{"id":2180,"date":"2010-03-19T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T09:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/?p=2180"},"modified":"2012-05-30T18:36:38","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T18:36:38","slug":"the-divine-depository-in-our-hands-the-anchor-march-19-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/the-divine-depository-in-our-hands-the-anchor-march-19-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"The Divine Depository in our Hands, The Anchor, March 19, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fr. Roger J. Landry
\nThe Anchor
\nPutting Into the Deep<\/em>
\nMarch 19, 2010<\/p>\n

Last week we saw the heroic charity of St. John Vianney, who sought to treat others with the same limitless love with which Christ loves. He was never content to give merely \u201csomething\u201d to those in need. He sacrificed his entire personal property, as well as his pants, shoes, shirts, food and all that people gave him in order to give adequate alms to those who needed help. When his cassock \u201cshuttle pocket\u201d did not have a sou left, he routinely begged and borrowed. His love for the poor was as profound as his love for sinners, for whom we know he gave every ounce of energy he had 12-18 hour a day for more than three decades to share with the spiritually deprived an alms worth \u201cten thousand talents\u201d (Mt 18:24).<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t enough, however, to give himself and all he had to and beyond the limit. The patron saint of priests also wanted to inspire and train his people to live the type of charity to which Christ calls us all. The Cur\u00e9 of Ars knew that, if we will be judged on deeds of love, that the grappin would stop at nothing to sow darnel in the souls of his people; if the devil couldn\u2019t seduce them to be selfish and avaricious, he would at least try to poison them with the notion that all God asks of them is that they give the eleemosynary minimum before tempting them toward pride at how good they should feel in giving what was truly superfluous. So Fr. Vianney coupled his words to his example in order to show the people the truth of what God is asking as well as to give them suggestions about how to help them with God\u2019s grace achieve it.<\/p>\n

He began by stressing that for a Christian who wants to be saved, charity is not optional. \u201cAll of our religion is but a false religion, and all our virtues are mere illusions, and we ourselves are only hypocrites in the sight of God,\u201d he declared emphatically, \u201cunless we have universal charity for everyone, for the good and for the bad, for the poor people as well as for the rich, for all those who do us harm as much as those who do us good.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that excelling in Christian charity ought to be the most important priority of our life. \u201cThe obligation we have to love our neighbor is so important that Jesus Christ put it into a commandment that he placed immediately after that by which he commands us to love Him with all our hearts. He tells us that all the law and the prophets are included in this commandment to love our neighbor. Yes, my dear brethren, we must regard this obligation as the most universal, the most necessary and the most essential to religion and to our salvation. In fulfilling this Commandment, we are fulfilling all the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

He lamented that, despite the Lord\u2019s clear words about how important charity is, so many Christians throughout history have not gotten and acted on the message. He often referred to St. Paul\u2019s first letter to the Corinthians where the apostle struggled to help the first Christians recognize the true importance of charity. Charity, St. Paul said, involves more than deeds, but deeds given with a generous heart. Even if one were to speak in prophecy, to have faith to move mountains, and hand oneself over as a martyr, St. Paul taught, he would gain and be nothing unless he did it with love (1 Cor 13:1-3). Basing himself on this passage, Fr. Vianney vigorously exclaimed: \u201cDear Lord, how many Christians are damned through lack of charity! No, no, my dear brethren, even if you could perform miracles, you will never be saved if you do not have love. Not to have charity is not to know your religion. It is to have a religion of whim, mood and inclination. \u2026 Without charity, you will never see God. You will never go to heaven!\u201d<\/p>\n

He preached often on the corporal works of mercy, which Jesus states in St. Matthew\u2019s Gospel will be the criteria of our judgment. We will be numbered among the saved or damned on the basis of whether we loved or stiffed Christ in the person of the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned and stranger (Mt 25:31-46). Whenever we care for the poor, the pastor of Ars reiterated, we care for Christ; and whenever we harden our hearts to those in need, we do so to the Lord as well.<\/p>\n

