is just. It is the fourth: "Blessed are they who hunger and
thirst after justice: for they shall be filled." Yes, God will
reward them plenteously. The Psalmist says of them: "The just
shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow up like the
cedar of Libanus; they shall increase to a fruitful old age, that
they may show that the Lord our God is righteous." [Footnote 115]
[Footnote 115: Ps. xci. 13, 15.]
[USCCB: Ps. xcii. 13, 15.]
IV. __Whatsoever things are holy__. The vice of the world is
irreligion. Its votaries do not believe in sanctity. Unholy in
their lives, so are their thoughts. They are ever ready to scoff
at holy persons and things, and to stigmatize the pious as
hypocrites. But the Christian is slow to suspect evil. To his
pure mind all things are pure. His religion, which is the law of
his life, he knows to be replete with holiness; that it is holy
in doctrine, holy in its moral teachings, and glorious in the
great multitude of its saints. And just so far as his religion
guides him, and exercises its hallowing influence over him, just
so far will he delight to think upon what is holy and pure. There
are times when the evil we are forced to witness becomes a severe
trial to us. Scandals are now and then brought to light which
grieve the saints, bring the blush of shame to the cheek of the
good Christian, and not unfrequently destroy the faith of the
lukewarm.
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"Scandals must needs come," said our Saviour; but is it,
therefore, necessary for us to think about them and brood over
them? No; there is good enough for our thoughts, good enough for
us to glory in, and for which to praise God. The Church never
bears her name in vain. She is always the __Holy__ Catholic
Church; and we should rather be striving to prove that holiness
in our own lives, "pressing forward towards the mark, for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," than stay and
linger on the way, losing our time in mourning an evil we see and
cannot remove.
There is a beatitude for those whose thoughts are holy. It is the
sixth: "Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God."
The pure-minded, the holy in heart, are those who are most dear
to God. Brethren, this is a blessing worth winning, and it is
easily won. Remember that the Lord is nigh. Keep your thoughts in
the presence of God, and you will prepare your hearts and minds
to see Him in the clear vision of His glory, which is promised to
the clean of heart.
V. __Whatsoever things are amiable__. To the Christian there
is something sacred in all the beauties of nature and of grace.
In everything he sees the hand of God, and all the acts of
Providence are admirable, and he does not need to be told that
they are the best that could happen.
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One who has such thoughts is sure to be a kind-hearted soul. The
world wears easily with him, for he sees only what is pleasant,
is long mindful of favors, and quickly forgets and forgives
injuries. If his friends happen to be at a disagreement with him,
or even among one another, it is a positive pain to him. He is
uneasy until it is all made up again. It gives him unfeigned
delight to bring about a reconciliation between people at
variance. Oh! charming and beautiful is such a soul! Sweet is the
interior peace which it enjoys. He is filled with thoughts of
kindness and gentleness because he thinks on those things that
are amiable.
There is a beatitude for such. It is the seventh: "Blessed are
the peace-makers: for they shall be called the children of God."
Let us strive, dear brethren, to merit this blessing during holy
Advent time, when we are preparing to meet our Lord, who came to
bring peace on earth to men of good-will.
VI. __Whatsoever things are of good repute__. I love to see
good honest pride. It tells me that there is a desire not only to
be respected by men, but to stand well and blameless before God.
How much sin would be avoided if Christians would only be more
thoughtful of the character and name they bear! And how many
could easily be rescued from shame and degrading despair if one
could inspire them with true self-respect!
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One day, there came to a priest a young man in the lowest state
of moral cowardice from drunkenness. He thought it was of no use
to try to retrieve himself, and his friends looked upon him as a
hopeless case. The priest, however, did not say one word of
reproach to him. He did not need that, poor fellow; he was down
enough already. But he shook him warmly and encouragingly by the
hand, and said to him, "Why, my dear sir, you have only to think
what I believe about you, and in three months time you will be
one of the most respectable members of the church." He heard
himself called "sir," and "my __dear__ sir," and it would have
delighted you to see the change that came over him. He brightened
up immediately, his eyes filled with tears, and, returning the
pressure of the priest's hand, he said, with a voice choked with
emotion, "So I will, father"; and he departed full of hope, and
strengthened to make good his resolution. Thoughts of good repute
will shut the mouths of backbiters and slanderers, and will
school the tongue to speak well of every one. The love of our own
good repute should teach us to be merciful to others. For, if
there was one who knew all our sins as we ourselves know them,
and threatened to expose us before the world, how piteously would
we cry to him for mercy, and beseech him to spare the good name
we hold!
