Reducing the argument to ‘if not Catholicism, therefore the Great Apostasy’ is a textbook non-sequitur.
In this video, I analyse the recent debate between Catholic apologist Joe Heschmeyer and Mormon apologist Jacob Hansen, and show how his central LDS argument for a “Great Apostasy” commits a fatal logical fallacy: if not Catholicism, then Mormonism. I explain why this reasoning collapses, why the burden of proof is on the one claiming the Church disappeared, and how the historical record actually ends up pointing straight back to Catholicism.
Timestamps
00:00 – Why I watched the Heschmeyer vs. Hansen debate
02:17 – Shifting the burden of proof: Great Apostasy
03:11 – The “new revelation” argument and why it backfires
04:00 – Jesus as the fullness of revelation in Scripture
05:51 – The bank-teller analogy: proving something stopped existing
07:19 – Why Jacob’s argument is a textbook non-sequitur
08:29 – Accidentally providing evidence for Catholicism
09:24 – What evidence a real Great Apostasy would require
10:34 – Why the historical record looks overwhelmingly Catholic
11:39 – Presupposing Mormonism
12:49 – The dilemma that accidentally proves Catholicism
01 February 2026
The Life of St Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop & Martyr
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From The Golden Legend of Blessed Jacobus Voragine, translated by William Caxton in 1483.
HERE FOLLOWETH THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP
St Ignatius was disciple of St. John Evangelist, and was bishop of Antioch. And after that, as some say, he sent a letter unto our Lady or an epistle in this wise: Unto Mary the Virgin, that bare Jesu Christ in her body, I, humble Ignatius, her servant, send greeting, I, that am yet a novice in the faith and disciple to Jesu Christ and to John thy dear friend, desire to have of thee some comfort and consolation of some good enseignment and teaching. For of Jesus thy Son I have heard say many marvels, of which I am enjoyed to hear only of thee, which hast been always in his company. Thou knowest well the secret desires of him, thou hast been plainly informed, and they that be yet young in the faith with me trust much to be endoctrined of thee, and informed in their creance and belief: Lady, God salute thee.
And to this letter answered the glorious Virgin Mary in this manner:
Ignatius, good disciple of Jesus and his special friend, the humble handmaid of Jesu Christ sendeth to thee greeting. I do thee to wit that all that John hath said to thee of Jesu Christ and all that thou hast learned of him is true doctrine and thing certain. Go alway in good creance, and believe and keep firmly the promise of thy Christian faith, and do thy works according to the same. I shall come with St. John for to visit thee and other Christian men with thee. Hold thee always well in the faith and in good works, and let no persecution ne adversity that thou shalt suffer move thee from thy faith ne from thy creance, but have solace and affiance in Jesu Christ thy Saviour.This was the answer of his letter.
The Martyrdom of St. Ignatius
St. Ignatius was a man right well learned, and the third bishop after St. Peter the apostle of the church of Antioch, and much desired to be a martyr for the faith of Jesu Christ. It happed that Trajan, which was emperor of Rome, passed by Antioch, to whom Ignatius showed to him and blamed of this, that he persecuted Christian men, wherefor the emperor did him to be taken and put in irons, and in that wise by ten knights to be led to Rome. There he was presented tofore the emperor and all the senators of Rome, and was constrained by promises, by menaces, and by torments, many and great an horrible, for to adore the idols. St. Ignatius showed to them clearly that their gods had been thieves, ribalds, and men of abominable and evil life, and that they were damned in hell, and that they had been in great error in this, that of so cursed men they made their gods and worshipped devils, and had forsaken God which had made and created all the world, and his blessed Son which in human nature had redeemed and saved the world.Finably, after this, that he had been tormented by fire, and by beating and prison, the emperor did send for the Romans in a place and there did do set St. Ignatius, and did do bring thither two lions for to devour him. But he had never dread for death ne for other torments, of which he had suffered many, but was always comforted for to die for the love of Jesu Christ. And he said at the last: I am wheat of Jesu Christ, which ought to be grounden between the teeth of these beasts, by which I may be pure bread for to be presented to my Lord.
And anon the lions came and strangled him without tearing of his flesh, or anything hurting it, wherefor Trajan had great marvel and departed from the place.
