Sermons for Lent

Throughout the Season of Lent, we will post various sermons by the Saints, the Blessed, the Venerable or just popes, bishops and priests. These will cover all the serious subjects that are related to the spirit of Lent and our salvation. May they bring you much inspiration and grace, while helping you spend the season in a truly profitable and fruitful manner.

CONTENTS

1. St. Alphonsus Liguori THE COMPASSION OF JESUS FOR SINNERS
2. St. Alphonsus Liguori THE DANGERS OF TEPIDITY
3. St. Alphonsus Liguori THE UNHAPPINESS OF SINNERS
4. St. Alphonsus Liguori THE DELUSION OF SINNERS
5. St. Alphonsus Liguori THOUGHTS ABOUT HEAVEN
6. St. Alphonsus Liguori CONCEALING SINS IN CONFESSION
7. St. Alphonsus Liguori THE MALICE OF MORTAL SIN
8. St. Alphonsus Liguori LIMITED NUMBER OF SINS GOD WILL PARDON
9. St. John Vianney THEY ARE FOR THE WORLD
10. St. John Vianney A PUBLIC PLAGUE
11. St. John Vianney EVIL TONGUES
12. St. Alphonsus Liguori THE IMPORTANCE OF SALVATION
13. St. Alphonsus Liguori CONFIDENCE IN COMMENDING SELF TO MARY
14. St. Alphonsus Liguori DANGERS TO SALVATION
15. St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE EVIL EFFECTS OF BAD HABITS
16. St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE MEANS NECESSARY FOR SALVATION
17. St. Alphonsus Liguori MISERABLE STATE OF RELAPSING SINNERS

18. St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE VALUE OF TIME
19. St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE MERCY OF GOD TOWARDS SINNERS
20. St. Alphonsus Liguori THE ANGUISH AT DEATH OF NEGLIGENT CHRISTIANS
21. St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE GENERAL JUDGMENT
22. St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT
23. St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE DEATH OF THE JUST PERSON
24. St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE PAINS OF HELL
25. St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE REMORSE OF THE DAMNED
26. St. Alphonsus Liguori DEATH IS CERTAIN AND UNCERTAIN
27 St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE DEATH OF THE SINNER
28 St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE ETERNITY OF HELL
29. St. Alphonsus Liguori ALL ENDS! AND SOON ENDS!
30. St. Alphonsus Liguori ON IMPENITENCE
31 St. Alphonsus Liguori ON THE PAIN OF LOSS SUFFERED IN HELL
32. Pope St Leo the Great ON THE PASSION OF CHRIST
33. St. Alphonsus Liguori OUR SALVATION IS IN THE CROSS

SERMON 1
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE COMPASSION OF JESUS FOR SINNERS
“Make the men sit down” (John 6:10).

We read in the Gospel that Jesus, having gone up into a mountain with His disciples, and seeing a multitude of five thousand persons, who followed Him because they saw the miracles which He wrought on them that were diseased, the Redeemer said to St. Philip: “‘Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?’ “Lord,” answered St. Philip, ‘two-hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient that every one may take a little.’ St. Andrew then said: ‘There is a boy here that has five barley loaves and two fishes; but what are these among so many?’ But Jesus Christ said: ‘Make the men sit down.’ And He distributed the loaves and fishes among them. The multitude were satisfied: and the fragments of bread which remained filled twelve baskets.” The Lord wrought this miracle through compassion for the bodily wants of these poor people; but far more tender is His compassion for the necessities of the souls of the poor that is, of sinners who are deprived of the divine grace. This tender compassion of Jesus Christ for sinners shall be the subject of this day’s discourse.

1. Through the bowels of His mercy towards men, who groaned under the slavery of sin and Satan, our most loving Redeemer descended from Heaven to earth, to redeem and save them from eternal torments by His own death. Such was the language of St. Zachary, the father of the Baptist, when the Blessed Virgin, who had already become the mother of the Eternal Word, entered his house. “Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us” (Luke 1:78).

2. Jesus Christ, the good pastor, who came into the world to obtain salvation for us his sheep, has said: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Mark the expression, “more abundantly”―which signifies that the Son of Man came on earth, not only to restore us to the life of grace, which we lost, but to give us a better life than that which we forfeited by sin. Yes―for as St. Leo says, the benefits, which we have derived from the death of Jesus, are greater than the injury which the devil has done us by sin. The same doctrine is taught by the Apostle, who says that, “where sin abounded, grace did more abound” (Romans 5:20).

3. But, my Lord, since Thou hast resolved to take human flesh, would not a single prayer, offered by Thee, be sufficient for the redemption of all men? What need, then, was there of leading a life of poverty, humiliation, and contempt, for thirty-three years, of suffering a cruel and shameful death on an infamous gibbet, and of shedding all Thy blood by dint of torments? I know well, answers Jesus Christ, that one drop of My blood, or a simple prayer, would be sufficient for the salvation of the world; but neither would be sufficient to show the love which I bear to men: and, therefore, to be loved by men, when they should see me dead on the cross for the love of them, I have resolved to submit to so many torments and to so painful a death. This, he says, is the duty of a good pastor. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep... I lay down My life for my sheep” (John 10:11, 15).

4. O men, O men, what greater proof of love could the Son of God give us, than to lay down His life for us his sheep? “In this we have known the charity of God; because He hath laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). No one, says the Savior, can show greater love to His friends than to give His life for them. “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). But thou, O Lord, hast died, not only for friends, but for us, who were Thy enemies by sin. “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10). “Infinite love of our God,” exclaims St. Bernard, “to spare slaves, neither the Father has spared the Son, nor the Son himself.” To pardon us, who were rebellious servants, the Father would not pardon the Son, and the Son would not pardon Himself, but, by His death, has satisfied the divine justice for the sins which we have committed.

5. When Jesus Christ was near His passion, He went one day to Samaria―the Samaritans refused to receive Him. Indignant at the insult offered by the Samaritans to their Master, St. James and St. John, turning to Jesus, said: “Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them?” (Luke 9:54). But Jesus, Who was all sweetness, even to those who insulted Him, answered: “You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of Man came not to destroy souls, but to save” (Luke 9:55, 50). He severely rebuked the disciples. What spirit is this, He said, which possesses you? It is not My spirit! Mine is the spirit of patience and compassion―for I am come, not to destroy, but to save the souls of men: and you speak of fire, of punishment, and of vengeance. Hence, in another place, He said to His disciples: “Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart” (Matthew 11:29 ). I do not wish of you to learn of Me to chastise, but to be meek, and to bear and pardon injuries.

6. How beautiful has He described the tenderness of His heart towards sinners in the following words: “What man of you that hath an hundred sheep: and, if he lose one of them, doth he not leave ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which is lost until he find it: and when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulder rejoicing; and coming home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying to them: ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!’ ?” (Luke 15:4-6).

But, Lord, it is not Thou that oughtest to rejoice, but the sheep that has found her pastor and her God. The sheep indeed, answers Jesus, rejoices at finding Me, her Shepherd; but far greater is the joy which I feel at having found one of My lost sheep. He concludes the parable in these words: “I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in Heaven, for one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just, who need not penance” (Luke 15:7). There is more joy in Heaven at the conversion of one sinner, than upon ninety-nine just men who preserve their innocence. What sinner, then, can be so hardened as not to go instantly and cast himself at the feet of his Savior, when he knows the tender love with which Jesus Christ is prepared to embrace him, and carry him on His shoulders, as soon as he repents of his sins?

7. The Lord has also declared his tenderness towards penitent sinners in the parable of the Prodigal Child. (Luke 15:12, etc). In that parable, the Son of God says that a certain young man, unwilling to be any longer under the control of his father, and desiring to live according to his caprice and corrupt inclinations, asked the portion of his father’s substance which fell to him. The father gave it with sorrow, weeping over the ruin of his son. The son departed from his father’s house. Having in a short time dissipated his substance, he was reduced to such a degree of misery that, to procure the necessaries of life, he was obliged to feed swine.

All this was a figure of a sinner, who, after departing from God, and losing the divine grace and all the merits he had acquired, leads a life of misery under the slavery of the devil. In the Gospel it is added that the young man, seeing his wretched condition, resolved to return to his father: and the father, who is a figure of Jesus Christ, seeing his son return to him, was instantly moved to pity. “His father saw him, and was moved with compassion” (Luke 15:20); and, instead of driving him away, as the ungrateful son had deserved, “running to him, he fell upon his neck and kissed him.” He ran with open arms to meet him, and, through tenderness, fell upon his neck, and consoled him by his embraces. He then said to his servants: “Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him.”

According to St. Jerome and St. Augustine, the first robe signifies the divine grace, which, in addition to new celestial gifts, God, by granting pardon, gives to the penitent sinner. “And put a ring on his finger.” Give him the ring of a spouse. By recovering the grace of God, the soul becomes again the spouse of Jesus Christ. “And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry” (Luke 15:23). Bring hither the fatted calf which signifies the Holy Communion, or Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, mystically killed and offered in sacrifice on the altar―let us eat and rejoice. But why, divine Father, so much joy at the return of so ungrateful a child? Because, answered the Father, this, My son, was dead, and he is come to life again; he was lost, and I have found him.

8. This tenderness of Jesus Christ was experienced by the sinful woman (according to St. Gregory, Mary Magdalene) who cast herself at the feet of Jesus, and washed them with her tears. (Luke 7:47 and 50). The Lord, turning to her with sweetness, consoled her by saying: “Thy sins are forgiven ... thy faith hath made thee safe; go in peace!” (Luke 7:48 and 50). Child, thy sins are pardoned; thy confidence in Me has saved thee; go in peace. It was also felt by the man who was sick for thirty-eight years, and who was infirm, both in body and soul. The Lord cured his malady, and pardoned his sins. “Behold,” says Jesus to him, “thou art made whole; sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee” (John 5:14). The tenderness of the Redeemer was also felt by the leper, who said to Jesus Christ: “Lord, if thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean” (Matthew 8:2). Jesus answered: “I will: be thou made clean!” (Matthew 8:3). As if He said: “Yes; I will that thou be made clean; for I have come down from Heaven for the purpose of consoling all: be healed, then, according to thy desire!” … “And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed.”

9. We have also a proof of the tender compassion of the Son of God for sinners, in His conduct towards the woman caught in adultery. The Scribes and Pharisees brought her before Him, and said: “This woman was even now taken in adultery. Now Moses, in the Law, commands us to stone such a one. But what sayest thou?” (John 8:4-5). And this they did, as St. John says, tempting Him. They intended to accuse Him of transgressing the Law of Moses, “if He said that she ought to be liberated; and they expected to destroy His character for meekness, if He said that she should be stoned” says St. Augustine (Tract, xxxiii. in Joan). But what was the answer of Our Lord? He neither said that she should be stoned, nor dismissed; but, “bowing Himself down, He wrote with His finger on the ground.” The interpreters say that, probably, what He wrote on the ground was a text of Scripture admonishing the accusers of their own sins, which were, perhaps, greater than that of the woman charged with adultery. “He then lifted Himself up, and said to them: ‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her!’” (John 8:7). The Scribes and Pharisees went away, one by one, and the woman stood alone. Jesus Christ, turning to her, said: “Hath no one condemned thee? Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:11). Since no one has condemned you, fear not that you shall be condemned by Me, Who hath come on earth, not to condemn, but to pardon and save sinners: go in peace, and sin no more.

10. Jesus Christ has come, not to condemn, but to deliver sinners from Hell, as soon as they resolve to amend their lives. And when He sees them obstinately bent on their own perdition, He addresses them with tears in the words of Ezechiel: “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezechiel 18:31). My children, why will you die? Why do you voluntarily rush into Hell, when I have come from Heaven to deliver you from it, by My death? He adds: You are already dead to the grace of God. But I desire not your death: return to Me, and I will restore to you the life which you have lost. “For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: return ye and live” (Ezechiel 18:32). But some sinners, who are immersed in the abyss of sin, may say: “Perhaps, if we return to Jesus Christ, He will drive us away?” No; for the Redeemer has said: “And him that cometh to Me I will not cast out” (John 6:37). No one that comes to Me with sorrow for his past sins, however manifold and enormous they may have been, shall be rejected.

11. Behold how, in another place, the Redeemer encourages us to throw ourselves at His feet with a secure hope of consolation and pardon. “Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Matthew 11:28). Come to me, all ye poor sinners, who labor for your own damnation, and groan under the weight of your crimes; come, and I will deliver you from all your troubles. Again, He says, “Come and accuse Me, saith the Lord; if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, they shall be made white as wool” (Isaias 1:18). Come with sorrow for the offences you committed against Me, and if I do not give you pardon, accuse Me. As if He said: “Upbraid Me! Rebuke Me as a liar! For I promise that, though your sins were of scarlet that is, of the most horrid enormity your soul, by My blood, in which I shall wash it, will become white and beautiful as snow.”

12. Let us then, sinners, return instantly to Jesus Christ. If we have left Him, let us immediately return, before death overtakes us in sin and sends us to Hell, where the mercies and graces of the Lord shall, if we do not amend, be so many swords, which shall lacerate the heart for all eternity.

SERMON 2
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE DANGER TO WHICH TEPIDITY EXPOSES THE SOUL
“But Jesus hid himself” (John 8:59).

Jesus Christ “is the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.” (John 1:9). He enlightens all; but he cannot enlighten those who voluntarily shut their eyes to the light; from them the Savior hides himself. How then can they, walking in darkness, escape the many dangers of perdition to which we are exposed in this life, which God has given us as the road to eternal happiness? I will endeavor today to convince you of the great danger into which tepidity brings the soul, since it makes Jesus Christ hide His divine light from her, and makes Him less generous in bestowing upon her the graces and helps, without which she shall find it very difficult to complete the journey of this life without falling into an abyss that is, into mortal sin.

1. A tepid soul is not one that lives in enmity with God, nor one that sometimes commits venial sins through mere frailty, and not with full deliberation. On account of the corruption of nature by Original Sin, no man can be exempt from such venial faults. This corruption of nature makes it impossible for us, without a most special grace, which has been given only to the Mother of God, to avoid all venial sins during our whole lives. Hence St. John has said: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).

God permits defects of this kind, even in the saints, to keep them humble, and to make them feel that, as they commit such faults in spite of all their good purposes and promises, so also, were they not supported by His divine hand, they would fall into mortal sins. Hence, when we find that we have committed these light faults, we must humble ourselves, and acknowledging our own weakness, we must be careful to recommend ourselves to God, and implore of Him to preserve us, by His almighty hand, from more grievous transgressions, and to deliver us from those we have committed.

2. What then are we to understand by a tepid soul? A tepid soul is one that frequently falls into fully deliberate venial sins such as deliberate lies, deliberate acts of impatience, deliberate imprecations, and the like. These faults may be easily avoided by those who are resolved to suffer death, rather than commit a deliberate venial offence against God. St. Teresa used to say, that one venial sin does us more harm than all the devils in Hell. Hence she would say to her nuns: “My children, from deliberate sin, however venial it may be, may the Lord deliver you.”

Some complain of being left in aridity and dryness, and without any spiritual sweetness. But how can we expect that God will be generous with His favors to us, when we lack generosity towards Him? We know that such a lie, such an imprecation, such an injury to our neighbor, and such detraction, though not mortal sins, are displeasing to God, and still we do not abstain from them. Why then should we expect that God will give us His divine consolations?

3. But some of you will say: “Venial sins, however great they may be, do not deprive the soul of the grace of God: even though I commit them I will be saved; and for me it is enough to obtain eternal life!” You say that, “for you it is enough to be saved.” Remember that St. Augustine says that, “where you have said, „ It is enough‟ there you have perished.”

To understand correctly the meaning of these words of St. Augustine, and to see the danger to which the state of tepidity exposes those who commit habitual and deliberate venial sins, without feeling remorse for them, and without endeavoring to avoid them, it is necessary to know that the habit of light faults leads the soul insensibly to mortal sins. For example: the habit of venial acts of aversion leads to mortal hatred; the habit of small thefts leads to grievous theft; the habit of venial attachments leads to affections which are mortally sinful.

“The soul,” says St. Gregory, “never lies where it falls” (Moral., lib. xxxi). No; it continues to sink still deeper. Mortal diseases do not generally proceed from serious indisposition, but from many slight and continued infirmities; so, likewise, the fall of many souls into mortal sin follows from habitual venial sins; for these render the soul so weak that, when a strong temptation assails her, she has not strength to resist it, and she falls.

4. Many are unwilling to be separated from God by mortal sins; they wish to follow Him, but at a distance, and regardless of venial sins. But to them shall probably happen what befell St. Peter. When Jesus Christ was seized in the garden, St. Peter was unwilling to abandon the Lord, but “followed Him afar off” (Matthew 26:58).

After entering the house of Caiphas, he was charged with being a disciple of Jesus Christ. He was instantly seized with fear, and three times denied his Master. The Holy Ghost says: “He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little” (Ecclesiasticus 19:1). They who despise small falls will probably one day fall into an abyss; for, being in the habit of committing light offences against God, they will feel but little repugnance to offer to him some grievous insult.

5. The Lord says: “Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines” (Canticles 2:15). He does not tell us to catch the lions or the bears, but the little foxes. Lions and bears strike terror, and therefore all are careful to keep at a distance through fear of being devoured by them; but the little foxes, though they do not excite dismay, destroy the vine by drying up its roots.

Mortal sin terrifies the timorous soul; but, if she accustoms herself to the commission of many venial sins with full deliberation, and without endeavoring to correct them, they, like the little foxes, shall destroy the roots that is, the remorse of conscience, the fear of offending God, and the holy desires of advancing in divine love; and thus, being in a state of tepidity, and impelled to sin by some passion, the soul will easily abandon God and lose the divine grace.

6. Moreover, deliberate and habitual venial sins, not only deprive us of strength to resist temptations, but also of the special helps without which we fall into grievous sins. Be attentive, brethren; for this is a point of great importance. It is certain, that of ourselves we have not sufficient strength to resist the temptations of the devil, of the flesh, and of the world. It is God that prevents our enemies from assailing us with temptations by which we would be conquered. Hence Jesus Christ has taught us the following prayer: “And lead us not into temptation.” He teaches us to pray that God may deliver us from the temptations to which we would yield, and thus lose His grace. Now, venial sins, when they are deliberate and habitual, deprive us of the special helps of God which are necessary for preservation in his grace. I say necessary, because the Council of Trent anathematizes those who assert that we can persevere in grace without a special help from God (Council of Trent, Session 6, can. xxii). Thus, with the ordinary assistance of God, we cannot avoid falling into some mortal sin: a special aid is necessary. But this special aid God will justly withhold from tepid souls who are regardless of committing, with full deliberation, many venial sins. Thus these unhappy souls shall not persevere in grace.

7. They who are not generous towards God, well deserve that God should not be generous to them. “He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly” (2 Corinthians 9:6). To such souls the Lord will give the graces common to all, but will probably withhold his special assistance; and without this, as we have seen, they cannot persevere without falling into mortal sin. God himself revealed to Bl. Henry Suso, that, for tepid souls, who are content with leading a life exempt from mortal sin, and continue to commit many deliberate venial sins, it is very difficult to preserve themselves in the state of grace. The venerable Lewis da Ponte used to say: “I commit many defects, but I never make peace with them.” Woe to him who is at peace with his faults! St. Bernard teaches that, as long as a person, who is guilty of defects, detests his faults, there is reason to hope that he will one day correct them and amend his life: but when faults without endeavoring to amend, he will continually go from bad to worse, till he loses the grace of God. St. Augustine says that, like a certain disease of the skin which makes the body an object of disgust, habitual faults, when committed without any effort of amendment, render the soul so disgusting to God, that he deprives her of his embraces (Hom. 1., cap. iii). Hence the soul, finding no more nourishment and consolation in her devout exercises, in her prayers, Communions, or visits to the Blessed Sacrament, will soon neglect them, and thus neglecting the means of eternal salvation, she shall be in great danger of being lost.

8. This danger will be still greater for those who commit many venial sins through attachment to any passion, such as pride, ambition, aversion to a neighbor, or an inordinate affection for any person. St. Francis of Assisi says that, in endeavoring to draw to sin a soul that is afraid of being in enmity with God, the devil does not seek in the beginning to bind her with the chain of a slave, by tempting her to commit mortal sin, Because she would have a horror of yielding to mortal sin, and would guard herself against it. He first endeavors to bind her by a single hair; then by a slender thread; next by a cord; afterwards by a rope; and in the end by a chain of Hell that is, by mortal sin; and thus he makes her his slave.

9. Miserable the soul that allows herself to be the slave of any passion. “Behold, how small a fire what a great wood it kindleth” (James 3:5). A small spark, if it be not extinguished, will set fire to an entire wood; that is, an unmodified passion shall bring the soul to ruin. Passion blinds us; and the blind often fall into an abyss when they least expect it. According to St. Ambrose, the devil is constantly endeavoring to find out the passion which rules in our heart, and the pleasures which have the greatest attraction for us. “When he discovers them, he presents occasions of indulging them: he then excites concupiscence, and prepares a chain to make us the slaves of Hell.”

10. St. Chrysostom asserts, that he himself knew many persons who were gifted with great virtues, and who, because they disregarded light faults, fell into an abyss of crime. When the devil cannot gain much from us, he is in the beginning content with the little; by many trifling victories he will make a great conquest. No one, says St. Bernard, suddenly falls from the state of grace into the abyss of wickedness. “They who rush into the most grievous irregularities, begin by committing light faults” (Tract de Ord. vita3). It is necessary also to understand that, when a soul that has been favored by God with special lights and graces, consents to mortal sin, her fall shall not be a simple fall, from which she will easily rise again, but it will be a precipitous one, from which she will find it very difficult to return to God.

11. Addressing a person in the state of tepidity, Our Lord said: “I would that thou wert cold or hot; but because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth” (Apocalypse 3:15-6). “I would thou wert cold” that is, it would be better for thee to be deprived of My grace, because there should then be greater hopes of thy amendment; but, because thou livest in tepidity, without any desire of improvement, “I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth.” By these words He means, that He will begin to abandon the soul; for, what is vomited, is taken back only with great horror.

12. A certain author says, that tepidity is a hectic fever, which does not excite alarm, because it is not perceived; but it is, at the same time, so malignant that it is rarely cured. The comparison is very just; for tepidity makes the soul insensible to remorse of conscience; and, as she is accustomed to feel no remorse for venial faults, she will by degrees become insensible to the stings of remorse which arise from mortal sins.

13. Let us come to the remedy. The amendment of a tepid soul is difficult; but there are remedies for those who wish to adopt them. First, the tepid must sincerely desire to be delivered from a state which, as we have seen, is so miserable and dangerous; for, without this desire, they shall not take pains to employ the proper means. Secondly, they must resolve to remove the occasions of their faults; otherwise they will always relapse into the same defects. Thirdly, they must earnestly beg of the Lord to raise them from so wretched a state. By their own strength they can do nothing; but they can do all things with the assistance of God, who has promised to hear the prayers of all. “Ask, and it shall be given; seek, and you shall find” (Luke 11:9). We must pray, and continue to pray without interruption. If we cease to pray we shall be defeated; but if we persevere in prayer we shall conquer.

SERMON 3
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE UNHAPPINESS OF SINNERS AND THE HAPPINESS OF THOSE WHO LOVE GOD
“And that which fell among the thorns, are they, who have heard, and, going their way, are choked with the cares and riches of this life” (Luke 8:14).

In the parable of this day’s Gospel we are told that part of the seed which the sower went out to sow fell among thorns.

The Saviour has declared that the seed represents the divine Word, and the thorns the attachment of men to earthly riches and pleasures, which are the thorns that choke the fruit of the word of God, not only in the future, but, even in the present life, misery of poor sinners! By their sins, they not only condemn themselves to eternal torments in the next, but to an unhappy life in this world. This is what I intend to demonstrate in the following discourse.

First Point. The unhappy life of sinners.
Second Point. Happy life of those who love God.

First Point. Unhappy life of sinners.

1. The devil deceives sinners, and makes them imagine that, by indulging their sensual appetites, they shall lead a life of happiness, and shall enjoy peace. But there is no peace for those who offend God. “There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord” (Isaias 48:22). God declares that all His enemies have led a life of misery, and that they have not even known the way of peace. “Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known” (Psalm 13:3).

2. Brute animals that have been created for this world, enjoy peace in sensual delights. Give to a dog a bone, and he is perfectly content; give to an ox a bundle of hay, and he desires nothing more. But man, who has been created for God, to love God, and to be united to Him, can be made happy only by God, and not by the world, though it should enrich him with all its goods. What are worldly goods? They may be all reduced to pleasures of sense, to riches, and to honors. “All that is in the world,” says St. John, “is the concupiscence of the flesh,” or sensual delights, and “the concupiscence of the eyes,” or riches, and “the pride of life” that is, earthly honors. (1 John 2:16).

St. Bernard says, that a man may be puffed up with earthly goods, but can never be made content or happy by them. And how can earth and wind and dung satisfy the heart of man? In his comment on these words of St. Peter: “Behold, we have left all things” the same saint says, that he saw in the world different classes of fools. All had a great desire of happiness. Some, such as the avaricious, were content with riches; others, Ambitious of honors and of praise, were satisfied with wind; others, seated round a furnace, swallowed the sparks that were thrown from it these were the passionate and vindictive; others, in fine, drank fetid water from a stagnant pool and these were the voluptuous and unchaste. “O fools!” adds the saint, “do you not perceive that all these things, from which you seek content, do not satisfy, but, on the contrary, increase the cravings of your heart?” Of this we have a striking example in Alexander the Great, who, after having conquered half the world, burst into tears, because he was not master of the whole earth.

3. Many expect to find peace in accumulating riches; but how can these satisfy their desires? says St. Augustine, a large quantity of money does not close, but rather extends, the jaws of avarice; that is, the enjoyment of riches excites, rather than satiates, the desire of wealth. “Thou wast debased even to Hell; thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy ways; yet thou saidst not, I will rest” (Isaias 57:9-10). Poor worldlings! They labor and toil to acquire an increase of wealth and property, but never enjoy repose: the more they accumulate riches, the greater their disquietude and vexation.

“The rich have wanted, and have suffered hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good” (Psalm 33:11). The rich of this world are, of all men, the most miserable; because, the more they possess, the more they desire to possess. They never succeed in attaining all the objects of their wishes, and therefore they are far poorer than men who have but the minimum, and seek God alone. These are truly rich, because they are content with their condition, and find in God every good. “They that seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good.” To the saints, because they possess God, nothing is wanting; to the worldly rich, who are deprived of God, all things are wanting, because they want peace.

The appellation of “fool” was, therefore, justly given to the rich man in the Gospel (Luke 12:19), who, because his land brought forth plenty of fruits, said to his soul: “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: take rest, eat, drink, make good cheer” (Luke 12:19). But this man was called a fool. “Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee! And whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:20). And why was he called a fool? Because he imagined that, by these goods, by eating and drinking, he would be content and would enjoy peace. “Rest,” he said, “eat, drink” says St. Basil of Seleucia, "Hast thou the soul of a brute, that thou expectest to make it happy by eating and drinking?"

4. But, perhaps sinners, who seek after and attain worldly honors, are content? All the honors of this earth are but smoke and wind, “Ephraim feedeth on the wind” (Osee 12:1), and how can these content the heart of a Christian? “The pride of them,” says David, “ascendeth continually” (Psalm 73:23). The ambitious are not satisfied by the attainment of certain honours: their ambition and pride continually increase; and thus their disquietude, their envy, and their fears are multiplied.

5. They who live in the habit of sins of impurity, feed, as the Prophet Jeremias says, on dung (Lamentations 4:5). How can dung content or give peace to the soul? Ah! what peace, what peace can sinners at a distance from God enjoy? They may possess the riches, honors, and delights of this world; but they never shall have peace. No; the word of God cannot fail: he has declared that there is no peace for his enemies. “There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord” (Isaias 48:22). Poor sinners! “They”, as St. Chrysostom says, “always carry about with them their own executioner, that is, a guilty conscience, which continually torments them” (Serm. x. do Laz). St. Isidore asserts, that there is no pain more excruciating than that of a guilty conscience. Hence he adds, that he who leads a good life is never sad (St. Isidore, lib. 2, Solit).

6. In describing the deplorable state of sinners, the Holy Ghost compares them, to a sea continually tossed by the tempest. “The wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest” (Isaias 57:20). Waves come and go, but they are all waves of bitterness and rancor; for every cross and contradiction disturbs and agitates the wicked. If a person, at a ball or musical exhibition, were obliged to remain suspended by a rope, with his head downwards, could he feel happy at the entertainment?

Such is the state of a Christian in enmity with God: his soul is as it were turned upside down; instead of being united with God and detached from creatures, it is united with creatures and separated from God. But creatures, says St. Vincent Ferrer, are without, and do not enter to content the heart, which God alone can make happy. The sinner is like a man parched with thirst, and standing in the middle of a fountain: because the waters which surround him do not enter to satisfy his thirst, he remains in the midst of them more thirsty than before.

7. Speaking of the unhappy life, which he led when he was in a state of sin, David said: “My tears have been my bread, day and night, whilst it is said to me daily: ‘Where is thy God?’” (Psalm 41:4). To relieve himself, he went to his villas, to his gardens, to musical entertainments, and to various other royal amusements, but they all said to him: “David, if thou expectest comfort from us, thou art deceived. ‘Where is thy God? Go and seek thy God, whom thou hast lost; for He alone can restore thy peace!’” Hence David confessed that, in the midst of his princely wealth, he enjoyed no repose, and that he wept night and day. Let us now listen to his son Solomon, who acknowledged that he indulged his senses in whatsoever they desired. “Whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not” (Ecclesiastes 2:10). But, after all his sensual enjoyments, he exclaimed: “Vanity of vanities ... behold all is vanity and affliction of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 1:2 and 14).

Mark that he declares that all the pleasures of this earth are not only vanity of vanities, but also affliction of spirit. And this sinners well know from experience; for sin brings with it the fear of divine vengeance. The man who is surrounded by powerful enemies, never sleeps in peace; and can the sinner, who has God for an enemy, enjoy tranquillity? “Fear to them that work evil” (Proverbs 10:29). The Christian, who commits a mortal sin, feels himself oppressed with fear―every leaf that moves excites terror. “The sound of dread is always in his ears” (Job 15:21). He appears to be always flying away, although no one pursues him. “The wicked man fleeth when no man pursueth” (Proverbs 28:1). He shall be persecuted, not by men, but by his own sin.

It was thus with Cain, who, after having killed his brother Abel, was seized with fear, and said: “Every one, therefore, that findeth me shall kill me” (Genesis 4:14). The Lord assured him that no one should injure him: “The Lord said to him: ‘No; it shall not be so!’” (Genesis 4:15). But, notwithstanding this assurance, Cain, pursued by his own sins, was, as the Scripture attests, always flying from one place to another “He dwelt a fugitive on the earth” (Genesis 4:16).

8. Moreover, sin brings with it remorse of conscience that cruel worm that gnaws incessantly, and never dies. “Their worm shall not die” (Isaias 56:24). If the sinner goes to a festival, to a comedy, to a banquet, his conscience continually reproaches him, saying: “Unhappy man! You have lost God! If you were now to die, what should become of you?” The torture of remorse of conscience, even in the present life, is so great that, to free themselves from it, some persons have put an end to their lives Judas, through despair, hanged himself.

A certain man who had killed an infant, was so much tormented with remorse, that he could not rest. To rid himself of it, he entered into a monastery; but finding no peace even there, he went before a judge, acknowledged his crime, and got himself condemned to death.

9. God complains of the injustice of sinners in leaving Him, Who is the Fountain of all consolation, to plunge themselves into fetid and broken cisterns, which can give no peace. “For my people have done two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremias 2:13). You have, the Lord says to sinners, refused to serve Me, your God, in peace. Unhappy creatures! You shall serve your enemies in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of every kind. “Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joy and gladness ... thou shalt serve thy enemy in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things” (Deuteronomy 28:47-48).

This is what sinners experience every day. What do not the vindictive endure, after they have satisfied their revenge by the murder of an enemy? They fly continually from the relations of their murdered foe, and from the minister of justice. They live as fugitives, poor, afflicted, and abandoned by all. What do not the voluptuous and unchaste suffer in order to gratify their wicked desires? What do not the avaricious suffer in order to acquire the possessions of others?

Ah! if they suffered for God, what they suffer for sin, they would lay up great treasures for eternity, and would lead a life of peace and happiness: but, by living in sin, they lead a life of misery here, to lead a still more miserable life for eternity hereafter. Hence they weep continually in Hell, saying: “We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard ways” (Wisdom 5:7). We have, they exclaim, walked through hard ways, through paths covered with thorns. We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity: we have labored hard: we have sweated blood: we have led a life full of misery, of gall, and of poison. And why? To bring ourselves to a still more wretched life in this pit of fire.

Second Point. The happy life of those who love God.

10. “Justice and peace have kissed” (Psalm 84:11). Peace resides in every soul in which justice dwells. Hence David said: “Delight in the Lord, and he will give thee the requests of thy heart” (Psalm 36:4). To understand this text, we must consider that worldlings seek to satisfy the desires of their hearts with the goods of this earth; but, because these cannot make them happy, their hearts continually make fresh demands; and, how much soever they may acquire of these goods, they are not content. Hence the Prophet says: “Delight in the Lord, and He will give thee the requests of thy heart.” Give up creatures, seek your delight in God, and He will satisfy all the cravings of your heart.

11. This is what happened to St. Augustine, who, as long as he sought happiness in creatures, never enjoyed peace; but, as soon as he renounced them, and gave to God all the affections of his heart, he exclaimed: “All things are hard, O Lord, and Thou alone art repose.” As if he said: “Ah! Lord, I now know my folly. I expected to find felicity in earthly pleasures; but now I know that they are only vanity and affliction of spirit, and that Thou alone art the peace and joy of our hearts.”

12. The Apostle says, that the peace which God gives to those who love, surpasses all the sensual delights which a man can enjoy on this earth. “The peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). St. Francis of Assisi, in saying “My God and my all,” experienced on this earth an anticipation of Paradise. St. Francis Xavier, in the midst of his labors in India, for the glory of Jesus Christ, was so replenished with divine consolations, that he exclaimed: “Enough, Lord, enough!” Where, I ask, has any lover of this world been found, so satisfied with the possessions of worldly goods, as to say: “Enough, O world, enough; no more riches, no more honors, no more applause, no more pleasures!”? Ah, no! Worldlings are constantly seeking after higher honors, greater riches, and new delights; but the more they have of them, the less are their desires satisfied, and the greater their disquietude.

13. It is necessary to persuade ourselves of this truth, that God alone can give content. Worldlings do not wish to be convinced of it, through an apprehension that, if they give themselves to God, they shall lead a life of bitterness and discontent. But, with the Royal Prophet, I say to them: "Taste, and see that the Lord is sweet" (Psalm 33:9). Why, sinners, will you despise and regard as miserable, that life which you have not as yet tried? “Taste and see.”

Begin to make a trial of it; hear Mass every day; practice mental prayer and the visitation of the most Holy Sacrament; go to Holy Communion at least once a week; fly from evil conversations; walk always with God; and you shall see that, by such a life, you will enjoy that sweetness and peace which the world, with all its delights, has not hitherto been able to give you.

SERMON 4
St. Alphonsus Liguori
THE DELUSION OF SINNERS
“Lord, that I may see!” (Luke 18:41).

1. The Devil brings sinners to Hell by closing their eyes to the dangers of perdition. He first blinds them, and then leads them with himself to eternal torments. If, then, we wish to be saved, we must continually pray to God in the words of the blind man in the gospel of this day, “Lord, that I may see.” Give me light: make me see the way in which I must walk in order to save my soul, and to escape the deceits of the enemy of salvation. I shall, brethren, this day place before your eyes, the delusion by which the devil tempts men to sin and to persevere in sin, that you may know how to guard yourselves against his deceitful artifices.

2. To understand these delusions better, let us imagine the case of a young man who, seized by some passion, lives in sin, the slave of Satan, and never thinks of his eternal salvation. “My son,” I say to him, “what sort of life do you lead? If you continue to live in this manner, how will you be able to save your soul?” But, behold! The Devil, on the other hand, says to him: “Why should you be afraid of being lost? Indulge your passions for the present: you will afterwards confess your sins, and thus all shall be put right!” Behold the net by which the devil drags so many souls into Hell: “Indulge your passions: you will hereafter make a good confession.”

But, in reply, I say, that in the meantime you lose your soul. Tell me: if you had a jewel worth thousands of dollars, would you throw it into a river with the hope of afterwards finding it again? What if all your efforts to find it were fruitless? My God! You hold in your hand the invaluable jewel of your soul, which Jesus Christ has purchased with His own blood, and you cast it into Hell!

Yes; you cast it into Hell; because according to the present order of providence, for every mortal sin you commit, your name is written among the number of the damned. But you say: “I hope to recover God’s grace by making a good confession.” And if you should not recover it, what shall be the consequences? To make a good confession, a true sorrow for sin is necessary, and this sorrow is the gift of God: if He does not give it, will you not be lost for ever?

3. You reply: “I am young; God has compassion on my youth; I will hereafter give myself to God.” Behold another delusion! You are young; but do you not know that God counts, not the years, but the sins of each individual? You are young; but how many sins have you committed? Perhaps there are many persons of a very advanced age, who have not been guilty of the fourth part of the sins which you have committed.

And do you not know that God has fixed for each of us the number of sins which he will pardon? “The Lord patiently expecteth, that, when the day of judgment shall come, He may punish them in the fulness of their sins” (2 Machabees vi. 14). God has patience, and waits for a while; but, when the measure of the sins, which he has determined to pardon, is filled up, then He pardons no more, but chastises the sinner, by suddenly depriving him of life in the miserable state of sin, or by abandoning him in his sin, and executing that threat which He made by the prophet Isaias: “I shall take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted” (Isaias v. 5).

If a person has cultivated land for many years, has encompassed it with a hedge for its protection, and expended a large sum of money on it, but finds that, after all, it produces no fruit, what will he do with it? He will pluck up the hedge, and abandon it to all men and beasts that may wish to enter. Tremble, then, lest God should treat you in a similar manner. If you do not give up sin, your remorse of conscience and your fear of divine chastisement shall daily increase. Behold the hedge taken away, and your soul abandoned by God a punishment worse than death itself.

4. You say: “I cannot at present resist this passion.” Behold the third delusion of the devil, by which he makes you believe that at present you have not strength to overcome certain temptations. But St. Paul tells us that God is faithful, and that He never permits us to be tempted above our strength. “And God is faithful, Who will not permit you to be tempted above that which you are able.” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

I ask, if you are not now able to resist the temptation, how can you expect to resist it hereafter? If you yield to it, the Devil will become stronger, and you shall become weaker; and if you be not now able to extinguish this flame of passion, how can you hope to be able to extinguish it when it shall have grown more violent?

You say: “God will give me His aid.” But this aid God is ready to give at present if you ask it. Why then do you not implore his assistance? Perhaps you expect that, without now taking the trouble of invoking his aid, you will receive from Him increased helps and graces, after you shall have multiplied the number of your sins?

Perhaps you doubt the veracity of God, Who has promised to give whatever we ask of Him? “Ask,” He says, “and it shall be given you.” (Matthew 7:7). God cannot violate his promises. “God is not as man, that He should lie, nor as the son of man, that He should be changed. Hath He said, then, and will He not do ?” (Numbers 23:19). Have recourse to Him, and He will give you the strength necessary to resist the temptation.

God commands you to resist it, and you say: “I have not strength.” Does God, then, command impossibilities? No; the Council of Trent has declared that “God does not command impossibilities; but, by His commands, He admonishes you to do what you can, and to ask what you cannot do; and He assists, that you may be able to do it.” (Sess. 6, cap. xiii). When you see that you have not sufficient strength to resist temptation with the ordinary assistance of God, ask of Him the additional help which you require, and He will give it to you; and thus you shall be able to conquer all temptations, however violent they may be.

5. But you will not pray; and you say that at present you will commit this sin, and will afterwards confess it. But, I ask, how do you know that God will give you time to confess it? You say: “I will go to confession before the lapse of a week.” And who has promised you this week? Well, then you say: “I will go to confession tomorrow!” And "who promises you tomorrow?" says St. Augustine, “God has not promised you tomorrow. Perhaps He will give it, and perhaps He will refuse it to you," as He has to so many others. How many have gone to bed in good health, and have been found dead in the morning! How many, in the very act of sin, has the Lord struck dead and sent to Hell!

Should this happen to you, how will you repair your eternal ruin? “Commit this sin, and confess it afterwards.” Behold the deceitful artifice by which the devil has brought so many thousands of Christians to Hell. We scarcely ever find a Christian so sunk in despair as to intend to damn himself. All the wicked sin with the hope of afterwards going to confession. But, by this illusion, how many have brought themselves to perdition! For them there is now no time for confession, no remedy for their damnation.

6. “But God is merciful.” Behold another common delusion by which the devil encourages sinners to persevere in a life of sin! A certain author has said, that more souls have been sent to Hell by the mercy of God than by His justice. This is indeed the case; for men are induced by the deceits of the devil to persevere in sin, through confidence in Gods mercy; and thus they are lost. “God is merciful.” Who denies it? But, great as His mercy, how many does He every day send to Hell? God is merciful, but He is also just, and is, therefore, obliged to punish those who offend Him. “And His mercy,” says the divine mother, “is to them that fear him” (Luke 1:50).

But with regard to those who abuse His mercy and despise Him, He exercises justice. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon the determination to commit sin. St. Augustine says, that he who sins with the intention of repenting after his sins, is not a penitent, but a scoffer. But the Apostle tells us that God will not be mocked. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). It would be a mockery of God to insult Him as often and as much as you pleased, and afterwards to expect eternal glory.

7. “But”; you say, “since God has shown me so many mercies until now, I hope He will continue to do so for the future.” Behold another delusion! Then, because God has not as yet chastised your sins, He will never punish them! On the contrary, the greater have been His mercies, the more you should tremble, lest, if you offend Him again, He should pardon you no more, and should take vengeance on your sins. Behold the advice of the Holy Ghost: “Say not: ‘I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me?’ For the Most High is a patient rewarder” (Ecclesiasticus 5:4).

Do not say: “I have sinned, and no chastisement has fallen upon me.” God bears for a time, but not for ever. He waits for a certain time; but when that arrives, He then chastises the sinner for all his past iniquities: and the longer He has waited for repentance, the more severe the chastisement. “Quos diutius expectat,” says St. Gregory, “durius damnat.” Then, my brother, since you know that you have frequently offended God, and that He has not sent you to Hell, you should exclaim: “The mercies of the Lord, that we are not consumed!” (Lamentations 3:22). Lord, I thank You for not having sent me to Hell, which I have so often deserved. And therefore you ought to give yourself entirely to God, at least through gratitude, and should consider that, for less sins than you have committed, many are now in that pit of fire, without the smallest hope of being ever released from it.

The patience of God in bearing with you, should teach you not to despise Him still more, but to love and serve Him with greater fervour, and to atone, by penitential austerities and by other holy works, for the insults you have offered to Him. You know that He has shown mercies to you, which He has not shown to others. “He hath not done in like manner to every nation” (Psalm 147:20). Hence you should tremble, lest, if you commit a single additional mortal sin, God should abandon you, and cast you into Hell.

8. Let us come to the next illusion. “It is true that, by this sin, I lose the grace of God; but, even after committing this sin, I may be saved.” You may, indeed, be saved: but it cannot be denied that if, after having committed so many sins, and after having received so many graces from God, you again offend Him, there is great reason to fear that you shall be lost. Attend to the words of the sacred Scripture: “A hard heart shall fare evil at the last” (Ecclesiastes 3:27).

The obstinate sinner shall die an unhappy death. “Evil doers shall be cut off” (Psalm 36:9). The wicked shall be cut off by the divine justice. “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap” (Galatians 6:8). He that sows in sin, shall reap eternal torments. “Because I called and you refused, I also will laugh in your destruction and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared” (Proverbs 1:24, 26).

I called, says the Lord, and you mocked Me; but I will mock you at the hour of death. “Revenge is Mine, and I will repay them in due time” (Deuteronomy 32:35). The chastisement of sins belongs to Me, and I will execute vengeance on them when the time of vengeance shall arrive. “The man that with a stiff neck despiseth him that reproveth him, shall suddenly be destroyed, and health shall not follow him” (Proverbs 29:1). The man who obstinately despises those who correct him, shall be punished with a sudden death, and for him there shall be no hope of salvation.

9. Now, brethren, what think you of these divine threats against sinners? Is it easy, or is it not very difficult, to save your souls, if, after so many divine calls, and after so many mercies, you continue to offend God? You say: “But after all, it may happen that I will save my soul.” I answer: “What folly is it to trust your salvation to a perhaps? How many with this “perhaps I may be saved,” are now in Hell? Do you wish to be one of their unhappy companions?” Dearly beloved Christians, enter into yourselves, and tremble; for this sermon may be the last of Gods mercies to you.

SERMON 5
St. Alphonsus Liguori for the Second Sunday of Lent
THOUGHTS ABOUT HEAVEN
“Lord, it is good for us to be here!” (Matthew 17:4).

