Show Others the Face of Christ

The Mass readings for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany are selected from the pre-1955 Missal of St. Pius X. Followed by the sermon of Monsignor Thomas Sebastian, Oratory Chapel of St. Francis of Assisi, Society of Christ the King.

INTROIT: Psalm 96:7 – 8

ADORE GOD, All you His Angels: Sion heard, and was glad: and the daughters of Juda rejoiced. Psalm 96:1 – 2. The Lord hath reigned, let the earth rejoice: let many islands be glad. V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end. Amen. ADORE GOD, All you His Angels: Sion heard, and was glad: and the daughters of Juda rejoiced.

EPISTLE: Colossians 3:12 – 17

BRETHREN: Put ye on therefore as the elect of God, holy, and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience. Supporting one another, and pardoning one another: if any have a quarrel against any man, as our Lord hath pardoned us, so you also. But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection: And let the peace of Christ exult in your hearts, wherein also you are called in one body: and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom: teaching and admonishing your own selves, with psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, in grace singing in your hearts to God. All whatsoever you do in word or in work, all things in the Name of our Lord, JESUS CHRIST, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

GRADUAL and ALLELUIA Psalm 101:16 – 17

THE GENTILES SHALL FEAR THY NAME, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory. V. For the Lord hath build up Sion: and He shall be seen in His glory. Alleluia, Alleluia. V. Psalm 96:1 The Lord hath reigned let the earth rejoice: let many islands be glad. Alleluia.

GOSPEL St. Matthew 13:24 – 30

AT THAT TIME: JESUS spoke this parable to the multitudes: The Kingdom of Heaven is resembled to a man that sowed good seed in his field. But when men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat, and went his way. And when the blade was shot up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. And the servants of the goodman of the house coming said to him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it cockle? And he said to them: The enemy hath done this. And the servants said to him, Wilt thou that we go and gather it up? And he said, No: lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you may root up the wheat also together with it. Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn.

OFFERTORY VERSE: Psalm 117:16, 17

THE RIGHT HAND of the Lord hath wrought strength: the right hand of the Lord hath exalted me: I shall not die, but live, and shall declare the works of the Lord.

COMMUNION VERSE: St. Luke 4:22

ALL WONDERED AT THESE THINGS which proceeded from the mouth of God.

SERMON of Monsignor Sebastian:

All whatsoever you do in word or in work, all things in the Name of our Lord,

Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

AGAIN S. Paul speaks to us, the faithful Church, concerning how we, who are called to holiness, must show others the face of Christ by our actions and behavior, not by our mere words. The Apostle reminds us that we are the elect of God, and must act as much. We are the witnesses of Christ to a world that is against Him, and we must never give scandal by poor example. The world looks for any excuse or sign to call our God and our Church false. Let us listen again to the exhortation of the Apostle: Put ye on therefore as the elect of God, holy, and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience. Supporting one another, and pardoning one another: if any have a quarrel against any man, as our Lord hath pardoned us, so you also. But above all these things have charity, which is the band of perfection: And let the peace of Christ exult in your hearts, wherein also you are called in one body: and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom: teaching and admonishing your own selves, with psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, in grace singing in your hearts to God. All whatsoever you do in word or in work, all things in the Name of our Lord, JESUS CHRIST, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. These are not just pretty phrases from S. Paul, or simple best practices - no, these are absolutes that we must live. The Christian hypocrite is a repugnant creature; the liar or thief, the adulterer or filthy sodomite, the whiner or backstabbing gossip, the tale-bearer or hard-hearted unforgiving resentment holder has no place in the Kingdom of God!

