that candlesticks, as well as candles, are rather out of fashion;
but the supply will always follow the demand. For the honor and
for the fear of God, do not remain any longer without a blessed
candle in your house and something worthy of it to hold it. There
will be no harm in burning it, even though no one be sick and the
priest not there, if it be at a proper place and time.
{106}
And, if it be possible, offer a candle to be burned in the place
and at the time most pleasing to God of all--that is, on his holy
altar while Mass is being offered, or his blessing being given to
you in the Sacrament of his love. Honor and glorify him
everywhere, but specially in the place where his glory dwelleth,
and where he is daily offered up for you.
-------------------
{107}
_Fifth Sunday after Epiphany_
Epistle.
_Colossians iii_. 12-17.
Brethren:
Put ye on therefore, as the elect of God, holy, and beloved,
the bowels ol mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience,
bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if any
have a complaint against another: even as the Lord hath
forgiven you, so do you also. But above all these things have
charity, which is the bond of perfection: and let the peace of
Christ rejoice in your hearts, wherein also you are called in
one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in
you abundantly, in all wisdom: teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in
grace in your hearts to God. All whatsoever you do in word or
in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving
thanks to God and the Father by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew xiii._ 24-30.
At that time:
Jesus spoke this parable to the multitude, saying: The kingdom
of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his
field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed
cockle among the wheat, and went his way. And when the blade
was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared also the
cockle. Then the servants of the master of the house came and
said to him: Master, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field?
whence then hath it cockle? And he said to them: An enemy hath
done this. And the servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go
and gather it up? And he said: No, lest while you gather up the
cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it.
{108}
Let both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the
harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle,
and bind it into bundles to burn; but gather the wheat into my
barn.
----------------------
Sermon XXVIII.
_Gather up first the cockle,
and bind it into bundles to burn;
but gather the wheat into my barn._
--St. Matthew xiii. 30.
The parable which is the subject of the Gospel of to-day is
explained by our Lord himself a little further on. The disciples
asked him to expound it to them; and he told them that the good
seed were the children of the kingdom--that is, all good and
faithful Christians; and that the cockle were the children of the
wicked one--that is, all those who refuse to believe in the faith
which God has revealed, or who will not obey his law. These two
kinds of people, said he, live together in this world, but at the
end of the world they shall all be for ever separated, the wicked
to be cast into the furnace of fire, and the just to shine as the
sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Our Lord calls the sinful the children of the wicked one--that
is, of the devil. But he does not mean that the devil created
them, for he can create no one; no, God created us all, and has,
furthermore, redeemed us all with his precious Blood. There is
something about them, though, which the devil may be said to have
created, and that it is which makes them his children. It is sin,
which he first brought into God's creation, to which he tempted
our first parents, and to which he is all the while tempting us
now. Sin is the devil's work; and sinners are his children,
because they do his work.
{109}
But few people, at least few Christians, are all the time sinners
and children of the devil. Sometimes they repent and become, at
least for a time, children of God. Good and evil are mixed up in
them, as they are in the world. So our Lord's parable is true of
each one of them as it is of the world at large. Each of our
hearts is a little field in which God is sowing the good seed of
his holy inspirations, and the devil the bad seed of his wicked
temptations; and sometimes consent is given to one, sometimes to
the other.
Perhaps we may have asked ourselves the question (for it is a
very natural one to ask): "Why has God allowed the devil to sow
his bad seed in the world and in the hearts of men? And why, if
he lets it be sown, does he not root out this bad seed, and not
let it grow and choke what is good?" I should not wonder at your
asking this question, and you should not wonder if we cannot give
all of God's reasons for it, for it is one of the mysteries of
his providence. But he has himself given one reason for it in his
explanation of this parable. The servants, you will remember,
wanted to go and root out the cockle; but the master said: "No,
lest while ye gather up the cockle, you root up the wheat also
together with it." Would it not be so with us, too, if God should
take away all the bad seed of temptation out of our hearts? A
great deal of our virtue would be rooted up, too, and what was
left would not be very strong and solid. You can see that often.
A person seems very good, but what is the reason? It is because
he is not much tempted.
{110}
Let a strong temptation come, and perhaps such a person will sin
more easily than one who has seemed much worse, but has really
been acquiring solid virtue by faithfully combating with
difficulties the other has not had. And not only would our virtue
not be solid, but our merits would not be very abundant, without
temptation; for most of our merit is gained by resisting sin.
Our Lord, then, does not mean to pull up the cockle out of the
way of the wheat, but wants the wheat to live and outgrow the
cockle. It is for us to see that it does so; for if there is any
cockle left when we come to die there will be something to do
before the wheat goes to the barn--that is, to cast the cockle
into the furnace of fire; and that furnace of fire, for those who
die in the grace of God, is the fire of purgatory. We shall have
to wait there till the cockle of sin is all burned before we can
go to heaven with our wheat of virtue and of merit.
