man; or, to put the matter in a practical shape, it is your heart
and mine. There are many people in this world to whom very little
of it has come, at least compared with what we have had; but we
cannot complain that we have not had our share. The word of God
spoken by the mouth of man, in sermons, instructions, counsels,
and warnings, from the altar and in the confessional, and not
only from the priests but also from others who have been the
ministers of God and the channels of his grace to us--it is
certainly no strange or new sound in our ears. And not only in
this way have we continually heard God's voice, but often,
perhaps even more frequently, have we heard it coming immediately
from him, and speaking in our own souls.
{138}
Plenty of this seed has, then, been sown in us; but where is the
fruit, the harvest that should have come from it? Seed is not put
in the ground merely to be kept there. No, it cannot be kept
there; if it is not destroyed or carried away it must grow and
multiply.
The seed of God's word should, therefore, have grown in us. It
should have been the beginning and the increase in us of the
spiritual life, which should have grown stronger in us day by day
from the time when we first came to the use of reason until the
present moment.
Now, how is it in fact? As we look back on our lives, do we find
that this has actually been fulfilled in them? Are we better,
more perfect, nearer to God now than we were last year, or even
ten years ago? Is it not rather to be feared that we have fallen
back; that we are more careless, perhaps, even about mortal sin,
than we were in times past; or, to say the least, that habits of
venial sin have gained on us, instead of being overcome; that our
prayers are less fervent, our reception of the sacraments less
frequent, our love of God weaker than in the years which have
gone by?
Holy Scripture tells us that the "path of the just, as a shining
light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day." "The
just"--that is, those who are habitually in God's grace, who have
and keep the life of God in their souls.
{139}
The Christian virtues, the seeds of which were put in our souls
at baptism, should have been growing during all our lives; they
should have become strong trees now, deeply rooted and spreading
far and wide. Even if they were killed at any time by the frost
of mortal sin, they should have been speedily brought to life and
renewed their growth before they had decayed and rotted away.
Brethren, I need not ask you if this has been so with you. With
some, no doubt, it has. They may not feel that they have drawn
nearer to God, but really they have. Temptation does not find the
material in them to work on that it did; to avoid evil and to do
good is every day easier and easier; they have still cause to
fear, it is true, but still more and more ground to hope.
But, alas! how many there are in whom there is no sign of this
growth which should have come from the seed which has been sown
in them! Their light has not increased; no, it is almost always
extinguished; when it does seem to shine it is but to flicker for
a moment, and to disappear. The seed is no sooner sown in them
than it is trampled under foot or carried away by the birds of
the air.
Brethren, if the life of grace is not growing in our souls; if we
are not falling less frequently, and rising more easily from our
falls, than before, our path is not that of the just, and the
seed of the word of God has not yet taken that root which will
make it bring forth a hundredfold.
-------------------
{140}
Sermon XL.
The Uses Of Temptation.
_My grace is sufficient for thee;
for power is made perfect in infirmity._
--2 Corinthians xii. 9.
To all who are striving to lead a good Christian life the example
of the saints is a powerful means of encouragement, and the more
so when we see in the saints themselves the evidences of our
common human nature, when we see them encountering the same
difficulties and struggling with the same temptations which we
ourselves experience. Their great deeds and miracles exalt them
to a sphere far above us, and, while they fill us with
admiration, would yet have a tendency to discourage us were it
not for those other passages in their lives when they seem to be
brought down to our own level by contact with those evil
influences which are ever seeking to sway our fallen nature. The
fact that the saints have had to engage in conflict with the
basest passions is so far from lowering them in our eyes that it
only serves to make them dearer to us and to stimulate us to a
more faithful imitation of them.
And so St. Paul's account of himself in the Epistle of to-day has
been a ground of encouragement to many a soul that had grown
weary of an incessant warfare with temptation. The Apostle tells
us that, in spite of the wondrous revelations and heavenly favors
which he had received from God, he was yet tormented with
temptations of the flesh. "And lest the greatness of the
revelations should puff me up, there was given me a sting of my
flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me.
{141}
For which thing I thrice besought the Lord, that it might depart
from me; he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for
power is made perfect in infirmity." To every soul struggling
with temptation God speaks these same words of comfort. "What if
you are weak and the temptation is strong? My grace is sufficient
for you. My power shall be shown forth through your weakness, for
what you could never do of your own strength I can and will do
for you with my grace."
