The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Our Lord compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a supper. There are many aspects of this parable for us to consider. We must restrict ourselves to just a few ideas in order to try and understand them well.

The Catholic Church is the gateway into this kingdom and the Church is the last opportunity for any and all who would enter into the Kingdom. The true Church was with the prophets for about two thousand years up to the time of Moses, and then the true Church was with the children of Israel, for about fifteen hundred years, until the time of Christ. The Catholic Church is the last and final opportunity for us here on earth, just as supper is the last and final meal for the day. The Catholic Church will remain with us until the end of time.

The parable today shows us that the majority of the people refuses to enter the Catholic Church and therefore will never taste of the supper that was prepared for them in Heaven. The principle question is what prevents them from entering or leads them outside.

Our Lord gives three examples of the obstacles that prevent people from entering into the Church. These reasons are also the reasons that lead people away from the Church. Let us consider these reasons briefly and work to guard ourselves against these temptations. The obstacles can be summed up as: pride, avarice, and impurity.

There are many heretics, schismatics, and fallen away Catholics that see the truth of what the Catholic Church teaches, but they still refuse to enter the Church. What is it that keeps them away? They are unwilling to give up that which God through the Catholic Church condemns.

There are many who fear that if they become good Catholics that they will lose their station in society, their jobs, social status, etc. Their pride and vanity are more important than their souls. These poor people do not see how shallow they really are. "Vanity of vanity, and all is vanity." Compared to Heaven, all that this world offers is nothing. Pride and vanity only puff people up, like a balloon, with hot air. The higher the balloon goes the more it expands until it reaches such a point that it can no longer contain itself, and falls back to the earth in pieces. Such are the poor souls filled with the emptiness of their pride and vanity. Their bubble will eventually be burst, and they will be filled with shame and confusion.

The avaricious suffer a very similar fate. They will not enter the Church because they fear losing the goods of this earth or even the opportunity to acquire more of the goods of this earth. They value the goods of this world more than the eternal goods of Heaven. They are constantly seeking to lay up treasures, but their treasures are such that rust and moth will consume or robbers will come and steal away. They refuse to lay up treasures that will last forever. They delude themselves into thinking that they are able to make their "treasures" last forever. Their foolishness is such that even though they see that everything on this earth eventually passes away, they will not allow themselves to consider that the same inconvenience will happen to their "treasures". We must leave this world with the same material possession that we came with. We arrived naked and we will leave naked. The only treasures that we can truly take with us will be spiritual goods.

Lastly we see perhaps the most foolish of all these groups, those suffering from the vices of impurity. They refuse to enter the Church and taste of the supper because they would have to abandon their evils, and they love their evils more than they love the pleasures of Heaven. I say these are perhaps the most foolish because their pleasures are the most fleeting of all. The physical pleasure of impurity last but just a moment and then the pains of shame and disgust follow almost immediately. And even if the sinner is able to stifle these remorses in his conscience for a time, the sin itself soon looses all its attractiveness and is only indulged in by habit, and new evil pleasures and desires are sought for, thus dragging the soul deeper and deeper into these evil vices.

These are the simple reasons why the majority do not enter into or remain in the Catholic Church. When we consider them in the light of eternity, it is obvious how foolish they really are. Even though these vices are obviously very foolish they are nonetheless very powerful. Just look around and see how easily people have been deceived by them. With this understanding which comes from the light of God, let us be even more vigilant in guarding ourselves against these sins, lest we too have the misfortune of falling into them and becoming so attached to them that we will not repent and renounce them, and be forever barred from tasting of God's supper in the eternal mansions of Heaven.

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