Vol 14 Issue 40 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
October 2, 2021 ~ Holy Guardian Angels, opn!
1. Sacrament of Penance
2. Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
3. Saint Therese of Lisieux
4. Family and Marriage
5. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:
Every Sunday Catholics assist at Holy Mass, unless there is no Mass available—a frequency that especially has increased exponentially since 1967 when the aftermath of Vatican II hit the fan and priests either left the priesthood or began offering experimental services that culminated in the Conciliar Church, by 1970, converting all former Catholic Churches into Protestant halls that offered a neo-Protestant meal service for all its participants. Initially many Catholics would travel great distances to attend Holy Mass by a priest holding fast to the Catholic faith knowing it might be possibly the last time as once Catholic bishops now forbade anything done pre-Vatican II. There were some brave bishops and priests, though, who knew that there was a clear choice to be made: keep the faith or keep their position in a new religion. Grace was there for these clergymen to hold fast to tradition for Christ promised to be with His Church all days, even to the consummation of the world (cf. Matt. 28:20). The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass seemingly disappeared in the perception of the world and those who hated all things of the Apostolic Faith; but despite the persecution of the clergy and laity who continued faithful, the Holy Mass was offered week after week and year after year. Bishops were consecrated, priests were ordained, the faith lives on. We know it will be offered until Christ returns. The question does not arise, therefore, as to the continuation of the faith, nor the continuation of the Mass. What arises is our own perseverance in the faith which depends on our assistance at Holy Mass when available. How? By being a measure of our faith. Holy Mass has always been considered the heart of our faith that makes the theoretical knowledge a practical living of our faith. This is why the Conciliarist—just as the Protestant Innovators and just as the anathematized Council of Pistoia—wanted to get rid of the concept of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass—to kill the one, holy, catholic and apostolic faith, that is, the living Church you needed to stop the heart.
Sadly, but truly, those who were happy to see the Mass go only expressed outwardly that they were already dead spiritually. Therefore, if we have no desire to live the Mass, then we, too, are expressing that we are spiritually dead: By their fruits you shall know them. (Matt. 7:16) Even sincere Catholics having a true Catholic spirit but caught up in the Conciliar Church seek to attend holy Mass—and we find many of them arriving at our doors more zealous than those of us who have allowed our faith and fervor to wane. Would that they saw our fervor and how much we value Holy Mass by our consistent presence each and every Sunday.
As we begin the Month of the Holy Rosary and as we commemorate the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, let us never forget that Our Lady leads us to Her Son; that we pray our Rosary so as to better know her Son. We have prayed the Rosary so that we may be blessed with the Mass and the Sacraments—may the Rosary never be substitute where we say to ourselves that we have prayed our Rosary and therefore need not go to Holy Mass despite the distance—for this would place Mary above Christ, displeasing her and dishonoring her Divine Son and a curse upon us—and we can see this with many so-called Marian fanatics who have abandoned the Son for the mother who is only there to give us her Son. The Ancient Serpent is deceptive and perverts all to obtain his objective which is our perdition. If we are truly devoted to Mary, we will be listening to her words: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye. (John 2:5). And where is He, her Son Jesus? At Mass speaking to us in the Mass of the Catechumens and offering Himself to the Eternal Father in the Mass of the Faithful—where we, if faithful, are present.
As always, enjoy the readings provided for your benefit.—The Editor
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WHAT IS THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE
What is the Sacrament of Penance?
