Hunolt Sermons/Volume 10/Sermon 65

The Almighty has prepared for all men, not only necessary and sufficient, but frequent, abundant, and, as far as He is concerned, efficacious graces and helps with which, if they wish to co-operate with them, they can easily gain heaven; therefore he who has the good will to serve God truly has nothing to fear in this respect.—Preached on the sixth Sunday after Pentecost.

Accipiens septem panes, gratias agens, fregit, et dabat discipulis suis, ut apponerent, et apposuerent turbæ.—Mark viii. 6.

“Taking the seven loaves, giving thanks He broke, and gave to His disciples for to set before them, and they set them before the people.”

Pour thousand hungry people who wanted something to eat! What a number to provide for! Good reason had the disciples for exclaiming in astonishment when they considered the great crowd: “From whence can any one fill them here with bread in the wilderness?” Seven loaves and a few fishes, that was the whole provision. And yet the merciful, and at the same time almighty Lord, who did not wish to allow the people to suffer the pangs of hunger or to faint on the way, so increased the scanty supply that there was more than enough to still the hunger of the whole multitude. “They did eat and were filled,” says the Gospel; nay, so much food was there that they could not consume it all. “And they took up that which was left of the fragments, seven baskets.” There, my dear brethren, you have a figure and symbol of the care that the good God, who is so desirous of the salvation of all men, takes of their souls, that nothing may be wanting to them on the way to eternity. Many are called; not four thousand, but many, that is, in this place ​all; all are called to follow Christ on this way. As we have seen already, God has an earnest wish and desire, and, as far as in Him lies, an efficacious one, that all men, without a single exception, should gain heaven. But where can so many millions tind nourishment on the way thither? That is, where shall they find the means of attaining this end? Oh, let no one be anxious on this head! The almighty God, who loves us so much, knows how to provide for all, and that too not sparingly or in a niggardly fashion, as some think who confine the goodness of God within very narrow limits, but abundantly, as I shall now prove to the greater honor and glory of the divine will, that means so well to us and to our own consolation.

The Almighty has prepared for all men, not only necessary and sufficient, but frequent, abundant, and as far as He is concerned, efficacious graces and helps, and if they wish to co-operate with them, they can easily gain heaven. Therefore he who fails to save his soul must blame only himself; but he who has a good will to serve God faithfully need not fear on this head, but can rejoice in the Lord. Such is the whole subject.

Give, O generous God! Thy graces in abundance to all here present; we ask this of Thee through the intercession of Mary and of our holy guardian angels.

It is an article of faith that God gives to all men necessary and sufficient means of salvation. It is a certain and undoubted article of the Catholic faith, following from the subject of the last sermon, that for all men, even for those who live in infidelity and heathenism, and for those who will be damned on account of their vicious lives, God has prepared necessary graces and sufficient means to workout their salvation if they only wish to co-operate with those graces. For if God has the earnest, sincere, and, as far as in Him lies, the efficacious will that all men should gain heaven, and no one be damned, then He must provide men with those means and graces without which it is impossible to gain heaven. Otherwise He would wish and require of men something that He well knows they cannot do; and it would be the same as to say to a blind man, without giving him the eyesight necessary for the purpose: I wish you to see; or to a lame man, without curing him: I wish you to walk straight; a vain wish, and a fruitless desire. Much less could the just and infinitely good ​God condemn to everlasting fire a man who could not keep His law because the necessary graces and helps were wanting to him.

