Homilies on Gospel 2:36-39.

[thesmellypocket 1859]

SADLY, numerous afflictions likely prevent me from becoming the travelling preacher I wanted to be. Therefore I publish these homilies for the edification of the faithful in written form.

I remain evermore your humble servant,

 

Pius Sheen of Sutica.

 

Homily I, on the WAR WE FIGHT: 

 

“Friends,

 

I want to ask you one question. Why? Why [Gesturing to the church around him] all this? Why did God send the Prophets? Why did he establish a Church, and call us to be members of her? Why did God give us the Sacraments? Why?

 

If He was content with man’s nature as it is, He would have done none of these things. If He simply wanted the ordinary, the complacent and the contented, He would have done the ordinary, the banal and the basic, or, more likely, He would have done nothing at all, and left us as we are. In short, God has not worked these things so we can be ordinary - He has given us extraordinary things because He wants us to be extraordinary. God doesn’t just want us to be “”“nice people.””” He wants us to be as men remade, to be Saints!

 

Horen was the first of these remade men. We read here of Baptism, and that through it, he is numbered among God’s own - a mere man counted in the fellowship of the holiest of Angels! What an unfathomable mercy of God! 

 

How can it be, then, that we allow ourselves to fall into the same complacent rut, content to be “”“nice people””, instead of striving for the extraordinary perfection and goodness God expects of us?

 

And we must not delude ourselves. Did you ever hear of the story of the egotist with a headache? [He] went to his doctor; the doctor said “is the pain in your forehead, a deep, burning pain?” He replied “Yes.” The doctor said “sir, your halo’s on too tight!”

 

Instead be like Saint Catherine, emptying out all egotism and sacrificing yourself for others. In a cold winter in Petrus, she gave all her clothing (that would not compromise her modesty) to a random beggar. She could, quite easily, have died of pneumonia, but Saint Edmond, that chivalric hero, appeared to her and gave her a new miraculous garment, which sufficed for any weather. Unless you can look at a stranger, even an outcast, and want to show that kind of sacrifice for them, you have more in common with the egotist than with the Saint. And if that was an acceptable state of affairs, God would not have called you sons of Horen to the ministry of Angels. He would not have sent Prophets to teach you, Holy Tesion to baptise you, and Holy Church to guide you.

 

Look to a random stranger near you. No - rather look at those you DON’T get on with - would you freeze to death for their sake, like the Saint would?

 

Another related question - why does man fight wars? Young men slaughter one another who, in normal circumstances, would be friends. Civilians are butchered, townships raped and famine leaves us vulnerable to wretched disease. This unacceptable barbarity is a sign of just why our normal nature is also unacceptable - for if it be a fact of history that no man, as Fr. Boniface wrote, has ever seen an era of peace, our nature has never been acceptable to God. Now I will preach to you a newer and better war. For until we can answer with hesitation an emphatic “YES” to take the course of the Saint, we are at war. And man will never be free of barbaric war until he has remade himself by this holy war. Until we can love like a Catherine, we will continue to hate like a Krug. 

 

So, Canonist soul, your battle lines are drawn. You are at war, but not against the enemy you hate. Unsheathe the sword, not against your enemies, but against yourself, and all that is mean and base within you: the pride and egotism, the wrath and lust, the gluttony and avarice. For it’s well to remember that God HATES peace, in those who are destined for war! And surely you are!

 

And lest we forget, we are all in this fight together. Be cheerful, therefore, and back up your comrades - unkindness to them is treason is the truer and internal war that God wants you to fight.

 

Bye, and God love you!”

 

Homily II, on the HOLY INNOCENTS:

 

“Friends,

 

I should like to continue my commentary on the Gospel passage relating Horen’s Baptism. We read here of the extraordinary mercy given to the Baptised - a cleansing from all iniquity. Indeed, Baptism gives such purity that even the holiest Angel of God pays homage - he crowns Horen with the laurel like an ancient Emperor celebrating a Triumph! 

 

Many of you will have little brothers and sisters who died in infancy. Others will have sons and daughters, perhaps a grandson or a niece. Infant mortality is just a fact of life, as plain as milk and as regular in this city as the sun rising in the dawn, but the bitterness of the loss is never dulled. I am therefore surprised it is not commonly asked what their fate is. If they were baptised, I should like to make an argument as to what they are, and why they were born.

 

Indeed, I will argue that these premature dead are perhaps the most blessed of all of us. For they die in this pristine holiness, this ineffable sweetness and this cherubic innocence. They never knew sin, and, cleansed in the waters of Gamesh, their purity rivals that of all the Saints put together.

 

That is, all the other Saints. For I should like to reckon these baptised children among them. I might call them the Holy Innocents. Rest assured that they are up there, watching us, praying for us, and, if we will it, guiding us. That is our true purpose - to dwell with God for eternity in the Skies. They have achieved it without wagging a finger. Saint Kristoff’s good eye, even the Angels venerate them and crown them with laurels! Shouldn’t we do the same?

 

For I am afeared that if we do not use this vast resource - we will be held accountable when we die. For God will make us give an account of our sins, and our mouths may be full of excuses, saying “But, it was too hard not to given into temptation! My flesh warred against me! I was filled with anger and sorrow!” And He shall say, if Thou, O God, will allow Thy wretched slave to speak on Thy hypothetical behalf:

 

“Just as a man with a public library next door, but does not take books out, is therefore not wise,

 

And just as a man with the Theses of St. Jude on his shelf who does not read them, therefore lacks spiritual inspiration,

 

So thou hadst the holiest of Saints all about thee, to guide thee and protect thee,

 

DIDST THOU BUT INVOKE THEM!?”

 

God forbid any of us should hear those dreadful words. All ye Holy Innocents,

 

Pray for us.

 

God love you.”

[ReveredOwl 5639]

“Finally, a homily worthy of mention and not a political piece.” said Boniface with a smile.