Life of St John Vianney.pdf - the Catholic Kingdom!

"We"The"Three"284 THE cuR OPday; very incomplete," he tells us, "yet having at leastthe merit of fidelity. They give the thoughts, and sometimes the expressions and images in which they wereclothed. They may suffice to give an idea of his mannerof preaching."see in to-day s gospel, my brethren, that themaster of the field having sown his seed in good ground,the enemy came while he was asleep and sowed cockle inthe midst of it. The meaning of this is, that God createdman good and perfect, but that the enemy came andsowed sin in his heart. This is the fall of Adam, adreadful fall, which let in sin into the heart of man.Thisis the mixture of the good and the evil ;we find sinamong virtues. Do you say, We must root up thecockle ? No, replies our Lord, lest with ityou root up*the wheat also. Wait till the harvest. The heart of manmust endure thus unto the end, a mixture of good andevil, of vice and virtue, of light and darkness, of goodseed and cockle. The good God has not been pleased todestroy this mixture, and make for us a new nature inWe mustwhich there should be nothing but good seed.struggle and labour to hinder the cockle from overgrowingthe whole field.devil will come indeed to sow temptationsaround our steps but ; by the help of Divine grace weshall be able to overcome them and stifle the cockle. Thecockle isimpurity and pride. Without impurity andpride, says St. Augustine, * there would be no merit inresisting temptation.things are absolutely necessary as defencesagainst temptation, prayer to enlighten us, Sacramentsto strengthen us, and vigilance to preserve us. Happyare the souls which are temptec ! It is when the devil