life, who make temptation an apology for sin; who excuse
themselves for a wrong action by simply saying, "I was tempted."
Far be it from me, my brethren, to undervalue the danger of
temptation, or to forget the frailty of the human heart, or to
lack compassion for the fallen; but it is one thing to fall and
bewail one's fall, and another to make the temptation all but a
justification of the fall. And are there not some who do this?
who do not seek temptation, but invariably yield to it when it
comes across them? who only steal when some trifle falls in their
way; who only curse when they are angry; who only neglect Mass
when they feel lazy and self-indulgent; and are always sober and
chaste except when the occasion invites to libertinism and
intemperance?
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What! is this Christianity? To abstain from sin as long as we
have no particular inclination to commit it, and to fall into it
as soon as we have! O miserable man, O miserable woman, go and
learn the very first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Go to
the Font of Baptism, and ask why you renounced Satan, and
promised to keep God's commandments. Go to the Bible and learn
why Christ died, and what is the duty of His followers.
Temptations come upon you in order that you may resist them. You
are subject to gusts of anger, in order that you may become meek.
You are tempted to unchastity, in order that you may become pure.
You are tempted against faith, that you may learn to believe.
That you are tempted, is precisely the reason that you should not
yield; for it shows that your hour is come, and the question is
whether you will belong to Christ or Satan.
Yes, my brethren, our conflict is for the trial of our virtue. It
is a universal law of humanity. It was so even in the garden of
Eden. In the fields of Paradise, where the trees were in their
fresh verdure, and the air breathed a perpetual spring, and all
things spoke of innocence and peace, there Adam had to meet this
trial. And each child of man since then has met it in his turn.
And Christians must meet it too. In the sheltered sanctuary of
the Church, where we have so many privileges, so much to
strengthen and gladden us, even there each one must abide the
test. As the Canaanite was left in the promised land, to keep the
children of Israel in vigilance and activity, so the sting of the
flesh, the power of our inferior nature, is left in the baptized,
to school us in virtue, to make us men, to make us Christians, to
make us saints. This is the foundation principle of religion. He
who has learnt this, has found out the riddle of life.
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And now, my brethren, that I have explained to you the source of
the conflict that we feel within us, and the purpose it is
designed to answer, you will see what the result of it must be,
how it issues in the two eternities that are before us. "_He
that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap
corruption; but he that soweth in the Spirit, of the Spirit shall
reap life everlasting_." [Footnote 131]
[Footnote 131: Gal. vi. 8.]
The Judgment Day is but the revelation of the faithfulness or
unfaithfulness of each one of us in the struggle to which he has
been called. Every act, every choice we make, tells for that
great account. The day will declare it. Then the secret of each
man's heart shall be revealed, and how that battle in his heart
has been fought. Oh, what a spectacle must this world present to
the angels who look down upon the solemn strife that is going on
here below! There is a man who has ceased to strive. No longer
making any resistance, he is led on wholly and completely by his
inferior nature. The slave of sin, he hardly feels the conflict
in his soul, but it is because the voice of reason and the voice
of grace have been so long resisted that they have become almost
silent. And there are others who have given up the pure strife,
but not so determinedly, not so completely. Occasionally they
have better moments, regrets for the good they have forsaken, but
still they float on with the careless world. And there is the
young girl taking her first step on the downward road, looking
back to the father's house she is leaving, reluctant, but
consenting. Then there is the penitent, who has fallen but risen
again; who has learned wariness from his fall, and new confidence
in God from His mercy and goodness, and who is striving by
penance and prayer to make up what he has lost. And there is the
man with feeble will, ever sinning and ever lamenting his sin,
divided between good and evil, with too much conscience to give
free reins to his passions, and too little to master them
completely. And there is the soul severely tried, still
struggling but almost overwhelmed, and out of the depths calling
upon God the Holy and True, "_Incline unto mine aid, O
God_."
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And there is the soul strong in virtue, strong in a thousand
victories, which stands unmoved amid temptations, like the
deep-rooted tree in a storm, or like the rock beaten by the
waves. Oh, yes, in the sight of the angels, this world is full of
interest. There is nothing here trivial and common-place. What
prophecies of the future must they not read! What saints do they
see, ripening for Heaven! What sinners rushing madly to Hell!