Let us not think, then, in this month of November, only of
praying for those who are in those purging flames, but also of
avoiding them ourselves. Our Lord does not want us to go to
purgatory. He would infinitely rather take us to heaven from our
death-bed than let us remain in that state of suffering. What he
wants is to have the wheat grow over the whole field and choke
the cockle instead of being choked by it--in a word, he wants us
to be saints. That is what St. Paul says: "This is the will of
God, your sanctification." Let this, then, be our devotion in the
month of November and all the year round: to imitate those (and
there are many of them) who have died and gone before their Lord
with plenty of wheat and no cockle on their hands.
--------------------
{111}
Sermon XXIX.
_Bearing with one another,
and forgiving one another,
if any have a complaint against another:
even as the Lord hath forgiven you,
so do you also._
--Colossians iii. 13.
These words, my dear brethren, are taken from the Epistle of
to-day. They certainly contain a most important lesson for us,
and one which we are too apt never even to begin to learn. You
will find plenty of people who are near the end of a long
life--who have, as the saying is, one foot in the grave--who do
not seem to know how to overlook and to pardon injuries any
better than when they first began to be exposed to them.
There are two very good reasons, my brethren, why you should
learn this lesson. The first is that, unless you do, you can
never be happy in this life; the second, that, unless you have
learned it, there is great reason to fear for your happiness in
the life which is to come.
You can never be happy, I say, in this life, unless you know how
to pardon and overlook the injuries you receive from others. And
the reason of this is very plain. It is, in the first place,
because it is very uncomfortable to be brooding over injuries
received--that is plain enough; and, in the second place, you
will always be exposed to them. There is a way to avoid them, it
is true: it is to go out into the desert and live there in some
cave or hut all alone. But I think there are very few nowadays
who have any vocation to that; and if you should undertake to
live the life of a hermit without any vocation for it, the
chances are that you would be ten times as miserable as you would
be with the very worst neighbors in the world.
{112}
This is the only way to avoid them; for, however good the people
are among whom you live, they will always be somewhat selfish;
they will want to have their own way sometimes, at least, and it
will often happen that they cannot have their way and at the same
time let you have yours. And they will always be somewhat
thoughtless. They will not be so very careful not to offend you;
and you cannot expect it of them, for you are not so careful
yourself. You would be surprised if you should know how often you
have given offence to others.
The fact is, there is not room enough in this world for us all to
get along without sometimes treading on each other's toes. There
are a great many of us sailing together down the stream of life,
and it will take the most careful steering to prevent our now and
then running foul of each other. And such careful steering cannot
be expected of every one, or of any except one or two here and
there. If you really should try it yourselves you would find how
difficult it is. The saints do try it, and that is one reason why
it is a work of sanctity to be indulgent to the faults of others.
Well, I said the second reason why you should learn the lesson of
forgiveness to others is that, unless you do, there is great
reason to fear for your happiness in the life to come. If you can
have any doubt of that, those words of our Lord in another place
will settle your doubt. "If you will not forgive men," he says,
"neither will your Father forgive you your offences." You may
confess all your sins, and receive the sacraments over and over
again, but so long as you have a hatred against your neighbor
your confessions and communions will be bad; you will not be in
the friendship of God; and if you go out of the world with that
malice in your heart you will be shut out from his presence.
{113}
You will say to me, perhaps, "Father, I will forgive, but I
cannot forget" If you say this to me I say to you: Take care. As
long as you do not at least try to forget, as long as you keep in
your mind that sore feeling which the injury you have received,
or think you have received, has caused, it will always be an
occasion of sin to you. It will always prompt you to withhold
from the persons whom you blame that charity which you are bound
to show to all. You will always be inclined to speak evil of
them, to try to prevent others from praising them, to throw out
some hint in which the venom which lies lurking in your heart
comes up to the surface. And do not be too sure that you have
really done all that God requires because the priest has given
you absolution. He cannot read your heart, and often he is
obliged to forgive uncharitable people like yourself, with great
doubt in his mind whether his sentence is approved by the great
Judge who cannot be deceived.
Now, that you may forgive more easily, remember what I suggested
a little while ago: that is, that those who have offended you
have generally done so either through selfishness or
carelessness, not through malice. Believe me, real malice is
quite a rare thing. If you could see the real dispositions of
others you would see that on the whole they are about as good as
your own; and I do not suppose you think you are malicious, and I
do not believe you are. Put, then, those unworthy suspicions out
of your minds, and forgive others freely and generously as you
yourself wish to be forgiven.
