to redeem us. Why, in strictness of justice, He had ransomed us
before He was born. The very first act of love He made to His
Father, after His conception, was enough to redeem countless
worlds. But He did not then go back to His Father. He staid on
earth to do more for us. He would not leave any thing undone that
could be done. He would not leave a single member of His body, a
single power of His soul, that was not turned into a sacrifice
for us.
No doubt, if, at the birth of any child, we could foresee all it
would have to suffer during its life, there would be enough to
mingle sadness with our joy. But this child was preeminently a
child of sorrow; and Simeon, when he took Him up in his arms,
foresaw that the sad future would break His mother's heart. Yes,
that little Child is the willing victim of our sins. On that
little head the crown of thorns shall be placed. Those tiny hands
shall be pierced with nails. Those eyes shall weep. Those ears
shall be filled with reproach and blasphemy. That smooth cheek be
spit upon. That mouth be filled with vinegar and gall. And why
was all this? He Himself has told us: "And I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, will draw all things to Myself:" [Footnote 47]
That was the hope that urged Him on. That was the key to His
whole life. It was all an effort, a struggle, to gain our love.
[Footnote 47: St. John xii. 32.]
And, once more: the _effect_ of the Incarnation has been
love. We read God's purposes in their fulfilment. We see what our
Lord intended in His humiliation, by looking at what it has
produced. There is no doubt that the love of God has been far
more general among men, and far more tender, since the
Incarnation.
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Only compare St. Antony of Padua, fondling the Infant Jesus, with
Elias, covering his face with his mantle before the Lord in the
cave at Horeb. Compare the book of Job with the epistles of St.
Paul or St. John. God is in both books; but the Prophet sees Him
through a glass darkly: the Apostles "have seen and handled the
Word of Life." One of the most beautiful passages in the Old
Testament, and one which approaches the nearest to the New, is
the history of the martyrdom of the seven sons with their Mother
in the time of Judas Machabæus. But how this story pales before
the Acts of the Christian Martyrs! In these Jewish heroes we see,
indeed, faith in God, and remembrance of His promises, and hope
in the Resurrection; but how different is this from the glowing
language of an Ignatius, who claimed to carry Christ within him;
or of an Agnes, who claimed to be the Spouse of Christ, whom He
had betrothed with a ring, and adorned with bridal jewels!
Nor is it only in highly spiritual people, or highly gifted
people of any kind, that we see this Christian, personal love of
God. The poor, the dull, the ignorant cannot understand the
abstract arguments about God, but they can understand a crucifix,
they know the meaning of Bethlehem and Calvary. And many an old
woman, who knows little more, has learned enough to make her
happy, in the thought that "_God so loved the world as to give
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him may not
perish, but may have life everlasting_." [Footnote 48]
[Footnote 48: St. John iii. 16.]
Then there are children; some people complain that they find it
very hard to interest them in religion. I will tell you how to
succeed. Tell them the story of Joseph and Mary, and the Babe
lying in a manger. Tell them about the shepherds that were
watching their flocks by night, and the angels that came and
talked to them.
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Tell them about the garden in which Jesus was betrayed, and the
cross on which he died, and you will see their little eyes open
wide with interest. I knew a boy who, when he read the story of
Peter's denial of our Lord, got up from his seat, and, with tears
in his eyes, exclaimed, "Oh, mother, what made Peter do that!"
And I have heard of a little boy who, when he was dying, called
his mother to his side, and told her that he had kept all the
money she had given him, in a little box, and when he was dead he
wanted her to take it and buy a coat for the Infant Jesus. I know
it was a strange, childish conceit; but it showed that our
Saviour had found His way to that little boy's heart; and sure I
am that when, in Paradise, he stood before the bright throne of
Christ, and heard from those divine lips the praise of his short
life, that legacy was not forgotten.
Yes; our Lord has found out the way to win hearts. He has
succeeded. The issue proves the wisdom of his plan. As heaven
fills up with saints flaming with love, He says, "Whence are
these? and who hath begotten them?" Then He remembers that they
are the fruit of the travail of His soul, that they were born to
Him at Bethlehem and Calvary, and He "is satisfied."
