not make it, as too many do, an occasion of mortal sin by making
it a privileged time for drunkenness and immodesty. A wedding
ought to be a time of joy, but for a joy of purity and sobriety.
If you make it a time for opening the door to sin for yourselves
and for others, tremble lest you bring down on yourselves for the
rest of your lives the curse of God instead of his blessing.
Invite, then, like the couple at Cana, our Lord to be present at
your marriage, and behave as you would if you were to see him
there. So shall you receive his benediction, both for time and
eternity.
-------------------------
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_Third Sunday after Epiphany_.
Epistle.
_Romans xii._ 16-21.
Brethren:
Be not wise in your own conceits. Render to no man evil for
evil. Provide things good not only in the sight of God, but
also in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as is
in you, have peace with all men. Revenge not yourselves, my
dearly beloved; but give place to wrath, for it is written:
"Revenge is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." But if thy
enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him drink;
for doing this thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be
not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew viii._ 1-13.
At that time:
When Jesus was come down from the mountain, great multitudes
followed him; and behold a leper coming, adored him, saying:
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus,
stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: I will; be thou
made clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus
said to him: See thou tell no man; but go show thyself to the
priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a
testimony to them. And when he had entered into Capharnaum,
there came to him a centurion, beseeching him and saying: Lord,
my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grievously
tormented. And Jesus said to him: I will come and heal him. And
the centurion, making answer, said: Lord, I am not worthy that
thou shouldst enter under my roof; but only say the word, and
my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man under
authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, Go,
and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh, and to my
servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
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And Jesus, hearing this, wondered, and said to those that
followed him: Amen I say to you, I have not found so great
faith in Israel. And I say unto you that many shall come from
the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of
the kingdom shall be cast out into exterior darkness: there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said to the
centurion: Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to
thee. And the servant was healed at the same hour.
-------------------
Sermon XXIII.
_Only say the word,
and my servant shall be healed._
--St. Matthew viii. 8.
The centurion in to-day's Gospel, dear friends, is certainly a
shining example to us of many virtues, Particularly is he an
example to those among us who are rich and well off, or who have
any servants or others employed under our authority. When any one
is taken sick, what is the first cry? Go for the priest. Run for
the doctor. And instantly a messenger is sought out. Now, this
man's servant was sick. What did he do? Centurion, and high in
station as he was, he went _himself_ for One who was both
doctor and priest. His servant, doubtless, had served him
faithfully, had been obedient and trustworthy; and now that this
servant is sick, remembering the sublime virtue of charity, the
master runs off to our Lord and begs of him to speak the word
that would heal the servant. Now, many of you, dear brethren,
have in your houses hired help, and the poor are around you who
serve you in many useful ways; who do work which, did they not
exist, would have to be left undone.
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How do you treat those fellow-Christians? Ah! I am afraid, often
in a very different spirit to that displayed by the centurion.
They are sick. You grumble at the inconvenience to which you are
put, but what do you do to help them? Do you get the doctor? Do
you offer them such nourishment as a sick person needs? Do you
visit your servant's sick-bed, or the beds of the poor, to whom
we are all indebted for so much service? I wish it were always
so, but it is not. Often a servant is made to work when bed would
be a more fitting place to be in than the kitchen. Often the poor
suffer dreadfully because those whom they serve in health will
not help them in sickness. Oh! then let us all follow the example
of the good centurion, and if our servants in our house, or our
servants out of the house, are sick, let us, moved by a divine
charity, hasten at once to their relief.
And then in spiritual things how do we act? Catholic heads of
families, employers, masters and mistresses, keepers of stores
and workshops, how do you look after those that work for you? Do
you see that they go to Mass? Do you give them time to get to
confession? Do you look after the moral conduct of those you
employ? When they are sick and suffering are you solicitous that
they should have the comfort and help which the holy sacraments
afford? Are you sensible of the responsibility which lies upon
you to see that the priest is sent for, especially when they are
in danger of death? Oh! I am much afraid that many are very
neglectful in this respect.
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So long as their work is done they care very little for those
they employ. Catholic employers often don't bestow a thought upon
these things. But don't deceive yourselves: God will require all
these souls at your hands. No Catholic man or woman ought to keep
in their houses a servant who is negligent of his or her
religious duties. You should give your help and your employees
plenty of time to go to Mass and confession; and, more than that,
it is your duty to _see_ that they go. You should not employ
by the side of innocent young men and women all sorts of roughs
and blackguards. By so doing you put immortal souls in peril. You
should remember that you are head of the family, and that the
help and the employees are part of that family, and therefore you
are bound in conscience to care for them. Imitate, then, the
centurion. Love those you employ. Have a great charity for them.
Cherish them, tend them in all their wants. Correct their faults,
reward their fidelity; and by so doing you will advance Christ's
kingdom on earth and people his kingdom in heaven.
