Sunday, January 31, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
SERMON I. ON THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. By Saint Alphonsus Liguori
"And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with much power and majesty." Matt. xxiv. 30.
At present God is not known, and, therefore, he is as much despised by sinners, as if he could not avenge, whenever he pleases, the injuries offered to him. The wicked”looketh upon the Almighty as if he could do nothing” (Job xxii. 17,) But the Lord has fixed a day, called in the Scriptures "the day of the Lord," on which the Eternal Judge will make known his power and majesty. "The Lord," says the Psalmist, "shall be known when he executeth judgment." (Ps. ix. 17.) On this text St. Bernard writes: ”The Lord, who is now unknown while he seeks mercy, shall be known when he executes justice." (Lib. de xii. Rad.) The prophet Sophonias calls the day of the Lord”a day of wrath a day of tribulation and distress a day of calamity and misery." (i. 15.)
Let us now consider, in the first point, the different appearance of the just and the unjust; in the second, the scrutiny of consciences; and in the third, the sentence pronounced on the elect and on the reprobate.
First Point. On the different appearance of the just and of sinners in the valley of Josaphat.
1. This day shall commence with fire from Heaven, which will burn the earth, all men then living, and all things upon the earth. ”And the earth and the works which are in it shall be burnt up." (2 Pet. iii. 10.) All shall become one heap of ashes.
2 After the death of all men, “the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise again." (1 Cor. xv. 52.) St Jerome used to say: “As often as I consider the day of judgment, I tremble. Whether I eat or drink, or whatever else I do, that terrible trumpet appears to sound in my ears, arise ye dead, and come to judgment" (in Matt, c. v.); and St. Augustine declared, that nothing banished from him earthly thoughts so effectually as the fear of judgment.
3 At the sound of that trumpet the souls of the blessed shall descend from Heaven to be united to the bodies with which they served God on Earth; and the unhappy souls of the damned shall come up from Hell to take possession again of those bodies with which they have offended God. Oh! how different the appearance of the former, compared with that of the latter! The damned shall appear deformed and black, like so many firebrands of Hell; but the just shall shine as the sun (Matt xiii 43) Oh! how great shall then be the happiness of those who have fortified their bodies by works of penance! We may estimate their felicity from the words addressed by St. Peter of Alcantara, after death, to St. Teresa: “O happy penance! which merited for me such glory”
4. After the resurrection, they shall be summoned by the angels to appear in the valley of Josaphat. “Nations, nations, in the valley for destruction for the day of the Lord is near‟‟ (Joel iii 14)” Then the angels shall come and separate the reprobate from the elect, placing the latter on the right, and the former on the left. ”The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from the Just. ”(Matt. xiii 49). Oh! How great will then be the confusion which the unhappy damned shall suffer!. “What think you, ” says the author of the Imperfect Work, “must be the confusion of the impious, when, being separated from the just, they shall be abandoned”(Hom liv.). “This punishment alone” says St. Chrysostom, “would be sufficient to constitute a hell for the wicked”. ”Et si nihil ulterius paterentur, ista sola verecundia sufficerit eis ad poenam," (in Matt, c. xxiv.) The brother shall he separated from the brother, the husband from his wife, the son from the father, etc.
5. But, behold! the heavens are opened the angels come to assist at the general judgment, carrying, as St. Thomas says, the sign of the cross and of the other instruments of the passion of the Redeemer. ”Veniente Domino ad judicium signum crucis, et alia passionis indicia demonstrabunt." (Opusc. ii. 244.) The same may be inferred from the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew: ”And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn." (xxiv. 30.) Sinners shall weep at the sign of the cross; for, as St. Chrysostom says, the nails will complain of them the wounds and the cross of Jesus Christ will speak against them. ”Clavi de te conquerentur, cicatrices contra et loquentur, crux Christi contra te perorabit." (Hom, xx., in Matt.)
6. Most holy Mary, the queen of saints and angels, shall come to assist at the last judgment; and lastly, the Eternal Judge shall appear in the clouds, full of splendour and majesty. “And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with much power and majesty." (Matt. xxiv. 30.) Oh! how great shall be the agony of the reprobate at the sight of the Judge! "At their presence” says the Prophet Joel, "the people shall be in grievous pains." (Joel ii. 6.) According to St. Jerome, the presence of Jesus Christ will give the reprobate more pain than Hell itself. “It would," he says, ”be easier for the damned to bear the torments of Hell than the presence of the Lord." Hence, on that day, the wicked shall, according to St. John, call on the mountains to fall on them and to hide them from the sight of the judge. "And they shall say to the mountains and the rocks: Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." (Apoc. vi. 16.)
Second Point. The scrutiny of conscience.
7. "The judgment sat, and the books were opened. ”(Dan. vii. 10.) The books of conscience are opened, and the judgment commences. The Apostle says, that the Lord”will bring to light the hidden things of darkness." (1 Cor. iv. 5.) And, by the mouth of his prophet, Jesus Christ has said: ”I will search Jerusalem with lamps." (Soph. i. 12.) The light of the lamp reveals all that is hidden.
8. ”A judgment," says St. Chrysostom, ”terrible to sinners, but desirable and sweet to the just." (Hom. iii. de Dav.) The last judgment shall fill sinners with terror, but will be a source of joy and sweetness to the elect; for God will then give praise to each one according to his works. (1 Cor. iv. 5.) The Apostle tells us that on that day the just will be raised above the clouds to be united to the angels, and to increase the number of those who pay homage to the Lord. ”We shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air." (I Thess. iv. 16.)
9. Worldlings now regard as fools the saints who led mortified and humble lives; but then they shall confess their own folly, and say: "We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour. Behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints." (Wis. v. 4, 5.) In this world, the rich and the noble are called happy; but true happiness consists in a life of sanctity. Rejoice, ye souls who live in tribulation;”our sorrow shall be turned into joy." (John xvi. 20.) In the valley of Josaphat you shall be seated on thrones of glory.
10. But the reprobate, like goats destined for the slaughter, shall be placed on the left, to await their last condemnation. ”Judicii tempus," says St. Chrysostom, ”misericordiam non recipit." On the day of judgment there is no hope of mercy for poor sinners. “Magna," says St. Augustine, "jam est poena peccati, metum et memoriam divini perdidisse judicii." (Serm. xx. de Temp.) The greatest punishment of sin in those who live in enmity with God, is to lose the fear and remembrance of the divine judgment. Continue, continue, says the Apostle, to live obstinately in sin; but in proportion to your obstinacy, you shall have accumulated for the day of judgment a treasure of the wrath of God “But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart , thou treasurest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath” (Rom ii. 5)
11. Then sinners will not be able to hide themselves but, with insufferable pain, they shall be compelled to appear in judgment. "To lie hid” says St. Anselm, “will be impossible to appear will be intolerable." The devils will perform their office of accusers, and as St. Augustine says, will say to the Judge: “Most just God, declare him to be mine, who was unwilling to be yours. ” The witnesses against the wicked shall be first, their own conscience. "Their conscience bearing witness to them, ”(Rom. ii. 15); secondly, the very walls of the house in which they sinned shall cry out against them”The stone shall cry out of the wall," (Hab. ii 11); thirdly, the Judge himself will say "I am the judge and the witness, saith the Lord." (Jer. xxix 23 ) Hence, according to St. Augustine, "He who is now the witness of .your life, shall be the judge of your cause. ” (Lib. x. de Chord., c. ii.) To Christians particularly he will say: "Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida; for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in you, they had long ago done penance in sackcloth and ashes”(Matt. xi. 21.) Christians, he will say, if the graces which I have bestowed on you had been given to the Turks or to the Pagans, they would have done penance for their sins; but you have ceased to sin only with your death. He shall then manifest to all men their most hidden crimes. "I will discover thy shame to thy face. ” (Nahum iii. 5.) He will expose to view all their secret impurities, injustices, and cruelties. ”I will set all thy abominations against thee”(Ezech. vii. 3.) Each of the damned shall carry his sins written on his forehead.
12. What excuses can save the wicked on that day? Ah! they can offer no excuses. ”All iniquity shall stop her mouth." (Ps. cvi. 42.) Their very sins shall close the mouth of the reprobate, so that they will not have courage to excuse themselves. They shall pronounce their own condemnation.
Third Point. Sentence of the elect, and of the reprobate.
13. St. Bernard says, that the sentence of the elect, and their destiny to eternal glory, shall be first declared, that the pains of the reprobate may be increased by the sight of what they lost. ”Prius pronunciabitur sententia electis ut acrius (reprobi) doleant videntes quid amiserunt." (Ser. viii., in Ps. xc.) Jesus Christ, then, shall first turn to the elect, and with a serene countenance shall say: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ”(Matt. xxv. 34.) He will then bless all the tears shed through sorrow for their sins, and all their good works, their prayers, mortifications, and communions; above all, he will bless for them the pains of his passion and the blood shed for their salvation. And, after these benedictions, the elect, singing alleluias, shall enter Paradise to praise and love God eternity.
14. The Judge shall then turn to the reprobate, and shall pronounce the sentence of their condemnation in these words . ”Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire." (Matt. xxv. 41 ) They shall then be forever accursed, separated from God, and sent to burn for ever in the fire of hell. “And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just into life everlasting. ” (Matt. xxv. 46.)
15. After this sentence, the wicked shall, according to St. Ephrem, be compelled to take leave for ever of their relatives, of Paradise, of the saints, and of Mary the divine Mother. "Farewell, ye just! Farewell, O cross I Farewell, Paradise! Farewell, fathers and brothers: we shall never see you again! Farewell, O Mary, mother of God!”(St. Eph. de variis serm. inf.) Then a great pit shall open in the middle of the valley: the unhappy damned shall be cast into it, and shall see those doors shut which shall never again be opened. O accursed sin! to what a miserable end will you one day conduct so many souls redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. O unhappy souls! for whom is prepared such a melancholy end. But, brethren, have confidence. Jesus Christ is now a Father, and not judge. He is ready to pardon all who repent. Let us then instantly ask pardon from him.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Maxims for the Direction of a Soul that Desires to Obtain Perfection in the Love of Jesus Christ by Saint Alphonsus Liguori
1. To desire ardently to increase in the love of Jesus Christ.
2. Often to make acts of love towards Jesus Christ. Immediately on waking, and before going to sleep, to make an act of love, seeking always to unite your own will to the will of Jesus Christ.
3. Often to meditate on his Passion.
4. Always to ask Jesus Christ for his love.
5. To communicate often, and many times in the day to make spiritual Communions.
6. Often to visit the Most Holy Sacrament.
7. Every morning to receive from the hands of Jesus Christ himself your own cross.
8. To desire Paradise and death, in order to be able to love Jesus Christ perfectly and for all eternity.
9. Often to speak of the love of Jesus Christ.
10. To accept contradictions for the sake of Jesus Christ.
11. To rejoice in the happiness of God.
12. To do that which is most pleasing to Jesus Christ, and not to refuse him anything that is agreeable to him.
13. To desire and to endeavor that all should love Jesus Christ.
14. To pray always for sinners and for the souls in purgatory.
15. To drive from your heart every affection that does not belong to Jesus Christ.
16. Always to have recourse to the most holy Mary, that she may obtain for us the love of Jesus Christ.
17. To honor Mary in order to please Jesus Christ.
18. To seek to please Jesus Christ in all your actions.
19. To offer yourself to Jesus Christ to suffer any pain for his love.
20 To be always determined to die rather than commit a willful venial sin.
21. To suffer crosses patiently, saying, "Thus it pleases Jesus Christ."
22. To renounce your own pleasures for the love of Jesus Christ.
23. To pray as much as possible.
24. To practice all the mortifications that obedience permits.
25. To do all your spiritual exercises as if it were for the last time.
26. To persevere in good works in the time of aridity.
27. Not to do nor yet to leave undone anything through human respect.
28. Not to complain in sickness.
29. To love solitude, to be able to converse alone with Jesus Christ.
30. To drive away melancholy.
37. Often to recommend yourself to those persons who love Jesus Christ.
32. In temptation, to have recourse to Jesus crucified, and to Mary in her sorrows.
33. To trust entirely in the Passion of Jesus Christ.
34. After committing a fault, not to be discouraged, but to repent and resolve to amend.
35. To do good to those who do evil.
36. To speak well of all, and to excuse the intention when you cannot defend the action.
37. To help your neighbor as much as you can.
38. Neither to say nor to do anything that might vex him. And if you have been wanting in charity, to ask his pardon and speak kindly to him.
39. Always to speak with mildness and in a low tone.
40. To offer to Jesus Christ all the contempt and persecution that you meet with.
41. To look upon [religious] Superiors as the representatives of Jesus Christ.
42. To obey without answering and without repugnance, and not to seek your own satisfaction in anything.
43. To like the lowest employments.
44. To like the poorest things.
45. Not to speak either good or evil of yourself.
46. To humble yourself even towards inferiors.
47. Not to excuse yourself when you are reproved.
48. Not to defend yourself when found fault with.
49. To be silent when you are disquieted.
50. Always to renew your determination of becoming a saint, saying, "My Jesus, I desire to be all Yours, and You must be all mine."
Source: The Incarnation, Birth, and Infancy of Jesus Christ 1927
St Alphonsus Liguori, Pray for us! Sancta Alphonsus Liguori, Ora Pro Nobis! Amen
Archdiocese of Hanoi condemns savage beating of Redemptorist brother
.- The Archdiocese of Hanoi has condemned local government attacks against Catholics at Dong Chiem parish, including the “savage” and “brutal” beating of a Redemptorist brother by police.
The attack is the latest incident near Dong Chiem parish, where local authorities blew up a cemetery’s Crucifix in the early morning of Jan. 6.
On Wednesday, police “brutally” beat Redemptorist Br. Anthony Nguyen Van Tang so severely that he lost consciousness, the Archdiocese said in a statement.
The statement, signed by vice-chancellor Fr. Long Le Trong Cung, reported that a group of Priests and religious had wanted to visit Dong Chiem after they learned of escalating violence against parishioners and Priests.
As of Jan. 20, the parish was “completely besieged” and police at checkpoints prohibited anyone from entering, J.B. An Dang tells CNA.
The delegation from the archdiocese was stopped by police at Xay Bridge, about one-third of a mile from the Church. Hanoi Redemptorists spokesman Fr. Peter Nguyen Van Khai told the Vietnam Redemptorist provincial Superior that four of the five policemen there attacked Br. Anthony Nguyen and a layman.
“The lay man was slightly injured, but Br. Anthony Nguyen suffered serious injuries on the head, lips and eyes,” reported Fr. Peter Nguyen, who said the brother was “savagely assaulted” and lost consciousness.
“The shirt of the lay man, and the one of a motorbike driver, who helped to transport him to a nearby parish, were soaked with the Redemptorist's blood,” he said.
Locals reportedly recognized the attackers as “police from [the] inner city of Hanoi.”
The Archdiocese of Hanoi expressed great concern about the violent situation at Dong Chiem, J.B. An Dang reports. It said “hundreds” of anti-riot police, militiamen and plainclothes police are deployed in the area to bar passage to and from the parish.
The Archdiocese reported that Dong Chiem’s pastor, Fr. Nguyen Van Huu, and the assistant Priest, Fr. Nguyen Van Lien, have been repeatedly summoned and interrogated by police.
“Parishioners have been subjected [to] beatings and massive arrests,” it continued, listing the names of 16 detainees.
Additionally, parishioners are being blasted by threatening messages on public loudspeakers which broadcast all day long.
The Archdiocese of Hanoi has asked all Catholics to “fervently pray” for Priests and parishioners of the parish, especially for those who have been jailed and attacked “in this time of difficulty.” It also sought prayers for respect for human rights.
J.B. An Dang tells CNA that parishes have been asked to sing the “Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi” at the end of every Mass until the persecution ends and justice is restored.
Let us offer up prayers for our persecuted brethren in Vietnam.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Last Will and Testament of Louis XVI
January 21 marked the anniversary of the regicide of Louis XVI, King of France, by the revolutionary authorities. Here is his last will and testament, written a month previous on Christmas Day.
In the name of the Very holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
To-day, the 25th day of December, 1792, I, Louis XVI King of France, being for more than four months imprisoned with my family in the tower of the Temple at Paris, by those who were my subjects, and deprived of all communication whatsoever, even with my family, since the eleventh instant; moreover, involved in a trial the end of which it is impossible to foresee, on account of the passions of men, and for which one can find neither pretext nor means in any existing law, and having no other witnesses, for my thoughts than God to whom I can address myself, I hereby declare, in His presence, my last wishes and feelings.
I leave my soul to God, my creator; I pray Him to receive it in His mercy, not to judge it according to its merits but according to those of Our Lord Jesus Christ who has offered Himself as a sacrifice to God His Father for us other men, no matter how hardened, and for me first.
I die in communion with our Holy Mother, the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church, which holds authority by an uninterrupted succession, from St. Peter, to whom Jesus Christ entrusted it; I believe firmly and I confess all that is contained in the creed and the commandments of God and the Church, the sacraments and the mysteries, those which the Catholic Church teaches and has always taught. I never pretend to set myself up as a judge of the various way of expounding the dogma which rend the church of Jesus Christ, but I agree and will always agree, if God grant me life the decisions which the ecclesiastical superiors of the Holy Catholic Church give and will always give, in conformity with the disciplines which the Church has followed since Jesus Christ.
I pity with all my heart our brothers who may be in error but I do not claim to judge them, and I do not love them less in Christ, as our Christian charity teaches us, and I pray to God to pardon all my sins. I have sought scrupulously to know them, to detest them and to humiliate myself in His presence. Not being able to obtain the ministration of a Catholic priest, I pray God to receive the confession which I feel in having put my name (although this was against my will) to acts which might be contrary to the discipline and the belief of the Catholic church, to which I have always remained sincerely attached. I pray God to receive my firm resolution, if He grants me life, to have the ministrations of a Catholic priest, as soon as I can, in order to confess my sins and to receive the sacrament of penance.
I beg all those whom I might have offended inadvertently (for I do not recall having knowingly offended any one), or those whom I may have given bad examples or scandals, to pardon the evil which they believe I could have done them.
I beseech those who have the kindness to join their prayers to mine, to obtain pardon from God for my sins.
I pardon with all my heart those who made themselves my enemies, without my have given them any cause, and I pray God to pardon them, as well as those who, through false or misunderstood zeal, did me much harm.
I commend to God my wife and my children, my sister, my aunts, my brothers, and all those who are attached to me by ties of blood or by whatever other means. I pray God particularly to cast eyes of compassion upon my wife, my children, and my sister, who suffered with me for so long a time, to sustain them with His mercy if they shall lose me, and as long as they remain in his mortal world.
I commend my children to my wife; I have never doubted her maternal tenderness for them. I enjoin her above all to make them good Christians and honest individuals; to make them view the grandeurs of this world (if they are condemned to experience them) as very dangerous and transient goods, and turn their attention towards the one solid and enduring glory, eternity. I beseech my sister to kindly continue her tenderness for my children and to take the place of a mother, should they have the misfortune of losing theirs.
I beg my wife to forgive all the pain which she suffered for me, and the sorrows which I may have caused her in the course of our union; and she may feel sure that I hold nothing against her, if she has anything with which to reproach herself.
I most warmly enjoin my children that, after what they owe to God, which should come first, they should remain forever united among themselves, submissive and obedient to their mother, and grateful for all the care and trouble which she has taken with them, as well as in memory of me. I beg them to regard my sister as their second mother.
I exhort my son, should he have the misfortune of becoming king, to remember he owes himself wholly to the happiness of his fellow citizens; that he should forget all hates and all grudges, particularly those connected with the misfortunes and sorrows which I am experiencing; that he can make the people happy only by ruling according to laws: but at the same time to remember that a king cannot make himself respected and do the good that is in his heart unless he has the necessary authority, and that otherwise, being tangled up in his activities and not inspiring respect, he is more harmful than useful.
I exhort my son to care for all the persons who are attached to me, as much as his circumstances will allow, to remember that it is a sacred debt which I have contracted towards the children and relatives of those who have perished for me and also those who are wretched for my sake. I know that there are many persons, among those who were near me, who did not conduct themselves towards me as they should have and who have even shown ingratitude, but I pardon them (often in moments of trouble and turmoil one is not master of oneself), and I beg my son that, if he finds an occasion, he should think only of their misfortunes.
I should have wanted here to show my gratitude to those who have given me a true and disinterested affection; if, on the one hand, I was keenly hurt by the ingratitude and disloyalty of those to whom I have always shown kindness, as well as to their relatives and friends, on the other hand I have had the consolation of seeing the affection and voluntary interest which many persons have shown me. I beg them to receive my thanks.
In the situation in which matters still are, I fear to compromise them if I should speak more explicitly, but I especially enjoin my son to seek occasion to recognize them.
I should, nevertheless, consider it a calumny on the nation if I did not openly recommend to my son MM. De Chamilly and Hue, whose genuine attachment for me led them to imprison themselves with me in this sad abode. I also recommend Clery, for whose attentiveness I have nothing but praise ever since he has been with me. Since it is he who has remained with me until the end, I beg the gentlemen of the commune to hand over to him my clothes, my books, my watch, my purse, and all other small effects which have been deposited with the council of the commune.
I pardon again very readily those who guard me, the ill treatment and the vexations which they thought it necessary to impose upon me. I found a few sensitive and compassionate souls among them – may they in their hearts enjoy the tranquillity which their way of thinking gives them.
I beg MM. De Malesherbes, Tronchet and De Seze to receive all my thanks and the expressions of my feelings for all the cares and troubles they took for me.
I finish by declaring before God, and ready to appear before Him, that I do not reproach myself with any of the crimes with which I am charged.
Made in duplicate in the Tower of the Temple, the 25th of December 1792.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Happy is he who Desires Nothing but God by Father Eugene Grimm C.Ss.R
Taken from Pious Reflections
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.1 By “the poor in spirit” is meant those who are poor in earthly desires, and desire nothing but God. These are poor in desires, but not without affection, because they live contented even in this life; and, therefore, the Lord does not say, “Theirs will be the kingdom of heaven,” but “theirs is,” because even in this life they are rich in spiritual blessings which they receive from God; and thus, however poor they are in temporal goods, they live content with their condition. They are different from the rich in earthly desires, who, in the present life, whatever riches they possess, are always poor, and live discontented; for the good things of this life do not satisfy our thirst, however much they are increased; wherefore, these persons are never contented, never attaining to the acquisition of what they desire.
In order to enrich us with true riches, Jesus Christ chose to be a poor man, as the Apostle writes, For your sakes He became poor, that by His poverty ye might become rich.2 He chose to be poor in order to teach us by his example to despise earthly blessings; and thus to enrich us with heavenly blessings, which are infinitely more precious, and which last forever. Wherefore he declared that whoever did not renounce every species of attachment to this earth could not be his true disciple.
Happy he who desires nothing but God, and can say, with St. Paulinus, “Let the rich have their riches, kings their kingdoms; Christ is my wealth and my kingdom.”3 Let us rest assured that God alone can content us, but he does not fully content any but those souls which love him with a whole heart. And what place can the love of God find in a heart that is full of this earth? Such people may go often to communion, and pay visits to the Blessed Sacrament; but, because this earth is in their hearts, God cannot wholly possess them, and enrich them as he would.
Many souls lament that in their meditations and communions, and in their other most devout exercises, they do not find God. To such St. Teresa said, “Detach thy heart from all creatures, and thou shalt find God.” Let us strip ourselves of every affection that tends to earthly things, and especially of our own will; let us give to God our whole will, without reserve, and say to him, “Lord, do Thou dispose of me, and of all I have, as Thou wilt; I desire nothing but what Thou desirest, and I know that what Thou wilt is the best for me. Grant me, then, that I may ever love Thee, and I desire nothing more.”
The only means for detaching ourselves from creatures is to acquire a great love for God. If the love of God does not go so far as to obtain the mastery over our own will, we shall never attain to being saints. The means for acquiring this ruling love is devout prayer. Let us constantly pray to God to give us his love, that we may thus find ourselves detached from every created thing. Divine love is a thief, which, in a holy way, robs us of all earthly affections, and causes us to say, “What other thing do I desire but Thee alone, O God of my heart!”
Love is strong as death.4 This means that as there is no power that resists death, so there is nothing, even of things most invincible, that can resist the love of God. Love conquers everything. With the love of God the martyrs conquered the fiercest torments and the most agonizing deaths.
Oh, happy indeed is he who can say with David, What have I in heaven, and what have I desired upon earth, but Thee, O God of my heart, and my portion forever! What else can I desire in this life and in eternity, but Thee alone, O my God? Let others find the good things they choose; be Thou, O God of my heart, my only good; be Thou all my peace.
In what peril does the soul stand of losing God and perishing when it has not attained to the giving itself wholly to God; while he who has truly given himself altogether to God can rest secure of never leaving him, because the Lord is truly merciful and faithful to every one who gives himself to him without reserve. But why is it that some persons, who began by living a holy life, afterwards fall so grievously, that they leave us little hope of their salvation? Why, indeed, is this? I answer, that they had not given themselves wholly to God; and this their fall is the proof of it.
O my God, and my true lover! suffer it not that my soul, which was created to love Thee, should love any thing apart from Thee, and should not wholly belong to Thee, who hast purchased me with Thy blood. O my Jesus! how is it possible that, after having known the love which Thou hast borne to me, I can love anything apart from Thee? Draw me continually within Thy heart; make me forget everything that I may neither seek nor sigh after anything but Thy love. O my Jesus! in Thee I trust. O Mary, Mother of God! in thee is my hope; detach me from the love of everything that is not of God, that he may be the one object of all my affections, and of my eternal happiness.
1“Beati pauperes spiritu, quoniam ipsorum est regnum cœlorum.” -- Matt. v. 3.
2“Propter vos egenus factus est, ut illius inopia vos divites essetis.” -- 2 Cor. viii. 9.
3“Sibi habeant divitias suas divites, sibi regna sua reges; nobis gloria et possessio et regnum Christus est.” -- Ep. ad Aprum.
4“Fortis est ut mors dilectio.” -- Cant. viii. 6.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.1 By “the poor in spirit” is meant those who are poor in earthly desires, and desire nothing but God. These are poor in desires, but not without affection, because they live contented even in this life; and, therefore, the Lord does not say, “Theirs will be the kingdom of heaven,” but “theirs is,” because even in this life they are rich in spiritual blessings which they receive from God; and thus, however poor they are in temporal goods, they live content with their condition. They are different from the rich in earthly desires, who, in the present life, whatever riches they possess, are always poor, and live discontented; for the good things of this life do not satisfy our thirst, however much they are increased; wherefore, these persons are never contented, never attaining to the acquisition of what they desire.
In order to enrich us with true riches, Jesus Christ chose to be a poor man, as the Apostle writes, For your sakes He became poor, that by His poverty ye might become rich.2 He chose to be poor in order to teach us by his example to despise earthly blessings; and thus to enrich us with heavenly blessings, which are infinitely more precious, and which last forever. Wherefore he declared that whoever did not renounce every species of attachment to this earth could not be his true disciple.
Happy he who desires nothing but God, and can say, with St. Paulinus, “Let the rich have their riches, kings their kingdoms; Christ is my wealth and my kingdom.”3 Let us rest assured that God alone can content us, but he does not fully content any but those souls which love him with a whole heart. And what place can the love of God find in a heart that is full of this earth? Such people may go often to communion, and pay visits to the Blessed Sacrament; but, because this earth is in their hearts, God cannot wholly possess them, and enrich them as he would.
Many souls lament that in their meditations and communions, and in their other most devout exercises, they do not find God. To such St. Teresa said, “Detach thy heart from all creatures, and thou shalt find God.” Let us strip ourselves of every affection that tends to earthly things, and especially of our own will; let us give to God our whole will, without reserve, and say to him, “Lord, do Thou dispose of me, and of all I have, as Thou wilt; I desire nothing but what Thou desirest, and I know that what Thou wilt is the best for me. Grant me, then, that I may ever love Thee, and I desire nothing more.”
The only means for detaching ourselves from creatures is to acquire a great love for God. If the love of God does not go so far as to obtain the mastery over our own will, we shall never attain to being saints. The means for acquiring this ruling love is devout prayer. Let us constantly pray to God to give us his love, that we may thus find ourselves detached from every created thing. Divine love is a thief, which, in a holy way, robs us of all earthly affections, and causes us to say, “What other thing do I desire but Thee alone, O God of my heart!”
Love is strong as death.4 This means that as there is no power that resists death, so there is nothing, even of things most invincible, that can resist the love of God. Love conquers everything. With the love of God the martyrs conquered the fiercest torments and the most agonizing deaths.
Oh, happy indeed is he who can say with David, What have I in heaven, and what have I desired upon earth, but Thee, O God of my heart, and my portion forever! What else can I desire in this life and in eternity, but Thee alone, O my God? Let others find the good things they choose; be Thou, O God of my heart, my only good; be Thou all my peace.
