a dishonor to God, a shame to your family, a scandal to your
neighbor, and a disgrace to the church of Jesus Christ, have you
turned from your sins and made your peace with God this
Easter-time? Have you washed your past life clean from sin by
this Easter duty? Then you, too, _know_ you will receive the
welcome of our Lord, the Man Christ Jesus, your King and your
God. Otherwise you are still his enemy, and have a right only to
his eternal wrath. How can you sleep a moment or be at rest a
single instant longer while knowing you are condemned already,
because you have not made your Easter duty?
-------------------
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_Second Sunday after Pentecost._
And Sunday Within The Octave Of Corpus Christi.
Epistle.
1 _St. John iii._ 13-18.
Dearly beloved:
Wonder not if the world hate you. We know that
we have passed from death to life, because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death. Whosoever
hateth his brother, is a murderer. And you know that no
murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself. In this we have
known the charity of God, because he hath laid down his life
for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. He
that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his
brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him: how
doth the charity of God abide in him? My little children, let
us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
Gospel.
_St. Luke xiv._ 16-24.
At that time
Jesus spoke to the Pharisees this parable:
A certain man made a great supper, and invited many. And he
sent his servant at supper-time to say to them that were
invited that they should come, for now all things are ready.
And they began all at once to make excuse. The first said to
him: I have bought a farm, and I must needs go out and see it;
I pray thee, have me excused. And another said: I have bought
five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them; I pray thee, have me
excused. And another said: I have married a wife, and therefore
I cannot come. And the servant returning, told these things to
his lord. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to
his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the
city, and bring in hither the poor and the feeble, and the
blind and the lame.
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And the servant said: Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded,
and yet there is room. And the lord said to the servant: Go out
into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that
my house maybe filled. But I say unto you that none of those
men that were called shall taste my supper.
-------------------
Sermon LXXXV.
Holy Communion.
_A certain man made a great supper
and invited many._
--St. Luke xiv. 16.
I suppose every Catholic here to-day, except some young children,
has once or many times in his life been to the "Great Supper,"
and eaten the "Bread of Life" which is served at it; and those
little ones of the Lord's Holy Catholic family are looking
forward to the bright day, to be for ever afterwards the day of
sweetest memory, when they too shall have that honor and
happiness--the day of their First Communion.
If such be the case, what is the use of the church repeating to
us every year the threat in the Gospel against those who made
foolish and selfish excuses for staying away--"None of those men
that were called shall taste of my supper"? We have been called.
We have answered the invitation. We have been to the supper.
Isn't that enough? The Gospel evidently does not apply to us. But
wait a bit. I have two things for you to think about. In the
first place, the calling to the Great Supper the Gospel speaks
about is a standing invitation for life. By this I mean that the
law of the Catholic Church obliges every one to receive Holy
Communion annually--that is, during the Easter season.
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It is then, first of all, an _annual_ invitation; and going
one year is not answering the call for the next year. Every one
who has learned his Catechism ought to know that. In the second
place, what would you think of a near relative whom you had
invited to be present at your marriage anniversary dinner, who
should send for reply that he had already dined with you on the
Fourth of July? This is like what people say who, when asked if
they made their Easter duty, tell you, "Oh! no, I went at
Christmas," or "I was at the mission." Now the _annual_
marriage supper which the King makes for his Son, and to which we
are invited, is at Easter, and neither Christmas, mission time,
the Forty Hours, nor the Fourth of July will do, unless, indeed,
the mission or the Forty Hours took place in the Paschal season.
The second thing I want you to think about is that the invitation
to partake of the "Great Supper" of Holy Communion, whether at
Easter or at any other time, is a call to make what is known as a
_worthy_ Communion; that is, you must be absolved from sin
and thus be yourself worthy. That is requisite, and that is
enough. There are some scrupulous people who fancy that they
themselves have got to do beforehand all that the Communion is
intended to do and will do. Who is it that prepares the Supper,
they or the Lord? If they will do the little that is asked of
them, they can safely leave to the Lord the responsibility of
doing his part. A _worthy_ Communion should also be one that
is worth something to the one receiving it, and should not be a
worthless exterior performance, which has no interior act of
communion in the heart to correspond to it.
