The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friends,

Behold, this child is set for the fall and the resurrection of many in Israel. (Luke 2: 34)

Christ is set for the fall of many. Christ who came to redeem us and save us from our sins and the consequences of our sins, and Who has shown us such love and mercy, will be the stumbling block that will cause many men hardened in wickedness to fall into the depths of Hell. In the case of impenitent, hardened sinners, things that should be instrumental in bringing them to salvation, as the word of God, divine grace, the sacraments, only serve to make them sink deeper into vice.

Such an obdurate sinner will fall because they have neglected or abused the goodness of God. The obdurate sinner strives to silence his conscience. Those who are not hardened in vice, become filled with disquietude, fear, and sadness when they have the misfortune of falling into sin. The obdurate man who has silenced his conscience does not appear to be fazed in the least by what he has done or what lies ahead of him. Such a person resembles one who is dangerously ill, whose excruciating pains have ceased, and who tranquilly and with a dying voice says: "Now all is well, I feel no more pain." Truly the body feels no more pain, because it is already benumbed with the coldness of death. The sinner who still feels remorse of conscience is truly fortunate.

God's grace is inefficacious for the obdurate sinner. God contends with the sinner and wishes to overcome him. But, heedlessly the sinner holds out against God and will not allow himself to be conquered. The omnipotent God is defeated, and the impotent sinner, to his own destruction, comes forth victorious over the mercy of God. Mercy is then withdrawn, and the obdurate sinner is left to be dealt with by divine justice.

God seeks to save the sinner not only by interior graces, but also by exterior means of salvation. The means which He makes use of for the conversion of the sinner are of two kinds: ordinary ones, such as admonitions, salutary exhortations on the part of the pastors of souls and confessors, of parents and well-meaning friends, the good example of others, especially of superiors, general and particular prayers of the faithful, holy seasons and feasts; the extraordinary are such as missions, jubilees, wars, and great calamities. Sinners who are not yet obdurate and hardened avail themselves of these opportunities of grace. They return from their evil ways and change their life. But the obdurate sinner continues on just as before, deaf to all the obvious pleadings and admonitions of God.

The causes of such obduracy are: unbelief, the habit of sinning, and the presumption of the sinner. Those who do not believe in God, Heaven, or Hell obviously have no concern for renouncing sin. But, generally speaking, it is the habit of sinning that comes before unbelief. The habitual sinner wishes to remove the stings of his conscience by professing unbelief. Unbelief is not the cause of the obdurate sinner, but is the effect of the obdurate sinner's struggle against the effects of God's grace.

The habit of sin is a terrible evil. The first time a sinner falls, he feels some repugnance interiorly, some resistance, his conscience is aroused and he does not readily yield to passion and sin. The second and subsequent times he sins with greater facility; sin appears to him by no means so execrable as it did the first time; and the oftener he sins the less he cares about it, until at last sin loses in his eyes its baseness, and he commits it as eaily as if it were a matter of no moment. Thus the habitual sinner violates chastity; that he gets drunk, curses, blasphemes, cheats, slanders, and detracts his neighbor most unjustly, without feeling the least remorse of conscience, or reflecting that if he do not amend his life he will be lost forever. St. Bernard says: "The oft-repeated sin produces a habit, and the habit a necessity, and the necessity the impossibility to renounce it; and the impossibility leads to despair, and despair to eternal damnation." If we desire not to be lost eternally we must resist in the beginning, avoid the first sin, and fear nothing so much as to become a habitual sinner.

The habitual sinner is likewise inclined to presumption. He continues to live in sin and nonetheless still hopes that God will be merciful to him. This hope is presumption and leads to damnation not to salvation.

These are the signs and causes of the obduracy of sinners. Those who are so unfortunate as to have allowed themselves to be in such a state, are the occasion for Christ being set for the fall of many. What a sad state of affairs to be considering during this joyful season of Christmas, but this is the Gospel that The Church sets before us to warn us and to awaken in us the sincere desire for penance and amendment of life, so that Christ can be set for our resurrection.

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