Epistle.
Ephesians v. 1-9.
Brethren:
Be ye followers of God, as most dear children. And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness. But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints: nor obscenity, nor foolish talking, nor scurrility, which is to no purpose: but rather giving of thanks. For know ye this, and understand that no fornicator, nor unclean, nor covetous person which is a serving of idols hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. Be ye not therefore partakers with them. For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk ye as children of the light: for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth.
Gospel.
St. Luke xi. 14-28.
At that time:
Jesus was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb; and when he had cast out the devil, the dumb spoke; and the multitude admired: but some of them said: He casteth out devils in Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And others tempting, asked of him a sign from heaven. But he, seeing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation, and a house upon a house shall fall. And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because you say, that in Beelzebub I cast out devils. Now if I cast out devils in Beelzebub, in whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I, in the finger of God, cast out devils, doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things which he possesseth are in peace. But if a stronger than he come upon him and overcome him, he will take away all his armor wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils. He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth. 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 into 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 becometh worse than the first. And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. But he said: Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.
Sermon L. Immodest Language.
How pertinent to our own times are the words of St. Paul in the Epistle of to-day, addressed nineteen centuries ago to the Christians of Ephesus: "But all uncleanness, let it not be so much as named among you, as becometh saints. … For know ye this and understand that no unclean person hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
There is no vice, my brethren, more common among men at the present day in all classes of society, from the professional man to the day-laborer, among the rich and the poor, the old and the young, than that of obscene or immodest conversation.
Among the better educated this poison of impurity is clothed in language which serves to veil its disgusting nudity, and thus the more securely to insinuate itself and to deceive the unwary; while among the less educated it is oftener expressed in words that reveal its horrid filthiness and shock common decency.
Listen to the conversation of almost any chance gathering of young men, and you will soon hear the double-meaning joke, the attempt of some one to be witty, which serves as much to expose the shallowness of his pate as the corruption and rottenness of his miserable heart.
Holy Scripture says that "out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh." How true this is! But if one were to use this criterion in judging the thoughts that fill the hearts of many amongst us, how debased and pitiable must be their condition!
And how shocking it is, my dear brethren, to meet a young man whose dress and manner at first give evidence of respectability and good breeding, but who, when an immodest allusion is made or an impure joke uttered, is the first to shout with laughter! Such a one is well described by our Blessed Lord as "a whited sepulchre? full of dead men's bones."
And yet these whited sepulchres are not very rare in the community. You meet them in every walk of life—in the counting-room and in the factory, at the "respectable" club-room as well as in the grog-shop, and alas! must we say it, among Catholics as well as among non-Catholics.
Yes, among Catholics, who have been elevated to a supernatural state through the merits and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ; whose hearts have been sealed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and on whose tongue the Body and Blood of our Lord has often been placed—even these have dared to cherish in their hearts and express with their tongues thoughts and sentiments that would shock the moral sense even of the unregenerate.
Are they laboring under the incredible and awful delusion that they commit no great sin when they entertain or give expression to such thoughts? Do they think that they escape mortal sin when their impurity is expressed in the form of a joke or a pun, or when they by a laugh countenance and encourage the like impurity in others? Ah! my dear brethren, it is to be feared that too many consciences have been lulled to sleep by this cunning device of the devil.
The first introduction to sin for many a one has been the listening with pleasure to the double-meaning word uttered, perhaps, by a companion, or while in the company of others. He was then put on trial not by the devil alone, but by the one also who uttered it. But the blush of modesty which rose instinctively to his cheek from a pure heart was by an effort suppressed through human respect, and the voice of conscience, that told him to administer a rebuke to the minister of Satan or abandon his company at once, was hushed into silence, and the demon of impurity from that moment took possession.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
