The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

"A great prophet is risen up amongst us, and God hath visited His people." These are the words of those who have witnessed the resurrection of the dead son of the widow of Naim. These people witnessed the resurrection of a man's body, but there is a greater miracle that God gives in the resurrection of souls. The healing of a soul is much greater than the healing of a body, simply because the soul is eternal and the body is mortal. Likewise restoring life to the soul is a much greater miracle than restoring life to a body.

But, both of these miracles are the work of God, and should inspire us with the same thoughts and words quoted above. God has visited us many times. He has showered grace after grace upon us. He has restored health both to our bodies and souls. He has restored life to our souls when we were dead in sin. And we are so blind, indifferent, or cold hearted that we fail to recognize the hand of God.

St. Paul tells us that "God is not mocked; for what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh; of the flesh also shall reap corruption: but he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting." When we fail to discern the work of God in our lives we invariably allow the flesh to take over our hearts and minds. This all consuming flesh is sown and corruption and eternal death are what is reaped.

Our duty is then, to open our eyes and realize that God is visiting His people. He is showing us His hand in our daily lives. When we learn to recognize and appreciate this fact we are greatly humbled and overcome with a sense of gratitude. We must necessarily begin to sow in the spirit and will invariably reap eternal life.

Let us learn not to weep so much over the loss of the things of this flesh. All that this world is and has and even our very bodies are destined to corruption and decay. The only thing that we have that will last forever is our souls. We must not allow the time of our lives to pass away without making any spiritual advancement.

We know that everything in this world passes away sooner or later. And this knowledge is daily confirmed before our very eyes. We see the decay and corruption of the material things all around us, and we see the decline of the people around us as they advance in age. If we can truly see and appreciate this simple fact it should be very easy for us to see the vanity of sowing things of this world looking for a harvest of things of this world. The corruptible things that we sow only cause us to reap more corruptible things.

We must sow spiritual incorruptible things if we wish to reap an eternal spiritual life with God in Heaven. St. Paul has given us a list of the things of the spirit (last Sunday's epistle). These are the things that we must sow. Of all these virtues the greatest is Charity. And of the many acts of love that we may perform the first and greatest is the love of God.

How are we to truly love God as we ought if we fail to even recognize Him in the very gifts that He gives us? Our first duty seems to be that we must realize the reality of God's presence just as the people of Naim have done. God has restored health and even life to our souls perhaps many times over, but how often have we actually paused and reflected on the simple fact that we have not only been visited by God, but have received a most precious gift for which we must be eternally grateful?

Once we have allowed this obviously simple truth to penetrate our very slow and dull wits, then the next obvious step is that we must thank Him. And with this obligation of gratitude comes that greatest of virtues — Charity. For how could we not love our truest and greatest benefactor? How could we not love someone who has loved us so much? Then follows, how can we not love that which God loves? We must therefore love our fellow men as God loves them, and His love is such that He gave His very life for them _ not so much for their bodies as for their eternal souls. Let us sow the love of God and our fellow men and reap eternal love in Heaven.

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