Lenten Reflection-The Presence of Christ

"This is my body...this is my blood." St. Matthew, 26:27,28.

In the not so distant days of persecution in old Mexico, it was against the law to meet and conduct any kind of religious service without permission. Despite this devilish regulation, many groups of Catholics met se­cretly to hear Mass and receive Holy Communion. A spy betrayed one of these groups to the police. An officer with several soldiers surprised them one night at their place of prayer. The officer was angry; he was deter­mined to punish everyone present. He ordered a soldier to count all present and write down their names.

THERE IS ONE MORE HERE
"Thirty men and women, sir," reported the officer.

At that an old man held up his hand and declared:
"Officer, there is One whom you have missed. There is One more here."

"What do you mean?" shouted the officer. "We counted all carefully. There are only thirty."

"No," insisted the old man, "there is One you have missed."

"Very well," growled the officer, "we will count them again."

Again the count was made and again the count was thirty. The officer sneered at the old gentleman: "There you are. Just as I told you. Thirty-thirty miserable breakers of the law."

"Yes," the venerable old fellow said slowly, "but there is One more here, One whom you missed - and that is our Lord Jesus Christ on the altar."

PRESENT BUT UNSEEN
What that old man stated about this secret meeting, that there was Another present whom they could not see, can be stated of the Eucharistic presence of Christ in the Catholic Church. Our Lord is ever present with those who love Him. He is present in the Eucharist - body and blood, soul and divinity - just as really and truly present in every Catholic tabernacle as He was when He walked about His native Palestine. Christ wanted to be with us - everywhere and at all times. He is with us in the Blessed Sacrament.

MOST PRECIOUS FRUIT
The passion and death of our Lord have brought to us many fruits and blessings. The sweetest and greatest and most precious fruit of His suffering is His presence in the Eucharist, a legacy He left us on the night He was betrayed.

At the very moment when wicked men were reaching out to seize and crush Christ's innocent body in the winepress of suffering, our Lord was generously planning how He would stay with men forever. At the very moment when their hate was getting rid of His presence, Christ's love was finding a way to be present for all time to come. He saw the sadness of His mother and His apostles and His followers of all time, at the thought of His departure. In merciful sympathy He would give them Himself for all time. The same generous love that prompted Christ to undergo the bitter tor­ments and degrading humiliations of His passion and death, prompted Him also to give us Himself in the Eucharist forever.

FAREWELL, BUT I'LL STAY WITH YOU
Read again the Gospel story of the Last Supper and the touching, tender farewell of our Lord. Doesn't your heart throb deeply at its notes of over­flowing love? Christ was about to give Himself to His apostles, as He had promised. But love could not be content with that. Not just once would He work this miracle of changing bread and wine into His very own Body and Blood. Christ saw not only those in the supper room; He also saw the millions through the centuries who would want to have Him present.

EVERYWHERE ALWAYS
Close on the heels of the one miracle of giving His Body and His Blood to His apostles, Christ worked another wonder which would continue that loving sacrament to the end of time. To the apostles and their successors, the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church, Christ gave the power of multiplying His presence throughout the earth and throughout all time, when He commanded them:

"Do this in remembrance of me." St. Luke, 22:19.

Love was not satisfied with giving Himself once long ago in faroff Pal­estine. Love wanted to give Himself everywhere for all time to all men. He wanted us always to remember that Thursday and that Friday. He wanted the merits of His death to be shared by all. Dying for one we love is the greatest proof of love. The sacrament of the altar, instituted the night before He died, is not merely a remembrance of His sacrifice, it is the bring­ing to us of the fruits of that sacrifice.

LIVING AS IF DEAD
The Holy Eucharist is the most fitting memorial of the passion of Christ. In and through the Sacrifice of the Mass especially, Christ recalls for all men of all times His sufferings and death for them. On this altar, by the wonder-working words of consecration the priest calls down from the heights of heaven the true and living Christ, calls Him down to live in the apparently lifeless form of the sacred species of bread and wine. Though alive, Christ is present as if He were dead - as if without the power to move, as if without the power to speak.

Our faith tells us that since the resur­rection our Lord can die no more, yet here in the Eucharist Jesus chooses to live a hidden and helpless life. To have life and not to use it, not to per­form any visible act, not to give any proof of life - is not such a life very much like death? In this way the Eucharist is a constant reminder of the death of Christ.

THE EUCHARIST REMINDS US OF HIS SUFFERINGS
Living under the veils of the Blessed Sacrament Christ gives no sign of life. He allows Himself no freedom to move from place to place, no power to flee from His enemies, no speech to talk with His friends, or to call for help when He is insulted or attacked. He even takes a form that in no way reminds us of a human being. How like His passion is this life on our altar!

Christ could have wiped out His enemies with a word; He chose to suffer in silence. The same takes place on the altar. He could do away with everyone who insults or attacks Him, but He chooses to live a silent life, that we might be constantly reminded of His sufferings and death.

THE LENGTHS OF LOVE
In recalling the pains of Christ's passion, the Holy Eucharist also re­minds us of the limitless love that led Him to undergo such sufferings for us. It recalls the heroic patience with which He bore those pains, and the divine pardon He granted to those who crucified Him, the priceless pardon He grants to all sinners of all time.

The love that drove Christ to submit to suffering for us stands out more beautifully when we realize that He could have chosen anyone of a thousand other ways of satisfying the justice of His Father. That love shines out in the Eucharist.

Christ did not have to give Himself to us, but in the generosity of His love He gave us Himself completely, forever, and everywhere. Day and night His sacramental presence reminds us of His love, reminds us how He healed hearts and inspired minds. In the Eucharist Christ again pardons those who betray Him. Judas and Peter and Pilate and the heartless soldiers and the crowd, all live today in the persons of Catholics who betray and neglect and deny their Eucharistic Savior. But Christ still forgives, Christ still speaks:

"Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."

VICTOR STILL A VICTIM
In the Blessed Sacrament Christ suffers the same treacherous betrayals, the same cruel violence, the same bitter humiliations as He endured during His passion. On the first Good Friday He wanted to win the compassion­ating love of men. Today in the Eucharist He is looking for the same love, the same sympathy. We scorn the traitor Judas. Yet, how much worse than Judas is the Catholic who receives his Eucharistic Master into a soul stained with mortal sin?

The cowardly denial of St. Peter strikes us as very sinful. Yet, Catholics deny their Savior by putting off Holy Communion, by misbehavior in church, by coming late to Mass, by passing a church without a thought or greeting for the loved One who lives there.

SUFFERING SAVIOR PRESENT STILL
Think of the insults inflicted by those who know and love Him not. Tabernacles are torn down, Hosts are stepped on and fed to animals, Hosts are pierced and cut and covered with filth, by those who in their devilish hatred give unwitting testimony that they think this Host might really be Christ.

Christ was humiliated during Holy Week. He is humiliated today by the sneers of the godless, the blameworthy ignorance and unpardonable negligence of so many of His followers. Carelessness and discourtesy are shown Him constantly, perfect imitations of Caiphas, Herod and Pilate. Every one of Christ's sufferings is repeated in the Eucharist. The suffering Savior is present with us today.

LOVE FOR LOVE
But the picture is not entirely dark. There were bright spots even in the black story of the passion. There are bright spots in our Lord's life in the Eucharist. Pious women wept for the suffering Savior; you and I can weep in reparation for the insults and neglect shown Him on the altar. Veronica offered her veil to wipe His bloody face; we can offer words of worship. Simon of Cyrene helped Him carry His cross; you and I can promote devo­tion to Him in the Eucharist. Like St. John we will stand faithfully at the foot of the altar. With the heart of our Blessed Mother, our hearts will go out to Jesus hidden here in the Host.

Thoughtful - and punctual - attendance at Mass, devout and frequent receiving of Holy Communion, loving visits to Him here in His home, support and service of His Church are means we have of showing our love for Him. Are you doing these things during Lent?

PRESENT EVERYWHERE
Before the Last Supper Christ, as Man, was but in one place in all the earth. After that Supper Jesus began to dwell in the Eucharist in every town and city and hamlet. The tabernacles of Christ dot the globe. Whereever men will have Him, He is present. Christ is present right here upon the altar of our church. He wants to be here for your sake. He is here. He is keeping His promise:

"I will not leave you orphans." St. John, 14:18.

"Behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consum­mation of the world." St. Matthew, 28:20.

HOW CHRIST IS PRESENT
For months before the grand Eucharistic Congress held in New Orleans in 1938 the faithful prayed for the success of this gathering in. honor of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. In that prayer were the words:

"O Jesus, Thou art truly, really, and substantially present."

That is official language taken from the Council of Trent. Even though the three words seem to mean practically the same thing, each word has some definite meaning, and was chosen to answer and correct some mistake regarding the Eucharist.

TRULY PRESENT
The word "truly" is directed against the heretic Zwingli who falsely maintained that our Lord did not mean to actually give us His Body at the Last Supper. Zwingli said Christ meant something like this:

"When the father of a family is about to leave on a long journey, he gives to his wife, the mother of the family, his most precious ring. On the ring the father's face has been painted. As he gives the ring to his wife he says: "Behold, your husband, whom you can love though he is absent, and who loves you though he is far away."

"Our Lord, Jesus Christ is like that father. As Christ was about to leave the earth, He gave to His bride, the Church, His image painted on the sacrament of the altar."

This false idea of the Eucharist would not be worthy of our attention, were it not the idea of many mistaken people today. The Catholic Church, divinely guided, teaches that when we say Christ is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, He is not present as a father in the picture on the ring he leaves to his family. Christ is present here on our altar just as truly as the father is present when he hands the ring to his wife.

