Sermon, First Sundahy of Advent, November 27, 2011

First Sunday of Advent – November 27, 2011

(Luke 21: 25-33)

            Advent means a coming, and today we begin preparing for the celebration of the coming of the Lord on Christmas. We prepare for the Feast of the birth of Jesus by prayer and fasting, like we do during Lent in preparation for His Death and Resurrection. This month we abstain from eating meat on every Friday, as we always do, but we also have partial fasts and abstinence on the Ember Days of December 14, 15 and 17. Fasting causes mental and physical discomfort like dieting does, but in a religious fast we offer our discomfort to God for our personal intentions. These intentions vary widely and could be for the health of a friend or family member, for the conversion of sinners, literally any holy special intention we have in our lives at the time. During Advent we also celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary on December 8^th. This is a Holy Day of Obligation. We are required to attend Mass that day just as on any Sunday. The Immaculate Conception of Mary means that she was without Original Sin since the moment of her conception. 

St. Bernard wrote of three comings of Christ. The first was in the flesh at His birth. The second was in His soul and in power, at the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. The third coming will be in judgment at the end of time. This last coming the Church calls “a day of wrath on which . . . the world will be reduced to ashes; a day of weeping and of fear.” This is the reason why the Church, in the liturgy of Advent . . . “selects from Scriptures passages which are calculated to awaken fear in the mind of those of her children who may be sleeping the sleep of sin. Fear, when accompanied by God’s love, sustains the hearts of we, His children, who have offended our Father and seek His pardon. However, fear not accompanied by love is slavery.

            During this time of Advent we can note three classes of people. The first, and smallest in number, are those who live to the full the life of Jesus Who is within them. The second class is more numerous, and they are living because Jesus is within them, but they are sick and weak because they do not wish to grow in this divine life. Their charity has become cold. (Matthew 24: 12) The rest of mankind make up the third class. They have no part of this Christ within them and are dead, because Christ has said, “I am the Life,” (John 14: 6) and “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life.” (John 6: 54, 55)

The Messiah repeats His visit to His children every year at the Feast of Christmas. Receive Him this year with more care and love than perhaps you have done in the past. Go to the Confessional, confess all of your sins, perform the penance you are given by the priest and receive absolution. The priest is empowered to forgives sins because Christ makes all things new. (Apocalypse 21: 5) That includes you and me. Make room in your soul for the Divine Infant for He desires to grow within you.

            The time of His coming is close at hand. Let your heart be on the watch so that He does not find you sleeping. Watch and pray. The words of the Advent liturgy speak of darkness,  which only God can enlighten; of wounds, which only His mercy can heal; of weakness, which can be strengthened only by His divine energy.  He desires not the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live. (Ezechiel 18: 31, 32) The great feast of Christ’s birth is a day of mercy for all who will admit Him into their hearts: they will rise to life again in Him, their past sins will be destroyed, and where sin abounded, there grace will abound even more.  (Romans 5: 20)

            But if the attractiveness of this mystery of the coming of the Messiah on the Feast of Christmas makes no impression on you because for so long you have drunk sin like it was water, or worshipped the false gods of self, or of reason or of humanism, and you do not know what it is to long with love for the caress of your Father whom you have sinned against -- if that is your situation then turn your attention to that other coming in judgment which is full of terror and which follows the silent night of grace which is offered to us this Christmas.

“And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with

great power and majesty.”

            Not as the first time will He come, hidden in a weak human body, tucked away in a cave, later suffering insults and mockery and bearing the burden of His cross. This second time He will come in great majesty and in terrible splendor, darkening the sun and moon, with stars falling from heaven and  the upheaval of all creation. This second time He will not come in the meekness of a lamb to be judged by men, but as the Judge, to judge mankind with the awful measure of His justice. This will be the day of separation, when His angels cast the disobedient into hell and gather the faithful into His kingdom. Today is the day of mercy. Today is the day to repent and beg God’s mercy. But when Christ comes again, that will be the day of God’s justice, not His mercy.

            We should never lose sight of the fact that some day we will be judged without mercy, that all of our sins will be revealed in view of the whole world, and that after our judgment we shall face heaven or hell. How blind we are if we do not use the short lives we enjoy on earth to insure entrance into Heaven. As long as we are alive, we can ask for and hope for pardon, but if we wait too long there may be no hope and no help for us. Today is the day to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” as St. Paul phrased it in today’s Epistle (Romans 13: 14) The Savior is the clothing we are to put on over our spiritual nakedness. God, remembering how man hid himself in the Garden of Eden after his original sin, has agreed to become man’s clothing and to cover us with the robe of His divinity.

