The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

All have been invited to the wedding feast (Heavenly Kingdom of the Catholic Church) but, the majority refuses to enter. Those that should have come and refused now find that they are excluded and the invitation has gone out to others. But, even among those who have entered there are some who do not really belong because they are unwilling to cooperate with God’s graces (refuse to put on the wedding garment).

When confronted, we see this man must remain silent because there is no excuse. When many are asked why they are Catholic we often see the same confused silence. They do not know what they are doing in the Church just as the man without the wedding garment did not grasp the reason for his being at this feast and therefore was improperly dressed. They both give the same dumb (silent) stare. It is as if they do not understand the question.

Sometimes there are answers that are probably worse than silence. Often, these “Catholics” have no idea of why they are Catholic. Their only reason is: “because my parents were”, or “that is the way that I was raised”, or even “it was the closest church to where I lived”. If asked what they believe, we are again met with silence, because most of them do not know what they believe or do not believe in anything outside of their own selfish materialistic hedonist selves.

The wedding garment symbolizes charity and this charity does not appear in the souls of many “Catholics”. The entire message of Christ and therefore the Faith of the Church is imbued with the grace of charity. To be lacking in this greatest of virtues is to be devoid of the life blood of the Church. Without charity one can never truly enter into the spirit of the Church and therefore one can never enter into the spirit of Christ and the Holy Ghost.

So we see that without the garment of charity all our other “good” qualities are worthless. It is truly hypocrisy to pretend to virtue while lacking in this one virtue of charity. Without love, we cannot understand correctly, nor can we believe correctly. Any pretension to justice without charity is a lie, and this is why Our Lord warns us that our justice must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees. The letter of the law becomes a trap when it is looked upon by those without charity.

Tragically, many people consider truth and charity to be opposed to one another. We hear things like: “would you rather me to be truthful or kind in giving you my opinion?” Why can we not be both truthful and kind? The truth is not brutal; nor is charity false. When the truth appears brutal it is because something is wrong. It is because what we think is the truth is usually not the truth, or probably more often it is because the truth wounds our pride and vanity. The letter of the law when pushed to an extreme is no longer truly the law, but has become a misrepresentation of the law and therefore a lie. As soon as one deviates from the spirit and intent of the law one no longer has the truth and this is where charity is driven out.

Charity becomes false (and therefore not charity) when we seek to palliate and excuse pride and vanity. The “Charismatic” movement is famous for this false charity. In repeating the words “love” and “charity” so often and in so many different contexts they have stripped it of any of its original meaning. Charity has nothing to do with “accepting one another just the way they are without any reservations”. “Loving the sinner and hating the sin” has been bandied about ad nauseam. If we truly love the sinner we do not accept him as he is and confirm him in his evil ways. True love demands that we seek to help the sinner to change and live as God intended him to live. And this may cause the sinner to hate and detest us for the very love we have for him. This is what so many shy away from. This is where their “charity” becomes false. They would rather look the other way and allow someone to continue on a path that ends in ultimate destruction, rather than “offend” them by pointing out the truth and doing all in their power to divert this person from the destruction they are headed towards. This is not inspired by love. On the contrary, this avoiding of conflict is a cowardice that is based in an evil self-love and is not charity for one’s neighbor, but is rather an indifference that is worse than outright hatred.

To say that we desire the Buddhist to become a better Buddhist; or the Hindu to become a better Hindu; etc is not charity, but is an evil worse than hatred because in “accepting” them as they are, one is helping them reach their destruction. And this is not charity nor is it truthful. And such persons should be cast out into the darkness with the weeping and gnashing of teeth, because they lack the wedding garment of charity that is necessary to maintain a presence in the Church.

Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?