Epistle.
Colossians iii. 12-17.
Brethren:
Put ye on therefore, as the elect of God, holy, and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another: even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so do you also. But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection: and let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts, wherein also you are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom: teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to God. All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel.
St. Mathew xiii. 24-30.
At that time:
Jesus spoke this parable to the multitude, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat, and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. Then the servants of the master of the house came and said to him: Master, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence then hath it cockle? And he said to them: An enemy hath done this. And the servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go and gather it up? And he said: No, lest while you gather up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it. Let both grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn; but gather the wheat into my barn.

Sermon XXIX.
The Christian Family.

Bearing with one another.
—Epistle of the Day.

No doubt you have often read about the oasis in the desert: a place of tall, shady trees, soft, green grass, and a great spring pouring out sweet, cold water. There the hot and dusty caravan stops, though it be miles out of the way; the heavy burdens are thrown off, and men and animals rest and drink and rest again. For one long, burning day they lie about on the grass and look off from their shady refuge over the yellow, sandy desert. They sleep and are rested; and as the cool dews of evening fall they take a last drink and creep away on their journey, sighing to think of the long and weary tramp to the next oasis.

Dear brethren, the oasis in the desert of this world is the Christian family. The father of the family "shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters." It is indeed but a feeble word to say that the influence of a good father is like the deep shade of a noble tree in the heat of summer, His influence is like the grace of God. Indeed, there is nothing in all this world so much like the presence of God as the influence of a Christian father. When the instinct of the Christian people would give a name to a good priest they called him father. What is more edifying than the virtue of a good father? In him are chiefly to be seen those manly virtues which are the highest form of human excellence: hearty love, self-restraint, open frankness joining heart, hand, and voice in one. In him you admire that steadfast application to religious things, that regular use of prayer and of the sacraments, that clear knowledge of doctrine and ability to converse about it, that utter absence of frivolity, that intelligent practice of good reading. He is contented with his lot, and yet labors with steady, persistent industry. In prosperity he is modest and frugal. In adversity he is cheerful, a strong wall for others to lean against. He loves home and is fond of his wife. Gladly will he tend the babes while the mother gets the Sunday Mass, or of a Saturday evening while she goes to refresh her weary soul with a good confession. The company of his children is to him a foretaste of Paradise. He is not sour, nor is he brutal or harsh. He is not above making the children laugh or joining in their play; to make them happy and help them save their souls is his greatest joy.

Then there is the mother of the family, whose life is one unbroken round of acts of affection. The spirit of sacrifice, the craving to bear others burdens, is her spirit. You know how a good mother watches at the sick-bed the livelong night, passing back and forth through the dark rooms, listening to every breathing, answering every sigh with a comforting word, or a cool drink, or a soft caress. Only the next world will reveal to us the loveliness of such devoted souls; here we catch but a glimpse and an echo of it. The accents, the tones of the voice, the very silence, the manners, the ways of a good mother diffuse what Scripture calls the fragrance of ointments around her household. You know, too, how she saves and pinches to keep off debt, to dress the children neatly, to save a penny to give them a holiday, to save a dollar for hard times or a spell of sickness. And all this sacrifice is a matter of course with her. But the truest glory of a mother is her patience. The patient mother is the valiant woman of Scripture. She is the woman who smothers her anger; who will suffer the impertinence of an unruly child in silence; who forgets as well as forgives; whose admonition or correction is the reluctant tribute of a tender heart to the child's well-being. Do you want to know how she is able to do this? The secret of it is that she finds time—in the heavy duty of being everybody's servant—to attend to religion; to belong to the Rosary Society and make her monthly Communion; to give alms to the poor from her hard savings; to visit and watch with sick, or afflicted neighbors. It is, in a word, because she ever gazes in spirit upon that Holy Family where Mary was mother that she is able to be a good Christian mother.

When I began I intended to say something of the good boys and girls; while we have been engaged with father and mother the children have passed by. Perhaps we shall overtake them next Sunday.

Sermon XXX.
The Duty Of Good Example.

Use your endeavor to walk honestly towards them that are without.
1 Thessalonians iv. 11.

The holiness of the church, my dear brethren, is for us who belong to her a thing so evident and clear that we can no more think it necessary to prove it than we can think it necessary to prove that the sun shines in the heavens. The practical and imperative way in which the church enforces holiness of life on each and every one of us is something with which we are so familiar that no shadow of doubt can enter into our minds as to its necessity. The means of grace which she offers to us, and of which she even requires us to make use, the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord himself which she gives us, the penances she imposes upon us by way of fasting and abstinence, the warnings which she is ever giving us of the condemnation which will fall upon impenitent sinners, these and ten thousand other things make the sanctity of the church so well known that it is not so much an article of faith as a thing which we see with our own eyes and which falls under our own experience.

But there are those who are without these advantages. There are many around us, our near neighbors and friends, who are outside the church, not through their own fault, but by birth and education. These are not in possession of those means of knowing the church and her sanctity of which we are possessed; and in order to have this knowledge they depend to a very large extent upon ourselves. I wish this morning to call your attention to the responsibility which rests upon us on this account, and to one or two practical ways in which we are accountable to God for what that responsibility involves.

