble courage in the defence of the rights of the Church showed itself even more clearly on another occasion. The Roman Senate, or rather that portion of the Senate, which, though a minority, was still Pagan, was instigated by Symmachus, the Prefect of Rome, to ask the Emperor for the re-erection of the altar of Victory in the Capitol, under the pretext of averting the misfortunes which threatened the empire. Ambrose, who had said to these politicians, "I hate the Religion of the Neros," vehemently opposed this last effort of idolatry. He presented most eloquent petitions to Valentinian, in which he protested against an attempt, whose object was to bring a Christian Prince to recognise that false doctrines have rights, and which would, if permitted to be tried, rob Him, who is the one only Master of nations, of the victories which he had won. Valentinian yielded to these earnest remonstrances, which taught him "that Christian Emperor can only honour one Altar, the Altar of Christ" and when the Senators had to receive their answer, the prince told them, that Rome was his mother, and he loved her, but that God was his Saviour, and he would obey Him. If the Empire of Rome had not been irrevocably condemned by God to destruction, the influence which St. Ambrose had over such well-intentioned princes as Valentinian would probably have saved it. The Saint's maxim to the Rulers of the world was this: though it was not to be realised in any of them until new kingdoms should spring up out of the ruins of the Roman Empire, and those new kingdoms and peoples organised by the Christian Church but St. Ambrose could have no other, and he therefore taught the Emperors of those times, that "an Emperor's grandest title is to be Son of the Church. An Emperor is in the Church, he is not over her."
It is beautiful to see the affectionate solicitude of St. Ambrose for the young Emperor Gratian, at whose death he shed floods of tears. How tenderly, too, did he not love Theodosius, that model Christian prince, for whose sake God retarded the fall of the Empire, by the uninterrupted victory over all its enemies. On one occasion, indeed, this Son of the Church showed in himself the Pagan Caesar; but his holy father Ambrose, by severity, which was inflexible because his affection for the culprit was great, brought him back to his duty and his God. "I loved," says the holy Bishop, in the funeral oration
which he preached over Theodosius, "I loved this Prince, who preferred correction to flattery. He stripped himself of his royal robes, and publicly wept in the Church for the sin he had committed, and into which he had been led by evil counsel. In sighs and tears he sought to be forgiven. He, an Emperor, did what common men would be ashamed to do, he did public penance; and for the rest of his life, he passed not day without bewailing his sin."
which he preached over Theodosius, "I loved this Prince, who preferred correction to flattery. He stripped himself of his royal robes, and publicly wept in the Church for the sin he had committed, and into which he had been led by evil counsel. In sighs and tears he sought to be forgiven. He, an Emperor, did what common men would be ashamed to do, he did public penance; and for the rest of his life, he passed not day without bewailing his sin."
But we should have very false idea of St. Ambrose, if we thought that he only turned his attention to affairs of importance like these, which brought him before the notice of the world. No pastor could be more solicitous than he about the slightest details which affected the interests of his flock. We have his life written by his deacon, Paulinus, who knew secrets which intimacy alone can know, and these fortunately he has revealed to us. Among other things, he tells us that when Ambrose heard confessions, he shed so many tears that the sinner was forced to weep. "You would have thought," says Paulinus, "that they were his own sins that he was listening to." We all know the tender paternal interest he felt for Augustine, when he was slave to error and his passions and if we would have a faithful portrait of Ambrose, we must read in the Confessions of the Bishop of Hippo the fine passage where he expresses his admiration and gratitude for his spiritual father. Ambrose had told Monica, that her son Augustine, who gave her so much anxiety, would be converted. That happy day at last came; it was Ambrose's hand which immersed into the cleansing waters of Baptism him who was to be the prince of the Doctors of the Church.
A heart thus loyal in its friendship, could not but be affectionate to those who were related by ties of blood. He tenderly loved his brother Satyrus, as we may see from the two funeral orations which he has left us upon this brother, wherein he speaks his praises with all the warmth of enthusiastic admiration. He had a sister, too, named Marcellina, who was equally dear to her saintly brother. From her earliest years, she had spurned the world, and its pomps, and the position which she might expect to enjoy in it, as being a Patrician's daughter. She had received the veil of virginity from the hands of Pope Liberius, but lived in her father's house at Rome. Her brother Ambrose was separated from her, but he seemed to love her the more for that and he communicated with her in her holy retirement by frequent letters, several of which are still extant. She deserved all the esteem which Ambrose had for her; she had great love for the Church of God, and she was heart and soul in all the great undertakings of her brother the Bishop. The very heading of these letters shows the affection of the Saint: "The Brother to the Sister ;" or, "To my sister Marcellina, dearer to me than mine own eyes and life." Then follows the letter, in style of nerve and animation, well suited to the soul-stirring communications he had to make to her about his struggles. One of them was written in the midst of the storm, when the courageous Pontiff was besieged in his Basilica by Justina's soldiers. His discourses to the people of Milan, his consolations and his trials, the heroic sentiments of his great soul, all is told in these despatches to his sister, and where every line shows how strong and holy was the attachment between Ambrose and Marcellina. The great Basilica of Milan still contains the tomb of the brother and sister and over them both is daily offered the divine sacrifice.
