the law of Christ, for the law of Christ is charity--love towards
God, love towards our fellow-man. Our stooping to our neighbor's
need fosters God's love in our souls no less than love of our
neighbor. It makes us go to God as our Father and recognize his
justice. We perceive the necessity of mortifying our rebellious
appetites and placing ourselves entirely in God's hands. How much
happier, how much better Christians we would be did we but bear
each other's burdens! Then we would soon learn what now seems so
hard: that the yoke of Christ is indeed sweet and his burden
truly light.
-------------------
{414}
_Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost._
Epistle.
_Ephesians iii._ 13-21.
Brethren:
I beseech you not to be disheartened at my tribulations for
you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees to the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in
heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by
his Spirit unto the inward man. That Christ may dwell by faith
in your hearts: that being rooted and founded in charity, you
may be able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the
breadth, and length, and height, and depth. To know also the
charity of Christ, which surpasseth knowledge, that you may be
filled unto all the fulness of God. Now to him who is able to
do all things more abundantly than we ask or understand,
according to the power which worketh in us: to him be glory in
the church, and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations,
world with out end. Amen.
Gospel.
_St. Luke xiv._ 1-11.
At that time:
When Jesus went into the house of a certain prince of the
Pharisees, on the Sabbath day, to eat bread, and they were
watching him. And behold, there was a certain man before him
that had the dropsy. And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers
and Pharisees, saying: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?
But they held their peace. But he, taking him, healed him, and
sent him away. And answering them, he said: Which of you whose
ass or his ox shall fall into a pit, and will not immediately
draw him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him
to these things.
{415}
And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking
how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them:
When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the highest
place, lest perhaps one more honorable than thou be invited by
him: and he who invited thee and him, come and say to thee:
Give place to this man; and then thou begin with blushing to
take the lowest place. But when thou art invited, go, sit down
in the lowest place: that when he who invited thee cometh, he
may say to thee: Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have
glory before them that sit at table with thee. Because every
one that exalteth himself shall be humbled: and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted.
-------------------
Sermon CXXVI.
Christian Humility.
_He that humbleth himself shall be exalted._
--Gospel of the Day.
As we hear these familiar words, my brethren, some of us will
perhaps be inclined to say, or at least to think, that this
matter of humility is just a little threadbare, so to speak; that
we have already heard pretty much all that can be said about it.
I dare say this is true; but when a thing is very important it
has to be spoken of quite often. And humility is very important;
after the love of God and of our neighbor, there is nothing more
so. In fact, the difficulties in the way of loving God and our
neighbor as we should, come, we may say, entirely from our
inordinate love of ourselves; and this inordinate love of
ourselves generally takes the shape either of pride or
sensuality. In other words, pride and sensuality are the two
great causes of all our sins; what wonder, then, that our Lord
should warn us so frequently about them?
{416}
And the very fact that we think we have heard enough about
humility shows that we are not so humble as we ought to be. If we
think that we are well up in this matter, it is a good sign that
we are not. Many people will say, especially when they are on
their knees, "Oh! I am a miserable sinner; I am everything that
is bad"; but when they get up from their knees, and look around
them, you will find that they think themselves in point of fact
pretty nearly as good as anybody else, and perhaps, on the whole,
rather better than most people whom they know.
It is not, however, after all, about the matter of goodness that
pride is most sensitive. Most Christians, unfortunately, do not
try very hard to be saints, and are not very much tempted to be
proud of their achievements in that direction. But almost every
one considers himself tolerably well gifted in the matter of
natural common sense; he thinks his brains about as good as any
one else's, though he may readily admit that he has not had so
great advantages as another, or, in other words, that he is "no
scholar." So, to be thought or called a natural-born fool is a
very hard trial for any one's humility; almost all of us, I am
afraid, would rather be called a rascal. To be considered
bad-looking, that again is a great mortification to some people;
or to have one's birth and family despised, to be thought low and
vulgar, how many can you find that will put up with that? That is
the real reason why you so often hear some one find fault with
somebody else for being "stuck up"; it is that when he or she is
stuck up I am stuck down.
{417}
You notice, my brethren, that this matter of pride is mostly
comparative, as I may say. We should not mind other people being
stuck up, if we could only be stuck up too. And it is just here
on this tender point that the parable of our Lord in to-day's
Gospel touches. He says: "When thou art invited to a wedding, sit
not down in the first place, lest, perhaps, one more honorable
than thou be invited." This is where the shoe pinches, this
admitting that some one else is more honorable than we are;
especially in this country, where every one shakes hands with the
President, and all are made, as far as possible, equal. Still, we
can manage to admit that there are some who are better entitled
to the first place than ourselves; indeed, we cannot well help
that. But our Lord would have us go farther than this. He says:
"Sit down in the lowest place."
