"Render. therefore, to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the
things that are God's " St. Matt XXII 21.
To give to God what belongs to God and to your neighbor what
is his due-nothing can he more reasonable and more just. If all
Christians would follow that path there would be none of them in
hell, but they would all meet in Heaven. "Oh! I wish," says the
great St. Hilary, "that God would make the people ever remember
this command. But, oh I how many are deceived ! They pass their
life in cheating some and stealing from others." Yes, my friends,
nothing occurs more seldom than restitution. The prophet Osee
is right when he says that unrighteousness and larceny cover the
earth and are like the deluge which destroyed the world; unfortunately
many are guilty, many persons do not follow this law.
Oh, my dear Lord! how many thieves will be revealed by death!
Now, my dear people, to deter you from this path I will show you
that, firstly, ill-gotten goods never bring any advantage; secondly,
how we can injure our neighbors, and thirdly, how and to whom
you must make restitution for what does not belong to you.
I
Ill-gotten goods will never enrich anybody. On the contrary they
will be a curse. oh, my Cod! how blind is man! He is perfectly
convinced that he is only for a short moment in this world; every
minute he witnesses the departure of those who are younger and
stronger than he; in vain; it does not open his eyes. The Holy
Ghost may urgently remind you through the month of holy Job
that he came naked into the world and will take nothing out of it,
that all these riches which he is striving for will leave him at the
moment when he least expects it; all this does not lessen his
avarice. St. Paul says that he who tries to get rich by unjust means
will soon fall into evil ways, and more than that, he will never see
the face of the Lord. That is so perfectly true That a person who
has gained possession of anything by fraud or roguery will never
be converted unless it he by a miracle of grace. Listen to what St
Augustine says to those who have appropriated the goods of others:
"You may," he says to them, "go to confession, do penance, and
cry over your sins as much as you want to, God will never forgive
you if you do not make restitution when you can. All your confessions
and your communions will he sacrileges which you heap
one upon another. Return what does not belong to you or you
must make up your mind to burn in hell. The Holy Ghost forbids
us not only to take and desire the goods of our neighbor, but
he does not even want us to look at them, as the mere sight may induce
us to stretch out our hands for them."
The prophet Zaclaarias says that the curse of the Lord rests upon
the house of a robber until it is destroyed. And I say to you that
goods obtained by fraud or trickery will not only bring you no advantage,
but will also be the cause of your losing all you have
obtained in a rightful way, and that they will shorten your days.
If you doubt it, listen to me for a moment and I will convince you.
We read in Holy Scripture that King Achab, who wished to en
large his gardens, went to a man named Naboth and told him that he
wished to buy his vineyard. "No," said Naboth, "it is the inheritance
of my forefathers and I wish to keep it." `The King was
so excited over this refusal that he became quite ill. The Queen
came to him and asked him what was the cause of his sickness. The
King said that he was sick because he wanted to enlarge his gardens
and Naboth had refused to sell him his vineyard.
"Well," said the Queen, "where is thy power? Do not trouble.
I will get you the vineyard."
She procured at once several persons, who, paid and bribed by
her, testified that Naboth had blasphemed the name of God and also
of Moses. The poor man defended himself and insisted upon it
that he was innocent. It was no use they would not believe him;
they dragged him away and stoned him to death. When the Queen
saw him stricken down she hurried to the King to tell him that he
could have the coveted vineyard, because he who had been so bold
as to refuse him the ownership of it was dead. Upon hearing this,
the King, who had recovered, rushed like a madman, to take possession
session of the vineyard. The unfortunate man did not think that
God was there to punish him. The Lord called His prophet Elias
and commanded him to tell the King that on the same spot where
the dogs had licked up the blood of Naboth they would lick up his
own blood, and that none of his children would reign after him.
The Lord sent his prophet also to Queen Jezabel to announce to
her that as a punishment for her crime she would be devoured
by dogs.
It came to pass as the prophet had predicted. The King was
killed in battle and the dogs ticked up his blood. When the new
King, Jehu by name, entered the city, he saw a woman sitting at a
window of the palace. She had arrayed herself in her royal robes,
hoping to make an impression and gain the heart of the new King.
They told him it was Queen Jezabel. Upon hearing this he commanded
that she be at once thrown out of the window, and horses
and men trampled upon her. When night came and they went to
bury her, they found only a few pieces of her body; the dogs had
eaten the rest.
"Thus," exclaimed Jehu, "has the word of the prophet been fulfilled.
" King Achab left seventy sons and descendants, all
princes. The new King had them all decapitated and exposed
their heads in baskets at the city gate, to prove by this terrible
spectacle what misery the wickedness of parents may bring upon
their children.
Another reason why we should be afraid to appropriate other
people's goods is: that it will lead us into hell. The prophet
Zacharias says that in a dream God had shown him a book, in which
there was written that robbers and thieves will never see God, but
be thrown into fire. And yet there are, my friends, many people
who are so blind that they would rather die and perish forever than
to return ill-gotten goods.