REALLY PRESENT
When we say that Christ is "really" present we are answering a fellow named Oecolampadius, whose false idea is as strange as his name. He said Christ was present in the Eucharist in a figure or comparison. The Blessed Sacrament is not really Christ but something like Christ. For example, the paschal lamb of the Old Testament was a figure of the true Lamb of God, namely, Christ. This heretic mistakenly insisted that the Eucharist is still just the Old Testament paschal lamb, it is still just a figure of Christ. The Catholic Church, God's Church, teaches that the presence of Christ is real. It is not a mere figure.

SUBSTANTIALLY PRESENT
Another heretic, John Calvin, thought the Body and Blood of Christ are present on the altar, just as the sun is present on the earth by its power or by its heat. He said that Christ is present only by His virtue or power, but not as He is in Himself.

But we Catholics know that Christ is present Himself, that it is not only the rays of His love which we have here on the altar, that it is not only the warmth of His love we have here, while He Himself, like the sun, is millions of miles away. No, here we have the Sun Himself, Christ in His very substance, just as substantially as if we had the sun itself locked up in our tabernacle.

JESUS SAID SO
A nun one day explained to her fifth grade class the reason for our belief in the Eucharist. She mentioned the words of Jesus - His promise, His last Supper - carrying out of that promise, and the belief of the Catholic Church through all the centuries since. She emphasized the words of Christ, "This is my body." Hoping that one of her charges would give a reason or two of those she had mentioned, she asked the class:

"And now-how do we know that Jesus is present on the altar?"

One little fellow put up his hand. When called, he gave this answer: "We know that Jesus is present, because Jesus said so."

No answer could be more simple and more to the point. It was the belief of all Christians for fifteen hundred years, until Luther decided that we can explain and understand the Bible as each man wishes. What was the result? About seventy years after Luther's revolt a book, was published with the title: TWO HUNDRED INTERPRETATIONS OF THE WORDS: THIS IS MY BODY. It was written in 1577 by a fellow named Rasberger. Since his time there are about two hundred more attempts to explain away the simple, clear and definite words of Jesus, "This is my body." We Catholics take Christ at His word. We believe in the Blessed Sacrament because Jesus said so.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS
That Jesus said so is clear from the Bible which tells us three things about the Holy Eucharist:

1. Christ promised to give us His flesh and blood.
2. Christ kept that promise at the Last Supper.
3. St. Paul and the early Christians understood Christ to mean that He would actually give Himself.

THE PROMISE
On the occasion when our Lord miraculously fed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, He gave the promise of His flesh and blood in these certain words:

"I am the living bread that has come down from heaven. If anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

When the Jews wondered how a man could give his flesh to eat, Jesus emphasized His statement:

"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you." St. John, 6:52-55.

THE FULFILLMENT
Then the night before He died, when men do not ordinarily use double­ meaning words or speak in jest, our Lord took bread and said, "This is my body." He took the chalice of wine and said: "This is my blood."

ST. PAUL KNEW WHAT CHRIST MEANT
We would expect St. Paul to know what Christ really meant. St. Paul tells us:

"For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." I Cor., 11 :26-27.

THE EARLY CHURCH
What does the early Christian Church say about Christ's words at the Last Supper? For fifteen hundred years those words were taken literally, that is, for what they actually said. The early Christian writers, the pic­tures and inscriptions in the catacombs, the discipline of the early Church, all make it unmistakably clear that Christ meant exactly what He said.

We Catholics believe that Christ is here present. We believe He is pres­ent in every tabernacle of the world. Just how that can be, we do not know, just as there are many things we cannot understand. But that He is here we know - on His own words. Yes, Christ is with us. Only the goodness and love of a God could have thought of that, and could have arranged to be with us right here in our church. Amen.
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Adapted from With Christ Through Lent
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, OFM (©1951)

Bishop Robert Hermann's Homily on Pro-life Sunday

Judgment Day is on its way. We cannot stop it. We don’t know when it will come, but just as surely as the sun rises daily, the Son of Man will come when we least expect.

Judgment Day is on its way. For many, this coming election may very well be judgment day, for this election will measure us.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us in 10:32-33: "Everyone who acknowledges Me before others, I will acknowledge before My heavenly Father. But whoever denies Me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father."

Judgment Day is on its way. When my time comes, I will be measured by my Savior for the decisions I have made. I will either be acknowledged by Jesus or denied by Him in the presence of our heavenly Father.

The question I need to ask myself is this: What kind of witness will I give to Him when I go into the voting booth this election day?

The decision I make in the voting booth will reflect my value system. If I value the good of the economy and my current lifestyle more than I do the right to life itself, then I am in trouble.

Pope John Paul II, in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici tells us:

"Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination."

The right of our children to be protected from destruction is greater than my right to a thriving economy.

I am living proof of this, since I am here because my parents believed this priority and lived it.

My desire for a good economy cannot justify my voting to remove all current restrictions on abortion.

My desire to end the war in Iraq cannot justify my voting to remove all current restrictions on abortion....

Continued here...

Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost, The Wedding Garment

By The Rev. H. G. Hughes
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"Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having on a wedding garment?" - Matt. xxii, 12.

Dear Brethren in Jesus Christ. - The parable which we have just heard read in the Holy Gospel for today, and from which my text is taken, is one of those which our divine Saviour spoke on the closing day of His public teaching.

Early in the morning of that day, which was the Tuesday in Holy Week, He had gone forth to preach for the last time in the Temple at Jerusalem. He went there to offer to the hard hearts' of the priests and rulers, the Scribes and Pharisees, one more opportunity of repentance and conversion. He went there to utter His last words of warning against the terrible act of Apostasy they were soon about to commit in rejecting Him, their King and their Lord, who was ready, if they willed it, to be their Saviour also.

This "parable" of the wedding of the king's son is one of those warning words which Divine love drew from our blessed Lord that day; and though it was spoken so long ago to the Scribes and Pharisees, and the people of the Jews, it has, nevertheless, like every word that fell from those sacred lips, lessons of the highest import for us today, and for the men of all times. Some of these lessons, with the help of God, we will briefly consider.

"The Kingdom of Heaven," our Lord said, "is likened to a king, who made a marriage," that is to say a marriage, a feast, for his son. That kingdom which is here likened to a marriage feast, is Christ's holy Catholic Church, which He came on earth to found, and of which He said, " My Kingdom is not of this world"; for though the Church of God is in the world, it is not of the world.

The king who made the marriage feast for his son is the Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, King and Lord of heaven and earth. The marriage, as St. Gregory the Great tells us, is that union of the Only-begotten Son of God with His immaculate bride, the holy Church, which He entered into by means of the Incarnation. To the marriage feast of the good things plentifully set out in His Church, God first invited His own chosen people, the Jews; sending to them His servants, the prophets of old. But "they refused" and "would not come." Afterwards, when the King's Son Himself had come, had lived and died, had set up His Kingdom the Church, and made ready therein the feast of the Gospel blessings, the invitation was repeated to them by the Apostles and Apostolic men; and these are those other servants of whom we read "and again He sent other servants, saying, 'All things are now ready; come ye to the marriage.'" "Twice," says St. Gregory, "did the King send His servants to invite by the prophets the Incarnation of His Son, and announcing it by the Apostles after it had come to pass."

How, then, did the subjects of the King receive His royal invitation? With nothing else than ungrateful and rebellious contempt. Ungrateful because of the benefits He wished to bestow upon them; rebellious, because an invitation from the King was nothing less than a command. As the holy Gospel describes it, "They went their ways; one to his farm, another to his merchandise." Others even carried their rebellion so far as to ill-use and put to death the servants of the royal household who came to bid them to the marriage. By this figure our blessed Lord describes the death which some of the prophets had undergone at the hands of the perfidious children of Israel~ meriting His sad rebuke, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not." By this also He foretold the martyrs' death that so many of His Apostles and disciples were afterwards to meet with at the hands of the same unfaithful and unbelieving generation. "But when the King heard of it, He was angry; and sending his armies, He destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city.'" Even so Jerusalem, that fair and favored city of God, whose beauty had moved the Son of Man to tears, not many years after was utterly overthrown by the Roman armies; and thus was fulfilled the warning of our Lord, and the curse which its inhabitants had called down on their own heads: "His Blood be upon us and upon our children."

Coming back to the parable, we read that the King next sent His servants into the highways to call to the marriage as many as they should find; and they gathered together all they found, and in this way the marriage was filled with guests. The goodness and generosity of God are not foiled; though the chosen people have rejected His word, and, as St. Paul and St. Barnabas declared to the Jews of Antioch, judging themselves unworthy of eternal life, have been cast .out, the servants of the King have gone out into the highways of the world, and have preached the Gospel to every nation, and the Gentiles have been gathered into God's holy Church. The invitation of the King has come to us, and, thank God, we have accepted it. We have entered, by God's mercy we have been brought, into His Church, to take part in the marriage feast of God's Son; to participate in the good things there only to be found-the Holy Mass, the Seven Sacraments, the Word of Salvation,. the intercession and patronage of the holy Mother of God and of the Blessed with whom we are united in the Communion of Saints, and all the other means of grace and of blessing so abundantly poured out upon us in the holy Catholic Church.

There are still, alas, many who will not come to this marriage feast, although the invitation is constantly repeated to them by the Gospel messengers, the ministers of God's Church, not once or twice, but many times, "Come, for all things are now ready; come ye to the marriage." But "they neglect, and go their ways, to their merchandise, or to their farm"; they will not even listen, but remain outside the church in the exterior darkness of heresy, indifference, or unbelief. It seems strange to us, who know the force of the claims of the Catholic Church, that men can refuse their assent to her authority and her teaching. It is all so plain to us. Sometimes we get discouraged and wonder whether it is any good going on, with our efforts to bring the Church before our countrymen; whether it were not better to concentrate our endeavors upon the perfection of our own organization and the increased effectiveness of our work among Catholics. But the Church of Christ is and must be a missionary Church. Christ has said to lIer: "Go, teach all nations; preach the Gospel to every creature."