He taught, for that reason, that we should always try to see God in the poor. \u201cWhen we give alms, we should think that it\u2019s to the Lord and not to the poor that we\u2019re giving.\u201d He loved to tell the stories of the saints who literally saw Christ in the poor. He would regularly recount the story of St. Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier who upon seeing a shivering, barely-clothed beggar at the gate of Amiens, dismounted his horse, evaginated his Roman lance, split his military cape in two, and covered the poor man with half of it; later that night, the Lord Jesus appeared to Martin in a dream wearing that part of Martin\u2019s cape. He would also tell the story of St. John of God whom a poor man approached for help. As he was reaching into his pocket, St. John looked down and noticed the man\u2019s bare feet, each of which bore stigmata. \u201cOften we think we\u2019re giving to a poor man,\u201d Fr. Vianney concluded, \u201cbut we find it\u2019s the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

For that reason, he said, \u201cwe should never reject the poor.\u201d Many of us do, thinking we\u2019re justified. Repeating phrases he heard from some of his parishioners, which still echo today, the Cur\u00e9 noted, \u201cSome say to the poor, haughtily, \u2018You are a parasite! You should get a job.\u2019\u201d Basing himself, however, on Christ\u2019s words that \u201cthe poor you will always have with you\u201d (Jn 12:8), Fr. Vianney intimated that one reason for endemic poverty is to unleash love and move us to become Good Samaritans. \u201cThe poor man is an instrument that God uses to make us good,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we give a small bodily alms to the poor, they give us a great spiritual alms\u201d in return. If there were no people who were poorer than we are, we would never have an opportunity to learn how to give.<\/p>\n

He tried to help his people see the selfishness behind the many excuses why we claim we cannot give or can only give a little. \u201cYou say you don\u2019t have money to give alms, but you have enough money to buy another field!\u201d In our own day, many lament that they cannot give a lot to charity, but somehow they miraculously find money to buy high definition televisions, new cars, make investments and leave sizable inheritances this side of the eschatological eye of the needle. Fr. Vianney\u2019s principle was simple: \u201cIf you have much, give much; if you have little, give little; but give \u2014 with all your heart and with joy.\u201d For those with more than they need, he taught, \u201cYour well-being is nothing other than a depository that God has put in your hands; after taking what is necessary for you and your family, the rest is owed to the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charity, for him, was so important that he said to some of his good parishioners who focused more on piety than charity that it was \u201cmore pleasing to God\u201d to \u201cwork for some poor people you know and who are in great need\u201d than to \u201cpass your day \u2026 in front of the holy tabernacle.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is one of the reasons why, doubtless, he who longed with all his soul to retire to a monastery to pray spent tireless hours in the confessional and in works of charity. He knew how much such sacrifices for others pleased the Lord.\u00a0 \u201cTo receive much, we need to give much,\u201d he said. That\u2019s why he was so rich, and why his people eventually became spiritually prosperous as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Putting Into the Deep March 19, 2010 Last week we saw the heroic charity of St. John Vianney, who sought to treat others with the same limitless love with which Christ loves. He was never content to give merely \u201csomething\u201d to those in need. He sacrificed his entire personal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1013,708],"tags":[1046,1018,1019,1020],"class_list":["post-2180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anchor-column","category-articles","tag-1046","tag-column","tag-putting-into-the-deep","tag-the-anchor"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Divine Depository in our Hands, The Anchor, March 19, 2010 - Catholic Preaching<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/the-divine-depository-in-our-hands-the-anchor-march-19-2010\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Divine Depository in our Hands, The Anchor, March 19, 2010 - Catholic Preaching\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fr. Roger J. Landry The Anchor Putting Into the Deep March 19, 2010 Last week we saw the heroic charity of St. John Vianney, who sought to treat others with the same limitless love with which Christ loves. He was never content to give merely \u201csomething\u201d to those in need. 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