Introduction
On the twenty-fourth day of October, the Church in the traditional Roman rite keeps the feast of St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop and Confessor, of the Third Class, in white vestments. The colour is that of confessors who were also pastors and apostles; the rank, that of a saint whose sanctity the Church has long regarded as secure, yet whose office in the calendar yields to the greater solemnities of the year. It is fitting that this feast should fall upon a feria sexta in the twenty-first week after the Octave of Pentecost, when the readings of the day turn our minds to the twofold mystery of the priesthood of Christ and the vigilance required of His servants.
The Epistle appointed for this feast is taken from the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, wherein the Apostle declares that the priests of the Old Law were many, because death prevented them from continuing; but Christ, “because He continueth for ever, hath an everlasting priesthood.” The Gospel is the Lord’s own parable of the householder and the thief, ending with the promise made to the servant whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.
These two passages, read together in the light of the feast, disclose the whole vocation of a bishop: to stand in the place of the One who lives always to intercede, and to remain awake in the night as one who must give an account. St. Anthony Mary Claret understood both. He was a man of ceaseless labour precisely because he believed that the High Priest never sleeps, and he was a man of unremitting vigilance because he knew that the Son of Man comes at an hour we do not expect.
Liturgical Context
Feast: S. Antonii Mariæ Claret, Episcopi et Confessoris — III classis, white.
Epistle (Heb 7:23-27):
“And the others indeed were made many priests, because by reason of death they were not suffered to continue: But this, for that He continueth for ever, hath an everlasting priesthood, whereby He is able also to save for ever them that come to God by Him; always living to make intercession for us. For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily (as the other priests) to offer sacrifices first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this He did once, in offering Himself.”
Gospel (Matt 24:42-47):
“Watch ye therefore, because you know not what hour your Lord will come. But this know ye, that if the good man of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Wherefore be you also ready, because at what hour you know not the Son of man will come. Who, thinkest thou, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath appointed over his family, to give them meat in season? Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come he shall find so doing. Amen I say to you, he shall place him over all his goods.”
The conjunction is deliberate. The Epistle speaks of the permanent priesthood — the one that does not pass away with the death of the priest. The Gospel speaks of the vigilant servant — the one who does not presume upon the delay of the master. Between the eternal intercession of Christ and the temporal stewardship of His ministers lies the whole economy of salvation.
Doctrinal Reflection
The Priesthood That Does Not Die
The Catechism of Trent, treating of the Sacrament of Holy Orders in the section on the Sacraments, sets forth the distinction between the priesthood of the Old Covenant and that of the New. The Levitical priests, it observes, offered victims that could not of themselves take away sin; they were many, and they died, and their ministry ceased with them. But Christ, “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,” offered Himself once, and His priesthood endures because He endures.
The Council of Trent, in Session XXIII, canon 1, anathematizes anyone who denies that there is in the New Testament a visible and external priesthood instituted by Christ, or who says that the power of consecrating and offering the true Body and Blood of the Lord was not given to the Apostles and their successors. This is the dogmatic ground beneath the feast. St. Anthony Mary Claret was not merely a zealous missionary; he was a priest of that eternal order, made a sharer in the one priesthood of Christ by the imposition of hands.
St. John Chrysostom, in his homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, marvels at this dignity. Commenting on the phrase “always living to make intercession for us,” he notes that Christ does not intercede as a suppliant who must plead repeatedly, but as one whose very presence before the Father is our advocacy. The priest on earth, therefore, acts in persona Christi Capitis — not as a delegate of the congregation, but as an instrument of the Head.
St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologiae III, q. 22, a. 4, explains that Christ is called our High Priest chiefly inasmuch as He offered Himself as a victim for sin, and that His priesthood is communicated to ministers who act in His person. The efficacy of the sacrament does not depend on the personal holiness of the minister; but the fruitfulness of his ministry, and the measure of his reward, depends greatly upon his conformity to the One he represents.
Here is the first lesson of the feast: the priest is not his own. He is a member of a body whose Head is eternal. When he stands at the altar, he does not stand alone; he stands within a priesthood that began before the foundation of the world and will not end when the world passes away.
The Servant Found Watching
The Gospel appointed for the feast turns from the altar to the household. The Lord does not describe the blessed servant as one who has accomplished great things, but as one whom his lord, coming unexpectedly, finds doing — giving meat to the family in season.
This is a striking definition of fidelity. It is not heroism in a single hour, but perseverance in an ordinary duty. The steward of the household is charged with feeding those entrusted to him: with sound doctrine, with the sacraments, with the word of God rightly divided. And the test is not whether he began well, but whether he is still at his post when the master arrives.
St. Augustine, in his sermons on the Gospel of Matthew, warns against the presumption that delays the watch. “He who has promised pardon to the penitent,” he writes in substance, “has not promised tomorrow to the sinner.” The thief comes at night; the master returns without warning. The servant who says in his heart, “My lord is long a-coming,” is already unfaithful, even before he begins to strike his fellow servants.
St. Gregory the Great, in his Homilies on the Gospels, takes up the same passage and distinguishes the two kinds of watchfulness: the watch of the mind, which keeps the attention fixed on God, and the watch of the work, which perseveres in charity toward the neighbour. Both are required. A bishop who prays but does not feed the flock has abandoned his household; a bishop who labours but does not pray has forgotten whose household it is.
St. Jerome, commenting on the same chapter, notes that the Lord addresses the parable not only to the Apostles but to all who hold office in the Church, and indeed to every soul that has been given charge of anything. The measure of responsibility is proportionate to the trust received. “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required.”
The Two Lessons United in a Bishop
Read together, the Epistle and Gospel yield the portrait of the true bishop: a man whose ministry is anchored in the eternal priesthood of Christ, and whose life is spent in vigilant service of the household committed to him.
St. Anthony Mary Claret, born in Sallent in Catalonia in 1807, was such a man. A weaver’s son who became a priest, then a missionary of extraordinary energy, then Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, then confessor to Queen Isabella II, then founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, he wore himself out in the service of the Gospel. He preached, wrote, catechized, founded schools, reformed clergy, and endured calumny and attempted assassination. He died in exile at Fontfroide in France in 1870, having been driven from Spain amid the political upheavals of the age. His epitaph, chosen by himself, was a single sentence: “I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile.”
He did not die at the moment of his choosing. He died, as the servant in the parable, at his post — still working, still watching, still giving meat to the family in season. The Church canonized him in 1950 and gave him to the universal calendar as a model of the apostolic bishop.
Practical Application
The lessons of this feast are not reserved to bishops. Every baptized soul shares in the priesthood of Christ, and every soul has been given a household to keep — whether a family, a parish, a workplace, or simply the interior household of the heart.
First, cultivate the sense of the eternal. The Epistle reminds us that our prayers are joined to a priesthood that never ends. When we assist at the Holy Sacrifice, we do not assist at a private devotion but at the one oblation of the eternal High Priest. This is why the traditional practice of arriving early, of preparing with silence, of reading the propers beforehand, is not fussiness but realism: we are entering into an action that transcends time.
Second, practise the watchfulness of the ordinary. The Gospel does not ask us to perform extraordinary penances, but to be found doing what we were given to do. For a mother, that means the care of her children; for a father, the honest provision for his household; for a student, diligence in study; for the sick, patience in suffering. The Lord does not come to interrupt our duties; He comes to crown them.
Third, guard against presumption. The great danger of the servant in the parable is not sloth alone but the assumption that there is time enough. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his treatise on the preparation for death, insists that the most dangerous of all dispositions is the resolve to amend “later.” The present moment is the only moment we possess. As the Imitation of Christ puts it, “Today the man is here, and tomorrow he is gone.”
Fourth, love the priesthood. The feast of a bishop should move us to pray for our own bishops and priests, who stand in the place of the eternal Priest and who bear the burden of the household. They are men, subject to weakness; but their office is divine. To pray for them, to support them, to receive their ministry with reverence, is to cooperate in the work of the Good Shepherd.
Conclusion
The Church places before us on this day a bishop who ran without ceasing, and she gives him to us in the company of the Apostle who spoke of the priesthood that never dies and the Lord who spoke of the servant who watches. The two truths belong together. Because Christ lives forever, His ministers need never despair of the shortness of their own lives. Because Christ comes unexpectedly, His ministers must never presume upon the length of their days.
St. Anthony Mary Claret understood this, and his life was the proof. He laboured as though the harvest depended entirely upon him, and he watched as though the Master might arrive at any hour. May the same grace be granted to us, that when the Son of Man comes, He may find us — not idle, not asleep, not presuming — but doing the work we were given, giving meat to the family in season.
Collect of the Feast:
Deus, qui beátum Antónium Maríam, Confessórem tuum atque Pontíficem, apostólico zelo et martýrii desidério succénsum, in salútem animárum mirábilem effecísti: concéde nobis, quǽsumus, ut, eius exémplo et intercessióne, quæ tui glóriam amóris sunt, fidéliter exercére valeámus. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
Sancte Antoni Maria Claret, ora pro nobis.