"Come let us adore the King, our Lord, who is to come."
December 7th: Feast of St. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church.
Honestly, prior to reading, researching, and writing this post, I knew very little of St. Ambrose. I have been seriously missing out on knowing a great saint of the Church.
From the 1894 Butlers Lives of the Saints:
Ambrose was a noble family, and was governor of Milan in 374, when a bishop was to be chosen for that great see. As the Arian heretics were many and fierce, he was present to preserve order during the election. Though only a catechumen, it was the will of God that he should himself be chosen by acclamation; and, in spite of his utmost resistance, he was baptized and consecrated. He was unwearied in every duty of a pastor, full of sympathy and charity, gentle and condescending in things indifferent, but inflexible in matters of principle. He showed his fearless zeal in braving the anger of the Empress Justina, by resisting and foiling her impious attempt to give one of the churches of Milan to the Arians, and by rebuking and leading to penance the really great Emperior Theodosius, who in a moment of irritation had punish most cruelly a sedition of the inhabitants of Thessalonica. He was the friend and consoler of St. Monica in all her sorrows, and in 387 he had the joy of admitting to the Church her son, St. Augustine. St. Ambrose died, full of years and of honors, and is revered by the Church of God as one of her greatest doctors.
From the Liturgical Year:
Ambrose owes his noble position i the Calendar to the ancient custom of the Church whereby, in the early ages, no Saint's feast was allowed to be kept in Lent. The day of his departure from this world and of the entrance into heaven was the fourth of April, which, more frequently than not, comes during Lent: so that it was requisite that the memory of his sacred death should be solemnized on some other day, and the seventh of December naturally presented itself for such a feast, inasmuch as it was the anniversary day of Ambrose's being consecrated Bishop...
What a sublime spectacle that of a Bishop blockaded in his church by the troops of the Empress Justina, and defended within by his people, day and night! Pastor and flock, both are admirable. How had Amrose merited such fidelity and confidence on the part of this people? But a whole life spent for the welfare of his city and his country. He had never ceased to preach Jesus to all men; and now, the people see their Bishop become, by his zeal, his devotedness, and his self-sacrificing conduct, a living image of Jesus.
In the midst of these dangers which threatened his person, his great soul was calm and seemingly unconscious of the fury of his enemies. It was on that very occasion that he instituted, at Milan, the choral singing of the Psalms. Up to that time, the holy Canticles had been given from the Ambo by the single voice of a Lector, but Ambrose, shut up in his Basillica with his people, takes the opportunity, and forms two choirs, bidding them respond to each other the verses of the Psalms. The people forgot their trouble in the delight of this heavenly music; nay, the very howling of the tempest, and the fierceness of the siege they were sustaining, added enthusiasm to this first exercise of their new privilege. Such was the chivalrous origin of Alternate Psalmody in the Western Church. Rome adopted the practice, which Ambrose was the first to introduce, and which will continue to be observed to the end of time. During these hours of struggle with his enemies, the glorious Bishop has another gift wherewith to enrich the faithful people who are defending him at the risk of their own lives. Ambrose is a poet, and he has frequently sung, in verses full of sweetness and sublimity, the greatness of the God of the Christians, and the mysteries of man's salvation. He now gives to his devoted people these hymns, which he had only composed for his own private devotion. The Basillicas of Milan soon echoed these accents of the sublime soul which first uttered them. Later on, the whole Latin Church adopted them; and in honor of the holy Bishop who had thus opened one of the richest sources of the sacred Liturgy, a Hymn was, for a long time, called after his name, an Ambrosian. The Divine Office thus received a new mode of celebrating the divine prasie, and the Church, the Spouse of Christ, possessed on means more of giving expression to the sentiments which animate her....
