The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-10-14
PENANcE: ITS NECESSITY.

II
love for man made that gift possible
it could never have been merited or
deseryed; for when he to, whom. has.
been given free WILL. the power Of
choosing between good and evil, sees
fit to disobey the mandates of God
and sacrifice the purity of his SOUL.
he takes upon himself the. conse-
quences of that, sin and gives UP his
heredity to the kingdom of Heaven.
There remains but one way of regain
ing that heritage, the way that
Christ has dictated He was the free
/ master of His gifts, and if we would
avail ourselves of them, we must do
so according to the way He has ap-
pointed, by His own teaching and
through that Of the Church which
speaks in His Holy Name.
We learned that way, most of us, in
the long ago when we. were preparing
for our first reception of the sacra-
ment of penanre. There is nothing
new for us to learn now, but in going
over the same ground again it may
surprise us to find how mach we have
forgotten, toerealize how much better
our confession might be, we're we al
ways mindful of;these first principles
of the cafechism. hi;
| Do you remember the interest that
was awakened lin YOU, when, as a
child, you first heard why confession
was necessary: what the condition of
q sinful soul was like. and how it was
possible to transform it again into a
state that would please God? You
were told a story. that came from the
lips of the Master Himself; when in.
the, house of the publican, whittier He
had been invited to eat, He taught
the sinners gathered about Him their
first lessons of Christian Doctrine.
1t was the story of a certain man
that had two sons. the younger of
whom said one day to his father:
Father, give me that share which is
to come to me of your riches And
his father gave. him as he asked. A
few days later the younger son gath
cred all together and took his jour-
ney into a far,off country where he
wasted his Inheritance in riotous iv-
| ing. When he had spent all, there
arose mighty famine in the land and
as he began to, be IN want, he went
and hired out to a man who sent him
to his fields to feed swine. So much
was he oppressed with hunger that
he longed even for the husks of the
swine, but no one gave him to eat
Thus suffering from starvation and
degradation, his thoughts went back
to the home he had left, where even
the hired servants had bread enough
and to spare, while; he was perishing
of hunger. So he said within himself:
| will arise and go to my father and
will say to him: Father, / have
sinned against Heaven and before
thee. / am no. longer worthy to be
called thy SON: make me as one of
thy hired servants, and so he arose
and went to his, father; but when he
was yet afar off his father saw him,
and was moved with compassion,
and running towards him he fell upon
his neck and kissed him and scarcely
needing the penitent words that were
spoken by his. son he called to his
servants, bidding them: Bring forth
quickly the best robe and put it on
him and put a ring on his hand and
shoes on his feet and bring the fatted
calf and kill it and let us make merry:
for this my son was dead and is alive
Eagain, he was, lost and was found.
This was the story you heard. At
II
least it seemed a story then, yet have
you not realized since that it was
no fiction, but reality; that it con-
tanned the facts of your own career?
There is not one of his but can apply
the same experience to our own very.
selves. Let us see how. Where
could there be a more indulgent, low
ing, proYident Father than the One
above Who brought us into existence,
and gave us not only a life, but all
that that life holds most dear; health,
strength, talents, happiness, every.
/ thing we have. We enjoyed all these
as His natural offspring and continued
to avail ourselves of His. fbeiiefactions
until the time came when we became
dissatisfied. The beginning is the
same. in every ones experience. The,
son in the story grew weary of his
fathers house: he, wanted to be his
own master and escape. the. restraint
that had been placed upon him. So
did we, too, chafe under the restric-
tons that God had made for us. Just
as in every well regulated house, GER.
tain rules are to be, observed, so in.
His wisdom did God our Father lay
down particular regulations for us. His
children, in His ten commandments,
the precepts of the Church and their
accompanying obligations When the.
unhappy desire came to break some
one or other of these. rules. we, like
the prodigal son, grew. weary of our,
Fathers restraint and longed for his
own liberty. Like him, we beguiled
yourselves II into believing that il we
could trans gress this one rule, break
this one commandment, we would be
happier than we were before. It mat
tiers not what our faults have been.
whether they led us to- tlishonor God.
linjnre. our mel ghbof; or whether they
referred to ourselves alone, in any
event if we sinned, we cut ourselves
off from the company of our Father,
and. treading the path of iniquity, we
removed ourselves from the call of
His voice and the touch Of His hand.
Wa 1.1vSx