Part 12

Take warning, then, my dear brethren, from the words of St. Paul, and never countenance by a laugh or in any other way any offence against holy purity, in whatsoever form it may be expressed; "for know ye that no unclean person hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."

Sermon LI.

Honorary Church-members.

_He who is not with me is against me_. --Luke xi. 23.

Societies in our day, brethren, have become a great moral force, the very best means of promoting and spreading any great cause. Men recognize this fact, and so combine together, that by unity of purpose they may better advance the principles they desire to support. Many of these societies are made up of two distinct classes--the active members, who are the bone and sinew, the life of the institution, and the honorary members, who take no personal interest in the management or working of the society, but who, nevertheless, are good enough, or interested enough, to advance the cause they honor by the support of their name.

You and I, brethren, belong to a society, the Catholic Church, which embraces the whole world. We have in view one great object--the salvation of souls, the spread of the kingdom of Jesus Christ among men. But this society of ours, a real, living, organic institution, differs from most others in this: that it does not need the support of _honorary_ members; neither will it approve their existence in its bosom.

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No, the church would have all her members living, active, earnest supporters of her principles, and from them all she requires a pledge that they will keep her laws, advance her ends, and fight her battles for the kingdom she was established to uphold. She will welcome no mere spectators to her ranks, and as for neutral ground, she recognizes none; for those who are not with her are against her.

And yet there are many who call themselves Christians, _would-be honorary_ members of the Catholic Church, who do not even realize what the word Christian means; who seem to forget that to be a Christian imposes the obligation of being at war with all that is anti-Christian. An honorary membership for such Christians is very convenient; a membership that would allow them to be on good terms with Christ and Satan. The fasting and praying, the vigils and good works, the real brunt of the battle they would leave to the active members, while they would look on with an encouraging smile of approval.

Ah! brethren, learn this lesson once for all and well: between Christ and the world there can be no compromise. He who is not with me is against me. There is no neutral ground, for the moment we desert the Christian rank and file we give the hand of fellowship to the enemy. We cannot serve two masters well, and in the Catholic Church there is no membership worthy the name that is not an active, complete membership. The drones of the hive may nourish and thrive for a time, but let them remember they run the awful risk of final destruction.

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The question I would have you ask yourselves today, and meditate upon during this holy season, is this: Are you active, living members of the church, that mystical body of which Jesus Christ is the head and the Holy Ghost the life-giving principle, or are you simply _would-be honorary_ members? Have you at heart the interests of God's holy church; are her sorrows, her wants, her trials yours? Are the sacraments she offers you the source and support of your life? If so, you have reason to thank God.

Or are you standing afar off ready to give an approving nod when the world smiles, or slink off like a coward when the world frowns? Are the laws of the church irksome to you and so avoided? If this be the case, you are nothing but dead limbs, and liable to be cut off without a moment's warning from the living body, for dead members are against, not with, the parent stem.

Would-be honorary members of the Catholic Church, beware of the error of trying to give one hand to God and the other to the devil; beware of the fallacy of thinking that because you are outwardly connected with the church you cannot be lost--that hell was never intended for Catholics; that, somehow or other, you will come out all right in the end. That is what Judas thought when with his sin-stained lips he kissed his Lord whom he had so lately sold to the enemy.

Have you still the faith, then beware lest your want of charity may bring on a want of faith. Have you still a conscience, beware lest your frequent attempts to stifle it may extinguish it altogether. If there be a spark of it left I beg of you stir it up. Be in earnest, and at least let not this Lent pass without a good confession and communion, the only condition on which you can become active members of God's holy church. Put your heart in the work and you will be happier for it here and certainly happier hereafter.

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Sermon LII.

Half-Hearted Christians.

_He that is not with me is against me._ --Gospel Of The Day.

These words, my dear brethren, like many others spoken by our Blessed Lord, may be interpreted in various ways. They may be understood to mean that he who is not with Christ, by being united to his true flock, who does not belong to the one church which he has founded, is injuring the cause of Christ, is persecuting and hampering his church in its warfare against its enemies; or, in other words, that Protestants and heretics in general, zealous Christians though they may seem to be, are really hurting Christianity about as much as they help it, if not more. And it is plain enough to us that this is true. If there had never been any heresies and schisms in the church, we cannot doubt that there would have been now few nations not Christian.