The Miracle of His Heart
It is read that St. Ignatius in all his torments and all the pains of martyrdom that he suffered, that his tongue never ceased to name the name of Jesus, and when they that tormented him demanded him wherefore he named this name so oft, he answered: Know ye for certain that I have in my heart this name written, and therefore I may not leave to name this name oft.And because hereof, when he was dead, they that heard these words opened his body and drew out his heart and cut it open, and they found within the name of Jesus written with fair letters of gold, for which miracle many received the faith of Jesu Christ.
St. Bernard’s Remarks on St. Ignatius
Of this saint saith St. Bernard upon the psalm, Qui habitat [Psalm 15]: St. Ignatius, martyr of God glorious, is of great merit, which was minister to the disciple that Jesus so much loved, and in his epistles, the which he sent to the glorious Virgin Mary, he saluted her as mother that had borne Jesu Christ and she resaluted him again, in sign that he was a person of great honour, of great dignity, and of great authority. The body of whom was honorably buried of Christian men, to the worship of Jesu Christ which is blessed in secula seculorum. Amen.Forgotten Customs of Septuagesima
Today is Septuagesima, so here is Matthew Plese, a Dominican Tertiary, with a look at some forgotten or discarded pre-Lenten customs.
From One Peter Five
By Matthew Plese, TOP
Brethren: Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize. So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things. And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air. But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway (1 Cor. 9:24-27 as taken from the Epistle on Septuagesima Sunday).
Septuagesima is the ancient period of time observed for two and a half weeks before the start of Lent. Celebrated on the Third Sunday before the First Sunday in Lent, Septuagesima is both the name of this third Sunday before Lent’s beginning as well as the season itself that runs from this day up until Ash Wednesday. The season of Septuagesima comprises the Sundays of Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima. The Fourth Council of Orleans in 541 AD documents the existence of this season.
This time, informally called “Pre-Lent,” is a time for us to focus on the need for a Savior. It is a time to prepare a Lenten prayer schedule so that we can determine which extra devotions and Masses we will go to in Lent. It is a time to begin weaning ourselves from food so that we may more easily observe the strictest fast during Lent.
A Season of Penance Before Lent Shown in the Church’s Liturgy
Starting with First Vespers of Septuagesima, which is prayed on the Saturday evening before Septuagesima Sunday, the Alleluia ceases to be said until we proclaim our Lord’s resurrection. There is no exception. At first Vespers of Septuagesima Sunday, two alleluias are added to the closing verse of Benedicamus Domino and its response, Deo gratias, as during the Easter Octave. Starting with Compline, the word Alleluia is no longer said until the Easter Vigil and the proclamation of the Lord’s Resurrection. As a result, many monasteries and some parishes began the custom of physically burying a banner with the word alleluia and only unearthing it on Easter. Some places also adopted rather elaborate farewell to alleluia ceremonies. Fr. Scott Haynes from the Archdiocese of Chicago writes on this custom:
Pope Alexander II decreed that the dismissal of the Alleluia be solemnly marked on the eve of Septuagesima Sunday (i.e., three Sundays before Ash Wednesday) in the chanting of the Divine Office by inserting Alleluias in the sacred text. This custom also inspired the creation of new hymns sung at Vespers honouring the Alleluia… This burial of the Alleluia was nicknamed the deposition (i.e., “the giving on deposit”). Curiously enough, gravestones in Catholic cemeteries traditionally had the inscription Depositus, or simply “D,” to indicate a Christian’s burial. When this term indicates the burial of the Alleluia or of the faithful departed, the Christian belief in resurrection is clear. As we bury those who have been “marked with the sign of faith,” (Roman Canon), and as we enter into the fasting of Lent, we do not silence our tongues because of despair or permanent loss. Rather, we do so with confidence that what has been deposited into the earth—our dead, our Alleluia—will rise again.
There are other noticeable changes in the Church’s liturgy with the beginning of Septuagesima. Violet vestments are worn, except on feasts, from Septuagesima Sunday until Holy Thursday. As during Advent and Lent, the Gloria and Te Deum are no longer said on Sundays. The readings at Matins for the first week of Septuagesima are the first few chapters of Genesis, telling of the creation of the world, of Adam and Eve, the fall of man and resulting expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and the story of Cain and Abel. In the following weeks before and during Lent, the readings continue to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. The Gospel reading for Septuagesima Sunday is the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16).
