Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/372

 Not content  with  that,  it  seeks  him  out,  as  the widow the  lost  coin,  with  all  the  invincible  constancy of a  woman's  love. Nay more,  like  the  shepherd, leaving all  else  behind,  it  goes  after  him  into  the  very desert of  sin,  and  brings  him  back  rejoicing. The Scribes and  Pharisees  took  umbrage  at  seeing  Our Lord consorting  with  publicans  and  sinners. Alas! what a  significant  contrast  between  divine  and  human charity;  between  the  heart  of  man  and  the  heart of God!

Brethren, the  prophet  Samuel  tells  us  that  in  forming an  estimate  of  a  man's  moral  worth,  the  Lord judgeth not  as  a  man  judgeth,  for  men  looketh  on  the outward appearance,  but  the  Lord  looketh  on  the heart. Mind and  heart,  faith  and  love — both  are essential elements  in  religion,  for,  as  St.  Augustine says, "the  worship  of  the  mind  should  be  strictly commensurate  with  that  of  the  heart." Still, in  the ideal Christian,  more  important  even  than  a  believing mind  is  a  loving  heart. According to  St.  Paul, love is  first  for  "  faith,"  he  says,  "  worketh  through love." To love  is  the  first  commandment — the  sum of them  all:  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God with  all  the  powers  of  thy  being,  and  thy  neighbor  as thyself  for  the  love  of  God." Christ's most  striking characteristic was  His  love  for  all  sorts  and  conditions of  men. As we  read  to-day,  He  ate  and  drank with them,  becoming  all  things  to  all;  He  comforted and cured  them;  He  died  for  them. And His  teaching was  the  gospel  of  love. " This  is  My  commandment," He  says,  "  that  you  love  one  another.  By