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And now this kind of worth of each and every Communion depends
upon what the communicant chooses to make it. All is to be had
that God can give. The means of getting the good from Communion
is one and the same means for getting the good in receiving other
sacraments--that is, prayer. Prayer beforehand, prayer daring it,
prayer afterwards. The more you want and the more you ask of, the
more worth will your Communion be. Suppose our Lord should
suddenly quit the sacramental form of the host and ask a
communicant at the altar-rail, "What do you wish for?" and he
should answer, "I don't know; I never thought of asking for
anything," you would reasonably conclude that he was not likely
to receive very much. Now, I hope you who often come to the holy
table are paying attention to this. If you come often, it is
supposed, and justly supposed, that you want a good deal, and
that you are deeply in earnest about obtaining what you desire.
Much as, I am sure, your Communions are worth to you, I wish you
would set about making them worth still more. In a word, you must
think more about what you need. Get your requests ready. Have
them, as it were, well by heart, so that if the Lord should ask
you what you came for, your reply would come out quick and
earnest enough. Of all privileges and honors, in this world,
receiving Holy Communion is, indeed, something for us Catholics
to boast of. How the "outsiders" envy us our faith and the
comfort it brings to us!--the infidels of every name and kind,
the Protestants and others, who either have no Communion, or at
best a sham one.
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How would you like to have yourself thrust aside and one of them
called by the Lord to take your place at his table? Beware, then,
how you treat his invitation; come as often and be as well
prepared as the Spirit of Divine Love shall inspire you.
-------------------
Sermon LXXXVI.
The Sacred Heart Of Jesus.
The month of June has, as you know, my brethren, been set apart
by general consent for devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as
that of May has in the same way been devoted to our Blessed Lady;
and on next Friday, the day following the octave of Corpus
Christi, the church solemnly celebrates the Feast of the Sacred
Heart. This feast, formerly observed only in some places, has for
about thirty years been kept everywhere.
As the devotion to the Sacred Heart has of late spread so widely
in the church, and is so plainly pleasing to God and most
salutary to us, it is well that we should understand it clearly,
that we may enter into it more fully. In the first place, then,
we will ask, What is the nature of the worship which we render to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus? And, secondly, Why is it specially
selected as the object of our devotion?
What, then, is the nature of our worship of the Sacred Heart? It
is, of course, the same as that which we pay to our Lord
himself--that is, the worship which is due to him as God the Son,
the second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
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His human nature, united to the divine nature in one Person, is
truly worthy of divine worship and honor. God, having become man,
his human heart is the heart of God, and must be adored as such.
Let us, then, remember this: the devotion to the Sacred Heart is
one that is given to God himself, just as that is which we have
for the Blessed Sacrament in which he resides on our altars.
But why do we select the Heart of our Lord, or rather why has he
himself selected it, as a special object of our adoration? I say,
why has he himself selected it? for this devotion to the Sacred
Heart in modern times is due specially to a revelation made by
our Lord to the Blessed Margaret Mary, a nun of the Visitation,
two centuries ago.
In answer to this question we may say that our Lord's Heart is
the fountain of his Precious Blood, which was shed for our
salvation, and was pierced by the lance, like his hands and feet
by the nails, on the cross; and it is in this way specially
pointed out as the object of our gratitude and love. But even a
more urgent reason is that the heart is a natural symbol of love,
agreed on by universal consent at all times and in all parts of
the world, and therefore that the Heart of Jesus most perfectly
represents his love for us. In adoring the Sacred Heart, then, we
adore in a particular manner the love of Christ for sinners; and
it is for this reason that he has given us this devotion, knowing
that it is only by the thought of the love of his Heart for us
that our hearts can be won to the love of him.
