of you pretend to belong to and to obey, has solemnly declared,
in the twenty-second canon of the Third Council of Lateran, that
all priests are absolutely forbidden to give absolution to those
who remain in any employment, profession, or business which they
cannot pursue without sin, because they remain in the occasions
of sin.
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But you insist that such is your business, bad as it is, and you
have been brought up to that. Yes, I know it is a bad business,
and will be your destruction. And I wish to know if a man must
remain a thief because he has been brought up a thief, and never
learned an honest trade?
"But the loss, father; I cannot afford it." Do you not hear the
words of Jesus Christ thundering in your ears: "If thy right eye
offend thee, pluck it out. If thy right hand offend thee, cut it
off. For it were better for thee to enter lame and blind into
life everlasting, than, having two hands or two eyes, to be cast
into hell-fire"? [Footnote 19] Where is your Christian faith and
trust in God? "Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and
all these things will be added unto you." [Footnote 20]
[Footnote 19: St. Matt. v. 29.]
[Footnote 20: St. Matt. vi. 33.]
No, no, there is not a single excuse which will avail you. I wish
I could find one. Many and many a time I have wished I could
frame an excuse for it, when the fact has been thrown into my
face that so many of our people are engaged in this diabolical,
unchristian traffic, and, as a consequence, have propagated
amongst us the vice and miseries of drunkenness.
{87}
Do you love your good name as a citizen? Have you any manly pride
left? Do you love your religion? Would you shrink from being the
instrument of damnation to your neighbor's soul, or of tying the
hands of the priest and preventing the spread of the true faith
in our country? Do you love your own immortal soul? Do you hope
for heaven? Would you like to hear the approval of your Divine
Lord and Master on the Last Great Day of Account? Oh! rise up to
the dignity of the Christian vocation to which you are called.
Stir up within your hearts that fire of generosity which is never
totally extinguished in the Catholic breast, and learn to
sacrifice something for the love of God and for the salvation of
your neighbor's soul.
Believe me, brethren, I have drawn no exaggerated picture of this
evil, nor deduced any unwarrantable conclusions. So lamentably
true is it all, that, were I to preach this sermon in almost any
town or city in the country, there would be found among my
hearers some who might imagine I was describing the character and
life of their own brother or father, near relation or intimate
acquaintance.
I appeal to you, therefore, loyal Catholics, to set your faces
against the traffic; to aid the priesthood, in company with all
who love God and have the social advancement of our people at
heart, in denouncing and laboring to extirpate this scandal from
our midst.
{88}
To you who have hitherto been engaged in it, from whatsoever
motive, I appeal; and beseech of you, with all the fatherly
affection of a Christian priest, and with the supplicating tears
and sighs of many a broken heart, for God's sake, for the
Church's sake, for your soul's sake, to resolve now, and make
that resolution good, that hence forth no man shall point the
finger of scorn at you and say: "Woe to him that giveth drink to
his friend, and presenteth his gall, and maketh him drunk."
------------------
{89}
Sermon VI.
Communion With Jesus.
(For Holy Thursday.)
St. John vi. 57.
[USCCB: John vi. 56.]
"__He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood
abideth in Me, and I in him.__"
It is right, my dear brethren, that, on this Holy Night we should
meditate upon and speak of the solemn and wonderful scene which
is commemorated by the Holy Church, the sad farewell which our
dear suffering Master took of his disciples before giving Himself
up to be crucified, and the institution of the sacred memorial
Sacrifice, through which He intended to remain with us always, to
be an ever-present Lover and Friend, the Divine Victim for our
altars, and the Supreme Offering of thanksgiving for the whole
world. Kind Lord, I would I had the tongue of angels to tell the
story of all Thou didst on this night for me and all who truly
believe in Thee, for human speech is feeble where Thou, my God
and my Saviour, art the theme. Help me by Thy grace.
{90}
Help these Thy people, whose hearts are yearning to hear what
Thou hast done; help them, that they may know and understand it
better than I can tell them!
The Gospel tells us that our Lord made an appointment with His
disciples to meet them, and to eat the Paschal Supper alone with
them. "And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve
disciples with Him." They met in a large upper chamber, far from
tumult and noise. Look in, my dear brethren, upon that group.
