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The Goodness of God:
Perhaps you still do not
believe in the terrible truth that I have just taught. But they are the
most highly regarded theologians, the most illustrious Fathers who have spoken
through me. ¿So how can you resist reasons supported by so many examples
and the words of Scripture? If you still do not make up your mind, in
spite of this, and if your minds are inclined to the contrary opinion, is not
this consideration enough to make you tremble? ¡Ah, this shows that they
don’t care much about their salvation! In this important matter, a
sensible man is hit harder by the slightest doubt that he is in danger, by the
evidence of utter ruin in matters in which the soul is involved. One of
our brothers, Giles of Assisi, used to say that if a single man was to be
condemned,
So what should we do,
we who know that the majority is going to be condemned, and not just all
Catholics? What should we do? Resolve to belong to the small number
of those who are saved. Someone will say: ¿If Christ wanted to curse me,
why did he create me? Silence, hasty tongue! God did not create anyone to condemn him, but he
who is condemned is condemned because he wants to be. Therefore,
I am going to try to defend the goodness of my God and to absolve it of all
guilt: which will be the subject of the second point.
Before we continue, we are going to
gather all the books and all the heresies of Luther and Calvin on one side, and
on the other side the books and heresies of the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians,
and we are going to burn them. Some destroy grace, others freedom, and all
are full of mistakes, so we throw them into the fire. All the damned have
before them the oracle of the prophet Hosea, "Your condemnation comes from you", so that they can
understand that everyone who is condemned is condemned by his own malice and
because he wants to be condemned.
Let's first take these two undeniable
truths as a basis: "God wants all men to be saved", "All are in
need of God's grace". Now, if you show me that God wants to save all
men, and that for this he gives them all his grace and all the other means
necessary to obtain this sublime end, they will be forced to accept that he who
is condemned must impute it to his own malice, and that, if the greatest number
of Christians are condemned, it is because he wants to be. "Your curse comes from you, your help is only in
me."
God wants all men
to be saved:
In a hundred places in the Holy
Scriptures, God tells us that it is really his desire to save all men. “Is
it my will that the sinner should die, and not that he turn from his ways? ...
As I live, saith the Lord God. I do not wish the death of the
sinner. If he converts he will live”. When someone wants something
very much, he says that he is dying with the desire, it is a
hyperbole. But God has wanted and still wants our salvation, so much so
that he died of desire, and he suffered death to give us life. This will
to save men, therefore, is not a superficial and apparent will in God, it is a
real, effective, and beneficial will, because He gives us all the most adequate
means for us to be saved. He does not give them to us so that we do not
get it, he gives them to us with a sincere will, with the intention that
we can obtain its effect. And if we don't get it, he's grieved and
offended by it. He commands even the damned to follow her, in order to be
saved; He exhorts them to it, compels them to it, and if they don't do it,
they sin. Therefore, they can do it and thus be saved.
Moreover, because God sees that we
cannot even make use of his grace, without his help, He gives us other aids,
and if sometimes they are ineffective, it is our fault, because with these same
aids, they can be abused and be condemned with them, but another with them can
do good and be saved; we could even save ourselves with the least powerful
aids. Yes, it can happen that they abuse a greater grace and are
condemned, while another cooperates with a lesser grace and is saved.
Saint Augustine exclaims: "Therefore,
if anyone deviates from justice, he is led by his free will, led by his
concupiscence, and deceived by his own conviction." But for those
who don't understand theology, this is what I have to tell you: God is so good
that when he sees a sinner running to his ruin, he runs after him, calls him,
pleads with him, and escorts him to the gates of hell., what will not
do to convert it? She sends him good inspirations and holy thoughts, and
in case he does not take advantage of them, He gets angry and indignant, He
persecutes him. Will he hit you? No. He punches the air and spares
it. But the sinner is not yet converted. God sends him a deadly
disease. Without a doubt, it is everything for him. No, brothers, God
heals him, the sinner persists in evil, and God, in his mercy, looks for
another way, He gives him one more year, and when this year passes, it is more,
he grants him another.
But if the sinner still wants to
throw himself into hell despite all this, what does God do? Does he
abandon him? No. He takes him by the hand, and while he has one foot in
hell and one foot out, he preaches to her and implores her not to abuse his
grace. Now I ask you, if that man is condemned, is it not true that he is
condemned against the will of God and because he wants to be
condemned? Now come and ask me: ¿If God wanted to condemn me, why did he
create me?
Ungrateful sinner, learn today that,
if you are condemned, it is not God who is to blame, but you and your own
will. So that you can convince yourself, go down to the depths of the
abyss, and I will bring you one of those miserable condemned souls burning in
hell, so that they can explain this truth to you. Here's one now:
"Tell me, who are?" "I am a poor idolater, born
in an unknown land, I never heard of heaven or hell, nor what I am suffering
now." You poor wretch! Go away, you're not the one I'm looking
for." Another is coming; there he is. "Who are
you?" "I am a schismatic from the extremes of Tartary, I have
always lived in an uncivilized state, hardly knowing that there is a
God." "You are not the one I want, go back to hell." Here's
another one. "And who are you?" “I am a poor heretic from
the North. I was born under the Pole and never saw the light of the sun or
the light of faith”. "You're not the one I'm looking for, go back to
hell." Brothers, my heart breaks to see these wretches who did not
even know of the true faith among the damned. Still, we know that the
sentence of conviction was pronounced against them and they were told,
"Your condemnation comes from you." They were condemned because
they wanted to be. They received so many helps from God to be
saved! We don't know what they were, but they know well, and now they cry
"O Lord, you are just... and your judgments are equitable".
