Quote:

ON DRUNKENNESS.

Be sober and watch. (i Peter, v. 8.)

SOBRIETY is the mother of vigilance; intemperance is the mother of sloth and of numberless other vices which
cast many souls into the jaws of the devil who, like a hungry lion, goes about day and night seeking for prey. Woe, therefore, to those who because of their drunkenness live, as it were, in constant night and in the perpetual sleep of sin! How will they feel when, suddenly awakened by death, they find themselves before the judgment seat of God burdened with innumerable sins of which they were unconscious, or which they wished not to know they were guilty! Who can number the sins committed in a state of intoxication, sins for which the drunkard cares nothing, for which he has no contrition, and has not confessed, because the light of reason is extinguished, his life is a senseless stupor, and he is therefore unconscious of his thoughts, words and actions.

But will the divine Judge find no sin in such persons? Will He permit the shameful deeds committed while intoxicated, the curses, blasphemies, sneers, detractions, outrages, and scandals to remain unpunished? He, who demands an account of every idle word, will He demand no account of the time so badly spent, of the money so uselessly squandered, families neglected, church service unattended, education of children omitted, and the other great sins committed? They will indeed excuse themselves, pleading that these sins were committed involuntarily, or as a joke, when they were intoxicated; that their intoxication was excusable, as they were not able to stand much; but will God be content with such excuses? Will they not add to their damnation? That they took more than they could bear of the intoxicating drink, deprived themselves of the use of reason, and thus voluntarily caused all the sins they committed while in that state, is what will be punished.

What then can they expect? Nothing- less than the fate of the rich man spoken of in the gospel, who on account of his debaucheries was buried in hell, where during all eternity his parched tongue was not cooled by one drop of water. (Luke xvi. 22.) Yes, this will be the place of those unconverted drunkards of whom St. Paul says that they will not possess the kingdom of God. (i Cor. vi. 10.) How rare and how difficult is the conversion of a drunkard, because with him as with the unchaste this habit becomes a second nature, and because he generally abuses the remedies: the holy Sacraments of Penance and the Altar.

This should certainly deter any one from the vice of drunkenness; but those who are not thus withheld, may consider the indecency, the disgrace, and the injury of this vice, for it ruins the body as well as the soul.

Is it not disgraceful that man endowed with reason, and created for heaven, should drown that reason in excessive drink, degrading his mind, his intellectual spirit, the image of God, rendering it like the brute animals, and even lower than the beasts. "Are not the drunkards far worse than the animals?" says St. Chrysostom. Yes, not only on account of their drunkenness, but far more so because of the shameful position of their body, their manners, their speech, their behavior. How disgracefully naked lay Noah, although he was intoxicated not through his own fault, exposed in his tent to the ridicule of the impudent Cham! (Gen. ix. 21.) Even the heathen Spartans considered the vice of drunkenness so disgraceful that they were in the habit of intoxicating a slave, and bringing him before their children that they might be disgusted with such a state.

Finally, that which should deter everybody from this vice, is its injuriousness. It ruins the body as well as the soul. By surfeiting many have perished, (Eccles. xxxvii. 34.) and it has ruined the health of many more. Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who fall into pits, who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink off their cups? (Prov. xxiii. 29. 30.) Daily observation confirms this truth of Scripture, and the miserable old age, accompanied by innumerable weaknesses and frailties, of one addicted to drink, is a sufficient testimony of the injuriousness of this vice.

Quote:The miseries of this present life are the test to which God puts his soldiers; he passes judgment upon them, and classifies them, according to the degree of courage they have shown. Therefore is it, that we all have our share of suffering. The combat has commenced. God is looking on, watching how each of us comports himself. The day is not far off, when the Judge will pass sentence on the merits of each combatant, and award to each one the recompense he has won. Combat, now; peace and rest and a crown, then. Happy they who, during these days of probation, have recognized the mighty hand of God in all the trials they have had, and have humbled themselves under its pressure, lovingly and confidingly! Against such Christians, who have been strong in faith, the roaring lion has not been able to prevail. They were sober, they were watchful, during this their pilgrimage. They were fully convinced of this, that every one has to suffer in the present life; they therefore never sighed and moaned, as though they were the only sufferers; they did not assume the attitude of victims, and call it Resignation! but they took each trial as it came, and, without talking to every one about it, they quietly and joyously united it with the sufferings of Christ. O true Christians! you will be joyous for all eternity, when there will be made the manifestation of that eternal glory in Christ Jesus, which he will pass on to them, that they may share it with him for ever!

Quote:This parable of the Sheep that is carried back to the fold on the Shepherd’s shoulders was a favorite one with the early Christians; and they made representations of it at almost every turn. The same is put before us in today’s Gospel, that our confidence may be strengthened in God’s infinite mercy. It reminds us, in its own beautiful way, of our Lord Jesus; whom we contemplated, a few weeks back, ascending triumphantly into heaven, carrying thither, in his arms, the lost human family, which he had won back from Satan and death and sin. For, as St. Ambrose says, “who is the Shepherd of our parable? It is Christ, who carries thee, poor man, in his own Body, and has taken all thy sins upon himself. The Sheep is one, not by number, but by its kind. Rich Shepherd this, of whose flock, all we human beings form but the hundredth part! for he has the Angels, and Archangels, and Dominations, and Powers, and Thrones, and all the rest,—all those other countless flocks, whom he has left yonder up the mountains, that he might run after the one Sheep he had lost.”

But it is from St. Gregory the Great that the Church, in her Matins of this Sunday, took the Commentary of this Gospel. And, in the sequel of that Homily, the holy Doctor gives us the explanation of the Parable of the Woman and the ten Groats. “He,” says St. Gregory, “that is signified by the Shepherd, is also meant by the Woman. Jesus is God; he is the Wisdom of God. And because good coin must bear the image of the king upon it, therefore was it that the Woman lost her groat, when Man, who had been created after God’s image, strayed from that image by committing sin. But, the Woman lights a lamp; the Wisdom of God hath appeared in human flesh. A lamp is a light which burns in a vessel of clay; and Light in a vessel of clay, is the Divinity in our flesh. It is of the vessel of this Body, that this Wisdom says: My strength is dried up like a potsherd. For, just as clay is made hard by fire, so His strength was dried up like a potsherd, because it has strengthened unto the glory of his resurrection, in the crucible of sufferings, the Flesh which it (Wisdom) had assumed … Having found the groat she had lost, the Woman calleth together her friends and neighbors, saying: ‘Rejoice with me! because I have found the groat which I had lost.’ Who are these friends and neighbors, if not the heavenly Spirits, who are so near to divine Wisdom, by the favors they enjoy of the ceaseless vision? But we must not, meanwhile, neglect to examine why this Woman, who represents divine Wisdom, is described as having ten groats, one of which she loses, then looks for, and again finds it? We must know, then, that God made both Angels and Men, that they might know him; and that having made both immortal, they were both made to the image of God. The Woman, then, had ten groats, because there are nine orders of Angels, and Man, who is to fill up the number of the elect, is the tenth groat; he was lost by his sin, but was found again, because Eternal Wisdom restored him, by lighting the lamp, that is, by assuming his flesh, and, through that, working wonderful works, which led to his recovery.”

SERMON XXXII. THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST. – ON THE MERCY OF GOD TOWARD SINNERS
by St. Alphonsus Liguori



"There shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than ninety -nine just, who need not penance.” LUKE xv. 7