What unlooked-for falls! What unexpected conversions! What hidden
sins, unsuspected by the world! Now they must rejoice, and now
they must weep. Now they tremble over some soul in danger, and
now they exult because the danger is over. So it is now; but when
the end shall come, then fear and hope shall be no more, the
conflict will be ended, the books shall be opened, and the
secrets of the heart published to the universe. The struggle of
life will be past, only its results will remain--two separate
bands, one on either side of the Judge, the good and the wicked,
those who have been true to their conscience, to reason, to
grace, and those who have not.
Well, then, we will strive manfully against sin. There are untold
capacities in us for good and evil. God said to Rebecca: "_Two
nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be divided out of
thy womb, and one people shall overcome the other_." [Footnote 132]
[Footnote 132: Gen. xxv. 23.]
So, my brethren, in each heart there are two powers struggling
for the mastery--the Spirit and the Flesh. There are two sets of
offspring struggling for the birth--"the works of the flesh,
which are immodesty, uncleanliness, fornication, enmities, wrath,
envies, emulations, quarrels, murders, drunkenness, revellings;
and the works of the spirit, which are love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, faith, modesty, continence, chastity." It is
for the will, with and under God's grace, to say which of these
shall overcome the other.
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Do you say that I put too much on the will? that the will is too
weak to decide this fearful contest? O brethren, the will is not
weak. On the side of God, and with the help of God, it is
irresistible. Look at the martyrs' will. Did it not carry them
through fire and sword? Did it not enable them to meet death with
joy? This is our mistake, we do not know our strength. We know
our weakness, but we do not know our strength. We think God is to
help us, independently of ourselves, and not through ourselves.
But this is not so, God helps us by strengthening our will, by
enlightening our reason, by directing our conscience. We cannot
distinguish between what God does and what we do in any act. The
two act together. Therefore, I say, you have it in your power to
resist sin, you have it in your power to become saints. No matter
though your evil dispositions have been increased by past sins,
you can overcome evil habits, and be what God wills you to be.
Only do not be contented with a superficial religion, a religion
of feelings, and frames, and sensible consolations. Go down deep,
go down to the will. Let the sword of the LORD probe till it
pierces even "to the division of the soul and the spirit," the
point at which our higher and lower natures meet each other. Make
your religion not a sham, but a reality. School yourself for
heaven. Day by day fight the good fight of faith, and thus merit
at last to die like a holy man at whose death St. Vincent of Paul
assisted: "He is gone to heaven," said the saint, speaking of M.
Sillery, "like a monarch going to take possession of his kingdom,
with a strength, a confidence, a peace, a meekness, which cannot
be expressed."
---------------------------
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Sermon XVIII.
The Intercession Of The Blessed Virgin
The Highest Power Of Prayer.
(Sunday Within the Octave of the Ascension.)
"If you remain in me, and my words remain in you,
ye shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done to you."
--John xv. 7.
There is perhaps no Catholic doctrine which meets with more
objection among those outside the Church, than our devotion to
the Blessed Virgin. Expressions of love to her, of hope in her
intercession, which seem to us perfectly natural, which come from
our hearts spontaneously, when they are most under the influence
of Christian and holy principles, seem to them altogether at
variance with Christianity. I do not believe that this comes
always from prejudice, and a spirit of opposition on their part.
It comes often, I am persuaded, from not understanding us. There
is a link in our minds which connects this practice with other
Christian doctrines, and this link is wanting in theirs; and
therefore acts of devotion of this kind seem to them arbitrary
and useless, an excrescence on Christianity, and even alien to
its spirit. If this is the case, it cannot but be a duty and
charity for us to explain, as far as possible, what is in the
mind of a Catholic when he prays to the Blessed Virgin; and I
shall accordingly attempt to do so this morning. Perhaps while we
are thus removing a stumbling-block out of some erring brother's
way, we shall be at the same time rendering our own ideas on this
doctrine clearer, and its practice more intelligent.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, then, to a Catholic, represents the
power of intercessory prayer in its highest form and degree.
