Jesus said to his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven
is like to a master of a family, who went early in the morning
to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with
the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing in
the market-place idle. And he said to them: Go you also into my
vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went
their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth
hour, and did in like manner.
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But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others
standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day
idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith
to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was
come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the
laborers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even
to the first. When, therefore, they came, who had come about
the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when
the first also came, they thought that they should have
received more, and they also received every man a penny. And
when they received it, they murmured against the master of the
house, saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou
hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the
day and the heats. But he answering one of them, said: Friend,
I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree with me for a penny?
Take what is thine and go thy way: I will also give to this
last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I
will? is thy eye evil because I am good? So shall the last be
first, and the first last, For many are called, but few chosen.
-----------------
Sermon XXXII.
Why stand ye here all the day idle?
--St. Matthew xx. 6.
This life, my dear friends, is often spoken of in Scripture as a
day, both on account of its shortness and because the night of
death follows. Now, there are certainly many persons who do stand
all their lives idle; that is to say, they do not try to
"_work_ out their own salvation"; they do not try to do
anything in the Lord's vineyard, the church, by helping forward
good works either by their means or by their active service.
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There are a great number of men and women who never think of
caring for the great business of their salvation. Day after day
goes by, week after week, and they have done no good works,
corrected no faults, made absolutely no advancement or
improvement. It is too much trouble for them to examine their
consciences, too tiresome to stir themselves to go to Mass and
the sacraments. They have sunk into a state of spiritual
drowsiness by the world's fireside; in a word, they are all the
day idle. Oh! if there are any such here, let them take warning.
For the night will surely come, and then it will be too late.
Perhaps this is the eleventh hour for you. God has called you
often before; now, by the voice of his priest, he speaks once
more and says: "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" To-day you
see again the purple vestments and hangings; they tell you that
Lent is fast approaching, that a time of grace is coming round
once more. Oh! then, you that have yet a few hours of the day of
life left, go into the vineyard of your own souls, root up the
weeds, till the soil, plant good seed, that the Father of all may
be able in the end to give you the wages of everlasting life.
Again, such among you as have means, or who are able to help your
pastor by active service in the charge of the sick and the poor,
who can teach the uninstructed, help along in sewing-schools and
in forming sodalities and pious organizations of various
kinds--to you also the cry comes, "Why stand ye all the day
idle?" Why, when called upon to bear a little part of the
priest's burden, are so many people like an old gun that hangs
fire? Why is it often so difficult for the priest to get the
active co-operation of the lay people?
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Why does he so often get the "cold shoulder" as people say, when
he asks a little help? Is it not because people won't go into the
vineyard, won't work, won't take trouble? Because they would
rather not be bothered? How often they say: "I have no time";
"What are the priests for, anyhow?" "Let _them_ look after
these things." Thus they stand all the day idle, and the hard
work falls on the priests and just a few self-sacrificing
helpers. When you are called on, then, by your pastors to help in
the parish, "don't be backward in coming forward"; make up your
minds that you will not stand idle, but that it shall be "a long
pull and a strong pull, and a pull all together."
Why should we be so afraid of idleness in spiritual things and in
works of charity? Because, my dear friends, the time is short.
Life is passing swiftly. The night of death is at hand. Soon the
cry will be heard: "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye forth to
meet him." Soon the Master of the vineyard will come and look at
our work. Woe to us if he finds that we either never went into
the vineyard at all, or, at best, the work there was so ill done
that our part of the land is choked with docks and darnels and
every kind of weed! You know, doubtless, that people sometimes
give to each of their children a little garden to plant; ah! how
these children try to make "my garden" the best one. How careful
they are of it, how grieved if the frost or some noxious insect
should destroy the flowers or fruits! We are all children; God
has given us each a little garden, a little piece of his great
vineyard, to care and tend. Let us, then, like the little ones,
try to make our garden the finest, that when our Father, God, and
our dear Mother, Mary, come to look at it they may find it full
of beauty and fragrance, and say concerning us: "This one, at
least, did not stand all the day idle."
Rev. Algernon A. Brown.
---------------------------
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Sermon XXXIII.
They murmured against the master of the house.
--St. Matthew xx. 11.
We can hardly fail, my dear brethren, to understand the meaning
of this parable of our Lord, though he himself has given no
explanation of it. He is the master of the house; we are the
laborers whom he has hired to work in his vineyard, and hired,
too, at a very great price; for the penny which the laborers all
received represents the reward of eternal life which he has
promised to all who die in his service, even though they come to
that service at the eleventh hour--that is, at the end of their
lives.
