The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

The evil in this world seek to destroy God and the grace that He brings us, and they are very persevering in this pursuit.

No one can harm God, not Herod, not the world, or the devils. All that Christ suffered He willed and allowed. Apart from His willing it, He could not be harmed because He is God. Thus we see that Herod was unable to harm the Christ child, because God had not willed His sacrifice at that time.

But, we on the other hand cannot be guaranteed that privilege. We are subject to all the attacks of our passions, the world and the devils. They attack us and try to kill Christ within us, sometimes doing great harm to our bodies if not to our souls.

We see the slaughter of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem and we can imagine the weeping and loud lamentations of those who would not be comforted. They were defenseless against the attacks of Herod.

Because Herod could not harm God he took out his rage against everyone else. So it is often with the devils in their attacks against us. They are frustrated in their attempts to attack God so they are all the more violent against us.

But, there is a twist of irony in their attacks, because they cannot harm us unless God allows it. And God, who loves us and wishes our eternal welfare, will only allow them to do what they will so that He can draw a greater good from it.

Also it should be noted that we can only be attacked from the outside. The world the devils and even our own passions cannot harm us unless we will it. They can strike our bodies but they cannot touch our souls. The only one that can harm our souls is we ourselves.

No matter how furious they are in their attacks, they are in reality nothing but hot air. They cower and tremble in the face of anyone who offers the slightest resistance to them. The devils cannot drag us down into Hell. Those who go to Hell have gone willingly. They have chosen to listen to the lies of their passions, the world and the devils. Only those are in Hell who have committed a mortal sin. And one of the requirements of mortal sin is that it must be willful. Therefore only those who willed to commit mortal sin are guilty of mortal sin. And only those guilty of mortal sin are condemned to Hell, so only those are in Hell who have freely chosen to be there. They have imitated their leader Lucifer, and knowingly and willingly refused God's love and graces. The souls of the Holy Innocents bear this out for us. These souls were innocent in the eyes of God. Even though they were conceived in sin (original sin) they were purified by their willingly suffering the death of their bodies for the love of God (baptism of blood).

These little babies with a simple act of their wills defeated Herod and the devils. As weak as they may have been in their bodies their wills show us great strength.

Every human being, including the one that has only just been conceived, has a free will. And no matter what attacks are made from without, nothing can touch his soul unless he himself wills it.

Because we celebrate these Holy Innocents as saints, God through His Holy Church has shown us that every soul has a chance. We see the futility of all the attacks against us. The simple act of the will in loving and choosing God before everything else is enough to save us.

If we love God we have nothing to fear. If we fail in the love of God we have everything to fear, but our biggest fear must be from ourselves. Because, we are the ones that do the greatest, nay the only, harm to our souls' eternal life.

God's grace is always there and the soul is always given a choice. The only question for us is what choice will we make as we breathe forth our last breath in this world? That single choice will seal our fate for eternity.

It is truly the fool who is presumptuous enough to plan on a last minute conversion. Those who live in sin will most likely die that way. Those who live in grace and the love of God are more likely to die in that state.

Let us rejoice with these Holy Innocents in their victory. And let us make use of the time that we have been given to grow stronger in the love of God and in His graces. We can do this only through the means that He has given us: the Sacraments and His Church. Our love is proven when we make use of the means of grace that He has given us. Rejection, neglect or abuse of these sources of grace is a choice of hatred against God and is damnable.

Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?