LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,
ChaA.I^cfe^ght No
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
THE CATECHISM EXPLAINED.
THE CATECHISM EXPLAINED
AN EXHA USTIVE EXPOSITION OF
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION,
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE PRESENT STATE OF
SOCIETY AND THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.
A PRACTICAL MANUAL
FOR THE USE OF THE PREACHER, THE CATECHIST,
THE TEACHER, AND THE FAMILY.
MADE ATTRACTIVE AND INTERESTING BY
ILLUSTRATIONS, COMPARISONS, AND QUOTATIONS
FROM THE
SCRIPTURES, THE FATHERS, AND OTHER WRITERS.
FROM THE ORIGINAL, OF
if
Eev. FRANCIS SPIRAGO,
rrofessor of Theology.
EDITED BY
Rev. RICHARD F. CLARKE, S.J.
New York, Cincinnati, Chicago:
BKN^IGER BROTHERS,
Printers to the Holy Apostolic See,
1899.
v. •
IWbil ©bstat
Thos. L. Kinkead,
Censor Librorum.
•(Imprimatur* ^ ; - 1 ^
f MICHAEL AUGUSTINE,
Archbishop of New York.
New York, August 8, 1899.
TWO COPIES RECEIVED.
SECOND COPY,
Copyright, J899, by Benzigkr Brothers,
-
PREFACE.
This Catechism is suited to the needs of the day, and may
either be placed in the hands of the people, or employed as a
manual for the use of Priests and Catechists. The small print is
the part adapted for popular reading or for catechetical instruc-
tion. The author thinks it necessary to give the following explan-
ation of the plan of the book.
1. This Catechism is divided into three parts : The first part
treats of faitli, the second of morals, the third of the means of grace.
In the first part Our Lord appears in His character of Teacher ; in
the second in His character of King ; and in the third in His
character of High Priest. And since this Catechism proposes as
its primary object to answer the question, for what purpose are we
here upon earth, thereby emphasizing and giving prominence to
man's high calling and destiny, it is especially suited to the present
da}r, when the pursuit of material interests, self-indulgence and
pleasure, engrosses the attention of so many. This Catechism is
in fact nothing more nor less than an abstract of Our Lord's teach-
ing, and may be called a guide book for the Christian on the road
to heaven. First the goal of the traveller is indicated, and then the
means whereby he is to reach his destination. In the first part we
are told what is to be done by the use of the understanding : we
must seek to attain to the knowledge of God by believing the truths
He reveals ; in the second part we are told what is to be done by
the aid of the will : we must submit our will to the will of Cod by
keeping the commandments ; in the third part we are told what we
must do in order to enlighten our understanding and strengthen
our will, which have been respectively obscured and weakened by
original sin : we must obtain the grace of the Holy Spirit through
use of the appointed means of grace, for by the grace of the Holy
5
6 Preface.
Spirit the understanding is enlightened and the will strengthened.
Thus a close connection exists between the different parts of this
Catechism. Each part is subdivided and arranged to form a
whole, so that the connection between and the coherence of all
the truths of religion are plainly apparent. This is a very impor-
tant point. For the more clearly we perceive the manner in which
the truths of religion are linked together, the easier will it be for
us to apprehend each one singly. The Catechism is a marvellously
connected system of revealed truth. If Catholics were thoroughly
acquainted in their childhood with the fundamental truths of
religion ; if they were taught to see how all the different parts of
this divine edifice combine to form one beauteous structure, the
darts of hell would have no power to injure them.
2. The large print in this Catechism is the scaffolding, or skel-
eton ; it contains all the essential truths of religion. The small
print might, as a matter of fact, be omitted; but in that case there
would be nothing calculated to touch the heart and kindle the
flame of charity towards God and one's neighbor, and is not this
the effect which every good hand-book of religion, every good ser-
mon, ever}' good catechetical instruction ought to produce ? We
already possess in abundance catechisms and religious manuals
which appeal only to the intellect ; books which do not aim at the
warmth of expression and the fervent, persuasive eloquence which
appeal to the heart, the force and vivifying power which affect the
will through the influence of the Holy Spirit.
3. This Catechism aims at cultivating, to an equal extent, all
the three powers of the soul : the understanding, the affections,
and the will. It does not therefore content itself with mere defini-
tions. The principal object proposed in it is not to teach men to
philosophize about religion, but to make them good Christians
who will delight in their faith. Consequently questions of
scholastic theology, doctrines debated among divines, are either
omitted altogether or merely receive a passing mention. The
author has endeavored to divest religious teaching of the appear-
ance of learning, and to present it in a popular and simple form.
Technical terms, in which almost all religious manuals abound,
even those intended for children, are carefully eliminated from his
pages since, while useful and necessary for seminarians and theo-
logians, they are out of place in a book intended for the laity.
Popular manuals of religion ought to be couched in plain and
Preface. 7
simple language, like that used by Our Lord and the apostles, easy
of comprehension ; for what we need is something that will touch
the heart and influence the will, not cram the mind with knowl-
edge unattractive to the reader. The present book is, moreover,
not an adaptation of catechisms already in use, but an original
work, intended for practical purposes. Attention may also be
called to the fact that the teaching of the Church is not presented
in a dry, abstract form, but is rendered attractive and interesting
by illustrations, comparisons, and quotations from Avell-known
writers. Thus there is no danger that it will be thrown aside as
unreadable. The extracts from the writings of the Fathers are
not always given verbatim, the idea alone being in many cases bor-
rowed, as a literal rendering of the language employed, beautiful
and forcible as it is, might prove rather misleading than edifying to
the young and unlearned. The same may be said of some passages
taken from Holy Scripture. What is of paramount importance in
a book of this nature is to make use of expressions that are clear
and intelligible. The writings of the Fathers are quoted mainly
to elucidate and illustrate, not to prove the truths that are enun-
ciated.
4. In preparing this Catechism for publication, the author has
kept in view his purpose of assisting the teacher. To this end he
has made it his endeavor to arrange his matter according to a clear
and methodical system ; to place his ideas in logical sequence, and
to clothe them in simple language composed of short sentences.
All the several branches of religious teaching — the Catechism,
Bible history, the liturgy, controversy, ecclesiastical history — have
been comprehended in one course of instruction, which has un-
questionably the effect of enhancing the interest and appealing to
the understanding as well as to the heart and the will. The old-
fashioned form of embodying the instruction to be given in ques-
tion and answer has not been followed. That form is not sufficient,
and needs further elaboration. Faith comes by hearing, not by
questioning only. A knowledge of all the truths of our holy
religion is not so universal that they can be thoroughly
learned by question and answer : they must be regularly taught
by oral instruction. This form of teaching calls for the exer-
cise of more thought ; question and answer, moreover, do noth-
ing towards simplifying the truths to be imparted, or rendering
them more intelligible to the learner.
8 Preface.
5. The state of society and the spirit of the age have also been
taken into consideration in the preparation of this book. The
writer has endeavored in the first place to combat the self-seeking,
pleasure-loving materialism of the day. This appears in the open-
ing part and also in the fact that the moral law is enlarged upon at
great length. It was not deemed sufficient merely to enumerate
the several virtues and vices — virtue is depicted in all its beauty
and excellence, vice in all its hideousness and malice — at the same
time the remedies for the different vices are added. Furthermore,
precepts of great importance, suited to the exigencies of the time,
far from being passed over, are elaborately explained. Under the
heading of the Third Commandment the obligation of work and
the Christian view of labor are treated, in accordance with the
directions of the Council of Trent. Under the Fourth Command-
ment our duty towards the Pope and the ruler of our country, the
duty of Catholics in regard to elections is expounded. Under the
Fifth Commandment the nature of human life and the sinfulness
of injuring one's health for the sake of vanity or pleasure are
shown. Under the Tenth Commandment, a plain statement is
made of Socialistic and democratic principles ; and after this, the
proper use to be made of money and the duty of almsgiving are
set forth. Prominence is given to the works of mercy, which Our
Lord declares to be essential to salvation, and which are an ampli-
fication of the Decalogue; while. under the occasions of sin, the evils
of the day, the exaggerated craving for excitement and pleasure,
love of dress, the desire to be fashionable, besides society papers,
objectionable plays, etc., are duly censured. Charity to God and
one's neighbor, a virtue too rare in the present day, is treated at
some length, and a considerable space is also devoted to the consid-
eration of the Christian's attitude in regard to affliction and pov-
erty, the duty of gratitude, the deceitful nature of earthly posses-
sions and earthly enjoyments, and the necessity of self-conquest.
Also in matters such as civil marriage, cremation, Catholic con-
gresses, Passion plays, etc., it cannot be alleged that this Catechism
is not fully up to date.
6. In its present form this Catechism is intended primarily for
the use of Priests and Catechists ; it will save them much time in
preparing their instructions, as they will find examples, compari-
sons, and explanations ready to hand. By abridging the small
print it will also serve as a school-catechism. When instructing
Preface. 9
beginners the Catechist must confine himself to the large print ;
it will be sufficient for children of moderate abilities to know and
understand that thoroughly. It is, and ever will be, the basis upon
which the whole structure of religious knowledge, raised by oral
instruction, will rest. In after years what is wanted will not be
so much an increase of theological knowledge, as a lucid explana-
tion of the truths already learned, and further proofs are added for
the sake of deepening religious conviction.
The small print may be considerably abridged for use in schools,
but it must not be left out altogether, as it will serve to recall to the
minds of the children the truths they have been taught. It con-
tains also many useful suggestions for the Catechist on subjects of
importance which must hold a place in his instructions. Moreover,
parents who go through the Catechism with their children at home
will be compelled to read the small print, and thus, with no effort
on their part, they will obtain a more intimate knowledge of
Christian doctrine.
It is most important in these days of unbelief that the school
should be the means of reviving a Christian spirit in the family.
Hence it is advisable that the Catechist should take the chief
points and the plan of his instruction from a book, and it should
not be left to each individual to propound what truths he pleases.
Besides, it is desirable that the catechumens themselves should have
the essential part of the instruction placed before them in black
and white ; for it is a known fact that what is not seen by the eye
is not long retained by the memory. If the impression received,
the feelings excited, the resolutions called forth are to be perma-
nent, they must be re-awakened by reading the Catechism. Thus the
Catechism becomes not merely a class-book, but a book of spiritual
reading, to be taken up again and re-read in after years. Hence
we see what a wide sphere of usefulness the books used in our
schools may have. Ought a hook whose influence is so extensive,
which contains the most important of all teaching, present that
teaching in a dry, uninteresting form, or give a scanty outline,
the mere framework of the truths of religion ?
In publishing an English translation of this manual of Chris-
tian truth, it is hoped that it may find as hearty a welcome among
English-speaking nations as the original did in the author's own
country. He ventures to hope that it may greatly promote the
glory of God and the salvation of souls. In order to secure the
10 Preface.
blessing of God upon his labors, lie dedicated the work to the
Immaculate Mother of God; and it cannot be doubted that the
blessings of the Most High rests upon it, for although at the out-
set it encountered formidable obstacles, it has since had an unex-
pectedly widespread and rapid circulation.
CONTENTS.
Preface 5
Devotions 59
I. Prayers and Precepts of the Church 59
1. The Sign of the Cross 59
2. The Lord's Prayer 59
3. The Angelical Salutation 59
4. The Apostles' Creed 59
5. The Two Precepts of Charity 60
6. The Ten Commandments of God 60
7. The Six Precepts of the Church 60
II. Prayers which may be used Daily at Different Times 61
1. A Morning Prayer 61
2. A Night Prayer 61
3. An Act of Good Intention 61
4. Grace before Meals 61
5. Grace after Meals 61
6. Prayer for One's Parents 62
III. Prayers to be said at Different Times when the Church Bell
is Heard 62
1. The Angelus 62
2. Prayer in Commemoration of Our Lord's Passion, to be said
at Three O'clock on Fridays 62
3. Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory, to be said when the
Church Bell is Tolled .' 63
4. Prayers to be said when the Bell is rung at Mass 63
5. Prayer at the Offertory 63
6. At the Consecration 63
7. At the Communion 64
IV. Devotions for Confession and Communion 64
1. The Form for Confession 64
2. Acts of the Three Theological Virtues 64
3. An Act of Contrition , 65
4. Renewal of Baptismal Vows 65
V. Devotions to the Holy Ghost 66
1. Praver to the Holy Ghost 66
2. Hymn to the Holy Ghost 66
11
VZ Contents.
VI. Special Prayers 67
1. The Salve Regina 67
2. The Memorare 67
3. The Holy Rosary 67
4. Prayer to St. Joseph 6b
5. Prayer to Our Guardian Angel 68
General Survey 69
llntrobuction.
I. FOR WHAT END ARE WE ON THIS EARTH ?
We are upon this earth in order that we may glorify God, and so
win for ourselves eternal happiness 73
II. HOW ARE WE TO ATTAIN TO ETERNAL HAPPINESS ?
We shall attain to eternal happiness by the following means:
1. We must strive to know God by means of faith in the truths He
has revealed to us 74
2. We must fulfil the will of God by keeping His commandments. ... 74
3. We must, therefore, avail ourselves of the means of grace; of
which the chief are holy Mass, the sacraments and prayers 75
III. CAN WE ATTAIN PERFECT HAPPINESS ON EARTH?
1. Earthly goods, such as riches, honor, pleasure, cannot by them-
selves make us happy; for they cannot satisfy our soul; they
often only make life bitter, and invariably forsake us in death. . 75
2. Only the Gospel of Christ is capable of giving us a partial happi-
ness on earth, for he who follows the teaching of Christ is certain
to have peace in his soul 76
3. He who follows Christ will have to endure persecution; but these
persecutions can do him no harm 76
4. Hence perfect happiness is impossible on earth; for no man can
entirely avoid suffering 77
PART I.
Jfattfx
I. THE KNOWLEDGE OF COD.
1. The happiness of the angels and saints consists in the knowledge
of God
Contents. 13
2. The knowledge of God is all important, for without it there cannot
be any happiness on earth, or a well-ordered life 79
3. We arrive at a right knowledge of God through faith in the truths
which God has revealed 80
II. DIVINE REVELATION.
God has in His mercy in the course of ages often revealed Himself to
men (Heb. i. 1, 2) 80
III. THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL.
1. The truths revealed by God to men were by God's command pro-
claimed to all nations of the earth by the Catholic Church, and
especially by means of the living word — that is, by preaching 83
2. The Catholic Church derives from Holy Scripture and from Tra-
dition the truths that God has revealed 84
IV. HOLY SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION.
1. Holy Scripture or the Bible consists of seventy- two books, which
were written by men inspired by God, and under the guidance
and influence of the Holy Ghost. These seventy-two books are
recognized by the Church as " The Word of God." 84
2. The truths of divine revelation, which have not been written down
in the pages of Holy Scripture, but have been transmitted by
word of mouth, are called Tradition 88
V. THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.
1. Christian faith is the firm conviction arrived at with the grace of
God, that all that Jesus Christ taught on earth is true, as well
as all that the Catholic Church teaches by the commission she has
received from Him 89
2. Faith is concerned with many things which we cannot perceive
with our senses and cannot grasp with our understanding . 89
3. We act quite in accordance with reason when we believe, because
we trust ourselves to God's truthfulness, and because we know
for certain that the truths of faith are revealed to us by God .... 90
4. The Christian faith comprises all the doctrines of the Catholic
faith 91
5. Faith is a gift of God, since the power to believe can only be at-
tained through the grace of God 92
6. Faith is necessary to eternal salvation 93
7. Faith alone is not sufficient for salvation 94
VI. THE MOTIVES OF FAITH.
1. The external motives which move us to believe are chiefly miracles
and prophecy 95
14 Contents.
2. Miracles are such extraordinary works as cannot be performed
by the mere powers of nature, but are brought about by the in-
tervention of a higher power 95
3. Miracles are wrought by almighty God only for His own glory,
and especially for the confirmation of true doctrine 96
4. In working miracles God usually makes use of the intervention
of man, sometimes even of wicked men 96
5. Prophecies are clear and definite predictions of future events that
can be known to God alone 97
6. God for the most part entrusts the prophesying of future events to
His messengers, for the confirmation of the true faith or for the
benefit of men 97
VII. ON THE ABSENCE AND LOSS OF FAITH.
1. Those who do not possess Christian faith are either: (1), Heretics,
or (2), Infidels 98
2. Faith is for the most part lost either: (1), by indifference to the
doctrines of faith; (2), by wilful doubt respecting the truths of
faith; (3), by reading books or other literature that is hostile to
the faith; (4), by frequenting the assemblies of those who are
hostile to the faith; (5), by neglecting the practice of one's re-
ligion .' 100
3. All men who through their own fault die without Christian
faith are by the just judgment of God sentenced to eternal per-
dition 101
VIII. ON THE DUTY OF CONFESSING OUR FAITH.
1. God requires of us that we should make outward profession of our
faith 102
2. Our Lord has promised eternal life to him who fearlessly makes
profession of his faith 103
IX. THE SIGN OF THE CROSS.
1. In making the sign of the cross we make profession of the most
important of all the mysteries of our holy religion ; viz., the doc-
trine of the Blessed Trinity and of the Incarnation of Our Lord
Jesus Christ 105
2. By means of the sign of the cross we obtain a blessing from God;
and especially by it are we protected from the assaults of the
devil and from all dangers both to body and to soul 106
X. THE APOSTLES' CREED.
1. The Apostles' Creed contains in brief all that a Catholic must know
and believe 108
2. The Apostles' Creed may be divided into three several parts 108
3. The Apostles' Creed may also be divided into twelve articles 109,
Contents. 15
FIRST ARTICLE OF THE GREED : " I BELIEVE IN GOD, TEE
FATHER ALMIGHTY."
1. The Existence of a Supreme Being.
PAGE
1. We can infer from the created world around us that there exists
a supreme Being 109
2. The existence of God is also proved from revelation Ill
2. The Divine Essence.
1. God is a self-existent Being, infinite in His perfections, glory, and
beatitude, the Creator and Ruler of the whole world 112
2. We cannot see God, because He is a spirit, i.e., a being without
body, immortal, possessed of intellect and free will 113
3. There is one God, and one only 114
3. The Divine Attributes.
1. God is eternal, i.e., always was, is, and ever will be 114
2. God is omnipresent, i.e., He is in every place 115
3. God is immutable, i.e., He ever remains the same 117
4. God is omniscient, i.e., He knows all things, the past, the present,
and the future, and also our inmost thoughts (Jer. xvii. 10) ... . 117
5. God is supremely wise, i.e., He knows how to direct everything
for the best, in order to carry out His designs 119
6. God is almighty, i.e., God can do all that He wills, and that by a
mere act- of His will 120
7. God is supremely good, i.e., He loves His creatures far more than
a father loves his children 121
8. God is very patient, i.e., He leaves the sinner time for repent-
ance and a change of life 123
9. God is full of mercy and compassion, i.e., He very readily forgives
our sins when we are sincerely sorry for them 124
10. God is infinitely holy, i.e., He loves good and hates all evil 125
11. God is infinitely just, i.e., He rewards all good and punishes all
evil deeds 125
12. God is a God of perfect truth, i.e., all that He reveals to man is
true. 127
13. God is faithful, i.e., He keeps His promises and carries out His
threats 127
4. The Blessed Teinity.
1. The Blessed Trinity is one God in three persons 128
2. We cannot with our feeble understanding grasp the doctrine of
the Blessed Trinity, and it is therefore called a mystery 128
3. The nature, the attributes, and the works of the three persons of
the Blessed Trinity are common to all of them 129
4. The three divine persons are divided only in their origin. ......... 130
16 Contents.
5. We are taught the mystery of the Blessed Trinity by Christ Him-
self, but it was partly known in the time of the Old Testament. . 131
6. The belief in the Blessed Trinity is expressed in the Apostles' Creed,
in Baptism, and in the other sacraments, in all consecrations and
blessings, and in the feast of the Most Holy Trinity 131
5. History of Creation.
1. In the beginning God created the spiritual and material universe. . 132
2. The material world was at the first without form, without inhab-
itants, and without light 132
3. God gave to the material universe its present form in the course
of six days , 133
4. On the seventh day God rested from all His work that He had
done 134
FROM WHAT, AND FOR WHAT END, HAS GOD CREATED THE WORLD?
1. God made the world out of nothing, simply because it pleased Him
to make it 135
2. God was moved to make the world by His great goodness 136
3. The end of creation is necessarily to proclaim to men the glory of
God 136
6. Divine Providence.
We call by the name of divine providence, God's preservation and
government of the world 137
1. God maintains the world, i.e., He preserves all creatures in exist-
ence as long as He wills 137
2. God governs the world, i.e., He conducts all things in the world,
so that they contribute to His glory and to our advantage 137
3. For this reason a pious Christian should resign himself entirely
to the will of God 138
HOW ARE THE MISFORTUNES OF THE GOOD AND THE PROSPERITY OF
THE WICKED TO BE RECONCILED WITH THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD?
No sinner has true happiness, and his good fortune is only transitory. . 139
HOW IS SIN TO BE RECONCILED WITH THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD?
God is not responsible for sin 140
7. The Christian under Suffering.
1. No one can attain to eternal salvation without suffering 141
2. All suffering comes from God, and is a sign of His love and favor. . 141
3. God sends suffering to the sinner to bring him back into the
right way, and to save him from eternal death 142
4. God sends suffering to the just man to try him, whether he loves
God most or creatures 143
5. Sufferings then are no real evil, but are benefits from the hand of
God 144
6. For this reason we should be patient under suffering, and should
resign ourselves to the will of God 144
Contents. 17
8. The Angels.
PAG3
1. The angels are pure spirits 146
2. All the angels whom God created were at the beginning in the
grace of God and well pleasing to Him. But many of the angels
sinned through pride, and were cast down by God into hell for-
ever (2 Pet. ii. 4) 147
3. The evil angels are our enemies; they envy us, seek to lead us to
sin, and can, with God's permission, injure us in our bodies or in
our worldly goods 147
4. The angels who remained faithful to God behold the face of God
continually and sing His praises 150-—
5. The holy angels are also called guardian angels, because they watch
over us (Heb. i. 14) ., 150
9. Man.
The Creation of Man.
1. God made the body of man out of the dust of the earth., and
breathed into him a living soul 152
2. The first human beings that God created were Adam and Eve. . . . 153
10. The Soul of Man.
1. The soul of man is made in the image of God, since it is a spirit
like to God 154
2. The soul of man is immortal, i.e., it can never cease to exist 154
11. The Supernatural Endowments of Man.
1. Our first parents were created in the grace of God, and therefore
possessed singular perfections of soul and body 156
2. These special perfections of our first parents we call supernatural
gifts, because they are something altogether beyond, and were
added, to human nature 157
12. Original Sin.
1. God imposed on man in paradise a precept; He forbade him to eat
the fruit of one of the trees, which stood in the midst of the
Garden of Eden 158
2. Man allowed himself to be led astray by the devil, and trans-
gressed the precept of his Creator 158
3. The transgression of the precept of God had disastrous conse-
quences; man lost sanctifying grace and all his supernatural
gifts, and also suffered injuries both in soul and body 159
4. The sin of our first parents with all its evil consequences has
passed on to their descendants 161
18 Contents.
SECOND TO SEVENTH ARTICLE OF THE CREED:
JESUS CHRIST.
1. The Redemption.
PAGE
Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer, has freed us from the evil con-
sequences of sin 162
2. The Promise of the Redeemer.
1. Immediately after the Fall God promised man a Redeemer 163
2. Two thousand years later God promised to Abraham that the
Redeemer should be one of his descendants 164
3. At a later time God sent the prophets, and through their mouth
foretold many things about the coming, the birth, the person,
the sufferings, the death, and the final triumph and glory of the
Redeemer 164
4. Of the advent of the Messias 165
5. Of the person of the Messias 167
6. Of the sufferings of the Messias 1 68
7. Of the glory of the Messias 169
8. The Messias was announced through many types 169
3. Preparation of Mankind for the Redeemer.
1. God chose for Himself a special nation and prepared it for the
coming of a Redeemer; this chosen people was the seed of Abra-
ham, usually called by the name of Israelites or Jews 171
2. The other nations of the earth were prepared for the coming of
the Redeemer by contact with the chosen people, or by the in-
fluence of exceptionally gifted men or by other extraordinary
methods 174
3. Before the arrival of the Redeemer God permitted that mankind
should experience the deepest misery in order to rouse it to a
longing for a Redeemer 174
4. The Life and Times of the Redeemer.
1. The Redeemer lived some nineteen hundred years ago and remained
thirty-three years on the earth 175
2. The work of the Redeemer was confined for the most part to
Palestine 175
5. Jesus of Nazareth is the Redeemer or Christ.
1. Jesus of Nazareth is the Redeemer because all the prophecies have
their fulfilment in Him 178
2. Jesus of Nazareth is the Messias because the kingdom founded by
Him on earth has been enduring 178
Contents. 19
PAGE
3. Jesus Himself claimed the name of Redeemer 178
4. The angels announced Him as the Redeemer 178
6. The Life of Christ.
The Childhood of Christ.
1. Christ was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a stable at Beth-
lehem 179
2. Christ spent the first years of His childhood in Egypt, and after
that lived at Nazareth till He was thirty 182
The Public Life of Christ.
When Christ was thirty years old, He was baptized by John in the
Jordan (Matt. iii. 13), and fasted forty days in the desert, where
He was tempted by the devil (Matt, iv.) 183
Christ taught for about three and a half years, gathered some
seventy-two disciples, and from these chose twelve apostles 183
Christ proved His divine mission and the truth of His doctrine
by many miracles, by His knowledge of all things, and by the
holiness of His life 185
The Sufferings of Christ.
1. On the Sunday preceding the feast of Easter Christ made a solemn
entry into Jerusalem, and taught in the Temple during the days
following 185
2. On Holy Thursday evening Christ ate the Pasch with His disciples,
instituted the Blessed Sacrament, and then went out to the
Mount of Olives, where He suffered His agony and bloody sweat. . 185
3. On Good Friday at noon Christ was nailed to the cross, on the
hill of Calvary, just outside Jerusalem, and died on the cross
about three o'clock 187
4. During Easter Saturday, that is, on the greatest feast day of the
Jews, Our Lord remained in the sepulchre 188
The Exaltation of Christ.
Immediately after the death of Christ His soul went down in
triumph into the place where the souls of those justified under
the Old Law were detained 188
On Easter Sunday before sunrise Christ rose glorious from the
tomb by His own almighty power 189
Forty days after His resurrection Our Lord ascended into heaven
from the Mount of Olives and now sits at the right hand of God
the Father 191
20 Contents.
PAGE
4. On the tenth day after His ascending mto heaven Christ sent
down the Holy Ghost on the apostles 192
7. The Pebson of the Redeemeb.
Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer, is the Son of God made man; hence He
is God Himself 193
The Incarnation of the Son of God.
1. The second, divine person became man in the womb of the Blessed
Virgin Mary by the action of the Holy Ghost at the moment of
the Annunciation 193
2. The Father of Jesus is therefore God the Father in heaven;
Joseph, the spouse of Mary, is only the foster-father of Jesus 194
3. The Incarnation of the Son of God is a mystery which we cannot
understand, but only admire and honor 194
4. The Incarnation of the Son of God was necessary to give perfect
satisfaction to the injured majesty of God 195
5. The Second Person always remained God though He became man,
and by the Incarnation He lost none of His dignity 196
6. By the Incarnation of the Son of God all the members of the
human race have acquired a special dignity 196
WHAT TETJTHS FOLLOW FEOM THE MYSTEBY OF THE BEDEMPTION?
1. Christ is true God and true man; hence we call Him the God-
man 197
2. In Christ there are two natures, human and divine, which, despite
their intimate union, are quite distinct 197
3. In Christ there is only one person, and that person is divine 198
Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
1. Jesus Christ solemnly declared before the high priest that He was
the Son of God (Matt. xxvi. 64) 200
2. God the Father called Jesus Christ His Son on the occasion of
His baptism in the Jordan and of the transfiguration on Mount
Thabor (Matt. iii. 17; xvii. 5) 200
Jesus Christ is God Himself.
1. That Jesus Christ is God we learn from His own words and from
those of His apostles 201
2. That Jesus Christ is God we conclude from His miracles and
prophecies 201
3. That Jesus Christ is God we conclude from the elevation of His
teaching and His character 202
Contents. 21
PAGE
4. That Jesus Christ is God we conclude from the rapid spread of
His teaching , 203
Jesus Christ is Our Lord.
We eall Christ " Our Lord " because He is our Creator, Redeemer,
Lawgiver, Teacher, and Judge 204
EIGHTH ARTICLE OF THE CREED: THE HOLY GHOST.
1. The Grace of the Holy Ghost is necessary to us.
1. The Holy Ghost is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, and is
therefore God Himself 205
2. The Holy Ghost dispenses the graces which Christ merited by the
sacrifice of the cross 205
3. Hence the assistance of the Holy Ghost is absolutely necessary
for salvation 205
2. Action of the Holy Ghost.
Actual Grace.
1. The Holy Ghost influences our lives by enlightening the mind
and strengthening the will. Such passing influence of the Holy
Spirit is called " actual grace " , 207
2. The action of the Holy Spirit sometimes makes itself perceptible
to the senses 208
3. The Holy Ghost does not force us, but leaves us in perfect posses-
sion of our free will 208
4. The Holy Ghost acts on every man: on the sinner as well as on
the just ; and more on Catholics than on non-Catholics and un-
believers 209
5. Actual graces are obtained by the performance of good works,
especially by prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds; and more especially by
the use of the means of grace provided by the Church, by hear-
ing of holy Mass, worthy reception of the Sacraments, and attend-
ance at sermons 210
Sanctifying Grace.
1. When the sinner co-operates with actual grace, the Holy Ghost
enters his soul, and confers on it a brightness and beauty which
claim the friendship of God. This indwelling beauty of the soul
is due to the presence of the Holy Spirit and is called " sanctify-
ing grace." 211
22 Contents.
PAGB
2. Usually, however, the Holy Spirit makes His entry on the recep-
tion of the Sacraments of Baptism or Penance 212
3. When the Holy Spirit enters into us He brings with Him a new
spiritual life 212
4. Sanctifying grace is secured and increased by doing good works,
and using the means of grace offered by the Church; it is lost by
a single mortal sin 215
5. He who has not sanctifying grace is spiritually dead, and will
suffer eternal ruin 216
6. No one knows for certain whether he have sanctifying grace or
will receive it at the hour of death 216
The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost and the Extraordinary Graces.
1. The Holy Ghost gives to all who have sanctifying grace the seven
gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is, the seven virtues of the soul, by
which it easily responds to His light and inspirations 216
2. The Holy Ghost gives to many gracea of a rarer kind, for instance
the gift of tongues, of miracles, of prophesy, of discernment of
spirits, of visions, of ecstasies, etc 218
3. The gifts of the Holy Spirit were conspicuous in a special degree
in Jesus Christ, His holy Mother, the apostles, the patriarchs and
the prophets of the Old Law, and all the saints of the Catholic
Church 219
The Holy Ghost as Guide of the Church.
The Holy Ghost maintains and guides the Catholic Church 219
3. Apparitions of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost has appeared under the form of a dove, of fire, and
of tongues, to signify His office in the Church 220
NINTH ARTICLE OF THE CREED: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
1. The Catholic Church and its Institution.
1. The Catholic Church is a visible institution founded by. Christ, in
which men are trained for heaven 221
2. The Church prepares man for heaven by carrying out the three-
fold office which Christ conferred upon her; the office of teacher,
of priest, and of shepherd 222
3. The Lord and King of the Church is Christ 222
4. The Catholic Church consists of a teaching and a hearing body;
to the former belong the Pope, bishops, and priests ; to the
latter the faithful 223
Contents. 23
2. The Head of the Chuech.
PAGE
1. Christ conferred on St. Peter the primacy over the apostles and the
faithful 223
2. St. Peter was Bishop of Rome for some twenty-five years, and died
Bishop of Rome ; and the dignity and power of St. Peter
descended to the succeeding Bishops of Rome 224
3. The Bishop of Rome is called Pope or Holy Father 224
3. Bishops, Priests, the Faithful.
1. The bishops are the successors of the apostles 226
2. The priests are the assistants of the bishops 228
3. A Catholic is one who has been baptized and professes himself to
be a member of the Catholic Church 228
4. Foundation and Spread of the Church.
1. Christ laid the foundation of the Church when in the course of His
teaching He gathered a number of disciples and chose twelve of
these to preside over the rest and one to be Head of all 230
2. The Church first began its life on Pentecost, when some three
thousand people were baptized. 230
3. Soon after the descent of the Holy Ghost the apostles began to
preach the Gospel throughout the world, in accordance with the
commands of Christ, and founded Christian communities in many
places 230
4. When the great persecutions broke out the Church spread more
rapidly over the earth 231
5. In the Middle Ages nearly all the heathen nations began to enter
the Church .' 232
6. In later times many nations of the newly-discovered countries
were converted 233
7. At present the Catholic Church numbers about 260,000,000 mem-
bers 234
5. The Catholic Church is Indestructible and Infallible.
Indestructibility of the Church.
The Catholic Church is indestructible, i.e., it will remain till the end of
the world 235
The Infallibility of the Church.
1. The Catholic Church is infallible in her teaching, i.e., the Holy
Spirit assists the Church in such a manner that she cannot err
in the preserving and announcing of revealed doctrine 237
2. The Church delivers her infallible decisions through general coun-
cils and through the Pope 237
24 Contents.
PAGE
3. The Church pronounces infallible judgments in the following
cases: on doctrines of faith and morals, and their meaning and
interpretation; on the Holy Scripture and Tradition and their
interpretation 240
6. The Hierarchy of the Church.
1. The ministers of the Church fall into three classes of distinct
dignity and power, bishops, priests, and deacons 241
2. This hierarchy was in force in the time of the apostles 241
3. The episcopal and priestly office was instituted by Christ Him-
self; the diaconate by the apostles 242
4. Besides these three classes there are other degrees varying in their
powers; for example, Pope, cardinals, and archbishops 242
7. Notes of the True Church.
1. The true Church is that one which is most persecuted by the world,
and which has received God's seal in the form of miracles 242
2. The true Church is that one in which the successor of St. Peter is
to be found 243
3. The true Church is known by the following four marks: she is
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic 243
8. The Catholic Church alone gives Salvation.
1. The Catholic Church alone gives salvation; i.e., the Catholic Church
alone possesses those means which lead to salvation; viz., the
doctrine of Christ, the means of salvation appointed by Christ, and
the teachers and guides of the Church established by Christ 245
2. Hence every man is bound to become a member of the Catholic
Church : 245
3. Whoever through his own fault remains outside the Church
will not be saved 246
9. The Relations between Church and State.
1. The Church is, in its own department, absolutely independent of
the State, for Christ left the teaching and government of His
Church to the apostles and their successors, not to any temporal
sovereign 247
2. The Church is an essential factor in promoting the welfare of the
State, for she teaches obedience to authority, prevents many
crimes, incites men to noble endeavor, and unites together various
nations 248
3. The Church was from the earliest times the patron of true edu-
cation and culture 249
Contents. 25
10. The Communion of Saints.
PAGE
1. The communion of saints is the union and intercourse of Catholics
on earth, of the souls in purgatory, and of the saints in heaven. . . 251
2. Catholics on earth, the souls in purgatory, and the blessed in
heaven, are united with Christ, just as are the members of a body
with the head 251
3. All the members of the communion of saints have a share in the
spiritual goods of the Catholic Church, and can help one another
by their prayers and other good works. The saints alone in
heaven have no need of help 251
TENTH ARTICLE OF THE CREED: THE FORGIVENESS
OF SINS.
(See the Chapter on Sin.)
ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH ARTICLES OF THE CREED:
THE LAST THINGS.
1. Death.
1. At death the soul is separated from the body and enters the world
of spirits; the body decays and falls into dust 254
2. All men must die, because death is the consequence of original
sin 254
3. Death is terrible only to the sinner, in no wise to the just 255
2. The Particular Judgment.
1. Immediately after death follows the particular judgment 256
2. After the particular judgment the souls of men go into hell, or
heaven, or purgatory 257
3. Heaven.
Heaven is the abode of everlasting joy 257
4. Hell.
1. Hell is the abode of everlasting torment 261
2. The souls of those who die in mortal sin go to hell 263
26 Contents.
5. Purgatory.
PAGE
Purgatory is a place where the souls of those must suffer for a time
who, though dying without grave sin on their souls, have not
done complete penance for their offences against God 204
That there is a purgatory we learn from the teachings of Christ
and especially from the practice and doctrine of the Church 265
The faithful on earth can help the holy souls in purgatory by
good works 266
6. The Resurrection of the Body.
Christ on the Last Day will raise the bodies of all men from the dead
and unite them to the soul forever . 268
7. The General Judgment.
1. Immediately after the resurrection the general judgment will take
place 270
2. The Day of Judgment is unknown to us, though certain signs have
been revealed which are to herald its approach 273
CHRISTIAN HOPE.
1. The Essence of Christian Hope.
Christian hope is the confident expectation of all those things which
Christ promised us with regard to the fulfilment of God's will .... 274
1. As the reward of carrying out God's will, Christ has promised us
eternal happiness and the means required, for obtaining it 274
2. Christian hope is based on faith 275
3. He only who carries out God's will can hope for the good things
promised by Christ 276
4. A wholesome fear of falling into sin must always accompany
Christian hope 276
5. Christian hope is necessary for salvation 277
6. Christian hope is a gift of God 277
2. The Advantage of Christian Hope.
1. He who hopes in God enjoys the special protection of God 277
2. He who hopes in God can obtain everything from Him 278
3. He who hopes in God is strengthened by God 278
4. He who hopes in God is impelled to the performance of good
works and heroic acts 278
Contents. 27
3. The Object of Christian Hope.
PAGE
1. The •Christian may not rely on his own powers, on his fellow-men,
nor on earthly things more than on God 279
2. The Christian may not despair 279
3. The Christian must never presume on his trust in God's mercy 280
4. The Christian may never tempt God 280
PAET n.
& £be Commandments,
I. WHAT COMMANDMENTS (OR LAWS) HAS GOD GIVEN US?
1. God has imprinted the natural law on the heart of every man;
this forms the fundamental rule of 'human actions 281
2. In addition to this natural law God gave to man solemn precepts,
more especially the Ten Commandments, and the two precepts
of charity. These are known as the revealed law 282
3. Finally, God gives us commandments through His representatives
upon earth, through the ecclesiastical and secular authorities.
These laws are called ecclesiastical and civil laws 282
4. From the knowledge of the law comes conscience; the conscious-
ness, that is, whether an act is permitted or prohibited by
the law 283
5. God's commandments do not deprive men in any way of true free-
dom 284
II. THE TWO COMMANDMENTS OF CHARITY.
1. The most important commandments are the two commandments
of charity, that is to say, the love of God and the love of one's
neighbor, for all the other commandments are comprised in them. 284
2. Without the love of God and of our neighbor no man can be saved. 285
III. THE PRECEPT OF THE LOVE OF GOD.
1. We ought to love God (1), because Christ commands this; (2),
because He is in Himself essentially the highest beauty and
sovereign perfection; (3), because He loves us and continually
bestows benefits upon us 286
2. Our love to God is chiefly manifested by thinking of Him con-
stantly, by avoiding whatever might separate us from Him, by
laboring to promote His glory, and willingly accepting all that
comes from His hand 287
3. We must love God with all our faculties, and above all things else
in the whole world 289
28 Contents.
4. The love of God is of great advantage to us: through it we are
united to God here on earth, our minds are enlightened, our will
is strengthened, we obtain pardon of sin, peace of soul, manifold
proofs of God's favor, and after death celestial joys 290
5. The merit of our good works and the degree of our future felicity
is in proportion to the magnitude of our love for God 291
IV. THE LOVE OF THE WORLD IS OPPOSED TO THE
LOVE OF GOD.
1. The love of the world consists in loving above all, money, or the
gratification of one's appetite, or earthly honors, or anything
else in the world, instead of giving the first place to God 292
2. Through love of the world Ave incur the loss of sanctifying grace,
and eternal felicity 292
V. THE COMMANDMENT OF CHARITY TOWARDS OUR
NEIGHBOR.
1. We ought to love our neighbor because this is Christ's command;
furthermore because he is a child of God, made after His image;
and also because we are all descended from the same parents,
and we are all called to attain eternal felicity 295
2. The love of our neighbor shows itself in desiring the good of our
neighbor from our heart; in abstaining from injuring him, and
in doing him good 295
3. We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves; but we
are by no means obliged to love him better than ourselves 296
4. All that we do to our neighbor, whether it be good or evil, we
do to Christ Himself, for He has said, " What you did to one
of these My least brethren, ye did it to Me " (Matt. xxv. 40) 297
VI. LACK OF CHARITY TO ONE'S NEIGHBOR.
1. He who does not desire the good of his neighbor, but is envious
of him, does not possess the love of his neighbor . 298
2. He does not love his neighbor who injures him, whether in regard
to his life, his innocence, his property, his honor, or his household. 300
3. Nor does he love his neighbor who performs no works of mercy. . . 300
VII. LOVE OF ONE'S FRIENDS.
Those are our friends whose principles are the same, and whose love
is mutual, and based on religion 300
VIII. THE COMMANDMENT TO LOVE OUR ENEMY.
1. We ought to love our enemies because Christ commands it; He
says: "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you,
pray for them that persecute and calumniate you " (Matt. v. 44) . 303
Contents. 29
PAGE
2. The love of our enemy is shown in this: that we do not revenge
ourselves on him, that we return good for evil, that we pray for
him, and forgive him willingly 304
IX. THE LOVE OF ONE'S SELF.
The true love of one's self shows itself herein, that we strive to
attain that which will procure our real happiness ; first and
foremost our eternal felicity, and then such earthly things as
are conducive to the attainment of eternal felicity 306
X. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOD.
1. The Ten Commandments were given by God to the Jews on Mount
Sinai 306
2. We Christians are bound to observe the Ten Commandments of God,
both because God has imprinted them upon the human heart, and
because Christ laid them upon us anew in a more full and per-
fect form 307
3. The Ten Commandments of God are arranged in order 307
4. He who keeps all these commandments receives a great reward
from God on earth, and after death he may look forward to
eternal felicity as his portion 308
5. Temporal and eternal chastisements await the man who grievously
violates a single one of these commandments 308
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
In the First Commandment God enjoins upon us to worship Him,
and forbids idolatry and every false form of worship 309
1. The Adoration or Woe ship of God.
1. The adoration we pay to God consists in this: That we acknowl-
edge both in our hearts and by our actions that 'He is Our Lord,
and we are His creatures and His servants 310
2. We worship God interiorly by acts of faith, hope, and charity. ... 310
3. We adore God exteriorly by vocal prayer, sacrifice, .genuflections,
prostrations, folding of hands, striking the breast, etc 311
4. We must pay supreme worship to God only, for He alone is the
sovereign Lord of heaven and of earth 312
2. Idolatry oe the Worship of False Gods.
1. Idolatry is the worship of a creature which is regarded as a deity:
e.g., the sun, fire, animals, images, etc 313
2. Another form of idolatry is when a human being gives up his
whole self to a creature 314
3. The service of idols is high treason against the majesty of God,
and the most heinous of sins 314
30 Contents.
3. Foolish or Perverted Worship.
PAGE
1. Superstition, fortune-telling, spiritualism, and magic, are foolish
and irrational forms of worship 815
2. This perverted form of worship is a grievous sin 316
SINS AGAINST THE FIRST COMMANDMENT.
We sin against the First Commandment by neglecting prayer, by
opposing religion, etc 317
4. The Veneration of. Saints.
1. We honor the saints because they are the friends of God, princes
of the heavenly court, and benefactors to ourselves ; also be-
cause we obtain great graces from God through venerating them 318
2. We venerate 'the saints if we entreat their intercession with God;
if we celebrate their feasts, reverence their images and their
relics; if we bear their name, claim their protection in matters
of importance, and praise them in word and song. The best
manner in which to venerate them is to imitate their virtues .... 319
5. The Veneration of the Mother of God.
We pay greater honor to Mary, the Mother of Christ, than to any
other saint 323
1. We hold Mary in such great veneration because she is the Mother
of God and our Mother 323
2. Another reason why Mary is so highly honored throughout Christ-
endom is because God has exalted her above all men and angels. . 324
3. Finally, we entertain this great veneration for Mary, because her
intercession is more powerful with God than that of any other
saint 325
6. The Veneration of Images of the Saints.
1. We honor the images of the saints by giving them a place in our
dwellings; we say our prayers before them, we salute them re-
spectfully, we adorn them with offerings, we make pilgrimages
to their shrines 329
2. Through venerating the images of the saints, efficacious and often-
times supernatural graces are obtained; they are also useful as
a means of avoiding distractions in prayer, and affording us a
silent admonition 330
7. The Veneration of Relics.
1. We honor the relics of the saints by preserving them with rever-
ence, and visiting the spot where they are deposited 331
2. We obtain many blessings from God by venerating relics 332
8. The Extraordinary Worship of Con.
We can, moreover, honor God by taking an oath or by making a vow. 332
Contents. 3 1
The Oath.
PAGE
1. To swear or take an oath is to call God to witness that one is
speaking the truth, or that one will keep a promise 333
The Tow (Solemn Promise).
1. A vow is a promise voluntarily made to God to perform some good
action 336
2. The most important vows are the religious vows, that is to say,
the solemn promise made voluntarily by persons entering a re-
ligious Order, to follow the evangelical counsels 336
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
We owe reverence to almighty God, because He is a Lord of infinite
majesty and of infinite bounty 339
1. In the Second Commandment, God commands us in the first place
to show due respect to His divine majesty. This we must do in
the following manner: We should call frequently upon the name
of God with true and heartfelt devotion, especially at the com-
mencement of all we do, and in time of trouble 339
2. We ought to show respect for all that appertains to divine worship;
more especially for the servants of God, for holy places, sacred
things, and religious ceremonies 340
3. We ought frequently to praise and magnify almighty God, on ac-
count of His infinite perfections and goodness, especially when He
reveals His perfections in a special manner, or confers a benefit
upon us 341
4. Furthermore, God prohibits everything which is a violation of the
reverence due to His divine majesty, and in particular: Taking
the name of God in vain 341
5. Swearing. By this is meant the use of holy names in a moment
of anger as an imprecation against certain persons or things. . . . 342
6. Indecorous behavior towards persons who are consecrated to the
service of God, holy places, sacred objects or actions 343
7. Blasphemy. Of this sin those are guilty who revile God, His saints,
or speak contemptuously of objects connected with His worship. . 343
8. Simony. This consists in selling spiritualities for money or the
equivalent of money 345
THE THIRD COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
In the Third Commandment of the Decalogue God commands us to
sanctifv the Sundav and to work six davs in the week 347
1. The Precept to Sanctify Sundays and Hoe yd ays.
1. God commands us to sanctify the seventh day, because on the
seventh day He rested from the work of creation 347
2. God commanded the Jews to keep holy the Sabbath day 347
32 Contents.
PAGE
3. Sunday was appointed by the apostles as the day of rest instead of
the Sabbath, because Christ rose from the dead on Sunday 348
4. We are bound on Sunday to abstain from servile work and to
assist at the public Mass; we ought moreover to employ this
day in providing for the salvation of our soul, that is to say by
approaching the Sacraments, by prayer, hearing sermons, reading
spiritual books, and performing works of mercy 348
SINS AGAINST THE THIED COMMANDMENT.
This commandment is transgressed by performing servile work, by
carelessness at public worship, etc 350
Motives for the Sanctification of Sunday.
God rewards those who keep holy His day, and its profanation is fre-
quently punished 351
2. The Precept of Labor,
1. The obligation to work was laid upon mankind by God after the
Fall as a penance 353
2. Every individual who can work is bound to work. St. Paul says:
" If any man will not work, neither let him eat " (2 Thess. iii.
10) 353
3. Every man is bound primarily to perform the work appertaining
to his calling or station 853
4. We must not forget God in what we do; before and during our
work we should implore His aid and renew our intention 354
5. Labor obtains a temporal and an eternal recompense, because it
is a kind of divine worship. The temporal recompense is con-
tentment and earthly happiness 355
THE RELAXATIONS PERMITTED TO THE CHRISTIAN.
It is lawful to seek relaxation, but one must not overdo it 356
THE SIX COMMANDMENTS OF THE CHURCH.
1. The six precepts of the Church are an amplification of the Third
Commandment of the Decalogue 357
2. We are under a rigorous obligation to keep the commandments of
the Church, for disobedience to the Church is disobedience to
Christ 357
1. The First Commandment of the Church: The Observance
of Sundays and Holydays.
1. Tn the first commandment of the Church the solemn observance
of the holydays is enjoined upon us. There are seven festivals
of Our Lord, five of Our Lady, and three of the saints 358
2. The holydays of obligation ought to be kept in the same manner
as the Sundays; we must abstain from servile work and assist
at holy Mass 359
Contents. 33
The Ecclesiastical Year.
PAGE
1. The ecclesiastical year is an annual commemoration and repre-
sentation of the life of Christ, and of the time before and after
His birth 359
2. The ecclesiastical year begins upon the first Sunday in Advent.
Its three principal feasts are Christmas, when the birth of Christ
is celebrated; Easter, the day of His resurrection; and Pente-
cost, when the coming of the Holy Spirit is commemorated 360
3. The aspect of nature corresponds to the three principal festivals. . 361
2. The Second Commandment of the Chubch.
By the second commandment of the Church the precept of fasting is
laid upon us 361
In the second commandment of the Church we are ordered to abstain
on all Fridays of the year; to fast during the forty days of Lent,
on the Ember days, and on the vigils of certain feasts 362
1. We are forbidden to eat meat on Friday, because on that day Our
Lord died for us 362
2. During the forty days of Lent only one full meal is to be taken, as
a partial imitation of Our Lord's fast of forty days, and as a
suitable preparation for celebrating the festival of Easter 363
3. We ought to keep the fast of the Ember days strictly, in order to
implore almighty God to send us good priests, and to thank
Him for the benefits received during the past quarter 363
4. We are also bound to fast on the vigils of certain feasts, in order
the better to prepare ourselves for celebrating those feasts 363
5. It is by no means the desire of the Church that we should fast to
the injury of our health, or that we should thereby be hindered
from performing the duties of our station 364
6. Fasting is beneficial both for the soul and the body . . 365
3. The Third and Fourth Commandments of the Church.
1. In the third and fourth commandments the Church enjoins upon
us the duty of approaching the Sacrament of Penance and re-
ceiving- holy communion at Easter 366
4. The Fifth Commandment of the Church.
By the fifth commandment of the Church we are bound to contribute
to the support of our pastors 368
5. The Sixth Commandment of the Church.
fn the sixth commandment marriage with non-Catholics is forbidden,
also the marriage of those who are related within the. fourth de-
gree of kindred. Marriages are not solemnized during fixed
seasons. These penitential times are from the beginning of Advent
until the Epiphany, and from Ash Wednesday until Low Sunday. . 868
34 Contents,
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
PAGE
In the Fourth Commandment God enjoins upon us to honor His repre-
sentatives upon earth, that is to say, our parents, and both the
ecclesiastical and secular authorities 368
1. Our Duty towards Our Parents.
1. Our parents are to be honored, because they are God's representa-
tives and our greatest benefactors 368
2. We ought to honor our parents by respectful behavior, love, and
obedience 369
3. Our duty is the same in regard to those who are in authority
over us, as it is to our parents ; our teachers and governors,
masters and employers, and our elders in general 371
Transgressions of the Fourth Commandment.
1. He transgresses the Fourth Commandment of God who is dis-
respectful towards his parents; who behaves rudely to them,
is ashamed of them, etc 371
How does God Reward the Observance of the Fourth Commandment?
1. God promises long life, happiness, and blessings upon earth to
children who honor their parents 372
2. God threatens to send upon those who do not honor their parents
shame upon earth, a miserable end, everlasting damnation 372
2. Our Duty towards those in Authority.
1. God has appointed two powers, the spiritual and the secular, for
the direction of human society. To the spiritual power He has
committed the guidance of souls, to the secular the mainte-
nance of peace and order 373
2. The highest spiritual authority was given by God to the Pope,
the highest secular authority to the monarch of the land; in
most countries the people have a share in the secular govern-
ment 374
3. Our duties towards Pope and king are similar to our duties towards
God, for they are both His representatives 374
4. He who grossly offends against either the ecclesiastical or secular
authorities, has to expect the severe chastisement of God on
earth, and punishment in the world to come 377
3. The Duties of those who are in Authority.
No Christian should strive for a position he is not competent to fill.. . 378
THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
Tn the Fifth Commandment almighty God forbids us to destroy our
own life, or that of our neighbor, or to treat the lower animals
with cruelty 380
Contents. 35
1. Our Duty in Respect to our own Life.
PAGE
1. Our body was created by God as an abode for our immortal soul. 380
2. Since the life and health of the body are of great importance for
the life of the soul, and for our eternal salvation, we are bound
to take precautions for the preservation of our health and of
our life '. 381
3. Furthermore we are under a strict obligation to do nothing that
tends to destroy health or life. Consequently it is a sin to rashly
hazard one's life, wantonlv to injure one's health, or to take one's
own life 382
2. Our Duty in Regard to the Life of our Neighbor.
A strict obligation is laid upon us to avoid everything that may
destroy the health or life of our neighbor 384
1. Accordingly it is sinful to wish ill to one's neighbor, to injure his
health, to challenge him or accept a duel, or to put him to death
unjustly and willingly 384
2. He commits a still greater sin who destroys the spiritual life of his
neighbor, either by tempting him to evil or by giving scandal. . . 386
3. It is, however, lawful to wound or even to kill our fellow-man if
he threatens to taks our life by violence, or anything that is
absolutely indispensable to our life, and we have no other means
of defence. This is called the right of self-defence 388
4. He who has wrongfully injured his neighbor either physically or
spiritually, is bound to repair the harm done to the utmost of his
power . 389
3. Our Conduct in Regard to the Lower Animals.
In our relations to animals it is our duty to care for their well-being,
to refrain from tormenting them, not to kill any useful animal
without a special reason, and finally not to treat them with
exaggerated tenderness 391
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
In the Sixth Commandment almighty God prohibits everything
that might stain our own purity or that of our neighbor 392
Sins against the Sixth Commandment of God are for the most part
very grievous in God's sight and accordingly are severely pun-
ished bv Him 303
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
1. In the Seventh Commandment almighty God forbids us to wrong
our neighbor in his goods and property 393
1. The Right of Possession.
1. Earthly goods are necessary to man's subsistence, such as food,
clothes, a dwelling-place, money, etc 394
2. Personal property is justly obtained when it is either acquired by
labor or by gift 394
36 Contents.
Sins against the Seventh Commandment.
PAGE
The Seventh Commandment expressly forbids: theft, robbery, cheat-
ing, usury, injuring the property of another, detention of goods
that have been found or lent, and the non-payment of debts 395
1. We are in danger of committing mortal sin if we take from our
neighbor as much as he requires to support him one day in a
manner suitable to his position 397
2. Restitution oe Satisfaction.
1. He who has purloined from his neighbor or wronged him in his
property, is under a strict obligation to restore the stolen goods
or make compensation for the damage done (Lev. vi. 1-5) 397
2. If any one has unwittingly got stolen goods in his possession, he
is bound to give them up to the rightful owner, as soon as he
becomes aware that they were stolen 398
3. He who refuses either to give up the stolen property or to com-
pensate for the loss sustained, will not obtain pardon of his sins
from God nor absolution from the priest 398
WHAT ABE THE REASONS WHICH OUGHT TO DETER US FROM
TRANSGRESSING THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT ?
People who wrong their neighbor in his property generally come to
shame and poverty, often die unrepentant, and are in danger of
everlasting damnation
TEE EIGETE COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
In the Eighth Commandment God forbids us to detract from our
neighbor's honor, or bear false witness of any kind 400
1. The Prohibition against Injuring our Neighbor in his
Honor,
1. A good reputation is a precious possession, for it enables us to
gain riches for time and for eternity 400
2. Above all we ought to strive to acquire a good name among men,
and for that reason we ought to let our good works be known,
and we ought to defend our character if it be aspersed to any
great extent 401
3. Furthermore, we ought to refrain from everything that may wound
our neighbor's honor: thus suspicion, detraction, slander, and
abuse are forbidden, also listening with pleasure when our neigh-
bor is spoken against 402
4. He who has injured his neighbor's reputation is strictly bound to
restore his good name: either by apologizing, if the offence was
committed in private, or by publicly retracting his words, if they
were spoken before others 405
5. Those who do not endeavor to repair the harm they have done
by slandering their neighbor, cannot obtain pardon from God,
nor absolution from the priest 406
Contents. 37
WHAT ARE THE REASONS WHICH SHOULD D ]TER US FROM INJURING
OUR NEIGHBOR'S GOOD NAME?
PAGE
1, He who is severe in his judgment of his neighbor, will in his turn
be judged severely by God 406
2. The Command against Untruthfulness.
God is truth itself; consequently He forbids every kind of falsehood,
especially lying, hypocrisy, and flattery 407
what are the reasons which should make us refrain from
untruthfulness ?
1. The liar is like the devil and displeasing to God 409
2. The pernicious habit of lying leads a man into mortal sin and to
eternal perdition 410
3. Whoso is really upright is like almighty God, is pleasing in His
sight, and is esteemed by his fellow-men 411
3. The Means of Preventing Sins of the Tongue.
Sins of the tongue are avoided by checking talkativeness and being
guarded in speech 412
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
(See Sixth Commandment.)
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT OF COD.
In the Tenth Commandment God forbids us to endeavor to possess
ourselves of the property of another by unlawful means 413
1. Socialism.
1. In our own day a large proportion of the so-called Socialists or
social democrats aim at depriving their fellow-men of their pri-
vate property by unjust means 414
2. All who endeavor by unlawful means to deprive, their neighbor of
his personal property, live in a state of mortal sin 417
XL THE WORKS OF MERCY.
1. The Value of Earthly Goods and the Use to re Made of
Them.
1. Earthly riches do not of themselves make us better in God's sight. . 418
2. Earthly goods have their value, however, because with them we
can earn eternal felicity 41 8
3. God is the Lord of all earthly riches; we are only His stewards. . 418
2. The Precept to Perform Works of Mercy.
1. Christ has strictly enjoined upon us to nssist our neighbor who
is in need with our earthly goods; for He will only grant ever-
lasting happiness to those who have helped their fellow-men who
were in need 419
38 Contents.
PAGE
2. The assistance we give to the needy, of whatever nature it may
be, is an alms, or work of mercy 420
3. The works of mercy are either spiritual or corporal, according as
the necessities we relieve are spiritual or corporal 420
3. The Several Works of Mercy.
1. The corporal works of mercy are: (1), To feed the hungry; (2),
To give drink to the thirsty; (3), To clothe the naked; (4),
To harbor the stranger; (5) To visit the sick; (6) To ransom
the captive; (7), To bury the dead 421
2. The spiritual works of mercy are: (1), To instruct the ignorant;
(2), To counsel the doubtful; (3), To admonish sinners; (4),
To bear wrongs patiently; (5), To forgive offences willingly;
(6), To comfort the afflicted; (7), To pray for the living and the
dead 422
4. In what Spirit should the Works of Mercy be
Performed ?
We ought not to do good to our neighbor in order to be seen and
praised by men 425
5. Of what Benefit are the Works of Mercy to us?
1. Almsgiving obtains for us the remission of our sins; that is to
say, the sinner obtains the grace of repentance, while the just
man receives the pardon of venial sin, and the remission of the
temporal penalty 427
2. By almsgiving we obtain an eternal recompense, provided that at
the time we are in a state of grace 428
3. Almsgiving brings down upon us temporal blessings; God in-
creases our means and gives us bodily health 428
XII. THE DUTY OF GRATITUDE.
1. For every act of mercy done to us, we are bound to render thanks,
first to God and then to our benefactor; for God requires of us
that we should be grateful tor the benefits we receive 409
2. By our gratitude we obtain fresh favors, whereas ingratitude brings
misfortunes upon us 430
XIII. THE POVERTY OF THE CHRISTIAN.
Poverty is no disgrace in God's sight; the poor are beloved by God
and save their souls more easily 431
B, (Boot) Morfcs, IDirtuc, Sin, Dice,
I. GOOD WORKS.
1. The name of good works is given to such voluntary actions on the
part of man as are in conformity with the will of God, are per-
formed for the love of God, and consequently will be rewarded
by God 434
2. The good works most pleasing in God's sight are these: Prayer,
fasting, and almsdeeds 435
Contents. 39
PAGE
3. Even the most trifling works are pleasing to God if they are done
with the intention of promoting His glory 436
4. Good works are necessary to salvation 436
5. Through good works the sinner obtains the actual graces which
are necessary for his conversion; the just man obtains an in-
crease of sanctifying grace, eternal felicity, and the remission
of the temporal penalty of sin; furthermore his prayers are heard,
and sometimes earthly blessings are bestowed on him 437
C. We can apply to others, either to the living or to the dead, the
merit of our good works 438
II. VIRTUE.
1. Virtue consists in proficiency in the practice of good works, and
the tendency of the will towards what is good, resulting from
persevering exercise 439
2. It is only perfect virtue, i.e., those acts of virtue Avhich are per-
formed for the glory of God, which will be rewarded after death . . 439
3. Virtue can only be acquired and increased by dint of struggle
and self-conquest; for many obstacles have to be encountered,
inward hindrances, the evil proclivities of the human heart, and
outward hindrances, the contempt and perseeution of men 440
4. Virtue procures for us real happiness both in time and in eternity . . 440
THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE.
1. The virtues that unite our soul to God are the three theological
virtues : Faith, Hope, and Charity 442
2. Those virtues which have the effect of bringing our actions into
conformity with the moral law, are called 'moral virtues. These
we gain for ourselves by our own exertions and the assistance
of divine grace, after we have received sanctifying grace 443
3. The principal moral virtues are the seven capital virtues: Hu-
mility, obedience, meekness, liberality, temperance, chastity, dili-
gence in what is good 444
4. All the moral virtues proceed from the four cardinal virtues:
Prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude (Wisd. viii. 7) 444
5. All perfect virtues spring from the love of God and are inseparably
united together by that same love (1 Cor. xiii.) 446
6. The greatest and noblest of all the virtues is charity 447
7. The virtues can always be increased 447
8. All perfect virtue is lost immediately upon falling into mortal sin,
for thereby the love of God is lost, without which there can be no
perfect virtue 448
III. SIN.
1. He who wittingly and willingly transgresses one of God's com-
mandments is guilty of sin 449
2. Sin is in its essence an unlawful turning towards the creature and
turning away from God 450
The Development of Sin.
In the development of sin temptation first arises, then comes the
resolutions to commit sin: after that, if opportunity offers, the
exterior act is committed 451
40 Contents.
The Kinds of Sin.
PAG*".
There are different kinds of sin.
1. Sins are generally divided into sins of word, of thought, and of
deed : 454
2. A distinction also exists between our own sins, and the sins in
which we co-operate 454
The Compaeative Magnitude of Sin.
1. All sins are not equally great 456
2. Many sins are so great that they separate us entirely from God,
and deprive us of His friendship; they are called mortal or deadly
sins. Sins of lesser moment are called venial sins 456
3. He commits a mortal sin who consciously and of his own free
will does grievous dishonor to God, or wrong to his neighbor in
a weighty matter; who does injury to his own life, or to the life,
the property, or the reputation of his neighbor 4,-g
4. He commits a venial sin who only injures something of trifling
consequence, or who, though he injures something of great im-
portance, injures it very slightly, or does so almost unconsciously
and to some extent unwittingly 458
5. All mortal sins are not of equal magnitude, nor are all venial
sins of the same importance. The most heinous sins are the
sins against the Holy Ghost, and those that cry to heaven lor
vengeance 459
0. He commits a sin against the Holy Ghost who persistently and
wilfully resists the action of the Holy Ghost 459
7. Sins that cry to heaven for vengeance are sins of great malice.
They are: Wilful murder, oppression of the poor, defrauding
laborers of their wages, and the sin of Sodom 460
8. A distinction must be made between venial sins and imperfections.
Imperfections are faults which are due not to a bad will, but to
human frailty 461
The Consequences of Sin.
1. Mortal sin deprives a man of sanctifying grace, and delivers him
into the power of the devil 462
2. Mortal sin brings down upon the sinner both eternal damnation
and temporal chastisement 463
The Consequences of Venial Six.
1. Venial sin gradually leads to mortal sin, and eventuates in the
loss of sanctifying grace 465
2. There are temporal penalties due to venial sin, and these will
.come down upon us either on earth or after death in purgatory. . 465
IV. VICE.
1. Vice is proficiency in the practice of evil, and the confirmed tend-
ency of the will towards evil which is acquired by habitual sin. 466
2. Habitual sin makes a man supremely unhappy, because it deprives
him completely of sanctifying grace, subjects him entirely to
the dominion of the devil, and brings down on him many tem-
poral judgments as well as eternal damnation 467
Contents. 41
PAGE
3. The most ordinary sins are the seven capital sins: Pride, dis-
obedience, anger, avarice, intemperance in eating and drinking,
unehastity, sloth 408
V. THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN.
1. There is no man upon earth without sin; consequently there is
none who does not need the forgiveness of sin 459
2. We can obtain forgiveness of sin, because Christ merited it for
us by the death of the cross; and because He gave power to
forgive sins to His apostles and their successors 469
3. Mortal sin is remitted y Baptism and penance; venial sin, and
the temporal penalties due to it, by good works done in a state
of grace. These good works are: Prayer, fasting, almsgiving,
hearing holy Mass, receiving holy communion, use of the sacra-
mentals, gaining indulgences, forgiving offences 470
4. There is no sin too great for God to forgive here below, if it be
sincerely repented of and humbly confessed ■. 470
VI. TEMPTATION.
1. Temptation is the action of the evil spirit upon our soul, in order
to induce us to sin; he excites within us the concupiscence of
the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life 471
2. God allows us to be tempted out of mercy, and for the good of
our souls 4/2
3. We ought to protect ourselves from temptation by assiduous work,
by keeping our thoughts fixed upon God, and by continual self-
conquest 473
4. When we are tempted we ought to betake ourselves immediately to
prayer, or think of our last end or of the evil consequences
of sin 474
VII. OCCASIONS OF SIN.
1. By occasions of sin are meant such places, persons, or things,
which as a rule are the means of leading us into sin, if we go in
quest of them 4To
2. To expose one's self heedlessly to an occasion of sin, is in itself
a sin; it entails the loss of divine grace and leads to mortal sin. 475
3. He who finds himself in circumstances which are an occasion of
sin to him,, and does not instantly leave them, although it is
in his power to do so, commits a sin; he will be deprived of the
assistance of divine grace and will fall into mortal sin 476
4. He who refuses to give up what is to him an occasion of sin, can-
not expect to obtain pardon of sin here, or eternal salvation here-
after 476
5. The most common and the most dangerous occasions of sin are:
Liquor saloons, dancing saloons, bad theatres, bad periodicals
and bad novels 477
VIII. THE SEVEN PRINCIPAL VIRTUES AND THE SEVEN
PRINCIPAL VICES.
1. Humility.
1. The humble man is lie who acknowledges his own nothingness
and the nothingness of all earthly things, and comports himself
in accordance with this conviction 479
42 Contents.
PAGE
2. Christ gave us in Himself the grandest example of humility, for
He, being the Son of God, took the form of a servant, chose to
live in great lowliness, was most condescending in His inter-
course with men, and finally, voluntarily endured the ignomini-
ous death of the cross . 481
3. Humility leads to greater sanctity, to exaltation, and to ever-
lasting felicity . 482
2. The Opposite of Humility: Pride.
1. He is proud who overestimates his own worth, or the value of
his earthly possessions and shows openly that he does so 483
2. Pride leads to all manner of vices, to degradation here, and eternal
damnation hereafter; it also destroys the value of all our good
works 484
3. Obedience.
1. Obedience consists in being ready to fulfil the behest of one's
superior 485
2. Obedience is the most difficult and at the same time the most ex-
cellent of all the moral virtues (St. Thomas Aquinas) 486
3. By our obedience we accomplish the will of God most surely, and
we attain certainly and quickly to a high degree of perfection. . . 487
4. Disobedience.
1. Disobedience consists in not fulfilling the commands of one's su-
periors 487
2. Disobedience brings temporal misfortune and eternal misery upon
man 488
5. Patience, Meekness, Peaceableness.
Patience.
1. Patience consists in preserving one's serenity of mind amid all the
contrarieties of this life, for the love of God 488
2. Patience produces many virtues and leads to salvation 489
Meekness.
1. Meekness consists in showing for the love of God, no irritation
when wrong is done us 490
2. By meekness we gain power over our fellow-men, we attain peace
of mind, and eternal salvation 490
Peaceableness.
1. Peaceableness consists in willingly making a sacrifice for the sake
of remaining at peace with one's neighbor or reconciling one's
self with him 492
2. Peacemakers enjoy the special protection of God and receive a
hundredfold as the reward of all that they give up for the sake
of peace 492
Contents. 43
6. The Opposite of Meekness: Weath.
PAGE
1. Wrath consists in exciting one's self about something at which
one is displeased 493
2. Those who indulge anger injure their health, temporarily lose the
use of reason, make themselves hated, and incur the danger of
losing eternal salvation 493
7. Liberality.
1. Liberality consists in being ready and willing, for the love of God,
to give pecuniary assistance to those who are in need 495
2. By liberality we obtain forgiveness of sin and* eternal reward,
and temporal blessings, besides a speedy answer to prayer and
the friendship of our fellow-men 495
8. The Opposite of Liberality: Avarice.
1. Avarice consists in an inordinate craving for riches, which makes
a man not only strive after them, but refuse to give any portion
of his goods to the poor 495
2. The avaricious are miserable both in time and in eternity; for
the sake of money they commit all manner of sins, they lose
the faith and their peace of mind, they are cruel to themselves
and hardhearted to their neighbor, and finally perish eternally. . 496
9. Temperance in Eating and Drinking.
1. Temperance consists in not eating and drinking more than is
necessary, and not being either too greedy or too dainty in re-
gard to the nourishment one takes 498
2. Temperance is highly advantageous to soul and body: it improves
the health, lengthens life, strengthens the faculties of the mind,
fosters virtue, and leads to everlasting life 498
10. Intemperance in Eating and Drinking.
1. Intemperance consists in eating and drinking much more than is
necessary, and in being greedy or dainty in regard to one's food. . 498
2. By intemperance a man injures his health, weakens his mental
faculties, destroys his reputation, and reduces himself to poverty;
falls into vice, often comes to a miserable end, and is eternally
lost 499
11. Chastity.
1. Chastity consists in preserving the mind and body free from
everything that might stain their innocence 500
2. Those who lead a life of chastity, possess the sanctifying grace of
the Holy Spirit in abundant measure; they will be happy here on
eartl\ and will enjoy special distinction in heaven hereafter.... 501
12. Unchastity.
1. Unchastity consists in thoughts, words or deeds, which are de-
structive of innocence 504
2. Unchaste persons do not possess the sanctifving grace of the Holy
Ghost, they are severely chastised by God in this life, and after
death are condemned to eternal perdition 504
44 Contents.
13. Zeal in what is Good.
PAGE
1. Zeal in what is good consists in working out one's salvation with
all earnestness and fervor 505
2. Without zeal in what is good we cannot be saved, for the kingdom
of heaven suffereth violence 506
14. The Opposite of Zeal: Sloth.
1. Sloth consists in shunning everything that conduces either to our
temporal or eternal well-being, provided it be toilsome 507
2. Idleness leads to all kinds of vice; it brings misery in this life
and eternal damnation in the life to come 507
<L (Tbristian perfection.
I. THE ASPIRATION AFTER CHRISTIAN PERFECTION.
1. God requires of all the just that they should aspire to Christian
perfection . 509
2. The most sublime example of Christian perfection is found in
Our Lord. After Him, the saints are also patterns of perfection. . 509
3. The perfection of the Christian consists in charity towards God
and his neighbor, and in detachment of heart from the things of
this world 510
II. GENERAL MEANS FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF
PERFECTION.
In order to make sure of attaining Christian perfection, the following
means should be adopted 512
1. Fidelity in small things 512
2. A habit of self-control 512
3. Abstinence from all that is superfluous, especially in regard to
eating and drinking 513
4. Order and regularity 514
5. Unremitting prayer 514
0. Frequent conlession and communion 515
7. Reading attentively the life of Our Lord and the lives of the saints,
and meditation on the truths of religion 515
8. Love of solitude 515
III. SPECIAL MEANS FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF
PERFECTION.
1. He who aspires to a higher degree of perfection must follow tho
three evangelical counsels: Perfect obedience, perpetual chastity,
and voluntary poverty 516
2. These three counsels are called the evangelical counsels, because
Our Lord gave them to us when He preached the Gospel, and fol-
lowed them Himself 518
3. The evangelical counsels lead to higher perfection, because by their
means the three evil concupiscences in man are completely de-
stroyed, and the chief obstacles in the way of his salvation
are removed 518
Contents. 45
4. Not every one is called of God to follow the evangelical counsels;
for Our Lord says : " All men take not this word, but they to
whom it is given " (Matt. xix. 11) 519
5. The members of religious Orders are bound to follow the evan-
gelical counsels, and likewise all persons living in the world,
who have taken a vow to do so 519
IV. THE EIGHT BEATITUDES.
Those who scrupulously keep God's commandments are happy even
on earth. Therefore God declared blessed those who are poor in
spirit, the meek, they that mourn, they that hunger for His jus-
tice, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and they
that suffer persecution for the right 521
PART III.
Hbe fIDeans of (Brace*
1. THE HOLY SACEIFICE OF THE MASS.
1. On Sacrifice in General.
1. The word sacrifice signifies the voluntary surrender or the destruc-
tion of an object which we value, to give honor to God as our
supreme Lord 526
2. The Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross.
1. The sacrifice which reconciled God with man was that which
Christ offered upon the cross 529
2. The sacrifice of Christ upon the cross was a vicarious sacrifice for
the sins of all mankind, and a sacrifice of superabundant value. . 530
3. The graces which Christ merited for us by His death are com-
municated to us by the means of grace; that is to say, the holy
sacrifice of the Mass, the sacraments, the sacramentals, and
prayer 531
3. The Institution, Nature, and Principal Parts of the Mass.
1. The Son of God offered a sacrifice at the Last Supper, because He
gaA-e His body and blood to be offered up, in order to reconcile
His heavenly Father with man 532
2. We call the sacrifice instituted by Our Lord at the Last Supper,
holy Mass, or the sacrifice of the Mass 535
3. What takes place in the sacrifice of the Mass is this: The priest
at the altar, as the representative of Christ, offers up bread
and wine to almighty God; he changes these substances into the
body and blood of Christ, and destroys them by consuming them. 530
4. There are three distinct parts in the sacrifice »of the Mass: The
offertory, the consecration, and the communion 537
46 Contents.
4. The Ceremonial of the Mass.
PAGE
1. In the course of time many ceremonies of deep significance grouped
themselves around the holy sacrifice of the Mass, Avhich were
not to be omitted without absolute necessity 5b9
2. The whole story of the Eedemption is symbolically represented by
the ceremonies of the Mass 540
5. The Relation which the Mass bears to the Sacrifice of
the Cross.
1. The sacrifice of the Mass is a living renewal of the sacrifice of the
cross, for in the Mass, as upon the cross, Christ immolates Him-
self ' 541
2. In the sacrifice of the Mass all the sacrifices made by Our Lord
are also renewed 542
6. The Profit to be Derived from the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass.
1. By means of the holy sacrifice of the Mass the fruits of the sacri-
fice of the cross are applied to us in most abundant measure;
more particularly we obtain thereby forgiveness of sin, certitude
that our prayers are heard, temporal blessings, and eternal re-
wards 542
2. Those who participate in the fruits of the holy sacrifice of the
Mass are: First, the individual for whom it is celebrated; then
the priest and all who are present; finally, all the faithful both
living and dead; moreover the holy sacrifice gives joy to all
the angels and saints 545
7. The Celebration of Holy Mass.
1. The holy sacrifice of the Mass is only offered to God; it may be
offered to Him with a fourfold intention: By way of atonement,
of petition, of praise, or of thanksgiving 547
2. The holy sacrifice of the Mass may also be offered in* honor of the
angels or saints 548
3. The holy sacrifice of the Mass can also be offered for the souls ot
the departed who haA^e- been members of the Catholic Church,
and have not died in a state of mortal sin 548
4. The holy sacrifice of the Mass can, however, be offered for the
living, whether Catholics or non-Catholics 549
8. The Value of the Sacrifice of the Mass.
1. As the holy sacrifice of the Mass is an oblation of infinite value,
to celebrate or to hear Mass is a good work which surpasses all
other good works in excellence 550
9. The Devotion at Holy Mass.
We ought to be very devout at Mass; that is, we ought to banish
from our minds all that may cause distraction, and endeavor
to unite our supplications to those of the priest, especially in the
three principal parts of the Mass • 55*
1. Whispering, laughing, looking about at the time of Mass- must be
carefully avoided; moreover it is unseemly to come to Mass
overdressed ^*-
Contents. 47
PAGE
2. When assisting at the holy sacrifice, we ought to unite our sup-
plications to those of the priest, but it is not necessary to use
the same prayers as he does 552
3. At the three principal parts of the Mass we should to a certain
extent suspend our private devotions, and fix our attention upon
what is done at the altar 553
4. It is an excellent practice immediately after the consecration to
make to our heavenly Father a definite act of offering of His
divine Son sacrificed upon the altar, and of His Passion and
death 555
5. At the communion, if we do not communicate actually, we ought
to do so spiritually i 555
6. It is not possible to hear two or more Masses at the same time;
therefore when in church we ought to follow one Mass attentively
and not more than one , 555
10. The Obligation of Hearing Mass.
1. Every Catholic is bound, under pain of mortal sin, to hear the
whole of one Mass devoutly every Sunday and holyday of obli-
gation 556
2. To hear Mass on week-days, if possible, is a highly commendable
practice, for it may be the means of gaining the greatest graces. . 557
11. The Time when Mass is to be Celebrated.
The holy sacrifice of the Mass is generally to be celebrated between
sunrise and noon 558
12. The Place where Mass is to be Celebrated.
The apostles celebrated the holy sacrifice on a table; during the per-
secution of the Christians Mass was offered on the tombs of the
martyrs 559
13. The Vestments and Sacred Vessels used at Mass.
The various portions of the sacerdotal vestments are commemorative
of Our Lord's Passion 562
14. The Colors of the Vestments.
1. In the vestments worn by the priest at Mass, the Church makes
use of five colors: White, red, green, purple and black 563
2. These colors not only depict the course of Our Lord's life on earth,
but serve as a constant admonition to us to lead a pious life. . . . 564
15. The Language of the Mass.
The Latin language is used in the services of the Church; it helps to
maintain her unity and preserves her from many evils 565
16. Singing at Mass.
The singing of which the Church makes use is called the Gregorian
chant, congregational, and choir singing. . . f , 566
48 Contents.
17. Hearing the Word of God.
PAGE
1. The Word of God is said to be the food of the soul, because it sus-
tains the life and strength of the soul, as bread does that of the
body 569
2. Hence it is the duty of every Christian either to hear sermons
frequently, or to read spiritual books and make a practical ap-
plication of what he hears or reads 570
3. Those who are assiduous in hearing sermons or reading spiritual
books, will not have great difficulty in attaining eternal salva-
tion 571
II. THE SACRAMENTS.
1. The sacraments are sensible signs instituted by Christ, by means
of which the graces of the Holy Spirit are communicated to us. . 572
2. Christ instituted seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy
Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders and Matri-
mony • 57o
3. By the three sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders,
there is imprinted upon the soul a certain spiritual and indelible
mark or character, on account of which they cannot be repeated. . 574
4. Two of the sacraments, Baptism and Penance, are instituted princi-
pally with the object of conferring sanctifying grace where it
was not already given; the five others with the object of in-
creasing that gift 574
5. Due preparation must be made before receiving the sacraments, in
order to obtain the graces they convey 575
6. Supposing the priest who administers the sacrament to be un-
worthy, the graces of the Holy Spirit will still be communicated
by means of the sacrament 576
1. BAPTISM.
1. This is Avhat takes place at Baptism: Water is poured upon tho
head of the person to be baptized, and at the same time the
words appointed by Our Lord are repeated; the person is thereby
cleansed from original sin and all other sins, he is gifted with
habitual and sanctifying grace, and becomes a child of God, an
heir of heaven, and a member of the Church 577
2. Baptism acts spiritually as water does materially 578
3. Baptism is indispensably necessary to salvation. Hence children
who die unbaptized cannot enter heaven 579
4. Hence it follows that parents ought to have their children baptized
immediately after their birth, because new-born infants hover
between life and death 580
5. In case of necessity any one can administer Baptism and without
the usual ceremonies 580
6. If baptism by water is impossible, it may be replaced by the bap-
tism of desire, or by the baptism of blood, as in the case of those
who suffer martyrdom for the faith of Christ 580
7. In the early ages of the Church solemn Baptism was administered
on three days of the year: Holy Saturday, the eve of Whit-
sunday, and in the East on the eve of the Epiphany 581
Contents. 49
2. CONFIRMATION.
PAGE
1. The ceremonial of Confirmation is as follows: The bishop lays
his hands upon the candidates and anoints each one severally
with chrism upon the forehead, with prayer; and those who are
so anointed receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost, especially courage
to profess their faith 585
2. The supernatural effect of Confirmation is similar to the natural
effect of oil 585
3. Christians ought to be confirmed at the age when they pass from
childhood to youth, because at that period temptations thicken
around them, and they need strength of will to resist them 586
4. The candidate for Confirmation ought previously to go to con-
fession, and if possible to holy communion; for to receive this
sacrament one must be in a state of grace 587
5. Confirmation is usually administered about Whitsuntide, as the
bishop visits the whole of his diocese at intervals of a few years. 587
3. THE HOLT EUCHARIST.
Institution and Nature of the Holy Eucharist.
1. The body of Christ under the appearance of bread, and the blood
of Christ under the appearance of wine, is called the Most Holy
Sacrament of the Altar 589
2. The presence of the body and blood of Christ under the appearance
of bread and wine is a mystery, because our feeble reason can-
not comprehend it 590
3. It is most true that under the species of bread, as also under the
species of wine, Christ is present, God and man, whole and entire. 591
4. Our Lord is present in every particle, however minute, of the
consecrated bread and wine 592
5. Christ is present in the consecrated elements as long as the acci-
dents of bread and wine remain 592
6. The duties of the Christian in regard to the Holy Sacrament of
the Altar are these: He ought to visit it frequently, to adore it,
and to receive it 592
The Xecessity of Holy Communion.
1. The Holy Sacrament of the Altar is the nourishment of our souls. . 594
2. We are bound under pain of mortal sin to communicate at least
once a year, and that at Easter; also in case of dangerous ill-
ness. It is, moreover, the wish of the Church that the faithful
should, if possible, receive holy communion on Sundays and
holvdavs 595
The Effects of Holy Communion.
Holy communion acts spiritually, as bread and wine act materially. . . 597
1. By holy communion we are united more closely to Christ. Our
Lord says: "He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood,
abideth in Me. and I in him " (John vi. 57) 597
2. Holy communion imparts actual graces, and also maintains and
increases sanctifying grace in the soul 598
3. The force of evil concupiscence is lessened by holy communion, and
we are freed from venial sin by means of it 598
4. Holy communion often affords much refreshment to the soul 599
50 Contents.
Preparation for Holy Communion.
PAGE
1. We must make a suitable preparation of body and soul before
receiving holy communion 599
2. The manner in which we should prepare our soul is this: We
must cleanse our souls from mortal sin by confession, perform
good works and adorn ourselves with the virtues 600
3. Our body must be prepared for holy communion by fasting from
midnight; by dressing in a neat and suitable manner, and by
a reverent deportment at the time of communion 602
Behavior after Receiving Holy Communion.
After receiving communion we should make our thanksgiving, and
proffer our petitions to almighty God, praying for the Pope,
for the authorities, secular and ecclesiastical, for our relatives,
friends, and benefactors, and for the holy souls in purgatory. . . . 603
Spiritual Communion.
Spiritual communion consists in awakening within the heart a lively
desire to receive holy communion 604
4. THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE.
The Nature and the Necessity of Penance.
1. In the Sacrament of Penance the repentant Christian confesses
his sin to a duly-authorized priest, who, standing in the place
of God, pronounces the absolution by means of which they are
forgiven 605
2. The Sacrament of Penance is indispensably necessary for those who
have fallen into sin after Baptism, for without this sacrament
they are unable to recover the justice they have lost 606
3. Let no one be deterred by a feeling of shame from confessing
his sins; the priest dare not, under any pretext, reveal what is
said in the confessional, and he is ever ready to receive the con-
trite sinner kindly 607
4. He who from a sense of shame conceals a mortal sin in confession,
does not obtain forgiveness, but only adds to his other sins that
of sacrilege, and exposes himself to the grave risk of dying
impenitent 608
The Confessor.
1. No priest can give absolution who has not received the faculties
for hearing confessions from the bishop of the diocese 609
2. Priests who are duly authorized to hear confessions, have not
power to absolve from all sins, since there are certain sins which
the Pope or the bishop has reserved to himself for judgment 609
3. In the confessional the priest stands in the place of God; there-
fore the penitent is bound to yield him obedience 609
4. Under no possible conditions may the priest repeat anything out
of the confessional 610
5. Every Catholic is perfectly free to choose his own confessor 611
Contents. 51
The Effects of Penance.
PAGE
By worthily receiving the Sacrament of Penance we obtain the fol-
lowing graces 612
1. The guilt of sin is remitted and the debt of eternal punishment;
yet there remains the debt of temporal punishment to be dis-
charged 612
2. The Holy Spirit returns to the repentant sinner, and imparts to
him sanctifying grace; and the merits of all the good works he
formerly performed while in a state of grace are restored to him
again 613
3. Through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost we obtain great peace
of mind, nay, great consolations, if our conversion be sincere 613
4. The Holy Ghost imparts to us the strength necessary to over-
come sin 314
The Worthy Reception of the Sacrament of Penance.
In order to receive the Sacrament of Penance worthily, we must do
as follows : 615
1. We must examine our conscience, i.e., we must carefully consider
what sins we have committed and not yet confessed 615
2. We must truly repent of our sins, that is, we must grieve from our
heart that we have offended God by them, and the thought of
offending Him must be abhorrent to us 617
The means of awakening true contrition is to reflect that by our sins
Ave have grievously offended the infinite majesty of God, and
have displeased our loving Father, our greatest Benefactor 619
The consideration that we must expect the just judgments of God on
account of our sins, also disposes us to true contrition ^20
Confession without contrition does not obtain the divine forgiveness. . 621
3. We must make a firm resolution, that is, we must steadfastly
determine with the help of God to desist from all sin, and to
avoid the occasions of sin for the future 621
4. We are under the obligation of confessing our sins, that is, we
must secretly to the priest enumerate all the mortal sins of which
we are conscious, accurately, simply, and humbly : with the num-
ber of times we have committed them, besides all that is neces-
sary to make known the nature of the sin 622
5. Satisfaction must be made: i.e., we must perform the penance en-
joined upon us by the confessor 623
The confessor generally enjoins upon the penitent, prayer, almsdeeds,
and fasting as works of penance, in order that he may thereby
discharge the temporal penalties, and weaken the power of evil
tendencies 624
We should, besides, make satisfaction by punishments voluntarily
undertaken of ourselves; and also by bearing patiently the tem-
poral scourges inflicted of God 625
The works of penance which we perform and the sufferings which
we bear patiently do not only cancel the temporal punishment
due to our sins, but they contribute to the increase of our
eternal happiness 625
General Confession.
By general confession is meant confession of all the sins we have com-
mitted within a considerable period of time 625
52 Contem
Confession a Divine Institution.
PAGE
1. Confession of sins was instituted by Our Lord, and has been the
practice of the Church in all centuries. 626
2. The institution of confession affords us proof of the infinite mercy
and wisdom of God 628
The Advantages of Confession.
Confession is extremely useful both to individuals and to society in
general 623
The Sin of Relapse.
1. He who after his conversion, relapses into mortal sin, is in danger
of dying impenitent, because the devil acquires great power over
him and the influence of the Holy Spirit is lessened 630
2. If any one should relapse into mortal sin, let him forthwith repent
and go to confession; for the longer penance is delayed, the
more difficult, the more uncertain conversion will be 630
3. If, through frailty, we fall into venial sin, we must not be dis-
quieted on that account, but humble ourselves before God 630
4. Since we cannot possibly continue in a state of grace until death
without the special assistance of the Holy Spirit, let us fervently
implore of God the grace of final perseverance 631
Indulgences.
1. God has granted to the Church the power, after the reconciliation
of the sinner with God, of changing the punishments yet remain-
ing due to sin into works of penance, or of remitting them
altogether 632
2. The remission of the temporal punishment due to us on account
of our sins is called an indulgence^ and is obtained by the per-
formance, while in a state of grace, of certain good works en-
joined on us by the Church 634
3. An indulgence is either plenary, when a full and entire remission
of all the temporal punishment due to sin is gained, or partial,
when only a portion of the temporal punishment is remitted 636
4. The Pope alone has power to grant indulgences which are for the
whole Church; for in him alone jurisdiction over the whole
Church is vested, and he is the steward of the Church's treasures. 639
5. Indulgences may also be applied by way of suffrage to the suffer-
ing souls in purgatory, if this be expressly stated respecting the
indulgence; a plenary indulgence is gained for them every time
the holy sacrifice of the Mass is offered on a privileged altar. . . . 639
6. The gaining of indulgences is most salutary, because we thereby
keep far from us temporal evils, and are stimulated to the ac-
complishment of good works 639
5. EXTREME UKCTrON.
1. In administering Extreme Unction the priest anoints the Christian
who is in danger of death with the holy oils upon the organs of
his five senses, and prays over him: by means of which the
spiritual and not infrequently the bodily malady of the sick man
is cured 640
Contents. 53
PAGE
2. Extreme Unction acts spiritually as oil does materially; it
strengthens, heals, and aids the soul to attain eternal salvation. . 640
3. Extreme Unction can only be administered to persons who are in
danger of death; and they ought to receive it without delay
for the sake both of their physical and spiritual health 642
4. Before being anointed the sick man ought to confess his sins, and
receive holy communion and afterwards the Papal blessing is
generally given to him 642
6. HOLY ORDERS.
1. At the administration of Holy Orders the bishop lays 'his hands
on the candidates for ordination, calls down upon them the Holy
Ghost, anoints their hands, and presents the sacred vessels to
them 643
2. The office of the priesthood,, to which a man is raised by Holy
Orders, is one of great dignity, but likewise one of no slight
difficulty and of vast responsibility 644
3. The Sacrament of Holy Orders only confers the perpetual power,
not the right, to exercise the functions of a priest. The newly-
ordained cannot therefore make use in any place of their sacer-
dotal powers, until they have received ecclesiastical authorization. 646
4. No one can be admitted to priest's Orders who has not attained
the age of twenty-four years 647
5. Six other orders of ministry precede the priesthood, four lesser
and two greater 647
7. MATRIMONY.
The Institution and Nature oe Matrimony.
1. God Himself instituted matrimony in the beginning of the world,
for the procreation of the human race., and the mutual assist-
ance of husband and wife 649
2. Christian marriage is a contract between man and woman, binding
them to an undivided and indissoluble partnership, and confer-
ring on them at the same time grace to fulfil all the duties re-
quired of them 650
3. Civil marriage is to be distinguished from Christian marriage,
inasmuch as it is no sacrament, and consequently in the sight of
God no true and real marriage for Catholics 650
The Characteristics of Matrimony.
According to the ordinance of Christ, Christian marriage is strictly
a union of two persons only, and it is indissoluble 652
The Graces Conferred in Matrimony.
The Sacrament of Matrimony confers upon Christians who embrace
that state both an increase of sanctifying grace, and in addition
the special graces necessary to enable them to discharge the
duties required of them 653
Impediments to Matrimony.
A marriage can only be concluded in the absence of all impediments
to it. The impediments may be such as nullify marriage, or
such as render it unlawful ..." ^54
54 Contents.
The Celebration of Matrimony.
PAGE
Marriage must be preceded by betrothal, by the publication of the
banns, and by the reception of the Sacraments of Penance and
of the Altar 656
The Church expressly commands that the marriage be concluded
in the presence of the priest of the parish, and two witnesses;
or the parish priest may authorize another priest to act in his
place 658
Marriages are, as a rule, celebrated in the forenoon, in the house
of God, with solemn ceremonies, and Mass is usually said at the
same time 658
The Duties of the Married.
It is the duty of the wife to obey her husband; it is the duty of the
husband to protect and shield his wife 659
Mixed Marriages.
1. Mixed marriages, by which is understood the marriage of Catholics
to non-Catholics, have always been disapproved of by the Church . 664
2. The Church tolerates mixed marriages on three conditions 665
3. The Catholic who contracts a mixed marriage without the bene-
diction of the Church, commits a mortal sin, and cannot be
admitted to the sacraments 666
The Unmarried State.
The unmarried state is better than the married, because those
who do not marry have far more opportunity for attending to
their spiritual welfare, and can attain a higher degree of glory
hereafter 667
III. THE SACRAMENTALS.
The sacramentals are rites which have some outward resemblance
to the sacraments instituted by Christ, but which are not of
divine institution. The name is applied both to the blessing or
consecration given by the Church, and to the objects blessed
or consecrated 668
The blessing consists in this, that the minister «of the Church invokes
the divine benediction upon certain persons or things 668
1. Consecration by the Church consists in this: That the ecclesiastic
empowered for this purpose, sets apart some person ©or some ob-
ject, and dedicates him or it to the exclusive service of Cod. . . . 669
2. Our Lord sanctioned the use of sacramentals, but the rites them-
selves are an institution of the Church 670
3. The use of blessed or consecrated objects is profitable; for if used
with pious dispositions, thev increase our fear and love of Cod,
remit venial sins, and preserve us from many temptations
and from bodily harm: excepting sneh temptations and ills of
the body as are for our spiritual welfare 670
Contents. 55
IV. PRAYER.
1. The Nature of Prayer
PAGE
x. Prayer is the elevation of the heart to God 671
2. We may pray either in spirit only, or with the lips as well 672
3. Our prayers have a threefold object: That of praise, of supplica-
tion, and of thanksgiving 673
2. The Utility and Necessity of Prayer.
1. By means of prayer we can obtain all things from God: but He
does not always grant our petitions immediately 674
2; By means of prayer sinners become just, and the just are enabled
"to continue in a state of grace 676
3. By prayer we obtain the remission of the temporal penalty due
to sin, and merit an eternal recompense 677
4. He who never prays cannot save his soul; for without prayer he
will fall into grievous sins 677
3. How Ought we to Pray ?
If prayer is to be of utility to us, we must pray:
1. In the name of Jesus, that is., we must ask what is in accordance
with Our Lord's desires 678
2. We must pray with devotion, that is we must fix our thoughts
on God when we pray 678
3. We must pray with perseverance, that is, we ought not to desist
from prayer, if our petition is not immediately granted 679
4. When Ought we to Pray?
1. As a matter of fact we ought to pray continually, for Our Lord
requires of us " Always to pray and not to faint " (Luke xviii. 1). 681
2. We ought to pray more especially every morning and evening,
before and after meals, and when we hear the Angelus 682
3. Furthermore we ought to pray in the hour of affliction, distress,
or temptation, when entering upon an important undertaking,
and when we feel an inspiration and desire to pray 684
5. Where Ought we to Pray?
1. We can and ought to pray in every place, because God is every-
where present 684
2. The house of God is the place especially set apart for prayer 685
3. A solitary place is also suitable for prayer 685
6. For What Ought we to Pray?
We ought to implore of God many things and great things; bene-
fits not appertaining to time so much as to eternity 685
We ought more especially to beseech almighty God to grant us
such things as are conducive to His glory, and to our salvation,
and in no Avi?e to ask for what will only serve to gratify our
earthly desires 685
56 Contents.
7. Meditation.
PAG3
Meditation consists in dwelling on the truths of religion in order to
awaken good resolutions in our mind gg(j
THE MOST IMPORTANT PRAYERS.
The Our Father.
1. The Our Father takes precedence of all other prayers; it is
especially distinguished by its power, its simplicity, and its com-
prehensiveness 687
The Our Father consists of an address, seven petitions, and the
word Amen 688
2. The address places the soul in the right disposition for prayer;
it awakens within us confidence in God and raises our thoughts
to Him 688
3. In the first petition we pray that God may be glorified . 688
4. In the next three petitions we ask for these blessings: Eternal
salvation, grace to fulfil the divine will, and the possession of
those things which are indispensable to the maintenance of our
earthly existence 688
5. In the next three petitions we pray that three evils may be averted
from us: The evil of sin, the evil of temptation, and those evils
which are prejudicial to life 689
6. The word Amen is the answer of God to the suppliant: in this
place it is equivalent to the words: Be assured that thy prayer
is heard 689
The Ave Maria.
1. The Are Maria consists of three parts: The salutation of the
archangel Gabriel, the greeting of Elizabeth, and the words of
the Church 690
2. The Ave Maria is a most potent prayer, and one which is full of
meaning 690
The Angelas.
The Angelus is a prayer which is to be recited morning, noon, and
night, when the bell rings, in honor of the Mother of God and
in adoration of the mystery of the Incarnation 693
The Rosary.
1. The Rosary is a prayer in which the Our Father, followed by ten
Hail Marys, is repeated five or fifteen times, accompanied by
meditation on the life, the Passion, and the exaltation of the
Redeemer 694
The lAtany of Loretto and the Salre Regina.
The litany takes its origin and name from the place of pilgrimage-,
Loretto. in Italy. The Salve Regina was composed in 10i)!) 096
Contents.
THE PRINCIPAL DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES.
PAGE
1. There are ordinary and extraordinary practices of devotion 697
2. The regular services held in the parish church on Sundays and
holydays both in the forenoon and the afternoon, as well as
week-day services, belong to the ordinary practices of devotion. . 697
3. Processions, pilgrimages, the Way of the Cross, Exposition of the
Blessed Sacrament, and missions, belong to the extraordinary
practices of devotion 697
Processions.
1. Processions are a solemn religious ceremony, during which prayers
are recited in common by those who take part in them 697
The ceremonial observed in our Christian processions is intended to
portray the truth that we have not here a lasting city, but we
seek one to come (Heb. xiii. 14) 697
2. The Church holds processions either for the purpose of setting be-
fore us more forcibly certain events in the life of Christ,
certain doctrines of the faith, or in order to obtain speedy help
from God; on these occasions an opportunity is afforded us of
testifying in a public manner our faith and our loyaltv to the
Church 698
3. The following processions form part of the ritual of the Church
everywhere 698
The procession on the feast of the Purification 698
The procession on Palm Sunday 699
The procession on Holy Saturday 699
The procession on the feast of Corpus Christi 699
The procession on St. Mark's Day 699
The procession on the three Rogation days 700
Christian Burial.
1. Christian burial is a solemn service accompanied by special cere-
monies in which the remains of a departed Catholic are carried
in procession to the place of interment 700
Pilgrimages.
1. Pilgrimages are journeys made to sacred places, where God often-
times vouchsafes to give miraculous assistance to the suppliant. . 703
2. The places of pilgrimage are either the holy places in Palestine,
spots sacred to the holv apostles, or shrines of the blessed Mother
of God 703
3. The object for which, as a rule. Christian people visit places of
pilgrimage is to beseech the divine assistance in seasons of deep
affliction, or to fulfil a vow 705
The Way of the Cross.
1. The Way of the Cross is the name given to the fourteen stations
which depict the way along which Our Redeemer passed, bearing
His cross, from Pilate's palace to Mount Calvary 706
58 Contents.
Exposition of the Host Holy Sacrament.
PAGE
The solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament consists in placing
the sacred Host in a monstrance, unveiled, for the worship of
the faithful 707
Missions and Retreats.
Missions consist of sermons and other religious exercises; retreats
have much the same effect as missions 708
Catholic Congresses and Passion Plays.
1. Catholic congresses are public meetings of Catholics for the pur-
pose of taking counsel together and passing resolutions suited
to the times and to the present needs of the Church 709
2. Passion play is the name given to the portrayal of Our Lord's
Passion, and other biblical events in a series of tableaux vivants. 710
Religions Associations.
1. Religious associations are voluntary societies formed among the
faithful, with the object of furthering their own salvation or
the salvation of their fellow-men 711
2. Religious associations may be divided into confraternities or sodali-
ties and charitable societies 711
The Third Order of St. Francis.
The Third Order was founded by St. Francis of Assisi for the sake
of seculars 713
The More Widespread Confraternities.
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, of the Holy Childhood,
the Confraternity of St. Michael, the Confraternity of the Blessed
Sacrament, the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, the Holy Scapu-
lar, the Holy Ghost, etc., etc., are the widest known in the
Church .' 714
The Apostleship of Prayer.
The Apostleship of Prayer is a league of prayers in union with the
Sacred Heart ' 718
Charitable Societies.
Charitable societies are the best embodiments of God's second precept
of charity 719
DEVOTIONS.
I. Prayers and Precepts of the Church.
1. The Sign of the Cross.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. Amen.
2. The Lord's Prayer, or Our Father.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
3. The Angelical Salutation, or Hail Mary.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art
thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the
hour of our death. Amen.
Jf. The Apostles' Creed.
1 I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven
and earth ; 2 and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord : 3 Who
was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, 4 suf-
fered under Pontius Pilate, wTas crucified ; died, and was buried.
5 He descended into hell ; the third day He arose again from
the dead ; 6 He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand
of God, the Father almighty ; 7 from thence He shall come to
judge the living and the dead. [That is to say, those who are
alive at the Last Hay, and who, as a matter of course, must die
59
60 Devotions.
before the final judgment ; besides those who died previously ; or
it may also mean the redeemed and the reprobate.] 8 I believe
in the Holy Ghost ; 9 the holy Catholic Church, the communion of
saints, 10 the forgiveness [remission] of sins, 11 the resurrection
of the body, 12 and the life everlasting. Amen.
5. The Two Precepts of Charity. (Mark xii. 30, 31.)
(1). Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart,
and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy
whole strength.
(2). Thou s'halt love thy neighbor as thyself.
6. The Ten Commandments of God. (Exod. xx. 1-17.)
(1). Thou shalt have no strange gods before Me. [That is to
say, thou shalt believe in the one true God alone, and not worship
any other.]
(2). Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in
vain. [That is, thou shalt not utter the name of God irreverently.]
(3). Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day. [Under the Chris-
tian Dispensation the Sunday.]
(4). Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother, that thou
mayst be long-lived upon the land which the Lord thy God will
give thee.
(5). Thou shalt not kill.
(6). Thou shalt not commit adultery.
(7). Thou shalt not steal.
(8). Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
(9). Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.
(10). Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his serv-
ant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor an}'thing that is his.
7. The Six Precepts of the Church.
(These are an amplification of the Third Commandment of God.)
(1). To hear Mass on Sundays and holydays of obligation.
(2). To fast and abstain on the days appointed.
(3). To confess at least once a year.
(4). To receive the Holy Eucharist during the Easter time.
(5). To contribute to the support of our pastors.
(6). Not to marry persons who are not Catholics, or who are
Devotions. 61
related to us within the fourth degree of kindred, nor privately
without witnesses, nor to solemnize marriage at forbidde.n times.
II. Prayers which may be used Daily at Different Times.
1. A Morning Prayer.
Thy goodness, 0 my God, and might,
Have brought me to this morning's light.
Keep and preserve me every hour,
From sorrow, sin, temptation's power.
Grant me Thy blessing, Lord, this day,
On all I think, or do, or say.
2. A Night Prayer.
When to rest I lay me down
God's protecting love I own ;
Hands and heart to Him I raise,
For His gifts I give Him praise.
The ill that I this day have done,
Forgive me, Lord, for Thy dear Son.
Thou, Who hast kept me through the day,
Watch o'er me through this night, I pray.
3. An Act of Good Intention. (Bl. Clement Hofbauer.)
Let my object ever be
To give glory, Lord, to Thee ;
If I work, or if I rest,
May God's holy name be blest.
Grant me grace my all to give
Lnto Him by Whom I live ;
Jesus, for Thy help I plead :
Mary, for me intercede.
Jf-. Grace before Meals.
Bless us, 0 Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to
receive from Thy bounty, through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
5. Grace after Meals.
We give Thee thanks, 0 Lord, for these and all Thy gifts,
which of Thy bounty we have received, and may the souls of the
faithful, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen,
62 Devotions.
6. Prayer for One's Parents.
0 my God, I commend my parents to Thee ; protect them, and
spare them long to me, and reqnite them for all the good that they
have done to me.
III. Prayers to be said at Different Times when the
Church Bell is Heard.
1. The Angelas. (Morning, noon, and evening.)
V. The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
B. And she conceived of the Holy Ghost. Hail Mary, etc.
V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord :
R. Be it done nnto me according to Thy word. Hail Mary,
etc.
V. And the Word was made flesh.
Pi. And dwelt amongst us. Hail Mary, etc.
V. Pray for us, 0 holy Mother of God ;
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us Pray.
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, Thy grace into our
hearts ; that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was
made known by the message of an angel, may, by His Passion and
cross, be brought to the glory of His resurrection ; through the
same Christ Our Lord. Amen.
(An indulgence of one hundred days may be gained each time that the Angelus
is said kneeling (except on Saturday evening and on Sunday, when it is said
standing), and a plenary indulgence, once a month, on the usual conditions, if
it has been said daily for a whole month. Those who are reasonably prevented
from saying the prayers kneeling, or who cannot hear the bell, are still able to
gain the indulgence if the prayers are duly recited.)
2. Prayer in Commemoration of Our Lord's Passion, to he said at
three o'clock on Fridays.
I bless Thee, 0 Thou Lord of heaven !
Whose life for sinful man was given.
Let not Thy cross and bitter pain
Have been for me borne all in vain.
Devotions 63
3. Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory, to be said when the Church
Bell is Tolled or after the Evening Angelus.
Thy mercy, Lord, we humbly crave
For souls whom Thou didst die to save.
Suffering amidst the cleansing fire,
To see Thy face they yet aspire.
Grant them, 0 Lord, a swift release,
And bring them where all pain shall cease.
Eternal rest give unto all the faithful departed, 0 Lord, and
let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.
Amen.
Jj-. Prayers to be 8 aid when the Bell is Bung at Mass.
When the priest, standing at the foot of the altar, begins the prayers of
the Mass, make the sign of the cross, direct your intention, and commence
your prayers. At the Gospel stand up and cross yourself on forehead, lips,
and breast.
5. Prayer at the Offertory.
Accept, 0 Lord, this sacrifice, which, in union with the priest,
I offer to Thy divine majesty, together with all I have and alii am.
Mercifully pardon my sins, and grant that I may find acceptance in
Thy sight.
6. At the Consecration.
Kneel down, bless yourself, clasp your hands, and fixing your eyes upon
the altar, say :
Flesh of Christ, hail, sweet oblation,
Sacrifice for our salvation ;
On the cross a victim slain.
Bread of angels, ever living,
Health and hope to mortals giving.
Remain upon your knees, motionless, until the bell rings again at the ele-
vation of the chalice. Then bless yourself again, and say :
0 fount of love, good Jesus, Lord,
Cleanse us, unclean, in Thy all-cleansing blood ;
Of which one single drop for sinners spilt,
Can free the entire world from all its sruilt.
64
Devotions.
7. At the Communion.
When the bell rings, bless yourself, strike your breast, and eay with the
priest :
Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my
roof ; say but the word, and my soul shall be healed.
Bless yourself again bere, and also when the priest gives the blessing. At
the last Gospel do the same as when the first was read.
IV. Devotions for Confession and Communion.
1. The Form for Confession.
Kneeling down in the confessional, make tbe sign of the cross when the
priest gives you bis blessing ; then say the first part of the Confiteor, and
accuse yourself of tbe sins you bave committed since your last confession, fol-
lowing tbe order of tbe Ten Commandments, the precepts of tbe Church, and
tbe seven deadly sins. After having confessed all that you can remember,
conclude witb tbese or similar words :
For these and all the sins of my past life I am heartily sorry,
because I have thereby offended my Father in heaven and deserved
His chastisements. I purpose amendment for the future, and
humbly ask pardon of God and absolution and penance of you,
Father.
Listen attentively to tbe instructions the priest gives you, especially in
regard to. the penance be sets you. When be gives you absolution and bis
blessing, bless yourself; then go to tbe altar to give thanks to God for having
granted you forgiveness of sin, and perform the penance enjoined on you.
2. Acts of the Three Theological Virtues.
(1). An Act of Faith. I believe that there is one God, and that
in this one God there are three persons. That the Son of God was
made man for us, that He died upon the cross, rose again from the
dead and ascended into heaven. I believe that the Son of God will
come again at the Last Day, and call all men to judgment. I believe
this because Christ is the Son of God and therefore can neither
deceive nor be deceived ; and because He lias confirmed His teach-
ing by many miracles. Moreover I believe whatever the Catholic
Church by Christ's authority proposes to us to be believed ; *I
believe it because the Catholic Church is guided and defended
against error by the Holy Spirit ; and because even down to the
present day God corroborates by miracles the truths which the
Catholic Church teaches. 0 God, increase my faith,
Devotions. 65
(2). An Act of Hope. 0 my God, I hope that after death Thou wilt
admit me to everlasting happiness, and that Thou wilt give me here
such means as are essential to the attainment of that happiness.
I trust that Thou wilt grant me for this end the grace of the Holy
Spirit, such temporal good things as are necessary to me, pardon of
sin, help in time of need, and a gracious answer to my petitions.
I hope this, because Thou, Who art almighty and all-bountiful
and ever-faithful to Thy promises, hast promised these things
to me, and because Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour, has
merited them for me by His cruel death upon the cross. 0 God,
increase my hope.
(3). An Act of Charity. My God, I love Thee with my whole
heart, and above all things, because Thou art supreme beauty and
perfection, because Thou art my greatest benefactor and Thy love
for me is infinite. I will, therefore, think of Thee in all my
actions ; I will avoid even the slightest sins ; I will give thanks
to Thee for all Thy benefits and for all Thou givest me to suffer,
and I will love my neighbor because he is Thy child and made
after Thy image. 0 God, increase my charity.
(As often as acts of the three theological virtues are made, eitlier by the use
of this formula, or in the words our own devotion may suggest, an indulgence
of seven years and seven quarantines may be gained ; and for daily repetition
of these acts a plenary indulgence once a month is granted, on the usual condi-
tions. Also a plenary indulgence at the hour of death.)
3. An Act of Contrition.
0 God of infinite majesty, I, a sinner, have offended against
Thee. Thou art my heavenly Father; Thou hast given Thy Son for
me, and hast lavished innumerable benefits upon me, and yet I
have grieved Thee. Thou art a just God ; I know that Thou dost
leave no sin unpunished, and yet I was so ungrateful as to offend
Thee. I am exceedingly sorry for having sinned ; I will hence-
forth avoid sin and keep Thy commandments. Grant me Thy
pardon, and receive me again as Thy child.
4. Reneical of Baptismal Vows.
1 thank Thee, 0 my God, for having made me Thy child by
holy Baptism. I desire this day to renew the covenant then made
with Thee : I promise to renounce all the sinful pleasures of the
world, to believe and to follow the teaching of the Gospel. I hope
for Thy grace to enable me to do this, and after death to enter
into eternal felicity.
66
Devotions.
Devotions to the Holy Ghost.
1. Prayer to the Holy Ghost.
To Thee, 0 Holy Ghost, we cry Strengthen the weakness of our
Thou highest gift of God most will,
high : Help us our duty to fulfil ;
Enlighten us with light divine, Give solace to the troubled
Keep far from us the foe breast,
malign. And after death, eternal rest.
2. Hymn to the Holy Ghost.
Come, 0 Creator, Spirit blest ! Kindle our senses from above,
And in our souls take up Thy And make our hearts overflow
rest ; with love ;
Come, with Thy grace and With patience firm and virtue
heavenly aid, high,
To fill the hearts that Thou The weakness of our flesh sup-
hast made. ply.
Great Paraclete ! to Thee we Far from us drive the foe we
cry dread,
0 highest gift of God most And grant us Thy true peace
high ! instead ;
0 fount of life, 0 fire of love, So shall we not, wi,th Thee for
And sweet anointing from guide,
above ! Turn from the path of life aside.
Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts art Oh, may Thy grace on us
known ; bestow
The finger of God's hand we The Father and the Son to
own ; know,
The promise of the Father Thou, And Thee through endless time
Who dost the tongue with confest,
power endow. Of both the eternal Spirit blest.
All glory while the ages run
Be to the Father and the Son
Who rose from death ; the same to Thee,
0 Holy Ghost, eternally. Amen.
(An indulgence of three hundred days may be gained each time this hymn
is said, and a plenary indulgence once a month. — Pius VI , 1796.)
Devotions. 67
VI. Special Prayers.
1. The Salve Regina.
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and
our hope ! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, to
thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley
of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy
towards us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit
of thy womb, Jesus. 0 element, 0 loving, 0 sweet Virgin Mary !
V. Pray for us, 0 Holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
V. Make me worthy to praise thee, holy Virgin.
R. Give me strength against thine enemies.
V. Blessed be God in His saints.
R. Amen.
We fly to thy protection, 0 holy Mother of God ! Despise not
our petitions in our necessities, and deliver us from all dangers,
0 ever glorious and blessed Virgin. Eeconcile us with thy Son,
commend us to thy Son, present us to thy Son !
2. The Memorare.
Eemember, 0 most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it
known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help
and sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired with this
confidence, I fly unto thee, 0 Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee
1 come ; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. 0 Mother of
the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy
hear and answer me. Amen.
(An indulgence of three hundred days may be gained each time the Memo-
rare is raid ; and a plenary once a month, on the usual conditions, by those
who repeat it daily.)
3. The Holy Rosary.
The Creed is repeated first, then one Our Father and three
Hail Marys, followed by Glory be to the Father, etc. Fifteen
decades are then said, each decade consisting of one Our Father
and ten Hail Marys, and ending with a Glory be to the Father.
The Mysteries of the Rosary are :
The five Joyful Mysteries, which may be said chiefly from
Advent to Lent, or on Mondays and Thursdays.
68
Devotions.
(1), The Annunciation, (2), The 'Visitation, (3), The Nativity
of Our Lord, (4), The Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, (5),
The Finding of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem.
The five Sorrowful Mysteries, which may be said chiefly during
Lent, or on Tuesdays and Fridays.
(1), The Prayer and Agony of Our Lord in the Garden, (2), The
Scourging, (3), The Crowning with Thorns, (4), The Carrying of
the Cross, (5), The Crucifixion.
The five Glorious Mysteries, which may he used chiefly from
Easter until Advent, or on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
(1), The Eesurrection of Our Lord, (2), The Ascension, (3),
The Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, (4), The Assump-
tion of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven, (5), The Coronation of
the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thus each chaplet of the Rosary consists of the Creed, six Our
Fathers, six Glorys and fifty-three Hail Marys.
The beads must be blessed and the indulgences attached by a
priest who has the powers. If this be duly done the faithful can
gain an indulgence of one hundred days for every Creed, Our
Father, and Hail Mary, each time the Rosary is recited.
.£. Prayer to St. Joseph.
Glorious Joseph, kind father and friend,
Humbly to thee myself I commend ;
Keep me, watch over me, help and defend.
By virtue's path lead to the heavenly land,
And in mv last hour be thou near at hand.
5. Prayer to Our Guardian Angel.
Holy angel, guardian mine,
Given me by love divine ;
Day and night watch over me,
From harm, from sin, let me be free.
By a pious life I fain
Would eternal joys attain.
GENERAL SURVEY.
PART I.
We are on earth for the purpose of giving glory to God, and
thereby working out our eternal salvation. We are to attain our
end by the following means.
We must strive to acquire the knowledge of God through faith
in the truths which He has revealed.
Here we speak of the knowledge of God, of revelation, of
faith, the motives of faith, the opposite of faith, the confession
of faith ; and finally of the sign of the cross.
An explanation is given of the twelve articles of the Apos-
tles' Creed.
Art. 1. The existence of God, His being, His attributes, His
triune nature, the creation of the world and divine providence,
angels and men, original sin; the promise of a Redeemer, the
expectation of a Redeemer.
Art. 2-7. Jesus is the Messias, the Son of God; Himself
God and Our Lord. The Incarnation, the life of Christ.
Art. 8. The Holy Ghost and the doctrine of grace.
Art. 9. The Catholic Church, its institution, development,
and divine maintenance. The supreme Head of the Church, the
hierarchy, the notes of the Church. In the Church alone is
salvation. Church and State. The communion of saints.
Art. 10. Forgiveness of sins.
Art. 11-12. Death, the particular judgment, heaven, hell,
purgatory, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment.
At the close of the Apostles' Creed mention is made of the
good things which we hope for from God. The nature of Chris-
tian hope is considered, its advantages and what is opposed to it.
?0 General Survey.
PAKT II.
We must keep the commandments of God. These are: The
two precepts of charity.
The precept of charity towards God, which is set forth more
fully in the first four commandments of the Decalogue.
In His character of sovereign King God requires from us:
In the First Commandment worship and fidelity ; in the Second,
reverence; in the Third, service; in the Fourth, respect towards
His representatives.
The precept of charity towards one's neighbor. By this we
are forbidden to injure our neighbor. In the Fifth Command-
ment we are forbidden to injure his life; in the Sixth, his
innocence; in the Seventh, his property; in the Eighth, his
reputation; in the I^inth and Tenth, his household.
We are also commanded to help him in time of need by the
performance of the works of mercy.
The commandments of the Church are an amplification of
the Third Commandment of the Decalogue.
After the consideration of the love of God, the love of the
world is spoken of.
After the consideration of the love of one's neighbor, the love
of one's friends, of one's enemies, of one's self is enlarged upon;
after the consideration of the First Commandment, the venera-
tion of the saints, the oath born of religion and otherwise; under
the Third Commandment of God, the obligation of labor;
under the first commandment of the Church, the ecclesiastical
year; under the Fourth Commandment of God, the Christian's
duty towards the Pope and chief ruler, and the obligations rest-
ing on those who are in authority; under the Fifth Command-
ment of God, the treatment of animals; and under the works
of mercy, the right use of money, the duty of gratitude, and the
spirit of poverty.
The fulfilling of the commandments consists in the practice
of good works and the exercise of virtue, as well as the abandon-
ment of sin and vice; finally, in the avoidance of everything
that might lead to sin, temptation to sin, and occasions of sin.
General Survey. ?1
The most important virtues are those which are called the
seven capital virtues, the opposites to which are the seven deadly
sins.
In order to obey the commandments strictly Ave must make
use of the means for attaining perfection. The general means
are intended for all; the special means, the three evangelical
counsels, are only for individuals.
By walking in this way we shall enjoy happiness even on
earth.
The precepts which Christ gave us in the Sermon on the
Mount, and which are called the eight beatitudes.
In order to believe revealed truth and to keep the command-
ments, Ave require the assistance of diATine grace, and this Ave
can obtain by the use of the means of grace.
