Sermons from the Latins/Sermon 8
Epiphany
The Triumph of Faith.
" This is the victory which overcomcth the world — our faith" — I. John v. 4.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex. : King Canute, and the flowing tide.
I. Time: 1. Irresistible. 2. Curse of unbelievers. 3. Blessing to faithful.
II. The call : 1. Mists over Pagandom and Jewry, 2. Call of Jew, Gentile; rich, poor. 3. Weapons of our warfare.
III. Victory incomplete: 1. Jewish priests. 2. Within the fold. 3. Without.
Per. : Still a triumph. 1. Nabuchodonosor's dream. 2. Sun and star. 3. Rock of Ages.
SERMON.
Brethren, when King Canute of England had reigned full many a year, and had brought strength and peace to his dominions by the conquest of his enemies, his cringing courtiers were wont to style him the Omnipotent. But one day, when old and feeble, being seated on the shore, he bade the flowing tide recede; the wavelets, nothing daunted, stole around the royal feet and sent the king and courtiers scampering to higher ground. Then turning, he sternly rebuked his flatterers, and taking the crown from his hoary head, he placed it on the crucifix and bade them henceforth worship Christ alone — the Lord of earth and sea.
Brethren, time and tide will wait for no man, be he ten times a king. But more unalterable even than the tide, is the lapse of time. Whatever may be accomplished by human ingenuity to modify the influences of earth and sea, it will always be true that the one thing in Nature absolutely beyond our control is time. Day follows day like the ripples on the sea; years crowd upon years like the breakers on the beach, and every hundredth wave announces with a louder and a deeper roar, that lo! another century hath come and gone. If happy be our lot, time glides with winged feet; if misery be our portion, time lags, 'tis true, but still plods on as inexorably as the thumping engines in the ship's hold, regardless of the suffering passengers above. To the natural man, to the unbeliever, time is a curse. Through this vale of tears it scourges him on like a shrinking slave whither he knoweth not. A century ago, thinks he, what was I; a century hence, where or what shall I be? He loves the world's light and heat, and fain would linger there forever — but no, his enemy, time, hurries him on into a frigid darkness unbroken by a single ray of hope. But not so you, my Christian brethren. The world's strongest power, time, has no such terror for you. Time well spent is for you a guarantee of a happy immortality— it is your key to heaven. You take the slave-driving demon, time, and subdue him into a docile angel to lead you to the Lord. With King Canute you turn to the crucifix, and thankfully declare that this and this alone is the victory which overcometh time and the world — our faith.
Brethren, Christ says of Himself: " I am the light of the world." He is the light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. Previous to His coming, the light of faith was dim and uncertain, for darkness covered the earth and a mist the people. Spiritually man was then like a helpless ship flying before the storm through inky darkness. It was the period of the world's triumph and of time's crudest sway. True, the faithful, the earthly Jerusalem, never wholly disappeared, but oh! so few they were, so small the city of God. God's light shone earthward then as frequently does the sun in springtime, illumining one small patch of earth and leaving all around in shadow. Ignorance and idolatry hung like mists over the Gentile world, but a still blacker cloud, obstinate unbelief, enveloped the Jews. They had seen the patriarchs and heard the prophets; the Scriptures were their own; angels had visited them, and often had they had audience of their King Jehovah; they were God's very own, and yet when He came unto His own, His own received Him not, but denied and crucified Him. Nor is their perverse obstinacy lessened as time goes on. They have seen the prophecies fulfilled in Christ, the miracles He and His followers wrought, the pagans Christianized, the miraculous frustration of the Apostate Julian's attempt to rebuild Jerusalem, themselves without a nation, temple or priesthood, dispersed, despised, and subjugated — all this they have seen and yet thick darkness covers them. Less dense by far the mists that overhung us Gentiles, which lifted quickly when the light had come, and the glory of the Lord