quoted we see him presented as the model of youth. Your children,
brethren, ought to be strong in body, wise in mind, and to have
the grace of God in their hearts. Now, who is to form them after
the model of Jesus Christ? It is the duty of parents. First,
then, you ought to take care of the bodily wants of your
children, in order that they may grow and wax strong. How often
parents offend against this duty! There are some who let their
children eat just what they please, who pamper their appetites,
who give them all kinds of unwholesome food. Such children will
never be healthy. There are others who spend all their money in
drink--who leave their poor little ones at home, moaning and
starving with hunger; who, through their imprudence, leave their
children without food for a whole day, having squandered their
earnings in all sorts of foolish and wicked pleasures. Then, too,
there are those who allow their children to sit up till all hours
of the night, who let them go off to heated ball-rooms, who dress
them either too much or too little--who either coddle them up so
that they can hardly stand a whiff of air, or else send them out
to shiver with cold.
{57}
No wonder that our city children are unhealthy; no wonder death
sweeps them away as it does. Is it not because parents are
neglectful? Look to it, then; see to the diet, the clothing, the
habits of your children. Do not overtask their feeble strength by
sending them too soon to work. Never permit them to form
luxurious appetites. Watch over their daily lives, see that they
take proper exercise; then, like the child Jesus, they will "grow
and wax strong." Neglect the duty of corporal education, and we
shall have a generation of sickly children and adult invalids.
And if it be so necessary for parents to watch over the bodies of
their children, what shall I say of the duty of watching over
their minds and souls? Your children should be full of wisdom,
and the grace of God should be in their hearts. Oh! when I think
of the neglect of many Catholic parents in this respect I am
tempted to take up the Gospel's most awful tone, and cry. Woe to
you, careless parents! woe, eternal woe to you guilty fathers and
mothers, who are letting your little ones run to destruction!
You make your home uncomfortable by your crossness, by your
curses, by your slovenly, untidy habits. Your children, from
their earliest infancy, take to the street. They hear impurity,
blasphemy, and cursing. They hear words and see sights which are
not fit to be mentioned here on God's altar. They keep what
company they like. They learn infamous and immoral habits that
destroy both body and soul. Oh! for God's sake beware, beware! Do
you think they will ever be full of wisdom or have the grace of
God in their hearts?
{58}
Again, you are anxious enough that they shall learn to read and
write, to keep books and be quick at figures, but are you sure
they know their catechism or can tell a priest all they ought to
know of Jesus Christ, their Saviour, or how many sacraments and
commandments there are? Where are they on Sundays? Where are they
when confession day comes around? Oh! these are vital questions,
if you want them to be full of grace and wisdom. Some boys and
girls of our day, brethren, have lost a great deal of their
freshness. They smoke, they chew tobacco, they flirt, they act
like little men and women. There is no innocence about them. They
are revolting spectacles to men and angels. Wisdom, forsooth!
They have none. Grace of God? It is destroyed. Their childhood is
more like the childhood of an incarnate devil than of an
incarnate God. Look, then, carefully to your children. Look to
the little ones; correct them when they are babies. Don't wait
till a child is in its teens; then it will be too late. Set them
a good example. You know the story of the old crab, who said to
her little ones, "Why do you walk sideways?" "Suppose, mother,"
they said, "_you_ show us how to walk straight." Yes, if you
are wicked, foolish, and sinful, your children will be like you.
"Like father, like son," says the proverb. Oh! then you parents,
be pure as Mary, be industrious, modest, patient like St. Joseph;
then your children, like Jesus, will grow and wax strong, full of
wisdom and of the grace of God.
Rev. Algernon A. Brown.
-----------------
{59}
Sermon XIV.
_This Child is set for the fall,
and for the resurrection of many in Israel._
--St. Luke ii. 34.
These words of to-day's Gospel, my dear brethren, have, perhaps,
a strange sound to us at this joyful Christmas season. It seems
strange that holy Simeon should have said that the blessed Infant
whom he held in his arms, and who had come to save the world,
should have been set for the fall of many of even his own chosen
people.