PART III.
We must make use of the means of grace, These are: The
holy sacrifice of the Mass, the sacraments, and prayer.
Before entering upon the subject of the sacrifice of the Mass,
sacrifice in general and the sacrifice of the cross are considered.
In treating of the holy sacrifice of the Mass the points ex-
plained are: The institution, the nature, the parts, and the cere-
monies of the Mass; the relation of the Mass to the sacrifice
of the cross, the benefits derived from the Mass, the manner of
offering it, devotions during Mass, the obligation of hearing
Mass, the time and place of celebrating Mass, the Arestments
and vessels used at Mass, the color of the ATestments, the language
used in the Mass, and the musical accompaniment of the Mass.
The duty of hearing the AATord of God next follows; then the
doctrine of the sacraments in general and of each indiATidually.
Under the Sacrament of the Altar the institution and nature of
the sacrament are considered, likeAvise the reception of the sacra-
ments and the fruits produced thereby, the preparation before
receiving communion and the subsequent thanksgTving, and also
spiritual communion. Under the Sacrament of Penance the
points considered are: The institution, nature, and necessity of
72 General Survey,
penance; the office of the confessor, the effects of the Sacrament
of Penance. The worthy reception of the sacrament (in its
five parts), general confessions, the institution and excellence
of confession, the sin of relapse, and the doctrine of indulgences.
Under matrimony, the institution and nature of marriage are
treated of, the duties of married people, mixed marriages, and
the single state. Hereupon follows the teaching concerning
sacramentals.
In treating of prayer an explanation is given of the nature,
the use, the necessity, the time, the place, the object of prayer
and of contemplation. Furthermore explanations are given of
the most important prayers (the Lord's Prayer and prayer to
the Mother of God); the principal public services morning and
evening, processions, pilgrimages, the Way of the Cross, Ex-
position of the Blessed Sacrament, missions, Catholic congresses,
Passion plays, and religious associations. The latter include
third orders, confraternities, and charitable societies.
INTRODUCTION.
I. FOR WHAT END ARE WE ON THIS EARTH?
As the scholar goes to school in order that he may afterwards
attain a certain position in life, so man is placed on this earth in
order that he may attain to the lofty end of eternal happiness. As the
servant serves his master and so earns his bread, so man has to serve
God, and through his service attains happiness to some extent in
this life, and in its fulness after death.
We are upcn this earth in order that we may glorify God,
and so win for ourselves eternal happiness.
The glory of God is the end of all creation. All creatures on
the earth are created for this end, that they may manifest in
themselves the divine perfections and God's dominion over His
rational creatures, that is, over angels and men, and that He may be
loved and praised by them.- Even the material world, and creatures
not possessed of reason — animals, trees, plants, stones, metals, etc.,
all praise God after their own fashion. " The Lord has made all
things for Himself" (Prov. xvi. 4). Man is created for this end,
that he should proclaim the majesty of God. He must do so whether
he wills it or not. The construction of the body of man, the lofty
powers of his soul, the rewards of the good, the punishment of the
wicked, all proclaim the majesty of God, His omnipotence, wisdom,
goodness, justice, etc. Even the reprobate will have to contribute
to the glory of God (Prov. xvi. 4). In the end he will show how
great is the holiness and justice of God. Man, from being possessed
of reason and free will, is through these enabled in an especial way to
give glory to God. This he does when he knows, loves, and honors
God. Man is created chiefly for the life beyond the grave. In this
life he is a stranger, a wanderer, and a pilgrim. " We have not here
a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come" (Heb. xiii. 14).
Heaven is our true country; here we are in exile.
Hence we are not upon earth only to collect earthly treas-
ures, to attain earthly honors, to eat and to drink, or to enjoy
earthly pleasures.
He who pursues ends like these behaves as foolishly as a servant
who, instead of serving his master, devotes himself to some passing
amusement. He stands idle in the market-nlace, instead of working
in his master's vineyard. He is like a traveller who, attracted by the
beauty of the scenery, does not pursue his journey, and so allows the
73
74 Introduction.
night to overtake him. We are not made for earth; we are made to
look upward to heaven. The trees, the plants point upward to
heaven, as if to remind us that it is our home.
For this reason Our Lord says: " One thing is necessary"
(Luke x. 42), and again-" Seek first the kingdom of God and
His justice, and all other things shall be added unto you " (Matt,
vi. 33.)
Unhappily, too many forget their last end, and fix their hearts on
money, influence, honor, etc. They are like the kings of that heathen
country who, although they reigned but for a year and after that had
to go and live on a barren island, spent all their time in luxury and
feasting, and did not lay up any provision for the future on the
island whither they were bound. He who does not think on his last
end is not a pilgrim, but a tramp, and falls into the hands of the
devil as a tramp into the hands of the police. He is like a sailor
who knows not whither he is sailing, and so wrecks his ship. Our
Lord compares such to the servant who sleeps, instead of watching
for his master's coming (Matt. xxiv. 42).
II. HOW ARE WE TO ATTAIN TO ETERNAL
HAPPINESS ?
Eternal happiness consists in union with God, through the exer-
cise of the intellect contemplating God and the will loving Him.
If we wish to attain it, we must begin to draw near to it in this life.
We must seek to know and love God. But love of God consists in
keeping His commandments (John xiv. 23). From this it follows
that:
We shall attain to eternal happiness by the following means:
1. We must strive to know God by means of faith in the
truths He has revealed to us.
Our Lord says : " This is eternal life, that they may know Thee,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent " (John
xvii. 3). That is to say, the knowledge of God brings man to eternal
happiness.
2. We must fulfil the will of God by keeping His command-
ments.
Our Lord says to the rich young man : " If thou wilt enter into
life, keep the commandments" (Matt. xix. 17).
By means of our own strength we can neither believe nor
keep the commandments; for this we need the grace of God.
Even Adam and Eve in a state of innocence needed the help of
grace. He who travels to a distant country, besides his own exer-
tions needs money for the journey. The farmer cannot cultivate his
land without the aid of sunshine and of rain. Man, too, has a special
weakness by reason of original sin. This makes grace the more indis-
pensable. The blind man needs a guide, the sick man strengthening
food. We are like a man who through weakness has fallen to the
Introduction. 75
ground, and has no power, of himself, to rise. He must look around
for one to aid him. So Our Lord tells us : " Without Me you can do
nothing" (John xv. 5). As the sun is necessary to the earth, to en-
lighten and warm it, so is grace necessary to our soul.
"We obtain the grace of God through the means of grace in-
stituted by Jesus Christ.
3. We must therefore avail ourselves of the means of grace; of
which the chief are holy Mass, the sacraments, and prayer.
The means of grace are a channel through which grace is conveyed
to our soul. Faith is the road which leads to heaven, the command-
ments are like sign-posts by the way, the means of grace the money
for the journey. " The way that leads to life is narrow and thorny;
the way that leads to destruction is broad, and many are they who go
in thereat" (Matt. vii. 13).
It is also true that he who desires happiness must have re-
ligion.
Religion consists in a knowledge of God and a life corresponding
to the will of God. Religion is not a matter of feeling ; it is a matter
of the will and of action, and consists in following out the principles
that God has laid down. Mere knowledge does not constitute relig-
ion, else the devil would have religion; the service of God is neces-
sarily included in it. We do not call a man a baseball player or
cricketer because he knows the rules and nature of the game ; practice
is also required.
It is also true that he who desires to be happy must strive
to be like to God.
Man becomes like to God when all his thought and action resemble
the divine thought and action. The commandments of God are a
mirror, in which we recognize whether our actions are like or unlike
those of God.
III. CAN WE ATTAIN PERFECT HAPPINESS ON
EARTH?
1. Earthly goods, such as riches, honor, pleasure, cannot by
themselves make us happy, for they cannot satisfy our soul; they
often only make life bitter, and invariably forsake us in death.
Earthly goods deceive us ; they are like soap-bubbles, which reflect
all the colors of the rainbow but are really only drops of water.
Earthly joys are like artificial fruit, beautiful to behold, but disap-
pointing to the taste. Earthly pleasures are like drops of water;
they do not quench the fire of the passions, but only make it burn
more fiercely. Man can no more be happy without God than a fish
can live out of the water. Hence St. Augustine says : " Unquiet is
the heart of man until it rests in God." ISTo sensible or material
goods will nourish or satisfy the soul. Hence Our Lord says to the
Samaritan woman : " He who drinks of this water will thirst again."
76 Introduction.
Riches will no more satisfy the soul than salt water will quench
thirst. In the days of the early empire of Rome, when riches and
sensual pleasures abounded, suicide was most widely prevalent.
Earthly possessions are a continual source of anxiety; he who rests
in them is tormented by them, like a man who reposes on thorns.
As the fresh waters of the rivers are changed into the salt waters of
the sea, so all earthly pleasures sooner or later turn to bitterness.
Forbidden pleasures soon bring misery after them, like the forbidden
fruit. They are like bait that has a hook concealed within it.
Earthly goods all forsake us when we die : " We brought nothing into
the world, and certainly we cannot carry anything out of it " (1 Tim.
vi. 7). When the Pope is crowned, a handful of tow is kindled, and
while it blazes up the choir sing : " Thus passes the glory of the
world." As the spider spins a web out of its own bowels and in a
moment the broom sweeps it all away, so man labors for long years to
obtain some honor, or possession, or office. Some obstacle comes in
the way, death or sickness visits him, and all the labor is gone for
naught. As the glow-worm shines in the night, but in the light of
day is but an ugly insect, so the delights of earth are brilliant during
the night of life on earth, but under the light of the Day of Judg-
ment will show themselves vain and worthless.
Earthly goods are given to us only that through them we
may attain to eternal happiness.
Every creature on earth is intended as a step to bring us
nearer to God. As in the workshop of the painter, brushes, colors,
oils, are all destined to serve to the completion of the picture,
so all things in the world are intended to contribute to our
eternal happiness in heaven. Not to use earthly things for this
end is to lose the hope of eternal happiness; but to make them
our end and to be dependent on them no less deprives us of the
end for which we were created. Earthly goods are like the sur-
geon's instruments; if they are ill-employed, they kill instead
of curing. We must therefore use them only in so far as they
help us towards the attainment of our last end. When they hinder
us we must cut ourselves free from them. We must not serve them,
they must serve us.
2. Only the Gospel of Christ is capable of giving us a partial
happiness on earth, for he who follows the teaching of Christ is
certain to have peace in his soul.
This is why Christ says to the Samaritan woman : " He that shall
drink of the water that I shall give him, shall not thirst forever "
(John iv. 13). And again: "He that cometh to Me, shall never
hunger" (John vi. 35). The teaching of Christ can alone satisfy
the heart of man. The reason of this is, that earthly sufferings do
not render unhappy the man who follows Christ.
3. He who follows Christ will have to endure persecution; but
these persecutions can do him no harm.
St. Paul tells us that " All who will live godly in Christ
Jesus, shall suffer persecution " (2 Tim. iii. 12).
Introduction. 7?
The whole life of the Christian is a carrying of the cross and a
suffering of persecution. Christ Himself says : '"' The servant is not
above his master" (Matt. x. 24). That is, the servant of Christ has
no claim to a better lot than his Master Christ. We must expect the
men of the world (that is, those who seek their happiness in this
life) to regard us as erratic people and as fools, to condemn us and to
hate us (1 Cor. iv. 3, 10; John xvii. 14; xv. 20). To be loved and
praised by the world is to be the enemy of Christ. The principles of
the world are in contradiction with those of Christ, and the world re-
gards as a fool him whom Christ declares blessed (Matt. v. 3, 10).
Yet Christ tells us: " Every one that heareth My words and
doeth them, shall be likened to a wise man, that built his house
upon a rock " (Matt. vii. 24).
He who trusts in God builds on solid ground. The patriarch
Joseph derived advantage, not harm, from being persecuted ; the pious
David was persecuted, first by Saul, and then by his own son Absalom.
From his own experience he was able to say : " Many are the afflic-
tions of the just ; but out of them all the Lord will deliver them " (Ps.
xxxiii. 20). All the saints of Christ have been persecuted, but God
has turned to good the evil that their enemies thought to do them.
" If God is with us, who can be against us ? "
4. Hence perfect happiness is impossible on earth; for no man
can entirely avoid suffering.
The end of the worldling is misery as we have seen, and the just
man is persecuted. ~No' one can escape sickness, suffering, death. The
world is a valley of tears ; it is a big hospital, containing as many sick
men as there are human beings. The world is a place of banishment,
where we are far from our true country. In the world good and ill
fortune succeed each other like sunshine and storm. Prosperity is
the sure forerunner of adversity. In life we are on a sea, now lifted
up to heaven, now cast down to hell. Society is always sure to be full
of all kinds of miseries, whatever efforts may be made to improve the
condition of mankind. Vain indeed are the hopes of the modern
school of social democrats who dream of gradually abolishing all evil
and misery from the world.
PART I -FAITH.
I. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.
The knowledge of God consists in the knowledge of His perfec-
tions, His works, His will, and the means of grace instituted by Him.
St. Paul bids us "increase in the knowledge of God" (Col. i. 10).
Now we only know God through a glass in a dark manner; only in
heaven shall we see Him face to face, and have a clear knowledge of
His perfections (1 Cor. xiii. 12).
1. The happiness of the angels and the saints consists in the
knowledge of God.
Our Lord tells us that " this is eternal life, that they may know
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent "
(John xvii. 3). This is the food of which the archangel Raphael
spoke, when he said to Tobias : " I use an invisible meat and drink,
which cannot be seen by men" (Tob. xii. 19). In heaven the saints
and angels have an immediate knowledge of God in the beatific
vision. We on earth only know God through the medium of His
works and of what He has revealed to us. Our knowledge, compared
with that of the saints and angels, is like the knowledge of a country
that one gets from maps and pictures as compared with the knowl-
edge of one who has himself visited it.
2. The knowledge of God is all-important, for without it there
cannot be any happiness on earth, or a well-ordered life.
The knowledge of God is the food of our soul. Without it the
soul feels hungry; we become discontented. He who does not possess
interior peace, cannot enjoy riches, health, or any of the goods of this
life ; they all become distasteful to him. Yet few think about this food
of the soul ; they busy themselves, as Our Lord says, with the " meat
that perishes" (John vi. 27). Without the knowledge of God a man
is like one who walks in the dark, and stumbles at every step ; he has
no end or aim in life, no consolation in misfortune, and no hope in
death. He cannot have any solid or lasting happiness, or any true
contentment. Without a knowledge of God a well-ordered life is im-
possible. Just as an untilled field produces no good fruit, so a man
who has not the knowledge of God can produce no good works. Igno-
rance and forgetfulness of Gcd are the causes of most of the sins that
men commit. Rash and false oaths, neglect of the service of God
79
80
Faith.
and of the sacraments, the love of gold, the sinful indulgence of the
passions, are all due to wilful ignorance and forgetfulness of God.
Thus the prophet Osee exclaims " There is no knowledge of God in
the land. Cursing and lying and killing and theft and adultery have
overflowed" (Osee iv. 2, 3). And St. Ignatius of Loyola cries out,
" O God, Thou joy of my soul, if only men knew Thee, they never
would offend Thee," and experience shows that in the jails the greater
part of the prisoners are those who knew nothing of God. When
Frederick of Prussia at length recognized that the want of the knowl-
edge of God was the cause of the increase in crime, he exclaimed,
" Then I will have religion introduced into the country." This is
why the learning and the understanding of the Catechism, which is
nothing else than an abridgement of the Christian religion, is all-
important. But a mere knowledge of the truths of religion is not
sufficient; they must also be practised.
3. We arrive at a right knowledge of God through faith in the
truths which God has revealed.
It is true that by means of reason and from the contemplation
of the creatures that God has made man can arrive at a knowledge
of God (Eom. i. 20). " The heavens show forth the glory of God" (Ps.
xviii. 2). But our reason is so weak and prone to err, that without
revelation it is very difficult for man to attain to a clear and correct
knowledge o'f God. What strange and perverted views of the Deity we
find among heathen nations (Cf. Wisd. ix. 16, 17). God therefore in
His mercy comes to our aid with revelation. Through believing the
truths that God has revealed, man attains to a clear and correct
knowledge of God. Hence St. Anselm says, " The more I am nour-
ished with the food of faith, the more my understanding is satisfied."
Paith is a divine light that shines in our souls (2 Cor. iv. 6). It
is like a watch tower, from which we can see that which cannot be
seen from the plain below ; we learn respecting God that which cannot
be learned by mere reason from the world around. It is a glass
through which we perceive all the divine perfections. It is a staff
which supports our feeble reason, and enables it to know God better.
There are two books from which we gain a knowledge of God; the
book of Nature, and Holy Scripture, which is the book of revelation.
II. DIVINE KEVELATION.
If any one stands in a room behind a gauze curtain he perceives all
those who are passing in the street, and they see him not. But if he
makes himself known by speaking, the passers-by are able to recog-
nize him. Such is our relation to God; He sees us, but conceals
Himself from our eyes. Yet He has in many ways made Himself
known to men; to Abraham, to Moses in the burning bush, to the
Israelites on Mount Sinai, etc.
1. God has in His mercy in the course of ages often revealed
Himself to men (Heb. i. 1-2).
God has often communicated to men a knowledge of His perfec-
tions, His decrees, and His holy will. Such revelation is called super-
Divine Revelation. 81
natural, as opposed to the natural revelation of Himself that He
makes through the external world.
2. God's revelation to man is generally made in the follow-
ing way: He speaks to individuals and orders them to communi-
cate to their fellowT-men the revelation made to them.
Thus God spoke to Abraham, ~Noe, and Moses. He sent Noe to
preach to sinful men before the Flood, He sent Moses to the Israelites
when they were oppressed by Pharao. Sometimes God spoke to a
number of men who were assembled together, as when He gave the
law to the people on Mount Sinai, or when Our Lord was baptized
by St. John and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, a voice being
heard from heaven : " This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well
pleased." Sometimes God revealed Himself through angels, as for in-
stance to Tobias through the archangel Raphael. When God spoke to •
men, He took the visible form of a man or of an angel, or He spoke
from a cloud (as on Sinai), or from a burning ' bush, as He did to
Moses, or amid a bright light from heaven, as to St. Paul, or in the
whispering of the wind, as He did to Elias, or by some interior illu-
mination (Deut. ii. 6-8). Those to whom God revealed Himself,
and who had to bear witness before others to the divine message, were
called messengers from God, and often received from Him the power
of working miracles and of prophecy, in proof of their divine mission.
(Cf. the miracles of Moses before Pharao, of Elias, the apostles, etc.)
3. Those who were specially intrusted with the communica-
tion to men of the divine revelation were the following: the
patriarchs, the prophets, Jesus Christ the Son of God (Heb. i.
1), and His apostles.
Revelation is to mankind in general what education is to indi-
•vidual men. Revelation corresponds to the needs of the successive
stages of human development, to the infancy, childhood, and youth of
mankind. The patriarchs, who had more of the nature of children,,
needed less in the way of precepts, and God dealt with them in more
familiar fashion; the people of Israel, in whom, as in the season of
youth, self-will and sensuality were strong, had to be trained by strict
laws and constant correction; but when mankind had arrived at the
period of manhood, then God sent His Son and introduced the law of
love (1 Cor. xiii. 11; Gal. iii. 24). Of all those who declared to men
the divine revelation, the Son of God was pre-eminently the true
witness. He says of Himself, " For this I was born, and for this I
came into the world, that I should bear testimony to the truth "
(John xviii. 37). He was of all witnesses the best, because He alone
had seen God (John i. 18). The apostles also had to declare to men
the divine revelation. They had to bear witness of what they had seen,
and above all of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts x. 39). With
the revelation given through Christ and His apostles, the revelation
that was given for the instruction of all mankind was concluded.
4. Even since the death of Our Lord and His apostles God
has often revealed Himself to men; yet these subsequent reve-
82 Faith.
lations are no continuation of the earlier revelation on which our
faith rests.
Instances of these subsequent revelations are the appearances of
Our Lord to Blessed Margaret Mary, and of Our Lady at Lourdes.
Such revelations must not be too lightly credited, as men are liable to
be deceived; yet they must not be rejected without examination. Many
of the saints have had such revelations, i.e., St. Francis of Assisi,
to whom Our Lord appeared upon the cross, and St. Anthony of
Padua, in whose arms the Child Jesus deigned to rest. These private
revelations were more especially given to those who were striving
after perfection, in order to encourage them to greater perfection
still. Yet God sometimes revealed Himself to wicked men, i.e., to
Baltassar in the handwriting on the wall (Dan. v. 5, seq.). Hence a
private revelation given to any one is not necessarily a mark of holi-
ness. These revelations, moreover, were no further continuation of
the revelation intended for the instruction of the whole of mankind,
which ended with the death of the last of the apostles ; they are rather
a confirmation of truths already revealed. Thus Our Lady, when she
appeared at Lourdes, proclaimed herself the "Immaculate Concep-
tion," so confirming the dogma which Pius IX. had defined four years
previously, and the countless miracles and cures that have taken
place there have established the truth of the apparition. Yet it is
always possible that the malice of the devil may introduce deceptions
into private revelations. Eo one is therefore bound to give to them a
firmer belief (even though they have in general been approved by the
Church), than he would give to the assertions of an honest and trust-
worthy man.
5. Revelation was necessary because, in consequence of
original sin, man without revelation has never had a correct
knowledge of God and of His will; and also because it was neces-
sary that man should be prepared for the coming of the Re-
deemer.
The three Wise Men would never have found Christ if He had not
revealed Himself to them by means of a star ; so mankind would
have lived far off from God, and would never have attained to a true
knowledge of Him, if He had not revealed Himself to them. As the
eye needs light to see things of sense, so human reason, which is the
eye of the soul, needs revelation to perceive things divine (St.
Augustine). Original sin and the indulgence of the senses had so
dimmed human reason that it could no longer recognize God in His
works (Wisd. ix. 16). This is proved by the history of paganism.
The heathen worshipped countless deities, idols, beasts, and wicked
men, and his worship was often immoral and horrible, as in the
human sacrifices offered by him. The gods were often the patrons
of vice. The greatest men among the heathens approved practices
forbidden by the natural law. Thus Cicero approved of suicide, Plato
of the exposing to death those children who were weak or de-
formed. Their theories when good were at variance with their prac-
tice. Socrates denounced polytheism, but before his death told his
disciples to sacrifice a cock to Esculapius. Many of the best of the
The Preaching of the Gospel, 83
heathens recognized and lamented their ignorance of God. Besides,
without a previous revelation the Saviour would have been neither
known nor honored as He ought to have been known and honored;
it was fitting that He should be announced beforehand, like
a king coming to take possession of his kingdom. We ought indeed
to be grateful to God that He has given us the light of revelation,
just as a blind man is grateful to the physician who has restored
his sight. Yet how many there are who wilfully shut their eyes to
the light of revelation even now !
III. THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL.
1. The truths revealed by God to men were, by God's command,
proclaimed to all nations of the earth by the Catholic Church, and
especially by means of the living word, that is, by preaching.
The command to proclaim to all nations of the earth the
truths revealed by God, was given to the apostles by Our Lord
at the time of His ascension.
Our Lord, before ascending into heaven, spoke to His apostles as
follows : " 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: . . . and behold I
am with you *]1 days, even to the end of the world " (Matt, xxviii.
18-20). For this reason the apostles and their successors have never
allowed themselves to be prohibited by any earthly authority from
preaching the Gospel (Cf. Acts v. 29). Nor has the Church ever been
turned aside from fulfilling her mission of preaching the Gospel, by
the opposition of the world. Even now in many countries the State
seeks to make the Church dependent on her. It is in consequence of
the command given by Our Lord to the apostles, that the Popes send
missionaries to the heathens, and issue Papal briefs and rescripts
to Christendom; that bishops send priests throughout their dioceses,
and publish pastoral letters ; that parish priests instruct their people
by sermons and Catechism. While the Catholic Church spreads the
Word of God by means of preaching, Mahometans spread their be-
liefs with fire and sword, and Protestants by means of the Bible.
It is an error to suppose that Holy Scripture is the only
means intended by almighty God to communicate to the nations
of the earth the truths of revelation.
It was the will of God to make use of preaching for the conversion
of the world. Our Lord said to His apostles, " Go and teach all na-
tions," not " Go and write to all nations." Out of the apostles only
two wrote; all the rest preached. The apostles themselves were the
books of the faithful (St. Augustine). St. Paul tells us that " Faith
cometh by hearing" (Kom. x. 17), not from mere books. Teaching
by word of mouth corresponds to human needs ; every one prefers to
be taught, rather than to have to hunt out the truth from books by
study. If writings were the only means by which men could arrive
at a knowledge of revealed truth the Christians of the first two cen-
84 Faith,
turies would have been at a terrible disadvantage ; so too would those
who cannot read, as well as the great mass of mankind in the present
day, who have neither the knowledge nor the capacity to penetrate
the meaning of the written Word. Yet it is the will of God that " All
men should come to a knowledge of the truth " (1 Tim. ii. 4). Holy
Scripture soon loses its value in the eyes of those who have not the
assurance of the living Word that it is truly of divine origin. St.
Augustine says : " I should not believe the Gospel unless the au-
thority of the Church moved me to do so."
A truth which the Church puts before us as revealed by God
is called a truth of faith, or a dogma.
Either a universal council (i.e., one consisting of the bishops of
the whole world) acting under the authority of the Pope, or the Pope
himself, has power to declare a truth to be revealed by God. Thus the
Council of Nicsea declared the divinity of Our Lord to be an article
of faith; and Pope Pius IX. the Immaculate Conception of the holy
Mother of God (1854). Thereby no new doctrines were taught, but
these truths were declared to have been truly revealed by God, and
thenceforth they became dogmas of the faith. When a child advances
in its knowledge of religious truth, it does not really change its be-
lief; so the Church, the collected body of all the faithful, receives
dogmas new to it, when, on the appearance of some new form of error,
it sets forth, after careful examination, certain truths of religion in
explicit form and imposes their acceptance on all the faithful.
Before the definition of it by the Church it was only a " pious opin-
ion," or one pioximate to faith. Such is at the present time the
belief in the assumption of the body of Our Lady into heaven.
2. The Catholic Church derives from Holy Scripture and from
Tradition the truths that God has revealed.
Holy Scripture and Tradition are of equal authority, and claim
from us equal respect. Holy Scripture is the written, Tradition
the unwritten Word of God. St. Paul exhorts the faithful to hold
fast the traditions they have received, whether it be by word of mouth
or by writing (2 Thess. ii. 14).
IV. HOLY SCKIPTUKE AND TRADITION.
1. Holy Scripture or the Bible consists of seventy-two books,
which were written by men inspired by God, and under the
guidance and influence of the Holy Ghost. These seventy-two
books are recognized by the Church as " the Word of God."
The Holy Ghost inspired in a very special way the writers of
Holy Scripture ; He moved them to write, and guided and en-
lightened them while they were writing (Cf. 2 Tim. iii. 16; Matt,
xv. 3; Mark xii. 36). The Council of Trent and the Vatican Council
have expressly declared that God is the Author (and or) of Holy
Scripture. St. Augustine says : " It is as if the Gospels were written
down with Christ's own hand." " The writers of Holy Scripture,"
says St. Laurence Justinian, "were like a musical instrument on
Holy Scripture and Tradition. 85
which the Holy Spirit played." Yet they were not mere passive in-
struments; each writer brings his own personal character with him
into what he writes. They are like a number of painters, who all
paint a building which they see in the clear daylight, quite cor-
rectly, but yet with a great many points of difference, according to
their respective talent and skill. Hence it follows that there are no
errors in Scripture. We must not look to the individual words, but
to the general sense. We must not take offence at popular expres-
sions which are not scientifically correct, as when the motion of the
sun, sunrise, and sunset, are alluded to. Moreover, since the Bible
contains the Word of God, we must treat it with great reverence.
Thus the people always stand up when the Gospel is being read at
Mass; oaths are taken on the book of the Gospels; in Mass the
deacon approaches the book of the Gospels with incense and lights.
The Council of Trent imposes special penalties on those who mock
at Holy Scripture. The Jews had the greatest reverence for the
Scriptures and the precepts therein contained.
The seventy-two books of Holy Scripture are divided into
forty-five books of the Old Testament and twenty-seven of the
Xew. They are moreover divided into doctrinal, historical, and
prophetical bcoks.
Old Testament. The historical books comprise (1), The five books
of Moses, which contain the early history of man, the lives of the
patriarchs, and the history of the Jewish people up to the time of
their entrance into the Holy Land. (2), The books of Josue and
Judges, which relate their conquest of Palestine and their struggles
with surrounding nations. (3), The four books of Kings, which re-
count their history under their kings. (4), The book of Tobias,
which gives an account of the life of Tobias and his son during the
captivity. (5), The books of the Machabees, which relate the oppres-
sion of the Jews under Antiochus, etc. The doctrinal books comprise
the story of Job, the Psalms of David, the Proverbs of Solomon, and
the books of Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus. The prophet-
ical books comprise the four greater prophets, Isaias, Jeremias, Eze-
chiel, and Daniel, and the twelve lesser prophets, Jonas, Habacuc,
etc.
New Testament. The historical books are the four Gospels, and
the Acts of the Apostles. The doctrinal books are the twenty-one
Epistles, including fourteen of St. Paul's epistles. The prophetical
book is the Apocalypse of St. John, which tells in obscure language
the future destinies of the Church. Most of the books of the Old Tes-
tament were originally written in Hebrew, most of the New in Greek.
The Latin translation of the Bible called the Vulgate is an amended
version of the translation made by St. Jerome about a.d. 400. The
Vulgate is declared by the Council of Trent to be an authentic ren-
dering of the original.
The most important books of Holy Scripture are the four
Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The four Evangelists
relate the life and teaching of Our Lord; the Acts of the
Apostles recount the labors of St. Peter and St. Paul.
86 Faith.
The writers of the Four Gospels are called the four Evangelists.
Two of them, St. Matthew and St. John, were apostles, St. Mark was
a companion of St. Peter, and St. Luke of St. Paul on his apostolic
journeys. St. Matthew's gospel was originally written in Hebrew,
for the benefit of the Jews of Palestine. He shows how Jesus of
Nazareth fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, and proved
Himself to be the true Messias. St. Mark wrote for the Christians of
Rome and shows Christ to be the Son of God. St. Luke wrote for a
distinguished citizen of Rome, named Theophilus, in order to instruct
him in the life and doctrine of Christ. We owe to St. Luke many
details about Our Lady, and many parables not given by the other
Evangelists. St. John wrote his gospel in his old age, to prove
against the heretics of the time that Jesus Christ is truly God. He
quotes chiefly those sayings of Christ from which His divinity is
most clearly proved. The Gospels were probably written in the order
in which they stand; St. Matthew wrote about a.d. 40, St. Mark and
St. Luke some twenty-five years later, St. John about a.d. 90. The
four Gospels were collected into one volume in the second century.
It can "be proved from internal evidence that the Gospels
were written by disciples of Christ, and narrate what is true.
We can also prove from the oldest copies, from translations, and
from quotations, that no change has been made in them since
they were first written. The Gospels are therefore genuine,
worthy of belief, and incorrupt.
On reading the Gospels we recognize at once that they were the
work of Jews. The writers introduce Hebrew expressions (Luke viii.
14; John xvii. 12). They wrote before the destruction of Jerusalem,
as we gather from their intimate acquaintance with the city. If they
had written in the second century, they could not have possessed this
knowledge. Their style shows that they were unlettered men. The
vividness of their descriptions proves them to have witnessed the
scenes and events they describe. The testimony of the most ancient
Christian writers, and the consent of the churches also prove the
genuineness of the Gospels. The truthfulness of the Evangelists
appears in their quiet and passionless manner of writing ; they do
not conceal their own faults, and narrate what they knew would ex-
pose them to persecution and danger of death ; they all draw the self-
same picture of Christ, though writing in different places and to
various readers ; the apparent discrepancies disprove any sort of con-
spiracy among them or any copying from one another. Lastly, it
would be impossible to invent such a lofty type of character as that
of Jesus Christ. The Gospels have not been in any way altered in
the course of time. The earliest copies and translations agree with
our present Bibles, e.g., the Syrian translation (called the Peshito),
which dates from the second century, and the Latin (called the
Itala), which dates from a.d. 370, besides numerous copies of the
original text dating from the fourth century onwards. During the
first two centuries the Scriptures were read every Sunday in the
various Christian churches and were most carefully guarded. We
also find a mass of quotations in the early Christian writers, which
prove their text to have been identical with our own. The Old
Holy Scripture and Tradition. 87
Testament has always been most jealously guarded by the Jews, who
in their reverence for it counted the very letters. There is, moreover,
no doubt that God watched over the integrity of Holy Scripture,
and would no more have allowed the early centuries alone to profit
by it, than He would have created the sun for the first generations of
men only.
The reading of Holy Scripture is permitted to Catholics, and
is very profitable to them; but the text used by them must have
been authorized by the Pope, and must be provided with ex-
planatory notes.
In Holy Scripture we learn to know God aright ; we see His omnip-
otence (in creation and all the wonders narrated in the Bible), His
wisdom (in guidance of individuals and of the whole human race),
His goodness (in the Incarnation and the sufferings of Our Lord). We
have in the saints, and above all in Jesus Christ, glorious examples
of virtue to incite us to the like. " The Bible," says St. Ephrem,
" is like a trumpet that inspires courage into soldiers. It is like a
lighthouse, which guides us to a safe haven, as we sail over the
perilous sea of life." It also warns us against sin, shows its awful con-
sequences, as in the story of the Fall, of the Flood, of the cities of the
plain, of Saul, Absalom, Judas, Herod, etc. It contains all that is
profitable to man, and a great deal more than can be found elsewhere.
It is like an overflowing well that can never be exhausted. There
is always something new to be found in it. But he who desires to
understand and profit by it, must have something of the spirit with
which the minds of its writers were full; else he will never penetrate
beneath the surface, or arrive at its true meaning.
The reason why we are not permitted to read any version
of the Bible that we choose is (1), Because the unaltered text and
true explanation of it are only to be found in the Catholic
Church. (2), Because the greater part of it is very difficult to
understand.
It is only to the Catholic Church, i.e., to the apostles and their suc-
cessors, the bishops, that Our Lord has promised the gift of the Holy
Spirit, and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Hence
the Holy Scripture, out of which the Catholic Church draws her
teaching, cannot possibly be altered or corrupted. Heretics have on
the other hand sometimes changed the meaning of particular pas-
sages in their own favor, or have omitted whole portions if they did
not please them. Thus Luther rejected the epistle of St. James, be-
cause the apostle says that faith without works is dead. The diffi-
culty of understanding Holy Scripture is a further reason for the
Church's restrictions. How few there are who can honestly say that
they thoroughly understand the epistles that are read at Mass — and
these are chosen for their simple and practical character. St. Peter
himself says (2 Pet. iii. 16) that in the epistles of St. Paul there are
some things hard to be understood, and that the unstable would
pervert these to their own destruction. St. Augustine says:
" There are more things in the Bible which I cannot understand
88 'Faith
than those I can understand." The prophetical books are specially
obscure. Hence the necessity of an authentic exposition of the Bible.
Heretics often give half a dozen different meanings to the same pas-
sage. The Catholic Church is the authority that God has appointed
to explain Holy Scripture ; for to her the Holy Spirit has been given.
The child brings the nut that has been given it to its mother to be
cracked; so the Catholic comes to the Church for the explanation of
the Bible. This is why only Bibles with explanatory notes are
allowed to Catholics.
2. The truths of divine revelation, which have not been
written down in the pages of Holy Scripture, but have been
transmitted by word of mouth, are called Tradition.
The apostles received from Our Lord the command to preach, not
to write. Their writings are concerned more with the doings than
with the teaching of Christ, hence their instructions on points of
doctrine are very incomplete. They themselves say that there is
much that they have delivered to the faithful by word of mouth (2
John 12; 1 Cor. xi. 2; John xxi. 25). Accordingly we are referred to
Tradition. It is by Tradition that we know that Our Lord instituted
seven sacraments. It is by Tradition that we are taught that there
is a purgatory, that Sunday is to be kept holy, and that infants are
to be baptized. It is Tradition which teaches us what books belong to
Holy Scripture, etc. Tradition comes down to us from the time of
the apostles. Just as those who follow up the course of a stream
gradually draw near to the fountain-head, and thus discover how far
the water flows, so we can search out the historical sources of the
teaching of the earlier centuries of the Church, and arrive at her
true doctrine. Every doctrine that has always been believed in by
the universal Church, comes down to us from the apostles. If there-
fore there is any doctrine of the Church that we do not find in Holy
Scripture, we shall find it in the stream of Tradition, and shall be
able to trace it up to the first ages of Christianity.
The chief sources of Tradition are the writings of the
Fathers, the decrees of Councils, and the Creeds and prayers of
the Church.
The Fathers of the Church were those who were distinguished in
the early ages of the Church by their great learning and holiness.
Such are St. Justin, the philosopher and zealous defender of the
Christian religion (a.d. 166), St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (a.d.
202), St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, etc. Many of these were dis-
ciples of the apostles, and are termed apostolic Fathers, as St. Igna-
tius, Bishop of Antioch (a.d. 107). The Doctors of the Church were
those who in later times were distinguished for their learned writings
and their sanctitv. There are four great Greek Doctors, Saints Atha-
nasius, Basil, Gregory, and John Chrysostom; and four Latin, Saints
Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Pope Gregory, called Gregory the
Great. In the Middle Ages there were four other great Doctors of the
Church, St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Bernard, Abbot
of Clairvaux, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Bonaventure. Among
the most distinguished Doctors of later times were St. Francis of
The Christian Faith. 80
Sales, Bishop of Geneva, and St. Alphonsns Liguori. We shall speak
hereafter of the decrees of Councils and of Creeds as the sources of
Tradition. The prayers of the Church are to be found primarily in
the Missal, but also in other books used in the administration of
the sacraments and other rites of the Church. Thus we find in the
Missal prayers for the dead, whence it follows that the Church
teaches their efficacy.
Y. THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.
1. Christian faith is the firm conviction, arrived at with the
grace of God, that all that Jesus Christ taught on earth is true,
as well as all that the Catholic Church teaches by the commission
she has received from Him.
At the Last Supper Our Lord said " This is My body," " This is
My blood." Although the apostles had the evidence of their senses
that what lay before them was only bread and wine, yet they believed
that the words of Christ were true. The holiness of the life of Christ,
the numerous miracles that He worked, the predictions of His that
were fulfilled, had convinced the apostles that He was the Son of
God, and that therefore every word that He spoke was true. God
promised Abraham many descendants, and then commanded him to
slay his only son. Abraham obeyed, because he knew that God's
word must come true (Heb. xi. 19; Rom. iv. 9). This was a splendid
example of faith. St. Paul (Heb. xi. 1) calls faith " the evidence of
things that do not appear."
Christian faith is at the same time a matter of the under-
standing and the will.
Before a man believes, he inquires whether what he is asked to
believe was really revealed by God. This inquiry is a duty, for God
exacts of us a reasonable service (Rom. xii. 1), and warns us that
"he who is hasty to believe is light in heart" (Ecclus. xix. 4). But
when once a man has arrived at the conviction that the truth which
is in question was really revealed by God, then the will must at once
submit to what God has laid down, even though the reason cannot
fully grasp its meaning. If the will does not submit, faith is impos-
sible. ISTo man can believe unless he wills to believe.
2. Faith is concerned with many things which we cannot per-
ceive with our senses and cannot grasp with our understanding.
Faith is a conviction respecting that which we see not (Heb. xi.
1). We believe in God, though we do not see Him; we believe in
angels though we have never seen them. We believe in the resurrec-
tion of our bodies, though we do not understand how it can be. So,
too, we believe in the mysteries of the Blessed Trinity, of the Incar-
nation, and of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. This is why faith
is so pleasing to God. " Blessed are they," says Our Lord to St.
Thomas, "who have not seen but have believed " (John xx. 29).
Faith never requires us to believe anything that is contra-
dictors to human reason.
90 Faith.
The mysteries of faith are above and beyond our reason, but are
never opposed to reason. For God has given us our reason,
and it is the same God Who has given us the teaching of Christ and
of the Church. He who rejects any doctrine of the Church ultimately
finds himself involved in a contradiction. Hence Bacon truly says:
" A little philosophy takes a man away from religion, but a sound
knowledge of philosophy brings him back to religion."
3. We act quite in accordance with reason when we believe,
because we trust ourselves to God's truthfulness, and because we
know for certain that the truths of faith are revealed to us by
God.
A short-sighted man believes a man with longer sight when he
tells him that a balloon is floating in the heavens. A blind man be-
lieves one with sound sight when he tells him that the map before
him is a map of Europe. We believe in the existence of the cities
of Constantinople, Pekin, and Buenos Ayres, though we may never
have seen them. In so doing we act reasonably. But how far more
reasonably do we act when we believe God ! Man may be mistaken,
or may be deceiving us, whereas God cannot err and cannot deceive us.
It is the truthfulness of God on which we rely when we make an act
of faith. We must, however, previously be certain that the doctrine
or fact which we are asked to believe is one that has really been re-
vealed by God. God bears witness to Himself as the Author of the
truths of faith by many actions that He alone can perform, such as
miracles and prophecies. The man of good will can always find a
sufficient reason for believing, a man of bad will an excuse for not
believing.
We believe the words of Christ, because He is the Son of
God, and can neither deceive nor be deceived. Moreover He has
established the truth of what He taught by the miracles that He
worked.
It would be a blasphemy to suppose that Our Lord, Who is truth
itself, could ever have, in one single instance, deceived us. Hence
faith gives us a greater certainty than the evidence of our senses.
Our senses can deceive us — God cannot deceive us. Christ Himself
appeals to the miracles He wrought, when He says, " If any one will
not believe Me, let him believe the works " (John x. 38).
We believe the teaching of the Church because Christ guides
the Church to all truth through the Holy Spirit, and guards it
against all error, and also because God, even up to the present
day, has confirmed the truth of the teaching of the Catholic
Church by miracles.
Our Lord before His ascension said to His apostles : " Behold I
am with you all days even to the end of the world " (Matt, xxviii. 20).
And at the Last Supper : " I will ask the Father, and He will give you
another Paraclete, that He may remain with you forever, the Spirit
of truth" (Jobn xiv. 16). The Holy Spirit is therefore still in the
midst of the Church, just as He was on the Day of Pentecost. God
The Christian Faith. 91
moreover still works miracles in the Catholic Church. Witness, e.g.,
the countless miracles of Lourdes, and those that take place at the
well of St. Winifred in Whales ; and also those that must precede every
beatification. Witness again the numerous bodies of the saints that
have remained incorrupt for long years after their death, as those of
St. Francis Xavier, St. Teresa, St. Elizabeth of Portugal, St. John
of the Cross, and many others. Witness again the head of the Ven-
erable Oliver Plunkett in the Dominican Convent at Drogheda,
which not only remains incorrupt, but emits a most delicious fra-
grance. Most of these bodies were buried in the earth for years, and
were found incorrupt when their graves were opened. Witness again
the miracle which takes place at Naples every year, when the blood
of St. Januarius becomes liquid on being brought near the silver
case in which the head of the saint is kept, and again solidifies as
soon as it is removed. Faith gives us a more certain knowledge than
that which we gain through our senses, or that which we arrive at
by our reasoning powers. Our senses can mislead us, God cannot;
e.g., a stick, part of which is in the water, looks bent; a sound that
strikes against a flat building seems to come from the opposite quar-
ter to that whence it really proceeds. Our intellect, too, can deceive
us, weakened as it is by original sin. As we see better with a tele-
scope than with the naked eye when the object is far away, so faith
sees further and better than reason. We must not confuse faith with
opinion. Faith is certain and sure, opinion is not.
4. The Christian faith comprises all the doctrines of the
Catholic faith.
He who wilfully disbelieves a single doctrine of the Catholic
Church has no true faith, for he who receives some of the words
of Christ and rejects others, does not really believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God and that He guides the Catholic
Church.
A faith which does not comprise all the doctrines of the Catholic
Church is no faith at all. It is like a house without a foundation. A
man who believes all other Catholic doctrines, but rejects the infalli-
bility of the Pope, has no true faith. What insolence it is on the
part of men to treat God like a dishonest dealer, some of whose goods
they accept, and others reject ! What utter folly to think that we
know better than God ! As a bell in which there is one little crack
is worthless, as one false note destroys a harmony, as a grain of sand
in the eye prevents one from seeing, so the rejection of a single
dogma makes faith impossible. He who wilfully rejects a single
dogma sins against the whole body of doctrine of the Catholic
Church. Hence no heretic, if he is so through his own fault, can
mal^e an act of faith, even in the existence of God or the divinity of
Jesus Christ.
Although it is necessary to faith that all the teaching of the
Catholic Church should be believed, yet it is not necessary to be
acquainted with every one of her doctrines. But a Catholic
must at the very least know that there is a God, and that God
92 Faith.
directs the Hfe of men, rewards the good, and punishes the
wicked; he must also know that there are three persons in God,
and that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity has become
man, and has redeemed us on the cross.
St. Paul tells us that " He that cometh to God must believe that
lie is, and that He is the rewarder of them, that seek Him " (Heb. xi.
6). This was the minimum required before the coming of Christ,
and is now required of those who have never come within reach of the
Gospel. In a country where the Gospel is preached the case is quite
different, and no one can be admitted to the Sacraments of Baptism
or Penance until he has been instructed in the above-mentioned
truths.
He who has an opportunity of being instructed must also
learn and understand the Apostles' Creed, the commandments
of God and of the Church, and also he must have some knowl-
edge of the doctrines of grace, of the sacraments, and of prayer,
as set forth in some Catechism authorized by the bishops of the
country where he lives.
5. Faith is a gift of God, since the power to believe can only be
attained through the grace of God.
St. Paul tells us " By grace you are saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves. It is the gift of God" (Eph. ii. 8). And Our
Lord says, " ~No man can come to Me, unless it be given to him by My
Father" (John vi. 66). God gives us the gift of faith in Baptism;
hence Baptism is called " the sacrament of faith." Until the newly
baptized child comes to the use- rf reason, he cannot use this power
of believing, or make an act of faith. He is like a child who is asleep,
who has the faculty of sight, but cannot use it until he opens his
eyes. Then he can see the objects around him under the influence of
the light. So the child who attains to reason is able to believe the
truths of religion under the influence of the grace of God.
God bestows the knowledge of the truth and the gift of faith
chiefly on those who (1), strive after it with earnestness and per-
severance; (2), live a God-fearing life; (3), pray that they may
find the truth.
An earnest desire after truth is a sure means of attaining to it,
for Our Lord has said that " Those who hunger and thirst after
justice shall have their fill" (Matt. v. 6). And again God says
through the mouth of the prophet, " You shall find Me when you seek
Me with your whole heart" (Jer. xxix. 13). The Roman philos-
opher Justinus was an instance of the fulfilment of this promise,
for God rewarded his earnest desire for truth by causing him to fall
in with an old man on the banks of the Tiber, who instructed him in
the truths of the Christian faith. A life in accordance with the law
of God will also obtain the grace of faith. " If any one shall do the
will of God, he shall know of the doctrine " (John vii. 17). To such a
one God will give an interior light, or will send some one to instruct
The Christian Faith. 93
him, as He did to Cornelius (Acts x. 30 seq.). So Cardinal Newman
prayed for long years for the " kindly light " which at last brought
him to the door of the Catholic Church and the same was the case
with countless other converts from Protestantism. Sometimes God
in His mercy gives the gift of faith even to the enemies of the
Church, as He did to St. Paul, but it is for the most part to those who
are in good faith in their errors.
When God bestows upon a man the gift of faith, He either
employs one of the ordinary means of grace, such as preaching,
or in some cases an extraordinary means, such as a miracle.
1 The ordinary means are preaching, reading, and personal instruc-
tion. St. Augustine was converted by the preaching of St. Ambrose
in the Cathedral of Milan, St. Ignatius of Loyola by reading the lives
of the saints, the Ethiopian eunuch by his conversation with St.
Philip. Extraordinary means are those of which we find many at the
beginning of the Christian era; such as the star that the Magi fol-
lowed, the light that shone upon St. Paul on his journey to Damascus
and the voice that he heard from heaven; the great cross that the
Emperor Constantine saw in the sky, with the words " In hoc signo
vinces;" the vision of Our Lady that Ratisbonne saw in the Church
of St. Andrea in Rome in the year 1842. So the heathen boy The-
ophilus was converted by the roses that fell at his feet in the month
of January, after the martyrdom of his playmate Dorothea (a.d. 308).
Many men fail to attain to the Christian faith through
pride, self-will, and an unwillingness to give up the indulgence
of their passions.
It is the lack of good will that debars many from the faith. Our
Lord is the true light that enlighteneth every man that comes into
the world (John i. 9). It is the will of God that all men should come
to the truth. Men too often shut their eyes to the light, because
they are unwilling to change their evil life ; " they love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds are evil " (John iii. 19). Pride is
also a fatal hindrance to faith. God loves to make use of simple
means to bring men to the knowledge of the truth, and this the
proud resent, just as Naaman resented Eliseus' advice to go and
wash in the Jordan. So Christ was rejected and despised by the
Jews, and especially by the Scribes and Pharisees, because He was
born of poor parents and lived in a town that was held in contempt :
" Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? " (John i. 46.) So the
upper class at Rome were unwilling to receive the truth from a
nation that was despised by them, and from men who were in general
very deficient in culture or position. So, too, in the present day
God allows His Church to be oppressed and persecuted and looked
down upon. Hence there is no miracle at which the proud do not
scoff. God hides the secrets of His providence from the proud, and
more than this, He positively resists them (1 Pet. v. 5).
6. Faith is necessary to eternal salvation.
Eaith is like the root of the tree, without which it cannot exist;
it is the first step on the road to heaven; it is the key which opens
94 Faith.
the treasure-house of all the virtues. How happy is the wanderer
when he lights on the road which will carry him to his journey's end;
how far happier is he who has been wandering in the search after
truth when he attains to a belief in the Catholic Church; he has
found the road to eternal life. The saints always set the greatest
store on the possession of the faith. " I thank God unceasingly," said
the good King Alphonsus of Castile, " not that I am a king,
but that I am a Catholic." Without faith there is no salvation.
Our Lord says " He that believeth not shall be condemned " (Mark
xvi. 16). St. Paul says that "Without faith it is impossible to
please Gcd " (Heb. xi. 6). Faith is like a boat; as without a boat
you cannot cross the sea, so without faith you cannot arrive at the
port of eternal salvation. It is like the pillar of the cloud which led
the Israelites across the desert, or like the star that guided the Wise
Men to Christ. Without faith we can do no good works pleasing to
God, or which will merit for us a reward in heaven. Acts of kind-
ness, etc., done from a natural motive earn a reward in this life, but
not in the next. They are like a building which has no founda-
tion. Just as from the root placed in the ground arises the beau-
tiful plant, with its leaves and flowers, so from the root of faith arises
good works. Faith in God gives rise to a love of Him, and confidence
in Him, and this enables us to labor and suffer for Him. Faith in
our eternal reward encourages us in our toilsome journey through
life. It gave Job his patience, Tobias his generosity to the poor, and
the martyrs their constancy. Faith provides us with the means of
resisting temptation; it is the lighthouse which enables the mariner
to avoid the hidden rocks and quicksands. It is the shield that
enables us to extinguish all the fiery darts of the wicked one (Eph.
vi. 16). On the amount of our faith depends the amount that we
possess of the other virtues, and the amount of grace that we receive
from God.
7. Faith alone is not sufficient for salvation.
It must be a living faith; that is, we must add to it good
works and must be ready to confess it openly.
A living faith is one which produces works pleasing to God.
Our Lord says " Not every one who saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of My
Father Who is in heaven" (Matt. vii. 21). He who has done no works
of mercy will be condemned at the judgment (Matt. xxv. 41). Such a
one is like the devils, who believe and disobey (Jas. ii. 19). " As the
body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also "
(Jas. ii. 26). Faith without works is like a tree without fruit, or like
a lamp without oil. The foolish virgins had faith, but no works.
Good works, such as are necessary for salvation, can only be per-
formed by one who is in possession of sanctifying grace, and loves
God in his heart. Hence St. Paul says, " If I should have all faith,
so that I could remove mountains and have not charitv, I am noth-
ing " (1 Cor. xiii. 2). We must also be ready to confess our faith.
"With the heart we believe unto justice; and with the mouth con-
fession is made unto salvation" (Rom. x. 10). Man consists of
body and soul, and therefore must honor God, not only inwardly, but
Tlie Motives of Faith. 95
also outwardly. Christ promises the kingdom of heaven only to those
who confess Him before men (Matt. x. 32).
VI. THE MOTIVES OF FAITH.
1. The external motives which move us to believe are chiefly
miracles and prophecy.
It is through these that we attain to a certain knowledge that
this or that truth of faith is really from God.
The veracity of God is of course the ultimate motive of faith, for
we make an act of faith in the truths revealed by God, because we
know that God is true and cannot deceive or be deceived. But no
reasonable man can make an act of faith in any truth, until he is
quite sure that it is one of the truths revealed by God. For this
reason the external evidences through which God establishes the
fact that He has really spoken are for men a most important and
necessary motive of faith. It was in great measure because the
apostles had seen the countless miracles worked by Christ, and had
seen the prophecies of the Jewish prophets fulfilled in Him, that
they believed Him without doubting when He said, " This is My
body, this is My blood." The miracle of the gift of tongues at Pen-
tecost moved three thousand men to believe in Christianity; that of
the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple
moved two thousand more; the wonders wrought by the apostles in-
duced the heathen to accept the Christian faith. How many were
led to believe or confirmed in the faith by the fulfilment, in the
year a.d. 70, of Our Lord's prophecy respecting the destruction of
Jerusalem, and again by the failure of the attempts to rebuild the
Temple in a.d. 361 ! Besides miracles and prophecy there are also
other motives of faith, such as the constancy of the martyrs, the won-
derful spread of Christianity, and its still more wonderful per-
manency in the face of all the persecution and opposition that the
Church has had to endure, the four attributes of the Church, etc.
The greater number of miracles were performed in the early
days of the Church, because they w^ere the means God employed
for the spread of Christianity.
God is like a gardener who waters his plants while they are still
tender and small.
2. Miracles are such extraordinary works as cannot be per-
formed by the mere powers of nature, but are brought about by the
intervention of a higher power.
An extraordinary work is one that fills us with astonishment, be-
cause we have never seen or heard of anything like it and are unable
to find any natural explanation of it: e.g., the telegraph and the
phonograph were extraordinary wonders at the time of their first
invention. But their unwonted character is not sufficient to consti-
tute these things as miracles; a miracle must also surpass all the
forces of nature, Thus the raising of the dead to life is not only an
96 Faith.
extraordinary fact, but it is one that no amount of skill or knowledge
will enable a man to perform. Miracles are thus exceptions to the or-
dinary course of nature; they appear to transgress the laws of nature,
but they do not really do so. The laws of nature still hold good, but
they are suspended in their action by an intervening power.
There are true and false miracles.
The former are worked by the power of almighty God, the latter
appear to surpass the powers of nature, but are really the effect of
the employment of the powers of nature by evil spirits, who by reason
of their greater knowledge and power are able to produce results
that deceive and mislead us. Miracles are divided into miracles of
the first class and miracles of the second class. The former are those
which altogether surpass all the powers of nature, as the raising of
the dead to life. Miracles of the second class are extraordinary ac-
tions which might have been performed by the powers of nature, but
not in the same way or in the same space of time, as the healing
of a sick man by a word, or the sudden acquisition of the knowl-
edge of a foreign language.
3. Miracles are wrought by almighty God only for His own
glory, and especially for the confirmation of true doctrine.
Sometimes it is to show that a man is a true messenger sent
by God; sometimes to bear witness to the holiness of one who is
dead, or to his virtue or justice. God never works a miracle
in confirmation of false doctrine.
All important documents must bear the stamp or signature of the
person sending them out, as a mark of their being genuine. God also
has His stamp, by which He certifies that some doctrine is from Him,
or that some messenger is sent by Him. This stamp consists in mir-
acles. It is one that cannot be counterfeited. Our Lord Himself ap-
peals to His miracles as a proof of His divine mission (Matt. xi. 4,
5; John x. 37). Elias did the same (3 Kings xviii.). Miracles still
continue to be worked in the Catholic Church in proof of the truth
of her teaching. God also works miracles in proof of the holiness of
the dead, often at their graves, as at that of Eliseus (4 Kings xiii.
21), or for those who invoke them. Two miracles must be attested as
having been worked by the intercession of a servant of Gcd, before he
is beatified, and others before he is canonized. Under the Jewish
covenant the saints worked miracles chiefly during their life; under
the Christian covenant they work the greater number after their
death. God also works miracles to manifest His goodness and His
justice, as when the water flowed in the desert to supply the thirsting
Israelites, and when Ananias and Saphira were struck dead. God
never works miracles in proof of false doctrine, though He sometimes
permits wicked men to be deceived by the false miracles worked by
the devil. Thus the devil sometimes heals the sick rapidly or sud-
denly through his superior knowledge of the powers of nature.
4. In working miracles God usually makes use of the interven-
tion of man, sometimes even of wicked men.
Tlie Motives of Faith, 97
Those whom God has created can only work miracles when God
gives them the power. The saints always worked miracles in the
name of God, or of Onr Lord. Our Lord alone could work miracles
in His own name. Bad men are sometimes employed by God as the
instruments of the miracles by which He establishes the truth (Matt,
vii. 22, 23). We must not be too ready to have recourse to the
hypothesis of a miracle, if the fact supposed to be miraculous can
be accounted for in any other way.
5. Prophesies are clear and definite predictions of future
events that can be known to God alone.
Prophecy also includes a prediction of future events, which de-
pend on the free will of man, for such events can only be foreseen
by God Himself. The most thorough knowledge of material causes
avails nothing. They are often just the opposite of what our pre-
vious knowledge would have led us to expect, e.g., the denial of Our
Lord by St. Peter (Cf. Mark xiv. 31), which Our Lord predicted.
Prophecies may be called miracles of the omniscience of God,
as distinguished from the miracles of His omnipotence, for prophecy
requires an acquaintance with the heart of man such as God alone
possesses (Is. xli. 23). The oracles of the heathen correspond
to the false miracles of which we have already spoken. They
were mostly obscure and sometimes ambiguous, as when the oracle at
Delphi told Croesus that if he crossed the river Halys with his army
he would destroy a mighty kingdom, but did not say whether that
kingdom was to be his own or that of his enemies. Many predictions
were given by the oracles and the heathen soothsayers which were
not true prophecies, but were guesses made from a knowledge of
the laws of nature and from the laws that regulate the general
course of human development. The evil spirits, through their
superior knowledge, were often able to foretell events that men could
not foresee, such as the approach of a storm or pestilence, or the
death of some individual.
6. God for the most part intrusts the prophesying of future
events to His messengers, for the confirmation of the true faith
or for the benefit of men.
Thus God intrusted the prophets of the Jewish covenant with
the prophecy of a Redeemer to come, in order to confirm the belief in
Him, to convince those to whom He came that He was the true
Messias and those who have lived since His coming of the truth of
the Christian religion. He sent ISToe to prophesy the Flood, in order
to lead men to do penance. Sometimes He revealed the future to
wicked men, as when to Baltassar He foretold his coming destruc-
tion by the handwriting on the wall. Sometimes He employed wicked
men as the instruments through which He foretold the future, as
e.g., Balaam (Numb. xxiv. 1 seq.), and Caiphas, as being the high
priest of the year (John xi. 49). But in general He only employed
as instruments of prophecy His own faithful servants, revealing the
future event either through a vision, or by an angel, or through some
interior illumination. Thus the archangel Gabriel was sent to in-
struct Daniel during the Babylonian captivity respecting the time of
98 Faith,
the coming of the Messias. The prophecies of the Apocalypse were
mostly put before St. John in the form of a vision. Such communi-
cations were given to the prophets only from time to time. None of
them had a permanent knowledge of future events. Thus Samuel
did not know who was to be the future king of Israel till David was
actually presented to him (1 Kings xvi. 6-12).
The gift of prophecy is therefore, generally speaking, a
proof that he who possesses it is a messenger from God.
The fulfilment of the prophecy is, of course, necessary before we
recognize it as a proof that he who utters it is a messenger from God.
It must not contradict any revealed doctrine, or be inconsistent with
the holiness of God. It must be edifying and profitable to men (1
Cor. xiv. 3). It must be uttered with prudence and calmness, for it
is a mark of false prophets to show no control of self.
VII. ON THE ABSENCE AND LOSS OF FAITH.
Faith is the road to heaven. Unhappily there are very many who
are wanderers and strangers to the Christian faith.
1. Those who do not possess Christian faith are either: (1)
heretics or (2) infidels.
1. Heretics are those who reject some one or more of the
truths revealed by God.
Heretics are those who hold to some of the doctrines revealed by
God, and reject others. Those who induce others to a false belief are
called leaders of heresy, or arch-heretics. It is always pride that leads
them away from the truth. Among these arch-heretics was Arius, a
priest of Alexandria, who denied the divinity of Christ, and was
condemned at the Council of Nicaea in a.d. 325 ; Macedonius, who de-
nied the divinity of the Holy Ghost, and was condemned in the
Council of Constantinople a.d. 381 ; Martin Luther, who assailed the
divine institution of the Papacy and the right of the Church to teach ;
Henry VIII., King of England, who threw off the authority of the Pope
and proclaimed himself the Head of the Church in England, because
the Pope refused to declare invalid his valid marriage with Queen
Catherine; Dollinger, who was a professor in the University of Mu-
nich, and was celebrated for his literary labors, but on the definition of
the infallibility of the Pope refused to accept the dogma, and was
excommunicated. He died in 1890 without being reconciled or giving
any sign of repentance. Dollinger was the chief mover in the estab-
lishment of the sect of " Old Catholics." Most of the founders of
heresy were either bishops or priests. They are like the coiners of
false money who put into circulation worthless metal in the place of
the pure gold of truth. Or like dishonest traders, who mix the pure
wine of the Gospel with some injurious compound. They are murder-
ers of souls, for they take men away from the road that leads to
eternal life, and tempt them into that which leads to eternal death.
It is of them that Our Lord says " Woe to them by whom scandals
come," and again, " Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the
On the Absence and Loss of Faith. 99
clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves " (Matt,
vii. 5). Their object is not to spread the faith in its purity, but to
satisfy their own evil inclinations, their pride, their sensual desires,
or their love of money. Their religious teaching is only a cloak for
these. They look out for the weak side of human nature, as Satan
does. Thus Luther tempted princes with the spoil of churches and
monasteries, and priests with the bait of marriage. To the class of
heretics belong also those schismatics who accept, or profess to accept,
all Catholic doctrine, but will not acknowledge the supremacy of the
Holy See. Thus the Greek Church is a schismatical Church, though
its denial of Papal infallibility constitutes it, since the Vatican Coun-
cil, heretical also. Heresy is one of the greatest of all sins, when it is
not the result of invincible ignorance. St. Paul writes to the Gala-
tians that if an angel from heaven preached to them any Gospel
different from that they had received, he was to be anathema or ac-
cursed (Gal. i. 8). St. Jerome says that there is no one so far re-
moved from God as a wilful heretic.
At the same time, he who lives in heresy through ignorance
for which lie is not himself to blame, is not a heretic in the sight
of God.
Thus those who are brought up in Protestantism, and have no
opportunity of obtaining a sufficient instruction in the Catholic
religion, are not heretics in the sight of God, for in them there is no
obstinate denial or doubt of the truth. They are no more heretics
than the man who takes the property of another unwittingly is a
thief.
2. Rationalists or unbelievers are those who will not be-
lieve anything unless they can either perceive it with their
senses, or comprehend it with their understanding.
Thus St. Thomas was an unbeliever when he refused to believe in
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, unless he should put his finger into
the sacred wounds of Our Lord's hands and feet, and put his hand
into His side (John xx. 24). There are many in the present day like
St. Thomas ; they will believe nothing except what they can see with
their eyes, or grasp with their reason ; all else, e.g., all the mysteries
of the faith, they reject. " Unbelief," says St. John Chrysostom, " is
like a sandy soil, that produces no fruit however much rain falls upon
it." The unbeliever does God the same injustice that a subject would
do to his king, if he refused to acknowledge his authority in spite of
the clearest proofs of it.
Unbelief springs for the most part from a bad life.
The sun is clearly reflected in pure and clear water, but not in
dirty water. So it is with men; a man of blameless life easily finds
his way to the truth, but the sensual man does not perceive the things
that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. ii. 14). A mirror that is dim
reflects badly, or not at all. So the soul, which is a mirror on which
the light falls from God, cannot receive the truths of faith if it is
dimmed by vice.
100 Faith.
2. Faith is for the most part lost either: (1), By indifference
to the doctrines of faith; (2), By wilful doubt respecting the
truths of faith; (3), By reading books or other literature that is
hostile to the faith; (4), By frequenting the assemblies of those
who are hostile to the faith; (5), By neglecting the practice of
one's religion.
He who through culpable indifference does not trouble himself
about the doctrines of faith, gradually loses the gift of faith. He
is like the plant that is not watered, or the lamp that is not filled
with oil. Such men know that they are very ignorant of their relig-
ion, and yet they take no pains to get instructed; they are en-
grossed with this world; they never pray or hear a sermon, and if
they are parents, they take no pains to get their children properly
instructed. Perhaps they fancy themselves men of enlightenment,
and look with pitying contempt on those who are conscientious and
earnest in the practice of their religion. The body must be nour-
ished, else it will perish from hunger; the soul must be nourished,
else it, too, will perish. Its nourishment is the teaching of Christ. He
Himself says, in His conversation with the woman of Samaria, that
the water that He would give her, i.e., His divine doctrine, should be
to her a well of water, springing up unto life everlasting (Johniv. 14).
And in the synagogue of Capharnaum " I am the Bread of life ; he
that cometh to Me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall
never thirst" (John vi. 35). This is why the careful instruction
of children and of converts is so all-important. When converts fall
away, the cause very often is that they have not been well instructed
before their reception into the Church. The Catholic must not
suppose that he is freed from the study of the doctrines of faith, be-
cause he has been duly instructed in his youth. The plant must be
watered even when it is grown up; the soul of the adult needs to
renew its acquaintance with the truths of faith by hearing sermons,
reading pious books, etc., else it will soon lose the vigor of its faith.
He who allows himself wilfully to doubt of any of the doctrines
of the Church, commits a serious sin against faith, and is sure, little
by little, to lose his faith altogether. That house is sure to fall of
which the foundations are loosened. He who doubts any revealed
truth seriously offends God. Sara doubted God's promise that she
should bear a son in her old age and was reproved by God for her in-
credulity (Gen. xviii. 10 seq.). Zacharias doubted the announce-
ment of the angel that John Baptist should be born to him, and as
a punishment lost for a time the power of speech (Luke i. 18 seq.).
Yet doubts that come into our mind involve no sin, if we do not
wilfully consent to them. If doubts come into our mind we should
not argue with them, but should make an act of faith and pray for
more faith. Those however, who are outside the Church, and have
not the faith, are bound, if they doubt, to search and inquire, until
they have found the truth ; with them doubt is no sin, so long as their
search after truth is made in a spirit of humility, and with a sincere
desire to arrive at truth. Faith is also destroyed by the reading of
books hostile to the faith. In this way John Huss, who dis-
seminated false doctrine over Bohemia, is said to have been cor-
rupted by the works of the English heretic, Wyclif. It was the
On the Absence and Loss of Faith. 101
writings of Luther that chiefly contributed to the apostasy of
Calvin and Zwingli. Julian the Apostate (a.d. 363) is said to have
lost his faith by reading the writings of the heretic Libanius
during his expedition to Niconiedia. In the present day the
books against the faith are countless. Among the most mis-
chievous are the works of Eousseau, Voltaire, Zola, Renan, Gib-
bon, Ingersoll, Huxley, etc. The Church, like a good mother,
seeing how books dangerous to faith were on the increase, estab-
lished in 1571 the Congregation of the Index, through which the
Apostolic See forbids to Catholics a number of books, which are
judged to be a source of danger to faith or morals. Any one who
reads such books, prints them, or even has them in his possession
without permission from his ecclesiastical superiors incurs the pen-
alty of excommunication reserved to the Pope. The penalty, however,
is not incurred by any one who reads such a book without knowing
that it was forbidden. At one time all books had to be sanctioned
by the bishop of the diocese, but this was afterwards limited to
books touching on religion. By these means the Church sought
to preserve the purity of Christian doctrine. Many, too, have lost
their faith by habitually reading newspapers hostile to the faith.
As the body cannot remain in health if it is fed with unwholesome
food, so the mind becomes diseased and corrupt if a man feeds it with
unwholesome and pernicious literature. The process may be a slow
one, but it is like the solid rock which wears away little by little as
the drops of water fall upon it. Bad reading is like unwholesome
food, which ere long induces sickness and even death. Among the
enemies of faith are the Freemasons. In Protestant countries
they seem harmless enough, and many converts who have be-
longed to the Masonic order have borne witness that they have
never encountered anything in it which was opposed either to
throne or altar, but the real object aimed at by the leaders of Free-
masonry is to destroy all authority that comes from God, and all re-
vealed religion. Their secret oath of obedience, taken as it is with-
out any reserve, is absolutely unlawful, and the symbolism of many of
its lodges is grossly blasphemous and insulting to Christianity. The
idea of Freemasonry is taken from the Masonic guilds of the Middle
Ages, the members of which employed themselves in the construction
of cathedrals and churches. It professes to have for its object the
construction of a spiritual temple to humanity and enlightenment,
but Freemasons are invariably the bitter foes of Christianity and
of the Catholic Church. Every one joining them is ipso facto
excommunicate, and the Pope alone can restore him to the member-
ship of the Church, except at the hour of death, when any priest has
power to do so.
3. All men who through their own fault die without Christian
faith are, by the just judgment of God, sentenced to eternal per-
dition.
Unhappy indeed are those who have not faith; " they sit in dark-
ness and in the shadow of death " (Luke i. 79). Our Lord says, " He
who believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi. 16), and again
"He who believeth not is condemned already" (John iii. 18). Of
102 Faith.
heretics St. Paul says that they are condemned hy their own judg-
ment (Tit. iii. 11). We ought to pray often for heretics and un-
believers, that God may in His mercy bring them to the true faith.
VIII. ON THE DUTY' OF CONFESSING OUR FAITH.
1. God requires of us that we should make outward profession
of our faith.
Christ says, " So let your light shine before men, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in
heaven " (Matt. v. 16).
We are bound in our words and actions to let men know that we
are Christians and Catholics. It is by the open profession of our faith
that we help others (as we see from the above words of Our Lord), to
know God better and to honor Him more. We also thereby lead them
to imitate our good deeds ; for men are like sheep, which though lazy
in themselves and unwilling to move, will follow where one of them
leads the way. The open profession of our faith also strengthens us
in all that is good, for " practice makes perfect." Unhappily men are
too often cowards. For fear of being laughed at by those around
them, or through the dread of suffering some injury in their business,
or some disadvantage in their worldly affairs or interests, they have
not the courage openly to profess their faith, or to defend their re-
ligion when it is attacked; they laugh at indecent or profane stories,
join in immodest conversation, or in talk against the Church, priests,
and religious, eat meat on Friday in order to escape the jests of
their companions, and miss Mass on Sunday without excuse. They
forget that those who laugh them out of doing what is right only
despise them in their hearts, and would respect and honor them if
they stood firm. They forget, too, that at the Day of Judgment the
tables will be turned, and that those who now mock at them will be
full of terror and of shame, and those who have been loyal to their
religion will be the objects of the envy and admiration of their perse-
cutors, who will bitterly lament their folly and wickedness (Wisd. i.
1-5). Among the splendid instances of those who were faithful to
their religion and fearlessly made confession of their faith, were the
three young men who refused to adore the golden image set up by
Nabuchodonosor (Dan. ii.) ; the holy Tobias, who alone of all his kin-
dred refused to go to the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, and
went up every year to the Temple in Jerusalem (Tob. i. 5, 6) ; Eleazar,
who preferred death to even appearing to eat swine's flesh (2 Mach.
vi. 18 seq.) ; St. Ignatius the martyr, St. Agnes, St. Lucy, St. Mau-
rice and the Theban legion, and countless other Christian martyrs and
confessors. It is by way of an open profession of her faith that holy
Church has instituted processions like those of Corpus Christi, pro-
cessions of Our Lady, etc.
We are only bound openly to confess our faith when our
omission to do so would bring religion into contempt, or do some
injury to our neighbor, or when we are in some way challenged
to declare and make profession of our religion.
On the Duty of Confessing our Faith. 103
We are not bound always and on all occasions to confess our faith,
but only when the honor due to God, or the edification due to our
neighbor requires it. If officious people question us about our faith,
we are not bound to answer them; we can refuse to answer, or turn
away. But if we are questioned by some one who possesses legitimate
authority to do so, we are bound to confess our faith, even though
it should cost us our lives, as Our Lord did when questioned before
Caiphas, and as thousands of the early Christians did when called
upon to sacrifice to the idols. In such cases the words of Our Lord
apply, " Fear not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the
soul" (Matt. x. 28). To fear man more than God is to bring down
on us His anger. We also should try and avoid all wrangling discus-
sions and controversies about religion, wMch generally do harm
and embitter men against the truth. Our faith is so holy a thing that
it must be spoken of with great discretion and prudence.
2. Our Lord has promised eternal life to him who fearlessly
makes profession of his faith.
For He has said " Every one that confesseth Me before men,
him I will also confess before My Father Who is in heaven "
(Matt. x. 32).
St. Peter made a bold profession of his faith before his fellow
apostles, and Our Lord made him at once the head of the apostles,
and the foundation of His Church (Matt. xvi. 18). The three
young men in Babylon confessed their belief in the true God, and
God delivered them from the fiery furnace, and caused them to be
raised to high honor. Daniel confessed his faith by disobeying the
king's edict and continuing his prayers in the sight of all men, and
God saved him from the lions.
A great reward in heaven will be given to those who suffer
persecution or death for the sake of their religion.
" Blessed are they," says Our Lord, " that suffer persecution for
justice' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye,
when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner
of evil against you untruly, for My sake. Be glad and rejoice, for
your reward is very great in heaven" (Matt. v. 11-13). Those who
suffer great persecutions for the sake of their faith are called confes-
sors; those who are put to death for their faith are called martyrs.
A martyr goes straight to heaven at his death, without passing
through purgatory. " We should be doing injustice to a martyr,"
says Pope Innocent III., " if we were to pray for him." A martyr
possesses the love of God in the highest degree, since he despises life,
the greatest of all earthly goods, for God's sake. Every martyr is a
conqueror, and is therefore depicted with a palm in his hand, since the
palm is the mark of victory. Yet no one is bound purposely to seek
after persecution or a martyr's death. Any one who does so without
an express inspiration from almighty God, is almost sure to yield to
the persecutors. Nor is it forbidden to flee from persecution. " When
they shall persecute you in one city," says Our Lord (Matt. x. 23),
<( flee into another." Our Lord Himself fled before persecution ( Johu
104 Faith
xi. 53-54). So did the apostles and many of the saints, e.g., St.
Cyprian and St. Athanasius. Yet the pastors of souls must not fly
when the good of the faithful requires their presence. " The hire-
ling fleeth, because he is a hireling," says Our Lord, " and careth not
for the sheep" (John x. 13). Yet they may fly if their presence is
not required, or if it seems likely to give rise to fresh persecutions.
The heretic who dies for his heresy is no true martyr, for St. Paul
tells us that if we give our body to be burned, and have not charity,
it profits us nothing (1 Cor. xiii. 3). John Huss, who was burned at
Prague in 1415, rather JJian give up his heresy, was no martyr, nor
were Cranmer, Ridley, nor Latimer, who were burned at Oxford in
the reign of Queen Mary. A man is a true martyr who receives a
grievous wound for the sake of the faith and afterwards dies from the
effects of it. So, too, are those who suffer imprisonment for life for
their faith, or who die in defence of some Christian virtue or some
law of the Church. Thus St. John Nepomucene, who was put to
death because he would not violate the seal of confession, and St.
John the Baptist, whose death was the result of his defence of the
law of purity, were true martyrs. The whole number of the martyrs
has been estimated at sixteen millions.
The man who denies his religion through fear or shame,
or apostatizes from the faith, is under sentence of eternal dam-
nation, for Christ says, "-He that shall deny Me before men,
him I will also deny before My Father Who is in heaven" (Matt,
x. 33), and again, " He that shall be ashamed of Me and of My
word, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed, when He cometh
in His majesty and that of His Father and the holy angels "
(Luke ix. 26).
He who denies the faith denies Christ Himself. In the times of
persecution there were many who denied their faith. Even now there
are some who, through fear of worldly loss or of being dismissed
from their employment, deny their religion. Others from the same
motives, though they do not explicitly deny that they are Catholics,
yet do so implicitly by attending and taking part in the services of a
false religion, or by being married in a Protestant church, or by a
merely civil marriage, or by taking Protestants for the godfathers or
godmothers of their children, or by allowing their children to be
brought up in a false religion. (But there is no sin in attending a
Protestant funeral or marriage out of courtesy, so long as no part is
taken in the service.) Others again, though they do not deny their
religion, are ashamed of it, because in many countries it is the
religion of the poor, or because Catholics are not allowed to believe
what they like. Those who deny or conceal their religion out of
human respect are only despised by non-Catholics. The Emperor
Constantius, father of Constantine the Great, once ordered all those
of his servants whom he knew were Christians to sacrifice to the
false gods. Those who obeyed he dismissed from his service, those
who refused he promoted to the places of those he sent away. He
who apostatizes from the faith is even worse than he who denies it
from worldly motives. Solomon, whom God had filled with divine
The Sign of the Cross. 105
wisdom, in his old age was persuaded by his heathen wives to apos-
tatize from the true religion and to worship their false gods. The
Emperor Julian the Apostate fell away from the Christian religion
and became a cruel persecutor. In the present day it too often hap-
pens that Catholics give up their faith through motives of worldly
interest, or because they want to marry a Protestant, or sometimes
because they quarrel with the priest. A vicious and sinful life often
prepares the way for an apostasy. No good man, from the time of
Our Lord till now, has ever fallen away from the Catholic faith.
The tree must be rotten within before it is blown down by the
wind; the wind does not scatter the grains of corn, but the empty
husks. He who apostatizes crucifies the Son of God afresh. He
commits a sin almost unpardonable; he ceases to belong to the
Church, and can no longer call God his Father, for as St. Cyprian
says, " He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church as
his Mother." The Catholic must therefore keep far away from all
occasions which could endanger his faith, for " he who loses his goods
loses much; he who loses his life loses more; but he who loses his
faith loses all."
IX. THE SIGN OF THE CEOSS.
The Catholic makes confession of his faith most especially
by the sign of the holy cross.
By it he lets men know that he makes profession of belonging
to the religion of the crucified Saviour. To Jews and Turks the cross
is an object of hatred and contempt; Protestants, too, pay no honor
to the holy cross, though there are indeed some of them who, in the
present day, have learned the practice from the children of the
Church. The sign of the cross is thus the peculiar property of
Catholics all the world over. It is a custom so ancient that it is gen-
erally believed to have been introduced by the apostles. The sign
of the cross is made by touching with the outstretched fingers of the
right hand first the forehead, then the centre of the breast, then the
left, and finally the right shoulder, saying meanwhile the words, " In
the name of the Father [touch forehead], and of the Son [touch
breast], and of the Holy Ghost [touch left shoulder], Amen [touch
right shoulder] ." There is also another way of making the sign of the
cross, by making three crosses with the thumb of the right hand on
the forehead, lips, and breast successively, repeating the above words,
so that each of the three crosses is made simultaneously with the
name of one of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity. In making
the sign of the cross the left hand should be laid across the breast,
and the sign should be made deliberately — not hurriedly, as is too
often done
1. In making the sign of the cross we make profession of the
most important of all the mysteries of our holy religion, viz., the
doctrine of the Blessed Trinity and of the Incarnation of Our Lord
Jesus Christ.
By uniting all the three persons, Father, Son, and Holy
106 Faith.
Ghost, under one name, we make profession of our belief in the
unity of God.
The " name " of God indicates His authority and power, and that
we act under His commission (Mark xvi. 17; Acts iii. 16, 17; iv. 10).
In making the sign of the cross, we make profession of our
belief in the Blessed Trinity by the words " In the name of the
Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."
In making the sign of the cross, by the very form of the cross
which we make upon ourselves, we make profession that the Son
of God died for us upon the cross.
Thus we see that in the sign of the cross we have a short sum-
mary of the whole Catholic faith. The Catholic Church holds the
sign of the cross in great honor. It is repeated over and over again
in holy Mass, in all the sacraments, in all blessings and consecra-
tions ; the cross is placed on our churches, over our altars, on banners,
on sacred vestments, and over the graves of the departed. Churches
are built in the form of a cross.
2. By means of the sign of the cross we obtain a blessing from
God ; and especially by it are we protected from the assaults of the
devil and from all dangers both to body and to soul.
The sign of the cross is no empty ceremony, but it is of itself a
blessing, and a prayer for a blessing from God. The sign of the cross
chases away the devil and his temptations ; as the dog fears the whip
with which he has been beaten, so the evil one dreads the sign of the
cross, for it reminds him of the holy cross by which he was van-
quished on Calvary. There was once a stag which bore between its
antlers a tablet on which were written in golden letters the words,
" I belong to the emperor, hurt me not." No huntsman ventured to
shoot this stag. So whenever we make the sign of the cross, we bear
the inscription, " I belong to Jesus Christ," and this protects us from
our enemy, the devil. In war no one ventures to injure those who
wear on their arm a band of white to indicate that they are physi-
cians, or nurses, or ministers of religion; so the devil does not dare
attack those who are signed with the holy sign of the cross. " The
sign of the cross," says St. John Damascene, " is a seal, at the sight
of which the destroying angel passes on, and does us no harm." The
brazen serpent fastened on a pole in the desert was an image of the
cross of Christ (ISTumb. xxi. ; John iii. 14), and protected all who
looked upon it from being bitten by the fiery serpents; so the sign of
the cross recalls to our minds the cross of Christ, and. protects us
from the snares of that old serpent, the devil. In the year 312, Con-
stantine the Great, with his whole army, saw a cross of light in the
sky, and upon it the words : " In this sign thou shalt conquer."
These words are also true of the sign of the cross. " Even to remember
the cross of Christ," says St. Augustine, " puts our hellish foe to
flight, and give us strength to resist his temptations." Many of the
saints used to make the sign of the cross whenever any evil thoughts
assailed them. In the times of persecution the heathen gods often
The Sign of the Cross. 107
fell prostrate to the ground at the sign of the cross. On the occasion
of the finding of the holy cross by St. Helena, a woman who was
blind was restored to sight by merely touching it. The sign of the
cross often frees men from bodily evils also. Many of the holy mar-
tyrs, on making the sign of the cross, felt no more pain in their tor-
ments. St. John the Divine once had a cup with a poisoned draught
put into his hand to drink. He made the sign of the cross over it, and
then drank it without receiving any harm from it. Something similar
happened also to St. Benedict. In the Old Testament we find an allu-
sion to the sign of the cross in the letter Thau, mentioned by the
prophet Ezechiel. God sent destruction upon the inhabitants of Jeru-
salem on account of the abominations committed there; but an angel
was previously commanded to mark the sign Thau upon the foreheads
of all those who mourned and lamented on account of the sins of the
city (Ezech. ix. 4-6).
We should often make the sign of the cross, especially when
we rise in the morning and when wTe retire to rest, before and
after our prayers, before and after our meals, whenever we are
tempted to sin, and when ^xe have any important duty to per-
form.
We should make the sign of the cross in the morning in order
to obtain the blessing of God on the day; in the evening to ask for
His protection during the night; before all important undertakings,
that they may turn out well ; before our prayers, in order that we may
not be distracted in saying them, etc. The early Christians made con-
tinual use of the sign of the cross. Tertullian (a.d. 240) says, " At the
beginning and during the performance of all that we do, when we
go in and out of the house, when we dress ourselves, when we lie down
to rest, in fact in everything, we mark ourselves on the forehead with
the sign of the cross." The sign of the cross should also be made dur-
ing holy Mass; at the beginning, at the absolution which the priest
gives at the foot of the altar, at the Gospel, at the Consecration, and
at the priest's blessing at the end of Mass. St. Edith, the daughter
of the King of England, often made the sign of the cross with her
thumb upon her forehead; thirteen years after her death her thumb
remained quite incorrupt. Each time we make the sign of the cross
with contrite hearts, we gain an indulgence of fifty davs (Pius IX.,
July 28, 1863).
When wTe make the sign of the cross, we shomld, if possible,
make it with holy water. '
Holy water has a special power to defend us against all attacks
of the devil.* When we make the sign of the cross with holy water,
we gain each time an indulgence of one hundred days (Pius IX.,
March 23, 1876). Holy water is placed at the doors of our churches,
and should be placed at the door of our rooms. We must never be
ashamed of the sign of the cross, lest Christ be ashamed of us. The
devil rejoices when he sees any one neglect to make the sign of the
cross, for he knows that the cross is his destruction and a sign of vic-
tory over his temptation^.
108 Faith.
X. THE APOSTLES' CKEED.
Besides the Apostles' Creed, which is repeated at Baptism, there is
also the Nicene Creed (composed at the Council of Nicsea, 325),
and enlarged at the Council of Constantinople. Also the Creed of
Pope Pius IV., which contains the teaching of the Council of Trent,
and was published by the authority of Pope Pius IV. in 1564. Some
additions have been made to it by the Vatican Council (1870). The
Nicene Creed is repeated on certain days by the priest in holy Mass,
and the Creed of Pope Pius IV. has to be repeated by a convert
when he is received into the Church, and also by parish priests when
they enter on their benefices.
1. The Apostles' Creed contains in brief all that a Catholic
must know and believe.
In its few words are contained all the mysteries of the faith.
It is like the body of a child which contains the limbs of a full-
grown man, or like a seed that contains the tree with all its branches.
It is called in Latin the symbolum, or distinguishing mark, because
in early days the recital of it was the mark by which a man was
recognized as a Christian. No one was admitted to be present at holy
Mass unless he knew it by heart. It could not be divulged to any un-
baptized person. It is called the symbolum, as being the watchword
of the Christian warfare.
The Apostles' Creed is so called because it originated with
the apostles.
The holy apostles, before they separated from one another, estab-
lished a certain and fixed rule of their teaching, so that it might be
the same in all the different countries where they preached. Yet it
is only the outlines of the Apostles' Creed that date from the apostles
themselves. Between their time and the year 600 a number of new
clauses were added, in order to meet various heresies. Thus the
words " Creator of heaven and earth " were added to meet the Mani-
chean doctrine that the world was created by the principle of evil;
the word Catholic was added to distinguish the Church from the sects
around her, etc. The influence of St. Peter in drawing up the
Creed appears from the fact that the principles which are developed
in his speeches as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, are those
which are found in the Creed. It was required before Baptism as
an evidence of fitness for the reception of that sacrament.
2. The Apostles' Creed may be divided into three several
parts.
The first part treats of God the Father and of creation.
The second part treats of God the Son and of our redemp-
tion.
The third part treats of God the Holy Ghost and of our
sanctificatfon.
The Apostles' Greed. 109
3. The Apostles' Creed may also be divided into twelve articles.
An article is a member belonging to the whole, as a limb belongs
to the whole body. The articles of the Creed are so called because
of their inseparable connection with one another. As you cannot
take away one of the links of a chain without the chain being
broken, so you cannot take away one of the articles of the Creed
without faith being destroyed. There are various images in the Old
Testament of the twelve articles of the Creed, e.g., the twelve precious
stones on the breastplate of the high priest (Exod. xxviii. 17-21),
and the twelve loaves of proposition (Lev. xxiv. 6). The articles
of the Creed which we should wear on our breast, i.e., should believe
and confess, should be like the stones in the high priest's breastplate :
shining and spreading light around.
The number of the articles of the Creed is the same as that
of the apostles of Our Lord, and is intended to remind us that
they contain the doctrine taught by the twelve apostles.
Every Christian should know the Creed by heart. It should be
repeated every day at our prayers, by way of renewing and strength-
ening our faith, and of confirming the covenant we entered on with
God at our Baptism. It is the shield of faith, by the repetition of
which we can extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one
(Eph. vi. 16).
FIRST AETICLE OF THE CREED: "I BELIEVE IN GOD,
THE FATHER ALMIGHTY."
1. THE EXISTENCE OF A SUPREME BEING.
1. We can infer from the created world around us that there
exists a supreme Being.
We cannot see the souls of men, but we can infer their existence
by a process of reasoning ; so it is with the existence of God.
The heavens and the earth could not have come into exist-
ence of themselves ; nor could the heavenly bodies move through
space by their own power.
We infer, when we see footprints in the snow, that some one has
passed that way; so we infer from the things around us that there
exists a supreme Being. The planets could no more have come into ex-
istence of themselves than a town could be built of itself. The
astronomer Kirchner had a friend who doubted the existence of
God. He had a globe made and placed in his study. His friend
came to see him one day and asked where the globe came from.
Kirchner answered that it made itself. When his friend laughed at
such an answer, Kirchner replied, " It would be much easier for a
little globe like that to make itself than the great one on which we
live." A light cannot kindle itself, and after it is kindled it will go
out in a few hours. But the heavens are lighted by the glorious light
of the sun, which has burned for many thousands of years without
110 Faith.
losing any of its brightness. Look at the millions of the stars. Who
made them all, and caused them to illumine the night ? The
Psalmist truly says " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the
firmament shows forth the work of His hands" (Ps. xviii. 2).
The great astronomer Xewton used always to uncover and bow his
head when the name of God was mentioned. We may also infer the
existence of God from the creatures on the earth. Thus Job says
" Ask now the beasts and they shall teach thee ; and the birds of the
air, and they shall tell thee. Speak to the earth and it shall
answer thee; and the fishes of the sea shall tell. Who is igno-
rant that the hand of the Lord hath made all these things ? " (Job
xii. 7-9.) If any one were to find a beautiful marble statue on a
desert island, he would say without any hesitation that men had been
there. If one were to say that the wind and rain had torn it
from the mountain side, and given it its form, we should count him
as a fool. A greater fool is he who asserts that this wondrous world
had no Creator.
The wonderful arrangement and order of the world also
leads us to infer that it has been framed by an Architect of sur-
passing skill.
If a ship sails on its way and arrives safely at its destination,
we conclude that it had a clever pilot. To say that the stars of the
heaven of themselves direct their course, is as foolish as it would be to
say that a ship had started from Xew York, sailed round the world,
and returned safely without any one to guide it. Cicero said long
ago, " When we contemplate the heavens, we arrive at the conviction
that they are all guided by a Being of surpassing skill." In all that
is upon the earth we see traces of design and of a most wise Designer
— in the construction of the bodies of animals, and of the bodies of
men, in the succession of the seasons, in trees and plants. The adap-
tation of means to ends in the human eye, the ear, and the various
parts of the body, all imply an adapting intelligence, just as the adap-
tation of a watch to indicate the time, or the building of a house to
shelter us, implies an intelligent constructor. As it would be impos-
sible that the letters of the alphabet should be grouped together by
mere chance in the order of the " Iliad," so it is impossible that the
arrangements of the universe could have come about by chance,
and without the knowledge and direction of a mighty intelligence.
All the nations of the earth have an inner conviction of the
existence of a supreme Being.
Among all nations, even the most degraded, we find invariably the
worship of some kind of deity. We find towns without walls, without.
a ruler, without laws, without coin, but never without some sort of
temple, without prayer, without sacrifice. Now, universal consent is a
mark of truth. The belief in God is an inner conviction, which may
be said to be inborn, inasmuch as every one can arrive at it with the
greatest ease.
Only the fool says in his heart: there is no God (Ps. xiii. 1).
Those who say that there is no God in spite of the glories of
The Apostles' Creed. Ill
creation which they see around them, are those of whom Our Lord
says that " seeing they perceive not, and hearing they do not under-
stand" (Mark iv. 12). Such men are called atheists or infidels.
They are invariably men who either are eaten up with pride or live
vicious lives, or both. " He who denies the existence of God," says
St. Augustine, " has some reason for wishing that God did not exist."
Atheists, for the most part, use language which is at variance with
their real convictions. Many of them are the first to cry to God for
help when they are in some imminent danger. Their bold talk means
very little. They are like boys who whistle in the dark to show that
they are not afraid. God will take atheists at their word one day
and will show Himself no loving God for them. So He took at their
word those of the Israelites who doubted His power to give them
victory over their enemies and possession of the Promised Land.
They died before they entered it (Numb. xiv. 28-32).
2. The existence of God is also proved from revelation.
God has at sundry times and in divers manners spoken to men
(Heb. i. 1), and has given them a knowledge of Himself. To Moses
He appeared in the burning bush, and called Himself the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;, to distinguish Himself from the false
gods, He gives to Himself the name of " the self -existent One," or " I
am Who am " (Exod. iii. 14). So in giving the law on Sinai He says,
" I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt have none other gods beside
Me" (Deut. v. 6, 7). God also worked miracles at various times in
proof of His existence, e.g., by sending down fire from heaven to con-
sume the sacrifice of Elias on Carmel (3 Kings xviii. 24, seq.), by
saving Daniel from the lions at Babylon, and the three young men
from the fiery furnace.
2. THE DIVINE ESSENCE.
What God is in His divine nature or essence is known to us
partly from created things, but more clearly from His revelation
of Himself.
St. Paul tells us that, " The invisible things of God from the crea-
tion of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made" (Pom. i. 20). Creation is a sort of mirror that reflects
the divine perfections ; thus from the beauty of things created we can
infer the greater beauty of Him Who created them (Wisd. xiii. 1).
So again from the order that prevails in the visible world we can con-
clude that He Who made it is a Being of surpassing wisdom, and
from its vastness we learn the power of Him Who upholds and sup-
ports it. Yet the knowledge thus obtained is always imperfect and
obscure. From a beautiful picture we do not learn much about the
character of the painter. In creatures we see Gcd only as through a
glass and in a dark manner (1 Cor. xiii. 12). The heathens, before
the coming of Christ, were sunk in the grossest vices, and this dark-
ened their intellect and rendered them still less able to arrive at a
knowledge of God from His works (Wisd. ix. 16). In order to en-
lighten this ignorance God revealed Himself to men, speaking to
112 Faith.
theni by the mouth of the patriarchs and prophets, and above all by
the mouth of His Son, Jesus Christ (Heb. i. 1, 2). It was Christ
Who gave to men the clearest manifestation of the nature of God;
all the rest spoke somewhat obscurely, for none of them had seen God
face to face.
Even since God's revelation of Himself, man is not capable
of a thorough or complete knowledge of the nature of God; the
reason of this is that God is infinite, and man is only finite.
Just as we cannot inclose a boundless ocean in a little vessel,
so we cannot take in the infinite majesty of God with our finite un-
derstanding. " Behold, God is great, exceeding our knowledge " (Job
xxxviii. 26). "The things that are of God no man knoweth, but
the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. ii. 11). We can neither express in words
nor conceive in thought what God really is. When the sage Simon-
ides was asked by Hiero, King of Syracuse, what God is, he took first
one, then two days to consider the question; then he requested four
days more; then eight; and finally said to the king that the longer
he thought about the matter, the more obscure did it become to him.
It is easier to say what God is not than what He is. He who attempts
to fathom the majesty of God becomes profane. It is told of Icarus
in the old mythology, that he fastened wings to his sides with wax,
and attempted to fly up to heaven; but when he came too near the
sun, it melted the wax and he fell into the sea and perished. So
it is with those who seek to fathom the nature of God; He casts
them down into the sea of doubt and unbelief. He who gazes upon
the sun becomes dazzled; so is it with those who seek to penetrate
into the nature of God. Even the angels veil their faces before God
(Ezech. i. 23). The most perfect of them cannot comprehend His
majesty. They are like a man who looks upon the sea from some
high point ; he sees the sea, but he does not see the whole of it. How
can we expect to reach heights which even the angels cannot attain
to ?
We can only give an imperfect and incomplete explanation
of the nature of God, viz.:
1. God is a self -existent Being, infinite in His perfections,
glory, and beatitude, the Creator and Ruler of the whole world. k
When Moses asked almighty God His name, on the occasion of
His appearing in the burning bush, God answered, " I am Who am "
(Exod. iii. 14) i.e., " I exist of Myself, I derive My being from My-
self." All other beings derive their existence from God, and there-
fore in comparison of Him are as nothing. Hence David says, " My
substance is as nothing before Thee " (Ps. xxxviii. 6). God also pos-
sesses the highest perfection. We see how some beings upon the earth
are more perfect than others. Some things have only existence with-
out life, as stones and metals ; others have life, but without sensation,
as trees and plants; others have sensation and movement as well,
as birds and beasts; man has a spiritual life, with intellect and free
will. Above man there are countless numbers of pure spirits, each
with a special perfection of its own, and each increasing in virtue as
The Apostles' Creed. 113
it ascends towards the throne of God. But they can never arrive at
infinite perfection, since the most perfect among them can always at-
tain to some higher excellence. Hence we must believe in a Being
of infinite perfection, from Whom all other beings derive their vir-
tues, Who possesses in Himself, and Who is infinitely exalted beyond,
all existing or possible perfections that can be found in all other
beings than Himself. ^Nothing greater than God can either exist or
even be thought of. God is also infinite in glory and beauty. For if
on the earth there exist so many beautiful things, how far greater
must be the beauty and glory of God, since it is He Who gave them
all their beauty. He could not have given it unless He already
possessed it. He is like the boundless ocean, and the beauty of all
created things is like a series of drops taken from the ocean. God
is also infinite in His supreme happiness or beatitude. He lives in
endless and infinite joy; no creature can interfere with the perfection
of His happiness. None can either increase or diminish it (1 Tim. vi.
15). As the sun needs no light from other bodies, because it is itself
the light, so God needs nothing from others, because He is Himself in
possession of all good. We can only give Him what we have already
received from Him. God is the Creator of the whole world, of
heaven, earth, and sea. He is also the King and Lord of all, and has
made all things outside of Himself subject to certain fixed laws. The
earth is subject to fixed laws. It goes round the sun in three hundred
and sixty-five and a quarter days, and revolves on its own axis in
twenty-four hours. All the heavenly bodies move according to fixed
laws, so that we can foretell eclipses of the sun and moon, etc.;
there are laws which regulate all the material things on the face of
the earth. Plants, trees, and animals have their growth and develop-
ment governed by stated laws. The actions of reasonable beings
are also governed by laws, which, however, by reason of their free
will, they are able to disobey. The penalties for transgression are
laid down by almighty God. God is the King of kings, the eternal
King (Tob. xiii. 6). The majesty of the greatest of earthly kings
is but a feeble and faint reflection of the majesty of God. Hence
we are bound to obey Him, because He is our King and He will have
all subject to Him, either willingly in this life, or against their will
to their eternal misery.
2. We cannot see God, because He is a spirit, i.e., a being with-
out body, immortal, possessed of intellect and free will.
Our Lord says : " God is a spirit, and they that adore Him must
adore Him in spirit and in truth " (John iv. 24). It is because God
is a spirit that the Jews were strictly forbidden to make any image of
Him (Exod. xx. 4). God cannot be seen by man; there is a veil be-
tween us and God. We cannot see the stars during the day, but only
when darkness comes on. So we cannot see God during the day of our
life on earth, but only when the darkness of death comes over us.
In this life God is a hidden God (Is. xlv. 15). He inhabits the in-
accessible light (1 Tim. vi. 16).
Yet God has often assumed visible forms.
Thus He appeared to Abraham as a traveller, at the baptism of
114 Faith.
Our Lord under the form of a dove, and in the shape of tongues of
fire at Pentecost. But the external form under which God appeared
was not God Himself. In the same way we often read of the eyes,
ears, etc., of God; but this is only to impress upon us the fact that
God sees us, hears us, etc.
3. There is one God, and one only.
The most perfect being in the world must be only one. The tall-
est tree in the wood is but one. To say that there are more Gods than
one is like saying that there can be more than one soul in a human
body, or more than one captain on a ship. Even the pagan Greeks
and Romans honored one god as supreme among the rest. The plu-
rality of gods probably arose from the plurality of the forces of
nature (such as thunder, lightning, fire, etc.), which filled the be-
holders with fear, and caused them to adore these forces as gods. Or
it may have arisen from the deification of heroes, or from the power
of the evil spirits which, having attracted notice, caused them to be
worshipped as gods.
3. THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.
We ascribe to God various attributes, because the unity
of the divine perfection is reflected in different ways in crea-
tures.
The sun is sometimes red, sometimes yellow, or a palish white.
It is the mists around the earth that cause the variety in it as it is
seen by us. The attributes of God are therefore various manifesta-
tions of God's one and indivisible perfection or essence. In God they
are all one and the same ; His goodness is the same as His justice, His
wisdom as His power, and His power as His eternity, etc. The divine
attributes are also identical with God Himself ; God is wisdom, power,
eternity, etc. God is a Being of the most perfect and absolute sim-
plicity; there is no sort of multiplicity or obscurity in Him. There
is no sort of division between His attributes; it is from our under-
standing that the distinction between them arises. In created things
it is quite different; they possess attributes which are really distinct
from each other.
The attributes of God may be divided into those which be-
long to God's essence, those that belong to His understanding,
and those that belong to His will.
The attributes of the divine essence are omnipresence, eternity,
immutability; those that belong to His understanding are omnis-
cience, perfect wisdom, etc.; those that belong to His will are om-
nipotence, goodness, holiness, justice, truth, and faithfulness.
1. God is eternal, i.e., always was, is, and ever will be.
God's words to Moses "I am Who am" (Exod. iii. 14), express
His eternity. There never was a time when God did not exist; He
never began to exist. He existed before the world, as a builder must
exist before the house that he builds, and the watchmaker before the
The Apostles' Greed. 115
watch that he fashions. God can never cease to live, as men do.
Hence He is called the living God (Matt. xvi. 16) and immortal
(1 Tim. i. 17). He existed before all time, and He will exist to all
eternity. With Him there is no past or future; all is present with
Him. The whole history of the world is and has ever been in His
sight; there is for Him no succession of events; for Him there is
no time. " One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a
thousand years as one day" (2 Pet. iii. 8). Millions of ages are aa
nothing compared with eternity. If a bird were to carry away from
the ocean one drop of water every thousand years, the time would
come when the ocean would be dry ; but that immense period of time,
which seems to us inexhaustible, is less than the shortest moment
compared with the eternity of God's existence. "Dost thou desire
eternal joy," says St. Augustine, " thou must be faithful to Him Who
is the Eternal."
2. God is omnipresent, i.e., He is in every place.
After Jacob had seen, in the open country, the ladder reaching
up to heaven, he exclaimed, " God is in this place, and I knew it not "
(Gen. xxviii. 16). The same words are true of every place. God
is not only present everywhere with His power, but He Himself fills
and penetrates all space. " Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the
Lord?" (Jer. xxiii. 24.)
1. God is everywhere present, because all created things
exist in God.
All creatures exist in God, as thought exists in our minds. As
mind is of more extent than thought, so God is of more extent than
the world and all it contains. As mind penetrates thought, so
God penetrates the world. " In Him we live, and move, and exist "
(Acts xvii. 28). God is at the same time quite distinct from crea-
tures and from the whole world.
2. God is not circumscribed by any place, nor by the whole
of creation, because He has no limits, either actual or possible.
In his prayer at the dedication of the Temple Solomon said : " If
heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much
less this house that I have built" (3 Kings viii. 27). The infinite
cannot be contained in measurable space. Only bodies are con-
tained in space. Spirits indeed are not contained in space, but they
cannot be in more than one place at the same time. " God is every-
where," says St. Bernard, " and yet nowhere. He is near us and yet is
far away. All creation is in Him, and yet it is as if He were not
in it."
3. Yet God is of more extent than space, and therefore can
be in every place at the same time.
Though God is of more extent than all space, and His presence
extends from earth to heaven and far beyond, He is not scattered
over the universe, partly on earth and partly in heaven, but He is
wholly everywhere and whollv in each separate place; wholly in
heaven and wholly on earth. He fills heaven and earth. So the soul
116 Faith.
of man fills his entire body, but yet it is wholly in every separate por-
tion of His body.
4. God is present in a special manner in heaven, in the
Blessed Sacrament, and in the souls of the just.
God is present in heaven to the gaze of the angels and saints.
He is present as the God-man in the Blessed Sacrament; He is pres-
ent in the souls of men through the Holy Ghost Who is given to them.
A king is present in his whole palace, but is specially present in the
chamber where he sits on his throne, and gives audiences to his
subjects.
5. There is no place where God is not.
" The eyes of the Lord in every place behold the good and the
evil" (Prov. xv. 3). We sometimes see in churches a large eye
painted over the altar, to remind us that God is present every-
where. "No one can hide himself from God" (Jer. xxiii. 23,
24). Hence no one can escape from God (Ps. cxxxviii. 7, 8). Jonas
made the attempt, but with very poor success. Hence learn to avoid
every sin. See with what unspeakable shame a man is filled, if he is
detected by one of his fellow-men in a despicable action. Yet we are
not ashamed to practise the most disgraceful vices in the presence
of God (St. Augustine).
6. We ought therefore continually to bear in mind that God
is always present with us.
Think, wherever you are, that God is near you. As there is no
moment of time when we are not enjoying some benefit from the
hand of God, so there ought to be no moment of time when we have
not God in our thoughts. " He who always has God in his thoughts,"
says St. Ephrem, " will become like an angel on the earth."
The continual remembrance of the presence of God is very
profitable to us. It has great power to deter us from sin, and to
keep us in the grace of God ; it incites us to good works and
makes us intrepid in His service.
The remembrance of the presence of God gives strength in time
of temptation and holds us back from sin. Look at Joseph in Egypt.
A soldier fights more bravely in the presence of his king. The re-
membrance of the presence of God is also the best means of remain-
ing in the grace of God. It is like Ariadne's clew, by means of which
we, like Theseus, can find the way through the labyrinth of our life
on earth, and remain unscathed by the Minotaur of hell. The re-
membrance of the presence of God increases our zeal in God's serv-
ice and leads us on to the practice of all the virtues ; it makes us more
careful in the performance of all our duties. The nearer the water is
to the spring the purer it is ; the nearer one is to the fire the greater
the warmth ; the closer we keep to God, the greater our perfection.
When the tree is closely united to the root, it brings forth plenteous
fruit. The Christian brings forth good fruit to eternal life if he is
closely united to God. The thought of God also renders us fearless.
The Apostles' Creed. 11?
When the Empress Eudoxia threatened St. John Chrysostorn with
banishment, he answered " You will not frighten me, unless you are
able to send me to some place where God is not." David says to God :
" Though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil, for Thou art with me " (Ps. xxii. 4). If a timid man has a com-
panion with him, his fear disappears ; so we shall not fear if God, the
all-powerful God, is with us.
3. God is immutable, i.e., He ever remains the same.
God never changes; He never becomes better or worse; He never
breaks His word (JSFumb. xxiii. 19). Creation made no change in
God; from all eternity He had decreed the creation of the universe.
God changes His works, but not His eternal decrees. By the Incar-
nation humanity was changed, but the Godhead underwent no change,
just as the sun is in no way changed when it hides itself behind a
cloud. Our thoughts are not changed when they clothe themselves in
words ; so the divinity was not changed when it clothed itself in the
nature of man. God does not change when He punishes the
sinner. When the heart of man is in friendship with God, God
shows Himself to him as a God of infinite love and mercy; when
the heart is estranged from Him, the sinner sees in the unchange-
able God an angry and avenging judge. When the eye is sound,
the light is pleasant to it; but if it is diseased, light causes it
pain: it is not the light that is changed, but the eye that looks
upon it. When an angry man looks in the glass he sees a differ-
ent reflection from that which he saw when he was cheerful and
in good-humor; it is not the glass that has changed, but the
man. When the sun shines through colored glass, its rays take
the color of the glass; the sun does not change, but the light is
changed by the medium through which it passes. So when God re-
wards, it is not God Who changes, but man, who performs different
and better actions, thereby meriting the grace of God. When in
Scripture we read that God repented of having made man, that God
is angry with the wicked, the phrases used are accommodated to our
imperfect comprehension.
4. God is omniscient, i.e., He knows all things, the past, the
present, and the future, and also our inmost thoughts (Jer. xvii.
10).
God knew that Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit.
Our Lord foreknew St. Peter's denial, the destruction of Jerusalem,
etc. He knew the thoughts of Simon the Pharisee, and that he was
angry at Our Lord showing such kindness to Magdalen the sinner.
God sees as in a glass all men, and their every action (Ps. xxxii. 13).
" He that planted the ear shall He not hear ? He that made the eye
shall He not see ? " (Ps. xciii. 9.) God also foresees evil, but man is
not thereby constrained to do evil. It is just as if we see from a dis-
tance a man who is committing some crime. God sees the deed be-
cause the man does it; the man does not do it because God sees it.
When some past action is present to our thoughts, it did not happen
because it is in our thoughts ; so when God foresees some future ac-
tion, it does not happen because God has foreseen it, but He has fore-
118 Faith.
seen it because the man is going to commit it — the man is not com-
pelled to commit because God has foreseen it. When God foresees
that some man will be lost forever, God's foreknowledge is not the
cause of the man's damnation. The physician foresees the approach-
ing death of his patient, but his knowledge is not the cause of the
man's death. The learned Franciscan Duns Scotus, once heard a
farmer uttering terrible curses and begged him not to damn his soul
so thoughtlessly. The farmer answered : " God knows everything.
He knows whether I shall go to heaven or to hell. If He knows that
I shall go to heaven, why to heaven 1 shall go; if He knows that I
shall go to hell, I shall go to hell. What, then, does it matter what
I do or say ? " The priest answered, " In that case why plough your
fields ? God knows whether they will bear a good crop or not. If He
knows that they will bear a good harvest, the harvest will be good,
whether you plough the land or not. If He knows that they will be
unfruitful, why unfruitful they will be. Why then should you waste
your time in ploughing ? " Then the farmer understood that it is
not the omniscience of God, but the free action of man, that deter-
mines both our temporal and our eternal happiness or misery.
God also knows what would have happened under certain
given circumstances; this is the reason why He sends us trials,
in order to prevent greater evils that otherwise would have hap-
pened to us.
Thus Our Lord knew that the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon
would have done penance if such wonders had been worked among
them as He worked in Corozain and Bethsaida. God foresees that
some of the just will be led astray by the seductions of the world,
and sometimes in His mercy takes them at an early age to Him-
self. He foresees that some will be ruined by riches or by prosperity,
and therefore brings them to poverty and to earthly misfortune.
This ought to make us bear our troubles with patience. The trials
of the just are an opportunity offered them to advance in virtue.
God, Who knows all things, will one day bring all hidden
things to light.
Our Lord says, " There is nothing hidden that shall not be made
manifest; or secret that shall not be known and come abroad " (Luke
viii. 17). God will, in the Last Day, disclose and make known our
whole life. As the morning sun shows all things in their true light,
so Christ, the Sun of justice, will at the Day of Judgment reveal all
our actions in their true light. All prayers, alms, fasts, penances,
that are done according to His will, will be made manifest to the
whole world. Nothing is so small as to escape notice at the Last
Day.
We should think on God's omniscience, especially when we
are tempted, that we may pass through our temptations un-
scathed.
A little boy who was in a strange house saw there a basket full
of beautiful apples. As he could see no one in the room, he was much
The Apostles' Creed. 119
tempted to help himself to some. But the thought eame to him of
God's omniscience. " No," he said, " I must not take them, for God
sees me." At that moment a man who was hidden from him by a
curtain, called out to him, " You may take as many apples as you
like." What a blessing it was for him that he had not taken them
without permission. If we know that some one is watching us we are
very careful what we do ; if we remember that God sees us, we shall be
still more careful. Job took refuge in God's knowledge of his inno-
cence, when he was mocked at by his friends ; so did Susanna when
falsely accused (Job xvi. 16; Dan. xiii. 42).
~ 5. God is supremely wise, i.e., He knows how to direct every-
thing for the best in order to carry out His designs.
The design at which God aims is nothing else than His own
glory, and the good of His creatures. If the farmer wishes for a
good harvest, he ploughs his field, manures it, sows good seed, etc.
Such a farmer is a wise man, because he chooses the means best quali-
fied to attain his end. God acts in an exactly similar way. He pre-
pared the world for the coming of the Redeemer by the call of Abra-
ham, the sending of the prophets, etc. The wisdom of God shows
itself in the life of individuals, e.g., of Joseph in Egypt, of Moses, of
St. Paul, and also in the history of nations and kingdoms. (Cf.
Rom. xi. 33).
1. The wisdom of God shows itself especially in the way in
which He brings good out of evil.
The life of the patriarch Joseph is an excellent example of this.
God's ways are not as our ways, or His thoughts as our thoughts.
Man proposes and God disposes. A man inexperienced in war would
be puzzled by the orders issued by the general, and would not be able
to understand how they all could tend to insure victory. We shall
understand God's ways in heaven, but we cannot understand them
here. A child saw how the thorns tore away little pieces from the
fleece of a sheep and wanted to remove the thorns. Presently the
child saw how the singing-birds collected the bits of wool to make
their nests, and no longer wished to remove the thorns. Many men
are like this child.
2. The wisdom of God is also displayed in this, that God
makes use of the most unlikely means for His own honor.
St. Paul says : " The weak things of this world God has chosen
to confound the strong" (1 Cor. i. 27). God chose the small and
despised land of Palestine as the cradle of Christianity; He chose a
poor maiden to be the Mother of God, and a poor carpenter to be
His foster-father. He chose poor, ignorant fishermen to preach the
Gospel and spread it over all the earth. He often uses the most im-
probable means in helping His friends. St. Felix of Nola, when
flying from his persecutors, took refuge in a hole in a rock. A spider
came and spun its web at the mouth of the cave, and his pursuers, on
seeing this, concluded that he could not be inside. A poor woman
was summoned to pay some money which had already been pai.d by
her husband, who was dead. She searched everywhere for the receipt,
120 Faith.
but in vain. The very morning when she had to appear before the
court a cockchafer flew in at the window, and behind a press. One
of the children wanted to get it, so the mother moved the press a little
to reach it, and from behind the press the long-sought receipt fell
to the ground. This was God's answer to the poor widow's prayers.
It is God's law that all works done for God should meet with difficul-
ties and hindrances. " A work that begins with brilliant promise,"
St. Philip Neri used to say, " has not God for its author and pro-
tector." „ ,
3. Lastly the wisdom of God shows itself in directing- the
course of the world to carry out His purposes.
All things in the world have a mutual relation to one another. If
a man removes or displaces a single wheel in a watch, the watch stops ;
so if anything were altered in the arrangement of the world, all things
would be confused; e.g., without the birds the insects would soon
destroy all vegetation. So the animals that serve us for food increase
rapidly, while the beasts of prey breed but slowly. Nothing in the
world is useless; the alternations of sunshine and rain, summer and
winter, day and night, all serve some useful end. How useful is
the uneven distribution of wealth, of the talents of men, etc. ! The
smallest insect has its usefulness in the world; the butterfly, going
from flower to flower, carries with it the fertilizing pollen. Even
the destructive agencies in the world, storms, earthquakes, and
floods, serve God's purposes, and are intended by Him to help
men to save their souls. How wonderful, too, is the orderly course
of the heavenly bodies! The movement of the earth around the
sun, and of the moon around the earth, serve to make this world
a pleasant habitation for man. The beautiful arrangement of the
universe compels us to recognize the wisdom and prudence of Him
Who has created it. "How great are Thy works, O Lord ! Thou
hast made all things in wisdom ; the earth is filled with Thy riches "
(Ps. ciii. 24).
6. God is almighty, i.e., God can do all that He wills, and that
by a mere act of His will.
God can do things which appear to men impossible, e.g., the
preservation of the three young men in the midst of the fiery fur-
nace of Babylon. A thousand similar wonders occurred in the time
of the persecutions of the Christians. Our Lord says " With God
nothing is impossible" (Matt. xix. 26). Yet God cannot do that
which is in contradiction with His own perfections. He cannot lie,
and He cannot deceive. God could always have done more wonderful
works than He has done. He could have created a more beautiful
world than this and more creatures than He has actually made.
When any of the creatures that God has made desires to do anything,
he can only make use of the things that God has made, and in accord-
ance with the laws that God has established. But God is bound by
no laws save those of His own infinite goodness and truth. He has
only to will a thing and what He wills happens at once. " He spoke,
and the heavens were created; He commanded, and they were created"
(Ps. cxlviii. 5).
The Apostles' Creed. 121
The omnipotence of God shows itself especially in the crea-
tion of the world, in the miracles wrought by Our Lord, and in
those miracles which before and after Our Lord's time God has
worked for the confirmation of the true religion.
The earth is 24,899 miles in circumference; the sun is far larger,
for its diameter is one hundred times greater than that of the earth.
Some of the heavenly bodies are far greater ; some of them if they oc-
cupied the place of the sun and were to begin to rise at 6 a.m., would
not have completely risen above the horizon by 6 p.m. Our earth is
over ninety-one million miles distant from the sun. A body travelling
from the earth to the sun at the ordinary rate of a cannon-ball, would
take twenty-five years to reach the sun. The planet Neptune, accord-
ing to the latest information, is 2,794,000,000 miles distant from the
sun. A cannon-ball would take eight hundred years to travel thence
to the sun. There are stars outside our planetary system which are
a million times further from us. Light which travels at the rate
of 24,000 miles a second would take many millions of years to reach
these stars. x\round our sun there move eight larger and two hundred
and eighty smaller planets. The nearest (Mercury) is thirty-six
million miles distant from the sun, and the most distant (Neptune)
over two billion miles. There are also in the heavens thirty million
fixed stars, all of them real suns and mostly larger than our sun,
and around these move many other heavenly bodies. All these God
has created out of nothing. How infinite, then, is the power of God !
Think also of the miracles wrought by Christ, the raising of Laz-
arus, the stilling of the tempest, etc., the healing of the lame man
at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, the wonders that are now being
worked at Lourdes, etc. " Who shall declare the powers of the Lord,
or set forth all His praises ? " (Ps. cv. 2.)
Since God is almighty, we can hope for help from Him in
our greatest needs.
God has a thousand different ways of helping us. He can send
an angel to help us, as He did to St. Peter in prison; or work a mir-
acle, as He did to feed the multitude in the desert; as a rule He makes
use of the most unlikely means, and thereby shows the greatness of
His power. He freed Bethulia from the Assyrians by means of a
woman. He saved the Israelites from their enemies by making a path
through the sea. It is easy for the Lord to save by many or by few.
7. God is supremely good, i.e., He loves His creatures far more
than a father loves his children.
God loves His creatures and loads them with benefits. He
is love itself (1 John iv. 8).
The spring cannot but send forth water and the sun light. The
goodness of God differs from that of His creatures as the sun differs
from the light shed upon a wall. His creatures are good, because
God sheds His goodness upon them. Hence Our Lord says : " None is
good but One, that is God " (Mark x. 18).
122 Faith.
1. The love of God extends to all the creatures that He has
made (Wisd. xi. 25).
