Hunolt Sermons/Volume 10/Sermon 66

1. In what manner have all men abundant means of gaining heaven? 2. Why have not all men the same means of gaining heaven?—Preached on the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost.

Quid faciendo vitam æternam possidebo?…Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo.—Luke x. 25, 27.

“What must I do to possess eternal life?…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart.”

A very beautiful and necessary question: “what must I do to possess eternal life?” This question should touch the hearts of all men, because all, without exception, are created for eternal life. A short answer embracing the whole divine law was given to the question: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.” This again holds good for all men, not one excepted; all must love their God with their whole heart and their neighbor as themselves; for such is the will and desire of God, who, as far as in Him lies, earnestly wishes all men to be saved. And all can love God and their neighbor in that way, for no one is without the graces and helps, which the divine generosity has prepared for all in abundance and plenty, as I have already shown. Meanwhile there are people who indulge in curious thoughts ​and speculations regarding this truth, and doubt whether the goodness of God reaches in this sense to all men; thus they represent the divine goodness and liberality as not so great or loveable as is beseeming. Against these I shall in this sermon defend the honor and glory of the general love and mercy of God. From the many doubts that might assail us on this point I select only two, to which nearly all the others may be reduced.

The first is: not all men seem to have frequent graces to gain heaven. The second: not all men have equal helps to gain heaven. Why is that? Both these questions I shall now answer; the first in the first and longer part; the other, in the second part. The fruit of this instruction shall he a just appreciation and love of the general goodness of God, and the acknowledgment of the great obligation incumbent on us Catholics before so many other men to work out our salvation with zeal. If we make a resolution to this latter effect, every one shall profit largely by this sermon.

This depends, too, on Thy light and grace, O God of goodness! which we beg of Thee through the intercession of Mary and of our holy guardian angels.

Many heathen and unknown nations seem to have no means of salvation. Let us see now how one can accuse the divine goodness of parsimony in distributing graces and helps to men to aid them to gain heaven. Here our thoughts are inclined to wander to other parts of the world—to Asia, Africa, America. And we think: how many millions of incredulous heathens, Moors, barbarians, savages there are in those countries, who know nothing whatever of the true God, of the eternal kingdom of heaven, or of the divine law and faith. How many almost unknown islands there are in the East Indies, where men live like the brute beast, where a Catholic priest seldom or never comes to instruct them in what concerns divine things and their eternal salvation. Alas! these poor people too have immortal souls, created for eternity, and redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. But what are they to do? “He that believeth not shall be condemned,”^[1] such is the sentence pronounced by Our Lord. But how can those people believe when they know nothing of the true faith? And how can they know anything of it when ​the Gospel is hardly ever preached to them? There they are, then, created indeed and called to heaven, but without a guide, without grace or help to gain heaven; must they not then be lost forever? Such is the objection that arises in the mind of many a simple soul, and makes him doubt of the goodness of God as far as all men are concerned.

We Christians have then all the more cause to love God; yet those others are not necessarily shut out of heaven. There are two points in this objection that have to be answered. Granted that there are nations in the world who have heard nothing of the true faith and the law of Christ—although as soon as a new country is discovered Catholic priests and missionaries are generally sent thither to preach the Gospel to the inhabitants—yes, indeed, those poor people are to be pitied! And we are bound to return infinite thanks to the great God for the abundant light He has granted us in preference to them; and therefore wo to us if in the clear light of day we do not work zealously for our salvation! For to whom more is given, from him more is expected. There can be no doubt about that. But that those nations who have never had the Gospel preached to them, if there are such, are deprived and excluded from a share in the divine graces and helps by which they may, if they wish, save their souls and gain heaven, and that therefore they must be lost forever: that is not true by any means.

God gives them, in a way unknown to us, sufficient means of salvation. For in the first place I think to myself: if storks, swallows, and other birds know instinctively how to find their way, although no one has taught them, across the high seas into those warm countries where they remain during the winter, and are able to return again at the beginning of spring; if the bees without a master are able to find the flowers from which they suck the honey; if stags, bears, dogs, cats, and almost all other animals can find without a master healing herbs when they are sick, to restore themselves to health; if the rivers can find the sea, and all the elements their centre and point of rest, to which without any guide they are borne of themselves and by a natural inclination, and in which they finally repose: who can believe that there should be so many men on earth who know nothing of their God, or of their last end, or of the means by which they may attain it? And again I think: if no country is so remote, so wild and barbarous as not to receive the benefit of the sun, the stars, the winds, rains, and other things that are necessary for the preservation of the life of the body, who can believe that the means of saving the everlasting life of the immortal ​soul should alone be wanting to it? If all men, even in the wilds of heathendom, have their guardian angels at their side, to protect, guide, and keep them, who can believe that these angels do not, according to their office, give the souls entrusted to them the inspirations necessary for their salvation? If Jesus Christ suffered and died for the salvation of all men, who can believe that He will not also give to all that without which His blood and life would be sacrificed in vain? If God earnestly desires the eternal happiness of all men, and does not wish that any one should be lost, who can believe that He will not give them all the means, and even extraordinary ones, in a way known only to Himself, without which they could not work out their salvation, but must be lost forever? No; there is no doubt of it; even the most savage nations, hitherto unknown to the rest of the world, if there are such, have means enough to know their God, to love their God, to keep the law of their God, to attain to the light of the true faith, and thus, if they wish, to gain heaven.

By the consideration of creatures they can and must know and love God. How so? In what manner? Mark what I am about to say: no one is so stupid, so ignorant, and rude as not to know, when he sees a beautiful, well-built, magnificent house, that there must have been a master who built it. There is no one who hears from afar the delightful harmony of many voices and musical instruments, who does not think that there must be some one who is the author of that music. There is no one who sees a body move itself, walk, stand, speak, eat, drink, who does not know that such a body has a soul and life in it. Yet he has not seen the soul, the musician, or the architect with his bodily eyes, nor has any one told him about them. Thus we must hold it as indubitably certain that there is no man that has come to the use of reason, either in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, even if he were quite alone wandering about in a wilderness, who when he beholds the earth, the sky, and himself, does not arrive at the knowledge that there is a sovereign Lord and Master who has made this beautiful world, and governs it in its wonderful order and constant regularity, although he has not been told anything of this Master; and this knowledge is enough with the sole light of reason to move and impel him to acknowledge that this sovereign Lord and Ruler should be honored, feared, and loved. Hence the question whether an inculpable ignorance of God is possible in a reasoning man is answered by nearly all theologians as follows: such ignorance in one who has arrived at ​the use of reason cannot exist, at least for any length of time; for every one is brought to the knowledge of the Creator by the consideration of created things; and if the Supreme Being is not known by the name of God, yet He has some other title which inspires reverence, and suggests that obedience and submission are due to Him.

Shown from Scripture. That this is the teaching of theologians appears clearly from Holy Writ, for the Apostle says, writing to the Romans about the heathens who have no law and know no Gospel, and therefore adore stocks and stones, birds and four-footed beasts, dragons and serpents as their gods: “That which is known of God is manifest in them.” But who has told them of it, great Apostle? “For God hath manifested it unto them,” is the answer. How so? God has never been preached to them. They need no preaching; “for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also, and divinity; so that they are inexcusable. Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified Him as God, or given thanks, but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened…and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”^[2] Hence there is no excuse for them, and if they are damned they must ascribe it to their own wilful blindness.

The light of reason shows them the commandments and how to keep them. Besides this knowledge of God, and the obligation of honoring, loving, and praying to Him that is learned from creatures, reason itself teaches almost all the other commandments of God that are now prescribed, and how they should be kept. For just as the first principle of nature tells us that we must preserve our lives as long as we can, and every one, without further reasoning or teaching, at once understands and acknowledges that he must eat, drink, sleep, defend himself when attacked: so there is no reasoning being who does not at once recognize that first fundamental law impressed on us by nature itself: “Do unto others as you would wish them to do to you;” he knows that he must honor his parents, do no wrong to any one, inflict pain on no one without just cause, slay no one unless he is ​forced to do it, rob no one, and so on. And he who does any of those bad things, although he is quite alone and has no one on earth to fear, although he knows nothing of any express command, yet he will at once feel the biting tooth of remorse, and a secret fear that says to his heart he has done wrong; thus he knows he must avoid such actions. Hence even in the remotest islands of the world there is no one ignorant of God and of His general law.

