Fourth Sunday of Lent: The True Manna, the Bread of Life
by VP
Posted on Sunday March 30, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons
Holy Mass, Saint Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, Wake Forest
(Rev. Fr. Parkerson, Rev. Fr. Meares, Rev. Fr.Tighe)
"This is of a truth the prophet that is to come into the world."- St. John vi. 14.
1. The tradition about the Messias.
2. Review of the miracle.
3. Contrast the Manna and the Holy Eucharist.
4. As of old, so many now leave our Blessed Lord.
THERE existed amongst the Jews a tradition, that, when the Messias came, He should be known and recognized by a miracle that should surpass even those of Moses, their leader and their hero. And amongst the miracles that Moses had wrought, the manna from heaven was reverenced as supreme. If we bear this in mind, we can see that the miracle of our divine Lord, in multiplying the five loaves to feed the five thousand men, was a bold and distinct challenge that they should be struck, remember, and recognize Him as the Messias. "This is of a truth the prophet that is to come into the world."
The manna had unfailingly rained down from heaven to feed the multitude in the desert for forty years. And in this chapter of St. John's Gospel we read how the crowd had followed our Saviour," because they saw the miracles which He did on them that were diseased." Jesus went up into a mountain, and when He saw the multitude that followed Him, He said to Philip: "Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?"
It was out of the question to procure food on the mountain side. Our Lord had arranged the time and the place, "for He Himself knew what He would do." When hunger came upon that crowd, the remembrance of the manna would be forced upon them. Ah! if they could only be fed in the desert!
It is so easy to read of the miracle and pass on; but pause and try to realize the wonder, the excitement, the enthusiasm, when that vast multitude saw and understood what was being done. "Make the men sit down," said our Lord; then He took and blessed the five small loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed to them that were set down. Five small loaves for five thousand men! And the loaves multiplied in those divine hands. A harvest takes months to grow and fructify in the earth, but not in the hands of the Creator, God made man. Ten thousand eager eyes were watching and wondering. Each man was eager to receive his share; each one fearful lest the bread should not suffice for all. Ah! the manna their fathers had laboriously gathered before sunrise, and only that which would suffice for the day; here the bread was ready for them, and they did eat and were filled, and twelve baskets of fragments remained over and above to them that had eaten. No wonder their hearts burned within them; no wonder they recognized Him as their Messias. "This is of a truth the prophet that is to come into the world."No wonder that in their excitement they resolved" to take Him by force and make Him King!"
But Jesus "fled again into the mountain Himself alone." Next day they followed Him again, and were rebuked by our Lord: "You seek Me, because you did eat of the loaves and were filled." They sought to test Him again, whether He were the Messias: "Our fathers did eat manna in the desert," they answered. Alas! when our Blessed Lord would lead them further in their faith in Him, and reveal to them the mystery of the Bread of Life, they murmured at Him because He had said: "I am the living Bread, which came down from heaven." He repeated," I am the Bread of Life," and to show how this Bread surpassed the manna from heaven, He added, "Your fathers did eat manna in the desert and are dead-if any man shall eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever" (v. 49, 50).
Oh! the sad ending of our Redeemer's loving endeavour to win the hearts of men. "After this many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him." Alas! is not all this repeated in the lives of so many, who should know Him far better than these poor Israelites? Our faith teaches us that this Bread of Life is consecrated at every Mass and has been for wellnigh two thousand years! that it is multiplied far beyond the limits of the desert. In every land where there is a church or altar, He becomes present morning after morning, Who said, "I am the living Bread, who came down from heaven."
And how is it effected? By the words of Christ spoken by an ordained priest, "This is My Body." Not one Moses now, but thousands and thousands of priests all over the world bringing down the Bread of Life at the word of their Master-the Messias, Christ the Son of God!
And as of old, so now, many are unwilling and murmur, and, leaving Him, perish of hunger like the poor prodigal sons that they are. And even the good, the frequent, the daily communicants, where is our enthusiasm? Where the resolve to make Him sole King of our hearts? The good Lord is longing for that. He is drawing us, helping us, winning us to do that. Let nothing henceforth keep our hearts back from entire and zealous surrender of themselves to Him, His service and His love." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey, O.S.B. 1922
Third Sunday in Lent: The Shame that Leads to Sorrow
by VP
Posted on Sunday March 23, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons
Gerard Seghers: Repentance of St Peter
"Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it."—LUKE xi. 28.
