Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:01 Okay, well, you look at a manger, we gotta be struck with the reality, that amazing reality that that little baby lying there lying there in a feed bunk for livestock, that little baby is God Scott, the son who's humbled himself and he's become man. He became man not simply to redeem us, but also to give us the example how we ought to live. As he himself told us in John 1315 quote for I've given you an example that you also should do is I have done closed quote. So he's given us an example and he expects us to imitate him today. Let's follow the late great father Deon and spend a few minutes talking about one of the most important ways in which our Lord expects us to imitate his example by doing something that was completely unheard of unpracticed and untaught before his coming, he expects us to imitate his example in the distinctly Christian virtue of love of the poor.
Speaker 0 01:15 Now for the most part, this is just going to be a long cut and pasted, smeared around it. Editorialized quote from Father Dan, our love of the poor. Should be no small matter to us. It should be very great concern. It's an essential part of our imitation of Christ and of living the supernatural life and therefore of the degree of happiness that we can attain both here on earth and later please God and heaven. In order to simplify the whole question, let's say that we can consider the poor in two ways. First, the various groups of the poor constituted group, which on the whole at the natural level may be difficult for us to love. They are not the type of people. Perhaps my heart goes out spontaneous too at a natural level immediately may spring to our mind, the financially poor, but that's not the only kind of poor.
Speaker 0 02:16 There are the kinds of poor, more numerous than the financially poor. There are kinds of put a greater tax on our love. For example, there are the mentally poor. These are those who lack truth. We don't have the true faith, the ignorant, the slow, the dull, the stupid, the mistaken, the people who seem to specialize and always saying the wrong thing. Then there are those that are the poor and will or spiritually poor. These are those who lack virtue. We don't have charity or justice or temperance, especially in a society like ours to the sinners, the criminals, those who have noticeable public faults. Then there are the physically poor, the sick, the weak. Those who are chronically ailing, those who lack strength and beauty and grace have movement, the clumsy, the homely, they're the socially poor. Those from races and nationalities, they're looked down upon foreigners.
Speaker 0 03:22 Those from the wrong side of the tracks, those lacking and social graces. They're boring or they're rude or they whine or they're chatterboxes. Then finally, there's the financially poor. Those who are lacking in the necessities of life, they don't have this efficiency of food, clothing, or shelter is with these kinds of poor. There are divine Lord constantly associated himself. He went around doing good to all men, but sewed and especial have for the poor. The people who are generally not the kind of people that had a natural level or heartwood necessarily spontaneous spontaneously go out toward. So when our lord commanded us and it is a commandment to love our neighbor, it was those who are naturally difficult to love, that he particularly had mind. He knew that human nature being what it is, we wouldn't have to be commanded to love the lovable. How hard is that?
Speaker 0 04:27 He didn't have to commands to love the level, although we might have to learn to supernatural flies our natural love for them. Our Lord says, if you love those who love you, what reward show you have, do not even the Publicans do that. So if we supernaturally as we exercise his power of charity that was given to us, that divine life that was given to us and that charity, that gift, we received a baptism, we fulfill that commandment to the extent that we love the unlovable. Then if we know we're loving, then lovable, and we'll look at this more closely, we can be reasonably confident that we have a supernatural love for the naturally lovable. The greater contains, the less. So we'll talk in a while about hog love, the unlovable. Second Point we should consider the poor is anyone who needs anything we have to give.
Speaker 0 05:22 Whether it's time, sympathy, help goods, words of comfort or anything, whatever we might have to give. There's no one so great that in some way or in something he's not depended to an inferior to others. To that extent he's poor and they're regard and there's no one so lonely, but then he can help another and to that extent he's rich in regard to the other. So then our love of the poor resolve itself into our habitual attitude about two classes to people, one class, those who are naturally difficult to love the other class, those who need anything that we have to give them. We can be sure if we're living on a level of sensuality or passion like the vast majority of men in our society. If we're living at the level of feelings, we will not have a proper attitude towards a naturally unlovable.
Speaker 0 06:23 We'll be tossed to and fro by our feelings, just like a chip bobbing in the waves. We'll find all kinds of opportunities to avoid coming in contact with the poor or will treat them unkindly. If that's what our feelings are prompting us to do at that moment, we will not feel like helping those who need our help at that moment now for living the next level up. If we're living on the level of reason or common sense, then we'll rationalize. We'll rationalize their neglect of the various kinds of the poor will rationalize. Our treatment of them will rationalize our failure to help those who need our help or ask for help. We'll find ourselves saying quite reasonably let someone else do it. I don't have the time. I have enough work and responsibilities of my own. I can't be listening to everyone's trouble. If I do it for him this time, then he'll be back with more.
Speaker 0 07:17 There's only one way to treat this kind of person. Someone asked to tell him off. He needs to learn better and on and on and on, you know, on and on. It's only by living habitually at the level of our holy faith, by living at the level of charity that we can have, the attitude of Christ like charity towards the poor, that our vocation Christians demands of us. It's not optional. Great father, so how do we do that? We can be sure that we're really loving to the poor according to the command of Christ here. Two tests for ourselves. First from the point of view of considering the poor as naturally unlovable. We'd start by being especially kind to those we do not like for the sake of Christ. We'll expand on that in a minute. Second, from the point of view of considering the poor as those who need something that I have or I can give to them, there's a practice which God himself has given us.
Speaker 0 08:19 Quote, give to everyone who asks you the close quote, God, the son. Okay. If I habitually day after day in all kinds of situations and especially kind to those I do not like naturally, and if I had bitch, they give to those who ask of me, whoever they may be. If I give cheerfully, spontaneously without thought of return, then I know that I'm living at the level of faith. Then I know that I'm living at the level of charity. Then I know that I'm using the share that in God's nature, the placed in me at baptism to love as he loves to love all men universally independently of my natural attraction to men. Remember the dignity to which we've been called Christ has given us a share. As Saint Peter says, we're partakers in the divine nature. He's given us to share in this divine life because he wants to live in us.
Speaker 0 09:21 We're supposed to be Christ to the world. He wants to use our hands. He wants to use our eyes. He wants to use our lips. He wants to use our heart to reach out and come in contact with people. Christ is supposed to be living in us, so you can say with Saint Paul now, not I, but Christ lives in me. That's the goal we have to note. It's in critical to remember that loving the poor in this way is a practice that is impossible for unaided human nature. It's supernatural. That means it takes the help of grace and prayer and particularly prayer during temptation. Now, this is important. The prayer during temptation is a factor is too often ignored during our battles with the powers of darkness and it's absolutely critical to remember this when Saint Alphonsus, that great Dr. Church was an old man who was asked by some of his redemptors priest what he would choose to preach about if he had only one sermon remaining to be delivered during his lifetime.
Speaker 0 10:33 He pondered the question for some time. The priests waited anxiously to hear his answer. They expect he named some topic like grey Sir charity, love of God, love of the blessed virgin. Finally, the holy doctor answered them to this effect. If I had but one sermon left to preach, I would speak on the necessity of prayer. During temptation. I would do this because no matter how much charity, how much love, how much grace a person might have, they'd lose it all in an instant if they were to fall into grievous sin. We're in the habit of praying before temptation so we will not fall into sin. And after we fond a temptation, we pray to say that we're sorry, but the most important time to pray is in the midst of temptation. The devil is much more powerful than we and if we are to overcome him, we need the help of the Lord.
Speaker 0 11:37 That's the holy Dr Saint Alphonsus telling us of the critical importance of praying during temptation. So we can say if we need to acquire and we must acquire this habit of loving the poor as Christ did and as he expects us to do, we also have to have this habit of praying during temptation. The habit of loving the pool will not be acquired by making some vague generalized solution that, oh boy, I heard this sermon from now and we're going to love the poor and pray when we're tempted not to. That sort of resolution goes absolutely nowhere. They have a technical term for it. It's called Availity. That means it's a really nice idea that nothing happens at all. It's a big disaster in interior life. It's very common to have. Nice pies, thoughts, but pies. Thoughts have to translate into plastic actions or it's just a hallucination.
Speaker 0 12:26 It's up Ohio Solusa nation, but it's just daydreams, castles in the air. How do we keep from launching into these sorts of daydreams? We have to make sure that we have long repeated resolutions to perform particular acts of a virtue. When we talk about how to do this virtues, we don't just sign them and have a virtue and walk out and have it. It's like anything. He would have to keep repeating it, repeating it, repeating it in any virtual we on acquire it. The best starting point for us is to look for those instances where with brutal self honesty, we know this is where I'm failing. We have to be honest in our self-examination and that's going to reveal these instances to us. So for example, is it a spiritually poor person with noticeable public faults? Who is the occasion of our failure today? Then when we see that person commit a fault and we're tempted to criticize her to ourselves or to others, we'll say an aspiration or prayer for something like, dear Jesus, help me keep back those words.
Speaker 0 13:31 Now, after we say that prayer, that doesn't mean we've got the virtue because guess what? If we had this habit we sit at per right, then we're going to have an almost uncontrollable urge to say those unkind words. Typically, when we first started under this, the urge will get even stronger to do something stupid right then, so we have to keep praying. Dear Lord, help me keep back those words. Do your Lord helped me forgive her, help her to become conscious of her faults in concrete. Lord helped me think of my own faults instead of those of others. Thank you lord for your grace. Without which I'd be way worse than I am and so forth. We continue to pray in this way until a temptation is passed. If we really pray, if we really fight, then we'll really conquer. If we pray, we'll conquer.
Speaker 0 14:19 We've got to keep at it. What if it's a mentally poor person who's annoying to us towards whom we have unkind feelings today we resolve that at least once today. We're going to go out of our way at some particular time to be with him or her and treat him or her especially graciously and we resolve to pray for help when we're tempted either who attempted to not do that at all or to let it go until later so we have this good resolution but it never happens because we don't make it concrete. What if it's a physically poor person who bores us with tales of woe and ailments? Huh? Today we're going to give him a sympathetic year with absolutely no signs of boredom or today when we're working on something that we're particularly anxious to get done, if someone comes and interrupts us to talk about something that's on his mind, will listen as if he had the most important problems in the whole world.
Speaker 0 15:14 If these resolutions like this are going to be effective, they must be as particular as possible. We have to in particular eyes them with reference to time person in place. We think to myself, I'm gonna encounter this person today. It drives me crazy when he talks about this. I'm going to say this prayer every instance, there must be an accompanying resolution to pray when we're not tempted to fulfill them. Write them down. Write down the resolution in full on a little piece of paper. Put it in your missile, put it in your Bible, something that you open up every morning so you can renew it. For example, you write something like this, this thing, I love you lord, and to show that I love you. This morning when Jim comes in and starts talking about his arthritis and his bad back, I'm going to say this little prayer, Dear Jesus, help me hold my tongue and smile at him.
Speaker 0 16:03 That would be an example. It's concrete. I've read. I know who it is. I know the situation where I usually do something stupid, at least sins and thoughts or I say something co, I just don't have patience. I'm writing it down. Then I have to have a sincere examination of conscience. It is best to do this at least at lunchtime and before bed. It's called a particular exam and we've talked about it before. It takes a second. If you've made the resolution concrete like this at lunch, he can look back when he came in. How'd I do? Did I say that prayer? If I didn't, I mark it down. I give myself a penance later. I'm showing God I got such a firm purpose of resolution before I even go to confession. I'm apologizing to you and give myself a penance. You're going to get the grace to start praying in this temptation, this particular temptation.
Speaker 0 16:54 Don't make it global. You won't do it. Pick one area where you're messing up and work on that one area. That one person, that one situation and keep working at it till you get it. The imitation of Christ as if we conquer one of these sinful habits, you will become saints. We have to be humble. We have to work at one thing at a time like that with the particular resolution, so it takes a second. At lunchtime, it takes a second before you go to bed. You just look back. You can see right away and you have made a resolution that lasts six, eight hours. You can do that and you can keep track of it and it's easy to examine your conscience. If you do that, you gotta get a habit. You gotta get a habit. So if we do this day after day, gradually almost imperceptibly, we'll acquire the facility of habitually being kind to those we don't like of giving them whatever we have that they need, whether it's time, a helping hand, a sympathetic ear, or whatever we have to give.
Speaker 0 17:52 Only then will we begin to realize the tremendous significance of that. Second of the greatest commandments, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself will begin to realize that the whole aim of the spiritual life, the whole aim or supernatural life is charity. That's the be all and end all of our existence. Only then we begin to realize the true distinction between means and ans in the spiritual life. The problem is so many of us get confused between means and ends. What do I mean? When we're habitually living on a level of faith, we'll then truly realize that our rules for those of us in our state of life, our spiritual reading, our rosary, our confession, our holy communions, our visits to the blessed sacrament, the priesthood, the Pisco busy, even the sovereign Pottnam itself, our means that Christ has put here they are, means we need to burn that into our mind, our rules, our spiritual reading, our roads.