And if they keep them, God will, even by a miracle, bring them to the true faith. But, you will say, how can that knowledge help those poor people to eternal happiness? for they are not baptized, and do not belong to the true Church, and so cannot hope for salvation, according to the express words of Our Lord: “He that believeth not shall be condemned "^[3] (words that are to be understood of those who have the use of reason). St. Thomas of Aquin and other theologians answer this question as follows: If one belonging to a savage nation, after having learned to know God, lives according to the natural law, and does and avoids what his reasoning and conscience tell him to do and avoid, the good God will infallibly help him, even by a miracle, if necessary, to the light of the true faith, and to baptism, if not of water, at least of desire; just, so speaks the Angelic Doctor, as He sent Peter to Cornelius, Paul to the Macedonians, Philip to the eunuch of Queen Candace; so that those people were miraculously instructed in the faith, and baptized. In the same manner Father Joseph Anchieta of the Society of Jesus, missionary in Brazil, while on a journey of some hundreds of miles, was brought into a forest, where he found an old gray-haired heathen a hundred years old. He examined this man, and found that during his life he had never offended God by a grievous sin. When asked why he did not do this or that after the example of his fellows, he answered: Because I knew it was wrong. As soon as he was instructed in the Christian faith, and baptized, this innocent man gave up his now sanctified soul into the hands of his Maker. So careful is the good God of those who live according to reason, and do what they can not to be excluded from heaven.

God makes up, by Himself or His angels, the want of other means of salvation. Moreover, in addition to the general and sufficient means given by reason to all men to know and love their Creator, and thus save their souls, who can doubt that the God of love, who has loved all souls even to the death of the cross, will, in the case of savage races, supply the want of the graces that He has ​granted so liberally to us in Christendom that we may save our souls with ease, if we wish—that He will replace those graces by extraordinary inspirations given by Himself directly, or by the holy angels whom He has deputed to attend on those people as their guides to heaven, by interior admonitions and movements of the heart? We have experience of the wonderful care of the divine providence and goodness in creating natural means to preserve the bodily life of man. “Every land does not bring forth everything,”^[4] is an old saying of the poets, and it is true; for not every country can produce all that is serviceable for human life and nourishment. And yet there is no land in which the want of one thing is not supplied by something else that performs the same service. In some islands of the East, as we learn from the letters of our missionary Fathers, there grows neither wine, nor corn, nor other crop of the kind; but there are trees that bring forth a fruit that serves as bread and drink. In some there is neither winter nor cold weather, but the intolerable heat of the air is tempered by a cool breeze from time to time. In many parts of Europe where wood is wanting the earth produces coal, or else straw in great size and abundance, which amply supplies the want of wood for making fires. In Egypt it never rains, as the sky is always clear, and there are no clouds; what do the people do? Divine Providence knows how to replace the want of rain; for at stated times in summer the Nile overflows its banks from some cause or other not yet discovered, pours itself out over the fields, and by its inundation renders the land uncommonly fertile. The world has daily experience of countless similar cases. Are we then wrong in saying that the good God is just as careful to supply for the graces that seem wanting in certain cases, graces that are necessary for the immortal souls that He has created for heaven alone? He is the God who calls Himself the true Light “which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.”^[5] Is He likely to be more careful of bodies than of immortal souls? Can we imagine Him not to be able or willing, or not to know how to touch with His supernatural light and powerful grace, the hearts of even the most abandoned and helpless men, and to draw them to Himself? He is a God of infinite wisdom; then He must know how, and find opportunities enough to do that. He is a God of infinite power; ​then He is able to do it. He is a God of infinite goodness, liberality, and mercy, who, as far as in Him lies, wishes earnestly the salvation of all men; therefore He is also willing to do it. Although we may not see or understand how it is done, yet there can be no doubt about it.

