Five Minute Sermons, Volume I.: For Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year by Priests of the Congregation of St. PaulPaulist Fathers
Religion
Five Minute Sermons, Volume I.: For Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year by Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul
Paulist Fathers
Catholic Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American -- 19th century
He is the second Adam, who came to undo the work of the first
Adam; and as the terrible consequences of the first transgression
have extended to _all_ men without exception, so, also, to
repair this evil which has come upon all men it was necessary
that the grace of salvation should be offered to _all_
without exception. And from this we may infer that God does not
simply will that men should be saved, but that he actually gives
to every man that is born sufficient grace to accomplish this
great work. But are those who stay outside of the one fold in the
way to use this sufficient grace? Certainly they are not, or our
Lord never would have said: "Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one
shepherd." No one, therefore, can be said to be in the way of
salvation who stays outside of the one true fold of the Catholic
Church. We cannot, of course, know what extraordinary means of
grace God may use for those who are ignorant of the church, yet
we do know with perfect certainty that the Catholic Church, with
its doctrine, sacraments, and other means of grace, is the only
divinely-established means of salvation for all men.
Knowing, then, that our Divine Lord, inasmuch as he died for all
men, wills to bring all men into the one true fold, where they
may be under one shepherd, we must feel it to be our duty, if we
have the love of Christ in our hearts, by our prayers, words, and
good example to bring the "other sheep" of whom our Lord speaks
so lovingly to the knowledge of this one fold.
{229}
It is only a coldness of faith and charity which can make us look
upon those who are outside of the church as if they were already
where they ought to be, and where God wishes them to be, or make
us think that it is a hopeless task to try to bring them into the
true church. Our Lord has promised that they shall hear his
voice. We know, then, that he will co-operate by his all-powerful
grace with what we do for their salvation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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