Category: 11.ix.22 XIV Post Pentecost

Those who are humble are retiring, and choose the last place; and therefore it was, as remarks St. Bernard, that Mary, when her Son was preaching in a house, as is related by St. Matthew, and she wished to speak to Him, would not of her own accord enter, but remained outside, and did not avail herself of her maternal authority to interrupt Him

Jesus Christ said: Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart. As holy Mary was the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus Christ in the practice of all virtues, she was the first also in Humility, and merited to be exalted above all creatures.

St. Jerome says that many begin well but few persevere. The Holy Ghost declares that he who perseveres in holiness to death, and not he who begins a good life, shall be saved. But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved (Matt. xxiv. 13). The crown of Paradise, says St. Bernard, is promised to those who commence, but it is given only to those who persevere.

What do you say? If you are lost, and are damned you will not be alone! But what consolation will the company of the wicked be to you in hell? O accursed sin, how it can blind men gifted with reason!

He hath torn me with wound upon wound; he hath rushed in upon me like a giant (Job. xvi. 15). On this text St. Gregory reasons thus: A person assailed by an enemy is rendered unable to defend himself by the first wound which he receives; but, should he receive a second and a third, his strength will be so much exhausted, that death will be the consequence. It is so with sin: after the first and second wound which it inflicts on the soul, she will still have some strength, but only through the Divine grace.

I have loved thee with an everlasting love. And so God has from all eternity loved every human soul. It was for us and for our salvation He sent His only Son into the world to die upon the Cross. Alas, how often have I withdrawn myself from God and sold myself for a nothing to Satan, God’s enemy and my own!

The habit of sin not only blinds the mind, but it also hardens the heart of the sinner. His heart shall be as hard as a stone, and as firm as a smith’s anvil (Job xli. 15). By the habit of sin the heart becomes like a stone; and, as the anvil is hardened by repeated strokes of the hammer, so, instead of being softened by Divine inspirations or by instructions, the soul of the habitual sinner is rendered more obdurate by sermons on the Judgment of God, on the torments of the damned, or on the Passion of Jesus Christ: his heart shall be firm as a smith’s anvil.