Answers to a Jewish enquirer

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JOHN M. KELLY LIBRARY

Donated by
The Redemptorists of
the Toronto Province
from the Library Collection of
Holy Redeemer College, Windsor

University of
St. Michael's College, Toronto

HOLY REDEEMER LIBRARY, WINDS
ANSWERS TQ"
A JEWISH ENQUIRER

BY THE REV.

FATHER THEODORE RATISBONNE

(1814-1884)

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH

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INTRODUCTION *

Tu “ Oxford Movement” still arouses interest in England.
What led to it? What forces were at work? Whence came
this revival of Catholic feeling, affecting some of the most

- brilliant minds of the day ? The names of the great converts—

Newman, Faber, Ward, Oakley, Dalgairns and others—are well
known to students of the period.

But comparatively few people have looked as far as another
ancient University, that of Strasbourg, where a religious move-
ment was also taking place, also important and significant—the
first considerable modern conversion from Judaism to Chris-
tianity.

For centuries cruel methods of persecution had thrown
the Jews back upon themselves, and there seemed no point of
contact with the Christian world. Then, in the year 1791,
amongst the thunderbolts from the storm of the French
Ree slacon came an act which decreed their emancipation.
Fifteen years later, the genius of Napoleon ordered the fusion of
French and Jewish nationalities, and it was just at this moment
that the author of the following Answers to a Jewish Enquirer
was born. He came of an aristocratic Jewish family. His grand-
father on one side obtained a patent of nobility from Louis XVI,

and his maternal grandfather, the gentle and much-beloved

Theodore Cerfbeer, gave shelter to priests and religious during
the Reign of one and was the trusted guardian of many
sacred vessels from Catholic churches.

* This short sketch is based on Zhe Brothers Ratisbonne, published
(price 2d.) by the Catholic Truth Society, to which readers are referred
for further particulars. .

untLV REDEEMER LIBRARY. WINDSOR

4 Introduction

From this worthy stock came the famous brothers Theodore
and Marie Alphonse Ratisbonne, the latter being the hero of
that miraculous conversion which was one of Our Lady’s most
gracious acts.

We are told that the child Theodore longed for the coming of
the Messiah, but as he grew older eighteenth-century scepticism
laid hold of him. He ‘‘ complained with Rousseau, he scoffed
with Voltaire—it was the sneer of Satan.” He hoped that
science might solve his doubts, and it was indeed through his
love for the silence of Nature and the mysterious beauty of the
midnight sky that he began to see the first faint promise of the
dawn. After a night spent in contemplation of the stars he
realized that an intelligent power must have created them, and
regulated their harmonious movement, and he prayed, in
bitterness of soul: ‘‘O Mysterious Being, Creator, Lord,
Adonai, if Thou existest, have pity on Thy creature ; show me
the way which leads to truth, and I promise to consecrate my
life to it.” .

The way was shown him ; it led through the lecture-room of
M. Bautain, a young and brilliant personality, suspended at that
moment by the Académie Royale of Strasbourg for having
dared to pass through scepticism and rationalism to Chris-
tianity. Not only Theodore Ratisbonne, but Isidore Goschler,*
barrister, philosopher, and finally priest, Jules Lewel, and
others of the same high level of intelligence were converted by
his clear and luminous teaching, which led them to understand,
gradually, how Christianity is the logical development and
completion of Judaism. ‘‘ Become good Israelites,’ he told
them, “‘ and truth will do the rest ” ; ‘‘ Works must accompany
ideas, if ideas are to become conviction.”

For three years the direction of Jewish schools absorbed the
greater part of Theodore’s time. He was already unconsciously
a Christian. The name of Jesus became familiar to him, he
spoke it with confidence. He invoked Our Lady ; his love for
his own mother led him to love Mary. Jesus and Bey together -
took possession of his heart.

* Biographies of Goschler and Lewel are published for the Catholic
Guild of Israel by the Catholic Truth Society, price 1d. each.

/

: Introduction 5

At this critical moment in his life, he owed much to the wisdom
of a very remarkable woman, a Mademoiselle Humann. She was
about sixty at the time, and became a spiritual mother to the
young student. She it was who prepared him for his baptism,
which took place secretly, “for fear of the Jews,’ on Holy
Saturday, 1827.

In the same year his friend Goschler also became a Christian.
As at Oxford, it was a movement amongst intellectuals. The
Strasbourg students arrived at the truth through hard and
concentrated study, partly philosophic, as in the case of New-
man, who was at that time a brilliant member of the philosophic
Oriel school and in 1826 a public tutor at that college. In 1827,
too, began what his biographer has called the second period of
Newman’s Oxford career, which culminated in his conversion in
1845, three years after that of Father Alphonse Ratisbonne
—memorable years these for Catholicism, both in France and
England !

For a short time Father Theodore succeeded in concealing his
conversion from his family ; but when challenged by his father,
he made his confession of faith, which naturally drew down on
him indignant displeasure. He therefore left home, and entering
the seminary with his teacher, M. Bautain, was in due course
ordained priest and celebrated his first Mass on the Feast of the
Epiphany, 1831.

Father Theodore began his priestly career very successfully at
the Little Seminary, but he longed for pastoral work, and in
1840 became assistant to the Abbé Desguettes of Notre Dame
des Victoires, in Paris. Here he found that their Archconfra-
ternity was already praying for the conversion of the Jews. To
this encouragement was added that given him by Gregory XVI
at an audience: “Ite potius ad oves que perierunt domus
Israel,”* commanded the Vicar of Christ, embracing him with
fatherly affection.

The Abbé, like all religious reformers, knew how necessary it
is to begin with the children. He therefore decided to procure
Christian education for those small Jewish folk whose parents

* “Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. x. 6).

6 . Introduction

wished for it. A beginning was made in Paris by Mme. Stouhlen
and Mlle. Louise Weywada, who educated twelve Jewish girls
and instructed those who desired to be baptized. From this
modest start arose the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion which
to-day has Houses in every quarter of the globe. In 1858 Father
Theodore came to London, and two years later a House was
started there. The Congregation, given its canonical existence
by the Archbishop of Paris in 1847, received Papal approbation
in 1863 and the definite sanction of its Rule in 1874. The
Confraternity of Christian Mothers founded in 1852. was
raised to the rank of an Archconfraternity in 1856, and has
to-day over 1,500,000 associates distributed amongst 2200
Confraternities. There are three Houses in England—Bays-
water and Holloway in London, and Worthing in Sussex.

But Father Theodore’s ministry was not limited to these two
great works. the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion and the Arch-
confraternity of Christian Mothers. All his life long he carried
on besides an active apostleship : Baptism, abjurations, instruc-
tions, confessions, retreats to parishes and religious congrega-
tions, to say nothing of an enormous correspondence, were all
rendered possible by his tremendous zeal and activity. He
possessed that eternal youthfulness of spirit which is the secret
of the saints. He “ drank love at its source ” and neither insult,
rebuff, nor contempt nor insolence lessened his courage or
diminished his faith. God was manifest to him in all human
events, as n the beauty of Nature; he enjoyed the “ eternal
serenity of God.” He was a great reader of Holy Scripture ;
it was to him “ God’s book, to be read in God’s spirit.”

His heavenly Father sustained him through his last long
illness, and the end, which came on May 6, 1884, was a trans-
figuration rather than death ; for the marks of suffering passed
away, and the beautiful aba delicate features became again
those of a young man. if

Father Theodore lies in the cemetery at Grand Bourg,
Corbeil: on his tombstone is the inscription: “‘Our good
Father, 1802-1884,” and below it the text, which he made
most truly his own, ‘‘ Super omnia caritatem habete—quod est
vinculum perfectionis,”

ANSWERS TO
A JEWISH ENQUIRER

By THE REV. FATHER THEODORE RATISBONNE

PART 1

Question. What is Religion ?

Answer. Religion, according to the literal meaning of the
word, is the sacred bond which unites man to God, his Creator ;
it includes, therefore, all those beliefs and duties by which man
ought to glorify and serve God.

What is true Religion ?

A. True Religion is that which God Himself has instituted ;
for it belongs to Him to teach us in what manner He ought to
be served. Now, God began His revelation of true Religion
as soon as the world was created, and He has successively
developed it in that order of time which His infinite wisdom
prearranged. An architect places first the foundations of the
edifice which he is about to build ; then he continues his work,
and at the last he puts the finishing touches. So God, according
to Holy Scripture, after having spoken with Adam and the

- Patriarchs, later confirmed and extended these first teachings

by the written Law which He gave to Moses.

Q. What is the principal truth taught by this Religion ?

A. This Religion is based upon faith in the Messias, whom
God promised to Abraham and through whom He willed to save
the human race which had fallen beneath the yoke of Satan.
This promise was often repeated to the Patriarchs, to Moses,
and to the Prophets, who all lived believing in a liberator whom
God should send, and in the expectation of His coming.

©. Why does man need to be saved P

8 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

A. Because he deserved the condemnation of his Creator.
The first man, in whose will the fate of all his posterity was _
included, committed a sin of disobedience against God. From
that moment he lost the original innocence in which he had
been created, and thereby heaven, his home, was shut against
him. Thus, too, all the children of Adam are born stained with
the sin of their first parent : all bear the weight of this terrible
loss. That is what is meant by original sin.

Q. Do the Jews admit the dogma of original sin ?

A. All the peoples of the world attribute the ills and scourges
which afflict human nature to some primitive fall, but to the
Jews especially the mystery of this fall has been revealed
in the Holy Scriptures, for besides the third chapter of Genesis,
Job in his fourteenth chapter declares the children of men
to lie under some curse—‘‘ Who can make him clean that is
conceived of unclean seed? Is it not Thou who only art 2?”
(Job xiv. 4). King David, voiding the lament of the whole
human race, cries out in the fiftieth Psalm: “‘ For behold I
was conceived in iniquities and in sins did-my mother conceive
Same CPs; 1.5),

Q. Can it be proved that man is really fallen ?
_ A. Only if you accept the teaching of Holy Scripture that

man was created in a state of perfection both bodily and
spiritual ; from this the actual state of man to-day shows an.
evident fall. This degradation of human nature is seen in the
ignorance, weakness, evil inclinations with which we are all
born, and by the ills of every kind to which the human race
is heir.

Q. Did God abandon man after his fall ?
A. God in His infinite goodness has not abandoned man.
On the contrary He promised him a merciful restoration.