            O Lord, give us the grace to never lose sight of Your dreadful Judgment Day. Do not let us fall into temptation, that we may hear on that day those sweet words from Your mouth, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess ye the Kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning.” Amen +++

                       

                                    We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, 24th & Last Sunday after Pentecost, Nov. 20, 2011

24^th & Last Sunday after Pentecost – November 20, 2011

(Mt. 24:15-35)

            In the last Sundays after Pentecost the Church concerns herself with death and judgment, but especially on this Sunday. We also will deal with death today, then next week begin the Season of Advent in preparation for Christmas.

            Death alarms those unrepentant sinners who must leave behind their treasures and their pleasures. In their fear of the coming judgment, many will see themselves as abandoned by both God and man. The just person has lived in the light of the Gospel, and has carried his cross and has repented for his sins. The just can look forward to death as the end of all temptation, sorrow, suffering, illness and all earthly desires. The father of a friend, when he was near death, was asked by his doctor if he wanted to be revived if he stopped breathing. “Oh no,” he said, “I’ve been looking forward to this all my life.” Death for the just person is the beginning of his salvation.

Death doesn’t have to be as dreadful as we suppose. It depends entirely on us to make it a happy and beautiful event. Our souls give life to our bodies. The life we live in these bodies is like an apprenticeship. When we have served a good apprenticeship, our souls are released from our bodies, as if we were held captives in a foreign land, and are then free to experience the joy of returning to our homeland, which is with our Lord in His Kingdom. “Deliver my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name,” said King David (Psalm 141: 8, KJV 142: 7) “. . . Give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest.” (Psalm 54: 7, KJV 55: 6)

How happy are Christians when they follow in the footsteps of our Divine Master. And what does the Lord’s life consist of? Three things: Prayer, good deeds and suffering. We know our Lord often withdrew from the public to pray in private, and that He was always active in good deeds, in the salvation of souls. But it is not acceptable today to talk of a life of suffering. We dislike any form of discomfort. However, we also know that in our Lord’s life on earth He suffered from poverty, persecution, humiliation and finally the terror of His passion and death. He said through His prophet, David, “For my life is wasted with grief: and my years in sighs. My strength is weakened through poverty. . . I am become a vessel that is destroyed, For I have heard the blame of many that dwell round about.” (Psalm 30: 11-14, KJV 31: 10-13) Can the life of a good Christian be anything other than that of a person who is nailed to the cross with his Lord? Try standing up for good against public morality, and you will find that life of suffering.

To hope for a happy death is not enough. We must work for this sublime happiness. Among the means  we can use to achieve this, St. John Vianney selected three which, with God’s grace, will lead us to a happy death. We must prepare ourselves for it by (1) living a holy life, (2) by true repentance of our sins and (3) by a perfect union of our death with the death of Jesus Christ.

As a rule, people die as they have lived. Committed sinners die as sinners. Committed Christians die as Christians. Last minute conversions are so few that it prompted St. Jerome to say that death is an echo of life. If we are on the road to hell and we think we can postpone our conversion to the last hours or minutes of our life we are blind because we do not know the day or hour of our deaths. It is not easy to return to our Lord, but if we become filled with a spirit of repentance now, if we begin to live a Christian life today, we will be among those contrite souls who move the Heart of Jesus to shower us with His grace to put us back on the difficult path, the straight and narrow road to heaven. We must always be ready to appear before Jesus Christ to be judged for the life we have lived on earth.

In the Bible we read of Abimelech, who killed his brother who ruled with him. Eventually Abimelech attacked the city of Thebes and attempted to set fire to a tall tower in the middle of the city. A woman in the tower threw a stone at him and broke his skull. He was dying, and told his shield bearer to draw his sword and kill him quickly lest it be said that he was killed by a woman. Why did he do that? Because all his life he lived for the honor and glory of the world. He could not suffer what he considered the dishonor of dying at the hands of a woman. This was more important to him than repenting of his sins, so died as he lived.

The third way to prepare for a happy death is to offer our death in union with the death of Jesus. When a priest visits a dying person he brings our Lord in Communion, but he also brings a crucifix. A crucifix will drive a devil away, but far more importantly, it is brought to serve a model to the sick person to prepare him for death in the same way our Lord prepared for His own death.  In the Garden of Olives, the first thing Jesus did was take leave of His Apostles, as we should take leave of our loved ones on our deathbeds so we can occupy our mind only with God and His salvation. When He was alone, Jesus threw himself on the ground and prayed fervently, and so should we when death is near to unite our death agony with the death agony of Jesus.

