On The Holy Apostles
FORTY-THIRD SERMON
ON THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL.
Subject.
1. The repentance of St. Peter puts many sinners to shame. 2. The zeal of St. Paul puts many just to shame. Preached on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul.
Text.
"And going forth, he wept bitterly." (Matt 26:75)
"The charity of Christ presseth us." (2 Cor 5:14)
Introduction.
To-day I am obliged to use a twofold text, as it is my intention to sound the praises of the two greatest apostles in this sermon. The first text represents the bitter tears of repentance shed by St. Peter: " Going forth, he wept bitterly." The other refers to St. Paul, whose love of God allowed him to enjoy neither rest nor ease. "The charity of Christ presseth us." In both we find much worthy of imitation; the one being an example for sinners, the other for the just. In the first we see a wonderful spirit of repentance for past sins; in the other a wonderful zeal for the honor of Our Lord. This sermon shall be a panegyric of both those apostles, and at the same time show how their conduct puts many Christians to shame. Namely:
Plan of Discourse.
The repentance of St. Peter puts many sinners to shame: the first part. The zeal of St. Paul puts many just to shame: the second part.
Jesus Christ, whom with Thy apostles we all acknowledge to be the Son of the living God, look on me and all sinners with those eyes with which Thou didst look on Peter, so that, like him, we may weep bitterly for our sins; inflame our hearts with that fire which Thou didst kindle in St. Paul, that with him we may in future love Thee zealously above all things! This we humbly beg of Thee through Mary, the Queen of the apostles, and the intercession of our holy guardian angels. SS. Peter and Paul, lend me some of your zeal and spirit, that I may announce your praise to our own confusion and salutary amendment!
That unhappy night had arrived in which Christ was brought as a prisoner to the house of Caiphas; Peter alone of all the disciples, fearing for himself, yet ashamed also of having run away, and influenced, moreover, by his great love for his divine Master, followed Him at a distance and ventured into the court of the high-priest to see how things would go on. Ah, Peter! it had been better for thee to have remained with the others than to have followed thy divine Master as thou didst, and cause Him such pain. A. servant-maid was the first occasion of his shameful fall. " The maid, therefore, that was portress saith to Peter: Art not thou also one of this Man's disciples? " And Peter answered: " I know not what thou sayest." He was again asked if he was not one of the disciples, and he replied with an oath that he knew not the Man. A third time the same question was put to him: " Surely thou art one of them; for thou art also a Galilean. But he began to curse and to swear, saying: I know not this Man of whom you speak." Peter! here exclaims St. Augustine, where is now the courage with which thou didst dare the whole band of soldiers, and draw thy sword in defence of thy Master? Where are thy words: " I will lay down my life for Thee"? Yet no fetters bind thee, nor art thou threatened with imprisonment and death. The voice of a poor servant was enough to fill thee with terror and utterly prostrate thee! Dost thou not know the Man? Hast thou not already acknowledged Him to be the Son of God? And dost thou now say: I know Him not? See, my dear brethren, how easy it is to make a poor weak mortal forget himself and his God! There we have the sin of Peter; now let us see how he did penance.
Hardly had the crowing of the cock reminded him of his fault, and called to his heart, as the voice of God formerly did to Cain, "What hast thou done?" when he began to shed bitter tears of sorrow: "And going forth, he wept bitterly," filled with contrition at the thought of having been so ungrateful to his best Friend, his dearest Master. Unhappy me! he must have sighed forth, how can I live any longer, since I have denied life Him self? How can the earth support me, since I have offended its Maker? wicked mouth, how could st thou have opened to dare to assert on oath that thou knowest not Him who did thee so much good? accursed tongue, how couldst thou have so far perjured thyself as to deny Him, who a short time before had fed thee with His body and blood? grief! sorrow! Come, ye tears, and overwhelm me; I give myself up to ye completely! And, as the interpreters of the sacred Scriptures say, so great was Peter's sorrow that he hid away and spent in tears the whole time that elapsed until the resurrection of Christ. But this was not enough; he spent all the remainder of his life in constant penance for this one sin. St. Clement, his disciple, tells us that whenever he heard the cock crow, by day or night, he would prostrate himself on the ground and weep bitterly, so that his cheeks were furrowed by the unceasing flow of tears. His food, as St. Gregory Nazianzen says, consisted of nothing but bitter peas; his life was spent in unceasing toil, wandering throughout the world, suffering imprisonment and persecution, in satisfaction for his sin, until his martyrdom on the cross, on which he wished to be nailed with his head downwards, thinking himself unworthy to die like Christ, his divine Master. Just reason indeed, penitent apostle! just reason hadst thou to bewail bitterly thy sin; but, alas, how the consideration of thy long and painful repentance fills me with consternation and fear!
