The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. St. Anthony is often represented to us in pictures and statues holding the Divine Child and with a lily.

St. Anthony from his youth practiced an undivided love and service for God. At fifteen he left his home in Lisbon and joined the Clerics of St. Augustine at Coimbra. His teacher the celebrated Abbot Thomas of Vercelli, testified of St. Anthony that "he advanced so far in the love of God that we may well apply to him what the Holy Gospel says of St. John the Baptist: `he was a flaming, consuming fire of Divine love.'" As a boy he made the vow of perpetual chastity to God, and sought holy purity with all his might for both soul and body. Continual restraint of the senses, untiring prayer, and tender love of Jesus and Mary helped him surmount all dangers to holy purity. This holy purity opened up to him the wisdom of God. He gave himself whole heartedly to his studies, but his burning desire was for martyrdom.

When he saw the returning remains of the first Franciscan martyrs he was inspired to leave the Clerics of St. Augustine and join the new Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans). His desire for martyrdom was still frustrated but he soon found a spiritual type of martyrdom in which he could offer himself up to God. He humbly hid his gifts from the eyes of men by seeking work in the kitchen and garden of the friary at Monte Paolo. In this humble position he found great consolation and joy. He humbled himself most profoundly before God, giving God alone all honor and glory. Rather than seeking the first place St. Anthony humbly went and took the last place. And it was not long before Our Lord would say: "friend move up higher."

God had other plans for St. Anthony. God would not leave this brilliant light hid under a bushel. One day he was asked to speak to some newly ordained priests both Franciscan and Dominicans. And the moment that he began to speak it was clear that he had greater works to do than in the kitchen and garden. He was given the task of teaching theology within the Order. This position was appointed to him by St. Francis himself. God still wanted more from this burning flame of love. It was not enough for him just to prepare other Friars in the sacred sciences; he was later to take up the ministry of preaching. He preached in a great number of towns in France and Italy. The churches could not contain all the people so he spoke in public squares, in the plains, and the hillsides and on the river banks. His heavenly mission was confirmed by many miracles. He fought the Albigensian heresy with such success that Pope Gregory IX gave him the title of "Hammer of Heretics".

This magnificent doctor of the Church has something to give to everyone from the highest to the lowest, if we will only observe and listen to his life and wisdom.

Wisdom is inseparable from purity. The Holy Ghost declares in the book of Wisdom (1, 4) that: "Wisdom does not enter into an unclean heart." St. Anthony possessed such great wisdom precisely because he practiced such purity. And St. Anthony was able to practice such purity because he was humble, and kept himself occupied. He prayed and practiced custody of the eyes; mortification of the senses; the sense of shame, and devotion to the Blessed Mother.

The world today is lacking in this wisdom because the world today is lacking in this purity; and we are lacking in this purity because we will not humble ourselves or pray (especially to the Blessed Mother) as we ought to do. We will not deny our bodies any pleasure and so our bodies become tyrants running and ruling our lives with their various passions. We must learn to curb these desires and deny ourselves many things even things that are not sinful. (To deny ourselves only that which is sinful is no sacrifice at all.) We must guard all our senses but especially our eyes against seeking pleasure in many created things. If we wish to one day view God Himself with these eyes of ours they must be pure and unsullied with things of lesser value. With our eyes focused upon God in heaven it becomes possible for us to overcome so many temptations to seek pleasure in the bodily senses of the things of this world.

We must take to heart the gospel for this day and remind ourselves that as Catholics we are the salt of the earth and if we lose our way as Catholics we are not fit for anything but to be cast out. Let us pray that St. Anthony might instill in us a true love for God as well as a love for Wisdom and purity by which we too may merit the crown of eternal glory in Heaven.

Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?