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18th Sunday after Pentecost - The Sin of Blasphemy

9/25/2021

My dear Children: In your catechism you have learned under the Second Commandment what blasphemy means. By blasphemy we mean speaking injuriously of God, or His saints and angels, or sacred things. This is, indeed, a crime which we should expect to find only among the devils in hell. For can it be possible that man, the creature of God, redeemed by the Blood of the Son of God, receiving daily his existence and innumerable benefits from the hand of God, should be capable of speaking injuriously of God, or what immediately relates to Him. And yet, unhappily, it is so.

Many, indeed, blaspheme that which they know not; for example those who, not belonging to our holy religion, and misled by prejudice and false teachers, misrepresent Catholic Doctrine, mock at the ceremonies of the Church, or speak disrespectfully of our Blessed Lady, or the saints, or the holy Sacraments ; but there are others, alas ! Catholics in name, who blaspheme that which they do know, by murmuring against the Justice or Providence of God, jesting about holy things, or mocking at the ministers of the Church.

You can easily understand how heinous this crime is in the sight of God. In the Old Law the blasphemer was, by the command of God Himself, sentenced to death, and stoned in sight of all the people, and in the laws of many Christian nations we find the severest punishments enacted against this crime, as, for example, in the laws of St. Louis, king of France, who ordered the tongue of the blasphemer to be pierced with a red-hot iron. Many instances are likewise recorded, in which God took it upon Himself at once to avenge His own honor, and struck the blasphemer dead in the very act of insulting Him.

Some years ago the town of Nottingham was visited by a most awful thunderstorm, the effects of which were most disastrous. The lower part of the town was flooded, and the poorer classes, who inhabited cellars, as well as many shopkeepers, suffered severely. Among those who sought shelter from the pitiless storm in the Milton's Head public-house, was a young man, a lace-maker by trade. For some time he amused himself with ridiculing the fears of the people, but his language, which was from the first light and unbecoming, became at last impious and profane. He used the Holy Name of God in the most blasphemous manner, and, with bitter oaths, expressed a wish that a thunderbolt might come down and strike his companions blind. Then raising himself, he looked through the skylight over the room in which they were sitting and, with profane gestures, defied the lightning. At that moment a vivid flash entered the room, and in an instant he was lying speechless on the floor. He was taken up by the trembling bystanders, none of whom were injured, and laid upon a couch. The first words he uttered on recovering his speech were: "God forgive me!" He had become blind.

God is blasphemed when we wish Him evil, or when we curse creatures, in so far as they are God's works. He who wishes that there was no God, or that He had not the power to punish the wicked, is guilty of the most horrid blasphemy. He who curses men, cattle, or anything else, such as the weather, is guilty of blasphemy,' according to St. Thomas of Aquin, since these are creatures or works of God; for dishonoring that which God has made is in fact dishonoring God Himself. But God can be blasphemed not only with words, but also with signs and gestures; when a man, for instance, full of rage, raises his clenched hands towards heaven, gnashes his teeth, spits upon holy things, as the soldiers did when they spat upon Jesus,' bent their knees before Him and in derision saluted Him as their king.

Children, this sin can also be committed in thought, when we voluntarily think something of God or His saints which is to their dishonor. Persons who are troubled with involuntary blasphemous thoughts must not allow themselves to be disquieted in their devotion. They should often say "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost."

A very holy man left his cell in the desert to visit a sick friend of his youth who dwelt in Alexandria, and who wished to see him before he died. Most of the inhabitants of that city were pagans, who hated the Christian religion. As soon, therefore, as he entered, they knew by his dress that he was a Christian hermit, and began to mock him. Some carried their hatred so far as to strike him, and to abuse him in other ways. But the good man passed on without uttering a word of complaint, and bore all patiently for the love of God. Some of them cried after him in mockery : "Did Jesus Christ ever work a miracle?"

