The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Our Holy Mother Church presents us with an excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount today. In the Gospel for today Christ warns us against hypocrisy.

We are told to beware of false prophets who come to us in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly are ravening wolves. And then we are given examples of the trees: good trees bear good fruit and evil trees bear bad fruit. And lastly, He tells us that not all those who say Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. All of these examples are warnings of the deceitfulness and hypocrisy that abound all around us.

We must be cautious of the false religions that abound all around us. We can see that there are many false religions that come to us dressed in the clothing of the true Church but are in reality not the Church established by Christ. They are in reality a church established by the devils, which makes them the church of Satan. We can easily unmask these if we know the true doctrines of Christ, just as the shepherd can easily pull back the sheep's wool from the back of the wolf and expose the deceiver. The words of the same scriptures that these deceivers use become the tool to unmask them. For example: the Protestants' bible quotes Christ as saying "This is My Body . . . This is My Blood." Yet, these same deceivers deny that the Holy Eucharist is truly Jesus Christ. Or they easily divorce and remarry even though the Scriptures clearly say: "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder". The inherent contradictions in their doctrines show them for what they truly are: "ravenous wolves" seeking to destroy souls.

The next example of this same hypocrisy manifests itself as the trees. Trees must be known, not by their size, or strength, or beauty, but rather by the fruit they produce. For example we see many of the appearances of the true Church in the Novus Ordo. It may look like the good tree, but when we start examining the fruit we soon see that it produces bad fruit that is in contradiction to the doctrines of Christ. We see the bitter fruit of indifferentism when they preach that all religions are good; we see the denial of doctrine when they implicitly deny Purgatory in their funeral "masses" which appear more like canonizations rather than requiems. We see the denial of the sacredness of the Blessed Sacrament when they move the tabernacle off to the side, and allow the laity to administer the hosts, or when they administer hosts to crowds by throwing them in the air like confetti, and later custodians must sweep them up from the floor. We see the denial of sin in the changes made to the sacraments of Baptism and Penance. The denial of the indissolubility of marriage in the numerous "annulments" granted, etc.

Lastly today's Gospel warns us against all those who preach using the name of God, saying "Lord, Lord" but will not enter into Heaven and obviously will not lead others to Heaven either. We see so much of the Eastern mysticism religions appealing to many who are looking for the answers that can only be found in the true Faith. The modern fads go from one fanaticism to the next in a relentless pursuit of finding the truth that will set us free and give us the happiness and satisfaction that we so long for. But, their cyclical fads never approach the true religion lest they be saved. The devils keep them going from one to the next wasting their time and energy in a fruitless search. They hear words of hope but they are nothing but vain and empty words that are devoid of any true power to convert, heal, or save.

Now, while we must always be cautious and wary of these hypocrites, we must become even more wary of the deceiver within us. There is an evil inclination in us to prefer the lie rather than the truth. "Lies spread like wildfire, while the truth crawls along." Our own passions are constantly at war with our reason and our faith. Our passions strive to force our intellect and will to follow rather than lead. And, when we succumb to this temptation we easily convince ourselves that that which pleases our passions is true rather than that which sensors them. Thus the success of the external hypocrites is made possible by the prior success of our passions over our reason and intellect. The lies and deception of these false religions is all the more appealing to us because they appeal to our fallen nature. We wish to hear that which flatters our passions and makes us feel comfortable in the sins that we are in rather than that which condemns our sins and evil way of living. This explains the "success" of the many false religions and the reason we are told that the road to Hell is broad and many are those that go that way, while the path to Heaven is narrow and steep and few there are who find it.

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