To Thee be praise; to Thee be honor; to Thee be glory; to Thee be thanksgiving, forever and ever, O most blessed Trinity!


FIFTH SUNDAY after PENTECOST

ISSUES 

VOL. 4 = THE CHRISTIAN’S STATE OF LIFE
Sermon by Fr. Francis Hunolt

SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The Usefulness of Alms-Giving For the Temporal Welfare of Parents and Children

From whence can any one fill them here with bread in the wilderness.”— St. Mark 8: 4.

Thus did the disciples speak to Christ. We are nearly in the same position. We are bound by the divine and natural law to help the poor and needy with alms. How can we help them all, is the question that some ask; there are such numbers of poor nowadays. And so none of them are helped. The question of others is: Who can give alms in the desert? That is, in such bad times that one has enough to do to provide for himself? And thus very little Christian mercy is shown to the poor, or it is not shown as generously as it should be. That is a clear sign of a want of faith and confidence in the providence, power, and goodness of God. But almsgiving does not lessen, but increases our wealth.

If you have many children and a small income, yet you can, and even must, give generous alms to the poor; for thereby your worldly possessions will be increased in this life.

A merchant gives up his business because he has a large family, and he wishes to keep his money; you tell him there are many rich people who are willing to borrow from him at five per cent interest, and to give him security worth ten times the money advanced to them; but he is not moved. He sticks to his former resolution, and says: I will keep my money to support myself and my children, and I will leave them what is over after my death; otherwise I might lose all and become poor. But you would say to him, have you lost your wits? What is the good of allowing your money to lie idle in your coffers? It will grow less every day, and never increase. Lend it at interest, and it will bring in more for you every year. Invest it, if you want to make anything for yourself and your children; for in twenty years you will receive the whole value of your capital in interest alone, and your heirs can receive five per cent for it after your death. What is your opinion of this man? Do you think he acts for the best interests of his children?

But you must form the same opinion of those who are hard and stingy toward the poor, on the pretext that they want their money and bread for their children and their families. What is an alms given to the poor? It is the seed that is cast into fruitful ground, and brings in a hundred-fold. What is an alms? It is money lent at interest, nay, even a divine interest, which returns, not five for a hundred, but a hundred for five. “He that hath mercy on the poor lendeth to the Lord” (Prov. 19: 17).

It is God, the Owner of all things, who comes to you in the person of the beggar and the poor man; it is God who takes the alms from you, as a capital borrowed at interest, nay, at usurious interest. Could you find a richer, safer, or more faithful Lord to whom to lend it? Could you have the least fear of being at a loss through him? Can any one be richer than he, of whom God says that he is his Debtor? Do you, perhaps, doubt that? Certainly you do not see the person of God marked on the poor man’s forehead. But hear what the Lord says: “Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me” (St. Matthew 25: 40); and what you refused them, you refused me.

Christ is in want when you see a poor person; it is Christ who is hungry and thirsty, who is a beggar and naked. He stretches out his hand for an alms, and even if you give him only a penny, a piece of dry bread, or a drop of cold water, he will not refuse it, but will receive it with gratitude.

Jesus Christ cries out at your door: Give an alms, for God’s sake, to this poor man; I will take it from you by his hand. I do not ask from you as much as I have given you. I have shed every drop of my Blood for you, and all I ask of you in return is to give a drink of water to my brethren when they are thirsty. I give you my Body as your food, and I will be satisfied with a piece of bread from you, when my brethren are hungry. I have freed you from the prison of hell, and now I ask you to visit and console me when my brethren are in prison. I have saved you from death, and given you life; do you in turn visit me when my brethren are sick. How powerful with God is the love of the poor, or rather the pleasure he has in almsgiving! “God rejoices in heaven” when a poor man receives a piece of bread on earth, although the poor man is filled with shame at receiving it.

I am not surprised, now, that there were kings and queens who visited on foot the poorest of the sick, fed, washed, and attended to them with their own hands, and served them even on bended knees. Nor am I astonished that many other persons of high position were not ashamed to walk publicly through the streets carrying in their hands a napkin containing food and drink from their own table, that they were bringing to the sick poor; nay, that they were not ashamed to beg for the poor from door to door.

If we had only a little real faith, if we could only see, as they did, what a great Lord is concealed under the persons of the poor, we should not wonder at all this! And who amongst you, if he saw Christ himself standing at the door begging for alms, would not look upon it as the greatest honor and happiness to give him what he would ask for?

He would even share the last piece of bread, the last penny in the house with his Redeemer. Nor would he allow a servant to do it; he would run at once to the door himself and bareheaded, and with the greatest respect would give his alms to Christ. Is there one amongst you who would send Christ away from his door, with the customary “God help you,” under the pretence that he cannot afford to give alms, or that he wants all he has for himself? I do not think that any Christian could be so hard-hearted. And yet our faith assures us that Christ comes in the person of the poor, and that he receives whatever is given to them. Who, then, should not joyfully embrace every occasion of giving alms that presents itself?

Listen, now, ye of little faith, who are hard and stingy to the poor, through fear of being at a loss by them! “He that hath mercy on the poor lendeth to the Lord, and he will repay him” (Prov. 19: 17). “He that is inclined to mercy shall be blessed; for of his bread he hath given to the poor” (Prov. 22: 9). “He that giveth to the poor shall not want” (Ibid. 28: 27). “Honor the Lord with thy substance; and thy barn shall be filled with abundance, and thy presses shall run over with wine” (Prov. 3: 9). “Give, and it shall be given to you” (St. Luke 6: 38). What shall be given to you? “Good measure, and pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall they give into your bosom.”

Could any promise be plainer or more certain than this? I need not go any farther, for we have experience itself before our eyes to convince us, if we only wish to learn from it. Tell me, have you ever heard any one complain of being poorer, or of having greater difficulty in providing for his children, on account of alms-giving?

Go through the whole world, ask, if you can, all the poor, what is the cause of their poverty. Do you think you will find a single one who has been reduced to poverty through practicing the works of mercy? You will find illustrious houses decayed; respectable families ruined; those who inherited great wealth now begging their bread; but I need not tell you why. Nay, many a one is reduced to poverty by the very means that he used with a view of enriching himself. But I never hear of any one becoming poor through alms-giving. Show me a single instance in which a prudent man can complain that he has been deceived in this respect; show me, if you can, children who have been impoverished by the charities of their parents.

On the contrary, I can tell you of numberless cases in which temporal goods have been increased even miraculously, and without the possessor’s knowledge, in the hands of those who gave charity to the poor. Do you wish to hear of miracles? I venture to say that at all times, almost, and in all places, mira­cles have happened on account of generous alms-giving! Read the Lives of the Saints, and you will find instances enough in which they, after having given away all they had to the poor, have sometimes found their barns full of corn, their cellars full of wine, and at other times their coffers full of money, although they knew that a short time before they had neither corn, wine, nor money.

It is related in the life of St. Germanus that when he once met some beggars on a journey he told his deacon to share amongst them all the money he had left, which consisted of three dollars. The deacon, not wishing to give it all away, kept one piece back and divided the other two amongst the beggars. On the same evening Germanus received two hundred dollars as a present. See he said to the deacon, let this be a warning to you to lay aside your avarice and to put your trust in God; you have not done faithfully what I told you to do today; if you had kept back nothing we should now be a hundred dollars richer, and should have received three hundred instead of two.

But, you think, these are miraculous things that happen only to holy people! But, I say they are miracles that occur almost daily, as they who are constantly charitable to the poor experience, for they are blessed in a special, though natural manner. For instance, they get a legacy that they never dreamt of. Their business prospers, or they are freed from losses and misfortunes. They recover lost goods, or get back what was taken from them unjustly, and so, in different ways that they hardly notice, God rewards them for their charity to the poor. Yes, alms-giving is the most profitable business! Nor can it be otherwise: our God is most faithful, and the promises he makes on this head are plain enough. Even if that were not the case, he is most noble and generous, and will not allow any man to outdo him in generosity. If you do not believe me, try it yourselves. Engage in that business for a time, with a lively confidence that God will repay you with interest. “Try me in this, saith the Lord, if I open not unto you the flood-gates of heaven, and pour you out a blessing even to abundance” (Malach 3).

But if you do not wish to try it, and if you reject my proposal through fear that you and yours might suffer loss thereby and be brought to poverty, then I tell you, in the name and on the infallible authority of God himself, that you can find no more certain means of incurring the danger you dread—that is, of suffering losses and poverty—than by being hard-hearted or niggardly toward the poor. “He that giveth to the poor, shall not want; he that despiseth his entreaty, shall suffer indigence” (Prov. 28: 29).

Sometimes people wonder and complain that with all their labor and trouble they cannot get on; that they fail in business, and suffer losses and misfortunes. How does that happen? I could easily discover the cause of it with some. I should ask them: Are you generous to the poor? Oh, they would say, how can we give much? We want all we have for ourselves. See, that is the reason of it all. When people are niggardly toward God, and refuse to give a penny to a poor man, they lose elsewhere, through the hidden decrees of the Almighty, much more than they save. There can be no luck nor grace where the poor are sent away empty-handed: “He that despiseth his entreaty shall suffer indigence.”

What becomes of your excuses now, Christian parents? You say: I have a large family and a small income, and I cannot give alms. What, have you many children? Then you are in all the greater need of prosperity and temporal wealth and blessings, in order to support and provide for them; is it not so? Invest a part of what you have, so that it may bring you in good interest. You do that sometimes, in spite of your large family, with men who can deceive you.

Do you think that God is not able to repay you, if you give your money to him in the persons of his poor? Does he, who is the Creator and Lord of all things, who has so often and so solemnly promised to reward you a hundredfold for your charity and generosity, enjoy less credit with you than a mere mortal? Could you place a better Guardian and Father over your children than the Almighty God? Do you think that he cannot, or will not, protect you and yours, although he protects the ravens and the sparrows, that reap not? Give to God generously in the persons of his poor. “Make over to him the property that you are keeping for your heirs. Let him be the Guardian and Protector for your children.

The inheritance that is protected by God is in safety. That is the way to provide for your children’s future.” Have you two children? Then, according to St. Augustine’s advice, adopt Jesus Christ as the third, and feed him at your table. What an honor it will be for you to be the foster-father of the Son of God, to whom you owe every­thing! What a happiness for your children to have Jesus Christ as their companion, and to be his brothers and sisters by a new title! Do not turn him away; give him to eat and drink, as if he were really amongst the number of your children. It is not necessary for you to give all you have to the poor, and to keep nothing for yourself. But let Christ have his share. “That is the way to provide for your children’s future.” Only try it; I assure you, nay, God assures you, that neither you nor yours will suffer any loss by it. The saying still remains true: “Alms-giving never brings poverty. It is the most profitable business of all.”

I am ashamed to think that I must exhort Christians to be charitable to the poor, by such a wretched motive as temporal gain; as if I wished to make alms-giving a sort of money-mak­ing trade. Our thoughts must rise far higher. If everything in the world were lost to us, the eternal reward of heaven ought to be more than enough for us! And now I conclude with the beautiful, oft-quoted exhortation that the elder Tobias made on his deathbed to his son: “Turn not away thy face from any poor person, and the face of the Lord shall not be turned away from thee. According to thy ability, be merciful. If thou have much, give abundantly; if thou have little, take care, even so, to bestow willingly a little. For thus thou storest up to thyself a good reward” (Tob. 4: 7-10) in this world and in the next, which I wish you from my heart. Amen.


     

THE PEOPLE AT THE CROSS, AND THE PEOPLE OF TODAY

At Golgotha, in sight of the temple and city of Jerusalem, in the presence of two or three millions of Jews, who had come to the city from all lands, Jesus, the Son of God, hung upon the cross, an expiatory sacrifice for mankind burdened with all manner of sin.

Near the cross of her dying Son stood Mary, His mother, filled with grief; by her side John, the beloved disciple, and kneeling at the foot of the cross almost insensible from sorrow and anguish, convulsively winding her arms around the wood of the cross, was Mary Magdalen, the penitent.

On a cross at the right hand hung a penitent thief turned towards the Saviour; at the left hand on another cross groaned another criminal of impenitent heart, blaspheming the Holy One of Israel.

Around the agonizing Saviour stood the Scribes and Pharisees, that hypocritical class of practiced miscreants, who hated and persecuted the innocent Lamb Jesus, even in death, who blink to all the predictions of the prophets whose books they had read, blind to the actual miracles which Jesus had wrought before their eyes to prove His divinity and His mission, filled with envy and hatred, reviled the dying Redeemer.

At a distance stood a crowd of curious, indifferent people, who had come to Jerusalem to attend the feast of the Passover, and having heard of Jesus were present at His crucifixion. Not far from them the rough soldiers and executioners lay around, dividing among themselves the Saviour's clothes and casting lots for His seamless garment.

This was the society that surrounded the Son of God and Redeemer of the world bleeding on the cross, and in their different phases they are types of the men of today.