But this, true though it may be, seems to have little practical bearing for us. We are not heretics or schismatics, and I hope that we have no inclination to be so. Still we must remember that bad Catholics do about as much harm to the work of Christ and his church in the world as heretics. In fact, there would never have been any heretics had there not been bad Catholics to begin with.

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But, after all, it does not seem that our Lord is speaking so much of heretics, or of bad Catholics, when he says: "He that is not with me is against me." For he goes on to tell us that "when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest; and not finding, he saith, I will return to my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then he goeth, and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

The meaning of this is plain enough. It is that a man cannot give up a bad life, and then remain betwixt and between, neither bad nor good. His soul cannot stay empty, swept, and garnished. He must keep the love of God in it; he must have good thoughts and do good works, or the devil will come back, take possession of the empty soul, and make it worse than it was before.

So this gives a new sense to the words, "He that is not with me is against me." He that is not a real good Christian, trying to live for the glory of God, and to do the work for which God has put him in the world, will be a bad one before long, if he is not already. We cannot lie low and shirk the duties which belong to us as Christians and as Catholics. We must be God's servants, and live in such a way as to be known as such, or we shall begin again to serve his enemy.

Let us take an instance, and you will see well enough what I mean. A young man or woman has been going with bad company, who, though perhaps they call themselves Catholics, are a disgrace to the name, and has joined with them in all their vile conversations and sinful actions. {182} Now, too many of those who have been living in this way seem to think that after their confession and communion they can go back to this company and still avoid remark; that nobody will have occasion to say that they are pious, or notice any change in their life; that they can keep all right in God's sight, and also in that of their bad companions; that they can avoid doing any harm, and still do no good.

Let such remember these words: "He that is not with me is against me." If you want to stay in the grace of God, you must hate sin, and love virtue; and if you really do this your life and conversation will show that such is the case. You must be a friend of Christ and an enemy of the devil and of all his works, and not only be willing but proud to be known as such; if you will not do this our Lord will not have you or keep you. Choose, then, which side you will take; do not fancy that you can take neither. If you try to steer a middle course, and live an empty and unprofitable life, neither one thing nor the other, you will soon slip back just where you were before.

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_Fourth Sunday of Lent._

Epistle. _Galatians iv._ 22-31.

Brethren: It is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bond woman, and the other by a free-woman: but he that was by the bond-woman was born according to the flesh: but he by the free-woman was by the promise. Which things are said by an allegory: for these are the two testaments: the one indeed on Mount Sina which bringeth forth unto bondage, which is Agar: for Sina is a mountain in Arabia, which hath an affinity to that which now is Jerusalem, and is in bondage with her children. But that Jerusalem which is above, is free: which is our mother. For it is written: "Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not: break forth and cry out, thou that travailest not; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a husband"; now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he, that was born according to the flesh, persecuted him that was according to the spirit: so also now. But what saith the Scripture? "Cast out the bond woman and her son: for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman." Therefore, brethren, we are not the children of the bond-woman, but of the free: by the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.

Gospel. _St. John vi._ 1-15.

At that time: Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is that of Tiberias: and a great multitude followed him, because they saw the miracles which he did on them that were infirm. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. {184} Now the pasch, the festival day of the Jews, was near at hand. When Jesus therefore had lifted up his eyes, and seen that a very great multitude cometh to him, he said to Philip: Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said to try him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him: Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, saith to him: There is a boy here that hath five barley loaves, and two fishes; but what are these among so many? Then Jesus said: Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves: and when he had given thanks he distributed to them that were sat down. In like manner also of the fishes as much as they would. And when they were filled, he said to his disciples: Gather up the fragments that remain, lest they be lost. So they gathered up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above to them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen what a miracle Jesus had done, said: This is the prophet indeed that is to come into the world. When Jesus, therefore, perceived that they would come and take him by force and make him king, he fled again into the mountain himself alone.

Sermon LIII.

The Happiness Of True Penance.

_Rejoice Jerusalem_. --Introit of the Mass for the Day.