Many are the lessons we can learn from this text. When we see the
great Apostle of the Gentiles engaged in a hard conflict with the
demon of impurity, it shows us that God does not spare in this
respect even his most chosen servants. On the contrary, by
refusing to grant the prayer of St. Paul that he might be
delivered from this sting of the flesh, God teaches us that
temptation is often a special mark of his favor, even as a
general would place his best and bravest soldiers in the thickest
of the fight. We are also taught that, no matter how vile the
suggestions of the evil one, they cannot soil the heart of him
who resists them. If, as soon as the sinfulness of the foul
thought or imagination is realized, resistance be at once begun,
and kept up until the suggestion is banished, we may be sure we
have not yielded, especially if we have had recourse to prayer.
From the shield of prayer the arrows of the tempter are sure to
glance and fall harmlessly to the ground.
But, on the other hand, these temptations teach us what we are in
ourselves, or rather what we should be without the aid of God's
grace. St. Paul tells us that God permitted those buffetings of
Satan to preserve in him the virtue of humility, "lest the
greatness of the revelations should puff me up."
{142}
The evil imaginations arising in our minds show us to what a
depth we should sink were God to withdraw his grace from us and
leave us to ourselves. We should, therefore, make of such
temptations an occasion of humility, acknowledging our own
worthlessness, our own weakness, yet glorying, as St. Paul did,
in the power of God's grace, which is able to make us strong, and
endow us with supernatural merit. And here lies the greatest
value and use of temptations--God's power is made perfect in our
infirmity. A crown of merit is the reward of victory in the
fight. Without the temptation we should not have had the merit of
overcoming it. In the hour of trial, then, take courage from
these words of God to St. Paul: "My grace is sufficient for thee,
for power is made perfect in infirmity."
-------------------
{143}
_Quinquagesima Sunday. _
Epistle.
1 _Corinthians xiii._ 1-13.
Brethren:
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
charity. I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And if I should have prophecy, and should know all mysteries,
and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I
could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And
if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I
should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it
profiteth me nothing. Charity is patient, is kind: charity
envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not
ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger,
thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with
the truth: beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all
things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: whether
prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or
knowledge shall be destroyed. For we know in part, and we
prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect shall come,
that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child. I
spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a
child. But when I became a man, I put away the things of a
child. We see now through a glass in an obscure manner: but
then face to face. Now I know in part: but then I shall know
even as I am known. And now there remain faith, hope, and
charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.
{144}
Gospel.
_St. Luke xviii._ 31-43.
At that time:
Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said to them: Behold we go
up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which
were written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man. For he
shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and
scourged, and spit upon: and after they have scourged him, they
will put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again.
And they understood none of these things, and this word was hid
from them, and they understood not the things that were said.
Now it came to pass that when he drew nigh to Jericho, a
certain blind man sat by the wayside, begging. And when he
heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And
they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he
cried out, saying: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And
they that went before, rebuked him, that he should hold his
peace. But he cried out much more: Son of David, have mercy on
me. And Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought to him. And
when he was come near, he asked him, saying: What wilt thou
that I do to thee? But he said: Lord that I may see. And Jesus
said to him: Receive thy sight: thy faith hath made thee whole.
And immediately he saw, and followed him, glorifying God. And
all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
-------------------
Sermon XLI.
The Qualities Of Christian Charity.
What a beautiful description it is, my dear brethren, which St.
Paul gives us of the virtue of charity in the Epistle of to-day!
If you have never read it or do not remember it, I would advise
you to read it at once; and, indeed, nothing could be better than
to commit it to memory.
{145}
Let us look just now at a part of it. "Charity," says the
Apostle, "is patient, is kind; charity envieth not; dealeth not
perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious; seeketh not her
own; is not provoked to anger; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
Now, I say this is very beautiful, is it not? And perhaps it
seems all the more beautiful because the picture which it gives
us is not a very familiar one. I know we are apt to think about
as well of ourselves as of almost any one of our acquaintance;
but can we say to ourselves, on reading or hearing this
description of charity, "That's me; that's just my character to a
hair"? No; somehow or other, though we would like to put on the
coat, it does not seem to fit.
"Charity is patient, is kind." That is rather out of the way, to
begin with, when we think how impatient and cross we are if
anything goes wrong, if anybody stands in our way or interferes
with us, or even ventures to differ from us in opinion.
"Charity envieth not." Worse yet. Why, some people cannot even
see their neighbor have a new dress or hat without at once making
up their minds to take the shine out of that conceited thing. And
if they hear it said that Miss So-and-So is good-looking they
will take some opportunity to remark: "For the life of me, I
can't make out what any one sees to admire in her."
