# Hunolt Sermons/Volume 12/Sermon 51

FIFTY-FIRST SERMON
ON THE HOLY APOSTLES SS. SIMON AND JUDE.
Subject.
The holy apostles Simon and Jude were two true Christian zelators of the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Preached on the feast of SS. Simon and Jude.
Text.
" Simon Zelotes and Jude." (Acts 1:13)
Introduction.
Never has God given to angels or men a special name without having a special mystery concealed under it, signifying thereby either some privilege of grace conferred on a particular individual in preference to others, or some excellence of virtue by which the favored one was to distinguish himself. Thus to the Prince of the angels is given the glorious title of Michael, that is, the strength of God, because he was chosen in preference to all the other angels and archangels to humble the pride of Lucifer and hurl him and all his followers into hell. Thus the name of the holy Patriarch Abram was slightly but most honorably changed into Abraham, that is, the father of the faithful, to the perpetual remembrance and praise of his firm faith, which was to be planted in his children to the end of time. In the same way Our Lord changed the name of Simon, the Prince of the apostles, and as those Roman generals who had subjected some part of the world to the sway of their fatherland received the surname of Africanus, Asiaticus, Gallicus, to distinguish them, to Simon was given the name Petrus, or Petra, that is, a rock, because as a reward of his glorious confession of the divinity of Christ he was to be made the corner-stone and rock on which the Lord was to build His Church, and which was to protect and defend it against the assaults of heresy and all the might of hell. Who, then, can reason ably doubt that when the Holy Ghost gave to our Simon the name Zelotes, the zealous one (an appellation that, according to St. Jerome, belongs also to St. Jude), as we read in the gospel of St. Luke as well as in the text quoted, He had specially in view the extraordinary zeal of these two apostles, and thereby wished to let us understand that as the other disciples and apostles of Christ excelled each in some particular virtue, on account of which they received special and honorable titles, so also these two shone brighter than all the others in their zeal in spreading and furthering the glory of God in all places? And so they deserve the name of Zelotes by acting strictly in the spirit of their divine Master. This is to be the subject of my panegyric to-day, in which I mean to show that these two holy apostles were true Christians, that is, according to the pattern and exemplar of Christ, Our Lord, perfect and devoted zelators of the divine honor and the salvation of souls.
Plan of Discourse.
The holy apostles Simon and Jude were true and real Christian zelators of the honor of God and the salvation of souls, for they followed in their zeal the example and the spirit of Christ perfectly. Such is the whole subject. That we may imitate their Christian zeal shall be the moral lesson and conclusion.
Divine Saviour, Christ Jesus, who didst come into the world to inflame it with new zeal, kindle the same in our hearts, that after the example of Thy holy apostles each one of us, according to his state, may become a true zelator of Thy honor and the salvation of souls. This we beg of Thee through the powerful intercession of Thy Mother, Mary, and of the holy angels.