The Divine Mercy
Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. (Luke 5:8.) These words of Saint Peter were not said after he had denied knowing Christ, they were said after the miraculous haul of fish and was the first profession of faith that Jesus was the Christ—causing Peter to acknowledge the state of his soul. Though his impetuosity moved him to say these words, Christ did not depart but accepted his faith—and sorrow for his sins. Who is one to go to when one has sinned? Adam and Eve hid in the garden rather than turn to God (Gen. 3:8) One sees Peter on his knees. Perhaps a scene to be repeated on the night of the resurrection of Our Lord. He had denied the Lord three times, not in the face of torture, but in the face of two or three girl servants. He had abandoned the Lord, he, Peter the Rock, who was called to be the vicar of Christ on earth. His only attempt to provide some defense was his reckless swinging of a sword that only cut off the ear of one of the high priest’s guards. Now he was seeing Christ risen. He wasn’t alone. There were the other apostles. They, too, had run away. A friend in need is a friend indeed. But no one was there when Christ needed a friend most, only John returned. They, the Apostles, needed forgiveness. They gave up the friendship of Christ. They lost the relationship, His Love. Yet, they needed to know that there was still hope and mercy. Judas Iscariot had already committed suicide out of despair. Were they to end the same? The Lord gives them that mercy and hope. He forgives them: Peace be to you . . . When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained (John 20:21-23) When one takes these words, one might say: “Well, everyone wants peace.” But here peace means the possession of goodness, of truth, of God’s grace. As the Lord said previously: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid (John 14:27). It was the good tidings (Gospel=good tidings) the angels announced that can received by men of good will: Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will. (Luke 2:14) Christ restores them to His friendship. To make it clear, He uses that same mode of imbuing His Life as He did with Adam (cf. Gen. 2:7): He breathed upon them to express this is exactly what He was doing: Receive the Holy Life of My Love, My Spirit, the Holy Ghost which you lost. But not only receive back this relation, My Holy Life, the Holy Ghost, restore it back to others. As I have done for you, do you also to others: And if he do penance, forgive him (Luke 17:3). So, Peter doesn’t see Our Lord depart, he receives pardon and the power to pardon. The other apostles also are pardoned and receive the power to pardon.
But if thy brother sin against thee, go and show him his fault, between and him alone. If he listen to thee, thou hast won thy brother. But if he does not listen to thee, take with thee one or two more so that on the word of two or three witnesses every word may be confirmed. And if he refuse to hear them, appeal to the Church; but if he refuses to hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican. Amen I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matt. 18:15-18).
There is no longer a sense of hopelessness if one falls into sin, for one knows that this sin can be forgiven by the power Christ bestowed upon His priests. So, as Our Lord does not depart from Peter, Peter also does not leave Our Lord, but clings to Him in gratitude for His mercy.
When one reads Scripture there is contained only the rudimentary elements of what happened, but tradition and the Church’s teaching fill the scene. St. John ends his Gospel: But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written (John 21:25). And John specifically inserts this while relating the institution of Confession: Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing, you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31) This is found even after the event of the fishes, for next one reads of Jesus Christ’s curing the leper:
And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus, and falling on his face, besought him, saying: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And stretching forth his hand, he touched him, saying: I will. Be thou cleansed. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he charged him that he should tell no man, but, Go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded, for a testimony to them. (Luke 5:12-14)
Leprosy is a symbol of sin for it numbs the body and the person infected is bruising and wounding his body unknowingly to where it disfigures the body just as sin disfigures the soul though the person does not perceive it as his actions. Also, the leper is separated from the society of men, just as sin separates one from the society of God. In Biblical days, only God could heal leprosy, just as only God could forgive sin. That prove one was healed, one had to show oneself to the priest, just as one must show oneself to the priest to prove one is healed of sin.
