[Two sets of handwritten notes from Father Jarzembek's sermon drawer at St. Casimir's. Brown ink. Mostly Polish with Latin tags. Rendered here in English translation, with passages in the original italicized.]
I. Homily — Sunday the Fourteenth of October, 1923 — preached in the morning
Reading. The Gospel: Luke 16. The unjust steward.
On the passage. A difficult parable, as the Fathers admit. The steward defrauds his master and the master praises him. Why? Because the steward has understood something the master has not said aloud: that the accounts he has been keeping are not the true account.
We hear in this passage the idea that the worldly are wiser in the affairs of the world than the children of light. I will say this morning, as I have said before: this is not a compliment to the worldly. It is an indictment of the children of light. We are slow. We wait. We think that if we keep the law of the parish books we keep the law of God's books.
Księgi parafii i księgi Boga nie są tą samą księgą. [The parish's books and God's books are not the same book.]
I ask you today not to consider what the parable says of the steward. I ask you to consider what the parable says of the master. The master, at the last, was the judge. He judged what he had seen. He did not cover it. A pastor, if he is a pastor and not a clerk, is sometimes required to judge what he has seen. To judge gently if he can. To judge at all is the difficult thing. — Go. Amen.
II. Homily — Sunday the Twenty-First of October, 1923 — never preached
Reading. The Gospel: Matthew 18. "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. If he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established."
On the passage. (Notes, not yet drafted.)
This is a passage about the labor of fraternal correction. Our Lord gives a precise procedure. First you go to the brother alone. First alone. If he will not hear you, you bring witnesses.
I do not know if I have the strength to bring witnesses.
I have gone alone. I went alone last week, in the study of the rectory. I had with me the comparison of books that P.K. has been keeping for me. I told the brother what I had found. I told him I had hoped not to find it. I told him the Lord's procedure.
The brother did not hear me. He said things I will not put on the page of a homily. He left. He did not take the papers. He left them in my hand.
What do I preach next Sunday? I do not know. I do not know whether to bring witnesses. I do not know whether, if I bring witnesses, the parish will forgive me for the collapse of the brother. The brother has a wife. The brother has daughters. The brother has one small pleasure — not a good pleasure, but his — which is that at the sodality supper on Saint Hedwig's day he is seated at the head of his end of the table.
A moi, Panie, nie pozwól, aby moja jutrzejsza odwaga była mniejsza od mojej wczorajszej. [Lord, do not let my courage tomorrow be less than my courage yesterday.]
I will decide by Friday. If I bring the witnesses on Saturday morning, the homily on Sunday will be this: "The Lord has given a procedure. The procedure is not kind. The procedure is just. We have been obliged to follow it in a matter within our own parish. Your pastor is not pleased to have done so. Your pastor has not done it in secret." And I will name the brother. And I will name the comparison. And I will name what is owed.
If I do not bring the witnesses, the homily on Sunday will be about the sickness of a beloved parishioner (Mrs. Sobczak; her husband) and about the importance of visitation. And I will be, in the pulpit on Sunday, a man who has chosen the prudent road over the narrow one.
I have, in the forty-seventh year of my life as a priest, taken the prudent road many times. I have usually been right to take it. I am not sure that this is one of the times.
Let me pray about it. Let me go to bed, tonight, after the evening devotion, and let me pray about it, and let me decide in the morning.
Amen.
[pencil annotation below the second set of notes, in the hand of Father Kruszewski, the successor pastor who arrived in January 1924:]
"Found in a drawer of Father's study. Dated in his own hand 13 October 1923. It appears he had not yet decided between the two homilies on the evening he died. I have placed this in the Parish file 'Sermon Drafts — Unpreached' for reasons of decorum. — Fr. L. Kruszewski, 7 Feb 1924."