A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Jesus said to his disciples, as the father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love. You will live in my love if you keep my commandments even as I have kept my father's commandments and live in his love. All this I tell you that my joy may be yours, and your joy may be complete.
And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Today is May Day, May 1, and it was adopted by Russia after the revolution in 1917, as probably the most important day of the year, to celebrate the emancipation of the working man. Now it's worth noticing that the labor movement in The United States of set intent did not identify with May Day. We have our own Labor Day, and that is because the leaders of the labor movement at that time, and it was a movement, it was a lot of blood, not to say sweat and tears, what did not want to identify with with communist Russia and its labor movement.
That's worth noticing. So I thought I would follow in that tradition this morning. Now what could substitute for that reading we had from Saint John this morning? That we have to be faithful to God Almighty first and above all else, And that faithfulness is going to be measured in terms of action, of the way we conduct our lives. As our blessed lord put it most concretely, do you keep my commandments?
And there are I there are a number of them. There's not just one commandment. We have gotten away today from the 10 commandments, believe it or not. I mean, within some of the so called international theologians in the Catholic church. Now I do not care what system of government you have or non government.
I do not care what kind of an economic system you have or no system. You are going to come back to some extremely basic realities if you believe in God and in his son Jesus Christ. Because if you believe in if you accept those two great truths that God exists and that he sent his son to redeem us, to restore us, to bring us back on course, If you believe that, then you are a universe. Well, it's you're beyond expressing it in words, beyond any conception of life based upon a Marxist atheistic view. Remember, the essence and this is the great objection, one of the great objections to this liberation theology.
You've heard it said how it it rests upon certain Marxist doctrines. The most important doctrine that it takes out of Marxism is that idea of conflict, of hatred among between the classes. I was speaking of two, those who have and those who have not, to put it very severely. Whatever system of government you have, if you are a god fearing person, if you believe in his son Jesus Christ and in his law of love, as we have just read it this morning, and this is only just a little parcel out of that last discourse of our lord at the last supper. If you believe in that, no matter what economic system you have, no matter what kind of government you have, you will come back to basing your lives on the 10 commandments, on the virtues, on avoiding the capital sins.
And today, I would like to ask graduates of our Catholic high schools to name the 10 commandments, the four capital moral virtues, and the seven capital sins. I would like to see what answer I would get. And yet that's the essence of it. Christ said, if you love me, don't go around telling people you love me. Do something about it.
What are you doing with it in your lives? And as I say, no matter what system government you have, no matter what economic system you have, you're going to have to be individually you you don't you don't obey god's law collectively except in so far as you have a collectivity of individual human beings who are obeying or trying to obey god's commandments, avoiding the seven capital sins, and trying to pursue the four virtues. Prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. It's that simple. So in a certain sense, the Catholic Church of Jesus Christ isn't interested very much in the kind of government.
It can exist because its message is going to be addressed to individuals. And that's what's so wrong with socialism and all these collectivity or collective concepts of society. It removes the in responsibility of human beings for their neighbors. It lifts that from the individual and puts it in this completely abstract thing we call government, or the state, or society, or whatever, community, whatever. And that's a delightful relief, isn't it?
That I personally am no longer responsible. The all of us are responsible. Someone takes a couple shots at the president, and the Washington Post comes out with one of their beautiful editors we are all guilty. They talk about this pre the slavery days. We are all guilty of that too.
We're living in the twentieth century, if you please. But you see, our lord said, you will be my follower. You I will know that you love me if you keep my commandments. Now we all know, or we think we know, that there are circumstances which can help us to do a better job of keeping those commandments. There are circumstances which we know ought to make us better Christians, ought to because it doesn't follow a necessity at all.
There is no proof that you get better people by having a better hygiene. And by better, I mean morally better, people of character. There is not the slightest bit of proof for it. You may have a longer life in this world, that's true. But who says that the quality of a life is measured by its quantity?
Who said that? See these are the assumptions we live on. And so today, I am not saying the mass of Saint Joseph. I hope you'll pardon me and understand why. Because I the message the church brings is not restricted to Thursday.
The Catholic church has a view of labor, and it it existed before Marx, and it exists today, and it will continue to exist. Work isn't the whole business of life. And yet in in our I mean, in The USA now, I'm not talking about other countries, because they have more sense. But we think that that work is the beginning and the end of all living. I never can get over these some of these questionnaires when they come up and wrap on the house, and behold, the door is open in midday.
And there here's a lady standing in the door, and this questionnaire says I'm taking to this, I'm doing this, what do you do? And the good woman says, Well, I'm a housewife and mother. Oh, you don't work! That's a fine kettle of fish, isn't it? But our thinking is so twisted.
We are it's so and that and that's just that's not to blame ourselves. It's just to admit the fact that we are so confused. What did Saint Paul say? I see the good, the good that I would no. No.
The good that I would, I do not. And the evil that I would not, that I do. See, we forget that Saint Paul said it, and that is absolutely true. And our Lord's coming and redeeming us didn't set that straight. We are still in that confused state.
By that I mean confused, not in the sense of lacking perspective, not in the sense of not knowing, not knowing what we ought to do. But we certainly are weak in the doing, and that's human nature. That is human nature. And there's really no reason to be embarrassed by it. You're being apologetic.
Just saying, Lord, that's the way I am. And it takes you and you alone to keep me straight. And the first thing I've got to keep straight is my thinking. That's the first thing. Not action, but thought comes first in any reasonable situation.
And then, Lord, give me the strength to do your commandments. I've gotta know them first, and I don't bring it in. I don't get it by osmosis. I have to know the truth, and I need God's grace to do that. And then I have to do it, And by golly, I sure need God's grace to do it.
On both of these scores, Christ said, I am with you always. Fear not. In the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit. Amen.