In today's Gospel, our Lord speaks to us of one of the most delicate matters as members
of the mystical body, and yet a matter that we are all required to exercise in one form
or another.
And so, in order to understand this, we must understand essentially what is Christianity
and the faith we follow.
It is a call to good works, but those good works are not to be exercised according to
the altruism of the Freemasons or some type of humanistic compassion.
What is our call?
Our call is to perform the works of Christ, and indeed, our Lord, in correcting sinners,
begins his public ministry with this very precept that he invites all of us to exercise
today.
For he begins his public ministry by telling each and every one of us, repent, for the
kingdom of God is at hand, and so he exercises that virtue that we are all called to exercise
and so it is a call to good works.
But those works must always and everywhere be Christocentric works, and in order for that
to happen, there must be devotion to the Mother of God, for she and she alone reveals to us
the works of Christ.
And so, of this call to good works, each and every one of us will be asked to give an account
on the day of judgment as to whether we have exercised them.
Essentially, what are the good works we are to perform?
We know them from the Catechism as the works of mercy, and so we are called to exercise
those works that our Lord exercised during his life on this earth and continues to exercise
through the life of his mystical body.
Mercy ultimately is an action by which we help our neighbor in his spiritual or his
corporal needs.
And so, we know that they are divided into two parts.
We know that they are divided into two parts.
We know that they are divided into two parts.
We know that they are divided into two forms, the spiritual and the corporal works of mercy.
Today, our Lord speaks to us of the third of the spiritual works of mercy, that is,
to admonish the sinner.
And this virtue that we are called to exercise by our Lord is not one that our Lord makes
a council, it is a precept.
We are obliged to make corrections, and so we must strive always and everywhere to reprove
lovingly our neighbor.
our neighbor according to how our Lord has described to us in the gospel.
First, we are to go to him privately and seek his repentance.
Then we are to go to him with a witness that is also in a private fashion.
If this is not successful, then we are to go to the church.
But we must also understand this, that is not a public revelation
of the faults and failings either of ourselves or of our neighbor.
But when our Lord tells us we are to tell the church,
he means we are to tell the pastor or a prelate so that they may go to our neighbor
or to ourselves in order to try to bring us to our senses.
And finally, the Lord tells us that when there is no hope of an amendment
through these three forms, he says we are to treat them like a Gentile or a tax collector.
Now, many will interpret this as our Lord saying,
have nothing to do with them, simply ignore them and treat them
as if they were not human beings.
But that is not the meaning of our Lord's final and fourth means.
He means when we have no reasonable hope of amendment either in ourselves or in our neighbor,
then we are to leave it in the hands of God,
commending them constantly through prayer to God's care
in order that they may come.
And so he teaches us very profoundly that we are all obliged to exercise this virtue
in one form or another.
It can be understood in a simple way.
A man knows his friend has contracted the sin of intemperance or the sin of alcoholism,
the sin of alcoholism, not the disease of alcoholism,
because it is this modern world's maddening obsession to describe every sin
as somehow out of our control.
It is a terrible vice and we are to have compassion on each other,
especially when we see those who have contracted it.
But we must understand it is not, as the modern world defines it, a disease.
It is a sin.
It is the sin of intemperance as all behavior of that nature in some way is a sin.
It is true that once contracted, there is a sort of mitigation,
but that is only because an extremely bad and violent habit has been formed.
So say a man contracts the vice of the sin of alcoholism.
He has a good friend in the neighborhood because with that vice also comes the vice
by which he periodically beats his wife.
And so he goes and corrects that man.
There is no change.
Then he brings two or three friends whom he has confidence in,
will not reveal publicly that which they all see in him.
They go and again there is no correction.
And so finally they go to the pastor and explain to father what is happening to his friend
and the ramification it has within his family.
He goes and tries to bring them to his senses.
There is no correction.
What happens here, the Lord describes it very clearly at the end when he says,
We are two or three friends.
When two or three are gathered together in my name, that is in prayer, I am in their midst.
And so we have now that fourth and final act by which they must commend it to the will of God.