I. The noble calling to hear and keep the word of God.
2. To our shame, we have often neglected both hearing and keeping it.
3. The shame of having preferred sin and the friendship of the devil to keeping the word of God.
WE cannot help but be amazed when we hear these words of our Blessed Lord. Can anyone be more blessed than His own Immaculate Mother? No; but her greater blessedness was not simply in being His Mother, but being His worthy Mother. "Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it."
This leads us to think, what a noble calling is ours to hear the word of God and keep it. What blessedness should be ours if we had done so; but if we have not done so, what shame and confusion. Where is the blessedness in our careless, negligent, and sinful lives?
Let us look into our souls, and shame will force us to be humble and obtain forgiveness. Hear the word of God! How many a time has the hearing of the word of God been distasteful to us, and we have shirked the opportunity of listening to it. A short, early Mass to avoid a sermon; no prayer-book with us to whisper a word of God, rather distractions rioting in our minds, our thoughts engrossed with all manner of memories and desires, but with no remembrance of any word of God. Spiritual reading! oh, that is left for nuns and priests! Newspapers, novels, ah! yes; our minds are enticed by something else than the word of God. Even if time hangs heavy on our hands, there is no desire to listen to that. That word which should steady our minds, give us pause to think whither all this foolish dissipation of mind will lead us. That word that should nerve us to resolve to do better and give ourselves to obeying God. That word which should give us courage, based on the promises of God, to do our best. With what shame do we find our souls overwhelmed by our sinful neglect in hearing the word of God.
But looking back, perhaps there was a time when we heard the word of God and loved to hear it. Words that lived in our souls when we were young, and which conscience will not let die, and makes them re-echo in times of temptation and sinfulness. Certain it is that we have all heard more than we have kept. That, indeed, is the important, the all-important, part. To have heard and not to have kept! "O Lord, Thou knowest my reproach, my confusion, and my shame (Ps. lxix. 10).
It is when we examine why we have not kept the word of God that we realize our shame. Why did we not? Because we loved and preferred to be careless and negligent, and even sinful. Yes, we have not kept the word of God because of our sins. When we look back and see the worthlessness of our sins, it is then that we are covered with shame and confusion. What good have they ever done for us, or will do for us? And yet we have preferred them to keeping the word of God. That would have made us blessed; our sins have brought nothing on us but shame; even in remembering them we are ashamed, but how much more, terribly more, when we shall stand in judgment for those sins; when the words of the prophet come true, and the Judge shall say: "I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, that will never be forgotten" (Jer. xxxiii. 40).
And instead of keeping the word of God, we find, on reflecting, that we have given ear to the whispers of the devil. Though we knew in our hearts that he was the father of lies, yet we listened to his seducing temptations, we gave half credence to his boasts of making us free and letting us do what we liked. Yes, in actual fact, we have preferred the mock friendship of the devil to being the faithful ones and blessed ones for keeping the word of God.
The shame of it! for we have despised and rejected the friendship and the love of God. We are the children of God - the good God, our Creator, our Father, Who has endowed us with immortal souls, Who has at Baptism enrolled our names in the Book of Life, Who has given us Himself in the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Who Himself wishes to be our eternal reward in the Kingdom of His glory. We have despised this good God in not keeping His blessed word, but preferring to sin and live in sin. We are those of whom it is said, "Whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" (Phil. iii. 19).
Let us change our hearts and be ashamed of what we have done preferring sinfulness, the friendship of the devil, to the blessedness of keeping the word of God. To be thus ashamed is a grace from God. It is the beginning of humility, of sorrow, of true repentance. This shame for the wasted past will nerve us to begin now to be in earnest, not to allow Lent to pass by carelessly. This holy shame will make us banish dissipation of mind, the love of vain and earthly pleasures, and turn our hearts all to God. This shame will fill our hearts with holy resolve and courage. We are poor indeed in God's sight, for there is nothing but shame to clothe our souls as we kneel before Him. But God is not only good, not only powerful, but God is merciful. And when He beholds our hearts grieving in shame over our wasted life, His mercy will bless that shame into repentance, and a contrite and humble heart God will not despise." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey, O.S.B. 1922
Second Sunday in Lent: Duties of Lent
by VP
Posted on Saturday March 15, 2025 at 11:00PM in Sunday Sermons
"God has called us... unto sanctification in Christ Jesus our Lord."—I THESS. iv. 7.