In what peril does the soul stand of losing God and perishing when it has not attained to the giving itself wholly to God; while he who has truly given himself altogether to God can rest secure of never leaving him, because the Lord is truly merciful and faithful to every one who gives himself to him without reserve. But why is it that some persons, who began by living a holy life, afterwards fall so grievously, that they leave us little hope of their salvation? Why, indeed, is this? I answer, that they had not given themselves wholly to God; and this their fall is the proof of it.
O my God, and my true lover! suffer it not that my soul, which was created to love Thee, should love any thing apart from Thee, and should not wholly belong to Thee, who hast purchased me with Thy blood. O my Jesus! how is it possible that, after having known the love which Thou hast borne to me, I can love anything apart from Thee? Draw me continually within Thy heart; make me forget everything that I may neither seek nor sigh after anything but Thy love. O my Jesus! in Thee I trust. O Mary, Mother of God! in thee is my hope; detach me from the love of everything that is not of God, that he may be the one object of all my affections, and of my eternal happiness.
1“Beati pauperes spiritu, quoniam ipsorum est regnum cœlorum.” -- Matt. v. 3.
2“Propter vos egenus factus est, ut illius inopia vos divites essetis.” -- 2 Cor. viii. 9.
3“Sibi habeant divitias suas divites, sibi regna sua reges; nobis gloria et possessio et regnum Christus est.” -- Ep. ad Aprum.
4“Fortis est ut mors dilectio.” -- Cant. viii. 6.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Affair of Eternal Salvation by Father Eugene Grimm C.Ss.R
Taken from Pious Reflections
The business of our eternal salvation is for us that affair which is not only the most important, but the only thing that ought to trouble us; because, if this goes wrong, all is lost. One thought upon eternity, well weighed, is enough to make a saint. The great servant of God, F. Vincenzo Carafa, was wont to say that if all men thought with a living faith upon the eternity of another life, the world would become a desert, for no one would attend any more to the affairs of this life.
Oh, that all had ever before their eyes the great truth taught us by Jesus Christ! What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?1 This truth has taught many a man to leave the world; many noble virgins, and even those of royal blood, to shut themselves up in a cloister; many anchorites to live in deserts, and many martyrs to give their lives for the faith; because they considered that if they lost their souls, all the good things of the world would profit them nothing in the eternal state.
Therefore the Apostle wrote to his disciples: We entreat you, brethren, that ye attend to your own business.2 And of what business did St. Paul speak? He spoke of that business which, if it fail, implies that we lose the eternal kingdom of Paradise, and are cast into an abyss of torments that never end. It is an affair of eternal punishments, and of the loss of the heavenly kingdom, says St. John Chrysostom.3
St. Philip Neri, therefore, had good reason for calling all those persons mad who bestow pains in this life for gaining riches and honors, and give little heed to the salvation of the soul. “All such,” said the venerable John Avila, “deserve to be shut up in an asylum for lunatics.” How can this be? This great servant of God meant to say, “You believe that there is an eternity of joys for those who love God, and an eternity of pains for those who offend him; and do you offend him?”
Every loss of property, of reputation, of relatives, of health, can be repaired in this life, at least by a good death, and by the acquisition of eternal life, as it happened to the holy martyrs; but for what good things of the world, with fortune even the greatest, can be given the loss of the soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?4
He that dies in the wrath of God, and loses his soul, loses with this every hope of repairing his ruin. To the wicked, when he is dead, there is no hope more.5 O God! if the doctrine of eternal life were but a simple, doubtful opinion of divines, we ought surely to give all our care for gaining a happy eternity, and avoiding a miserable one. But no; it is not a doubtful thing; it is certain, it is of faith, that we must come to one or the other.
But what do we see? Every one who has faith, and thinks upon this truth, says, “So it is we must attend to the salvation of the soul;” but few are they who truly give heed to it. They devote themselves with all their energies to win this cause, or to obtain this situation, but lay aside the care of eternal salvation. “Truly, it is the greatest of errors to neglect the business of eternal salvation,”6 said St. Eucherius; it is an error that exceeds all others; for to lose the soul is a mistake without a remedy.
Oh, that they would be wise, and would understand, and consider the last things! Miserable are those learned men who labor at many things, and know not how to take forethought for their souls, that they may obtain a favorable sentence in the day of judgment!
O my Redeemer! Thou hast given Thy blood to purchase my soul, and I have so often lost it, and given it to destruction! I give Thee thanks that Thou hast given me time to recover it, by recovering Thy grace. O my God! would that I had died before I had offended Thee! It comforts me to know that Thou knowest not how to despise a heart that humbles itself and repents of its sins. O Mary, refuge of sinners! help me a sinner, who recommends himself to thee, and trusts in thee.
1“Quid enim prodest homini, si mundum universum lucretur, animæ vero suæ detrimentum patiatur?” -- Matt. xvi. 26.
2“Rogamus autem vos, fratres . . . ut negodum vestrum agatis.” -- 1 Thess. iv. 10.
3“De immortalibus suppliciis, de cœlestis regni amissione, res agitur.” -- In Matt. hom. 25.
4“Quam dabit homo commutationem pro anima sua?” -- Matt. xvi. 26.
5“Mortuo homine impio, non erit ultra spes.” -- Prov. xi. 7.
6“Sane supra omnem errorem est dissimulare negotium salutis suæ.” -- De Contemptu m.
The business of our eternal salvation is for us that affair which is not only the most important, but the only thing that ought to trouble us; because, if this goes wrong, all is lost. One thought upon eternity, well weighed, is enough to make a saint. The great servant of God, F. Vincenzo Carafa, was wont to say that if all men thought with a living faith upon the eternity of another life, the world would become a desert, for no one would attend any more to the affairs of this life.
Oh, that all had ever before their eyes the great truth taught us by Jesus Christ! What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?1 This truth has taught many a man to leave the world; many noble virgins, and even those of royal blood, to shut themselves up in a cloister; many anchorites to live in deserts, and many martyrs to give their lives for the faith; because they considered that if they lost their souls, all the good things of the world would profit them nothing in the eternal state.
Therefore the Apostle wrote to his disciples: We entreat you, brethren, that ye attend to your own business.2 And of what business did St. Paul speak? He spoke of that business which, if it fail, implies that we lose the eternal kingdom of Paradise, and are cast into an abyss of torments that never end. It is an affair of eternal punishments, and of the loss of the heavenly kingdom, says St. John Chrysostom.3
St. Philip Neri, therefore, had good reason for calling all those persons mad who bestow pains in this life for gaining riches and honors, and give little heed to the salvation of the soul. “All such,” said the venerable John Avila, “deserve to be shut up in an asylum for lunatics.” How can this be? This great servant of God meant to say, “You believe that there is an eternity of joys for those who love God, and an eternity of pains for those who offend him; and do you offend him?”
Every loss of property, of reputation, of relatives, of health, can be repaired in this life, at least by a good death, and by the acquisition of eternal life, as it happened to the holy martyrs; but for what good things of the world, with fortune even the greatest, can be given the loss of the soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?4
He that dies in the wrath of God, and loses his soul, loses with this every hope of repairing his ruin. To the wicked, when he is dead, there is no hope more.5 O God! if the doctrine of eternal life were but a simple, doubtful opinion of divines, we ought surely to give all our care for gaining a happy eternity, and avoiding a miserable one. But no; it is not a doubtful thing; it is certain, it is of faith, that we must come to one or the other.
But what do we see? Every one who has faith, and thinks upon this truth, says, “So it is we must attend to the salvation of the soul;” but few are they who truly give heed to it. They devote themselves with all their energies to win this cause, or to obtain this situation, but lay aside the care of eternal salvation. “Truly, it is the greatest of errors to neglect the business of eternal salvation,”6 said St. Eucherius; it is an error that exceeds all others; for to lose the soul is a mistake without a remedy.
Oh, that they would be wise, and would understand, and consider the last things! Miserable are those learned men who labor at many things, and know not how to take forethought for their souls, that they may obtain a favorable sentence in the day of judgment!
O my Redeemer! Thou hast given Thy blood to purchase my soul, and I have so often lost it, and given it to destruction! I give Thee thanks that Thou hast given me time to recover it, by recovering Thy grace. O my God! would that I had died before I had offended Thee! It comforts me to know that Thou knowest not how to despise a heart that humbles itself and repents of its sins. O Mary, refuge of sinners! help me a sinner, who recommends himself to thee, and trusts in thee.
1“Quid enim prodest homini, si mundum universum lucretur, animæ vero suæ detrimentum patiatur?” -- Matt. xvi. 26.
2“Rogamus autem vos, fratres . . . ut negodum vestrum agatis.” -- 1 Thess. iv. 10.
3“De immortalibus suppliciis, de cœlestis regni amissione, res agitur.” -- In Matt. hom. 25.
4“Quam dabit homo commutationem pro anima sua?” -- Matt. xvi. 26.
5“Mortuo homine impio, non erit ultra spes.” -- Prov. xi. 7.
6“Sane supra omnem errorem est dissimulare negotium salutis suæ.” -- De Contemptu m.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Consider eternity...
Consider the shortness of time, the length of eternity and reflect how everything here below comes to an end and passes by. Of what use is it to lean upon that which cannot give support? - Saint Gerard Majella C.Ss.R
On the Number of Sins Beyond Which God Pardons No More by St. Alphonsus de Liguori
"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" - Matt. 4:7
In this day's Gospel we read that having gone into the desert, Jesus Christ permitted the Devil to set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and say to Him: "If Thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down"; for the angels shall preserve Thee from all injury. But the Lord answered that in the Sacred Scriptures it is written: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.The sinner who abandons himself to sin without striving to resist temptations, or without at least asking God's help to conquer them, and hopes that the Lord will one day draw him from the precipice, tempts God to work miracles, or rather to show to him an extraordinary mercy not extended to the generality of Christians.
God, as the Apostle says, "will have all men to be saved" (1 Tim. 2:4); but He also wishes us all to labor for our own salvation, at least by adopting the means of overcoming our enemies, and of obeying Him when He calls us to repentance. Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement. I intend to show in this discourse that when sins reach a certain number, God pardons no more. Be attentive.
St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine and other fathers, teach, that as God according to the words of Scripture, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wis. 11:21) has fixed for each person the number of the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which He will give him, so He has also determined for each the number of sins which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon no more.
"The Lord hath sent me to heal the contrite of heart" (Isa. 61:1) God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon those who are determined to offend Him. Nor can we demand from god a reason why He pardons one a hundred sins, and takes others out of life and sends them to Hell, after three or four sins. By His Prophet Amos, God has said: "For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not convert it" (1:3). In this we must adore the judgments of God, and say with the Apostle: "O the depth of the riches, of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments" (Rom. 11:33). He who receives pardon, says St. Augustine, is pardoned through the pure mercy of God; and they who are chastised, are justly punished. How many has God sent to Hell for the first offense? St. Gregory relates, that a child of five years, who had arrived at the use of reason, for having uttered a blasphemy, was seized by the Devil and carried to Hell. The divine Mother revealed to that great servant of God, Benedicta of Florence, that a boy of twelve years was damned after the first sin. Another boy of eight years died after his first sin, and was lost. You say: I am young; there are many who have committed more sins than I have. But is God on that account obliged to wait for your repentance if you offend Him? In the Gospel of St. Matthew (21:19), we read that the Savior cursed a fig tree the first time He saw it without fruit. "May no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. An immediately the fig tree withered away." You must, then tremble at the thought of committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been guilty of mortal sins.
"Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin to sin" (Eccl. 5:5). Say not then, O sinner: "As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will pardon me this one if I commit it." Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned. Behold how the Scripture unfolds this truth more clearly in another place. "The Lord patiently expecteth, that when the day of judgment shall come, He may punish them in the fullness of sins" (II. Mac. 6:14). God waits with patience until a certain number of sins is committed but, when the measure of guilt is filled up, He waits no longer, but chastises the sinner. "Thou hast sealed up my offenses as it were in a bag" (Job 14:17). Sinners multiply their sins without keeping any account of them; but God numbers them, that, when the harvest is ripe, that is, when the number of sins is completed, He may take vengeance on them. "Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe" (Joel 3:13).
Of this there are many examples in the Scriptures. Speaking of the Hebrews, the Lord in one place says: "All the men that have tempted Me now ten times. . . .shall not see the land" (Num. 14:22, 23). In another place, He says, that He restrained His vengeance against the Amorrhites, because the number of their sins was not completed. "For as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full" (Gen. 15:16). We have again the example of Saul who, after having disobeyed God a second time, was abandoned. He entreated Samuel to interpose before the Lord in his behalf. "Bear, I beseech thee, my sin, and return with me, that I may adore the Lord" (I Kings 15:25). But, knowing that God had abandoned Saul, Samuel answered: "I will not return with thee, because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee," etc. (5:26). Saul, you have abandoned God, and He has abandoned you. We have another example in Balthassar, who, after having profaned the vessels of the Temple, saw a hand writing on the wall, Mane, Thecel, Phares. Daniel was requested to expound the meaning of these words. In explaining the word Thecel, he said to the king: "Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting" (Dan. 5:27). By this explanation, he gave the king to understand that the weight of his sins in the balance of divine justice, had made the scale descend." The same night Balthassar, the Chaldean king, was killed" (Dan. 5:30). Oh! how many sinners have met with a similar fate! Continuing to offend God till their sins amounted to a certain number, they have been struck dead and sent to Hell! "They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to Hell" (Job 21:13). Tremble, brethren, lest if you commit another mortal sin, God should cast you into Hell.
If God chastised sinners the moment they insult Him, we should not see Him so much despised. But, because He does not instantly punish their transgressions, and because through mercy He restrains His anger and waits for their return, they are encouraged to continue to offend Him. "For, because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the children of men commit evil without any fear" (Eccles. 8:11). But it is necessary to be persuaded, that though God bears with us, He does not wait, nor bear with us forever. Expecting, as on former occasions, to escape from the snares of the Philistines, Samson continued to allow himself to be deluded by Delilah. "I will go out as I did before, and shake myself" (Judges 16:20). But "the Lord departed from him." Samson was at length taken by his enemies, and lost his life. The Lord warns you not to say: I have committed so many sins, and God has not chastised me. "Say not: I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me; for the Most High is a patient rewarder" (Eccl. 5:4). God has patience for a certain term, after which He punishes the first and last sins. And the greater has been His patience, the more severe His vengeance.
