Chapter XI: Part 11

And for food he gives us the Bread of life, the living Bread which came down from heaven, even his own most Precious Body and Blood in the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. "He that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever"; but "unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his Blood, you shall not have life in you." His grace would have been enough to sustain us; but he is not content with giving us his grace alone, he must give us also Himself. This is the greatest instance of the wonderful prodigality of God towards us. After creating the world, and providing it with all that is needful for our bodily life, after giving us his grace in an almost overwhelming abundance, we might think that his generosity would have spent itself. But no, he goes still further, and his last and greatest gift is himself to be the food of our souls. Surely there is nothing beyond this. God could not do more for us than he has done. In giving us himself he has done the utmost that is possible.

When, therefore, we behold the wonderful works of God in our behalf our hearts should swell with thankfulness to him who gives so abundantly unto us, above all that we could ask or think. Since God has been so generous towards us, let us not be guilty of the base ingratitude of despising his gifts, and rejecting the mercies he holds out to us! Rather be generous towards him, and as he gives us himself, so let us give ourselves wholly to him, striving in all things to please him, offering ourselves daily unto him, soul and body, as "a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, our reasonable service."

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Sermon XCVII.

Feast Of St. John The Baptist.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Birthday of St. John the Baptist, of whom our Lord said that a greater man than he was never born; and we well know what kind of greatness Jesus Christ would make much of--the greatness of holiness. Looking at his life altogether, we see in him a striking example of one wielding great power and acquiring an eternal fame, who set out to do neither, but rather avoided both. No doubt as he grew up he must have heard something about his miraculous conception, of the angelic prophecy concerning him, and of that wonderful visit the Mother of God made to his own mother before either he or Jesus Christ was born. No doubt he felt himself to be consecrated to God, and set apart in a special manner to aspire after a holy life. And now it is just his fidelity to all those interior inspirations, which, costing him, as it did, so much self-abnegation, and taking him apparently out of the way of obtaining a great name, really made him great.

He was a notable example of those who gain all by giving up all. Only those who have this character in a marked degree are truly great in their souls, for virtue is both the source and the glory of nobility. No birth however high, no station or office however exalted, no good luck however extraordinary, high honors, great wealth, nor heaps of badges and medals can make up for the lack of it. A mean, covetous, selfish, proud, gluttonous, sensual, envious-minded, overbearing, spiteful, unforgiving, greedy king or emperor neither is nor can be great, no matter how vast his dominions or countless his subjects. {325} On the other hand, we Catholics know of, and recognize often, the most extraordinary nobleness and refinement of soul in many who are among the poorest, most suffering, and often, in book-learning, the most ignorant of our brethren. What is it that gives to many such that singular taste for and perception of what is pure, beautiful, and true, which they unmistakably possess? And, in times of great trial and sacrifice, what is it that often brings them out above and ahead many others of whom we might be led to expect so much more? I'll tell you: it is the greatness of their holiness, the nobility of their virtue. It is that manifestation of what is really great in the sight of God and his angels--their love of truth, their ready self-denial, their big-hearted charity, their loyalty to God and religion, the independence of the world, their free obedience to superiors, their sweet endurance of pain and sorrow, their meek, forgiving spirit. Such as these are the souls of the great, whom the world, the flesh, and the devil attack and may wound, but cannot conquer. If sometimes we are tempted, dear brethren, to envy the apparent good fortune, as it is esteemed, of those whose greatness is not thus founded in virtue, we may be sure that we are weighing something with a very light and empty weight in the other balance, which may be very bulky, sparkling, and showy, like a big, bright, sunshiny soap-bubble, but with nothing inside, and of very short continuance.

