Society of Jesus, from whose writings this sermon is adapted--"it
is no vain question whether we do not owe more to St. Thomas, who
was slow in believing the fact of Christ's resurrection, than to
the other apostles, who credited it instantly." Then he goes on
to quote St. Gregory, who says that "the doubt of St. Thomas
really removed _all_ doubt, and placed the fact that our
Lord had really risen with his human body beyond all dispute."
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So today, following the good Jesuit father, I am going to be St
Thomas. I shall hear from many of you something of this kind: "O
father! I am so delighted: my wife or my husband, my son, my
brother, my friend, has risen from the dead. He or she has been
to confession, given up his bad habits, come again into our
midst; has been to Communion, has said, Peace be to you, has
altogether reformed and become good." Ah! indeed. Is that so? Of
course it is quite possible; but towards those whose resurrection
you announce to me I am St. Thomas this morning, and say to them:
"Unless I shall see in their hands the print of the nails, and
put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into
their side, I will not believe." In a word, I will not believe
that any of you have risen from the dead, I will not believe that
you have come out of the grave of mortal sin, unless I see in you
the signs of a former crucifixion. First, I want to see the print
of the nails. I want to see in your hands and feet--that is, in
your inclinations and passions--the print of the nails that the
priest drove in, in the confessional. I want to see that these
hands strike no more, handle no more bad books, pass no more bad
money, write no more evil letters, sign no more fraudulent
documents, are stretched forth no more unto evil things, raised
no more to curse. I want to see these hands lifted in prayer,
stretched out to give alms, extended in mercy, busy in toiling
for God and his church. I want to see these hands smoothing the
pillows of the sick, giving drink to the thirsty, food to the
hungry, and raiment to the naked. I want to see the print of the
nails, or I will not believe. These feet, too--I must see them
bearing you to the confessional regularly, taking you to Mass,
carrying you to Benediction, bent under you in prayer.
{216}
In a word, I must see in you the signs of a true conversion, or I
will not believe that you have really risen from the death of
sin. Then, like St. Thomas, I must "put my finger into the place
of the nails." That is, when you are taken down from the cross,
when, as it were, you have persevered for quite a while in God's
service, I want at any time to be able to assure myself that the
wound is really there. I want to be sure that those old
charlatans, the world and the flesh, haven't been round and
healed those wounds with their salve of roses, their pleasures of
life, and their elixir of youth. I want to know for certain that
you have, by God's grace, raised your body from the grave, having
first nailed it to the cross, and to be sure that it is the same
body. I want to put my finger into the scars of crucifixion.
Lastly, I want to put my hand into your side to see if the heart
is wounded. I want to see if there is true contrition there. I
want to find out if the old designs, the old loves, the old plans
are driven out; I want to find out if that heart has really upon
it the scar of the spear of God. O brethren! to say, "I have
risen with Christ," is an easy thing; for others to tell the
priest that you are truly converted presents no difficulty; but I
am St. Thomas, and I want to _see_ the wounds. Then what a
consolation for the priest if he can perceive plainly the print
of the nails, put his hand into the place of the nails, and put
his hand into the side! Then, like St. Thomas, he can cry: "My
Lord and my God." For in the truly crucified and converted sinner
he can see clearly the work of the Almighty. Ah! then, brethren,
strive to crucify your flesh every day; strive to know nothing
but Jesus, and him crucified.
{217}
Try to bear about in your bodies the "stigmata of the Lord
Jesus," for they will be your best credentials on earth and your
brightest glory in heaven.
Rev. Algernon A. Brown.
---------------------
Sermon LXII.
_For this is the charity of God,
that we keep his commandments._
--1 St. John v. 3.
We have in these words the infallible test of a true Christian
life. He alone truly loves God who keeps his commandments. I once
heard of a man who used to get down on his knees every morning
and recite the Ten Commandments as a part of his morning prayers.
I believe that that man's religion was practical. He certainly
had in his mind the right idea of what religion meant. We are apt
to keep the commandments too much in the background. True, we
have them and know them well enough, but they don't shine out in
our lives as they should. Here is a man that prays, but don't pay
his honest debts. Here is another that always goes to Mass, but
has the habit of cursing. Another is honest and just with his
neighbors, but, as everybody knows, gets drunk.