Such was Ambrose, of whom Theodosius was one day heard to say: "There is but one Bishop in the world." Let us glorify the Holy Spirit, who has vouchsafed to produce this sublime model in the Church, and let us beg of the holy Pontiff to obtain for us, by his prayers, ashare in that lively faith and ardent love which he himself had, and which he evinces in those delicious and eloquent writings, which he has left us on the mystery of the Incarnation. During these days, which are preparing us for the Birth of our Incarnate Lord, Ambrose is one of our most powerful patrons. His love towards the Blessed Mother of God teaches us what admiration and devotion we ought to have for Mary. St. Ephrem and St. Ambrose are the two Fathers of the fourth century who are the most explicit upon the glories of the office and the person of the Mother of Jesus. To confine ourselves to St. Ambrose, he has completely mastered this mystery, which he understood, and appreciated, and defined in his writings. Mary's exemption from every stain of sin, Mary's uniting herself, at the foot of the Cross, with her Divine Son for the salvation of the world, Jesus' appearing, after his resurrection, to Mary first of all, on these and so many other points St. Ambrose has spoken so clearly as to deserve to be considered as one of the most prominent witnesses of the primitive traditions respecting the privileges and dignity of the holy Mother of God.
This his devotion to Mary explains St. Ambrose's enthusiastic admiration for the holy state of Christian Virginity, of which he might justly be called the Doctor. He surpasses all the Fathers in the beautiful and eloquent manner in which he speaks of the dignity and happiness of Virginity. Four of his writings are devoted to the praises of this sublime state. The Pagans would fain have an imitation of it, by instituting seven Vestal Virgins, whom they loaded with honours and riches, and to whom they in due time restored liberty. St. Ambrose shows how contemptible these were, compared with the innumerable Virgins of the Christian Church, who filled the whole world with the fragrance of their humility, constancy, and disinterestedness. But on this magnificent subject, his words were even more telling than his writings and we learn from his contemporaries, that when he went to preach in any town, mothers would not allow their daughters to be present at his sermon, lest this irresistible panegyrist of the eternal nuptials with the Lamb, should convince them that that was the better part, and persuade them to make it the object of their desires.
Let us salute this great Doctor in the words which the holy Church addresses to him in the Office of Vespers.
Remove our prejudices, thou great lover of truth, and crush within us those time-serving and unwise theories, which tend to make us Christians forget that Jesus is the King of this world, and look on the law, which equally protects error and truth, as the perfection of modern systems. May we understand that the rights of the Son of God and his Church do not cease to exist, because the world ceases to acknowledge them, that to give the same protection to the true religion and to those false doctrines, which men have set up in opposition to the teaching of the Church, is to deny that all power has been given to Jesus in heaven and on earth, that those scourges which periodically come upon the world are the lessons which Jesus gives to those who trample on the Rights of his Church, Rights which he so justly acquired by dying on the Cross for all mankind that, finally, though it be out of our power to restore those Rights to people that have had the misfortune to resign them, yet it is our duty, under pain of being accomplices with those who would not have Jesus reign over them, to acknowledge that they are the Rights of the Church.
But our partiality and devotion to the great Saint of Milan has made us exceed our usual limits; it is time to read the account of his virtues given us by the Church.
Lectio 4
Ambrosius epíscopus Mediolanénsis, Ambrósii civis Romani fílius, patre Galliæ præfecto natus est. In hujus infántis ore examen apum consedisse dícitur: quæ res divinam viri eloquéntiam præmonstrábat. Romæ liberálibus disciplinis eruditus est. Post a Probo præfecto Liguriæ et Æmíliæ præpositus: unde póstea, ejusdem Probi jussu, cum potestate Mediolanum venit; ubi, mortuo Auxentio Ariáno episcopo, pópulus de successore deligéndo dissidebat. Quare Ambrosius, pro officii sui munere ecclésiam ingréssus, ut commótam seditiónem sedaret, cum multa de quiete et tranquillitate reipublicæ præcláre dixísset, derepénte púero Ambrosium episcopum exclamante, univérsi pópuli vox erupit, Ambrosium episcopum depóscentis.
R. Invéni David servum meum, óleo sancto meo unxi eum:
* Manus enim mea auxiliábitur ei.
