The Vice of Impurity -Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

 

The Vice of Impurity

Delusion of those who say that sins against purity are not a great evil  

St. Alphonsus Liguori, Moral theologian

The Vice of Impurity

Delusion of those who say that sins against purity are not a great evil –

The unchaste, then, say that sins contrary to purity are but a small evil. Like “the sow . . . wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22), they are immersed in their own filth, so that they do not see the malice of their actions; and therefore they neither feel nor abhor the stench of their impurities, which excite disgust and horror in all others. Can you, who say that the vice of impurity is but a small evil—can you, I ask, deny that it is a mortal sin? If you deny it, you are a heretic; for as Saint Paul says, “Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liars with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God—1 Corinthians 9-10. It is a mortal sin; it cannot be a small evil. It is more sinful than theft, or detraction, or the violation of the fast. How then can you say that it is not a great evil? Perhaps mortal sin appears to you to be a small evil? Is it a small evil to despise the grace of God, to turn your back on Him, and to lose His friendship, for a transitory, beastly pleasure?

Saint Thomas teaches that mortal sin, because it is an insult offered to an infinite God, contains a certain infinitude of malice. A sin committed against God has a certain infinitude, on account of the infinitude of Divine Majesty—Saint Thomas. Is mortal sin a small evil? It is so great an evil, that if all the angels and all the saints, the apostles, martyrs, and even the Mother of God, offered all their merits to atone for a single mortal sin, the oblation would not be sufficient. No, for that atonement or satisfaction would be finite; but the debt contracted by mortal sin is infinite, on account of the infinite majesty of God, which has been offended. The hatred which God bears to sins against purity is great beyond measure. If a lady finds her plate soiled, she is disgusted and cannot eat. Now with what disgust and indignation must God, Who is purity itself, behold the filthy impurities by which His law is violated? He loves purity with an infinite love; and consequently He has an infinite hatred for the sensuality which the lewd, voluptuous man calls a small evil. Even the devils who held a high rank in Heaven before their fall disdain to tempt men to sins of the flesh.

Saint Thomas says,that Lucifer, who is supposed to have been the Devil that tempted Jesus Christ in the desert, tempted Him to commit other sins, but scorned to tempt Him to offend against chastity. Is this sin a small evil? Is it then a small evil to see a man endowed with a rational soul, and enriched with so many divine graces, bring himself, by the sin of impurity, to the level of a brute? Fornication and pleasure, says Saint Jerome, pervert the understanding and change men into beasts. In the voluptuous and unchaste, are literally verified the words of David: And man when he was in honor, did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to them” – Psalm 48:13. Saint Jerome says, that there is nothing more vile or degrading than to allow oneself to be conquered by the flesh. Nihil vilius quam vinci a carne. Is it a small evil to forget God, and to banish Him from the soul, for the sake of giving the body a vile satisfaction, of which, when it is over, you feel ashamed? Of this the Lord complains by the Prophet Ezekiel: Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast forgotten Me, and hast cast Me off behind thy back, bear thou also thy wickedness, and thy fornications—Ezekiel 23:35. Saint Thomas says that by every vice, but particularly by the vice of impurity, men are removed far from God. “Per luxuriam maxime recedit a Deo”.

Moreover, sins of impurity, on account of their great number, are an immense evil. A blasphemer does not always blaspheme, but only when he is drunk or provoked to anger. The assassin, whose trade is to murder others, does not, at the most, commit more than eight or ten homicides. But the unchaste are guilty of an unceasing torrent of sins by thoughts, by words, by looks, by complacencies, and by touches; so that, when they go to confession, they find it impossible to tell the number of the sins they have committed against purity. Even in their sleep, the Devil represents to them obscene objects, that on waking, they may take delight in them; and because they are made the slaves of the enemy, they obey and consent to his suggestions; for it is easy to contract a habit of this sin. To other sins, such as blasphemy, detraction, and murder, men are not prone; but to this vice, nature inclines them. Hence Saint Thomas says that there is no sinner so ready to offend God as the votary of lust is, on every occasion that occurs to him. Nullus ad Dei contemptum promptior. The sin of impurity brings in its train the sins of defamation, of theft, hatred, and of boasting of its filthy abominations. Besides, it ordinarily involves the malice of scandal. Other sins, such as blasphemy, perjury, and murder, excite horror in those who witness them; but this sin excites others, who are flesh, to commit it, or at least to commit it with less horror.

