19th Sunday after Pentecost, October 23, 2011

19th Sunday after Pentecost – October 23, 2011

[Gospel: Mathew 22: 2-14]

Drunkenness is a disgrace in the eyes of men and women. Many people make light of it and excuse it, but drunkenness is a sin. Very few of those addicted to drink will ever break themselves of it.

The consequences of drunkenness are so enormous to the drinker, to friends, family, co-workers, even strangers, that they cannot be fully traced and reported. The drinker ruins his health, his family and his career and brings upon himself the loathing of others. “When we want to persuade a sinner to renounce his sins, we hold up to him the example of Jesus Christ and of the saints; but the drunkard is so low that the example of beasts is held up to him,” telling him he could learn moderation from the beasts of the world.

In ancient Sparta, whose people are characterized by abstinence and moderation in food and drink, they would make a slave drunk and parade him in front of the young people of the city to show them how unreasonable this vice was of reasonable creatures. Even these pagans “would not give way to a passion which reduced man to such disgraceful condition.”

Drunkenness does not give way with old age. The reason is that intemperate people lose their faith, lose piety, have no respect for anything sacred, and almost nothing is capable of opening their eyes to their unhappy state. If you remind them of death, judgment and hell, or of the happiness that God has prepared for those who live a good life, you might get a scornful or patronizing smile, as if they tell you, “I am not a little child who believes everything he is told.” Their God is drink, and they cling to it.

St. Basil (329-379 A.D.) said a drunkard is a receptacle for the garbage of a saloon. The drunkard is often sickly and incapable of doing anything except ruining his health. He is so ignoble, so low, that even the world, as bad as it is, holds him in contempt and sees him as a public nuisance. Could you find a good father who would give his daughter in marriage to a drunk? Or a young girl who would accept marriage to a drunk? No respectable people want to be in their company.

The Council of Mainz (813 A. D.) proclaimed that drunkards violate all the Ten Commandments. You may even be acquainted with one who has done just that. “St. John Chrysostom said to the people of the City of Antioch: ‘Take care, my children, not to give way to drunkenness, because this sin so disgraces mankind, that it lowers them beneath the unreasoning animal. Alas, dear brethren, must not this sin be terrible in the sight of God?’”

All of this should give you an idea of the enormity of the sin of intemperance, but even so, we have a very limited knowledge of the widespread malice worked by this sin.

The drunkard turns every occasion into an occasion to drink, and always has an excuse for his misconduct. You say you drink to conduct business, to improve the ambiance of a social affair, but one drink impairs your ability to think clearly in business and lowers your resistance to sin in social affairs.   Arise from your stupor, drinker, to the cries of your wife and children whom you have treated poorly. How many times have you promised to change your life, each time the promise broken? What do you deserve for your drinking? Nothing better than hell. If you do not repent, you will be the victim of the justice of God which will fall heavily on you for all eternity. Go to Confession, do penance and cry to Heaven for mercy.

Ask God to preserve you from this awful sin, which makes it so difficult, in fact, almost impossible, for those addicted to alcohol to save their souls. Lead a temperate, good life, so that you become a treasured ornament to your faith, your community, and to your family. Follow the path that leads to eternal happiness.

Alcoholics Anonymous is your best hope for living a happy and sober life. Why is that? Because AA requires you, in order to stay sober, to change your whole life and it provides 12 steps to lead you to permanent sobriety and from there to a happier life.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast also tells us we have to change our whole lives. Its spiritual meaning is clear and easy to understand. The wedding of the King’s Son is the Church, as Origen tells us. The servants sent to call the guests are the Prophets. Those who were first called are the Jews, the Chosen People of God. Some of these ignored the invitation and went their own way, some others killed the Prophets. The king then sent “his army and destroyed those murderers and burnt their city.” This was accomplished by the Roman Army in 70 A.D. when it completely destroyed Jerusalem.

The highways in the parable refer to anyone outside the Jewish nation, so the second group called were any people among the Gentiles whom the Apostles could find who would accept the invitation of the King to come to the wedding feast, the Church. Anyone who gives ear to the Word of God is invited – it doesn’t matter who they were or what they did before the call. However, in coming to God’s Church, they must put on proper wedding garments, and these are listed by St. Paul in Colossians 3 as mercy, benignity, humility, modesty and patience. In short, to come into the Church means to change our lives from the sinful life we led before the call, to a life of mercy (love and charity), to benignity (kindness), to humility, modesty and patience. If we do not do this, the King will come to the Feast and see that we are still wearing our sins of the past, that we have not repented, and he will throw us into the exterior darkness which is hell. This tells us that before we are admitted to Heaven we will be judged on how we lived our life. We will stand silent in the face of our sins at our judgment, just as the man without the wedding garment stood silent because there is no defense of sin. +++

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass.