[Transcriber's notes: This production is based on
https://archive.org/details/fiveminutesermon00paul/page/n4]
{i}
Five Minute Sermons
For Low Masses on all Sundays of the Year by
Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul
Volume I.
Frederick Pustet & Co.,
Printers to the Holy Apostolic see and
The Sacred Congregation of Rites.
Ratisbon Rome New York Cincinnati
{ii}
Copyright, 1879
Fr. Pustet & Co.,
New York and Cincinnati
{iii}
Preface.
These short sermons were commenced in St. Paul's Church, New
York, toward the close of the year 1876. The motive for doing
this was that the great number of persons who generally attend
only a Low Mass on Sundays might enjoy the advantage of hearing
the word of God preached, without being delayed too long for
their convenience. For this reason they were limited in time to
five minutes, while the effort was made to condense within this
brief compass a sufficient amount of matter at once instructive
and hortatory, in plain and simple language, to answer the
practical purposes of a popular discourse. In order to secure
this twofold object of making the sermons so short that they
would not overrun the limit of five minutes, and at the same time
so solid and pungent that they would furnish a real nutriment and
stimulus to the minds and hearts of the audience, it was
obviously necessary that they should be carefully written out.
For each priest to write and commit to memory his own sermon
would be undertaking too much; and therefore the plan was adopted
of assigning to one the task of writing all the sermons, to be
read by each priest celebrating a Low Mass for the people.
{iv}
The sermons have been published every week in the _Catholic
Review_, and an advanced sheet of the printed copy, pasted on
a tablet, has been furnished, to be used in preaching the sermon
at each one of the Low Masses on the Sunday. The utility of these
sermons, the satisfaction they give to the people who hear them,
and the advantage which can be derived by reading them after they
have been published, are too obvious to need explanation. This
advantage we hope to make more extensive by now publishing the
greater part of the sermons which have been thus far preached,
and printed in a weekly newspaper, in the more convenient and
permanent form of a volume. It is hoped that they will be
practically useful to many priests who may read them, or use them
in preparing similar short sermons of their own for those
occasions when it is not practicable to give longer and more
elaborate discourses to their congregations. Many of them will be
found, besides, to furnish a nucleus for the composition of
sermons of the usual length and rhetorical completeness. To the
faithful they afford matter for spiritual reading and profitable
meditation which is all the better for being put into a brief and
simple shape.
{v}
The merit of devising and first carrying into execution this
excellent plan of preaching the Five-Minute Sermons at Low Mass
belongs to the late Rev. Algernon A. Brown, C.S.P. It is quite
proper to praise the works of one who has departed this life,
even though he was one of our own society. Many of the sermons
written by Father Brown and contained in the present volume are
masterpieces in the art of miniature discourse. They are not
fragments or sections of sermons, reading like pages taken from
longer discourses or meditations, but genuine sermonettes, each
one complete and perfect in itself. They are marked, also, by a
grave and solemn earnestness remarkable in the utterances of so
very young a priest, and seeming to be like a shadow from a very
near proximity to the eternal world, cast over his spirit as he
rapidly drew near to the goal of his appointed course. It will
surely be deemed appropriate, and prove agreeable to the readers
of this volume of sermons, that a few lines should be consecrated
to the memory of the one who may justly be called its author,
although the greater portion of its actual contents came from
others who succeeded to him in the task from which he was called
away at so early a period of his sacerdotal life.
Father Algernon Brown, the son of a respectable physician who is
still living and resides in the Isle of Wight, was born at
Cobham, Surrey, England, May 30, 1848. He was bred in the
Established Church of England, and during his early youth was
educated at a ritualistic school in Brighton.
{vi}
His tastes and predilections were ecclesiastical, and he entered
warmly into the study and practice of the doctrinal, moral, and
liturgical views and ways of the Anglican ritualists. At the age
of eighteen he was received into the Catholic Church by Father
Knox, of the Oratory, and went first to St. Edmund's College,
afterwards to Prior Park, in order to prepare himself for the
priesthood.
After nearly completing his course, and having already received
minor orders, he came in 1871, with two younger brothers, both
converts, and one of the two an ecclesiastical student, to the
United States, and was ordained priest by the Most Rev.
Archbishop Purcell in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, May 25,
1872.
In the year 1874 he was received as a member of the Congregation
of Paulists after a year's novitiate. During the four years which
elapsed between this period and that of his death Father Brown
suffered continually, and often severely, from ill health, yet
nevertheless continued to labor bravely and cheerfully, beyond
his strength, until he was actually overpowered by fatal disease.
His special department of work lay in the direction of the
sacristy and of the ceremonies at the public offices of divine
worship, and the management of the devout confraternities
established in the parish. His accurate knowledge of the rubrics,
ceremonial, and sacred chant, his ardent zeal for the order and
decorum of the divine service, and his untiring assiduity in the
work assigned him, were equally valuable to the religious
community of which he was a member, and edifying to the people.