If we neglect this work, our own interior organization and the effectiveness of our work among our own people must suffer. Yet at times we are apt to be discouraged at the poor reception which our missionary efforts meet with. And the worst, most chilling element in that reception comes from the utter indifference to all religious truth and sentiment which is so widespread in the modem world, and especially in countries like our own where the great Protestant tradition gained a footing, and has logically led to religious indifference and free thought, so that the "farm" and the "merchandise," worldly things and worldly objects of ambition, wealth, position, enjoyment, success in business, occupy entirely" the thoughts and the hopes of so many. But we must not despair, and we must not slacken our efforts. Still the King sends out His messengers, and in the highways and byways, in the most unexpected places, souls are touched by God's grace, and hear the invitation, and accept, and come in to the marriage feast of the Church. It is for us, by our own faithful Catholic lives, by example at all times, by a word in season where opportunity offers, by showing to the world and forcing the world to realize the high value of Christian Catholic ideals and principles in citizenship, to work towards the breaking down of that fatal indifference and so-called liberality in questions of morality and religion which is so great a bar to the acceptance of the Catholic faith of Jesus Christ. Then, in God's good time, our efforts, our prayers, our sacrifices "and our good example shall be crowned with success, and "the marriage shall be full of guests."

But have we Catholics nothing to learn from this parable concerning ourselves; is there no warning for us who by God's great mercy have been brought in to the marriage feast of God's Son? Indeed, it is not so. There is a warning in this parable, and a terrible warning for us; and should we fail to heed it, we shall find ourselves in a worse plight even than those who have refused to enter in to the feast.

For we read, at the end of the parable, how the King went in to see the guests, and He found there a man who had not on a wedding garment. Giving him an opportunity to explain his negligence, the King said to him, "Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having on a wedding garment?" But he was silent.
It is a well-known custom in Eastern countries, even at the present day, for the giver of a banquet, especially if he be a prince, or a man of high rank, to send to the invited guests rich and splendid robes, which they are expected to wear at the feast. Not to wear them would be a serious insult to the host. It is related by a modem traveler that a courtier invited to a banquet by the Sultan of one of those Eastern lands, having in some way offended the steward who had the distribution of the robes of state, that officer sent him only a plain black garment which the guest refused to wear, fearing that it would be taken by the others as a sign that he was in disgrace at court. The Sultan, coming in and seeing him without the customary garb, took it as a personal insult, and not giving any opportunity of explanation as did the king in the parable, condemned the unhappy guest to death. The sentence was, in fact, carried out. This incident explains what we read in the parable: The King said to the waiters, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Brethren, it is not enough that we have been invited; it is not enough that we have accepted the invitation. We must have on the wedding garment, the garment which consists of sanctifying grace and the Christian virtues. For the King is coming to see the guests, and this word "see" means in the original language more than a passing glance; it signifies an inspection, a close and searching examination. Each of us must undergo that examination; indeed, it is going on now; for by trials and temptations we are constantly being proved, and the all-searching eye of God is ever fixed upon us to see how we carry ourselves-whether we resist or whether we give way, whether we show ourselves to be clothed with the garment of supernatural grace and virtue which He Himself has provided, or only in the poor threadbare garments of our fallen nature; whether, in a word, we have on the wedding garment of true, solid, Christian virtue, which is none else than the very character of our Lord and Saviour Himself-that character which the holy Apostle St. Paul speaks of when he says to us: "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh and its concupiscences" (Rom. xiii, 3).

And we "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" by imitating His virtues, each in our own measure and degree-His humility, His obedience, His patience, His resignation to the will of His heavenly Father, His detachment from the world, His meek and kind behavior to others, and, above all, His charity, His love of God and Man, without which all else is nothing worth.

It is for us to look into our own hearts and to find out, by the light of Christ's law laid down in the holy Gospels, and with the aid of Christ's holy Spirit which He will give to those who ask, whether we are living up to our privileges as Catholics, invited to the wedding feast of the King's Son, and especially whether we are practicing those virtues which belong to our particular state and condition in life. For it would be a great mistake to seek about after something heroic to do, while our daily duties are badly and imperfectly performed. All so-called piety, as St. Francis of Sales remarks, which does not lead to the better performance of our ordinary duties, is a delusion. This, therefore, is the first thing to be looked into, for when the King comes for the last time to inspect the guests, this is the wedding garment He will expect to find-the robe of grace woven in with virtues and the good works which the duties of each day give us the opportunity of performing.

If we are wanting in this, we also, like the guest in the Gospel, shall be silent before Him, we shall have no excuse to make, shame and confusion will make us dumb. It will not avail merely to have come in to the feast-that will be only for our greater shame and condemnation, and we shall be cast out for ever into the exterior darkness.

Take to yourselves, brethren, the warning words of our blessed Lord. Lose no time. Single out at once that fault, that sin which conscience tells you is the one that would most displease the King, should He come to see you now; which makes you, in the words of St. Jude, "a spot upon the banquet," and set to work to root it out without delay. When you have done this, or at least lessened the power of that fault over you, go on to attack another in the same way, and then a third, putting off thus, according to St. Paul's exhortation, "the old man who is corrupted according to the desires of error" and "putting on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth" (Eph. iv, 22 ss.).

Then, at the last and great visit of the King, when, surrounded by the hosts of angels and saints, He shall come to judge the world, you will be translated to that heavenly Banquet of which the angel in the Apocalypse declared, "Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb…"
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Adapted from Plain Sermons by Practical Preachers, Vol. II(©1916)
Nihil Obstat: Remegius Lafort, S.T.D
Imprimatur: John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (TLM), Our Individuality before God

By The Rev. T. J. Brennan, S.T.L.
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"And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said: Why do you think evil in your hearts?” - Matt. ix, 4.

My dear friends, the Gospel I have just read for you contains several lessons, this among others: that both we and our actions stand out distinctly in the sight of God. Numbers, however great, do not confuse Him; distance, however remote, does not dim His vision. Whether in the crowded city or in the trackless desert, we are known and noted, with everything that individualizes both ourselves and our conduct. Let us dwell on this thought for a moment.

You know it is very confusing to think of many individuals. The more acquaintances we have the less distinct are they in our minds. We all know, perhaps, twenty or thirty people well, as well as one human being can know another. We know a few hundred to talk with them socially, when we meet them, about the interests of life. And perhaps we know a few thousand by sight. Outside of these there are hundreds of millions living with us on the earth. We may speak of them as a body, yet to us they have no individuality. They are as undistinguished as the trees in the forest, or as the heads of corn in the field. They are always changing, the old ones departing, the young ones arriving; but to us the great mass always remains the same. If you add to these the millions and millions that were, the millions and millions that are to be, the thought becomes positively bewildering, the imagination refuses to act.

And yet every single one of those has a character, a history, an individuality of his own. We may, indeed, divide them off into races or generations, but that does not destroy their individuality. When we think, for example, of the English or Germans or Chinese we take certain types and multiply them by the number in these countries, and that is all. But that is a delusion. The type simply exists in books or in the imagination. When you come down to individuals there is only the faintest likeness to the type; the faintest likeness one to another. You may go into London with its millions, or into China with its hundreds of mi11ions, and there are no two exactly, or even approximately, alike, either in body or in spirit; in disposition or endowments; in passions, temptations or difficulties.

We can realize this best by considering and comparing those we know. Is there anyone among our acquaintances whom we can not distinguish "from another without the slightest difficulty? Even in the same family, born of the same parents and raised in the same surroundings, how easy to tell them apart! Well, it is the same among the mi11ions that now people or have peopled the earth. They are so many mi11ions of individuals; it is only because of our limited powers of apprehension and attention that we think of them as nations or races.

Now this limited power of attention influences us to our injury. For unconsciously we transfer these limitations to God also. We all indeed feel that God looks down on and regards the human race that he has created; that He knows the wants of humankind and sends the rain and the sunshine in season. But then, latent within us is the idea that just as the individual character and doings of the multitude are obscure and vague in our minds; so also that to the mind of God the individual is lost in the teeming mass that moves hither and thither on the face of the earth. Each one of us has the idea that we do not stand out distinctly before God clothed in our individual joys and sorrows, needs and temptations.

When we pray we have the idea that we are disadvantaged by the fact that we are but one among millions that are besieging the throne of God; when we sin or neglect our duties we shelter ourselves under the thought that our sin or neglect is lost in the multitudinous sins and negligences of the race; that though the race may have its prayers granted or its sins punished, yet that my individual prayer is too weak, my individual sin is too insignificant to be noticed by God. Hence we become careless in prayer and good works; we become unscrupulous in doing evil. This, I say, comes from transferring to God our limited power of apprehension and attention.

Now, my dear friends, to correct that evil we have only to remember what God is in Himself, to remember what He has told us about Himself. In the second lesson of the Catechism it is asked: "Does God know all things?" And the answer is: "God knows all things, even our most secret thoughts and actions." That is the simple statement of a truth which we ought to keep constantly in our minds. God being infinite in all things must be infinite in knowledge; there can be no place, no being in creation beyond His vision. To him there is no such thing as near and far off, because He is in all places equally; there is no such thing as clear and obscure, because His light shines on every work of His hands; there can be no such thing as attending well at one time, and attending carelessly at another time, like a child at school, because in Him there is no change nor shadow of alteration.

