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Volume 6CHRISTIAN CHARITYThe Sisterhood of the Good ShepherdSERMOK BY THE MOST REVEREND ARCHBISHOP.“Thou slmlt love thy Lord thy God ■with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. Thls/js the greatest and the first comma ivt!incitt. And the second is like to thRf: Thou shalt love thy neighbornsj thyself.” Those the words inwhich the Master Himself has defined the great duty of charity—the love of 11ml. aud for the sake of God, the love of thw^ieighbor. Blessed is the human heart th^Vresponds to the call of charity as betokened by the Saviour of the world: blessed it is before God:blessed it is before men. The heart, thrilled with charity, ascends with all its might, in the complete gift of self, to the (Yeator. into the presence of the Almighty God, the Sovereign Lord, the first claimant upon human allegiance, there to profTcr adoration, there to promise service. Thence, radiant with the beauty of’ the Divine Face, made conformable to the volitions of the Divine Majesty, It comes back to earth to mirror here, so far as it may, the Ktcrual Deity, and to scatter, so far as it may, over fellow-creatures the ras of the Divine Beauty, the love of the Divine Bosom.The first, the all-imperative, the all-absorbing duty of the human heart is to adore, love and servo God. God is the Sovereign: man is the subject. The first motion of the human heart should be to bend itself before God, to acknowledge dependency ui»on Him, to pledge obedience in all things to His supreme will. From this duty, grounded as it is upon the eternal law of righteousness and justice, God Him-wclf cannot dispense. This the eternal law : **! am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before mo.” Gthcr duties, whatever they be, must uut be taken as substitutes for duty towards the Almighty God. To attempt such substitution is to put false gods In the place of the one trfCjAt the present moment I shall not go beyond the Sisterhoods of the Church. We see them, we hear of them: we go no further. Yet we should ask why it is. how it is that those chosen daughters of the Church wrest themselves iu early youth from all solicitations of earthly ambition, and every morning of their life key their souls to highest sacrifices in labor, iu sacrifice for the sick who call for tender care, for the poor and afflicted who clamor for sob ace, for the ignorant in need of on* liglitennient, for the homeless and the despised in quest of a sheltering roof. The answer will be that no mere human appeal. 110 mere human promise of reward binds them to their task; that all this they are enabled to do only because they druw into their daily life the Almighty God. because they see in their gifts to the neighbor the “cup of cold water proffered to the Master Himself. The Supernatural is needed to uplift charity to its highest splendors, to explain its brightest effulgences. The Supernatural lives aud reigns on earth: our sisterhoods arc its revelations.and e\ er a biding God. \nble hr-ng ! ful, as charity towards ’ fellow-fiianseems to be and is. It is blasphemy, towards Heaven when It pushes God aside and proclaims all duty fulfilled because the neighbor is well served. This too often is the slu of the world of today. I am philanthropic, it is said: I do good to my fellow-men:there I rest my justification. This is not what eternal reason deinauds: this is not what God commands. Charity must first ascend to God Ilim-seif: “This, the greatest and the first commandment. Then let if go to the neighbor: this, “the second commandment. Tills is charity rightly ordered; the charity of which the Apostle Paul makes proclamation when he writes; “And if I should distribute all my goods to tlie poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burnt, aud have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.Noble, beautiful. Is the charity that is given to the neighbor, But it glows In its full beauty, iu its full strength, only when It is transfused with the love of God. when it Is given to the ueighbor in obedience to God. Do we wish to exalt into sublimity the claims of the neighbor upon our love and Her vice: do we wish to give to this love tin* full vigor of our souls, stopping short of 110 sacrifice, deterred by no obstacle, wearied by no ingratitude—let us see iu the neighbor, as the Master has hidden us to do. the Master Himself: let us know and feel that what we give to the neighbor, the lowliest. the most abandoned, the most unworthy, we give to Almighty God Himself, expecting from Him alone recognition and reward. The Master it is Who has said: For whosoever giveth to drihk a cup of cold water in my name, because you belong to Christ. Amen, I say to you. ho shall not lose his reward. The Master Himself it Is Who one day will judge men, awarding glory to those who have served Him—giving food when He was hungry, drink when lie was thirsty, clothing Him when lie was naked: and Who in answer toToday I name with special emphasis the Sisterhood of the Good Shepherd. The title it bears—the Good Shepherd —tells the beauteous mercifulness of its work. It is the work of the Good Shepherd of the Gospel. He was watching over the flock, lest the wolf come near, lest the weakling be left without succor. A sheep blindly wanders forth, away from the protecting wand, into the mazes of briars and thorns. The Good Shepherd thinks not of others safe within the fold, but rushes in loving pursuit that He may rescue the lost one from all peril, and. finding it, clasps It in His arms and brings it back to the haven of love aud mercy. So the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. There arc those children of misfortune whom the world views as the lowliest, from whom it shrinks as from coutagion, to whom doors are closed, save the doors of and dureltatiou. -To such the Hoiue of the Good Shepherd is ever open. There the light of love is ever burning, beckoning to hope and to salvation: there the welcoming hand is ever at the threshold: there safety is Insured. There, to keep and guard, to heal and comfort the woe-stricken victims of cruel storms, to form them Into new and happier life, to instruct and strengthen mind and heart against future trial aud temptation, there do dwell the Sisters of the Good •Shepherd, women so strong in their own purity that 110 peril of nearness to the woe-stricken hroodH alarm, so mighty in self sacrifice that 110 cull upon tlielr courage suggests a surcease of zeal: there do dwell the Sisters of the Good Shepherd to re-echo in the world of today the mercy, the love of the Good Shepherd of Palestine, Who was Christ Himself, who had couie from Heaven not to call the just, but sinners to pcnancc.Little is know n by the outside world of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and of the work they are doing. I-.lt-tlQ should be known. Through very resiect to their wards they are bidden to do their work In Isolation and silence. But what is it that holds those Sisters In their isolation, In their silence? in their life-long self-sacrifice? This and this alone—the love springing from the heart of the Good Shepherd of the Gospel: the knowledge that doing good to the i»oor and lowliest, is doing good to tiie Shepherd Himself.0My Christian Brethren, today the privilege is yours to take your part in the magnificent work of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. At the present moment you are asked to help the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, in widening the walls of their home, in erecting for them additional structures, that their welcome may open its arras to a larger number of the iui|Kverished and distressful children of humanity. I do not petition your favor, your gifts: I simply say it is your privilege to pourcoPl«VicelAllALchine’MeofbeinoichiMaRcofofwaSu;da:bulin aciSTsta*et1 acuiHIdelt;Rethecelmaanca?tblt;seidoiceiG(RCChclcsicgona su fifl se» bo da pr en co a s an Cl:SthMofM
Newspaper Details
Saint Paul Catholic Bulletin
Saint Paul, Minnesota, US
Sat, Oct 14, 1916
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
M K.
USA 10 May 2023
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