On the connection of this ancient season with Lent, the great Liturgist and author of The Liturgical Year, Dom Gueranger observed:
The season upon which we are now entering is expressive of several profound mysteries. But these mysteries belong not only to the three weeks which are preparatory to Lent: they continue throughout the whole period of time which separates us from the great feast of Easter.
Pre-Lenten Fasting
Septuagesima is also an appropriate time for us to begin preparing our bodies for the upcoming Lenten fast by incorporating some fasting into our routine. In some places a custom of observing a fast of devotion, in anticipation of and in preparation for the Great Lenten fast, was observed as Father Weiser mentions in his “Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs”:
This preparatory time of pre-Lent in the Latin Church was suggested by the practice of the Byzantine Church, which started its great fast earlier, because their ‘forty days’ did not include Saturdays. Saint Maximum (465 AD), Bishop of Turin, mentioned the practice in one of his sermons. It is a pious custom, he said, to keep a fast of devotion (not of obligation) before the start of Lent.
As we are on the threshold of the beginning of the holy season of Lent, we should in a special way recall the importance of observing some penance even in the days before Lent. To this end, the 13-minute video on the importance of penance in Septuagesima via Sensus Fidelium would be worthwhile to reflect upon.
Paczkis, Pancakes, & Carnival on Shrove Tuesday
For those who plan to keep the true Lenten fast (i.e., fasting for all forty weekdays of Lent and abstaining from all meat and all animal products all forty days of Lent and on all Sundays), Fat Tuesday represents one last day of merriment. Unfortunately, this day has grown into a debaucherous celebration by many who hardly fast at all during Lent. For this reason, while we can observe Fat Tuesday by enjoying food – including Polish paczkis which are customarily eaten on this day – we should ensure that our merriment never turns to gluttony. Some cultures – like the English – adopted the custom of eating pancakes on Fat Tuesday – earning it the nickname of “Pancake Tuesday.” This custom, like the Polish one, was observed because for centuries the use of any lacticinia (i.e., animal byproducts like cheese, butter, milk or eggs) was forbidden for the entirety of Lent. We should consider adopting a similar observance this year with our Lenten fast.
The practice of observing Carnival celebrations was based on the approaching Lenten fast. The word “carnival” comes from the Latin words “carnis” (meaning meat or flesh) and “vale” (the Latin word for farewell). Carnival then became the last farewell to meat since meat was never permitted at all during Lent until the liberalizing changes of Pope Benedict XIV in 1741. Lent was always a season of complete abstinence for centuries.
The name “Shrove Tuesday” also expresses the ancient practice of the faithful to go to Confession on the day before Ash Wednesday. Ælfric of Eynsham’s “Ecclesiastical Institutes” from c. 1000 AD states: “In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then may hear by his deeds what he is to do [in the way of penance].” Father Weiser similarly remarks, “In preparation for Lent the faithful in medieval times used to go to confession on Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. From this practice, that day became known as ‘Shrove Tuesday’ (the day on which people are shriven from sins).”
Make it a resolution to go to Confession on Shrove Tuesday or the weekend before. Since none of our penance done in the state of mortal sin earns merit for us, starting our Lenten penance in the state of sanctifying grace is of the utmost importance.
40 Hours Devotion & Reparation to the Holy Face
Unfortunately, Carnival season over time grew to that of excess. Dom Guaranger wrote of the excesses and sinfulness of Mardi Gras in his own time. And how much worse it is in our own times than his, who lived from 1805 to 1875:
How far from being true children of Abraham are those so-called Christians who spend Quinquagesima and the two following days in intemperance and dissipation, because Lent is soon to be upon us! We can easily understand how the simple manners of our Catholic forefathers could keep a leave-taking of the ordinary way of living, which Lent was to interrupt, and reconcile their innocent carnival with Christian gravity; just as we can understand how their rigorous observance of the laws of the Church for Lent would inspire certain festive customs at Easter.
Even in our times, a joyous carnival is not to be altogether reprobated, provided the Christian sentiment of the approaching holy season of Lent be strong enough to check the evil tendency of corrupt nature; otherwise the original intention of an innocent custom would be perverted, and the forethought of penance could in no sense be considered as the prompter of our joyous farewell to ease and comforts.