{146}
Probably they might manage to see it if they would make a great
effort; but how can they make the effort when no one seems to
have any eye for their own good points, which ought to be so
evident to all? And it is not the ladies only who have this
weakness. You will hear something like this: "Oh! I consider him
to be a much overrated man. I knew him when he was young, and he
was nothing above the common. But some people certainly have
luck." Or, if you do not hear it out loud, the grumbling is there
all the same in the heart. Perhaps some praise has to be given,
but it is very sparing; given with great appearance of careful
judgment and a desire to keep closely to the truth.
"Charity dealeth not perversely." How is this? Why, you will find
Christians who would, as the saying goes, "cut off their nose to
spite their face." They will even suffer themselves, if some one
else can only be made to suffer too.
But I shall not have time to make all the applications. As I
said, you had better read the Epistle, then you can make them for
yourselves.
I wish, however, to call your attention before closing to one
unpleasant circumstance. Is this charity, which St. Paul so
highly praises and so beautifully describes, a sort of fancy and
ornamental virtue, which is certainly very commendable, but which
we can get along well enough without? Listen to a few other words
which come a little before those I have read: "If I should have
prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I
should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have
not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my
goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be
burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." Notice,
he does not say, "I am not much, or these things are not much
good, without charity": no, without it "I am nothing"; a cipher,
and a sham. Take this home and meditate on it.
{147}
Sermon XLII.
Delay Of Repentance.
_Be not deceived, God is not mocked;
for what things a man shall sow,
those also shall he reap._
--Galatians vi. 7, 8.
"Never mind, I will repent some day and confess it all to the
priest; then it will be as if it never happened." Sometimes, my
dear brethren, when men have made up their minds to commit sin,
or to go on in a course of sin, they are tempted to say some such
words as these; or if they are not fallen so low as to
_talk_ in this way, yet, if we may form a judgment of their
thoughts by their actions, such are the thoughts of not a few. I
propose, therefore, to say a few words this morning on the great
folly of this way of speaking, thinking, and acting, and to show
you what a false notion it rests upon.
I will not stop to point out how uncertain that really is which
is assumed as perfectly certain--namely, that an opportunity of
going to confession will be granted to every one who acts in this
way. A man who sins can never be sure that he will not be cut off
in his sin. But I will take it for granted that the opportunity
of making a confession is given; more than that, I will take it
for granted that he makes a good confession and receives
absolution as he promised himself. In such a case as this is it
true that even then all will be just as if the sin had never been
committed?
{148}
My dear brethren, to imagine this to be the case would be indeed
a very great mistake. In order that you may see this I must
recall to your recollection some well-known truths. In the
beginning, God, having made man, placed him in a state of great
happiness. He was without pain, sickness, anxiety, or death. How
is it, then, that man finds himself in his actual condition? Why
is it that man is subjected to so many hardships and miseries,
obliged to toil for his daily bread, and, in the end, through
anguish and suffering, give up that life which it has cost so
much labor to preserve? Think, my dear brethren, of all the pains
of mind and body which you have ever experienced, or which you
have seen others experience; think of all the sufferings of which
you have ever read, and ask yourselves the reason for all this
vast mass of agony and anguish. That reason is given in one word.
Of all the suffering that has ever been and that ever will be,
sin is the cause. Directly or indirectly, mediately or
immediately, every suffering finds in sin its origin.
Now, I do not say that when we come to particular cases we can
always point out precisely how and why _this_ suffering is
connected with _that_ sin. God in his providence permits
suffering to attend upon sin for many different reasons.
Sometimes it is permitted as a warning not to sin in order that
men of sense and understanding, seeing what sin costs, may avoid
it. Sometimes suffering in this world is, I am afraid we must
say, but a foretaste of eternal suffering in the next.
{149}
In some cases sufferings are sent to make us more like our Lord.
But--and this is the special point I wish you to
notice--suffering is very frequently sent by Almighty God as a
punishment in this life for those sins the eternal punishment of
which he has forgiven. This brings me back to the special point
of this instruction. A man may go to confession, may even make a
good confession and receive a good absolution--that is to say, he
may receive through the merits of Christ the remission of the
eternal punishment due to his sins, and yet things may be very
far from being, as he promised himself, just as they were before.
On the contrary, he may have a vast amount of punishment to
undergo in time in consequence of that sin, which he would not
have had if he had not committed that sin. This thought is very
suitable for this season. Lent will begin next Wednesday. Its
fasting and abstinence are enjoined by the church, among other
reasons as a means of satisfying for the temporal punishment due
to past sins. But, in order that this fasting and abstinence may
be useful for this purpose, those who fast and abstain must be in
the state of grace, because all their value as works of
satisfaction is due to the indwelling grace of God. In order,
then, that your fasting and abstinence may be profitable to your
own souls, let me advise you to act like our wise forefathers
acted, to come to confession at once in the beginning of Lent,
and not to put it off with your Easter duty to the last moment.
{150}
Sermon XLIII.
Lenten Obligations.
Next Wednesday, my brethren, we enter, as of course you know, on
the great and holy season of Lent. On that day, no doubt, as many
of you as can will come to the church and receive on your
foreheads the ashes which remind us of the penance to which these
coming weeks are specially devoted.
The church is generally full on Ash-Wednesday, and one would
think, on seeing the crowds pressing forward to receive the
ashes, that they were all determined to enter into the spirit of
the church, and to keep Lent as it should be kept. Yet how many
there are who go through this outward form, and make a great deal
of it, and yet neglect all that is signified by it; who give a
show indeed of penance, but bring forth none of its fruits! Some,
perhaps, of the Ash-Wednesday penitents will not be seen again in
the church till they come forward again on Good Friday to kiss
the cross.
Yet it is better to come to church, if only on Ash-Wednesday and
Good Friday, than not at all; better to do some penance and show
some love of God than to neglect these virtues altogether. But
how much better still it would be to now thoroughly understand
and seriously take to heart what God requires of us, especially
in this holy time, and to make it the means, as it may be more
than anything else, of our final salvation!
{151}
First, then, to thoroughly understand what we are now to do.
Everything must be well understood before it can be well done,
and the keeping of Lent is no exception to this general rule.
Many people break the rules of Lent because they do not clearly
understand them.
Lent, then, my brethren, is not a time to be spent in penance
altogether according to one's own devotion. Far from it; the
duties to be performed in it are clearly and precisely laid down,
and should be attended to very strictly. They are not many; they
make no great demand on our time or strength; but the Christian
who discharges them properly will make his Lent far better than
one would who should neglect them and take any other practices,
no matter how hard, in their place. It is better to keep the real
rules or laws of Lent faithfully than to hear three Masses every
day, and come to all the extra services, and give half one's
goods to the poor, and yet neglect our regular duties.
What, then, are these laws? The first is the Easter duty, which
should be made before Easter, if possible, though the church
indulgently extends the time several weeks after that festival.
Make, then, this great duty, far the greatest of all the duties
of a Christian, at once; it will be very easy for all of you who
have just made the mission to do it now, and the longer you put
it off the harder it will be. Make it, then, if possible, the
first day it can be made--that is, next Sunday--and get it, if I
may say so, off your mind. Do not fancy that, as you have so
lately made the mission, the Easter duty is of little
consequence. If you had made twenty missions during the past
year, and any number of jubilees, the law of the Easter duty
would bind you exactly as much as if you had neglected them all.
It is like hearing Mass on Sunday; nobody is excused at all from
Mass on Sunday because they have been to it through the week.
{152}
So this time, the great Sunday of the year, is set apart by the
church for the precept of Holy Communion; it must be fulfilled at
this time, no matter how often one has received outside of it.
The second and only other real law of Lent is that relating to
fasting and abstinence. If you attend carefully to the rules that
have been read you will understand this well enough. But do not
confuse fasting with abstinence; that is the most common mistake.
People often say: "Oh! I have to work hard; I can eat meat if I
like." That is a great error, and a very foolish one. Many are
excused from fasting on one meal and a collation; few from
abstinence on the days appointed. If you want to have a safe
conscience in eating meat you should consult a confessor, unless
seriously ill.
Attend to these two things, then, and you will make your Lent as
a Christian should. But, of course, you will also try to follow,
to the best of your ability, the other devotional practices
recommended by the church at this time. Come to daily Mass, and
to the occasional services, and give alms according to your
means. These practices, especially now, are of the greatest
spiritual profit, and can not generally be neglected without
spiritual danger. But remember that Easter duty and fasting, with
abstinence, are the real laws. Obey these, at any rate, and then,
so far as you are able, add the others beside.
-------------------
{153}
_First Sunday of Lent._
Epistle.
2 _Corinthians vi._ 1-10.
Brethren:
We do exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in
vain. For he saith: "In an accepted time have I heard thee; and
in the day of salvation have I helped thee." Behold, now is the
acceptable time: behold, now is the day of salvation. Giving no
offence to any man, that our ministry be not blamed: but in all
things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in
much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses,
in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors, in watchings,
in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in
sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, in the word
ol truth, in the power of God; by the armor of justice on the
right hand and on the left: through honor and dishonor: through
infamy and good name: as seducers, and yet speaking truth: as
unknown, and yet known: as dying, and behold we live: as
chastised, and not killed: as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing:
as needy, yet enriching many: as having nothing, and possessing
all things.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew iv._ 1-11.