Sermons from the Latins/Sermon 16
Sexagesima Sunday.
The Number of the Elect.
"And some fell upon good ground and sprung up and yielded fruit a hundred-fold. Now the good ground are they who, in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience" — Luke viii. 8, 15.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex. : I. Farm. II. Will it pay? III. Number of elect.
I. Mystery: 1. Theologians and Index. 2. Christ's reply. 3. Many called, few chosen.
II. Study of men : 1. Unbelievers and believers. 2. Heretics and Catholics. 3. Good, bad.
III. Study of Saviour: 1. Why He came. 2. Attitude towards sinners. 3. Crescendo of love.
Per. : 1. Courage. 2. Love for God. 3. Charity for men.
SERMON.
Brethren, the old-fashioned New England farm is a fairly good picture in miniature of God's spiritual estate in the hearts of men. There are long stretches of highway, hills rocky and barren, patches of unreclaimed brushwood, and, finally, some acres of arable land. And, as with the farm, the all-important question is: " will it pay? " so with God's earthly estate the question of greatest moment is: "which is greater in area, the productive soil or the barren? " In the autumn, the harvest of time, what will be the relative proportion of the wheat and the chaff? In other words, on the great judgment-day, which will be numerically greater — the blessed company of the elect or the woeful throng of the reprobate?
Brethren, this is a mystery to which Christ's words may be appropriately applied — that it is known to no man, no, not even to the angels in heaven, but to the Father alone. That is why the Church, in one of her prayers, says: " O God, to whom only is known the number of the faithful to be admitted to the happiness of heaven." That, too, is why the Church, as such, has never committed herself to a dogmatic statement on the subject, but leaves the question still open to conjecture and argument. True it is, the weight of private opinion among theologians inclines to the doctrine that only a small minority will be saved; but that, at best, is private opinion; and it is worthy of remark that the greatest living theologian, though he teaches this doctrine in his written works, has more than once retracted it from the pulpit and in the class-room. It is true, also, that on May 22, 1772, the doctrine of " Salvation for the majority " was put on the Index, but we must not forget that decisions of a Congregation deciding individual disputes are by no means infallible. In the thirteenth chapter of St. Luke, a certain man questions Christ: " Lord, are they few that are saved? " Christ answered him: " Strive to enter by the narrow gate, for many shall seek to enter and shall not be able." Again, in the seventh chapter of St. Matthew, Christ says: "Wide the door and broad the way that leads to perdition, and many there are that travel by it; how small the gate and narrow the path that leads to life, and few there are that find it." He avoids a direct answer. To spur men on to greater efforts, He compares the steep, thorny path to heaven with the primrose path to perdition, but He refuses to say which way the majority goes. When He says few find the small door and narrow path, He refers to Himself and His contemporaries— to Himself, the way to the truth and the life whom so few of them recognized and acknowledged as such. When He adds that many travel by the wide road to perdition, He simply expresses the infinite yearning of the Sacred Heart for man, to which one lost is many lost; to which many saved are few saved — which wishes all to come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved. So far, therefore, neither side of the dispute has anything like a definite argument to adduce either from Christ or the Church. In the parable of the virgins five are foolish and five wise. In the twentieth and twenty-second chapters of St. Matthew, however, we read : " Many are called, but few are chosen," words that, to some, prove that few indeed are saved, but words that, to my mind, prove that many more are saved than are lost. If you remember, they are the closing words of two famous parables — the parable of the householder who hired laborers for his vineyard, and the parable of the king who, to procure guests for his son's wedding-feast, turned from the discourteous rich to the riffraff of the highways and byways. Now, in the former parable there is no mention whatever of those that are lost, for we read that all the laborers, after their day's work, received, every man, a penny. The lost would, naturally, be those who, hearing" their Lord's call: "Go ye, also, into My vineyard " refused to comply; and some such there doubtless were, but an insignificant number — nothing to speak of. The sense, therefore, is that God invites all to labor in His service; some refuse and are lost; the multitude accept and are saved; many of these are called to the state of highest sanctity, which, however, is attained only by the chosen few. This interpretation is borne out by the latter parable which follows and explains the former. The wedding-feast signifies heaven; the guests, the elect. Now comparatively few refused the invitation; but the number of those who accepted was so great that we are told " the wedding was filled with guests." Now in all that multitude the king found just one — only one guest who had not on a wedding garment— one man unworthy of heaven whom he ordered to be cast into exterior darkness.
