Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praise be Jesus Christ.
Praise be Jesus Christ.
And those who make up this camp are the souls who are in the state of grace.
In the other camp is the devil.
He's the one who is in charge of that camp,
and it consists of the souls who are not in God's grace,
those souls who are in the state of sin.
And now the battle that occurs between these two camps is relentless
and will not stop until the end of time.
The devil seeks to win souls from our Lord's camp and bring them into his own.
And our Lord seeks out souls who are presently lost and in the devil's camp
and bring them into his own.
And we see this, as I said, in the epistle and in the gospel.
The epistle, first, is an admonition, a warning on the part of St. Peter
to those who are in the state of grace.
In our Lord's camp, those souls who are in the state of grace,
to be aware of the devil who is seeking their souls.
St. Peter says,
And so we need to watch that the devil not take us from our Lord's camp.
Likewise,
Likewise, the gospel speaks to encourage those souls who are currently lost,
those who are not in God's grace,
by explaining to them the care which our Lord has,
the lengths that he goes to in order to bring them into his own,
where it talks about our Lord being like a shepherd
who seeks out the one lost sheep,
who leaves the ninety-nine to seek the one who is lost,
or like the woman in the house,
who seeks diligently after that lost coin.
Now, we need to be aware that the devil, again, as I said,
he doesn't tempt those who are already in his camp,
but he tempts only those who are in our Lord's camp,
that is, those souls who are in a state of grace.
But the ones that he already possesses,
those who are in the state of sin,
that are already his own,
he doesn't even want to bother.
He doesn't want to touch.
So he's not seeking,
he's not striving like a roaring lion after them.
I remember one time when I was in Italy,
I walked into a photo shop
and there was a very immodest picture displayed on the wall.
And I mentioned it to the store owner.
I said, you know, that picture is very immodest
and it's really not appropriate.
You know, there are,
there are people who come in here
who don't want to see those type of things.
And he looked at me as if I was the one with the problem.
And he said, well, you know, I look at that
and it doesn't do anything to me.
Well, okay, I would say that that man had arrived
at a heroic degree of virtue
if perhaps he were a daily mass goer,
if he prayed the rosary every day.
But if not, chances are,
he's simply not being tempted by the devil.
St. John Vianney, we celebrate his year this year,
the year of the priest.
And St. John Vianney was just recently made
on the Feast of the Sacred Heart,
the patron saint now, not only of all parish priests,
but the patron saint of all priests.
So I take a little quote from him where he talks about this,
that the devil doesn't bother with those
who are already in a state of sin.
But only those who are in God's grace.
St. John Vianney says,
So you will ask me,
who then are the people most tempted?
They are these, my friends, note them carefully.
The people most tempted are those who are ready,
with the grace of God,
to sacrifice everything for the salvation of their poor souls,
who renounce all those things which most people eagerly seek.
Amen.
It is not one devil only who tempts them,
but millions seek to entrap them.
And this is precisely the experience
that St. Augustine explains was his own.
While he was living in a state of sin,
and away from God, far from God,
he said he hardly knew what a temptation was.
But as soon as he turned and converted
and wanted to live in God's grace,
and live a holy life,
he said he was assailed by temptations.
And so, the epistle then tells us
how we are to deal with the devil
who is prowling like a roaring lion.
It tells us that we are to live soberly.
We are to live in vigilance, to watch,
and to be strong in our faith.
St. Peter says,
Be sober and watch,
because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion
goeth about seeking whom he may devour.
Resist him strong in your faith.
So again, be sober, watch, and be strong in your faith.
When I think about this admonition of St. Peter to be sober,
what comes first and foremost into my mind
unfortunately are college students today.
It's the first thing that comes to my mind.
Because what goes on at the great majority of college campuses?
Now I understand it's not just Friday and Saturday or even Sunday,
but they start on Thursday evening to drink and to party
and basically blow off classes on Friday.
Or they go and sleep or something, not pay attention.
