• First Sunday in Lent

  It was fitting that Christ should be tempted Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. Matt. iv. i. Christ willed to be tempted:

  1. That He might assist us against our own temptations. St. Gregory says, ” That our Redeemer, who had come on earth to be killed, should will to be tempted was not unworthy of Him. It was indeed but just that he should overcome our temptations by His own, in the same way that He had come to overcome our death by His death.” 2. To warn us that no man, however holy he be, should think himself safe and free from temptation. Whence again His choosing to be tempted after His baptism, about which St. Hilary says, “The devil’s wiles are especially directed to trap us at times when we have recently been made holy, because the devil desires no victory so much as a victory over the world of grace.” Whence too, the scripture warns us, Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation (Ecclus. ii. i). 3. To give us an example how we should over come the temptations of the devil, St. Augustine says, “Christ gave Himself to the devil to be tempted, that in the matter of our overcoming those same temptations He might be of service not only by His help but by His example too.” 4. To fill and saturate our minds with confidence in His mercy. For we have not a high-priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities, but one tempted in all things, like as we are, without sin(Heb. iv. 15).

Saint for the Day

• February 22 – St. Peter’s Chair at Antioch

  

  That St. Peter, before he went to Rome, founded the see of Antioch is attested by many Saints. It was just that the Prince of the Apostles should take this city under his particular care and inspection, which was then the capital of the East, and in which the faith took so early and so deep root as to give birth in it to the name of Christians. St. Chrysostom says that St. Peter made’ there a long stay; St. Gregory the Great, that he was seven years Bishop of Antioch; not that he resided there all that time, but only that he had a particular care over that Church. If he sat twenty-five years at Rome, the date of his establishing his chair at Antioch must be within three years after Our Saviour’s Ascension; for in that supposition he must have gone to Rome in the second year of Claudius. In the first ages it was customary, especially in the East, for every Christian to keep the anniversary of his Baptism, on which he renewed his baptismal vows and gave thanks to God for his heavenly adoption: this they called their spiritual birthday. The bishops in like manner kept the anniversary of their own consecration, as appears from four sermons of St. Leo on the anniversary of his accession or assumption to the pontifical dignity; and this was frequently continued after their decease by the people, out of respect for their memory. St. Leo says we ought to celebrate the chair of St. Peter with no less joy than the day of his martyrdom; for as in this he was exalted to a throne of glory in heaven, so by the former he was installed head of the Church on earth. Reflection.—On this festival we are especially bound to adore and thank the Divine Goodness for the establishment and propagation of His Church, and earnestly to pray that in His mercy He preserve the same, and dilate its pale, that His name may be glorified by all nations, and by all hearts, to the boundaries of the earth, for His divine honor and the salvation of souls, framed to His divine image, and the price of His adorable blood.

Sunday Sermon

• First Sunday of Lent ~ The Relapsing Sinner

  

  “That every one of you know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.” —  Thess. iv. 4

  When we see a man given up to a life of some base, health and soul-destroying sin, and who perseveres in it in spite of all warnings and remonstrances of priest and dear friends, the remark will be heard from someone who knows him, How astonishing! and from another, How sad! But there is something more astonishing and more sad, and that is to see a man who, having been converted from such a deplorable state, who has made extraordinary efforts of his own, and has received extraordinary graces from God to help him to re form, suddenly gives himself up again to the very sins he has so lately abandoned. Just as if you had seen a man whose clothes were all besmeared with filth, mud, and mire from lying like a beast in a gutter every night for a month, and having re solved to live more like a man and a Christian, had taken a whole week to wash himself clean, be ginning long before daylight and scrubbing away all day until long after sundown, until he was a sight of cleanliness, order, and neatness most agree able to look upon ; now, in a moment, lies down in the gutter again, and wallows there like a pig until he is, if possible, more dirty, more repulsive than he was before.

  That is the man that took such pains to get up early in the harsh, cold weather, and come to the church then, and again late at night, and worked hard during the whole week of the Mission to purify his soul and make himself fit for man and God to look upon with pleasure ; and yet — oh, how astonishing and how sad! — is soon back again into his old sinful ways, committing every sin he so solemnly swore to abandon for the love of God and with the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

  If you ask him: Friend, how did you come to do this ? Was not the friendship and love of God and the hope of heaven worth keeping ? Why did you fall into sin again ? he has but one answer, “I was tempted.” Like Eve, he repeats the old excuse : ‘ ‘ The devil beguiled me and I did eat of the forbidden fruit.” Or like Adam, he says : “It was the woman’s fault ; she offered the fruit to me, and I ate it.”

  I cannot help having some compassion for Adam and Eve, for it was their first sin.

  They had not been just rescued by a crucified God and Saviour from a state of hell and misery, and now again promised all the old lost love of God and hope of heaven. They had not been prodigal children, lately in rags and feeding upon husks with swine, and now received back with joy and feasting to the father’s house and the father’s embrace.

  But what shall I think of you, O relapsing sinner! of whom all I have just said is so true ? Tempted ! Have you not just now heard the Gospel of the temptation of Christ ? Did He give way to the extraordinary temptations set Him by the devil? But you say, “I am not Christ.” I tell you you are. You are a Christian, and that means another Christ, or it means nothing. Though it does not mean that you are a God, as He was, yet it does mean that His divine humanity is yours. You are one of His divinely exalted human race just as much as you are one of Adam’s fallen human race. And there is no grace which Christ’s human nature had to keep Him from giving up to the temptation of the devil, that God would not also give you if you prayed for it. You are conceived and born of the Holy Ghost, a Christian son of the Church your mother, as Christ was conceived and born of His Mother Mary by the same Holy Ghost. Therefore, our Lord in His prayer to His heavenly Father said : “I in them, and Thou, Father, in Me. Thou hast loved them even as Thou hast loved Me.”

  If the heavenly Father loves us the same He will strengthen us the same against temptations. Stop! turn back quickly and repair your fault, your own fault, your own most grievous fault. Or, at the Day of Judgment Adam and Eve will scorn to look upon you as a man, and Christ will say to you, ” Depart from Me; I know you not!” If you fear such a horrible end may come upon you, pray, in temptation and out of temptation, and the devil shall have no power over you.

  

  Five Minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year  Volume 2

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