substantially the same with ours, is the fact that the same
expressions are used to describe her glory and ours. Sometimes
those who are not Catholics, when they hear what high words we
use of the Blessed Virgin, are scandalized; but we use almost no
words of the Blessed Virgin that may not, in their measure, be
applied to other saints. It is true that the Blessed Virgin has
some gifts and graces in which she stands alone--as her character
of Mother of God, and her Immaculate Conception--but, as I said
before, these are dignities and ornaments conferred on her, and
are not the source of her essential happiness in heaven. In other
respects, her glory is shared by all the saints. Thus, Mary is
called "Queen of Heaven;" but are not all the blessed called in
Holy Scripture, "_kings and priests unto God?_" [Footnote 203]
Is she said to sit at the "King's right hand?" and are not
we too promised a place at his right hand, and to "_sit on
thrones?_" [Footnote 204] Is she called the "Morning Star?"
and does not St. Paul, speaking of all the saints, say, "_star
differeth from star in glory?_" [Footnote 205] Is she called a
"Mediatrix of Prayer" and is it not said of every just man, that
his "_continual prayer availeth much?_" [Footnote 206] Is
she called the "Spouse of God?" and does not the Almighty,
addressing every faithful soul, say, "_My love, my dove, my
undefiled?_" [Footnote 207] Is she called the "Daughter of the
Most High?" and are not we too called the "_Sons of God?_"
[Footnote 208]
[Footnote 203: Apoc. i. 6.]
[Footnote 204: Apoc. iii. 21.]
[Footnote 205: I Cor. xv. 41.]
[Footnote 206: St. James v. 16.]
[Footnote 207: Can. v. 2.]
[Footnote 208: I St. John iii. 2.]
The glory of the Blessed Virgin, then, differs from that of the
other saints in degree, but not in kind. She is not separated
from them, but is one of them. She goes before them. She is the
most perfect of them. But she is one of them. And for this
reason, the glory of the Blessed Virgin gives us the best
conception of the magnificence of our destiny. When a botanist
wishes to describe a flower, he selects the most perfect
specimen.
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When an anatomist draws a model of the human frame, he makes it
faultless. So we, to gain the truest idea of our destiny, must
lift up our eyes to the Blessed Virgin on her heavenly throne,
and say: "Oh! my soul, see for what thou art created." Think of
this, my brethren, as often as you kneel before her image, or
meditate on her greatness. You cannot be what she is, but you can
be like her. She is a creature like you. She is a human being
like you. She is a Christian like you. And her joy, her beauty,
her glory, her wealth, her knowledge, her power--nay, even the
mighty efficacy of her intercession--are only what, in their
measure, God offers to you. "_Glory, honor, and peace to EVERY
ONE that worketh good; for there is no respect of persons with
God_." [Footnote 209]
[Footnote 209: Rom. ii. 10.]
If these things be so, what greatness it gives to human life.
Perhaps, if you had lived in the times of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, you would never have noticed her; or if you had known her
by sight, what would she have seemed to you but a good little
Jewish girl, lowly and retiring in her manners and appearance?
or, later in life, a poor young woman thrust away, with her
husband, from a crowded inn, or fleeing by night with an infant
child or, still later, the mother of a condemned malefactor,
watching his sufferings in the crowd. Herod did not know her, and
the nobles of Jerusalem were ignorant of her. She was not one of
the friends of the queen's dancing daughters. Even the rustics of
the village of Bethlehem looked down on her. She carried no
servants about with her, and had no palace to live in. But Faith
tells us of angel visits, of union with God, of heavenly
goodness, and an immortal crown. So, in like manner, how our life
becomes grand and dignified when it is lighted up by faith! You
know there are porcelain pictures, which in the hand are rough
and unmeaning, but held up to the light reveal the most beautiful
scenes and figures; so our common, ordinary life, rough and
unmeaning as it often seems, when enlightened by faith becomes
all divine.