Only few were there who clung to the Saviour in unwavering faith and true love, ready to die with Him, and for Him. There were few who suffered all taunts and sneers all revilings and blasphemies, and departed not from the cross.

Of these three were especially faithful, viz. Mary, John, and Magdalen. Those who like Mary and John are pure and innocent, or like Magdalen are weeping for their sins, who confess Jesus with their heart and lips, cling faithfully to Him, and permit neither persecution nor death to separate them from Him, are like the faithful three at the cross.

As then by the cross, so today, the number of the faithful is small, and great is the number of those who, like the careless spectators of the crucifixion, are not decided enemies of Jesus crucified, nor yet His firm friends.

They have indeed been baptized in the name of Jesus, they remain externally with the Catholic Church, which Christ founded, but they are sunk in lukewarmness, have no living faith, and are wavering to and fro like a reed between the world and Jesus.

They fear the sneers of the so-called learned and enlightened, many of whom are well represented by the Scribes and Pharisees, who, having no faith in Christ themselves, bear in - their hearts only hatred and contempt for His Church; they shun the cross, because it is too heavy for their sensuality; they do not, it is true, commit public crimes, they prize highly a good name, occasionally observe the law of the Church, but are accessible to every error; their ears incline to every blasphemy against the religion of Jesus and His ministers, the priests.

Instead of standing fearlessly and boldly for Christ, for the holy faith He has taught, and which the Church teaches, they turn away, are silent, even go with the Church's enemies that they may not be sneered at.

They are neither hot, nor cold, so that the words of the Scriptures are verifled in them: Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. (Apoc. III. 16.)

The Lord casts away from Him these lukewarm, indifferent Christians, as nauseous saliva, and leaves them to their destruction.

The true Pharisees of our day are those who purposely close their eyes to the light of truth, who have put aside faith in Jesus, and are no longer disposed to receive instruction.

Their pride, their egotism has blinded them, with their poor reason they wish to understand the mysteries of the Almighty, with their weak intellect to fathom His ways, even seek to be equal to God; they deny every revealed truth, they deny the existence of heaven and hell, they propose to live like the animals, without God, — but their end is, ruin!

Few of them, having seen their error, as the thief on the cross at the right hand of Jesus, turn repentingly to the Redeemer; obdurate as the robber and murderer at His left, the Pharisees of our day cease not to blaspheme the Crucified, and to revile His holy Church.

These are assisted by the apostates and unbelievers, who, like the soldiers and executioners, divide among themselves His clothes, and cast lots for His seamless garment. Those clothes which the soldiers divided among themselves, are the truths which the apostates and heretics yet retain after their apostacy from the Church.

They have divided these truths, for they have separated themselves into thousands of sects, and possess only portions of the one truth, which Jesus has laid down in. His Church, whole and complete. “Upon my vesture they have cast lots.”

This seamless vesture of Christ is His holy Church that cannot be separated or divided, she is one, and must remain one to the end of time. Concerning this one true Church, the sects all quarrel, all want to be the true Church without considering that, as but one soldier, by the lots, received Christ's seamless garment, so only one association of men can be the true Church, and that is the association which Christ has chosen.

Thus we find at the cross on Golgotha the different classes of people of our day represented, namely, the pure and innocent; the repenting sinners, firm adherents of Jesus and His teachings; as also the lukewarm, wavering, nominal Christians; obdurate heretics, professed infidels and apostates. So today mankind is divided into like parties.

To which party do you belong, O Christian soul? To which do you wish to belong? Choose! The time of the division is near. The Lord already holds in His hand the winnowing shovel to clear His floor. If you are not a firm adherent of Jesus and His Church, in the storm that is gathering you will be blown like chaff.

If you remain with the small group at the cross, in persevering courage, you will stand firm, and on the day when the cross shall appear in the clouds of heaven, you, with Mary, the mother of the faithful, with John and with Magdalen, will triumph forever, as a victorious knight of the cross. Decide!

-- Fr. Leonard Goffine


From Catholic Conservation

Motu Proprio Implemented

No more permission needed for Latin Mass, Cardinal says

Rome, Sep. 14, 2007 (CWNews.com)

With the formal implementation of Summorum Pontificum, the Pope's motu proprio providing wider access to the 1962 Roman Missal, diocesan priests do not need permission to celebrate the Latin Mass, a top Vatican official has stated.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon-Hoyos-- the president of the Ecclesia Dei commission, which supervises Vatican outreach to traditionalist Catholics-- says that "from this point, priests can decide to celebrate the Mass using the old rite, without permission from the Holy See or the bishop."

In an interview with Vatican Radio on September 13, broadcast just before the motu proprio officially took effect, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos explained that Pope Benedict's motu proprio affirms the right of any priest to use the "extraordinary form" of the Latin liturgy. "It is, therefore, unecessary to ask for any other permission," he said.

Some diocesan bishops have cautioned their priests against using the 1962 Missal without explicit permission from the diocese. But the president of the Ecclesia Dei commission-- which would hear any appeals regarding the new liturgical rules-- contradicted that notion in his Vatican Radio appearance. While affirming the bishop's authority to resolve any liturgical conflicts within his diocese, the Colombian cardinal said that the bishop should exercise that power "without negating the right that the Pope has given to the entire Church."

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos said that the motu proprio involves "no big change" in the liturgy of the Roman Church, since the older liturgy was never banned. Vatican II affirmed the freedoms of the faithful, he said, and one such freedom, which Pope Benedict has now confirmed, was access to the older liturgical form.

"Nothing is imposed on anyone" by Summorum Pontificum, the cardinal said. In allowing for greater use of the old Missal, he explained, Pope Benedict is merely "opening a possibility to the faithful who request it."

Or as it says on the counter to the left of this post,

0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds.

No more obstructions from Bishops please! Such obstructions divide rather than unite the Church.


 Abortion is Back -- in 2008

by Patrick J. Buchanan

Partial birth abortion is a grisly and revolting procedure.

An unborn baby is brought halfway out of the birth canal, then has scissors rammed into its skull and its brains sucked out for easier passage. Sen. Pat Moynihan called it "infanticide." Seventeen Senate Democrats defied the feminist fanatics to vote to outlaw it.

Now the Supreme Court, five to four, agrees that outlawing this barbaric method of aborting an unborn child does not interfere with what has been for 34 years a woman's constitutional right to rid herself of an unwanted child.

This is being hailed as a victory for President Bush and the pro-life community. And it is, though outlawing the procedure only means that if a woman, late in her pregnancy, wishes to be rid of her unborn baby, she and her abortionist now have to find a nicer way to kill it.