Again, that's the first thing that comes to my mind.
That's the first thing that comes to my mind. That's the first thing that comes to my mind.
Again, they extend that weekend to enjoy the revelry as much as they can.
And this is what St. Peter is admonishing us against.
Be sober.
Why?
Well, first of all, because drunkenness damages our body.
It's a sin against the fifth commandment.
Our body is not our own.
It belongs to the Lord.
It's a temple of the Holy Spirit,
and it's made in the image of Christ,
the man who is the Lord.
The man who is, who all men are made after according to his image and likeness.
Adam was made after the image and likeness of Christ,
even though he preceded him.
God had first in mind the incarnation of his son
and made all other men according to his image.
In fact, some of the mystics tell us that Adam closely resembled physically our Lord.
In fact, some of the mystics tell us that Adam closely resembled physically our Lord.
In fact, some of the mystics tell us that Adam closely resembled physically our Lord.
And so we need to remember for these reasons
that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit
and made according to the image of Christ,
that we need to treat it with respect.
Secondly, we need to avoid drunkenness
because we voluntarily, by getting drunk,
we voluntarily impair the use of our reason
and how often it leads to other sins.
Above all, violence,
and sins against purity.
Isn't that what we find on college campuses on weekends?
Fighting and sins against chastity.
Also, St. Paul expressly says in 1 Corinthians 6
that drunkards, or neither drunkards,
shall they possess the kingdom of God.
Again, we exclude ourselves.
We place ourselves out of the camp of our Lord
and into,
the camp of the devil.
So we must be sober.
Then St. Peter says that we need to watch.
We need to be vigilant.
We need to be wary
of the devil's deceits and cunning,
of anything that tends to draw us away
from the path of virtue
and towards the path of vice and sin.
And finally, St. Peter says
we need to be strong in faith.
Now this is an admonition
for all of those Christians
who have denied
some teaching of the Church.
Okay, who are,
show themselves to be weak in faith.
You know, they deny
the necessity of going to Mass on Sunday.
The immorality of contraception.
And,
I can't believe it's necessary to say this,
but the immorality of abortion.
There are Catholics out there
who are pro-abortion,
or pro-choice,
as they want to call themselves.
Again, that is not being strong in faith.
We must believe
and believe firmly
everything that God has revealed
and that the Church teaches
if we are to avoid
the snares of the devil.
Now then we go to the Gospel
which talks about our Lord
as the good shepherd
who seeks out the lost sheep.
And again, in the image of the woman
who diligently seeks after the lost coin.
And this is meant
to convey,
to console those
who find themselves away from God
and in sin.
You see, the devil
wants to leave that sinner alone
and not bother him
so that he stays in sin
up until the point of death.
Then at the moment of death,
he wants to throw all of that in their face
and plunge them into despair
so that they no longer hope
for God's mercy
and so that they no longer hope
for God's salvation.
So instead,
the words of the Gospel
should console and encourage those
who find themselves in a state of sin.
It should be a consolation to us
to know that God
desires our salvation
even more than we do.
That God seeks out the souls
as the saying speaks about
the hounds of heaven
who pursue souls
in order to save them.
It is in this sense
that we can learn
theンド is not
just about salvation
but also about
return of two puts
into action.
For it is not
just about saving
described as
for the sake
of the nation
for the
mighty hand of God, casting all our cares upon him because he cares for us. Again, more teaching of
consolation. All of the difficulties that we have in this life, all of the temptations and trials
that we have to undergo, just humble ourselves and put us under the mighty hand of God
and cast all our cares upon him because he cares for us like a loving father.
And so we can live in this world in relative peace, knowing that God has care for our souls and
knowing that he desires so ardently our salvation. We can live in relative peace,
as St. Paul again teaches us, because all things work for the good for those who love God.
And so we need to simply humble ourselves and love God and everything else,
will take care of itself. Okay, be wary of the wiles of the devil and his deceits and trickery
and seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be given to us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.