{392}
I believe there are very few persons, indeed, who realize at all
the power which is attributed to intercessory prayer in the Bible
and in Christianity. The Apostles frequently exhort the
Christians to whom they are writing to pray for them. They
enjoined it upon them as a duty to pray for one another. What
does this mean? Had not St. Paul and St. Peter influence enough
with Heaven to carry their wants directly to the throne of grace?
Was not the way of access to God open and easy for every one? Did
God require to be reminded of the woes and wants of any child of
man, by the sympathizing cries of his fellow-creatures? Was not
God's own heart as large as theirs? Could any thing He had made
escape His knowledge, or any sorrow fail to awaken His
compassion? Or, if it did, was the intercession of Christ
insufficient that any other had to be called in to supplicate?
No, certainly. None of these suppositions are true. God's
goodness and knowledge are infinite. He needs not to be told what
is in man. He loves the work of His hands. The meanest and the
poorest are in the light of His Providence. Christ's merits are
infinite and universal. But after all, there stands the fact.
Intercessory prayer is an ordinance of God. It is a duty to pray
for others, and it is useful to have others pray for us. You may
call it a mystery if you like. To me, it does not seem so very
wonderful. No man lives to himself. We are not the only
Christians. Many others walk alongside of us on the road to
Heaven. Many are ahead of us. Many have already reached their
term. Shall there be no sympathy between us? Is that principle so
deeply seated in our nature to have no play in Christianity? Are
we to have no interest, no feeling for each other? Or, is that
sympathy to be a barren sentiment, and to have no results? God,
in religion, makes use of and commands this kindness and
sympathy. He makes use of it to bind all men together in a bond
of love. In order to [do] this, He makes it a law that we shall
pray for one another, and suspends His gifts upon its execution.
{393}
It is, then, to meet that nature that He has framed--it is to
exalt that nature craving for sympathy--it is to give rein to
charity--it is to make us always sensible and mindful of that
great human family to which we belong--it is for these reasons,
I conceive, that God has instituted the ordinance of intercessory
prayer. But, explain it as you will, the fact cannot be denied.
It is an appointment of God, and an appointment of great
efficacy. It plays a large part in the history of the Bible.
Elias was a man subject to like passions with us, and he prayed
earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not for three
years and six months; and he prayed again, and the heavens gave
rain. Abraham prayed for Abimelech, and God healed him. When
Moses prayed for the Israelites suffering under the fire with
which God had visited them for their sins, the fire was quenched.
In the prophet Ezechiel, God speaks as if he could not act
without this intercession--as if it were really a necessary
condition for the bestowal of His graces. "_I sought among them
for a man_," he says, "_that might stand in the gap before
me, in favor of the land, that I might not destroy it, and I
found none_." [Footnote 133] St. James even seems to make
salvation depend on intercessory prayer. "_Pray for one
another_," is his language, "_that ye may be saved_."
[Footnote 134]
[Footnote 133: Ezechiel xxii. 30.]
[Footnote 134: St. James v. 16.]
These are but a sample of the many Scriptural proofs that might
be brought to show that intercessory prayer is an ordinance of
God. It is one of the forms in which the goodness of God and the
merits of Christ flow over upon us. By it we obtain graces from
God much more easily than we could without it. And we obtain by
it special graces, which we would not be likely to obtain at all
without it. In this sense, perhaps, St. James meant to imply that
it was necessary to our salvation. Not that it was a matter of
precept to ask the prayers of this or that particular person, but
that their intercession might be the condition of our obtaining
graces without which our salvation would be a work of great
difficulty.
{394}
But this is not all that the Scriptures tell us about
intercessory prayer. They not only declare its wonderful power,
but they make known to us that the efficacy of intercessory
prayer depends on the goodness and merit before God of the one
who offers it. I do not mean that no one should pray for another
unless he is very holy. By no means. No matter how great a sinner
a man may be, it is a good thing for him to pray for others, and
the mercy and compassion of God, I am sure, never turn away from
such a petition. But then, in such a case, it is mercy and
compassion which moves God to hear the prayer. In the case of a
good man praying for another, there is a sort of claim that he
should be heard. Not an absolute claim, by which he can demand
any thing for another, as of right, but a claim of fitness, a
claim as if between friend and friend, a claim on God's bounty
and generosity, which will not allow Him to turn a deaf ear to
one who is faithfully striving to serve Him. The passages of
inspiration which express this are very clear and very strong.
