Sermon for the 5thSunday after Easter, May 22nd, 2022

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen

 

 

My dearly beloved in Our Lord,

 

On this Sunday, and on the following Rogation days – the three days before Our Lord’s Ascension – Holy Church teaches us to pray. Together with the Gospel of the Rogation Mass, we learn that only prayer in the name of Jesus Christ is acceptable and efficient. Here it is particularly about the demanding purpose of prayer; the other ends of prayer being adoration, thanksgiving and atonement for sins.

Much of what Our Lord was saying in his last discourse to the Apostles – Jn ch.14-17 – remained dark for the Apostles until after his Resurrection and the sending of the Holy Ghost. This clearly shows that they have been privileged at Pentecost with such extraordinary graces, in view of being destined to lay the foundations of the Church; “in medio Ecclesiæ… in the midst of the Church” (Sir 15:5), as we pray on the feasts of Holy Doctors. Pope St Leo the Great thus teaches: “In the universal Church it is as if Peter were still saying every day: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. For every tongue which confesseth the Lord is taught that confession by the teaching of Peter. This is the Faith that overcometh the devil and looseth the bonds of his prisoners. This is the Faith which maketh men free of the world and bringeth them to heaven, and the gates of hell are impotent to prevail against it. This is the rock which God hath fortified with such ramparts of salvation, that the contagion of heresy will never be able to infect it, nor idolatry and unbelief to overcome it.” (Sermo 2 in anniversario assumpt. suæ)

As a consequence of this, and of the theological explanations which Our Lord gives in today’s Gospel, only those who believe in Our Lord, true God and true man, can ask him with the assurance of being heard: “These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh, when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will shew you plainly of the Father. In that day you shall ask in my name; and I say not to you, that I will ask the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” (Jn 16:25-27) Only those who are truly incorporated into Christ’s mystical body, the Church, through the true Faith and Baptism, and are animated by Divine Charity, have a right to be heard. Christ explains in the sermon on the mount: “Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.“ (Mt 7:20-23) Thus not any kind of faith in Our Lord saves the souls; but only the true Faith which bears fruits of justice through effective Charity.

This again is confirmed by the next verse in today’s Gospel (v. 28): “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and I go to the Father.” To this we have to add the many statements in which Our Lord professes his union of nature with the Father (Jn 10:30; 17:11), and the Holy Ghost (Mt 28:19). Truth and Charity are the very bonds defining and uniting the three Divine Persons. Similarly there can be no real unity among humans if they do not care about the truth and the works of charity. The “moderns” who “believe in something” or that “there is someone up there”; the Protestants who invoke Christ while refusing to know his true nature and constitution, and being part of the one true Church – they all are far off the way to Heaven!

This verse also contains the entire story of the Redemption: the divine will to save the souls of good will by sending His own Son. It is so simple and clear that the Apostles are enlightened by a rayon of divine light and acknowledge their master’s divinity: “His disciples say to him: Behold, now thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now we know that thou knowest all things, and thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God.” (v. 29-30)

In the light of this sublime doctrine we can better understand the first verses of today’s Gospel: “Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked any thing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full.” (v. 23-24) The last words are further explained by Our Lord’s words which we read in the Gospel of the Rogation Mass:

“And he said to them: Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me, and I have not what to set before him. And he from within should answer, and say: Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise, and give him as many as he needeth. And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?” (Lk 11:5-13)

Let us pray, then, according to Our Lord’s instructions and wishes.

Do not forget that our prayers will be infinitely more pleasing to God, and therefore efficient, if we address them to Him not only through Our Lord, but to Our Lord through His Blessed Mother, the Queen of May, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Refuge of Sinners… and to her through the intercession of other Saints, as today through St Rita of Cascia, a holy widow, and patron Saint of desperate cases. God is almighty, and nothing is impossible for him. In this faith and trust we shall live and die!

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski.

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after Easter, May 8th 2022

 “Zla vremena, teška vremena, to je što ljudi govore; ali živimo dobro, i vremena će biti dobra. Mi smo vremena: takvi kakvi smo mi, takva će biti i vremena.”
Sv. Augustin

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

 

My dearly beloved in Our Lord,

 

Holy Church gives us to read the Apocalypse of St John in the Breviary, during this week. And Our Lord speaks about the “short time”, “a little time” before the Apostles will see him again.

“Short is this entire time in which the present world is passing”, comments St Augustine.