 “Totum hominem”, says Saint Cyprian, “agit in triumphum libidinis”. By lust the Devil triumphs over the entire man, over his body and over his soul; over his memory, filling it with the remembrance of unchaste delights, in order to make him take complacency in them; over his intellect, to make him desire occasions of committing sin; over the will, by making it love its impurities as his last end, and as if there were no God. “I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin. For what part should God from above have in me?” – Job 31:1-2. Job was afraid to look at a virgin; because he knew that if he consented to a bad thought, God should have no part in him. According to Saint Gregory, from impurity arises blindness of understanding, destruction, hatred of God, and despair of eternal life.  Saint Augustine says that though the unchaste may grow old, the vice of impurity does not grow old in him. Hence Saint Thomas says that there is no sin in which the Devil delights so much as in this sin; because there is no other sin to which nature clings with so much tenacity. To the vice of impurity it adheres so firmly that the appetite for carnal pleasures becomes insatiable. Go now, and say that the sin of impurity is but a small evil. At the hour of death you shall not say so; every sin of that kind shall then appear to you a monster of Hell. Much less, shall you say so before the Judgement-Seat of Jesus Christ, Who will tell you what the Apostle has already told you, No fornicator, or unclean . . . hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God — Ephesians 5:5. The man who has lived like a brute does not deserve to sit with the angels.

Most beloved brethren, let us continue to pray to God to deliver us from this vice; if we do not, we shall lose our souls. The sin of impurity brings with it blindness and obstinacy. Every vice produces darkness of understanding; but impurity produces it in a greater degree than all other sins. “Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness, take away the understanding” –  Hosea 4:11. Wine deprives us of understanding and reason; so does impurity. Hence Saint Thomas says that the man who indulges in unchaste pleasures does not live according to reason. “In nullo procedit secundum judicium rationis”. Now if the unchaste are deprived of light, and no longer see the evil which they do, how can they abhor it and amend their lives? The Prophet Hosea says that, being blinded by their own mire, they do not even think of returning to God; because their impurities take away from them all knowledge of God. “They will not set their thoughts to return to their God: for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord” – Hosea 5:4. Hence Saint Lawrence Justinian writes that this sin makes men forget God. “Delights of the flesh induce forgetfulness of God”. And Saint John Damascene teaches that “the carnal man cannot look at the light of truth”. Thus, the lewd and voluptuous no longer understand what is meant by the grace of God, by judgment, Hell, and eternity. “Fire hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun” – Psalm 57:9. Some of these blind miscreants go so far as to say that fornication is not in itself sinful. They say that it was not forbidden in the Old Law; and in support of this execrable doctrine, they adduce the words of the Lord to Hosea, “Go, take thee a wife of fornications, and have of her children of fornications” – Hosea 1:2. In answer I say that God did not permit Hosea to commit fornication; but wished him to take for his wife a woman who had been guilty of fornication; and the children of this marriage were called children of fornication, because the mother had been guilty of that crime. This is, according to Saint Jerome, the meaning of the words of the Lord to Hosea. “Idcirco”, says the holy doctor, “fornicationis appellandi sunt filii, quod sunt de meretrice generati”. But fornication was always forbidden, under pain of mortal sin, in the Old, as well as the New Law. Saint Paul says, “No fornicator, or unclean, . . hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” – Ephesians 5:5. Behold the impiety to which the blindness of such sinners carries them! From this blindness it arises that, though they go to the sacraments, their confessions are null for want of true contrition; for how is it possible for them to have true sorrow when they neither know nor abhor their sins?

 The vice of impurity also brings with it obstinacy. To conquer temptations, particularly against chastity, continual prayer is necessary. Watch ye, and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” — Mark 14:38. But how will the unchaste, who are always seeking to be tempted, pray to God to deliver them from temptation? They sometimes, as Saint Augustine confessed of himself, even abstain from prayer, through fear of being heard and cured of the disease which they wish to continue. I feared, said the saint, that you would soon hear and heal the sin of concupiscence, which I wished to be satiated rather than extinguished. Saint Peter calls this vice an unceasing sin. Having eyes full of adultery and of sin that ceaseth not—2 Peter 2:14. Impurity is called an unceasing sin on account of the obstinacy which it induces. Some persons addicted to this vice say: I always confess the sin. So much the worse; for, since you always relapse into the sin, these confessions serve to make you persevere in the sin. The fear of punishment is diminished by saying: I always confess the sin. If you felt that this sin certainly merits Hell, you would scarcely say: I will not give it up; I do not care if I am damned. But the Devil deceives you. Commit this sin, he says, for you afterwards confess it. But to make a good confession of your sins, you must have true sorrow of the heart and a firm purpose to sin no more. Where are this sorrow and this firm purpose of amendment, when you always return to the vomit? If you had had these dispositions and had received sanctifying grace at your confessions, you should not have relapsed, or at least you should have abstained for a considerable time from relapsing. You have always fallen back into sin in eight or ten days, and perhaps in a shorter time, after confession. What sign is this? It is a sign that you were always in enmity with God. If a sick man instantly vomits the medicine which he takes, it is a sign that his disease is incurable.

