Thursday after Ash Wednesday
LITurgical Color: Violet
Rosary Mysteries: Luminous Mysteries
Daily Readings
Gospel: Luke 9: 22-25
22 Saying: The Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the ancients and chief priests and scribes and be killed and the third day rise again.
23 And he said to all: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: for he that shall lose his life for my sake shall save it.
25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world and lose himself and cast away himself?
22 dicens: Quia oportet Filium hominis multa pati, et reprobari a senioribus, et principibus sacerdotum, et scribis, et occidi, et tertia die resurgere.
23 Dicebat autem ad omnes: Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem suam quotidie, et sequatur me.
24 Qui enim voluerit animam suam salvam facere, perdet illam: nam qui perdiderit animam suam propter me, salvam faciet illam.
25 Quid enim proficit homo, si lucretur universum mundum, se autem ipsum perdat, et detrimentum sui faciat?
First Reading: Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
15 Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil:
16 That thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and bless thee in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.
17 But if thy heart be turned away, so that thou wilt not hear, and being deceived with error thou adore strange gods, and serve them:
18 I foretell thee this day that thou shalt perish, and shalt remain but a short time in the land, to which thou shalt pass over the Jordan, and shalt go in to possess it.
19 I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20 And that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and adhere to him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days,) that thou mayst dwell in the land, for which the Lord swore to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give it them.
15 Considera quod hodie proposuerim in conspectu tuo, vitam et bonum, et e contrario mortem et malum:
16 ut diligas Dominum Deum tuum, et ambules in viis ejus, et custodias mandata illius ac cæremonias atque judicia: et vivas, atque multiplicet te, benedicatque tibi in terra, ad quam ingredieris possidendam.
17 Si autem aversum fuerit cor tuum, et audire nolueris, atque errore deceptus adoraveris deos alienos, et servieris eis:
18 prædico tibi hodie quod pereas, et parvo tempore moreris in terra, ad quam, Jordane transmisso, ingredieris possidendam.
19 Testes invoco hodie cælum et terram, quod proposuerim vobis vitam et mortem, benedictionem et maledictionem. Elige ergo vitam, ut et tu vivas, et semen tuum:
20 et diligas Dominum Deum tuum, atque obedias voci ejus, et illi adhæreas (ipse est enim vita tua, et longitudo dierum tuorum), ut habites in terra, pro qua juravit Dominus patribus tuis, Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, ut daret eam illis.
A Daily Question from the Summa Theologica
Whether the sacraments can be conferred by evil ministers? (Article 5 of 10 of Question 64. Of the Causes of the Sacraments from the Treatise on the Sacraments)
Objection 1: It seems that the sacraments cannot be conferred by evil ministers. For the sacraments of the New Law are ordained for the purpose of cleansing from sin and for the bestowal of grace. Now evil men, being themselves unclean, cannot cleanse others from sin, according to Ecclus. 34:4: “Who [Vulg.: ‘What’] can be made clean by the unclean?” Moreover, since they have not grace, it seems that they cannot give grace, for “no one gives what he has not.” It seems, therefore, that the sacraments cannot be conferred by wicked men.
Objection 2: Further, all the power of the sacraments is derived from Christ, as stated above (A[3]; Q[62], A[5]). But evil men are cut off from Christ: because they have not charity, by which the members are united to their Head, according to 1 Jn. 4:16: “He that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him.” Therefore it seems that the sacraments cannot be conferred by evil men.
Objection 3: Further, if anything is wanting that is required for the sacraments, the sacrament is invalid; for instance, if the required matter or form be wanting. But the minister required for a sacrament is one who is without the stain of sin, according toLev. 21:17, 18: “Whosoever of thy seed throughout their families, hath a blemish, he shall not offer bread to his God, neither shall he approach to minister to Him.” Therefore it seems that if the minister be wicked, the sacrament has no effect.
On the contrary, Augustine says on Jn. 1:33: “He upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit,” etc. (Tract. v in Joan.), that “John did not know that our Lord, having the authority of baptizing, would keep it to Himself, but that the ministry would certainly pass to both good and evil men . . . What is a bad minister to thee, where the Lord is good?”
I answer that, As stated above (A[1]), the ministers of the Church work instrumentally in the sacraments, because, in a way, a minister is of the nature of an instrument. But, as stated above (Q[62], AA[1],4), an instrument acts not by reason of its own form, but by the power of the one who moves it. Consequently, whatever form or power an instrument has in addition to that which it has as an instrument, is accidental to it: for instance, that a physician’s body, which is the instrument of his soul, wherein is his medical art, be healthy or sickly; or that a pipe, through which water passes, be of silver or lead. Therefore the ministers of the Church can confer the sacraments, though they be wicked.
Reply to Objection 1: The ministers of the Church do not by their own power cleanse from sin those who approach the sacraments, nor do they confer grace on them: it is Christ Who does this by His own power while He employs them as instruments. Consequently, those who approach the sacraments receive an effect whereby they are enlikened not to the ministers but to Christ.
Reply to Objection 2: Christ’s members are united to their Head by charity, so that they may receive life from Him; for as it is written (1 Jn. 3:14): “He that loveth not abideth in death.” Now it is possible for a man to work with a lifeless instrument, and separated from him as to bodily union, provided it be united to him by some sort of motion: for a workman works in one way with his hand, in another with his axe. Consequently, it is thus that Christ works in the sacraments, both by wicked men as lifeless instruments, and by good men as living instruments.
Reply to Objection 3: A thing is required in a sacrament in two ways. First, as being essential to it: and if this be wanting, the sacrament is invalid; for instance, if the due form or matter be wanting. Secondly, a thing is required for a sacrament, by reason of a certain fitness. And in this way good ministers are required for a sacrament.
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