Hunolt Sermons/Volume 10/Sermon 64

The almighty God has an earnest, and as far as in Him lies, an efficacious will to bring all men to heaven; therefore we have nothing to fear as far as God is concerned in this respect, but ​should hope for heaven.—Preached on the fifth Sunday after Easter.

Non auditor obliviosus factus, sed factor operis: his beatus in facto suo erit.—James i. 25. (From to-day’s Epistle.)

“Not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work: this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

Rejoice, good Christians, who serve the Lord: “A doer of the work shall be blessed in his deed;” that is, he who knows the law and good will of God and keeps it in all his actions. And this holds good of all without exception; all who do this constantly shall be saved. Now, you endeavor to do the will of God in all things, and have firmly resolved to do it to the end; therefore you are among those who are on the right road to heaven, and if you are true to your determination, you shall infallibly possess the kingdom of heaven. Go on as you are going, and be of good heart. Yes, many say, some of whom are pious and timid, while others are wicked and half despairing: how do I know what God means to do with me? whether He has enrolled me in the number of His elect who are destined for heaven? And if He does not want me there, what will all my efforts avail? These disturbing thoughts are encouraged by those whose doctrine confines the goodness of God in such narrow limits, as if He selected for heaven only those whom He has determined to bring there by predestination, as it is called, or a choice made of them from eternity. To help souls to lay aside this saddening thought, and to encourage all to serve the Lord with zeal and joy, I will now prove the contrary, and I say:

The almighty God has an earnest, and, as far as He is concerned, an efficacious will to bring all men to heaven; therefore in this respect we have no cause for fear as far as God is concerned, but rather reason to rejoice, and, if we only wish, to console ourselves with the hope of heaven. Such is the whole subject.

Do Thou, O good God! give us Thy light and grace through the intercession of Mary and of the holy angels.

​In what consists a will that is earnest and in itself efficacious. There is no doubt that a man has an earnest will, and as far as he is concerned, an efficacious one to accomplish an object for which he has a great wish and desire, and to secure which he also makes use of all necessary means, although here and there, contrary to his will, the desired object is not attained. That must be our judgment of the merchant, who through desire of gain spares neither labor nor trouble, and takes advantage of every opportunity of profit that offers: travelling here and there, taking the trouble of buying and selling, carefully noting down all his transactions, and often making up his books. That man, we must say, has an earnest, efficacious will to become rich, although, as often happens, misfortunes may cross his design and keep him poor against his will. In the same way a father spares no expense that he thinks necessary for the proper education of his son; he sends him to school to be instructed in various branches of learning; he keeps a watchful eye on all his actions; he gets others to look after him, and by frequent admonitions, threats, promises, urges him to study diligently, and to behave well and in a praiseworthy and becoming manner before God and the world. No one will deny that that father has indeed an earnest and an efficacious will to make his child a learned and good man, although, as parents often experience to their sorrow, all the expense and trouble avail nothing, and the son remains an ignorant, awkward, dissolute fellow, through stupidity and weakness of mind, or laziness and carelessness, or wickedness and obstinacy.

What is the earnest, and in itself efficacious, will of God to save all men. Such is the earnest and, as far as He is concerned, the efficacious will that the good God has to make all men happy, and to bring them all, without exception, to heaven. He has created them all for no other end but to be eternally happy; He has an earnest wish and desire that all should be happy; He gives to all sufficient means to attain eternal happiness. And it is in this will that the vocation to heaven consists, of which Our Lord says: “Many are called;”^[1] that is, all are called, as shall be shown hereafter. This calling and earnest will of the Almighty to make all men happy has no regard to the merits and good works of men, but comes solely from the goodness and generosity of God. One fact. But as God has left men free, and will not force any one to go to heaven, but has resolved that each one should use the means provided according to his own free will, ​and thus gain heaven, so He has, besides the general will, another that rests on our co-operation and merit: namely, to grant heaven to man if the latter uses, as he can, the means provided, does good, and perseveres in the love and grace of God till the end of his life.