As though this chapter of Luke is specific to that of introducing the Sacrament of Penance, after the healing of the leper there is the scene of the paralytic:
And behold, men brought in a bed a man, who had the palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in, because of the multitude, they went up upon the roof, and let him down through the tiles with his bed into the midst before Jesus. Whose faith when he saw, he said: Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
And the scribes and Pharisees began to think, saying: Who is this who speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? And when Jesus knew their thoughts, answering, he said to them: What is it you think in your hearts? Which is easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say, Arise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say to thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house. And immediately rising up before them, he took up the bed on which he lay; and he went away to his own house, glorifying God. (Luke 5:18-25)
If John the Baptist introduces the Christ in these words, Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29), they would only be true if Christ takes away sin. Therefore, that of explicitly now declaring the man’s sins forgiven expresses that the man was repentant, that he had excepted his sufferings in atonement, and that Christ, knowing the interior dispositions of the man, granted him of what he wanted—not what the crowd asked—a restoration of the life of grace. Having confirmed that He has the power to forgive sins, He proceeds to forgive those in need: sinners. Saint Luke continues in this chapter to provide the evidence:
And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said to him: Follow me. And leaving all things, he rose up and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house; and there was a great company of publicans, and of others, that were at table with them. But the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying to his disciples: Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering, said to them: They that are whole, need not the physician: but they that are sick. I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance. (Ibid. vv. 27-32)
It was not the mere forgiveness of sins, but a call to follow Christ. Saint Luke notes in verse eleven of this chapter: And having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed him. Again, with Matthew in verse 28: And leaving all things, he rose up and followed him. Here was a complete change of life, a metanoia. It does not exclude penance, as one reads in the continuation of Saint Luke:
And they said to him: Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees in like manner; but thine eat and drink? To whom he said: Can you make the children of the bridegroom fast, whilst the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, then shall they fast in those days. (Ibid. 33-35)
And Jesus Christ gives the condition for forgiveness: Newness of life.
And he spoke also a similitude to them: That no man putteth a piece from a new garment upon an old garment; otherwise he both rendeth the new, and the piece taken from the new agreeth not with the old. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: otherwise the new wine will break the bottles, and it will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. And no man drinking old, hath presently a mind to new: for he saith, The old is better. (Ibid. 36-39)
The God of all accordingly somewhere said of them by one of the holy prophets, that “a new heart and a new spirit will I put into them.” And David also sings, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” And we have been commanded also ” to put off the old man, and to put on the new man, renewed after the image of Him that created it.” And Paul also gives counsel, saying, “Be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Those therefore who have not as yet received the renewing of the spirit, are also unable to prove the good and acceptable, and perfect will of God. (Cyril of Alexandria, On Luke 5.)
(To be continued)
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The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers
M. F. Toal
THE GOSPEL OF THE SUNDAY
MATTHEW xxii, l-14
At that time: Jesus spoke to the chief priests and Pharisees in a parable, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man, a king, who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage; and they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell them that were invited, Behold I have prepared my dinner; my beeves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: Come ye to the marriage.
But they neglected and went their ways, one to his farm and another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands on his servants and, having treated them contumeliously, put them to death. But, when the king had heard of it, he was angry; and sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city.
Then he saith to his servants: The marriage indeed is ready; but they that were invited were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways; and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage. And his servants, going forth into the ways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good; and the marriage was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests; and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he saith to him: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment? But he was silent.
Then the king said to the waiters: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.
I. ORIGEN, PRIEST AND CONFESSOR
On those called to the Wedding
And Jesus answering, spoke again in parables to them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man king, who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage, etc., to the words: For many are called but few are chosen.
This parable also appears clear and easy to understand. In it a man, indeed a king, is put before us as a figure of God and the Father of Christ; the nuptials of the king’s son as the restoration of the Church, the Bride of Christ, to Christ her Spouse; the servants sent to call those invited to the wedding stand for the prophets who by their prophesies strove in due season to recall the people from the error of their ways, to lead them to the joy of the restoration of the Church to Christ.
But those first called would not come; and they are those who would not hear the prophets. The other servants sent are another group of prophets. The dinner prepared, and for which the kings beeves and fatlings were slain, is the strong and rational food of the soul of God’s mysteries. So too that all things are prepared, means the divine revelation which shall make known to us all things; so that when that which is perfect shall come (I Cor. xiii. 10), they shall eat and drink who have obeyed the summons to the feast.
Since however of those called by the prophets, some neglected only their words, and turned themselves to profane and earthly things, but did no evil against them, so wishing to show this difference, He says: But they neglected, and went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise. But the rest laid hands on his servants, and having treated them contumeliously put them to death. Then following this simple outline, we understand the anger of the king; of which the Apostle says, speaking of the Jews: The wrath of God is come upon them to the end (I Thess. ii. 16). Here the war against the Jewish nation, the capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of its people, that followed Christ’s advent is foretold; And sending his army he destroyed those murderers and burnt their city.