{vii}
After the Easter of 1877 his failing health obliged him to make a
visit to his native England and his paternal home as the last
hope of prolonging his life. In the following autumn he returned,
enjoying a considerable but only temporary amelioration in his
physical condition, which soon after began to grow sensibly
worse. On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception he attempted for
the last time by a heroic effort to say Mass, but was prevented
by a fainting-fit which prostrated him at the foot of the altar
as he was commencing the Introit. From this day forward he was
slowly dying, until at last, after long and careful preparation,
he closed his eyes peacefully under the icy hand of death. His
death occurred on Monday in Passion Week, the 8th of April, 1878,
at the age of twenty-nine years and eleven months, and his solemn
obsequies were celebrated on the following Wednesday. All the
sermons in this volume which can be identified with certainty as
his are marked with his initial letter, B. May they long remain
unfaded, a bouquet of immortelles.
[Transcribers's note: His full name has been substituted for "B"
and a "B" has been inserted in the Table of Contents entry.]
In MEMORIAM!
St. Paul's Church,
Ninth Avenue And Fifty-ninth Street, New York.
Feast of All Saints, 1879.
{viii}.
Five Minute Sermons
Volume 1.
{ix}
Contents.
First Sunday of Advent:
Sermon I., B. 18
Sermon II., 20
Sermon III., 22
Second Sunday of Advent:
Sermon IV., B. 27
Sermon V., 30
Sermon VI., 32
Third Sunday of Advent:
Sermon VII., B. 37
Sermon VIII., 39
Sermon IX., 42
Fourth Sunday of Advent:
Sermon X., B. 47
Sermon XI., 49
Sermon XII., 52
Sunday within the Octave of Christmas:
Sermon XIII., B. 56
Sermon XIV., 59
Sermon XV., 62
The Epiphany:
Sermon XVI., 66
Sermon XVII., 68
{x}
First Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XVII., B. 73
Sermon XIX., 75
Second Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XX., B. 80
Sermon XXI., 83
Sermon XXII., 86
Third Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XXIII., B. 91
Sermon XXIV., 93
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XXV., 97
Sermon XXVI., 100
Sermon XXVII., 103
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XXVIII., 108
Sermon XXIX., 111
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XXX., B. 115
Sermon XXXI., 118
Septuagesima Sunday
Sermon XXXII., B. 122
Sermon XXXIII., 125
Sermon XXXIV., 127
Sexagesima Sunday:
Sermon XXXV., B. 133
Sermon XXXVI., 136
Sermon XXXVII., 138
{xi}
Quinquagesima Sunday:
Sermon XXXVIII., B. 142
Sermon XXXIX., 145
Sermon XL., 147
First Sunday of Lent:
Sermon XLI., 152
Sermon XLII., 154
Sermon XLIII., B. 157
Second Sunday of Lent:
Sermon XLIV., 161
Sermon XLV., B. 164
Sermon XLVI., 166
Third Sunday of Lent:
Sermon XLVII., 170
Sermon XLVIII., B. 173
Sermon XLIX., 175
Fourth Sunday of Lent:
Sermon L., 179
Sermon LI., B. 182
Passion Sunday:
Sermon LII., 186
Sermon LIII., B. 188
Sermon LIV., 192
Palm Sunday
Sermon LV., B. 196
Sermon LVI., 198
Sermon LVII., 200
{xii}
Easter Sunday:
Sermon LVIII., B. 204
Sermon LIX., 207
Sermon LX., 210
Low Sunday:
Sermon LXI., B. 214
Sermon LXII., 217
Sermon LXIII., 219
Second Sunday after Easter:
Sermon LXIV. 223
Sermon LXV., B. 225
Sermon LXVI., 227
Third Sunday after Easter:
Sermon LXVII., B. 233
Sermon LXVIII., 235
Sermon LXIX., 238
Fourth Sunday after Easter:
Sermon LXX., B. 242
Sermon LXXI., 245
Sermon LXXII., 248
Fifth Sunday after Easter:
Sermon LXXIII., 252
Sermon LXXIV., 254
Sermon LXXV., 257
Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension:
Sermon LXXVI., 260
Sermon LXXVII., 263
Sermon LXXVIII., 265
{xiii}
Feast of Pentecost, or Whit-Sunday:
Sermon LXXIX., 269
Sermon LXXX., 272
Sermon LXXXI., 274
Trinity Sunday:
Sermon LXXXII., 279
Sermon LXXXIII., 282
Sermon LXXXIV., 284
Second Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon LXXXV., 289
Sermon LXXXVI., 292
Sermon LXXXVII., 295
Third Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon LXXXVIII., 299
Sermon LXXXIX., B. 301
Sermon XC., 304
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon XCI., 308
Sermon XCII., 311
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon XCIII., B. 315
Sermon XCIV., 317
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon XCV., 321
Sermon XCVI., 323
Sermon XCVII., 388
{xiv}
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon XCVIII., 330
Sermon XCIX., 332
Sermon C., 335
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CI., 339
Sermon CII., 342
Sermon CIII., 344
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CIV., 349
Sermon CV., 352
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CVI., 356
Sermon CVII., 359
Sermon CVIII., 361
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CIX., 366
Sermon CX., 369
Sermon CXI., 371
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXII., 376
Sermon CXIII., B. 378
Sermon CXIV., 381
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXV., B. 385
Sermon CXVI., 388
Sermon CXVII., 390
{xv}
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXVIII., B. 394
Sermon CXIX., 397
Sermon CXX., 400
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXI., B. 404
Sermon CXXII., 406
Sermon CXXIII., 409
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXIV., B. 413
Sermon CXXV., 416
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXVI., B. 420
Sermon CXXVII., B. 422
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXVIII., 426
Sermon CXXIX., 428
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXX., B. 433
Sermon CXXXI., 436
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXXII., B. 440
Sermon CXXXIII., 442
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXXIV., 447
{xvi}
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXXV., B. 452
Sermon CXXXVI., 454
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXXVII., B. 459
Sermon CXXXVIII., B. 461
Sermon CXXXIX., 463
Twenty-fourth or Last Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXL., B. 468
Sermon CXLI., 471
Sermon CXLII., 474
{17}
_First Sunday of Advent_
Epistle.
