Hunolt Sermons/Volume 1/Sermon 36

The criminal shall be accused in the judgment of God. Preached on the fifth Sunday after Epiphany.

Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn. (Matt. xiii. 30.)

According to Barradius, Cornelius a Lapide, and other commentators, the cockle signifies the wicked and those who love the world; the wheat the just and pious servants of God. The reaper is in every case death. The place in which the cockle is to be burnt is hell. The barn where the wheat is to be gathered is heaven. The time in which the cockle is to be publicly tied in bundles to be burnt, and the wheat gathered into heaven, is the last day of the general judgment. If we look at the fields in the spring-time we see weeds of different colors white, red, yellow, blue, coming forth like the most beautiful flowers and adorning the whole field. A child that has not yet seen much outside the house of its parents might easily imagine them to be real flowers, and think that they have been planted purposely, while it would look on the green stalk of the corn just showing above the ground as useless grass. But when the harvest-time comes the apparent flowers are seen to be but useless weeds, and what seemed to be grass is known now as the fruitful stalk that bears the nourishing food and is carefully stored away. So it is in the world, my dear brethren. If we consider on one side the life of the wicked man and the worldling, we find in it much pomp and splendor in dress, food, drink, sleep, gaming, amusements, pleasure-seeking, and luxury things that worldly-minded people desire at least, if they cannot have them in reality. And if on the other side we consider the lives of the good and pious, we see in them nothing but humility, modesty, temperance, watching, fasting, prayer, mortification, carrying the cross, etc. Oh, what a desirable, joyful life is the former, and how sad and melancholy the latter! So should we say if we judged by mere outward appearances. But wait a while; let the day of judgment come, and what will become of worldlings then? Away with the useless weeds that have brought forth no fruit of good works! Away with them to eternal fire! " Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn." But what shall become of the good wheat? " The wheat gather you into My barn," because it has brought forth good fruit. Oh, what a terrible difference! Before considering it, my dear brethren, we shall continue the meditation of the matter we have commenced. On last Sunday we have seen how the criminal is examined in the judgment, and forced to answer to his great shame and confusion. But even if he were to keep silent, and it were possible for him not to acknowledge his sins; if he might say: I have not done the evil things I am asked about, what would that help him? For he shall find accusers enough and more than enough to carry on the case against him, and to convict him beyond the shadow of a doubt: as I now proceed to show.

The criminal accused in the judgment. Such is the whole subject of this meditation. Its object is to inspire the just with a constant, salutary fear of sin, and the wicked with a wholesome dread, so that they may accuse themselves in time in the tribunal of penance, and amend their lives; that thus they may be able to defend themselves against all accusers on the last day.

Give us all Your grace to this end, Lord; we ask it of You through the intercession of Mary and of our holy angels.

The case is lost for the criminal against whom there is a great crowd of witnesses who can prove him guilty of many crimes worthy of death, and that all the more when his accusers are moved by hatred against him, and when under the influence of a just indignation they demand that justice should be done on the guilty one. Still less is the latter's chance of escape when the witnesses against him are nearly all men of probity, who are high in favor with the judge. In such a case I, for my part, would not give a farthing for the man's life. For if only one man appeared against me in judgment he would have enough to do in order to convict me, as I should then hold to the old saying: if you are guilty, deny it. He should prove everything most clearly, and in the minutest detail. Even if my accusers were many, but were either good friends of mine, whose favor I am sure of and who are compelled to give evidence against me; or otherwise if they are men to whom it matters little that the ends of justice should be served, who are indifferent as to whether their accusation is believed or not; or if they are people of evil repute, who deserve little credence and are more over hateful to the judge: then indeed I should not be very uneasy as to the result of the trial, or at all events I should have good grounds to hope for a favorable termination. But otherwise I might look on my case as utterly hopeless. For he who accuses me through hatred will not keep back the least thing that he can bring forward to my discredit. He who is moved to appear against me through zeal and love of justice will not desist until the judge pronounces sentence and has it carried into execution. If there are many to give the same evidence against me, their united testimony saves them from all suspicion of falsehood. And finally, if the witnesses enjoy the friendship and favor of the judge, their testimony against me must carry more weight and ensure my condemnation. In a word, I should not have the slightest chance. Is not that your opinion too, my dear brethren ?