It is one thing to have a zeal for the divine honor and the salvation of souls, and another to have a true and real Christian zeal. For just as not every zeal, though it may have the appearance of holiness, is really good, praiseworthy, or holy, so, too, not every zeal, good though it be, is at the same time Christian. To be a true Christian zeal, it must be according to the spirit, the teaching, and example of Christ, and hence it must have the two properties of meekness and firmness: firmness in heartily despising all that might deter from the proposed end; meekness in patiently bearing the opposition, persecution, injuries, and all other trials that may come in the way of advancing the divine honor and the salvation of souls, and putting aside all hatred, rancor, and desire of revenge, nay, loving heartily even one's worst enemies. If any of these qualities be wanting, the zeal cannot be looked on as true Christian zeal. Firm indeed was that zeal of the Prophet Elias in his labors to bring back the people of Israel from idolatry to the worship of the true God; firm the zeal of the brave high-priest Mathathias and his sons, the Jewish heroes, namesakes of our holy apostles Simon and Jude, when they so bravely opposed the wicked King Antiochus in defence of the law of God, and exposed their lives in their efforts to keep their brethren in the true faith. But what torrents of blood they shed! Did not Elias, spurred on by the fire of his zeal, fall upon and slay at once four hundred false prophets and servants of the god Baal? a feat of which he boasted afterwards before the Lord: "With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts. Mathathias happened to see a Jew sacrificing publicly to the false gods, for the sake of appeasing the tyrant Antiochus, when he became filled with fury and killed the idolater on the spot: "And Mathathias saw," says the Scripture, "and was grieved, and his reins trembled, and his wrath was kindled according to the judgment of the law, and running up on him, he slew him upon the altar. 72 How many cities of the infidels did not Simon and Jude, his sons, take and lay waste with fire and sword? How many thousands of their enemies did they not put to death? All the nations that dared to oppose them were destroyed off the face of the earth. That zeal was in deed heroic, firm, good, and holy, according to the law of the time, but on account of so much blood-shedding and the want of meekness it was far removed and very different from the spirit of Jesus Christ.
Of another sort altogether was the zeal brought by Our Lord into the world, and inculcated by His own example, as well as by the teaching of His apostles and their successors. Just as He Himself was the firmest and bravest of all the children of men, and at the same time the meekest, most affable, and kind, as is proved beyond doubt by His whole life on earth from its beginning to its disgraceful end on the cross, so He wished His disciples to inherit the same spirit from Him, and to unite firmness with meekness, and indomitable bravery with patience, kindness, and love. Hence while He often told them that when there was question of the honor of God and the salvation of souls they should be deterred by no danger, fear no obstacle, dread no tyrant, nor turn back for fear of any persecution at the hands of men, nay, that even death itself should not appal them, " fear ye not them that kill the body, yet at the same time He expressly commanded them not to forget the meekness of which He gave them the example, and which they were to observe even with regard to their enemies and persecutors: " Learn of Me be cause I am meek." He sent them forth to conquer the idolatry, the infidelity, the wickedness of the world, to overthrow the empire of Satan, and to make all nations subject to His holy and divine law; but He did not by any means wish them to do as the Machabees did in former times, and to force people by violence to accept this law, or to spread it with fire and sword and bloodshed. No! the same weapons that He made use of were also to be the arms of their zeal, namely, indomitable patience, meekness, and charity; they were never to give way to anger or revenge, never to stain their hands with another's blood. This Our Lord showed clearly to be His will when in the Garden of Gethsemani He reproved the zeal of Peter, and at once told him to put back into the scabbard the sword he had drawn against the rabble crowd of Jews: " Put up thy sword into the scabbard." But did not the zealous disciple mean well towards his divine Master? Or was it wrong to try to save the most innocent and all-holy blood of the God-man by shedding the blood of a wicked wretch? Certainly not; but this was contrary to the spirit of the meek Saviour, who, instead of desiring to revenge Himself by the blood of others, rather wished to shed His own as a sacrifice of atonement and a redemption for us men. Such, too, was the lesson He had before that taught the disciples James and John when they wished Him to punish the gross incivility of the Samaritans, and the insults they had offered their divine Master, by calling down fire from heaven as Elias formerly did: " Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" A just and righteous anger indeed; but it was far removed from the innate meekness that was the special characteristic of Our Lord, and therefore He at once sharply reproved them: And turning, He rebuked them, saying: You know not of what spirit you are. The Son of Man came, not to destroy souls, but to save." There, my dear brethren, you have the pattern and model of a real, true Christian zeal qualified by meekness and patience. It must be like the thorn-bush on Mount Sinai, which burned but did not consume; or like that pillar in the desert, which went before the Israelites during the night in the form of a burning fire, and during the day in that of a cloud; for, as St. Gregory well remarks, "in the fire there is the terror of judgment, but in the cloud the protection of mercy. That is to say, apostolic zeal must be inflamed with heat, and, as it were, set fire to everything, but in such a manner as not to consume what it enflames, but rather to preserve it by meekness. These pillars of the Church should burn and sparkle with zeal, but in such a manner as to protect and overshadow those entrust ed to them, and their faults as well with love, mercy, and mildness as with a cloud.