As the sun lights up the boundless firmament, so God extends
His goodness to all creatures. Not one of them is excluded from
it. " Not one of them is forgotten by God " (Luke xii. 6).
2. But God has an especial love for mankind. He im-
parts countless benefits to them and sent His Son on earth to re-
deem them.
What wonderful bodies God has given us ! He has bestowed
upon us our senses, and the gift of speech. How many gifts He has
conferred upon our souls ! He has given us understanding, free will,
and memory. For our bodies He gives us food, drink, clothing, health,
etc. How well He has provided. for our necessities on this earth:
light, warmth, the air, the plants, the trees, and their various fruits.
How many powers He has implanted in nature, for us to use for our
own benefit: coal, salt, stone, marble, precious stones, etc. He has,
in fact, made man the lord of the whole world. He loves us far more
than we love ourselves. His love for us is far greater than that of
the fondest mother for her child. The love of all creatures for God
is not nearly as great as the love of God for each one of us. But
above all, God has shown His love for us in this — that He gave His
only-begotten Son for us (John iii. 16). Abraham could not show his
love for God in any more perfect way than this, that he gave to God
that which was dearest to him, viz., his only son. God did just the
same ; He gave us His dearest and best possession, His only-begotten
Son. Our Lord says of Himself : " Greater love no man has than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends " (John xv. 13). He
underwent His sacred Passion and death in order to prove the excess
of His love for us. His attitude on the cross proclaims it. His head
bowed, to give us the kiss of peace, His arms extended to embrace us,
His Heart opened to admit us therein. In the Blessed Sacrament
His love keeps Him in the midst of us, and seeks the closest union
with us in holy communion. Finally He promised to grant all the
prayers that we offer in His name (John xiv. 14).
3. Among men God shows the greatest love to the just.
"A perfect soul," says St. Alphonsus, " is dearer to God than
a thousand imperfect ones." " To them that love God all things work
together for good" (Rom. viii. 28). " O how great is the multitude
of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that
fear Thee" (Ps. xxx. 20). God rewards the good works of the just
far beyond what they deserve. He repays them a hundredfold, even
in this present life (Matt. xix. 29). He loves the just in spite of
their sins and imperfections, just as a mother loves her child ten-
derly in spite of its many defects.
4. God manifests His love even to sinners.
God continues to confer graces and benefits upon sinners until
the last moment of their life (Matt. v. 44). He sends them troubles
to bring them to repentance. He finds some good in all, and He also
The Apostles' Creed. 123
loves them for what He hopes they may become. The love of God
is like the powerful magnet that draws iron to itself. Sometimes
there is an obstacle in the way, so that the piece of iron cannot reach
the magnet, but the magnet continues to draw it all the same. So
God continues to draw sinners, even though they do not come near to
Him. God hates only the devil and the lost. Even in hell He shows
His goodness by not punishing the lost as much as they deserve.
It is because of God's love for men that hell will be so intolerable.
The lost will say, " If God had not loved us so much, we should not be
so miserable now." Since God loves us so dearly we should love Him
dearly in return (1 John iv. 10). We should not be afraid of Him,
but should draw near to Him with childlike confidence. Since
God is so good to us we must also be good to our fellow-men. God
has given us a command to love Him, to love our neighbors, to love
our enemies, and also to perform works of mercy. God also wishes us
to be kind and merciful to the brute creation.
_ 8. God is very patient, i.e., He leaves the sinner time for re-
pentance and a change of life.
Men are wont to punish quickly ; not so God. He endures long the
rebellion of the wicked. It is not the will of God that a sinner
should die, but that he should be converted from his wicked ways, and
live (Ezech. xviii. 23). God often gives men long warning of coming
judgments. He gave those who lived in the days of Noe a warning
of one hundred and twenty years ; to the Ninivites of forty days ; to
the Jews a warning of forty years before the destruction of Jeru-
salem. A storm does not break at once; we are forewarned by the
gathering clouds and the darkness; so God warns us of coming pun-
ishment. He does not at once cut down the barren tree (Luke xiii.
8, 9). God's manner of action is opposite to that of man. Man
constructs slowly, and destroys quickly. God constructed the uni-
verse in six days, but He took seven days for the destruction of the
little town of Jericho. Even man prefers to build up, rather than
to destroy ; much more so God.
God is so patient with us because He has compassion on our
weakness, and because He desires to make conversion easy to the
sinner.
God deals with us as a mother deals with a peevish infant; she
presses it closer to her breast and coaxes it to be good. " Knowest
thou not," says St. Paul, " that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
penance ? " (Rom. ii. 4.) God deals with us patiently for our
sakes, not being willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to penance (2 Pet. iii. 9). With many sinners God's patience
has not been lost, e.g., St. Mary Magdalen, St. Augustine, St. Mary
of Egypt, etc., but with others it effects nothing. The same sunlight
hardens mud and softens wax. If God were not patient with us, no
one could be saved, for we are all sinners who have been unfaithful
to Him. But though God is so patient, it is dangerous to put off
conversion. For the longer God delays His vengeance, the more
terrible it is when it comes upon the sinner. It is just like an arrow
from the bow ; the more the bow is drawn back, the greater the force
124 Faith,
with which the arrow flies. Compare the awful end of Antiochus
Epiphanes (2 Mach. ix. 5 sec/.). We must not think, because God is
so patient, that He has forgotten our sins. " Say not, I have sinned,
and what harm hath befallen me ? The Most High is a patient re-
warder " (Ecclus. v. 4).
9. God is full of mercy and compassion, i.e., He very readily
forgives our sins when we are sincerely sorry for them.
Our Lord gives a beautiful object-lesson of the mercy of God in
the story of the prodigal son. See how quickly God forgave the
sin of David (2 Kings xii. 13). It is a property of God to have
mercy and to spare. His mercy is infinite; like the sea, it has no
bounds. God requires of us that we should forgive seventy times
seven ; how immeasurably merciful therefore must God be !
The mercy of God especially shows itself in the way in
which He seeks out the sinner, seeking to win him both by
benefits and by the sufferings He inflicts; and also in the love
with which He receives again and again the greatest sinner,
after his conversion showing him a greater good wTill than before.
God is like the good shepherd who goes after the lost sheep until
he finds it (Luke xv. 4). God sent the prophet Nathan to David;
He Himself sought out the Samaritan woman (John iv.). Often
He sends troubles that through them the prodigal son may be brought
to his senses. He is like a fisherman who tries every sort of device
to entice fishes into his net. God is always ready to pardon even
the greatest sinner ; for He says, " If your sinr b<~ as scarlet, they
shall be made white as snow; and if they be red like crimson, they
shall be white as wool" (Is. i. 18). In fact, the greater the sin-
ner the more lovingly does God receive him if he is willing to
amend. Hence David says to God, " Be merciful to my sin, for it is
great" (Ps. xxiv. 11). God is like a fisherman, who is more glad to
catch big fish than small ones. No one is lost because he has com-
mitted great sins, but many are lost because they have committed one
sin of which they will not repent. Even Judas would have received
forgiveness if he had asked for it. God sometimes forgives the sin-
ner in the last moment of life. He received the good thief on the
cross. Yet this is no reason for putting off repentance till the last.
" God justified one man at the last moment that none might despair;
but only one, that none might presume," says St. Augustine. A death-
bed repentance is generally a very doubtful business; the dying sin-
ner forsakes his sins rather because he cannot help it, than because
from his heart he detests them; he is like the mariner who throws
his goods into the sea simply from fear of death, not because he
wishes to get rid of them. Witness how rarely a conversion made in
peril of death proves lasting if the sick man recovers. " It is absurd,"
says St. Bernardin of Sienna, " that a man who would not fight when
he was well and strong, should be moved to the combat when he is sick
and weak." God also receives the repentant sinner most lovingly.
See how Christ received with tender compassion Magdalen, the
woman taken in adultery, and the thief on the cross (Luke vii. 47;
The Apostles' Creed. 125
John viii. 11 ; Luke xxiii. 43). How kindly the father of the prodigal
son received him ! God receives the sinner far more kindly than that.
" Before he knocks at the door, it is opened to him ; before he falls
on his knees before Thee, Thon stretchest out Thy hand to him" (St.
Ephrem). Our Lord says that there is more joy in heaven over one
sinner doing penance, than over ninety-nine just men, who need not
penance (Luke xv. 7). The reason of this is that the sinner who
does penance generally serves God more zealously and faithfully. God
bestows upon the sinner after his conversion greater benefits than He
did before he went astray. The father of the prodigal son killed the
fatted calf, and made a great feast, with music and dancing. Some-
times the benefits God bestows on the converted sinner are external,
more often they are inner consolations and graces. Witness St.
Paul, raised to the third heaven (2 Cor. xii. 2). The Good Shepherd
has more joy over the return of the one wandering sheep, than over
the ninety-nine that never went astray.
10. God is infinitely holy, i.e., He loves good and hates all evil.
God's holiness is nothing else than a love of His own infinite per-
fections. He is free from the faintest stain, and therefore desires
that all should be like to Himself. How pure is the blue heaven
on which there is no cloud ! How pure is the white snow on which
no spot is to be found ! Yet God is infinitely purer. Even angels
are not pure in His sight (Job iv. 18). The purity of the angels as
compared with that of God is like the light of a lamp compared with
the light of the sun. " All our justice is like a soiled rag before Thee,
O God ! " (Is. lxiv. 6.) He says to us: "Be ye holy, because I am
holy" (Lev. xi. 44). With this object He implants in our breast the
natural law (conscience) ; with this object He gave the law on Mount
Sinai; with this object He attached evil consequences to evil deeds.
And to cleanse the just from the impurities that cling to them, He
purifies them by suffering (John xv. 2). He also cleanses them by
the fire of purgatory, since nothing unclean can enter heaven. Why
is it that the saints and angels in heaven are represented as dressed
in white garments ? Why is it that at Baptism a white robe is given
to the newly baptized ? Be pure and holy, and then you will be a child
of God.
11. God is infinitely just, i.e., He rewards all good and pun-
ishes all evil deeds.
God's justice is identical with His goodness. He punishes men to
make them better, and to make them happy.
1. God punishes and rewards men partly on earth, but
chiefly after death.
Good actions bring men respect, sometimes riches, health, and a
peaceful conscience. Bad actions bring just the opposite. Abraham,
l$oe, the patriarch Joseph, were rewarded in this life. Absalom, the
sons of Heli, and Antiochus Epiphanes were punished in this life.
But it is in the next life, and especially after the resurrection, that
body and soul alike will receive their full reward. If all sins were
punished in this life men would not believe in the Judgment Bay.
126 Faith.
If none were punished here they would not believe in God's retribu-
tive justice (St. Augustine).
2. God rewards the least good action, and punishes the
smallest sin.
Christ tells us that even a cup of cold water given in His name
will have its reward. A mere look or gesture will meet with its due
reward. Christ tells us that we shall give account for every idle word
(Matt. xii. 36).
3. God punishes men for the most part in kind, i.e., in the
same way in which they have sinned.
" By what things a man sinneth," says the Wise Man, " by the
same he also is tormented." Absalom prided himself on his long
hair and it caused his death. The rich glutton sinned with his palate
and it was his tongue and palate that were tormented in the fire of
hell. Antiochus tormented the seven Machabean brethren by tearing
and maiming their flesh, and his own flesh was eaten by worms (2
Mach. ix. 6). Aman wished to hang Mardochai, and prepared a
gallows for him, and on the same gallows he was himself hanged.
The women of Bethlehem would not shelter the Mother of God and
the divine Son, and their children perished at the revengeful and
cruel hand of Herod. Napoleon I. imprisoned the Holy Father, and
in his turn was imprisoned first in Elba, and then in St. Helena.
In these and many similar events, the Christian sees the finger of
God.
4. In rewarding and punishing, God has regard to the cir-
cumstances of the individual, and especially to the intention
with which he acts, and to the talents that he possesses.
Men judge from the outward appearance of any action, God
judges from the heart (1 Kings xvi. 7). The poor widow who threw
in only two mites into the treasury of the Temple, had more merit
before God than many of the rich men who gave large gifts (Luke
xxi. 4). The' servant who knows his lord's will and does it not, will
receive more stripes than the servant who did not know the will of
his lord (Luke xii. 47, 48). The more knowledge any one has of
God, the more severely will God punish him for his sins.
5. God is no respecter of persons.
Many who are first in this world will be last in the world to come.
The story of the rich glutton and poor Lazarus is an instance of this.
Many who have their names in the mouths of men, and in the records
of their country, will not have their names written in the book of
life.
Because God is a God of perfect justice wTe have good reason
to fear Him.
Christ exhorts us to fear God, Who is able to cast both body and
soul into hell (Matt. x. 28). On account of one single sin, that of our
first parents, millions of men have to suffer pain and death; and
TJie Apostles' Creed. 12 7
countless numbers will be forever miserable. Thence we gather how
God hates sin. The same conclusion follows from the fact that Our
Lord had to die an agonizing death to atone for sin. Who, then, can
fail to fear God ? But our fear of God must be a filial, not a servile
fear, i.e., we must fear not so much the punishment of sin, as the
offence against God. A filial fear is the result of a great love of God.
Yet we must try and avoid, from fear of punishment, those sins from
which the love of God is not sufficient to deter us.
The fear of God is of great advantage to us; it keeps us back
from sin, leads us on to perfection, and insures for us peace and
happiness both in time and in eternity.
The fear of God keeps us back from sin. It was the fear of God
that held back the aged Eleazar from eating swine's flesh (2 Mach.
vi. 26). He who fears God knows no other fear. As the wind drives
away the clouds, so the fear of God drives away fleshly lusts, and en-
ables us to escape the snares of the devil. He who fears God casts
aside all attachment to things of earth, as the mariner in danger
throws overboard the wares that otherwise would sink his ship. As
the needle pierces the stuff and makes way for the thread, so the fear
of God prepares the way for the love of God and for every virtue.
" The fear of God," says the Psalmist, " is the beginning of wisdom "
(Ps. ex. 10). The fear of man is full of bitterness and makes a man
a slave; the fear of God is full of sweetness, and makes him a free
man. The fear of God brings with it honor and glory ; it is crowned
with joy and gladness, it gladdens the heart, and gives strength and
happiness and long life. " Blessed is the man that f eareth the Lord "
(Ps. cxi. 1). The more we fear God now, the less we shall fear His
judgments at the Last Day.
The fear of God is a special grace given by God to those who
love Him.
The fear of God is a special gift of the Holy Ghost. God says
of His people, " I will give My fear in their hearts, that they may not
revolt from Me." Hence our prayer should be, " Pierce Thou my
flesh with Thy fear" (Ps. cxviii. 120).
12. God is a God of perfect truth, i.e., all that He reveals to
man is true.
God cannot err for He is omniscient; He cannot deceive for He
is all-holy. " God is not as a man that He should lie, nor the son of
man, that He should be changed " (Numb, xxiii. 19). Hence we must
believe all that God has revealed, even though our feeble understand-
ing cannot comprehend it — e.g., the mysteries of the Christian relig-
ion, the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, the Blessed Sacrament of
the Altar.
13. God is faithful, i.e., He keeps His promises and carries
out His threats.
See how exactly God carried out His threat of death to our first
parents, and His subsequent promise of a Redeemer. See again how
exactly Our Lord's prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem was
128 Faith.
fulfilled; and how the prophecy of Daniel, that the Temple would
never again be rebuilt (Dan. ix. 27) wa^ accomplished; for when
Julian the Apostate made an attempt to rebuild it, an earth-
quake destroyed the foundations, and flames issuing from the ground
compelled the builders to fly. Promises and threats are necessary to
move our feeble wills. Our Lord used the fear of punishment as an
incentive to virtue. Ordinary men are more influenced by fear than
by any higher motive. With them the fear of hell is a stronger mo-
tive for virtuous living than the hope of heaven. God threatens us
out of mercy. The man who cries " Beware " does not want to strike.
So God threatens punishment that He may not have to punish.
Hence all that Our Lord and the prophets have foretold
either has already happened, or will happen in the future.
The time will therefore never come when the Catholic Church
will be destroyed, or when the Papacy will cease to exist (Matt. xvi.
18). The Jews will all be converted before the end of the world
(Osee iii. 5). Awful signs in the heaven and earth will precede the
final judgment (Matt. xxiv. 29). If we trust our fellow-men they
give us their promise on paper; how much more should we trust
Christ, since Lie has left us whole books, i.e., the Scriptures, filled
with His promises !
Jf. THE BLESSED TRINITY.
At the baptism of Jesus Christ all the three persons cf the Blessed
Trinity manifested themselves; the Father by a voice from heaven,
the Son through His baptism, and the Holy Ghost in the form of a
dove (Matt. iii. 16).
1. The Blessed Trinity is one God in three persons.
The three persons are called Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
The number three is often found both in nature and in religion.
There are three persons in the Holy Family; three parts in the sacra-
ments (intention, matter, and form) ; Our Lord hung for three hours
on the cross, and remained three days in the grave. He taught on
earth for three years, and has the triple office of Prophet, Priest, and
King. So in time there are past, present, and future; three kingdoms
in creation, the material, the vegetable, and the animal worlds. The
number four is also of frequent occurrence; there are four gospels,
four cardinal virtues, four seasons of the year, four thousand years
from the Fall to the Incarnation, etc. The number seven is also com-
mon ; there are seven days of the week, seven sacraments, seven works
of mercy, seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, seven sacred orders ending
in the priesthood, etc. Three is sometimes called the number of God,
four the number of the world, by reason of the four continents, and
seven represents the combination of the two.
2. We cannot, with our feeble understanding, grasp the doc-
trine of the Blessed Trinity, and it is therefore called a mystery.
We are unable to comprehend that there are three persons in
God, yet only one God. He who gazes at the sun is dazzled by it;
The Apostles' Greed. 129
if he continues to gaze at it he loses his sight. So is it with the
Blessed Trinity; he who inquires into it is dazzled. He who refuses
to believe in it because he does not understand it, is like a blind
man, who will not believe in the existence of the sun because he can-
not see it. How many things there are in nature that we cannot un-
derstand! We cannot understand the growth of plants, trees, and
animals; we cannot understand the nature of electricity and mag-
netism. We cannot understand how the color red is formed by the
vibration of the ether at the rate of one hundred and thirty millions
of vibrations in a second, or violet by double that number. To
count the vibrations of the ether that take place in one second in
the forming of the color violet, we should have to go on counting
for more than ten thousand years without ceasing either day or night.
Much less can we understand what belongs to God. Jeremias says,
" Great art Thou, O Lord, in counsel, and incomprehensible in
thought" (Jer. xxxii. 19). " JSTo one understands what Thou art, O
God, except Thou Thyself." We can, however, understand something
of the nature of the Blessed Trinity by comparing it with certain
facts of nature which in some way correspond to and illustrate it.
The flames of three candles placed together form but one flame;
the white light can be divided into red, yellow, and blue rays, which,
however, together form but one light. The orb of the sun, its light,
and its heat, are three different things, which are at the same time
really one. The soul of man contains memory, understanding, and
will, which are but different manifestations of the same spiritual
substance. Yet all these are but imperfect analogies, and cannot
carry us very far in attempting to understand something of the in-
comprehensible mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Unbelievers some-
times say : " How is it possible that three can be one, and one three V
They show that they do not know what the teaching of the Church
really is. " They blaspheme those things that they know not " ( Jude
10). The Church does not say there are three persons and one person,
but there are three persons, and one nature or essence.
3. The nature, the attributes, and the works of the three per-
sons of the Blessed Trinity are common to all of them.
There are therefore not three gods, but one God.
The Father is therefore different from the Son, because He is
a different person ; but He has not a different being, because He has
the same nature.
For this reason each of the three persons is, in exactly
the same sense, omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, and absolutely
perfect, as are the other two.
When Our Lord spoke of His return to the Father, He said,
" My Father is greater than I " (John xiy. 28). Here He was speak-
ing of Himself as man; else He could not have spoken of His return
to the Father.
Hence the creation of the world, the redemption and the
sanctification of men is wrought by all the three divine
persons together.
130 Faith.
Yet we are accustomed to say : " The Father made the world,
the Son redeemed it, and the Holy Ghost sanctifies it."
4. The three divine persons are divided only in their origin.
In a tree the trunk comes forth from the root, and from both
comes the fruit. Such is the relation between the three divine per-
sons.
God the Father has no origin and proceeds from no other
person; God the Son proceeds from the Father; God the Holy
Ghost proceeds both from the Father and from the Son.
In order to mark the order of procession, we name the Father
first, the Son second, and the Holy Ghost third. But there is no
succession in time; the Son proceeds from the Father from all
eternity, and so does the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son.
The Son is begotten of the Father before all creation. The Father
produced, by an act of divine knowledge, the Son as an image like
to Himself in all things, just as we, when we think, produce an intel-
lectual image in our minds. We may illustrate this by the relation
existing between fire and light. Light proceeds from fire, but is
contemporaneous with it. If there were an eternal fire, there would
also be an eternal light. The Son is the brightness of God's glory
(Heb. i. 3), the unspotted image of His majesty (Wisd. vii. 26).
Just as one torch is kindled from another, without the first losing
any of its light, so the Son is begotten of the Father, without taking
anything away from Him. The Son is called the Word of the Father
(John i. 1). Just as the word formed in our minds (the thought)
is made manifest by the external or spoken word, so the Word of God,
dwelling in the bosom of the Father, was made manifest to the world
when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John i. 14). As
the Son has Flis origin in the knowledge of God, so the Holy Ghost
has His origin in the love of God. The Holy Ghost is none other
than the mutual love of the Father and the Son. He is the Spirit
of love, who engenders in our hearts the love of God and of each
other. The word spirit is well chosen, because by it we express the
attractiveness and the force of love. The Holy Ghost proceeds from
the Father and the Son, as warmth proceeds from the sun and its
light.
On account of the difference in their origin we appropriate
to the Father the works of omnipotence, to the Son the works of
wisdom, and to the Holy Ghost the works of love.
These various works have a certain correspondence with the
attributes of the persons, that are connected with their origin. The
Father begets the Son ; for this reason there is appropriated to Him
the bringing of perishable things also, out of nothing, i.e., of crea-
tion. He is therefore called the almighty Father. He is also called
the God of compassion, because He is ever ready to receive the sinner
who comes back to Him in a true spirit of penance. The Son is the
eternal wisdom of the Father. To Him therefore is appropriated the
beautiful arrangement of the world. As the artist, through the work-
The Apostles9 Creed. 131
ing of his reflective mind designs the plan of his work, so the Father,
through His Son, produced order in the world. To the Son, tco, is
ascribed the restoration of order, as for this end He took upon Him-
self the nature of man. To the Holy Ghost, as the mutual love of
the Father and the Son, are ascribed all the benefits of God to man;
especially the bestowal upon him of his natural life in creation (the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters), and of his spiritual
life by his sanctification through grace. To Him, as the finger of
God's right hand, are ascribed all miracles, and above all the work of
the Incarnation, as being of all miracles the greatest. The love of
God has ever occupied itself with men, but the Incarnation of the
Son of God by the operation of the Holy Ghost surpassed all other
benefits wrought by Him. It brought mercy to sinners, truth to the
erring, life to those who were dead, and hope and faith to the whole
world.
5. We are taught the mystery of the Blessed Trinity by Christ
Himself, but it was partly known in the time of the Old Testa-
ment.
We know, from the fact of creation, the infinite power, wisdom,
and goodness of God, but it does not reveal to us the mystery of the
Blessed Trinity. Nor is there any proof of this doctrine to be found
in nature, though we may find certain analogies to it, some of which
we have given. But the mystery itself can only be made known to us
by revelation. " The Father no man knoweth but the Son, and he
to whom the Son shall reveal Him" (Matt. xi. 27). Our Lord re-
vealed this mystery to His Church when He said to His apostles be-
fore His ascension, " Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost " (Matt,
xxviii. 19). In the time of the Old Testament the Jewish priests,
when they blessed the people, had to repeat the name of God three
times (Numb. vi. 23). Isaias tells us that the seraphim in heaven
cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts" (Is. vi. 3). Before the
creation, God said, "Let us make man" (Gen. i. 26). David says,
" The Lord said to My Lord, sit on My right hand." But before the
Incarnation the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was veiled in a cloud
which was only dispelled under the New Law. " The Church," says
St. Hilary, " knows this mystery. The Synagogue believed it not.
Philosophy understood it not."
6. The belief in the Blessed Trinity is expressed in the
Apostles' Creed, in Baptism, and in the other sacraments, in all
consecrations and blessings, and in the feast of the Most Holy
Trinity.
The mystery of the Blessed Trinity is the foundation of our
religion. "Without a knowledge of this truth we cannot understand
our redemption by the Son of God. We ought frequently to make an
act of faith in this mystery, especially by the repetition of the Gloria
Patri. We should repeat it whenever we receive any benefit from
God, and also when He sends us any cross or trial.
132 Faith.
5. HISTORY OF CREATION.
We are instructed by the writer of the book of Genesis in
the story of creation.
The account given of the creation in the book of Genesis is not
a fable, but is founded on truth. The sacred writer was enlightened
by the Holy Ghost, and his words are a part of the Word of God.
Perhaps God gave him a vision of the course of creation. The story
is in exact agreement with the conclusions of natural philosophy.
All investigations into the crust of the earth show that organic life
was developed in the order set forth in Genesis.
1. In the beginning God created the spiritual and material
universe.
" In the beginning " — i.e., in the beginning of time, when there
was nothing else existing except God. Time began with the world,
so that before the creation there was no time. Holy Scripture does
not tell us when the world was created. The world may have existed
for millions of years before the creation of man. The fact that it
takes millions of years for the light of some of the heavenly bodies
to reach the earth, seems to show this to have been the case.
" Created," i.e., made out of nothing. How God produced the mate-
rials out of which the world was made we know not. Instead of the
spiritual and the material world, St. Paul says, " things visible and
invisible " (Col. i. 16). The words of Genesis are, " In the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth." The heaven does not mean
the star-bespangled sky, the creation of which is narrated subse-
quently (Gen. i. 6-8; 14-19). It means the abode of the angels and
the saints. The material world is called the earth, because the earth
is for men the most important part of the material world. The first
words of the Bible, " God created heaven," are intended to remind
man of his last end and future destiny.
The spiritual world consists of the angels, and the heaven
where they dwell.
The angels are called the "Morning-stars" (Job xxxviii. 7), be-
cause they were created before this material world, and in the morn-
ing of the universe. Hell was not created at the beginning of the
universe (Matt. xxv. 34), but at a later period, after the fall of
the rebel angels (Matt. xxv. 41) .
The material world includes all things which are found in
the visible universe.
Men are a union of spirit and body, and were created later.
2. The material world was at first without form, without in-
habitants, and without light.
Gcd first created the material elements out of which the world
was formed. Natural philosophy tells us that the world existed first
The Apostles' Creed. 133
of all in the form of a vast mass of vapor, and that this vast mass
gradually was condensed, under the influence of an intense heat, into
the material universe. This is perfectly in accordance with the
account of the creation given in Genesis.
3. God gave to the material universe its present form in the
course of six days.
The days are probably long periods of time, consisting of many
thousands of years; for the seventh day, the day of rest, lasts until
the end of the world. Moreover four of the days were already
elapsed before the sun was formed, and therefore they cannot have
been days as we now understand the word. The word day is chosen
because the week of creation was to be a sort of pattern of our present
week.
On the first day Gocl made the light.
We read in Genesis that God said, " Let there be light," and there
was light. The expression, " Let there be," denotes that something
came into existence which did not exist before. This was the
luminous matter which is now gathered in the sun ; it is not dependent
on the sun, but the sun on it. The gaseous matter was at first un-
formed, i.e., it had no forces. God imparted to it the law of gravita-
tion, by means of which the various particles of matter were set in
motion and drawn together, and thus were condensed gradually into
a solid mass. By this process warmth, and at last fire, were developed.
On the first day fire, the main source of light, was produced by the
movement given to the gaseous particles, and the existing vapor
was condensed into masses endowed with fire and light.
On the second day Gocl made the firmament.
The words of Genesis are, " God said, Let there be a firmament
made amidst the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God called the firmament heaven" (Gen. i. 6, 8). On this day
there was a separation, arrangement, and establishment of the created
masses, which were divided into parts according to their constitution
and magnitude, parted from one another, and arranged in the places
that God had destined for them. This planting of the various worlds
in their places in space constituted the " firmament," which God
called " heaven," in which the sun and moon and stars pursue the
course that was allotted to each. This firmament is the material
heaven, as opposed to the spiritual heaven which is identical with the
celestial paradise. The earth on which we live was one of the con-
densed masses which took its place among the other heavenly bodies.
God at the same time divided off the planets that move around
the sun, which forms the centre of their system from the fixed stars
(v. 7).
On the third day God made the dry land and the plants.
Here the sacred writer concerns himself more especially with our
earth. The earth, which was originally a fiery ball of gas, gradually
lost its heat, as it cooled down in the midst of space. The great
masses of mist divided themselves off into the sea and land. The
134 Faith.
solid elements were drawn together, and formed the crust of the
earth, through which the water forced itself from within. Thus were
made the various oceans or seas, and by this upheaval the surface of
the earth as it exists at present was gradually formed, with its con-
tinents, and islands, its mountains and valleys. Under the influence
of the warmth of the earth the moist surface was now ready for the
development of organic life. This did not arise out of nothing, like
the original primary matter; it was already implanted in the earth
by almighty God, and was evolved therefrom as soon as circumstances
favorable to its development presented themselves. No organic life
can arise from mere inorganic matter. ~No possible combination of
mere inorganic materials can ever produce any kind of organic life.
The original germs out of which life arose were already existing in
the vapor-cloud out of which the earth was formed, but were not able
to develop themselves under the conditions of extreme heat and cold.
They remained as undeveloped germs until the more moderate tem-
perature enabled them to produce plants and trees under the influence
of warmth and moisture.
On the fourth day God made the sun, moon, and stars.
On the fourth day of creation, the earth, which had been involved
in darkness by the thick mist that surrounded it as long as it had not
fully cooled down, began to have a clearer atmosphere, and only a
few clouds floated over its surface, instead of the dense vapor that
had encircled it. The shining bodies in the heaven became visible;
the sun began to exercise an influence upon the earth, and produced
the alternations of day and night, and the various seasons of the year.
The sun had previously a feeble power of radiation, but during this
fourth period it assumed its present form. We do not know whether
there exist living beings on any of the stars ; if there are such, they
must be of a very different nature from our own. We know that in
the moon there is no atmosphere, no fire, no water, no sound, no rain,
no wind, no vegetation, and a long night of three hundred and fifty
hours.
On the fifth day God made the fishes and the birds.
On the sixth day God made the animals and, last of all, man.
The animals were next made in order to proclaim the power of
their Creator by their number, variety, greatness, strength, and
cleverness, and also to serve man, to nourish him, clothe him, and
labor for his benefit. Man was produced the last of all the animals,
and surpasses them all in dignity, and in the possession of reason and
free will. Man is the crown of God's creation. God prepared the
world for his reception, that he might enter and take possession of it
as a king takes possession of his kingdom. The world would not have
been complete without man; all else was made for his sake. In all
the rest of the work of creation God simply said " Let it be," but
before He created man He is represented as taking counsel with
Himself. This is to show the importance and the dignity of man.
4. On the seventh day God rested from all His work that He
had done.
The Apostles' Creed. 135
God's rest consists in this, that on the seventh day He brought
nothing more into existence. It was the working out, without any
further creative action on the part of God, of the order that He had
established. The fact that God rested does not mean that He ceased
from working (John v. 17). God must continue to work in the world,
else it would cease to exist. As God rested after His work, so we
shall one day rest in Him when our work is done.
From the story of creation we learn that God made the world
after a fixed plan.
God in creation proceeded from the lower to the higher. He first
made all things that were necessary for what was afterwards to come
into life, e.g., He made first the plants and then the animals that
needed them for food. In the first three days He separated the
various parts of the world from each other; in the three following
days He developed and adorned creation. The three first days corre-
spond to the three last ; for on the first He made light, on the fourth
luminous bodies ; on the second He separated water and air from each
other, on the fifth He filled the water with fishes and the air with
birds ; on the third He made the dry land and on the sixth He filled it
with animals.
From the account of creation we also learn that the world
is not eternal.
The heathen thought that the world sprung from the accidental
concurrence of a number of eternal atoms. But the present wonder-
ful order could not possibly have arisen by chance, and the atoms are
all dependent on one another, and therefore could not be eternal.
The atoms, too, could never have put themselves in motion. Others
thought that the materials of the world were eternal, and that God
simply arranged them. Others imagined that the world was de-
veloped out of the divine essence (the Pantheists). But this would
make the world indivisible and unchangeable, and we know that
this is not so. God indeed is everywhere, but the world is not God;
it is something different from Him, and separated from His being.
From What, and for what End has God Created the World?
1. God made the world out of nothing, simply because it
pleased Him to make it.
Man can only make anything out of pre-existing materials. God
made the materials. Men have to employ implements, they have to
labor, and require a certain time to produce their work. God spoke,
and the world was made. He did not need even to speak ; all that was
needed was that He should will what He desired done.
All that God created was very good.
God Himself commended His own works (Gen. i. 31). The world
was very good, because it in no way diverged from the divine idea
but was in perfect accordance with it. God praised His own works,
136 Faith.
because no one else could praise them sufficiently. We also should
praise God in His works, as the three young men did in the fiery
furnace at Babylon. Evil is evil, because creatures make a bad use
of their free will. Nothing that exists can be bad in itself, but every-
thing must at least be in some way good.
2. God was moved to make the world by His great goodness.
His object was to make His reasonable creatures happy.
As a good father shows pictures to his children, to please them and
make them love him, so God has manifested His works to His
reasonable creatures, to make them happy and earn their love. God
made all earthly things for our good; some for the support of men
(plants and animals), some for their instruction, some for their en-
joyment, some for their trial, as sickness, suffering, etc. " All
things that I see upon the earth," says St. Augustine, " proclaim that
Thou hast made them from love of me, and call upon me to love
Thee." God did not need the world. He made it for our sakes.
3. The end of creation is necessarily to proclaim to men the
glory of God.
In every work we have to distinguish between the end of the
maker of the work, i.e., that which moved the artificer to make the
work, and the end of the work itself, i.e., that for which the work
is destined. In a clock, e.g., the end of the maker of the clock is his
own profit ; the end of the clock is to indicate the time. In the world
the motive of the Artificer is God's great goodness; the end of the
work is God's glory and the happiness of His reasonable creatures.
The motive of the countless number and variety of living and life-
less beings and the innumerable number of the stars, is that angels
and men may know and admire the majesty of God. The end and
object of the existence of angels and men are that they may unceas-
ingly behold and praise God (Is. vi. 3). St. Augustine says, "Thou
hast made us for Thyself, O God, and how unquiet is our heart so
long as it finds not its rest in Thee !" Even the devils are compelled to
contribute, in spite of themselves, to the glory of God; for by their
punishment they show how holy and just God is, and God employs
them also for the perfection of His elect through resistance to their
temptations. Even the lost in hell manifest the justice and holiness
of God and His hatred of sin. " God has made all things for Him-
self; the wicked also for the evil day" (Prov. xvi. 4). Yet God did
not make the world with a view to any increase in His glory ; for God
is infinitely happy in Himself, and has no need of anything or any
one outside of Himself.
Since we are made for the glory of God, we should in all our
works have the intention of honoring God.
St. Paul instructs us that, " whether we eat or drink, or whatever
We do, we should do all to the glory of God " (1 Cor. x. 31). Nothing
is easier than to give glory to God, since we can direct our most mi-
nute actions to this end. When we wake in the morning, and often-
times during the day we should renew this intention.
The Apostles' Creed. 13?
6. DIVINE PROVIDENCE.
We call by the name of divine providence God's preservation
and government of the world.
1. God maintains the world, i.e., He preserves all creatures in
existence as long as He wills.
A ball hanging from a piece of string falls to the ground as soon
as the string is cut. So the whole world would sink into nothing
if God were to withdraw from it His supporting power for a single
instant. In order that creatures may continue to exist, He provides
all that is needed for their sustenance : wheat, vegetables, the various
fruits of the earth, etc. As soon as God wills it, they die. " When
Thou shalt take away their breath, they shall die, and return again to
the dust" (Ps. ciii. 29). If the sun were to cease to cast its rays
upon the earth, all light would disappear from the world; so if God
cease to support us in existence, our life at once fails us. When
Our Lord says, " Heaven and earth shall pass away," He does not
mean that they will be annihilated, but that they will be changed into
a better. St. Peter says, " We look for a new heaven and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth justice" (2 Pet. iii. 13).
2. God governs the world, i.e., He conducts all things in the
world, so that they contribute to His glory and to our advantage.
What the engine is to the train, and the pilot to the vessel, God is
to the world. He guides the stars according to fixed laws, so that the
firmament proclaims His glory. He guides all nations (Dan. iv. 32).
We see His guiding hand in the lives of the patriarchs, in the history
of the Jews, in that of the Christian Church. Yet we cannot under-
stand God's arrangements at the first glance ; often we cannot under-
stand them at all, and never shall till we get to heaven. Yet in our
own lives we can trace again and again the good providence of God.
But as to the world generally we are forced to exclaim, " How incom-
prehensible are God's judgments, and how unsearchable His ways ! "
(Rom. xi. 33.)
There is no one on the earth for whom God does not care,
and provide for his welfare.
A mother would sooner forget her child than God would forget
us (Is. xlix. 15). God cares even for the irrational creatures; for the
beasts and birds and plants (Matt. vi. 25-30).
God has a special care for those who are in humble circum-
stances, and are despised by the world.
God has made small as well as great, and cares equally for them
(Wisd. vi. 8). God loves to declare His glory by means of the little
(1 Cor. i. 27). He chose poor shepherds to receive the first news of
the birth of Christ ; He chose poor fishermen for His apostles ; a poor
maiden for His Mother; it is to the humble that He gives His grace
(Jas. iv. 6). "He raises the needy from the earth, and takes the
138 Faith.
poor from the dunghill, that He may place him among princes " (Ps.
cxii. 7, 8).
Nothing happens to us all through our lives without the will
or the permission of God.
Hence the patriarch Joseph says to his brethren, " Not by your
counsel was I sent hither, but by the will of God" (Gen. xlv. 8).
Our Lord says that the very hairs of our head are all numbered, i.e.,
the providence of God descends to the smallest details of our life.
Hence there is nothing that happens by chance. There are indeed
many things, the causes of which we are ignorant of, but all have
some cause, and God guides all. There are many things in the world
that God does not will, and of which He is not the cause, e.g., murder,
theft, and every crime. But God permits them, i.e., He does not
prevent them. This is a consequence of His having given to man free
will. Moreover, God knows how to bring good out of evil, and all evil
He employs for His good purposes.
Even the evil that God permits is for our good.
God, in His love for us, has in all that happens to us the intention
to make us happy. He turns to our good all temporal misfortunes,
the temptations of the devil, the sins of other men. " To those who
love God all things work together for good" (Rom. viii. 28). We
see this in the history of the patriarch Joseph; his imprisonment
was the means of bringing him to high honor, and of saving Egypt
from the horrors of famine. The captivity of the Jews was the means
of spreading the knowledge of the true God among heathen nations
(Tob. xiii. 4). The persecution of the early Christians in Palestine
and in Rome was the means of making known the Gospel in the
countries to which they fled or were banished ; so, too, was the expul-
sion of the religious Orders from Italy, France, and Germany in
modern times. So again the persecution of the Irish has done much
to Christianize America and England. " The unbelief of St.
Thomas," says St. Augustine, " has been more useful to us than the
belief of the other apostles." The sin of Peter made him humble
and forbearing towards others. The fury of the Jews against Our
Lord was the instrument of the redemption of mankind. " How in-
scrutable are God's judgments and how unsearchable His ways ! "
(Rom. xi. 33.) The very means employed by wicked men against the
saints were the means of bringing them glory and honor.
3. For this reason a pious Christian should resign himself en-
tirely to the will of God.
Christ teaches us to pray : " Thy will be done on earth, as it is
in heaven." St. Peter exhorts us to cast all our care upon God, for
He cares for us (1 Pet. v. 7). Holy David says: " Though an army
should stand in battle against me, my heart will not fear " (Ps. xxvi.
3). We must not allow ourselves to be troubled about the arrange-
ments of God's providence, which we cannot alter, but must resign
ourselves to the will of God, e.g., in sickness, loss of money, the death
of those dear to us, persecution, war, etc. Above all we must resign
ourselves to the will of God in the hour of our death. " He who dies
The Apostles' Creed. 139
resigned to the will of God," says St. Alphonsus, " leaves in the minds
of others the knowledge that he has saved his soul." In order to gain
the friendship of men we adapt ourselves to their humors and fan-
cies; but we take too little trouble to win the friendship of God by
adapting ourselves to His holy will.
The man who cheerfully resigns himself to the will of God
obtains true peace of mind, attains great perfection, and will be
blessed by God.
The soul resigned to the will of God is like the needle pointing
to the North. The soul that submits itself to all God's arrangements
has already begun to live the life of heaven upon earth. If trouble
comes, its peace is not disturbed; every trial is extinguished, like a
spark that falls into the sea; it loves sufferings, because it knows
that they come from God's hand. A man resigned to God's will has
his cross carried for him. He who renounces his own will in order
to carry out the holy will of God, soon attains to perfection. Thus
the resigning of our will to God's is the most perfect offering we ca:i
make Him. The man who is resigned is like a ship in the hands of
the pilot ; he is sure to arrive safely into port. A farmer whose fields
bore better crops than those of others was asked the reason for it.
He answered that he always got the weather that he wanted. When
asked to explain himself, he replied, " I am always content with the
weather that God sends. This pleases God and so He blesses my
crops."
Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemani is a beautiful exam-
ple of submission to the will of God.
Christ's prayer was " Father, not My will, but Thine be done."
He was obedient to His heavenly Father even to death, the death of
the cross (Phil. ii. 8). The holy angels find their happiness in the
fulfilment of the will of God. St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi said,
" I would bear with joy the heaviest troubles, so soon as I knew that
they were the will of God." So also said all the saints.
How are the Misfortunes of the Good and the Prosperity of the
Wicked to he Reconciled with the Providence of God?
The answer is that these are only apparent, not real. Seneca says
that the prosperity of those who are clad in purple is often like the
splendor of the actor, who is dressed up in royal purple The sinner
after a time loses all enjoyment from his sins.
1. Xo sinner has true happiness, and no servant of God true
misery. For true happiness is impossible without inner peace
and contentment; and this is possessed by the true servant of
God, but not by the sinner.
The world, i.e., riches, honors, sensual pleasures, eating, drinking,
etc., can never give us true peace (John xiv. 27). This can only be
attained by following the teaching of Christ. True peace and hap-
140 Faith.
piness are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Trie wicked have no peace;
they are like the raging sea, which cannot rest (Is. lvii. 20). Peace
and happiness do not come of riches, or of a high position, or of
bodily strength, or of intellectual vigor ; still less do they come from
the wearing of fine clothes, or from the enjoyment of rich feasts, but
from peace of soul and a good conscience. The beggar at the gate of
the rich Dives was a happier man, even in this world, than Dives him-
self.
2. Moreover the good fortune of the sinner is for the most
part only transitory.
The prosperity of the wicked is like the cedar of Lebanon, which
in a few hours is cut down and is no more seen. It is a building
built on sand: the storms and winds soon lay it low. How quickly
Napoleon the Great fell from the height to which his vaulting ambi-
tion had raised him at the cost of so many lives !
3. The real ^ jcompense of man only begins after death.
Hence Our Lord says, " Many that are first shall be last, and the
last first" (Matt. xix. 30). Many rich and distinguished men will
be far below those who have been beggars at their door. God has pro-
vided for His friends in the next life an enjoyment and happiness
far surpassing any enjoyments on this earth. This is the explanation
of the apparent injustice of the present life. Our Lord says to His
disciples, " Amen, Amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and
weep, and the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful,
but your sorrow shall be turned into joy " (John xvi. 20).
4. Sinners are rewarded on this earth for the little good that
they have done. The just on the other hand are for the most
part punished in this life for the evil they have done.
Our Lord says, " Woe to you that are rich ; for you have your con-
solation," i.e., your reward for the good you have done is given you
in this world (Luke vi. 24).
How is Sin to be Reconciled with the Providence of God ?
1. It is not God Who is responsible for sin and its conse-
quences, but man's wrong use of his free will.
God created man free, and therefore does not hinder even those
free actions which are evil. There are also many reasons why He
should not hinder evil. If there were no evil in the world, man would
have no opportunity of doing what is good; he would not have the
choice between good and evil, and would not be able to earn the
reward of good accomnlished. Compare the parable of the cockle
among the wheat. " God," says St. Augustine, " would never have per-
mitted evil if He had not intended to bring some greater good out
of it."
2. God in His wisdom employs even sin for a good end.
The Apostles' Creed. 141
The patriarch Joseph very truly said to his brethren, " You
thought evil against me, but God turned it into good" (Gen. 1. 20).
God turned to good even the treachery of Judas; it contributed to
the work of man's redemption. The bee makes honey out of poi-
sonous plants ; the potter makes beautiful vessels out of dirty earth.
God does something similar to this.
3. Besides, it does not become us to pry into the secret
designs of God; we poor miserable creatures must adore His
wisdom and submit ourselves humbly to what He ordains.
What is true of sin, is true of all the suffering that is the con-
sequence of sin.
7. THE CHRISTIAN UNDER SUFFERING.
Man can suffer in body or soul or both. The apostles, when they
were scourged (Acts v. 41), suffered in body; Judas, when he threw
down the pieces of silver in the Temple, suffered in his soul. Holy
Job suffered in both. Suffering is either merited or unmerited. The
sufferings of the prodigal son were merited, those of the patriarch
Joseph were unmerited. Yet all sufferings are merited by original
sin.
1. No one can attain to eternal salvation without suffering.
" ~Ro one is crowned unless he strive lawfully " (2 Tim.
ii. 5).
Even Christ had to enter into His glory through suffering (Luke
xxiv. 26). Our Lord says "He that taketh not up his cross and
followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me" (Matt. x. 38). The road
to heaven is a rough one. In order to make the flax that grows in
the earth into pure white linen, it must be rubbed, stretched, and
thoroughly cleansed, and woven. The corn has to be threshed and
winnowed ; the pure gold has to pass through fire. Not to suffer is a
sign that no future happiness is in store for you. Suffering and
holiness are inseparably bound up together. There is no good work
that does not meet with obstacles, no virtue that does not have to
fight and struggle.
For this reason God leaves no just man without suffering.
God treats us as a physician treats his patients; those of whose
recovery he despairs he leaves alone; but to those whom he hopes to
cure, he administers bitter medicines. As milk is the food of chil-
dren, so are contradictions the food of God's elect. To His chosen
God gives a sword on earth to pierce their heart, and a crown in
heaven to adorn their heads. Yet God mingles with the bitterness of
suffering the sweets of consolation. We see this throughout the his-
tory of Our Lady,- which consists of alternate joys and sorrows. So,
too, we celebrate the seven joys and sorrows of St. Joseph.
2. All suffering comes from God, and is a sign of His love and
favor.
112 Faith.
We find in the lives of the saints that the more good works they
undertook for God, the more did suffering assail them, as in the case
of Tobias, and of holy Job. Sufferings seem to be the reward of gocd
works performed. They are a precious gift, which will avail us to all
eternity. To suffer something for God is in itself a great privilege and
honor. It is a better gift than that of performing miracles and rais-
ing the dead. Parents often punish their children to cure them of
their faults. If they see the same faults in the children of others,
they do not trouble themselves about them, because they do not care
for them. So it is with God; the children whom He loves He often
corrects. Hence Raphael said to Tobias, " Because thou wast pleas-
ing to Gcd, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee "
(Tob. xii. 13). St. Paul says, " Whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth;
and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth " (Heb. xii. 6). "Gold
and silver are tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of
tribulation" (Ecclus. ii. 5). The greater a saint, the greater were
in most cases his sufferings. Our Lady was the Queen of martyrs.
The apostles had to suffer much, especially St. Peter and St. Paul
(Cf. 2 Cor. xi. 23, seq.). To be free from suffering is a bad sign.
St. Augustine says : " There is no greater misfortune than the good
fortune of sinners. He who does not suffer now will have to suffer
hereafter."
Yet God never sends us any suffering that is beyond our
powers of endurance.
St. Paul says " God is faithful ; Who will not permit you to suffer
above that which you are able" (1 Cor. x. 13). The peasant knows
how much his beast of burden can carry, and does not load him
beyond his strength. Will God, the all-wise, the all-merciful, lay
more on us than we can bear? The potter does not leave his vessels
too long in the fire lest they should crack. He who plays on an in-
strument is careful not to tighten the strings too much, lest they
should break; nor too little, for then they would produce no sound.
The physician apportions his remedies to the power of his patient;
so the heavenly Physician sends us sufferings in proportion to our
power of bearing them. There are some people who make sufferings
for themselves, because they find fault with what gives no cause for
complaint. Even in real sufferings much complaining is a sign of
faint-heartedness and makes us more sensible to suffering.
3. God sends suffering to the sinner to bring him back into
the right way and to save him from eternal death.
How many have been converted by means of sufferings, e.g., Man-
asses in the prison at Babylon (2 Paral. xxxiii. 12, 13), Jonas, the
prodigal son, even the wicked Achab (3 Kings xxi. 27). God is like
a surgeon, who cuts away the diseased flesh that it may not cause
death. Sufferings also bring about a disgust for earthly things and
make the sinful pleasures of the world bitter; they destroy our depen-
dence on earthly things, and take away the desire for the enjoyments
and the pleasures of this valley of tears, and turn our thoughts to
heaven. Sufferings again impress upon us our own helplessness, com-
pel us to have recourse to God in prayer. They teach us a knowledge of
The Apostles' Creed 143
ourselves and of our own sinfulness. As the trees, after the winter,
flower and bring forth fruit, so does man after suffering bring forth
works pleasing to God. " Sufferings," says St. Teresa, " though very
hard to bear, are the surest way to God."
God frequently sends bodily sickness to the sinner for the
healing of the sickness of his soul.
How many there are who have been converted to God through the
means of bodily sickness, e.g., St. Francis of Assisi and St. Ignatius
of Loyola. The Wise Man says, " A grievous sickness makes the
soul sober" (Ecclus. xxxi. 2). In sickness God knocks at the door
of the heart and asks for admission. " I am always glad," said St.
Ignatius, " when I see a sinner fall ill, for sickness brings back to
God." How foolish it is then to regard sickness as a mark of God's
anger, when it is really a mark of His compassion.
4. God sends' suffering to the just man to try him whether he
loves God most or creatures.
Job, who had always lived a God-fearing life, lost all his prop-
erty, his children, and his health, and was derided by his wife and his
friends. Tobias had buried the dead at the peril of his life and
given most liberal alms. God took away his sight, and left him
poor and unable to earn anything for himself. Thus God tries His
friends. As the storm tests the tree, whether it is firmly rooted,
so suffering tests the just, whether they are firmly established in their
love of God. As the wind separates the chaff from the wheat, so
trouble marks off the sinner from the just. Sweet herbs smell the
sweetest when they are bruised; so the just are most pleasing to God
in the time of tribulation. God often takes away from us what we
love best, and that which is injurious or dangerous, just as a father
takes from his little child a razor or sharp knife.
At the same time the sufferings of the just man are a great
advantage to him; they serve him as a penance for his sins; they
cleanse him from all imperfections ; increase his zeal in the prac-
tice of good, in the love of God, and in the love of prayer ; they
also increase his merit in heaven, and often, too, his . happiness
in this world.
By sufferings the punishment due for sin is cancelled. Hence St.
Augustine prayed, " In this life, 0 Lord, burn, scorch, and wound me,
only spare me in the life to come." " Think yourself happy," said
St. Francis Xavier, " if you can exchange the agonizing pains of
purgatory for sufferings in this world." Sufferings also purify the
soul from its imperfections. Gold is tried in the fire; so the soul is
purged by suffering. " Every branch that bears fruit God purges,
that it may bring forth more fruit " (John xv. 2). A sharp file cleanses
iron from rust. As soap cleanses the body, so suffering cleanses the
soul. Suffering also increases our strength, just as the blows of the
hammer make the iron stronger and harder. Toil strengthens the
body; suffering strengthens the soul. The vessels that the potter
places in the fire come out hard and strong. Suffering also adds to
144 Faith.
our love of God. As the ark of Noe was raised nearer to heaven
by the floods that overspread the earth, so we are brought nearer to
heaven and to God by the floods of suffering. As the gold leaf is
spread out by the blows of the hammer, so our love of God is extended
by suffering. Sufferings detach us from the love of earthly things,
and destroy our love of this world. Hence St. Augustine prayed,
" Make all things bitter to me, that so Thou alone mayest appear
sweet to my soul." Sufferings also increase our gratitude to God,
for the loss of health and other gifts of God makes us value
what we have lost. Sufferings also make us humble. The just
must be tried by evil, that so they may not grow proud of their
virtues. Sufferings also increase the earnestness of our prayers.
They compel us to pray. We see this in the case of the apostles
in the storm-tossed boat. The prayers of David under persecu-
tion have become the prayers of the Church. Long peace makes
us careless and slack. The ox that is not stirred by the goad
becomes lazy. Sufferings are often the means of bringing us to
prosperity even in this world. Witness Job, the patriarch Joseph,
and Tobias. " The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich ; He humbleth
and He exalteth " (1 Kings ii. 7). "You shall be sorrowful," says
Our Lord, " but your sorrow shall be turned into joy " (John xvi. 20).
Lastly, sufferings increase our eternal happiness. Our present mo-
mentary and light tribulation worketh for us above measure ex-
ceedingly an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. iv. 17). The just are
ripened for heaven by suffering, as ears of corn are ripened by the
heat of the sun. Jewels are rendered more beautiful by being ground
and polished. " When God sends us some great trouble," says St.
Ignatius, " it is a sign that Lie designs great things for us, and
desires to raise us to great holiness." Nay, the more we suffer in this
life, the greater will be our reward in the life to come. " To those
who love God all things work together for good " (Rom. viii. 28).
Give yourself up, then, to God's guidance, for He allows nothing to
happen you which will not be for your advantage, though you may see
it not. What pruning is to the fruit-tree, suffering is to men.
5. Sufferings then are no real evil, but are benefits from the
hand of God.
They are the means of bringing us both to temporal and eter-
nal happiness.
God, Who loves us tenderly, has no other object in sending us
sufferings but to make us happy. What we count as an evil is the
bitterness of the medicine that is necessary for the health of our
soul. There is really no evil in the world except sin. Sufferings can
never really make us unhappy; men can be happy in spite of all
kinds of sufferings. We see this in Job, in Tobias, in Our Lady.
St. Paul says, " I am filled with comfort ; I exceedingly abound with
joy in all our tribulation" (2 Cor. vii. 4).
6. For this reason we should be patient under suffering, and
should resign ourselves to the will of God.
Nay, more, we should rejoice in suffering, and thank God
for it.
The Apostles' Creed. 145
We should say with Job, " As it hath pleased the Lord, so it i 3
done; blessed be the name of the Lord " (Job i. 21), or with Our Lord
in the Garden of Olives, " Not My will, but Thine be done." We
should behave as a sensible man behaves when he is sick ; he willingly
obeys the injunctions of the physician. God has lightened our suf-
ferings for us, not only by His own example, but also by the promise
of an eternal reward. See how the apostles rejoiced in their scourg-
ing (Acts v. 41). The Christian under suffering should rejoice as
a workman rejoices who labors much, and looks forward to good
pay, or as a tradesman, who amid the toilsome monotony of his busi-
ness, thinks of the delightful holiday that is not far off. We must
grasp sufferings as men grasp stinging nettles if they do not wish to
be stung, firmly and boldly, not lightly and timorously; then they
will do us no harm. In suffering we should repeat again and
again the Gloria Pairi. Men too often grumble and grow impa-
tient under their sufferings. If a man asks the return of some-
thing he has lent us, we give it back with thanks; but if God
does so, we grumble and are discontented. This want of patience
increases our sufferings, besides offending God. The impatient are
like oxen, who kick against the goad and only wound themselves
the more. Yet it is no sin to be sorrowful and troubled under suffer-
ing; for Our Lord in the Garden of Olives was sorrowful even unto
death. We must never despond in evil days, for after sorrow and suf-
fering come joy and gladness.
By patience under suffering we quickly attain to a high
degree of perfection, and lay up for ourselves a great store of
merit.
When we resign ourselves patiently to the will of God amid con-
tradictions, we are like a ship carried on by a strong breeze, and sail
rapidly* to the haven of eternal rest. " Blessed is the man that
endureth temptation ; for when he has been proved, he will receive a
crown of life which God hath promised to them that love Him " ( Jas.
i. 12).
From our willingness to suffer can be ascertained how far
we have advanced in perfection.
The courage of a soldier displays itself, not in peace, but in war.
The sinner murmurs under suffering ; the beginner is troubled, but is
sorry for his impatience ; the man more advanced in virtue is fright-
ened, but takes courage and praises God; the perfect man does not
wait for suffering, but goes boldly to meet it. The perfect do not
ask God that they may be free from temptation or from suffering.
They desire it, and value it as highly as men of the world value
riches and gold and precious stones. Hence the prayer of St. Teresa
was either to suffer or to die. " He who is able," says St. Francis of
Sales, " to thank God equally for chastisement and for prosperity,
has arrived at the summit of Christian perfection, and will find his
happiness in God."
146 Faith.
8. THE ANGELS.
1. The angels are pure spirits.
They can, however, take a visible form.
The angels are pure spirits without bodies, whereas men have both
body and spirit. Yet the angels can take to themselves a bodily form,
as did St. Raphael (Tob. v. 18), when he undertook to accompany
the young Tobias on his journey. At the sepulchre of Our Lord,
after the resurrection, the angels appeared in the form of young
men, and the same was the case after Our Lord's ascension (Mark
xvi. 5; Acts i. 10).
The nature of the angels is nobler than that of man; they
have greater knowledge and greater power.
The angels excel all other beings that Our Lord has created. Our
Lord says that not even the angels know when the Day of Judgment
will come (Matt. xxiv. 36), thereby indicating that their knowledge
is greater than that of men. So also is their power. An angel de-
stroyed all the first-born of Egypt. Another angel caused the death
of one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers of the King of
Assyria, who had blasphemed God (Is. xxxvii. 36). An angel pro-
tected the three young men in the furnace at Babylon (Dan. iii.
49).
God created the angels for His own glory and service, as
well as for their own happiness.
Among all the creatures that God has made, the angels resemble
Him the most, and therefore the divine perfections shine forth the
most brightly in them. They also glorify God by ceaselessly singing
hymns of praise to Him in heaven. The angels also serve God. The
word angel signifies messenger. " Are they not all ministering
spirits," says St. Paul, " sent forth to minister to them that shall re-
ceive the inheritance of salvation?" (Heb. i. 14.) Even the bad
angels promote the glory of God, for God turns their attacks on us
to His glory and our profit. Goethe rightly describes Satan as " a
power that always wills evil, and effects good."
The number of the angels is immeasurably great.
Daniel, in describing the throne of God says : " Thousands of
thousands ministered to Him; and ten thousand times a hundred
thousand stood before Him" (Dan. vii. 10). Holy Scripture calls
them the heavenly host. In the Garden of Olives Our Lord said that
if He were to ask the Father, He would presently send Him twelve
legions of angels (Matt. xxvi. 53). The number of the angels is
greater than that of all men who ever have lived or ever will live.
" The number of the angels," says St. Dionysius the Areopagite, " is
greater than that of the stars in heaven, or of the grains of sand on
the seashore."
The angels are not all equal; there are nine choirs or ranks
among them.
The Apostles' Creed, 147
The rank of the angels is determined by the amount of the gifts
that God has given them, and according to the office assigned them.
Nearest to the throne of God are the seraphim, who burn more than
the rest with the love of God; next to them are the cherubim, who are
distinguished by the vastness of their knowledge. We also read in
Scripture of thrones, dominations, principalities, powers, and also of
three archangels, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Eaphael. There
is also a corresponding division among the fallen angels.
2. All the angels whom God created were, at the beginning,
in the grace of God and well pleasing to Him. But many of the
angels sinned through pride, and were cast down by God into hell
forever (2 Pet. ii. 4).
When God created the angels, He created them all in His grace.
But none can be crowned without a struggle (2 Tim. ii. 5), and God
subjected the angels to trial, that so, according to the universal law of
the universe, they might earn their reward of eternal happiness.
In this trial a large number of the angels fell. They desired to be
equal to God, and refused to submit their will to His (Cf. Is. xiv.
12-14). They did not abide in the truth (John viii. 44). Hence
arose a great war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the
dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, and prevailed not,
neither was their place found any more in heaven. The dragon
was cast out and all his angels with him (Apoc. xii. 8, 9). They
were all cast down to hell; not that they were confined to any local
hell, for they are allowed to wander about the earth tempting men,
but they carry their hell with them wherever they go, inasmuch as
they everywhere suffer the torments of hell. Their leader was Satan,
or Lucifer, for this was his name before he fell, and he is said to have
been the highest of all the angels. The number of the fallen angels is
less than that of those who remained faithful. The fall of the angels
was the more terrible, because they had previously enjoyed such a high
estate. The higher the place from which we fall, the worse the fall.
At the Last Day the evil angels will be judged, and their wickedness
and its punishment will be made known to the whole world ( Jude 6 ;
2 Pet. ii. 4). To deny the existence of the evil angels is a grievous sin
against faith.
3. The evil angels are our enemies; they envy us, seek to lead
ns to sin, and can, with God's permission, injure us in our bodies,
or in our worldly goods.
The evil spirits are our enemies. With all their spite they can do
nothing against God; so they vent their fury against men, who bear
the image of God. Many theologians have asserted that the places
of the angels who fell will be filled in heaven by men. " The knowl-
edge that a creature of earth will occupy his place in heaven," says
St. Thomas, " causes the devil more pain than the flames of hell." It
was the devil who led our first parents to sin, and also Judas (John
xiii. 27). The devil can also, so far as God permits, injure the
bodies and the goods of men, as in the case of Job and the possessed
in Our Lord's time. The devil's great object is to effect the ruin of the
Church, which he knows is to be the means of destroying his power
148 Faith,
on earth (Matt. xvi. 18 ; Luke xxii. 31). He also knows that he and his
angels will one day be judged by the saints (1 Cor. vi. 3). Many be-
lieve that as God assigns to each child at its birth a guardian angel,
so the devil assigns to each a special devil to tempt it. Hence we
must imitate the Jews when rebuilding the Temple (2 Esdr. iv. 17).
We must work with one hand and with the other defend ourselves
against the foe.
Yet the devil cannot do real harm to any one who keeps
the commandments of God and avoids all sin.
The dog that is tied up cannot do any harm to those who keep
out of range of his chain. The devil is like this dog. He can work on
our memory and our imagination, but he has no power over our will
or our understanding. He can persuade us, but he cannot compel us
to evil. We must therefore energetically and promptly repel all bad
thoughts that the devil puts into our heads. " Resist the devil," says
St. James (iv. 7), " and he will fly from you." Our Lord dispatched
the devil very promptly when He said " Begone, Satan ! " It is a
great thing to treat the devil and his temptations with great con-
tempt, and also to turn our thoughts to other things, and not allow
ourselves to be disturbed or troubled by his suggestions. He who
allows himself to dwell on evil thoughts draws near to the dog
who is chained, and is almost sure to be bitten by him. If the devil
were allowed to use his full power against us we could not resist him,
for when he fell he did not lose any of his natural powers, though
he lost eternal happiness.
God gives the devil special power over some men:
1. God often allows men who are striving after high perfec-
tion, whom He especially favors, to be tried by the devil for long
years in some extraordinary way, in order to cleanse them from
their imperfections, and thoroughly humble them.
God allows His elect to be constantly besieged by the devil
for years, and to endure temptations of extraordinary violence.
Sometimes the devil appears to them in visible form; sometimes he
assails their ears with hideous sounds; sometimes he is permitted to
strike them and to throw them on the ground. God protects their
life, but allows the devil to torment them with bodily pain and with
sickness. They suffer the most terrible temptations against faith
and against purity. The evil one has no power over their souls, but
sometimes God allows him power over their bodies, so that they do
and say the most extraordinary things in spite of themselves, in order
that so they may be humbled in the eyes of men. Sometimes they
even pour forth blasphemous words, and have no power to prevent
themselves from doing so. These assaults of the devil are called ob-
session. Holy Job was assailed by the devil; and so was Our Lord in
the desert; so were St. Anthony, St. Teresa, St. Mary Magdalen of
Pazzi, the Cure d'Ars, and many other saints. These holy persons
knew that God would never allow them to be tempted beyond their
powers of resistance, and that God permitted these temptations for
their greater sanctincation. They were perfectly resigned to the will
The Apostles' Creed. 149
of God, and at length drove away the devil by their fearless resistance
to his assaults. Thus when the devil threatened the life of St. Catha-
rine of Sienna, she answered, " Do what you can ; what is pleasing to
God is pleasing to me." St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi said to him,
" You do not seem to know that you are preparing for me a glorious
victory." St. Anthony in the desert defied him, saying, " How feeble
you are ! I suppose that is why you are bringing such a crowd of
devils to tempt me." When those who are tempted meet the devil
with the courage of a lion, he has no more power against them than
a startled hare, but when they fear him, then he comes on with all the
force and boldness of a lion. He can always be driven away by the
means of grace provided by the Church; by the sign of the cross, by
invoking the name of Jesus and Mary, by holy water, by earnest
prayer, by the use of relics, etc. The more violent the assaults of
the devil, the greater will be the protection afforded by almighty God
to His servants; often during times of trial they have revelations
from God, or saints and angels appear to them to console and
strengthen them. Those who deny the reality of these occurrences,
of which we so often read in the lives of the saints, show very little
acquaintance with the spiritual life. Yet it is the spirit of the
Church to receive all accounts of these preternatural and super-
natural occurrences with great caution, as there is always a danger
of illusion or deceit. Nor need ordinary mortals fear such special
attacks of the evil one; they are reserved for the special friends and
favorites of God.
2. It also sometimes happens that God allows men of vicious
lives, or those who sin against faith, to be punished or led astray
by evil spirits.
God sometimes permits that the bodies of men who have given
themselves over to the indulgence of their passions be possessed by
evil spirits, as a town is occupied by a general who has conquered it.
This state is called possession. In the time of Our Lord there were
many thus possessed, and who in consequence were dumb (Matt. ix.
32), blind (Matt. xii. 22), and exceeding fierce (Matt. viii. 28). God
permitted that then there should be many such, that He might show
the power of the Son of God and the feebleness of the devils in His
presence, and that He might drive them forth from those whom
they tormented. Yet it does not follow that all who were possessed
were necessarily so through their own fault. Some children were
possessed from their birth (Mark ix. 20). Sometimes God allowed
even holy men to be possessed for a time; but more often it was a
punishment for grievous sin, and especially for a deliberate friend-
ship with the devil, as was the case with the witch of Endor (1 Kings
xxviii. 7 seq. ; Cf. Acts xvi. 16). Such cases are not unfrequent now
in pagan countries. God also permits the evil spirits to mislead
those who practise spiritualism, which consists in the invoking of
the spirits of the dead in order to discover things secret, or that are
taking place at a distance. The devils personate the spirits invoked,
and by their superior knowledge are able to reveal many things, by
which they delude those who deal with them into thinking that they
are really conversing with some departed relative or friend. On
i50 Faith.
these occasions the spirits will sometimes take a material form.
Spiritualism leads to the loss of faith or of morals, or at least to the
ruin of the peace of mind of the person practising it. Very often it
is mixed up with a great deal of imposture.
4. The angels who remained faithful to God behold the face of
God continually and sing His praises.
Our Lord says of our guardian angels, " I say to you, that their
angels always behold the face of My Father Who is in heaven." The
angels at Our Lord's birth sang the praises of God. Their songs of
praise are different, just as their knowledge and their love of God are
different. The angels are sometimes represented as children, because
they are immortal and therefore ever young ; sometimes with wings to
express the swiftness with which they pass from place to place, and
their promptness in carrying out the will of God; sometimes with
lilies in their hands to show their perfect spotlessness ; sometimes
with harps to signify that the praise of God is their constant employ-
ment; sometimes without any body, but only a head -and wings, to
show that they are intellectual beings. The holy angels also possess
exceeding beauty and splendor. If an angel were to appear in the
firmament of heaven in his full glory, the sun would disappear before
his brightness, just as the stars now disappear before the brightness
of the sun. When St. John saw an angel in all his glory, he thought
he must be God Himself, and fell at his feet to adore him (Apoc.
xxii. 8). In appearing to men the holy angels hide their glory. The
angels will be our companions in heaven. This is why they take so
great an interest in us while we are on earth, and rejoice over the
sinner doing penance. They often intervene to help us in our spir-
itual and temporal needs, if we do not, by our resistance to grace,
put obstacles in their way.
5. The holy angels are also called guardian angels, because
they watch over us (Heb. i. 14).
Jacob saw a ladder reaching up to heaven, and the angels ascend-
ing and descending (Gen. xxviii. 12). This was to signify that they
come down on earth to protect us, and ascend back to heaven to sing
praise to God. The guardian angels watch over us, as a shepherd over
his flock. They count it as their happiness that they are appointed
to watch over the servants of God, and promote the welfare of souls,
and no wonder, when we remember that the King and Lord of all
things came " not to minister, but to be ministered unto." The service
they render us causes them no trouble or anxiety, but rather joy and
happiness, for their one desire is that the will of God should be done,
and they rejoice in contributing to this. The general opinion of theo-
logians is that every one has a special guardian angel, who watches
over him all through his life. The dignity of the angels given to us
depends on the dignity of the persons to whom they are assigned.
Ordinary Christians have one of the lower orders of angels; priests,
bishops, kings, etc., have nobler spirits to guard them. Cities, coun-
tries, parishes, religious houses, have each their guardian angel.
Our guardian angels help us in the following ways:
The Apostles' Creed 151
1. They put good thoughts into our minds, and move our
will to what is good.
The angels who appeared to the shepherds at Bethlehem, and who
were seen at the tomb of Christ, and after His ascension, made them-
selves visible and spoke to men ; but generally they influence us with-
out being seen or heard by us. They move us to some step that is
conducive to the welfare of our souls or bodies, and often save us
from some impending danger by a secret impulse, without which we
should have incurred death or misfortune.
2. They offer our prayers and our good works to God.
Thus St. Raphael offered the prayers of Tobias (Tob. xii. 12).
The angel in the Apocalypse offers the prayers of the saints in a
golden censer (Apoc. viii. 3). This is not because God Himself
does not hear our prayers, but the angels mingle their prayers with
ours, and so make them more acceptable to God. " In all the benefits
we receive from God," says St. Thomas, " our guardian angel takes
part, because he helps in obtaining them for us."
3. They protect us in danger.
Thus St. Peter was delivered from prison by an angel (Acts xii.
7 seq.), Daniel was kept safe in the den of lions, and the three young
men in the fiery furnace (Dan. vi. 22; iii. 49). We read stories
sometimes of children being run over, or falling from a height, and
escaping unhurt. We can scarcely doubt that this was owing to the
intervention of their guardian angels. God has commissioned the
angels thus to help us. " He hath given His angels charge over thee,
to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall bear thee
up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone" (Ps. xc. 11). But the
chief office of our guardian angel is to preserve us from the snares of
the devil; the holy angels have powers over the evil spirits, who fly
away at their approach (Cf. Tob. viii. 3). We must therefore
commit ourselves to the care of our guardian angels in all times of
danger, and before undertaking a journey, or any new enterprise,
and we should wish our friends when they start on a journey, the
good wish of Tobias when his son was leaving his home, " May the
angel of God accompany you ! "
4. They often reveal to men the will of God.
Instances in point are the sacrifice of Abraham, the message of
the angel to Zacharias and to Our Lady. The appearance of an angel
sometimes causes fear at first, but it soon changes to consolation and
joy. It is just the opposite with the appearances of the evil angels;
they give consolation to begin with, but this soon changes to confu-
sion and fear.
If we desire the protection of the holy angels, we must try
and imitate them by a holy life ; we must also honor them, and
often invoke their aid.
Experience teaches us that innocent children enjoy a wonderful
protection from the angels. Innocence attracts them, and sin drives
152 Faith
them away, as smoke drives away bees. We cannot expect our guar-
dian angels to take care of us when we are doing what we know is
displeasing to God. We must also beg for the aid of our guardian
angel ; we must congratulate him on his faithfulness to God ; we must
salute him when we go out and when we come in; we must thank
him for all his benefits. We must say with Tobias, " What can b3
worthy of his benefits, and what can we give him sufficient for these
things?" (Tob. xii. 3.) The Church honors our guardian angels
on the second of October; in some places on the first Sunday in Sep-
tember.
9. MAN.
The Creation of Man.
The account of the creation of man is found in the beginning of
the book of Genesis. Nothing is said about the time when man was
created, but the general belief fixes the date at 4000 B.C. The four
weeks of Advent seem to indicate that the Church adopts this view.
1. God made the body of man out of the dust of the earth, and
breathed into him a living soul.
The soul of man is a spiritual substance. The materialist who
denies the existence of the soul because it cannot be perceived by his
senses, might as well deny the existence of human reason because he
cannot see it. The soul is endowed with the two faculties of reason
and free will. Some have supposed that there are in man two souls,
on account of the different inclinations which strive for mastery in
him, and the struggle that takes place between the leaning towards
sensual enjoyment and the reason that condemns it. But this
struggle only proves that the soul has different tendencies, in virtue
of our nature being partly material and partly spiritual. The rela-
tions between the body and the soul of man are as follows : the body
is the dwelling-place of the soul. As the nutshell to the kernel, as
the dress to the man, as the hut to the hermit, such is the body to the
soul. The body is also the instrument of the soul, whereby it may
attain to eternal happiness. What his tools are to the carpenter, his
brush to the painter, the organ to the organist, such the body is to the
soul. The soul is the guide of the body, as the driver of his steed,
or the captain of his ship. Too often the soul allows the evil desires
of the body to lead it astray, to the ruin of both. The body is a good
servant but a bad master. The soul also is the life of the body; as
soon as the two are parted, the body soon returns to the. dust from
which it was formed. The souls of men are essentially different from
those of the lower animals ; and have different faculties and capabili-
ties. The souls of animals are incapable of striving after perfection,
or of searching into the causes of things; hence they can have no
knowledge of their end ; they are led by instinct, not by reason. They
have no craving after a higher happiness and are quite satisfied with
the enjoyment of sense; they have no spiritual nature, but are essen-
tially dependent on matter.
The Apostles* Creed. 153
It is an error to think that the bodies of men are developed
out of those of the lower animals.
Many think that men are sprung from the lower animals by a pro-
cess of gradual development. This is the theory advanced by the Eng-
lish naturalist, Darwin, who believed that the first man was a highly
developed kind of monkey. There is an essential difference between
the shape of the body of a man and an ape, and between the form of
their skulls. The brain of man is far larger and heavier than that cf an
ape. Man has the gift of speech, the cpe has not. Man has the power
of forming abstract ideas, the ape has not. Man has a long period of
growth, and a gradual development- of his faculties; the ape shoots
up very quickly to its full development. The ape .only lives about
thirty years; man can attain to the age of eighty or even one hun-
dred years. Man is capable of the highest cultivation ; the ape is not.
No bones have ever yet been found which bridge over the impassable
gulf that separates men from apes. There is no difference between
the bones of men in the present day and those of men who lived
thousands of years ago. Tradition and language bear witness to an
early period when men enjoyed a higher cultivation, from which
they afterwards fell away through sin and vice. The apes which
bear the greatest resemblance to man in bodily form are stupid and
without intelligence, and seem to have been created in order that we
may see what man would have been if God had not breathed into
him an immortal soul, and made him like to Himself. To those who
trace the origin of men from apes may be applied the words of
Holy Scripture, "Man when he was in honor did not understand;
he hath been compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them "
(Ps. xlviii. 21).
2. The first human beings that God created were Adam and
Eve.
Eve was made from a rib of Adam while he slept, and from Adam
and Eve all the millions who now cover the face of the earth were de-
scended. Hence all are members of one and the same family. The dif-
ferences of color and of the shape of the skull are the result of differ-
ences of climate, food, and way of living. We find that animals grad-
ually change their shape and color under a different climate. All men
have certain common bodily characteristics, and also the mental facul-
ties of will, memory, and understanding. The oldest legends of all
existing peoples tell of a primeval happiness from which man fell, of
a deluge over all the inhabited portion of the earth, etc., and so bear
witness to a common origin.
Yet all men derive only their bodies from Adam; for the
sonl of every man is created by God.
It is not man, but God, Who communicates to each of us his soul
when he comes into existence. " The Lord formeth the spirit of man
in him" (Zach. xii. 1). Just as the Holy Spirit in Baptism or in
the Sacrament of Penance descends into the soul of man, and gives
it spiritual life, so God gives natural life to the body of man when
formed, and places the soul in it. So He did with the bodies of Adam
154 Faith
and Eve at their creation. God creates each soul and at the same
moment places it in the body which He has prepared for it. It is
therefore an error to suppose, as Tertullian did, that the soul of the
child is sprung from the soul of its parent, as one flame is engendered
from another. Some have foolishly asserted that all men have one
and the same soul, others that God created the souls of all men when
He first created the world. This was the doctrine of Plato and
Origen, and is entirely false.
10. THE SOUL OF MAN.
1. The soul of man is made in the image of God, since it is a
spirit like to God.
Before the creation of man God said, " Let us make man to our
own image and likeness and let him have dominion over the beasts and
the whole earth" (Gen i. 26). Man is made in the image of God;
his likeness to God is to be found in his soul, which possesses reason
and free will, and thence has the power of knowing what is beautiful
and good, and of loving it. He, moreover, through these two faculties
has dominion over the visible world, as God has dominion over the
whole universe. In the words spoken before the creation of man,
God joined together the likeness of Himself and dominion over the
earth. Man attains to a perfect likeness to God only when he is
in the grace cf God, for in this case he is made a " partaker of the di-
vine nature " (2 Pet. i. 4). The just man is truly the lord of the whole
earth and of all creatures upon it, whereas the sinner is the slave
of creatures. Man, through his likeness to God, has not only the
power of knowing the true and the beautiful and the good, but he has
also the power of knowing, loving, and enjoying God in His divine
majesty. Just as a globe has a feeble resemblance to the earth, so the
soul of man has a feeble resemblance to God. The soul is also an
image of the Blessed Trinity, in virtue of its three powers, memory,
understanding, and will. In its memory it resembles the Father, in
its understanding the Son, and in its will the Holy Ghost. As these
three powers are united in one soul, so the three persons of the
Blessed Trinity are united in one and the same nature. Notice the
Avords used at the creation : " Let us make man," thereby indicating
the plurality of persons in the Blessed Trinity. It is its likeness to
the Blessed Trinity that gives to every single soul its priceless value ;
it is this which explains the Incarnation. The soul of man is worth
more than all the stars of heaven. The body of man is not made
in the image of God, for God is a pure spirit, but yet the like-
ness to God stamps itself in some way on the body, as being the in-
strument of the soul, both in its upright bearing, and in the dominion
it exerts over the irrational animals (Cf. Ps. viii. 5, 6). "What
is man that Thou art mindful of him ? Thou hast crowned him
with glory and honor, and hast given him dominion over the w,orks of
Thy hands."
2. The soul of man is immortal, i.e., it can never cease to exist.
The soul can never cease to exist, but it becomes spiritually dead
when it lose; the grace of God by mortal sin. It cannot lose con-
TJie Apostles' Creed. 155
sciousness, but it can lose God. A branch that falls from the tree
continues to exist, but is nevertheless dead. Sinners are thus dead,
even while they live; the just on the other hand live even after they
are dead.
That the soul of man is immortal we know from the words
of Jesus Christ.
Our Lord says, " Fear not them who can kill the body, but cannot
kill the soul " (Matt. x. 28), and to the good thief on the cross He says,
" To-day thou shalt be with Me in paradise" (Luke xxiii. 43). He
teaches the same truth in the story of the rich man and Lazarus
(Luke xvi. 19). " God is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob;
and is not the God of the dead but of the living " (Matt. xxii. 32).
We learn the same truth from the numberless appearances of
the dead to the living.
At Our Lord's transfiguration Moses appeared, who had been long
dead (Matt. xvii. 3). At the time of Our Lord's crucifixion many who
were dead appeared in Jerusalem (Matt, xxvii. 53). The prophet Jere-
mias and the priest Onias appeared to Judas Maccabeus before his
victory over Nicanor (2 Mach. xv. 11 seq.). Our Lady has constantly
appeared to saints and to others, and so have many of the saints as
well as those who are suffering in purgatory; sometimes to console
and encourage the living, sometimes to warn them, and in the case
of the holy souls, to ask for prayers. The lost rarely (and some think
never) appear to men, unless it may be in some rare cases to warn the
living. It is unlawful to invoke the appearance of the dead, and
those who do so are tricked by the devil, who takes the form of the
person invoked, or indicates their supposed presence by sounds, raps,
etc. All true appearances of the dead are wrought by the instrumen-
tality of the angels. We must be very cautious in accepting such
appearances as -real, but yet we ought not to reject them altogether.
Many reject all such appearances, because they know that, if they
acknowledged them to be true, they would have to change their way
of living, and this they are not willing to do.
We can also prove from reason that the soul is immortal.
Man has a longing after a perfect and lasting happiness. This
longing is common to all men, and is implanted in them by their
Creator. Such happiness can never be attained in this world — and
therefore if man possessed the desire for it, without any hope of
its being satisfied, he would be more unfortunate than the brutes
who have no such desire, and God, in implanting it in his breast
would be, not good, but cruel. If man had no immortal soul, the
wicked who do evil all their lives long would go unpunished, and
the just, who by self-sacrifice have robbed themselves of the enjoy-
ments of life, would go unrewarded. This would be an injustice im-
possible to a God of perfect justice. We are also conscious of an indi-
vidual unity in each one of us, which is independent of our body,
which perseveres in spite of all bodilv changes, and continues from
childhood to old age. It is present during sleep as well as during
waking hours, and is active when all our bodily senses are wrapped in
156 ' ■ Faith.
repose and inactivity. St. Augustine tells a story of Gennadius, a
physician of Carthage, who would not believe in the immortality of
the soul. One night he had a dream, in which he saw standing before
him a beautiful young man, clothed in white, who said to him : " Dost
thou see me ? " He answered, " Yes, I see you." The young man
rejoined, " Dost thou see me with thine eyes ? " " No," answered
Gennadius, " for they are closed in sleep." " With what, then, dost
thou see me ? " "I know not." The young man continued : " Dost
thou hear me ? " " Yes." " With thine ears ? " " No, for these too
are wrapped in sleep." " With what then dost thou hear me ? "
" I know not." " Are you speaking to me ? " was the next question.
" Yes." " With thy mouth ? " '[ No." " With what then ? " "I know
not." Then the young man said : " See now, thou sleepest — and yet
thou seest, hearest, and speakest. The hour will come when thou wilt
sleep in death, and yet thou wilt see and hear and speak and feel."
Gennadius woke, and knew that God had sent an angel to teach him
the immortality of the soul. No particle of matter is ever lost.
Matter takes different forms, but the same amount Qf matter remains
throughout. If matter never perishes, is it possible that the soul,
which belongs to a far higher order, is destined to perish ?
All nations of the earth believe in the immortality of the soul.
When Jacob heard of the death of his son Joseph, he expressed
a wish to go and join him in the nether world (Gen. xxxvii. 35).
The Jews were forbidden to call up the dead or hold intercourse with
them (Deut. xviii. 11). The Greeks and Romans believed in Tar-
tarus and Elysium. The Egyptians believed that the soul wandered
about for three thousand years before finding rest. In other nations
the offerings for the dead, and the cultus of the departed spirits or
Manes, testify to the same belief. There are only a few, and those
men who are in mortal sin, who declare that they think that death is
the end of our existence. Most of those who put an end to their lives
do so, not with the idea that after death they will cease to be, but be-
cause they imagine life is intolerable — not realizing the consequences
of their act.
11. THE SUPERNATURAL ENDOWMENTS OF MAN.
Our first parents before the Fall had a happiness almost equal to
that of the angels when first created. Hence the Psalmist says of
man, " Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels; Thou hast
crowned him with glory and honor" (Ps. viii. 6). Heathen nations
have legends of the happiness of the first man; they termed it the
golden age. Hesiod says that men lived then like gods, in perfect
happiness.
1. Our first parents were created in the grace of God, and there-
fore possessed singular perfections of soul and body.
" Adam was created," says the Council of Trent, " in justice and
holiness; he was a partaker of the divine nature." This justice and
holiness he did not have of himself, but God gave it to him; just as
the eye does not possess light from within, but absorbs it from with-
out.
The Apostles' Creed. 157
The special privileges granted to the soul of man at his first
creation were as follows: An enlightened understanding, a will
free from all weakness, and the possession of sanctifying grace.
Through means of these he was the child of God, the heir of
heaven, and well-pleasing in the sight of God.
" God filled them with wisdom and the knowledge of understand-
ing," says the Wise Man (Ecclus. xvii. 5, 6). He gave Adam an in-
sight into the inner nature of things, so that he was able to give ap-
propriate names to all the animals. He also knew by inspiration
the indissolubility of marriage. The will of man was weakened by
no sensual desires. Adam and Eve were naked, but felt no shame,
because in them there was no rebellion of the flesh against the spirit,
no struggle necessary to avoid sin. They also had the Holy Spirit
dwelling within them, and His sanctifying grace; they were like to
God, full of love for Him, and children of God; and because children,
also heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.
The special perfections of their bodies were that they were
immortal, and free from all liability to sickness and disease; they
were in paradise, and had dominion over all the creatures around
them.
God created man immortal (Wisd. ii. 23). Death only came in as
the punishment of disobedience (Gen. ii. 17). The death threatened
was bodily as well as spiritual death, for the punishment of their sin
was "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" (Gen. iii. 19).
Man had indeed to work in paradise, but this work was part of his
happiness, and caused him no fatigue. He had no sickness, for sick-
ness is the forerunner of death. Paradise was a lovely garden, full
of noble trees and lovely flowers, and the fairest fruits; many beauti~
ful animals were there, who were perfectly obedient to his behests.
There was also a river in paradise divided into four branches. In the
midst of the garden was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
and close by it the tree of life, the fruits of which were a protection
against disease and death. Paradise is said to have been situated
between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Man had also a complete
dominion over all the wild beasts. Not that their nature was then dif-
ferent from now, but the grace and dignity of man rendered them
submissive to his will, and made them fear and obey him (Ecclus.
xvii. 4). Something of this power still remains to man; it is said
that no wild beast can look a man steadily in the face. We see the
same thing in the natural order now, in the wild beast tamers ; and
in the supernatural in the power that many of the saints possessed
over the wild beasts, e.g., St. Francis of Assisi, and many of the
martyrs before whose feet the fiercest of the animals in the Roman
amphitheatre lay down in prostrate homage. This was due to their
great purity and freedom from sin.
2. These special perfections of our first parents we call super-
natural gifts, because they are something altogether beyond, and
were added to, human nature,
158 Faith.
Thus a rich man out of compassion provides a poor orphan with
food, clothing, lodging, instruction in a trade. These would cor-
respond to the natural gifts given by God to man. But the rich man
in his bounty goes further; he adopts the orphan, clothes him as if
he were his own son, gives him a room in his own house, and the edu-
cation of a gentleman. These would correspond in some way to the
supernatural gifts given by God to man. The first of natural gifts
bestow upon the orphan a sort of likeness to the giver, but the second
impart to him a far closer likeness. So the supernatural gifts of God
to man impart to him a far closer likeness to God than the natural.
Or to take another illustration; a painter can trace the portrait of a
man with a few strokes in black and white. But if he takes his
brush and colors the drawing, if he paints the eyes blue, the cheeks
red, the hair brown, etc., the likeness becomes more beautiful and
corresponds more closely to the original. So it is with the natural
and the supernatural gifts of God. When God at man's creation said,
" Let us make man in our image and likeness," the image refers
to the natural, the likeness to the supernatural gifts of God.
12. ORIGINAL SIN.
The story of the Fall of man is a true story, not a mere fable.
This is the general opinion of theologians.
1. God imposed on man in paradise a precept; He forbade him
to eat the fruit of one of the trees which stood in the midst of the
Garden of Eden.
The fruit of the tree of good and evil was not bad in itself, for
God did not place anything that was evil in paradise ; it was only bad
and injurious to man because it was forbidden.
By obedience to this precept God intended that Adam and
Eve should merit eternal happiness.
It was the intention of God to bestow upon our first parents
eternal happiness — an inheritance that was to be theirs as chil-
dren of God. But as a happiness that is earned is a greater happi-
ness, and one of greater value than if it were bestowed without any
action deserving of it, God in His goodness decreed that man should
earn it as a reward of obedience. If man had not transgressed the
command of God, he would have passed without pain and without
death from the earthly into the celestial paradise. The posterity of
Adam would have come into existence, like him, in a state of original
justice. They would have died as Adam died if they had sinned like
him, but the sin would not have passed on to their children, for Adam
alone was the appointed head and representative of the human race.
2. Man allowed himself to be led astray by the devil, and trans-
gressed the precept of his Creator.
The devil was envious of the happiness of our first parents. " By
the envy of the devil death came into the world" (Wisd. ii. 24).
" The devil was a murderer from the beginning " (John viii. 4). He
The Apostles' Creed. 159
deceived Eve by a lie. Hence Our Lord calls him the father of lies
( John viii. 4) . He took a visible form because a mere internal suggestion
would have had no power to influence the mind of our first parents
in their state of original justice. He took the form of a serpent,
because God would allow him to take no other and the serpent
was a fit emblem of his cunning and poisonous wickedness. St.
Augustine tells us that Adam and Eve had already admitted' the
beginnings of evil by thinking little of God and allowing them-
selves to be distracted by visible and palpable things. This was the
occasion of the temptation. Their great happiness had made them
unwary, and Eve foolishly lingered near the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, and listened to the serpent, instead of turning away at
once. The common tradition among the Fathers is that Adam was
created on a Friday and fell on the following Friday, at the same
hour at which Our Lord on Good Friday died upon the cross.
3. The transgression of the precept of God had disastrous con-
sequences; man lost sanctifying grace, and all his supernatural
gifts, and also suffered injuries both in soul and body.
The disobedience of our first parents received this severe punish-
ment, because the law given them was one that it was easy for them
to obey, and because they had such a high degree of knowledge. The
sin they committed -was a mortal sin, else it would not have been
necessary for God Himself to die upon the cross in order to expiate
it. From the cost of the remedy we may judge of the deadly nature
of the wound. Just as the man who fell among the thieves on the
road to Jericho was robbed of his goods, and also sorely wounded, so
man was robbed by Satan of his supernatural gifts, and was sorely
wounded in his natural gifts. In other words, the supernatural like-
ness to God was lost, and his whole nature, body and soul alike, was
disfigured and weakened.
Original sin injured the soul of man in the following ways:
His understanding was darkened, his will weakened and made
prone to evil; he lost supernatural grace and thus became dis-
pleasing to God, and could no more enter into the kingdom of
heaven.
His understanding was darkened, i.e., he had not the same knowl-
edge of the nature of God, of the will of God, the end of life, etc.
His will was weakened, for by sin the harmony between his spiritual
and his sensible faculties was destroyed, so that the inclinations
of his senses no longer submitted without revolt to the dominion
of his reason. The flesh rebelled against the spirit in punishment
for man's rebellion against God. Hence St. Paul says, " I see another
law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind" (Rom.
vii. 23). " The flesh lusteth against the spirit " (Gal. v. 17). Hence-
forward man's nature was drawn towards the things of sense, as iron
is drawn by the power of the magnet. Many other evil tendencies
also arose in him. Doubt in the goodness of God, in His truth and
justice; vanity and pride, etc. Eve, who had fancied that she was
going to become like to God, condemned herself and her posterity to
160 Faith.
a foolish curiosity, to a love of dress, and ill-timed loquacity. Man
has not lost the freedom of his will by original sin, else he would not
have that consciousness of being able to exercise choice, or that feel-
ing of remorse when he had yielded. Our first parents also lost sanc-
tifying grace, the justice and holiness in which they were created,
and the friendship of God which accompanied it. He who dies still
burdened with original sin cannot see the face of God in heaven,
but he does not suffer the pains of hell unless he has committed
grievous sin himself. Children who die unbaptized are excluded
from heaven, but it does not follow that their existence is one of pain
or misery.
Original sin did injury to the body of man in the following
ways: lie became subject to sickness and death; he was shut out
from paradise and had to labor and to suffer. Woman became
subject to man; the forces of nature and the lower animals had
power to injure man; lastly the devil had permission from God
to tempt him to sin, and to injure him in his temporal posses-
sions.
Man was condemned to die in consequence of original sin. God
said to Adam " In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread, until
thou return to the earth from which thou wast "taken ; for dust thou
art and to dust thou shalt return " (Gen. iii. 19). Of these words the
Church reminds us on Ash Wednesday, when the priest places the
ashes on the heads of the faithful. Death is the worst consequence oi
original sin. But the death of the body is but the sensible image
of the terrible and eternal death of the soul, from which man can
only be delivered through the redemption of Christ and by penance.
The exclusion from the earthly paradise also had its meaning, and
was meant to remind man how sin excludes him from the celestial
paradise of heaven. Man had also to labor hard. God said to Adam:
" Cursed is the earth in thy work. With labor and toil thou shalt
eat the fruit thereof all the days of thy life" (Gen iii. 17). Be-
cause of this curse the Church makes use of various blessings on
material things. Woman had to be subject to her husband, because
she had led him into disobedience, and had to bear children in sorrow
because she had involved them in sorrow through her disobedience
The lower animals also received power to injure man. He had revolted
against God, his Master; so it was only just that they should rebel
against him. The devil has also a great influence over man, in ac-
cordance with the saying of Holy Scripture : " By whom a man is
overcome, of the same also he is made the slave " (2 Pet. ii. 19). He
can tempt them more easily and lead them to mortal sin; he can
also injure them in their worldly goods (Cf. Job). He is the prince
of this world, and has the empire of death (Heb. ii. 14). A heavy
yoke lies upon the shoulders of the children of Adam from the day of
their birth to the day of their death (Ecclus. xl. 1). The punish-
ments that God sent upon man were a valuable medicine to counter-
act the effects of sin. Sickness, death, the necessity of labor, and
the subjection of men one to another were intended to check pride
and sensuality, Man was driven out of paradise lest he should
The Apostles' Creed. 161
eat of the tree of life, and so live forever in this valley of tears.
His banishment was also an effective means of leading him to
penance.
4. The sin of our first parents with all its evil consequences
has passed on to their descendants.
Not merely the consequences of sin, but the sin itself, has in some
sense passed on from Adam to his descendants, so that it is true of
all of them that they have sinned in Adam. If it were not so, God
could not with justice have visited that sin upon them. We are all
by nature children of wrath (Eph. ii. 3). But we partake in the sin
of Adam, as the members of the body partake in the sin which the
soul commits through their agency, by putting them in motion to
perform the sinful act. Suppose a king bestows an estate upon one
of his servants, on the condition that the servant remain faithful
to him. He is unfaithful, and thereby loses the estate — not he only,
but also his whole posterity. So it is with original sin. We must
also remember that original sin and all its consequences are not any-
thing positive, but are the absence of that which would otherwise
be present. It is the absence of the supernatural grace of God; of
original justice, with all the privileges and perfections that it carries
with it. When we say that we have sinned in Adam, this does
not mean that we have imitated Adam's sin by some positive act of
our own. All children have sinned in Adam, even though absolutely
free from any personal act of sin.
The sin that we inherit from Adam is called original sin.
We are already tainted with sin before we draw our first breath,
or see the light of day. We are conceived in sin (Ps. 1. 7). Even the
children of Christians are born in sin. Not only the seed of the
wild olive, but also of the cultivated olive comes up as a wild plant.
So is it with the children of Christian as well as of heathen
parents.
Only Jesus Christ and His holy Mother were free from origi-
nal sin.
All mankind save Christ and our blessed Lady were conceived in
sin. St. John the Baptist (Luke i.. 15) and probably the prophet
Jeremias (Jer. i. 5), were born without sin, having been cleansed from
sin in their mothers' womb, but they were not conceived without sin.
Some believe that St. Joseph was also born free from sin. All other
men were cleansed from sin in baptism. The history of man is un-
intelligible to those who do not believe in the doctrine of original
sin. Oh, how great is the misery that original sin has brought into
the world ! Yet how few there are who are conscious of tbeir
misery ! Men are like children born in slavery, who laugh, and play,
and enjoy themselves, as if they were free. It is only the saints, who
know the emptiness of the joys of earth, who lament over the misery
of sin.
162 Faith.
SECOND TO SEVENTH AETICLE OF THE CEEED :
JESUS CHRIST.
1. TEE REDEMPTION.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer, has freed us from the
evil consequences of sin.
Man after the Fall was unable to regain for himself his former
holiness and justice, and all the goods that were bound up with these.
A man whose body is dead cannot raise himself again to bodily life;
so one who is spiritually dead cannot raise himself again to spiritual
life. Man after the Fall became like a sick man who cannot move
hand or foot, or arise from the bed on which he is lying. What the
Good Samaritan was to the man who had fallen among thieves,
Our Lord is to the man who has been wounded by the craft of the
devil and robbed of his spiritual and supernatural gifts. Jesus
Christ is also called Our Saviour or Our Redeemer, because He
saved us from hell and brought us back at the cost of His own
precious blood.
Christ freed us from the spiritual consequences of sin in the
following manner: He enlightened our understanding by His
teaching, inclined our will to good by His precepts and promises,
and by His sacrifice of Himself upon the cross won for us
the means of grace by which we once more attain to sanctifica-
tion and become the children of God and heirs of the kingdom
of heaven.
Christ took upon Himself a threefold office, that of Prophet or
Teacher, Priest, and King. This threefold office he ascribes to Him-
self under various titles. He calls Himself the Light of the world
(John xii. 46), because He enlightens the darkness of our under-
standing by His doctrine. As a light makes distant objects clear
and visible, so Christ makes clear to us the most distant objects,
God and His perfections, the world to come, heaven and hell, time
and eternity. Before Pilate He calls Himself the King Whose king-
dom is not of this world (John xviii. 36). He also calls Himself the
Good Shepherd, Who gives His life for His sheep (John x. 11). He
also often compares Himself to a guide or leader (John xiv. 6 ; Matt.
x. 38). We are wanderers in this world; we have here no abiding
dwelling-place, but seek one that is to come. The road is rough,
steep, and surrounded with precipices, and we in our ignorance are in
constant danger of wandering from the way. Christ undertakes to
be our Guide. He says, " I am the way, the truth, and the life "
(John xiv. 6), and He promises that if we take Him for our Guide,
and follow in His sacred footsteps, we shall never go wrong. St. Paul
calls Christ our great High Priest (Heb. ii. 17), Who needs not,
like other priests, first to offer sacrifices for his own sins, and then
for the people. By His obedience He atoned for Adam's dis-
obedience (Pom. v. 19), for He was obedient to death, even to the
The Apostles' Creed. 163
death of the cross (Phil. ii. 8). Christ opened heaven again to us
by earning for us the means of grace. By which, and especially by
the sacraments and holy Mass, we can obtain sanctifying grace and
be made children of God. In opening heaven to us, Christ tore away
the veil which shut us out from the holy of holies (Matt, xxvii. 51),
i.e., from heaven, and by His blood gave us a sure hope of entering
in (Heb. x. 19). The cross is thus the key of heaven for us.
Christ freed us also from the consequences of sin as it affected
our bodies; He has died instead of us, and has thus earned for
us the resurrection of our bodies; He has by His teaching and
His example taught us what we must do in order to be happy in
this world, to overcome the world, and so to attain to the celestial
paradise; lastly He has given us the means by which we may
vanquish and drive far from us the enemy of our souls.
By His own resurrection Christ insured for us the resurrection of
our bodies. " By man came death, and by man came also the resur-
rection from the dead" (1 Cor. xv. 21). By following the teach-
ing of Christ, we shall secure true peace on earth (Cf. John iv. 13),
and by practising the virtues that He taught us, especially humility,
chastity, and liberality, we shall overcome the devil and the world.
By the sacramentals we drive away from us the evil one. Christ has
broken the power of the devil (Apoc. xii. 10, 11), but the final victory
over him will be at the end of the world (1 Cor. xv. 24, 25 ; Cf. Luke
x. 18). By the death of Christ we have won back almost all that was
lost by original sin, though some of its consequences still remain,
such as sickness, death, and evil tendencies. Yet we have won
more by the death of Christ than we lost by sin. Where sin
abounded, grace did the more abound (Rom. v. 20). Hence the
Church exclaims in the Office for Holy Saturday: "O happy fault,
which obtained for us so great a Redeemer ! "
2. THE PROMISE OF THE REDEEMER.
God forgave fallen man, though He had not forgiven the angels.
Man's sin was not so grievous ; he had less light and knowledge, and
moreover was tempted bv them. Besides, he at once to some extent
confessed and lamented his sin. Lastly God would not, for the guilt
of one, thrust down into eternal banishment from Himself the whole
race of men.
1. Immediately after the Fall God promised man a Redeemer.
For He said to the serpent, " I wall put enmity between
thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed; she shall
crush thy head " (Gen. iii. 15).
The seed of the woman here referred to is Our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the woman is in all probability the Blessed Virgin Mary. There
is to be a complete enmity between Our Lord and His holy Mother
on one side, and the devil and his friends on the other. These
164 Faith.
words of almighty God are a promise that the power of the devil
should be destroyed, and that the whole race of men, who through
original sin had fallen under the power of the devil, in that he had
great influence over them in persuading them to sin, should be freed
from their subjection to him. These words are called the Protevan-
gelium or first Gospel, inasmuch as they are the first promise of a
Redeemer to come. Yet He was not to come at once. Man had to
learn by experience and by suffering the evil of sin, and by seeing
the effects of God's anger against it, e.g., in the Flood, the destruction
of the cities of the plain, in the destruction of the Tower of Babel,
etc.
2. Two thousand years later God promised to Abraham that
the Redeemer should be one of his descendants.
Abraham lived in Ur in Chaldea, and later in Haran in Mesopo-
tamia. He preserved amid the idolatry around him the worship of
the true God. God commanded him to leave his father's house,
and journey forth into a land which was to be shown him. In
reward for his prompt obedience God promised him that in him all
the families of the earth should be blessed (Gen. xii. 2, 3). He
directed his steps towards the fertile land of Palestine, and promised
him a numerous posterity. Abraham is called the father of the faith-
ful (Rom. iv. 11). God repeated the same promise when the three
angels visited Abraham (Gen. xviii. 18), and again when Abraham,
in obedience to God's command, offered up his only son Isaac (Gen.
xxii. 17).
The same promise that God had made to Abraham He re-
peated to Isaac and to Jacob, and one thousand years later to
King David.
God appeared to Isaac when he was about to fly into Egypt on
account of the famine in Palestine (Gen. xxvi. 2 seq.), and to Jacob
when he was flying from his brother Esau, and saw the ladder reach-
ing to heaven (Gen. xxviii. 12), and repeated to each the same prom-
ise. To King David the prophet ISTathan announced, by God's com-
mand, that He would raise up to him a son whose throne should be
established forever (2 Kings vii. 13). The men who belonged to
the family from which Christ was to be born were teamed patriarchs.
All the patriarchs reached a good old age. God h-'d ordained th:s in
order that they might hand down the knowledge of Him to their pos-
terity.
3. At a later time God sent the prophets, and through their
mouth foretold many things about the coming, the birth, the
person, the sufferings, the death, and the final triumph and glory
of the Redeemer.
The prophets were men enlightened by God (men of God), who
spoke to the people of Israel in God's name and with His authority.
Their chief task was to keep the people from sin, and to reprove them
when thev had sinned, and also to prepare the mind of men for the
advent of the Redeemer. They were from different classes in society;
The Apostles* Creed. 165
"saias was of royal blood, Amos was a herdsman, Eiiseus was
called from the plough to the prophetical office. God gave them the
power of working miracles, of foretelling His judgments, and also
of prophesying respecting the Messias. Most of them lived a life of
penance ; they were held in great veneration by the people, but were
persecuted and in many cases suffered a violent death (Matt, xxiii.
30) . There were in all about seventy prophets. Moses was one of the
greatest of the prophets (Deut. xxxiv. 10), and Isaias was greater
still, on account of his clear prophesies respecting the Messias. The
last of the prophets was Malachias, who prophesied about B.C. 450.
Sixteen of the prophets left writing behind them. Four of these are
called the greater prophets (Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel, Daniel) ;
twelve the lesser prophets, on account of the smaller amount of their
writings.
4. Of the advent of the Messias the prophets have given the
following account:
1. The Messias was to be born in Bethlehem.
Micheas says : " Thou Bethlehem Ephrata, art a little one among
the thousands of Juda ; out of thee shall come forth unto me He Who
is to be the Ruler in Israel ; and His going forth is from the beginning
unto the days of eternity" (Mich. v. 2). Hence the three kings were
informed that Christ would be born in Bethlehem (Matt. ii. 5).
2. The Messias was to come at a time when the Temple was
still standing.
When the Jews after their return from captivity began to rebuild
the Temple, the old men who had seen the former Temple began to
weep. They saw from the character of the foundations that the new
Temple would not be as large, nor as beautiful as the old one. The
prophet Aggeus comforted them by telling them that in this new
Temple " the Desired of all nations should come, and fill it with glory"
(Agg. ii. 8-10). But this second Temple was destroyed by Titus
seventy years after Christ, and was never rebuilt.
3. The Messias was to come when the Jews no longer were
an independent kingdom.
Jacob, in blessing his sons before his death, said to Juda : " The
sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, till He come that is to
be sent, and to Him shall be the expectation of the nations " (Gen.
xlix. 10). From this time the tribe of Juda was the leading tribe
(Numb. ii. 3-9). King David was of the tribe of Juda, and so were
his successors up to the captivity in Babylon. Zorobabel, who brought
the Jews back from captivity, was of the same tribe. When the Jews
regained their liberty, they were under the rule of the Maccabees,
who also belonged to Juda. It was not till the year 39 b.c that the
Jewish monarchs were deprived of their sovereignty, and Herod the
Great, a foreigner and a pagan, was raised to the throne by the
authority of the Romans. In the time of Herod a Redeemer was
looked for all over Judea. Herod was alarmed at the inquiry of the
Magi for the new-born King (Matt. ii. 3) ; the Jewish people thought
166 Faith.
that St. John the Baptist was the Messias (Luke iii. 15) ; the Samari-
tan woman to whom Our Lord talked at Jacob's well was looking for-
ward to the advent of the Messias (John iv. 25). The chief priest
conjured Jesus to tell them whether He was the Messias (Matt. xxvi.
63). As many as sixty impostors about this time gave out that they
were the Christ, and deceived many. Even among the heathen there
was, at the time of Christ, an expectation of a deliverer, who would
banish crime and restore peace to the world (Cf. Virg., Eel. 9).
4. The prophet Daniel (605-530) foretold that from the re-
building of Jerusalem (453), until the public appearance of the
Messias, there would be sixty-nine weeks of years, and until the
death of the Messias sixty-nine, and a half weeks of years.
This prediction was revealed to him by the archangel Gabriel,
as he was one day offering the evening oblation, and was praying for
the deliverance of his people out of captivity. Cyrus, in the year
536, gave the Jewish people leave to return to Palestine and to rebuild
their city. In the year 453 the King Artaxerxes gave his cup-bearer
jSTehemias full powers to fortify Jerusalem ; this had not been allowed
by Cyrus, on account of which the Jews had been exposed to the con-
stant attacks of their enemies. JSTow if we add to 453 sixty-nine
weeks of years (483 years) we have the date of the commencement
of Christ's public ministry or if we add sixty-nine and one half
weeks of years (486 V2 years) we have the date of the crucifixion (a.d.
33V2).
5. The Messias was to be born of a virgin of the House of
David.
As a sign God gave to King Achaz the following prophecy : " Be-
hold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and His name shall be
called Emmanuel [God with us]" (Is. vii. 14). And of the tribe of
which the Messias is to be born the prophet Jeremias says, " Behold
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up to David a just
branch, and a king shall reign and shall be wise, and shall execute
judgment and justice on the earth" (Jer. xxiii. 5), and His name
shall be " the Lord our just One."
6. The Messias was to be preceded by a precursor or fore-
runner, who was to preach in the desert, and to live an angelic
life.
Isaias says of this forerunner, that he was to be " the voice of
one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a path for our God " (Is. xl. 3). And God says
through the mouth of Malachias "Behold, I send My angel, and he
shall prepare My way before My face. And presently the Lord,
Whom you seek, shall come to His Temple" (Mai. iii. 1). This pre-
cursor was St. John the Baptist.
7. With the Messias a new star was to appear.
The prophet Balaam announced to the King of Moab, when the
Israelites were approaching : " I shall see Him, but not now ; I shall
The Apostles' Creed. 167
behold Him, but not near; a star shall come out of Jacob, and a
sceptre shall rise up from Israel" (Numb. xxiv. 17).
8. The Messias was to be adored by kings from distant lands,
and they were to bring Him gifts (Ps. lxxi. 10).
9. At the time of the birth of the Messias many children
were to be put to death.
We read in the prophet Jeremias, "A voice was heard on high,
of lamentation and mourning and weeping; of Rachel weeping for
her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are not"
(Jer. xxxi. 15). Rachel here represents the Jewish people. She died
in Bethlehem and was buried there (Gen. xxv. 19).
10. The Messias was to fly to Egypt, and to return again
from thence (Osee xi. 11).
5. Of the person of the Messias the following prophecies had
been uttered:
1. The Messias was to be the Son of God (Ps. ii. 7).
Through the prophet ISTathan God promises David the Redeemer,
and says : " He will call Me Father and I will call Him Son " (2 Kings
vii. 14). In a psalm God addresses the Messias: " Thou art My Son;
this day have I begotten Thee" (Ps. ii. 7).
2. He shall be at the same time both God and man.
Isaias says, " A Child is born to us, and a Son is given to us ; 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).
3. He was to be a great worker of miracles.
" God Himself shall come and save you. Then shall the eyes of the
blind be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then
shall the lame man leap as the hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall
be unstopped" (Is. xxxv. 5-7).
4. He was to be a priest like to Melchisedech.
" The Lord hath sworn and He will not repent : Thou art a priest
forever after the order of Melchisedech" (Ps. cix. 4). Christ offered
bread and wine at the Last Supper, and offers it daily in holy Mass
through the hands of the priests who are His representatives.
5. He was to be a prophet or teacher of the people.
To Moses God had said, "I will raise up unto them a prophet,
out of the midst of thy brethren, like to thee" (Deut. xviii. 18).
Hence the Jews named the Messias, " the Prophet Who was to come
into the world" (John vi. 14). As prophet the Messias was to teach
and to prophesv. He was also to be the teacher of the nations (Is.
xlix. 1-6).
6. He was to be King of a new kingdom (Jer. xxiii. 5),
168 Faith.
which was never to be destroyed, and was to embrace all other
kingdoms (Dan. ii. 44).
This kingdom is the Catholic Church, or the Church of the whole
world. Before Pilate Christ proclaimed Himself a king, and said,
"My kingdom is not of this world," i.e., His kingdom was to be a
spiritual one (John xviii. 36).
6. Of the sufferings of the Messias the prophets spoke as
follows :
1. The Messias was to enter into Jerusalem riding on an ass
(Zach. ix. 9).
2. He was to be sold for thirty pieces of silver. " And I took
the thirty pieces of silver, and I cast them into the house of the
Lord " (Zach. xi. 12, 13).
The words of Zacharias were exactly fulfilled; Judas threw down
the money in the Temple, ,and with it was bought a field belonging
to a potter, as a burying-place for strangers (Matt, xxvii. 5-7) .
3. He was to be betrayed by one who ate at the same table
with Him (Ps. xl. 10).
Judas went out from the Last Supper to betray his Master (John
xiii. 30).
4. His disciples were to forsake Him at the time of His
Passion (Zach. xiii. 7).
5. He was to be mocked (Ps. xxi. 7), beaten, spit upon
(Is. 1. 6), scourged (Ps. lxxii. 14), crowned with thorns (Cant,
iii. 11), and given gall and vinegar to drink (Ps. lxviii. 22).
The chief priests and Scribes at the crucifixion mocked Our Lord,
and said among themselves, "He saved others; Himself He cannot
save" (Mark xv. 31; Cf. v. 29). In the house of Annas a servant gave
Him a blow (John xviii. 22). In the house of Caiphas, when He de-
clared Himself the Son of God, the servants spit upon His face, and
gave Him blows; Pilate had Him scourged (John xix. 1), and handed
Him over to the soldiers, who crowned Him with thorns, put upon Him
a purple robe (in mockery of the imperial purple), struck Him on
the head with a reed, and derided Him (Mark xv. 15-19). On Gol-
gotha they gave Him to drink wine mixed with gall, which, when He
had tasted it, He would not drink (Matt, xxvii. 34).
6. For His garments lots were to be cast (Ps. xxi. 19).
The soldiers divided His garments into four parts, and gave to
each soldier a part. His coat they would not divide, for it was with-
out seam, woven from the top throughout. They therefore cast lots
for it (John xix. 23).
7. His hands and feet were to be pierced with nails (Ps. xxi.
17).
The Apostles' Creed. . 169
Our Lord was really fastened by nails to the cross ; for He showed
to St. Thomas the wounds in His hands and feet, and_ told him to
place his finger in them (John xx. 27). The usual practice was to tie
condemned criminals to the cross with ropes.
8. He was to die between two evil-doers.
The prophet Isaias says : " They shall give the ungodly for Hia
burial, and the rich for His death" (Is. liii. 9). He died between
two highway robbers, who were crucified at the same time with Him
(Luke xxiii. 33).
9. He was to be patient as a lamb in His sufferings (Is. liii.
7), and was to pray for His enemies (Is. liii. 12).
10. He was to die willingly and for our sins (Is. liii. 4-7).
7. Of the glory of the Messias the prophets made the follow-
ing predictions:
1. He was to make His grave with the rich (Is. liii. 9), and it
was to be glorious (Is. xi. 10).
2. His body was not to undergo corruption (Ps. xv. 10).
3. He was to return to heaven (Ps. lxvii. 34), and was to sit
on the right hand of God (Ps. cix. 1).
4. His doctrine was to spread from Jerusalem and from
Mount Sion over the whole world (Joel ii. 28; Is. ii. 3).
The hall of the Last Supper, where the apostles received the Holy
Ghost, was situated on Mount Sion.
5. The heathen nations of the whole earth were to be re-
ceived into His kingdom, and to adore Him (Ps. xxi. 28, 29).
6. The Jewdsh people, who had put the Messias to death,
were to be severelv punished, and scattered over the face of the
earth (Deut. xxviii. 64).
The city of Jerusalem was to be destroyed as well as the Temple ;
the Jewish sacrifices and the Jewish priesthood were to cease, and the
Temple was never to be rebuilt (Dan. ix. 26, 27; Osee iii. 4).
7. In every place throughout the world, a " clean oblation "
(holy Mass) was to be offered to Him (Mai. i. 11).
8. He will one day judge all men (Ps. cix. 6). Before the
Dav of Judgment Elias will be again sent on the earth (Mai.
iv. 5).
8. The Messias was announced through many types.
The twilight announces the approach of the sun; so the lives of
the patriarchs announced and foreshadowed the coming of Christ.
Almost all the cprpmorries of thp t^bornacle foreshadowed the cere-
monies of the religion of Christ (Col. ii. 16, 17). The relation of the
whole of the Old Testament to the 3Tew is that of the shadow to the
170 Faith.
substance (Heb. x. 1), of the image to the object that it represents.
The ancient covenant was the veil which concealed the new. The
persons and things which thus represent in the Old Testament the
persons and things of the New, are called types.
The types of the Messias were as follows : Abel, ]SToe, Mel-
chisedech, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Jonas, the arch-
angel Raphael, the paschal lamb, the offering on the Day of
Atonement, the brazen serpent, and the manna.
Abel was the first of just men ; Christ the first of the saints ; Abel
was a shepherd and offered to God an acceptable offering; he was
gentle as a lamb, but he was hated by his brother and murdered by
him. Noe was the only just man among all those around him; Christ
alone was without sin. Noe amid his course of preaching built the
ark; so Christ the Church. ISToe saved the human race from temporal
death; so Christ from eternal death. Noe's sacrifice on his quitting
the ark was the beginning of a new covenant ; so Christ's on leaving
the world. Melchisedech, i.e., king of justice, was King of Salem, i.e.,
King of peace; Christ was both King and Priest; He offered to God
bread and wine. Isaac was the only-begotten and well-beloved
son of his father. He himself carried the wood on which he was to
be sacrificed, and offered himself willingly; he was restored to his
father, and from him sprang a countless offspring. Jacob was perse-
cuted by his brother, but afterwards was reconciled to him. Though
the son of a rich father he wandered in a strange land and there
won his bride by long service; so Christ the Church. He had twelve
sons, of whom one was the beloved son ; so Christ had twelve disciples,
of whom St. John was the beloved disciple. Joseph, the well-beloved
son of his father, was hated by his brethren, and sold by them for a
few pieces of silver; after great humiliation he was raised to the
highest honor, and by his counsel saved the whole people from death.
Heralds proclaimed that all should bow the knee before him and he
was reconciled to his brethren. Moses when a little child, escaped the
cruel command of the king, spent his youth in Egypt, fasted forty
days before the publication of the ancient law, freed the Israelites
from slavery, and brought them to the Promised Land, worked mir-
acles in proof of his divine mission, interceded for the people to God
(Exod. xxxii. 11 ; Numb. xiv. 13) ; appeared on Mount Sinai with a
shining countenance (as Christ on Thabor), and was the mediator of
the ancient covenant. David was born in Bethlehem, spent his youth
in a humble state, vanquished the giant Goliath, the enemy of the
people of the Lord; was King of Israel, had much to suffer, and
triumphed over all his enemies. Jonas was three days and three
nights in the belly of the whale (Matt. xii. 40), and preached penance
to the jSTinivites. The archangel Gabriel came down from heaven to
conduct safely on his journey one of the children of men; delivered
Tobias from blindness, and Sara from the devil. The paschal lamb
was slain just before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt,
and therefore on the Friday preceding the paschal Sabbath; it was
offered to God and afterwards eaten; it was to be without spot,
and in the prime of its age; not a bone of it was to be broken (John
xix. 36) ; its blood sprinkled on the posts of the door preserved from
The Apostles' Creed. 171
temporal death, as the blood of Christ from spiritual death. It was
eaten on the eve of the departure of the Israelites to the Promised
Land ; so Our Lord is given as Viaticum on our departure for heaven.