Q. Could not Adam and Eve have become once more holy
and pleasing to God by their own efforts, if they had returned
into the path of humble submission ? ©

A. No, it was impossible for man to return to grace by his
own efforts, or to establish himself by his own merits in that
state of holiness from which he had fallen. Only God who had
given him grace at his creation could restore it to him. Besides
which how could man offer any sufficient reparation to the
Infinite Majesty which he had outraged? And how could such

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 9

a reparation have been acceptable to God from a creature
soiled by sin ?

Q. What then are the conditions of salvation ?

A. The salvation of man, then, could only be accomplished
by God Himself. This is why the Messias-Saviour was
promised.

Q. When did God make this promise ?

A. The promise of a redeeming Messias was made immedi-
ately after the fall of Adam. God said, ‘“‘I will put enmities
between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: it
shall crush thy head” (Gen. ili. 15). This promise was often
repeated in Holy Scripture; and the greater part of the
prophecies refer to it.

Q. What are the principal prophecies which relate to the
Messias ?

A. The whole Bible speaks of the Messias, and reveals not
only His coming into the world, but the time, the place, and
small details of His life and sacrifice. Here, however, are some
of the principal texts :—

God said to Abraham, “In thy seed shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed ” (Gen. xxii. 18). He also said to Isaac,
“*In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed ” (Gen.
xxvl. 4). He said to Jacob, ‘‘ And in thee and in thy seed all
the tribes of the earth shall be blessed ”’ (Gen. xxviii. 14).

Jacob, when dying, blessed his twelve sons, who were destined
to become the fathers of the tribes of Israel, but he prophesied
that the Messias should come out of the tribe of Juda—‘ Juda,
thee shall thy brethren praise ; the sons of thy father shall bow
- down to thee. The sceptre shall not be taken away from him,
nor a ruler from his thigh, till He come that is to be sent, and He
shall be the expectation of nations ” (Gen. xlix. 8, ro).

Moses said in Deuteronomy, “‘ The Lord thy God will raise up
to thee a prophet of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto
me: Him shalt thou hear ” (Deut. xviii. 15). 3

By these evidences and others, which all Jews have applied to
the Messias, it can be proved that the Patriarchs awaited!a
Redeemer. Moreover, the institutions and the ceremonies of
the law of Moses, and even the events in the history of the Jews,
were like prophetic figures of the history of the Messias, and a
preparation for His coming.

Io Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

Q. Which are the prophets of Israel who predicted the
circumstances of the mission of the Messias ?

A. David, Isaias, Daniel, Micheas, Jeremias, and, generally
speaking, all the Scriptures tell in clear and solemn tones of the
Saviour who is to come. Read specially Psalms ii., xx., x1,
Ixix., Ixxii., cx.: their subject is the Messias. If David and
Solomon are mentioned in them it is only because their reigns
prefigure His reign, for these prophesies also contain features
which could only apply to Him.

Isaias prophesies in these words the birth of the Messias:
“For a Child is born to us, and a Son is given to us, and the
government is upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the
World to come, the Prince of Peace ”’ (Is. ix. 6). “ And there
shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall
rise up out of his root. In that day the root of Jesse who
standeth for an ensign of the people, Him the Gentiles shall
beseech ; and His sepulchre shall be glorious ” (Is. xi. 1, 10).
In another passage he says, ‘“‘ Behold a virgin shall conceive and
bear a son: and His name shall be called Emmanuel, that is to
say ‘God with us’” (Is. xxxv. 4, 5). And, finally, he cries,
“Drop down dew, ye heavens from above: and let the clouds
rain the just; let the earth be opened and bud forth a Saviour,
and let justice spring up together ” (Is. xlv. 8).

The prophet Micheas names even the town where the Saviour

shall be born: “‘ And thou Bethlehem Ephrata art a little one ~—

among the thousands of Juda: out of thee shall He come
forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel; and His
going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity ”
(Micheas v. 2).

The prophet Ezechiel has these other remarkable sayings,
“Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I Myself will seek My sheep
and will visit them ” ; and again, “‘ And I will set up one shepherd
over them : and he shall feed them, even My servant David: he
shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd ”’ (Ezech. xxxiv.
11,23). When Ezechiel made this prophecy in the name of God,
David had long been dead. There is therefore no question but
that they refer to the Messias, of whom David was the type and
ancestor.

The prophecy of Daniel (chap. ix.) is famous, for there;the'very
date of the advent of the Saviour seems to be fixed.

One might cite also the books of Jeremias, Zacharias, Mala-

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer II

chias, and other prophets, for it will be found in turning to these
_ passages that all, with unanimous voice, hail the day when God
shall fulfil His promises.

. Q. Has the Divine promise then been actually realised ?
A. It is faithfully realised in Jesus Christ, as can be proved

by Old and New Testament alike, and also by the witness of

history, both sacred and secular, and the testimony of millions

of men and women for the last nineteen hundred years.

Q. But is it not true that insertions have been made in the
text of the Old Testament by the disciples of Jesus Christ ?
A. The Sacred Books of the Old Testament have always

- been in the possession of the Jews, who have kept them intact

until the present day with the greatest reverence and care. It
is evident that the Jews dispersed all over the world are not
likely to have accepted among themselves books which had been
falsified by Christians, and which contain their own condemna-
tion. It is in these manuscripts, preserved with religious care in
all the synagogues in the world, that the texts which we have
quoted are found.

Q. Since these texts are so numerous and so clear, why did
not the Jews believe that Jesus Christ was the Messias ?

A. It is not absolutely true to say that the Jews did not
recognise Jesus Christ as the Messias ; for the Apostles and the
first thousands of disciples who composed the primitive Church
in Jerusalem were all Jews. It is through the Jews that the
faith of Jesus Christ has been spread throughout the whole
world. But whilst the better part of the nation attached them-
selves to the Saviour a large number turned against Him, and

-’ ceased to be God’s chosen people. This also had been foretold

by the prophets.

Q. Which prophecies announce the unbelief of the Jews ?

A. Moses pronounced blessings upon the faithful and
terrible curses upon the unbelievers. To these last in par-
ticular, he said, ‘‘ The Lord strike thee with madness and blind-
ness and fury of mind. And mayst thou grope at midday, as the
blind i Is wont to grope in the dark, and not make straight thy

ways ’ ’ (Deut. xxviii. 28, 29).

"This is how Isaias speaks of the blindness of the faithless Jews :
“ We looked for light, and behold darkness : brightness and we

_. have walked in the dark, We have groped for the wall and like

12 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

the blind we have groped as if we had no eyes. We have
stumbled in noonday as in darkness: we are in dark places as
dead men, because we have sinned and lied against the Lord :
we have turned away so that we went not after our God but
spoke calumny and transgression ”’ (Isa. lix. 9, 10, 13).

In chapter lin. the same prophet reveals to us one of the
causes of this unbelief. After having announced in the previous
chapter the reign of the Messias, he begins thus: ‘“‘ Who hath
believed our report ? And to whom is the arm of the Lord re-
vealed ? And He shall grow up as a tender plant before Him
and as a root out of a thirsty ground; there is no beauty in
Him, nor comeliness: and we have seen Him, and there was
no sightliness, that we should be desirous of Him. Despised
and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with infirmity : and His look was as it were hidden and despised.
whereupon we esteemed Him not. . . . Because His soul hath
laboured, He shall see and be filled.” It is necessary to read the
whole chapter : it is an account, given many centuries before, of
the sufferings and death of the Messias, and also of the glory
which was to be the fruit of them.

Isaias further declares in chapter fifty the repudiation of the
faithless synagogue. ‘‘ Thus saith the Lord: What is this bill
of the divorce of your mother with which I have put her away ?
Or who is My creditor, to whom I sold you? Behold you are
sold for your iniquities, and for your wicked deeds have I put
your mother away. Because I came and there was not a man:
I called and there was none that would hear.”

Daniel, after having fixed the time of the coming of the
Messias, added that he would be put to death, and that the
people (Dan. ix. 26) who rejected Him would be no more God’s
people.

To sum up, the Prophets foretold the dispersion of the Jews
all over the world, without King, sacrifices, altar, or prophets,
always waiting for salvation and never finding it. But they
also announce their return and their conversion towards the end
of time. This is what Osee says, “ For the children of Israel
shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and with-
out sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without
theraphim. And after this the children of Israel shall return and
shall seek the Lord their God and David their king: and they
shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the last days ” (Osee

iii, 4, 5).

M

f

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 13

Q. If the greater part of these prophecies have been visibly
realised, there is one, however, which seems contradicted by
facts ; for it is not correct to say that Jews have no temples.
They have temples in many towns, and they even have priests
who are called Rabbis and ministers ?

A. It is true that the Jews have built very magnificent
synagogues in those countries in which they have been scattered ;
but these synagogues have nothing in common with the
directions and the ceremonies of the law of Moses. They have a
sham altar, but there are no sacrifices offered thereupon ; they
have Rabbis, but the Rabbis have no priestly consecration, and
are, therefore, not priests.

According to the law of Moses the sons of Aaron alone were

Ke admitted to the priestly office, to the exclusion of all the other

tribes of Israel: but in the choice of Rabbis no notice is taken of
this sacred law. ‘This is the test of the law of Moses: ‘‘ Thou
shalt appoint Aaron and his sons over the service of priesthood :
the stranger that approacheth to minister shall be put to
death ” (Num. ili. 10).

You may conclude from this that the Rabbis have no sacred
title, and that it would be wrong of them to pose as priests in the
eyes of the Jews. As for those men who are called officiating
ministers, they are only hired singers who are not to be dis-
tinguished from the rest of the faithful except by the quality of
their voices. They have only more or less recently been called
ministers, originally in order to procure for them some aid from
the State. |

Q. I admit the fall of the Jews from a religious point of
view, but if they are honest and live godly, can they not be
saved without believing in Jesus Christ ?

A. There is no salvation possible except through Jesus
Christ, because since original sin has deprived all mankind of
grace, all need both the remedy and the physician. Besides, the
repeated prophecy of the Messias in the Old Testament would
have been vain and superfluous if the Saviour was not abso-
lutely necessary for the salvation of mankind ; consequently
a man cannot have true religion nor real happiness in this world
and in eternity if he does not believe in the Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Q. It is not difficult to believe that Jesus Christ was the
holiest of men, and that He taught a divine morality, but I
hesitate to admit His Divinity.