Speaker 0 18:51 Your confessions are holy communions are visits to our Lord in the most blessed sacrament. The priesthood, the episcopacy, the pope himself are not ends in themselves, but they are means there means these things are not ends themselves, but they are means to help us love God and to love our neighbor better. They are means to help us love God and love our neighbor better. They are means to help us kindle. They're meant to kill this flame of charity in our hearts so that when we have an opportunity to love our neighbor and be active and works a charity or conditioned to grasp the opportunity, St Vincent DePaul used to tell his daughters a charity that if the occasion demanded it, they were even to leave mass to help the sick because they were leaving God for God. Therefore, if a Catholic would refuse to help someone or neglect a chance to love the poor because at a particular time they're engaged in a private devotion, something personal, spiritual reading, the rosary, other private personal devotions, they'd be missing the whole point of their Christian life.
Speaker 0 20:00 They're trying to prepare themselves by their devotions to love their neighbors in the poor, but then if they refuse to do that, they neglect the very occasion for which they've been preparing themselves. These are means to help us be Christ to the world. A true saint never neglects opportunities for charity. And if it really sincere and looking for the best way to increase their love of the poor will not only give gladly to those who ask, but will be cheerful about it. Never complaining, amenable to all demands. Our Lord tells us, whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. A saint doesn't complain about the demands made upon him. He's cheerful. So if we want to be saint, we should try gain a reputation of always being a simpleton. Be the kind of Catholic that anyone can call on at any time for anything as hell.
Speaker 0 20:54 And she'll do it for you. She'll give it to you, she'll help you as Joe. He always helps. It's refreshing to see what Saint Paul has said about this matter of giving mark. This Saint Paul says he was so sparingly, will also reap sparingly, and he says, bountifully will also reap bond. Flee. Let each one give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or from compulsion. For God loves a cheerful. Giller Second Corinthians nine verses six and seven the little flower Saint Therese, the child Jesus was a perfect example of this. Her rule of conduct was this quote, this is a little flower. It is not enough for me to give to him who asks. I'd foresee his wishes appear very grateful, highly honored at being able to help him close called Saint Therese. Of course, saint that she was little treads had the virtue of Supernatural Prunes, which meant that she realized there were occasions in which would not be true charity to carry out to the letter, the words the gospel to give to those who ask.
Speaker 0 22:03 She understood that our Lord does not command the fulfillment of unwise, imprudent or illegitimate needs of her neighbor. Those are not true needs at all to cater to them would be a perversion of true charity. I need five bucks to go buy some crack. Oh, here, no, you don't do that. We don't do that. That's not true charity yet. Even in those circumstances, there's place for genuine love of the poor is she so well teaches us the little flower quote. Occasions arise when I'm compelled to refuse a request. Yet when charity has taken deep root in my soul, it shows itself outwardly and there was always a way of refusing so graciously. What one cannot give that the refusal affords as much pleasure as the gift itself. Close quote, the little flower. That's the true love of the poor and action to charity means that we give freely, spontaneously, and cheerfully.
Speaker 0 22:55 What is ours actually ours to give? Let's close with a brief review. Charity. It's a fulfillment of God's command to love him in our neighbors ourselves. The most difficult part is commandment is to love the people that we find naturally pulsive the different categories of the poor. We love them for the sake of Christ. The key to loving the poor is two fold. First to be especially kind to those we do not like, and secondly to give to all who ask of us without counting the cost to ourselves, we will act spontaneously in this way only when we've acquired the habit of doing so. The only realistic way to require this habit without a miracle is to make repeated resolutions day after day resolutions, which are particularly as possible with regard to the person, place and time. These resolutions must also be coupled with an added resolution to pray.
Speaker 0 23:49 We write down a specific aspiration so that we pray when we have a temptation to not fulfill them, and then we had to be vigilant about checking whether we're keeping these resolutions by making good particular exams known before we go to bed, when we've acquired such a habit over the poor. That is our characteristic reaction in every possible situation. When we habitually are living at the level of faith, not the level of reason or the level of feelings who are not acting from those principles, but from faith, then we're habitually loving the poor as Christ our Lord did. Then we're truly imitating Christ and as bless it, Don Marmion remarks. If we imitate Christ in this way than Christ himself, according to his own promise, we'll pour down upon us a measure of grace, good and pressed down and shaken together and running over. Amen.
