Saint for the Day

• October 20 – St. John Cantius

  

  St. John was born at Kenty in Poland in 1403, and studied at Cracow with great ability, industry, and success, while his modesty and virtue drew all hearts to him. He was for a short time in charge of a parish; but he shrank from the burden of responsibility, and returned to his life of professor at Cracow. There for many years he lived a life of unobtrusive virtue, self-denial, and charity. His love for the Holy See led him often in pilgrimage to Rome, on foot and alone, and his devotion to the Passion drew him once to Jerusalem, where he hoped to win a martyr’s crown by preaching to the Turks. He died in 1473, at the age of seventy.

  Reflection.—He who orders all his doings according to the will of God may often be spoken of by the world as simple and stupid; but in the end he wins the esteem and confidence of the world itself, and the approval and peace of God.

   

   

Sunday Sermon

• The Great Cause of Crime ~ Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

  

  Every year, on the tenth day of October, Catholic temperance advocates have been accustomed to celebrate the birthday of Father Mathew, and to renew their zeal for the great work to which he was devoted. The New Testament clearly teaches that drunkards are excluded from the kingdom of heaven. It was no new doctrine, therefore, that Father Mathew proclaimed when he appealed to all Christians to join with him in opposition to the degrading vice of intemperance. He decided that it was a Christian duty to organize a new crusade against an evil that has become more dangerous than ever before under the changed conditions of modern society.

  That intemperance prevails to an alarming extent is unquestionably true ; that it is a prolific source of crime and poverty cannot be denied, even by those who are enriched by the sale of intoxicating drinks. Apart from other channels of information, the records of the courts sufficiently prove that the habit of excessive drinking is wide spread, and that every State in this free country is obliged to spend thousands of dollars annually be cause a large number of citizens become drunk and disorderly.

  Our own experience shows us that homes are made desolate, families are brought to destitution, children suffer hunger because the money that should be spent in providing the necessaries of life is squandered for drink. Long observation has convinced those who are devoted to the relief of the poor that the most hopeless cases of misery are found in the sections of this large city where women are addicted to intemperance.

  In the presence of an evil destructive of the Christian home, and dangerous to the moral welfare of the community, it is the duty of earnest Christians to speak out their convictions. Some there are who need to be urged to give a little more attention to what may be called out-door Christianity. The sound principles of the temperance question are misrepresented frequently, and intelligent Catholics act in public as though tongue-tied, unable or unwilling to make known the teaching of the Church.

  When silence seems to give consent to evil- doing, it becomes necessary to proclaim aloud the truth, not only in the church but in the market place. We owe a duty of edification to our brethren which requires us to do many things for the common good. Indifference is culpable, silence is culpable, when such a course of action retards the progress of virtue and strengthens the power of the wicked. The cowardice of good people has often served to make vice bold and defiant.

  Let us resolve, my brethren, to do something positive in the Christian warfare against the vice of intemperance. By word and example we can make it known to all men that the drunkard is a disgrace to human nature. While he remains intoxicated, his conscience cannot guide him ; his tongue gives forth idiotic utterances ; his duty to God, to his neighbor and himself are shamefully neglected. In fulfilling her divine mission as the custodian and teacher of the doctrines which Christ promulgated, the Catholic Church must everywhere oppose the sensual vices that debase human beings. The willing slaves of intemperance cannot be honored as exemplary Christians.