Saint Jerome says,that the vice of impurity, when habitual, will cease when the unhappy man who indulges in it,is cast into the fire of Hell. “O infernal fire, lust, whose fuel is gluttony, whose sparks are brief conversations, whose end is Hell.” The unchaste become like the vulture that waits to be killed by the fowler, rather than abandon the rottenness of the dead bodies on which it feeds. This is what happened to a young woman, who, after having lived in the habit of sin with a young man, fell sick, and appeared to be converted. At the hour of death, she asked leave of her confessor to send for the young man, in order to exhort him to change his life at the sight of her death. The confessor very imprudently gave the permission and taught her what she should say to her accomplice in sin. But listen to what happened. As soon as she saw him, she forgot her promise to the confessor and the exhortation she was to give to the young man. And what did she do? She raised herself up, sat in the bed, stretched her arms to him, and said: Friend, I have always loved you, and even now, at the end of my life, I love you; I see that on your account I shall go to Hell, but I do not care; I am willing, for the love of you, to be damned. After these words, she fell back on the bed and expired. These facts are related by Father Segneri. Oh! how difficult it is for a person who has contracted a habit of this vice to amend his life and return sincerely to God! How difficult is it for him not to terminate this habit in Hell, like the unfortunate young woman of whom I have just spoken.

Illusion of those who say that God takes pity on this sin

The votaries of lust say that God takes pity on this sin; but such is not the language of Saint Thomas of Villanova. He says that in the sacred Scriptures we do not read of any sin so severely chastised as the sin of impurity. “Luxuriae facinus prae aliis punitum legimus” – Sermon 4. We find in the Scriptures, that in punishment of this sin, a deluge of fire descended from Heaven on four cities, and in an instant, consumed not only the inhabitants, but even the very stones. “And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth” – Genesis 19:24-25. Saint Peter Damian relates that a man and woman who had sinned against purity, were found burnt and black as a cinder.

Salvian writes that it was in punishment of the sin of impurity that God sent on the Earth the universal deluge, which was caused by continued rain for forty days and forty nights. In this deluge, the waters rose fifteen cubits above the tops of the highest mountains; and only eight persons along with Noah were saved in the ark. The rest of the inhabitants of the Earth, who were more numerous then than at present, were punished with death in chastisement of the vice of impurity. Mark the words of the Lord in speaking of this chastisement which He inflicted on that sin. “My Spirit shall not remain in man forever, because he is flesh” – Genesis 6:3. “That is”, says Liranus, “too deeply involved in carnal sins”. The Lord added, “For it repenteth Me that I have made them” – Genesis 6:7. The indignation of God is not like ours, which clouds the mind, and drives us into excesses; His wrath is a judgment perfectly just and tranquil, by which God punishes and repairs the disorders of sin. But to make us understand the intensity of His hatred for the sin of impurity, He represents Himself as if sorry for having created man, who offended Him so grievously by this vice. We, at the present day, see more severe temporal punishment inflicted on this, than on any other sin. Go into the hospitals, and listen to the shrieks of so many young men, who, in punishment of their impurities, are obliged to submit to the severest treatment and to the most painful operations, and who, if they escape death, are, according to the divine threat, feeble, and subject to the most excruciating pain for the remainder of their lives. “Because thou hast forgotten Me, and hast cast Me off behind thy back, bear thou also thy wickedness, and thy fornications” – Ezekiel 23:35.

Saint Remigius writes, that if children be excepted, the number of adults that are saved, is few, on account of the sins of the flesh. “Exceptis parvulis ex adultis propter vitiam carnis pauci salvantur”. In conformity with this doctrine, it was revealed to a holy soul, that as pride has filled Hell with devils, so impurity fills it with men. Saint Isidore assigns this reason. He says that there is no vice which so much enslaves men to the Devil as impurity. “Magis per luxuriam, humanum genus subditur diabolo, quam per aliquod aliud” – Saint Isidore. Hence Saint Augustine says, that with regard to this sin, the combat is common, and the victory rare. Hence it is that on account of this sin, Hell is filled with souls.

All that I have said on this subject, has been said, not that anyone present, who has been addicted to the vice of impurity, may be driven to despair, but that such persons may be cured. Let us then come to the remedies. There are two great remedies; prayer and the flight of dangerous occasions. Prayer, says Saint Gregory of Nyssa, is the safeguard of Chastity. “Oratio pudicitiae praesidium et tutamen est”. And before him, Solomon, speaking of himself, said the same. “And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, . . . I went to the Lord, and besought Him” – Wisdom 8:21. Thus it is impossible for us to conquer this vice without God’s assistance. Hence, as soon as a temptation against chastity presents itself, the remedy is to turn instantly to God for help, and to repeat several times the most holy names of Jesus and Mary, which have a special virtue to banish bad thoughts of that kind. I have said immediately, without listening to, or beginning to argue with the temptation. When a bad thought occurs in the mind, it is necessary to shake it off instantly, as you would a spark that flies from the fire, and instantly to invoke aid from Jesus and Mary.

 As to the flight of dangerous occasions, Saint Philip Neri used to say, that cowards – that is, they who fly from the occasions – gain the victory. Hence, you must, in the first place, keep a restraint on the eyes, and must abstain from looking at young females. Otherwise, says Saint Thomas, you can scarcely avoid this sin.  Hence Job said: “I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin” – Job 31:1. He was afraid to look at a virgin; because from looks it is easy to pass to desires, and from desires to acts. Saint Francis de Sales used to say, that to look at a woman does not do so much evil, as to look at her a second time. If the Devil has not gained a victory the first, he will gain it the second time. And if it be necessary to abstain from looking at females, it is much more necessary to avoid conversation with them. “Tarry not among women” – Ecclesiasticus 42:12. We should be persuaded that, in avoiding occasions of this sin, no caution can be too great. Hence we must be always fearful, and fly from them. “A wise man feareth, and declineth from evil: the fool leapeth over, and is confident” – Proverbs 14:16. A wise man is timid, and flies away; a fool is confident, and falls.