The emissary goat on the day of expiation was presented by the
high priest before the Lord, and the priest then laid his hands upon
its head, in order thereby to signify that the sins of all the people
were transferred to it, and it was then driven out to die in the desert
(Lev. xvi. 10). So Christ had the sins of the whole world laid upon
Him, and passed from heaven into the desert of this sinful world
to die for us. The brazen serpent in the desert was set up on a piece
of wood, and all who looked upon it were healed of the bite of the
fiery serpents (Numb. xxi. 6-9). So Christ was raised up on the wood
of the cross, and all who look to Him with faith and hope are saved
from the deadly effects of sin. Hence Our Lord says : " As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be
lifted up, that whoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may
have life everlasting " (John iii. 14, 15). Lastly the manna is a type
of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar; it was white and
small, came down from heaven every day, was to be consumed in the
early morning, was given only during the journey through the desert,
and contained in itself all sweetness. In all these things it resembles
the Blessed Sacrament. Our Lord says that there is this difference
between the manna and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar: that
Moses did not give the Israelites bread from heaven, but that the
Blessed Sacrament is the bread that came down from heaven, and
giveth life to the world (John vi. 32, 33).
3. PREPARATION OF MANKIND FOR THE REDEEMER.
1. God chose for Himself a special nation, and prepared it for
the coming of a Redeemer; this chosen people was the seed of
Abraham, usually called by the name of Israelites, or Jews.
Cf. the call of Abraham (Gen. xii.) ; the Jews to be a priestly
nation (Exod. xix. 6). JSTo rejection of the other nations is implied in
this election of the Jews, for every renewal of the promise of a Re-
deemer recalled a blessing that all the nations were to share (Gen.
xii. 3; xxvi. 4; xxviii. 14).
The ways by which God prepared His chosen people for the
Redeemer's advent were: the infliction of heavy trials, the im-
position of severe laws, the performance for them of miracles,
and the giving of a series of prophecies.
The sensuality of the chosen people had to be combated by many
trials, such as Pharao's edict against the children, hunger and
thirst in the desert, the fiery serpents, the attacks of their enemies,
and their long exile. This same sensuality and insensibility required
that the law should be promulgated with the awe-inspiring accom-
paniments of thunder and lightning. Idolatry was another sin to
which the chosen people were prone, as we see in the incident of the
golden calf (Exod. xxxii. 1), so miracles were called in to strengthen
1W Faith.
their faith and trust in God, such as those performed in Egypt, in
the passage of the Red Sea and the Jordan, the manna in the desert,
the water drawn from the dry rock, and the falling down of the walls
of Jericho, etc. The prophesies tended in the same direction, as well
as to maintain the desire of the coming Redeemer.
Of the history of the Jewish people the following facts are
known to us:
1. The descendants of Abraham first dwelt in Palestine, and
went later to Egypt, where they remained for the space of four
hundred years, and were cruelly oppressed.
About the year 2000 B.C., God called Abraham and bade him settle
in Palestine; here he had a son, Isaac, who was the father of Esau
and Jacob; Jacob secured Esau's birthright and had to fly in conse-
quence. Jacob (also called Israel) had twelve sons, of whom cne was
Joseph, who being sold into Egypt became the ruler of the land under
the king, invited his relatives, some sixty-six in number, to join him,
giving them the fertile district of Goshen, lying eastwards of the Nile
delta, to dwell in (about 1900 B.C.). Here the Jews increased greatly
in numbers and had much to endure later from the Egyptian kings.
2. Under the leadership of Moses, the Israelites left Egypt
and wandered in the desert for forty years.
Some 2,000,000 people crossed the Red Sea (about 1500 B.C.) into
the Arabian desert, where they were fed with manna and received
the Ten Commandments. Moses died on Mount Nebo.
3. Under Josue they entered the Promised Land, but had to
fight under their Judges for over three hundred years, against
their enemies (1450-1100 b.c).
Josue, the successor of Moses, divided the land among the twelve
tribes. The Judges were men raised by God for times of special
need, such, for instance, as Gedeon, Jephte, Samson and Samuel.
4. The Israelites were then ruled over by kings, Saul, David,
and Solomon being especially famous (1100-975 b.c).
Saul was unhappy in his career and died a suicide. David, his
successor (1055-1015), was distinguished for his piety; he composed
many of the Psalms and received from God the promise that the Re-
deemer should be of his family. On two occasions he fell into
grievous sin and was visited with severe chastisements. His son and
successor Solomon built the Temple of Jerusalem (1013), and was
known far and wide for his wisdom and splendor.
5. After Solomon's death the kingdom was divided into
two parts, forming the kingdom of Israel in the north (975-722)
and Juda in the south (975-588).
Solomon's son, Roboam, alienated the ten northern tribes by his
taxations, and only the two southern tribes, Juda and Benjamin, re-
mained to form the kingdom of Juda.
The Apostles' Creed. 173
6. Both kingdoms fell away from the true God, and were in
consequence destroyed, and their inhabitants led away into cap-
tivity.
Israel had nineteen kings, who led the people into idolatry in
spite of the efforts of the prophets. At last, Salmanasar, in 722, de-
stroyed the kingdom and carried the people away into the Assyrian
captivity; the fall of the Assyrian power brought the exiles under the
dominion of the Babylonians and in 538 under that of the Persian
king Cyrus. The kingdom of Juda had twenty kings, and held out
longer, but was finally reduced by l^abuchodonosor ; the people were
led away into captivity (606 and 599) and Jerusalem and the Temple
destroyed.
7. After the return from the captivity (536) the Jews lived
in peace until they came, in 203, under the power of Antiochus,
King of Syria.
From the year 606 the inhabitants of Juda and Israel dwelt under
the same ruler, and came to be known indifferently as Jews. Cyrus,
who obtained possession of the Babylonian kingdom in 538, gave per-
mission two years later to the Jews to return and rebuild their Tem-
ple; some 42,000 Jews availed themselves of this concession to return
under Zorobabel to Jerusalem, where they raised a new Temple after
twenty years of work; in the year 453 Artaxerxes allowed them to
build walls; they still remained for about two hundred years under
Persian dominion and were well treated. Alexander the Great and
his successors then had the mastery, till the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes IV., who began a religious persecution, putting the
Machabean brothers and Eleazar to death, and placing idols in the
Temple.
8. The Jews regained their freedom after a bloody war, and
were again ruled for one hundred years by Jewish kings, from
140 to 39 b.c.
Machabeus and his five sons helped the Jews to shake off the Syrian
yoke. Simon, one of the Machabees, reigned as high priest and king
in 140, and was succeeded by his descendants till the advent of
Pompey in 64, who reduced the Jewish king to the subjection of
Rome.
9. In 38 b.c, a Gentile, Herod, became King of Judea.
As Judea was always a focus of rebellion, the Jewish king was de-
posed and replaced by Herod, the first of the kings who was not a
Jew. He it was who massacred the children at Bethlehem. At his
death he was succeeded by his son Herod Antipas, who put
John the Baptist to death and treated Our Lord as a fool. His
successor was his uncle Herod Agrippa the Great, who beheaded
St. James the Elder, and cast St. Peter into prison. He usurped
the name of God and died a miserable death, eaten bv worms,
in 44 a.d. In 70 a.d. Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus, and the Jews
scattered among the nations.
174 Faith.
2. The other nations of the earth were prepared for the coming
of the Redeemer by contact with the chosen people, or by the in-
fluence of exceptionally gifted men, or by other extraordinary
methods.
The ordinary intercourse of trade, as well as the enforced exile,
afforded means of contact with the heathen, and that this was not
unfruitful we learn from Tobias. " Give glory to the Lord, ye chil-
dren of Israel . . . because He hath therefore scattered you among
the Gentiles, who know not Him, that you may declare His wonder-
ful works and make them know that there is no other almighty God
besides Him " (Tob. xiii. 3, 4). Such men as Socrates, in Greece, had
their mission in decrying the cult of idols, and exhibiting in their
persons the virtues of courage, gentleness, and moderation; we might
enumerate also Job in Arabia, Joseph in Egypt, Jonas in ISTinive,
Daniel in Babylon and others. The virtues of such men, their cour-
age in confessing the true God, and the miracles by which their pro-
fession was verified, as, for instance, the cases of the children in the
furnace of Nabuchodonosor and Daniel in the lions' den, furnished
abundant motives to the heathen for discerning the true God; and
that this was the case is corroborated by the numbers of proselytes.
Besides all these, other methods were not left untried ; e.g., the mirac-
ulous star which led the three Magi to Bethlehem (Matt. ii. 2), the
angel's message to Cornelius the centurion (Acts x. 3), the myste-
rious handwriting on the wall of the palace where Baltassar was pro-
faning the sacred vessels (Dan. v. 2), the dream of ISTabuchodonosor
(Dan. ii.), the prophecy of Balaam's ass, etc.
3. Before the arrival of the Redeemer God permitted that man-
kind should experience the deepest misery, in order to rouse it to
a longing for a Redeemer.
The greatest dissension reigned among the Jews; three different
sects claimed precedence: the Sadducees, the moneyed class, denied
eternal life; the Pharisees adhered rigidly to the written law; the
Essenes withdrew entirely from the world and led a life of strict
penance. Among the heathen there was a general ignorance of any
religious life, together with monstrous immorality. The gods, ac-
cording to Hesiod, were too numerous to be counted and were indif-
ferently idols, or men of abominable lives, or even animals, whose
worship was signalized by scenes of debauchery and human sacrifices ;
heathens were not wanting who recognized the sad state of affairs;
Horace, for instance, in one of his odes bewails the civil wars, and
prays the virgin-born Son to come and reign among His people.
Long before him Socrates had expressed the wish that some mediator
should come from heaven to teach man his duty to God. Jacb (Gen.
xlix. 10) and the prophets (Agg. ii. 8) only echoed the popular feel-
ing when they called the Redeemer " the expectation of the nations."
As in nations, so is God's action to be seen in individuals, and the
struggles of a St. Paul and a St. Augustine served to make them
more open to the action of the Holy Ghost and more zealous in their
conversion to God.
The Apostles' Creed. 175
f THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REDEEMER.
1. The Redeemer lived some nineteen hundred years ago and
remained thirty-three years on the earth.
In the early Christian times the date was reckoned by the
consuls of the year.
From the time of the great Christian persecution under Dio-
cletian, the Christians began to reckon their years from the accession
of that tyrant (the era of the martyrs). Dionysius Exiguus, in 525,
was the first to reckon from the Annunciation of Our Lady, i.e., the
conception of Christ. Charlemagne introduced the custom of dating
from the birth of Christ. There is an error, however, of four years,
so that Christ was actually born four years before the year 1 of the
Christian era.
The time preceding Christ is known as that of the Old Tes-
tament or the Old Law, that following as the New Testament or
New Law (Heb. ix. 15-17).
The word testament is appropriate as expressing the will of God,
recalling the legacy of the Promised Land to the Jews, and to Chris-
tians, the one sealed with the blood of animals, the other with the
blood of Christ.
2. The work of the Redeemer was confined for the most part
to Palestine.
Palestine is the ancient Chanaan, known later as Judea or the
" land of promise " or the " holy land," made holy by the presence of
Christ. Its small extent (it was only about half the size of Switzer-
land) had many counterbalancing advantages; its central position
adapted it for the spreading of the true religion, its fertility in the
midst of the surrounding desert made it independent of other nations,
and secured its inhabitants from undesirable intercourse with the
heathen. The population in the time of Our Lord was about 5,000,-
000, of whom 1,000,000 lived at Jerusalem. At the present day the
whole population is only half a million, and in Jerusalem hardlv
25,000.
Palestine is situated on the Mediterranean, and includes both
banks of the Jordan.
The boundaries of Palestine are : Phoenicia on the north, the desert
on the east, Arabia on the south, and the Mediterranean on the
west. The Jordan, a river varying from eighty to one hundred
and fifty feet in width, the scene of the passage of the Jews and
the baptism of Our Lord, flows in a turbid, yellow current, and
passes through the little lake of Merom and the lake of Genesareth,
the scene of so many of Christ's labors, and finally into the Dead
Sea, the site of Sodom and Gomorrha. On its way it receives the
brooks Karith and Cedron.
The divisions of Palestine are: in the south, Judea;, in the
176 Faith.
centre, Samaria; in the north, Galilee, and in the east, beyond
the Jordan, Perasa, Ituraea, and the district of Trachonitis.
The inhabitants of Judea were the firmest adherents of the true
faith; those of Samaria had given themselves up to the worship of
idols, and the Galileans, especially in the north, were in part pagans,
despised by the Jews as well on that account as for their uncouth
dialect.
The most important city of Palestine was Jerusalem, where
the Temple stood.
Jerusalem (i.e., City of Peace), is situate on four hills, of which
the highest is Sion, lying westward of the hill of Acre, with the pool
of Siloe lying south; to the north is Mount Moriah, on which the
Temple stood, and further still to the north is the hill of Bezetha and
the modern town. Westward of Moriah is Golgotha or Calvary.
These hills lie between two valleys, of which the westward is called
Hinnom (or hell, because there the Jews used to sacrifice their chil-
dren to Moloch), and the eastern, the valley of Josaphat (or judgment
of God, on account of the tradition that God would judge the world
there). To the east of the valley of Josaphat is the Mount of Olives
and the Garden of Gethsemani. Jerusalem was in existence at the
time of Melchisedech, who reigned there about 2000 B.C.; it became,
under David (about 1000 B.C.), the residence of the Jewish kings;
about four hundred years later (in 588 B.C.) it was destroyed by
ISTabuchodonosor, restored again about fifty years later (536 B.C.), and
again destroyed by the Romans under Titus in the year 70 a.d. The
Temple in Our Lord's time was a magnificent and imposing building
(Cf. Mark xiii. 1) of white stone; it had an outer court, the court
of the Gentiles, and an inner, the court of the priests, containing the
altar of burnt offerings. Within this court again was the Temple
proper, a building of about thirty metres in length, ten in breadth,
and fifteen in height, with a flat roof of cedar. The Temple proper
consisted of the vestibule, the holy place, and the holy of holies ; the
walls of the two last places were covered with solid plates of gold
and the two chambers were separated by a veil, the veil of the Temple.
In the holy of holies, between two great golden cherubim, lay the ark
of the covenant containing the tables of the law, Aaron's staff, and
the manna; and here in a cloud rested the majesty of God, the
Shecbinah. The Temple was built by Solomon about 1000 B.C.,
was destroyed by ISTabuchodonosor in 588 B.C., and in 516fwas rebuilt
by Zorobabel on the return from the Babylonian exile (though the
ark was no longer there), and was restored again by Herod in the
time of Christ. In the year 64 a.d., the restoration was complete, till
the Romans came in 70 a.d., and destroyed the building. Julian the
Apostate endeavored to rebuild it in 361, but an earthquake cast down
the works, and fire coming from the earth drove away the workmen.
The Temnle will never be rebuilt till the end of the world (Dan. ix.
27).
Besides Jerusalem the towns of Bethlehem and Nazareth de-
serve mention.
The Apostles' Creed. 177
Places of interest in Judea: South of Jerusalem lies Bethlehem,
the birthplace of Christ; further south still is Hebron, where dwelt
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the parents of St. John the Baptist ;
east of Jerusalem is Bethany, the village where Lazarus dwelt, and
the desert of Quarantania, where Our Lord went through His forty-
days' fast. Northeast of Jerusalem is Jericho, the city of palms, the
abode of Zacheus, the penitent tax-gatherer; north of Jerusalem is
Emmaus, where Our Lord appeared to His two disciples after the
resurrection; on the seacoast is Joppe, famous in the annals of the
crusades, where Peter restored Tabitha to life and was summoned to
receive the Gentile centurion, Cornelius ; further to the south and ex-
tending along the coast is the district which was formerly the land of
the Philistines, with its towns of Gaza and Ascalon; westward of the
Dead Sea is the desert of Inda, otherwise called the desert of St.
John. Places of interest in Samaria: The capital Samaria is situ-
ated near the centre of the district; south of it is Jacob's well, near
Sicham, where Our Lord spoke with the Samaritan woman; eastward
is Garizim, where the Samaritans had a temple dedicated to the serv-
ice of idols; in the south is Siloe, where from the time of Josue,
the tables of the law were kept for over three hundred and fifty years ;
along the coast of the Mediterranean stretches the fertile plain of
Sharon ; by the sea is situated Csesarea, the residence of the gover-
nors. In the northwest, close by the sea and on the boundary, is
Mount Carmel, rising some thousand feet, its fertility, beauty, and
numerous caves making it peculiarly adapted to the wants of the her-
mits who dwelt there ; it was the scene of the sacrifice of Elias and of
the priests of Baal. Places of interest in Galilee: Nazareth, or the
city of flowers, the residence of the Mother of God at the time of the
Annunciation, and of Christ till His thirtieth year. South of it is
Mount Thabor, where the transfiguration took place, and Nairn,
where Christ restored the young man to life. East of Nazareth is
Cana, where Christ performed His first miracle at the wedding-feast.
On the lake of Genesareth are situated : Capharnaum, " Christ's own
city," in which He dwelt and where He worked so many miracles,
e.g., the cure of the centurion's son, and the raising of the daughter
of Jairus; here, too, He promised the institution of the Blessed
Sacrament and called the apostle Matthew ; to the south is Bethsaida,
whence came the apostles Andrew and Philip; then comes Magdala,
the dwelling-place of the sinner Magdalen; Tiberias is also a town
on this lake. In the north of Galilee is Csesarea Philippi, where
Peter received the power of the keys. Quite beyond the boundaries
of Galilee, in Phoenicia, on the coast, are the two cities of Tyre and
Sidon, more than once visited by Christ. On the borders of Galilee
is the range of the Lebanon, ascending to 10,000 meters, and covered
with perpetual snow; not more than three hundred cedars remain
of its once famous forest; to the east is Hermon, rising about 9500
metres; and still further east is Damascus, in the neighborhood of
which St. Paul was converted. Places of interest in Persea : Close by
the Dead Sea, and eastward of the mouth of the Jordan, near to Beth-
abara is the place where St. John baptized; here he pointed out
Christ and called Him the Lamb of God; further to the east is Mount
Nebo, on which Moses died ; south of the lake of Genesareth is Pellr ,
178 Faith.
the refuge of the Christians during the siege of Jerusalem in the
year 70 a.d.
5. JESUS OF NAZARETH IS THE REDEEMER OR
CHRIST.
The Jews called the coming Redeemer the Messias (in Hebrew),
or the Christ (in Greek), i.e., the Anointed One. The " anointed
of the Lord " was the usual epithet among the Jews for prophets,
high priests, and kings, because they were anointed in sign of their
mission on their appointment to office, and this anointing symbol-
ized the light and strength of the Holy Ghost, and reminded them of
the duty of clemency. The coming Messias was to be prophet, priest,
and king, all in one, and the greatest of them all, hence it was usual
to call Him simply, " the anointed of the Lord." This unction of the
Messias was not a physical, exterior act, but the interior dwelling of
the Holy Spirit (Ps. xliv. 8; Acts x. 38).
1. Jesus of Nazareth is the Redeemer, because all the proph-
ecies have their fulfilment in Him.
Jesus often appealed to this circumstance (John v. 39; Luke
xviii. 31), especially in His conversation with the two disciples on
the way to Emmaus (Luke xxiv. 26). St. Matthew points out in his
gospel how the prophecies are fulfilled in Christ. Many Jews have
been converted on comparing the life of Christ with the prophecies.
2. Jesus of Nazareth is the Messias, because the kingdom
founded by Him on earth has been enduring.
The success of many of those who claimed to be the Messias has
ever been merely temporary ; but Jesus of Nazareth has had His fol-
lowers in every age. Had His kingdom, the Church, been the work of
men, it would have been destroyed long ago. That it has survived,
in spite, too, of so much persecution, is a proof that it is God's work,
and that its founder must be the heaven-sent Messias (Cf. the words
of Gamaliel, Acts v. 38).
3. Jesus Himself claimed the name of Redeemer.
On the occasion of His conversation with the Samaritan
woman, and in presence of the high priest Caiphas.
The Samaritan woman said to Christ at the well : " I know that
the Messias cometh Who is called Christ," and Christ replied : " I am
He Who am speaking with thee" (John iv. 25, 26). The high priest
Caiphas said to Christ : " I adjure Thee by the living God that Thou
tell us if Thou be Christ the Son of God," and Christ answered:
"Thou hast said it" (Matt. xxvi. 64). On another occasion St.
Peter was commended for calling Him " the Christ, the Son of the
living God " (Matt. xvi. 16).
4. The angels announced Him as the Redeemer.
When they appeared to the shepherds near Bethlehem, and
in St. Joseph's vision.
The Apostles' Creed. 179
An angel stood by the shepherds and said : " Fear not, for behold
I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people;
for this day is born to you a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord"
(Luke ii. 10). When St. Joseph was thinking of dismissing our
blessed Lady, an angel appeared to him in sleep and announced the
birth of Christ : " Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins" (Matt. i. 21). Since Jesus of
Nazareth is the Christ or Messias, He is called Jesus Christ, and this
is the name He Himself uses in John xvii. 3.
6. THE LIFE OF CHRIST.
The Childhood of Christ.
The birth of Christ was announced by the archangel Gabriel
to the Blessed Virgin Mary at Nazareth (Luke i. 28).
This event is commemorated by the feast of the Annunciation,
which is kept on the twenty-fifth of March, by the Angelus, and in
the first words of the Hail Mary. After the angel's salutation Our
Lady set out to visit her cousin, St. Elizabeth, who greeted her with
the words contained in the second part of the Hail Mary, and Our
Lady replied in the solemn words of the Magnificat (Luke i.). The
visitation is kept on the second of July, immediately after the
octave of the nativity of St. John Baptist. St. Joseph also was
warned of the birth of Christ by an angel (Matt. i. 18-25), when
debating on the advisability of putting away Our Lady.
1. Christ was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a stable
at Bethlehem.
Mary and Joseph had to repair to their native place of Bethlehem
to be enrolled in the census which was being held by command of the
Emperor Augustus. They were obliged to seek refuge in a stable,
because there was no room for them in Bethlehem (Luke ii. 7). As
in the conception, so in the birth of Christ, was exception made to
the ordinary course of nature. Mary was free from the penalties
described in Gen. iii. 16, because, as St. Bernard says, she alone had
conceived without carnal pleasure. St. Augustine exclaims : " Behold
He Who rules the world lies in a manger. He Who feeds the angels
is suckled by His Mother. Strength becomes weak, that weakness
may be made strong ;" and again, " A great Physician came down
from heaven to heal a great disease on earth; He healed in a
way hitherto unheard of, for He took our ills on Himself." " Being
rich He became poor, that through His poverty we might be made
rich" (2 Cor. viii. 9). Every circumstance attending the birth of
Christ has a deep meaning. Christ was born at Bethlehem (the
house of bread) because, as St. Jerome says, He is the living bread.
He is born far away from His home in Nazareth because He de-
scended from heaven, His true home, and is a stranger among men.
He is born amid the shepherds and their flocks, because He is to be
the " Good Shepherd " (John x. 11) of a great flock. He is born in a
stable, because the earth in comparison of heaven is but a stable,
180 Faith.
He is born not in a house, but in a stable, that all might have con-
fidence and approach Him, says St. Peter Chrysologus. He is born
in obscurity, because He is the " hidden God " (Is. xlv. 15), Whom we
cannot see in this life, and Who loves good deeds done in secret. He
is laid in a manger, where cattle feed, because He was to be the
food of man ; and He is laid on the wood to recall to us that He came
down from heaven to die on the cross. So too He dwells in our tab-
ernacles. He is born at midnight, because the greater portion of man-
kind was buried in darkness, and knew nothing of the true God. He
is born in the winter season, and- at night (notice that the nights in
Palestine are particularly cold), because the hearts of men were cold,
unwarmed yet with the fire of charity. Christ drops from heaven in
the night time like the dew (Cf. Is. xlv. 8), to refresh the hearts of
men. At the time of His birth the temple of Janus in Pome was closed,
and there was peace over all the earth, because Christ was the Prince
of peace (Is. ix. 6) ; and the God of peace (1 Cor. xiv. 33), i.e., Our
Lord, came as a little child that man might approach Him with more
confidence; had He come as a great king, men would have shrunk
away, while as a child He invited, not awe, but sympathy. Christ
comes in poverty and renunciation to teach us that the road to
heaven is the way of suffering and self -conquest, not of pleasure and
self-indulgence. Besides this He would show that He is the Friend
of the poor to whom He is appointed to preach the Gospel (Luke iv.
18). A light appeared to the shepherds to remind us that the Light
of the world is come (John viii. 12), Who is to shine in the midst of
the darkness (John i. 5). The hymn of the angels is the keynote of
His mission, to glorify God (John xiii. 32), and to give peace to men
(John xiv. 27), especially peace with God, reconciling man to God by
His death on the cross, peace with self, the true peace which comes
from the knowledge and practice of the Gospel, and peace with the
neighbor by the virtues of brotherly love, love of one's enemy, and
meekness. He announced His birth by the voice of an angel to the
shepherds, and not to the proud Pharisees and Scribes, because He
would hide His mysteries from the wise and prudent and reveal them
to the little ones (Matt. xi. 25) ; because He gives His graces to the
humble and resists the proud (1 Pet. v. 5). Such, too, is the disposi-
tion of God's providence in all time; to the proud, whatever their
learning, the teachings of Christ are a sealed book, while the lowly
and humble receive God's light. The first to receive the call to the
crib were the Jews in the person of the shepherds, and after them
the Gentiles, in the persons of the three kings; all to signify that
Christ would first call into His Church the Jews (Matt. xv. 24), and
afterwards the Gentiles by means of His apostles. The wonderful
star in the East was to announce that Christ " the wonderful " (Is.
ix. 6) had come down from heaven. The census of the people at the
time of His birth reminds us of the great enrolment which will take
place at His second coming. " Christ begins to teach us in His birth
even before uttering a word." " The deeds of the Lord are com-
mands; if He does anything in silence, He means that we should imi-
tate Him," is the comment of St. Gregory the Great.
In the liturgv of the Church we celebrate Our Lord's birth on the
twenty-fifth of December (Christmas Day). On that day every priest
The Apostles' Creed. 18 1
has the privilege of saying three Masses, which recall the threefold
birth of Christ : the eternal birth from God the Father, the birth in
time from the womb of Mary, and His spiritual birth in our hearts.
A crib is generally erected in most churches, a practice originated
by St. Francis of Assisi. In many households there is kept up the
custom of the Christmas-tree, a reminder of the fatal tree of para-
dise, and also of the tree of the cross. The Christmas-boxes recall to
our minds the gifts of God the Father to mankind on this day. Im-
mediately following Christmas are the feasts of St. Stephen, St.
John, and the Holy Innocents, as though the Church would say : " If
you would follow Christ, you must become a martyr like St. Stephen,
if not to the shedding of blood, at least to the denial of self and the
bearing of suffering. You must love God and your neighbor like St.
John, and do works of mercy; and finally you must be like a child
with God."
The new-born Child is adored first by the shepherds and
then by the Magi.
The shepherds were told by an angel of the birth of the Saviour
(Luke ii. 9) ; the three kings were led to Him by a star (Matt. ii. 9).
This star was something exceptional, for it had a proper motion of
its own in the heavens; according to St. John Chrysostom, it may
have been an angel, under the appearance of a star. Catherine Em-
merich, in her revelations, says that this star had various aspects;
at times it appeared as a child carrying a cross, or a woman with a
child ; again as a chalice with grapes and wheat ornamenting it, as a
church, or forming the word Judea, etc. St. Irenasus remarks that
the presents indicated their esteem of Him to Whom the three kings
offered them. Gold, the symbol of homage, is offered to Him as
King; incense, the symbol of prayer, because He is God; and myrrh,
the symbol of mortification, because as Our Redeemer, He was to
suffer. The Magi returned to their homes by another way, " to
show us," says St. Gregory the Great, " that if we wish to reach our
true home in paradise we must forsake the path in which we have
hitherto walked, and tread in the way of penance, obedience, and
self-denial." The shepherds represented the Jews and the poor; the
three kings the Gentiles and the rich. The relics of the three kings
were taken from the East to Cologne in 1162 by Barbarossa, and now
repose in the Cathedral there. The feast of the three kings is held
on the sixth of January. In many countries there still exists the cus-
tom of blessing on this day the water of the three kings, and the
blessing of chalk and salt is not unusual. The initials of the names
of the three kings are sometimes marked on the doors of houses to
claim their patronage. This feast is called also the Epiphany, be-
cause in former times the birth of Christ, or appearance of Christ
to mankind, was celebrated on this day. Hence in the Greek Church
the season of Advent is prolonged till the Epiphany. This day is
also celebrated as the one on which Christ was baptized in the Jor-
dan, and performed His first miracle at Cana.
When the Child was eight days old He was circumcised, and
received the name Jesus (Luke ii. 21).
182 Faitk
Jesus (in Hebrew Joshua or Josue) means Saviour. This name
is, as St. Paul says, above all names (Phil. ii. 9), for it was chosen by
God Himself and revealed to the Virgin Mary (Matt. i. 21). More-
over the holy name has great virtue; its invocation brings help in
temptation and affliction; the powers of hell shrink from it (Mark
xvi. 17). The name usually given by the prophets was Emmanuel,
i.e., "God with us" (Is. vii. 14). The feast of the Circumcision on
the first of January is also New Year's Day. The Church would thus
teach us to begin everything in the name of Jesus. Innocent XII.,
in 1691, was the first to order the practice of beginning the New Year
on the first of January ; previously it had been Christmas Day. It is
a pious custom in many places to have a solemn thanksgiving service
and to sing the Te Deum on the last day of the year, in thanksgiving
for past favors.
When the Child was forty days old, He was presented in the
Temple (Luke ii. 39).
Mary complied with the law of Moses (Lev. xii.), though, being
free from sin, she needed no purification. The feast of the Purifica-
tion is called also Candlemas; on that day candles are blessed, and
carried in procession in memory of these words of holy Simeon call-
ing Our Lord the " light for the revelation of the Gentiles " (Luke ii.
32).
2. Christ spent the first years of His childhood in Egypt, and
after that lived at Nazareth till He was thirty.
An angel told Joseph to fly because Herod was seeking to kill the
Child (Matt. ii. 13). After the escape of Our Lord Herod put to
death all the children in Bethlehem under two years of age. This
was a judgment on the people of Bethlehem for their refusal of hospi-
tality to the Holy Family; the little children themselves gained by
their death the joys of heaven. In Egypt there is still to be seen the
dwelling-place of the Holy Family in a suburb of Cairo, the ancient
Heliopolis. The land so sanctified by the presence of Our Lord be-
came later the abode of thousands of monks, who led lives like to
those of the angels; men such as, for instance, St. Anthony and St.
Paul of Thebes ; here St. Pachomius founded the first monastery, on
an island of the Nile. After His return from Egypt Christ went to
live in Nazareth, a place of little esteem among the Jews, therefore
useful in teaching us the lesson of humility ; and for thirty years He
stayed there that we might learn from Him the lesson of detachment
from the world.
When Christ was twelve years old He went up to the Temple
in Jerusalem.
It was on this occasion that He made the doctors of the law
marvel at His wisdom (Luke ii. 47).
When Christ was grown up John the Baptist began to preach
His coming in the desert.
We have the following facts about John the Baptist. The arch-
The Apostles* Creed. 183
angel Gabriel announced his approaching birth to Zachary at the
hour of sacrifice in the Temple ; and when the latter was incredulous
he was struck dumb (Luke L). regaining his speech at the birth of St.
John and using it to proclaim the noble canticle of the Benedictus
(Luke i. 68-79). St. John spent his life in the desert in penance and
preparation for his office as forerunner of the Eedeemer. When
Christ had reached His twenty-eighth year (Luke iii. 1), the Baptist
came from his solitude, and preached to the Jews who flocked to him
on the banks of the Jordan, the doctrine of penance and baptism
(Matt. iii.). It was he who pointed out Christ : " Behold the Lamb of
God Who taketh away the sins of the world " (John i. 29). His cour-
ageous rebuke to Herod caused him to be cast into prison (Matt. xiv.
4), and later to be beheaded (Matt. xiv. 10). He, like Elias, is the
forerunner and the type of hermit life.
The Public Life of Christ.
1. When Christ was thirty years old, He was baptized by John
in the Jordan (Matt. iii. 13), and fasted forty days in the desert,
where He was tempted by the devil (Matt. iv.).
All apostolic men have sought retirement before entering on their
mission, e.g., Moses, John the Baptist, and the apostles before the
coming of the Holy Spirit. By His fasting and His victory over the
devil Christ would satisfy for Adam's self-indulgence and defeat in
the garden of paradise. The number forty has a special signifi-
cance; it rained forty days on earth at the Flood, Moses and Elias
fasted forty days, the Nmivites had forty days in which to repent,
Christ dwelt on earth forty days after His resurrection, the Jews
wandered forty years in the desert. The forty days of Lent are in-
tended to commemorate the fasting of Christ; they begin with Ash-
Wednesday and continue till Easter. During this time those who are
of age should take only one full meal a day, and all Christians should
avoid boisterous amusements and meditate on the sufferings of
Christ. Thus sermons are preached on the sufferings of Christ; on
Passion Sunday the images in the church are veiled and the priest
says Mass in purple vestments. The three days before Ash Wednes-
day are called Shrovetide, and in order to divert the faithful from
vicious pleasures it is usual in some places to have Exposition of
the Blessed Sacrament.
2. Christ taught for about three and a half years, gathered
some seventy-two disciples, and from these chose twelve apostles.
His first miracle was at the wedding-feast of Cana, to teach man-
kind that the heaven to which He would lead us is a wedding-feast
(Matt. xxii. 2). He often addressed large crowds, counting four or
five thousand, as in the case of the miraculous multiplication of
loaves; thus Zacheus had to climb a tree in order to see Him among
the crowd. The constant companions of Christ were the apostles and
disciples, who heard His words and saw His deeds and published
them later to the world. The bishops of the Church are prefigured in
the apostles, and the priests in the seventy-two disciples. The teach-
ing of Christ is rightly called Evangelium, " good tidings," or by our
184 Faith.
English name Gospel, i.e., God's spell or narrative. Christ is the
Master among teachers. He taught as one having power, so that the
people marvelled at His doctrine (Mark i. 22; Matt. vii. 29).
Christ taught so that all might understand Him without
difficulty; He used plain, homely words, and illustrated His
teaching with signs and parables and by references to natural ob-
jects.
Christ's teaching is likened to the treasure buried in a field
(Matt. xiii. 44). The language of apostolic men has always been
simple, their object not so much to please as to be understood
and to be useful. The signs which Christ made use of were breathing
on the apostles when He gave them the Holy Spirit, lifting up His
hands (Luke xxiv. 50) when He gave them power to teach and bap-
tize, spitting on the earth and making clay, with which He touched
the eyes of the man born blind (John ix. 6), and sending him to wash
in the pool of Siloe. All this signified that the living doctrine which
is imparted to man, the creature of earth, from the mouth of God,
is to clear his spiritual sight, and even after that the washing of
baptism is still necessary. The parables used were, for example, the
prodigal son, the Good Samaritan, Dives and Lazarus, the wise and
foolish virgins, the good shepherd, the lost sheep, the lost groat, the
fig tree, the laborers in the vineyard, etc., and the seven figures of the
kingdom of heaven, such as the pearl of great price, the buried treas-
ure, the seine, the grain of mustard-seed, the cockle and wheat, the
sower, the leaven. The objects in nature on which He drew for illus-
tration were, among others, the shepherd with his sheep, the lilies of
the field, the crops, the vineyards, etc. It is only reasonable that
nature and religion should have many resemblances, coming as they
do from the same God.
The poor were the especial objects of Christ's mission.
His own words to the disciples of John were : " The poor have
the Gospel preached to them" (Matt. xi. 5). And in the synagogue
at Nazareth He applied to Himself as the Messias (Luke iv. 18), the
words of the prophet : " to preach the Gospel to the poor He hath sent
Me."
The leading idea in the teaching of Christ was: " Seek the
kingdom of God."
His own words in the Sermon on the Mount were : " Seek first the
kingdom of God" (Matt. vi. 33). The Evangelists sum up His
teaching in the words : " Do penance and believe the Gospel, for the
kingdom of heaven is nigh" (Matt. iv. 17; Mark i. 15).
Christ taught a new rule of faith, gave new commandments,
and established a new system of means of grace.
Eor example He taught the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, His
own divinity, the Last Judgment ; He gave the two precepts of love,
and extended the Ten Commandments (forbidding rash anger and
harsh words). He instituted the Mass and the seven sacraments and
taught us the Our Father.
The Apostles' Creed. 185
3. Christ proved His divine mission and the truth of His doc-
trine by many miracles, by His knowledge of all things, and by the
holiness of His life.
Christ Himself appealed to His miracles : " Though you will
not believe Me, believe the works" (John x. 38). Nicodemus was
convinced of the divine mission of Christ by His miracles : " JSTo man
can do these signs which Thou dost, unless God be with Him " (John
iii. 2). Christ of His own power worked miracles; others in the
name of God or of Christ. Christ knew all thing-s — the most hidden
sins of men, those of the Samaritan woman, those of the Pharisees
who dragged before Him the woman taken in adultery; He knew of
Judas' plot against Himself, of Peter's coming denial, and related
many incidents of His Passion just as they afterwards happened.
We see in Christ the highest holiness; never were seen before or
since, such patience, gentleness, love, etc. How could such a one say
anything but the truth ?
The Scribes and Pharisees hated and persecuted Him be-
cause He failed to realize their carnal views of the Messias,
and because He publicly rebuked their sins; after the raising of
Lazarus they resolved to seek His death.
They tried to stone Him in the Temple (John x. 31), and at Naz-
areth to cast Him over the cliff ; they calumniated Him, calling Him
an agent of the devil (Matt. xii. 24), a leader of revolt, a Sabbath-
breaker; they tried to catch Him in His speech, as in the case of
Caesar's coin. The Jews thought that the Messias was to be an
earthly being, who would free them from the Roman yoke, and raise
them above the nations cf the earth. Instead of which He came in
poverty and lowliness and taught self-denial, mercy, etc. Besides
He accused the Pharisees of hypocrisy, calling them whitened sepul-
chres (Matt, xxiii. 27), and children of the devil (John viii. 44).
The Sufferings of Christ.
1. On the Sunday preceding the feast of Easter Christ made
a solemn entry into Jerusalem and taught in the Temple during
the days following.
The Church celebrates this solemn entry by the blessing of
palms and the procession on Palm Sunday. In the course of the
High Mass the history of the Passion as related by St. Matthew is
read by the celebrant and sung- by the choir. During the blessing of
the palms the priest prays that God may preserve from sin and
danger those who receive these palms and keen them in their houses.
The week following Palm Sunday is called Holy Week.
2. On Holy Thursday evening Christ ate the Pasch with His
disciples, instituted the Blessed Sacrament, and then went out to
the Mount of Olives, where He suffered His agony and bloody
sweat.
Before the institution of the Blessed Sacrament He washed the
186 Faith.
feet of His apostles to teach us humility. His conduct in the
Garden of Gethsemani was a lesson of humble prayer, conformity to
God's will, and patience under suffering. In the words of St. Am-
brose : " The Lord took my griefs on Him that He might share His
joys with me." In many places it is the custom to ring a bell at eight
o'clock in the evening to recall the agony in the garden. The follow-
ing ceremonies are in more general use: The Pope washes the
feet of twelve priests — a practice kept up since the time of Greg-
ory the Great. The bishops and governors in many places wash the
feet of twelve old men. During the Gloria in the High Mass all the
bells are rung, and the priests and laity go to communion to com-
memorate the institution of the Blessed Sacrament. The procession
of the Blessed Sacrament to the altar of repose is to recall Our
Lord's journey to the Mount of Olives. The stripping of the altars
and the silence of the bells are signs of the Church's sympathy with
her Saviour. The blessing of the oils which takes place in the Cathe-
dral churches, which is of ancient institution, suggests that Christ
may have instituted some of the sacraments at the Last Supper. .
Christ was seized by the soldiers in the garden, led before the
high priest, and condemned to death.
On the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of Holy Week, Tenebrce
is celebrated in the evening. On a triangular frame in front of the
altar there are placed fourteen candles of unbleached wax, and at the
upper angle one of white wax; the white candle represents Our Lord
and the unbleached candles His apostles and disciples. At each of
the antiphones which recur at intervals during the recital of the
psalms, a candle is extinguished to represent the flight of the disciples
after the capture of Our Lord. At the end of the service the white
candle is hidden for a time behind the altar, a noise is made, and the
candle replaced on the stand; all signifying the death and resurrec-
tion of Our Lord with the accompanying convulsions of nature.
From the court of the high priest Christ was led by the Jews
before Pontius Pilate, to receive the ratification of the death-
sentence.
The Jews had no power to put any one to death, so they were
obliged to have recourse to the Roman governor (John xviii. 31).
Pilate could see no reason for condemning Christ, and made several
attempts to set Him at liberty; he sent Him to Herod and offered
to give up Barabbas in exchange ; to enlist the sympathy of the Jews,
he caused Our Lord to be scourged and crowned with thorns and in
that state to be presented to the crowd, but they clamored only the
more for the blood of Jesus, and threatened to accuse Pilate to the
emperor.
Pilate, alarmed by the threats of the Jews, condemned Our
Lord to the death of the cross.
The devotion of the Stations of the Cross commemorates all these
details of the Passion. The distance to Calvary was some thirteen
hundred paces.
The Apostles' Creed 18?
3. On Good Friday at noon, Christ was nailed to the cross on
the hill of Calvary, just outside Jerusalem, and died on the cross
about three o'clock.
Cicero is our authority that crucifixion was at that time the most
shameful and terrible of deaths, to which none but the greatest crim-
inals were subjected. Hence the doctrine of the Crucified was a
scandal to the Jews and folly to the heathen (1 Cor. i. 23). Yet to-
day the cross is the badge of honor, worn in the crowns of kings,
and on the breasts of men proud of the decoration. In the words of
St. Athanasius sin was repaired on the tree where sin was com-
mitted; and where death began there life arose, as the Church sings
in the preface of the Mass. Christ was not beheaded, nor His body
dismembered; so are we taught that His mystical body, the Church,
should remain ever undivided. Christ bent His head to kiss us,
spread His arms to embrace us, and opened His Heart to love us (St.
Augustine). The Heart of Jesus was opened that its wounds might
reveal to us the hidden wounds of His love for us (St. Bernard). It
was not the soldiers, but His love for us, which nailed Christ to the
cross (St. Augustine).
During these three hours the sun was darkened over the
earth, though an eclipse was impossible at the time of the full
moon.
As St. John Chrysostom says, the sun hid his rays that he might
not behold the sufferings of his Maker. This darkening of the sun
is mentioned by heathen writers.
At the death of Christ the earth opened, the rocks split, the
veil of the Temple was rent, and many of the dead arose and ap-
peared in Jerusalem.
All creation was in sympathy with Christ, excepting man, for
whom Christ was suffering (St. Jerome). These marvels caused
many to acknowledge the Godhead of Christ, as in the case of the
centurion, who exclaimed : " Indeed, this was the Son of God ! " (Matt.
xxvii. 54.) One may still see on Calvary a rent in the rock between
the site of Our Lord's cross and that of the thief on His left.
Christ spoke on the cross the seven last words.
These words were: (1). "Father, forgive them." (2). "To-day
thou shalt be with Me in paradise." (3). "Behold thy Mother."
(4). "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!" (5). "I
thirst." (6). " It is consummated." (7). " Father, into Thy hands
I commend My spirit." The great cry which Christ gave before His
death was a sign that He gave up His life of His own free will, and
that He had strength enough to go on living. The cross, as St.
Augustine says, is no longer the instrument of Christ suffering, but
the pulpit of Christ preaching ; from it He teaches the lessons of love
of our enemies, gentleness, patience, obedience, God's mercy, goodness,
justice and power, the immortality of the soul, the Last Judgment
and the resurrection. In many churches it is the custom to toll the
bells at three o'clock on Fridays in memory of Christ's death; and
18S Faith
since Christ crucified His flesh for our sins on that day the Church
has forbidden the eating of flesh meat. On Friday of Holy Week the
Church is in mourning : the altars are stripped, the lights put out, and
the bells silenced, and the sacred ministers in their black vestments
lie prostrate at the foot of the altar. The celebrant prays for all
conditions of men, even for heathens and Jews, since Christ died on
this day for all men. The crucifix is unveiled. Then the celebrant
lays it on the ground and kisses the feet of the image, and the people
come up in turn to offer the same homage. On Good Friday there is
no Mass, properly so called, but the ceremonies are gone through with
a Host consecrated for the purpose on the preceding day. An altar
of repose (or sepulchre) is chosen in the church where the Host is
kept in the interval.
In the evening Our Lord's body was taken down from the
cross and laid in the grave which belonged to Joseph of Arima-
thea.
4. During Easter Saturday, that is, on the greatest feast day
of the Jews, Our Lord remained in the sepulchre.
On Holy Saturday fire is struck from a flint, and blessed outside
the church doors, and from this fire the triple candle, the paschal
candle, and the sanctuary lamp are lit. Each branch of the triple
candle is lit separately, one at the door, another in the middle of the
church, and the third in front of the high altar, to represent the
gradual development of the knowledge of the Blessed Trinity. The
paschal candle is also blessed on this day, and the five grains of in-
cense imbedded in it remind us of the wounds of Christ. The baptis-
mal font is also blessed, a relic of the times when the catechumens
used to be solemnly baptized, and solemn High Mass follows.
The Exaltation of Christ.
Christ humbled Himself, " becoming obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted Him "
(Phil. ii. 8, 9). As St. John Chrysostom warns us: " The exaltation
of Christ referred only to His humanity. As God He possessed all
earthly happiness and needed no further exaltation." Arid St. Cyp-
rian confirms him when he says that it was not the Almighty but the
humanity of the Almighty which was exalted.
1. Immediately after the death of Christ His soul went down
in triumph into the place where the souls of those justified under
the Old Law were detained (Fourth Council of Lateran).
This place is called limbo, and is quite distinct from purgatory,
though the two places had this feature in common, that in neither
place is there the vision of God ; for while there is pain to be suffered
in purgatory, there was none in limbo; nor was limbo the same as hell,
where the pains are eternal; on the contrary the souls in limbo had
some consolation (Luke xvi. 25), though entrance to heaven was de-
ferred (Heb. ix. 8) ; hence thev longed for the coming of the Saviour
to open to them the gates of heaven. Limbo is called in Scripture
The Apostles' Creed. 189
the " bosom of Abraham " (Luke xvi. 22) ; the " prison " (1 Pet. iii.
19). Our Lord called the place "paradise" (Luke xxiii. 43), because
by His arrival the prison-house would be turned into paradise. After
the death of Christ limbo ceased to exist. There were in that place
among others, Adam and Eve, Abel, Noe, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Joseph, David, Isaias, Daniel, Job, Tobias, the foster-father of
Christ, and many others, including those of Noe's contemporaries
who had done penance and repented at the Flood (1 Pet. iii. 20).
Christ went down into limbo to announce to the souls de-
tained there the news of the redemption, and to set them free.
Christ went down to announce to the souls in limbo that He had
accomplished the redemption (1 Pet. iii. 19). St. Epiphanius tells us
that the soul of Christ, united with the Godhead, went down into
limbo, and St. Irenaeus says that the Lord spent three days there.
According to St. Ignatius of Antioch, Our Lord returned with a
large company of souls. " He went," says St. Cyprian, " like a great
king who delivers his subjects from a prison where they have been
kept in durance." Christ revealed Himself also to the souls in hell,
and they were compelled to bow the knee to Him (Phil. ii. 10).
2. On Easter Sunday before sunrise Christ rose glorious from
the tomb by His own almighty power.
Christ often foretold that He would rise again on " the third day "
(Luke xviii. 33) ; He compared Himself to Jonas (Matt. xii. 40) ;
on the occasion of His driving the money-sellers out of the Temple,
He said of His own body: "Destroy this temple and in three days I
will raise it up " (John ii. 19) ; He claimed the power of laying down
His life and taking it up again (John x. 18). When it is said in
Holy Scripture that the Father raised Him (Rom. vi. 4; viii. 11), it
is meant that as Christ is one with the Father all that Christ does
the Father does also. The resurrection is a most undoubted fact.
The Jews asserted that the disciples had stolen the body of Christ
(Matt, xxviii. 13). Such an act was far beyond their power. The
great stone that covered the sepulchre could not have been moved
without waking some, at least, of the guards; "besides," as St.
Augustine says, "these could not be accepted as witnesses if they
were asleep;" and it is a remarkable circumstance that the soldiers
were not punished for their breach of duty. Many free-thinkers
urge that Christ was dead only in appearance, and after an interval
recovered from His swoon and left the grave. The pain and loss of
blood following on the scourging and crowning with thorns would
have been enough to cause death, and the wound in the side alone,
so great that St. Thomas could thrust in his hand, would have been
fatal. Even when Christ was going to the place of execution, He was
too weak to carry His cross ; how could He, after thirty-six hours in
the tomb, remove the long wrappings of His grave-clothes, roll away
the stone, and make His way out on feet yet fresh from the
wounds of the nails ? The death of Christ was officially verified and
reported to Pilate (Mark xv. 45), ?nd His bones were not broken bv
the soldiers because they saw that He was dead (John xix. 33). The
blood and water which flowed from the side of Christ after the pierc-
190 Faith.
ing- with the lance, were a sign of death (John xix. 34). His holy
Mother and His friends would never have placed Him in the tomb
unless He had been dead. All the Evangelists agree in testifying
to the death of Christ,
The risen Lord bore in His body the five wounds, and it had
the properties of* agility, subtility, clarity and impassibility.
Christ retained the five wounds, for He ordered the unbelieving
apostle to place his finger in the wounds of the nails, and his hand in
the wound of the side (John xx. 27). Our Lord would keep the marks
of the wounds in heaven to show us that He would not forget us,
bearing in His hands, as St. Bernard says, the writ of our redemption
written in His own blood; and St. Ambrose adds, that Our Lord bore
these wounds to be a perpetual reminder to His heavenly Lather
of the price of our redemption, to renew the sacrifice of the cross
forever in heaven (Heb. viii. 1-6).
Christ rose again to prove to us that He is God, and that we,
too, are to rise again.
Christ is the first-fruits of them that sleep (1 Cor. xv. 20), and as
Christ, our Head arose, so shall we all rise again (St. Irenseus).
He called first His own body to life ; later He will call the members
of His mystical body to share its life (St. Athanasius). The hope
of the resurrection was Job's consolation in his trouble (Job xix. 25).
Throughout Christendom Easter is celebrated as the feast of the
resurrection. In the Old Testament the Paschal Sabbath was kept
in remembrance of the delivery from the Egvptian yoke. Among
Christians, in accordance with a decision of the Council of ISTicsea,
325 a.d., the feast is celebrated on the first Sunday after the full
moon which comes next after the spring equinox. In consequence
Easter may fall anywhere between the twenty-second of March and
the twenty-fifth of April. The heathen wakes to a new spiritual life
in the waters of baptism; hence the blessing of the font on Holy
Saturday; and all those who perform their Easter duties have a
spiritual resurrection from the dead (Rom. vi. 4). In the words of
St. Ambrose, if we are to rise from the grave of the flesh we must first
rise from the grave of our sins. The Paschal candle, which is blessed
on Holy Saturday is, on account of its five incense grains, which rep-
resent the five wounds, a figure of Our Lord ; and it is lighted at all
services till Ascension Thursday. The Easter eggs are a type of the
resurrection: just as the young bird breaks from the shell, so will
mankind arise again from the earth. The season itself is typical of
the new life in the reawakening of nature.
The risen Lord remained forty days on earth, and appeared
frequently during this time to His disciples.
St. Ambrose tells us that Christ appeared first to His holy Mother.
St. Peter was the first of the apostles to see the risen Lord (Luke
xxiv. 34). Early in the morning of Easter Sunday Christ appeared
to Mary Magdalen by the sepulchre (Mark xvi. 9; John xx. 15),
and then to the holy women as they were leaving the grave (Matt.
xxviii, 9) ; in the evening He appeared to the two disciples who were
The Apostles' Creed, 191
going to Emmaus (Luke xxiv.), and immediately after to the assem-
bled disciples in the cenacle. He ate fish and honey in their presence,
and afterwards gave them the power of forgiving sins (John xx.).
On the following Sunday He appeared again in the same house and
reproved Thomas for his want of faith (John xx.). He again ap-
peared to seven of the disciples on the lake of Genesareth and gave
St. Peter authority over the apostles and the faithful, telling him at
the same time what death he should die (John xxi.). A more solemn
occasion was the appearance to five hundred disciples on a mountain
in Galilee, when He gave them the command to go forth into the
world, teaching and baptizing (Matt, xxviii. 16). He spent there
forty days in speaking to the disciples of the kingdom of God (Acts
i. 3). The last appearance was on the occasion of His ascent into
heaven. He appeared not in the night, but in the full light of day,
not once only but repeatedly, not in some one place but in many
places; nor were they instantaneous apparitions, but He remained
some time, and spoke with His apostles. The resurrection was a point
on which the apostles testified in perscn. They gave no credit to the
women who came from the grave with their account of the angel
(Luke xxiv. 11). They doubted the evidence of their own senses when
Christ Himself appeared to them; then it was that He showed them
His wounds, and allowed them to touch Him, and ate in their pres-
ence (Luke xxiv. 42). Thomas refused to believe the ten apostles
(John xx. 25), and this unbelief of St. Thomas is a greater help to
our faith, to use the words of St. Gregory the Great, than the belief
of all the rest. There was nothing of which the apostles had a
stronger conviction than of the reality of the resurrection, and this
they preached on the feast of Pentecost, before the Council, in the
Temple, etc.
3. Forty days after His resurrection Our Lord ascended into
heaven from the Mount of Olives, and now sits at the right hand
of God the Father.
-' Before ascending Christ raised His hands and blessed His apos-
tles, enjoining on them to preach the Gospel to all nations, and
promising to be with them all days, till the end of the world (Matt,
xxviii. 18; Luke xxiv. 50). After the ascent two angels appeared and
consoled the apostles (Acts i. 10). St. Jerome tells us that the im-
press of Christ's sacred feet used to be shown to pilgrims; there re-
mains now only the trace of the left foot, that of the right having
been removed by the Turks. It is remarkable that from the direction
of this footprint Our Lord must have been facing Europe as He
mounted into heaven, just as He faced it during the crucifixion.
Christ made His ascent from the Mount of Olives, where He began
His Passion, to show us that the road to heaven must be through suf-
fering. He ascended into heaven by His own power, not like Elias
borne on a chariot (4 Kings ii. 11), or like Habacuc carried by an
ane-el (Dan. xiv. 36). His escort into heaven was formed of the souls
released from limbo (Eph. iv. 8). The Fathers are of one mind in
teaching that Christ has never descended in the flesh from heaven
since then, except during holy Mass. Forty days after Easter the
feast of Ascension Thursday is kept, preceded by the three Kogation
192 Faith.
days with their processions, symbolic of the going out of Christ
with His apostles to the Mount of Olives.
Christ ascended into heaven in order, as man, to enter into
His kingdom (Eph. iv. 10), to send down the Holy Spirit (John
xvi. 7), to intercede for us with the Father (Jcnm xiv. 16), to
prepare a place for us there (John xiv. 2).
Christ is the mediator between God and man (1 Tim. ii. 5), and
our advocate with the Father (1 John ii. 1). "If," says St. Bernard,
" you fear to go to God the Father, turn to Jesus Christ, Who has
been given to us as a mediator. What can such a Father refuse to
such a Son ? " Christ is often likened to the sun, which sheds its
light and warmth the higher it rises in the heavens.
Christ sits on the right hand of God, that is, as man He
has power over all creatures.
To sit on the right hand was a mark of special honor (3 Kings ii.
19) ; hence the expression " Christ sits on the right hand of God " is
equivalent to : " Christ is next in honor to God." He is therefore
above all the angels (Eph. i. 21). God the Father has no body; so
that when we speak of the right hand of God, we mean, as St. John
Damascene tells us, the glory of His Godhead, of which Christ took
possession in the flesh. The expression, " sits," is significant of His
royal and judicial powers. The words of Christ Himself were: "All
power is given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matt, xxviii. 18).
Hence all creatures owe Him divine homage (Phil. ii. 9-11).
4. On the tenth day after His ascending into heaven Christ
sent down the Holy Ghost on the apostles.
The Holy Ghost descended on a Sunday, about nine o'clock in
the morning (Acts ii. 15). The signs accompanying His descent were
symbolical of His action; the rush of wind represented the strength-
ening of the will, the fire the illumination of the understanding, the
tongues the gift of tongues to the apostles and the teaching of the
Gospel to all nations. Pentecost is the day of foundation of the
Church, because it began on that day by the baptism of three thou-
sand new members. Pentecost is celebrated fifty days after Easter —
Pentecost meaning fifty. In the Old Law this day was celebrated
fifty days after the Exodus, in memory of the promulgation of the
commandments on Mount Sinai. On Mount Sion as on Mount Sinai
was God's will declared amid lightning and thunder, and in both
cases fifty days after the release in one instance from bodily, in
the other from spiritual slavery. It is the custom to bless the font
in memory of the three thousand who were baptized on this day.
The Saturday preceding was always observed as a fast day, that
like the apostles we might prepare for the coming of the Holy Spirit,
The Sundav following Whitsunday is Trinity Sunday, and on the
Thursday following is kept the feast of Corpus Christi.
At the end of the world Christ will come again to judge all
men.
The Apostles' Creed. 193
7. THE PERSON OF THE REDEEMER.
Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer, is the Son of God made man;
hence He is God Himself.
The Incarnation of the Son of God.
The heathen had very early conceived the idea that God had
descended from heaven and mixed with men; the Greek mythology
is full of it. Now God has actually come down to earth (John iii. 13)
at the moment of the Annunciation (Luke i. 26-38).
1. The second divine person became man in the womb of the
Blessed Virgin Mary by the action of the Holy Ghost at the
moment of the Annunciation.
Louis of Granada writes : " Just as the sun must be wrapped in
clouds if we are to gaze upon it with eyes undimmed, so God wrapped
Himself in flesh as in a cloud, so that the eyes of our soul might
bear to look upon Him." Human thought must be clothed in words
to reach our ears ; so God clothed Himself in human nature to reach
the souls of men. " The Word [i.e., the Son of God] was made flesh
[i.e., became man] and dwelt amongst us" (John i. 14). The In-
carnation took place in the instant when Our Lady uttered the words :
"Be it done unto me according to thy word" (Luke i. 38). They
err who think that the human nature was first formed and afterwards
united to the divine person, just as the Valentinians were wrong in
asserting that Christ brought His human body from heaven. Christ
received His body from the Virgin Mary. He was made from a
woman (Gal. iv. 4), and was of the seed of David (Rom. i. 3). The
Son of man came down from heaven, it is true (John iii. 13), in re-
gard of the divine person, but not in regard of His human nature;
we must not, however, imagine that the divine essence came down
from heaven and united itself to the human nature ; this would mean
that all three persons of the Blessed Trinity has assumed our human
nature. Such a thing is impossible, for such a union would require
a change in the divine essence, which is incapable of change. Only
one of the divine persons, the Son of God, assumed our human
nature. God (i.e., a divine person) not the Godhead (i.e., the divine
essence) became man. There is, however, an intimate union be«
tween the nature of God and the nature of man in the person of the
Son; and it is certain that all the divine persons had their share in
the work of the Incarnation, for in the work which God does outside
Himself all three persons of the Trinity have their share.
The Incarnation is in a peculiar manner the work of the
three divine persons.
The three divine persons formed a human soul and a human
body and united to them the Second Person of the Trinity. As St.
Augustine puts it : " In the guitar the sound seems to come from
the strings alone, yet three elements are wanted, the human hand,
the skill of the player and then the string." Or as St. Fulgentius
explains it : " Body and soul are necessary for a man to profit by his
194 Faith.
food, yet the body alone receives the nourishment." So the three per-
sons of the Trinity co-operated in the Incarnation, but the Second
Person only was united to the flesh. The Incarnation is ascribed in a
special manner to the Holy Ghost, because it is the greatest work of
God's love. The Church teaches that the works of love are ascribed
to the Holy Ghost, Who is the love of the Father and the Son.
According to the Fathers there is no doubt that either God the
Father or the Holy Ghost might have become man; but it was meet
that He Who is the Son of God from all eternity should become the
Son of man ; that He Who is the perfect image of God should restore
to mankind that supernatural image which had been lost by sin.
2. The Father of Jesus is therefore God the Father in heaven;
Joseph, the spouse of Mary, is only the foster-father of Jesus.
St. Gregory the Great tells us that Christ is the Son of God, not
only because He is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, but also
because God formed His sacred humanity. In the first promise of the
Redeemer as we read it in the Protevangelium Christ is called, not
the seed of man, but the seed of the woman (Gen. iii. 15), and in the
genealogy of Christ, recorded by St. Matthew, no mention is made of
His descent from Joseph, but only from Mary (Matt. i. 16). Yet
Christ was commonly thought to be the Son of Joseph (Luke iii. 23).
Mary was espoused to St. Joseph that no accusation might be made
against her by the world, and that she might have in him a protector.
About St. Joseph we have the following facts: He was a carpenter
(Matt. xiii. 55) ; he was a just man (Matt. i. 19). St. Jerome tells
us he was perfect in every virtue, and St. Thomas Aquinas gives as
the reason for his holiness that he was so close to the fount of holi-
ness, just as the spring is clearer as we approach its source. St.
Francis of Sales tells us that St. Joseph was conspicuous for his
purity, and therein surpassed all the saints and even the angels.
To him was granted the honor which kings and prophets sighed
for in vain; he might take his Lord into his arms, kiss Him, speak
with Him, clothe Him, protect Him (St. Bernard). He was called
father by Him Whose Father was in heaven (St. Basil). Many saints
assert that St. Joseph has a very high place in heaven as the spouse
of the Blessed Virgin, and that he will be called upon by men in the
last days of the world and give signs of his great power. St. Joseph
is the patron of the Church (Pius IX., Dec. 8, 1870) ; i.e., his prayers
for the Church have great efficacy at the throne of God. He is also
the patron of a happy death, dying as he did himself in the arms of
Jesus and Mary. He is also invoked for temporal wants, since his
care on this earth was the support of the Holy Family. St. Thomas
Aquinas says that St. Joseph received power from God to help in
all necessities; and St. Teresa declared that no prayer of hers to
St. Joseph in temporal or spiritual need was ever left unanswered.
The Catholic Church has always honored St. Joseph in a special man-
ner, after Our Lady and above the other saints.
3. The Incarnation of the Son of God is a mystery which we
cannot understand, but only admire and honor.
The conception and Incarnation are as little understood by us
The Apostles' Creed. 195
as the flowering of the rod of Aaron (Numb. xvii.). " Shut thy eyes,
O Reason," says St. Bernard, " for under the veil of faith thou canst
see the sheen of this mystery, just as the eye of the body can bear
the light of the sun when shaded by a cloud." " I know that the Son
of God became man, but how I do not know " (St. John Chrysostom).
The following are illustrations which have been used to convey the
idea of the union of the Godhead and the human nature in Christ :
The divinity and the humanity are united in Christ as body and soul
are united in man (Athanasian Creed). If spirit an,d matter, so
essentially distinct, are united in man, all the less matter of surprise
is it that the divinity and humanity, which after all have their points
of resemblance, are found united in Christ. " Speech is a sort of
incarnation," says St. Augustine. " At first the word is conceived as
a mere thought, something purely spiritual. If that thought is to be
conveyed to another, it is put in words ; yet, though it appeals to the
senses, it is none the less produced from the soul. So the Word of
God has appeared to many and ceases not to remain with the Father."
Other illustrations to show the action of the Holy Ghost in Christ's
conception: St. Isidore tells us that Christ was formed from Mary
just as Eve was formed from Adam. The Incarnation resembles in
some respects the creation, when everything was produced by God's
almighty power without co-operation of man.
The mystery of the Incarnation is commemorated by the
ringing of the Angelas bell.
The words of the Angelus recall in the most lively way the scene
of the Annunciation. At the words in the Credo of the Mass : " He
took flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost"
the celebrant always kneels, also at the words in the Last Gospel:
" And the Word was made flesh." On Christmas Day and the Annun-
ciation (the twenty-fifth of March), the sacred ministers at High
Mass kneel on the altar steps and bow their heads at the "Et incar-
natus est " of the Credo. The angels also venerate the mystery of
the Incarnation.
4. The Incarnation of the Son of God was necessary to give
perfect satisfaction to the injured majesty of God.
God might have chosen some other means for redeeming man.
He might, by special exercise of His goodness, have been content
with an imperfect satisfaction, or have remitted the guilt without
demanding any satisfaction at all. St. Augustine on this subject
writes : " There are some foolish people who think that God could not
have redeemed mankind otherwise than by Himself taking flesh, and
suffering at the hands of sinners. He might have followed quite
another plan." As we shall see in treating of the death of Christ
God wished to have perfect satisfaction, to display His justice as well
as His mercy. Perfect satisfaction could be given only by a God-
man. The greatness of an injury is measured bv the dignity of the
person who suffers ; hence the offence given to God is infinitely great.
!STo finite being, not even the most perfect angel, could atone for an
offence against God, only God Himself. " So that," to use the words
of St. Anselm, " to redeem man it was necessary that God should be-
196 Faith.
come man." As God only He could not suffer ; as man only He could
not redeem; hence the Godhead assumed a human nature (St. Pro-
clus). If a valuable portrait be damaged beyond recognition it can-
not be restored unless the sitter present himself to the artist; thus
God had to come down on earth to restore His likeness in man (St.
Athanasius).
The God-man could satisfy perfectly the injured majesty
of God by appearing on earth in a state of lowliness.
Had He appeared in His majesty men would never have dared
to crucify Him (1 Cor. ii. 8). Like Codrus, the Athenian king, He
secured victory to His own by dying for them. The oracle had
promised the Athenians victory if their king died by the hands of
the enemy, and Codrus, disguising his royal dress, marched into the
enemy's camp and was by them put to death. The prophets had
foretold that mankind should be saved by the death of its King,
and Christ, taking on the form of a slave, was put to death. The
evil spirits fled when they saw Whom they had killed. " If," as
Louis of Granada says, " a king would prove his courage in battle,
he must put away all symbols of his rank, to proclaim them only
when he is victor;" and this is what Our Lord did. He will come
again with great power and majesty (Matt. xxvi. 64). St. Thomas
says that we cannot affirm with certainty that God would have become
man had man not sinned; it certainly would not have been beyond
His power.
5. The Second Person always remained God though He be-
came man, and by the Incarnation He lost none of His dignity.
When we assert that the Son of God came down on earth, we do
not mean that He left heaven. So' a star may become visible to us
without leaving the firmament. As St. Ambrose says, the divinity of
Christ is not destroyed, but only hidden by His human nature, just
as the sun is not put out, but veiled only by the clouds. And as the
thought, because spoken, does not cease to be a product of the soul,
so the Word of God did not cease to be with the Father (St. Augus-
tine). As a word, though spoken only for the benefit of one person
may be heard by all the bystanders, so the divine Word was not lim-
ited by the body which He assumed, but still fills heaven and earth.
Moreover God lost none of His dignity by the Incarnation. The
sunlight which plays over filth is not defiled ; still less is the Godhead
defiled by taking flesh from the pure womb of Mary (St. Odilo). If
a prince put on a slave's dress and in it picked a precious ring from
the gutter to place it on his finger, there is no loss of dignity ; so, too,
the Son of God was not degraded by taking on Himself the form of a
slave, and coming down on earth to save souls and gain them to Him
(Tert.). When the Apostle says that Jesus Christ debased Himself
by taking the form of a servant (Phil. ii. 7), he does not mean that
God lost anything, but only that He assumed a nature lower than His
own, and gave us thereby an example of humility. " He humbled
Himself" (Phil. ii. 8).
6. By the Incarnation of the Son of God all the members of
the human race have acquired a special dignity.
The Apostles' Creed. 197
The human nature of the Son of God is like the yeast which
leavens the whole mass (Matt. xiii. 33). Christ is the vine, and we
are the branches (John xv.). The angels even fall short of us in this
respect, for though they are exempt from sickness and death they
cannot claim God for their Brother ; were they capable of envy, they
would envy us that honor. As St. Ambrose says : " The Almighty
took the form of a slave that the slave might become a king." " The
Son of God became the Son of man that the children of men might
become children of God" (St. Athanasius). " Oh, what a wondrous
redemption is that where man is, as it were, put on a par with God ! "
(St. Hilary.)
What Truths follow from the Mystery of the Redemption f
1. Christ is true God and true man; hence we call Him the
God-man.
Every being gets its nature whence it has its origin; thus a child
gets its human nature by being born of man. Christ, therefore,
having His origin from God the Father, derives from Him His divine
nature, and by being born of Mary, derives from her His human
nature. He claimed both divine and human attributes. He said,
for example, " The Father is greater than I " (John xiv. 28), and yet
on another occasion: " The" Father and I are one " (John x. 30). As
God He calls Mary " woman," as on the occasion of the wedding-feast
at Cana, and as man He calls her " Mother." He called Himself at
times " Son of God " and again " Son of man."
Christ, as man, is like to ns in all things except sin (Council
of Chalcedon).
Christ became like to His brethren (Heb. ii. 17) ; He was made in
the likeness of man and in habit formed as a man (Phil. ii. 7). Christ
had a human body, with all its consequent needs of eating and drink-
ing and sleeping, as well as of suffering and dying; and He had a
real body, not a fictitious one, as the Docetse taught. Christ had a
human soul, and so a human intellect, and a human will (for He
prayed in the garden : " Father, not My will, but Thine be done "
(Luke xxii. 42). At His death Christ gave His soul into the hands
of His heavenly Father (Luke xxiii. 46). St. Paul (1 Cor. xv. 47)
calls Christ the " heavenly " man, in opposition to the " earthly " man,
Adam; his meaning being that Christ's body was heavenly in the
sense that it was formed supernaturally in the womb of a virgin by
the action of the Holy Spirit and that it displayed on earth some of
the properties of glorified bodies, as on Mount Thabor and the walk-
ing on the waters.
2. In Christ there are two natures, human and divine, which
despite their intimate union are quite distinct.
The nature or essence is the total of the powers belonging to a
being. The person is the possessor of this nature; or perhaps more
strictlv, that which is common to all men is the nature and that which
constitutes man an independent individual is the person. Thus the
198 Faith.
nature may embrace many individuals, but not so the person. Just
as iron and gold may be welded into one solid mass, and still remain
with all their individual properties distinct, so are the two natures
united in Christ. JSTor is the human nature changed into the divine
nature, as the water was changed into wine at Cana ; nor again is the
human nature, as Eutyches thought, absorbed into the Godhead as a
drop of honey might be lost in the expanse of the ocean; nor have
the two natures combined to form a third, as hydrogen and oxygen
combine to form water.
Hence Christ has a twofold knowledge, human and divine.
As God He knew all things, even the thoughts of men; and He
also knew all things as man on account of the hypostatic union; the
reason why He denied all knowledge of the day and hour of the Last
Judgment was because He was not intrusted with His knowledge
to communicate it to man (Mark xiii. 32).
Hence also Christ has a twofold will, human and divine, the
human being subject to the divine (Third Council Constant.).
We learn from the prayer in the garden that Christ had a human
will: " Not My will but Thine be done" (Luke xxii. 42), subject how-
ever to the divine will : " I seek not My own will but the will of Him
that sent Me " (John v. 30). So a patient may shrink from the pain
of an operation, and yet submit himself to the hands of the surgeon.
Thus Christ has a twofold activity, human and divine (Third
Council Constantinople, a.d. 680).
To His divine activity belong the miracles and prophesies, to
the human principle of action the operations of sleeping, eating,
drinking and suffering. The three persons of the Blessed Trinity
have only one nature and so one principle of action.
3. In Christ there is only one person, and that person is divine.
^Enobius compares this with the two eyes forming only one
image, or the two ears conveying one sound. In the words of the
Athanasian Creed : " As the rational soul and the flesh is one man,
so God and man is one Christ." The human nature in Christ, though
completed by a divine and not a human personality, is for that very
reason more perfect ; just as in man the body is more perfect on ac-
count of being informed by a human soul, than in the lower animals.
Moreover as in man the body is an instrument by which the soul acts,
so in Christ the human nature is the instrument by which the divine
person acts; nor is Christ's body a lifeless tool, like a pen in the hand
of a writer, but it is full of life and has its own special activity.
The humanity of Christ is, it must be remembered, not an instru-
ment of God's action in the same way as were the prophets or the
apostles, etc. Its union and action are far more intimate, just as
the eye and the hand of the workman are more concerned in his
work than the tools. We must avoid the error of Nestorius, con-
demned at the Council of Ephesus, in which he taught that in Christ
the Godhead dwelt in a distinct person (i.e., that the God Christ
dwelt in the man Christ) as in a temple.
The Apostles' Creed. 199
Since in Christ the divine and hnman natures are insepa-
rably united by His divine personality, the following proposi-
tions are true:
1. Christ is, as man, the true Son of God.
St. Paul's words on the subject are : " He spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all " (Kom. viii. 32).
2. Mary, the Mother of Christ, is really Mother of God.
St. Elizabeth called her the Mother of God (Luke i. 43). Nes-
torius' heresy that Mary should be called only the Mother of Christ,
was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in a.d. 431. " If," as St.
Cyril says, " Our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how can it be that the
holy Virgin who bore Him is not Mother of God ? " Though the
mother does not give the soul to her offspring, she is none the less
called the mother; so Mary is called the Mother of God, though she
did not give to Christ His divine nature.
3. Christ, as man, could neither sin nor err.
Christ did no sin either in word or in deed (1 Pet. ii. 22) ; or, in the
words of St. Gregory the Great : " As light permits no darkness in its
neighborhood, so the Son of God admitted no sin in His human
nature." Christ had from His birth all wisdom and knowledge (CoL
ii. 3). The words " Christ grew in wisdom and grace" (Luke ii. 52),
mean that with the passage of time He ever showed more of the wis-
dom and grace of God in His speech and conduct. There must have
been in His person something majestic (Ps. xliv. 3) ; St. Jerome says
that the glory and majesty of the Godhead was reflected on His face,
and gave it a beauty which attracted and subjected all those who had
the happiness of gazing upon Him.
4. All Christ's human actions have an infinite value.
What Christ did as man was a human action, and also a divine
action, inasmuch as He was God. St. John Damascene says : " Just
as iron raised to a glow burns not because burning is a property of the
iron itself, but because it has acquired the property from the fire,
so the human actions of Christ were divine, not of their own nature,
but on account of the intimate union with the Godhad." The very
least prayer or suffering of Christ might thus have redeemed all men.
5. Christ's humanity is worthy of adoration,
This adoration is directed, not to the human nature, but to the
divine person. Thus a child kissing the hand of its parent is paying
homage to the parent, not to the hand. As St. Thomas says : " We
pay honor to the king and the purple which he wears; so in Christ
we adore the humanity along with the Godhead, since they are insep-
arable." St. John Damascene points out that we do not adore mere
flesh, but the flesh as united to the divinity. Thus the Church adorea
the five wounds, the Sacred Heart, the precious blood, etc.
6. Human attributes may be predicated of Christ as God,
200 Faith.
and divine attributes of Christ as man (the so-called communi-
cation of characters or idioms).
Hence St. Peter's reproach : " The Author of life you have killed "
(Acts iii. 15), and St. Paul's words: "If they had known it they
would never have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. ii. 8), as well
as St. John's " Therein do we know the love of God, that He laid down
His life for us." Since the second divine person and the man Christ
Jesus are one find the same person, whatever is said of Christ as God
may also be said of Him as man (e.g., this man is omniscient or al-
mighty), and what we say of Christ as man may be said of the second
divine person (e.g., God suffered for us, died for us, etc.). When a
man is both good and rich, we may say without error : " This rich
man is good," or " This good man is rich," because we are talking of
the person who is rich and good. We may do the same in regard of
the divine person Who is at the same time God and man, and in con-
sequence has the attributes proper to God and man. So we might
say " This sufferer is God," " This dying man is almighty." But we
cannot say " The Godhead suffered or died," because the word " God-
head " means the divine nature, and it never suffered. Hence St.
John Damascene wrote : " Though the Godhead was in a suffering
form, the Godhead did not suffer. The sun is not hurt, though the
tree on which it shines is felled."
Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Christ called Himself the only-begotten Son of God (John iii. 16),
and this because He and He alone is the Second Person of the Trin-
ity, begotten of the Father. In addition He is far removed above the
angels and mankind, who are likewise called the children of God.
For to these latter God has not communicated His own nature (Phil.
ii. 6) and has adopted them only by a special grace (Gal. iv. 5).
1. Jesus Christ solemnly declared before the high priest that
He was the Son of God (Matt. xxvi. 64).
And He called Himself the Son of God also on the occasion
of His healing of the man born blind (John ix. 37).
2. God the Father called Jesus Christ His Son on the occasion
of His baptism in the Jordan and of the transfiguration on Mount
Thabor (Matt. iii. 17; xvii. 5).
3. The archangel Gabriel called Jesus Christ the " Son of
the Most High " when he announced His birth to Mary (Luke i.
32).
4. St. Peter also publicly addressed Jesus Christ as " Son of
the living God," and was commended by Christ for this confes-
sion (Matt. xvi. 16).
5. Even the devils cried out: "What have we to do with
Thee, Jesus, Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment
us before the time? " (Matt, viii. 29.)
The Apostles' Creed. 201
Jesus Christ is God Himself.
It had already been foretold : " God Himself will come and will
save you " (Is. xxxv. 4), and Isaias said that the Child Who was to
be born for the redemption of men was God Himself (Is. ix. 6). The
heretic Arius denied Christ's Godhead ; his heresy was condemned at
the Council of Nicsea in a.d. 325, and it was expressly defined that
Jesus Christ was of the same nature as God and therefore Himself
God. Our whole position rests on this doctrine, hence its great im-
portance. When the rich disciple addressed Christ as " good master,'5
Our Lord answered at once, " Why dost thou call Me good ? None
is good but God alone " (Luke xviii. 19) ; He would thereby teach us
that we must before all things recognize Him as God.
1. That Jesus Christ is God we learn from His own words
and from those of His apostles.
When ascending into heaven He said : " All power is given to Me
in heaven and on earth" (Matt, xxviii. 18); and again: "I and the
Father are one " (John x. 30). These last words were treated by the
Jews as blasphemy, and they threatened to stone Our Lord for them
(John x. 33). Christ claimed in a special manner attributes and
works such as belong to God alone. He proclaimed His eternity when
He said : " Glorify Thou Me, O Father, with Thyself with the glory
which I had before the world was, with Thee" (John xvii. 5). And
again: "Before Abraham was, I am" (John viii. 58). He claimed
the power of forgiving sins as in the case of Magdalen (Luke vii.
48), and the man sick of the palsy (Matt. ix. 2). He laid claim to
awaken the dead (John v. 28), to judge the world (Matt.xxv. 31), to be
the Author of life (John xi. 25). On another occasion He said: " If
any man keep My word, he shall not see death forever" (John viii.
51). The apostles believed and solemnly proclaimed that Christ was
God, St. Thomas for instance, in the words : " My Lord and my
God ! " In St. Paul's epistles we read : " In Christ dwelleth all the
fulness of the Godhead corporally" (Col. ii. 9), and "In Him were
created all things ... and He is before all, and by Him all things
consist" (Col. i. 16, 17).
2. That Jesus Christ is God we conclude from His miracles
and prophecies.
The numerous miracles which Christ wrought in His own
name testify to His almighty power.
The miracles may be divided into five classes. (1). Those per-
formed on inanimate substances, such as the changing of the water
into wine, the calming of the storm, etc. (2). The healing of the
sick, the blind, and the lame (Matt. xi. 3-5). (3). The raising of
the dead to life, for example, in the case of the daughter of Jairus,
of the son of the widow of Nairn, of Lazarus. (4). The expelling
of devils from possessed persons. (5). The miracles on His own
person, as the transfiguration and the ascension. Moreover Christ
proved that He had power over all creation as no other had. Others
did miracles in the name of God, as, for example, when St. Peter
202 Faith.
and St. John cured the man at the gate of the Temple. Christ did
not appeal in God's name. He said simply: "Young man, I say to
thee, arise! " (Luke vii. 14.) " I will. Be thou made clean " (Matt.
viii. 3) ; " Peace, be still." Benedict XIV. is careful to tell us that if
Christ prayed to the Father it was to dispel the notion that His
miracles were from the devil. The miracles attributed to the found-
ers of false religions are often very absurd and childish; that Buddha
rode on a sunbeam, that Mohammed caused the moon to pass through
his sleeve, that Apollonius of Tyana raised a storm in a barrel, etc.
So different from the majesty displayed by Christ !
The prophecies of Christ with respect to His own fate, the
treachery of Judas, and the denial of St. Peter, the death of St.
John and St. Peter, the destruction of Jerusalem, the fate of
the Jews, and the career of the Church, all show His om-
niscience.
Christ foretold that He would be put to death in Jerusalem (Luke
xiii. 32), that He would be scourged and crucified, and would rise
again after three days (Matt. xx. 17-19). At the Last Supper He
foretold the treachery of Judas (John xiii. 26), and that Peter would
deny Him thrice before the cock would crow (Matt. xxvi. 34). After
His resurrection He prophesied to Peter his death on the cross, and
to John that he should die a natural death (John xxi. 18-22). After
His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Luke xix. 41, 44), and during
His discourse on the Last Judgment on the Mount of Olives (Matt,
xxiv.) He foretold how Jerusalem should be surrounded by her ene-
mies and destroyed. He also knew that the Jews should be scattered
among the nations (Luke xxi. 24), that His Church should spread
rapidly among the nations of the earth (John x. 16; Matt. xiii. 31)
in spite of the persecution of His apostles (John xvi. 2).
3. That Jesus Christ is God we conclude from the elevation
of His teaching and His character.
The teaching of Christ surpasses that of the wisest who have
ever lived on earth, and is far removed from the teaching of all
other religions.
Christ's doctrine answers all the needs of the human heart, and is
adapted to all, whatever be their station, age, sex, or nation; the
greatest philosophers, even men like St. Augustine, found in it the
peace they longed for. Christ's doctrine is a perfect revelation of the
highest end of man and of the creation, besides inculcating the
loftiest virtues : such as love of one's neighbor, humility, gentleness,
patience, love of one's enemies, poverty, which up to the time of
Christ had been quite unknown. Kant confesses that reason would
not, even at the present day, have discovered the universal moral
law unless Christianity had taught it. Christ's teaching, besides
being lofty, was so simple, and announced with such clearness, that
the people marvelled to hear Him (Matt. vii. 28). Even Strauss does
not hesitate to declare that to surpass the teaching of Jesus is an im-
possible task for all time. There is absolutely nothing in the Chris-
tian religion that is opposed to sound reason, or can lower the true
The Apostles' Creed. 203
dignity of man. Of how many of the other forms of religion can
that be said ? Mohammedanism teaches fatalism and^ is propagated
by the sword. Even the Talmud contains a large mixture of very
imperfect doctrine.
Christ was free from all sin, and was so conspicuous for vir-
tue that for all time He must remain the model for all men.
The traitor Judas confessed that he had shed " innocent blood "
(Matt, xxxvii. 4); Pilate could find no cause' in Christ (John xviii.
38) ; Christ Himself challenged the Jews : " Which of you shall con-
vince Me of sin ? " and none of them dared reply (John viii. 46). He
was quite free from all prejudices and narrow-mindedness, which are
the result of surroundings and nationality. We see this in His rela-
tions to the Samaritans and Romans, more especially in the beautiful
parable of the Good Samaritan (Matt. x. 30-37). The following virtues
were most conspicuous : His love of His neighbor : " He went about
doing good" (Acts x. 38) and laid down His life for others; His
humility, which was seen in His associating with the most despised
among the people; His gentleness in His forbearance with His ene-
mies and even with the disciple who betrayed Him; His patience in
suffering the greatest tortures ; His clemency in His conduct towards
sinners ; His love of His enemies in His praying for them on the
cross ; His love of prayer in spending whole nights praying to the
Father. His whole character is one of the wonders of history. His
greatest enemies even felt awe in His presence ; no one, for instance,
dared resist Him when He drove the buyers and sellers out of the
Temple (Matt. xxi. 12). When the Pharisees wished to stone Him
for claiming to be God, He went through their midst and they made
way for Him (John x. 39). The soldiers in the garden fell to the
ground at a word from His lips (John xviii. 6).
4. That Jesus Christ is God we conclude from the rapid spread
of His teaching and from the miracles which accompanied this
teaching throughout the world.
His teaching was propagated in spite of the greatest ob-
stacles, and by the simplest of means.
The obstacles among the heathen were : The laws condemning to
death or banishment those who professed a new religion. Calumnies
the grossest were uttered against the Christians, accusing them of
being godless, of cannibalism, attributing to them various misfortunes
such as wars, pestilence, and famine. All this led to a persecution
extending over some three hundred years ; up to the edict of Constan-
tine the Great there are reckoned about ten persecutions. The doc-
trines of the Christians afforded another series of obstacles ; the rever-
ence paid to One Who had suffered the death of the cross was ac-
counted a folly, added to which this doctrine was introduced by Jews,
a sect held in the lowest esteem by the Romans. ~No less repulsive
to the sensual and pleasure-loving heathen were the restraint and
self-denial inculcated by the Christian religion. The means em-
ployed for _ converting the world were twelve poor fishermen, un~
equipped with eloquence to persuade, or with the countenance of the
great ones of the earth to support their mission. Thev did indeed
204 Faith.
work miracles, but, as St. Augustine says, the spread of Christianity
without miracles would have been the greatest miracle of any. On
Pentecost five thousand were baptized ; two thousand more after the
miracle at the gate of the Temple, and in the year a.d. 100 Christian-
ity had extended over the whole Roman world. Pliny, the Governor of
Bithynia, reported to the Emperor Trajan that the heathen lemples
were left empty because all were becoming Christians in the towns
and villages. St. Justinus, the philosopher, wrote in a.d. 150:
" There is not a nation "where prayers are not oifered to the heavenly
Father in the name of the Crucified."
The effect of Christ's teaching was that idolatry with its
horrible abuses disappeared, and that the whole life of man was
reformed and ennobled.
The sacrifice of human victims was abolished, and the bloody
spectacles of the gladiatorial shows. All kinds of charitable institu-
tions arose for the blind, the poor, the sick, etc., owing their existence
to the teaching of Christian mercy. Polygamy died out, and woman
regained her dignity. Order was established in the family life by
the Christian doctrine of the indissolubility of the marriage tie.
Slavery was gradually abolished, for every man saw in his neighbor
the image of God. The cruel laws against malefactors became milder,
and wars became less frequent. Trade, science, and art were
cultivated more, and labor acquired a new dignity. Even Julian the
Apostate counselled the heathen to imitate the Christians in the gen-
erosity and purity of their lives. A religion which produces so much
good must be from God. It is sometimes urged that Christ's teach-
ing has been the cause of many religious wars and schisms. The
answer to this objection is that it is not Christ's teaching but man's
perversity in not following that teaching, or wresting it to his own
destruction, which causes so much evil.
Jesus Christ is Our Lord.
Christ's words at the Last Supper were : " You call Me Master
and Lord, and you say well, for so I am " (John xiii. 13).
We call Christ " Our Lord " because He is our Creator, Re-
deemer, Lawgiver, Teacher, and Judge.
Christ is our Creator: " In Him were all things created in heaven
and on earth, visible and invisible" (Col. i. 16), and by His Son God
made the world (Heb. i. 2). St. John calls Christ the Word, and
says: " Without Him was made nothing that was made " (John i. 3).
Christ is our Redeemer. By Him we are set free from the slavery of
the devil (1 Pet. i. 18). Hence the Apostle says: " Know ye not th-rt
... ye are not your own, for you are bought with a great price " (1
Cor. vi. 10). Lie is also our Lawgiver, for He developed the teaching
of the Ten Commandments, and gave the two precepts of love. He
called Himself the "Lord of the Sabbath" (Luke vi. 5). Christ is
our Teacher, because He taught men to be like to God, and in John
xiii. 13, He calls Himself our Master. Christ is also our Judge, for
He will come again in glory to summon all mankind before His judg-
The Apostles' Creed. 205
ment-seat and separate the sheep from the goats (Matt. xxv. 31, 32).
Then will the just as well as the wicked address Him, saying: " Lord,
when did we see Thee hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or
sick, or in prison? " (Matt. xxv. 37, 44.) " He is the blessed and only
mighty, the King of kings and Lord of lords ... to Whom be honor
and empire everlasting. Amen" (1 Tim. vi. 15, 16).
EIGHTH ARTICLE OF THE CREED : THE HOLY GHOST.
1. THE GRACE OF THE HOLY GHOST IS
NECESSARY TO US.
1. The Holy Ghost is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity,
and is therefore God Himself.
Hence He is eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, almighty.
" The Holy Ghost," says Tertullian, " is God of God, as light is
of light." St. Cyril of Alexandria compares the Holy Ghost in His
likeness to the Father and the Son, to the vapor arising from water,
which is like in its nature to the water producing it. St. Isidore,
commenting on these words of Christ : " I drive out devils through
the finger of God," says that as the finger is of the same nature as the
body, so the Holy Ghost is of the nature of God. St. Athanasius
writes that the Holy Ghost is called the finger of God, because it is
only through Him that the Father and the Son enter into communi-
cation with man. Through Him it was that the tables of stone were
written. In the second General Council of Constantinople in a.d. 381.
it was defined that the Holy Ghost is eternal, omnipresent, etc., in
opposition to the heresy of Macedonius. The Holy Ghost proceed;
from the Father and the Son. The Greeks, who denied this article
of faith and fell away from the Church in a.d. 867 and a.d. 1053 fell
under the Turkish yoke in the year 1453 a.d., and strangely enough
on the feast of Pentecost.
2. The Holy Ghost dispenses the graces which Christ merited
by the sacrifice of the cross.
The Holy Ghost produces nothing in addition to what Christ
gained for us. He only increases and perfects that work of Christ;
just as the sun when shining on a field does not sow new seed, but
develops that which is already sown. A grace is a favor granted to
a person who has no claim to the favor. If a sovereign grants a re-
prieve to a criminal under sentence of death, that reprieve is a grace.
So, too, God acts with regard to man, granting Him numberless fa-
vors without any merit on the part of man (Rom. iii.24). These favors
or graces may be temporal, such as health, riches, station ; or spiritual,
such as forgiveness of our sins. It is with the latter class of favors
that we are dealing now, and it was to secure these for us that Christ
consented to die on the cross.
> 3. Hence the assistance of the Holy Ghost is absolutely neces-
sary for salvation.
206 . Faith.
No mere natural act of a man can gain for him eternal salvation.
The following illustration may help us. A little boy longs to reach
some fruit on a tree; he stretches out his arms to the utmost, but
the fruit is still out of reach; the child's father then lifts him up,
so that he can pluck the fruit for himself. Thus man cannot attain
salvation by his own efforts till the Holy Ghost gives him the super-
natural strength. Just as the eye cannot discern distant objects
without a telescope, and the arm cannot lift heavy weights without
a lever, so the natural powers of man require supernatural help
in order that salvation may be obtained. Hence the words of Christ :
" Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he can-
not enter into the kingdom of God" (John iii. 5).
Without the help of the Holy Ghost we cannot do the least
work deserving of salvation.
We can do nothing without God's help. " Our sufficiency is from
God " (2 Cor. iii. 5). As St. Thomas Aquinas says, we are, since the
Fall, like a sick man who cannot leave his bed without help. The fol-
lowing may serve as illustrations. A man cannot work without
light; thus too he cannot do any good work without the light of the
Holy Ghost. The body is helpless unless animated by the soul ; in like
manner man can do no good unless the Holy Spirit, Who is the life
of the soul, come to his aid (St. Fulgentius). Our souls bring forth
no fruit unless they are watered by the rain of the grace of the Holy
Spirit (St. Hilary). As grace can do nothing without the co-operation
of the will, so neither can the will achieve any result without grace.
Compare the action of earth; it can produce no fruits without rain,
and the rain cannot produce without the earth (St. John Chrysos-
tom). As ink is required for the pen, so the grace of the Holy Ghost
is necessary to inscribe the virtues in our souls (St. Thomas
Aquinas). Every good work is the effect of two co-ordinate prin-
ciples : the Holy Ghost and our own free will (1 Cor. xv. 10) ; we may
compare the action of the schoolmaster who guides a boy's hand while
he writes. Thus we can never ascribe the merit of our good works
to ourselves. The earth does not bring forth flowers, but rather the
sun by means of the earth. As we ascribe the activity of the body to
the soul, so we should ascribe our good works to the grace of God.
We might put down our good works to our own account with as much
truth as a soldier might claim the victory without reference to his
commander.
With the help of the Holy Ghost we can carry out the most
difficult works.
St. Paul says : " I can do all in Him Who strengtheneth me "
(Phil. iv. 13).
2. ACTION OF THE HOLY GHOST.
The graces conferred by the Holy Ghost are as follows:
1. He gives to all men actual graces.
2. He gives to some men sanctifying grace.
TJie Apostles' Creed. 207
3. He usually gives the seven special gifts, and occasionally
quite extraordinary graces.
4. He sustains and guides the Catholic Church.
Actual Grace.
1. The Holy Ghost influences our lives by enlightening the
mind and strengthening the will. Such passing influence of the
Holy Spirit is called " actual grace."
Before Pentecost the apostles were still ignorant ; " slow of heart,"
as Our Lord expressed it (Luke xxiv. 25) ; the Holy Ghost in de-
scending upon them enlightened their understanding and strength-
ened their will; the fear which had caused them to keep in conceal-
ment was now changed into undaunted courage. The fiery tongues
symbolized the enlightenment of their minds, the whirlwind the
strength which they received. The Holy Ghost is like the sun,
giving light and warmth. When the sun begins to shine, the stars
which were visible before begin to wane, and we see nothing in the
firmament but the sun. When the Holy Ghost enlightens our souls
we despise all earthly objects which formerly attracted our love, such
as eating, drinking, playing, etc., and all our thoughts are turned
towards God. Moreover the light of the sun reveals to us the true
form of objects, the stones which we have gathered, the various roads
before us. The light of the Holy Ghost shows us the true value of
earthly things, our own sins, and the true goal of life. When the sun
comes the ice begins to melt and the plants to blossom. So, too, the
Holy Ghost warms our hearts, stirring them with the love of God
and of our neighbor, and helps us to do actions deserving of heaven.
The Holy Ghost is therefore a light, descending from the Father of
light ( Jas. i. 17) ; as St. Augustine says : " Actual grace is a light
which enlightens and moves the sinner."
There are many and various channels through which the
Holy Ghost makes His influence act; for instance, sermons, the
reading of good books, illness and death, the good example of
others, religious pictures, the advice of superiors and friends, etc.
The people were moved by the Holy Ghost at Pentecost when they
heard the preaching of the apostles; so too St. Anthony the Hermit
(356), on hearing a sermon on the rich young man; St. Ignatius of
Loyola (1556), by the reading of the lives of the saints; St. Francis of
Assisi (1226) during an illness; St. Francis Borgia (1572) on seeing
the dead body of the Queen Isabella ; St. Norbert (1134) on seeing a
death by lightning, etc., etc. In all these cases there was a sudden
interior change, which the Holy Ghost took occasion of to speak to
their hearts. All of them might have said with St. Cyprian : " When
the Holy Ghost came into my heart, He changed me into another
man." Often God sends us suffering, before the Holv Ghost speaks
to us. Just as wax must be subjected to the flame and the stamp be-
fore receiving an impression, so the heart of man must be softened by
suffering in order to receive the impress of the Holy Spirit. Before
paper can be used for writing, it must be prepared and finished ; in a
208 Faith.
similar manner man must be purified from his evil desires before he
is fit for the working of the Holy Ghost in his soul.
2. The action of the Holy Spirit sometimes makes itself per-
ceptible to the senses.
For example, the appearance of the dove and the voice from
heaven at the baptism of Christ, the fiery tongues and the rushing
as of wind on Pentecost. We might reflect also how Christ instituted
the Sacraments with forms appealing to the senses.
3. The Holy Ghost does not force us, but leaves us in perfect
possession of our free will.
The Holy Ghost is, as it were, a guide Whom men may follow
or not as they list. He is the light proceeding from God, to which
man can, if he will, close his eyes ; as St. Augustine says : " To obey
the voice of God or not is left to a man's free will." God does not
act upon us as if we were inanimate objects without intellect or free
will. Man's freedom is very sacred to God, nor will He deprive him
of it even when he uses it to his own perdition. In the words of St.
Gertrude : " As God would not allow our great enemy to deprive us
of our freedom, so neither would He take it from us Himself."
Man can co-operate with actual grace or reject it (Ps. xciv.
8).
Saul of Tarsus co-operated with grace, the rich young man (Luke
xviii. 18-25) rejected it. The people who on Pentecost reviled the
apostles rejected grace (Acts ii. 13), as also those who mocked at St.
Paul when he spoke to them on the Areopagus of the Gospel and the
resurrection of the dead (Acts xvii. 32). Herod, too, when he heard
of the birth of Christ from the Magi, failed to co-operate with grace.
St. Francis de Sales draws an illustration from marriage : When a
man wishes to marry he offers his hand to some suitable person, and
that person may accept or reject the offer; thus God acts. He offers
us His grace and we may accept it or reject it. Whoever constantly
resists actual grace, and dies in that resistance is guilty of grave
sin against the Holy Ghost, a sin which cannot be forgiven. Such
a man resembles the devil, who is ever resisting the truth.
Whoever co-operates with actual grace acquires greater
graces; but he who resists loses other graces and must answer
at the judgment for his obstinacy.
The first grace, if responded to, brings with it a string of other
graces. The servant who employed well his five talents received five
talents more (Matt. xxv. 28). Hence the words of Christ: He that
hath, to him shall be given and he shall abound (Matt. xxv. 29).
The punishment which fell on the city of Jerusalem in a.d. 70 is a
terrible example of the rejection of grace, because it did not know
the time of its visitation (Luke xix. 44). To him who rejects grace
apply those words of Christ : " The unprofitable servant cast ye out
into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth " (Matt. xxv. 30). It is an insult to a great lord to refuse his
The Apostles' Creed. 209
gifts, all the more if lie be the Lord of heaven and earth and God
Himself. He who rejects graces has as little chance of getting to
heaven as the traveller of reaching his destination who should neg-
lect to enter the train while it is in the station. The moment of
actual grace is like the crisis of a sickness, when a little carelessness
may cause death. Many people give a poor reception to the Hcly Gh:st
when He comes to them on the occasion of a death, the reception
of the sacraments, or the celebration of great feasts, by giving way to
worldly distractions and following their inclinations. They should
then seek solitude and time for recollection and prayer, or purify
their souls from sin by confession. Thus acted St. Ignatius of Loy-
ola when after his conversion he retired into the cave at Manresa;
thus too St. Mary of Egypt who retired into the desert. " Sailors put
out to sea," says Louis of Granada, " as soon as they see that a favor-
able wind is blowing ; with like promptitude ought we to act when we
feel the influence of the Holy Spirit." If we delay God will withdraw
His graces, just as in the case of the Israelites. Those who failed
to rise in the early morning to gather the manna found it had melted
away after sunrise. " The greater the graces we receive," says St.
Gregory the Great, " the greater is our responsibility." Christ's own
words are : " Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be
required" (Luke xii. 48).
4. The Holy Ghost acts on every man, on the sinner as well
as on the just; and more on Catholics than on non-Catholics and
unbelievers.
God is the Good Shepherd (John x.), Who seeks the lost sheep till
He finds it (Luke xv.). Christ, the Light of the world, enlightens
every man that comes into the world (John i. 9). God's will is that
all men be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim.
ii. 4). Besides all this God has a very special love for the souls of
men. " My delight is to be with the children of men " (Prov. viii.
31).
The Holy Ghost was even from the beginning of the world
active in promoting the salvation of mankind, but on Pente-
cost He came into the world in a much more efficacious manner.
While the Jews were in exile in Babylon, the Holy Ghost was
working in the heathen by the many miracles which were wrought
to demonstrate God's power: as in the incident of the three children
in the furnace and Daniel in the lion's den. He was working not
only in the patriarchs and nrophets, but even in heathens like Soc-
rates (who taught the existence of one God, and for that reason was
condemned to death in 399 B.C.). Just as the sunrise is preceded
by the dawn, so the sun of justice, Christ, is preceded bv the dawn of
the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost does not distribute His gifts equally to all
men; the members of the Catholic Church receive the richest
share,
210 Faith.
One servant five talents, another two, and another one talent
(Matt. xxv. 15). The Jews received more than the heathen; the
blessed Mother of God more than all other men. The towns of Coro-
zain and Bethsaida received more graces than Tyre and Sidon, Ca-
pharnaum more than Sodom (Matt. xi. 21, 23). There are ordinary
graces which are given to all men without distinction, and there are
special graces which God grants only to a few souls, and that with a
view to some special work. Many graces may be obtained, especially
by the prayers of others and by co-operation with the first grace.
St. Augustine received many more graces than other men in conse-
quence of the prayers of St. Monica; so, too, St. Paul through the
dying prayer of St. Stephen. The holy apostles obeyed the first call
of Our Lord, and thus obtained many other graces.
The action of the Holy Ghost on the souls of men is not
constant, but occasional.
Hence the exhortation of St. Paul: "Now is the acceptable time;
behold now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. vi. 2). Compare the
parable of the vineyard where the workmen received only one sum-
mons (Matt. xx.). Times of special grace are the seasons of Lent or
when a mission is being given, or the jubilee year. These times of
grace are like the market-days when things are easier to obtain ; with
this difference, that no money is required. " Come buy wine and milk,
without money, and without any price" (Is. lv. 1).
5. Actual graces are obtained by the performance of good
works, especially by prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds; and more
especially by the use of the means of grace provided by the
Church, by hearing of holy Mass, worthy reception of the sacra-
ments, and attendance at sermons.
God's grace cannot be merited by our own good works alone, other-
wise it would not be grace (Rom. xi. 6), yet these good works are
necessary, for, as St. Augustine says : " God, Who created us without
our co-operation will not save us without our co-operation." Not
according to the works which we have done but out of His mercy has
God saved us (Tit. iii. 5). The Holy Ghost gives to each one as He
wills (1 Cor. xii. 11), with regard, however, to the preparation and co-
operation of each individual (Council of Trent, 6, 7). Hence it is
that a man receives more actual grace as he is richer in good works.
In particular we know that prayer to the Holy Ghost is very effica-
cious, for the Father in heaven gives the Holy Spirit to those who
ask Him. Prayer to the Mother of God is also very efficacious: for
she is " full of grace," and " the dispenser of all God's gifts." " Let
no one," says St. Alphonsus, " consider this last title extravagant,
for the greatest saints have so spoken of her, and the saints, as we
know, were inspired by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth." Prayer
to the Blessed Sacrament also confers many graces. So, too, retire'
ment from the world, or the solitude in which God speaks to the heart
(Osee ii. 14), and the mortification of the senses are excellent means
of drawing down grace; a good example is found in the conduct of
the apostles during the time preceding Pentecost.
TJie Apostles' Creed 211
Sanctifying Grace.
1. When the sinner co-operates with actual grace, the Holy
Ghost enters his soul and confers on it a brightness and beauty
which claim the friendship of God. This indwelling beauty of
the soul is due to the presence of the Holy Spirit and is called
" sanctifying grace."
Iron placed in a fire becomes heated, and glows like the fire itself ;
so the Holy Spirit, entering into a sonl and dwelling there (1 Cor.
vi. 19). gives it a new nature, a light and glory which we call " sanc-
tifying grace." That God is drawn to men by their co-operation
with His grace appears from God's own words : " Turn ye to Me. . . .
•and I will turn to you" (Zach. i. 3). Sanctifying grace is like a new
garment, so it is represented by the wedding-garment and the parable
of the supper (Matt, xxii.), and of the prodigal son (Luke xv.). " The
soul acquires a great beauty by the presence of the Holy Spirit," says
St. John Chrysostom. " He who enters into the state cf grace, is like
a man bowed down with infirmities and age, who, by a miracle, has
been transformed into a beautiful youth dressed in purple and
carrying a sceptre." " If," says Blosius, " the beauty of a soul in
the state of grace could be seen, mankind would be transported with
wonder and delight." Just as a palace must be beautifully furnished
when the king comes to dwell in it, so the soul of man must be made
into a beautiful temple by the Holy Ghost before God can dwell in
it. After the resurrection the appearance of the body will be deter-
mined by that of the soul. " Let us therefore," says St. John Chry-
sostom, " give all our care to the soul; for this is the true interest of
our bodies, which otherwise will perish with the soul." Sanctifying
grace is not merely a gift of God (Council of Trent, 6, 11), but God
gives us of His Spirit (1 John iv. 13). The Hcly Ghost penetrates us
through and through like fire; He is not in us merely like a ray of
sunshine in a room. In consequence of this supernatural beauty
the soul is enriched with the friendship of God. St. Mary Magda-
lene of Pazzi says that if a man in the state of sanctifying grace
knew how pleasing his soul is to Gcd he would die of excess of joy.
We are, in consequence of sanctifying grace, no longer the servants
of God but His friends (John xv. 15). The expression "friendship "
implies of itself a certain likeness ; and this elevation from the state
of sin to that of friendship with God is called " justification "
(Council of Trent, 6, 4), or regeneration (John iii. 5; Tit. iii. 4-7),
or the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new (Eph.
iv. 22). Examples: As soon as David, Paul, and the prodigal son re-
pented, they received the Holy Ghost and the gift of sanctifying
grace ; otherwise they would never have accomplished their great sac-
rifice. David and Saul spent many days in fasting and nrayer, and
the prodigal son faced the humiliation of returning to his father's
roof. It is quite certain that whoever has perfect contrition receives
the Holy Spirit even before confessing. Thus the patriarchs and
prophets had sanctifying grace in consequence of their penitential
spirit, and their belief in a Saviour. We know, too, that the Holy
Spirit resides in some men even before Baptism, as in the case of the
212 Faith.
centurion Cornelius, and the people assembled in his house (Acts x.
44).
2. Usually, however, the Holy Spirit makes His entry on the
reception of the Sacraments of Baptism or Penance.
The sinner under the action of the Holy Ghost begins to believe
in God, to fear Him, to hope in Him, and love Him; then to bewail
his sins, and finally decides to seek the means of grace in the Sacra-
ments of Baptism or Penance. Then only is his conversion perfect.
And actual experience goes to prove that Baptism or a general con-
fession is in most sinners the beginning of a new life. Even in chil-
dren their baptism is the beginning of a new spiritual life.
3. When the Holy Spirit enters into us, He brings with Him
a new spiritual life.
God is the God of life, and His presence diffuses life. His pres-
ence in our souls is like the presence of the soul in our bodies. Our
souls have a natural life of their own, and by means of the intellect
and the will learn to appreciate the true, the beautiful, and the good.
But this natural life, compared with the life imparted by God, is like
the statue compared to> its living original. This divine life is acquired
by the soul when the Holy Spirit takes possession of the soul with
His grace, and it enables the soul to know, love, and enjoy God; this
is the supernatural life. Just as Elias (3 Kings xvii.) and Eliseus (4
Kings iv.) restored the dead children to life by measuring their
bodies over that of the child, mouth to mouth, hand to hand, member
to member, so does the Holy Ghost breathe the divine life into us,
giving us to see with His sight, to work with His power; and thus
our soul is born to a new life (1 Pet. i. 3, 4). Grace is, in the words
of Our Saviour, " a fountain of water springing into life everlast-
ing" (John iv. 14). " A heavenly seed is sown in us," says St. Peter
Chrysologus, " destined to spring up to everlasting life. We are of a
heavenly family, and Our Father is throned in heaven. See to what
heights grace has raised thee ! " While our bodies decay from day to
day, our souls become daily more full of the strength of youth by vir-
tue of grace (2 Cor. iv. 16). Even in our bodies God's grace lays the
germ of everlasting life: "And if the spirit of Him that raised up
Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; He that raised up Jesus Christ
from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His
spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom. viii. 11).
The following are some of the effects of the Holy Spirit
when He acts upon us by His grace:
1. He purifies us from all mortal sin.
As metals are purified by fire from their dross, so are our souls
cleansed of their sins when penetrated by the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Sanctifying grace and mortal sin are incompatible. The Holy Spirit
dwells in all who are free from mortal sin, and the evil spirit in
those who are guiltv of mortal sin. Although the grace of God brings
a cure to the soul of man, it does not cure the borly ; in his flesh is left
the remains of sin, or concupiscence. Thus in great saints even,
thore remains the inclination to eyil against which must be waged a
The Apostles' Creed 213
lifelong struggle. Hence the words of St. Paul : " I know that there
dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good "
(Rom. vii. 18). "Concupiscence," says St. Augustine, "may be les-
sened in this life but not destroyed." It remains with us as an object
lesson of the deadly effects of sin, and to give occasion, by our resist-
ance to it, of gaining merit in heaven.
2. He unites us to God and makes us into temples of God.
He who has the Holy Spirit is united with Christ, like the
branches with the vine (John xv. 5). In the words of St. Gregory
ISTazianzen, oun nature is united with God by the virtue of the Holy
Ghost, like a drop of water poured into a measure of wine ; it acquires
the color, the taste, and the smell of the wine. The Holy Spirit
makes us sharers of the divine nature (2 Pet. i. 4). "By the action
of the Holy Spirit," says St. Thomas Aquinas, " we are transformed
into gods "; and St. Maximus : " The Godhead is conferred on us with
grace," and " As iron glows when heated in the fire, so is man
changed by the Holy Spirit into the Godhead" (St. Basil; St.
Thomas Aquinas). Hence men are often called gods (John x. 34;
Pp. lxxxi. 6). Lucifer and the first man wished to be as God, but
independently of Him. God wills that we should strive to be as He is,
but in union with Him. The presence of the Holy Ghost makes us
temples of God. " The Holy Spirit," says St. Augustine, " dwells
primarily in the soul, and gives it its true life ; and since the soul is
in the body, the Holy Ghost dwells therefore in our bodies." St.
Paul insists on this point : " Know you not that you are the temple of
God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? " (1 Cor. iii. 16) ;
" You are the temple of the living God" (2 Cor. vi. 16). In the Our
Father we say " Our Father, Who art in heaven " ; " the heaven,"
says St. Augustine, " is the just man on earth, because God dwells
in him." Christ Himself said that the Father and He would take up
their abode with the man who loves Christ (John xiv. 23).
3. He illumines the mind, and makes the divine and moral
precepts possible.
He strengthens our faculties of the intellect and will, just as a ray
of sunlight passing through a crystal turns it into a mass of light.
More especially does He give the light of faith (2 Cor. iv. 6), and
kindle the fire of divine love (Rom. v. 5). In short He gives the three
theological virtues (Council of Trent, 6, 7). He also makes us able
and willing to co-operate with the inspirations of the Holy Spirit;
that is, He gives us the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. Just as iron
softens in the fire, so the soul of man under the influence of the
Holy Spirit is inclined to good works; this we see exemplified in St.
Paul, for hardly had the Holy Ghost acted upon him when he asks:
" Lord, what wilt Thou that I do ? " (Acts ix. 6.) Through this in-
clination of the will towards what is good, the moral virtues are pres-
ent as possibilities; practice is all that is required to make them
facts. Thus the whole spiritual life is changed, and we see how far
apart is the inner life of a saint and that of a worldling. The latter
thinks only of his own satisfaction in eating, drinking, the pursuit of
ambition and pleasure; in short, he loves the world. The man in
214 Faith.
whom the Holy Spirit dwells, directs his thoughts for the m st part
to God and tries to please Him; that is, he loves God. He can say
with St. Paul, " I live, now not I ; but Christ liveth in me " (Gal. ii.
20). Such a man despises the things of this world, and whatever be
his sufferings he enjoys peace from within and unspeakable consola-
tion; for the Holy Ghost is the Comforter (John xiv. 26).
4. He gives us true peace.
Through Him man acquires the peace which surpasses all under-
standing (Phil. iv. 7). The man who has the light of the Holy
Ghost in him is like a traveller performing his journey in sunshine
and fair weather; quite otherwise is the case of him from whom
that light is cut off by the clouds of sin; he is like the unwilling
traveller, forced to make his way through wind and storm.
5. He becomes our Teacher and Guide.
He instructs us in the teachings of the Catholic Church. The
unction which we have received from Him teacheth us of all things
(1 John ii. 27). Whoever has not the Holy Ghost may indeed study
the truths of the Christian religion, but their significance escapes
him; it is an unfruitful knowledge. Just as a book cannot be read
in the dark without the help of a light, so the Word of God is unintel-
ligible without light from the Holy Ghost. Though it is quite true
that whatever the Holy Ghost imparts to us is free from error, yet
we require to be certain that what we have received is indeed
imparted by the Holy Spirit. Hence, no matter what a man's lights
may be, he must keep fast hold of the teaching of the Church; and
whoever fails to do this has not the Holy Spirit in him (1 John iv.
6). The Holy Ghost is our Guide, " leading us," says Louis of Gran-
ada, " as a father who leads his child by the hand over a difficult
path." Those who are in the grace of God are led in a special
manner. Such can say : " No longer do I live, but Christ lives in me."
It is in this manner that the just have the kingdom of God within
them (Luke xvii. 21).
6. He inspires us to do good works and makes them meri-
torious for the kingdom of heaven.
Just as the Holy Spirit brooded over the waters of the deep, and
created plants, animals, and men, so too does He hover over the souls
of men, bringing forth fruits that are to last forever. As the flower
expands when touched by the sun, so is the heart of the most hard-
ened sinner expanded by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and breathes
out the perfume of virtue and piety. The Holy Ghost is ever active,
like fire, and always inciting to good works. As the wind keeps the
windmill ever in motion, so the Holy Spirit is ever moving the heart
of man. And He makes our actions meritorious. As the soul raises
our ordinary and merely animal operations to the level of rational
and intellectual acts, so the Holy Ghost elevates the acts of our soul
to a supernatural and divine plane. The Holy Ghost is, as it were,
the gardener of our souls. A gardener grafts a good branch on to
an uncultivated stook, which then brings forth sweet fruit, in place of
its former sour and poor fruit; so the Holy Ghost engrafts upon us
The Apostles' Creed. 215
a branch from Christ, the tree of life, and we bear no longer our
merely natural fruit, but supernatural. When we are in the state
of grace, we are the branches united with the vine, Jesus Christ
(John xv. 4). Good works done in the state of mortal sin obtain for
us only actual graces to help towards our conversion.
7. He makes us children of God and heirs of heaven.
When the Holy Ghost enters our souls it is with us as with Christ
at His baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him; God
the Father receives us as His well-beloved children, and the heavens
are opened to us; we have no longer the spirit of slavery, but the
spirit of adoption of sons whereby we cry " Abba, Father " (Rom.
viii. 15). All who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God
(Rom. viii. 14). If we are sons of God, we are also heirs : heirs indeed
of God, joint heirs with Christ (Rom. viii. 17), for children have a
claim to their heritage from their parents. " We know if our earthly
house of this habitation be dissolved that we have a building of God,
a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven" (2 Cor. v. 1). The
Holy Spirit will remain with us forever (John xiv. 16). " To be
numbered among the sons of God," says St. Cyprian, " is the highest
nobility." Such is man's privilege when in the state of grace, but
like the uncut diamond, all the glory of his soul is not yet visible.
Well might David cry out : " Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye
just " (Ps. xxxi. 11). He who has the Holy Spirit has the greatest of
kingdoms, the kingdom of God in himself (Luke xvii. 21). Alas !
that so many men should neglect this, their privilege, and give them-
selves up to the lusts of their flesh, the food of worms.
4. Sanctifying grace is secured and increased by doing good
works and using the means of grace offered by the Church; it is
lost by a single mortal sin.
Sanctifying grace can always be increased in the soul : " He that
is just let him be justified still; and he that is holy, let him be
sanctified still" (Apoc. xxii. 11). By good works the sanctifying
grace which we have received may be confirmed and increased in us
(Council of Trent, 6, 26). Thus, for example, St. Stephen was a
man "full of the Holy Spirit" (Acts vi. 5). Stones and weeds pre-
vent the sun from reaching the earth and giving it increase; so do
our sins hinder the-Holy Ghost from acting on our souls ; hence they
must be removed by the sacraments of confession and communion;
and as the soil must be prepared, so must our souls be nourished with
the teaching of Christ in order to receive the action of the Holy
Ghost. This was the case even with the apostles. One mortal sin
is enough to rob us of sanctifving grace, for it is by mortal sin only
that the soul is separated entirely from God. " God never deserts
him who has once been sanctified by His grace, unless He Himself
be first deserted." Hence the warning of the Apostle : " Extinguish
not the Spirit" (1 Thess. v. 19). In the instant of committing
mortal sin, storm clouds arise bptween God, the Sun of justice, and
cur souls, the brightness of which is at once extinguished. With the
departure of the Holv Ghost are united t^e darkening of the under-
standing and the weakening of the will. " When the sun goes down,"
216 Faith,
says Louis of Granada, " the eye is darkened and can no longer make
out objects. So when the light of the Holy Ghost is taken from the
soul, it is filled with darkness, and loses the knowledge of the truth."
Whoever has lost sanctifying grace can recover it by means of the
Sacrament of Penance, but not without an earnest effort; for the
wicked spirit has entered into such a man and has taken with him
seven more spirits more wicked than himself (Matt. xii. 45). It is
impossible for those who were once illuminated and are fallen away
to be renewed again to penance (Heb. vi. 4-6).
5. He who has not sanctifying grace is spiritually dead and
will suffer eternal ruin.
St. Augustine says that as the body without the soul is dead, so
the soul without the grace of the Holy Spirit is dead for heaven.
He who has not the Holy Ghost sits " in darkness and in the
shadow of death " (Luke i. 79) ; he cannot understand the things of
the Spirit, for they are to him foolishness (1 Cor. ii. 14). He who has
not on the wedding-garment, that is, sanctifying grace, is cast into
outer darkness (Matt. xxii. 12). And as the branch which is not
united to the vine withers and is cast into the fire, so is he cast off
who does not remain united to Christ by His grace (John xv. 6). If
any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is not of Christ (Eom.
viii. 9).
6. No one knows for certain whether he have sanctifying
grace or will receive it at the hour of death.
Man knows not whether he is worthy of love or hatred (Eccles. ix.
1). Even St. Paul says of himself: " I am not conscious to myself of
anything, yet am I not hereby justified" (1 Cor. iv. 4). Solomon
even became an idolater before his death; and St. Bernard warns
us : " Even if a man have the light of grace and the love of God, let
him remember that he is still under the open sky and not in the
house, and that a breeze may put out this holy light forever." " We
carry our treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Cor. iv. 7), and in the
words of Theophylact, " Our hearts are like earthen vessels, easily
broken and prone to spill the water in them; so may the Holy Spirit
be lost by one sin." No wonder St. Paul warns us : " Work out your
salvation in fear and trembling " (Phil. ii. 12). We may indeed have
confidence that we are in the grace of God, but without a special
revelation we cannot have absolute certainty (Council of Trent, 6, 6).
It may be surmised from the good works which a man does that he
is in the grace of God, for an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit
(Matt. vii. 18).
The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost and the Extraordinary
Graces.
