give us a renewal of the lessons of Easter. St. Paul tells us
that as Christ is risen from the dead and dieth no more, so we
also should die indeed to sin, and rise again to newness of life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. And as the Gospel relates how our
Lord miraculously fed the multitudes in the wilderness, the
church to-day seems to speak with especial force to those who
have let the Easter-time go by without fulfilling the precept of
yearly Communion, without seeking that heavenly food without
which our souls must surely die of starvation.
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To you and to all sinners the church appeals to-day, bidding them
at least now to rise from the death of sin and walk in newness of
life.
The circumstances attending our Lord's resurrection teach us how
we, too, should rise from the dead. An angel descended from
heaven, and a mighty earthquake shook the holy sepulchre. And so
the grace of God descends into our hearts, moving us to penance,
and as with an earthquake our hearts must tremble with the fear
of God and true sorrow for our sins. And then as the angel rolled
away the stone from the mouth of the tomb, so divine grace will
assist us in removing every obstacle in the way of our
repentance--the slowness and dulness of our minds and wills, our
spiritual sloth, the false shame that may keep us back from a
good confession. Arise, and, God's grace urging you, make one
mighty effort, and the stone will speedily be rolled away.
Around the grave of our Lord stood the watch of Roman soldiers,
guarding the seal that had been set upon the stone. Satan,
perhaps, has set his seal upon your heart, and the devils watch
around it for fear you should break loose from their bondage. But
if you are determined to rise from the death of sin they will be
as powerless to hinder you as the Roman soldiers were to prevent
the resurrection of Jesus. When he rose from the dead he left
behind him the grave-clothes and linen bandages with which his
body had been bound. And this teaches us that we should leave
behind us our evil habits and inclinations, and no longer remain
slaves to our passions. Lazarus could not walk freely after his
resurrection until he had been freed from his grave-clothes.
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_Your_ grave-clothes are the habits of sin you have
contracted, the cravings, of your sensual appetites, the love of
sin that lingers in your hearts. Cast off these thongs that bind
your souls, that you may walk freely in newness of life. When the
women came to seek the body of Jesus the angel said to them: "Why
seek you the living among the dead? He is not here, but is
risen." If, risen from the death of sin, Satan should again seek
to gain possession of you; if your former bad companions should
try to bring you back to your old ways; if the voice of passion
should strongly lure you to leave the path of right, you can
answer: "Why seek you the living among the dead? My soul is not
here; but is risen--risen from the dead. It dieth no more; death
hath no more dominion over it." Crucify, then, my dear brethren,
the old man within you, that the body of sin may be destroyed,
and that you may serve sin no longer. "Let not sin reign in your
mortal bodies, so as to obey the lusts thereof," but "reckon
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God, in
Christ Jesus our Lord." As our Lord had compassion upon those who
listened to his words, and fed them with the loaves and fishes,
so will he also have mercy upon you, if you hearken to his voice
now calling you to penance, and will feed you with his own most
precious Body and Blood.
--------------------------
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Seventh Sunday after Pentecost.
Epistle.
_Romans vi._ 19-23.
Brethren:
I speak a human thing, because of the infirmity of your flesh.
For as you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and
iniquity, unto iniquity; so now yield your members to serve
justice, unto sanctification. For when you were the servants of
sin, you were free from justice. What fruit therefore had you
then in those things, of which you are now ashamed? For the end
of them is death. But now being made free from sin, and become
servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and
the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death: but
the grace of God, everlasting life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Gospel.
_St. Matthew vii._ 15-21.
At that time:
Jesus said to his disciples: Beware of false prophets, who come
to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravenous
wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree
yieldeth good fruit, and the bad tree bad fruit. A good tree
cannot yield bad fruit, neither can a bad tree yield good
fruit. Every tree that yieldeth not good fruit, shall be cut
down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their
fruits you shall know them. Not every man that saith to me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that
doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven.
-----------------
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Sermon XCVIII.
_Beware of false prophets,
who come to you in the clothing of sheep,
but inwardly they are ravenous wolves._
--St. Matthew vii. 15.
A prophet is a teacher, and a teacher who assumes to have more
than ordinary knowledge. He is one who claims to speak from
authority, and demands a hearing on the score of his being
inspired directly by the all-wise God, or as being commissioned
to speak in the name of God. When such true teachers speak to us
we are bound, of course, to listen to them, to receive their
words with humility and obey them implicitly.
It is the way of God with men. We are taught all we know. Now, if
all teachers were true teachers, all men would believe alike and
there would be no error in the world. But because there have been
and are many false teachers, there are many false religions and
innumerable lies of all kinds which thousands believe to be
truths. For one to be sure, therefore, that what he believes is
true, he must not be simply content with the fact that _he_
sincerely believes it, but he must know that his teacher is a
true teacher.
Those who are not Catholics wonder how it is that we feel so
certain of the truths of our faith. Their wonder would cease if
they were to become Catholics, as it does happen with all
converts; for then they would know, as we know, _how it feels
to be sure of one's teacher_. That is our inestimable
privilege and inexpressible joy--that we know our teacher is
true, and that a false teacher is instantly detected, no matter
how carefully and cunningly he has put on his sheep's clothing.
The disguise is never thick enough to hide the wolf's teeth and
claws.
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I do not say that a Catholic may not be deceived and be misled by
these wolves in sheep's clothings else our Lord would not have
told us to beware of such, and the history of all heresies proves
that many can be deceived by them. But that is their fault. They
go out of the fold where all is light and clear, and where a wolf
is found out in a moment, and they wander about in places and in
company where there is no light of divine faith. To tell the
truth, the false teacher finds his victims already misled and
enticed away by their own passions and pride. He finds they have
already begun to believe a lie, and he has only to encourage them
in it. What do I mean by wandering outside the fold? I mean
imitating the talk and following the example of those whose
principles are false; who say: "Religion is a matter of choice";
"It does not matter what a man believes so long as he is good";
"Education is the business of the state"; "Religion has nothing
to do with science"; and also immoral principles such as these:
"A man cannot help his nature"; "A young man is expected to sow
his wild oats"; "We are in the world and must go with it," and
such like.
When a Catholic talks that way he is fair game for the first
false teacher that comes along.
Then one wanders outside the fold and is caught by the wolves
when he ventures into forbidden secret societies. These wolves
have got the sheep's clothing of charity and brotherly love on.
It is a wonder that there can be found Catholics silly enough not
to feel the wolf's claw the first time they are taught the
secret-society grip.
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"Charity and brotherly love" forsooth! They had better say, "We
swear to love ourselves, and to look out for number one," for
this is what all the twaddle of these secret brotherhoods amounts
to. Avoid them. Their leaders are false teachers, their
principles are false, and their association is dangerous to both
faith and morals.
Beware of the false newspaper prophet. Everybody reads the
newspapers, and too many, alas! think they have the right to read
any newspaper that is printed. That is what the false newspaper
prophet says when he offers for sale his filthy, licentious, and
lying sheet. Beware of him! His talk is corrupting and
demoralizing.
Do you wish, dear brethren, to make sure of not being deceived by
these wolves in sheep's clothing? Then obey with humility and
docility the shepherd of the flock. When he cries, "Wolf! wolf!"
then be sure that there is a wolf. Defer to his judgment.
_His_ preaching, you know, is true. Follow that, and not
even the devil himself can deceive you.
----------------
Sermon XCIX.
_Every tree is known by its fruit._
--St. Luke vi. 44.
The great lesson taught us to-day by the offices of the church is
that the Christian life of faith must show itself in good works.
Faith is the foundation, but a building must not stop with the
foundation; more stones must be added continually until it rises
complete in all its parts, according to the plan of the
architect.
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So we must not be content with the foundation of faith, but, by
co-operating with the graces God is always giving us, must be
always striving after the model set before us by the Divine
Architect, our Lord Jesus Christ, always adding virtue to virtue,
until at last we shall appear before the God of gods in Sion to
receive the reward of our good deeds. Faith is the root, but the
root must grow into a tree, and put forth not only leaves and
blossoms, not only pious thoughts and fine words, but the fruit
of good deeds, the fruit of a life spent in conformity to the
maxims of our holy faith.
Our Lord tells us that a tree is known by its fruit. For there is
no good tree that bringeth forth evil fruit, nor an evil tree
that bringeth forth good fruit. So the earnestness of our faith
will be known by our lives. If we find that our lives correspond
to what our faith teaches us, we may be sure that our faith is
living and not dead. "By their fruits ye shall know them," Alas!
how many who call themselves Catholics make their lives an
argument against the faith in the hands of its enemies, who point
at us the finger of scorn, and loudly proclaim that, by our
Lord's own test, we fail. And then we have the careless and the
lukewarm, who, while they are not an open scandal, yet fall far
short of the test our Lord proposes. In them we see plenty of
leaves, and even blossoms, but the fruit is sadly wanting, or, at
best, is but worm-eaten and rotten through a lack of earnestness
and a pure intention. They, perhaps, will talk about their faith
as though they were the most zealous Catholics in the world; but
if we look into their practice we find it very different from
what their language would lead us to expect. How many, for
instance, are ready enough to defend in argument the doctrine of
the Real Presence who never think of making a visit to the
Blessed Sacrament, nay, who rarely approach the Holy Communion,
and perhaps have not made their Easter-duty!