What sayest thou to this, my soul? Where are ye now, ye men who are fellow-sinners of mine? "Peter was allowed to deny, and to sin," says St. Chrysostom, "that he might give to all sinners the example of true penance." I need not search long to find sins and sinners; there are only too many of them who have imitated Peter in his untruthfulness and sin; but where are the tears? where the contrition and sorrow, after the example of Peter? We sin with Peter, not merely once, nor thrice, but almost every hour and moment; but we hardly weep with Peter even once.. Is it not so, my dear brethren? What do we do when we sin. Hear what St. Augustine says: " We deny Christ as often as we commit sin." For as the just confess Christ before the world by keeping the commandments, by doing good works and fulfilling the will of God, so sinners deny Christ by despising His commandments, disobeying His will, and dishonoring Him. " They profess that they know God," says the Apostle, "but in their works they deny Him." Tell me, sinner! you acknowledge God as your sovereign Lord, whom you are bound to obey in all things; you believe that in your heart, and say it with your mouth; but what do your actions say? If an object agreeable to the senses is proposed to you, and you accept it against the divine law, you say, by your actions, with Peter, I know Him not; I do not now acknowledge Christ as my Master: who has a right to command me? I will not do as He wishes, but as I myself choose. You acknowledge and believe that God is the sovereign Good, and is therefore worthy of all honor and in finite love; but when you love a creature against His law, what else do you do, but say with Peter: I know Him not; I do not acknowledge Him as my sovereign Good; I love something that seems to me better, more beautiful, more deserving of love? You acknowledge and believe that Jesus is your Redeemer and Saviour, who has suffered so much and died on the cross for you, and therefore deserves the most heartfelt gratitude from you; but what do you say by your actions, when you commit sin? I know not the Man; I do not now look on Him as my greatest friend and benefactor, for I do not hesitate to insult and offend Him. You acknowledge and believe that God is a strict judge, who knows how to punish wickedness with the greatest severity; but you go on heaping sin on sin with the utmost carelessness, as if there were neither heaven nor hell; what else does that mean but- I know Him not; I care not for His strictness and justice? You acknowledge and believe that wherever you are walking, standing, lying down,, by day or night your God is always with you, looking at all your thoughts, words, and actions; and yet you think and say and do things that you would shrink from doing before any decent man, nay, even before a vile beg gar; what else is that but saying by your actions: I know Him not; I do not care for His presence; I will do what I please in spite of it? What do you believe of Him who is in the church, present in the Blessed Sacrament? Do you know who He is? Yes, your tongue says, with Peter: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God! But what is the language of your actions? of your want of reverence, your dissolute laughter, your talking, staring about, indecent looks and gestures, and unbecoming salutations? Do these show that you believe in a God really present, that God before whom all in heaven, on earth, and under the earth must bend the knee in awe? By your actions you say: I know Him not; for you would show more respect to any decent man of the world. Thus many Christians profess with their lips that they know God, but in their works they deny Him.