1. The Holy Ghost gives to all who have sanctifying grace
the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is, seven virtues of the
soul, by which it easily responds to His light and inspirations.
The light of the sun is split up into seven distinct colors, and
the seven-bra ncherl candlestick in the Temple was a type of the seven
The Apostles' Creed. 21?
gifts. These seven gifts embrace the four cardinal virtues. They
remove entirely the barriers which divide us from God, especially by
subjecting our concupiscence to the dictates of reason (St. Thomas
Aquinas). The seven gifts give us a definite movement towards God;
they perfect the powers of our souls, so that the Holy Ghost can
easily move them. Just as teaching in the elementary school prepares
the scholar for higher forms of instruction, so the seven gifts pre-
pare the soul for the higher influence of the Holy Ghost. The three
theological virtues are higher than the seven gifts, because the latter
only give us a movement towards God, while the former unite us
intimately with Him. These gifts are lost by mortal sin, but are
increased as one advances in perfection. Confirmation also increases
these gifts.
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are : Wisdom, under-
standing, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, pietv, and the fear of
God.
The first four enlighten the understanding, the others strengthen
the will. These gifts are enumerated by Isaias as belonging to the
Redeemer of mankind (Is. xi. 2).
1. The gift of wisdom enables us to recognize the emptiness
of earthly things, and to regard God as the highest good.
St. Paul counts all that the world loves and admires for loss
(Phil. iii. 8). Solomon, after tasting of the joys of this world calls
them "vanities" (Eccles. i. 2). St. Ignatius of Loyola used often
to exclaim : " Oh ! how poor are the things of earth when I look at the
heavens." Compare, too, the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, " My
God and my all."
2. .The gift of understanding enables us to distinguish
Catholic teaching from all other doctrine, and to rest in it.
Blessed Clement Hofbauer, the apostle of Vienna (a.d. 1820),
though he began his studies very late in life, and had only just
enough knowledge of theology to be ordained, was often consulted
by the dignitaries of the Church on the accuracy of the doctrine
taught in the books passing through the press. A very short exam-
ination enabled hini to detect at once what was unsound. St. Cath-
arine of Alexandria (a.d. 307), reduced some fifty pagan doctors to
' silence, and made them into Christians. Our Lord's own promise
was : " I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adver-
saries shall not be able to resist and gainsay" (Luke xxi. 15).
3. The gift of knowledge enables us to obtain a clear grasp
of the teaching of the Catholic Church without special study.
The Cure of Ars had done but little study, yet h.s sermons were
so remarkable that even bishops were eager to hear them, and mar-
velled at his knowledge. St. Thomas Aquinas used to say that he
learned more at the foot of the altar than out of books; and St.
Ignatius of Lovola declared that he had learned more in the cave at
Manresa than all the doctors in the world could teach him. How did
218 Faith
the old man Simeon know that the child in the Temple was the
Messias (Luke ii. 34) ? Were not the apostles, after the coming of
the Holy Ghost, " endowed with power from on high " (Luke xxiv.
49) ? Was not St. Paul rapt into paradise to hear words such as
no man had heard (2 Cor. xii. 4) ?
4. The gift of counsel enables us to know under difficult
circumstances what the will of God is.
We might recall the answer made by Christ to the question
whether tribute should be paid to Caesar (Matt. xxii. 21), and the
judgment of Solomon (3 Kings iii.). Our Lord, when warning the
apostles of the persecutions awaiting them, had said, " Be not solic-
itous how you shall answer or what you shall say ; for the Holy Ghost
shall teach you in the same hour what you must say" (Luke xii.
11, 12).
5. The gift of fortitude enables us to bear courageously
whatever is necessary in carrying out God's will.
St. John ISTepomucene (1393) chose rather to be imprisoned, tor-
tured with hot irons, and finally cast into the Moldau, rather than
betray the secret of the confessional. Job was patient in spite of the
loss of his property, his children, and his health, and in spite of the
mockery of his wife and friends. Abraham was ready to sacrifice
his only son. The gift of fortitude is especially prominent in the
holy martyrs, and most of all in Our Lady, the Queen of martyrs.
" She herself," says St. Alphonsus, " would have nailed her Son to the
cross had such been God's will; for she possessed the gift of forti-
tude in a higher degree than Abraham."
6. The gift of piety enables us to make continual efforts to
honor God more and more in our hearts, and to carry out His
will more perfectly.
St. Teresa took a vow always to choose what was most perfect, and
St. Alphonsus never to waste time. St. Aloysius would spend hours
in presence of the Blessed Sacrament, till his confessor had to com-
mand him to shorten his devotions. Many of the saints used to melt
into tears during their prayer or in meditating on heavenly subjects.
7. The gift of the fear of God enables us to fear giving
offence to God more than all the evils in the world.
Such was the gift, for instance, of the three children in the fur-
nace, and of all the martyrs. It enables us to overcome the fear of
man and human respect.
2. The Holy Ghost gives to many graces of a rarer kind; for
instance, the gift of tongues, of miracles, of prophecy, of dis-
cernment of spirits, of visions, of ecstasies, etc.
The apostles received on the feast of Pentecost the gift of
tongues, and we find it recorded also in the life of St. Francis Xavier,
as having been possessed by him. The prophets of the Old Law fore-
told future events. St. Peter knew the thoughts of Ananias. St.
The Apostles' Creed. 219
Catharine of Sienna after communion used to be raised in the air
and rapt out of her senses. St. Francis of Assisi received the stig-
mata, or impression on his body of the sacred wounds of Our Lord.
Instances of all these gifts occur again and again in the lives of the
saints, and are, after all, only the fulfilment of the promise of Our
Lord in Mark xvi. 17, 18. These graces are conferred by the Holy
Ghost on whom He will (1 Cor. xii. 11). Louis of Granada beauti-
fully expresses it : " As the sun shines on the flowers, and brings out
their various perfumes, so does the light of the Holy Spirit fall on
pious souls, according to their peculiarities, and develops in them His
graces and gifts."
These extraordinary graces are conferred by the Holy Ghost
generally for the benefit of others and in aid of His Church.
The time of the apostles was conspicuous for extraordinary gifts
(1 Cor. xii.-xiv.). "God is like a gardener," says St. Gregory the
Great, " who waters the flowers only while they are young." Extraor-
dinary graces ought to be used with due discretion for the benefit
of others (1 Cor. xiv. 12). In the words of St. Irenseus, " A merchant
does not leave his money idle in his chests, but he makes the best use
he can of it in business; so God's will is that His graces should not
be left unemployed, but that men should make good use of them."
These extraordinary gifts of themselves do not make men better.
Th^y are indeed great graces, available for great good, and are the
free gift of God, like riches, health, etc. Hence the words of St.
Teresa : " Not for all the goods and joys of this world would I give up
a single one of the graces given me ; I esteemed them always as a sin-
gular gift of God and a very great treasure." It is the right use
of these gifts, and not the gifts themselves, which make them of serv-
ice to man. St. Fulgentius writes : " One may have the gift of mir-
acles, and yet lose his soul. Miracles give no certainty of one's
salvation." Nor are these extraordinary graces a sign of holiness in
the possessor of them; Our Lord's own words convey this in Matthew
vii. 22. Yet there is no saint of the Church who has not had these
gifts. Benedict XIV. says : " They are, as a rule, given not to sinners
but to the just. When they are found in union with heroic virtue in a
man, they are a strong proof of his sanctity." These gifts are usually
accompanied by great sufferings, such as desolation of spirit, strug-
gles with the devil, sickness, persecutions, etc.
3. The gifts of the Holy Spirit were conspicuous in a special
degree in Jesus Christ (Acts x. 38), His holy Mother, the apostles,
the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Law, and all the saints of
the Catholic Church.
The Holy Ghost as Guide of the Church.
The Holy Ghost maintains and guides the Catholic Church.
As the soul is to the body, so is the Holy Ghost to the Catholic
Church, and, like the soul, His action is invisible. He is the Archi-
tect of the Church; His action produced the Incarnation (Luke i.
35) ; He exercised His powers through the humanity of Christ (Luke
220 Faith.
iv. 18; Acts x. 38) ; He perfects the Church founded by the Redeemer
(Eph. ii. 20-22).
1. The Holy Spirit secures the Catholic Church from de-
struction (Matt. xvi. 18), and preserves it from error (John xiv.
16).
2. The Holy Ghost supports the rulers of the Church in the
duties of their office (Acts xx. 28), and especially the. Vicar of
Christ, the Pope.
The Holy Ghost gives to them what they shall say (Matt. x. 19).
He speaks through them as on Pentecost He spoke through the
apostles (Matt. x. 20). In the words of St. Basil: "As the pen
writes what the writer wishes, so the preacher of the Gospel speaks
nothing of his own but what the Holy Spirit gives to him."
3. The Holy Ghost raises up in times of danger for the
Church able champions of her cause.
For example St. Athanasius (a.d. 373) in the time of the Arians;
the holy Pope Gregory VII. (a.d. 1085) when the Church was in gen-
eral disorder; St. Dominic (a.d. 1221) at the time of the Albigenses;
St. Catharine of Sienna (a.d. 1380), at the time of the great Papal
schism ; St. Ignatius of Loyola (a.d. 1556) at the time of Luther.
4. The Holy Ghost is the cause that there are so many saints
in the Church in all ages.
Almost every year new saints are canonized in Rome.
S. APPARITIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST.
The Holy Ghost has appeared under the form of a dove, of
fire, and of tongues, to signify His office in the Church.
" The Holy Ghost," says St. Gregory the Great, " appeared in the
form of a dove and of fire, because His work is done gently and zeal-
ously, and whoever is wanting in gentleness and zeal is not under His
influence. He appeared in the form of tongues, because He gives to
man the gift of speech, by which he may inflame others to the love of
God." The Holy Ghost appeared under the form of fire, because He
consumes the dross of our sins, drives the darkness of ignorance out
of our souls, melts the icy coldness of our hearts, and inflames us with
love of God and of our neighbor, and because He hardens and
strengthens the heart of man whom He has made from the clay of the
earth. " Our God is a consuming fire " (Heb. xii. 29).
The Apostles' Creed. 221
NINTH AETICLE OF THE CKEED : THE CATHOLIC
CHURCH.
1. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTION.
1. The Catholic Church is a visible institution, founded by
Christ, in which men are trained for heaven.
The Church may be compared with a school; the latter prepares its
pupils to become good citizens of the State, the former trains up
citizens of heaven. And just as a school has its head master, its staff
of teachers, its pupils, along with its regulations for discipline, and
appliances of education, so is the Church provided. It has a visible
head, the visible ceremony of Baptism by which members are re-
ceived, and a visible formula of belief. Hence Christ compares the
Church with visible objects, with a city placed on a mountain, with
a light on a candlestick; it is also called a body (Eph. i. 22), the house
of God (1 Tim. iii. 15), a holy city (Apoc. xxi. 10). Wherever
Catholic priests and Catholics are to be found, there is the Catholic
Church. Two classes of people maintain that the Church is not
visible: heretics, who have been cut off from it yet would gladly
belong to the Church, and free thinkers, who wish to shirk the obliga-
tion of obeying a visible Church. The expression " Catholic Church "
does not imply a mere building of stone or wood, though the com-
parison is frequently made in the Scriptures (Eph. ii. 21), the
Church having a living corner-stone, Christ (Ps. cxvii. 22) Who
binds the faithful into one divine family, and the foundation-stones
of the apostles (Apoc. xxi. 14), the faithful being the stones of the
edifice (1 Pet. ii. 5). Nor by " Catholic Church " do we mean " Cath-
olic religion ; " the Church is to the religion as the body to the
soul.
The Catholic Church is often called the " kingdom of
heaven/' " kingdom of God," " community of the faithful."
John the Baptist and Christ Himself announced that the kingdom
of heaven was -at hand (Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17). The parables on the
kingdom of heaven bring out the various features of the Church.
The gradation of offices in the Church — (Pope, cardinals, bishops,
priests, ordinary Christians), is very suggestive of a kingdom, in
which the aim is to lead men to heaven. " The Church is the people
of God scattered through the world," says St. Augustine; or in the
words of St. Thomas Aquinas, the community of the faithful. Our
Lord compares it with a fold where He wishes to keep all His sheep.
The Church is very properly called the " Mother of Chris-
tians," because she gives to men the true life of the soul, and
because she trains her members as a mother brings up her
children.
The Church confers in Baptism the gift of sanctifying grace,
the true life of the soul, for this grace gives a claim to heaven. As
222 Faith.
the father who goes away on a journey leaves all his power in the
hands of the mother, so Christ, in leaving this earth, gave His Church
full power (John xx. 21). "We should love God as Our Father,"
says St. Augustine, " and the Church as our Mother." " If we love
our native land so dearly," says Leo XIII., " because we were born
and bred there, and are ready even to die for it, how much deeper
should be our love for the Church, which has given us the life which
has no end."
2. The Church prepares man for heaven by carrying out the
threefold office which Christ conferred upon her; the office of
teacher, of priest, and of shepherd.
The Church teaches the doctrine of Christ, ministers the means of
grace appointed by Christ, and is a guide and shepherd to the faith-
ful. The teaching is carried on by sermons ; the means of grace con-
sist in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the sacraments, blessings, and
the holding of special devotions; the guidance consists in the laying
down of certain precepts, e.g., the commandments of the Church,
and the prohibition of what is sinful or dangerous, e.g., the reading
of bad books.
This triple office was first exercised by Christ, and then
passed on to the apostles and their successors.
Christ used to preach, as we see in the sermon on the mount. He
dispensed the means of grace, forgiving Magdalen her sins, giving
His body and blood to the apostles at the Last Supper, blessing the
little children. Christ was the Guide of men. He gave command-
ments, sent the apostles on missions, instructed them, and reproved
the tyranny of the Pharisees, etc. He gave the apostles commission
(1), to teach all nations (Matt, xxviii. 19), and also (2), to exercise
the power of the priesthood, to offer sacrifice (Luke xxii. 19), and to
forgive sins (John xx. 23) ; (3), in addition the apostles received the
office of pastor, and with it the power of reproving and correcting
(Matt, xviii. 17), and of binding and loosing, i.e., of making and re-
voking laws. The words of Christ included the successors of the
apostles as well as the apostles themselves : " I am with you all days,
even to the consummation of the world " (Matt, xxviii. 20).
3. The Lord and King of the Church is Christ.
The prophets had foretold (Ps. ii.), that the Messias should be a
great king, whose kingdom should last forever and embrace all other
kingdoms. The archangel Gabriel told Mary that the Redeemer
should be a king and His kingdom should be eternal (Luke i. 33).
Christ calls Himself a king to Pilate, but denies that His kingdom
is of this world (John xviii. 36). Christ directs the Church through
the Holy Ghost; hence He is called the Head of the Church (Eph.
i. 23), of which Christians form the body, each one being a member
of the body (1 Cor. xii. 27). He is also called the invisible Head,
because He no longer mixes personally with man on earth. On ac-
count of His love for the Church, He is called her Bridegroom, and
she is called His Bride (Apoc. xxi. 9). Christ, compared Himself to
a bridegroom on several occasions (Matt, xxii.). Like Jacob, who
The Apostles' Creed. 223
served seven years for Rachel, Christ would serve many years for His
Church (Phil. ii. 7), and even gave His life for it (Eph. v. 25).
4. The Catholic Church consists of a teaching and a hearing
body. To the former belong the Pope, bishops, and priests ; to the
latter the faithful.
The word " Pope " comes from the Latin papa, i.e., father ;
" bishop " is from the Greek episcopos, i.e., overseer ; priest is from
the Greek word presbyter, meaning " the elder." In Latin, priest is
sacerdos.
2. THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH.
The mainstay of the Church is the Pope. He is the rock on which
the Church rests (Matt, xvi, 18) ; and hie office secures the mainte-
nance of unity. St. John Chrysostom says that the Church would
fail if it were not for its Head, who is the centre of its unity, as a
ship would be wrecked if deprived of its pilot; and St. Cyprian adds
that the enemies of the Church direct their attacks against its Head,
in the hope that deprived of his guidance it may be shipwrecked.
Among the Popes are counted no less than forty martyrs.
1. Christ conferred on St. Peter the primacy over the apostles
and the faithful by the command : " Feed My lambs, feed My
sheep ; " by giving over to him " the keys of the kingdom of
heaven," and by special marks of distinction.
After His resurrection Christ appeared to the apostles on the lake
of Genesareth, and after the triple question to Peter " Lovest thou
Me ? " gave him the solemn precept : " Feed My lambs ; [i.e., the
faithful], . . . feed My sheep [i.e., the apostles] " (John xxi. 15).
This office had been promised to St. Peter before the resurrection,
on the occasion of his confession at Csesarea Philippi : " Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth,
it shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon
earth it shall be loosed also in heaven" (Matt. xvi. 18, 19). The
special marks of distinction conferred on St. Peter were the follow-
ing: Christ gave him a new name, Peter; He chose him to be with
Him on the most solemn occasions, as on Mount Thabor and in the
Garden of Olives; He appeared to St. Peter after His resurrection
before showing Himself to any of the other apostles (Luke xxiv. 34;
1 Cor. xv. 5, etc.).
St. Peter always acted as chief of the apostles and was so
acknowledged by them.
He spake in the name of the other apostles on Pentecost; he re-
ceived into the Church its first Jewish and Gentile members; he
performed the first miracle ; it was he who moved for the choice of a
new apostle; he defended the apostles before the Jewish tribunal;
his opinion prevailed at the council of the apostles. The apostles rec-
ognized his pre-eminence, for the Evangelists in giving the list of the
224 Faith.
apostles always place St. Peter first (Matt. x. 2 ; Mark i. 36 ; Acts ii.
14) ; and St. Paul, after his conversion, regarded it as his duty to
present himself to St. Peter (Gal. i. 18; ii. 2).
2. St. Peter was Bishop of Rome for some twenty-five years
and died Bishop of Rome ; and the dignity and power of St. Peter
descended to the succeeding Bishops of Rome.
There is a great amount of evidence for the presence of St. Peter
in Rome from the year 44 to 69. St. Peter writes about the year 65 :
" The Church that is in Babylon . . . saluteth you ; and so doth
my son Mark" (1 Pet. v. 13). Babylon was the name given by the
early Christians to Rome, on account of its greatness and immorality.
St. Clement of Rome writes about the year 100 : " Peter and Paul
were with an enormous number of the Christians martyred in Rome."
Tertullian, a priest of Carthage, about the year 200, congratulates the
Church of Rome, because St. Peter died there, crucified like his Lord,
and St. Paul died like another John the Baptist. In addition the
grave of St. Peter was long ago discovered; his body lay in a cata-
comb under Nero's circus ; the third Pope erected a small chapel over
it, to be replaced by a beautiful edifice built by Constantine (324) ;
when this fell into disrepair, the present building of St. Peter's was
erected, in 1629.
The Bishops of Rome have always exercised supreme power
in the Church, and that power has always been acknowledged.
When dissensions arose in the Church of Corinth about the year
100, the matter was referred not to the apostle St. John at Ephesus,
but to the Bishop of Rome, St. Clement. About the year 190 the Pope
Victor commanded the people of Asia Minor to conform to the
Roman usage in the celebration of Easter, and those who demurred
were threatened with excommunication, whereupon they yielded.
About the year 250 Pope Stephen forbade the Bishops of North
Africa to rebaptize those who returned to the bosom of the Church,
and excommunicated those who resisted. The Bishops of Rome had
the first place in all general councils. When heresy broke out the
Bishop of Rome always inquired into it ; and to him other bishops ap-
pealed when unjustly oppressed; thus when St. Athanasius was de-
posed by the emperor, the Pope reinstated him. From the earliest
times the titles " high priest " and " bishop of bishops " have been
given to the Bishop of Rome. When, at the Council of Chalcedon, the
letter of Pope Leo was read to the assembled bishops, they cried out
with one voice : " Peter has spoken by Leo ; let him be anathema who
believes otherwise." The Vatican Council declares that it is the will
of Christ that till the end of the world there be successors to St.
Peter.
3. The Bishop of Rome is called Pope, or Holy Father.
He is also called, on account of his great dignity, the " holy
Father," "His Holiness," "Vicar of Christ," " Father of
Christendom."
On account of the opening words of Christ's speech to St, Peter
The Apostles' Creed 225
" Blessed art thou/' etc. (Matt. xvi. 17) the Pope is addressed as
Beatissime Pater. The office is called the See of Peter, the Holy See,
or the Apostolic See. The chair of St. Peter is still to be seen in
Rome.
The Pope is also called from his see the Pope of Rome, and
the Church under him the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope Leo XIII. was born at Carpineto, in Italy, on March 2, 1810,
ordained priest December 31, 1837, Archbishop of Perugia, 1846, and
Pope February 20, 1878. To his energy we owe the abolition of sla-
very in Brazil, the campaign against it in Africa by the European
nations, the repeal of many laws against the Church in Germany,
the prevention of war between Germany and Spain, the founding of
over one hundred bishoprics, especially among the heathen, etc. By
his encyclicals he has denounced the Freemasons, recommended in a
special manner the Third Order of St. Francis, and the devotion of
the Rosary, displayed his zeal for the working classes, and exerted
himself to produce reunion of the various Christian communities
with the Catholic Church, etc. He is the two hundred and fifty-ninth
Pope.
The Pope has precedence of honor over all other bishops,
and also of jurisdiction over the whole Church (Vatican Council,
4,3).
" The Pope," says St. Bernard, " is the high priest, the prince
among bishops." The following are some of his prerogatives : He as-
sumes a new name on his election, as St. Peter received a new name
from Our Lord, to signify that he is wholly devoted to his new office.
From the tenth century onwards it has been the custom to choose the
name from those of previous Popes, St. Peter's alone being excepted
out of reverence. He is privileged to wear the tiara, or mitre with
the triple crown, expressive of the triple office of teacher, priest, and
pastor ; he has also a crosier ending in a cross, and a soutane of white
silk. His foot is kissed in memory of those words of St. Paul : " How
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of
them that bring glad tidings of good things " (Rom. x. 15). He has
the highest power in the Church as " teacher of all Christians " (Vat-
ican Council) arid " chief -shepherd of the shepherds and their
^flocks." He has the most complete jurisdiction in deciding questions
of faith and morals, and in arranging the discipline of the universal
Church. This power extends over every single church, and every
single bishop and pastor. He may elect and depose bishops, call
together councils, make and unmake laws, send out missionaries, con-
fer privileges and dispensations, and reserve sins to his own tribunal.
For the same reason he may personally teach and guide any of the
bishops or their flocks. He is the supreme judge of all the faithful;
to him remains the final appeal. The Pope may choose seventy car-
dinals to act as his counsellors ; they may have the right of choosing
a new Pope after the see has been vacant for twelve days. Their
dress is a scarlet hat and mantle, to remind them of their dutv of loy-
alty to the Pope at the cost even of their blood. They form the
226 Faith.
various committees or congregations, e.g., the Congregation cf Rites,
of Indulgences, etc.
The Pope is quite independent of every temporal sover-
eignty and of every spiritual power.
For many years the Popes were temporal sovereigns, and ruled as
such the States of the Church. The growth of the latter came about
in the following manner : In the first centuries many estates were be-
stowed on the Popes as a free gift. From the time of Constantino
the Great, the emperors lived away from Pome, and thus the Papacy
began to exercise a certain authority over the city and central Italy.
In 754 a.d., Pepin, the Frankish king, gave over to the Pope the ter-
ritory he had won by the sword in the neighborhood of Pome, and
also some towns on the eastern coast of Italy. This grant was con-
firmed by Pepin's son, Charlemagne, in 774. The Popes lost and re-
gained these possessions some seventy-seven times. In 1859 all the
territory except Pome was torn from the Pope, and in 1870 Pome
itself, so that now all the Pope possesses is the Vatican. This tem-
poral sovereignty was of great advantage to the Church; it secured
the Pope's independence in the exercise of his authority, it gave him
a status among the powers of the earth, and supplied him with funds
for carrying on the business connected with the Church, besides in-
suring liberty in the choice of a Pope. At present he is helped by
the alms of the faithful, called Peter's pence. Though deprived of
his possessions the Pope is still recognized as a sovereign, even in
Italy; and he has acted as arbitrator between nations. Many will
remember his decision in 1885 in the disputed claims of Spain and
Germany to the Caroline Islands. He also issues medals, confers
orders, has the gold and white standard, adopted in allusion to the
words of St. Peter: "Silver and gold I have none" (Acts iii. 6),
and has ambassadors (legates and Nuncios) at various courts, etc.
The Pope is supreme on earth, not being subject even to a general
council (Eugenius IV., Sept. 4, 1439; Vatican Council, 4, 3). Any
who appeal from the Pope to a general council are liable to excom-
munication (Pius IX., October 12, 1869).
3. BISHOPS, PRIESTS, THE FAITHFUL.
1. The bishops are the successors of the apostles.
This is the express teaching of the Vatican Council. The bishops
differ only from the apostles in having a limited jurisdiction, while
the mission of the apostles was to the whole world ; moreover the
apostles were personally infallible in their teaching, and having an
extraordinary mission they had extraordinary gifts, such as infalli-
bility, the gift of tongues, and miracles.
The bishops have the following powers: They guide that
portion of the Church assigned to them by the Pope, and assist
him in the government of the universal Church.
From apostolic times bishops were appointed to single sees, e.g.,
Titus to Crete (Tit. i. 5). These divisions of the Church are called
The Apostles' Creed. 227
sees or dioceses; some of them are very large. Paris, for example,
contains more than 3,000,000 souls. The duties of a bishop are to
educate candidates for the priesthood, to create and confer offices in
the Church, to gave faculties to confessors, to see to the religious edu-
cation of his flock, to revise books written on religious subjects, to
settle the days of fasting, etc. In addition he confers the Sacraments
of Confirmation and Orders, reserves certain sins to his own jurisdic-
tion, consecrates churches, chalices, the holy oils, etc. Each bishop
has also the right of voting in general councils.
The bishops are not merely assistants to the Pope, but they
are actually guides of the Church.
They are the shepherds of their respective flocks (Vatican Coun-
cil, 4, 3) and are appointed by the Holy Ghost to rule the Church of
God (Acts xx. 28). They are also called "princes of the Church,"
and since they have ordinary or immediate jurisdiction they are often
called " Ordinaries." They are assisted by a number of canons, who
make up the body called the chapter; one of these canons becomes
vicar capitular if the see becomes vacant, and governs the diocese till
a new bishop be elected. The bishop himself usually appoints the
chapter, in rare instances the Pope or the archbishop. Many bishops
have an assistant in the form of a coadjutor-bishop or a vicar-general.
" The dignity of a bishop," says St. Ambrose, " is higher than that of
a king." The privileges of the order are as follows: The right to
wear a mitre, the sign of his leadership, and to carry a crosier, which
is curved at the end in sign of his limited jurisdiction. He also wears
a ring, symbolical of his union with the diocese, and a pectoral cross.
The faithful kiss his hand, and he is addressed by the Pope as
brother, because as bishop he has the same rank as the Pope.
The bishops are subject to the Pope and owe him obedience.
The Pope gives their jurisdiction to the bishops; and no bishop
may exercise his office before being recognized and confirmed by the
Pope. He is obliged also to go to Rome (ad limina apostoloium) to
report on the state of his diocese. An appeal may always be made
from a bishop to the Pope. Bishops, such as the Greek or Anglican,
who decline submission to the Pope, are neither members of the
Church, nor have they jurisdiction, even where they have valid
orders.
Archbishops or metropolitans are bishops who have powers
over other bishops.
Some have the privilege of wearing the pallium, a white strip of
wool on the shoulders symbolical of gentleness and humility. The
Primate is a still higher dignitary, and is the bishop of the whole
nation. Above him in rank is the Patriarch or Exarch, who in
former times was set over the metropolitans. The Bishops of An-
tioch, Alexandria, and Rome were patriarchs, because these sees
were founded by St. Peter. In our days the titles patriarch and
Primate signify nothing more than a precedence of dignity ; they are
not of divine institution. There are also others of the clergv who are
termed prelates; some of them enjoy most or all of the powers of
228 Faith.
bishops, and are called vicars apostolic. There are others whose title
is merely honorary.
2. The priests are the assistants of the bishops.
They receive their Orders from the bishop, and so are his spiritual
sons ; and their business is to carry out the commands of the bishop ;
even when called in to assist at councils, they do not vote as judges
but only as counsellors, nor have they powers to excommunicate.
The priests have only a portion of the episcopal power, and
their office may be exercised only with sanction from the bishop.
This sanction is called the canonical mission (missio canonica).
The dress of the priest is a soutane, or black garment reaching to the
feet.
Parish priests are those to whom the bishop has confided
permanently the charge of a district.
The district is called a parish. Dean is the title given to parish
priests of larger districts. In the assignment of a parish the bishop
usually shows some consideration for the wishes of the patron or
patrons, i.e., the person or persons who have been and are con-
spicuous benefactors in the district. The parish priest is the repre-
sentative of the bishop, and no one may, without his leave, exercise
spiritual functions in the parish, such as preaching, baptizing, giv-
ing extreme unction, marrying, and burying.
Parish priests who are appointed by the bishop over the
priests of a large district are called rural deans.
They make a visitation of the parishes and act as intermediaries
with the bishop.
Parish priests of larger districts have assistants, or curates.
3. A Catholic is one who has been baptized and professes him-
self to be a member of the Catholic Church.
The Church is a community into which admittance is gained by
Baptism. Thus the three thousand baptized on the first Pentecost
became members of the Church (Acts ii. 41). Moreover a man must
make external profession of being a member of the Church, so that
any one who breaks away, for instance, by heresy, no longer belongs
to the Church in spite of his baptism, though he is not thereby freed
from his obligations to the Church. Neither heathens, Jews, heretics,
nor schismatics are members of the Church (Council of Florence),
though children baptized validly in other communions really belong
to it. " For," as St. Augustine says, " Baptism is the privilege of the
true Church, and so the benefits which flow from Baptism are neces-
sarily fruits which belong only to the true Church. Children baptized
in other communions cease to be members of the Church only when,
after reaching the age of reason, they make formal profession of
heresy, as, for example, by receiving communion in a non-Catholic
church." The Christians were at first known bv the name of Naza-
reans, from Nazareth, or Galileans, from Galilee; it was first in
Tlie Apostles' Creed. 229
Antioch that the name Christian came to be in use (Acts xi. 26), and
the name Christians is appropriate. We are followers of Christ,
willing to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. viii. 29).
" We receive our name," says St. John Chrysostom, " not from an
earthly ruler, nor from an angel, nor from an archangel, nor from a
seraphim, but from the King of all the earth."
A true Catholic is not only one who has been baptized and
belongs to the Church, but who also makes serious efforts to
secure his eternal salvation; who believes the teaching of the
Church, keeps the commandments of God, and of the Church,
who receives the sacraments, and prays to God in the manner
prescribed by Christ.
He is not a true Christian who is ignorant of his faith. Such a
one might as well call himself a doctor though knowing nothing of
medicine. " Nor is he a true Christian," says St. Justin, " who does
not live as Christ taught him to live." Our Lord said to the Jews :
" If you be the children of Abraham do the works of Abraham "
(John viii. 39), and He might say to the Christians "If you be Chris-
tians do the works of Christ." " If you want to be a Christian," says
St. Gregory Nazianzen, " you must live the life of Christ ;" and St.
Augustine : " A true Christian is the man who is gentle, good, and
merciful to all, and shares his bread with the poor." Christ Himself
said that His disciples should be known by their love one for another
(John xiii. 35). A Christian who neglects the sacraments is like a sol-
dier who has no weapons ; what a responsibility he incurs ! Louis of
Granada says, " A field which is well tended is expected to yield a
richer harvest ; so more good works are expected from a Christian
than from a heathen, because the Christian has greater graces."
Every Catholic has rights and duties. He has an especial
claim to the means of grace supplied by the Church, and he
is obliged to obey his ecclesiastical superiors in spiritual matters,
and to make provision for their support as well as for that of
God's service.
A good Catholic ought also to hear the word of God, receive the
necessary sacraments, take part in divine service, and he has a right
to Christian burial, etc. The Church forces nobody to enter its pale,
but whoever becomes a member of his own free will, and remains so,
must be subject to the laws of the Church. Under certain circum-
stances those who disobey the laws of the Church are excommuni-
cated or shut out from the Church. They lose their claim to the
spiritual goods of the Church; they may not join in the divine serv-
ice, nor receive the sacraments, nor an office in the Church, nor
Christian burial. Some offences involve excommunication ipso
facto; for instance, apostasy, duelling, freemasonry (Pius IX., Oc-
tober 12, 1869). In other cases the excommunication must be formally
pronounced, and that, too. after warning and trial, as in the case of
the Old Catholic bishops Eeinkens and Dollinger. St. Ambrose for-
bade the Emperor Theodosius to enter the Church after the latter
had, by his orders, caused the slaughter of some seven thousand
230 faith.
people in Thessalonica ; and it was only after doing savere penance
that he was admitted. We know, too, that St. Paul cut off from the
Church a vicious Corinthian (1 Cor. v. 13). The State exercises a
similar power in banishing criminals.
.4. FOUNDATION AND SPREAD OF THE CHURCH.
Christ compared the Church to a grain of mustard-seed, which
is the smallest of seeds, but grows into a tree in which the birds of
the air build their nests (Matt. xiii. 31, 32).
1. Christ laid the foundation of the Church when, in the
course of His teaching, He gathered a number of disciples, and
chose twelve of these to preside over the rest and one to be Head
of all.
2. The Church first began its life on Pentecost, when some
three thousand people were baptized.
Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. After the miracle at
the gate of the Temple some two thousand more were baptized.
3. Soon after the descent of the Holy Ghost the apostles began
to preach the Gospel throughout the world, in accordance with the
commands of Christ (Mark xvi. 15), and founded Christian com-
munities in many places.
St. Paul, after his conversion in 34 a.d., labored more abun-
dantly than all the apostles (1 Cor. xv. 10) ; he traversed Asia Minor,
the greater part of Southern Europe, and many islands of the
Mediterranean. After him St. Peter labored most. After escaping
by a miracle from his prison in Jerusalem, he founded his see at
Rome where, in company with St. Paul, he suffered martyrdom. St.
John, the beloved disciple, lived at Ephesns with our blessed Lady,
and governed the Church in Asia Minor. His brother, St. James the
Greater, travelled as far as Spain, and was beheaded in Jerusalem in
44 a.d. ITis body rests at Compostella. St. James the Less governed
the Church at Jerusalem, and was cast down from a pinnacle of the
Temple in a.d. 63. St. Andrew preached to the people living along
the lower Danube, and died on a cross in Achaia. St. Thomas and
St. Bartholomew made their way to the Euphrates and Tigris, and
as far as India. St. Simon evangelized Egypt and North Africa.
The apostles established their communities after the follow-
ing plan: having converted and baptized a number of men in
a place, they chose assistants, to whom they imparted a greater
or less portion of their own powers; and before leaving the
place they made choice of a successor, and gave him full powers
(Acts xiv. 22).
Those who received only a small portion of the apostolic power
were called deacons, and priests those who hnd ampler faculties.
The representatives of the apostles were called bishops. Christ gave
the apostles power to choose successors when He gave to them the
TJie Ajiostles' Creed. 231
self-same power which He had received from the Father (John xx.
21) ; and it was His wish that they should choose successors, for
He told the apostles that their mission should continue to the end of
the world (Matt, xxviii. 20).
Among all the Christian communities that of Rome took the
highest rank, because it was presided over by St. "Peter, the chief
of the apostles, and because to the Head of that community
as successor of St. Peter the primacy of St. Peter was trans-
ferred.
St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch (107 a.d.) in a letter to the
Christians of Rome, begs them not to set him free and calls the
Roman community the " chief community of the holy band of the
faithful;" and St. Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons (202 a.d.), says "All
the faithful over the whole world must conform to the Roman Church
on account of its principality."
All Christian communities which have been formed in the
course of time professed the same faith, and acknowledged the
same means of grace and the same Head. Hence they formed
one large community — the Catholic Church.
4. When the great persecutions broke out, the Church spread
more rapidly over the earth.
During the first three centuries there were ten persecutions, the
severest being under ]STero and Diocletian (284-385 a.d.), the latter
monster condemning some 2,000,000 Christians. They were mar-
tyred in various ways; they were beheaded like St. Paul, crucified
like St. Peter, stoned like St. Stephen, thrown to the lions like St.
Ignatius of Antioch, roasted on gridirons like St. Lawrence, drowned
like St. Florian, flayed like St. Bartholomew, cast over cliffs or from
high places like St. James, burned at the scaffold like St. Polycarp,
buried alive like St. Chrysanthus, etc. The very means adopted to
exterminate the Christian religion helped to propagate it. The
speeches of the Christians before their judges often converted the
hearers. The joy with which they faced death, their superhuman
patience, and their love of their enemies, were powerful influences
on the heathen. , Added to this were the miracles which often hap-
pened during the martyrdoms, as for instance in the case of St. Poly-
carp and St. John at the Lateran Gate. In the words of St.
Rupert, the martyrs are like the seed which is buried in the earth,
and sprouts and brings forth much fruit ; or of St. Leo the Great, if
the storm scatters the seed this benefit results that instead of one,
some fifty other trees grow up. " The blood of the martyrs," says
Tertullian, " is the seed of Christians." The life of the Christians
was then a model, and they abounded in saints. At the risk of their
life they prayed to God in the catacombs. Two years of probation
were demanded of the catechumens before reception.
When the Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, had per-
mitted his subjects to become Christians and later made the
232 Faith
Christian religion the State religion (324 a.d.), the Church
indeed flourished externally, but fervor and religious discipline
soon began to suffer.
Constantino was led to this step by the appearance of the
luminous cross in the heavens (312 a.d.), and still more by his holy
mother St. Helena. The following were some of his ordinances:
Sundays and feast days were to be observed with solemnity; the
temples of the heathen were to be handed over to the bishops; the
gladiatorial combats and the crucifixion of criminals were forbidden,
and many churches were built. By the miraculous draught of fishes
related in the fifth chapter of St. Luke and the two boats almost
sunk with the weight of fish, was prefigured the future of the Church,
which should suffer schism with the increase of its members, while
Christians should sink down to earthly things. The heresy of Arius
(318 a.d.) began its deadly work in the time of Constantine, and
had a great following. At this time also ceased the test of the cate-
chumens, so that it was easier to become a member of the Church.
St. Augustine had reason to say : " If the Church is harassed by
external foes, there are many in her bosom who by their unruly life
make sad the hearts of the faithful."
5. In the Middle Ages nearly all the heathen nations began
to enter the Church.
In Austria about 450 a.d., the monk Severinus preached the
Gospel for thirty years along the banks of the Danube. St. Gregory
the Great, in 600 a.d., sent St. Augustine at the head of a number
of missioners to convert England ; eighty years later the country was
Christian and had twenty-six sees. Germany owes most to St.
Boniface, who preached the Gospel there for about forty years (755
a.d.). The Greek monks Saints Cyril and Methodius worked among
the Slavs, mainly of Bohemia and Moravia, with great success. The
Hungarians were converted by their holy king Stephen (1038 a.d.)
" the apostolic king." Christianity was gradually introduced into
Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia and Poland after 1000
A.D.
The Church was hard pressed by Islam during the Middle
Ages.
Islamism or Mohammedanism was founded by Mohammed, a
native of Mecca, who gave himself out to be a prophet of the one
true God, promised sensual joy after death, allowed plurality of
wives, imposed a pilgrimage to Mecca, taught fatalism, and after
propagating his doctrines by fire and sword, was poisoned in 632
a.d., by a Jewess. The Koran is the sacred book of the Moham-
medans. They keep the Friday with great solemnity, and pray five
times a day turned towards Mecca. Mohammed's successors were the
caliphs, who undertook wars of conquest on a large scale, every-
where rooting out the Christian religion. They overran a great
part of Asia, North Africa, Spain and the islands of the Mediterra-
nean. Charles Martel, in a series of victories (732-738 a.d.), ar-
rested their advance into France, and ever since their failure in 163S
before Vienna, their progress in the West was arrested.
The Apostles' Creed. 233
In addition the Church lost many adherents in the Middle
Ages by the Greek schism.
The causes of the schism were as follows: The emperors of the
East kept trying to make the patriarchs of Constantinople independent
of Rome, while these were often for their heresies put under ban by
the councils. In time it came about that the ambitious Photius,
backed up by the emperor, held a council of the Eastern bishops, and
broke away from Rome (867 a.d.). The succeeding- emperor re-estab-
lished the old relations with Rome. Two hundred yeais later, how-
ever, the patriarch Michael Cerularius renewed the contest (1054
a.d.), and the schism effected by him lasts till the present day. They
call themselves the Orthodox Greeks, while we call them the Schis-
matic Greeks, in opposition to the United Greeks or ITniates, who
preserved their allegiance to Rome.
6. In later times many nations of the newly discovered coun-
tries were converted.
The Spaniards and Portuguese led the van of missionary enter-
prise. One of the most famous of these missionaries is St. Francis
Xavier, the apostle of the Indies, who used to call the little children
together with a bell, as he made his way through the cities of India,
the islands of Molucca, and Japan, to teach them the truths of re-
ligion (1552 a.d.) ; he had the gift of tongues, and baptized some two
million heathens. After his death great work was done in China
by the Jesuits, especially Ricci and Schall. Another great mission-
ary is St. Peter Claver (1654 a.d.) whose work was mostly among
the negroes in South America. Cardinal Lavigerie in our own time
has done much in Africa, especially in resisting the slave trade, and
founding a congregation for the conversion of the natives. The
College of Propaganda was founded at Rome in 1662 for the train-
ing of young men from all nations for a missionary career. At pres-
ent some 15,000 priests, 5,000 lay brothers and 50,000 nuns are at
work in the foreign missions; the missionaries belong for the most
part to the Orders of Jesuits, Franciscans, Capuchins, Benedictines,
and Lazarists. The organizations for the support of the missions are
the Propagation of the Faith and the Holy Childhood. It is a s acred
obligation to help in such work, and the efforts of non-Catholics
in this direction may well put us to shame.
In later times the Church has lost many members by the
Lutheran and Anglican heresies.
Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk of Erfurt, and later
teacher in the high school at Wittenburg, took offence because he
thought that he was not sufficiently held in esteem at Rome. When
Pope Leo X., anxious to complete the building of St. Peter's, gave
indulgences to those who should subscribe to the work, and sent out
preachers to promulgate these indulgences, Luther came forward with
his ninety-five propositions on indulgences, and nailed them to the
door of the church at Wittenburg. These pronositions at first con-
demned only the abuses of indulgences in the Church, but later
went on to combat the teaching of the Church on the subject (1517).
234 Faith
Refusing to withdraw them at the command of the Pope he was
excommunicated (1520), and also outlawed by the emperor for not
answering the summons requiring him to appear before the council
at Worms. He sought protection from the Elector of Saxony. His
heresy soon spread over Germany and led to many religious wars.
The name Protestant was assumed by the Lutherans at Spires in
1529, on account of their protest against Catholic doctrine. The
Peace of Augsburg secured to the Protestants the same rights as
Catholics (1555). The Council of Trent set forth the points in dis-
pute between Catholics and Protestants (1545-1563). Luther died in
1546. Llis chief errors are contained in the following propositions:
(1). There is no supreme teaching power in the Church. (2). The
temporal sovereign has supreme power in matters ecclesiastical. (3).
There are no priests. (4). All that is to be believed is in the Scrip-
ture. (5). Each one may interpret the Holy Scriptures as he likes.
(6). Eaith alone saves, good works are superfluous. (7). This last
follows from the fact that man lost his free will by original sin. (8).
There are no saints, no Christian sacrifice, no sacrament of confes-
sion, no purgatory. The Jesuits, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola
(1540), won many back again to the fold of the Church. Zwingli and
Calvin in Switzerland, and Henry VIII. in England, about the same
time helped in Luther's deadly work. The errors of the Anglican
Church were drawn up later in the form of Thirty-nine Articles,
which are quite Lutheran in tone.
7. At present the Catholic Church numbers about 260,000,000
members.
These are under the direction of about 1200 bishops, counting
about 15 patriarchs, 200 archbishops and 20 prelates with dioceses.
There are some 350,000 Catholic priests in the whole world. The in-
habitants of Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Belgium, and Ireland are
nearly all Catholics. In Switzerland about half are Catholics ; in
Germany over a third of the population, and in Russia 11,000,000.
In Europe about three-quarters of the entire population are Catholic.
In America there are 80,000,000 Catholics, of whom there are 10,000,-
000 in the United States, forming one-seventh of the entire popula-
tion, while Mexico, south and central America, with the exception of
Brazil, are almost entirely Catholic. The adjacent islands are mainly
Catholic. In Asia there are only 10,000,000 Catholics, in Africa
3,000,000, in Australia 1,000,000. The Protestants, comprising the
various sects of Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, etc., number 150,-
000,000; they inhabit England, North and Central Germany, the
Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, parts of Switzerland and
Hungary, and the United States of America. The Oriental Greeks
or Schismatic Greeks number about 100,000,000. They occupy for
the most part the Balkan peninsula and Russia. Besides these there
are some 10,000,000 of various other Christian sects, hence a total of
520,000,000 Christians. Since the inhabitants of the earth amount to
about 1,500,000,000 only a little over one-third of the human race is
Christian. The Mohammedans number 170,000,000; they inhabit
Arabia, Western Asia, the northern half of Africa, and part of Tur-
key. In addition there are 8,000,000 Jews; they are for the greater
part in Russia and Austria. Finally there are still 800,000,000
The Apostles' Creed. 235
heathens, dwelling for the most part in Southern Africa, India,
China and Japan.
5. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS INDESTRUCTIBLE
AND INFALLIBLE.
Indestructibility of the Church.
The Catholic Church is indestructible; i.e., it will remain till
the end of the world, for Christ said : " The gates of hell shall not
prevail against it " (Matt. xvi. 18).
Hence there will always be Popes, bishops, and faithful, and God's
revealed truths will ever be found in the Catholic Church. The
archangel Gabriel had announced to Mary: " Of His kingdom there
shall be no end" (Luke i. 33). "The Church," says St. Ambrose,
" is like the moon ; it may wane, but never be destroyed ; it may be
darkened, but it can never disappear." " The bark of the Church,"'
says St. Anselm, " may be swept by the waves, but it can never sink
because Christ is there."
1. Of all the persecutors of the Church none have succeeded
against it, and some have come to a fearful end.
Judas' end is the type of those of his imitators. Herod, the mur-
derer of the infants of Bethlehem, died in unspeakable tortures;
so, too, Herod the murderer of St. James was devoured by worms.
Pilate was banished by the emperor to Vienne, in France, and there
he took his own life. During the siege of Jerusalem 1,000,000 Jews
died of hunger or sickness, or in battle, the city itself was reduced to
ashes and some hundred thousand Jews carried off into captivity.
The tyrant ~Nero was deposed, and in his flight from Rome was
stabbed by a slave. Diocletian came to a shameful end. Before his
death his family were sent into exile, his statues were destroyed,
and his body attacked with a loathsome disease. Julian the Apostate
was struck down on the field of battle by a lance; his last words
were : " Galilean, Thou hast conquered." The case of JSTapoleon is
instructive. He kept Pius VII. a prisoner for five years, he himself
was a prisoner for seven years; in the castle at Pontainebleau he
forced the Pope 'to give up the States of the Church, promising a
yearly income of 2,000,000 francs; in the same place he was himself
forced to sign his abdication, and received a promise of a yearly
income of the same amount. Four days after giving the order to
unite the States of the Church with France he lost the battles of
Aspern and Erlingen. He answered the excommunication launched
against him, saying that the words of an old man would not make the
arms drop from the hands of his soldiers. This actually happened
in his Russian campaign from the intense cold : and on the same day
on which Napoleon died at St. Helena, Pius VII. was celebrating his
own feast day at Rome. ~No wonder the French have a saying:
"Whoever eats of the Pope dies." The same fate is shared by the
founders of heresies, and the enemies of religion. Arius burst asun-
der during a triumphal procession; Voltaire died in despair. These
236
Faith.
facts and many more of the same kind illustrate the words of Holy
Writ : " It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God" (Heb. x. 31).
2. When the Church is in the greatest need, Christ ever
comes to its help, either by miracles or by raising up saintly men.
The appearance of the cross in the heavens, for instance, seen by
Constantine and his army, brought the Christian persecution to an
end. " The Church," says St. Jerome, " is like Peter's bark. When
the storm is at its height the Lord wakes from His sleep and com-
mands peace."
3. " It is peculiar to the Church/' says St. Hilary, " to
flourish most when persecuted."
" Persecutions," says St. Augustine, " serve to bring forth saints."
To the Church as well as to Eve were the words spoken : " In sorrow
shalt thou bring forth children" (Gen. iii. 1G). The members of
the Church increase under persecution. The Church is a field, fruit-
ful only when torn up by the plough, or it is a vine, stronger and
richer for being pruned. " As fire is spread by the wind, so is the
Church increased by persecution," says St. Eupert. Persecution
purifies the Church; even if millions fall away, it is not a loss but
a cleansing. The time of persecution is usually a psrlod of miracles,
attesting the divine origin of the Church, as in the Babylonish cap-
tivity they attested the truth of the religion of the Jews. How
often have Christians come unhurt out of boiling liquid, like St.
Cecilia, or remained unharmed in the midst of the flames, like St.
Polycarp, or been thrown to the beasts and received their hcmage like
St. Venantius ? Facts like these force the enemies of the Church to
exclaim : " Mighty indeed is the God of the Christians." The Church
comes triumphant out of every persecution. Easter always follows
Good Friday. But a few years ago the bishops in Germany were
cast into prison, the religious Orders driven out, the administration
of the sacraments in part forbidden; at the present day the number
of Catholic members in the Reichstag is over a hundred, the Catho-
lic journals have increased to four or five hundred, yearly con-
gresses take place, and all kinds of unions for Catholic objects are
formed, while the Catholics themselves are stauncher and more self-
sacrificing. " The more battles the Church has to fight, the more her
powers are developed; and the more she is oppressed the higher she
rises," are the words of Pius VII. Such a privilege belongs to no in-
stitution save the Church, and bv that she may be recognized as the
offspring of God, the Bride of Christ.
The Infallibility of the Church.
God has planted in our hearts a longing for truth which must
be satisfied. Our first parents had no difficulties to face in the search
for truth. " In the state of innocence," says St. Thomas. " it was im-
possible for man to mistake false for true." Ever since the Fall, to
err is human. God, however, sent an infallible Teacher, His only-
The Apostles' Creed. 237
begotten Son, that man might again find the truth; hence the words
of Christ to Pilate : " For this came I into the world that I should
give testimony of the truth" (John xviii. 37). Christ was to be a
light to our understandings, darkened as they were by sin (John iii.
19). As Christ was not to remain always on earth, He appointed
another infallible teacher, His Church, and provided it with the
necessary gifts, especially with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
Christ conferred on His apostles and their successors the
teaching office, and promised them His divine assistance.
Thus He said at His ascension into heaven: " Going, teach ye all
nations . . . and behold I am with you all days, even to the con-
summation of the world " (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20) ; and at the Last Sup-
per: " I will ask the Father and He shall give you another Paraclete
that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth " (John
xiv. 16, IT). To St. Peter He said: "The gates of hell shall not
prevail against the Church " (Matt. xvi. 18). Since Christ is the Son
of God, His words must be true. If the Church, in the carrying out of
her "teaching office, could lead man into error, Christ would not have
kept His word. Hence St. Paul calls the Church " the pillar and
ground of the truth " (1 Tim. iii. 15), and the measures decided upon
by the apostles in the Council of Jerusalem were introduced with the
words : " For it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us "
(Acts xv. 28). It is no. recent belief that the Church is infallible. Long
ago Origen writes, " As in the heavens there are two great sources
of light, the sun, and the moon which borrows its light from the
sun, so there are two sources of our interior light — Christ and the
Church. Christ, the Light of the world, shares His light with the
Church, and she enlightens all the earth." In the words of St.
Irenreus : " Where the Church is, there is also the Spirit of God."
1. The Catholic Church is infallible in her teaching; i.e., the
Holy Spirit assists the Church in such a manner that she cannot
err in the preserving and announcing of revealed doctrine.
Just as our reason prevents us from making statements which
are contrary to certain fundamental truths, so the Holy Ghost exerts
His influence to prevent the Church giving any decision con-
trary to the truths taught by Christ. The infallibility of the Church
is not in any way like that of God with God, for she attributes it net
to herself but to God's special providence over her.
2. The Church delivers her infallible decisions through general
councils and through the Pope.
In every kingdom some court is established for the settlement
of doubtful cases; it is evident that the all-wise God must have in-
stituted some such tribunal in His kingdom; and this tribunal is
the general assembly of the bishops, for at His ascent into heaven He
gave them the power to teach, and promised them immunity from
error (Matt, xxviii. 18-20). Hence the expression of St. Cyprian:
" The Church is in the bishops." INTow since the bishops cannot
always assemble together on account of their duties towards their
particular dioceses, some other tribunal must exist with power to
238 Faith.
give infallible decisions. This tribunal is the Pope speaking
ex cathedra. The priests have not this infallibility secured to them,
though their services are indispensable to the bishops in the carrying
out of the teaching office. Priests when present in the assemblies
of bishops are so as counsellors, but without any deciding vote in
the questions under consideration. So soon as the Church defines a
question of doctrine, every one is bound before God to submit under
pain of excommunication.
A general council is the assembly of the bishops of the world
presided over by the Pope.
The apostles in the year 51 held the first Council of Jerusalem,
and announced their decisions as coming from God. Of the first four
general councils St. Gregory the Great asserted that he held them in
equal honor with the four gospels. Since the Council at Jerusalem
there have been twenty general councils assembled. The first of
these was held at Nicsea, in the year 325, to repel the Arian heresy.
The following are specially worthy of note: the Third Council at
Ephesus in 425, where Mary was declared to be the Mother of God;
the Seventh General Council, or Second of ISTicaBa in 787, where the
veneration of images was declared lawful; the Twelfth General
Council or Fourth Lateran in 1215, which imposed the obligation of
the Easter communion; the Nineteenth General Council at Trent
(1545-1563), occasioned by Luther's heresies; the Twentieth General
Council in the Vatican (1870), where the infallibility of the Pope
was defined as an article of faith. The presence of all the bishops
is not required for a general council, but the greater number of them
must be there; nor is a unanimous vote in any way necessary to
secure a definition; a majority of votes approaching more or less to
unanimity is quite sufficient. Thus in the Vatican Council five hun-
dred and thirty-three bishops voted for the definition of Papal in-
fallibility; two voted against, and fifty-two were absent from the
meeting. jSTor is it necessary that the Pope should preside in person ;
he may act through his legates as in the first, third, and fourth gen-
eral councils. All that is necessary is that the Pope should approve
of the decrees of the council. Others besides bishops have a vote,
such as the cardinals, generals of religious Orders, and all who have
episcopal authority, as in the case of many prelates and abbots;
suffragans have also a vote when they are summoned, as happened in
1870. The general council only settles questions after mature con-
sideration, relying generally on the teaching of the Catholic Church
in the early ages. Besides general councils there are national coun-
cils, or assemblies of the bishops of a nation or kingdom under their
primate, and also provincial councils or meetings of the bishops and
dignitaries of a. district under the archbishop; and finally diocesan
synods, or assemblies of the clergy under their bishop. Such assem-
blies have no claim to infallibility7-.
The general consent of the bishops all over the world con-
firmed by the Pope is also infallible; this may happen when the
Pope asks their opinion on a question of doctrine or morals.
A case of the kind happened in 1854. The Pope sent round to
Hie Apostles' Creed. 239
the various bishops of the world to ascertain the feeling of Chris-
tians at large as regarded the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady.
As nearly all the replies approved of the doctrine, it was solemnly
defined as of faith. This consensus of the bishops, though living
apart at the time, was infallible, because the Holy Spirit is not con-
fined by limitations of place. Nor was this solemn declaration neces-
sary; it was quite, sufficient that all the bishops should teach in the
same sense in regard of any given subject to make that teaching
infallible; were it otherwise the Church would be capable of teaching
heresy, or of falling away from the truth. Hence the Vatican Council
declared that not only must that be accepted which has been solemnly
defined by the Church, but also whatever is proposed by the lawful
and general teaching authority (Vatican Council, 3, 3).
The Pope makes an infallible definition when, as teacher and
guide of the Church, he proposes to the universal Church a doc-
trine of faith or morals. These decrees are called doctrinal.
The Vatican Council in 1870 decreed that all doctrinal decisions
of the Pope were infallible. This is the logical consequence of the
words of Christ to St. Peter : " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock
I will build My Church" (Matt. xvi. 18). If the foundation of the
Church were to fail, it would not be a rock but a quicksand. More-
over St. Peter was appointed shepherd of the apostles and the faith-
ful in these words of Our Lord : " Feed My lambs, feed My sheep "
(John xxi. 15, 17), and he received power to confirm his brethren in
the faith (Luke xxii. 32). If then the Pope were to teach error,
Our Lord's promise would have come to naught. Decisions in matters
of doctrine were held in the greatest reverence from the earliest
times. When the Roman See condemned in 417 the errors of Pelagius
St. Augustine cried out: " Rome has spoken; the cause is at an end."
And St. Cyprian says : " JSTo heretics can gain admittance to the
Church." Even general councils call the Bishop of Pome " the
father and teacher of all Christians" (Council of Florence, 1439),
. and the Roman Church " the Mother and Teacher of the faithful "
(Council of Lateran, iv., 1215) ; of course the Church understood
here is the teaching, the " hearing " Church having no claim to teach.
The Pope must be infallible for this reason, too, that " he has full
power to govern the whole Church " (Council of Florence) ; for with
this power is necessarily linked authoritv to teach. The supreme
teaching office of the Church involves infallibility in accordance
,with the divine promise of the assistance of the Holy Ghost. In
consequence of this the decisions of the Pope are infallible of them-
selves, quite independently of the consent of the bishops (Council of
Vatican, iv. 4). Were it otherwise the rock (or successor of
St. Peter) would derive its strength and solidity from the building
raised upon it (the Church). It would, however, be quite wrong to
assert that the Pope is infallible in all things; for he is a man and
can make mistakes as other men in writing, speaking, etc. He can
also commit sin as other men, and unhappily some of the Popes led
very scandalous lives. When the Pope gives a decision on a doctrinal
matter, it is Christ Who keeps him from error by the agency of the
Holy Ghost; moreover the bishops are always consulted before any
such decision is given. Addresses to pilgrims, letters to kings and
240 Faith.
princes, the brief of suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, are
not infallible pronouncements. Doctrinal decisions are usually ac-
companied by sentence of excommunication against those who refuse
to submit to them ; hence such decisions are binding for all Catholics.
Although the Pope is infallible in his solemn decisions, general coun-
cils are hot for that reason superfluous ; for they confer a greater
external solemnity on the Pope's decrees, and the teaching of the
Church can be more thoroughly examined in these assemblies.
Hence these general councils may, under certain circumstances, be
necessary as well as useful. Even the apostles held a general council
at Jerusalem, though each single apostle was infallible in his office
as teacher.
3. The Church pronounces infallible judgments in the follow-
ing cases: On doctrines of faith and morals and their meaning
and interpretation, on the Holy Scripture and Tradition and their
interpretation.
If, for instance, the Church declares that the punishments of
hell are eternal, the declaration is infallible, for it is made on a
doctrine of faith ; or again if it declare that the observation of Sun-
day is a command of God, the declaration turns on teaching with
regard to morals and is therefore infallible. Christ made a special
promise to His apostles that the Holy Ghost should teach them all
truth (John xvi. 13) ; in other words that the Holy Ghost would teach
them all truth bearing on religion; and that religion included moral-
ity as well as belief may be gathered from the words of Christ just be-
fore His ascent into heaven:" " Going therefore teach ye all nations
. . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have com-
manded you" (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20), and with regard to this last
order He promised them the assistance of the Holy Ghost, and con-
sequently, infallibility. Since the Church derives her doctrine from
two sources, Holy Scripture and Tradition, it must be infallible in its
interpretation of both.
Moreover, it is certain that the Church is infallible when
it declares that any given opinion on faith or morals is contrary
to revealed teaching, as also in the canonization of saints.
It is the common opinion of theologians that the Church is infal-
lible in judging whether a proposition is opposed to revealed teach-
ing. If, for example, the Church were to condemn the assertion that
man is the offspring of a pair of apes as contrary to revelation, it
would be acting quite within the limits of its infallibility, and on a
subject most intimately connected with revealed doctrine. If the
Church can see truth it must also be able to recognize error. From
the earliest times the Church has condemned error, whether taught by
writing or bv word of mouth. At the Council of Mcaea (325). the
errors of Arius were condemned by the bishops. Up to the present
day the Pope has continually condemned books which have attacked
faith or morals ; and this could not have be^u unless God had conferred
such po^-prs. Anv mistake in either beatifying or canonizing seems
well-nigh impossible even on natural grounds, on account of the strict
examination insisted on. By the act of canonization, the veneration
The Apostles' Creed. 241
of a saint, and so to a certain extent the acknowledgment of the
Church's belief in him, is imposed on the faithful, and he is then
officially recognized in the Church's offices, as in the Mass and
Breviary; hence if any one not a saint were declared holy, the whole
Church would approve an error. Such a supposition is impossible.
Pope Benedict XIV. declares his own experience in these cases of the
assistance of the Holy Spirit in removing insuperable difficulties
which beset a process, or, on the other hand, in breaking it off en-
tirely. Finally the Church in its decisions whether of beatification
or canonization is dealing with things which have the closest con-
nection with doctrine of faith or morals.
6. THE HIERARCHY OF THE CHURCH.
1. The ministers of the Church fall into three classes of dis-
tinct dignity and power: bishops, priests, and deacons (Council
of Trent, 23 c. 4. Can. 6).
These were foreshadowed in the high priest, the priests, and the
Levites of the Temple, as well as in Our Lord, the apostles, and dis-
ciples. To the apostles Our Lord said : " As the Father hath sent
Me, so I send you" (John xx. 21); to the disciples merely: "Go,
behold I send you" (Luke x. 3). The apostles were sent to all the
nations of the earth (Matt, xxviii. 20) ; the disciples only to those
places where the Lord was Himself to go (Luke x. 1). The bishops
are now the successors of the apostles (Council of Trent, xxiii. 4);
hence the bishops are of higher rank than priests because they belong
to a higher order of the clergy and have higher orders ; besides that
they have greater powers, being the only real pastors of the flock,
and in virtue of their jurisdiction deciding how far any one else
may share in their government of those committed to their charge.
" The bishop alone can give orders," says St. Jerome, and according
to St. Cyprian he is the only ordinary minister of Confirmation.
The Council of Trent assigned to bishops many other privileges
beyond those enjoyed by the other ministers of the Church. In
addition they have a judicial vote in councils. Priests rank higher
than deacons, having higher orders and greater powers ; they can offer
the holy sacrifice, and forgive sins, while deacons can only baptize,
preach, and give communion.
2. This hierarchy was in force in the time of the apostles.
We see in the Scriptures Timothy appointed with powers to
judge priests (1 Tim. v. 19), to ordain them (1 Tim. v. 22), and to
appoint them to various cities (Tit. i. 5). St. Ignatius of Antioch
(107 a.d.) names the three orders : " Let all obey the bishops as Jesus
obeyed the Father; let them obey the priests as the apostles, and
honor the deacons as being the messengers of God." Similar expres-
sions occur in Clement of Rome (100 a.d.), and Clement of Alex-
andria (217 a.d.). There was, however, a certain vagueness in the
use of terms in the time of the apostles ; priests were called " elders "
or " overseers." The former title owed its origin to the Jewish con-
verts, the latter to the heathen. In every community there were sev-
242 Faith.
eral priests (1 Tim. iv. 14), of whom one was the superior or "high
priest," known in later times as the bishop. He was often called
priest merely because he was in reality a priest; even the apostles
Peter and John called themselves priests (1 Pet. v. 1; 2 John i. 1).
3. The episcopal and priestly office was instituted by Christ
Himself; the diaconate by the apostles.
The deacons were appointed by the apostles to distribute alms,
and were consecrated to this duty by the laying on of hands, accom-
panied with prayer (Acts vi. 6) ; they also had spiritual functions
as preaching (as in the case of St. Stephen) and baptizing (as in the
case of St. Philip). In the early ages there were also deaconesses —
widows who tended the sick and taught young girls. They were no
part of the hierarchy, since it was a fixed principle in the Church
that no woman should preach (1 Cor. xiv. 34), because she is subject
to man and was first led astray in paradise (1 Tim. ii. 12, etc.).
4. Besides these three classes there are other degrees varying
in their powers : for example, Pope, cardinals, archbishops.
The distribution of authority is the basis of this classification:
all, without exception, owe obedience to the Pope ; the bishop rules all
the clergy of his diocese; the clergy are in authority over those com-
mitted to their charge (1 Pet. v. 5; Heb. xiii. 17). The Church has
its differences of rank like an army (Council of Trent, xxiii. 24) ;
without these grades it would be a society without organization.
7. NOTE 8 OF THE TRUE CHURCH.
" When," says St. Cyprian, " the devil saw that the worship of
idols was abolished, and the heathen temples emptied, he bethought
him of a new poison, and led men into error under cover of the Chris-
tian religion, the poison of false doctrine and pride, through which
more than two hundred churches have started up in opposition to the
true Church founded by Christ." Now God has ordained that men
should come to knowledge of the truth; i.e., of the true Church as
distinguished from all others by certain marks.
1. The true Church is that one which is most persecuted by
the world, and which has received God's seal in the form of
miracles.
Christ often spoke to His disciples of these persecutions : " The
servant is not greater than his Master. If they have persecuted Me
they will also persecute you " (John xv. 20). " They will deliver you
up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues . . .
you shall be hated by all men for My name's sake" (Matt. x. 17-22).
"Yea, the hour cometh that whosoever killeth you, will think that
he doth a service to God" (John xvi. 2). "Because you are not of
the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you" (John xv. 19). Never in the history of the
Catholic Church has it been free from persecution. Whatever be,
the differences between the sects they unite against the Church. The
apostles, especially St. Paul, were objects of hate to the Jews (Acts
The Apostles' Creed. 243
xiiio 50; xvii. 8), and St. John (166 a.d.) testifies that their hatred of
the Christians had not died out in his day. The present day is not
wanting in examples in the sufferings inflicted on religious com-
munities, in the interference of the secular governments in things
spiritual, in the opposition made to processions and meetings and
other devout practices. Can any Church be the true Church which
does not oppose the spirit of the world ? Then too it is only in the
Catholic Church that we have miracles: those, for instance, of the
apostles, all the saints worked both in their lifetime and after death,
either at their graves or by the application of their relics. We know
that God would work miracles only in confirmation of the truth.
2. The true Church is that one in which the successor of St.
Peter is to be found.
The Church rests on a rock and that rock is Peter : " Thou art
Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church" (Matt, xxviii. 20).
" Where Peter is, there is the Church," says St. Ambrose.
3. The true Church is known by the following four marks:
she is One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic.
The Catholic Church alone has these marks:
1. The true Church is One. She has at all times and in
all places the same doctrine, the same means of grace, and only
one Head.
Truth can only be one; hence the teaching of the Church cannot
change. Christ wished His Church to be one; for that He prayed
at the Last Supper (John xvii. 20) ; " There shall be one fold and one
shepherd " (John x. 16) ; He appointed one Head for the whole
Church (John xxi. 17). The Catholic Church is One: her Cate-
chisms the world over teach precisely the same doctrine. Every-
where the holy sacrifice is offered, and the sacraments given in the
same way; the same ceremonies and feasts are observed all over the
world. All Catholics acknowledge the Pope as Head of the Church.
If there were antipopes it is none the less true that some one was the
true Pope ; the existence of many pretenders to a throne does not ex-
clude the claim of the true king. ]STor can heresy destroy this unity,
for the heretic who refuses to submit is no longer a member of the
Church. None need accuse the Church of want of progress because
it holds fast by its old established doctrines ; there is no true prog-
ress in giving up the truth and adopting error. The truth cannot
change ; hence Bossuet might well say : " Protestantism, thou art
changeable, therefore thou canst not be the truth ! "
2. The true Church is Holy, i.e., it has the means and the
endeavor to lead all men to holiness.
Christ founded the Church for the very purpose of making men
holy. The Catholic Church is holy. All its teaching is lofty and
pure; the great principle underlying its commands are self-denial
and the love of one's neighbor; all its sacraments, and especially pen-
ance and the Holy Eucharist are great aids to the sanctification of
mankind, and the complete following out of the evangelical counsels
244 Faith.
can lead a man to the highest point of perfection; moreover the
Catholic Church has a host of saints, whose holiness is attested by
miracles. The misdeeds of some members, or abuses occurring
within the Church are due not to the Church, but to the perversity of
men. Even among the apostles there was a traitor, and Christ com-
pared some members of the Church to weeds and worthless fish. Can
any Church be holy which adopts Luther's teaching that faith alone
is sufficient for salvation, and good works unnecessary ? or Calvin's
doctrine that some men are predestined by God to hell fire ? or any
Church which, on its own confession, owns that none of its members
have been saints and their sanctity confirmed by miracle ?
3. The true Church is universal or Catholic, i.e., she is em-
powered to receive men into her bosom in all places and all
times.
Christ died for all men, and on ascending into heaven gave His
apostles the mission to teach all the nations of the earth till. the end
of time (Matt, xxviii. 20). Hence His Church was meant to be for
all nations, and this is confirmed by the miracle of tongues on the
first Pentecost. The Catholic Church is universal; her teaching
applies to all people, the polished Greek, the victorious Roman, the
rude barbarian as well as to the outcast slave. At present the Catholic
Church is spread over the whole world. " Heretics are everywhere,"
said St. Augustine, " but no particular heresy is everywhere." The
Church has about 260,000,000 members, hence it is more widespread
than any other religion, and is continually sending missionaries to
the heathen. Can, then, any Church which depends entirely on the
government, as, for instance, the Russian Church, or the Anglican,
which is wholly national in England, be the true Church ? or can
one which has no real success among the heathen have a claim to
truth ?
4. The true Church is Apostolic; i.e., she comes down from
the time of the apostles, her teaching is always what it was in
the time of the apostles, and her ministers are legitimate suc-
cessors of the apostles.
The Church is built on the foundation of the apostles of which
Christ is the corner-stone (Eph. ii. 20). " That is the true Church,"
says St. Jerome, "which was founded by the apostles and endures
unto the present day." The Catholic Church is Apostolic; it has
lasted nineteen hundred years, Luther himself confessed that it was
the oldest. The teaching of the oldest of the Fathers agrees per-
fectly with our Catechism, and our services are substantially the
same as those of the first ages.
The consideration of these notes and marks has, in the course
of ages, led many of the noblest of men into the bosom of the
Catholic Church.
It is remarkable that men of the greatest learning and virtue
have, even in the face of great sacrifices, entered the Catholic
Church, while those who have deserted it have generally shown by
The Apostles' Creed. 245
their lives what they really were. We have reason to rejoice in our
religion that it offers ns such special consolation in trouble and at
the hour of death. Thus Melancthon wrote to his Catholic mother :
" The Protestant faith is the best one to live in, but the Catholic is
the best to die in," and again : " The new religion makes the best
show, the Catholic gives most security."
8. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ALONE GIVES
SALVATION.
In other words : " Outside the Catholic Church there is no salva-
tion."
1. The Catholic Church alone gives salvation; i.e., the Catho-
lic Church alone possesses those means which lead to salvation,
viz., the doctrine of Christ, the means of salvation appointed by
Christ, and the teachers and guides of the Church established by
Christ.
The Church cannot teach that truth and error lead equally well
to salvation; she makes no declaration as to who is saved, but states
only what is necessary for salvation. The judgment of particular
individuals is left to the God Who searches hearts (Ps. vii. 10).
Her doctrine is not a declaration of intolerance to the individual, but
of intolerance of error, such an intolerance as God Himself expressed
when He forbade false gods to appear before Him (1 Cor. v.). So far
is the Church from hating those outside her pale that in her public
prayers on Good Friday she begs God's mercy for them. The perse-
cutions of the Middle Ages formed no part of the work of the
Church, which desired not the death, but the conversion of the sinner ;
it was the civil power which used force to repress heretics, because
as a rule they disturbed the public peace and morality. The Church
is the way to salvation ; it differs in this respect from the synagogue ;
the latter merely pointed out the way of salvation in the distant
future, while the Church claims itself to be the true way. The
Catholic Church is distinct from the heretical churches which have
corrupted Christ's doctrine and have rejected the means of grace,
especially Mass and penance. Their way is a roundabout way, or
the wrong way. " The further one goes out of the right path," says
St. Augustine, " the further he is from the goal of his journey."
2. Hence every man is bound to become a member of the
Catholic Church.
Some will say that a man ought not to change his religion;
they might just as well argue that a man may keep an inheritance
which his father obtained unjustly. Others say: "One faith is as
good as another, and all lead equally well to heaven." This is to pro-
fess indifferentism. It is certain that one religion only can be the
true one, i.e., the one revealed by God; and reason alone would tell
us that the truth is what we should aim at. It is absurd to suppose
that God is unconcerned whether man adore Him or sticks and
stones, or whether Christ be regarded as His Son or as a blasphemer.
Why should Christ, and after Him the apostles, preach the Gospel
246 Faith.
amid so much persecution, if it were of no moment what a man be-
lieved ? Why were the apostles so vehement in denouncing those who
perverted the teaching of Christ (Gal. i. 8; 2 John i. 10) ? Why
should God have converted Saul, and sent an angel to Cornelius ?
The apostles gave the reason : " There is no other name under
heaven given to men whereby we must be saved" (Acts iv. 12).
And Christ said : " I am the way, the truth and the life. No man
cometh to the Father but by Me" (John xiv. 6), Hence it is that so
many eminent people enter the Church, despite the sacrifices en-
tailed. Queen Christina, the only daughter of Gustavus Adolphus of
Sweden, the arch-enemy of the Catholics, studied the Catholic
teaching and was persuaded of its truth; and as the laws of the land
forbade her to practise her faith, she resigned her crown and spent
the rest of her days in Rome. So, too, in the beginning of the cen-
tury Count Stolberg resigned his post on his conversion. In England
during the last few decades very many most distinguished men have
entered the Church, especially Cardinals Newman and Manning.
Even from Judaism there have been remarkable conversions, as, e.g.,
those of Ratisbonne and Liebermann.
3. Whoever through his own fault remains outside the Church
will not be saved.
A man who, knowing the Catholic Church to be the true one,
leaves it, say, to make a good marriage, or to push on his business,
or for some such unworthy motive, will not be saved; so, too, of the
man who from a cowardly fear of the reproaches or the disesteem of
others, does not enter the Church. The same is true of the man who
having solid doubts as to whether his Church is the true one, takes no
pains to find out the truth. Such as these love the darkness better
than the light (John iii. 19). "He cannot have God for a Father,
who has not the Church for a Mother," says St. Cyprian. " He who
has not Christ for a Head," are the words of St. Augustine, " cannot
be saved; and he who does not belong to the body of Christ, i.e., to
the Church of Christ, has not Christ for his Head." " He who breaks
away from the Church separates himself from Christ" (Council of
Later an, iv.).
If, however, a man, through no fault of his own, remains
outside the Church, he may be saved if he lead a God-fearing
life; for such a one is to all intents and purposes a member of
the Catholic Church.
The majority of men who have been brought up in heresy think
that they belong to the true Church ; their error is not due to hatred of
God. A man who leads a good life and has the love of God in his
heart, really belongs to the Church, and such a one is saved, not by his
heresy, but by belonging to the Church. St. Peter said : " In every na-
tion he that feareth God and worketh justice is acceptable to Him"
(Acts x. 35). "The Catholic Church," says St. Gregory the Great,
" embraces all the just from Abel to the last of the elect at the end of
the world." All who lived up to their lights were Christians, though
they might have been looked upon as godless, as, e.g., Soerates among
the Greeks, Abraham and Elias among the Jews. They do not belong
The Apostles' Creed. 247
to the body of the Church, that is, they are not externally in union
with the Church, but they are of the soul of the Church, i.e., they
have the sentiments which the members of the Church should have.
Thus the Catholic Church has members both visible and in-
visible.
The visible members are those who have been received into the
Church by Baptism. The following are not members: The unbap-
tized (heathens, Jews, Mohammedans), formal heretics (Protestants),
and schismatics (the Greeks), those who are excommunicated. The
invisible members are those who without any fault of their own are
outside the Church leading- God-fearing lives.
The visible members of the Church are called living or dead
members, according as they are in the state of sanctifying grace
or not.
It is an error to think that those who have fallen into grave sin
are no longer members of the Church. The Church is like a field,
in which grow both wheat and cockle (Matt. xiii. 24), or like a net
which contains fish both good and bad (Matt. xiii. 47). It is not
enough to belong to the Church; a man should also live up to his
belief, otherwise " is membership will help only to his greater con-
demnation.
9. TEE RELATIONS BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE.
The State might be defined as an institution having for its end
the promotion of the temporal well-being of its members. Church and
State have similar ends in view, but the Church looks mainly to the
eternal welfare of its members. Both have their power from God,
the Church holding hers from Christ, while the State receives its
powers, not from an assembly of men, but from God (Leo XIII.).
There are various points of difference between Church and State:
the Church is one, while States are many; the State includes
one or more nations, the Church embraces all the nations of the
earth; States grow up and pass away, the Church remains forever.
The Church recognizes every form of existing government, for there
is nothing in the various forms that contradicts Catholic teaching
(Leo XIII.). Hence Leo XIII. has frequently enjoined on the
French monarchists to recognize and support the existing republic.
Christ Himself taught that what was Caesar's should be given to
Caesar (Matt. xxii. 21).
1. The Church is, in its own department, absolutely inde-
pendent of the State, for Christ left the teaching and government
of His Church to the apostles and their successors, not to any
temporal sovereign.
Hence the State has no claim to dictate to Christians what they
are to believe and reject, nor to instruct priests what they are to
preach, nor how and when they are to give the sacraments, sav Mass,
etc. Such interference has always been resented by the Church:
248 Faith.
thus Hosius, at the Council of ISTicsea, addressed the Roman emperor
when the latter was meddling in matters of faith : " Here you have no
right to dictate to us ; it is rather your duty to follow our commands."
The State, too, is in its own affairs independent of the Church.
" The power of the State as well as that of the Church is circum-
scribed by limits within which it can work uncontrolled " (Leo
XIII.). There are many points however where these limits touch;
hence a mutual agreement is necessary on both sides. If contrary
orders were given in the same matter strife would arise, and the
subject would not know where his duty lay (Leo XIII.). Between
the two powers there should be some such union as there is
between the body and soul in man (Leo XIII.) . Agreements
between State and Church are of frequent occurrence in his-
tory : they are called Concordats. These are often conspicuous proofs
of the tender love of the Church in pushing her mildness and toler-
ation as far as is consistent with her duty (Leo XIII.) .
2. The Church is an essential factor in promoting the welfare
of the State, for she teaches obedience to authority, prevents many
crimes, incites men to noble endeavor, and unites together various
nations.
Plutarch speaks of religion forming a better protection for a city
than its walls. The Church teaches that the civil authority has its
power from God (Rom. xiii. 1), and that even wicked rulers are to
be obeyed (1 Pet. ii. 18). How many sinners have been rescued by
the Church and changed into saints and benefactors of mankind !
How many have been restrained from crime by the teaching of the
Church, or God's judgments! How much unjustly acquired property
has been restored, and how many enemies reconciled ! More than
this, the Church teaches that salvation depends on works of mercy,
and makes it a point of duty for her members to assist their suffer-
ing brethren. How many institutions for orphans, for the sick and
blind and deaf-mutes, etc., owe their foundation to the servants of the
Church ! Indeed, the needy are the Church's first care. Moreover the
Church binds the nations together in the bonds of brotherhood, both
by a common profession of faith and by the precept of charity.
Hence it is that as far as possible the priests of the Church should
keep aloof from all strife between nations.
In consequence of this all good rulers and statesmen have
supported the Church to the best of their power.
Such was the policy of Constantine the Great, of Charlemagne,
of St. Stephen, King of Hungary, and St. Wenceslaus, King of
Bohemia. Rulers who reject the Church saw at the branch which
supports them; the people see in them no longer the representatives
of God but merely the elected of the people removable at the people's
will.
The States which have persecuted the Church have always
sooner or later experienced the evil results of so doing.
Our Lord's words are very apt here : " Every kingdom divided
against itself shall be brought to desolation" (Luke xi. 17). Re-
The Apostles' Creed. 249
ligion is to the State what the soul is to the body. " The nation and
the kingdom that will not serve Thee shall perish" (Is. lx. 12).
" The surest sign of ruin in a State," writes Machiavelli, " is when
religion is neglected." The fall of the great Eoman empire and the
horrors of the French revolution may be traced to the same cause.
Even Napoleon confessed that no nation could be governed without
religion. The absence of religion means the introduction of crime:
" There is no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing, and lying, and
killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed" (Osee iv. 1, 2).
Our prisons are filled with people who for the most part neglect relig-
ion.
3. The Church was, from the earliest times, the patron of true
education and culture.
It is to the interest of the Church to promote culture. Ignorance
and immorality are usually close companions. The* world is a book
displaying the wisdom of God; the more we know of this book, the
more we shall know of God, and the more will our love for Him be
increased. Hence it is the duty of the Church to encourage scientific
research (Leo XIII. ). It was Christianity which tamed the wild
nations of Europe, civilizing them and making them the rulers of
ether peoples (Leo XIII.) . "Had the Church been established with
the view of ministering to the temporal wants of man, it could not
have conferred greater benefits than it has done," is the judgment of
St. Augustine on the work of the Church.
It was the Church which first charged itself with the educa-
tion of the young and founded the first schools.
The schools of the monastery, cathedral and parish in the time
of Charlemagne owed their origin to the Church. Most of the uni-
versities owe their existence to the Pope. Whole Orders of Religious,
such as the Benedictines, Jesuits, Christian Brothers and others de-
vote themselves to the education of youth. The success of the Jesuits
was acknowledged even by their enemies, and in spite of their sup-
pression in 1773 Frederick of Prussia, and Catherine of Russia,
neither of them Catholics, retained them to instruct the youth of
their kingdoms.
It was the Church which rescued the great works of an-
tiquity from destruction.
The monks of the Middle Ages transcribed the works of the
heathen philosophers and historians, thus preserving them to pos-
terity. The great libraries of the monasteries, as well as the
museums and libraries of the Popes, preserved many treasures. We
might remark, too, that the Benedictines have produced sixteen
thousand authors and the Jesuits, in their comparatively short exist-
ence, twelve thousand.
It was the Church which, from early times, raised the noblest
buildings.
Such a structure, for instance, as St. Peter's in Rome, which was
one hundred and ten years in building, or the Cathedral at Cologne.
250 Faith.
begun in 1249 and finished in 1880. Not to mention the glorious struc-
tures to be seen all over the Continent, in Germany, France, Spain,
Italy. England is filled with magnificent buildings like Westminster,
Lincoln, York, Durham, etc. A large proportion of the finest edifices
in the United States are Catholic churches.
It was the Church which from the earliest times gave the
greatest encouragement to the fine arts.
We owe Plain Chant or Gregorian to St. Ambrose, Bishop of
Milan (397 a.d.) and St. Gregory the Great (601 a.d.), and its devel-
opments to many other artists. It was the Popes who encouraged men
like Palestrina (1594). Twice in its history the Church resisted the
Iconoclast (or image-breaking) movement, at JSTicaea in 787, and at
Trent in 1563. Artists of world-wide fame, such as Leonardo da
Vinci (1519), Eaphael (1520), Michael Angelo (1564), Correggio
(1564), Canova (1822), etc., owed much of their success to the sup-
port of the Popes. It was the cloister which produced some of the
finest artists and their works.
It was the Church which made whole tracts of land fertile
and habitable.
The work of the Benedictines and Cistercians in the way of
clearing and draining land and developing agriculture was especially
conspicuous in the German forests. The same work is carried on in
savage countries now by the Trappists and other religious Orders.
It is to priests and monks that we owe some of the greatest
discoveries.
The Deacon Flavio Gioja discovered the magnet and compass in
1300 ; Veit, a monk of Arezzo, discovered the scale, the rules of music
and harmony ; the Dominican Spina the use of spectacles ; the Fran-
ciscan Berthold Schwarz gunpowder (1300) ; the Jesuit Kircher ex-
hibited the first burning glass (1646) ; Copernicus, a canon of Frau-
enberg discovered his famous system (1507) ; the Jesuit Cavaliere
the components of white light (1647) ; the Spanish Benedictine Pon-
tius invented a method of teaching deaf-mutes (1570) ; the Jesuit
Lana a way of teaching the blind to read (1687) ; and the Jesuit
Secchi (1878) made many discoveries with regard to sun-spots.
Only lately the Dominican Calandoni invented a type-setter to re-
place the compositor. The enemies of the Church are always crying
her down as opposed to progress, enlightenment and freedom.
10. TEE COMMUNION OF SAINTS.
The members of the Church may be divided into three classes :
those who are still on the earth, " having not here a lasting city, but
seeking the one that is to come " (Heb. xiii. 14) ; those who have
reached their goal in heaven, the saints; and those who are expiat-
ing their sins in purgatory. All are " fellow citizens with the saints
and domestics of God," working together for the same object of
union with God. The members of this great community are called
"saints" because all are sanctified by Baptism (1 Cor. vi. 11), and
The Ajjostles' Creed. 251
are called to a holy life (1 Thess. iv. 3). Those in heaven have al-
ready attained to perfect holiness. Yet St. Paul calls the Christians
still on earth " saints " (Eph. i. 1).
1. The communion of saints is the union and intercourse of
Catholics on earth, of the souls in purgatory, and of the saints in
heaven.
The Church on earth is called the Church Militant, because of its
ceaseless struggle with its three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the
devil. The souls in purgatory form the Church Suffering, because
they are still expiating their sins in the cleansing fire. The blessed
in heaven are called the Church Triumphant, because they have al-
ready secured their victory. These three divisions are one Church
by the common bond of Baptism.
2. Catholics on earth, the souls in purgatory, and the blessed
in heaven are united with Christ, just as are the members of a
body with the head- (Rom. xii. 4).
The Holy Spirit works in all the members (1 Cor. xii. 13).
" The soul," says St. Augustine, " animates all the organs of the body,
and causes the eye to see, the ear to hear, etc;" just so does the
Holy Spirit work in the members of Christ's body; and as the Holy
Spirit proceeds from Christ, Christ is the head of the Christian
body (Col. i. 18). He is the vine carrying strength and nourish-
ment to the branches (John xv. 5). Each member of the body has
its own special functions, so each member of the Church has his own
gifts (1 Cor. xii. 6-10, 28). Each member of the body works for
the whole body; so every member of the Church works for the
common good. All the members of the body share the pain or
pleasure felt by one, and the same is true of the mutual sympathy
of the communion of saints : " If one member suffer anything, all
the members suffer with it ; or, if one member glory, all the members
rejoice with it" (1 Cor. xii. 26). Thus the saints in heaven are not
indifferent to our condition. Catholics who have fallen into mortal
sin are still members of this great body, though dead members;
but they cease to be members if they are excommunicated.
3. All the members of the communion of saints have a share
in the spiritual goods of the Catholic Church, and can help one an-
other by their prayers and other good works. The saints alone
in heaven have no need of help.
In a similar manner all the people of a country have a share in
the institutions supported by the country, such as hospitals, asylums,
law courts, etc. So also, in the family circle, all the members have a
claim to share in the common goods, such as riches or honors. Thus
all the Masses, the means of grace, the prayers of the Church, and
all the good works done bv individuals, are for the benefit of all its
members. In the Our Father we pray for others as well as for
ourselves; holy Mass is offered for the dead as well as the living,
and the same is true of the Office recited by the priest. Hence
it is that oue may have more hope of converting the greatest sinner
who still belongs to the Church than a Freemason who outwardly
252 Faith
leads a good life, yet who is cut off from it ; and a Catholic may look
forward to a quicker release from purgatory than others. .St. Francis
Xavier constantly cheered himself with the thought that the Church
was praying for him, and supporting him with her good works. More-
over, all the members of the Church can give mutual help. There is
the same sympathy as in the human body, where a sound member
comes to the help of one that is weaker, and the possession of good
lungs, a sound heart, or healthy stomach, may help the body to re-
cover from what might otherwise have been a fatal illness. The
eye does not act for itself alone; it guides the hands and feet.
Sodom would have been saved had ten just men been found within
its walls.
1. All Catholics can help each other by prayer and good
works.
St. Peter was freed from prison by the prayers of the Christians.
" The prayer of St. Stephen," says St. Augustine, " procured the
conversion of St. Paul." The tears and prayers of St. Monica con-
verted her son. Even in the Old Testament God promised that He
would be merciful to the prayers of the priest (Lev. iv. 20). St.
James bids us : " Pray one for another, that you may be saved " ( Jas.
v. 16), and St. Paul: " I beseech you . . . help me in your prayers for
me to God" (Rom. xv. 30). Christ revealed to Marie Lataste that
as Esther saved her people by her intercession with Assuerus, so the
prayers of a single soul may save a whole nation from the avenging
hand of God. Prayer is a work of mercy, and brings down a blessing
on the one who prays and the one who is prayed for. Easting and
almsgiving are also means of help. As a man's debts may be paid
off by his neighbor, so the debt of sin may in some measure be paid
off by the good works of others ; and thus it was in the early Church
that penances were often remitted or shortened at the intercession
of the martyrs.
2. We can also help the holy souls m purgatory by prayers
and other good works; they in turn can help us by their prayers,
especially when they reach heaven.
The Jews even believed that help could be given to the souls
of the departed; for we read (2 Mach. xii.) how Judas Machabeus
caused sacrifices to be offered for those who had fallen in battle, and
sent money to the Temple for that purpose. The passing-bell and
the knell are signals to pray for the dying and the dead. In the
Memento after the Consecration at Mass a special petition is made for
the departed. " Prayer," says St. Augustine, " is the key by which
we open the gates of heaven to the suffering souls." The prayers of
the living, especially holy Mass, almsdeeds, and other works of
piety are of great efficacy in lessening the sufferings of the holy
souls (Council of Lyons, 1274). The sonls in purgatory can also helo
us. Many saints held that we can call the holy pouls to our help
(Bellarmine ; St. Alphonsus). St. Catherine of Bologna (1463), used
often to call upon the holy sonls when the saints seemed to fail in
helping her, and she never asked them in vain.
3; The saints in heaven can help us by their prayers before
The Apostles' Creed. 253
the throne of God (Apoc. viii. 4), especially if we call upon them
for help.
The saints must know much of what happens on earth, for their
happiness consists in the complete satisfaction of all their desires.
The devil knows all our weaknesses, as we know from the way in
which he tempts us. The prophets of the Old Testament sometimes
foretold future events, and knew the most hidden things; is it likely
that the saints are less favored than they? They rejoice when a
sinner is converted (Luke xv. 7). "What can escape those," says
St. Thomas Aquinas, " who see Him Who sees all things ? " And
the Church teaches us that when we call upon the saints for their
prayers, they join their prayers to ours. Their intercession has
great efficacy, for the " continual prayer of a just man even on the
earth availeth much" (Jas. v. 16). What power Abraham had when
pleading for Sodom! (Gen. xviii.) "If," says St. Jerome, "the
saints had such power when in the flesh, what can they not obtain
for us now that they have secured their victory ? " St. John Chrys-
ostom compares their intercession to the pleading of old soldiers
who display their wounds. This power has often been demonstrated
by miracles.
Our dead relatives and friends, who are in heaven, are always
pleading for us at the throne of God, and often save us from
danger.
"Charity never dies" (1 Cor. xiii. 8), and the ties which bind
us to those we love remain unbroken by death. Even in hell the
wretched Dives showed he had some affection still for his relatives on
earth (Luke xvi. 27). The prophet Jeremias, and the holy high
priest Onias, prayed in limbo for the Jewish nation (2 Mach. xv.
14) ; and Christ promised His apostles that He would pray for them
(John xiv. 16; 1 John ii. 1). St. Augustine, after the death of his
mother St. Monica, and St. Wenceslaus after the death of his grand-
mother St. Ludmilla rapidly advanced to greater heights of sanc-
tity. So too the saints help the souls in purgatory. " Our Lady
alone rescues daily some souls from purgatory by her prayers."
On the anniversary of the Assumption of Our Lady thousands of
souls are delivered from their prison (St. Peter Damian; St. Alphon-
sus). On Saturdays, the day specially dedicated to Our Lady, she
rescues many poor souls from purgatory (John XXIL, Sabbatine
Bull) . Nor are the holy angels indifferent to their future companions ;
one of the Church's prayers speaks of St. Michael leading souls into
heaven. Our angel guardian, and the angels whom we have specially
honored on earth, will take up our cause in purgatory.
TENTH AETICLE OF THE CREED : THE FORGIVENESS
OF SINS.
(See the chapter on Sin, page 449.)
254 Faith.
ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH AETICLES OF THE CEEED:
THE LAST THINGS.
1. DEATH.
Every day some eighty-eight thousand men die ; that is, one death
per second.
1. At death the soul is separated from the hody, and enters the
world of spirits; the body decays, and falls into dust.
St. Paul speaks of death as a dissolution (2 Tim. iv. 6), and St.
Peter calls the body a tabernacle of the soul (2 Pet. i. 14). The
body is, as it were, a shell through which the soul breaks to enter in
its new life. " The soul is freed from its prison at death," is the ex-
pression of St. Augustine. The body, deprived of the soul, is no
longer alive, because it has no longer the principle of life. At death
the spirit returns to the God Who gave it (Eccles. xii. 7). "Death,"
says St. John Chrysostom, " is a journey into eternity." Hence it is
wrong to believe with the ancient Egyptians that the soul is joined
to other forms, whether human or animal ; and those too are mistaken
who think that the soul enters into a sort of sleep till the day of
judgment. After death the body returns to the dust from which it
came (Gen. iii. 19) ; exception was made, however, in the case of the
bodies of Christ and of His blessed Mother ; and the bodies of some of
the saints have been preserved free from corruption to the present day.
At the last day our bodies will all rise again. Death is represented
symbolically as a skeleton carrying a scythe, with which he cuts
short our lives as the reaper mows the grass of the field (Ps. cii. 15) ;
he is also represented carrying a key to open to us the gates of ever-
lasting life.
2. All men must die, because death is the consequence of
original sin.
Our first parents lost by their sin the gift of immortality, and as
a consequence we all have to die. " By one man sin entered into the
world and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom
all have sinned" (Eom. v. 12). Death is the punishment of man's
ambition to be as God. Henoch (Gen. v. 24) and Elias (4 Kings ii.
11) alone were removed from earth without dying, and they are to
return before the Last Day, and then die; St. Thomas teaches that
even those who survive till the Day of Judgment shall die. Christ
alone was not under the law of death because He was free from all
sin; His death for us was a purely voluntary act. "Life," says St.
John Chrysostom, " is a play in which for a short time one man
represents a judge, another a general, and so on; after the play no
further account is made of the dignity which each one had." We
are all like so many chess-men, who at the beginning of the game
have our fixed places on the board, but at the end are all tumbled
into a box. The rich man cannot take his riches along with him
(Job xxvii. 15). After death many who have been the first on earth
shall be last, and the last first (Matt. xix. 30). Our days upon earth
The Apostles9 Creed, 255
are but a shadow (Job viii. 9) ; our years shall be considered as a
spider's web (Ps. lxxxix. 9) ; life is a vapor which appearelh tor a little
while, and afterwards shall vanish away (Jas. iv. 15). The hour of
our death is unknown to us. We shall die when we expect it not
(Matt. xxiv. 44) ; death will come like a thief (Matt. xxiv. 43). To
use the expression of St. Ephrem, death is like the pounce of the
hawk, or the spring of the wolf. St. Gregory of Nyssa compares life
to a torch, which a slight puff of wind may put out. To some of the
saints the hour of their death has been revealed, but from most men
it is hidden. We see in this arrangement the action of God's wisdom
and goodness. Since we do not know the hour of our death, we
should always be ready to die : " Wherefore be you also ready, because
at what hour you know not the Son of man will come " (Matt. xxiv.
44). The parable of the ten virgins (Matt, xxv.) is another warning
on this subject. " Death is a great lord," says St. Ephrem, " waiting
on no one and demanding that all wait upon him." As a man lives,
so he dies. Those who put off reforming their lives are like those
students who begin to study when the examination is already upon
them.
3. Death is terrible only to the sinner, in no wise to the just.
To the sensual and self-seeking only is death fearful, for it means
the end of their enjoyment and the beginning of woe. " The death
of the just man," says St. Vincent Eerrer, " is like the pruning of a
tree preparing it to bear nobler fruit in the future; while the death
of the sinner is the uprooting of the tree before it is cast into the
fire." " For the just man there is no death but a passing into ever-
lasting life." The saints rejoiced in death, desiring like St. Paul
to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. i. 23). St. John Chrysos-
tom compares the desire of the saints for death with that of a traveller
for the end of his journey, or a farmer for his harvest; in another
place he speaks of death as of a change from a tumbledown cottage
to a beautiful mansion. " O how sweet it is to die, if one's life has
been a good one ! " exclaims St. Augustine. It is not the kind of
death, but the state of the soul that is important : " As the tree falls
so shall it lie," says Holy Writ (Eccles. xi. 3); so it is with man:
as his will was directed on earth, so shall it be directed after death.
Happy the man whose will has been always fixed on God; in other
words who has in his heart the love of God and sanctifying grace;
he will see God. Unhappily, many are bent solely on things of the
earth, those, for instance, who love the world and are not in the state
of grace ; they remain separated from God forever.
4. In order to secure a happy death, we should in our daily
prayer ask God to grant us a happy death, and of our own accord
detach ourselves now from earthly goods and pleasures.
He dies a happy death who is reconciled with God, and has put
his worldly affairs in order. We ought often to pray that God may
give us the grace to receive the last sacraments before dying. It is
also a duty to make a will in good time; to do this is to behave like
a prudent captain who heaves his cargo overboard to avoid ship-
wreck. A sudden death is not a thing to be desired, for we cannot
256 Faith.
then put into order our spiritual or temporal affairs ; hence we pray in
the Litanies : " From a sudden and unprovided death deliver us, O
Lord." The Church often recalls the thought of death, on All Souls,
Ash Wednesday, by the passing-bell, etc. The thought of death is
useful for keeping us out of sin : " In all thy works remember thy
last end, and thou shalt never sin " (Ecclus. vii. 40). Whoever thinks
seriously of death will take as little pleasure in the things of the
world as the condemned criminal in a good meal; he is another
Damocles, with the sword hanging over him by a hair. Every day's
sunset is a reminder from God of death, and sleep is an image of it.
We ought to detach ourselves even now from earthly goods and
pleasures. After death our eyes will no longer see, nor our ears
hear, nor our tongues speak; and we should prepare for that state
by our voluntary restraint now. We should crush the curiosity of
the eyes and the ears, our unruly speech and inordinate enjoyment
of good, following the counsel of St. Basil : " Let us die that we may
live." The good works which the Church imposes on us, such as
prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds, are nothing but a loosening of the
heart from earthly ties. Only those who have this detachment shall
see God after death : " Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall
see God" (Matt. v. 8).
2. THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.
1. Immediately after death follows the particular judgment.
" As soon as the soul leaves the body," says St. Augustine, " it is
judged." We learn from the parable of Dives and Lazarus that both
were judged immediately after death. St. Paul tells us : " It is ap-
pointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment " (Ileb.
ix. 27). In the hour of death God will say to us: " Give an account
of thy stewardship" (Luke xvi. 2). After judgment comes the
sentence. If God has ordained that the workman should not be
kept waiting for his wage, it is not likely that He will delay to reward
him who has labored faithfully. " Death is the reward of merit, the
crown of the harvest" (St. Ambrose).
Christ will sit as Judge in the particular judgment. He will
examine our whole lives, and will deal with us as we have dealt
with our fellow-men.
Christ will be our Judge : " For neither doth the Father judge
any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son " (John v. 22). He
promised His apostles at the Last Supper to return after His ascen-
sion and take them to Himself (John xiv. 3). Evidently this meant
at their death; of St. John too He said: " So I will have him remain
till I come" (John xxi. 22). The apostles rejoiced at the thought of
seeing Christ again (1 John iii. 2) ; so long as they were in the flesh
they were in some sense far from Christ (2 Cor. v. 6). We are not
to imagine that the soul is led before Christ in heaven. He en-
lightens the departed soul in such a manner that it is quite convinced
that its Saviour has passed a true judgment upon it. " As lightning
cometh out of the east and appeareth even into the west, so shall
The Apostles' Creed. 25 7
also the coming of the Son of man be " (Matt. xxiv. 27) ; that is, as
Blessed Clement Hofbauer puts it, at our death, when Christ comes
to us, our whole life will be revealed to us with the rapidity and
clearness of lightning. A man's works shall be revealed at his
death (Ecclus. xi. 29). All those who have been near to death say
that in that moment all sorts of things long forgotten and occurring
in childhood are presented to the mind. At death, too, our most
secret deeds are brought to light : " For there is not anything secret
that shall not be made manifest, nor hidden that shall not be
known and come abroad" (Luke viii. 17). We must give an account
even of every idle word that we have spoken (Matt. xii. 36). St.
Basil compares the soul to an artist who has produced a number of
pictures; at the hour of death the veil is removed from these, and
they cover him with glory, or if they prove to be wretched work, con-
demn him to disgrace. As the sun reveals to us the floating particles
in the air, so when the Sun of justice shines into our souls we shall see
there even our slightest faults. " On the Day of Judgment," says
Louis of Granada, " God will wear the same aspect to us as we have
shown in our lifetime to our neighbor." God is, as it were, a mirror,
reflecting most perfectly the image of him who looks into it. " With
what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again" (Matt,
vii. 2).
2. After the particular judgment the souls of men go into hell,
or heaven, or purgatory.
We see from the parable of Dives and Lazarus that the sentence
of the judge is carried out at once (Luke xvi.). The Church has de-
fined that those who have not sinned after Baptism, and those
who having sinned after Baptism, have expiated those sins on
earth or in purgatory, are received at once into heaven; while
those who die in mortal sin descend at once to hell (Council
of Lyons, ii., 1274). St. Gregory the Great and St. Justin taught
the same in their time. Those are in error who believe, as in the
Greek schismatic Church, that the souls of the just have merely
a foretaste of their blessedness after death, and have complete hap-
piness only when they are joined to their bodies, and that the wicked
experience full damnation only after the resurrection. They are
very few who enter heaven at once, for : " Nothing defiled can enter
heaven" (Apoc, xxi. 27). According to Bellarmine it is seldom even
that a just man escapes purgatory. All have it in their power to be
saved, but not all use their graces. After the particular judgment
there is to be a general judgment ; in the former the soul receives its
punishment or reward for the evil or good it has done ; in the latter
the body shares in the dispensation as the instrument of the soul.
3. HEAVEN.
Heaven is an abode of everlasting joy.
Christ gave His apostles on Mount Thabor some foretaste of the
joys of heaven (Matt. xvii.). The heavens opened at the baptism
of Christ (Matt. iii. 16). St. Stephen saw the heavens open (Acts
vii. 55). St. Paul was rapt into the third heaven (2 Cor. xii. 2).
258 Faith.
Heaven is both a place and a state. Many divines teach that it is
somewhere beyond the stars; though this view is not of faith, yet
it has some foundation, for Christ came down from heaven, and
ascended again to heaven. Heaven is also a state of the soul; it
consists in the vision of the Godhead (Matt, xviii. 10), and in the
peace and joy of the Holy Spirit (Kom. xiv. 17) ; so the angels and
saints do not leave heaven when they come to our assistance. Christ
is the King of heaven. He called Himself King before Pilate,
though He maintained that His kingdom was not of this world (John
xviii. 36); He was acknowledged as King by the penitent thief:
" Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom " (Luke
xxiii. 42) ; in heaven the angels worship Christ (Heb. i. 6). Heaven
is our true home; on this earth we are but strangers (2 Cor. v. 6).
The joys of heaven are unspeakably great: the blessed are
free from even the slightest pain; they enjoy the vision of God
and the friendship of all the inhabitants of heaven.
Of the joys of heaven St. Paul writes : " Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things
God hath prepared for them that love Him" (1 Cor. ii. 9). " This
happiness may be felt, but not described," says St. Augustine. And
David addresses God : " They shall be inebriated with the plenty of
Thy house, and Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy
pleasure" (Ps. xxxv. 9). "The present life," says St. Gregory the
Great, " in comparison of everlasting bliss, is more like death than
life." We shall enjoy there the same delights as God Llimself (Matt.
xxv. 21), for we shall be made partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet.
i. 4) and like to God (1 John iii. 2). We shall be transformed in
heaven like the iron in the fire. In heaven there are many mansions
(John xiv. 2) ; the kingdom of heaven is like to a banquet (Matt,
viii. 11; Luke xiv. 16), in which Our Lord Himself waits upon the
guests (Luke xii. 37). In heaven there is no bodily, only a spiritual
food (Tob. xii. 19) ; there is a great light (1 Tim. vi. 16) ; there are
heard the songs of the angels (Ps. lxxxiii. 5). The saints are robed
in white (Apoc. vii. 14) ; they are crowned by their Lord (Wisd. v.
17) ; they have perfect freedom, and are set over all God's works
(Matt. xxiv. 47). "If, O my God, Thou dost give us such beau-
tiful things here in our prison, what wilt Thou do in Thy palace ! "
exclaims St. Augustine. Lastly the joys of heaven are not sensual
(Matt. xxii. 30) . The blessed are free from all suffering. " It is
easier," says St. Augustine, " to name the evils from which the
blessed are free than to count up their joys." They shall neither
hunger nor thirst (Apoc. vii. 16) ; death shall be no more, nor mourn-
ing, nor sorrow (Apoc. xxi. 4) ; and night will no more be (Apoc.
xxii. 5). The blessed see always the face of God (Matt, xviii. 10);
they see God as He is (1 John iii. 2), and face to face (1 Cor. xiii.
12) ; nor do they see God as it were in an image, but He is as present
to the understanding as a visible object to the eye which sees it.
The blessed enjoy this vision not by any power of their own, but by
a special divine operation, called the light of glory, and in conse-
quence of this they become like to God (1 John iii. 2). This vision
of God is the source of untold happiness. " The blessed," says St.
Bonaventure, " rejoice more over God's blessedness than over their
The Apostles' Creed. 259
own." " If the contemplation of creation is so sweet," says St. Charles
Borromeo, " how much more so must be the contemplation of the
Creator ! " With the knowledge of God is necessarily linked the love
of God, and increase of one means increase of the other. Hence
this great joy banishes all sadness. The blessed in heaven also love one
another; they are as one (John xvii. 21). " The love of the elect in
paradise," says Blessed Suso, " is so great that souls removed at an
infinite distance from one another love with a greater affection than
that which exists between parent and child." " It is love alone," says
St. Augustine, " which separates the children of the eternal kingdom
from the children of perdition. What happiness to meet again our
relations and friends after so long and painful a separation ! "
The joys of heaven last forever.
Christ says : " The just will enter into everlasting life." The Holy
Spirit will be united with them forever (John xiv. 16). This joy no
man can take from them (John xvi. 22). ISTo one can snatch them
from the hand of the Father (John x. 29). Great kings and princes
support their dependents even when these are no longer capable of
rendering service; surely God, Who is the King of kings, will not
be less generous. His reward is eternal, the only one worthy of Him.
Were it not so, the joy of heaven would be incomplete from the fear
of its coming to an end.
1. The happiness of the blessed varies according to their
merits.
The master in the gospel of St. Luke (xix. 16, etc.), gave to the
servant who had used his ten talents to gain other ten talents the com-
mand of ten cities, and to the one who had successfully used his five
talents the command of five cities. Thus God acts, and in so doing
acts with the greatest justice. St. Paul says : " He who soweth spar-
ingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who soweth in blessings shall
also reap of blessings" (2 Cor. ix. 6). The just see in heaven the
triune God, yet some see Him more perfectly than others according to
their merits (Council of Florence). "One is the glory of the sun
[Christ], another the glory of the moon [Mary], and another the
glory of the stars [the saints] " (1 Cor. xv. 41). The knowledge and
love of God are greater in one saint and less in another; and the
same is true of the joy of heaven. Men are intended to take the
place of the fallen angels, and of these there are some from all
the nine choirs of angels. The degree of glory in heaven depends on
the amount of sanctifying grace which a man has at his death
(Eccles. xi. 3) ; in other words the degree of glory is greater in pro-
portion as a man has at his death more of the Holy Spirit, or more
of the love of God in his heart. The degree of glory in the blessed
cannot be increased nor diminished throughout eternity; yet there
are accidental delights, as for instance when special honor is paid to
a saint. Our Lord revealed that there is a particular joy in heaven
when a sinner is converted (Luke xv. 7). The canonization, beati-
fication, the feast day of a saint on earth, the prayers, the holy
sacrifice, and other good works which the faithful perform on earth
in honor of a saint are a special source of joy to that saint. St.
Gertrude saw on such occasions the saints clothed in more resplen-
260 Faith.
dent raiment, and surrounded by a glorious escort; they seemed
also to be raised to a state of greater bliss. Yet among the blessed
there is no envy. They are all children of one Father and have re-
ceived their portion from Him (Matt. xx). To use the homely illus-
tration of St. Francis de Sales: two children receive from their
father a piece of cloth to make a garment ; the smaller child will not
envy his brother the bigger garment, but will be quite satisfied with
the one that fits him. So it is in heaven, and more than this, each
one rejoices over the happiness of the other as though it were in
some measure his own.
2. Only those souls enter heaven which are free from all sin,
and from the penalty due to sin.
According to the Council of Florence, the souls only of those
who after Baptism have not sinned, or who, if they have sinned, have
done perfect penance on earth or in purgatory, can enter heaven.
"Nothing defiled can enter heaven" (Apoc. xxi. 27). Moreover none
could enter heaven before the death of Christ ; they had to remain in
limbo.
3. Heaven is won by suffering and self-denial.
St. Paul writes : " By many tribulations must we enter the king-
dom of God " (Acts xiv. 21), and Christ's words are : " He that loveth
his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world keepeth
it unto life eternal" (John xii. 25), i.e., he who goes after all the
joys and pleasures of this world will be damned, and he who despises
them will be saved. There is no blessedness without self-denial. The
kingdom of heaven is like a treasure or a costly pearl; whoever will
possess it must give his all for it (Matt. xiii. 44-46), i.e., he must
give up all inordinate attachment to the things of this world. " The
kingdom of heaven suffers violence " (Matt. xi. 12). " Narrow is the
gate and straight is the way that leadeth to life " (Matt. vii. 14) . He
wins the prize in the race who runs swiftly and steadily, and refrains
from all things (1 Cor. ix. 25). He who would be among the blessed
must be a martyr at least in intention. The greater efforts we make
to secure salvation, the greater will be our joy.
4. For the just heaven begins already on earth.
" While we seek life eternal we already enjoy it," says St. Augus-
tine. The just have the true peace (John xiv. 28) ; they have the
peace of God which surpasses all understanding (Phil. iv. 7) ; hence
they are joyful even when fasting (Matt. vi. 17), and in the midst
of sufferings (Matt. v. 12). The just possess the Holy Ghost, hence
they are, even while still on earth united with God (1 John iv. 16).
Christ ever dwells in their hearts (Eph. iii. 17) ; they have within
them the kingdom of God (Luke xvii. 21). "Think of the reward
and thou wilt suffer with joy," says St. Augustine. The sufferings
of this world are not to be compared with the glory which shall be
manifested unto us (Rom. viii. 18). "If we think of the joys of
heaven, the things of this world will appear worthless " (St. Gregory
the Great). "He who stands on a hill-top," says St. John Chrysos-
tom, " either does not see objects in the valley, or they appear to him
very small."
The Apostles' Creed. 261
4. HULL.
1. Hell is the abode of everlasting torment.
The unhappy rich man of the Gospel prayed Abraham to send
one from the dead to his brothers " that they might not come to this
place of torments" (Luke xvi. 28). In His discourse on the general
judgment Christ speaks of hell as "everlasting punishment" (Matt,
xxv. 46). Hell is both a place and a state. As a place it is situated
beneath the earth. Hence the expression in the Creed " Descended
into hell " ; and we call hell an abyss. In the exorcisms we find the
expression : " God has cast you from the heights of heaven into the
bowels of the earth." Hell is sharply defined from heaven; between
them yawns a chasm (Luke xvi. 26).. The lost are separated from
the saints (Matt. xxiv. 51). With good reason St. John Chrysostom
exhorts us not to inquire so much where hell is as how to avoid it.
Hell is a state, and moreover the continuation of that same state
in which the sinner is found at death. " Thus," says St. John
Damascene, " the pains of hell are due not so much to God as to man
himself." Since hell is also a state, it is quite clear that the evil
spirits may be near to us (1 Pet. v. 8), and even dwell in sinners
(Matt. xii. 45). Even the pagans believed in a hell; hence the story of
Tantalus, condemned to suffer perpetual hunger and thirst, and
unable to satisfy either, because the water which he tried to drink
or the fruit which he attempted to eat withdrew from his lips; the
Danaids, condemned to draw water in sieves, and Sisyphus, forced
ever to push a great rock to the top of a hill only to see it roll down
again, furnish other examples of this belief.
The torments of hell are terrible; for the damned never see
God, they are in the company of evil spirits and in fire, they en-
dure great anguish of mind, and after the resurrection will have
to suffer in their bodies.
St. Paul says: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God " (Heb. x. 31). St. John of the Cross teaches us that
as a hundredfold is promised for every sacrifice that is made, so
for every unlawful pleasure indulged in, a hundredfold penalty must
be paid. _ St. John Chrysostom applies the words of St. Paul on heaven
to describe hell: " Neither eye hath seen nor ear heard, nor hath it
entered the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for them
that love Him not " (1 Cor. ii. 9). Christ calls hell an " unquenchable
fire" (Mark ix. 44), because the sensation of burning is the greatest
pain which man can conceive on earth. In other places He speaks of
the " outer darkness " (Matt. xxii. 13) because the damned never see
God, the source of eternal light. It is the place where there is " weep-
ing and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. viii. 12), where the "worm never
dies" (Mark ix. 43), and conscience never ceases to reproach the
damned. Christ also speaks of the lost as " bound hand and foot,"
to show that they have no freedom and are in a place of banishment.
From the words used by Christ to the damned : " Depart from Me,
into everlasting fire" (Matt. xxv. 41), we learn that they have a
double pain; they are banished from the vision of God (pain of loss),
262 Faith.
and condemned to suffer torment (pain of sense). The pain of loss
is the greatest of the sufferings of hell. The greater the value of
what is lost, the greater is the pain of the loss. " The damned have
lost what is of infinite worth, hence their pain is infinite," says St.
Alphonsus. How keenly does he suffer who is cut off from the sight
of the beauty of creation by blindness; yet how much greater is his
suffering who is deprived of the sight of the infinite beauty of God
(St. John Damascene). The possession of God, the highest good,
is the end of every rational being. This is evident from the way
in which man in this life strives after the greatest happiness. This
longing increases after death, for then the things of earth no longer
distract the mind, nor can they give any more satisfaction. What an
awful fate if this longing can never throughout eternity be satisfied !
In the words of St. Augustine : " It is right that he who rejects God
should be rejected of God." The sorrow of Esau in the loss of his
father's blessing is but a type of the sorrow of the damned for the
loss of the vision of God. The saints have trembled at the mere
thought of this loss. The damned have no communication with the
blessed. They may see them as the rich man saw Lazarus : " They
see them not to their joy, but to their sorrow," says St. Vincent
Ferrer, " they see them as a hungry man may look on a plenteous
table which he may not touch." Besides this the damned have much
to suffer from evil spirits; and it is meet that those who sided with
and subjected themselves to the evil spirits on earth should be of
their company after death. We are warned in the book of Job and
in the case of the possessed persons in the Gospel, how cruel the
devil is when he has a little power. What an awful experience it
must be for the damned in hell, where the devil has full power !
The damned in hell cause one another great suffering; for they hate
one another. In that region of hatred of God there is no love of
God. Hence the numbers in hell only increase its torments. More-
over fire will torture the lost souls. " They shall be sunk in fire like
fish in the sea," says St. Alphonsus. And we learn from the teaching
of Christ (Luke xvi. 24) and the holy Fathers that this fire is a real
fire. Even on earth God punished by fire the sins of Sodom and Go-
morrha (Gen. xix. 24; 4 Kings i. 14). "If," says Bellarmine, "the
soul can be united to the body so as to suffer in company with it, so
can the soul be reached by this avenging fire." Is it so much beyond
almighty power that God could not call into being all those sensations
in the soul, which the latter had while in the body? It is probable also
lhat the fire of hell is not like fire as we know it on earth. Our
fire destroys; that of hell does not consume but rather preserves, as
salt preserves meat (Mark ix. 48) ; our fire gives light, while in hell
there is darkness (Matt. xxii. 13). Our fire warms, while the fire of
hell is accompanied by an insupportable cold, and moreover it is
much more painful ; " Our fire," says St. Vincent Ferrer, " is cold in
comparison with that of hell." The soul suffers also from continual
remorse of conscience. The lost are given up to despair; they recog-
nize what fools they were to reject God's grace so often, and to prefer
a passing pleasure to eternal happiness. How unhappy they ave in
losing forever that God Who loved them so much ! And their
shame is ever present, for their sins are revealed to all, and those
whom they despised and laughed to scorn on earth are now in honor.
The Apostles' Creed. 263
" They will be tortured with envy," says St. Anthony, " for they will
envy the blessed their glory." Our experience on earth teaches us
that mental suffering is often greater than bodily pain; suicides con-
firm this. After the resurrection the lost will have to suffer also in
the body: "They shall come forth to the resurrection of judgment"
(John v. 29). All their senses will receive punishment; the sight by
darkness, the hearing by the wailing and cursing of the other lost
souls (Matt. viii. 12), the taste by hunger (Luke vi. 25) and thirst
(Luke xvi. 24), the smell by the unbearable stench, and the sense
of touch by the torture of heat and cold. Other pains may be added ;
for instance, we read of wicked men whose bodies were devoured by
worms (Acts xii. 23).
The tortures of the damned are eternal.
Satan with his followers is cast into a pool of fire and brimstone,
where he will be tormented day and night forever (Apoc. xx. 10).
In hell there is no redemption, for the day of grace is gone (John
iii. 36). Life in hell is the "everlasting death" or "second death"
(Apoc. xxi. 8), for a life without joy and full of torture is rather
death than life. " 0 Death ! " says Innocent III., " how sweet
wouldst thou be to those to whom thou wert so bitter ! " Christ
tells us that the pains of hell are eternal ; He calls the fire of hell an
everlasting fire (Matt. xxv. 41), the torment of hell eternal (Matt.
xxv. 46). So too teaches the Church in the Council of Trent. The
error attributed to Origen (254 a.d.) that the punishment of hell
came to an end was condemned by the Church (Council of Constan-
tinople, ii., 553). "Eternal woe is due to him who destroys in him-
self eternal good," says St. Augustine. Our judges on earth inflict
lifelong punishment on criminals, and even a sentence of death.
