Sermons from the Latins/Sermon 50
Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost.
The Law of Love.
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind . . . and thy neighbor as thyself." — Matt. xxii. 37-39.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex.: I. Gregory's commentary. II. Paul's ideal. III. Christ's practice and result.
I. Charity and prudence: 1. A and Z. 2. Pharisees and Sadducees. 3. Questions useful, idle, malicious.
II. Love manifested: 1. By Christ. 2. By Holy Ghost. 3. To all.
III. Object: 1. To wean from world. 2. To turn to God. 3. To live soberly, justly, godly.
Per.: 1. Love of God first. 2. Youth and age. 3. Sinai, Bethlehem, valley of Josaphat.
SERMON.
Brethren, in reading to-day's Gospel we realize the truth of Pope St. Gregory's commentary. " Our Lord and Saviour," he says, " admonishes us sometimes in words and sometimes by His deeds, for His very actions are precepts, because, though performed in silence, they explain to us our duties." The Gospel theme is the great commandment of love, on which dependeth the whole law and the prophets. The Saviour's present bearing towards His enemies and the whole tenor of His earthly life illustrate what His words proclaim — the law of love, His dealing with men was the prototype of St. Paul's ideal set forth in to-day's epistle. Christ walked among them, worthy of the vocation in which He was called, with all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting them in charity, careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The multiple meaning of the Saviour's words, the deep significance of His every act, and the marvellous and hitherto unknown harmony between His teaching and His practice — these it was which caused His hearers to say of Him: " Verily, never did man speak as this man speaks."
Brethren, charity is queen among virtues. It is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of all godliness, even as is God Himself, " for," says St. John, " God is love." It is the first and the greatest commandment of the law; it is the underlying substance, the soul, the life of every other virtue in the calendar, the litany of holiness. Again it is the last, it is eternal, " for," says St. Paul, " when even faith shall have merged into the beatific vision and hope into possession, then only will charity become in very truth the bond of perfection, to endure forever and ever." Among mortals, however, charity, though ever a lovely queen, is blind unless her handmaid prudence light her way. Now these two virtues, charity and prudence, had practically abandoned earth when Jesus came, and in the main the object of His coming was their restoration. How utterly devoid of charity were the Sadducees and the Pharisees! These two sects were bitterly opposed, the former denying, the latter asserting, the resurrection of the dead. But enemies though they were, they in opposing Christ as easily forgot their differences as do our modern heretics in opposition to Christ's true Church. The Sadducees, defeated, desist from questioning Him; the Pharisees advance to the attack. Christ's method of dealing with His questioners is a model for our imitation. In our intercourse with men we are likely to encounter three kinds of religious disputants. Questions prompted by idle curiosity are better left unanswered. Thus, when the Apostles asked when the kingdom was to be restored, and when St. Peter, pointing to John, demanded "What of him?" the Saviour deigned them no reply. But if the question be a useful one propounded with good intent, we must be ever ready to give a reason for the faith that is in us. When the Apostles desired to know the meaning of a parable, or why they had failed to exorcise the demoniac boy, and when St. Peter asked to be instructed as to how often transgressors should be forgiven, the Saviour graciously acceded to their request. More often, though, our questioners' intention is evil, to embarrass and put us to shame, and then it is well to answer ambiguously or to answer question with question. Thus Christ, when asked if it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, replied indeed; but He did not take the trouble to explain that as the coin with Caesar's image and inscription should be given to Caesar, so the soul made to God's image and likeness should be given to God. Again, when questioned as to the source of His authority, He confounded His tormentors with the counter-question concerning the baptism of John. It is probable, therefore, and according to St. Mark's account quite certain, that the query of to-day's Gospel was partly sincere and partly insincere; that the lawyer acted in good faith, but his followers, for whom he spoke, maliciously, for Christ first gives an answer direct and clear, and then reproves the self-wise conceit of His enemies with the, to them, perplexing difficulty of the divine and human origin of the Messias. Charity and prudence are here marvellously mingled. For the sake of the one honest soul among His auditors, Christ expounds the law of love, His action no less than His words a stinging rebuke to the hateful Pharisees. These doctors of the law, forsooth, had so inverted and perverted the Decalogue, that out of ten the insupportable burden of six hundred and thirteen precepts had been evolved, and while trifles were given prominence and rigidly enforced, the great command of charity was placed near the end of the list and utterly neglected in their teachings and practice. This was the evil Christ came to remedy; to show the world by word and deed that charity is the sum and substance of all law, the very temple of our sanctification, around which the other virtues do but serve as scaffolding for its upbuilding. For God is love, and His greatest gift to men is the love He bears them, that love which called them into being, which preserved them and redeemed them, and the most precious offering that man can bring to God is the offering of his love. It is her love which makes the widow's mite more precious in the sight of God than all the rich man's wealth, and when the spiritually poor, the fallen, throw themselves at Jesus's feet, it is their love that covers the multitude of their sins, for much is forgiven to those only who love much. In a word, that charity is a precept infinitely important, a virtue infinitely precious, was declared when Christ pronounced its future reward: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what things God hath prepared for those who love Him."
