Part 14

If we desire to know them who are the true prophets, we have the means of finding out: they are the lawful successors of the Apostles, the priesthood of the Holy Church. And, on the other hand, we have the means of determining who are the false prophets or teachers: all those who are in opposition to this lawful body of teachers, commissioned by God Himself to teach us.

The priesthood of the Holy Church, then, are our teachers in the principles and practice of religion, and of morality, which is embraced in religion. They are the ones to teach us our duty, in all respects, as individuals, and as members of society; our duties to ourselves, to our fellow-men, to our families, to the government or state in which we live, as well as to God.

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This is what many people do not seem to understand. They say, Let the clergy confine themselves to their own sphere, to the teaching of religion, and let other things alone. Why should they meddle with questions of politics or government? Why should they interfere with private or family affairs? Why should they say anything about a man's business, or try to interfere with his personal liberty to do this or that? Now, whence do these objections arise? From the mistaken notion that religion deals exclusively with the relations of the individual to his God, and has nothing to do with society or government; that there is divorce between politics and religion; that the law of God is separable from human laws.

Nothing can be more untrue than this idea. The divine law is the rule according to which all human laws must be conformed. These laws derive all their authority and sanction from the divine will. Religion cannot be divorced from politics, from government, from legislature, from the family, from business, or from any of the affairs of life. Wherever a moral question is involved in politics, there religion is involved. Every Christian is bound to carry the law of Christ into his politics. {247} Every voter is bound to vote for those who sustain this divine law, and never for the opponents of it; and every legislator is bound not to make any law which is in opposition to it.

And the authorized teachers of the divine law are the ones to expound what the law is, and to lay down the duty of each one in reference to it. They are to teach, and to insist upon the observance of what Christ has taught them: in the state, the duty of obedience to the civil authority, and the wickedness of resisting it, in the lawful exercise of its power;--in the family, the sacredness of the marriage-tie, in spite of any human laws contrary to God's law, and the obligation of the religious education of children;--to the individual, the sin of unlawful or immoral combinations, and many other things which will readily suggest themselves to any one who will reflect.

Those, then, who try to depreciate the influence of the clergy, and to bring their teaching into contempt, or to set themselves up as independent judges of the morality and right of all questions relating to politics and society, are false prophets, boasting of their liberty, appealing to pride, worshipping themselves in place of God, and flattering the passions of others. They are ravening wolves, destroying the spirit of religion and the souls of men, and leading their victims to anarchy, riot, and bloodshed.

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Do not misapprehend my meaning. I do not mean that the clergy should come down into the arena of party politics to advocate the claims of this or that candidate for office, or convert the Church into a political debating-room. Thank God, they have a better idea of their sacred office than that. But where the duties of the individual or the general interests of religion are involved, they are bound to speak out, and they should be listened to as the ambassadors of God.

"Let the clergy mind their own business," is sometimes said. Well, and what is the business of the clergy? It is to seek the salvation of souls. It is to keep the people, as far as possible, from any violation of the commandments of God; from the commission of sin, which leads to the destruction of souls. If they can foresee that this or that course of action will involve their people in sin, they are bound, disregarding all self-interest or any worldly consideration, to raise their voice in protest against it. If the people rush into any unlawful combination, which, perhaps, involves loss of property or loss of life, or, at any rate, is sinful and tends to the destruction of the soul, then, whether the thing is popular or not, they are bound, as far as they can, to set their face against this evil, and warn the people to keep from it.

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If they do not do this, then they do not "mind their own business." They are no better than the "hirelings who flee when the wolf cometh."

But why are the clergy especially fitted to exercise this office of prophet or teacher? Because, in the first place, they are, as a class, men of education and thought. They have withdrawn from other pursuits, and passed many years in study. They have had particularly to study questions relating to morality; of right and wrong; of the meaning of the law of God, and are better fitted than any other class of men to give decisions on such questions.

This is reason enough why the mass of the people, who have not the time, the freedom from other occupations, the books, or the habit of reasoning correctly, should defer with great respect to the opinion of the clergy on any important question. It argues a great want of humility--an antichristian and unreasonable pride, when their opinion is treated with contempt and brought into ridicule.

In the second place, they are disinterested parties, and are able to decide, for the most part, free from prejudice. The only prejudice they can have is, that God's law be observed and His honor vindicated. They are a body of men independent, free from family ties, and cares, and obligations; freed in an unusual degree from what prejudices other men--the desire of heaping up wealth. In short, they have every inducement to love right and hate wrong.

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Thirdly, they are the fathers of their people. Having no wives or children of their own, the people are their children. The term "father" by which they are addressed is a true expression of the feeling which the people have towards them, because they have a truly parental affection for them. That priest must be a monster who does not love his people, as a general thing so devoted and affectionate to him. Our Saviour says, "The good shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep." The Catholic people are the flock of the priest; it is his business and his happiness to look out for their interests; to advise them and warn them of dangers; to go after them and bring them back when they go astray; and it is only natural for them to look up to him for advice, for counsel in doubt, for consolation in trouble. There is no sweeter or more beautiful tie than that which binds the priest and people together.

But lastly, and above all, the priest is the representative and agent of Jesus Christ. This last reason includes and carries with it all the others; they all grow out of it. Hear what St. Paul says: "And some he gave to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and others pastors and teachers. {251} For the perfection of the saints, for the edification of the body of Christ." [Footnote 95] All that relates to the building up or edification of the faithful belongs to their sacred office. In the direction of St. Paul to Titus, he tells him: "Admonish them to be subject to princes and powers, to obey at a word, to be ready to every good work." [Footnote 96] And again: "These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee." [Footnote 97] Once more he says: "Let a man look upon us as the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God." [Footnote 98] And when our Lord sent out His Apostles, He used these emphatic words: "He that heareth you heareth Me, and he that despiseth you despiseth Me."

[Footnote 95: Eph. iv. 11.]

[Footnote 96: Ep. Tit. iii. 1.]

[Footnote 97: Ep. Tit. ii. 15.]

[Footnote 98: I Cor. iv. 1.]

Who are the false prophets we have the most need to be warned against at this present time? Not the professed teachers of heresy, because they are too well known; their doctrine and their principles have lost all attraction for Catholics. Their hatred and opposition to the Holy Church and her doctrines is too violent and untruthful to have any power of attraction for the Catholic heart. I should say they are not wolves in sheep's clothing, but rather wolves in their own skins. No, it is not they. {252} It is rather the irreligious, unprincipled newspapers which are sowing the worst principles broadcast in the community, which are ridiculing all that we hold most sacred, which make all religion to consist in the present and laugh at the future world; which are prating all the time about clerical influence, and extolling a purely secular education; which are talking everlastingly about progress and enlightenment, and this nineteenth century, and the dark ages and superstitions; whose infernal doctrine may be summed up in one sentence: "Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die."

These are the false prophets who clothe themselves with sheep's clothing, that is, with professions of liberty, enticements to pleasure, and to the gain of worldly goods, as if there was no hereafter, no responsibility, but each one was free to do as he pleased.

And who are some of the other false prophets? They are leaders of secret societies; interested persons who make a living out of professions of patriotism and love of country; who live in luxury--many of them, out of the hard earnings of the poor laborer and the girls at service; who beguile the ignorant into unlawful and forbidden ways, sinking them down deep in mortal sin, and hindering them from getting out of it, because they impose a distrust and dislike of the clergy and of the Church which condemns them. Like the Pharisees, they "move heaven and earth to make one proselyte, and, when they have made one, they make him more a child of hell than themselves." Avoid them, for they are truly "ravening wolves."

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And lastly, avoid another false prophet within yourself: the spirit of pride and self-will. Without this, all the others I have mentioned above would be powerless to hurt you. This is the very evil one himself who stirs up within you every evil passion. Be cautious, weigh well the thoughts of your hearts. Try them by the standard of the Gospel and of the example of Jesus Christ, and, if they cannot abide the test, no matter how fair an appearance they have, abandon them.

Ah! if we would only stop to consider calmly what we are about; if we would only utter one sincere prayer to God for guidance, and to obtain a good-will, this false prophet of self-will would be detected and driven out, and we would be quickly delivered from destruction.

Finally, give good heed to the Scripture which says: "Obey your prelates, and be subject to them, for they watch as being to give an account of your souls, that they may do this with joy, and not with grief."

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Obey the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the Pope, the Head of the Church and Father of the faithful. When he solemnly pronounces his judgment as to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of anything, obey as you would if you heard it from the lips of Christ Himself. It is a fearful thing for any one to put himself in opposition to Christ's Vicar and the Successor of St. Peter, to whom our Lord gave the charge to feed both His sheep and His lambs.

Obey your Archbishop, who is more immediately placed over you. It is his place to judge what is for the good of religion, and to foresee the evils likely to arise at any time among ourselves. Let those who disregard his admonition look well to it, lest they implicate themselves in grievous sin, and in inflicting great injury upon the religion of Christ. Such men are a scandal and cause of ruin to the faithful, and our Lord has denounced the anger of God upon those who are guilty of it.

