Saint for the Day

• June 1 – Sts. Justin and Pamphilus, Martyrs
  St. Justin was born of heathen parents at Neapolis in Samaria, about the year 103.  He was well educated, and gave himself to the study of philosophy, but always with one object, that he might learn the knowledge of God.  He sought this knowledge among the contending schools of philosophy, but always in vain, till at last God himself appeased the thirst which he had created.  One day, while Justin was walking by the seashore, mediating on the thought of God, an old man met him and questioned him on the subject of his doubts; and when he had made Justin confess that the philosophers taught nothing certain about God, he told him of the writings of the inspired prophets and of Jesus Christ whom they announced, and bade him seek light and understanding through prayer.  The Scriptures and the constancy of the Christian martyrs led Justin from the darkness of human reason to the light of faith.  In his zeal for the faith he travelled to Greece, Egypt, and Italy, gaining many to Christ.  At Rome he sealed his testimony with his blood, surrounded by his disciples.  “Do you think,” the perfect said to Justin, “that by dying you will enter heaven and be rewarded by God?”  “I do not think,” was the Saint’s answer; “I know.”  Then, as now, there were many religious opinions, but only one certainty—the certainty of the Catholic faith.  This certainty should be the measure of our confidence and our zeal. Reflection—We have received the gift of faith with little labor of our own.  Let us learn how to value it from those who reached it after long search, and lived in the misery of a world which did not know God.  Let us fear, as St. Justin did, the account we shall have to render for the gift of God.   St. Pamphilus was of a rich and honorable family, and a native of Berytus, in which city, at that time famous for its schools, he in his youth ran through the whole circle of the sciences, and was afterward honored with the first employments of the magistracy.  After he began to know Christ, he could relish no other study but that of salvation, and renounced everything else that he might apply himself wholly to the exercises of virtue, and the studies of the Holy Scriptures.  This accomplished master in profane sciences, and this renowned magistrate, was not ashamed to become the humble scholar of Pierius, the successor of Origen, in the great catechetical school of Alexandria.  He afterward made Caesarea, in Palestine, his residence, where, at his private expense, he collected a great library, which he bestowed on the church of that city.  The Saint established there also a public school of sacred literature, and to his labors the Church was indebted for a most correct edition of the Holy Bible, which, with infinite care, he transcribe himself.  But nothing was more remarkable in this Saint than his extraordinary humility.  His paternal estate he at length distributed among the poor; towards his slaves and domestics his behavior was always that of a brother or a tender father.  He led a most austere life, sequestered from the world and its company, and was indefatigable in labor. Such a virtue was his apprenticeship to the grace of martyrdom.  In the year 307, Urbanus, the cruel governor of Palestine, caused him to be apprehended, and commanded him to be most inhumanly tormented.  But the iron hooks which tore the martyr’s sides served only to cover the judge with confusion.  After this, the Saint remained almost two years in prison.  Urbanus, the governor, was himself beheaded by an order of the emperor Maximinus, but was succeeded by Firmilian, a man not less barbarous than bigoted and superstitious.  After several butcheries, he caused St. Pamphilus to be brought before him, and passed sentence of death upon him.  His flesh was torn off to the very bones, and his bowels exposed to view, and the torments were continued a long time without intermission, but he never once opened his mouth so much as to groan.  He finished his martyrdom by a slow fire, and died invoking Jesus, the Son of God. Reflection—A cloud of witnesses, a noble army of martyrs, teach us by their constancy to suffer wrong with patience, and strenuously to resist evil.  The daily trials we meet with from others or from ourselves, are always sent us by God, who sometimes throws difficulties in our way on purpose to reward our conquest; and sometimes, like a wise physician, restores us to our health by bitter potions.

  Taken from the “Pictorial Lives of the Saints: with Reflections for Every Day in the Year”

Sunday Sermon

• Trinity Sunday

  

  In the name of the Father,
  and of the Son,
  and of the Holy Ghost.
  —St. Matthew xxviii. 19.

  To-day, my dear brethren, the church celebrates the greatest of all the mysteries of our religion: the mystery of the Holy Trinity; of the one God in three Divine Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

  We all believe it; we must believe it if we would be saved. But no one of us can perfectly understand it. St. Patrick, you know, is said to have illustrated it to his converts by showing them the shamrock with its three leaves on one stem; but, of course, he never pretended that this was a perfect explanation of it. No perfect explanation of it can be given to us.

  And why not? Is it because it really has no explanation? No, but because we are not able to understand the one which might be given. Explain the solar system to a child of five years: will he understand you? It is something the same with us and this greater mystery of God.

  Some people, especially at the present day, who consider themselves very wise, say to themselves and to others: “Oh! this doctrine of the Trinity cannot be true.” Ask them why not, and they will say: “Because we cannot understand it; it seems to us to be nonsense.”

  Well, what does their argument amount to? Just to this: “If the doctrine were true we should understand it; but we don’t understand it, therefore it is not true.”

  “If it were true,” they say, “we should understand it.” And why? “Why, of course, because we are so wise that we can understand everything. It is well enough for stupid people, like those benighted Romanists, to believe what they don’t understand, but such a proceeding would be quite below our dignity and intelligence. It is quite absurd to suppose that there is any mystery so deep that we cannot see to the bottom of it.”

  Now, I do not want to accuse these worthy people of any one of the seven capital sins; they are, no doubt, as good as they are wise. But there is something in what they say that looks just a little bit like one of those sins; like the first and most deadly of them all: that is, the sin of pride. And there is not much doubt that pride has in some form or other had something to do with all heresies; so I am afraid that those who deny the Holy Trinity are not quite free from it.

  You think so, my brethren, I have no doubt. But, after all, are you not perhaps guilty of a little of the same sin yourselves? You believe in the Holy Trinity, it is true, but are there not some other things which you do not fully believe, though you ought to, and for very much the same reason?

  God has given you the gift of faith; and you are willing to believe what you know to be of faith, even if it be beyond your reason, especially if it be something, like the Holy Trinity, beyond the reason of any one else. But are you not sometimes rather unwilling to believe other matters of religion, for which there is good authority, just because you, with your present lights, do not quite see through them? That is just the trouble with the heretics of whom I have spoken; is it not so with you, too, perhaps?

  Do you not say even about some of these matters: “Oh! I do not think the same about that as the priests do; they are welcome to their opinion but I claim the right to mine”? It may be some question of morals; then you say: “The priest say so-and-so is not right; but I don’t see any harm in it. I have got a conscience of my own.”

  Did it ever occur to you that as God knows more, and has told more to his church about himself than you could have found out, so he may have enlightened it rather more about some other matters in its own sphere than he has enlightened you, even though they are not of faith? And even setting that aside, is it not possible that those who have studied a subject know more about it than those who have not?

  I think there is only one answer to these questions. Try, then, to have the same humility which you have about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in other things too. You believe that the officers of a ship know a little more about her position and proper course than you do; make the same presumption in favor of those who are in charge of the bark of St. Peter. It is only reasonable to think so; only showing a little of the same common sense which you show in other things.

  ~Five Minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year