And however little we may understand it, yet it needs must be that each one of us must stand out individually, distinctly, in all our relations and characteristics before God. Supposing that only one human being existed in the world, and that he had been told, as we have been that God sees and knows all things, how he would have that as a guiding thought before him; how it would serve as an incentive to good, as a check to evil. Well, each one of us is seen and known by God as if no other existed; to imagine it otherwise would be to misunderstand the infinite character of God's knowledge and vision. The single blade of corn in the field receives its plenitude of sun; but not the less fully does it come to the waving millions that grow by its side. So is it with us. God sees the race; but He sees you and me, as if you and I were alone in the world. Reason tells us that it must be so.

Has not our Divine Lord told us the same thing? Nay, He tells us that even the little birds of the air, which flit about so numerously and seemingly so undistinguished, that even these are noted and numbered by the all-seeing eye of God. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing; and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father" (Matt. x, 29). He even goes farther, and says: "The very hairs of your head are numbered" (Matt. x, 30). Does not the same appear from the recent Gospel: "There met Him ten men that were lepers." He took pity on their sad condition and He healed them. Only one returned to give thanks. Which of the Apostles, which of the bystanders, do you think, could have told how many more ought to have returned? I doubt if any could.

But there was one who could and did: "Were not ten," He said, "made clean and where are the nine?" Which of those standing by could have told what was the nationality of him who came back to give thanks? Only He who knows all things: "There is no one found to return and give glory to God but this stranger." Number did not confuse Him; nationality did not escape Him; each one of the ten stood before Him marked and noted as if there were but one instead of ten.

That is what we must all remember, and that is what those nine forgot. Of the ten that were cured these nine said, each to himself: "I have indeed received a great favor; but there are nine others, and I leave it to them to return fitting thanks to our kind benefactor." Only one of the ten remembered that there was a personal obligation on himself, which no one only he could fulfill. He remembered the days of aching and sorrow through which he had passed; he remembered the prompt and kind answer of the Nazarene; so "he went back with a loud voice glorifying God; and he fell on his face before His feet giving thanks." It mattered not to him what the others did; his duty was plain and he did it.

And that should be always our principle: To remember that God deals with us individually; to remember our individual rc1ations with God. Neither the good nor the evil that we do is lost before God because of the amount of good or evil in the world. We may be one of ten, or we may be one of a hundred, or we may be one of millions, but we are always individualized in the sight of God. It must have been a revelation to the grateful Samaritan after returning to thank his benefactor to find that to such wonderful power: he added an equally wonderful knowledge: "Were not ten made clean and where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God except this stranger."
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Adapted from Plain Sermons by Practical Preachers, Vol. II(©1916)
Nihil Obstat: Remegius Lafort, S.T.D
Imprimatur: John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost (TLM), The Presence Of God

By The Rev. Joseph McSorley, C.S.P
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"That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts." Epistle of the day.

It was the purpose of the Incarnation, dear brethren, to bring God and man together. Magnificently was that purpose fulfilled. Here, in this common world, a man among men, Christ dwelt visibly; He grew and labored, He spoke and suffered. A man among men, He was, at the same time, God among men. Forever, after the sight of Him, there was stamped upon the imagination of the race, an ineffaceable image of perfection. Twisted inextricably into the fibers of the human heart, were cords of strength, and patience, and supernatural holiness. God had come nearer than ever before; and, in consequence, man was to be for the rest of the centuries greater than ever before.

The history of Christian civilization demonstrates this, dear brethren. For all its gloom of shadow and its many streaks of blood, for all its disappointing blindness and hardness, for all its leaden-footed following of heroic leadership and its headlong rush into each new discovered path to fields of gluttony and of lust, -- for all this, Christian society, down through the ages, displays the ever present influence of a divine ideal. It shows the blending of God's thoughts and actions with those of men; it proves that Christ never left the race He undertook to save at any price, -- that He is among us in every time and place, that He is with us here and now.

The best that is recorded in the human story, the finest achievement of civilization, displays, like threads of gold, deeds of divine brightness warped through the dark woof of a carnal-minded race, and making an exquisite pattern of splendid beauty. In and around, up and down, through and about, are winded the shining threads; and to the watchful eye, they reveal the outline of a design fairer than aught the mind of man could imagine in an eternity.

It is a different world, since Christ came here, and a different life, love and marriage are ennobled; birth and death are glorified. The hard tasks that daily fall to labor's lot are softened and sanctified. The care of little ones, the training of the young, the pursuit of knowledge have become divine vocations; they are among the hallowed things that men and women reverence. We gather for common worship about a Sacrificial Altar, and a Table of Wonder, where Christ again is offered up to save from sin, and Christ's Body again is broken like bread for souls to feed upon. All through the ranks of the uncounted millions who have taken to themselves the livery of His name, there is recognized, now clearly and now dimly, yet universally recognized, an ideal of human relationship, which is peculiarly Christian. Bonded by some sort of indescribable fellowship, driven by an unnamed inspiration, men and women accept as an inevitable duty the burden of human service.

It is a conception that dawns gradually and in some respects spreads slowly; generations may deny it and individuals reject it; but in the end it makes itself felt as the necessary consequence of being a Christian. On it goes, widening, deepening the channel of human sympathies, until human love, made pure by the touch of Christ in passing, has flowed into the farthest, murkiest recesses of misery; and lepers, idiots, drunkards and criminals, who have been rescued, rise up and call Him blessed. Yes! it is scarcely to be denied by the patient historian, -- the social order of the Christian world is permeated, illumined, energized, by a force, a light, a power, which in some mysterious, inexplicable way, comes and goes with the coming and going of Christianity. It is the presence of Christ making itself felt in the world.

Though this indeed, has been done; though the traces of His passing are too plain to ignore; though the world is forever different and better now; still, in each individual life, the process of improvement must recommence again; and in many an individual life little yet has been done. What may be hoped for by each, is suggested in the prayer breathed by St. Paul, as he thinks of the needs of his dear Ephesians: "That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts."

In these words, dear Brethren, St. Paul presents an ideal of what the life of the Christian ought to be. It should be a life spent with God. Every moment and each activity, all thought and endurance, all impulse and determination, the earning of one's daily bread, the strife against recurrent temptation, the grief at great bereavement, physical pain and sorrow and joy, strenuous fighting and exultant victory, tender communion and stern performance of heart-breaking duties, -- none of all these is apart from God. Into the grand harmony of the Christian's whole life, must be introduced the music of Christ's participation, divinely beautiful, strengthening, dominating. In nothing that he does can the Christian be quite as other men.

The fulfillment of this ideal of constant communion and harmonious cooperation with the Divine Presence, dear brethren, is a gift of God; it depends upon a generous grace of His, which we can never do enough to deserve. But it implies another element, too; for the bestowing of the gift is conditioned by the attitude we assume and the response we make. This aspect of the matter needs to be considered very carefully. What is the proper attitude for us to assume, when God draws near? What can be done? What must we do?

St. Paul has hinted the answer in one word of his: "faith." We should have faith. And faith is a gift which we must stretch out our hands to receive; it approaches, like a divine guest whom we must go forth to meet, and strive heartily to entertain. Faith is at the beginning of holiness. It is the root, indispensable to the growing, and the budding and the blossoming of that fair flower whose fragrance should be wafted through the garden of our lives. If Christ is going to dwell at all within us, He will begin to dwell by faith.

Faith, dear brethren, includes, of course, implicitly or explicitly, every single truth that God has ever taught, or will ever teach. There is, however, one particular point of faith which may well be emphasized in connection with the matter now under our consideration.

This is faith in the omnipresence of God. In every nook and comer of this visible world, in the midst of the big and little things that make up the daily lives of men and women, at every moment and in every sort of situation, God is near to us, looking upon us, sounding the depths of our consciousness. He is appealing to us, and he is sensitive to our response, to our good conduct, or our ill doing. This is, indeed, the greatest fact of human life; and constant attention to this fact is the substructure of the greatest possible human holiness. To believe in the constant presence of the God who loves us and, for love's sake, lays a law upon us, -- to believe in this and to act consistently with such belief, is the most practical general rule of holy living that can be devised. The cultivation of faith in God's omnipresence; and the endeavor to behave in a fashion consistent with this faith is, then, the beginning of the preparation for that ideal life of which St. Paul speaks. It and it alone will bring us to that state wherein Christ will dwell in our heart by faith.

To promote this sense of the presence of God, we should make the spirit of reverence habitual. It helps much, if we can bring ourselves always to act in the same temper as we have in church. This is far from saying that we may not rest and relax, laugh and amuse ourselves; but that always under the surface, there will be the subconscious sense that we are in the presence of God. It means that often, or even by mere aspiration, a prayer will be offered to the ever-present God. It means that temptation will acquire something of the horror of a desecration, of a sacrilege. To keep hold of the great fact; to refuse to let ourselves be drawn away by the vain argument and the fallacy of lying appearance which imply that here is no God, -- this is the beginning of the holiness which ensures happiness. Remember the great fact of your life; and the remembrance will prepare your soul for the gift of Faith.

Then again we must strive not only to be aware that God is present; but to act as if His interests were indeed supreme in life. The usual tendency of nature is to put material goods in the first place; and to rank other people after ourselves. We must go straight against this tendency, if we would be a fit habitation for the indwelling Christ.

It is not hard to see how different our lives would soon become, if the central fact of consciousness were the omnipresence of God. It would mean first of all, the possession of a spirit of prayer. Prayer is not confined to spoken communications; it is not limited to one or two of the possible sentiments possible to the human heart. Prayer is well described as conversation with God. How could one be ever conscious of God's presence, and yet refrain from frequent communicating with Him? It might concern the great crises of one's life, or the trifling matters of a common day; it might be a petition for the things we need, or thanksgiving for precious favors already received; it could voice the agonized sense of desolation in a soul terribly tried, or the quiet adoration of one telling God simply, "It is good to be here." But at all times, and all places, the soul would be aware that God is within reach of every creature that cries to him, even in unspoken whispers; and its deep sentiment would be communicated to the closest and dearest Friend, whose sympathy is as certain as His power to help is great.