While admitting all this, we would ask, what right or title have they to share in these carnival rejoicings, whose Lent will pass and find them out of the Church? And they, too, who claim dispensations from fasting during Lent and, for one reason or another, evade every penitential exercise during the solemn forty days of penance, and will find themselves at Easter as weighed down by the guilt and debt of their sins as they were on Ash Wednesday ‒ what meaning, we would ask, can there possibly be in their feasting at ‘Mardi Gras.’
As a result of the excesses of Fat Tuesday and the carnival season, the Church instituted the practice of observing the 40 Hours Devotion. Father Weiser remarks:
In order to encourage the faithful to atone in prayer and penance for the many excesses and scandals committed at carnival time, Pope Benedict XIV, in 1748, instituted a special devotion for the three days preceding Lent, called ‘Forty Hours of Carnival,’ which is held in many churches of Europe and America, in places where carnival frolies are of general and long-standing tradition. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed all day Monday and Tuesday, and devotions are held in the evening, followed by the Eucharistic benediction.
The Church also instituted the Votive Feast of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ Deformed in the Passion for the Tuesday after Quinquagesima (i.e., Fat Tuesday) as a means of making reparation for the sins of Marti Gras. In fact, our Blessed Lord Himself asked for such reparation to His Holy Face in apparition to Mother Pierina in 1938:
See how I suffer. Nevertheless, I am understood by so few. What gratitude on the part of those who say they love me. I have given My Heart as a sensible object of My great love for man and I give My Face as a sensible object of My Sorrow for the sins of man. I desire that it be honored by a special feast on Tuesday in Quinquagesima (Shrove Tuesday – the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday). The feast will be preceded by novena in which the faithful make reparation with Me uniting themselves with my sorrow.
To this end, the praying of the Golden Arrow prayer during Septuagesima has become an annual custom for some families.
Prepare a Lenten Resolution Plan During Septuagesima
Lent, with its three-fold foundation of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, provides Catholics a grace-filled opportunity to atone for sin. To this end, Lent has been called the “tithe of the year.” Preparing for Lent requires a plan for Lenten penance with all three pillars. To start your preparation see a list of 20 Pious Practices for Lent and consider adopting some of them. Commit to your resolutions by writing them down on a Lenten preparation guide, ensuring you cover prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to a greater degree that required by Church law.
In a follow up article on the forgotten customs of Lent, we will highlight various customs and traditions – including those of ecclesiastical law regarding fasting – that have been virtually forgotten even by priests.
Divine Liturgy for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son
Today's Divine Liturgy from the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia. You may follow the Liturgy here.
Septuagesima Sunday
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From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:
The Holy Church calls us together today, in order that we may hear from her lips the sad history of the fall of our First Parents. This awful event implies the Passion and cruel Death of the Son of God made Man, who has mercifully taken upon himself to expiate this and every subsequent sin committed by Adam and us his children. It is of the utmost importance that we should understand the greatness of the remedy; we must, therefore, consider the grievousness of the wound inflicted. For this purpose, we will spend the present week in meditating on the nature and consequences of the sin of our First Parents.
Formerly, the Church used to read in her Matins of today that passage of the Book of Genesis, where Moses relates to all future generations, but in words of most impressive and sublime simplicity, how the first sin was brought into the world. In the present form of the Liturgy, the reading of this history of the Fall is deferred till Wednesday, and the preceding days give us the account of the six days of Creation. We will anticipate the great instruction, and begin it at once, inasmuch as it forms the basis of the whole week’s teaching.
From the Book of Genesis 3:1-19:
Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise? And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat, and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die. And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death; for God doth know, that in what day soever you shall eat there-of, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat: and gave to her husband, who did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened.
And when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig-leaves, and made themselves aprons. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise, at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou? And he said: I heard thy voice in paradise, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said to him: And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And Adam said: The woman, whom thou gavest me, to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said to the woman: Why hast thou done this? And she answered: The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.
And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. To the woman, also, he said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over thee. And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.
Oh! terrible page of man’s history! It alone explains to us our present position on the earth. It tells us what we are in the eyes of God, and how humbly we should comport ourselves before his divine Majesty. We will make it the subject of this week’s meditation. And now, let us prepare to profit by the Liturgy of this Sunday, which we call Septuagesima.