II
If I was to make a thorough investigation of what you, my
friends who are present here today, are in the habit of doing, I
should probably find that many of you are thieves. You are surprised
at this? Listen to me for a moment and you will see that I
am right. If I commence a vigorous investigation I will find that
the wage earner is in debt to his employer and to the poor. He is
in debt to his employer, and therefore obliged to make restitution, if
he has taken more time to rest than was necessary, if he allowed by
his negligence the property of his employer to perish or be taken
away, if he gained his position by asserting that he could do certain
work, well knowing that he would not be able to accomplish it. In
all such cases he is bound to make restitution. He further robs the
poor if he spends his money in gambling or in the saloon or in the
purchase of unnecessary things. But, you will say, it is his own
money, gained by his own labor. To this I reply that it certainly
is his own, but yet he is at fault if he spends it in any such way.
Perhaps his parents are so poor that they had to become objects
of public charity; if he had saved his wages he would have been
able to support them. There is many a wage-earner who spends his
earnings in the purchasing of useless things, in saloons, in gambling
places. If God sends him sickness or he meets with an accident, he
must go to a public hospital and eat the bread of the poor, or wait
until a charitable person extends a helping hand and gives to him
what ought to go to his more unfortunate brothers. When such
people marry they soon find themselves with their children in need.
Why? Because they did not know how to save when they were
young. Would you, dear sisters, have let vanity lead you as far as
it did if you had thought of this? But the most unfortunate part
of it is that you not only squander what you will need some day,
but that you will lose your poor soul.
There is a sin that is the more deplorable by reason of its frequent
occurrence: that is that children steal from their parents and the
employed from their employers. Children should never take any
thing away from their parents under the pretext that they were not
given enough. When your parents nourish you, clothe you, and
give you an education, it is all they need to do. Besides, a child
that steals from its parents is considered capable of anything.
Everybody avoids it and despises it. An employee will sometimes
say: I am not getting enough for my work; I must help myself. If
you are not getting enough for your work, why do you remain with
your employer? Did you know when you accepted the position,
what your wages were going to be and what work was expected of
you in return? And let those look out who have received goods
which children have stolen from their parents or employees from
their employers. If these things remain with them only for five
minutes, or even if they do not know the value of them, they must,
under pain of punishment, make restitution if the thief himself
does not do it. And whoever has induced another person to steal
is, if the thief does not do it himself, obliged to make restitution,
even if he has himself derived no benefit from the stolen goods.
Thieving is most common in buying and selling. let us go a
little into details, so that you may recognize what wrong you are
doing and reform, When you are asked whether the wares you
are selling are good or fresh or of a certain quality, and you say
they are, whilst you know they are not, then you commit a sin.
Another time you have gained an undue advantage in giving
or receiving change, and you let the person go without rectifying
the mistake, simply because he has not noticed the error. Some
one else will adulterate the goods he sells and represent them to be
the genuine article. He will put sand in sugar, water in milk, and
do other similar deeds, which all lead sorely to perdition.
What, then, should parents do when they see their children with
stolen goods? They should force them to return the same to those
from whom they have taken them. Once or twice will he sufficient
to correct their evil ways. An example will show you how careful
you should be in this matter. A boy, when only about ten years old,
commenced to commit small thefts, taking at first only things of
small value, such as fruit, etc. Later he took larger objects and
soon passed to burglary, during which he had the misfortune to
commit murder. This naturally led him to the gallows. When his
parents came to see him for the last time before the day of execution
he exclaimed:
"Oh, unhappy father and unhappy mother! I wish I could let
everybody know that you are the cause of my disgrace. If at the
beginning you had stopped me from committing those small thefts,
I should never have done that monstrous deed which is leading me
to the gallows."
I told you in the beginning that nothing was more common than
injustice and nothing so rare as restitution. There are few persons
who have not something on their conscience in regard to this question.
Where are those who make restitution? I really do not,
know, although, my dear friends, we are obliged, under pain of
not seeing God to return ill-gotten goods.
III
We do now, you will say, at least know in what way we can
commit an injustice. But how and to whom must we make restitution?
You wish to make reparation? Well, then, listen to me a
moment and I will show you how. We must not be satisfied to return
the half or three-quarters, but the whole, when it is possible
otherwise you might be lost. There are some who, without trying
to find out how many persons they have injured. give alms and
have Masses said, and then they think their conscience is all right.
Alms and Masses are very good things, but the offering must be
out of your own money and not with that of your neighbor. This
money doesn't belong to you; return it to the rightful owner and
then give your own if you wish to. Do you know what St.