A man who was passing and who was a Christian said: "Yes, Jesus Christ did work many miracles; but even if He had not wrought any, the conduct of this holy man is enough to prove the truth of the Christian religion. What greater miracle could you desire to see? You have insulted and abused the good man because he is a disciple of Jesus Christ, and yet he has borne it all without murmur." These words silenced the people : they were ashamed of what they had done. And some of them, touched by the meekness of the good monk, were led to believe in God and to renounce forever paganism.

Children, by blasphemy God is attacked personally, and His honor violated. One who offends a king personally, commits a greater crime than if he transgresses one of his laws, so the blasphemer commits a far greater sin than some sinner who sins not immediately against God, but only against His law. Now if a man dares to insult and blaspheme God, whom the Cherubim and Seraphim adore with the most profound veneration, must it not be a horrible sin? If a Catholic who is a member of the true Church of God, curses God despite of all graces and evidences of His love, instead of praising and glorifying Him, is it not the most atrocious crime? Very sad to say that even some children, who scarcely know how to make the Sign of the Cross, know how to give themselves to the devil ; they learn how to curse sooner than to pray. Oh, that parents would carefully guard against cursing and blaspheming, so as not to give scandal to their children.

My dear boys and girls, I beg of you avoid the company of blasphemers, they are living devils. Furthermore, consider what you would have to reveal before the throne of God, when you must give an account of every idle word. Let the divine praises be constantly on your lips : "Blessed be God, blessed be His Holy Name."

Source: Story Sermonettes for the Children's Mass, Imprimatur 1921

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18th Sunday after Pentecost - Jesus Cures the Paralytic

10/13/2019

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IN the paralytic healed so miraculously by Jesus, the holy doctors see the image of spiritual paralytics, in whom sin has exhausted the sources of supernatural life, or in whom tepidity has stopped its activity. In the zeal which these men display who are so afflicted, they find two circumstances worthy of our meditations, viz., the conditions and the signs of a sincere return to God.
First Point.—Conditions of a sincere return to God. These men whom the Holy Spirit here presents
to us as models have with difficulty come to Jesus. They are stopped at the door of the house by a multitude whom all their efforts cannot resist. But their zeal is not lessened. Their ingenious charity finds another way to Him. Rather, He to whom faith conducts them suggests the way they must follow. And you also must expect to find obstacles in your return to Jesus. The enemy of your salvation shall oppose your return by the illusions of the world, the seductions of pleasures, the authority of examples, vain words, the fear of opinions, and foolish railleries. But it is in yourself especially that you shall find the most dangerous arms. They are the ardent passions which you must repress, agreeable inclinations which you must reform, flattering tastes which you must abandon, cherished associations which you must break, and inveterate habits which you must overcome. Imagination, which still more increases the difficulty, terrifies you; only the idea of efforts to be made prevents even the first step. Alas! how much this sad fear of contest against one's self puts to flight the courageous resolutions and renders void the most salutary projects.

If the sick man of whom there is now question was discouraged; if, yielding to obstacles, he stopped short; if, despairing of reaching Jesus, he had ceased to seek Him, the unfortunate man would have been a victim to his infirmity during his life; and, what is more deplorable still, he would die laden by his sins. This is the condition of sinners whom sloth restrains at the very outset of their penitential career, or whom weakness prevents from performing it. Indeed, we should mistrust ourselves, but can we not confide in God? He has promised us His assistance; shall we doubt His fidelity? Implore this assistance with which you cannot fail to triumph, but think that it is to your efforts that God shall grant it. He wishes to supply for your weakness, but not for your will. He consents to aid you, but He commands that you shall begin to act. He adds to your strength what is wanting, but He requires that such as it is you must employ it. See the paralytic who is presented for your model. He strives to come to Jesus with all the strength of which he is capable; in his inability to go and cast himself at the feet of Jesus he puts himself in the hands of charitable persons who carry him there. Imitate him; if your soul, paralyzed by a long sequence of sins, feels no longer able to endure their weight and can only give forth vain desires, entrust yourself to a zealous director. He shall guide you, he shall carry you if it is necessary, even to the feet of your Redeemer. His science shall enlighten you, his experience shall guide you, and his charity shall sustain you. What you think you are unable to do he shall teach you ; and what you really cannot do he shall do for you. His prayers, which are agreeable to God, shall make yours heard. He shall be at once the happy mediator who shall obtain your pardon and the merciful judge who shall pronounce it.

Second Point.—Signs of a true conversion. In healing the paralytic, Jesus gives him three different commands which announce the different characters of the conversion of a sinner. He commands him to arise, to take up his bed, and to return into his house.

The first mark by which we recognize that a sinner is truly converted is when his soul, once lifted up to God, is no longer grovelling in the things of earth, and, strongly maintaining itself, it remains' with constancy in the state of rectitude in which grace has placed it. We do not consider the sick man cured when each time he strives to rise he falls back through want of vigor. We must pronounce the same judgment on a soul whose feeble efforts to arise, not having the necessary strength, are continually followed by relapses. Is not this the judgment we must pronounce on you—you who make of your life a continual alternation of penance and sin ? You have not the courage to cut loose entirely from the world; you have not the generosity to give yourself entirely to God; you are tossed about successively from your fears to your weakness. Do you think you have recovered health when you take in the way of salvation only wavering steps and when the least obstacle disturbs you and casts you down? "Arise," said the Saviour; but remember that a relapse is worse than the original malady, because, already weakened, you have less strength to bear this and to accept the remedies.

In the bed which Jesus commanded the paralytic to take away, the fathers see the symbol of habits, affections, and the passions to which the soul was addicted while she was paralyzed. There she rests, there she languishes, there she remains, incapable of movement. After her conversion the objects of her affections become for her a burden. Her crime was to taste of the pleasure, and a part of her penance shall be to feel its burden. Sinful soul, do not hesitate to take up this bed of miseries to which you were so long confined. You must take it up, or you shall continue to lie upon it. But take courage. Your burden shall become less heavy in proportion to your willingness to carry it; your passions will continue to torment you, especially in the beginning of your conversion, but they will grow weaker in the measure you resist them, and you shall regain the dominion over yourself.

Jesus commanded the paralytic to return to his house. This is also the command He gives to a converted soul. By sin she went out from herself to give herself to creatures; her conversion should consist principally in re-entering herself and remaining there constantly recollected. This separation from dangerous objects, this interior retreat, are at once the precious effects, the manifest sign, and the assured guarantee of a solid penance.

Those sinners are not truly converted whom we see, after some equivocal marks of repentance, not avoiding the occasions which led them to sin, forming again those associations which were their ruin,and returning to the pleasures which corrupted them. You see the most perfect, just those innocent souls that have never been stained by a mortal sin, tremble at the approach of the world and fear its empoisoned breath lest the delicate flower of purity should be withered. And you, who with the knowledge of your weakness and the experience of all your falls should stand in fear and in continual circumspection—you imprudently expose yourself to the contagion by which you were so often attacked, and again expose yourself to the danger to which you have so often succumbed! How can you think that your desires of virtue are sincere?

Fly, therefore, from the world, where everything is a pitfall for your virtue; and, if you are obliged to live in it, make a solitude for yourself, where you can often enter—there to purify your soul from the vile dust by which the commerce of the world surely soils even the most religious hearts.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897

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18th Sunday after Pentecost - "Son Thy Sins are Forgiven Thee"

10/12/2014

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Our divine Redeemer, who came down from heaven, was continually active in the work of the salvation of men by constant preaching and by journeyings up and down the land of Palestine in search of poor, miserable sinners to bring them hack to God. He healed them all, for " the power of the Lord was to heal them."

Among the many parables given by Our Lord, let us meditate on the one of today's Gospel. One day Our Lord was in a boat and had Himself brought across the lake of Genasareth to His own city Capharnaum. They called Capharnaum His city, because He made His home there in the house of Simon, when He was in the vicinity. He had left Nazareth long before, and seldom went back to the place. No man is a prophet in his own country, and the inhabitants of Nazareth were incredulous, and used to ask, "Is not this the carpenter's Son? Whence, therefore, hath He all these things?"
Capharnaum was quite a large city, situated at the head of Lake Genasareth; there was, in a small way, considerable inland commerce and fishing there and the people seemed more approachable than at other places. When they heard that Jesus had come a great crowd ran to the house where He was, filled it, and even blockaded the approaches to it. It was with difficulty that a poor cripple, a man who had lost the use of all his limbs, was brought there. As it was not possible to get in by the door, the man's friend climbed to the roof and making a hole in it, they lowered the sick man into Our Lord's presence. The kindness of those who assisted in this act was certainly very great, for a great deal of labor was required. Our Lord Himself was pleased with this exhibition of faith, and at once took notice of the sick man who was laid before Him. Great was the charity that these men exhibited when they undertook to bring the paralytic to Our Lord. But Our Lord did not consider the body at first; He thought of the soul, and began by forgiving the man's sins. When we are sick, all sorts of advice is offered to us, and the doctor is at once sent for; this is as it should be. My young friends, when you hear that one of your relatives is sick you ought to show an interest in him and do what you can for him; when your friends and companions fall sick, show by your sympathetic manner that you feel an interest in their welfare and in their health; you are thus practising one of the works of mercy, which is very important. Nothing is more beautiful than to see young people helping their companions, and faithfully remaining at their side until the sick ones are cured, or until death comes; parents and relatives will willingly yield their places to them, for they know how affectionate young people can be to one another. But you ought to help particularly, when you find that your friend is sick unto death in sin; then you ought not delay trying to revive him. Go out and find those who do not hear Mass, who will not go to confession, and talk to them, that you may gain them. This is an acceptable gift to God, and He will reward you accordingly. Our Lord did not cure the poor man that was brought to Him at once. God has His time for everything. When we pray we often think that our prayer is not heard because we do not see a miracle wrought at once, but God's time is according to God's wisdom for our own good.

Our Lord said to the sick man, "Have confidence: thy sins are forgiven thee." Why did He wish first to forgive his sins and then to cure him of his bodily ills? Because sin is the great evil, in fact, is the only evil in the world, and sickness is only a consequence. If we say all miseries, sickness, death, and starvation are nothing, who will believe us? In fact most people in this world will not understand this; they take no account of sin; these people do not want to know that their own poverty and wickedness and that of millions of others are the result of sin. In Deuteronomy the Scripture says that " The Lord will strike thee with want, fever, and cold, on account of thy infidelity." You see that God deals out punishment and reward, even here on this earth, though we do not see it. Let us look at the happenings of the world not like an atheist, but like one who believes that God holds the world in His hands, and regulates its events according to His supreme will. Here is a young man who has fallen into a very serious sickness. His friends say he caught cold, or did not take care of himself that he was careless or neglectful; often, were they to look below the surface, they would find more than carelessness or neglect they would find that his illness was but the consequence of his sins. Much of the poverty and evil on this earth could be avoided did people lead better lives, and try to conform themselves to the teachings of Our Lord and Saviour; to avoid temptations, or to have recourse to fervent prayer when temptations do come. We know, of course, that God often afflicts those He loves best with many physical ills ^but if He does He gives reward a hundredfold in the end; and gives them, too, a patient endurance and resignation under all their sufferings. However, the fact remains that most of the troubles in this world come from sin, and since this is a fact we ought to learn to avoid sin, fear it, abhor it, and let it never become our master.