The partial birth abortion ban is a little like the state outlawing the beheading of innocent people, while approving of their execution by more humane means. While the ban is most welcome, it remains but a limited victory for those who believe in the sanctity of all human life.

Politically, however, the court decision is portentous, and bad news for Democrats in 2008. For several reasons.

As Robert Novak reports, a 2006 Fox News poll found that the nation, by 61 percent to 28 percent, favored outlawing partial birth abortion. Yet not only did all the leading Democratic candidates for president vote to keep the horrific procedure legal, all denounced the Supreme Court for upholding the law that bans it. To pander to the social radicals who vote in Democratic primaries, Hillary, Barack Obama and John Edwards all paddled far outside the American mainstream.

Consider the latest poll in the pro-choice vs. pro-life debate.

According to Sunday's New York Times, 23 percent of Americans want all abortions outlawed. Another 41 percent believe there should be greater restrictions on abortion. Thus, 64 percent of all Americans, almost two-thirds, feel abortion laws are too liberal already and want more restrictive laws.

Among young voters 18 to 29, 20 percent want abortion outlawed. Fifty percent want greater restrictions. Thus, 70 percent of young people want more protections for the unborn, while Hillary, Barack and Edwards all want none.

Look for Right to Life groups to run ads linking the Democratic nominee to this barbaric and now criminal procedure, which even the high court agrees can be treated as a felony, justifying two years in the penitentiary for any abortionist who performs it.

If the Democratic presidential nominee can be credibly portrayed -- in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio or Pennsylvania -- as seeking the return of this pagan practice, it could be decisive.

Also, the five-to-four decision, with Justice Anthony Kennedy in the majority, indicates the "health of the mother" no longer trumps all other arguments in the debate. Even more crucial, it puts the Right to Life movement within one vote of overturning Roe.

While neither of the Bush II justices, John Roberts or Sam Alito, has specified whether he would vote to overturn Roe, most observers believe that, given the right case, they will drop Roe into the same dumpster with Dred Scott.

With Sandra Day O'Connor gone, the four-to-four liberal-conservative split on the court, with Kennedy as the decider, also means the composition of the court will again be a major issue in 2008.

And, again, this is to the advantage of the Republicans. For when the issue is framed as to whether voters prefer justices to be strict constructionists of the Constitution or liberal activists, Republicans win. Antonin Scalia gets you more votes than Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

The court decision aids Republicans in another way. While the party is increasingly divided on Iraq, free trade and immigration, on the issue of new justices in the tradition of Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts, there is unanimity. It was not the Democratic left but the Republican right that reunited to sink Harriet Miers.

The Republican candidate least served by the Supreme Court decision, though he welcomed it, is Giuliani. Until lately, Rudy has been 100 percent pro-choice on abortion, even opposing the ban on partial birth.

While he is committed now to appointing Justices like Scalia, he will be hard pressed on whether he wishes to see Roe overturned and whether he would use tax dollars to fund abortion.

Moreover, as a pro-choice Catholic, Rudy faces possible censure by the hierarchy of his church, as did John Kerry. And this time, the indulgent Cardinal McCarrick is gone from Washington, and Cardinal Egan may be gone from New York by November 2008.

With last week's decision, the Roberts court has put the life issue front and center in the politics of 2008, and it is hard to see how this is not bad news for the Democrats.

The only worse news would be for George Bush to get the chance to name a third justice -- to fill one of the four liberal seats.

That would set the cat down among the pigeons.

NEWS

Facing their convent's closure

Spencer Weiner / LAT

Sister Margarita Antonia Gonzalez reacts to a discussion of a plan by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to close the Sisters of Bethany's convent in Santa Barbara and sell it to help pay for its $660-million settlement of priest sexual abuse cases. Gonzalez lives and works at the convent with two other nuns.

L.A. Archdiocese plans to sell the Santa Barbara site to help pay its priest abuse settlement. The nuns will likely have to leave the city where they've served the poor.

By Rebecca Trounson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

SANTA BARBARA -- For 43 years, Sister Angela Escalera has lived and often worked out of her order's small convent on this city's east side, helping the area's many poor and undocumented residents with translation, counseling and other needs.

Now retired and partly disabled at 69, the nun thought she would live out her days here, in the community where she is still an active volunteer and in the dwelling that was built for the order in 1952.

Nuns Evicted

But she and the other two nuns at the Sisters of Bethany house recently received word that their convent, which is owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, will be sold to help pay the bill for the church's recent, multimillion-dollar priest sex abuse settlement.

The nuns have four months to move out, according to a letter from the archdiocese. The notice, which was dated June 28 but not received until the end of August, asked the women to vacate the property no later than Dec. 31 -- and noted that an earlier departure "would be acceptable as well." Signed by Msgr. Royale M. Vadakin, the archdiocese's vicar general, the letter offers the nuns no recourse but thanks them for their understanding and cooperation during a difficult time.

"We're just so hurt by this," Escalera, the order's local superior, said this week. "And what hurts the most is what the money will be used for, to help pay for the pedophile priests. We have to sacrifice our home for that?"

Tod M. Tamberg, spokesman for the archdiocese, said Thursday that the decision to sell the Santa Barbara property was difficult but necessary.

In July, the archdiocese announced a record, $660-million settlement with the victims of hundreds of clergy abuse cases. At least $250 million and up to $373 million of the total will be paid directly by the archdiocese, with the rest coming from insurers and various religious orders.

The archdiocese has said it will sell up to 50 non-parish properties, including its administrative headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, to cover the bill. Apart from those central offices, the Santa Barbara convent is the first property to be publicly identified as among those to be sold.

"The pain is being spread around," Tamberg said. "We're losing our headquarters here, and none of the employees got a pay raise this year. This is just part of making it right with the victims, and we all have to share in the process even though none of us -- the nuns, myself -- harmed anybody. All of us as a church have to pay for the sins of a few people."

But in Santa Barbara, where the beige stucco convent and its veiled nuns in navy blue habits have long been fixtures of the east-side landscape, the news was trickling through the community this week, sparking concern and some anger.

On Wednesday morning, as Escalera spoke with several visitors, a woman knocked at the door. Carmen F. Torres, who lives nearby and attends the Catholic church adjacent to the convent, said she had just heard the news.

"I didn't want you to feel abandoned," Torres told the nun in Spanish, adding that she was hoping to raise money for the sisters by renting a small home she owns in Texas.

"We need to see what we can do to help you."

Torres called the decision to sell the convent unjust, given the nuns' long history of care and service to their low-income community. Other supporters spoke even more strongly.