Now, I do not know that we are inclined to find fault with our
Lord for forgiving one who has sinned during his whole life and
sincerely repents, though it be on his death-bed. We are generous
enough to be glad when one is really converted and saves his
soul; and perhaps all the more if it be at the last moment. We do
not find fault with God for his mercy, but rather we thank him
for it.
But we are inclined to murmur against him for what seems to us to
be an unjust and partial distribution of his mercies, as the
laborers murmured against their master. They did not complain
that the last received a penny, but that they themselves did not
receive more. They thought that the master ought to have
proportioned the wages to the service rendered; but we can see
plainly enough that he was not so bound.
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All he was bound to was to give the penny to all those to whom he
had promised it; as for the rest, he might have given any one of
them his whole property, if he had taken a special fancy to him.
You would not say that a man acted unjustly if he should single
out any one of his servants and make him a special present over
and above his regular wages. You would say, as the master of the
house said, that he could do what he liked with what remained
after his debts were paid.
Now, let us apply this, which is nothing but common sense, to our
Lord's relations to us. He has a debt to pay to us to which he
has bound himself. It is a real debt to us, because it rests on a
real promise which he has made. And that debt is to forgive us
when we really turn to him and repent of our sins, and to give
us, through his own merits and the shedding of his own Blood, the
eternal happiness which that precious Blood has purchased for us.
But he is not bound to give us graces which will force us to
repent; nor is he bound to give to each one of us the same graces
inclining us to repent. He has promised forgiveness to those who
repent, but not repentance to those who sin. Still less is he
bound to give to all the same impulses to perfection, the same
interior consolations, the same extraordinary supernatural gifts
of any kind. He is no more bound to this than he is bound to give
us all the same amount of natural strength, whether of mind or
body, or the same amount of worldly goods. He has his reasons for
the distribution of his gifts, it is true, and they are wise and
holy ones, we may be sure; for he does not act from caprice, as
we might do. But they are not reasons of justice to us, but
mercy. If we were treated according to strict justice I do not
know who among us would be saved.
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Remember this, then, my brethren, when you are inclined to find
fault with our Lord for his treatment of you or others. Remember
that you have already received many times more than in strict
justice was your due. Remember the countless favors, both
temporal and spiritual, which you have already received at his
hands, and be ashamed of complaining that others have received
even more. Beware of envying them those things which God, in his
great mercy, has freely bestowed on them; take care not to covet
your neighbor's goods, for that is exactly what you are in danger
of doing. And remember, specially, the great gift which he has
given you all, and which many others who certainly seem, even in
your own eyes, as good as yourselves have not received; that is,
the light of the one true faith. Remember that you have not had
to struggle in darkness and uncertainty; that you have always
been able to know what to believe and what to do. Others, it is
true, might have this, too, if they would do their own part; but
that part God has done for you. Thank him, then, for this
unspeakable mercy, and do not complain of other things which he
has given or withheld.
------------------------
Sermon XXXIV.
_So run that you may obtain._
--1 Corinthians ix. 24.
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There is a great rage just now, my brethren, as you are aware,
for walking, running, or footing it in any way. He or she is the
best man or woman who can go the greatest number of miles in a
week, or the greatest number of quarter-miles in the same number
of quarter-hours. The interesting question of the present day is
who can plod along with the greatest number of big blisters on
each foot, or best endure being stirred up every fifteen minutes
from a few winks of much-needed sleep, and go to sleep again the
soonest after accomplishing the required number of laps on a
tan-bark track.
This is all very well in its way. Walking is not a bad thing for
the health at any time; and just now it is a decidedly good thing
for the pocket, if one is strong enough to excel in it. But for
most people there are better ways of getting over the ground.
Even the professional pedestrian will not refuse, now and then,
to make use of the elevated railway.
There is one journey, however, which we all have to make on foot.
That is the journey to heaven, where we all want to go. There is
no elevated railway to take us there. If we are to get there it
must be by our own exertions. We may, it is true, save part of
the labor by availing ourselves of the very uncomfortable and
slow transit provided in purgatory; but that is a thing which we
must surely wish to avoid as far as possible.
Yes, my brethren, every sensible person will try to escape that
means of conveyance, and make this journey on foot over the road
prepared in this world. Furthermore, as he has this long walk to
take--for heaven is not very near to most of us--he will try to
fit himself for it; to go into training, and to keep in training,
so that he may not break down on the way, or find himself with a
short record when the end of his time arrives. He will bear in
mind the warning of St. Paul in to-day's Epistle: "So run that
you may obtain."
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How does the pedestrian manage to run so as to obtain his fame,
his thousand dollars, and his gate-money? In the first place he
works hard and sticks to his work. He does not waste his time by
sitting down on the benches and watching the other man. He keeps
on the track as long as he is able. When he cannot keep on any
longer he takes the rest and food that he needs--not a bit
more--and goes at it again. Sometimes he feels ready to drop; but
he keeps on, and the fatigue passes away.
