Sermons from the Latins/Sermon 37
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost.
Holiness, Pharisaical and Christian.
'" Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." — Matt. v. 20.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex. : I. Fifth Commandment. II. History of incident. III. Division.
I. Scribes and Pharisees: 1. Exceptions. 2. Teaching. 3. Practice.
II. We: 1. Fraternal correction. 2. Three punishments. 3. Our sins and temptations.
III. Remedies: 1. Reconciliation. 2. No substitute. 3. Remember last end.
Per. : 1. The letter. 2. The spirit. 3. The means and reward.
SERMON.
"Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." In other words, my dear Brethren, unless you keep God's commandments in your thoughts and words as well as in your actions you shall not save your souls. In to-day's Gospel, our divine Lord preaches His disciples a little sermon on the fifth commandment. Last Sabbath, as He was teaching in the Synagogue at Jerusalem, a man with a withered hand came to Him to be cured. Now the Scribes and Pharisees watched if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath, that they might have an excuse for killing Him. But thinking to win their hearts by an act of genuine kindness, and wishing, likewise, to relieve a suffering brother, our loving Saviour cured the withered hand in the sight of them all. Then were they filled with madness and clamored for His life, and they would certainly have taken it had He not escaped in the confusion and fled into a lonely mountain of Galilee. Thither His disciples followed Him, and there we find Him to-day, teaching them the true spirit of the fifth commandment, and warning them that unless they keep it better than the Scribes and Pharisees, they shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And what then is the fifth commandment? And how did the Scribes and Pharisees keep it? And how should we keep it? And what are the remedies for our sins against it? These, my brethren, are the questions Our Lord answers in to-day's Gospel.
Fifth, " Thou shalt not kill " are words familiar to you all. They do not forbid the soldier to slay his enemy in a just war, nor the citizen to kill his assailant in self-defence, nor the State to inflict capital punishment; but they do forbid suicide and wilful and unjust murder. But is that all they forbid? Ask the Scribes and Pharisees, ancient or modern, and they will tell you, " Yes, that is all." But no, there must be something more, for Our Lord tells us that unless we keep it better than they we shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven.
How then did they keep it? The Scribes, as you know, were the doctors of the law — in great repute among the Jews for learning and sanctity. They spent whole nights studying the books of Moses, and whole days instructing the people in their duties to God, their neighbor, and themselves. And what the Scribes taught, the Pharisees enforced by word and example. They gave liberal alms, prayed for hours daily, and fasted twice a week. Well might Christ's followers have regarded them as models of virtue — and yet they were anything but models. For their teaching as well as their practice, though true to the letter, fell far short of the spirit of the law. With them "Thou shalt not kill," meant simply: "Thou shalt not forfeit the esteem of men, or risk a shameful death on the gallows by an open act of murder. Anger, hate, contempt, personal abuse — all these you may freely indulge, but he who actually kills and he only, shall be in danger of the judgment." Such was their teaching and such, too, their practice. They were rigid Sabbatarians, as we have seen, and, in general, great sticklers for the exact outward observance of God's laws, but within, as Christ tells us, they were full of rapine and iniquity. And hence, though they hated and despised and reviled Our Lord, they made no open attempt to kill Him, but only underhand, as if through zeal for the sanctification of the Sabbath. Thus did they keep the fifth commandment, and we, my friends, unless we keep it better than they, we shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven.
How then should we keep it? " But I say to you," says Our Lord, "that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother ' Raca ' shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say 'Thou fool' shall be in danger of hell-fire." To observe the fifth commandment, therefore, it is not enough to keep our hands from our brother's throat. No, we must also avoid abusing him with our tongue, or desiring in our hearts to avenge on him real or imagined wrongs. True, there is nothing bad in an honest indignation at wrong-doing or a virtuous frown or a severe but timely reprimand, but if vengeance be our motive and the destruction, not of the offence but of the offender our object, we simply commit a mortal sin against the fifth commandment. And the more we allow anger to develop into hatred — and hatred into Raca, i.e., open contempt — and open contempt into such abuse as " thou fool " — and abuse into actual murder, the greater shall be our torture in hell for all eternity. For just as among the Jews there were three grades of capital punishment, (i) sentence of death with right of appeal in the lower court or judgment, (2) sentence of death without appeal in the higher court or council, (3) stoning at the stake without trial, by the mob, so also are there different degrees of torment in hell. But note the difference. In the Old Law the punishment was temporal, in the New it is eternal death; in the Old a skilful defence or renewed appeals could do much, in the New there is no defence, no appeal; in the Old, only downright murder was punishable by the judgment in this world, in the New the vengeful incur the judgment, sneerers the council, revilers the stake, and actual murderers unparalleled torments in the next. Oh, as Christians, subjects of Christ's law, let us bring this truth well home to ourselves. Let not the example of others persuade us "Thou shalt not kill" means simply: "Thou shalt not murder." For there are in our midst those whose only God is Nature, and Nature's law their only religion, who, though they practise the bare letter, boast they