The truth is, we are not so sensible of this effect of the
Incarnation, because we are so familiar with it. We hardly
realize how meagre men's notions about God naturally are. Of
course, we know by reason the existence of God, and many of His
attributes; but without revelation, these are very indistinct. We
know that He is great and good and beautiful; but still there is
a gulf between us and Him. Partly, no doubt, this arises from our
sense of guilt. We fear God, because we have offended Him. But
there is a dread of God, and a sense of distance from Him, that
does not come from guilt. The most innocent feel it the keenest.
I know not why, but we dread Him because He is so spiritual. He
is so strange and mysterious.
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We cannot think what He is like. We lose ourselves when we try to
think of Him. There are so many things in the world that frighten
us. We do not know how God feels toward us. We have a diffidence
in approaching Him which we cannot shake off. Now, all the while,
God is full of the most wonderful love to man. Heaven is not
enough for Him. Even with the angels, it is a wilderness because
man is absent. At last He resolves what He will do. He will lay
aside altogether that majesty which affrights man so much. "The
distance is too great," He says, "between Me and My creatures. I
Myself will become a creature. Man flies from Me. I will become
Man. Every thing loves its kind. I will make Myself like him. 'I
will draw him with the cords of Adam, with the bands of love.'
[Footnote 49]
[Footnote 49: Osee xi. 4.]
I will tell him how the case stands--that I love him and desire
his love. I will tell him to love Me, not for his sake, but Mine;
and when I have made him understand this--when I have gained his
love; when I have healed his wound and made him happy--then I
will come back, and call on all the angels of heaven, and say,
'Rejoice with Me, for I have found the sheep that I had lost.'"
Such is the enterprise that our Lord enters on to-day. He comes
to tell you how He loves you, and how He desires your love.
"Behold, I bring to you glad tidings of great joy, and this shall
be the sign to you: you shall find the Infant wrapped in
swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger." It is a sign of
Humanity. It is a sign of Beauty. It is a sign of Humility. It is
a sign of Love. He speaks to you, not in words, but in actions.
The cold wind whistles in His cavern, but He will not have it
otherwise. David said: "_I will not enter into the tabernacle
of my home: I will not go up into my bed. I will not give sleep
to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids, or rest to my temples,
until I find out a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God
of Jacob_." [Footnote 50]
[Footnote 50: Isai. cxxxi. 3-5.]
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So the new-born Saviour will not take any comfort till He has got
your love. He is waiting in the manger, and until you come and
take Him home, He will accept no other. The palaces of the world,
and all the jewels and the gold are His, but He will have none of
them. He wants to abide in your lowly house, and in your poor
heart. His head is full of dew, and His locks of the drops of the
night, and He knocks for you to open to Him. Oh, to-day, I do not
envy those who will not receive Him. I do not envy those who are
wandering about in error, and know not the true Bethlehem, the
_House of Bread_, the Holy Church of God. I do not envy the
disobedient Christian. I do not envy the indifferent man, for
whom Christ is born in vain. But I praise those who make it their
first care to keep themselves united to Jesus Christ. And most of
all, I praise those who strive to maintain a holy familiarity
with Jesus Christ; who by prayer, by communion, by self-denial,
by generous obedience, return their Saviour love for love.
O my brethren, why do we grovel on earth, when we might have our
conversation in heaven? Why do we set our hearts on creatures,
when we might have the Creator for our friend? Why do we follow
the Evil One, when He that is beautiful above the sons of men is
our Master and our Lord? Why are we so weak in temptation, so
despairing in trial, when we might have the peace and joy of the
children of God? What more can we want? God has given us the
Only-begotten Son, the Mighty God, the Wonderful Counsellor, the
Prince of Peace; and how shall He not with Him freely give us all
things? All we want is to recognize our happiness. When Jacob
woke from sleep, he said: "The Lord is in this place, and I knew
it not." So we do not realize how near God is to us. What is the
sound that reaches us to-day? It is the voice of the Beloved,
calling to us: "My love, My spouse, My undefiled!" Yes, my Lord,
I answer to Thy call. I enter to-day into the school of Thy Holy
Love.