-----------------------
{114}
_Sixth Sunday after Epiphany_
Epistle.
1 _Thessalonians i_. 2-10.
Brethren:
We give thanks to God always for you all: making a remembrance
of you in our prayers without ceasing, being mindful of the
work of your faith, and labor, and charity, and of the enduring
of the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father;
knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election: for our gospel
hath not been to you in word only, but in power also, and in
the Holy Ghost, and in much fulness, as you know what manner of
men we have been among you for your sakes. And you became
followers of us, and of the Lord: receiving the word in much
tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that you were made
a pattern to all who believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from
you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in
Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place, your faith which
is towards God, is gone forth, so that we need not to speak
anything. For they themselves relate of us, what manner of
entrance we had unto you; and how you were converted to God
from idols, to serve the living and true God. And to wait for
his Son from Heaven (whom he raised from the dead), Jesus who
hath delivered us from the wrath to come.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew xiii._ 31-35.
At that time:
Jesus spoke to the multitude this parable: The kingdom of
heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and
sowed in his field. Which indeed is the least of all seeds; but
when it is grown up it is greater than any herbs, and becometh
a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the
branches thereof.
{115}
Another parable he spoke to them. The kingdom of heaven is like
to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of
meal, until the whole was leavened. All these things Jesus
spoke in parables to the multitudes: and without parables he
did not speak to them. That the word might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the prophet, saying: "I will open my mouth in
parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the
world."
-------------------
Sermon XXX.
The kingdom of heaven
is like to a grain of mustard-seed.
--St. Matthew xiii. 31.
A grain of mustard-seed is very little, as our Lord tells us, and
also, as we know, very sharp and burning. So is God's church,
which is the kingdom of Christ upon earth. First, it is little;
not in numbers, but little because it is poor and lowly. The
human spirit is proud above all things, disobedient, rebellious,
loving to be exalted, wishing to be praised. That which lost
paradise, which brought sin and death into the world, which
closed heaven, which opened hell, that which robbed us, stripped
us of our heavenly inheritance, was _pride_. So, then, the
kingdom of God, the church, that which is to govern the heart of
man, to rule its disorders, to bring us back to heaven, is poor,
is lowly, in the world's eyes is little. The proud world likes to
swell itself out and appear big, and makes a wide path to swagger
in. Our Lord tells us, "Except ye become as little children ye
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven"; and again: "Narrow
is the gate and strait the way that leadeth to life." Do not
wonder, then, that our holy church, which is glorious and
magnificent in the eyes of angels and saints, should be thought
little, and lowly, and poor by the world, and the flesh, and the
devil.
{116}
Now, it seems that this very poverty of the church ought to be a
reason why we should love it. If you are poor, then remember
"birds of a feather flock together." The church is poor, too. She
has not (particularly in these days) much of this world's goods.
Often she is much put about to build even a decent temple in
which to worship God. The church sometimes can hardly "keep
house" for God--can hardly buy those things which are of daily
necessity for his service. Oh! then the poor ought to love the
church. Are you rich? Then the poverty of the church ought to
touch your heart and open your purse. "The poor you have always
with you," says Jesus Christ, and the poorest of the poor is
God's church. The priest is obliged to beg for church, for
school, and all that is in them--for almost everything, indeed,
that is needed for the service of our divine Master. So, then, it
is from you who are rich that large alms ought to come, so that
Jesus Christ may be able to say that we have _you_ with us
and him as well as the poor. Again, while I caution you against
hankering after mere ease and comfort in church, and the worldly
elegances to be seen in the soft-cushioned and carpeted churches
of the sects, I must express my wonder that many wealthy
Catholics appear to be quite content to see the churches where
they go to Mass fitted up with furniture that would be too mean
for use in their own houses. If our Lord finds only more straw
and another manger for a cradle for his divine Majesty nowadays,
it ought not to be because we furnish him no better.
{117}
Secondly, the church is like a grain of mustard-seed, because her
laws are often sharp and burning to the human heart.
Mustard-seed, when crushed, has, as you know, a very strong and
pungent odor. If you stand over it when thus crushed it will
cause tears to flow from your eyes. If applied to your flesh it
will burn and smart. Yes; and sometimes the law of God will make
tears start from your eyes. There is some habit you find
convenient, some little pet plan you have made, some person to
whom you are attached. These things are leading you from God; so
his church says: "Change your ways." "Give it up." "It is not
lawful for thee." "Cut it off." Ah! don't you feel the sharp
mustard-seed getting into your eyes? Again, the flesh rebels.
That drink you love so much, that sinful appetite you like to
indulge, those places of evil amusement to which you want to
go--what says the church about such things? "Take the pledge."