Secondly, he not only keeps to his work, but he avoids everything
else that can interfere with it. He does not live on plum-cake
and mince pie, or fill up with bad whiskey and drugged beer. He
adopts a good, plain, wholesome diet--something that will stick
to his bones and go to muscle, not to fat.
Thirdly, he does not stagger round the ring with a Saratoga trunk
on his back. Far from it. He lays aside every weight that he can.
He even makes his clothes as light as possible. He does not care
to carry anything more than himself over the five hundred miles
that he has to go.
Lastly, he has a director. He does not call him by that name--he
calls him a trainer; but it comes to the same thing. He does not
trust his own judgment, but has some one else to feed him, to
tend him, to check him, or to urge him on.
Now, in all things, my friends, the pedestrian sets us a good
example: in the earnestness which inspires him, and the means he
takes to ensure success.
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Imitate him in them in the great journey before you, in which so
much more than fame and gate-money is involved. In the first
place, keep to your work; let every waking moment be a step
toward heaven. Be not weary in well-doing. Secondly, do not
indulge sensuality; use what the world has to give so that it may
help you on your course, and not for its own sake. Eat and drink
so that your body may be strong enough to serve your soul, but
not strong enough to rule it. Thirdly, do not put a great load of
riches on your back, unless you have got some good use to make of
it. You will have to drop it at the end of your race, and it will
only keep you back and prevent your winning. Lastly, do not trust
yourself too much. Have some one to help you--a director who will
guide you and tell you when you make mistakes, when you are going
too fast or too slow.
This is nothing but common prudence; use it, and your transit to
the kingdom of heaven shall be both rapid and sure.
-------------------------
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Sexagesima Sunday.
Epistle.
2 _ Corinthians xi._ 19-_xii_. 9.
Brethren:
You gladly suffer the foolish: whereas you yourselves are wise.
For you suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour
you, if a man take from you, if a man be extolled, if a man
strike you on the face. I speak according to dishonor, as if we
had been weak in this part. Wherein if any man is bold (I speak
foolishly) I am bold also. They are Hebrews; so am I. They are
Israelites; so am I. They are the seed of Abraham; so am I.
They are the ministers of Christ (I speak as one less wise), I
am more; in many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in
stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times
did I receive forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with
rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night
and a day I was in the depth of the sea; in journeys often, in
perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own
nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in
perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from
false brethren: in labor and painfulness, in watchings often,
in hunger and thirst, in many fastings, in cold and nakedness.
Besides those things which are without: my daily instance, the
solicitude for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not
weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn? If I must needs
glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmity.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for
ever, knoweth that I lie not. At Damascus the governor of the
nation under Aretas the king, guarded the city of the
Damascenes to apprehend me.
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And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall,
and so escaped his hands. If I must glory (for it is not
expedient indeed); but I will come to visions and revelations
of the Lord. I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago
(whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not:
God knoweth), such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I
know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I know
not: God knoweth; that he was caught up into paradise; and
heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter. Of
such an one I will glory: but for myself I will glory nothing,
but in my infirmities. For even if I would glory, I shall not
be foolish: for I will say the truth. But I forbear, lest any
man should think of me above that which he seeth in me, or
anything he heareth from me. And lest the greatness of the
revelations should puff me up, there was given me a sting of my
flesh and angel of Satan, to buffet me. For which thing I
thrice besought the Lord, that it might depart from me; and he
said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made
perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Gospel.
_St. Luke viii_. 4-15.
At that time:
When a very great multitude was gathered together and hastened
out of the cities to him, he spoke by a similitude. A sower
went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed some fell by the
wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air
devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was
sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And
some fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with it,
choked it. And some fell upon good ground; and sprung up, and
yielded fruit a hundred-fold. Saying these things, he cried
out: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples
asked him what this parable might be. To whom he said: To you
it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to
the rest in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing
they may not understand.
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Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. And they
by the wayside are they that hear: then the devil cometh, and
taketh the word out of their heart, lest believing they should
be saved. Now they upon the rock, are they who when they hear,
receive the word with joy: and these have no roots; who believe
for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. And that
which fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going
their way, are choked with the cares, and riches, and pleasures
of this life, and yield no fruit. But that on the good ground,
are they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word,
keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience.
----------------------
Sermon XXXV.
_And some seed fell upon a rock_.
--St. Luke viii, 6.
The sentence which forms the text is sometimes translated "and
some fell upon stony ground"--that is to say, the good seed
scattered by the sower fell in a place that was hard and rocky.