Rev. Algernon A. Brown.
--------------------------------
Sermon XXIV.
_If it be possible, as much as is in you,
have peace with all men;
revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved._
--Romans xii. 18-19.
There are a good many people who seem to find it very difficult
to have peace with all men, or at any rate with all women; for,
strange to say, it is, for some reason or other, what is known as
the gentler sex that gives and has the most trouble in this
respect.
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Of course it is all the fault of some other party that they
cannot live in peace; not their own at all. They themselves are
perfectly innocent--lambs, in fact, among wolves. Other people
are always persecuting and tormenting them, or at any rate
belying them; this last is one of the favorite complaints of
these poor, harmless, and much-abused creatures. They try to have
peace as far as possible, but other people will not let them.
And of course they never revenge themselves on their cruel
enemies. Oh! no. They never injure or belie them; they would not
do such a thing for the world. They may, indeed, meekly complain
of their troubles to the few friends they have got left; they
tell how wicked these people are who give them so much annoyance.
They try to lower other people's esteem of them; but, of course,
that is not meant for injury--that is only that others may be
duly warned of such dangerous characters. In their zeal they may
draw on their imagination a little; but of course that is not
belying. They, perhaps on some rare occasions will try to take it
out of their persecutors in one way or another; but then that is
not revenge--that is only standing up for their rights. They
would like to have peace, and so they try to have it by making
reconciliation as hard as possible.
It is plain what good Christians they are from their enjoyment of
the words which follow those which I have quoted from the Epistle
of to-day. These words are: "Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith
the Lord."' These are, indeed, a great consolation to them.
{95}
"Yes," they say to themselves, "I leave them to God. I cannot
revenge myself on my enemies as I would like; I don't dare to, or
my conscience won't let me; but I hope God will punish them as
they deserve. Revenge belongs to him, I know, and I am glad to
think that in his own good time he will lay it on to them well. I
shall do all my duty if I wish patiently for the time when he
will begin to do it; and meanwhile I will console myself by
praying that he may convert them and make every one of them as
good a Christian as I am."
The delusion under which these good Christians are laboring would
be amusing, if it were not so dangerous. The danger is that the
revenge of God, about which they like to think, is hanging as
much over their own heads as over those of the ones with whom
they are at variance. They are not really trying to have peace;
their own revenge is what they want, though they are willing that
Almighty God should be the instrument of it.
They do not care either to preserve peace or to regain it in the
only way in which it can be preserved or regained--that is, by
charity and humility. Their charity is all for themselves. They
may tread on other people's corns, but nobody else must tread on
theirs. Other people must be humble, and, if they give offence,
even carelessly, must make an abject apology; but they themselves
are too good to be obliged to do that.
Perhaps, however, my friends, some of you really do want to live
in peace with all. If so, you can do it by following a very
simple rule. It is this: Be careful what you say or do to others;
they are sensitive as well as yourself--perhaps more so. You must
not expect other people to be saints, even if you are one
yourself.
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Do not flatter what is bad in them, but acknowledge what is good;
stroke them the right way. If they really do you an injury see if
you have not provoked it; examine your own actions. If you are
sure you have not, put it down to ignorance or misapprehension;
try to find out what the matter is, and set it right by an
explanation, if you can. But if you have committed a fault do not
be too proud to acknowledge it. If you cannot procure a
reconciliation speak well of the other party, and believe him or
her to be, on the whole, better than yourself. For one who has
true humility this will not be very hard to do.
This is the real meaning of the counsel of St. Paul; if you
follow it you will, indeed, live in peace as far as it is
possible in this world.
------------------------
{97}
_Fourth Sunday after Epiphany_.
Epistle.
_Romans xiii._ 8-10.
Brethren:
Owe no man anything, but that you love one another. For he that
loveth his neighbor, hath fulfilled the law. For "Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet." And
if there be any other commandment, it is comprised in this
word: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The love of
the neighbor worketh no evil. Love, therefore, is the
fulfilling of the law.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew viii._ 23-27.
At that time:
When Jesus entered into the ship, his disciples followed him;
and behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the ship
was covered with waves, but he was asleep. And his disciples
came to him, and waked him, saying: Lord, save us, we perish.
And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, ye of little
faith? Then rising up he commanded the winds and the sea, and
there came a great calm. But the men wondered, saying: Who is
this, for even the winds and the sea obey him?
----------------
Sermon XXV.
_And Jesus saith to them:
Why are you fearful, ye of little faith?_
--St. Matt. viii. 26.
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Some people are always worrying. It would seem that they must
enjoy it, for they always find something to worry about. If one
good matter for worrying is settled they will be sure to rake up
another to take its place. Some of them worry about temporal
matters, some about spiritual; but whatever their taste may be in
this respect, they are so fond of the amusement that, if they
cannot get their favorite matter to worry about, they will take
something else rather than not have any at all.