Chrysostom calls such alms giving? The alms of Judas and the
evil spirit. When Judas sold our Lord and saw that he was
damned, he hurried to give the money back to the scribes, but they,
although they were avaricious, would not take it; they bought a
field with it in which to bury strangers. You will ask, when one
whom we have cheated is dead, to whom shall we wake restitution?
Can we not then keep it or give it to the poor? My friends, this is
what you must do: if there are any children you must give it to
them; if not, then to the relations or heirs; if there are no heirs you
must go to your confessor, who wilt tell you what you had better
do. Others say: I was unjust to some one, but he is rich; I have
some one who wants it more than he. My friends, give this person
something out of your own means, but return to your neighbor what
you took from him. He will make a bad use of it! That is none of
your business. Give him his own, pray for him, and then sleep in
peace.
Ah! nowadays the people in the world are so avaricious, they are
so grasping after the things of the earth, that while they never
think they have enough, they try ever to outwit others in cunning
and to dupe them. But remember, my dear friends, you must
restore to those persons exactly what you have deprived them of or
you will be punished. I don't know whether your conscience is at
ease on this point. I doubt it. As I said before, the world is full
of thieves and swindlers! The storekeeper cheats in weight and
measure; he doubles the price of an article to an inexperienced person
or induces him to buy more than he wants; masters steal
from their help by not giving them their full wages; others by
making them wait so long or deducting their pay while sick; servants
rob their masters by not doing their work properly, losing
property through their own fault; a workman lets himself be paid
for work he hasn't done; saloons, those places of injustice, those
gates of hell, that Calvary where Jesus Christ is unceasingly crucified
afresh, those schools where Satan is the teacher and where religion
and morals are destroyed-the saloon keeper, I say, steals
the bread from wife and children by giving liquors to those drankards
who on Saturday night spend all they have earned during the
week. Oh, my God! what will become of us? How many things
will be investigated at the hour of death!
If your conscience troubles you, lose no time in seeking a confessor.
He will remit to you your debt. If you don't want to make
restitution you will find a thousand excuses to show that others
have wronged you and that you are not able to do it just now. Ah,
my friend, I am not sure that God will be satisfied with your reasoning.
If you give up some of these vanities, this gambling, and visit
the saloon less, you will do a great deal more work and soon be
able to pay off some of your debts. Mark my words, if you do not
strive your utmost to restore whatever you have taken from another,
no matter what penance you do, you will be judged by God. Of
this you may be sure! You will find some so blind that they say
their children will make restitution for them after their death. No,
dear friends, your children will do as you have done. Do you
wish that your children should take more trouble about your soul
than you do yourself? You will be damned-that is what will
happen to you, if there be question of grievous matter. Tell me,
have you made sufficient reparation for all the injustice your parents
committed? You have taken good cure not to; and perhaps
your parents are lost because they did not make restitution in
their lifetime, but confided too much in your good-will. But to be
brief, how many of you now present were asked twenty years ago to
have Masses said and to give alms for the repose of your parents'
souls, and you have not done it? You never troubled about it at
all ! You prefer to enlarge your possessions, to visit pleasure resorts,
to buy your children useless trifles.
Shall I speak to you about those who defer restitution till the
hour of their death? I will give you two examples to show you
that at the hour of death either you will not want to make reparation,
or that, wishing to make reparation, you will not he able to.
(1.) You will not want to. They relate that the father of a
large family being about to die, his children said to him:
"Father, you know that this property which you are going to
leave us does not belong to us. It ought to be given hack to the
rightful owner."
"children," said the father to them, "if I were to restore all that
there would be hardly anything left for
you all"
"Father, we would rather work for our living than to know that
you were damned."
"No, my children, I will not " make restitution. You don't know
what it means to he poor."
He died like a reprobate. Oh, my God! how is man blinded by
the sin or avarice!
(2.) I have said even if you wanted to make restitution at this
moment you would not be able to do so. A missionary tells us of a
father who, as he saw his end approaching, called his children to
his bedside and said to them:
"My dear children, you know that I have cheated a great many
persons. If I do not make restitution I shall be lost. Call a
lawyer so that I may sign the necessary papers.
"What ! Father, do you wish to dishonor yourself and your
children by exposing yourself as a thief? Do you wish to bring us
to poverty and cause us to beg our bread?"
"But, children, if I do not do this I shall be damned!"
Then one of his wicked sons said to him:
"Father, you are afraid of hell? Go on. One can get used to
anything In a week you won't mind it."
Now, my friends, what conclusion shalt we come to after all this?
How incomprehensibly blind is man l He loses his soul to leave
his children a few acres of land or a house. and they, far from ever
being grateful, ridicule him while he is in the midst of flames.
Let us conclude by saying we are foolish to think of amassing
wealth which can only make us miserable while we are striving for
its possession, while we have it, and also in eternity, where we must
give it up. Let us be wiser, my dear children. let us accumulate
goods which will follow us into the life and be our delight
in the endless days of eternal glory, the blessing which I wish you all.