In this days Gospel we read, that wishing to give His disciples a glimpse of the glory of Paradise, in order to animate them to labor for the divine honor, the Redeemer was transfigured, and allowed them to behold the splendor of His countenance. Ravished with joy and delight, St. Peter exclaimed: “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” Lord, let us remain here; let us never more depart from this place; for, the sight of Thy beauty consoles us more than all the delights of the earth.

Brethren, let us labor during the remainder of our lives to gain Heaven. Heaven is so great a good, that, to purchase it for us, Jesus Christ has sacrificed His life on the cross. Be assured, that the greatest of all the torments of the damned in Hell, arise from the thought of having lost Heaven through their own fault. The blessings, the delights, the joys, the sweetness of Paradise may be acquired; but they can be described and understood only by those blessed souls that enjoy them. But let us, with the aid of the Holy Scripture, explain the little that can be said of them here below.

1. According to the Apostle, no man on this earth, can comprehend the infinite blessings which God has prepared for the souls that love him. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9). In this life we cannot have an idea of any other pleasures than those which we enjoy by means of the senses. Perhaps we imagine that the beauty of Heaven resembles that of a wide extended plain covered with the verdure of spring, interspersed with trees in full bloom, and abounding in birds fluttering about and singing on every side; or, that it is like the beauty of a garden full of fruits and flowers, and surrounded by fountains in continual play. O what a Paradise, to behold such a plain, or such a garden! But, oh! how much greater are the beauties of Heaven!

Speaking of Paradise, St. Bernard says: “O man, if you wish to understand the blessings of Heaven, know that in that happy country there is nothing which can be disagreeable, and everything that you can desire.” Although there are some things here below which are agreeable to the senses, how many more are there which only torment us? If the light of day is pleasant, the darkness of night is disagreeable: if the spring and the autumn are cheering, the cold of winter and the heat of summer are painful. In addition, we have to endure the pains of sickness, the persecution of men, and the inconveniences of poverty; we must submit to interior troubles, to fears, to temptations of the devil, doubts of conscience, and to the uncertainty of eternal salvation.

2. But, after entering into Paradise, the Blessed shall have no more sorrows. “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” The Lord shall dry up the tears which they have shed in this life. “And death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow, shall be any more, for the former things are passed away. And He that sat on the throne, said: “Behold, I make all things new” (Apocalypse 21:4-5).

In Paradise, death and the fear of death are no more: in that place of bliss there are no sorrows, no infirmities, no poverty, no inconveniences, no vicissitudes of day or night, of cold or of heat. In that kingdom there is a continual day, always serene, a continual spring, always blooming. In Paradise there are no persecutions, no envy; for all love each other with tenderness, and each rejoices at the happiness of the others, as if it were his own. There is no more fear of eternal perdition; for the soul, confirmed in grace, can neither sin nor lose God.

3. In Heaven you have all you can desire. “Behold, I make all things new.” There everything is new; new beauties, new delights, new joys. There all our desires shall be satisfied. The sight shall be satiated with beholding the beauty of that city. How delightful to behold a city in which the streets should be of crystal, the houses of silver, the windows of gold, and all adorned with the most beautiful flowers. But, oh! How much more beautiful shall be the city of Paradise! The beauty of the place shall be heightened by the beauty of the inhabitants, who are all clothed in royal robes; for, according to St. Augustine, “they are all kings.” How delighted to behold Mary, the Queen of Heaven, who shall appear more beautiful than all the other citizens of Paradise!

But, what it must be to behold the beauty of Jesus Christ! St. Teresa once saw one of the hands of Jesus Christ, and was struck with astonishment at the sight of such beauty. The smell shall be satiated with scent, but with the scents of Paradise. The hearing shall be satiated with the harmony of the celestial choirs. St. Francis once heard, for a moment, an angel playing on a violin, and he almost died through joy. How delightful must it be to hear the saints and angels singing the divine praises! “They shall praise thee forever and ever” (Psalm 83:5). What must it be to hear Mary praising God! St. Francis de Sales says, that, as the singing of the nightingale in the wood surpasses that of all other birds, so the voice of Mary is far superior to that of all the other saints. In a word, there are, in Paradise, all the delights which man can desire.

4. But the delights of which we have spoken are the least of the blessings of Paradise. The glory of Heaven consists in seeing and loving God face to face. The reward, which God promises to us, does not consist altogether in the beauty, the harmony, and other advantages of the city of Paradise. God Himself, Whom the saints are allowed to behold, is, according to the promises made to Abraham, the principal reward of the just in Heaven. “I am thy reward exceeding great” (Genesis 15:1). St. Augustine asserts, that, were God to show His face to the damned, “Hell would be instantly changed into a Paradise of delights” (Lib. de trip, habit., tom. 9). And, he adds that, were a departed soul allowed the choice of seeing God and suffering the pains of Hell, or of being freed from these pains and deprived of the sight of God, “she would prefer to see God, and to endure these torments.”

5. The delights of the soul infinitely surpass all the pleasures of the senses. Even in this life divine love infuses such sweetness into the soul, when God communicates himself to her, that the body is raised from the earth. St. Peter of Alcantara once fell into such an ecstasy of love, that, taking hold of a tree, he drew it up from the roots, and raised it with him on high. So great is the sweetness of divine love, that the holy martyrs, in the midst of their torments, felt no pain, but were on the contrary filled with joy. Hence, St. Augustine says that, when St. Lawrence was laid on a red-hot gridiron, the fervor of divine love made him insensible to the burning heat of the fire. Even on sinners who weep for their sins, God bestows consolations which exceed all earthly pleasures. Hence St. Bernard says: “If it be so sweet to weep for thee, what must it be to rejoice in thee!”

6. How great is the sweetness which a soul experiences, when, in the time of prayer, God, by a ray of his own light, shows to her His goodness and His mercies towards her, and particularly the love which Jesus Christ has borne to her in His Passion! She feels her heart melting, and as it were dissolved through love. But in this life we do not see God as He really is: we see him as it were in. the dark. “We see now through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Here below God is hidden from, our view; we can see Him only with the eyes of Faith: how great shall be our happiness when the veil shall be raised, and we shall be permitted to behold God face to face! We shall then see His beauty, His greatness, His perfection, His amiableness, and His immense love for our souls.

7. “Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred” (Ecclesiastes 9:1). The fear of not loving God, and of not being loved by Him, is the greatest affliction which souls that love God endure on the earth; but, in Heaven, the soul is certain that she loves God, and that He loves her; she sees that the Lord embraces her with infinite love, and that this love shall not be dissolved for all eternity. The knowledge of the love, which Jesus Christ has shown her, in offering Himself in sacrifice for her on the cross, and in making Himself her food in the Sacrament of the Altar, shall increase the ardor of her love. She shall also see clearly all the graces which God has bestowed upon her, all the helps which He has given her, to preserve her from falling into sin, and to draw her to His love. She shall see that all the tribulations, the poverty, infirmities, and persecutions which she regards as misfortunes, have all proceeded from love, and have been the means employed by Divine Providence to bring her to glory. She shall see all the lights, loving calls, and mercies, which God had granted to her, after she had insulted Him by her sins. From the blessed mountain of Paradise, she shall see so many souls damned for fewer sins than she had committed, and shall see that she herself is saved and secured against the possibility of ever losing God.

8. The goods of this earth do not satisfy our desires: at first they gratify the senses; but when we become accustomed to them they cease to delight. But the joys of Paradise constantly satiate and content the heart. “I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear” (Psalm 16:15). And though they satiate, they always appear to be as new as the first time when they were experienced; they are always enjoyed and always desired, always desired and always possessed. “Satiety,” says St. Gregory, “accompanies desire” (Lib. 13, Mor., ch. xviii).

Thus, the desires of the saints in Paradise do not beget pain, because they are always satisfied; and satiety does not produce disgust, because it is always accompanied with desire. Hence the soul shall be always satiated and always thirsty: she shall be forever thirsty, and always satiated with delights. The damned are, according to the Apostle, vessels full of wrath and of torments, “vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction” (Romans 9:22).

But the just are vessels full of mercy and of joy, so that they have nothing to desire. “They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house” (Psalm 35:9). In beholding the beauty of God, the soul shall be so inflamed and so inebriated with divine love, that she shall remain happily lost in God; for she shall entirely forget herself, and, for all eternity, shall think only of loving and praising the immense good, which she shall possess forever, without the fear of having it in her power ever to lose it. In this life, holy souls love God; but they cannot love Him with all their strength, nor can they always actually love Him. St. Thomas teaches, that this perfect love is only given to the citizens of Heaven, who love God with their whole heart, and never cease to love Him actually (Summa Theologica, 2a 2ae, q. 44, art. 4, ad. 2).

9. Justly, then, has St. Augustine said, that to gain the eternal glory of Paradise, we should cheerfully embrace eternal labor. “Pro æterna requie æternus labor subeundus esset.” “For nothing” says David, “shalt thou save them” (Psalm 55:8). The saints have done but little to acquire Heaven. So many kings, who have abdicated their thrones and shut themselves up in a cloister; so many holy anchorites, who have confined themselves in a cave; so many martyrs, who have cheerfully submitted to torments to the rack, and to red-hot plates, have done but little. “The sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory to come” (Romans 8:18). To gain Heaven, it would be but little to endure all the pains of this life.

10. Let us, then, brethren, courageously resolve to bear patiently with all the sufferings, which shall come upon us, during the remaining days of our lives: to secure Heaven they are all little and nothing. Rejoice then; for all these pains, sorrows, and persecutions shall, if we are saved, be to us a source of never-ending joys and delights. “Your sorrows shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). When, then, the crosses of this life afflict us, let us raise our eyes to Heaven, and console ourselves with the hope of Paradise.

At the end of her life, St. Mary of Egypt was asked, by the Abbot St. Zozimus, how she had been able to live for forty-seven years in the desert, where he found her dying. She answered: “With the hope of Paradise” If we be animated with the same hope, we shall not feel the tribulations of this life. Have courage! Let us love God and labor for Heaven. There the saint expects us, Mary expects us, Jesus Christ expects us; He holds in His hand a crown to make each of us a king in that eternal kingdom

SERMON 6
St. Alphonsus Liguori for the Third Sunday of Lent
ON CONCEALING SINS IN CONFESSION
“And he was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb” (Luke 11:14).

The devil does not bring sinners to Hell with their eyes open: he first blinds them with the malice of their own sins. “For their own malice blinded them” (Wisdom 2:21). He thus leads them to eternal perdition.

Before we fall into sin, the enemy labors to blind us, that we may not see the evil we do and the ruin we bring upon ourselves by offending God. After we commit sin, he seeks to make us dumb, that, through shame, we may conceal our guilt in confession.

Thus, he leads us to Hell by a double chain, inducing us, after our transgressions, to consent to a still greater sin the sin of sacrilege. I will speak on this subject today, and will endeavor to convince you of the great evil of concealing sins in confession

1. In expounding the words of David”Set a door O Lord, round about my lips,” (Psalm 140:3). St. Augustine says: “We should keep a door to the mouth, that it may be closed against detraction, and blasphemies, and all improper words, and that it may be opened to confess the sins we have committed."

“Thus,” adds the holy doctor, “it will be a door of restraint, and not of destruction.” To be silent when we are impelled to utter words injurious to God or to our neighbor, is an act of virtue; but, to be silent in confessing our sins, is the ruin of the soul. After we have offended God, the devil labors to keep the mouth closed, and to prevent us from confessing our guilt.

St. Antonine relates, that a holy solitary once saw the devil standing beside a certain person who wished to go to confession. The solitary asked the fiend what he was doing there. The enemy said in reply: “I now restore to these penitents what I before took away from them; I took away from them shame while they were committing sin; I now restore it that they may have a horror of confession.” “My sores are putrefied and corrupted, because of my foolishness” (Psalm 37:6). Gangrenous sores are fatal; and sins concealed in confession are spiritual ulcers, which mortify and become gangrenous.

2. St. John Chrysostom says that God has made sin shameful, that we may abstain from committing it, and God gives us confidence to confess it by promising pardon to all who accuse themselves of their sins. But the devil does the contrary: he gives confidence to sin by holding out hopes of pardon; but, when sin is committed, he inspires shame and despair of pardon in order to prevent the confession of it.

3. A disciple of Socrates, at the moment he was leaving a house of bad fame, saw his master pass: to avoid being seen by him, he went back into the house. Socrates came to the door and said: "My son, it is a shameful thing to enter, but not to depart from this house."

To you also, brethren, who have sinned, I say, that you ought to be ashamed to offend so great and so good a God. But you have no reason to be ashamed of confessing the sins which you have committed. Was it shameful in St. Mary Magdalene to acknowledge publicly at the feet of Jesus Christ that she was a sinner? By her confession she became a saint. Was it shameful in St. Augustine not only to confess his sins, but also to publish them in a book, that, for his confusion, they might be known to the whole world? Was it shameful in St. Mary of Egypt to confess, that for so many years she had led a scandalous life? By their confessions these have become saints, and are honoured on the altars of the Church.

4. We say that the man who acknowledges his guilt before a secular tribunal is condemned , but in the tribunal of Jesus Christ, they who confess their sins obtain pardon, and receive a crown of eternal glory. “After confession,” says St. John Chrysostom, “a crown is given to penitents.” He who is afflicted with an ulcer must, if he wish to be cured, show it to a physician: otherwise it will fester and bring on death.

If, then, brethren, your souls be ulcerated with sin, be not ashamed to confess it; otherwise you are lost. “For thy soul be not ashamed to say the truth” (Ecclesiasticus 4:24). But, you say, I feel greatly ashamed to confess such a sin. If you wish to be saved, you must conquer this shame. “For there is a shame that bringeth sin, and there is a shame that bringeth glory and grace” (Ecclesiasticus 4:25).

There are, according to the inspired writer, two kinds of shame: one of which leads souls to sin, and that is the shame which makes them conceal their sins at confession; the other is the confusion which a Christian feels in confessing his sins; and this confusion obtains for him the grace of God in this life, and the glory of Heaven in the next.

5. St. Augustine says, that to prevent the sheep from seeking assistance by her cries the wolf seizes her by the neck, and thus securely carries her away and devours her. The devil acts in a similar manner with the sheep of Jesus Christ. After having induced them to yield to sin, he seizes them by the throat, that they may not confess their guilt; and thus he securely brings them to Hell.

For those who have sinned grievously, there is no means of salvation but the confession of their sins. But, what hope of salvation can he have who goes to confession and conceals his sins, and makes use of the tribunal of penance to offend God, and to make himself doubly the slave of Satan? What hope would you entertain of the recovery of the man who, instead of taking the medicine prescribed by his physician, drank a cup of poison? God!

What can the sacrament of penance be to those who conceal their sins, but a deadly poison, which adds to their guilt the malice of sacrilege? In giving absolution, the confessor dispenses to his patient the blood of Jesus Christ; for it is through the merits of that blood that he absolves from sin.

What, then, does the sinner do, when he conceals his sins in confession? He tramples underfoot the blood of Jesus Christ. And should he afterwards receive the Holy Communion in a state of sin, he is, according to St. John Chrysostom, as guilty as if he threw the consecrated Host into a sink. "Accursed shame! How many poor souls do you bring to Hell?" says Tertullian, Unhappy souls! They think only of the shame of confessing their sins, and do not reflect that, if they conceal them, they shall be certainly damned.

6. Some penitents ask: “What will my confessor say when he hears that I have committed such a sin?” What will he say? He will say that you are, like all persons living on this Earth, miserable and prone to sin: he will say that, if you have done evil, you have also performed a glorious action in overcoming shame, and in candidly confessing your fault.

7. “But I am afraid to confess this sin.” To how many confessors, I ask, must you tell it? It is enough to mention it to one priest, who hears many sins of the same kind from others. It is enough to confess it once: the confessor will give you penance and absolution, and your conscience shall be tranquilized. But, you say: “I feel a great repugnance to tell this sin to my spiritual father.” Tell it, then, to another confessor, and, if you wish, to one to whom you are unknown. “But, if this come to the knowledge of my confessor, he will be displeased with me.” What then do you mean to do? Perhaps, to avoid giving displeasure to him, you intend to commit a heinous crime, and remain under sentence of damnation. This would be the very height of folly.

8. Are you afraid that the confessor will make known your sin to others? Would it not be madness to suspect that he is so wicked as to break the seal of confession by revealing your sin to others? Remember that the obligation of the seal of confession is so strict, that a confessor cannot speak out of confession, even to the penitent, of the smallest venial fault; and if he did so (that is, without the permission of the penitent), he would be guilty of a most grievous sin.

9. But you say: “I am afraid that my confessor, when he hears my sin, will rebuke me with great severity.” God! Do you not see that all these are deceitful artifices of the devil to bring you to Hell? No; the confessor will not rebuke you, but he will give an advice suited to your state. A confessor cannot experience greater consolation than in absolving a penitent who confesses his sins with true sorrow and with sincerity.

If a queen were mortally wounded by a slave, and you were in possession of a remedy by which she could be cured, how great would be your joy in saving her life! Such is the joy which a confessor feels in absolving a soul in the state of sin. By his act he delivers her from eternal death: and by restoring to her the grace of God, he makes her a queen of Paradise.

10. But you have so many fears, and are not afraid of damning your own soul by the enormous crime of concealing sins in confession. You are afraid of the rebuke of your confessor, and fear not the reproof which you shall receive from Jesus Christ, your Judge, at the hour of death. You are afraid that your sins shall become known (which is impossible), and you dread not the Day of Judgment, on which, if you conceal them, they shall be revealed to all men. If you knew that, by concealing sins in confession, they shall be made known to all your relatives and to all your neighbors, you would certainly confess them.

“But, do you not know,” says St. Bernard, “that if you refuse to confess your sins to one man, who, like yourself, is a sinner, they shall be made known not only to all your relatives and neighbours, but to the entire human race?” (St. Bernard on chapter 11 of St. John). "Lazarus, come out.” If you do not confess your sin, God himself shall, for your confusion, publish not only the sin which you conceal, but also all your iniquities, in the presence of the angels and of the whole world. “I will discover thy shame to thy face, and will show thy wickedness to the nations” (Nahum 3:5).

11. Listen, then, to the advice of St. Ambrose. The devil keeps an account of your sins, to charge you with them at the tribunal of Jesus Christ. Do you wish, says the saint, to prevent this accusation? “Anticipate your accuser: accuse yourself now to a confessor, and then no accuser shall appear against you at the judgment-seat of God” (Lib. 2 de Poenit., cap. ii). But, according to St. Augustine, "if you excuse yourself in confession, you shut up sin within your soul, and shut out pardon." (Hom. xii. 50).

12. If, then, brethren, there be a single soul among you who has ever concealed a sin, through shame, in the tribunal of penance, let him take courage, and make a full confession of all his faults. “Give glory to God with a good heart” (Ecclesiasticus 35:10). Give glory to God, and confusion to the devil.

A certain penitent was tempted by Satan to conceal a sin through shame; but she was resolved to confess it; and while she was going to her confessor, the devil came forward and asked her where she was going. She courageously answered: “I am going to cover myself and you with confusion.”

Act you in a similar manner; if you have ever concealed a mortal sin, confess it candidly to your director, and confound the devil. Remember that the greater the violence you do yourself in confessing your sins, the greater will be the love with which Jesus Christ will embrace you.

13. Courage, then! Expel this viper which you harbor in your soul, and which continually corrodes your heart and destroys your peace. O what a Hell does a Christian suffer, who keeps in his heart a sin concealed through shame in confession! He suffers an anticipation of Hell. It is enough to say to the confessor: “Father, I have a certain scruple regarding my past life, but I am ashamed to tell it.” This will be enough: the confessor will help to pluck out the serpent which gnaws your conscience.

And, that you may not entertain groundless scruples, I think it is right to tell you, that if the sin, which you are ashamed to tell, be not mortal, or if you never considered it to be a mortal sin, you are not obliged to confess it; for we are bound only to confess mortal sins.

Moreover, if you have doubts whether you ever confessed a certain sin of your former life, but know that, in preparing for confession, you always carefully examined your conscience, and that you never concealed a sin through shame; in this case, even though the sin, about the confession of which you are doubtful, had been a grievous fault, you are not obliged to confess it, because it is presumed to be morally certain that you have already confessed it.

But, if you know that the sin was grievous, and that you never accused yourself of it in confession, then there is no remedy—you must confess it, or you must be damned for it. But, lost sheep, go instantly to confession. Jesus Christ is waiting for you; He stands with arms open to pardon and embrace you, if you acknowledge your guilt.

I assure you that, after having confessed all your sins, you shall feel such consolation, at having unburdened your conscience and acquired the grace of God, that you shall forever bless the day on which you made this confession. Go as soon as possible in search of a confessor. Do not give the devil time to continue to tempt you and to make you put off your confession: go immediately: for Jesus Christ is waiting for you.

SERMON 7
St. Alphonsus Liguori
THE MALICE OF MORTAL SIN
“Behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing” (Luke 2:48).

Most holy Mary lost her Son for three days: during that time she wept continually for having lost sight of Jesus, and did not cease to seek after Him till she found Him. How then does it happen that so many sinners, not only lose sight of Jesus, but even lose His divine grace; and instead of weeping for so great a loss, sleep in peace, and make no effort to recover so great a blessing? This arises from their not feeling what it is to lose God by sin. Some say: “I commit this sin, not to lose God, but to enjoy this pleasure, to possess the property of another, or to take revenge of an enemy.” They who speak such language show that they do not understand the malice of Mortal Sin. What is Mortal Sin?

First Point. It is a great contempt shown to God.
Second Point. It is a great offense offered to God.

First Point. Mortal sin is a great contempt shown to God

1. The Lord calls upon Heaven and Earth to detest the ingratitude of those who commit Mortal Sin, after they had been created by Him, nourished with His blood, and exalted to the dignity of His adopted children. “Hear, O ye Heavens, and give ear, Earth; for the Lord hath spoken. I have brought up children and exalted them; but they have despised Me” (Isaias 1:2). Who is this God whom sinners despise? He is a God of infinite majesty, before whom all the kings of the Earth and all the blessed in Heaven are less than a drop of water, or a grain of sand. As a drop of a bucket ... as a little dust” (Isaias 40:15). In a word, such is the majesty of God, that in His presence all creatures are as if they did not exist. “All nations are before Him as if they had no being at all.” (Isaias 40:17).

And what is man, who insults him? St. Bernard answers: “Saccus vermium, cibus vermium.” A heap of worms, the food of worms, by which he shall be devoured in the grave. “Thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Apocalypse 3:17). He is so miserable that he can do nothing, so blind that he knows nothing, and so poor that he possesses nothing. And this worm dares to despise a God, and to provoke His wrath. “Vile dust,” says the same saint, “dares to irritate such tremendous majesty.” Justly, then, has St. Thomas asserted, that the malice of Mortal Sin is, as it were, infinite: “Peccatum habet quandam infinitatem malitiae ex infinitatem divine majestatis.” (Summa Theologica, 3a, q. 2, art. 2, ad. 2). And St. Augustine calls it an infinite evil. Hence Hell and a thousand Hells are not sufficient chastisement for a single Mortal Sin.

2. Mortal sin is commonly defined by theologians to be “a turning away from the immutable good” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1a, q. 24, art. 4); a turning ones back on the sovereign good. Of this God complains by his prophet, saying: “Thou hast forsaken Me, saith the Lord; thou art gone backward. “ (Jeremias 15:6). Ungrateful man, he says to the sinner, I would never have separated Myself from thee; thou hast been the first to abandon Me: thou art gone backwards; thou hast turned thy back upon Me.

3. He who contemns the divine law despises God; because he knows that, by despising the law, he loses the divine grace. “By transgression of the law, thou dishonourest God” (Romans 2:23). God is the Lord of all things, because He has created them. “All things are in thy power... Thou hast made Heaven and Earth.” (Esther 13:9). Hence all irrational creatures the winds, the sea, the fire, and rain obey God, “The winds and the sea obey Him” (Matthew 8:27).”Fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds, which fulfil His word.” (Psalm 148:8).

But man, when he sins, says to God: “Lord, Thou dost command me, but I will not obey; Thou dost command me to pardon such an injury, but I will resent it; Thou dost command me to give up the property of others, but I will retain it; Thou dost wish that I should abstain from such a forbidden pleasure, but I will indulge in it.” … “Thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst My bands, and thou saidst: ‘I will not serve!’” (Jeremias 2:20).

In fine, the sinner when he breaks the command, says to God: “I do not acknowledge Thee for my Lord!” Like Pharaoh, when Moses, on the part of God, commanded him in the name of the Lord to allow the people to go into the desert, the sinner answers: “Who is the Lord, that I should hear His voice, and let Israel go?” (Exodus 5:2).

4. The insult offered to God by sin is heightened by the vileness of the goods for which sinners offend him. “Wherefore hath the wicked provoked God” (Psalm 10:13). For what do so many offend the Lord? For a little vanity; for the indulgence of anger; or for a beastly pleasure. “They violate Me among My people for a handful of barley and a piece of bread” (Ezechiel 13:19). God is insulted for a handful of barley for a morsel of bread! God violated! Why do we allow ourselves to be so easily deceived by the Devil? “There is,” says the Prophet Osee, “a deceitful balance in his hand” (Osee 12:7). We do not weigh things in the balance of God, which cannot deceive, but in the balance of Satan, who seeks only to deceive us, that he may bring us with himself into Hell.

“Lord,” said David, “who is like to Thee?” (Psalm 34:10). God is an infinite good; and when He sees sinners put him on a level with some earthly trifle, or with a miserable gratification, He justly complains in the language of the prophet: “‘To whom, have you likened Me or made Me equal?’ saith the Holy One” (Isaias 40:25).

In your estimation, a vile pleasure is more valuable than My grace. Is it a momentary satisfaction you have preferred before Me? “Thou hast cast Me off behind thy back!” (Ezechile 23:35). Then, adds Salvian, “there is no one for whom men have less esteem than for God” (Lib. v., Avd. Avar). Is the Lord so contemptible in your eyes as to deserve to have the miserable things of the Earth preferred before Him?

5. The tyrant placed before St. Clement a heap of gold, of silver, and of gems, and promised to give them to the holy martyr if he would renounce the faith of Christ. The saint heaved a sigh of sorrow at the sight of the blindness of men, who put earthly riches in comparison with God. But many sinners exchange the divine grace for things of far less value; they seek after certain miserable goods, and abandon that God Who is an infinite good, and Who alone can make them happy.

Of this the Lord complains, and calls on the Heavens to be astonished, and on its gates to be struck with horror: “‘Be astonished O ye Heavens, at this; and ye gates thereof, be very desolate!’ saith the Lord.” He then adds: “For My people have done two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremias 2:12-13).

We regard with wonder and amazement the injustice of the Jews, who, when Pilate offered to deliver Jesus or Barabbas, answered: “Not this Man, but Barabbas!” (John 18:40). The conduct of sinners is still worse; for, when the Devil proposes to them to choose between the satisfaction of revenge a miserable pleasure and Jesus Christ, they answer: “Not this Man, but Barabbas!” That is, not the Lord Jesus, but sin.

6. “There shall be no new god in thee,” says the Lord. (Psalm 80:10). You shall not abandon Me, your true God, and make for yourself a new god, whom you shall serve. St. Cyprian teaches that men make their god whatever they prefer before God, by making it their last end; for God is the only last end of all: “Quidquid homo Deo anteponit, Deum sibi facit.” And St. Jerome says: “Unusquisque quod cupit, si veneratur, hoc illi Deus est. Vitium in corde, est idolum in altari.” (Commentary on Psalm 80). The creature which a person prefers to God, becomes his god. Hence, the holy doctor adds, that as the Gentiles adored idols on their altars, so sinners worship sin in their hearts. When King Jeroboam rebelled against God, he endeavored to make the people imitate him in the adoration of idols. He one day placed the idols before them, and said: “Behold thy gods, Israel!” (3 Kings 12:28). The Devil acts in a similar manner towards sinners: he places before them such a gratification, and says: “Make this your God. Behold! this pleasure, this money, this revenge is your God: adhere to these, and forsake the Lord!” When the sinner consents to sin, he abandons his Creator, and, in his heart, adores as his god the pleasure in which he indulges. “Vitium in corde est idolum in altari.”

7. The contempt, which the sinner offers to God, is increased by sinning in God’s presence. According to St. Cyril of Jerusalem, some adored the sun as their god, that during the night they might, in the absence of the sun, do what they pleased, without fear of divine chastisement. “Some regarded the sun as their god, that, after the setting of the sun, they might be without a god.” (Catech. iv). The conduct of these miserable dupes was very criminal; but they were careful not to sin in presence of their god. But Christians know that God is present in all places, and that he sees all things. “‘Do not I fill Heaven and Earth?’ saith the Lord,” (Jer. xxiii. 24); and still they do not abstain from insulting Him, and from provoking His wrath in his very presence: “A people that continually provoke me to anger before My face!” (Isaias 65:3). Hence, by sinning before Him who is their Judge, they even make God a witness of their iniquities: “‘I am the judge and the witness’, saith the Lord” (Jeremias 29:23). St. Peter Chrysologus says, that, “the man who commits a crime in the presence of his judge, can offer no defence.” The thought of having offended God in His Divine Presence, made David weep and exclaim: “To Thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before Thee.” (Psalm 1:6). But let us pass to the second point, in which we shall see more clearly the enormity of the malice of Mortal Sin.

Second Point. Mortal sin is a great offense offered to God

8. There is nothing more galling than to see oneself despised by those who were most beloved and most highly favored. Whom do sinners insult? They insult a God, Who bestowed so many benefits upon them, and Who loved them so as to die on a cross for their sake; and, by the commission of Mortal Sin, they banish that God from their hearts. A soul that loves God is loved by Him, and God Himself comes to dwell within her. “If any one love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him” (John 14:23). The Lord, then, never departs from a soul, unless He is driven away, even though He should know that she will soon banish Him from her heart. According to the Council of Trent, “He deserts not the soul, unless He is deserted.”

9. When the soul consents to Mortal Sin, she ungratefully says to God: “Depart from me!” “The wicked have said to God: ‘Depart from us!’” (Job 21:14). Sinners, as St. Gregory observes, say the same, not in words, but by their conduct. “Recede, non verbis, sed moribus.” They know that God cannot remain with sin in the soul: and, in violating the divine commands, they feel that God must depart; and, by their acts they say to Him: “Since you cannot remain any longer with us, depart farewell!” And through the very door by which God departs from the soul, the Devil enters to take possession of her. When the priest baptizes an infant, he commands the demon to depart from the soul: “Go out from him, unclean spirits, and make room for the Holy Ghost.” But when a Christian consents to Mortal Sin, he says to God: Depart from me; make room for the Devil, whom I wish to serve.”

10. St. Bernard says, that Mortal Sin is so opposed to God, that, if it were possible for God to die, sin would deprive Him of life―”Peccatum quantum in se est Deum perimit.” Hence, according to Job, in committing Mortal Sin, man rises up against God, and stretches forth his hand against Him: “For he hath stretched out his hand against God, and hath strengthened himself against the Almighty.” (Job 15:25).

11. According to the same St. Bernard, they who wilfully violate the divine law, seek to deprive God of life, in proportion to the malice of their will: “Quantum in ipsa est Deum perimit propria voluntas” (Ser. iii. de Res). Because, adds the saint, self-will “would wish God to see its own sins, and to be unable to take vengeance on them.” Sinners know that the moment they consent to Mortal Sin, God condemns them to Hell. Hence, being firmly resolved to sin, they wish that there was no God, and, consequently, they would wish to take away His life, that He might not be able to avenge their crime.

“He hath,” continues Job, in his description of the wicked, “run against him with his neck raised up, and is armed with a fat neck” (Job 15:26). The sinner raises his neck; that is, his pride swells up, and he runs to insult his God; and, because he contends with a powerful antagonist, “he is armed with a fat neck.” “A fat neck” is the symbol of ignorance, of that ignorance which makes the sinner say: “This is not a great sin; God is merciful; we are flesh; the Lord will have pity on us!”

O temerity! Illusion, which brings so many Christians to Hell! Moreover, the man who commits a Mortal Sin afflicts the heart of God. “But they provoked to wrath, and afflicted the spirit of the Holy One” (Isaias 63:10). What pain and anguish would you not feel, if you knew that a person whom you tenderly loved, and on whom you bestowed great favors, had sought to take away your life! God is not capable of pain; but, were he capable of suffering, a single Mortal Sin would be sufficient to make him die through sorrow.

“Mortal Sin,” says Father Medina, “if it were possible, would destroy God Himself: because it would be the cause of infinite sadness to God.” As often, then, as you committed Mortal Sin, you would, if it were possible, have caused God to die of sorrow; because you knew that by sin you insulted Him and turned your back upon Him, after He had bestowed so many favors upon you, and even after He had given all His blood and His life for your salvation.

SERMON 8
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE NUMBER OF SINS BEYOND WHICH GOD PARDONS NO MORE
“Thou shalt not tempt the Lord they God!” (Matthew 4:41).

In this day's Gospel we read that, having gone into the desert, Jesus Christ permitted the devil to “set him upon the pinnacle of the temple,” and say to him: “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down ;” for the angels shall preserve thee from all injury. But the Lord answered that, in the Sacred Scriptures it is written: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

The sinner who abandons himself to sin without striving to resist temptations, or without at least asking God’s help to conquer them, and hopes that the Lord will one day draw him from the precipice, tempts God to work miracles, or rather to show to him an extraordinary mercy not extended to the generality of Christians.

God, as the Apostle says, “will have all men to be saved,” (1 Timothy 2:4); but he also wishes us all to labor for our own salvation, at least by adopting the means of overcoming our enemies, and of obeying him when he calls us to repentance. Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which he dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which he has fixed arrives, God deprives us of his graces, and begins to inflict chastisement. I intend to show, in this discourse, that, when sins reach a certain number, God pardons no more. Be attentive.

1. St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and other fathers, teach that, as God (according to the words of Scripture, “Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight” (Wisdom 11:21), has fixed for each person the number of the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which he will give him, so he has also determined for each the number of sins which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon no more. “Illud sentire nos convenit,” says St. Augustine, “tamdiu unumquemque a Dei patientia sustineri, quo consummate nullam illi veniam reserveri” (De Vita Christi, cap. iii). Eusebius of Cesarea says: “Deus expectat usque ad certum numerum et postea deserit.” (Lib. 8, cap. ii). The same doctrine is taught by the above-mentioned Fathers.

2. “The Lord hath sent me to heal the contrite of heart” (Isaias 51:1). God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon those who are determined to offend Him. Nor can we demand, from God, a reason why He pardons one person a hundred sins, and takes others out of life, and sends them to Hell, after three or four sins. By His Prophet Amos, God has said: “For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not convert it” (Amos 1:3).

In this we must adore the judgments of God, and say with the Apostle: “the depth of the riches, of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments” (Romans 11:33). He who receives pardon, says St. Augustine, is pardoned through the pure mercy of God; and they who are chastised are justly punished. “Quibus datur misericordia, gratis datur: quibus non datur ex justitia non datur.” (1 de Corrept).

How many has God sent to Hell for the first offence? St. Gregory relates, that a child of five years, who had arrived at the use of reason, for having uttered a blasphemy, was seized by the devil and carried to Hell. The divine Mother revealed to that great servant of God, Benedicta of Florence, that a boy of twelve years was damned after the first sin. Another boy of eight years died after his first sin and was lost.

You say: “I am young: there are many who have committed more sins than I have!” But is God on that account obliged to wait for your repentance if you offend him? In the gospel of St. Matthew (21:19) we read, that the Savior cursed a fig tree the first time He saw it without fruit. “May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And immediately the fig tree withered away.” You must, then, tremble at the thought of committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been guilty of mortal sins.

3. “Be not without fear about sins forgiven, and add not sin to sin.” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). Say not then, O sinner, “As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will pardon me this one if I commit it!” Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned.

Behold how the Scripture unfolds this truth more clearly in another place. “The Lord patiently expecteth, that when the day of judgment shall come, He may punish them in the fullness of sins.” (2 Machabees 6:14). God waits with patience until a certain number of sins is committed, but, when the measure of guilt is filled up, He waits no longer, but chastises the sinner. “Thou hast sealed up my offences as it were in a bag.” (Job 14:17). Sinners multiply their sins without keeping any account of them; but God numbers them that, when the harvest is ripe, that is, when the number of sins is completed, he may take vengeance on them. “Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe” (Joel 3:13).

4. Of this there are many examples in the Scriptures. Speaking of the Hebrews, the Lord in one place says: “All the men that have tempted me now ten times. . . . shall not see the land. “ (Numbers 14: 22-23). In another place he says, that He restrained His vengeance against the Amorrhites, because the number of their sins was not completed. “For as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full” (Genesis 15:16). We have again the example of King Saul, who, after having disobeyed God a second time, was abandoned. He entreated Samuel to interpose before the Lord in his behalf. “Bear, I beseech thee, my sin, and return with me, that I may adore the Lord,” (1 Kings 15:25). But, knowing that God had abandoned Saul, Samuel answered: “I will not return with thee; because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee,” etc. (1 Kings 5:26). Saul, you have abandoned God, and he has abandoned you.

We have another example in Balthassar, who, after having profaned the vessels of the temple, saw a hand writing on the wall, “Mane, Thecel, Phares.” Daniel was requested to expound the meaning of these words. In explaining the word Thecel, he said to the king: “Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting.” (Daniel 5:27). By this explanation he gave the king to understand that the weight of his sins in the balance of divine justice had made the scale descend. “The same night, Balthassar, the Chaldean king, was killed” (Daniel 5:30). Oh, how many sinners have met with a similar fate! Continuing to offend God till their sins amounted to a certain number they have been struck dead and sent to Hell. “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to Hell” (Job 21:13). Tremble, brethren, lest, if you commit another mortal sin, God should cast you into Hell.

5. If God chastised sinners the moment they insult Him, we should not see Him so much despised. But, because He does not instantly punish their transgressions, and because, through mercy, He restrains His anger and waits for their return, they are encouraged to continue to offend Him. “For, because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the children of men commit evil without any fear” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). But it is necessary to be persuaded that, though God bears with us, He does not wait, nor bear with us for ever.

Expecting, as on former occasions, to escape from the snares of the Philistines, Samson continued to allow himself to be deluded by Dalila. “I will go out as I did before, and shake myself” (Judges 16:20). But “the Lord was departed from him.” Samson was at length taken by his enemies, and lost his life. The Lord warns you not to say: “I have committed so many sins, and God has not chastised me!” “Say not: I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me? For the Most High is a patient rewarder” (Ecclesiasticus 5:4). God has patience for a certain term, after which He punishes the first and last sins. And the greater has been His patience, the more severe His vengeance.

6. Hence, according to St. Chrysostom, God is more to be feared when He bears with sinners than when He instantly punishes their sins. “Plus timendum est, cum tolerat quam cum festinanter punit.” And why? Because, says St. Gregory, they to whom God has shown most mercy, shall, if they do not cease to offend Him, be chastised with the greatest rigour. “Quos diutius expectat durius damnat.” The saint adds that God often punishes such sinners with a sudden death, and does not allow them time for repentance. “Sæpe qui diu tolerati sunt subita morte rapiuntur, ut nec flere ante mortem liceat.”

And the greater the light which God gives to certain sinners for their correction, the greater is their blindness and obstinacy in sin. “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than, after they had known it, to turn back” (2 Peter 2:21). Miserable the sinners who, after having been enlightened, return to the vomit. St Paul says, that it is morally impossible for them to be again converted. “For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated have tasted also the Heavenly gifts ... and are fallen away, to be renewed again to penance.” (Hebrews 6:4, 6).

7. Listen, then, sinner, to the admonition of the Lord: “My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more, but for thy former sins pray that they may be forgiven thee” (Ecclesiasticus 21:1). Son, add not sins to those which you have already committed, but be careful to pray for the pardon of your past transgressions; otherwise, if you commit another mortal sin, the gates of the divine mercy may be closed against you, and your soul may be lost forever.

When, then, beloved brethren, the devil tempts you again to yield to sin, say to yourself: “If God pardons me no more, what shall become of me for all eternity?” Should the Devil, in reply, say: “Fear not, God is merciful!” answer him by saying: “What certainty or what probability have I, that, if I return again to sin, God will show me mercy or grant me pardon?” Because the threat of the Lord against all who despise His calls: “Behold I have called and you refused. . . I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared” (Proverbs 1:24, 26).

Mark the words I also; they mean that, as you have mocked the Lord by betraying Him again after your confession and promises of amendment, so He will mock you at the hour of death. “I will laugh and will mock.” But “God is not mocked.” (Galatians 6:7). “As a dog,” says the Wise Man, “that returneth to his vomit, so is the fool that repeateth his folly” (Proverbs 26:11).

Blessed Denis the Carthusian gives an excellent exposition of this text. He says that, “as a dog that eats what he has just vomited, is an object of disgust and abomination, so the sinner who returns to the sins which he has detested and confessed, becomes hateful in the sight of God.” “Sicut id quod per vomitum est rejectum, resumere est valide abominabile ac turpe sic peccata deleta reiterari.”

8. O folly of sinners! If you purchase a house, you spare no pains to get all the securities necessary to guard against the loss of your money; if you take medicine, you are careful to assure yourself that it cannot injure you; if you pass over a river, you cautiously avoid all danger of falling into it; and for a transitory enjoyment, for the gratification of revenge, for a beastly pleasure, which lasts but a moment, you risk your eternal salvation, saying: “I will go to confession after I commit this sin.” And when, I ask, are you to go to confession? You say: “Tomorrow.” But who promises you tomorrow? Who assures you that you shall have time for confession, and that God will not deprive you of life, as He has deprived so many others, in the act of sin?

St. Augustine says you cannot be certain of living for another hour, and you say: “I will go to confession tomorrow.” Listen to the words of St. Gregory: “He who has promised pardon to penitents, has not promised tomorrow to sinners” (Hom. xii. in Evan). God has promised pardon to all who repent; but He has not promised to wait till tomorrow for those who insult him. Perhaps God will give you time for repentance, perhaps he will not. But, should he not give it, what shall become of your soul? In the meantime, for the sake of a miserable pleasure, you lose the grace of God, and expose yourself to the danger of being lost for ever.

9. Would you, for such transient enjoyments, risk your money, your honor, your possessions, your liberty, and your life? No, you would not. How then does it happen that, for a miserable gratification, you lose your soul, Heaven, and God? Tell me: do you believe that Heaven, Hell, eternity, are truths of faith? Do you believe that, if you die in sin, you are lost for ever? Oh! what temerity, what folly is it, to condemn yourself voluntarily to an eternity of torments with the hope of afterwards reversing the sentence of your condemnation!

“Nemo,” says St. Augustine, “sub spe salutis vult ægrotare.” No one can be found so foolish as to take poison with the hope of preventing its deadly effects by adopting the ordinary remedies. And you will condemn yourself to Hell, saying that you expect to be afterwards preserved from it.

O folly, which, in conformity with the divine threats, has brought, and brings every day, so many to Hell. “Thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, and evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not know the rising thereof.” (Isaias 47:10-11).

You have sinned, trusting rashly in the divine mercy: the punishment of your guilt shall fall suddenly upon you, and you shall not know from whence it comes. What do you say? What resolution do you make? If, after this sermon, you do not firmly resolve to give yourself to God, I weep over you, and regard you as lost.

SERMON 9
St. John Vianney
THEY ARE FOR THE WORLD
“The fool hath said in his heart: 'There is no God!'” (Psalm 13:1).

One section, and perhaps it is the largest section, of people everywhere are wholly wrapped up in the things of this world.

And of this large number there are those who are content to have suppressed all feeling of religion, all thought of another life, who have done everything in their power to efface the terrible thought of the judgment which one day they will have to undergo.

They employ all their wiles, and often their wealth, during the course of their lives to attract to their way of life as many people as they can. They no longer believe in anything.

They even take a pride in making themselves out to be more impious and incredulous than they really are in order to convince others and to make them believe, not in the verities, but in the falsehoods which they wish to take root in the hearts of those under their influence.

Voltaire, in the course of a dinner given one day for his friends ― that is, for the impious ― rejoiced that of all those present, there was not one who believed in religion. And yet he himself did believe, as he was to show at the hour of his death.

Then he demanded with great earnestness that a priest should be brought to him that he might make his peace with God.

But it was too late. God, against whom he had fought and spoken with such fury all his life, dealt with him as He had with Antiochus: He abandoned him to the fury of the devils. At that dread moment, Voltaire had only despair and the thought of eternal damnation as his lot. The Holy Ghost tells us: “The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God.” But it is only the corruption of his heart which could carry man to such an excess; he does not believe it in the depths of his soul. The words “There is a God” will never entirely disappear. The greatest sinner will often utter them without even thinking of what he is saying. But let us leave these blasphemous people aside. Happily, though you may not be as good Christians as you ought to be, thanks be to God you are not of that company.

But, you will say to me, who are these people who are partly on God’s side and partly on the side of the world? Well, my dear children, let me describe them. I will compare them (if I may dare to make use of the term) to dogs who will run to the first person who calls them. You may follow them from the morning to the evening, from the beginning of the year to the end.

