By meditation on the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary we will now enter into a celestial field, in which we will proceed to gather its divine fruits: faith, hope, charity, union with God, and perseverance.By meditation on the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary we will now enter into a celestial field, in which we will proceed to gather its divine fruits: faith, hope, charity, union with God, and perseverance.
The Saviour is taken from the cross and laid in the grave. A large stone, upon which authority, restless and uneasy, attaches its seal, covers His mortal remains. All is there - doctrine, law, institutions, promises, examples, benefits, miracles. All is lost, without any hope of being recovered, if corruption shall convict of falsehood the Man who proclaimed Himself the herald of truth, the truth itself; and the apostle has well said: "Our faith is vain."
But at an hour long foreseen and long foretold the rocks tremble, the grave opens, Christ rises again from the dead. Doctrine, law, institutions, promises, miracles, benefits, all rise again with Him! Our faith is true.
The resurrection of our Saviour is, then, pre-eminently the mystery of faith. It roots in the human soul that divine virtue which supports the whole edifice of the supernatural virtues.
Faith is a divine virtue, for it has for its object truths which our weak reason never could discover - truths which God conceals in the depths of His divine essence, and which no created nature could know if He had not revealed them. These truths are the eternal food of angels, and hence it may well be said, By faith we eat the bread of angels.
Faith is a divine virtue, for it has for its motive the infallible knowledge and supreme veracity of God who speaks, and who, by His word, protects the human mind against all error.
Faith is a divine virtue, for it does not rise spontaneously on the shallow shores of our intellectual nature. It is God that places its germs in our souls; it is God that watches over it and quickens its marvellous increase. To no purpose would the logic of facts and the power of reasoning press us to accept the truths of faith; convinced of the necessity of giving our assent to these truths, we are not, for that reason merely, true believers yet, except God gives us the gift of faith.
The divine virtue faith supports our hope as the foundation of a glorious edifice; faith shows us the supreme good to which our hearts ought sovereignly to attach themselves. It is the primary virtue; the virtue which necessarily takes the lead of all natural virtues, for "without faith it is impossible to please God." (Hebrews 11)
But let us not deceive ourselves: the faith by which we please God, the faith upon which the Christian virtues are firmly founded, the faith which is to conduct us to the summit of the spiritual life, is not a cowardly faith which is disconcerted at the least contradiction; it is not a languishing faith which truths poorly learned and soon forgotten scarcely maintain; it is not a drowsy faith which allows the prejudices and maxims of the world to prevail in our lives; it is not a dumb faith, or a faith without life-giving heat, afraid of asserting or of expanding itself.
The faith which pleases God is a firm faith, which the tempests of incredulity cannot shake, which the poison of doubt cannot penetrate. It is the faith of those Christians of whom Saint Paul speaks: "If so you continue grounded and fixed in the faith." (Colossians 1:23) The faith which pleases God is a lively faith, which always desires to be enlightened and instructed, and which drinks in the sacred waters of truth, crying out: Still more! still more! The faith which pleases God is a sovereign faith, which regulates our every-day life and conforms it to the laws of the Gospel, the maxims of heaven, and the rules of perfection. The faith which pleases God is a generous faith, which asserts itself boldly, which undertakes valiant crusades against indifference, doubt, and incredulity, in public and in private, and, in the absence of eloquent discourses, strives to bring wandering and uncertain souls back again by prayer to the sweet yoke of Jesus Christ.
If such is our faith, we may rejoice in it. We are the Christians of whom Saint Paul spoke: "My just man liveth by faith." Let us rejoice indeed, yet let us not rest at that, but rather say in the words of the Gospel: "Lord, do thou increase my faith." (Luke 17)
- text taken from Fruits of the Rosary, by Father Jacques-Marie Louis Monsabre, O.P.