Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/138

 the defilement of all sin—Rom. iii. 24, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation,” &c. (2) Because it liberates us from all misery—Rom. vii. 24, “ O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (3) Because it confirms in good—Heb. xiii. 9, “ It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.” (4)It illuminates the mind—Job xxv. 3, “Upon whom doth not His light arise?” (5) It delights the mind, whence grace is defined to be the soul’s delight. (0) It makes joyful its possessor—Psa. civ. 15, “ Oil to make his face to shine;” whence the Gloss., “Grace is a certain glistening of the mind to the commending holy love.” (7) It leads men to the glory of eternal life—Rom. vi. 23, “The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” III. On the third head, it is to be noted, that the weakness of the free-will appears in three ways. (1) Because it is ever prone to doing evil—Gen. viii. 21, “For the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (2) Because it is not able by itself to arise again when it has fallen into deadly sin—Psalm lxxviii. 39, “ Man is as a wind that passeth away and cometh not again.” (3) Because it is not able to do any good thing—2 Cor. iii. 5, “ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to do anything as of ourselves.” The Helper of grace is ever to be fled to, Who willingly offered Himself for all, and through Whom we can do all things ; which may the Lord give us, &c. Amen.

Three things are to be noted in this Gospel. Firstly, the great pride of the Pharisee, “ The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.” Secondly, the true humility of the pub-