Sermon IV, Sunday Part 4:
What the Sanctification of Sunday Means to the Christian

"I rejoice at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord."-----Ps. 121, 1
 

   Yes, truly, the Church is the place where, more than elsewhere, we obtain the grace and the mercy of God. It is the place of our regeneration, of our sanctification and of our redemption. It is the house of God, where God abides among men and where men may converse with Him. It is the abiding-place of the holiest mysteries, the house of rest and of peace, where all Christians, great and small, high and low, rich and poor, are the family of God, one heart and one soul. Hence it represents to us the paradise of Heaven and the gate of Heaven.

   Today as yesterday, and during all the ages, the Christian in church is the disciple of the Lord. There he hears the words and the teachings of God, as once did the Apostles and the Jewish people. We find there the poor, the sick, the sinner, who have come to the Savior to implore His mercy and to hear the sweet words: "Be of good heart, thy faith hath saved thee! " In the church the faithful come to the Savior, as once did the Jews in the desert, or rather as the Apostles did at the Last Supper, to be nourished by Him unto life eternal. It is there that they are blessed by Him; it is there that they are the witnesses of His life, His teachings, His miracles, His Passion, His Resurrection and His Ascension. Hence the church is truly the house of God and of His faithful, and the Commandment to sanctify the Sunday is a great and a decisive one for time and for eternity.

   It is my purpose to speak once more on this topic, and to point out to you today what the sanctification of the Sunday means for the Christian. Would that all those within the hearing of my voice might take these words to heart, since everything depends on the sanctification of the Sunday-----faith, grace, religion, the welfare of the family, the salvation of the soul, a Christian death and eternal happiness.

   O Jesus, assist us with Thy grace!

   1. Sunday is the Lord's Day, hence a day when man should rest from his ordinary work and devote his time entirely to the service of God, to adoring and glorifying Him. Men set aside a definite time for all important transactions, the week, the day, yea, the very hour is predetermined. The courts of law set a definite day for the cases that are to come before them, the employer decides when work is to begin and when it is to end, the mother sets the time for the meals, the teacher for the school, the farmer for his plowing, the huntsman for the chase. Is God alone to be denied the right of deciding on a definite time, a definite day for the holiest and most important action that man can and must accomplish on earth? Yea, my dearly beloved, since all men are bound to give to God this public and outward adoration, God Himself was obliged to establish this day for the benefit of man, so that all could assemble at the same time to take part in Divine Service. If God had left to man the designation of this day, nothing but the greatest disorder and conflict and discord would have resulted. Fathers, teachers, mothers, employers cannot leave the choice of the time that is to be devoted to work, to the school and to household affairs to the servants or the children without having to fear the greatest disorder; they themselves must fix the time.
 
2. God has ordered the sanctification of the Sunday for the welfare of man, for the preservation of faith and of religion. It is on Sunday that the entire Christian world is assembled to praise, thank and adore God, and it is on this day that it is united with the Angels and the Saints in jubilation and adoration. On Sunday the Christian world becomes a grand, splendid congregation. It must be a spectacle worthy of God when on the same day in all parts of the inhabited globe, from the rising of the sun unto the setting thereof, the Christian world with one voice honors and praises God the Father for the work of His creation; when with one voice it honors and thanks God the Son for the Redemption, when with one voice it adores God the Holy Ghost and honors His grace. It must be a grand spectacle, worthy of God, when on the same day in all the churches of the earth the Christian world with one hand offers the Immaculate Sacrifice to the Triune God; when as with one heart it believes and hopes and loves; when it gathers as the great family of God for the same act of worship, and when they all feel that they are the children of God, the heirs of Heaven, Christian and brethren.

   This is marvelously well expressed in the Preface or the hymn of praise of the Mass, where the priest summons the faithful to give praise to God in the following words: "Lift up your hearts!" After having received the answer: "We have raised them to God," he continues the hymn to God the Almighty and Eternal: "Through Jesus Christ, through Whom the Angels and the Archangels praise His Majesty, the Dominations adore Him, the Powers tremble, the heavens and the Virtues of Heaven and the blessed Seraphim are united in joyous exultation. Permit us, we beseech Thee, to join our voices with theirs to proclaim in suppliant confession: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Sabbath."

    Yea, even the whole of inanimate creation joins in this hymn of praise: "The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of His hands"
[Ps. 18, 2].

"O Lord our Lord, how admirable is Thy name in the whole earth!" [Ps. 8, 2]

The whole world with its countless creatures is an immense organ, that sounds the praises of the Creator throughout the entire universe. But Jesus Christ is like the master that plays this organ. He is the High Priest Who accompanies it with His voice and thus only gives it the true expression of the praise of God. It is also through Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man, that all our adoration, all our praise, all our good works, every act of gratitude, every tear, every Christian suffering arises to God. He, as our High Priest, unites all our prayers and sacrifices to His prayers and Sacrifice, and so offers them to God His Heavenly Father. It is not without reason that the Sunday is so great a day, and it is with truth that it is called the Lord's Day, for through Jesus Christ it unites the whole Christian world, yea even the universe, for the praise and adoration of God. It is not without reason that the Commandment of keeping holy the Sunday is of such importance, and that on its proper fulfillment depend time and eternity, the preservation. of religion, the welfare of families, the blessing of God and the consciousness of our heavenly vocation as Christians and heirs of Heaven.

3. For this reason the desecration of the Sunday is also so great a crime against God and against ourselves.

But what must not have happened in such Christians before they reached the point of desecrating the Sunday? Before they sank so low as to deny God the adoration that is His due, and to exclude themselves from the circle of the faithful? If such men, I no longer call them Christians, if such men, moreover, consider it a disadvantage and a waste of time to join their brethren in thanking, praising and adoring God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, what can or shall we think of them? What crust of ice must not have formed around their hearts, and what dread mysteries of apostasy from God, of blindness and passion does not this condition of affairs reveal? Thou, O man, art a sacrilegious wretch! By thy profanation of the Sunday thou robbest God of His Day, of the Lord's Day! By thine own act thou cuttest thyself away from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. By thine own act thou executest the sentence of exclusion from Holy Church, from the communion of the saints and from the company of the saved! The leaf that falls from the tree does not fall of its own volition, but through thine own fault thou hast fallen away from the tree of life, of redemption. The worm that thou tramplest under foot does not die by its own act, but thou diest because of thine own fault, voluntarily thou tramplest under foot the salvation of thy soul! The leaf and the worm glorified God by their existence, but man dishonors Him, and by the desecration of the Sunday he becomes a criminal against God and against himself.

  4. Yea verily, my dearly beloved, the Sunday and its sanctification has an extraordinary significance for each and every Christian. By keeping holy the Sunday every human being fulfills the most sacred obligation of its existence on earth, namely, to serve God, to honor and adore Him, in order to become eternally happy. For this reason so many of God's favors are attached to the celebration of Sunday, and the house of God, where we gather to perform our duties, offers the soul so much consolation and so much grace and joy. Most beautiful are the words of the Epistle read at the Mass proper to the feast of the dedication of a church: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more," [Apoc. 21, 4]. And though this promise will find its full accomplishment in Heaven, it still is partially fulfilled in our churches, which are an image of Heaven and the vestibule to eternal happiness.

   God is indeed ever ready to dry our tears, to assuage sorrow and pain, if we come with confidence to His house and there beg Him for mercy. How many of you, my dearly beloved, have already made this happy experience! How many Christian fathers and how many Christian mothers have prayed and wept in church for their children, and God has heard their prayer and dried their tears. How many an anxious troubled soul has come to church and there pleaded for help with streaming eyes, and God has allayed its fears and swept away its sorrows. How many a child's prayer has risen there for the safety of its parents, and God has listened to its prayer. And who will count the sin-laden multitudes, who finding peace nowhere, have come with contrite heart like the Prodigal Son to beg the Father of all mercies to press them once again to His paternal bosom and grant them peace and grace and joy of soul? In the church stand the Baptismal font, the Confessionals, the Altars, the Tabernacle, the Communion railing, bearing eloquent witness to the mercy and the bounty of God. All these have served us from the earliest days of our childhood, and not only us but also our parents and our ancestors. For them also the waters were taken from the Baptismal font, to cleanse them from sin and to make of them Christians and children of God. For them, too, the doors of the Tabernacle opened to nourish them for life eternal. The Confessionals have also heard their acknowledgment of sin, their contrition and purpose of amendment, and if their Confession was a worthy one, they were dismissed therefrom consoled and re-established in the grace of God. And from the pulpit our parents and forefathers have received many a salutary lesson and well-meant warning, and if they received them cheerfully and remained true to them they have good reason to be glad of it in a happy eternity.

   They have gone before us across the threshold of time into the realms of eternity. For them and for all those who have lived in the long ago, the church has been the place where they experienced in fullest measure the goodness and the mercy of God. It is there that they laid the groundwork of a life that was Christian and pleasing to God, yea, it is from those hallowed precincts that they drew all that finally brought them to eternal glory. And so for us too there is and can not be another place than the church. When they died they were brought once more to the church, and so we too in our turn, when we are dead, shall be brought to the church for the last time. The church is for every Christian the gate of Heaven, the place where he shall find either eternal happiness or eternal damnation, according to the words of the old proverb: "He who hastens to church, hastens toward Heaven; he who goes slowly to church, goes slowly to Heaven; he who does not go to church, will not go to Heaven." We can readily comprehend the reason for this. It is in the church that Our Divine Savior wishes to be surrounded by His Own on earth, just as He is surrounded by the Angels and the Saints in Heaven. It is especially in church that He wishes to be loved, praised and adored; it is here that He extends His arms in blessing over us, that He makes us sharers in His merits and His graces, so that we may finally surround Him forever in Heaven, see Him, not merely under the appearance of bread, but face to face, so that we may celebrate an unending Sunday with Him, and continue with unalloyed joy with the Angels and the Saints to sing the eternal hymn of praise to the Triune God.

   Thrice-blessed, therefore, the Christian to whom the church was a real home, who paid it frequent and devout visits, who let himself be blessed by his Divine Savior, who often received the Sacraments, who gladly listened to the word of God and who kept holy the Sunday. And when after death he is brought! to the church for the last time for the purpose of receiving Christian burial, his soul will take a fond farewell from the church where he felt himself so much at home and contented: Fare thee well, O church, thou  gate of Heaven, thou image of the Heavenly paradise, fare thee well! I shall pass over a better threshold, I shall enter the paradise of Heaven, the eternal house of God. Farewell, ye friendly Altars where I have been so happy when assisting at the Holy Sacrifice, and whence I received such Heavenly fruits! Farewell, thou Communion table, where so often in childlike yearning I received the Body of my Savior! Farewell, ye Confessionals, where I have shed many bitter tears over my sins; O blessed tears, blessed contrition and Confession, that obtained for me the mercy and the grace of God, fare ye well! Farewell, thou pulpit, from which I have received so many saving lessons and encouragement! Farewell, ye servants of the Lord, who meant it so well with me, may God reward
you for your trouble! Fare ye well, my Christian brothers and sisters, who so often edified me by your devotion! Farewell, all ye beautiful feasts that I loved to celebrate in church. I am now going to celebrate an everlasting feast, forever will I rejoice with the Angels and the Saints, eternally will I abide with God my Savior, for he who hastens to church, hastens toward Heaven.

     5. But he who does not go to church will not go to Heaven. It is a sad thing to note that there is a large number of men and of women who no longer even know where their church is, of what the church reminds them, who never keep holy the Sunday and who seldom or never receive the Sacraments. They too will be brought to the church at the end of their days. How will their poor soul feel when even the church will rise in accusation against them? They will then cry out in pain and sorrow: Farewell thou hallowed abode of God's love and mercy that I contemned! Farewell, ye Altars, Tabernacle, and Confessionals: O had I but a half hour's time to receive the Sacraments, my eternal salvation would be secure! Farewell, ye good and faithful Christians, how happy I should be if I had followed your example, and had not looked upon you as fools and on myself as wise! Farewell paradise, thou Heavenly elysium, thou everlasting house of God, thou realm of happiness, farewell, for I shall never see thee; another lot is mine, an abode of unending misery, for he who does not go to church will not go to Heaven.

    May God grant, my dearly beloved, that you may always love to go to church, love to sanctify the Sundays and the holy days. "I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord" [Ps. 121, 1]. Moreover the house of God reminds us of the dignity of our own soul. St. Paul tells us that we are the temples and the abiding-place of the Holy Ghost. Our soul was solemnly consecrated by holy Baptism. The foundation of this temple is the virtue of faith which was infused into us in holy Baptism. The spire is hope, which raises us to God, the high Altar is charity, and the Sacrifice, pure, holy, and pleasing to God, that we are to offer up to Him, is our very self with body and soul, and we do so when we give ourselves to the service of God in joy and in pain. The pillars upon which this spiritual temple of God rests, are the Christian virtues; the arch which extends over the temple of the soul, is the gracious Providence of God. And as long as we observe the Commandments of God and of His Holy Church, as long as we remain in the state of grace and retain the innocence of our soul or have regained them by contrition and penance-----so long are we the temples of the Holy Ghost and God will willingly abide in us.

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