had risen on us. Our conversion had been prophesied but utterly lost sight of, as witness the astonishment of the Apostles when the Holy Ghost descended on the newly-baptized Gentiles. But the Lord is God of Jew and Gentile both. That all flesh should see the salvation of God was the object of His coming. But first He came unto His own, but immediately on finding the Jewish homes and hearts of Bethlehem closed to Him, He summoned the Gentile kings to do Him homage. The star that led them was the first tiny ray to penetrate the gloom of paganism. Its apparition was the first skirmish between the powers of light and darkness, of faith and the world. The light was first vouchsafed to kings, not because kings are the primal objects of divine solicitude or readiest to follow God's leadings, but because the order of Providence is that the higher angels should illumine the lower, and the lower angels man through the highest to the lowest. But alas! the Father's will is not always done on earth as it is in heaven, and hence, notwithstanding the Magi's prompt response, it was not until three centuries later, when the apparition of the cross led Constantine and his forces to victory, that the Gentile kings turned to the new Jerusalem and walked in the brightness of its rising. Meantime, the Lord's glory had shone on the Apostles, and through them as through a many-sided prism, the light had been diffused among the nations. The Church in turn became the light of the world, and people flocked to her as do the insects to the arc lamp. Amid the doubts and contentions of philosophic schools, she served the Gentiles as does the beacon light the benighted and storm-tossed mariners. The multitudes were converted to Christ and the strength of the Gentiles came to Him, showing forth praise to the Lord by gifts not of gold and frankincense, but of believing and faithful hearts. Especially blessed were the Gentile poor, for though they had not seen they believed more readily than the Jews, and having once come to Christ they clung to Him more perseveringly than the Magi. The common people are Christ's chosen ones; He became one of us, from us He chose His Apostles, among us He made His first converts. That with and through the lowly began His conquest of the world, proclaims both God's omnipotence and the superior aptitude for heaven of the humble. They are the .good soil unchoked by weeds and thorns; they are the dry wood which readily catches the heaven-sent fire and spreads the conflagration. The rich and mighty, on the contrary, hiss and groan like a sapling amid the flames. They are like doves trying to soar with wings defiled by pitch. The poor man puts aside the world as readily as he does his coat, but for the rich, it is like tearing off their skin. They are the world's slaves, as are all men except the faithful poor — poor in spirit. For mind you, poverty without faith is double slavery, since its victim carries the cross indeed — not the cross of Christ but that of the wicked thief. Having man's natural craving for dominion, he vainly covets the worldly means he imagines necessary to the conquest of the world. In his efforts upward, he grasps at earthly things, but the tighter he clutches them the more he finds them escaping like sea-sand through his fingers. Had he but faith to know Christ and His Apostles, and the ways and means whereby they overcame the world, he would learn that as water rises to its own level, so, only he who humbles himself shall be exalted, only he whom God commends shall share the victory. The point at issue between the world and God is whether man shall live for this life or the next, and where by faith we take our stand with Christ and publicly confess Him before men in word and deed, we achieve, besides an earthly victory, a claim to a heavenly triumph when Christ shall confess us before His Father who is in heaven. Thus besides conquering this world we do violence to, and carry by storm, the world to come. In the eight Beatitudes are catalogued the weapons of our warfare. By pride was man's dominion o'er the world lost and his right to heaven forfeited, but we by meekness regain possession of the earth, and by poverty of spirit and a willingness to suffer persecution for justice's sake, we reopen the kingdom of heaven. Our weapons are virtues that follow belief in Christ, or briefly, that is the victory which overcometh the world— our faith.
Brethren, the conquest of the world by faith is a victory, yes! but like all victories, sadly incomplete. For continued warfare is the price of victory, and besides many have fallen, many have deserted, and many have been taken prisoners by the enemy. Once at least in a lifetime there comes to every soul sufficient light to show that its duty is to be up and doing in the cause of Christ, and where much light is given much activity is expected. But very often the most favored respond less promptly than the heretic or heathen, so that the first becomes last and the last first. The Jewish priests, for instance, well versed in scriptural lore, had little difficulty in answering Herod's query as to where the Saviour should be born. The entire history of God's intercourse with man, the figures of the Redeemer and the Messianic prophecies, had been the study of their lives, yet when confronted with the actual event they not only failed to spread the light but even tried to suppress the truth. In Bethlehem of Juda, said they, the Saviour should be born, but though assured the hope of ages had arrived and though best qualified to test the fact, they neither stirred themselves to investigate nor deigned to set forth further particulars to guide the popular judgment. They played the part of finger posts, pointing the road to Bethlehem but failing to lead the way. They, with all Jerusalem were troubled, and took the announcement ill. What! turn their backs on the Temple with its imposing sacrifices and time-honored ritual, abandon the traditions of their fathers, give up their lucrative employment and honorable position in society, forfeit the good will of Herod — and all for what? To enlist, perhaps, in the service of the great temporal ruler Israel hoped for? No, but to go over to a despised hamlet and fall down in adoration before an infant in a manger. Ah! Brethren, how many individuals, aye, how many nations are kept from the true faith by similar considerations! Many a minister of a national establishment, many a highly-salaried preacher embarrassed with a family, is deterred from embracing Catholicity only by worldly motives. Though Catholic at heart, the rich and mighty often hide their faith through fear of being lowered socially, while the lower social grades are made or kept non-Catholic by self-interest, ancestral prejudice, or ignorance and indifference about the truth. But many, many more, alas! neglect the call to faith because they find like Herod that faith runs counter to their vices. When Stephen preached the faith, his hearers gnashed their teeth at him. When men possessed of demons were brought to Christ for cure, the devils howled and spat and raged at Him and tore and lashed their victims into fury before abandoning dominion over them. So, too, the wicked of to-day oppose the faith of Christ, and Herod-like they fain would stamp it out by measures quite as drastic as the slaughter of the Innocents. Especially dangerous are the enemies within the fold, the hypocrites, who while seemingly anxious to follow and adore the Christ, are really hounding Him to death by the scandal of their lives. As warm water is most easily congealed, so a pervert makes the fiercest bigot. They believe for a while, but in time of temptation they fall away, and their last state becomes worse than the first. No man putting his hand to the plough and turning back is worthy of the kingdom of God. " Go," said Christ to the adulterous woman, " go and sin no more lest something worse befall thee." The higher up one stands, the greater his fall if he stumble, and a relapse is always worse than the original illness. So, too, apostasy in word or deed is more grievous than even infidelity or heresy, " for," says St. Peter, " it were better for a man never to have known the truth than after he hath known it to turn away."
Brethren, faith's triumph over the world, though marred by these reverses, is still a glorious victory. " All power is given to Me," says Christ, " in heaven and on earth." That statue of Nabuchodonosor's dream was, according to Daniel, a figure of the world's principalities, and the stone cut out of the hillside without hands, which crushed the statue and afterwards became a great mountain and filled the whole earth, was Christ the Lord. He is the star of Jacob, which, once arisen, draws all to Himself. With His faithful sons and daughters ever at His side, He is so leading others from afar that whatever of humanity is best among the nations is already His. His victory is no carnal one, but with the eye of faith we can see that our prayer, " Thy kingdom come," is being daily answered, for the kingdom of God which is within us is being broadened day by day and more firmly established.
Brethren, let us be active in the fight, that we share the victory. Let us turn from whatever of unbelief or sin or worldliness remain, and follow Christ as faithfully, as unquestioningly, as perseveringly as did the Magi. They had for guidance, besides the star, only Balaam's prophecy and dim traditions dating from Israel's captivity. But we, led by Christ Himself, walk in the noonday light of Gospel truth. Amid trials of faith we must not be discouraged, as neither were the Magi when the star disappeared. They were not scandalized at Christ's helplessness and poverty; nor should we be ashamed of our faith, though it be that of the lowly and the poor. Above all, if we have had the misery to temporarily leave our home in Christ by sin we must return another way, namely, by penance, and be assured that turning from Herod with all his works and pomps to join the kneelers round the crib, you will find there spiritual refreshment and heavenly peace of soul.
Brethren, there is a picture, familiar to many of you, called the Rock of Ages, which aptly sums up all I have said. In the midst of a troubled sea rises a cross of stone, with a white-robed figure clinging to it. The cross is the hand of the true Jesus, bidding time stand still. The sea is typical of time and the world, and the cross — the one thing rising superior to both, the one solid support to which humanity may cling — the cross proclaims that " this is the victory which overcometh the world — our faith,"