MOST HOLY NAME OF MARY

 

Feast day of The Most Holy Name Of Mary

MEDITATION                         

St. Alphonsus writes of the name of Mary: "This name was neither invented on earth nor imposed by human agency. It came from heaven and was given to the Mother of God by divine command." Just as it is a peculiar glory of our Saviour's name, that "God hath given Him a name which is above all names, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth" (Philipp. ii. 9), thus it also behooves that Mary, the most perfect, the most pure, and most exalted of all created beings, should receive a most holy, lovely, and powerful name. St. Methodius declares that the name of Mary is so rich in grace and blessing, that no one can pronounce it devoutly without at the same time receiving a spiritual favor. Bl. Jordan exclaims: "Let a heart be ever so obdurate, let a man even despair of God's mercy, if he have recourse to thee, O Mary, virgin most clement, he can not fail to be softened and filled with confidence if he invokes thy name; for thou wilt inspire him with hope in God's mercy, pardon, and grace."

It is, then, meet and just that we should devoutly honor and praise the name of Mary. Let us never mention it except in reverence and devotion. 

Let us invoke Mary by it in all dangers of body and soul, mindful of the words of St. Bernard: "O sinner, when the floods and tempests of this earthly life overwhelm thee so that thou canst not firmly set thy foot, turn not away thy gaze from the light of this guiding star. When the storms of temptation assail thee, and the rocks and quicksands of vexation and trial threaten to shatter thy bark of hope, look up to that bright star in the heavens, and call on the name of Mary. When the billows of pride and of ambition, when the floods of calumny are about to submerge thee, look up to this star and call on the name of Mary. When anger, avarice, and concupiscence convulse the peace of thy soul, look up to this star and call on Mary. When thy sins rise up like hideous monsters before thy troubled vision, when thy conscience stings thee, when the terrors of future judgment fill thee with deadly anguish, when gloom and sadness overpower thee, when thou findest thyself on the brink of hellish despair, take courage; think of Mary, and thou wilt find from thy own inward experience how true are the sayings of those who tell thee that the name of the Blessed Virgin is 'Star of the Sea,' the name of the Virgin is Mary."

We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God. Despise not our petitions in our necessities, and deliver us from all dangers, O ever glorious and blessed Virgin!

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST - ALL ENDS, AND SOON ENDS.

 

ALL ENDS, AND SOON ENDS.

The grass of the field, which is today and tomorrow, is cast into the oven. MATT. vii. 30.

 ALL ENDS, AND SOON ENDS.

Behold! All the goods of the earth are like the grass of the field, which today is blooming and beautiful, but in the evening it withers and loses its flowers, and the next day is cast into the fire. This is what God commanded the Prophet Isaiah to preach when he said to him: "Cry out. What shall I cry out? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof is as the flower of the field. (Isa. xl. 6. Hence, St. James compares the rich of this world to the flower of grass: at the end of their journey through life, they rot, along with all their riches and pomps. The rich. . . Because, like the flower of the grass, he shall pass away. For the sun rose with a burning heat, and parched the grass, and the flower thereof fell off, and the beauty of the shape thereof perished: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. St. James, they fade away and are cast into the fire, like the rich glutton who made a splendid appearance in this life, but afterwards was buried in hell.  Let us, then, dearly beloved Christians, attend to the salvation of our souls, and to the acquisition of riches for eternity, which never ends; for everything in this world ends, and ends very soon.

Everything ends

When one of the great of this world is in the full enjoyment of the riches and honours which he has acquired, death shall come, and he shall be told: Take order with thy house; for thou shalt die, and not live. Oh! ” What doleful tidings! The unhappy man must then say: Farewell, world! Farewell, villa! farewell, grotto! Farewell, relatives! Farewell, friends! Farewell, sports! Farewell, balls! Farewell, comedies! Farewell, banquets! Farewell, honours! All is over for me. There is no remedy: whether he will or not, he must leave all. When he dies, he shall take nothing away, nor shall his glory descend with him. St. Bernard says that death produces a horrible separation of the soul from the body and from all the things of this earth. "morti“ horrendum divortium.” (Serm. xxvi., in Cant.)

To the great of this world, whom worldlings regard as the most fortunate of mortals, the bare name of death is so full of terror that they are unwilling even to hear it mentioned; for their entire concern is to find peace in their earthly goods. death! Ecclesiasticus, How bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions. But how much greater bitterness shall death itself cause when it actually comes to the miserable man who is attached to the goods of this world! Every separation produces pain. Hence, when the soul shall be separated by the stroke of death from the goods on which she had fixed all her affections, the pain must be excruciating. It was this that made King Agag exclaim when the news of approaching death was announced to him: “Doth bitter death separate me in this manner? 

