THE DESECRATION OF THE SUNDAY IS THE RUIN OF THE FAMILY

Sermons of Fr. Heinrich Von Hurter, given in Vienna. 1.No commandment of God is so holy, so venerable, so necessary and so universal. There is none that God tries to impress on us with such emphatic language : " Remember that thou keep holy the Lords day ! "This commandment is in reality the groundwork of all the other commandments, of all faith, morality and prosperity. No Catholic can say that he believes in God, none can glorify God s name if he does not faithfully observe this commandment. Hence it comes that the profanation of the Sunday destroys peace, blessings, and prosperity of the earthy life. I maintain that the destruction of Sunday leads to the ultimate ruin of the family. 2.The Christian family is the groundwork upon which Church and State are erected. Hence to its share falls the fulfillment of the most important religious and civic duties. Religion, morality, law and the prosperity of the nations depend on the family, because the nations or governments are nothing more than the union of many families, for before the nations existed the family was. It was this consideration that impelled Our Divine Saviour to raise marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. In consequence of this sacramental character the father is the representative of Jesus Christ, the image of God the Father, the object of the family s respect and love. The mother is called to be in her family circle what the Catholic Church is for the whole world: the messenger of peace and the guide in the ways of salvation. The children are to the Christian family what the faithful are to the Catholic Church. They are the treasures of God, heirs of Heaven and angels of innocence on earth, who belong to God and who have been entrusted to the parents to be brought up for Heaven and not for the world. 3.But how can God give His grace and courage if father and mother and children do not keep holy the Lords day And what will become of the family without God and His grace? The Sunday brings the family together for prayers in common, for public worship, for conversation and recreation.

4.An increasingly large number of our young men do not wish to get married and found a Christian family; they prefer to spend their lives in debauchery. This is an other fruit of Sunday profanation! Thousands of young girls cast themselves into the arms of vice: an other fruit of the Sunday profanation. It annihilates the family and fosters idleness, crime and pride. Truly Christian families are yearly becoming more rare, and even these are partially threatened with dis solution. The enemies of Christian marriage and family have reason to rejoice. The desecration of the Sunday is their faithful ally. The desecration of the Sunday is the ruin of the family and hence of human Society. 5.Hence God says so impressively to the family : " See that you keep My sabbath : be cause it is a sign between Me and you in your generation." In truth, Sunday is like unto a messenger of Heaven who reminds us of what is eternal and heavenly. It is an angel of peace who, by means of its splendid language and by the inspiration of di vine service, whispers words of peace and forgiveness into hearts torn by dissension. It silences the passions, it allays unrest and caprice, and by showing us the figure of Our Crucified Saviour it invites to patience and Christian forbearance. And God, Who is a God of Peace, inspires us by His grace with sentiments of peace and harmony. 6.The Sunday rest is for the Christian family a foretaste of that eternal rest which is destined to be its blessed recompense in Heaven. The celebration of the Sunday is the splendid, noble bond that makes the family to be a Christian family, and raises it to the dignity of an image of the Holy Family of Nazareth. When father and mother, and children unitedly raise their prayers to God, then forsooth they present a spectacle that rejoices God and His angels. When one heart, one soul, one faith, one hope, one love unite them, and when their prayer rises as from one mouth to Heaven, then Jesus, in accordance with His promises, abides in their midst and bestows on them grace and mercy. Yea, father and mother together offer to their children an example that is more compelling than thousands of books and thousands of words. 7.What is there that can make a family more worthy in the sight of God and men, what can win for them greater confidence and respect, than the Sunday rest and the Sunday celebration ? It is this that invests the family with a higher consecration ; it is this that makes the family shine forth in the splendor of Christian

faith, of Christian harmony and mutual love. It is this that preserves and ennobles conjugal fidelity. It inspires parents with the love and the care for the welfare of their children that is an outpouring of the 8.Divine Love and solicitude for our temporal and eternal welfare. It nourishes and fosters filial respect and obedience. It maintains parents in Gods grace, the children in their innocence and piety, and brings to both parents and children days of peace and of joy. 9.Would that all of you, might be convinced of this solemn truth, and might seek in the celebration of the Sunday what you can never find in its desecration, namely, love and harmony, temporal and eternal salvation ! How many fathers, how many mothers wear themselves out with work for the sake of their families, and yet their tireless endeavor and striving is nothing more than an endless chain of cares and vexations, of ingratitude and misery. Seek first there where you are sure to find! The blessing of God is attached to the sanctification of the Sunday. 10.He who has faithfully accomplished his work during the week and then rests on Sunday and celebrates the day in a Christian manner, he will enjoy an everlasting Sunday in Heaven and will there rest forevermore in an eternity of bliss as a splendid reward for the fidelity with which we shall have sanctified the Lords Day on earth. Amen.

*The von Hurter family was Swiss nobility. Three were known for their conversions to Catholicism, their theological writings and their ecclesiastical careers in Austria. Friedrich Emmanuel von Hurter (17871865), a Swiss Protestant Minister, had for years manifest sympathy and intimacy with Catholic clergy, including the Archbishop of Freiburg and the papal nuncios to Switzerland, and shown charity to Catholic laity, which roused antagonism from Protestant clergy. The appearance in 1834 of his first volume of The Life of Pope Innocent III, on which he had been working for 20 years, caused a profound sensation. It was soon translated into French, English, Italian and Spanish. A storm of abuse led him to resign his dignities in 1841. He lived in retirement for 3 years, and in 1844 went to Rome, where on June 16, he made his Profession of Faith before Pope Gregory XVI; his conversion brought renewed attacks. Until his death he labored for the spread of the Catholic Faith. His son, Heinrich (1825-1895) converted, was ordained in 1851 and worked in Vienna. Besides volumes of sermons, he wrote some 12 books. Friedrichs son Hugo (1832-1914) converted, studied in Rome, was ordained in 1855, became a Jesuit in 1857, was also a distinguished theologian and wrote many volumes.