Now O sinner! think of this and tremble at the thought: countless, almost infinite in number are the witnesses who shall appear against you in the valley of Josaphat to accuse you openly and convict you unanimously of guilt. First there shall be made in swarms of demons from hell, moved by the bitterest hatred towards you. St. John in the Apocalypse calls the devil " the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night." Even he who now tries to inspire you with a presumptuous hope in the divine mercy will then beg of God to forget all His mercy. Even he, says St. Basil, who now paints sin to you as of little account and a mere trifle, will then bring forward all your sins in all their deformity. Even he who now tries to drive you to sin by his suggestions will then bring for ward those very suggestions for your damnation, and accuse you of having listened to them. " Even he," such are the words of St. Basil, " who is now our co-operator in sin shall be hereafter our accuser." What shall he say? How shall he give testimony against us? Hear what St. Augustine says: " The devil will recite before the tribunal of Christ the words of our profession, and the oath by which we bound ourselves in baptism." Come here, wicked Christian! he will say; at your first entry into the holy Church of God you were kept waiting a little at the door, and were asked where you wished to go and what you desired. You answered by your godfather and godmother that you wished to be baptized and enrolled amongst the soldiers and followers of Christ. Then you were asked whether you renounced the world, the flesh,, and the devil, and you answered: I renounce them; I give them up forever.

Now tell me how you have kept this promise during your life! Show me some sign that you have acted up to the holy profession you made that you were a soldier and follower of Christ? You, who the whole time of your life observed the customs of the vain world, looked on its maxims as the laws to guide you, conformed to its usages in all your external behavior, brought up your children to live according to its fashions, and ruled your household by its prudence! What was good and holy in itself was unbecoming in your eyes if it ran counter to the custom of the world. What was in itself vicious and unlawful was honor able, lawful, and good in your eyes if it was only in conformity with the customs of the world. How often have you not been ashamed to show devotion and due respect and reverence to God in public, simply because such was not the custom of the world! How often have you not followed the example of others even against your conscience because the world would have it so, in spite of the warning of St. Paul and the oft-repeated, emphatic exhortation of Christ! "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. " " Be not conformed to this world." Is that the way to renounce the world? If you had vowed in holy baptism to observe perpetual fidelity and obedience to the world and its luxury, could you have fulfilled that vow better and more exactly than by your past conduct?

You promised also to renounce the flesh and all its concupiscences. And how have you kept that promise? Say when did you fulfil your obligation in that respect? In your childhood, when you first commenced to know what the sin of impurity is? In your youth, when you knew enough of it by experience? The sinful thoughts, desires, wishes, conversations, letters, allurements, words, and actions that resemble those of a dumb beast rather than of a reasoning being all these things show how you have observed your act of renunciation. Finally, you have renounced me; I renounce Satan and his works, you said. But you have done me little harm. If you had signed a document promising to follow me in all things, I could not have expected more from you than what you have done to please me. You have at once consented to my temptations, no, sometimes done more evil than I hoped for from you. I have advised you to curse arid swear, but you have gone beyond that and blasphemed God. I have told you to hate your enemy and wish ill to him, and you have really done him harm. I told you to get drunk, and you committed impurity besides. I suggested unchaste thoughts to you that you might take pleasure in them, and you have actually committed the sinful action. I would have been content with your own soul, but by your allurements, seductions, scandal, and bad example you have brought hundreds of souls into my hands. You have done my will in all things as if you were my servant or slave. Have I perhaps treated you so well and been so kind to you while you were serving me that you had reason to renounce God and adhere to me so faithfully? Oh, how I have embittered for you the short and mean pleasures that you owe to me! I have sent you a worm to gnaw your heart and torture your conscience; the money you procured by my help cost you a world of trouble and anxiety. And have you not often suffered humiliation and scorn in order to satisfy your thirst for honors and the esteem of men? How much dis quiet, melancholy, and pain of heart did you not have to endure day and night through your senseless love for that person? Your intemperance in drink you had to pay me for by violent headaches, sickness and injured health, and the shortening of your life. How much discomfort, mortification, and laughter from men of sense you had to put up with in order to gratify your vanity in dress! How often have you not in obedience to me exposed yourself to wind and weather, rain and snow, in the dark night, risking at the same time your good name and reputation in order to gratify your sensual desires! You have felt how bitter a thing it is to abandon your God, and yet you have constantly despised Him to cleave to me. You were always ready to serve me and to do my will, but the least difficulty in pleasing your God was enough to frighten you away from Him.

"Now therefore, most just Judge," he will exclaim, as St. Augustine says, "judge this man!" I have not become man for this man, as You have done. I have not endured hunger and thirst, and buffets and scourges, and nails and the cross for him, as You have done. I have not shed my blood for him, given my life for him, as You have. I have not promised him heaven, which I could not do, but I have kept him in the way of sin and wearied him in it. I have often betrayed and deceived him; so that he himself knew well that I sought nothing but his ruin and eternal damnation; nevertheless he has served me like a slave, and shamefully despised and rejected You, his Lord and God, to whom he had sworn eternal fidelity. He has treated You as if You were a God of wood; as if You hadst no eyes to see his wickedness, no power to punish it. " Now there fore pronounce sentence, and let him be mine through his own fault, who refused to become Thine by grace."

