death." The word of God encourages us "to redeem our sins with
alms and our iniquities with works of mercy to the poor." It says
further: "For alms deliver from all sin and from death, and will
not suffer the soul to go into darkness." We are taught also in
Holy Scripture that Christ considers as done to himself what we
do for the poor, but that if we refuse to help those in distress
it is as if charity were refused to Christ himself. The sentence
which shall decide our eternal happiness or woe will be according
to our behavior towards our neighbor in distress.
{382}
Let us take care not to be deaf to the cries of the suffering
poor; let us rather embrace with affection the lovely virtue of
mercy. Bishop Challoner says: "It was mercy which brought the Son
of God down from heaven to us, and it is mercy which carries us
up to him." He calls "mercy the favorite daughter of the great
King." The reward of the merciful will be very great. "He that
hath mercy on the poor lendeth to the Lord, and he will repay
him."
Those of us who labor in the sacred ministry and those who do
work in the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul meet continually
with persons whose distress appeals most powerfully to our
charity. How we wish the offerings for the poor were more
generous! How we wish God would inspire pious Christians to send
in donations for the poor! If you would sometimes send into the
church-office envelopes containing money for the poor, what good
use we could make of it, and how it would call down the mercy of
God upon your souls! Brethren, we have Jesus Christ with us in
the persons of the poor.
-------------------
Sermon CXVI.
Occasions Of Sin.
_Who is my neighbor?_
--From the Gospel of the Sunday.
{383}
This is a very important question, my brethren. We depend much
for our happiness on the kind of persons who live around us and
on how they feel to-wards us. Our Lord answers the question by
the famous and touching parable of the Good Samaritan. By that
parable he teaches us kindness of heart; he makes that the mark
of true neighborly conduct. The good neighbor is the friendly and
benevolent one. But may we not turn the question around and learn
another good lesson from it? I think we can. The Gospel is like a
piece of good cloth. You know when a wise mother buys some cloth
to make the children clothes she will get a piece that, as they
say, will do to turn--that is, when one side is worn out you can
rip up the garment and make it over again with the inside turned
outside, and so it will last quite a while longer. So we may
learn, perhaps, another lesson from the question in the Gospel by
reversing it and asking, "Who is not my neighbor?" The
saloon-keeper is not your neighbor. Geographically speaking, no
doubt he is your neighbor. He takes care to be handy to you. He
is on the ground-floor of the big tenement-house you live in, so
that you must pass his door to get to your own. Or he is on the
corner you must turn twenty times a day. If nearness were the
only mark of a neighbor, the saloon-keeper is very neighborly
indeed. But, morally speaking, and in the meaning of our Lord's
parable, he is perhaps the last man who can claim to be your
neighbor. Yet many honest fellows treat the saloon-keeper not
only as their neighbor, but as a partner in their business. They
do the hard work; the workingman's share in the partnership is to
bend under the heavy hod in the hot sun, or to strike with the
heavy sledge on the rocks, or to be half-stifled the livelong day
in the hot factory; the other partner has for his share of the
work only to smile and pass the bottle.
{384}
You know which one gets the bulk of the profits; or if you do
not, the working-man's wife and family know it all too well. How
many foolish men are there who have taken this bad neighbor into
partnership the most confidential, and not only give him most of
their money in return for worse than nothing, but have made him,
besides, the managing partner of their leisure, their
friendships, and their politics! As to the sorrows that are bred
by the saloon-keeper's traffic, he manages to escape them for a
time; and may God give him the grace to repent of his sins and
fly from their occasion--that is, change his business--that he
may escape the divine wrath in the future.