_Romans xiii_. 11-14,
Brethren:
Know that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now
our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is
passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness, and put on the armor of light; let us walk
honestly as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in
chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy; but put
ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel.
_St. Luke xxi._ 25-33.
At that time Jesus said to his disciples:
There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the
stars: and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the
confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves, men
withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come
upon the whole world. For the powers of heaven shall be moved:
and then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with
great power and majesty. But when these things begin to come to
pass, look up and lift up your heads: because your redemption
is at hand. And he spoke to them a similitude. See the
fig-tree, and all the trees: when they now shoot forth their
fruit, you know that summer is nigh; so you also when you shall
see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is
at hand. Amen I say to you this generation shall not pass away,
till all things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away.
{18}
Sermon I.
_Heaven and earth shall pass away_.
--St. Luke xxi. 33.
Ah! my friend, how are you? How do you do? Where are you going?
These are everyday expressions, dear brethren. Probably some
neighbor spoke to you thus as you were coming to Mass. This is
the first Sunday in Advent, the Sunday of judgment, and I am
going to put the same questions to you. I begin with the last
one. Where are you going? Young men, old men, women, girls,
children, people, priests, rich and poor, where are all of you
going? Are you going to church or for a walk? No, we have a trial
at court and are summoned to appear. Whose trial? Our own. Yes,
we are all going to judgment, the trial of eternity before the
all-seeing Judge. We are all formed in a great procession. No
matter whether we are good or bad, in a state of grace or of
mortal sin, no matter whether our case is a good one or a bad
one, no matter if our cause be just or unjust, we are all going
to judgment--all going to the great trial, in which every living
soul, each man and woman and child, shall be the prisoners at the
bar, and God, the judge of all, shall sit upon the great white
Throne. When will that trial-day come? No one knows, not even the
angels, our Lord says. Judgment will come suddenly. Time has been
given you. You have been told "beforehand." The _actual_
coming will be sudden. "Behold, I come as a thief in the night."
"Behold, I come quickly." "Behold, I come as the lightning." Such
are the terms in which our Lord speaks of his second advent. When
men are eating and drinking, marrying, buying, and selling,
burying the dead, laboring, praying, waking or sleeping,
_then_ there will be a cry heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom
cometh; go ye forth to meet Him."
{19}
Go forth just as you are; just as the moment finds you; without a
moment more to prepare, without an instant in which to say, "God
help me!" Where are you going, then? Going to judgment. Going to
a _sudden_ judgment. Going to meet accusers who will rise
out of the graves of earth and from the pit of hell to bear
witness against sinners for all the commandments they have
broken, all the duties they have neglected, all the scandal and
bad example they have given. Woe to bad parents in that day! Woe
to disobedient children in that day! Woe to the drunken, the
impure, the thieves, the liars, the false witnesses, the
apostates in that day! Ah! then, how do _you_ do. Christian,
Catholic? How are you, baptized of God? How is your health, the
health of your soul? Are you in the fever of sin? Do you see upon
your souls great livid plague-spots of mortal offences against
the Almighty? Then tremble, for you have to face the God "whose
eyes are brighter than the noonday sun"! He will ask: "How are
you? What mean these stains upon your soul? Where is the white
garment that I gave you? Where is my image and likeness?" Woe to
every one who cannot answer these questions; for to be unable to
answer means to be unable to go to heaven, means that you will be
found guilty by the Eternal Judge and condemned to everlasting
death. Let, then, these two questions ring in your ears: Where
are you going? How are you in God's sight? You are going to
judgment. Are you in a fit state to appear there? Brethren, it
will be an awful day, that day of judgment, even for the just.
{20}
"Where, then, shall the unjust and the sinner appear?" Look up to
the heavens as you leave this church. The clouds are not yet
riven. The sun is not yet darkened. Oh! then there is yet time.