"_The continual prayer of a just man availeth much_."
[Footnote 135] There it is the prayer of a righteous man that has
this efficacy. And to this agree the words of our Lord: "_If ye
remain in me, and my words remain in you, ye shall ask whatever
ye will, and it shall be done unto you_." [Footnote 136] Could
words express more clearly that the power of intercessory prayer
is in direct proportion to the closeness of the union which we
maintain with God? And St. John reiterates the same principle
when he says: "_Whatsoever we shall ask we shall receive of
Him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that
are pleasing in His sight_." [Footnote 137]
[Footnote 135: St. James v. 15.]
[Footnote 136: John xv. 7.]
[Footnote 137: I. St. John iii. 22.]
God's dealings, as recorded in the Bible, are in exact accordance
with this rule. At the prayer of Abraham, God desisted from His
purpose of destroying Sodom, because Abraham was God's friend.
When the three friends of Job had displeased God by their wrong
judgments and unjust suspicions, God commanded them to go to
_His servant Job_, and he would pray for them, and
_him_ He would accept.
{395}
And in the prophet Ezechiel, when the Almighty would express, in
the strongest possible manner, the fact that His anger was
enkindled against a people and a city; that nothing, however
strong, should stay its effects, He says: "_And if these three
men, Noe, Daniel and Job, shall be in it, they shall deliver
their own souls only by their justice_." [Footnote 138]
[Footnote 138: Ezechiel xiv. 14.]
As if to say: "Notwithstanding the intercession and merit of
these great saints, even though they were all combined in favor
of that one city, they should not avail to make Me spare such
wickedness. What must be the wickedness that can force Me to
withstand the power of such an appeal?"
Here, then, we have two things clearly taught in Holy Scripture.
One is that intercessory prayer is an ordinance of God of great
power and utility. The other is, that the degree of power this
prayer has in any particular case depends on the merit of him who
offers it. Who, then, shall be the favored child of man, the
favored saint, who shall exercise this power in the fullest
degree? Of whom it can be said literally, "Whatever thou askest
of Me I will do it," because the condition of union with God is
perfectly fulfilled? Who shall this be whom Holy Scripture thus
clothes with this tremendous power, if it be not the Blessed
Virgin Mary? My brethren, our belief in the surpassing sanctity
of the Blessed Virgin is no fancy of later times. It goes back to
the very beginning of Christianity. St. Ambrose wrote her praises
as he had learned them from those who had received them from
apostolic men. Grave, austere men, as far as possible removed
from any thing like fancy religion or sentimentality, men who had
suffered for the name of Christ, and even faced death in its
defence, employed their art and care to coin words which might
express the virtue and purity and exceeding sanctity of the
Virgin Mary, as they had learned it from their forefathers.
{396}
And in the most ancient writings of the Church, in the Canon of
the Mass, when the priest recalls by name the glorious army of
Christian heroes who had gone before, always in the first place
she is mentioned, the all-glorious, undefiled, immaculate Mary,
Mother of God, and ever Virgin. This being so, is not her power
of intercession fixed beyond dispute? Does not Scripture itself
fashion out for her the glorious throne on which the Catholic
Church places her? Did any remain in Christ as she did? Did His
words ever so abide in any heart as in hers? Suppose a Christian
who lived in the times of the Apostles, before the Blessed Virgin
had gone to her rest, when she was just dying; suppose such a one
sorely tried and tempted within and without; suppose him anxious
about his salvation, distrustful of his own petitions, fearful of
the coming storms of persecution; and suppose him in this state
of mind to have read that passage of St. James, "The continual
prayer of a just man availeth much," what more natural than that
he should have said to himself, "I will go to ask the prayers of
the dear Mother of Christ. I will ask her to use her power and
influence with her Divine Son in behalf of a frail wanderer like
me." And when he came into her presence and knelt before her, and
kissed her hand and made his plea, and looked up to her and saw
that sweet grave smile, and heard her say, "Yes, my child, when I
stand in the presence of my Royal Son, and He holds out to me the
golden sceptre, and says to me, what wilt thou? what is thy
request? then I will remember thee!" Oh! how light his heart! Oh,
how strong his soul! what a charm against sadness! what a
fortress in temptation! Mary prays for me in heaven to Christ her
Son! And is there any thing in this joy and confidence which
reason or Christianity would condemn? If so, it must be either
that intercessory prayer is not the power the Scriptures say it
is, or that Mary is not the saint the Church considers her. Why,
even Protestants have gone as far as this.