Another very bad neighbor, and one very unworthy of that name, is
a certain class of newsdealers. I say a certain class, for I hope
that not all news dealers are alike. But there are very many of
them who are guilty of the loss of human souls by selling
periodicals and books which can only corrupt the mind and heart
of the reader. I ask you, Christian parents, what do you think of
those who dress out their windows, with bad pictures to lure
passionate youth to the early wreck of soul and body? What do you
think of persons who actually make a living in selling journals
which are but the pictured proceedings of the police courts? O my
brethren! how often is the grace of a good confession and
Communion destroyed by a few minutes bad reading! How many there
are whose first mortal sin has been some act of youthful
depravity suggested by what was bought at a newsdealer's! Such
news dealers hold Satan's certificates to teach the science of
perdition.
{385}
What need has the Evil Spirit to fear the Catholic Church and
Catholic school as long as he is not hindered from laying his
snares for youthful virtue in every direction, as long as the
laws against obscene literature are a dead-letter? Therefore, let
Catholic parents furnish their families with good reading, both
secular and religious; let them take at least one Catholic paper,
and let them patronize and direct their children to patronize
news dealers who do not sell dangerous matter.
Of course there are other bad neighbors, such as those who invite
you to a public dance, or a moonlight excursion, or a Sunday
picnic, or a low theatre. But I think you will agree with me that
the commonest vices are intemperance and impurity, and that our
worst enemies are those two bad neighbors, the saloon-keeper and
the vender of impure literature.
-------------------
{386}
_Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost._
Epistle.
_Galatians iii._ 16-22.
Brethren:
To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. He saith
not, "And to his seeds," as of many: but as of one, "And to thy
seed," who is Christ. Now this I say, that the testament which
was confirmed by God, the law which was made after four hundred
and thirty years, doth not disannul, to make the promise of no
effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of
promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. Why then was
the law? It was set because of transgressions, until the seed
should come, to whom he made the promise, being ordained by
angels in the hand of a mediator. Now, a mediator is not of
one: but God is one. Was the law then against the promises of
God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could
give life, verily justice should have been by the law. But the
Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by the
faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gospel.
_St. Luke xvii._ 11-19.
At that time:
As Jesus was going to Jerusalem, he passed through the midst of
Samaria in Galilee. And as he entered into a certain town,
there met him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off: and
lifted up their voice, saying: Jesus, master, have mercy on us.
And when he saw them, he said: Go, show yourselves to the
priests. And it came to pass that, as they went, they were
cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was cleansed,
went back, with a loud voice glorifying God; and he fell on his
face, before his feet, giving thanks: and this was a Samaritan.
{387}
And Jesus answering, said: Were there not ten made clean? and
where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give
glory to God, but this stranger. And he said to him: Arise, go
thy way, for thy faith hath made thee whole.
-------------------
Sermon CXVII.
Thanksgiving.
_Where are the nine?_
--St. Luke xvii. 11.
[USCCB: St. Luke xvii. 17.]
Of the ten lepers whose cure is related in this day's Gospel,
only one returned to give thanks, and he was a Samaritan; the
others went their way; they were cured indeed of their dreadful
disease, but disgraced by our Lord's sad question, Where are the
nine?
Thanksgiving, brethren, should follow after God's mercies to us,
not only as a matter of justice, but in order to secure the
effect of those mercies themselves. Just as, in our bodily life,
in order to get the benefit of fresh air, breathing _in_
must be followed by breathing _out_, so the giving of thanks
must follow the reception of all divine favors. The grace of God
is to the soul what the breath is to the body; and the body, to
live, must not only draw the air in, but give it forth again to
make room for new and fresher air. So in the life of our souls we
breathe in God's grace and we breathe out thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is furthermore a matter of justice. The holiest debt
we owe to God or man is the debt of thanks. Every honest man
gives thanks for favors received from other men, and every
upright soul gives thanks to God.
{388}
It is the most indispensable of all our obligations, because it
is the least that we can do. In all our traffic with heaven,
gratitude is the only coin we can mint ourselves. Thanksgiving is
that part of our sanctification necessarily our own. Well,
brethren, if this be really true and who can deny it?--then a
great many of us are insolvent debtors of the worst kind. Now you
hear it said sometimes that the man who does not pay his debts is
as bad as a thief, and in many cases this is perfectly true. So
the difference between an open sinner and a thankless Christian
is that between a thief and a man who by his own fault does not
pay his debts. Indeed, we sometimes feel as if God ought to thank
us for the favor we do him by condescending to serve him.