II. The words that follow: Then he saith to his servants: The marriage indeed is ready; but they that were invited were not worthy. Go ye therefore to the exits of the ways; and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage, may be referred to the Apostles of Christ saying to the Jews: To you it behoveth us first to speak the word of God; but, because you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles (Acts xiii. 46).
The exits of the ways (highways) are therefore the state of those outside Israel, among whom those found by the Apostles are called to the wedding; the Apostles gathering in all whomsoever they found. And they found those who gave ear to them; and calling them, they did not concern themselves as to whether they were bad or good before the call: for they called all they found. The good are here to be understood as the more virtuous of those who gave themselves to the service of God, to whom these words of the Apostle can be applied: For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law; these, having not the law, are a law to themselves: Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them (Rom. ii. 14, 15).
And when the marriage of Christ and the Church is filled with guests, and the restoration of those found by the Apostles is complete, they sit down to enjoy the wedding. Then, since they had to call both bad and good, not however that the bad were to remain bad, but so that taking off and casting aside the garments unfitting the wedding, they should put on wedding garments, that is, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience (Col. iii. 12): for these are wedding garments; because of this then the king goes in to see the guests before the dinner; the beeves, namely, the slain fatlings and all that was made ready is put before them, so that He may note carefully those who have on a wedding garment, and seeing it rejoice, and may pronounce sentence on those who are without one.
Going in therefore He finds one of those who were called, and came in answer to the call, but who had not changed his manner of life and neither had he put on a wedding garment, and he said to him: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment? Then since he was a sinner, and not renewed, and had not put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and being without any ground of excuse, he is silent. And so it is written: But he was silent. Nor is it enough that he is sent forth from the wedding feast who had proved unworthy of his invitation; the king’s jailers must also bind fast the wickedness which had not suffered him to do what he should have done, and the power of action he had not used to do good. Not alone is he cast forth from the wedding, he is also condemned to the place that is a stranger to all light, where there is a darkness deeper than darkness, and called exterior darkness.
And if there should be one of us, coming at the invitation of the king to the wedding of his son, and should he appear to have obeyed the call and to have come with those who were called, but has not put on the wedding garment of which we have been speaking, he shall suffer these things and, bound hand and foot, shall be thrust out into exterior darkness, there, according to the words: Woe to ye that now laugh: for you shall mourn and weep (Lk. vi. 25); to weep with those who have committed sins deserving of mourning and weeping. They shall weep, mourning their own miseries. Then that the Word might show us the fear and trembling, the sadness, the sorrow and pain in which they shall be who have not put on a wedding garment, He says: There shall be weeping, and not alone weeping, but gnashing of teeth. And that He may teach us that though many are called, not all, but only a few of these, have come, He brings the whole parable to an end with the words: For many are called, but few are chosen.
III. I have said these things of the parable taken as a whole. We shall now endeavour, going over it again, to search into it to the best of our power, trusting in the help of the Spirit of wisdom, that we may be able to add certain deeper meanings which we have found relating to this parable, and shall set them forth for you or, according to what is fitting, give you a hint of them or pass them over in silence. The kingdom of heaven then is likened, as to its ruler, to a man who is king; and, as to the one who rules together with the king, to his son. As to those subject to the king’s rule, it is likened to the servants and to those invited to the marriage, of whom some would not come, while others simply neglected and went their ways, one to his farm and another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands on his servants and having treated them insultingly they put them to death. Moreover, of those subject to the king there was also his army; and those gathered in, bad as well as good, from the highways until the marriage was filled with guests; and also the one sitting among the guests, who had not on a wedding garment, and likewise the jailers, who were told to bind the hands and feet of the one who had not on a wedding garment, and to cast him into exterior darkness.
It might well have been written that The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king, without the addition of the word, man. But since the word man has been added, it must be explained and it is, in my opinion, to be explained in this way: Before our time there was one who wrote a book explaining the allegories of the Sacred Writings, and also the words which reveal God as sharing our feelings, and those which manifest His Divinity. Wishing to make clear to us that God may be said to be like a man, in His care for us, he quotes the words: The Lord thy God hath carried thee, as a man is wont to carry his little son (Deut, i. 31). But in another place, to show us that God is not as man, he quotes the words: God is not as man, that he should lie (Num. xxiii. 19).
