NOW IS THE TIME TO AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP

 A SERMON FOR ADVENT SUNDAY

The Gospel this weeks sounds mighty familiar, doesn’t it!  The signs in the sun and the moon and the stars, distress of nations, the coming of the Son of man in power and great glory…  And you may wonder why we’re hearing almost the exact same thing this week in last week’s Gospel.  Only one week separates these two Gospels.  Is God trying to drum something into our head, do you think?

Actually, truth be told, this week’s Gospel couldn’t be further away from last week’s!  Because today is the first day of the Liturgical Year.  We’re looking at it backwards—it is today’s Gospel that actually comes first, and we won’t hear its counterpart until the very last Sunday of the year 52 weeks from now.  The liturgical year begins and ends with this same presentation of the End Times, the two Gospels framing, like book ends, all the twelve months in between with their focus on the Four Last Things.

Obviously, this is no accident, no coincidence.  The Church fully intends to encapsulate the entire story of Redemption with this reminder of what it’s all really about.  The coming of our Saviour at Christmas is merely a part of this central element of our faith.  So are all the other feasts and seasons of the year, whether they be joyful like Easter and Pentecost, or sorrowful as in the case of Lent and Passiontide.  Joys and sorrows are just elements of our life, but it’s life itself that’s the most important thing.  Without life, we can’t even experience these joys and sorrows.  Our eternal life is the same—without this everlasting life in heaven to look forward to, neither the happiness we experience in this life, nor all the trials and tribulations we endure, have any relevance or consequence.  Even the Life of Christ himself would be meaningless to us if it were not for the Salvation he brings with him.  And we should never forget this—it’s the single reason why he came.

Is it any wonder then, that the Church goes to such lengths at the beginning and end of every year to remind us of this?  We begin the year with the season of Advent, looking forward to the Birth of Christ and the Hope of Salvation it brought us.  And 52 Sundays from now we’ll end the year with that same Hope of Salvation that Christ will bring with him at his Second Coming.

We’ve been preparing for Advent the past few weeks by considering the hope we should have in the face of adversity.  Now Advent is upon us, and we prepare for the Nativity of our Saviour with that hope, “knowing”, as St. Paul says in the Epistle, “that now is the time to awake out of sleep.”  “Know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”  Christ is coming—we’re all very much aware by now that Christmas is just around the corner, and we look forward to our Lord’s birth in the stable of Bethlehem.  But he’s also coming with power and great glory to judge both the quick and the dead.  Let’s make sure that we really do awake out of sleep and reform our lacklustre, tepid lives by firmly committing ourselves to a renewed fervour for the things of God.  Then and only then can we truly look forward not only to Christmas, but also to his Second Coming and the Judgment that will be ours, hopeful and confident in his infinite mercy.

LO! HE COMES WITH CLOUDS DESCENDING

A HYMN FOR ADVENT SUNDAY

By Charles Wesley, 1758

 

1 Lo! he comes with clouds descending,

Once for favored sinners slain;

Thousand, thousand saints attending

Swell the triumph of his train.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

God appears on earth to reign.

 

2 Ev'ry eye shall now behold him,

Robed in dreadful majesty;

Those who set at naught and sold him,

Pierced, and nailed him to the tree,

Deeply wailing, deeply wailing,

Shall the true Messiah see.

 

3 Ev'ry island, sea, and mountain,

Heav'n and earth, shall flee away;

All who hate him must, confounded,

Hear the trump proclaim the day:

Come to judgment! Come to judgment!

Come to judgment, come away!

 

4 Now Redemption, long expected,

See in solemn pomp appear!

All his saints, by man rejected,

Now shall meet him in the air.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

See the day of God appear!

 

5 Yea, amen! let all adore thee,

High on thine eternal throne;

Savior, take the pow'r and glory,

Claim the kingdom for thine own.

O come quickly, O come quickly;

Alleluia! come, Lord, come.