That is the great lesson of humility that is so hard for us to
learn. Not to say, "I am a miserable sinner; I am blind, weak,
and fallible." Oh! yes, we can say that easily, because we feel
that everybody else ought to say it of himself, and probably will
say it. But to be ready to acknowledge, especially if the general
opinion goes that way, that we are inferior to anybody else,
whoever it may be that we may be compared with; to take this for
granted, and not be surprised if others agree with us, this is
that true humility which is exalted, not by being put in a place
where it can be able to crow over others and thus be turned into
pride, but by being granted the exaltation of being brought
nearer to God.
-------------------
{418}
Sermon CXXVII.
Vanity.
_When thou art invited to a wedding,
sit not down in the highest place._
--St. Luke xiv. 8.
It is not many Sundays ago that our Lord's words taught us
humility by the spectacle of the Pharisee's pride contrasted with
the publican's lowliness. Yet holy church repeats the same lesson
to-day by telling us what our Lord thinks of one who is vain
enough to take too high a place at the wedding-feast. And indeed,
brethren, it takes much teaching for us to learn the corruption
of our own hearts. If there is anybody we lack close acquaintance
with, it is our own very selves. If there is one book harder for
us to read than any other it is the book of our own hearts. Yet
in spite of this ignorance of ourselves, either before God or in
comparison with our neighbor, we are always tempted to set
ourselves up for something far better than we really are, and no
less tempted to depreciate our neighbor.
We are too anxious to exercise the same certain judgment about
relative merit in spiritual things as we fancy we can do in
temporal affairs. You doubtless know the various standards of
worldly preference. One person looks around at others and
exclaims in his or her secret heart: With what shocking bad taste
do such and such ones dress! They must be very vulgar indeed;
surely I cannot be expected to demean myself by going in
_their_ company. Another says: There is a great deal in
social standing. Let every one know his place in the world and
keep it; as for me, I am certainly quite above the company of
such and such persons.
{419}
Another says: Brains is the standard; good clothes and social
position--what are they but miserable vanity and prejudice? But
I have brains; and I know it, and can show it; therefore, stand
aside for me, for I am entitled to preference.
Now, brethren, what is there in the spiritual life that answers
to good clothes? I will tell you: it is certain external
practices of devotion. External devotions are indeed necessary
for the soul just as clothes are for the body, and if used in the
right spirit give one spiritual warmth and adorn the soul with
interior virtues. But we must not be vain of them. And what
answers in the spiritual life to the consciousness of social
position? The remembrance of many years spent in God's service
and the various spiritual gifts received from him. But beware of
spiritual pride. And what answers to human talents and ability?
Facility in prayer, glibness of speech about spiritual things,
knowledge of devotional books, and the like. And these may be
made a cause of vanity.
So when our Lord looks in among the guests at his spiritual table
we may well imagine his saying to one or other of us: Friend, I
perceive that you have been trusting a trifle too much to certain
external practices; they are very good in themselves, but should
be joined to a deeper and truer contrition for your sins and a
more practical use of penance and mortification. I am sorry to
make you blush, but really you must step down a few seats lower.
{420}
To another he says: Friend, you are in the wrong place; I know
that you have received many graces from me in the past, but I
also notice a great want of gratitude on your part; besides this,
I see from your present disposition of mind that, if you are left
where you are, you are likely to be quite puffed up with vanity.
So I will set you down a little lower to a place opposite a good
dish of thanksgiving and an other of humility. To another he
says: What are you doing there, you who are so fault-finding and
overbearing? Do you trust to your knowledge of spiritual things
and your pious talk? Your religion consists of words, words,
words, and what I want is deeds. So, down with you to the last
place at the table; and if I had any place lower than the last
you should certainly have it.
Brethren, let us be glad to sit down anywhere at our Lord's
banquet; glad of so much as the crumbs from the table. That is to
say, the friendship of God is too precious a thing, and too much
all his own to give, that we should presume to glory in it.
Humility, detachment from our own excellence, willingness to
think poorly of our own merits--such are the virtues that
underlie all true piety.
-------------------
Sermon CXXVIII.
Behavior In Church.
_And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited,
marking how they chose the first seats at the table._
--Gospel of the Day.
Our Blessed Saviour in this day's Gospel teaches us a lesson of
good order and practical conduct which may be applied in many
ways. I will make the application of it this morning to our
conduct in church.
{421}
We will consider the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the great feast
to which we are invited, the church the banquet-hall, and the
pews the places set apart for the guests.
There is nothing more conducive to the pleasure and purpose of an
assemblage than the good order and proper arrangement of
everything connected with it, and we often hear persons speak of
some event in which they participated as being most enjoyable
because everything was so well ordered and arranged. Now, all
this applies with double force to the public services of
religion. Catholics greatly enjoy the public services of the
church when every is well ordered and arranged, and there is
nothing to distract them or jar upon them. For at every service
there is the divine presence, and where perfect order reigns it
soon makes itself felt: its calm peace steals in upon the soul,
it communes sweetly, and worships "in spirit and in truth."
