The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

"The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He send laborers into His harvest."

There is a world full of souls to be saved, yet there are only a few true laborers for the Kingdom of Heaven. There are pleas from around the world to the few true bishops left asking for priests. And there are many false shepherds rushing in and destroying that which was meant to be saved. How few have prayed or how little have they prayed for the vocations that are needed?

As the dearness of vocations becomes ever more painful, we are called upon to pray with ever greater fervor and sacrifice. And we are called upon to develop a stronger and more mature faith than was required in the past. When the Church was beginning Christ worked many miracles to draw the people to Him and the Church grew and just as a child the growth was rather rapid into its maturity. Then, just as the body slows down and begins to diminish, so it seems did the Mystical Body of Christ _ The Catholic Church. No longer do we have Christ offering us countless miracles to attract our attention, nor do we have the many clergy and religious constantly preaching to us. We likewise can no longer find a Catholic Church on every corner or in every city, or in every state and country. Now they are few and far between, as the Faith has died out among men so have these blessings from God proportionally disappeared. The same thing has taken place as regards vocations. The fewness of those that will listen to God, means that there is no need for a super-abundance of priests and religious to care for the remnant that is left.

As I mentioned earlier, this demands of us a maturity of faith on a much larger scale than ever before.

Many of us no longer have ready and easy access to the Church, the Sacraments, and Instructions. We must then, be able to use what we have already been given. We are no longer being spoon fed soft food as children, but are now required to chew solid food and to digest meat.

We must actually put into practice in our daily lives what we already have. We must begin to hunt down the truth and take it in no matter how unsavory it may at first appear. Unless we have this burning hunger for God and the truth, we are not sufficiently developed for the age in which we live. God demands that we seek Him with all of our being. But, how are we to do this without the aid of the Sacraments and the graces they bring? We are too week and feeble to survive without the grace of God. So we must learn to find graces extra-sacramentally. That is, we must develop the habit, of making fervent acts of Contrition always striving for perfect contrition. We must frequently renew our acts of Faith, Hope, and most of all Charity. We must make frequent Spiritual Communions so that we are not deprived of these graces also.

This is not easy for those who have become accustomed to the ready and easy access to the Sacraments that we once had, and that is why I must say it is time for us to strengthen ourselves spiritually. We must mature in our faith so that we can survive in these trying times.

The devils are bringing forth their attacks with ever more ferocity as the number of the faithful is reduced to fewer and fewer souls. Those that are remaining must bear the brunt of these attacks constantly and must be mature and secure in the Faith if they are to survive this assault. Our battle is not with flesh and blood, but with Powers and Principalities (fallen angels).

Let us receive at least spiritually the Sacraments as frequently as we are able, so that we will have the grace to continue this fight to the very end and thus end in victory. It is not a time to grow faint hearted or to collapse from fear or weakness as little children, but now is the time to stir up the graces of our Baptism and Confirmation and act as spiritually mature Catholics in full battle array ready to fight the good fight.

Let us stop fearing penance, sacrifices, and crosses. This is our calling, this is the life that we have been given, all we must do is lovingly and willingly accept and embrace this life for the love of God and our neighbor. Let us pray for ourselves and our neighbors that God will give us such grace and strength that we need. Without the easy helps of the past we must begin to put to better use the helps that we do have at our disposal.

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