THE HOPES AND FEARS OF ALL THE YEARS

 A SERMON FOR THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Taking a brief glance forward for a moment to Christmas, let’s take a look at one of the best known Christmas carols, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”  In this beloved hymn, we sing that “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”  Very often, we don’t ponder enough on these words, but if we think about it, it’s a very true statement that it is Christmas that makes sense of these very strong emotions of hope and fear we experience not just at this time of year, but on every day of every month of every year!  We hope for many things, and yet at the same time, there is so much to fear from a future that is unknown and threatening.  The birth of the Son of God, our Redeemer, in that little town of Bethlehem restored the hopes of a fallen world two thousand years ago, and they do so again, and time and time again, on the anniversary of that Birth.  It is Christmas also that dispels our fears for a time, or at least puts them into perspective as we contemplate the huge gift of Salvation that Christ’s Nativity brings us.

Moving back to today’s Gospel, with our blessed Lord’s own description of the End Times and the woes that accompany them, it is useful to remind ourselves of this Christmas carol and that whole supernatural viewpoint it gives us of our Lord’s prophecy.  The hopes and fears of all the years are contained not just in Christmas.  Christ’s Redemption is not a single event that happened in Bethlehem, but an act of love that comes from God himself, one that is divine and therefore not contained with the confines of time, but which reaches out beyond the creation and termination of our little world, out into the wonderful eternity of heaven.  In this context, what, we should ask ourselves, is the true value of all those earthly hopes and fears?

Hope first of all is a Cardinal Virtue, and we should not forget this.  While we may legitimately hope for many natural things—a nice home, a loving family, good health, prosperity and so on—true supernatural hope is concerned with one thing above all others, the hope that we will one day save our souls. 

Fear, likewise, is not necessarily a bad thing if we approach it in a similarly supernatural context.  It’s true and quite normal that all those good things we hope for, we likewise fear the loss of.  How terrible it would be if our nice home is wiped out by a tornado, or if our parents are not loving, our spouse is cruel, or our children fall into bad company!  How afraid we would be if we’re told we have a terminal disease, or if we lose our job and fall into poverty!  These kinds of fear are part of our life and not a terribly pleasant part at that!  Whether the fears are well founded or not, we’d like to think we’d be better off without them.  And maybe we’d be right!

Supernatural fear, on the other hand, is a good thing.  In fact, it’s such a good thing that God gives it to us as one of his very special gifts.  Fear of the Lord is one of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost.  What is fear of the Lord?  It’s not so much the fear of losing our souls and going to hell.  It’s the ‘filial’ or chaste fear whereby we revere God and avoid separating ourselves from him.  We fear offending God because, as we say in the Act of Contrition, “he is all-good and deserving of all our love.”  Sinning and offending God is the only thing we should really be afraid of.  The consequences for ourselves are unthinkable, but in reality, the worst consequence of committing a sin is in the nails it drives into the hands and feet of the Saviour who loves and gives us so much.

If we stay free from sin, we need not fear damnation.  Whatever else we fear, no matter how much it may affect our lives, is ultimately of very little value compared to our salvation.  When we read today’s Gospel from this point of view, the great tribulations that will one day come are somehow less ominous, less menacing.  We can now see beyond them to those glimmers of hope our Lord gives us, that after the terrible astronomical events that shall occur, something far more wonderful, something that will far outweigh these upheavals, shall surely follow: “The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” and then…? “and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”  For many, this will indeed be a time to mourn: their iniquities will finally catch up with them as they realize that, as the angels gather the elect from the four winds, they are not being gathered up for the harvest.  Finally, the wheat shall be separated from the cockle, and there shall indeed be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 

For those who love God, however, it will not be a time to mourn.  We shall endure our fear by virtue of our hope.  Indeed it is precisely this holy fear of the Lord that will allow us to have hope; and with the coming of the Son of Man, our hope shall be fulfilled.  Whether it be the actual end of the world or merely the end of our own lives, we shall recognize the signs of the end and prepare our souls to meet our Maker.  Those signs of the end are not just omens of the bad things to come.  Our Lord tells us that, rather, when we shall see all these things, we shall know that “summer is nigh”.  Our life may pass away, yes, and even heaven and earth shall pass away, but our souls shall not pass away.  They shall abide with God forever.

DAY OF WRATH

 A HYMN FOR THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

13th century Sequence from the Requiem Mass

Day of wrath, and doom impending,
David's word with Sibyl's blending:
Heaven and earth in ashes ending.