Hence, according to St. Chrysostom, God is more to be feared when He bears with sinners, than when He instantly punishes their sin. And why? Because, says St. Gregory, they to whom God has shown most mercy shall, if they do not cease to offend Him, be chastised with the greatest rigor. The saint adds that God often punishes such sinners with a sudden death, and does not allow them time for repentance. And the greater the light which God gives to certain sinners for their correction, the greater is their blindness and obstinacy in sin. "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than, after they had known it, to turn back" (II Pet. 2:21). Miserable the sinners, who, after having been enlightened, return to the vomit. St. Paul says, that it is morally impossible for them to be again converted. "For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated-have tasted also the Heavenly gifts... and are fallen away, to be renewed again to penance" (Heb. 6:4, 6).
Listen, then, O sinner, to the admonition of the Lord: "My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more, but for thy former sins pray that they may be forgiven thee" (Eccl. 21:1). Son, add not sins to those which you have already committed, but be careful to pray for the pardon of your past transgressions; otherwise, if you commit another mortal sin, the gates of divine mercy may be closed against you, and your soul may be lost forever. When then, beloved brethren, the devil tempts you again to yield to sin, say to yourself: If God pardons me no more, what shall become of me for all eternity? Should the Devil in reply, say: fear not, God is merciful; answer him by saying: What certainty or what probability have I that, if I return again to sin, God will show me mercy or grant me pardon? Behold the threat of the Lord against all who despise His calls: "Because I have called and you refused,.....I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared" (Prov. 1:24, 26). Mark the words "I also"; they mean that, as you have mocked the Lord by betraying Him again after your confession and promises of amendment, so He will mock you at the hour of death. I will laugh and will mock. But, "God is not mocked" (Gal. 6:7). "As a dog," says the Wise Man, "that returneth to his vomit, so is the fool that repeateth his folly" (Prov. 26:11). Bl. Denis the Carthusian gives an excellent exposition of this text. He says that, as a dog that eats what he has just vomited, is an object of disgust and abomination, so the sinner who returns to the sins which he has detested and confessed, becomes hateful in the sight of God.
O folly of sinners! If you purchase a house, you spare no pains to get all the securities necessary to guard against the loss of your money; if you take medicine, you are careful to assure yourself that it cannot injure you; if you pass over a river, you cautiously avoid all danger of falling into it: and for a transitory enjoyment, for the gratification of revenge, for a beastly pleasure, which lasts but a moment, you risk your eternal salvation, saying: I will go to confession after I commit this sin. And when, I ask, are you to go to confession? You say: On tomorrow. But who promises you tomorrow? Who assures you that you shall have time for confession, and that God will not deprive you of life as He has deprived so many others, in the act of sin? "Diem tenes" says St. Augustine, "qui horam non tenes." You cannot be certain of living for another hour, and you say: I will go to confession tomorrow.Listen to the words of St. Gregory: "He who has promised pardon to penitents, has not promised tomorrow to sinners" (Hom. 12 in Evan). God has promised pardon to all who repent; but He has not promised to wait until tomorrow for those who insult Him. Perhaps God will give you time for repentance, perhaps He will not. But, should He not give it, what shall become of your soul? In the meantime, for the sake of a miserable pleasure, you lose the grace of God and expose yourself to the danger of being lost forever.
Would you, for such transient enjoyments, risk your money, your honor, your possessions, your liberty, and your life? No, you would not. How then does it happen that, for a miserable gratification, you lose your soul, Heaven, and God? Tell me: do you believe that Heaven, Hell, eternity, are truths of faith? Do you believe that, if you die in sin, you are lost forever? Oh! what temerity, what folly is it, to condemn yourself voluntarily to an eternity of torments with the hope of afterwards reversing the sentence of your condemnation! "Nemo," says St. Augustine, "sub spe salutis vult aegrotare." No one can be found so foolish as to take poison with the hope of preventing its deadly effects by adopting the ordinary remedies. And you will condemn yourself to Hell, saying that you expect to be afterwards preserved from it. O folly! which, in conformity with the divine threats, has brought, and brings every day, so many to Hell. "Thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, and evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not know the rising thereof" (Isa. 47:10, 11). You have sinned, trusting rashly in the divine mercy: the punishment of your guilt shall fall suddenly upon you, and you shall not know from whence it comes. What do you say? What resolution do you make? If, after this sermon, you do not firmly resolve to give yourself to God, I weep over you and regard you as lost.
In this day's Gospel we read that having gone into the desert, Jesus Christ permitted the Devil to set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and say to Him: "If Thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down"; for the angels shall preserve Thee from all injury. But the Lord answered that in the Sacred Scriptures it is written: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.The sinner who abandons himself to sin without striving to resist temptations, or without at least asking God's help to conquer them, and hopes that the Lord will one day draw him from the precipice, tempts God to work miracles, or rather to show to him an extraordinary mercy not extended to the generality of Christians.
God, as the Apostle says, "will have all men to be saved" (1 Tim. 2:4); but He also wishes us all to labor for our own salvation, at least by adopting the means of overcoming our enemies, and of obeying Him when He calls us to repentance. Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement. I intend to show in this discourse that when sins reach a certain number, God pardons no more. Be attentive.
St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine and other fathers, teach, that as God according to the words of Scripture, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wis. 11:21) has fixed for each person the number of the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which He will give him, so He has also determined for each the number of sins which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon no more.
"The Lord hath sent me to heal the contrite of heart" (Isa. 61:1) God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon those who are determined to offend Him. Nor can we demand from god a reason why He pardons one a hundred sins, and takes others out of life and sends them to Hell, after three or four sins. By His Prophet Amos, God has said: "For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not convert it" (1:3). In this we must adore the judgments of God, and say with the Apostle: "O the depth of the riches, of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments" (Rom. 11:33). He who receives pardon, says St. Augustine, is pardoned through the pure mercy of God; and they who are chastised, are justly punished. How many has God sent to Hell for the first offense? St. Gregory relates, that a child of five years, who had arrived at the use of reason, for having uttered a blasphemy, was seized by the Devil and carried to Hell. The divine Mother revealed to that great servant of God, Benedicta of Florence, that a boy of twelve years was damned after the first sin. Another boy of eight years died after his first sin, and was lost. You say: I am young; there are many who have committed more sins than I have. But is God on that account obliged to wait for your repentance if you offend Him? In the Gospel of St. Matthew (21:19), we read that the Savior cursed a fig tree the first time He saw it without fruit. "May no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. An immediately the fig tree withered away." You must, then tremble at the thought of committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been guilty of mortal sins.
"Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin to sin" (Eccl. 5:5). Say not then, O sinner: "As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will pardon me this one if I commit it." Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned. Behold how the Scripture unfolds this truth more clearly in another place. "The Lord patiently expecteth, that when the day of judgment shall come, He may punish them in the fullness of sins" (II. Mac. 6:14). God waits with patience until a certain number of sins is committed but, when the measure of guilt is filled up, He waits no longer, but chastises the sinner. "Thou hast sealed up my offenses as it were in a bag" (Job 14:17). Sinners multiply their sins without keeping any account of them; but God numbers them, that, when the harvest is ripe, that is, when the number of sins is completed, He may take vengeance on them. "Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe" (Joel 3:13).
Of this there are many examples in the Scriptures. Speaking of the Hebrews, the Lord in one place says: "All the men that have tempted Me now ten times. . . .shall not see the land" (Num. 14:22, 23). In another place, He says, that He restrained His vengeance against the Amorrhites, because the number of their sins was not completed. "For as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full" (Gen. 15:16). We have again the example of Saul who, after having disobeyed God a second time, was abandoned. He entreated Samuel to interpose before the Lord in his behalf. "Bear, I beseech thee, my sin, and return with me, that I may adore the Lord" (I Kings 15:25). But, knowing that God had abandoned Saul, Samuel answered: "I will not return with thee, because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee," etc. (5:26). Saul, you have abandoned God, and He has abandoned you. We have another example in Balthassar, who, after having profaned the vessels of the Temple, saw a hand writing on the wall, Mane, Thecel, Phares. Daniel was requested to expound the meaning of these words. In explaining the word Thecel, he said to the king: "Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting" (Dan. 5:27). By this explanation, he gave the king to understand that the weight of his sins in the balance of divine justice, had made the scale descend." The same night Balthassar, the Chaldean king, was killed" (Dan. 5:30). Oh! how many sinners have met with a similar fate! Continuing to offend God till their sins amounted to a certain number, they have been struck dead and sent to Hell! "They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to Hell" (Job 21:13). Tremble, brethren, lest if you commit another mortal sin, God should cast you into Hell.
If God chastised sinners the moment they insult Him, we should not see Him so much despised. But, because He does not instantly punish their transgressions, and because through mercy He restrains His anger and waits for their return, they are encouraged to continue to offend Him. "For, because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the children of men commit evil without any fear" (Eccles. 8:11). But it is necessary to be persuaded, that though God bears with us, He does not wait, nor bear with us forever. Expecting, as on former occasions, to escape from the snares of the Philistines, Samson continued to allow himself to be deluded by Delilah. "I will go out as I did before, and shake myself" (Judges 16:20). But "the Lord departed from him." Samson was at length taken by his enemies, and lost his life. The Lord warns you not to say: I have committed so many sins, and God has not chastised me. "Say not: I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me; for the Most High is a patient rewarder" (Eccl. 5:4). God has patience for a certain term, after which He punishes the first and last sins. And the greater has been His patience, the more severe His vengeance.
Hence, according to St. Chrysostom, God is more to be feared when He bears with sinners, than when He instantly punishes their sin. And why? Because, says St. Gregory, they to whom God has shown most mercy shall, if they do not cease to offend Him, be chastised with the greatest rigor. The saint adds that God often punishes such sinners with a sudden death, and does not allow them time for repentance. And the greater the light which God gives to certain sinners for their correction, the greater is their blindness and obstinacy in sin. "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than, after they had known it, to turn back" (II Pet. 2:21). Miserable the sinners, who, after having been enlightened, return to the vomit. St. Paul says, that it is morally impossible for them to be again converted. "For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated-have tasted also the Heavenly gifts... and are fallen away, to be renewed again to penance" (Heb. 6:4, 6).
Listen, then, O sinner, to the admonition of the Lord: "My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more, but for thy former sins pray that they may be forgiven thee" (Eccl. 21:1). Son, add not sins to those which you have already committed, but be careful to pray for the pardon of your past transgressions; otherwise, if you commit another mortal sin, the gates of divine mercy may be closed against you, and your soul may be lost forever. When then, beloved brethren, the devil tempts you again to yield to sin, say to yourself: If God pardons me no more, what shall become of me for all eternity? Should the Devil in reply, say: fear not, God is merciful; answer him by saying: What certainty or what probability have I that, if I return again to sin, God will show me mercy or grant me pardon? Behold the threat of the Lord against all who despise His calls: "Because I have called and you refused,.....I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared" (Prov. 1:24, 26). Mark the words "I also"; they mean that, as you have mocked the Lord by betraying Him again after your confession and promises of amendment, so He will mock you at the hour of death. I will laugh and will mock. But, "God is not mocked" (Gal. 6:7). "As a dog," says the Wise Man, "that returneth to his vomit, so is the fool that repeateth his folly" (Prov. 26:11). Bl. Denis the Carthusian gives an excellent exposition of this text. He says that, as a dog that eats what he has just vomited, is an object of disgust and abomination, so the sinner who returns to the sins which he has detested and confessed, becomes hateful in the sight of God.
O folly of sinners! If you purchase a house, you spare no pains to get all the securities necessary to guard against the loss of your money; if you take medicine, you are careful to assure yourself that it cannot injure you; if you pass over a river, you cautiously avoid all danger of falling into it: and for a transitory enjoyment, for the gratification of revenge, for a beastly pleasure, which lasts but a moment, you risk your eternal salvation, saying: I will go to confession after I commit this sin. And when, I ask, are you to go to confession? You say: On tomorrow. But who promises you tomorrow? Who assures you that you shall have time for confession, and that God will not deprive you of life as He has deprived so many others, in the act of sin? "Diem tenes" says St. Augustine, "qui horam non tenes." You cannot be certain of living for another hour, and you say: I will go to confession tomorrow.Listen to the words of St. Gregory: "He who has promised pardon to penitents, has not promised tomorrow to sinners" (Hom. 12 in Evan). God has promised pardon to all who repent; but He has not promised to wait until tomorrow for those who insult Him. Perhaps God will give you time for repentance, perhaps He will not. But, should He not give it, what shall become of your soul? In the meantime, for the sake of a miserable pleasure, you lose the grace of God and expose yourself to the danger of being lost forever.
Would you, for such transient enjoyments, risk your money, your honor, your possessions, your liberty, and your life? No, you would not. How then does it happen that, for a miserable gratification, you lose your soul, Heaven, and God? Tell me: do you believe that Heaven, Hell, eternity, are truths of faith? Do you believe that, if you die in sin, you are lost forever? Oh! what temerity, what folly is it, to condemn yourself voluntarily to an eternity of torments with the hope of afterwards reversing the sentence of your condemnation! "Nemo," says St. Augustine, "sub spe salutis vult aegrotare." No one can be found so foolish as to take poison with the hope of preventing its deadly effects by adopting the ordinary remedies. And you will condemn yourself to Hell, saying that you expect to be afterwards preserved from it. O folly! which, in conformity with the divine threats, has brought, and brings every day, so many to Hell. "Thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, and evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not know the rising thereof" (Isa. 47:10, 11). You have sinned, trusting rashly in the divine mercy: the punishment of your guilt shall fall suddenly upon you, and you shall not know from whence it comes. What do you say? What resolution do you make? If, after this sermon, you do not firmly resolve to give yourself to God, I weep over you and regard you as lost.
Father Michael Muller On Salvation
Father Michael Muller ranks as one of the greatest defenders of the dogma “Outside the Church there is no salvation” in modern times. He was one of the most widely read theologians of the 19th Century. This article, first published in 1875, is one of the finest treatments of the doctrinal truth that Our Lord founded one true Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.
1. Do all admit that the Catholic Church is the first and the oldest Church, and, consequently the Church established by Jesus Christ?
That the Catholic Church is the first and oldest and consequently the Church established by Jesus Christ, is and must be admitted by all, because it is a fact clearly proven by Scripture and by history.
2. Who bear witness to this fact?
The Jews and the Gentiles bear witness to it, and even Protestants themselves acknowledge it, because, if asked why they call themselves Protestants, they answer: “Because we protest against the Catholic Church.”
3. What follows from this answer?
That the Catholic Church is older than Protestantism; otherwise they could not have protested against her.