"It's outrageous," said Sally Sanchez, a community activist who added that she had known Escalera since 1964, when each had just arrived in Santa Barbara from the Los Angeles area. "Why should [the nuns] pay for the sins of the morons who did this? Why can't they sell something else?"

Tamberg said the nuns had lived rent-free in the archdiocesan-owned building, which he said was a fairly unusual arrangement, with most religious orders nowadays owning their own houses. He -- and the nuns -- said that if they had to leave Santa Barbara, they would probably move into their order's convent in Los Angeles, which is not owned by the archdiocese.

Although they do not pay rent, the three women have largely supported themselves, using the money they earn from outside jobs and disability income to pay for their utilities, for maintenance on their home and for their food and other needs. They and other sisters of their order were honored for their years of service to the community at a June luncheon that was attended by Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum.

Escalera, whose energy belies her years, is a former notary public and social worker who retired from Catholic Charities in 2003 but still works as a volunteer each afternoon, mainly assisting residents with immigration and translation problems. A diabetic who has developed balance and other health problems in recent years, she uses a walker and receives a state disability stipend.

Sister Consuelo Cardenas, 55, is a native of Colombia who works full time as a religious education coordinator for a nearby parish, Our Lady of Sorrows, in Santa Barbara. She has lived at the convent about 25 years, a span broken briefly by a return to Colombia.

The third nun, Sister Margarita Antonia Gonzalez, 49, was born in El Salvador and has lived at the Santa Barbara facility about four years. She is the sisters' housekeeper and cook and assists with Mass at the adjacent church, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The convent, which looks much like an ordinary house from the outside, has a warren of small rooms and sits on about a quarter of an acre. It includes a living room, dining area and chapel. Its bedrooms each have room enough for a single bed, a desk and a wash basin. The front garden, with an avocado tree and a stone fountain, was a surprise gift to the sisters from community members many years ago.

The Santa Barbara County assessor's office lists the property's value at $97,746, although it seems likely to sell for more, if a sale goes through. Even the small, older homes near the convent start at about $700,000, according to the Zillow real estate appraisal website.

As she sat this week in the convent's simple living room, where paintings of biblical scenes and framed photographs of the order's founders line the walls, Escalera said she was still wrestling with her feelings about the letter, shifting between pain, anger and resignation. She said she remained upset that the archdiocese had not contacted the nuns directly but had chosen instead to send a letter to the convent in Los Angeles, which then notified the Santa Barbara sisters.

"We're not even worth a phone call," she said. "That's one of the things that hurts so much."

She and the other sisters said that they were grateful for the support from many in the community, but that they knew they could not afford to pay for a rental in Santa Barbara on their own, making it likely that they would be forced to leave the area.

Escalera, looking weary after a stream of visitors, said, however, that she could not consider the future yet.

"I'm not ready right now," she said. "I'm still trying to think it through. I do trust in God and I will accept his will. . . . But if something happens to change this, that would be wonderful."

rebecca.trounson@latimes.com

 This Sunday's Lesson

VOL. I = THE BAD CHRISTIAN
Fr. Francis Hunolt

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Blasphemy

He blasphemeth.” St. Matthew 9: 3

On other occasions, influenced by hatred and envy, the Jews had called him a disturber of the people, a drunkard, a sorcerer who drove out devils in the name of the devil, but all these accusations were as nothing compared to that of being a blas­phemer—that is, one who assails the Almighty, who is worthy of infinite honor and glory, with curses and injurious expres­sions. I will take occasion from the Gospel of today to speak of this fearful sin, which is so common unfortunately, in order to inspire you with such a horror of this crime that you will be shocked at the very name of it.

I.What is blasphemy?

II. What a terrible sin it is.

I. Curses are often uttered in anger and impatience which ignorant people sometimes look upon as blasphemies, but wrongly; and there are many expressions in vogue which seem to be pious, but in reality are blasphemous. To be able, then, to make the necessary distinction, we must first answer this question: In what does the sin of blasphemy consist? It con­sists in using injurious or dishonoring expressions toward God, which assail any of his essential perfections, or affirm of him something unworthy of his supreme majesty, or attribute to creatures what belongs to him alone.

The first kind of blasphemy is committed by those unfortu­nate, miserable and wretched men who, on account of losses, accidents, trials, and miseries, murmur against divine Provi­dence, and break out into the following or similar complaints: Oh, there is no justice in heaven any more; God has forgotten me; he seems to take a pleasure in tormenting me; he cannot cause me greater torment that he is causing me now. What have I done that he should treat me so cruelly? I have not sold Christ, at any rate; I have more to suffer than I deserve. Things have come to such a pass with me now that God can no longer help me. I will not pray any more, nor do any good works, for God will not hear me in any case. All expressions of this kind are grievous blasphemies, because they attack the infinite wisdom, power, goodness, mercy and justice of God. There are others whose blasphemous tongues assail the all­ wise and inscrutable arrangements of God’s Providence. Why, they think or say, should God look after me always? He has enough to do without taking such interest in me and my be­longings. God has not made a fair division of worldly goods; he gives one too much, another too little, and nothing at all to a third; one must suffer hunger, while another has abundance of everything. God is not just in allowing that good and pious man to suffer so many afflictions, while he neglects to punish that worthless and wicked fellow. It seems that he who serves the devil is better off and happier than he who is faithful to God. It is easy to say that I must abandon myself to the arrange­ments of God’s Providence; if I do not make my own fortune I need not expect much from them. People who indulge in blasphemy of this kind appear to think that they can govern the world better than the Almighty; like the wicked king Alphonsus, who used to say in his foolish pride: “If I had been God’s counselor in the creation, I could have suggested many im­provements to him.”

2. To the second class of blasphemers, that is, to those who attribute something false or unbecoming to God, belong those who say, for instance, when it thunders: Now God is playing skittles; or, the drums are beating in heaven; or, heaven is fall­ing to pieces. Such people say sometimes to one who is praying:  Oh, you are annoying God; let him have a little rest; he has something else to do besides hearing what you have to say. If one is anxious about the future, they say, oh, leave it to God; he had a wise mother. To the same class belong those who attribute to creatures what belongs only to God or to his Saints; this is done by way of showing affection, when some miserable creature is called by another his god, his divinity, his chief treasure, his adorable; or in the expressions, as true as God lives, as true as Gospel, I am as innocent as the Virgin Mary. Al­though these latter expressions may be excused from blas­phemy, still they are not becoming, and they are injurious to God, because they affirm a human and fallible truth with a cer­tainty that belongs only to divine truth.