‘14 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

As dt Jesus §Christhad been merely’ the holiest of all men
‘He would not have allowed people to adore Him, for this would
have been a worse idolatry than any He abolished. And if He
taught a Divine morality He could not have founded it on
illusions and falsehood. But since Jesus Christ declared
positively that His birth was from eternity and His nature
divine: since He was solemnly recognised, proclaimed and
adored as God by His disciples ; and lastly since Christianity,
as it has been taught and practised for nineteen centuries, is
founded upon the Divinity of Jesus Christ, one must believe
either that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, or else that He was a
charlatan who deceived the whole world.

Q. Before asking for those words of Jesus Christ which |
establish His Divinity, I should like to know if the Old Testa-
ment taught that the Messias to come would be God Himself ?

A. The Books of the Old Testament, specially the Psalms of
David and the Books of the Prophets reveal the Divinity of the
Messias. Texts abound: we will only quote the principal ones.

David speaks thus, ‘‘ The Lord saith to my Lord: Sit Thou
at My right hand until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool ’
(Ps. cix. 1).

The passage in Isaias (chap. ix.) which we have already
quoted would not apply to a Messias who-was only a man, for
the prophet calls Him “God the mighty, the Father of the
world to come, the Face of peace.” It is of Him that Isaias
speaks in chapter vii.: ‘‘ A Virgin shall conceive and bear a son:
and his name shall i called Emmanuel, ‘God with us. 2” This
magnificent prophecy agrees with the: “following, ‘ ‘God Him-
self will come and will save you” (xxxv. 4). “ The voice of
one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
straight in the wilderness the paths of our God.” . . . “ Say to
the cities of Juda: Behold your God. Behold the Lord God
shall come with strength ” (xl. 3, 9, 10). “‘ The Lord of Hosts
is His name ; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, shall
be called the God of all the earth ” (liv. 5).

The prophet Zacharias reveals the Divinity of the Redeemer
of mankind in these terms, ‘‘ Sing, praise, and rejoice, O
daughter of Sion: for behold I come and I will dwell in the
midst of thee, saith the Lord”? (iii. 10).

Let us mention also the witness of that strange Book of Job
wherein Job declares the firm hope which he has of rising again

Answers to a Jewtsh Enquirer 15

_ and of seeing with his bodily eyes his Redeemer—God made
Man. »,‘ I know that,my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day
I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with
_ my skin. and in my flesh I shall see my God. Whom I myself

shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my
hope is laid up in my bosom ” (xix. 25-27). All these passages
_ and many others can only apply to the Messias.

Q. How do the Jews explain these texts ?
\@A. Jews in general do not read them; and if they read
2 ‘them, they do not understand them ; or else they take them to
their Rabbis, who will not understand them. But those who
have read them and honestly studied them have not been able
to misunderstand the clearness of their meaning, and have
applied them to the Messias.

Q. Did those Jews who awaited the Messias before the
coming of Jesus Christ believe that He would be4the Son of
God P

A. This mystery could not have been loudly proclaimed or
openly known by all until the coming of Jesus Christ. However,
even before that time, those who amongst the Jews were
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, or well versed in the Holy
Scriptures, had a more distinct knowledge of it. One sees this
in reading those books which contain the ancient traditions.

SSS

Sear
SS ee

Q. I have read the Gospel several times and what I find
obscure is this: On one side you prove that the texts of the
Old Testament and the traditions of the Synagogue teach that
the Redeemer would be God Himself ; on the other hand, Jesus
Christ, who manifests Himself as the Redeemer, always affects
_/ the title Son of Man. How do you reconcile these contra-
~ dictory titles ?

_ A. The Redeemer, Jesus Christ, is truly man, son of Abraham
and of David, as the Holy Scriptures foretold, and born of Mary,
the immaculate Virgin of Israel. But as we ‘shall explain later,
_ He 1s God-Man, or rather He is God made Man—Emmanuel.

_ Q. J see that Jesus everywhere calls Himself Son of Man,
_ but I do not see that He anywhere accepted the name of God.
A. If you read the New Testament attentively you will dis-
- cover two things. On one side Jesus Christ insisted on the title
Son of Man, to link Himself to the prophecy of Daniel (chap. vii.);
_ and on the other He manifestly declared Himself to be Divine.

16 Answers to a Jewish Enqutrer

As for the passages relative to the Divinity of Jesus Christ,
they are so numerous that one would have to copy out nearly
the whole of the Gospels in order to quote them. Here, however,
are some of them: Jesus had just stilled the storm on the lake,
‘and they that were in the boat came and adored Him saying,
‘Indeed Thou art the Son of God’ ” (Matt. xiv. 33).

In chapter xvi. the same Evangelist relates the striking pro-
fession of faith made by Simon Peter in the presence of Jesus
Christ. The Messias asked His disciples, ““‘ Whom do men say
that the Son of Man is ? ” and they replied that He was generally
considered to be one of the old prophets who had risen from the
dead. Then Jesus, addressing Himself to His Apostles, asked
them, “ But whom do ye say that I am?” Simon Peter
answered and said, “‘ Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living
God.” Then Jesus, far from reprimanding St. Peter, made this
reply, “ Blessed are thou, Simon Barjona, because flesh and
blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in
Heaven.”

At the Transfiguration when He was transfigured before
them and His face did shine as the sun, and His garments
became white as snow, there came a voice out of the cloud saying,
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ” (Matt. |
XVI. 2, 5).

When St. Luke quotes the words which Jesus Christ pro-
nounced at the assembly of judges, he adds that these cried out,
‘ Art Thou then the Son of God?” And Jesus Christ replied to
them, ‘‘ You have said it: Iam He” (xxii. 70).

St. John declares that the Jews sought to put Him to death,
not only because He had violated the Sabbath, but because He
said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God
(v., xvili.). They said to Pilate, ‘“‘ We have a law: and accord-
ing to the law He ought to die, because He made Himself the
Son of God ” (xix. 7). “‘ I and the Father are one,” said Jesus
Christ (x. 30). ‘‘ He who honoureth not the Son, honoureth not
the Father who hath sent Him:” ‘the hour cometh and now
is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ” (v. 23,
25). ‘* Jesus said to them Amen, Amen, I say to you before
Abraham was made, I am” (vill. 58).

St. Matthew closes his Gospel with these words of Jesus
Christ to His apostles, ‘“‘ Going therefore, teach ye all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost.”

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 17

. Supported, by these formal declarations of Jesus Christ, His
Divinity was firmly believed and professed openly by the
apostles and disciples.

_. St. Mark begins his Gospel thus, “The beginning of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”: and relating the
baptism of Jesus Christ, he tells of the voice from heaven which
rendered the testimony, “ Thou art My beloved Son: in Thee
I am well pleased ” (i. 11).

But it is above all St. John, that sublime Evangelist, who
teaches the Divinity of Christ so clearly and dogmatically.
These are his first words: ‘“‘In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God: and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
Him ; and without Him was made nothing that was made. In
Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light
shineth in darkness : and the darkness did not comprehend it ”
(i. 1-5). The same Evangelist teaches us that Jesus Christ is
the Word of God, who is Himself God, as we have just read.
“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us (and we
saw His glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the
Father) full of grace and truth ” (i. 14). After having related the
marvellous works of Jesus Christ he adds: “ These things are
written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God: and that believing you may have life in His name ”’
(xx. 21):

* To these texts and many others in the Holy Gospels must
be added those in the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the
other sacred books of the New Testament, as well as those
traditional teachings all of which have the faith in Jesus Christ,

_God made Man, for their foundation. :

~ Q. The texts which you have quoted do not permit one to
doubt the Divinity of Jesus Christ. But in that case is it not
necessary to admit the plurality of Gods ?
A. There is but one God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and
of Jacob; and in that Unity there resides the mystery of the
Trinity, which we will next proceed to consider.

* (Translator’s note.) It is impossible to overestimate the importance
of the teaching on this subject which is to be found in the Epistles of St.
Peter and St. Paul: a careful study of these writings will add valuable
testimony to that of the Gospels.

PART II

Q. Wuat is the mystery of the Blessed Trinity ?

A. Before approaching this sacred dogma, let us agree at
once that it is difficult, indeed impossible, for the limited human
mind to comprehend the infinite.

We who are ignorant of the inmost nature of visible creatures,
how can we speak of the inmost nature of the Creator ?

Moreover, as our language cannot really explain mysteries
which escape the senses, we are obliged to borrow analogies from
things of earth which can only give very incomplete ideas of the
things of heaven. That is why the august mystery of the
-Trinity,-entrusted by Jesus Christ to the Christian Faith, is
above all explanation.

Q. Ishould not attempt to fathom the Divine Majesty, but
I should like to know how the Christian idea of the Trinity can
leave the dogma of the Unity of God intact ?
A. We believe in one God, the God of Israel, but we know

by Divine revelation that there are three Persons in this one ~ yi

God. But, remember first of all that the word person applied to
God must not lead us to imagine any bodily or sensible figure,
for God is pure Spirit ; and in the second place this same word
must not give one an idea of human persons, each of them
possessing a body and a soul distinct from all others ; for there
is but one God, although there are three Divine Persons, because
there is only one infinite Being which is common to the three
Persons. But the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, united in the same
Divine Nature, having but one essence and but one substance, are
but one and the same God, one sole and only God, one sole and
infinite Being, creator and Lord of all things.

-Q. It appears to me that you complicate the idea of God,
which is so simple among the Israelites.
A. The more perfect understanding of this mystery of God
will not really complicate our idea of Him, except in so far as the
same thing may be said to happen to us when we grow in the

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Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 19

knowledge of some fellow man. When we first know a man we
have a very superficial understanding of him, but when he talks
to us and reveals himself, although we begin to understand far
more about him we may perhaps also say that our ideas are more
complicated. It is in this way that the dogma of the Unity
of God is complicated and illuminated by the idea of the
Trinity.

Q. Iam astonished that the Old Testament makes no mention —
of this mystery.

A. The clear and universal manifestation of this sublime
dogma was reserved until the time of the Messias to whom it
appertained to reveal to us the hidden mysteries of the Divine
nature. Besides which the Jews, surrounded by idolaters and
themselves so inclined to idolatry, needed above all to be

_ Strengthened in their faith in the one true God: for it might

be feared that a too manifest revelation of the Trinity of Divine
persons would give them an occasion for adoring several Gods.
But always (long before the time when the Divine Messias,
through the Jews, had spread the knowledge of the true God
throughout the world) the Jewish faith had included the
shadowy idea of the Trinity, not yet declared.