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So you see how true greatness is within the reach of every one, and within quite easy reach, too. One is not obliged to do a great many things, nor labor many years, nor accomplish what makes a long report with large headings in the newspapers. One has only to take care _how_ the work is done one is called to do--with what spirit one does it. Says the "Imitation of Christ": "We are apt to inquire _how much_ a man has done, but with _how much virtue_ he has done it is not so diligently considered. We ask whether he be strong, rich, beautiful, ingenious, a good writer, good singer, or a good workman; but how poor he is in spirit, how patient and meek, how devout and internal, is what few speak of." Yes, it is not so much the long and splendid record of the work, but the spirit of the working, the pure, unambitious, God-loving intention ruling our labors, that makes them worthy of everlasting memory and meritorious of the renown of a great name, which leaves behind one a memory held in benediction and the history of a life delicious to recall.

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Sermon XCVIII.

Idleness.

_And they had nothing to eat._
--Gospel of the Sunday.

The people who crowded about our Lord had nothing to eat, because out of love of the word of God they had for a time quit their work and their homes. This docility, this constancy argues well for their earnestness in the fulfilment of all their other duties. They were out of food, not through laziness, but because of set purpose they preferred spiritual to temporal nourishment. Hence they merited this extraordinary and unlooked-for manifestation of our Lord's goodness and providence in supplying them with food.

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We may confidently expect, my brethren, the assistance of God even in temporal want and necessity if our honest endeavors fail. We are not to be over-solicitous; we are not to desire nor strive after an over-abundance of such things. This promise, however, we have: that our Heavenly Father knows our needs, and he will come to our aid. But we have a duty, an obligation to discharge, and that is to work, to earn our bread. Now, this is the point of my sermon: that there are many people--the number seems to be increasing--who have nothing to eat, or who say they have not, and it is their own fault.

They do not merit any special interposition of Heaven to save them from the consequences of their own laziness; they do not seem to deserve, they do not deserve, the assistance of the charitable, who are the stewards and the representatives of the Lord. Now, brethren, do not imagine that this is a harsh and an unchristian way of regarding the necessities of the very poor; do not suppose that I make no allowance for the sickness, the lack of work, the hard times, the calamities which from time to time afflict the deserving and the laborious. If you are in a position to know, you cannot but be persuaded that the tendency to ask for help, the inclination to throw burdens on institutions public and private, the frequency, the boldness, the unreasonableness of such demands is on the increase; the number of those who are unwilling to exert themselves, to undergo the routine, the strain of work, grows day by day. Yet the Apostle says, "If any man will not work, neither let him eat." {328} He bids every one labor faithfully in the calling wherein he has been placed. There is no such thing as true religion save in the faithful discharge, first of all, of our natural duties, and in compliance with the first great law of labor.

Now, I have frequently noticed one peculiarity about many of those who say they have nothing to eat, and that is, they cannot be said to have nothing to drink; and the presence of this kind of nourishment explains very often the lack of all other. No, my brethren, let us be industrious, saving, and sober, mindful that the law of God has imposed labor on us; let us try to help ourselves; then, if we fail, Heaven will surely help us, even in ways as truly miraculous as our Saviour's for the multitude in the desert.

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_Seventh Sunday after Easter._

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 XCIX.

Mortal Sin The Death Of The Soul.

_The wages of sin is death._

When the Apostle, my dear brethren, wrote these words, he did not mean only to express the truth (for truth it is) that the inevitable result of sin, even in this world, is the misery, and finally the death, of the sinner; nor even (though this also is true) that by sin death was introduced into the world. But he wished especially to teach us that the direct and immediate effect of mortal sin is a death much more fearful in itself, and much more awful in its consequences, than any mere cessation of the life of the body--namely, the death of the soul.

Mortal sin cuts a man off from his last end; it, as it were, disconnects the soul of any one who is unhappy enough to be in that state with all the springs of the supernatural state. A soul which is in mortal sin is cut off from the mystical body of Christ, and, like a limb cut away from the body of a man, it ceases to have any part in the nourishment with which that body is supported and enabled to pass through the wear and tear of the every-day life of the world.