Brethren, it must be confessed that the human race, past, present and to come, is well typified in the parable of the cockle and good wheat, but I believe that the wheat, to flourish at all, must ever be in the ascendency. If we divide the human race into unbelievers and believers, we are, at first sight, appalled by the infidel throng, the Mohammedans and idolaters of the East and the Indians of the Western world. But yet we are assured by Christ Himself that " Many shall come from the East and the West and shall sit down in the kingdom of heaven." When the idolater and fetish worshipper lives virtuously, and dies in the belief and practice of the only religion he has ever been taught, who shall deny him a share of that infinite mercy that has indirectly promised that of him little is expected to whom little is given? And the poor Indian — "whose untutored mind sees God in clouds, and hears Him in the wind," and aspires to a place in the happy hunting-grounds — surely the God of mercy never rejects such a simple, humble aspirant. Nay, even for the civilized fools that say in their heart " There is no God " there is yet hope of mercy, for if human justice exonerates the fool as irresponsible, may we not trust that divine Justice will be not less lenient? As for believers in the true God, though we admit, alas! that many of the children of the kingdom shall be cast out, still we confidently hold that the majority will be saved. Sadly divided, as Christians are, between the true Church and the various sects, it is still true to say that there is probably no sect so much in error that it does not, or did not, contain real saints within its fold. Remember always that before the throne of grace many a doctrinal error is overlooked in consideration of an honest, though mistaken, mind and a loving heart. As the prophet Samuel says: "The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart." Finally, as to Catholics, there is no question but that they who live a Catholic life and die a Catholic death are saved. The number, too, of living saints around and among us is doubtless far greater than we suspect. They are like trees laden with fruit — they bend ever lower and lower in their humility and pass unnoticed. But the appalling amount of misery and sin around and among us is well calculated to turn us again to Christ to ask " Lord, are they few that are saved? " For an answer, we must study the sinner and study the Saviour. The living sinner, be he ever so bad, never irrevocably forfeits his heirship to the kingdom of heaven. God's providence is with him even in his sins. Christ deals with him as with a ship at sea, lading him with a burden of temptations not excessive nor yet dangerously light; and very often God permits him to fall to the lowest depths that, as David says: " in very terror at the multitude of his own iniquities he may return more quickly and more closely to himself." God is a homoeopath. Hence, Shakespeare says: " Best men are moulded out of faults; and, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad." And St. Paul assures us that: " Virtue is perfected in infirmity." Hence, I say, from the amount of sin in the world we cannot fairly estimate the number of souls that are lost, for we must never lose sight of the fact that these very sinners were the primary object of Christ's coming on earth; that He has an infinite desire that all should be converted and live; that He is powerful enough to raise His murderous persecutor, Saul, to such a point of sanctity as not to be one whit behind the very chiefest of the Apostles. Yea, even should the sinner persevere in his iniquity till the last few moments of his life, there are still, as for the thief on the cross, possibilities of eminent sanctity open to him. For three years the fig-tree, in the parable, bore no fruit, but the fourth year it bore, being watered and pruned. Very often, too, when God applies to the sinner the pruning-knife of persecution — when the tears flow under affliction, disease, and approaching death, the blessed change is accomplished that gives joy to heaven — a great sinner becomes a great saint. And even before this change occurs, the poor sinner is not wholly bad. Many, if not most, of his faults are results of habit, done thoughtlessly, and not near so guilty as they seem. 'Neath an ugly hill often lies a gold mine; fathoms deep lie priceless pearls, and I tell you, friends, deep down in the worst of characters, there lie mines of goodness and brilliant virtues, that are never discovered except by the plummet of intimate acquaintance, or in some tremendous upheaval or crisis. Who would look to find saints among a rough ship's crew, and yet, not long since, we were told of a band of them shipwrecked and cast away, dying one by one rather than touch the little store of provisions they had turned over to the only child among them. There is nothing particularly saintly about a poor hod-carrier, yet, quite lately, when two of them, a married man and a single, were hanging by a thread, almost, on a high building in Paris, the single man let go and was killed rather than that the other's wife should be a widow and his children orphans. Nor need we go so far for examples of this kind. If you care to mingle among the poor you will find them, the most sinful of them, every day unconsciously doing acts of goodness that will touch you to the heart. Therefore, I say, the sinner is not as bad as he appears. Let the occasion arise, give him but the chance, and he will show you the highest proof of love by giving his life for his brother. Therefore also, I say, it is probable that the majority, even of sinners, are saved, for "Charity," saith the Lord, " covereth a multitude of sins."
If this becomes probable from a study of the sinner, it becomes almost certain from a study of the Saviour. " I come," He says, " not to save the just, but sinners. I come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live." Will Christ's mission be a failure? Will the ruling passion of the Sacred Heart be thwarted? Will Christ's mystical body, which they are, be mostly lost? No; every phase of the sweet Saviour's character answers, No! " His burden is light, and His yoke is sweet " — a loving, a forgiving father — not an exacting tyrant. " For one cup of water," He says, " given in My name, I will give you eternal life." Oh, how gentle and loving He was when dealing with sinners! How He ate and drank and mingled with all that He might save all! You remember when He was refused admission to the Samaritan town, and James and John would have called down fire from heaven to consume it, how gently Christ rebukes them. " You know not," He says, " of what spirit you are, for the Son of man came not to destroy souls but to save." His favorite place was among sinners. If He ascended the mount for a moment to teach His Apostles, He was back directly by the poor leper's side, touching him and curing him. Consider His love for Magdalen; see how lovingly He bids for the soul of the Samaritan woman at the well; behold Him in that most touching scene of all, when He boldly steps between the adulterous woman and her would-be murderers — and tell me, if you dare, that Christ's great love for sinners will be disappointed — that He will suffer the majority of them to be lost. Hear Him tell you that He yearns after the sinner as did his father after the prodigal; goes after him as the shepherd after the lost sheep in the desert; searches after him as perseveringly as did the woman for the lost groat — hear all this and be assured that only a minority, even of the sinful, are lost — that a majority of mankind is saved.
Brethren, in the ups and downs of life we sometimes get discouraged. Let me say to you to-day in the words of Christ: "Why fear ye, O ye of little faith? " Again, many of us serve God through fear rather than love. Look on Him, I pray you, not as a Master but a Father, and the thought of His superabundant goodness to all will inspire you to do your day's work for Him more cheerfully and better. Finally, many of us are inclined to look askance at, and shun, our wayward brethren. Do not so, but mingle with them as Christ did, becoming all things to all that you may save all. In your own interior life and in your dealing with your fellow men, do all you can, that you and they may be of the number of those who " in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it and bring forth fruit in patience."