1. Our sanctification the work of Lent.
2. The means: Fasting, self-restraint.
3. Almsgiving: Christ's poor alive and dead.
4. Prayer: the direct and most important means.
"OUR heavenly Father has granted us to start another Lent, during which "let us amend and do better for those things in which we have sinned through ignorance; lest suddenly prevented by the day of death, we seek time for penance, and be not able to find it." And the means by which we can amend and do better are plainly set before us during Lent. Each of us knows them; and each of us, if he followed his selfish inclinations, would fain find excuse not to use them. Fasting, almsdeeds, and prayer are not duties that human nature welcomes. But these are the means unto sanctification to which we are called.
There are so many reasons and excuses found for the non-observance of fasting, that very few are found to take any heed of the obligation. But the necessity of doing penance is still urgent upon us. And if we cannot endure the hardships that our forefathers bore humbly and penitently—are we less sinful, less prone to evil, have we less to make atonement for than they had? And is there no means of doing penance other than depriving ourselves of food? Is all that we drink as necessary to sustain us as meat and bread ? Would it not be real fasting to do without some of our pleasures and pastimes, cards, theatres, and the rest? Let us try the Rosary and attendance at the Stations of the Cross for a change. We may be unwilling, granted; but otherwise how shall we answer to God that we used the means to our sanctification?
Self also is ready with excuses when there is mention of almsdeeds. "Charity begins at home," and other well-known pleas immediately find utterance. But we are called unto sanctification, and not slavishly to obey the dictates of selfishness. The Holy Scriptures tell us: "Give alms out of thy substance, and turn not away thy face from any poor person; for so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from thee. For alms deliver from all sin and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness. Alms shall be a great confidence before the most high God, to all them that give it " (Tobias iv. 7, 12). And did not our Blessed Lord Himself note and commend the widow's mite, for He sees and blesses the good intention of the kindly heart. Remember His words: "Give, and it shall be given to you, good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured unto you again " (Luke vi. 38).
It may seem most unlikely to us that we shall ever need the alms of others; and it may be so in this life, but the day will come that we shall be needy and poor. When our soul, friendless and alone, shall be imprisoned in purgatory till the last farthing be paid, that is the hour when with bitter regret we shall bewail our selfishness in neglecting the poor and needy, and "Take especially the souls of the faithful departed. pity on me, at least you my friends!" Yes; but how seldom did we heed that cry from others amidst the pleasures and occupations of our life on earth! Prayers, a holy Communion, a Mass offered for the departed—what a blessing they will prove to us hereafter ! Give, and it shall be given to you."
eternal and blessed occupation. And we poor sinners are permitted to join our voices with theirs to praise and glorify and thank the good God. St. John the Evangelist, when blessed with a vision of heaven, heard the angels cry out, "Glory and honour and benediction! Thou art worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honour and power, because Thou hast created all things, and for Thy Will they were and have been created" (Apoc. iv.). Should our prayers aspire to this? Yes, in very deed, we can thank and glorify God in union with the prayers of Mary Immaculate and the very prayers of the Sacred Heart of our Lord Himself. For we are "called unto sanctification in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
These are the means by which we can sanctify Lent -prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds. We have need to make good use of this holy time. It is a duty, and an imperative duty. And how consoling it will be to us, when we come to die-perhaps before the next Lent-that we have made good use of this holy time." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey
The Lenten duties that we have considered-viz., fasting and almsdeeds-have reference to ourselves and our neighbours; the third great duty-prayerrefers directly to God. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all He hath done for thee; Who forgiveth all thy iniquities, Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, Who crowneth thee with mercy and compassion" (Ps. cii. 2, 4). To use this greatest means of our sanctification, as it should be done, not so many more prayers are needed-though in Lent there should be an increase-as an intensifying of our devotion during prayer. We must throw our hearts into our prayers. We must remember Whom we are addressing.
Lowly adoration of our heavenly Father, our Creator, with an ardent offering of ourselves to do His blessed Will, and thus inherit the Kingdom of heaven, should commence our prayer. And that our prayers may be acceptable, our sins should be always before us," that He may fill our hearts with true sorrow, for " a humble and contrite heart" God will not despise. Then, lest we should fall away again, let us pray for help and strength. God loves thus to be implored, and He is our hope and strength in all our necessities.
There is another part of prayer in which we are often wanting-thanksgiving. Our Father loves to be thanked. Thanksgiving is the work of the angels, their
First Sunday in Lent: Help in Temptation
by VP
Posted on Sunday March 09, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons
Behold angels came and ministered to Him.”—MATT. iv. 16.