O what fear man's bosom rendeth,
When from heaven the Judge descendeth,
On whose sentence all dependeth!

Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth,
Through earth's sepulchres it ringeth,
All before the throne it bringeth.

Death is struck, and nature quaking,
All creation is awaking,
To its Judge an answer making.

Lo! the book exactly worded,
Wherein all hath been recorded,
Thence shall judgment be awarded.

When the Judge his seat attaineth,
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.

What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding,
When the just are mercy needing?

King of majesty tremendous,
Who dost free salvation send us,
Fount of pity, then befriend us.

Think, kind Jesu, my salvation
Caused thy wondrous Incarnation,
Leave me not to reprobation.

Faint and weary thou hast sought me,
On the Cross of suffering bought me,
Shall such grace be vainly brought me?

Righteous Judge! for sin's pollution
Grant thy gift of absolution
Ere that day of retribution.

Guilty, now I pour my moaning,
All my shame with anguish owning:
Spare, O God, thy suppliant groaning.

Through the sinful woman shriven,
Through the dying thief forgiven,
Thou to me a hope hast given.

Worthless are my tears and sighing:
Yet, good Lord, in grace complying
Rescue me from fires undying.

With thy sheep a place provide me,
From the goats afar divide me,
To thy right hand do thou guide me.

When the wicked are confounded,
Doomed to flames of woe unbounded,
Call me, with thy saints surrounded.

Low I kneel, with heart-submission:
See like ashes my contrition!
Help me in my last condition!

Ah that day of tears and mourning!
From the dust of earth returning,
Man, for judgment must prepare him.

Spare, O God, in mercy spare him:
Lord all-pitying, Jesu blest,
Grant them thine eternal rest.  Amen.

THANKSGIVING FOR THE END TIMES

 A REFLECTION FOR THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

 Today’s Gospel makes us stop in our tracks and consider for a moment the awful things that lie ahead in the future of mankind.  Perhaps in our lifetime, perhaps not, but nevertheless, ever looming over our heads as some dreadful ordeal that man must eventually endure.  We pause, we consider, and we fear.

And yet, a mere four days from now, these regrettably superficial fears will be dispelled as we celebrate one of the most joyful holidays of the year, the Day of Thanksgiving.  Thoughts of an unpleasant future are forgotten as the smell of roasting turkey permeates our kitchens and we begin to look forward to “the holidays”—that vague and secular term that refers to everything from Turkey Day itself to Black Friday, office parties, lights, trees and presents, and the final New Year bash.

As usual, we must be vigilant, and aware of the tricks the Devil plays upon our shallow emotions in order to draw our souls away from God.  He has the audacity to use the things of God—in this case, Thanksgiving, to make us forget the things of God—the end times and the salvation of our soul.  Besides, let’s face it, how many people truly give thanks to God on Thanksgiving Day?  For the vast majority, it is simply the first day of the holidays, when we eat and drink ourselves into a stupor as we anticipate the wonderful Black Friday sales and think about putting up the Christmas tree.

As Catholics, we must watch out for these tricks on our “feelings” and keep a strong hold on our faith, our free will and our reason, to recognize the connection between today’s message and next Thursday’s: we must give thanks to God this week for all the good things he has provided for us, and this includes the end of the world, whenever it happens.  Even if it does happen in our own lifetime!  For what is the end of the world?  Merely the closing down of history, the end of time and space.  These things must be looked at in the context of eternity, and we must understand that only the everlasting existence of our soul in the presence of God truly matters.

With this realization comes the peace of knowing that whatever sorrows may await us—hardships, poverty, sickness, persecution, and even death—are transitory and meaningless compared with our eternal bliss in heaven.  If we understand this, the feeling of thanksgiving we should have this week will know no bounds.  We will give thanks to God not only for the good things he has given, but also for the less pleasant—yet more useful—opportunities for embracing our crosses, taking them up onto our shoulders and following his most beloved and only-begotten Son to Calvary, and beyond to Resurrection and Paradise.