These people look upon Sunday as merely a day for rest and amusement. They stay in bed longer than on weekdays, and instead of giving themselves to God with all their hearts, they do not even think of Him. Some of them will be thinking of their amusements, others of people they expect to meet, still others of the sales they are about to make or the money they will be spending or receiving. With great difficulty they will manage the Sign of the Cross in some fashion or another.

Because they will be going to church later, they will omit their prayers altogether, saying: “Oh, I’ll have plenty of time to say them before Mass.” They always have something to do before setting out for Mass, and although they have been planning to say their prayers before setting out, they are barely in time for the beginning of the Mass itself. If they meet a friend along the road, it is no trouble to them to bring him back home and put off the Mass until a later hour.

But since they still want to appear Christian, they will go to Mass sometime later, though it will be with infinite boredom and reluctance. The thought in their minds will be: “Oh, Lord, will this ever be over!” You will see them in church, especially during the instruction, looking around from one side to the other, asking the person next to them for the time, and so on.

More of them yawn and stretch and turn the pages of their prayer book as if they were examining it in order to see whether the printer had made any mistakes. There are others, and you can see them sleeping as soundly as if they were in a comfortable bed.

The first thought that comes to them when they awake is not that they have been profaning so holy a place but: “Oh, Lord, this will never be over.... I’m not coming back any more.” And finally there are those to whom the word of God (which has converted so many sinners) is actually nauseating.

They are obliged to go out, they say, to get a breath of air or else they would die. You will see them, distressed and miserable, during the services. But no sooner is the service over (and often even before the priest has actually left the altar) than they will be pressing around the door from which the first of the congregation are streaming out, and you will notice that all the joy which they had lost during the service has come back again.

They are so tired that often they have not the “strength” to come back to the evening service. If you were to ask them why they were not coming to this, they would tell you: “Ah, we would have to be all the day in the church. We have other things to do.”

For such people there is no question of instruction, nor of the Rosary, nor of evening prayers. They look upon all these things as of no consequence. If you asked them what had been said during the instruction, they would say: “He did too much shouting.... He bored us to death.... I can’t remember anything else about it.... If it hadn’t been so long, it might have been easier to remember some of it.... That is just what keeps the world away from religious services ― they are too long.”

It is quite right to say “the world” because these people belong to the camp of “the worldly,” although they do not know it.

But now we shall try to make them understand things a little better (at least if they want to). But, being deaf and blind (as they are), it is very difficult to make them understand the words of life or to comprehend their own unhappy state.

To begin with, they never make the Sign of the Cross before a meal or say Grace afterwards, nor do they recite the Angelus. If, as a result of some old habit or training, they still observe these practices and you should happen to see the manner in which they carry them out, you would feel sick: the women will simultaneously be getting on with their work or calling to their children or members of the household; the men will be turning a hat or a cap around in their hands as if searching for holes.

They think as much about God as if they really believed that He did not exist at all and that they were doing all this for a joke. They have no scruples about buying or selling on the holy day of Sunday, even though they know, or at least they should know, that dealing on a reasonably big scale on a Sunday, when there is no necessity for it, is a mortal sin. Such people regard all such facts as trifles.

They will go into a parish on a holy day to hire laborers, and if you told them they were doing wrong, they would reply: “We must go when we can find them there.” They have no problem, either, about paying their taxes on a Sunday because during the week they might have to go a little further and take a few moments longer to complete the job.

“Ah,” you will say to me, “we wouldn’t think much of all that.” You would not think much of all that, my dear people, and I am not at all surprised, because you are worldly. You would like to be followers of God and at the same time to satisfy the standards of the world.

Do you realize, my children, who these people are? They are the people who have not entirely lost the faith and to whom there still remains some attachment to the service of God, the people who do not want to give up all religious practices, for indeed, they themselves find fault with those who do not go often to the services, but they have not enough courage to break with the world and to turn to God’s side.

They do not wish to be damned, but neither do they wish to inconvenience themselves too much. They hope that they will be saved without having to do too much violence to themselves. They have the idea that God, being so good, did not create them for perdition and that He will pardon them in spite of everything; that the time will come when they will turn over to God; that they will correct their faults and abandon all their bad habits. If, in moments of reflection, they pass their petty lives before their eyes, they will lament for their faults, and sometimes they will even weep for them....

What a very tragic life such people lead, my children, who want to follow the ways of the world without ceasing to be the children of God. Let us go on a little further and you will be able to understand this a little more clearly and to see for yourselves how stupid indeed such a life can be. At one moment you will hear the people who lead it praying or making an act of contrition, and the next moment you will hear them, if something is not going the way they want it, swearing or maybe even using the holy name of God.

This morning you may have seen them at Mass, singing or listening to the praises of God, and on the very same day you will hear them giving vent to the most scandalous utterances. They will dip their hands in holy water and ask God to purify them from their sins; a little later they will be using those very hands in an impure way upon themselves or upon others. The same eyes which this morning had the great happiness of contemplating Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament will in the course of the day voluntarily rest with pleasure upon the most immodest objects.

Yesterday you saw a certain man doing an act of charity or a service for a neighbor; today he will be doing his best to cheat that neighbor if he can profit thereby. A moment ago this mother desired all sorts of blessings for her children, and now, because they are annoying her, she will shower all sorts of curses upon them: she wishes she might never see them again, that she was miles away from them, and ends up by consigning them to the Devil to rid herself of them!

At one moment she sends her children to Mass or Confession; at another, she will be sending them to the dance or, at least, she will pretend not to know that they are there or forbid them to go with a laugh which is tantamount to permission to go. At one time she will be telling her daughter to be reserved and not to mix with bad companions, and at another she will allow her to pass whole hours with young men without saying a word. It’s no use, my poor mother, you are on the side of the world! You think yourself to be on God’s side by reason of some exterior show of religion which you make.

You are mistaken; you belong to that number of whom Jesus Christ has said: “Woe to the world....”

You see these people who think they are following God but who are really living up to the maxims of the world. They have no scruples about taking from their neighbor wood or fruit or a thousand and one other things. Whenever they are flattered for what they do for religion, they derive quite a lot of pleasure from their actions.

They will be quite keen then and will be delighted to give good advice to others. But let them be subjected to any contempt or calumny and you will see them become discouraged and distressed because they have been treated in this way. Yesterday they wanted only to do good to anyone who did them harm, but today they can hardly tolerate such people, and often they cannot even endure to see them or to speak to them.

Poor worldlings! How unhappy you are! Go on with your daily round; you have nothing to hope for but Hell! Some would like to go to the Sacraments at least once a year, but for that, it is necessary to find an easygoing confessor. They would like .... if only — and there is the whole problem.

If they find a confessor who sees that their dispositions are not good and he refuses them Absolution, you will then find them thundering against him, justifying themselves for all they are worth for having tried and failed to obtain the Sacrament. They will speak evil about him. They know very well why they have been refused and left in their sinful state, but, as they know, too, the confessor can do nothing to grant them what they want, so they get satisfaction by saying anything they wish.

Carry on, children of this world, carry on with your daily round; you will see a day you never wished to see! It would seem then that we must divide our hearts in two! But no, my friends, that is not the case; all for God or all for the world.

You would like to frequent the Sacraments? Very well, then, give up the dances and the cabarets and the unseemly amusements. Today you have sufficient grace to come here and present yourselves at the tribunal of Penance, to kneel before the Holy Table, to partake of the Bread of the Angels.

In three or four weeks, maybe less, you will be seen passing your night among drunken men, and what is more, you will be seen indulging in the most horrible acts of impurity. Carry on, children of this world; you will soon be in Hell! They will teach you there what you should have done to get to Heaven, which you have lost entirely through your own fault....

Woe betide you, children of this world! Carry on; follow your master as you have done up to the present! Very soon you will see clearly that you have been mistaken in following his ways. But will that make you any wiser? No, my children, it will not. If someone cheats us once, we say: “We will not trust him anymore ― and with good reason.”

The world cheats us continually and yet we love it. “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world,” St. John warns us. Ah, my dear children, if we gave some thought to what the world really is, we should pass all our lives in bidding it farewell. When one reaches the age of fifteen years, one has said farewell to the pastimes of childhood; one has come to look upon them as trifling and ephemeral, as one would the actions of children building houses of cards or sand castles. At thirty, one has begun to put behind one the consuming pleasures of passionate youth. What gave such intense pleasure in younger days is already beginning to weary. Let us go further, my dear children, and say that every day we are bidding farewell to the world.

We are like travelers who enjoy the beauty of the countryside through which they are passing. No sooner do they see it than it is time for them to leave it behind. It is exactly the same with the pleasures and the good things to which we become so attached. Then we arrive at the edge of eternity, which engulfs all these things in its abyss.

It is then, my dear brethren, that the world will disappear forever from our eyes and that we shall recognize our folly in having been so attached to it. And all that has been said to us about sin! .... Then we shall say: It was all true. Alas, I lived only for the world, I sought nothing but the world in all I did, and now the pleasures and the joys of the world are not for me any longer! They are all slipping away from me ― this world which I have loved so well, these joys, these pleasures which have so fully occupied my heart and my soul! ....

Now I must return to my God! .... How consoling this thought is, my dear children, for him who has sought only God throughout his life! But what a despairing thought for him who has lost sight of God and of the salvation of his soul!

SERMON 10
St. John Vianney
A PUBLIC PLAGUE

As you know my dear brethren, we are bound as fellow creatures to have human sympathy and feelings for one another. Yet one envious person would like, if he possibly could, to destroy everything good and profitable belonging to his neighbor.

You know, too, that as Christians we must have boundless charity for our fellow men. But the envious person is far removed indeed from such virtues. He would be happy to see his fellow man ruin himself. Every mark of God’s generosity towards his neighbor is like a knife thrust that pierces his heart and causes him to die in secret.

Since we are all members of the same Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head, we should so strive that unity, charity, love, and zeal can be seen in one and all. To make us all happy, we should rejoice, as St. Paul tells, in the happiness of our fellow men and mourn with those who have cares or troubles.

But, very far from experiencing such feelings, the envious are forever uttering scandals and calumnies against their neighbors. It appears to them that in this way they can do something to assuage and sweeten their vexation.

But, unfortunately, we have not said all that can be said about envy. This is the deadly vice which hurls kings and emperors from their thrones. Why do you think, my dear brethren, that among these kings, these emperors, these men who occupy the first places in the world of men, some are driven out of their places of privilege, some are poisoned, others are stabbed? It is simply because someone wants to rule in their place. It is not the food, nor the drink, nor the habitations that the authors of such crimes want. Not at all. They are consumed with envy.

Take another example. Here is a merchant who wants to have all the business for himself and to leave nothing at all for anyone else. If someone leaves his store to go elsewhere, he will do his best to say all the evil he can, either about the rival businessman himself or else about the quality of what he sells. He will take all possible means to ruin his rival’s reputation, saying that the other’s goods are not of the same quality as his own or that the other man gives short weight. You will notice, too, than an envious man like this has a diabolical trick to add to all this: “It would not do,” he will tell you, “for you to say this to anyone else; it might do harm and that would upset me very much. I am only telling you because I would not like to see you being cheated.”

A workman may discover that someone else is now going to work in a house where previously he was always employed.

This angers him greatly, and he will do everything in his power to run down this “interloper” so that he will not be employed there after all.

Look at the father of a family and see how angry he becomes if his next-door neighbor prospers more than he or if the neighbor’s land produces more. Look at a mother: she would like it if people spoke well of no children except hers. If anyone praises the children of some other family to her and does not say something good of hers, she will reply, “They are not perfect,” and she will become quite upset. How foolish you are, poor mother! The praise given to others will take nothing from your children.

Just look at the jealousy of a husband in respect of his wife or of a wife in respect of her husband. Notice how they inquire into everything the other does and says, how they observe everyone to whom the other speaks, every house into which the other enters. If one notices the other speaking to someone, there will be accusations of all sorts of wrongdoing, even though the whole episode may have been completely innocent.

This is surely a cursed sin which puts a barrier between brothers and sisters, too. The very moment that a father or a mother gives more to one member of the family than the others, you will see the birth of this jealous hatred against the parent or against the favored brother or sister ― a hatred which may last for years, and sometimes even for a lifetime. There are children who keep a watchful eye upon their parents, just to insure that they will not give any sort of gift or privilege to one member of the family. If this should occur in spite of them, there is nothing bad enough that they will not say.

We can see that this sin makes its first appearance among children. You will notice the petty jealousies they will feel against one another if they observe any preferences on the part of the parents.

A young man would like to be the only one considered to have intelligence, or learning, or a good character.

A girl would like to be the only one who is loved, the only one well dressed, the only one sought after; if others are more popular than she, you will see her fretting and upsetting herself, even weeping, perhaps, instead of thanking God for being neglected by creatures so that she may be attached to Him alone.

What a blind passion envy is, my dear brethren! Who could hope to understand it?

Unfortunately, this vice can be noted even among those in whom it should never be encountered ― that is to say, among those who profess to practice their religion. They will take note of how many times such a person remains to go to Confession or of how So-and-So kneels or sits when she is saying her prayers. They will talk of these things and criticize the people concerned, for they think that such prayers or good works are done only so that they may be seen, or in other words, that they are purely an affectation. You may tire yourself out telling them that their neighbor’s actions concern him alone. They are irritated and offended if the conduct of others is thought to be superior to their own.

You will see this even among the poor. If some kindly person gives a little bit extra to one of them, they will make sure to speak ill of him to their benefactor in the hope of preventing him from benefiting on any further occasion. Dear Lord, what a detestable vice this is! It attacks all that is good, spiritual as well as temporal.

We have already said that this vice indicates a mean and petty spirit. That is so true that no one will admit to feeling envy, or at least no one wants to believe that he has been attacked by it. People will employ a hundred and one devices to conceal their envy from others. If someone speaks well of another in our presence, we keep silence: we are upset and annoyed. If we must say something, we do so in the coldest and most unenthusiastic fashion. No, my dear children, there is not a particle of charity in the envious heart. St. Paul has told us that we must rejoice in the good which befalls our neighbor.

Joy, my dear brethren, is what Christian charity should inspire in us for one another. But the sentiments of the envious are vastly different.

I do not believe that there is a more ugly and dangerous sin than envy because it is hidden and is often covered by the attractive mantle of virtue or of friendship. Let us go further and compare it to a lion which we thought was muzzled, to a serpent covered by a handful of leaves which will bite us without our noticing it. Envy is a public plague which spares no one.

We are leading ourselves to Hell without realizing it.

But how are we then to cure ourselves of this vice if we do not think we are guilty of it? I am quite certain that of the thousands of envious souls honestly examining their consciences, there would not be one ready to believe himself belonging to that company. It is the least recognized of sins.

Some people are so profoundly ignorant that they do not recognize a quarter of their ordinary sins. And since the sin of envy is more difficult to know, it is not surprising that so few confess it and correct it. Because they are not guilty of the big public sins committed by coarse and brutalized people, they think that the sins of envy are only little defects in charity, when, in fact, for the most part, these are serious and deadly sins which they are harboring and tending in their hearts, often without fully recognizing them.

“But,” you may be thinking in your own minds, “if I really recognized them, I would do my best to correct them.”

If you want to be able to recognize them, my dear brethren, you must ask the Holy Ghost for His light. He alone will give you this grace. No one could, with impunity, point out these sins to you; you would not wish to agree not to accept them; you would always find something which would convince you that you had made no mistake in thinking and acting in the way you did. Do you know yet what will help to make you know the state of your soul and to uncover this evil sin hidden in the secret recesses of your heart? It is humility. Just as pride will hide it from you, so will humility reveal it to you.

SERMON 11
St. John Vianney
EVIL TONGUES

There are some who, through envy, for that is what it amounts to, belittle and slander others, especially those in the same business or profession as their own, in order to draw business to themselves.

They will say such evil things as “their merchandise is worthless” or “they cheat”; that they have nothing at home and that it would be impossible to give goods away at such a price; that there have been many complaints about these goods; that they will give no value or wear or whatever it is, or even that it is short weight, or not the right length, and so on.

A workman will say that another man is not a good worker, that he is always changing his job, that people are not satisfied with him, or that he does no work, that he only puts in his time, or perhaps that he does not know how to work.

“What I was telling you there,” they will then add, “it would be better to say nothing about it. He might lose by it, you know.”

“Is that so?” you answer. “It would have been better if you yourself had said nothing. That would have been the thing to do.”

A farmer will observe that his neighbor’s property is doing better than his own. This makes him very angry so he will speak evil of him. There are others who slander their neighbors from motives of vengeance. If you do or say something to help someone, even through reasons of duty or of charity, they will then look for opportunities to decry you, to think up things which will harm you, in order to revenge themselves. If their neighbor is well spoken of, they will be very annoyed and will tell you: “He is just like everyone else. He has his own faults. He has done this, he has said that. You didn’t know that? Ah, that is because you have never had anything to do with him.”

A great many people slander others because of pride. They think that by depreciating others they will increase their own worth. They want to make the most of their own alleged good qualities. Everything they say and do will be good, and everything that others say and do will be wrong.

But the great bulk of malicious talk is done by people who are simply irresponsible, who have an itch to chatter about others without feeling any need to discover whether what they are saying is true or false. They just have to talk.

Yet, although these latter are less guilty than the others ― that is to say, than those who slander and backbite through hatred or envy or revenge ― yet they are not free from sin. Whatever the motive that prompts them, they should not sully the reputation of their neighbor.

It is my belief that the sin of scandal-mongering includes all that is most evil and wicked. Yes, my dear brethren, this sin includes the poison of all the vices ― the meanness of vanity, the venom of jealousy, the bitterness of anger, the malice of hatred, and the flightiness and irresponsibility so unworthy of a Christian.

Is it not, in fact, scandal-mongering which sows almost all discord and disunity, which breaks up friendships and hinders enemies from reconciling their quarrels, which disturbs the peace of homes, which turns brother against brother, husband against wife, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law and son-in-law against father-in-law? How many united households have been turned upside down by one evil tongue, so that their members could not bear to see or to speak to one another? And one malicious tongue, belonging to a neighbor, man or woman, can be the cause of all this misery.

Yes, my dear brethren, the evil tongue of one scandalmonger poisons all the virtues and engenders all the vices. It is from that malicious tongue that a stain is spread so many times through a whole family, a stain which passes from fathers to children, from one generation to the next, and which perhaps is never effaced.

The malicious tongue will follow the dead into the grave; it will disturb the remains of these unfortunates by making live again the faults which were buried with them in that resting place. What a foul crime, my dear brethren! Would you not be filled with fiery indignation if you were to see some vindictive wretch rounding upon a corpse and tearing it into a thousand pieces?

Such a sight would make you cry out in horror and compassion. And yet the crime of continuing to talk of the faults of the dead is much greater. A great many people habitually speak of someone who has died something after this fashion: “Ah, he did very well in his time! He was a seasoned drinker. He was as cute as a fox. He was no better than he should have been.”

But perhaps, my friend, you are mistaken, and although everything may have been exactly as you have said, perhaps he is already in Heaven, perhaps God has pardoned him. But, in the meantime, where is your charity?

SERMON 12
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF SALVATION

The vines of the Lord are our souls, which he has given us to cultivate by good works, that we may be one day admitted into eternal glory. “How,” says Salvian, “does it happen that a Christian believes, and still does not fear the future?”

Christians believe death, judgment, Hell, and Paradise: but they live as if they believed them not as if these truths of Faith were fables or the inventions of human genius. Many live as it they were never to die, or as if they had not to give God an account of their life as if there were neither Hell nor a Heaven. Perhaps they do not believe in them? They believe, but do not reflect on them; and thus they are lost. They take all possible care of worldly affairs, but attend not to the salvation of their souls. I shall show you, this day, that the salvation of your souls is the most important of all affairs.

First Point. Because, if the soul is lost, all is lost;
Second Point. Because, if the soul is lost once, it is lost forever.

First Point. If the soul is lost, all is lost.

1. “But,” says St. Paul, “we entreat you .... that you do your own business.” (1 Thessalonians iv. 10, 11). The greater part of worldlings are most attentive to the business of this world. What diligence do they not employ to gain a law-suit or a post of emolument! How many means are adopted how many measures taken? They neither eat nor sleep. And what efforts do they make to save their souls? All blush at being told that they neglect the affairs of their families; and how few are ashamed to neglect the salvation of their souls. “Brethren,” says St. Paul, I entreat you that you do your own business ;” that is, the business of your eternal salvation.

2. The trifles of children are called trifles, but the trifles of men are called business; and for these many lose their souls. If in one worldly transaction you suffer a loss, you may repair it in another; but if you die in enmity with God, and lose your soul, how can you repair the loss? “What exchange can a man give for his soul:” (Matthew xvi. 26). To those who neglect the care of salvation, St. Euterius says: If, from being created by God to his own image, you do not comprehend the value of your soul, learn it from Jesus Christ, who has redeemed you with his own blood. “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, as gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled.” (1 Peter i. 18, 19).

3. God, then, sets so high a value on your soul; such is its value in the estimation of Satan, that, to become master of it, he does not sleep night or day, but is continually going about to make it his own. Hence St. Augustine exclaims: “The enemy sleeps not, and you are asleep.” The enemy is always awake to injure you, and you slumber. Pope Benedict the Twelfth, being asked by a prince for a favour which he could not conscientiously grant, said to the ambassador: Tell the prince, that, if I had two souls, I might be able to lose one of them in order to please him; but, since I have but one, I cannot consent to lose it. Thus he refused the favour which the prince sought from him.

4. Brethren, remember that, if you save your souls, your failure in every worldly transaction will be but of little importance: for, if you are saved, you shall enjoy complete happiness for all eternity. But, if you lose your souls, what will it profit you to have enjoyed all the riches, honours, and amusements of this world? If you lose your souls, all is lost. “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew xvi. 26). By this maxim St. Ignatius of Loyola drew many souls to God, and among them the soul of St. Francis Xavier, who was then at Paris, and devoted his attention to the acquirement of worldly goods.

One day St, Ignatius said to him: “Francis, whom do you serve? You serve the world, which is a traitor, that promises, but does not perform. And if it should fulfil all its promises, how long do its goods last? Can they last longer than this life? And, after death, what will they profit you, if you shall not have saved your soul?” He then reminded Francis of the maxims of the Gospel: “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” “But one thing is necessary?” (Luke x. 42).

It is not necessary to become rich on this Earth to acquire honours and dignities; but it is necessary to save our souls; because, unless we gain Heaven we shall be condemned to Hell: there is no middle place: we must be either saved or damned. God has not created us for this Earth; neither does he preserve our lives that we may become rich and enjoy amusements. “And the end life everlasting.” (Hom, vi. 22). He has created us, and preserved us, that we may acquire eternal glory.

5. St. Philip Neri used to say, that he who does not seek, above all things, the salvation of his soul, is a fool. If on this Earth there were two classes of men, one mortal, and the other immortal, and if the former saw the latter entirely devoted to the acquisition of earthly goods, would they not exclaim: O fools that you are! You have it in your power to secure the immense and eternal goods of Paradise, and you lose your time in procuring the miserable goods of this Earth, which shall end at death. And for these you expose yourselves to the danger of the eternal torments of Hell. Leave to us, for whom all shall end at death, the care of these earthly things. But, brethren, we are all immortal, and each of us shall be eternally happy or eternally miserable in the other life.

But the misfortune of the greater part of mankind is, that they are solicitous about the present, and never think of the, future. “Oh! that they would be wise, and would understand, and would provide for their last end.” (Deut. xxxii. 29). Oh! that they knew how to detach themselves from present goods, which last but a short time, and to provide for what must happen after death an eternal reign in Heaven, or everlasting slavery in Hell. St. Philip Neri, conversing one day with Francis Zazzera, a young man of talent who expected to make a fortune in the world, said to him: “You shall realize a great fortune; you shall be a prelate, afterwards a cardinal, and in the end, perhaps, pope. But what must follow? what must follow? Go, my son, think on these words.” The young man departed, and after meditating on the words, what must follow? What must follow? He renounced his worldly prospects, and gave himself entirely to God; and, retiring from the world, he entered into the congregation of St. Philip, and died a holy death.

6. “The fashion of this world passeth away.” (i Corinthians vii. 31). On this passage, Cornelius à Lapide , says, that “the world is as it were a stage.” The present life is a comedy, which passes away. Happy the man who acts his part well in this comedy by saving his soul. But if he shall have spent his life in the acquisition of riches and worldly honours, he shall justly be called a fool; and at the hour of death he shall receive the reproach addressed to the rich man in the Gospel: “Fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee; and whose shall these things be which thou hast provided?” (Luke xii 20). In explaining the words”they require, “ Toletus says, that the Lord has given us our souls to guard them against the assaults of our enemies; and that at death the angel shall come to require them of us, and shall present them at the tribunal of Jesus Christ. But if we shall have lost our souls by attending only to the acquisition of earthly possessions, these shall belong to us no longer they shall pass to other hands: and what shall then become of our souls?

7. Poor worldlings! of all the riches which they acquired, of all the pomps which they displayed in this life, what shall they find at death? They have slept their sleep: and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands.” (Psalm Ixxv. 6). The dream of this present life shall be over at death, and they shall have acquired nothing for eternity. Ask of so many great men of this Earth of the princes and emperors, who, during life, have abounded in riches, honours, and pleasures, and are at this moment in Hell what now remains of all the riches which they possessed in this world? They answer with tears: “Nothing, nothing. “ - And of so many honours enjoyed of so many past pleasures of so many pomps and triumphs, what now remains? They answer with howling: “Nothing, nothing. “

8. Justly, then, has St. Francis Xavier said, that in the world there is but one good and one evil. The former consists in saving our souls; the latter in losing them. Hence, David said: “One thing I have asked of the Lord; this I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord.” (Psalm xxvi. 4). One thing only have I sought, and will forever seek, from God that he may grant me the grace to save my soul; for, if I save my soul, all is safe; if I lose it, all is lost. And, what is more important, if my soul be once lost, it is lost forever. Let us pass to the second point.Second Point. If the soul be once lost, it is lost forever.

9. Men die but once. If a Christian died twice, he might lose his soul the first, and save it the second time. But we can die only once: if the soul be lost the first time, it is lost forever. This truth St. Teresa frequently inculcated to her nuns: “One soul,” she would say, “one eternity.” As if she said: We have but one soul: if this be lost, all is lost. There is but “one eternity;” if the soul be once lost, it is lost forever.

10. St. Eucherius says that there is no error so great as the neglect of eternal salvation. It is an error which surpasses all errors, because it is irremediable. Other mistakes may be repaired: if a person loses property in one way, he may acquire it in another; if he loses a situation, a dignity, he may afterwards recover them; if he even loses his life, provided his soul be saved, all is safe. But he who loses his soul has no means of repairing the loss. The wailing of the damned arises from the thought, that for them the time of salvation is over, and that there is no hope of remedy for their eternal ruin. “The summer is ended, and we are not saved.” (Jeremias viii. 20). Hence they weep, and shall inconsolably weep forever, saying: “Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined unto us.” (Wisdom v. 6). But what will it profit them to know the error they have committed, when it will be too late to repair it?

11. The greatest torment of the damned arises from the thought of having lost their souls, and of having lost them through their own fault. “Destruction is thy own, O Israel; thy help is only from me.” (Osee xiii. 9). O miserable being! God says to each of the damned; thy perdition is thine own; that is from thyself; by sin thou hast been the cause of thy damnation; for I was ready to save thee if thou hadst wished to attend to thy salvation. St. Teresa used to say, that when a person loses a trifle through negligence, his peace is disturbed by the thought of having lost it through his own fault. O God! what shall be the pain which each of the damned shall feel on entering into Hell, at the thought of having lost his soul his all and of having lost them through his own fault!

12. “We must, then, from this day forward, devote all our attention to the salvation of our souls. There is no question, says St. John Chrysostom, of losing some earthly good which we must one day relinquish. But there is question of losing Paradise, and of going to suffer forever in Hell: We must fear and tremble; it is thus we shall be able to secure eternal happiness. “With fear and trembling work out your salvation.” (Philippians ii. 12). Hence, if we wish to save our souls, we must labour strenuously to avoid dangerous occasions, to resist temptations, and to frequent the sacraments. Without labour we cannot obtain Heaven. “The violent bear it away.” The saints tremble at the thought of eternity. St. Andrew Avellino exclaimed with tears: Who knows whether I shall be saved or damned? St. Lewis Bertrand said with trembling: What shall be my lot in the other world? And shall we not tremble? Let us pray to Jesus Christ and his most holy mother to help us to save our souls. This is for us the most important of all affairs: if we succeed in it, we shall be eternally happy; if we fail, we must be forever miserable.

SERMON 13
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE CONFIDENCE WE SHOULD HAVE IN RECOMMENDING OURSELVES TO OUR LADY

“And the wine failing, the Mother of Jesus saith to him: ‘They have no wine!’” (John 2:3).

In the Gospel reading about the Marriage Feast of Cana, we read that Jesus Christ, having been invited, went with his holy mother to a marriage of Cana of Galilee. “The wine failing, Mary said to her divine Son: “They have no wine.” By these words she intended to ask her Son to console the spouses, who were afflicted because the wine had failed. Jesus answered: “Woman, what is it to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come.” (John ii. 4). He meant that the time destined for the performance of miracles was that of his preaching through Judea. But, though his answer appeared to be a refusal of the request of Mary, the Son, says St. John Chrysostom, resolved to yield to the desire of the mother. “Although he said, my hour is not yet come, he granted the petition of his mother.” (Hom, in ii. Joan). Mary said to the waiters: “Whatever he shall say to you, do ye.” Jesus bid them fill the water-pots with water the water was changed into the most excellent wine. Thus the bride groom and the entire family were filled with gladness. From the fact related in this day’s Gospel, let us consider, in the first point, the greatness of Mary’s power to obtain from God the graces which we stand in need of; and in the second, the tenderness of Mary’s compassion, and her readiness to assist us all in our wants.

First Point. The greatness of Mary’s power to obtain from God for us all the graces we stand in need of.

1. So great is Mary’s merit in the eyes of God, that, according to St. Bonaventure, her prayers are infallibly heard. “The merit of Mary is so great before God, that her petition cannot be rejected.” (De Virg., c. iii). But why are the prayers of Mary so powerful in the sight of God? It is, says St. Antonine, because she is his mother. “The petition of the mother of God partakes of the nature of a command, and therefore it is impossible that she should not be heard.” (Paralipomenon 4, tit. 13, c. xvii., 4). The prayers of the saints are the prayers of servants; but the prayers of Mary are the prayers of a mother, and therefore, according to the holy doctor, they are regarded in a certain manner as commands by her Son, who loves her so tenderly. It is then impossible that the prayers of Mary should be rejected.

2. Hence, according to Cosmas of Jerusalem, the intercession of Mary is all-powerful. It is right, as Richard of St. Lawrence teaches, that the son should impart his power to the mother. Jesus Christ, who is all-powerful, has made Mary omnipotent, as far as a creature is capable of omnipotence; that is, omnipotent in obtaining from him, her divine Son, whatever she asks. (Lib. 4, de Laud. Virg).

3. St. Bridget heard our Saviour one day addressing the Virgin in the following words: “Ask from me whatever you wish, for your petition cannot be fruitless.” (Rev. 1. 1, cap. iv). My mother, ask of me what you please; I cannot reject any prayer which you present to me;”because since you refused me nothing on Earth, I will refuse you nothing in Heaven.” (Ibid). St. George, Archbishop of Nicomedia, says that Jesus Christ hears all the prayers of his mother, as if he wished thereby to discharge the obligation which he owes to her for having given to him his human nature, by consenting to accept him for her Son. (Orat. de Exitu Mar). Hence, St. Methodius, martyr, used to say to Mary: Rejoice, rejoice, holy virgin; for thou hast for thy debtor that Son to whom we are all debtors; to thee he owes the human nature which he received from thee (Orat, Hyp. Dom).

4. St. Gregory of Nicomedia encourages sinners by the assurance that, if they have recourse to the Virgin with a determination to amend their lives, she will save them by her intercession. Hence, turning to Mary, he exclaimed: “Thou hast insuperable strength, lest the multitude of our sins should overcome thy clemency.” O mother of God, the sins of a Christian, however great they may be, cannot overcome thy mercy. “Nothing,” adds the same saint, “resists thy power; for the Creator regards thy glory as his own.” Nothing is impossible to thee, says St. Peter Damian: thou canst raise even those who are in despair to hopes of salvation. (Ser. i. de Nat. B.V).

5. Richard of St. Lawrence remarks that, in announcing to the Virgin that God has chosen her for the mother of his Son, the Archangel Gabriel said to her: “Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found grace with God.” (Luke i. 30). From which words the same author concludes: If we wish to recover lost grace, let us seek Mary, by whom this grace has been found. She never lost the divine grace; she always possessed it. If the angel declared that she had found grace, he meant that she had found it not for herself, but for us miserable sinners, who have lost it. Hence Cardinal Hugo exhorts us to go to Mary, and say to her: O blessed lady, property should be restored to those who lost it: the grace which thou hast found is not thine for thou hast never lost the grace of God but it is ours; we have lost it through our own fault: to us, then, thou oughtest to restore it. “Sinners, who by your sins have forfeited the divine grace, run to the Virgin, and say to her with confidence: Restore us to our property, which thou hast found.”

6. It was revealed to St. Gertrude, that all the graces which we ask of God through the intercession of Mary, shall be given to us. She heard Jesus saying to His divine Mother: “Through thee all who ask mercy with a purpose of amending their lives, shall obtain grace.” If all Paradise asked a favour of God, and Mary asked the opposite grace, the Lord would hear Mary, and would reject the petition of the rest of the celestial host. Because, says Father Suarez, “God loved the Virgin alone more than all the other saints.”

Let us, then, conclude this first point in the words of St. Bernard: “Let us seek grace, and let us seek it through Mary; for she is a mother, and her petition cannot be rejected.” (Serm. de Aquæd). Let us seek through Mary all the graces we desire to receive from God, and we shall obtain them; for she is a mother, and her son cannot refuse to hear her prayers, or to grant the graces which she asks from him.

Second Point. On the tender compassion of Mary, and her readiness to assist us in all our wants.

7. The tenderness of Mary’s mercy may be inferred from the fact related in this day’s Gospel. The wine fails the spouses are troubled no one speaks to Mary to ask her Son to console them in their necessity. But the tenderness of Mary’s heart, which, according to St. Bernardine of Sienna, cannot but pity the afflicted, moved her to take the office of advocate, and, without being asked, to entreat her Son to work a miracle. “Unasked, she assumed the office of an advocate and a compassionate helper.” (Tom. 3, ser. ix). Hence, adds the same saint, if, unasked, this good lady has done so much, what will she not do for those who invoke her intercession? “Si hoc non rogata perfecit, quid rogata perficiet?”

8. From the fact already related, St. Bonaventure draws another argument to show the great graces which we may hope to obtain through Mary, now that she reigns in Heaven. If she was so compassionate on Earth, how much greater must be her mercy now that she is in Paradise?”Great was the mercy of Mary while in exile on Earth; but it is much greater now that she is a queen in Heaven; because she now sees the misery of men.” (St. Bona. in Spec. Virg., cap. viii). Mary in Heaven enjoys the vision of God; and therefore she sees our wants far more clearly than when she was on Earth; hence, as her pity for us is increased, so also is her desire to assist us more ardent. How truly has Richard of St. Victor said to the Virgin: “So tender is thy heart that thou canst not see misery and not afford succour.” It is impossible for this loving mother to behold a human being in distress without extending to him pity and relief.

9. St. Peter Damian says that the Virgin”loves us with an invincible love.” (Ser. i. de Nat. Virg). How ardently soever the saints may have loved this amiable queen, their affection fell far short of the love which Mary bore to them. It is this love that makes her so solicitous for our welfare. The saints in Heaven, says St. Augustine, have great power to obtain grace from God for those who recommend themselves to their prayers; but as Mary is of all the saints the most powerful, so she is of all the most desirous to procure for us the divine mercy.

10. And, as this our great advocate once said to St. Bridget, she regards not the iniquities of the sinner who has recourse to her, but the disposition with which he invokes her aid. If he comes to her with a firm purpose of amendment she receives him, and by her intercession heals his wounds, and brings him to salvation. “However great a man’s sins may be, if he shall return to me, I am ready instantly to receive him. Nor do I regard the number or the enormity of his sins, but the will with which he comes to me; for I do not disdain to anoint and heal his wounds, because I am called, and truly am, the Mother of Mercy.”

11. The blessed Virgin is called a “fair olive tree in the plains:” (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 19). From the olive, oil only comes forth; and from the hands of Mary only graces and mercies flow. According to Cardinal Hugo, it is said that she remains in the plains, to show that she is ready to assist all those who have recourse to her: In the Old Law there were five cities of refuge, in which not all, but only those who had committed certain crimes, could find an asylum; but in Mary, says St. John Damascene, all criminals, whatever may be their offences, may take refuge. Hence he calls her”the city of refuge for all who have recourse to her.” Why, then, says St. Bernard, should we be afraid to approach Mary? She is all sweetness and clemency; in her there is nothing austere or terrible.

12. St. Bonaventure used to say that, in turning to Mary, he saw mercy itself receiving him. “When I behold thee, O my lady, I see nothing but mercy. “ The Virgin said one day to St. Bridget: Miserable and miserable for eternity shall be the sinner who, though he has it in his power during life to come to me, who am able and willing to assist him, neglects to invoke my aid, and is lost, “The devil”says St. Peter, “as a roaring lion goeth about seeing whom he may devour.” (1 Peter v. 8). But, according to Bernardine a Bustis, this mother of mercy is constantly going about in search of sinners to save them. “She continually goes about seeking whom she may save.” (Maril. par. 3, ser. iii). This queen of clemency, says Richard of St. Victor, presents our petitions, and begins to assist us before we ask the assistance of her prayers (In Can., c. xxiii). Because, as the same author says, Mary’s heart is so full of tenderness towards us, that she cannot behold our miseries without affording relief.

13. Let us, then, in all our wants, be most careful to have recourse to this mother of mercy, who is always ready to assist those who invoke her aid, says Richard of St. Lawrence. She is always prepared to come to our help, and frequently prevents our supplications: but, ordinarily, she requires that we should pray to her, and is offended when we neglect to ask her assistance, says St. Bonaventure, Thou, blessed lady, art displeased not only with those who commit an injury against thee, but also with those who do not ask favors from thee. Hence, as the same holy doctor teaches, it is not possible that Mary should neglect to help any soul that flies to her for protection; for she cannot but pity and console the afflicted who have recourse to her. (In Spec. Virg)

14. But, to obtain special favors from this good lady, we must perform in her honor certain devotions practiced by her servants; such as:
Firstly, to recite every day at least five decades of the Rosary;
Secondly, to fast every Saturday in her honor. Many persons fast every Saturday on bread and water: you should fast in this manner at least on the vigils of her seven principal festivals.
Thirdly, to say the three Aves when the bell rings for the Angelus; and to salute her frequently during the day with an Ave Maria, particularly when you hear a clock strike, or when you see an image of the Virgin, and also when you leave or return to your house.
Fourthly, to say every evening the Litany of the Blessed Virgin before you go to rest; and for this purpose procure an image of Mary, and keep it near your bed.
Fifthly, to wear the scapular of Mary in sorrow, and of Mount Carmel.

There are many other devotions practiced by the servants of Mary; but the most useful of all is, to recommend yourself frequently to her prayers. Never omit to say three Aves in the morning, to beg of her to preserve you from sin during the day. In all temptations have immediate recourse to her, saying: “Mary, assist me.” To resist every temptation, it is sufficient to pronounce the names of Jesus and Mary; and if the temptation continues, let us continue to invoke Jesus and Mary, and the devil shall never be able to conquer us.

15. St. Bonaventure calls Mary the salvation of those who invoke her: salvation of those who invoke thee.” And if a true servant of Mary were lost (I mean one truly devoted to her, who wishes to amend his life, and invoke with confidence this advocate of sinners), this should happen either because Mary would be unable or unwilling to assist him.

But, says St. Bernard, this is impossible: being the mother of omnipotence and of mercy, Mary cannot want the power or the will to save her servants. Justly then is she called the salvation of all who invoke her aid.

Of this truth there are numberless examples: that of St. Mary of Egypt will be sufficient. After leading for many years a sinful and dissolute life, she wished to enter the church of Jerusalem in which the festival of the holy cross was celebrated. To make her feel her miseries, God closed against her the door which was open to all others: as often as she endeavored to enter, an invisible force drove her back. She instantly perceived her miserable condition, and remained in sorrow outside the church. Fortunately for her there was an image of most holy Mary over the porch of the church. As a poor sinner she recommended herself to the divine mother, and promised to change her life. After her prayer, she felt encouraged to go into the church, and—behold!—the door which was before closed against her she now finds open: she enters, and confesses her sins. She leaves the church, and, under the influence of divine inspiration, goes into the desert, where she lived for forty-seven years, and became a saint.

SERMON 14
St. Alphonsus Liguori
THE DANGERS TO OUR SALVATION

“And when He entered into the boat, His disciples followed Him; and, behold, a great tempest arose in the sea.” (Matthew 8:23-24).

On the greatness of the dangers to which our eternal salvation is exposed, and on the manner in which we ought to guard against them.

1. In this days Gospel we find that, when Jesus Christ entered the boat along with His disciples, a great tempest arose, so that the boat was agitated by the waves, and was on the point of being lost. During this storm the Savior was asleep; but the disciples, terrified by the storm, ran to awaken Him, and said: “Lord, save us! We perish!” (Matthew 8:25). Jesus gave them courage by saying: “Why are ye fearful, ye of little Faith? Then rising up, He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm.” Let us examine what is meant by the boat in the midst of the sea, and by the tempest which agitated the sea.

2. The boat on the sea represents man in this world. As a vessel on the sea is exposed to a thousand dangers to pirates, to quicksands, to hidden rocks, and to tempests; so man in this life is encompassed with perils arising from the temptations of Hell from the occasions of sin, from the scandals or bad counsels of men, from human respect, and, above all, from the bad passions of corrupt nature, represented by the winds that agitate the sea and expose the vessel to great danger of being lost.

3. Thus, as Pope St. Leo the Great says, our life is full of dangers, of snares, and of enemies (St. Leo, serm. v, de Quad). The first enemy of the salvation of every Christian is his own corruption. “But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured.” (James i. 14). Along with the corrupt inclinations which live within us, and drag us to evil, we have many enemies from without that fight against us. We have the devils, with whom the contest is very difficult, because they are “stronger than we are.” (In Psal. v). Hence, because we have to contend with powerful enemies, St. Paul exhorts us to arm ourselves with the divine aid: “Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the Devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians vi. 11, 12). The Devil, according to St. Peter, is a lion who is continually going about roaring, through the rage and hunger which impel him to devour our souls. “Your adversary, the Devil, like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8,) St. Cyprian says that Satan is continually lying in wait for us, in order to make us his slaves (St. Cyp. lib. de zelo, etc).

4. Even the men with whom we must converse endanger our salvation. They persecute or betray us, or deceive us by their flattery and bad counsels. St. Augustine says that, among the faithful, there are in every profession hollow and deceitful men. (In Psalm xciv). Now if a fortress were full of rebels within, and encompassed by enemies from without, who is there that would not regard it as lost? Such is the condition of each of us as long as we live in this world. Who shall be able to deliver us from so many powerful enemies? Only God: “Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it.” (Psalm 126:2).

5. What then is the means by which we can save our souls in the midst of so many dangers? It is to imitate the holy disciples to have recourse to our Divine Master, and say to Him: “Save us! We perish!” Save us, Lord; if Thou do not we are lost. When the tempest is violent, the pilot never takes his eyes from the light which guides him to the port. In like manner we should keep our eyes always turned to God, who alone can deliver us from the many dangers to which we are exposed. It was thus David acted when he found himself assailed by the dangers of sin. “I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me.” (Psalm 120:1). To teach us to recommend ourselves continually to him who alone can save us by his grace, the Lord has ordained that, as long as we remain on this Earth, we should live in the midst of a continual tempest, and should be surrounded by enemies. The temptations of the Devil, the persecutions of men, the adversity which we suffer in this world, are not evils: they are, on the contrary, advantages, if we know how to make of them the use which God wishes, Who sends or permits them for our welfare. They detach our affections from this Earth, and inspire a disgust for this world, by making us feel bitterness and thorns even in its honors, its riches, its delights, and amusements. The Lord permits all these apparent evils, that we may take away our affections from fading goods, in which we meet with so many dangers of perdition, and that we may seek to unite ourselves with Him Who alone can make us happy.

6. Our error and mistake is, that when we find ourselves harassed by infirmities, by poverty, by persecutions, and by such tribulations, instead of having recourse to the Lord, we turn to men, and place our confidence in their assistance, and thus draw upon ourselves the malediction of God, who says, “Cursed be the man who trusteth in man!” (Jeremias 17:5). The Lord does not forbid us, in our afflictions and dangers, to have recourse to human means; but He curses those who place their whole trust in them. He wishes us to have recourse to Himself before all others, and to place our only hope in Him, that we may also center in Him all our love.