You would think that this taste for worrying would be a very
uncommon one; but, strange to say, it is not so. In fact, the
number of worriers is almost as great as the number of people in
the world, and they are worrying about every conceivable thing,
though generally only about one thing at a time; it may be about
their sins or about somebody else's sins--their children's, for
instance--or it may be, and is more likely to be, about some
temporal matter, such as their health or the state of their
worldly affairs.
Now, what do I mean by worrying? I do not mean thinking seriously
about things either spiritual or temporal--for a great many,
though not all, of the things people worry about are worthy of
serious consideration, whereas nothing is worth a moment's
worry--but I do mean thinking about them in a way that can do no
good, and that only serves to turn the mind in on itself and away
from God.
Here, for instance, is a case of worrying, to which I have just
alluded: A good father and mother have children who are growing
up, as so many children are growing up, especially in this city,
in neglect of their duties and are acquiring various bad habits.
Of course this is very painful to their parents, and there is
very good reason that it should be. They would be unnatural or
wicked parents if it were not so.
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They ought to be distressed about it; and I did not say that
people should never be distressed, but only that they should not
worry. But these parents probably do worry. They occupy their
minds with all sorts of useless questions and imaginations. They
say: "What have I done that these children of mine are so bad?"
And perhaps, though they ask this question, they never really
stop to examine themselves and find out if they have neglected
their own duty in any way, so as to make an act of contrition for
it, and make good resolutions, if it be not too late, for the
future. What they mean rather by it is: "How can God allow this
when I have done my duty?" And then they say: "Suppose these
children get worse and disgrace my name, and even, lose their
souls--what shall I do then?" Or perhaps they say: "What shall I
do now?" But that does not really mean anything, for either they
do not set their wits to work to find out what they can do, or
they have concluded with good reason that they cannot do anything
except pray; and that they do not do, for their time of prayer is
taken up with this same useless worrying.
Now, what does all this come from? It comes from a distrust in
God's love and providence. It comes from a feeling like what the
apostles had, as we read in to-day's Gospel, as if He who ought
to take care of them were asleep; but they ought to have known,
as their own psalms could have taught them, that "He shall
neither slumber nor sleep that keepeth Israel." Even though they
knew him not to be God, they should have known that God, who had
sent him into the world, and on whom their faith in him rested,
would not allow them to come to any harm; and they should have
been willing, when they had done their own duty, to trust in his
providence for the rest.
{100}
They might, indeed, well have waked him to get his help and
advice as to what to do; but he, who read their hearts, knew that
their anxiety had its source, not in prudence, but in distrust,
and so he deservedly rebuked them, saying: "Why are you fearful,
O ye of little faith?"
That is the reason why we, like the apostles, are worrying. It is
because we have little faith. We distrust God's providence and
mercy, and spend our time in this distrust and complaining,
instead of quietly finding out and doing our own duty, and then
simply and confidently leaving the result to him. But we have
less excuse for it than they, for we know more of him than they
did then. Let us, then, be ashamed of our want of faith, and try
to do better in this respect for the future.
----------------------
Sermon XXVI.
_And behold, a great tempest arose in the sea._
--St. Matthew viii. 24.
Almost all of us, my dear brethren, have at some time of life
been in a position like that of the apostles in their little boat
on the Sea of Galilee. We have been out at sea in a storm, with
the waves beating against our frail craft and threatening to
swamp it every moment. So we do not need to draw on our
imagination to realize what their feelings must have been.
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Perhaps you may think I am exaggerating when I say this; most of
you, I suppose, cannot remember ever having been in a storm at
sea. But it is quite true, nevertheless. Only the sea and the
storm were far more dangerous ones than those to which the
apostles were exposed that night. For the sea over which you
were, and still are, sailing is the sea of this mortal life; and
the storm was the storm of temptation; and the danger was that of
death, not to the body, but to the soul.
But perhaps you do not remember ever having met with any very
violent storm, even of this kind. Well, it may be that God has
singularly favored you, and given you a very quiet and smooth sea
to sail over so far. If so, you are an exception to the common
rule. It may be, however, that you escaped the storm in another
way; that is, by going to the bottom at once. You know the most
furious tempests do not reach very far below the surface of the
ocean, so that one can always escape them by sinking. So you,
perhaps, have escaped temptation by yielding to it at once; as
soon as you were tempted to commit mortal sin you committed it,
and sank into its horrible and fathomless abyss, continually
deeper and deeper, till you were brought up again to the light
and air of God's pardon and peace by some mission which he sent
you, or by some other extraordinary grace from him.