Brothers, you should know that the
oldest belief is the Law of God, and that we all have written on our hearts,
that can be learned without a teacher, and that it is enough to have the light
of reason to know all the precepts of this law.. For this reason, even the
barbarians hid at the moment of committing the sin, because they knew that they
were doing wrong, and that they are condemned for not having observed the
natural law written in their hearts, because if they had observed it, God would
have performed a miracle in Instead of leaving them to be damned, He would have
sent someone to teach them and give them other helps, of which they made
themselves unworthy by not living in accordance with the promptings of their
own conscience, which never failed to warn them of the good what to do and what
evil to avoid. So it's your conscience, who accused them in the Court
of God, and constantly tells them in hell, "Your condemnation comes from
you." They do not know what to answer and are forced to confess that
they are worthy of their fate. Now, if these infidels have no excuse,
would there be one for a Catholic who had so many sacraments, so many sermons,
so much help at his disposal? How dare you say: “If God was going to
condemn me, why has he created me”? How dare he speak this way, when God
gives him so many helps to be saved? So we're going to end up frustrating
him. Will there be one for a Catholic who had so many sacraments, so many
sermons, so much help at his disposal? How dare you say: “If God was going
to condemn me, why has he created me”? How dare he speak this way, when
God gives him so many helps to be saved? So we're going to end up
frustrating him. Will there be one for a Catholic who had so many
sacraments, so many sermons, so much help at his disposal? How dare you
say: “If God was going to condemn me, why has he created me”? How dare he
speak this way, when God gives him so many helps to be saved? So we're
going to end up frustrating him.
You, who are suffering in the abyss,
answer me! ¿Are there Catholics among you? "By the way there
is!" Many? Let one of them come here! "That's
impossible, they're too low, and in order to get them to come here we'd have to
turn all hell upside down, it would be easier to stop one of them falling
in." So, I address you who live in the habit of mortal sin, in
hatred, in the mire of the vice of impurity, and who come closer to hell every
day. Stop, and turn around, it is Jesus who calls you and who, with his
wounds, as well as with so many eloquent voices, cries out to you, “My son, if
you are condemned, you have only yourself to blame: “Your condemnation comes
from you.” Raise your eyes and see all the graces with which I have
enriched you to ensure your eternal salvation. I could have made you born
in a forest in Bavaria, which is what I did with many others, but I made you
born in the Catholic Church, I gave you such a good father, an excellent mother,
with the purest instructions and teachings. If you are convicted despite
this, who is to blame? Your own fault is, my son, your own fault: your
condemnation comes from you.
“I could have thrown you into hell
after the first mortal sin you committed, without waiting for the second: I did
it to so many others, but I was patient with you, I waited for you for many
long years. I am still waiting for you today in penance. If you are
convicted, despite all that, whose fault is it? Your fault is, my son, your
own fault: your condemnation comes from you. You know how many have died
before your very eyes and are damned, this was a warning to you. You know
how many others I have put on the right path to give you an example. ¿Do
you remember what that excellent confessor told you? I'm the one who made
him say it. Didn't I order you to change your life, to make a good
confession? I am the one who inspired you. ¿Do you remember that
sermon that touched your heart? I'm the one who took you there.
“Those inner inspirations, that clear
knowledge, that constant pang of conscience, do you dare deny them? All
these were so many helps of my grace, because I wanted to save you. I
refused to give them to many others, and I gave them to you because I loved you
dearly. My son, my son, if I had spoken to them with as much tenderness as
I speak to you today, how many other souls would have returned to the right
path? And you... You turn your back on me. Listen to what I am going
to tell you, and these are my last words: You have cost me my blood, if
you wish to be condemned in spite of the blood that I shed for you, do not
blame me, you can only accuse yourself, and for all eternity, do not forget
that, if you are condemned, in spite of me, you are condemned because you want
to be condemned: your condemnation comes from you”.
Oh, my good Jesus, the very stones
would split at hearing such sweet words, such tender expressions. Is there
anyone here who wants to be condemned, with so many graces and aids? If
there is one, let him listen to me, and let him resist if he can.
Baronius relates that after Julian
the Apostate's infamous apostasy, he conceived such a hatred against Holy
Baptism that day and night, he sought a way in which he could erase
his. For this purpose he prepared a bath of goat's blood and placed
himself in it, wanting this impure blood of a victim consecrated to Venus to
erase the sacredness of baptism from his soul. Such behavior will seem
abhorrent to you, but if Juliano's plan had been able to succeed, the truth is
that he would be suffering much less in hell.