Brethren, not only in the Gospel incident of today, but throughout His entire earthly career, Christ taught by word and deed the law of love. His very presence was an exhortation to love, for, says St. Paul (Tit. ii.), in Christ " the love of God our Saviour appeared to all men, instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly and justly and godly in this world." His love for men, which from the beginning God had felt and repeatedly asserted, was palpably shown and proven when He sent into the world His only-begotten Son. The proof of love is the gift that love entails. Human love is but an empty sentiment expressed in words or manifested in some trifling trinket, powerless to beautify its object. But so efficient is the love of God that what He loves He also clothes with loveliness. Thus human nature in the person of Christ was glorified, and every incident of His life from Nazareth to Calvary was but a new and stronger proof of the love of God for men. So, too, was the love of God diffused in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who was given to us, for from the price Christ paid for it we began to realize how precious in the sight of God our love must be. It was as though we had found a precious gem, and, ignorant of its value, were ready to part with it, like Esau, for a mess of pottage, when the Saviour opened our eyes to its true worth and we determined that nor honors, nor riches, nor pleasures, nor life, nor death should ever part us from the love of God. And this revelation of God's love was made to all. Many, indeed, refuse to see, and many there are that sleep, but still Christ shines, as does the sun, for all. He was born for all, He died for all, and the Gospel messages have been borne to all. "For their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." The Mosaic law was for the Jews alone, but the four Gospels, like the four rivers of paradise, swept round the world, overflowed their banks, and renewed the face of the earth. To every class the knowledge of Christ's birth was given: to the man Joseph and to the woman Mary; to the Jewish shepherds and the Gentile Magi; to aged Simeon and to John unborn; to Mary the Virgin, Anna the widow, and Elizabeth the wife; to the wise and the ignorant, the great and the lowly, the rich and the poor. In His Passion and death there played a part Jews and Gentiles, kings and commoners, priests and laics, learned and unlettered, friends and enemies, and men and women of every age and condition in life. Finally the formal promulgation of Christianity on the first Pentecost was made in the presence of men out of every nation under heaven. Thus did the love of God appear to all men on the three great occasions, the three crucial points, in the work of the Redemption.