The torments of the damned are not all alike, but vary ac-
cording to the sin.
"The punishments in hell are not all alike" (Council of Flor-
ence). According to St. Thomas they are as various as the sins
committed on earth ; they depend on the nature, number, and
gravity of the sin. Those who have lived in pleasure shall be pun-
ished by a corresponding amount of suffering and torment (Apoc.
xviii. 7). The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha will have a
lighter judgment than that city which rejected the apostles (Matt. x.
15).
2. The souls of those who die in mortal sin go to hell.
By grave sin a man cuts himself off from God; and in that state
is like a branch broken off from Christ the vine, which withers and
is cast into the fire (John xv. 6). The souls of those who die in mor-
tal sin go at once into hell (Council of Lyons, ii.). In particular
the following go to hell: the enemies of Christ (Ps. cix. 1), all those
who refuse to believe in the Gospel (John iii. 18), the impure,
thieves, covetous, railers (1 Cor. vi. 10), all who have neglected the
talents given to them by God (Matt. xxv. 30) ; many who were among
the first on earth (Matt. xix. 30). Those, too, who die with only
original sin on their souls (unbaptized children) go to hell; (i.e., are
excluded from the vision of God), but are not visited with the suffer-
264 Faith.
ings of those who have committed actual sin (Council of Lyons, ii.).
A single mortal sin, done however secretly, is enough to send a man
to eternal perdition.
Sinners begin their hell even on earth.
The wicked are like the raging sea which can never rest (Is. lvii.
20). Every sinner sits in "darkness and in the shadow of death"
(Luke i. 79). To him the lessons of religion are folly (1 Cor. ii. 14).
It is in the hour of death that the worldling will awake to his misery ;
at present he feels it not, because he is distracted by a thousand
things. Think often about hell; the thought will keep us from sin.
" Often go down to hell during thy lifetime, that thou mayst not
have to go after death" (St. Bernard), "tie who despises hell or
forgets it," says St. John Chrysostom, " will not escape it."
5. PURGATORY.
1. Purgatory is a place where the souls of those must suffer
for a time, who, though dying without grave sin on their souls,
have not done complete penance for their offences against God.
Judas Machabeus was convinced that the souls of those who had
died in battle with idols on them had to be punished, and for that
reason ordered sacrifices to be offered for them in Jerusalem (2 Mach.
xii. 43). " The stains which the soul has received during its sojourn
in the body must be removed by the purging fire," says St. Gregory of
jSTyssa; and St. Gregory ISTazianzen tells us that in the future life
there is a baptism of fire, a hard and weary baptism, to destroy what is
earthly in man. As to the situation of purgatory, most of the saints
seem to think it is beneath the earth ; hence the prayer of the Church :
A porta inferi, etc. (" From the gates of hell deliver him, O Lord ! ")
and the De Profundis (" Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O
Lord"). Some also believe that many souls, for a time at least, suffer
their purgatory in those places on earth where their sins were com-
mitted, and that they are often present at the prayers which are
offered for them. It is certain also that the holy souls have appeared
to many saints, e.g., to St. Teresa, St. Bridget, St. Philip JSTeri. As
to the state of the holy souls, the saints are of opinion that they
suffer in all resignation to God's will. St. Catherine of Genoa tells
us that God fills them with His love, so that their greatest pains be-
come tolerable. Moreover the knowledge that they will finally attain
the vision of God and that they are secure of their eternal salvation,
gives them great consolation. " Besides," as St. Frances of Rome
tells us, " they are comforted by the prayers of the faithful on earth,
and the blessed in heaven, and by the visits of holy angels." " The
consciousness that they are making atonement to God and suffering
for Him makes them courageous as martyrs " (St. Catherine of
Genoa).
The holy souls suffer in purgatory to expiate either their
venial sins, or those mortal sins, which, though absolved, have
not been completely atoned for.
The Apostles' Creed. 265
Venial sins are visited with temporal punishment, as in the case
of Zachary who doubted the angel, or Moses. Mortal sins also,
though repented of and put away, are often visited with temporal
punishment, as in the case of Adam and David. The Council of Trent
(6, 30), teaches that whoever does not satisfy completely for his sins
on earth, must do so in purgatory. So on earth a man may be pun-
ished by a fine ; if he does not pay it he must go to prison. Hence we
should not be satisfied with the penance given us by our confessor;
we should add something of our own. Much may be done by patient
enduring of sickness or willing acceptance of death. ISIot even the
least sins should be neglected ; they must all be atoned for.
The sufferings in purgatory include exclusion from the
vision of God and other great pains.
Hence the prayer : " Grant rest to the souls of the f aitlif ul de-
parted, and let perpetual light shine upon them." When we burn
candles by the coffins or on the graves of the dead, we pray that the
poor souls may be admitted to the sight of God. Apart from the
duration, there is no distinction between the torments of hell and
those of purgatory (St. Thomas). "The same fire," says St.
Augustine, " burns the lost and the saved." Hence we see why
the Church, in the Tvequiem Mass, prays God to deliver the souls
from the pains of hell (Benedict XIV.). St. Augustine tells us that
the pains of purgatory are greater than the sufferings of all the
martyrs ; and St. Thomas teaches that the least pain in purgatory is
greater than the greatest on earth. " All the tortures that one can
conceive of in this world are," says St. Cyril of Alexandria, " refresh-
ing, compared with the least pain of purgatory."
The greatness and duration of the sufferings in purgatory
vary according to the gravity of the sins.
St. Augustine tells us that those are longer in the purging fire
who have been more attached to the goods of this world; that those
who have grown old in sin take longer to pass through the cleansing
stream. The foundation Masses going on for centuries, lead us to
suppose that some souls have to suffer through many generations of
men; were this impossible the Church would have abolished such
Masses. Catherine Emmerich, in her revelations, says that Our Lord
descends into purgatory every Good Eriday, and frees one or more
souls of those who had been witnesses of His Passion. Even where
the punishment has lasted only an hour, we are told by St. Bridget,
that it appears intolerably long. Those who wear the scapular are
assured of a considerable shortening of their sufferings. Several
saints hold the view that some souls suffer no pain but are merely
excluded from the vision of God. According to St. Mathilda the suf-
ferings in purgatory are in intimate relation to the past sins. St.
Bridget saw souls suffering most in those things in which they had
sinned most; and St. Margaret of Cortona saw some who could not
be released till the evil done by them on earth had been made good.
2. That there is a purgatory we learn from the teaching of
Christ, and especially from the practice and doctrine of the
Church.
266 Faith.
Moreover, it is a remarkable fact that nearly all the nations
of the earth believe in a purging fire. In addition we know
from sound reason that there must be a purgatory.
Christ's words are : " He that shall speak against the Holy Ghost,
it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world
to come" (Matt. xii. 32); He compares purgatory to a prison:
" Amen, I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou
repay the last farthing" (Matt. v. 26). And St. Paul adds that
many shall be saved, yet so as by fire (1 Cor. iii. 15). The practice
of the Church in the following points reminds us of purgatory: the
prayer for the dead said in every Mass (the Memento after the
Consecration) ; the Masses for the dead, in particular those on All
Souls' Day, on the day of death and burial, and on anniversaries ;
the passing-bell (which calls upon us to pray for the departed), and
the solemnities on All Souls' Day, which were first introduced in
998 by the abbot Odilo of Cluny, and later extended by the Popes to
the universal Church. St. John Chrysostom reminds us that
" the practices of Christians are not meant for mere show, but
that they are ordained by the Holy Spirit." The bishops of the
Church at Florence (1439), and Trent (1445-1463) expressly defined
that there is a purgatory. The idea of purgatory is common among
the nations. The Egyptians believed in the transmigration of souls
into animals. Among the Greeks we have the story of Prometheus,
condemned to be bound to a rock and . his liver gnawed by a
vulture, because he stole fire from heaven. The Jews had the same
belief, for they offered sacrifice for the dead, as we saw in the case
of Judas Machabeus. The early Christians were accustomed to pray
for the dead during the holy sacrifice. St. Augustine relates that
his mother St. Monica, on her death-bed, said to him and his brother :
" Bury me where you will ; only, I pray you, think of me always at
God's altar." St. John Chrysostom declares that the Christians from
the very beginning prayed during Mass for the dead by order of the
apostles. St. Cyril of Jerusalem writes : " It is of great service to
pray for the dead when the holy sacrifice is being offered." Hence
the oldest Mass-books contain prayers for the dead. Reason also
teaches that there must be a purgatory. We know, for instance,
that nothing defiled can enter heaven (Apoc. xxi. 27) ; yet there is
many a man not so wicked as to be lost forever; and if he can enter
neither heaven nor hell there must be a third place where he can be
purified.
3. The faithful on earth can help the holy souls in purgatory
by good works; in particular by prayer, fasting, alms-deeds, by
offering or being present at Mass, by receiving the sacraments
and gaining indulgences.
The holy souls cannot help themselves, since they can no longer
do good works to satisfy for their sins. After death " the night
cometh when no man can work" (John ix. 4). Hence they must pay
off their debt by enduring the pains which God has laid upon them.
Yet we on earth can help to diminish their pains by Masses, by
prayer and almsgiving, and other works of piety (Council of Lyons,
ii., 1274); the holy sacrifice is of all things the most helpful to
The Apostles' Creed. 26?
them (Council of Trent, 25), and according to St. Bonaventure the
offering of holy communion is of very great assistance. "Not by
weeping," says St. John Chrysostom, " but by prayer and almsgiving
are the dead relieved." No pompous funeral nor profusion of wreaths
are of any avail without good works ; it is far more to the purpose to
give to the poor the money which is spent on idle show/ As to the
prayers, God does not regard so much their length as their fervor.
Christ once said to St. Gertrude : " A single word from the heart
has far more power to free a soul than the recital of many prayers
and psalms without devotion; the hands are cleaned better by a little
water and much rubbing than by merely pouring a large quantity
of water over them." We are not to conclude from this that in or-
dinary cases a short prayer, an Our Father, for instance, will at once
set free a soul. " For," says Maldonatus, " God would be very cruel
if He kept a soul, for which He had shed His own blood, in such ter-
rible suffering for the sake of an Our Father which had been omitted."
The Church uses holy water in the burial service because it has great
efficacy for the holy souls. But the greatest help which we can give
is the Heroic Act, that is, the resignation in their behalf of all the
satisfaction made to God by our good works. Those who make
this act gain, every time they approach the Holy Table, a plenary
indulgence applicable to the holy souls; and priests, who make the
Heroic Act, have, every day they say Mass, the personal privilege of
a privileged altar (Pius IX., Sept. 10, 1852).
The relatives of the departed are bound to help them.
To them apply the words of Holy Writ : " Have pity on me, at
least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord hath touched me "
(Job xix. 21). God sometimes reveals the unhappy state of the dead
to their relatives. In the year 202 St. Perpetua saw in a dream her
young brother imprisoned in a dark place, all covered with dirt, and
parched with thirst. She began to offer up fervent prayer for him,
and soon after he appeared again to her but this time beautiful and
happy (Meh. vi., 413). When St. Elizabeth of Thuringia received
news of the death of her mother Gertrude, Queen of Hungary, she
began to pray and scourge herself with disciplines, and soon she had
the satisfaction of seeing her mother in a vision, and of knowing that
she was delivered from purgatory. Yet we should not rely too much
on the good works which our relatives may do for us after death:
for the proverb comes often only too true : " Out of sight, out of
mind;" and besides, after all, the works done for us after death can
avail us only to a limited extent. " One Mass devoutly heard during
life," says St. Anselm, "is of more value than a great sum left for
the celebration of a hundred Masses after death." " God," says St.
Bonaventure, "values more a little voluntary penance done in this
life than a severe and involuntary satisfaction in the next."
Prayer for the dead is of great benefit to ourselves, for it is
a work of mercy.
It might be objected that by doing too much for the fioly souls, a
man neglects himself. But this is not true. Prayer confers a blessing
on him who is prayed for, and on him who prays. He who has pity
on the holy souls will find in God a merciful Judge: "Blessed are the
268 Faith.
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy " (Matt. v. 7) ; Christ accepts
every deed of mercy as a favor done to Himself (Cf. Matt. xxv. 40) ;
the departed also display their gratitude when they get to heaven.
Says Marie Lataste: " Thou canst do nothing more acceptable to God
or profitable to thyself than to pray for the holy souls ; for they will
be mindful of your favors in heaven, and will pray unceasingly for
you . . . that you may become holier in life and be freed from pur-
gatory soon after death." "It is a holy and wholesome thought to
pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins " (2 Mach. xii.
46).
6. THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
The Jews had some sort of belief that the bodies of the dead
would rise again. Job consoled himself in the midst of his suffer-
ings by the thought of the resurrection (Job xix. 25) ; so too the
brothers Machabees (2 Mach. vii. 11) ; and Martha said to Jesus :
" I know that my brother will rise again in the resurrection at the
Last Day" (John xi. 24).
Christ on the Last Day will raise the bodies of all men from
the dead, and unite them to the soul forever.
1. He often declared that He would raise the bodies of all
men from the grave, and proved His power by miracles; this
resurrection will be heralded by many signs in nature.
We proclaim in the Apostles' Creed that Christ will come to judge
the living and the dead ; that is, He will call to life the bodies of those
who are already dead, while for those who survive till that day such
a change will take place in their bodies that in a moment they will die
and awake again to a new life (1 Thess. iv. 16) ; those will arise who
are in the grace of God as well as those who are in mortal sin (John
v. 28 ; Matt. xxv. 31) ; and this resurrection will take place in a mo-
ment (1 Cor. xv. 52). Christ announced that He would raise the
dead to life again : " The hour cometh wherein all that are in the
graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have
done good things shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but
they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment " (John v.
28, 29) ; on another occasion: "He that eateth My flesh and drinketh
My blood hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the Last
Day" (John vi. 55). Our Lord often compared death to sleep, e.g.,
when He said that the daughter of Jairus (Matt. ix. 24) and Lazarus
(John xi. 11) were sleeping. In face of the fact of the resurrection
death may well be called a sleep (1 Thess. iv. 13). The following
miracles were performed by Christ in proof of His power to raise the
dead; the raising of the daughter of Jairus in her own house, that of
the son of the widow of Nairn before the gates of the city, and that of
Lazarus from the grave itself. We might add His own glorious
resurrection arid that of His Virgin Mother. In very truth Christ
might sav of Himself : "I am the resurrection and the life" (John
xi. 25). Many natural phenomena show that the idea of the resurrec-
tion is in harmony with the rest of nature; for instance, our own
periods of rest and activity, the reawakening of spring after the
The Ap&sties' Creed, 269
winter sleep; the change in many insects of the larva into the pupa,
and of the pupa again into the butterfly ; the coining forth of the bird
from the egg, the sprouting of the seed buried in the earth, and so on.
2. God will awake our bodies to life again to prove His jus-
tice, and to honor Our Redeemer.
If the soul only were rewarded, there would be a want of com-
pleteness ; " for," as Tertullian says, " there are many good works, such
as fasting, chastity, martyrdom, which can be carried out in their
perfection only in the body; hence it is right that the latter should
share in the reward of the soul." God's justice demands that the body
should take part in the triumph. Again, Tertullian reminds us
that Our Saviour redeemed mankind body and soul. Had the body
been unredeemed the devil would have secured a triumph by destroy-
ing it. Such a thought is unworthy. " By a man came death, and by
a man the resurrection of the dead " (1 Cor. xv. 21).
3. As to the state of our bodies after the resurrection, we have
the following facts: (1). After the resurrection we shall have
the same bodies as we now have. (2). The bodies of the just
will be glorious and those of the wicked hideous. (3). All the
risen bodies will be without defect and immortal.
We shall have the same bodies after the resurrection : " For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality" (1 Cor. xv. 53). This we learn also from the Atha-
nasian Creed. Even Job knew it to be true : " I shall be clothed again
with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God " (Job xix. 26) ;
and one of the Machabean brothers, in the midst of his torments
addressed the tyrant thus as his limbs were being torn away : " These
I have from heaven but for the laws of God I now despise them; be-
cause I hope to receive them again from Him" (2 Mach. vii. 11).
While St. Perpetua and her fellow martyrs were being exposed to the
vulgar gaze of the heathens, she addressed them thus : " Look well
and mark now our faces, that you may know them again in the Day
of Judgment ; " and her words converted many of the bystanders.
For this reason we rise in our bodies " that every one may receive the
proper things of the body, according as he hath done whether it be
good or evil" (-2 Cor. v. 10). It is not bevond God's power to rejoin
the scattered elements of our bodies ; if He could make that which
had no existence, He can replace that which already has had an exist-
ence. St. Thomas teaches us that just as our bodies remain the same
bodies over periods of ten or twenty years, in which time the com-
ponent elements have been renewed again and again, so the bodies of
the risen will be the same, even supposing they are not composed of
the same identical elements as before. It is the thought of the resur-
rection that makes Christians careful in the burial of the dead, and in
their veneration of the relics of the saints. Our risen bodies will not
be all alike. " We shall all rise again ; but we shall not all be
changed" (1 Cor. xv. 51). The bodies of the just will resemble the
glorified body of Christ (Phil. iii. 21), and will have the following
properties: they will be impassible (Apoc. xxi. 4), shining like the
sun (Matt. xiii. 43), swift as thought, and capable of penetrating
270 Faith.
matter. The word spiritual is sometimes used to describe the
risen body, because the latter will be quite subject to the spirit and
freed from earthly concupiscence (Luke xx. 35). The beauty of the
body will be in proportion to that of the soul (Rom. viii. 11 ; 1 Cor. xv.
41). The most wretched cripple, if he has lived a good life, will have
a beautiful body; while one who has had every personal charm and
lived a bad life, will rise again to be an object of aversion. The
bodies of sinners will have to suffer, and will be bound hand and foot
(Matt. xxii. 13). The risen bodies will be without any defect. The
martyrs will recover their limbs, and their wounds, visible like
Christ's, will be glorious and resplendent. The risen bodies will also
have no trace of old age, sickness, or mutilation. The wicked will
have their bodies also complete, but for punishment; for the more
perfect the body is the more it can suffer. All the bodies of the risen
will be immortal (1 Cor. xv. 42). Just as in paradise the fruit of the
tree of life gave immortality to the body, so now the Blessed Sacra-
ment in communion, for it is a pledge of the resurrection and of im-
mortality (John vi. 55). The bodies of the damned are also im-
mortal, but for their torment.
4f. Belief in the resurrection is a great help to us; it con-
soles us in our sufferings, and comforts our relatives and friends
when we come to die.
Job cheered himself with this reflection (Job xix. 25) ; and it was
belief in the resurrection which gave the early Christians such cour-
age and calm in the great persecutions. Christians who believe in
the resurrection ought not to mourn for their dead like the heathen
who have no hope (1 Thess. iv. 12). St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage
(258 a.d.), used to caution his nock against such excessive grief, lest
the heathen should come to think that the Christians had no firm
belief in the life to come. Hence he considered it unbecoming to
wear mourning for those who were rejoicing before the throne of
God. Those only should be mourned for who died in mortal sin.
7. THE GENERAL JUDGMENT.
1. Immediately after the resurrection the general judgment
will take place.
For Christ has often said that after the resurrection all man-
kind will be assembled before Him to be judged.
The return of Christ as Judge was announced to the apostles by
the angels on the occasion of Our Lord's ascent into heaven (Acts
i. 11). Christ Himself spoke about the judgment in the following
terms: (1). The form of a cross is to appear in the heavens announc-
ing the coming of Christ : and the sight of it will fill the wicked with
confusion (Matt. xxiv. 30). (2). Christ will come in great power
and majesty (Matt. xvi. 27; Luke xxi. 27). Hence we cannot con-
clude that the divine essence will be manifested to all at the judg-
ment, for this no man could see without being rapt in heavenly joy.
According to St. Thomas, the lost will have some sort of perception
of God's majesty and essence. Possibly they will see it as manifested
The Apostles' Creed. 271
through the veil of the sacred humanity of Christ at the Judgment.
(3). The holy angels will accompany Our Saviour (Matt. xxv. 31).
They helped to the salvation of mankind and now they will receive
their meed of honor. (4). All the nations of the earth will be assem-
bled before Christ seated on His throne (Matt. xxv. 32). (5). He will
separate the sheep and the goats; the blessed will be placed on His
right hand, and the lost on His left (Matt. xxv. 33). When the
prophets speak of the judgment being held in the valley of Josaphat
(Joel iii. 2), they do not mean that the nations will be gathered into
that particular valley lying between Jerusalem and Mount Olivet;
they mean simply that mankind will be assembled in the vale of' the
" judgment of God " (Josaphat in Hebrew means the judgment of
God), i.e., in some place appointed by God for this judgment. We
speak of the general judgment because angels as well as men will be
judged (Jude 6), and of the Last Judgment because it will be held
on the Last Day.
2. The general judgment will take place in order that God's
wisdom and justice may be made manifest to all creatures.
Christ will be Judge in order that the honor of which He was
robbed may be restored to Him before all creation.
On this day God will reveal to men with what wisdom He dis-
posed the career of mankind and of each individual, so that all might
attain their end and be happy even on earth. It will then be seen
how various kinds of evil, the sufferings and even the sins of men
have been turned by God to their advantage. Much which the world
now esteems foolishness will then be seen to have been wisdom. This
judgment will also demonstrate God's justice; He will then bring
forward what could not have been brought forward at the particular
judgment. The deeds, words, writings, of many men have produced
their results often only after their death ; what blessings, for instance,
apostles and missionaries have conferred on whole nations, and what
harm has been done by heretics, not only to their contemporaries, but
to those coming after them. Christ will be Judge, this office de-
manding wisdom in an especial degree, and Christ is the eternal wis-
dom. Moreover He will be Judge because the honor due to Him
was. refused by so many and by all irreligious and godless men ever
since. He was condemned as a malefactor by Pilate and, as the Apos-
tle says, " Chrisjt crucified was to the Jews a stumbling block, and to
the Gentiles foolishness" (1 Cor. i. 23). Then will His enemies call
upon the mountains to fall upon them, and the hills to hide them
(Luke xxiii. 30) ; hence Christ's words : " For neither doth the Father
judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son. That all
men may honor the Son as they honor the Father" (John v. 22).
When Christ was on earth He repudiated all judicial power : " I
judge not any man" (John viii. 15). Christ is Judge at the Last
Day because He became man : " The Father hath given Him power
to do judgment because He is the Son of man" (John v. 27). God's
mercy, too, has ordained that the Judge of mankind should be a man.
No wonder St. Thomas of Villanova exclaimed in ecstasy, " Happy
am I to have my Saviour for my Judge."
3. Christ will conduct the judgment in the following man-
272 . Faith.
ner: He will reveal all, even the most hidden things, will exact
an account from all men of the works of mercy they have or
ought to have performed, and by a final sentence separate forever
the good from the bad.
The general judgment is thus a solemn repetition of the partic-
ular judgment; and it might also be called a repetition of the world's
history, for each event will be represented to the eyes of the assem-
bled multitude : " And the books were opened . . . and the dead
were judged by those things which were written in the books accord-
ing to their works" (Apoc. xx. 12). The Lord "will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness " (1 Cor. iv. 5). He " will search Jeru-
salem with lamps" (Sophon. i. 12). It is to the general judgment
that these words of Our Lord apply : " There is not anything secret
that shall not be made manifest, nor hidden that shall not be
known and come abroad" (Luke viii. 17). When the sun rises the
snows melt and leave bare all that lies beneath them; so shallit be
when the Sun of justice mounts the heavens. All sins will be re-
vealed, and the revelation will be worse than hell to the sinner,
while to the just there will be glory because they did penance. " The
white robe of sanctifying grace," as St. Gertrude tells us, " will hide
the sin, and instead of the stains which were removed by penance
there will be ornaments of gold." All good works will then be revealed
(Eccles. xii. 14), and the secrets of men's hearts shall be known
(1 Cor. iv. 5). The martyrs will receive honor for the contempt
which they endured, and sinners will exclaim as they look on the
just: " These are they whom we had some time in derision and for a
parable of reproach. We fools, esteemed their life madness and their
end without honor. Behold how they are numbered among the chil-
dren of God and their lot is among the saints" (Wisd. v. 3-5).
Works of mercy will be required of every man (Matt. xxv. 34-36) ;
the Gospel explains to us why the saints and all pious Christians are
so eager in the performance of works of mercy. When people asked
St. Elizabeth why she was so zealous in good works, she used to
answer : " I am preparing for the Day of Judgment." There will be
no question then of riches or social position, for God is no respecter
of persons (Rom. ii. 11) ; on the contrary : " to whomsoever much is
given, of him much shall be required" (Luke xii. 48). The judg-
ment will end with the sentence of the Judge, which will divide for-
ever the good from the bad (Matt. xxv. 46). This separation was
foreshadowed in the parable of the cockle : " Gather up first the cockle
and bind it in bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into My
barn" (Matt. xiii. 30). Many friends and relatives will be separated
forever on that day (Matt. xxiv. 40) ; many who were rich and power-
ful will be lost, and their dependents, or those who sued as beggar9
to them, will be saved. " Then, too," says St. Augustine, " creation
will take on a new and glorious form, to correspond to the glorified
bodies of the elect." " We look for new heavens and a new earth
according to His promises, in which justice dwelleth " (2 Pet. iii.
13). The existing universe will be destroyed by fire, and this fire
will purge those who have yet to do penance for sin ; and since there
will be no purgatory after the Day of Judgment the want of duration
will be made up by the intensity of the pain; as for the just, they,
TJie Apostles' Creed. 273
like the three children in the furnace, will remain untouched by the
flames. The thought of the judgment is a wholesome one. St.
Methodius had a picture executed for the King of the Bulgarians,
representing the dividing of the good from the bad at the Last Day;
the king could never expel the image from his mind, and in con-
sequence became a Christian and promoted Christianity with great
zeal in his kingdom. In the Acts we read (Acts xxiv. 25) how Felix
trembled when St. Paul spoke of the judgment to come; yet Felix
does not seem to have acted up to grace, for he broke off the discourse
and gave up St. Paul to the Jews.
2. The Day of Judgment is unknown to us, though certain
signs have been revealed which are to herald its approach.
Christ said: " Of that day and hour no one knoweth; no not the
angels of heaven, but the Father alone" (Matt. xxiv. 36). The
knowledge of it would be of as little use as the knowledge of the hour
of our death. St. Augustine recommends us to do now as we should
do if to-morrow were to be the Last Day : then we shall have no occa-
sion to dread the coming of the Judge. Christ gave some signs of
the approach of the Last Day (Matt. xxiv. 3, etc.), so that Chris-
tians might remain steadfast and courageous. The signs are :
1. The Gospel shall be preached to the whole world (Matt,
xxiv. 14).
Some two-thirds of the world are still pagans.
2. The greater part of mankind will be without faith (Luke
xviii. 8; 2 Thess. ii. 3) and immersed in things of earth (Luke
xvii. 26, etc.).
Mankind will be much as they were in the days of 'Noe (Matt.
xxiv. 38).
3. Antichrist will appear.
Antichrist is a man who will give himself out to be Christ, and
by the help of the devil will perform many wonders (2 Thess. ii. 9).
He will be a terror by the persecution which he will raise (Apoc. xx.
3-9). It is probable that he will choose for his kingdom Jerusalem
and those places, where Christ lived. Our Lord will kill him on the
Last Day (2 Thess. ii. 8). Types and forerunners of Antichrist have
existed from time to time (1 John ii. 18), "for the mystery of iniq-
uity already worketh " (2 Thess. ii. 7).
4. Henoch and Elias will return and preach penance.
" Behold I will send you Elias the prophet before the coming of
the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the hearts
of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their
fathers " (Mai. iv. 5) ; i.e., he will bring round the Jews to the senti-
ments of their forefathers, the patriarchs; Christ also foretold that
Elias should come and restore all things (Matt. xvii. 11). Of Henoch
we know that " Henoch pleased God and was translated into paradise
that he may give repentance to the nations" (Ecelus. xliv. 16).
Henorh nnd Elias will preach for three years and a half, and recover
274 Faith,
many souls from Antichrist, who in the end will kill them, and their
bodies will be left unburied. After three days and a half God will
raise them to life again (Apoc. xi. 3-11).
5. The Jews will be converted.
The conversion of the Jews was foretold by Osee : " The children
of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and
without 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) ;
blindness was to be the lot of Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles
should come in (Kom. xi. 25). Elias is to restore the tribes of Jacob
(Ecclus. xlviii. 10).
6. Dreadful signs will appear in the heavens and great tribu-
lations will come upon mankind.
" The sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light,
and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens
shall be moved " (Matt. xxiv. 29) ; war, pestilence, and famine shall
come as at the time of the siege of Jerusalem (Matt. xxiv. 7, etc.).
Men shall wither with fear and from expectation of the things that
will come upon the earth (Luke xxi. 25).
CHRISTIAN HOPE.
1. THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIAN HOPE.
Christian hope is the confident expectation of all those things
which Christ promised us with regard to the fulfilment of God's
will.
" Hope," says St. Paulinus, " gives us a foretaste of the prom-
ised joys of paradise." " How great is the multitude of Thy sweet-
ness, O Lord . . . which Thou hast wrought for them that hope in
Thee " (Ps. xxx. 20). Such hope may be called holy, because directed
to God and supernatural things ; by this is fulfilled the precept of the
Apostle: " Seek the things that are above" (Col. iii. 1).
1. As the reward of carrying out God's will, Christ has
promised us eternal happiness, and the means required for attain-
ing it ; in particular God's grace, temporal goods for the sustaining
of life, forgiveness of sins, help in our necessities, and the answer-
ing of our prayers.
Christ promised us eternal happiness (1 John ii. 25) ; " In the
house of My Father are many mansions. If not I would have told
you that I go to prepare a place for you " (John xiv. 2) ; He has fur-
ther promised to raise our bodies again after death (John v. 28).
The desire for perfect happiness is planted deep in our nature.
Christ also promised His grace, i.e., the help of the Holy Spirit, for
His will is that all men be saved (1 Tim. ii. 4). Grace is absolutely
necessary for salvation : actual grace for our conversion, sanctifying
grace for entrance into heaven. Temporal goods are promised : " Be
Christian Hope. 275
not solicitous for your life what you shall eat, nor for your body
what you shall put on. . . . For your Father knoweth that you have
need of all these things," and we are taught that since the Father
feeds the birds of the air, and clothes the weeds of the field, much
more will be His care for us (Matt. vi. 25-32). The experience of
the saints in this matter is a great consolation and lesson to us;
over and over again they have been in difficulties for the means of
subsistence, yet help always came. Forgiveness of sin is assured to us
if we wish to amend : " There shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner
that doth penance, more than over ninety-nine just who need not
penance" (Luke xv. 7). The parable of the prodigal son and of the
lost sheep reveal to us how readily God will forgive the sinner : " So
long as we are on the earth it is never too late to repent," says St,
Cyprian. The penitent thief on the cross found salvation. " God
wills not the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live "
(Ezech. xviii, 32). We are certain of help in our necessities. When
the apostles were filled with fear at the storm on the lake, Christ's
reproach to them was: "Why do you fear, O ye of little faith?"
(Matt. viii. 26). God is called the "helper in tribulations" (Ps. xlv.
2). It is true He seems at times to delay answering our prayers,
as in the marriage-feast at Cana, when He said : " My hour is not yet
come " (John ii. 4) ; yet the longer we have to wait, the more wonder-
ful is His answer, and we might reflect on the calming of the storm on
the lake, on the release of St. Peter from prison, on the fate of
Aman, the persecutor of the Jews (Esther vii.). " When our necessity
is greatest," says St. Ambrose, " God's help is nearest." Christ prom-
ised that our petitions shall always be heard : " If you shall ask Me
anything in My name, that will I do " (John xiv. 14). " Amen, Amen,
I say to you; if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will
give it you" (John xvi. 23).
Christ taught us in the Our Father to ask our heavenly
Father for all these things.
The second petition is a prayer for salvation, the third for grace,
the fourth for temporal necessities, the fifth for forgiveness of sins,
the sixth and seventh for help in our needs.
2. Christian hope is based on faith, for we hope for the fulfil-
ment of God's promises because we believe that God is infinitely
true, infinitely powerful, and infinitely good, and that Christ has
merited all for us.
" We are firmly convinced," says St. Clement of Rome, " that He
Who forbade deceit cannot Himself deceive." Hence the words of St.
Paul : " Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
for He is faithful that hath promised" (Heb. x. 23). Moreover, we
are convinced that God, to Whom nothing is impossible (Luke i. 37),
is able to carry out His promises (Rom. iv. 18) ; that God, Who is
love itself (1 John iv. 8), is more ready to give than we are to re-
ceive (St. Jerome) ; that Christ, by His death on the cross, has mer-
ited for us salvation and all things necessary for its attainment.
Thus St. Augustine, " I could never hope for pardon or heaven when
I think of my great sins, but I venture to hope that through the
276 Faith.
merits of Christ I may be saved by means of penance and keeping of
the commandments."
3. He only who carries out God's will can hope for the good
things promised by Christ.
" Not every one that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in
heaven" (Matt. vii. 21).
Hence the sinner can hope in God only when he really re-
pents and is willing to reform his life.
" Hope without virtue is presumption," says St. Bernard. If the
wicked do penance for their sins and do judgment and justice, God
will no more remember their sins (Ezech. xviii. 21). Manasses, King
of Israel, led his people into idolatry and put the prophets to death.
For this he was given over to his enemies and led in chains to Baby-
lon. There he repented and promised amendment. God then set
him free, and gave him back his kingdom, and Manasses destroyed
the temples of the idols and did much good (2 Paralip. xxxiii.).
The just man may hope that God will provide for all his
needs; yet he must exert himself to gain those things which
he hopes for from God.
Christ's words are: " Seek first the kingdom of God and His jus-
tice, and all other things shall be added unto you" (Matt. vi. 33).
We are God's servants. As St. John of the Cross says : " It is our
affair to serve the Lord; it is Llis to provide for us." No one who
has been faithful to God's commands has ever been abandoned by
Him (Ecclus. ii. 12). "We are unjust to God if we do not place
great confidence in Him," says St. Augustine. " Cast all your care
upon the Lord, for He hath care of you " (1 Pet. v. 7). We must not,
however, desist from exerting ourselves; we must use those gifts
which God has given to us ; for God will give us only what we cannot
obtain by our own exertions. In the words of St. Charles Borromeo :
" We must hope for the best and do our best." " To expect help and
to do nothing," says St. Francis of Sales, " is to tempt God." We
ought to employ the natural means at our disposal; St. Paul, for
example, though he had the gift of healing sickness, recommended
Timothy to take a little wine for the sake of his health (1 Tim. v.
23). And all this is true of any kind of necessity: "Help yourself
and God will help you."
4. A wholesome fear of falling into sin must always accom-
pany Christian hope.
God's will is that we should work out our salvation in fear and
trembling (Phil. ii. 12). No one has complete assurance that he
belongs to the number of the elect, or that he will persevere in virtue
till death (Council of Trent, 6, Can. 15, 16). Many an old and rotten
ship has reached harbor, while many a great and noble vessel has sunk
in the sea. Men, illumined of God, like Solomon, have fallen into
godless ways before their death, and many a great sinner, like St.
Augustine or St. Mary Magdalen, has become a very great saint.
Christian Hope. 277
■' He that thinketh himself to stand take heed lest he fall " (1
Cor. x. 12). "We carry our treasure in frail and earthen vessels"
(2 Cor. iv. 7). "Mistrust of ourselves," says St. Augustine,
" should help us to hope." Hope and fear are companions ; where they
reign, the heavenly crown is easily secured (St. John Chrysostom).
Hope makes us strong and fear makes us prudent. Hope is like the
breeze to a ship, driving it in to the harbor; fear is like the ballast,
steadying it and preventing shipwreck. Fear, so far from diminishing
hope, increases it. " Trust in God and distrust of ourselves," says
St. Francis of Sales, " are like the two arms of a balance ; as one
rises the other goes down; the more we distrust ourselves, the more
we confide in God, and vice versa"
5. Christian hope is necessary for salvation.
A man who has no hope will not do good works, nor avoid sin;
while he who has hope is secure of his salvation, just as a man is
certain of a plant when he has the seed ; " for we are saved by hope "
(Rom. viii. 24). "Belief in God's truth, His almighty power, and
His love for us, is a triple cord," says St. Bernard, " which is let
down into our prison from heaven; to this we must cling so that it
may raise us to the vision of His glory." " The house of God (i.e.,
holiness which leads to salvation)," says St. Augustine, "is founded
on faith, built up on hope, and finished in love." In heaven there is
no more hope, for we shall then possess all that we hoped for.
6. Christian hope is a gift of God, and we can attain to this
hope only by sanctifying grace.
In this respect we may speak of hope almost in the same words
in which we spoke of faith. It is the Spirit of God which awakens
in us a longing for heavenly things, and fills us with confidence in
God. As sanctifying grace increases, this power of hoping increases ;
hence the saints hoped most at the approach of death. Hope, like a
river, becomes wider as it approaches the sea.
2. THE ADVANTAGE OF CHRISTIAN HOPE.
1. He who hopes in God enjoys the special protection of God.
Examples may be seen in the three children in the furnace, in Jo-
seph in the Egyptian prison, in our blessed Lady when St. Joseph had
thoughts of putting her away. Modern history has also its examples,
as when Vienna was besieged by. the Turks in 1683. Two hundred
and fifty thousand Turks were investing the city, which was defended
by a garrison of sixteen thousand Christians. Again and again
were the enemy repulsed, though the ramparts had been undermined
and blown up. Yet as the case of the Christians became more des-
perate, so increased their trust in God; and at the last extremity
there appeared Sobieski's force, an army of some ninety thousand
men. The battle lasted but a day, and the Turks were put to complete
rout. God protects those who hope in Him (Dan. xiii. 60). "A
Christian whose hope is in God may be oppressed, but he cannot be
overcome," says St. Cyprian. " Such a one," adds St. Francis of
Sales, " is like a general backed by a strong reserve." " They that
trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion " (Ps. cxxiv. 1). If a man
278 Faith.
puts his entire confidence in God, God takes him under His special
protection, and lie may be certain that no harm will come to him
(St. Vincent of Paul). The greater our confidence in God, the more
certainly will lie protect us and come to our help in all dangers (St.
Francis of Sales). Xo one hath hoped in the Lord and been con-
founded (Ecclus. ii. 11). "We will not have you as the heathens that
have no hope" (1 Thess. iv. 12).
2. He who hopes in God can obtain everything from Him ; for
Christ said that such a one might move mountains (Mark xi. 23) .
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus did literally move a mountain. Such
was the confidence of Moses when he divided the Red Sea with his
staff, and of Elias when he prayed for rain. " Hope is an arrow
which pierces the Heart of Christ, and opens the founts of His
mercy to the soul that hopes in Him." " A man gets just as much as
he hopes for" (St. John of the Cross).
3. He who hopes in God is strengthened by God, so that he is
not afraid of man, and is patient and courageous in suffering, and
more especially in face of death.
We have examples in David before Goliath and Leo before Attila.
St. Martin was once attacked by robbers who threatened his life;
when they asked why he did not fear, he made reply : " I am a Chris-
tian and under God's protection. I have no need to fear; on the con-
trary, it is you who ought to be afraid." The man whose trust is in
God troubles himself little about the favors of the great or the say-
ings of his fellow-men; such was St. Paul's attitude (1 Cor. iv. 3).
He who puts his trust in God will be patient in suffering, for he
knows " that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be com-
pared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us " (Rom. viii.
18). Job was patient in the midst of his sufferings because he looked
forward to the resurrection (Job xix. 25). How can he be unhappy
who looks to the unspeakable reward of heaven ? St. Paul calls to us
amid his sufferings : " I exceedingly abound with joy in all our trib-
ulations " (2 Cor. vii. 4). "To die is gain . . . having a desire to
be dissolved and to be. with Christ " (Phil. i. 21-23) ; and again, "As
to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord,
the just Judge, will render to me in that day " (2 Tim. iv. 8). So joy-
ful was the death of St. Andrew (62 A.D.), that when he saw the cross
on which he was to die, he exclaimed : " Hail, blessed cross, sanctified
by the death of my God; with transports of joy I come to you; how
long have I sought you, how long have I desired you ! " St. Igna-
tius (107 A.n.), Bishop of Antioch, rejoiced when he heard his con-
demnation from the mouth of the Emperor Trajan; and when the
Christians in Rome were planning to set him free, he prayed them
not to deprive him of his martyr's crown: "I fear neither the beasts
nor the rending of my limbs, if only I can win Christ; " and so we
find innumerable instances in the lives of the saints. Hope is the
anchor of the soul (Heb. vi. 19). Like the eagle soaring into the
light of the sun, it rises above the cares and sorrows of earth.
4. He who hopes in God is impelled to the performance of good
works and of heroic acts,
Christ iaii Hope. 279
This is the secret of the zeal of missionaries in the land of the
heathen. The hope of the Christian is something more solid than
that of the husbandman, or the warrior, or the artist. " He hopes
for that which Truth itself has promised," says St. Paulinus. Our
hope is as certain as though it were already an accomplished fact
(St. Augustine).
3. THE OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN HOPE.
The Christian may not hope for more or less than what God
has promised.
1. The Christian may not rely on his own powers, on his
fellow-men, nor on earthly things more than upon God; otherwise
he is sure to fail, because outside of God nothing is to be relied
upon.
The hope of him who relies only on earthly means is not a heavenly
nor a Christian hope, but merely human hope. St. Peter boasted of
his strength, and yet he denied his Lord. Goliath trusted in his
might, and he came to nought. St. Francis Borgia gave all his
service to his patron, the Empress Isabella ; she died and then he rec-
ognized the folly of it. It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust
to men (Ps. cxvii. 8). To build on the favor of men is to raise one's
house on sand or snow. Those who put their trust in men will perish
like the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel (3 Kings xviii.). He who
relies on his own strength and not upon God has only himself for
protector ; God will not protect him because he does not hope in His
protection (St. Augustine).
2. The Christian may not despair; i.e., he may not give up
hoping that God will forgive his sins, or help him in adversity.
Cain despaired when he said : " My sin is too great to be for-
given" (Gen. iv. 13). Saul despaired by throwing himself on his
sword when hard pressed in battle by the Philistines (1 Kings xxxi.).
The Christian may not despair, because God's mercy is in-
finite, and God's help is nearest when the need is greatest.
"Before sinn'ing fear God's justice," says St. Gregory the Great;
" after sinning trust in His mercy." Who would doubt of being able
to pay off his paltry debts if he were placed before a kingly treasure
and told to help himself ? Much less should we doubt of God's
mercy. " As a spark is to the ocean, so is the wickedness of man com-
pared to the mercy of God," says St. John Chrysostom. The greater
a sinner is, the deRrer is he to God in his repentance, for more glory
is given to God when tte sins that He forgives are very great.
Despair often ends in suicide and everlasting death.
Judas is an example of this. Despair is a sin against the Holy
Ghost, ^nd ^s ^uch is never forgiven. "Hope," says St. Isidore,
" open« he^v^'0 g^te?, while desnair closes them." St. Augustine
says that he who despairs of God's mercy, dishonors God as though
he did not believe in His existence; and St. Jerome adds that tli3
280 Faith.
sin of Judas in despairing of God's mercy was greater than his sin
of betraying Christ. He who sins kills his soul, but he who despairs
is already in hell.
3. The Christian must never presume on his trust in God's
mercy, i.e., he may not continue sinning with the idea that God's
mercy can never condemn him to hell.
Confidence in God and fear of God must ever be equally present
in us. It is wrong that there should be only fear of God without
trust in Him, for this is despair. It is also wrong that there should
be no fear at all; if a man thinks his salvation already secure he
sins by presumption. " Despise not God's mercy," says St. Bernard,
" if you would escape His justice." Christ says : " Unless you shall do
penance, you shall all likewise perish" (Luke xiii. 3). No man may
safely say to himself, " I can always do penance for this sin," or, " I
will reform before my death."
4. The Christian may never tempt God; i.e., he must never
expose himself rashly to danger in the hope that God will save
him.
He only can hope for help who does what God requires of him.
He who is indifferent to God's will, and acts with thoughtless rash-
ness, is deserted by God. Hence : " He that loveth danger shall perish
in it" (Ecclus. iii. 27). The devil urged Our Lord to tempt God by
throwing Himself from the pinnacle of the Temple (Matt. iv. 6).
So a man who should refuse to call in a doctor or to take medicines
in a dangerous sickness, on the plea that God would come to his help,
would be tempting God. Those who in the first ages of Christianity
exposed themselves without reasonable cause to martyrdom were
not accounted martyrs even when they died for the faith.
Part II.
A. THE COMMANDMENTS.
I. WHAT COMMANDMENTS (OE LAWS) HAS GOD
GIVEN US ?
As God gave fixed laws to the heavenly bodies (Ps. cxlviii. 6), so
He also gave commandments, or laws, unto men.
God has given us commandments in order to make us nappy
in time and in eternity.
God never commands anything except for the greater good of
those to whom He gives the command. He only imposes laws on
us out of kindness, that He may have occasion to reward us. A
heathen sage says : " Without laws the human race would be no better
than wild beasts of prey, the stronger devouring and destroying the
weaker."
1. God has imprinted the natural law on the heart of every
man; this forms the fundamental rule of human actions.
A young child who has done something wrong — lied, perhaps, or
committed a theft, feels uncomfortable, frightened, or ashamed;,
though it may never have heard of the Ten Commandments, it is con-
scious that it has done amiss. It is the same with the heathen who
knows nothing about God's commandments. Hence we may conclude
that there is a law of nature in every human heart, a law not written
upon it, but inborn in it; an intuitive knowledge of right and wrong.
St. Paul declares that the Gentiles do by nature those things that are
of the law (what the Ten Commandments enjoin), and consequently
they will be judged by God according to the natural law (Rom. ii.
14-16). The characters wherein this law is inscribed upon our hearts
may be obscured but not obliterated; the Roman Catechism tells us
no man can be unconscious of this law, divinely imprinted upon
his understanding. This natural law teaches us the most important
rules of morality, e.g., that homage is due to almighty God; that no
man must wilfully injure himself; that we must not do to others
what we would not have others do to us; furthermore from this
moral code certain inferences directly follow; these are the Ten
Commandments of God (the observance of the Sabbath excepted).
Thus the natural law does not consist of a series of truths founded
on reason, but is a definite expression of the will of God, which it is
281
282 The Commandments.
binding upon us to obey, and of which in individual cases we are
made acquainted by means of reason. This consciousness of God's
will is conscience. Hence it is erroneous to say reason is itself the
law.
2. In addition to this natural law, God gave to man solemn
precepts, more especially the Ten Commandments and the two pre-
cepts of charity. These are known as the revealed law.
To the revealed law appertain: (1). The pre-Mosaic law, given by
God to Noe and Abraham; e.g., He forbade the former to eat flesh
with blood (Gen. ix. 4), upon the latter He imposed the law of cir-
cumcision (Gen. xvii. 11). (2). The Mosaic law, which was given to
the Jews through Moses. To this belong : The Decalogue ; the regula-
tions of divine worship, the civil law of the Jews. The Ten Com-
mandments were not annulled by Christ (Matt. v. 17), but fulfilled,
as the outline of a picture is not effaced, but filled in by the painter.
The regulations of public worship (relating to the sacrifices, the
Temple, etc.), were abolished at the death of Christ, because the
ceremonial observances of the Old Testament were merely typical
of the Redeemer. The civil law (regulating the social relations of
the Jews) was exclusively suited to the Hebrew people. (3). The
Christian law, comprising the two precepts of charity. This chiefly
requires the practice of works of mercy, and interior spiritual wor-
ship (John iv. 24), whereas the Jewish law ordained the performance
of exterior acts and ceremonies. The Mosaic law was written on
tables of stone, but the commandments of charity are written within
our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Heb. viii. 10) ; that is to say, the Holy
Ghost enlightens the understanding that we may perceive them, and
influences the will that we may follow them. The former laws were
imperfect (Heb. vii. 19) ; the Christian law is perfect, for obedience
to it brings man nearer to his ultimate goal, eternal felicity. The
Old Law was given, on account of its imperfection, through the
medium of an angel ; the New Law was proclaimed by the Son of God
Himself. .
The revealed law is nothing more than a repetition, an ex-
position, and an amplification of the natural law.
Because the mind of man being darkened by sin, was no longer
capable of discerning between good and evil, the natural law was ex-
plained and completed for him by God. Let us thank God for thus
making His will plain to our understanding.
3. Finally, God gives us commandments through His represent-
atives upon earth, through the ecclesiastical and secular authori-
ties. These laws are called ecclesiastical and civil laws.
The Church lays her behests upon us in Christ's name : " He that
heareth you heareth Me: and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me '*
(Luke x. 16). The secular authorities also derive their power from
God, as St. Paul tells us (Rom. xiii. 1). The ecclesiastical and civil
laws are distinguished from the divine laws (natural and revealed)
in that the former govern our exterior actions and words alone, while
the latter regulate our thoughts and desires as well,
Wliat Commandments has God given us f 283
The laws God gives us by His representatives are, however,
only binding upon us provided they are not at variance with the
revealed law.
That is no law which is opposed to the law of God. Wherefore
if we are commanded to do anything that God forbids, " we ought to
obey God rather than men " (Acts v. 29). Witness the conduct of the
three children and of the seven Machabees.
4. From the knowledge of the law comes conscience ; the con-
sciousness, that is, whether an act is permitted or prohibited by the
law.
Our understanding indicates to us, in individual cases in which
we are called upon to act, how to shape our conduct in conformity
to the known law. Thus bv our understanding we attain to the
knowledge of the law and of our duty. This knowledge is called
conscience. Conscience is therefore a practical act of the intellect;
it also impels our will powerfully towards what is good. Hence it is
often called the voice of God within us.
Conscience makes itself heard in the following manner: Be-
fore an action it speaks either in encouragement or in warning;
after the action it fills us either with peace or with disquiet,
according as the action is good or evil.
Conscience filled Cain and Judas with unrest. Our conscience
is either good or bad. A good conscience makes us bright and cheer-
ful, it sweetens the bitterness of life ; it brings rest and contentment.
A bad conscience makes us morose and ill at ease; it is a worm, en-
gendered by the corruption of sin, and this worm never dies (Mark ix.
43). A bad conscience embitters all the joys of life; the man who
has a bad conscience is like a condemned criminal, who, whatever the
enjoyments offered him in his last hours, takes no real pleasure in
anything.
A man's conscience may be either tender or deadened.
A tender conscience shrinks from the least sin ; a deadened con-
science scarcely heeds great sins. The conscience of the saints was
tender; they feared to offend God in the slightest degree; the con-
science of men of the world is deadened; it glosses over sins that
are unquestionably mortal. Yet such men will sometimes attach
great importance to trifles ; they strain out gnats and swallow camels
(Matt, xxiii. 24). Thus the Jews who crucified Our Lord would not
go into the court of Pilate lest they should be defiled (John xviii.
28). A man who has a tender conscience is called conscientious,
while one whose conscience is blunted is said to be without con-
science.
A man's conscience may be either lax (unscrupulous) or
timid (over-scrupulous).
He whose conscience is lax persuades himself that the greatest
sins are permissible : once in a way does not count, he will say, to err
284 The Commandments.
is human; in consequence of his dissolute life he no longer heeds the
reproaches of conscience; in fact he scarcely hears them. But an
over-scrupulous conscience, on the other hand, makes a man see sin
where there is no sin. Like a timid horse that shies at a tree or a
stone, thus exposing his rider to the risk of falling, so a scrupulous
person imagines there is danger where there is none, and is liable to
fall into disobedience and other sins. Over-scrupulosity does not
arise from any misapprehension, but from an ill-regulated mind,
which has the effect of obscuring the reason. St. Francis of Sales
says that it has its source in pride. The over-scrupulous are timid;
thus they can never attain a high degree of perfection. They ought
not to dwell upon their doubts, for these are like glue or pitch. The
more they are touched, the more they adhere to one. St. Alphonsus
bids us contemn our scruples, and do that from which they would deter
us. The scrupulous should mistrust their own judgment and view
of things ; they must in fact renounce them altogether if they are to
get rid of their timidity. " He who would do great things for God,"
says St. Ignatius, " must beware of being too cautious ; had the
apostles been so they would never have undertaken the evangelization
of the world."
A man commits a sin if he acts against the dictates of his
conscience.
Conscience is nothing more than the law, applied to particular
cases. In acting against our conscience therefore, we disobey the
law even if we are under a mistake. For instance, if a man eats meat
on a Thursday, thinking it to be a Friday, he commits a sin.
5. God's commandments do not deprive men in any way of true
freedom.
They rather serve to make him independent of creatures. It is
the sinner who falls under the yoke of an ignominious servitude.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. iii. 17).
Besides, liberty does not consist in the right to do whatever we will,
but whatever is permitted. The word is much abused in the present
day; many consider it to mean license, and they call the restraint
which the laws impose on their evil work tyranny and despotism.
Others think it signifies liberty for themselves and servitude for
others. Hence we often find so-called liberals the most intolerant of
mankind.
II. THE TWO COMMANDMENTS OF CHAEITY.
1. The most important commandments are the two command-
ments of charity, that is to say, the love of God and the love of
one's neighbor, for all the other commandments are comprised in
them.
W^hen Christ was once asked by one of the Scribes which was the
first of all the commandments, He answered : " Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with thy whole heart (i.e., with the will) and with
thy whole soul (i.e., with the understanding) and with thy whole
mind (i.e., with the affections) and with thy whole strength (i.e., in
The Two Commandments of Charily. 285
all thy actions. This is the first commandment. And the second is
like unto it : Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself " (Mark xii.
30, 31). The same precepts were given to the Jews (Deut. vi. 5; Lev.
xix. 18). These two commandments contain all the others, because
they influence and direct all the powers of the soul of man; the
understanding, the affections, the will, and all his actions besides.
Thus he who fulfils these two commandments of charity keeps all the
commandments; were they everywhere observed no other law would
be necessary in the State or in the family. Hence Christ says: " On
these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets "
(Matt. xxii. 40). The other commandments do but inculcate in
detail what the commandments of charity enjoin.
In the command to love God the first four of the command-
ments of God are comprised; the other commandments of God
and the obligation to perform works of mercy are comprehended
in the second.
The first four commandments contain our duty to God. As our
supreme Ruler He requires of us in the First Commandment worship
and fidelity; in the Second, respect; in the Third, service; in the
Fourth, respect towards His representatives upon earth. The other
six enjoin on us our duty to our neighbor, forbidding us to injure him
as reg-ards his life in the Fifth ; his purity in the Sixth ; his property
in the Seventh; his honor in the Eighth; his family in the Ninth and
Tenth. The precept of Our Lord enjoining on us the performing- of
works of mercy (Matt. xxv. 31 seq.) is an amplification of the second
commandment of charity, for it requires us to help our neighbor in
his need. That the last six commandments of the Decalogue are a
connected whole we gather from Our Lord's answer to the rich young
man (Matt. xix. 18). St. Paul also classes them together (Rom.
xiii. 9).
2. Without the love of God and of our neighbor no man can
be saved.
St. John says : " Fie that loveth not, abideth in death " (1 John
iii. 14). St. Aug-ustine says that as We require two feet to walk, so
we must have the love of God and of our neighbor if we would reach
heaven, and enter into the presence of God. As the bird cannot fly
without two wings, so must we be borne aloft upon these two pinions
if we would soar up to heaven. The blessed in heaven love God and
one another; we must do the same here on earth if we are to join
their blissful company. " What is man, O God," asks St. Augus-
tine, " that Thou dost command him to love Thee, and threaten him
with terrible chastisements if he fails to do so ? "
, 3. The capacity for loving God and our neighbor is bestowed
upon us simultaneously with sanctifying grace.
Of ourselves we are incapable of loving God above all things.
Ever since the blight of original sin fell upon us, it is with our
heart as with the date-palm, which transplanted to a colder clime does
indeed bear fruit, but cannot produce the ripe and delicious dates
of the land where it is indigenous. So our hearts would fain love
286 The Commandments.
God, but the power is lacking to them; they can only attain to
true charity when informed by divine grace. " To will is present
with me, but how to accomplish that which is good I know not"
(Rom. vii. 18). 'Not until the Holy Spirit takes possession of us by
Baptism or penance is the love of God shed abroad in our heart. The
love of our neighbor is implanted within us at the same time as the
love of God; they are but one, the only difference is in the object
towards which they are directed. The love of God and of our neigh-
bor may be compared to two streams, issuing from one and the self-
same source. St. Augustine says that Christ gave the Holy Spirit to
the apostles twice (when He breathed upon them and on the Day of
Pentecost) because with the Holy Spirit a twofold charity is im-
parted to us
4. The love of God is inseparably united to tne ±ove of our
neighbor.
As the plant is contained within the seed, so the love of our neigh-
bor is comprised in the love of God. The two precepts are so con-
stituted that the one cannot be observed without the other. This is
why Holy Scripture speaks of one commandment of charity. " If
any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar" (1
John iv. 20). Our love of our neighbor is therefore the best test of
our love of God. He who cherishes ill-will towards his fellow-man,
who hates him, envies him, injures him in any way, or who grudges
alms to the needy, is destitute of the love of God. The greater our
love of God, the greater will be our love of our neighbor.
III. THE PRECEPT OF THE LOVE OP GOD.
Man is so constituted by nature that he takes delight in what he
recognizes as good and beautiful. This delight, and the desire to at-
tain it, is called love. Thus we see love to be an act of the under-
standing, the affections, and the will.
1. We ought to love God (1), because Christ commands this;
(2), because He is in Himself essentially the highest beauty and
sovereign perfection; (3), because He loves us and continually
bestows benefits upon us.
Christ commands us to love God, for He says : " Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thv whole soul, with thy
whole mind, and with thy whole strength" (Mark xii. 30). God
is the most beautiful of all beings, for if earthly beings are so beau-
tiful, how much greater must be the beauty of God, Who is the
Creator of all these things! (Wisd. xiii. 3.) For one cannot give to
another what one has not got one's self, consequently God must pos-
sess in Himself all the perfections in their highest degree which we
admire in His creatures. God has manifested His love towards us
chiefly in this, that He sent His only-begotten Son to earth for our
salvation. Christ Himself says : " God so loved the world as to give
His only-begotten Son" (John iii. 16). He did not send Him to
live on earth in regal state, but as a lowly servant; not to live and die
as an ordinary man, but to live a life of privation and persecution,
The Precept of the Love of God. 287
and to die the death of the cross. God gave His well-beloved Son.
The fewer children parents have, the more fondly do they generally
love them, .and they dote upon an only child. How intense must
have been the love of God for His only-begotten Son, yet He gave
Him for our redemption ! " Thou didst deliver up the Son, O Lord,"
exclaims St. Augustine, " to save the servant ! " Thus St. John ad-
monishes us: "Let us love God, because God first hath loved us" (1
John iv. 19). Moreover God continually bestows benefits upon us;
all in which we take pleasure comes from Him. Life, health, our
daily bread, the clothes we wear, the roof that shelters us, all are His
gifts. " Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming
down from the Father of lights" (Jas. i. 17). "What hast thou, O
man, that thou hast not received ? " (1 Cor. iv. 17.) The uninter-
rupted possession of these blessings has unfortunately the effect of
making us think light of them. It were well for us therefore to
contemplate the lot of those who are deprived of them, e.g., the blind,
the sick, the destitute; we should then see how favored we are in
comparison with these afflicted ones, and our love of God would be-
come greater. Children love those to whom they owe their being,
and so in a certain measure do the brute beasts. He, therefore, who
does not love his Creator is worse than the brutes. The very fact
that we owe our existence to God lays us under the obligation of
loving Him above all things.
2. Our love of God is chiefly manifested by thinking of Him
constantly, by avoiding whatever might separate us from Him, by
laboring to promote His glory, and willingly accepting all that
comes from His hand.
It is an error to imagine that the love of God is merely affective,
a certain delight or joy we experience in God. It is rather an act of
the understanding and of the will. Man recognizes God to be the
supreme Good, and esteems Him above all creatures. This esteem
causes him to strive to attain to the possession of this sovereign Good,
by avoiding sin and leading a godly life. The love of God shows
itself more in deeds than in feelings. The love of God is called a
holy or supernatural love. It is to be distinguished from purely
natural affection, such as that of a parent for his child, as well as
from sensual affection, which chiefly regards the body.
1. He who loves God thinks of Him continually, delights
in speaking of Him, and of hearing others talk of Him.
Love consists in striving after something, in order to be united to
it. Llence it comes that one's thoughts dwell incessantly with the
object of our affections. " Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart,
also" (Matt. vi. 21). He who truly loves God performs all his
actions with the good intention of giving Him glory. So the course
of a ship may be directed towards different points of the compass,
yet the magnetic needle always points to the North. He who loves
God utters ejaculatory prayers amid all his occupations, such as these:
" Jesus, my God, I love Thee above all things " ; " All to the greater
glory of God"; "My God and my all." "The time," says St. Ber-
nard, " in which we do not think of God, is time lost." Pie who
loves God delights in talking of divine things. " Out of the abund-
288 The Commandments.
ance of the heart the mouth speaketh " (Matt. xii. 34). He also loves
to hear others speak of God : " He that is of God, heareth the words
of God" (Johnviii. 47).
2. He who loves God avoids sin, and does not allow his
heart to cling to the possessions and joys of earth.
He who loves God flies from sin because sin separates him from
God. Our Lord says : " If any man love Me, he will keep My word "
(John xiv. 23). He who loves God is afraid of offending Him, rather
than of His chastisements; for where love is, there is no chastise-
ment to be dreaded. " Perfect charity casteth out fear " (1 John iv.
18). One who is inflamed with the love of God lays aside all desire
for earthly possessions and enjoyments; the love of God and the love
of the world cannot co-exist in the human heart.
3. He who loves God rejoices to labor for the glory of God.
The love of God excites in us the desire that He should be better
known and loved by men, and thereby glorified. Zeal is the outcome
of love : " Where there is no zeal there is no love," says St. Augustine.
One who loves God is grieved, nay, indignant, when God is offended ;
Moses in his anger threw the stone tables of the law to the ground
when he saw the people worshipping the golden calf. On the other
hand those who love God rejoice when He is honored; they spare no
exertion to bring wanderers back to Him. Consider what hardships
the apostles and missioners endured in evangelizing heathen lands;
or what St. Monica did for her erring son, Augustine. The love of
God is the motive which actuates the angels in their care of us ; and
which makes us pray : " Hallowed be Thy name."
4. He who loves God gives God thanks for the benefits He
confers, and bears willingly the sufferings He lays upon him.
If we really love God, all that comes from His hand will be wel-
come, whether it be pleasant or painful. If we receive favors from
Him, we must do as ISToe did when he came out of the Ark (Gen.
viii. 20) ; as the three young men in the furnace of Babylon (Dan.
iii. 51 seq.) ; or the leper Our Lord healed (Luke xvii. 16), and not be
forgetful of our Benefactor, by omitting night prayers, or grace
before meals. One should be thankful for the smallest gifts, for in-
gratitude betokens an unfeeling heart. Moreover the sufferings
God sends should also be cheerfully accepted. Witness Job and St.
Paul, who abounded with joy in all tribulation (2 Cor. vii. 4). The
apostles and martyrs met death with gladness; St. Teresa said: "To
suffer or to die." The heart that loves God loves the cross also ; the
greater our desire to suffer and be humbled for the sake of God, the
greater is our love for Him; so say the saints.
5. He who loves God loves his neighbor also.
Every one that loves the Creator, loves the creatures that He has
made. He loves his neighbor because he sees Our Lord in his person;
this Christ Himself tells us (Matt. xxv. 40). He does not love the just
only, he loves the sinner as well; for while we hate sin, because it
The Precept of the Love of God. 289
is hateful in God's sight, we should love the sinner. We should only-
hate the evil spirits and the reprobate, whom God hates with an eter-
nal hatred.
3. We must love God with all our faculties, and above all
things else in the whole world.
We must love God with a special, a superexcellent love. Christ
does not merely command us to love God, but to love Him with all
our heart and mind and soul and strength. " The true measure of
our love to God," says St. Francis of Sales, " is to love Him without
measure."
"We love God with all our strength if we refer all to Him;
all our thoughts, words, and deeds.
Our first thought on rising in the morning should be of God,
and of Him we should think in all we do during the day. All that is
beautiful in creation should remind us of the glory of the Creator.
To him who loves God ail nature speaks in a voice inaudible to the
world at large, but intelligible to his ear.
We love God more than anything else in the world, if we
are ready to give up everything unhesitatingly, if such be His
will.
God is, in fact, our final end; creatures are only means to the
attainment of this end. Hence it is incumbent upon us to sacrifice
them all in order to possess Him. We must be prepared to give up
our bodily life, like the three Babylonian youths; we must be pre-
pared to leave our relatives, as Abraham did ; nay more, a father must
even sacrifice his only son, as Abraham sacrificed Isaac, if God re-
quire this of him. God may be compared to the pearl of great price,
to buy which a man must sell all that he hath (Matt. xiii. 46). God
tries the just man to see if he loves Him more than this passing
world: yet He often contents Himself with our good will, and does
not take from us the beloved object, if we are ready to give it up to
Him. He who is unduly cast down by afflictions does not love God
above all; nor he who omits any good work from motives of human
respect, for he esteems the favor of men more than the favor of
God.
One may love creatures, but only for God's sake.
We may only take pleasure in creatures in so far as they are con-
ducive to the service of the Most High. The Creator ought to be
loved in His creatures, not the creatures in themselves. God calls
Himself a jealous God (Exod. xx. 5), because He cannot tolerate our
loving anything which interferes with our love for Him. He must
reign supreme in our hearts, or hold no place in them at all (St.
Francis of Sales). Because the patriarch Jacob was too fond of his
youngest son, Joseph, He took him from him for a time, and He did
the same with Benjamin. So He acts towards us now. Christ says-
"He that loveth father cr mother more than Me, is not worthv of
Me" (Matt. x. 37). St. Augustine says: "He loves God too little
who loves anything besides God ; unless indeed he loves it out of love
to God."
290 The Commandments.
4. The love of God is of great advantage to us: Through it
we are united to God here on earth, our minds are enlightened,
our will is strengthened; we obtain pardon of sin, peace of soul,
manifold proofs of God's favor, and after death celestial joys.
As avarice is the root of all evil, so the holy love of God is the root
of all that is good. It is compared to oil, or to fire, for like these it
rises upward, it gives light and warmth; it softens and purifies. He
who loves God is the dwelling-rjlace of the Holy Spirit; thus he is
united to God. Through love God becomes present in our hearts as
He is in heaven ; for Christ says : " If any man love Me, My Father
will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with
him" (John xiv. 23). I>ve of G°d and sanctifying grace cannot be
dissevered; where one is, there is the other. He who loves God enjoys
heaven upon earth. " Hence," says St. Francis of Sales, " we should
not be too anxious to discover whether we are pleasing to God, but
rather whether God is pleasing to uS.r The man who loves God ob-
tains through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost enlightenment of the
mind, strengthening of the will, pardon of sin, and true peace of soul.
Our soul is like a mirror, which reflects the object towards which it
is turned. If therefore we direct it towards God, the light of His
divinity will shine into our soul, which will have a clear perception,
that is, of divine things. " In the love of God is honorable wisdom "
(Ecclus. i. 14). St. Francis of Sales calls love the compendium of
theology; by it many unlearned men, monks and hermits, have at-
tained proficiency in the divine science. As red-hot iron is easily
shaped by the hammer of the blacksmith, so the soul which is in-
flamed by divine love is shaped by the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Nothing gives courage and strength more than love does. The love of
her offspring makes the timid hen so brave that she will fly at a man
in their defence. And what will not a mother endure for the sake of
her child ? " Charity beareth all things, endureth all things " (1 Cor.
xiii. 7). What we love to do is no trouble to us, for love makes labor
light. If then natural affection is so potent, what cannot the love of
God do ? It enables us to accomplish the greatest undertakings.
Through the love of God we obtain pardon of sin. Christ said of the
Magdalen : " Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved
much" (Luke vii. 47). "Charity covereth a multitude of sins"
(1 Pet. iv. 8). ISTothing clears a field of thistles and thorns as quickly
as fire, and no less quickly does a spark of divine charity cleanse the
heart from all sin. The Holy Ghost Who takes up His dwelling in
the heart that loves God, brings peace to that heart. He is essentially
the Comforter. Whosoever loves God feels within him the divine
presence, and this affords him greater satisfaction than all the pleas-
ures of the world. Without charity there is no true peace. He who
loves God enjoys true ueace, because his will is in entire conformity
to the will of God. Charity procures for us many proofs of God's
favor. Manv of the saints received revelations from God. Christ
says: "He that loveth Me shall b° loved of My Father, and I will
manifest Myself to him " (John xiv. 21). To others Christ Himself
appeared, or His blessed Mother, or the angels. Of this many in-
stances occur in both the New and the Old Testament. Or they ob-
tained speedy answers to prayer, marvellous enlightenment in divine
The Precept of the Love of God. 291
things, interior consolations such as the world cannot give. To His
friends, i.e., those who love Him, God communicates His mysteries,
to increase in them charity and sanctifying grace. Christ says : " I
have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard
of My Father I have made known unto you" (John xv. 15). St.
Paul tells us : " To them that love God all things work together for
good" (Rom. viii. 28). Even trials and afflictions work for good
to him who loves God, as was the case with Joseph, Jacob, and Tobias.
Through the love of God we attain the joys of heaven. St. Paul says :
" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the
heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love
Him" (1 Cor. ii. 9). This is because he is rich in good works who is
inflamed with divine charity, for love stimulates us to action. Hence
the Apostle says: " The charity of Christ presses us" (2 Cor. v. 14).
To behold God, as we shall in heaven, and to love Him is one and the
same thing. We needs must love the highest when we see it. " He
who knows by experience," says St. Alphonsus, " how sweet and
delightful it is to love God, loses all taste for earthly things."
5. The merit of our good works and the degree of our future
felicity is in proportion to the magnitude of our love for God.
" The greater is our love of God," says St. Francis of Sales, " the
more meritorious are our actions. God does not regard the greatness
of the work, but the love wherewith it is performed." The two mites
of the poor widow had more value in the sight of God than the large
contributions of the rich. St. Paul tells us that all gifts, however
wonderful, all good works and austerities are utterly worthless with-
out charity. Good works without the love of God are like lamps
without oil. As food is tasteless and insipid without a condiment,
so, if charity is lacking, our works are without savor before God.
Moreover the measure of our eternal felicity depend 3 upon the degree
of charity we possess at our death. " He who has loved most shall
receive the greatest glory," says St. Francis of Sales. An earthly
father often bequeaths the largest legacy to the child who has shown
the most affection for him. Even on earth he who loves God best is
the recipient of the greatest graces. To such a one many sins are for-
given. When Mary Magdalen fell at Our Lord's feet in Simon's
house, He said of her : " Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath
loved much" (Luke vii. 47). A greater love of God brings with it a
greater knowledge of God : like a fire which, the larger it is, the more
radiance it emits. If we love God we are rich, richer far than those
who own unbounded wealth, but who do not love Him ; th?y are poor
whoever they may be, or whatever they may possess.
The love of God may be increased in the soul by meditation
upon the perfections of God and the benefits He confers on us;
by practising detachment from earthly things and by frequently
making acts of the love of God.
Just as a fire is kept up and increased in size by heaping on fuel,
so the love of God within us is fed by meditation on the truths of
religion. Meditation on Our Lord's Passion is specially calcu-'
lated to increase in us the love of God. Even in the realms of celes-
292 The Commandments.
tial glory the Redeemer's death will form the strongest incentive to
the blessed spirits to love God. Detachment from earthly things also
contributes to augment our love. For as a stone gravitates towards
the centre of the earth as soon as the obstacles in its way are re-
moved, so our soul mounts upward with accelerated motion to God,
the centre of our being and its final aim, if we free ourselves from
the bonds that hold us captive upon earth. It is also useful to make
frequent acts of. the love of God. As in everything practice makes
perfect, so by awakening within ourselves the love of God, we shall
attain to a high degree of love. St. Francis of Assisi wTould repeat
for whole days and nights the words : " My God and my all ! " It is
all the more important to make acts of love because the command to
love God imposes it upon us as an obligation. St. Alphonsus declares
that he who for a whole month neglects this practice can scarcely be
exempt from mortal sin. Our love should be without limit or
measure, as is God Himself.
The love of God is lost by mortal sin.
As water extinguishes fire, so the love of God is quenched in our
hearts by mortal sin. He who has thus lost the love of God has
turned his mind away from God, and directed it wholly to creatures.
Except sin, nothing has power to deprive us of the love of God. Thus
St. Paul exclaims : " I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God" (Rom. viii. 38).
IV. THE LOVE OF THE WORLD IS OPPOSED TO THE
LOVE OF GOD.
However cruel or depraved a man may be, his heart clings to some
person or thing, his nature impels him to love some object. If he
does not love God above all, he needs must love a creature above all.
1. The love of the world consists in loving, above all, money,
or the gratification of one's appetite, or earthly honors or any-
thing else in the world, instead of giving the first place to God.
The love of creatures is not in itself sinful, only when the creature
is more loved than the Creator. All who love creatures more than
God are idolaters, because they give to creatures the honor due to God.
One loves money, like Judas; another eating and drinking, like
Dives ; and many others whose god is their belly ; a third sacrifices all
to ambition, like Absalom; others have an inordinate love of amuse-
ments, gambling and the like. All these resemble the Jews who
danced round the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. The
maxim of the man of the world is : " Let us eat and drink, for to-
morrow we die." The love of the world is worse than high treason;
it makes a man a traitor to the King of kings.
2. Through love of the world we incur the loss of sanctifying
rrace, and eternal felicity.
The lover of the world does not possess sanctifying grace. As
the dove does not rest upon anything that is unclean or corrupt, so
The Love of the World is Opposed to the Love of God. 293
the Holy Spirit does not dwell in the sonl of the carnally-minded
and evil (St. Ambrose). The Holy of holies cannot dwell in the soul
that is stained with sin. " If thy heart be full of vinegar, how can it
be filled with honey? It must first be emptied, and undergo a toil-
some process of cleansing," says St. Augustine. He who is destitute
of the presence of the Holy Spirit, that is, of sanctifying grace (the
wedding-garment), shall be cast into exterior darkness (Matt. xxii.
12). Hence Christ threatens the votary of the world with eternal
damnation : " He that loveth his life (who endeavors to get out of it
all possible enjoyment) shall lose it" (John xii. 25). Again, "Woe
to you that are filled, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now
laugh, for you shall mourn and weep " (Luke vi. 25). No more than
a ship lying fast at anchor can sail into harbor, can a man who loves
the world reach the haveil of eternal felicity. " Which dost thou pre-
fer ? " asks St. Augustine, " to love the world and go to perdition, or
to love Christ and enter into life everlasting?" He is a fool who
for the sake of this passing world plays away eternal life.
3. The love of the world blinds the soul of man, and leads
him away from God.
The love of the world blinds the soul of man. When earthly
things intervene between God and the soul, the soul becomes dark,
just as does the moon when the earth is between it and the sun. As
Tobias the elder was blinded by the dung of a swallow, so earthly
cares destroy the sight of the soul. Hence worldlings cannot compre-
hend the teaching of the Gospel; it is foolishness to them (1 Cor. ii.
14). As the sun's rays cannot penetrate muddy water, so the lover of
the world cannot be enlightened by the Holy Spirit. The earth is
like a limed twig; the bird that rests upon it cannot soar upwards.
The cares of this world stifle the word of God in the heart of man,
as thorns choke the sprouting seed. The votaries of the world resem-
ble the men in the Gospel who were invited to the heavenly banquet,
but who did not go because of their wife, their farm, their oxen
(Luke xiv. 16).
4. The love of the world destroys interior peace, and makes
men fear death greatly.
The worldling is a stranger to interior peace. It has been well
said : A man must choose between indulgence of the senses and
tranquillity of sonl. The two are not compatible. One might as
well try to fill a vessel that has holes in it, as to satisfy the heart
that only strives after the pleasures of time and sense. And since
the votaries of the world can never attain interior peace, they want a
constant change of amusement, as one who cannot sleep turns
restlessly from side to side in the hope of finding rest. Christ alone
can give us true content. He said to His apostles : " Peace I leave
with you, My peace I give unto you ; not as the world giveth do I give
unto you" (John xiv. 27). St. Augustine exclaims: " Our heart has
no rest until it rest in Thee, O Lord ! " The lover of the world fears
death so much, because he will be parted from his idol, and because
death will put an end to the happiness he makes it his object to
attain. He has, besides, an inward presentiment of what will follow
after death. On account of this all who love the world are filled
294 The Commandments.
with apprehension and even despair in the hour of death. The pris-
oner fears nothing so much as the summons to appear before the
judge; and the sinner, though he is never free from alarm, dreads the
moment above all when his soul will leave the body and enter the
presence of her divine Judge (St. John Chrysostom). The fish that is
caught on the hook scarcely feels pain until it is drawn out of the
water ; so those who are entangled in the meshes of the world first feel
real anguish when their last hour comes. Think, O worldling, if the
joys which the devil offers you are thus mixed with bitterness, what
will the torments be which he prepares for you hereafter?
5. The love of the world gives rise to hatred of God and
of His servants.
A man who loves the world cannot possibly have the love of God
within him. Just as a ring v/hich encircles one finger cannot at the
same time encircle another, so the human heart cannot love God if
love binds it to some earthly object. St. John says : " If any man love
the world, the charity of the Father is not in him" (1 John ii. 15).
We cannot look with the same eye both at heaven and earth at the
same time. The lover of the world even goes so far as to hate God
and divine things. Thus Christ says : " No man can serve two mas-
ters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will
sustain the one and despise the other" (Matt. vi. 24). What are we
to conclude if we hear any one rail at priests and at religion? The
lover of the world is therefore the enemy of God. " If thou wouldst
not be the enemy of God," says St. Augustine, "be an enemy of the
world."
6. The love of the world ceases at death.
There are many things which thou canst only love for a time ; then
love comes to an end; for either thou wilt be taken from the object
of thy affections or it from thee. Hence we should not love that
which we may lose, or from which we may be parted ; we should only
love those things that are eternal (St. Augustine). Wherefore let not
thy heart cleave to earthly things. The true servant of God clings no
more to his possessions than to his clothes, which he puts on and off
at will; whereas the indifferent Christian makes them a part of his
very being, like the skin of an animal (St. Francis of Sales). The
true Christian ehould resemble the eagle, which inhabits the heights,
only descending to earth in search of food. Or he should be like a tree,
whose roots alone are in the ground, while it spreads its branches
towards heaven. The soul of man is immortal, and it should only
strive after what is immortal. " Seek those things that are above "
(Col. iii. 1). "Therefore choose Him for thy friend," says Thomas
a Kempis, " Who, when all others forsake thee, will not abandon
thee."
V. THE COMMANDMENT OF CHAEITY TOWARDS OUR
NEIGHBOR.
Every human being is our neighbor, without distinction of
religion, of race, of age, of sex, or of occupation.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan Christ teaches us that those
Ttie Command me )d of Charity toivards our Neiglibor. 295
who are strangers to us and even our enemies, are to be regarded as
our neighbor. In the present day some people are so foolish as to
consider none but their fellow-countrymen as their neighbors. In
Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one (Gal. iii. 28).
1. We ought to love our neighbor because this is Christ's com-
mand; furthermore because he is a child of God, made after His
image, and also because we are all descended from the same
parents and we are all called to attain eternal felicity.
Christ's precept is this : " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy-
self" (Mark xii. 31). He who loves the father will assuredly love
his children (1 John v. 1). ISTow God is our common father, for
He created us (Matt. ii. 10), we are all His children, and for that
reason we ought to love one another. Those who are the offspring
of one and the same parent are blood-relations; consequently since
we all received our being from the self-same God, we stand in
the relation of brethren one to another, and on this account ought to
love one another. ' A man who loves his father shows respect for his
portrait. jSTow, our fellow-man is an image of God; he was made to
His image (Gen. i. 27) ; consequently we ought to love him. As the
moon derives its light from the sun, so the love of our neighbor flows
from the love of God. We are, moreover, all children of Adam, and
thus members of cne great family, and should love one another as
such. Finally, we are called to the attainment of everlasting felic-
ity; we shall all live together, we shall behold the face of Gcd and sing
His praises together. St. John says in the Apocalypse : " I saw a
great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and tribes
and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and in sight
of the Lamb" (Apoc. vii. 9). Now we find that on earth persons
who follow the same calling, such as priests, teachers, etc., always
hold together. So we, who share the same vocation to heaven with
our fellow-men, ought to be united to them in the bond of charity.
2. The love of our neighbor shows itself in desiring the good
of our neighbor from our heart ; in abstaining from injuring him,
and in doing him good.
The love of our neighbor does not consist merely in affectionate
sentiments, in benevolent wishes; these would profit him little. St.
James says : " If & brother or sister be naked, and want daily food ;
and one of you say to them : Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled, yet
give them not these things that are necessary for the body, what
shall it profit ?" (Jas. ii. 15, 16). The love of our neighbor must
be practical, it must display itself in doing good. " Let us not love
in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth " (1 John iii. 18).
The desire for our neighbor's good consists in this, that we
rejoice with him in his prosperity, and grieve with him when
he is in adversity.
St. Paul exhorts us to " rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep
with them that ween" (Rom. xii. 15). Consider how Elizabeth re-
ioiced on hearing that Mary was the Mother of God (Luke i. 42) :
how the friends of Zacharias congratulated him when they witnessed
296 The Commandments.
the recovery of his speech at the birth of the Baptist (Luke i. 64).
Consider how desirous Abraham was to have no strife between him-
self and Lot, how willingly he gave up to him the best tract of coun-
try. Consider how Moses desired the good of the Hebrews : " O that
all the people might prophesy, and that the Lord would give them
His spirit ! " (Numb. xi. 29.) The congratulations exchanged on
birthdays, festivals, and other occasions, the greetings usual in
society are signs of good will. The Redeemer greeted His apostles
with4the words: "Peace be with you; " the archangel Gabriel saluted
Mary. In some Catholic countries the custom still lingers of using
the words : " Praised be Jesus Christ " as a greeting. Banish mutual
good will and you take the sun out of the heavens; you make social
intercourse impossible (St. Gregory the Great). " See," says St.
Augustine, " how the different members of the body participate in
,each other's misfortune. If a thorn runs into the foot the eyes look
for it, the tongue asks about it, the back bends towards it, the hand
endeavors to extract it. We should conduct ourselves in like man-
ner towards our neighbor." It is wrong, then, to rejoice when calami-
ties befall our neighbor and to grieve over his good fortune. Malice
and envy are the sentiments of the devil and the surest sign that a
man is lacking in love for his neighbor.
We ought not to injure our neighbor; either as regards his
life, his innocence, his property, his honor, or his household.
All this God has forbidden in the six last commandments of the
Decalogue. He who violates one of them to any serious extent, shows
himself to have no love of his neighbor.
We ought to do good to our neighbor, especially when he is
in need.
Christ, our future Judge, requires from us works of mercy, for
He makes our eternal salvation depend on having performed them
(Matt. xxv. 35). In a building one stone supports another, otherwise
the structure would fall to pieces; so in the spiritual building, the
Church, one member must help and sustain another. Charity is a
chain that links us to our neighbor, and makes us treat him with
kindness:
3. We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves, but
we are by no means obliged to love him better than ourselves.
Our Lord says : " Whatsoever you would that men should do to
you, do you also to them" (Matt. vii. 12). Holy Tobias says: "See
that thou never do to another what thou wouldst hate to have done to
thee" (Tob. iv. 16). Put yourself in your neighbor's place and you
will certainly treat him differently. Charity to one's neighbor has
its limits, however. ~No one is bound to deprive himself of what is
necessary, to relieve his neighbor's wants. In such cases to render
assistance is heroic charity. " Greater love than this no man hath,
that a man lay down his life for his friend" (John xv. 13). This
Our Saviour did; and hundreds of mission?rs continually expose
themselves to the risk of death to save souls. All the saints have
incurred personal dangers for the sake of aiding others.
The Commandment of Charity towards our Xeiglibor. 2§
4. All that we do to our neighbor, whether it be good or evil,
we do to Christ Himself; for He has said: " What you did to one
of these My least brethren, ye did it to Me " (Matt. xxv. 40).
To Saul, when he was on the way to Damascus, Our Lord said:
"Why persecutest thou Me ?" (Acts ix. 4.) Yet we know that it
was only the Christians that he was persecuting. When St. Martin
had given half his cloak to a half-naked beggar at the gate of Amiens,
Christ appeared to him in a dream wearing the half-cloak and accom-
panied by angels. " Martin," He said, " clothed Me to-day with this
cloak." Thus .God protects our neighbor; we cannot injure him
without first injuring God.
5. Eternal happiness will be the unfailing reward of those
who fulfil closely the precept of charity to their neighbor.
St. John the Evangelist exhorted the Christians continually with
the words : " Little children, love one another." When asked why
he always said the same, he replied : " If you love one another, you
fulfil the whole law." St. Paul says the same (Rom. xiii. 8; Gal. v.
14). Our Lord promises eternal life to those who observe that por-
tion of the Ten Commandments which has reference to one's neigh-
bor; to those in fact, who perform works of mercy (Matt. xix. 21).
Why does He do this ? Because a man who never injures his neigh-
bor, or who gives alms, cannot possibly be a bad man. We do not
find the vicious and irreligious, who do not believe in a future rec-
ompense, giving alms. He who performs acts of charity possesses
other virtues besides that of liberality to the poor. Beneficence is
never unaccompanied by other virtues; it cannot exist without them
any more than the heart can exist without the other organs of the
body. Hence St. John Chrysostom says almsgiving may be called the
mainspring of virtue.
6. The love of one's neighbor is the distinctive mark of the
true Christian.
Our Lord says : " By this shall all men know that you are My
disciples, if you have love one for another" (John xiii. 35). Christ
loved us while we were yet unworthy of His love; and if we love and
do good to those from whom we have never received any benefit, our
love is like that of Christ, and we are really His disciples, easily to
be distinguished from the mass of mankind, who usually only love
their friends and benefactors. Our Lord calls this a new command-
ment (John xiii. 34), because the precept of charity to one's neigh-
bor was not understood earlier in the sense He gives to it. Well
indeed were it for the world if charity prevailed everywhere! Xo
laws would be needed, no courts of justice, no punishments. Then no
man would wrong his neighbor; the very name of murders, brawls,
rebellion, robbery and the like, would be unknown. There would
be no destitution, for every one would have the necessaries of life
(St. John Chrysostom).
298 The Commandments.
VI. LACK OF CHAEITY TO ONE'S NEIGHBOR.
1. He who does not desire the good of his neighbor, but is
envious of him, does not possess the love of his neighbor.
1. We call a man envious who merely through ill-will is
vexed at the prosperity of another, or rejoices when misfortune
overtakes him.
The envious man cannot bear to see the good fortune of another,
and consequently he seeks by word and work to do him harm. He
is like a certain kind of snake, which is said to gnaw away the root
of trees which bear sweet-smelling blossoms, because it cannot endure
the perfume; like the moth, that frets away the purple robe, or like
rust that corrodes iron. The envious man who rejoices at the mis-
fortune of his neighbor is like the raven that gloats over corrupt and
stinking carrion. But our vexation or pleasure may arise from the
love of God or of our neighbor, in which case it is not blameworthy;
e.g., if a man is grieved because one who is an enemy to the Church
is raised to a position of influence, or because great prosperity at-
tends a sinner who will employ his good fortune to sin the more.
Satan envied our first parents in paradise; Cain envied his brother
Abel, because his offering was acceptable to God (Gen. iv. 5) ; the sons
I of Jacob were envious of Joseph because he was their father's f avor-
( ite (Gen. xxxvii. 8) ; King Saul envied David on account of his hav-
ing slain the giant and being honored by the people (1 Kings xviii. 8).
Many a man grudges another a post more lucrative than his own.
The height of envy is to grudge another the gifts of divine grace,
and progress in virtue. This is one of the sins against the Holy
Ghost. The high priests were jealous of Christ when they saw that
He worked many miracles; they therefore determined to compass
His death (John xi. 47). The devils feel this kind of envy; they are
furious when they see the elect advancing towards perfection and at
once assail them with persecutions.
2. ~No sin renders man so much like the devil as envy, for
envy is peculiarly the devil's sin.
The envious man is an imitator of the devil, for by the envy of
the devil death came into the world (Wisd. ii. 24). Just as Christ
says : " By this shall all men know that you are My disciples if you
have love one for another" (John xiii. 35), so on the other hand the
devil can say : " By this shall all men know that you a^'e my followers,
if you envy one another as I have envied you" (St. Vincent Ferrer).
The jealous man wishes to see nothing but misery around him.
There is more malice in this sin than in any other. For all other
sins and vices there is some pretext which a man may plead in his
excuse; the excuse for intemperance is hunger; for revenge, the
wrong one has received ; for theft, extreme poverty, etc., but for envy
no plea can be alleged. It is worse than open war. There is always
a cause for war, but none for envy; besides when the war is over all
animosity is at an end, but with envy it is unending (St. John Chrys-
ostom). Moreover envy is the only evil quality which charity cannot
Lack of Charity to One's Neighbor. 299
overcome. One who is an enemy to you, or enraged against you, may
be appeased by kindness, but the envious never. Among all sins,
envy is the only one which affords no gratification to those who in-
dulge it; the intemperate, the avaricious, the choleric, seem to gain
something by yielding to their passions, but envy is sterile. It may
be compared to the moth, which fluttering about the lamp, singes its
own wings, but does not extinguish the flame or even cause it to burn
less brightly.
3. Envy is most hurtful to a man; it robs him of inward
content and bodily health; it leads to many cruel actions and
finally to eternal perdition.
As the worm gnaws away the wood to which it owes its origin,
so envy eats out the heart to which it gains admission; it harasses
the mind, destroys peace of conscience, banishes gladness from the
soul and fills it with despondency and sadness. When once it is firmly
rooted within the soul, its presence becomes apparent outwardly;
the pallid cheek, the hollow eyes, testify to the suffering it occasions.
Thus we are told that Cain's countenance fell (Gen. iv. 5). When
envy fixes its malevolent talons in the heart, and tears at a man's
entrails, his food becomes distasteful to him, his drink no longer
refreshes him (St. Cyprian). Envy shortens a man's days (Ecclus.
xxx. 26). The envious man is his own executioner. As rust corrodes
iron, so envy eats into the soul that harbors it. It brings its own
punishment, for it frets away and destroys the individual who cher-
ishes it. Envy leads to many acts of cruelty. Through envy the
earth was first stained with a brother's blood, and through envy the
Jews delivered Christ up to death. Envy causes us to murmur
against the arrangements of divine providence. The laborers who
had worked all day long in the vineyard murmured against the
master of the house through envy, when those who had worked only
one hour also received a penny (Matt. xx. 11). The envious man
hates to see the benefits God bestows on others. Envy excludes from
heaven; it is a sure pledge of eternal damnation. Through envy the
angels fell from heaven, and man was driven out of paradise. If we
are bound even to love our enemies, how great will be our punishment
if we pursue with our envy those who could never have wronged us !
(St. John Chrysostom.)
4. The best means of overcoming feelings of envy is to do
all the good we possibly can to our fellow-men.
In order to thrust the monster of envy out of the heart, no sword,
no breastplate, no helmet is needed, only the panoply of love. Do all
the good you can to the person whom you envy ; at least oray for him,
that his happiness may be increased. Thus you will banish the
demon from your heart; you will thereby deserve a twofold crown;
the one for your victory over envy, the other for the charitable deed
you have performed (St. John Chrysostom). Consider also how short-
lived is all here below. In a little while we must leave all. It will
not then matter what have been your possessions, what high offices
you have filled; your future happiness will entirely depend upon
your good works. If you will be great hereafter humble yourself
300 The Commandments.
now; love to be unknown and despised, for he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted (Luke xiv. 11).
2. He does not love his neighbor who injures him, whether in
regard to his life, his innocence, his property, his honor, or his
household.
3. Nor does he love his neighbor, who performs no works of
mercy.
" If thou dost not give thy neighbor, who is in want, sufficient to
support life," says St. John Chrysostom, " thou dost not love him."
To give alms is a strict duty for those who have the means of giving
them. St. Ambrose severely censures the miserly rich men of his day.
" The walls of your dwellings are hung with splendid tapestries, while
you take the clothes off the poor man's back. A beggar at your door
asks for the most trifling alms; you do not so much as vouchsafe
him a glance as you pass by, debating within your mind what kind of
marble will look best for the pavement of your palaces. A starving
mendicant asks for a crust of bread in vain, while your horses are
champing their golden bits. How terrible are the judgments, O rich
man, which you prepare for yourself, who might give assistance to so
many who are in want. The diamond you wear on your finger would
alone suffice to feed a multitude." St. John Chrysostom speaks in like
manner to the wealthy who are hardhearted. " What makes thy miser-
liness most reprehensible is that neither poverty nor hunger com-
pels thee to it. Thy wife, thy house, the very dogs beside thy hearth
glitter with gold, whereas the man made after God's image, redeemed
by the blood of Christ, is left to perish through thy inhumanity.
How many streams of fire will be the portion of such a soul ! "
VII. LOVE OF ONE'S FRIEKDS.
1. We call those men friends whose principles are the same
as ours, and who cherish mutual good will, mutually support one
another, and hold confidential intercourse one with another.
Those whose principles are the same soon become friends. We
like what is like. Friends cherish more kindly feelings towards one
another than they do towards the world at large. They are one heart
and one soul. St. Jerome compares friendship to a mirror, which pre-
sents a faithful image of the object before it. If one who stands be-
fore a mirror laughs, or moves his head, the image in the mirror doea
the same. His very wishes and dislikes seem to be shared by the image
in the mirror. So it is with friendship. Trifling differences do not dis-
sever it, they rather clench it more firmly. The smith sprinkles water
upon the fire to fan the flame, and a town that has been re-con-
quered is garrisoned more strongly than one which has never been
lost to the crown. Friends support one another. Pythias and Damon
were intimate friends. One of them was sentenced to death by
Dionysius the tyrant. He asked "permission to go home to set his
affairs in order, his friend meanwhile acting as a hostage for him,
prepared to die in his stead, did he not reappear at the appointed
time. The hour for the execution struck, but the condemned mai».
Love of One's Friends. 301
was not there. Yet his friend persisted that he would come, and
so he did. The tyrant admired their mutual devotion and pardoned
the one under sentence of death. David, the son of an ordinary cit-
izen of Bethlehem, and Jonathan, the king's son, made each other's
acquaintance in the camp, and finding in each other kindred souls,
they formed a close friendship. When Jonathan heard that David's
life was sought after, he could not eat for anxiety on his behalf, and
when he had to part from him, he wept bitterly (1 Kings xx. 24;
xviii. 1). Friends hold confidential intercourse with one another, they
conceal nothing one from the other. When the door of a room is
opened, you see all that is in it. So friends disclose to one another
their inmost soul, and reveal the secrets of their heart. Christ com-
municated many mysteries to His disciples. 7riends are conse-
quently candid and open-hearted to one another ; thev tell one another
of their failings. Thus Christ warned His apostles of their faults;
for instance, He exhorted them to cultivate a more childlike spirit
(Matt, xviii. 3). St. Gregory the Great used to say: "I only count
those as my friends who have the generosity to point out my faults to
me."
2. Those only are true friends whose friendship is based
upon principles of religion.
Friendship, like a building, must rest upon a solid foundation;
and only when this foundation is the fear of God and the love of
God, will the structure of friendship stand firm. If it is based on
wrong or selfish motives, it is founded upon sand. One who is the
enemy of God cannot be a true friend to his neighbor ; he only loves
his friend aright who loves God in him (St. Augustine). When seen
in the bed of the ocean, coral appears to be a bush of greenish hue,
without any special beauty, but when taken out of the water it
becomes bright, red and hard. So friendship acquires its brilliancy-
its beauty, its solidity, when it is elevated into the atmosphere of
divine love (St. Francis of Sales).
3. Those are false friends whose friendship rests on princi-
ples that are reprehensible; they ruin one another body and
soul, and forsake one another in the time of adversity.
False friendships are those which are formed merely for the sake
of pleasure or gain, or some bad purpose; or between men who need
•one another's assistance in perpetrating some dark deed. Thus Judas
made an agreement with the high priests against Our Lord; and
Pilate and Herod were made friends on the occasion of His condem-
nation. False friends are only steadfast as long as they need each
other (Ecclus. vi. 7 seq.). When Judas in desperation took the money
back to the chief priests with self-accusations, they spoke as if they
knew nothing about him : " What is that to us ? Look thou to it "
(Matt, xxvii. 4). False friends act like the swallows; as long as it is
warm here, they stay happily in this country with us ; but as soon as
they feel the inclement winter approaching, they take flight to a
sunnier clime. Or they may be compared to bees, which fly away
from a flower when they have sucked all the honey out of its cup
(Segneri). They are like a reed, which breaks when one leans on it.
302 The Commandments.
The Romans used to say : " As long as thou art happy thou wilt have
many friends, but as soon as adversity overtakes thee thou wilt find
thyself alone." Misfortune is the test of true friendship.
4. It is not wrong to have friends, and to love them more
than other men; for Christ had friends whom He loved with a
special predilection.
Our Lord loved all men, but He loved His disciples best; He
called them His friends, His children, and treated them with famil-
iarity and confidence. Among His disciples John was His special
favorite; next to him He loved Peter and James; these three were
with Him on the most memorable occasions of His life on earth,
on Thabor and on Olivet. We are told also that Jesus loved Lazarus
and his two sisters (John xi. 5). We know that God shows special
predilection for, and confers most graces on those who are most like
Him, and who love Him most; we therefore are warranted in doing
the same, in loving and trusting those most in whom we find simi-
larity of tastes and affection for ourselves. The need of friendship
is implanted by the Creator in every human breast.
5. It is a great happiness for us to have true friends, for
they add greatly to the enjoyment of life, and preserve us from
dangers of soul and body.
Blessed is he that findeth a true friend (Ecclus. xxv. 12). A friend
makes our life much pleasanter; his sympathy increases our happi-
ness and makes our afflictions easier to bear. St. Augustine says
there is no more salutary balm for our wounds than the consolations
of a friend. Just as a stick is not broken as readily if it is bound up
with others, so we are not as soon cast down by calamity, if faithful
friends are at hand to succor us. A true friend is like another guar-
dian angel; no defence is so efficacious as that which he affords us.
" Nothing can be compared to a faithful friend; no weight of gold
and silver is equal to his fidelity. They that fear the Lord shall
find him" (Ecclus. vi. 15). Alexander the Great, on being asked
where his treasures were, pointed to his friends and said : " Those are
my treasures." True friendship does not cease at our death, for
charity never falleth away (1 Cor. xiii. 8). Those who have been real
friends on earth will see and love one another in heaven; Christ
promises His apostles that they shall be with Him hereafter (John
xvii. 24). False friends will curse one another after death, for having
been a cause of sin and unhappiness to one another.
6. One must not be rash in forming friendships, nor must
one do wrong to please a friend.
David complains: "The man in whom I trusted, who eat my
bread, hath greatly supplanted me" (Ps. xl. 10). Holy Scripture
also warns us to try a friend before taking him, and not to trust him
too readily (Ecclus. vi. 7). Do not judge of him as much by his
words as by his deeds. And if he asks you to do evil for his sake,
answer him as the Greek answered the friend who wanted him to
swear falsely in his interest: "T am only thy friond in so far as T do
not lose the friendship of God." Th^ friendship of God is indeed
worth more than any human friendship.
The Commandment to Love our Enemy. 303
VIII. THE COMMANDMENT TO LOVE OUR ENEMY.
AVe call him our enemy who hates us and seeks to do us
harm.
Saul, for' instance, was an enemy of the Christians. Those alone
can be said to have the love of their neighbor who lcve iheir enemies
too. A big fire is not extinguished but increased by the wind; so
the love of one's neighbor, if it be real, is not destroyed, but deepened,
by affronts and offences on the part of others. If we only love those
who love us, we cannot look for any great reward (Matt. v. 46).
We love our friends for our own sake, but we love our enemies for
God's sake.
1. We ought to love our enemies because Christ commands it;
He says : " Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you ;
pray for them that persecute and calumniate you " (Matt. v. 44) .
Christ has given us the most striking example of the love of our
enemies, for on the cross He prayed for His enemies, and in the
Garden of Olives He healed the servant whose ear Peter had cut
off. Our heavenly Father Himself sets us an example, for He makes
His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just
and the unjust. He who loves his enemy therefore is like to God;
he is a true child of his Father in heaven (Matt. v. 45).
Another reason why we ought to love our enemy is because
he also is made after God's image, and is an instrument in His
hand.
Our enemy is made after God's likeness. The king's effigy
stamped upon the coin, is equally deserving of respect whether the
coin be of copper or gold ; so we are bound to love and honor the image
of God, whether the man who bears it be vicious or virtuous. It is
not the sin we love, but the sinner. Man is God's work, sin is man's
work ; " therefore," says St. Augustine, " love what God has made,
not what man has, done." We ought also to love our enemy because
God uses him as His instrument. Evil men, unwittingly to them-
selves, are instruments in God's hands. As the physician employs the
leech to draw the bad blood from the veins of the sick man, and effect
his cure, so God employs our enemies to remove our imperfections
(St. Gregory the Great). The evil shape the good, as file and hammer
shape iron: they are to them as the plough to the fallow ground
(St. John Chrysostom). They are, moreover, of service to us, by ac-
quainting us with our faults and giving us an opportunity of practis-
ing virtue. Enemies are like bees; they sting, but they produce
honey. When calumny assails you, console yourself with the thought
that it is not the worst fruits that the wasps devour. Finally re-
member that no enemy can really injure one who loves God ; for God
makes all hostile designs work good to His own people (Rom. viii.
28). This is exemplified in Joseph's life. The truth will teach you
to bear up against persecution.
304 The Commandments.
2. The love of our enemy is shown in this: That we do not
revenge ourselves on him, that we return good for evil, that we
pray for him and forgive him willingly.
We ought not to revenge ourselves on our enemy. David gives us
a beautiful example, for he twice had the opportunity of putting his
persecutor King Saul, to death, and on neither occasion did he do
him any harm. Our Lord, when He was reviled, did not revile again
(1 Pet. ii. 23). Once when Christ was not received in a Samaritan
village because He was a Jew, the apostles were so desirous of re-
venge that they wanted to call down fire from heaven. But Our Lord
rebuked them, saying : " You know not of what spirit you are ';
(Luke ix. 55). Vengeance belongs to God, not to us (Rom. xii. 19).
We ought to suffer wrong rather than take revenge; we are told, to
him that striketh thee on the one cheek offer the other (Luke vi. 29).
Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good (Rom. xii. 21).
Avenge yourself, as the saints did, by returning benefits for the evil
done you; such vengeance is divine. St. Stephen prayed for his mur-
derers; he was more grieved for the harm they did to themselves
than for the injury they did to him. When the Apostle James,
Bishop of Jerusalem, was thrown from the pinnacle of the Temple,
he raised himself on his fractured knees to pray for his murderers.
We should also be ready to forgive our enemies. King David forgave
Semei, when he threw stones at him and cursed him (2 Kings xvi.
10). To do good to one's enemy is a proof of great magnanimity.
3. He who does not revenge himself on his enemy, or who
even confers benefits upon him, puts his foe to shame and paci-
fies him, and will be rewarded by God; whereas he who hates
his enemy and revenges himself on him commits a sin.
David by sparing Saul on two several occasions mollified and
touched him to such a degree that he shed tears (1 Kings xxiv. 17).
Blessed Clement Hofbauer being abused by a woman in the streets
of Vienna, went up to her, picked up a handkerchief she had dropped,
and spoke kindly to her. She was covered with confusion, and has-
tily withdrew. Just as the bore-worm, soft as it is, works its way
through the hardest wood, so a conciliatory spirit overcomes the bit-
terest enemy and coarsest calumniator. By conferring benefits on
your enemy, you will heap coals of fire upon his head (Rom. xii.
20), that is to say, he can no more resist your kindness than he
could burning coals. Thus we are taught to be gentle and peaceable.
He who does not revenge himself will be rewarded by God. David
bore Semei's curses patiently, saying, " Perhaps the Lord will look
upon my affliction, and may render me good for the cursing of this
day" (2 Kings xvi. 12). Shortly after he won a signal victory. It is
difficult to you to pray for your enemy; but the greater your self-
conquest, the greater will be your recompense (St. Augustine). To
revenge one's self is a sin; he who does this is like the bee, which re-
venges itself by stinging, but in doing so, dies. Besides, it is a foolish
thing to revenge one's self; it is like the dog who bites the stick
with which he is beaten, for we forget that our enemy is but an
instrument in God's hand.
The Love of Om's Self. 305
4. He who forgives his enemy will obtain forgiveness of his
sins from God; but he who will not forgive his enemy God
will not forgive.
To forgive one's enemy is a work of mercy and the greatest of all
almsgiving (St. Augustine). If we forgive others, we can ask pardon
for ourselves, as is expressed in the fifth petition of the Lord's
Prayer. God shows mercy to him who willingly forgives his brother.
He who does not forgive his brother brings down on himself no bless-
ing when he repeats the Our Father. Christ says : " If you will not
forgive men, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your
offences" (Matt. vi. 15). Remember the parable of the unmerciful
servant (Matt, xviii. 23). We are not merely to forgive seven times,
but seventy times seven times (v. 22).
IX. THE LOVE OF ONE'S SELF.
Among all classes of men each one is his own nearest neighbor.
Consequently every man ought to love himself.
We ought to love ourselves because God wills it; further-
more because we are made after God's image, redeemed by the
blood of Christ, and called to eternal felicity in heaven.
It is God's will that we should love ourselves, for Our Lord says :
" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." In these words He de-
clares the love of ourselves to be the rule and measure of our love of
our neighbor. " Learn first to love God," says St. Augustine, " then
to love thyself ; then thy neighbor as thyself." God has not given us
a special command to love ourselves, because every man does this in
virtue of the natural law, and it is contained in the commandment to
love one's neighbor. We ought besides to love ourselves because we
are made after God's image. If we are to respect God's image in
our neighbor, nay more, in our enemy, we must respect it in ourselves.
Since, then, we love ourselves for the sake of God, it stands to reason
that the right love of one's self increases in the same proportion as
we advance in the love of God. We must also remember that we are
bought with a great price. " You were not redeemed with corruptible
things as gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ " (1
Pet. i. 18). We also have a high calling, we are destined for eternal
felicity. St. Gregory the Great thus beautifully expresses it : " Rec-
ognize thy dignity, O Christian ! Thou art made a participator in
the divine nature, a member of Christ's body ! Remember that thou
hast been wrested from the powers of darkness, and destined to share
in the glory of the kingdom of heaven ! " Consider also that the Son
of God was made man for us and became our Brother, that thus we
have been made the children of God (1 John iii. 1) ; that the Holy
Ghost dwells in us (1 Cor. vi. 19) ; that the angels minister to us
(Heb. i. 14). These are all motives impelling us to love ourselves.
Wherefore as the love of one's self is in reality only the love of one's
neighbor applied to one's self personally, to love one's self is equiv-
alent to esteeming one's self at one's true value (a matter of reason)
desiring one's own good (a matter of the affections) — not injuring,
306 The Commandments.
but doing good to one's self (in will and in action). This is the
right self-love, in contradistinction to the false love which manifests
itself in arrogance, conceit, discourtesy, license, etc.
The true love of one's self shows itself herein, that we strive
to attain that which will procure our real happiness; first and
foremost our eternal felicity, and then such earthly things as are
conducive to the attainment of eternal felicity.
The true lover of himself acts according to Christ's admonition:
" Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these
things shall be added unto you" (Matt. vi. 33). He will provide for
his health, his clothing, etc., but without undue solicitude.
He is wanting in love of himself who only strives after
earthly possessions and heeds not his eternal happiness; likewise
he who despises the things that are helpful to the attainment
of eternal happiness.
A great number of mankind regard self, not God, as their final
end; and earthly riches not as means towards attaining eternal hap-
piness, but as means for the gratification of the senses. Therefore
they take delight in earthly things: honors, riches, dignities, etc.,
and are not willing to give them up for God's sake. Such love of one's
self is a spurious love; it is selfishness, self-seeking. He who prefers
what is temporal to what is eternal is his own enemy ; for he will only
enjoy a certain measure of happiness for a short period, then he will
be unhappy forevermore. " They that commit sin and iniquity, are
enemies to their own soul" (Tob. xii. 10). How many resemble the
miser in the Gospel, who said to himself: "Thou hast much goods
laid up for many years, take thy rest, eat, drink, make good cheer " ;
to whom God said : " Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of
thee, and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ? "
(Luke xii. 19, 20.) " What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole
world and suffer the loss of his own soul? " (Matt. xvi. 26.) " Learn,"
says St. Augustine, " to love thyself by not loving thyself." On the
other hand those do wrong who despise those earthly things which
promote their spiritual good, for by so doing they show contempt for
their eternal salvation. What must one think of a man who does not
provide for his own maintenance, who rashly endangers his life or
even puts an end to it by his own act ?
X. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOD.
1. The Ten Commandments were given by God to the Jews
on Mount Sinai.
The proclamation of the commandments took place on the fiftieth
day after the exit of the Israelites from Egypt. When giving them,
God prefaced them with the solemn announcement : " I am the Lord
thy God, etc." (Exod. xx. 2), acting as a monarch, who places his
name and titles at the head of the decree he issues, to inspire his sub-
jects with respect. The Ten Commandments were written by God
on two tables of stone, to indicate that they were only an amplifica-
The Ten Commandments of God. 30?
tion of the two commandments of charity. They are called the
commandments of God, because He is their Author; they are also
known as the Decalogue, i.e., ten words. We must here remark that
the Catholic Church, acting under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
has slightly altered the Decalogue in a Christian sense. The Jewish
Decalogue, given on Mount Sinai, consists of these precepts: (1).
The command to worship no God but the true God. (2). The pro-
hibition against the worship of images. (3). The prohibition against
taking God's name in vain. (4). The command to keep holy the
Sabbath. (5). The command to honor one's parents. (6). The pro-
hibition against murder. (7). Adultery. (8). Theft. (9). False
witness. (10). Coveting other men's goods (Exod. xx. 1-17). The
Catholic Church has joined the Second Commandment, forbidding
the worship of images, to the first, and divided the tenth into> two
separate commands, in order that the Christian wife may be duly
respected (vide Ninth Commandment). The command to keep holy
the Sabbath is changed into the precept to sanctify Sundays and holy-
days. The idea of the Jews that upon each table five laws were in-
scribed is probably correct, since the first five commandments of the
Jewish Decalogue contained their duty towards God and His rep-
resentatives, and the latter five their duty towards their neighbor.
Moreover, Our Lord, when answering the rich young man, began with
the precept against murder, and St. Paul classed together the last five
commands of the Jewish Decalogue (which correspond to the last
six of the Christian).
2. We Christians are bound to observe the Ten Commandments
of God, both because God has imprinted them upon the human
heart, and because Christ laid them upon us anew in a more full
and perfect form.
The Ten Commandments are binding on us who are Christians;
they were imprinted on the heart of every man. It was only be-
cause the divine light in man had been obscured by evil ways and
corrupt manners that the law was given upon Sinai. Thus what
man would no longer read in his own heart, was inscribed on tables
of stone. Christ reiterated the Ten Commandments when speaking
to the rich youth (Matt. xix. 18), and in the sermon on the mount
He amplified several of them, e.g., the Second, by declaring unnec-
essary oaths to be sinful; or the Fifth and Eighth, when He
proscribed hatred and calumnv, and even enjoined the love of our
enemies; the Sixth by condemning the indulgence of evil desires
(Matt. v.).
3. The Ten Commandments of God are arranged in order.
The first three comprise our duty to God as our supreme
Ruler.
In the First Commandment He requires from us worship
and fidelity; in the Second, reverence; in the Third, service.
The Fourth contains our duty towards those who are God's
representatives upon earth, and who are at the same time of all
men our greatest benefactors,
308 The Commandments.
The remaining six commandments contain our duties to our-
selves and to our fellow-men. The Fifth is for the protection of
life, the Sixth of purity, the Seventh of property, the Eighth
of honor, the Ninth and Tenth of the domestic life of one's
neighbor.
4. He who keeps all these commandments receives a great re-
ward from God on earth, and after death he may look forward to
eternal felicity as his portion.
God has ordained that what is to us the means of attaining ever-
lasting happiness should also promote our welfare on earth. God-
liness has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is
to come (1 Tim. iv. 8). He who observes God's commandments ob-
tains interior content, health, honor, riches, and a more intimate
knowledge of God. David says to God : " Much peace have they that
love Thy law, and to them there is no stumbling-block " (Ps. cxviii.
165). " By Thy commandments I have had understanding " (v. 104).
He who keeps God's commandments triumphs over sufferings and
persecutions. His house is built upon a rock, and the force of the
elements is impotent to overthrow it (Matt. vii. 25). Only by the
bridge of obedience can we enter into heaven; it is a bridge with
ten arches (St. Vincent Ferrer). If our reward on earth is but
trifling, our reward in heaven will be all the greater ; it will be a rec-
ompense surpassing all our hopes and expectations, without limit and
without end. He fulfils his promise who gives more and better than
was expected of him (St. Jerome).
5. Temporal and eternal chastisements await the man who
grievously violates a single one of these commandments.
He who trangresses the commandments will have both temporal
and eternal punishment. The temporal punishments of sin are in
general, discontent, sickness, the loss of honor or of property, hunger
and other miseries. He who does not keep God's commandments
will have no help from God in the time of affliction. Our Lord says
the house of such a one is built on the sand, and will be destroyed
(Matt. vii. 27). The lightnings and smoke on Mount Sinai are typi-
cal of the fire which will be the penalty of those who transgress God's
law. " Whosoever shall keep the whole law but offend in one point,
is become guilty of all" (Jas. ii. 10). The reason of this is because
all the commandments form one whole; they are so closely bound up
together, that one cannot be maintained without the others. He who
violates one commandment transgresses the law of charity, on which
all the commandments depend (St. Augustine). In this they are
like a stringed instrument; one broken string will ruin the melody.
Or like the human body; if one member be diseased, it is enough
to cause death. If tbe whole city is guarded and one part left un-
watched the enemy will effect an entrance. The lost in hell kept a
great many of the commandments; they are damned because they
did not keep all.
6. It is not a difficult matter to keep these commandments
as long as God helps us with His grace; hence Christ says to
The Ten Commandments of God, 309
His followers: "My yoke is easy and My burden is light"
(Matt. xL 30). '
St. John says to the Christians : " His commandments are not
heavy" (1 John v. 3). The burden is heavy in itself, out God assists
us with His grace to bear it if we ask Him. St. Augustine says :
" When God lays a command upon thee, He requires thee to do all
thou canst, and in what thou canst not do to implore His help, and
He will enable thee to do it." " I can do all things in Christ that
strengthened me" (Phil. iv. 13). Moreover the example of the
saints who went before us serves to encourage us.
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
On Sinai God said : " Thou shalt not have strange gods before
Me" (Exod. xx. 2-7). That is to say, "Thou shalt worship the true
God only ; thou shalt worship no false gods." In the First Command-
ment interior and exterior worship is required of us. To this com-
mandment Our Lord referred when He said to Satan : " It is written
the Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve "
(Matt. iv. 10).
In the First Commandment God enjoins upon us to worship
Him, and forbids idolatry and every false form of worship.
1. THE ADORATION OR WORSHIP OF GOD.
We are accustomed to show respect to any one who is superior
to ourselves in any point, in power, in experience, in knowledge, etc.
We also reverence kings, aged men, men eminent for learning or
science, and the like. The greater a man's superiority to ourselves,
the greater is our esteem, our reverence for him. Now as God is
infinitely superior to us, we owe Him the utmost respect, worship and
veneration of which we are capable. This highest worship we call
adoration.
We ought to adore God because He is infinitely exalted
above us, and because we are entirely dependent upon Him as
our Creator.
Let us meditate a while upon the infinite sublimity of God. Con-
sider first His omnipotence; this is displayed in the beauty of the
star-spangled firmament. " The heavens show forth the glory of
God" (Ps. xviii. 2). Consider also the eternity of God. "One day
with the Lord is as a thousand years " (2 Pet. iii. 8). Think of the
wisdom of God, the arrangements of Whose providence are so won-
derful in creation, and Who can turn even what is evil to good.
u O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of
God! How incomprehensible are His judgments!" (Rom. xi. 33.)
Think of His fatherly care even for the most insignificant of His
creatures. At the time of Our Lord's birth, He showed grace to poor
shepherds and heathens; He chose for His Mother a lowly Virgin,
unlearned fishermen for His apostles, to the poor He had the Gospel
310 The Commandments.
preached, etc. " Who is as the Lord our God, Who dwelleth on high,
and looketh down on the low things?" (Ps. cxii. 5.) How infinite
is the distance between God and man'! We love God, because we
know Him; we adore Him because we cannot comprehend Him
(St. Gregory of Xazianzen). We are entirely dependent upon God;
we belong wholly and solely to Him. The members of our body, the
powers of our soul are His gift; to Him we owe our being, and by
Him we have been redeemed. Since He has given us all that we
have, it is just that we should serve Him and worship Him alone.
The consideration of the divine benefits bestowed upon us teaches
us to adore Him. We must, moreover, consider that we cannot exist
without God's continual help. If He deprives us of food, we cannot
live ; if He takes away our life, we die ; if He takes from us the light
of the Holy Spirit, we become spiritually blind ; if He were to permit
the devil to have too much power over us, we should fall into mortal
sin. What is true of man, is true of all other creatures; they also
are entirely dependent upon their Creator. " Thou art worthy, O
Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power; because Thou
hast created all things " (Apoc. iv. 11). " Come, let us adore and fall
down before the Lord that made us. For He is the Lord our God;
we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand" (Ps.
xciv. 7).
1. The adoration we pay to God consists in this: That we ac-
knowledge both in our hearts and by our actions that He is Our
Lord and we are His creatures and His servants.
To worship God is to acknowledge our own misery and His great-
ness. He who worships God says with David " My substance is as
nothing before Thee!" (Ps. xxxviii. 6.) Our adoration of God
manifests itself first by interior reverence,, then by external signs.
We call those persons pious who worship God in truth.
2. We worship God interiorly by acts of faith, hope, and
charity.
By faith we give our assent to all the utterances of the most high
and the true God, we adore God as the perfect truth. By hope we
expect all good things from the almighty and most bountiful God,
we adore Him as the source of all good. By charity we occupy our-
selves exclusively with God, we adore Him as our final end. St.
Augustine says that the worship of God necessarily commences with
a correct knowledge of God, for it is impossible to know Him without
venerating Him. And who that knows the omniootence of God and
His beneficence towards mankind, can do otherwise than place his
hopes in Him? Who that is conscious of the many benefits God
lavishes upon him, can fail to love Him ? " Is it possible," asks St,
Thomas of Villanova, " for a creature to know God without loving
Him ? " Reverence for God, the worship of God, are inseparable
from the love of God, for we adore what we love. " Love and adora-
tion are as closely connected as fire and flame" (St. Francis of
Sales). Thus the worship of God consists of these three things: faith,
hope, and charity; by acts of these virtues we are to manifest our
reverence for Him. Exterior worship is nothing more or less than the
expression of faith, hope, and charity.