{292 }
I make now the resolution that "_henceforth neither life nor
death, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able
to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord_." [Footnote 51]
[Footnote 51: Romans viii. 39.]
----------------------
Sermon VIII.
The Failure And Success Of The Gospel.
(Sexagesima.)
"Saying these things he cried out:
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."
St. Luke VIII. 8.
There is one measure by which, if our Lord's work were tried, it
might be pronounced a failure; and that is by the measure of
great immediate, visible results. The thought might come into our
mind, that it is strange our Lord was not more successful than He
was. He was the Son of God, no one ever spake as He did. He
conversed with a great number of men--in Jerusalem, in Judea, in
Galilee. He was always going about from place to place. He died
in the sight of a whole city. Yet what was the result of all? On
the Day of Pentecost, His disciples were gathered together in the
upper chamber, and they numbered, all told, one hundred and
twenty. So it is, likewise, with the Church. After all, what has
she done? Put her numbers at the highest. Say she has two hundred
millions of souls in her communion. What are they to the eight
hundred millions that inhabit the globe. [Footnote 52]
[Footnote 52: Recent estimates of the population of the globe
vary from 840,000,000, to 1,300,000,000, and of the number
of Catholics from 160,000,000 to 208,000,000.
Other Christians are about 130,000,000.]
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And how many of her members are there who can be called Catholics
or Christians, only in a broad, external sense! Has Christianity,
then, accomplished the results that might have been looked for?
Is it not a failure?
I will attempt this morning to give some reasons showing that
Christianity is not a failure, although it has accomplished only
partial results. And the first remark I make is this: that
partial results belong to every thing human. Although
Christianity is a divine religion, by coming into the world it
became subject in many respects to the laws that govern human
things. To specify one, Christianity demands _attention_.
"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Without attention,
Christianity will never produce its impression on our conduct.
Now, attention is a thing hard to get from men. It is one of the
greatest wants in the world, the want of attention. "_With
desolation is all the land made desolate_," says the Holy
Scripture, "_because there is none that considereth in the
heart_." [Footnote 53]
[Footnote 53: Jer. xii. 11.]
We see examples of this on every side. Take the instance of young
men at college. After passing several years there, at a
considerable expense to their parents, professedly for the sake
of acquiring an education, a certain number of them know nothing
but the names of the things they have been studying. This is the
entire result of all they have heard or read, an acquisition of
some of the terms made use of in science. Others have gained some
confused and partial knowledge, which for practical purposes is
all but useless; while those who have acquired precise, accurate,
useful information, that is, who have gained any real science,
are few indeed. It is the same in business. Every trade and
profession is crowded with bunglers who do not know their own
business, because they have been too lazy to learn it, and who
grumble at the success of others who have not spared the pains
necessary to become masters.
{294}
So also it is in politics. We hear a great deal about the general
diffusion of intelligence in this country, and are told how the
sovereign people watch the actions of public men and call them to
account. Now, I suppose there is more wide-spread information on
public matters in this country than in any other in the world,
but what does it amount to after all? A great many read the
newspapers without passing any independent judgment on their
statements, while those who really shape political opinions and
action are but a small clique in each locality.
This being so, it ought not to surprise us that men give but
little attention to religion. If learning, business, politics,
things that touch our present interests so closely, can only to a
superficial extent engage the thoughts of men, will religion,
which relates chiefly to man's future welfare, be more
successful? In one sense, Christianity is as old as the world;
for there has been a continuous testimony to the truth from the
first, but it has never yet had a full hearing. How do men act
about religion? Some listen to its teaching only with their ears,
as a busy man in his office listens to a jew's-harp or a
band-organ on the street. So Gallio listened, who "cared for none
of these things." Some listen with their hearts, that is, with
attention enough to awaken a passing emotion or sentiment. So
Felix listened, when he trembled at St. Paul's preaching, and
promised to hear him again at a more convenient season. Only a
few listen with attentive ears and hearts and hands, the only
true way of listening, the way St. Paul listened, when he said,
"_Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?_" [Footnote 54]
[Footnote 54: Acts ix. 6.]