Proved from Scripture that He has prepared for all abundant, and, as far as in Him lies, efficacious graces. No; we have in God a most generous Father, who is not satisfied with providing for His adopted children, whom He has created for heaven, merely those graces that are absolutely necessary for their salvation, but, as I wish to prove, He is ready to give to all men frequent, abundant, and, as far as their efficacy is concerned, most powerful graces and helps, with which they can easily, if they wish, merit heaven. The first proof of this I take from the word of God Himself, which cannot deceive us. St. James, in the first chapter of his Epistle, after having exhorted us to ask God for what we want, adds: “Who giveth to all men abundantly, and upbraideth not.”^[1] Mark those words: “to all men,” without exception, the Lord gives His gifts and graces in abundance. St. Thomas of Aquin says: “God gives liberally, because He does not sell; He gives generally, because not to one alone, but to all; He gives abundantly, and not sparingly.”^[2] He does not say, as selfish men do: there, you have what I owe you; it is all you want; you can help yourself with that; but He bestows His graces in abundance, and gives us more than we want. For out of that immense ocean of wealth and goodness flow not a few drops, but whole streams and rivers, that run throughout the world and serve for the necessities of all men. In different parts of his Epistles, St. Paul says the same: “Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded,” so he writes to Timothy, “nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God (who giveth us abundantly all things to enjoy)."^[3] He says “abundantly,” and “all things,” in which are included certainly not mere earthly goods, for there are many on earth who are in want of them, but much more the goods of the soul, which are of far greater importance. Again, writing to Titus he says: “According to His mercy He saved us, by the laver of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom He hath poured forth upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Saviour,”^[4] to the end “that being ​justified by His grace, we may be heirs, according to hope, of life everlasting.”^[5] And to the Romans: “The same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon Him.”^[6] And to the Ephesians: “But God (who is rich in mercy), for His exceeding charity where with He loved us,…hath quickened us together in Christ,…that He might show…the abundant riches of His grace, in His bounty towards us in Christ Jesus.”^[7] To whom does He wish to show the riches of His grace? To those whom He loved so much that Christ died for them. Therefore as Christ died for all men, He shows to all men the abundant riches of His grace. Hear how magnificently the apostles speak of the greatness and glory of the generous goodness of God in giving His graces and helps to enable us to reach heaven.

The yoke of Christ would not be sweet for all if God did not make it so by copious graces. May any one then excuse his vicious life by blaming the parsimony of the Almighty, and saying that he had not grace, and therefore found it too hard to restrain his wicked passions, and keep the commandments with constancy? If so, then Our Lord did not speak the truth in the Gospel of St. Matthew, when He invited all men to serve Him: “Take up My yoke upon you,…and you shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is sweet, and My burden light.”^[8] In these words I find another proof of my proposition, that God gives frequent and abundant graces to all men, or at least is ready to give them in answer to prayer, so that men can easily, if they wish, gain heaven. To all men, I say, for He has invited all without exception to follow the law of His Gospel. Before His ascension into heaven He said to His apostles and their successors: “Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”^[9] Hence the observance of the Gospel law, for which heaven is promised as an eternal reward, can and will be a sweet yoke and alight burden for all who wish. But how shall it be sweet and light? We cannot see that if we consider the Gospel law as it is in itself and in its own nature, for it is very difficult to our senses, and is opposed in nearly everything to our natural inclinations. Truly it is not an easy, but a difficult thing, to conquer one’s pas​sions to such an extent that, in spite of a natural repugnance, one loves his worst enemy from his heart, forgets all injuries received, acts in a friendly manner towards him, nay, even does him good. A hard and difficult thing to be high in honor and position before the world, and yet to remain little in one’s own eyes and humble of heart. A hard and difficult thing to possess temporal goods and riches, and yet not let one’s heart cleave to them, and to practise poverty of spirit. A difficult thing constantly to resist the desires of the flesh, and in spite of dangers and occasions never to consent even in thought to any of those pleasures to which we are so strongly inclined by our corrupt nature. A difficult thing to deny one’s self, to keep a restraint on the outward senses, to mortify the flesh, to take up the cross daily, to bear all adversity with patience and contentment. A difficult thing to live in the midst of the world, and among men of the world, and yet not to follow the world and its customs. All this is commanded by the law of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence the words of Our Lord: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.”^[10] Now if, in spite of this, the Gospel law is for all men a sweet yoke, a light burden, it must be made so by the frequent and great graces that God is willing to give to all who desire and wish for them. True, these graces do not take away all the difficulties at once, yet they enable him who works with them easily to overcome obstacles that in themselves are hard to deal with; they give him strength to mortify himself willingly, to do violence to himself with pleasure, and so easily to abstain from forbidden things.