We must always show to others what Christ has shown to us; mercy, forgiveness and love. Blessed Peter, Our Lord’s chosen Prince of the Apostles commands us to all be of one mind, having compassion one of another, being lovers of the brotherhood, merciful, modest, humble: Not rendering evil for evil, nor railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing: for unto this are you called, that you may inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him decline from evil, and do good: let him seek after peace and pursue it: Because the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and His ears unto their prayers: but the countenance of the Lord upon them that do evil things. And who is he that can hurt you, if you be zealous of good (I S. Peter 3:8-13)? Indeed…who can hurt you, if you be zealous of good? The Christian life, that is, life lived in God’s grace, is that of joy – listen what the Apostle told the church in Collosæ, and us; the entire Epistle which the Holy Church places before us is a concise list of the life of grace. This Epistle was written by S. Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome (cf. Colossians 4:3, 4:18), sometime around the Year of Our Lord 61. S. Paul, confirming S. Epaphras, whom he sent, derides the heresy that has taken root there, especially concerning the nature and divinity of Christ and His preeminence over the angels (cf. 1:15 – 20). True shepherds of the Church, following the example of our Blessed Lord, the Good Shepherd, must teach and defend true and sound doctrine, even to the point of laying down their own life for the faithful and for the truth (cf. S. John 10:11).

Now I know that these commands can be difficult, but they are difficult because we love so little. We must fall in love with the Lord Jesus, so fully and so completely that we can then fall in love with one another. Not as the world loves, but as the Lord loves! Perfectly, without “catches” or conditions. You must, beloved in Christ, have recourse to Our Blessed Lord, He is our safety, our rock and our comfort. Only He can grant us true peace in a weary and wicked world. It is He who sustains us during the times of trial, most especially when we must endure the wicked. To confirm this truth, let us examine and explicate the Gospel that the Church has chosen for us today.

God, you see, is the Husbandman, Who sows “good seed” in His Field –the seed is humanity: filled with the potentiality to grow in His grace and bear good and nourishing fruit. The Field is, of course, the Church. Now the evil one is “the enemy,” who sneaks in at night when men were sleeping. The sleeping servants are us, the servants of God, who were not vigilant in protecting the field. How many times have we, you and I, fallen asleep at the “spiritual wheel” and let the devil, the old enemy, sneak into our lives and wreak havoc. It is when we do not protect ourselves with vigilance and the grace of God, that we fall – letting the evil one, ever ready to seduce us, enter into our lives, homes and families and sow the seeds of sin, anger, impurity, discord and disharmony. Sobre estote et viligate, says S. Peter, be sober and watchful, for the devil, our adversary, prowls about like a lion seeking to devour our souls (I S. Peter 5:8). Again, it is due to our spiritual indifference and sloth that we fall asleep and allow him to sow cockle, a dangerous and chocking weed that grow as in inflorescence on the fruit of wheat; just as small sin gives way to greater sin and chokes away the life of grace from our souls.

And what do we hear in the Gospel from the servants? We hear an excuse and blame. They, just as we do, seek to lay the blame at God’s own feet: someone has done this. How often have you and I thought, if nowhere else but in the wickedness of our stone cold hearts: well if God did not allow evil, none of this would happen. So much for our gift of free will. There is no accountability for their culpability at falling asleep and not being vigilant. And then they seek to quickly remedy the situation: Wilt Thou that we go and gather it up? This sorry attempt to hurry up and destroy rather than remedy, is pitiable, in order to obfuscate their own guilt they rush to cover up their own mess. How many times, dearest children in Christ, have we rushed to cover or hide our sins and transgressions, rather than admit our fault and make amends? But God, ever wise and all knowing, holds us back, saving us from making the situation worse. No, He says, lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you may root up the wheat also together with it. Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn.

The weed amoung the wheat…the wicked hide amoung the good – and yet, God alone knows the hearts of men, and so we must assume the good in others, and not rush to condemn them. Human judgment is flawed, which is why Our Lord is always warning us against a rush to judgment and broad assumptions.

Let us look, as a perfect example, of the situation we find ourselves in the Church of today: a generation ago wicked men entered the seminary, the evil one “sowed” them into the field of priestly souls, and they have grown into the weeds of modernism and sodomy, and seek to overtake the wheat of chastity and holy service. Rather than seeking to find blame we must become heroically holy! Sanctity is the only remedy to our ills – we do not restore the Church – the Church restores us! We must work at holiness, every day, every moment. Let us all, beloved in Christ the King, be ever vigilant over our own lives, souls, homes and families, and our Holy Church. Let us keep the enemy out, ever armed with the grace of God; for it is better to prevent evil from first occurring, than to struggle to overcome it and route it out.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We love you. Save souls. Amen.