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There is a little girl who learns her lessons and obeys her
parents, and tells the truth, and shuns every thing that is
wicked; why, as that little girl kneels down to pray, I see a
bright angel drawing near to her, and he smiles on her and says:
"_Hail! Blessed art thou: the Lord is with thee_." That
young man who, by a sincere conversion, has thrown off the
slavery of sin, and regained once more the grace of God--"what is
his heart but another cave of Bethlehem, in which Christ is born,
and around which angels sing: "_Glory to God in the highest, on
earth, peace to men of good will_." That Christian family,
where daily prayers are offered, and instruction and good example
are given, and mutual fidelity is observed between the
members--what is it but the Holy House of Nazareth?--the Home of
Jesus? Yes, good Christian, do not be cast down because you are
poor, or because you suffer, or because your opportunities of
doing good are limited; live the life of a Christian, and you are
living Mary's life on earth. We have not, indeed, Mary's perfect
sinlessness, but we have the graces of baptism, by which we may
vanquish sin. We have not, as she had, the visible presence of
our Lord, but we have Him invisibly in our hearts, and
sacramentally in the Holy Communion. We are not "full of grace,"
as she was, but we have grace without limit promised to us in
answer to prayer. Let us assert the privileges of our
birth-right. We belong to the new creation. Angels claim kindred
with us. God is our Father. Heaven is our home. We are the
children of the saints--yes, of her who is the greatest of the
saints. Let us follow her footsteps, that one day we may come to
our Assumption, the glory of which surpassed even the power of
St. John to utter. "_Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of
God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that
when He shall appear we shall be like Him, because we shall see
Him as He is_." [Footnote 210]
[Footnote 210: St. John iii. 2.]
{464}
Every thing depends an our co-operating with grace. How did the
Blessed Virgin arrive at such glory? By corresponding to every
grace. See her at her Annunciation. The angel comes and tells her
of the grace God has prepared for her. If she had not believed,
if she had not assented, what would have come of it? Why, she
would have lost for all eternity the glory attached to that
grace. But she did not refuse. She was ready for the grace when
it was offered. She said: "_Fiat_," "_Be it done to me
according to thy word_." Oh, how much hung on that
_Fiat!_ an eternal glory in heaven. So it is with us. There
are moments in our lives big with the issues of our future. God's
purposes concerning the soul have a certain order. He gives one
grace; if we correspond to that He gives another; if we do not
correspond, we lose those that depended on it; sometimes, even,
we lose our salvation altogether. This is the key of your
destiny--fidelity to grace. You have an inspiration from God: He
speaks to your soul. Oh, listen to Him, and obey Him! To one He
says: "Abandon, O sinner, your evil life, and turn to Me with all
your heart." "_Now is the accepted time, now is the day of
salvation!_" To another, who is already in His grace, He sends
inspirations to a more perfect life, a life of higher prayer and
more uninterrupted recollection. Another, by the sweet
attractions of His grace, He draws away from home and kindred to
serve Him as a Sister of Charity by the bed of suffering; or as a
nun, to live with Him in stillness and contemplation; or as a
priest, to win souls for heaven. Oh, speak the word that Mary
spoke: "_Be it done to me according to thy word_." Are you
in sin? Convert without delay. Are you leading a tepid, imperfect
life? Gird your loins to watchfulness and prayer.
{465}
Do you feel in yourselves a vocation to a religious or sacerdotal
life? Rise up and obey without delay. Tomorrow may be too late.
The grace may be forfeited forever. Why stand we all the day
idle? Heaven is filling up. Each generation sends a new company
to the heavenly host. Time is going. The great business of life
remains unaccomplished. By our baptism we have been made children
of God and heirs of heaven. Labor we, therefore, to enter into
that rest. Mary, dear Mother, lift up thy voice for us in heaven,
that we, following thy footsteps, may one day share thy glory,
and with thee praise forever God the Father. Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
-----------------------------------
Sermon XXVI.
Care For The Dead.
(Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost.)
"And when He came nigh to the gate of the city,
behold a dead man was carried out."
--St. Luke VII. 12.
It is not at the gate of Naim only that such a procession might
be met. From every city "dead men are carried out to the
grave"--nay, from every house. Death knocks alike at the palace
and the cabin. It is only a question of time with him. Sooner or
later he comes to all. Yes, my brethren, a day will come to each
home in this parish when a piece of black crape at the door will
tell the world that death has been there. Within there will be
stillness and sadness, and in some darkened chamber, wrapt in a
winding sheet, will lie the cold and lifeless form of some
beloved member of your family--a father or mother; a wife or
husband; a brother or sister; a son or daughter. After a little
while even that will be taken away from you.