Nor is it hard to see that, almost inevitably, advertence to this dominating Presence would lead to a transposition of values in our appraisal of things and deeds. The shining baubles of the world look lusterless enough to a man familiar with the radiance of Christ's beauty. Ways of dealing that the world approves of, and that once we ourselves admired, shrivel up into pettiness and meanness beneath our full-grown dignity, if we have just been considering how they look to God. The law which regulates buying and selling in shop and market, seems impossibly barbaric, when we remember that Christ, who erected such different rules of conduct for His disciples, is here present, waiting to see whether we are loyal of heart or base traitors. In one word, if we remember that God is looking at us, we are very apt to behave as God wishes.

This, then, is what our text suggests; that the Incarnation brought God into more intimate companionship with the sons of men than had ever before been possible; and that the subsequent course of human history shows how mightily men have been influenced by that intimacy, even independently of their wishes and despite the willful resistance of many. And the large result is the creation of a different moral and social universe, wherein we find the best traceable to the dominant influence of the ever-present God.

As it has been in the general life of the race, so too it is to be in the individual, who will be lifted and ennobled and who will attain his best development, by means of the ever active influence of the ever-present God. This happy consummation is the outgrowth of a living faith; and that faith can best be cultivated by the man who sets himself to practice internal reverence at every moment of his life, in much the same spirit as he would practice reverence in church; and who tries to act as a faithful disciple of Christ should act under the inspiration of his Master. To the soul that trains itself by this method, we may promise that, sooner or later, it will receive the blessing which Paul invoked upon the Ephesians: "May Christ dwell by faith in your hearts."
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Adapted from Plain Sermons by Practical Preachers, Vol. II(©1916)
Nihil Obstat: Remegius Lafort, S.T.D
Imprimatur: John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

Scandal and Other Sins against Our Neighbor's Soul

"Thou shalt not kill" (Ex. xx. 13).

Most civilized individuals comprehend the evil in which man causes bodily injury to his neighbor, as well as those sins one can direct against his own life. But there seems to be a great misunderstanding of the different ways by which we can injure our neighbor's soul.

How is it possible to injure our neighbor's soul?

We do so when we scandalize him; that is, when we deliberately tempt him to sin or voluntarily influence him, or give him occasion to commit evil.

Let us then prayerfully consider, with the help of the Holy Spirit:

I. The nature of this sin.
II. The reasons for avoiding it.

I. All offenses by which we injure the soul of our neighbor are called sins of scandal. This word "scandal" is very often misunderstood and used in a wrong sense.

Many people take it in its narrower meaning and think that it consists only in causing vexation or annoyance to others. But this is not the scandal spoken of by our Savior, or alluded to in Holy Scripture and by the catechism.

What, then, constitutes the sin of scandal?

It consists in injuring the soul of our neighbor by causing him to commit sin, or putting him by some influence or action of ours into a worse state, making his conscience harder and less upright than it was before the scandal.

Who are guilty of this sin?

Those who make known to others evil of which they were ignorant; who by their commands, their counsel, their actions, their promises, or threats lead others to commit sin which they would otherwise not have committed; who by their point of view, their examples, their praise, their conduct, knowingly and consciously influence others for evil; who provide opportunities of sin for others which they would not otherwise have had.

Let’s look at an example from Holy Scripture.

After the death of Solomon, Israel was divided into two kingdoms, the kingdom of Juda and the kingdom of Israel. Although the kingdom of Juda was much smaller than the kingdom of Israel it had one great advantage in possessing the ancient capital Jerusalem. In Jerusalem was the only temple of the true God; in it lived the high-priests, and it was there they offered the lawful sacrifices and celebrated the festivals to which the entire populace of both empires crowded. The first king of the separated kingdom of Israel feared that his subjects by going too often to the festivals and sacrifices in Jerusalem might be seized with the desire to be once more united to the kingdom of Juda. So what did he do?

He erected north and south at the boundaries of his kingdom a golden calf as an idol. He himself offered sacrifice to it and he commanded his people to do the same. Now here we have clearly a sin of scandal. The king gave scandal to his people by causing them to commit the sin of idolatry; by erecting the idols he provided them with the occasion of sinning, and by sacrificing to the idols himself he gave them bad example.

Moreover, in commanding them to adore these idols and forbidding them to go to Jerusalem to worship the true God he deliberately led them into sin. We read that the good King Azarias when struck with leprosy withdrew to an isolated house apart from his people for fear of contaminating them with his foul disease. Unfortunately, many rulers both before and after him have, on the contrary, done their utmost to spread amongst their sub?jects the errors of idolatry.

If we look around about us in the world we can see that giving scandal is quite common. Thousands and thousands of people are engaged in writing, printing, selling, and lending books, movies, and music that positively teem with indecencies, blasphemies, and speculations of all kinds, things which neither young nor old can read, watch or listen to without sin. Such things are eagerly devoured by multitudes. Pornographic or sexually explicit movies and pictures are made, painted, printed, and reproduced an indefinite number of times and they would be difficult for anyone to look at without sin; yet this is the class of objects which rivets the eyes of thousands upon thousands each and every day. It permeates television and the internet and is accessible by even the most innocent children.

Across the country, politicians, teachers, and sadly, even a few priests and religious are engaged in giving erroneous representations of Catholic doctrine and speaking of things which are opposed to the natural moral law and which are repugnant to the senses of a civilized and moral society.

Some actors and singers engage in performances which could not easily be listened to innocently.

For the sake of money, opportunities are publicly and privately offered for the commission of sins of impurity, and many make use of such opportunities.

Adults young and old think nothing of holding conversations in the presence of children which are quite unfit for them to hear. In some places state sponsored programs are even used to promote perversion and sexual deviance and fill the minds of children with such propaganda. These poor young creatures may have no choice but to listen day by day to such poison and contamination; how can they keep themselves unsullied?

And besides all of this, what an example of sin, of unbelief, of contempt of the Church and her ordinances, is but too often given by superiors to their inferiors.

And how many parents are a source of scandal to their own children! How many young souls have owed their initiation to vice and the premature loss of their innocence to their intimate friends and companions! How many there are that give scandal, how many are ready to take it!

How true are our Savior’s words: "Woe to the world because of scandals!" Woe, indeed, because of their number, but still more because in itself scandal is such grievous sin.

II. This brings us to the second point of our instruction, namely, the reasons for avoiding scandal. What should particularly deter us from giving scandal?

1. The thought that he who gives scandal by destroying those souls which Jesus Christ has ransomed with His blood is the ally of Satan.

2. The dreadful consequences of this sin.

3. The awful pronouncement by Jesus Christ: "He that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

These reasons should be powerful enough to deter any Christian from the sin of scandal.

He who gives scandal is doing the work of Satan.

This is nothing more than the truth, for what is Satan's business but to draw men into sin, and to keep them in it, thus bringing them to destruction and hell. Therefore, the scandal-giver is first and foremost the ally of Satan.

What a disgraceful part to play! It is bad enough to have this ancient, malicious, envious, treacherous enemy of mankind always close beside us with his numberless temptations. Does hell with its evil spirits not furnish him with helpers enough? Are not his assaults only too successful as it is? Must men need to enroll themselves in his service, making themselves his most efficient allies?

It is easy to understand why Satan should want to deceive souls. He has lost heaven, hope has forsaken him, hell is his portion forever, and there is no salvation for him. But that men and Christians, citizens of the earth, who have it in their power to sanctify themselves, who are called to eternal life, for which they have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, that they should stoop to further the devil's work is an unspeakable disgrace.

In what way does giving scandal help and promote the work of Satan?

It helps in a way in which he is not able to help himself. The devil can not speak to us in audible language; he can place no material picture before us which we can see with our bodily eyes; he can neither command nor threaten nor bribe us; he is not at liberty to tempt us as he pleases, but is restricted according as God allows.

When we give scandal we do for the devil that which with all the resources of hell he is not able to do for himself. Oh, the ignominy, the sin, the shame of scandal!

Further, let us review the results and consequences of scandal. What are its results?

First, it causes him who actually gives the scandal to commit sin, and next, it leads into sin those who take it. These last are generally no small number. Many listen to and laugh at unclean, unrestrained conversations in shops, factories, schools, and even in places of worship. Those who have been tempted themselves tempt others in their turn, repeating these jokes and songs, and so making for others the same occasions of sin that they have had themselves.

One single scandal grows and flourishes long after it has passed from the mind of the giver of it, perhaps when he is dead and his bones have been moldering for hundreds of years; and it may be that it will live right up to the very day of judgment.

It has been said that one book of the godless and unbridled French writer Voltaire has given rise to more mortal sins than there are letters in the whole volume, and this is probably understating the case, rather than overstating it. Though the author of it has long since gone to his grave the evil book lives on and was read by hundreds. “Woe to the world because of scandal!"

If scandal in general is a thing so dreadful, then to give scandal to the innocent is the worst of all. Of this kind of scandal our Savior says:

"He that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea."

How precious in the sight of God is the youth and innocence of the souls of children; redeemed by Christ and washed pure in His precious blood they are tenderly loved by Him and destined for the kingdom of heaven, and His curse and vengeance will surely fall on those who shall dare to snatch them out of His hand and lead them along the road to perdition. Better, a thousand times, they had been cast into the sea with a millstone round their necks, than that they should live on to give more such scandal.

