Untitled - Saints' Books

INSTR. iv.]
Preaching. 265
INSTRUCTION IV.
PREACHING,
AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRA
MENT OF PENANCE.
IF all
preachers and confessors fulfilled the obligations
of their office the whole world would be sanctified. Bad
preachers and bad confessors are the ruin of the world.
By bad preachers and confessors I mean those that do
not fulfil their duty as they ought.
We shall treat, first, of the preaching of the divine
word, and afterwards of the administration of the sac
rament of penance.
I.
Preaching.
By preaching, the faith has been propagated, and by
the same means God wishes it to be preserved: Faith
cometh by hearing: and hearing by the word of Christ? But
for a Christian, it is not enough to know what he is
obliged to do; it is, moreover, necessary for him, by
hearing the divine word from time to time, to be re
minded of the importance of eternal salvation, and of
the means which he ought to adopt in order to secure it.
Hence the following command of St. Paul to Timothy:
Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove,
entreat, rebuke in all 1
patience and doctrine. And the same
command God had long before given to the Prophets
Isaias and Jeremias. To the former he said: Cry, cease
1 "
2 "
Fides exauditu; auditus autem perverbum Christi." Rom. x. 17
Praedica verbum: insta opportune, importune; argue, obsecra,
increpa, in omni patientia et doctrina." 2 Tim. iv. 2.