Introduction.
Where the shepherd is there are the sheep also; where the shepherd leads the sheep follow, whether he leads them into a green, pleasant meadow, or to the top of a barren mountain. My dear brethren, Jesus Christ is our Shepherd, and as He says Himself, He is our good Shepherd, who gives His life for His flock. Now if we wish to be good sheep we must follow this Shepherd, no matter where He leads us, through thistles and thorns as well as through flowers and roses. This Shepherd has gone before us suffering and sorrowing; we must be ready to follow Him, as the Apostle warns us in to-day’s Epistle: “Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow His steps.”[1] But let us be comforted! The same Shepherd has also gone before us in His glorious resurrection to eternal joys; if we follow Him in the path of suffering we shall also follow Him in the glory of His resurrection to heaven, and that is the end our well-meaning Lord has in view when, as is generally the case, He sends the good and pious many trials and crosses, while He allows sinners and the wicked, who, as the Apostle says, have no hope of a glorious resurrection, to abound in temporal prosperity. Nay, that very decree of divine Providence should confirm our faith and hope in the future resurrection to the joys of heaven, as I shall now show; and I take as the basis of my discourse the two contraries, namely, the trials of the just and the seeming happiness of the wicked, as follows:
Plan of Discourse
That the good in this world live in suffering, while the wicked abound in prosperity, strengthens our faith in the future resurrection to heaven: the first point. It confirms our hope in the resurrection to heaven: second point. It inflames our love and desire for the resurrection to heaven: third point. Be comforted then, pious and suffering Christians!
I rely, in what I have to say, on the light of the Holy Ghost, which I implore through the intercession of Mary and of our holy guardian angels.
The wickedness of It will perhaps at first seem strange to you that I should bring forward as a proof of our faith what appears, humanly speaking,
- ↑ Christus passus est pro nobis, vobis relinquens exemplum, ut sequamini vestigia ejus.—I. Pet. ii. 21.