Q. . Do the Books of the Old Testament speak of the T rinity ?
A. The Sacred Books of the Old Testament do not expressly
formulate the mystery of the Blessed ‘Trinity, but they speak
in many places of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ; and
in several texts, they, to whom it has already been revealed,

. catch a glimpse of the Trinity of the Divine Persons. This

mystery has certainly been caught sight of by the patriarchs and
prophets. We read, for instance, in Psalm il.: “The Lord hath

“said to me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten ‘Thee.

Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance,
and the utmost parts of the earth for Thy possession”: and
in Psalm cix, “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit Thou at my
right hand . . . from the womb before the day-star I begot
Thee.”’ }
These texts could certainly not apply to David. “Give, O
God,” says the Psalmist, “ to the king’s son Thy justice.” Who
is this king’s son? The same Psalm designates Him manifestly,

_ “ He shall continue throughout all generations.” “ All the kings

of the earth shall adore Him; all nations shall serve Him ”
(Ps. Ixxi, 1; 5, 11).

20 Answers toa Jewish Enquirer —

The ,Psalmist also; calls the. Son the Word of God, “ He sent —

His Word and healed them ” (Ps. cvi. 20).

Solomon in the Book of Proverbs says, ‘‘ What is His name,
and what is the name of His Son, if thou knowest ?”’

Other texts could be quoted. Those given speak of the Father
and of the Son: as to the Holy Spirit, it was He who inspired the
Prophets ; and from the very first words in the Bible we find.
Him specially mentioned: “and the Spirit of God moved over
the waters ” (Gen. i. 2). ‘‘ His Spirit hath adorned the heavens,”
says the Book of Job (xxvi. 13).

‘Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created,
and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth ” (Ps. ciii. 30).

In those days, saith the Lord by the mouth of theProphet
Joel, ‘‘ I will pour forth My Spirit on all flesh ”’ (Joel u. 28).

It is not necessary to multiply texts; those which I have
just quoted suffice to prove that the names of the F ather, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit are many times mentioned in the Old
Testament. These different titles,evidently apply to one and
the same God, and yet they imply a distinction between,the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You will notice that there are,three words used in Holy Writ
to express the Name of God, and these three words exactly
coincide with the meaning of the three Divine Persons. You
will also notice that the ineffable name of God is almost always
pronounced three times in the Holy Scriptures. Thus God said
of Himself to Moses, “‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, the God of Jacob.”

The Jews of to-day also address a triple invocation to Him.
‘ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Sabaoth.”

And, still more significant, the dogma of the Unity of God, as -

it was pronounced by Moses, implies in itself the mystery of the
Trinity, ‘‘ Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” gx

This text employs three expressions to reveal one God to us.
But, notice above all two mysterious sayings of God, one at the
moment of the Creation of man, and the other after the Fall,
which can easily be explained by the mystery of a distinction in
the Divine Unity.

At the moment of the Creation of Man, God held in some
manner a counsel with,Himself, and said, ‘‘ Let us make man to
our image and likeness’: and when man had sinned He said,
as if in derision, ‘“‘ Behold Adam is become as one of us.” From
which we may conclude that perhaps the patriarchs, the

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Answers to a Jewish Enquirer aI

_ prophets, and other holy persons of the ancient law were able
to catch a glimpse of this mystery ; and curiously enough this
is proved by Jewish traditions, as can be seen in the learned
researches of converted Rabbis. The® Book called “ Zohar,”
which is, after the Bible, one of the most precious books of

Jewish antiquity, constantly calls the Unity of God “a great

mystery’’: and generally speaking, the doctors of the Syna-
gogue who lived before the Advent of the Messias talk of the
Trinity in the Divine Unity as a truth which had been known
from the most remote times.

This was testified to by Saint Epiphanius amongst thes a
being himself of the Jewish race, perfectly understood the
traditions of his nation: here is a passage, from the Greek, of
this celebrated writer: ‘The most eminent doctors amongst
the scholars of Israel taught at all times the Trinity in Unity
of the Divine essence with firm conviction.”

It you had the time to consult the sacred books, and the
traditions recorded in the commentaries of the ancient Rabbis,
you would become convinced that the theology of the Catholic
Church in no point contradicts Hebrew theology. Truth unveils
itself gradually as the sun; but it is always the same, always
intact and immovable: ‘“‘The'Word of the Lord endureth for
ever,”

Q. You said’that the mystery of the Trinity is incompre-
hensible ?

A. Yes, can you be surprised at this? I repeat that our
feeble and limited intellect cannot comprehend the Infinite
Majesty of God. Powerless to explain even visible and created
things, how can it explain that which is invisible, uncreated,
infinite ?

Q. Let me say that in some way the idea of the Trinity
begins to dawn upon my mind. I can distinguish the number
three in many unities. Thus in matter I distinguish between
length, breadth, and height ; in all natural developments the
root, the stem, and the crown. In the family there are father,
mother, and child. This law is found also in science and art ;
logic proceeds by three terms ; grammar sums up the proposition
in the subject, the verb, and the predicate ; music requires three
notes to compose a perfect harmony ; architecture itself forms
a perfect order of three principal parts—the base, the column,
and the entablature. I have always admired this universal law

22 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

without being able to explain it to myself; bat I begin to
suspect that it is a reflection of God in all creation.

A. These comparisons are interesting ; there is some truth
in them ; but we cannot use them to demonstrate the fathom-
less dogma of the Divine Trinity. This dogma presents for our
worship one only God in the Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity,
without confounding the Persons and without distinction of
substance.

Q. I should like to know the terms in which this mystery is
taught in the New Testament.

A. Attend carefully. We will collect the texts hich
explicitly reveal the Trinity. Let us begin with the solemn
mission which Jesus Christ gave to His Apostles, at the moment
when He was about to leave the world: ‘ All power is given to
Me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore, teach ye all
nations : baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost ” (St. Matt. xxviii. 19).

St. Paul, at the beginning of his Epistle to the Hebrews, says
that the Son of God, by whom God had made the world, is the
brightness of His glory and the figure of His substance, and that
He upholds all things by the word of His power.

The three Persons distinct in God are also indicated in the
text of the same Apostle to the Corinthians: ‘‘ The Grace of

Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Charity of God, and the Com-

_ munication of the Holy Ghost be with you all” (1 Cor. xiii. 13).

An infinity of other passages in the New Testament speak of
the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. We have already
quoted a good number relating to the Son of God; here are
some others :—

The Apostle St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians (ii. 9)
says of Jesus Christ, “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead corporeally.”” The same Apostle, in his Epistle to the
Romans, talking of the Jews, says that from them has come,
‘“ according to the flesh, Jesus Christ, who is over all things, God
blessed for ever ’ (Rom. ix. 5). |

Again, let us quote that exclamation of St. Thomas, at the
moment when he contemplated the wounds of the risen Saviour.
“My Lord and my God!” Jesus replied, ‘‘ Because thou hast
seen Me, Thomas, thou‘ hast™believed ” (St. John xx. 28, 20).
The Holy Scriptures affirm the Divinity of the Holy Ghost just
as they do that of the Son. St. Paul says to the Corinthians,

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 23

*“‘ Know you not that you are the temples of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Cor. ili. 16.)

And that we may not hesitate to believe that this Spirit of
God is the Holy Ghost Himself; he says still more positively in
the sixth chapter, ‘‘ Know you not that your members are the
temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you?” and he adds,
“‘ Glorify and bear God in your body ” (x Cor. vi. 19, 20).

_ It is reported in the Acts of the Apostles that Ananias having
been guilty of lying, St. Peter said to him, ‘“‘ Ananias, why hath
Satan tempted thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy
Ghost ? Thou hast not lied to men, but to God ” (Acts v. 3, 4).

In the Gospel of St. Mark we read this sentence, which
gives us an idea of the Divine Majesty of the Holy Ghost,
‘All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men. . . but he
that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall never have
forgiveness ’’ (St. Mark iii. 28, 29).

Therefore on one side, there is only one God; and on the

_ other we see that the Son is God, and that the Holy Ghost is

God equally with the Father. What conclusion do we draw
from that ? That there is in God, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, one sole God, Creator of heaven and earth.

Q. This conclusion seems evident to me, and I have no
difficulty in admitting that, if there is an explicable mystery at
the foundation of each existence, it should be even more reason-
able that it should exist in the depths of Divinity. But, since
the Trinity dominates all the other mysteries of Christianity, I
should like to be further enlightened on this dogma.

A. It is of the highest importance not only to understand
but to recognise and believe with firmness the truths which

“relate to the Trinity ; for the slightest error in this matter

involves the most serious consequences. That is why the
Trinity must always be spoken of with respect and in those
terms sanctioned by theologians. There is but one God,
because there is but one single Divine substance common
to the three Persons. The Son, therefore, is not another God
than the Father, neither is the Holy Ghost another God than the
Father and Son ; the three Divine Persons are all equal ; con-
sequently they are all three eternally and infinitely perfect, have
the same’ unique wisdom, the same unique power, the same
unique infinite goodness. In this connection there is no distinc-
tion between them; They are the one and the same God,

24 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

Creator, and Sovereign Lord of all things. But in reality they are
distinct ; there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Father is the First Person distinct from the other two :
for He is the Father, He is not the Son, nor the Holy Ghost.

The Son is the Second Person distinct ; He is the Son, He is
distinct from the Father and the Holy Ghost ; finally, the Holy
Ghost is the Third Person distinct from the Father and the
Son. .

But in distinguishing these three terms, as Father, Son, Holy

Ghost, we must beware, of course, of any dividing of the God-

head. \

: Remember that there is always but one Divine nature, one
substance only, one sole Divinity which is indivisible and which
is whole and the same in each Person.

God has known and contemplated Himself from all eternity.
The interior expression of the knowledge which God has of
Himself, the eternal Word by which He tells Himself that He
is, is a substantial Word, a Divine Person, to whom the Father
_ who begat Him communicates His nature ; that is to say His

full Divinity ; it is His Son, His other Self, God of God, Light -

of Light. But there is a reciprocal and eternal Love between
the Father and the Son, between the Father and Him who is
His living, perfect, and substantial image ; this mutual Love,
this Divine link which unites them, is the Third Divine Person
who proceeds from the other two, equal to them in all things, and
eternally God ; He'is the Holy Ghost.