There is a moment's lull before the storm breaks; a second's
pause before the trumpet sounds. But the day of judgment _will
come_, for Jesus Christ has told us so, and, as he says:
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass
away."
Rev. Algernon A. Brown.
------------------
Sermon II.
_Brethren: Know that it is now the hour
for us to rise from sleep._
--Romans xiii. 11.
To-day, my dear brethren, is the New Year's Day of the Catholic
Church. Today she begins again that round of seasons and
festivals which will never cease to be repeated till that day
comes of which this season of Advent reminds us--that day in
which, as St. Peter tells us, "the heavens shall pass away with
great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and
the earth and the works which are in it shall be burnt up"; that
day when He who died for us on the cross shall come to judge the
living and the dead.
The church begins her year with Advent, because this season
represents principally, not that last coming of our Lord of which
I have just spoken, but rather that time which went before his
first coming--that long period of several thousand years,
answering to the four weeks of this season, with which the
world's history began, and in which it was waiting for the
promise of redemption to be fulfilled.
{21}
But there is another very good reason for each one of us to begin
our own new year now, and it is one of the reasons why the second
advent of Christ is presented to our minds by the church, as well
as his first, at this time.
It is that we may now make that serious examination of our past
life, and those firm resolutions for the future, that we can best
make at the beginning of a new year, when we feel most strongly
that one more of those short cycles by which our life is measured
has gone for ever beyond our reach, and brought us so much nearer
not only to the day of general judgment, but also to that more
imminent one in which each one of us shall stand alone before the
throne of God to give an account of the use which we have made of
these precious years which he has given us, and which are passing
so rapidly away.
This new year's day of the church is a time, then, above all
others in which we should make those resolutions without which we
cannot be saved.
It is said that hell is paved with good intentions; it may with
equal truth be said that heaven is paved with good resolutions.
What is the difference between the two? An intention is a purpose
the carrying out of which is put off till some other time; a
resolution is one which is carried out now. So, as the putting
off of our good purposes is the sure way to lose our souls, the
carrying them out at once is the means absolutely necessary to
salvation and certain to secure it.
{22}
No one ever saved his soul without some time or other making a
resolution to keep the law of God, and going to work at once to
carry it out, and persevering in it to the end of life, Such a
resolution has got to be made at some time, and now is the time
to make it.
Look back, then, my brethren, on this first day of the new year,
at the one which has just gone never to return, and see if you
are satisfied with the way you have spent it. Ask yourselves if
you have not been trifling away enough of the short time which
was given you to be spent in the service of God, and if there is
any too much left to make some recompense to him for all that he
has done for you; and say, with the church in the Epistle of this
Sunday, that now it is indeed the hour to rise from sleep, from
this fatal sleep of indifference and ingratitude, and go to work
in real earnest on the business of your salvation, and not rest
again till the time for rest has come. God will surely give that
eternal rest to those who labor during life, but he has not
promised it to sluggards and traitors, as those certainly are who
care only for themselves and not for him, and who expect their
reward without doing anything to deserve such a favor at his
hands.
----------------------------
Sermon III.
_Heaven and earth shall pass away._
--St. Luke xxi. 33.
By the word "heaven" our Lord does not mean that heaven to which
we shall be admitted if we are faithful, for that, as we know, is
eternal. No; he means some part of the visible heavens with which
our earth is immediately connected.
{23}
The earth, and to some extent the visible heaven also, we do not
know how, will pass away as to their present state--they will be
so changed that it may be said that the old earth and the old
heaven have been destroyed.
It is to remind us of this second coming, or advent, of our Lord,
when the world and all that it contains shall pass away, as well
as of his first coming, which we are to celebrate at Christmas,
that the church keeps this season on which we have just entered,
and calls it by this name of Advent.
This truth, that the heavens and earth which we see shall pass
away, or be destroyed, is a matter of faith. We cannot, probably,
prove by science that this must take place, certainly not that
such a change is so near as the Scriptures seem to indicate; but
we do not need the light of faith to show us that they shall pass
away from _us_, and that, perhaps, very soon. In a few
years--perhaps in a few months or days--we shall close our eyes
in death, and the heavens and earth which we now see shall
disappear from our sight for ever. There are two lessons which we
may learn from this evident and certain truth, and which the
church wishes us to consider at this time.
The first is that the pleasures of this world are so fleeting and
uncertain that it is not worth while for us to take any pains to
secure them. We can only hold them for a little while at the
most; they are like the treasures which one sometimes possesses
in a dream and which melt away in the hands on waking. A moment
after death it will make no difference to us whether we have had
them or not; they will seem to have been possessed only as in a
dream when we wake to the reality of the next world.
{24}
"They have slept their sleep," says the Psalmist, "and all the
men of riches have found nothing in their hands." The life of one
who makes pleasure his object is like a sleep; and, as St. Paul
warns us in the Epistle of to-day, "it is now the hour for us to
rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we
believed."
Our real salvation, the only life which is really worth enjoying,
is coming very soon. This life is only a season of Advent to
prepare for that eternal festival to which we have been invited
by the King of kings.