And so first the friend who went and the friends who went with him are required to now pray for his repentance
as is the pastor and also he is to remember them during the holy sacrifice of the mass
so that all times there is in some way,
some intercession to be being performed for the sinner.
And so we see that our Lord always and everywhere has in mind that we exercise charity in its highest fashion.
And so in order for this to happen, we must also be willing to make these corrections.
They must be done plainly and openly.
That is we are to avoid that vice that so often taints our attempts to correct our neighbor.
That is,
the vice of sanctimony, a vice described by one author in its extreme form as those waiting for a vacancy in the most holy trinity.
And why must it be avoided?
Because there is no vice so dangerous to true human concourse that it corrupts everything.
And indeed, every conversation that we seem to have with those who have contracted that vice is tainted.
For no matter what,
there is no openness to human concourse.
Everything becomes immoralizing.
That is,
we can't have a normal conversation with those who have contracted this vice in its extreme form.
Each and every one of us suffers under it,
especially when we are required to make corrections of our brothers and our sisters in Christ.
But again, at its extreme,
it so blocks human concourse that there can be no hope.
For a true charitable Christian correction when that vice has become present,
for it taints everything,
everything that it is not supposed to taint,
most especially,
it taints charity.
And so, we must strive always and everywhere to exercise this virtue and avoid that which St. Augustine tells us.
First, he gives us what we must do.
We must forget our own injury.
Not thy brother's fall,
nor suffer him to perish through thy silence.
If thou knowest his fault
and reprovest it before others,
thou art not a corrector,
but a betrayer.
And so, we see very clearly
that this precept is rooted
in the absolute charity of God
and it is one of those virtues
that is humanly impossible to acquire.
That is what we don't often understand.
That is what we don't often understand.
There are certain things in the Christian life
that cannot be exercised
no matter how blessed a person is
in the natural order
because there is much
that we are asked to do
that transcends the natural order
because it is of the supernatural order.
And so, to avoid sanctimony in correction,
to avoid all that that blocks the soul's communion with Christ
is a supernatural reality
and hence, it can only be
acquired through the life of prayer
and the sacramental life of the Church.
And so, we must always and everywhere remember
in regards to this precept of our Lord
that Christ is our model, not ourselves.
When we enter in and try to make this correction
and we hold ourselves as the model,
then we block the entrance of Christ in the soul.
And so, if we are to understand this,
we must first begin to understand
the efficacy of devotion to our Blessed Mother,
for she and she alone
can communicate to us the life of Christ
as our most powerful intercessor with God.
She and she alone can give us that grace
by which we truly seek to imitate Christ
and hold Him as the model.
For we should always and everywhere seek
to see our neighbor always
performing the good works of Christ
according to those wonderful gifts
that God has given each and every soul.
And ultimately, to involve ourselves
in this spiritual work of mercy
is to keep those gifts that God has given
both ourselves and our neighbors
within the mystical body of Christ,
and hence, it is to keep them as the works of Christ,
for that is often what we don't reflect upon
in our lives as Christian.
It is not our works that are performed
when we are in the state of grace
and members of His body.
It is His works always and everywhere,
His works and the works of His Mother,
those works that truly renew the face of the world.
And so, let us strive to understand
that when we fail to exercise this virtue,
it is rooted in our fear.
We are cowards,
because we have been saturated with a mentality,
a mentality that is so eloquently summed up
in one of the books that we were required to read,
in high school,
I am okay, you're okay.
It is interesting to note
that the author of that book
wound up dismembering his girlfriend,
because we are not okay.
And once we realize that,
then we begin to realize
how much we need each other.
And sanctimony is a vice
that blocks that need.
Sanctimony is, as that author described,
isolating ourselves
as we wait for a vacancy in the Holy Trinity.
When Satan couldn't acquire that vacancy,
he sought vicariously to do what?
Kill God.
That is the modern mantra.
We often don't see it.
For instance, we thought
that in World War II,
we vanquished fascism.
Did we?
