CATHOLIC MISSION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 143, 21 May 1925, Page 2

CATHOLIC MISSION.

DELAY OF CONVERSION. The texh, “Delay not to bo converted to the Lord your Gcd, and defer it, not from day to day; for His wrath shall come of a sudden and in His vengeance He shall destroy thee,” was the basis of a passionately earnest sermon by Father McCarthy lust night at St. Patrick’s Church. The enjoyment of health and absorption in business and pleasure, said the preacher, were in many lives cheating God of His rights and imperilling His creatures’ eternal destiny. No one wanted to be lost I Man, being reasonable, desired happiness. Informed, as Catholics were informed, of the means of securing it, they wore bound to find a reason for un-Cath-olic living. That 'reason they found in the buoyant, yet oft-deluded hope that “later on” would be “time enough.” “Not just now,” was the answer of tho delaying sinner, when his duty was featured for him. “If not now, when?” asked Father McCarthy. There was no future guarary teed here on earth, but there was a future hereafter of misery or happiness. God’s message was always urgent. “Now” was His direction in representing man’s duty. “To-day” rang out clear as the time and tho only time to serve God. Every moment was God’s —“Tho Lord thy 1 God shalt thou serve” meant every moment lived in conformity with God’s law. Only the present moment was man’s. Delay was unjust to God and man, nobbery and consummate folly. Father McCarthy graphically described Balthazar’s banquet. Heedless of God’s direct warning, ho went on in riotous excess. “That night,” said the Scriptures, “Balthazar was slain.” Tho conversion of tho good thief on Calvary illustrated God’s mercy, but it was erroneously interpreted by those who clung to the hope of a deathbed conversion. Such people forgot that there were two thieves on Calvary, and that ono died as ho lived, reviling liis God, dying by his side and for him. The good thief was the exception, tbe bad thief the rule. Father McCarthy charged all to live their religion. Tho mission was not to create churchgoers only, but church-doers. “Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only.” There were Catholics, unhappily, who were a scandal ami a disgrace, who i>, scrapped their opportunities and cast odium on religion by making it an occasional affair, instead of a day-long, living reality. To-day being the Feast of tho Ascension of Our Saviour was featured as a Solemnity Day. Adoration was continued throughout tho day.