The Beauty and Truth of the Catholic Church Vol. IV B. Herder, St. Louis, MO, 1816 Fr. Edward Jones With Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat, 1916 Sermon III, Sunday Part 3: My preceding instructions dealt with the sanctification of the Sunday and with the dire consequences attending its desecration. No Commandment of God is so holy, so venerable, so necessary and so universal. There is none that god tries to impress on us with such emphatic language: "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day!" This Commandment is in reality the groundwork of the other Commandments, of all faith, morality and prosperity. No Catholic can say that he believes in God, none can glorify God's name if he does not faithfully observe this Commandment. Without this Commandment no Christian will ever be able to learn his duties towards himself and towards his neighbor, much less practice them. Hence it comes that the profanation of Sunday is the cause of such unprecedented ignorance in all matters of religion, the cause of blasphemy and unbelief. It is the frank admission of apostasy from God, and marks the ruin of religion for the individual as well as for the nations. But the consequences of the Sunday desecration do not rest here; they continue without abatement to grow in menace and to gnaw at the very vitals of human society. The desecration of Sunday not only annihilates religion, grace, redemption and eternal salvation,, but it also destroys all peace, all the blessings and prosperity of the earthly life. We shall consider today the dreadful harm that the profanation of the Sunday inflicts on the family. I here maintain with all the force of which I am capable that the desecration of the Sunday leads to ultimate ruin of the family. Whither will a man turn from the injustice, the hatred, the sorrow, the meanness he encounters in the word if not to his family? It is the last possession, the last asylum that remains to him. It is only in the precincts of the home that the Christian can find the peace and the calm that public life denies him. The family is the only place of refuge where the citizen, be he menial or master, rich or poor, can find joy and recreation after all the hardships of the day. It is within the sacred shelter of the home that the wife and children can find protection and respect. It is the sanctified spot where the many girls, who devote themselves to the fulfillment of domestic duties among strangers, are assured that their innocence and honor are safe. But all this is destroyed, man's last place of refuge is devastated, his asylum is ruined and his sacred place desecrated, and all that by the profanation of the Sunday. In very truth, my dearly beloved, the desecration of the Sunday is the ruin of the family. This will form the subject of our consideration today. O Jesus, assist us with Thy grace! The Christian family is the groundwork upon which Church and State are erected. Hence to its share falls the fulfillment of the most important religious and civic duties. Religion, morality, law and the prosperity of the nations depend on the family, because the nations or governments are nothing more than the union of many families, for before the nations existed the family was. It was this consideration that impelled our Divine Savior to raise marriage to the dignity of a Sacrament, In consequence of this Sacramental character the father is the representative of Jesus Christ, the image of God the Father, the object of the family's respect and love. The mother is called to be in her family circle what the Catholic Church is for the whole world: the messenger of peace and the guide in the ways of salvation. the children are to the Christian family what the faithful are to the Catholic Church. All are indeed bound to obey, but all share equally in redemption, in the Sacraments and the heavenly truths of the Church. Holy are the obligations that the father has toward the family, holy are the duties of the mother, holy the duties of the children. The parents are obliged, as well as the children, to learn these duties, since without a knowledge of them there can be no fulfillment, and because on their proper observance depend the welfare and prosperity of the family. Religion alone can impart this necessary knowledge, and give the strength and grace to fulfill them. Religion teaches the father in the presence of all the faithful that like to our Divine Savior, Who protects His Church, guides her with His holy grace, enlightens her with His doctrine and nourishes her with His Body and Blood in the Blessed sacrament of the Altar, so he is obliged to treat his spouse with respect and love, and be a shining example to his whole family by the faithful fulfillment of his Christian duties, for this alone will animate his home circle with the true Christian spirit and will bring blessing and peace from above. It is religion alone that, in the presence of all the faithful, teaches the mother the sacredness of her obligations towards her husband and family. Religion teaches her that like to the Church who is loyal and obedient to her Divine Savior, she is obliged to show herself faithful and respectful. Her life must be a life of daily sacrifice; she must be an angel of peace, of gentleness, of love and of work. The mother must govern her household with the mildness and strength with which Divine Providence rules the world. Both the father and the mother, in the presence of God and