Or has the one who was conquered triumphed
as is often the case
in a non-Christian culture?
When an enemy is defeated,
we become curious
about his philosophy
and ultimately it triumphs.
Has it triumphed in our society?
We would not have the widespread sin
of abortion and contraception
and euthanasia
and the destruction of our young and our old
because they can no longer contribute
to the GNP
as if that marks the value
of a human person,
how much they can contribute
to consumerism.
That's the dignity
with which God has imbued human beings.
Is it required for an elderly person
to have to go out and work?
No.
What is more valuable?
The one who is out working
or the old woman
who can no longer get up in the morning
and needs her grandchildren to come
down to help her out of bed,
put her in a chair
in which she goes through prayer cards
of every soul that died in her parish,
whether she knew them or not
because when the funeral bells tolled
she walked to church
to offer prayer
for that poor departed soul
and had a stack of holy cards
about a foot and a half long
and went through each and every one of them
every day of her elderly life.
Is she more valuable
than the worker laboring in the field?
I think in the eyes of God
much more valuable.
How many souls did that woman
and because it's a true story,
she was a member of my parish growing up.
She had to be helped out of bed
and was placed in a chair
and she did not depart from that chair
until evening
when her grandchildren would come down
and put her back in bed.
But that stack of cards
was gone through each and every day
in the final five years of her life.
That is true value
and that is how we measure the dignity of a soul,
not how they can contribute
to rampant consumerism or communism
which are ultimately the same thing,
a form of materialism.
And as Chesterton so eloquently points out to us,
they're just the different end
of the same stick
and it doesn't matter which end
whacks you over the head
because both ends hurt.
We live in a supernatural reality.
We are not here
for natural happiness
because we can't be naturally happy.
Why do you think our children become addicted
to sex and drugs?
Addicted.
Because they're trying to find happiness
in a material thing
and it cannot be done for a human being
because he is not created
for material happiness.
It is only by the grace of God
that we can use the things of this world
in accord to the will of God
and not abuse them.
And the abuse of any material thing
in this life is not a disease.
It's a sin.
It's a sin.
Whether it be alcoholism,
drugs,
or whatever.
Computers.
The hours wasted
in idleness
on computers.
Hours and hours and hours.
Oh no.
That could never happen.
And yet the stories come.
Two parents went out
and bought a week's worth of food.
Locked themselves in the computer room
and told the kids,
if you're hungry,
just go and eat.
And children have the common sense
to know how to regulate
what they eat, right?
So within two days
everything was gone.
And when the police came in,
those children were on the brink
of dying of starvation
in four days.
Because they had nothing to eat
or drink.
And mom and dad never left
that computer room.
Never.
That's not a disease.
That's a sin.
And it's a sin that is a crime
before God.
For it's a complete abandonment
of what every human being,
according to their gender,
is called to.
Men, fatherhood.
Women, motherhood.
Period.
What motivates a young child?
It is not what Freud tells us.
It is not what Jung tells us.
It is not what Maslow tells us
or Skinner
or any of the false prophets
of our age.
The only thing a young man wants to know
is how to become a man.
The only thing a young girl wants to know
is how to become a woman.
And that is not
one aspect of their life.
Usually sexuality.
That's not what defines a human person.
What defines a human person
is whether they are raised
to love God
and to use all the gifts
that God has given us
in the intellectual order
and in the physical order
according to His will.
Regulated according to His precepts.
And hence,
it will always and everywhere
be a sin
to take pleasure
in the marital act
outside of marriage.
Always.
Because God has given us
and God has ordained it
for one purpose
and one purpose only.
Those united
in the sacrament of matrimony
to beget children
and to raise them
for the kingdom of God.
First and foremost.
And notice that
at the very basis of our lives
because all of us
in one way
either by an abuse
of the marital act
or within its proper context
have come into this world
in the way God has ordained.
All of us.
In some way have come in
in that which is related to marriage.
But that is not the essence of marriage.
The essence of marriage is love.
And children have a right
to a mother and a father
united indissolubly
until death do they part.
