Saint for the Day

• May 30—St. Felix I., Pope and Martyr
  St. Felix was a Roman by birth, and succeeded St. Dionysius in the government of the Church in 269.  Paul of Samosata, the proud bishop of Antioch, to the guilt of many enormous crimes, added that of heresy, teaching that Christ was no more than a mere man, in whom the Divine Word dwelt by its operation, and as its temple, with many other gross errors concerning the capital mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation.  Three councils were held at Antioch to examine his cause, and in the third, assembled in 269, being clearly convicted of heresy, pride, and many scandalous crimes, he was excommunicated and deposed, and Domnus was substituted in his place.  As Paul still kept possession of the episcopal house, our Saint had recourse to the emperor Aurelian, who, though a pagan, gave an order that the house should belong to him to whom the bishops of Rome and Italy adjudged it.  The persecution of Aurelian breaking out, St. Felix, fearless of danger, strengthened the weak, encouraged all, baptized the catechumens, and continued to exert himself in converting infidels to the faith.  He himself obtained the glory of martyrdom.  He governed the Church five years, and passed to a glorious eternity in 274. Reflection—The example of our Saviour and of all His saints, ought to encourage us under all trials to suffer with patience and even with joy.  We shall soon begin to feel that it is sweet to tread in the steps of a God-man, and shall find that if we courageously take up our crosses, He will make them light by sharing the burden with us.

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