are more peaceful citizens than we who profess the Christian spirit of this commandment. Well, if they are, thank God for it; but I fear much they are no better than Scribes and Pharisees. They do not kill their brother, it is true, but do they ever hate him or despise him or call him names? Charity bids us hope they do not, but duty demands that we look well into our own conduct. And what do we find? Downright murder? No, but secret jealousies, yes, and individual squabbles, and ill-feeling among neighbors, and bitter family feuds, and a thousand and one quarrels arising from differences of party, of nationality, or of religion. These, my brethren, are what we must avoid if we would keep well the fifth commandment. And to do this we must be constantly on our guard, for anger and hate are subtle vices and temptations are not rare. Over and above the innate selfishness, and pride, and general irritability of our nature, each of us has some specially sensitive point — some hobby. Now the devil loves a row and so, knowing our characters thoroughly, he often hides from us our own unchristian treatment of others, and makes their most innocent actions appear to us insulting or injurious. Then anger fills the mind and clouds the reason; then comes the muttering of suppressed passion; then flashes out the vile word or murderous action — and then? Alas! one soul, perhaps two, stripped of all their graces — blighted — dead. We must be on our guard, I repeat, for with us such temptations are very, very common. Here we are, a mixed people, differing widely in national, political, and religious prejudices, all trying to better our own condition and each bent on getting ahead of his neighbor. The friction is too intense not to strike fire occasionally. The child at school has his competitors, the young man or woman in the world finds a rival at every step, and the old people — well they, too, sometimes forget all men are brothers. Poor fifth commandment! Few of us ever give it a thought; and still fewer but break it often and grievously. Look well to it, my friends, for if we are at variance with one another, we are as the Scribes and Pharisees of old — murderers in the sight of God. " Whosoever hateth his brother," says St. John, " is a murderer, and a murderer, you know, hath not eternal life abiding in him." Uncontrolled anger, therefore, and habitual hate and any venting of them whatsoever by sign, word, or deed — all are sins of murder against the fifth commandment. These are the sins Christ wants us to avoid or correct. These are the sins we must correct if we would keep this commandment better than the Scribes and Pharisees, and so enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And now, what are the remedies for these sins? Our Lord shows us by word and example. " If, therefore," He says, " thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then, coming, thou shalt offer thy gift." If you are at war with your neighbor, through your own fault, your first and greatest duty is to go to ham and apologize. But, you say, it is all his fault. Even so, go to him and be reconciled. But a silent coolness is the best preserver of the peace? No, in your spiteful heart you feel there is no peace. You call a bitter taunt fraternal correction, but why then are you ashamed to look your brother in the face? You pick his character to pieces and find an accusation against him even in his best actions. The Pharisees did the same to Our Lord and are lost accordingly. Now you do not wish to be Pharisees, but good Christians, true followers of Him who said: "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, pray for them that persecute you." Go, therefore, to your enemy at once, at least in spirit and if possible in person, and take him by the hand and beg him, for God's sake and your own peace here and happiness hereafter, to forget and forgive. But what if he refuse? No matter, you have done your duty. Our Lord knew well He never would win over the Scribes and Pharisees, but still He tried, and He expects the same of you. But will not something else do just as well, a rigorous fast or a more generous alms? No, the Pharisees tried that and failed. You may pray as much as they did, but God will not hear you until you have become reconciled. " Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them their trespasses against us," that is the prayer Our Lord Himself taught us. You may go to confession, but what is the use if you hate the man on the other side of the confessional? You may go to communion, but it is an empty ceremony if the man at your side is your enemy. The beautiful custom among the early Christians of exchanging the kiss of peace before receiving, would be sufficient proof, if proof were needed, that to be friends with God we must first be friends with one another. God is not a two-faced go-between, that can equally love and forgive you and your enemy. " Forgive thy neighbor," He says in Holy Writ, " if he hath hurt thee, and then shall thy sins be forgiven thee when thou pray est." And the Holy Ghost adds: "Remember thy last things and let enmity cease." In other words, think of the hour of your death and hasten to be reconciled, for death may come at any moment and usher your unforgiving soul into the presence of God to crave forgiveness for its own sins. As you hope for pardon, therefore, pardon your neighbor; be at peace with him here on earth if you would enjoy hereafter the blessed peace of the kingdom of heaven.
My dear brethren, carry away, I beg of you, and profit by the lesson of to-day's Gospel, which is briefly this: The fifth commandment says: "Thou shalt not kill; " the letter of this commandment is: "Thou shalt not murder," and the punishment of those who keep the bare letter is exclusion from the kingdom of heaven. The spirit of this commandment is: Thou shalt avoid not only murder, but even the least approach to it, wherefore, guard well thy temper and thy tongue and, above all, settle thy differences with thy neighbor. The one means to be employed is an honest effort to live at peace with all mankind, and the reward of those who make such an effort — we have it promised in Our Lord's own words: " Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."