FROM ACORN TO MIGHTY OAK

 A SERMON FOR THE 25TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST (6TH AFTER EPIPHANY)

The kingdom of heaven, says our Lord, is like to a grain of mustard seed.  How so, you might ask.  Well, because when you take a look at this tiny little grain of mustard seed you’d probably think to yourself, how could this “least of all seeds” grow into “a mighty tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”  And though you may wonder, yet it does.  From the tiny acorn grows the mighty oak.  This is the nature that God created.

Why did God create nature this way, that great things grow out of small beginnings?  I believe that this is God’s way of reflecting the glory of his kingdom.  I believe that very firmly because our Lord himself tells us that this is so.  “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed.”  And so, when, in the midst of the doom and gloom that currently surround us in this sinful world, I see glimmers of hope, I do not cynically shrug them off as “too little too late”.  Nor am I entirely committed to the idea that these are indeed the end times, and that the world is plunging headlong into destruction.  It is quite possible that the small signs of hope we begin to see are indeed the start of a great backlash against the enemies of God who so smugly feel that they control us.

The world has gone through bad times before, very bad times.  Maybe these times truly are the worst ever, with the almost universal apostasy of the institutional Church, which is unprecedented.  But glimmers of hope have begun to appear.  Signs that point to an increasing awareness among the masses of the evil that is dragging them down, evil that is becoming so pervasive in their lives that they are starting to wake up and take notice—and, I hope, do something about.  I do not expect a revolution or civil war.  I certainly do not believe there will be the “Kraken” we were promised by the well-meant but misguided earlier this year.  But slowly, surely, like the growth of a great tree from a tiny seed, I do see something happening.

In the Conciliar Church, for example, we see an increasing number of clergy questioning the draconian and heretical pronouncements of their pope.  The growing openness of this man’s hostility to all things Catholic, typified by his recent declaration that Joseph Biden, a man dedicated to murdering as many unborn babies as he possibly can, is “a good Catholic and should continue receiving Communion,” has scandalized cardinals, bishops, priests and laity alike.  Bergoglio’s commitment to wiping the traditional Holy Mass from the face of the earth is beginning to be seen for what it is—the radical re-invention of what the Catholic Church is.  And clergy like Archbishop Vigano, Cardinal Burke, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, and others are speaking out more ad more clearly from within the Conciliar Church against their boss.  It is a mere mustard seed of hope, but let’s watch that mustard seed and pray for its growth.  All in good time.  All in God’s time.

And in our nation, more mustard seeds have apparently been sown.  We had elections a couple of weeks ago, which did something to help eradicate the painful memory of what happened just one year ago.  The blue state of Virginia turned red overnight, people everywhere turned out to reject the progressive “woke” ideology and the left’s Nazi-like agenda to usurp our constitutional rights.  The population at large is starting to understand the dangers posed by the vaccine mandate, for example; dangers not just from the medical standpoint, but the even greater danger of the government, and not we ourselves, controlling what happens to our own body, our health and welfare.  It is dawning on the population that it is a very bad thing to allow the government (any government, but especially this one!) to control what is taught to our children in the schools.  People are waking up.  And when all these people use their constitutional right to vote against the progressive agenda, we must remember just what they are, each one of them just a tiny individual mustard seed, which if you add them all up has the potential to grow into an enormous forest of change for the better.

Mind you, we mustn’t confuse true hope with simply being naïve.  Let’s not forget last week’s Gospel when the householder planted good seed and while he slept evil men came and sowed cockle among the wheat.  “An enemy hath done this,” he explained, and he was right.  And we must expect that the enemies of God will not disappear without a fight.  In fact, the worse it gets for them, the more desperate they will become.  We already know that their thirst for power knows no bounds and that they show blatant disregard for our welfare, our health, our financial well-being, or even the common good of the nation.  Any signs of those mustard seeds growing into a mighty force will be met with resistance, persecution and violence.  They may even win!  That is why it is now, more than ever, so important to place our hope in God that he will deliver us, to pray our Rosary, to offer up our daily crosses, all for the return of sanity to the Church, our nation, and the world at large.