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Yes, my brethren, God wishes our love; it was to obtain it that
he became one of us and died for us on the cross; and it is to
win it now that he asks us to remember and to adore his Sacred
Heart. "Let us therefore," says St. John, "love God, because God
first hath loved us." This is the spirit of this devotion: that
we should not try to save our souls merely for the fear of hell,
but that, seeing how much God has loved us, we should love him in
return. And also that, seeing how much he has loved our brethren,
the same fire of divine charity may be kindled in our hearts, and
thus each one of us may do our share to carry on and to complete
the work for which he shed his Precious Blood: the bringing of
the world to the knowledge and love of him.
-------------------
Sermon LXXXVII.
Ingratitude.
_A certain man made a great supper, and invited many. ...
And they began all at once to make excuse._
--Gospel of the Day.
You know, my dear brethren, the parable given by our Divine Lord
in the Gospel of to-day. The principal point of it is in the
words which you have just heard. The guests who were invited to
the supper, instead of feeling honored by the invitation and
accepting it gladly, began to make one excuse or another; one had
his farm, one his oxen, and another had just married a wife. None
of these reasons would have prevented them from coming to the
supper had they really wished to; they were mere flimsy pretexts
put forward to hide their indifference to their host and to all
that he had to offer them.
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You know this parable, and I think you also know well its
meaning. As our Saviour uttered it the coldness and ingratitude
of those whom he had come to save rose up before him, giving him
a foretaste of the agony which was afterward to overwhelm and
crush him in the garden of Gethsemani. His heart, burning with
love for men, longed and thirsted for love in return; it was all
he asked; could he but have had that all the pains of his
sorrowful life and terrible death would have been as nothing. But
no; he foresaw that, after all, those to whom he stretched out
his arms on the cross in loving invitation would, for the most
part, turn a deaf ear to his appeal; would give him at the best
but a reluctant and half-hearted service; would keep as much as
possible for themselves, and give as little as possible to him.
And, in particular, he foresaw that the crowning gift which he
had in store for his rebellious and ungrateful children--his own
Body and Blood, which he was to leave them in the Blessed
Sacrament of the Altar, and in which he was to remain with them
even after his work was done and the time come for him to return
to his Father--would be rejected by the greater part even of
Christians with the same indifference with which his other
sacrifices were to be met. He saw himself in our churches,
unwelcomed and almost unknown by the most of those whom he loved
to call his friends. He saw that, though for a time in the first
fervors of faith, when the sword of persecution drove those to
his side who were not overcome by it, he would, as he desired,
indeed be the daily bread of his people, yet there would come a
day when that faith would be dimmed, and the love which sprang
from it would grow cold. He knew that an age would come
when--shame to say it--his church would have to force her
children by strict laws and threats of excommunication to receive
him in the sacrament of his love even once a year.
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And he knew that, in spite of all this urging, many still would
excuse themselves from the divine banquet, offered so freely to,
nay, almost forced upon, them; that millions every year would
miss their Easter duty; would either turn from the bread of life
to the food of swine by deliberate choice, or at least would, on
some frivolous pretext, put off the time of their reconciliation
till the last day appointed for it had gone by.
Alas! my dear brethren, children of this God and Father who has
done so much for us, I fear that some even of you who hear my
words have once more thus grieved his heart and despised his
love. In all this long time of Lent and Easter which, has just
gone by you have missed the duty to which the most sacred and
solemn of all the laws of the church has called you. But still
our Lord has not yet treated you as you have treated him. He has
not yet said to you, as the host said in the parable: "None of
you that were invited shall taste of my supper." No; once more,
in this great festival of Corpus Christi, he makes yet another
appeal to you, to put aside your excuses, and to come to him with
all your heart and soul. Do not, I beseech you, continue to
insult and despise him who thus humbles himself before you, and
still tries to remind you of his goodness and mercy. Come to him
without delay, and make amends for your past neglect; all will be
forgiven and forgotten. But remember, if tempted to reject him
once more, and to postpone your return, that even his infinite
mercy will at last have to yield to his justice; that his loving
Spirit cannot strive with you for ever.