They have a right
and that right is not
of the natural order.
It is of the supernatural order.
No society
has the right to seek
to change the definition
of that which comes directly from God.
And so for Catholics
to even involve themselves
in the argument
about whether we want to redefine marriage or not
is stupid.
Stupid.
It's a complete betrayal
of the supernatural order
to even entertain the thought
that somehow
you can change
what God has ordained.
We are changeable.
God is not.
And our Lord is our Lord.
He is not in that sense our friend.
He's not the cosmic teddy bear
that we squeeze
when we're not feeling good.
He is the Lord and Master
of all of creation.
And one day
an account will be given.
And so we must ask our questions.
Do we love our neighbor enough
to go to him
in charity?
Or do we take
the I am okay,
you're okay attitude?
For the most part
the world is imbued with it.
Oh, leave him alone.
Everyone's got rights.
Children have rights.
Everyone has rights.
How about we go back
to the Christian understanding?
Children are supposed
to have responsibilities.
Or as we were taught growing up,
you know son,
as mom and dad get older,
their work isn't supposed to increase.
That was a nice way of telling you
you were being lazy.
Because you were abandoning
your responsibility
and your obligation
to care for your parents.
And it was impeccably important
to understand that.
And if we understand that,
then we won't have repeated scenes
over and over and over and over again
that all of us
can probably recall.
I recall visiting a relative
once in a nursing home.
And as I walked in,
15 years old,
a man slouched in a wheelchair.
I passed him
and he reaches out,
grabs me,
and just,
I never saw him in my life,
pleading,
please,
bring me home.
I just want to die at home.
It is not natural
for our parents
to die in places like that.
It is not natural
and often it is uncharitable.
And the smell of urine
in those places,
it reeks.
And that means
those who are entrusted
with their care
are doing what?
Abandoning it.
That's a place
where if God forbid
we have to put people,
charity should be exercised
in the highest form.
And you talk to people
who work in those places
who had to get out
because they can't stand it anymore.
Understaffed.
So that 90%
of the poor elderly go
in almost 24 hours
without even having the dignity
of being changed.
That is demonic.
That's not just bad,
it's demonic.
And it fosters that vice
that the devil is always seeking
to destroy society by.
Despair.
God doesn't love you.
How could he allow this
to happen to you?
And it begins
when we don't have the courage
to love each other enough
to do the good works of Christ.
He started out
by admonishing us sinners.
And the only one
he never admonished
was his mother.
And we have to get used to that,
come to grips with it.
The only soul
who never was admonished
is the mother of God.
Every single one of us,
save that singular exception,
have been corrected
for our sins.
Let us truly strive
to enter into that mystery
so that we cannot
contribute
to the widespread
contraceptive
and more properly
concentration camp culture
of this world.
The Nazis in Germany
only isolated it
to certain areas.
The modern world
is becoming
in and of itself
a concentration camp.
Arbeit macht frei
they had over the door.
Freedom through work.
What was the purpose
of those places?
Make the soul die of despair.
Explicit.
That's why the electrical current
on the fences
was not at a lethal dose,
a dose that froze you.
And the standing order
to every SS soldier
was to wait
for those entrapped
until they heard
a blasphemy
or a sacrilege
come out of their mouth.
Then they were to be
dispatched immediately.
It has just come
to the knowledge
of some of us.
You go in now
to a hospital
for a simple procedure
like a colonoscopy.
And they ask you
do you want a
do not resuscitate
bracelet on your arm?
You go in to have
a hangnail taken care of.
Do you want a
do not resuscitate
thing put on your arm?
We laugh sometimes
at Nazi Germany.
It was only local.
What is happening
in the modern world
is universal.
Same mentality.
Same practices.
Same practices.
That is tantamount
to commissioning
someone else
to commit suicide
for you.
That is all
it amounts to.
When a soul goes in
for a simple procedure
and let us face it
we are human beings.
We are frail.
Simple procedures
can get complicated
and they can kill us.