But in order to secure an external condition of things in our
churches so essential to recollection and prayer, each one must
know his place and occupy it without delay or confusion, and in
our present system of church arrangement each worshipper is
supposed to have his or her special place assigned, and the
regular seat in the church has become a requirement of devotion
as well as a necessity of church finance.
Hence, to secure a permanent place in the church is a duty of
devotion as well as something of an obligation; and we find that
truly pious Catholics almost invariably try to secure seats in
their parish churches, be they ever so humble. Indeed, Catholics
who fail to do this are not apt to be very steady in the practice
of their religion; and there can be no doubt as to the neglect of
duty in the case.
{422}
To contribute to the support of religion is as much a positive
law of the church as to attend Mass on Sundays, and the ordinary
revenue for the support of religion comes from the pew-rents. We
insist, therefore, that every Catholic who can possibly afford it
should have his seat in church; good order requires this as well
as duty and devotion. It is a poor business to be all the while
occupying other people's pews, and sometimes, perhaps, be
required to vacate them. Pew-holders have their rights, and they
must be protected in them. Nevertheless, to secure good order and
harmony at the services of the church, pew-holders must be
willing at times to waive their rights and allow strangers and
others to occupy the vacant seats in their pews. This is no more
than politeness and common Christian charity demand. To refuse a
vacant seat in church to a stranger is selfishness gone to seed,
and they are few, I hope, who would be guilty of such vulgarity.
But while all who possibly can should have their regular places
in church, there will, no doubt, always be a very considerable
number who, through poverty or perverseness, will be pew-holders
at large, and to them I would also address a few remarks. The
Catholic Church is the church of the poor! This is our glory and
our pride. No one can be too poor to attend the services of the
Catholic Church. God is no respecter of persons, nor is his
church. The poor are always welcome in her grandest temples, and
none should ever miss a single service of religion because they
are too poor to hire a regular seat. In this church, thank God,
everything is free to them, and there are always vacant seats for
them to occupy.
{423}
We not only wish non-pew-holders to occupy the vacant seats in
our church, but we insist on their occupying them, for the good
order and harmony of the services require that, as far as
possible, all should be seated. The only condition we impose is
the Gospel injunction: "Do not sit down in the first place" or in
the place of another; and if you are told to move up higher, do
not refuse. Crowding around the doors is more objectionable than
anything else, for there is nothing else that interferes so much
with the good order and arrangement of the services. Let me
repeat, then, in conclusion, the words of the parable: "Friend,
go up higher," and don't crowd around the doors.
-------------------
{424}
_Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost._
Epistle.
_Ephesians iv._ 1-6.
Brethren:
As a prisoner in the Lord, I beseech you that you walk worthy
of the vocation in which you are called, with all humility and
mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity,
careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
One body and one Spirit: as you are called in one hope of your
vocation. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all, who
is blessed for ever and ever.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew xxii._ 35-46.
At that time the Pharisees came nigh to Jesus: and one of them,
a doctor of the law, asked him, tempting him: Master, which is
the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him: Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole
soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the
first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. On, these two commandments
dependeth the whole law and the prophets. And the Pharisees
being gathered together, Jesus asked them saying: What think
you of Christ? Whose son is he? They say to him: David's. He
saith to them: How then doth David in spirit call him Lord,
saying: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit on my right hand, until
I make thy enemies thy footstool"? If David then called him
Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a
word: neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any
more questions.
-------------------
{425}
Sermon CXXIX.
Prayer For Sinners.
_And the other is like unto this:
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself._
--St. Matthew. xxii. 39.
How great must be the dignity of human nature, my brethren,
since, as we learn by this day's Gospel, our Lord couples the
love of his fellow-men with the love of his own sovereign and
divine self! Perhaps if we appreciated the native worth of human
nature we should be a trifle more patient with its faults. I
mean, of course, other people's faults, for with our own faults
we are all too patient.
The practical lesson conveyed by the commandment, "Love thy
neighbor as thyself," is that it is our duty to love sinners and
to pray for them. To love good people is easy enough, and we
think a man a kind of a monster who has not at least one or two
dear friends whose virtues have won his love. But it takes a good
Christian to love what at first sight seems so hateful--a
drunkard, a libertine, an apostate, a bully, a thief. To have an
actual, practical affection for such persons, even when one is
related to them, seems quite a special thing--a peculiar
vocation, a side-path in the spiritual life, and not by any means
the common business and regular vocation of every-day Christians.
Yet a moment's thought shows that it is, without any doubt, our
Lord's blessed will that we should have a special affection for
just such hardened sinners. Are they not men, and are they not
purchased by the Blood of Christ?