And what was the occasion of the denial of Peter? His excessive fear of being apprehended and put to death; the company of the servants of the high-priest brought him to lying, perjury, false swearing, and cursing. vain fear! human respect! wicked dread, I will not say of death, but of some trifling loss! of a slight punishment, of a hard word, an unkind look, the displeasure of one's master, or losing the favor of some mortal, what evil thou dost cause in the world nowadays! How many a one dost thou not bring so far that he thinks more of his parents, his children, his friends, than of his great and sovereign God, most worthy of all love? How often is not God offended and insulted for the sake of pleasing the former? How often is not good omitted and evil of all sorts committed through fear of displeasing one's fellow-man, of incurring the anger of a master, of troubling a beloved person? In a word, the fear of men or of temporal misfortune makes people sin recklessly; they prefer to have God as their enemy than to lose the friendship of men; as if God had done us no good, could do us no harm! " Who looked upon the Almighty as if He could do nothing;" although, according to the words of Christ, He has in His hands a power not possessed by any man or potentate in the world; for He it is that " can destroy both soul and body into hell." (Matt 10:28) treacherous company! baleful occasion! were it not for you many thieves would not have denied justice, many of both sexes would not have denied purity, many would not have denied decency and honesty, and many hundred thousand sins would have been removed from the world! Poor weak mortal, why shouldst thou vaunt of the firmness of thy purpose, of thy good resolution? How little it takes to weaken thee, to upset thy reason and common sense, and turn thee from the path of rectitude! For it is not necessary that one should threaten thee with the sword or the gallows; nor that the evil one should put forth all his power to tempt thee by offering thee all the goods of the world, as he did to Our Lord: " All these will I give Thee;" the company of a single person, a vile servant, a mean portress, a poor mortal, a look, a caress can, and, if you are not careful, will bring you so far as to make you forget your God, sacrifice heaven, lose your soul, and become a wicked, unchaste, vindictive, perjured man. Would to God that experience had not taught us only too clearly the truth of this in the case of so many unhappy souls! Thus we sin with Peter; I acknowledge it, and the consciences of most men will upbraid them with this truth. And would that we had only sinned thrice, like Peter nay, that we had not exceeded the hundreth or the thousandth time!
Meanwhile, what is the worst of all, where are our tears of repentance? where our sincere contrition and satisfaction? When Peter was reminded of his fall by the crowing of the cock he sins, for we did not lose a moment, but at once left the company that had led him into sin, and went and did penance. How often does the cock crow for you, sinner! for what else is the voice of conscience? what else the divine inspirations? what else the exhortations of preachers in the pulpit, which St. Gregory well likens to the crowing of the cock? What else do all these say, but: sinner! arise; you have sinned enough; you have of ten enough denied your God! Leave that occasion, give back that unjustly acquired property, be reconciled with your enemy; go at once and do penance, otherwise you are lost forever! And what notice do you take of these exhortations? Let who will exhort and cry out to you, you remain seated in the house of Caiphas, with the maid at the fire-place, in impurity, in your old inveterate bad habits, from day to day, from year to year. I will do penance, you say, but not now. When, then? Oh, later on! Later on! Many a one has been brought to the fire of hell by those words. Later on! the seed and origin of all misfortune. Later on! how long is that for many souls, who keep putting off repentance from day to day, and at last find themselves at the gate of eternity, when repentance is of no avail!
"Man passeth as an image," says David; like a shadow or a picture. These words are understood by St. Basil of those sinners who always defer repentance, and never carry out their good resolutions. Look at the pictures in your room; here you see a man holding up his hand to strike his enemy; there kneels a St. Jerome about to beat his breast with a stone; there is a St. Francis with a discipline; a St. Augustine with a pen; come to-morrow, or in a year's time, and you will find them all in the same posture, still about to do the same things; the man will still raise his hand to strike, Jerome raises his with the stone, Francis, with the discipline, Augustine, with the pen. How long have they been doing that? Twenty, thirty years, as long as the pictures are in existence; nor will they cease while a shred of the painting holds together; yet in all that time the sword never touched the enemy, the stone of Jerome never bruised his breast, nor the discipline of Francis his back, nor did the pen of Augustine touch the paper. And how could it be otherwise, for they are but lifeless pictures? " Man passeth as an image." Many a sinner passes through life like the picture. How long now is it since you opened your mouth to say: I will go to confession; I will amend my life? How long since you raised your hand and thought to yourself: I will make restitution of that ill-gotten property? How long since you resolved to leave that house, that company? It is now a year, and may be many years, since you made up your mind to do those things, and they still remain undone; you are just as you were long ago; you are immovable, like the lifeless picture; your desires for better things were only empty and inefficacious; you did not repent in reality.
