SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE NATIVITY – IN WHAT TRUE WISDOM CONSISTS

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Sermon By Saint Alphonsus Liguori

” Behold, this CHILD is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel.” LUKE ii.
34.

SUCH was the language of holy Simeon when he had the consolation to hold in his hands the
infant Jesus. Among other things which he then foretold, he declared that “this child was set
for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel.” In these words he extols the lot of the
saints, who, after this life, shall rise to a life of immortality in the kingdom of bliss, and he
deplores the misfortune of sinners, who, for the transitory and miserable pleasures of this
world, bring upon themselves eternal ruin and perdition. But, notwithstanding the greatness
of his own misery, the unhappy sinner, reflecting only on the enjoyment of present goods,
calls the saints fools, because they seek to live in poverty, in humiliation, and self-denial. But
a day will come when sinners shall see their errors, and shall say. “We fools esteemed their
life madness, and their end without honour.” (Wis. v. 4.) We fools; behold how they shall
confess that they themselves have been truly fools. Let us examine in what true wisdom
consists, and we shall see, in the first point, that sinners are truly foolish, and, in the second,
that the saints are truly wise.

First Point. Sinners are truly foolish.

1. What greater folly can be conceived than to have the power of being the friends of God,
and to wish to be his enemies? Their living in enmity with God makes the life of sinners
unhappy in this world, and purchases for them an eternity of misery hereafter St. Augustine
relates that two courtiers of the emperor entered a monastery of hermits, and that one of
them began to read the life of St. Anthony. “He read, ” says the saint, “and his heart was
divested of the world.” He read, and, in reading, his affections were detached from the Earth.
Turning to his companion he exclaimed: ”What do we seek? The friendship of the emperor is
the most we can hope for. And through how many perils shall we arrive at still greater
danger? Should we obtain his friendship, how long shall it last ?” Friend, said he, fools that
we are, what do we seek? Can we expect more in this life, by serving the emperor, than to
gain his friendship? And should we, after many dangers, succeed in making him our friend,
we shall expose ourselves to greater danger of eternal perdition. What difficulties must we
encounter in order to become the friend of Caesar!”But, if I wish, I can in a moment become
the friend of God.” I can acquire his friendship by endeavouring to recover his grace. His
divine grace is that infinite treasure which makes us worthy of his friendship. “For she is an
infinite treasure to men, which they that use become the friends of God” (Wis. vii. 14.)

2. The Gentiles believe it impossible for a creature to become the friend of God; for, as St.
Jerome says, friendship makes friends equal. “Amicitia pares accipit, aut pares facit.” But
Jesus Christ has declared, that if we observe his commands we shall be his friends. “You are
my friends, if you do the things I command.” (John xv. 14.)

3. How great then is the folly of sinners, who, though they have it in their power to enjoy the
friendship of God, wish to live in enmity with him! The Lord does not hate any of his
creatures: he does not hate the tiger, the viper, or the toad. ”For thou lovest all things that
are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made.” (Wis. xi. 25.) But he necessarily
hates sinners. ”Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity.” (Ps. v. 7.) God cannot but hate sin,
which is his enemy and diametrically opposed to his will; and therefore, in hating sin, he
necessarily hates the sinner who is united with his sin. “But to God the wicked and his
wickedness are hateful alike. ” (Wis. xiv. 9.)

4. The sinner is guilty of folly in leading a life opposed to the end for which he was created.
God has not created us, nor does he preserve our lives, that we may labour to acquire riches
or earthly honours, or that we may indulge in amusements, but that we may love and serve
him in this world, in order to love and enjoy him for eternity in the next. “And the end life
everlasting.” (Rom. vi. 22.) Thus the present life, as St. Gregory says, is the way by which we
must reach Paradise, our true country. ”In the present life we are, as it were, on the road by
which we journey to our country.” (St. Greg. hom. xi. in Evan.)