Remember, Hope is a virtue.  In fact, it’s one of the three most important virtues, the cardinal virtues along with faith and charity.  We must never lose that hope in God, never doubt his ability or his willingness to inspire goodness in his children.  He gave man free will to choose him.  He doesn’t withdraw that free will by intervening openly with divine power and wiping out his enemies.  What he does do is inspire us.  He breathes into us his Holy Spirit, so that we in turn may correspond with those graces by choosing with our free will to do what is right.  More and more people seem to be doing just that!  The seed has been planted.  Pray that it continues to grow.

CHRIST, ENTHRONED IN HIGHEST HEAVEN

 A HYMN FOR THE MONTH OF THE HOLY SOULS

13^th century, translated by R.F. Littledale

 

1.      Christ, enthroned in highest Heaven,
Hear us crying from the deep,
For the faithful ones departed,
For the souls of all that sleep;
As Thy kneeling Church entreateth,
Hearken, Shepherd of the sheep.

 

2.      King of Glory, hear our voices,
Grant Thy faithful rest, we pray;
We have sinned, and may not bide it,
If Thou mark our steps astray;
Yet we plead the saving Victim,
Which for them we bring today.

 

3.      That which Thou Thyself hast offered
To Thy Father, offer we;
Let it win for them a blessing,
Bless them, Jesu, set them free;
They are Thine, they wait in patience;
Merciful and gracious be.

 

4.      They are Thine, O take them quickly,
Thou their Hope, O raise them high;
Ever hoping, ever trusting,
Unto Thee they strive and cry;
Day and night, both morn and even,
Be, O Christ, their Guardian nigh.

 

5.      Let Thy plenteous loving-kindness,
On them, as we pray, be poured;
Let them through Thy boundless mercy,
From all evil be restored;
Hearken to the voices pleading
Of Thy Church, O gracious Lord.

 

6. Hear and answer prayers devoutest,
Break, O Lord, each binding chain,
Dash the gates of death asunder,
Quell the devil and his train;
Bring the souls which Thou hast ransomed
Evermore in joy to reign.

ONE FOLD, ONE SHEPHERD

 A REFLECTION FOR THE FEAST OF ST. JOSAPHAT, BISHOP & MARTYR

Today’s saint, the holy bishop and martyr Josaphat, was murdered in 1623 by a schismatic Orthodox mob in Vitebsk, a town in what is now Belarus.  They killed him because he had become a thorn in their side, converting many away from their schismatic religion of Orthodoxy back to the fold of Rome.  For this reason, it is not surprising that since Vatican II, St. Josaphat has been hailed as the “martyr of ecumenism”, but in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

The so-called ecumenical movement, which became so prevalent after Vatican II, has as its aim the unity of all churches.  This drive for unity is even extended to non-Christian religions like Judaism, Islam, and even Voodoo.  And what’s wrong with that, you may ask.  Of course, there’s nothing wrong with unity—we are members of a Church that has four marks, the first of which is “One.”  So we should all be for unity. 

Our Lord himself presented himself as The Way to unity: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one cometh to the Father, but by me.”  He recognized that there would be division, and his answer was quite clear—they must listen to and follow him who is The Way, and thus find their way to the true Church which he founded on St. Peter, Bishop of Rome.  “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”

So then, what is the problem with so-called “ecumenism?”  It is simply this, that it has a completely upside-down concept of what true unity is.  They want a unity based on the least common denominator, always seeking what the Catholic faith has in common with the heretical, schismatic, and pagan sects, and then basing a kind of natural camaraderie with them based on these common beliefs and practices.  “Muslims believe in one God, so do we, therefore we are united with Islam…”  No!  This type of natural “unity” is on a very lowly level indeed, and is enough on which to establish extension of our virtue of charity towards them perhaps.  But it is not the kind of supernatural and perfect unity that every single member of the Mystical Body of Christ has with each other.

There is only one way to achieve unity and that is to ensure that those outside the fold of the Mystical Body of our Lord recognize The Truth of Christ and his Church, and then walk along The Way of Christ to that Church.  In other words, it is not enough to pat heretics on the back and rejoice with them that we believe a few of the things they believe in.  We have to try and convert them, not just by our polemics, but by our good example and our prayers.  This is what St. Josaphat did, this is what he lived and died for and this is why he is a saint.