The Ten Commandments of God. 311
3. We adore God exteriorly by vocal prayer, sacrifice, genu-
flections, prostrations, folding of hands, striking the breast, etc.
Sacrifice is the surrender or destruction of some visible gift of
God, in order thereby to honor Him as our sovereign Lord. By sac-
rifice we attest our belief that God is the Author of all being, the
supreme Lord of all, to Whom accordingly we owe allegiance. The
oblation of visible objects is a sign of the interior, spiritual sacrifice,
whereby the soul surrenders herself to God as her final and blissful
end. By kneeling down or prostrating one's self, as Christ did in the
Garden of Olives, we acknowledge our own insignificance before
God; clasping the hands signifies that we are fettered, i.e., helpless;
striking the heart, like the publican in the Temple, that we are de-
serving of chastisement.
1. We ought to pay God exterior worship, because we are
bound to render Him the homage of our bodies, and because
it serves to increase our interior devotion ; furthermore, external
worship answers to a need inherent in our human nature.
Body and soul are both God's work, consequently both are under
the obligation of manifesting their subjection to Him. An om-
niscient God does not indeed need outward signs of reverence, be-
cause He sees the intention of the worshipper, yet these outward
tokens are useful to us, because they inflame the interior affections
and augment the fervor of interior worship. And since these
external ceremonies during prayer are only means to an end (that of
intensifying interior devotion) they can be dispensed with if they
prove a hindrance to interior worship. For instance, if one is greatly
fatigued, one may sit to say one's prayers. Nay more, one may pray
while walking about or standing, if one finds that thus one can
pray more devoutly. Do not weary yourself with protracted kneel-
ing, or it will occasion distraction. It is enough if the posture of the
soul before God is one of lowly adoration. Man is so constituted
that he must needs give outward expression to his inward feelings.
When a house is on fire within, the flames burst out externally; so
when a man adores God in spirit, he manifests his devotion by out-
ward signs; otherwise he would belie the impulse of his nature,
were he to suppress all demonstration of the adoration he pays in
thought and heart.
2. We ought never to render external adoration to God
without having awakened within us the corresponding senti-
ments of devotion.
He who kneels down, clasps his hands, strikes his breast, without
thinking of what he is doing, is little better than a hypocrite. How
many people go through the usual ceremonies in the house of God
merely from habit, without thinking of what they are doing ! We
must not act in this like acquaintances who, meeting casually, re-
peat a formula of greeting without meaning a word of what they
say. The ceremonies we observe when we worship God ought faith-
fully to express the feelings of our heart. Christ said to the Samar-
itan woman that God must be adored in spirit and in truth (John iv.
312 The Commandments.
24), that is, exterior worship ought to be the expression of our spir-
itual worship, and correspond faithfully to the feelings of our heart.
Those individuals who make a greater demonstration of devotion
than their interior sentiments warrant, are like people who dress
above their station, and give themselves out for richer than they
really are. Vicious people sometimes make an outward profession of
piety, by which they seek to conceal their evil life. In this they re-
semble those who seek to disguise some unpleasant odor by the use of
a powerful perfume, or those who having a bad complexion by nature,
employ cosmetics to give it a fictitious beauty and attractive bril-
liancy. The ancient Egyptians used to embalm dead bodies to pre-
serve them from decomposition. So Satan imbues those who are
spiritually dead with the aroma of a spurious piety, that their moral
corruption may not be apparent. Persons who make a pretence of
piety may be detected by their ostentatious display of devotion and
their utter lack of charity. They court observation of their religious
practices, accompany their prayers with extravagant gestures, affect a
downcast mien, take a prominent part in all Catholic confraternities,
and count it a crime not to go to confession on particular days.
Meanwhile they do not scruple to conceal a grievous sin in the tribu-
nal of penance, they live in enmity, they slander their neighbor,
give no alms and indulge envy. Thus these would-be saints betray
their real character as surely as a man betrays his nationality the
moment he opens his lips. Piety that is simply external does not
last, because it is not the outcome of interior devotion. " Planets and
comets," says St. Francis of Sales, " are both luminous, heavenly
bodies, and closely resemble each other, but the comets soon dis-
appear, whereas the planets shine on to all time." So it is with real
and unreal devotion. Those who make a pretence of piety render
religion contemptible, and deter many right-minded persons from
devotional practices, for no one likes to be classed with hypocrites.
3. We ought to avoid all exaggeration in devotion, and never
omit the duties of our state in life.
We ought to avoid every kind of exaggeration in the worship of
God. True piety does not consist in a gloomy demeanor, downcast
looks, a melancholy manner. True piety is cheerful. The soul that
rejoices in the possession of God, that is rich in virtue, produces a
pleasant impression on others. It is also a mistake to load one's self
with a great variety of religious practices. We should aim at sim-
plicity in our devotions. A short prayer, repeated a hundred times
over, is often worth more than a hundred different formulas. The
duties of our station ought never to be neglected for the sake of
prayer, for nothing is more pleasing to God than their right fulfil-
ment. " He who performs the duties of his calling," says St. Francis
of Sales, " with diligent care for the love of God, is truly pious and a
man after God's heart." That piety which is incompatible with the
duties of our station is false piety. True piety adapts itself to the
duties of every state and calling, as a fluid takes the form of the
vessel into which it is poured.
4. We must pay supreme worship to God only, for He alone is
the sovereign Lord of heaven and of earth.
TJie Ten Commandments of God. 313
Our Lord said to the devil, when he tempted Him : " It is written,
the Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve "
(Matt. iv. 10). If I am in the presence of a personage of distinction,
it would be snowing contempt for him were I to turn away from him,
and devote my attention to some one greatly his inferior; so it would
not be right to allow any object but God to engross our mind and
thoughts. It is however no sin to reverence creatures in whom the
perfections of God are reflected. We do not worship them with
supreme worship; we only honor and venerate them for God's sake.
Thus it is permissible to venerate the saints.
2. IDOLATRY OR THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS.
Every human creature feels himself to be dependent upon one
supreme Being, and therefore is conscious of an inward impulse to
adore that supreme Being. He who does not adore the true God
will adore a creature. This is idolatry. He who does not worship
God in the manner which He has revealed and which the Church
prescribes, will ere long come to worship Him after a debased and
foolish fashion. This is the false worship of God.
1. Idolatry is the worship of a creature which is regarded as
a deity; e.g., the sun, fire, animals, images, etc.
Idolatry is frequently met with in the historyjof the Jews : witness
the worship of the golden calf (Exod. xxxii.), o3 'the adoration of the
statue ISTabuchodonosor set up (Dan. iii.). Remember the soldiers
who fought under Judas Machabeus, and who fell in battle because
they had idols concealed under their coats. Judas had prayers and
sacrifices offered for the men who were thus punished. In the time of
persecution some of the early Christians were guilty of idolatry,
because from fear of the torture awaiting them, they offered incense
upon the altars of the pagan gods. And at the French revolution
the people of France fell into the sin of idolatry when a woman,
personating the Goddess of Reason, was adored in the house of God.
To this day the heathen worship idols.
The heathen changed the glory of the Creator into the glory of
creatures (Rom. i. 23). In Asia, where the heavenly bodies shine
with greater brilliance than in northern lands, the people looked
upon the sun, the moon, the circle of stars as gods, and also fire, the
source of light, the wind and the great waters (Wisd. xiii. 2). The
Egyptians mostly worshipped animals which were either useful or
hurtful, such as the cat, the hawk, the crocodile, and especially Apis,
a black bull with a white scar on its forehead and other peculiar
marks, which was kept in their temple. The Romans and Greeks
again worshipped statues and images of the pagan gods. And as the
heathen had fallen away from the true God, as a punishment He
permitted them, through the practice of idolatry, to degrade them-
selves by the most hideous vices (Rom. i. 28). They represented
their divinities as vicious themselves, and the patrons of vice in
others; by indulging in the vice of which any particular god
314 The Commandments.
was the protector, they thought to do him honor. This worship
of false gods was nothing less than the service of devils (1 Cor. x.
20), for the devil was the animating spirit of idolatry; he dwelt in
the idols and oftentimes spoke through them. David says : " The
gods of the Gentiles are devils" (Ps. xcv. 5). How thankful we
ought to be to almighty God for the blessings of the Gospel. It is to
show our gratitude for this benefit that we stand while the Gospel
is read during Mass. Three-quarters of the human race are still
plunged in pagan darkness, that is to say about eight hundred mil-
lions are heathens. They are to bs found principally in Africa,
India, China r.nd Japan. Every year the Holy Father sends out
more missioners to the heathen. Catholics ought to support these
missioners by their prayers and their alms. The Association for
the Propagation of the Faith, and of the Holy Childhood of Jesus-
have been instituted for this object.
2. Another form of idolatry is when a human being gives up
his whole self to a creature.
It would be absurd to call a man an idolater because he offers to
a false god a few grains of incense which he ought to offer to the
true God, and not to apply the same term to one who devotes his
whole life to the world instead of to God. The avaricious are pre-
eminently idolaters (Eph. v. 5), for they consecrate their every
thought, their every exertion, they sacrifice their health, their life to
Mammon, to the pursuit of this world's goods. " Covetousness is the
service of idols " (Col. iii. 5).
All who are engrossed in material interests are guilty of
idolatry, especially the avaricious, the proud, the intemperate,
the unchaste.
Whatever a man desires and adores, that is his god. The god of
the avaricious is gold (Osee viii. 4) ; the god of the proud is honor,
the god of the glutton is his belly (Phil. iii. 19) ; the god of the
unchaste his own lusts (1 Cor. vi. 15). The greed of gain, the
pride of life, sensual pleasures, are worshipped by the worldling.
Parents are also guilty of idolatry, if they cherish an inordinate
affection for their children (Wisd. xiv. 15).
3. The service of idols is high treason against the majesty of
God, and the most heinous of sins.
St. Thomas Aquinas declares the worship of idols to be the
greatest of all sins. Among the Jews it was punishable by death
(Exod. xxii. 20). On oue occasion no less than twenty-three thousand
Jews were put to death by God's command for this transgression
(Exod. xxxii. 28). He who worships idols incurs the curse of God
(Deut. xxvii. 15). Think of the lamen bible condition of the heathen;
some of them have become so degraded through idolatry that they
have sunk into the vice of cannibalism. The Apostle says idolaters,
adulterers, the covetous, drunkards, and others, shall not possess the
kingdom of God (1 Cor. vi. 10).
The Ten Commandments of God. 315
3. FOOLISH OR PERVERTED WORSHIP.
1. Superstition, fortune-telling, spiritualism, and magic, are
foolish and irrational forms of worship.
1. Superstition consists in ascribing to created things powers
which they do not possess, either by nature or in virtue of the
prayers of the Church.
Superstition is of pagan origin. Among the Romans the will of
the gods was divined by the Haruspices from the entrails of
animals. The Greeks consulted the oracle of Delphi : a priestess was
seated upon a tripod above a fissure in the earth whence a stupefying
vapor arose, and to her incoherent utterances when in a state of un-
consciousness through this exhalation, a mystic meaning was at-
tached. Many popular and local customs that linger among us in the
present day are relics of heathen times. These superstitions are gen-
erally found among people who do not care for religion ; superstition
and unbelief go hand in hand. Children born on a Sunday are said
to be fortune's favorites; Friday is considered an unlucky day for
the commencement of an enterprise, or for starting on a journey;
to sit down thirteen to table is regarded as a fatal omen. Some
people wear charms, such as four-leaved clover, about them to ensure
good fortune. What folly this is! These we call natural supersti-
tions, because they refer to natural objects. On the other hand, those
people are not to be called superstitious who make use of, or carry on
their person things that the Church has consecrated or blessed, and
which consequently are endued with supernatural efficacy. To wear
a cross which has been blessed, or a rosary, or a relic, to take holy
water, hoping thereby to be preserved by God from evil, is not super-
stitious. But if a greater efficacy than they possess is ascribed to
these things, for instance, if it is thought that the fact of lighting a
blessed candle during a storm will avert the thunderbolt, that the
mere wearing of, or recital of certain prayers will preserve from
drowning or death by fire, then we have an instance of superstition.
This kind of superstition is called religious, because it has reference
to sacred objects. t
2. Fortune-telling or soothsaying is the attempt to discover
hidden or future events by means of things that are not in them-
selves calculated to reveal them.
The heathens of old made use of astrology for this purpose ; from
the course or conjunction of the planets they forecast the destiny of
individuals. Even nowadays many people regard the appearance of
a comet as presaging war or famine. The Roman augurs predicted
what was about to happen by watching the flight of birds, listening
to the cries they uttered, or observing the manner in which the sacred
fowls devoured their food. What a strange delusion ! In the present
day, however, Christians sometimes use cards as a means of divina-
tion; if the public papers are to be believed, there are in Paris eight
hundred women who tell fortunes by cards, and they are invited to
the houses of the great to exercise their art. There are also many
316 The Commandments.
who believe in the portents of dreams, or in palmistry, or who think to
foretell the future by the combinations of numbers and figures, and
the like contemptible devices. They attach superstitious meaning to
the howling of a dog at night, which is said to predict the death of its
owner; the hour at which a watch happens to stop, etc. Those who
play lottery connect certain numbers with certain events, either
real or the phantoms of dreams. On the occasion of an earthquake
in Rome in 1895, a million of francs was put into the lottery on the
number eleven, this being the date of the earthquake, other tickets
for large sums being taken for the hour and minute at which it
occurred. All these numbers were drawn blanks. And that in this
nineteenth century, the age of enlightenment ! On the other hand,
the forecasts of meteorologists, or the prediction of what weather may
be expected from the observation of natural phenomena, is of course
perfectly legitimate.
3. Spiritualism is the invocation of spirits in view of learn-
ing what is hidden from human ken.
Spiritualists offer themselves to act as instruments or mediums to
the spirits, their design being that some unknown spirit (that is a
devil) should communicate with mankind by means of their hand or
voice, or by some other manifestation, such as rapping. St. Thomas
Aquinas says it is sinful to seek instruction from the devil, since the
Holy Scriptures, the Word of God, are placed within our reach.
" Let there not be found any one that consulteth spirits, for the Lord
abhorreth all these things " (Deut. xviii. 11). Spiritualists are often
excused on the plea that they are Christians, and call upon the
name of God; but for that very reason they are to be condemned,
because they profane God's holy name, and while professing to be
Christians, they act as do the heathen.
4. Magic or sorcery is the invocation of spirits in order to
produce miraculous effects.
It is an undeniable fact that among the heathen there were indi-
viduals who worked wonders by the devil's aid. There were magi-
cians in Egypt in the time of Moses, who by their enchantments
imitated his miracles (Exod. vii. 11). In the days of the apostles
a magician named Simon lived in Samaria and deluded many by his
sorceries (Acts viii. 10). We are also told that Antichrist will per-
form many lying wonders with the assistance of the evil one (2 Thess.
ii. 9). The name of magician is not to be given to jugglers, who by
skill and sleight of hand perform astonishing feats.
2. This perverted form of worship is a grievous sin.
God says : " The soul that shall go aside after magicians and
soothsayers I will destroy out of the midst of its people " (Lev. xx.
G). David says: "Thou hast hated them that regard vanities to no
purpose" (Ps. xxx. 7). He who trusts to vain things or to evil
spirits, ascribes more power to them than to God; he tacitly denies
the divine attributes of sanctity, omnipotence, wisdom, etc. "How canst
thou hope for grace from God," asks St. John Chrysostom, " if thou
dost abandon Him and have recourse to the evil enemy ? " This sin
The Ten Commandments of God, 317
brings down severe chastisements from God. Ochozias, one of the
kings of Israel, sent to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Accaron,
whether he should recover of his sickness. The prophet Elias met the
messengers, and said to them : " Go and return to the king that sent
you, and say to him : Thus saith the Lord, Is it because there was no
God in Israel that thou sendeth to Beelzebub ? Therefore thou shalt
not come down from thy bed but thou shalt surely die " (4 Kings i.).
Ochozias expired shortly after. Superstitious people have no peace;
they are timid and apprehensive; every trifle alarms them; they are
dismayed and afraid to act when they perceive what they consider
as portents. Other sins follow in the train of this perversion of the
reverence due to God; such as abuse of holy things, for instance,
relics and images; or injustice and want of charity towards one's
neighbor. Superstitious people are easily misled by their omens into
rash judgments and hasty condemnations of others ; or they refuse to
do them a service lest it should bring ill-luck, etc.
Sins Against the First Commandment.
The First Commandment of God is transgressed:
1. By neglecting prayer.
The heathen had their household gods; they were to be seen in
the halls of palaces as well as above the threshold of the lowliest
dwellings. Yet Catholics, who worship the true God, too often deny
Him the daily homage due to Him. The followers of Mohammed
never omit, when the muezzin calls to prayer, to kneel down and per-
form their orisons, even in public places, while Christians, who hold
the true faith, do not scruple to dispense with prayer almost entirely.
Unhappy is the household where family prayer is an unknown thing !
2. By opposing religion, either by speaking against the faith,
or by the publication or dissemination of books and periodicals
hostile to the faith, or by joining associations of an anti-Chris-
tian character.
3. By worshipping idols or being engrossed in material in-
terests.
4. By superstitions.
5. By telling fortunes or having one's fortune told.
6. By invoking spirits, either for the purpose of searching
Out what is hidden, or of doing what cannot be done in the or-
dinary course of nature.
k. THE VENERATION OF SAINTS.
We call those saints who died in the grace of God, and who
are alreadv in heaven, more especially those whom the Church
has canonized.
Canonization does not admit any one into heaven; it is only a
solemn declaration on the part of the Pope that the man or woman
318 The Commandments,
in question has led a holy life (this having been proved by the exam-
ination of his or her life), and that (as the miracles proved to have
been wrought by the individual testify) he or she is already in
heaven, and is therefore to be venerated by the Church. Canoniza-
tion is preceded by beatification; by this latter the individual is pro-
posed for the veneration of a portion of the faithful only, whereas by
canonization he is declared worthy to receive the cultus of the whole
Church. The scrutiny to which the life and miracles are subjected
is extremely rigorous; they are laid before a special congregation
composed of cardinals, priests, physicians, scientists, who are ap-
pointed to examine them by the Supreme Pontiff himself. This
examination does not take place as a rule until fifty years after the
death of the servant of God. On account of the great number of the
saints, their different degree of glory, and the fact that their life was
more in heaven than on earth, they are compared to the stars; or
again to precious stones, rarely found upon earth and valuable in
God's sight; to the cypress, whose wood never decays, because they
were not contaminated by the corruption of serious sin ; to the
majestic cedars of Lebanon, by reason of the height of perfection
they attained ; to the fragrant lily, because by their good works they
shed a sweet odor around them; to an anvil, unbroken by the blows
of the hammer, for they stood steadfast beneath the strokes of mis-
fortune. They are also said to be the pillars of the Church, for
they sustain her by their prayers, and like the towers that crown a
city, they add to her outward majesty and dignity.
The Church ordains that those saints alone whom she has
canonized should be publicly venerated by the faithful.
The Church knows that the veneration of the saints is good and
useful for us. Consequently she omits no opportunity of inciting us
to it; at Baptism the name of a saint is given to the child who is
made one of the members of the Church, and the same is done at
Confirmation. Every day in the year some one or more saints are
commemorated; statues and pictures of saints are placed in the
churches, their names are mentioned in the Mass and invoked in
litanies and public prayers.
1. We honor the saints because they are the friends of God,
princes of the heavenly court, and benefactors to ourselves ; also
because we obtain great graces from God through venerating them.
We venerate the saints because they are the friends and servants
of God. He who reverences the emperor will not fail to honor his
servants, the ministers, or viceroy, etc., for the reverence paid to
them is indirectly paid to the emperor himself. For this reason wc
venerate the friends and servants of God. Every man of good feeling
likes his friends to be respected, and feels it to be a slight to himself
if they are treated with contempt; how much more is this so with
God. He desires that those who loved Him above all things on earth
should receive special honor. While the saints lived here below, they
fled from honors ; nay, more, thev were despised, calumniated, perse-
cuted by evil men. Therefore God now wills that their innocence
and virtue should be made clear, and they should be venerated by all
.
Tlie Ten Commandments of God. 319
Christendom. God Himself gives honor to the saints; He works
miracles through their intercession, and oftentimes" inflicts condign
punishment on those who show them disrespect. Christ Himself
says : " If any man minister to Me, him will My Father honor " (John
xii. 26). We venerate the saints on account of their exalted rank in
heaven. If we show so much honor to kings by whom God rules the
world, how much the more is it incumbent upon us to honor the celes-
tial spirits whom God makes His instruments for the government
of the Church, and of whole races of men, and also for the salvation
of mankind; and whose dignity therefore far exceeds that of earthly
princes. Most of the saints moreover have a claim on us for the
services they have rendered to mankind; heathen countries have been
evangelized by them (witness St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany) ;
others have maintained and defended the faith, as St. Ignatius of
Loyola by forming the Society of Jesus: or again they have enriched
the Church by their writings, as did St. Augustine. Many a time
the saints have prevailed upon God on behalf of their fellow-men.
He would have spared Sodom for the sake of ten just men (Gen.
xviii. 32) ; for Joseph's sake He blessed the house of Putiphar (Gen.
xxxix. 5) ; for the sake of the elect the days of judgment shall be
shortened (Matt. xxiv. 22). After their death the saints offer suppli-
cations before the throne of God for their kinsfolk and their people.
The prophet Jeremias did not cease after death to pray for the
Jewish people and for all the holy city (2 Mach. xv. 14). The saints
in heaven and Christians upon earth are all members of one body.
When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and they
mutually succor one another. Thus the saints help us by their
prayers. How much honor is paid to men who have deserved well
of their contemporaries; their services are lauded and magnified,
statues are erected to their memory, institutions, towns, streets are
named after them; ought we not then to venerate our best benefac-
tors ? If the man who rescues me from drowning has a claim on my
gratitude, how much more those who have spent their strength in
endeavoring to save me from eternal perdition! Furthermore, the
Council of Trent tells us that the veneration of the saints is of prac-
tical utility to ourselves; through them we obtain favors from God,
besides a speedy answer to our prayers. Our petitions are much more
favorably received by an earthly monarch if they are presented by
one of his courtiers; so it is with God, and the more intercessors we
have the better for us. What God might not grant to a single saint,
He will not deny to several, just as an abbot cannot refuse to grant
a request preferred by the whole of his community. Wherefore, as
beggars go from house to house asking an alms, let us go through
the streets of the heavenly city, appealing to the apostles, the martyrs,
the virgins, and the confessors, imploring them to intercede on our
behalf.
2. We venerate the saints if we entreat their intercession with
God, if we celebrate their feasts, reverence their images and their
relics; if we bear their name, claim their protection in matters
of importance, and praise them in word and song. The best man-
ner in which to venerate them is to imitate their virtues.
One day we are to be the companions of the saints in heaven, and
320 The Commandments.
this prospect unites us to them in a mutual love. Both they and we be-
long to the same great family whose father is God. This is the mean-
ing of the communion of saints. Hence they espouse our cause, when
we invoke their aid and their intercession with God. The fact of
invoking them testifies to the esteem in which we hold them, and the
value we attach to their prayers. We celebrate the feasts of the
saints. In the earliest ages of the Church the day whereon the
martyrs suffered was carefully noted down, to be commemorated an-
nually. In the world great events are celebrated by a jubilee; why
should not the same be done in the Church? The anniversaries of
the saints are not holydays of obligation, excepting the feast of St.
Peter and St. Paul in England, and the festival of All Saints here.
And as we like to preserve in memory of the departed, little objects
that have belonged to them, whether they be our own relatives and
friends, or men of great renown, so the relics of the saints and their
images are to be held in veneration. The names of heroes and great
men are given to public institutions or buildings, so we receive the
name of some saint or great servant of God at our Baptism and
Confirmation, or on entering a religious Order, taking him or her for
our patron. We also dedicate churches, towns, and countries to some
saint, placing them under his protection. Heroes and illustrious men
of past times often furnish a theme to the orator and the poet; so
panegyrics are pronounced, and hymns sung in honor of the saints.
But the most important thing is to imitate the saints. " To venerate
the saints without following in their steps," says St. Augustine, " is
merely offering them the incense of empty flattery." To read the
lives of the saints is also a means of honoring them, for we read the
record of their deeds in order to take them for patterns in our own
actions.
3. The veneration we pay to the saints does not in the
least detract from the honor due to God, for we only reverence
the saints for God's sake, and by no means do we reverence them
in the way that we reverence God, but only because they are
the servants of God.
The veneration of the saints does not detract from the honor due
to God. Who would think of saying that it showed want of respect
to the emperor to honor his mother, his children, his friends, and
faithful servants ? On the contrary, it would rather evince our re-
spect for him (St. Jerome). By venerating the saints of God we no
more detract from the honor due to Him than we do by charity
towards our neighbor, and we know that the love of God increases
with the love of one's neighbor. We honor the saints because in
them the divine image is reflected. We reverence a portrait of the
king as being a faithful representation of the monarch to whom we
owe allegiance; so we reverence the saints because we see the image
of God in them. We love them as we love our fellow-men; they are
made after God's image, and are His children. We also venerate the
saints because they were instruments employed by God to perform
new and signal deeds. We do not honor them for what they were in
and by themselves; their works do not redound to their own glory,
so much as to the glory of God, Who worked by their agency. Thus
The Ten Commandments of God. 321
the credit of a beautiful picture does not belong to the brush, or a
clever book to the pen, or an eloquent discourse to the lips that
merely repeated it. God alone is wonderful in His saints. The
Blessed Mother of God did not say : " I have done great things ; " but,
"He that is mighty hath done great things to me" (Luke i. 49).
And as by venerating the saints we honor God, so by despising the
saints we dishonor God. Our Lord declared that to despise His
apostles was tantamount to despising Himself (Luke x. 16), and that
He regarded every act of unkindness towards one's neighbor as an act
of unkindness to Himself (Matt. xxv. 40). And since God loves the
saints in heaven far more than men on earth, He must be deeply
affronted by disrespect shown to them. An additional reason why
veneration of the saints in no wise diminishes our reverence for
God, is because we do not honor them as we honor God. We adore
God, but we do not adore the saints, so we do not pay to them the
supreme homage that we pay to God, for we know that the distance
between Him and them is infinite. However superior the saints are
to us, they are only creatures like ourselves. The esteem and ven-
eration in which we hold them is the same in kind as that in which
we hold the servants of God on earth, only it is greater in degree, be-
cause the saints have already passed as victors into the Church
Triumphant. The saints do not desire the adoration of men. When
Tobias and his family prostrated themselves before the angel, he said :
'•'Bless ye God, sing praises to Him" (Tob. xii. 18). When St. John
the Divine fell down before the feet of the angel, he said to him :
" See thou do it not, adore God" (Apoc. xix. 10). And if we kneel
beside the tomb or before the image of a saint, we no more adore
him than a servant adores his master if he goes on his knees to ask
a favor of him. If the holy sacrifice is offered in honor of a saint,
if churches and altars are dedicated to him, it is only in the hope
that he will unite his prayers to the sacrifices we offer, the prayers we
say at his shrine; and we praise God, Who led the saint in so mar-
vellous a way to the attainment of sanctity. Thus veneration of the
saints is not idolatry, nor does it betray want of confidence in Christ,
our great Mediator. It rather betokens mistrust of ourselves, a
humble spirit. Conscious of our own unworthiness to present our
petitions to Christ, we have recourse to a mediator whose prayers will
have greater weight with Him than our own.
4. It is advisable under different circumstances of life to
invoke certain saints.
Experience has proved how much is gained by invoking the saints
in times of special need. We invoke St. Joseph as the patron of a
happy death, because he expired in the arms of Jesus and Mary;
also in seasons of temporal distress, for on him the Child Jesus was
dependent for His maintenance. For diseases of the throat St. Blase
is to be invoked, who miraculously cured a boy thus afflicted; for
diseases of the eye we call on St. Ottilia for aid, because she, when
blind, recovered her sight at her Baptism. Those who suffer through
calumny find a protector in St. John ISTepomucene, who was a martyr
to the seal of confession; and when anything is lost, we have recourse
to St. Anthony, through whose prayers the thief who had stolen
from him a valuable manuscript, had no peace until he restored it.
322 The Commandments.
It appears that God has given to individual saints special powers to
help us in special needs. Many wonderful answers to prayer lead to
the belief that the saints take particular interest in persons whose cir-
cumstances are the same as theirs were on earth, and whose calling
or state of life is the same as was their own, as well as for the place
where they lived and labored.
5. THE VENERATION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD.
Many are the types of our blessed Lady to be found in the Old
Testament ; e.g., Eve, the mother of all mankind ; Noe's ark, wherein
the human race was preserved from extinction; the Ark of the Cov-
enant containing the manna; Judith who slew Holof ernes, the arch-
enemy of her people; Esther, who was exempted from the universal
law (as Mary was from original sin), and by her mediation rescued
her people from death ; the mother of the Machabees, who witnessed
the death of her seven sons, and whose heart, like Mary's, was pierced
with seven swords, etc. The Gospels gave little information respect-
ing the life of Our Lady; more concerning it may be learned from
the revelations of the saints.
Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, is usually called the
Mother of God or the Most Blessed Virgin.
Elizabeth was the first to call Mary Mother of God (Luke i. 43).
The Council of Ephesus, in 431, confirmed this title, Dei Genitrix,
and condemned the contrary doctrine asserted by the heretic Nes-
torius. Mary gave birth to Him Who is God and man in one person.
A child does not receive its soul from its mother, but from God, yet
she of whom it is born is called its mother; in like manner Mary is
justly termed the " Mother of God," although Christ did not derive
from her His divine nature. Mary is also rightly called " the Blessed
Virgin." The words she spoke to the angel announced her determina-
tion to preserve her virginity inviolate (Luke i. 34). Many ages
before the prophet Isaias foretold that a virgin should conceive and
bear a Son (Is. vii. 14). In her conception, in child-bearing, and
after the birth of Jesus, Mary remained a virgin. As the bush
burned with fire and was not consumed, so Mary's virginity was not
impaired by the birth of Christ ; as Our Lord appeared in the midst
of the apostles although the doors of the room where they were as-
sembled were shut, so Lie came into the world, and her chastity
remained intact. So the sun shines through glass without in any
wise changing it. Mary is the window of heaven, through which the
true Light came into the world. Those who are spoken of in the
Gospels as the "brethren of Christ (Matt. xiii. 55) are His blood rela-
tions ; it was customary among the Jews to term near relatives
brethren. Abraham called his nephew Lot by this name (Gen. xiii.
8). " Had Mary had other children who could have taken care of her.
Our Lord upon the cross would not have commended her," as St. John
Chrysostom remarks, "to the beloved disciple." Christ was called the
" first-born," to indicate the fact that He was, according to Jewish law,
sanctified to the Lord (Exod. xiii. 2). Christ was, in fact, the first-
The Ten Commandments of God, 323
born among many brethren (Rom. viii. 29), that is, all Christian
people, who are besides the children of Mary. Mary was espoused to
•Joseph by God's command, in order that she might not be stoned
after the birth of Christ, and also in order to provide a guardian for
her and the divine Child. The name Mary is a Hebrew word, mean-
ing lady, or mistress.
We pay greater honor to Mary, the Mother of Christ, than to
any other saint.
Even in her lifetime, Mary had great honor paid to her; at the
Annunciation the angel addressed her as " full of grace," and
" blessed among women " (Luke i. 28). It is a great honor if an angel
appears to mortal men and affords them an opportunity of showing
him reverence; yet at the Annunciation it was not man who rever-
enced the angel, but the angel who reverenced man. " Hence," St.
Thomas Aquinas says, "we conclude that Mary excels the angels
in dignity." How respectfully Elizabeth treated Mary; she called
her blessed, and gave her the title of Mother of her Lord (Luke i. 42,
43). Mary herself foresaw that she would be praised by posterity,
for she said : "From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed "
(Luke i. 48). The Church invites us to honor the Mother of God
with special devotion. The Hail Mary is almost invariably added to
the Our Father ; three times a day the Angelus bell reminds us of the
mystery of the Incarnation, and bids us invoke the name of Mary;
many festivals have been instituted in her honor, the Litany of
Loretto is recited at the public services of the Church; the month of
May, the fairest month in the year, is dedicated to her, and during
October the Rosary is daily recited. Moreover, numerous churches
are erected in all lands in honor of the Mother of God, not a few of
these being renowned places of pilgrimage, where signal graces
and favors are obtained ; and the most glorious titles are given to her,
such as : Channel of grace, Mother of mercy, Refuge of sinners, Help
of Christians, Queen of heaven, etc. Yet the veneration we pay to
Mary is distinct from the adoration due to God. Exalted honor is
due to Mary, but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost alone,
do we adore.
1. We hold Mary in such great veneration because she is the
Mother of God -and our Mother.
Whoever truly loves God must assuredly honor the Mother of
God, and honor her, too, far above all the saints, the friends of God.
The honor paid to the Queen-Mother is reflected upon the King, her
Son. One may judge of the measure in which a man loves God by
his devotion to Mary. In fact, the greater the saint, the more intensely
does he love Mary. She is actually our Mother, for Our Lord gave
her to us upon the cross when He said to St. John : " Behold thy
Mother" (John xix. 27), John representing on Calvary all the follow-
ers of Christ. Mary is the second Eve, the Mother of all mankind;
as the disobedience of Eve brought misery upon the human race,
so the obedience of Mary restores it to a state of grace. Through
one woman death came into the world, through another, life. And
since Mary is our Mother, our salvation is more a matter of concern
to her than to any of the saints. After Christ no one cares for us
324 The Commandments.
as she does. St. Bernard declares that the love of all the mothers in
the world does not equal the love Mary bears to each one of her chil-
dren. And the reason she cares so much for us is because of her
love for God, and consequently her charity towards her neighbor
exceeds that of any other saint. As the glory of the moon surpasses
that of the stars, so the love of Mary for us exceeds that of the
angels; it is a boundless ocean of love. Mary knows all our circum-
stances; this even the angels do (Luke xv. 7), and it cannot be sup-
posed that they know more than does their Queen. A dutiful child
delights to be with its mother, and the devout Christian rejoices to
address to Mary, the Mother of God, his loving supplications.
2. Another reason why Mary, is so highly honored throughout
Christendom, is because God has exalted her above all men and
angels.
Monarchs grant privileges to the towns where they were born,
or where they were crowned; so the King of heaven has conferred
special privileges and prerogatives on the Mother who bore Him.
Mary was, in fact, chosen by God to be the Mother of His
Son, preserved from the stain of original sin, raised gloriously
from the tomb, and crowned Queen of heaven.
No angel, not even the most perfect and greatest of the heavenly
host, can say to God as Mary can : " Thou art my Son." O what a
marvellous privilege is this ! Mary is indeed the Mater admirabilis,
and that not alone because she is at one and the same time Virgin
and Mother, nor because she is Mother both of the creature and of
the Creator, but pre-eminently because she gave birth to Him Who
was the Author of her being. Mary is the wonder of wonders, and
nothing in the universe, God only excepted, is more glorious than she
is. Mary's spotless purity, her sinlessness, was first proclaimed by
God in paradise (Gen. iii. 15), and afterwards by the archangel
Gabriel (Luke i. 28). God said to the serpent, " She shall crush thy
head." Had Mary been brought under the dominion of the devil by
sin, she could not possibly have been his conqueror. Gabriel saluted
Mary as " full of grace." The dignity of Christ alone demanded
that His Mother should be entirely free from sin. When God raises
any one to a high post, He fits him for it; and the Son of God, in
choosing Mary to be His Mother, rendered her by the gifts of grace
fit for this exalted dignity (St. Thomas Aquinas). Now we know
that no one who built a house for his own use, would first put his
greatest enemy in possession of it; much less would the Holy Spirit,
Whose temple Mary was to be, allow the evil one to make her his own.
The Fathers of the Church and the children of the Church in all
ages, have given to Mary the title of immaculate both in their writ-
ings and in their prayers ; and in 1854 the Holy Father declared her
Immaculate Conception to bo a dogma of the faith. Mary was there-
fore free from original and actual sin (Council of Trent, 6, 23) ; she
is compared to a lily among thorns (Cant. ii. 2), a mirror without a
flaw (Wisd. vii. 26). She advanced in perfection rapidly and con-
tinuously, like the vine (Ecclus. xxiv. 23) that grows higher and
higher, till it attains the height of the tree to which it clings. She
The Tea Commandments of God. 325
advanced all the more rapidly, because she was so near to the source of
all grace, and was the recipient of greater and more abundant graces
than other men. Mary was the most holy and perfect of all crea-
tures; and her sanctity surpassed that of all other saints as much as
the light of the moon exceeds in brilliance that of the planets. Even
in the first moments of her existence, Mary's sanctity was greater
than that of the most eminent saints at the close of their life. On
account of her exalted sanctity»she is compared to the tower of David
(Cant. iv. 4), which rose in majestic stateliness on the highest
summit of the mountains about Jerusalem. She is also called the
mirror of justice. Of all created beings none ever loved God so in-
tensely as Mary did, or cared so little for the things of earth. As the
action of fire causes iron to glow with heat, so the Holy Spirit in-
flamed the heart of Mary with charity. On account of her great love
she is called the house of gold. Mary was adorned with every virtue.
She is the mystical rose, for as the rose surpasses all other flowers
in the beauty of its coloring and the fragrance of its perfume, so
Mary exceeds all the saints in the magnitude of her love for God,
and the sweet odor of her virtues. She is the Queen of whom the
Psalmist speaks (Ps. xliv. 11), clad in the golden garments of charity,
surrounded by a variety of virtues.' " Thus," Suarez declares, " she
was dearer to God than all the other saints together." The body of
the Blessed Virgin was assumed gloriously into Leaven. It is said
that the apostle Thomas, having arrived in Jerusalem too late to
assist at her interment, was desirous to see her remains in the
sepulchre; but when it was opened nothing was found there but the
grave-clothes in which her body had been wrapped. Catherine Em-
merich in her visions asserts that Our Blessed Lady died forty-eight
years after the birth of Christ, at the age of sixty-four. Having
gone from Ephesus to Jerusalem to follow again the footsteps of her
Son in the way of the cross, she fell mortally sick and died of grief :
hence her tomb was in Jerusalem. The feast of her Assumption is
kept throughout the whole Church on the fifteenth of August. ~No
one has ever claimed to possess a relic of her body. Mary shines in
heaven with unrivalled splendor. The sun, moon, and stars of our
solar system are symbols of Christ, His Mother and the saints. Mary
is the Queen of angels, the Queen of all saints. In her more than
in any other creature we gain a knowledge of the divine attributes.
Most especially we see displayed in her glorious exaltation the
infinite goodness of God, Who raises the poor man from the dunghill,
that He may set him with princes and elevate him above the choirs of
celestial spirits (Ps. cxii. 7, 8).
3. Finally, we entertain this great veneration for Mary, be-
cause her intercession is more powerful with God than that of any
other saint.
Mary's intercession has immense power with God. On earth her
petitions were all-prevailing with Christ, as at the marriage-feast
at Cana. And if Christ granted all His Mother's prayers on earth,
how much the more will He do so in heaven. When the General
Coriolanus could not be prevailed upon by the Senate and priest- of
Home to withdraw his army from before the city, he yielded to the
entreaties of his mother Veturia, although he knew that to do so
326 The Commandments.
would cost him liis life. How much the more will Christ, the great
Lawgiver, listen to the supplications of His Mother ! If the prayers
of the saints, His servants, have so much power with God, what
must those of His Mother have ! Being the prayers of a mother, they
are less like a petition than a command. St. Bernard declares Mary
to be omnipotent by means of her intercession; there is nothing that
she cannot obtain for us. As at the court of an earthly monarch
he is sure to succeed for whom the queen interests herself, so at
the court of the King of kings those for whom Mary, the Queen of
heaven, pleads, will not be disappointed of their desires. Thus Mary
is our hope; because through her intercession we hope to procure
the blessings which our poor prayers cannot obtain. Hence the
saints speak of her as the dispenser of graces, for all the favors we
receive from heaven come to us through her hands. " God," St.
Peter Damian says, " would not become man until Mary had given
her consent, in order that we might see that the salvation of man-
kind rested in her hands." She stood beneath the cross that we
might know that without her mediation no one could be made par-
taker of the merits of the blood of Christ. God the Father sanctions,
Christ grants, and Mary distributes the gifts of heaven to man-
kind. Thus Mary is the Mother of divine grace. No prayer she
proffers is unanswered. " Who can doubt," exclaims St. Bernard,
" that the Son will listen to His Mother — such a Son to such a
Mother ! " Remember how the same saint declares in the Memorare
that it is a thing unheard of for any one to implore Mary's aid, and
implore in vain. Even the least and shortest prayer to Mary does not
go unrecompensed ; she rewards the slightest intentions with the rich-
est graces. Every time we salute her she does not fail to return our
greeting. She is the Virgin most clement. There is not a trace of
sternness about her; she is all clemency, loving kindness and gentle-
ness. He would be wrong indeed who approached her with trem-
bling.
From time immemorial Christians have been accustomed to
have recourse to Mary in times of affliction and distress.
In the, year 1683, when the Turks besieged Vienna, both in the
beleaguered city and throughout Christendom the Rosary was re-
cited to implore the aid of the Mother of God, and a signal victory
was the result. Individual Christians also appeal to Mary for aid
when private troubles press heavily upon them. She is called the
Help of Christians, the Comforter of the afflicted, the Health of the
sick. Christians call upon her in seasons of severe sickness. It is
recorded of St. John Damascene, that when the caliph, enraged with
him for having written in defence of the veneration of images,
caused his right hand to be struck off, the saint prostrated himself
before a statue of Our Lady, and was immediately healed. In the
present dnv how numerous are the miraculous cures effected at
Lourdes! To Mary also is due the conversion of many sinners who
desire to amend their lives, for upon those who invoke her the light
of the Holy Spirit is shed. Mary is the morning star; as that planet
heralds the sunrise, so devotion to Mary is the forerunner of divine
grace, the gracious influence of the Holv Ghost. She is compared
to the dawn (Cant. vi. 9), because as the shades of night vanish
The Ten Commandments of God. 327
before the rising sun, so sin departs from the soul that is devoted to
Mary. The month of May is dedicated to her, because nature then
awakens to a new life, and devotion to Mary brings fresh life to the
soul dead in sin. Witness the miraculous conversion of the public
sinner, Mary of Egypt, before an image of Our Lady in the Church
of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. Mary is ever desirous to effect our
reconciliation with God, far more so than any earthly mother could
be to establish peace between two members of her family who were at
enmity with each other. Through her intercession Our Lord's anger
is easily appeased. Alexander the Great once said : " A single tear
from my mother's eyes will blot out many death-warrants." If a
man, and a heathen to boot, will speak thus of his mother, what may
we not expect from the divine Son of Mary? She is the Refuge of
sinners; the Mother of mercy; from her as from an olive tree to
which she is likened (Eccles. xxiv. 19), the softening oil of mercy
flows. She is our mediatrix ; to her we fly in temptation ; as the Jews
on their entrance into the Promised Land (Numb. x. 35), and in their
wars with the Philistines (1 Kings xiv.) carried with them the ark
of the Lord to insure victory, so through Mary, the Ark of the Cov-
enant of the New Testament, are we enabled to conquer our spiritual
foes. As the star guides the mariner, tossing on the stormy sea, to
a safe haven, so Mary guides us over the tempestuous ocean of life
to the celestial port. She is compared in Holy Scripture to a plane-
tree in the streets (Eccles. xxiv. 19), because as the tree protects
the wayfarer from sun and rain, so Mary defends those who place
themselves under her care from the assaults of the devil. To the
enemy of mankind she is "terrible as an army set in array" (Cant.
vi. 3). Various titles are given to Mary to indicate the circum-
stances in which we may invoke her aid and trust in her succor,
such as : Mother of perpetual succor, Mother of good counsel, Mother
of dolors, etc.
Devotion to the Mother of God is an excellent means of at-
taining sanctity" here below and eternal happiness hereafter.
No one can fail to observe the filial affection and devotion which
all the saints have displayed towards the Mother of God, and the
signal success with which God has rewarded this devotion on their
part. Among the most prominent of these was St. Bernard of Clair-
vaux, and in later times St. Alphonsus Liguori, the author of the
" Glories of Mary." Mary is the gate of heaven ; a ladder connecting
heaven and earth, by which the Lord of heaven came down to us, and
by which we may ascend up to God. St. Alphonsus declares it to be
his persuasion that hell cannot boast of containing one single soul
who ever had a true and heartfelt devotion to Mary. St. Bernard
asserts that those who honor her daily will assuredly be saved. St.
Erancis Borgia always feared for the salvation of that soul which
had little or no devotion for the Mother of God.
6. THE VENERATION OF IMAGES OF THE SAINTS.
The veneration of sacred pictures and images is as old as Chris-
tianity itself. In the Catacombs representations are found of Christ,
of the Mother of God with the divine Child, and of biblical scenes
:>28 TIip Commandments.
from the Old or New Testament, calculated to strengthen the Chris-
tians in times of persecution, by reminding them of God's omnipo-
tence and of a future resurrection. With the spread of Christianity
the veneration paid to images increased. Pictures, statues, and
crosses, were seen not in the churches alone, but on the market-place
and highways. In the eighth century the Emperor of the East pro-
hibited the veneration of images; the figures of the saints were
broken to pieces or burned, the paintings on the walls of the
churches were whitewashed over, and any persons who persisted in
venerating images were punished (this was called the iconoclastic
movement). The veneration of images answers to a need of our
human nature ; we respect the portraits of those whom we love or
esteem; moreover it is the will of God that man, who lost true hap-
piness for the sake of material things, should regain it by means of
material things. The Jews were strictly forbidden to make images
or bow down to them (Exod. xx. 4), because they had a strong propen-
sity towards idolatry, and the Son of God had not then become man.
In spite of this prohibition there were two golden cherubim, one on
each side of the propitiatory in the Holy of holies (Exod. xxv. 18),
and we also read of a brazen serpent in the wilderness, whereon the
Israelites were commanded to look that they might be healed (Numb,
xxi. 8).
By sacred pictures or statues are meant representations of
Christ, of the saints, or of the truths of religion.
The manner in which Our Lord is ordinarily depicted is familiar
to all of us; the expression of His countenance is grave and benign,
His eyes are blue, His hair is of a ruddy brown, curling and parted
in the middle, His beard is short, and a burning heart is often
placed upon His breast. The Mother of God is represented in various
ways : as Help of Christians she holds the divine Child in her arms ;
as Mother of dolors, the dead Christ is laid across her knees ; as Our
Lady of the Immaculate Conception she is as she appeared at
Lourdes, in a white robe, without her Infant Son ; as Queen of
heaven (Apoc. xii. 1) with her head encircled with twelve stars and
the moon beneath her feet. The most celebrated and well-known
pictures of, the Mother of God are: (1) The painting in the Church
of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, supposed to be the work of St.
Luke; (2) The Madonna di San Sisto, painted by Rafael; (3) The
miraculous picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succor, painted upon
wood, and dating from the thirteenth century, in the Church of St.
Alphonsus in Rome. The representations of the saints are easily
recognized; they have a nimbus round their head, and are accom-
panied by emblems either of their office, of the special virtue that
distinguished them, or by the instruments wherewith they suffered
martyrdom. The four Evangelists are known by their symbols: St.
Matthew has an angel in human shape beside him, because his gospel
begins with the genealogy of Our Lord ; St. Mark has a lion, because
he speaks in the opening chapter of a voice crying in the wilderness ;
St. Luke is accompanied by an. ox, because he begins with Zacharias'
sacrifice; St. John by an eagle, because his gospel begins with
sublime and lofty truths. We also call those sacred pictures which
portray some grent truth, such as the doctrine of the Holy Trinity,
The Ten Commandments of (rod. 329
or purgatory ; or some event recorded in Holy Scripture. The three
divine persons are represented under the form they have assumed
when appearing- to men. But all delineations of the Godhead do no
more than give an idea of certain attributes or actions of the Deity,
for it is not within the power of man to make an image of God.
Pictures or statues of saints, by means of which or before
which miracles have been worked, are called miraculous images.
There are a great many places of pilgrimage on the continent of
Europe where an image of Our Lady is to be seen, by means of which
extraordinary favors and graces have been and are obtained. Among
these Einsiedeln in Switzerland, Alt-Otting in Bavaria, Kevelaer
in the Rhineland may be mentioned. It is also well known that
many cures have been effected through devotion to the Infant Jesus
of Prague (a wax statue in the church of the Carmelites in that
city), especially at the time of the pestilence in 1713. The Empress
Maria Teresa had a great veneration for that image; she worked a
robe for it with her own hands, richly embroidered with gold. Many
of these miraculous images have been preserved from destruction in
a marvellous manner ; they have, for instance, been in the fire without
being burned. Many signal cures have been wrought in a moment,
in answer to prayers offered before them. Such miracles are per-
mitted by God as an attestation to the truth of the Catholic Church,
and it would be a sin on the part of any Catholic to deny their
authenticity. A strict investigation is made of these miracles by
the Holy See, and then the statue of the saint is crowned.
Above all representations of the saints or of holy things, we
venerate the cross of Our Redeemer.
There ought not to be a single church, or altar, or cemetery, with-
out a crucifix. Such is the honor in which the Church holds the
cross of Christ, that she allows no sacrament to be administered, no
Mass to be celebrated, no act of divine worship to be performed
unless in presence of the crucifix. The cross is seen on the crown of
the monarch, on the breast of the bishop, and it is awarded as a
decoration to men of merit. The cross is in the hand of the dying
Christian when he draws his last breath, and it accompanies him to
the grave. This sacred symbol ought to be found in every Christian
household; it does not speak well for the inhabitants of a house if
none but secular pictures adorn its walls.
1. We honor the images of the saints by giving them a place
in our dwellings ; we say our prayers before them, we salute them
respectfully, we adorn them with offerings, we make pilgrimages
to their shrines.
The reverence we pay to the image of a saint is not paid to the
picture or image itself, but to the individual it represents ; that is, to
Christ, or some one of the saints. When we adore the cross we adore
Him Who died thereon. By showing respect to the portrait of a
king, we testify our respect for the monarch, and disrespect mani-
fested to his portrait is a personal affront to himself. When the
book of the Gospels is kissed, it is the Word of God therein contained
330 The Commandments.
that is venerated. Thus when we kiss our parents or our children,
we express the love and fondness of our hearts, and in venerating
images, we express our love for the persons they represent. And
when incense is burned, or tapers lighted before the images, it is as a
symbol of the light of the Holy Ghost and the virtues wherewith the
saints were endowed. It is not from the images themselves that we
ask help, it is from God, through the intercession of the saints.
isTone but the heathen imagine that there is any virtue or super-
natural power in the image itself. Moses did not think that his staff
worked miracles, but God Who powerfully assisted him.
2. Through venerating the images of the saints, efficacious and
oftentimes supernatural graces are obtained; they are also useful
as a means of avoiding distractions in prayer, and affording us
a silent admonition.
St. John Damascene says that the Holy Spirit surrounds the
images of the saints with a certain halo of grace. Wherever the cross
is erected, the malicious designs of the evil one are defeated. How
often a soul sunk in sin has been touched and converted by the sight
of an image; how often have pictures comforted and encouraged
devout persons, especially at the moment of death ! While gazing
upon an image we pray with greater recollection ; images are steps
whereby we ascend more easily in spirit to heaven. And as one's
prayers, when offered at the shrine of some saint are more fervent,
so they are more readily granted; the ex-votos hung beside the image
testify to the efficacy of the saint's intercession — they are also a
constant admonition to us ; either by placing vividly before us one of
the truths of religion, or exhorting us to imitate the example of the
saint. The work of the artist does indeed often prove more in-
fluential than the words of the preacher, for the impressions we
receive through the ear have less effect upon the mind than those
which we receive through the eye. St. Gregory the Great calls
pictures the books of the unlearned. In the Middle Ages, before
there were any printed books, pictures were widely disseminated
among the people. From those times we date the crib, the sepulchre,
the stations of the cross, etc.
7. THE VENERATION OF RELICS.
The name of relic is given to the remains of the saints, as
well as to objects that have been closely connected with Christ
or the saints.
The body of a saint is a relic, or any portion of it, even the most
minute particle of bone. These relics are placed beneath or upon our
altars ; they also pass into the possession of private persons. Those
only are authentic to which the name of the saint and the episcopal
seal is attached. The relics themselves must not be sold, but this
prohibition does not apply to the case containing them. From time
immemorial those objects also which are closely connected with Our
Lord or the saints have been held in high veneration ; for instance,
the cross of Christ, His tunic, His winding-sheet, the manger wherein
The Ten Commandments of God. 331
the Infant Jesus was laid, Veronica's veil, etc. The holy cross
was discovered by the Empress Helena in the year 325, and a portion
of it is in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. A part
of the manger is in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
The seamless coat of Our Lord is in the Cathedral of Treves. (In
1891 it was exposed for six weeks, and two thousand of the faithful
came to adore it. During that period eleven authentic cases of
miraculous cure took place.) At Argenteuil, near Paris, another
garment worn by Our Lord when a child is preserved; it was pre-
sented by Charlemagne to the church. The holy winding-sheet is in
Turin; Veronica's veil is in St. Peter's at Pome. Several other
important relics are preserved in the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle.
The whole of Palestine is to the Christian a sacred and precious
relic; the seven crusades undertaken to recover it from the Saracens
prove how much it was valued in the Middle Ages. The principal
holy places are : The place of crucifixion and the sepulchre on Mount
Calvary; the scene of Our Lord's agony and the spot whence He
ascended on Mount Olivet ; the cenacle on Mount Sion, His birthplace
at Bethlehem and the holy house of Nazareth, now at Loretto. At
all these places churches were erected, mostly by the Emperor Con-
stantine, or his mother, St. Helena. The garments worn by martyrs
and the instruments of their execution, the spots where eminent
saints were born or are buried, have always been held in veneration.
It was formerly the custom to erect churches and altars for the cele-
bration of divine worship over places thus hallowed, especially where
the saints are interred.
Relics are deserving of veneration for this reason, because
the bodies of the saints were temples of the Holy Ghost, and
instruments whereby He worked; and they will rise glorious
from the grave.
The Jews regarded a dead body as an unclean thing, but the Chris-
tian looks upon it with respect, as having been the dwelling-place
of the Holy Ghost, and as being the seed whence the immortal, glori-
fied body will spring at the resurrection. Moreover, as St. Jerome re-
marks, by honoring the saints, we adore Him for Whom they died.
God Himself shows 'them honor, for by their medium He works mir-
acles. Many bodies, or portions of the bodies of saints still remain
incorrupt and supple, as that of St. Teresa, or St. Francis Xavier;
some emit a delicious fragrance; from others an oil distils possessed
of healing properties. " God," says St. John Chrysostom, " has divided
the possession of the saints between Himself and us; He has taken
their souls to Himself, and has left their bodies for us."
1. We honor the relics of the saints by preserving them with
reverence, and visiting the spot where they are deposited.
Even among the Jews relics were regarded with reverence. At
the exit from Egypt Moses took Joseph's bones with him (Exod. xiii.
19). The early Christians also had great respect for relics. When
St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was torn to pieces by lions, two of
his companions came by night and gathered up his bones, carrying
them to Antioch. When St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, was burner!
332 The Commandments.
alive, the Christians collected his ashes, valuing them more than
jewels. At an early date it was customary to erect chapels or altars
above the tombs of martyrs, and offer the holy sacrifice over their re-
mains. Relics are usually enclosed in costly reliquaries, richly dec-
orated. It is out of respect for the dead that we lay wreaths on
their coffins, and deck their graves with flowers. Relics of great
value, such as the portions of the true cross, or of the manger at
Bethlehem, are encased in gold or silver; likewise some of the bodies
of the saints. From time immemorial pilgrimages have been made
to the sepulchres of the saints. For nineteen centuries the faithful
have been wont to visit the tombs of the apostles in Rome or the holy
places in Palestine. The early Christians flocked in such numbers
to the Holy Land that the places in Jerusalem were thronged with
devout worshippers. Any one who had not been thither esteemed him-
self a worse Christian than his neighbors. " We visit the sepulchres
of the saints," says St. John Chrysostom, " and prostrate ourselves
there in order to obtain some grace which we need."1
2. We obtain many blessings from God by venerating relies.
Relics are a source whence spiritual benefits come to us from
God. St. John Damascene says: "As water gushed from the rock
in the wilderness at God's command, so by His will blessings flow
from the relics of the saints." Where the remains of saints or
martyrs are interred the snares of the devil lose their potency and
obstinate maladies are healed. St. Augustine relates numerous cures
effected by the relics of St. Stephen in Africa, besides the raising from
the dead of two children. In the Old Testament we read of a dead
man restored to life on coming in contact with the bones of the
prophet Eliseus (4 Kings xiii. 21). Even in their lifetime the
bodies of the saints were instrumental in working miracles. By the
shadow of St. Peter (Acts v. 15), and by the handkerchiefs or girdles
worn by St. Paul (Acts xix. 12), the sick were delivered from their
infirmities. But it must be remembered it is not by the relics them-
selves that these miracles are wrought, but by God. Hence it is not
a superstitious act on the part of pious persons when they visit places
of pilgrimage, where God is pleased to work wonders by means of
relics or images of the saints.
8. THE EXTRAORDINARY WORSHIP OF GOD.
We can, moreover, honor God by taking an oath or by making
a vow.
To take an oath or make a vow is not an ordinary occurrence of
our lives; it is only done in peculiar, i.e., extraordinary cases. An
oath is taken when human witness or asseveration is not sufficient;
a vow is made when we voluntarily pledge ourselves to do something
for God. We honor God by an oath, because we thereby acknowledge
His omnipotence, His justice, His holiness. And by a vow we offer
Him a sacrifice, because we bind ourselves by a solemn promise to
perform a work pleasing to God.
The Ten. Commandments of God. 333
The Oath.
Cases sometimes occur in which a man will not believe the word of
another. But if a witness comes forward and affirms : " That is so,
1 myself saw it," then the speaker is more readily believed, and all the
more if the witness in question is known to be a man of honor. Now
it may occur that a man calls God to witness, that is to say, he
appeals to the omniscient God to make known the truth of what is
said by His almighty power. In this case his word will be regarded
as the word of God. As an official seal gives force to a decree, so the
oath is the seal God gives us to corroborate a statement. It is a
coin of high value, stamped with the name of the living God. Our
Lord took an oath when Caiphas adjured Him by the living God
to speak the truth. So did Esau, when he confirmed by an oath the
promise he made to relinquish his birthright for the pottage of
lentils.
1. To swear or take an oath is to call God to witness that one
is speaking the truth, or that one will keep a promise.
In swearing, a man calls either upon God or upon something he
holds sacred. If a man swears by God, he makes use of words such as
these: As the Lord liveth (Jer. iv. 2); as surely as there is a God
in heaven, God is my witness (Rom. i. 9) ; may God punish me, etc.
Or we swear by holy things, such as the holy Gospel, the cross of
Christ, the Blessed Sacrament. But as these things are incapable
of attesting anything themselves, or of punishing a deceiver, it is in
fact equivalent to calling God to witness. Our Lord Himself speaks
cf swearing by the Temple, by heaven, or by the throne of God
(]\Iatt. xxiii. 21, 22). But to use such expressions as: Upon my word,
by my honor, as surely as I stand here, etc., is merely emphasizing
an assertion, not swearing. An oath may be simple or solemn. A
simple oath is between man and man in ordinary intercourse; a
solemn oath is taken in a court of law or in presence of official per-
sonages. (An oath is administered to soldiers and officers of state.)
In taking a solemn oath one is required to kiss the Holy Scriptures,
or a crucifix, and to say: So help me God, to intimate that if he de-
parts from the truth, he renounces the divine assistance and the
blessings promised in the Gospels. Jews and Mohammedans have
their own peculiar ceremonial; the latter raise one finger to show
their belief in one God.
2. Christians are not obliged to refuse to take an oath, for
it is permitted by God, and pleasing in His sight.
- If swearing were forbidden Christ would not have made use of an
oath (Matt. xxvi. 64), nor would God have sworn to Abraham on
Mount Moriah that He would multiply his seed as the stars in heaven
and as the sand by the seashore (Gen. xxii. 16) ; nor would St. Paul
so frequently have taken God to witness in his epistles (Rom. i. 9;
2 Cor. i. 23). The oath has besides a good object; it serves to put
an end to disoutes (Ileb. vi. 16). It is releasing to God, because by it
we make public profession of faith in His omnipotence, His justice,
His omniscience, and thus we honor Him. On this account atheists
334 The Commandments.
and social democrats cannot be induced to take an oath. It is God's
will that we confirm our word with an oath, when necessary (Exod.
xxii. 11). When Our Lord said: "Let your speech be yea, yea, no,
no, and that which is over and above these is of evil" (Matt. v. 37),
He meant to warn the Pharisees against the habit to which they were
addicted of using idle, unnecessary oaths. Catholics need not refuse
to take an oath, as some sectaries do ; however, no one ought to be
compelled to do so. Any one who forces a man to swear when he
knows he will swear falsely, is in some way worse than a murderer;
for the murderer only kills the body, whereas he who makes another
swear falsely, causes the death of a soul, nay, of two souls, his
neighbor's soul and his own also, for he 'is responsible for the other's
death.
3. We ought therefore to make use of an oath only when it
is absolutely necessary, with deliberation, and in the interests
of truth and justice.
When Christ says the oath is of evil (Matt. v. 37), He intends to
signify that it is occasioned by man's evil tendencies, and that rash
oaths are sinful. Had mankind not fallen from its original state
of integrity and justice, there would have been no need for the oath;
but since faith and fidelity have vanished, recourse has been had to
it. Not until evil prevailed everywhere did swearing become an ordi-
nary practice ; when by reason of the general perfidy and corruption
no man's word could be relied on, then God was called to witness.
St. Augustine compares the oath to a medicine, which must not be
taken without good reason ; it is to a man's words what the crutch
is to the cripple. Consequently it is wrong to swear heed-e:sly, about
trifling matters, as salesmen often do about their wares. Frequent
swearing is apt to lead to false swearing. " A man that sweareth
much shall be filled with iniquity, and a scourge shall not depart
from his house" (Ecclus. xxiii. 12). Wherefore we must make use
of an oath as seldom as possible, unless it is required of us by the
Government or in a court of law. Our oath must always be true;
that is to say, when on our oath, we must always say what we really
believe to be true, and we must have the intention of keeping our
word. The Roman general Regulus (250 B.C.) affords a fine instance
of this. He was taken prisoner in war by the Carthaginians, and
after being kept six years in captivity, he was sent to Rome to sue for
peace. Before leaving the Carthaginian camp, a solemn oath was ad-
ministered to him to return thither, provided the Romans would not
conclude peace. On arriving in Rome he informed the Senate of the
enemy's weakness, and urged them to pursue the war. Then he re-
turned to prison, although every one in Rome, even the pagan high
priest, spared no effort to detain him. St. Peter, on the contrary,
swore falsely in the outer court of the high priest's palace (Matt.
xxvi. 72). Blessed Thomas More, the High Chancellor of England,
was thrown into prison by Henry VIII. , because he would not concur
in the hostile attitude that monarch assumed towards the Catholic
Church. He might have purchased his release merely by swearing
to conform to what his sovereign decreed. He was advised to do this,
mentally applying the words to God, his supreme Sovereign and
Lord. But he would not consent, saying he dared not swear falsely.
The Ten Commandments of God. 335
It is possible, however, that one may swear under a misapprehension,
or one may be prevented by illness or misadventure, or some other
sufficient cause, from fulfilling a promise made under an oath; in
that case no guilt is incurred. Our oath must be premeditated ; that
is, we must consider wTell beforehand whether our statement is
strictly true, or whether we shall be able to accomplish what we
promise. King Herod at the feast swore rashly, for he promised with
an oath to give the damsel who danced before him whatever she should
ask. At her mother's instigation she asked the head of John the
Baptist (Mark vi. 23). We read that forty Jews, in their enmity to
St. Paul, swore neither to eat nor drink until they had killed him
(Acts xxiii. 12). In the present day Freemasons bind themselves
by oath not to express any desire to receive the last sacraments
on their death-bed. Such oaths are sinful, and highly displeasing
to God.
4. He who swears falsely, commits a grave act of blasphemy,
and draws down upon himself the curse of God and the penalty
of eternal perdition.
False swearing is also called perjury. He who swears falsely,
who confirms by oath a statement he knows to be untrue, or who
swears to do something, although he is conscious that he cannot fulfil
his promise, is like a man who stamps a forged document with an
official seal, an act which cannot escape punishment. Swearing
falsely is a mortal sin, whatever be the subject of the oath. The
curse of God rests upon the house of him who swears falsely (Zach.
v. 3). God often punishes false swearers by a speedy and sudden
death. Sedecias, the King of Judah, swore fealty to Nabuchodo-
nosor and broke his covenant. Forthwith God announced to him by
the lips of the prophet Ezechiel that he should meet with severe
chastisement and die in Babylon (Ezech. xvii.), and in fact Nabu-
chodonosor took the king captive, put out his eyes, and brought him
to Babylon, where he died (4 Kings xxv. 7) . Wladislas, King of Hun-
gary, concluded peace with the Turkish Sultan Murad II., and con-
firmed the treaty with an oath, yet he resumed hostilities against
him. He fell in the battle of Warna (1444) with all the flower of his
nobility. Perjury is punishable by the law with imprisonment. The
Emperor Charlemagne made it a law that all who were convicted of
swearing falsely should have their right hand cut off; later on three
fingers only of the right hand, wherewith they took the oath, were
struck off. Eash swearing is at the least a venial sin; it is a bad
habit, and he who is always ready to confirm every statement,
whether true or false, by an oath, lives, if he knows the value of his
words, in a state of mortal sin. If a man has sworn wrongfully, he
must not keep his oath, but deplore it. That is what Herod ought to
have done. With regard to breaking an oath, that is to say, the non-
fulfilment of a promise made under oath, it may be either a venial or
a mortal sin, according as the matter concerned is weighty or not.
The same is true of a vow (Suarez).
336 The Commandm /its.
The Vow (Solemn Promise).
1. A vow is a promise voluntarily made to God, to perform
some good action.
The vow is a promise made to God. We call upon God implicitly,
if not explicitly when we say : My God, I promise that I will do this or
that. A simple intention is not a vow; no one, not even God Him-
self, can require anything of us because of it. A vow is a promise
made of our own free will : no one is bound to make it (Deut. xxiii.
22), and no one can be compelled to make it. A vow made under
compulsion is invalid ; not so one made under apprehension of danger,
or stress of want, for then the act is voluntary. We must only prom-
ise what will be pleasing to God; not anything wrong, as did Jephte
who, before going to battle, vowed to the Lord that if he was vic-
torious, he would offer as a holocaust whosoever should first come out
of the doors of his house. His only daughter came to meet him, and
she was sacrificed (Judges xi.). Such a vow is foolish and displeas-
ing to God (Eccles. v. 3), and ought not to be accomplished.
Usually something is promised which is not of obligation, a pilgrim-
age, for instance; but one may also promise something which one is
otherwise obliged to do, e.g., to observe the fasts of the Church, to
keep the holydays, to be temperate in eating and drinking. In this
case failure to keep one's promise is a twofold sin. The owner of a
factory, whose only child was dangerously ill, promised before God
if she recovered, that he would never have work done on Sundays
and holydays. She got well and he kept his word. He was then
doubly bound to observe the holydays.
Vows are sometimes accompanied by a condition.
A kind of bargain is made with God. Jacob promised to give
tithes of his possessions to God provided He brought him back
prosperously to his father's house (Gen. xxviii. 20-22). The proces-
sions on the Rogation days originated through a vow made about the
year 500 by St. Mamertus, Bishop of Vienna, in time of famine;
and about a century later the procession on St. Mark's Day was
instituted in consequence of a vow made by Pope Gregory the Great
while the plague was raging. The inhabitants of Ober-Ammergau
pledged themselves to perform the Passion play every ten years in
1633, at the time of an epidemic. St. Louis of France promised, if
he recovered from a severe illness, to undertake a crusade (1248).
In the present day many persons promise, in illness or affliction, to
visit some place of pilgrimage, to make an offering to some church,
to give a statue, to fast on certain days, etc. The celebrated sanc-
tuary of Maria-Zell, which attracts so many pilgrims, is due to a vow
made before a battle with the Turks by King Louis I. of Hungary.
(1363).
2. The most important vows are the religious vows, that is to
say the solemn promise made voluntarily by persons entering a
religious Order, to follow the evangelical counsels.
Poverty, chastity, and obedience, are the three vows taken by
The Ten Commandments of God. 337
Keligious. They are very useful, for by them a man entirely gives up
the world, in order to serve God better. These vows are most pleas-
ing to God, for those who take them consecrate not only all they do,
but their ownselves to God. As St. Anselm says, he who gives the
tree gives more than he who only gives the fruit of the tree. Many
persons offer oblations to God; a vestment, for instance, candles or
flowers; but a better, more perfect oblation is to give one's self to
God. The vows of religion are either solemn (so called because the
obligations incurred are greater), or simple vows. Solemn vows are
those in which there is an irrevocable consecration of one's self ac-
cepted by the Church, on the part of one who takes them. What is
consecrated to God can never again be employed for secular purposes ;
with that which is simply dedicated it is otherwise. Thus any one
who takes the solemn vows is irrevocably consecrated to the service
of God. The Pope alone can release from solemn vows, and that
only for weighty reasons. Before taking the solemn vows, i.e., being
professed, it is necessary to have spent a year in the novitiate, and
have been under the simple vows for at least three years (Pius IX.,
March 19, 1857). Bishops, or the superior-general of an Order can
generally release from the simple vows, and for a less grave cause.
3. A vow renders the good action which we pledge ourselves
to perform more acceptable to God. Consequently by means of
a vow we obtain a more speedy answer to prayer, and make
more rapid progress in the w^ay of perfection.
By a vow we prove our fidelity to God. We also make an offering
to God because we thereby bind ourselves to the performance of a
good work. Thus, for instance, one who fasts in fulfilment of a vow
performs a more perfect action than he who fasts without a vow.
Hence it is that the prayers of those who make vows are more speed-
ily granted. After the inhabitants of Ober-Ammergau had made the
promise already mentioned, not one more fell a victim to the pesti-
-lence. The pious Anna made a vow to the Lord, when she prayed
that a son might be granted to her, and she became the mother of
the great prophet Samuel (1 Kings i. 11). Why do we see so many
ex-votos in places of pilgrimage, so many votive offerings in
churches? Vows enable us to attain more quickly to perfection (St.
Francis of Sales). ' We thereby gain strength in the practice of vir-
tue, because our will is fortified by the vow. The thought : I have
promised my God to do this, is a powerful incentive to the perform-
ance of good actions. Many persons of great sanctity have taken
vows, as a useful restraint to keep themselves in the fear of God. We
may obtain special graces from God by pledging ourselves to make
novenas in honor of the saints, to be particularly devout to the
Mother of God during the month of May or of October, to perform
certain mortifications or good works.
4. He who does not keep a solemn promise, offends against
God; and so does he who needlessly postpones the fulfilment of
his promise (Exod. xxiii. 21).
If we are bound to keep our word to our fellow-creatures, how
much the more ought we to fulfil the promise made to God, " It is
338 Tue Commandments.
much better not to vow, than after a vow not to perform the things
promised" (Eccles. v. 4). The debtor is compelled by the law of
the land to pay his debts, and can it be supposed that he will go scot
free who withholds from God what is His due? The non-fulfilment
of a vow may be either a venial or a mortal sin, according to the
importance of the matter in question. The guilt is doubled, if at the
same time we transgress a command and show disrespect to God,
as for instance by violating a vow of chastity. If we are unable to
fulfil a promise we are exempt from blame, provided we do our
utmost to perform the thing promised.
5. Therefore any one who is desirous of taking a vow, ought
to consider well beforehand whether he will be able to keep his
word.
A man who wishes to build, first makes an estimate of the cost,
to see whether his means will allow him to complete the structure
(Luke xiv. 28). No one ought to make a promise for his whole life,
without first testing his ability to keep it. St. Francis of Sales made
a vow to say the Rosary every day of his life; he often regretted
having been so hasty in that promise. In any serious matter it is
advisable to consult an experienced priest. For this reason the
Church has made the rule that every one who wishes to take the
vows of religion, should have a twelve months' noviceship. During
that time he can make up his mind as to whether he has a real
vocation to the religious life. If he takes the vows without feeling
certain about his vocation he has only himself to blame.
6. A Religious who finds himself unable to keep his vows
must apply to his Superior to be released from them or have
them commuted.
Our Lord said to His apostles : " Whatsoever you shall loose on
earth shall be loosed also in heaven" (Matt, xviii. 18). Hence the
bishop or other superior is authorized to absolve from vows. The
vow is usually commuted for some good work more conducive to the
spiritual weal of the individual. There are five vows from which the
Holy Father alone can dispense : The vow to enter a religious Order ;
the vow of lifelong chastity ; the vow to visit the tombs of the apostles
in Rome; and the vows to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (the holy
places) or to Compostella (the tomb of St. James). Under certain
circumstances the bishop also has power to dispense from these
vows : If they have been made conditionally ; under some measure of
compulsion; without mature deliberation, or in ignorance of what
they involved. In a time of jubilee every confessor has power to
commute vows for some good work of another nature. One may
always do more than one has promised: God will not be displeased,
any more than an ordinary creditor, if He is paid more than what is
due to Him.
Tftc Ten Commandments of God. 339
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
The Second Commandment is this : " Thou shalt not take the
name of the Lord thy God in vain ; " that is to say, thou shalt not
utter it without reverence. By the name of God is not meant the
mere word alone, but the majesty appertaining to the Most High.
We owe reverence to almighty God because He is a Lord of
infinite majesty, and of infinite bounty.
Reverence is a mixture of fear, love, and esteem. If it was said
of a monarch that he had many millions of subjects, that he had
an army of a hundred thousand warriors who could take the field at
his command, that by a word from his lips he could make the happi-
ness or misery of multitudes, you would fear that monarch. But if
you were told of his goodness, his endeavors to promote the welfare of
his subjects, you would love and esteem him. So will you feel towards
God, if you contemplate His infinite perfections and His great love
towards man. Consider the perfections of God ! There are upon
earth some fifteen hundred millions of human beings; each one of
these God knows, preserves, guides. He hears their prayers, He helps
them in their necessities ; He rewards or punishes them for the most
part here below. How vast is the knowledge of this supreme Being !
Millions of orbs revolve in space; God has created them all, He main-
tains them all, He gives them all motion. How boundless is His
power ! Think of the unseen world alone, peopled by millions of
celestial spirits ; He knows each one, He preserves each one in exist-
ence, He guides and directs each one, and by each and all He is
adored. How great is His majesty ! " Who is like to Thee among the
strong, O Lord ? Who is like to Thee, glorious in holiness, terrible and
praiseworthy, doing wonders?" (Exod. xv. 11.) On account of the
great majesty of God we should fear Him, and should love Him by
reason of His infinite goodness. Fear and love are the component
parts of reverence.
1. In the Second Commandment God commands us in the first
place to show due respect to His divine majesty. This we must
do in the following manner:
We should frequently call upon the name of God with true
and heartfelt devotion, especially at the commencement of all we
do and in time of trouble.
Newton, the great astronomer, had the deepest respect for the
name of God; he uncovered his head and bowed low whenever it was
uttered in his presence. Many devout Christians bow their head
when they pronounce the name of Jesus in prayer ; the priest does so
in celebrating Mass. St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who when a
child is said to have been he whom Our Lord set in the midst of the
disciples, at the time that He said " Whosoever shall humble himself
as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven "
(Matt, xviii. 4), loved to repeat the name of Jesus; shortly before
his death he said : " This name shall never leave my lips or be effaced
from my heart." And, in fact, after his martyrdom, the holy name
340 The Commandments.
was found inscribed on his heart. In the Litany of the Holy Name
we invoke the name of Jesus again and again, because it is the most
powerful of all names, and through it we can obtain all we need. " If
you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you "
(John xvi. 23). By the name of Jesus the apostles and saints worked
miracles ; St. Peter said to the lame man at the gate of the Temple :
"In the name of Jesus Christ arise and walk" (Acts iii. 6). Christ
promised that in His name devils should be cast out (Mark xvi. 17).
The devils tremble at the name of Jesus; they take flight when they
hear it, even when it is uttered by evil men, so great is its potency.
The name of Jesus is also all-powerful to fill the heart with joy;
it is compared to oil (Cant. i. 2) ; as oil gives light, alleviates pain,
and affords nourishment, so does the name of Jesus, when we call
upon it. St. Vincent Ferrer declares it to be a defence in all dangers
spiritual and temporal, and the means of healing bodily infirmities.
All graces are combined in this holy name : " There is no other name
under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved " (Acts iv. 12).
" At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in
heaven, on earth, and under the earth" (Phil. ii. 10). An indulgence
of twenty-five days is granted for each invocation of this holy name,
and a plenary at the hour of death for those who have frequently
invoked it during life (Clement XIIL, Sept. 5, 1759). To pro-
nounce this name is indispensable for obtaining the indulgence at the
hour of death. Would that every Christian could say with St. Ber-
nard : " The name of Jesus is honey to the taste, melody to the ear,
joy to the heart." No one who clings to mortal sin can devoutly call
on this name : " No man can say the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy
Ghost" (1 Cor. xii. 3). In beginning every wish, before every action
however insignificant, we should call on the name of God, or make
the sign of the cross, with the usual words : " All whatsoever you do,
in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ "
(Col. iii. 17). Thus we shall merit the divine blessing, and earn a
reward for every action ; Our Lord promises that any one who gives
to another a cup of cold water in His name shall not be unrewarded
(Mark ix. 40). We should also call upon the name of God in the. time
of trouble ; Lie has said : " Call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will
deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me" (Ps. xlix. 15). In the year
1683 the Christians obtained a brilliant victory over the Turks; their
battle-cry was the names of Jesus and Mary. In the hour of death
above all we should breathe the name of Jesus; like St. Stephen
whose last words were: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts vii.
58.)
2. We ought to show respect for all that appertains to divine
worship; more especially for the servants of God, for holy places,
sacred things, and religious ceremonies.
We ought to show respect for the ministers of God. In this Count
Rudolph of Llapsburg set an excellent example. One day when out
hunting he met a priest carrying the Blessed Sacrament to the sick.
Instantly ho dismounted, and offered bis horse to the priest. And
when the latter on his return, gave bnck the horse to the count, ho
would not take it, saying it must thenceforth be devoted to the
service of the sanctuary. The priest predicted that good fortune and
The Ten Commandments of God. 341
happiness would attend his career, and so it did; nine years later
Kudolph was elected emperor. Our Lord bids us reverence His
priests ; He says : " He that despiseth you, despiseth Me " (Luke x.
16). " Touch not My anointed " (1 Par. xvi. 22). St. John Chrysostom
says that the honor shown to the priest is shown to God Himself.
God also requires us to show respect to holy places and things. When
He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and Moses approached
somewhat near, He said to Him : " Come not nigh hither ; put off
the shoes from thy feet ; for the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground" (Exod. iii. 5). Under the Old Dispensation the people
were strictly forbidden to touch the Ark of the Covenant (Numb.
iv. 15). "Reverence My sanctuary" (Lev. xxvi. 2). Enter into the
house of God as if you were entering into heaven, and leave behind
you all that savors of earth. " Holiness becometh Thy house, O
Lord! " (Ps. xcii. 5.) We should also manifest respect for all relig-
ious services. St. Elizabeth of Hungary removed her crown from her
head whenever she heard Mass. Out of respect for the Gospel we
stand up when it is read, and we preserve a grave demeanor when we
approach the sacraments.
3. We ought frequently to praise and magnify almighty God
on account of His infinite perfections and goodness, especially
when He reveals His perfections in a special manner, or confers
a benefit upon us.
The three children in the fiery furnace sang a canticle of praise
when God preserved them from being hurt by the flames (Dan. iii.).
When Tobias recovered his sight, he immediately blessed the Lord
(Tob. xi. 17). Remember the Magnificat, the song of praise uttered
by the Mother of God, and* the Benedictus, the canticle of thanks-
giving pronounced by Zacharias on his cure (Luke i.). Whenever
you receive any favor from God, say: Deo gratias, "Thanks be to
God," or Glory be to the Father, etc., and frequently repeat the salu-
tation : " Let Jesus Christ be praised ! " In some parts of Germany and
Switzerland, this pious greeting takes the place of the good morning,
or good day, in use among us. And if you are prevented by infirmi-
ties from praising God with your lips, at any rate praise Him in
your heart ; for God, Who hears not as we hear, requires not audible
sound; He reads the heart, and is content with our good will. " Bless
the Lord, O my s'oul, and let all that is within me bless His holy
name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all He hath
done for thee" (Ps. cii. 1). "I will bless the Lord at all times; His
praise shall be always in my mouth " (Ps. xxxiii. 2). " Blessed be the
name of the Lord, from henceforth now and forever. From the rising
of the sun unto the going down of the same, the name of the Lord
is worthy of praise" (Ps. cxii. 2, 3). In praising God, we do the
best for ourselves, for thereby we draw down upon ourselves the divine
blessings in great abundance.
4. Furthermore, God prohibits everything which is a violation
of the reverence due to His divine majesty; and in particular:
Taking the name of God in vain.
Many people have the habit of thoughtlessly exclaiming at every
trifle that surprises them: "Good Lord! My God!" and the like.
342 The Commandments.
It is a bad habit; correct yourselves of it, and endeavor to correct
others also, as it shows a want of due reverence for the name of God.
Those who truly love God cannot stand by unmoved and hear His holy
name profaned. This careless, flippant use of the name of God or
of any other sacred name is at least a venial sin. " Let not the
naming- of God be usual in thy mouth, for thou shalt not escape free
from sin" (Ecclus. xxiii. 10). "The Lord will not hold him guilt-
less that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain " (Exod. xx.
7). "We take good care," says St. John Chrysostom, "not to wear
out our best clothes by putting them on every day; so we must
beware lest we thoughtlessly utter the name of God, which is worthy
of our profoundest reverence." The Jews did not venture to pro-
nounce the word Jehovah ; they always spoke of " The Lord."
5. Swearing. By this is meant the use of holy names in a
moment of anger as an imprecation against certain persons or
things.
For instance parents, when angry, wish ill to their children, using
the name of God or of heaven; workmen call down evil on the tools
they employ. Out of the mouth of a Christian none but blessings
should proceed (1 Pet. iii. 9). Should the same mouth wherewith we
pray, wherewith we receive the sacred body of the Lord, be employed
to curse our neighbor and offend against God ?
Almighty God often punishes those who curse others by al-
lowing the curse to be fulfilled.
St. Augustine speaks of a certain mother who cursed her refrac-
tory sons, they having gone so far as «to strike her. Immediately
they were seized with a convulsive movement of the limbs, from
which, after wandering through many lands, they were at length
cured at Hippo, by touching the relics of St. Stephen. St. Ignatius
of Loyola once asked an alms of a Spanish nobleman; the latter flew
into a rage, and said : " May I be burned alive if you are not a rogue
deserving the hangman's rope." Shortly after, on the occasion of
festivities to celebrate the birth of an heir to the throne, a barrel of
gunpowder exploded in the nobleman's house, and he was so severely
burned that he expired in agony a few days later. Working-people
who curse and swear over their work, or call down imprecations
upon the horses they are driving, cannot expect their labor to pros-
per. Thus God rewards those who use bad language : " He loved
cursing, and it shall come upon him" (Ps. cviii. 18).
A man who indulges the bad habit of swearing commits
many sins, and is in danger of eternal perdition.
As one tells from the language a stranger speaks of what country
he is a native, so when oaths flow freely from a man's lips, one raay
conclude he belongs to hell; there is reason to fear that he does not
belong to the kingdom of God, for he talks the language of hell. The
Fathers used to consider swearing as a sign of perdition. Those who
curse shall perish (Ps. xxxvi. 22) ; they shall not possess the kingdom
of God (1 Cor. vi. 10). Ordinary swearing is a venial sin, provided
no serious evil is worked to one's neighbor, yet it is a greater sin than
The Ten Commandments of God. 343
taking God's name in vain, because not only is it a disrespect towards
God, but an offence against charity.
6. Indecorous behavior towards persons who are consecrated
to the service of God, holy places, sacred objects or actions.
As we treat a priest, in his priestly capacity, so we treat God
Himself, for Christ said : " He that despiseth you, despiseth Me "
(Luke x. 16). He who abuses or despises a priest is guilty of dis-
honoring God, and deserves the same chastisement as the Jews who
abused and despised the Son of God. St. John Chrysostom says the
want of respect for eccleciastical superiors is the source of all evil. How
severely the little boys were punished who mocked the prophet
Eliseus (4 Kings ii. 24). We also offend God by unseemly behavior
in church, laughing, whispering, staring about, lolling, etc. St.
Ambrose says of people who behave badly in church that they come
with small sins and go away with great ones. Insults offered to God
in His house are more offensive to Him than those offered elsewhere ;
we ourselves resent most of all rudeness shown to us in our own
house. This is why the meek and gentle ' Saviour drove those who
bought and sold out of the Temple, saying : " My house shall be
called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves "
(Matt. xxi. 13). "If any man violate the Temple of God, him shall
God destroy" (1 Cor. iii. 17). The same respect is due to holy things
as to holy places. When David was bringing the ark back to Jeru-
salem, an Israelite named Oza ventured to lay hold of it. God struck
him and he died (2 Kings vi. 7). King Ozias was punished with
leprosy, because he entered the sanctuary and wanted to burn in-
cense (2 Par. xxvi. 21). To disturb religious services or show con-
tempt for them is also sinful. Of this sin the sons of Heli were
guilty when they interfered with the Jewish sacrifices (1 Kings ii.).
In the present day sometimes evil disposed persons interrupt sermons,
processions, or other services, or insult priests who are taking the
Blessed Sacrament to the sick. These offenders are punishable by
law as disturbers of divine worship.
7. Blasphemy. Of this sin those are guilty who revile God,
His saints, or speak contemptuously of objects connected with
His worship.
The Emperor Julian the Apostate always spoke of the Son of God
as the Galilean (at that time a word of insult) ; even at his death,
which was occasioned by the thrust of a lance, he is said to have
exclaimed : " Thou hast conquered, O Galilean ! " Ungodly persons
are often heard to utter bitter revilings against God, especially in
time of suffering and affliction, as if they did not deserve the trials
He sends them. It is blasphemy to speak scornfully of God, or of
His actions; or to attribute to a creature what is the prerogative of
the Creator. The people sinned thus who when King Herod made an
oration to them, cried : " It is the voice of a god and not of a man "
(Acts xii. 22). The Jews committed this sin. God says by the mouth
of the prophet: "My name is continually blasnhemed all the day
long "(Is. Hi. 5). To speak contemptuously of hcly places and things
is a kind of blasphemy, as a reflection upon God, Whom we are told
to praise in His holy places (Ps. cl. 1).
344 The Oom.mandm.enh.
Sacrilege is another kind of blasphemy. This consists in
putting to an improper and degrading use what pertains to the
service of God.
The King of Babylon, Baltassar, committed sacrilege when, in a
state of inebriation, he commanded the sacred vessels that had been
taken from the Temple at Jerusalem, where they were used in the
worship of the true God, to be brought to serve as drinking cups
at the feast. The mutilation of statues or defacing of crucifixes is a
sacrilege. Would it not be considered a treasonable act to treat
the crown or the portrait of an earthly monarch with contumely?
Again, those who receive the sacraments unworthily, who appropriate
to themselves Church property, or who commit a theft in church,
come under the same condemnation. It is said that Jews and Free-
masons have sometimes obtained consecrated Hosts, which they sub-
jected to horrible profanation. Such conduct is simply satanic.
Blasphemy is essentially a diabolical sin, and one of the
gravest transgressions. '
Blasphemy may be called a sin peculiar to devils and reprobates,
for as the Holy Spirit speaks by the mouth of the good, so the devil
speaks by the mouth of the blasphemer (St. Bernardin). The blas-
phemer is worse than a dog; for a dog does not bite the master who
is kind to him when he chastises him, whereas the blasphemer reviles
God, from 'Whom he has received so many benefits, oblivious of the
fact that God only afflicts him for his own good. When the saintly
Bishop Polycarp was offered his life if he would blaspheme Christ, he
answered : " For eighty-six years I have served Him, and He has
done me nothing but good; how could I speak evil of my King and
Master ? " St. Jerome says that all sins are slight in comparison with
this, for by all others one offends against God indirectly, but by this
sin one offends against the Most High Himself, not against His
image. " Whom hast thou blasphemed, against whom hast thou ex-
alted thy voice? Against the holy One of Israel" (4 Kings xix. 22).
All other sins arise from human frailty or ignorance, but blasphemy
comes from the malice of the human heart (St. Bernard). Other
sins bring some advantage to the sinner; pride desires to gain im-
portance, avarice money, intemperance the pleasures of the table,
but this sin brings a man no profit, no pleasure. The Jews punished
the blasphemer with death. St. Thomas Aquinas declares blasphemy
to be a mortal sin, unless it is committed in a hasty moment without
deliberation. " Oughtest thou not to fear that fire will fall from
heaven upon thee and consume thee, if thou dost venture to asperse
the name of the Almighty ? Will not the earth open and swallow thee
up? Deceive not thyself, O man, thou canst not escape the hand of
an omnipotent God!" (St. Ephrem.)
God punishes blasphemy with severe chastisements in time,
and with everlasting damnation hereafter; it is also punishable
by human law.
"God is not mocked" (Gal. vi. 7). When King Baltassar pro-
The Ten Commandments of (rod. 345
faned the vessels of the sanctuary, judgment fell upon him imme-
diately: an unseen hand wrote his fate upon the wall. That same
night the enemy entered the city; he was slain and his kingdom be-
came part of the Persian empire (Dan. v.). Sennacherib, the King
of Assyria, blasphemed God; shortly after he lost two hundred
thousand men in the war against the Hebrews, and was assassinated
by his own sons. Michael III., Emperor of Constantinople, made
public mockery of the sacraments on the feast of the Ascension; at
night there was a tremendous earthquake, and some time later the
emperor was murdered. An Israelite cursed God in the wilderness;
he was put into prison till Moses had ascertained what was God's
will; and the Lord said: "Let all the people stone him" (Lev. xxiv.
14). As a man who throws a stone up to the sky, cannot touch, much
less injure any of the heavenly bodies, but may break his own head if
the stone falls back upon it, so blasphemous words do no harm to the
Being against Whom they are directed ; they only fall back upon the
head of him who utters them, to his own perdition. Thus the blas-
phemer whets the sword to pierce his own heart (St. John Chrysos-
tom). Our Lord says that whosoever reviles his neighbor shall be in
danger of hell fire (Matt. v. 22) ; how much more he who reviles God!
Lmder the Old Law, when God was not so well known, it was said:
" He that curseth father or mother shall die the death " (Exod. xxi.
17). How much more shall judgment overtake those who in this age
of knowledge and enlightenment, curse, not their parents, but the
Lord, their God ! " They shall be cursed that shall despise Thee "
(Tob. xiii. 16). "He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, dying
let him die" (Lev. xxiv. 16). Blasphemy is also punished by the
secular authority. St. Louis of France made it a law that any one
who blasphemed God should be seared on the lips with a red-hot
iron. This was done to a wealthy citizen of Paris, with the result
that before long no blasphemous word was heard in the kingdom.
St. Jerome on one occasion rebuked an ungodly man for his impious
words ; when asked why he presumed to do so, he said : " A dog may
,bark in his master's defence, and am I to stand by silent when God's
holy name is blasphemed ? I would sooner die than forbear to speak."
8. Simony. This consists in selling spiritualities for money,
or the equivalent of money.
In the Middle Ages simony was a common sin; bishop's sees and
benefices were sometimes sold to the highest bidder. It is simony to
offer a priest money for absolution, to sell relics, to charge a higher
price for objects, such as crosses and rosaries, because they have been
blessed. This sin takes its name from Simon the magician, who
offered the apostles money when he saw that by the imposition of
hands the Holy Ghost was given, saying : " Give me also this power,
that on whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the Holy
Ghost" (Acts viii. 19). He who is guilty of the sin of simony is
excommunicated ; to him the words of St. Paul apply : " Thy money
perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God
may be purchased with money" (Acts viii. 20). To give money for
Masses is, however, not simony; it is much the same as giving some
one an alms and asking for his prayers. Xor is the payment of fees
to the parish priest for the exercise of his ministerial functions to
346 The Commandments.
be reckoned as simony, because these fees are not a price paid for
the discharge of spiritual duties, but a contribution towards the
maintenance of the priest. Otherwise St. Paul would not have
written these words : " They who work in the holy place eat the things
that are of the holy place, and they that serve the altar partake with
the altar ; so also the Lord ordained that they who preach the Gospel
should live by the Gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 13, 14).
The object of the Confraternity of the Holy Face is to make
reparation for blasphemies and irreverences committed against
God.
It is well known that Our Lord miraculously imprinted His sacred
countenance upon the cloth handed to Him by Veronica on the
way to Calvary. The Emperor Tiberius, when sick, had this cloth
brought to Rome, and the mere sight of it sufficed to cure him.
Veronica is said to have given it to St. Clement, the fellow-
worker with St. Peter, and his successors in the see of Pome.
Thus it came to St. Peter's, where it is yet preserved. In 1849, at
Christmas, it was exposed, and for three hours it was surrounded
by a halo of brilliant light. This cloth still bears the impression of
Our Lord's features ; they are distinctly discernible, and show how He
was maltreated by the barbarous soldiery. In fact, this image affords
striking evidence of the irreverence of man towards God. The sight
of it inspires us with pious horror and heartfelt contrition. For a
long time no copy was permitted to be made of it; this is no longer
the case, and the prints of it are now venerated, God making known
by miracles and speedy answers to prayer, how highly He approves
of this devotion. At Alicante, in Spain, after a long period of
drought, a picture of the Holy Face was carried in procession; a tear
was seen to roll from the eyes of the picture, and in a few days rain
fell abundantly. In Tours a large number of cures were effected in
presence of a picture of the Holy Face, and it was there, by means of
the exertions of the pious M. Dupont, that the Confraternity of the
Holy Face was instituted, its object being to make atonement for
sins of blasphemy. In the revelations of St. Gertrude we read that
Our Lord said to her : " Those who venerate the image of My
humanity (My human countenance) shall be interiorly enlightened
by the radiance of My Godhead." And to Sister Saint Pierre, in
1845, He said: "As one can purchase whatever one will with a coin
of the realm, stamped with the king's head, so those who adore My
countenance will obtain all they desire." Again : " The more you
seek to efface from My countenance the marks of disfigurement
caused by blasphemers, the more I will restore your soul, defaced by
sin, to its original beauty, so that it may appear as if it just came
from the waters of Baptism."
THE THIRD COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
On Mount Sinai almighty God spoke, and said : " Remember that
thou keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days shalt thou labor and do all
thy work" (Exod. xx. 8, 9). The Third Commandment thus contains
The Ten Commandments of God. 347
two injunctions, the command to sanctify the Sunday, and the com-
mand to work.
In the Third Commandment of the Decalogue God commands
us to sanctify the Sunday and to work six days in the week.
1. THE PRECEPT TO SANCTIFY SUNDAYS AND
HOLY DAYS.
In order that amid the many cares and anxieties of life man may
not forget God, his final end and high calling, God has enjoined
upon him to keep one day in the week holy. As we have certain
times set apart for the satisfaction of our bodily necessities, sleeping,
eating and drinking, so we have appointed times for meditation upon
the eternal truths whereby we may obtain fresh strength for our
souls. On holydays we have the opportunity of expiating by prayer
what we have done amiss, and of rendering to God the thanks due
to Him for the benefits He has conferred on us during the week.
1. God commands us to sanctify the seventh day, because on
the seventh day He rested from the work of creation.
In his account of the creation Moses says : " God blessed the sev-
enth day and sanctified it, because in it He had rested from all His
work" (Gen. ii. 3). Man, who is made after the image of God, ought
to follow the example of the Lord his God; as God ceased from work
en the seventh day, so man ought to rest after six days' labor. Man
needs this rest after working for six days. Just as one is obliged
to sleep for six or seven hours after the work of the day is done, in
order to recruit one's bodily powers, so one needs a longer period of
rest after six days of labor. At the time of the French revolution,
the observance of the seventh day was done away with and the tenth
day appointed for the day of rest; but it was soon found indispen-
sable to return to the old order of things. The number seven belongs
to the natural order. God, Who set the lights in the firmament of
heaven for signs and for seasons and for days and for years (Gen.
i. 14), intended the changes of the moon, which occur every seven
days, to point out to us the division of time into periods of seven
days, of which one was to be a day of rest. Bishop Theophilus of
Antioch, writing 'about the year 150 a.d., mentions the observance
of the seventh day as a universal custom. ' We who are Christians
keep the Sunday, the Jews keep Saturday, the Mohammedans keep
Friday, the Mongols keep Thursday, the black population of Guinea
and Goa keep Tuesday and Monday respectively. The cessation
from labor every seventh day foreshadows our eternal rest in heaven
(Heb. iv. 9). By solemnizing the day of the Lord we renew and
quicken our longing for the unending festival of joy above. The very
fact that we wear our best apparel on that day serves to remind us of
the celestial happiness that we hope will one day be our portion.
2. God commanded the Jews to keep holy the Sabbath day.
The Sabbath was a joyous festival for the Jewish people, because
on that day thev were delivered from Egyptian bondage. In addition
to this, when God gave the law from Mount Sinai, He enjoined upon
348 Thr Commandments .
them to sanctify the day by cessation from work: " The seventh day
is the Sabbath; thou shalt do no work on it" (Exod. xx. 10). The
Sabbath was specially suited to be set apart for the public worship
of God, because more than any other day it recalled God's benefits
to His people (Ezech. xx. 12). It was, moreover, typical of the rest
in the sepulchre of the future Messias. The Jews were extremely
strict in their observance of the Sabbath; any profanation of the day
was punished with death, no work of any kind might be done on it.
A man found gathering a few sticks on the Sabbath day was stoned
(Numb. xv. 36). The Pharisees would not allow that it was lawful
to do a good deed on the Sabbath (Matt. xii. 12). No manna fell in
the desert on that day.
3. Sunday was appointed by the apostles as the day of rest
instead of the Sabbath, because Christ rose from the dead on
a Sunday.
Sunday is a festival of the Holy Trinity; for on the .first day
of the week God the Father began the work of creation, God the Son
rose from the dead, and God the Holy Ghost descended upon the
apostles. The apostles were authorized to transfer the day of rest
from Saturday to Sunday, because it was not so much the observance
of the Sabbath, as the observance of a fixed day in each week upon
which God insisted in the commandment. They were all the more at
liberty to change the day, as the Old Law was but a shadow of the
New. Sunday is called the Lord's Day, because it ought to be devoted
to His service, because on it He rose from the dead. St. Justin (139
a.d.) is the first to make use of the word Sunday : it is a name befit-
ting the day whereon the Lord, like the rising sun, rose from the
grave in the brilliance of His glorified humanity. On this day also
God made the light; the Holy Ghost came down in tongues of fire,
and on this day we receive spiritual enlightenment. The Emperor
Constantine the Great enjoined the observance of Sunday as a day of
rest throughout the Roman empire: and' Charlemagne caused those
who violated it to be fined.
4. We are bound on Sunday to abstain from servile work and
to assist at the public Mass; we ought, moreover, to employ this
day in providing for the salvation of our soul, that is to say by
approaching the sacraments, by prayer, hearing sermons, reading
spiritual books, and performing works of mercy.
Servile work is that which entails severe physical exertion, and is
exhausting to the bodily strength. It is the work generally done by
servants, menials, artisans, and laborers; in a word the work belong-
ing to the class that serves, hence the name. Markets and all com-
mercial transactions are included in the prohibition; yet in deference
to local customs, the rule is relaxed in some countries. However,
buying and selling must not be carried on during the hours of divine
worship. As God rested on the seventh day, so we ought to rest. As
Christ on Easter Sunday left the grave-clothes in the sepulchre and
rose triumphant, so we ought to lay aside our earthly business, and
on the pinions of prayer soar aloft to God. Physical repo«e is neces-
sary, because it is impossible for one who is greatly fatigued to pray
The Ten Commandments of God. 349
well. Public worship is the holy sacrifice of the Mass, generally ac-
companied by a sermon. In the first centuries of Christianity the
Christians were accustomed to assemble on Sundays to hear Mass,
and a short exhortation was delivered after the Gospel, as is usual
in the present day. There is no act of Christian worship that can
compare in dignity and value with the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
On Sunday we ought to provide for the interests of our soul ; physical
rest is ordained in order that we may labor more diligently for our
spiritual welfare; and we must not content ourselves with putting on
better clothes, but must cleanse and adorn our hearts. The cessation
from the work of the week gives an opportunity to the faithful, in
compliance with the mind of the Church, to approach the sacraments.
They are encouraged to receive holy communion on Sundays and
holydays, and to give themselves to prayer ; for this reason afternoon
services are held, and the churches stand open for private devotions.
Our forefathers used to read spiritual books, homilies on the Gospel
for the day, and the lives of the saints. Many of Our Lord's mir-
acles of healing were wrought on the Sabbath day — witness the man
whose hand was withered (Matt. xii. 10) ; the man born blind (John
ix.) ; the man that had dropsy (Luke xiv. 2) — although by doing so
He gave great offence to the Jews. He intended to teach us to do
good work on Sundays.
The work permitted on holydays of obligation is (1), Servile
work which is absolutely necessary, especially works of mercy;
(2), Light and trifling work; (3), Occupations of an intellectual
nature; (4), Reasonable recreation.
We are not forbidden to do work that is absolutely necessary.
Our Lord dees not desire man to suffer on account of the Sunday
rest, for He says : " The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for
the Sabbath " (Mark ii. 27). All work may be done which is required
for the support of life: we may have our food prepared, and are
allowed to gather in cur crops if the weather threatens their destruc-
tion. All work that is indispensable for the public service may be
carried on : e.g., the postal service, the railroad, telegraph, and police
service. Ecclesiastical authorities have the power to grant special
permission for servile work to be done on Sunday, if there is suffi-
cient reason. Christ says : " The Son of man is the Lord of the Sab-
bath also," and the Church, His representative, can say the same.
And as the chief and primary object for which Sunday is instituted
is to promote the spiritual welfare and eternal salvation of mankind,
all works tending to this end are enjoined upon us. Our Lord says :
" The priests in the Temple break the Sabbath and are without
blame" (Matt. xii. 5). Works of mercy are also enjoined; nothing
is more profitable to salvation than these, for on them our eternal
fate depends (Matt. xxv. 35). We have Christ's example and pre-
cept also for the performance of charitable works on Sunday : " It is
lawful to do a good deed on the Sabbath day" (Luke xii. 12). Some
of the saints used to visit the hospitals after Mass, and spend the re-
mainder of Sunday in serving the sick. Yet it must be remembered
that only such servile work as is absolutely necessary is permitted,
although its object be a charitable one. For if it is lawful to do all
350 The Commandments.
servile work without distinction which was for the benefit of the poor,
all artisans and laborers might go on with their work, and that would
be by no means permissible (Suarez). Necessary works of mercy
exempt from the obligation of attendance at public worship ; they are
in themselves an act of worship (Jas. i. 27). Our Lord says: "I will
have mercy and not sacrifice" (Matt. ix. 13). But if it is in any
way possible public worship should not be omitted. " These things
you ought to have done, and not leave those undone " (Matt, xxiii.
23). What is it right to do if a conflagration breaks out just before
the time of Mass, or if there is an inundation? Occupations of an
unimportant kind may be engaged in, God does not require us to sit
idle on Sundays; besides writing, music, and all mental employ-
ments are lawful. Sunday is also instituted as a day of rest; on it
we may freely enjoy innocent diversions.
8 ins Against the Third Commandment.
The precept enjoining upon us to sanctify the Sunday is
transgressed :
1. By doing or requiring others to perform servile work.
The Christian ought to allow his servants and even his cattle, to
rest on the Sunday (Exod. xx. 10). Servants, apprentices, and all
who are in a subordinate position, ought not to remain in a situation
where they cannot fulfil their religious obligations. Servile work is
a mortal sin, if it be done for more than two or three hours on
Sunday without urgent necessity. Yet hard work, if done for a
shorter time, or light work for the same time, is not mortal sin; nor
is it so if a not very valid reason is counted on as an excuse, nor
again if a servant does what his master, without cogent grounds,
requires of him, through fear of evil consequences to himself. In the
latter case the sin rests with the master. If scandal is given by doing
servile work, even for a short time, it is a grievous sin. Our Lord
says of one who gives scandal, " it were better for him that a mill-
stone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned
in the depths of the sea" (Matt, xviii. 6). God threatened the Jews
most emphatically, saying that any one who profaned the Sabbath
should be put to death : " He that shall do any work in it, his soul
shall perish out of the midst of his people " (Exod. xxxi. 14).
2. By carelessness about attendance at public worship.
Entertainments given on Saturday are often the cause why
Catholics omit Mass on Sunday. " What folly," exclaims St. Francis
of Sales, " to turn day into night and night into day, and neglect
one's duties for frivolous amusements ! "
3. By indulging in diversions which are over-fatiguing, or
which are of a sinful nature.
Games which involve much physical exertion, hunting, dancing,
etc., ought to be avoided on Sunday; also those which lead to any-
thing unseemly; brawls, extravagant expenditure, disinclination for
work. Worse still, if the amusements are sinful in themselves; for
whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin (John viii. 34), and
The Ten Commandments of God. 351
thus servile work of the most degrading description is dene. Woe
to him who chooses the day which is consecrated to divine service
to offend against God and injure his own soul most deeply. Some
people take advantage of the day of rest to indulge more freely in
vice. Not unfrequently the devil leaves people in peace all the week,
and when Sunday comes he tempts them to all manner of sin, pride
and ostentation in dress, gambling, dancing, excess in eating and
drinking. In the present day men seem to think most of eating and
drinking on the Lord's Day, women of adorning their person. How
lamentable is the depravity of mankind, in thus abusing the most
sacred institutions! On Sunday the devil of avarice is cast out,
but it is as if seven other and worse devils entered in its place;
the love of the world and all it entails; the frequenting of convivial
scenes, disseverance of the ties of family life, squandering of sav-
ings, and dislike of work. " It is far better," St. Augustine says,
" that one should occupy one's self with needle-work or field-work on
Sunday than indulge in vice." To spend the Lord's Day in worldly
vanities amounts to a kind of sacrilege ; to desecrate it by sin is worse
than plundering the sanctuary.
Motives for the Sanctiftcatioti of Sunday.
1. God rewards with temporal blessings those who keep
holy His day.
Consider the loving kindness of God ; it is no toilsome service He
requires of you, but that you should rest. There are one hundred and
sixty-eight hours in the week. God only demands one day (twenty-
four hours) for Himself ; must you use this for your worldly affairs ?
Those who would prosper in their business must consecrate Sunday to
the service of God. Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America,
when on his voyage always kept his vessels stationary on Sunday. God
often protects in a special manner those who keep holy His day. One
of the sailors on board a steamer on the Mississippi refused to shift
the cargo — an unnecessary work — on Sunday; he was dismissed in
consequence. Shortly after the boiler burst and several of the crew lost
their lives ; thus the God-fearing sailor escaped. God often increases
the gains of those who abstain from the pursuit of their calling on
Sundays. A pious friend once persuaded an artisan to desist from
working on Sunday, saying he would compensate for the loss thus
occasioned. In six months' time he returned, and the artisan
acknowledged that far from losing, he had made more money than
usual in the interval. Holy Scripture says " God blessed the sev-
enth day" (Gen. ii. 3), that is to say, He made it productive of
blessing for us. It is a false argument to allege that the suspension
of work on Sunday is prejudicial to the produce of manufactures,
for it is an ascertained fact that factory hands do more and better
work if they have one day of rest in the seven. A bow never un-
spanned loses its elasticity; so the workman loses his powers if they
are ever on the stretch. Rousseau, no friend to religion, used to say
that holidays were essential to the welfare of a nation. In England
the observance of Sunday is a strict rule, and see how her commerce
352 The Commandments.
has prospered. Some Jews still rigorously keep the Sabbath, and no
disadvantages ensue to them.
2. The profanation of the Lord's Day is frequently punished
with temporal evils, sickness and poverty.
Because the Jews habitually violated the sanctity of the Sabbath
God permitted Nabuchodonosor to destroy Jerusalem and take the
people into captivity (2 Esd. xiii. 18). The usual punishment for
profaning Sunday and not hearing Mass is to become the captive
of vice. Those who work continuously ruin their health ; man can no
more live without taking repose than without eating. Thus the day
of rest is not only a religious duty, but a natural necessity. To those
who work on Sundays God says as to the Jews of yore : " I will
quickly visit you with poverty" (Lev. xxvi. 16). Those who through
greed of gain desecrate Sunday, obtain the very opposite of their
aim. The Chinese have no fixed day of rest, and to what a deplorable
state of degradation and misery, both physically and morally, they
have sunk as a nation!
3. The non-observance of Sunday undermines family life
and social relations.
This sin causes the disintegration of the family. If the members
of a family neglect public worship, they lose all sense of their duties
and fall into evil ways. The father becomes dissolute, the mother
indifferent, the children insubordinate. The father does not fulfil
his duty to his children; occupied all the week he sees but little of
them; on Sunday he has leisure to observe their individual charac-
ters, and give them useful instruction. The disintegration of
society follows that of the family; the profanation of Sunday is an
open violation of God's law; the yoke of the secular law is next
thrown off; no respect is shown to the authority of the king, the
bishop, the legislator, the parent. Catholics who are careless in
regard to the holydays of obligation, gradually lose all sense of their
religious duties; they forget God, their final end, and become like
heathen. Those who are not found on Sunday among the children of
God on earth, will be excluded from His presence to all eternity. By
sanctifying Sunday, we lay up for ourselves treasures which will last
forever.
2. THE PRECEPT OF LABOR.
Work may be either bodily or mental.
It must not be thought that by those who work, only servants,
artisans, operatives, and the like are intended; students, priests,
schoolmasters, doctors, etc., are included under the term. The latter
do not indeed work with their hands, but with their head; and
mental work is far more difficult and fatiguing than physical exer-
tion.
Work was formerly held to be degrading, until it was
sanctified by Our Lord.
Tlie Ten Commandme7its of God. 353
Among the pagans there were two classes of people: the upper or
governing class, and the slaves, the working class. In some states
artisans were deprived of civil rights. As work was regarded as a
degradation, men used either to join the army, or spend their days
in idleness. At Our Lord's coming He gave dignity to labor by His
example; He chose a carpenter for His foster-father, and from an
early age He worked Himself. In the parable of the laborers in the
vineyard He gave His hearers to understand that work was necessary
for salvation (Matt. xx.). Many eminent men have not disdained
to engage in manual labor. St. Paul earned his own living by the
work of his hands (Acts xx. 34), he was a tent-maker (Acts xviii. 3).
The monks of old times occupied themselves with agriculture, and
in transcribing manuscripts. Work is no humiliation; on the con-
trary, it is greatly to a man's credit to maintain himself by his own
exertions (Leo XIII.) . Vice and pride alone really degrade a man.
He who serves his fellow-man because it is the will of God, really
serves God Who lays the obligation upon him. Christ Himself did
not come to be served, but to serve. He who is the servant of another
man is more to be respected than he who is the slave of his passions.
1. The obligation to work was laid upon mankind by God
after the Fall as a penance.
Previous to the Fall of our first parents work was only a relaxa-
tion for man. But after the Pall God said to Adam : " In the sweat
of thy face thou shalt eat bread, until thou return to the earth out
of which thou wert taken " (Gen. iii. 19).
2. Every individual who can work is bound to work. St. Paul
says : " If any man will not work, neither let him eat " (2 Thess.
iii. 10).
Xo man is free from original sin, and on account of original sin
we are obliged to do penance, thus all must work. In order to com-
pel man to work, God has ordained that the earth shall not afford
•him nourishment unless it is cultivated. If no one labored all the
people on the earth would die of hunger. The rich are not exempt
from this obligation; they can give the proceeds of their work in
charity, or at least devote them to some good object. Boyal per-
sonages have often worked costly vestments for the Church; queens
and princesses used to spend a great part of their time in this
manner. Upon a rich man being once asked why he was always
working at something or other, though there was no need for him
to do so, he replied : " Do you think almighty God has given me my
hands for no purpose ? " St. Benedict, in making the rule for his
monks, provided that they should be occupied alternately with
prayer and work. Xothing but old age, bodily infirmities, and sick-
ness exempt from this universal law. " Man is born to labor and
the bird to fly" (Job v. 7). Even the lower animals teach us in this
respect; witness the industrious ant (Prov. vi. 6). "We exhort you
to work with your own hands, as we commanded you " (1 Thess. iv.
11).
3. Every man is bound primarily to perform the work apper-
taining to his calling or station.
354 TJie Commandments.
There are various grades or states of life in human society; there
are ecclesiastics, physicians, lawyers, soldiers, married people and
unmarried; human society is like a body, each member of which has
its own individual functions (1 Cor. xii. 12), or like a clock, in which
all the wheels, large and small, work into one another. It is God Him-
self Who calls every man to his special state, hence we speak of it as
his " vocation," and God gives every one the graces necessary to his
calling. Thus if a man feels inwardly drawn to one particular state,
he ought to obey this attraction, just as the migratory birds obey the
motion that teaches them to seek a warmer clime in the autumn.
Those who do not follow that interior impulse, but force themselves
to embrace a calling for which they feel no inclination, too often
share the fate of the birds who do not journey southwards; like them
they do not thrive. Parents ought not to compel their children to
enter a profession for which they have no attraction. As our voca-
tion comes from God, in fulfilling its obligations we serve Him;
consequently the duties of our state ought to take precedence of all
others. In some cases we have to leave God for God. The object
for which Christ came into the world was to redeem it, and when the
time came for Him to fulfil the duties of that vocation everything
else was made subservient to it. Remember His words in the Temple
when He was twelve years of age (Luke ii. 49), and how He neglected
to take food, while conversing with the Samaritan at Jacob's well
(John iv. 34). So Moses acted; when God told him on Mount Sinai
that the people had sinned grievously, he immediately left converse
with God, and returned to the camp (Exod. xxxii. 7).
Careful fulfilment of the duties of one's calling leads to
perfection; the neglect of them entails fatal consequences both
in time and in eternity.
Those who conscientiously accomplish the duties of their calling
are conscientious in all things. Like the principal wheel in a ma-
chine, if this goes well, all else goes well ; but if it stops, the whole of
the works are at a standstill. In the process for canonization, the first
inquiry is how the candidate has fulfilled the duties of his calling.
It is a mistake to imagine that time and trouble devoted to the
duties of one's calling are wasted ; on the contrary, there is no speedier
means of attaining perfection. Those who, deluded by the devil,
neglect their duties for prayer and pious works commit sin. " If a
man," says St. Francis of Sales, " does not perform the grave obli-
gations of his state, though he raise the dead and practise all manner
of austerities he is in mortal sin and will perish eternally." In vain
those pray who will not work; all piety is false which is not sub-
ordinated to the claims of our calling, for no state of life, if lawful,
is a hindrance to salvation.
4. We must not forget God in what we do ; before and during
our work we should implore His aid and renew our intention.
God's blessing we need if our work should succeed. Witness the
miraculous draught of fishes (Luke v.). Three men with God's blessing
will do more work in a day than ten without it. To begin one's work
without prayer is as if a soldier went to battle without weapons. St.
The Ten Commandments of God. 355
Paul exhorts us to renew our good intention in the words : " Whether
you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of
God" (1 Cor. x. 31). In all our actions we must take aim, like one
who shoots at a mark. However long a row of ciphers a child makes
on a slate, they have no value whatsoever until a figure is placed
before them. So it is with our works : in themselves they are worthless,
but if they are performed in God's name, He makes them fruitful and
meritorious. And as when writing one dips one's pen from time to
time in the ink in order to write on, so we ought to look up to God
to gain fresh strength for our work. We should do like the mariner,
who looks up at the stars or consults the compass that he may steer
his course aright. The angels, while ministering to man, do not
cease to gaze upon the countenance of God. As the builder con-
stantly uses square and plumb-line, so all our actions should be
measured by the rule of the love of God. " Pray without ceasing "
(1 Thess. v. 17). Accustom yourselves to utter ejaculatory prayers
at your work and take for your motto the words: Ora et lab or a.
Work and pray ; and while putting your hand to your work, raise your
heart to God.
5. Labor obtains a temporal and an eternal recompense, be-
cause it is a kind of divine worship. The temporal recompense
is contentment and earthly happiness.
As the law of work was laid upon Adam in paradise by God as
an expiation of his fault, when he had acknowledged and con-
fessed it, all who work do the will of God, and perform an act that
is pleasing to Him. Work in its character of penance, is more excel-
lent than prayer. St. Francis of Sales, when obliged to curtail his
prayers because of the press of business, excused himself by saying:
" In this world we must pray by work and action." Work has a bitter
root, but the fruit it bears is sweet. It has a temporal reward: the
idler finds his time long and is a burden to himself, whereas the
industrious is contented and cheerful. He experiences the truth
• of Our Lord's words: "My yoke is sweet and My burden is light"
(Matt. xi. 30). The devil cannot molest the busy man with his temp-
tations ; he has no leisure to listen to his enticements, any more than
a man will leave some important transaction to go where music and
dancing are going on. Work generally insures earthly prosperity.
The bees who gather honey all day long in summer, lay up in their
hives a store of nourishment for the winter. The industrious man's
future is assured. A Roman who had accumulated a large fortune
by hard work was accused of magic arts. Being brought before the
Senate, he produced his tools and said : " Behold the charms I have
made use of. The sweat of my brow I cannot show you." Finally
labor, like all other acts of penance, merits an everlasting reward.
Our Lord says : " The laborer is worthy of his hire " (Luke x. 7). And
St. Paul : " Every man shall receive his own reward according to his
labor" (1 Cor. iii. 8). The anticipation of a reward sweetens labor,
as we see is the case with all the working classes. They labor for
a temporal reward, but we for an eternal. St. Bernard told a monk
who was always busily employed, that if he continued to work so
zealously he need not dread purgatory. Let us not in our work look
so much to what we shall gain by it in time, as to our eternal reward.
356 The Commandments.
For if we only think of present profit we shall work less well, and we
shall lose the eternal profit to which we show ourselves indifferent.
The precept of labor is transgressed:
1. By indulging in idleness.
2. By the non-fulfilment of the duties of our station and
calling.
3. By omitting to offer to God the work that is done.
The Relaxations Permitted vo the Christian.
1. It is lawful for those who work to seek relaxation, for
this is a means of renewing one's strength after one's work is
done.