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Well, I fear it will always be so. Fine words are cheap and good
resolutions are easily made, but it is another thing to keep
them. But listen to our Lord's warning: "Every tree that yieldeth
not good fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire." Our
eternal welfare depends upon our deeds. Our faith alone will not
save us. It is necessary, indeed; for just as the root is to the
tree the source of all its life, so faith is what gives to our
good works their merit before God. But unless it bears the fruit
of good works it is worthless and dead.
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the
kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is
in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." That is to
say, not every one who professes the true faith shall be saved,
but those only who shall bring their wills into conformity with
the will of God. It is not enough to acknowledge God as our Lord
and King, if his holy will is not fulfilled in us and by us. If
we would enter into life eternal we must keep the commandments of
God and his church. And we also do the will of God by suffering
it; that is, by enduring with patience all the trials and crosses
he may send us, for these are his holy will for us as much as his
positive precepts. There is often more merit in patiently
suffering than in great deeds that would astound the world. This
is the way to fulfil the prayer so often on our lips: "Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven." Strive, then, both in doing
and in suffering, to make real for yourselves this holy petition,
that God may not have to say of you, as he said of the Jews of
old: "This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me."
-----------------
{335}
Sermon C.
_The wages of sin is death._
--Romans vi. 23.
This is a truth plain enough to the thoughtful; but there are
some, alas! who think about it only when it is too late. The
wages have not yet become due, and the sinner, thinking only of
his present pleasures, goes on unmindful of that time when the
terrible wages will have to be paid in full.
Death, says St. Paul, is the wages. Tell a man that if he goes to
a certain place or performs a certain act the penalty will be
death, and he cannot be persuaded to go to that place or perform
that fatal act. On the other hand, he will do anything to save
himself from such a fate. But the death of which St. Paul speaks
is not to be compared with that of the body, for it is the soul.
The wages of sin is, then, a spiritual death. If we could see
before us in one vast pile a number of bodies corrupted by death,
what a revolting spectacle it would be! But if we could see the
dead souls of so many around us, who seem to be so full of life,
as God beholds them, we should be far more horrified. There are
some who, as they sit in their houses, walk in the streets, are
engaged at work, or even as they are on their knees in church,
have with them only wretched corpses of souls. Who will reap this
terrible wages of sin? We have all sinned, therefore we must all
reap some of its wages.
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By the sin of one man "death has passed unto all men, in whom all
have sinned." Death is the most dreadful temporal calamity with
which we are acquainted; yet it is the wages which the whole
human race have to pay for the sin of one.
But the penalty of that second death, which is eternal, is the
most terrible wages of sin; and yet our holy faith teaches us
that one mortal sin is enough to cause the instant death of the
soul. But the man who lives in mortal sin abides in death. Every
sin that he commits plunges his soul deeper into the abyss of
death, till at last he receives the full wages of his crimes in
the flames of hell. How shall we escape this terrible penalty?
Our blessed Lord, by his death, received the wages due to us on
account of sin. Through the infinite merits of his death our
souls may be brought to life, if we will truly repent and sin no
more. St. Paul says: "As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all
shall be made alive." But we cannot hope to escape the bitter
wages of sin, unless we cease to sin. If we live in sin, and, as
generally happens to such, die in sin, we shall not be helped by
the death of Christ, but shall receive more bitter wages for our
sins than if Christ had not died for us. We shall then, in
addition to our other crimes, be guilty of the death of our
Blessed Redeemer; for, as St. Paul says: "By our sins we crucify
Jesus Christ afresh."
There are, also, wages which have to be paid for sins forgiven.
Though the eternal guilt is remitted, the infinite justice of God
has yet to be satisfied. We shall all of us have to receive the
wages of our forgiven sins in penance and sufferings in this life
and in purgatory till the last farthing has been paid.
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This ought to make us fearful about our past sins, and to make us
dread nothing so much as to fall into sin again. The words of the
text, "For the wages of sin is death," should be continually in
our minds when we are tempted to sin, and, knowing the terrible
consequences which must follow every sin, we shall rather endure
any temporal evil than to incur the terrible misfortune of having
offended God.
------------------
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_Eighth Sunday after Pentecost._
Epistle.
_Romans. viii._ 12-17.
Brethren:
We are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the
flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die.
But if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you
shall live. For whosoever are led by the spirit of God, they
are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of
bondage again in fear: but you have received the spirit of
adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba (Father). For the Spirit
himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of
God. And if sons, heirs also: heirs indeed of God, and joint
heirs with Christ.
Gospel.
_St. Luke xvi_. 1-9.