When you say, then, that Christianity has produced but partial
results, you are but saying that men are frivolous and
thoughtless, that there are many who do not listen to religion,
or do not listen to it with earnestness and lay to heart its
practical lessons. "_Wisdom preacheth abroad; she uttereth her
voice in the streets; at the head of multitudes she crieth
out;_" but it is of no avail to the greater number,
"_because they have hated instruction, and received not the
fear if the Lord_." [Footnote 55]
[Footnote 55: Proverbs i. 20, 21, 29]
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Moreover, our Lord foresaw that the success of His gospel would
be but partial. We see this in the very passage from which the
text is taken. There is something melancholy in the way the
evangelist introduces the parable of the sower: "_And when a
very great multitude was gathered together and hastened out of
the cities to Him, He spoke by a similitude: A sower went out to
sow his seed_," etc. This was the thought which the sight of a
very great multitude pressing around Him awoke in the mind of our
Lord: how small a part would really give heed to His words, or
really appreciate them: how in some hearts the word would be
trodden down, in others be choked or wither away; and this is the
secret of the energy with which He cried out at the end of the
parable, "_He that hath ears to hear, let him hear_." The
same thought comes out in the conversation which he had afterward
with His disciples, when they asked an explanation of the
parable: "_The heart of this people is grown gross; and with
their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they
have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes
because they see, and your ears because they hear_." [Footnote
56]
[Footnote 56: St. Matt. xiii. 15, 16.]
Our Lord was as far as possible, then, from expecting that the
course of things would stand still, and all men comply instantly
with his preaching. Nor were His predictions respecting His
Church such as to warrant more sanguine expectations of her
success.
{296}
In His charge to His disciples, He let them know what they were
to expect: "_When you come into a house salute it, saying:
Peace be to this house. And if that house be worthy, your peace
shall come upon it; but if it be not worthy, your peace shall
return to you. And when they shall persecute you in this city,
flee into another_." [Footnote 57]
[Footnote 57: St. Matt. x. 12, 13, 23.]
Nor were their trials to be altogether external. "_And then
shall many be scandalised, and shall betray one another, and
shall hate one another. And because iniquity hath abounded, the
charity of many shall wax cold_." [Footnote 58]
[Footnote 58: Ib. xxiv. 10, 12.]
When, then, you say, See! in that country the Church has all but
died out; in that country faith is weak, and the most active
minds in it are estranged from religion; in that country scandals
abound; in that country there was a great apostasy; that other
was fruitful in heresies:--I reply, you are only verifying our
Lord's predictions; you are only saying what He said before the
event. If religion has not accomplished all that could be
desired, it has at least done what it promised.
Nor is this all. Not only did our Lord foresee that many would
reject His grace, but He acquiesced in it. His work is not a
failure, because He does not account it so. What though many
refuse to listen? They that will be saved, those of good will and
honest hearts, they will be saved, and that is enough. He saw of
the travail of His soul, and was satisfied. Our Lord shed His
blood for all men; He willed seriously the salvation of all men;
but since all will not be saved, He is content to give it for
those who will. He "is the Saviour of all men, _especially of
the faithful_." [Footnote 59]
[Footnote 59: 1 Tim. iv. 10.]
When He came to Jerusalem to die, looking at the city, He wept to
think how many were there who knew not the time of their
visitation; but that did not deter Him from marching on to Mount
Calvary. When He foretold to St. Peter, before His passion, all
He was about to suffer, St. Peter, with mistaken affection,
begged Him to spare Himself. "Far be this from Thee."
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How much more would he have dissuaded our Lord, if he could have
foreseen in how many cases these labors and sufferings would have
been fruitless. Would he not have said to Him, "O Lord! do not
suffer so much, turn away thy face from the smiter, and thy mouth
from gall. Do not crush Thy heart with cruel grief, or bathe Thy
body in a sweat of agony. The very men for whom Thou diest will
disbelieve Thee, or, believing, will disobey Thee.