1. We are sure to be tempted.
2. We forget to cry for help.
3. Our Lord suffered Himself to be tempted for our instruction and encouragement.
4. Angels ready and faithful to assist us.
5. Let us imitate St. Antony's defence.
"THE gospel tells us to-day how our divine Lord suffered Himself to be tempted by the devil. It was for our sakes that He did so. Each one of us, that we may be worthy to win heaven, must be tried, and assaulted, and pass through the conflict. We must face this
fact-we shall be tempted by the devil. It is not within anyone's power to escape temptation. The misery of it may wellnigh overwhelm us. Our selflove will be crushed, for we did not think that we were so vile as the spectres of temptations around us would make us think. We find oftentimes that, when we have resolved to do our best, temptations are the most importunate. Yes, it is true, we are tempted by the devil.
In our misery, when thus tempted and tried, how often do we make a great mistake. We have not the sense of children. In fear and danger, children cry for help: we forget! There is One near us, with His angels, ready to minister to us; only waiting to be invoked, "Lord, save us, or we perish.' "Wherefore it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful high-priest before God, that He might be a propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that, wherein He Himself hath suffered and been tempted, He is able to succour them also that are tempted " (Heb. ii. 17, 18). "For we have not a high-priest Who cannot have compassion on our infirmities; but One tempted in all things as we are, without sin" (Heb. iv. 15).
Our Blessed Lord accepted the ministration of angels after His temptation to teach us that we are not alone in our misery and our danger. To be tempted is not a sin; but to trust to ourselves to be able to resist and overcome is presumptuous. Pride goeth before a fall. To come out of the conflict unscathed needs help, and help is at hand if we humbly invoke it. The angels are our guardians to assist us in our struggle with their fallen brethren. If the fallen angels hate us because we are Christ's, the good angels are anxious to shield us from evil and ruin for that very same reason. A prayer can summon them to the rescue. To forget their assistance, to venture to stand alone and defend ourselves single-handed from evil, is to imperil our souls. We are bound to pray for help in grave temptation. To fall into sin is our own fault; always our own fault. We could have been saved from the sin, if we had prayed for assistance. The angels are with us wherever we go through life; in every occurrence, in every danger they are at hand. Our passage through the temptations of life is not a forlorn hope; we have our leaders, our friends, our guardians around us. But alas! how often are they forgotten and ignored. Temptations seduce us. Careless souls even love the danger; foolishly disregarding the imminent and eternal consequences.
With what an occupation have the ministering angels been entrusted by God! They first have to arouse us to be afraid of evil; to wish to escape it. Instead of fearing sin, we turn a deaf ear to the remonstrances which the angels prompt our consciences to urge upon us. We are reluctant to turn from the evil suggestion; the wicked companion; the occasions that we know will be our ruin. It is not that the angels are remiss in their endeavours; it is all our own fault yielding to our sinful desires, clinging to bad habits that will be our eternal ruin.
Pray that the angels may not grow weary of us, and that their divine Master may not recall them from their rejected ministrations. How faithful they have been to us! They are interested in us and devoted to us, because we are destined to be their brethren for all eternity. They rejoice over every soul they can save, for each one is another soul redeemed by the precious Blood of our Lord, and rescued from eternal loss.
This life is a time of trial and temptation; but to be forewarned is to be forearmed. We must not cowardly give way, though we have to face the combat, for we are not alone. Remember we can instantly summon assistance. Imitate the great St. Antony, the model of those who are tempted. He tells us that his weapons were the sign of the holy Cross and the most holy name of Jesus. That sacred name, that blessed sign, would bring us instant help. "God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able" (I Cor. x. 13). He will send His angels to defend you, to drive away the enemies of your soul. Tempta
tions would be robbed of their terror, they would be vanquished, if we only remembered to invoke and trust. We must learn this lesson in life-the lesson to remember and pray; for as death approaches, temptations may be more powerful and deadly. The good habit of prayer will then spring to our rescue. The angels will redouble their vigilance. Not only our own prayers, but the prayers of the Church for the dying will be our safeguard. The priest before he anoints us bids the evil spirits to be banished, and the angel of peace to stand by us; and he prays the Almighty Father to send His holy angel from heaven to guard and protect and defend. Happy indeed will be the death of one who has trusted in the angels in the days of his warfare. He will have endured temptation bravely; his fidelity will have been proved, and his consolation then will be that the angels will come forth to meet him, and bear his soul to receive the crown of life." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey
Repentance (Quinquagessima)
by VP
Posted on Saturday March 01, 2025 at 11:00PM in Sunday Sermons
"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."-LUKE Xviii. 38.
