Sunday Sermon - 3.23.25
LATIN MASS: THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
EPISTLE: Ephesians 5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children; 2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness. 3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints: 4 Or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of thanks. 5 For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), hath inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. 7 Be ye not therefore partakers with them. 8 For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of the light. 9 For the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth
Let no man deceive you. Those who disobey Our Lord will never see Heaven. If Christ is King, then you must be His servant and obey Him. When you disobey Christ, you are declaring with your actions that He is NOT your King. Only those who declare Christ is King and actually act like He is their King will be saved.
GOSPEL: Luke 11:14 And He was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb: and when He had cast out the devil, the dumb spoke: and the multitudes were in admiration at it: 15 But some of them said: He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. 16 And others tempting, asked of Him a sign from Heaven. 17 But He seeing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself, shall be brought to desolation, and house upon house shall fall. 18 And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because you say, that through Beelzebub I cast out devils. 19 Now if I cast out devils by Beelzebub; by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 20 But if I by the finger of God cast out devils; doubtless the Kingdom of God is come upon you. 21 When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things are in peace which he possesseth. 22 But if a stronger than he come upon him, and overcome him; he will take away all his armour wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils. 23 He that is not with Me, is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth. 24 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest; and not finding, he saith: I will return into my house whence I came out. 25 And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. 26 Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. 27 And it came to pass, as He spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck. 28 But He said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.
An empty soul will become a den for demons very shortly. If you only turn to Christ when you are in trouble, you will simply go in a vicious cycle of falling under the power of demons, which each fall getting tragically worse. You must fill your soul with God’s grace to guard your soul against the demons. Sacraments, prayer, adoration, good works, fasting, almsgiving. We must do the acts of loving God and man if we want to fill our soul with God’s grace.
NOVUS ORDO: THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
OLD TESTAMENT: Exodus 3:1 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then He said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to Me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”
13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is My Name forever, and this My title for all generations.
Do we have the proper humility towards God? Do we have the proper disposition in our behavior in front of and towards God? Do we recognize His infinite holiness? Do we recognize His infinite majesty? Christ our Lord came down from Heaven to make us His friends, and become intimately close to us through the sacraments. We must keep this in mind, but at the same time, He is also Our Heavenly King. Often we focus too much on one aspect of how He wishes to relate to us, and forget the other. But Our Lord, and the entire Trinity, is both of these at the same time. Our God is intimately close to us AND at the same time is infinitely above us in glory and majesty. Never forget that He calls us His friends, but also we are His servants and He is our King.
NEW TESTAMENT: 1 Corinthians 10:1 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
6 Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. 10 And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.
If you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. The Apostle Paul could not write a more clear warning against those who think their salvation is guaranteed. Destruction is awaiting us on both sides of the narrow path. The minute that you think your salvation is guaranteed, is the moment you need to reassess yourself and go to Confession. The Israelites had the prefigurements of Baptism and Eucharist while in the desert. Yet even with this, so many of them were destroyed. We have the true sacraments now, yet so many Catholics will end up in hell because they believed their salvation was guaranteed. They behaved in immoral ways and found out too late that they could be damned. Do not let that happen to you.
GOSPEL: Luke 13:1 At that very time there were some present who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
6 Then He told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8 He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Each day that you wake up, you are one day closer to your own judgment day. That day is coming, and you do not know when. Make sure that you are bearing fruit right now, because you are not promised tomorrow. Do not find yourself at your judgment without any fruit or good works to present to Our Lord. Do not be the servant with one talent, who did not use it to produce any more. That servant was thrown into the outer darkness for eternity. Make sure you start right now with doing good works.