among Catholics, seem to be entirely ignorant of the laws and
requirements of the church on this subject. They appear to think
that nothing has to be done but to call on the priest some fine
evening, and that he will marry them then and there. And if it is
not convenient to go to the priest, or if he makes any difficulty
about it, why, then a Protestant minister or his honor the mayor
will do at a pinch.
Now there are several points which these people need instruction
about, and several mistakes which they make in this very
important affair. We shall have to consider them separately. And
we will begin with the greatest mistake of all which can be
fallen into by Catholics who wish to get married, and that is to
go to a Protestant minister for the purpose.
What is, then, the harm exactly of going to a Protestant minister
to get married? Is it that a Protestant minister is an immoral or
vicious character, with whom we should have nothing to do? By no
means. He is, indeed, more likely to be to blame for his errors
in religion than his people, for he has, from his greater
knowledge in religious matters, a better chance to know the
truth; but even a minister may be in good faith about his
doctrine. And in other respects he may be a worthy and estimable
gentleman.
{493}
But the reason why Catholics should avoid going to him for
marriage is that marriage is one of the seven sacraments which
our Lord has entrusted to the keeping of his church. These
sacraments, then, belong to the church, and we cannot recognize
the right of those who separate from her to administer them or to
assist officially at them, though they may have the power to do
so validly. Therefore, though marriage be real and valid when
contracted before a Protestant minister, and though his own
people, of course, are not to blame, if in good faith, for
availing themselves of his services, we cannot do so. In deed,
this would be the case even if marriage were not a sacrament, but
merely a religious rite or ceremony; we cannot allow the
ministers of any sect separated from the church to act as such
for us in any religious function; to do so would be to allow
their claim to act in the name of Christ. This we can never do,
and, above all, where the sacraments are concerned.
Another, and a very weighty reason, why Catholics cannot go
before a minister for marriage, is that no one but the Catholic
clergy can be supposed to be sufficiently acquainted with the
laws of God and of the church regarding Christian marriage. There
are impediments, as they are called, which make marriage invalid
unless a dispensation is obtained from the proper source. Some of
these are commonly known, such as those which proceed from a near
relationship of the parties; but there are others which are not
known even by name to the great mass of the faithful, and which a
Protestant minister, even should he happen to know them, would
never for a moment regard.
{494}
Catholics, therefore, if they go to a minister to get married,
run a great risk of not being really married at all, owing to
these impediments not being detected or attended to. By the law
of the State their marriage may be a good and real one, but in
the sight of God it will not be so, if any such impediment should
exist, and not have been removed by dispensation; and this holds,
even though no suspicion of such an impediment should have
arisen. You see, then, how important it is in this matter to
consult those who are competent to advise them.
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Sermon CLI.
Joy In God's Service.
_Let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts, ...
and be, ye, thankful._
--Colossians iii. 15.
Of the several great lessons contained in to-day's Epistle, the
one most insisted on and brought out is that of thankfulness and
joyfulness in the service of God.
In the labors of St. Paul (and his labors were more abundant than
all the Apostles), in his frequent tribulations and crosses, he
never ceased giving thanks in all things--nor did he ever tire of
inculcating this same duty on the first Christians. If, then, my
brethren, thankfulness and joyfulness are such a great part of
religion, it would be well this morning to see if they be
characteristic of our service. We have a multitude of reasons for
being thankful to God, if we but thought of them--the gifts of
nature--life, health, strength, the pleasures and gratifications
of the mind, learning, objects of interest, of study and beauty,
both in nature and art, the pleasures of home, the joys of
friendship.
{495}
These are real and great benefits; they are causes of joy and
motives of thankfulness. Our good God intended us to find
enjoyment in the moderate use of them, not, indeed, as ends in
themselves, but as means to our one great end. And so he has
spread the charm of beauty over this place of our sojourn and
made it pleasant and interesting, lest we lose heart and become
sad, and languish on our journey to heaven.
But to speak of higher gifts and benefits: What motives of joy
and thankfulness ought we not to find in the knowledge of God,
his truth, mercy, and goodness as made known to us in the
Scripture and in his Divine Son, our Saviour and friend, the
God-Man; in the gift of the faith, the spiritual riches of the
church and the sacraments, his mercies to us
personally--blessings on our labors, the removal of dangers from
our paths, his gracious forgiveness of our sins, time and again.
Then, too, what we expect and through his mercy count on for the
future--the joys of heaven, those delights which pass our
understanding. The life of heaven will be pure joy, and its one
occupation thankfulness. Surely, then, this life should be a
figure and foretaste of it; and so St. Paul thought, for he bids
us "be thankful," "rejoice and rejoice always"; singing in grace
in our hearts, and in every word and work giving thanks to God.
{496}
It is plain that, since God has done his part in bestowing the
benefits in such abundant measure, we should do ours in returning
thanks, for gratitude is the correlative of benefit. It is
equally plain that the true religion is joyful. Now, is such our
religion? Is this the way we act? Is it the way we consider God's
service? We see, I think, more anxious and sad faces than
thankful and glad ones; and I fear that the joyfulness of the
latter does not come generally from the reasons I have given. It
comes too often from worldly causes, from success in temporal
things, from hopes and prospects which relate to indifferent
things, if they are not dangerous and positively bad. Whereas the
common idea of religion is that it is an unpleasant, sad, up-hill
sort of a thing, which imposes restraints upon us, and, far from
being a cause of thankfulness and joy, is a great interference
with the pleasure of life. Pious people, too, are regarded as
dull, simple, spiritless creatures, quite the opposite of joyful.