People sometimes talk about the difficulties of having faith; but
this is not where the trouble lies. The real struggle and
conflict of religion is to correct the morals of men. True
religion insists upon the keeping of the commandments, and that
is why it is so repugnant to men. Faith is easy to the virtuous;
if men wished to be moral there would be no difficulties about
faith. We sometimes hear people say: "Your religion is a perfect
tyranny." Yes, if you choose to call the Ten Commandments
tyranny.
{218}
This is the only tyranny that I have ever found. I think, also,
that every Catholic will testify that these Ten Commandments are
what really make religion hard, and that if these could only be
set aside men would never complain of its being hard. I never
heard of a Catholic who was willing to keep the Ten Commandments
who thought that anything else connected with his religion was
hard. Here we have, then, in a nutshell, the whole secret of the
opposition of men to the true religion; but, inconsistent as it
may seem and really is, men, while they hate, have yet to admire
what they hate. An apostate monk may set himself up as a reformer
and talk about "justification by faith alone," but the world
laughs at such nonsense. It trembles, though, when it hears our
Lord say: "Every tree, therefore, that bringeth not forth good
fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire." "If any man
loves me he will keep my commandments." This pretended reformer,
Doctor Martin Luther, who called that wonderful Epistle of St.
James, in which we are taught that "faith without good works is
dead," "an epistle of straw," proved, however, to the world by
his own life that it was this straw of being obliged to keep the
commandments which broke his back, as it has broken the backs of
so many others. But people do not have to leave the church to be
thus broken, for we have in the bosom of the church, also, those
who try to have piety without morality; but they are the
hypocrites, the sham followers of Christ. They will some day,
unless they speedily change their lives, hear our Lord saying to
them: "I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Ah! may we not some of us have good reason to fear that we shall
one day be judged as hypocrites?
{219}
The bankrupt merchant is afraid to look at his books, and
trembles at the thought of attempting to calculate his
liabilities; so those false Christians dare not look at the law
of God to examine their lives by it. But, to their shame and
grief, the day of reckoning will come. The devil may whisper to
such, "Soul, take thy ease," but, thank God! there is the voice
of God's church, which will not allow us to delude ourselves.
If we Catholics go to hell it will be with our eyes wide open.
The waves of passion can never drown that voice. It will always
tell us of our sins, and will never let us be content in being
hearers of the law, unless we are also doers. This is the way
which is certainly pointed out to us; "and it shall be called the
holy way."
-----------------------
Sermon LXIII.
_Jesus came, and stood in the midst,
and said to them, Peace be to you._
--St. John xx. 26.
In spite of there being so much fighting in the world, I think,
my brethren, that there are not many of us who really like it for
its own sake, or who would not rather have peace. Of course we
are not willing to sacrifice everything for it; we do not want
peace at any price. We do not want the peace of slavery--that
which comes from being beaten. We want an honorable one--that
which comes from having had the best of our adversary in a just
war.
{220}
There is another kind of peace besides these two. It is that
which comes from being let alone. But that is something which is
not intended for us in this world. Somebody will always be
interfering with us; if nobody else does, the devil, at any rate,
will be sure to do so. No, arrange it as we may, our life will
always be full of annoyances and conflicts, both from without and
from within.
And this kind of peace was not what our Lord wished and gave to
his apostles on that glorious day when he arose from the dead. He
knew very well that they, of all men in the world, were not going
to be let alone. They were going to be put in the very front of
the battle. Not only their neighbors but the whole world was
going to rise up against them; and Satan, with his infernal host,
was going to single them out as the special objects of his hatred
and vengeance.
No, the peace which our Lord gave to his apostles was not this,
but that which comes from victory. And that is the peace which he
wishes us also to have.
Over whom, then, are we going to be victorious? In the first
place, over the devil and all his temptations.
Many Christians, I am sorry to say, make the opposite kind of
peace with the devil--that is, the peace of slavery; one which
they would be ashamed to make with anybody else. Should they be
tempted by him to impurity, drunkenness, hatred, or blasphemy,
they give in and strike their colors at once. Being tempted and
sinning are all the same thing to them. Well, they have peace in
a certain way by this; that is, the devil, when he finds what
miserable and cowardly soldiers of Christ they are, does not
trouble himself much about them. He feels pretty sure of them;
they are his prisoners of war, and it is for his interest to
treat them well as long as they are in this world.
{221}
Yes, if you want to make peace with the devil you can surrender
to him at once. But shame, I say, on such a peace as this! It is
a base, contemptible, and cowardly one, and it will not last
long. Satan only waits for this life to be over to satisfy all
his malice and hatred on those he now seems to love.
But you may have, if you will, the peace and satisfaction of
victory over him. Make up your mind to have it--to have it every
time he tempts you. It is not so hard as you think; it is easy by
the merits of our Lord's sacred Passion, which are at your
command. He showed this to his apostles on that first Easter day,
when he said to them: "Peace be to you." He showed them his hands
and his side, bearing those glorious wounds, the marks and the
pledge of victory.
And you can also have the peace of victory over all others who
trouble you in this world, however unjust and strong they may be.
How? Why, in the same way as our Lord and his apostles had it.
Not by fighting with them, and giving back as good as you
get--no, but by giving much better than you get; by doing them
all the good you can. Evil is not to be conquered by evil, but by
good. "Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you"; that is
what the Eternal Wisdom has said; that is the way to have victory
and peace, not only in the next world but also in this; and the
sooner you believe it and act on it the happier will you be.
-----------------------
{222}
_Second Sunday after Easter._
Epistle.
1 _St. Peter ii._ 21-25.
Dearly beloved:
Christ has suffered for us, leaving you an example that you
should follow his steps. "Who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth." Who, when he was reviled, did not revile:
when he suffered, he threatened not: but delivered himself to
him that judged him unjustly. Who his own self bore our sins in
his body upon the tree: that we, being dead to sins, should
live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed. For you were
as sheep going astray: but you are now converted to the pastor
and bishop of your souls.
Gospel.
St John x. 11-16.
At that time:
Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and
he that is not the shepherd, whose own sheep they are not,
seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep, and flieth; and
the wolf snatcheth and scattereth the sheep: and the hireling
flieth, because he is a hireling: and he hath no care for the
sheep. I am the good shepherd: and I know mine, and mine know
me. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay
down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have, that are not
of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my
voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
---------
{223}
Sermon LXIV.
_I am the Good Shepherd._
--St. John x. 11.
It is not requisite for me to prove to you, dear brethren, that
our Lord was and is, in every sense, the "Good Shepherd," nor is
it my intention to speak of him this morning in that character. I
want to bring this fact before your minds--namely, that although
the "great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls" has gone from us,
yet he has left other authorized pastors to take charge of his
flock. The Pope is a shepherd, the bishops are shepherds, and, to
bring it down close to you, the priests of God's church are
shepherds. You and your children are the sheep and the lambs of
Christ's flock; we are your shepherds appointed by Jesus Christ
to feed you, to watch over you, to keep you in the fold, to check
you when you want to go astray. Now, then, every priest can say,
"I am the good shepherd." And what does a good shepherd do?
First, he tends his flock with care; and, secondly, he derives
from it his means of support. Now, brethren, the priest's duty is
to watch over and care for you; and that he does so you will not
deny. He must hear your confessions, give you Holy Communion,
come to you when you are ill, administer the sacraments to you,
advise you, preach to you, instruct you, shield you from the
wolves and seek you when you are lost, and often serve you at the
risk of his own life. Now, the priest does all these things, not
because he is paid, not because the people hire him and pay him a
salary, but _simply_ and _solely_ because he is the
good shepherd; because it is his mission, his office to do so;
because he is placed over you by authority.
{224}
Now, it follows from this that it is your duty to be fed, to be
kept in the fold, to be checked when you are going wrong, to hear
his voice and obey him. I am afraid some don't understand this.