Shown by a simile. To make this clearer: suppose there is a rich man who has no wife or children, therefore adopts a poor student, making him heir to all his property, an inheritance that the student cannot possess, unless he takes it of his own free will, as all testaments require; for although I am made heir by will, I cannot be compelled to accept the inheritance; I am free to do so or not. Now in this case it is evident that the first will of the rich man, by which he desired to make the student heir to his wealth, came simply from goodness and charity, without any reference to merit on the student’s part; but the other will, by which he desires that the student should really take possession of the inheritance, is not absolute, but conditional, namely, if the student consents to take it. So does the Almighty act with us: that He created us, adopted us as His children, prepared the inheritance of heaven for us, and richly equipped us with all the means necessary to gain it, all that is an effect of the mercy and goodness of God, and we have contributed nothing whatever thereto; but the actual taking possession of heaven depends also on ourselves, and this latter God wills, not absolutely, but on condition that we accept and merit it. Now, as future things are as clear to Him as the present, if God sees that this or that man will use the means provided, keep His law, and persevere in His grace, then His wish and desire is fulfilled, and He says: that man shall possess My eternal kingdom. And in that decree and determination consists so-called predestination, or choice and election to heaven, of which again Our Lord says: “Few are chosen.”^[2]

Hence God condemns the sinner unwillingly. Shown by a simile. From this it follows, first, that the smallness of the number of the elect does not arise from the fact that God only wishes a few to be saved, but rather from this, that only a few really wish to merit and accept eternal salvation. Secondly, all men can be in the number of the elect if they only wish earnestly to make use of the proper means, and to persevere in good to the end. Thirdly, God has no antecedent, absolute will to send any one to hell; He wills it only under this condition: if man, through his own fault, wills not to merit heaven, and so to be damned. ​Finally, when God determines to send any one, no matter who he is, to hell, lie is, as it were, forced to do so; He does it, so to speak, with vexation, regret, and against His antecedent, general will, by which He wishes and desires to make all men happy. In this way He is like the rich father who has many children; the latter loves all his children, and has provided well for them in his will; he sees that they are all well educated; if one of them is sick, the father is troubled and sorry, and spares no expense to try to restore him to health by means of medicine; if he hears that one of his sons is leading a bad and worthless life, he is more afflicted at it than at the illness of his other child; but yet he will not reject the undutiful son at once, nor exclude him from the number of his children; he first exhorts him paternally, and admonishes him to amend, and promises him his fatherly love and favor the same as before, if he will only lead a better life and attend to his duty. But if he sees that all his efforts are unavailing, that the undutiful son only grows worse and worse, and gives no sign of improvement, then indeed he is forced, although sorely against his will and inclination, to take away the shame from the other members of his family, to shut up the wicked son in prison for the rest of his life, or to disinherit him; for if he neglected to do that, people could accuse him of not doing his duty as a father should. Such is the way in which our heavenly Father acts. All men are His adopted children; He loves them more than any earthly father ever loved his offspring; He tells us so Himself; and for all He has prepared eternal happiness. Now if He finds among them rebellious, undutiful children, He does not at once on that account withdraw from them His fatherly care, as all sinners daily experience; He tries to convert them by making them uneasy in conscience, by temporal adversity, by secret inspirations and warnings, and He offers them His grace as before, if they return to Him by true repentance and amend their lives; but if all this does no good, if they still continue to act as His enemies and remain impenitent until death, then He is forced, in order not to neglect His duty as Judge, to change His mind, as it were, and to exclude them from the number of His children, and imprison them for eternity. Hear how He complains of this by the Prophet Isaias: “Ah! I will comfort Myself over My adversaries, and I will be revenged of my enemies;”^[3] alas! I am at ​last forced to do this! “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” He says in the Gospel of St. Matthew, "…how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not.” Now I must do what I am very unwilling to do: “Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate.”^[4]

Proved from Scripture that God has an earnest will to save all men. See there, my dear brethren, the foundation of our hope and spiritual joy in the Lord. And that it is well-grounded, that God has that general, antecedent, earnest, and, as far as He is concerned, efficacious will, in the sense explained, to bring all men to heaven, and not to condemn to hell any one unless him who wilfully chooses not to be saved— that no Catholic can deny, let him talk as he will about predestination and eternal election to heaven, unless he wishes to go directly against the Holy Scriptures, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the general opinion of the Catholic Church, the goodness and mercy of God, and the foundation of Christian hope. In the first place, St. Paul, in his first epistle to Timothy, speaks of this truth in terms so clear that they cannot be clearer: “I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men,…that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and chastity; for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a redemption for all.”^[5] There he says not once, but several times, that God wills all men to be saved. We must pray, he says, for all; God wishes all men to come to the knowledge of the truth, to be converted to the light of the true faith, and to be eternally happy. Christ offers Himself to the Eternal Father as a redemption for all, no one excepted. And the Apostle confirms his words by the proof: “There is one God, and one Mediator of God and men;” as if to say: if there were several gods or several mediators, one might perhaps fear ​that this or that god or mediator cared little for him, or was not desirous of his salvation; just as in this world, where there are many kings and princes, every country cannot expect to be protected by every ruler. The king of Spain looks only after the Spaniards; the king of France cares only for Frenchmen; the Roman emperor for his empire; they do not trouble themselves about strangers. No; all men have one and the same God, and Redeemer, and heavenly Father; therefore, concludes the Apostle, this God takes care of all men, and has an earnest wish, as far as He is concerned, to save them all.

