Untitled - Saints' Books

Non
"
He
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206 Material for Sermons. [PART i.
that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold,
. . . the same
is a thief and a robber?
Some may say, if they only were admitted to orders
who have the marks of vocation which have been laid
down as indispensable, there should be but few priests
in the Church, and the people should be left without the
necessary helps. But to this the Fourth Council of
Lateran has answered: "It is much better to confer the
priesthood on a small number of virtuous clerics than to
have a large number of bad priests."
2
And St. Thomas
says that God never abandons his Church so as to leave
her in want of fit ministers to provide for the necessity
3
of the people. St. Leo justly says that to provide for
the wants of the people by bad priests would be not to
save but to destroy them. 4
If, then, a priest has been ordained without a vocation,
what must he do? 5 Must he look on himself as lost?
must he abandon himself to despair? No. St. Gregory
has asked the same question. He answers: He must
lament." Behold what such a priest must do if he
wish to save his soul:
he must
must lament;"
6
weep, and seek to appease the anger of God by tears
and by repentance, and to move him to pardon the great
sin that he committed in thrusting himself into the
sanctuary without a divine call. He must, as St. Bernard
exhorts, endeavor to attain after his ordination the
sanctity of life which ought to precede He it.
7 must
" 1
. . .
2 "
3 "
Qui non intrat per ostium, ille fur est et latro. Fur non
venit nisi ut furetur, et mactet, et perdat." John, x. i-io.
Satius est maxime in ordinatione sacerdotum paucos bonos quam
multos malos habere." Cap. 27.
Deus nunquam ita deserit Ecclesiam suam, quin inveniantur
idonei ministri sufficientes ad necessitatem plebis." Suppl. q. 36, a. 4.
"
4
est hoc consulere populis, sed nocere." Epist. 87.
5 "
6 "
1
Sacerdos sum non vocatus;
Ingemiscendum."
quid faciendum?"
"Si vitse sanctitas non praecessit, sequatur
saltern."