The soul from the time of baptism to the time of death is kept alive by the gift of sanctifying grace. Remove this and the soul inevitably dies. Restore this and it is alive again. Now, it is just the removal of this sanctifying grace which is the immediate effect of mortal sin. {331} As long as any baptized person remains free from the fearful stain of deliberate mortal sin sanctifying grace remains, and every sacrament received, nay, every good act performed, every good word spoken, and every aspiration to higher and better things which passes through the mind, increases the grace which is conferred upon that soul; but the moment the will is deliberately turned away from its Creator, at that moment sanctifying grace ceases and the soul dies. This death is a real death of the soul; it prevents the soul from meriting anything towards the attainment of its last end, and should any one be unhappy enough to die with mortal sin upon his conscience his soul must, by the law of its very being, be buried for all eternity in hell.

See, then, my dear brethren, how fearful a thing this sin is which can have such fearful effects. God has made us to enjoy him for all eternity in heaven, and yet by sin we turn against ourselves, and, if I may so speak, compel the good God to issue against us an eternal sentence of banishment from his divine presence. We prevent our own souls from reaching that end for which alone they were created. We reap for ourselves an eternity of untold misery, instead of one of surpassing bliss.

Let us, then, to-day make a firm and constant resolution that, cost what it may, nothing in this world shall induce us to kill our souls by staining them with sin; and if any one is so unhappy as to be in that state now, let him now resolve that he will by a good confession cleanse his soul, and from henceforward, casting behind the things that are past, he will press forward to the things that are before.

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Sermon C.

False Prophets.

_Beware of false prophets._
--Gospel of the Day.

I think, my dear brethren, that you all know pretty well what our Lord means when he says in to-day's Gospel, "Beware of false prophets." You would tell me, at least if you stopped to think for a moment, that he means to warn us against those who were to come after him, pretending to teach his doctrine, claiming that theirs was the true and pure Christian religion, or putting on, as he says, the sheep's clothing, but really striving to draw the faithful away from the unity of the church which he had established; being, in fact, to use his own words, ravenous wolves.

Yes, you would tell me this, and you would be right in your explanation of his words. It is, indeed, of these false Christian teachers that he would warn us. It is against the innumerable errors which are taught as Christianity, and against the countless self-appointed guides to his one religion who were to multiply as time went on, that he wished to forewarn us; to keep us from listening to them, or allowing ourselves to be turned by them from the one source of truth which he has provided for us in his holy Catholic Church.

And no doubt, in a way, we listen to his warning, and are not much deceived by their pretensions, at least in these days. If a Catholic loses his faith nowadays, it is usually easy enough to see that he does so, not because he is really deceived by the false prophet and takes him for a true one, but because he wishes to lead an easier life without being blamed for it; because he objects to confession and the other laws of the church as imposing too much restraint on him, or because his temporal interests will be advanced by the change.

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But still, in spite of this general security which we now have against being deceived by the persuasions of those who would lead us into error, nay, even on account of this very security which we feel, we do not obey quite carefully enough our Lord's warning. We think we are in no danger from these false prophets, and so we are willing enough to hear what they say. We would not join with them; far from it; but we think there is no harm in hearing or reading their discourses, or acquainting ourselves with their books. We do not, in short, beware of them; we think that there is no need to do so.

Really, however, there is. When our Lord said, "Beware of these false prophets," he meant just what he said. He knew that they would do us harm if we did not beware; that, if they did not destroy our faith, they would at least mar its purity or diminish its intensity if we did not take care to avoid them and their teachings in every way. And the church has always acted on the principle which her Divine Founder here laid down, in her instructions to her children. She does not wish even her priests to concern themselves with heretical or infidel doctrines, except with the intention of confuting them as their office requires, fortified though they be with the most thorough instruction in and knowledge of the truth.

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We are none of us perfectly wise and above the reach of even the most absurd errors, especially when our nature, corrupted by sin, is enlisted on the side of those errors; and, if not in danger of actually falling into any of them in particular, we may at least, by acquainting ourselves with those into which great men have been led, be likely to fall into the most dangerous of all errors, that of believing that truth is so hard to find that it cannot be expected that all should find it, and that it makes no difference what a man believes, as long as he does what seems to the world in general to be right.

