Note how the words of Gueranger seem so contemporary, this was because he was rooted in the writings of the ancient Fathers of the Church and so acquired that "timeless knowledge". He himself said if only preachers would imitate the Fathers of the Church and preach about the Lord and the truth of the gospel, the faithful would recieve sound doctrine. It has been said that preaching today sometimes seems to lack a deep theological underpining.
THE MYSTERY OF PASCHAL TIME by Abbot Prosper Gueranger
Of all the seasons of the liturgical year Eastertide is by far the richest in mystery. We might even say that Easter is the summit of the Mystery of the sacred Liturgy. The Christian who is happy enough to enter, with his whole mind and heart, into the knowledge and love of the Paschal Mystery, has reached the very centre of the supernatural life. Hence it is that the Church uses every effort in order to effect this: what she has hitherto done was all intended as a preparation for Easter. The holy longings of Advent, the sweet joys of Christmas, the contrition and penance of Lent, the heartrending sight of the Passion-all were given us as preliminaries, as paths, to the sublime and glorious Pasch, which is now ours.
During these days, then, we have brought before us the two great manifestations of God's goodness towards mankind-the Pasch of Israel, and the Christian Pasch, the Pentecost of Sinai, and the Pentecost of the Church. We shall have occasion to show how the ancient figures were fulfilled in the realities of the new Easter and Pentecost, and how the twilight of the Mosaic Law made way for the full daylight of the Gospel; but we cannot resist the feeling of holy reverence, at the bare thought that the solemnities we have now to celebrate are more than three thousand years old, and that they are to be renewed every year from this till the voice of the angel shall be heard proclaiming: 'Time shall be no more!'1 The gates of eternity will then be thrown open.
Eternity in heaven is the true Pasch: hence, our Pasch here on earth is the feast of feasts, the solemnity of solemnities. The human race was dead; it was the victim of that sentence, whereby it was condemned to lie mere dust in the tomb; the gates of life were shut against it. But see! the Son of God rises from his grave and takes possession of eternal life. Nor is he the only one that is to die no more, for, as the Apostle teaches us, 'He is the first-born from the dead.' (Coloss. i 18) The Church would, therefore, have us consider ourselves as having already risen with Jesus, and as having already taken possession of eternal life. The holy Fathers of the Church would have us look on these fifty days of Easter as the image of our eternal happiness. They are days devoted exclusively to joy; every sort of sadness is forbidden; and the Church cannot speak to her divine Spouse without joining to her words that glorious cry of heaven, the Alleluia, wherewith, as the holy Liturgy says, the streets and squares of the heavenly Jerusalem resound without ceasing.
The providence of God, who has established harmony between the visible world and the supernatural work of grace, willed that the Resurrection of our Lord should take place at that particular season of the year when even Nature herself seems to rise from the grave. The meadows give forth their verdure, the trees resume their foliage, the birds fill the air with their songs, and the sun, the type of our triumphant Jesus, pours out his floods of light on our earth made new by lovely spring. At Christmas the sun had little power, and his stay with us was short; it harmonized with the humble birth of our Emmanuel, who came among us in the midst of night, and shrouded in swaddling clothes, but now he is 'as a giant that runs his way, and there is no one that can hide himself from his heat.' Speaking, in the Canticle, to the faithful soul, and inviting her to take her part in this new life which he is now imparting to every creature, our Lord himself says: 'Arise, my dove, and come! Winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in our land. The voice of the turtle is heard. The fig-tree hath put forth her green figs. The vines, in flower, yield their sweet smell. Arise thou, and come!'
The Lord our Saviour chose the Sunday for his Resurrection, on this day he conquered death and proclaimed life to the world. It was on this favoured day of the week that he had created the light, by selecting it now for the commencement of the new life which he graciously imparts to man, he would show us that Easter is the renewal of the entire creation. Not only is the anniversary of his glorious Resurrection to be, henceforward, the greatest of days, but every Sunday throughout the year is to be a sort of Easter, a holy and sacred day.
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