Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/502



The most  hardened  sinner  could  never  submit  to  the  horror  of his  situation,  were  he  able  to  see  and  to  know  him  self  such  as  he  is. A soul  grown  old  in  guilt,  is  only  bearable  to  itself,  because  that the same  passion,  from  which  all  his  miseries  spring,  conceals  them from him,  and  that  his  disorder  is,  at  the  same  time,  both  the weapon which  inflicts  the  wound  and  the  fatal  bandage  which  hides it from  the  eyes  of  the  patient.

Behold wherefore  the  church,  in  order  to  lay  the  sinner  open to himself  during  this  time  of  penitence,  almost  continually  displays to  us,  under  various  images,  the  deplorable  state  of  a  soul who has  grown  old  in  his  iniquity:  one  while  under  the  figure  of  a paralytic  young  man;  that  is,  to  mark  to  us  the  insensibility  and fatal ease  which  always  follow  habitual  guilt:  another,  under  the symbol of  a  prodigal  reduced  to  feed  with  the  vilest  animals;  and, under these  traits,  it  wishes  to  make  us  feel  his  abasement  and  his infamy: again,  under  the  image  of  a  person  born  blind,  and  that is in  order  to  paint  to  us  the  depth  and  the  horror  of  his  blindness: and, lastly,  under  the  parable  of  a  deaf  and  dumb  person  possessed with a  devil;  and  that  is,  more  animatedly  to  figure  to  us  the  subjection under  which  habitual  guilt  holds  all  the  powers  of  an  unfortunate soul.

To-day, in  order,  as  it  were  to  assemble  all  these  traits  under  a single  image,  still  more  terrible  and  striking,  the  church  proposes to us  Lazarus  in  the  tomb,  dead  for  four  days,  emitting  stench  and infection, bound  hand  and  foot,  his  face  covered  with  a  napkin,  and exciting only  horror  even  in  those  whom  affection  and  blood  had most closely  united  to  him  in  life.

Come then  and  see,  you,  my  dear  hearer,  who  live,  for  so  many years past,  under  the  shameful  yoke  of  dissipation,  and  who are insensible  to  the  misery  of  your  situation. Approach this tomb which  the  voice  of  Jesus  Christ  is  now  to  open  before your eyes;  and,  in  that  spectacle  of  infection  and  putrefaction,  behold the  true  picture  of  your  soul. You fly  to  profane  spectacles in order  to  see  your  passions  represented  under  pleasing  and  deceitful colours:  approach,  and  see  them  expressed  here  such  as they  are:  come,  and,  in  that  infectious  and  loathsome  carcass, behold what  you  are  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  how  much  your  situation is  worthy  of  your  tears.

But in  exposing  here  only  the  horrible  situation  of  a  soul  who lives in  disorder,  lest  I  trouble  and  discourage,  without  holding  out to him  a  hand  in  order  to  assist  him  in  quitting  that  abyss,— that