Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/503

 may omit  nothing  of  our  Gospel,  I  shall  divide  it  into  three  reflections: in  the  first,  you  will  see  how  shocking  and  deplorable  is the  situation  of  a  soul  who  lives  in  habitual  irregularity;  in  the  second, I  shall  show  to  you  the  means  by  which  he  may  quit  it;  and, in the  third,  what  the  motives  are  which  determine  Jesus  Christ to operate  the  miracle  of  his  resurrection  and  deliverance. O my God! let thine  all-powerful  voice  be  now  heard  by  those  unfortunate souls  who  sleep  in  the  darkness  and  shadow  of  death;  command these  withered  bones  once  more  to  be  animated,  and  to  recover that light  and  that  life  of  grace  which  they  have  lost.

Reflection I. — I  remark,  at  first,  three  principal  circumstances in the  deplorable  spectacle  which  Lazarus,  dead  and  buried,  offers to our  eyes. First, already  become  a  mass  of  worms  and  corruption, he  spreads  infection  and  stench;  and  behold  the  profound  corruption of  a  soul  in  habitual  sin. Secondly, a  gloomy  napkin  covers his eyes  and  his  face;  and  behold  the  fatal  blindness  of  a  soul  in habitual  sin. Lastly, he  appears  in  the  tomb,  bound  hand  and foot; and  behold  the  melancholy  subjection  of  a  soul  in  habitual sin. Now, it  is  that  profound  corruption,  that  fatal  blindness, and  that  melancholy  servitude,  typified  in  the  spectacle  of Lazarus,  dead  and  buried,  which  precisely  form  all  the  horror  and all the  wretchedness  of  a  soul  long  dead  in  the  eyes  of  God.

In the  first  place,  there  is  not  a  more  natural  image  of  a  soul grown old  in  iniquity,  than  that  of  a  carcass  already  a  prey  to worms  and  putrefaction. Thus the  holy  books  every  where  represent the  state  of  sin  under  the  idea  of  a  shocking  death;  and  it seems  as  if  the  Spirit  of  God  had  found  that  melancholy  image  the most calculated  to  give  us,  at  least,  a  glimpse  of  all  the  deformity of a  soul  in  which  sin  dwells.

Now, two  effects  are  produced  on  the  body  by  death;  it  deprives it of  fife,  it  afterward  alters  all  its  features  and  corrupts  all  its  members. It deprives  it  of  life:  in  the  same  manner  it  is  that  sin  begins to  disfigure  the  beauty  of  the  soul;  for,  God  is  the  life  of  our souls, the  light  of  our  minds,  and  the  spring,  as  I  may  say,  of  our hearts: our  righteousness,  our  wisdom,  our  truth,  are  only  the union of  a  righteous,  wise,  and  true  God  with  our  soul:  all  our  virtues are  only  the  different  influences  of  his  Spirit  which  dwells within us;  it  is  he  who  exciteth  our  good  desires,  who  formeth  our holy thoughts,  who  produceth  our  pure  lights,  who  operateth  our righteous propensities;  insomuch  that  all  the  spiritual  and  supernatural life  of  our  soul  is  only,  as  the  apostle  speaks,  the  life  of God  within  us.

Now, by  a  single  sin,  that  life  ceases,  that  light  is  extinguished, that Spirit  withdrawn,  all  these  springs  are  suspended. Thus the soul, without  God,  is  a  soul  without  life,  without  motion,  light, truth, righteousness,  or  charity:  it  is  no  longer  but  a  chaos,  a  dead body; its  life  is  no  longer  but  an  imaginary  and  chimerical  life;  and, like those  inanimate  substances  set  in  motion  by  a  foreign  influence, it seems  to  live  and  to  act;  but  "it  is  dead  while  living."