Saint for the Day

• May 25 – St. Gregory VII
      Gregory VII, by name Hilderbrand was born in Tuscany, about the year 1013.  He was educated in Rome.  From thence he went to France, and became a monk at Cluny.  Afterwards he returned to Rome, and for many years filled high trusts of the Holy See.  Three great evils then afflicted the Church: simony, concubinage, and the custom of receiving investiture from lay hands.  Against these three corruptions Gregory never ceased to contend.  As legate of Victor II he held a Council at Lyons, where simony was condemned.  He was elected Pope in 1073, and at once called upon the pastors of the Catholic world to lay down their lives rather than betray the laws of God to the will of princes.  Rome was in rebellion through the ambition of the Cenci.  Gregory excommunicated them.  They laid hands on him at Christmas during the midnight Mass, wounded him, and cast him into prison.  The following day he was rescued by the people.  Next arose his conflict with Henry IV, Emperor of Germany.  This monarch, after openly relapsing into simony, pretended to depose the Pope.  Gregory excommunicated the emperor.  His subjects turned against him, and at last he sought absolution of Gregory at Canossa.  But he did not persevere.  He set up an antipope, and besieged Gregory in the castle of St. Angelo.  The aged pontiff was obliged to flee, and on May 25, 1085, about the seventy-second year of his life, and the twelfth year of his pontificate, Gregory entered into his rest.  His last words were full of a divine wisdom and patience.  As he was dying, he said, “I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile.”  His faithful attendant answered, “Vicar of Christ, an exile thou canst never be, for to thee God has given the Gentiles for an inheritance, and the uttermost ends of the earth for thy possession.”   Reflection—Eight hundred years are passed since St. Gregory died, and we see the same conflict renewed before our eyes.  Let us learn from him to suffer any persecution from the world or the State, rather than betray the rights of the Holy See.

   Taken from the “Pictorial Lives of the Saints: with Reflections for Everyday in the year

   

Sunday Sermon

• Feast of Pentecost

  

  Let not your heart be troubled,
  nor let it be afraid.
  —St. John xiv. 27.

  Our Lord spoke these words to his apostles before his Passion, but they were not to have effect till after his ascension into heaven. It was not his will that they should have the courage and confidence to which he here exhorts them till that time which we celebrate to-day, when the Holy Ghost came upon them and fitted them for the great work to which they were appointed. Even while our Lord was with them after his resurrection, and still more after he had ascended and left them to themselves, they were anxious and fearful, not daring to call themselves his disciples or to risk anything for his sake. But when they received the Holy Ghost all this was changed. They confessed Christ openly; all their doubts and fears were gone; and “they rejoiced,” as we read in the Acts, “that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus. And they ceased not every day, in the temple and from house to house, to teach and preach Christ Jesus.”

  Now, we ought to imitate their conduct after Pentecost, and not that before. For we have not the excuse that they had before that time. We have received the Holy Ghost, as they did. He has not come on us visibly in fiery tongues, but he has come just as really and truly in the sacrament of confirmation which we have received. There is no reason for us to be troubled or afraid; when the Holy Ghost came into our hearts he brought courage and confidence with him; he brought them to each one of us, as he did to the holy apostles.

  And he gave this courage and confidence to each of us for the same reason as to them, because we have all to be apostles in our own way and degree. We have not all got to preach Christ publicly, as they did, but we have all got to speak a word for him when the proper occasion comes. We have not all got to die for Christ, as they did, but we have got to suffer something for the sake of our faith in him, and that quite often, too, it may be. We have a real duty in this matter; we shall be rewarded if we fulfil it, and punished if we do not. It was not for his apostles only but for each one of us that those words of his were meant: “Every one that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven; but he that shall deny me before men. I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.”

  And yet how often must it be acknowledged, to our shame and disgrace, that Christians do deny their Lord and Master before men! I do not mean that they deny their faith, and say they are not Catholics when they are asked; this, thank God! though it does happen, is not so very common. But is it not common enough to find young Catholic men and women with whom one might associate for years and never suspect them to be Catholics, and, in fact, be quite sure that they were not?—and this not merely because they do not parade their religion, but because they do not defend it when it is attacked; because they agree with, and even express, all sorts of infidel, heretical, false, and so-called liberal opinions, that they may not give offence; or even, perhaps, without any sort of need, but only to win favor for themselves by falling in with the fashion of those with whom they associate.

  And how often, again, do Christians, even if they do stand up for their faith, cast contempt on it in the eyes of the world by acting and talking just as if it had no power over their lives, and was never meant to have any! They curse, and swear, and talk immodestly, just as those do who do not profess to believe in God and Christ, and even, perhaps worse. Or if they do not go so far as this, they laugh at profanity and impurity, and make companions of those who are addicted to these vices; and this they do, not because they really wish to do or to sanction such things, but merely from a miserable weakness that prevents them from facing a little contempt and unpopularity. What would they do, if called on to shed their blood for Christ, who cannot bear even to be laughed at a little for being practical Catholics? They are like cowardly soldiers who run away from a battle at the first smoke from the enemy’s guns.

  You know what a shame it is for a soldier to be a coward. And now try to remember, dear Christians, especially on this holy day, that a Christian has got to be a soldier, and that if he is a coward he disgraces himself and his cause. The Holy Ghost is given to us in confirmation that we may not be weak and cowardly, but strong and perfect Christians, and true soldiers of Jesus Christ. If you have not yet received him in this way make haste to do so; if you have, make use of the graces which he has given you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid; there is nothing to be afraid of, for God is on your side. Do not fear but rather count it a joy to suffer a little persecution for his name.

  

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