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He who would have that mercy shown to him, let him show it to
others, and bury the knowledge he possesses of their shame in
that deep oblivion and secrecy in which he would wish to hide his
own.
There is a beatitude for such. It is the fifth: "Blessed are the
merciful: for they shall obtain mercy."
VII. __If there be any virtue, if there be any praise of
discipline__. The presence and influence of the Holy Ghost in
the Church has infused into her members a spirit whose manifest
workings have made the world stand in awe. It is Christian
fortitude. This has enabled the martyr to smile in the midst of
torture, and changed the dungeon into an ante-chamber of heaven.
This has nerved the missionary to bid an eternal farewell to
home, friends, and kindred, and carried him with a fearless heart
into the haunt of the savage, to the shore of the cannibal, and
to the land of the relentless and cruel pagan who gloats over the
horrible death he makes a Christian die. This it is that gives
strength to timid, weak woman to put on the habit of sacrifice,
and enter the pestilential wards of the hospital with a cheerful
step, and watch through the long and weary night by the bedside
of the dying stranger, whose contagious disease carries death to
her own brave heart.
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This gives her courage to face the cannon's mouth, and stand amid
shot and shell ready to bind up the bleeding wounds of the
soldier, or to waste and wear her life away in seeking out,
teaching, and reforming the vilest outcasts upon the streets.
This it is that covers the Little Sister of the Poor with a
panoply of heroism as she goes from door to door begging for the
superannuated and bedridden wretches whom she has picked up out
of the gutters, or from the purlieus and filthy alleys of the
city, degraded, friendless, and miserable from want or disease;
and it wreathes her head with a halo of glory as she sits down
with a merry laugh to eat the scraps of food which they have
left, or puts on the thin and ragged dress which is not warm
enough or good enough for her dear old poor.
This Christian fortitude, this heavenly virtue, this divine power
of discipline and mastery over souls, is seen in the earnestness
and the fearlessness of all the deeds of charity and mercy, of
all the admonitions and exhortations, and even of the threats and
warnings of God's Holy Church to the nations of the earth. She is
able to teach her children to carry out the lesson of the Lord:
"Fear not them that kill the body, and after that have no more
that they can do." [Footnote 116]
[Footnote 116: St. Luke xii. 4.]
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Oh! let us think a little upon this virtue, this discipline
worthy of all praise, and it will lead us to be more trusting and
loyal to the Church, and also to obey her commands the more
readily who, like her Divine Founder, "speaks as one having
authority." A thought for the Holy Advent time: for at the bottom
of it all lies the grand reason of the Church's existence and
work. She prepares men for the coming of the Lord. She is looking
for the establishment and triumph of the kingdom of our Lord on
the earth. The principle of her actions, which she learned at the
foot of her Master's cross and with which she inspires her
children, is this: Sacrifice for love; suffering for justice's
sake.
She wins a blessing for it. It is the last: "Blessed are they who
suffer persecution for justice's sake: for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven." I have not brought the beatitudes to mind in
connection with these Advent thoughts without reason. St. Paul
has a promise of beatitude to those who think on these things--a
comprehensive beatitude, the sum of all happiness: "And the God
of peace shall be with you" [Footnote 117]--a blessing, my dear
brethren, which I hope we may all enjoy when the coming Christmas
shall bring the angelic salutation to our ears: "__Pax hominibus
bonæ voluntatis!__"
[Footnote 117: Phil. iv. 9.]
--------------------
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Sermon XXII.
Fraternal Charity.
(For The Festival Of St. John The Evangelist.)
I Epistle St. John ii. 10.
"__He that loveth his brother abideth in the light,
and there is no scandal in him__."
We celebrate to-day the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, the
Apostle who is distinguished in Holy Scripture as the disciple
whom Jesus loved, and who is represented as leaning on the bosom
of the Lord at the Last Supper. Now, we may ask what is the
reason the Lord showed this marked preference and especial
affection for St. John above the other Apostles? It must have
been because St. John was more like the Lord than any of the
others, for God must always love us in proportion as we approach
His divine image and likeness. The more we put on Christ--that
is, the more we are clothed with the thoughts, ideas, feelings,
and dispositions of Christ, the more is Christ attracted to us in
love.
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Now, what was the characteristic virtue of this great Apostle,
which rendered him so like to Christ and so dear to Him? It was
his tender and overflowing love to his neighbor--that is, to all
his fellow-men. He is pre-eminently the Apostle of fraternal
charity, or of the love of one's neighbor.
Nothing, then, will please St. John better today than to speak of
the excellence of this virtue, which was the continual subject of
his discourse.
What, dear brethren, is the end and object for which we live in
this world? Undoubtedly it is to acquire the love of God. This
divine love will render us for ever blessed, and we shall be
blessed just in the proportion we have acquired it. The greatest
saints are those who have loved God best; the least in heaven are
those who have loved Him least; but all must love God in some
degree, or there is no place in heaven for them.
Now, I assert that the easiest, shortest, and most efficient road
to the love of God is the love of our neighbor, or of our
fellow-man, who is designated by the word neighbor. I assert it
on the authority of St. John himself, who has laid it down in the
clearest manner. We read in the breviary of to-day this beautiful
narrative of St. Jerome:
"The blessed John the Evangelist, whilst he was living at
Ephesus, in his extreme old age, was scarcely able to be
brought to the church by the hands of his disciples, and could
not weave together many words into a sentence. He did nothing
at the different assemblies but repeat the same words, 'My
little children, love one another.' At last the disciples and
brethren who were present, getting tired of always hearing the
same thing, said: Master, why do you always repeat this? He
replied in a sentiment worthy of St. John: 'Because it is the
precept of the Lord, and if this alone be observed it is
sufficient.'"
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How beautiful is this! "Little children, love one another," and,
"This alone is sufficient." We must love one another with the
sincerity, the artlessness, of little children. There must be no
hypocrisy about our love; it must be genuine, and flow from the
right fountain. And what is this fountain? It is the love of God.
Our love of our fellow-men must proceed from the love of God. We
must love him for the sake of God, and because God wishes us to
love him, and because he represents God to us.
There is a love which is not on account of God, but, on the
contrary, opposed to God, and which destroys the love of God in
us. A parent, for example, is distractedly fond of a child
because the child is beautiful, or talented, or amiable, and this
child is consequently indulged and spoiled; is educated for show
and vanity, or, to sum it all up, exclusively for this
short-lived world and its object.
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Such love as this does not lead to God, but turns the soul away
from Him. With passionate eagerness it fixes it on the present,
as its last end and chief good, and quenches its thirst for God,
who is the only last end and chief good for which it was created.
We must love our neighbor, because we see in him an immortal
soul, created to the image and likeness of God, and destined to
participate at last in the glory and happiness of God. We must
love our neighbor, because he has been bought by the blood of
Jesus Christ, his God, who was willing to lay down His life for
him, after thirty years of toil and hardship, suffering the agony
of the cross.
Now, dear brethren, let me explain this a little more
practically. You see a person who is in some respects repugnant
to you. His manners and ways of acting are not pleasant to you;
indeed, some of his actions are very disagreeable. Well, then, if
you are actuated in loving your neighbor by the love of God, you
will not allow your mind to dwell on these things so far as to
conceive a dislike or hatred, but, on the contrary, you will rise
above such thoughts, by considering his relation to God. You will
see God in him, and this will keep your mind sweet, gentle, and
kind towards him.
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This is what our Lord says: "You have heard what has been said:
Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy; but I say unto
you, Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you, and pray
for them that persecute and calumniate you, that you may be the
children of your Father who is in heaven; who maketh His sun to
rise upon the good and the bad, and raineth upon the just and the
unjust. For if you love those that love you, what reward shall
you have? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute
your brethren only, what do you more? Do not also the heathen the
same? Be ye perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect." [Footnote 118]
[Footnote 118: St. Matt. v. 43-48.]
There, Christians, is the doctrine of our Lord and Master, Jesus
Christ. If it is not yours also, is it proper to call you by His
name, Christians? Should you not rather be called, according to
His way of naming, heathens and publicans?
But how many objections are raised against this plain and
heavenly doctrine? How much repugnance and fighting against it!
You see a poor man in the street, or in his miserable shanty. He
is ragged and dirty, for rags and dirt are often necessary
accompaniments of poverty. Do you see in him Jesus Christ? No;
only an object of disgust. Instead of relieving him, you begin to
reason. Why does he not go to work?
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He is idle and shiftless. If he is relieved, he will be just the
same. Instead of helping him, let him be forced by stress of
poverty and starvation to find work. And after all, the poor man
has done his best, and at least should not have to bear
undeserved reproach, as well as his poverty.
My dear brethren, how is it possible that we should have this
right love of our neighbor, which is supernatural, unless we love
him for God's sake; unless we hunger and thirst to please God and
acquire His justice, and unless we pray constantly to God to
grant us this wonderful effect of His goodness?
Let us understand, then, that, if we will acquire the love of
God, we must pray for the love of our neighbor, and then act it
out in all sincerity whenever an opportunity offers itself to us.
St. John tells us in his epistle: "How can we love God whom we
have not seen, when we love not our neighbor whom we have seen?"
