CAPG's Blog 

It seems to me that this feast is a great day for sinners - meaning, of course, repentant sinners. For look at the facts? Who is the saint of the Resurrection by excellence? Certainly dear Mary Magdalen, the type of all the penitent. She stood beneath the Cross when Jesus died, comforting Him and His Mother in that dreadful hour of His doom and of that Mother's woe. And when the dead corpse was lowered down, Mary Magdalen pressed His limbs and feet and hands to her bosom while our sorrowful Mother clasped His heart to her own and kissed His pallid face a thousand times. Mary Magdalen helped to lay Him in His grave. She watched then; when driven away by the soldiers she bought spices and came again to embalm Him. And whose words are those repeated to-day all round the world as the dawn greets the watching glances of the faithful. "They have taken away my Lord! I know not where they have laid Him"; and again the amazed and ecstatic exclamation when she saw Him in the garden: "Rabboni! Master."

What a great store of love, says St. Gregory the Great, was in that woman's heart, who, when even His disciples were gone away, could not tear herself from the grave of the Lord!

See, then, my brethren, the reward of the love which is in true sorrow for sin; it is given a singular kind of pre-eminence; it is selected above that of innocence and placed on guard at the post of honor to receive the first public greeting from the Immortal King of Glory, triumphant over sin for ever. I say public greeting, for doubtless Jesus visited and greeted His Mother in private first of all; but this is not written down for our edification, and Mary Magdalen's privilege is. Sinners need encouragement, and certainly they get it today in the honor paid to their glorious patron, to the woman who had many sins forgiven her because she loved much.

I say again that sinners need encouragement. In truth, there is no shame so deadly as that which conscious guilt brings to the human soul. There is no degradation like vice - in fact, there is none other but vice. Hence many sinners are met with who do not turn to God and who hold back from confession and communion because they are ashamed and afraid. It is not so much love of sin as want of confidence that now hinders them. They have felt the force of passion as the slave feels the whip of the slave-driver; or they have repented before and fallen again, and this fills them with distrust in themselves; or their surroundings are a constant source of temptation; or they have been so long away that the very process of reconciliation to God, the very practice of the simplest acts of religion, have grown strange to them. These, and other reasons, varying from mere timidity to utter despair, show the need of a strong word of encouragement to sinners. This is the day for giving sinners courage to repent. Oh! let every man and woman partake of Christ's courage today. All who are sinners, let them loath and detest their sins, and let them feel that if our Lord is with them they can conquer any passion, resist any temptation, and persevere to the end.

The Procession in the Streets of Jerusalem by Jacques Tissot

"Hosanna to the Son of David."-St. Matt. xxi. 9.

"Today, my dear brethren, we are reminded of that hour in the life of our Lord on earth in which He was receiving from the people of His own nation all the honor they could render Him. He then entered the chosen city of God in triumph over all who had opposed Him. Thousands surrounded Him, went before Him and followed after Him. They paved the road before Him with their own clothing and with the branches of trees, that they might thus make His entry into Jerusalem as glorious as possible.

In a few days, when He had been arrested by His enemies, where was this great crowd? Where were those who had cried out so fervently, "Hosanna to the Son of David"? But few could there be found. The rest had either deserted Him or joined in with the crowd that mocked Him even while He was dying on the Cross. Nearly all had abandoned Him in the day of His adversity. The first test of their faith in Him, the first trial that proved the strength of their love for Him, found them entirely wanting in that characteristic of true love, fidelity to the end.

Is it impossible for us to do as they did? No; it is not impossible, for many who are Catholics born and bred do the same thing now.

But who are these? They are those who fail to keep the Ten Commandments of God and the precepts and laws of the Church. Every Catholic who breaks the Commandments of God and refuses to obey the laws of the Church does worse than those did who deserted our Lord when He was condemned and crucified. With their lips they declare they are Catholics, and in this way cry out "Hosanna to the Son of David," but in their hearts and lives they live and associate with the enemies of Christ.

But why are these men worse than the others? Simply because they received the graces of Christ in their baptism, in their confirmation, and in their First Communion, as well as in their many Communions thereafter. In Communion they receive our Lord Himself, the Lord of eternal glory who is eternal life itself. These have been, in truth, members of the kingdom of heaven, but have cast themselves out by not keeping the Commandments of God, by not obeying the laws of the Church. Truly does the Scripture say of many of them: "He that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.” For dead many of them are apparently-dead eternally. They seem to be in the spiritual slumber of eternal death. They appear to be eternally judged; their eternal fate already sealed.

Why do I say this? Because nothing can move their hearts to return to God. Missions, sermons, exhortations, threatenings, warnings, counsels, the prayers and entreaties of fathers, mothers, kindred, and friends are all unheeded by them, are all in vain. Even the tears of their fathers and mothers, and the blushes of shame whenever they are alluded to by friends, have no effect upon them, none whatever. They will not return to God.

Poor souls! Remember that whatever excuse you make to yourselves, this is true, that those who keep the Commandments and the laws of the Church show they are the true friends of our Lord; those who do not keep these show to all in heaven and earth that they are His enemies. We have but one sure and positive test of our love for our Lord. The Ten Commandments and the laws of the Church constitute that test. All who really love Him keep this faithfully. "If you love Me," said our Lord, "keep My commandments." All who do not love Him break them and disregard them. God Himself is not their friend. They have no part in the triumphs of our Lord on this day. It is true they cry out with us "Hosanna to the Son of David," but in their lives they side with His enemies and crucify our Lord.

What, then, is to be done? Let those who are faithful profit by the terrible examples of these abandoned souls. Let them dread and tremble lest they also be brought into the same state by their increasing tepidity and neglect. Let them care to secure to our Lord a complete triumph in their own souls that He may rule there in time and eternity. "The kingdom of God is within you,” said our Lord, and the Christian soul is truly the throne of God. None but faithful or truly repentant souls can cry out today, in all sincerity, "Hosanna to the Son of David." Palm Sunday -Five-minute Sermons by the Paulist Fathers 1893

The Merchants chased out of the Temple, Tissot

“But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple." -St. John viii. 59.

"We gather from the Gospels that our Divine Saviour frequented the Jewish Temple. Whenever He came to Jerusalem, His first visit was to the Temple, and while He remained in the City of Sion most of His time was passed in the Temple. This, the great sanctuary of the Old Dispensation, was, without doubt, the true Temple of God, and our Blessed Lord loved its courts; for here alone was His Heavenly Father truly known and glorified among men. And, although the Old Law was soon to be superseded by the New, and the Temple and its sacrifices were to pass away for ever, yet the Divine Redeemer jealously guarded its honor to the last. He could not tolerate the least irreverence or profanation within its sacred precincts.

If you recollect, the only time that our meek and gentle Lord gave way to angry indignation, and acted with downright severity, was when He found the buyers and sellers in the Temple. Inflamed with holy zeal at the sight of such profanation, He at once turned upon the sacrilegious traffickers and drove them and their wares out of the Temple, using a scourge and saying: "Take these things hence, and make not the house of My Father a house of traffic." Nor did they stand on the order of their going, for they recognized in the indignant countenance and commanding presence of Jesus Christ the manifestation of Divine displeasure.

Now, the attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ towards the old Jewish Temple teaches us two very important lessons-first, to love the House of God and to frequent it; and second, to behave with the greatest reverence within its walls. Surely the Lord of the Temple did not need to honor it. Yet, behold, His attachment for it, how often He visited it, and how incensed He was against all who profaned it! And if the sanctuary of the Old Law was so sacred in the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ, how much more so the sanctuaries of the New Law? Was it not said of Him that "zeal for God's house hath consumed Him?" And do we not find that those amongst us who have most of the Spirit of Christ imitate Him in this also? Good Christians love the House of God; they visit it often, and they are full of reverence for it. While, on the other hand, there is no more infallible sign of a coarse and tepid Christian spirit than irreverence in the Temple of God. People whom you see enter the church laughing and talking, have little or no sense of worship; they come rather for appearance' sake, like the Sadducees of old.

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

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

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.

Every act of neglect of God's service, every evasion of His law, is always an act of injustice. Every sin has, besides its specific malice, the malice of injustice. Every idler in the vineyard of the Lord is in a state of sin; if he says that he has not been hired, he is a liar. God hires every man who comes into this world.

Besides the claim God has on us in justice, He has also a claim on our service by reason of the Redemption. We belong to Him because of the price He has paid for our salvation. "He has redeemed us at the price of His Precious Blood." Justice makes us serve Him, but higher than justice is the claim of love. And His Love constrains us to obey Him. Love makes Him sovereign Lord and Master. We belong neither to the world, nor to the devil, nor to ourselves: we owe nothing to them; we owe everything to Him whose love for us has moved Him to buy us with His blood. And so it is, my brethren, that every act of rebellion against God's law is always an act of ingratitude as well as injustice; every sin, besides its special malice, has the malice of injustice and ingratitude.

What pitiful, what hardened creatures we are when we forget these plain truths: when we act as though we were a law unto ourselves, and practically act as though we are responsible to no one. How dull is our sense of justice, how hardened is our heart when we can forget or ignore God and the claims He has upon us. We let the devil rule us, we make passion our master, we lift up self in place of God.

Are there any amongst us here this morning who have forgotten what they owe to God? Are there any whose years of sin and neglect of God have made them so deaf that they cannot hear His call to them; who do not know that their place is in His vineyard? To such as these does God now say, "Why stand you idle?" You who have wasted the morning, the noon, perhaps the evening of life in idleness, in sin; "go you into my vineyard"; there is still a chance for you to redeem the wasted time. Wake up out of your lethargy. Shake off the stupor that unhallowed pleasure and secret sin have cast over you. Smash the chains that have bound you to the service of the devil, the slavery that has smothered within you every instinct of justice, every worthy prompting of the heart, every noble aim in life. "Why stand you here idle?" This is the call of God to you. Go you into the vineyard of His service. What though for years you have neglected His call, His mercy is still near you, and He will pay you what is just— will pay you with life eternal.

We are now on the threshold of Lent - the special season of prayer and penance. Be no longer idle. Enter upon God's service with courage, with honest zeal, with firm hope in God's mercy. Begin at once - begin with a good confession. God is now calling you; for many of you it is even now the eleventh hour; for many of you this call may be the last."

Source: Five minutes sermons for Low Masses for every Sundays of the Year by the Priests of the Congregation of Saint Paul 1893