In the Greek Church, it is called Prophoné, (Proclamation,) because on this day they announce to the people the coming Fast of Lent, and the precise day of Easter. It is also called the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, because that Parable is read in their Liturgy for this Sunday, as an invitation to sinners to draw nigh to the God of Mercy. But it is the last day of the week, Prophoné, which, by a strange custom, begins with the preceding Monday, as do also the two following weeks.
MASS
The Station at Rome is in the church of Saint Lawrence outside the walls. The ancient liturgists observe the relation between the just Abel (whose being murdered by Cain is the subject of one of the responsories of today’s Matins) and the courageous martyr, over whose tomb the Church of Rome commences her Septuagesima.
The Introit describes the fears of death, wherewith Adam and his whole posterity are tormented, in consequence of sin. But in the midst of all this misery there is heard a cry of hope, for man is still permitted to ask mercy from his God. God gave man a promise on the very day of his condemnation: the sinner needs but confess his miseries, and the very Lord against whom he sinned will become his deliverer.
The groans of death surrounded me, and the sorrows of hell encompassed me; and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from his holy temple.
Ps. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength: the Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. ℣ Glory. The groans.
In the Collect, the Church acknowledges that her children justly suffer the chastisements which are the consequences of sin; but she beseeches her divine Lord to send them that mercy which will deliver them.
COLLECT
Mercifully hear, we beseech thee, O Lord, the prayers of thy people; that we who are justly afflicted for our sins, may be mercifully delivered for the glory of thy name. Through, etc.
SECOND COLLECT
Preserve us, O Lord, we beseech thee, from all dangers of soul and body: and by the intercession of the glorious and blessed Mary, the ever Virgin Mother of God, of blessed Joseph, of thy blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, of blessed N. (here is mentioned the titular saint of the church), and of all the saints, grant us, in thy mercy, health and peace; that, all adversities and errors being removed, thy Church may serve thee with undisturbed liberty.
The priest adds a third Collect, which is left to his own choice.
EPISTLE
Lesson of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle, to the Corinthians 1 9:24-10:5
Brethren, know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And everyone that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.) But with most of them God was not well pleased.
These stirring words of the apostle deepen the sentiments already produced in us by the sad recollections of which we are this day reminded. He tells us that this world is a race wherein all must run; but that they alone win the prize who run well. Let us, therefore, rid ourselves of everything that could impede us, and make us lose our crown. Let us not deceive ourselves: we are never sure, until we reach the goal. Is our conversion more solid than was St. Paul’s? Are our good works better done or more meritorious than were his? Yet he assures us that he was not without the fear that he might perhaps be lost; for which cause he chastised his body, and kept it in subjection to the spirit. Man, in his present state, has not the same will for all that is right and just, which Adam had before he sinned, and which, notwithstanding, he abused to his own ruin. We have a bias which inclines us to evil; so that our only means of keeping our ground is to sacrifice the flesh to the spirit. To many this is a very harsh doctrine; hence, they are sure to fail; they never can win the prize. Like the Israelites spoken of by our apostle, they will be left behind to die in the desert, and so lose the promised land. Yet they saw the same miracles that Josue and Caleb saw! So true is it that nothing can make a salutary impression on a heart which is obstinately bent on fixing all its happiness in the things of this present life; and though it is forced, each day, to own that they are vain, yet each day it returns to them, vainly but determinedly loving them.
The heart, on the contrary, that puts its trust in God, and mans itself to energy by the thought of the divine assistance being abundantly given to him that asks it, will not flag or faint in the race, and will win the heavenly prize. God’s eye is unceasingly on all them that toil and suffer. These are the truths expressed in the Gradual.
A helper in due time, in tribulation: let them trust in thee, who know thee, for thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord.
℣. For the poor man shall not be forgotten to the end; the patience of the poor man shall not perish forever: arise, O Lord, let not man prevail.
The Tract sends forth our cry to God, and the Cry is from the very depths of our misery. Man is humbled exceedingly by the fall; but he knows that God is full of mercy, and that, in His goodness, He punishes our iniquities less than they deserve: were it not so, none of us could hope for pardon:
From the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice.
℣. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of thy servant.
℣ If thou shalt observe iniquities, O Lord, Lord, who shall endure it?
℣. For with thee is propitiation, and by reason of thy law I have expected thee, O Lord.
GOSPEL
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew 20:1-16
At that time, Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace idle. And he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the laborers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come, that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: and they also received every man a penny. And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, Saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thy eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.