Even the most wicked sinners. Truly, God Himself says the same to the Prophet Ezechiel, and confirms it with an oath. “Say to them: As I live, saith the Lord God: I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.”^[6] Now if God does not wish to exclude even the sinner from heaven, whom should He then refuse to bring there? Truly, if any one on earth deserves to be abandoned by God the sinner deserves that fate, for wilfully and wantonly he sets himself against the divine majesty, and openly insults it. Hence, according to theologians, the fire of hell is too mild a punishment for even one mortal sin. Now if the goodness of God cannot be surpassed by the grievous insults offered Him by sinners, if in spite of them He still keeps His will and desire to convert and save them, then we can have no doubt that He has the earnest will, as far as He is concerned, to bring all men to the kingdom of heaven, and if any one is damned it is through his own fault, and contrary to the wish and intention of the Almighty. Do yon wish to have a clearer proof of this? Read the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew; there you will learn the same truth from the lips of Jesus Christ. After Our Lord had spoken the parable of the good shepherd, who leaves the ninety-nine sheep and goes over hill and dale in search of the one that is lost, and when he finds it brings it back on his shoulders rejoicing, He adds these words: “Even so it is not the will of your Father, who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”^[7] But if God does not wish that one of the least should be lost, that is, be damned forever, then He must necessarily wish to save them all and make them eternally happy; for, excepting the case of infants who die without bap​tism, there is no alternative between being lost forever and being eternally happy.

Confirmed by what God has done for all men. Again, if God had not signified anywhere in Holy Writ this wish and desire for the salvation of all men, then would I say to him who ventures to think the contrary what Our Lord said to the obstinate Pharisees: “Though you will not believe Me, believe the works.”^[8] If you do not trust My words, then look at the works I do; from them you must see that I am true God. In the same way I say: O ye of little faith! if there are no words or arguments to convince you that God earnestly desires the salvation of all men, then believe His works at least; see what He has done for all men. The emperor Caligula, a monster of cruelty and vice, led a large army against the sea, and set his soldiers in battle array, as if they were in front of an enemy, or about to take a fortress: ladders, catapults, swords, and lances were ready on all sides, and he himself, as commander-in-chief, rode along the line seriously exhorting his men to show their bravery and valor. And what was the object of all this? Why this great preparation of soldiers and arms? I am ashamed to say it; the object was to catch the fish that lay on the shore concealed in the mud, a great number of which were brought to Rome as a tribute from the conquered ocean. Foolish emperor! Such great preparations, so much expense for such a trifling thing! My dear brethren, when we consider what God has done for us men, we must either say by a horrible blasphemy that He is like Caligula in preparing mighty means for a very poor end, or we must acknowledge that our salvation is an affair of the utmost importance, that He thinks a great deal about it, and therefore that He has the earnest will to make us all eternally happy. From all eternity God thought of all men, and considered, as it were, how to bring them to heaven. And His thoughts were followed by works; the whole machine of the world is built and arranged by God to help us to save our souls; the heavens, the elements, the beasts in the forests, the trees and flowers in the gardens: all these are means to help us to save our souls. Even the princes of heaven, the angels, who are so far superior to us, are not ashamed to walk continually at the side of even the poorest man to help him to gain eternal happiness. Hence Tertullian calls man “the object of the care of the divine mind.”^[9] Yes, says Richard of St. Victor, ​the whole Blessed Trinity is occupied with the affair of the salvation of mankind. The omnipotence of the Father is at work taking out of the way all the obstacles to our salvation; the wisdom of the Son points out to us the means we should use to secure it; the love and goodness of the Holy Ghost are at work strengthening our souls and enriching them with gifts. So that the three Persons of the adorable Trinity are occupied with our salvation. What would be the object of all that if God did not earnestly desire to make all men eternally happy?

