Sunday Sermon

Saint Paul exhorts us: "Receive not the grace of God in vain!" All that we do "in vain" is nothing more than vanity.

We usually do not appreciate all of the things that God has done for us until they are either taken away from us or until we suffer in some other way. Did you thank God this morning for your electricity? Your hot water for a shower? Your breakfast? The car that safely and warmly transported you to church this morning? Probably not. But how would you feel if you just got your power back three weeks after a hurricane. Would you thank God for electricity then?

One of our great weaknesses as Christians is not appreciating the blessings that we have been given by God. This is the chief reason for our restlessness and dissatisfaction. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, but we do not marvel at that fact. Our Lord wanted to encourage a sense of conviction that His Disciples had lived at a time of extraordinary events in the history of the world.

We are called to be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Every lesson from the Lord is not only a transmission of information, but it is also a transmission of vocation. We are truly called by every lesson to live more deeply the Christian life!

In the Gospel, we hear of a Doctor of the Law trying to tempt the Lord by asking Him which is the greatest commandment. Our Lord gives the answer, and even more; for with the knowledge of the essence of the Law and the Prophets comes a great responsibility on the part of the receiver.

We have seen how, when our Lord was approaching the city of Naim, “a dead man was carried out;” in to-day’s Gospel we read that “there was a certain man before him that had the dropsy;” this man was dangerously ill, and would certainly have died had not our Lord cured him. Here, again, we have a warning that we must die, a sermon and an exhortation to think often of death. In my last sermon I showed you how the frequent meditation of death is a powerful means to induce us to do good and to avoid evil. To-day I have another opportunity of treating of the same matter, and of showing in what manner we may derive advantage from the frequent meditation of death.

We are all called to be unsung Heroes who live out the Catholic life.

Having closed ears and blind eyes can’t please God. But that's the sinful condition we’re born into at birth. Thanks be to God that through Jesus and his cross He comes to heal you so you can now hear and speak to Him. Opening your ears, He’s awakened you and called you to Him under the cross where all your sins are forgiven.

Today our Lord instructs us with a parable of the Kingdom. We hear of a king who hosts a great nuptual feast for his son, sending servants far and wide to invite many to come and share the joy of the day. But those who were invited were not only uninterested in coming to the feast, they even treated the king's servants violently for bringing the invitation!

But the king invites even more people, of any condition, whosoever his servants might find, so that they might share in the nuptual feast. The king even provides the guests with new garments for the celebration. Hear as our Lord relates the great truth of responding to the invitation of the Eternal Father, and what is required of those who are called.

I have said and proved that it is indispensably necessary to make restitution in order to avoid eternal damnation, so that inability alone can excuse one from making it. But there is still one point, and that is the manner and circumstances of restitution.

We put God first because that's the purpose of our lives, the worth of our lives and the only way to fulfillment in our lives.