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Show HUMAN RESPECT j ;- !'' ? Scribes and Pharisees, Their Encomium or ! ; I Christ. A True Teacher. Regardest Not Person of Men. Liberty Dear to Good ! i ; and True- Slavery. Human Respect .:;.! : ; i Means Slavery. Freedom Which Christ Gave to Men. Slaves of Human Respect . j : :. Barter It. The Duty of a Christian. j ' ! The High Mass was celebrated at Sr. Mary's Ca- !. thedral last Sunday by Rev. T. Breiman, who; preached at the Gospel, taking for his text, "For' thou dost not regard the person of men." (Mattr' 1 ; xxii. 10). He said: j ' The scribes and Pharisees wishing to entrap our j . Divine Lord in his speech, bestowed upon Him one- j . of the most beautiful encomiums that could be be- j ;" stowed upon men, "Master," they said, "we know, ; - j . Thou art a true speaker, and teachest the way of . j God in truth, neither carest Thou for any man."' 1 The sw-ord of no emperor, the sarcasm of no philos- j opher, the wealth of no worldling will ever prevent ; 1 ! Thee from speaking and acting according to truth j and justice, "for Thou dost not regard tho person' . ' of men." ' , . , We, Dearly Beloved, stand today in the mldstt' ! '? of the scribe and Pharisee, we have today to con- . j front the shaft of ridicule hurled at us by the 1 11 worldly wise and the worldly great, wo have today ! to encounter in our onward march to the kingdom j . of God that vast army of those who, following the . '. bent of their passions, make pleasure and riches- ' ' I ' their god and earth their heaven, we havf t en- . ! counter all these, and happy will it be for s if it J 1 can be said, where it is a question of truth and jus- tice, 'Sve do not regard the person of men." ' j Looking out over the world today, what great ; evils do we see rise hydra-headed because too much j . regard is had for the person of men. God, faith in : Him, hope in Him, love for Him, virtue and piety, , ' . ' are laid aside, and the soul and its eternal happi- j ness are sacrificed through human love, fear or -i ! respect. , '' ' . I , This country is dear to us. The flag of the . i " Stars and stripes waves over it, spelling freedom for j , all her children, and every true, every honorable ' ; man looks upon freedom as his most cherished in- ' : I i heritance. It is God's birthright to him, springing ! pure and fresh and strong from God's right hand. , j I To man, freedom is hallowed, is the most excellent . of all the temporal goods he can possess in this life. This desire for freedom is not confined to man, but ! ' it extends to all living things under the sun. The : lark ries to greet the sun in the calm and beauty o ! the June morning, and, revelling there in God's puro I fresh air, pours forth its song of joy and gladness. " j V Bring that lark down from its heights of freedom j and sunshine and joy, and confine it within the nar- - j : row limits of a cage, and at once the head droops i ; and the notes of glad song are stilled forever. j j Freedom, hallowed freedom, all the true, the no- j I ble and the brave will gladly take the sword and die : j . fighting that thy sun may light up their lives, for ' j slavery is not for noble minds, and yet, even in thi our day, there are many who barter thee away. Children who should be Christian, children who should be free, come forth and let us judge thee. ;' You ape the manners of the great ; you do evil with the libertine ; you smile a sickly smile when God's . ; I ' eternal law of justice, morality and right'is ridiculed i by materialistic disciples; you hear the Church bells ring out inviting man to kneel and pray, and you ' j ' heed them not, because if you heed them, some god- J ;, less man or soulless woman may call you silly. . " You walk arm in arm with the depraved down the ; t broad road that leads to destruction, and you have y. not the moral courage to break that hold, to rise up ! : to the better, the brighter and the purer things be-' ' cause, forsooth, you are afraid to offend that com- ! panion' whose every word, act and thought breatho ' ) ; everlasting death. Ah, ye so-called Christian chil- ; i dren, you shout for freedom, you swear by its hal- ' I lowed name, but your lives know it not. The lives j ; of poor slaves from the blue Danube that were j '. butchered in that other day to make a Roman hoi- I : iday were noble, were free, compared to yours.. i i Yes, noble and free, for though lustful, cruel ty- 1 l rants chained their bodies, their minds rose untram-, j melled, their minds rose about savagery and blood and sin and soared back to the peaceful home ! above the blue Danube, where dwelt their Dacian- ' ? wives and little ones. Xame freedom not, ye so-, . I i called Christian children, name it not; it is too i . sacred for thy lips, for freedom, true freedom i i springs from God's right hand and, forsaking God, U- shutting out the light of His Presence, abandon- ! ing the paths of His justice and His love and all this through human fear or human respect, you can ! : not be sharers, you can never know that freedom I f which took its life from God in the morning time of: ; eternity. ' The great St. Augustine tells U3 there are cir- j j cumstances where slavery cannot be avoided. Some ' - men, he says, become slaves through sheer misfor- tune, as was the case in the olden day3 when the ' ' conqueror tied the conquered to the wheels of his ' - chariot and dragged them along the dusty way that led to Rome. They deserve pity and commisera- . ; tion. Many are compelled through poverty, through : ! lowly birth, to wait upon others. This servitude is j not disgraceful; it is only the all-wise arrangement ! f of divine Providence. The noblest part of those : i? who by misfortune or by lowly birth are reduced to ! servitude, the