He is Thine by the title of creation, I acknowledge that; he is Thine too by the title of preservation, but he belongs to me by donation or gift, for while still in life he withdrew himself from Your rule and gave himself to me altogether; nor can You say anything against this! Just God! remember how You didst act towards me and my companions. We unhappy spirits committed only one momentary sin of thought against You and You didst at once sentence us to hell without mercy, with out giving us time for repentance; You didst hurl us like lightning into the abyss in which we have been now for many you sand years, and where we shall burn forever without hope of re lease. Holy and just is Your judgment! Yes, we have deserved our fate. But if this punishment of ours is just, consider now what sort of a hell this man has deserved to whom You have shown such unheard-of love, whom You have waited for so patiently for many years, whose repentance You were ready to receive at any hour or moment, and who nevertheless has so of ten and daringly offended You to the very end of his life; not merely in thought, but in word and deed as well! Is it not right, then, that he should share in my fate? Ah, Christians! what defence shall many of us be able to make against such an accuser? " The devil will repeat before the tribunal of Christ the words of our profession." You lay people he will accuse with the words of the profession you made to live according to the maxims of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; you secular priests with the words of your profession to live according to the obligations of the priesthood and to lead lives of angelical purity; me and all religious, with the words of our profession to observe our vows and the rules of our order. Woe to you! woe to me! if the evil spirit is able to prove that we are Christians, religious, or priests only in name, or if we have not during our lives blotted out by sincere repentance the sins we have committed against our profession! Alas! I must again repeat, if such is the case we are lost indeed, and there is no hope for us.

Yet these accusations shall proceed only from a bitter hatred. There shall be others, wicked Christian, inspired by just indignation and by a love of justice, that shall be brought against you on that day. For complaints shall be made by all those, whether they are amongst the elect or the reprobate, who have been unjustly treated or injured by you during life, whom you have harmed in their honor, health, or temporal goods, according to the words of the Holy Ghost in the Book of Wisdom: "Then shall the just stand with great constancy against those that have afflicted them and taken away their labors." When King Saul returned from the battle in which he had spared the king of Amalec and the best of his flocks, contrary to the express command of God, he tried to boast to the Prophet Samuel of the manner in which he had performed his allotted task and done the will of God; but as he was speaking, the sheep and lambs began to bleat. What! exclaimed the Prophet, have you indeed done as you were commanded? "What means then this bleating of the flocks which sounds in my ears, and the lowing of the herds which I hear?" Unjust, unmerciful, vindictive, passionate, treacherous man! will you perhaps try to pass as a man of honor on that day,, such as you now pretend to be before the world? What! the Judge will exclaim, "what means then this bleating of the flocks which sounds in my ears?" what mean those lamentations of the poor, of widows, orphans, laborers, servants, innocent people? Justice, God! they cry out; here is the wretch who wronged us and cheated us out of our property! He it is who in the time of extreme necessity lent us money and corn, and demanded an exorbitant interest from us! He it is who in that suit, in which we should not have failed to obtain our rights, forced us to accept a compromise by which we were defrauded wholly or in part of what belonged to us! This is the miser who wronged us by not paying the wages due to us for our hard work, or by delaying to pay us, or by unjustly lessening the salary agreed on, so that we had to suffer the pangs of hunger! This is the merciless husband who treated me, his wife, as if I were a servant-maid or a dog, so that I was almost reduced to despair and spent my life in continual sorrow and affliction! This is that inhuman father who brought us, his children, to the extremity of poverty by his constant gambling and drinking, and by the idle, worthless life he led! This is the unprincipled wretch who by all sorts of tricks, lies, and bribes, deprived us of our employment and of our good name, that he might do a service to others! This is the avaricious man at whose door we have so often knocked in vain to ask for a piece of bread! just Judge, pronounce sentence! Nor shall there be individuals only to bring forward such charges; whole cities, provinces, and countries shall cry out for vengeance; this, Lord, is he who by his brutish vices put the rod in Your hands to chastise us, and forced You to afflict us with unfruitful seasons, contagious maladies, wars, and famines! Most just Judge, pronounce sentence!