The true course for us is, then, to beware of false guides in religion by keeping out of their way altogether; and, on the other hand, to study as far as we can the truth, which, if we learn it and grasp it as we should, conveys in itself the answer to them all. Listen to the true prophets, and leave the false ones alone; that is the highest wisdom from the mouth of our Divine Lord himself.

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Sermon CI.

The Last Sin.

_For the wages of sin is death;
but the grace of God,
life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord._
--From this Sunday's Epistle.

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This is not the only place in Holy Writ, my brethren, where eternal life and death are set before us as the wages we shall some day be paid. The word of God frequently admonishes us of the choice we are compelled to make between eternal sorrow and eternal joy, and for this most evident reason: we are always actually engaged in making the choice. The very essence of our merit hereafter will be that we shall have freely and deliberately chosen Almighty God and his friendship, in preference to any and everything besides. And the reason, and the only reason, why a man will lose his soul will be because he committed mortal sin and died unrepentant--that is to say, choosing to love what God bids him hate. What we call the choice between virtue and vice St. Paul calls the choice between life and death. And with that choice we are constantly confronted. Not that we always realize it, nor do I mean to say that the first time one grievously offends God he settles his fate eternally; but that each mortal sin really earns the wages of eternal death, and only the blessed mercy of God saves us from our deserved punishment. And furthermore, it is some mortal sin or other that at last breaks down God's patience. If at any particular occasion he does not see fit to take us at our word, so to speak, and leave us for ever in that state of enmity that we have chosen, it is not because we do not deserve it; it is because he is a loving Father to us, and is often willing to stand a great deal of wickedness on our part; or because we have some dear friends who are servants of God and who pray for us; or because the Blessed Virgin has acquired some special attachment to us and intervenes for us; or because God reserves us for a later day, when he will make such an example of us as will save other sinners; or because, again, he saves us for a later day to make us models of true penance.

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But just look around you, brethren; just call to mind what you have heard or perhaps seen of God's judgments, and the Apostle's lesson becomes object-teaching. Have you not heard of a sudden and unprovided death and then remembered how years ago that man started a disreputable business? It was thus that he made his decision for all eternity. On the other hand, a man now temperate, once a drunkard, will tell you that long ago he took the pledge and broke it, and broke it again, but still persevered, and finally, by the grace of God, has managed to keep it. He was fighting the battle of fate and he won the victory. That dreadful appetite overcome, the practice of religion became easy to him.

In another case a man is led away little by little from the rules of honest dealing; at last he refuses to pay a certain just debt, one that he can easily pay if he wishes. After that avarice eats into the core of his heart and he is lost for ever.

And, brethren, what a relief to hear after a sudden death that the poor soul was a monthly communicant!

Many are tested by Almighty God demanding that they shall withdraw from the proximate occasions of mortal sin. The voice of conscience, a sermon heard in the church, the private advice of some good friend--for all these are the voice of God--admonish[ing] them against what leads them to mortal sin; against very bad company, or the saloon, or the Sunday excursion, or dangerous reading, or lonely company-keeping. Perhaps one's conduct about such dangers has more to do with his choice in eternity than any thing else.

I do not mean to say that this fateful decision is a mere lottery, but it is a moment at the end of years of rebellion against God when an effort is made by the grace of God to save the sinner; and for weal or for woe it is the last chance. Some time or other the last sin will be committed, the last grace will be granted.

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O my brethren! how very reasonable is the holy fear of God. Oh! how wise are they who have joined fear and love of God together so that the fire of love has burned the dross of slavishness out of fear, and fear has mingled reverence and humility with love. Alas! that so many should live as if eternal life and death had no meaning for the present hour.

Some are like that millionaire I heard of. Walking home one day, a heavy shower of rain began, he stopped a hack and asked what the driver would take him home for. Fifty cents, was the answer. he began to beat him down, and finally, refusing more than twenty-five cents, he walked home in the rain. But he caught cold, went to bed, and died. He had played the miser many a time before, but the last time had come. So many a one thinks his one sin more, his one other rejection of grace, is but like the multitude of other such offences gone before; and all the time he is deciding an eternal fate.

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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.

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Sermon CII.

Spirit And 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._
--Romans viii. 13.

What does the Apostle mean by this? This only, that the flesh with its concupiscence and lusts must never get such power over our will that it will carry us along with it and make us obey its longings and desires when we know these are forbidden by Almighty God. I say "this only" because to have the flesh is no sin; neither is it a sin to feel the disorderly movements of the flesh that lead to sin; but it is a sin to consent to these and to follow them. For this reason we are told that if we mortify the deeds of the flesh, to which these movements of the flesh lead us, we shall live. But what does the word "mortify" mean? It means to destroy that which makes the life of a thing. Notice here the Apostle does not tell us to mortify the flesh itself but the deeds of the flesh. To do this we need not then attempt to kilt the flesh, but we must destroy all that gives life to its deeds.

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What are the deeds of the flesh? They are the seven capital sins--pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, sloth. Can we kill them? In the most important sense we can. We can get them so under our control that, after awhile, they will move us but slightly and cannot influence us to any great degree. We shall feel from time to time that they are still present in us, but that cannot disturb us much. We shall have taken their strength away. We shall have made them so weak that we can check them easily.

Ought not each one of us strive to get ourselves into that blessed state? But how can we do it? Make up your mind to do it. Form a good resolution, one that will not change but that will be firm for life. Then live according to that resolution. When pride is aroused, refuse to follow its promptings; when covetousness moves the heart, stop the eager desire for gain; when lust would lead you away, contend against the thought until it is driven out; when anger disturbs, seal the lips with the sign of the holy cross; when gluttony makes you long for feasting and drinking, refuse to go where these things are going on; when envy racks the soul, pray for the one who is the object of envy; when sloth tempts you to self-indulgence and inactivity, stir up the fear of God and holy shame within the soul, for sloth is a destroyer indeed of all that is truly manly and heroic in us.

But all this is about as hard to do as anything a man can do, some may say. Yes, it is hard to do, but the success is _sure_. Shall a man do less for God than for himself? See the time and labor spent to secure that which is necessary for the body and success in the life of only a few years in this world. Shall a man not do as much for the good of his soul and for eternal life in the next world?

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Is it really so hard as it seems? By no means. We make it harder than it really is by putting it all together and by thinking we are to do it all at once. This is not true. It must be done by degrees, slowly, patiently, perseveringly, but surely.

The devil makes us think it harder by telling us, when we feel the sharpness of the first struggle, "You can't bear it this way, for life." You can if God wills it and gives you the grace. And most people, almost all Christian souls, do not have it "this way, for life." Those who keep up the struggle get stronger day by day. In them the flesh and the movements of sin grow less day by day. The devil, however, wishes us to believe the lie he tells, to make us give up the struggle. Do not listen to the lie and it cannot hurt you. Remember always, it is a lie, and the mind will not take hold of it.

We can make it all the easier by trusting God, who will always help us in the struggle. _Pray_ more. Go to confession often. The confessor will then help us and remove much of the burden by good advice. Go to Communion often, and God himself will make it easier for us than we imagine by giving his own strength to the soul at that time. Only begin earnestly to control the flesh, continue perseveringly to use confession and Communion. This, with daily morning and evening prayer, will take away very many difficulties. Soon we shall find we have truly mortified the deeds of the flesh, and then indeed we shall live, for the flesh will then be dead or dying fast and too weak to hurt the soul. Keep, then, in the mind the text from the Epistle of to-day: "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."

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Sermon CIII.

The Business Of The Soul.

_The Lord commended the unjust steward,
forasmuch as he had done wisely._
--Words Taken From To-day's Gospel.

One of the things which strikes us most forcibly in reading the instructions of our Blessed Lord as we have them in the holy Gospels is the matter-of-fact, common-sense, business-like manner in which he sets before us the way we must act in order to save our souls. We find no sentimentalism, no rhetoric, no fine-sounding flights of eloquence which delight the imagination and please the fancy indeed, but which are too fleeting and flimsy to serve as a basis of every-day action. No; with our Lord this matter of the salvation of our souls is a matter of infinite business, a question of eternal profit and loss. Let me recall a few examples: "The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking good pearls, who, when he had found one of great price, went his way and sold all he had and bought it." Here the way in which we are to act in order to get the kingdom of heaven is compared to the way in which the man of business acts who finds a good article--something worth his money. What does he do? Why, if it is really worth it--and the kingdom of heaven, the salvation of our souls is worth it--he sells all that he has and buys it. {343} And yet again our Lord places before us the salvation of our souls as based upon a calculation of what is the more profitable course to take in those words the realization of which has called forth the highest heroism of the greatest of the saints: "If thy eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee." Why? Because "it is better for thee with one eye to enter the kingdom of God than, having two eyes, to be cast into the hell of fire." Here again it is a calculation of loss and gain--the loss of an eye in this world as against that of the whole body in the next. Shall I, on the principle that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, keep my two eyes; or shall I, for the sake of saving the whole body, pluck out the eye, cut off the foot or hand? But of all the places where this way of looking at things and of acting is inculcated and enforced, the most striking is in the parable read in to-day's Gospel. Here our Lord, in order to lead us to take a practical, hard-headed way of acting with reference to the salvation of our souls, brings before us the conduct of the unjust steward, and, strange to say, actually praises it. And how did this unjust steward act? The unjust steward was a dishonest man. He had been placed in a position of trust, but had wasted his master's goods--perhaps speculated with his money, made false entries in his books, or something else of that kind. Well, the truth came out at last, as it generally does sooner or later, and he was at his wits end what to do. No thought of repentance enters into his head; he has got on a wrong road, and he found it, as we all find it, very hard to get out of it. {344} And so, knowing the men with whom he has to deal, he sends for some of his master's debtors, and, in order to make them his friends and to establish a claim on them for help and assistance when he gets into trouble, he alters their bills and makes them less. "And the Lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely." Our Lord does not commend, of course, the dishonesty of his conduct; this we all understand. But he commends his clearness of sight as to what was for his worldly interest, and his promptitude in taking wise and suitable means to further that interest. What our Lord wants to teach us is that we must act for our highest interest in the same clear-sighted, determined, wise, and prudent way in which this specimen of a worldly man acted for the sordid and selfish and foolish ends of men of this world. Well, my brethren, take these thoughts home with you, and ask yourselves, each and every one of you, how you are acting. Have you an intelligent view of the end you have to attain, of its value and importance, and of the means by which it is to be attained, and are you acting earnestly in order to attain that end?

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Sermon CIV.

The Judgments Of God.

_Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity;
that when you shall fail
they may receive you into everlasting dwellings._
--Gospel of the Day.

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My dear brethren, there will come to each one of us a day when all those earthly goods we now enjoy shall fail us, when we shall have to turn our backs on the world and all that it has to give us, and prepare ourselves to stand before him to whom all things that we had and enjoyed belong, and give an account to him of the uses which we have made of them. We have, like the steward in to-day's Gospel, a Lord and Master; and to him we must sooner or later give an account of our stewardship.

And it is only too likely, we may say it is indeed certain, that when that dread moment comes at which this world must be left behind, the charge will also be made against us, as against the steward in this parable, that we have wasted our Master's goods. Our consciences will rise up and condemn us, and anticipate the accusation which shall be brought against us when we shall actually come face to face with God. Then all the security we have had in the thought that we are not murderers, robbers, or adulterers shall vanish; we shall not be able to console ourselves with the idea that we have done no great harm to any one. We shall see how selfish and how sensual our lives have been; that we have wasted for the pleasure of a passing moment the greater part of those gifts which God gave us for his service. Wasted our time, our strength, our knowledge, and our abilities in getting for ourselves the means of gratification or amusement, or in raising ourselves for our own sake to a position of honor or of wealth. We shall see what we might have been, what God meant that we should be, and compare it with what we are.

Fain would we then be able to say with St. Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course." Our faith indeed we shall, it is to be hoped, have kept; but we shall feel that our fight has been but a poor and cowardly one, and that we, instead of finishing the course which our Lord laid out for us, have gone over only a very small part of it, and that its goal is far, far away.

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What, then, shall be our hope? For hope we must have if we would not offend God even more then than through life. He commands us to hope; but in what shall our hope be placed?

Where or in what but his mercy? He will take us, grievously deficient as we are, and make the little, miserable offerings which we have to present to him, the remnant of what he gave us, into some kind of a crown of eternal life, if only we will turn to him with our whole hearts; if we will at least, at that last moment, really believe in him, hope in him, and love him. He that perseveres to the end, he that will not die in mortal sin, shall be saved.

But what shall obtain for us at that last moment the faith, hope, and charity which we need? Who will help us to persevere when the enemies of our salvation are making the most of their last chance to snatch it from us? Will those with whom we have enjoyed life then stand by to help us? It is to be feared that they and all that they have done for us will not avail us much then. No, the friends who will then be most valuable to us will be those, if indeed we have such, whom we have not sought for our own sake, but whom we loved for God's sake. And it is not the riches which we amassed that will then be precious to us, but such as we have given away to those who needed it more than we.

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These are the friends which our Lord, in to-day's Gospel, tells us to make, that they may help us at the hour when our eternal destiny hangs trembling in the balance. These are the friends which may be made by that mammon of iniquity, those worldly riches which are too often the occasion of sin, and whose prayers and blessings may indeed be the means of our being received, in spite of our unprofitableness, into everlasting habitations. Happy is the man who, when he comes to die, knows that God's poor have prayed for him, and have blessed his name.

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_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. 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.

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Sermon CV.

Justice And Mercy.

_And when he drew near, seeing the city,
he wept over it._
--From the Gospel of the Sunday.

Which one of the children is best loved by the father and mother? Is there any poor little cripple in the family? That is the favorite child. It makes the parent's heart bleed to see the limping walk or the hunched back, to see the sallow, pain-marked face of the little one. That is the one who receives the warmest caress; for that one the kindest tones and cheeriest words and nicest presents are reserved. Well, brethren, it is the same in the spiritual order. God has his best favors for his most unfortunate children: for men and women in the state of mortal sin. That is one reason why our Lord lavished such affection on the Jews; they had most need of it. Their hearts were the hardest hearts in the world. Jerusalem was the most accursed city in the world. It and its people were on the point of committing the most awful crime possible to our race. Hence our Lord wept over it those bitter tears of rejected love, and breathed those deadly sighs of a heart wearied and disappointed in fruitless efforts for their salvation.

It is true, amidst those tears he told of the persistent obstinacy of the Jews, and of their final impenitence, and of their terrific chastisement. But he did it all with many tears and with a depth of regret better told by tears than words. {350} Brethren, there is a deep mystery taught us by this scene. It is the mystery of the union of two sentiments in God which to us seem essentially different--justice and mercy. How could our Saviour weep over a downfall so well deserved? How could he regret what none knew so well as he was to be a punishment all too light for the crimes of the Jews? Is there not a mystery here? How can it be explained? There is no adequate theoretical explanation of it. But there is a practical one, and a very excellent one, too. It is this: Put yourself in a Jew's place; fancy yourself one of that apostate race; stand up before our Lord and listen to his sentence given against you with infinite reluctance--every hard word a sigh of tender regret. Do you not see that this exhibition of mercy in the Judge only renders the justice of the sentence more evident to you and more dreadful? Mercy thus lends to Justice a weapon which, while it only crushes down its victim the deeper, at the same time elevates much higher in the culprit's eyes the rectitude of the sentence.

Of course, the justice of God and his mercy are perfectly equal. Yet in some true sense we may say that his mercy is more powerful than his justice. Does not the Psalmist say that God's mercy "is above all his works"? Do we not know by observation and experience that where the wrath of God sets apart a single victim his tender love wins over a thousand? Why, the very sentiments of our hearts, the very convictions of our minds by which we earn forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance, are they not the free gift of God, earned by us only because "us" means persons penetrated with light and strength streaming down from the throne of mercy? {351} We offer our repentance to God in a kind of a way as children make Christmas presents to their father. Where do they get money to buy them? From their mother, and she saves it up from the household expenses or gets it as a gift from her husband. In the long run the presents were bought by the one to whom they are given. Yet they are very dear to the father; he values them; they are real presents to him; they express a real devotion; they lose nothing of their character of presents because he is at the expense of it all. So with our Heavenly Father. If he gives the gold we coin it; we stamp the beloved form of the Son of God on our poor prayers, so that when they have made the circuit and are back again in the divine bosom from which they sprang forth, somehow we have added something to them.

Brethren, let us hope that when our Lord's tears concerned us it was not in view of our reprobation, but of our salvation. Let us be inflamed, too, with a sense of our ingratitude that we are such unworthy children of so good a Father. A man may swagger and brag down his better self when merely threatened with punishment. But who among you can face, without flinching, the tears of so good a friend as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?

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Sermon CVI.

Neglect Of Divine Warnings.

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The Gospel to-day tells us, my dear brethren, that Jesus wept as he approached Jerusalem; not for himself, nor for all he was so soon to suffer there, but for the city itself, and for his chosen people, to whom he had given it for their glory and joy. Yes, this beautiful city was their joy and their pride; long before they had been taken from it into captivity by their enemies for a time, and as the Psalmist says, speaking in their name, "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Sion." And he goes on: "If I forget thee, Jerusalem, may I forget my right hand; may my tongue cleave to my mouth if I do not remember thee, if I do not make Jerusalem the beginning of my joy."

And now this city of theirs was to be taken from them again by a more grievous and fatal disaster than it had ever yet suffered. They were to be scattered from it all over the world to do a long penance for their sins and their rejection of him who had come to redeem them. And our Divine Lord's Heart yearned for them, for these his creatures, and at the same time his brethren and his countrymen. Fain would he have saved them, if they would but have been willing, from the terrible sufferings they were to undergo. Gladly, as he says himself, would he have sheltered them, if they would even now have come to him, from the tempest which was about to break upon them from the justice of God. He wept because they would not come and avail themselves of his love.

We should pray for them that the day may be hastened when they shall return and acknowledge their true Messias, their own Lord and Master, the only true King of the Jews. But they are not the only ones to weep for; they are not the only ones whom he has loaded with favors, and who have been ungrateful; there are others besides the Jews whom Almighty God has chosen for his people, but who have rejected him and distressed his loving heart. {353} Who are they? They are in general all sinners, but especially such as are Catholics; they are those souls for whom Jesus has done so much from their earliest years, in the midst of whom he has lived and wrought so many works of power and goodness; those whom he has enlightened with his truth, those whom he has warned against sin, those whom he has borne with so long and forgiven so often, those whom he has fed with his own Body and Blood. And yet, through evil habits, by frequent mortal sin, they live on, deaf to his warnings, despising his love, not knowing the time of their visitation, until evil days and a sad ending come upon them. Can we wonder that their enemies, the evil one and their bad habits, compass them round about, and straiten them on all sides, and beat them down and leave them wasted and desolate? Can we wonder that, since they would not bear the sweet and ennobling yoke of Christ, they will be forced to groan in the fetters of Satan and be exiled for ever from the true Jerusalem, the home of peace, which is above? No, brethren; such is the fate of those who persistently abuse God's grace, who reject his mercy and his efforts to save them. God forbid that such a career, such an ending, be ours. Let us, then, take warning; let us be careful about temptations; let us not presume on our own strength nor on God's goodness in the past; let us not make light of anything which is dangerous or forbidden. Let us endeavor not to grieve our Lord by any infidelity, great or small, but try to be faithful to every grace in this the day of our visitation, and to follow the things that are for our peace here and our happiness hereafter.

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Sermon CVII.

Living From Day To Day.

_If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day,
the things that are for thy peace._
--St. Luke xix. 42.

The fault of the Jews, my brethren, was twofold: boasting of the past and waiting for the future. It is especially on account of the latter fault that our Lord in this day's Gospel lays such stress on the words "and that in this thy day." It is a warning against trying to live in the future.