Sinners, the advice I want to give
you will undoubtedly seem strange, but if you understand it well, it is, on the
contrary, inspired by tender compassion towards you. I beseech you on my
knees, with the blood of Christ and the Heart of Mary, to change your lives,
return to the path that leads to heaven, and do everything possible to belong
to the small number of those who are saved. If instead you wish to
continue walking on the highway that leads to hell, at least find a way to
erase your baptism. Woe to you if you take the Holy Name of Jesus Christ
and the sacred character of Christians engraved on your soul to hell! Your
punishment will be even greater. So what I advise you to do: if you don't want
to convert, go today and ask your pastor to remove your name from the baptismal
record, so that there is no recollection that you have ever been a
Christian; implore your guardian angel to erase from his book of graces
the inspirations and help that he has given you by order of God, ¡because woe
to you if he remembers them! Tell Our Lord to take back your faith, your
baptism, the sacraments from him.
¿Are you horrified to think like
that? Well then, throw yourself at the feet of Jesus Christ, and tell him,
with tears in your eyes and a contrite heart: “Lord, I confess that until
now I have not lived as a Christian. I am not worthy to be counted among
your chosen ones. I recognize that I deserve to be condemned, but your
mercy is great and full of confidence in your grace, I tell you that I want to
save my soul, even if I have to sacrifice my fortune, my honor, and even my
life, as long as I am saved. If I have been unfaithful until now, I
regret, I deplore, I hate my infidelity, I humbly ask you to forgive me for it. Forgive
me, good Jesus, and also strengthen me, so that I can be saved. I ask you
not for wealth, honor or prosperity, I ask you for only one thing, that you
save my soul”.
And you, oh
Jesus! What do you say? O good Shepherd, look at the lost sheep that
returns to you; Embrace this repentant sinner, bless his sighs and tears,
¡or rather bless these people who are so willing and want nothing but salvation
from him! Brothers, at the feet of Our Lord, we are going to protest
because we want to save our souls, whatever the cost. Let's all start
saying to him with eyes full of tears, “Good Jesus, I want to save my soul”,
Oh, blessed tears, ¡blessed sighs!
Conclusion:
Brothers, I want to send
you all off comforted today. So if you ask my feeling about the number of
those who are saved, here it is: whether there are many or few who are saved, I
say that everyone who wants to be saved will be saved, and that no one can be
condemned if he does not want to be.. And while it is true that few are
saved, it is because there are few who live well. For the rest, compare
these two opinions: the first affirms that the greatest number of Catholics are
condemned, the second, on the contrary, claims that the greatest number of
Catholics are saved. Imagine an angel sent by God to confirm the first
opinion, he comes to say that not only are the majority of Catholics condemned,
but that of this meeting of all those present here, only one will be
saved. If you obey the commandments of God, if you detest the corruption
of this world,
Now imagine the same angel coming
back to you confirming the second opinion. He tells you that not only are
the majority of Catholics saved, but that, of everyone in this meeting, only
one is going to be condemned and all the rest saved. If after this, you
continue with your usury, your revenge, your criminal actions, your impurities,
then you will be that one who will be condemned.
What is the use of knowing whether
many or few are saved? Saint Peter tells us: “Strive for good works to
make your choice safe”. When the sister of Saint Thomas Aquinas asked him
what he had to do to go to heaven, he said: “you will be saved if you want to
be”. I say the same to you, and here is the proof of my statement. No
one is condemned if he does not commit a mortal sin, which is of
faith. And no one commits a mortal sin unless they want to: which is an
undeniable theological proposition. Therefore, no one goes to hell unless
he wants to, and the consequence is obvious. Isn't that enough to comfort
you? Cry for the sins of the past, make a good confession, sin no more in
the future, and all will be saved. Why do you torment yourself like
this? Because it is true that you have to commit a mortal sin to go to
hell, and that to commit mortal sin you must want to, and as a consequence,
no one goes to hell unless they want to. This is not just an opinion, it
is an undeniable and very comforting truth, God make you understand, and God
bless you. Amen.
In the first norms on the discernment
of spirits, Saint Ignatius makes it clear that it is typical of the spirit of
evil to reassure sinners. Therefore, we must constantly preach and give
rise to trust and hope in the Lord's infinite forgiveness and his mercy, so
that conversion may be easy and his grace omnipotent. But we must also
remember that "God cannot be mocked," and that someone who habitually
lives in the state of mortal sin is on the road to eternal damnation.
There are last-minute miracles, but
unless we hold that miracles are the generality of things, we are forced to
accept that for most people living in the state of mortal sin, final damnation
is the most likely possibility.
The doctrine of Saint Leonard of Port
Mauritius has saved and will save innumerable souls until the end of
time. This is what the Church says in the prayer of the Divine Office,
Sixth Lesson, speaking of the heavenly eloquence of Saint Leonard: Hearing him,
even hearts of iron and bronze were strongly inclined to penance, on account of
the surprising efficacy of the preaching and burning zeal of the preacher. And
in the liturgical prayer we ask the Lord, “give us the power to bend the hearts
of sinners hardened by the works of preaching.”
This sermon of Saint Leonard of
Porto-Maurizio was preached during the reign of Pope Benedict XIV, who loved
the great missionary so much.
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