Part 8

1. _In their prompt obedience to his inspirations_. That star was a call from God. He asked a great deal from them. Luxuries, comforts, country, kingdom, home, all must be, for the time at least, abandoned. It would seem so easy for them to have said, as we say now-a-days, I can arrange to go in a few months time,--but _at once_, this is quite impossible. But there stood their bright guide, a rebuke to any such thoughts, and in setting out at once, in obedience to this call from God, these holy men teach us a most wholesome lesson. How often has God not called us, either from some path of sin which we were following, or to a closer union with Himself? {152} At one time He has spoken to us plainly, by some word in a sermon or book, at another, by some secret fear or inspiration! We answer, "to-morrow, to-morrow," and that morrow never comes. That to-morrow is the devil's light, a very "Will o' the wisp," which leads us on and on to danger and destruction. Oh! let us in [the] future be on the watch for these secret whisperings of grace to our souls, and let us learn to be prompt in corresponding with them.

2. _In their courage_. When these holy men had promptly set about obeying the will of God, their difficulties had only just begun. They would soon have become disheartened but for the supernatural courage that sustained them. Their attendants and servants, not having their Master's faith, magnified every difficulty as it arose. The oppressive heat by day, the cold at night, the length and wearisomeness of the way, the danger of murder and robbery, all these afforded them subjects for continual murmuring. But now, to crown all, the star has disappeared, and they clamor loudly to be allowed to return back in haste to their homes. But no; a courageous faith supported these royal pilgrims, and God rewarded it, by their finding, at last, the object of their search, "the Child with Mary his Mother."

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How is it, my dear brethren, with us on the way of life? Is it not too common to hear such language as this: 'I have such an unfortunate temper;' or, 'I have such disagreeable neighbors;' or, 'I have such an unmanageable family;' or, 'I am thrown with such reckless companions;' or, 'I have no comfort in my prayers;' and 'There is no use in trying to be good; I would give any thing if I only could be good; I am sure it is the only way to be really happy, but somehow or other I cannot get good.' Oh! poor cowardly souls that we are! Did I not say truly, that in these Magi we should find an occasion of confusion to ourselves, as well as true models of courageous perseverance under difficulties however great or peculiar? Dear brethren, begin again this morning your journey of life, in the spirit of these holy converts. Be faithful to the light that God never fails to give you, through your directors and confessors, through good books and by holy inspirations, and joy and consolation will come all in good time. {154} The only way that will surely, safely, and speedily bring us to our Lord, is the way of the Cross. Surely it is worth the venture, worth the toil, if only we find at last, as we shall, "that Child with Mary his Mother."

3. _In their offerings_. It is a beautiful custom among the nations of the East, that they never go into the presence of their sovereign without some offering. Behold these holy men, as they bow down within the entrance of that poor lodge, and hold out in their hands the gold, the frankincense and the myrrh which they have brought so far, in honor of their newly found Sovereign, the infant king of the Jews! Let us kneel in spirit with them. We have here, our Bethlehem. The infant Jesus is within this little Tabernacle. There, above the altar rail, the still light is burning, which is the silent monitor to our faith, that Jesus is here. The world would have found it hard to adore the infant Saviour, with those three kings, in so lowly a place; and the world finds it too hard now, to kneel with us, in a Catholic church, before the blessed Sacrament. These holy men did not find it hard, nor do we, for they and we have the same blessed, gift of faith.

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_They offer gold_--You have none! Oh yes, you have. Put your ten-penny, five-penny, and three-penny pieces, put your pennies too, into the offertory, with a pure intention, or bestow an alms on the poor outside, in the name of Jesus, and they will be changed into the purest gold. Love is a far more acceptable offering to God than gold. He has no need of your money; for, as the Psalmist says, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." One thing alone you have it in your power to keep from Him, and he deigns to ask you for it. It is your heart. It is your love and your service.

_They offer incense_--You have none! Oh yes, you have. What does holy king David say? "_O Lord, direct my prayer as incense in thy sight._" Prayer is the blessed incense that is incessantly streaming up before God. This it is that restrains the arm of his anger, and brings down blessings like showers of rain. There is one prayer above all others which in a special manner is doing this. It is the Holy Mass. Blessed Leonard of Port Maurice asks himself, why it is that God does not nowadays visit nations with such terrible and unmistakable judgments as He did the Jews, and the nations round about them? {156} Then he makes answer to himself, it is because of the all-powerful intercession of the Holy Mass. As that pure and holy sacrifice ascends up like clouds of incense, from ten thousand altars, all over the world, God is disarmed of his anger. A wicked world is spared too, for the sake of what those little tabernacles contain, on the altars of Catholic churches.

Hear mass, then, on a week day, or make a visit of a few minutes to the Blessed Sacrament, and you have the most fragrant incense to offer to God.

_They offer myrrh_--You have none! Oh yes. Myrrh preserves from corruption. This was among the spices that the holy women brought on Easter morning to embalm our Lord's body. Well, there is something that preserves our souls, as myrrh and spices preserve our bodies. This is self-denial. Self-gratification is the corruption both of soul and body. Look around at the army of drunkards, and seekers of forbidden pleasures, and you will have abundant proof of the corruption of the body, and of the soul too, though not in the awfulness of its corruption, as God sees it.

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Well, restrain your tongue; restrain your eye; restrain your appetite; and offer this to God in penance for your sins, in union with that sublime act of self-denial on the Cross, and you will offer to your Saviour as pleasing an offering as these holy Magi.

My brethren, we are all on the road to another, the true Bethlehem. We, too, are going in search of Jesus and Mary. Our Bethlehem is heaven. Our glorious, supernatural, infallible guide, is the Holy Catholic Church. We have met with trials; we shall meet with more. Perhaps, thus far, we have only passed through a sort of preparatory state, which shall enable us to bear up under the real sacrifices that we shall be called upon to make in time to come. Nothing will sustain us under these, but implicit faith in our Guide, and an unshaken fidelity to her. Be loyal to her then. Show your love for God, by your obedience to her. Cling to her side, and she will lead you to that Bethlehem above, where it may be said of you also,--

"They found the Child with Mary his Mother."

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Sermon X.

Renunciation.

"And after six days, Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun, and his garments became white as snow." --St. Matt, xvii., 12.

(From the Gospel for the Transfiguration).

A wise general, in order to excite the ardor of his soldiers, and to render them forgetful of the dangers to which they are exposed, pictures to them on the eve of battle the spoils and glory to be acquired, if they fight bravely. In like manner, our Lord, in order to cheer up and console his disciples, who began to be dismayed at the prospect of that death He was about to suffer, imparted to them a foretaste of the joys of paradise, and a "vision" of the splendor of his divinity. {159} "_He was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun; and his garments became white as snow._" Peter, as soon as he recovered from his ecstasy of delight, exclaimed: "_Lord, It is good for us to be here_."

But, to prepare His disciples for this anticipation of heaven, He brought them into a high mountain apart; indicating thereby that such privileges can only be obtained by separation from the world in solitude. This is not only true relative to these high and special favors, but equally true in order to persevere in the practice of a Christian life. Separation from the world is an indispensable duty of a Christian. This truth, so plain in Holy Writ, is nevertheless liable to be misconceived, for which reason we must make the following distinction:

There is a world we are not required as Christians to separate from. There is a world we are under the strictest obligations to separate from.

The condemnation of the world by our Lord and his apostles is too plain and frequent not to have met the eye of any one who has the slightest acquaintance with the New Testament. {160} "_You are from beneath,_" said the Saviour to the Jews, "_I am from above. You are of this world: I am not of this world_," [Footnote 51] "_Love not the world,_" says the beloved disciple and apostle, "_nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world the charity of the Father is not in him._" [Footnote 52] St. Paul, teaching the Romans, says: "_Be not conformed to the world._" [Footnote 53] "_The friendship of the world,_" says St. James, "_is enmity with God._" [Footnote 54] "_The whole world_," says St. John, "_is seated in wickedness._" [Footnote 55]

[Footnote 51: St. John viii., 23.]

[Footnote 52: 1 John ii., 15.]

[Footnote 53: Romans xii., 2.]

[Footnote 54: St. James iv., 4. ]

[Footnote 55: 1 John v., 19.]

These declarations of the sacred Scriptures are plain and to the point. To be a disciple of Christ is to have nothing to do with the world. If any further proof were needed of so plain a fact, we may find it in the baptismal service, where the catechumen is engaged by the most solemn promises to turn his back upon the world. But what this world is, that we are so strictly engaged to renounce, is not at first sight so clear.

Is it the visible world, called nature, so full of instruction and rich in beauty, that we are to turn our backs upon? {161} Are we called upon in our character as Christians to close our eyes to the flowers, the mountains, the rivers, the glowing sunsets, and the stars of heaven? Are we bound to shut our ears to the murmuring winds, the music of the rivulet, and the songs of the birds? Are we to be counted Christians on the condition only of our shutting out from our senses that beauty, which surrounds us on all hands, of the visible world? What is there profane in nature when Holy Writ assures us that, "The Lord is holy in all his works." [Footnote 56] and that "_all things serve Him?_" [Footnote 57]

[Footnote 56: Psalm cxliv., 13.]