So, as our first conclusion is that it is not worth while to seek
for the pleasures of this life, our second is that it is not a
matter for great grief if we have pain and affliction in it. One
would not mind suffering for a day, or even for a week, if the
rest of only this short mortal life was to be passed in
uninterrupted enjoyment. So, if it be the will of God, perhaps we
can manage to pass a few years in pain and sorrow, with the
promise, which will not fail us, of happiness that shall be
eternal.
Especially when we remember that pain and sorrow in this life
make that promise all the more sure. "Blessed are ye poor," says
our Lord, "for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that
hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now,
for ye shall laugh. ... Blessed are they that mourn, for they
shall be comforted." "Behold," he says, "I come quickly, and my
reward is with me, to render to every man according to his
works."
{25}
Let this, then, be our care, not to seek pleasure nor to avoid
pain which shall soon pass away, but so to live that we shall be
anxious to meet him and have a well-grounded hope of receiving
that reward; that when he says, "Surely I come quickly," we may
be able to answer with the apostle, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." For
that life is the best in which one is most willing and ready to
die; in which one hears most gladly that this heaven and this
earth shall pass away.
-------------
{26}
_Second Sunday of Advent_
Epistle.
_Romans xv._ 4-13.
Brethren:
What things soever were written, were written for our
instruction; that through patience and the comfort of the
Scriptures, we might have hope. Now the God of patience and of
comfort grant you to be of one mind one towards another,
according to Jesus Christ: that with one mind, and with one
mouth, you may glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Wherefore receive one another, as Christ also hath
received you unto the honor of God. For I say that Christ Jesus
was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to
confirm the promises made to the fathers. But that the Gentiles
are to glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: Therefore
will I confess to thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and will
sing to thy name. And again he saith: Rejoice, ye Gentiles,
with his people. And again: Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles;
and magnify him, all ye people. And again Isaias saith: There
shall be a root of Jesse; and he that shall rise up to rule the
Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope. Now the God of hope
fill you with all joy and peace in believing: that you may
abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew xi._ 2-10.
At that time:
When John had heard in prison the works of Christ, sending two
of his disciples he said to him: Art thou he that art to come,
or look we for another? And Jesus making answer said to them:
Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind
see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And
blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me.
{27}
And when they went their way, Jesus began to say to the
multitudes concerning John: What went you out into the desert
to see? a reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to
see? a man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are
clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. But what
went you out to see? a prophet? yea, I tell you, and more than
a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send
my Angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before
thee.
-----------------
Sermon IV.
_Behold, I send my Angel before thy face._
--St. Matthew xi. 10.
I suppose, brethren, among the first things you remember hearing
of in your childhood were "_the angels of God_" or, as
people often say, "_the angels of God in heaven_." You
remember, I am sure, how pleased you were to look at their
pictures, with sweet faces and large, outstretched wings, and how
glad you were when you were told that one of those guardian
spirits was always by your side. But this morning I want to speak
to you, not of the "angels of God in heaven," but of the
_angels of God on earth_. And who are _they?_ you will
ask. Are they spirits? Have they wings like the angels we saw
years ago in the picture-book? No, they have not wings; they are
not pure spirits; they are men, women, and children just like
ourselves. The word "angel" means a messenger, one who is sent
with tidings. Thus St. John Baptist (who was sent to tell the
world that Jesus Christ was coming) is called in to-day's Gospel
"an angel"--that is, a messenger from God. Now, brethren, all of
us ought to be messengers of God to our neighbor and to the
world.
{28}
We are all Catholics, have all been called to know the true
faith, and we have all been taught how to observe God's moral
law. First, then, we Catholics ought to be the _angels of God
on earth_ to those who are not Catholics. We ought to do our
best in our own little circle to spread the knowledge of our holy
religion. By our lives we ought to show the world that the
Catholic religion makes us better citizens, better and more
honest men of business, and truer lovers of our neighbors and
mankind. Many of you "live out" at service in Protestant or
infidel families; many of you are working for non-Catholic
employers; many are employed in factories, surrounded by those
who belong to false religions or who have no religion at all. Oh!
what chances such have to be _angels of God on earth_. You
can show by your fidelity to work, by your strict honesty, by
your modest behavior, that you belong to a religion which comes
from God. By a seasonable word, by the loan of a book, by showing
your horror of cursing and swearing and of bad talk, you would be
doing God's work, and showing to those outside the church that
there is _something_ in your belief which makes you good.
Have you done this? Have you not, on the contrary, often
scandalized our non-Catholic friends by your bad example, your
dishonesty, your exhibitions of temper, your outbursts of
blasphemy, and your consent to what was impure? Ah! when you do
these things you are the _angels of the devil on earth_. You
are doing his work and bearing his message. Again, to your own
Catholic brethren and to your own family you can be _angels of
God on earth!_ Have you got a scandalous neighbor, a negligent
father or mother, a wicked child, a profligate husband or son?