V. Nihil profíciet inimícus in eo, et fílius iniquitátis non nocébit ei.
R. Manus enim mea auxiliábitur ei.
Lectio 5
Recusante illo et eórum precibus resistente, ardens pópuli studium ad Valentinianum imperatórem delátum est; cui gratíssimum fuit, a se deléctos judices ad sacerdotium postulari. Fuit id étiam Probo præfecto jucúndum, qui Ambrosio proficiscénti quasi divinans dixerat: Vade, age, non ut judex, sed ut epíscopus. Itaque cum ad pópuli desidérium imperatóris volúntas accederet, Ambrosius baptizátus (erat enim catechúmenus) sacrisque initiatus, ac servátis ómnibus ex instituto Ecclésiæ ordinum gradibus, octavo die, qui fuit septimo Idus Decembris, episcopale onus suscépit. Factus epíscopus, catholicam fidem et disciplínam ecclesiásticam acerrime deféndit; multosque Ariános, et alios hæreticos ad fidei veritátem convértit, in quibus claríssimum Ecclésiæ lumen sanctum Augustinum Jesu Christo péperit.
R. Pósui adjutórium super poténtem, et exaltávi eléctum de plebe mea:
* Manus enim mea auxiliábitur ei.
V. Invéni David servum meum, óleo sancto meo unxi eum.
R. Manus enim mea auxiliábitur ei.
Lectio 6
Gratiáno imperatóre occiso, ad Maximum ejus interfectórem legátus íterum profectus est; eoque pœniténtiam ágere recusante, se ab ejus communióne semovit. Theodosium imperatórem, propter cædem Thessalonícæ factam, ingressu ecclésiæ prohibuit. Cui, cum ille David quoque regem adulterum et homicidam fuísse dixísset, respóndit Ambrosius: Qui secutus es errántem, séquere pœniténtem. Quare Theodosius sibi ab eo impositam publicam pœniténtiam humíliter egit. Ergo sanctus epíscopus pro Ecclésia Dei maximis labóribus curisque perfunctus, multis libris étiam egregie conscripsit, antequam in morbum incideret, mortis suæ diem prædixit. Ad quem ægrotum Honorátus Vercellénsis epíscopus, Dei voce ter admónitus, accurrit, eique sanctum Dómini corpus præbuit: quo ille sumpto, conformátis in crucis similitúdinem mánibus, orans, ánimam Deo réddidit pridie Nonas Aprilis, anno post Christum natum trecentésimo nonagesimo septimo.
R. Iste est, qui ante Deum magnas virtútes operátus est, et omnis terra doctrína ejus repléta est:
* Ipse intercédat pro peccátis ómnium populórum.
V. Iste est, qui contémpsit vitam mundi, et pervénit ad cæléstia regna.
R. Ipse intercédat pro peccátis ómnium populórum.
V. Glória Patri, et Fílio, * et Spirítui Sancto.
R. Ipse intercédat pro peccátis ómnium populórum.
O Doctor optime, Ecclesiae sanctae lumen, beate Ambrosi, divinae legis amator, deprecare pro nobis Filium Dei.
And we, too, Immortal Ambrose, unworthy though we be to take part in such a choir, we, too, will praise thee. We will praise the magnificent gifts which our Lord bestowed upon thee. Thou art the Light of the Church and the Salt of the earth by thy heavenly teachings; thou art the vigilant Pastor, the affectionate Father, the unyielding Pontiff: oh how must thy heart have loved that Jesus, for whom we are now preparing. With what undaunted courage thou didst, at the risk of thy life, resist them that blasphemed this Divine Word. Well indeed hast thou thereby merited to be made one of the Patrons of the faithful, to lead them, each year, to Him who is their Saviour and their King. Let, then, a ray of the truth, which filled thy sublime soul whilst here on earth, penetrate even into our hearts give us relish of thy sweet and eloquent writings; get us a sentiment of devoted love for the Jesus who is so soon to be with us. Obtain for us, after thy example, to take up his cause with energy, against the enemies of our holy faith, against the spirits of darkness, and against ourselves. Let every thing yield, let everything be annihilated, let every knee bow, let every heart confess itself conquered, in the presence of Jesus, the eternal Word of the Father, the Son of God, and the Son of Mary, our Redeemer, our Judge, our All.