The great misfortune of worldlings is that when they are on the point of being summoned to judgment, instead of endeavouring to adjust the accounts of their souls, they direct all their attention to earthly things. But, says St. John Chrysostom, the punishment which awaits sinners, on account of having forgotten God during life, is that they forget themselves at the hour of death. “Anima dversione percutitur impius, ut moriens obliviscatur sui, qui vivens oblitus est Dei. But how great soever a man’s attachment to the things of this world may be, he must take leave of them at death. Naked he has entered into this world, and naked he shall depart from it. says Job, “I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither.

In a word, they who have spent their whole life having lost their sleep, their health, and their peace in accumulating riches and possessions shall take nothing with them at the hour of death: their eyes shall then be opened; and of all they had so dearly acquired, they shall find nothing in their hands. Hence, on that night of confusion, they shall be overwhelmed in a tempest of pain and sadness. “ rich man, When he sleeps, he shall take away nothing with him! He shall open his eyes and find nothing... a tempest shall oppress him in the night.

St. Antonine relates that Saladin, king of the Saracens, gave orders at the hour of death that the winding sheet in which he was to be buried should be carried before him to the grave, and that a person should cry out: “Of all his possessions, this only shall Saladin bring with him.” The saint also relates that a certain philosopher, speaking of Alexander the Great after his death, said: “Behold the man that made the earth tremble.” The earth,  as the Scripture says, was quiet before him.  He is now under the earth. Behold the man whom the dominion of the whole world could not satisfy: now four palms of ground are sufficient for him. Terram heri conculcabat, hodie ab ea conculcatur; et cui heri non sufficiebat mundus, hodie sufficiunt quatuor ulnæ terræ.Augustine, or some other ancient writer, says that, having gone to see the tomb of Caesar, he exclaimed: “Princes feared thee; cities worshipped thee; all trembled before thee; where has thy magnificence gone?” 

Listen to what David says: “I have seen the wicked highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon. And I passed by, and lo! he was not. Oh! How many such spectacles are seen every day in the world! A sinner who has been born in lowliness and afterwards acquires wealth and honors, so as to excite the envy of all. When he dies, everyone says, He made a fortune in the world; but now he is dead, and with death all is over for him.

 

Why are earth and ashes proud? Such is the language which the Lord addresses to the man who is puffed up by earthly honors and earthly riches. "Miserable creature, whence comes such pride? You enjoy honors and riches; remember that you are dust. "For dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return. You must die, and after death, what advantage shall you derive from the honours and possessions which now inflate you with pride? Go, says St. Ambrose, to a cemetery, in which are buried the rich and poor, and see if you can discern among them who has been rich and who has been poor; all are naked, and nothing remains of the richest among them but a few withered bones. ” Respi sepulchra, die mihi, quis ibi dives, quis pauper sit vexam. . How profitable would the remembrance of death be to the man who lives in the world! shall be brought to the grave, and shall watch in the heap of the dead. At the sight of these dead bodies, he would remember death, and that he would one day be like them. Thus, he should be awakened from the deadly sleep in which perhaps he lives in a state of perdition. But the misfortune is that worldlings are unwilling to think of death until the hour comes when they must depart from this earth to go into eternity; therefore, they live as attached to the world as if they were never to be separated from it. But our life is short, and shall soon end: thus all things must end, and must soon end

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST – AVOIDING BAD COMPANY

 

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST – ON AVOIDING BAD COMPANY

“There met him ten men that were lepers… As they went, they were made clean.” Luke xvii. 12, 14.

In this day’s gospel it is related, that ten lepers of a certain town met Jesus Christ, and entreated him to heal the leprosy under which they labored. The Lord bid them go and present themselves to the priests of the temple; but before they reached the temple they were cured. Now it may be asked why our Saviour, who could heal them in an instant, wished them to go to the priests, and healed them on the way. A certain author (Anthony of Lisbon) says that Jesus Christ foresaw that, had he cured them on the spot, they, by remaining in the place and conversing with the other lepers, from whom they took the leprosy, should easily relapse into the same disease. Therefore, he first wished them to depart from the place and then healed them. Whatever may be thought of this reason, let us come to the moral sense which may be deduced from it. The leprosy resembles sin. As the leprosy is a contagious disease, so the bad habits of the wicked infect others who associate with them. Hence, the leper who wishes to be cured shall never be healed unless he separates from bad companions. He that keeps company with robbers soon becomes a thief. In this discourse I shall show, that, to lead a good life, it is necessary to avoid bad companions.

“A friend of fools,” says the Holy Ghost, “shall become like them.” - Prov. xiii. 20.

