7th Sunday after Pentecost – July 7, 2013
Epistle Romans 6: 19-23; Gospel Matthew 7: 15-21
The Curé
of Ars once asked: “Alas, what has become of us since our conversion?”
God will reward only virtue that perseveres to the end. But
what do we do? After Confession, do we go out and commit the same sins again?
Then we must persevere in Confession, and afterwards go out and practice the
virtues of a person who follows Christ. We have a common expression that
someone is “madder than hell.” Well, that someone is Satan when we come out of
the Confessional with a clean soul, and he’ll do everything he can to get us back
under his power where he wants to keep us.
So
practice living a virtuous life. Practice the virtues given to us at our
Baptism: Faith, Hope and Charity. Practice your Faith by doing the things the
Church asks of you; attending Mass, going to Confession, praying morning and
night and during the day. Practice Hope by reminding yourself of the promised
reward for those who persevere, the reward of Justice and of eternity in the
presence of God. Practice Charity in all your thoughts and deeds towards your
neighbor, whether he is a friend or an enemy. Living a life of sin degrades us,
but God’s Justice blesses us with peace of mind every day at every step we take
in doing our duty as Christians.
Against the sin of pride, practice humility. Against greed,
practice generosity and mercy, against lust practice chastity, against anger
practice patience and meekness, against gluttony practice temperance,
abstinence and self control, against envy practice love of God, of neighbor and
of your enemies, and against sloth (laziness) practice fortitude and diligence,
which is continuous effort.
Practice all these virtues continuously, persevere in them
until the end. St. Paul tells us in Romans
6 that we will win eternal life
if we serve Justice with as much earnestness that we once served uncleanness
and iniquity.
In Apocalypse 2 the Bishop of
Ephesus is warned by God about his lack of perseverance. First, God notes all
the good works he has done, and then tells him: “But I have somewhat against
thee, because thou hast left thy first charity [meaning his zeal of religion].
Be mindful therefore . . . and do penance, and do the first works.” And if he
doesn’t, God warns him that He will reject him and punish him. This warning in
John’s Apocalypse was also directed at the people of Ephesus, so if a bishop and
his subjects with so many good works to their credit are threatened with
rejection by God, how much more should we apply that warning to ourselves.
"A good tree cannot bring forth evil
fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit,” our Lord tells us in today’s
Gospel reading. Think of your children when you hear this and think how
important it is to raise them as good Christians. We have basic obligations
towards our children: to provide them with food, shelter, clothing, education and
to raise them in habits of virtue. It’s easy to see that if we spend our lives
drinking and gambling and cheating on our spouse, when our children grow up they
will do the same because children copy their parents.
St. Paul
tells us in a few words to bring our children up “in the discipline and
correction of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6: 4) The discipline of the Lord is nothing more
than developing habits of Christian living: attending Mass, going to Confession
and practicing the virtues I spoke of earlier. The correction of the Lord is
teaching them the faith, especially the four principle mysteries: First, that
there is but one God, the Creator and Lord of all things. Second, that God will
reward with everlasting joy those who are obedient to Him, and those who are
disobedient He will punish with the everlasting torments of hell. Third, that
in God there are Three Persons Who are only one God, because They have but one
essence. Fourth, that the Word of God, the Son of God, became Man in the womb
of the virgin Mary, and Who suffered and died for our sins and Who rose from
the dead, all because of His love for us and for the sake of our salvation.
In the Epistle reading last week, St. Paul stated in clear
language a central fact of Christian life: “Knowing this, that our old
man is crucified with [Jesus] that the body of sin may be destroyed, and that
we may serve sin no longer,” so that we consider ourselves “to be dead indeed
to sin, but alive to God.” The Christmas
song, Silent Night, says
the world lay in sin and error pining. The world was pining, yearning deeply,
for the Messiah. He came as promised and He showed us how to live a life of
freedom, freedom from sin and error. This is true freedom and comes from living
a life of mortification of our spirit of rebellion against Christ. We learn
that by mortifying our bodies. In simple words we restrain, with God’s help,
the deadly sins of pride, greed, gluttony, lust, sloth, envy and anger so that
we can serve Justice with as much earnestness as we once served those seven
deadly sins.
To live an ordered and happy life we begin with faith, then
proceed to works of Justice. This is how we gain knowledge and wisdom. We do
not understand all there is to know about God or about other people, even those
we love, but however much we do understand of life, we will always have to
labor for Justice. Following Christ is not an easy way to live, but then following
Christ has never been for those looking for the easier, softer way. This is
tiring work but it leads to a life of accomplishment, a complete life of
freedom on earth and joy forever in the Kingdom of our Lord. +++
We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass
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