5. But the misfortune of the greater part of mankind is, that instead of following the way of
salvation, they foolishly walk in the road to perdition,. Some have a passion for earthly
riches; and, for a vile interest, they lose the immense goods of Paradise: others have a passion
for honours; and, for a momentary applause, they lose their right to be kings in Heaven:
others have a passion for sensual pleasures; and, for transitory de lights, they lose the grace
of God, and are condemned to burn for ever in a prison of fire. Miserable souls! if, in
punishment of a certain sin, their hand was to be burned with a red-hot iron, or if they were
to be shut up for ten years in a dark prison, they certainly would abstain from it. And do they
not know that, in chastisement of their sins, they shall be condemned to remain for ever in
Hell, where their bodies, buried in fire, shall burn for all eternity? Some, says St. John
Chrysostom (Hom. de recup. Laps.), to save the body, choose to destroy the soul; but, do
they not know that, in losing the soul, their bodies shall be condemned to eternal
torments?”If we neglect the soul, we cannot save the body”

6. In a word, sinners lose their reason, and imitate brute animals, that follow the instinct of
nature, and seek carnal pleasures without ever reflecting on their lawfulness or unlawfulness.
But to act in this manner is, according to St. Chrysostom, to act not like a man, but like a
beast. ”Hominem ilium dicimus” says the saint, “qui imaginem hominis salvam retinet: qua
autem est imago hominis? Rationalem esse” To be men we must be rational: that is, we must
act, not according to the sensual appetite, but according to the dictates of reason. If God
gave to beasts the use of reason, and if they acted according to its rules, we should say that
they acted like men. And it must, on the other hand, be said, that the man whose conduct is
agreeable to the senses, but contrary to reason, acts like a beast. He who follows the dictates
of reason, provides for the future. “Oh! that they would be wise, and would understand, and
would provide for their last end.” (Deuter. xxxii. 29.) He looks to the future that is, to the
account he must render at the hour of death, after which he shall be doomed to Hell or to
Heaven, according to his merits, ”Non est sapiens” says St. Bernard, ”qui sibi non est.” (Lib.
de consid.)

7. Sinners think only of the present, but regard not the end for which they were created. But
what will it profit them to gain all things if they lose their last end, which alone can make
them happy. ”But one thing is necessary.” (Luke x. 42.) To attain our end is the only thing
necessary for us: if we lose it, all is lost. What is this end? It is eternal life. “Finem vero vitam
æternam.” During life, sinners care but little for the attainment of their end. Each day brings
them nearer to death and to eternity; but they know not their destination. Should a pilot who
is asked whither he is going, answer that he did not know, would not all, says St. .Augustine,
cry out that he was bringing the vessel to destruction?”Fac hominem perdidisse quo tendit, et
dicatur ei: quo is? et dicat, nescio: nonne iste navem ad naufragium perducet ?” The saint
then adds: ”Talis est qui currit præter viam.” Such are the wise of the world, who know how to acquire wealth and honours, and to indulge in every kind of amusement, but who know
not how to save their souls. How miserable the rich glutton, who, though able to lay up
riches and to live splendidly, was, after death, buried in Hell! How miserable Alexander the
Great, who, after gaining so many kingdoms, was condemned to eternal torments? How
great the folly of Henry the Eighth, who rebelled against the Church, but seeing at the hour
of death that his soul should be lost, cried out in despair: ”Friends, we have lost all!” O God,
how many others now weep in Hell, and exclaim: ”What hath pride profited us? or what
advantage hath the toasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a
shadow.” (Wis. v. 8.) In the world we made a great figure we enjoyed abundant riches and
honours; and now all is passed away like a shadow, and nothing remains for us but to suffer
and weep for eternity. St. Augustine says, that the happiness which sinners enjoy in this life
is their greatest misfortune, “Nothing is more calamitous than the felicity of sinners, by
which their perverse will, like an internal enemy, is strengthened.” (Ep. v. ad Marcellin.)

8. In fine, the words of Solomon are fulfilled with regard to all who neglect their salvation:
”Mourning taketh hold of the end of joy.” (Prov. xiv. 13.) All their pleasures, honours, and
greatness, end in eternal sorrow and wailing. “Whilst I was yet beginning, he cut me off.” (Is.
xxxviii. 12.) Whilst they are laying the foundation of their hopes of realizing a fortune, death
comes, and, cutting the thread of life, deprives them of all their possessions, and sends them
to Hell to burn for ever in a pit of fire. What greater folly can be conceived, than to wish to be
transformed from the friend of God into the slave of Lucifer, and from the heir of Paradise to
become, by sin, doomed to Hell? For, the moment a Christian commits a mortal sin, his name
is written among the number of the damned! St. Francis de Sales said that, if the angels were
capable of weeping, they would do nothing else than shed tears at the sight of the destruction
which a Christian who com mits mortal sin brings upon himself.