7. As long as we live on this Earth, we must, according to St. Paul, work out our salvation with fear and trembling, in the midst of the dangers by which we are beset. (Philippians 2:12). Whilst a certain vessel was in the open sea a great tempest arose, which made the captain tremble. In the hold of the vessel there was an animal eating with as much tranquillity as if the sea were perfectly calm. The captain being asked why he was so much afraid, replied: “If I had a soul like the soul of this brute, I too would be tranquil and without fear; but because I have a rational and an immortal soul, I am afraid of death, after which I must appear before the judgment-seat of God; and therefore I tremble through fear.” Let us also tremble, beloved brethren. The salvation of our immortal souls is at stake. They who do not tremble are, as St. Paul says, in great danger of being lost; because they who fear not, seldom recommend themselves to God, and labor but little to adopt the means of salvation. Let us beware: we are, says St. Cyprian, still in battle array, and still combat for eternal salvation. (St. Cypr., lib. 1, cap. i).

8. The first means of salvation, then, is to recommend ourselves continually to God, that He may keep His hands over us, and preserve us from offending Him. The next is, to cleanse the soul from all past sins by making a general confession. A general confession is a powerful help to a change of life. When the tempest is violent the burden of the vessel is diminished, and each person on board throws his goods into the sea in order to save his life. Folly of sinners, who, in the midst of such great dangers of eternal perdition, instead of diminishing the burden of the vessel that is, instead of unburdening the soul of her sins, load her with a greater weight. Instead of flying from the dangers of sin, they fearlessly continue to put themselves voluntarily into dangerous occasions; and, instead of having recourse to God’s mercy for the pardon of their offences, they offend Him still more, and compel Him to abandon them.

9. Another means is, to labor strenuously not to allow ourselves to become the slaves of irregular passions. “Give me not over to a shameless and foolish mind.” (Ecclesiasticus 23:6). Do not, Lord, deliver me up to a mind blinded by passion. He who is blind, sees not what he is doing, and therefore he is in danger of falling into every crime. Thus, so many are lost by submitting to the tyranny of their passions. Some are slaves to the passion of avarice. A person who is now in the other world said: “Alas! I perceive that a desire of riches is beginning to rule over me!” So said the unhappy man; but he applied no remedy. He did not resist the passion in the beginning, but fomented it till death, and, thus, at his last moments left but little reason to hope for his salvation. Others are slaves to sensual pleasures. They are not content with lawful gratifications, and therefore they pass to the indulgence of those that are forbidden. Others are subject to anger; and because they are not careful to check the fire at its commencement, when it is small, it increases and grows into a spirit of revenge.

10. Disorderly affections, if they are not beaten down in the beginning, become our greatest tyrants. Many, says St. Ambrose, after having victoriously resisted the persecutions of the enemies of the Faith, were afterwards lost, because they did not resist the first assaults of some earthly passion. Of this, Origen was a miserable example. He fought for, and was prepared to give his life in defence of the Faith; but, by afterwards yielding to human respect, he was led to deny it. (Natalis Alexander, Hist. Ecclesiasticus, tom. 7, dis. xv., q. 2, a. 1). We have still a more miserable example in Solomon, who, after having received so many gifts from God, and after being inspired by the Holy Ghost, was, by indulging a passion for certain pagan women, induced to offer incense to idols. The unhappy man, who submits to the slavery of his wicked passions, resembles the ox that is sent to the slaughter after a life of constant labor. During their whole lives, worldlings groan under the weight of their sins, and, at the end of their days, fall into Hell.

11. Let us conclude. When the winds are strong and violent, the pilot lowers the sails and casts anchor. So, when we find ourselves assailed by any bad passion, we .should always lower the sails; that is, we should avoid all the occasions which may increase the passion and should cast anchor by uniting ourselves to God, and by begging of Him to give us strength not to offend Him.

12. But some of you will say, “What am I to do? I live in the midst of the world, where my passions continually assail me even against my will.” I will answer in the words of Origen: “The man who lives in the darkness of the world and in the midst of secular business, can with difficulty serve God. Whoever then wishes to insure his eternal salvation, let him retire from the world, and take refuge in one of those strict religious communities, which are the secure harbors in the sea of this world." (Hom. 3, In Exod). If he cannot actually leave the world, let him leave it at least in affection, by detaching his heart from the things of this world, and from his own evil inclinations: “Go not after thy lusts,” says the Holy Ghost, “but turn away from thy own will.” (Ecclesiasticus 18:30). Follow not your own concupiscence; and when your will impels you to evil, you must not indulge, but must resist its inclinations.

13. “The time is short: it remaineth that they also who have wives be as if they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as it they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as if they possessed not; and they that use this world, as if they used it not; for the fashion of this world passeth away” (1 Corinthians 7:29, ff). The time of life is short; we should then prepare for death, which is rapidly approaching; and to prepare for that awful moment, let us reflect that everything in this world shall soon end. Hence, the Apostle tells those, who suffer in this life, to be as if they suffered not, because the miseries of this life shall soon pass away, and they who save their souls shall be happy for eternity; and he exhorts those who enjoy the goods of this Earth to be as if they enjoyed them not, because they must one day leave all things; and if they lose their souls, they shall be miserable forever.

SERMON 15
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE EVIL EFFECTS OF BAD HABITS

“Go ye into the village that is over against you, and immediately you shall find an ass tied.” (Matthew 21:2).

Wishing to enter Jerusalem, to be there acknowledged as the promised Messias sent by God for the salvation of the world, the Saviour said to His disciples: “Go to a certain village, and you will find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them to me.” “The ass, which was tied,” says St. Bonaventure, “denotes a sinner.” This exposition is conformable to the doctrine of the Wise Man, who says, that the wicked are bound by the chains of their own sins. “His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the rope of his own sins.” (Proverbs 5:22). But, as Jesus Christ could not sit on the ass before she was loosed, so He cannot dwell in a soul bound with her own iniquities. If, then, brethren, there be among you a soul bound by any bad habit, let her attend to the admonition which the Lord addresses to her this morning. “Loose the bond from off thy neck, captive daughter of Sion.” (Isaias 52:2). Loose the bonds of your sins, which make you the slave of Satan. Loose the bonds before the habit of sin gains such power over you, as to render your conversion morally impossible, and thus to bring you to eternal perdition. This morning I will show, in three points, the evil effects of bad habits.

First Point. A bad habit blinds the understanding.
Second Point. It hardens the heart.
Third Point. It diminishes our strength.

First Point. A bad habit blinds the understanding.

1. Of those who live in the habit of sin, St. Augustine says:The habit of sin blinds sinners, so that they no longer see the evil which they do, nor the ruin which they “bring upon themselves; hence they live in blindness, as if there was neither God, nor Heaven, nor Hell, nor eternity. “Sins,” adds the saint, “however enormous, when habitual, appear to be small, or not to be sins at all.” How, then, can the soul guard against them, when she is no longer sensible of their deformity, or the evil which they bring upon her?

2. St. Jerome says, that habitual sinners “are not even ashamed of their crimes.” Bad actions naturally produce a certain shame; but this feeling is destroyed by the habit of sin. St. Peter compares habitual sinners to swine wallowing in mire. “The sow, that was washed, is returned to her wallowing in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:22). The very mire of sin blinds them; and, therefore, instead of feeling sorrow and shame at their uncleanness, they revel and exult in it. “A fool worketh mischief as it were for sport.” (Proverbs 10:23).”Who are glad when they have done evil.” (Proverbs 2:14). Hence the saints continually seek light from God; for they know that, should He withdraw His light, they may become the greatest of sinners. How, then, do so many Christians, who know by Faith that there is a Hell, and a just God, who cannot but chastise the wicked, how, I say, do they continue to live in sin till death, and thus bring themselves to perdition? “Their own malice blinded them.” (Wisdom 2:21). Sin blinds them, and thus they are lost.

3. Job says, that habitual sinners are full of iniquities. “His bones shall be filled with the vices of his youth.” (20:11). Every sin produces darkness in the understanding. Hence, the more sins are multiplied by a bad habit, the greater the blindness they cause. The light of the sun cannot enter a vessel filled with clay; and a heart full of vices cannot admit the light of God, which would make visible to the soul the abyss into which she is running. Short of light, the habitual sinner goes on from sin to sin, without ever thinking of repentance. “The wicked walk round about” (Psalm 11:9). Fallen into the dark pit of evil habits, he thinks only of sinning, he speaks only of sins, and no longer sees the evil of sin. In effect, he becomes like a brute devoid of reason, and seeks and desires only what pleases the senses. “And man, when he was in honor, did not understand: he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to them” (Psalm 48:13). Hence the words of the Wise Man are fulfilled, with regard to habitual sinners: “The wicked man, when he comes into the depth of sin, contemneth.” (Proverbs 18:3). This passage St. John Chrysostom applies to habitual sinners, who, shut up in a pit of darkness, despise sermons, calls of God, admonitions, censures, Hell, and God, and become like the vulture that waits to be killed by the fowler, rather than abandon the corrupt carcass on which it feeds.

4. Brethren, let us tremble, as David did when he said: “Let not the tempests of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me!” (Psalm 63:16). Should a person fall into a pit, there is hope of deliverance as long as the mouth of the pit is not closed; but as soon as it is shut, he is lost. When a sinner falls into a bad habit, the mouth of the pit is gradually closed, as his sins are multiplied; the moment the mouth of the pit is shut, he is abandoned by God. Dearly beloved sinners, if you have contracted a habit of any sin, endeavour instantly to go out of that pit of Hell, before God shall deprive you entirely of His light, and abandon you; for, as soon as He abandons you by the total withdrawal of His light, all is over, and you are lost.

Second Point. A bad habit hardens the heart.

5. The habit of sin not only blinds the understanding, but also hardens the heart of the sinner. “His heart shall be as hard as a stone, and as firm as a smith’s anvil.” (Job 41:15). By the habit of sin the heart becomes like a stone; and, as the anvil is hardened by repeated strokes of the hammer, so, instead of being softened by divine inspirations or by instructions, the soul of the habitual sinner is rendered more obdurate by sermons on the judgment of God, on the torments of the damned, and on the passion of Jesus Christ: “His heart shall be firm as a smith’s anvil.” “Their heart,” says St. Augustine, “is hardened against the dew of grace, so as to produce no fruit.” Divine calls, remorses of conscience, terrors of Divine justice, are showers of divine grace; but when, instead of drawing fruit from these divine blessings, the habitual sinner continues to commit sin, he hardens his heart, and thus, according to St. Thomas of Villanova, he gives a sign of his certain damnation, for, from the loss of God’s light, and the hardness of his heart, the sinner will, according to the terrible threat of the Holy Ghost, remain obstinate till death. “A hard heart shall fare evil at the end.” (Ecclesiasticus 3:27).

6. Of what use are confessions, when, in a short time after them, the sinner returns to the same vices? “He who strikes his breast,” says St. Augustine, “and does not amend, confirms, but does not take away sins.” When you strike your breast in the tribunal of penance, but do not amend and remove the occasions of sin, you then, according to the saint, do not take away your sins, but you make them more firm and permanent; that is, you render yourself more obstinate in sin. “The wicked walk round about.” (Psalm 11:9). Such is the unhappy life of habitual sinners. They go round about from sin to sin; and if they abstain for a little, they immediately, at the first occasion of temptation, return to their former iniquities. St. Bernard regards as certain the damnation of such sinners:

7. But some young persons may say: “I will hereafter amend, and sincerely give myself to God!” But, if a habit of sin takes possession of you, when will you amend? The Holy Ghost declares, that a young man who contracts an evil habit will not relinquish it even in his old age. “A young man, according to his way, even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6). Habitual sinners have been known to yield, even at the hour of death, to the sins which they have been in the habit of committing. Father Recupito relates, that a person condemned to death, even while he was going to the place of execution, raised his eyes, saw a young female, and consented to a bad thought. We read in a work of Father Gisolfo, that a certain blasphemer, who had been likewise condemned to death, when thrown off the scaffold, broke out into a blasphemy, and died in that miserable state.

8. “He hath mercy on whom He will, and whom He will he hardeneth.” (Romans 9:18). God shows mercy for a certain time, and then He hardens the heart of the sinner. How does God harden the hearts of sinners? St. Augustine answers: The Lord does not directly harden the hearts of habitual sinners; but, in punishment of their ingratitude for his benefits, He withdraws from them His graces, and thus their hearts are hardened, and become like a stone. “God does not harden the heart by imparting malice, but by withholding mercy.” God does not render sinners obdurate by infusing the malice of obstinacy, but by not giving them the efficacious graces by which they would be converted. By the withdrawal of the Sun’s heat from the Earth, water is hardened into ice.

9. St. Bernard teaches, that hardness or obstinacy of heart does not take place suddenly; but, by degrees the soul becomes insensible to the divine threats, and more obstinate by divine chastisements. In habitual sinners are verified the words of David, “And thy rebuke, God of Jacob, they have slumbered.” (Psalm 75:7). Even earthquakes, thunders, and sudden deaths do not terrify an habitual sinner. Instead of awakening him to a sense of his miserable state, they rather bring on that deadly sleep in which he slumbers and is lost.

Third Point. A bad habit diminishes our strength.

10. “He hath torn me with wound upon wound; he hath rushed in upon me like a giant.” (Job 16:15). On this text St. Gregory reasons thus: “A person assailed by an enemy, is rendered unable to defend himself by the first wound which he receives; but, should he receive a second and third, his strength will be so much exhausted, that death will be the consequence.” It is so with sin: after the first and second wound which it inflicts on the soul, she shall still have some strength, but only through the divine grace. But, if she continue to indulge in vice, sin, becoming habitual, rushes upon her like a giant and leaves her without any power to resist it. St. Bernard compares the habitual sinner to a person who has fallen under a large stone, which he is unable to remove. A person in such a case will rise only with difficulty. “The man on whom the weight of a bad habit presses, rises with difficulty.”

11. St. Thomas of Villanova teaches, that a soul which is deprived of the grace of God, cannot long abstain from new sins.(Conc. 4 in Dom. 4 quadrages). In expounding the words of David, “O my God, make them like a wheel, and as a stubble before the wind,” (Psalm 82:14). St. Gregory says, that the man, who struggled for a time before he fell into the habit of sin, as soon as he contracts the habit, yields and yields again to every temptation, with as much facility as a straw is moved by the slightest blast of wind. Habitual sinners, according to St. John Chrysostom, become so weak in resisting the attacks of the devil, that, dragged to sin by their evil habit, they are sometimes driven to sin against their inclination. Yes; because, as St. Augustine says, a bad habit in the course of time brings on a certain necessity of falling into sin.

12. St. Bernardine of Sienna says, that evil habits are changed into one’s nature. Hence, as it is necessary for men to breathe, so it appears that it becomes necessary for habitual sinners to commit sins. They are thus made the slave of sin. I say, the slaves. In society there are servants, who serve for wages, and there are slaves, who serve by force, and without remuneration. Having sold themselves as slaves to the devil, habitual sinners are reduced to such a degree of slavery, that they sometimes sin without pleasure, and sometimes even without being in the occasion of sin. St. Bernardine compares them to the wings of a windmill, which continue to turn the mill, even when there is no corn to be ground; that is, they continue to commit sin, at least by indulging bad thoughts, even when there is no occasion of sin presented to them. The unhappy beings, as St. John Chrysostom says, having lost the divine aid, no longer do what they wish themselves, but what the devil wishes.

13. Listen to what happened in a city in Italy. A certain young man, who had contracted a vicious habit, though frequently called by God, and admonished by friends to amend his life, continued to live in sin. One day he saw his sister suddenly struck dead. He was terrified for a short time; but she was scarcely buried, when he forgot her death and returned to the vomit of sin. In two months, he was confined to bed by a slow fever. He then, sent for a confessor, and made his confession. But after all this, on a certain day, he exclaimed: “Alas! How late have I known the rigor of divine justice!” And turning to his physician, he said: “Do not torment me any longer by medicines; for my disease is incurable. I know for certain that it will bring me to the grave!” And to his friends, who stood around, he said: “As for the life of this body of mine there is no remedy, so for the life of my poor soul there is no hope! I expect eternal death! God has abandoned me! This I see in the hardness of my heart!” Friends and religious came to encourage him to hope in the mercy of God; but his answer to all their exhortations was, “God has abandoned me!” The writer who relates this fact says, that, being alone with the young man, he said to him: “Have courage! Unite yourself with God! Receive the Viaticum!” “Friend,” replied the young man, “speak to a stone! The confession which I have made has been null for want of sorrow. I do not wish for a confessor, nor for the sacraments. Do not bring me the Viaticum; for, should you bring it, I will do that which must excite horror!” He then went away quite disconsolate; and returning to see the young man, learned from his relatives that he expired during the night without the aid of a priest, and that near his room frightful howlings were heard.

14. Behold the end of habitual sinners! Brethren, if you have the misfortune of having contracted a habit of sin, make, as soon as possible, a general confession―for your past confessions can scarcely have been valid. Go forth instantly from the slavery of the devil. Attend to the advice of the Holy Ghost. “Give not thy ears to the cruel.” (Proverbs 5:9). Why will you serve the devil, your enemy, who is so cruel a master who makes you lead a life of misery here, to bring you to a life of still greater misery in Hell for all eternity? “Lazarus, come forth!” Go out of the pit of sin; give yourself immediately to God, who calls you, and is ready to receive you if you turn to Him. Tremble! This may be for you the last call, to which if you do not correspond, you shall be lost.

SERMON 16
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE MEANS NECESSARY FOR SALVATION

“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Make straight the way of the Lord!’” (John 1:23).

All would wish to be saved and to enjoy the glory of Paradise; but to gain Heaven, it is necessary to walk in the straight road that leads to eternal bliss. This road is the observance of the divine commands. Hence, in his preaching, the Baptist exclaimed: “Make straight the way of the Lord.” In order to be able to walk always in the way of the Lord, without turning to the right or to the left, it is necessary to adopt the proper means. These means are, first, diffidence in ourselves; secondly, confidence in God; thirdly, resistance to temptations.

First Means. Diffidence in ourselves.

1. “With fear and trembling,” says the Apostle, “work out your salvation.” (Philippians 2:12). To secure eternal life, we must be always penetrated with fear, we must be always afraid of ourselves (with fear and trembling), and distrust altogether our own strength; for, without the divine grace we can do nothing. “Without Me,” says Jesus Christ, “you can do nothing.” We can do nothing for the salvation of our own souls. St. Paul tells us, that of ourselves we are not capable of even a good thought. “Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” (2 Corinthians 3:5). Without the aid of the Holy Ghost, we cannot even pronounce the Name of Jesus so as to deserve a reward. “And no one can say the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 12:8).

2. Miserable the man who trusts to himself in the way of God. St. Peter experienced the sad effects of self-confidence. Jesus Christ said to him: “In this night, before cock-crow, thou wilt deny Me thrice!” (Matthew 26:31). Trusting in his own strength and his goodwill, the Apostle replied: “Yea, though I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee!” (Matthew 26:35). What was the result? On the night on which Jesus Christ had been taken, Peter was reproached in the court of Caiphas with being one of the disciples of the Savior. The reproach filled him with fear: he thrice denied his Master, and swore that he had never known Him. Humility and diffidence in ourselves are so necessary for us, that God permits us sometimes to fall into sin, that, by our fall, we may acquire humility arid a knowledge of our own weakness. Through lack of humility David also fell: hence, after his sin, he said: “Before I was humbled, I offended.” (Psalm 118:67).

3. Hence the Holy Ghost pronounces blessed the man who is always in fear: “Blessed is the man who is always fearful.” (Proverbs 28:14). He who is afraid of falling distrusts his own strength, avoids as much as possible all dangerous occasions, and recommends himself often to God, and thus preserves his soul from sin. But the man who is not fearful, but full of self-confidence, easily exposes himself to the danger of sin: he seldom recommends himself to God, and thus he falls. Let us imagine a person suspended over a great precipice by a cord held by another. Surely he would constantly cry out to the person who supports him: “Hold fast! Hold fast! For God’s sake, do not let go!” We are all in danger of falling into the abyss of all crime, if God does not support us. Hence we should constantly beseech Him to keep His hands over us, and to help us in all dangers.

4. In rising from bed, St. Philip Neri used to say every morning: “Lord, keep Thy hand this day over Philip! If Thou do not, Philip will betray Thee!” And one day, as he walked through the city, reflecting on his own misery, he frequently said, “I despair! I despair!” A Certain religious who heard him, believing that the saint was really tempted to despair, corrected him, and encouraged him to hope in the Divine Mercy. But the saint replied: “I despair of myself, but I trust in God.” Hence, during this life, in which we are exposed to so many dangers of losing God, it is necessary for us to live always in great diffidence of ourselves, and full of confidence in God.

Second Means. Confidence in God.

5. St. Francis de Sales says, that the mere attention to self-diffidence on account of our own weakness, would only render us pusillanimous, and expose us to great danger of abandoning ourselves to a tepid life, or even to despair. The more we distrust our own strength, the more we should confide in the divine mercy. This is a balance, says the same saint, in which the more the scale of confidence in God is raised, the more the scale of diffidence in ourselves descends.

6. Listen to me, O sinners who have had the misfortune of having hitherto offended God, and of being condemned to Hell: if the Devil tells you that but little hope remains of your eternal salvation, answer him in the words of the Scripture: “No one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:11). No sinner has ever trusted in God, and has been lost. Make, then, a firm purpose to sin no more; abandon yourselves into the arms of the divine goodness; and rest assured that God will have mercy on you, and save you from Hell. “Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee!” (Psalm 54:23). The Lord, as we read in Blosius, one day said to St. Gertrude: “He who confides in Me, does Me such violence that I cannot but hear all his petitions!”

7. “But,” says the Prophet Isaias, “they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint!” (Isaias 40:31). They who place their confidence in God shall renew their strength; they shall lay aside their own weakness, and shall acquire the strength of God; they shall fly like eagles in the way of the Lord, without fatigue and without ever failing. David says, that “mercy shall encompass him that hopeth in the Lord!” (Psalm 31:10). He that hopes in the Lord shall be encompassed by His mercy, so that he shall never be abandoned by it.

8. St. Cyprian says, that the Divine Mercy is an inexhaustible fountain. They who bring vessels of the greatest confidence, draw from it the greatest graces Hence the Royal Prophet has said: “Let thy mercy Lord be upon us, as we have hoped in Thee!” (Psalm 32:22). Whenever the Devil terrifies us by placing before our eyes the great difficulty of persevering in the grace of God, in spite of all the dangers and sinful occasions of this life, let us, without answering him, raise our eyes to God, and hope that, in His goodness, He will certainly send us help to resist every attack. “I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me!” (Psalm 120:1). And when the enemy represents to us our weakness, let us say with the Apostle “I can do all in Him Who strengtheneth me!” (Philippians 4:13) Of myself I can do nothing; but I trust in God, that by His grace I shall be able to do all things.

9. Hence, in the midst of the greatest dangers of perdition to which we are exposed, we should continually turn to Jesus Christ, and, throwing ourselves into the hands of Him, Who redeemed us by His death, should say: “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth!” (Psalm 30:6). This prayer should be said with great confidence of obtaining eternal life, and to it we should add: “In Thee, O Lord, I have hoped; let me not be confounded forever!” (Psalm 30:1).

Third Means. Resistance to temptations.

10. It is true that when we have recourse to God with confidence in dangerous temptations, He assists us; but, in certain very urgent occasions, the Lord sometimes wishes that we cooperate, and do violence to ourselves, to resist temptations. On such occasions, it will not be enough to have recourse to God once or twice; it will be necessary to multiply prayers, and frequently to prostrate ourselves and send up our sighs before the image of the Blessed Virgin and the crucifix, crying out with tears: “Mary, my mother, assist me! Jesus, my Saviour, save me! For thy mercy’s sake do not abandon me, do not permit me to lose Thee!”

11. Let us keep in mind the words of the Gospel: “How narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it.” (Matthew 7:14). The way to Heaven is strait and narrow: they who wish to arrive at that place of bliss by walking in the paths of pleasure, shall be disappointed: and therefore few reach it, because few are willing to use violence to themselves in resisting temptations: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). In explaining this passage, a certain writer says:

“Vi queritur, invaditur, occupatur.” It must be sought and obtained by violence: he who wishes to obtain it without inconvenience, or by leading a soft and irregular life, shall not acquire it he shall be excluded from it.

12. To save their souls, some of the saints have retired into the cloister; some have confined themselves in a cave; others have embraced torments and death. “The violent bear it away.” Some complain of their lack of confidence in God; but they do not perceive that their diffidence arises from the weakness of their resolution to serve God. St. Teresa used to say: “Of irresolute souls the Devil has no fear.” And the Wise Man has declared, that “desires kill the slothful.” (Proverbs 21:25). Some would wish to be saved and to become saints, but never resolve to adopt the means of salvation, such as meditation, the frequentation of the sacraments, detachment from creatures; or, if they adopt these means, they soon give them up. In a word, they are satisfied with fruitless desires, and thus continue to live in enmity with God, or at least in tepidity, which in the end leads them to the loss of God. Thus in them are verified the words of the Holy Ghost, “desires kill the slothful.”

13. If, then, we wish to save our souls, and to become saints, we must make a strong resolution not only in general to give ourselves to God, but also in particular to adopt the proper means, and never to abandon them after having once taken them up. Hence we must never cease to pray to Jesus Christ, and to His holy Mother for holy perseverance.

SERMON 17
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE MISERABLE STATE OF RELAPSING SINNERS

“Be not afraid: you seek Jesus of Nazareth, Who was crucified. He is risen; He is not here.” (Mark 16:6).

I hope, my dear Christians, that you have in this holy season, gone to confession, and have risen from your sins. But, attend to what St. Jerome teaches that many begin well, but few persevere. Now the Holy Ghost declares, that he who perseveres in holiness to death, and not they who begin a good life, shall be saved. “But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13). The crown of Paradise, says St. Bernard, is promised to those who commence, but it is given only to those who persevere. (Ser. vi. Deinodo bene viv). Since, then, brethren, you have resolved to give yourselves to God, listen to the admonition of the Holy Ghost: “Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thyself for temptation.” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1). Do not imagine that you shall have no more temptations, but prepare yourself for the combat, and guard against a relapse into the sins you have confessed; for, if you lose the grace of God again, you shall find it difficult to recover it. I intend this day to show you the miserable state of relapsing sinners; that is, of those who, after confession, miserably fall back into the sins which they confessed.

1. Since, then, dearly beloved Christians, you have made a sincere confession of your sins, Jesus Christ says to you what he says to the paralytic: “Behold, thou art made whole! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:14). By the confessions which you have made, your souls are healed, but not as yet saved; for, if you return to sin, you shall be again condemned to Hell, and the injury caused by the relapse shall be far greater than that which you sustained from your former sins.

St. Bernard says if a man recovers from a mortal disease, and afterwards fall back into it, he shall have lost so much of his natural strength, that his recovery from the relapse will be impossible. This is precisely what will happen to relaxing sinners; returning to the vomit that is, taking back into the soul the sins vomited forth in confession they shall be so weak, that they will become objects of amusement to the devil. St. Anselm says, that the devil acquires a certain dominion over them, so that he makes them fall, and fall again as he wishes. Hence the miserable beings become like birds with which a child amuses himself. He allows them, from time to time, to fly to a certain height, and then draws them back again when he pleases, by means of a cord made fast to them. Such is the manner in which the devil treats relapsing sinners.

2. St. Paul tells us, that we have to contend not with men like ourselves, made of flesh and blood, but with the princes of Hell. “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.” (Ephesians 7:12). By these words he wishes to admonish us that we have not strength to resist the powers of Hell, and that, to resist them, the Divine aid is absolutely necessary: without it, we shall be always defeated; but, with the assistance of God’s grace, we shall, according to the same Apostle, be able to do all things and shall conquer all enemies. “I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me!” (Philippians 4:13). But this assistance God gives only to those who pray for it. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find!” (Matthew 7:7). They who neglect to ask, do not receive. Let us, then, be careful not to trust in our resolutions: if we place our confidence in them, we shall be lost. When we are tempted to relapse into sin, we must put our whole trust in the assistance of God, who infallibly hears all who invoke His aid.

3”He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12). They who are in the state of grace should, according to St. Paul, be careful not to fall into sin, particularly if they have been ever guilty of mortal sins; for a relapse into sin brings greater evil on the soul. “And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first!” (Luke 11:26).

4. We are told in the Holy Scriptures, that the enemy “will offer victims to his drag, and will sacrifice to his net; because through them his meat is made dainty.” (Habacuc 1:16). In explaining this passage St. Jerome says, that the devil seeks to catch in his nets all men, in order to sacrifice them to the divine justice by their damnation. Sinners, who are already in the net, he endeavors to bind with new chains; but the friends of God are his “dainty meats.” To make them his slaves, and to rob them of all they have acquired, he prepares stronger snares. “The more fervently,” says Denis the Carthusian, “a soul endeavors to serve God, the more fiercely does the adversary rage against her.” The closer the union of a Christian with God, and the greater his efforts to serve God, the more the enemy is aimed with rage, and the more strenuously he labors to enter into the soul from which he has been expelled. “When,” says the Redeemer, “the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, seeking rest, and not finding, he saith: ‘I will return into my house, whence I came out!’” (Luke 11:24). Should he succeed in re-entering, he will not enter alone, but will bring with him associates to fortify himself in the soul of which he has again got possession. Thus, the second destruction of that miserable soul shall be greater than the first. “And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first!” (Luke 11:26).

5. To God, the relapse of ungrateful Christians is very displeasing. Because, after He had called and pardoned them with so much love, He sees that, forgetful of His mercies to them, they again turn their back upon him and renounce His grace. “If my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it! But thou, a man of one mind, my guide and familiar, who didst take sweet meats together with me!” (Psalm 54:13 ff). Had my enemy, says the Lord, insulted Me, I would have felt less pain; but to see you rebel against Me, after I had restored My friendship to you, and after I had made you sit at My table, to eat My own Flesh, grieves Me to the heart, and impels Me to take vengeance on you. Miserable the man who, after having received so many graces from God, becomes the enemy, from being the friend of God. He shall find the sword of divine vengeance prepared to chastise him. “And he that passes over from justice to sin, God hath prepared such a one for the sword.” (Ecclesiasticus 26:27).

6. Some of you may say: “If I relapse, I will soon rise again! For I will immediately prepare myself for confession!” To those who speak in this manner shall happen what befell Samson. He allowed himself to be deluded by Dalila―while he was asleep, she cut off his hair, and his strength departed from him. Awaking from sleep, he said: “I will go out as I did before, and shake myself, not knowing that the Lord was departed from him.” (Judges 16:20). He expected to deliver himself, as on former occasions, from the hands of the Philistines. But, because his strength had departed from him, he was made their slave. They pulled out his eyes, and binding him in chains, shut him up in prison. After relapsing into sin, a Christian loses the strength necessary to resist temptations, because “the Lord departs from him.” He abandons him by withholding the efficacious aid necessary to overcome temptations; and the miserable man remains blind and abandoned in his sin.

7. “No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God!” (Luke 9:62). Behold a faithful picture of a relapsing sinner. Mark the words: “no man”―no one, says Jesus Christ, who begins to serve Me, and looks back, is fit to enter Heaven. According to Origen, the addition of a new sin to one committed before, is like the addition of a new wound to a wound just inflicted. (Hom. i. in Ps). If a wound be inflicted on any member of the body, that member certainly loses its original vigor. But, if it receives a second wound, it shall lose all strength and motion, without hope of recovery. The great evil, of a relapse into sin, is that it renders the soul so weak that she has but little strength to resist temptation. For St. Thomas says, “After a fault has been remitted, the dispositions produced by the preceding acts remain.” (Summa, Ia, q. 86, art. 5). Every sin, though pardoned, always leaves a wound on the soul. When, to this wound, a new one is added, the soul becomes so weak that, without a special and extraordinary grace from God, it is impossible for her to conquer temptations.

8. Let us, then, brethren, tremble at the thought of relapsing into sin, and let us beware of availing ourselves of the mercy of God to continue to offend Him. “He,” says St. Augustine, “who has promised pardon to penitents, has promised repentance to no one.” God has indeed promised pardon to all who repent of their sins, but He has not promised to anyone the grace to repent of the faults which he has committed. Sorrow for sin is a pure gift of God; if He withholds it, how will you repent? And without repentance, how can you obtain pardon? Ah! The Lord will not allow Himself to be mocked. “Be not deceived,” says St. Paul, “God is not mocked.” (Galatians 6:7). St. Isidore tells us, that the man who repeats the sin, which he before detested, is not a penitent, but a scoffer of God’s majesty. (De Sum. Bono). And Tertullian teaches, that where there is no amendment, repentance is not sincere. (De Poenit).

9. “Be penitent,” said St. Peter in a discourse to the Jews, “and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out!” (Acts 3:19). Many repent, but are not converted. They feel a certain sorrow for the irregularities of their lives, but do not sincerely return to God. They go to confession, strike their breasts, and promise to amend; but they do not make a firm resolution to change their lives. They who resolve firmly on a change of life, persevere, or at least preserve themselves for a considerable time in the grace of God.

But they who relapse into sin soon after confession, show, as St. Peter says, that they repent, but are not converted; and such persons shall in the end die an unhappy death. As the just have frequent temptations to sin, but yield not to them, because their will abhors them, so sinners feel certain impulses to virtue; but these are not sufficient to produce a true conversion.

The Wise Man tells us that mercy shall be shown to him who confesses his sins and abandons them, but not to those who merely confess their transgressions. “He that shall confess his sins, and forsake them, shall obtain mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13). He, then, who does not give up, but returns to sin after confession, shall not obtain mercy from God, but shall die a victim of Divine justice.

He may expect to die the death of a certain young Englishman, who, as is related in the history of England, was in the habit of relapsing into sins against purity. He always fell back into these sins after confession. At the hour of death he confessed his sins, and died in a manner which gave reason to hope for his salvation. But, while a holy priest was celebrating, or preparing to celebrate, Mass for his departed soul, the miserable young man appeared to him, and said that he was damned. He added that, at the point of death, being tempted to indulge a bad thought, he felt himself as it were forced to consent, and, as he was accustomed to do in the former part of his life, he yielded to the temptation, and thus was lost.

10. Is there then no means of salvation for relapsing sinners? I do not say this; but I adopt the maxim of physicians. "In malignant diseases, powerful remedies are necessary." To return to the way of salvation, the relapsing sinner must do great violence to himself. “The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.” (Matthew 11:12). In the beginning of a new life, the relapsing sinner must do violence to himself in order to root out the bad habits which he has contracted, and to acquire habits of virtue; for when he has acquired habits of virtue, the observance of the divine commands shall become easy and even sweet. The Lord once said to St. Bridget, that, to those, who bear with fortitude the first punctures of the thorns, which they experience in the attacks of the senses in avoiding occasions of sin, and in withdrawing from dangerous conversations, these thorns are by degrees changed into roses.

11. But, to use the necessary violence, and to lead a life of regularity, you must adopt the proper means; otherwise you shall do nothing. After rising in the morning, you must make acts of thanksgiving, of the love of God, and of oblation of the actions of the day. You must also renew your resolution never to offend God, and beg of Jesus Christ and His Holy Mother to preserve you from sin during the day. Afterwards make your meditation and hear Mass. During the day make a spiritual reading and a visit to the most Holy Sacrament. In the evening, say the Rosary and make an examination of conscience. Receive the Holy Communion at least once a week, or more frequently if your directors advise you. Be careful to choose a confessor, to whom you will regularly go to confession. It is also very useful to make a spiritual retreat every year, in some religious house. Honor the Mother of God every day by some particular devotion, and by fasting on every Saturday. She is the mother of perseverance, and promises to obtain it for all who serve her. “They that work by me shall not sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 24:30). Above all, it is necessary to ask of God every morning the gift of perseverance, and to beg of the Blessed Virgin to obtain it for you, and particularly in the time of temptation, by invoking the Name of Jesus and Mary as long as the temptation lasts. Happy the man who will continue to act in this manner, and shall he found so doing when Jesus Christ shall come to judge him. “Blessed is that servant, whom, when his Lord shall come, He shall find so doing!” (Matthew 24:46).

SERMON 18
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE VALUE OF TIME

There is nothing shorter than time, but there is nothing more valuable. There is nothing shorter than time―because the past is no more, the future is uncertain, and the present is but a moment. This is what Jesus Christ meant when He said: “A little while, and now you shall not see Me!” We may say the same of our life, which, according to St. James, is but a vapor, which is soon scattered forever. “For what is your life? It is a vapor which appeareth for a little while!” (James 4:14). But the time of this life is as precious as it is short; for, in every moment, if we spend it well, we can acquire treasures of merits for Heaven; but, if we employ time badly, we may in each moment commit sin, and merit Hell. I intend, this day, to show you how precious is every moment of the time which God gives us―so as not to lose it, and much less to commit sin, but to perform good works and to save our souls.

1. “Thus saith the Lord: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee!’” (Isaias 49:8). St. Paul explains this passage, and says, that the “acceptable time” is the time in which God has determined to confer his favors upon us. He then adds: “Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2). The Apostle exhorts us not to spend the present time unprofitably―which he calls the day of salvation―because, perhaps, after this day of salvation, there shall be no salvation for us. “The time,” says the same Apostle, “is short; it remaineth that, they that weep, be as though they wept not; that they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as if they used it not” (1 Corinthians 7:29-31). Since, then, the time which we have to remain on this Earth is short, the Apostle tells those who weep, that they ought not to weep, because their sorrows shall soon pass away; and those who rejoice, not to fix their affections on their enjoyments, because they shall soon have an end. Hence he concludes, that we should use this world, not to enjoy its transitory goods, but to merit eternal life.

2. “Son,” says the Holy Ghost, “observe the time” (Ecclesiasticus 4:2-3). Son, learn to preserve time, which is the most precious and the greatest gift that God can bestow upon you. St. Bernardine of Sienna teaches that time is of as much value as God; because in every moment of time well spent the possession of God is merited. He adds that in every instant of this life a man may obtain the pardon of his sins, the grace of God, and the glory of Paradise. “Modico tempore potest homo lucrari gratiam et gloriam.” Hence St. Bonaventure says that “no loss is of greater moment than the loss of time” (Sermon xxxvii. in Septuagesima).

3. But, in another place, St. Bernardine says that, though there is nothing more precious than time, there is nothing less valuable in the estimation of men. “Nil pretiosius tempore, nil vilius reputatur” (Ser. ii. ad Schol). You will see some persons spending four or five hours in play. If you ask them why they lose so much time, they answer: “To amuse ourselves!” Others remain half the day standing in the street, or looking out from a window. If you ask them what they are doing, they shall say in reply, that they are passing the time. And why says the same saint, do you lose this time? Why should you lose even a single hour, which the mercy of God gives you to weep for your sins, and to acquire the divine grace? “Donec hora pertranseat, quam tibi ad agendam poenitentiam, ad acquirendam gratiam, miseratio conditoris indulserit.”

4. O time, despised by men during life, how much shall you be desired at the hour of death, and particularly in the other world! Time is a blessing which we enjoy only in this life; it is not enjoyed in the next; it is not found in Heaven, nor in Hell. In Hell, the damned exclaim with tears: “Oh if only another hour would be given to us!” They would pay any price for an hour, or for a minute, in which they might repair their eternal ruin. But this hour, or minute, they never shall have. In Heaven there is no weeping; but, if the saints were capable of sorrow, all their wailing should arise from the thought of having lost, in this life, the time in which they could have acquired greater glory, and from the conviction that this time shall never more be given to them. A deceased Benedictine nun appeared in glory to a certain person, and said that she was in Heaven, and in the enjoyment of perfect happiness; but that, if she could desire anything, it would be to return to life, and to suffer affliction, in order to merit an increase of glory. And she added that, to acquire the glory which corresponded to a single Ave Maria, she would be content to suffer till the Day of Judgment the long and painful sickness which brought on her death. Hence, St. Francis Borgia was careful to employ every moment time for God. When others spoke of useless things; he conversed with God by holy affections; and so recollected was he that, when asked his opinion on the subject of conversation, he knew not what answer to make. Being corrected for this, he said: “I am content to be considered stupid, rather than lose my time in vanities.”

5. Some of you will say: “What evil am I doing?” Is it not, I ask, an evil to spend your time in plays, in conversations, and useless occupations, which are unprofitable to the soul? Does God give you this time to lose it? “Let not,” says the Holy Ghost, “the part of a good gift overpass thee” (Ecclesiasticus 14:14). The work men of whom St. Matthew speaks did no evil; they only lost time by remaining idle in the streets. But they were rebuked by the father of the family, saying: “Why stand you here all the day idle?” (Matthew 20:6). On the Day of Judgment, Jesus Christ shall demand an account, not only of every month and day that has been lost, but even of every idle word. “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it on the Day of Judgment” (Matthew 12:36). He shall likewise demand an account of every moment of the time which you shall lose. According to St. Bernard, all time which is not spent for God is lost time. “Omne tempus quo de Deo non cogitasti, cogita te perdisse.” (Coll. 1, cap. viii). Hence the Holy Ghost says: “Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work nor reason ... shall be in Hell, whither thou art hastening!” (Ecclesiasticus 9:10). What you can do today defer not till tomorrow; for on tomorrow you may be dead, and may be gone into another world, where you shall have no more time to do good, and where you shall only enjoy the reward of your virtues, or suffer the punishment due to your sins. “Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts!” (Psalm 94:8). God calls you to confess your sins, to restore ill-gotten goods, to be reconciled with your enemies. Obey His call today; for it may happen that on tomorrow time may be no more for you, or that God will call you no more. All our salvation depends on corresponding with the divine calls, and at the time that God calls us.

6. But some of you will perhaps say: “I am young―after some time then I will give myself to God!” But, remember that the Gospel tells us, that Jesus Christ cursed the fig tree which he found without fruit, although the season for figs had not yet arrived. “It was not the time for figs” (Mark 11:13). By this the Savior wished to signify, that man at all times, even in youth, should produce fruits of good works; and that otherwise, like the fig tree, he shall be cursed, and shall produce no fruit for the future. “May no man here after eat any more fruit of thee forever!” (Mark 11:14).”Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day; for His wrath shall come on a sudden” (Ecclesiasticus 5:8-9).

If you find your soul in the state of sin, delay not your repentance nor your confession; do not put them off even till tomorrow; for, if you do not obey the voice of God calling you today to confess your sins, death may this day overtake you in sin, and tomorrow there may be no hope of salvation for you. The devil regards the whole of our life as very short, and therefore he loses not a moment of time, but tempts us day and night. “The devil is come down unto you having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time!” (Apocalypse 12:12). The enemy, then, never loses time in seeking to bring us to Hell: and shall we squander the time which God has given us to save our souls?

7. You say: “I will hereafter give myself to God.” But “why” answers St. Bernard, “do you, a miserable, sinner, presume on the future, as if the Father placed time in your power?” (Sermon xxxviii., de Part., etc). Why do you presume that you will hereafter give yourself to God, as if he had given to you the time and opportunity of returning to him whenever you wish? Job said with trembling, that he knew not whether another moment of his life remained: “For I know not how long I shall continue, and whether after a while my Maker may take me away!” (32:22). And you say: “I will not go to confession today―I will think about it tomorrow.” “Diem tenes,” says St. Augustine, “qui horam non tenes.” How can you promise yourself another day, when you know not whether you shall live another hour? “If,” says St. Teresa, “you are not prepared to die today, tremble, lest you die an unhappy death!”

8. St. Bernardine weeps over the blindness of those negligent Christians who squander the days of salvation, and never consider that a day once lost shall never return. “Transcunt dies, salutis et nemo recogitat sibi perire diem ut nunquam rediturum” (Serm. ad Scholar). At the hour of death they shall wish for another year, or for another day; but they shall not have it: they shall then be told that “Time shall be no more!” What price would they not then give for another week, for a day, or even for an hour, to prepare the account which they must then render to God? St. Lawrence Justinian says, that for a single hour they would give all their property, all their honors, and all their delights. “Erogaret opes, honores delicias, pro una horula” (Vit. Solit., cap. x). But this hour shall not be granted to them. The priest, who attends them, shall say: “Depart, depart immediately from this Earth―for your time is no more! Go forth, Christian soul, from this world!”

9. What will it profit the sinner who has led an irregular life, to exclaim at death: “Oh if I had only led a life of sanctity! Oh, if I had only spent my years in loving God!” How great is the anguish of a traveler, who, when the night has fallen, perceives that he has missed the way, and that there is no more time to correct his mistake! Such shall be the anguish at death of those who have lived many years in the world, but have not spent them for God. “The night cometh when no man can work!” (John 9:4). Hence the Redeemer says to all: “Walk whilst you have light, that the darkness overtake you not!” (John 12:35). Walk in the way of salvation, now that you have the light, before you are surprised by the darkness of death, in which you can do nothing. You can then only weep over the time which you have lost.

10. “He hath called against me the time” (Lamentations 1:15). At the hour of death, conscience will remind us of all the time which we have had to become saints, and which we have employed in multiplying our debts to God. It will remind us of all the calls and of all the graces which he has given us to make us love him, and which we have abused. At that awful moment we shall also see that the way of salvation is closed forever. In the midst of these remorses, and of the torturing darkness of death, the dying sinner shall say: “O fool that I have been! Life misspent! Lost years, in which I could have gained treasures of merits, and have become a saint! But I have neglected both, and now the time of saving my soul is gone forever!” But of what use shall these wailings and lamentations be, when the scene of this world is about to close, the lamp is on the point of being extinguished, and when the dying Christian has arrived at that great moment on which eternity depends?

11. “Be you then also ready; for, at what hour you think not, the Son of Man will come” (Luke 12:40). The Lord says: “Be prepared.” He does not tell us to prepare ourselves when death approaches, but to be ready for his coming; because when we think least of death, the Son of Man shall come and demand an account of our whole life. In the confusion of death, it will be most difficult to adjust our accounts, so as to appear guiltless before the tribunal of Jesus Christ. Perhaps death may not come upon us for twenty or thirty years; but it may also come very soon, perhaps in a year or in a month. If anyone had reason to fear that a trial should take place, on which his life depended, he certainly would not wait for the day of the trial, but would as soon as possible employ an advocate to plead his cause. And what do we do? We know for certain that we must one day be judged, and that on the result of that judgment our eternal, not our temporal, life depends. We also know that that day may be very near at hand; and still we lose our time, and, instead of adjusting our accounts, we go on daily multiplying the crimes which will merit for us the sentence of eternal death.

12. If, then, we have hitherto employed our time in offending God, let us henceforth endeavor to bewail our misfortune for the remainder of our life, and say continually with the penitent King Ezechias: “I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul” (Isaias 38:15). The Lord gives us the remaining days of life, so that we may compensate the time that has been badly spent. “Whilst we have time, let us work good” (Galatians 6:10). Let us not provoke the Lord to punish us by an unhappy death; and if, during the years that are passed, we have been foolish, and have offended him, let us now attend to the Apostle exhorting us to be wise for the future, and to redeem the time we have lost. “See, therefore, brethren, now you walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil ... understanding what is the will of God” (Ephesians 5:15-17). “The days are evil.” According to St. Anselm, the meaning of these words is, that the days of this life are evil, because in them we are exposed to a thousand temptations and dangers of eternal misery; and therefore, to escape perdition, all possible care is necessary. “What,” says St. Augustine, “is meant by redeeming the time, unless, when necessary, to submit to temporal loss in order to gain eternal goods?” (de Hom. 50, Hom, i).

We should live only to fulfill with all diligence the divine will; and, should it be necessary, it is better to suffer in temporal things, than to neglect our eternal interests. Oh, how well did St. Paul redeem the time which he had lost! St. Jerome says, that though the last of the Apostles, he was, on account of his great labors, the first in merits. “Paul, the last in order, but the first in merits, because he labored more than all.” Let us consider that, in each moment, we may lay up greater treasures of eternal goods. If the possession of all the land round which you could walk, or of all the money which you could count in a day, were promised you, would you lose time? Or would you not instantly begin to walk over the ground, or to reckon the money? You now have it in your power to acquire, in each moment, eternal treasures; and will you, notwithstanding, misspend your time? Do not say, that what you can do today, you can also do tomorrow; because this day shall be then lost to you, and shall never return. You have this day; but perhaps tomorrow will not be given you.

SERMON 19
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE MERCY OF GOD TOWARDS SINNERS

“There shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than ninety -nine just, who need not penance.” LUKE xv. 7

In this day’s Gospel it is related that the Pharisees murmured against Jesus Christ, because He received sinners and ate with them. “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them!” (Luke 15:2). In answer to their murmurings, Our Lord said: “If any of you had a hundred sheep, and lost one of them, would he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go in search of the lost sheep? Would he not continue his search until he found it? And having found it, would he not carry it on his shoulders, and, rejoicing, say to his friends and neighbours: ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost?’” (Luke 15:4-6). In conclusion, the Son of God said: “I say to you, there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than, upon ninety-nine just, that need not penance.” (Luke 15:6). There is more joy in Heaven upon one sinner who returns to God, than upon many just who preserve the grace of God. Let us, then, speak today on the mercy which God shows to sinners, first, in calling them to repentance; secondly, in receiving them when they return.

First Point, Mercy of God in calling sinners to repentance.

1. After having sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, Adam fled from the face of the Lord through shame of the sin he had committed. What must have been the astonishment of the angels when they saw God seeking after him, and calling him, as it were, with tears, saying: “Adam, where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9). My beloved Adam, where art thou? These words, says Father Pereyra, in his commentary on this passage, “are the words of a father in search of his lost son.” Towards you, brethren, the Lord acts in a similar manner. You fled from him and he has so often invited you to repentance by means of confessors and preachers. Who was it that spoke to you when they exhorted you to penance? It was the Lord! Preachers are, as St. Paul says, His ambassadors. “For Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors; God, as it were, exhorting by us.” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Hence he writes to the sinners of Corinth: “For Christ, we beseech you, be reconciled to God!” (2 Corinthians 5:20). In explaining these words St. John Chrysostom says: “Ipse Chris tus vos obsecrat: quid autem obsecrat? Reconciliamini Deo.” “Jesus Christ himself entreats you, sinners: and what does he entreat you to do? To make peace with God!” The saint adds: “Non enim ipse inimicus gerit, sed vos.” “It is not God that acts like an enemy, but you!”― that is, God does not refuse to make peace with sinners, but they are unwilling to be reconciled with Him.

2. But, notwithstanding the refusal of sinners to return to God, He does not cease to continue to call them by so many interior inspirations, remorse of conscience, and terrors of chastisements. Thus, beloved Christians, God has spoken to you, and, seeing that you disregarded His words, He has had recourse to scourges; He has called you to repentance by such a persecution, by temporal losses, by the death of a relative, by sickness which has brought you to the brink of the grave. He has, according to holy David, placed before your eyes the bow of your damnation, not that you might be condemned to eternal misery, but that you might be delivered from Hell, which you deserved. “Thou hast given a warning to them that fear Thee, that they may flee from before the bow, that Thy beloved may be delivered.” (Psalm 59:6). You regarded certain afflictions as misfortunes; but they were mercies from God; they were the voices of God calling on you to renounce sin, that you might escape perdition. “My jaws are become hoarse!” (Psalm 48:4). “My son,” says the Lord, “I have almost lost my voice in calling you to repentance.” “I am weary of entreating thee.” (Jeremias 15:5). “I have become weary in imploring you to offend Me no more.

3. By your ingratitude you deserved that He should call you no more; but He has continued to invite you to return to Him. And who is it that has called you? It is a God of infinite majesty, Who is to be one day your judge, and on whom your eternal happiness or misery depends. And what are you but miserable worms deserving Hell? Why has He called you? To restore to you the life of grace which you have lost. “Return ye and live!” (Ezechiel 18:32). To acquire the grace of God, it would be but little to spend a hundred years in a desert in fasting and penitential austerities. But God offered it to you for a single act of sorrow; you refused that act, and after your refusal He has not abandoned you, but has sought after you, saying: “And why will you die, house of Israel?” (Ezechiel 18:31). Like a father weeping and following his son, who has voluntarily thrown himself into the sea, God has sought after you, saying, through compassion to each of you: “My son, why dost thou bring thyself to eternal misery?” “Why will you die, house of Israel?”

4. As a pigeon that seeks to take shelter in a tower, seeing the entrance closed on every side, continues to fly round till she finds an opening through which she enters, so, says St. Augustine, did the divine mercy act towards me when I was in enmity with God. Circuibat super me fidelis a longe misericordia tua.” The Lord treated you, brethren, in a similar manner. As often as you sinned you banished Him from your souls. The wicked have said to God: “Depart from us!” (Job 21:14). And, instead of abandoning you, what has the Lord done? He has placed Himself at the door of your ungrateful hearts, and, by His knocking, has made you feel that He was outside, and seeking for admission. “Behold I stand at the gate and knock1” (Apocalypse 3:20). He, as it were, entreated you to have compassion on Him, and to allow Him to enter. “Open to me, my sister!” (Canticles 5:2). Open to me; I will deliver you from perdition; I will forget all the insults you have offered to Me if you give up sin. Perhaps you are unwilling to open to Me through fear of becoming poor by restoring ill-gotten goods, or by separating from a person who provided for you? Am not I, says the Lord, able to provide for you? Perhaps you think that, if you renounce a certain friendship which separates you from Me, you shall lead a life of misery? Am I not able to content your soul and to make your life happy? Ask those who love Me with their whole hearts, and they will tell you that My grace makes them content, and that they would not exchange their condition, though poor and humble, for all the delights and riches of the monarchs of the Earth.

Second Point. Mercy of God in waiting for sinners to return to him.

5. We have considered the Divine mercy in calling sinners to repentance: let us now consider His patience in waiting for their return. That great servant of God, D. Sancia Carillo, a penitent of Father John D’Avila, used to say, that the consideration of God’s patience with sinners, made her desire to build a church, and entitle it “The Patience of God.” Ah, sinners! Who could ever bear with what God has borne from you? If the offences which you have committed against God had been offered to your best friends, or even to your parents, they surely would have sought revenge. When you insulted the Lord, He was able to chastise you; you repeated the insult, and he did not punish your guilt, but preserved your life, and provided you with sustenance. He, as it were, pretended not to see the injuries you offered to Him, that you might enter into yourselves, and cease to offend Him. “Thou overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance.” (Wisdom 11:24).

But how, Lord, does it happen, that Thou canst not behold a single sin, and that Thou dost bear in silence with so many? “Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest Thou upon them that do unjust things, and boldest Thy peace?” (Habacuc 1:13). Thou seest the vindictive prefer their own before Thy honor; thou beholdest the unjust, instead of restoring what they have stolen, continuing to commit theft; the unchaste, instead of being ashamed of their impurities, boasting of them before others; the scandalous, not content with the sins which they themselves commit, but seeking to draw others into rebellion against Thee; thou seest all this, and holdest Thy peace, and dost not inflict vengeance.

6. “Omnis creatura,” says St. Thomas, “tibi factor! Deserviens excandescit adversus injustos.” All creatures the Earth, fire, air, water because they all obey God, would, by a natural instinct, wish to punish the sinner, and to avenge the injuries which he does to the Creator; but God, through His mercy, restrains them. But, Lord, Thou waitest for the wicked that they may enter into themselves; and dost Thou not see that they abuse Thy mercy to offer new insults to Thy majesty? “Thou hast been favorable to the nation, O Lord, thou hast been favorable to the nation! Art Thou glorified?” (Isaias 26:15). Thou hast waited so long for sinners; Thou hast abstained from inflicting punishment; but what glory have you reaped from Thy forbearance? They have become more wicked. Why so much patience with such ungrateful souls? Why dost Thou continue to wait for their repentance? Why dost Thou not chastise their wickedness? The same Prophet answers: “The Lord waiteth that He may have mercy on you.” (Isaias 30:18). God waits for sinners that they may one day repent, and that after their repentance, He may pardon and save them. “As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” (Ezechiel 33:11). St. Augustine goes so far as to say that the Lord, if he were not God, should he unjust on account of his excessive patience towards sinners. “Deus, Deus incus, pace tua dicam, nisi quia Deus esses, injustus esses.” By waiting for those who abuse his patience to multiply their sins, God appears to do an injustice to the divine honor. “We,” continues the saint, “sin; we adhere to sin (some of us become familiar and intimate with sin, and sleep for months and years in this miserable state); we rejoice at sin (some of us go so far as to boast of our wickedness); and thou art appeased! We provoke Thee to anger―Thou dost invite us to mercy.” We and God appear to be, as it were, engaged in a contest, in which we labor to provoke Him to chastise our guilt, and He invites us to pardon.

7. “Lord!” exclaimed holy Job―“What is man, that thou dost entertain so great an esteem for him? Why dost thou love him so tenderly?” “What is man that Thou shouldst magnify him? Or why dost Thou set Thy heart upon him?” (Job 7:17). St. Denis the Areopagite says, that God seeks after sinners like a despised lover, entreating them not to destroy themselves. “Deus etiam a se aversos amatorie sequitur, et deprecatur ne pereant.” Why, ungrateful souls, do you fly from Me? I love you and desire nothing but your welfare. “Ah, sinners!” says St. Teresa, “remember that he who now calls and seeks after you, is that God Who shall one day be your judge. If you are lost, the great mercies which He now shows you, shall be the greatest torments which, you shall suffer in Hell.”

Third Point. Mercy of God in receiving penitent sinners.

8. Should a subject, who has rebelled against an earthly monarch, go into the presence of his sovereign to ask pardon, the prince instantly banishes the rebel from his sight, and does not condescend even to look at him. But God does not treat us in this manner, when we go with humility before Him to implore mercy and forgiveness. “The Lord your God is merciful, and will not turn away His face from you if you return to Him.” (2 Paralipomenon 30:9). God cannot turn away His face from those who cast themselves at His feet with an humble and contrite heart. Jesus himself has protested that He will not reject any one who returns to Him. “And Him that cometh to Me, I will not cast out!” (John 6:37). But how can He reject those whom He Himself invites to return, and promises to embrace? “Return to Me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee!” (Jeremias 3:1). In another place He says: “Sinners, I ought to turn my back on you, because you first turned your back on Me; but be converted to Me, and I will be converted to you.” “Turn to me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Zacharias 1:3).

9. Oh! With what tenderness does God embrace a sinner that returns to Him! This tenderness Jesus Christ wished to declare to us when He said that He is the good pastor, who, as soon as He finds the lost sheep, embraces it and places it on His own shoulders. “And when he hath found it, doth he not lay it upon his shoulders rejoicing?” (Luke 15:5). This tenderness also appears in the parable of the prodigal son, in which Jesus Christ tells us that He is the good father, who, when His lost son returns, goes to meet him, embraces and kisses him, and, as it were, swoons away through joy in receiving him. “And running to him, he fell upon his neck and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20).

10. God protests that when sinners repent of their iniquities, He will forget all their sins, as if they had never offended him. “But, if the wicked do penance for all the sins which he hath committed ... living, he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done.” (Ezechiel 18:21-22). By the Prophet Isaias, the Lord goes so far as to say: “Come and accuse Me, saith the Lord. If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow.” (Isaias 1:18). Mark the words, “Come and accuse Me.” As if the Lord said: “Sinners, come to Me, and if I do not pardon and embrace you, reprove Me, upbraid Me with violating My promise!” But no! God cannot despise a humble and contrite heart. “A contrite and humble heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” (Psalm 1:19).

11. To show mercy and grant pardon to sinners, God regards as redounding to His own glory. “And therefore shall He be exalted sparing you.” (Isaias 30:18). The Holy Church says, that God displays His omnipotence in granting pardon and mercy to sinners. “O God, who manifested Thy omnipotence in sparing and showing mercy.” Do not imagine, dearly beloved sinners, that God requires of you to labor for a long time before He grants you pardon: as soon as you wish for forgiveness, He is ready to give it. Behold what the Scripture says: “Weeping, thou shalt not weep, He will surely have pity on thee” (Isaias 30:19). You shall not have to weep for a long time: as soon as you shall have shed the first tear through sorrow for your sins, God will have mercy on you. “At the voice of thy cry, as soon as He shall hear, He will answer thee” (Isaias 30:19). The moment He shall hear you say: “Forgive me, my God, forgive me!” He will instantly answer and grant your pardon.”

SERMON 20
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE ANGUISH AT DEATH OF NEGLIGENT CHRISTIANS

One day, the Pharisees, with the malignant intention of ensnaring Jesus in His speech, that they might afterwards accuse Him before the ministers of Caesar, sent their disciples to ask Jesus Christ, if it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar. In answer, the Redeemer, after looking at the coin of the tribute, asked: “Whose image and inscription is this?” Being told it was Cæsar’s, He said: “Render then to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” By these words Jesus Christ wishes to teach us, that it is our duty to give to men what is due to them; and to reserve for Him all the affections of our heart, since He created us to love Him, and afterwards imposed upon us a precept of loving Him. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart.” Miserable the man who, at the hour of death, shall see that he has loved creatures, that he has loved his pleasures, and has not loved God. “When distress cometh upon them, they will seek peace, and there will be none” (Ezechiel 7:25). He will then seek peace, but shall not find it; for many causes of distress and trouble shall assail him. What shall these causes be? Behold, the unhappy man shall then say, first: God! I could have become a saint, but have not become one. Secondly, he shall say: Oh, if I only had time to repair the evil I have done! But time is at an end! Thirdly: Oh, that at least, in the short time which remains, I could remedy the past! But, alas, there is no longer enoughfor repairing past evils.

First Point. God! I could have, but have not, become a saint.

Because, during their whole life, they thought only of pleasing God and sanctifying themselves, the saints go with great confidence to meet death, which delivers them from the miseries and dangers of the present life, and unites them perfectly with God. But the man who has thought only of his pleasures and of his own ease, and has neglected to recommend himself to God, or to reflect on the account which he must one day render, cannot meet death with confidence. Poor sinners! They banish the thought of death whenever it presents itself to them, and think only of living in pleasures and amusements, as if they never were to die. But for each of them the end must one day come. “The end is come; the end is come.” (Ezechiel 7:2). And when this end is come every one must gather the fruit which he has sown during his life. “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap.” (Galatians 6:8). If he has sown works of holiness, he shall receive rewards of eternal life; but if he has sown evil works, he shall reap chastisements and eternal death.

The scene of his past life is the first thing which shall rush on the mind of the dying man, when the news of death shall be announced to him. He shall then see things in a light far different from that in which he viewed them during life. The acts of revenge which appeared to him lawful the scandals which he disregarded the liberty of speaking obscenely and injurious to the character of his neighbor the pleasures which were regarded as innocent the acts of injustice which he held to be allowable shall then appear what they really were: grevious sins and offences against God, each of which merited Hell.

Alas! Those blind sinners, who voluntarily blind themselves during life, by shutting their eyes to the light shall, at death, involuntarily see all the evil they have done. “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened.” (Isaias 35:5). At the light of the candle which lights him to death, “the wicked shall see and shall be angry,” (Psalm 111:10). He shall see all the irregularities of his past life his frequent abuse of the sacraments, confessions made without sorrow or purpose of amendment, contracts completed with remorse of conscience, injury done to the property and reputation of others, immodest jests, rancor, and vindictive thoughts. He shall then see the bad examples which he gave to young persons who feared God, and whom he treated with contempt, and turned into derision by calling them hypocrites and other reproachful names. He shall see so many lights and calls received from God, so many admonitions of spiritual fathers, and so many resolutions and promises made but afterwards neglected.

He shall see particularly the bad maxims by which he regulated his conduct during life. “It is necessary to seek the esteem of the world, and to preserve honor” But is it necessary for a man to preserve his honor by trampling on the honor due to God? “We ought to indulge in amusements as often as we can.” But is it lawful to indulge in amusements by insulting God? “Of what use to the world is the man who lives in poverty and has no money?” But, will you, for the sake of money, lose your soul?

In answer to these questions the sinner says: No matter. What can be done? “If we do not make a fortune in the world we cannot appear among our equals.” Such the maxims of the worldling during life; but at death he shall change his language. He shall then see the truth of that maxim of Jesus Christ: ““What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul.” (Matthew 16:26). “Unhappy me!” the worldling shall exclaim on the bed of death, “I have had so much time to tranquillize my conscience, and behold I am now at the point of death, and I find my soul burdened with so many sins? What would it have cost me to have broken oft such a friendship, to have gone to confession every week, to have avoided certain occasions of sin? Ah! Very little, but though it should have cost me a great deal of pain and labor, I ought to have submitted to every inconvenience in order to save my soul. Salvation is of greater importance to me than the dominion of the entire world.” But, alas! The sentiments of negligent Christians at death are as fruitless as the sorrows of the damned, who mourn in Hell over their sins as the cause of their perdition, but mourn in vain.

At that time they derive no consolation from their past amusements or pomps, from their exalted dignities, or from the humiliation of their rivals. On the contrary, at the hour of death, these things, like so many swords shall pierce their hearts. “Evil shall catch the unjust man unto destruction” (Psalm 139:12). At present the lovers of the world seek after banquets, dances, games, and scenes of laughter and joy; but, at the time of death this laughter and joy, as St. James says, shall be turned into mourning and affliction. “Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow” (James 4:5). Of this we see frequent examples. A young man who entertains his companions by sallies of wit and by immodest jests, is seized with a severe illness. His friends come to see him, and find him. overwhelmed with grief and melancholy. He indulges no more in jests, or laughter, or conversation. If he speaks at all, his words are words of terror or despair. His friends ask why he speaks so despondingly why he is so melancholy. Have courage, they say: your illness is not dangerous. They endeavor to inspire hope and cheerfulness: but he is silent. And how can he be cheerful when he feels his conscience burdened with many sins, sees that he must soon appear before Jesus Christ to give an account of his entire life, and that he has much reason to fear that he shall receive the sentence of eternal death? He will then say: O fool that I have been! Oh! that I had loved God! Had I loved him, I should not now find myself in these straits, in, this anguish. Oh! that I had time to tranquillize the troubles of my conscience? Let us pass to the second point.

Second Point. Oh, if only I had time to repair the evil I have done! But now time is at an end.

“Oh, if only I had time,” he will say, “to repair the past!” But, when will he say this? When the oil in the lamp is consumed: when he is on the point of entering into eternity. One of the greatest causes of the distress and anguish of the careless Christian at the hour of death, is the remembrance of the bad use he has made of the time in which he ought to have acquired merits for Heaven, and in which he has accumulated merits for Hell. “Oh! that I had time!” Do you seek for time? You have lost so many nights in gaming, and so many years in indulging the senses, without ever thinking of your soul; and now you seek for time; but time is now no more. “Time shall be no longer” (Apocalypse 10:6). Were you not already admonished by preachers to be prepared for death? Were you not told that it would come upon you when you least expected it? “Be you ready,” says Jesus Christ; “for at what hour you think not the Son of Man will come” (Luke 12:40). You have despised My admonitions, and have voluntarily squandered the time which My goodness bestowed upon you in spite of your demerits; but now time is at an end. Listen to the words in which the priest that assists you shall tell you to depart from this world: “Go forth, Christian soul, from this world!” And where shall you go? To eternity, to eternity! Death respects neither parents nor monarchs; when it comes, it does not wait even for a moment. “Thou hast appointed his bounds, which cannot be passed” (Job 14:5).

Oh, what terror shall the dying man feel at hearing the assisting priest tell him to depart from this world! What dismay shall he experience in saying with himself: “This morning I am living, and this evening I shall be dead! Today I am in this house; tomorrow I shall be in the grave: and where shall my soul be found?” His terror shall be increased when he sees the death-candle lighted, and when he hears the confessor order the relatives to withdraw from his chamber, and to return to it no more. It shall be still more increased when the confessor gives him the crucifix, and tells him to embrace it, saying: “Embrace Jesus Christ, and think no more of this world.” He takes the crucifix and kisses it; but, in kissing it, he trembles at the remembrance of the many injuries which he has offered to Jesus Christ. He would now wish to repent sincerely of all his injuries to his Savior, but he sees that his repentance is forced by the necessity of his approaching death. “He,” says St. Augustine, “who is abandoned by sin before he abandons it, condemns it not freely, but through necessity.”

The common delusion of worldlings is, that earthly things appear great, and that the things of Heaven, as being distant and uncertain, appear to be of little value. They regard tribulations as insupportable, and grievous sins as unimportant. The miserable beings are as if they were shut up in a room filled with smoke, which hinders them from seeing objects before their eyes. But at the hour of death this darkness shall vanish, and the soul shall begin to see things in their real colors. At that hour all temporal things appear to be what they really are vanity, lies, and deception; and the things of eternity assume their true value. Oh! how important shall judgment, Hell, and eternity, which are so much disregarded during life, appear at the time of death. According as these shall begin to put on their true colors, the fears of the dying man shall increase. “The nearer the sentence of the Judge approaches, the more sensible the fear of condemnation becomes” says St. Pope St. Gregory the Great (Mor. 25). Hence the sick man will say: “Oh, in what anguish do I die! Unhappy me! Oh, if I’d have only known that so unhappy a death awaited me!” You have not known; but you ought to have foreseen it; for you knew that a good death could not be expected after a wicked life. But, since I must soon die, oh, that I could at least, in the little time that remains, tranquillize my conscience! Let us pass to the third point.

Third Point. Oh that I could, in the little time that remains, repair the past! But, alas! There is not enough time for repairing past evils.

The time allowed to careless Christians at the hour of death, is, for two reasons, unfit for tranquillizing the troubles of their conscience. First, because this time will be very short; for at the commencement, and for some days during the progress, of the disease, the sick man thinks only of physicians, of remedies, and of making his last will. During that time his relatives, friends, and even the physicians deceive him by holding out hopes of recovery. Hence, deluded by these hopes, he will not be able for some time to persuade himself that his death is at hand. When shall he begin to persuade himself that death is near? Only when he shall be at the very point of death. This is the second reason why that time is unfit for repairing the evils of the soul. At that time the dying man is sick in mind as well as in body. He shall be assailed by pains in the chest, spasms in the head, debility, and delirium. Those shall render him unable to make any effort to excite a true detestation of his past sins, or to apply to the disorders of his past life a remedy which will calm the terrors of his conscience. The news of his approaching death will astound him to such a degree, that he shall be scarcely half alive.

A person laboring under a severe headache, which deprives him of sleep for two or three nights, will not even attempt to dictate a letter of ceremony. And at death when he feels but little, understands but little, and sees only a confusion of things which fills him with terror, the careless Christian adjusts a conscience burdened with the sins of thirty or forty years. Then are verified the words of the Gospel: “The night cometh when no man worketh” (John 9:4). Then his conscience will say to him: “Now thou canst be steward no longer” (Luke 16:2). There is no more time for negotiation; what has been done, is done. “When distress cometh upon them, they will seek for peace, and there shall be none. Trouble shall come upon trouble” (Ezechiel 7:25-26).

It is often said of a person that he led a bad life, but afterwards died a good death; that by his sighs and tears he gave proofs of sincere repentance. “ The wailing of such persons proceeds, not from sorrow for their sins, but from the fear of imminent death” says St. Augustine, “He was not afraid of sinning”, says the holy doctor, “but of burning” (Epist. 114). Till this moment the dying man has loved sinful objects: will he now detest them? Perhaps he will then love them with more tenderness; for the objects of our affections become more dear to us when we are afraid of losing them. The celebrated master of St. Bruno died with signs of repentance; but when laid in the coffin, he said that he was damned. If, at the hour of death, even the saints complain that on account of the state of the head, they can think but little of God, or make but little effort to excite good acts, how can the negligent Christian make these acts at death, when he was not in the habit of making them during life? It may be said that he appeared to have a sincere sorrow for the wickedness of his past life. But, was his sorrow true sorrow? The devil persuades him that the wish to have sorrow is true sorrow; but he deceives him. The dying man will say: “I am sorry from the bottom of my heart,” etc.; but these words shall come from a heart of stone. “From the midst of the rocks they shall give forth their voices.” (Psalm 103:12). But he has frequently been at confession, and has received all the sacraments; he has died in perfect resignation. Ah! The criminal who goes to be executed, appears to be perfectly resigned: but why? Because he cannot escape from the officers of justice, who bring him in chains to the place of execution.

O moment on which eternity depends! This moment made the saints tremble at the hour of death, and made them exclaim: “God! where shall I be in a few hours?” “Sometimes,” says St. Gregory, “the soul even of the just man is disturbed by the terror of vengeance” (Mor. xxiv). What, then, shall the careless Christian, who has disregarded God, feel when he sees the scaffold prepared on which he must die? “His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.” (Job 21: 20). He shall see with his own eyes death prepared for his soul, and shall from that moment begin to feel the anger of the Lord. The Viaticum which he must receive, the Extreme Unction which will be administered to him, the Crucifix which is placed in his hands, the recommendation of the soul which is read by the assisting priest, the lighting of the blessed candle all these shall form the scaffold of divine justice. The poor sick man perceives that he is already in a cold sweat, that he can no longer move or speak, that his respiration has begun to fail: in a word, he sees that the moment of death is at hand; he sees his soul defiled with sins; the Judge waiting for him; Hell burning under his feet; and in this confusion of darkness and terror he shall enter into eternity.

“O that they would be wise, and would understand, and would provide for their last end” (Deuteronomy 32:29). Behold, dearly beloved brethren, how the Holy Ghost exhorts us to provide now for the terrible straits and distress by which we shall be encompassed at death, and to adjust at present the accounts which we must render to God; for it will be then impossible to settle these accounts so as to save our souls. My crucified Jesus, I will not wait till death to embrace Thee; I embrace Thee at this moment. I love thee above all things; and because I love Thee, I repent with my whole heart of all the offences and insults I have offered to Thee, who art infinite goodness; and I resolve and hope, with Thy grace, to love Thee always, and never more to offend Thee. Through the merits of Thy Passion I ask Thee to assist me.

SERMON 21
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE GENERAL JUDGMENT

At present God is not known, and, therefore, He is as much despised by sinners, as if He could not avenge, whenever He pleases, the injuries offered to Him. The wicked “looketh upon the Almighty as if He could do nothing” (Job 22:17,) But the Lord has fixed a day, called in the Scriptures “the day of the Lord,” on which the Eternal Judge will make known His power and majesty. “The Lord,” says the Psalmist, “shall be known when He executeth judgment!” (Psalm 9:17). On this text St. Bernard writes: “The Lord, Who is now unknown while He seeks mercy, shall be known when He executes justice!” (Lib. de xii. Rad). The prophet Sophonias calls the day of the Lord “a day of wrath a day of tribulation and distress a day of calamity and misery” (Sophonias 1:15).

Let us now consider, in the first point, the different appearance of the just and the unjust; in the second, the scrutiny of consciences; and in the third, the sentence pronounced on the elect and on the reprobate.

First Point. On the different appearance of the just and of sinners in the valley of Josaphat.

1. This day shall commence with fire from Heaven, which will burn the Earth, all men then living, and all things upon the Earth. “And the Earth and the works which are in it shall be burnt up” (2 Peter 3:10). All shall become one heap of ashes.

2. After the death of all men, “the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise again” (1 Corinthians 15:52). St Jerome used to say: “As often as I consider the Day of Judgment, I tremble. Whether I eat or drink, or whatever else I do, that terrible trumpet appears to sound in my ears, arise ye dead, and come to judgment” (Commentary on Matthew, chapter 5); and St. Augustine declared, that nothing banished from him earthly thoughts so effectually as the fear of judgment.

3. At the sound of that trumpet, the souls of the blessed shall descend from Heaven, to be united to the bodies with which they served God on Earth; and the unhappy souls of the damned shall come up from Hell, to take possession again of those bodies, with which they have offended God. O how different the appearance of the former, compared with that of the latter! The damned shall appear deformed and black, like so many firebrands of Hell; but the just shall shine as the sun (Matthew 13:43) O how great shall then be the happiness of those who have fortified their bodies by works of penance! We may estimate their felicity from the words addressed by St. Peter of Alcantara, after death, to St. Teresa: “O happy penance, which merited for me such glory!”

4. After the resurrection, they shall be summoned by the angels to appear in the Valley of Josaphat. “Nations, nations, in the valley for destruction for the day of the Lord is near” (Joel 3:14). Then the angels shall come and separate the reprobate from the elect, placing the latter on the right, and the former on the left. “The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from the Just” (Matthew 3:49). O how great will then be the confusion which the unhappy damned shall suffer! “What think you,” says the author of the Imperfect Work, “must be the confusion of the impious, when, being separated from the just, they shall be abandoned” (Homily 54). “This punishment alone” says St. John Chrysostom, “would be sufficient to constitute a Hell for the wicked” ... “Et si nihil ulterius paterentur, ista sola verecundia sufficerit eis ad poenam,” (Commentary on Matthew chapter 24). The brother shall he separated from the brother, the husband from his wife, the son from the father, etc.

5. But, behold! The heavens are opened the angels come to assist at the general judgment, carrying, as St. Thomas says, the sign of the Cross and of the other instruments of the Passion of the Redeemer. “Veniente Domino ad judicium signum crucis, et alia passionis indicia demonstrabunt” (Opusc. ii. 244). The same may be inferred from the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the Earth mourn” (Matthew 24:30). Sinners shall weep at the sign of the Cross; for, as St. John Chrysostom says, the nails will complain of them the wounds and the Cross of Jesus Christ will speak against them. “Clavi de te conquerentur, cicatrices contra et loquentur, crux Christi contra te perorabit” (Homily 20, on Matthew).

6. Most holy Mary, the Queen of saints and angels, shall come to assist at the Last Judgment; and lastly, the Eternal Judge shall appear in the clouds, full of splendor and majesty. “And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with much power and majesty” (Matthew 24:30). O how great shall be the agony of the reprobate at the sight of the Judge! “At their presence” says the Prophet Joel, “the people shall be in grievous pains.” (Joel 2:6). According to St. Jerome, the presence of Jesus Christ will give the reprobate more pain than Hell itself. “It would,” he says, “be easier for the damned to bear the torments of Hell than the presence of the Lord.” Hence, on that day, the wicked shall, according to St. John, call on the mountains to fall on them and to hide them from the sight of the Judge. “And they shall say to the mountains and the rocks: ‘Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb!’” (Apocalypse 6:16).

Second Point. The scrutiny of conscience.

7. “The judgment sat, and the books were opened.” (Daniel 7:10). The books of conscience are opened, and the judgment commences. The Apostle says, that the Lord “will bring to light the hidden things of darkness” (1 Corinthians 4:5). And, by the mouth of His prophet, Jesus Christ has said: “I will search Jerusalem with lamps” (Sophonias 1:12). The light of the lamp reveals all that is hidden.

8. “A judgment,” says St. John Chrysostom, “terrible to sinners, but desirable and sweet to the just” (Homily 3, de David). The last judgment shall fill sinners with terror, but will be a source of joy and sweetness to the elect; for God will then give praise to each one according to his works. (1 Corinthians 4:5). The Apostle tells us that on that day the just will be raised above the clouds, to be united to the angels, and to increase the number of those who pay homage to the Lord. “We shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

9. Worldlings now regard as fools the saints, who led mortified and humble lives; but then they shall confess their own folly, and say: “We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honor. Behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints” (Wisdom 5:4-5). In this world, the rich and the noble are called happy; but true happiness consists in a life of sanctity. Rejoice, ye souls who live in tribulation; “our sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). In the Valley of Josaphat you shall be seated on thrones of glory.

10. But the reprobate, like goats destined for the slaughter, shall be placed on the left, to await their last condemnation. “Judicii tempus,” says St. John Chrysostom, “misericordiam non recipit.” On the Day of Judgment there is no hope of mercy for poor sinners. “Magna,” says St. Augustine, “jam est poena peccati, metum et memoriam divini perdidisse judi102” (Sermoon 20, de Temp.). “The greatest punishment of sin in those who live in enmity with God, is to lose the fear and remembrance of the divine judgment.” Continue, continue, says the Apostle, to live obstinately in sin; but in proportion to your obstinacy, you shall have accumulated for the Day of Judgment a treasure of the wrath of God “But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart , thou treasurest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath” (Romans 2:5).

11. Then sinners will not be able to hide themselves but, with insufferable pain, they shall be compelled to appear in judgment. “To lie hid” says St. Anselm, “will be impossible to appear will be intolerable.” The devils will perform their office of accusers, and as St. Augustine says, will say to the Judge: “Most just God, declare him to be mine, who was unwilling to be Yours.” The witnesses against the wicked shall be first, their own conscience. “Their conscience bearing witness to them,” (Romans 2:15); secondly, the very walls of the house in which they sinned shall cry out against them: “The stone shall cry out of the wall” (Habacuc 2:11); thirdly, the Judge himself will say “‘I am the judge and the witness’ saith the Lord” (Jeremias 29:23). Hence, according to St. Augustine, “He who is now the witness of your life, shall be the judge of your cause” (Lib. x. de Chord., chapter 2). To Christians particularly He will say: “Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida; for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in you, they had long ago done penance in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:21). Christians, He will say, if the graces which I have bestowed on you had been given to the Turks or to the Pagans, they would have done penance for their sins; but you have ceased to sin only with your death. He shall then manifest to all men their most hidden crimes. “I will discover thy shame to thy face.” (Nahum 3:5). He will expose to view all their secret impurities, injustices, and cruelties. “I will set all thy abominations against thee” (Ezechiel 7:3). Each of the damned shall carry his sins written on his forehead.

12. What excuses can save the wicked on that day? Ah, they can offer no excuses! “All iniquity shall stop her mouth.” (Psalm 106:42). Their very sins shall close the mouth of the reprobate, so that they will not have courage to excuse themselves. They shall pronounce their own condemnation.

Third Point. Sentence of the elect, and of the reprobate.

13. St. Bernard says, that “the sentence of the elect, and their destiny to eternal glory, shall be first declared, that the pains of the reprobate may be increased by the sight of what they lost” ... “Prius pronunciabitur sententia electis ut acrius (reprobi) doleant videntes quid amiserunt.” (Sermon 8, on Psalm 90). Jesus Christ, then, shall first turn to the elect, and with a serene countenance shall say: “Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). He will then bless all the tears shed through sorrow for their sins, and all their good works, their prayers, mortifications, and Communions; above all, He will bless for them the pains of His Passion and the blood shed for their salvation. And, after these benedictions, the elect, singing alleluias, shall enter Paradise to praise and love God eternity.

14. The Judge shall then turn to the reprobate, and shall pronounce the sentence of their condemnation in these words: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41). They shall then be forever accursed, separated from God, and sent to burn forever in the fire of Hell. “And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:46).

15. After this sentence, the wicked shall, according to St. Ephrem, be compelled to take leave forever of their relatives, of Paradise, of the saints, and of Mary the divine Mother. “Farewell, ye just! Farewell, O cross! Farewell, Paradise! Farewell, fathers and brothers: we shall never see you again! Farewell, O Mary, Mother of God!” (St. Ephesians de variis serm. inf). Then a great pit shall open in the middle of the valley: the unhappy damned shall be cast into it, and shall see those doors shut which shall never again be opened. O accursed sin! To what a miserable end will you one day conduct so many souls redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ! O unhappy souls, for whom is prepared such a melancholy end! But, brethren, have confidence! Jesus Christ is now a Father, and not Judge. He is ready to pardon all who repent. Let us then instantly ask pardon from Him.

SERMON 22
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT

“Give an account of thy stewardship.” (Luke 16:2).

Beloved Christians, of all the goods of nature, of fortune, and of grace, which we have received from God, we are not the masters, neither can we dispose of them as we please; we are but the administrators of them; and therefore we should employ them according to the will of God, who is Our Lord. Hence, at the hour of death, we must render a strict account of them to Jesus Christ, our Judge. “For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body as he hath done, whether it be good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:10). This is the precise meaning of that “give an account of thy stewardship,” in the Gospel of this day. “You are not,” says St. Bonaventure, in his comment on these words, “a master, but a steward over the things committed to you; and therefore you are to render an account of them.” I will place before your eyes, today, the rigor of this judgment, which shall be passed on each of us on the last day of our life. Let us consider the terror of the soul, first, when we shall be presented to the Judge; secondly, when she shall be examined; and thirdly, when she shall be condemned.

First Point. Terror of the soul when she shall be presented to the Judge.

1. “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27). It is of Faith that we shall die, and that after death a judgment shall be passed on all the actions of our life. Now, what shall be the terror of each of us when we shall be at the point of death, and shall have before our eyes the judgment which must take place the very moment the soul departs from the body? Then shall be decided our doom to eternal life, or to eternal death. At the time of the passage of their souls from this life to eternity, the sight of their past sins, the rigor of God’s judgment, and the uncertainty of their eternal salvation, have made the saints tremble. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzia trembled in her sickness, through the fear of judgment; and to her confessor, when he endeavored to give her courage, she said: “Ah! father, it is a terrible thing to appear before Christ in judgment!” After spending so many years in penance in the desert, St. Agatho trembled at the hour of death, and said: “What shall become of me when I shall be judged?” The Venerable Father Louis da Ponte was seized with such a fit of trembling, at the thought of the account which he should render to God, that he shook the room in which he lay. The thought of judgment inspired the Venerable Juvenal Ancina, Priest of the Oratory, and afterwards Bishop of Saluzzo, with the determination to leave the world. Hearing the Dies Iræ sung, and considering the terror of the soul when presented before Jesus Christ, the Judge, he took, and afterwards executed, the resolution of giving himself entirely to God.

2. It is the common opinion of theologians, that at the very moment and in the very place in which the soul departs from the body, the divine tribunal is erected, the accusation is read, and the sentence is passed by Jesus Christ, the Judge. At this terrible tribunal each of us shall be presented to give an account of all our thoughts, of all our words, and of all our actions. “For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:10). When presented before an earthly judge, criminals have been seen to fall into a cold sweat through fear. It is related of Piso, that so great and insufferable was the confusion which he felt, at the thought of appearing as a criminal before the senate, that he killed himself. How great is the pain of a vassal, or of a son, in appearing before an angry prince, or an enraged father, to account for some crime which he has committed! O how much greater shall be the pain and confusion of the soul in standing, before Jesus Christ, enraged against her for having despised Him during her life! Speaking of judgment, St. Luke says: “Then you shall see the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:27). They shall see Jesus Christ as man, with the same wounds with which He ascended into Heaven. “Great joy of the beholders!” says Robert the Abbot, “a great terror of those who are in expectation!” These wounds shall console the just, and shall terrify the wicked. In them sinners shall see the Redeemer’s love for themselves, and their ingratitude to Him.

3. “Who,” says the Prophet Nahum, “can stand before the face of his indignation?” (Nahum 1:6). How great, then, shall be the terror of a soul, that finds herself in sin before this Judge, the first time she shall see Him, and see Him full of wrath! St. Basil says that she shall be tortured more by her shame and confusion than by the very fire of Hell. Philip the Second rebuked one of his domestics for having told him a lie. “Is it thus,” said the king to him, “you deceive me?” The domestic, after having returned home, died of grief. The Scripture tells us, that when Joseph reproved his brethren―saying: “I am Joseph, whom you sold!”― they were unable to answer through fear, and remained silent. “His brethren could not answer him, being struck with exceeding great fear.” (Genesis 45:3). Now what answer shall sinners make to Jesus Christ when He shall say to them: “I am your Redeemer and your Judge, whom you have so much despised.” Where shall the miserable beings fly, says St. Augustine, when they shall see an angry Judge above, Hell open below, on one side their own sins accusing them, and on the other the devils dragging them to punishment, and their conscience burning them within? “Above shall be an enraged Judge below, a horrid chaos on the right, sins accusing him on the left, demons dragging him to punishment within, a burning conscience! Whither shall a sinner, beset in this manner, fly?” Perhaps he will cry for mercy? But how, asks Eusebius Emissenus, can he dare to implore mercy, when he must first render an account of his contempt for the mercy which Jesus Christ has shown to him? “With what face will you, who are to be first judged for contempt of mercy, ask for mercy?” But let us come to the rendering of the accounts.

Second Point. Terror of the soul when she shall be examined.

4. As soon as the soul shall be presented before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, He will say to her: “Give an account of thy stewardship!”― render instantly an account of thy entire life. The Apostle tells us, that to be worthy of eternal glory, our lives must be found conformable to the life of Jesus Christ. “For whom he foreknew, He also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His son ;...them He also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30). Hence St. Peter has said, that in the judgment of Jesus Christ, the just man who has observed the divine law, has pardoned enemies, has respected the saints, has practiced chastity, meekness, and other virtues, shall scarcely be saved. “The just man shall scarcely be saved.” The Apostle adds: “Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:18). What shall become of the vindictive and the unchaste, of blasphemers and slanderers? What shall become of those whose entire life is opposed to the life of Jesus Christ?

5. In the first place, the Judge shall demand of sinners an account of all the blessings and graces which He bestowed on them, in order to bring them to salvation, and which they have rendered fruitless. He will demand an account of the years granted to them, that they might serve God, and which they have spent in offending Him. “He hath called against me the time.” (Lamentations 1:15). He will then demand an account of their sins. Sinners commit sins, and afterwards forget them; but Jesus Christ does not forget them―He keeps, as Job says, all our iniquities numbered, as it were in a bag. “Thou hast sealed up my iniquities, as it were in a bag.” (Job 14:17). And He tells us that, on the day of accounts, He will take a lamp to scrutinize all the actions of our life. “And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps.” (Sophonias 1:12). The lamp, says Mendoza on this passage, penetrates all the corners of the house that is, God will discover all the defects of our conscience, great and small. According to St. Anselm, an account shall be demanded of every glance of the eyes. And, according to St. Matthew, of every idle word. “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it on the Day of Judgment.” (Matthew 12:36).

6. The Prophet Malachy says, that as gold is refined by taking away the dross, so on the Day of Judgment all our actions shall be examined, and every defect which may be discovered shall be punished. “He shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold.” (Malachias 3:3). Even our justices that is, our good works, confessions, Communions and prayers shall be examined. “When I shall take a time, I will judge justices.” (Psalm 74:3). But if every glance, every idle word, and even good works, shall be judged, with what rigor shall immodest expressions, blasphemies, grievous detractions, thefts, and sacrileges be judged? Alas! On that day, as St. Jerome says, “every soul shall, see, to her own confusion, all the evils which she has done.”