{29}
Oh! be angels of God to these unfortunate ones. By your good
example, your patience in affliction, by your charity and
forbearance, your strict attention to your religious duties, and,
in short, by a really good life, you will be able to "prepare the
way of the Lord." You will "go before his face" to prepare the
way for his graces. Don't let it be said by those who are not
good Catholics, "I don't see that those who go to their duties
are any better than I am." Show them that you are better, and
that it is _religion_ that makes you so. "Example is better
than precept." Actions speak louder than words. Oh! then be
angels of God to those outside the church, be angels of God to
your children, to your parents, to your friends and neighbors.
Once there was a child who had been very badly brought up by his
parents. He went to church by chance one day, and heard an
instruction on the laws of the church. When he came home,
although it was Friday, there was meat for dinner. The boy would
not eat it. Furious at this, his bad parents beat him; but the
child remained firm, till at last, touched by his example, the
parents converted themselves and lived as good Catholics. That
boy was an angel of God on earth. "Go ye and do in like manner,"
and then our Lord Jesus Christ, the "Angel of the great
covenant," will summon you at death to take your place among his
holy angels, with whom you shall be glorified and chant his
praises for ever and ever.
Rev. Algernon A. Brown.
-------------------
{30}
Sermon V.
_He that is not with me
is against me._
--St. Matthew xii. 30.
There are many Christians who do not seem to know that they are
Christians. They do not seem to realize what the word Christian
means; or, if they do, they do not act as if they did. They do
not understand, if we are to judge them by their actions, that it
is the name of one of the two great parties in this world--the
party of Christ and that of Anti-christ.
The issues between these two parties are more important than
those between any others that ever have been or ever will be; for
they are questions not only of time but of eternity. And the
principles of these parties are so different that no compromise
between them is possible. They are fighting with each other for
the possession of the world, and neither will be satisfied till
complete victory is gained--that is, till the other ceases to be.
Every one has got to belong to one of these parties. It is
impossible for any one to remain neutral in this contest and a
mere spectator of it. Every one has got to be on one side or the
other. This is what our Lord himself says: "He that is not with
me is against me."
Every one, then, that does not wish to be on the devil's side has
got to be on that of Christ. But this is just what a great many
of you, my dear friends, do not, I am afraid, see so clearly as
you should. You often try, I fear, to stand off and be on neither
side when duty requires you to come out boldly on the side to
which you belong.
{31}
Perhaps, for instance, you are compelled to associate daily with
persons--either infidels, Protestants, or bad Catholics--whose
mouths are full of impious or impure talk, which they expect you
to agree with or join in. They enjoy this filth and profanity,
and pretend to think their foul and blasphemous jests very funny,
which they very seldom are; and they expect you to laugh at them,
as they themselves do.
Now, I do not say that you are bound each and every time to
reprove these sins, but I do say that you are sometimes. You
cannot expect not to be counted among these people, and justly so
counted, too, unless you say or do enough in some way to show
plainly on what side you are. Do not, then, keep your faith and
piety shut up in your prayer-books, only to be brought out when
you are on your knees before God and no one by who will not
admire you for them. No; bring them out plainly in the sight of
his enemies, and let them see that you are really in
earnest--that you really and truly believe that you have got a
soul to save, and that your professions are not at all a
pretence.
For, if you do not do this, you will be carried over to the other
side in spite of yourself. If you do not reprove and separate
yourself from what is sinful, you will join in it. Your own
experience ought to show you that. Your effort to be neither the
one thing nor the other, neither God's servant nor the devil's,
always has been in vain and always will be. For the Eternal Truth
has said, "He that is not with me is against me."
{32}
Yes, my brethren, it is certain that if you will not confess
Christ boldly and openly before men; if you will not acknowledge
that his faith and his morals are yours also; if you will not
bravely and generously take his part in the great battle which he
is fighting in this world, and in which he has enlisted you to
fight under him; but if, on the other hand, you sneak off into a
corner and stay there as long as his enemies are in sight, he
will not count you as his servants or friends, and you will not
be so, either in this world or in the world to come. "He that
shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father
who is in heaven." And if you will not confess him, you must deny
him; there is no middle course.
Be not, then, runaways, but brave soldiers in the conflict to
which you are called. The enemies of Christ are not afraid to let
their principles be known; if you would imitate their example the
tables would be turned. They would be ashamed of themselves, if
you would not be; and it is they who ought to be ashamed, not
you. Moreover, God would get the glory which belongs to him, and
if you will not give it to him you cannot expect him to save your
mean and cowardly souls.
-----------------
Sermon VI.
_What went you out into the desert to see?
a reed shaken with the wind?_
--St. Matthew xi. 8.
--usccb.org/bible: St. Matthew xi. 7
In these words, my dear brethren, our Lord holds up the character
of his great precursor, St. John Baptist, as a model for the
imitation of his disciples, and also for our imitation. "St. John
is not like a reed shaken with the wind; see that you follow his
example"--that is the meaning and the lesson of this question
asked by our Lord.