Confession and Communion and daily prayer, forgiveness of in
juries and resisting temptations so puff us up with conceit that
we are apt to blame God because in view of our holiness he does
not exempt us from the ordinary ills of life!
As a matter of fact it is with God and us as with a storekeeper
and his customer. You know why a man cannot get trust at a store;
it is because he was trusted before and didn't pay his debts. Now
pretty nearly all the pay that God asks for his favors is that we
shall give him thanks, and if we will not do that much he can
hardly think us worthy of his further bounty. If we do give
thanks he multiplies his favors; for he is determined to keep us
in his debt, and as fast as we return thanks so much the faster
does he lavish his love upon us.
So when we ask why we suffer this miserable stagnation in our
spiritual career, perhaps the true answer would be that we are
members of a big multiple of that original thankless nine.
{389}
Oh! let us thank God that we have the blessings of the true
religion, that he is our Father, Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and
the Blessed Virgin Mary our Mother. Let us thank him for his
gracious promise of the everlasting joys of Paradise. For these
unspeakable favors our thanks should be ceaseless.
Let us give thanks, too, in our fervent morning prayers that we
have escaped the dangers of the night, and in our night prayers
that we have been saved from the noon-day demon. When we rise
from our meals let us offer a word of thanks, making at least the
sign of the cross, blessing God for the health he gives us and
our family. Let us thank him for our afflictions--yes, even for
temptations; for the pains we suffer thereby are the
growing-pains of the soul. Especially after receiving Holy
Communion let us give long and heartfelt thanks for all God's
dealing with us; for we have then received the greatest of all
his gifts, his only-begotten Son.
-------------------
Sermon CXVIII.
Shamelessness In Sinners.
_There met him three men that were lepers,
who stood afar off and lifted tip their voice,
saying: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us._
--The Gospel of the Sunday.
Leprosy, my brethren, is often spoken of in Holy Writ, and is
considered a type of sin. It is a loathsome and contagious
disease, and when a man was so unhappy as to contract it, besides
being driven away by the Mosaic law, he fled in very shame from
the company of others.
{390}
So it is with the common run of sinners; one of their direst
sufferings is shame, from which comes such remorse, such
self-detestation, such reasonable envy of the happy state of the
innocent, that, standing afar off, the poor sinner at last lifts
up his voice and cries to our Lord for mercy. So there is always
some chance for a poor sinner while he is ashamed of himself;
where there is shame there is hope.
But, brethren, it happens in our times that there are many
sinners without shame. Many great sins are done almost as a
matter of course, and some even made matter of jest, perhaps of
boast. Need I mention them? Time was that if a man wished to see
a vulgar play he was forced to creep up some dark alley; now he
may go to a filthy opera in a coach and four, and with the lords
of the land, ay, even the ladies of the land. When you and I were
boys there was but one commonly known illustrated paper with
immoral pictures and bad reading matter; the news dealers now
hang their stands all over with them, and young men, and even
young women, buy and read them without a blush. You and I can
remember when it was a disgrace for a man to idle behind a
bar-room counter and get his living from the drunkard and
spendthrift. These men make our laws now. It used to be the pride
of a young man to get to work as soon as possible to help the old
folks along; we hear now too often of hearty young men
shamelessly dependent on their parents. And we know of too many
parents who are not ashamed of habits of intoxication nor of
cursing in the hearing of their little ones.
{391}
And how many mothers of families are there whose harsh voices are
heard all over the neighborhood, quarrelling with their husbands
and scolding their children! Time was when a drunken woman was
what Scripture says she is, "a great wrath, and her shame shall
not be hid." Now they publicly send their little boys and girls
to the saloon for beer.
Do I exaggerate? Am I not, on the contrary, forced for decency's
sake to pass over other shameless sins, which all but the blind
and deaf know of among us? Indeed, dear brethren, the word of God
is true now as of yore that sinners "preach their shame like
Sodom." The lepers laugh at their leprosy. They run in among us
to blight us. Their disease, that blight which withers the soul
with eternal decay, they rub off upon us. They do it by bad
example, by laughing at the simple virtue of good Christians, by
jesting and mockery, by bullying, by ill-gotten riches and
ill-gotten power.
But we must remember that they are all this time really sinners,
and worse than ordinary sinners, because without shame. Here,
then, is our first duty; not to permit human respect, worldly
position, or a bullying tongue to silence our love of God's
honor, our detestation of what does it harm and our pity for the
sinner himself. A good remedy against shamelessness in sinning is
just a little plain talk. If sometimes, instead of laughing at a
vile jest, we should say, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself,"
we should please God and save souls. In the family, especially,
parents should create a sound family opinion about places and
persons and reading and amusements and all things else that lead
to sin: bad theatres, moonlight excursions, public balls, liquor
stores, and beer-gardens. A little plain talk, accompanied by
good example and much prayer on the part of good Christians, will
do a great deal, if not to cure the leprosy of sin in those who
have it, at any rate to keep the lepers standing afar off from
the uncontaminated and innocent.
-------------------
{392}
Sermon CXIX.
Dangers Of Venial Sin.
_I know thy works,
that thou art neither hot nor cold._
--Apocalypse iii. 15.
It is plain that these words of Holy Writ describe a person in
the state of venial sin; or rather one who is in that state
wilfully and quite careless about it. Now, my brethren, I do not
wish to make you scrupulous, but there is no mistake about this;
all experience shows that persons careless of venial sins are
pretty sure to slip down into mortal sins. Indeed (on the other
hand), about the only ones who manage to keep clear of mortal
sins are those who are fearful of falling into venial sins. Save
the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves; or,
waste the pennies and the dollars will waste themselves.
Scripture applies this as follows: "He that despiseth small
things shall fall little by little." If one keeps the dogs and
goats out of the garden the cows will have small chance to get
in. Keep a watch on the venial sins and the mortal sins will keep
out of sight.
{393}
And does it not stand to reason that, if one is habituated to
look keenly after little sins, it is morally impossible for him
to be carried away by great sins? If you are anxious and
distressed because your soul seems less pure, less holy, less
beautiful than it ought to be, with what horror will you be
filled at the bare thought of becoming a regular slave of the
evil spirit! And how much easier is it, brethren, to keep a sharp
lookout for a few little trifles, rather than to be always
running the risk of eternal woe!
And now I will tell you of some of those who are full of venial
sins, and pretty sure to be sooner or later in a state of mortal
sin. Those who are content with their Easter duty--a soul content
with a spiritual meal once in twelve months cannot have very
vigorous spiritual health or a very strong appetite for divine
things. Those who are often late for Mass--once in a while they
will miss it altogether, and for no particular reason, except
that they feel it a great bore to have to do anything for the
love of God. Those who continually neglect their morning prayers:
even though they make an effort to say their night prayers, they
have omitted deliberately the most necessary religious act of the
day. Those who are addicted to idleness; for that is one of the
worst occasions of sin, both mortal and venial. Those who are
stingy, especially to their near relatives and the poor; to love
money is to love something our Lord has a great contempt for.
Those who are touchy and resentful; for they cannot live in peace
with anybody, and peace is necessary for our spiritual welfare.
Those who tell improper stories, and are fond of hearing others
do it; but as to this class, I am not sure but that they are in
mortal sin already: "Can a man put fire in his bosom and not be
burned?" Those who are fond of gossip; for God will not permit us
to trifle with our neighbor's good name, and gossipers and
tale-bearers are often not in mortal sin, only because, malicious
as they are, they are just as stupid.
{394}
Those who, though they don't get drunk, yet hang around saloons,
and those who are fond of drinking and treating; and this is a
case, my brethren, where only judgment-day will tell where venial
sin ends and mortal sin begins.
