Fear seized them all, and they glorified God,
exclaiming, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst,” and “God has
visited his people.” (Lk. 7:16)
Mark, Chapter
11, Verse 32
But shall we say, ‘Of human
origin’?”—they feared the crowd, for
they all thought John really was a prophet.
The Jewish leaders here
were not, let us say, persons with high integrity and honesty.
The other day, while
going through my personal notes, I ran across some records I had taken on a
lecture on “life’s most important learning’s” I would like to share.
·
Never stop learning.
·
Love and be loved.
·
Don’t be afraid to take risks.
·
Set the example.
·
Take care of your health.
·
Take care of your family.
·
Watch your mouth.
·
One person can make a difference.
·
Life is a test/challenge; live it!
“Be sober and watch.”
I. Peter v. 8.
St.
Peter prescribes sobriety and watchfulness as necessary means for resisting the
attacks of the devil, who by day and night goes about seeking whom he may devour.
Woe to those who, by reason of their drunkenness, (The term drunkard applies to
any person who is caught up in the addiction cycle, whether it is drink,
gambling, drugs or sex.) live in a continual night, and lie in the perpetual sleep
of sin! How will it be with them if, suddenly awakened from this sleep by death,
they find themselves standing, burdened with innumerable and unknown sins, before
the judgment-seat of God? For who can number the sins, committed in and by reason
of drunkenness, which the drunkard either accounts as trifles, easily pardoned,
or else, not knowing what he has thought, said, and done in his fit of intoxication,
considers to be no sins at all? Will the divine Judge, at the last day, thus reckon?
Will He
also find no sin in them? Will He let go unpunished the infamous deeds and the scandals
of their drunkenness? He Who demands strict account of every word spoken in
vain, will He make no inquiry of so many shameful, scandalous, and blasphemous sayings,
of so much time wasted, of so much money squandered, of so many neglects of the
divine service, of the education of children, of the affairs of home, and of innumerable
other sins? Will they be able to excuse themselves before this Judge by saying that
they did not know what they were doing? Or that what they did was for want of reflection,
or in jest? Or that they were not strong, and could not bear much? Will not such
excuses rather witness against them that they are the more worthy of punishment
for having taken more than their strength could bear, thereby depriving themselves
of the use of reason, making themselves like brutes, and, of their own free will,
taking on themselves the responsibility for all the sins of which their drunkenness
was the occasion? What, then, awaits them? What else than the fate of the rich glutton
who, for his gluttony, was buried in hell? (Luke xvi. 22.) Yes, that shall be the
place and the portion of the drunkard! There shall they in vain sigh for a drop
of water. There, for all the pleasures and satisfactions which they had in the
world, as many pains and torments shall now lay hold of them (Apoc. xviii. 7); there
shall they be compelled to drain the cup of God s anger to the dregs, as they,
in life, forced others into drunkenness. This is what they have to hope for, for
St. Paul says expressly that drunkards shall not possess the kingdom of God (i.
Cor. vi. 10). What then remains for them but to renounce either their intemperance
or heaven? But how rare and difficult is the true conversion of a drunkard! This
is the teaching of experience. Will not such a one, therefore, go to ruin?
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