[Transcriber's note: The USCCB reference is Psalm cxlv., 13.]

[Footnote 57: Psalm cxviii., 91.]

[Transcriber's note: The USCCB reference is Psalm cxix., 91.]

The royal prophet David was accustomed to open all the avenues of his soul to the beauty of nature, and, filled with admiration, he seems hardly able to contain his praise of Him by whom all things were made. "_O Lord our Lord, how admirable_," he exclaims, "_is thy name in the whole earth_." [Footnote 58] "_How great are thy works, O Lord! thou hast made all things in wisdom; the earth is filled with thy riches._" [Footnote 59]

[Footnote 58: Psalm viii., 2.]

[Footnote 59: Psalm ciii., 24.]

[Transcriber's note: The USCCB reference is Psalm civ., 24.]

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Our blessed Saviour himself chose to convey the great truths of his gospel by illustrations drawn from the visible creation. He calls our attention at one time to "the birds of the air," at another, it is to the golden "harvests," and then it is to "the lilies of the fields." He seems to have looked with an attentive and friendly eye upon the attractions of nature. "_Consider_," He says, "_the lilies of the fields, how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin. And yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory, was arrayed like one of these._" [Footnote 60]

[Footnote 60: St. Matt, vi., 28-29.]

Commenting on this passage of Holy Scripture, St. John Chrysostom asks: "Wherefore did God make the lilies so beautiful? That He might display," he answers, "the wisdom and excellency of his power, that from every thing we might learn his glory." For not "_the heavens only declare the glory of God._" [Footnote 61] but the earth too; and this David declared when he said: "_Praise the Lord, ye fruitful trees, and all the cedars_." [Footnote 62]

[Footnote 61: Psalm xix., 1.]

[Transcriber's note: The USCCB reference is Psalm xix., 2.]

[Footnote 62: Psalm cxlviii., 4.]

[Transcriber's note: The phrase "Praise the Lord" is from verse 7 and "fruit trees and all cedars" is from verse 9.]

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It could be no part of the visible creation that the Gospel had in view, when it declared that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; for we hear the same voice speak to us from nature, which speaks to us in divine revelation.

What was it then? Was it the world of art, science, and literature? Have not beauty, knowledge, and genius one and the same fountain source with religion? Whence spring the noble achievements of art, science, and literature, if not from gifts, which like "_every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights_." [Footnote 63]

[Footnote 63: St. James i., 17.]

Is not the true aim of art in all its creations to aid religion in bringing men to the contemplation of the first Fair, the first True, and the first Good? Can science find a greater sphere than to show how all things are, and move, and exist in their primal cause, God? Can literature be devoted to more worthy ends than to make those virtues attractive which religion commands? True religion recognizes in art, in science, and in literature, her natural allies, while they in turn find in her bosom loftier and wider spheres to stimulate human exertion. These, then, are not of that world which Holy Writ condemns as at enmity with God.

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Are we to find the world, which we as Christians are to renounce, in the ties of the family, in relationships and friends, in neighborhood and the common pursuits of life? All these conditions of life our Saviour sanctified either in his own person, or by his express approbation, or by his presence. The basis of all these relations of human life is that of marriage, and this natural tie, He not only sanctioned, but raised it up to a holy sacrament of his religion. It is a false idea of the Christian religion, and one which is most injurious, to imagine that it requires of us to stifle all natural affections, and to escape from society, in order to lead a Christian life. It teaches that the way of salvation, and the high roads to sanctity, are chiefly through the fulfilment of the common duties of every day life. "_For God created all things,_" says Holy Writ, "_that they might be: and he made the nations of the earth for health: and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor kingdom of hell upon earth._" [Footnote 64]

[Footnote 64: Wisdom i., 14.]

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The world made up of human relationships and the common pursuits of life, called society, is not at enmity with God. Nature art, science, human society, are not opposed to Christianity, nor contrary to Christian perfection. Many Christians have become great saints surrounded only by the scenery of nature; others while cultivating the arts and sciences; others again have reached an eminent degree of perfection while fulfilling their common every day duties. For the visible creation is good, and there is nothing in man's nature incompatible with the absolute perfections of God, as is proved in the fact that our Saviour was in all respects in his humanity a man, and at the same time truly God. "_All things,_" says Holy Scripture, "_cooperate for good to those who love God._" The true Christian Church incorporates and consecrates nature and art in her worship--she appeals to the whole nature of every man, and opens a way to heaven for men of all classes, and in every condition of society.

The task was left to the sects which sprung from the religious revolution of the sixteenth century, to exclude nature and art from Christian worship, to divorce faith and science, to degrade the sacrament of matrimony to a mere civil contract, and to teach men that they were wholly depraved.