IV. But in the Gospel there is a great abundance of figures in which God, in certain parables, is likened to a man. Let us therefore, in defence of those who say that God the Father of Christ does, in a manner of speaking, feel as man, make use of these parables which speak of God as man, and say in answer to the heretics, who through not understanding similar expressions in the writings of the Old Testament offend against the laws of God and the prophets and the Creator of the whole world, let us say that: If according to the parables of the Gospel God is likened to a man, why may we not in accord with these same parables accept His anger as a parable, His wrath as a parable, His repentance, His turning away His face, His sitting down, the standing, walking of God as parables. His sleep, of which mention is made in the prophets, either they have not noticed it, or they must agree that it also is a parable. And let us also say to them: If you do not wish to accept, in accord with the parable, that God is spoken of as a man, or that the Scriptures also speak parabolically of His as feeling like a man, explain how the God of all creation Who, according to you, has nothing of man in Him, is spoken of in the Gospel as a man? What is more, we shall prove to them that they have not looked closely into the writings of the New Testament in which, according to this parable before us, a man king, who made a marriage for his son, was angry with those who would not, in answer to his invitation, come to the wedding, and also against those who, neglecting the wedding dinner, went one to his farm and another to his merchandise. And he was also angry against those who had laid hands on his servants, and had insulted them, and put them to death. Let them say if this man, who was made angry, is not, as making a marriage for his son, the Father of Christ, or if it is some one other than the man who, as the parable tells us, was angry is His Father.
In either case they are straitened. For either they will not have the man who was angry, and who made a marriage feast for his son, for the Father of Christ: because of this anger; or else, because of the nuptials and the son, they are forced to admit He is the Father of Christ and that He was angry. And if they should attempt to qualify this, we shall say to them: ‘Ho there! What sort of distinction is this? You cannot run away from the fact that the man in the Gospel making a marriage for his son was angry, and you cannot put another in his place. Because of this word, angry, and others like it, you are trying to fashion from the Law and the Prophets a God other than the God of the Law and the Prophets.
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OCTOBER 3
St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, Virgin
1. The “Little Flower” first appeared in winter, having been born on January 2, 1873, in Alencon, Normandy. In baptism she received the name of Frances Theresa. At first stubborn and proud, the lovely child soon recognized these faults and set out to overcome them. It was characteristic of her even then to abhor halfway measures: she would strive for holiness with all her might. When she became seriously ill in 1882, the Mother of God cured her. Overcoming many difficulties Theresa was permitted to enter the Carmel of Lisieux at the unprecedented age of fifteen years and three months, and pronounced her vows on September 8, 1890, taking the name of Theresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. She lived a life of prayer, poverty, obedience, sacrifice and suffering, but above all, a life of love: love of God and love of the cross characterize the spirit of St. Theresa. Having consecrated herself to “the Father as a victim of merciful love,” she realized that it was her mission “to teach others to love God as I love Him, and to show others the simple little way that I have walked. It is the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and complete surrender.” Theresa went to her eternal nuptials on September 30, 1897. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and named the Patroness of the Missions.
2. “Unless you become like little children again, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Gospel). Theresa’s love of God attained its perfection in a childlike attitude: “I am a helpless child, and yet it is precisely my weakness that gives me the boldness to offer myself as a victim of Thy love.” This spirit urged her onward to boundless trust in the mercy of God. She makes no claim for any work of her own: “God has shown me that I am too small to pay even one of my spiritual debts, and that He wants me to remain in this poverty.” That made perfection look easy to her: “It is sufficient if one acknowledges one’s nothingness and places oneself like a child in the arms of God…. Holiness does not consist in this or that exercise: it is simply a readiness of heart that permits us to be little and humble in the arms of God; it gives us a consciousness of our own weakness and a bold trust in His fatherly goodness.” Only a few days before her death, Theresa confessed: “I am like a very small child; I have no thoughts. I simply suffer without being able to feel disturbed about what is to come.” And what was the fruit of this childlike attitude toward God? “Oh, what joy floods my soul when it elevates itself above natural feelings! No, there is no joy that can compare with it…. As soon as the love that needed constant self-forgetfulness entered my heart, I was happy.” That was Theresa’s secret; we must try to learn from her what it means.