At that time:
Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: There was a certain
rich man who had a steward: and the same was accused unto him,
that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said to
him: What is this I hear of thee? Give an account of thy
stewardship: for now thou canst not be steward. And the steward
said within himself: What shall I do, because my lord taketh
away from me the stewardship? To dig I am not able, to beg I am
ashamed. I know what I will do, that when I shall be put out of
the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
Therefore calling together every one of his lord's debtors, he
said to the first: How much dost thou owe my lord? But he said:
A hundred barrels of oil. And he said to him: Take thy bill and
sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then he said to another: And
how much dost thou owe? Who said: A hundred quarters of wheat.
He said to him: Take thy bill and write eighty.
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And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had
done wisely: for the children of this world are wiser in their
generation than the children of light. And I say to you: Make
to yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you
shall fail they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.
----------------
Sermon CI.
_Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity,
that when you shall fail
they may receive you into everlasting dwellings._
--St. Luke xvi. 9.
What is this mammon of iniquity of which, or with which (for that
is the true sense of the words), we are to make friends for
ourselves? It is the money or other property that God has given
us to use in this world. We have only to read a few verses more
to see that this is what it means; for when our Lord said
immediately afterwards, "You cannot serve God and Mammon," the
evangelist tells us that "the Pharisees, who were covetous,
laughed at him."
It is called the mammon of iniquity or injustice, because it is
the cause of almost all the injustice in the world.
We have, then, to make friends for ourselves with the money or
other temporal means which God has entrusted to us.
This is what the steward of whom the Gospel tells us did. He was
entrusted by his master with the management of an estate. He was
to take care of it in his master's interest, not in his own, for
it did not belong to him; as we are here to use our property in
God's interest, for he is our Master, and what we have really
belongs to him and not to ourselves.
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The steward was not faithful to his master; he wasted his goods;
so he was discharged from his office and had to give an account
of his stewardship, as we also shall have to give an account of
ours to our Master when we are discharged from it--that is, when
we come to die. Then he began to think how he could make use of
the means that had been committed to him to provide for himself
in the new state of life upon which he had to enter. He had not
much time to make his arrangements, but he hit upon a very good
plan. In that we do not resemble him, for with all our lifetime
to make our arrangements in, and the certainty that we shall have
some time to be discharged from our stewardship, and give an
account of it before the judgment-seat of God, we too often make
none at all. As our Lord says: "The children of this world are
wiser in their generation than the children of light."
The steward, I say, hit on a good plan; and that was to obtain
the favor of his master's debtors by taking something off the
bills which they had to pay, that they might in return contribute
something to his support and save him from the necessity of
working or begging for the remainder of his life. In this way he
made friends for himself with the money which had been committed
to him, in order that these friends might receive him into their
dwellings when he was turned out of his own.
This is the part of his conduct which we have to imitate. We have
to imitate the steward by making friends with the means which our
Lord has given us--friends who will be of service to us in the
new life upon which we have so soon to enter, the life which
comes after death.
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But who are these friends to be? Generally people try to buy the
favor of the rich and the great. But these are not the friends
who are going to be of use to us in the next world.
No, the poor, not the rich, are the ones whose friendship will be
of use to us there. In this life they will not help those who
help them, because they cannot; but they will in the next. If you
help them the blessing which they give you is not only a blessing
when you receive it, but it is treasured up for you, long after
you have forgotten it, in God's eternal memory.
He is preparing in heaven beautiful and glorious mansions for
these friends of yours, who are also friends of his, to make up
for the miserable ones in which they have lived on earth. There
are others like them which he is preparing for us all. He has
gone to get them ready. "In my Father's house," said our Lord,
"there are many mansions. ... I go to prepare a place for you."
These mansions are being prepared for you, but whether you enter
into their possession depends very much on how you treat the
poor, to whom they more properly belong. Be charitable, then, to
them, for they have the keys of the homes which you will shortly
have to seek.
And in your charity to the poor remember one who is always poor,
at least in this country of ours. I mean God's holy church. She
is a very great beggar, and a very tiresome one, I know--always
asking you for more; it seems as if she would never be satisfied,
and I do not believe she ever will.
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But then she is a good friend of yours, and what you give to her
is, like what you give to other poor people, more for your own
good than for hers. For it is chiefly by her help that you are to
reach those everlasting dwellings which our Lord promises to you.
If you did not do anything for her it certainly would be hard for
you to be saved; for it is through her that the means of
salvation come. The more liberal you are to her the more
liberally will those means be given to you; and if you think you
have enough of them, and are quite sure of heaven with what you
have got, certainly that is not the case with everybody; and you
know we ought to love our neighbor as ourselves.
These, then, God's poor and his church, are the best friends you
can make with the temporal means that he has given you, for they
are the ones who can provide for you in that eternity which is
coming so soon. Imitate the prudence of the steward, and you will
not only make friends as he did, but you will also please your
Master, which he did not, and obtain from Him who is your best
friend an eternal reward.
-------------------
Sermon CII.
_Give an account of thy stewardship._
--St. Luke xvi. 2.