Jesus you cannot fail to choose from among them all. There is a
strange beauty about that face, a beauty which at once attracts
and awes the beholder, and, what is more, the countenance tells
of the hidden beauty of his soul. There is revealed at one glance
the beauty of Holiness itself, the most spotless of all innocent
lives, the supreme perfection of all virtue, the mirror of all
truth. What kindness beams from out [of] those gentle eyes! What
a sweet expression plays about the half-parted lips, as a
harbinger of some holy words soon to be spoken! What a calm
majesty rests upon that broad, pale forehead, needing no crown of
gold to tell its royalty!
Nor would any one mistake who is Master here. One is the object
upon whose word, look, or movements the eyes of all the others
wait. They call Him Master. Well they may. He is truly Master of
all hearts. They call Him Teacher. Well they may.
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He is the source of all Truth, the Eternal Wisdom, the Word of
God. They call Him Lord. Well they may. He is Lord of lords, and
King of heaven and earth. It is Jesus. Seated there, only a few
know Him yet as He is. But the world will soon know Him, and
curse its ignorance and blindness on that day. Around Him are a
few disciples, of whom living men, in ignorance of their worth,
despise, but when they are dead their tombs will govern the
world.
No sooner are they assembled than they know that Jesus has
brought them together to bid them farewell. "With desire I have
desired to eat this pasch with you before I suffer." Yes, on the
morrow He was to be betrayed into the hands of wicked men, and to
die in expiation of the sins of the world.
But why this desire? The events will show. It was the time of the
great feast of the Passover, which the Jews kept every year to
commemorate the miracle which took place when that whole nation
was in bondage in Egypt--a miracle which brought about their
deliverance. Their Egyptian masters refused to set them free, in
spite of many warning plagues which God sent upon them; and at
last, one terrible night, the angel of God passed through that
doomed land, and in the morning the first-born in every Egyptian
house lay dead.
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The Israelites had been commanded by Almighty God, through Moses,
to prepare for this, and what they did became, as God intended, a
ceremony typical of the greatest mystery the world has ever
known--the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross, the deliverance of
the world from the slavery of sin and hell by that death, and the
institution of a sacrifice which, should be an ever-present,
continual, and lively memorial of that act. This is what they
did: They killed a lamb without spot or blemish; ate it with
unleavened bread; and sprinkled the door-posts of their houses
with its blood. "I am the Lord. The blood shall be unto you for a
sign in the houses where you shall be, and I shall see the blood,
and shall pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to
destroy you when I shall strike the land of Egypt." [Footnote 21]
[Footnote 21: Exod. xii. 13.]
The performance of this solemn commemorative ceremony was
obligatory upon every Jewish family, and this was the occasion
which brought our Lord and His disciples together, and you see
how exactly the sacrificial death of the Paschal Lamb, the
sprinkling of its blood on the door posts, typified the death of
Jesus, the Immaculate Lamb of God, whose blood was sprinkled on
the wood of the cross. But there is something else for us to
note. A part of the lamb was to be eaten, and with unleavened
bread.
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What was that a type of? Was Jesus, the Lamb of God, slain for
our sins, to be eaten, and with unleavened bread? Listen to what
He said some time before this night: "I am the living bread,
which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he
shall live for ever: and the bread which I will give is my flesh
for the life of the world." [Footnote 22]
[Footnote 22: St. John vi. 52.]
[USCCB: St. John vi. 51.]
Now, after the Paschal Supper was finished, Jesus took the
unleavened bread, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to them,
saying--"This is My body which is given for you. Do this for a
commemoration of Me. In like manner the chalice, saying, This is
the chalice, the New Testament in My blood, which shall be shed
for you." Here then, is a perfect fulfilment of the Old
Testament. Here is the real Paschal Sacrifice of the New
Testament. The supper-table becomes an altar; Jesus becomes,
under the forms of unleavened bread and wine, the victim, and He
is at the same time the priest. What He did Himself, he tells His
disciples to do. "Do this for a commemoration of Me." Then and
there He ordains and consecrates them to be priests, and gives
them the awful power of sacrificing His body and blood under the
forms of bread and wine.