1. To repent, God's mercy is needed.
2. Sin, in regard of ourselves; of God; of our eternal welfare.
3. God willing and ready to forgive.
4. Our gratitude for forgiveness.
"THE holy time of Lent, upon which we enter this week, is given us once again by the mercy of God, in which to repent and put our souls in order. No one can afford, can dare to despise this fresh opportunity of having their sins forgiven. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John i. 8).
Then in what does repentance of sin consist? A thorough change of heart, by which we turn from our sins and break with them: confess them with true contrition of heart for having committed them. But can we ourselves do this? Can we shake ourselves free from the bonds of sin? Can we, the slaves of sin, gain liberty for our souls of our own power? No, we need the grace of God; hence our earnest prayer should be," Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."
If the blind, the lepers, all the poor sufferers were so earnest in seeking a cure, a freedom from their afflictions, and were mercifully healed by our Blessed Lord, how much more earnest should we be in seeking forgiveness of our sins! For sin is the leprosy of the soul; sin blinds us and leads us astray from the path to heaven; sin is the palsy that paralyses all our powers. Mortal sin, alas! is the death of our soul, the forfeiture of eternal life, the condemnation to eternal misery. All this is sin; for we are the slaves of that in which we have sinned.
And what is sin as regards Almighty God? A defiance, a rebellion, an insult and ingratitude of the vilest kind. By sin we dare to disobey the Almighty Master; by sin we insult the all-holy God, by preferring vile things to Him, by choosing the indulgence of our passions to doing His holy Will. By sin we ignore and despise all that an infinitely loving Father has done for us.
He has given us an immortal soul, destined to be happy with Him for ever, and we sell this soul for a paltry or shameful pleasure. He has pardoned us so many times, and we have added iniquity to iniquity by returning to our evil ways. And that pardon, that our heavenly Father has granted so often-what was the price of it? What was the ransom that was paid to rescue us from the thraldom of the devil? The precious Blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who died on the Cross for us.
Alas! in the past when we have sinned we thought little of the dreadful evil of our sins. Yet, without exaggeration sin is this appalling evil, the calamity with eternal consequences for our poor soul. How the tempter has fooled us and ruined us time after time! When we gave way to our passions-jealousy, pride, avarice, impurity-he skilfully hid the malice from us. When we disobeyed the commandments of God and the Church, we did not realize the cruel contempt and ingratitude towards our divine Lord.
Then let us treasure this opportunity of repentance during the sacred time of Lent; let the prayer of our heart-earnest and constant-be, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." But can it be that God will hear our prayer and grant us forgiveness after all our falls, our relapses, perhaps our long continuance in sin? So many times have we made half-repentances and fallen again with scarce a struggle against temptation. Is not the patience of God worn out? Will He trust us and try us once again? In this anxiety and doubt, how consoling for us to recall the words of ScriptureGod's own inspired words--" Hear me, O Lord, for Thy mercy is kind," says the Psalmist, "look upon me, O Lord, according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies" (Ps. lxviii. 17). "Thus saith the Lord: Be converted to Me with all your heart . . . turn to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy" (Joel ii. 12).
Surely, then, with all confidence we may trust in the mercy of our heavenly Father! It is He Who turns our hearts to wish to repent. It is He Who prompts the prayer to our Saviour, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." And that mercy will be poured down upon us to enlighten us to see our sins; to have the good will and the courage to break with them; to confess them; to have loving and sincere sorrow and compunction of heart for having committed them.
Finally, what gratitude should fill our hearts that we have so forgiving, so tender a Father: "Who forgiveth all thy iniquities, Who healeth all thy diseases, Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, Who crowneth thee with mercy and compassion" (Ps. cii. 3, 4). "For thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild, and plenteous in mercy to all who call upon Thee. Thou, O Lord, art a God of compassion, and merciful, patient, and of much mercy and true" (Ps. lxxxv. 5, 15). This is the Father, rejoicing when He hears our prayer for mercy, blessing the poor sinful heart resolving to come and ask for pardon.
This is the holy work of Lent. This blessed work of repentance has peopled heaven! Pray to that multitude of redeemed and glorious souls who have prayed the same prayer for mercy; who have received the same grace of contrition and absolution; who can look back to some Lent when they turned to God with all their hearts. They persevered faithfully, and may we do the same in the service of that good God “ Who is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy."
Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey
