THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals St. Louis IX King of France 25 August 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

St. Louis is the principal patron of the Third Order of St. Francis. He is well known for having led a most virtuous life. His justice was known throughout the world and kings and nobles appealed to him for arbitration of their disputes. Usury was severely punished during his reign and blasphemers were branded in punishment for their crime. He led two rather unsuccessful crusades to free the Holy Lands from the infidels and make them safe for Catholics. He died of typhus during his last crusade.

We are told that when St. Louis was just a boy, his mother said to him: “Son I love you as any mother loves her son, but I would rather see you dead at my feet than to ever see you commit a mortal sin.” This obviously made a very profound impression upon him. His biographer informs us that he was never known to swear, or curse. During his battles he refused to allow his men to pillage in their victories, and demanded that every infidel was to be taken prisoner rather than killed if it was at all possible. St. Louis fed many of the poor at his own table and is known to have served them often with his own hands.

We see a miracle of God’s grace in St. Louis because he lived a saintly life in spite of his wealth and kingship. Through the grace of God he accomplished something greater than passing a camel through the eye of a needle. It appears that much of the earthly credit for this miracle was the influence of his saintly mother Blanche of Castile. The seriousness of the faith and her deep understanding of the eternity of Heaven and Hell preserved in her a true and just understanding of all the material wealth and prosperity of a kingdom. She truly saw and understood that it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world if he loses his soul in the bargain. This insight and grace was obviously deeply impressed upon her son, St. Louis.

Where are the mothers and fathers today who can honestly say that they would prefer to see their children dead and buried in the cold earth, rather than see them commit one single mortal sin?

We claim to love our children, but do we really love them? True love suggests that we wish for them the greatest good – eternal life in heaven. We dare say that most parents do not truly love their children. Parents most often have a selfish disordered love that never includes a thought about eternity. A child in mortal sin is worse off than a child who physically dies. This should be a very obvious principle to everyone, but there are very few who will accept it in actual practice. In theory, we readily see the truth of this principle, but in reality most parents would sacrifice the immortal souls of their children rather than suffer the pain of having to bury them.

Not only parents but almost universally we see that everyone would sacrifice eternal life just to preserve a little longer this brief, fleeting, mortal life here on earth. Faith and eternal truths have fallen into universal neglect, forgetfulness, and demonic doubt.

If only each and every one of us had the influence of a saintly mother as St. Louis had; we would be living in a completely different world! We do, however, have a greater mother than this watching over us and instructing us. We have our Holy Mother the Church constantly guiding and instructing us in these truths, if we will only listen. We have the Blessed Virgin Mary as our mother also seeking our salvation and interceding for us.

It is time that we wake up and pay attention to our mothers. We must increase our love for these mothers and then heed what they are telling us. We must take seriously their words because they are the true teaching and words of God. We must come to know the love our mother and reciprocate this love. In this manner, we will easily see and understand that it would be better to die than to ever offend God, our mother Mary, or our holy mother the Church.

If we have fallen into sin, let us at this very moment rise up and renounce our sins, resolving to confess them as soon as we possibly can. Let us impose upon ourselves penances for these offenses, and return to a true spiritual life. Let us resolve further to never fall into spiritual death again, even if it requires that we sacrifice this mortal life to accomplish it.