 Christians who live in enmity with God are, Father M. Avila used to say, all fools, who deserve to be shut up in a mad-house. For, what greater madness can be conceived than to believe in hell and to live in sin? But the man who contracts an intimacy with these fools shall soon be come like them. Although he should hear all the sermons of the sacred orators, lie will continue in vice, according to the celebrated maxim: ”Examples make greater impressions than words.” Hence the Royal Prophet has said: ”With the elect thou wilt be elect, and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted.” (Ps. xvii. 27.) St. Augustine says, that familiarity with sinners is as it were a hook which draws us to communicate in their vices. Let us, said the saint, avoid wicked friends, ”lest by their company we may be drawn to a communion of vice.” St. Thomas teaches, that to know whom we should avoid is a great means of saving our souls. Firma tutela salutis est, sciro quem fugiamus.”

“Let their way become dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord pursue them.” Ps. xxxiv.6. 

All men in this life walk in the midst of darkness and in a slippery way. If, then, a bad angel that is, a wicked companion, who is worse than any devil pursue them, and endeavour to drive them into an abyss, who shall be able to escape death?”Talis eris,” says Plato, “qualis conversatio quam sequeris ?” And St. John Chrysostom said, that if we wish to know a man‟s moral habits, we have only to observe the character of the friends with whom he associates; because friendship finds or makes him like his friends. ”Vis nosse hominem, attende quorum familiaritate assuescat: amicitia aut pares invenit, aut pares fecit.” First, because, to please his friends, a man will endeavour to imitate them; secondly, because, as Seneca says, nature inclines men to do what they see others do. And the Scripture says: * They were mingled among the heathens, and learned their works.” (Ps. cv. 35.) According to St. Basil, as air which comes from pestilential places causes infection, so, by conversation with bad companions, we almost imperceptibly contract their vices. ”Quemadmodum in pestilentibus locis sensim attractus aër latentem corporibus morbuin iujicit sic itidem in prava couversatione maxima a nobis mala hauriuntur, etiamsi statim incommodum non sentiatur.” (St. Bas., Hom, ix., ex var. quod Deus, etc.) And St. Bernard says that St. Peter, in consequence of associating with the enemies of Jesus Christ, denied his Master. ”Existens cum passionis dominicæ ministris, Doininum, negavit.” 

But how, asks St. Ambrose, can bad companions give you the odor of chastity, when they exhale the stench of impurity? How can they infuse into you sentiments of devotion when they themselves fly from it? 

How can they impart to you a shame of offending God, when they cast it away?”Quid tibi demonstrant castitatem, quem non habent? Devotionem quam non sequuntur? Verecundiam quam projiciunt?” St. Augustine writes of himself, that when he associated with bad companions, who boasted of their wickedness, he felt himself impelled to sin without shame; and to appear like them, he gloried in his evil actions. ”Pudebat,” he says, ”me esse pudentem.” (Lib. 2, de Conf., c. ix.) Hence Isaias admonishes you to”touch no unclean thing.” (Isa. lii. 11.) Touch not what is unclean: if you do, you too shall be polluted. He that handles pitch, says Ecclesiasticus, shall certainly be denied with it; and they who keep company with the proud shall be clothed with pride. The same holds for other vices: ”He that toucheth pitch shall be denied with it; and he that hath fellowship with the proud shall put on pride.”Eccl. xiii.1

What then must we do? The Wise Man tells us that we ought not only to avoid the vices of the wicked, but also to beware of treading in the ways in which they walk. ”Restrain thy foot from their paths.” (Prov. i. 15.) That is, we should avoid their conversations, their discourses, their feasts, and all the allurements and presents with which they will seek to entice us into their net. ”My son,” says Solomon, “if sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them.” (Prov. i. 10.) Without the decoy, birds are not enticed into the fowler’s net. ”Will the bird fall into the snare upon the earth if there be no fowler?” (Amos iii. 5.) The devil employs vicious friends as decoys, to draw so many souls into the snare of sin. “My enemies, ” says Jeremias, ”have chased me, and have caught me like a bird without cause.” (Lamen. iii. 52.) He says, without cause. Ask the wicked why they have made a certain innocent young man fall into sin, and they will answer: We have done it without cause; we only wish to see him do what we ourselves do. This, says St. Ephrem, is one of the artifices of the devil: when he has caught a soul in his net, he makes him a snare, or a decoy, to deceive others. ”Cum primum capta fuerit, anima, ad alias decipiendas fit quasi laqueus.”

Hence, it is necessary to avoid, as you would a plague, all familiarity with those scorpions of hell. I have said that you must avoid familiarity with them that is, all fellowship in their banquets or conversation; for never to meet them is, as the Apostle says, impossible. ”Otherwise you must needs go out of this world.”           1Cor. v. 10.