This is all wrong, all false, and, if it be our religion, then we
_have not_ the true religion, at least practically. For as
God's benefits are real and great, so our thanks and joy should
be in them and correspond to them. Religion, being our highest
duty, should be and can be our highest pleasure. God says it is,
and he is truth; those who have tried say the same. "What shall I
render to God for all he hath rendered to me?"--"better one day in
thy courts than a thousand years in the tents of sinners"--"taste
and see how sweet the Lord is." Our consciences and
experience bear out the same truth; for surely evil cannot be
compared to good in fulness, in intensity; and, above all, it
will not wear, it will not last, and it leaves us dissatisfied,
fearful, sad. The pleasure and joy of a good life to a good man
even here are far greater than the pleasure of sin to a sinner.
{497}
Let us, then, make up our minds, once for all, that not only is
religion the most necessary, but the wisest and the happiest
thing for us. Let us serve God with thankfulness, both for what
he has done and will do for us, if we are faithful. If he has
done so much in this state of probation, exile, and punishment,
what will he not do when the time of reward and enjoyment
arrives. Surely, considering what we are and what we have done,
the pains and crosses bear no proportion to the benefits, and we
have cause even in present labors to be thankful and in every
word and work to give him praise through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Sermon CLII.
Forgive And Be Forgiven.
"_Bearing with one another
and forgiving one another,
if any have a complaint against another.
Even as the Lord hath forgiven you,
so you also._"
--Colossians iii. 13.
This, my dear brethren, is the law of Christ. It is a law we are
bound to keep. We cannot save our souls unless we do keep it.
There is no possible way to escape its requirements, for our Lord
himself declares positively: "But if you will _not_ forgive
men, _neither_ will your Father forgive _you your
offences_" (Matthew vi. 15). Therefore, there is no way to
save our souls, no way to be true Christians in life, unless we
forgive all and every one, without exception, every injury they
have done us.
{498}
But one may say: I do forgive all who have injured me if they
repent, say they are sorry, and ask pardon! My dear brethren,
this won't do. You must forgive whether they repent or not.
Nothing less will satisfy the Lord. The best reason is that since
the Lord has forgiven us, so we also are bound to forgive all. A
true lover of the Lord doesn't want a better reason. A greater or
a better cannot be given. Our Lord himself has set the example.
He has taken our sins upon himself, and caused the Eternal Father
to forgive us our sins for his sake beforehand, before we have
even repented or shown by a single sign that we want to belong to
God and to hate sin. Do we not receive in our baptism, as
infants, the grace that destroys original sin? Original sin
placed us under the power of the devil, and made us unworthy to
be called the sons of God, but our Christian baptism made us
again the sons of God. Does not God forgive us also our mortal
sins, giving us time to repent, and even waiting patiently for
our repentance? Remember, these sins after baptism are all the
greater because after being made innocent we again become guilty.
But some try to excuse themselves and say: It is hard to have to
do this; I can't do it. The sin against me is too great; it ought
not to be forgiven. This is not true. There is nothing we can't
forgive, nothing we are permitted to leave unforgiven. We can
forgive any sin against us if we will. If it is hard, pray and it
will become easy. Sincere prayer for him who is our enemy is sure
to remove very soon all feeling against him. This is certain:
that it will, _without fail_, prevent the malice and revenge
in our hearts from overcoming us and causing us to sin grievously
against charity. Remember that everything we do well for our Lord
is hard at first, but is made easy by prayer and faithful,
persevering effort.
{499}
Again, some object: I try to pray but cannot, because when I pray
I think of my wrongs and begin to hate my enemy, so that my
prayer is insincere or stops on my lips! Then pray for all poor
sinners, and don't mean to leave your enemy out of your prayers.
This is a good beginning, and keeps you from mortal sin, for pray
we must _for our enemies_. This is a fundamental law of the
Christian life. If we intentionally leave out one single soul
when we pray for all poor sinners, we sin in the very presence of
God, and our prayers are rejected; nor shall they be accepted
until we include that soul also.
Let us remember, my dear brethren, that we are called by our Lord
to show to the world that being the friends of God means that he
puts into our souls his loving, merciful, long-suffering Spirit,
and thus makes us like to himself. Does any one want to be
God-like? Then let him forgive from his heart every injury and
all who injure him.
To gain courage to forgive, let us see what forgiveness does. It
saves God's honor. It prevents his being insulted. For example:
when one insults us, he sins against God and insults him also. If
we answer back, we also insult God, and make two sins instead of
one. Next, our angry answer makes our enemy reply again; for
another sin are we responsible. So it goes on until a number of
sins are committed by each one. Silence on our part would have
prevented these insults to God and left our souls unstained. We
were not silent. The consequence is we not only increased
another's sin, but we added our own and lost the friendship of
God.
{500}
Had a forgiving spirit been in each soul this could not have
happened. Had it been in one of them, one soul at least would
have been kept from sin. Cultivate, then, a forgiving spirit, and
"even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so you also" forgive all.
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