But when you go in
for a simple procedure
that in no way
qualifies
for any of the
extraordinary means
and say
put a do not resuscitate
bracelet on me
and you have an allergic
reaction to a local
anesthetic
and they just walk away
and let you die.
That is tantamount
to commissioning
and hiring
your own executioner.
That is a sin
of suicide.
And that sin
comes about
when we fail
to love each other.
And loving each other
does not mean
always agreeing
with each other.
Loving each other
does not always mean
getting along
in the Freemasonic way.
You know
be happy.
I am okay
you are okay.
Loving each other means
being willing
to suffer
the approbation
of those we love.
By what?
Correction
in a Christian manner.
Not through sanctimony
but always and everywhere.
A private sin
is a private sin.
It is to be corrected
privately.
A public sin
is a public sin.
It is to be corrected
publicly.
But always
and everywhere
with the precept
of charity mind.
Our Lord corrected
private sinners
privately
and public sinners
publicly.
But always
and everywhere.
He never
violated
the precepts
He has established.
To the Pharisees
and the Scribes
He was always
charitable.
To the Herods
and the Caesars
of this world
He was always
charitable
to Saint Peter
in his private sins.
Always.
And that
is a virtue
that is beyond
our capacity
to perform
no matter how
naturally gifted
we are.
Because
if not
then what
Saint Augustine says
is true.
The most
beautiful virtue
in the pagan
is nothing but
a beautiful vice.
That's all.
Because
the natural order
must be elevated.
We cannot
separate
what God
has given us
in
by
natural gifts
as they're called
are given to us
to serve
the supernatural
order.
And they cannot
serve the supernatural
order
without His grace.
And that grace
comes to us
often
through what's called
humana moto
the course
of human events.
We have to be willing
to love each other
enough
to speak
to each other
firmly
and honestly
when we see
each other failing
in the Christian life.
Never
in a public
never
in a sanctimonious way
but striving
always.
It's difficult.
Our Lord knows that.
You know
you gotta take
six thousand deep breaths
before you try
to do it.
And even
if you're
bumble and failing
in the attempt
as long as the attempt
is rooted in charity
don't worry
the Lord
will work
all of the faults
and correction out.
He'll do it.
Simply because
it was entered in
with a good intention
to please God
and to help
our neighbor.
Charity.
Love of God
first and foremost
above all things
and then to love
each other
for God's sake.
Our Lord's
faith
is not
complicated
in that sense.
It is simple
because
it is rooted
in charity.
And God
by His essence
is simple.
Not simplistic
but simple.
And that's
what we must become.
That's why
He tells us
become
like little children.
Why?
Because
little children
follow the voice
of their Father.
And we must
understand
God
is our Father.
Not Caesar
not Freud
not God
but God
is our Father.
Not Caesar
not Freud
not Jung
not Nietzsche
not Skinner
not Robespierre
not Voltaire.
God
is our Father.
No man
is our Father.
Our Father
is God.
And God
does
one thing
He loves.
And all
of His creation
was brought
about
by His love.
We are not
accidents.
Teach
your children
how
to
love
and
to
love.
They come
from
apes.
And then
you will
form
a culture
of Nazi
Germany.
Just keep
teaching them
that they do
not spring
from the
infinite
love of
God
but from
some
biological
process
in which
a gorilla
was their
grandfather.
An oxymoron
because
gorillas
can
not
beget
children
they
breed.
And there is
a huge
difference
because one
is rooted
in love
one is
rooted
simply
in the
laws
of nature.
Not the
natural
law
the laws
of nature
established
by God.
And there
can be
absolutely
no
ascribing
to God
that reflects
the love
of God.
In which
each child
conceived
is a reflection
of the
Trinity.
Contrary
to the
justification
to
whittle
down
the
sizes
of our
family
the perfect
number
of children
is three.
No.
Every
conception
of a
child
is a
reflection
of God.
We
have
got
to stop
looking
at things
through
the natural
eye.
But try
to see
them
from that
which was
revealed
to us
by the
Son of
God.
Who
came
into
this
world
as a
man
and as
a
woman.