Hence, the Holy Ghost infused into him the knowledge of Christian jurisprudence, that he might be the defender of the rights of the Church at a period when paganism still lived, though defeated; and imperialism, or cesarism, and still the instinct, though not the uncontrolled power, to exercise its tyranny. Ambrose's law was the Gospel, and he would acknowledge no law which was in opposition to that. He could not understand such imperial policy as that of ordering a Basillica to be given up to the Arians, for quietness' sake! He would defend the inheritance of the Church; and in that defense, would shed the last drop of his blood. Certain courtiers dared to accuse him of tyranny. "No," answered the Saint, "Bishops are not tyrants, but have often to suffer from tyranny." The eunuch Calligonus, high chamberlain of the Emperor Valentinian the Second had said to Ambrose: "What! darest thou, in my presence, to care so little for Valentinian! I will cut off they head." "I would it might be so," answered Ambrose, "I should then die as a Bishop, and thou wouldst have done what eunuchs are wont to do."
This noble courage in the defense of the rights of the Church, showed itself even more clearly on another occasion. The Roman Senate, or rather that portion of the Senate which, though a minority, was still Pagan, was instigated by Symmachus, the Prefect of Rome, to ask the Emperior for the reerection of the altar of Victory in the Capitol, under the pretext of averting the misfortunes which threatened the empire. Ambrose, who had said to these politicians, "I hate the Religion of the Neros," vehemently opposed this last effort of idolatry. He presented most eloquent petitions to Valentinian, in which he protested against an attempt, whose object was to bring a Christian Prince to recognize that flase doctrines have rights, and which would, if permitted to be tried, rob Him who is the one only Master of nations of the victories which he had won. Valentinian yielded to these earnest remonstrances, which taught him "that a Christian Emperor can only honor one Altar - the Altar of Christ," and when the Senators had to receive their answer, the prince told them, that Rome was his mother, and he loved her; but that God was his Savior, and he would obey Him...
We all know the tender paternal interest he felt for Augustine, when he was a slave to error and his passions; and if we would have faithful portrait of Ambrose, we must read in the Confessions of the Bishop of Hippo the fine passage where he expresses his admiration and gratitude for his spiritual father. Ambrose had told Monica that her son Augustine, who gave her so much anxiety, would be converted. That happy day at last came; it was Ambrose's hand which immersed into the cleansing waters of Baptism him who was to be the prince of the Doctors of the Church...
When the Emperor Gratian was killed by Maximus, he was twice deputed to go to this murderer, and insist on his doing penance for his crime; which he refusing to do, Ambrose refused to hold communion with him. The Emperior Theodosius having made himself guilty of the massacre at Thessalonica, was forbidden by the Saint to enter the chruch. On the Emperor's excusing himself by saying that King David had also committed murder and adultery. Ambrose replied: "Thou hast imitated his sin, now imitate his repentance." Upon which, Theodosius humbly performed the public penance which the Bishop imposed upon him...
Oh how I wish to have such Bishops like St. Ambrose, with strong zeal for the Lord and upholding the Church in this age. A Bishop that had the courage to refuse communion to those drastically opposed to the Church's teaching and living in mortal sin, but quick to forgiveness upon their repentance.
2 Timothy 4:1-8
I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming and his kingdom: Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears: And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry. Be sober. For I am even now ready to be sacrificed: and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight: I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day; and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming. Make haste to come to me quickly.
Sirach 39:6-14
He will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him, and he will pray in the sight of the most High. He will open his mouth in prayer, and will make supplication for his sins. For if it shall please the great Lord, he will fill him with the spirit of understanding; And he will pour forth the words of his wisdom as showers, and in his prayer he will confess to the Lord. And he shall direct his counsel, and his knowledge, and in his secrets shall he meditate. He shall shew forth the discipline he hat learned, and shall glory in the law of the covenant of the Lord. Many shall praise his wisdom, and it shall never be forgotten. The memory of him shall not depart away, and his name shall be in request from generation to generation. Nations shall declare his wisdom, and the church shall shew forth his praise.
Gospel reading: Matthew 5:13-19
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing anymore but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men. You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I am come to destroy, but to fulfil. For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled. He therefore that shall break one of these lease commandments, and shall so teach men shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