3. To the third class belong those who, in cursing others, wish that they may be destroyed and ruined by what God has appointed for our welfare and eternal salvation. For instance, may the Blood of Christ, or the Death of Christ, or the Sacra­ment strike you dead. In a word, all expressions that contain contempt of God or of divine things, whether they are true or false; as, for example: The man above is not of that kind; God is a good man; God is a cunning politician; God knows me well, and he will not do anything to me; the weather-man above must give us a good season. Again, there are people, such as half-atheists and desperate characters, who say: I will believe and live as I will, and then God must give me the place in hea­ven that I wish to have; St. Peter and I are well acquainted; he will not fail to let me in when I knock at the gate of heaven what have I to do amongst the beggars and other low people in heaven? I will find far more respectable company in hell. All these expressions are disrespectful to God and to divine things. In this, then, consists the sin of blasphemy. And what sort of a sin is it? The most fearful of all.

II. We can deduce the grievous malice of a sin from three circumstances:

1. When we consider who it is who is thereby attacked and offended;

2. Who it is who offers the offence;

3. Why is it that the offence is offered? From these three circumstances we shall see that blasphemy is a fearful sin.

1. Who is thereby attacked and dishonored? It is no other than the God of infinite wisdom, power and goodness, who is worthy of all honor and reverence, in whose honor thousands of happy princes of heaven, Cherubim and Seraphim, with faces veiled through respect, sing their song of praise: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the heavens and the earth are full of thy glory.” This God is attacked, dishonored and insulted by the blas­phemous tongue. And the insult is offered to him directly. God is dishonored by every sin, as St. Paul says: “Thou, by pre­varication of the law, dishonor God.” Oh, man! Do you think of what you do when you commit a sin, no matter what it is? You dishonor God, because you refuse to do as he wishes you to do.

But there is a great difference between blasphemy and other sins. Other vices are confined, so to speak, to God’s crea­tures. Pride is a great vice, by which one arrogates to himself praise and honor that do not belong to him, and looks down haughtily on others. Injustice is a great sin, for by it the property of others is stolen and kept. Impurity is a great sin, which defiles both body and soul. Drunkenness is a great sin, by which a man deliberately deprives himself of the use of rea­son. Anger, hatred, envy, revenge, persecution, injuring others, detraction, cursing and swearing, all these are great sins, by which one gives vent to his ill feelings against the servants of God. But it still remains true that all these sins ap­pear small when compared to blasphemy, for that is the only most terrible sin which attacks God himself directly and dis­honors him.

2. Who is it that dares to offer it? I might ask, like the Pharisee: Who speaketh blasphemies? It is a poor mortal, a worm of the earth. Yes, he who is rottenness, and the son of man is a worm (St. Luke 5: 21). He who is utterly powerless, and who must depend on God for everything, dares to open his insolent mouth against heaven, and to use the tongue which he cannot even move without God’s help in cursing and reviling the Almighty! And what kind of men are they who are guilty of such a grievous crime? Are they Turks, heathens, or idola­ters? It would be less intolerable on the part of such as those. “If my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it,” is the complaint that our Lord makes by the Psalmist: “And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hid myself from him” (Ps. 54: 13). But they are Christians, brought up in the house and true Church of God, who have been consecrated in Baptism as friends and children of God, relations and brethren of Jesus Christ, who often eat the bread of Angels, his flesh, at the table of the Lord, and who are called to be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. They are Christians who, in preference to all other people, receive abun­dant graces and benefits every day, every hour, every moment, from God. And I ask, must Christians revile God, blaspheme him and curse him? The Turks are severely punished if they mention even the name of their prophet Mahomet in anger; nay, although they are sworn enemies of the Christian religion, they dare not curse by the name of Jesus Christ, whom they reverence as a great prophet. But Christians, who adore Jesus Christ as their God, who uncover their heads and bend the knee whenever his Holy Name is mentioned, treat that Name so dis­respectfully, revile and blaspheme it, whenever they get in the least passion, or anything is said or done to vex them!

3. And why should we give way to blasphemy? Oh, my God! Says St. Augustine, with bitter tears, how is it possible for a man to be so wicked as to seek nothing by sinning but to sin against and offend Thee? Is a man given to the lusts of the flesh? Alas, there is nothing wonderful in that! Corporal beauty and sensual pleasure are very powerful attractions that offer a gentle violence to the human heart. Is a man given to avarice and injustice? He is blinded by a love of riches, which will help him to supply all his wants. Is a man ambitious? The mind is easily captivated by the praise of others and by the desire of their esteem. And yet, although we are born with those inclinations, not one of them should be sufficient to in­duce us to sin. But alas, it is for the purpose of satisfying those inclinations that sin is committed! Ask one who has killed another why he has done so. Either to get his money, he will answer, or through fear of being injured by him, or through de­sire of revenge and having satisfaction for an insult. If he were to say that he knows not why he killed the man, unless it was to have the pleasure of killing him, we should hardly be­lieve him. Such are the words in which St. Augustine bewails the sin of theft that he committed in his youth by stealing ber­ries out of a garden, not through fondness for them, but through sheer love of mischief. And it is in that way, but very much worse, that blasphemers act whenever they speak so as to dishonor God; for there is nothing whatever to impel them to such a sin but a desire of reviling and insulting the Almighty. Tell me, blasphemer, what pleasure or profit do you find in speaking so disrespectfully of God, in cursing by the holy Sac­raments, or by the Blood and Death of Jesus Christ, in treating the divine Majesty so contemptuously, or in making such a profane use of the Word of God? Do you find any bodily pleas­ure in it? Does it make you richer or more influential in the world? You gain nothing of the kind. What, then, induces you to commit such a fearful sin? Nothing but your more than diabolical malice in venting your anger against your Cre­ator.