That it comes hard to the sinner is not from the want of grace, but because he does not ask for grace. Shown by a simile. To explain this. There lies a sick man in a violent fever; he is tormented with thirst, and knows not what to do; but he can be cured if he calls in the doctor, and is prepared to lose a few ounces of superfluous blood. He is forbidden to drink, and told that if he does not obey that command he will die. What do you think? Is that an easy or a hard thing for him? As long as the heat of the fever lasts and he suffers thirst, it is almost unbearable; if you put a cup of water near him, he cannot possibly refrain from drinking it; he will do what he can to get hold of it, and drink it up most eagerly. Whether I die or not, he says, I cannot stand this thirst any longer. On the other hand ​it is easy enough for him to abstain from drinking if he uses the means prescribed; for what is easier than to call in the doctor and lose a little blood? When that is done the heat of the fever disappears, and the thirst is quenched of itself. So it is with a sinner. His fever is the vice to which he is addicted; the thirst is that violent inclination to that which God has forbidden under pain of eternal death. Tell the proud man that he must humble himself; the avaricious man not to love money; the unchaste man to renounce carnal lusts; the vindictive man to forgive his enemy; as long as the fever and thirst of desire last, he will answer: ah, I cannot; it is impossible! But tell him to beg humbly the help and grace of God, which God is ready to give him, and the heat of the desire will be moderated, and he will easily overcome difficulties that in themselves are grave enough. But if he refuses to employ that easy means, whom is he to blame for the insuperable difficulty he finds in keeping the commandments? Is he not himself in fault by his obstinacy in not asking the divine assistance, or not working with the graces given him, which would have made it easy for him to conquer his passions? as many know from their own experience, who having once made up their minds to serve God, have laid down the burden of their sins by a good confession. And these latter, like St. Augustine, are now filled with astonishment to see how easily they avoid sins that they before thought they could not possibly refrain from. Hence, if the law of the Gospel, that is in itself difficult, becomes, according to the assurance of Our Lord, a sweet yoke and a light burden, then it must be sweetened and lightened, not by small, weak, and barely necessary graces, but by great, copious, and superabundant ones. From which again it is clear that as all men are called to the sweet yoke and light burden of Jesus Christ, and it is to be sweet and light for all, that God has prepared, or is ready to prepare, for all men great, frequent, powerful, superabundant graces; and if men wish to co-operate with them, they shall easily be enabled to keep the Christian law, and therefore to gain heaven.

God treats us mortals as a rich father does his children. He is that Lord to whom the Catholic Church prays: “O God! of whose mercy there is no number, and the treasure of whose goodness is infinite.” He acts with.us as a rich and noble father with his eldest son, who is to inherit all his possessions. If he sends his son into a foreign land, how does he equip him for the journey? A mean garment would do to clothe his body for a ​whole year; his youthful strength would enable him to travel on foot from one town to the other; fifty or sixty pounds would suffice for his support for a year and prevent him from dying of hunger; but this would not be enough for one of such noble birth, nor would it be becoming his dignity. No; far different preparations are made on the occasion; a tutor is sent with him to keep a constant eye on him and take care of his welfare; he has one, two, or more servants to wait on him; many costly suits of clothes are given him to wear; horses and carriages are in waiting to bring him away; letters of credit are sent to all parts that he may have money enough and not be obliged to live sparingly, but may rather keep up the state and magnificence and enjoy the pleasures becoming his condition. Such is the manner in which the great Monarch of heaven, our infinitely rich and generous Father, dispenses His grace to His children, whom He has created for the sole purpose of making them heirs to His kingdom, and who are travelling in a foreign land here on earth.

With great generosity He cares for unreasoning things for our use. This magnificent generosity He shows even to unreasoning and senseless creatures, although He has made them only for the use of His children. How liberally and abundantly He provides wild beasts with all that is necessary to preserve their lives according to their different kinds! There is no living thing so small and mean that does not know where to find its certain food and nourishment; if it is sick, it knows where to look for medicine; if it is persecuted by another, it has arms to defend itself, or means of taking to flight, so that it may either protect itself or avoid its foe. The trees and all plauts have numbers of little veins by which they absorb the sap that they require as nourishment according to their different natures; the winds, the dews, the rains, the sun-light, and nearly all the heavenly bodies attend on their wants, to provide them with heat, or cold, or drought, or moisture, or light, or shade at different times, as their preservation and growth require. How beautifully the earth is adorned with meadows and forests, with mountains and valleys, with streams and rivers, that it may serve, not only as the necessary, but as a comfortable and pleasaut dwelling for man! And what is most surprising, this vast, ponderous globe hangs in mid-air, in which even a feather could not remain for a moment without falling to the ground; and it hangs there so immovably that for the last six thousand years and more it has not moved either to ​the right or the left, supported by the careful providence of God alone.