But that was not what you were made for, any more than a ship is
made to be continually sinking and being pulled up to the surface
again. Ships are made to sail, not to sink. Their builders expect
that they will battle with the elements, not be overcome by them;
nay, more, they expect that the very winds which seem to threaten
their safety shall be the means of sending them to the port which
they are intended to reach.
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And what the builder expects of his ship is what God, who has
made us, expects of us; especially of us Christians, with whom he
has taken such great pains. He expects, and he has a right to
expect, that we shall stay on the surface--that is, that we
shall keep in the state of grace; that we shall battle with the
winds and waves--that is, that we shall resist temptation; and,
furthermore, he expects that the winds, even if they be ahead,
shall help us on our course--that is, that they shall be the
means, and even the principal means, of bringing us into the safe
harbor of our eternal home.
Let us not, then, be surprised, nay, let us even rejoice, if we
fall into temptation, so long as we do not seek it. "My
brethren," says St. James, "count it all joy, when you shall fall
into divers temptations." And why? First, because the fact that
you are harassed by temptations is a sign that you have not given
way to them. It shows that you are on the surface, that you have
not foundered yet when you feel the winds and the waves.
And, secondly, because it is a sign that our Lord puts confidence
in you. The builder of a ship, if he could do it, would
proportion the wind to the size and strength of his vessel; and
that is what our Maker actually does. He has let his saints have
temptations compared with which yours are as nothing at all. Such
as he allows you to have are meant for your salvation and
perfection; the more he thinks you worthy of, the better.
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But do not seek them. A prudent captain keeps out of the track of
storms. Be content with those which you cannot avoid, for those
are the only ones which God means you to have.
When you cannot avoid them meet them courageously. Do not get
frightened, as the apostles did, for God is with you as he was
with them, though he may seem to be asleep. He has not forgotten
you, and with his help you will conquer them, every one.
But you must ask him to do so. You must go to him as the apostles
did, saying: "Lord, save us, we perish." He did not blame them
for that, but for their terror and want of trust in his
providence. You must work when you are in the storm of temptation
as if the result all depended on yourself; you must pray as if it
all depended on him. If you do this you will not sink in the
tempest; nay, when it is over you will find that it has driven
you nearer to the harbor where storms never come.
----------------
Sermon XXVII.
Candlemas-Day.
_A light to the revelation of the Gentiles,
and the glory of thy people of Israel._
--St. Luke ii. 32.
The blessing of candles, and the esteem which Catholics have for
candles when they are blessed, is one of the things which
Protestants find it very hard to understand. They have no idea of
a candle, except that it is a very old-fashioned article, useful
enough, perhaps, if you want to grope in some dark corner of the
house, but, on the whole, a very poor affair in these days of gas
and the electric light. They cannot see why any one who can get a
good kerosene lamp should use a candle instead; unless, perhaps,
it might be because the candle will not explode.
{104}
The reason for their perplexity is pretty plain. It is because
they do not, or it may be will not, understand that we honor and
prize candles, as we do the images of the saints and many other
things, not for what they are, but for what they represent; and
also on account of the sanctification and real use, not to our
bodies so much as to our souls, that the blessing of the church
is able to give to anything to which it is attached.
Protestants, I say, do not or will not understand these things;
but Catholics do. It is not superstition which makes a Catholic
prize a blessed candle. He knows, first, that it has been
selected by the church to represent our Blessed Lord himself;
that its feeble light is a sign of the true light which
enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world; and he honors
and esteems it for God's sake. And secondly, he knows that it has
a power and use greater and higher than that of the most
brilliant lamps that the hand of man can make; that, though it be
but a material thing, it has a spiritual value, like holy-water
and other things which the church has blessed and sanctified; and
specially that it is a defence against our spiritual enemies,
Satan and the other fallen angels, and all the more so because
these proud spirits cannot bear to be put to flight, as they are,
by such a common and simple thing as a candle or a few drops of
water.
{105}
You know these things, my friends; the spirit of faith teaches
them to you. But you do not bear them so constantly in mind as
you should. How often does the priest go to a house on a sick
call, and find that there is no candle to be had! The law of the
church requires it when the sacraments are to be administered;
but one would think it would not need a law to make any one who
had the faith see that at least this honor should be given to
them. Strange to say, however, the people of the house never
thought of the matter at all. They keep our Lord waiting while
they run out to borrow, if possible, a candle from some pious
neighbor. Perhaps they buy one at the grocery-store; I do not
know what blessing they think that has received. When they get
the candle, such as it may be, there is probably nothing to put
it in; it is likely enough that a bottle is all that can be
found.
It would look much better, in some houses which we have to visit,
if there were fewer bottles and more blessed candles. It would
look as if the people who lived there thought at least as much of
their souls as of their bodies. It is very unpleasant for all
parties--and our Lord is one of them--to have such things happen
as I have described.