"Throw away drink." "You must not gratify that sinful
inclination." "You cannot go to that place of amusement." "Give
up that bad company or Jesus Christ will give you up." Ah! don't
you feel how the mustard-seed burns and stings? But have good
courage--better be burnt here than burnt hereafter. That burning
of the mustard seed will heal you, will cure you. Its warmth will
bring you back to life. Lastly, one day the little seed will
become a great tree, whose branches shall reach to the sky, whose
boughs shall wave in heaven. Then we, like poor, homeless birds
of the air, shall spread our weary wings and go and make our
lodgings for ever beneath its sheltering leaves.
Rev. Algernon A. Brown.
------------------------
{118}
Sermon XXXI.
_The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven,
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal,
until the whole was leavened._
--St. Matthew xiii. 33.
The kingdom of heaven, my dear friends, means, as you know, in
this as well as in many other of our Lord's parables, not God's
kingdom in the next world, but in this--that is, his holy
Catholic Church. Understanding it in this way, it is easy to see
why he compares it to a grain of mustard-seed or to leaven; for
it was small in the beginning, but has grown, as the mustard-seed
grows, so that it now has spread through the whole earth; and it
was not noticed in the beginning, as the little leaven or yeast
would not be in the dough into which it is put, but has now made
its influence felt in all the world, as that of the yeast is in
the bread which it makes.
This was our Lord's intention, that his church should be
continually growing till every one should enter it, till every
heart should be leavened by its faith. But there are some
people--Catholics, too, but a very curious kind of Catholics--who
seem to think that the church was only made for those nations or
those families which now belong to it, and will even blame those
who are converted to it for leaving the religion of their
fathers. I do not know what excuse one can make for these
persons, except to suppose that God has blessed them with a very
small share of common sense.
{119}
I do not think that there are many people so stupid as to talk in
this way; but there are a good many who act as if they thought as
these people seem to think. I do not mean that there are many who
give the cold shoulder to converts, for that would be an unjust
reproach; but I do mean that there are many Catholics who do not
seem to understand the world has got to be converted, and that
they themselves have got to do their share towards it; that they
are part of that leaven with which our Lord meant that the world
should be leavened; that it was by means of them, according to
their measure of ability and opportunity, that he meant the faith
to be diffused through the world. Every Catholic ought to be a
missionary in his way and place, and do something to bring others
to that knowledge of the truth which he himself has received.
Not that every Catholic should go out and preach the faith on the
corners of the streets, or to people who would laugh at him or do
him more harm than he could do them good; but that every one
should be on the lookout for those who are sincere and well
disposed, and be ready to give them a helping hand, to explain
any difficulties which they may have, or to persuade them to come
to the priest, who can explain them more fully.
But, above all, that he should spread among those who do not
believe the leaven of good example, and not scandalize them by a
bad life. One can hardly be too careful to avoid scandalizing
even the faithful; and much more care should be taken not to
scandalize those who are seeking for the truth, and particularly
about those things on which their ideas are very strict and their
consciences very sensitive.
{120}
Take, for instance, the horrible vice of profane swearing, to
which many of you, to your own shame you must confess, are so
much addicted, and about which you are inexcusably careless.
There is no doubt at all that there is many a Protestant who
would not so much as think of enquiring about the faith of a
person who was in the habit of blaspheming. And yet he may be
really anxious to know the truth, and his soul is as dear to God
as yours; and if you are the cause, by this abominable habit of
yours, of his turning away in despair from the church, most
assuredly you will have to give an account for it when your soul
shall come to be judged. Many persons all around us are outside
of the church to-day because of the prevalence of this sin of
profanity among Catholics, because all the Catholics whom they
know seem rather to be children of the devil than of the good
God.
There are many other things, particularly drunkenness and
falsehood, by which Catholics spread around them the leaven of
bad example, and drive people away from the faith instead of
drawing them to it; but I have not time to speak of all. It is
for you, my brethren, to look to it that, when you come to die,
you shall feel that you have indeed done something to diffuse
through the world the leaven of faith and virtue, not of unbelief
and vice and that our Lord will not require at your hands the
blood of your brother, for whom he died as well as for you.
---------------------
{121}
_Septuagesima Sunday_
Epistle.
1 _Corinthians ix._ 24; x. 5.
Brethren:
Know you not that they who run in the race, all run indeed, but
one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain.
And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself
from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a
corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so
run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating
the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection:
lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should
become reprobate. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren,
that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed
through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud
and in the sea; and they did all eat the same spiritual food,
and all drank the same spiritual drink (and they drank of the
spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ).
But with the most of them God was not well pleased.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew xx._ 1-16.