Can we doubt to what effect our Saviour would have answered? "If
I be lifted up I will draw all men to Me, and all will not resist
Me. I shall see of the travail of My soul, and shall be
satisfied."
Or I can imagine that at the Last Supper, as our Lord was about
to institute the Blessed Sacrament of His body and blood, the
same warm-hearted disciple laying his hand on his Master's arm,
might have said, "Do not do it! Thou thinkest they cannot
withstand this proof of love. But, alas! they will pass by
unheeding. Thou wilt remain on the altars of Thy churches night
and day, but the multitude will not know Thee, or ask after Thee,
and they that do know Thee will insult Thee in Thy very gifts,
will treat Thee with disrespect, and receive Thee with dishonor."
But our Lord gently disregards his remonstrance, and having loved
His own who were in the world, loves them to the end, and for
them is contented to make Himself a perpetual prisoner of love.
Oh, my brethren, our statistics and our arithmetic are sadly at
fault when we are dealing with divine things. When Abraham went
to plead with Almighty God to spare Sodom, he began by asking as
a great matter that the city might be spared if fifty just men
were found in it, and the answer was prompt and free, "I will not
do it for fifty's sake." Somewhat emboldened, he came down by
degrees to ten, and received the same answer, but stopped there,
thinking that he could make no further demand on the mercy of
God. It is a thing we will never understand, how much God has the
heart of a father.
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When news was brought to the patriarch Jacob, that Joseph, his
son, was yet living, all his woes and hardships were forgotten in
a moment, and he said: It is enough. Joseph, my son, is yet
alive." So, all the unkindness, disobedience, unbelief of men,
are compensated to the heart of Christ by the fervor of His true
children, His servants whom He hath chosen, His elect in whom His
soul delighteth. Weary on the cross, His fainting eye sees their
fidelity and their love, and His heart revives, and He says: "It
is enough." Christ accounts the fruits of His redemption great,
and they are great. This is our temptation, to undervalue the
good that is in the world. Evil is so obtrusive, that we are but
too apt to attribute to it a larger share in the world than it
really holds. How much of good, then, has been and is in the
world? The Blessed Virgin, the Queen of Heaven, the perfect
fruit of Christ's redemption, once walked the earth, engaged in
lowly, every-day duties, like any maid or mother among us. Moses
and Elias and St. John the Baptist once lived our life here on
the earth; and the hundred and forty-four thousand who sing a new
song before the throne of God, and the great multitude that no
man can number out of all people and kindreds and tribes and
tongues, clothed in white and with palms in their hands. You talk
of failure! Why has not the sound of the gospel gone into all
lands, and its words to the end of the world? Have not empires
owned its sway, and kings come bending to seek its blessings?
Have not millions of martyrs loved it better than their lives?
Has not the solitary place been made glad by the hymns of its
anchorites, and the desert blossomed like a rose under their
toil? Is there a profession, or trade, or court, or country which
has not been sanctified by moral heroes who drew in their holy
inspirations from its lessons? And who can tell us the amount of
goodness in every-day life, to some extent necessarily hidden,
but of which we catch such unearthly glimpses, and which is the
practical fruit of its principles?
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The virtuous families, the upright transactions, the glorious
sacrifices, the noble charities, the restraint of passion, the
interior purity, the patient perseverance! Listen to the
description which God Himself gives of the results of the gospel:
"_Who are these, that fly as clouds, and as doves to their
windows? For the islands wait for me, and the ships of the sea in
the beginning; that I may bring thy sons from afar; their silver
and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and to
the Holy One of Israel, because He hath glorified thee. Iniquity
shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction in
thy borders; and salvation shall possess thy walls, and praise
thy gates. Thy sun shall go down no more, and thy moon shall not
decrease: for the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting
light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. And thy
people shall be all just; they shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work if my hand, to glorify me.
The least shall become a thousand, and a little one a most strong
nation. I, the Lord, will suddenly do this thing in its
time_." [Footnote 60]
[Footnote 60: Isai. lx. 8, 9, 18, 20, 21. 22.]