This is called "Lætare, or rejoicing Sunday." It may surprise you, dear brethren, to be told that this is a day of rejoicing; you will be amazed, no doubt, that, in the midst of the rigorous Lenten fast, when men should bewail their sins and do penance for them, and sounds of mirth and joy are hushed, the church should bid us rejoice. {185} Yet thus she does to-day. In mid-Lent even she would have her children rejoice, would have them forget for the moment penance and turn their hearts to thoughts of gladness, that, by so doing, she may teach them that the rigors of this season, the self-denial and curbing of the flesh she imposes on us, is undergone that we may realize more fully the spirit of her teaching--that we may, in truth, preserve, or get back if we have lost it, that interior joy, that spiritual jubilation which is the portion of every one who serves Christ as he should be served.

Our religion is one of joy, because we are Christ's and he is ours; and what more can we ask, or what greater can be bestowed upon us, than the having of Christ; Christ, at once perfect man and true God; Christ, whose life is the model of our lives, whose grace is the source of all joy; Christ, to have whom is to have a brother, and, at the same time, the eternal God; the God by whose word were made all things that are, who knows no limit to his power, who has in himself all perfections that man can desire or conceive of; a brother--a man like ourselves, with a human heart like our own, with affections like those of other men; a brother burning with tender love for us, knowing our weakness, knowing our wants and ready to succor us; a man who was himself tempted, who has himself suffered the miseries of this life, who, in a word, was made like to us in all save sin. This is whom we have when we have Christ, and should we not rejoice at having such a one?

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We should and do rejoice; our hearts are always full of gladness when we are in God's grace, and Christ is ours and we are his; and this is what the church wishes for all her children--the friendship and the love of God. She ever has Christ herself, and so is never sad; though she may mourn with him suffering, still there is joy behind all her sorrow.

If she puts on sombre garments, if she calls man to penance, if she fasts and covers her head with ashes, she is still glad in the depths of her heart. She is calling you and me to share the gladness, to get it back if we have lost it by mortal sin; she is bidding you and me to keep that gladness by chastising our bodies; she is warning us that we may lose God's grace, as, alas! too many before us have lost it, unless we are vigilant.

Dear brethren, listen to the church's voice to-day; come, all of you, come and share her joy. If you are not in God's grace do not let another day go by without making your peace with God. Oh! how much you are losing, and for what? For some trifling satisfaction which cannot bring true happiness; some mean gratification of your lower nature; for sin you are letting slip by the offer of God's friendship and the joy of a good conscience. Do you want to die as you are living? If you do not, repent of your sins to-day; before you leave this church promise God that you will sin no more; that you will be in fact what you are in name--a Christian.

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Sermon LIV.

Liberty Of Spirit.

_By the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free._

These, my dear brethren, are the concluding words of the Epistle read at Mass to-day. They ought to be of unusual interest to us, for they speak of a matter which we all care very much about; which some care so much about that they are willing to fight for it, and to die for its sake.

If you have listened to these words of St. Paul, which I have just read, you know what this is of which I speak, and for which we all care so much. It is freedom or, as we often call it, liberty. Many, as I just said, will even die, if need be, rather than abandon it; and indeed thousands, nay millions, have actually done so. Man feels that he must have it. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness he claims as his right.

Especially do people nowadays ask for liberty, and insist on having it. The child is no sooner out of his mother's arms than he wants and tries in all things to have his own way. Obedience is a lesson that he seldom willingly learns. He thinks that when he is a man he can do as he pleases; and he does not see why he should not even now. Sometimes he succeeds in having his own way, in spite of his parents; he runs away from school and, when a little older, from church; he passes his life among such companions as he chooses, who help him to get the liberty which they think they have themselves got, by defying all the laws of God and of man.

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But is this really liberty which these foolish children, and young men and women more foolish than children, think they have got by trampling on all law? No; a thousand times no! It is to true liberty only as the shadow to the substance, as they find to their cost before they have travelled very far on this road. They have but escaped from a light and easy yoke to take on their necks one far heavier and more grievous, and which becomes more and more so every day. They have left the service of the kind and good Master to whom they belonged and entered into that of a hard and cruel tyrant instead. He has filled them with base and beastly passions, and made them slaves to these passions. They are given over, body and soul, to impurity, gluttony, or drunkenness, or it may be to a mean and miserable greed for money. At last, perhaps, they try to turn back and shake themselves free from these accursed lusts, which have fastened on them, and are draining the very life-blood from their souls; but it seems that they cannot do so. They set out to do as they pleased, and how has it ended? In their being bound, hand and foot, in the slavery of sin.

But what was their mistake? Were they altogether wrong in wishing for liberty? Is the desire for freedom, which is implanted in us, all a delusion? Are we never to do as we desire, but always to have a restraint and a yoke upon us?

No, my brethren, the idea of liberty is not a mistake. We are right in wishing for liberty, hoping for it, and trying to secure it in the right way. But the mistake these foolish people of whom I have spoken make is in going the wrong way in the search for it: in looking for it in the wrong place.

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Where, then, is liberty to be found? I will tell you; and you may be surprised at what I say, for it does not sound as if it could be true; but it is true, nevertheless. True liberty, then, is in the service of God. Those who serve God best are the freest men on earth.

But how can this be? I answer, It can and must be very easily and very plainly. For those who serve God best of all--that is, the saints in heaven--always do just what they like, and enjoy doing it most perfectly. They have got rid of all the hindrances that, more or less, prevent every one here below from doing what he wishes.

And, of course, those who try to walk in the path of the saints here on earth also have much of this freedom. The more they learn to do God's will the more they love it; and so they are always doing more and more what they like, and more and more easily all the time; and that is just what liberty is: to do what you like, and to do it without pain or difficulty.

The servants of God, then, have their liberty, because they have got free from sin, which is the only obstacle to it. And this freedom from sin is the gift of Christ, it is the fruit of his Passion; it is, then, the liberty which he has given us. It is ours if we wish it. Try, then, my dear brethren, in this holy season of Lent, when his graces are so abundantly poured out, to gain that freedom which they will surely give us, that "freedom wherewith. Christ has made us free."

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Sermon LV.

The Lust Of The Eyes.

_Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of._ --Ephesians v. 11, 12.

Some weeks ago, my dear brethren, we had occasion to speak of the horrible and filthy vice of impurity, which is every day dragging into hell thousands of souls with the mark of the cross of Christ on them, and washed in vain with his Precious Blood. As was said then, many Christians do not seem to realize the enormity of sins against the Sixth Commandment--at least those of thought and of the tongue; to which may be added those coming from the use of the other senses, especially that of sight.

An immodest imagination or desire, wilfully entertained or enjoyed, is a mortal sin, and gives the soul so harboring it instantly into the power of the devil. Let us hope that no one having the Catholic faith will doubt this, or think it too strict a doctrine; for it is the unanimous consent of all the teaching authority in the church from the beginning, amply supported also by Holy Scripture. What shall we say, then, of wilful and deliberate gazing at immodest pictures, or of reading matter directly calculated to inflame impure passions, and certain to have its effect?

Now, I hardly need to say that a city like this is full of these temptations coming through the eyes into the heart. The good and pure instinctively avoid them, and scarcely know that they exist; accustomed to watch the slightest movements of their souls to evil, and instantly to repress them, they shrink with horror from those filthy words and pictures on which others eagerly gaze. {191} They know that, as the Apostle says, it is a shame to speak of these things, a greater shame to write or to read of them, a greater shame yet to expose them to sight, to incite temptation by them, and thus to destroy the souls for which Christ died.

I say that the good and pure are not likely to be caught in this net of Satan; by this I mean those who have been warned of the evil, who understand its danger, and from well-formed habits of virtue set themselves resolutely against it. But there are others who are good and pure--in their baptismal innocence, perhaps; young, at any rate, and unused to sin, at least of this kind--who are not forewarned and forearmed like those of maturer years, who, seeing bad pictures in papers sold even at stores otherwise of good repute, and kept, perhaps, by Catholics, do not fully understand how bad they are, and are led to look at them with pleasure, to learn evil which they knew not of, and thus to contract habits of sin which they will never overcome.

Now, what does our Lord say of those who thus put temptation in the way of the young and innocent? You all know his words: "He that shall scandalize one of these little ones who believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea." Strong words these, but they are those of the Divine Wisdom, and beyond correction by human lips. Yes, it is better to die, better even to die in the state of sin, than to add such a sin as this to our number.

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