Q. If I understand but little of these theological formulas,
at least I can perceive their significance. I conceive the idea of
God as that of the sun: his shining image is the visible world.
The sun is a radiant unity, but one can distinguish in it its
source, radiance, and heat.

A. This analogy is fairly correct, as accurate as a com-
parison can be between a creature and its Creator, and theo-
logians admit these kinds of comparisons so as to give us, to
some extent at any rate, the idea of a Trinity in Unity.

The great St. Augustine delighted in explaining these
analogies in his different works; he willingly recognised a
symbol of the mystery of the Trinity in the human soul. There
is in it, he says, existence, consciousness, and will: three
distinct powers in one soul.

Bossuet develops this comparison, “ The' thought,” he says

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 25

(Discourse upon Universal History), “‘ which we feel born bi us
as the germ of our spirit, as the son of our intelligence, gives us
some idea of the Son of God, eternally conceived in the intelli-
gence of the Heavenly Father ; that is why this Son of God
takes the title of the Word ; so that we should understand that
He is born in the bosom of the Father, not as the body is born,
but as that interior voice is born in our soul, which we feel there
when we'contemplate truth.

“But the fruitfulness of our spirit does not stop at this
interior voice, at this thought of the intellect, at this image of
truth which is found in us. We love this interior voice and the
spirit in which it is born, and in loving it we feel within ourselves
something which is not less precious than our spirit and our
thought, which is the fruit of both, which unites them, which
unites with them, and makes with them one single life.

“Thus as far as any connection can be found between God and
man, thus, I say, the eternal Love is produced in God, proceed-
ing from the Father who thinks, and from the Son who is His
thought, to make with Him and with His thought, one equally
happy and perfect nature.”

Here is another thought which may appear even more
striking to you, although it is, I admit, not a rigid demonstra-
tion, for human reason cannot prove absolutely those truths
which transcend reason, and which we can only understand
through the revelation of God.

This demonstration arises out of that beautiful definition of
God which we read in the Epistles of St. John the Apostle—
“God is Love.” If God is Love, He must love eternally. But,
tell me, what was the object of His love before all creation ?

The Creation was not necessary ; it depended upon the free-
‘will of God. But Divine Love is necessary, it is inherent in
God’s very nature. If then, God could only expend His love
upon Himself, must not one distinguish between God loving
and*’God loved ?

But between Him who loves‘and Him who is loved, there is
a vital connection, a link which unites them, a flow of love
which proceeds from one to the other ; and thus we are led to
conceive, as far as we can, the existence of that substantial
Love, which makes of God loving and God loved but one.

This explanation was given by the celebrated Hugh of St.
Victor ; but it needs fuller development to become really

clear,
rd

26 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

Q. Iam struck by the mystery which enfolds the word Love,
and by that beautiful analogy which you have drawn from the
human soul. I have now some idea of the Trinity of persons
in the unity of the Divine substance. Besides, I realise that |
when God reveals a truth to us we are firmly bound te believe it,
even if it is incomprehensible.

A. Thanks be to God, you no longer suppose that Christians
adore three Gods, as the Jews think they do. This absurd
‘supposition disappears before the most elementary teaching of
Christian doctrine.

Hereafter you will better understand the Divine nature of the
Messias, and the work of the Redemption of mankind.

PART III

Q. I THINK that I have grasped the idea of the Trinity fairly
‘well ; but if God came down to earth, my imagination separates
_ Him from the Creator who reigns in Heaven, and in spite of
_ myself, I see two Gods.

A. When the sun floods the landscape it does not therefore
cease to be still in the heavens. In the same way the Son of God
in incorporating Himself in human nature did not cease to be
in heaven ; and we say that the Son of God came down to earth,
although He was already there before His Incarnation, because
in uniting Himself personally to our nature He manifested Him-
self in a visible manner upon that earth where He had previ-
ously been in an invisible manner only. We say also that He
came down from Heaven, so as to make ourselves understand the
immensity the love of God, Who is infinitely raised above all
creatures, in that He abased Himself as far as to unite Himself
to our nature, and even to take upon Himself all our misery, our
suffering, and our humiliation.

hd
f

( Q. Please explain to me how the Son of God united Himself
to human nature.

A. If you ask why this mystery was accomplished, I reply
with the Apostle that God loved us with so ardent a love that
_. He desired to carry this love to its furthest limit by contracting

the most intimate of all possible alliances with us. It is the
~~ reply of St. John, “‘ God hath first loved us.” :

But if you ask how the Incarnation of God in human nature
was accomplished, I can only reply that here we come into
touch with the supernatural. It is a mystery of the Divine
order, and remains a mystery. Thus St. John, when he
announced the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, only uttered
these simple and sublime words, ‘‘ The’ Word was made flesh

and dwelt among us.”

. QQ. What is the meaning of that saying ?
A. The mystery of the Word made flesh is called the mystery
of the Incarnation, and it signifies the union of the Divine with

28 Answers to a Jewtsh Enqutrer

human nature. But the Son of God in becoming man did not
cease to be God. Jesus Christ is at the same time both God and
Man. The contemplation of this mystery of love will make you
understand the hopes and the grandeur of*the Christian, the
disciple of Jesus Christ. All humanity has been ennobled,
even in a manner deified, by its union with God.

Q. I am astonished that the Jews have no idea of this
mystery.

A. Modern Jews have lost this idea ; they fail to recognise
their greatest title to nobility, for God became incarnate in the
children of Israel. The mission of the Jews was to prefigure and
to prophesy this mystery, to propagate the idea before it was
accomplished, to announce it to the world after its accomplish-
ment and to unite to the race of Abraham all nations, so as to
form with Israel one single people of God. This mission has
been effectively fulfilled by those among the Jews who became
the first disciples of Jesus Christ ; there are no more honourable
names amongst Christians than those of the Apostles, who were
all Israelites. But the Jews do not admit the mystery of the
Incarnation, do not know what to think about the Messias, and
resist blindly all prophetic, dogmatic, and historical testimony.

Q. How was the Incarnation announced in the Holy
Scriptures ?

A. You remember the prophecies which announced that the
Messias would be both’God and man. I would remind you that
the Incarnation of the Son of God is the marvel foretold by the
prophet Isaiah to the House of David: ‘‘ The Lord Himself
shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a
son: and His name shall be called Emmanuel ”’—that is to say
“God with us.” The fulfilment of this prophecy is told in the
Gospel of St. Luke (chap. i.) with admirable simplicity.

“The angel Gabriel was sent from"God into a city of Galilee,
called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was
Joseph, of the house of David ; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And the angel being come in said unto her, ‘ Hail, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women... .
Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a
son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great and
shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God
shall give unto Him the throne of David His father, and He shall
reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of His kingdom there |

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 29

shall be no end.’ And Mary said tojthe angel, ‘ How shall this
be done, because I know not man ? ’s¢And the angel answering
said to her, ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the
power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore
also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God.’ . . . And Mary said, ‘ Behold the handmaid of the
Lord ; be it done to me according to thy word.’ ”

Such, in all its simplicity, is the account of the mystery
which inaugurated the new era in human history. It is from
the day of the Incarnation that the years of each century have
henceforth been reckoned, and the Jews themselves can do no
otherwise than to accept this sacred date.

Q.. I had never thought that when I dated my letters 1 was
declaring the accomplishment of the promise of the Messias ;
and I render homage to that vital force of Christianity which
imposes itself even upon its adversaries and its greatest enemies.
But I have serious doubts still. The Gospel affirms sometimes
that the Mother of Jesus was a virgin, sometimes that she had
a husband. I find it all the more difficult to reconcile these
contradictory statements when, in several other texts, there is a
question of the brothers of Jesus Christ, which permits one to
suppose that Mary had had other sons.

A. Nothing is easier than to reply to these two difficulties.
The text which we have quoted says that God’s angel was sent

~ toa virgin ; and Mary replied, ‘‘ How shall this be done, because
I know not man?” This text proves that the marriage with
Joseph, the holy patriarch of Nazareth, had in no way been
contracted to the prejudice of the virginity which Mary had
vowed to the Lord, and which she always preserved. God had
_’ willed this alliance in order to give to the birth of Jesus Christ a
legitimate character by giving a husband to the Virgin of Israel.

- As for the mention of brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, it

is well known that in the Hebrew tongue as well as in other

Oriental languages, these words denote cousins, male and

female, in our language. Mary, according to the Scriptures and

according to unanimous tradition, was preserved in her con-
ception from original sin; she lived in virginity with her
busband St. Joseph ; and it was in her virginal womb that the

Son of God clothed Himself with a human nature, by the

ineffable and incomprehensible operation of the Holy Ghost.

SSeS aes oe
4 ~ FE oad ee ra

Q. I conceive that one has to rid oneself of prejudices and

30 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

ordinary ways of looking at things, when facing an act which is
_ Supernatural and wholly Divine. I find no difficulty in believing
that only a virgin-mothergwouldgbegsuitable for the Divine
Incarnation. ..,

A. Yes ;j truty Providence is wonderiul in all its works.
I will remindjyou of,another instance,ofyDivine wisdom. See
how there were two virgins at the origin of human things. Eve,
still a virgin, yielded to the temptation of the fallen angel, fell
into sin, involved the man, and with him all their descendants.

Mary, also a virgin, believed the faithful angel and became
the instrument of reparation. Eve magnified herself, Mary was
humble ; and it is thus, says St. Irenzeus that through Eve we
received the fruit of death, and through Mary the fruit of life.

Q. The contrast is striking ; and I am no longer astonished
that Christians honour the Virgin Mary so highly. But do you
not honour her excessively ? Do you not push your veneration
as far as adoration ?

A. Mary, being only a most pure creature, adoration offered
to her, would be idolatry. Christians honour, cherish, and
invoke her: how could they have other sentiments towards
the most holy Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God made Man,
the Mother of the Saviour of the world ?. They look upon her as
_ their Mother ; and the veneration which they bestow upon her

is a veneration of honour, a grateful and confident and filial love.