The Scribes who heard Jesus say "Son, thy sins are forgiven thee," immediately cried out, "He blasphemeth; who can forgive sin but God only?" Jesus was God, and to prove it He said, "Which is easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins are forgiven thee, or say. Arise, take up thy bed and walk?" You will say, that to man both are equally impossible, that God alone can do this. To prove to them, then, that He was God and could forgive sins. He commanded the sick man to arise and walk. No sooner had Our Lord pronounced these words than the man not only arose and left the bed he had not stirred from in a long time, but was able to remove the bed from the house to which he had been carried. The people who had witnessed this miracle praised God for the power He possessed of forgiving sins and of healing so hopeless a case. The Pharisees looked on in stupid wonder, but did not accept the grace of conversion. Here we have a picture of many Christians and of many young men who hear of the wonders of God, but continue in their wicked lives, and remain obstinate unbelievers.

Nothing that God may do seems to move them. My good young friends, you certainly know from your early education that God has given you the great Sacrament of Penance, for the forgiveness of sins, to help you to get to heaven. Baptism is great indeed, because it makes us children of God; but it is also necessary that there should be another sacrament which, when Baptism has been once received will again cleanse us and supply again and again the necessary grace to become friends of God. Great indeed was the mercy of God when He instituted the Sacrament of Penance. But does the sinner avail himself of this means of grace? Many abuse it, and use it rather as an encouragement to crime. "I will go on in my manner of life" says the sinner, "and when I have a great deal to confess, I will unburden myself." He will wait until a large mimber is preparing for the sacrament and then he hopes to get through easily; he thinks that this sacrament can be received at any time; "when the opportunity presents itself I will go." he says. Will you,my dear young man, take poison because you have at hand an antidote for it? Will you carelessly inflict a deadly wound on your body because a doctor can be procured at any time? How insane would such an act be! Still there are many of this foolish class. Not only are there many who abuse the graces of this sacrament by an unworthy reception of it, but a number have not the proper disposition for receiving it. You ought to examine your conscience before going to confession. Do you review your life since your last confession so as to place your duties before you? And if you have your sins ready in your mind, do you accuse yourself with real sorrow, or do you only say an act of contrition by word of mouth? You surely know that it is not the mere recital of your sins which is the great requirement in the sacrament of confession; you know that without sorrow there is no forgiveness. It includes also a resolution of future amendment. You go to confession not only to receive the forgiveness of past sins, but you must see to it that you lead a better life in the future. I will say nothing of those who avoid the confessional as they would a pest. These are like people in a shipwreck, who would not grasp at a plank by which they might keep afloat and be saved. They evidently wish to be damned and to go to hell. Take this lesson on confession to heart; use it for your salvation and if you should fall into sin, you can turn to God again. He will receive you with open arms, as He received the prodigal son: "The son that was lost is found again." Go to the minister of God's justice, the priest, with sorrow; tell him your frailties, bewail them with bitterness, resolve that in the future you will avoid all occasions of sin, and watch over your passions carefully in order that you may not fall. And these consoling words will sink deep into your soul, "Have confidence, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace."

Source: Sermons for Children's Masses, Imprimatur 1900

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18th Sunday after Pentecost - The Love of Jesus Christ

9/22/2013

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          "If any one love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema" (i Cor. 16, 22).

The motives for loving our divine Saviour are so great, so irresistible, that St. Paul does not hesitate to condemn to eternal perdition those who will not love Him, for they are guilty of the foulest ingratitude. The benefits conferred on mankind by Jesus Christ are so great and numerous, that our heart must be either of ice or of stone, if we can refrain from loving Him with all our heart. The principal motives for loving Him are drawn from:

I. HIS INCARNATION.
The Son of God, who is eternal, infinitely perfect, be came man by assuming our human nature, a body and soul like ours; He was born a helpless child in a stable, and led for thirty years the poor, obscure, laborious and humble life of a mechanic, unknown, unhonored by those He had come to save. And why did the Son of God so humble himself? For the salvation of sinful and ungrateful man kind.

II. His PASSION AND DEATH.
"Greater love than this no man hath, than that he lay down His life for His friends." (John 15. 13). For us, who were not His friends, but His enemies by our sins, He sacrificed everything, His goods, His body, His honor, all His blood, His very life on a gibbet of infamy! Could love go any further? And yet men instead of loving and thanking Him, continue to insult Him, hate and outrage Him daily, hourly!

