O unfaithful, negligent Catholic! whose life heretofore has been a dishonor to God, a shame to your family, a scandal to your neighbor, and a disgrace to the church of Jesus Christ, have you turned from your sins and made your peace with God this Easter-time? Have you washed your past life clean from sin by this Easter duty? Then you, too, know you will receive the welcome of our Lord, the Man Christ Jesus, your King and your God. Otherwise you are still his enemy, and have a right only to his eternal wrath. How can you sleep a moment or be at rest a single instant longer while knowing you are condemned already, because you have not made your Easter duty?
Second Sunday after Pentecost.
And Sunday Within The Octave Of Corpus Christi.
Epistle.
1 St. John iii. 13-18.
Dearly beloved:
Wonder not if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother, is a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself. In this we have known the charity of God, because he hath laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him: how doth the charity of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
Gospel.
St. Luke xiv. 16-24.
At that time:
Jesus spoke to the Pharisees this parable:
A certain man made a great supper, and invited many. And he sent his servant at supper-time to say to them that were invited that they should come, for now all things are ready. And they began all at once to make excuse. The first said to him: I have bought a farm, and I must needs go out and see it; I pray thee, have me excused. And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them; I pray thee, have me excused. And another said: I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. And the servant returning, told these things to his lord. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and the feeble, and the blind and the lame. And the servant said: Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said to the servant: Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house maybe filled. But I say unto you that none of those men that were called shall taste my supper.
Sermon LXXXV.
Holy Communion.
A certain man made a great supper
and invited many.
—St. Luke xiv. 16.
I suppose every Catholic here to-day, except some young children, has once or many times in his life been to the "Great Supper," and eaten the "Bread of Life" which is served at it; and those little ones of the Lord's Holy Catholic family are looking forward to the bright day, to be for ever afterwards the day of sweetest memory, when they too shall have that honor and happiness—the day of their First Communion.
If such be the case, what is the use of the church repeating to us every year the threat in the Gospel against those who made foolish and selfish excuses for staying away—"None of those men that were called shall taste of my supper"? We have been called. We have answered the invitation. We have been to the supper. Isn't that enough? The Gospel evidently does not apply to us. But wait a bit. I have two things for you to think about. In the first place, the calling to the Great Supper the Gospel speaks about is a standing invitation for life. By this I mean that the law of the Catholic Church obliges every one to receive Holy Communion annually—that is, during the Easter season. It is then, first of all, an annual invitation; and going one year is not answering the call for the next year. Every one who has learned his Catechism ought to know that. In the second place, what would you think of a near relative whom you had invited to be present at your marriage anniversary dinner, who should send for reply that he had already dined with you on the Fourth of July? This is like what people say who, when asked if they made their Easter duty, tell you, "Oh! no, I went at Christmas," or "I was at the mission." Now the annual marriage supper which the King makes for his Son, and to which we are invited, is at Easter, and neither Christmas, mission time, the Forty Hours, nor the Fourth of July will do, unless, indeed, the mission or the Forty Hours took place in the Paschal season.