-------------------
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_Third Sunday after Pentecost._
Epistle.
1 _St. Peter v._ 6-11.
Dearly beloved:
Be you humbled under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt
you in the time of visitation. Casting all your solicitude upon
him, for he hath care of you. Be sober and watch; because your
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking
whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing
that the same affliction befalleth your brethren who are in the
world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his
eternal glory in Christ Jesus, when you have suffered a little,
will himself perfect, and confirm, and establish you. To him be
glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel.
_St. Luke xv._ 1-10.
At that time:
The publicans and sinners drew near unto Jesus to hear him. And
the Pharisees and the Scribes murmured, saying: This man
receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spoke to them
this parable, saying: What man among you that hath a hundred
sheep: and if he shall lose one of them, doth he not leave the
ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost
until he find it? And when he hath found it, doth he not lay it
upon his shoulders rejoicing: and coming home call together his
friends and neighbors, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because
I have found my sheep that was lost. I say to you, that even so
there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance,
more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance. Or what
woman having ten groats, if she lose one groat, doth not light
a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently until she find
it? And when she hath found it, call together her friends and
neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, because I have found the
groat which I had lost. So I say to you, there shall be joy
before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.
-------------------
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Sermon LXXXVIII.
Sinful Amusements.
_Be sober and watch, because your adversary the devil
as a roaring lion goeth about,
seeking whom he may devour._
--Epistle of the Day.
I need not tell you, dear brethren, that there is nothing more
contrary to the spirit of our holy religion than melancholy. The
church would not have her children long-faced and mopish,
eschewing all pleasure as a thing sinful; nor would she have them
unhappy by depriving them of what is good and forbidding what is
innocent, but like a wise mother she permits, nay, sanctions,
harmless amusements, knowing that this, far from being an
impediment to us in our efforts after holiness, is rather a help.
But, unfortunately, all pleasures are not innocent. There are
some which are sinful--very sinful--and which, instead of aiding
us by begetting a holy gladness, fill us with remorse and rob the
soul of the grace of God, which is the principle of all our joy.
Such pleasures as these the church forbids; such as these she
would have us avoid, and she warns us that they come not from
God, but from our adversary the devil, who is seeking our ruin.
It is with regret that we say it, still we say it with truth,
that of late years a very dangerous sort of amusement has taken
more or less hold upon numbers of our young people, and, now that
we are at the beginning of summer, it may not be amiss to say a
word or two about a certain sort of "picnics."
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It is hard to conceive how a young man or woman, who wishes to be
deemed respectable, or even to preserve self-respect, can attend
any of those _moonlight_ gatherings known as picnics,
festivals, etc. Call them by what name you please, as a whole
they are bad. The places where these meetings are held, the
persons whom you cannot avoid coming in contact with, make them
dangerous at least, and very frequently a real occasion of sin.
How can a young girl know the character of him with whom she is
dancing? She has been introduced, to be sure, but what of that?
Does she feel quite certain that she may not be subjected to
insult or worse? Is she satisfied that her mother would be
pleased to see her with her present companions? Is she not
engaged in a dance which borders on immodesty? Take care, my good
girl, you have taken your first downward step to-night; retrace
your way, and never be found at such a "festival" as this again,
if you value your good name. Nor can young men attend these
"moonlight rural gatherings" without endangering their fair fame
and interests. A pure woman will not marry a man who consorts
with bad characters. She will not trust herself to the tender
mercies of one who reaches home in the early morning in a half or
wholly drunken state. She cannot look forward to a happy life
with one of this character, and she will not encourage his
attentions. Employers are not over-anxious to have in their
service those who come to their occupations with evident marks of
debauchery.
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They believe that young men of this sort are not efficient, and
they believe so rightly; they think that these are not altogether
trustworthy; that they are constantly exposing themselves to
danger and theft. It does not pay, young men, to go to "moonlight
picnics." It is not to your interest, either temporal or
spiritual. Do not be carried away with the idea that you can be
dissipated with impunity. "Be sober and watch" yourselves,
remembering that a good name is rather to be chosen than great
riches, and certainly to be preferred to the gross pleasures of
moonlight orgies.