The sower in the parable is Jesus Christ, the seed is the word of
God. The great Chief Sower, dear friends, has gone away, but the
good seed, the word of God, the doctrines of holy church, her
precepts, her laws, the rules of morality, the standard by which
we can tell good deeds from sin--all this good seed is still sown
by God's priests, by the divinely appointed and ordained
ministers of the word of God. Chiefly this sowing is done in the
confessional and in the pulpit. In the confessional the sower
scatters the good seed into each heart individually; in the
pulpit the seed is scattered over the multitude gathered
together.
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It seems a hard thing to say, but alas! in these days the word of
God, the good seed, falls for the most part upon stony ground.
The priest exhorts, entreats, persuades, threatens, tells of
God's justice, speaks of his mercy, holds up the joys of heaven
as a reward, points to the abyss of hell as a punishment; and it
all falls upon stony ground. It falls upon the high crags of
inaccessible rocks, upon the heart of the hardened sinner, upon
the stony, adamantine hearts of those who have given up even the
thought of repentance. It falls upon you, wretched man, who come
to Mass for the sake of appearances every Sunday; upon you who
drag a dead, corpse-like, blackened, devil-marked soul here
before the altar of God every Sunday morning, without ever
thinking of taking that soul to one of those confessionals which
stare you in the face. Yes, the good seed falls upon you, and it
falls upon a rock waiting to be calcined by the fires of hell.
The word of God falls upon the pavement, hard and stony as it is.
It falls upon the hearts of frivolous, giddy, conceited girls. It
falls upon the hearts of blaspheming, drinking, impure young men.
It falls upon the hearts of men of business whose only aim is
wealth, and of the women who are votaries of fashion; for what
are the hearts of all such but a pavement, a thoroughfare, along
which pass every evil beast, every low, degrading passion, and
every unholy desire? O you girls and young men of this city and
this day! you men and women of the world! you who come and hear
the sermon, and afterwards go away with a simper on your powdered
faces and a sneer upon your lips! you young ladies and young
gentlemen "of the period"--to you I say, your hearts are stony
ground.
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The good seed can never grow upon it. Nothing can flourish there
but thorns and briers, whose end is to be burnt. O dear brethren,
young and old, rich and poor! tear up the paving-stones, shiver
to atoms your pride, your love of the world and its vanities; and
when you hear the word of God, when the good seed is scattered,
let your hearts be not stony, but soft and moist to receive it.
There are others whose hearts are like the pebbly beach. The seed
falls there, and then the sea of their pride comes and washes it
all away. They know what is said from the pulpit is true, they
know the advice in the confessional is good, but they are too
proud to change their lives, too proud to own that the priest
knows better than they do. They say: Why should the church
interfere between my wife and me, or between my children and
myself? Why should the head of the family be ruled by the clergy?
and the like. On such as these the word falls, but it falls on
stony ground. To all of you, then, the Gospel says this morning,
"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Open your ears and
soften your hearts. Sermons are not for you to criticise; they
are for you to profit by, for you to form your lives upon. The
words of the priest are the words of God. The seed that he sows
is the good seed. Woe to you if your hearts are stony ground!
There is a rank growth which is called stone-crop, which clings
to walls and stones; there is a weed-like, yellow grass that
sprouts upon neglected house-tops. What do men do with such
plants? They cast them forth into the smouldering weed-fire. And
so will God cast into the fire that is never quenched those who
receive the word of God on stony ground.
Rev. Algernon A. Brown.
-------------------------
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Sermon XXXVI.
_A sower went out to sow his seed._
--St. Luke viii. 5.
You all know, my brethren, what this seed is, and who it is that
sows it; for our Lord himself explains the parable, and you have
just heard the explanation.
The seed, he says, is the word of God; and it is God that sows
it. And what is the word of God? Protestants tell us that it is
the Bible; and their idea of sowing it is to leave a copy of it
with everybody, whether they can read and understand it or not.
That is not the way, however, that the Divine Wisdom has
followed. He has put his word, of which the Bible is no doubt a
great part, in the hands and the heart of his church, and told
her to preach it to all nations--not to leave copies of it with
them.
The word of God is, then, the religious instruction which you are
all the time receiving, mainly from the priests of the parish to
which you belong. It is God that gives it to you through them. It
ought to bring forth fruit a hundred-fold, like the seed falling
on good ground. You ought not only to hear it but to keep it. Do
you?
What was the sermon about last Sunday? Don't all speak at once.
Well, I am not going to tell you, though I am pretty sure that
many of you will never know unless I do. And if you don't
remember the last one there is not much chance that you remember
the one before that. In fact, I have no doubt that there are
plenty of people in the church at this moment who do not remember
any sermon at all. All that they ever listened to--or did not
listen to--in the many years they have been going to church, went
in, as the saying is, at one ear and out at the other.
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