It is of importance that we should well understand this parable of the Gospel, and why the Church inserts it in today’s liturgy. Firstly, then, let us recall to mind on what occasion our Savior spoke this parable, and what instruction He intended to convey by it to the Jews. He wishes to warn them of the fast approach of the day when their Law is to give way to the Christian Law; and He would prepare their minds against the jealousy and prejudice which might arise in them, at the thought that God was about to form a Covenant with the Gentiles. The vineyard is the Church in its several periods, from the beginning of the world to the time when God Himself dwelt among them, and formed all true believers into one visible and permanent society. The morning is the time from Adam to Noah; the third hour begins with Noah and ends with Abraham; the sixth hour includes the period which elapsed between Abraham and Moses; and lastly, the ninth hour opens with the age of the prophets, and closes with the birth of the Savior. The Messias came at the eleventh hour, when the world seemed to be at the decline of its day. Mercies unprecedented were reserved for this last period, during which salvation was to be given to the Gentiles by the preaching of the apostles. It is by this mystery of mercy that our Savior rebukes the Jewish pride. By the selfish murmurings made against the master of the house by the early laborers, our Lord signifies the indignation which the Scribes and Pharisees would show at the Gentiles being adopted as God’s children. Then He shows them how their jealousy would be chastised: Israel, that had labored before us, shall be rejected for their obduracy of heart, and we Gentiles, the last comers, shall be made first, for we shall be made members of that Catholic Church which is the bride of the Son of God.
This is the interpretation of our parable given by St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great, and by the generality of the holy fathers. But it conveys a second instruction, as we are assured by the two holy doctors just named. It signifies the calling given by God to each of us individually, pressing us to labor during this life for the kingdom prepared for us. The morning is our childhood. The third hour, according to the division used by the ancients in counting their day, is sunrise; it is our youth. The sixth hour, by which name they called our midday, is manhood. The eleventh hour, which immediately preceded sunset, is old age. The Master of the house calls His laborers at all these various hours. They must go that very hour. They that are called in the morning may not put off their starting for the vineyard, under pretext of going afterwards, when the Master shall call them later on. Who has told them that they shall live to the eleventh hour? They that are called at the third hour may be dead at the sixth. God will call to the labors of the last hour such as shall be living when that hour comes; but if we should die at midday, that last call will not avail us. Besides, God has not promised us a second call if we excuse ourselves from the first.
At the Offertory, the Church invites us to celebrate the praises of God. God has mercifully granted us that the hymns we sing to the glory of His name should be our consolation in this vale of tears.
It is good to give praise to the Lord, and to sing to thy name, O Most High.
SECRET
Having received, O Lord, our offerings and prayers, cleanse us, we beseech thee, by these heavenly mysteries, and mercifully hear us. Through, etc.
SECOND SECRET
Graciously grant us, O God, our Savior, that by virtue of this Sacrament, thou mayst defend us from all enemies, both of soul and body; giving us grace in this life, and glory in the next.
The third Secret is left to the priest’s own choice.
In the Communion antiphon, the Church prays that man, having now been regenerated by the Bread of heaven, may regain that likeness to his God which Adam received at his creation. The greater our misery, the stronger should be our hope in Him who descended to us that we might ascend to Him.
Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; save me in thy mercy. Let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have called upon thee.
POSTCOMMUNION
May thy faithful, O God, be strengthened by thy gifts; that by receiving them, they may ever hunger after them, and hungering after them, they may have their desires satisfied in the everlasting possession of them. Through, etc.
SECOND POSTCOMMUNION
May the oblation of this divine Sacrament, we beseech thee, O Lord, both cleanse and defend us; and by the intercession of blessed Mary, the Virgin-Mother of God, of blessed Joseph, of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, of blessed N., and of all the saints, free us from all sin, and deliver us from all adversity.
The third Postcommunion is left to the priest’s own choice.
VESPERS
The Psalms, Antiphons, Hymn, and Versicle are given at the beginning of the volume.
CHAPTER (1 Corinthians 9)
Brethren, know you not said to the laborers; Why stand you here all the day idle? But they answering, said to him: because no man hath hired us. Go ye also into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.
LET US PRAY
Mercifully hear, we beseech thee, O Lord, the prayers of thy people; that we who are justly afflicted for our sins, may be mercifully delivered for the glory of thy name. Through, etc.
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