And if the Judge shall hear the complaints of those whom you have injured only in their worldly substance, in transitory things, how much more loudly will not resound in His ears the cries for vengeance of those whom you have injured in their immortal souls, in eternal goods? What bitter complaints shall then be made against you by those to whom you have given occasion of sin by impure solicitations, love-letters, unchaste songs, and conversations? by the children whom you have taught to swear and curse, and to indulge in vanity? by the servants whom you have kept in your house for unlawful purposes? by the innocent maidens whom you brought to ruin by your flatteries and allurements? by the young boys and students whom you taught what they should never have learned? My God! what wickedness! Most just Judge, pronounce sentence! This is the reason why we have so often offended You! That man was the stumbling- block in our way! He was the cause of our remaining in that odious vice from youth till old age! He is the cause of our eternal damnation! traitors! murderers of souls! what will you do on that day when such accusations are levelled at you? Ah, your cause is lost; there is no hope for you unless you now do penance, and make good the injury you have done the honor of God and the souls of others.

Hitherto hatred and a just desire of revenge have been the accusers the judgment. Zeal for the divine honor will also cry out against the wicked. That is, all the friends and saints of God, whom we now honor as our patrons and protectors in heaven, will give testimony against them; all the holy apostles and disciples of Christ will complain of the sloth of the sinner in matters of faith, of his irreverence in the house of God, of his many superstitious practices and dealings with the devil, of the unlawful customs he followed that were contrary to the teaching of the Christian religion. All the holy martyrs will com plain of the sinner's love of ease and sensuality, of his shirking the slight labor required to gain an eternal crown, of his refusing to bear a short-lived suffering, a light cross. All the holy penitents and confessors of Christ will accuse the pride and impenitence of the sinner because he refused to humble himself to tell his sins to the priest holding the place of God in the tribunal of penance. All the holy virgins will accuse the impurity of the sinner who would not do violence to his inordinate inclinations for the sake of the everlasting joys of heaven.

All the holy guardian angels (alas! shall we find accusers even in you to help to our eternal damnation?) yes, even they will accuse their own charges, and demand their reprobation from the Judge. " Every one of the angels," says Origen, " shall be present in the judgment to bring forward those who were the objects of his care," and he shall then make his accusation, stating the number of years he endeavored by his inspirations and warnings to encourage to good the soul entrusted to him, and keep it away from evil. You must not imagine, my dear brethren, that only one angel shall appear against us in the judgment if we do not lead good lives; for there are many of them to guard us: "He has given His angels charge over you," says the prophet David, " to keep you in all your ways." How many guardian angels have we then? The general teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church is as follows: Each one, they say, has a special angel to guard his soul and body; but there is also another to look after the whole world; another to take care of all Christendom; every kingdom, country, town, and community has its special guardian angel; every church, every house, every family has also its special angel to guard it. All these angels have been sent by God to look after me and take care of me, and they shall all appear as my accusers in the judgment if I leave this world in the state of mortal sin.

O ye guardian angels of many churches and cities, what testimony will you give when that man, that woman, that youth, that maiden, appears before the tribunal! Behold, just Judge, so shall the accusation be worded, these are the people whom I have seen in the church entrusted to me, assisting at public devotions on certain days; their only object was to see and be seen, and they came dressed for a dancing-room rather than for a church; at their entrance I wished that the greater number of those present were at home, lest their eyes and hearts should be scandalized, and so they might find their ruin in Your house where they came to seek their salvation! These are they who when they entered Your church drove me out of it lest I should be a witness to its profanation; talking, laughing, and paying empty compliments was their chief occupation, whereby they disturbed the devotion of others. They were ashamed to bend both knees and to fold their hands before You, great God, who were there present. These are they for whose salutary warning and amendment I have often suggested matter and words to preachers; but for a quarter of a year they never came to a sermon, or if they did happen to come they tried to forget what they heard, so that it made no impression on them. Justice, Judge, on these people for their carelessness and irreverence in Your temple entrusted to our charge!

O See! the angels of certain cities and communities will exclaim, these are they who being in a high position, by their scandalous lives made certain vices actually respectable, and took away from them the shame that should attach to them. These are they who could have prevented and punished evil, but did not do so. Angels of houses and dwellings! what a great register of com plaints you will have regarding what happened here and there between man and wife, parents and children, masters and servants, incomers and outgoers, day and night, while you had to look on all the time to your great sorrow! "We would have cured Babylon," the angels shall say of the souls entrusted to them, "but she is not healed;" we wished to save that soul, God, and bring it to You, but all our labor was in vain: not through our fault, but because it would not come with us. Now we demand justice for the labor and care that we have employed to no purpose. Thus the words of Jeremias in the Lamentations shall be verified for the sinner on that day: "All her friends are become her enemies."

