PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH
SERMON OF ST. CHARLES BORROMEO AT HIS LAST SYNOD
MEMORIAL: November 4, 2013
Note: Born at Arona in Lombardy in the year 1538. After obtaining his doctorate in both civil and canon law he was created a cardinal by his uncle Pius IV and was chosen to be bishop of Milan. He became a true shepherd of his flock and frequently went around his diocese, called synods, made wise regulations for the good of souls, and worked for the good of Christian morality. He died on 3 November in the year 1584.
The Sermon:
We are all morally weak, I admit it. But God has given us the means by which we can easily find the help we need, if we want to be helped. A priest, for example, would like to have that integrity of life which he knows is demanded of him: to be chaste and his behavior angelic, as it rightly should be, but he does not weigh carefully the means he must adopt: fasting and prayer, avoiding evil company and harmful and dangerous friendships.
Such a man complains that, as soon as he comes to choir to sing the divine office or starts to get ready for Mass, immediately a thousand distractions invade his mind, enticing it away from God. But the question is, how had he been behaving in the sacristy before going into choir or beginning Mass? Did he make any real effort to compose his thoughts? What means did he choose and put into practice to fix his attention?
Shall I tell you how to go from strength to strength? You have managed, let us say, to be attentive for once in choir: how are you going to be more attentive next time to make your service more pleasing to God? I will tell you. The tiniest fire of divine love has been lit in you, has it? Then do not rush to make a parade of it. Do not take it out into the icy blast. Keep the furnace door shut on it so that it does not die out. In other words, fly from avoidable distractions, keep your mind fixed on God, keep away from idle gossip.
Is your duty preaching and teaching? Concentrate carefully on what is essential to fulfil that office fittingly. Make sure in the first place that your life and conduct are sermons in themselves. Do not give people cause to purse their lips and shake their heads during your sermons, since they have heard you before, preaching on thing, then seen you doing the exact opposite.
Or is your task the care of souls? Then do not neglect your own. Do not spend yourself so completely on other people that you have nothing left for yourself. Of course you have to look after the souls you have been put in charge of, but not to the extent that you forget your own.
Brothers, do understand this: there is nothing quite so necessary to all churchmen as mental prayer, prayer that paves the way for every act we do, that accompanies it and follows it up. The psalmist says: “I will sing and I will understand.” Brother, when you administer the sacraments, try to understand what it is your are doing. When you celebrate Mass, consider what it is you are offering. And singing in choir, remember to whom you are charge of souls, remember to whom you are speaking and what you are saying to Him. If you are in charge of souls, remember in whose blood they have been washed. Let all that you do be done in love. In this way we shall easily overcome the thousand and one difficulties that necessarily beset us every day (such is the world we live in). And, lastly, in this way we shall find the strength to bring forth Christ in ourselves and in others.
Note: Taken from THE DIVINE OFFICE III, pages 382-383.