7. “Weight and balance are judgments of the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:11). In the balance of the Lord a holy life and good works make the scale descend; but nobility, wealth, and science have no weight. Hence, if found innocent, the peasant, the poor, and the ignorant shall be rewarded. But the man of rank, of wealth, or of learning, if found guilty, shall be condemned. “Thou art weighed in the balance,” said Daniel to Belthassar, “and art found wanting.” (Daniel 5:27). ”Neither his gold nor his wealth,” says Father Alvares, “but the king alone was weighed.”

8. At the divine tribunal the poor sinner shall see himself accused by the devil, who, according to St. Augustine, “will recite the words of our profession, and will charge us before our face with all that we have done, will state the day and hour in which we sinned.” (Con. Jud., tom. 6). “He will recite the words of our profession”―that is, he will enumerate the promises which we have made to God, and which we afterwards violated. “He will charge us before our face ” ―he will upbraid us with all our wicked deeds, pointing to the day and hour in which they were committed. And he will, as the same saint says, conclude his accusation by saying: “I have suffered neither stripes nor scourges for this man.” Lord, I have suffered nothing for this ungrateful sinner, and to make himself my slave, he has turned his back on Thee, who has endured so much for his salvation. He, therefore, justly belongs to me. Even his angel-guardian will, according to Origen, come forward to accuse him, and will say: “I have labored so many years for his salvation; but he has despised all my admonitions.” (Hom. lxvi). Thus, even friends shall treat with contempt the guilty soul. “All her friends have despised her.” (Lamentations 1:2). Her very sins shall, says St. Bernard, accuse her. “And they shall say: You have made us; we are your work; we shall not desert you.” (Lib. Medit, cap. ii). We are your offspring; we shall not leave you: we shall be your companions in Hell for all eternity.

9. Let us now examine the excuses which the sinner will be able to advance. He will say, that the evil inclinations of nature had drawn him into sin. But he shall be told that, if concupiscence impelled him to sins, it did not oblige him to commit them; and that, if he had recourse to God, he should have received from Him grace to resist every temptation. For this purpose Jesus Christ has left us the sacraments: but when we do not make use of them, we can complain only of ourselves. “But, “ says the Redeemer, “now they have no excuse for their sin.” (John 15:22). To excuse himself, the sinner shall also say that the devil tempted him to sin. But, as St. Augustine says, “The enemy is bound like a dog in chains, and can bite only him who has united himself to him with a deadly security.” The devil can bark, but cannot bite unless you adhere and listen to him. Hence the saint adds: “See how foolish is the man whom a dog, loaded with chains, bites.” Perhaps he will advance his bad habits as an excuse; but this shall not stand; for the same St. Augustine says, that though it is difficult to resist the force of an evil habit, “if any one does not desert himself, he will conquer it with the divine assistance.” If a man does not abandon himself to sin, and invokes God’s aid, he will overcome evil habits. The Apostle tells us, that the Lord does not permit us to be tempted above our strength. “God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able.” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

10. “For what shall I do,” said Job, “when God shall rise to judge me? And when He shall examine, what shall I answer Him?” (Job 31:14). What answer shall the sinner give to Jesus Christ? How can he, who sees himself so clearly convicted, give an answer? He shall be covered with confusion, and shall remain silent, like the man found without the nuptial garment. “But he was silent.” (Matthew 22:12). His very sins shall shut the sinner’s mouth. “And all iniquity shall stop her mouth.” (Psalm 106:42). There,, says St. Thomas of Villanova, there shall be no intercessor to whom the sinner can have recourse. “There, there is no opportunity of sinning; there, no intercessor, no friend, no father shall assist.” Who shall then save you? Is it God? But how, asks St. Basil, can you expect salvation from him whom you have despised? “Who shall deliver you? Is it God, whom you have insulted?” (St. Bas., Or. 4, de Fen). Alas! The guilty soul that leaves this world in sin, is condemned by herself before the Judge pronounces sentence! Let us come to the sentence of the Judge.

Third Point. Terror of the soul when she shall be condemned.

11. How great shall be the joy of a soul when, at death, she hears from Jesus Christ these sweet words: “Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!” (Matthew 25:21). Equally great shall be the anguish and despair of a guilty soul, that shall see herself driven away by the Judge with the following words: “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire!” (Matthew 25:41). O what a terrible thunderclap shall that sentence be to her! “Oh! how frightfully,” says the Carthusian, “shall that thunder resound!”

Eusebius writes, that the terror of sinners at hearing their condemnation shall be so great that, if they could, they would die again. “The wicked shall be seized with such terror, at the sight of the Judge pronouncing sentence, that, if they were not immortal, they should die a second time.” But, brethren, let us, before the termination of this sermon, make some reflections which will be profitable to us.

St. Thomas of Villanova says, that some listen, to discourses on the judgment and condemnation of the wicked, with as little concern as if they they themselves were secure against these things, or, as if the Day of Judgment were never to arrive for them. (Conc., i., de Jud). The saint then asks: Is it not great folly to entertain security in so perilous an affair?

There are some, says St. Augustine, who, though they live in sin, cannot imagine that God will send them to Hell. “Will God,” they say, “really condemn us?” “Brethren,” adds the saint, “do not speak thus! So, many of the damned did not believe that they should be sent to Hell; but the end came, and, according to the threat of Ezechiel, they have been cast into that place of darkness!” “The end is come, the end is come! ... And I will send My wrath upon thee, and I will judge thee.” (Ezechiel 7:2-3).

Sinners, perhaps vengeance is at hand for you, and still you laugh and sleep in sin. Who will not tremble at the words of St. John the Baptist: “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees! Every tree, therefore, that doth not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire!” (Matthew 3:10). He says, that every tree that does not bring forth good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire; and he promises that, with regard to the trees, which represent sinners, the axe is already laid to the roots that is, chastisement is at hand.

Dearly beloved brethren, let us follow the counsel of the Holy Ghost “Before judgment, prepare thee justice!” (Ecclesiasticus 18:19). Let us adjust our accounts before the day of accounts. Let us seek God, now that we can find Him; for the time shall come when we will wish, but shall not be able to find Him. “You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me!” (John 7:36).”Before judgment,” says St. Augustine, “the Judge can be appeased, but not in judgment.” By a change of life we can now appease the anger of Jesus Christ, and recover His grace; but when He shall judge, and find us in sin, He must execute justice, and we shall be lost!

SERMON 23
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE DEATH OF THE JUST PERSON

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened” (Matthew 13:33).

In the Gospel we find that a woman, after putting leaven in the dough, waits till the entire is fermented. Here the Lord gives us to understand that the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, the attainment of eternal beatitude, is like the leaven. By the leaven is understood the divine grace, which makes the soul acquire merits for eternal life. But this eternal life is obtained only when “the whole is leavened”; that is, when the soul has arrived at the end of the present life and the completion of her merits. We shall, then, speak today of the death of the just, which we should not fear, but should desire with our whole souls. For, says St. Bonaventure, Man should rejoice at death, for three reasons:

First, because death delivers him from labour that is, from suffering the miseries of this life and the assault of his enemies.
Secondly, because it delivers him from actual sins.
Thirdly, because it delivers him from the danger of falling into Hell, and opens Paradise to him.

First Point. Death delivers us from the miseries of this life, and from the assaults of our enemies.

1. What is death? St. Eucherius answers, that “death is the end of miseries.” Job said that our life, however short it may be, is full of miseries, of infirmities, of crosses, of persecutions, and fears. “Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries.” (Job 14:1). What, says St. Augustine, do men who wish for a prolongation of life on this Earth desire but a prolongation of suffering?” (Serm. xviL de Serb. Dom). Yes; for, as St. Ambrose remarks, the present life was given to us not for repose or enjoyment, but for labour and suffering, that by toils and pains we may merit Paradise. (Serm. xliii). Hence the same holy doctor says, that, though death is the punishment of sin, still the miseries of this life are so great, that death appears to be a relief rather than a chastisement:

2. To those who love God, the severest of all the crosses of this life, are the assaults of Hell to rob them of the divine grace. Hence St. Denis the Areopagite says, that they joyfully meet death, as the end of their combats, and embrace it with gladness, because they hope to die a good death, and to be thus freed from all fear of ever again falling into sin. (De Hier. Ecclesiasticus, cap. vii). The greatest consolation which a soul that loves God experiences at the approach of death, arises from the thought of being delivered from so many temptations, from so many remorses of conscience, and from so many dangers of offending God.

“Ah!” says St. Ambrose, as long as we live, “we walk among snares.” We walk continually in the midst of the snares of our enemies, who lie in wait to deprive us of the life of grace. It was the fear of falling into sin that made St. Peter of Alcantara, in his last moments, say to a lay brother who, in attending the saint, accidently touched him: “Brother, remove, remove from me, for I am still alive and in danger of being lost.” The thought of being freed from the danger of sin by death consoled St. Teresa, and made her rejoice as often as she heard the clock strike, that an hour of the combat was past. Hence she used to say: “In each moment of life we may sin and lose God.” Hence the news of approaching death filled the saints, not with sorrow or regret, but with sentiments of joy; because they knew that their struggles and the dangers of losing the divine grace were soon to have an end.

3. “But the just man, if he be prevented with death, shall be in rest.” (Wisdom 4:7). He who is prepared to die, regards death as a relief. If, says St. Cyprian, you lived in a house whose roof and walls were tottering and threatening destruction, would you not fly from, it as soon as possible? In this life everything menaces ruin to the poor soul the world, the devils, the flesh, the passions, all draw her to sin and to eternal death. It was this that made St. Paul exclaim: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). Who shall deliver me from this body of mine, which lives continually in a dying state, on account of the assaults of my enemies? Hence he esteemed death as a great gain, because it brought to him the possession of Jesus Christ, his true life.

Happy, then, are they who die in the Lord―because they escape from pains and toils, and go to rest. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labours.” (Apocalypse 14:13). It is related in the lives of the ancient fathers, that one of them, who was very old, when dying, smiled, while the others wept. Being asked why he smiled, he said: “Why do you weep at seeing me go to rest?” At the hour of death, St. Catherine of Sienna said to her sisters in religion: “Rejoice with me: for I leave this land of suffering, and am going to the kingdom of peace.” The death of the saints is called a sleep that is, the repose which God gives to his servants as the reward of their toil, “When He shall give sleep to His beloved, behold the inheritance of the Lord.” (Psalm 126:2). Hence the soul, that loves God, neither weeps, nor is troubled at the approach of death, but, embracing the crucifix and burning with love, she says: “In peace in the self same I will sleep and I will rest.” (Psalm 4:9).

4. That “Depart, Christian soul, from this world”―which is so appalling to sinners at the hour of death, does not alarm the saints. “But the souls of the just are in the hands of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them.” (Wisdom 3:1). The saint is not afflicted, like worldlings, at the thought of being obliged to leave the goods of this Earth, because he has kept the soul detached from them. During life, he always regarded God as the Lord of his heart and as the sole riches which he desired: “What have I in Heaven? And, besides Thee, what do I desire upon Earth? Thou art the God of my heart and the God that is my portion forever!” (Psalm 82:25-26). He is not afflicted at leaving honors, because the only honor which he sought was, to love and to be loved by God. All the honors of this world he has justly esteemed as smoke and vanity. He is not afflicted at leaving his relatives, because he loved them only in God. In his last moments he recommends them to his heavenly Father, Who loves them more than he does. And having a secure confidence of salvation, he hopes to be better able to assist his relatives from Paradise, than on this Earth. In a word, what he frequently said during life, he continues to repeat with greater fervour at the hour of death: “My God and my all.”

5. Besides, his peace is not disturbed by the pains of death; but, seeing that he is now at the end of his life, and that he has no more time to suffer for God, or to offer Him other proofs of love, he accepts those pains with joy, and offers them to God as the last remains of life; and uniting his death with the death of Jesus Christ, he offers it to the Divine Majesty.

6. And although the remembrance of the sins which he has committed will afflict, it will not disturb him; for, since he is convinced that the Lord will forget the sins of all true penitents, the very sorrow which he feels for his sins, gives him an assurance of pardon. “If the wicked do penance. ... I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done.” (Ezechiel 18:21-22). “How,” asks St. Basil, “can anyone be certain that God has pardoned his sins? He may be certain of pardon if he say: ‘I have hated and abhorred iniquity.’” (In Reg. inter. 12). He who detests his sins, and offers to God his death in atonement for them, may rest secure that God has pardoned them. Death, which was a chastisement of sin under the law of nature, has become, in the law of grace, a victim of penance, by which the pardon of sin is obtained.

7. The very love which a soul bears to God, assures her of his grace, and delivers her from the fear of being lost. “Charity casteth out fear.” (1 John 4:18). If, at the hour of death, you are unwilling to pardon an enemy, or to restore what is not your own, or if you wish to keep up an improper friendship, then tremble for your eternal salvation; for you have great reason to be afraid of death; but if you seek to avoid sin, and to preserve in your heart a testimony that you love God, be assured that He is with you: and if the Lord is with you, what do you fear? And if you wish to be assured that you have within you the divine love, embrace death with peace, and offer it from your heart to God. He that offers to God his death, makes an act of love the most perfect that is possible for him to perform; because, by cheerfully embracing death to please God, at the time and in the manner which God ordains, he becomes like the martyrs, the entire merit of whose martyrdom consisted in suffering and dying to please God.

Second Point. Death frees us from actual sins.

8. It is impossible to live in this world without committing at least some slight faults. “A just man shall fall seven times:” (Proverbs 24:16). He who ceases to live, ceases to offend God. Hence St. Ambrose called death the burial of vices: by death they are buried, and never appear again. (De Bono Mort. cap. iv). The Venerable Vincent Caraffa consoled himself, at the hour of death, by saying: “Now that I cease to live, I cease forever to offend my God!” He who dies in the grace of God, goes into that happy state, in which he shall love God forever, and shall never more offend Him. The same holy doctor says, How can we desire this life, in which the longer we live, the greater shall be the load of our sins?

9. Hence the Lord praises the dead more than any man living: “I praised the dead rather than the living.” (Ecclesiasticus 4:2). Because no man on this Earth, however holy he may be, is exempt from sins. A spiritual soul gave directions that the person who should bring to her the news of death, should say: “Console yourself, for the time has arrived when you shall no longer offend God.”

10. St. Ambrose adds, that God permitted death to enter into the world, that, by dying, men should cease to sin: (Loco cit). It is, then, a great error to imagine that death is a chastisement for those who love God. It is a mark of the love which God bears to them, because He shortens their life to put an end to sin, from which they cannot be exempt as long as they remain on this Earth. “For his soul pleased God: therefore He hastened to bring him out of the midst of iniquities.” (Wisdom 4:14).

Third Point. Death delivers us from the danger of falling into Hell, and opens Paradise to us.

11. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints.” (Psalm 115:16). Considered according to the senses, death excites fear and terror; but, viewed with the eye of Faith, it is consoling and desirable. To the saints it is as amiable and as precious, as it appears terrible to sinners. “It is precious,” says St. Bernard, “as the end of labours, the consummation of victory, the gate of life.” The joy of the cup-bearer of Pharaoh, at hearing from Joseph that he should soon be released from prison, bears no comparison to that which a soul that loves God feels on hearing that she is to be liberated from the exile of this Earth, and to be transported to the enjoyment of God in her true country. The Apostle says, that, as long as we remain in the body, we wander at a distance from our country in a strange land, and far removed from the life of God: “While we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:6). Hence, St. Bruno teaches, that “our death should not be called death, but the beginning of life.”  And St. Athanasius says: "To the just, death is but a passage from the miseries of this Earth to the eternal delights of Paradise." “O desirable death!” exclaimed St. Augustine; “who is there that does not desire thee? For thou art the term of evils, the end of toils, and the beginning of everlasting repose!” “O mors desirabilis, malorum finis, laboris clausula, quietis principium.”

12. No one can enter into Heaven to see God without passing through the gate of death. “This is the gate of the Lord the just shall enter into it.” (Psalm 117:20). Hence, addressing death, St. Jerome said:“Death, my sister, if you do not open the gate to me, I cannot enter to enjoy my God.”  And St. Charles Borromeo, seeing in his house a picture of death with a knife in the hand, sent for a painter to cancel the knife, and substitute for it a key of gold; because, said the saint, it is death that opens Paradise. Were a queen confined in a dark prison, how great would be her joy at hearing that the gates of the prison are open, and that she is to return from the dungeon to her palace! It was to be liberated by death from the prison of this life, that David asked, when he said: “Bring my soul out of prison.” (Psalm 141:8). This, too, was the favour which the Venerable Simeon asked of the Infant Jesus, when he held Him in his arms: “Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant.” (Luke 2:29).”As if detained by force,” says St. Ambrose, “he asked to be dismissed.” Simeon sought to be delivered by death, as if he had been compelled by force to live on this Earth.

13. St. Cyprian says, that the sinner, who shall pass from temporal to eternal death, has just reason to be afraid of death. But he who is in the state of grace, and hopes to pass from death to eternal life, which is the true life, fears not death. It is related that a certain rich man gave, to St. John the Almoner, a large sum of money to be dispensed in alms, for the purpose of obtaining from God a long life for his only son. The son died in a short time. The father complained of the death of his son; but, to console him, the Lord sent an angel to say to him: “You have sought a long life for your son, and the Lord has heard your prayer; for your son is in Heaven, where he enjoys eternal life.”

This is the grace which, according to the promise of the prophet Osee, the Redeemer obtained for us. “Death, I will be thy death.” (Osee 13:14). By His redemption, Jesus Christ destroyed death, and changed it into a source of life to us. When St. Pionius, martyr, was asked how he could go to death with so much joy, he answered: “You err; I do not go to death but to life.”  (Apud Eusub., lib. iv. cap. xiv ). Thus also St. Symphorosa exhorted her son, St. Symphorian, to martyrdom: “My son,” said she, “life is not taken away from you; it is only changed for a better one.”

14. St. Augustine says, that they who love God desire to see Him speedily, and that, therefore, to them life is a cause of suffering, and death an occasion of joy. (Trac. ix. in Ep. Joan). St. Teresa used to say, that to her life was death. Hence she composed the celebrated hymn, “I die because I do not die.” To that great servant of God, Donna Sancia Carriglio, a penitent of Father M. Avila, it was one day revealed, that she had but a year to live; she answered: “Alas! must I remain another year at a distance from God? O sorrowful year, which will appear to me longer than an age!” Such is the language of souls who love God from their heart. It is a mark of little love of God not to desire to see Him speedily.

15. Some of you will say: “I desire to go to God, but I fear death! I am afraid of the assaults which I shall then experience from Hell. I find that the saints have trembled at the hour of death; how much more ought I to tremble!” I answer: “It is true that Hell does not cease to assail even the saints at death, but it is also true that God does not cease to assist his servants at that moment; and when the dangers are increased, he multiplies his helps.” (ad Jos. cap. v).

The servant of Eliseus was struck with terror, when he saw the city surrounded by enemies; but the saint inspired him with courage, by showing to him a multitude of angels, sent by God to defend it. Hence the prophet afterwards said: “Fear not, for there are more with us than with them.” (4 Kings 6:16). The powers of Hell will assail the dying Christian; but his angel guardian will come to console him. His patrons, and St. Michael, who has been appointed by God to defend His faithful servants, in their last combat with the devils, will come to his aid. The Mother of God will come to assist those who have been devoted to her. Jesus Christ shall come to defend from the assaults of Hell the souls for which He died on a cross―He will give them confidence and strength to resist every attack.

Hence, filled with courage, they will say: “The Lord is my light and my salvation! Whom shall I fear?” (Isaias 26:1). Truly has Origen said, that the Lord is more desirous of our salvation than the devil is of our perdition, because God’s love for us far surpasses the devil’s hatred of our souls (Hom, xx).

16. God is faithful, He will never permit us to be tempted above our strength (1 Corinthians 10:13). It is true that some saints have suffered great fear at the hour of death; but they have been few. The Lord, as Belluacensis says, has permitted this fear to cleanse them at death from some defect.

But we know that, generally speaking, the saints have died with a joyful countenance. Father Joseph Scamacca, a man of a holy life, being asked if, in dying, he felt confidence in God, answered: “Have I served Mahomet, that I should now doubt of the goodness of my God, or of his wish to save me?” Ah, the Lord knows well how to console His servants in their last moments! Even in the midst of the agony of death, He infuses into their souls a certain sweetness and a certain foretaste of that happiness which He will soon bestow upon them. As they who die in sin begin to experience, from the bed of death, a certain foretaste of Hell―certain extraordinary terrors, remorse, and fits of despair―so, on the other hand, the saints, by the fervent acts of divine love which they then make, and by the confidence and the desire which they feel of soon seeing God, taste, before death, that peace which they shall afterwards fully enjoy in Heaven.

17. Father Suarez died with so much peace, that, in his last moments, he said: “I could not have imagined that death was so sweet!” Being advised by his physician not to fix his thoughts so constantly on death, Cardinal Baronius said: “Is it lest the fear of death should shorten my life? I fear not; on the contrary, I love and desire death!” Of the Cardinal Bishop of Rochester, Saunders relates, that, in preparing to die for the Faith, he put on his best clothes, saying that ho was going to a nuptial feast. When he came within view of the place of execution, he threw away his staff, and said: “O my feet, walk fast; for we are not far from Paradise.”

Before death, he wished to recite the Te Deum, in thanksgiving to God for permitting him to die for the holy Faith; and, full of joy, he laid his head on the block. St. Francis of Assisi began to sing at the hour of death. Brother Elias said to him: “Father, at the hour of death, we ought rather to weep than to sing!” But, replied the saint, “I cannot abstain from singing at the thought of soon going to enjoy God!” A nun of the order of St. Teresa, in her last moments, said to her sisters in religion, who were in tears: “O God! Why do you weep? I am going to possess my Jesus! if you love me, weep not, but rejoice with me!” (Dis. Parol. i. 6).

18. Father Granada relates, that a certain sportsman, found in a wood a hermit singing in his last agony. “How”, said the sportsman, “can you sing in such a state?” The hermit replied: “Brother, between me and God there is nothing but the wall of this body. I now see that since my flesh is falling in pieces, the prison shall be destroyed, and I shall soon go to see God. It is for this reason I rejoice and sing!” Through the desire of seeing God, St. Ignatius, martyr, said, that if the wild beasts should spare him, he would provoke them to devour him. St. Catherine of Genoa was astonished that some persons regarded death as a misfortune, and said: “O beloved death, in what a mistaken light do men view you! Why do you not come to me? I call on you day and night” (Vita, c. 7).

19. Oh! how peculiarly happy is the death of the servants of Mary! Father Binetti relates, that a person, whom he assisted in his last moments and who was devoted to the Blessed Virgin, said to him: “Father, you cannot conceive the consolation which arises at death from the remembrance of having served Mary. Ah! my father, if you knew what happiness I feel on account of having served this good mother! I cannot express it.” What joy shall the lovers of Jesus Christ experience at His coming to them in the most Holy Viaticum! Happy the soul that can then address her Saviour in the words, which St. Philip Neri used when the viaticum was brought to him: “Behold my Love! Behold my Love! Give me my Love!” But, to entertain these sentiments at death, we must have ardently loved Jesus Christ during life.

SERMON 24
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE PAINS OF HELL

I shall first speak of the fire, which is the principal pain that torments the senses of the damned, and afterwards of the other pains of Hell.

1. Behold! The final doom of sinners who abuse the Divine Mercy is, to burn in the fire of Hell. "God threatens Hell, not to send us there, but to deliver us from that place of torments" says St. John Chrysostom (Hom. v. de Poenit). Remember, then, brethren, that God gives you today the opportunity of hearing this sermon, that you may be preserved from Hell, and that you may give up sin, which alone can lead you to Hell.

2. My brethren, it is certain and of Faith that there is a Hell. After judgment the just shall enjoy the eternal glory of Paradise, and sinners shall be condemned to suffer the everlasting chastisement reserved for them in Hell. “And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting.” (Matthew 25:46). Let us examine in what Hell consists. It is what the rich glutton called it “a place of torments.” (Luke 16:28). It is a place of suffering, where each of the senses and powers of the damned has its proper torment, and in which the torments of each person will be increased in proportion to the forbidden pleasures in which he indulged. “As much as she hath glorified herself and lived in delicacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye to her.” (Apocalypse 18:7).

3. In offending God, the sinner does two evils: he abandons God, the sovereign good, Who is able to make him happy, and turns to creatures, who are incapable of giving any real happiness to the soul. Of this injury, which men commit against Him, the Lord complains by His prophet Jeremias: “For My people have done two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and have dug to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremias 2:13). Since, then, the sinner turns his back on God, he shall be tormented in Hell, by the pain arising from the loss of God, of which I shall speak on another occasion [the Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost], and since, in offending God, he turns to creatures, he shall be justly tormented by the same creatures, and principally by fire.

4. “The vengeance on the flesh of the ungodly is fire and worms!” (Ecclesiasticus 7:19). Fire and the remorse of conscience are the principal means by which God takes vengeance on the flesh of the wicked. Hence, in condemning the reprobate to Hell, Jesus Christ commands them to go into eternal fire: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire!” (Matthew 25:41). This fire, then, shall be one of the most cruel executioners of the damned.

5. Even in this life, the pain of fire is the most terrible of all torments. But St. Augustine says, that “in comparison of the fire of Hell, the fire of this Earth is no more than a picture compared with the reality.” Anselm teaches, that the fire of Hell as far surpasses the fire of this world, “as the fire of the real exceeds that of painted fire.” The pain, then, produced by the fire of Hell is far greater than that which is produced by our fire, because God has made the fire of this Earth for the use of man, but he has created the fire of Hell purposely for the chastisement of sinners; and therefore, as Tertullian says, He has made it a minister of His justice. This avenging fire is always kept alive by the wrath of God. “A fire is kindled in My rage.” (Jeremias 15:14)

6. “And the rich man also died, and he was buried in Hell.” (Luke 16:22). The damned are buried in the fire of Hell; hence they have an abyss of fire below, an abyss of fire above, and an abyss of fire on every side. As a fish in the sea is surrounded by water, so the unhappy reprobate are encompassed by fire on every side. The sharpness of the pain of fire may be inferred from the circumstance, that the rich glutton complained of no other torment. “I am tormented in this flame.” (Luke 5:23).

7. The Prophet Isaias says that the Lord will punish the guilt of sinners with the spirit of fire. “If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion by the spirit of burning” (Isaias 4:4). “The spirit of burning” is the pure essence of fire. All spirits or essences, though taken from simple herbs or flowers, are so penetrating, that they reach the very bones. Such is the fire of Hell. Its activity is so great, that a single spark of it would be sufficient to melt a mountain of bronze. The disciple relates, that a damned person, who appeared to a religious, dipped his hand into a vessel of water; the religious placed in the vessel a candlestick of bronze, which was instantly dissolved.

8. This fire shall torment the damned not only externally, but also internally. It will burn the bowels, the heart, the brains, the blood within the veins, and the marrow within the bones. The skin of the damned shall be like a cauldron, in which their bowels, their flesh, and their bones shall be burned. David says, that the bodies of the damned shall be like so many furnaces of fire. “Thou shalt make them as an oven of fire in the time of Thy anger.” (Psalm 20:10).

9. O God! Certain sinners cannot bear to walk under a strong sun, or to remain before a large fire in a close room; they cannot endure a spark from a candle; and they fear not the fire of Hell, which, according to the Prophet Isaias, not only burns, but devours the unhappy damned! “Which of you can dwell with devouring fire.” (Isaias 33:14). As a lion devours a lamb, so the fire of Hell devours the reprobate; but it devours without destroying life, and thus tortures them with a continual death. “Continue”, says St. Peter Damian to the sinner who indulges in impurity, “continue to satisfy your flesh; a day will come, or rather an eternal night, when your impurities, like pitch, shall nourish a fire within your very bowels.” (Epist. 6). And according to St. Cyprian, the impurities of the wicked shall boil in the very fat which will issue from their accursed bodies.

10. St. Jerome teaches, that in this fire sinners shall suffer not only the pain of the fire, but also all the pains which men endure on this Earth. (Ep. ad Pam). How manifold are the pains to which men are subject in this life. Pains in the sides, pains in the head, pains in the loins, pains in the bowels. All these together torture the damned.

11. The fire itself will bring with it the pain of darkness; for, by its smoke it will, according to St. John, produce a storm of darkness which shall blind the damned. “To whom the storm of darkness is reserved forever.” (Jude 1:13). Hence, Hell is called a land of darkness covered with the shadow of death. “A land that is dark and covered with the mist of death a land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and no order but everlasting horror dwelleth.” (Job 10:21, 22). To hear that a criminal is shut up in a dungeon for ten or twenty years excites our compassion. Hell is a dungeon closed on every side, into which a ray of the sun or the light of a candle never enters. Thus the damned “shall never see light.” (Psalm 48:20). The fire of this world gives light, but the fire of Hell is utter darkness. In explaining the words of David, “the voice of the Lord divideth the flame of fire,” (Psalm 28:7).

St. Basil says, that in Hell the Lord separates the fire that burns from the flame which illuminates, and therefore this fire burns, but gives no light. St Albert the Great explains this passage more concisely by saying that God “divides the heat from the light.” St. Thomas teaches, that “in Hell there is only so much light as is necessary to torment the damned by the sight of their associates and of the devils: (3 p., q. 97, art. 5). And according to St. Augustine, the bare sight of these infernal monsters excites sufficient terror to cause the death of all the damned, if they were capable of dying.

12. To suffer a parching thirst, without having a drop of water to quench it, is intolerably painful. It has sometimes happened, that travellers who could procure no refreshment after a long journey, have fainted from the pain produced by thirst. So great is the thirst of the damned, that if one of them were offered all the water on this Earth, he would exclaim: All this water is not sufficient to extinguish the burning thirst which I endure. But, alas! the unhappy damned shall never have a single drop of water to refresh their tongues. “He cried out and said: ‘Father Abraham! Have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame!” (Luke 16:24). The rich glutton has not obtained, and shall never obtain, this drop of water, as long as God shall be God.

13. The reprobate shall be likewise tormented by the stench which pervades Hell. The stench shall arise from the very bodies of the damned. “Out of their carcasses shall arise a stink.” (Isaias 34:3). The bodies of the damned are called carcasses, not because they are dead (for they are living, and shall be forever alive to pain), but on account of the stench which they exhale. Would it not be very painful to be shut up in a close room with a fetid corpse? St. Bonaventure says, “that if the body of one of the damned were placed in the Earth, it would, by its stench, be sufficient to cause the death of all men.” How intolerable, then, must it be to live forever in the dungeons of Hell in the midst of the immense multitudes of the damned! Some foolish worldlings say: “If I go to Hell, I shall not be there alone!” Miserable fools! Do you not see that the greater the number of your companions, the more insufferable shall be your torments? “There,” says St. Thomas, “the society of the reprobate shall cause an increase and not a diminution of misery.” (Summa Theol., Suppl., q. 86, art. 1). The society of the reprobate augments their misery, because each of the damned is a source of suffering to all the others. Hence, the greater their number, the more they shall mutually torment each other. “And the people,” says the prophet Isaias, “shall be ashes after a fire, as a bundle of thorns they shall be burnt with fire.” (Isaias 33:12). Placed in the midst of the furnace of Hell, the damned are like so many grains reduced to ashes by that abyss of fire, and like so many thorns tied together and wounding each other.

14. They are tormented not only by the stench of their companions, but also by their shrieks and lamentations. How painful it is to a person longing for sleep to hear the groans of a sick man, the barking of a dog, or the screams of an infant. The damned must listen incessantly to the wailing and howling of their associates, not for a night, nor for a thousand nights, but for all eternity, without the interruption of a single moment.

15. The damned are also tormented by the narrowness of the place in which they are confined; for, although the dungeon of Hell is large, it will be too small for so many millions of the reprobate, who like sheep shall be heaped one over the other. “They are,” says David, “laid in Hell like sheep.” (Psalm 48:15). We learn from the Scriptures that they shall be pressed together like grapes in the winepress, by the vengeance of an angry God. “The winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty.” (Apocalypse 19:15). From this pressure shall arise the pain of immobility. “Let them become unmoveable as a stone.” (Exodus 16:16). In whatever position the damned shall fall into Hell after the general judgment, whether on the side, or on the back, or with the head downwards, in that they must remain for eternity, without being ever able to move foot or hand or finger, as long as God shall be God. In a word, St. John Chrysostom says, that all the pains of this life, however great they may be, are scarcely a shadow of the torments of the damned. (Hom, xxxix. ad pop. Ant).

16. The reprobate, then, shall be tormented in all the senses of the body. They shall also be tormented in all the powers of the soul. Their memory shall be tormented by the remembrance of the years which they had received from God for the salvation of their souls, and which they spent in labouring for their own damnation; by the remembrance of so many graces and so many divine lights which they abused. Their understanding shall be tormented by the knowledge of the great happiness which they forfeited in losing their souls, Heaven, and God; and by a conviction that this loss is irreparable. Their will shall be tormented by seeing that whatsoever they ask or desire shall be refused. “The desire of the wicked shall perish.” (Psalm 111:10). They shall never have any of those things for which they wish, and must forever suffer all that is repugnant to their will. They would wish to escape from these torments and to find peace; but in these torments they must forever remain, and peace they shall never enjoy.

17. Perhaps they may sometimes receive a little comfort, or at least enjoy occasional repose? No, says Cyprian (Serm. de Ascens). In this life, how great soever may be the tribulations which we suffer, there is always some relief or interruption. The damned must remain forever in a pit of fire, always in torture, always weeping, without ever enjoying a moments repose. But perhaps there is someone to pity their sufferings? At the very time that they are so much afflicted the devils continually reproach them with the sins for which they are tormented, saying: “Suffer, burn, live forever in despair! You yourselves have been the cause of your destruction!” And do not the saints, the Divine Mother, and God, Who is called the Father of Mercies, take compassion on their miseries? No; “the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from Heaven.” (Matthew 26:29). The saints, represented by the stars, not only do not pity the damned, but they even rejoice in the vengeance inflicted on the injuries offered to their God. Neither can the divine mother pity them, because they hate her Son. And Jesus Christ, who died for the love of them, cannot pity them, because they have despised His love, and have voluntarily brought themselves to perdition.

SERMON 25
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE REMORSE OF THE DAMNED

“But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” (Matthew 8:12).

In the Gospel it is related that, “when Jesus Christ entered into Capharnaum, there came to Him a centurion beseeching Him” to cure his servant, who lay sick of the palsy. Jesus answered: “I will come and heal him.” “No,” replied the centurion, “I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.” (Matthew 5:8). Seeing the centurion’s Faith, the Redeemer instantly consoled him by restoring health to his servant; and, turning to His disciples, he said: “Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” By these words Our Lord wished to signify, that many persons born in infidelity shall be saved, and enjoy the society of the saints, and that many who are born in the bosom of the Church shall be cast into Hell, where the worm of conscience, by its gnawing, shall make them weep bitterly for all eternity. Let us examine the remorse of conscience which, a damned Christian shall suffer in Hell.

First remorse, arising from the thought of the little which he required to do in order to save his soul.
Second remorse, arising from the remembrance of the trifles for which he lost his soul.
Third remorse, arising from the knowledge of the great good which he has lost through his own fault.

First remorse of the damned Christian, arising from the thought of the little which he required to do in order to save his soul.

1 . A damned soul once appeared to St. Hubert, and said, that two remorses were her most cruel executioners in Hell: (a) the thought of the little which was necessary for her to have done in this life to secure her salvation; and (b) the thought of the trifles for which she brought herself to eternal misery. The same thing has been said by St. Thomas Aquinas. Speaking of the reprobate, he says: “They shall be in sorrow, principally because they are damned for nothing, and because they could most easily have obtained eternal life.”

Let us stop to consider this first source of remorse; that is, how few and transitory are the pleasures for which all the damned are lost. Each of the reprobate will say for eternity: “If I abstained from such a gratification; if in certain circumstances I overcame human respect; if I avoided such an occasion of sin, or such a companion, I should not now he damned; if I had frequented some pious sodality; if I had gone to confession every week; if in temptations I had recommended myself to God, I would not have relapsed into sin. I have so often proposed to do these things, but I have not done them. I began to practise these means of salvation, but afterwards gave them up―and thus I am lost!”

2. This torment of the damned will be increased by the remembrance of the good example, given them by some young companions, who led a chaste and pious life, even in the midst of the world. It will be still more increased by the recollection of all the gifts, which the Lord had bestowed upon them, that, by their cooperation, they might acquire eternal salvation―the gifts of nature health, riches, respectability of family, talents―all gifts granted by God, not to be employed in the indulgence of pleasures and in the gratification of vanity, but in the sanctification of their souls, and in becoming saints.

So many gifts of grace, so many divine lights, holy inspirations, loving calls, and so many years of life to repair past disorders. But they shall forever hear, from the angel of the Lord, that for them the time of salvation is past. “The angel whom I saw standing, swore by Him that liveth forever and ever, ... that time shall be no longer!” (Apocalypse 10:6).

3. Alas! What cruel swords shall all these blessings, received from God, be to the heart of a poor damned Christian, when he shall see himself shut up in the prison of Hell, and that there is no more time to repair his eternal ruin! In despair he will say to his wretched companions: “The harvest is past; the summer is ended; and we are not saved!” (Jeremias 8:20).

The time, he will say, of gathering fruits of eternal life is past; the summer, during which we could have saved our souls, is over, but we are not saved: the winter is come; but it is an eternal winter, in which we must live in misery and despair as long as God shall be God.

4. “O fool,” he will say, “that I have been! If I had suffered for God, the pains to which I have submitted for the indulgence of my passions; if the labors, which I have endured for my own damnation, had been borne for my salvation, how happy should I now be! And what now remains of all past pleasures, but remorse and pain, which now torture, and shall torture me for eternity?” Finally, he will say, “I might be forever happy and now I must be forever miserable!” Ah! This thought will torture the damned more than the fire and all the other torments of Hell.

Second remorse of the damned, arising from the remembrance of the trifles for which they lost their souls.

5. Saul forbade the people, under pain of death, to taste food. His son, Jonathan, who was then young, being hungry, tasted a little honey. Having discovered that Jonathan had violated the command, the king declared that he should die. Seeing himself condemned to death, Jonathan said with tears: “I did but taste a little honey, and behold I must die!” (1 Kings 14:43). But the people, moved to pity for Jonathan, interposed with his father, and delivered him from death. For the unhappy damned, there is no compassion; there is no one to intercede with God to deliver them from the eternal death of Hell. On the contrary, all rejoice at the just punishment which they suffer for having willfully lost God and Paradise for the sake of a transitory pleasure.

6. After having eaten the pottage of lentils, for which he sold his birthright as being the first-born, Esau was tortured with grief and remorse for what he had lost, and “roared out with a great cry” (Genesis 27:34). Oh how great shall be the roaring and howling of the damned, at the thought of having lost, for a few poisonous and momentary pleasures, the everlasting kingdom of Paradise, and of being condemned for eternity to a continual death!

7. The unfortunate reprobate shall be continually employed in reflecting on the unhappy cause of their damnation. To us, who live on Earth, our past life appears but a moment ― but a dream. Alas! What will the fifty or sixty years, which they may have spent in this world, appear to the damned, when they shall find themselves in the abyss of eternity, and when they shall have passed a hundred and a thousand millions of years in torments, and shall see that their miserable eternity is only beginning, and shall be forever in its commencement? But have the fifty years, spent on this Earth, been full of pleasures? Perhaps the sinner, living in enmity with God, enjoyed uninterrupted happiness in his sins? How long do the pleasures of sin last? Only for a few minutes; the remaining part of the lives, of those who live at a distance from God, is full of anguish and pain. Oh what will these moments of pleasure appear to a damned soul, when she shall find herself in a pit of fire?

8. “What hath pride profited us? Or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things have passed away like a shadow.” (Wisdom 5:8). “Unhappy me!” each of the damned shall say, “I have lived on Earth according to my corrupt inclinations; I have indulged my pleasures; but what have they profited me? They have lasted but for a short time; they have made me lead a life of bitterness and disquietude; and now I must burn in this furnace forever, in despair, and abandoned by all.”

Third remorse of the damned, arising from the knowledge of the great good which they have lost by their own fault.

9. A certain queen, blinded by the ambition of being a sovereign, said one day: “If the Lord gives me a reign of forty years, I shall renounce Paradise.” The unhappy queen reigned for forty years; but, now that she is in another world, she cannot but be grieved at having made such a renunciation. Oh how great must be her anguish at the thought of having lost the kingdom of Paradise for the sake of a reign of forty years, full of troubles, of crosses, and of fears! pains of Hell!” says St. Peter Chrysologus.

10. The greatest pain in Hell is the loss of God, that Sovereign Good, Who is the source of all the joys of Paradise. “Let torments,” says St. Bruno, “be added to torments, and let them not be deprived of God.” (Serm. de Jud. fin). The damned would be content to have a thousand Hells, added to the Hell which they suffer, provided they were not deprived of God; but their Hell shall consist in seeing themselves deprived forever of God through their own fault. St. Teresa used to say, that when a person loses, through his own fault, a trifle a small sum of money, or a ring of little value, the thought of having lost it through his own neglect, afflicts him and disturbs his peace. What then must be the anguish of the damned in reflecting that they have lost God, a good of infinite value, and have lost Him through their own fault?

11. The damned shall see that God wished them to be saved, and had given them the choice of eternal life or of eternal death. “Before man is life and death, that which he shall choose shall be given to him.” (Ecclesiasticus 15:18). They shall see that, if they wished, they might have acquired eternal happiness, and that, by their own choice, they are damned. On the Day of Judgment they shall see many of their companions among the elect; but, because they would not put a stop to their career of sin, they have gone to end it in Hell. “Therefore we have erred,” they shall say to their unhappy associates in Hell; we have erred in losing Heaven and God through our own fault, and our error is irreparable. They shall continually exclaim: “There is no peace for my bones because of my sins.” (Psalm 37:4). The thought of having been the cause of their own damnation produces an internal pain, which enters into the very bones of the damned, and prevents them from ever enjoying a moments repose. Hence, each of them shall be to himself an object of the greatest horror. Each shall suffer the pain threatened by the Lord: “I will set thee before thy face.” (Psalm 49:21).

12. If, beloved brethren, you have hitherto been so foolish as to lose God for a miserable pleasure, do not persevere in your folly. Endeavor, now that you have it in your power, to repair your past error. Tremble! Perhaps, if you do not now resolve to change your life, you shall be abandoned by God, and be lost forever. When the Devil tempts you, remember Hell, the thought of Hell will preserve you from that land of misery. I say, remember Hell and have recourse to Jesus Christ and to most holy Mary, and they will deliver you from sin, which is the gate of Hell.

SERMON 26
St. Alphonsus Liguori
DEATH IS CERTAIN AND UNCERTAIN

“Let down your nets for a draught” (Luke 5:4).

In the Gospel we find that, having gone up into one of the ships, and having heard from St. Peter, that he and his companions had labored all the night and had taken nothing, Jesus Christ said: “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.” They obeyed; and having cast out their nets into the sea, they took such a multitude of fishes, that the nets were nearly broken. Brethren, God has placed us in the midst of the sea of this life, and has commanded us to cast out our nets, that we may catch fishes; that is, that we may perform good works, by which we can acquire merits for eternal life. Happy we shall be, if we attain this end and save our souls! Unhappy we shall be, if, instead of laying up treasures for Heaven, we by our sins merit Hell, and bring our souls to damnation! Our happiness or misery for eternity depends on the moment of our death, which is certain and uncertain. The Lord assures us that death is certain, that we may prepare for it; but, on the other hand, He leaves us uncertain as to the time of our death, that we may be always prepared for it two points of the utmost importance.

First Point. It is certain that we shall die.
Second Point. It is uncertain when we shall die.

First Point. It is certain that we shall die.

1. “It is appointed unto men once to die.” (Hebrews 9:27). The decree has been passed for each of us: we must all die. St. Cyprian says, that we are all born with the halter on the neck: hence, every step we make brings us nearer to the gibbet. For each of us the gibbet shall be the last sickness, which will end in death. As then, brethren, your name has been inserted in the registry of baptism, so it shall be one day written in the record of the dead. As, in speaking of your ancestors, you say: “God be merciful to my father, to my uncle, or to my brother!” so others shall say the same of you when you shall be in the other world; and as you have often heard the death-bell toll for many, so others shall hear it toll for you.

2. All things future, which regard men now living, are uncertain, but death is certain. “All other goods and evils,” says St. Augustine, “are uncertain; death only is certain.” It is uncertain whether such an infant shall be rich or poor, whether he shall enjoy good or ill health, whether he shall die at an early or at an advanced age. But it is certain that he shall die, though he be son of a peer or of a monarch. And, when the hour arrives, no one can resist the stroke of death. The same St. Augustine says: “Fires, waters, and the sword are resisted; kings are resisted: death comes; who resists it?” (in Psalm xii). We may resist fires, floods, the sword of enemies, and the power of princes; but who can resist death? A certain king of France, as Belluacensis relates, said in his last moments: “Behold, with all my power, I cannot make death wait for a single hour!” No; when the term of life has arrived, death does not wait even a moment― “Thou hast appointed his bounds, which cannot be passed!” (Job 14:5).