Wretched mortal, what harm has your Creator done you? Has he ill-treated you that you thus revile him and insult him? “Oh, my people,” he asks by the prophet Micheas, “what have I done to thee, or in what have I molested thee? Answer thou me.” Dear Christians, whom I have purchased with my precious Blood, what harm have I done you? Have I ever given you the least cause to be angry with me, that you now attack me and my name so fiercely? Have I not given you countless proofs of the most tender, fatherly love? I never cease doing good to you for a moment, and, ungrateful mortals that you are, you repay my benefits by such shameful injuries. “For seventy years,” says St. Polycarp, when his persecutors tried to induce him to deny God, “God has done me nothing but good; why should I deny him?” Blasphemous Christians, how many years of your lives are now past, during which you have been enjoying the benefits bestowed on you by God?’ How can you dare to blaspheme his holy Name? No tyrant threatens you with torture, there is neither wheel, nor gallows, nor sword, nor lance, nor rack, nor gridiron to force you to forswear your God and curse him; there is no one in the world who threatens you with death, no one who promises you either pleasure or profit; there is nothing that can compel or induce you to blaspheme, and yet you insult God so grossly! Your sin, then, can only proceed from sheer diabolical malice. Nay, from more than diabolical malice, for the devils tremble at the name of Jesus. It may be that the demons in hell are always blaspheming God; still the blasphemies of men are more wicked and less to be excused. For when the demons blaspheme, they do it only in thought and desire; while you, oh, man, do it with thought and word! The reprobate curse God on account of the severe tortures they have to suffer; and there is pity for the wretch who is impaled alive, or broken on the wheel. But you, oh, Christian, who have received nothing but benefits from God, what reason have you to offend him by your blas­phemous tongue? Amen.


VOL. I = THE BAD CHRISTIAN
Fr. Francis Hunolt

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

To Find Fault with, and to Interpret in a Bad Sense, the Actions of Others Is a Great Injustice

They watched him.”— Luke 14: 1.

The Pharisees, being filled with hatred and envy of our Lord, kept a close watch on everything he did. They desired to see or to hear something from him which they could have found fault with, so as to make him odious to the people. For this reason alone “they watched him.” How many critical observers of the same kind can be counted in our days, who examine, watch, and pry into the actions of others, put a wrong interpretation on and criticize them, make them the subject of rash judgments and groundless suspicions, and thus talk of and con­demn their faults and failings! A vice which, alas! Is very common among all classes of people, and is especially

Opposed to the charity we owe our neighbor, whether that meddling on our part arise from malice or from imprudence.

1. Everything that comes from passion is opposed to fraternal charity; for we can easily imagine that, when we have a bitter feeling toward another, we are not likely to think or speak well of him when he is made the subject of conversation. Any­thing that we hear, see, or suspect him of to his discredit we cannot keep secret; we must speak of it at the first opportunity, and we are more inclined to exaggerate than to lessen it. We say: “do you know what happened lately? Such and such a one acted most shamefully; his villainy has been discovered; I cannot trust him any longer; I thought that man knew better; he pretended to be very clever, but now he has made a grievous blunder.” But they who thus give way to hatred of their neighbor are not always willing to make known their feelings; much less do they wish to incur the blame of trying to injure another’s character, and therefore they endeavor to conceal their motive as well as they can. It is a well-known fact, they say, otherwise I would not mention it; I am sorry for the poor man; it is a great pity he has such a fault. Oh, hypocrite! Are you really sorry for him? If so, why do you not try to con­ceal his faults, that he may at least have a chance of retaining the esteem of others? Why do you bring further disgrace on him by relating his faults? It is a well-known fact; otherwise I would not mention it! If it is so well-known, then what is the use of your saying anything about it? You are merely wasting your words. Suppose I said to you: “Two and two make four; today is Sunday; these are well-known facts, otherwise I would not mention them;” would you not think me mad? We know these facts already, you would say; there is no necessity for you to repeat them to us; tell us something that we do not know. It is a well-known fact; otherwise I would not mention it! To whom is it known? To yourself, and not to others? Then you are evidently guilty of injuring your neighbor’s character; you act against the right he has to his good name, and you are alone to blame for making known his faults. If his faults are known to many in the town, but not to those to whom you speak of them, you still cannot be excused from a breach of charity, since you spread still further what is disadvantageous to his good name. If Christian charity and not ill-feeling prompted you to speak, you would find in the same person many good qualities that redound to his praise; but as it is, you say not a word about them. You are like a spider; you seek the poison, and leave the honey behind, because your heart is full of ill-will against your neighbor.

2. There is still a worse consequence of that fault-finding and criticizing when it comes from hatred and envy; for not only are the faults and failings of another noticed and talked of, but even his good qualities are misinterpreted; because, when the heart is once filled with hatred of another, it is very hard to look with a favorable eye at anything he does. The envious Pharisees were not satisfied with criticizing what they imagined to be faulty in Christ and his disciples; they found fault even with what they should have praised and approved of. Such is the complaint our Lord makes in the Gospel of St. Matthew: “John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say: he hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say: Behold a man that is a glutton and a wine-drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners” (Matt. 11: 18, 19). If I drive out devils, they say I do it in the name of Beelzebub, the prince of devils; if I heal the sick and teach the people, they cry me down as a disturber and a raiser of sedition. Such Pharisees are still to be found in great numbers amongst Chris­tians. If one whom they do not love is really humble of heart, they call him a hypocrite; if he is patient and a lover of peace, he is looked on as a coward; if he frequents respectable com­pany, he is accused of being fond of the pleasures of the table; if he avoids company, he is called a misanthropist; if he does his duty without any regard to human respect, he is looked on as an unmannerly boor; if he is friendly and polite to every one, he is considered a flatterer and a deceiver. This hatred and ill-will finds something sinful and faulty even in virtues, and when a man forms a judgment of that kind, of course it comes out in conversation with others.

Nay, what adds to the malice and injustice of these hostile criticisms is that when nothing in a person’s outward life and actions can be found fault with, his secret thoughts and inten­tions, although known only to God and himself, are made the object of attack, and bad motives are imputed to him; his words and actions and behavior are carefully studied, in order to find in them some proof that his intentions are bad. Thus they say: that priest goes so often to that house and visits such and such a person, he cannot mean anything good by it; that woman, that girl is always well dressed when she appears in church, she can hardly come for devotion’s sake alone; she never paid for that dress out of her own pocket; I have seen those two talking to­gether for a long time, and could see by their manner how they are affected toward each other; did you not notice what a face so and so made? I can easily guess what he is thinking of; did you hear what he said, on that occasion? I know what he means well enough. Do not people very often talk in the man­ner spoken of by St. James in his Epistle, although in a differ­ent sense: “Do you not judge within yourselves, and are be­come judges of unjust thoughts?” (James 2: 4.)