In truth, the sin of scandal is a terrible one. It is terrible in its own nature, awful in its consequences, and in the punishment it merits.

There is but one resolution to make after this meditation: O my Savior, I promise Thee I will never give scandal. May my tongue cleave to my mouth, my hands wither away, my feet grow powerless, rather than I should be a cause of sin to others. I will give no scandal, neither will I take it; and when the tempter approaches me I will drive him away with the words which Thou Thyself made use of "Get thee behind Me, Satan" - I will neither see you nor hear you nor follow you. Depart from me; I am and mean to be for all eternity the faithful disciple of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Adapted from Popular Sermons on the Catechism, Vol. II(©1914)
by Rev. A. Hubert Bamberg
Edited by Rev. Herbert
Nihil Obstat: Remegius Lafort, S.T.D
Imprimatur: John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost, The Death Of The Soul

By The Rev. H. G. Hughes
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"He that was dead sat up, and began to speak." Luke vii, 15.

In the country of Galilee, not far from our Blessed Lord's own town of Nazareth, there stood, and still stands, upon the slope of a lofty hill, the little town of Naim, where Christ worked the great miracle of which we read in today's Gospel. In our Lord's own time it was a flourishing place; its name meant “Beautiful"; today it is but a squalid village. Yet it is a spot of the highest interest to the Christian traveller; for he can ascend the very pathway, rocky and steep, leading to the gate of Naim, up which the Saviour of Men was going when He met the sad funeral procession descending from the town to the place of' burial without. That was a great day for Naim and its people. Little did they think, as they set forth that day to lay the widow's son in his last resting-place that they were to meet the Lord arid Master of life and death; the Giver of life, the Conqueror of death. Yet so it was to be.

We can imagine that sad procession. In the midst, the body of the young man, cut down in the flower of his youth. The corpse is embalmed with sweet perfumes, wrapped round with linen bands, carried upon an open bier: in front are the hired minstrels or flute-players; round about the bier are the mourners, also hired, paid to express the grief of the relatives of the dead by noisy demonstrations of sorrow; while close to the lifeless body walks the grief-stricken widowed mother, silent in her sorrow, bitterly weeping for her only son, her pride, her hope, and her support. With her, as we read, was "a great multitude of the city"; some of them friends, others passers-by, who, according to the Jewish custom, had joined the funeral train as they chanced to meet it.

Outside the gate of the city, coming up the steep pathway, there approached another procession: it is the great Prophet and Teacher of their country of Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth, surrounded by disciples whom he had won to Himself, and who were full of joyful hope that He would deliver their country from its oppressors, and set up again the glorious throne of David. The two companies, so different in their thoughts and feelings, meet. The glad faces of the friends and followers of Jesus fall to a sad solemnity, changing to looks of sincere pity as they see the weeping mother and learn her sad story. But their pity is as nothing to that of one Heart there, the all-sympathizing Sacred Heart of Jesus, that can read the hearts of men, and so can fathom our griefs as we never can fathom or understand to its depths the sorrow of our fel1ow-creatures.

Jesus stops before the funeral train: He heeds not the mourners; He puts aside the multitude of friends and feIIow-citizens; He goes straight where He is needed most, straight to the heart-broken mother, true to His own promise, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Luke v, 5), true to the mission ascribed to Him by the prophet Isaias, "to comfort all that mourn" (Is. lxi, 2). He stands before that sorrowful mother, and in tones of indescribable compassion He says to Her words few indeed, but laden with comfort and hope, words that cause her to look wonderingly to His sacred face and to gaze into His eyes, in which she sees the light of a pity all divine. "Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy toward her, He said to her, weep not" (Luke vii, 13). Then "He came near, and touched the bier. And they that carried it stood still. And He said : Young man, I say unto thee, arise" (ib. 14).

Words of mighty power and efficacy! Words that winged their way even into the dread mysterious realms of death, and found out the spirit in its far-off unknown abode and brought it back to its earthly tenement again; for, at those words, lo, "he that was dead sat up, and began to speak." And then Jesus "delivered him to his mother"; gave him back, whole and sound, thrilling once more with young life and energy, to the embraces of his mother's amazed and rapturous love. "And there came a great fear on them all"; for they felt that they stood in the presence of a Supreme Power, of One Whom death obeyed, of One Who gave life as He willed. "And they glorified God, saying, A great prophet is risen up among us, and God hath visited His people."

There is another death, dear brethren, than the death of the body: a death far more terrible than bodily death. It is a death that means eternal ruin of body and soul; a death hopeless, irremediable, unless the same Lord Who showed His power in this great miracle of mercy at Naim work a still greater miracle in the resurrection of souls to the life of grace. It is the awful death of sin. What is bodily death to that? He Who compassionated the widow, He Who wept at the grave of Lazarus, thought little of bodily death compared with the death of the soul. "Fear ye not," He has told us, "them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both body and soul in hell" (Matt. x, 28).

It was to restore the life of grace to poor sinners that He was born, that He lived and toiled and suffered and gave His very life. And if He pitied that mother who had lost her son by temporal death, and who might hope to be one day reunited to him, what must be His deep pity and compassion for foolish souls who, by an act of wilful self-destruction, have cut themselves off from life and love and happiness, separating themselves by sin from God Who is all these, and apart from Whom true life, true love, true happiness are not?

For in a sinful soul, dear brethren, Christ sees, not the destruction of this earthly tabernacle of flesh, the dissolution of material elements, separation from earthly joys and earthly friends, but He sees the utter ruin of that immortal spirit breathed into man by the very breath of God, the destruction of His own beauteous image and likeness; and, in the future, the eternal misery of bitter self-reproach, the keen anguish of burning desire for happiness never to be gained, a wrecked and wasted existence, everlasting separation from the only good, the only joy, the only possession worth living for-the God Who made us for Himself.

And so, in His infinite compassion and mercy, Jesus comes to meet us when we are dead in sin, when we are already being carried out to be buried in hell, when, not the mourning of friends, but the mocking laugh of demons is ushering us to that last dreadful abode of misery. He comes, and He says to the evil spirits, "laugh not: not yet is this soul your prey. I am the Master of Life, the Giver of Grace." And to the soul dead in sins He says: "Arise: go in peace; thy sins are forgiven thee. Rise to the life of grace; rise to a new life in which sin shall no more have place. Go now, and sin no more."

And Christ has placed this power of restoring to souls the life of grace, won by His own death and resurrection, this power of raising souls from death to life, in a great Sacrament of His Holy Church, who is the mother of our souls. Through that great Sacrament He brings us from death to life, and delivers us to our Mother the Church whole and sound, restored to the life of grace and charity. Of this the miracle at Naim was an image. Learn from that miracle the evil of the death of sin, since He who so compassioned human sorrow for the death of the body, yet made it as nothing in comparison with the death of the soul.

Learn to hope in the power of Him who can raise us not only from bodily, but from spiritual death. Glorify God, as did the people of Naim; glorify and thank Him for that great Sacrament of Spiritual Resurrection that He has given us through the shedding of His Precious Blood. Fly, henceforth, from sin which cost Him so dear, which does to our souls such infinite harm ; and, should passion or human weakness, or the force of strong temptation overcome you, fly quickly to that great means of grace--a humble and sorrowful confession, by which the life of grace can be given you again.

How strange it seems, dear brethren, that with so great a means of pardon, so easy of access as confession is, people will go for months, sometimes for years in their sins. God is very patient, but the time is fixed beyond which we shall not be allowed to go on in sin. The sinner will commit his last mortal sin; and what will happen then? Think of the Rich Fool in our Blessed Lord’s parable. He was content; he had said boastingly to his soul, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer" (Luke xii, 19). That night he goes to his couch. He has but laid him down, and is falling away into the unconsciousness of sleep with his thoughts still running on his future enjoyments, when he starts into sudden wakefulness, a dreadful fear at his heart. An inward voice has spoken to him, the Voice of God; "Fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee" (ib. 20). "Fool! This very night, now, thou art to die."

Brethren, when that dread call comes, as it will come to all of us, there is no refusal, no delay. We cannot expect a miracle to raise us from the grave and give us another opportunity. What would that poor rich fool have given for a few moments only of respite, to collect his bewildered senses, to recall some lesson of early life that would help him now, to breathe one prayer for pardon. But it is too late. Even as he struggles to realize what is happening the hand of Death is upon him, and he is hurried before his Almighty Judge. "What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark viii, 36).

Brethren, delay not your true and earnest repentance; come, and come quickly to Jesus, Master of Life and Death, Giver of Grace and pardon. He will restore life to your souls; He will give you new life, new strength, new courage, and, if you will ask Him, often, fervently, perseveringly, He will grant you to continue to the end in the divine life of grace, so that when your time shall come, your bodies will die, indeed, but only to know, at the last great day, a resurrection far more glorious than that of the widow's son at Naim; a resurrection, not to joys of earth, but to the incomparably sweeter joys of heaven, our dear and longed-for home.
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Adapted from Plain Sermons by Practical Preachers, Vol. II(©1916)
Nihil Obstat: Remegius Lafort, S.T.D
Imprimatur: John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

Archbishop Burke's Homily, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This is the homily given by His Excellency this past Sunday at the Cathedral Basilica at the Mass of Farewell and of Thanksgiving to God for Archbishop Burke's four and a half years as shepherd of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
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Praised be Jesus Christ, now and for ever. Amen.

