The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friends in Christ,

If we are to be saved, we must pray; and if our prayer is to be heard, we must be humble. Humility is, therefore, the necessary element in our prayer. Faith, however, is a prerequisite to prayer. Before we can come before God, we must first believe in Him. Faith entails more than just an acknowledgement that God exists. The devil believes in God and trembles in fear. True faith leads us in charity. There is, therefore, a kind of sequence to our salvation. We must believe, we must love, we must humble ourselves, we must pray. Yet, faith, charity, and all the virtues are gifts of God which we cannot give to ourselves. So, we must pray to God that He give us what we need. But if we do not have faith, we will not pray; if we do not have humility, we will not pray well. This apparent quandary cripples many in their spiritual lives.

Our Lord once asked a man if he believed, and he replied, "Yes, I believe, Lord, help my unbelief." (Mark 9:23) God gives the first seeds of the graces He demands of us, then we are required to pursue the completion or fulfillment of these virtues in our labors and prayers. Many experience this initial gift from God of faith, and they think that this is their own work, thus losing this grace and any merit because of their pride. Others experience this initial gift of faith and believe this is all they need, never seeking more from God. They lack charity, or a love of God that ever seeks a more intimate understanding and love. Still, others take this germ of faith and begin to distort it, so that it fits in with their own self-love. They make a god in their own image and likeness, and this they consider to be faith.

Jesus once asked if we think He will find faith on this earth when He returns. (Luke 5:8) These are some of the reasons that He implies only a few will have faith. The majority will have lost the faith because they have not prayed well, and they have not prayed well because they did not fully cooperate with what they had already been given. We are therefore required to "always pray and not to faint." (Luke 18:1) This is not a suggestion, it is a command. We must be in constant communion with God, seeking His guidance and grace in every moment of our lives.

The sources of our temptations remain the same: the devil, the world, and our fallen nature. However, these temptations appear to increase as the pages of history are turned. Each generation, having less and less faith to pass on to the succeeding generations, keeps us heading toward the end of time. We are amid the Great Apostasy, and with a bit of hindsight, we can see how it came to pass. God wills the salvation of all of us, but He does not force it upon us. He has given us free will so that we can truly love Him and unite ourselves with Him. The good that comes from those who genuinely love Him outweighs the evil of all those who are lost. The Great Apostasy is the significant loss of faith. It has occurred simply because charity has grown cold. The devils have played their part, but it would be wrong to conclude that it is all their work. The devils only have as much influence over us as we give them, or as much as God allows. We must not confuse the temptations (no matter how strong they may be) with an inability to resist them. We must resist, we must fight, we must pray for strength and guidance.

We have a free will to love what we choose. Many have chosen to love themselves, the world, and so on, and have thus turned away from God. They have naturally made gods of what they love (idolatry). For our salvation, we must love God above everything else. We must exercise our own free will to choose God deliberately, or else we become blinded by a disordered love and become just a member of the masses, that is readily and easily led by the various propagation machines of temptation (the devils, the world, and our fallen nature). This choice, this deliberate act of loving God, is what sets us apart, what leads us to salvation.

In a desire for world peace, we find that the masses forget all truth (God) and proper order. In this blindness, which they call enlightenment, they seek that which unites all beliefs. They are not concerned with objective truth and reality, but only with each other's subjective "truth." In this manner, all real and absolute truth is sacrificed, and the masses are left with a non-existent faith, charity, and peace. Faith is destroyed, charity has grown cold, and true prayer has ceased. Their peace is, therefore, likewise, only an illusion. We must break out of the mob mentality; stop allowing ourselves to be manipulated by the mass media propagation machines; we must use our intelligence, reason, all the talents God has given us; we must cooperate with the graces that we have already received; we need to pray unceasingly in all humility, and love. Only in this manner will Jesus be able to find faith in us when He comes for us.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspire, guide, and protect us!

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