“He spread the eagle’s wings to carry her, took her upon His shoulders. The Lord Himself would be her only guide” (Communion). “O Jesus, my adorable eagle. So long as you desire it, I shall keep my eyes fixed on You. I want to be the prey of Your love. Some day, You will pounce upon me, I hope, carry me off in the hand of Your love, and finally drop me into this burning abyss, so that I may forever be its happy victim…. Eternal Word, You are the eagle whom I love and who attracts me.” So prays Theresa. He has “lowered Himself to me because I am little and weak.” She can do nothing “but give herself up and abandon herself completely.” She says: “A long time ago I gave myself entirely to Jesus. He is, therefore, free to do as He pleases with me.” Nothing frightens, worries, or disturbs her any more; she knows only one fact, one joy: “Nothing makes me happy but to do the will of God.” That is why the heavenly Father stooped down to her and lifted her up to the heights of love and holiness. God says, “My strength finds its full scope in thy weakness. More than ever, then, I delight to boast of the weaknesses that humiliate me, so that the strength of Christ may enshrine itself in me… when I am weakest, then I am strongest of all” (II Cor. 12:9-10).
3. “I want everything.” That is the key to understanding Theresa’s greatness. She wants a perfect work. God desires to be longed for, sought, and found with all of the soul’s power. Only the whole-souled man can believe and love perfectly; it is only such that God can help. He does not want mediocrity in spiritual giving and striving. We have much to learn from Theresa.
“We should like to be generous and to suffer nobly; we don’t ever want to fall. What self-deception! What does it matter if we fall every moment? Thereby my weakness is revealed; and that is to my great advantage…. Let us suffer if need be, in bitterness and without courage. Jesus also suffered in sadness.”
Theresa shows us the sure, simple way to holiness. We can, we want to walk that way of love, of being little. “To remain small means to acknowledge one’s nothingness, to expect everything from a loving God, not to be unduly troubled about failings or to hoard up certain merits. Remaining little means also not attributing one’s virtues to oneself, as if one were capable of any good, but, rather, acknowledging that they are a treasure which a loving God places in the hands of a little child to be used by Him when He needs it.”
Is it not strange, and also significant of the spirit of St. Theresa, that Pope Pius XI chose the Carmelite nun, whose proper vocation is contemplation, to be Patroness of the Missions? For Theresa religious life and contemplation were above all else means of saving souls—prayer, sacrifices, self-denial, suffering and intimate union with God. For her contemplation possesses a moving power and is the source of the fruitfulness of activity, Theresa became a Carmelite in order to pray for priests and to work for the spread of the kingdom of God. She was right: Mary and Martha belong side by side, and each makes the other fruitful.
Collect: Lord, who hast said: Unless you become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; grant, we pray Thee, that by following the blessed maid Theresa in humility and singleness of heart, we may win the prize of everlasting glory. Amen.
(Benedict Baur)
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LETTERS TO JACK
WRITTEN BY A PRIEST TO HIS NEPHEW
By the
RIGHT REV. FRANCIS C. KELLEY, D.D., LL.D.
(1917)
XII
CLEANLINESS
IT is quite useless to tell a young man not to narrate filthy stories or to blaspheme, if he has the filth in his mind and the thoughts of blasphemy in his soul.
TRACE out all the failures in the world and you will find that impurity has the largest toll of victims.
HE who guards his thoughts also guards his tongue.
My dear Jack:
This letter is not about bathing, in spite of its title. Neither you nor your fellow modern young men need to be informed on that subject. Our day has exalted the bath, but I do not think we are going quite so far as the old Romans. We are too busy for one thing. The worst of us have to take our pleasures in a hurry; so the old Romans must still remain in a bathing class by themselves.
The unfortunate thing about the old Romans was the fact that, though clean without, they were foul within; and so they succeeded in attaching to the idea of a clean skin the idea of a filthy mind. When Christianity arrived there was a revolt which drove some good men to the opposite extreme, not because the saintly people loved dirt, but because they loved mortification. Had paganism not made cleanliness an excuse for luxury and vice, certain Christians would never have been affrighted at the bath. Now it is known that there is a “golden mean”. If “cleanliness” is not really “next to godliness”, it is at least not opposed to godliness. I rather admire some of the saints for the sacrifices they made to combat an evil that was much worse than dirt. Had Rome been dirty, I question if she would have fallen so soon. The bath had more to do with her fall than the Goths. The legacy of the luxury bath to the Vandals who slept out their strength in their villas around Carthage was the appropriate revenge of the conquered.
Luxury breeds uncleanness of heart and soul; but there is an uncleanness of heart and soul that precedes luxury. This is the uncleanness that kills all that is good in a man, the surest road to absolute failure. Ponder often on the Beatitude: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.”
It is good to have the blessing put on the clean of heart; for that implies interior cleanliness, and gets us to the root of the virtue of purity at once. Purity is within, though the manifestation of it is without. It is quite useless to tell a young man not to narrate filthy stories, or to blaspheme, if he has the filth in his mind and the thoughts of blasphemy in his soul. Doctors today are getting away from drugs so as to attack the root rather than the manifestations of disease. The doctors of the soul did that from the beginning. As “the wish is father to the thought,” they sought to change the unworthy desires of men by substituting the desire for God. To cure impurity it is necessary to work on the heart. The heart will take care of the mind, and the mind will, by God’s grace which strengthens the will, take care of the actions.
There is one kind of flight that is not cowardice. It is flight from the occasions of sin, from evil and impure thoughts. This flight is bravery, the bravery that wins. Impurity cannot be trifled with. It is too insidious an enemy of God and man. Flee the very thought of it. Avoid the occasions of it. Put a guard on every sense through which it may enter the soul. It is like a raging flood when you fail to stop the first break in your defences. The smallest trickle through the dyke is dangerous. The flood itself kills every good thought and aspiration. It overflows from one soul to another. It ruins races and peoples and nations. Trace out all the failures of the world and you will find that impurity has the largest toll of victims. Would you swallow a tiny germ of cholera just because it is so small? Then, do not entertain a bad thought because it is so weak. The cholera germ is not small in its power; and the evil thought is anything but weak.
He who guards his thoughts also guards his tongue. Blasphemy is, like all sins, the depth of folly. No one ever profited by it to the value of a penny. It gets you nowhere. It gives you nothing. It stamps you a boor, a fool or a knave to clean-spoken people. There is no reason in it. There is no consolation. It leaves only bitterness after it to the one who is its slave, and only hurt for those who hear it. When the Jews stoned blasphemers they inflicted a just penalty on them; for a blasphemer is a rotten apple in the barrel and should be thrown out to save the rest.
Be clean for God’s sake. Be clean for your own sake. Be clean for your neighbor’s sake. Be clean for your country’s sake. Be clean of body, clean of heart, clean of lips, clean of thought, clean of mind. You need very little more than that to be a success, even in a worldly way. When a man is thus clean, it shows that he has an intellect. I would take my chances for other things a thousand times more readily with the clean man than with the filthy one. If the latter had the genius of Cicero I would yet not want a shameless man around me. He cannot do enough for me in a worldly way to offset the harm his very presence causes. One of the worst terrors in the idea of Hell is its associations; for by losing the Supreme Cleanliness, we drop to an eternal contact with all that is supremely unclean.
(To be continued.)
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Father Krier will be in Pahrump, Nevada, (Our Lady of the Snows) October 7. He will be in Eureka, Nevada, (Saint Joseph) September 21 and Albuquerque, New Mexico, (Saint Joseph Cupertino) October 26.
Please pray for our parish that the City of Las Vegas will approve the building of a parish hall and classrooms at their meeting on October 6.
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