Therefore we should always consider the shortness of time, if we want to make sure our being chosen for eternal life. For it is dangerous for a traveler to consider himself a resident; as it would be very foolish for someone staying in a place for a night or two, to go out and buy new furniture for the place in which he is only going to stay for a little while!

Time is short because the lifespan of humans has been cut down drastically by God. The early generations of mankind lived on for centuries, as Holy Scripture teaches. Later, as men started behaving more and more wickedly, God limited our lifespan to 120 years. The Psalms say that we only live for 70 or 80 years, and even during this lapse of time we endure much labor and pain: “The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years. But if in the strong they be fourscore years: and what is more of them is labour and sorrow.” (Ps 89:10)

Therefore Christian wisdom teaches us that we must make good use of the relatively little time which we are granted. All the time we should try to do good, and progress in virtue. If we have spent a long time offending God, we must make up for this time by regretting our sins ever more carefully and more deeply, by a true contrition of heart and by worthy works of penance!

Time is short because we have no assurance of any kind with regards to the length of our life. All too readily we consider that the average lifespan often indicated in statistics, is the minimum age to which we will live. But of course this is not true! Our life can end today, tonight or tomorrow.

Therefore we need to make ourselves ready to die and to give an account of all our thoughts, words and deeds to God, our Creator and our Redeemer. The art of dying a holy death and going to Heaven, consists in living up to the present moment, and to serve God now as if it were our last hour. St Augustine also reminds us of this when he comments on the “little time”: “Therefore the same Evangelist says in his Epistle: ‘It is the last hour’.” It is great time, therefore, to take care of our soul.

People today want to have a “great time”. But in their understanding this means enjoying themselves, as they say. A Catholic has a “great time” scrutinizing what God wants him to do, and then to execute God’s holy will.

It is of little interest for a Catholic to know whether the present crisis in Ukraine will spell “the beginning of the end”, a worldwide conflagration leading to the death of many. Or whether the warming of our globe will lead to the consequences portrayed in the liveliest colors day and night by the media. All this is but a distraction from the fact that we have to die, and that we ignore when. We know with unfailing certainty that we need to be ready and prepared to die, and to be judged!

The days are bad because we live badly. “Bene vivamus, et bona sunt tempora! - Let us live well, and the times are good!”, St Augustine said. When the Hebrews had been led into captivity in Babylon, they lamented and longed to be back in Jerusalem, which only happened after 70 years. But no sooner had they reached the holy places given by God to their ancestors, that they started offending God again. How few among them lived and died in the true faith and expectation of the promised Redeemer!

The danger of secularization is nothing new on the face of the earth. It has only become institutionalized over the last few centuries of humanism and revolution. It goes more and more unchallenged by those who have, or pretend to have the true faith. This is the true dilemma and a great evil, that even the good care little about God’s glory, His sovereign rights and our duties towards Him.

Even among Catholics – conservatives, traditionalists… – most lament and wish for “better days”. Many are, or are becoming wary of the duration of the evil which has befallen them: No true Pope for over five decades. But what are five decades, compared to centuries of turmoil caused by Arianism? What are five decades compared to over a century of barbarian invasions into the Christian heartland? All these ages have known many saints, and after the long agony of the Western Roman Empire God has called St Benedict to establish Christian Europe and to begin the great era downplayed by “modern history” as the “Middle Ages”. In all truth the roughly 1.000 years of Catholic civilization stand out from barbarism – that of the decadent Romans before and that of pagan rebirth (Renaissance) afterwards.

St Augustine sets our thoughts straight when he says in his comment of today’s Gospel: “What he is adding: ‘And again a little while, and you shall see me’, he promises the entire Church. In the same manner he has promised the entire Church: ‘Behold, I am with you until the consummation of times.’ The Lord does not put off his promise. A little while, and we shall see him, where we will no more demand from him, ask him no questions, for there remains nothing to be desired, nothing will be hidden what could be the object of questions. This little while seems long to us, for it is still ongoing; when it will be over, then we will understand how short it has been.” (Tract. 101 in Joan.)

In the mean time – in this relatively short time of wait – we shall not rejoice in the manner of the world; we shall not seek peace as the world gives it. But we shall rejoice in our trials because they make us similar to Our Lord suffering; we shall glory in our humiliations because they teach us to imitate him who has humiliated himself unto death, even death on the Cross. We shall not envy those who live in a resemblance of peace, but are not in peace with God; but we are happy possessing the true peace of soul and mind, which only God can grant us.

 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski.