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Show SERMON Delivered by Rev. Father Kiely at St. Mary's Cathedral, Sunday Morning, Morn-ing, Feb. 18. "And lest the greatness of the revelations revel-ations should exalt me, there was given to me a. sting- of my llesh, an angel an-gel of Satan to buffet me." II Cor., xii-7. St. Paul's experience, as related by himself in this text, has been that of the human race in every age. Beginning Begin-ning with our first parents in Paradise, and coming down through the ages, man is, was and ever shall be exposed to temptations. They are, in fact, a part of human nature, and like . St. Paul, all could say of themselves, "lest the sjreatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given to me a sting of my llesh." With this knowledge knowl-edge of our own weakness, also that knowledge which faith teaches, viz.. that after death two abodes, eternal in duration, one of indescribable misery, and another of Infinite happiness, awaits us. what should be our rule of life? St. Paul answers in the succeeding succeed-ing verse, "for which thing I thrice be-souglit be-souglit the Lord that it might depart from me. " i. e.. the temptation. What answer did he receive? "My jjrace is sufficient for thee." But this remedy, efficacious, all powerful pow-erful and within the reach of all, is not adopted by all: In fact, only a certain .percentage of the humar4raee have recourse re-course to it. Then comes the difficulty, wftio.h at one period or another of man's lifr. presents itself. It, is this: God knowing, or foreseeing from all eternity, eter-nity, that man would not avail himself him-self of the means at his disposal, would abuse grace, and as a consequence be forever doomed to unending woe. Why did' he create man foreseeing that such' would be the inevitable consequence? conse-quence? This difficulty is one that cannot be treated slightly, being, as it is, imo that naturally presents itself i to most people. Nor does the answer j given to this question, viz.. that those j who, under the guidance ind light of faith, are lost, cause their own damnation, damna-tion, seem to satisfy all minds, for they answer back: Be It so. Did not God foresee that they would be lost, and how could the work of creation be called an act of goodness in the part of God, if some are doomed, as He infallibly in-fallibly foresaw they would he, to I eternal woe arid misery? How recon-l recon-l cile the goodness of God in decreeing to create human belnfvs, with the fact that so many will be lost, and that intelligent in-telligent being will be forever disinherited, disin-herited, and made to suffer for all eternity? Would not this seem incom- patible with the idea of goodness and I mercy? St. Paul trembled before the ' justice of God. and warned us. too. to be ever on our guard. "With fear and trembling work out your salvation." In the first place Catholic faith does j not teach that only a few shall be saved. To say that God should not create, cre-ate, because the wicked will abuse i their liberty, and be forever lost, would i be the same as saying that the creative crea-tive power of God should be annihilated annihilat-ed for the sake of the reprobate. What more absurd than to limit, for the sake of the wilfully perverse. God's attributes. attri-butes. They not only limit, but virtually vir-tually destroy His creative power. Will it be urged that the creative power of j God is not destroyed, but remains passive, pas-sive, since He is free not to create, and it would be better that man was never created, even if only the minority should suffer the pains of the damned? God's freedom not to exercise his creative cre-ative power does nqt curtail his liberty to exercise that same power. Why, then, should He. who is free to create, be limited in that liberty, because some will abuse the blessings of life? The eternal feat of creation was but the manifestation of God's power and goodness, good-ness, and to make that ineffective, because be-cause of the perversity of a certain portion of the human race, would be equivalent to forfeiting that power. All this, says the world of passion and lust, is very fine, but the fact that God did create, foreseeing as you teach the never ending misery of some, is opposed to common sense. What parent would bring a child into this world. foreSPeing that the life of that 'child would be a curse to him? Has God a heart less tender than weak, frail humanity? hu-manity? And yet you call God Our Father. Very plausible reasoning, indeed, in-deed, but how compare man with God. The work of God in creation is not confined to this world, nor to individuals. individ-uals. There are innumerable planets. Not isolated persons, but the human family, mutually depending on each other were the result of His feat when He said, "let us make man to our own image and likeness." To His all seeing see-ing eye the entire future of the human race was present, and to erase from the book of life ceqtain individuals .because they would not follow- the light he gave them would be to destroy a whole generation, gen-eration, amongst whom would be many just. Adam, as he stood before his Creator, accused of disobedience, if blotted out from creation, would mean the destruction of the numberless saints who succeeded him. It would mean more that the wicked should be preferred to the just, and that the merits of the good should be sacrificed for the sake of the perverse. The father of the family, looking down through the ages, will see the good and the bad among his posterity. Who will say that for the sake of the wicked that father, because of his tender love, should destroy his own children in order or-der to avert possible and even probable sinful followers? Goodness demands no such sacrifice. Still less does it demand de-mand it on the part of God. The good, the virtuous, know God, love him. and through faith hope in Him, and are ever striving to reach their destiny etetnil happiness. Should they, because others abuse the light God gives them, be denied existence? As well say that a nation should cease to exist because so many of its citizens are doomed to pass their lives behind the bars of a penitentiary. The state gives them liberty. Knowingly and willingly they abuse their privileges. For that they are punished and we say justly. God gives life and to every individual individ-ual He gives lijrht. Some live up to that ligbt. others abuse it: and for that abuse, with their eyes open, and showing show-ing no signs of repentance, God punishes.- Will you say they could not help it? Then they are not free, and liberty and knowledge are the very essence es-sence of evil. "There is no evil," says St. "Paul, "except In the will." They I had strong temptations, you say. So j had the criminal sentenced to pass his life in the prison cell. So had St. Paul. ' according to his own testimony. What j did St. I'aul do? "He besought the Lord j that it might depart from him." His j prayer was heard for the voice of the ! spirit answered. "My grace is sufficient for thee." Again God tells that "he ; will allow no man to be tempted above ! his strength." To suppose that God I created individual soulf! for punish-ment punish-ment is blasphemy. He is Our Father. loves all and sent His Son, who died for j all. To all He gave a certain light, also , grace and strength to follow that ' light. Those who are faithful to that j light will not be disinherited by Him. ; Let us, like St. Paul, when tempta- j tion comes, appeal to heaven for aid. j That assistance promised by our Heav- enly Father, "ask and you shall re- ; ceive," will come, victory will be yours, j and on that victory rests your hope of . eternal felicity. |