It is my purpose to speak to you about the sanctification of the Lord's Day, and to show you that it is grounded in the very Nature of God and in the nature of His creation. This commandment of God is of paramount importance, since on its observance or non-observance depends the blessing or the curse of God, the salvation or the ruin of the individual as well as of all men, of the family as well as of society at large.

   O Jesus, assist us with Thy grace!

  1. All Catholic truth is based on five imperishable witnesses. Firstly, upon the Word of God Who has revealed it; secondly, upon the blood of the Martyrs who have confirmed it; thirdly, upon the hatred of the hordes of impiety who assail it; fourthly, upon the love of the virtuous who defend it; and fifthly, upon the blessings which it sheds abroad. In ordinary times these witnesses furnish the victorious proof of the truth of the Catholic faith. There are, however, periods of intellectual intoxication when man allows himself to be borne away by his arrogance, and permits himself to be overpowered by his senses. In this condition he not only closes eyes and ears so that he may not see nor hear, but even lays violent hands on Catholic truths of faith with the fell purpose of destroying them. For such periods of delirium and unbelief God has reserved another witness to protect His handiwork.

   This last witness of Divine Providence are the revolutions. This last testimony to the truth dissipates the darkness that lies brooding over the nations, just as the flash of lightning rends asunder the dense clouds that absorb and hide the sun's rays. Truth then manifests itself to men as it showed itself on Mt. Sinai to the Jewish people amid the flashes of lightning and the roll of thunder, or on Mt. Calvary amid the terror of mankind and the violent commotion of nature.

   Yes indeed, revolutions lay bare the ground-work of human society, its frightful corruption, the total lack of faith and loyalty, the instability of all conditions, the machinations of secret organizations, the impotence of human laws, and the full extent of the hypocrisy that was practiced under the specious guise of civilization, liberty and toleration. It is particularly in times of such upheaval that we can fully understand how necessary the faithful observance of the commandments of God is for the existence and the well-being not only of the individual, but also of whole nations, aye and of the world. We can then understand what we should have done, and why we should have listened to the warnings of the Catholic Church in order to escape total destruction.

   For three hundred years the Providence of God gives no other proof of the truth of the Catholic faith than the testimony of the revolutions. It is a proof that makes it as clear to us as the noon-day sun to what fate a nation will come when it throws off its allegiance to faith and to the commandments of God. The Apostles' Creed, the ten Commandments of God, the authority of the Church and her laws are the necessary conditions for the life and existence of Christian nations. This truth is eloquently proclaimed by the mountains of ruins spread broadcast over the earth, by the torrents of blood that have been shed, by the untold misery that has been caused, all through the instrumentality of the revolutions. The dread of impending evils and of coming disasters that is so widespread over the world is another proof of this.

   There is one Commandment, however, that amid all the varying fortunes of men, has demonstrated the truth and the necessity of its existence both in the Old and in the New Law, and that is the Sanctification of the Lord's Day.

   2. I know that the religious education of our children is a question of vital importance to the family as well as to the nation, because on the proper fulfillment of this duty or on the neglect thereof depends the faith or the unbelief, the morality or the viciousness of future generations. But though a Christian education is absolutely necessary to prepare our children properly for the future, we must never forget that the sanctification of the Lord's Day alone will keep men in the paths of righteousness and make them value their faith. As soon as our children leave the hallowed precincts of the Catholic school they enter into an atmosphere that is fraught with infidelity, and without a support of some kind they will soon fall a prey to the godless and vicious maxims of a wicked world. No sooner does a nation begin to disregard the sanctity of Sunday, that day of the Lord, that day of prayer and of rest, than it becomes unchristian, and intercourse with it is fraught with the most fatal consequences for the youthful mind. In such a case every hope of salvation disappears; human society is preparing its own misfortune and working out its own destruction. Then all the honeyed phrases of culture, of humanity, of a new era and of constitutional liberty are of no avail. Deception also is no longer possible. The condition and ills of society, the hopelessness and misery that prevail universally in the temporal and moral phases of human life are evident to everyone who wishes to see. Neither armies nor constitutions nor the laws of man can stem the ruinous tide. Christians and Christian nations alone can accomplish this. We must be our own saviors, and we become such by returning to God. But how can this return be possible if we disregard our most sacred duty upon the proper fulfillment of which depend all our other Christian obligations? This great duty is the keeping holy of the Lord's Day. Without it there is neither Christianity nor redemption. "Keep you my sabbath, for it is holy unto you: he that shall profane it shall be put to death: he that shall do any work in it, his soul shall perish out of the midst of his people" [Exodus 31, 14]. The words of God are subject to no change. His promises, His blessing, His redemption and His grace are as active today as they ever were. In like manner His menaces and His punishments retain their ancient vigor. And, in fact, if we consider the misfortunes that came over the Jewish people, be they sickness or famine or bondage among a hostile people, we find that they were a consequence of the desecration of the Sabbath. In turn we find that like misfortunes befall the Christian nations as soon as they desecrate the Sunday. The Jewish people were a prototype of the Christian nations even in their punishments.

   And, in sooth, there is no more ancient law than the sanctification of the Lord's Day; there is none that has outlasted the catastrophes of the world, there is none so much the ground and pillar of the world as this one. The obligation of consecrating one day out of seven exclusively to the worship of God has outlived all the changes of time. Yea, this truth is as unchangeable as God Himself. "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day!" This Divine command rings in the ears of the human race from the confines of Paradise to the dread heights of Sinai, from Sinai to the blood-gorged hill of Calvary, and from Calvary to the uttermost limits of the earth. All coming centuries will repeat this Divine Command until time shall be merged in the bosom of eternity, when that eternal rest, of which our earthly Sunday is the prototype, will begin. The Catholic Church, the mother and guide of men and of peoples, has assumed this Commandment of God into her own code of laws with the purpose of determining more specifically the manner and the solemnity of its celebration. She simply reiterates what the bygone ages already knew and practiced, namely the sanctification of Sunday as the Lord's Day. In this commandment the Church is at one with God, with the world, and with the whole human race during all the past ages.

   In fact, my dearly beloved, whole libraries might be filled with the writings of those who, through the course of nineteen centuries, nave tried to impress on Christian nations alone the sanctity, the blessing, the advantages of the Sunday rest and the dreadful consequences of its desecration. And should we wish to go farther with our researches and count the multitude of civil laws that have been passed from the days of Constantine until the present time by the emperors, kings and princes of the past ages, to enforce, under heavy penalties, the sanctification of the Lord's Day, we should never end. All this merely goes to prove the immeasurable grandeur of this Divine Commandment of the sanctification of the Lord's Day, and likewise the frightful malice and the baneful consequences of its desecration.

   The firmament with the sun, moon and the stars proclaim to all human generations the evanescence of time and the rest on the seventh day. The firmament is a marvelous clock; its two luminous hands are the sun and the moon, which indicate the days, the weeks, the months and the years. They teach us that as creatures exist for the sake of man, so man exists for God alone. They teach us, moreover, three great mysteries: the mystery of life-----it is short; the mystery of death-----it is not everlasting; the mystery of the resurrection-----it is as certain as life and death. They call our attention to the two most solemn moments of human life, its beginning and its end, birth and death, and teach us that every day is to be commenced and ended with the adoration of God. All peoples, even the pagan ones, have understood this language of the heavens. Hence it is the constant practice of the world to say morning and evening prayers.

   The moon changes four times a month. During six days it is assuming a different form and on the seventh day it remains stationary. It thus fulfills the intention of its Creator and teaches man the six days of work and the day of rest. Hence all the nations know the day of rest and listen to Him Who created the moon. The Creator expresses Himself beautifully in Holy Writ: "And the moon, in all her season, is for a declaration of times and a sign of the world. From the moon is the sign of the festival day, a light that decreaseth in her perfection. The month is called after her name, increasing wonderfully in her perfection" [Eccles. 43, 6-8].
   Whence does it come that even the heathen peoples believed in the natural diversity of days, in days of holiness and in days of ordinary import? The Author of all days solves this question in the Sacred Scriptures: "Why doth one day excel another, and one light another, and one year another year, when all come of the sun? By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished, the sun being made, and keeping His Commandment. And He ordered the seasons, and holy days of them; and in them they celebrated festivals at an hour. Some of them God made high and great days: and some of them he put in the number of ordinary days" [Eccles. 33, 7-10].

   How sublime a picture the heavens shows us-----those heavens that proclaim the glory of God and tell of the work of His omnipotence! With one hand the Lord of all things takes a portion of our life, blesses it, sanctifies it and keeps it for Himself as a tithe and an homage. With the other hand He places the greatest number of our days in the uniform circle of weeks, months and years. He, the Lord of life and of death, reserves for Himself these few days of the Lord, that in them we may serve Him more zealously and with greater gratitude. In recompense for our homage He blesses and protects us all the more during the days of our labor.

   Through the ages all the nations of the earth have acknowledged and obeyed this truth. Whence comes it then that now so many, not only of individual Christians but also of Christian nations, disregard this truth, trample this great Commandment of God under foot, and so destroy the very harmony of nature? Who dares presume to imagine that this desecration of the Sunday will be unattended by the most frightful temporal and eternal consequences both for the individual and for society at large? These consequences are vast and terrible; they are commensurate with the majesty of God and with the holiness of His Day. If the thrones of kings are shattered, if nations must battle for their very existence, if often thousands of families and business men are suddenly ruined, they have only themselves to blame for it-----they have desecrated the Sunday. The reason why religion and morality are fast disappearing, why crime and poverty are daily becoming more widespread, can easily be found in the fact that the Sunday is almost universally desecrated. The Sunday holds a wonderful promise of grace and of blessing for us, but also the terrible curse of punishment and disgrace. Therefore God proclaimed clearly the law: "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day." In very truth the desecration of the Sunday brings with it the ruin of all religion and the ultimate destruction of the family. In other words, to desecrate the Sunday means nothing more and nothing less than to destroy the dignity and prosperity of the human race.

   Let us, at least, my dearly beloved, observe this great Commandment of God and keep holy the Lord's Day, so that it may become for us truly a blessing and a grace for body and soul, the pledge of Divine assistance, the source of eternal redemption and the exemplar of a happy resurrection and of eternal repose in Heaven. Amen.