We have a perfect example of this zeal in our holy apostles Simon and Jude. First, they had a firm and burning zeal, so that they could say with David: " My zeal hath made me pine away. For if the greatness and firmness of the zeal is to be measured by the difficulty and number of the labors undergone, by the brave contempt of all dangers, by the hearty renunciation of all earthly things, then it cannot be denied that these two apostles have proved themselves true heroes and zelators of the divine honor; for neither the multiplicity of labors wearied them, nor did the fear of evil daunt them even in the midst of evident dangers, nor were they turned aside for a moment by the hope or desire of any earthly good from their task of promoting the glory of their Saviour and bringing the world under His law and sweet yoke. And with regard to their manifold labors, I can not restrain my wonder at their difficulty and number. " The zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up," ] they might well say with the holy Prophet David, when he was laboring so hard to keep from vice and to bring under the law of God the house of Israel, the chosen people of the Lord entrusted to him. But how much easier it was for him to give expression to his zeal! He was a crowned king, a monarch possessing full power and authority; he had the sword in his hand; he had only to let loose the reins of his holy zeal; and moreover the law of God was already well known to his subjects; he had not the trouble of preaching it to them; they were all well practised in the observance of it. Quite different was it with our holy apostles. Their zeal was opposed by countless obstacles. For, in the first place, they were quite unknown in the greater number of the places in which they labored; in outward appearance they were lowly, despicable men, who had no worldly influence, no weapons or arms, who went about barefoot, " without purse and scrip and shoes, as their divine Master had commanded them; they did not possess a foot of land in the world, and always lived on alms; so that they could not effect anything by their power or influence. Again, the law they preached was not a whit better known than they themselves; it was quite a new law, of which nothing had been heard till their arrival; a law diametrically opposed to sensuality and carnal inclinations, a law that made happiness consist in poverty, suffering, persecution, crosses, and trials. And of what sort were the people to whom they had to preach this law? Barbarous, uncivilized, cruel, savage, almost bestial men, who had hardly anything human in them except their outward appearance. Their fierce and savage dispositions had then first to be subdued, their brutish and sensual mode of life to be made human before the seed of the word of God could be planted in their hard and rugged hearts! Judge yourselves of the difficulty of a task like this. Is it not often hard enough to bring back to the right path a single family that has fallen into vicious habits through the culpable negligence of the parents? What labor and toil, then, must not have been necessary to introduce evangelical modesty, humility, purity, godliness, and holiness in whole districts, countries, kingdoms, and cities that were completely sunk in abominable vices, in idolatry itself, and were accustomed to an unrestrained freedom of conduct! Nor was it merely one city, country, or kingdom that these apostolic men visited and watered with the sweat of their toil, but so many were the places they preached in, and so far apart from each other, that without exaggeration we may say that they wandered over half the world and inflamed it with their burning zeal. According to the testimony of Xicephorus and Dorotheus, St. Simon alone brought the light of the faith into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Africa, and Great Britain; Cardinal Baronius adds to this list Arabia, Idumea, and other neighboring countries in which our Saint preached and converted the inhabitants. Nor did St. Jude labor less: he wandered through all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and since his great zeal could not be circumscribed within such narrow limits he went to the vast land of Syria, where, according to the testimony of authors worthy of belief, he brought to the knowledge of the Christian faith and truth King Abgarus and his whole court. But as fire once it begins to ascend cannot be restrained, so the zeal of our two apostles could not be satisfied with those great and, so to speak, superhuman labors. Before ending their toil some career the fire of their zeal had to be spread in the land of Persia, which constitutes a great part of Asia, and especially in wicked Babylonia, the seat of idolatry and all vice. In this vast kingdom they brought to the faith an almost countless number of people and founded a populous church. Truly, if those glorious followers of Christ had merely wandered through those vast countries they could not have done so without great difficulty, and at the cost of many hard days travelling, great loss of strength, and countless sufferings. With what unwearied zeal, then, with what incessant labor must they not have worked and worn themselves out to convert vast and barbarous lands into fertile ground in which the seed of the word of God might take root and bring forth rich fruit of virtue pleasing to God! Yes, my dear brethren, the bare idea of such labors is enough to dishearten us; but the burning love of these disciples for their Master, their earnest desire to further the glory of God everywhere, and to make His name known to all nations, their ardent wish to save many souls for their Creator, and rescue them from the thraldom of the devil, gave them courage to undertake all this with readiness. The inward fire of their zeal lightened every thing that was heavy, sweetened all that was bitter, shortened all that was tiresome, in a word, it made pleasing and agreeable to them all that would otherwise be most troublesome and distressing to human nature.