The Church has three branches, the Church Triumphant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Militant.  Each is each united within themselves, and with each other.  All are members of the Mystical Body.  Unfortunately, not all living human souls belong to the Church Militant.  If they want to eventually pass on to the Church Triumphant in heaven, we have to help them find the Mystical Body in this life.  Pray for conversions.  “Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy!”

LOVE DIVINE, ALL LOVES EXCELLING

 A HYMN FOR THE 24TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

By Charles Wesley, 1747

 

1 Love divine, all loves excelling,

joy of heav’n, to earth come down,

fix in us thy humble dwelling,

all thy faithful mercies crown.

Jesus, thou art all compassion,

pure, unbounded love thou art.

Visit us with thy salvation;

enter ev'ry trembling heart.

 

2 Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit

into ev’ry troubled breast.

Let us all in thee inherit,

let us find the promised rest.

Take away the love of sinning;

Alpha and Omega be.

End of faith, as its beginning,

set our hearts at liberty.

 

3 Come, Almighty, to deliver,

let us all thy life receive.

Suddenly return, and never,

nevermore thy temples leave.

Thee we would be always blessing,

serve thee as thy hosts above,

pray, and praise thee without ceasing,

glory in thy perfect love.

 

4 Finish, then, thy new creation;

true and spotless let us be.

Let us see thy great salvation

perfectly restored in thee.

Changed from glory into glory,

till in heav’n we take our place,

till we cast our crowns before thee,

lost in wonder, love and praise.

WHILE MEN SLEPT

 A MESSAGE FOR THE 24TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Our Lord’s parable in today’s Gospel compares our world to a field in which good seed was sown.  And it is true that there is still so much good in our world, so many God-fearing men and women still intent on pleasing God and doing everything they can to advance his kingdom in the world around them.  Unfortunately, though, many of these good people have not been sufficiently vigilant, and have allowed the enemy to enter in:  “While men slept, his enemy came and sowed cockle among the wheat.”

Today, wherever we turn, we are horrified by the extent to which this cockle has grown amongst us.  Evil surrounds us on every side, and we all suffer to some extent or other because of it.  It seems that no institution, whether religious or secular, has been spared the infestation of this evil, and, more and more, we feel that we are being faced with an enemy of immense proportions, seemingly unstoppable in its thirst for power and control over our lives.

And so we speak to our Creator, complaining to him that despite our best efforts we are surrounded by forces trying to destroy us.  Many of us are tempted in these circumstances to become activists for freedom.  We campaign against the divisive agendas of the school boards, of the medical and pharmaceutical conglomerate, the bogus claims of climate change, abortion, transgenderism and transhumanism with which are world has become so polluted.  Why, you might ask, do I use the word “tempted”?  Is it wrong to actively oppose these evils?  No, of course, not, and the good folks who spend their time and energy fighting the good fight are to be congratulated.  And yet, there is a danger…

We know that “an enemy hath done this,” and so we do the natural thing and resist.  We ask God to destroy the persecutors of his Church and the Nation.  We say to him: “Wilt thou then that we go and gather up all this evil cockle amongst us, and destroy it?”  And the Lord’s answer is interesting and not the immediate resolution we impatient human beings seek: “Nay, lest while ye gather up the cockle, ye root up also the wheat with it.”  If we become too zealous in our hatred for evil, we can end up endangering the good people along with the bad ones, and even our own soul.  So many times in the course of human history have men reacted to evil by resorting to violence and hatred themselves.  Hatred, not of the evil itself, but of the men who promote it and force it upon the rest of us.  This has never worked and simply makes bad people out of good ones.  Think of the medieval tortures employed to prevent witchcraft and heresy, the sadistic vengeance showered upon real and sometimes exaggerated evils.

“Vengeance is mine,” saith the Lord.  And there will be justice for the cockle amongst us, as well as for the enemy who sowed it among the good seed in the first place.  Meanwhile, our Lord tells us, “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the cockle, and bind it in bundles to burn it: but gather the wheat into my barn.”   The meaning is clear, and our task, as always, remains to continue to grow from good seed into wheat, and leave the handling of the cockle to God.