{466}
The time of the funeral will come. The mourners will go about the
streets, and the dead will be buried out of your sight. I do not
speak of this to make you sad. On the contrary, what I am going
to say will, I know, be a source, the only real source, of
comfort to you in the loss of your friends. I wish to remind you
of your duties to the dead. Christianity does not permit us to
bid farewell forever to our departed friends. Death, it tells us,
does not sever the bond of duty and love between us and them. We
still have duties toward them, and in the performance of those
duties, while we are doing good to the dead, we are procuring for
ourselves the best solace. What are those duties?
First: To give back the dead resignedly to God. It is not wrong
to weep for the dead. It is not wrong, for we cannot help it. It
is as impossible not to feel pain at such a separation as it
would be not to suffer when the surgeon's knife is cutting off an
arm or a leg; and, what nature demands, God does not forbid.
Therefore the Holy Scripture says: "_My son, shed tears over
the dead; and begin to lament as if thou hadst suffered some
great harm_." [Footnote 211]
[Footnote 211: Eccles. xxxviii. 16.]
Do you think that poor widow of whom the Gospel speaks to-day
could help weeping? She had known sorrow before, but then she had
one support, a dear and only son. He was a good lad. Every body
knew and loved him. But now he too is gone. It is strange that he
should go and she be left behind, but so it is: there lies his
body on the bier, and she is following him to the grave. See her
as she goes along in her coarse black dress, bent with age and
sorrow. Can you blame her for weeping, as she looks, for the last
time, on that dear form? At least, Jesus did not blame her. He
looked at her, and He sorrowed with her. He was moved with
compassion.
{467}
It is not wrong, then, to weep for the dead, but we must moderate
our grief, banish every rebellious thought from our heart, and
mingle resignation with our sorrow. The Office which the Church
sings over the dead is made up in great part of joyful psalms and
anthems. After this pattern ought to be the sorrow of a Christian
family, a sorrow that is not violent and noisy, a sorrow that
does not pass the bounds of decency, a sorrow, I may say, mingled
with joy. How different it is in some families! You come near a
house and you hear shrieks the most appalling. You go in and find
a woman abandoning herself to the most noisy and violent grief.
Her language is little short of blasphemy. She refuses any
comfort. She is weeping over a dead husband. Perhaps in life she
loved him none too well. Perhaps she made his life bitter enough
to him, and often prayed that some harm might happen to him, and
that she might see him dead. And now she does see him dead. She
will never curse him again, and he will never anger her again. He
is dead; and now she breaks out into the most frantic grief, and
alarms the neighborhood. She cries; she calls upon God; she
throws herself on the corpse. At the funeral her conduct is still
more wild and disordered. Now, what is all this? I will not say
it is hypocritical, but I say it is brutish. It is not to act as
a reasonable being, much less as a Christian. This is the way
with some women. The only time they ever show any love to their
husbands is when they are dead. Let them be: such grief will not
last long. Wait awhile; before her husband's body has well got
cold in the ground she will be looking around for another match.
Do not imitate such unchristian conduct. When Death enters your
house, do not forget that you are a Christian. Do not
_indulge_ your grief. Call to your aid the principles of
your faith. You are sad and lonely. Well, is it not better to
feel that this life is a state of exile? You have lost your
protector. And has not God promised to protect the orphan? You
have lost such a _good_ friend, such a bright example.
{468}
Well, ought you not, then, to rejoice at his safe departure? The
early Christians used to carry flowers to the grave, and sing
hymns of joy because the toils of a Christian warrior were ended,
and he had entered into rest. Hear what the Church sings:
"_Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord_." Will you weep
because one you love is taken away from sin, from temptation,
from the trouble to come? Will you grieve because he has secured
for himself the Blissful and Eternal Vision of God? But you have
no confidence that he _was_ good, that he did die in the
grace of God. Suppose you are uncertain on that point, is there
any thing better than to go with your doubts and fears before the
Holy God, and while you offer to Him your trembling prayers for
the departed, to adore His Providence and say: "The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the Name of the Lord."
[Footnote 212]
[Footnote 212: Job i. 27.]
Dry up your tears, then, O bereaved Christian. "Make mourning for
the dead for a day or two," [Footnote 213] says the Holy
Scripture. That is, do not abandon yourself to grief. Do not
think, because your friend is gone, that God is gone, and Christ
is gone, and duty gone. Do not call on others more than is
necessary. Resume your ordinary duties as soon as possible--and
in these duties you will find the relief which God Himself has
provided for our sadness, and His Grace will accompany you in the
performance of them.
[Footnote 213: Ecc. xxxviii. 18.]