And as their zeal was unwearied in undertaking labor, so it was undaunted in despising all dangers and threatened persecutions. They had already given a specimen of their courage in danger, even before their patience and constancy were put to the severest trial, and while the danger was still tolerable; that is to say, while they were still with the Jews, and before they went among the heathens. Were they not in the number of those of whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles: " They laid hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison"? Were they not among those who, in spite of the threats and envy of the Jews, went boldly before the high-priest and the whole assembly of the people, and answered them freely: " We ought to obey God rather than men "? To no purpose do you try to close our mouths and forbid us to preach the crucified Jesus; if it cost us our life-blood, if we had to suffer all the tortures in the world, to die by the wheel or the gallows, we would still adhere to our words: " We ought to obey God rather than men." Were they not among the band of heroes, who, after having endured a severe scourging, and suffered many insults and mockeries, came forth from the tribunal rejoicing and exulting: "They went from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus"? And in spite of all they had suffered, as St. Luke adds: " Every day they ceased not, in the temple and from house to house, to teach and preach Christ Jesus." If already at that period they gave such glorious proofs of their heroism, what, think you, will they not have done among the heathens and savage people to whom they brought the knowledge of Christ? for of course the persecutions and dangers they then had to undergo must have been far greater, since those people were blind, wicked, lost to all sense of decency, who had not the least sign of meekness, nay, of anything human in them; who had not seen any of Our Lord's miracles as the Jews had, nor heard of them, and who, moreover, had a natural abhorrence and aversion for the shame of the cross, so that they were at first disposed to jeer and laugh at the idea of a crucified God, as St. Paul says: " We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness." How could it be possible that under such circumstances they were not daily, nay, hourly exposed to imminent dangers and terrible persecutions, since the idolatrous priests saw that their avarice was likely to be frustrated, and the empire of the demons and superstition, the source of gain to them, overthrown; while kings and princes and others in authority could not help noticing that Christian humility, chastity, and meekness were altogether opposed to their pride and ambition, their carnal and impure pleasures, their tyranny and cruelty? St. Paul complains bitterly in many of his epistles of the cruel persecutions and sufferings he had to endure, by sea and land, from enemies and false brethren for Christ's sake, but, my dear brethren, if we accompany him in thought on his journeys we shall indeed find him among heath ens, but they were heathens who had some civilization and culture, such as the Greeks and Romans. Now I leave you to judge what uncommon and extraordinary persecutions the holy apostles Simon and Jude had to endure, for in their many wanderings till their glorious death they met with as many blood thirsty tyrants as they did men. If Paul had to contend with the subtlety of the philosophers, they had to combat the cruelty of the barbarians; if he had to deal with reasoning beings, they had to do with monsters, who, so to say, went about like wild beasts. From this, then, we may easily see how undaunted and heroic their zeal must have been, since they remained till the end amid those constant and imminent dangers, in circumstances in which we should think it most difficult, nay, even intolerable to live even for a short time.