{33}
St. John, indeed, was not like a reed shaken with the wind. He
was rather like a massive column of stone, which is not moved a
hair's-breadth from its place by the most furious storms. He was
firm and unyielding to all the assaults of temptation. Born free
from original sin, he persevered without actual sin through the
whole of his glorious life.
He has set us a magnificent example of firmness and
fortitude--virtues in which Christians of the present day are
wofully wanting. There is a great deal of piety nowadays, but it
seems often to be of a very superficial kind. It looks well, but
it does not wear well. Its outside is very promising, but there
Is something wanting inside, and that is a backbone. It does very
well in the sheltered atmosphere of the church, but it breaks
down when it is taken out of doors into the world.
The assaults it seems to be weakest against are those which come
from without. It stands well against interior temptations, on the
whole, but it quails before even a word spoken against it. It is
dreadfully afraid of what people will say. It is very much under
the power of false shame and what is called human respect. It is
a most lamentable sight to see people who are really in their
hearts and principles thoroughly good Christians, and who might
be the instruments in God's hands of a great deal of good both
for his glory and the salvation of others, so terribly under the
influence of human respect that their example counts almost for
nothing, or perhaps is even a scandal and a discouragement to
those around them. They have a great deal of faith, and they
really want to avoid sin, but they do not seem to want anybody to
know that such is the case.
{34}
One would perhaps, think they were very humble and did not want
anybody to know how good they are--and I have no doubt that they
do not want some people, at any rate, to think that they are
good; but it is not on account of humility, but on account of
fear. They are afraid of what these people will say; they tremble
at the slightest breath. They are very different from St. John,
and very much like reeds shaken by the wind; and it requires only
a very light wind to shake them, considering the strength they
ought to have.
There are Catholics, for instance--and plenty of them, to the
glory of our faith be it said!--who have a great horror of the
dreadful sin of impurity, and would by no means of their own
accord commit any offence of this kind. But their daily
occupations lead them among others who have very different ideas
and habits, or who, perhaps, are sinning wilfully against the
clearest light. These wretched people are continually bandying
jests or telling stories which show the corruption of their
minds. Out of the abundance of their hearts their mouths are
always speaking; they are bad trees, and all the time bringing
forth bad fruit. Well, do our good Christians show any disgust
for these things? Oh! no; they will say they cannot help laughing
at them. I am afraid they are deceiving themselves; they could
help it, if they dared to help it. They would seldom or never
laugh if such foul things occurred to their own mind; they would
be too much afraid of God. But now their fear of God disappears
before their fear of man.
{35}
Or these good Christians meet with people who, either through
ignorance or malice, ridicule and blaspheme the Catholic Church
and the true faith. Perhaps these people only need to find some
Catholic who will stand up boldly for his religion. If any one
would only confess Christ before them it might be the beginning
of their conversion. But, instead of coming out fearlessly for
the truth, our good Christians are afraid of being thought
foolish or priest-ridden; and if they acknowledge that they are
Catholics at all, it is only to compromise or deny what they in
their hearts believe, so that people may think that they are
pretty good Protestants after all.
These instances will suffice to show what I mean. You can find
plenty of others yourselves. Do so, and resolve, for the sake of
God our Saviour and for the glory of his name, to put an end to
this despicable cowardice, if you have been guilty of it.
Catholic faith and morals are things to glory in, not to be
ashamed of. And, besides, there is really nothing to fear. What
you are afraid of is only like the wind which passes by; in their
hearts even the wicked will honor and hold in everlasting
remembrance the true and faithful servants of God.
-------------------
{36}
_Third Sunday of Advent_
Epistle.
_Philippians iv._ 4-7.
Rejoice in the Lord always: again, I say, rejoice. Let your
modesty be known to all men: The Lord is nigh. Be not
solicitous about anything: but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known
to God. And the peace of God which surpasseth all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Gospel.
_St. John i._ 19-28.
At that time:
The Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and levites to John, to
ask him: Who art thou? And he confessed, and did not deny: and
he confessed: I am not the Christ. And they asked him: What
then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the
prophet? And he answered: No. They said therefore unto him: Who
art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? what
sayest thou of thyself? He said: I am the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said
the prophet Isaias. And they that were sent, were of the
Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him: Why then dost
thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the
prophet? John answered them, saying: I baptize with water; but
there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not.
The same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred
before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose.
These things were done in Bethania beyond the Jordan, where
John was baptizing.
{37}
Sermon VII.
_Let your modesty be known to all men._
--Philippians iv. 5.
To-day, brethren, is called _Gaudete_, or Rejoicing Sunday,
and is intended by the church as a little _letup_, as the
people say, on the solemn season of Advent. To-day flowers deck
the altars; at the High Mass the dalmatic, the deacon's vestment
of joy, which has not been used for two Sundays, is again
assumed. Where possible, and where the church is rich enough to
buy them, rose-colored vestments should be worn. The first words
of the Mass are, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say,
rejoice." It is just as if the church said to you all: "Be glad
and joyful; make yourselves as happy as you can." "Ah!" some of
you will say, "that is just the doctrine for us; that is just
what we like." Do not be too fast, my friends. Listen to what
comes next. "Rejoice," says the church; but in that rejoicing, in
that striving to live happily, "let your modesty be known to all
men." So, then, the Christian is to be a happy man, but he is
also to be a modest man--a man of simple or moderate habits. My
friends, does not the shoe pinch you a little? Do you not see the
cap gradually taking a form that will fit some of your heads? You
men, when you are together on some festive occasion--when you
have a gala-day of one kind or another--you rejoice then, it is
true, but is your modesty known to all men? Have you not often
aped the manners and swagger of the worldly-minded? Have you not
listened to indecent stories? Have you not told some such? Oh!
what scandal you give when you do these things. Then your
_immodesty_ is known to all men.
{38}
You are going with the crowd. You are following the multitude to
do evil. You are walking in the wide path that leadeth unto
perdition. You unfortunate drunkards that totter as you walk, who
fall in the gutter and by the wayside, is your modesty known to
all men? No, your shame is known to all men, and the shame of all
who belong to you. Again, what think you of the woman who,
because it is the fashion, goes out to balls indecently and
improperly dressed--who is not covered as becomes a Christian
matron or maiden, but is so clad as to bring the blush of lust to
the face of the brazen, and of shame to that of the pure in
heart; or of those who go to all sort of plays and spectacles,
who encourage the most questionable of dances and ballets, and
bring up their children in the same spirit? Is their modesty
known to all men? My friends, to find the modesty of such people
would be like searching for a needle in a bundle of hay. You
would never find it. You, too, who spend every cent you have upon
your backs, who have almost all your hard earnings invested in
dry goods and millinery, who come to church tricked out in finery
which belongs neither to your state nor calling, offend also
against Christian moderation and modesty. Once there was an old
jackdaw who dressed himself up in peacock's feathers; then off he
went among the peacocks and tried to pass for one of them. But
these splendid birds soon found him out and pecked him almost to
death. My friends, when you deck yourselves out in clothing, in
fashions which are beyond your means, unsuited to your calling as
a Christian, unfit for your state in life, and fit, indeed, for
none but the vain people of the world, what are you? Nothing but
jackdaws in peacock's feathers.
{39}
Oh! then don't make yourself ridiculous. Follow the advice of St.
Paul: "Let your modesty be known to all men." These are the days
of immodesty, of wasteful extravagance, of extreme vanity. Oh!
then set your faces against this running tide of worldliness. Be
modest, speak modestly, dress modestly, enjoy yourselves
modestly. Don't dress up your children luxuriously, instilling
into their minds even in childhood the spirit of vanity. Don't
put on too much style or too many airs. Be happy, rejoice always,
but be modest, be simple. "Let your modesty be known to all men.
The Lord is nigh. For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely,
whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of
discipline, think on these things. The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with your spirit."
Rev. Algernon A. Brown.
----------------------------
Sermon VIII.
_There hath stood One in the midst of you,
whom you know not._
--St. John i. 26.
St. John spoke these words, as the Gospel tells us, not to his
disciples, but to those who had been sent from Jerusalem to
question him on his mission, to ask him what business he had to
preach and to baptize. It may be that both those who were sent
and those who sent them had no real desire to know if he were
indeed a prophet, but were merely trying to make him say
something which could be used against him--to set a trap for him,
like those which they afterward tried to set for our Divine
Lord--since his language to them certainly seems like a rebuke.
{40}
For who was this One who had stood in their midst, and whom they
had not known? It was our Lord Jesus Christ. It was the Son of
God, the Word made flesh. He had been living in their midst since
his childhood, but they had not known him. Even those in his own
town of Nazareth, who had often met him in their streets, who had
often seen him and spoken to him, had passed him by as if he was
no more than one of themselves, as if he were only a poor
carpenter's boy.
Now, we, my dear brethren, are something like these Jews at that
time. For during our lives there has stood One also in the midst
of us, whom we have not known. And it is the same One whom the
thoughtless and the sinful passed in the streets of Nazareth, and
whom they afterward crucified in Jerusalem. The King of Glory is
in our midst at this moment; he who dwells in the tabernacle of
the altar is indeed God made man.
It is true for us as well as for them that we cannot see that it
is he with our bodily eyes; but there is much more to point him
out to us than there was to them. The church has taken care that
we shall not pass him by unnoticed; all the worship of the
sanctuary is directed to his throne--that poor throne in our
midst which he has come down from heaven to occupy. It is because
of him that the altar blazes with candles and is adorned with
flowers, and that the clouds of incense rise; it is to him that
we bend the knee; all the splendid ceremonial of the Catholic
religion is only our poor effort to worthily honor Him who has
condescended to dwell among us under the sacramental veils.
{41}
And yet, in spite of all the care which his church has taken, do
we not too often behave as the Jews of his own time had a better
excuse for behaving? A better excuse, I say, for they needed a
special light to recognize him; but all we need is faith, and
that we all have. But one would think that his people had no
faith, to see the way in which they sometimes conduct themselves
in his most holy presence.