The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

"Seek ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."

The service of God is our principle duty in this life. We have memorized our Catechism as children but we seldom seriously consider the profound truths that we repeated so many times. "God made me to know, love and serve Him in this world so that I may be happy with Him in Heaven." This is why He made us and this is why He gives us all the things of this earth.

We need not be solicitous for our food, clothing and shelter. These are the things that those who do not know God must worry about. God made us and He knows what we need and He will take care of us. He feeds and shelters the birds of the air, clothes the flowers of the field (more beautifully than Solomon.).

He watches over us with loving care. He gives us all that we need, and all that He asks of us, is that we love Him and be happy. We need not worry about the things that non-believers worry about because our faith teaches us that God will provide.

What we should worry about and be solicitous for is the Kingdom of Heaven. We must constantly be striving for this happiness in Heaven that God is calling us to. We must be solicitous to bring about this Kingdom of Heaven here on earth in the Catholic Church. We so often pray in the Our Father: "Thy kingdom come". This is what Christ Himself has taught us that we must pray for. We must seek that the Will of God be done here on earth just as it is in Heaven where everyone is united in the Will of God and only seek to do His Will.

This is our job; this is our only responsibility. Today's Gospel is attempting to wake us up from the lethargy and indifferentism of this world.

"No man can serve two masters." We cannot serve God and mammon. We must make a choice and this choice will determine our fate for all of eternity.

If we seek to live this life in the service of worldly goals and ambitions we will gain some material success in this life but there will literally be Hell to pay in eternity.

It seems that we do not truly grasp how long eternity truly is. Forever is a long, long, long time. And with an eternal pain and suffering awaiting us for our service to mammon, how can we be so foolish as to continue in this service? What is the brief joy or pleasure that mammon stingingly gives us compared with the eternal fires of Hell? But, how wondrous the joys and pleasures of Heaven for those who serve God even if they must endure extreme pain and suffering in this life. The pains and sufferings are not worthy to be compared to the joys that await us.

St. Paul in today's Epistle tells us some of the works that the service to mammon entails: fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wrath, quarrels, dissentions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. He shows us that this service to mammon brings not only suffering for all of eternity in Hell, but also causes much pain and suffering here and now. "They who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God."

He next outlines for us the works of the kingdom of Heaven: charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. There is no law against these things and they bring us happiness both now and in eternity.

Mammon offers us the illusion of happiness here and now but this is only an illusion. No sooner than the service is done then almost immediately the regrets and pangs of conscience ensue. The joys of serving mammon are only an illusion that proves deadly if we follow it to our graves were we will have to suffer the consequences of our deception for ever and ever.

The mortification of our flesh here and now in refusing to serve mammon only offers the appearance of pain and suffering. In performing the works of God in the service of the Kingdom of Heaven we have the appearance of suffering and deprivation but this too is only an illusion. The service of God is a true joy and pleasure when we consider the rewards that await us for the faithful service. And with this faith and understanding even our crosses become a joy and pleasure. We end up with the best of both worlds: The joys of the Kingdom of God here on earth in doing His will in His Church; and the joys of eternity in an everlasting happiness with Him in Heaven.

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