God is the Creator and Father of all men; hence He loves them all. Consider that all men are the works of the hands of God; for He has created them, and created them too to His own image; and can we any longer doubt this truth? Every master loves and values the works that proceed from his skill; to find fault with them or despise them is a disgrace and shame to him. Hence comes the natural love and affection that parents have for their children, and the great and unwearied care they take of the welfare of their offspring. Nor do we see that in men alone, but even in the brute beast, aye, and in the fiercest lions and tigers, for they too love their young, care for them, and protect them from danger. It is the Lord God who has given to His creatures the love they have for what comes from them; and is He to be the only one who has no love or affection for the work of His own hands? Is God the only Master, the only Father, of all masters and fathers, who wishes to prepare for His children eternal wo instead of happiness and well-being? Is God the only one, although His nature is love and goodness itself, who is surpassed by the lions and tigers, the dragons and serpents, and all that is savage in the wilderness, the only one who is surpassed by them in love for His own? Eh! the mere thought of such a thing is a grievous injustice, an absurd imputation on such a Lord.

But if He loves them all, He desires their salvation, not damnation. Therefore God loves all men, and that too with a most tender love, precisely because He is their Creator, because He is their Author and Father, because hatred and contempt of His work would redound to the Master’s dishonor. This sound proof is adduced by the Wise Man in the Book of Wisdom in these words: “Thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which Thou hast made: for Thou didst not appoint or make anything hating it. But Thou sparest all, because they are Thine, O Lord! who lovest souls.”^[10] See, here again nothing is ex​eluded; God loves all things, and that too because they proceed from Him and are His works. Now if God loves all men, He also wishes and desires the welfare of all, for therein love consists. Hence He wills and desires that all men should be saved, and none lost; for what greater misfortune could He wish to any one than to wish that he should not be saved, but (for this follows as a necessary consequence) be excluded from heaven and from the number of the elect, and be sent to the everlasting fire of hell? Does not Our Lord say of Judas, who wished to be damned through his own fault, “It were better for him if that man had not been born”?^[11] How then could it be true that God loves a man, and wishes well to him, when He creates him with the antecedent absolute will not to save him, but to condemn him to hell? I repeat that it is a grievous injustice and an absurd imputation on that infinitely good and loving Father of all souls, in which He not only sees reflected His own most beautiful image (and even the kings and princes of the world hold their own images in great honor), but which He has also redeemed with the blood of His own Son, and looks on as His lawfully purchased property.

He has given up His Son to a painful death for all: therefore He is willing to grant heaven to all. This one consideration is enough for me, and it should suffice for any thinking man to hold it as certain that God has an earnest, antecedent will to save all men, if they only wish it. I cannot believe anything else when I think that God has suffered death for all men that they may be freed from eternal death. And is it not infallibly certain as an article of faith? “He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,”^[12] such are the words of St. Paul to the Romans. And what has not this Son endured for our salvation? It is easy to find a physician who will spare no pains, but watch day and night to secure the recovery of his patient. But where will you find one who, to help a stranger, will offer to endure prison and chains, shame and disgrace, pains and torments, nay, even death itself? Or if such a one could be found, would any one say that he was not in earnest about helping the man? God was not satisfied with doing His part in working for the welfare of men, but He also freely gave Himself up to pains and torments, to show clearly

​that our eternal happiness is, as it were, dearer to Him than His own. Ah, my dearest Saviour, what hast Thou not suffered to bring me and other poor souls with Thee to heaven? Thou hast suffered from Thy own apostles and disciples, who abandoned, betrayed, and denied Thee. Thou hast suffered from the Jews, who conspired against Thee and Thy life. Thou hast suffered from spiritual and temporal judges, before whose tribunals Thou wast falsely accused, mocked, and condemned. Thou hast suffered from the soldiers, who cruelly scourged Thee with rods and whips, crowned Thee with sharp thorns, and derided Thee as a fool and simpleton. Thou hast suffered from Thy own most holy Mother, who standing at the foot of Thy cross on Calvary added to Thy pains by her own. Thou hast suffered even from Thy heavenly Father, who left Thee alone in a sea of sadness, and, as it were, wished to know Thee no longer. Thou hast suffered in temporal things, for Thou wast born, and didst live and die in extreme poverty. Thou hast suffered in Thy honor, for all the people looked on Thee as a deceiver and traitor. Thou hast suffered in Thy life, which thou didst offer up for us on the shameful gibbet of the cross. What do you think of all this, my dear brethren? How could the Son of God give clearer proof of His most earnest will to save us? What more could He do to evince His great desire for our eternal welfare than to suffer and die as He did to secure it? Or what can the heavenly Father be not ready to give us, after having sacrificed for us in such a manner His dearest and only-begotten Son, whose life is infinitely more worth than a hundred thousand heavens and eternal salvations? Shall He then refuse to give us heaven who has given us His only Son? that is, shall He refuse us a penny after having bestowed on us inexhaustible treasures and riches? This argument is not mine, but that of the great St. Paul, who says after the words already quoted: “How hath He not also, with Him, given us all things?”^[13] As if to say: Fear not, O man! He who has given thee what is infinitely greater will not refuse thee what is infinitely less, if thou only wishest to have it. If the kingdom of heaven is compared with the Son of God, what else is it but the throne compared with the king? Now He who for love of you gave you the King, that you may rule for all eternity, will He refuse you the throne?