But, it is in our power to abstain from familiar intercourse with them. ”But now I have written to you not to keep company, etc. with such a one, not so much as to eat.” (Ibid. v. 11.) I have called them scorpions: so they have been called by the Prophet Ezechiel. ”Thou art among unbelievers and destroyers, and thou dwellest among scorpions.” (Ezec. ii. 6 ) Would you live in the midst of scorpions? You must, then, fly from scandalous friends, who, by their bad examples and words, poison your soul. ”A man‟s enemies shall be they of his own household.” (Matt. x. 36.) Wicked friends, that are very familiar and intimate with us, become the most pernicious enemies of our souls. ”Who,” says Ecclesiasticus, ”will pity an enchanter struck by a serpent, or any that come near wild beasts? So it is with him that keepeth company with a wicked man.” (Eccl. xii. 13.) If the man that makes free with serpents, or with ferocious wild beasts, be bitten or devoured by them, who will take pity on him? And so it is with him who associates with scandalous companions; if, by their bad example he be contaminated and lost, neither God nor man will have compassion on him; because he was cautioned to fly from their society. 

One scandalous companion is enough to corrupt all who treat him as a friend. ”Know you not,” says St. Paul, ”that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump ?”        1 Cor. v. 7.

One of these scandalous sinners is able, by a perverse maxim, to infect all his companions. They are the false prophets whom Jesus Christ warns us to avoid. “Beware of false prophets.” (Matt. vii. 15 ) False prophets deceive, not only by false predictions, but also by false maxims or doctrines, which are productive of the greatest mischief. For, as Seneca says, they leave in the soul certain seeds of iniquity which lead to evil. ”Semina in animo relinqueunt, quæ inducunt ad malum. ” It is too true that scandalous language, as experience proves, corrupts the morals of those who hear it. “Evil communications,” says the Apostle, corrupt good manners. ” (1 Cor xv 63.) A young man refuses, through the fear of God, to commit a certain sin: an incarnate devil, a bad companion comes and says to him what the serpent said to Eve: “No; you shall not die the death.” (Gen. iii. 4.) What are you afraid of? How many others commit this sin? You are young; God will have pity on your youth. They will as is written in the book of Wisdom, say Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present-let us everywhere leave tokens of joy (ii 6 9) Come with us; let us spend our time in amusement and in joy. ”O nimis imqua amicitia,” says St. Augustine, cum dicitur, eamus, facimus: pudet non esse impudentum O cruel friendship of those who say let us go and do etc.: it is a shame not to be shameless. He who hears such language is ashamed not to yield to it and not be as shameless as they who utter it 

When any passion is kindled within us, we must be particularly careful in selecting the persons whom we will consult. 

For, then the passion itself will incline us to seek counsel from those who will probably give the advice which is most agreeable to the passion. But from such evil counselors, who do not speak according to God, we should fly with greater horror than from an enemy; for their evil counsel, along with the passion which is excited, may precipitate us into horrible excesses. As soon as the passion shall subside we shall see the error committed, and the delusion into which we have been led by false friends. But the good advice of a friend, who speaks according to Christian truth and meekness preserves us from every disorder, and restores calm to the soul.

”Depart from the unjust,” says the Lord, and evils shall depart from thee.”  Eccl. vii. 2.
Fly, separate from wicked companions, and you shall cease to commit sin. ”Neither let the way of evil men please thee. Flee from it: pass not by it: go aside and forsake it.” Prov. iv. 14, 15.
Avoid the ways in which these vicious friends walk, that you may not even meet them. ”Forsake not an old friend; for the new will not be like to him.” Eccl. ix. 14. 

Do not leave your first friend, who loved you before you came into the world. ”I have loved thee with an everlasting love.”  Jer. xxxi. 3. 
Your new friends do not love you; they hate you more than your greatest enemy: they seek not your welfare, as God, does, but their own pleasures, and the satisfaction of having companions of their wickedness and perdition. You will, perhaps, say: I feel a repugnance to separate from such a friend, who has been solicitous for my welfare; to break off from him would appear to be an act of ingratitude. What welfare? What ingratitude? God alone wishes your welfare, because he desires your eternal salvation. Your friend wishes your eternal ruin; he wishes you to follow him, but cares not if you be damned. It is not ingratitude to abandon a friend who leads you to hell; but it is ingratitude to forsake God, who has created you, who has died for you on the cross, and who desires your salvation.

Fly then from the conversation of these wicked friends. ”Hedge in thy ears with thorns, hear not a wicked tongue.”  - Eccl. xxviii. 28.

Beware of listening to the language of such friends; their words may bring you to perdition. And when you hear them speak improperly arm yourself with thorns, and reprove them, not only for the purpose of rebuking, but also of converting them. ”Ut non solum,” says St. Augustine, ”repellantur sed etiam compungantur.” 

Listen to a frightful example, and learn the evil which a wicked friend does. Father Sabatino relates in his “Evangelical Light” that two friends of that kind were one day together. One of them, to please the other, committed a sin; but after they had separated he died suddenly. The other, who knew nothing of his death, saw, in his sleep, his friend, and, according to his custom, ran to embrace him. But the deceased appeared to be surrounded with, fire, and began to blaspheme the other, and to upbraid him for being the cause of his damnation. The other awoke and changed his life. But his unhappy friend was damned; and for his damnation there is not, and shall not be, any remedy for all eternity. 

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By St. Alphonsus de Liguori

On this day, the Church celebrates, in honor of Mary, two solemn festivals: the first is that of her happy passage from this world; the second, that of her glorious Assumption into Heaven.

In the present discourse, we shall speak of her happy passage from this world; and in the next, of her glorious Assumption.

How precious was the death of Mary!

Death being the punishment for sin, it would seem that the Divine Mother, all holy and exempt as she was from its slightest stain, should also have been exempt from death and from encountering the misfortunes to which the children of Adam, infected by the poison of sin, are subject. But God was pleased that Mary should in all things resemble Jesus; and as the Son died, it was becoming that the Mother should also die; because, moreover, He wished to give the just an example of the precious death prepared for them, He willed that even the most Blessed Virgin should die, but by a sweet and happy death. Let us, therefore, now consider how precious Mary's death was: first, on account of the special favors by which it was accompanied; secondly, on account of the manner in which it took place.

     There are three things which render death bitter: attachment to the world, remorse for sins, and the uncertainty of salvation. The death of Mary was entirely free from these causes of bitterness, and was accompanied by three special graces, which rendered it precious and joyful. She died as she had lived, entirely detached from the things of the world; she died in the most perfect peace; she died in the certainty of eternal glory. 

And in the first place, there can be no doubt that attachment to earthly things renders the death of the worldly bitter and miserable, as the Holy Ghost says: "O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man who hath peace in his possessions!'' But because the Saints die detached from the things of the world, their death is not bitter, but sweet, lovely, and precious; that is to say, as Saint Bernard remarks, worth purchasing at any price, however great.  Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Who are they who, being already dead, die? They are those happy souls who pass into eternity already detached, and, so to say, dead to all affection for terrestrial things; and who, like Saint Francis of Assisi, found in God alone all their happiness, and with him could say, 'My God and my all.' But what soul was ever more detached from earthly goods, and more united to God, than the beautiful soul of Mary? She was detached from her parents; for at the age of three years, when children are most attached to them and stand in the greatest need of their assistance, Mary, with the greatest intrepidity, left them and went to shut herself up in the temple to attend to God alone. She was detached from riches, contenting herself to be always poor, and supporting herself with the labour of her own hands. She was detached from honours, loving a humble and abject life, though the honours due to a queen were hers, as she was descended from the kings of Israel. The Blessed Virgin herself revealed to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary that when her parents left her in the temple, she resolved in her heart to have no father, and to love no other good than God.

  Saint John saw Mary represented in that woman, clothed with the sun, who held the moon under her feet. And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet. Interpreters explain the moon to signify the goods of this world, which, like her, are uncertain and changeable. Mary never had these goods in her heart, but always despised them and trampled them under her feet; living in this world as a solitary turtle-dove in a desert, never allowing her affection to centre itself on any earthly thing; so that of her it was said: The voice of the turtle is heard in our land.  And elsewhere: Who is she that goeth up by the desert? When the Abbot Rupert says: Thus didst thou go up by the desert; that is, having a solitary soul, Mary, then, having lived always and in all things detached from the earth, and united to God alone, death was not bitter, but, on the contrary, very sweet and dear to her; since it united her more closely to God in heaven, by an eternal bond.

Secondly, peace of mind renders the death of the just precious. Sins committed during life are the worms which so cruelly torment and gnaw the hearts of poor dying sinners, who, about to appear before the Divine tribunal, see themselves at that moment surrounded by their sins, which terrify them and cry out, according to Saint Bernard, 'We are thy works; we will not abandon thee.' Mary certainly could not be tormented at death by any remorse of conscience, for she was always pure and always free from the least shade of actual or original sin; so much so that of her it was said: "Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee." From the moment that she had the use of reason, that is, from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception in the womb of Saint Anne, she began to love God with all her strength, and continued to do so, always advancing more and more throughout her whole life in love and perfection. All her thoughts, desires, and affections were of and for God alone. She never uttered a word, made a movement, cast a glance, or breathed, but for God and His glory; and never departed a step or detached herself for a single moment from the Divine love. Ah, how all the lovely virtues she had practised during life surrounded her blessed bed in the happy hour of her death! That faith so constant; that loving confidence in God; that unconquerable patience in the midst of so many sufferings; that humility in the midst of so many privileges; that modesty; that meekness; that tender compassion for souls; that insatiable zeal for the glory of God; and, above all, that most perfect love towards Him, with that entire uniformity to the Divine will: all, in a word, surrounded her, and consoling her, said: 'We are thy works; we will not abandon thee.' Our Lady and Mother, we are all daughters of thy beautiful heart; now that thou art leaving this miserable life, we will not leave thee. We also will go, and be thy eternal accompaniment and honour in Paradise, where, by our means, thou wilt reign as Queen of all men and of all angels.

In the third place, the certainty of eternal salvation renders death sweet. Death is called a passage; for by death we pass from a short to an eternal life. And as the dread of those is indeed great who die in doubt of their salvation, and who approach the solemn moment with well-grounded fear of passing into eternal death; thus, on the other hand, the joy of the Saints is indeed great at the close of life, holding with some security to go and possess God in heaven.