Bitterly and with many thousand tears did Peter bewail his threefold sin. How do we act? Ah, would that we had even one tear of sincere repentance for a hundred or a thousand sins when we enter the confessional! confessions of Christians, how different ye are! They all cry: Peccavi! I have sinned! I have sinned! I am heartily sorry! But how many who come with that degree of contrition and repentance are rejected by God! If repentance consisted only in the words uttered by the mouth,, in the ordinary prayers read out of the book,, then I could find vast numbers of true penitents. But sorrow for sin does not consist in words, but in the heart; and as many penitents are not truly contrite of heart, it follows that their sorrow is not earnest, but only apparent , and of no value in the sight of God as far as forgiveness is concerned. Peter, after he had repented of his sin, never again during his life did anything to cause him to repent. But how do matters stand with us in this respect? When, as we imagine, one sin of ours is blotted out in confession we at once set about committing another; and we keep on alternating between confession and sin, sin and confession, thus progressing still farther on the downward path of wickedness, until at last the hour of death comes and we are not able to sin any more.
During his life Peter never ceased to deplore his fault, and to our repent, do penance for it; but you, sinner! who have offended you r but a short God perhaps many hundred times, and denied Him, how long time, do you bewail and do penance for your crimes? I have confessed them, you say. And is that enough? Where is the satisfaction for the punishment you owe to God for your sins? I have performed the penance enjoined on me; my mind is at rest; I need not bother any further. Yet reflect a moment; if your confession is good, and the guilt of your sins remitted, what must you do to satisfy for all the punishment that still remains due to you? There is no other alternative; you must either punish yourself, or God will punish you, as St. Augustine says. Consider whether the laws of decency and gratitude do not require you to try to atone, by leading a strict and holy life, for the insults you have offered the Almighty? And for what are you keeping your tears, if they are not to be shed for your past sins? If a temporal calamity overtakes you you are troubled and you weep. Ah, have you not caused yourself a calamity great enough when you sinned, and by sin lost God, your soul, heaven and all, and that, too, not once, but often? And is this less to be deplored than a temporal misfortune, which all your tears cannot avert, after all? Your wife, husband, child, friend dies; you weep; but what good does that do? Can your tears call the loved one back? You have suffered some loss in your property; you weep; does that make the loss good? You have many trials and crosses to bear; you sigh and moan; does that lessen what you have to suffer? See how uselessly we squander our tears on things of hardly any importance, which cannot be avoided or remedied by all our weeping. On the other hand, if by tears of true repentance we seek to regain the lost favor of the Almighty, to extinguish the fire of hell, to escape all other chastisements, and to make good all the harm and mischief done by sin, we shall certainly succeed; and yet to gain all this one tear seems too precious, an unnecessary, a superfluous trouble. "I have sinned," we exclaim, "and what harm hath befallen me?" I have offended God grossly and grievously; but what of that? I have lost heaven; but what does that matter to me? I have incurred such heavy debts by my sins; but they do not trouble me; I will pay them all in eternity. I do not wish to speak of those sinners of whom the wise Solomon says: "Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things; " who, instead of bewailing their sins, like the penitent Peter, make a boast of them. How lucky I was the other day! says the unjust man; I made all that money. What a pleasant day I had! says the sensual man; I was completely drunk. What a gratification it was for me to be revenged on my enemy! says the vindictive man. What a fine opportunity I had of gratifying my passions! says the unchaste man. "They are glad when they have done evil." Oh, truly, their joy is a devilish one; they rejoice at what might with good reason make them shed tears of blood!
O penance! what a glory and honor for thee, St. Peter! what a shame and terror for us sinners! penitent, and therefore
most glorious apostle, obtain from Our Lord for me and all sinners thy contrite heart, thy sorrowful soul, thy weeping eyes,
that we who have offended our God not less, but even more than thou hast, may, like thee, at once do true and heartfelt penance, leave sin and its occasions forever, and never cease till death to bewail our sins, and to weep for the insults we have offered the Almighty, so that we may love Him constantly till the end! I go on to the other source of confusion for those of us who are just, namely, the great apostle of the nations, St. Paul.
Second Part.