This text deserves an explanation. You desire to love God more;
you feel that this love is of more value to you than anything
else; this prompts you to fall upon your knees and beg earnestly
for it. You say My God, give me Thy love; give me a great decree
of this love. Then comes the natural thought What shall I do to
acquire this treasure? How shall I conduct myself and order my
life, so as constantly to preserve and increase it?
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If God would only show Himself to me, and I could behold His
beauty, and experience His goodness, then I should know how to
love Him. Why does He not reveal Himself?
But all is dark, all is silent. God is hidden: we cannot form a
picture of Him in our minds. We have never seen God at any time,
and we shall not see Him as long as we remain in the flesh.
But God and our Lord Jesus Christ walk the streets every day. We
meet them whenever we go abroad. How is that? It is in the person
of every one we meet, particularly of the poor, the miserable,
and the despised. The promise is absolute: "Inasmuch as ye did it
unto one of these, ye did it unto Me." Love one of these poor
men, entertain a sentiment of compassion for him, and you have
made a genuine act of love of God. Entertain an habitual love for
him, and respect him for the sake of the One he represents, and
you will form the habit of God's love in your soul.
When St. Martin cut his cloak in two, and gave half of it to a
poor man he met on the roadside, our Lord appeared to him the
same night with the half cloak upon his shoulders, and said:
"Martin the catechumen (St. Martin was at that time under
instruction for his baptism) has clothed Me in this garment."
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In the account of the last judgment, everything is described as
being settled on this one principle. "Then the King shall say to
them that shall be on the right hand: Come, ye blessed of My
Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat: I was
thirsty, and you gave Me to drink: I was a stranger, and ye took
Me in: naked, and ye clothed Me: sick, and ye visited Me. I was
in prison, and ye came to Me. Then shall the just answer: Lord,
when did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee; thirsty, and gave Thee
drink? and when did we see Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or
naked, and covered Thee? or when did we ever see Thee sick or in
prison, and visit Thee? And the King answering, shall say to
them: Amen, I say to you, as long as ye did it unto the least of
these, my brethren, ye did it unto Me." [Footnote 119]
[Footnote 119: St. Matt. xxv. 34-40.]
This is what the saints understood and fully realized. St.
Catharine of Sienna found an old woman sick of the leprosy. She
was so disgusting and loathsome an object that everybody had
deserted her, and she was perishing of neglect and starvation.
The saint gladly took charge of her, cleansed her sores, prepared
her food, and lavished upon her every possible attention.
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The mother of the saint was not so charitable. She heard of her
daughter's proceedings, and became very angry. In her fear of the
infection, she forbade her to attend the sick woman any longer.
But St. Catharine pleaded our Lord's case so strongly that her
mother was obliged to yield. Then the old woman, overcome by her
miseries, took a dislike to her, and repaid her kindness by a
constant torrent of the foulest abuse. St. Catharine, in spite of
all this, never relaxed her kindness a moment. As a further
trial, she caught the infection, and her hands were all covered
with the loathsome disorder. But nothing deterred her from her
purpose until she had the satisfaction of receiving the last
breath of this poor creature, who died in sentiments of the
deepest contrition. Then the saint finished her work by burying
her with her own hands, and, as she cast the earth into the
grave, those hands became instantly freed from all traces of
disease, and became white and more beautiful than ever before.
If we love for God's sake, we shall love all, and no one will be
excluded from our love. Love will flow from our hearts, like the
water from a perpetual, inexhaustible fountain, which makes all
the soil it waters fertile, producing rich fruits and beautiful
flowers, These fruits and flowers of divine charity are well
enumerated by St. Paul: "Charity is patient, is kind: charity
envieth not, dealeth not perversely: is not puffed up; is not
ambitious; seeketh not her own; is not provoked to anger;
thinketh no evil: rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the
truth: beareth all things; believeth all things; hopeth all
things; endureth all things." [Footnote 120]
[Footnote 120: I Cor. xiii. 4-7.]
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Dear brethren, let us reflect on this virtue of fraternal
charity, and resolve to increase in it. Let us be more pleasant
and kinder in our way of speaking. Let us look more kindly upon
others, and their ways of acting. Let us endeavor to maintain
towards all such a manner of speaking and acting as we suppose
our Lord Jesus Christ to have had, and, altogether, be more
amiable than we have ever been before. Indeed, let us set no
bounds within our own hearts to our love of our fellow-men.
Every action of love, no matter how small, will increase the love
of God in our hearts. Everyone will be another stroke of the oar
which drives forward the little boat of our soul toward the
kingdom of heaven. Every one will be an increase of merit and of
eternal reward.