4. If we go still further back and ask the Greek Church how they came into existence, what will be their answer?
The Greek Church must answer: “We began by separating from the Catholic Church in the 9th Century.”
5. What follows from this?
That the Catholic Church existed for eight hundred years before the Greek Church began, and consequently, it is older than the Greek Church.
6. If we thus go back to the very days of the Apostles, what do we find everywhere in regard to the manner in which religious sects arose?
If we go back to the days of the Apostles, we find that every sect separated from the Catholic Church, and therefore we see Calvinists, Kilhamites, Quakers, Shakers, Panters, Seekers, Jumpers, Reformed Methodists, German Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, Baptists, Particular Baptists, Hardshell Baptists, Softshell Baptists, Forty- Gallon Baptists, Sixty- Gallon Baptists, Mennonites, Millerites, Universalists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Mormons, Christian Perfectionists, etc., etc., etc.
7. Is it not all the same to God whatever religion a person professes?
If it were all the same to God whatever religion a person professes, God would not have forbidden, in the First Commandment, to worship Him in any other than in the true religion. Nor would Christ have solemnly declared: “He who will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican.” (Matt. 18:17)
Ex Cathedra: "The Most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews, heretics, and schismatics can ever be partakers of eternal life, but that they are to go into the eternal fire ‘which was prepared for the devil and his angels,’ (Mt. 25:41) unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this Ecclesiastical Body, that only those remaining within this unity can profit from the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and that they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, almsdeeds, and other works of Christian piety and duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved unless they abide within the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church." - Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Feb. 4, 1442.
8. Who, then, will be saved?
Christ has solemnly declared that only those will be saved who have done God’s will on earth as explained, not by private interpretation, but by the infallible teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. “Not everyone,” says Christ, “who saith to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) The will of the heavenly Father is that all men hear and believe His Son, Jesus Christ. “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him.” (Luke 9:35)
Now Jesus Christ said to His Apostles and to all their lawful successors: “He that heareth you heareth Me, and he that despiseth you despiseth Me, and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him, the heavenly Father, that sent Me.” Hence all those who do not listen to Jesus Christ speaking to them through Saint Peter and the Apostles in their lawful successors, despise God the Father. They do not do His will, and therefore Heaven will never be theirs.
9. Must, then, all who wish to be saved, die united to the Catholic Church?
All those who wish to be saved, must die united to the Catholic Church. For out of her there is no salvation, because only she teaches what Jesus Christ requires of everyone to be saved, and because only to her did Christ leave the means to obtain all the graces necessary for salvation. Hence Jesus said to His Apostles and to all their lawful successors: “Go and teach all nations: teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. He that believeth not all these things shall be condemned.”
Our Divine Savior says: “No one can come to the Father, except through Me.” If we then wish to enter Heaven, we must be united to Christ — to His [Mystical] Body, which is the Church, as Saint Paul says. Therefore, outside the Church there is no salvation.
Again, Jesus Christ says: “Whoever will not hear the Church, look upon him as a heathen and a publican,” a great sinner. Therefore outside the Church there is no salvation.
Holy Scripture says: “The Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved.” (Acts 2:47) Therefore the Apostles believed and the Holy Scriptures teach that there is no salvation out of the Church.
10. What did Saint Augustine and the other bishops of Africa, at the Council of Zirta, in 412, say about the salvation of those who die outside the Roman Catholic Church?
“Whosoever,” they said, “is separated from the Catholic Church, however commendable in his own opinion his life may be, he shall for the very reason that he is separated from the union of Christ not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)
11. What does Saint Cyprian say about the salvation of those who die outside of the Roman Catholic Church?
Saint Cyprian says: “He who has not the Church for his mother cannot have God for his Father.” And with him the Fathers of the Church in general say that, “as all those who were not in the ark of Noah perished in the waters of the deluge, so shall perish all who are out of the true Church.”
12. Who are out of the pale of the Roman Catholic Church?
Out of the pale of the Roman Catholic Church are all unbaptized and all excommunicated persons, all apostates, unbelievers, and heretics. Infidels and Apostates
13. How do we know that unbaptized persons are not saved?
That unbaptized persons are not saved, we know from Christ, Who said: “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5.) For God cannot unite Himself to such souls in Heaven on account of Original Sin, with which they are defiled.
14. How do we know that persons justly excommunicated, who are unwilling to do what is required of them before they are absolved, are not saved?
Persons justly excommunicated, who are not willing to do what is required of them before they are absolved, are not saved, because the sin of great scandal, for which they were as dead members expelled from the communion of the Church, excludes them from the kingdom of Heaven.
15. Which Catholics are excommunicated?
All those Catholics are excommunicated, who are members of secret societies, which have been excommunicated [condemned] by the Church, such as Freemasonry, and other societies affiliated with it under various names.
16. Why have several Popes solemnly excommunicated all Freemasonry?
All Freemasons have been solemnly excommunicated by several Popes on account of the main object and spirit of Freemasonry, to establish heathenism or the Church of Satan all over the world:
a) By upsetting governments to obtain for themselves the power of governing and making impious laws for their subjects;
b) By trying to overthrow the Catholic Church, which teaches and maintains the rights and laws of God and civil society;
c) By spreading immoral and impious principles through the infidel press and other satanic means;
d) By establishing public schools for the infidel education of youth.
17. Is this main object and spirit known to all Freemasons?
This satanic object and spirit is known only to the members of the highest grades of Freemasonry. But it is sufficiently known to all from the works and speeches of Freemasons, and therefore every member, even of the lowest grade, is guilty of the foul deeds of this satanic society.
18. How do we know that apostates are not saved?
Apostates from the Catholic Faith are not saved, because to fall away from the Faith is a great sin, which makes one lose the kingdom of Heaven.
19. How many kinds of infidels or unbelievers are there?
There are three kinds of infidels or unbelievers: (a) Those who are guilty of the sin of infidelity; (b) those who are not guilty of the sin of infidelity, but commit other great sins; and (c) those who are not guilty of the sin of infidelity, and live up to the dictates of their conscience.
20. What kind of infidels are guilty of the sin of infidelity?
All those unbaptized persons are guilty, who do not embrace the true religion, although the truths thereof have been sufficiently made known to them — like many of the Jews of whom our Lord said that they had no excuse for their sins, because He had spoken to them.
All those unbaptized persons are guilty, who have received sufficient light to know the truth, or at least to understand the danger of their position, and the obligation of making diligent inquiries to ascertain and embrace the truth, but neglect to do so.
And all those are guilty of the sin of infidelity, who willfully deny the truth and obstinately resist it.
"We must mention and condemn again that most pernicious error which has been imbibed by certain Catholics who are of the opinion that those people who live in error and have not the true faith and are separated from Catholic unity, may obtain life everlasting. Now this opinion is most contrary to the Catholic faith, as is evident from the plain words of Our Lord, (Matt 18:17; Mark 16:16; Luke 10:16; John 3:18) as also from the words of Saint Paul (2 Tit. 52:11) and of Saint Peter (2 Peter 2:1) To entertain opinions contrary to this Catholic faith is to be an impious wretch." - Blessed Pope Pius IX
21. Why is it that positive infidels are not saved?
Positive infidels are not saved because, “positive infidelity, being willful obstinacy, palpable contradiction, and public contempt of divine revelation and of the precepts of the Gospel, is one of the most grievous sins in the sight of God and of His Holy Church,” says Saint Thomas Aquinas.
22. Explain the grievousness of the sin of infidelity.
Mortal sin is a deviation from virtue and divine law. The most heinous sin, therefore, is that which separates man from God more than any other. Now, no sin causes a greater separation from God than that of positive infidelity. When the intellect is in error and abandons the knowledge of God, the will follows it and increases in malice in proportion as the intellect turns away from the path of truth, justice, and charity. Each step that such a man takes in the darkness of infidelity, increases the distance that separates him from God. A return from that dangerous course is very difficult, for when the intellect is in error and the will is filled with malice and depravity, all the bonds capable of uniting man to God are torn asunder.
If such men die in this disposition of mind they are infallibly lost, says Saint Thomas. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. 11:6)
23. Which kind of infidels are not guilty of the sin of infidelity, but commit other grievous sins?
Those who are not guilty of the sin of infidelity, but commit other grievous sins, are all those unbaptized persons who never had an opportunity of knowing the true religion, or of becoming aware of the obligation of seeking and embracing it, but who do not live up to the dictates of their conscience.
24. Will this class of infidels be lost?
This class of infidels will be lost, not on account of their infidelity, which was no sin for them, but on account of other grievous sins which they committed against their conscience. “For whosoever have sinned without the law,” says Saint Paul, “shall perish without the law.” (Romans 2:12)
25. Will those infidels be lost, who are not guilty of the sin of infidelity and live up to their conscience?
Of those infidels who are not guilty of the sin of infidelity and are faithful in obeying the voice of their conscience, Saint Thomas Aquinas says: “If anyone was brought up in the wilderness or among brute beasts, and if he followed the law of nature to desire what is good, and to avoid what is wicked, we should certainly believe that God, by an inward inspiration, would reveal to him what he should believe, or would send someone to preach the Faith to him, as He sent Peter to Cornelius.”
Heresy Explained
26. What is the meaning of the word “heretic”?
The word “heretic” is derived from the Greek, and means “a chooser.”
27. What is a heretic?
A heretic is any baptized person, professing Christianity, and choosing for himself what to believe and what not to believe as he pleases, in obstinate opposition to any particular truth which he knows is taught by the Catholic Church as a truth revealed by God.
28. How many things, then, are required to make a person guilty of the sin of heresy?
To make a person guilty of the sin of heresy, three things are required:
a) He must be baptized and profess Christianity. This distinguishes him from a Jew and idolater;
b) He must refuse to believe a truth revealed by God, and taught by the Church as so revealed;
c) He must obstinately adhere to error, preferring his own private judgment in matters of faith and morals to the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church.
29. How many kinds of heretics (Protestants) are there?
There are three kinds of heretics:
a) Those who are guilty of the sin of heresy;
b) Those who are not guilty of the sin of heresy, but commit other grievous sins;
c) Those who are not guilty of the sin of heresy and live up to the dictates of their conscience.
30. Who are guilty of the sin of heresy?
Of the sin of heresy are guilty:
a) All those baptized persons, who profess Christianity and obstinately reject a truth revealed by God and taught by the Church as so revealed;
b) Those who embrace an opinion contrary to Faith, maintain it obstinately, and refuse to submit to the authority of the Catholic Church;
c) Those who willfully doubt the truth of an article of Faith, for by such willful doubt they actually question God’s knowledge and truth, and to do this is to be guilty of heresy;
d) Those who know the Catholic Church to be the only true Church, but do not embrace her faith;
e) Those who could know the Church, if they would candidly search, but who, through indifference and other culpable motives, neglect to do so;
f) Those who, like the Anglicans, think that they approach very near the Catholic Church, because their prayers and ceremonies are like many prayers and ceremonies of the Catholic Church, and because their Creed is the Apostles’ Creed. These are heretics in principle, for, “The real character of rank heresy,” says St. Thomas Aquinas, “consists in want of submission to the divine teaching authority in the Head of the Church.”
31. Why are true heretics lost?
True heretics are lost because by rejecting the divine teacher — the Catholic Church — they reject all divine teaching, to do which is one of the greatest sins. Hence Pope Pius IX spoke of Protestantism in all its forms as “the great revolt against God,” it being an attempt to substitute a human for a divine authority, and a declaration of the creature’s independence from the Creator. For this reason Holy Scripture condemns heresy in the strongest terms. “A man,” says St. Paul, “that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid; knowing that he who is such a one is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment.” (Tit. 3:10-11) And again he says: “Though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach a Gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema,” that is, “accursed”. (Gal. 1:8)
Heretics are lost because they have no divine Faith. “To reject but one article of Faith taught by the Church,” says St. Thomas Aquinas, “is enough to destroy Faith, as one mortal sin is enough to destroy Charity. For the virtue of Faith does not consist merely in adhering to the Holy Scriptures, and in revering them as the Word of God; it consists principally in submitting our intellect and will to the divine authority of the true Church charged by Jesus Christ to expound them. “I would not believe the Holy Scriptures,” says St. Augustine, “were it not for the divine authority of the Church.” He, therefore, who despises and rejects this authority, cannot have true Faith. If he admits some supernatural truths, they are but simple opinions, as he makes those truths depend on his private judgment.
And as divine Faith is the beginning of salvation, the foundation and source of justification, and is found only in the true Church, it is clear that there is no salvation for one as long as he is a heretic.
Heresy Denies All Faith
32. Have heretics faith in Jesus Christ?
Saint Thomas Aquinas says: “It is absurd for a heretic to say that he believes in Jesus Christ. To believe in a person is to give our full consent to His word and to all He teaches. True Faith, therefore, is absolute belief in Jesus Christ and in all He taught. Hence, he who does not adhere to all that Jesus Christ has prescribed for our salvation, has no more the doctrine of Jesus Christ and of His Church, than the pagans, Jews, and Turks have.” “He is,” says Jesus Christ, “but a heathen and a publican”; and therefore he will be condemned to hell.
33. Show how Protestants have no absolute faith in Christ.
Jesus Christ says: “Hear the Church.” “No,” say Luther and all Protestants, “do not hear the Church; protest against her with all your might.”
Jesus Christ says: “If anyone will not hear the Church, look upon him as a heathen and a publican.” “No,” says Protestantism, “if anyone does not hear the Church, look upon him as an apostle, an ambassador of God.”
Jesus Christ says: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against My Church.” “No,” says Protestantism. “ ’Tis false, the gates of hell have prevailed against the Church for a thousand years and more.”
Jesus Christ has declared Saint Peter and every successor to Saint Peter — the Pope — to be His Vicar on earth. “No,” says Protestantism, “the Pope is anti- Christ”.
Jesus Christ says: “My yoke is sweet, and My burden light.” (Matt. 11:30) “No,” said Luther and Calvin, “it is impossible to keep the Commandments.”
Jesus Christ says: “if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Matt. 19:17) “No,” said Luther and Calvin, “faith alone, without good works, is sufficient to enter into life everlasting.”
Jesus Christ says: “Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish.” (cf. Luke 13:3) “No,” said Luther and Calvin, “fasting and other works of penance are not necessary in satisfaction for sin.”
Jesus Christ says: “This is My Body.” “No,” said Calvin, “this is only the figure of Christ’s Body; it will become His Body as soon as you receive It.”