The dialogue of our Lord with the Canaanite woman and the miraculous healing of her daughter are striking signs of God's love of us, which truly knows no boundary. The Canaanite woman, who was not Jewish but Gentile, was, nevertheless, full of faith in God's love which alone could save her daughter. She recognized God's love incarnate in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord tested her faith by making reference to the privileged place of His own people, the Jewish nation, in the Father's plan for our salvation. He reminded her that He was sent, first, to save His own people, so that they, in turn, might bring His salvation to all the nations. The Canaanite woman, with her great faith, begged to taste some fruit of the salvation which she clearly understood would come to the Gentiles, to all the nations, through the Jewish nation (Gospel). Our Lord's immediate healing of her daughter confirmed her faith and gives all of us the assurance that the gift of faith in Jesus Christ is indeed, at one and the same time, the gift of eternal life for all, without boundary.

God's desire to save all nations, without boundary, was manifested in a particular way in the miraculous conversion and subsequent apostolic ministry of Saint Paul. In Saint Paul, we see the realization of God's plan to bring eternal life to all the nations through the Jewish nation. Saint Paul, a most devout Jew, in his zeal for the Jewish faith, was thoroughly dedicated to the persecution and even execution of the first Christians. The risen Christ appeared to Saint Paul, while he was on the road to Damascus to arrest Christians. Through the miraculous apparition, Saint Paul understood that Christ is the fulfillment of all that the Jewish people believed and practiced.

Our Lord gave Saint Paul the gift of faith and poured out the Holy Spirit upon him in the Sacrament of Baptism, so that Paul could be His chosen instrument for bringing the faith and sacraments to all the nations. Saint Paul, therefore, was most conscious of the vocation of his own nation to bring the Savior to all the world. The observance of the Year of Saint Paul, which we have just begun, gives us a grace-filled occasion to grow, through the intercession of Saint Paul, in our understanding of the mystery of faith, by which God the Father unceasingly seeks to save all the nations through the passion and death of His only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Saint Paul faced the difficult situation of the rejection of the vocation to show the Savior to the world, on the part of some of his people. But he never lost hope that God's mercy, manifested in the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, would also bring the Jewish people to the faith and to the eternal life which faith in Christ brings to all mankind. He declared:

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Reading II).

As a devout Jew, Saint Paul had come to understand the meaning of the Word of God, spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

...for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples (Reading I).

Saint Paul understood that God the Father, Who had chosen the Jewish people for a most special service in His work of salvation, was, thereby, desiring to receive into His holy temple all other peoples, "[t]he foreigners" who would receive His Word with faith and put His Word into practice, worshiping Him in His holy temple and doing what is right and just. During the Year of Saint Paul, conscious of the immeasurable and ceaseless love of God, drawing all men to Himself, may we be inspired to pray ever more fervently, as we have just prayed: "O God, let all the nations praise you!" (Responsorial Psalm).

Over the weeks since the announcement of my transfer from the office of Archbishop of St. Louis to the office of prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, my thoughts have been filled with deepest gratitude for the manifold ways in which God our Father, through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, pours out His Holy Spirit upon us in the Church, drawing all men to Himself in love. A major change in our lives leads us to a grateful reflection on the chapter of the story of our life pilgrimage, which we are completing. As I reflect upon the relatively brief time of my service as Archbishop of St. Louis, I cannot thank God enough for the great mystery of His love, which brought me to you, His beloved flock of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, and has never ceased to increase my pastoral love of you. I have even come to thank God for the deep sorrow which leaving you means for me, for it, too, is a manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit Who binds a shepherd in love of the flock for the sake of the teaching of the Gospel and the bringing of the grace of the sacraments to all, both the members of the household of faith and those who have not yet received the gift of faith but look to the Church for the sign of God's mercy and love.

As I bid you farewell today, I invite you to be one with me in reflecting upon the many signs of God's love at work in the Church in our archdiocese. The reflection goes far beyond what we can express in the few minutes we have, but there is a special grace for such reflection in today's farewell, to which we must respond. Consider, for example, the longstanding and deep roots of the Catholic faith in the archdiocese, and how they continue to bear fruit in the lives of devout Catholic families. Consider the dedication to Catholic education, to sacred worship, and to the works of charity, which are all fruits of the Catholic faith, handed down, with integrity, from the time of the apostles and from the time of the first evangelization of this chosen portion of God's vineyard. Consider the gift of our priests, both priests of the archdiocese and members of religious orders and communities, true shepherds of the flock, who are totally loyal to Christ, the Good Shepherd, represented in their bishop, and are thus united, with the bishop and each other, in the one priestly ministry of our Lord. Consider the flowering of many new vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life, and the wonderful work of preparing the future shepherds of the flock at our own archdiocesan seminary, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.

Consider the study of the Catholic faith and the teaching of the faith in the homes, parish schools of religion, Catholic schools, and the Paul VI Pontifical Catechetical and Pastoral Institute, and through the activities of many associations of the faithful and other Catholic institutions. Consider the incomparable beauty of this Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, which symbolizes so stunningly the Catholic faith, lived, historically and presently, by the faithful of the archdiocese. Consider the ministration of the sacraments, especially the Sacraments of Baptism and Penance, and, above all, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and the continuous adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, which take place daily in the many churches and chapels throughout the ten counties of our archdiocese. Consider the most beautiful fruit of the teaching of the faith and the worship of God, which is the daily conversion to Christ in seeking to live a holy life, a life poured out, with Christ, in pure and selfless love of God and our neighbor, especially our neighbor who is in most need. Consider the Christian stewardship practiced by so many in the archdiocese, on behalf of the whole Body of Christ, through parish support, the Annual Catholic Appeal, and many other charitable, educational, and missionary works.

In bidding you farewell, my thoughts, full of gratitude for all that God has been accomplishing in our midst, turn also to what remains to be done in carrying out more effectively the new evangelization. Today, we are called to teach, celebrate and live our Catholic faith with new enthusiasm and new energy in a society which is enslaved by materialism and secularism, and by the destructive individualism which is their fruit. We know the challenges in living the Catholic faith, which the faithful of the Archdiocese have historically faced, for example, the severe hardships to be overcome in carrying out the first evangelization of our area, the intimidation caused by a virulent anti-Catholicism, especially in the 19th Century, and the struggle to overcome the evil of the socially-acceptable prejudice toward and hatred of neighbor because of nationality or race.

We know the challenges in living the Catholic faith, which the faithful of the Archdiocese must meet today. We experience, for example, the daily temptation to compromise our witness to the truths of the faith or to remain silent before the agenda of a totally secularized society, an agenda which is constantly propagated by the communications media and which worships “politically-correct” speech and action over the speaking and living of the truth in love. We are painfully conscious of the most grievous attacks on human life and on the cradle of human life in the sacramental union of man and woman in Holy Matrimony, which are carried out daily in our society. We face directly the call to be one people with our brothers and sisters who are immigrants to our nation, to overcome any lingering form of national or racial prejudice and hatred. Within the Church, we struggle daily with those who would remake the truths of the faith and its practice, in accord with their own agenda, rebelling against the teaching authority of the Church’s pastors and betraying the Church’s witness to Christ in the world.

Conscious of what we must yet do in the new evangelization of our culture and of the daunting challenges which we face, we do not give way to confusion or discouragement. Rather, we remain confident in the immeasurable and unceasing thirst of God for our souls and the souls of all men, without boundary. Before our failures and the challenges we continue to face, we turn to our Lord to instruct us in the truth and to fortify us with the grace of the sacraments. We turn to our Lord in His holy Church, with humility, seeking the salvation which He alone can give us, and with confidence, trusting that His only desire is to save us from sin, to save us for eternal happiness with Him.

When our hearts are beset with doubt and fear and worry, let us go the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Blessed Mother, especially under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the title of her wondrous visit to our continent in 1531. She lovingly draws us to herself, so that she may bring us to her divine Son, the only-begotten Son of God. She helps us, by her example and her intercession, to lift up our hearts, with her Immaculate Heart, to the glorious pierced heart of Our Lord Jesus, the heart which He took in her sinless womb, under her Immaculate Heart. Our Lord never fails to receive us into His heart, with unceasing love, giving us rest and strength. He overcomes in us all doubt and fear and worry, so that we can bring the Father's mercy and love to our world. The Heart of Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, is the unfailing source of divine love in our lives, the divine love which alone heals and nourishes our souls, the divine love which alone saves our world.

Recognizing in the Heart of Jesus the source of our every grace and blessing, we consecrated ourselves, our archdiocese, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on June 17th of last year, on the occasion of the dedication of the shrine to the Sacred Heart in this Cathedral Basilica. As we reflect, today, upon the blessings of the past and the challenges of the future, let us renew again the Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart. Let each of us pray to Our Lord, as we prayed in the Act of Consecration:

I beseech Thee, through Thine infinite Goodness, grant that my name be engraved upon Thy Heart, for in this I place all my happiness and all my glory, to live and to die as one of Thy devoted servants ("Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart" by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque).

May God the Father, in His infinite mercy and love, make the fruit of my time as your shepherd to be the faithful union of our hearts with His heart, the Sacred Heart of His incarnate Son, so that we may always find our joy and peace in serving Him with all our heart.

Let us now, with the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, lift up our hearts to the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus. One in heart with the Heart of Jesus in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, may we know the mystery of salvation in our lives and be, for the world, without boundary, the faithful messengers of freedom and peace, of eternal salvation in Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Heart of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all received, have mercy on us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us.
Saint Louis of France, pray for us.
Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.
Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, pray for us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Source: Archdiocesan Web Site

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Living Up to Our Religion

By The Rev. H. G. Hughes
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"I say then, walk in the spirit." -Epistle of the day.

Men of the world, my dear brethren, take more care about their worldly interests and affairs, and spend more time over them, than do Christians, in many cases, in regard to the things of eternal salvation. The only remedy for this is a firm and constant determination on our part to live up to the teachings of our holy religion, to be, in other words, thoroughly good Catholics; and I shall speak to you therefore to-day on this important subject.