Although we cannot understand how it is done. There are several wonderful mysteries that are far above our grasp; and yet they are in themselves infallibly true. For instance, we do not understand how it is that the sea ebbs and flows at different times, yet it is an undoubted fact that such is the case. We do not know and cannot see how and in what manner God speaks to the hearts of the wildest heathens, and gives them His light and copious graces, but we shall know all about it on that day when, as St. Paul says, the Lord will disclose the most hidden things, and reveal before all men the secrets of hearts. Then we shall find that to be true which Our Lord foretells in the Gospel of St. Matthew: “Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”^[6] Then we shall see what St. John saw long ago, as we read in the Apocalypse: “A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne.”^[7] Hence there is no nation in the world so wild and uncultivated that many of its people shall not gain heaven, and hence there is none that the good God does not richly provide with the means of salvation. “Brethren,” says St. Augustine, concluding his remarks on this question, “let us prostrate ourselves and adore the Lord who made us; for He would not have made us if He did not care to preserve us.”^[8] So much for the first point. I now go on to the second point in the

God does no one and injustice by giving more graces to some than to others. But, others will say, if God wills the salvation of all men, why doesHe not give to all equally powerful means of salvation, that they may all save their souls with the same facility? It is certain, no matter how we consider the matter, that we Catholics in this country have far more light and knowledge, and more ​convenient means and opportunities of doing good and gaining heaven easily, than those wild people who live in heathenism and infidelity, and Turks and heretics who do not live among Catholics. And even among Catholics it is again certain that God gives some more, others fewer graces, so that the former conquer their passions with ease, and the latter only with great difficulty, in order to gain heaven. Further, it is probable that if many who are now in hell had such great graces as many of the saints received, they would also have become holy and be now in heaven; whence that difference? “O man! who art thou that repliest against God?”^[9] I must say with St. Paul. Poor mortal, how can you dare to scrutinize the hidden decrees of the Almighty, and to ask your God why He does this or that, and acts in this or that way, and not otherwise? Is it not enough for you that He has given you His graces and helps, and that too in abundance, so that, if you will, you can gain His eternal kingdom? What is it to you that He has given more or less to others? “Take what is thine and go thy way,” is the answer He Himself gives you in the parable of the laborers, some of whom complained that they who had come late to work received the same pay as themselves, who had toiled the whole day. I do you no wrong; “or, is it not lawful for Me to do what I will? Is thy eye evil because I am good?”^[10]

Shown by a simile. Let us imagine that a rich king publishes that whoever comes to his palace on a certain day shall receive a thousand pounds, and he has fixed on a day to suit all, even those who live at the greatest distance. To some he sends a coach to convey them to his court, to others a horse, that they may ride thither; for others who live by the sea he sends boats, and for others who are strong enough he sends only a guide to show them the way. Now if those latter wished to complain and say: why must I walk while those others ride? I should also like to sit in a coach and thus travel more comfortably. Why must I weary myself journeying on foot? Eh! the king might say to him; who asked you to come at all? I am so good as to offer you a thousand pounds that I do not owe you; if you do not want them, stay at home! But if I give others a more comfortable way of coming for the money, I do you no wrong, and show you no disfavor; it ​should suffice for you that you may have all that money, if you only wish to come and take it. My opinion is, my dear brethren, that in such a case no one would complain of the difference made; but every one would willingly undertake on foot a journey of a whole day. There is what the King of heaven does with us. He calls and invites all men to His kingdom, there to possess a treasure of delights if they only wish to come for it. Those who have received greater graces, travel, as we imagine, in a coach to heaven; others, who have received fewer graces, as we believe, although we cannot be certain of that, have greater difficulty in making the journey, and must go on foot. Supposing such to be the case, why has God so ordained? Why have some more graces than others? But that is not the question we should ask. We should rather inquire: why do I not use the graces that the Lord has given me for my salvation? Every day I have many beautiful opportunities of doing good and adding to my merit; why am I not more diligent in profiting of them? That is the only question that deserves our attention. But why God gives more to one than to another He alone knows, and it is not for me to inquire into His secrets.

There is good reason for that inequality. Yet to throw a little light on this matter, I say that this difference of graces is most justly ordained by God. Every creature, says St. Thomas of Aquin, is an exemplar or copy of the divine perfections; but as no one creature can in itself represent all those perfections, which are infinite, the wisdom of Providence has decreed that there should be a difference between creatures, so that the one may represent what the other does not. Among so many millions of men you will hardly find two who resemble each other in all respects; each one has something to distinguish him in color, face, or manner. Therefore God has appointed different states and modes of life for men; one must be rich, the other poor; one is married, the other single; one is a priest, another a man of the world, another a servant, and so on. And this distinction of classes is necessary for the preservation of the world, as I have shown in detail on a former occasion. The same order must be observed in the distribution of graces and supernatural goods, which are dispensed in different ways according to the states and conditions of men. The religious has one grace, the layman another; the poor man has a different grace from the rich man; but all this is so admirably arranged that the grace given to each one ​is that which is best suited to his condition to enable him to work out his salvation with more ease.