There is another kind of heroism in which our apostles distinguished themselves, which is all the more to be esteemed the more unknown it was among the heathens of the time and the rarer it is even nowadays among Christians. And what was that, my dear brethren? To say it in a few words: an honest, unaffected, sincere contempt of all earthly and temporal gain or profit, of all transitory and perishable things. Oh, how many are there not who gloriously overcome great difficulties and hardships, nay, even the danger of death itself, and yet allow themselves to be vanquished by the miserable greed of gain, inasmuch as for the sake of temporal and often uncertain profit they undertake great labors and expose themselves to danger! But such was not the object aimed at by our two apostles. There was nothing selfish in their zeal; its sole object was the honor of God, the glory of their dearest and most beloved Master, and the salvation and eternal welfare of men. This was the , only gain they wished to make by their long and difficult journeys, amid dangers and trials that beset them on all sides. On the other hand, earthly and transitory goods seemed to them so vile and contemptible that they regarded them as unworthy of either esteem or desire. Their wealth and riches consisted alone in Jesus Christ crucified, whose image they endeavored to imprint on the hearts of the blind heathens; and from the latter they looked for no other reward than insult and injury, crosses and persecutions, martyrdom and death. When they arrived in Persia and were asked by the inhabitants what was their object in making such a long and dangerous journey to such a distant land they gave no other answer but this: We have come for the sake of your eternal salvation. As if to say: Others come here to trade, to amass money by buying and selling, to enrich, and thus to make themselves great in the eyes of the world. But do not imagine that such a motive has led us hither; long ago we have renounced all earthly things. Our sole object is to spread the glory of God, whom we wish to make known to you, and to save your precious, immortal souls. We do not desire anything of yours for ourselves, but we do wish to gain you for God and heaven. And in fact their whole conduct and manner of life was a living, indubitable proof of their complete renunciation of all earthly gain. That was shown by their ragged, worn-out clothing, by the insipid nourishment they begged from door to door, by their emaciated countenances, by their bodies reduced almost to skeletons by the want of sufficient food, so that they looked more like corpses than living men. It was shown by the generous manner in which they refused all the money and other presents offered them, so that every one must have been convinced that their unselfishness was not at all hypocritical, nor like what the heathens were used to in their philosophers, as they were called, who covered their avarice under poor clothing, and despised riches with the lips only, while they stretched out their hands eagerly for gain when the opportunity offered. No; far more convincing were the proofs given by our apostles of their renunciation of the whole world and its goods. How often were not vast riches offered to St. Jude by Agbar in Syria, by others to St. Simon, and to both together by the king of Persia? And these riches were not merely promised, or shown to them from afar, but, as it were, almost violently forced on them. But their firm contempt of such things was so unchangeable that neither prayers nor entreaties availed to persuade them to accept the least thing. Thus they proved by their- actions the truth of their professions, and showed that they had not come to make money, but as apostles of Christ to gain souls and to promote the honor of God. And this unselfishness of theirs helped wonderfully to the object they had in view; for when the heathens saw those servants of Christ thus detached from all earthly things they remarked something heavenly in them, and were all the more willing to hear their teaching and to profit by it. For this contempt of the world preaches much more power fully than any sound of words, and what the people saw arid experienced made a greater impression on them than what they heard. Thus the zeal of these apostles was great, firm, nay, invincible! It was unwearied in the undertaking of great labors and trials, undaunted in the contempt of all dangers and persecutions, unwavering in their disregard for all earthly goods and for everything that is wont to excite the cupidity of men. But it was also, according to the spirit of Christ, characterized by an invincible patience, meekness, and charity, and therefore it was a perfect and true Christian zeal.
If we had no other proof of their patience than the conversion of almost countless savage nations, that in itself should be enough to convince us that as their firmness was invincible, so also were their patience, meekness, and charity. Suppose, my dear brethren, that, like the zealous Peter, they had had recourse to the sword, that, like Elias, they had called down fire from heaven; do you think they would have been so successful with those barbarous people? Would they not thus have poured oil on the flames, and rather excited the wrath and fury of the savages than gained them over to Christ? Were they not obliged, above all, to try to gain their hearts, to win their love and affection, and thus to find favor with them? But what chains can be found to bind the hearts of men faster than meekness, love, and affability? These are the only means by which a return of love can be assured and the human heart conquered, and hence they are the chief means that an apostolic man must have recourse to in his efforts to convert the heathen. How wonderful, then, must not have been the meekness of SS. Simon and Jude, since they knew how to win over so many barbarous nations, and to subject them to the sweet yoke of Christ, although they were so different in manners and customs, and sunk in vice, cruelty, and wickedness! Was there at the time any land under the sun that showed greater aversion to the Jews and to all strangers from Judea than Egypt? Did not all the people of that country, great and small, nourish a traditional hatred from olden times against the God of the people of Israel, who had drowned their forefathers in the Red Sea; and against Moses, and all whom they thought to be of the same religion, since he had inflicted such grievous plagues on them? What indescribable patience and meekness, then, must not these holy apostles have shown to win the love of such a people, and to persuade them to listen to their preaching, to receive them as well-meaning friends, nay, as teachers of the true law! Again, if we wander in imagination through Africa, Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Persia, and Babylonia, countries bedewed with the sweat of the labors of these apostles, as we have already seen, what rude, uncivilized people we find there, whose manners were more suited to wild beasts than to human beings; whose cities and towns were nothing but sinks of vice! And yet these two holy men alone gained them over to a more human mode of life and to the Christian faith. " By the holy gospel," says St. Isidor, writing of St. Jude, "he tamed wild and savage people, who lived almost like beasts, and brought them under the yoke of the true faith." The Roman Breviary says of them both: " They brought forth innumerable children to Christ," a and made them children of God. But how could that have been possible if meekness had not paved the way to such a great work; if charity and humility had not broken the pride and haughtiness of the barbarians; if patience had not overcome their anger and jealousy; if kindly and friendly manners had not conquered and softened the arrogance and cruelty of the savage people? Truly, their meekness must have been something superhuman, for it had not only to combat hourly with unheard-of rage and wickedness, but also to become master of those passions, and thus to convert countless ravening wolves into so many meek lambs. Remember the Jewish lawgiver, the Prophet Moses; how the holy Fathers and interpreters of Scripture praise him for his meekness, and hold him up as an example of divine and perfect meekness, patience, and charity! Why so, my dear brethren? Because he had such patience in conducting through the desert for so many years such a numerous and at the same time such a stiff-necked and obstinate people, who were always ready to rebel. If Moses really deserved praise on this account, how great must not have been the meekness of those who not only presided as spiritual superiors for so many years over almost a half world full of savage, abominable, superstitious, idolatrous, and vicious men, but also induced them to practise Christian modesty and to lead edifying and virtuous lives!
Still more renowned was their meekness, and indeed it attracted the attention of the heathens, inasmuch as these holy apostles were so mild and forgiving towards their worst enemies, This is a sure sign of the disciple of Christ, and an example of the meekness shown by Our Lord during His whole life even till His death. Among other examples the following is recorded: The general-in-chief of the king of Babylonia, finding the priests and sorcerers of the idols false in their prophecies, while the apostles were true and upright, became so enraged against the former that he was on the point of sentencing them to the cruel death by fire which they had tried to have inflicted on the apostles. But the holy men begged most earnestly that their enemies might be set at liberty, adding that they had come, not to make any one unhappy, but to secure the welfare of all. This great virtue was so admired by the general that he imagined there must be something more than human in the two apostles, and he wished to raise them to the rank of gods. For these blind heathens were of the opinion that the desire of revenge is so deep-seated and innate in our nature that to return good for evil must be something divine. Nor is this opinion of theirs without foundation; for, as St. Chrysostom says: "Nothing makes a man more like to God than to be friendly to his enemies."