3. How do you know that what you say of that person is true? I have seen, or heard it, you answer. And that is gen­erally the only foundation of the criticism: I have seen, or heard it! That is the judgment-seat before which the virtues are summoned to receive their sentence. Has not God given us to understand clearly enough that we must not trust such treacherous witnesses as our eyes and ears? “He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears” (Is. 11: 3). how many there are whom these senses deceive! “I have seen it!” What have you seen? “What that man did, where he went, how he be­haved.” And is that all? Have you seen his heart? Have you seen the intention he had in acting as he did, in going to that place, in behaving in that way? For it is certain that the goodness or malice of an outward act depend principally on the intention one has when performing it. “For what man,” asks St. Paul, “knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him?” (1 Cor. 2: 11.) If you were to see a young woman, splendidly dressed, going through a hostile camp to the tent of a general whose licentiousness is well known, and spending the night in it, what would you think? Oh, certainly, you would say, she has lost her virtue, and is a bad woman. And yet that was done in the Old Law by one of the most chaste of women, Judith, whose purity was untarnished.

“I have heard it.” Indeed? And must it be true therefore? If we are to take all we hear as Gospel, there will be no lies in the world any longer. If everything people say is true, hardly any one will have a good character, and we must look on Su­sanna and Joseph as guilty of adultery, and our Lord himself as a drinker of wine, a disturber of the people, a blasphemer, and a deceiver. Susanna was accused on oath by the two elders, and all the people believed the accusation, and were about to stone her; Joseph was accused by the wife of Putiphar, and was cast into prison; Christ himself was publicly accused by the high-priest, the scribes, and nearly all the Jewish peo­ple, and was condemned to death and nailed to the Cross; yet all these accusations were wicked calumnies. How often have you not been deceived by reports you have heard, so that you have afterwards found to be false what you at first be­lieved? How often do not people interpret a thing in a wrong sense, either because they do not understand what is said, or because some important word has escaped their ears? How often does it not happen that an exaggerated or an imperfect report of a thing makes it look quite different from what it really is?

4. Supposing even that what you say is literally true, and that many are already aware of it—nay, more, supposing that no harm is done to any one by your talking of it—yet you can hardly avoid violating Christian charity even then. For you act in direct opposition to the rule of charity: “do unto others as you wish them to do unto you.” Consider the matter fairly, and acknowledge the truth to your own conscience; would you be satisfied if others spoke of you in that way? If you were painted in such black colors; would you like other people, to whom you are not at all answerable, to pry into your con­cerns, to watch all your actions, to keep a list of the persons with whom you associate, the places you visit, the conversa­tions you hold, to interpret your behavior, your faults and failings according to their own ideas, and to make sport of them with others, to laugh at and ridicule them? Even if your faults are known to many, would you like to have them fre­quently spoken of, so as to keep them fresh in people’s mem­ories? But if you do not wish that to be done to you, you must be careful not to do it to others.

5. “Judge not, that you may not be judged; for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with what meas­ure you mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matt. 7: 1,2) If you wish to give your neighbor his due, and to practice the charity you owe him; if you wish to be friends and fol­lowers of Jesus Christ; if you wish to stand well with God at the judgment-seat, then you must never judge ill of another, and much less say anything to his detriment. Do not meddle with the affairs of others. If curiosity should prompt you to inquire what this or that person has said or done, if the slippery tongue is on the point of criticizing others, restrain it, reprove it in the words in which Christ reproved Peter when the latter was too anxious to find out what was to become of John: “What is it to thee? Follow me.” What hast thou to do with the faults of others? Art thou created for no other purpose but to criticize them? Look after yourself and your own soul; that is all that God requires of you. Thus you should criticize your own ac­tions, and see whether they are good or bad, praiseworthy or reprehensible. According to the beautiful exhortation of St. Paul: “Let every one prove his own work, and so he shall have glory in himself only, and not in another” (Gal. 6: 4, 5); that is a matter that concerns us all, but we have nothing to do with the actions of others, for whom we are not responsible to God. “For every one shall bear his own burden;” every one will have to give an account of his own works, and according to them he shall be either punished or rewarded.

Let us act like the Apostles at the Last Supper, when Christ told them that one of them was about to betray him. “And they, being very much troubled, began to say: Is it I, Lord?’ (Matt. 26: 22.) Not one asked, is it my neighbor? Is it Peter, Andrew, or Judas? But each one was afraid that he himself might be the unhappy traitor. “Is it I, Lord?” Oh, if every one were to attend to himself and to his own faults and sins, how much would he not find to blame and condemn! He would soon see that he is like a traveler who is carrying a bag on his back, and who can see only what is before him, but not the load of sins he himself is carrying. You know how Christ acted when the Pharisees brought before him the woman taken in adultery, and said to him that she should be stoned: “Jesus, bowing himself down, wrote with his finger on the ground” (John 8: 6); that is, he wrote on the ground their secret sins. “When, therefore, they continued asking him, he lifted himself up and said to them: he that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8: 7). How astonished they must have been when they heard of this! They slunk away one after the other, like thieves caught in the act; not one of them dared to cast a stone at the guilty woman. Oh, if that same finger were to write down the sins and daily faults of each one of us, so that we could see them, then indeed we should be si­lent about others, and not he so ready to find fault with and to cast stones at our neighbor; we should then leave him in peace, and try to rectify our own misdeeds!

6. If you sometimes hear talk of that kind in company, act as if you did not know what the talk is about; for if you listen to it, and show that you take pleasure in it, you co-operate in the sin and in the injury done to charity. Therefore, if you have any authority over those who are finding fault with their neighbor, you must exercise it, and say to them with a holy zeal: What is that to you? If they are not subject to you, al­though they are your inferiors, you must modestly say to them: What is that to me? I know nothing about the matter, nor do I concern myself with the affairs of other people; or else you may say: If you wish to praise another in my hearing, I will lis­ten to you; but I have no ears for fault-finding.

Finally, you who are exposed to the criticisms and fault-find­ing of others, be not disturbed at it; let people think and say of you what they please; if you are guilty of what they accuse you, humble yourselves, acknowledge that you deserve to be found fault with, and resolve to amend. If you give reasonable grounds for suspicion or for unfavorable judgments of your conduct, you are bound in conscience to remove that stumbling block out of the way of others. If you are innocent, then be comforted! You are not the only one; you have countless companions who must bear patiently similar criticisms of their conduct; the saint who is free from them has yet to be born. Continue, then, to live as true Christians; say confidently with St. Paul: “But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you,” or by any other man’s day; it does not trouble or concern me in the least that men should condemn me; I seek not their favor, nor do I fear their displeasure; “but he that judgeth me is the Lord” (1 Cor. 4: 3, 4). He can see into my heart, of which men know nothing; they may now condemn my actions behind my back, but by and by they will not be my judges; there is One who will judge me, and he will judge them, too, and their talk. To him I appeal; to him I entrust my cause; if he does not speak against me, then my affairs are prospering, even if the whole world were to look on me as the greatest malefactor. Amen.

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