He provides the human body in a most abundant manner. And what are we to think of the human body, which is justly called a little world? What a number of different members it, has to perform its actions, not with difficulty, and only as far as necessity requires, but with ease, comfort, and pleasure, when, where, and how it pleases. God has given it eyes to see with, that it may behold the beauties of the world and know its fellows; He has provided those eyes with covers, that when they do not wish to see they may shut themselves up and remain hidden; He has given it feet that it may be able to move from one place to the other according as it wishes; hands, that it may defend itself when necessary, work, and support itself; a voice and speech that it may make known its hidden thoughts and the secrets of its heart; ears, that it may understand the speech of others. Everything that the wide world holds and produces is for its use and enjoyment: the rivers and springs bring it water; the sea, its pearls; the mountains, different metals; the fields, corn; the trees, fruit; the gardens, flowers and vegetables; animals, their skins, fleeces, and meat; birds, their feathers. All these things provide the body with food, clothing, care, not merely as far as is necessary, but liberally and abundantly; they serve, too, as medicine in sickness, as means of innocent enjoyment and pleasure in health, so that many a one imagines that he has his paradise and a heaven of joys in the different delights that the generosity of God has prepared for the body and its senses. And all these blessings are distributed so carefully, and in such wonderful abundance that there is no people under the sun so barbarous that they do not find in nature all they require for the food, nourishment, and lawful recreation of the body.

How much more generous will He not endow the soul with the means of attaining its last end. Now if God is so generous to all His creatures, so munificent in providing the means necessary for a merely natural end, could any one suspect Him of being parsimonious only to men, and of giving them the graces and gifts necessary for their salvation in such a small and niggardly way as to enable them to attain their last end, that is, heaven, only with difficulty and great exertion? Does God then show greater love and care for dumb animals, nay, for senseless and lifeless things, than for the immortal souls that He has made to His own image, and that Jesus Christ has appointed heirs of the heavenly kingdom? Is the heavenly Father more generous and liberal to the trees and plants ​than to His own children? more careful of the creatures that are made solely for the use of man than of man himself, who is the end, the lord and master of all creatures? Eh! that would be a stain on the noblest of the divine perfections, love and goodness, which would in that case pour itself out on the vilest and most abject things, while it is quite indifferent to the most precious and beautiful, man’s immortal soul. And shall God be more careful of and generous to the human body, which is after all only a tool and servant of the soul, a dwelling in which the latter is to work out its salvation, than to the soul itself, which is the master and lord of the dwelling?

And that beseems His goodness and glory. That would be like a rich prince, who builds a splendid palace for his heir, furnishes it with the most costly carpets, clothes the servants and lackeys in gold and silver, fills the barns with corn, the cellars with wine, the kitchen with food, the stables with horses, and all in abundance, while he allows his son, the lord of all this magnificence, and the heir to his kingdom, to go about half naked, and beg his bread to save himself from dying of hunger. If a supposition of the kind is so absurd that one would not dare to affirm it of any sensible man, how much less should it be affirmed of the God of infinite wisdom, riches, and goodness? Therefore, either He is not the God described in the Holy Scripture and recognized by our own reason, or else if He is such as we know and adore Him, He cannot be less generous to souls whom He has redeemed with His blood, shedding it to the last drop for them (although that was not necessary for their salvation, since one drop would have sufficed)—He certainly cannot be less generous to them than to other creatures whom He has made only for the service of souls. Hence, as He is, so to speak, prodigal towards the latter in providing them with means to attain their end, He will also, and in a far greater degree, show His munificence and liberality in giving to souls the graces and helps they require to enable them easily to work out their salvation, if they only wish to do so.

Experience tells us that graces and helps to salvation are given in superabundance. And why should we require arguments to convince us of this, since we know it already by experience. For who shall count the graces and helps that the Catholic Church possesses in such abundance to make her children holy, to free them from sin, to preserve them in grace, to deter them from evil, to instruct them in good, and so to bring them to heaven? How many churches there are which are open every day to encourage our ​devotion? How many holy sacrifices in which the flesh and blood of Jesus are daily offered to the heavenly Father as an infinite thanksgiving for all benefits received, an infinite atonement for all sin committed, and us a means of obtaining all the blessings we stand in need of? How many sacraments, by the worthy reception of which we can, as often as we please, increase sanctifying grace, and obtain more actual graces? How many indulgences, which the Catholic Church so freely bestows out of the treasury of the merits of Christ and His saints, by which we can wipe out the debt of punishment that still remains due for our sins? How many spiritual books that we may read, how many sermons that we may hear, how many explanations of Christian doctrine that we may attend? All these are intended to enlighten our ignorance, to impress on our minds the fear and love of God, to encourage us to do good, to arouse in our hearts a desire of heavenly things, and, as it were, to force us with violence into heaven. How many public devotions, in which with the assembled people we can unanimously praise God, and with united voices implore help in our needs; devotions of which Our Lord has said: “If two of you shall consent upon earth, concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by My Father who is in heaven. For where there are two or three gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”^[11] How many examples of the wicked to deter us from sin, of those good and zealous Christians who are still alive and of the holy citizens of heaven to spur us on to imitate their zeal, their virtues, and their holiness of life? How many priests, missionaries, pastors of souls, convents, and monasteries of religious who are all prepared to absolve the penitent sinner, to strengthen others in temptation, to console the afflicted, to give counsel to the doubtful? How many ways and means the Catholic Church has invented of helping the healthy, the sick, those who are in prison, and the dying, that they may save their souls?

Even the greatest sinners must acknowledge that To say nothing of the holy inspirations, illuminations, knowledge, that God and His angels give the human heart that we do not see and are not aware of! So that it is quite amazing that with such superfluous means of salvation a single individual ​grace is not wanting in them. should yet be lost. Ah, cries out St. Chrysostom, how many ways we have to lead us to heaven!^[12] Blind mortals that we are! if we only made a good use of the hundredth part of the graces and means at our disposal! Nay, if many a one employed for his salvation the hundredth part of the labor and trouble he takes to lose his soul, there would be hardly one excluded from heaven. Ask any Christian, even the most abandoned, even one who is buried head and ears in vice, if he has not experienced during his life that he has received thousands of benefits from the good God; if he has not felt thousands of graces, opportunities, secret impulses, and movements of the heart to return to God and do penance; if, in spite of the persistency with which he kept away from sermons, lest he should hear something to make him uneasy, he has not often felt the sting of remorse. And if he wishes to speak the truth he must say: ah, yes! I cannot deny it. Ask him further whether he can honestly say that God is to blame for his not having led a better life, if grace has been wanting to him, and therefore if the fault of his rices and sins can be attributed to the parsimony with which God treated him. Again he must answer, if he wishes to speak the truth: no; but I did not wish to profit by grace. And the same will be the confession of the second sinner, of the third, the fourth, the hundredth, the thousandth, and of all of them, no matter who they are.

So that they who are lost must blame themselves, and themselves alone. In a word, let others fight and argue with each other as long as they choose about eternal predestination to heaven; it still remains and must remain true for ail men who are shut out of heaven because it is the infallible word of God Himself, what the Lord says by the Prophet Osee: “Destruction is thy own, O Israel! thy help is only in Me;”^[13] your eternal damnation, O man! whoever you be, comes from yourself, because you did not wish to save your soul; Me, alone have you to thank for those graces that I offered you, not sparingly, but liberally and in abundance to work out your salvation, if you had only been willing to do so!

Resolution to work with God’s grace. Yes, O most good and generous God! we acknowledge this to be the case. We confess, to the greater glory of Thy infinite mercy, that in dispensing Thy graces and helps to make us eternally happy Thou hast been, so to speak, more lavish than gen​erous; that Thou hast given us far more than Thou wert bound to give, more than we deserved, more than was necessary for our salvation! If I, poor sinner that I am, am lost forever, then I must ascribe my damnation to no one but myself, to my own disobedient, obstinate, wicked will! If I come to Thee in heaven, as I hope and trust, then I shall praise Thy goodness forever because it has given in abundance to me and to all men the graces by which to work out our salvation and gain heaven. I am only sorry and grieved beyond measure (I humbly acknowledge my guilt!) that I have hitherto been lazy and slothful in working with Thy graces, which Thou hast granted me so freely; nay, I have often closed my eyes to them and to the known light, and have obstinately loved the darkness! In future I shall make a better and more zealous use of them, and lose no opportunity, at least willingly and deliberately, of increasing in my soul sanctifying grace and my eternal happiness that follows from it by good works. Before all the world I will give testimony that Thou art the God “who giveth to all men abundantly;” of whose mercy there is no end, whose goodness and generosity have neither measure nor limit. And that very goodness shall be a spur to make me love Thee with my whole heart above all things, and to serve constantly such a kind Father with childlike confidence and joy of heart, with a sure hope of once loving Thee in Thy kingdom of heaven, which Thou hast promised me. Amen.

Cum gratias egisset, distribuit discumbentibus.—John vi. 11.

“When He had given thanks, He distributed to them that were sat down.”

Five thousand hungry people who were in want of something to eat! What a number to provide for! Good reason had Philip to exclaim, when he considered the number of people: “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little.” And all the food they had was five barley loaves and two fishes; so that Andrew asked: “What are these among so many?” Yet the merciful, and at the same time ​omnipotent Lord, who did not wish to see any of them perishing of hunger, knew how to increase that small provision, so that all received a share of it, and that too in abundance, so that not only was their hunger stilled, but they had “as much as they would.” Nay, after they were filled, twelve basketfuls remained of the fragments of the food. See there, my dear brethren, a figure, etc. Continues as above.