for
Passion Sunday
will take place at
St Francis of Assisi, Llay Chain, Llay LL12 0NT
Sunday 2nd April 2017 at 12.30pm
They took up stones to cast at Jesus in order to kill Him but He hid Himself and went out of the temple. They were therefore angry because they could not stone Him to death, but afterwards they comforted themselves with the thought that although they could not kill Him they had at least driven Him off and He would certainly come no more into the temple to preach His doctrines so odious to them. What is to them the greatest evil is desirable. They rejoice that by stoning Him, they have compelled Him to abandon them, whilst they should be weeping and mourning because He has abandoned them. To those unhappy ones who despise all graces of heaven and obstinately persevere in sin God abandons them.
Although Christ never entered the temple again, He soon came into the city again performed miracles anew curing a blind man; He instructed them again, and endeavoured to convince them of His divinity and of His dignity as the Messiah. While Jesus was hanging on the cross He still offered them an opportunity of being converted like the penitent thief, the centurion and others. They were given other opportunities of repentance when Jesus resurrected from the dead; when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles when the Apostles preached to them throughout the whole Roman Empire and performed countless miracles. Who can think it possible that they would have persevered in their unbelief? And yet they did so; only a comparatively small number of them embraced the Christian faith; the great bulk remained obstinate till the punishments of God overtook them. "He came unto His own and His own received Him not."
The longer Christ remained among them, the more pains He took to convert them; but the more miracles He wrought, the more hostile they became towards Him. They misinterpreted His words, contradicted Him, calumniated Him, blasphemed Him, and sought his life. They did this, not from ignorance, but from malice; they knew and admitted He wrought miracles; they said: "What do we, for this man doth many miracles?" Finally they decreed His death, delivered Him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, and ceased not till He was condemned to die on the cross.
Conversion is much easier for Christians today. As members of the Catholic Church we are in the possession of all the means of grace by which we can be purified and sanctified. We have the word of God, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the holy sacraments; moreover, God seeks to win us by the voice of our conscience, by the admonitions of friends, by the good examples of pious persons, by prosperity and adversity. But all too often the case is that the Christian rejects the means of salvation, or abuses them by continuing to offend God. Among us there are also many incorrigible sinners. No matter what God does for them, they are not converted. Instead of being converted, they become more obstinate and therefore more culpable.
God might abandon the sinner immediately after the first sin, as He abandoned the rebellious angels the moment they sinned, and cast them into hell. But, generally speaking, He does not so treat men. They sin, not only once, but ten, twenty, a hundred, or a thousand times, and oftener; they pile up sins mountains high, and God has patience with them, and waits many years, for their conversion. Now if God, after long series of years, turns away from the sinner, and abandons him, who can call it unjust? Where is the man who would be as indulgent with those who offend him as God is with sinners who frequently offend him grievously every day?
If man continues his wicked career and is not amended by admonitions and benefits, by corrections and punishments, God forsakes him and delivers him to perdition. It is a terrible, a just, and a universal punishment. A terrible punishment; for although the sinner whom God has forsaken might yet be converted, he is not; he sinks deeper and deeper into vice, and heaps the anger of God more and more upon his execrable head. It is a just punishment, for such a sinner deserves, on account of his continued impenitence and the oft repeated abuse of God's grace, nothing else than that God should forsake him. A universal punishment, which God has inflicted and still inflicts, on individual persons, families, races, and entire kingdoms and continents. Let us ponder these serious truths and beware of arousing the wrath of God. And, as it were, compelling Him to forsake us. If we have sinned, let us do true penance without delay, and let us employ the holy season of Lent for our reconciliation with God, that it may become for us a time of salvation.