And yet we know that his coming was actually the occasion of the
fall not merely of many but of far the greater part of that
chosen people of Israel. However strange Simeon's prophecy may
seem, we see that it was a true one. Up to that time the Jewish
people were God's true church on earth; now almost all of them
are wanderers outside of it, rejecting the true Messias whom
their fathers crucified, and either vainly looking for one who
will never come or ceasing in despair to look for any Messias at
all. Instead of Christ's coming having been the means of
salvation for them, it has really been the occasion of their fall
from the grace which they had before.
But though we know that it has been so, it may still seem strange
that it should have been so. One would think that the Saviour,
who is our joy, our pride, and our glory, would have been theirs
too, and even more theirs than ours, having been born of their
own nation, a Jew of the royal line of David. But if we consider
the matter a little we shall see that it was natural enough that
it should turn out as it did; and we shall see, moreover, that
there is a good deal of danger that, as they fell from grace when
Christ was presented to them, so we may do the same.
{60}
For we shall, if we think, find out the reason why they fell,
which is the reason why we may fall too. They were looking for a
Saviour, indeed, but not for such a Saviour as actually came.
They were looking for one who would redeem them from their
subjection to the Roman Empire; who would make their nation what
it had been in the days gone by; who would make them an
independent and powerful people; who would give them the
greatness and glory of this world. So when he did not fulfil
their expectation, when he came not with earthly splendor but in
poverty and suffering, they were scandalized. It was only his
miracles which made them hesitate; and when he would work
miracles no longer, when he would not save himself from the cruel
and ignominious death of the cross, they rejected him with the
horrible imprecation, "His Blood be upon us and upon our
children."
Yes, my brethren, the cross was their scandal, and the cross is
likely to be our scandal, too, for we have the same fallen human
nature as they. "We preach Christ crucified," says St. Paul,
"unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles
foolishness"; and it is a good deal the same with us Christians
now.
We feel glad, indeed, when Christmas comes; but I am afraid that
if we had been living at the time of the first Christmas we
should not have been much more likely to rejoice at the birth of
our Lord than his own people were at that time. Christmas now is
very pleasant, with its festivity, its amusements, its giving and
receiving of presents; but there is not much of the cross in
this. The original Christmas, with its cold, its poverty, and its
humiliation, was quite a different thing.
{61}
It is right for us to rejoice at Christmas; but perhaps we should
not rejoice if we remembered that our Lord came to bring into the
world the cross not only for himself but also for us too. That is
the scandal for us now. We can see what the Jews could not, that
it was right that he should suffer; but we cannot see that it is
right that we should suffer too--that what holy Simeon said to
his Blessed Mother is true for each one of us: "Thy own soul a
sword shall pierce." So in this way, even now, "this Divine
Child," with his cross in his hand for a Christmas present to us,
"is set for the fall of many in Israel." We are too apt to shrink
away when he urges us to accept it for his sake.
Indeed, we should always fall away when the cross is offered to
us, had we only our own natural strength to depend upon. It is
not in us, by any natural power, to bear the cross of Christ. But
he offers with it the grace to bear it. And in this way he is set
also for our resurrection. For it is only by the cross, by
bearing the cross ourselves, that we can rise from sin, which is
the only death which we really have to fear.
This Child, then, is set for our fall by our natural weakness,
but for our resurrection by his supernatural grace. His will is
that it should be for the latter; let his will, then, be done.
Let us welcome him, then, at Christmas, but let us welcome his
cross too; for it is only by bearing it ourselves that we can
come to eternal life.
-------------------------
{62}
Sermon XV.
_Behold, this Child is set ...
for a sign which shall be contradicted._
--St. Luke ii. 34.
My brethren, can this be possible? It is not only possible but
too true. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the sign of the love of God the
Father to us, is contradicted, is resisted, by those whom he came
to save.
And is it only those who are strangers to him that contradict
him? No; it is those who know him well and who ought to be his
friends--his own people, who call themselves Catholics, who claim
to belong to his true church.
What does the word "contradict" mean? It means to speak against
or in opposition to any one. It may mean, also, to act against
any one, or even to reject inwardly what one say's, though not a
word of contradiction be spoken. Fervent gratitude would now
exclaim: "Surely no Catholic can do any of these to Jesus
Christ?" Yet such there are, though perhaps many of them do not
realize what they do.
Who are they? They are those who speak against and resist the
teachers he has sent them; who put themselves always in
opposition to the authority of the church, and even to its head,
the Vicar of Christ on earth; who believe no more than they are
obliged to under pain of ceasing to be Catholic at all; and who
never obey except when it suits their own convenience. "Well,"
you will say, "I am not that kind of a Catholic." I am glad you
are not; still, there are many such. But there are many more who
do not go quite so far as that, and yet have a good deal of the
same spirit. Perhaps you are one of them.
{63}
Who are these that I speak of? They are those who are always
opposing their pastors and confessors, finding fault with and
criticising their words and their actions. They reject their
counsel. They even make a jest of their opinions. They think them
behind the times, and not up to the spirit of the present day.
They even sometimes violate the sacred confidence of the
confessional, and talk thus lightly even of what has been said to
them there.
Or they oppose outwardly the plans and efforts of their parish
priests. They think that they know more about everything than
their pastors. Unwilling to unite with them in their work for our
Lord, they are discontented because others are not as rebellious
and disobedient as themselves. They do not rest until they
succeed in making a party against those whom they should unite to
support, which destroys a great deal of the good which they have
done, and prevents much which they could otherwise do. In vain do
they pretend to be friends of Christ when they thwart and spoil
his work. The work of the parish is as much his work as that of
any other part of the church. The church makes parishes wherever
she sends her priests. If the people in them oppose her she
cannot do God's work.
Or if they do not resist, they despise their priests, or
certainly act as if they did. They do not seem to remember that
every priest, unworthy as he is, of course, still represents our
Lord. If they respect him, it is as a man, not as a priest; that
is, they do not respect the priest at all as such. They use him
for their own convenience when their conscience requires them to
hear Mass or approach the sacraments; but otherwise they treat
him just as a Protestant might do.
{64}
And by this bad example they lessen the respect of others for
him, and weaken the authority and influence for good which he
ought to have. This really is resisting and contradicting our
Lord, whom he represents. Let all, then, examine themselves, and
see if they are not in the habit of speaking, acting, or
neglecting their duties in such a way as to oppose and contradict
our divine Lord. Be humble as he was on the first Christmas day,
and try to help, not to hinder, his agents in all they are
obliged to do to carry out his work; for he has said to them: "He
that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth
me."
-------------------------
{65}
_The Epiphany_
Epistle.
_Isaias lx._ 1-6.
Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and
the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold darkness
shall cover the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord
shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the
brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy eyes round about, and
see: all these are gathered together, they are come to thee:
thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up
at thy side. Then shalt thou see and abound, and thy heart
shall wonder and be enlarged; when the multitude of the sea
shall be converted to thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall
come to thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the
dromedaries of Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come,
bringing gold and frankincense: and showing forth praise to the
Lord.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew ii._ 1-12.
When Jesus, therefore, was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the
days of King Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East
to Jerusalem, saying: Where is he that is born King of the
Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and we are come to
adore him. And Herod the King hearing this, was troubled, and
all Jerusalem with him: and assembling together all the chief
priests and Scribes of the people, he enquired of them where
Christ should be born. But they said to him, In Bethlehem of
Juda; for so it is written by the prophet: "And thou Bethlehem,
the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda:
for out of thee shall come forth the ruler who shall rule my
people Israel."
{66}
Then Herod, privately calling the wise men, enquired diligently
of them the time of the star's appearing to them; and sending
them into Bethlehem, said: Go and search diligently after the
child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I
also may come and adore him. And when they had heard the king,
they went their way; and behold, the star which they had seen
in the East went before them, until it came and stood over
where the child was. And seeing the star, they rejoiced with
exceeding great joy. And going into the house, they found the
child with Mary his mother, and falling down, they adored him;
and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold,
frankincense, and myrrh. And having received an answer in sleep
that they should not return to Herod, they went back another
way into their own country.
---------------------
Sermon XVL.
_Rise, and take the Child and his mother,
and go into the land of Israel._
--St. Matthew ii. 20.
At this season of Christmas and Epiphany, in these days when the
church brings us to the manger in which the infant Son of God was
laid, it is impossible for any Christian to come to Jesus without
coming to Mary also. He cannot see the one without seeing the
other; and surely he will not adore the one without honoring the
other also.
It is plain enough to us all at this time how inseparable Our
Lady is from her Divine Son, and how we must go to her if we
would gain admission to his presence. But we are apt enough to
forget it at other seasons, even at times like the month of May,
specially commemorated to her love and service.
{67}
We are apt to imagine devotion to her as a sort of thing apart by
itself, beautiful and reasonable, it is true, but still having no
necessary connection with the worship of God. We do not
understand that it is impossible for us to love and adore him as
he wishes unless we also honor his Blessed Mother--as impossible
as it would be to have a true devotion to her and forget him. The
two devotions must go hand-in-hand not only now but through all
the year.
The forgetting of this is one great reason why there is so much
sin in the world. One who has a true love for Mary can hardly
fall into mortal sin; and that not only because she will
specially pray for him and defend him, but also because he will
love her Son too much to do so. And even if he should fall into
mortal sin he will not stay in it long; not only because she will
obtain his conversion, but also because love of God cannot be far
away while that of his Blessed Mother remains.
This is also true, in its measure, of venial as well as of mortal
sin, and of those imperfections which keep people from being
saints. You will hear many complaining that they do not make any
progress in the spiritual life; that they are always committing
the same faults, and even just as often; and that they have no
more piety now than they had years ago--perhaps not even so much.
Well, of course there may be many reasons for this; but one of
them, perhaps, is that they do not cultivate a real, solid
devotion to Our Blessed Lady. They say, no doubt, some prayers to
her, and they believe fully and firmly everything about her which
the church teaches; but they do not realize that they cannot
acquire the love of her Divine Son unless they make his Mother
theirs also; that they give themselves entirely to her as her
loving children, with all their mind and strength, all their
heart and soul.
{68}
What a pity it is to neglect so easy and so safe a way not only
of salvation but of perfection! It will lead to everything else,
and nothing else will lead anywhere without it.
Let us, then, my dear brethren, at the beginning of this new year
make a good resolution--that is, to have more devotion to Our
Lady than we have ever had before. Let us take, as St. Joseph
did, the Child and his Mother, and set out with them from this
place of our exile to the land of Israel, the true promised land
above. Let us take them both, not only at Christmas but always,
through our whole journey here below; not to guard and guide
them, as he did--for we have not such a privilege--but that they
may guard us, and guide us to the country which is waiting, not
for one people only, but for the redeemed of all nations, for all
the Israel of God.
--------------------
Sermon XVII.
_And opening their treasures,
they offered him gifts;
gold, frankincense, and myrrh._
--St. Matthew ii. 11.
To-day, my brethren, is a great day for us. It is, in one way, a
greater day than Christmas itself; a day, that is, in which we
have more cause for rejoicing than we had even then. For what was
it which we celebrated then, and what is it which we are
celebrating now?
{69}
Then it was the birth of our Lord into this world, and it was
indeed a thing which we had cause to rejoice over; but to-day it
is something even more joyous for us than that. It is not only
that he was born into this world, but that he was born for us,
for us Gentiles--to save us as well as his own chosen people, the
Jews. The three wise men whom that wonderful star led to his crib
were not of that people, but Gentiles like ourselves; and the
star which appeared to them signified the appearance to them and
to us of the true Light which was hereafter to enlighten in a
more wonderful way than before not only a single nation, but
every man coming into this world. Appearance or manifestation is
what the Greek word "epiphany" means.
It was natural, then, that they should offer gifts to their
newly-born Saviour, for they could not but do so in
acknowledgment of the great gift which he had given to them. But
let us see what was the meaning of the gifts which they did
offer--of these gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
They may be, and have been, interpreted in a great many different
ways, all of which may well be true. It is commonly said that the
wise men offered gold to our Lord because he is the King of
heaven and earth; frankincense, because he is Almighty God; and
myrrh, because he is also man, and was to suffer death for the
sins of the world--myrrh being used to embalm the dead, and hence
being a symbol of death. But there is another signification of
these gifts which is, perhaps, more practical for us, because it
suggests more directly the three gifts which each one of us must
offer to him who is our Saviour as well as theirs, if we would
partake of the salvation which he came to bring to us.
{70}
These three gifts are, then, understood by some to represent the
three duties of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, by which we are
redeemed from the tyranny of the world, the devil, and the flesh.
These last three are the great enemies of our salvation, and they
must be overcome if we are to be saved. The love of the world,
and of the treasures which it offers us, can only be destroyed by
sacrificing those treasures for the sake of God, of his church,
and of his poor; the power of the devil, who sets himself up as
the god whom we are to serve and obey, can only be resisted by
constant prayer, by which we draw near to the true God, and
devote ourselves over and over again to his service; and the
control of the flesh, with its base and degrading appetites, over
our immortal souls can only be shaken off by fasting--that is, by
mortification of various kinds, by persistently refusing to our
bodies all dangerous and sinful indulgences, and by sometimes
depriving them of pleasures which are innocent in themselves.
These three duties are practised in their perfection by those
whom God calls to the religious life by the three vows of
poverty, obedience, and chastity. By the vow of poverty the
religious sacrifices at once the goods of this world; by that of
obedience he frees himself from the tyranny of the devil,
subjecting himself entirely to God, whom his superiors represent;
by that of chastity he renounces sensual pleasure.
But it is not religious alone who are called on to make these
three gifts. The same obligation, in its due measure, rests upon
each of you. Almsgiving, prayer, and mortification are duties for
all Christians.
{71}
It is hard to see how any one can be saved who gives no more to
God and the poor than what is extorted from him, as it were, by
force; who merely says prayers now and then because he is afraid
to give up the practice, but who seldom or never really prays;
and who indulges without scruple in everything which his flesh
desires, intending to stop short of nothing but mortal sin.
Let such things, then, my brethren, not be said of us. As we
kneel with the wise men this morning before the manger of our
infant God, let us make with them these three gifts. Let us offer
to him, as they did, with a full and willing heart, our
possessions, our bodies, and our souls. This is the time for
making presents, and these are the presents which he expects. Be
generous, then, with him, and he will be generous with you. "Give
to the Most High according to what he hath given to thee."
-----------------
{72}
_First Sunday after Epiphany._
Epistle.
_Romans xii._ 1-5.
Brethren:
I beseech you, by the mercy of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your
reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be
reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what
is the good and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.
For I say, through the grace that is given me, to all that are
among you, not to be more wise than it behooveth to be wise,
but to be wise unto sobriety, and according as God hath divided
to every one the measure of faith. For as in one body we have
many members, but all the members have not the same office: so
we being many are one body in Christ, and each one members one
of another in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Gospel.
_St. Luke ii._ 42-52.
When Jesus was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem
according to the custom of the feast, and after they had
fulfilled the days, when they returned, the child Jesus
remained in Jerusalem; and his parents knew it not. And
thinking that he was in the company, they came a day's journey
and sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance. And not
finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him. And it
came to pass, that after three days they found him in the
temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and
asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished
at his wisdom and his answers. And seeing him, they wondered.
And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us?
behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
{73}
And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? did you not
know that I must be about the things that are my Father's? And
they understood not the word that he spoke unto them. And he
went down with them and came to Nazareth: and was subject to
them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart. And
Jesus increased in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men.
-------------------
Sermon XVIII.
_And he went down with them,
and came to Nazareth,
and was subject to them._
--St. Luke ii. 51.