9. Oh! how great is the folly of sinners, who, by living in sin, lead a life of misery and
discontent! All the goods of this world cannot content the heart of man, which has been
created to love God, and can find no peace out of God. What are all the grandeurs and all the
pleasures of this world but “vanity of vanities!” (Eccl. i. 2.) What are they but “vanity and
vexation of spirit?” (Ibid. iv. 16.) Earthly goods are, according to Solomon, who had
experience of them, vanity of vanities; that is mere vanities, lies, and deceits. They are also
a”vexation of spirit :” they not only do not content, but they even afflict the soul; and the
more abundantly they are possessed, the greater the anguish which they produce. Sinners
hope to find peace in their sins; but what peace can they enjoy?”There is no peace to the
wicked, saith the Lord.” (Is. xlviii. 22.) I abstain from saying more at present on the unhappy
life of sinners: I shall speak of it in another place. At present, it is enough for you to know
that God gives peace to the souls who love him, and not to those who despise him. Instead of
seeking to be the friends of God, sinners wish to be the slaves of Satan, who is a cruel and
merciless tyrant to all who submit to his yoke. “Crudelis est et non miserebitur.” (Jer. vi. 23.)
And if he promises delights, he does it, as St. Cyprian says, not for our welfare, but that we
may be the companions of his torments in hell: ”Ut habeat socios pœna, socios gehenæ”.

Second Point. The saints are truly wise.

10. Let us be persuaded that the truly wise are those who know how to love God and to gain
Heaven. Happy the man to whom God has given the science of the saints. “Dedit illi scientiam sanctorum” (Wis. x. 10.) Oh! how sublime the science which teaches us to know how to love God and to save our souls! Happy, says St. Augustine, is the man “who knows God, although he is ignorant of other things.” They who know God, the love which he merits, and how to love him, stand not in need of any other knowledge. They are wiser than
those who are masters of many sciences, but know not how to love God. Brother Egidius, of
the order of St. Francis, once said to St. Bonaventure: Happy you, Father Bonaventure, who
are so learned, and who, by your learning, can become more holy than I can, who am a poor
ignorant man. Listen, replied the saint: if an old woman knows how to love God better than
I do, she is more learned and more holy than I am. At hearing this, Brother Egidius
exclaimed: ”poor old woman! poor old woman! Father Bonaventure says that, if you love
God more than he does, you can surpass him in sanctity.”

11. This excited the envy of St. Augustine, and made him ashamed of himself. ”Surgunt
indocti,” he exclaimed, “et rapiunt cœlum.” Alas! the ignorant rise up, and bear away the
kingdom of Heaven; and what are we, the learned of this world, doing? Oh! how many of the
rude and illiterate are saved, because, though unable to read, they know how to love God;
and how many of the wise of the world are damned! Oh! truly wise were St. John of God, St.
Felix of the order of St. Capuchins, and St. Paschal, who were poor lay Franciscans, and
unacquainted with human sciences, but learned in the science of the saints. But the wonder
is, that, though worldlings themselves are fully persuaded of this truth, and constantly extol
the merit of those who retire from the world to live only to God, still they act as if they
believed it not.

12. Tell me, brethren, to which class do you wish to belong to the wise of the world, or to the
wise of God? Before you make a choice, St. Chrysostom advises you to go to the graves of the
dead! “Proficiscamur ad Sepulchra” Oh! how eloquently do the sepulchres of the dead teach
us the science of the saints and the vanity of all earthly goods!”For my part,” said the saint, ”I
see nothing but rottenness, bones, and worms. ” As if he said: Among these skeletons I
cannot distinguish the noble, the rich, or the learned; I see that they have all become dust and
rottenness: thus all their greatness and glory have passed away like a dream.

13. What then must we do? Behold the advice of St. Paul: “This, therefore, I say, brethren: the
time is short: it remaineth that . . . they that use this world BE as if they used it not; for the
fashion of this world passeth away.” (1 Cor. vii. 29-31.) This world is a scene which shall
pass away and end very soon . “The time is short.” During the days of life that remain, let us
endeavour to live like men who are wise, not according to the world, but according to God,
by attending to the sanctification of our souls, and by adopting the means of salvation; by
flying dangerous occasions; by practising prayer; joining some pious sodality; frequenting
the sacraments; reading every day a spiritual book; and by daily hearing Mass, if it be in our
power; or, at least, by visiting Jesus in the holy sacrament of the altar, and some image of the
most holy Mary. Thus we shall be truly wise, and shall be happy for time and eternity.