Yet their heroic meekness reached a higher point and attained, as it were, the climax in their martyrdom, if we are to believe the accounts given by St. Antoninus and Denis the Carthusian. These authors tell us that the priests of the idols sought by every possible means to put the apostles out of the way, and were on the point of falling upon them and murdering them, when an angel appeared and gave the holy men the choice either of having their enemies taken off by a sudden death, or of suffering death and martyrdom themselves. What think you of this, my dear brethren? Many a one would not take long to make up his mind in such circumstances, and would at once save his own life and give his enemies over to destruction. But far different were the promptings of the meek charity of these two true disciples and followers of Christ. They had seen how their divine Master gave His life for the enemies whom He could have destroyed in a moment had He chosen to do so, and how, before His death, He prayed for them to His heavenly Father; and they, too, resolved not to seek the death of their persecutors, but rather to obtain for them the grace of conversion by their own death. Thus they both crowned their truly Christian meekness by a death that was violent indeed, but yet in some manner chosen by themselves. It is a general and ancient belief in the Church that St. Simon was sawn in two and St. Jude be headed with an axe. Finally, then, it is undeniable and evident that these holy apostles have a right and title to the glorious name of Zelotes, that they have deserved it by their lives and deaths, and that in truth they were always true zelators of the honor of God and the salvation of souls; for they conformed their zeal exactly to the spirit, teaching, and example of Christ, uniting firmness with meekness, charity, and kindness, and thus in life and death they were most like their divine Saviour.
Truly, they have given us a great and glorious example to follow! All of us should be zelators of the divine honor; that is the most important duty incumbent on us all; that is the sole end and object of our creation, namely, the honor of God, which we must do our best to further in all our actions. The Lord says of each one of us, by His Prophet Isaias: "I have created him for My glory; I have formed him and made him. And of him who turns away from this end the words may with truth be said: " He hath taken his soul in vain; " to no purpose has he received a reasoning soul; he is more like a dumb beast than a human being. And, moreover, all of us should be zelators of souls as far as our state, duties, and obligations require of us. If we are not all called and chosen by God to be apostles, to spread the gospel throughout the world, at least must each one be an apostle in his own house, and have a care for his domes tics, his servants and children, exhort them to devotion and the fear of God, teach them to shun the vanity and folly of the world, instruct them in the truths of Christianity, and show them how to lead godly lives. For as St. Paul says: " If any man have not care of his own, and especially of those of his house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. If you are not the head of a family, you are at all events obliged, as far as in you lies, to keep your neighbor from evil, and to ad vise him to shun bad company and the occasions of sin, to allow of no scandal being given in your presence, much less to give scandal yourself, and if you cannot do better, at least to show by your demeanor that blasphemous, uncharitable, and impure talk is displeasing to you. This duty is one you cannot be excused from; it is founded on the express command of God: "He gave to every one of them commandment concerning his neighbor. And He has also commanded us to love our neighbor from our hearts: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." If you are determined to satisfy your conscience and your obligation in this respect, you will find abundant occasions of working for the good of souls. God only grant that your zeal may be a true Christian one, that is, firm, so that you may not be blinded by any idle love or fear of men, but at the same time meek, without gall, bitterness, or anger, which would do more harm than good .