3. We must all die. This truth we not only believe, but see with our eyes. In every age houses, streets, and cities are filled with new inhabitants: their former possessors are shut up in the grave. And, as for them the days of life are over, so a time shall come when not one of all who are now alive shall be among the living. “Days shall be formed, and no one in them.” (Psalm 138:16). “Who is the man that shall live, and shall not see death?” (Psalm 88:49). Should any one flatter himself that he will not die, he would not only be a disbeliever, for it is of Faith that we shall all die, but he would be regarded as a madman. We know that all men, even rulers and princes and emperors, have all, at a certain time, fallen victims to death. And where are they now?”Tell me,” says St. Bernard, “where are the lovers of the world? Nothing has remained of them but ashes and worms!” Of so many great men of the world, though buried in marble mausoleums, nothing has remained but a little dust and a few withered bones. We know that our ancestors are no longer among the living―of their death we are constantly reminded by their pictures, their memorandum books, their beds, and by the clothes which they have left us. And can we entertain a hope or a doubt that we shall not die? Of all who lived in this town a hundred years ago how many are now alive? They are all in eternity in an eternal day of delights, or in an eternal night of torments. Either the one or the other shall be our lot also.

4. But, dear God! We all know that we shall die! The misfortune is that we imagine death as distant―as if it were never to come―and therefore we lose sight of it. But, sooner or later, whether we think or think not of death, it is certain, and of Faith, that we shall die, and that we are drawing nearer to it every day. “For we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come.” (Hebrews 13:14). This is not our country: here we are pilgrims on a journey. “While we are in the body we are absent from the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:6). Our country is Paradise―if we know how to acquire it by the grace of God and by our own good works. Our house is not that in which we live―we dwell in it only in passing―our dwelling is in eternity. “Man shall go into the house of his eternity!” (Ecclesiasticus 12:5). How great would be the folly of the man, who, in passing through a strange country, should lay out all his property in the purchase of houses and possessions in a foreign land, and reduce himself to the necessity of living miserably, for the remainder of his days, in his own country! And is not he, too, a fool, who seeks after happiness in this world, from which he must soon depart; and, by his sins, exposes himself to the danger of misery in the next, where he must live for eternity?

5. Tell me, beloved brethren, if, instead of preparing for his approaching death, a person condemned to die were, on his way to the place of execution, to employ the few remaining moments of his life in admiring the beauty of the houses as he passed along, in thinking of balls and comedies, in uttering immodest words, and detracting his neighbours, would you not say that the unhappy man had either lost his reason, or that he was abandoned by God? And are not you on the way to death? Why then do you seek only the gratification of the senses? Why do you not think of preparing the accounts which you shall one day―and perhaps very soon―have to render at the tribunal of Jesus Christ? Souls that have Faith, leave to the fools of this world the care of realizing a fortune on this Earth; seek you to make a fortune for the next life, which shall be eternal. The present life must end, and end very soon.

6. Go to the grave in which your relatives and friends are buried. Look at their dead bodies: each of them says to you: “Yesterday for me; today for thee.” (Ecclesiasticus 38:23). What has happened to me, must one day happen to thee! Thou shalt become dust and ashes, as I am! And where shall thy soul be found, if, before death, thou hast not settled thy accounts with God? Ah, brethren! If you wish to live well, and to to have you accounts ready for that great day, on which your doom to eternal life or to eternal death must be decided, endeavour, during the remaining days of life, to live with death before your eyes. “Death, thy sentence is welcome!” (Ecclesiasticus 41:3). Oh how correct are the judgments, how well directed the actions, of those who form their judgments, and perform their actions, with death before their view! The remembrance of death destroys all attachment to the goods of this Earth. “Let the end of life be considered,“ says St. Lawrence Justinian, “and there will be nothing in this world to be loved.” (de Ligno Vitæ, cap. v). Yes; all the riches, honors, and pleasures of this world are easily despised, by him who considers that he must soon leave them forever, and that he shall be thrown into the grave to be the food of worms.

7. Some banish the thought of death, as if, by avoiding to think of death, they could escape it. But death cannot be avoided; and they who banish the thought of it, expose themselves to great danger of an unhappy death. By keeping death before their eyes, the saints have despised all the goods of this Earth. Hence St. Charles Borromeo kept on his table a death’s head, that he might have it continually in view. Cardinal Baronius had the words, “Remember death” inscribed on his ring. The Venerable P. Juvenal Anzia, Bishop of Saluzo, had before him a skull, on which was written, “As I am, so thou shalt be!” In retiring to deserts and caves, the holy solitaries brought with them the head of a dead man; and for what purpose? To prepare themselves for death. Thus, a certain hermit, being asked at death, why he was so cheerful, answered: “I have kept death always before my eyes; and therefore, now that it has arrived, I feel no terror.” But, oh, how full of terror is death, when it comes to those who have thought of it but seldom.

Second Point. It is uncertain when we shall die.

8. “Nothing,” says the Idiota, “is more certain than death, but nothing is more uncertain than the hour of death.” It is certain that we shall die. God has already determined the year, the month, the day, the hour, the moment, in which each of us shall leave this Earth, and enter into eternity; but this moment He has resolved not to make known to us. “And justly,” says St. Augustine, “has the Lord concealed it; for, had He manifested to all the day fixed for their death, many should be induced to continue in the habit of sin, by the certainty of not dying before the appointed day.” “ (in Psalm 141v). Hence the holy doctor teaches that “God has concealed from us the day of our death, that we may spend all our days well.”  (Hom. xii. inter 50). Hence Jesus Christ says: “Be you also ready; for at what hour you think not the Son of Man will come.” (Luke 12:40). That we may be always prepared to die, he wishes us to be persuaded that death will come when we least expect it.

“Of death,” says St. Gregory, “we are uncertain, that we may be found always prepared for death.” St. Paul, likewise, admonishes us that the day of the Lord, that is, the day on which the Lord shall judge us, shall come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night, “The day of the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). “Since, then,” says St. Bernard, “death may assail you and take away your life in every place and at every time, you should, if you wish to die well and to save your soul, be at all times and places in expectation of death!” and St. Augustine says:  “The Lord conceals from us the last day of our life, that we may always have ready the account which we must render to God after death.” (Hom, xii).

9. Many Christians are lost, because many, even among the old, who feel the approach of death, flatter themselves that it is at a distance, and that it will not come without giving them time to prepare for it. “Death, even when it is felt, is believed to be far off!”  says St. Gregory, (Moral, lib. 8). O brethren, are these your sentiments? How do you know that your death is near or distant? What reason have you to suppose that death will give you time to prepare for it? How many do we know who have died suddenly? Some have died walking; some sitting; and some during sleep. Did any one of these ever imagine that he should die in such a manner? But they have died in this way; and if they were in enmity with God, what has been the lot of their unhappy souls? Miserable the man who meets with an unprovided death!

And I assert, that all who ordinarily neglect to unburden their conscience, die without preparation, even though they should have seven or eight days to prepare for a good death; for as I shall show in the forty-fourth sermon, it is very difficult, during these days of confusion and terror, to settle accounts with God, and to return to him with sincerity. But I repeat that death may come upon you in such a manner, that you shall not have time even to receive the sacraments. And who knows whether, in another hour, you shall be among the living or the dead? The uncertainty of the time of his death made Job tremble. “For I knew not how long I shall continue, or whether, after a while, my Maker may take me away.” (Job 32:22). Hence St. Basil exhorts us in going to bed at night, not to trust that we shall see the next day."  (Inst. ad fil. spirit).

10. Whenever, then, the devil tempts you to sin, by holding out the hope that you will go to confession and repair the evil you have done, say to him in answer: “How do I know that this shall not be the last day of my life? And should death overtake me in sin, and not give me time to make my confession, what shall become of me for all eternity?” Alas! how many poor sinners have been struck dead in the very act of indulging in some sinful pleasure, and have been sent to Hell! “As fishes are taken by the hook, and as birds are caught with the snare, so men are taken in the evil time.” (Ecclesiasticus 9:12). Fishes are taken with the hook while they eat the bait that conceals the hook, which is the instrument of their death. The evil time is precisely that in which sinners are actually offending God. In the act of sin, they calm their conscience by a security of afterwards making a good confession, and reversing the sentence of their damnation. But death comes suddenly upon them, and does not leave them time for repentance. “For, when they shall say peace and security, then shall sudden destruction come upon them.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

11. If a person lends a sum of money, he is careful instantly to get a written acknowledgment, and to take all the other means necessary to secure the repayment of it. “Who,” he says, “can know what shall happen? Death may come, and I may lose my money.” And how does it happen that there are so many who neglect to use the same caution for the salvation of their souls, which is of far greater importance than all temporal interests? Why do they not also say: “Who knows what may happen? Death may come, and I may lose my soul?” If you lose a sum of money, all is not lost; if you lose it one way, you may recover the loss in another; but he that dies and loses his soul, loses all, and has no hope of ever recovering it. If we could die twice, we might, if we lost our soul the first time, save it the second. But we cannot die twice. “It is appointed unto men once to die,” (Hebrews 9:27) Mark the word “once”― death happens to each of us but once: he who has erred the first time has erred forever. Hence, to bring the soul to Hell is an irreparable error.

12. The Venerable Father John Avila was a man of great sanctity, and apostle of Spain. What was the answer of this great servant of God, who had led a holy life from his childhood, when he was told that his death was at hand, and that he had but a short time to live? “Oh!” replied the holy man with trembling, “that I had a little more time to prepare for death!” St. Agatho, abbot, after spending so many years in penance, trembled at the hour of death, and said: “What shall become of me? who can know the judgments of God?” And, brethren, what will you say when the approach of death shall be announced to you, and when, from the priest who attends you, you shall hear these words: “Go forth, Christian soul, from this world?” You will, perhaps, say: “Wait a little! Allow me to prepare better!” No; depart immediately; death does not wait. You should therefore prepare yourselves now. “With fear and trembling work out your salvation.” (Philippians 2:12). St. Paul admonishes us that, if we wish to save our souls, we must live in fear and trembling, lest death may find us in sin. Be attentive, brethren: there is question of eternity. “If a tree fall to the south or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall there shall it be.” (Ecclesiasticus 11:3). If, when the tree of your life is cut down, you fall to the south that is, if you obtain eternal life how great shall be your joy at being able to say: “I shall be saved! I have secured all! I can never lose God! I shall be happy forever!” But, if you fall to the north that is, into eternal damnation how great shall be your despair! Alas! you shall say: “I have erred, and my error is irremediable!” Arise, then, from your tepidity, and, after this sermon, make a resolution to give yourselves sincerely to God. This resolution will insure you a good death, and will make you happy for eternity.

SERMON 27
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE DEATH OF THE SINNER

“Thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee.” (Luke 19:43).

Seeing from a distance the city of Jerusalem, in which the Jews were soon to put Him to death, Jesus Christ wept over it. Our merciful Redeemer wept at the consideration of the chastisement which was soon to be inflicted on the city, and which He foretold to her inhabitants. “Thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee. “ Unhappy city! Thou shalt one day see thyself encompassed by enemies, who shall beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children in thee, and shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone. Most beloved brethren, this unhappy city is a figure of the soul of a sinner, who, at the hour of death, shall find himself surrounded by his enemies―first, by remorse of conscience; secondly, by the assaults of the devils; and thirdly, by the fears of eternal death.

First Point. The sinner at death shall be tortured by remorses of conscience.

1. “Their soul shall die in a storm.” (Job 26:14). The unhappy sinners, who remain in sin, die in a tempest, with which God has beforehand threatened them. “A tempest shall break out and come upon the head of the wicked.” (Jeremias xxiii. 19). At the commencement of his illness, the sinner is not troubled by remorse or fear; because his relatives, friends, physicians, and all tell him that his sickness is not dangerous; thus he is deceived and hopes to recover. But when his illness increases, and malignant symptoms―the harbingers of approaching death―begin to appear, then the storm, with which the Lord has threatened the wicked, shall commence. “When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction as a tempest shall be at hand.” (Proverbs 1:27). This tempest shall be formed, as well by the pains of sickness, as by the fear of being obliged to depart from this Earth, and to leave all things; but still more by the remorse of conscience, which shall place before his eyes, all the irregularities of his past life. “They shall come with fear at the thought of their sins, and their iniquities shall stand against them to convict them.” (Wisdom 4:20). Then shall his sins rush upon his mind, and fill him with terror. His iniquities shall stand against him to convict him, and, without the aid of other testimony, shall assail him, and prove that he deserves Hell.

2. The dying sinner will confess his sins; but, according to St. Augustine, “The repentance which is sought from a sick man is infirm.” (Serm, xxxvii., de Temp). And St. Jerome says, that “of a hundred thousand sinners who continue till death in the state of sin, scarcely one shall be saved.” (Epis. de Mort. Eus). St. Vincent Ferrer writes, that “it is a greater miracle to save such sinners, than to raise the dead to life.” (Serm. i., de Nativ. Virgin). They shall feel convinced of the evil they have done; they will wish, but shall not be able, to detest it. Antiochus understood the malice of his sins when he said: “Now I remember the evils that I have done in Jerusalem.” (1 Machabees 6:12). He remembered his sins, but did not detest them. He died in despair and oppressed with great sadness, saying: “Behold, I perish with great grief in a strange land” (1 Machabees 6:13). According to St. Fulgentius, the same happened to Saul at the hour of death: he remembered his sins; “he dreaded the punishment which they deserved; but he did not detest them.”

3. O how difficult is it for a sinner, who has slept many years in sin, to repent sincerely at the hour of death, when his mind is darkened, and his heart hardened! “His heart shall be as hard as a stone, and as firm as a smiths anvil.” (Job 41:15). During life, instead of yielding to the graces and calls of God, he became more obdurate, as the anvil is hardened by repeated strokes of the hammer. “A hard heart shall fare evil at the last.” (Ecclesiasticus 3:27). By loving sin till death, he has loved the danger of his damnation, and therefore God will justly permit him to perish in the danger in which he wished to live till death.

4. St. Augustine says, “that he who is abandoned by sin before he abandons it, will scarcely detest it as he ought at the hour of death; for he will then detest it, not through a hatred of sin, but through necessity.” But how shall he be able to hate from his heart the sins which he has loved till death? He must love the enemy, whom till then he has hated, and he must hate the person whom he has till that moment loved. O what mountains must he pass! He shall probably meet with a fate similar to that of a certain person, who kept in confinement a great number of wild beasts, in order to let them loose on the enemies who might assail him. But the wild beasts, as soon as he unchained them, instead of attacking his enemies, devoured himself. When the sinner will wish to drive away his iniquities, they shall cause his destruction, either by complacency in objects till then loved, or by despair of pardon at the sight of their numbers and enormity. “Evils shall catch the unjust man unto destruction.” (Psalm 139:12). St. Bernard says, that at death the sinner shall see himself chained and bound by his sins. “We are your works; we will not desert you! We will not leave you! We will accompany you to judgment, and will be your companions for all eternity in Hell!”

Second Point. The dying sinner shall be tortured by the assaults of the devils.

5. “The devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time.” (Apocalypse 12:12). At death the devil exerts all his powers to secure the soul that is about to leave this world; for he knows, from the symptoms of the disease, that he has but little time to gain her for eternity. The Council of Trent teaches that Jesus Christ has left us the Sacrament of Extreme Unction as a most powerful defense against the temptations of the devil at the hour of death. And the holy Council adds, that “there is no time in which the enemy combats against us with so much violence in order to effect our damnation, and to make us despair of the divine mercy, as at the end of life.” (Sess. 14, cap. ix. Doctr. de Sacr. Extr. Unct).

6. O how terrible are the assaults and snares of the devil against the souls of dying persons, even though they have led a holy life! After his recovery from a most severe illness, the holy king Eleazar said, that the temptations by which the devil assails men at death, can be conceived only by him who has felt them. We read in the life of St. Andrew Avelliuo, that in his agony he had so fierce a combat with Hell, that all the religious present were seized with trembling. They perceived that, in consequence of the agitation, his face swelled, and became black, all his members trembled, and a flood of tears gushed from his eyes. All began to weep through compassion, and were filled with terror, at the sight of a saint dying in such a manner. But they were afterwards consoled, when they saw that as soon as an image of most holy Mary was held before him, he became perfectly calm, and breathed forth his blessed soul with great joy.

7. Now, if this happens to the saints, what shall become of poor sinners, who have lived in sin till death? At that awful moment the devil does not come alone to tempt them in a thousand ways, in order to bring them to eternal perdition, but he calls companions to his assistance. “Their house shall be filled with serpents.” (Isaias 13:21). When a Christian is about to leave this world, his house is filled with devils, who unite together in order to effect his ruin. “All her persecutors have taken her in the midst of straits.” (Lamentations 1:3). All his enemies will encompass him in the straits of death.

One shall say: Be not afraid; you shall not die of this sickness! Another will say: “You have been for so many years deaf to the calls of God, and can you now expect that he will save you?” Another will ask: “How can you repair the frauds of your past life, and the injuries you have done to your neighbor in his property and character?” Another shall ask: “What hope can there be for you? Do you not see that all your confessions have been null that they have been made without true sorrow, and without a firm purpose of amendment? How can you repair them with this heart, which you feel so hard? Do you not see that you are lost?”

And in the midst of these straits and attacks of despair, the dying sinner, full of agitation and confusion, must pass into eternity. “The people shall be troubled and they shall pass.” (Job 34:20).

Third Point. The dying sinner shall be tortured by the fears of eternal death.

8. Miserable the sick man who takes to his bed in the state of mortal sin! He that lives in sin till death shall die in sin. “You shall die in your sin!” (John 8:21). It is true that, in whatsoever hour the sinner is converted, God promises to pardon him; but to no sinner has God promised the grace of conversion at the hour of death. “Seek the Lord while He may be found!” (Isaias 4:6). Then, there is for some sinners a time when they shall seek God and shall not find Him. “You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me.” (John 7:34). The unhappy beings will go to confession at the hour of death; they will promise and weep, and ask mercy of God, but without knowing what they do. A man who sees himself under the feet of a foe, pointing a dagger to his throat, will shed tears, ask pardon, and promise to serve his enemy as a slave during the remainder of his life. But, will the enemy believe him? No; he will feel convinced that his words are not sincere that his object is to escape from his hands, and that, should he be pardoned, he will become more hostile than ever. In like manner, how can God pardon the dying sinner, when He sees that all his acts of sorrow, and all his promises, proceed not from the heart, but from a dread of death and of approaching damnation.

9. In the recommendation of the departing soul, the assisting priest prays to the Lord, saying: “Recognize, O Lord, thy creature!” But God answers: “I know that he is my creature; but, instead of regarding me as his Creator, he has treated me as an enemy!” The priest continues his prayer, and says: “Remember not his past iniquities.” “I would pardon all the past sins of his youth” replies the Lord, “but he has continued to despise Me till this moment the very hour of his death!” “They have turned their back upon Me, and not their face: and, in the time of affliction, they will say: ‘Arise, and deliver us!’ Where are the gods which thou hast made thee? Let them rise and deliver thee!” (Jeremias 2:27-28). “You have turned your back upon me till death” says the Lord, “and do you now want me to deliver you from vengeance? Invoke your own gods the creatures, the riches, the friends you loved more than you loved me. Call them now to come to your assistance, and to save you from Hell, which is open to receive you. It now justly belongs to me to take vengeance on the insults you have offered me. You have despised my threats against obstinate sinners, and have paid no regard to them!”

“Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide!” (Deuteronomy 32:35). The time of my vengeance is now arrived; it is but just to execute it.This is precisely what happened to a certain person in Madrid, who led a wicked life, but, at the sight of the unhappy death of a companion, went to confession, and resolved to enter a strict religious order. But, in consequence of having neglected to put his resolution into immediate execution, he relapsed into his former irregularities. Being reduced to great want, he wandered about the world, and fell sick at Lima. From the hospital, in which he took refuge, he sent for a confessor and promised again to change his life, and to enter religion. But, having recovered from his illness, he returned to his wickedness; and, behold, the vengeance of God fell upon him. One day, his confessor, who was a missionary, in passing over a mountain, heard a noise, which appeared to be the howling of a wild beast. He drew near the place from which the noise proceeded, and saw a dying man, half rotten, and howling through despair. He addressed to him some words of consolation. The sick man, opening his eyes, recognized the missionary, and said: “Have you, too, come to he a witness of the justice of God? I am the man who made my confession in the hospital of Lima! I then promised to change my life, but have not done so; and now I die in despair!” And thus the miserable man, amid these acts of despair, breathed forth his unhappy soul. These facts are related by Father Charles Bovio (part iii., example 9).

10. Let us conclude the discourse. Tell me, brethren, were a person in sin seized with apoplexy, and instantly deprived of his senses, what sentiments of pity would you feel at seeing him die in this state; without the sacraments, and without signs of repentance! Is not he a fool, who, when he has time to be reconciled with God, continues in sin, or returns to his sins, and thus exposes himself to the danger of dying suddenly, and of dying in sin? “At what hour you think not,” says Jesus Christ, “the Son of Man will come!” (Luke 13:40). An unprovided death, which has happened to so many, may also happen to each of us. And it is necessary to understand, that all who lead a bad life, meet with an unprovided death, though their last illness may allow them some time to prepare for eternity; for the days of that mortal illness are days of darkness days of confusion, in which it is difficult, and even morally impossible, to adjust a conscience burdened with many sins. Tell me, brethren, if you were now at the point of death, given over by physicians, and in the last agony, how ardently would you desire another month, or another week, to settle the accounts you must render to God! And God gives you this time. He calls you, and warns you of the danger of damnation to which you are exposed. Give yourself, then, instantly to God. What do you wait for? Will you wait till He sends you to Hell? “Walk whilst you have light!” (John 12:35). Avail yourselves of this time and this light, which God gives you at this moment, and now, while it is in your power, repent of all your past sins; for, a time shall come when you will be no longer able to avert the punishment which they deserve.

SERMON 28
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE ETERNITY OF HELL

“And his Lord, being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt.” (Matthew 18:34).

In the Gospel we find that a certain servant, having badly administered the affairs of his master, was found to owe him a debt of ten thousand talents. The master demanded payment; but the servant falling down said: “Have patience and I will pay thee all!” The master took pity on him, and forgave the entire debt. One of his fellow-servants, who owed him a hundred pence, besought him to have patience, and promised to pay him the last farthing; but the wicked servant cast him into prison. Hearing of this act of cruelty to his fellow-servant, the master sent for him, and said to him: “Wicked servant, I have forgiven thee ten thousand talents, and for a debt of a hundred pence thou hast refused to show compassion to thy fellow-servant!” He then delivered him to the torturers, till he paid all the debt. Behold, dearly beloved brethren, in these last words, a description of the sentence of the eternal death which is prepared for sinners. By dying in sin, they die debtors to God for all their iniquities; and, being unable to make any satisfaction in the other life for their past sins, they remain forever debtors to the Divine Justice, and must suffer for eternity in Hell. Of this miserable eternity I will speak today: listen to me with attention.

1. The thought of eternity is a “great thought”― so it was called by St. Augustine: According to the holy doctor, God has made us Christians, and instructed us in the maxims of Faith, that we may think of eternity. “We are Christians that we may always think of the world to come.” This thought has driven from the world so many of the nobles of the Earth, has made them renounce all their riches, and shut themselves up in the cloister, there to live in poverty and penance. This thought has sent so many young men into caves and deserts, and has animated so many martyrs to embrace torments and death, in order to save their souls for eternity. “For,” exclaims St. Paul, “we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come.” (Hebrews 13:14). This Earth, dearly beloved Christians, is not our country; it is for us a place of passage, through which we must soon pass to the house of eternity. “Man shall go into the house of his eternity.” (Ecclesiasticus 12:5). In this eternity the house of the just, which is a palace of delights, is very different from the house of sinners, which is a dungeon of torments. Into one of these two houses each of us must certainly go. (St. Amb., in Psalm cxviii).”Into this or that eternity I must fall.”

2. And where the soul shall first go, there she shall remain forever. “If the tree fall to the south or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall there shall it lie.” (Ecclesiasticus 11:3). On what side does a tree fall when it is cut down? It falls on the side to which it inclines. On what side, brethren, will you fall, when death shall cut down the tree of your life? You will fall on the side to which you incline. If you shall be found inclining to the south, that is, in favour with God you shall be forever happy; but if you will fall to the north, you must be forever miserable. There is no middle place: you must be forever happy in Heaven, or overwhelmed with despair in Hell. “We must all die,” says St. Bernard or some other author (de Quat. Noviss), “but we know not which of the two eternities shall be our lot after death.”

3. This uncertainty about his lot for eternity was the constant subject of the thoughts of David: it deprived his eyes of sleep, and kept him always in terror. “My eyes prevented the watches! I was troubled, and I spoke not! I thought upon the days of old, and I had in my mind the eternal years!” (Psalm 76:5-6). “What,” says St. Cyprian, “has encouraged the saints to lead a life, which, on account of their continual austerities, was an uninterrupted martyrdom? It was”, he answers, “the thought of eternity that inspired them with courage to submit to such unceasing rigors.” A certain monk shut himself in a cave, and did nothing else than constantly exclaim: “Eternity! Eternity!” The famous sinner converted by the Abbot Paphnutius, kept eternity always before her eyes, and was accustomed to say: “Who can assure me of a happy eternity, and that I will not fall into a miserable eternity.” The same uncertainty kept St. Andrew Avellino in continual terrors and tears till his last breath. Hence he used to ask every one he met, “What do you say? Shall I be saved or damned for eternity?”

4. O that we, too, had eternity always before our eyes! We certainly should not be so much attached to the world. He who fixes his thoughts on eternity, is not elated by prosperity nor dejected by adversity; because, having nothing to desire in this world, he has nothing to fear: he desires only a happy eternity, and fears only a miserable eternity. A certain lady, who was greatly attached to the world, went one day to confession to Father M. D Avila. He bade her to go home, and reflect on these two words “always” and “never.” She obeyed, took away her affections from the world, and consecrated them to God. St. Augustine says that “the man who thinks on eternity, and is not converted to God, either has no Faith, or has lost his reason!” (In soliloq). “O eternity! He who thinks on thee, and does not repent, has certainly no Faith, or has lost his heart.” Hence St. John Chrysostom relates, “that the pagans upbraided the Christians with being liars or fools: liars, if they said they believed what they did not believe; fools, if they believed in eternity and committed sin.”

5. “Woe to sinners,” says St. Cesarius of Arles; “they enter into eternity without having known it; but their woes shall be doubled when they shall have entered into eternity, and shall never be able to leave!” To those who enter Hell, the door opens for their admission, but never opens for their departure. “I have the keys of death and of Hell.” (Apocalypse i. 18). God himself keeps the keys of Hell, to show us that whosoever enters has no hope of ever escaping from it. St. John Chrysostom writes, “that the condemnation of the reprobate is engraved on the pillar of eternity, so that it never shall be revoked.” In Hell there is no calendar; there the years are not counted. St. Antonine says, “that if a damned soul heard that she was to be released from Hell after so many millions of years, as there are drops of water in the sea, or grains of sand in the Earth, she would feel a greater joy than a criminal condemned to death would experience at hearing that he was reprieved, and was to be made the monarch of the whole world!” But, no! As many millions of years shall pass away as there are drops of water in the ocean, or grains of dust in the Earth, and the Hell of the damned shall be at its commencement. All these millions of years shall be multiplied an infinite number of times, and Hell will begin again. “But of what use is it,” says St. Hilary, “to count years in eternity? Where you expect the end, there it commences.” And St. Augustine says, “that things which have an end cannot be compared with eternity.” (In Psalm xxxvi). Each of the damned would be content to make this compact with God ― “Lord, increase my torments as much as thou pleasest; assign a term for them as distant as thou pleasest; provided thou fix a time at which they shall cease, I am satisfied!” But, no! this time shall never arrive. “My end,” the damned shall say, “is perished!” (Lamentations 3:18). Then, is there no end to the torments of the damned? No! the trumpet of divine justice sounds in the caverns of Hell, and continually reminds the reprobate that their Hell shall be eternal, and shall never have an end.

6. If Hell were not eternal, it would not be so frightful a chastisement. Thomas a Kempis says, that “everything which passes with time is trifling and short.” Any pain, which has an end, is not very appalling. The man who labours under an abscess or a cancer, must submit to the knife or the cautery: the pain is severe; but, because it is soon over, it can be borne. But a toothache which lasts for three months, without interruption, is insupportable. Were a person obliged to lie in the same posture for six months on a soft bed, or even to hear the same music, or the same comedy, night and day for one year, he would fall into melancholy and despondency.

Poor blind sinners! When threatened with Hell they say: “If I go there I must have patience!” But they shall not say so when they will have entered that region of woes, where they must suffer, not by listening to the same music, or the same comedy, nor by lying in the same posture, or by toothache, but by enduring all torments and all evils. “I will heap evils upon them!” (Deuteronomy 33:23). And all these torments shall never end.

7. They shall never end, and shall never be diminished in the smallest degree. The damned must forever suffer the same fire, the same privation of God, the same sadness, the same despair. “Yes,” says St. Cyprian, “in eternity there is no change, because the decree is immutable!” This thought shall immensely increase their sufferings, by making them feel beforehand, and at each moment, all that they shall have to suffer for eternity. In this description of the happiness of the saints, and the misery of the reprobate, the Prophet Daniel says: “They shall wake some unto life everlasting, and some unto reproach to see it always!” (Daniel 12:2). They shall always see their unhappy eternity. Thus eternity tortures each of the damned not only by his present pains, but with all his future sufferings, which are eternal.

8. These are not opinions controverted among theologians; they are dogmas of Faith, clearly revealed in the sacred Scriptures. “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire!” (Matthew 25:41). Some will say: “The fire, but not the punishment of the damned is everlasting!” Such is the language of the incredulous, but it is folly! For what other purpose would God make this fire eternal, than to chastise the reprobate, who are immortal? But, to take away every shadow of doubt, the Scriptures, in many other places, say, that not only the fire, but the punishment of the damned is eternal. “And these,” says Jesus Christ, “shall go into everlasting punishment!” (Matthew 25:46). Again, we read in St. Mark: “Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished!” (Mark 9:43). St. John says: “And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up forever and ever!” (Apocalypse 16:11). “Who,” says St. Paul, “shall suffer eternal punishment in destruction.” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

9. Another infidel will ask: “How can God justly punish, with eternal torments, a sin that lasts but a moment?” I answer, that the grievousness of a crime is measured not by its duration, but by the enormity of its malice. “The malice of mortal sin is,” as St. Thomas says, “infinite.” (Summa, Ia-IIae, q. 87, art. 4). Hence, the damned deserve infinite punishment; and, because a creature is not capable of suffering pains infinite in point of intensity, God, as the holy doctor says, renders the punishment of the damned infinite in extension, by making it eternal. Moreover, it is just, that as long as the sinner remains in his sin, the punishment which he deserves should continue. And, therefore, as the virtue of the saints is rewarded in Heaven, because it lasts forever, so also the guilt of the damned in Hell, because it is everlasting, shall be chastised with everlasting torments. “The cause of their perverse will continues: therefore, their chastisement will never have an end” says Eusebius Emissenus. The damned are so obstinate in their sins, that even if God offered pardon, their hatred for Him would make them refuse it. The Prophet Jeremias, speaking in the name of the reprobate, says: “Why is my sorrow become perpetual and my wound desperate, so as to refuse to be healed?” (Jeremias 15:18). My wound, they say, is incurable, because I do not wish it to be healed. Now, how can God heal the wound of their perverse will, when they would refuse the remedy, were it to be offered to them? Hence, the punishment of the reprobate is called a sword, a vengeance which is irrevocable. “I, the Lord, have drawn My sword out of its sheath, not to be turned back.” (Ezechiel 21:5).

10. Death, which is so terrible in this life, is desired in Hell by the damned; but they never shall find it. “And in these days men shall seek death, and shall not find it: and they shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them.” (Apocalypse 11:6). They would wish, as a remedy for their eternal ruin, to be exterminated and destroyed. But “there is no poison of destruction in them.” (Wisdom 1:14). If a man, condemned to die, be not deprived of life by the first stroke of the axe, his torture moves the people to pity. Miserable damned souls! They live in continual death in the midst of the pains of Hell: death excites in them all the agony of death, but does not give them a remedy by taking away life. “The first death expels from the body the soul of a sinner who is unwilling to die: but the second death that is, eternal death retains in the body a soul that wishes to die!” says St. Augustine. “They are laid in Hell like sheep; death shall feed upon them.” (Psalm 48:15). In feeding, sheep eat the blades of grass, but leave the root untouched; hence the grass dies not, but grows up again. It is thus that death treats the damned; it torments them with pain, but spares their life, which may be called the root of suffering.

11. But, if these miserable souls have no chance of release from Hell, perhaps they can at least deceive or flatter themselves with the hope, that God may one day be moved to pity, and free them from their torments? No―in Hell there is no delusion, no flattery, no “perhaps”; the damned are as certain as they are of God’s existence, that their Hell shall have no end. “Thou thoughtest unjustly that I shall be like to thee; but I will reprove thee, and set before thy face.” (Psalm 49:21). They shall forever see before their eyes their sins and the sentence of their eternal condemnation. “And I will set before thy face.”

12. Let us conclude. Thus, most beloved brethren, the affair of our eternal salvation should be the sole object of all our concerns. “The business for which we struggle,” says St. Eucharius, “is eternity!” There is question of eternity: there is question whether we will be saved, and be forever happy in a city of delights, or be damned, and confined for eternity in a pit of fire. This is not an affair of little importance; it is of the utmost and of eternal importance to us. When St. Thomas More was condemned to death by Henry VIII, his wife, Louisa, went to him for the purpose of tempting him to obey the royal command. “Tell me, Lousia” replied the holy man, “how many years can I, who am now so old, expect to live? You might, said she, live for twenty years. O foolish woman! he exclaimed, do you want me to condemn my soul to an eternity of torments for twenty years of life?”

13. O God! Christians believe in the existence of Hell, and commit sin! Dearly beloved brethren, let not us also be fools, like so many who are now weeping in Hell! Miserable beings! What benefit do they now derive from all the pleasures which they enjoyed in this life? Speaking of the rich and of the poor, St. John Chrysostom said: “Unhappy felicity, which has drawn the rich into eternal infelicity! O happy infelicity, which has brought the poor to the felicity of eternity!” The saints have buried themselves alive in this life, that after death they may not find themselves buried in Hell for all eternity. If eternity were a doubtful matter, we ought even then make every effort in our power to escape an eternity of torments; but no, it is not a matter of doubt; it is a truth of Faith, that, after this life, each of us must go into eternity, to be forever in glory or forever in despair. St. Teresa says, that “it is through a lack of Faith that so many Christians are lost!” As often as we say the words of the Creed, life everlasting, let us enliven our Faith, and remember that there is another life, which never ends; and let us adopt all the means necessary to secure a happy eternity. Let us do all, and give up all; if necessary, let us leave the world, in order to secure eternal happiness. “When eternity is at stake no security can be too great!” says St. Bernard.

SERMON 29
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ALL ENDS! AND SOON ENDS!

“The grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven” (Matthew 7:30).

Behold! All the goods of the Earth are like the grass of the field, which today is blooming and beautiful, but in the evening it withers and loses its flowers, and the next day is cast into the fire. This is what God commanded the Prophet Isaias to preach, when he said to him: “Cry!” And I said: “What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field!” (Isaias 40:6). Hence St. James compares the rich of this world to the flower of grass: at the end of their journey through life they rot, along with all their riches and pomps. “The rich. . . .because as the flower of the grass shall he pass away. For the sun rose with a burning heat, and parched the grass, and the flower thereof fell off, and the beauty of the shape thereof perished: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.” (James 1:10-11). They fade away and are cast into the fire, like the rich glutton, who made a splendid appearance in this life, but afterwards “was buried in Hell.” (Luke 16:22). Let us, then, dearly beloved Christians, attend to the salvation of our souls, and to the acquisition of riches for eternity, which never ends; foreverything in this world ends, and ends very soon.

First Point. Everything ends.

1. When one of the great of this world is in the full enjoyment of the riches and honors which he has acquired, death shall come, and he shall he told: “Take order with thy house; for thou shalt die, and not live.” (Isaias 38:1). O what doleful tidings! The unhappy man must then say: “Farewell, world! Farewell, O villa! Farewell, grotto! Farewell, relatives! Farewell, friends! Farewell, sports! Farewell, balls! Farewell, comedies! Farewell, banquets! Farewell, honors! All is over for me!” There is no remedy: whether he will or not, he must leave all. “For when he shall die, he shall take nothing away; nor shall his glory descend with him.” (Psalm 48:18).

St. Bernard says, that “death produces a horrible separation of the soul from the body, and from all the things of this Earth.” (Serm. xxvi., in Cant).To the great of this world, whom worldlings regard as the most fortunate of mortals, the bare name of death is so full of bitterness, that they are unwilling even to hear it mentioned; for their entire concern is to find peace in their earthly goods. “O death!” says Ecclesiasticus, “how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions.” (Ecclesiasticus 41:1).

But how much greater bitterness shall death itself cause when it actually comes miserable the man who is attached to the goods of this world! Every separation produces pain. Hence, when the soul shall be separated by the stroke of death from the goods on which she had fixed all her affections, the pain must be excruciating. It was this that made King Agag exclaim, when the news of approaching death was announced to him: “Doth bitter death separate me in this manner?” (1 Kings 15:32). The great misfortune of worldlings is, that when they are on the point of being summoned to judgment, instead of endeavouring to adjust the accounts of their souls, they direct all their attention to earthly things. But, says St. John Chrysostom, “the punishment which awaits sinners, on account of having forgotten God during life, is that they forget themselves at the hour of death.”

2. But how great soever a man’s attachment to the things of this world may be, he must take leave of them at death. Naked he has entered into this world, and naked he shall depart from it. “Naked,” says Job, “I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I depart!” (Job 1:21). In a word, they who have spent their whole life, have lost their sleep, their health, and their soul, in accumulating riches and possessions shall take nothing with them at the hour of death: their eyes shall then be opened; and of all they had so dearly acquired, they shall find nothing in their hands. Hence, on that night of confusion, they shall be overwhelmed in a tempest of pains and sadness. “The rich man, when he shall sleep, shall take away nothing with him! He shall open his eyes and find nothing... a tempest shall oppress him in the night!” (Job 27:19-20). St. Antonine relates that Saladin, king of the Saracens, gave orders at the hour of death, that the winding sheet in which he was to bo buried should be carried before him to the grave, and that a person should cry out: “Of all his possessions, this only shall Saladin bring with him.”

The saint also relates that a certain philosopher, speaking of Alexander the Great after his death, said: “Behold the man that made the Earth tremble!” “The Earth,” as the Scripture says, “was quiet before him.” (1 Machabees 1:3). He is now under the Earth. “Behold the man whom the dominion of the whole world could not satisfy―now four palms of ground are sufficient for him.” St. Augustine, or some other ancient writer, says, that having gone to see the tomb of Caesar, he exclaimed: “Princes feared thee Cities worshipped thee! All trembled before thee! Where is thy magnificence gone?” (Serm. xxxviii. ad Fratr). Listen to what David says: “I have seen the wicked highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus. And I passed by, and behold, he was not!” (Psalm 36:35-36). O how many such spectacles are seen every day in the world! A sinner who had been born in lowliness and poverty, afterwards acquires wealth and honors, so as to excite the envy of all. When he dies, every one says: He made a fortune in the world; but now he is dead, and with death all is over for him.

3. “Why is Earth and ashes proud?” (Ecclesiasticus 10:9). Such the language which the Lord addresses to the man who is puffed up by earthly honors and earthly riches. Miserable creature, he says, whence comes such pride? If you enjoy honors and riches, remember that you are dust. “For dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return!” (Genesis 3:19). You must die, and after death what advantage shall you derive from the honors and possessions which now inflate you with pride? “Go,” says St. Ambrose, “to a cemetery, in which are buried the rich and poor, and see if you can discern among them who has been rich and who has been poor; all are naked, and nothing remains of the richest among them but a few withered bones.” (lib. vi. exam., cap. viii). How profitable would the remembrance of death be to the man who lives in the world! “He shall be brought to the grave, and shall watch in the heap of the dead!” (Job 21:32). At the sight of these dead bodies he would remember death, and that he shall one day be like them. Thus, he should be awakened from the deadly sleep in which perhaps he lives in a state of perdition. But the misfortune is, that worldlings are unwilling to think of death until the hour comes when they must depart from this Earth to go into eternity; and therefore they live as attached to the world, as if they were never to be separated from it. But our life is short, and shall soon end: thus all things must end, and must soon end.

Second Point. All soon ends.

4. Men know well, and believe firmly, that they shall die; but they imagine death is far off as if it were never to arrive. But Job tells us that the life of man is short. “Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries. Who cometh forth like a flower and is destroyed.” (Job 14:2). At present the health of men is so much impaired, that, as we see by experience, the greater number of them die before they attain the age of seventy. And what, says St. James, is our life but a vapour, which a blast of wind, a fever, a stroke of apoplexy, a puncture, an attack of the chest, causes to disappear, and which is seen no more?”For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while.” (James 4:15). ”We all die,” said the woman of Thecua to David, “and like waters that return no more, we fall down into the Earth.” (2 Kings 14:14). She spoke the truth; as all rivers and streams run to the sea, and as the gliding waters return no more, so our days pass away, and we approach to death.

5. They pass; they pass quickly. “My days, “ says Job, “have been swifter than a post.” (Job 9:25). Death comes to meet us, and runs more swiftly than a post; so that every step we make, every breath we draw, we approach to death. St. Jerome felt that even while he was writing he was drawing nearer to death. Hence he said: “What I write is taken away from my life.” Let us, then, say with Job: Years passed by, and with them pleasures, honors, pomps, and all things in this world pass away, “and only the grave remaineth for me.” (Job 18:1). In a word, all the glory of the labours we have undergone in this world, in order to acquire a large income, a high character for valour, for learning and genius, shall end in our being thrown into a pit to become the food of worms. The miserable worldling then shall say at death: “My house, my garden, my fashionable furniture, my pictures and rich apparel, shall, in a short time, belong no more to me!” ― “and only the grave remaineth for me.”

6. But how much soever the worldling may be distracted by his worldly affairs and by his pleasures how much soever he may be entangled in them, St. John Chrysostom says, that “when the fear of death, which sets fire to all things of the present life, begins to enter the soul, it will compel him to think and to be solicitous about his lot after death.” (Serm. in 2 Timothy).

Alas! at the hour of death “the eyes of the blind shall be opened.” (Isaias 35:5). Then indeed shall he opened the eyes of those blind worldlings who have employed their whole life in acquiring earthly goods, and have paid but little attention to the interests of the soul. In all these shall be verified what Jesus Christ has told them that death shall come when they least expect it. “At what hour you think not the Son of Man will come.” (Luke 12:40).

Thus, on these unhappy men death comes unexpectedly. Hence, because the lovers of the world are not usually warned of their approaching dissolution till it is very near, they must, in the last few days of life, adjust the accounts of their soul for the fifty or sixty years which they lived on this Earth. They will then desire another month, or another week, to settle their accounts or to tranquillize their conscience. But “they will seek for peace, and there shall he none.” (Ezechiel 7:25). The time which they desire is refused. The assistant priest reads the divine command to depart instantly from this world.“Depart, Christian soul, from this world!” O how dangerous the entrance of worldlings into eternity, dying, as they do, amid so much darkness and confusion, in consequence of the disorderly state of the accounts of their souls.

7. “Weight and balance are the judgments of the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:11). At the tribunal of God, nobility, dignities, and riches have no weight; two things only our bins, and the graces bestowed on us by God make the scales ascend or descend. They who shall be found faithful in corresponding with the lights and calls which they have received, shall be rewarded; and they who shall be found unfaithful, shall be condemned. We do not keep an account of God’s graces; but the Lord keeps an account of them; He measures them; and when He sees them despised to a certain degree, He leaves the soul in her sins, and takes her out of life in that miserable state. “For what things a man shall sow those also shall he reap.” (Galatians 6:8). From labours undertaken for the attainment of posts of honor and rewards, for the acquisition of property and of worldly applause, we reap nothing at the hour of death: all are then lost. We gather fruits of eternal life only from works performed, and tribulations suffered for God.

8. Hence, St. Paul exhorts us to attend to our own business. “But we must entreat you, brethren .... that you do your own business.” (1 Thessalonians 4:10-11). Of what business, I ask, does the Apostle speak? Is it of acquiring riches, or a great name in the world? No; he speaks of the business of the soul, of which Jesus Christ spoke, when He said: “Trade till I come.” (Luke 19:13). The business for which the Lord has placed, and for which He keeps us on this Earth, is to save our souls, and by good works to gain eternal life. This is the end for which we have been created. “And the end eternal life.” (Romans 6:22).