Why
do you
think
the
Church
says
it is
the realm
of the
man
to be
in the
public
order?
Because
compared
to what
the
mother
does
at
home
what
the
man
does
is
Christian
understanding.
But the
man is
better in
the public
order because
he is a
better defender
of the
private
order.
What is
the private
order?
The raising
of children
to be
citizens
of heaven.
That is
primarily
the realm
of the
mother.
That is
what we
have
to do
in
our
education
camps,
in
tyranny,
in
all
forms.
And so
let us
strive
to
contribute
no
more
to
this
culture
of
death
because
we
are
not
of
it.
We
are
not
of
it.
And
we
are
not
of
it.
So
let
us
strive
always
to
seek
to
do
the
good
works
of
the
Lord
which
we
can
only
learn
from
and not worry about the faults and defects
that crawl into our attempts.
As long as our general disposition
is to love the Lord,
they will make up for any defects in presentation.
They will make up for any flaws of character
as long as we avoid that most vile
and corrupting vice of sanctimony
in which it becomes impossible
to have a conversation.
Do you think that you can converse with Satan?
That's why the saints won against trying.
You can't reason with that which is unreasonable.
And when we become, in our sin, unreasonable,
we are called to pray.
Because if...
As long as a human being is alive,
there is hope for his repentance.
And we have got to stop contributing
with the modern world
who wants to crush him
in his state of despair.
Crush him.
Because, after all,
it's just a bag of bones, right?
Made up a percentage of this,
a percentage of that,
and no,
it's an immortal soul
composed not just of body,
but of body and soul.
Created out of God's love
and called to return to that love.
And everything else God has created
is for our benefit.
The brutes don't delight in the stars.
Man does.
The brutes don't delight
in frolicking through the fields.
Man delights in watching them
frolic through the field.
All of it,
God created for us.
And how vast is the universe?
We don't know.
Try to quantify it.
You can't.
You can't.
Despite the fact that Mr. Hawkins
and Mr. Sagan
and what can tell you the limits of the universe,
they can't.
Because there is no limit.
Because St. Augustine tells us why.
It's not by weight, volume, or expanse.
It's not whether it's a spear
or a circle or a triangle.
Creation is measured by time.
When time ends,
our opportunity to love God ends.
And each of us have a particular moment
when our time in this life will end.
And then there is that moment
when it will all end.
And we will either be united
with our good and loving God
or we will be consigned to that place
that we have chosen to go to
because we have refused
to love God
first and foremost
and then to love each other
for God's sake.
And so let us strive always and everywhere
to love our good God,
to struggle and help each other
through our faults and failings,
that we may be able to love God
that we will struggle with
until the day we die.
God does not remove the effects of original sin.
He leaves them in us precisely
so that we always have combat to do.
We always have self-love to destroy.
But He doesn't want us to despair in the conquest.
He wants us to be reasonable.
Faults are faults.
Sins are sins.
And even when we sin,
as St. Maximilian says,
don't fret.
Don't pull the woe is me.
I am the worst sin of the world has ever seen.
Woe is me stuff.
He simply says,
pick yourself up,
dust yourself off,
go to confession,
put your hands back on the plow
and just try to realize
the Lord is guiding it,
not you,
not us.
And when we get to that point,
then we truly understand
what Chesterton meant when he said,
oh, that Smith worshiped the rock,
the tree, the water, or whatever,
but rather that he not worship Mr. Smith.
Because once we make ourselves the center of the universe,
then the universe becomes very, very, very, very small.
It's when we realize God is the center of the universe
that it opens up.
And our hearts open up
like the heart of the mother of God.
And there is nothing that can restrict
where God's love can extend through us.
Not our love,
but God's love through us.
And it can extend to the whole world.
If the body is faithful to the head,
it is not each and every one of us
who renews the face of the world,
but it is Christ in us.
Let us remember that.
Because we must always,
as St. Louis the Great told us,
remember the dignity that you have received
as a member of his body.
Finally we have the next recommendation.
Beelzebub
Beelzebub
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