Let us have, then, no more of this. If one is not willing to be in charity with his or her neighbor, let him or her not come to confession, or at least, if coming, take care to state the matter as it really is. "Go first and be reconciled with thy brother; and then, coming, thou shalt offer thy gift."
Sermon XCV.
Feast Of SS. Peter And Paul.
To-day, my brethren, holy church celebrates the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, one the prince of the Apostles, the other the great teacher of the Gentiles. Their glorious martyrdom took place the same day in the imperial city of Rome. A glorious victory indeed was their death, one being crucified, head downwards, the other beheaded, sealing thus with their blood that invincible faith in our Lord and in his religion which has made them fit to be cornerstones of his spiritual temple. Besides their faith, they were most distinguished for confidence in God. The two virtues, faith and hope, of course, blended together in their souls, borrowed from each other, and in the fire of heavenly love were melted into one. Yet confidence in God, or the virtue of hope, was the very impulse that set them forth to preach, gave them their gift of miracles, and led them out at last with the deepest joy to offer up the sacrifice of their lives.
And it was by such heroic trust in God that our holy church was founded. The beginnings of the true religion may be summed up by saying that God sent out men who were willing to stake their lives upon his fidelity to his promises. The soil on which our Saviour planted the true vine was watered by the blood of martyrs. The Breviary speaks of the blood of our two great Apostles as the purple robe of immortal Rome. And their virtue of implicit, instinctive confidence in God's love for us and for his church is the spiritual garment every Christian puts on when he is made a member of Christ.
Looking across all those centuries, my brethren, and contemplating the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, our hearts should be strengthened. What are the trials of the church now compared to those at the very beginning? We lament, indeed, that St. Peter's successor is a captive in his own house, and also that in many regions of the world the true faith of the Apostles has to struggle for its very life. Yet the struggles of the church are now those of a giant, are against a world in great part doubtful of its own cause; struggles which make us only the more evidently pleasing to God, as they are gradually forcing us to strip ourselves of every human help and practise the Apostolic virtue of trust in God alone. "Some upon horses and some upon chariots, but we call upon the name of the Lord." Oh! when we come to realize that the welfare of the church is not in numbers, or in fine buildings, or in the wealth and power of Catholics, but only and entirely in the practice of the virtues of our religion, we shall not have long to wait for the triumph of the truth. When the vast world-power that we call the Catholic religion was (seemingly) but the frantic experiment of a handful of men, just then it won its noblest victories. Heathenism could not be voted down nor fought down; nor did God send earthquakes and floods to cleanse the earth of its foulness. The men who founded our faith won the victory because they were penetrated with the conviction that the Maker and Governor of mankind was their Lord, and that Jesus Christ, his Son, would never swerve from his plighted word.
Such, then, brethren, is the virtue I bid you learn from the example of SS. Peter and Paul: confidence in God. Learn that and it will teach you all. How the value of prayer is shown forth by this virtue; how the practice of patience is commended; how the purely spiritual side of religion is brought forward by trust in God! And to you of this church it is especially proposed to cultivate this Apostolic virtue. For is not your church named for St. Paul? And is he not associated every way, historically and in the devotions of our religion, with the prince of the Apostles, St. Peter? They are our first fruits; they are most closely joined to Christ, the root of the spiritual tree of life. St. Paul says: "For if the first fruit be holy, so is the mass also; and if the root be holy, so are the branches."