SICK

101

tiona] word, "sickness," included in it so that it might read: "0 God, you see that we suffer from our own sinfulness and our sicknesses. Please grant that we may be consoled by your coming.... " Such insertions should be permitted in all these Masses. When words Jike "sin," ¡"fasting'' and "enemies., are mentioned care should be taken to specify what we are praying for. The lessons of this ember day are 1) Is 19 :20-22. which puts an emphasis upon God's dealing with us and his healing grace, 2) Thes 2:1-8, which speaks about the mystery of lawlessness which reigns at the present moment and the fact that Christ will annihilate this lawlessness, and 3) Lk 3:1-6 which speaks of the herald's voice proclaiming the advent of God. The Ember Saturday of spring is much more difficult to work into the theme of healing. The readings of Ember Friday (Ez 18:20-28; Jn 5:1-3, 5-15) are much better. The first lesson of Saturday, Dt 26:12-19, can be seen in the light of the covenant we have all made with God; the second lesson, 1 Thes !\: 14-23, is a good example of the disposition called for by the state of sickness; Mt 17 :1-9 is an example of what we are to become, a foretaste of the resurrection. The lessons of Ember Saturday in summer are especially good (Jl 2 :28-32; and Rom 5:1-5; Lk 4 :38-44). It should be mentioned that Rom 5:1-5 should not be taken in the sense that God has sent these afflictions of the sick person as a test for him. This could be quite easy when the phras¡e "For we know that affliction makes for endurance, and endurance for tested virtue, and tested virtue for hope (Rom 5 :3)," is read. We might mistakingly see the sickness as God's way of testing the faith of this person. Rather a link should be made between Paul's boasting in his affliction (the affliction as a real joining with the crucified Christ) and Christ's cures in the gospel. Fall's Ember Saturday can be seen as speaking of the joy of the new creation. The readings ( Lv 23 :26-32 and Heb 9 :212) refer to the Feast of Tents which has been completed in . Christ. This feast for the Christian, because of its relation to . Christ, looks forward to the end-time which will be a time of