In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit. Amen. Have you noticed in the readings of the recent masses, the association of innocence from sin and joy. I've been reading recently some essays by Mubridge, the former editor of Punch, who became a fervent disciple of mother Teresa of India, and then lately became a Catholic with his wife, Movridge. And it's an interesting point that he makes, how he found among saint sister Teresa, I haven't made her saint yet.
Sister Teresa and her followers, other young women, and others that weren't so young, following her in her desperate work for the poor in India under the most awful conditions of discomfort, and odor, and ugliness, and heat, and hard labor, hard labor, scrubbing floors. You've seen his pictures. Well, the thing that impressed him was the joy of these women. I just finished reading the diary of Warren Lewis, the brother of C. S.
Lewis, Clive Staples Lewis. And he never became close to being a Roman Catholic, believe me. Neither did Clive, his brother. But, you know, they came from Northern Ireland. He was taken down with illness on one of his visits back to Ireland and wound up in a hospital run by nuns in Dublin.
He spent several weeks there. And the interesting thing, I've just been reading it, that's the reason it's on my mind, and I share it with you, of course. You keep track of my reading very easily. But the thing that impressed him in that hospital wasn't his cure, wasn't the fine hygienic elements and all the good nursing care he got, but was the joy and the happiness of the nuns. This was a revelation to him.
He said, somebody ought to write the truth about confidence. That's not astonishing to a Catholic. We have been used to that. But like so many things, we take it for granted. We You know, it doesn't make an impression on us.
But there is a joy in serving the Lord. There's a joy in carrying his cross after him. He said that. He said you're gonna carry your cross. And believe me, you will.
You have no choice about that. Sooner or you'll be carrying a cross. The question is, how do you carry it? And our Lord said, if you take up my cross and follow me, you'll find that burden sweet and light. Now, Jesus said both of those things.
Let's take them both to heart and believe Jesus. You noticed these readings where he goes and he cures the crowd? He takes absolute pity on them. This, of course, always causes me a good bit of But anyway, I mean, this is a little bit confusing. But the point is he did.
We're told that when our Lord saw this crowd of people, exhausted, he felt sorry for them. He he said they are sheep without a shepherd. And if you've ever seen a bunch of sheep wandering around without a shepherd, you'll know how what a wonderful figure speech that is. Sheep without a shepherd, blind people without a leader, people exhausted, no strength, and they need something to invigorate. How often we are in that position?
We are blind. We are confused. We are exhausted. We say, I am just plain tired. Tired.
How much longer, oh Lord? And yet Christ said, you can find joy even there. He takes mercy on the exhausted. We're told that here. Let's take it seriously.
If we take the hard part of Christ's message, let us not forget the good part. If sin is a fact, and believe me, Christ emphasized it and the bible emphasizes it. It's one of the most frequently mentioned words in the whole scripture. Sin. Sin.
Not antisocial conduct. Not conduct that hurts my neighbor. Sin, which in some way divorces me from God. That kind of thing destroys joy. Destroys joy.
How often have you ever read it? Any of the even Lord Byron, where you have the whirling expressing joy, where do you find it? Where do you find it? The whirling, whether it be the pursuit of money, or lust, or power, where is there joy in those lives? The answer is there isn't.
A life that ends in suicide or the equivalent thereof can't be qualified as a joyful life. Because you see, when you're aiming at these things like power, and money, and sexual satisfaction, a good bank account, a healthy family, a wonderful house, a car in every one of your half dozen garages, When you're heading for all of that, you either get it or you don't get it. If you don't get it, you're frustrated. You're miserable. You failed.
If you get it, you may be worse off. There are very few suicides because of poverty. When the depression of the thirties hit, there were wealthy men jumping almost in crowds out of their office windows. So you see, Augustine said this so simply, oh god, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts will not be at rest till they rest in you. You can't say it any simpler.
On the other hand, God has said it more simply, that we must put God first and everything else after him. And if you do that, you will, I guarantee you, have joy because you will follow it. You will be picking up your cross. You're like Christ said, Christ never said he would take away the cross. All he said was, you will find that burden.
Burden, light, and sweet. Take Christ at his word. But you've got to put Christ first. You can't you can't straddle. You can't have one leg on one side of fence and the and another leg on the other side.
That's even that's very uncomfortable if you tried it on a wooden fence. You can't straddle with God almighty. You can't compromise. If you accept Jesus, as he says, if come to me all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will refresh. Notice, he didn't say a car or good health or all of these things.
Not that these things are wrong, but he said you won't get health out of them. Come to me and you will find your burden right and sweet because you will be carrying it with God Almighty. And you can't do any better than that. But let me tell you, you can't do anything less than that. In the name of the father, and of the son, holy spirit.
Amen.