But, alas, how few there are who know how to unite these two qualities of true zeal! Some indeed have an earnest desire to do their duty; but they deal with their domestics so that the latter must shake and tremble before them; they wish to break what they cannot bend; they have no pity for the weaknesses of others; they wish to have everything according to their own ideas and foolish whims and fancies, and if any resistance is offered them they are ready to smite with thunderbolts. Ah, that is not the zeal of Christ, but a passionate anger, which inspires fear and dread, and fills with shame and confusion every one on whom it falls; therefore it is utterly unable to gain the hearts of men; it only serves to make them distrustful; it is not able to heal the wounds of the soul, and only makes the physician as well as his medicines hateful. If the bridle is pulled too tight, is it any wonder that the horse should rear, become obstinate, and refuse to obey the rider? The free will of man does not allow itself to be forced by such violent and painful means; it wishes to be treated with love and tenderness.
Meanwhile there are others who go too far with that tenderness. They wish to be looked on as kind, friendly, and loving, but they forget to have the necessary firmness. They have indeed some zeal for the souls of their domestics, but it is a cold-hearted zeal. Thus many parents wish their children to be well off in this world and in the next, too; now and then they give a word of exhortation or advice, but not always where it is wanted. The rod is shown but not used. Where there is a necessity of supporting the authority of father or mother by a judicious severity, when kindness can be of no avail, then those parents hang back; they do not wish to hurt or displease their children. That is not a Christian zeal. Did not Our Lord Himself grasp the scourge and drive both buyers and sellers out of the temple? Remember the high-priest Heli, of whom we read in the First Book of Kings. What else brought that kind-hearted old man, along with his children, to ruin and death, and plunged all his posterity into the bitterest poverty but the too grievous neglect he showed in chastising the faults of his sons? Did he perhaps not rebuke them at all, or connive at their misdeeds? No; but his reproofs were too lenient; fatherly kindness won the upper hand; his warnings were not earnest enough. In a word, he was wanting in firmness; he contented himself with the bare, cold words: " Why do ye this kind of things which I hear, very wicked things, from all the people? Do not so, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear." No wonder that the sons went to destruction, and incurred the anger of God. Zeal, therefore, of this kind is not a whit better than the other for furthering the salvation of souls, for it does not help to amend the lives of others, to lessen the number of their sins, or to extirpate their vices; nay, by too much indulgence it rather strengthens and confirms them in their bad habits.
Therefore no zeal should be admitted by us but that true Christian zeal of which SS. Simon and Jude have given us such a brilliant example; namely, that which is at the same time firm, earnest, and heartfelt, and mild, patient, and meek. An earnest zeal effects nothing unless it is united with mildness; the most kind-hearted zeal is useless if it is not strengthened by firmness and earnestness. Severity shocks men and makes them turn aside from the path of virtue if kindness does not take off its bitter edge. A too great kindness, on the other hand, strength ens the wicked in their vices unless firmness give it power. Hear the beautiful exhortation given by St. Paul to his disciple Timothy: " Preach the word, be instant in season out of sea son;" be earnest when there is question of the honor of God and of hindering sin, and preventing the eternal loss of souls; be urgent and inexorable, whether they whom it concerns are pleased or not. Do not cease from your efforts until you have done away with all that can be prejudicial to the divine honor and the welfare of souls. But at the same time the holy Apostle admonishes his disciple not to forget meekness and patience: " Reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine; " entreat, if you hope to gain anything by kindness; otherwise reprove, but in all patience. St. Paul wishes his disciple to be firm and earnest with all those entrusted to his care, but at the same time to be affable, meek, and kind. This is the model that all should study who have at heart the honor of God and the welfare of souls. They must have a true Christian zeal, that is, a zeal according to the spirit of Christ; an unwearied, undaunted, constant, but at the same time a kind, an affable, a friendly, and a meek zeal, that insists with firmness on what is right, but does not by any injudicious importunity make the sweet yoke of Christ bitter. This is the true zeal by which the holy apostles Simon and Jude furthered the honor of God, spread the name of Christ through so many countries, and brought countless souls to heaven; and by the same zeal we, too, shall further the glory of God, gain the souls entrusted to our care, and along with them attain eternal happiness. God grant that such may be the case. Amen.