Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Today we celebrate the memorial of a great Franciscan of the 18th century.
Pope Pius XI made him the patron of all parish missionaries.
This is what he did throughout his life.
He went throughout Italy preaching missions to the parishes,
reminding people of the need to repent for the kingdom,
and the baptism of heaven is at hand.
And today's readings tell us, I'm sure, part of his message.
His message, of course, was to remind people that they have been predestined,
as we see in today's first reading,
predestined from all eternity to be brought into the Church, into Jesus Christ.
And with Jesus Christ comes salvation.
All those who follow Christ,
and believe in him, and keep his commandments, will save their souls.
Those who refuse to follow Jesus Christ, deny him, as we see here, and live for this world,
if you gain your life in this world, you will lose it for eternity.
But if you lose your life in this world, and you don't live for this world,
and you don't live for the pleasures of this world, and you live for the eternal kingdom,
you will save your life.
And St. Paul tells us,
we're destined to be the praise of God's glory in heaven.
In heaven, God has predestined us to glorify him for all eternity.
God didn't make us to have us lose our souls.
He made us to be with him forever in heaven.
And this is what he wants us to be.
He made us to enjoy, to love him, to serve him in this world,
as the Catechism tells us,
and to be happy with him in the next.
Sadly, we know how very few there are these days, in our time,
who truly live for the next world, who truly live for eternity.
St. Leonard of Port Morris wrote a treatise on how few there are who are saved.
How few there are who are saved.
Quoting the Fathers of the Church, he said,
the majority of men, adults, are not saved.
The majority.
And if we look around at our world,
and we see here in America where 80% of the Catholics
don't go to church on Sunday,
90% believe contraception is okay,
and so on,
and they vote for a president who promotes abortion,
how are they going to save their souls?
How?
At the end of that treatise, St. Leonard of Port Morris says,
the only way to save your soul is, of course, Jesus Christ.
By believing in him, practicing, obeying his commandments,
we will save our souls.
That's why it's so important for us to remind people
of the necessity to save their soul.
What does it profit, as we see in today's Gospel,
the words of St. Matthew,
what does it profit a man to gain the whole world,
the whole world,
and lose his soul?
Or what will a man give in place for his soul?
What does it matter if you have all the money in the world,
all the riches, all the fame, all the honors of this world,
and then you lose your soul?
It profits nothing for all eternity.
I don't think people think about eternity,
because if they did think about eternity,
and they realize how long eternity is,
and if they could actually talk to a soul in hell, as it were,
and the soul would tell them that they're never coming out,
eternity never ends.
You go down to the ocean and you take a glass of water out,
or just a pail full of water, once a year,
and then when you've emptied all the ocean,
all the oceans of the world,
eternity will be just beginning.
Just beginning.
Eternity will never, never, never end.
This is what little Jacinta said to Lucia.
She said, you mean it will never,
it will never, never, never end?
That's right.
It will never end.
Here in this life, everything ends.
Thank God for the end of the day.
I wish we could put our head on the pillow
and go to sleep and relax,
but that will never end.
No, nothing will ever change in hell.
Continual suffering.
No respite.
Punishment, suffering, fire, hatred, and so on.
People think they're going to be down in hell
with all their friends.
It's going to be fun.
Oh, no.
There'll be all kinds of accusations and hate.
You caused me to be here.
You made me do it, and so on.
So we ought to think about this once in a while.
This is what St. Leonard of Port Morris would do.
Go around to the parishes and preach to the people.
Simply, what does it profit you to gain your whole soul,
the world, and lose your soul?
One very important aspect of St. Leonard,
in order to save souls,
and to encourage people to grow in holiness,
he recommended the Stations of the Cross.
I don't know if the Stations of the Cross
were in all Catholic churches before he started,
but certainly we know the Stations of the Cross
are in majority all Catholic churches for the most part.
Make the Stations of the Cross.
Visit each station and see how much Jesus Christ has suffered
for us.
And what is the greatest love
that no man has?
Greater love than this no man has,
that he lays down his life for his friends.
If we could just say,
St. Leonard would say,
if we could consider the sufferings of Christ,
we wouldn't sin.
We would realize how much he loves us,
and we'd want to be with him for eternity.
The majority of people are not saved
because they don't want to be saved.
They don't put any effort into it.
They don't believe.
them that's what our lady said and encourage them tell them to wake up and so forth our lady said
to pray and sacrifice at Fatima for many souls will go to hell because no one prays and sacrifices
for them so if we pray and sacrifice begin with our family members our relatives our friends
and sacrifice for them many souls will be saved God wants to save them
he's predestined us for all eternity to be with him to be his glory in heaven
we don't want to be the samples of God's justice in hell we want to be his samples of his love in
heaven so let us work as hard as we can to save our own soul and the souls of others
may the Lord bless you
you