If we live a good Christian life right up to the end, we will have a happy death, and that is what I wish for all of you. Amen. +++

We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, Nov 13, 2011

22^nd Sunday after Pentecost – November 13, 2011

(Epistle: Philippians 1: 6-11) - (Gospel: Matthew 22: 15-21)

“Whose image and inscription is this?”

Jesus put the pride and hypocrisy of the Pharisees to shame, and he fearlessly censured the immorality of the Herodians. Herodians were those Jews who followed the Romans, and though the two groups were bitter political enemies, they worked together on this day to destroy Christ.

They put this cunning questions before our Lord, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not.” The aim of the Pharisees in asking the question was to force Christ into a situation where the Herodians would arrest Him if He said it is not lawful to pay tribute, and if He answered yes, it is lawful, then He would face being abandoned by the multitudes who followed Him.

Well, if you want to arm wrestle with God you’re going to lose.  Jesus responds to the Pharisees, “Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin of the tribute.” When they show him one of their coins, note that Jesus does not say, “This is Caesar’s image.” Instead, He asks the Pharisees whose image it is. “Caesar’s,” they said, and by saying that they acknowledge that they are Caesar’s subjects.  Now their trap is defeated, and now the truth can be taught to them. Jesus tells them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” After this they simply walked away. This is also the first principle of all governments. When this principle is denied by either Church or government you will see a country that is dying.

 “Let us make man to our own image and likeness!” (  Genesis 1: 20) We are not gods, we are creatures, but creatures in the likeness of God. Animals are creatures, but not having reason, they are not in the likeness of God. We have reason which tells us it is right to give to the poor, and we have a will which can say no to this compassion. An animal cannot do that. We have reason and must perceive the truth and reject lies. We have will power, and with that we must choose to love and to do good. Our natural likeness to God through reason is often disfigured and even destroyed by man when he lies or doesn’t even care to inquire after Truth. Many hate truth because truth is severe and demands that we conquer ourselves and curb our passions. Jesus told us this: “For everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved (criticized).” (John 3: 20)

We also sin against our likeness to God through reason when we do not seek knowledge of what is necessary in our calling. Parents commit this sin when they fail to instruct their children in the one, true faith, and children commit this sin when they do not attend school properly. Christians who destroy reason or limit its activity commit this sin. Drunkards are in this category because when drunk they no longer know what they are doing. Those who live impure lives also sin against reason because one of the effects of impurity is a dullness of reason. St. Paul warned against this: “The sensual man perceives not the things that are of the spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2: 14)

“The powers of our will, the second feature of our likeness to God, are also misused and destroyed by sin.” Neither all the kings on earth nor all the devils in hell can compel us to do something against our will. But giving in to passion weakens the will. With every sin we commit, the power of evil increases in us, and the weakness of our will increases at the same time. When a person gives himself over to sin he finally says, “I cannot help it. This is my nature.” But this is not true. We can stop sinning if we will to stop, with the help of God. We get this help through prayer. When sinful men do not pray they have no determination of will, and they live on in their sins. Their hearts become hardened and they carry on an unremitting war against Truth. Their main weapons are lies and calumny, which is slander and defamation of character. With these weapons they smear everything that is good and reverent to God.

Such people can be found in all walks of life: in the commercial and laboring classes, where they, like Judas, sell their faith and conscience for pieces of silver; they are found among those who are too lazy to work for a living, finding it easier to beg; and among the rich, to whom money is their god and whose only thoughts are about business and amusement. “In all such people the will is diseased and corrupted. They crave for sin; they love sin and they die in sin.” This is what comes from a perversion of reason and will.

Such people also lack sanctifying grace in their souls, which is to say they lack the supernatural image of God. They don’t care that they live in mortal sin (that grievous sin that will send us to hell). They live on in this state year after year, piling sin upon sin, never thinking of confession, forgiveness and penance. If they do confess, it is not probing or sincere. They illustrate our Lord’s own words: “Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is made worse that the first.” (Matthew 12: 45) Such people avoid the Word of God because it disturbs their life of sin. How can such souls be the image of God? They are in fact the image of someone else. Teaching in the temple one day, Jesus described whose image they reflect: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do.” (John 8: 44)

We find today a great deal of humanity filled with hatred toward God, toward Jesus Christ and toward His One True Church. “The consequences of this hatred are rebellion against lawful authority. . . All that is right is despised and stamped under foot, while [political power] gains the upper hand over right.” These people are not satisfied with their own separation from
God, they also try to ruin many others and destroy their happiness in time and in eternity.