-------------------
Sermon LXXXIX.
Divine Providence.
_Casting all your solicitude upon him,
for he hath care of you._
--1 St. Peter v. 7.
The doctrine of God's providence is one of those great truths
which, though accepted by every Christian, are often not
apprehended practically in everyday life. By the providence of
God we mean that loving care which he takes of all his creatures,
and especially of man, ruling, guiding, and protecting them,
"ordering all things sweetly," as holy Scripture has it, that
each one of his creatures may attain to the end for which it was
given existence.
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God's work does not stop with creation. It would be absurd to
suppose that he made all things and then left them to take care
of themselves. On the contrary, we know that his sustaining power
is necessary in order to keep us in existence at all, and that if
he were to withdraw his sustaining hand from us we should at once
fall back into the nothingness from whence we came. But God's
providence over us means something far more than simply keeping
us alive. It enters into every circumstance of our life. Whatever
befalls us, day by day, is with his permission, is in accordance
with his holy will. Whether he blesses us or smites us, it is all
the same: everything comes from his loving providence, and is
intended for our good.
Our Lord's teaching concerning the providence of God is very
clear and plain. He tells us that God cares for the lilies of the
field and for the birds of the air, so that not one of them is
forgotten before God; and, he adds, "Are not you of much more
value than they?" For "even the very hairs of your head are all
numbered." "O ye of little faith!" he still says to us, "why are
you so slow and dull of heart to understand? Why will you not see
the hand of God directing the whole course of your life?" Men go
on in their carelessness, unmindful of God, taking the good
things that come to them as a matter of course, or as the result
of their own labor, forgetting that every good and perfect gift
is from above. But God does not forget them. In spite of their
indifference, he still watches over them, providing them with all
things needful for their souls and bodies, and with his grace
ever seeking to lead them to him. How many, too, spend their time
in foolishly worrying over their petty trials! It is all owing to
a lack of faith; they refuse to recognize God's hand in their
daily life. Yet again and again our Lord and his Apostles repeat
the exhortation, "Be not solicitous"--that is, do not
worry--"casting all your solicitude upon him, for he careth for
you."
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But it is especially in the great trials of life that the
doctrine of God's providence is necessary for us, and full of
consolation, and perhaps it is at just such times that it is the
most often forgotten. When some heavy trouble comes, how often
does the sufferer fail to acknowledge that it is sent by Almighty
God--that is, an ordering of his providence, and therefore to be
submitted to with patience and humility. "Dearly beloved," says
St. Peter in the Epistle of to-day, "be you humbled under the
mighty hand of God." To be humble is to acknowledge our true
position in God's sight, to confess that we are his creatures
altogether in his power, and that he has the right to do with us
as he pleases. Our faith assures us that he will not use this
right to our disadvantage. Away, then, with all silly murmurings
and complaints that God is unjust. Good sense alone will teach
that that cannot be. If you understood the full extent of the
malice of even venial sin you would see that you receive but a
small part of what you really deserve. Follow, then, the counsel
of Solomon, and "reject not the correction of the Lord, and faint
not when thou art chastised by him; for whom the Lord loveth he
chastiseth."
But if the burden seem too hard for you to bear alone, Jesus is
ready to help you. "Come to me," he says, "all you that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." Go to him in the
Blessed Sacrament, pour out your grief to the Sacred Heart, and
you shall find rest for your soul. "Cast thy care upon the Lord,"
said David in the Psalms, "and he shall sustain thee."
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Then, having humbled yourself under the mighty hand of God, he
will exalt you in the time of his visitation and fill you with
his peace. And "the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his
eternal glory in Christ Jesus, _when you have suffered a
little_, will himself perfect, and confirm, and establish you.
To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
-------------------
Sermon XC.
How To Bear Burdens.