Obey your priests, who will have to give an account of your souls. Give no cause of offence or scandal in your parish, but rather co-operate with your fellow-parishioners in the extension of Christ's kingdom upon earth.

It is by this spirit of docility and obedience you will break through all the snares of Satan, and be delivered from error. Thus, walking in the clear light of truth, you will finally be united to the Eternal Truth, God, the fountain of all joy, forever.

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Sermon XVII.

Humility In Prayer.

(For The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost.)

St. Luke xviii. 13.

"__God, be merciful to me, a sinner.__"

One of the chief lessons our blessed Lord intended to teach us by the parable told in to-day's Gospel is the necessity and power of humble prayer. Let us see this, and try to draw some useful thoughts from it.

The great positive precept of prayer goes hand in hand with a man's salvation. Nothing can excuse the neglect of it, nothing is promised except through it, and therefore one cannot hope for anything without it. Yet it is not every spirit of prayer that is of God. In spite of a professed total disregard for it by some, nevertheless men have an instinctive faith in prayer. The hardiest blasphemer and scoffer at religion will often be found the first to pray when in imminent danger of death. {256} He prays in fear. Others, with out any spirit of devotion, will be found praying at stated times, like the Pharisee, because it is a highly respectable thing to do, and keeps up their credit and good character, who apparently regard prayer as a sort of business transaction with God, the fulfilment of certain conditions of barter with Providence, by which they may expect to hold their own, and be further well rewarded. These pray in pride. Others are full of themselves and their own desires. __They__ wish to be happy, let others be as miserable as they may. __They__ want no sickness, no accident, no reverse of fortune, no contempt, no temptation, let God try other souls with His chastening hand as He pleases. These pray in selfishness. And yet all these are the first to complain that their prayer is not heard and instantly answered. They become petulant over delay, and utterly discouraged if their desires are not fulfilled. __God's__ will is nothing to them. It is not "Thy will," but "My will" be done. Listen, my brethren, to the true spirit of prayer, the only kind of prayer which will infallibly be heard. It is the prayer of those who pray in humility.

The very essence of prayer consists in the acknowledgment of God's supreme dominion and government over us, and our complete dependence upon Him as the source of all blessings, spiritual and temporal. The better this is acknowledged by the soul, the more perfect must be the prayer; and, if this be the spirit which inspires only a few words of prayer, or even a silent aspiration of the heart, then more is accomplished than if hours had been consumed in the recitation of forms of prayer, where this high and reverent thought of God is wanting.

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Now, this is also the fountain thought of humility: that God is all in all to us, that it is He, and not we ourselves, who has made us, and prospered us, and blessed us, and raised us up, and obtained peace and forgiveness for our erring hearts; that He is the Truth; that the true religion is His making, not what we may fashion to ourselves. These are the thoughts to bring the heart into a proper relation with God, the relation of an humble hope, trust, and reverence for Him, and in this we need lose nothing of a proper and just esteem for ourselves. It is the secret of the making of great saints and heroes in religion (all of whom were renowned for their humility), that a man is always the gainer by just so much as he gives to God.

So we see in the case of the humble publican, that God regarded him the more because he did not so much as lift his eyes to heaven. God drew the nearer to him, the farther he stood off. God comforted him, and justified him, the more he acknowledged his own wretchedness, and condemned himself. Not without reason, it is true, because he __was__ a sinner. While he, who was not a sinner, went up in his pride and sinned in his very prayers. The humble sinner went away justified; the proud, just man went away condemned.

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And hence we may conclude that, if one does not pray in humility, his prayer is of no value, and he moreover runs a great chance of committing sin by praying, and of receiving curses instead of blessings in answer.

"God resisteth the proud," says the Apostle, "but giveth grace to the humble." [Footnote 99] He is, as it were, shocked and indignant to see a man approaching him in presumption or pride. He has no grace for such an one, and then without that he will infallibly commit sin and be lost.

[Footnote 99: St. James iv. 6.]

For what happens? He who prays without humility thinks that he has done a great thing, for which God honors him, and holds him up as an example for the admiration and imitation of others, especially for those who seldom or never go to their knees, or pray so quickly and unobtrusively that no one notices them. So he rises from his prayer puffed up with self-conceit.

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Look at the Pharisee. He came to the treasure-house of God with a large sack; he extolled its capacity, and stretched it out to its utmost dimensions; he made his prayer long, wordy, and full of self. As he really did not profess himself to be in want of anything, God sent him away, with his sack empty of everything but his own windy words, which God despised and returned to him for his pains. His load was not heavy, and he could walk with head and shoulders proudly erect.

