contrary, he gives every evidence of being a shrewd business man.
His investments had probably been prudent, and his debtors
reliable men. The fault for which he is held blamable is
carelessness. He had not kept his accounts squared up.
{343}
If the master had waited for the regular time of enquiring into
his accounts, or had given him a little notice of his intention
to do so, he would, in all probability, have found everything in
excellent order, and have praised his steward for his good
management. But he came upon him unawares, when he had many debts
outstanding and his books were in disorder. This, in a business
man, is inexcusable; and whenever we hear of a similar case we
always condemn the unfortunate man, and say, "It served him
right; he should have attended to his business." Little do we
think, indeed, how our own words may some day stand witness
against us. The application of the Gospel is too plain to need
any explanation, but there is one point I would impress upon you
particularly this morning: our carelessness. We are all stewards
of our own souls, and concerning the care we have taken of them,
the use to which we have put the many opportunities of merit, the
investment, as it were, we have made of the innumerable graces
offered us, we shall have to render a strict account, and at what
moment we know not. We know that we have many debts, and that it
would go hard with us if we had to meet them at once; we know
that we have not straightened up our accounts for a long time,
and that everything is in disorder. Yet we go on in the same
careless way day after day and month after month. Sometimes we
get messages and warnings from our Lord; a mission is preached,
we meet with temporal reverses, or we are thrown on a bed of
sickness and think our Lord is about to ask us for the account of
our stewardship, and we make a hurried compromise with our sins,
the best we can do under the circumstances.
{344}
But no sooner do we find the account is not really required than
we fall back into the former careless way of conducting the
business of our soul. Indeed, it is strange that women who are
such good housewives, and men who give such careful attention to
the temporal things of this life, are so utterly negligent when
it comes to that which is the most important of all--the business
of their soul. One would think they had no faith. The foolish
excuses they make!--they are too much mixed up with the world to
be pious, they have to attend to their family, and the like. As
though they were not to save their soul in this world; as though
the attending to their soul and the care of their family were two
separate and distinct things! And then, when God, seeing that
prosperity is not good for them, sends them reverses, they
neglect their soul more than ever, and fail to see that if they
had looked after their soul they might have been even better off
in this world's affairs. Take a warning, then, my brethren, from
the lesson of to-day's Gospel; keep the accounts of your soul in
order, for you know not the time when the Master will say: "Give
an account of thy stewardship." And let not those who make their
Easter duty think the lesson does not apply to them, but let not
a single month pass by without rendering an account to God.
---------------------
Sermon CIII.
_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.
{345}
Every Christian knows our Lord does not intend to encourage men
to love that which is entirely worldly. In fact, his caution
often repeated, his most important warning to men, is that they
do not love too much the riches of this world. He even tells us
it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven
unless God himself keep that man from loving his money and
possessions more than he ought to do. This is what too often
makes riches a mammon of iniquity. The words can also be taken to
mean riches gained by fraud, robbery, or unjust dealing of any
kind. Men of the world will say this is all the words can mean.
God, however, has more to say about it. In his mind these words
include all that a man may gain from motives which are impure and
mean in the sight of God. Now, the duty of every man is to look
at everything as God looks at it. He must find out God's opinion
of what is right or wrong, and make that opinion the law of his
own life. The words "mammon of iniquity" mean, therefore, not
only riches and possessions gained unjustly, but also that honor,
esteem of men, that social position, or that high office gained
by sinful actions or from bad motives. What, then, is a man to do
who has offended God in this way? If he has gotten unjustly money
or property he must restore it, be it much or little. But, one
may say, "I will lose my reputation if I give it back. I shall be
found out." This is not true in most cases. A man can restore
privately. He can see that the one he has wronged gets back again
that which belongs to him. He is not obliged to tell him who took
it from him. If it cannot be done by himself without losing his
good name, let him tell his confessor about it. He will manage it
for him. The priest is ordained and instructed in order to help
him in this as well as in other difficulties.
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Moreover, what sort of a good name is that which that man knows
is a false one? If not dead to sincerity of spirit that man must
feel like a hypocrite. He must feel that he is not even the
shadow of an honest man so long as he is called by a name he does
not deserve. He must sometimes long to be again a truly honest
man. Let him restore, and then he will be again an honest man. He
will then have that peace which is more to him than wealth or
honor of this world. At least let him tell the priest about it.
He makes a great mistake who stays away from confession because
he has done wrong. The confessor can help him when he cannot help
himself. He can make it easy for him to do right when it seems
hard. Another will say: "I have taken a little from this one and
a little from that one. I do not know the people I have wronged."
Then give what is gained unjustly to the poor. The law of the
land, as well as God's law, will not permit a man to keep that
which he has gained dishonestly. The one who restores in this
manner adds good works to his act of restitution. He relieves
God's poor; he clothes the naked and feeds the hungry; he gains
the prayers of the poor, whom God has promised to hear always.
These prayers bring blessings on his head, true sorrow for sin
into his soul, and secure for him the grace of a happy death.
Riches of injustice thus used will make friends who will get for
him by their prayers an everlasting habitation in heaven. What
other things are included in the riches of injustice? All that is
valued by pride, ambition, self-love, vanity. All that man loves
in this world because it makes him appear to be above his
fellow-men. The proud, ambitious, selfish, and vain man has
robbed God of the glory and honor due to him alone.
{347}
He has worked for himself alone, and forgotten God, except to use
God for his own private benefit. This man will often make bad
confessions and communions in order to appear to be good. But
what riches of injustice has he gained? He has gotten a pleasant
manner, a sweet smile, a habit of talking respectfully to every
one whose praise is pleasing to him, who can bring him custom or
give him a vote for office. These things, good in themselves, are
made bad by the motive in his heart. Let this man change his
motive and all will be right. He must use these same manners and
smiles for God's sake. He must show that respect to every one,
high or low, rich or poor. He must do this for the love of God
and love of all men, for God's sake. This man, also, will then
have gained the prayers of the poor by repairing in this way sins
of pride, ambition, and self-love. He will find he has gained
friends with the riches of injustice who will cause him to be
received into everlasting habitations.
------------------
{348}
_Ninth Sunday after Pentecost._
Epistle.
1 _Corinthians x._ 6-13.
Brethren:
We should not covet evil things, as they also coveted. Neither
become ye idolaters, as some of them: as it is written: "The
people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Neither
let us commit fornication, as some of them committed
fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty
thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted,
and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur: as some of
them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all
these things happened to them in figure; and they are written
for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Wherefore let him that thinketh himself to stand, take heed
lest he fall. Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as
is human. And God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that which you are able; but will make also with
temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.
Gospel.
_St. Luke xix._ 41-47.
At that time:
When Jesus drew near Jerusalem, seeing the city, he wept over
it, saying: If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day,
the things that are for thy peace; but now they are hidden from
thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee: and thy enemies
shall cast a trench about thee: and compass thee round, and
straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground,
and thy children who are in thee; and they shall not leave in
thee a stone upon a stone: because thou hast not known the time
of thy visitation.
{349}
And entering into the temple, he began to cast out them that
sold therein, and them that bought, saying to them: It is
written: "My house is the house of prayer"; but you have made
it a den of thieves. And he was teaching daily in the temple.
------------------
Sermon CIV.
_My house is the house of prayer.
But you have made it a den of thieves._
--St. Luke xix. 46.
What made our Lord so severe with these people of whom the Gospel
tells us, who were selling and buying in the temple? He was
usually gentle and mild, not violent, as on this occasion. He was
generally content with reproving what was wrong; here he resorted
to force--that force which no one could resist, and which he
could always have used if he had chosen; by which he could have
destroyed all his enemies in a moment, if he had seen fit to do
so. And he not only made these buyers and sellers leave the house
of God, but he drove them out in confusion, and also, as we read
elsewhere, overturned the tables and chairs which they had used.
Well, one reason for his severity probably was that those who
sold were making an unjust profit out of the necessities of those
who bought; for the things which they were selling were such as
had to be offered by the people for the sacrifices of the temple,
and could not well be obtained by them anywhere else. But I think
his principal motive was to impress on his followers, and on us
who were to come after them, a lesson which we are very apt to
forget. He wanted to teach it to us in such a way that we could
not forget it: and therefore he made use of this extraordinary
means.
{350}
This lesson is contained in the words which he quotes from his
prophet Isaias: "My house is the house of prayer." These words
were true of the temple in which he then was, but they have a
more special reference to the temples in which he now dwells, in
which he dwells continually, which he did not in that temple,
magnificent as it was.
You know, or ought to know, what these temples are. They are our
churches, where he is all the time, in his Real Presence, in the
Blessed Sacrament. These are the temples of which that in
Jerusalem was only a figure or type.
The church is the place for prayer. That is the lesson for us,
and we were, as I have said, the ones whom he chiefly wanted to
instruct. For prayer--that is, for acts of religion of all
kinds--and for nothing else. It is the place to think of God and
to speak to him, and not to do anything else, innocent though it
be.
It is not a place to talk or laugh in. You know that well enough,
and would not, I suppose, laugh or talk; at any rate not much in
church, especially if Mass was being celebrated or if there were
a good many people there. But perhaps that would be because you
would be afraid of what these people would say or think of you;
for there are persons who, sometimes when nobody seems to be
looking, do not scruple to have quite a nice little conversation,
which might just as well be put off till some other time, if,
indeed, there was any need for it at all.