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The authors of this revolution in Christianity, seemed to take delight in parcelling the realm of Christian truth into wrangling creeds, and in rendering Christian worship rigid, gloomy and repulsive. And in this they found freedom, progress, and the light of the pure gospel!

How narrow and grovelling are the minds which never rise to the contemplation of that unity which reconciles all truths, all beauties, and all goodness! Will that day ever dawn when Christianity will find a people sufficiently great to grant to its divine truths fair play with their intelligence, and a full sway to her influence over their whole lives?--when men of genius, of science and of learning will understand that the true end of all knowing, all loving and all doing is the same as that of religion, to render the souls of men more like their Creator, and to aid others in this divine work?

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Where then is the world which, as Christians, we are called upon to separate from? There is a world which God made for the use of man. He made it good, and good it remains while rightly used. There is another world which man has made, and it is framed out of the abuse of the creatures of God's world.

The whole difficulty lies in the fact that men generally do not consider the things of creation rightly, or use them properly; and the great world around us consists in the main of those who thus misunderstand God's world, and live by the abuse and perversion of it, led on by their inordinate desires. This is "the world seated in wickedness," on which we must turn our backs, for to be a friend of it, is to be an enemy of God. A few illustrations will make this point plain.

How few there are who look upon nature in that light in which she was intended to be seen by her Creator. Seen in this light, the whole visible world of nature raises up our thoughts and affection to our common Creator. For nature has ever been true and loyal to her Author. The Psalmist only gives expression to the natural and spontaneous impulses of the soul when in beholding the visible world, he exclaims: "_O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth_." How few in looking upon nature, raise up their thoughts to nature's God. {168} They do not go beyond, but stop with what they see. To them, nature is the highest and most complete expression of strength, beauty, and truth. Nature is fair, but how much fairer is He who made nature what she is! They forget the King in their blind admiration of his vestments. They become the servants and slaves of nature, instead of being her master and high-priest. Their worship of nature excludes her Creator and Lord, and they become like the heathen idolaters of whom the Apostle speaks: "_They worshipped the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever_." [Footnote 65]

[Footnote 65: Rom. i., 25.]

What do we find for the most part in the world of art? Do we see artists who are conscious of the great purposes of their noble vocation? Do they aim by the creations of their genius to raise less gifted minds to gaze upon the archetype of all beauty, truth, and goodness? Do they strive so to embody what is noblest and best in man's nature as to captivate his imagination, and enkindle an enthusiasm for its imitation? {169} There are a few such; a few who are men, no less than artists, and who regard their vocation as something akin to what is sacred, and would look upon it as desecration to employ their gifts in such way us to lead men aside from the realization of the great end of their existence. But the many study to clothe with forms of borrowed beauty the expressions which spring from the lowest passions of their nature. The lessons which their productions teach, were they interpreted and expressed in words, would shock the unvitiated feelings of the heart, causing the innocent cheek to blush with shame. Quoting with sophistical blindness the text, "_To the pure all things are pure_," they imagine they are justified in violating every rule of Christian decency, every feeling of modesty, and every maxim of morality. Under the pretext of being true to nature, they misrepresent nature, by presenting what is lowest in man, and that in its exaggerated and depraved developments, and thereby add excitement to his already inordinate appetites and aid powerfully to his further degradation. Art, instead of being an angel pointing with its fore-finger to heaven, showing man the way to his destiny, and aiding him to its attainment, is turned into a Siren, enticing men to sin and destruction.

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In the world of science and literature, the same thing takes place. It would appear that the aim of most men devoted to science is, in a great measure, to undermine the basis of religious conviction in the soul, instead of adding to its strength and support. What is more reasonable than to suppose that the sentiments of religion should increase in proportion to the acquisition of the knowledge of truth, for the end of all knowledge of truth is God. And yet, if you select from almost any branch of science, those who are pre-eminent, you will, in all probability, find that those who believe in Christianity and practise its precepts, are in the minority, a very small minority. What a strange perversion of the gift of intelligence to study the works of creation, in order to overturn the Revelation of the Creator!

Popular literature is of the same stamp. It would be high praise to say of a popular author that his writings contain nothing contrary to morals or religion. It would seem to be the aim of some to substitute vice for virtue, and so to cloak passion with the garb of innocence as to make obedience to them an act of religion. {171} Familiarity with our popular literature would be a sad preparation for the reception of religious impressions, or for the practice of virtue. Briefly, in art, in science, and literature, there reigns for the greater part, an indifference to Christianity, the spirit of paganism, and a practical atheism.