Refuge of sinners! Help of the desolate! Mary, Mother of mercy! they very name fills my heart with sweet joy and consolation! Surely I shall have nothing to fear from you at all events? But, alas for a lost cause! If I die in the state of sin even you shalt be among the number of my accusers. Sentence him, she will say, just Son! Through me he could easily have been saved; through my hands went all the graces and blessings You didst so generously bestow on him, but he rejected them. And a similar complaint will be made against me by all good Christians who have lived in the same town and house with me: We gave that man good example of the Christian virtues; we have shown him the narrow way that leads to heaven; he did not follow us, but went on the broad road that leads to hell. Such too shall be the testimony of the priests from the confessional: We have warned that man not to sin any more, but he kept on adding sin to sin;, we begged him as gently as possible to leave that house, that person, to avoid the occasion of sin, saying to him that otherwise all his confessions would be of no avail, and that we dared not give him absolution, but he paid no attention to us; he promised indeed to do as we said, but his promises came to naught; he went from one confessor to an other, and as the latter did not know the state of his conscience, no, as he deliberately concealed it from him, he succeeded in obtaining absolution under a false promise of amendment. The preachers will give testimony: We sought nothing but that man's good and desired nothing but his salvation; we warned him of ten, zealously, and earnestly; we condemned his vices and wickedness according to our duty, and instructed him in all the ways of virtue; we have done all we could, with Your help, God! to deter him from sin, and to encourage him to enter on the path of virtue; many others were moved and induced to repent by what we said; many have derived much profit from it and be gun to lead good lives, but with this man all our preaching was of no avail. If his conscience was touched now and then, he put the truth he had heard out of his mind as soon as possible, no, actually turned it into ridicule; he heard with unwillingness what did not suit his taste; he went off with a bitter feeling at heart, and came no more. Most just Judge, pronounce the sentence!

Alas! where shall I go? What shall become of the sinner in the midst of so many, and such powerful, hostile, and embittered accusers, many of whom shall be high in favor with the Judge? What shall I then say in that miserable position, out-voted on all sides; what shall I say in excuse? Ah, there will be no escape for me! Wherever I turn I shall find my case a lost one, my situation desperate, my sentence eternal damnation! But it is not come to that yet! Like the unjust steward I know what I shall do. I will sigh forth with the sorrowing Job: " Shall not the fewness of my days be ended shortly? Suffer me, therefore, that I may lament my sorrow a little before I go and return no more. " Just Judge, grant me still a little time that I may go and repent of my sins, accuse myself of them, and seriously amend my life before that great and terrible day comes; so that when the accusers shall stand forth against me and call out for vengeance on me because of my sins, I may be able fearlessly and truthfully to answer: it is true, you demons, you saints and angels, you just and you reprobate, you apostles and disciples of Christ! it is true that you have reason to accuse me; but it is true also that I have repented, that I have accused myself, that I have atoned for all, that I have amended my life and died a happy death. Thus all your accusations are repelled; my cause is justified and won; my eternal inheritance is with the just, who will joyfully await the Judge's sentence on me. My dear brethren, if we are in need of doing so, let us observe this and do penance, and then we shall attain to the desired consummation. Yes, my Lord and my God, such is now my firm resolution; now let men think and say of me and against me what they will, I shall pay little heed to them; but I do fear to meet those accusers at Your tribunal, and to escape them I will this very day begin to amend my life. I renounce you, Satan, and you, corrupt world, and you, too, wanton flesh! I belong to my God, and to Him alone arid completely; Him too will I serve with all my strength according to the terms of my holy profession, and that constantly till the end of my life. Amen.

''Another introduction to the same sermon for the third Sunday of Advent. ''

"Who art thou?" (John i. 19.)

An unusual and ticklish question: Who art you ? " One that is often difficult to answer, especially when it concerns what a man is at heart. Yet, my dear brethren, that is the difficult question that all men shall be asked on the last day at the tribunal of God's justice, and that even the worst sinners shall have to answer. Who art thou? What are you, not merely in out ward state or condition, but in the secrecy and privacy of your conscience? And that question shall have to be answered in presence of the whole world before heaven and earth, to the great confusion of sinners, as we have seen in the last meditation. But even if the wicked man could then keep silence and conceal what he is, or if he could take refuge in falsehood, or say in the words of St. John in today's Gospel: " I -am not; " I am not so bad as you pretend, what would that help him? For he will have accusers enough and more than enough to convict him and show beyond the shadow of a doubt what he is: as I now proceed to prove. ''Continues as above. ''