Jesus Christ says: “I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.” (Matt. 19:9) “No,” say Luther and all Protestants, to a married man, “you may put away your wife, get a divorce, and marry another.”
Jesus Christ says to every man: “Thou shalt not steal.” “No,” said Luther to secular princes, “I give you the right to appropriate to yourselves the property of the Roman Catholic Church.”
34. Do heretics speak in this manner also of the Holy Ghost and the Apostles?
They do. The Holy Ghost says in Holy Scripture: “Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred.” (Eccles. 9:1) “Who can say: My heart is clean, I am pure from sin?” (Prov. 20:9) And, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philip. 2:12) “No,” said Luther and Calvin, “but whosoever believes in Jesus Christ, is in the state of grace.”
Saint Paul says: “If I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” (1 Cor. 13:2) “No,” said Luther and Calvin, “faith alone is sufficient to save us.”
Saint Peter says that in the Epistles of Saint Paul there are many things “hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as also the other Scriptures, to their own perdition.” (2 Pet. 3:16) “No,” said Luther and Calvin, “the Scriptures are very plain, and easy to be understood.”
Saint James says: “Is anyone sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil, in the name of the Lord.” (Chapter 5, verse 14) “No,” said Luther and Calvin, “that is a vain and useless ceremony.”
35. Now, do you think God the Father will admit into Heaven those who thus contradict His Son Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, and the Apostles?
No, He will let them have their portion with Lucifer in hell, who first rebelled against Christ, and who is the father of liars.
36. Can a Christian be saved, who has left the true Church of Christ, the Holy Catholic Church?
No, because the Church of Christ is the kingdom of God on earth, and he who leaves that kingdom, shuts himself out from the kingdom of Christ in Heaven.
37. Have Protestants left the true Church of Christ?
Protestants left the true Church of Christ in their founders, who left the Catholic Church either through pride or through the passion of lust and covetousness.
38. What will be the punishment of those who willfully rebel against the Holy Catholic Church?
Those who willfully rebel against the Holy Catholic Church, will, like Lucifer and the other rebellious angels, be cast into the everlasting flames of hell. “He who will not hear the Church,” says Christ, “let him be to thee as the heathen and publican.” (Matt. 18:17)
39. But if a Protestant should say: “I have nothing to do with Luther or Calvin or Henry VIII or John Knox, I go by the Bible,” what would you answer him?
In that case, you adopt, and go by, the principles and spirit of the authors of heresies, and you change the written Word of God into the word of man, because you interpret Holy Scripture in your own private manner, giving it that meaning which you choose to give it, and thus, instead of believing the Word of God, you believe rather your own private interpretation of it, which is but the word of man. Hence, Saint Augustine says: “You who believe what you please, and reject what you please, believe yourselves or your own fancy rather than the Gospel.”
Inculpable Ignorance
40. Which Protestants are not guilty of the sin of heresy, but commit other great sins?
Those who are Protestants without their fault and who never had an opportunity of knowing better, are not guilty of the sin of heresy; but if they do not live up to the dictates of their conscience, they will be lost, not on account of their heresy, which for them was no sin, but on account of other grievous sins which they committed.
41. Will those heretics be saved, who are not guilty of the sin of heresy, and are faithful in living up to the dictates of their conscience?
Inculpable ignorance of the true religion excuses a heathen from the sin of infidelity, and a Protestant from the sin of heresy. But such ignorance has never been the means of salvation. From the fact that a person who lives up to the dictates of his conscience, and who cannot sin against the true religion on account of being ignorant of it, many have drawn the false conclusion that such a person is saved, or, in other words, is in the state of sanctifying grace, thus making ignorance a means of salvation or justification.
If we sincerely wish not to make great mistakes in explaining the great revealed truth, “Out of the Church there is no salvation,” we must remember:
a) That there are four great truths of salvation, which everyone must know and believe in order to be saved;
b) That no one can go to Heaven unless he is in the state of sanctifying grace;
c) That, in order to receive sanctifying grace, the soul must be prepared for it by divine Faith, Hope, Charity, true sorrow for sin with the firm purpose of doing all that God requires the soul to believe and to do, in order to be saved;
d) That this preparation of the soul cannot be brought by inculpable ignorance. And if such ignorance cannot even dispose the soul for receiving the grace of justification, it can much less give this grace to the soul. Inculpable ignorance has never been a means of grace or salvation, not even for the inculpably ignorant people that live up to their conscience. But of this class of ignorant persons we say, with Saint Thomas Aquinas, that God in His mercy will lead these souls to the knowledge of the necessary truths of salvation, even send them an angel, if necessary, to instruct them, rather than let them perish without their fault. If they accept this grace, they will be saved as Catholics.
Other Questions
42. But is it not a very uncharitable doctrine to say that no one can be saved out of the Church?
On the contrary, it is a very great act of charity to assert most emphatically, that out of the Catholic Church there is no salvation possible; for Jesus Christ and His Apostles have taught this doctrine in very plain language. He who sincerely seeks the truth is glad to hear it, and embrace it, in order to be saved.
43. But is it not said in Holy Scripture: “He that feareth God, and worketh justice, is acceptable to Him?”
This is true. But we must remember that he who fears God, will also believe all the truths that God has revealed, as Cornelius did. (Acts, Chapter 10) He believes Jesus Christ when He speaks to us through the pastors of His Church. But he who does not believe all the truths that God has revealed, but instead believes and rejects whatever he chooses, does not fear God, and cannot work justice. “He that believeth not the Son of God” — Jesus Christ — “maketh Him a liar,” says Saint John (1 John 5:10); and will, on this account, be condemned to hell.
44. But are there not many who would lose the affections of their friends, their comfortable homes, their temporal goods, and prospects in business, were they to become Catholics? Would not Jesus Christ excuse them, under such circumstances, from becoming Catholics?
As to the affection of friends, Jesus Christ has solemnly declared: “He who loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10:37) And as to the loss of temporal gain He has answered: “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
45. But would it not be enough for such a one to be a Catholic in heart only, without professing his religion publicly?
No, for Jesus Christ has solemnly declared that, “He who shall be ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man shall be ashamed when He shall come in His majesty, and that of His Father, and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:26)
46. But might not such a one safely put off being received into the Church till the hour of death?
To put off being received into the Church till the hour of death is to abuse the mercy of God, and to expose oneself to the danger of losing the light and grace of Faith, and die a reprobate.
47. What else keeps many from becoming Catholics?
Many know very well that, if they become Catholics, they must lead honest and sober lives, be pure, and check their sinful passions, and this they are unwilling to do. “Men love darkness rather than light,” says Jesus Christ, “because their deeds are evil.” There are none so deaf as those that will not hear.
48. What follows from the fact that salvation can be found only in the Roman Catholic Church?
It follows that it is very impious for anyone to think and to say that it matters little what a man believes provided he be an honest man.
49. What answer can you give to a man who speaks thus?
A man who says, “it matters little what a man believes, provided he be an honest man,” I would ask whether or not he believed that his honesty and justice were so great as that of the Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel. They were constant in prayer; they paid tithes according to the law, gave great alms, fasted twice a week, and compassed the sea and land to make a convert and bring him to the knowledge of the true God.
50. What did Jesus Christ say of this justice of the Pharisees?
He says: “Unless your justice shall exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matt. 5:20)
51. Was, then, the righteousness of the Pharisees very defective in the sight of God?
The righteousness of the Pharisees was most undoubtedly very defective. Their righteousness was all outward show and ostentation. They did good only to be praised and admired by men; but within their souls they were full of impurity and malice. They were lewd hypocrites, who concealed great vices under the beautiful appearance of love for God, charity to the poor, and severity to themselves. Their devotion consisted in exterior acts, and they despised all who did not live as they did. They were strict in the religious observances of human traditions, but scrupled not to violate the Commandments of God.
52. What are we then to think of those who say: “It matters little what a man believes, provided he be honest?”
Of those who say this, we think that their exterior honesty, like that of the Pharisees, may be sufficient to keep them out of prison, but not out of hell.
Pius IX Answers
53. But did not Pope Pius IX say that all men, however alienated from Catholic union they remain, are alike in the way of salvation and may obtain life everlasting?
To this calumnious report of certain newspapers, Pope Pius IX replied: “in our times, many of the enemies of the Catholic Faith direct their efforts towards placing every monstrous opinion on the same level with the doctrine of Christ, or confounding it therewith; and so they try more and more to propagate that impious system of the indifference of religions. But quite recently — we shudder to say — certain men have not hesitated to slander us by saying that we share in their folly, favor that most wicked system, and think so benevolently of every class of mankind as to suppose that not only the sons of the Church, but that the rest also, however alienated from Catholic unity they may remain, are alike in the way of salvation, and may arrive at everlasting life. We are at a loss, from horror, to find words to express our detestation of this new and atrocious injustice that is done us.
“We love, indeed, all mankind with the inmost affection of our heart, yet not otherwise than in the love of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who came to seek and to save that which had perished, Who died for all, Who wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth; Who, therefore, sent His disciples into the whole world to preach the Gospel to every creature, proclaiming that those who should believe and be baptized should be saved, but that those who should not believe should be condemned.
“Let those, therefore, who wish to be saved, come to the pillar and the ground of Faith, which is the Church; let them come to the true Church of Christ, which, in her bishops and in the Roman Pontiff, the chief head of all, has the succession of apostolical authority which has never been interrupted, which has never counted anything of greater importance than to preach, and by all means to keep and defend the doctrine proclaimed by the Apostles at Christ’s command.” (Allocution to the Cardinals held on December 17, 1847)
54. What conclusion, therefore, should every non-Catholic draw from this conviction?
From this conviction, every non-Catholic should draw the practical conclusion to become a Catholic. For when there is a question about eternal salvation and eternal damnation, a sensible man will take the surest way to Heaven.
Father Michael Muller ranks as one of the greatest defenders of the dogma “Outside the Church there is no salvation” in modern times. He was one of the most widely read theologians of the 19th Century. This article, first published in 1875, is one of the finest treatments of the doctrinal truth that Our Lord founded one true Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.
Friday, January 8, 2010
On Human respect by Saint Alphonusus Liguori
Sermon 27 - Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension
Human Respect.
“Venit hora ut omnis qui interficit vos, arbitretur obsequium se præstare Deo.”
“Yea the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God.” -- John, xvi. 2.
In exhorting his disciples to be faithful to him under the persecution which they were to endure, the Saviour said: Yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God. Thus, the enemies of the faith believed that in putting Christians to death they did a service to God. It is thus that many Christians of the present clay act. They kill their own souls by losing the grace of God through human respect and to please worldly friends. Oh, how many souls has human respect--that great enemy of our salvation--sent to hell! I shall speak on this subject to-day, that, if you wish to serve God and save your souls, you may guard as much as possible against human respect. In the first point, I will show the importance of not being influenced by human respect; and in the second, I will point out the means by which this vice may be overcome.
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT BEING INFLUENCED BY HUMAN RESPECT.
Woe to the world because of scandals.1 Jesus Christ has said, that through the scandals of the wicked, many souls fall into hell. But how is it possible to live in the midst of the world, and not to take scandal? This is impossible. To avoid taking scandal, St. Paul says, we should leave this world. Otherwise you must needs go out of this world.2 But it is in our power to avoid familiarity with scandalous sinners. Hence the Apostle adds: But now I have written to you not to keep company . . . with such an one, not as much as to eat.3 We should be aware of contracting intimacy with such sinners; for, should we be united with them in the bonds of friendship, we shall feel an unwillingness to oppose their bad practices and bad counsels. Thus, through human respect and the fear of contradicting them, we will imitate their example , and lose the friendship of God.
Such lovers of the world not only glory in their own iniquities (They rejoice in most wicked things);4 but what is worse, they wish to have companions, and ridicule all who endeavour to live like true Christians and to avoid the dangers of offending God. This is a sin which is very displeasing to God, and which he forbids in a particular manner. Despise not a man that turneth away from sin, nor reproach him therewith.5 Despise not those who keep at a distance from sin, and seek not to draw them to evil by your reproaches and irregularities. The Lord declares, that, for those who throw ridicule on the virtuous, chastisements are prepared in this and in the next life. Judgements are prepared for scorners, and striking hammers for the bodies of fools.6 They mock the servants of God, and he shall mock them for all eternity. But the Lord shall laugh them to scorn. And they shall fall after this without honour, and be a reproach among the dead forever.7 They endeavour to make the saints contemptible in the eyes of the world, and God shall make them die without honour, and shall send them to hell to suffer eternal ignominy among the damned.
Not only to offend God. but also to endeavour to make others offend him, is truly an enormous excess of wickedness. This execrable intention arises from a conviction that there are many weak and pusillanimous souls, who, to escape derision and contempt, abandon the practice of virtue, and give themselves up to a life of sin. After his conversion to God, St. Augustine wept for having associated with those ministers of Lucifer, and confessed that he felt ashamed not to be as wicked and as shame less as they were, says the saint.8 How many, to avoid the scoffs of wicked friends, have been induced to imitate their wickedness. “Behold the saint,” these impious scoffers will say; “get me a piece of his garment; I will preserve it as a relic. Why does he not become a monk?” How many also when they receive an insult resolve to take revenge, not so much through passion, as to escape the reputation of being cowards! How many are there who, after having inadvertently given expression to a scandalous maxim, neglect to retract it (as they are bound to do), through fear of losing the esteem of others! How many, because they are afraid of forfeiting the favour of a friend, sell their souls to the devil! They imitate the conduct of Pilate, who, through the apprehension of losing the friendship of Caesar, condemned Jesus Christ to death.