Dear brethren, the only really safe way of dealing with God is
the generous way. Arouse yourself with high and noble motives to
be a real friend of God, faithful and true in things little as
well as great, and religion will seem something new and ever so
much pleasanter to you. Otherwise you will not have the comfort
of being sure of God's friendship at all. You may be like an old
lady who once told me very sorrowfully about how her daughter
died. "I was watching at her bedside," she said, "and, after a
long spell of suffering, she dropped off at last into a gentle
slumber. I turned down the lamp and stepped softly into the next
room, waiting to hear her call me when she woke up. An hour
passed, another hour, a third, and still she slept on. Finally
the doctor came, and so we had to wake her up. But oh! when we
came to the bedside we found her dead, cold and dead, while I
thought her asleep." So your soul may seem to you only sleeping,
only lukewarm in God's service, only careless about your
religious duties; whereas it may be all the time, if not in the
very state of spiritual death--mortal sin--at least in the
torpor which goes before it.
-------------------
{395}
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
Epistle.
_Galatians v._ 16-24.
Brethren:
I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfil the
lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit:
and the spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary one to
another: so that you do not the things that you would. But if
you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are, fornication,
uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcraft, enmities,
contentions, emulations, wrath, quarrels, dissensions, sects,
envy, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of the
which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who
do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God. But the
fruit of the spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience,
benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty,
continency, chastity. Against such there is no law. And they
that are Christ's, have crucified their flesh with the vices
and concupiscences.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew vi._ 24-33.
At that time Jesus said to his disciples:
No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one,
and love the other: or he will hold to the one, and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Therefore I say to you,
be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for
your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the
food, and the body more than the raiment? Behold the fowls of
the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather
into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you
of much more value than they?
{396}
And which of you by thinking can add to his stature one cubit?
And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of
the field how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin.
And yet I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory
was arrayed as one of these. Now if God so clothe the grass of
the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the
oven: how much more you, ye of little faith? Be not solicitous
therefore, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink,
or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do
the heathen seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of
all these things. Seek ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God
and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.
-------------------
Sermon CXX.
The Poverty Of Christ.
_For after all these things do the heathen seek._
--St. Matthew. vi. 32.
In this day's Gospel our Blessed Lord would teach us that the
difference between men is the difference between the objects for
which they live. And he lays down the fundamental law of his
kingdom, that if the chief object of one's life is the enjoyment
of the things every where about us--eating and drinking and money
and lands--he has therein a mark of belonging to the kingdom of
this world. To belong to our Lord's kingdom we must live for none
of these things as the end of our endeavors. We may, indeed, have
and use the things of this world, but for higher purposes than
the world itself can offer; as far as any enjoyment in them is
concerned, it is too trifling a matter to engage our serious
pursuit.
{397}
Yet, brethren, is not the whole Christian world absorbed in
seeking after what should be the heathen's peculiar treasure? Is
not this the most anxious inquiry, How shall I get rich? Is not
the possession of riches deemed the most enviable happiness? Is
it not the best praise of an individual that he is prosperous,
and of a nation that it is wealthy? What a serious lesson it is,
therefore, that our Lord expresses his contempt for what is
deemed the height of human wisdom among us--a contempt no less
profound because so gently expressed! If--he as much as says--if
you and I are to make choice of beauty, you may choose King
Solomon's wardrobe with all its jewels, and I will take the
new-blown lily; if you talk to me of foresight and skill in the
business of life, you may admire the successful speculator, but
the little sparrow is my model.
And our Lord's life was fully in accord with his doctrine. For it
was of set purpose that he saw fit to lack those things that
nearly all men covet most; that he was the child of a poor
maiden, and the apprentice of a country carpenter; that he was a
wanderer barefoot and needy about Judea, yet all the time the
only-begotten Son of the Lord of all majesty; that he was
seemingly a tried and convicted malefactor, and died naked and
all but alone upon the gibbet, yet all the time the immortal King
of ages.