Brethren, the revelation of God's love was made with a twofold object — to wean our hearts from earthly things and to win them back to God, or, as St. Paul expresses it, " to instruct us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, justly, and godly in this world." On these two commandments, avoid evil and do good,, depend the whole law and the prophets, for they involve that twofold law of charity according to which we should be ready to give up worldliness and to lay down our lives for God and our brethren, even as Christ laid down His life for us. For our return to God by love is the reversal of our departure from Him by sin, and in every sin there are two elements, aversion from God and conversion to creatures. It is of the very nature of the human heart to love something, and when the heart grows cold towards God and all that are His, when the practices and ceremonies of religion become a wearisome burden, then worldly desires so invade the soul that God is quickly lost sight of and utterly forgotten. How prevalent this evil was when Christ was born! How world-wide it is to-day! Men treasure up the riches, honors, and pleasures of life and give their hearts and souls to them, and fain would they stem the steady flow of time and earthly things, so anxious are they to enjoy them permanently, so reluctant are they to pass along to God. Christ came to grapple with this evil, to reveal to us our loving Father, alone worthy of our love, to show us that for us there is no treasure here nor permanent abiding-place, but only in the kingdom of our God. And when by His example and His teaching He had exposed the hollowness of earthly things and weaned men from them; when He had weeded out the thorns and thistles from God's field, then He sowed the seeds of love — love of God, our neighbors, and ourselves. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," He says, " with all the powers of thy being, and thy neighbor as thyself." Or, as St. Paul puts it, "Thou shalt live soberly, justly, and godly in this world." A sober life is one in which Nature's law of self-love is kept by grace from becoming inordinate. All creatures of God are for our use, but abuse of them is sinful, for moderation must be exercised in everything but love of God. Sobriety, therefore, is an even balance between our natural inclinations and the restrictions of God's law, and in this golden mean consists a well-ordered love of self. Earthly pleasures, in fact, are to the joys of heaven what an appetizer is to a feast, and whosoever indulges too freely in the antepast is thereby rendered incapable of enjoying the good things that follow. The danger here is not that our self-love will fall far short of what is just, but rather that it overstep just bounds, and hence the Saviour by His practice taught self-sacrifice and brings self-love into His teaching only by implication. But, secondly, the love of our neighbors He explicitly inculcates, for it does not come to us by nature to deal justly by all men. To live justly in this world is to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to do to him as we would wish to be done by. One might say that it was the violation of this command that caused the fall of man, for Adam, had he wished to live for others, would have reached for the fruit of the tree of life; but in partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge he betrayed his inordinately selfish ambition to be as God and to have others live for him. What true sons of Adam we are! How few of us really and practically love our fellowmen as we love ourselves! What a rare thing it is to find a man who realizes that the most precious love, the love most certain of reward, is not that which comes to, but that which goes out from him; that it is more blessed to give than to receive, to love than to be loved! If our horse or ox fall into a pit, how strenuously we labor to extricate it; if we lose a coin, how we search and sweep to find it, but when a neighbor's soul is in need, or dying, or dead, we coolly ask: " Am I my brother's keeper? " And if we love our relatives and friends alone, what thanks to us? Even the heathens do as much. " But I say to you," says Christ, "love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute you." Like good St. Stephen we should send back a shower of prayers and blessings in return for the shower of stones and similiar persecutions our enemies pour upon us. As Christians we should never lose sight of the Saviour's loving gentleness to all, nor ever cease to hear the echo of His dying words: " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Brethren, it were little to live soberly and justly in this world, loving one's neighbors and oneself, did one neglect the first and greatest command of all, " to live a godly life, to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, and our whole soul, and our whole mind." All our other affections must be so in line with our love of God, that while loving Him for His own sake we may love whatever else we love for the love of Him. Our entire being, too, with all its powers, our heart, our soul, our mind, should be intent on God, " looking," as says St. Paul, " for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Between youth and age there is this difference, that the old live in the memories of the past, but the young in the hopes of the future, and whosoever dearly loves his God is ever young, for he is ever looking for the blessed hope of the glory to come. Probably this was part of the Saviour's meaning when He placed that little boy in the midst of His Apostles and said to them: " Unless you become as one of these, you cannot be My true disciple, nor enter the kingdom of heaven." For lovers of God and those who do not love Him differ as do the children and the servants of a household; the latter receive monthly or yearly their sordid earthly pay and are content, but the former are the sons of God, co-heirs with Christ, and serve gratuitously, looking only for their reward on the great day of their majority — the coming of the glory of the great God. How different will that coming be from that of Sinai! How different from that of Bethlehem! And yet both Sinai and Bethlehem were necessary preparations for the final coming of the Lord. To the Israelites He came with law and majesty, the God of fear, and fear failed utterly to turn the wayward peoples back to God. Then came the God of love, the Babe of Bethlehem, who by His self-denial, His infinite charity towards all, and His absolute obedience to His heavenly Father, set before the world an object lesson in love never to be forgotten. His final coming will be in glory such that the heavens and the earth shall be filled with it, and the sun and the moon and the stars shall pale before it. Brethren, let this be the process of our sanctification and salvation, from fear, the beginning of wisdom, to the pure love of God and so on to glory. We are by nature imitators, especially of the kingly and the great. Let us then follow and imitate the King of kings. If, following His example, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves; if we live as He did— soberly, justly, and godly in this world — be assured we shall have good reason to look forward with confidence to the blessed hope and coming of the great God our Saviour.