{397}
Protestants who have made the primitive form of Christianity
their study and profess to accept it as their rule, as, for
example, High-Church Episcopalians, have distinctly acknowledged
in the seventeenth century, and in our own day, that the saints
in heaven do intercede for us, and that this was the primitive
doctrine of Christianity. Why, then, find fault with us for
invoking the saints, and say we ought only to ask God to hear
their prayers for us, as if invocation on our part were not the
correlative of intercession on theirs; as if it could be right to
ask a saint to pray for us the moment before he died, and wrong
the moment after; as if there could be any moral difference
before God between a direct and an indirect supplication for the
benefit of their prayers in heaven?
Such, my brethren, is our idea when we address the Blessed Virgin
for aid. It is not that we cannot go directly to God. It is not
that God is not the nearest to us, and at all times accessible.
It is not that, sinful as we are, we may not go with our miseries
into the very presence of the Almighty. It is not that prayer to
God is not the best of all prayers. It is not that we put the
Blessed Virgin in the place of God. O cruel charge! It is not
that we derogate from the merits of Christ. O strange
misconception! But it is this--we believe in intercessory prayer.
We believe that man may help his brother. We believe that
Christianity is a human and a social relation; we believe that
heaven is very near this earth--oh, how much nearer than ever we
believed! and that in Christ we are in communion with an
innumerable company of angels, and the Church of the First-born.
We believe that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God
over the good deeds done on earth, and that the litanies of the
saints ascend over one sinner and his deeds. And we believe that
this power of intercessory prayer culminates in the Blessed
Virgin. We believe that she is the "one undefiled," whose way has
been always in the law of the Lord. We believe that before the
foundations of the earth were laid, or ever the earth and the sea
were made, she was foreknown by the Almighty, spotless in purity,
matchless in virtue.
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We believe that she was the flower of humanity, the fairest type
of Christianity---and we believe, therefore, that God is as good
as His word, and whatever she asks of Him, He gives it to her.
This is the doctrine on which we found our devotion to the
Blessed Virgin. Take our strongest language. It means no more
than this: "Pray for me." You may amplify as you will, but from
the necessity of the case every thing we say comes to that. Put
prayer for the Blessed Virgin, suppose prayer personified in her,
and you have the key to the Catholic doctrine on this subject.
Strong things are said of the power of the Blessed Virgin, but so
are strong things said in Holy Scripture and by holy men of the
power of prayer. Whatever can be said of prayer, can be said of
her. Cease, then, to misunderstand us. Acknowledge that we are
but obeying Christ in praying to the Blessed Virgin. And if you
will still find fault, find fault, not with us, but with God, who
has instituted intercessory prayer and given such power to men.
And for you, my brethren, let these thoughts strengthen you in
your confidence in the powerful intercession of the Mother of
God. Our work is too severe, our difficulties are too great, for
us to neglect any help God has offered us. There are many
adversaries. The world, with all its seductions, passes in array
before us. Why should we shut our eyes to the hosts of heaven
that march unseen by our side? Why should we stay outside when we
are invited to the marriage supper, and Jesus and His disciples
are there, and Mary, pleader for heavy hearts, saying, "They have
no wine;" and at her prayer Jesus gives them that wine that
maketh glad the heart of man with the abundance of His grace and
love? I have been glad to see you these bright May mornings
around the altar. Persevere more and more. Your labor of love is
not in vain. God's words cannot fail. His gifts are without
repentance. Mary's power of intercession is as fresh this day as
it was when her prayer made the miraculous wine to gush forth at
the wedding feast; and until some one shall arise more blessed,
more holy, nearer to Christ than she, it will remain as it is
now, the highest and the most efficacious of all forms of prayer
in heaven or on earth.
-----------------------------
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Sermon XIX.
Mysteries In Religion
(Trinity Sunday.)
"Oh, the depths of the riches
of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How incomprehensible are His judgments,
and how unsearchable are His ways!"
--Rom. XI. 33.