{94}
From that supper-room they go forth to do His words, and to
receive the fulfilment of His promise: "I dispose to you, as My
Father hath disposed to Me, a kingdom: that you may eat and drink
at My table in My kingdom: and may sit upon thrones, judging the
twelve tribes of Israel." [Footnote 23]
[Footnote 23: St. Luke xxii. 29, 30.]
What was all that for? Why this sacrifice of the body and blood
of Jesus Christ? Why should this be repeated all over the world?
Listen once more: "He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood
abideth in Me, and I in him." The reason was that his disciples
and all others who should partake of that sacrifice might be
united to Him in the closest manner possible--"should abide in
Him, and He in them." We call that sacred act
Communion--communion with Jesus. That is what it is, brethren.
Our souls and bodies are united in a mysterious manner to the
Divine Person of our dear Lord and Saviour, who became man and
died on the cross for our salvation. He calls us to this
communion, and gives Himself to us as the sweetest pledge of His
Divine Love, as the most precious means of our sanctification, as
a comforting food, as a holy offering by which we may praise and
give thanks to God, as a feast of joy and the kiss of peace to
the forgiven sinner.
{95}
If the Cross be, as it is, the measure of sin by which we offend
Jesus, Communion is the measure of the love with which Jesus
loves us. Love is measured by sacrifice. One loves another only a
little if he is content to give up only a little in the other's
favor. His love is perfect if he willingly gives up all. This is
what our Lord does in Holy Communion. He sacrifices all for us,
because He sacrifices Himself. What do I mean by this sacrifice?
He makes Himself so utterly nothing for us, that He does not keep
even His appearance. He hides His divinity, His blessed and
beautiful Person, under the veils of bread and wine, and in that
state He abandons Himself so utterly to our power that we can do
what we will with Him. The life of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament
is a life of total self-abnegation. He does not even protect
Himself from ill-treatment, from the contempt and scoffing sneer
of the unbeliever, from the mockery of silly children, nor from
the horrible sacrileges committed against Him by bad Catholics.
He can suffer all that, and does so without a murmur, in order
that He may approach us, and that we may receive Him in such a
manner as shall be the best for our comfort, for our joy, for our
soul's peace. We know by experience, I hope, what a good, happy
communion is.
{96}
Is it not the moment of supreme happiness, and of such happiness
that nothing else is like it in the world? Then we cry Lord, now
that Thou art mine and I am Thine, I am all blessed. There is no
chord in the heart that does not vibrate with thrills of love at
the presence of Jesus. He makes us feel then, more than we can
express, how much He loves us; and cold must be the heart that
does not respond with some emotion to the sweetness of His loving
embrace.
The love of our dear Saviour for men is more ardent, more
constant, more, shall I say, anxious than __our__ love can
ever be; and the reason is, because __His__ love is wholly
unselfish. The life of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament proves it.
He does nothing there apparently for Himself, nor takes any
thought of Himself that we can divine. It is for us that He lives
so. For our love He has given up all.
You may say that it was by dying for us that He proved His love
the best, as He Himself said, "Greater love hath no man than that
he should lay down his life for his friend." Yes; but do you not
see that it is just in the Blessed Sacrament that He brings that
proof home to us? It is a memorial of His passion and death. He
has linked the two together, so that they make only one act. The
sacrifice of the Mass, in which the bread and wine are
consecrated into His body and blood, and the sacrifice of
Calvary, are one essential act.
{97}
It was in the night in which He was betrayed that He instituted
it. On __this__ night. What did He say? "This is My body which
is given for you. This is My blood which shall be shed for you.
Do this for a commemoration of Me"--of Me, upon whom the shadows
of death are already falling--of Me, who even now begin to be
sorrowful and sad at heart, knowing that My hour is come--of Me,
who to-morrow will be spit upon, and scourged, and crowned with
thorns, and nailed to a cruel cross, and suffer the bitter
agonies of a horrible death for you, My beloved--you for whom I
came into the world--you for whom I live--you for whom I die. "A
little while I leave you, and a little while I come unto you.
Remember that, when we shall meet again. When I come to you in
Holy Communion, then you will receive One who you know loved you
to the end. I will come to you, and be the surest pledge of what
I have done for you, and how much I have loved you."
Holy Communion is one of the most powerful means of
sanctification granted to us. What shall the presence of the
All-Holy be unable to do? What other light and grace could we
desire both to detect and shun all evil, and to delight in what
is pure and true? Oh! when Jesus comes to the willing heart, and
finds a welcome there, all is easy. No tempest of passion or of
doubt is to be feared when the Master is with us.
{98}
My dear brethren, this world is very foolish when it sneers at
the sanctification of the soul, or bids us follow its guidance in
getting rid of the power or shame of sin, and in our strivings
after higher and better things. Little it knows about the true
progress of the soul. Jesus, the Eternal Wisdom, is the sole
teacher. A fervent communion with Him will do what the world
cannot do. It will make us holy. It will make our souls sacred to
God--more sacred to Him than the altar before which we bow, or
the precious vessels upon it that hold His Body and Blood. If you
would confirm that sanctity, come often to the source of
sanctity. Come so often that He may be said to abide with you;
then will you surely live and die a saint.
In the next place, Communion is an act which possesses a peculiar
significance for the forgiven sinner. It should have. It was sin
that made Him die, and Communion is a memorial of His death. But
why is it that a contrite sinner, burdened with the memory of the
many outrages he has committed against Jesus Christ by his bad
life, by his cursing, his profanation of the Holy Name, his
drunkenness and debaucheries, his lies and thefts, his dark
crimes, it may be, that make even his brother men shun him as
they would a poisonous reptile--why is it, I ask, that even such
an one, coming, heartily sorry, to Confession, ready and eager to
amend his life and do better, and so receives absolution, should
have such a strange longing, as all forgiven sinners do have, to
get Communion, and that as soon as possible?
{99}
One would think they would rather fear to approach Him, and dread
to be confronted with the awful memorial of their crucified and
so cruelly offended Lord. Not so. Their hearts are Christian
after all; and He draws them to Him closer and closer by the
strong cords of love the moment they turn to Him. True, He
appoints His priest to forgive them in His name. But that does
not satisfy the desire with which He desires to be reconciled
with them in person. "Come to Me," He cries from the altar; "come
to Me now. My poor lost one. Come, get My kiss of peace. Come, we
have been separated too long. I have been watching you. I have
heard you praying. I saw you go into the confessional. I heard
you tell your sins. I saw the tears course down your cheeks. I
felt every throb of your heart. My hand, too, gave you absolution
and full forgiveness for all. You went there one of the devil's
own. Now you are Mine. Come, now, take Me to your heart. We will
be friends again, and I shall have only one reproach to make you;
Oh! why have you stayed so long away?" The forgiven sinner knows
Jesus is saying all this.
{100}
Do you wonder that he goes home from confession a happy man; that
he counts the hours until he can come back, and thinks the time
long until he can go up to the Holy Table, and there clasp his
long-forgotten and neglected Lord to his bosom? Oh! the earnest,
upturned face, radiant with joy, which makes the priest's hand
tremble with sympathetic emotion as he gives him the Holy
Sacrament. You have seen friends long separated and divided come
together and make up. You know what a touching scene it is. There
are smiles upon your lips and sparkling tears in your eyes at the
same moment. So it is often here when Jesus meets and makes up
with old hardened sinners. Blessed, a million times blessed, be
the kind and loving heart of Jesus, which, once laid open by the
spear, is never shut to any one who will enter in and abide
there.
Holy Communion is a Feast of Thanksgiving. That is the meaning of
the word Eucharist--thanksgiving. It is one of the names of the
Blessed Sacrament. You remember that when Jesus first broke the
bread on this night He gave thanks. He meant that we also should
use it as a worthy and precious thank-offering for all He has
done for us; for having created us; for having redeemed us; for
having died for us; for His great love in this Holy Sacrament;
for all the benefits with which He has crowned our lives.
{101}
Who is there that can approach here without crying out with the
Psalmist, "What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has
rendered to me? I will take the chalice of salvation, and call
upon the name of the Lord." [Footnote 24]
[Footnote 24: Ps. cxv. 3, 4.]
[USCCB: Ps. cxv. 12, 13.]
No word of thanks at your Communion--not a grateful thought in
your heart? Oh! how is this? Have you really come back to make up
with Him, or have you come--O horrible thought!--only like Judas
to betray Him? Does He say to you as He said to that lost
disciple, "Friend, dost thou betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"
Are you, then, half-minded to go back to your old sins? Have you
not, after all, given up the devil and his works? Then I do not
wonder that you are thankless and ungrateful. Then I do not
wonder at that cloud upon your brow, nor at the indifferent
manner in which you presume to receive the Body of your Lord.
Friend, that cloud is the shadow of impending damnation. For says
the apostle, "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and
drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Body of the
Lord." [Footnote 25]
[Footnote 25: I Cor. xi. 29.]
Oh! no; let me hope I am mistaken; that it is far otherwise with
you; that if indeed you may have ever done this before, you are
not come to repeat it now.
{102}
Now you have utterly cast off all sin and all intention to sin.
Now you wish to belong only to Jesus. Seeing from what a pit of
hell He has delivered you, and knowing to what a height of grace
and glory He has raised you, I feel sure you are only anxious
about one thing, and that is, how you can give expression to the
gratitude of which your heart is so full. Shall it be in long,
devout prayers, full of emotion and tender feeling, telling the
Lord over and over again that you are so thankful for what He has
done for you, for His great condescension and surpassing love?
Well, brethren, you may do that if you like, and I think Jesus
will be pleased with it. But that is not the only test of a
thankful heart. If you can say truly--O my Jesus! my dear Lord! I
love Thee above all; for Thee I love all that Thou hast loved,
even my enemies, and I forgive them all the offences they have
done to me, as freely and fully as Thou hast forgiven me; and now
it is my firm purpose never to commit another sin while I
live--then, dear brethren, I am sure you will praise Him aright.
Let your prayer be such as Blessed Henry Suso made in his
communion. His words are far better than mine, and they will be
more profitable to you. Let me end my discourse with them:
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"Lord, if my heart had the love of all hearts, my conscience the
purity of all angels, and my soul the beauty of all souls, so
that by Thy grace I should be worthy of Thee, I wish to receive
Thee to-day so affectionately, and so to bury and sink Thee to
the bottom of my heart and soul, that neither joy nor sorrow,
neither life nor death, could separate me from Thee. Amen."
--------------
{104}
Sermon VII.
The Holy Ghost, The Comforter.
For The Feast Of Pentecost.
St. John xiv. 16.
__"I will ask the Father,
and He will give you another Comforter,
that He may abide with you for ever."__
To-day is the Church's grand high festival of the coming of that
other Comforter, who abides for ever with those whom Jesus loves.
We are tempted to wonder why He, who had done so much for the
peace of the world, whose coming was the pledge of every joy to
the human heart, whose words are a healing balm for every wound,
a solace for every misery, and through whom comes all forgiveness
for sins, should not have remained Himself to bless and comfort
His own with His Divine presence.
What other Comforter of our souls would we ask or could we need
than Him? Oh! that He had stayed with us! Had we not all in
having Him? When the Father in His love sent Him to us, did he
not send all He could give? What other Comforter is there in
heaven to give that will be better than He?
{105}
Truly, brethren, we would not be able to imagine that anything
more or better could be done for us than that our Blessed Lord
should remain amongst us, had He not Himself said: "It is
expedient for you that I go; for if I do not, the Comforter will
not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you." [Footnote
26]
[Footnote 26: St. John xvi. 7.]
There is a mystery here which we cannot fathom, because we are
not able to fathom the works of God. Our Lord knew that it was
best for Him to depart, and that the Holy Ghost must come, as He
said, to bear testimony of Him, to teach all truth, to fill the
hearts of the faithful with grace, and kindle in them the fire of
Divine Charity, so that they might strive manfully for the faith,
and win the crown of everlasting joy set before them.
It is not in vain that our Lord called the Holy Ghost the
__Comforter__, which signifies the strengthener. We are weak,
vacillating, full of wandering desires, led away from God and
heaven by trifles, easily cast down and disheartened, in constant
danger by temptation, discouraged by doubts, crushed quickly
beneath some present sorrow, and fearful of the coming storms of
adversity and grief; and grace, which it is the office of the
Holy Ghost to bring to us, is the life-giving force which leads
and directs us, which enlightens, strengthens, and comforts us in
all.
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It is this which inspires the Holy Church, in the sequence of the
Mass for to-day, to cry