THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost 4 September 2011

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

We are often told that we must love our enemies and to do good to those who persecute us. In today’s gospel Holy Mother Church reminds us once again to open up our hearts to our fellow men.

We must be cautious not to condone evil or to give support (either real or apparent) to evil doers in their evil. At the same time however, we are commanded to love them and to seek that which is good for them. In the face of evil and sin of others we must pray and work that they may obtain their salvation through repentance and grace.

The corporal works of mercy are given to us as guides in this matter. We must ever be ready to do what we can for the aid of our fellow men in need. It is truly difficult to discern who to help or how much to help, because we do not wish to become enablers. We do not wish Godspeed to heretics and schismatics lest we become accomplices in their guilt. Yet, for this same reason we do not wish to see them lost for all eternity either. Let us therefore keep in mind the spiritual works of mercy too and learn to admonish the sinner in all charity.

The errors of humanism have become very rampant today and are but a corruption of the corporal works of mercy that God has given us to practice towards each other. To love our neighbor and seek his salvation demands that we preach to him the truth and assist him in any way we can to arrive at the truth. It is completely against the will of God for us to seek to help the Buddhist to become a better Buddhist; or the Muslim to become a better Muslim, etc. This is not the love of our neighbor that God wishes us to practice.

There appears to be a strong desire in this humanism in the world today spurred on by the examples of people like Mother Teresa of Calcutta who made this humanistic idea her own and openly promoted it. She did not go to convert anyone to the true faith she only sought to make them better humanists.

There is a very strong parallel in this with today’s gospel. The people passed by the wounded man without giving him the aid he needed. In today’s humanism we witness poor sinners sunk deep in the errors of paganism, heresy, and schism yet far from coming and offering the aid that we should for their souls we pass by or even encourage them in their evil – thus leaving them to spiritually die of the maladies of their souls.

Missionaries are not sent out to make better humanists or to improve the physical lot of peoples, but are sent first and foremost to bring salvation to those who lack it; to save that which is lost as Our Lord came to do. The material improvement in their lives will come as a result of their cooperation with the spiritual advancements that are offered them. The aid offered to the body is reflection or symbol of the aid that is offered to the soul.

To offer material aid that is devoid of the spiritual is to only become an accomplice in their evil. To truly love our enemies is to seek for them to come to repentance and salvation in the true, One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Let us not be fooled into believing that God is pleased with pure humanism. This is not true love. This is not enough and often becomes the source of greater evils. True love compels us not to just offer a cup of water to someone who is thirsty, but demands further of us that we do it for the sake of Jesus Christ. In coming to the aid of one another we must do so for the sake of Jesus. In this way the charity is seen as coming from Him and inspires others to seek Him and find Him. Such actions give much more than water for the body but gives a drink of eternal life that comes through Jesus Christ.