Shown by a simile. Just as it happens with a large army of soldiers; all do not receive the same arms, but are differently equipped, according to the regiment they belong to, or the duties they have to perform. Some are provided with swords, others with sabres, others with lances, others with muskets, others with grenades; some are foot-soldiers, others belong to the cavalry; some are cuirassiers, others dragoons; yet all are so ordered that each one is best able to fight and gain the victory with the arms allotted him. Now what the different arms are to the soldiers, that the different graces and gifts are to us mortals. Therefore to ask why God did not give to Judas the grace He gave to Peter is as wise as to ask the emperor why he does not give his foot-soldiers the same arms as the cavalry have. Each man must be satisfied when he has the weapons that are best suited for defence and attack, according to his duty and rank. If the soldier throws down his arms, refuses to fight, and is slain, not the general who allotted him his arms to defend himself is to blame, but the soldier himself. If I reject the grace given me by God, and refuse to make use of it for my salvation, although I can easily profit by it, then I cannot blame God, but He can blame me.

Hence God is just and generous in giving His grace to all men; but as we Christians are all the more bound to serve Him with zeal. So it is, O Lord! “Thou art just, O Lord! and Thy judgment is right.”^[11] No one can find fault with Thee, no one complain that Thou art parsimonious; all of us have graces and means enough, graces and means in abundance to work out our salvation and come to Thee in heaven. We humbly adore, praise, and magnify Thy liberality, and indeed we have special cause to do so, for we are amongst those to whom, in Thy just decrees, Thou hast given grace in far greater abundance than to many other nations! And wo to us if we Catholics, living in this land, do not come to Thee in heaven! What a hell will be ours! If even heathens and barbarians living in the remotest islands cannot with reason complain that they are abandoned by Thee and Thy grace, if they must ascribe their damnation to themselves alone: what excuse shall we have, if we do not profit by the copious and frequent graces given for our salvation? Wo to us if, as Thou hast said, many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while we, the children of the kingdom, are cast ​out into exterior darkness! if many heathens who have, with the sole light of reason, lived better according to Thy commandments than we, shall be our judges, and condemn us! O my God! when I consider this I know not whether I should be more terrified at Thy goodness, which daily heaps so many graces on me, or at Thy strict justice. For, great as is my hope in the mercy Thou hast shown me, equally great is my fear, on account of my sloth in profiting of Thy favors and helps. Ah, how will it be with me on that day if Thou wilt reproach me and complain of me! “What is the meaning that My beloved hath wrought much wickedness in My house?”^[12] In the midst of the fire thou didst not become warm; in the clear light of My day thou hast deliberately closed thy eyes, and didst not wish to see. Ah, my God! what answer shall I make Thee? This consideration shall in future urge me to greater compunction of heart and detestation of my past sins, and to more zeal and constancy in Thy service; so that after having, at least during the remainder of my life, worked faithfully with Thy graces and helps, at the end I may be able to think and say with Thy apostle Paul: “By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void.”^[13] Many and frequent graces hast Thou given me, O Lord! and I have not allowed them to lie idle; I have worked with them as well as I could for my eternal salvation: “Lord, Thou didst deliver to me five talents; behold, I have gained other five over and above,: that I may deserve to hear from Thee the consoling words: “Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things I will place thee over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”^[14] Amen.

Si quis sermonem meum servaverit, mortem non videbit in æternum.—John viii. 51.

“If any man keep My word, he shall not see death forever.”

This again holds good for all men: “If any man keep My word,” that is, My law and commandments, “he shall not see death forever,” but shall possess the eternal kingdom of heaven. Not one man in the world is excepted here; all should keep the law, for this is the will and desire of God, who, as far as in Him lies, wishes the salvation of all men. All can keep the law, for graces and helps are given to all, since the divine generosity has prepared them in abundance, as I have already shown. Meanwhile there are many people, etc. Continues as above.