The business of the soul is, for us, not only the most important, but also the principal and only affair; for, if the soul be saved, all is safe; but if the soul be lost, all is lost. Hence, we ought, as the Scripture says, to strive for the salvation of our souls, and to combat to death for justice that is, for the observance of the divine law. “Strive for justice for thy soul, and even unto death fight for justice.” (Ecclesiasticus 4:33). The business which our Savior recommends to us, saying: “Trade till I come” is to have always before our eyes the day on which he shall come to demand an account of our whole life.

9. All things in this world acquisitions, applause, grandeur must, as we have said, all end, and end very soon. “The fashion of this world passeth away.” (1 Corinthians 7: 31). The scene of this life passes away; happy they who, in this scene, act their part well, and save their souls, preferring the eternal interests of the soul to all the temporal interests of the body. “He that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal.” (John 12:26). Worldlings say: Happy the man who hoards up money! happy they who acquire the esteem of the world, and enjoy the pleasures of this life! folly! Happy he who loves God and saves his soul! The salvation of his soul was the only favour which king David asked of God. “One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek after.” (Psalm 26:4). And St. Paul said, that to acquire the grace of Jesus Christ which contains eternal life, he despised as dung all worldly goods. “I count all things as loss and I count them as dung, that I may gain Christ!” (Philippians 3:8).

10. But certain fathers of families will say: “I do not labour so much for myself as for my children, whom I wish to leave in comfortable circumstances!” But I answer: “If you dissipate the goods which you possess, and leave your children in poverty, you do wrong, and are guilty of sin. But will you lose your soul in order to leave your children comfortable? If you fall into Hell, perhaps they will come and release you from it?” O folly! Listen to what David said: “I have not seen the just man forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread.” (Psalm 36:25).

Attend to the service of God; act according to justice; the Lord will provide for the wants of your children; and you shall save your souls, and shall lay up that eternal treasure of happiness which can never be taken from you a treasure not like earthly possessions, of which you may be deprived by robbers, and which you shall certainly lose at death. This is the advice which the Lord gives you: “But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither the rust nor the moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” (Matthew 6:20).

In conclusion, attend to the beautiful admonition which St. Gregory gives to all who wish to live well and to gain eternal life. Let the end of all our actions in this life be, the acquisition of eternal goods; and let us use temporal things only to preserve life for the little time we have to remain on this Earth. The saint continues: “” As there is an infinite distance between eternity and the time of our life, so there ought to be, according to our mode of understanding, an infinite distance between the attention which we should pay to the goods of eternity, which shall be enjoyed forever, and the care we take of the goods of this life, which death shall soon take away from us.

SERMON 30
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON IMPENITENCE

“Lord, my daughter is even now dead!” (Matthew 9:18).

How great is God’s goodness! How difficult it is to obtain pardon from a man whom we have offended! When sinners cast themselves at the feet of the Lord with humility and with sorrow, for having offended Him, He instantly pardons and embraces them. “Turn to Me, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn to you.” (Zacharias 1:3). “Sinners,” says the Lord, “I have turned my back on you, because you first turned your back on Me! Return to Me, and I will return to you and will embrace you!” When rebuked by the Prophet Nathan, David repented, and said: “I have sinned against the Lord! I have offended my God!” David was instantly pardoned: for, at the very moment that he confessed his guilt, Nathan said to him: “The Lord also hath taken away thy sin.” (2 Kings 12:13). But let us come to the Gospel of the day, in which we find that a certain ruler, whose daughter was dead, went immediately to Jesus Christ, and asked him to restore her to life: “Lord, my daughter is even now dead; but come, lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live!” In explaining this passage, St. Bonaventure turns to the sinner, and says: “Your daughter is your soul―she even now is deadly sin―hasten your conversion!” Brother, your soul is your daughter, that has just died by committing sin. Return immediately to God. Hasten; if you delay, and defer your conversion from day to day, the wrath of God shall suddenly come upon you, and you shall be cast into Hell! “Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day.” (Ecclesiasticus 5:8-9). Behold the sermon for this day, in which I will show, first, the danger to which he is exposed, who is in the state of sin and defers his conversion; and secondly, the remedy to be adopted by him who is in sin, and wishes to save his soul.

First Point. The danger to which a person in sin, who defers his conversion, is exposed.

1. St. Augustine considers three states of Christians. The first is the state of those who have always preserved their baptismal innocence; the second is the state of those who have fallen into sin, and have afterwards returned to God, and persevered in grace; the third is of those who have fallen and have always relapsed into sin, and are found in that unhappy state at death. Speaking of the first and second class, he pronounces them secure of salvation; but, speaking of the third he says: “I do not say; I do not presume; I do not promise.” (Hom, xli. int. 50). He neither says, nor presumes, nor promises, that such sinners are saved. From these words it appears that, in his opinion, it is very improbable that they obtain eternal life. St. Thomas teaches (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 109, art. 8) that “he who is in the state of mortal sin, cannot long abstain from the commission of some new sin.” And St. Gregory says: “A sin which is not blotted out by repentance, by its weight, soon draws to another sin; hence it is not only a sin, but the cause of sin.” (1. 3, Mor. c. ix). One sin is the cause of another, because, in the sinner reason is disordered, and inclines him to evil; and therefore he cannot long resist temptation. Hence, according to the holy doctor St. Anselm, though they understand the great advantage of sanctifying grace, sinners, because they are deprived of grace, always relapse, in spite of all their efforts to avoid sin. But how can the branch, that is cut off from the vine, produce fruit? “As,” says Jesus Christ, “the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4).

2. But some young persons may say: “I will hereafter give myself to God.” Behold the false hope of sinners, which leads them to remain in sin till death, and from death conducts them to Hell! Who are you that say, you will hereafter give yourself to God? But who, I ask, promises you that you shall have time to give yourself to God, and that you shall not meet with a sudden death, which will take you out of this world before you give yourself to Him? “He,” says St. Gregory, “who has promised pardon to penitents has not promised tomorrow to sinners.” (Hom. xii. in Ev). The Lord has promised pardon to all who repent of their sins; but, to those who wish to continue in sin, He has not promised time for repentance. Do you say, hereafter? But Jesus Christ tells you that time is in the hand of God, and not under your control. “It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father has put in His own power.” (Acts i. 7).

We read in the Gospel of St. Luke, that Jesus Christ, seeing a fig-tree which was fruitless for three years, ordered it to be cut down. “He said to the dresser of the vineyard: ‘Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and I find none! Cut it down therefore! Why cumbereth it the ground?’” (Luke 13:7). Tell me―you who say that you will hereafter give yourself to God―for what purpose does He preserve your life? Is it that you may continue to insult Him by sin? No―He gives you life that you may renounce sin, and change your conduct. “Knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance?” (Romans 2:4). But you are resolved not to amend; and if you wish to give yourself to God only hereafter, He will say of your soul to the dresser of his vineyard: “Cut it down! Why cumbereth it the ground?” Why should such a sinner be allowed to remain on Earth? Is it to continue to offend Me? Cat down this fruitless tree, and cast it into the fire. “Every tree, therefore, that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire.” (Matthew 3:10).

3. But, should God hereafter give you time for repentance, will you, if you do not now repent, return to Him hereafter? Sins, like so many chains, keep the sinner in bondage. “He is first bound with the ropes of his own sins.” (Proverbs 5:22). My brother, if you cannot now break the cords by which you are at present bound, will you be able to break them hereafter, when they shall be doubled by the commission of new sins? To give him an idea of the degree of folly, which impenitent sinners reach, Our Lord showed one day to the Abbot Arsenius, an Ethiopian, who, not being able to raise a load of faggots, added to their weight, and thus became less liable to raise it. Sinners, said the Savior to the holy abbot, act in a similar manner. They wish to get rid of their past sins, and, at the same time, commit new ones. These new sins shall lead them into others more numerous and more enormous. Cain sinned against his brother, first, by envy; then, by hatred; and afterwards, by murder; finally, he despaired of the divine mercy, saying: “My iniquity is greater than that I may obtain pardon!” (Genesis 4:13). Judas also was first guilty of the sin of avarice; he then betrayed Jesus Christ, and afterwards hanged himself. Sins chain the sinner, and make him their slave, so that he knowingly brings himself to destruction. “His own iniquities catch the wicked.” (Proverbs 5:22).

4. Moreover, his sins weigh down the sinner to such a degree, that he no longer regards Heaven nor his own salvation. “My iniquities,” said David with tears, “are growing over my head, and, as a heavy burden, are become heavy upon me.” (Psalm 37:5). Hence the miserable man loses reason, thinks only of earthly goods, and thus forgets the divine judgments. “And they perverted their own minds, and turned away their eyes, that they might not look unto Heaven, nor remember just judgments.” (Daniel 13:9). He even hates the light, because he fears that it will interrupt his criminal pleasures. “Every one that doth evil hateth the light.” (John 3:20). Hence, he becomes miserably blind, and goes round about continually from sin to sin. “The wicked walk round about.” (Psalm 11:9). He then despises admonitions, divine calls, Hell, Heaven, and God. “The wicked, when he is come into the depth of sins, comtemneth.” (Proverbs 18:3).

5. “He hath,” says Job, “torn me with wound upon wound, he hath rushed in upon me like a giant.” (Job 16:15). By conquering one temptation, a man acquires not only additional strength to repel future assaults, but also diminishes the power of the devil. And, on the other hand, when we yield to any temptation, the devil becomes like a giant, and we become so weak, that we have scarcely strength to resist him any longer. If you receive a wound from an enemy, you lose strength. If to this new wounds be added you shall be exhausted, and rendered unable to defend yourself. This is what happens to the fools who say: “I will here after give myself to God.” How can they resist the attacks of the devil, after they have lost their strength, and after their wounds have mortified? ”My sores are putrefied and corrupted, because of my foolishness.” (Psalm 37:6). At its commencement a wound is easily healed; but when it becomes gangrenous, the cure is most difficult. Recourse must be had to the cautery; but even this remedy is in many cases ineffectual.

6. But further, St. Paul teaches, that God “will have all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4); and that Jesus Christ came on Earth for the salvation of sinners: “Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15). God certainly wills the salvation of all who desire it: He wills the salvation of those who wish to save their souls; but not of those who labour for their own damnation. Jesus Christ has come to save sinners. To save our souls, two things are necessary: first, the grace of God; and secondly, your own cooperation. “Behold, I stand at the gate and knock: if any man shall hear My voice, and open to me the door, I will come unto him.” (Apocalypse 3:20). Then, in order that God may enter into us by His grace, we must, on our part, obey His calls, and open our hearts to Him. Likewise, St. Paul says, “with fear and trembling work out your salvation.” (Philippians 2:12). He says, “work out.” Then we, too, must cooperate to our salvation by good works; otherwise the Lord will only give us sufficient grace by which we shall be able to save our souls, but by which we certainly will not save them.

Behold, the reason―he who is in the state of sin, and continues to commit sin, is daily more and more attached to the flesh, and more removed from God. Now, how can God, by His grace, approach to us, when we withdraw farther from Him? He then retires from us, and becomes less generous with His favors. “And I will make it desolate and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.” (Isaias 5:6). When the soul continues to offend God, He abandons her, and withdraws His helps. Hence she shall cease to feel remorse of conscience; she shall be left without light; and the blindness of her understanding and the hardness of her heart shall be increased. She shall become utterly insensible to the calls of God, to the maxims of Faith, and to the melancholy examples of other rebellious souls that have closed their career in Hell.

7. ”But who knows,” the obstinate sinner will say, “but God will show me the same mercy which He has shown to certain great sinners?” You say: “Perhaps God will give me the grace of salvation!” In answer to this, St. John Chrysostom says: “But why do you say perhaps? Is it because he has sometimes given to great sinners the grace of eternal life?” (Hom. xxii. in 2 Corinthians). “But remember,” says the holy doctor, “that there is question of your soul, which, if once lost, is lost forever.” I, too, take you up, and admit that God has, by certain extraordinary graces, saved some enormous sinners. But these cases are very rare; they are prodigies and miracles of grace, by which God wished to show the boundlessness of His mercy. But, ordinarily, sinners who wish to continue in sin, are, in the end, cast into Hell. On them are executed the threats of the Lord against obstinate sinners. “You have despised My counsels, and neglected My reprehensions. I also will laugh in your destruction. . . . Then they will call on Me, and I will not hear.” (Proverbs 1:25, 26, 28). I, says the Lord, have called on them again and again, but they have refused to hear me. “But they did not hear nor incline their ears; but hardened their neck, that they might not hear Me.” (Jeremias 17:23). Now they call upon me, it is but just that I refuse to listen to their cries. God bears, but He does not bear forever; when the time of vengeance arrives, He punishes past and present iniquities. “For the Most High is a patient rewarder.” (Ecclesiasticus 5:4). And according to St. Augustine, the longer God has waited for negligent sinners the more severely He will chastise them. (Lib. de util. ag. prcn). He who promises to amend, and willfully neglects to return to God, is unworthy of the grace of true repentance.

8. “But God is full of mercy!” you say. He is full of mercy; but He is not so stupid as to act without reason: to show mercy to those who continue to insult Him would be stupidity, and not goodness. “Is thy eye evil because I am good?” (Matthew 20:15). Will you persevere in wickedness because I am bountiful? God is good, but He is also just, and exhorts us all to observe His law, if we wish to save our souls. “If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments.” (Matthew 19:17). Were God to show mercy to the wicked as well as to the just, and to give to all the grace of conversion before death, He would hold out a strong temptation even to the saints to commit sin: but, no―when His mercies have reached their term, He punishes and pardons no more. “And My eye shall not spare thee, and I will show thee no pity.” (Ezechiel 7: 4). Hence He says: “Pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on the Sabbath!” (Matthew 24:20). We are prevented from working in the winter by the cold, and on the Sabbath by the law. In this passage the Redeemer gives us to understand that, for impenitent sinners, a time shall come when they would wish to give themselves to God, but shall find themselves prevented by their bad habits from returning to Him.

Of this there are numberless melancholy examples. In his sermons on a happy death, Cataneus relates, that a dissolute young man, when admonished to give up his wickedness, said: “I have a saint who is omnipotent, and this is the mercy of God!” Death came; the unhappy man sent for a confessor; but while he was preparing for confession, the Devil wrote down before his eyes all his sins. He was seized with terror, and exclaimed: “Alas! What a long catalog of sins!” And before he was able to make his confession he expired. In his sermons for Sundays Campadelli relates that a young nobleman addicted to sins of the flesh, was warned by God and by men to amend his life; but he despised all their admonitions. He afterwards fell into a severe illness, confessed his sins, and promised to change his life; but, after his recovery, he returned to the vomit. Behold the vengeance of God! Being one day in a field during the vintage, he took fever, went home, and feeling that the disease was far advanced, he sent in haste for a priest who lived near the house. The priest comes, enters the house, salutes the sick man, but sees a frightful spectacle, the eyes and mouth open, the face black as jet. He calls the sick man, but finds that he is dead. Dearly beloved brethren, take care that you, too, be not miserable examples of the justice of God. Give up sin; but give it up from this moment; for, if you continue to commit sin, the same vengeance which has fallen on so many others shall also fall on you. Let us come to the remedy.

Second Point. The remedy for those who find themselves in sin, and wish to save their souls.

9. Jesus Christ was one day asked, if the number of the elect is small. “’Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate! For many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and they shall not be able!’” (Luke xiii. 23, 24). He says that many seek to enter Heaven, but do not enter―and why? Because they wish to obtain eternal life without inconvenience, and without making strong efforts to abstain from forbidden pleasures. Therefore, he said: “Strive to enter at the narrow gate!” The gate of Heaven is narrow―to enter it we must labor, and must do violence to ourselves. And we ought to be persuaded that, what we can do today, we shall not be always able to do hereafter. The delay of conversion sends many Christians to Hell. The weakness, darkness, and obduracy of the soul are, as we have already said, daily increased, and the divine helps are diminished. Thus, the soul shall die in her sins. You say: “I will hereafter return to God!” Then you know that, to save your soul, you must renounce sin why do you not give it up now that God calls you to repentance? “If at some time,” says St. Augustine, “why not now? The time which you now have to repair the past shall not be given to you hereafter; and the mercy which God shows you at present will not be extended to you at a future time.” If, then, you wish to save your soul, do immediately what you must one day do. Go to confession as soon as possible, and tremble lest every delay may be the eternal ruin of your soul.

10. “Were a physician to offer you a remedy for sickness, would you say: ‘I do not wish to be cured at present, because I hope to recover hereafter’?”  says St. Fulgentius St. Fulg. ad Petr. Diac). And when there is a question of the salvation of your soul, you say: “I will remain in sin, because I hope that God will be merciful to me at a future time!” But if, according to His just judgments, the Lord should not show you mercy hereafter, what shall become of you? Shall you not be damned? Let us, says the Apostle, do good while we have time to do it. “Therefore, whilst we have time let us work good to all men.” (Galatians 6:10). For time may not be given to us to do good hereafter. Hence the Lord exhorts us to guard our souls with great care; because we know not the hour when He will come to demand an account of our life. “Watch ye, therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour!” (Matthew 25:18).

11. “My soul is continually in my hands.” (Psalm 118:109). He who wears on his finger a ring, containing a diamond of great value, looks frequently at the ring to see if the diamond be secure―it is thus we ought to watch over our souls. And should we see that it has been lost by sin, we ought instantly to adopt every means in our power to recover it. We ought to turn immediately to Jesus, our Savior, like Magdalene, who, as soon as she knew that He sat at table to eat, ran to Him, cast herself at His feet, and by her tears obtained pardon. (Luke v7:37).”Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree!” (Luke 3:9). For all who are found in sin, the axe of Divine Justice is at hand to take away their life, as soon as the time of vengeance arrives. Arise, then Christian souls, and if you are bound by any bad habit, burst your chains, and remain no longer the slaves of Satan. “Loose the bonds from off thy neck, captive daughter of Zion.” (Isaias 52:2).   “You have placed your foot on the mouth of a vortex―that is to say, on sin―which is the mouth of Hell. Take away your foot, and retire; otherwise you shall fall into an unfathomable abyss." says St. Ambrose,

12. You say: “I find myself subject to an evil habit!” But, if you wish to give up sin, who can force you to commit it? All bad habits and all the temptations of Hell are overcome by the grace of God. Recommend yourself to the heart of Jesus Christ, and He will give you grace to conquer all enemies. But should you be in any proximate occasion of sin, you must immediately take it away, otherwise you shall relapse. “Do not wait to loose your bonds gradually; cut them by a single stroke.”  says St. Jerome, “Do not wait to loose your bonds gradually; cut them by a single stroke.” The devil seeks to make you slow in shaking off your fetters. Look for a good confessor; he will tell you what to do. And should you have the misfortune of falling hereafter into any mortal sin, go immediately to confession, even on the same day or the same night, if you can. Finally, listen to what I now say to you: God is ready to assist you: if you wish, it is in your power to save your souls. Tremble, brethren, lest these words of mine, if you despise them, should be for you so many swords in Hell for all eternity.

SERMON 31
St. Alphonsus Liguori
ON THE PAIN OF LOSS WHICH THE DAMNED SUFFER IN HELL

“Cast him into the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 22:13).

According to all laws―divine and human―the punishment of crime should be proportioned to its grievousness. “According to the measure of the sin shall the measure also of the stripes be.” (Deuteronomy 25:2). Now, the principal injury which sinners do to God by mortal sin, consists in turning their back upon their Creator and their sovereign good. St. Thomas defines mortal sin to be “a turning away from the immutable good” (Summa, Ia, q. 24, art. 4). Of this injury the Lord complains in the following words: “Thou hast forsaken Me, saith the Lord; thou hast gone backward!” (Jeremias 15:6). Since, then, the greatest guilt of the sinner consists in deliberately consenting to lose God, the loss of God shall constitute his greatest punishment in Hell. “There shall be weeping.” In Hell there is continual weeping; but what is the object of the bitterest tears of the unhappy damned? It is the thought of having lost God through their own fault. This shall be the subject of the present discourse. Be attentive, brethren.

1. No, dearly beloved Christians! The goods of the Earth are not the end for which God has placed you in the world―the end for which He has created you is the attainment of eternal life. “And the end life eternal.” (Romans 6:22). Eternal life consists in loving God, and possessing Him for eternity. Whosoever attains this end shall be forever happy; but he who, through his own fault, does not attain it, loses God; he shall be miserable for eternity, and shall weep forever, saying: “My end is perished!” (Lamentations 3:18).

2. The pain produced by loss is proportioned to the value of what has been lost. If a person lose a jewel―a diamond worth a hundred crowns―he feels great pain; if the diamond were worth two hundred crowns, the pain is double; if worth four hundred, the pain is still greater. Now, I ask, what is the good which a damned soul has lost? She has lost God―she has lost an infinite good. The pain, then, arising from the loss of God is an infinite pain. “The pain of the damned,” says St. Thomas, “is infinite, because it is the loss of an infinite good.” (Summa, Ia-IIae, q. 87, art. 4). Such, too, is the doctrine of St. Bernard, who says, that the value of the loss of the damned is measured from the infinitude of God the supreme good. Hence, [the chief pain of] Hell does not consist in its devouring fire, nor in its intolerable stench, nor in the unceasing shrieks and bowlings of the damned, nor in the terrifying sight of the devils, nor in the narrowness of that pit of torments, in which the damned are thrown one over the other: the pain which constitutes Hell is the loss of God. In comparison of this pain, all the other torments of Hell are trifling. The reward of God’s faithful servants in Heaven is, as he said to Abraham, God himself. “I am thy reward―exceedingly great!” (Genesis 15:1). Hence, as God is the reward of the blessed in Heaven, so the loss of God is the punishment of the damned in Hell.

3. Hence, St. Bruno has truly said, that how great soever the torments which may be inflicted on the damned, they never can equal the great pain of being deprived of God. “Add torments to torments, but do not deprive them of God!” (Serm. de Jud. Fin). According to St. John Chrysostom, speaking of the loss of God, he said: “A thousand hells are not equal to this pain!” (Hom, xlix., ad Pop). God is so lovely that He deserves infinite love. He is so amiable that the saints in Heaven are so replenished with joy, and so absorbed in Divine love, that they desire nothing but to love God, and think only of loving Him with all their strength. At present, sinners, for the sake of their vile pleasures, shut their eyes, and neither know God, nor the love which He deserves; but in Hell, in punishment of their sins, they shall be made to know that God is an infinite good and infinitely amiable. “The Lord shall be known when he executeth judgment.” (Psalm 9:17). The sinner, drowned in sensual pleasures, scarcely knows God: he sees Him only in the dark, and therefore he disregards the loss of God. But in Hell he shall know God, and shall be tormented forever by the thought of having voluntarily lost His infinite good. A certain Parisian doctor appeared after death to his bishop, and said that he was damned. His bishop asked him if he remembered all the sciences, in which he was so well versed in this life. He answered, that in Hell the damned think only of the pain of having lost God.

4. “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!” (Matthew 25:41). “Depart from Me!” This command constitutes the Hell of the damned. Begone from Me; you shall be no longer Mine, and I shall be no longer yours. “You are not My people, and I will not be yours.” (Osee 1:9). As St. Augustine says: “At present, this punishment is dreaded only by the saints.” It is a punishment which frightens the soul that loves God more than all the torments of Hell; but it does not terrify sinners, who are immersed in the darkness of sin. But at death they shall, for their greater chastisement, understand the infinite good which they have lost through their own fault.

5. It is necessary to know that men have been created for God, and that nature draws them to love Him. In this life, the darkness of sin, and the earthly affections which reign in their hearts, stifle their natural tendency and inclination to a union with God, their sovereign good; and therefore the thought of being separated from him does not produce much pain. But when the soul leaves the body, and is freed from the senses, which keeps her in darkness, she then clearly sees that she has been created for God, and that He is the only good which can make her happy. “But,” says St. Antonine, “the soul separated from the body understands that God is her sovereign good, and that she has been created for Him.” Hence, as soon as she is loosed from the bondage of the body, she rushes forward to embrace her Supreme Good: but, because she is in sin, and therfore His enemy, God will cast her off. Though driven back and chased away, she retains her invincible tendency and inclination to a union with God; and her Hell shall consist in seeing herself always drawn to God, and always banished from Him.

6. If a dog see a hare, what effort does he not make to break his chain and seize his prey! Thus, at her separation from the body, the natural inclinations of the soul draw her to God, while at the same time sin separates her from Him, and drags her with it into Hell. Sin, says the prophet, like a wall of immense thickness, is placed between the soul and God, and separates her from Him. “But your iniquities have divided between you and your God.” (Isaias 59:2). Hence, the unhappy soul, confined in the prison of Hell, at a distance from God, shall weep forever, saying: “Then, my God, I shall be no longer Thine, and Thou wilt be no longer mine. I shall love Thee no more, and Thou will never again love me!” This separation from God terrified David, when he said: “Will God, then, cast off forever? Or will He never be more favorable again?” (Psalm 76:8). How great, he says, would be my misery, if God should cast me from Him, and never again be merciful to me! But this misery every damned soul in Hell suffers, and shall suffer for eternity. As long as he remained in sin, David felt his conscience reproaching him, and asking, “Where is thy God?” David, where is thy God, who once loved thee? Thou hast lost Him; He is no longer thine. David was so afflicted at the loss of his God, that he wept night and day. “My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it has been said to me daily: ‘Where is thy God?’” (Psalm 41:4). Thus, even the devils will say to the damned: “Where is your God?” By his tears David appeased and recovered his God; but the damned shall shed an immense sea of tears, and shall never appease nor recover their God.

7. St. Augustine says, that if the damned saw the beauty of God, “they should feel no pain, and Hell itself would be converted into a Paradise.” (Lib. de Trip. Habacuc). But the damned shall never see God. When David forbade his son Absalom to appear in his presence, the sorrow of Absalom was so great, that he entreated Joab to tell his father that he would rather be put to death, than never more be permitted to see his face. “I beseech thee, therefore, that I may see the face of the king; and if he be mindful of my iniquity, let him kill me!” (2 Kings 14:32).

To a certain grandee [nobleman], who acted irreverently in the church, King Philip the Second said: “Do not dare ever to appear again in my presence!” So intense was the pain which the nobleman felt, that after having returned home, he died of grief. What then must be the feelings of the reprobate at the hour of death, when God shall say to them: “Begone! Let me never see you again! You shall never more see my face!” “I will hide my face from them; all evils and afflictions shall find them.” (Deuteronomy 31:17). What sentiments of pity should we feel at seeing a son who was always united with his father, who always ate and slept nearby him, weeping over a parent whom he loved so tenderly, and saying: “My father, I have lost you! I shall never see you more!” Ah! If we saw a damned soul weeping bitterly, and asked her the cause of her wailing, she would answer: “I weep because I have lost God, and shall never see him again.”

8. The pain of the reprobate shall be increased by the knowledge of the glory which the saints enjoy in Paradise, and from which they see, and shall forever see, themselves excluded. How great would be the pain which a person should feel if, after being invited by his sovereign to his own theatre, to be present at the singing, dancing, and other amusements, he should be excluded in punishment of some fault! How bitter should be his anger and disappointment when, from without, he should hear the shouts of joy and applause within! At present sinners despise Heaven, and lose it for trifles, after Jesus Christ shed the last drop of His Blood to make them worthy of entering into that happy kingdom. But when they shall be confined in Hell, the knowledge of the glory of Heaven shall be the greatest of all their torments. St. John Chrysostom says, that "to see themselves banished from that land of joy, shall be to the damned a torment ten thousand times as great as the Hell which they suffer." (St. Joan. Chry. ap. St. Thom. Suppl, q. 98, art. 9). O that I had at least the hope, the damned will say, that after a thousand, or even a million of ages, I could recover the divine grace, and become worthy of entering into Heaven, there to see God! But, no! He shall be told: “When the wicked man is dead, there shall be no hope any more!” (Proverbs 11:7). When he was in this life he could have saved his soul; but because he has died in sin his loss is irreparable. Hence, with tears of despair, he shall say: “I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living.” (Isaias 38:11).

9. The thought of having lost God and Paradise, solely through their own fault, shall increase the torture of the damned. Every damned soul shall say: “It was in my power to have led a life of happiness on Earth by loving God, and to have acquired boundless happiness for eternity; but, in consequence of having loved my vices, I must remain in this place of torments as long as God shall be God.” She will then exclaim in the words of Job: “Who will grant me that I might be according to the months past, according to the days in which God kept me?” (Job 39:2). Oh! that I were allowed to go back to the time I lived on Earth, when God watched over me, that I might not fall into this fire! I did not live among the savages, the Indians, or the Chinese. I was not left without the sacraments, sermons, or masters to instruct me. I was born in the bosom of the true Church, and have been well instructed and frequently admonished by preachers and confessors. To this prison I have not been dragged by the devils; I have come of my own accord. The chains by which I am bound and kept at a distance from God, I have forged with my own will. How often has God spoken to my heart, and said to me: “Amend, and return to Me! Beware, lest the time should come when thou shalt not be able to prevent thy destruction!” Alas, this time has come; the sentence has been already passed; I am damned; and for my damnation there neither is, nor shall be, any remedy for all eternity!

But if the damned soul has lost God, and shall never see Him, perhaps she can at least love Him? No―she has been abandoned by grace, and thus she is made the slave of her sins, and compelled to hate Him. The damned see that God is their adversary on account of their contempt for Him during life, and are therefore always in despair. “Why hast thou set me opposite to Thee, and I am become burdensome to myself.” (Job vii. 20). Hence, because the damned see that they are enemies of God, Whom they at the same time know to be worthy of infinite love, they are to themselves objects of the greatest horror. The greatest of all the punishments which God shall inflict on them, will consist in seeing that God is so amiable, and that they are so deformed, and the enemies of this God. “I will reprove thee, and set these things before thy face!” (Psalm 49:21).

10. The sight of all that God has done for the damned shall above all increase their torture. “The wicked shall see and shall be angry.” (Psalm 111:10). They shall see all the benefits which God bestowed upon them all the lights and calls which He gave them and the patience with which He waited for them. They shall, above all, see how much Jesus Christ has loved them, and how much He has suffered for the love of them; and after all His love and all His sufferings, they shall see that they are now objects of His hatred, and shall be no longer objects of His love. According to St. John Chrysostom, “a thousand hells are nothing compared with the thought of being hateful to Christ.” (Hom xiv. in Matthew). Then the damned shall say: “My Redeemer, Who, through compassion for me, sweated blood, suffered an agony in the garden, and died on the cross bereft of all consolation, has now no pity on me! I weep, I cry out; but He no longer hears or looks to me! He is utterly forgetful of me. He once loved me; but now He hates and justly hates me; for I have ungratefully refused to love Him!” David says, that the reprobate are thrown into the pit of death. “Thou shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction.” (Psalm 54:24). Hence St. Augustine has said: “The pit shall be closed on top, it shall be opened at the bottom, it shall be expanded downwards; and they who refuse to know God shall be no longer known by Him.” (Hom, xvi., cap 50).

11. Thus the damned see that God deserves infinite love, and that they cannot love Him. St. Catherine of Genoa, being one day assailed by the devil, asked him who he was. He answered with tears: “I am that wicked one who is deprived of the love of God. I am that miserable being that can never more love God!” They not only cannot love God, but, abandoned in their sins, they are forced to hate Him. Their Hell consists in hating God, Whom they, at the same time, know to be infinitely amiable. They love Him intensely as their Sovereign Good, and hate Him as the avenger of their sins. A learned author says: “O miserable thing―to love vehemently, yet, at the same time, to hate the one that is loved!” (Magnotius Medit).

Their natural love draws them continually to God; but their hatred drags them away from Him. These two contrary passions, like two ferocious wild beasts, incessantly tear in pieces the hearts of the damned, and cause, and shall for all eternity cause, them to live in a continual death. The reprobate then shall hate and curse all the benefits which God has bestowed upon them. They shall hate the benefits of creation, redemption, and the Sacraments. But they shall hate, in a particular manner, the Sacrament of Baptism, by which they have, on account of their sins, been made more guilty in the sight of God; the Sacrament of Penance, by which, if they wished, they could have so easily saved their souls; and, above all, the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, in which God had given Himself entirely to them.

They shall consequently hate all the other means which have been helps to their salvation. Hence, they shall hate and curse all the angels and saints. But they shall curse particularly their guardian angels, their special advocates, and, above all, the Divine Mother Mary. They shall curse the three divine persons the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; but particularly Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, Who suffered so much, and died for their salvation. They shall curse the wounds of Jesus Christ, the Blood of Jesus Christ, and the death of Jesus Christ. Behold the end to which accursed sin leads the souls, which Jesus Christ has dearly bought!

SERMON 32
Pope St. Leo the Great (Leo I)
PALM SUNDAY SERMON ON THE PASSION OF CHRIST

1. The Two-Fold Nature of Christ Set Forth

Among all the works of God’s mercy, dearly-beloved, which from the beginning have been bestowed upon men’s salvation, none is more wondrous, and none more sublime, than that Christ was crucified for the world. For to this mystery all the mysteries of the ages preceding led up, and every variation which the will of God ordained in sacrifices, in prophetic signs, and in the observances of the Law, foretold that this was fixed, and promised its fulfillment: so that now types and figures are at an end, and we find our profit in believing that accomplished, which before we found our profit in looking forward to.

In all things, therefore, dearly-beloved, which pertain to the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Catholic Faith maintains and demands that we acknowledge the two Natures to have met in our Redeemer, and while their properties remained, such a union of both Natures to have been effected that, from the thee when, as the cause of mankind required, in the blessed Virgin’s womb, “the Word became flesh,” we may not think of Him as God without that which is man, nor as man without that which is God.

Each Nature does indeed express its real existence by actions that distinguish it, but neither separates itself from connection with the other. Nothing is wanting there on either side; in the majesty the humility is complete, in the humility the majesty is complete: and the unity does not introduce confusion, nor does the distinctiveness destroy the unity. The one is passible, the other inviolable; and yet the degradation belongs to the same Person, as does the glory. He is present at once in weakness and in power; at once capable of death and the vanquisher of it. Therefore, God took on Him whole Manhood, and so blended the two Natures together by means of His mercy and power, that each Nature was present in the other, and neither passed out of its own properties into the other.

2. The Two Natures Acted Conjointly, and the Human Sufferings Were Not Compulsory, But in Accordance with the Divine Will

But because the design of that mystery, which was ordained for our restoration before the eternal ages, was not to be carried out without human weakness and without Divine power, both “form” does that which is proper to it in common with the other, the Word, that is, performing that which is the Word’s and the flesh that which is of the flesh. One of them gleams bright with miracles, the other But because the design of that mystery which was ordained for our restoration before the eternal ages, was not to be carried out without human weakness and without Divine power, both “form” does that which is proper to it in common with the other, the Word, that is, performing that which is the Word’s and the flesh that which is of the flesh.

One of them gleams bright with miracles, the other succumbs to injuries. The one departs not from equality with the Father’s glory, the other leaves not the nature of our race. But nevertheless even His very endurance of sufferings does not so far expose Him to a participation in our humility as to separate Him from the power of the Godhead. All the mockery and insults, all the persecution and pain which the madness of the wicked inflicted on the Lord, was not endured of necessity, but undertaken of free-will: “for the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which had perished:” and He used the wickedness of His persecutors for the redemption of all men in such a way that in the mystery of His Death and Resurrection even His murderers could have been saved, if they had believed.

3. Judas’ Infamy Has Never Been Exceeded

And hence, Judas, thou art proved more criminal and unhappier than all; for when repentance should have called thee back to the Lord, despair dragged thee to the halter. Thou shouldest have awaited the completion of thy crime, and have put off thy ghastly death by hanging, until Christ’s Blood was shed for all sinners. And among the many miracles and gifts of the Lords which might have aroused thy conscience, those holy mysteries, at least, might have rescued thee from thy headlong fall, which at the Paschal supper thou hadst received, being even then detected in thy treachery by the sign of Divine knowledge. Why dost thou distrust the goodness of Him, Who did not repel thee from the communion of His body and blood, Who did not deny thee the kiss of peace when thou camest with crowds and a band of armed men to seize Him. But O man that nothing could convert, O “spirit going and not returning,” thou didst follow thy heart’s rage, and, the devil standing at thy right hand, didst turn the wickedness, which thou hadst prepared against the life of all the saints, to thine own destruction, so that, because thy crime had exceeded all measure of punishment, thy wickedness might make thee thine own judge, thy punishment allow thee to be thine own hangman.

4. Christ Voluntarily Bartered His Glory for Our Weakness

When, therefore, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,” and the Creator Himself was wearing the creature which was to be restored to the image of its Creator; and after the Divinely-miraculous works had been performed, the performance of which the spirit of prophecy had once predicted, “then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be plain;” Jesus knowing that the thee was now come for the fulfillment of His glorious Passion, said, “My soul is sorrowful even unto death;” and again, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” And these words, expressing a certain fear, show His desire to heal the affection of our weakness by sharing them, and to check our fear of enduring pain by undergoing it.

In our human Nature, therefore, the Lord trembled with our fear, that He might fully clothe our weakness and our frailty with the completeness of His own strength. For He had come into this world a rich and merciful Merchant from the skies, and by a wondrous exchange had entered into a bargain of salvation with us, receiving ours and giving His, honor for insults, salvation for pain, life for death: and He Whom more than 12,000 of the angel-hosts might have served for the annihilation of His persecutors, preferred to entertain our fears, rather than employ His own power.

5. St. Peter Was the First To Benefit by His Master’s Humiliation

And how much this humiliation conferred upon all the faithful, the most blessed Apostle Peter was the first to prove, who, after the fierce blast of threatening cruelty had dismayed him, quickly changed, and was restored to vigor, finding remedy from the great Pattern, so that the suddenly-shaken member returned to the firmness of the Head. For the bond-servant could not be “greater than the Lord, nor the disciple greater than the master,” and he could not have vanquished the trembling of human frailty had not the Vanquisher of Death first feared. The Lord, therefore, “looked back upon Peter,” and amid the calumnies of priests, the falsehoods of witnesses, the injuries of those that scourged and spat upon Him, met His dismayed disciple with those eyes wherewith He had foreseen his dismay: and the gaze of the Truth entered into him, on whose heart correction must be wrought, as if the Lord’s voice were making itself heard there, and saying, “Whither goest thou, Peter? Why retirest thou upon thyself? Turn thou to Me, put thy trust in Me, follow Me! This is the time of My Passion, the hour of thy suffering is not yet come. Why dost thou fear what thou, too, shalt overcome? Let not the weakness, in which I share, confound thee. I was fearful for thee; do thou be confident of Me.”

6. The Mad Counsel of the Jews Was Turned to Their Own Destruction

“And when morning was come all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.” This morning, O ye Jews, was for you not the rising, but the setting of the sun, nor did the wanted daylight visit your eyes, but a night of blackest darkness brooded on your wicked hearts. This morning overthrew for you the temple and its altars, did away with the Law and the Prophets, destroyed the Kingdom and the priesthood, turned all your feasts into eternal mourning. For ye resolved on a mad and bloody counsel, ye “fat bulls,” ye “many oxen,” ye “roaring” wild beasts, ye rabid “dogs,” to give up to death the Author of life and the Lord of glory; and, as if the enormity of your fury could be palliated by employing the verdict of him, who ruled your province.

You lead Jesus, bound, to Pilate’s judgment, that the terror-stricken judge, being overcome by your persistent shouts, you might choose a man that was a murderer for pardon, and demand the crucifixion of the Savior of the world. After this condemnation of Christ, brought about more by the cowardice than the power of Pilate, who with washed hands, but polluted mouth, sent Jesus to the cross, with the very same lips that had pronounced Him innocent, the license of the people, obedient to the looks of the priests, heaped many insults on the Lord, and the frenzied mob wreaked its rage on Him, Who meekly and voluntarily endured it all. But because, dearly-beloved, the whole story is too long to go through today, let us put off the rest till Wednesday, when the reading of the Lord’s Passion will be repeated. For the Lord will grant to your prayers, that of His own free gift we may fulfill our promise: through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON 33
St. Alphonsus Liguori
OUR SALVATION IS IN THE CROSS
“The chalice which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11).

“Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Salvation of the world!” So sings Holy Church on Good Friday [in her Sacred Liturgy]. In the Cross is our salvation, our strength against temptations, our detachment from earthly pleasures; in the Cross is found true love of God.

We must, therefore, resolve to bear with patience that cross which Jesus Christ sends us, and to die upon it for the love of Him, as He died upon His Cross for the love of us. There is no other way to enter Heaven but by resigning ourselves to tribulations until death. And this is the means to find peace, even in suffering. When the cross comes, what means is there, I ask, for not losing peace, except uniting ourselves to the divine will? If we do not take this means, go where we will, do what we may, we shall never escape from the weight of the cross.

On the contrary, if we carry it with good will, it will bear us to Heaven and give us peace on Earth. What does he do who refuses the Cross? He increases its weight. But he who embraces it and bears it with patience, lightens its weight, and the weight itself becomes a consolation; for God abounds with graces for all those who carry the cross with a good will in order to please Him.

Naturally, there is no pleasure in suffering; but divine love, when it reigns in a heart, makes it take delight in sufferings. Oh, if only we would consider the state of happiness which we shall enjoy in Paradise if we are faithful to God in enduring trials without complaining! We should not murmur against God, who commands us to suffer, but we should say with Job: “And that this may be my comfort, that afflicting me with sorrow, He spare not, nor I contradict the words of the Holy One.” (Job 6:10). And if we are sinners and have deserved Hell, this should be our comfort in the tribulations which befall us, to see that we are chastised in this life, because this is the sure sign that God wishes to deliver us from eternal chastisement.

Unfortunate is that sinner who prospers in this world! Whoever suffers any grievous trial, let him cast a glance at the Hell which he has deserved, and thus every pain he endures will seem light. If, then, we have committed sins, this ought to be our continual prayer to God: O Lord, spare not pains, but give me, I pray Thee, strength to endure them with patience, that I may not oppose myself to Thy holy Will, “nor I contradict the words of the Holy One,” (Job 6:10), but in everything conform myself with whatever Thou shalt appoint for me, saying always with Jesus Christ, “Yea, Father, for so hath it seemed good in Thy sight.” (Matthew 11:26).

The soul which is governed by divine love seeks only God. “If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing,” says Holy Scripture. (Canticle of Canticles 8:7). He that loves God despises everything and renounces everything which does not help him to love God; and in all the good works which he does, in his penitential acts and his labors for the glory of God, he does not go seeking his consolations and spiritual sweetness; it is enough for him to know that he pleases God.

In a word, he is attentive, ever and in all things, to deny himself, renouncing every pleasure of his own; and having done so, he boasts of nothing and is puffed up with nothing, but calls himself an unprofitable servant, and setting himself in the lowest place, he abandons himself to the divine will and mercy. We must change our tastes in order to become saints.

If we do not arrive at a state in which bitter appears sweet and sweet bitter, we shall never attain to a perfect union with God. In this consists all our security and perfection, in enduring with resignation all things that are contrary to our inclinations, as they happen to us, day by day, whether they are small or great. And we must suffer them for those wise ends for which the Lord desires that we should endure them: first, to purify ourselves from the sins we have committed; secondly, to merit eternal life; thirdly, to give pleasure to God, which is the chief and most noble end which we can aim at in all our actions.

Let us then always offer ourselves to God, to suffer every cross which He may send us; and let us take care to be ever ready to endure every hardship for the love of Him, in order that, when it comes, we may be ready to embrace it, saying, as Jesus Christ said to St. Peter when He was taken in the garden by the Jews to be led to death: “The chalice which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11). God has given me this cross for my good, and shall I say to Him that I will not accept it? And whenever the weight of any cross seems very great, let us immediately have recourse to prayer, and God will give us strength to carry it meritoriously. And let us then recollect what St. Paul says, that: “The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18).

Let us, therefore, reanimate our faith whenever tribulations afflict us. Let us first cast a glance upon our crucified Lord, who suffered agonies upon the Cross for our love; and let us then cast a glance up to Paradise, and on the good things which God prepares for those who suffer for His love. And thus we shall not complain, but thank Him for the pains He gives us to endure and ask Him to give us more to suffer. Oh, how the Saints rejoice in Heaven, not that they have possessed honors and pleasures upon earth, but that they have suffered for Jesus Christ! Everything that passes away is trifling; that only is great which is eternal and never passes away.

O my Jesus, how consoling are Thy words to me: “Turn to Me . . . and I will turn to you!” (Zacharias 1:3). For the sake of creatures and of my own miserable pleasures, I have left Thee; now I leave all and return to Thee; and I am confident that Thou wilt not reject me, if I desire to love Thee, for Thou hast told me that Thou art ready to embrace me, saying: “I will turn to you.” Receive me, then, into Thy grace; make me know the great Good which Thou art and the love which Thou hast borne to me, so that I may no more leave Thee.

O my Jesus, pardon me; my Beloved, pardon me; my Love, pardon me all the displeasures I have caused Thee. Give me the love of Thee, and then do with me what Thou wilt. Chastise me as much as Thou wilt; deprive me of everything, but deprive me not of Thyself. Let the whole world come and offer me all its goods; I protest that I desire Thee alone and nothing more. O my Mother, recommend me to thy Son; He gives thee whatever thou askest―in thee I trust!