Let us go back to the beginning of the Church's history, and imagine one of the friends and followers of our Divine Saviour standing at the entrance to the empty tomb of Jesus on the morning of His glorious resurrection. Imagine that he has lived, with the rest of Christ's friends, through the sad and terrible hours from the night when Jesus was betrayed to the desolate moment when the sacred lifeless Body was laid in the sepulchre.

Imagine that now, standing before that tenantless grave, he realizes with unutterable joy the truth of the angels' words: "He is risen; He is not here." And suppose that a flash of supernatural light floods his soul, and reveals to him the whole meaning of the life, death, and Resurrection of the Saviour of mankind. Then, if he had wished to sum up that meaning in one short sentence, he could not have done it better or more truly than in the inspired words of the Apostle St. Paul: "He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification."

In those few words, indeed, is summed up the whole spiritual history of the human race, the whole merciful purpose of God in our redemption. And the mental vision of that disciple whom we have imagined thus enlightened would have to travel backwards and forwards, would have to cover the past and the future, in order to see in its fullness the meaning of the life and death of Jesus summed up in those words: "He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification." "Sin" and "justification," those are the two reasons for the death and resurrection of God-made Man; the reasons why He became man and died, and rose again the third day. But those two words carry us back to the beginning of man's history upon earth, and on to the end of the world, when the work of God's redeeming Love shall be finished, and the number of the elect made up, and Satan and his followers chained at last and for ever in hell, never to work their mischief again.

Let us now, my brethren, as far as time will allow, imitate what we have imagined that disciple doing at the empty tomb. Let us cast our mental vision back to the beginning of man's history--to his creation by God. As for the future, some of what was future to the disciples of Jesus is present to us; we live in it, and I shall not ask you to go beyond it except by remembering that what Jesus is doing for us now is to have its final and complete effect only after the last great enemy, death, has been destroyed, and the new heavens and the new earth are come.

When God created man He endowed him with wonderful natural powers and faculties, with a wonderful beauty that in themselves made him an image and likeness of his Creator. He gave him an understanding capable of knowing God, a will capable of loving God, many powers of body and soul capable of being ranged in an orderly harmony of subjection to man's reason and will and brought into play in that which would have been in any case man's highest end0--the loving service of his Creator.

If God had left man in this natural condition, with simply his natural powers, and if man had served God with these natural powers, knowing God in the mirror of creation, loving God with a natural love proportioned to that knowledge, then man's reward would have been for eternity a very perfect, yet merely natural, knowledge of God through the study and contemplation of the works of His Hands, and a very great, but merely natural love of God corresponding to that study and contemplation.

There was no necessity for God to do more than this; no necessity for Him to call His creature to any higher destiny.

But God did not leave man with only his natural powers; He did call him to a higher destiny. When we open the New Testament, especially the Epistles of St. Paul and other Apostles, we find that we are called by God to a destiny so high and wonderful that even with our Christian faith to help us we can form a faint idea only of its nobility.

It is nothing less than the face to face sight of God in heaven, with all that this includes. And this means a direct knowledge of God--seeing Him, not in the mirror of created things, but "as He is." It means being adopted into the Divine Family of the Blessed Trinity; having God for our close, intimate Friend and Companion forever, sharing in God's own blessedness and happiness, sharing, by knowledge and love, the Divine Life itself.

But God would not bring man to this glorious end without some cooperation on man's own part; or, to put it another way, God willed to put it into man's power to earn this heavenly reward by loving service. Yet no service of man, not the best actions of man have any power in themselves to deserve a reward so high; and besides this, man has no natural power or faculty in his soul by which He could see God face to face, or know Him as He is.

That man himself should be raised to the capability and power of seeing God face to face, knowing Him as He is, loving Him with a love so intimate that the affection of lovers is but a faint image of it, and that man's actions during his earthly life should be raised to the capability of leading to this heavenly consummation, a supernatural gift was necessary, raising man's soul to a higher state, putting his actions upon a higher, supernatural plane.

That supernatural gift God gave to man at his creation; He gave it to Adam and Eve, our first parents. By that gift a heavenly gift poured out in their souls by the Holy Spirit Himself; they were made holy with holiness from God; they were made God­like, their actions supernaturalized and made worthy of the eternal recompense of the Beatific Vision; they themselves made not merely servants, but loved children of their heavenly Father; and Divine charity, supreme love of God filled their hearts. It was the gift of GRACE.

Brethren, you know the sad history of how all that was lost, for them and for us. It was lost by sin. Because of that sin we are born into the world deprived of sanctifying grace with its right to heaven, with its sonship of God. That sad lack of grace, with the deformity of soul which is the consequence, is what we mean by original sin. I need not dwell on the other consequences of the sin of Adam, on the perversity of will, the inclination to evil, the personal sins which these things lead us into, the physical evil and woe, and death itself that came into the world through sin; its worst consequence is the one I wish to dwell on now, the loss of sanctifying grace, and with that the loss of heaven and of God.

Brethren, St. Paul tells us how sin brought death into this world. Had it brought only bodily death, that would have been a small thing. But it brought the death of souls, spiritual death; the death of supernatural goodness and holiness in men's hearts; the death of supernatural knowledge of God; the impossibility of reaching that high and noble destiny for which we were made by God: it closed the gates of the heavenly life to men, and opened the gates of death and hell; it tore man from God, his Father, and made him the slave of sin and Satan.

But "He was delivered up for our sins." By His death Christ Jesus our Lord made atonement for all our sins, won back for us the lost gift of grace; gave us, too, in giving us grace, the gift of Divine charity, pardon of our sins, and the power of casting off sin and of winning heaven, made possible and more than possible for us the attainment of our sublime destiny--the blessed sight and possession of our God when this poor life is over.

And all this, dear brethren, is what we mean by justification. When these effects are found in a man's soul, brought into that soul by the out­pouring within it by the Holy Ghost, of the Divine gift and influence of sanctifying grace, we say that that man is justified. And this justification was won for all of us by the passion and death of our Redeemer.

But, my brethren, you may ask, and not unnaturally, "If the death of Jesus won our justification, how are the words of St. Paul true: 'He rose again for our justification'"?

Brethren, I reply that, while the death of Christ merited of itse1f all the blessings that we have as Christians, yet those fruits of the Passion have to be applied to each individual soul throughout the ages. They might have been applied to us, brought into our souls-­pardon, grace, charity, holiness might have been acquired had God so willed it, by a simple act of faith in the past.

But God has not chosen that they should be acquired regularly in that way. He has chosen a more wonderful way. He has chosen that the risen Christ should dwell and work among men now and always; that there should be on earth, and all over the earth, sacred places to which men can point and say: "Here dwells our risen Lord; there He works; there He may be found; there I can come to Him and there find His pardon, His grace and justification."

More than this, God has chosen that we should be brought into close and intimate touch and connection with our risen Lord, so that from the ocean of grace that is in Him, which flows from the Godhead into His sacred humanity, streams of grace should flow from Him into us.

Brethren, this is a reality. Christ said of Himself and us: "I am the Vine, you are the branches"; and as the sap flows from the main trunk into the furthest tendrils that are putting forth their young life, so the grace of Christ flows from Him to the least of His members. Members, I say, for so again we are, members of Him who is our Head. Again and again St. Paul uses this comparison of the human body to teach us this doctrine of the close union of redeemed souls with our Incarnate Lord. We are members, he says, of Christ; Christ is the Head. But members and a Head make up a Body--and, says the Apostle, "so also is Christ." Christ has a Body, and we are members of that Body; and St. Paul tells us again what that Body is. "Christ," he says, "is the Head of the Body, the Church.

The living, risen Christ, has a body, then, on earth, animated by His spirit; and from Him grace and charity and all spiritual gifts flow throughout the body to each member; that body is the Catholic Church--the Church of which the Apostle says that Christ purchased her to Himself upon the Cross.

Thus, then, is it true that Christ rose again for our justification. He rose, indeed, because the gate of death could not confine the Lord of Life; He rose that the humanity in which He suffered might receive the reward of glory; He rose to prove that His message was true; He rose that it might be known that when He claimed to be God He did not deceive us; He rose to give us the pledge of a future resurrection; but He rose also to live on in His holy Church, to gather unto Himself living members till the end of time.

And so that disciple whom we imagined at the beginning, looking forward would have seen what we see now--the glorious Church of God, with her holy Sacraments instituted by Jesus when He was on earth, as the means of conveying grace and pardon to us. Her Holy Sacrifice wherein day by day Christ is offered up and His merits put into our hands to plead for us here below; the Church, Christ's Body, His means of carrying on still the life of the Incarnation among us, of working His work of salvation and preaching the truths of life through His consecrated ministers. He was delivered up for our sins; but He rose again for our justification, and in His Church on earth for our justification He lives His risen Life.

Brethren, I beseech you to walk worthy of the vocation with which you are called. Children of light, children of the Catholic Church, members of Christ's Body, cast not away your glorious privileges by sin, by carelessness, by indifference. Be not less wise in your generation, that is, in heavenly things, than the children of the world in theirs. Oh, if all Catholics realized what it is to be a Catholic there would be no necessity to go and beg people to come to Mass, to receive the Sacraments, to listen to God's truth which only in the Catholic Church is fully known and taught. A Catholic can miss the blessings of Catholic life; by sin, by mortal sin, we can stop the channels by which Divine grace should flow into our souls.

Let it not be so with any of us, but rather let us drink in those blessings to the full, and cherish as our dearest possession that Divine grace that flows to us in the Church from Jesus, and will bring us to the sight and love of God in heaven.
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Adapted from Plain Sermons by Practical Preachers, Vol. II(©1916)
Nihil Obstat: Remegius Lafort, S.T.D
Imprimatur: John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York