Now, that we lie under this responsibility is a truth not very hard to see. For, as I have said, those outside the church are ignorant of the doctrine and practices of the church. From their earliest years they have had utterly false and erroneous information given them about the church, an information so false and erroneous that they do not think it necessary or even right to make inquiries. How, then, are they to have the truth brought home to them? What way is there of spreading the light? Almost the only way, and certainly a way so necessary that without it all others are futile and vain, is that those who are called Catholics should lead such lives as the church requires of them. Now, if we do not do this we are of course responsible to God, as every man, be he Catholic or be he Protestant, is responsible to God for his whole life and every action in it. But more than that, a special responsibility in this time and in this country lies at the door of every Catholic man and every Catholic woman. Every Catholic man and woman who does not lead a good life is a stumbling-block and a rock of offence standing in the way and preventing many poor souls from seeing and embracing that truth which is necessary for their salvation; and those Catholics whose way of living forms such a stumbling-block will have to give a strict account to God not merely for their own sins and for themselves, but also for the souls of others whom they have ruined.

Now, I am going on this account to ask you some questions which I hope you will answer honestly and conscientiously. And they will be questions about matters on which the world outside is competent to judge; and, therefore, if we fail in this respect we shall meet with its condemnation, and become hindrances to the knowledge of the truth.

First: There is nothing of which the business world thinks so much as truth, uprightness, integrity in business matters. To pay debts promptly, to do work squarely, to execute contracts faithfully, these are some of the marks of an honest man. Now, in view of what I have said, ask yourselves, is this way of acting the mark of all Catholics? Will a man who wants to get a house built, who is looking for a trustworthy clerk or assistant, choose out Catholics in preference to others, because he knows that they are worthy of trust? If this is not the case, if the being a Catholic is no guarantee of trustworthiness, you will have to answer to God for the bad effect your dishonesty has upon those outside.

And now a question for women. You all know in what virtue consists, the glory and honor of women. You all know what the world expects of women. You know, too, how much the church makes of modesty and chastity, in what honor she holds them, how strict she is in inculcating their necessity. Now, one of the effects of genuine modesty and chastity is to overawe and overpower the approaches of the unclean and impure. There is a majesty in virtue which lays low and keeps at its level vileness and impurity. Is everyone who comes near a Catholic girl or woman conscious of this influence? Is there something about every Catholic girl and woman which makes it clear to every dirty fellow that he must go elsewhere if he wishes to find a victim and a means of satisfying his disgraceful passions? It ought to be so, for the soul of every Catholic girl and woman, over and above the majesty of natural virtue, is the abode and dwelling-place of the grace of God. And if you are true children of the church such will be the effect your presence will have.

Well, my brethren, ask yourselves these questions; answer them honestly; and, if you find that you have done wrong, amend, not merely for your own sake but for that of those outside.

Sermon XXXI.
Bearing One Another's Burdens.

Bearing with one another,
and forgiving one another
if any have a complaint against one another:
even as the Lord hath forgiven you,
so do you also.
—Epistle of the Day (Colossians iii. 13).

Perhaps you may think, my dear friends, that we have a good deal to say about this matter of charity and forgiveness, and if you do you are probably right; it was not long ago that we had occasion to remind you of it in one of these little morning instructions. But why should we not speak of it often? Is not the love of our neighbor the second great commandment, like to and founded on the first? Does not St. John also make it the test of our salvation? "We know," he says, "that we have passed from death to life"; and why? Is it because we fast, say long prayers, visit the church, or even because we receive the sacraments often? No, it is "because we love the brethren." And he continues: "He that loveth not, abideth in death. … We ought," he goes on to say, "to lay down our lives for the brethren."

In the latter years of the life of St. John, when he had become so old and feeble that he had to be carried to the church, and was not able to preach at any length to his beloved people, he would still give them a little short sermon. It was very short; not even a five-minute sermon; and it was not fresh every Sunday, but always the same. It was just this: "Little children, love one another." But his people, in spite of their great reverence and affection for him, were something like people nowadays, and got rather tired of hearing this same old story. They wanted something more novel and startling, and one day they asked him: "Master, why do you never tell us anything but this about loving one another?" He answered: "Because it is the Lord's command, and if it is fulfilled it is sufficient."

If St. John, then, preached about this matter of charity every Sunday, certainly we may be allowed to speak of it several times in the year. And you, my dear Christians, will not lose anything by hearing about it pretty often. For the matter is one in which there is always great room for improvement for us all. St. John said "little children"; but he was not speaking to the Sunday-school, if, indeed, he had one; no, it was to the children, big as well as little, children all of God and of his holy church, that his words were addressed.

And these words are more needed now than they were then. Why, in the early times Christians used to be known from other people by their love and charity for each other. It was this that made converts to the faith, more, perhaps, than preaching or miracles. "See," said the world, "how these Christians love one another." But now I am afraid it would be hard to pick out very many Christians by this test. No; it is more likely that our infidel friends would say of all the Christians that they happen to know: "See how these Christians are all the time quarrelling with each other! They never seem to be content unless they can show their pride by having at least some one who is not supposed to be worthy of their acquaintance. They go to church and say their prayers—oh! yes; but perhaps there is some person, even in the next pew, that they used to know, but have not spoken to for years, and have no notion of ever speaking to, unless, perhaps, on their death-bed if the priest should insist on it. Bearing with one another, indeed! Is it possible that one of their Apostles told them to do that? Why, they do not put up with half as much as a sensible man would who had no faith at all. Let them suffer the least even fancied slight or indignity, and there is an end of all their friendship. Forgiving one another, as they say the Lord has forgiven them? Well, if the Lord forgives as they do, his forgiveness does not seem to amount to much."

My brethren, depend on it, those not of our faith feel often this way, though they may not say it right out. And they are not far wrong. The kind of bearing with others, the kind of forgiveness, that is given them by those who have the name of Christians is too often one that will not stand the test of God's judgment. I am afraid that many pious people have found themselves in the wrong place after death on account of it. Let those who still remain profit by this lesson while they have time.