There is salvation in only one thing: “Give unto God the things that are God’s.” Be obedient to all that Jesus told us to do. Be obedient to His Church, which guides us through life and dispenses His forgiveness and grace through the Sacraments. You are God’s creation and God’s property. Then give to Him your reason, your heart and your will. Use them only for God and you will be His property for all eternity, as children of His grace and charity. Amen. +++

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, 21st Sunday after Pentecost, Nov 6, 2011

21^st Sunday after Pentecost – November 6, 2011

Epistle: Ephesians 6: 10-17

Gospel: Matthew 18: 23-35

“And laying hold of him, he throttled him, saying: Pay what thou owest.”

          The first servant in the parable was so little thankful and so little inclined to be lenient to others, that at first sight of the second servant who owed him a hundred pence, he flew into a rage demanding immediate payment, and not getting that, he threw him into prison until the debt was paid. Just before this at Matthew 18: 21, 22, Peter asked Jesus how often he must forgive those who wrong him, and Jesus told him seventy times seven, meaning we must always forgive those who trespass against us. How different we are from God, Who is willing to forgive all we owe to His justice. God forgives us in order to teach us to do the same to each other.

          An irritable person is easily provoked to anger, often flying into a rage, such as the first servant in today’s parable. We are not concerned here with trivial expressions of impatience and irritability. These are not serious sins, even though we should confess them because they easily lead to serious sins. The anger we are talking about today is a violence in the soul which rejects everything and anything that is displeasing to it.

          There is also a holy anger, which is better called zeal. Holy zeal is the turbulence in the soul that we feel when we stand up in defense of God and of our religion. In the Bible we have seen this in Moses when he came down from the mountain and found the people worshiping a golden calf, and we saw it in Jesus when He threw the merchants out of the Temple. As an aside: Jesus called all of them thieves. Were all of them thieves because they were cheating the people who bought from them? Maybe a few were, but certainly not all of them. But they all cheated God out of His House of Prayer by turning it into a commercial enterprise. That is what made them thieves.

          Coming back to anger, the Prophet Isaias tells us that a man in anger is like water stirred up by a storm. Heaven can be pictured as a calm sea that reflects the beauty of the stars above. But a storm disturbs the water and the reflections disappear. If we are patient and gentle, we reflect the image of our Lord. But when anger and impatience disturb us, the image of God disappears and is replaced by the image of an evil spirit.

          What comes out of an evil spirit? Quarreling, harshness, hatred, revenge - all the same emotions of an angry person. What come out of his mouth are curses, not blessings. In some homes neither husband nor wife will give in and there is continuous quarreling, anger and cursing. And what do their children learn growing up in such a home? Certainly not charity, patience or gentleness because the home they live in is hell on earth. Anger becomes hereditary in homes like that, because children who grow up with anger pass it down to their children.

                   

Anger does not appear alone either. It is always accompanied by other sins like cursing, blasphemy and slander. Our tongues were given to us to praise God, and they are consecrated to him in Baptism and Holy Communion. Our tongues are not for cursing, blasphemy or slander.

          How unfortunate is the person who gives himself over to anger and passion. He forces God to punish him. To avoid this punishment yourself, take a good look at the suffering in the world and let it remind you that it is only justice - that as we have revolted against God, so others will revolt against us and hurt us. Do not give others reason to curse and swear. If something happens contrary to what you want, don’t fly into a rage. Rather, say, “God bless you.” Read the Book of Job in the Bible and act like him. He felt all the effects of poverty, the pain of sickness and the anguish of sorrow over the deaths of his children. All this was sent to him to test him, but Job never revolted against God, Whom he loved above all things. As St. Paul put it in Ephesians 4: 26, “Be angry: and sin not.” Our emotions are part of our human makeup. They are neither good nor bad. Emotion become bad if we let them rule us. We are given dominion over the earth, and we are also given dominion or rule over our emotions. Controlling our emotions allows us to concentrate on why we were placed on earth, and that is to know, to love and to serve God.

          In today’s Epistle, St. Paul says, “Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil.” This armor of God is our religion, the Mass and the Sacraments and prayer. One of the great deceits of Satan is that when someone wrongs us we have a right to be angry. This temptation plays to our egos, which tell us that we are important and we should get our way. If this were true our lives would be intolerable because we often do not get our way. Remember, we are required to forgive seventy times seven times.  So, do we have a right to be angry when we are wronged? No, but we do have a right and a duty to be zealous in defense of God. +++

We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass