Sound Sermons

For the charity of Christ compelled us: judging this, that if one died for all, then all were dead. And Christ died for all; that they also who live, may not now live to themselves, but to him who died for them, and rose again.

2 Cor 5:14-15

St. Paul makes the best possible argument for loving Jesus with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength when he reminds us that Christ died for all, because all, he said, were dead. He means dead due to original sin, dead further due to actual sin. And so he says if Christ died for all, all should live for Christ. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus Christ gathered around himself the twelve apostles, including Judas Iscariot. Judas, who had already accepted 30 pieces of silver to betray Him. And on that night, He sent Judas away with the somewhat mysterious words, so that the others would not understand, “that which you do, do quickly.” And Judas immediately got up and left. Judas having departed, He then began a very long spiritual talk found only in the gospel of John. In one simple line, he reminded them of His unmatchable love for you and for me: “Greater love than this, no man has than a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) That theme we want to remember.

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it. For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works.

Matthew 16:25-27

Because of the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, there is in us a selfishness that shows itself every day. We want life to be what we want it to be. We have our hopes and our dreams and our plans, and our likes and dislikes in people, food, entertainment and music. And this comes into the area of religion as well. We have our favorite churches, our favorite prayers, our favorite music in the church, our favorite Mass times, our favorite place to sit in church, our favorite priests. Everything we have are preferences. And as much as we fight against it, still, we very much like to have it our way. But Jesus says to put God first, and God takes care of you. He gives you what you need. He does not give you, however, what you want.

(2017 - 02 - 16) But with most of them God was not well pleased

Commentary on the the second part of the Epistle for the day (1 Cor. 9:24-27; 10:1-5): "For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: And did all eat the same spiritual food, And all drank the same spiritual drink; (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.) But with most of them God was not well pleased."

If you want to know how you are doing spiritually, you can ask yourself these simple questions:

Do I find Mass boring or interesting?

Do I find it easy to pray or hard to pray?

Do I speak to Jesus easily after Communion or is it difficult to speak to him?

Am I better at praying than I was when I was younger, or am I worse?

That will tell you what you are, and what direction you're going.

[Please note: there's a small glitch in the audio at 0:38]

We find the word "watch" used by our Lord many times:

And he saith to them: My soul is sorrowful even unto death; stay you here, and watch. (Mk 14:34)

And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping. And he saith to Peter: Simon, sleepest thou? couldst thou not watch one hour? Watch ye, and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Mk 14:37:38)

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. But of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray. For ye know not when the time is." (Mk 13: 31-33)

But what exactly does Jesus mean by this word "watch"?

Commentary on the Gospel for the Resumed 5th Sunday after Epiphany (Matthew 13:24-30) - The man who sows the good seed is the son of man, that is, Jesus Christ, and the field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, and the bad seed are the children, as our Lord says, of the wicked one. And the enemy that sows the evil seed is the devil, and the reapers who gather up the cockle to burn them, and the wheat for the harvest, those reapers are actually the angels.

Christ is our King and therefore he is our leader in all things, both spiritual and temporal. We can take the sweet yolk of Christ and free ourselves from the problems that drag down families and even whole countries. We'll start with an example of how Christ can liberate a country from the wickedness of sin using as an example the sin of usury, defined in the Old Testament as the taking of interest on a loan of money.

Sermon based on the parable of the Good Samaritan (Twelfth Week after Pentecost, Luke 10:23-37) – Love of God and love of neighbor are the two great commandments. St. John the Beloved goes even further in (1 John 4), saying "If any man say, 'I love God', and hates his brother, he is a liar: for how can he that loves not his brother whom he sees, love God whom he does not see? And this commandment we have from God, that he who loves God, love also his brother." It is a very great offense to God, who is the common father of every human being, that His children here on earth should hate one another based on anything like race or color. And yet we see, here in the United States, a resurfacing of the kinds of tensions which we had back in the 60's. It's an unnecessary, artificial resurfacing of this old hatred. Hatred, based on race or any other thing, is completely contrary to the Gospel of the Lord. Go contrary to the direction who are trying to benefit from racial hatred or other hatreds, or even trying to make it worse.

In his book of the three greatest prayers, St. Thomas Aquinas takes up the question of polytheism in his day. Aquinas states that if you love other things before God, you have slipped into a kind of polytheism. If you look at the list of 5 false Gods given by St. Thomas Aquinas, and you look at the new Gods that have arisen in our time (money, possessions, recreation, sports), it would be surprising if we did not find at least one that has, quite quietly, but very powerfully, become a God in our our lives.

A saint, according to the definition of the church, is someone who shows heroic virtue. St. Catherine of Sienna lived in a time when there was great corruption in the church, and great conflict in the world with many wars going on. She had to walk a very fine line because she chose to try to advise military leaders, religious leaders, even the Popes. And while she was encouraging, and sometimes even correcting the great men of her time, she had to maintain the highest level of respect and virtue.

Sermon based on the parable of the man who sowed good seed (Resumed 5th Sunday after Epiphany, Matt 13:24-30) - Our Lord is using a very simple example to teach us something about the spiritual life. It is interesting that Our Lord so often uses examples of things that are alive to talk about the spiritual life. Whether he’s talking, in this case, about those who are good and those who are evil, they are both something planted, something which grows.