noblest part of such the mind in ; still free. It is calm in the midst of a cyclone, it i can move in an ocean of ice. Xo slavery can ever ' entramel the mind. Out there in the world, Dearly ; Beloved Brethren, many men and women impose j -slavery upon themselves and follow the nod and do '' the bidding of the soulless, the libertine in things ' which most of all require freedom, the leading of a Christian life and the working out of their eternal salvation. They barter their freedom "for a mess 1 of pottage and a little bread," and their voluntary degradation makes them the despised, the scorned of all good, true men. St. Paul, writing to the early Christians, reminds them in many epistles of their great dignity in soma euch words as these: "You live not now in bond-Continued bond-Continued on Page 5- HUMAN RESPECT Continued from Page 1. age, in fear, but Christ has purchased you by the shedding of His blood, and raised you to the day of freedom, in which you can call God your Father. The creature is delivered from the servitude of corruption cor-ruption intoithe liberty of the Glory of the children chil-dren of God." The words which St. Paul spoke to the Christians of old are for the Christians of all time. We are children of God, brothers of Jesus Christ and heirs to a kingdom lighted up by the glory of Him who is from eternity unto eternity. The dignities, the riches, the glories of earth are as nought when oompared to the dignities, the riches, the glories of the faithful child of God. His freedom free-dom never shall have a moment of slavery, his glory never shall have one dark shadow to mar its bright, ness. In this our day, Dearly Beloved, there are many Christians who value not this exalted dignity, who sell their freedom. In the onward maroh to the kingdom of God, many Christians step aside from the ranks of the sons, the soldiers of God, and, taking tak-ing off the uniform of liberty, throwing aside the 6word of honor, truth, justice and the right, eit down by the wayside with the stragglers, the children chil-dren of bondage over whom the banner of-the evil one floats. Why this faltering, why this f aint-heart-edness ? Why this cowardice ? Wny this slavery ? I will tell you.. The slaves by the wayside, the children of the darkness, shout out: "Why march on, why endure the toils and the heat of the day? Sit down with us here, for the land to which you march is far away, and the God who Teigns there is perhaps only a myth," and the voices of the wayside way-side prevail. Forth from the ranks steps he who was raised to the dignity of a child, a soldier of God, and, leaving the road that leads to everlasting light, he sits down with the bondsmen, the slaves of sin, by the wayside, over which hangs the cloud of everlasting night. The voices of the slaves call, and he leaves his freedom, and he hugs his chains. The road of justice, truth and right lay before him, and he forsakes it for the paths of iniquity, darkness dark-ness and death, and all because the slaves' voices calL J Am I painting for you, Dearly Beloved, an impossible im-possible picture? Ah, would to God I was; but the picture is only too true, and you have only to look out there into the world to see how real it is. This is Sunday morning, and the children of God kneel under the banner of their freedom and raise their eyes and hands in homage and adoration adora-tion to the Great God, who is the strength of their faith and hope and charity. In His temples they stand today, true to Him, true to truth and true to freedom. Others should be there, but they are missing. The voices of the slaves called, kneel not, don't be a weakling, come with us to the fields of pleasure, the fields of sin, and they passed: by the House of God arm in arm with the slaves and went down the road of slavery, the road of death. The confessional, home of peace, home of comfort com-fort and resolve, 6tands in the corner of the church. There God waits to hear the voice of sorrow and repentance, to bestow the kiss of love and forgiveness, forgive-ness, but many go not there because again the voice of the slave rings out: "You cannot leave me, 'you are a coward if you do. Pshaw! None but the old, the pious, kneel there. Stay with us and eat and drink and make merry yet awhile." Yes, yes, out there in the world men and women every day turn aside from the poths of justice, honor and the right, men and women are false to their God, and barter away that freedom which their elder brother Jesus handed to them from Calvary's Cal-vary's Cross, and all this because the voices of the slaves called, the voices of the slaves mocked. St. Paul stands before the Koman tribunal audi iiiLjiUnU, ... ju. i nun in . piiwMinnii"i rrrj --' chains and death stare him in the face. Is he afraid of the tyrants, the slaves of the world? Ah, no. Hot and strong the words rush to his lips, "I am a Roman citizen; I, too, am a freedman. I prize these titles highly, but there is one thing I value more. I am the freedman of Jesus Christ, and God forbid that I should glory save in His cross, I am not ashamed of his gospel." Human love, respect or fear had no place in St. Paul s life where it was a question of truth and justice jus-tice and the right, where it was a question of allegiance al-legiance to the Great Master. You stand today, in the midst of a scoffing, an ungodly world, the voices of the slaves are calling to you. Be firm children and soldiers of the Christ; be like the great, the valiant St. Paul. In all your ways and days, act "up to the faith which is within you. the hope which cheers you on, the love which comes from Christ. Before you' lie the paths of nobleness, virtue and the right. These paths lead on and home to God. Heed not the voices of the slaves, but be firm yet awhile. |