III. THE BLESSED EUCHARIST.
What should astonish us even more than His sufferings and death for us ungrateful sinners, is the infinite, incomprehensible love He manifests to us in the Blessed Eucharist. His love for us is so great, that it would seem that He could not be happy without us. Love, intense love, tends to intimate union with the beloved, to remain constantly with the beloved, to become, as it were, one with the beloved. And this is what Jesus does most wonderfully in our regard in the Blessed Eucharist. In order to remain always near us, to be always among us, to unite Him self most intimately with us and, as it were, inseparably from us, He has, in some manner, humbled Himself in the Blessed Eucharist more than in the Incarnation, more even than in His ignominious death on the cross. In the Incarnation and on the cross Jesus hid only His divinity, but in the Eucharist He conceals even His humanity, and constantly exposes Himself to every kind of insult and outrage, such as want of faith, of reverence, indifference, insults and all kinds of profanation. And who are we, that He should so ardently desire our love? We are but poor, helpless, imperfect, miserable, sinful creatures. And it is out of His tender love of such wretched creatures, that the Son of God has, so to speak, exhausted His power and His love in the Blessed Eucharist! What more can we desire of Him? The great wonder in the Eucharist is not so much God's power, as His excessive and incomprehensible love for us miserable and ungrateful creatures !

IV. HOW WE SHOULD REPAY OUR SAVIOUR'S BOUNDLESS LOVE FOR US.
     1. First, by an unlimited confidence in Him. In all that He has done for us, and in all the crosses and trials that beset our path in life, we should put all our trust in Him, for He seeks only our welfare. Therefore, whatever may happen to us, let us say, like the mother of Samson: "If the Lord had a mind to kill us, He would not have showed us all these things" (Judges 13. 23). Since His mercy and love in our regard have no bounds, our confidence in Him also should know no bounds.
     2. We owe our divine Saviour our inmost gratitude. But how different is our conduct in His regard! We continue to offend Him daily, preferring our own ease and comfort, our worldly interests, the gratification of our passions to keeping His commandments, to seeking to please Him. Let us apply to ourselves the stinging rebuke Jesus addressed to the Jews who had taken up stones to stone Him to death: "Many good works have I shown you from My Father; for which of those works do you stone Me?" (John 10. 32).
     3. We owe our divine Saviour the most tender and constant love. Our love for Jesus should be like that of the martyrs; sovereign, generous and self-sacrificing. Like them we should be ready to do all, to suffer all, to sacrifice all, even our very life, for His sake. We should so conduct ourselves as to be able to say with St. Paul: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? ... I am sure that ... no creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"; (Rom. 8. 35-39).
     4. Another means of repaying the love of the Son of God for us is daily to consider, to reflect on the ineffable love Jesus bore us in His humiliations, in His passion and death, and in all the gifts He has bestowed upon us, and to make frequent ejaculatory prayers, especially acts of sorrow for sin, of divine love, of gratitude.
     5. Devout assistance daily, if possible, at holy Mass. Also frequent fervent holy Communion, even daily if it is in our power. A spiritual Communion renewed often during the day.
     6. A daily visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament inwhich we should pour out our ardent love for Him. We should long to be often with Him, to remain in His presence as long as we can, where we can tell Him of our troubles, of our wants, of our love for Him, in the same manner as a little child tells these things to his mother. We are ignorant; but He will instruct us; we are weak, but He will strengthen us; we are sinful, but He will sanctify us; we are cold or lukewarm in the service of God, but He will inflame us with fervor and divine love, and enable us to serve Him faithfully to the end of our life.
                                                                                  Source: Sermon Matters, Imprimatur 1915

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18th Sunday after Pentecost - The Sin of Blasphemy

18th Sunday after Pentecost - Jesus Cures the Paralytic

18th Sunday after Pentecost - "Son Thy Sins are Forgiven Thee"

18th Sunday after Pentecost - The Love of Jesus Christ

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