‘Who more than the Israelite should bless the daughter of David ?
for, with more right to the title than Judith, she is the glory of
Jerusalem, the joy of Israel and the honour of the people of God.
The homage which has been offered to her by all nations since
the early days of Christianity is a striking realisation of that
celebrated prophecy uttered by the Blessed Virgin herself:
‘For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me
blessed.” |

Q. Under what circumstances did the Blessed Virgin speak
those words P

A. We read in the sacred books of the Gospels the history
of the birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem, His presentation in
the Temple, His flight into Egypt, His return to the Holy Land,
His hidden life at Nazareth, His public life, His labours, His
teachings, His miracles, His suffering, His sacrifice, His resur-
rection, and His ascension. Mary was the inseparable witness
of all these doings ; she took part in.them in the name of the

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 31

whole human race ; and it was only a short time after having
received the Angel’s message that she, in the presence of her

y sainted relative Elizabeth, celebrated beforehand the mercies

which had been promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his
seed, in a wonderful canticle, the promises which were to be
accomplished in the person of the Son whom she was to bring
into the world ; and she prophesied that she herself would be
blessed for all time. This will make you understand how lawful
the worship is which Christian piety offers to the creature who
is privileged above all others. But the idea of adoring her is
far from us ; we adore Jesus Christ, the Son of God, incarnate of
the Virgin Mary and become Man to redeem mankind. We
unite ourselves with His filial heart, in loving and honouring
His Mother : we do not adore her. |

PART IV

Q. You have clearly shown me that the Messias promised to
the Patriarchs and expected by our fathers is the Son of God,
united to human nature ; that this Messias is Jesus Christ ; and
that at the time foretold by the Prophets of Israel, He came in
order to redeem mankind.

I should like now to know precisely in what this Redemption
accomplished by Jesus Christ consists ?

A. The true notion of this Redemption is given to us in the
first promises recorded in the Bible. The devil, in causing our
first parents to fall into sin, closed the way to heaven against
them ; he drew down upon them a curse and punishment which
without God’s mercy would have been eternal ; he reduced them
to slavery. God cursed the serpent, and He added, “I will put
enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her
seed ; she shall crush thy head and thou shalt lay in wait for
her heel ” (Gen. iil. 15).

The promised Redeemer was therefore to destroy the work
of the serpent. His mission was to overthrow the empire which
Satan had usurped, and to re-establish the Kingdom of God
upon earth as it was in heaven. Through Him man could obtain
forgiveness from his Creator, and recover his heavenly home.
All the prophets proclaimed this mission, sometimes openly
and in express terms, at other times in figures of speech. But
in any case, if one considers the general effect of the prophecies
and takes the trouble to compare them carefully in order to inter-
pret those which are less clear by those that are explicit, it is
not difficult to discover that the Redemption must be, above all
things, spiritual. This is what the Jews did not recognise ; they
saw only a national work in the mission of the Saviour ; whereas
its chief aim is to reconcile us to our heavenly Father, and to
reopen to us the gates of our true native land.

Q. How is the Redemption of mankind accomplished ?

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 33

_ A. We could never by our own efforts have re-established
our first relations with God. It is Jesus Christ who has put
Himself in our place, and has accomplished the reconciliation,
by making full satisfaction for us by His work of expiation.
The Son of God became man and delivered Himself unto death
for us and as an atoning victim ; His blood has been the price
of our deliverance.

Q. The Jews taught that Messias should reign for ever. How
can this be reconciled with His sufferings and death ?

A. The Prophets who announced the reign of the Messias
predicted also His humiliations and sufferings. It was neces-
sary that He should first destroy sin; it is by His obedience,
by His sufferings, and by His death, voluntarily accepted, that
the Divine Saviour had to make amends for the proud inde-
pendence of fallen man, and deliver him from eternal death.
Such is the reply which Jesus Christ Himself made, enforcing
the prophecies—‘‘ Ought not Christ to have suffered these
things, and so to enter into His glory?” (St. Luke xxiv.
26).

The reign of Jesus Christ upon earth began by the establish-
ment of His Church, which from earliest times has spread over
all the known world, and tends to grow more and more till it
will cover the earth. But since mankind is dowered with free
will, there will always be those who will resist His empire in
such a manner that the complete realisation of the reign of Jesus
Christ will only take place at His last coming.

Q. There will then be two advents of the Messias? Does the

_/QOld Testament justify this belief ?

A. Yes; and it is because they fail to understand this, that
the Jews refuse to recognise the accomplishment of the prophe-
cies in the results which they see before their eyes. Here we
touch their chief error. The Old Testament, confirmed by the
Gospel, expressly and distinctly mentions the two comings of
Jesus Christ.

The first was to be accomplished in most humble conditions ;
it would be the birth of the Man of Sorrows, who by His humilia-
tions, His sufferings, and His death, would atone for the sins of
the world. The conversion of nations and the establishment of
the Church are the fruit of this first advent. The second will

take place with great pomp and majesty.

C

34 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

It will not be as a Saviour that the Messias will reappear upon
earth, but as the Judge of the living and the dead ; then will be
seen the complete accomplishment of all those prophecies which
foretold the glory of Jesus Christ ; for His reign and that of His
Saints will be absolute and universal in an unmixed peace
(chap. ili.).

Hear on what terms the prophet Joel speaks of the glory of
the second advent, “I will gather together all nations and
will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat; and I
will plead with them there for my people and for my inheritance
Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have
parted my land. . . . The sun and the moon are darkened : and
the stars have withdrawn their shining. And the Lord shall
roar out of Sion and utter His voice from Jerusalem ; and
the heavens and the earth shall be moved ; and the Lord shall
be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of
Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God
dwelling in Sion my holy mountain ; and Jerusalem shall be holy,
and strangers shall pass through it no more. . . . Judea shall
be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to generation and genera-
tion.”” These last passages show very plainly that it could not
be a question of an earthly town or country, and that, under
the emblems of Jerusalem and Judea, the Prophet spoke of the
heavenly home.

Read among other passages of the Old Testament the vision
recorded by Daniel (chap. vii.). The Prophet there describes
the reign of Anti-Christ, who will be the most terrible enemy of
God’s people ; and he foretells at the same time his ruin and
the eternal reign of Christ and His Saints. “ And lo, one like
the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came
even to the Ancient of days. . . . And he gave Him power and
glory and a kingdom ; and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall
serve Him. His power is an everlasting power that shall not be
taken away; and His kingdom that shall not be destroyed.”
All these prophecies have been confirmed by the Gospel ; for
Jesus Christ Himself announced, formally that all the peoples
of the earth, struck with terror, would “see the Son of Man
coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty ”
(Matt. xxiv. 30).

It is the neglect of these prophecies relating to the first
coming which blinds the Jews and strengthens their incredulity.
Expecting but one Advent, they have confused the double set of

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 35

prophecies of the first and second Advents, so as to find contra-
dictions inthem. From this principally springs their uncertainty
concerning the Messias. They are scandalised at the sufferings
and death of Jesus Christ, without recalling the fact that they

3 had been foretold in the Old Testament.

Q. I shall be very glad if you will point out to me those
passages in our sacred writings which treat of the sufferings and
death of the Messias, and justify what you have said of the first
advent.

A, All the sacrifices of the law of Moses were prophetic
figures of the immolation of the real Lamb offered for the
salvation of the world ; and these sacrifices have no meaning of
value except by their connection with the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ. But besides these figurative ceremonies, the prophets
solemnly announced the circumstances of the great sacrifice.
Daniel actually said that “ Christ shall be slain,” and he stated
the actual time.

Take again the fifty-third chapter of Isaias: one would
think that the Prophet was talking about that which had
actually happened, whereas he was foretelling the future. “ He
shall grow up as a tender plant before Him, and as a root out of
a thirsty ground. There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness :
and we have seen Him and there is no sightliness, that we
should be desirous of Him. Despised and the most abject of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity ; and His
look was as it were hidden and despised. Surely He hath borne
our infirmities and carried our sorrows ; and we have thought
Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our iniquities : He was bruised for our
_ sins. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him: and by

His bruises we are healed. He was offered because it was His own
will, and He opened not His mouth. He shall be led as a sheep
to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before the shearer,
and He shall not open His mouth. He was taken away from
distress and from judgement. . . . If he shall lay down His life
for sin, He shall see a long-lived seed. . . . Because His soul
hath laboured He shall see and be filled. By His knowledge
shall this my just servant justify many ; and He shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore will I distribute to Him very many, and He
shall divide the spoils of the strong, because He hath delivered
His soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked.”’

36 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

You will see from these last words that the death of the
Messias was to be the condition of the establishment of His
Kingdom (that is to say the Church) by the conversion of the
people. ?

Notice that this prophecy was made six hundred years
before Jesus Christ, and that the book which contains it has
always been in the hands of the Jews. They read it to-day in
their synagogues—but there is a veil over their eyes, they will
not understand.

Open the Psalms of David. The saintly king shows before-
hand the plots which the princes of the people would form
against the Messias: ‘‘ The princes met together, against the
Lord and against His Christ ” (Ps. ii.). He foretold the treason
of Judas: “For even the man of my peace, in whom I
trusted, who ate my bread, hath greatly supplanted me”
(Ps, xl. ‘9);

The same Prophet, whose psalms form the liturgy of all
synagogues, tells, in a most surprising manner, the principal
circumstances of the Passion of Jesus: “I am a worm and no
man ; the reproach of men and the outcast of the people. All
they that saw me have laughed me to scorn: they have spoken
with the lips and wagged the head. He hoped in the Lord, let
Him deliver him: let Him save him, seeing He delighted in him.
They have pierced My hands and feet, they have numbered all
my bones. They parted my garments amongst them: and
upon my vesture they cast lots ” (Ps. xxi.). “ And they gave
me gall for my food: and to my thirst they gave me vinegar to
drink ” (Ps. Ixviii.).

Does it not seem as if we were reading the Gospel ?

Q. You used the word “ Passion,” which I do not under-
stand.

A. The word “ Passion ” comes from the Latin word which
means to suffer. It therefore implies the sum total of the suffer-
ings of Christ.

Q. Icannot deny that the prophecies are clear and precise
on that point ; and if the Jews had not scrupulously guarded
the deposit in all places and at all times, I should have been
tempted to believe that they had been composed after the event. %
It is most astonishing that the Jews do not see that the Messias
was bound to suffer and die.

