On Serving Two Masters
by the Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul, 1893
by the Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul, 1893
"You cannot serve God and Mammon."--St. Matt. vi. 25.
Notwithstanding these
clear words of the Gospel there are many who wish to be the friends of
Mammon without becoming enemies of God. They dally with the world, they
try to serve it and God, if not at one and the same time, at least
alternately.
They do not appreciate the enormity of sin; in fact, they begin to doubt if God will, after all, condemn a soul to eternal pains for one mortal sin. Their confessions are mechanical affairs, without any serious conversion from their life of sin. These are the souls to whom the Holy Ghost addresses those awful words: "I would thou wert cold or hot; but because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." These, therefore, who are trying to serve God and Mammon have already begun to serve Mammon. Christ will have nothing of those who will not serve Him with their whole hearts.
How foolish to suppose that we can save our souls by a divided love! "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." And if for the sake of the world and the things of the world we forsake Christ in anything, we show where our treasure is and in what service we are.
If our easy-going Christian were to appreciate the enormity of the least sin, he would but admire God's justice in condemning a soul for a single mortal sin. It is not so much the single act which we call a mortal sin for which the soul is condemned, as for the moral leprosy which made the sinner capable of so monstrous a crime. No words can adequately describe the awful leprosy which covers that soul which is in a state of mortal sin. When it becomes conscious of its state, after death, it would be a greater hell for it to stand in presence of its outraged Creator than to suffer the miseries of that outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. When it will be brought before the judgment seat of God, before whose majesty the angels veil their faces with their wings, it will cry out to the mountains to cover it and the hills to hide it from the sight of God.
Let not our easy-going friends think, therefore, that sin is a matter of small consequence. They are mistaken if they think that the sacrament of penance will do their work for them. If any man goes to confession without doing his share, by honestly repenting of the past, and sincerely purposing to walk in the way of the commandments for the future, the last state of that man is worse than the first. By no trickery can we get into heaven; God requires an honest service and a whole-souled fidelity.
But he caps the climax of folly who thinks to put off his conversion until his old age. Today's Gospel asks: "What man, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature?'' Who can count upon a day, much less a year? But even if we could count upon an old age, who tells us that we shall become truly converted, when it is apparent that the only reason for our conversion is the impossibility of sinning any more? Confession is not the magical charm our easy-going friends would have it to be; it cannot make a foul sinner into a saint by sleight of hand. God might save the worst sinner in a moment, as he did the penitent thief. But who is certain that He has done so in a single other case? Let us not try to cheat God. He cannot be mocked. He has told us clearly that we must serve him with all our hearts, or we are none of His. We must choose between Him and Mammon. It is impossible not to choose. Which shall it be--God or Mammon?
They do not appreciate the enormity of sin; in fact, they begin to doubt if God will, after all, condemn a soul to eternal pains for one mortal sin. Their confessions are mechanical affairs, without any serious conversion from their life of sin. These are the souls to whom the Holy Ghost addresses those awful words: "I would thou wert cold or hot; but because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." These, therefore, who are trying to serve God and Mammon have already begun to serve Mammon. Christ will have nothing of those who will not serve Him with their whole hearts.
How foolish to suppose that we can save our souls by a divided love! "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." And if for the sake of the world and the things of the world we forsake Christ in anything, we show where our treasure is and in what service we are.
If our easy-going Christian were to appreciate the enormity of the least sin, he would but admire God's justice in condemning a soul for a single mortal sin. It is not so much the single act which we call a mortal sin for which the soul is condemned, as for the moral leprosy which made the sinner capable of so monstrous a crime. No words can adequately describe the awful leprosy which covers that soul which is in a state of mortal sin. When it becomes conscious of its state, after death, it would be a greater hell for it to stand in presence of its outraged Creator than to suffer the miseries of that outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. When it will be brought before the judgment seat of God, before whose majesty the angels veil their faces with their wings, it will cry out to the mountains to cover it and the hills to hide it from the sight of God.
Let not our easy-going friends think, therefore, that sin is a matter of small consequence. They are mistaken if they think that the sacrament of penance will do their work for them. If any man goes to confession without doing his share, by honestly repenting of the past, and sincerely purposing to walk in the way of the commandments for the future, the last state of that man is worse than the first. By no trickery can we get into heaven; God requires an honest service and a whole-souled fidelity.
But he caps the climax of folly who thinks to put off his conversion until his old age. Today's Gospel asks: "What man, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature?'' Who can count upon a day, much less a year? But even if we could count upon an old age, who tells us that we shall become truly converted, when it is apparent that the only reason for our conversion is the impossibility of sinning any more? Confession is not the magical charm our easy-going friends would have it to be; it cannot make a foul sinner into a saint by sleight of hand. God might save the worst sinner in a moment, as he did the penitent thief. But who is certain that He has done so in a single other case? Let us not try to cheat God. He cannot be mocked. He has told us clearly that we must serve him with all our hearts, or we are none of His. We must choose between Him and Mammon. It is impossible not to choose. Which shall it be--God or Mammon?
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