Be attentive. Brethren, if we wish to save our souls, we must overcome; human respect, and bear the little confusion which may arise from the scoffs of the enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ. For there is a shame that bringeth sin, and there is a shame that bringeth glory and grace.9 If we do not suffer this confusion with patience, it will lead us into the pit of sin; but if we submit to it for God’s sake, it will obtain for us the divine grace here, and great glory hereafter. “As,” says St. Gregory, “bashfulness is laudable in evil, so it is reprehensible in good.”10
But some of you will say: I attend to my own affairs; I wish to save my soul; why then should I be persecuted? But there is no remedy; it is impossible to serve God, and not be persecuted. The wicked loathe them that are in the right way.11 Sinners cannot bear the sight of the man who lives according to the Gospel, because his life is a continual censure on their disorderly conduct; and therefore they say: Let us lie in wait for the just; because he is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law.12 The proud man, who seeks revenge for every insult which he receives, would wish that all should avenge the offences that may be offered to him. The avaricious, who grow rich by injustice, wish that all should imitate their fraudulent practices. The drunkard wishes to see others indulge like himself in intoxication. The immoral, who boast of their impurities, and can scarcely utter a word which does not savour of obscenity, desire that all should act and speak as they do; and those who do not imitate their conduct, they regard as mean, clownish, and intractable as men without honour and education. They are of the world, therefore of the world they speak.13 Worldlings can speak no other language than that of the world. Oh, how great is their poverty and blindness! She has blinded them, and therefore they speak so profanely. These things they thought, and were deceived; for their own malice blinded them.14
But I say again that there is no remedy. All, as St. Paul says, who wish to live in union with Jesus Christ must be persecuted by the world. And all that will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution.15 All the saints have been persecuted. You say: I do not injure any one; why then am I not left in peace? What evil have the saints, and particularly the martyrs, done? They were full of charity; they loved all, and laboured to do good to all; and how have they been treated by the world? They have been flayed alive; they have been tortured with red-hot plates of iron; and have been put to death in the most cruel manner. And whom has Jesus Christ--the Saint of saints--injured? lie consoled all; he healed all. Virtue went out from Him, and healed all.16 And how has the world treated him? It has persecuted him, so as to make him die through pain on the infamous gibbet of the cross.
This happens because the maxims of the world are diametrically opposed to the maxims of Jesus Christ. What the world esteems, Jesus Christ regards as folly. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.17 And what is foolish in the eyes of the world--that is, crosses, sickness, contempt, and ignominies--Jesus Christ holds in great estimation. For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness.18 How, says St. Cyprian, can a man think himself to be a Christian, when he is afraid to be a Christian?19 If we are Christians, let us show that we are Christians in name and in truth; for, if we are ashamed of Jesus Christ, he will be ashamed of us, and cannot give us a place on his right hand on the last day. For he that shall be ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of man shall he ashamed when He shall come in His majesty.20 On the day of judgment he shall say: You have been ashamed of me on earth: I am now ashamed to see you with me in paradise. Begone, accursed souls; go into hell to meet your companions who have been ashamed of me. But mark the words: he that shall be ashamed of Me and of My words.21 St. Augustine says that some are ashamed to deny Jesus Christ, but do not blush to deny the maxims of Jesus Christ.22 But you may tell me that, if you say you cannot do such an act, because it is contrary to the Gospel, your friends will turn you into ridicule, and will call you a hypocrite. Then, says St. John Chrysostom, you will not suffer to be treated with derision by a companion and you are content to be hated by God!23
The Apostle, who gloried in being a follower of Christ, said: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world.24 As I am a person crucified to the world--an object of its scoffs and injustice, so the world is to me an object of contempt and abomination. It is necessary to be convinced that if we do not trample on the world, the world will trample on our souls. But what is the world and all its goods? All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life.25 To what are all the goods of this earth reduced? To riches, which are but dung; to honours, which are only smoke; and to carnal pleasures. But what shall all these profit us if we lose our souls? What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole, world, and suffer the loss of his soul?26
He that loves God and wishes to save his soul must despise the world and all human respect; and to do this every one must offer violence to himself. St. Mary Magdalene had to do great violence to herself in order to overcome human respect and the murmurings and scoffs of the world, when, in the presence of so many persons, she cast herself at the feet of Jesus Christ to wash them with her tears and dry them with her hair. But she thus became a saint, and merited from Jesus Christ pardon of her sins, and praise for her great love. Many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much.27 One day, as St. Francis Borgia carried to certain prisoners a vessel of broth under his cloak, he met his son mounted on a fine horse, and accompanied by certain noblemen. The saint felt ashamed to show what he carried under his cloak. But what did he do in order to conquer human respect? He took the vessel of broth, placed it on his head, and thus showed his contempt for the world. Jesus Christ, our head and master, when nailed to the cross, was mocked by the soldiers. If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.28 He was mocked by the priests, saying: He saved others; Himself He cannot save.29 But he remained firm on the cross; he cheerfully died upon it, and thus conquered the world.
“I give thanks to God,” says St. Jerome, “that I am worthy to be hated by the world.”30 The saint returns thanks to God for having made him worthy of the hatred of the world. Jesus Christ pronounced his disciples blessed when they should be hated by men. Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you.31 Christians, let us rejoice; for, if worldlings curse and upbraid us, God at the same time praises and blesses us. They will curse, and Thou wilt bless.32 Is it not enough for us to be praised by God, to be praised by the queen of heaven, by all the angels, by all the saints, and by all just men? Let worldlings say what they wish; but let us continue to please God, who will give us, in the next life, a reward proportioned to the violence we shall have done to ourselves in despising the contradictions of men. Each of you should figure to himself that there is no one in the world but himself and God. When the wicked treat us with contempt, let us recommend to God these blind and miserable men who run in the road to perdition; and let us thank the Lord for giving to us the light which he refuses to them. Let us continue in our own way: to obtain all, it is necessary to conquer all.
2. THE MEANS OF OVERCOMING HUMAN RESPECT.
To overcome human respect, it is necessary to fix in our hearts the holy resolution of preferring the grace of God to all the goods and favours of this world, and to say with St. Paul: Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, . . . nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God.33 Jesus Christ exhorts us not to be afraid of those who can take away the life of the body; but to fear him only who can condemn the soul and body to hell. And fear you not them that kill the body; but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body into hell.34 We wish either to follow God or the world: if we wish to follow God we must give up the world. How long do you halt between two sides? said Elias to the people. If the Lord be God, follow Him.35 You cannot serve God and the world. He that seeks to please men cannot please God. If, says the Apostle, I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.36
The true servants of God rejoice to see themselves despised and maltreated for the sake of Jesus Christ. The holy apostles went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus.37 Moses could have prevented the anger of Pharaoh by not contradicting the current report that he was the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. But he denied that he: was her son, preferring, as St. Paul says, the opprobrium of Christ to all the riches of the world. Choosing rather to be afflicted with the people of God; . . . esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of the Egyptians.38
Wicked friends come to you and say: What extravagances are those in which you indulge? Why do you not act like others? Say to them in answer: My conduct is not opposed to that of all men; there are others who lead a holy life. They are indeed few; but I will follow their example: for the Gospel says: Many are called, but few are chosen.39 “ If,” says St. John Climacus, “you wish to be saved with the few, live like the few.”40 But, they will add, do you not see that all murmur against you, and condemn your manner of living? Let your answer be: It is enough for me that God does not censure my conduct. Is it not better to obey God than to obey men? Such was the answer of St. Peter and St. John to the Jewish priests: If it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, judge ye.41 If they ask you how can you bear an insult? or how, after submitting to it, can you appear among your equals? answer them by saying that you are a Christian, and that it is enough for you to appear well in the eyes of God. Such should be your answer to all those satellites of Satan: you must despise all their maxims and reproaches. And when it is necessary to reprove those who make little of God’s law, you must take courage and correct them publicly.
Them that sin, reprove before all.42 And when there is question of the divine honour, we should not be frightened by the dignity of the man who offends God; let us say to him openly: This is sinful; it cannot be done. Let us imitate the Baptist, who reproved King Herod for living with his brother’s wife, and said to him: It is not lawful for thee to have her.43 Men indeed shall regard us as fools, and turn us into derision: but on the day of judgment they shall acknowledge that they have been foolish, and we shall have the glory of being numbered among the saints. They shall say: These are they whom we had sometime in derision. . . . We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour. Behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints.44
1“Væ mundo a scandalis.” Matth. xviii. 7.
2“Alioquin debueratis de hoc mundo exiisse.” -- 1 Cor. v. 10.
3“Nunc autem scripsi vobis non commisceri . . . cum ejusmodi, nec cibum sumere.”
4“Exsultant in rebus pessimis.” -- Prov. ii. 14.
5“Ne despicias hominem avertentem se a peccato, neque impro peres ei.” -- Ecclus. viii. 6.
6“Parata sunt derisoribus judicia, et mallei percutientes stultorum corporibus.” -- Prov. xix. 29.
7“Illos autem Dominus irridebit; et erunt post hæc decidentes sine honore, et in contumelia inter mortuos in perpetuum.” -- Wisd. iv. 18.
8Pudebat me non esse impudentem.” -- Conf. l. 2. c. 9.
9“Est enim confusio adducens peccatum, et est confusio adducens gloriam et gratiam.” -- Ecclus. iv. 25.
10“Sicut verecundia laudabilis est in malo, ita reprehenibilis est in bono.” -- In Ezech. hom. 10.
11“Abominantur impii eos qui in recta sunt via.” -- Prov. xxxix. 27.
12“Circumveniamus ergo justum, quoniam inutilis est nobis, et contrarius est operibus nostris, et improperat nobis peccata legis.” -- Wisd. ii. 12.
13“Ipsi de mundo sunt: ideo de mundo loquuntur.” -- 1 Jo. iv. 5.
14“Hæc cogitaverunt, et erraverunt: excæcavit enim illos malitia eorum.” -- Wisd. ii. 21.
15“Omnes qui pie volunt vivere in Christo Jesu, percutionem patientur.” -- 2 Tim. iii. 12.
16“Virtus de illo exibat, et sanabat omnes.” -- Luke, vi. 19.
17“Sapientia enim hujus mundi, stultitia est apud Deum.” -- 1 Cor. iii. 19.
18“Verbum enim crucis pereuntibus quidem stultitia est.” -- 1 Cor. i. 18.
19“Christianum se putat, qui christianus esse veretur?” -- De Lapsis.
20“Qui me erubuerit, et meos sermones, hunc Filius hominis erubescet, cum venerit in majestate sua.” -- Luke, ix. 26.
21“Qui me erubuerit: et sermones meos.”
22“Erubescunt negare Christum, et non erubescunt negare verba Christi.”
23“Non vis a conservo derideri, sed odio haberi a Deo tuo?” -- In Act. Apost. hom. 41.
24“Mihi mundus crucifixus est, et ego mundo.” -- Gal. vi. 14.
25“Omne quod est in mundo, concupiscentia carnis est, et concupiscentia oculorum, et superbia vitæ.” -- 1 Jo. ii. 16.
26“Quid enim prodest homini, si mundum universum lucretur, animæ vero suæ detrimentum patiatur?” -- Matth. xvi. 26.
27“Remittuntur ei peccata multa, quoniam dilexit multum.” -- Luke, vii. 47.
28“Si FIlius Dei es, descende de cruce.”
29“Alios salvos fecit, seipsum non potest salvum facere.” -- Matth. xxvii. 40-42.
30“Gratias ago Deo meo, quod dignus sim, quem mundus oderit.” -- Ep. ad Asellam.
31“Beati eritis, cum vos oderint homines.” -- Luke, vi. 22.
32“Maledicent illi, et tu benedices.” -- Ps. cviii. 28.
33“Neque mors, neque vita, neque angeli, neque principatus, . . . neque creatura alia poterit nos separare a charitate Dei.” -- Rom. viii. 38.
34“Nolite timere eos qui occidunt corpus, . . . sed potius timete eum qui potest et animam et corpus perdere in gehennam.” -- Matth. x. 28.
35“Usquequo clandicatis in duas partes? Si Dominus est Deus, sequimini eum; si autem Baal, sequimini illum.” -- 3 Kings, xviii. 21.
36“Si adhuc hominibus placerem, Christi servus non essem.” -- Gal. i. 16.
37“Ibant gaudentes a conspectu concilii, quoniam digni habiti sunt pro nomine Jesu contumeliam pati.” -- Acts, v. 41.
38“Magis eligens affligi cum populo Dei, . . . majores divitias æstimans, thesauro Ægyptiorum, improperium Christi.” -- Heb. xi. 25.
39“Multi enim sunt vocati, pauci vero electi.” -- Matth. xx. 16.
40“Vive ut pauci, ut cum paucis inveniri merearis in regno Dei.” -- De Inst. l. 4. c. 38.
41“Si justum est in conspectu Dei, vos potius audire, quam Deum, judicate.” -- Acts, iv. 19.
42“Peccantes, coram omnibus argue.” -- 1 Tim. v. 20.
43“non licet tibi habere eam.” -- Matth. xiv. 4.
44“Hi sunt quos habuimus aliquando in derisum. . . . Nos insensati vitam illorum æstimabamus insaniam, et finem illorum sine honore; ecce quomodo computati sunt inter filios Dei, et inter Sanctos sors illorum est.” -- Wisd. v. 3.
Human Respect.
“Venit hora ut omnis qui interficit vos, arbitretur obsequium se præstare Deo.”
“Yea the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God.” -- John, xvi. 2.
In exhorting his disciples to be faithful to him under the persecution which they were to endure, the Saviour said: Yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God. Thus, the enemies of the faith believed that in putting Christians to death they did a service to God. It is thus that many Christians of the present clay act. They kill their own souls by losing the grace of God through human respect and to please worldly friends. Oh, how many souls has human respect--that great enemy of our salvation--sent to hell! I shall speak on this subject to-day, that, if you wish to serve God and save your souls, you may guard as much as possible against human respect. In the first point, I will show the importance of not being influenced by human respect; and in the second, I will point out the means by which this vice may be overcome.
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT BEING INFLUENCED BY HUMAN RESPECT.
Woe to the world because of scandals.1 Jesus Christ has said, that through the scandals of the wicked, many souls fall into hell. But how is it possible to live in the midst of the world, and not to take scandal? This is impossible. To avoid taking scandal, St. Paul says, we should leave this world. Otherwise you must needs go out of this world.2 But it is in our power to avoid familiarity with scandalous sinners. Hence the Apostle adds: But now I have written to you not to keep company . . . with such an one, not as much as to eat.3 We should be aware of contracting intimacy with such sinners; for, should we be united with them in the bonds of friendship, we shall feel an unwillingness to oppose their bad practices and bad counsels. Thus, through human respect and the fear of contradicting them, we will imitate their example , and lose the friendship of God.
Such lovers of the world not only glory in their own iniquities (They rejoice in most wicked things);4 but what is worse, they wish to have companions, and ridicule all who endeavour to live like true Christians and to avoid the dangers of offending God. This is a sin which is very displeasing to God, and which he forbids in a particular manner. Despise not a man that turneth away from sin, nor reproach him therewith.5 Despise not those who keep at a distance from sin, and seek not to draw them to evil by your reproaches and irregularities. The Lord declares, that, for those who throw ridicule on the virtuous, chastisements are prepared in this and in the next life. Judgements are prepared for scorners, and striking hammers for the bodies of fools.6 They mock the servants of God, and he shall mock them for all eternity. But the Lord shall laugh them to scorn. And they shall fall after this without honour, and be a reproach among the dead forever.7 They endeavour to make the saints contemptible in the eyes of the world, and God shall make them die without honour, and shall send them to hell to suffer eternal ignominy among the damned.
Not only to offend God. but also to endeavour to make others offend him, is truly an enormous excess of wickedness. This execrable intention arises from a conviction that there are many weak and pusillanimous souls, who, to escape derision and contempt, abandon the practice of virtue, and give themselves up to a life of sin. After his conversion to God, St. Augustine wept for having associated with those ministers of Lucifer, and confessed that he felt ashamed not to be as wicked and as shame less as they were, says the saint.8 How many, to avoid the scoffs of wicked friends, have been induced to imitate their wickedness. “Behold the saint,” these impious scoffers will say; “get me a piece of his garment; I will preserve it as a relic. Why does he not become a monk?” How many also when they receive an insult resolve to take revenge, not so much through passion, as to escape the reputation of being cowards! How many are there who, after having inadvertently given expression to a scandalous maxim, neglect to retract it (as they are bound to do), through fear of losing the esteem of others! How many, because they are afraid of forfeiting the favour of a friend, sell their souls to the devil! They imitate the conduct of Pilate, who, through the apprehension of losing the friendship of Caesar, condemned Jesus Christ to death.
Be attentive. Brethren, if we wish to save our souls, we must overcome; human respect, and bear the little confusion which may arise from the scoffs of the enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ. For there is a shame that bringeth sin, and there is a shame that bringeth glory and grace.9 If we do not suffer this confusion with patience, it will lead us into the pit of sin; but if we submit to it for God’s sake, it will obtain for us the divine grace here, and great glory hereafter. “As,” says St. Gregory, “bashfulness is laudable in evil, so it is reprehensible in good.”10
But some of you will say: I attend to my own affairs; I wish to save my soul; why then should I be persecuted? But there is no remedy; it is impossible to serve God, and not be persecuted. The wicked loathe them that are in the right way.11 Sinners cannot bear the sight of the man who lives according to the Gospel, because his life is a continual censure on their disorderly conduct; and therefore they say: Let us lie in wait for the just; because he is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law.12 The proud man, who seeks revenge for every insult which he receives, would wish that all should avenge the offences that may be offered to him. The avaricious, who grow rich by injustice, wish that all should imitate their fraudulent practices. The drunkard wishes to see others indulge like himself in intoxication. The immoral, who boast of their impurities, and can scarcely utter a word which does not savour of obscenity, desire that all should act and speak as they do; and those who do not imitate their conduct, they regard as mean, clownish, and intractable as men without honour and education. They are of the world, therefore of the world they speak.13 Worldlings can speak no other language than that of the world. Oh, how great is their poverty and blindness! She has blinded them, and therefore they speak so profanely. These things they thought, and were deceived; for their own malice blinded them.14
But I say again that there is no remedy. All, as St. Paul says, who wish to live in union with Jesus Christ must be persecuted by the world. And all that will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution.15 All the saints have been persecuted. You say: I do not injure any one; why then am I not left in peace? What evil have the saints, and particularly the martyrs, done? They were full of charity; they loved all, and laboured to do good to all; and how have they been treated by the world? They have been flayed alive; they have been tortured with red-hot plates of iron; and have been put to death in the most cruel manner. And whom has Jesus Christ--the Saint of saints--injured? lie consoled all; he healed all. Virtue went out from Him, and healed all.16 And how has the world treated him? It has persecuted him, so as to make him die through pain on the infamous gibbet of the cross.
This happens because the maxims of the world are diametrically opposed to the maxims of Jesus Christ. What the world esteems, Jesus Christ regards as folly. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.17 And what is foolish in the eyes of the world--that is, crosses, sickness, contempt, and ignominies--Jesus Christ holds in great estimation. For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness.18 How, says St. Cyprian, can a man think himself to be a Christian, when he is afraid to be a Christian?19 If we are Christians, let us show that we are Christians in name and in truth; for, if we are ashamed of Jesus Christ, he will be ashamed of us, and cannot give us a place on his right hand on the last day. For he that shall be ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of man shall he ashamed when He shall come in His majesty.20 On the day of judgment he shall say: You have been ashamed of me on earth: I am now ashamed to see you with me in paradise. Begone, accursed souls; go into hell to meet your companions who have been ashamed of me. But mark the words: he that shall be ashamed of Me and of My words.21 St. Augustine says that some are ashamed to deny Jesus Christ, but do not blush to deny the maxims of Jesus Christ.22 But you may tell me that, if you say you cannot do such an act, because it is contrary to the Gospel, your friends will turn you into ridicule, and will call you a hypocrite. Then, says St. John Chrysostom, you will not suffer to be treated with derision by a companion and you are content to be hated by God!23
The Apostle, who gloried in being a follower of Christ, said: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world.24 As I am a person crucified to the world--an object of its scoffs and injustice, so the world is to me an object of contempt and abomination. It is necessary to be convinced that if we do not trample on the world, the world will trample on our souls. But what is the world and all its goods? All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life.25 To what are all the goods of this earth reduced? To riches, which are but dung; to honours, which are only smoke; and to carnal pleasures. But what shall all these profit us if we lose our souls? What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole, world, and suffer the loss of his soul?26
He that loves God and wishes to save his soul must despise the world and all human respect; and to do this every one must offer violence to himself. St. Mary Magdalene had to do great violence to herself in order to overcome human respect and the murmurings and scoffs of the world, when, in the presence of so many persons, she cast herself at the feet of Jesus Christ to wash them with her tears and dry them with her hair. But she thus became a saint, and merited from Jesus Christ pardon of her sins, and praise for her great love. Many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much.27 One day, as St. Francis Borgia carried to certain prisoners a vessel of broth under his cloak, he met his son mounted on a fine horse, and accompanied by certain noblemen. The saint felt ashamed to show what he carried under his cloak. But what did he do in order to conquer human respect? He took the vessel of broth, placed it on his head, and thus showed his contempt for the world. Jesus Christ, our head and master, when nailed to the cross, was mocked by the soldiers. If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.28 He was mocked by the priests, saying: He saved others; Himself He cannot save.29 But he remained firm on the cross; he cheerfully died upon it, and thus conquered the world.
“I give thanks to God,” says St. Jerome, “that I am worthy to be hated by the world.”30 The saint returns thanks to God for having made him worthy of the hatred of the world. Jesus Christ pronounced his disciples blessed when they should be hated by men. Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you.31 Christians, let us rejoice; for, if worldlings curse and upbraid us, God at the same time praises and blesses us. They will curse, and Thou wilt bless.32 Is it not enough for us to be praised by God, to be praised by the queen of heaven, by all the angels, by all the saints, and by all just men? Let worldlings say what they wish; but let us continue to please God, who will give us, in the next life, a reward proportioned to the violence we shall have done to ourselves in despising the contradictions of men. Each of you should figure to himself that there is no one in the world but himself and God. When the wicked treat us with contempt, let us recommend to God these blind and miserable men who run in the road to perdition; and let us thank the Lord for giving to us the light which he refuses to them. Let us continue in our own way: to obtain all, it is necessary to conquer all.
2. THE MEANS OF OVERCOMING HUMAN RESPECT.
To overcome human respect, it is necessary to fix in our hearts the holy resolution of preferring the grace of God to all the goods and favours of this world, and to say with St. Paul: Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, . . . nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God.33 Jesus Christ exhorts us not to be afraid of those who can take away the life of the body; but to fear him only who can condemn the soul and body to hell. And fear you not them that kill the body; but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body into hell.34 We wish either to follow God or the world: if we wish to follow God we must give up the world. How long do you halt between two sides? said Elias to the people. If the Lord be God, follow Him.35 You cannot serve God and the world. He that seeks to please men cannot please God. If, says the Apostle, I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.36
The true servants of God rejoice to see themselves despised and maltreated for the sake of Jesus Christ. The holy apostles went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus.37 Moses could have prevented the anger of Pharaoh by not contradicting the current report that he was the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. But he denied that he: was her son, preferring, as St. Paul says, the opprobrium of Christ to all the riches of the world. Choosing rather to be afflicted with the people of God; . . . esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of the Egyptians.38
Wicked friends come to you and say: What extravagances are those in which you indulge? Why do you not act like others? Say to them in answer: My conduct is not opposed to that of all men; there are others who lead a holy life. They are indeed few; but I will follow their example: for the Gospel says: Many are called, but few are chosen.39 “ If,” says St. John Climacus, “you wish to be saved with the few, live like the few.”40 But, they will add, do you not see that all murmur against you, and condemn your manner of living? Let your answer be: It is enough for me that God does not censure my conduct. Is it not better to obey God than to obey men? Such was the answer of St. Peter and St. John to the Jewish priests: If it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, judge ye.41 If they ask you how can you bear an insult? or how, after submitting to it, can you appear among your equals? answer them by saying that you are a Christian, and that it is enough for you to appear well in the eyes of God. Such should be your answer to all those satellites of Satan: you must despise all their maxims and reproaches. And when it is necessary to reprove those who make little of God’s law, you must take courage and correct them publicly.
Them that sin, reprove before all.42 And when there is question of the divine honour, we should not be frightened by the dignity of the man who offends God; let us say to him openly: This is sinful; it cannot be done. Let us imitate the Baptist, who reproved King Herod for living with his brother’s wife, and said to him: It is not lawful for thee to have her.43 Men indeed shall regard us as fools, and turn us into derision: but on the day of judgment they shall acknowledge that they have been foolish, and we shall have the glory of being numbered among the saints. They shall say: These are they whom we had sometime in derision. . . . We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour. Behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints.44
1“Væ mundo a scandalis.” Matth. xviii. 7.
2“Alioquin debueratis de hoc mundo exiisse.” -- 1 Cor. v. 10.
3“Nunc autem scripsi vobis non commisceri . . . cum ejusmodi, nec cibum sumere.”
4“Exsultant in rebus pessimis.” -- Prov. ii. 14.
5“Ne despicias hominem avertentem se a peccato, neque impro peres ei.” -- Ecclus. viii. 6.
6“Parata sunt derisoribus judicia, et mallei percutientes stultorum corporibus.” -- Prov. xix. 29.
7“Illos autem Dominus irridebit; et erunt post hæc decidentes sine honore, et in contumelia inter mortuos in perpetuum.” -- Wisd. iv. 18.
8Pudebat me non esse impudentem.” -- Conf. l. 2. c. 9.
9“Est enim confusio adducens peccatum, et est confusio adducens gloriam et gratiam.” -- Ecclus. iv. 25.
10“Sicut verecundia laudabilis est in malo, ita reprehenibilis est in bono.” -- In Ezech. hom. 10.
11“Abominantur impii eos qui in recta sunt via.” -- Prov. xxxix. 27.
12“Circumveniamus ergo justum, quoniam inutilis est nobis, et contrarius est operibus nostris, et improperat nobis peccata legis.” -- Wisd. ii. 12.
13“Ipsi de mundo sunt: ideo de mundo loquuntur.” -- 1 Jo. iv. 5.
14“Hæc cogitaverunt, et erraverunt: excæcavit enim illos malitia eorum.” -- Wisd. ii. 21.
15“Omnes qui pie volunt vivere in Christo Jesu, percutionem patientur.” -- 2 Tim. iii. 12.
16“Virtus de illo exibat, et sanabat omnes.” -- Luke, vi. 19.
17“Sapientia enim hujus mundi, stultitia est apud Deum.” -- 1 Cor. iii. 19.
18“Verbum enim crucis pereuntibus quidem stultitia est.” -- 1 Cor. i. 18.
19“Christianum se putat, qui christianus esse veretur?” -- De Lapsis.
20“Qui me erubuerit, et meos sermones, hunc Filius hominis erubescet, cum venerit in majestate sua.” -- Luke, ix. 26.
21“Qui me erubuerit: et sermones meos.”
22“Erubescunt negare Christum, et non erubescunt negare verba Christi.”
23“Non vis a conservo derideri, sed odio haberi a Deo tuo?” -- In Act. Apost. hom. 41.
24“Mihi mundus crucifixus est, et ego mundo.” -- Gal. vi. 14.
25“Omne quod est in mundo, concupiscentia carnis est, et concupiscentia oculorum, et superbia vitæ.” -- 1 Jo. ii. 16.
26“Quid enim prodest homini, si mundum universum lucretur, animæ vero suæ detrimentum patiatur?” -- Matth. xvi. 26.
27“Remittuntur ei peccata multa, quoniam dilexit multum.” -- Luke, vii. 47.
28“Si FIlius Dei es, descende de cruce.”
29“Alios salvos fecit, seipsum non potest salvum facere.” -- Matth. xxvii. 40-42.
30“Gratias ago Deo meo, quod dignus sim, quem mundus oderit.” -- Ep. ad Asellam.
31“Beati eritis, cum vos oderint homines.” -- Luke, vi. 22.
32“Maledicent illi, et tu benedices.” -- Ps. cviii. 28.
33“Neque mors, neque vita, neque angeli, neque principatus, . . . neque creatura alia poterit nos separare a charitate Dei.” -- Rom. viii. 38.
34“Nolite timere eos qui occidunt corpus, . . . sed potius timete eum qui potest et animam et corpus perdere in gehennam.” -- Matth. x. 28.
35“Usquequo clandicatis in duas partes? Si Dominus est Deus, sequimini eum; si autem Baal, sequimini illum.” -- 3 Kings, xviii. 21.
36“Si adhuc hominibus placerem, Christi servus non essem.” -- Gal. i. 16.
37“Ibant gaudentes a conspectu concilii, quoniam digni habiti sunt pro nomine Jesu contumeliam pati.” -- Acts, v. 41.
38“Magis eligens affligi cum populo Dei, . . . majores divitias æstimans, thesauro Ægyptiorum, improperium Christi.” -- Heb. xi. 25.
39“Multi enim sunt vocati, pauci vero electi.” -- Matth. xx. 16.
40“Vive ut pauci, ut cum paucis inveniri merearis in regno Dei.” -- De Inst. l. 4. c. 38.
41“Si justum est in conspectu Dei, vos potius audire, quam Deum, judicate.” -- Acts, iv. 19.
42“Peccantes, coram omnibus argue.” -- 1 Tim. v. 20.
43“non licet tibi habere eam.” -- Matth. xiv. 4.
44“Hi sunt quos habuimus aliquando in derisum. . . . Nos insensati vitam illorum æstimabamus insaniam, et finem illorum sine honore; ecce quomodo computati sunt inter filios Dei, et inter Sanctos sors illorum est.” -- Wisd. v. 3.
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