As he passed out he gave a scornful glance at the miserable publican, crouching in the porch, and thought within himself: What bad people there are in the world, to be sure! The humble object of his disdain followed him out with bent shoulders and downcast head. He had come empty-handed to God's treasury. But something had passed between him and God which the proud Pharisee little imagined: and he might well go away still humbly bending to the ground, for God's mercies and blessings lay heavily upon him. So sang the humble Virgin: "He hath filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he hath sent empty away."

Many imagine that the wealthy are the chief ones who pray like the Pharisee; but this is a great mistake. There are quite as many poor "rich Pharisees" as wealthy rich ones. Being in humble circumstances does not make one humble. The Blessed Virgin did not mean the rich in this world's goods, but those who were rich in their own conceit. {260} So we see many who have not much money to boast of, yet will boast pretty loudly of their piety. They come to pray to God for forgiveness of their sins; and what do they say? "I don't do much. I don't curse. I don't steal. I don't slander my neighbor." And if God did not rouse them up to a sense of the sins they do commit by questioning their consciences, they would go away fully persuaded that they were out-and-out saints, while all the rest of the world were thieves, and liars, and extortioners, and workers of all kinds of iniquity, especially that quarrelsome neighbor who has just taken their place in the confessional, and who, they hope, will meet with severe and righteous treatment. O self-sufficient, rich Pharisee! it is true I have seen you in silk and broadcloth, but I have seen you also in a cotton gown, and a coat out at [the] elbows.

Not a few are found lacking in this requisite to make prayer of any value, because they pray in fear. At first sight, fear would seem to be almost identical with humility; but it is quite a far different thing, for humility brings the soul nearer to God, while fear drives it away. Humility recognizes the greatness and goodness of God, and, while it reverences Him, holds Him for that knowledge in the highest esteem; but fear hides itself, and, in place of esteem, holds Him in slavish dread. {261} Humility is hopeful; fear is full of despair. See those sinners who find themselves in shipwreck, or in some imminent danger of death from disease. They pray, it is true, but how? Is it in sorrow for their sins? Do they want to get back the lost love of God? Oh! no; that is the last thought they have. It is to be saved from death; it is to be cured of their diseases; and what does it all amount to, but that they are trying to make a truce with God? Their whole lives have been at enmity with Him; and now, when God compels them to acknowledge Him, when He conquers them and brings them down, it is not peace they want, but a cessation of hostilities. It is plain enough God is the master. Such souls tremble at death, because it is bringing them nearer to God; the humble souls fear life, because it is so full of the danger of losing Him.

Such was the prayer of the wicked King Antiochus, who prayed to God and made great promises; but it was only fear that wrung the prayer out of him. He cared for nothing but to be restored to life and health; but God rejected his prayers, and left him to die a horrible death, being eaten up by worms. The Scripture says of him: "Then this wicked man prayed to the Lord, of whom he was not to obtain mercy." [Footnote 100]

[Footnote 100: 2 Macc. x. 13.] [USCCB: 2 Maccabees ix. 13.]

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Now and then the judgments of God hang over sinners. Hell gapes underfoot, and they pray and cry to the Lord for mercy, yet are not heard, because they have no contrition; and are wanting in contrition, because they have no humility. Their fear is the fear of those sinners described by the prophet: "The sinners in Sion are afraid; trembling hath seized upon the hypocrites." [Footnote 101] But the humble soul is not afraid to draw near to God, for the promise encourages it: "An humble and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." Such are not afraid, because their contrition is founded on the love of God, and is real and hearty. "Perfect love," says St. John, "casteth out fear."

[Footnote 101: Isa. xxxiii. 18.] [USCCB: Isa. xxxiii. 14.]

Look at Mary Magdalen. There was an example of boldness in a truly contrite, humble heart. She dared a good deal. Jesus, her Lord, the God of infinite purity, is the honored guest of a wealthy and proud citizen; she, an abandoned woman. Yet she dared enter the rich man's door. She dared the sneers and contempt of the servants. She dared enter the banqueting hall as an unwelcome intruder, at the risk of being ignominiously expelled. She dared approach the Spotless One, and touch His sacred feet with her polluted hands. But perfect love casteth out fear. {263} Her tears were so many eloquent words of prayer that went straight to the heart of Jesus. Her penitent love chased all fear away, and moved the Lord to say of her: "Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much."