Glorious Saint, humble us, as thou didst Theodosius; raise us up again contrite and converted, as thou didst lovingly raise up this thy strayed sheep and carry him back to thy fold. Pray, too, for the Catholic Hierarchy, of which thou wast one of the brightest ornaments. Ask of God, for the Priests and Bishops of his Church, that humble yet inflexible courage, wherewith they should resist the Powers of the world, as often as they abuse the authority which God has put into their hands. Let their face, as our Lord himself speaks, become hard as adamant (Ezech 1) against the enemies of the Church, and may they set themselves as wall for the house of Israel (Ezech 13); may they consider it as the highest privilege, and the greatest happiness, to be permitted to expose their property, and peace, and life, for the liberty of this holy Spouse of Christ. Valiant champion of the Truth! arm thyself with thy scourge, which the Church has given thee as thy emblem and drive far from the flock of Christ the wolves of the Arian tribe, which, under various names, are even now prowling round the fold. Let our ears be no longer shocked with the blasphemies of these proud teachers, who presume to scan, judge, approve, and blame, by the measure of their vain conceits, the great God who has given them every thing they are and have, and who, out of infinite love for his creatures, has deigned to humble himself and become one of ourselves, although knowing that men would make this very condescension an argument for denying that he is God.
Glorious Saint, humble us, as thou didst Theodosius; raise us up again contrite and converted, as thou didst lovingly raise up this thy strayed sheep and carry him back to thy fold. Pray, too, for the Catholic Hierarchy, of which thou wast one of the brightest ornaments. Ask of God, for the Priests and Bishops of his Church, that humble yet inflexible courage, wherewith they should resist the Powers of the world, as often as they abuse the authority which God has put into their hands. Let their face, as our Lord himself speaks, become hard as adamant (Ezech 1) against the enemies of the Church, and may they set themselves as wall for the house of Israel (Ezech 13); may they consider it as the highest privilege, and the greatest happiness, to be permitted to expose their property, and peace, and life, for the liberty of this holy Spouse of Christ. Valiant champion of the Truth! arm thyself with thy scourge, which the Church has given thee as thy emblem and drive far from the flock of Christ the wolves of the Arian tribe, which, under various names, are even now prowling round the fold. Let our ears be no longer shocked with the blasphemies of these proud teachers, who presume to scan, judge, approve, and blame, by the measure of their vain conceits, the great God who has given them every thing they are and have, and who, out of infinite love for his creatures, has deigned to humble himself and become one of ourselves, although knowing that men would make this very condescension an argument for denying that he is God.
And lastly, dear Saint, in the midst of the dark clouds which lower over the world, console our holy Mother the Church, who is now but stranger and pilgrim amidst those nations which were her children, but have now denied her; may she cull the flowers of holy Virginity among the faithful, and may that holy state be the attraction of those fortunate souls who understand how grand is the dignity of being the Spouse of Christ. If, at the very commencement of her ministry, during the ages of persecution, the holy Church could lead countless Virgins to Jesus, may it be so even now in our own age of crime and sensuality; may those pure and generous hearts, formed and consecrated to the Lamb by this holy Mother, become more and more numerous and so give to her enemies this irresistible proof that she is not barren, as they pretend, and that it is she that alone preserves the world from universal corruption, by leavening it with this angelic purity.
Let us consider that last visible preparation for the coming of the Messias: universal Peace. The din of war is silenced, and the entire world is intent in expectation. "There are three Silences to be considered," says St. Bonaventure, in one of his Sermons for Advent: "the first in the days of Noah, after the deluge had destroyed all sinners; the second, in the days of Caesar Augustus, when all nations were subjected to the empire; the third will be at the death of Antichrist, when the Jews shall be converted." Jesus! Prince of Peace, thou willest that the world shall be in peace, when thou art coming down to dwell in it. Thou didst foretell this by the Psalmist, thy ancestor in the flesh, who, speaking of thee, said He shall make wars to cease even to the end of the earth: " he shall destroy the bow, and break the weapons; and the shield he shall burn in the fire" (Psalm 45). And why is this, O Jesus? It is, that hearts, which thou art to visit, must be silent and attentive. It is that before thou enterest a soul, thou troublest it in thy great mercy, as the world was troubled and agitated before the universal peace; then thou bringest peace into that soul, and thou takest possession of her. Oh come quickly, dear Lord, subdue our rebellious senses, bring low the haughtiness of our spirit, crucify our flesh, rouse our hearts from their sleep and then may thy entrance into our souls be a feast-day of triumph, as when a conqueror enters a city which he has taken after long siege. Sweet Jesus, Prince of Peace, give us peace; fix thy kingdom so firmly in our hearts, that thou mayest reign in us for ever.
R. Aspiciebam in visu noctis, et ecce in nubibus caeli Filius hominis veniebat et datum est ei regnum et honor. * Et omnis populus, tribus et linguae servient ei.V. Potestas eius potestas aeterna, quae non auferetur, et regnumejus quod non corrumpetur.* Et omnis populus, tribus et linguae servient ei.
R. I looked in the vision of night, and lo! in the clouds of heaven there came the Son of Man and empire and honour was given unto him.
* And all peoples, and tribes, and tongues, shall serve him.
V. His power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away, and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed.
* And all peoples, and tribes, and tongues, shall serve him.
LDVM
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