How is it we hear of milk-and-water Catholics going to be married
before magistrates, or, what is worse, before ministers of a
false religion? How is it that we find Catholics denying their
faith and going to a Protestant place of worship for the sake of
a little food and clothing? The priest has God's own authority;
you are the sheep. The priest has you in charge. God does not
come and ask you if you would like a shepherd; he places one over
you, and that he may guide you, and not that you may guide him. I
say this for the benefit of those who are always talking about
their priests, always picking holes in the conduct of their
pastors. Such people forget their position, forget their
obligations, and make themselves appear very ignorant, much
wanting in faith, and very impertinent. Again, the shepherd lives
by his flock; so the priest must be supported by the people. A
priest has a body as well as you have, and he can't live on air
or on shavings. Then he wants to build and keep in repair God's
temples. He wants money to build schools and support them; he
wants money to feed and clothe the poor. He wants money because
it is your _duty_ to give it; for one of the laws of the
church is, "To pay tithes to your pastors." Often, too, it is a
great kindness for us to accept some of your worldly riches,
which otherwise would, perhaps, prevent your entry into heaven.
We can do with the riches what the shepherd does with his wool:
make clothes for the naked and destitute, exchange what we get
for building and decorating God's church, and a hundred other
things of which you, the sheep, and your children, the lambs of
Christ's flock, will get the heavenly merit and the everlasting
profit.
{225}
Oh! then, brethren, have faith, try always to cling to the priest
as the good shepherd, so that at the last day we may call you all
by name, and find that of the little flock of sheep and lambs not
one is missing.
Rev. Algernon A. Brown.
--------------
Sermon LXV.
_Christ suffered for us,
leaving you an example
that you should follow his steps_.
--1 St. Peter ii. 21.
The holy church is not going to let us forget the cross, my
brethren, even in this joyous Easter season. There is a prayer,
or Commemoration of the Cross, which she orders to be said in the
divine Office even more frequently now than during the rest of
the year; and here in the Epistle of to-day she warns us that we
all must take up our cross as our Lord took his, if we would have
a share in the triumph which we now celebrate.
"Christ," says St. Peter, "left us an example that we should
follow in his steps." St. Peter had not forgotten those words
which his Master after his resurrection spoke to him on the shore
of the Sea of Galilee: "Do thou follow me." He tried to do it;
and he did follow his Lord in a life of toil and suffering, ended
by a painful death on the cross like to that which his Saviour
had borne. He followed the example which had been set him; he
believed what he says in this Epistle of his, and acted on it.
How is it with us?
{226}
Many Christians seem to imagine that our Lord, by his
resurrection, took away, or ought to have taken away, all trouble
from the earth. They cannot understand how it is that in this
redeemed world, whose sins his Blood has expiated, the cross
still keeps coming down on them at every turn. They honor the
cross, and are grateful for the redemption which it has brought
them; but even when they kiss it on Good Friday they do not
understand that they have got to take it, embrace it, and bear it
themselves.
And yet that is the fact. The cross is to free us from eternal
suffering, but not from that which passes away. Our Lord did not
suffer in order that we might have no suffering at all, but that
we might be able to bear our sufferings better, and to bear
greater ones than we could otherwise have borne. He might have
redeemed us without suffering as he did; but one of the reasons
why he did not choose to was that we, the guilty, to whom the
cross belongs, may bear it cheerfully when we see Him who was
innocent taking it on his shoulders.
But why did not our Lord suffer enough to free us from suffering
at all? I think there are not many who are ungenerous enough to
ask such a question plainly, though it seems to be in a great
many people's minds. Well, I will tell you why he left us a share
of his cup. It was for the same reason that he took his own
share: it was because he loved us, and chose what was for our
best good. And he knew it was better for us to be saved through
our own sufferings as far as possible.
{227}
They could not be enough of themselves; so he did what was
enough, and then enough more to bring down our own share to just
what we could make the best use of with his grace and by his
example.
That is the reason, then, why the cross is left in the world. Try
to see it and acknowledge it yourselves; that is better than to
have the cross meeting you as a strange and unaccountable thing.