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 37

A. Your astonishment will increase if you put by the side of
the prophecies certain historical facts recorded in the Old
Testament : for all the history of God’s people is full of symbols
which refer to the immolation of the Messias. Isaac carried on
his shoulders the wood for his own sacrifice. Does that not
indicate in a striking manner the Saviour carrying His Cross ?
The sacrifice of Isaac was not accomplished, it was only a type.
That of Jesus Christ was consummated on Calvary when His
Father delivered Him over to death for the salvation of man-
kind. Joseph, thrown into a well and sold by his brothers,
afterwards becoming their saviour and benefactor, assuredly
represents Jesus Christ despised, delivered by the Jews to the
Gentiles, sacrificed, and afterwards reigning over the whole
earth.

It would need a large book to show you all the symbols,
mysteries of the history and religion of Moses ; mysteries which
would have no sense if they did not refer to the divine victim
Who, out of love for mankind, took upon Himself the sins of the
world and expiated them by His sufferings and His death.

Q. But could not the Son of the God of love and mercy have
redeemed mankind without submitting to those torments fore-
told by the prophets of Israel and related in the Gospels ?

A. It is true that on the part of the Son of God the smallest
expiation would have sufficed to make amends for our offence
and redeem us, but if God willed that He should endure so much
suffering, and that He should die, it was to show us the extent
of His love, and to obtain ours. It was necessary, says the
Evangelist, that the Son of man “ suffer many things and be
rejected by the ancients and by the chief priests and the scribes :
and be killed and after three days rise again ” (Mark viii. 31).
Not that He was compelled to suffer these pains ; but He was
offered as a sacrifice because He willed it, said the prophet
Isaias ; He took upon Himself our iniquities; He delivered
Himself voluntarily to death, according to His own words: “ No
man taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself”
(John x. 18).

Q. If Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for all man-
kind, all are then saved ?

A. Truly, Jesus Christ suffered and died for all; but every-
one does not profit by the redemption which is offered to him.
We must correspond to the grace which Jesus Christ has merited

38 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

for us if we are to be saved; and by the help of that grace,
adhere to Him by faith, and obey His commands. In other
words, God could create man without his concurrence, but He
cannot save him without the consent of man’s will, which is
created free. On God’s side everything has been done for the
rehabilitation of the children of Adam ; but every man is free
either to unite himself to God by his union with Jesus Christ or
to withdraw from God by remaining distant from the Redeemer.
To sum up, the work of Redemption which was accomplished for
all mankind must be applied to each man separately.

Q. Does that mean that every man must receive the merits
of the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ ?

A. Certainly ; but there are not only merits of His suffer-
ings and death ; there are also the glorious fruits of His Resur-
rection and the Ascension.

Q. Please explain these mysteries to me.

A. When Jesus Christ consummated the Redemption of the
world by His death, He rose after three days living and victorious
from His tomb. For forty days he showed Himself frequently to
His disciples in order to strengthen their faith : on one occasion
He showed Himself to more than five hundred men assembled
together. On the fortieth day He rose visibly to heaven in
the presence of His disciples, thus reopening that path to the
heavenly home which had been closed since the original trans-
gression. These two last acts, the Resurrection and the Ascen-
sion, must be reproduced, as well as the sufferings and death of
Jesus Christ in all souls which have been redeemed. But only
those will participate in immortal glory who have shared in the
mystery of His sufferings.

Q. Is there any reference to the Resurrection of the Messias
in the Old Testament ?

A. The Resurrection of the Saviour of mankind was pre-
figured in the history of the Jews, and was foretold by the
prophets. But above all, Jesus Christ Himself definitely
announced that He would rise again on the third day after His
passion and death.

Q. What are the symbols of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
in the Old Testament ?
A. The complete restoration of Job after his long suffer-

ings ; the glorious position of Joseph in Egypt after he had

Oa eae

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 39

come forth living from the well; the marvel of Jonah, who,
to calm the storm, was thrown into the sea, and after having
been swallowed up by a monster, emerged living on the third
day ; these are some of the historical facts which prefigure the
triumph of Jesus Christ over death.

The Prophets spoke more definitely of the same mystery.
Sophonias, amongst others, hails the day of the Resurrection
of the Saviour. David prophesies in these words: ‘‘ My flesh
also shall rest in hope, because Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell; nor wilt Thou give Thy holy one to see corruption ”
(Ps. xv.). It is evident that the Psalmist was not speaking of
himself ; this the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul both say in
their discourse to the Jews on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Here are the words of St. Paul, ‘‘ For David when he had served
in his generation, according to the will of God, slept : and was
laid unto his fathers and saw corruption.”

Several other psalms sing of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ:
take, for instance, the third and the thirteenth. The twenty-
third psalm refers to the mystery of the Ascension, “ Lift up
your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates :
and the King of glory shall enter in. Who is this King of Glory ?
The Lord strong and mighty : the Lord mighty in battle.” The
forty-sixth and the hundred and ninth psalms sing of the
same triumph of the Messias ascended into heaven and sitting
at the right hand of God. There is no fact of history more
manifestly demonstrated than the accomplishment of these
prophecies. Moreover, it was by preaching the Resurrection
that the Apostles, who witnessed it, converted the people ; and

_ they sealed their testimony with their blood.

Q. Would it not have been more advantageous if Jesus

*“ ~~ Christ had remained upon earth ?

A. On the contrary, the Gospel tells us that it was advan-
tageous for mankind that Jesus Christ ascended into heaven.
If He had remained visibly upon earth, Christians would have
attached themselves to this world, whereas our lasting home is
not here below. And further, Jesus Christ in ascending into
heaven carried there human nature in His Person; He draws
there our hearts, our desires, and our hopes. He is our Head,
we are His members ; through Him we are already in heaven.
True Christians live in this world as strangers and travellers ;

> they live for heaven, and not for earth.

40 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

Q. Can man aspire to this high degree of glory ?

A. Not only must those who are redeemed and purified by
the Blood of Jesus Christ aspire to this ineffable glory, but they
must hold on to it with all their strength by faith, hope, and
love ; for the Saviour has said, “I go to prepare a place for
you”: and He says also, “ Father, I will that where I am, they
also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me.”

a

PART: V

Q. I Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, it seems to me
that even when He ascended into heaven He should not alto-
gether have left this world, and that since then, a means of
communication ought to exist between Him and the faithful.

A. Yes, you are right. There do exist living communica-
tions between Jesus Christ and the faithful ; sacred mysteries,

which in theological language are called Sacraments. But these
mysteries are only fully understood by those who have them-
selves experienced the effects which they produce. In admitting
that Jesus Christ, our saving and beneficent God, is the source
of peace, of love, of life, we can understand how the man of faith
must obtain immense advantages from his union with Him.
And this, indeed, was splendidly evident in the Apostles.

Jesus Christ before ascending into heaven gave them the
mission of preaching those sublime truths throughout the world,
which He came into the world to bring. He said to them,
“All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth. Going
therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation
of the world ” (Matt. xxvii. 18).

Little as one may know the state of the world at that period,
vit is not difficult to imagine that obstacles, humanly speaking
*’ insurmountable, must have appeared before the Apostles, who
were charged to preach to a pagan and barbaric world a
doctrine so holy and so opposed to the natural passions as that
of the Gospel. The attempt was no less bold in the case of the
Jewish people, who, deceived by their scribes and doctors, saw
only an enemy to their law in the person of Jesus Christ, and
who had themselves clamoured for His death. However, these
twelve sons of Israel, until then so timid that they had at the
moment of His Passion fled and forsaken their Divine Master—
twelve poor ignorant men, with no human resources—dared to
attempt this impossible task ; not fearing to expose themselves

42 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

te every kind of opposition and persecution, even to the loss of
life itself, that they might spread the Word of the Gospel unto
the ends of the earth, and fulfil the command which they had
received. What was the secret of their triumph? It was that
their Divine Master was with them, according to His promises ;
and He had kindled them with the fire of the Holy Ghost, which
had descended upon them after His ascension into heaven ;
in fact, this is what Holy Scripture records :

Ten ‘days after the Ascension, on the day of Pentecost, the
Apostles being assembled upon Mount Sion, the Holy Ghost
descended upon them in the form of tongues of fire, in the midst
of a great wind. From that moment they were entirely trans-
formed and changed into absolutely different men; in such a
way that, filled with divine courage, they separated, going to
preach the Gospel in all parts of the world. The success which
they obtained in the midst of every kind of opposition showed
the powerful assistance so marvellously given by Jesus Christ,
for these twelve patriarchs of the new union made alliance not
with one nation only, but with all mankind led a whole crowd
of peoples to the faith of Abraham, and enveloped them all in
the same net, so as to incorporate them into the family of Israel.
Their mission, transmitted from generation to generation to
their successors, has not been discontinued until our day any
more than has the effect of that promise of the Saviour, “‘ And
behold I am with you all nica, even to the consummation of
the world.”

Q. You say that the mission of the Apostles was to incor-
porate all nations into the family of Israel. But it seems to me,
on the contrary, that the Israelites have remained outside this
movement ?

A. Yes, but listen to this. After the Ascension of Jesus
Christ, the Israelites were divided into two parties. One party,
shocked at the humiliation of the Messias and blinded by their
proud obstinacy, fell under the just judgements of God. They
were banished from Jerusalem, and cast forth like the sons of
Cain all over the surface of the globe ; and in fact, for eighteen
hundred years they have had neither king nor country, nor
priesthood, nor sacrifices ; and they no longer know what to
think about the Messias. But all Jews have not suffered this

awful punishment. The best among them gathered around the

Apostles in Jerusalem and became the first of the faithful of

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a ah So

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Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 43

the Catholic Church; they formed the original nucleus of

Christians, to which all converted people have been attached.

Q. Do we not read in the Gospel that all the Jews arose

against Jesus Christ ?

A. Ves, the large population of Jerusalem was stricken with
blindness. But after the Ascension the light of truth began to

‘disperse the darkness.

I spoke just now of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the
Apostles on the day of Pentecost. This was accompanied by

miracles which drew thousands of Jews to the faith. Then the

Apostle Simon Peter made them understand the fulfilment of the
prophecy of Joel, who had declared that God would spread over
His servant the abundance of His Spirit. He reminded them

of the holiness and the miracles, the sufferings and death of

Jesus Christ, and told them at the same time that the Saviour

had risen from the dead ; that he, Simon Peter and all the other
disciples who had seen Him after His resurrection, were ready to

witness to the fact. The words of the chief of the Apostles

touched them with compunction, and they cried out, “ What

must we do?” The Apostle told them, “ Do penance, and be
baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.” He
further instructed them in other discourses ; and on that same

day three thousand Israelites joined themselves to the Apostles.