Confirmed Most beautifully does St. Augustine develop this argument, ​by St. Augustine. “What a glorious pledge of our salvation we have received,” he exclaims; “we have the death of Christ; we have the blood of Christ in our hands. Let human weakness then be of good heart; let it not despair, or say: I shall not be saved. For what has God promised you, O mortal? That you should live with Him forever. Do you not believe that? Do you think it cannot come to pass if you wish for it? Believe it; believe it firmly, for lie has already done more than He has promised. What has He done? He has died for you. What has He promised? That you shall live with Him. Now it seems more incredible that the eternal God should die than that mortal man should live forever. We are sure of the first, which seems the more incredible; can we then doubt of the latter?” So far St. Augustine.

The basis of Christian hope would be destroyed if God did not will all to be saved. Finally, if God has not an earnest will to save all men, but, as Calvin and other heretics teach, only the predestined, that is, those whom God has, without any regard to their merits, selected for heaven from the great multitude of men, whom He rejects; and if, as the same heretics teach, Christ died for the predestined alone, then the whole foundation of Christian hope falls away, and no one is left any heart to do good and to work for heaven. For why should I take that trouble when I know not whether my labor will help me to get to heaven or not? I should not like, and should not dare to trust my life to a sailor, unless I am sure that he means to bring me into port, and that he does not intend to leave me to drown in the middle of the river. Nor could I place any hope or confidence in God as far as regards my salvation if I did not know whether He really desires, as far as He is concerned, to bring me to heaven or to send me to hell, without any regard to my good works. But that I could not know if it were true that, as far as He is concerned, God has not the earnest wish to save all men, but has rather determined by an antecedent will to damn the greater number; for in that case I should have far more reason not to hope than to hope for salvation. No; that cannot be true, for it is opposed to the evident promises of the Sacred Scripture, to the passion and death of Jesus Christ, to the goodness and mercy of our heavenly Father, to the basis of the Christian’s hope, to the general belief of the true Catholic Church, in which alone salvation can be found, when she prays for all heretics and apostates: “Almighty and eternal God, who wishes to save all, and that no one should perish,” etc.

​Consolation for those who wish to be saved, and resolution to serve God constantly. So it is, O Lord! Thou hast the earnest wish and desire that all men without exception should go to heaven; and therefore I too shall most certainly come to Thee in heaven if I only wish it and do not oppose Thy holy will. And for this I owe Thee infinite thanks, since Thou hast created me for such a noble end as to possess Thee one day in eternity. This is what comforts me during this short life in this miserable vale of tears: I can live forever in the kingdom of heaven, if I wish. On Thy part, O good God! I have nothing to fear, but rather reason to hope firmly that I shall gain heaven. What I have to fear is myself alone; namely, whether I shall constantly wish to obey Thy sweet law and to love Thee. I wish it now, O God! with Thy grace, which Thou wilt not refuse me. If I have hitherto acted against Thy will, and lost heaven, as I must, alas! acknowledge to have been the case only too often, it shall never again happen for all eternity. I will serve Thee, I will love Thee, I will do Thy holy will in all things to the end, as far as I know it; thus I shall surely, as Thou desirest and wishest, enjoy myself forever in heaven with Thee. Amen.

Beati qui audiunt verbum Dei, et custodiunt illud.—Luke xi. 28.

“Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Rejoice, good Christians, who serve the Lord. “Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.” That is, they who know the law and will of God and fulfil it. Here there is no exception; all, without distinction, who keep this law, and keep it constantly, shall attain eternal happiness. You are now endeavoring to keep it, and are firmly determined to persevere to the end, so that you are in the number of those, etc. Continues as above.