{351}
The church is not a place to stare around in, or to see what is
going on, except at the altar. And yet there are persons who come
to it, especially if there is to be a wedding or some other event
of general interest, simply for this purpose and for nothing
else. Perhaps they will kneel down a little while for form's
sake; but they did not enter God's house to pray for themselves
or for anybody else, but only to gratify their worldly curiosity
by seeing how people look or behave, and to have something to
talk about, possibly to make fun about afterwards, if not,
indeed, at the time.
And that reminds me of another thing. The church is not the place
to see what kind of clothes people have on, or to show off one's
own good clothes. It is a place to be well dressed in, as far as
one's means will properly allow; but that is in order to give
honor to God, not to win it from one another. It is the place to
dress neatly, but not showily; not in such a way as to attract
the eyes of others, and draw their thoughts from those things on
which they should then be employed.
And this again suggests something else; that is, that our
thoughts, as well as our words and actions, belong specially to
our Lord when we are in his presence, before his altar. Let us
take particular care about this. If we take care of our thoughts
our words and actions will take care of themselves.
And let us remember that when we spend our time in church
unworthily we are stealing something from God. What is this that
we are stealing? It is the time and the honor that he has a right
to expect from us. It is because of these thefts that he can
truly say to us: "My house is the house of prayer; but you have
made it a den of thieves." This seems strong language; but do we
not deserve it if we take from our Lord the little that he claims
as his own?
{352}
He may have called those who sold in the temple thieves, because
they were cheating their neighbors; but is it not as bad to cheat
him? Let us, then, be sorry for this cheating of ours, and try to
make restitution in the time that is to come.
-------------------
Sermon CV.
_God is faithful, who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that which you are able._
--1 Corinthians x. 13.
Some people seem to think that their sins are principally God's
fault. A great many of you, my dear friends, who are listening to
me now have frequently, I have no doubt, said as much. Of course
you will say, and very rightly too, that such a charge against
the good God is a horrible blasphemy; but, for all that, you have
often been guilty of it.
You will, I think, want me to prove this before you will fully
believe it. Well, it is very easy to do so. Have you never, when
you accused yourself of some sin, said that you could not help
it? You got in a passion, for instance, perhaps quite frequently,
and spoke angry words, which of course you were sorry for
afterwards; but you say that at the time you could not help it.
What follows, then, if what you say is true? Why, in the first
place, it follows, of course, that it was not your fault that you
sinned; that in fact it was no sin for you at all, for if a
person really cannot help doing a thing he is not to blame for
it. But it was a sin; you acknowledge that; so if it was not your
sin it must have been somebody else's.
{353}
And that somebody else must have been Almighty God. He was
answerable for the sin by not giving you the grace to avoid it.
That is what it amounts to when you say that you could not help
committing sin.
This horrible blasphemy, which then certainly is implied by the
words, "I could not help it"--this blasphemy, which makes God the
author of sin and responsible for it, is what St. Paul denies in
the words from the Epistle of to-day which I have read to you. He
says: "God is faithful"; he does give you enough grace. "He will
not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able"; he
will not let you have a temptation so strong that, with the grace
which he gives you, you cannot resist it.
There are some things which one cannot help, but sin is not one
of them. If a hot coal falls on one's hand one cannot help
feeling pain from it; and in the same way one cannot help feeling
the fire of temptation with which God is sometimes pleased that
we should be tried. But sin, which is the giving way of the will
to temptation, one can always help. Sin, the giving way to
temptation, is like holding the hot coal in your hand after it
has fallen there.
You do not want to hold the coal in your hand; but you do want to
give way to temptation, because there is something pleasant in
that. It is more pleasant to give way than to resist it; if it
were not it would not be a temptation. It relieves your mind to
say that angry word when you are provoked. It is hard often to
resist temptation; that is the amount of it. But it is not
impossible.
{354}
Never say, then, when you accuse yourself of anything with which
your conscience really reproaches you, that you could not help
it. Do not say it, unless you wish to blaspheme God and throw the
blame of your sin upon him. Remember that he is faithful, and
does not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able; and
say, rather, "It was hard to help it; I was very much tempted,
but I could have resisted, and I am very sorry that I did not."
I know that is what you mean very often when you say, "I could
not help it." Say, then, what you mean, for it will help you very
much the next time. It will put you in mind of what you must know
to be the truth--that is, that you could have kept from sin; and
when you are convinced of this you will, if you are in earnest,
use all the means you have to do so. Above all you will see that
one great reason why it was so hard to resist temptation was
that, though you had grace enough to do so, you did not have
enough to make it easy; and you will pray hard to get that
abundant help which God will give to all who continually ask it
from him.
----------------------
{355}
_Tenth Sunday after Pentecost._
Epistle.
1 _Corinthians xii._ 2-11.
Brethren:
You know that when you were heathens, you went to dumb idols,
according as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand,
that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, saith Anathema to
Jesus. And no man can say, The Lord Jesus, but by the Holy
Ghost. Now there are diversities of graces, but the same
Spirit: and there are diversities of ministries, but the same
Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but the same
God, who worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man unto profit. To one, indeed, by
the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom: to another, the word
of knowledge according to the same Spirit: to another, faith in
the same Spirit; to another, the grace of healing in one
Spirit: to another, the working of miracles: to another,
prophecy: to another, the discerning of spirits: to another,
divers kinds of tongues: to another, interpretation of
speeches: but all these things one and the same Spirit worketh,
dividing to every one according as he will.
Gospel.
_St. Luke xviii._ 9-14.
At that time:
To some who trusted in themselves as just, and despised others,
Jesus spoke this parable: Two men went up into the temple to
pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The
Pharisee, standing, prayed thus with himself: O God! I give
thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, nor such as this publican. I fast twice in
the week: I give tithes of all that I possess.
{356}
And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift
up his eyes towards heaven; but struck his breast, saying: O
God! be merciful to me a sinner! I say to you, this man went
down to his house justified rather than the other; because
every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled: and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted.
---------------------
Sermon CVI.
_Two men went up into the temple to pray:
the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican._
--St. Luke xviii, 10.
There are not supposed to be any Pharisees nowadays, and the word
"publican" is getting rather old-fashioned; so perhaps, before
applying this parable to our own times, we had better understand
who the Pharisees and the publicans were.
The Pharisees, in our Lord's time, were a very religious class
among the Jews, very strict and correct in their belief, and with
very strict consciences, too--strict, at least, about some
things, particularly about such things as concerned their
reputation for piety. About other matters they were sometimes
rather too easy and charitable--easy and charitable, that is, to
themselves; for it is quite possible that they might have
criticised others for faults not very different from their own,
as when this Pharisee in the Gospel called the poor publican
standing in the corner an extortioner, or robber, as perhaps the
word is better rendered; forgetting, it may be, some little
transactions which, if rightly understood, might have fixed as
bad a name on himself.
{357}
These publicans, on the other hand, were not in any way a
religious set of people; they did not pretend, like the
Pharisees, to be so, nor were they in point of fact. They were
called publicans because they collected the public taxes; they
were blamed by the people, and with good reason, for extorting
money unjustly from the poor. Their business was really, in those
times, a proximate occasion of sin; this was the reason why St.
Matthew, who was a publican before our Lord called him to be an
apostle, never went back to his business again, as St. Peter did
to his innocent occupation as a fisherman. The publican of this
parable also, no doubt, had either made up his mind to give up
his sinful life or was endeavoring to do so.
Both of these men, the Pharisee and the publican, were sinners.
In that they were alike; the difference between them was that the
publican acknowledged that he was a sinner and was trying to
amend his life, while the Pharisee thought that he was perfect,
or that, if he had any faults, they were such as no one could
avoid, and which his Maker would readily overlook, especially in
a person of his exalted piety.
Now, I said in the beginning that there were not supposed to be
any Pharisees nowadays: but I think that we shall find that there
are some people of this kind, even among us Christians; and
perhaps, if we go down very deep into our own consciences, we
shall even find that we are Pharisees ourselves.
Some of these Pharisees make excellent confessions. They show a
care in their examination of conscience equal to that of the
saints; they have the most accurate knowledge of every fault, and
are willing to go into every detail, if they are permitted to do
so. This delicacy of perception of sin is a quality which
certainly commands our admiration; but there is a circumstance
which prevents this admiration from being quite unlimited.
{358}
This circumstance is that the faults which they are so keenly
alive to are not their own. They are those of other people with
whom they live, or of whom they hear through some person of the
same sort of sensitive conscience that they themselves have.
The world, in the eyes of these sensitive people, certainly has a
melancholy aspect. Everybody is doing wrong, and nobody is doing
right--nobody, that is, except themselves. They, thank God! are
not so bad. They are innocent sufferers, enduring a continual
martyrdom at the hands of these wicked people who live in the
same house or close by. Their only consolation here below is to
tell their friends how much they suffer, and how much others
suffer, from these sinners. Others, it is true, may deserve it,
but they themselves certainly never have. They wish that they
were dead and out of reach of their persecutors. The most curious
thing is that one of their great causes of annoyance is the way
that other people will carry stories; this is the story that they
spend their lives in carrying.
Perhaps you think this picture is overdrawn. I hope it is. And I
do not believe that many people are such thorough Pharisees as
these whom I have described. But there is too much, a great deal
too much, of the Pharisaic spirit about us all.