A few days later the same Simon Peter, the prince of the
Apostles, saw himself once more surrounded by a multitude of
Jews, on the occasion of a miracle which he had worked in the
name of Jesus Christ. He said to them, “ The God of Abraham,

the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers,

hath glorified His Son Jesus, whom you indeed delivered and
denied before the face of Pilate. You denied the Holy One and
the Just .. . the author of life you killed, whom God hath -
raised from the dead: of which we are witnesses. And now,
brethren, I know that you did it through ignorance. But those
things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all the
prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled.
Be penitent therefore, and be converted that your sins may be

‘blotted out. . . . For Moses said, ‘ A prophet shall the Lord

your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me ; him
you shall hear according to all things whatsoever he shall speak
to you. And it shall be that every soul which will not hear that
prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.’ And all the

44 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

prophets, from Samuel and afterwards, who have spoken, have
told of these days. You are the children of the prophets and of
the testament which God made to our fathers, saying to
Abraham, ‘ And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth
be blessed ’ ” (Acts ili. 13-25).

This second sermon produced even more fruit than the first ;
it brought about five thousand Jews to the feet of the Apostles.

Thus the newly-born Church was composed of from eight to
ten thousand children of Israel who were all of one heart and
one mind. Here we have the nucleus of the Catholic Church,
which in the course of centuries has grown like a tree of which
the branches spread more and more until they reach to the ends.
of the earth, and whose immortal fruit is reaped in heaven.

Q. What strikes me most in all that you have been teaching
me is that the nations which have been converted to Chris-
tianity are in a way like branches which have been grafted
upon Judaism. They were Jews who announced the Gospel to
the world, and they were Jews who composed the first Chris-
tian community, to which all the other peoples of the world
are successively joining themselves. Evidently, therefore, these
Jews in becoming Christians did not change their religion, for
they only acknowledged the Messias whom they were expecting ;
it was the Greeks, the Romans, and the Egyptians, and all the
heathen who, in embracing the faith, renounced the worship of
idols.

A. Indeed that is a striking point in the origin of Chris-
tianity. Through Christ all nations are incorporated into the
people of, God, until then composed only of the children of
Israel ; and they form with them one fold only, in which they
are neither Jews nor heathen, but Christians ; these are the only
souls redeemed by Jesus Christ.

Q. If the Christians of all nations form only one fold, there
must therefore be a link which unites them ?

A. That is so; the fold of Christians, which is called the.
Catholic Church, is a big family, strongly organised like a living
body. In the human body there are the head and the members.
united by bonds which maintain them in unity; in the same
way the Church has her head, her hierarchy, and her laws which
unite all the faithful.

Q. Ishould very much like to have an idea of that organisa-
tion.

Answers to a Jewish Enquirer 45

A. The Catholic Church, like all corporations, has its
supreme head. Jesus Christ, in appointing the Apostles to be
the chief centres of His life, assigned the primacy to that one
amongst them who was to possess full power over all the family
of the children of God. This chief of the Apostles is he to whom
Jesus Christ said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build My Church ” (Matt. xvi. 18). But as the Church was to
spread into all places, and for all time, its primitive organisation
had to be consolidated and perpetuated. In fact, St. Peter had
as his successors the Roman Pontiffs, the Popes: the bishops
are the successors of the Apostles ; the priests and deacons are
subordinate to them—all together form one and the same
hierarchy.

Q. Why has the Church been called Catholic ?

A. The word Catholic means universal: and that word
characterises the family of children of God which 1s recruited
from amongst all peoples, throughout all ages, until the end of
the world.

Q. I have sometimes heard it said that outside the Catholic
Church there is no salvation. Upon what do you found this
assertion ? .

A. Jesus Christ, when He instituted the Catholic Church,
confided to her the deposit of those truths which she should
teach the world ; it is in her hands that He has placed those
sacred mysteries which are the source of sanctification and of
salvation and are called Sacraments ; and He has also given her
authority for the spiritual government of souls. Is it not
therefore evident on this account that those who remain
voluntarily outside such an organisation exclude themselves
from eternal salvation ?

I would call your attention at this point to the manifest
falsehood which is only too widely spread—the statement that
all religions are true. That is as if one were to say that everyone
is at liberty to serve God in his own way ; but it is clear that it
is for God to teach us in what manner He wishes to be served ;
and that there can be no true religion except that one which He
Himself instituted. Everyone is therefore obliged to embrace it
as soon as they recognise it, and to abandon that which is false in
order to yield to that which is divinely true. To say that all
religions are true would be to imagine that truth and error are

46 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer

the same thing, and that there is no difference between light and.
darkness.

?

Q. Inow understand the saying “‘ Outside the Church there
is no salvation ” ; for assuredly, as you say, “ In order to please
God we must serve Him as He wills to be served.” But this
thought causes distressing thoughts to arise in my mind. It is
repugnant to my heart to admit the logical deduction from all
this. I think of my parents who did not know Jesus Christ ; I
think of those Jews who, in good faith, practised the worship of
Israel, with the firm conviction that God would have no other ;
they were good, generous, benevolent, perfectly sincere and
faithful to their conscience. Must one consider these men as
eternally lost ? Does the Church condemn them without any
hope ?

A. No; please do not misunderstand me. The Church
condemns no one and she hopes for the salvation of many men,
who, in spite of the uprightness of their heart, have not been
able to enter into her bosom for want of sufficient light to
recognise her by. Theologians teach that such men belong to
the soul of the Church, without being members of her body.
It is absolutely true that faith in Jesus Christ is indispensable to
salvation ; for since Jesus Christ is the only Redeemer and
Mediator between God and man, and since one can only be
saved through His merits, one must cling to Him so as to have
part in the redemption. But the revelation of this fundamental
truth may be made by supernatural means, at the hour of death,
to those souls, who, in good faith, have lived in invincible ignor-
ance ; and upon this point we assign no limit to the power and
mercy of God.

Q. This explanation consoles me ; one may hope to see one
day in heaven those relations and friends whom one has loved
on earth.

A. . This gentle hope is founded-on the infinite goodness of
God, who desires the salvation of all men. But, I repeat, there
is only one true religion, which it is absolutely necessary to
embrace and profess as soon as ever one has the happiness to
recognise it. He is unfaithful to God, and excludes himself from
His mercy who, being on the wrong road, does not seek the
solution of his doubts, and does not take the proper means to
understand the truth.

,
Answers to a Jewish Enquirer | 47

Q. I like to hear you repeat this last assertion, because it
furnishes me with an occasion for asking you for some explana-
tions of other churches or religions which call themselves
Christian. For instance, I have always heard Jews say that
the Protestant faith was the most convenient of all religions.
A. Jesus Christ established one Church only, that one which
has always existed from the time of the preaching of the
Apostles until to-day ; and that is the Catholic Church. As to
Protestantism, it is a human institution ; it had its origin in the
rebellion of some faithless Catholics who protested against the
authority and teaching of the Church. That happened four
hundred years ago. Protestants have as their principle the
right of interpreting the Word of God according to their own
liking ; that is what they call private judgement, which, in our
times has produced freethinkers, and in politics, anarchists.
They imagine that this sort of liberty in religious matters is very
convenient, but certainly no unity can exist where each indi-
vidual can accommodate his religion to his point of view ; and
from thence it comes that an infinity of dissenting sects has
arisen in the great defection which is called Protestantism.

The Catholic Church does not abandon Divine teaching to the
judgement of every private individual ; she never makes con-
cessions in doctrinal matters ; she guards the deposit of religious
truths exactly as she received them from the Apostles and their
successors, so as to transmit them intact and free from all
admixture to future generations. She teaches with authority in
the name of God, because she has faith in the word of our Lord
who gave her this mission and promised her His help, when He
said to the Apostles: “Go... teach... lam with you all
_days, even to the consummation of the world.”

Q. I can see that, after your explanations, the Protestant
religion appears to be but an ineffectual Christianity. If Jesus
Christ came to reveal eternal truths to the world He would
not have delivered them up to the risk of human discussions.
I recognise the Divine work where | find authority, harmony and
perpetuity. It therefore only remains for me to ask you what I
must do to become a faithful Catholic. .

A. The faithful Catholic is a true Israelite who believes in
the realisation of all the promises made to Abraham, to Isaac,
and to Jacob. He believes that the Messias has come who is
our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of God made Man by His

"306031 :

48 Answers to a Jewish Enquirer
Incarnation in the womb of Mary, the immaculate Virgin of
Israel.

Belief in Jesus Christ is belief in His love—a belief in His
teachings, His promises, His works ; it is, above all, belief in the
merits of His blood, which was shed to blot out the sins of the
world. This saving faith is a gift of God which is always given in
answer to the prayer of a-tfeart which is humble and sincere.
If you have the happiness to receive this precious gift, if you
believe firmly in Jesus Christ, hear the Church; for he who
listens to her listens to Jesus Christ, and he who hears her not
condemns himself, and remains a stranger outside the family of
the children of God. This is what the Gospel teaches us in set
terms. ;

Prepare yourself, therefore, by prayer and sorrow for your past
sins, to receive baptism. You will find therein not only the
purification of your own soul, but an abundance of fresh light
which will enable you to enjoy and understand more fully the
meaning of Christian doctrine. Whilst awaiting that great day,
the minister of the Church will instruct you more thoroughly in
those truths which are necessary to salvation; and he will
gradually initiate you into the sweet mysteries of the faith, and
of the Christian life.

But it is prayer, above all, which will draw upon you from on
high rays of Divine light. Turn then straight to your heavenly
Father ; beg for the grace of your Saviour ; pray with confidence
and perseverance. |

I dare to hope you will not be long in opening your eyes, for
God always hears those whose hearts are upright. And then,
joyfully tasting the first fruits of the Christian faith, you will
imitate that true Israelite whose praise is in the Gospels—you
will fall at the feet of Jesus Christ, and you will say to Him,
“ Lord, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel !””

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, LONDON
B.—October, 1920

BV 2620 .R3813 1920

| SMC

} Ratisbonne, Thodore,
, 1802-1884.

| Answers to a Jewish
i enquirer /

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