{426}
How much we mistake our duty in reference to such poor wretches!
When you say of one, "Oh! he is a most worthless creature," how
surprised you would be if you could hear a whisper coming from
his guardian angel: "Jesus Christ thought him worth dying for."
And when you say of another, "Oh! I can't bear him; I can't stay
a moment in his company," how surprised you would be to hear,
"And I, an angel of God, I gladly keep him company day and
night." Surely, brethren, there is something worth loving,
heartily loving, in a soul that our Lord would die for, and to
whom God would give a bright angel as a constant companion. We
are like men going through a picture-gallery: we admire only the
brilliant and unmistakable beauties displayed there--here a
gorgeous sunset, there a fine battle-scene, and again a ship
tossing upon the waves. But one of better taste than common,
without forgetting all these, will be able to detect the work of
a great master, though faded with the lapse of many years and
covered all over with dust. So it is with the poor sinner's soul:
it is the work of a great master. And what though it be all
stained and spotted with mortal sin; is there no such thing as
true repentance? Are there no fountains of living waters in the
sacraments in which it may be washed whiter than snow? Are there
no gems of divine grace with which it may be decked out as a
bride waiting for the bridegroom?
Prayer for the conversion of sinners should be far more practised
than it is. Why, brethren, look around you in this great city,
and if you can count the stars of heaven or the sands of the
sea-shore you can count the men and women in mortal sin; and,
alas! very many of them belong to our religion. Nay, look about
in your own families.
{427}
How seldom will a family be found where there is not at least one
member living openly at enmity with God! Now, just here, in the
midst of the worst wickedness, are many thousands of devout
servants of God, and in every family one or two souls whose very
names might be Faithful and True. And God arranges this mingling
of good and evil, that the good souls by their prayers may save
the bad ones from eternal death; just as in southern countries
men plant eucalyptus-trees in low, marshy places, for the
eucalyptus, with its fragrant leaves, counteracts the poisonous
vapors of the swamp.
If, therefore, you pray for yourself you do well; but do not
forget that, if you are a true Christian, the poor sinner is your
other self. And if you pray for the souls in purgatory, do not
forget that there are many souls about you who are always in
danger of hell, and unless many prayers are offered for them they
are likely enough to be lost for ever.
-------------------
Sermon CXXX.
The Christian Vocation.
_I beseech you to walk worthy of your vocation
in which you are called._
--Epistle of the Day.
In the Gospel our Lord says that the perfect love of God and of
our neighbor fulfils all the law and the commands of God through
the prophets. At another time he said: "Be ye perfect as your
Heavenly Father is perfect." It is plain that every Christian has
a vocation--that is, is called to a Christ like, a God like life.
Something more is expected of him because he has received infused
light to know by divine grace how to do more. In general, we call
that a higher, a more exalted spiritual state. Now, there are
degrees even in this depending upon the particular grace it
pleases God to give to one person or another.
{428}
One star differeth from another star in brightness and glory, and
so shall the glory of the Christians differ in heaven, according
to the perfection to which they have brought their souls while in
this school-time of the world-life. Over and above what are
called strict Christian laws, which one must obey or lose heaven,
there are certain principles of Christianity called Evangelical
counsels--namely, poverty, chastity, and obedience. Some folks
fancy these counsels apply only to monks, nuns, and priests. That
is a great mistake. Monks, nuns, and priests receive grace and
are bound by _their_ vocation to practise these counsels in
a high degree, and yet not even all these in the same manner. A
secular priest, for instance, is not called to practise poverty
in the same manner as a priest of a religious order, although he
or even a layman living in the world may practise that counsel,
as he may the other counsels, too, just as perfectly as any monk
ever heard of. All depends on the grace one has. His vocation and
his responsibility and his position in heaven all hang on his
fidelity to grace.
All Christians should practise the counsel of poverty. Yes, both
rich and poor. The spirit of poverty is detachment from created
things. One's heart must not be set on them. One must not love
riches for their own sake. One must feel obliged to share with
the poor. One must not despise the poor, but love them for
Christ's sake.
{429}
One must give a good deal for religious purposes. One must keep
his baptismal vows to renounce the devil and all his pomps. One
must, therefore, deny himself in many things that savor of the
pride of riches, even if he is rich. Why? Not because he is a
monk, nun, or priest, but because he is a Christian.
Every Christian must practise the counsel of chastity. Heaven
help us! In these degraded times, to judge by the fashionable
indecencies sanctioned by so-called society people--the horrible
abuses of the holy state of marriage, the filthy accounts
appearing every day in the newspapers--one would think that even
the Sixth Commandment was abolished. Now I need not enter into
particulars, but you know, without further argument or
illustration, that every Christian man, woman, and child would be
unworthy the name if they did not, almost every day, make many
sacrifices and struggles against temptation--all of which mean
practising the counsel of the Christian perfection of chastity.