When I name St. Paul I speak of one whose like the world has seldom seen; he was a vessel filled with the love of God and of his neighbor; nay, as St. Chrysostom says, he was all pure charity: "As the iron," such are the words of Chrysostom, " when placed in the fire, becomes all fire, so Paul, inflamed with charity, became all charity." great St. Paul, to attempt to portray that charity I should have thy mind and tongue to give even a slight sketch of the height of divine love to which thou didst ascend! Do you wish, my dear brethren, to know some thing of the love St. Paul had? Read the epistles he has left us, in which you will find as many glowing arrows of love as there are words. " As often as I read St. Paul," exclaims St. Jerome, " I seem to hear not words, but claps of thunder; " a thunderbolts inflamed with the zealous love of God. But why do I refer to his words? Love does not consist in words, but is shown especially by actions. He might have said a hundred times with the lips, " the charity of Christ presseth us," and it would have mattered little if he had not shown his love in action; for, as St. Gregory says, " the proof of love is in the fulfilment of the work." St. Chrysostom, otherwise so eloquent, acknowledges his utter incapacity for the task when he comes to speak of the charitable works of St. Paul. Where, he asks, is there a place in the world, a sea, a people that has not experienced his charity? " He went through all the regions of earth, as if he had been a spirit freed from the trammels of the flesh," in order to further the glory of God.
If love is proved by many difficulties and trials, Paul might By bearing appeal to all the tribulations that could possibly assail him from heaven, earth, and even hell. Hear how he, as it were, defies them sake, all: " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? In all these things we overcome because of Him that hath loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, Our Lord." Where are ye, then, miseries of this life? Hunger, thirst, poverty, persecution, martyrdom, torments, sickness, fire and sword, demons from hell, that have cowed so many thousands, and taken the heart from them; that have put to flight so many otherwise valiant heroes, and brought them to despair, terror, and apostasy; the bare imagination of which causes so many to shed tears, and makes them shudder with apprehension; where are ye? Have you lost your power? Is your strength gone? Come now and set on Paul, and show what you can do! And indeed these calamities did attack him, as he himself says: "Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffet ed; we are reviled; we are persecuted; we are blasphemed; we are made as the refuse of this world, the oft-scouring of all, even until now." " Our flesh had no rest, but we suffered all tribulation; combats without, fears within." " In many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren. In labor and painfulness, in much watchings," and so on. But what have you gained with all your raging and storming? You have not forced a tear from his eye, a sigh from his heart. Hear how little he thinks of you, how he laughs at you: "We glory also in tribulations." "I am filled with comfort, I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation." His love of Christ was so great, says St. Chrysostom, that he only made fun of difficulties, and looked on all tyrants as so many grasshoppers; bruises and buffetings he regarded no more than fly-blows; pain, suffering, and death seemed to him a desirable reward: " To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Come, then, world, with thy caresses, by which thou dost take so many away from the love of God! Show to Paul all thou canst give him, take from him all thou mayest, and what does it all matter to him? Even as much as if thou hadst given to or taken from him a handful of filth: "I count all things to be but loss, for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things; and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ."
O charity of the Apostle! shame of modern Christians! Hear, my dear brethren, how he invites us to imitate him: " I beseech you, be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ." And again: " Be ye as I." great Saint, cease those exhortations, otherwise thou wilt reduce us to faintness and despair! Must we all be like thee? love like thee? bear trials and difficulties like thee? Ah, some art would be required for that! We are altogether too delicate for such a mode of life! If you invited us into the third heaven, there to behold the joys that no eye has seen, nor ear heard of, we might perhaps endeavor to follow thee at once; but we are not at all ready to take on our shoulders the crosses thou hadst to bear. Oh, how tepid the love of God in the hearts of us men nowadays! How far different we are from our forefathers! Nor am I speaking now of what the children of the world love against the law of God; I am speaking of just and pious souls, who think they are doing wonders for God's sake. The proof of love does not consist in words, in long prayers, but, as we have seen already, in the performance of works. Where are our works that resemble those of Paul? Alas, in vain do I seek for them! A hand lifted up to heaven, a penny given to a poor man, rising an hour earlier than usual in the morning, going a few steps distant to visit a church, hearing the word of God for an hour, giving a fast day or a day of devotion to God alone, bearing a word of insult or suffering a slight injury for God's sake even that much seems a great deal to us.
No creature could separate Paul from the love of God. Alas, any creature that attracts our attention brings our hearts and thoughts away with it! the smallest thing can make our charity cold and tepid, and even lead us into mortal, or at least deliberate venial sin. Which of us would dare to challenge all the trials of life as St. Paul did? Oh, no! keep off; we have too much of you as it is! Persecution, tyranny, imprisonment, stripes, stonings, sword and death, keep away from us! We do not desire you, as Paul did. Would that we could even bear our daily trials with more patience for God's sake! Every little annoyance makes us cross, every sickness makes us impatient, every insult arouses our anger, every loss troubles us, every misfortune disturbs our reason, poverty depresses, the death of a friend fills us with grief, every trial makes us desperate, so that we refuse to be comforted; in a word, all trials are hateful to us, and thus we show how cold is our love of God. The love of God made Paul forget himself, and speak of nothing, know nothing, think of nothing but Christ, his love; his mind was always with Christ in heaven, and he wore himself away in the service of God on earth: " Our conversation is in heaven." "I judged not my self to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." On the other hand, our hearts are fixed to earth, our thoughts are for the greater part occupied with worldly things, and even in prayer we know nothing of Christ sometimes.