Another duty to the dead is to perform scrupulously, as far as
possible, their last directions. When the patriarch Jacob was
dying, he called his son Joseph to his side, and said to him:
"_Thou shalt show me this kindness and truth, not to bury me in
Egypt, but I will sleep with my fathers, and thou shalt take me
away out of this land, and bury me in the burying-place of my
ancestors_." [Footnote 214]
[Footnote 214: Gen. xlvii. 30.]
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It was not of itself a very important request; it was, moreover,
an inconvenient one. Yet see how promptly and carefully it was
complied with. As soon as the days of mourning for Jacob were
ended, Joseph went to Pharao and said: "_My father made me
swear to him, saying, Thou shalt bury me in my sepulchre which I
have digged for myself in the land of Canaan. So I will go and
bury my father and return. And Pharao said to him, Go up and bury
thy father. And they buried him in the land of Canaan, in the
double cave which Abraham bought for a burying-place_."
[Footnote 215]
[Footnote 215: Gen. 1, 4, 5, 13.]
Would that the same piety were always seen among us! A mother
dies: the last wishes that she expresses to her children are that
they should be true to their holy faith and earnest in seeking
the salvation of their souls, and she sends a message to an
absent son, which will not reach him in his distant home till
long after she is gone, begging him to be faithful and regular in
his duties as a Christian. A father dies, and tells his son of a
debt, strictly due in justice, but of which there is no record,
and where he will find the money to pay it. A poor girl dies, and
confides to some one, whom she thinks her friend, the little
earnings of her hard labor, asking that it may be sent to her old
mother in Ireland. Are these wishes executed? Are these children
faithful Catholics? Is that boy, the object of a mother's dying
tears and prayers, regular at the sacraments? Has that debt been
paid? Did the sad news of the daughter's death go out to the poor
mother in the old country, softened with the evidence of that
daughter's piety and love? or was the money retained and
squandered? What! are you not afraid to add to the sin of
irreligion and injustice the crime of breaking faith with the
dead? Hear what God says in the Holy Scripture: "_The voice of
thy brother's blood crieth to Me from the earth_." [Footnote 216]
[Footnote 216: Gen. iv. 10.]
{470}
The dead have got a voice, then--a voice that cries to God, that
cries for vengeance against those who injure them. Pay, then, thy
debts to the dead. Redeem the promise thou hast made to the
dying. Fulfil thy duties as an executor or administrator with
fidelity and justice. Be exact. It is a dead man thou art dealing
with. Do not say, he is dead and cannot speak. Hear what the Law
of God saith: "_Thou shalt not speak evil of the deaf, nor put
a stumbling block before the blind: but thou shalt fear the Lord
thy God, because I am the Lord_." [Footnote 217] Do you
understand? God hears for those who cannot hear, He speaks for
those who cannot speak; and if thou makest the dead thy enemy,
thou hast the Living and Eternal God for a Foe.
[Footnote 217: Levit. xix. 14.]
Another part of our duty to the dead is to treat their bodies
with respect, and to give them decent burial. We do this for two
reasons: for what they have been, and what they are to be. Their
bodies have been the casket which held their souls, and we love
their bodies for what their souls have been to God and to us. We
love the eye that looked upon us with affection, the mouth that
spoke to us words of truth and kindness, we love the ear that
listened to our sorrows, and the hand that soothed and blessed
us. We love that body which was the soul's instrument here in her
works of piety and Christian charity. And we love that body for
what it shall be. We see it as it will be when it springs from
the grave on the morning of the Resurrection, sparkling with
light, beautiful and immortal. And this is why we follow the dead
to the grave. We go with them as we go part of the way home with
a cherished guest. We go with them in token that the love that
united us is not severed by death, but that we are still joined
to them in hope and charity. Oh yes, it is right. Let the body be
laid out decently; the limbs composed; the eyes closed for their
long sleep. And when the time of burial comes, let all the
ceremonies of the Holy Church lend their aid.
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Walk slow; let the priest in surplice and stole go before; light
the candles and hold the cross aloft; sing the sweet and solemn
chant; carry the body to the church and lay it before the Altar
of God; bring incense and holy water, and let there be High Mass
for the repose of the soul. Fitting ceremonies! "Beautiful and
touching rites! chosen with a heavenly still to comfort the
mourner and to honor the dead. But alas! alas! how do we see this
duty to the dead sometimes fulfilled! A Catholic is dead. It is
true there are candles and holy water, but where are the pious
prayers? The neighbors are gathered together, but it is not to
pray. The glasses and the pipes speak of a different kind of
meeting. Yes, they have come there, there to that chamber, the
Court of Death and the Threshold of Eternity, to hold a drunken
wake. The night wears on with stories, sometimes even obscene and
filthy, and as liquor does its work, curses and blasphemies
mingle with the noisy, senseless cries and yells of drunken men.
Are these orgies meant to insult the dead? Do these revellers
wish to make us believe that their departed friend was, body and
soul, the child of Hell as much as they? So the wake is kept, and
now for the funeral. The man died early in the week, but of
course he must be buried on Sunday. Sunday is the worst day of
the week for a funeral, because it is the day appointed for the
public worship of God, and it is wrong to draw men away from the
church on that day without necessity, yet a funeral must by all
means be on a Sunday. And why? Because a greater crowd can be got
together on that day, and the object is to have a crowd, and to
make people say, such a one had a _decent funeral_. The
family are poor, nevertheless a large number of carriages are
hired, and filled with a set of people who regard the whole thing
as a picnic or excursion. Some of them have already "taken a
drop," and so little sense of religion have they left, that
sometimes at the grave itself, sometimes in returning from it,
they raise brawls and riots that bring disgrace and contempt at
once on the man they have buried and the faith they profess.
{472}
Do you call this a decent funeral?" I say it is a sin. A sin of
pride and ostentation. A sin of scandal and excess. A sin of
robbery and cruelty--of robbery and cruelty toward the poor
children from whose hungry mouths and naked backs are taken the
extravagant expenses of this ambitious display. How much better
to have a small funeral! a funeral remarkable for nothing but its
modesty and simplicity, to which only the few are called who knew
the dead and loved him, who follow him to his long home with
serious thoughts, like thinking men and Christians, remembering
that before long they must go with him into the grave and lie
down beside him, and who return home to remember his soul before
God as often as they kneel down to pray.
And this brings me, in the last place, to speak of the duty of
praying for the dead. It is a most consoling privilege of our
holy faith. Death indeed fixes our eternal condition irrevocably.
"_If the tree fall to the south or to the north, in what place
soever it shall fall, there shall it be_." [Footnote 218]
[Footnote 218: Eccles. xi. 3.]
But the good do not always enter heaven immediately. If the sharp
process by which God purifies His children on earth has not
wrought its full effect, it must be carried on for a while longer
in that hidden receptacle in which faithful souls await their
summons to the presence of God. And during this period our
prayers in their behalf are of great avail. No part of our
religion has more undeniable proofs of its antiquity. As far back
as the fourth century of the Christian era, St. Cyril testifies
that it was the custom "to pray for those who had departed this
life, believing it to be a great assistance to those souls for
whom prayers are offered while the Holy and Tremendous Sacrifice
is going on." [Footnote 219]
[Footnote 219: St. Cyril, Cat., lect. v., n. 9.]
{473}
The tombstones of the early Christians attest the same practice,
and St. Augustine, speaking not as a doctor, but recording a
chapter of his own history, lets us into the innermost feelings
of the Church of his day on this subject. In his Confessions he
tells us that his mother St. Monica, shortly before her death,
looked at him and said: "Lay this body anywhere, be not concerned
about that, only I beg of you, that wheresoever you be, you make
remembrance of me at the Lord's Altar." And the saint goes on to
tell how he fulfilled this request, how after her death the
"Sacrifice of our Ransom" was offered for her, and how fervently
he continued to pray for her. But his own words are best: "Though
my mother lived in such a manner that Thy Name is much praised in
her faith and manners, yet * * * I entreat Thee, O God of my
heart, for her sins. Hear me, I beseech Thee, through that cure
of our wounds that hung upon the Tree, and that sitting now at
Thy Right Hand maketh intercession for us. I know that she did
mercifully, and from her heart forgave to her debtors their
trespasses; do Thou likewise forgive to her her debts, if she
hath also contracted any in those many years she lived after the
saving water. Forgive them, O Lord, forgive them. * * * Let no
one separate her from Thy protection. Let not the lion and the
dragon either by force or fraud interpose himself. Let her rest
in peace, together with her husband; and do Thou inspire Thy
servants that as many as shall read this may remember at Thy
Altar Thy handmaid Monica, with Patricius her husband."
[Footnote 220]
[Footnote 220: St. Augustine's, Confessions, book ix., c.
13.]