For it will meet you at Easter as well as at other times of the
year; even when you are happiest there will always be some cloud
in your sky. There will never be any real and true Easter for you
till you shall, like your Redeemer, have exchanged this temporal
life for that which is eternal. But do not be too much in a hurry
for that time. He knows best how much suffering is good for you.
Count it a joy and an honor that he has thought you worthy to
follow in his steps, and thank him for the example which he has
given you to help him to do so, as well as for his merits which
he has also given you that your following might not be in vain.
---------------
Sermon LXVI.
_And other sheep I have
that are not of this fold;
them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice,
and there shall be one fold
and one shepherd._
--St. John x. 16.
If we only knew how much our Lord loves those "other sheep" who
are not in the one true fold, we should think and act differently
from what we do towards them. As we look upon the sacred image of
our Divine Lord upon the cross, we behold his arms and hands
stretched to their utmost extent to embrace the whole world.
{228}
He is the second Adam, who came to undo the work of the first
Adam; and as the terrible consequences of the first transgression
have extended to _all_ men without exception, so, also, to
repair this evil which has come upon all men it was necessary
that the grace of salvation should be offered to _all_
without exception. And from this we may infer that God does not
simply will that men should be saved, but that he actually gives
to every man that is born sufficient grace to accomplish this
great work. But are those who stay outside of the one fold in the
way to use this sufficient grace? Certainly they are not, or our
Lord never would have said: "Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one
shepherd." No one, therefore, can be said to be in the way of
salvation who stays outside of the one true fold of the Catholic
Church. We cannot, of course, know what extraordinary means of
grace God may use for those who are ignorant of the church, yet
we do know with perfect certainty that the Catholic Church, with
its doctrine, sacraments, and other means of grace, is the only
divinely-established means of salvation for all men.
Knowing, then, that our Divine Lord, inasmuch as he died for all
men, wills to bring all men into the one true fold, where they
may be under one shepherd, we must feel it to be our duty, if we
have the love of Christ in our hearts, by our prayers, words, and
good example to bring the "other sheep" of whom our Lord speaks
so lovingly to the knowledge of this one fold.
{229}
It is only a coldness of faith and charity which can make us look
upon those who are outside of the church as if they were already
where they ought to be, and where God wishes them to be, or make
us think that it is a hopeless task to try to bring them into the
true church. Our Lord has promised that they shall hear his
voice. We know, then, that he will co-operate by his all-powerful
grace with what we do for their salvation.
Our first duty is that of prayer for these "other sheep." Every
prayer that we offer up for the conversion of infidels and
heretics will be heard, and will bring down upon them additional
grace. Prayer opened the hearts of the Irish people, when they
were in the darkness of paganism, to receive the true faith from
St. Patrick. In our own day, also, prayer has brought thousands
of Protestants and infidels into the true church. Father Ignatius
Spencer, of the Order of Passionists, was raised up by God to
spread among the Catholics of Ireland and England the devotion of
prayers for England, and we behold the results of these prayers
in the great "Oxford movement," which brought so many into the
church and has opened the way for so many more conversions. Can
we ever by our words bring others into the church? Yes. An
explanation of some point of Catholic doctrine, an invitation to
come and hear a sermon, the lending of a Catholic book, may be
the means which God has chosen for the conversion of our
Protestant neighbor. "Who knows," said St. Alphonsus Liguori,
"what God requires of me? Perhaps the predestination of certain
souls may be attached to some of my prayers, penances, and good
works."
But, above all, by our good example we should lead others into
the "one fold." "Actions speak louder than words," but woe to us
if our actions belie the truth of our faith!
{230}
What shall we answer if accused before the tribunal of God by
souls who would have known and have been saved by the truth but
for our bad example? We must never forget, dear brethren, our
duty towards those "other sheep" for whom our Lord died just as
much as he did for us.
-----------------------
{231}
_Third Sunday after Easter_.
Feast of the Patronage of St. Joseph.
Epistle.
1 _St. Peter ii._ 11-19.