The love of God made Paul to suffer with those that were sick, to be in trouble with the afflicted, to be poor with the poor, to be, as it were, ignorant with the ignorant, to be all things to all men, to be the servant and slave of all. " Whereas I was free as to all, I made myself the servant of all, that I might gain the more. I became all things to all men, that I might save all." Nay, so great was his love for God that he was willing to suffer the great est evils, even for his worst enemies and persecutors, if he could only thereby convert and bring them to heaven: " I wished my self to be an anathema from Christ for my brethren." It was harder for his love, says St. Chrysostom, to see others lose their souls than for himself to be damned, without any fault of his own, so eager was he that God might be blessed by many souls during eternity. How is it with our love of our neighbor in this respect? Those who are according to our own heart and inclination, who do us no harm, but always please us these we love; these we willingly associate with and do good to. But there is no great skill required for that; heathens and Turks, nay, cats and dogs, can do as much. But where is our love for our enemies? Is there one towards whom we have a natural dislike, whose way of acting does not chime in with our humor, who has injured or spoken ill of us? Him we do not wish to see or hear; his society we avoid; with him we can have nothing to do; although the law of God commands us to love our worst enemy even as ourselves, and to treat him as we love him. charity of Paul! I must again exclaim. shame of modern Christians! We are in the number of those of whom them hast said: Having an appearance, indeed, of godliness, but denying the power thereof; " we carry love on our lips, but have little of it in our hearts.
I conclude, my dear brethren, with the words of St. John Chrysostom: "You are no better than Paul or Peter. If you wish to gain the same reward as they did, why do you go by a different way to that travelled by them?" a Were not those holy apostles men like us? As far as the sinner is concerned, there is no other way for him but, with Peter, to repent of and do penance for his sins; otherwise he can have no hope of eternal happiness. And as for the just, they must persevere in the love of God and their neighbor; otherwise they will not enter heaven. I dare not and will not say that we must be as earnest and zealous as St. Paul in the love of God and our neighbor; otherwise wo to me! But that we may not go away without some fruit and comfort, we shall at least learn this lesson from the panegyric of that great Saint: that no matter how holy and pious we seem to be, we must always preserve ourselves in humility before God and men by remembering how small and mean our virtues are, compared to the wonderful virtues of St. Paul. If we cannot, like him, be inflamed with such a perfect love of God that no creature can interfere with it, let us at least love our God so constantly as never to consent to mortal sin for the sake of any creature. If we cannot love like Paul, whose heart and mind were always in heaven with God, let us at least so love as never to give place deliberately to unlawful thoughts and desires, and often during the day direct our thoughts, words,, and actions to God by the good intention. If our love of God is not so great that, like Paul, we wish and desire, as it were, to endure all the torments and tribulations of the world, let us at all events so love as to bear with patience for God's sake those daily trials and troubles that we have to suffer, and which we can not avoid in any case. If we cannot, with Paul, roam the world through love of our neighbor, and convert many souls by our preaching, let us at least bring to God, by our good example, paternal care, and Christian training, the servants and children committed to our charge, and teach them to fear and love God. If we cannot and will not, with Paul, sacrifice our health, our well- being and profit, nay, our own soul, for the good of our neighbor, let us at all events love all our brethren, look on all as our brothers and sisters, and help the poor and needy according to our means. Then we shall have derived fruit enough from this sermon. Yes, Lord, such shall be now the resolution of one and all of us! I and all sinners will do penance with Thy servant Peter, and we shall spend the days of our lives in bewailing our past sins! I, along with all the just, if I may count myself among them, will endeavor to follow Thy servant Paul at least at a distance, and so love Thee, my God, above till things that no sin shall ever again separate me from Thy grace and friendship. Amen.