of the faithful, learn their duties towards their children. The children are not the victims and playthings of caprice and cruelty, without regard being taken of their hearts and their souls. They are the treasures of God, heirs of Heaven and angels of innocence on earth, who belong to God and who have been entrusted to the parents to be brought up for Heaven and not for the world. But the children, too, in the presence of the faithful and of their own parents, learn that they are obliged to honor, obey, love and assist their parents in all their needs both of body and soul before and after their death. They also learn the promises and the punishments of the fourth Commandment. But, my dearly beloved, how can a family be animated with the knowledge of its holiest obligations, if it has become habituated to the desecration of the Sunday? The bare knowledge of a duty, however, is not sufficient to insure its fulfillment. To do this we need moral force and courage and above all things we need God's grace. No duties require so much loyalty, devotion and sacrifice as the duties of the family, of the father, of the mother, the children. God alone, religion alone can inspire us with the sense of our duty and preserve it in us. But how can God give His grace and courage if father and mother and children do not ask Him for it, if they do not keep holy the Lord's Day, if they do not mutually encourage and edify one another at the public worship of God? And what will become of the family without God and His grace? Without fear of reasonable contradiction I say: In most cases of such kind the family is burdened with a hard and passionate, careless and improvident father. The mother is feeble and worldly minded, capricious and idle, and far too often unfaithful. The children are disrespectful and disobedient, pampered and unruly. Frequently the roof-tree shelters not a paradise of peace and of love, but a veritable hell. The family exists only in name, and as an institution endowed with mere brutish instincts, and not as a true copy of the Holy Family of Nazareth, of Joseph and Mary with the Divine Child Jesus. These are no idle vaporings, my dearly beloved, but actual facts, for which we find ample, though sad, proofs in the countless complaints and discords of families, in the frequent adulteries and divorces, in the tears and the blasphemies of a neglected youth. The profanation of the Sunday is the ruin of the family. But the desecration of the Sunday is not merely the ruin of the family, because it leads to the neglect of the most sacred obligations which are absolutely necessary for its existence. The desecration of the Sunday also disrupts the bonds that should unite most intimately all the different members of the family. Where does the father generally stay when he has finished his day's work? Will you find him in the family circle in the midst of his children? Not at all. They see him seldom and then only for a few short moments. The saloon, the gaming table, evil companions claim his presence. And where will you find the mother? In the midst of her children? Seldom. All her interests center in the theater, in her visits, in society, in the fashions and in gossip, and her children are often left to the thoughtless care of the servants. Such are the conditions that prevail among all classes of society, be they rich or poor, noble or common. Every one lives according to his ways or means. And so it goes day after day, week after week, year after year. Not even the Sunday brings the family together for prayers in common, for public worship, for conversation and recreation. Sunday seems to exist only to be profaned. Under such conditions father and mother are no better than wild beasts, one of whom goes out in the morning to seek fodder for his young, while the other cleans the pit and protects the offspring. As soon as the young have grown stronger they may run whither they will. This is the last degrading occupation to which the desecration of the Sunday condemns the noblest and holiest form of earthly life, the family. Every inspiration, every dignity, every semblance to the Holy Family of Nazareth, every grace and blessing is sunk in the mire of greed and sensuality, and the family becomes the breeding-place of impiety and vice. <> This, however, is not the full extent of the ravages caused in the family by the desecration of the Sunday. Families have even become impossible. Who can tell the countless thousands of children who never get to see the light of day, or those numberless others who have never known the fostering care of a father and a mother, who wander about in the filth and the misery of the slums of our cities and fall a prey to every form of vice? Wild beasts feed and protect their young; they will even sacrifice their lives for them. Father, mother, human beings, Christians, make things easier for themselves; they cast their children as premature orphans on the cold mercies of a cruel world. This is one of the ripe fruits of Sunday profanation! An increasingly large number of our young men do not wish to get married and found a Christian family; they prefer to spend their lives in debauchery. This is another fruit of Sunday profanation! Thousands of young girls cast themselves into the arms of vice: another fruit of the Sunday profanation. It annihilates the family and fosters idleness, crime and pride. Truly Christian families are yearly becoming more rare, and even these are partially threatened with dissolution. The enemies of Christian marriage and family have reason to rejoice. The desecration of the Sunday is their faithful ally. The desecration of the Sunday is the ruin of the family and hence of human society, of liberty, justice and prosperity. No amount of nice talk about culture, enlightenment and toleration can compensate for the destruction of what is the best and noblest of man's possessions on earth.The sacred repose of the Sunday is alone capable of preventing the degradation and the destruction of the family. It is on this day that the different members of the family learn to know and love one another; it is then that they grow conscious of their duties; it is then that united in the blessed shelter of the home they send up their prayer to God, the Giver of all good things. It is then that the children can see that their parents are obedient to God and His Commandments, that they possess faith and piety. It is then that they also learn respect and obedience; it is then that the family grows Christian, and the bond that ties them together becomes milder and stronger. It is thus that the hearth receives a new consecration, the precious pledge of harmony and the best means of protecting good morals. Nothing is better calculated to afford innocent pleasure and to prohibit ennui and extravagance to enter into the home than recreation and play enjoyed in common. Hence God says so impressively to the family: "See that you keep My sabbath: because it is a sign between Me and you in your generation." In truth, my dearly beloved, the Sunday is of paramount importance to the whole human race. On its sanctification or profanation depend the weal or woe of millions. In like manner the Sunday is the foundation of every family. Sunday is like unto a messenger of Heaven who reminds us of what is eternal and heavenly. It is an angel of peace who, by means of its splendid language and by the inspiration of Divine service, whispers words of peace and forgiveness into hearts torn by dissension. It silences the passions, it allays unrest and caprice, and by showing us the figure of Our Crucified Savior it invites to patience and Christian forbearance. And God, Who is a God of Peace, inspires us by His grace with sentiments of peace and harmony. The Sunday rest is for the Christian family a foretaste of that eternal rest which is destined to be its blessed recompense in Heaven. The celebration of the Sunday is the splendid, noble bond that makes the family to be a Christian family, and raises it to the dignity of an image of the Holy Family of Nazareth. When father and mother approach the altar accompanied by their children, when they unitedly raise their prayers to God, then forsooth they present a spectacle that rejoices God and His Angels. When one heart, one soul, one faith, one hope, one love unite them, and when their prayer rises as from one mouth to Heaven, then Jesus, in accordance with His promises, abides in their midst and bestows on them grace and mercy. Yea, wheresoever father and mother together receive the Sacraments, they offer to their children an example that is more compelling than thousands of books and thousands of words. What is there that can make a family more worthy in the sight of God and men, what can win for them greater confidence and respect, than the Sunday rest and the Sunday celebration? It is this that invests the family with a higher consecration; it is this that makes the family shine forth in the splendor of Christian faith, of Christian harmony and mutual love. It is this that preserves and ennobles conjugal fidelity. It inspires parents with the love and the care for the welfare of their children that is an outpouring of the Divine Love and solicitude for our temporal and eternal welfare. It nourishes and fosters filial respect and obedience. It maintains parents in the grace of God, the children in their innocence and piety, and brings to both parents and children days of peace and of joy. Would that all of you who are here present, especially fathers and mothers, might be convinced of this solemn truth, and might seek in the celebration of the Sunday what you can never find in its desecration, namely, love and harmony, temporal and eternal salvation! How many fathers, how many mothers wear themselves out with work for the sake of their families, and yet their tireless endeavor and striving is nothing more than an endless chain of cares and vexations, of ingratitude and misery. Seek first there where you are sure to find! The blessing of God is attached to the sanctification of the Sunday, and in the worthy celebration of the Lord's Day we shall find the one precious boon that sweetens and alleviates everything, namely, patience and confidence in God, peace of conscience and of heart. The celebration of the Sunday, however, proclaims to us that which of all things is the highest and the best. He who has faithfully accomplished his work during the week and then rests on Sunday and celebrates the day in a Christian manner, he will enjoy an everlasting Sunday in Heaven and will there rest forevermore in an eternity of bliss, after he has accomplished his duties as a Christian here below. May we think of this happiness every Sunday, and may the unfailing mercy of God grant it to us as a splendid reward for the fidelity with which we shall have sanctified the Lord's Day on earth. Amen. E-MAIL www.catholictradition.org/Easter/easter36c.htm |