The bow never unspanned will break; and the man who works
without cessation will become unfit for work. Social convivialities
are productive of much good; they promote charity and concord. It
is God's will that we should enjoy recreation; He has provided us
with pleasures in nature alone; the beauteous coloring, the delicious
perfume of the flowers; the song of birds, the various kinds of fruit,
etc. Our Lord Himself was a guest at banquets, even at a marriage
feast, and He speaks without disapproval of music, etc. (Luke xv. 25).
2. Wre must not, however, indulge too freely in amusements,
and certainly we must eschew all those that are sinful; more-
over in all our recreations the thought of God must be present
to our mind.
We must not be too great votaries of pleasure, for diversions are
not the object of life, they are only a means of renewing our
strength after our work. Life is for work, not for play. Excess in
everything is harmful; medicine taken in too large doses is in-
jurious, and the best condiments, if too freely used, spoil a
dish. So it is with amusements; they are only to be enjoyed when
all our duties have been duly performed. The thought of death is a
useful check upon indulgence in the pleasures of the senses ; if we re-
member that at any moment our soul may be required of us, we shall
be moderate in our use of enjoyments. An exaggerated love of
pleasure and craving for excitement prevails in the present day; one
festivity and dissipation follows another, and yet everywhere one
hears complaints of the evil times. May not the thirst for enjoyment
be the cause? Above all, dangerous or sinful pleasures are to be
avoided, such as gambling for high stakes, games of chance which
are prohibited, slandering the absent, sarcastic speeches, unseemly
words, or contempt of holy things. Those who indulge in such
pleasures are like thankless children who delight in offending their
father. When enjoying innocent pleasures we should think of God,
and our high destiny. The Psalmist says : " Be glad in the Lord"
(Ps. xxxi. 11). St. Charles Borromeo is said once to have played a
game of billiards; when asked what he would do if he was told the
The Ten Commandments of God. 357
Last Judgment was at hand, he replied : " I should finish the game, for
I am playing for the glory of God, and He is present to my thoughts."
THE SIX COMMANDMENTS OF THE CHUKCH.
1. The six precepts of the Church are an amplification of the
Third Commandment of the Decalogue.
The first precept of the Church enjoins upon the faithful
to rest from work on certain days besides the Sunday, to give
thanks to God for special graces.
The second precept of the Church ordains the manner in
which Sunday and the other holy days of obligation are to be
observed.
The third and fourth precepts of the Church oblige us to con-
fess and communicate at least once a year.
The fifth precept bids us support our pastors.
The sixth forbids us to marry non-Catholics, or to solemnize
marriage at forbidden times.
2. We are under a rigorous obligation to keep the command-
ments of the Church, for disobedience to the Church is disobedi-
ence to Christ.
Christ has conferred upon the Church the same powers which He
Himself received from His Father ; He said to His apostles : " As the
Father hath sent Me, I also send you" (John xx. 21). When the
Church enjoins anything upon us, it is the same as if Christ enjoined
it ; for He said : " Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be
bound also in heaven" (Matt, xviii. 18). In disobeying the Church
we disobey Christ ; as He told the apostles : " He that despiseth you,
despiseth Me" (Luke x. 16). Our Lord speaks of the Church as a
kingdom ; He also compares it to a fold, to teach us that the children
of the Church must obey their ecclesiastical superiors. Every
society is authorized to make laws which the members must observe ;
this the Church does; and by her mouth God makes His will known
to us.
He therefore who wantonly violates one of the Church's
laws, commits a grievous sin.
Our Lord expressly says that he who will not hear the Church
is to be regarded as a heathen (Matt, xviii. 17). Under the Old
Dispensation death was the punishment of one who through pride
should refuse to obey the commandment of the high priest (Deut.
xvii. 12). Thus we see that from the first rebellion against the
spiritual authority was a heinous sin.
3. The rulers of the Church are empowered to dispense the
faithful from the observance of any of the commandments of the
Church for weighty reasons.
358 The Commandments.
Christ said to the apostles : " What you loose upon earth shall be
loosed also in heaven" (Matt, xviii. 18). Some bishops permit meat
to be eaten on Friday when a festival falls on that day. The Pope
has sanctioned the transference of certain holydays to the following
Sunday in some countries.
1. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT OF THE CHURCH:
THE OBSERVANCE OF SUNDAYS AND HOLYDAYS.
1. In the first commandment of the Church the solemn ob-
servance of the holydays is enjoined upon us. There are seven
festivals of Our Lord, five of Our Lady, and three of the saints.
The early Christians kept a great number of festivals in order to
keep alive the memory of certain events or benefits received from God
as the anniversaries came round. These feasts were instituted that
the events they commemorate might be remembered to all time by
the faithful, and praise and thanksgiving be rendered to God for
them. Unhappily some persons only mark these festivals by pro-
viding a more liberal table, as if, St. Jerome remarks, by eating
and drinking one could honor those who sought to please God by
fasting and mortification.
The seven feasts of Our Lord are (1), Christmas (Dec. 25th);
(2), The Circumcision (Jan. 1st); (3), The Epiphany (Jan. 6th);
(4), Easter; (5), The Ascension; (6), Pentecost; (7), Corpus
Christi (the last-named is not a holy day for the United States).
As the nativity and the resurrection of Our Lord and the coming
of the Holy Ghost are events of primary importance, they are cele-
brated with peculiar solemnity. In European countries the 26th of
December, the feast of St. Stephen, and the two days immediately
following Easter Day and Pentecost, are kept as feasts of devotion.
The. five feasts of the Mother of God are: (1), The Immacu-
late Conception (Dec. 8th); (2), The Nativity of Our Lady (Sept.
8th); (3), The Annunciation (March 25th); (4), The Purifica-
tion (Feb. 2d); (5), The Assumption (Aug. 15th). Of these festi-
vals the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption are the
only ones now observed as holydays of obligation.
The life of the Mother of God is so intimately connected with that
of her divine Son that the Church commemorates its principal events.
Unlike the other saints, who are commemorated on the day of their
death, because it was their birth to a better life, the day of Mary's
birth is solemnized, because she was born without sin.
The three festivals of the saints are: (1) The feast of St.
Stephen (Dec. 26th), no longer a holyday of obligation; (2),
The feast of St. Peter and St, Paul (June 28th), not a holyday
in the United States; (3), The feast of All Saints (Nov. 1st).
In some lands the feast of the patron saint of the country is
The Ten Commandments of God. 359
kept as a general holiday. These festivals are either fixed or
movable. The former are kept yearly on the same day, the
latter vary as to the date of celebration.
The fixed festivals are: The Immaculate Conception, Christmas,
the Circumcision, the 'Epiphany, the Annunciation, St. Peter and
St. Paul, the Assumption of and Nativity of Our Lady, the
feast of All Saints. The movable feasts are: Easter, which is
kept on the first Sunday following the first new moon after the spring
equinox, consequently in the interval between the twenty-second of
March and the twenty-fifth of April; the Ascension, forty days after
Easter; Pentecost, fifty days after Easter; Corpus Christi, the Thurs-
day of the second week after Whitsunday. The Church has insti-
tuted some of her festivals as substitutes for the feasts of the Old
Testament, which were a foreshadowing of the Christian festivals.
Others take the place of heathen festivities ; the birth of Our Lord is
commemorated in the season when the pagans consecrated the long
winter nights to the worship of the sun; the processions in different
countries on Candlemas Day is a Christianized form of the torch-
light processions held in the first days of February, when the days
begin perceptibly to lengthen, in honor of the divinities of the
ancients. This the Church did in order to render the evangelization
of the heathen more easy, by changing, instead of abrogating, their
ceremonies.
2. The holydays of obligation ought to be kept in the same
manner as the Sundays; we must abstain from servile work and
assist at holy Mass.
The number of holydays of obligation varies in different coun-
tries. In some certain festivals have been transferred to the Sunday
following, as it was found that holydays recurring too frequently
produced the opposite effect to that for which they were instituted.
The Ecclesiastical Year.
The Jews of old used to observe a number of feasts besides the
Sabbath in commemoration of important events in their history;
e.g., the festival of Easter in memory of the exit from Egypt; Pente-
cost, in memory of the giving of the law on Sinai ; the feast of Taber-
nacles in memory of their journey through the desert. The Church
does much the same ; she annually recalls events in Our Lord's life on
earth, representing them as vividly as is possible after so long a lapse
of time. This is especially the case in the ceremonies of Holy Week.
1. The ecclesiastical year is an annual commemoration and
representation of the life of Christ, and of the time before and
after His birth.
The Church places these events before us in order that we may
meditate upon them and imitate Our Lord's life. In Advent we are
called upon to anticipate with the patriarchs of the Old Testament,
the coming of the long-expected Redeemer; at Christmas we rejoice
with the shepherds at His birth; in Lent we fast forty days with
Christ; at Easter we rise again with Him; at Pentecost we join with
360 The Commandments.
the disciples in praying- for the coming of the Holy Ghost. On almost
every day of the year the Church commemorates one or more of the
saints; they are like planets, revolving around the Sun of justice.
She bids us consider their lives, how they imitated Christ, and thus
became patterns of Christian perfection ; and she desires to encourage
us to imitate Him too. It is besides the intention of the Church
that we should implore the intercession of the saints, that we may the
more surely be made partakers of the merits of Christ. Finally by
weaving these saints' days into the cycle of the ecclesiastical year,
she would teach us amid all our earthly occupations to keep our
thoughts fixed upon God, doing all, as the Apostle exhorts us, to His
glory (1 Cor. x. 31).
2. The ecclesiastical year begins upon the first Sunday in Ad-
vent; its three principal feasts are: Christmas, when the birth
of Christ is celebrated; Easter, the day of His resurrection; and
Pentecost, when the coming of the Holy Spirit is commemorated.
Thus the ecclesiastical year sets forth the glory of the Holy
Trinity ; it displays the charity of the Father, Who sent His Son into
the world; the charity of the Son, Who died for our sakes, and the
charity of the Holy Spirit, Who descended to abide with us. There-
fore the first Sunday after Pentecost is dedicated to the Holy
Trinity ; this feast links all the other three together.
Each of these three great feasts has a season of preparation
preceding it as well as a subsequent commemoration.
Advent is the season of preparation before Christmas. In
the subsequent period we have the feast of the Circumcision, the
Epiphany, the Purification, and the Sundays after the Epiphany.
The four weeks of Advent represent the four thousand years
during which the coming of the Messias was expected. The Im-
maculate Conception occurs most suitably in Advent, the eighth
of December, for at the birth of Christ the Sun of justice rose upon
the world, dispelling the darkness of sin and ignorance; Mary was
like the aurora (Cant. vi. 9), heralding the coming day. The period
after Christmas 'is symbolical of the youth of Our Lord, and of the
time which intervened before His entry upon His public ministry;
His hidden life, that is, at Nazareth.
The forty days of Lent are the preparation for Easter; and
the Paschal time lasts during the subsequent forty days before
the ascension.
The preparation for Lent includes the three Sundays called re-
spectively Septuagesima (70), Sexagcsima (60), and Quinquagesima
(50). They were so named because in the early days of Christianity
many communities began the fast fifty, sixty, or seventy days before
Easter, in order not to have to fast every day of the fortv. The Wed-
nesday after Quinquagesima is called Ash Wednesday, because of the
ceremony of sprinkling ashes upon the foreheads of the faithful. On
Ash Wednesday the season of Lent commences; it is forty-six days
before Easter ; thus the number of days is completed without the six
The Ten Commandments of God. 361
Sundays, oh which we do not fast. During Lent the public life of
Our Lord is set before us, His previous fast, His Passion and death.
The forty days which intervene before the ascension represent the
forty days He spent on earth after His resurrection. The three days
before the ascension are the Rogation days; on these processions are
held.
The ten days after the ascension are the period of preparation
for Pentecost. The subsequent commemoration lasts for twenty-
four weeks, sometimes even longer.
The ten days before Pentecost represent the ten days during
which the apostles awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit; the weeks
that follow represent the time that shall elapse before the Last Judg-
ment. Consequently on the last Sunday after Pentecost the Gospel
read in church is that which foretells Our Lord's coming as our
Judge. The feasts of All Saints and All Souls close the ecclesiastical
year. This is to signify that we are in unbroken communion with
the blessed in heaven and the holy souls in purgatory and that our
separation from them is but temporary. All Souls' Day occurs suit-
ably when the face of nature presents an image of death.
3. The aspect of nature corresponds to the three principal fes-
tivals.
In Advent, at least for us who inhabit the northern hemisphere,
the nights are longer than the days, and the life of vegetation is at
a standstill; so it was in the spiritual order before the coming of
Christ. After Christmas the days begin to lengthen; just so the
birth of Christ brought light to the world. At Easter nature awa-
kens to new life and decks herself with verdure; Christ rises glorious
from the dead. At Pentecost trees and meadows are in their full
beauty of leaf and blossom; with the coming of the Holy Spirit a
fresh era commences for mankind, and fair flowers of holiness are
brought forth.
The epistles and gospels, as well as the hymns and sequences
of the Mass, are suited to the festivals and seasons of the ecclesi-
astical year.
The gospels are portions taken from the four gospels, and the
epistles from other parts of Holy Scripture. They were originally
compiled by St. Jerome.
2. THE SECOND COMMANDMENT OF THE CHURCH.
By the second commandment of the Church the precept of fast-
ing" is laid upon us.
Fasting is as ancient as the human race itself. Even in paradise
it was enjoined upon man to abstain from the fruit of one tree:
moreover, certain meats were forbidden to the Jews; pork, for
instance (Lev. xi.). On the Day of Propitiation the Jews were not
permitted to taste food for twenty- four hours. Our Lord fasted forty
362 The Commandments.
days; so did Moses and Elias before Him; and St. John Baptist,
the Precursor, fasted most rigorously. The Church has good reasons
for laying the obligation of fasting upon the faithful.
The laws of the Church in regard to fasting are in reality
very strict; they have, however, been largely relaxed by the
bishops to suit the exigencies of time and place.
The rule of fasting was originally so stringent that on the fast
days not only was abstinence from flesh-meat enjoined, but milk,
eggs, and butter were also prohibited; and no food was to be taken
before sundown. But owing to the increase of constitutional weak-
ness, and still more because of the spread of religious indifference
in the course of centuries, the rule has been more and more relaxed.
Bishops are empowered to prescribe, each for his own diocese, on what
days meat is permitted. Hence the rule varies in different dioceses,
and it is well, on going into another diocese, to ascertain what the
rule is in that part.
There are three kinds of fasting at present: (1), Abstinence
from flesh-meat; (2), Taking one full meal only in the day;
(3), Strict fasting, in which both of these are enjoined.
In the second commandment of the Church we are ordered to
abstain on all Fridays of the year; and to fast during the forty
days of Lent, on the Ember days, and on the vigils of certain
feasts.
1. We are forbidden to eat meat on Friday, because on that
day Our Lord died for us.
Not only is meat prohibited, but all dishes in the preparation of
which it enters. Fish, turtle, and shell-fish may be eaten, also eggs,
milk, and butter, in almost all countries. The Church has forbidden
the use of meat because Christ sacrificed His flesh for us; also
because meat is an article of food easily dispensed with, and yet
what men generally like best. Another reason is to remind us that
the lusts of the flesh are to be resisted (Gal. v. 19), and these are fos-
tered by eating meat. Some people quote Our Lord's words : " Not
those things which go into the mouth defile the man " (Matt. xv. 11),
as opposed to this prohibition ; but He also said : " The things that
come from the henrt, those things defile the man" (Matt. xv. 18).
Disobedience to the Church comes from the heart, and this it is
which defiles, not the actual meat. If Christmas Day falls on a
Friday, meat is allowed, because Our Lord would not have us fast at
a season of rejoicing (Matt. ix. 15).
In early ages the use of meat was also forbidden on Satur-
days.
The original object of this prohibition was to suppress the observ-
ance of the Sabbath day, which still lingered among Christian con-
verts. It is now done away with; yet Christians often impose some
restriction upon their amusements on Saturday, in view of better
sanctifying the morrow.
The Ten Commandments of God. 363
2. During the forty days of Lent only one full meal is to be
taken, as a partial imitation of Our Lord's fast of forty days,
and as a suitable preparation for celebrating the festival of Easter.
The forty days of Lent begin on Ash Wednesday, and last
until Easter Day; the Sundays alone are not fasting days.
The Lenten fast was instituted by the apostles in commemoration
of Our Lord's fast in the wilderness (Matt. iv.). It is a time of
penance and of sorrow for sin ; hence violet vestments are worn at the
altar. It is natural to fast when we are in grief (Matt. ix. 15). We
ought also during Lent to meditate upon Our Lord's Passion, which
is commemorated in Holy Week, and which usually forms the
theme of the Lenten sermons. By fasting and meditation upon Our
Lord's Passion we most readily awake within ourselves the grace
of contrition and consciousness of sin. The forty days of Lent are
also a preparation for the Easter festival. In early times the fast was
much more rigorous ; the primitive Christians ate no meat all the
time, and did not break their fast until the evening. Even in the
Middle Ages meat was prohibited ; those who ate it were not admitted
to the paschal communion (Council of Toledo, 653). Those who
broke this law were punished by the secular authority on the ground
of contempt for religion. The rule of fasting is made very easy
nowadays. All that the Church requires of us is to take only one full
meal in the course of the day; a slight refection is permitted in the
morning, besides the evening collation. Drinking does not break the
fast; yet we must only drink to quench our thirst, not in order to
compensate for privations in the way of solid food. No one is
required to keep the fast of Lent who has not attained the age of
twenty-one years.
3. We ought to keep the fast of the Ember days strictly, in
order to implore almighty God to send us good priests, and to thank
Him for the benefits received during the past quarter.
The Ember days are three in number, Wednesday, Friday,
and Saturday, at the commencement of each quarter (quatuor
tempora); of old these were the appointed seasons for ordi-
nation to the priesthood.
The Ember days of the winter season fall in the third week of
Advent, of the spring quarter in the second week of Lent ; in summer
in Whitsunweek and in autumn in the third week in September. The
Jews were accustomed to fast four times a year (Zach. viii. 19).
Christ enjoined upon us the duty of praying for good priests, in the
words : " The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Pray
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He send forth laborers into
His harvest" (Matt. ix. 37, 38).
4. We are also bound to fast on the vigils of certain feasts,
in order the better to prepare ourselves for celebrating those
feasts.
364 T/ie Commandments.
The better our preparation, the more abundant are the graces we
obtain on the feast itself. The early Christians were accustomed to
assemble together on the eves of great festivals, to pass the night in
watching and prayer, and in assisting at the holy sacrifice of the
Mass. This they did because had they held the services in the day-
time, they would have been liable to disturbance on the part of the
pagans. Our Lord Himself used often to pass whole nights in prayer
(Luke vi. 12). When at a later period the attendance at the nightly
services fell off, and inconveniences arose, the Popes judged it ad-
visable to transfer the celebration of the vigil to the daytime. The
vigil of Christmas is the only one in which the nightly celebration
has been retained up to the present time; of all the others nothing
survives but the past.
These vigils are the days preceding the three great festivals:
that is, Christmas Eve, Holy Saturday, and the Saturday before
Pentecost.
The eve of the Assumption is also kept in most dioceses, but the
rule respecting the fast varies.
5. It is by no means the desire of the Church that we should
fast to the injury of our health, or that we should thereby be
hindered from performing the duties of our station.
1. Consequently persons whose health is weak are permitted
to eat meat on Friday.
The sick, those who are recovering from an illness, very aged
people, and children under seven come within this rule. Children
under seven, being incapable of sin, have no need for penance. Per-
sons who have to exert themselves very much, either physically or
mentally, are in some dioceses dispensed from the Friday abstinence;
this however does not depend upon the nature of their calling, so
much as on the constitution of each individual, and the amount of
work he has to get .through daily. A dispensation is granted by some
bishops to those who have to travel on Friday, as well as to those
whose meals are provided for them, e.g., servants, students, soldiers;
to those also who have to take their meals as best they can, such as
railway guards, and to those who are staying for their health at some
health resort. The poor may eat meat which is given them as an
alms, otherwise they would have to go hungry. Yet all classes of
people ought to endeavor to abstain on the strictest fasts, such as
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Above all, those who eat meat on
abstinence days must beware lest they give scandal to others. St.
Paul warns the faithful against this : " Take heed lest perhaps this
your liberty become a stumbling-block to the weak" (1 Cor. viii. 9),
and for his own part he says : " If meat scandalize my brother I will
never eat flesh " (v. 13).
2. Persons are dispensed from fasting (i.e., from taking
only one meal in the twenty-four hours) who are under twenty-
one years of age, or who are constitutionally delicate, or who
have continued, strenuous exertion, whether physical or mental.
The Ten Commandments of God. 365
Young people who have not done growing require more than one
full meal a day; of invalids we have already spoken. In the class
who are engaged in active and laborious work, we include those who
exert themselves for the temporal or spiritual welfare of their
fellow-men, such as confessors, preachers, catechists, schoolmasters,
nurses, physicians, magistrates, etc., who frequently require to take
something to sustain their strength. When the influenza was so
prevalent, a general dispensation from fasting was granted. The
command to keep ourselves in health is given by God, and is a law of
our nature; whereas the precept of fasting is laid on us by the
Church; and the law of God is paramount above the law of the
Church. Those who cannot fast should substitute for it some other
good work. Confessors have ordinarily power to dispense from
fasting, and impose some other good work, prayers or alms, in its
place.
3. ~No one ought to carry fasting to an excess, for what God
requires from us is our reasonable service (Rom. xii. 1).
He who overdoes fasting is like a coachman who whips his horses
into a gallop, and runs the risk of upsetting the carriage; or like an
overladen vessel, that is easily capsized. Even some of the saints went
to an excess in fasting, and afterwards much regretted it. No one
ought to venture to do more than the rule prescribes, without the
advice of his confessor. Obedience is far better than self-willed
piety. As a rule it is preferable to be temperate every day of the
week than to fast rigorously on one or two days. Fasting is intended
to destroy the evil lusts of the body, not the body itself. We must
deal, with our bodies as a parent deals with his child; he does not
chastise him when he is docile, but when he is disobedient. Fasting,
like medicine, must be used in moderation or it becomes injurious.
6. Fasting is beneficial both for the soul and the body.
The intellectual powers are sharpened by moderation in our food.
At Nabuchodonosor's court Daniel ate pulse and drank water, and he
surpassed in understanding, knowledge, and wisdom all the wise men
of the kingdom (Dan. i.). By fasting the soul is fortified and
enabled both to bring the body into subjection (1 Cor. ix. 27), and
to overcome the temptations of the devil. The fortress surrenders
when the garrison is starved out ; so the body, under stress of hunger,
yields to the will and the understanding. Our bodies have to be tamed
like wild animals. The devil regards the flesh as his best ally; he
knows that the enemy at a man's fireside can do him the worst and
the greatest harm. By fasting we put our foe in irons, so that he
cannot wage war against us. The bird of prey loves a fat prize, he
does not make the half-starved one his victim. The athlete who " re-
fraineth himself in all things" (1 Cor. ix. 25), in preparation for
the contest, is most likely to conquer. A high degree of virtue is also
acquired by means of fasting. It inclines man to prayer; it helps
him to overcome himself, to be gentle, patient, and chaste; it makes
him resemble the angels, who neither eat nor drink. In the same pro-
portion that the animal part of our nature is lessened, our spiritual
nature is invigorated; like the scales of a balance, as one goes down
366 The Commandments.
the other rises. Our health is improved and our life prolonged by
abstemiousness. It is the parent of good health. The hermits in the
Theban desert fasted rigorously and they lived to be a hundred years
old. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, reached the age of one hun-
dred and forty years; this he attributed to the fact that he never
fully satisfied his appetite. The Wise Man says : " He that is tem-
perate shall prolong his life " (Ecclus. xxxvii. 34) ; " a moderate
man also enjoys wholesome and sound sleep" (Ecclus. xxxi. 24). By
fasting we obtain from God the pardon of our sins; witness the
Ninivites when they fasted; by it we also work off some of our pur-
gatory. God hears and answers the prayers of those who fast; He
heard the prayers of the centurion, who fasted until the ninth hour
(Acts x. 30), and sent an angel to him. When Holof ernes laid siege
to Bethulia, the inhabitants betook themselves to prayer and fasting,
and they were delivered in a marvellous manner by Judith. St. Aug-
ustine calls fasting and almsgiving the two pinions of prayer. Fasting
is a means of earning extraordinary graces, for God has ever been
wont to recompense it with singular favors. After Moses had fasted,
he was admitted to the honor of conversing with God upon Sinai.
After Elias' long fast, God appeared to him upon Mount Horeb (3
Kings xix.). He who fasts, grows more and more spiritual; he is in a
measure divinized, hence God vouchsafes to hold intercourse with
him (Rodriguez). Easting is rewarded after death. Moses and Elias
were present at Our Lord's transfiguration, because they alone of all
the patriarchs had fasted forty days as He did. Hence we see that
glory is reserved in a future life for those who fast in this world. In
the Preface for Lent the Church sings : " Who by a bodily fast re-
strainest vices, upliftest our minds, and grantest strength and re-
wards."
7. Abstinence from food is only pleasing to God if, at the
same time, we refrain from sin and perform good works.
Fasting is not in itself an excellent thing (1 Cor. viii. 8), but only
as a means whereby the suppression of our vices and the practice of
virtue is facilitated. How does it profit a man if he abstains from
meat, and by his calumnies destroys his neighbor's reputation ? Such
a one may be compared to a whited sepulchre, outwardly beautiful,
but foul within (Matt, xxiii. 27). The devil does not eat, yet he is
unceasingly employed in doing evil. Fasting without prayer is like
a lamp without oil, because we only fast to pray better. Fasting
without almsgiving is a field without seed; it fosters the weeds of
avarice. He fasts for himself, not for God, who does not give to the
poor what he denies to himself.
3. THE THIRD AND FOURTH COMMANDMENTS OF
THE CHURCH.
1. In the third and fourth commandments the Church enjoins
upon us the duty of approaching the Sacrament of Penance and
receiving holy communion at Easter.
Hie Ten Commandments of God, 367
Holy communion ought to be received often, because it is the
food of the soul. That soul will be starved which for a long time
does not receive this nourishment. Our Lord says: " Except you eat
the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have
life in you" (John vi. 54). The early Christians used originally to
receive holy communion every day; later on only on the three great
feasts, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. And when in the Middle
Ages the fervor of many grew cold, the Council of Lateran (1215),
ordained that all Christians who were capable of distinguishing good
from evil were obliged to confess their sins at least once a year, and
at Easter, at the least, devoutly to receive the Sacrament of the
Altar. The Council of Trent expresses the wish that the confession
also should be made at Easter, for it says : " Throughout the whole
Church the salutary custom prevails of making confession of sin
during the holy and most suitable season of Lent; a custom which
the Church approves and accepts as pious and most certainly to be
retained" (14 C. 5). Holy communion should be preceded by confes-
sion, lest any man should approach holy communion in a state of mor-
tal sin ; the Easter communion is no exception to this rule. The obli-
gation of the Easter precept is not fulfilled by a sacrilegious commun-
ion, nor by an invalid confession. Although the Church only re-
quires every Christian to confess his sins once a year, yet it need
hardly be said that if any man has the misfortune to fall into mortal
sin, he should go to confession without delay.
2. The time for fulfilling the Easter precept was formerly
only two weeks, from Palm Sunday to Low Sunday; it is now
extended in almost all dioceses, being from the first Sunday of
Lent to Low Sunday, sometimes even to Trinity Sunday.
3. It is fitting that we should receive holy communion at
Easter, because it was just before Easter Day, on Holy Thursday,
that Our Lord instituted the Adorable Sacrament of trie Altar.
At Easter Christ also rose from the dead. If we make a really
good confession, we, in a spiritual sense, rise from the dead. For
the soul which is in mortal sin is spiritually dead; through the Sacra-
ment of Penance it receives the Holy Spirit again, and spiritual life
is again restored to it. At the grave of the risen Redeemer the angel
said to the women : " Why seek you the living with the dead ? He is
not here, He is risen." "Would that our guardian angel could say the
same of us, when the devil, after Easter, thinks to find us still sleep-
ing in the sepulchre of sin. " You seek the living with the dead,
the converted with the sinners ; he is not here." " As Christ is risen
from the dead, so we may also walk in newness of life " (Rom. vi. 4).
4. The Church allows Catholics to make their Easter confes-
sion elsewhere than in their parish church.
The Church is aware that some find it easier to disclose the
wounds of their soul to a stranger, and she permits this in order to
prevent such persons from approaching the sacraments unworthily.
Formerly every one was bound to go to his parish priest as a mark of
respect. —
368 Tlie Commandments.
5. Christian burial can be denied to a Catholic who has not
been in the habit of receiving the sacraments at Easter, and
who dies unrepentant.
This is done in the case of one whose neglect of his duty is pub-
licly known, and who has been admonished in vain by his pastor.
Before refusing Christian burial, the priest is bound to refer the
matter to the bishop ; and if time does not allow of this, he takes the
most lenient course.
4. THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT OF THE CHURCH.
By the fifth commandment of the Church we are bound to con-
tribute to the support of our pastors.
5. THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT OF THE CHURCH.
Marriage and the penitential seasons.
In the sixth commandment marriage with non-Catholics is for-
bidden, also the marriage of those who are related within the
fourth degree of kindred. Marriages are not to be solemnized during
fixed seasons. These penitential times are from the beginning of
Advent until the Epiphany, and from Ash Wednesday until Low
Sunday.
This rule was made by the Council of Trent (Council of Trent,
24, 10). Formerly the prohibition also included the period between
the Monday of Rogation week until the first Sunday after Pente-
cost ; in some countries at the present time it applies to the Rogation
days and all fasts throughout the year. Advent and Lent are seasons
of penance and sorrow for sin, and festivities ill accord with sorrow.
Moreover in Advent the Church proposes the mystery of the Incar-
nation, and in Lent the mystery of the redemption for our medita-
tion, and it would be unseemly to divert our minds from these
solemn subjects by worldly amusements. The bishop can give per-
mission for marriages to be contracted privately, during these times;
for their public solemnization the authorization of the Holy See is
necessary. Concerts are not forbidden, but dances are. Those who
transgress this command expose themselves to the judgment God
threatens by the prophet : " I will turn your feasts into mourning "
Amos viii. 10).
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
In the Fourth Commandment God enjoins upon us to honor His
representatives upon earth, that is to say, our parents, and both
the ecclesiastical and secular authorities.
1. OUR DUTY TOWARDS OUR PARENTS.
1. Our parents are to be honored, because they are God's repre-
sentatives and our greatest benefactors.
The Ten Commandments of God, 369
We are all children of Our Father in heaven, and He causes us
to be fed and brought up by our earthly parents. Thus parents
take the place of God in regard to the education of their children;
they are His representatives, and as such, the honor due to Him
must be paid to them, for the viceroy can claim the same respect as
the monarch who has delegated his authority to him. Those who
despise their parents, despise God Himself. St. Augustine, after his
conversion, bitterly regretted the disrespect he had shown the mother
God had given to him, knowing that thereby he had shown dis-
respect to God. Our parents are moreover our greatest benefac-
tors. "How much," exclaims St. Ambrose, "has not thy mother
suffered on thy account ! How many sleepless nights, how many pri-
vations, how much anxiety has she not borne for thee ! How hard thy
father has worked, to provide thee with food and raiment! And
canst thou be ungrateful to those who have done and suffered so
much for thee ? " The Son of God Himself honored His Mother and
His foster-father; it is said of Him that He was subject to them.
Learn of Him to obey your parents; He honored them, though they
were His servants; He loved and respected His Mother, whose
Creator He was; He never forgot that as an infant He had lain on
Mary's bosom, and had been carried in Joseph's arms.
2. We ought to honor our parents by respectful behavior, love,
and obedience.
When God bids us honor our parents, He commands us to love
and obey them, for this is included in the reverence we owe them.
Love is due to them as our greatest benefactors. It is the first duty
of a Christian to compensate his parents for the trouble and the sacri-
fices his education has entailed on them. The obligation to obey
them ceases when there is no longer occasion for it; the duty of
loving and respecting them only ends with their life.
Respect towards our parents consists in esteeming them from
our heart as God's representatives, and manifesting this esteem
outwardly by word and deed.
Esteem for our parents must be heartfelt, otherwise outward man-
ifestations of esteem would be mere dissembling. Christ showed
great respect for His Mother at the marriage feast of Cana; for
although He told her His hour for working miracles was not yet
come, He complied with her request. We must honor our parents
even if they are poor and in a humble class of life. Joseph, when
Governor of Egypt showed great respect for his aged father. Al-
though he was only a shepherd, he brought him to the king and
presented him before him (Gen. xlvii. 7). King Solomon rose from
his throne to meet his mother, although she was not of royal lineage ;
he bowed to her, and made her sit on his right hand (3 Kings ii.
19). Pope Benedict XL received his mother, who was a poor washer-
woman, in the kindest manner when she went to him in the mean
apparel of her class. Even if parents do not lead a virtuous life, they
still have a claim upon the respect of their children, because of the
position they hold in regard to them as God's representatives. The
Wise Man says: "Honor thy father in word and work and in all
patience" (Ecclus. iii. 9).
370 The Commandments.
Love of our parents consists in kind feelings and kind actions
towards them.
We are bound to love our parents, as we are bound to love all men,
because they are our neighbor, made in God's image. But this is not
enough : They have a right to a special affection on our part, because
we are their children, because they love us so tenderly, and confer so
many benefits upon us. Are not his parents a child's best friends?
Love consists in kind sentiments and kind actions. Joseph showed
his affection for his old father; he fell on his neck and embracing
him, wept (Gen. xlvi. 29). But kind feelings are not enough. Let
us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth (1 John
iii. 18). Therefore we ought to help our parents in destitution or
sickness, and pray for them. The Prussian General Ziethen when a
page, was once on guard at night in the king's antechamber. The
king, Frederick I., finding he did not answer his summons, went out
and found him asleep over a letter which he was writing to his
mother, to send her his first earnings (thirty shillings) in the royal
service. The king read the letter and was so touched that he put a
roll of money in each of the young man's pockets, and the next morn-
ing appointed him to the army. When Blessed Thomas More had
been put to death for the faith by order of Henry VIII., no one ven-
tured to bury his remains; his daughter Margaret alone braved the
tyrant's wrath, and he, respecting her filial devotion, allowed no one
to interfere with her. Even among the lower animals we find
examples of affection towards parents. The young lions share their
prey with the old, and the storks warm those who have lost their
plumage through age; they bring them food and assist them to fly.
The Wise Man says: "Son, support the old age of thy father"
(Ecclus. iii. 18). Remember how Our Lord on the cross provided for
His Mother by commending her to the care of St. John (John xix.
26).
Obedience towards our parents consists in fulfilling all their
lawful commands, as long as we are under their authority.
"Children, obey your parents in all things" (Col. iii. 20). Just
as parents are bound to provide for the education of their children,
so it is the duty of children to obey their parents. As in the State
some rule and others obey,' so it must be in the family; otherwise
there can be no domestic order and concord. Virtue is expected of
the old; submission of the young. Yet children are only bound to
obey when the command is just; if their parents order them to do
what is contrary to God's law, and consequently unjust, they must act
on the Apostle's words : " We ought to obey God rather than men "
(Acts v. 29). St. Hermengild, son of Leovigild, King of the Goths,
was imprisoned by his father in a tower in Sevilla, because he would
not embrace the Arian heresy. The king promised to restore him
to his favor if only he complied with his desire. But the saint re-
plied that he would renounce the crown, his father's affection, life
itself, rather than deny bis faith. He was accordingly martyred.
Several other saints chose rather to disobey the command of their
earthly than of their heavenly Father, and thus lost their lives. Par-
ents who require their children to do what is forbidden by the law
TJie Ten Commandments of God, 371
of God, undermine their own authority; they saw off the bough on
which they are sitting. A man ordered his son to work in the fields
on Sunday; the lad refused, saying it was forbidden by the law of
God. The father rejoined angrily : " You are not a child now, and
the commandments are only for children." " In that case," the son
replied, " I need not keep the Fourth Commandment which bids me
obey you." Children are only bound to obey their parents as long
as they are under their control, and they are only bound to obey in
matters which come within the sphere of the parental authority, such
as their manners and behavior at home and abroad, their compan-
ions, etc. Parents have no right to dictate to their children in regard
to the calling they shall embrace, for a vocation comes from God.
Parents cannot dispose of their children's future, when they are no
longer subject to them. St. Francis of Assisi would not let his
father make a merchant of him; St. Rose of Lima refused to marry.
Yet the advice of parents should always be asked; age gives them
greater discernment and experience of life, and they are the best
and wisest counsellors a man can have. Holy Scripture exhorts us
thus: " My son, hear the instruction of thy father " (Prov. i. 8).
3. Our duty is the same in regard to those who are in authority
over us, as it is to our parents; our teachers and governors,
masters and employers, and our elders in general.
The old are to be respected by the young. " Honor the person of
the aged man, and rise up before the hoary head" (Lev. xix. 32).
It becomes the elder to speak first (Ecclus. xxxii. 4). The Spartans
entertained great respect for the aged; when an old man could not
find a place at the Olympian games, they all rose up to give him a
seat. Alexander the Great was one day sitting by a warm fire, when
he saw an aged soldier shivering in the cold; he called him in and
gave him a place on his own regal couch. Young people ought to
heed the counsels of the old, " for of them they shall learn wisdom
and instruction" (Ecclus. viii. 9). The old act less on impulse, and
consequently more prudently. God appointed a council of seventy
ancients for the guidance of the Jews (Exod. iv. 29), and the Roman
Senate was composed of old men. Above all, the aged should never
be despised, for we too shall become old in our turn (Ecclus. viii. 9).
Their infirmities must be borne with : " An ancient man rebuke
not, but entreat him as a father " (1 Tim. v. 1).
Transgressions of the Fourth Commandment.
1. He transgresses the Fourth Commandment of God who is
disrespectful towards his parents; who behaves rudely to them,
is ashamed of them, etc.
Cham mocked at his father, when he lay naked and drunk in his
tent (Gen. ix.). For this his father cursed him; his descendants are
the negro inhabitants of Africa, and know not the true God.
1. He who is unkind to. his parents, who, for instance, hates
them, refuses to help them, steals from them, etc.
372 The Commandments.
The sons of Jacob, after they had sold their brother Joseph, de-
ceived and grieved their father (Gen. xxxvii). Absalom spoke
against his father at the palace gates, lied to him, and rebelled against
him (.2 Kings xv.).
2. He who disobeys his parents, and will not be corrected by
them, transgresses this commandment.
The two sons of the high priest Heli disobeyed their father's
commands and admonitions (1 Kings ii.).
How Does God Reward the Observance of the Fourth Command-
ment?
1. God promises long life, happiness, and blessings upon earth
to children who honor their parents.
At the giving of the law on Sinai God promised long life as the
reward for keeping the Fourth Commandment (Exod. xx. 12). St.
Paul holds out the same inducement to the fulfilment of filial duty
(Eph. vi. 3). Joseph was obedient to his father; the old man loved
him for it but his brethren hated him. Joseph was made Governor
of Egypt, and attained the age of a hundred and ten years (Gen. 1.).
Those who honor their parents honor old age; and as in the provi-
dence of God there is generally some connection between the work
and the reward, dutiful children usually reach an advanced age. A
long life is a great boon to a man; the longer he lives, the more
merits he can amass for eternity. Under the Old Dispensation a
long life shortened the sojourn of the soul in limbo, consequently it
was a greater privilege than under the JSTew Dispensation, when a
good death is an immediate transition to eternal life. Certainly
many good children die young, but even in this case God fulfils His
promise, for instead of life on earth He gives them life eternal,
which is far more to be desired. Besides an innocent life is in itself
a long life; "a spotless life is old age" (Wisd. iv. 9). God takes
many a. one out of this world that he may escape contamination:
"lest wickedness should alter his understanding" (Wisd. iv. 11).
Moreover the blessings which parents invoke upon their children
are very powerful. Witness the blessing which the aged Tobias gave
to his son when he set out on his journey; the blessings which Xoe
pronounced upon Sem and Japheth. Honor your parents that their
blessing may rest upon you. " The father's blessing establisheth the
houses of the children" (Ecclus. iii. 11). "He that honoreth his
mother is as one that layeth up a treasure " (v. 5) ; " The relieving of
thy father shall never be forgotten" (v. 15). Hence it comes that
dutiful children are generally prosperous, or at least have real con-
tentment. The enjovment of happiness and peace is more to be de-
sired than wealth. Those who behave well to their parents are blessed
in their turn with dutiful children, who are a comfort to them.
" He that honoreth his father shall have joy in his own children "
(v. 6). Happiness in this world and in the next is the reward God
bestows upon children who honor their parents.
2. God threatens to send upon those who do not honor their
parents shame upon earth, a miserable end, everlasting damnation,
The Ten Commandments of God.
373
It is unquestionably a great sin to treat one's greatest earthly bene-
factor with ingratitude, and because of the magnitude of the sin the
punishment is proportionately heavy. Those who forget their father
and mother God will forget, and allow them to suffer reproach (Ecclus.
xxiii. 18, 19). As a tree on which there were no blossoms can produce
no fruit, so the man who was disobedient in his youth will not be
honored in his old age. Bad children frequently come to a miserable
end ; witness the death of the two sons of Heli, who perished in battle
(1 Kings iv. 11), also the fate that overtook the treacherous Absalom,
who, having rebelled against his father David, and defeated him,
was caught by his long hair in the branches of an oak, and hung
there, pierced by three lances (2 Kings xviii.). Bad children are in
great danger of losing their souls. If God deals so severely in the
Day of Judgment with those who have failed to perform works of
mercy towards their neighbor, how much the more rigorously will
He judge those who have been unkind to their own parents. The
Apostle says that those who are disobedient to parents are worthy
of death (Rom. i. 30). The Jewish law pronounced a curse upon
him who honoreth not his father and mother (Deut. xxvii. 16).
Again, " He that striketh his father or mother shall be put to death "
(Exod. xxi. 15). " The eye that mocketh at his mother, let the ravens
pick it out and the young eagles eat it " (Prov. xxx. 17). God laid this
strict command upon the Jews: "A stubborn and unruly son, who
will not hear the commandments of his father and mother, and
slighteth obedience; the people of the city shall stone him and he
shall die, that all Israel hearing it may be afraid " (Deut. xxi. 18, 21).
Those who have not honored their parents, by divine retribution
often have unruly children of their own, as experience frequently
shows. " By what things a man sinneth, by the same he is tor-
mented" (Wisd. xi. 17). Cham despised his father, and his descend-
ants were the degraded nations whom God caused to be cast out of
Chanaan.
2. OUR DUTY TOWARDS THOSE IN AUTHORITY.
1. God has appointed two powers, the spiritual and the secular,
for the direction of human society. To the spiritual power He
has committed the guidance of souls, to the secular the main-
tenance of peace and order.
Throughout the whole of creation we observe the existence of a
certain mutual dependence ; the moon is a satellite of the earth,
the earth and the other planets of our solar system revolve round
the sun ; the mineral kingdom supplies nourishment to the vegetable
kingdom, the vegetable to the animal, while each and all are for the
service of man. Among animals we find the same subordination of
some to others; the bees are governed by a queen; the birds, the
wild beasts of the forest, the fish in the seas have their leaders, and
obey a kind of military rule. In our own bodies we see how one
member commands, the others obey. In the spiritual world the same
law of dependence exists as in the natural order; there are angels
of higher and lowlier rank. In like manner it is the will of God that
some men should rule and others be subject. In consequence of
3?4 The Commandments.
original sin, without rulers human society would soOii resemble an
army without commanders, a disorderly rabble. Governors are to the
State what beams are to a wall; without beams the building would
collapse; so society would without rulers. When, after the Fall,
men began to rage against each other like wild beasts, and the son
of the first man slew his brother, God set rulers over men, to restrain
them. Our rulers ought in some measure to reflect as in a mirror
the divine power and providence watching over mankind. Just as
there are two lights in the firmament of heaven, the sun to shine by
day, and the moon by night, so two powers are instituted to govern
mankind. The spiritual, like the sun, is the superior because it
guides man to his eternal goal; whereas the secular authority is pri-
marily concerned with the temporal welfare of its subjects. The
earthly interests of the people are entrusted to the ruler, their spir-
itual interests to the priest. Although the two powers have separate
aims, they mutually complete each other. They are like the two
golden cherubim, shadowing the Ark of the Covenant with their
wings.
2. The highest spiritual authority was given by God to the
Pope, the highest secular authority to the monarch of the land;
in most countries the people have a share in the secular govern-
ment.
Both Pope and king receive their power from God. Our Lord said
to St. Peter: "Feed My lambs, feed My sheep" (John xxi. 17).
Thus the Apostle Peter was constituted Prince of the Apostles, and
visible Head of the Church Militant by Christ Himself. The chief
rank and spiritual supremacy conferred on St. Peter, is vested, by
Christ's appointment, in the person of the Bishop of Borne for the
time being. That the head or governor of the State also derives
his power from God we learn from the words Our Lord addressed to
Pilate : " Thou shouldest not have any power against Me, unless it
were given thee from above" (John xix. 11). "By God kings reign
and lawgivers decree just things" (Prov. viii. 15). "Hear, ye kings,
for power is given you by the Lord" (Wisd. vi. 4). "There is no
power but from God" (Bom. xiii. 1). Monarchs usually add the
words "By the grace of God" to their title. In all European coun-
tries except Bussia and Turkey the sovereign consults the will of the
Parliament, or representatives of the people.
3. Our duties towards Pope and king are similar to our
duties towards God, for they are both His representatives.
The vicegerents of God, both spiritual and temporal, are often
called ministers, of God (Wisd. vi. 5), or the Lord's anointed (1 Kings
xxiv. 7) ; they are even spoken of as "gods " (Exod. xxii. 28), just as
one who fills the place of the king is called the viceroy. The Pope
terms himself the servant of the servants of God. We owe to
almighty God : Worship and fidelity (First Commandment) ; rever-
ence (Second Commandment); and service (Third Commandment).
We owe to His vicegerents obedience and loyalty, respect and service.
Our duties towards the Supreme Pontiff are these: We are
The Ten Commandments of God. 375
bound to obey biro, in spiritual matters, to be loyal to bim, to
respect bis authority, and by prayers and offerings assist bim in
tbe arduous duties of bis office.
We are under tbe obligation to obey tbe Pope in all spiritual mat-
ters. All tbe pastors of the Church and the faithful of every rank
and rite are subject to the Pope, and bound to yield bim perfect
obedience. What the head is to the other members of the human
body, that the Pope is to the body of Christ; i.e., the Church (1 Cor.
xii. 27). As he is the representative of Christ (2 Cor. v. 20), he de-
clares to us the will of God ; he can say : " We are ambassadors for
Christ, God, as it were, exhorting by us." The words Christ ad-
dressed to the apostles : " He that heareth you, heareth Me " (Luke
x. 16), unquestionably apply above all else to St. Peter and his suc-
cessors. He, therefore, who disobeys the Pope, or turns a deaf ear to
bis admonitions, cannot please God. Leo XIII. has repeatedly urged
upon the faithful the frequent recitation of the Eosary; what is our
duty in this respect ? We ought, furthermore, to be true and faithful
to the Holy Father, for he is not only the Head of the visible Church,
but the rock whereon it rests. Those who cast off their allegiance to
the See of Eome, as the Greeks did (1053), fall away from God. To
them (whom we call schismatics) the words God spoke to Samuel are
applicable : " They have not rejected thee, but Me, that I should not
reign over them" (1 Kings viii. 7). We must also reverence the
Pope. We know that it is Christ's will that we should revere His
ministers as Himself ; now as the Holy Father is the chief of Christ's
ministers, the greatest respect is due to bim. On this account the
title : " His Holiness " is given to him. It is moreover our duty to
assist the Pope by our prayers and oblations; the early Christians
prayed for St. Peter when he was in prison (Acts xii. 5), and in the
present day his successors are not free from persecution. Let us
therefore follow the example of the early Christians. The Pope has,
besides, to provide for the many needs of the Church, for the propa-
gation of the Gospel in heathen lands, for the maintenance of eccle-
siastical institutions, etc. Thus he requires our pecuniary assistance,
and requires it all the more since his temporary possessions have been
wrested from him. The alms collected for the Holy Father are called
Peter's pence. Catholics are too apt to* underrate or overlook tbe
importance of contributing to this object. The enemies of the
Church are wont to apply the epithet ultra montane to Catholics
who are firm adherents of the Holy See, to imply that they are want-
ing in patriotism, because they recognize as their spiritual sovereign
one who is " beyond the mountains " {ultra montes) ; but as a matter
of fact good Catholics are good patriots. Origen says : " Tbe more
a Christian fears God, the more loyal he is to the emperor." Our
duties towards our pastors are the same as towards the Holv Father :
we are bound to contribute towards their support. " The Lord
ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live by tbe Gospel "
(1 Cor. ix. 14) ; " Tbe laborer is worthy of his reward " (1 Tim. v.
13).
Our duty towards tbe ruler of our country requires us to
obey all just laws which are issued in bis name, to be loyal to
376 The Commandments,
him, to hold him in respect, and to support him by our prayers,
by the payment of taxes, and by military service if required of
us.
We are not only bound to obey the laws of the State because of
the penalty incurred by disobedience, but also for conscience' sake,
because the commands of the secular authority are the commands
of God (Rom. xiii. 2, 5). Remember how willingly Joseph and
Mary conformed to the decree of Augustus, and journeyed to Beth-
lehem to be enrolled (Luke ii.). But if the temporal power com-
mands something which God forbids, we must recall to mind the
apostles' words : " We ought to obey God rather than men " (Acts v.
29). The three Hebrew youths in the fiery furnace and the seven
Machabees obeyed this precept, likewise St. Maurice and the Theban
legion. We are however seldom called upon to do this in the present
day. It is our bounden duty to be loyal to our ruler, especially in
time of war. Soldiers are required to take the military oath. It is
never allowable to rebel against the sovereign authority in the land,
for whoso resists the higher powers, resists the ordinance of God
(Rom. xiii. 1). We are to be "subject not only to the good and
gentle, but also to the froward" (1 Pet. ii. 18). Bad rulers are gen-
erally sent by God as a chastisement for the sins of the nation. If
the monarch should be tyrannical, we must implore the help of God,
and His help will be granted when the people forsake their evil
doings. We are also to honor the ruler of our country. " Fear God.
Honor the king" (1 Pet. ii. 17). A king is spoken of as "His
Majesty," and a royal reception is prepared for him wherever he
goes. We ought, moreover, to pray for our rulers. It is acceptable
to God that prayers and supplications be made for all that are in a
bigh station (1 Tim. ii.). Besides prayer for our rulers brings a
blessing on ourselves, for by it we obtain the passing of decrees bene-
ficial to their people. At High Mass the priest prays for the sover-
eign ruler. Christ sanctioned the payment of taxes, when He said:
"Render to Caasar the things that are Caesar's " (Matt. xxii. 21). He
paid for Himself and St. Peter the tax levied on every head for the
service of the Temple ; and in order to do so, He bade St. Peter go to
the sea and cast a hook, and in the mouth of the first fish he caught
he would find the piece of silver required for the tax (Matt. xvii. 26).
It is only just that those who enjoy the peace and welfare which it
is the object of the Government to secure, should contribute towards
defraying the expenses thus incurred. Besides, the money obtained
by taxation is laid out for the good of the nation on public works,
the erection of schools and hospitals, the maintenance of the army,
of government officials, etc. Thus the members of the body supply
food to the digestive organs, whence nourishment is afforded to the
whole. It is not right to defraud the State in the matterof taxation.
Military service, as required in some lands, is for the maintenance of
domestic peace and for the protection of the country from foreign
foes. Those who in time of war offer their lives for their fellow-coun-
trymen, receive a great reward from God. Our duty towards the rep-
resentatives of the sovereign are similar to those towards himself.
" Be subject to the king as excelling, or to governors as sent by him;
for so is'the will of God " (1 Pet. ii. 14).
The Ten Commandments of God. S^
In addition to all this, the citizens ought to assist their ruler
in the government of the country, by choosing as their repre-
sentatives men of experience and Christian principles.
JSTot only the representatives of the people, but the electors of those
representatives, have a weighty responsibility in God's sight. The
former are responsible for the laws they make, the latter for the
men they choose to make the laws. In the exercise of his civil rights,
it is incumbent on the citizen to obey the will of his Lord and God,
for he will one day have to answer for the manner in which he exer-
cised that right. In all human affairs the truths of Christianity must
be our guiding light. Let no one therefore assert that religion has
nothing to do with politics. Statesmen, public functionaries, sen-
ators, members of Congress, Cabinet officers, will all have to give an
account of every word they have spoken, every vote they have given.
And electors will be responsible for the men they have returned to Con-
gress or the Senate ; consequently they should elect men of experience,
acquainted with the law, and above all, possessed of Christian prin-
ciple; for those who are destitute of all religious beliefs cannot be ex-
pected to act conscientiously, or adhere to their promises. And since
matters closely connected with the essentials of religion are often the
subject of debate, it is the duty of Catholics to vote for such candi-
dates as will act justly in dealing with ecclesiastical questions, and
have the interests of the Church at heart.
O If a Catholic, by giving his vote to a candidate who is hostile
to the Church, or by abstaining from voting, makes himself in
part responsible for the success of that candidate, he has much
to answer for.
Catholic electors ought not to return as their representative one
who is only a nominal, not a practical Catholic, who regards with
indifference or contempt the teaching and ministers of the Church.
Before going to the ballot they should ascertain the views of the
candidate upon education, marriage, the observance of Sunday, etc.;
better not to vote at all than vote for one who is hostile to religion.
It is, however, a duty to vote if thereby one can avert evil . and
promote what is good. Let no man say: My vote is of no conse-
quence ; it might turn the scale, and if not, at any rate it lessens the
defeat of the non-successful candidate. Those who are not entitled
to vote ought to pray that the result of the election may be favorable
to the cause of religion and of the country in general.
4. He who grossly offends against either the ecclesiastical or
secular authorities has to expect the severe chastisement of God
on earth, and punishment in the world to come.
Core and his companions, who rose up against the Jewish priest-
hood, were swallowed up by the earth, as an example to the people
(ISTumb. xvi.). Remember the deplorable fate of Absalom, who re-
belled against the king his father (2 Kings xviii.). Also that of
Semei, who not only insulted King David, but disobeved the man-
date forbidding him to cross the brook Cedron (3 Kings ii. 46).
High treason is now punished with a long term of imprisonment.
378 The Commandments.
" They that resist the power resist the ordinance of God and purchase
to themselves damnation" (Rom. xiii. 2).
3. THE DUTIES OF THOSE WHO ARE IN AUTHORITY.
1. The Christian ought not to strive after a position of au-
thority which he is not competent to fill (Eccles. vii. 6).
In this respect every one may well take example by Moses. He did
not aspire to the post of leader of the Hebrew people, but only as-
sumed it when called by God to do so. In fact, at first he would not
accept it, deeming himself too weak for its duties. And later on,
weary of the office, he desired to be relieved of it. Pope Gregory
the Great fled to the forests when he heard that he would probably
be elected Pope. Many eminent saints, such as St. Ambrose and St.
Augustine, accepted the episcopal dignity most reluctantly. Yet all
these men were unquestionably well qualified to fill their respective
offices. How great is the presumption of those who strive to obtain
some high post for which they lack the necessary strength and
talents, and to which they are not called by God ! Those who aspire
to dignities, to the duties of which they are unequal, are like men
who take the helm without knowing anything of navigation; or like
those who load their shoulders with burdens heavier than they can
carry. Our Lord compares such persons to thieves, who force their
way into a sheepfold (John x.). But it is not wrong for one who
feels himself competent to fulfil the duties of a post, and knows that
he may effect much good if he hold it, to endeavor to obtain it. A
Catholic may aspire to the priesthood if he has a vocation, or to a
place among the governing powers of the land if he possesses the
necessary qualifications.
2. He who is called by God to fill some post of authority,
must not on that account think much of himself, but rather
consider the responsibility laid on him.
A man may be certain that he is called by God, if an appointment
is given him without any effort on his own part to obtain it. When
St. Gregory the Great was sought for, and his hiding-place in the
forest discovered by the populace, he no longer hesitated to accept
the tiara, for he saw it to be God's will that he should do so. St.
Alphonsus did not refuse the See of St. Agatha, when Pope Clement
XIII. strongly urged him to accept it. Dignities are apparently con-
ferred by the hand of man, but in reality it is God Who bestows them
(Matt. xxv. 15). As a gardener guides the water of the spring
whithersoever he will, so God influences kings and princes to bestow
their favors on those whom He has chosen to be their recipients.
" The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord ; as the divisions of
waters, whithersoever He will He shall turn it" (Prov. xxi. 1). He
is foolish who thinks more of himself on account of the dignity con-
ferred on him, for it makes him no better in God's sight ; virtue alone
gives a man true worth and distinction. " Earthlv greatness," says
St. Thomas Aquinas "is fleeting and short-lived; like smoke, it
quickly comes and quickly vanishes; it passes away like a dream."
The Ten Commandments of God, 3?9
Virtue, on the contrary, brings everlasting glory. Many that are first
here shall be last hereafter, and the last shall be first (Matt. xix. 30).
Herod was a king, Mary and Joseph were ordinary people; but he
was a bad man, whereas they were just and beloved of God. Mary
and Joseph now fill glorious thrones in heaven ; and where is Herod ?
Many who now in the gloom of this life appear estimable and great,
will in the light of eternity, when the secrets of all hearts are dis-
closed, be seen to be evil and corrupt. " A most severe judgment will
be for those who bear rule" (Wisd. vi. 6). The higher the post, the
greater the responsibility. This truth should make the great ones of
the earth humble, conscientious, thoughtful. God requires those
who are in high places to hold their office as if they had it not ; that
is, they should regard it as only committed to their keeping for a
brief period, and should be ready at any moment to give it up.
3. Those who rule others ought to promote as far as possible
the welfare of their subjects, and treat them with impartiality
and justice.
As those who are set in authority over others reflect in their person
the power of God, they should take Him as their model ; besides, they
are His vicegerents. The plenipotentiary of the emperor is bound
in word and deed to conform to the instructions given him by his
imperial master; if he acts on his own judgment, he is reprimanded.
Governors ought above all to study the welfare of their subjects;
since this is the purpose of their appointment. The princes of the
earth are God's ministers for the good of mankind (Rom. xiii. 4).
The common weal, not the benefit of a single individual, or of a few,
ought to be their object, and they should be ready generously to sac-
rifice their own interests for the good of their subjects. Christ, the
Good Shepherd, laid down His life for His sheep (John x. 11). If a
shepherd exposes himself to hardships and dangers for the sake of
animals destined for slaughter, what ought not to be done for im-
mortal souls, whom Christ redeemed with His blood, and for whom
"account must be given? Rulers ought moreover to be impartial, and
treat all without distinction, whether rich or poor, with equal kind-
ness, remembering " there is no respect of persons with God " (Rom.
ii. 11; 2 Par. xix. 7). " God made the little and the great, and hath
equal care of all" (Wisd. vi. 8). He frequently declares Himself
to be the helper of the needy and oppressed (Ps. xlv. 2). " The
Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart " (Ps. xxxiii. 19).
The more destitute we are of human succor, the more God regards
us with His mercy. Consequently rulers ought to befriend the poor
and lowly (Is. i. 17). Unfortunately superiors are apt to think them-
selves justified in going to all lengths, so long as they do not over-
step their powers. Some proud men imagine it to be below their
dignity to treat their fellow-men as brethren ; they think they would
thereby forget what was due to them. This is by no means the case.
Those who are in authority must beware of acting unjustly, or of
allowing themselves to be corrupted by bribes (Exod. xxiii. 8). They
must not favor the rich and powerful, and be induced to give unjust
judgment, as was the unhappy Pilate. Fearful lest the Jews should
accuse him to the emperor, he sentenced Our Lord to death, though
he knew Him to be innocent. What he dreaded happened; he was
380 The Commandments.
accused and condemned and banished to France. The curse of God
rests upon unjust judges (Deut. xxvii. 19). Blessed Thomas More
used to say that if his father, whom he dearly loved, came to him with
a grievance, and on the other side was the devil whom he hated more
than words could say, provided the latter was in the right, he should
have justice at his hands. No man should ever be condemned un-
heard. If any one went to Alexander the Great with a charge against
another, he used to close one ear, saying : " I give one ear to the
accuser, the other to the accused." Even God, Who is omniscient, did
not condemn Adam until He had heard his defence and proved to him
his guilt.
4. Those who are in high places ought to set a good example.
The reason why superiors are bound to set a good example is two-
fold. On the one hand they occupy a conspicuous position, all eyes
are on them; like a city seated on a mountain, they cannot be hid
(Matt. v. 14). Others imitate them; as is the judge, so also are his
ministers (Ecclus. x. 2). Woe betide them if they lead an evil life!
On the other hand, superiors can effect much more by example than
by precept. Deeds are more eloquent than words. Rulers ought to
pray for their subjects; like the husbandman in the Gospel, they
should entreat the Lord of the vineyard to spare the barren fig-tree
and leave it a year, in the hope that with careful cultivation it
may bear fruit. Pastors are specially bound to pray for their flock,
and to offer the holy sacrifice on Sundays and holydays for the living
and the dead.
THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
In the Fifth Commandment almighty God forbids us to destroy
our own life, or that of our neighbor, or to treat the lower animals
with cruelty.
1. OUR DUTY IN RESPECT TO OUR OWN LIFE.
Many of the ceremonies in the administration of the sacraments,
ceremonies full of meaning, are performed upon the body. By these
the Church intends to inspire us with great respect for our bodies,
and to teach us their high worth and dignity.
1. Our body was created by God as an abode for our immortal
soul.
The condition of the soul is often dependent upon the condi-
tion of that abode.
When God made the human body out of lifeless earth, it was an
uninhabited tenement; but it was destined to be inhabited, therefore
God created the soul to be its occupant. St. Peter speaks of his body
as a tabernacle which he would shortly have to quit (2 Pet. i. 14). It
fares with the soul in the body as with the inmate of a house. If
the house be unhealthy, the dweller in it falls sick. Our body is like
the shell of an egg; if the shell be injured, the young bird within is
hurt; so if our mortal frame sustains injury, the spirit, the noble
The Ten Commandments of God. 381
inmate of that dwelling, suffers with it. The Romans had a proverb :
A healthy mind in a healthy body. Our body is not our own, it
belongs to God (1 Cor. vi. 13). It belongs to God, not only because
He created it, but because Christ purchased it with a great price (1
Cor. vi. 20). We are bound to take care of what is the property of
another. The tenant of a hired house has no right to damage or
destroy that house, so we are not at liberty to injure or destroy our
body, the abode of the soul, created by God and belonging to Him.
We must not do with our body what we will, but what God wills.
Our body is an implement of the soul, intrusted by God to
our keeping, to be made instrumental in amassing merits for
eternity.
Like all other instruments, our bodies can be misused. Hence St.
Paul warns Christian people not to yield their members as instru-
ments of iniquity unto sin (Rom. vi. 13). As God will require us
to give account of the manner in which we have employed the talents
given us (Matt. xxv. 19), so we shall have to answer for the em-
ployment of the body, which the soul informs and makes instru-
mental in the performance of the duties of our calling. Our Lord
told St. Gertrude that after the resurrection, on the members of the
body employed in His service surpassing dignity and excellence would
be conferred.
2. Since the life and health of the body are of great importance
for the life of the soul and for our eternal salvation, we are bound
to take precautions for the preservation of our health and of our
life.
By means of cleanliness, temperance, regularity, industry,
and the use of remedies in case of sickness.
Health is worth more to us than vast riches (Ecclus. xxx. 16).
For the longer we keep our health and our life, the more treasures
we can lay up for eternity, where neither the rust nor moth doth
consume, where thieves do not break through, nor steal (Matt. vi.
20). If we thoughtlessly do anything to shorten our life, we defraud
ourselves of a part of our seed-time. The eagle takes the utmost care
of its egg, not for ,the sake of the shell, but of the young eagle in-
closed in the egg; so we should take care of our body because of the
•soul that dwells within it. Cleanliness is to be observed in our person,
our apparel, the rooms we inhabit; temperance in eating and drink-
ing. Abstemiousness promotes health and prolongs life. (See what
has been said on the advantages of fasting.) Many men of weak
physique naturally, have so increased their strength bv abstemious-
ness that they have been capable of immense activity. St. Paul in his
epistles often mentions his bodily weakness. Regularity is to be
observed in regard to meals, the time of going to rest and rising
in the morning; in one's work and in the arrangement of one's time.
Above all, let us never be unemployed. By work we may not only
earn our daily bread, but do much towards keeping ourselves in
health. Work circulates the blood, and gives an appetite for food.
Stagnant water becomes foul, and the blood of the idler is apt to get
382 The Commandments.
into a bad state. Yet we must not overtax our strength with work;
moderate labor invigorates, excessive toil ruins the powers of our
body. Finally, it is our duty to have recourse to remedies in case
of sickness. It is sinful, if any one is dangerously ill, not to call in
medical aid, and employ remedies. " Honor the physician for the
need thou hast of him, for the Most High hath created him " (Ecclus.
xxxviii. 1). "The Most High hath created medicines out of the
earth, and a wise man will not abhor them " (v. 4). However, if the
cure is too costly, or if it involves acute suffering, it may be for-
borne.
Our solicitude concerning the preservation of our health and
of our life must not, however, be so great as to make us forgetful
of our eternal salvation.
The good things of time, such as life and bodily well-being, are
not intrinsically valuable and to be desired, but only in so far as they
are conducive to our eternal welfare. " The Spirit of God does not
remain in a man forever, because he is flesh " (Gen. vi. 3), i.e.,
fleshly-minded. " The wisdom of the flesh is death ; it is an enemy to
God" (Rom. viii. 6). The more the body is studied and pampered,
the more the soul is neglected and ruined (St. Augustine). Hence
Our Lord admonishes us : " Be not solicitous for meat and raiment.
For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these
things ; He feeds the birds of the air, and clothes the lilies of the field,
though they labor not: are not you of more value than they? " (Matt,
vi. 25, 32).
3. Furthermore we are under a strict obligation to do nothing
that tends to destroy health or life.
Consequently it is a sin to rashly hazard one's life, wantonly
to injure one's health, or to take one's own life.
1. Those persons generally risk their life without a thought
who perform hazardous feats, or who neglect due precautions.
Acrobats, equestrian performers, lion-tamers, and the like commit
sin unless they take all necessary precautions to avoid fatal acci-
dents; the professions they follow are objectionable on moral grounds,
and even unlawful. Performers of this character are too often disso-
lute in their manners, and their hazardous feats frequently cost them
their life. The same may be said of those who are foolhardy, and
wilfully risk their lives in athletic sports, or public games, such as
the bull-fights which are the national amusement in Spain. Want of
ordinary prudence is also highly reprehensible, as for instance, to
cross the line when a train is approaching, by which many have lost
their lives, or to stand under a tree, or otherwise expose one's self dur-
ing a thunderstorm. Again, in the case of infectious disease great
precaution is necessary; only the priest, the doctor, and the nurse,
should be allowed access to the sick-room. There are other ways
whereby one may place one's life in jeopardy: by drinking cold water
or taking a cold bath when violently heated; playing with loaded
fire-arms; jumping into or out of a train while it is in motion;
touching the electric wires with the bare hand, or hanging on behind
a carriage as children are wont to do, with the chance of getting
The Ten Commandments of God. 383
their limbs crushed by the wheels. Therefore be prudent and never
risk your life rashly.
2. Some persons are in the habit of injuring their health by
indulging to an excess in amusements, by vanity in dress, and
partaking too freely of unwholesome food.
By excess in amusement is meant frequent playing and dancing
all night, smoking and drinking immoderately, etc. " By surfeiting
many have perished" (Ecclus. xxxvii. 34). By vanity in dress is
meant tight lacing, which by undue pressure upon the vital organs,
deranges their action, and has even caused sudden death. The
fashion of squeezing the feet into pointed shoes is also injurious.
Spirits, if taken in large quantities, or even strong decoctions of tea
or coffee, are decidedly prejudicial to the digestion and the nerves.
3. Suicides are generally men who are devoid of religious
beliefs, who have got into trouble or committed some great sin,
and wTho despair of God's mercy and assistance; they are some-
times not accountable for their actions, and consequently not
to be blamed for them.
King Saul lost all hope when he was grievously wounded and sur-
rounded by his enemies; he then cast himself on his sword (1 Kings
xxxi.). The keeper of the prison at Philippi, greatly alarmed at see-
ing the doors of the prison open, wherein St. Paul was confined, was
about to kill himself (Acts xvi. 27). Judas, in despair at the enor-
mity of his crime, went and hanged himself (Matt, xxvii. 5). How
often we read of people destroying themselves because they have lost
their all at the gambling-table, or because they have ruined their
character by embezzling money, or because they cannot obtain the
object of their illicit passion. But often madness, or overtaxed
nerves, cause men to take their own lives without knowing what they
do. Let us beware, therefore, how we hastily judge and condemn
them. The prevalence of suicide is however principally and generally
to be ascribed to the lack of religion, of a firm belief in a future life,
of confidence in God's willingness to aid the unfortunate and to
pardon the repentant sinner. Experience teaches that as religion
decreases in a land, the number of suicides increases. The ancients
considered self-destruction to be dishonorable and blameworthy; they
cut off the right hand of the self-murderer, and buried it apart from
the body. The Church denies Christian burial to one who has died
by his own hand, unless insanity had rendered him irresponsible.
The refusal of the burial rites is not intended as a condemnation of
the individual, but to express horror of the crime, and to act as a
deterrent to others. A man's life is not his own, it belongs to God,
Who takes it away at His will (Deut. xxxii. 39). Thus self-destruc-
tion is a presumptuous encroachment upon the divine rights, and
shows contempt for God, by flinging back at Him His greatest gift to
man, which is life. The suicide also defrauds society, whereof he is
a member; he wrongs his family, by bringing sorrow and shame upon
it; he cruelly injures himself and gives scandal to others. It is even
worse to take one's own life than that of another, because in the
former case one escapes the punishment of the law. Far from being
384 The Commandments.
an heroic deed, it is a most cowardly act; real heroism is shown by
bearing bravely the miseries of life. Besides, instead of obtaining
relief from suifering, the suicide only falls into what is far worse.
The godless press of the day will excuse the self-murderer, saying:
He expiated his crime with his life. Instead of expiating a crime,
he adds another to it.
4. On the other hand it is not merely right, but even meri-
torious, to sacrifice one's bodily health or life in order to gain
everlasting life, or to rescue one's fellow-man from physical or
spiritual death.
All the holy martyrs preferred to sacrifice their life rather than
commit sin. By so doing they merited life eternal, for Our Lord
says : " He that shall lose his life for My sake shall find it " (Matt.
x. 39). Witness Eleazar, the Machabees, St. Lawrence. Missionaries
in heathen lands are in constant danger of death, and many of them
ruin their health by the hardship and exertions they undergo. St.
Francis Xavier, the apostle of the Indies, was, at the close of the
day, so exhausted with preaching and administering Baptism, that he
could scarcely speak or move his arm. Yet this is not wrong, but
most praiseworthy. The same may be said of priests, doctors, and
nurses who attend those who have an infectious disease. St. Aloysius
and St. Charles Borromeo died of the plague, caught while nursing
the sick in the hospital. It is also permissible to risk one's life to
rescue any one who has, for instance, fallen into the fire or the water,
or to expose one's self in battle for the defence of one's country.
And a human soul is of such great value, that all earthly goods, nay
life itself, should be sacrificed to save it. Christ gave us an example
by dying upon the cross for the salvation of mankind. Of course in
performing an heroic act of this nature, we ought not to seek death —
that would be sinful — but only to think of the deed itself, of which
death may be an accidental accompaniment.
2. OUR DUTY IN REGARD TO THE LIFE OF OUR
NEIGHBOR.
A strict obligation is laid upon us to avoid everything that
may destroy the health or life of our neighbor.
1. Accordingly it is sinful to wish ill to one's neighbor, to
injure his health, to challenge him or accept a duel, or to put him
to death unjustly and willingly.
1. He who hates his neighbor, wishes him dead; hence
hatred often leads to murder.
Hatred suggests revenge. Witness Esau, who sought to kill his
brother Jacob (Gen. xxvii. 41) ; King Saul, who repeatedly endeav-
ored to slay David (1 Kings xxiv.) ; Joseph's brethren, who would
actually have put Joseph to death, had not Ruben interfered (Gen.
xxxvii.). There is little distinction to be made between hatred and
murder; in God's sight the will is the same as the deed. Hence St.
John says: "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer" (1 John
Hi. 15). Our Lord declares that he who is angry with his brother
The Ten Commandments of God. 385
is in danger of the judgment (Matt. v. 22). Real hatred is a mortal
sin, whether the evil one wishes to one's neighbor be great or small.
However it is no proof of hatred to detest the evil qualities one sees
in one's neighbor, or to abhor his conduct, for this is not incompatible
with affection for him personally.
2. Men often injure their neighbor's health by quarrels and
blows, by the adulteration of articles of food, by dangerous
practical jokes, and culpable negligence.
By quarrelling one excites one's neighbor, and deprives him of
interior peace and content, thus destroying his well-being. Conten-
tion and quarrels cause shedding of blood (Ecclus. xxviii. 13). Blows
often cause severe pain or bodily injury. For assault one may be
arrested and imprisoned. The practice of adulterating articles of
food is only too common nowadays ; flour, milk, butter, wine, beer, etc.,
are mingled with foreign substances, often of a deleterious nature, or
a manufactured imitation is sold for the genuine article. As these
adulterated goods contain little nourishment, and much that is prej-
udicial to health, tradesmen who thus defraud the public deserve
condign punishment. In the Middle Ages they were burned, together
with their falsified wares. Practical jokes, such as tripping any one
up, may cause fatal injuries. Culpable carelessness often occasions
serious accidents; e.g., furious driving, heedlessness in the handling
of fire-arms, neglecting to warn passers-by if anything is likely to
fall, etc.
3. Duelling is nothing short of murder. The Church pun-
ishes it by excommunicating the combatants, and denying Chris-
tian burial to those who are killed (Council of Trent, 25, 19).
By the mere fact of challenging to single combat, or accepting a
challenge, a man becomes excommunicated; the same holds good
of those who take the part of seconds, or who sanction the duel by
their presence. Let no one say, he has given his opponent permission
to kill him; he cannot give another a right which he does not himself
possess. A Catholic is bound to refuse to fight a duel, even if he
thereby incurs the imputation of cowardice, or if he thereby lose the
chance of promotion. The duellist is guilty of twofold murder; he
intends to kill his. antagonist, and at the same time he risks his own
life. While he imagines he is repairing an insult to his honor, he
loses the respect of all sensible persons, for he shows himself to be
enslaved by pride, resentment, and cruelty. Skill in the use of
weapons will not avenge an insult; the duellist should seek satisfac-
tion in the law-courts. But let him who would acquire great merit in
God's sight, follow the teaching and example of Our Redeemer, and
not seek to avenge himself, but bear injustice patiently, for this is
the greatest heroism that can be imagined. It is noteworthy that
many of the ablest generals and monarchs were strongly opposed to
duelling, and prohibited it under severe penalties. It is related of
Gustavus Adolphus, that he once yielded to the request of two
officers of high rank, and permitted a duel ; but at the appointed hour
he appeared on the scene with a military escort, and said: " Now
fight if you will, but woe betide you if one falls, for the other shall
386 Hie Commandments.
instantly be beheaded." A reconciliation took place at once be-
tween the two officers. Frederick II. of Prussia used to expel duel-
lists from the army, saying : " I want brave soldiers, not execu-
tioners."
4. "Whoso kills his neighbor unjustly and intentionally, com-
mits a heinous sin. Such a one is called a murderer.
Cain was a murderer; he slew his brother Abel. God Himself
said that the voice of Abel's blood cried to Him from the earth for
vengeance (Gen. iv. 10). The murderer robs his victim of the
highest earthly good, his life; he deprives him of the opportunity of
gaining merits for eternity, and of preparing himself for death.
But a man who kills unintentionally is not a murderer (Deut. xix.
4), yet he is seldom free from sin, as a fatal blow is generally the
result of culpable inadvertence. The executioner appointed to carry
out the sentence of the judge is not a murderer, since he does not
act unjustly.
2. He commits a still greater sin who destroys the spiritual
life of his neighbor, either by tempting him to evil or by giving
scandal.
" If thou persuade thy neighbor to sin," St. Augustine says,
" thou art his murderer." And he who gives scandal is guilty of
murder. ISTay, even of a greater sin than murder, because the life of
the soul is of far more value than the life of the body. If a thousand
men were put to death, less harm would be done than if one soul were
condemned to everlasting perdition. If the blood of Abel cried to
heaven for vengeance on his brother, how much more will the blood
of the lost soul cry for vengeance on its murderer. How cursed are
they who are the cause of so great a calamity to another ! Tempta-
tion and scandal are all the more fatal because the evil is handed
on from one to another. He who has been led into sin, leads another
into it in his turn, as the bird that the fowler has entrapped serves
as a decoy to bring others into the snare. Like an avalanche, small
in the beginning, but increasing in its course, carrying vast masses
of snow with it into the abyss, the tempter drags countless souls with
him to perdition. Others corrupt their fellow-men by the scandal
they give, as leaven pervades the whole of the flour in which it is
placed.
Temptation is the endeavor, by subtle means, to incite a man
to sin.
The tempter is like the devil, who by his wiles, led our first parents
in paradise to disobey God. He goes to work craftily, like the fisher-
man who catches fish with a baited hook, or the fowler, who lays traps
and spreads bird-lime to ensnare birds. In the case of almost all the
holy martyrs before their execution, attempts were made to induce
them, either by blandishments and promises, or by threats and tor-
ture, to abjure their faith and transgress the commandment of God.
What trouble the Proconsul took with the aged Bishop Polycarp;
what efforts the King of Bohemia made to force St. John Xepomucene
to violate the seal of confession! He offered him a bishopric, he
The Ten Commandments of God. 38?
put him to torture, and finally cast him into the Molclau. Those
who dissuade others from what is good also deserve the name of
tempter. Temptation is the devil's own work. He does not appear
in person to seduce mankind, for then every one would recoil from
him; he leaves men to do his business for him, and thus attains his
end more certainly.
> Scandal is given when by some sinful word, deed, or omis-
sion, we shock our neighbor, and perhaps cause him to sin.
For instance, a man gives scandal if he is seen in public in a
state of inebriation, if he talks indecent talk, makes use of oaths in
the presence of children, eats meat openly on Friday, does servile
work on Sunday, behaves indecorously in church, publishes ungodly
books, decries religion and the ministers of religion in the papers
and periodicals, etc. What he does instigates another to do the
same; this is true most of all in regard to children, who are sure to
imitate anything wrong which they see done by their parents or
elders. He who gives scandal is like a man who digs a pit, into
which another is likely to fall and break his neck. Scandal is an
offence against the love of one's neighbor. That it is a mortal sin
we gather from Our Lord's words concerning him who scandalizes
others : " It were better for him that a mill-stone should be hanged
about his neck and that he should be drowned in the depth of the
sea" (Matt, xviii. 6). Again, Our Lord says that at the end of the
world His angels shall gather out of His kingdom all who have
given scandal, and cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. xiii. 41). But if the scandal
given is slight, or unintentional, it is not a great sin, or is no sin at
all.
We ought, in as far as possible, to avoid giving scandal, and
for this end we must observe the following rules:
1. We ought to abstain from actions which are not only
lawTful, but good in themselves, which are of counsel but not
of precept, if they may possibly give scandal.
If any one is dispensed from the Friday abstinence on account of
bad health, he should refrain from eating meat before others, if he
knows that they will take scandal at it. And if this is impossible,
he should explain to those who are at table with him why he eats it ;
if they take scandal then, he is not to blame. St. Paul declares:
" If meat scandalize my brother, I will never eat flesh " (1 Cor. viii.
13). And the aged Eleazar preferred death to even appearing to
eat swine's flesh, lest young persons might be scandalized, and be
deceived into thinking he was gone over to the life of the heathen
(2 Mach. vi. 24).
, 2. We must, howrever, in no case omit any act wdiich is com-
manded by God, even if others will take scandal at it; yet we
should in as far as possible prevent the scandal by some words
of explanation or instruction.
By doing what the law of God enjoins on us, we do not give
388 The Commandments.
scandal, but on the contrary, a good example. The fault lies with the
one who takes scandal at a good action; no one in fact will do so
unless he be corrupted with vice. The obligations imposed by the
laws of the Church, such as hearing Mass on Sundays, approaching
the sacraments at Easter, may be set aside occasionally, if others
will take offence by their observance; yet one should endeavor to
obviate this, by explaining the duty to be fulfilled. Purely human
laws do not bind as a rule, if great harm may be done by keeping
them ; for Christ says : " My yoke is sweet and My burden is light "
(Matt. xi. 30) . Yet it is best to explain matters, and then act boldly ;
this often prevents difficulties being raised. It is, however, impossible
always to avoid scandal, for evil-minded persons take offence at what
is well meant. Our Lord bade His apostles not to heed such people :
" Let them alone ; they are blind and leaders of the blind " (Matt. xv.
14).
3. It is, however, lawful to wound or even to kill our fellow-
man, if he threatens to take our life by violence, or anything that
is absolutely indispensable to our life, and we have no other means
of defence. This is called the right of self-defence.
Self-defence is not wrong, because our object is not to take
another man's life, but simply to preserve our own; and the moral
worth of an action is determined by that which is, not by that which
is not its object. We are permitted to defend, but by no means to
avenge ourselves; hence if we can save ourselves by flight, we ought
to do so. If it is enough to wound our adversary we must stop short
there. Above all, a woman is justified in defending herself against
any one who attempts to violate her chastity. We are also permitted
to kill any one in order to save the life of a third party; this Moses
did when he slew the Egyptian who was striking one of the He-
brews (Exod. ii. 12). It is only lawful to put to death one who un-
justly seizes our property, if he lays hands on what is absolutely nec-
essary to our existence, for then it is our life that we are defending.
It is not right to shoot a robber who carries off something of no
great value; nor can we plead the right of self-defence if it is only
our honor that is wrongfully attacked.
The officers of justice are warranted in punishing evil-doers
with death; and soldiers act lawfully in wounding and killing
the enemy in time of warfare.
The officers oi justice, in as far as they stand in the place of
God, have the right to sentence evil-doers to capital punishment.
St. Paul says the higher powers bear not the sword in vain, but as
avengers to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil (Rom. xiii. 4).
The authority of the magistrate is God's authority; when he condemns
a criminal, it is not he who condemns him, but God, just as the sword
is not answerable for the blow it strikes, but the hand is that wields
the sword. Yet the judge must not act arbitrarily; he must only
sentence the criminal to death when the welfare of society demands
it. Human society is a body of which each individual is a member;
and as a diseased limb has to be amputated in order to save the body,
so criminals must be executed to save society. As a matter of course
The Ten Commandments of God. 389
culprit's guilt must be proved; better let the guilty go free than
condemn the innocent. It is an error to suppose that the Church
advocates capital punishment on the principle of retaliation; an eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is a principle of Judaism, not of
Christianity. The Church does not like to see blood shed, she desires
that every sinner should have time to amend. She permits, but does
not approve capital punishment. The military profession is not un-
lawful; we are not told in the Gospels that soldiers were exhorted to
leave the army, but only that they were admonished to be content
with their pay, and to do violence to no man. God, by the lips of
Melchisedech, blessed Abraham after he had made war upon the
kings who had robbed Lot (Gen. xiv.). The soldier must not, how-
ever, allow himself to treat cruelly those who are disabled in battle.
The Church forbids her ministers to use deadly weapons, as this is
incompatible with their sacred calling.
4. He who has wrongfully injured his neighbor, either physi-
cally or spiritually, is bound to repair the harm done to the utmost
of his power.
If any one has been the means of inflicting bodily harm upon his
neighbor, he must pay the doctor and all the expenses of his illness,
make good the loss of his earnings, etc. If he has killed him he must
provide for his family. If he has given scandal to his neighbor, or
led him into sin, he must strive to counteract the evil consequences
by a good example, prayer, instruction, etc. Unless he does this he
will not obtain pardon from God, and the priest's absolution will be
invalid.
What are the Reasons which ought to Deter us from Taking our
own Life or that of our Neighbor?
1. He who needlessly imperils or seeks to put an end to his
own life, is often punished by God with acute bodily suffering
here and sometimes by eternal damnation hereafter.
We constantly read of fatalities and sad accidents resulting from
foolhardinessin risking one's life. The indulgence of the passions
also often brings on some painful malady. On the other hand some
saints permanently injured themselves by excessive and unwise aus-
terities and regretted it afterwards.
2. He who takes the life of another is tortured by terrible
pangs of conscience, often dies a violent death, and is everlast-
ingly damned.
Cain was a fugitive on the earth after the murder of his brother
Abel (Gen. iv. 16). Murderers like him find no rest. As a rule, they
die a violent death; either they are sentenced to death by the law,
or they destroy themselves, or they fall by the hand of another.
Whosoever shall shed man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed
(Gen. ix. 6). All that take the sword shall perish by the sword (Matt,
xxvi. 52). Divine justice frequently punishes the sinner in the way
that he has sinned. The Hebrews in Egypt were commanded to
throw their infants into the JSTile; the king and all his army were
390 The Commandments.
swallowed up in the Red Sea. Retribution speedily overtook those
who had condemned Our Lord to death : Judas and Pilate put an end
to themselves, and in the year 70, no less than a million of the Jewish
people were slain. The persecutors of the Christians in many cases
died a violent death : Nero by his own hand, Julian the Apostate on
the battle-field. Murderers shall not obtain the kingdom of God
(Gal. v. 21) ; they shall have their portion in the pool burning with
fire and brimstone (Apoc. xxi, 8). A similar fate has frequently been
known to overtake heresiarchs, and those who by word or writings
have undermined the faith of others, and thus incurred the guilt of
spiritual murder.
3. He who hates his neighbor loses his peace of mind, and
becomes displeasing to God; his prayers are not heard, and his
lot is eternal perdition.
One who cherishes feelings of animosity and meditates vengeance
is a stranger to peace ; he is continually in a ferment ; the thoughts of
his heart are a perpetual scourge to him. That man can have no
concord with Christ, who lives in discord with Christians. If peace-
makers are called the children of God, those who stir up strife and
dissension are children of Satan. As long as the thorn rankles in the
wound, no remedies will heal it, nor will prayer avail the Christian
while deadly hatred holds a place in his heart. Our Lord says : " If
thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy
brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy offering before
the altar and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming
thou shalt offer thy gift " (Matt. v. 23, 24). Feelings of hatred ought
to be suppressed at once. Let not the sun go down upon your anger
(Eph. iv. 26). A dislocated limb can easily be got back into its place,
if this be done promptly, but if some time be allowed to elapse, it
'becomes a difficult matter to set it right. So it is with hatred; if
a reconciliation takes place immediately, the former friendly feelings
are restored without trouble; but if it is delayed, anger gets the
mastery of us, and we think it beneath us to seek a reconciliation.
"If," says St. Augustine, "thy dwelling were infested with snakes,
thou wouldst hasten to rid thyself of them; now hatred and enmity
are venomous serpents; wilt thou not banish them from thy heart,
which is the temple of the Holy Ghost ? "
3. OUR CONDUCT IN REGARD TO THE LOWER
ANIMALS.
The lower animals are created by God for the service of
man.
The benefits we derive from the animals are these : They supply us
with what is essential to life, e.g., food, clothing, etc.; they help us
in our work, they cheer us by their amusing ways, their song, their
beauty, etc. Some instruct us by their example; bees, for instance,
incite us to industry, storks to filial affection, sheep to the practice of
patience, etc. Moreover they all proclaim the omnipotence, the wis-
dom, the bounty of their Creator.
The Ten Commandments of God. 391
In our relations to animals it is our duty to care for their well-
being, to refrain from tormenting them, not to kill any useful
animal without a special reason, and finally not to treat them
with exaggerated tenderness. .
We ought to take care for the well-being of animals. " The just
regardeth the lives of his beasts, but the bowels of the wicked are
cruel " (Prov. xii. 10). Those who keep animals are bound to provide
them with necessary food, to keep them clean, and in good condition.
Our Lord says : " Not a sparrow shall fall on to- the ground without
your Father" (Matt. x. 29). This should teach us to care for the
welfare of animals. Some treat brute beasts as if they had no feel-
ing, overtaxing their powers, beating them unmercifully, not giving
them enough to eat, or depriving them of the one day of rest out of
the week which the law of God ordains for them (Exod. xx. 8-11).
Those who have to kill animals for the table, and medical men who
make experiments with them, ought to be careful to cause them no
needless suffering. It is not right, either in the interests of science or
for the sake of amusement, to give pain that can be avoided. Wanton
cruelty is to be condemned ; so is the destruction of harmless or
useful animals. Noxious insects and dangerous animals must of
course be killed, but others that are not hurtful, but rather useful,
should be spared. Finally, animals are not to be pampered and petted
over much. There are people who make an idol of some pet animal,
preferring it to their fellow-man, and devoting every thought to it.
Such persons resemble the ancient Egyptians, who worshipped cats,
calves, bulls, etc.
Men who are either cruel to animals or ridiculously fond of
them, often are very hard-hearted towards their fellow-men.
Children who take pleasure in teasing animals torment men
when they are grown up. All who were tyrants in after years, were
cruel to animals in their youth. Criminals have sometimes confessed
upon the scaffold that their course of crime began with torturing
animals as children. On the other hand we often find people who
pamper and show great affection for animals, utterly hard-hearted in
regard to their neighbors.
Both extremes, cruelty to animals and foolish fondness for
them, are at variance with the order that God has established
in the universe.
To torture animals wantonly is an abuse of the sovereignty given
to man by the Creator over the brute creation. Man thus becomes a
tyrant, and sometimes it pleases God to make him suffer in the
same way wherein he made beasts suffer. For instance, a peasant
who used to strike his horses on a tender part of the foot, causing
them intense pain, was later on crippled by gout in the feet, being con-
fined to his bed for years. He then acknowledged and deplored his
fault. The Areopagus of Athens once condemned a child to death
who was guilty of wanton cruelty to animals, for they judged that no
good could be expected of one who, at a tender age, displayed such
evil qualities. Exaggerated fondness and solicitude for animals
is also a violation of the appointed order of nature.
392 The Commandments.
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
1. In the Sixth Commandment almighty God prohibits every-
thing that might stain our own purity or that of our neighbor.
One cannot enlarge upon sins against the Sixth Commandment,
for the mere mention of what is impure takes the bloom off our inno-
cence. Hence St. Paul exhorts the Ephesians : " All uncleanness,
let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints "
(Eph. v. 3). Nevertheless Holy Scripture warns the faithful re-
peatedly and emphatically against these sins, so the Church cannot
pass them by in silence. For this vice perhaps causes the destruc-
tion of more souls than any other; in fact among the lost souls in
hell, few will be found entirely free from it.
God more especially forbids:
1. Impure thoughts and desires.
Evil thoughts are to be resisted both on account of their sinful-
ness in themselves, and because they lead to immodest actions. They
are like a spark which occasions a great conflagration, unless it be
immediately extinguished. St. Jerome compares unchastity to a
snake, whose head must be instantly crushed, before it can eject its
deadly poison. Evil thoughts must accordingly be banished at once ;
this is done most readily by diverting the mind, or having recourse
to prayer. (See what was said about temptation.) As long as evil
thoughts are displeasing to us, they are not sinful; we are only to
blame if we take pleasure in them. " Evil thoughts are an abomina-
tion to the Lord" (Prov. xv. 26). One ought to flee from unchaste
thoughts as one would flee from an assassin, for they cause the death
of the soul. Impure thoughts, if entertained, give rise to impure
desires, i.e., the wish or longing for the sin suggested. As the tree
springs from the root, so evil actions spring from lust. Lust is the
consent of the will, and this is as really sinful, as Our Lord says, as is
the deed itself (Matt. v. 28).
2. Impure words.
A man whose conversation is unclean has a thoroughly polluted
conscience. Unchaste words are a sure sign of unchaste manners.
And those who take pleasure in listening to improper conversation,
are in great danger of falling into sins of unchastity. St. Louis,
on his death-bed, exhorted his son so to regulate his conversation,
that if all the world heard what he said, he would not have cause to
blush for it. " The tongue is indeed a little member, and boasteth
great things" (Jas. iii. 5). "Many have fallen by the edge of the
sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue"
(Ecclus. xxviii. 22.)
3. Impure actions.
These acts are differently designated, according as they are com-
mitted by the unmarried (Deut. xxii. 21), the married (Lev. xx. 10),
persons related to one another (1 Cor. v. 1), or as they are sins against
nature (Pom. i. 20).
The Ten Commandments of God, 393
4. Immodest looks.
Bold looks are forbidden, because they lead to sin, just as a parent
forbids his child to play with edged tools. The sin on which the eye
looks with pleasure soon takes possession of the heart. " Many have
perished by the beauty of a woman, and hereby lust is enkindled as
a fire" (Ecclus. ix. 9). He who observes no custody of the eyes, is
like a driver who pays no heed to his horses ; he will be carried away
and dragged to destruction. Or like a fortress of which the gates
are not guarded; the enemy soon effects an entrance through them.
David would not have had so much to bewail, if he had kept watch
over his eyes. "Look not round about thee in the ways of a city"
(Ecclus. ix. 7).
5. Looking at immodest pictures, going to improper plays,
and reading books of an immoral tendency.
Immodest pictures and plays corrupt more surely than impure
conversation, because what one sees makes a deeper impression than
what one hears. The indiscriminate reading of novels is td be
avoided; there are many (and these are the most dangerous of all),
which under a false semblance of propriety, kindle the passions, and
thus do more harm than works of an openly immoral character.
6. Immodesty in dress and excessive finery.
Those who dress immodestly are the devil's instruments for the
ruin of souls. Vanity and love of dress are powerful factors in
Satan's service; for women who deck their person to attract men
dare not presume to say that they are chaste and pure of heart ; their
very appearance gives them the lie. The longing for admiration does
not come from a simple heart; it is a snare to entrap others into
vice. It is a bad sign for a woman to be overdressed ; those who make
their toilet of paramount importance hold virtue cheap. " Let
women adorn themselves with modesty and sobriety, not with plaited
hair, or gold or pearls or costly attire" (1 Tim. ii. 9).
2. Sins against the Sixth Commandment of God are for the
most part very grievous in God's sight and accordingly are se-
verely punished by Him.
Remember the Deluge and the fate of Sodom and Gomorrha. The
chastisements God inflicts for the sin of unchastity have already
been spoken of under the subject of the deadly sins. From the place
given to the Sixth Commandment in the Decalogue it may be in-
ferred that transgressions of this precept are on a par with murder
and theft. Unhappily many of the plays performed in the theatre
in the present day represent sins against the Sixth Commandment
in an attractive light.
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT OE GOD.
1. In the Seventh Commandment almighty God forbids us to
wrong our neighbor in his goods and property.
By property is meant all that a man needs for his subsistence
394 The Commandments.
and all that lie possesses as his own: e.g., his money, clothes, pro-
visions, house, land, etc.
1. THE BIGHT OF POSSESSION.
1. Earthly goods are necessary to man's subsistence, such as
food, clothes, a dwelling-place, money, etc.
1. Consequently every man is justified in striving to gain
earthly goods after a just manner, and in possessing them as his
personal property.
Since it is the natural right of every man to preserve his own life,
he is justified in gaining for himself and keeping as his own, those
external goods which are indispensable to his existence. If every
moment were occupied in providing for his own maintenance, he
would be in the direst destitution, if sickness or misfortune befell
him. The natural law prompts him to provide for such contingen-
cies. Besides, were every moment engrossed with the business of self-
maintenance, there would be no time to attend to his eternal inter-
ests. Furthermore, a man is bound to provide for those who are de-
pendent upon him, and this he could not do if he himself lived from
hand to mouth. God commanded our first parents in paradise to " fill
the earth and subdue it" (Gen. i. 28). Cain and Abel had separate
possessions; each brought of his own to offer sacrifice. All trust-
worthy information respecting the earliest ages of humanity bears
evidence to the possession of personal property. It was necessary
that each should have his own, otherwise mankind could not have
been at peace. There would have been continual strife and conten-
tion. Without the right of possession, the incentive to labor would
be wanting. The holding of property is therefore an ordinance of
God, just as much as marriage and legal authority. But it cannot be
said that the distribution of wealth, as it is under existing circum-
stances, is in accordance with the will of God. It could not be His
will that a small minority should enjoy a superfluity, while an over-
whelming majority of His children should live in poverty and destitu-
tion. This great inequality is the result of sin.
2. Personal property is justly obtained when it is either ac-
quired by labor or by gift.
Nature does not give man the right to certain goods ; the right to
possess them must be acquired. It is acquired in the first place by
labor. God has ordained that the earth should not yield what is
requisite for the maintenance of human life without cultivation.
It is a violation of all justice to deprive the cultivator of the soil
of what he has won by the sweat of his brow (Lev. xiii.). If the
earth is the Lord's and all they that dwell therein, because He is the
Maker of it, that which man has made must rightly belong to him.
Property as a rule, is gained by work, but sometimes it is a free gift.
God Himself bestows property. He promised the land of Chanaan to
Abraham and his posterity as a possession (Gen. xii. 7). The patri-
archs bequeathed their possessions to their eldest sons by a solemn
The Ten Commandments of God. 395
benediction. In the present day lands and property of all kinds pass
into the hands of others by inheritance or bequest. Every man
should make a will, in order to prevent disputes should he be suddenly
called out of this life. In primitive times property was acquired by
taking possession of unowned land ; and now valuables, if unclaimed,
may be appropriated by their finder.
1. On the other hand, this commandment forbids the ac-
quisition of property by unjust means, i.e., by taking away what
belongs to our neighbor.
Property is unjustly acquired by theft, robbery, cheating, etc.
2. The State has not the right to take from any man his
personal property, but it is empowered to impose restrictions
on the acquisition and disposal of personal property.
The State has not a paramount command over all property. It
has a certain right of supervision, but not of disposal. The people
do not exist for the Government, but the Government exists for the
people ; consequently far from wronging any man, it ought to aim at
the welfare of each and all of its subjects. Therefore if the State
compels an individual to give up his property in the public interest,
it is bound to give him compensation. Nor has the State the right
to seize ecclesiastical property. To rob a man is theft, to rob God
is sacrilege, and for this the penalty is excommunication. Restitu-
tion must be made before the Holy See can give absolution. Since
it is the business of the secular authorities, under God, to provide
for the well-being of their subjects, the Government is empowered by
wise legislation, to introduce gradual changes in regard to the hold-
ing of property. It can impose such taxes as are necessary for the
common weal upon its subjects, in proportion to their means. Thus
by heavy taxation of wealthy capitalists it can alleviate the poverty
of the working classes. Moreover, St. Thomas Aquinas says this
world's riches are only intended for the preservation of human life.
-This end is not attained if they are already in the possession of indi-
viduals ; therefore every one is bound of his abundance to assist those
who are in want. The superfluity of the rich is the property
of the poor. Thus the Government, in exercising its right of
guardianship, can do something towards the just distribution of
superfluous wealth.'
Sins against the Seventh Commandment.
The Seventh Commandment expressly forbids: Theft, robbery,
cheating, usury, injuring the property of another, detention of
goods that have been found or lent, and the non-payment of debts.
1. Theft is the secret purloining of another man's goods con-
trary to the rational will of their owner.
Judas was a thief; he had the purse, and appropriated a part of the
common money (John xii. 6). Few sins are more common than
theft, and this fact may be accounted for in the first place by the
39G The Commandments.
covetousness of the human heart, and also by the abundant opportu-
nities afforded for stealing. Occasion makes the thief. But if a man
steal when he is starving, or as the only means of saving his life in
an extremity, it is not to be reckoned as a sin, provided he has the
intention to restore what he has stolen when he is in better circum-
stances (Prov. vi. 30). Our Lord did not rebuke the apostles when,
in passing through a cornfield, they plucked the ears of corn and eat
the grain because they were hungry (Matt. xii. 1). To conceal or
purchase goods that are known to be stolen is to render one's self a
partner in the sin.
2. Robbery is theft accompanied by personal violence.
If a robber kills, or mortally wounds his victim, the crime is said
to be robbery with murder. Of this the robbers were guilty who
attacked the Jew on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke x.
30). The forcible extortion of alms is also equivalent to robbery.
3. Cheating consists in injuring one's neighbor in his pos-
sessions by crafty means.
For instance, by the use of false weights and measures, the issue
of counterfeit coin, the adulteration of food, the falsification of doc-
uments, the removal of boundary-marks, smuggling, or arson in view
of obtaining the insurance money. " Let no man overreach, or cir-
cumvent his brother in business" (1 Thess. iv. 6).
4. Usury consists in making use of the needy circumstances
of another to one's own profit (Exod. xxii. 25).
The usurer is called a money-lender, if he lends money at a high
rate of interest to one who is in pecuniary difficulties, or a speculator,
if he buys up corn and keeps it until a time of scarcity, in order to
sell it at a high price. Under the appearance of helping a man in
need, the usurer involves him in greater complications. He is like
a doctor who instead of strengthening his patient, saps the little force
he had; or like a spider that weaves a web more and more closely
round the unhappy fly and sucks every drop of its blood. Usurers are
murderers of the poor; they take from them their means of liveli-
hood, and thus deprive them of life.
5. Wilfully injuring another man's property, keeping back
what one has found or what has been lent to one, and refusing
to pay one's debts, is equivalent to stealing.
We may injure our neighbor in his property by setting it on fire,
by treading down his crops, damaging his goods, fishing or shooting
on his grounds without permission, etc. To keep what one has found,
and not to return what has been lent to the owner is theft. Joseph's
brethren did well in directly taking back the money they found in
their sacks. The more valuable the object one finds, the greater the
obligation to give it up to the owner; and if one does not know to
whom it belongs, one ought to take steps to discover him. Many
people are very careless in returning books, instruments or imple-
ments which they have borrowed, and they show displeasure if the
owner asks for them. Be careful about lending and very careful
The Ten Commandments of God. 397
about returning. The non-payment of debts also is a kind of stealing.
It is a bad thing to get into debt; the debtor is like a man who, when
his legs begin to fail him, hobbles onward with a crutch. But it is a
sin to borrow and not pay again (Ps. xxxvi. 21). Many people get
into debt to satisfy their craving for amusement, to gratify their
passions, or for the sake of dressing above their station, and they
scarcely think this wrong. Tradespeople sin when they fraudulently
declare themselves bankrupts. But most blameworthy of all are those
who do not pay their servants and workpeople; this is a sin that cries
to heaven. It is theft, and a sort of murder, too, to keep back the
wages of a poor laborer, who lives on his daily earnings. " The wages
of him that hath been hired by thee shall not abide with thee until
the morning" (Lev. xix. 13). "Pay him the price of his labor the
same day " (Dent, xxiv. 15). " Owe no man anything, but to love one
another" (Rom. xiii. 8).
1. We are in danger of committing mortal sin if we take from
our neighbor as much as he requires to support him one day in
a manner suitable to his position.
Our sin against our neighbor is greater or less in proportion to
the wrong we do him. To steal a few pence from one who is utterly
destitute, or a few shillings from a laboring man is a mortal sin;
it is equivalent to stealing a considerable sum from a rich man. It
is also a sin to take trilling sums repeatedly from the same person,
for in time they make a large amount. One ought not to take the
smallest thing that is not one's own. Fidelity in small things is most
important, for God punishes little sins, and unfaithfulness in small
things leads to grave sins. By disregarding petty thefts many a
criminal has come to the gallows.
2. RESTITUTION OR SATISFACTION.
• 1. He who has purloined from his neighbor or wronged him
in his property, is under a strict obligation to restore the stolen
goods or make compensation for the damage done (Lev. vi. 1-5).
A thief is not required to go himself and restore the stolen prop-
erty to its owner ; Jie may send it by the priest, who is pledged to
secrecy, and will give him an acknowledgment of its receipt. On one
occasion when Clement Hofbauer, the apostle of Vienna, handed
over something that had been stolen to its owner, the latter refused
to take it; but Hofbauer rejoined: "It is not wise to allow the thief
to retain what he has purloined, or he will think stealing no great
offence."
The following rules are to be observed:
1. If the rightful owner of the stolen property is dead, it
must be given to his heirs; and if there should be no heirs, it
must be given to the poor or devoted to good works.
2. If the thief cannot restore the whole, he must at any rate
restore as much as he can.
398 The Commandments.
3. If poverty or other hindrances render the thief unable to
make restitution immediately, he must at least resolve to do so
as soon as possible, and he must make every effort to fulfil that
resolution.
4. If the thief cannot restore even a part of what he has
stolen, he ought at least to pray for the individual he has
wronged.
2. If any one has unwittingly got stolen goods in his posses-
sion, he is bound to give them up to the rightful owner as soon
as he becomes aware that they were stolen.
Thus any one who, whether by purchase or gift, has acquired pos-
session of something that was stolen, ought to give it back to its
owner. If he does not know that it was stolen, he is said to be a just
possessor, but if he does, then he is an unjust possessor. If the
former be the case, not only must the stolen property itself be re-
stored, but also whatever may have been gained by it without any
labor on his part ; if the latter, any loss the rightful proprietor may
have sustained through the loss of his property must also be made
good. At any rate it is well to refer the matter to one's con-
fessor, and follow his counsel, for he stands towards us in the place
of God.
3. He who refuses either to give up the stolen property or to
compensate for the loss sustained, will not obtain pardon of his
sins from God, nor absolution from the priest.
" He that will not render what he hath robbed, shall die everlast-
ingly" (Ezech. xxxiii. 15). It was not until Zacheus had declared
his determination to make full restitution of all unjust gains, that
Our Lord called him a son of Abraham (Luke xix. 9). As long as one
who has wronged his neighbor refuses to make reparation, though he
entreats the divine pardon with tears, though he seeks to appease the
divine justice by fasts and penances, his sin will not be remitted.
" Such a one," St. Augustine says, " does not do penance, but only
counterfeits it." Without restitution there is no forgiveness. St.
Alphonsus relates the story of a rich man who had gangrene in the
arm, and was near death. The priest urged him to restore the prop-
erty he had acquired unjustly; he refused on the plea that by doing
so he would leave his three sons penniless. The priest bethought
him of a stratagem. He said he knew of a means of cure, but it was
a costly one. The sick man declared no sum would be too great to
procure it. The priest replied that some living person must allow
his hand to be burned and while raw, laid on that of the sufferer.
The three sons were called, but neither of them would do this for
their father. Then the priest said : " See, none of your children
would hold his hand in the fire a few moments for you, and you are
willing to endure the tortures of hell-fire to all eternity for their
sakes." This opened the sick man's eyes; he went to confession and
made restitution.
The Ten Commandments of God. 399
What are the Reasons which ought to Deter us from Transgress-
ing the Seventh Commandment?
The heathens of old held theft in abhorrence, and punished it
very severely. The Anglo-Saxons (in the sixth century) used to cut
off the hands of thieves ; in Hungary they were sold as slaves. The
Jews inflicted condign retribution on a thief; the man who at the
taking of Jericho in spite of the prohibition carried away some of
the spoil, was stoned to death by God's command (Josue vii.). In
former days the laws of the Church in regard to the sin of stealing
were extremely rigorous; even for a petty theft restitution had to
be made, and besides it was expiated by fasting for a year on bread
and water. God Himself inflicts heavy chastisements on those who
take what belongs to another, no matter how trifling the thing
stolen; for whether it be great or small, the will to defraud is the
same, and it is to the will that He looks.
People who wrong their neighbor in his property generally come
to shame and poverty, often die unrepentant, and are in danger
of everlasting damnation.
Confusion is upon a thief (Ecclus. v. 17). Stealing does not
bring a man to honor, but to prison. Thieves are generally caught,
sooner or later. Stealing is the way to poverty. Ill-gotten goods
bring no blessing. He who steals another man's goods will lose his
own, for when that which he acquired unjustly is taken from him,
that which was honestly acquired will go too. Stolen goods are
like fire, which not only vanishes in smoke, but reduces everything
near it to ashes. When the Jews returned from the Babylonian cap-
tivity, there was great scarcity in the land. Some of the people
profited by it to become rich ; but when ISTehemias came from Babylon
to Jerusalem he was exceedingly angry, and rebuked the usurers.
He shook his clothes before all the people, and called upon God to
shake every man out of his house and out of his possessions, who
did not restore what had been unjustly exacted, so that what he had
got by usury might vanish as the dust (2 Esd. v. 1-13). "He that
soweth iniquity shall reap evils " (Prov. xxii. 8). " The riches of the
unjust shall be dried up like a river " (Ecclus. xl. 13). " Woe to him
that heapeth together that which is not his own" (Hab. ii. 6). In-
justice is even the cause of the fall of whole nations (Ecclus. x. 8).
Where are the ancient and mighty kingdoms of Babylon, of the
Medes and Persians, of the Greeks, and the great empire of Rome?
They came to ruin because they sought to extend their limits un-
justly. Look at the state of Italy in the present day; since the Holy
Father was robbed of his temporal possessions the taxation has been
excessive, and a large portion of the population are starving. Fur-
thermore thieves often come to a miserable end. Remember Judas'
wretched fate; what misery of mind, what torture of soul he endured
before he hanged himself in despair! (Matt, xxvii. 5.) Those who
have stolen or embezzled money are rarely brought to repentance,
because they are unwilling to restore what they have taken. Even
upon their death-bed they will not hear of making restitution. Be-
ware, therefore, of allowing yourself to touch what belongs to another.
100
The Commandments.
Moreover, if at the Last Day he will find no mercy who has not given
of his substance to the needy, how much the more pitilessly will lie
be judged who has actually taken from his neighbor what was his
(St. Augustine). Thieves and the covetous shall not possess the king-
dom of God (2 Con vi. 10). The Mohammedans consider that he
who so much as plucks an ear of corn from his neighbor's cornfield,
has done a disgraceful thing, and will go to hell. The dread of ever-
lasting damnation deters many from committing acts of injustice.
Of this the following story affords an example. A poor widow who
had been defrauded of a plot of land belonging to her by a rich man,
asked to be at least allowed to carry away a basket of earth. The man
consented with a scornful smile ; when the basket was filled, she fur-
ther requested him to help her up with it on to her back. The rich
man attempted to raise it, but it was too heavy for him to lift.
" There," said the widow, " if you find this basket of earth too great a
weight, how will you bear the burden of the whole field for all eter-
nity ? " This remark made such an impression on the rich man that
he gave the land back to the woman. Fools indeed are they who play
away their chance of heaven for the sake of earth's transitory riches !
" What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the
loss of his own soul? " (Matt. xvi. 26.) By stealing you may obtain
money, but you lose God. You think of the gain; forget not the
loss.
The honest man will prosper upon earth (Ps. xxxvi. 25).
Tobias affords a model of upright conduct. Although he was blind
and reduced to poverty, when he heard the bleating of a kid that
had been given to his wife, he immediately said : " Take heed, lest
perhaps it be stolen; restore ye it to its owners, for it is not lawful
for us either to eat or to touch anything that cometh by theft " (Tob.
ii. 21). God restored him to sight, and he lived forty- two years
longer (Tob. xiv. 1). The Lord will not afflict the soul of the just
with famine (Prov. x. 3). His ears are open unto his prayers (Ps.
xxxiii. 16). Justice exalteth a nation (Prov. xiv. 34). Honesty is the
best policy.
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
In the Eighth Commandment God forbids us to detract from our
neighbor's honor, or bear false witness of any kind
1. THE PROHIBITION AGAINST INJURING OUR
NEIGHBOR IN HIS HONOR.
1. A good reputation is a
us to gain riches for time and
An honorable reputation, or
thought of, and well-spoken of
honor is shame. " A good name
favor is above silver and gold "
the best thing on earth ; it is a
who has a good reputation can
has influence over others. The
precious possession, for it enables
for eternity.
a good name, consists in being well
by our fellow-men. The opposite of
is better than great riches ; and good
(Prov. xxii. 1). A good reputation is
talent entrusted to us by God, for he
do a great deal of good, because he
esteem of others is essential to real
The Ten Commandments of God. 401
happiness; who can enjoy his life if he knows that he is despised
by his fellow-men? A man without a penny will often get an ex-
cellent post merely because he has a good character. And those
who are highly thought of are more careful to lead an upright life
than those who have no reputation to preserve. An honorable name
is to a man what the peel is to an apple ; while it is whole, the apple
keeps sound for a long time, but if the skin is once cut, the fruit
rots quickly.
2. Above all we ought to strive to acquire a good name
among men, and for that reason we ought to let our good works
be known, and we ought to defend our character if it be aspersed
to any great extent.
It is God's will that we should strive after honor, for He im-
planted within us feelings of honor and an abhorrence of disgrace.
To suppress this instinct would be to act at variance with His ap-
pointment. Hence we ought to perform our good works openly. Our
Lord expressly enjoins this upon us when He says : " So let your light
shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father Who is in heaven" (Matt. v. 16). Our good works should ba
like a sweet odor, pleasing to men as a perfume is to the nostrils
(2 Cor. ii. 15). Good works are the best means of defending our good
name, and silencing the tongue of detractors (1 Pet. ii. 12). We
ought to consider what may be good not only before God, but also
before men (2 Cor. viii. 21). "Let your modesty be known unto all
men" (Phil. iv. 5). "From all appearance of evil refrain your-
selves " (1 Thess. v. 22). It need hardly be said that our good works
must not be performed in view of pleasing men, and courting their
praise, or we shall receive no reward from God (Matt. vi. 2). It is
our duty to defend ourselves when our name is aspersed. All manner
of accusations were brought against the early Christians; some of
their ablest men published " apologies " and sent them to the emperor.
Our Lord did not disdain to justify Himself, when, for in-
stance, it was said of Him that He cast out devils by the aid of the
prince of the devils (Matt. xii. 27) ; or again, when a servant of the
high priest struck Him (John xviii. 23). St. Paul repeatedly spoke
in his own defence, before the council and the governor (Acts xxii.
26). Yet it is not well to be over-sensitive about one's honor, and go
to law about trifles. An amicable adjustment of differences and
reconciliation, is better than quarrelling and bringing accusations. To
be very touchy in regard to one's honor is likely to give an appearance
of truth to the slander, for it looks as if we were not quite sure of
ourselves; besides it provokes the calumniator to go to greater
lengths. After all, a man whose life is without reproach need not
fear the permanent loss of his good name ; only the evildoer, if he fall
into disgrace, cannot retrieve his character. It is just the same as
with one's hair; shave it off and it grows again quickly; but if it is
pulled out by the roots, the bare place remains. David rightly com-
pares the tongue of the slanderer to a sharp razor. In the matter
of self-defence one must know how to keep the medium. Strong
and generous characters are not affected by trifles ; they bear them in
silence, only giving expression to their just anger in matters of im-
402
The Commandments.
portance. St. Francis of Sales tells us that only when grave and dis-
graceful crimes are imputed to us, such as no man can allow himseh'
to be charged with, should we take steps to clear ourselves. Finally,
be it remarked, much more can be done by bearing an affront
patiently than by displaying great anxiety about our good name.
Many eminent servants of God, by the calmness with which they bore
the revilings of godless men, were the means of converting their
accusers.
Yet we ought not to strive too anxiously to obtain the esteem
of men, or else we shall lose the friendship of God as well as
the esteem of men; moreover in some cases it is impossible to
enjoy at the same time the favor of God and the favor of men.
He who is over-solicitous to obtain honor among men, makes this,
and not God, his chief aim. Such a one is arrogant and ambitious,
and will consequently be humbled by God (Luke xiv. 11). How
deeply the proud Absalom was humbled! Likewise the ambitious
Emperor Napoleon. Honor is a capricious goddess: if we run after
her, she flies from us ; if we fly from her, she pursues us. She allows
no force to be put upon her ; but there is a price at which she may be
purchased, and that is uprightness and humility. It is impossible
to serve God and to please men (Gal. i. 10). All who lead a truly
Christian life are despised and reviled by men (1 Cor. iv. 13; 1 Pet.
iv. 14), and even counted as fools (1 Cor. iv. 10). There are some
silly people who mete out honor or disgrace not by the standard of
virtue, but by things that are of no real value ; riches, position, dress,
etc. But whatever your exertions, you cannot please at all times, and
all persons.
3. Furthermore, we ought to refrain from everything that may
wound our neighbor's honor. Thus suspicion, detraction, slander,
and abuse are forbidden, also listening with pleasure when our
neighbor is spoken against.
Suspicion implies malice of heart; detraction, slander (both of
which are directed against the absent) and abuse (which is directed
against one who is present), are sins of the tongue; listening with
gratification when another is evilly spoken of, is a sin, if it is in the
evil speaking that we take pleasure.
1. Suspicion consists in supposing evil of one's neighbor
without reasonable grounds.
The Pharisee in the Temple took for granted that the publican
was a sinner and how greatly he was mistaken (Luke xviii.) ! Job's
three friends thought he must needs be ungodly merely because lie
was afflicted by God. Simon the Pharisee thought the Magdalen,
when he saw her at Our Lord's feet, was still a sinner, but he deceived
himself; she was then a penitent (Luke vii. 39 seq.). When St. Paul,
shipwrecked on the island of Malta, lighted a fire, a viper, coming out
of the sticks, fastened on his hand; in consequence of this the inhab-
itants of the island instantly judged him to be a murderer, pursued
by divine vengeance (Acts xxviii.). A goldsmith had an apprentice
The Ten Commandments of God, 403
who bore a very good character. One day he found two precious
stones concealed in a hole in the wall close to the boy's head. He
directly accused him of theft, chastised him soundly, and drove him
out of the house. Soon after he again discovered two stones in ex-
actly the same place. He watched, and found they were put there
by a magpie which he had in the house, and deeply regretted his
rash judgment, when it was too late to repair his fault. If he had
detected the boy in dishonesty, he would not have done wrong in sus-
pecting him. People judge of others by themselves; for the affections
are apt to mislead the understanding. He who is not evil himself
does not lightly think evil of others, whereas a bad man readily con-
cludes his neighbor to be as bad as himself. Molten metal takes the
shape of the mould into which it is poured; so every man's judgment
of what he sees and hears takes its shape from his own feelings. The
most wholesome aliments disagree with the man whose digestion is
out of order; thus a corrupted mind always takes an evil view of
things, while a good man puts the best construction on everything.
" I would far rather err," says St. Anselm, " by thinking good of a
bad man than by thinking evil of a good man." " Charity thinketh
no evil" (1 Cor. xiii. 5). The just man, in whom dwells the spirit of
love, even when he sees an action which is unquestionably reprehen-
sible, does not allow his thoughts to dwell on it ; he leaves the judg-
ment of it to God. This is what St. Joseph did, in regard to his
spouse, the Blessed Virgin (Matt. i. 19). "Let none of you imagine
evil in your heart against his friend" (Zach. viii. 17). Trust others,
if you would have others trust you. Trust engenders confidence, and
mistrust the want of it.
2. Detraction consists in disclosing the fault committed by
another without necessity.
This sin, the lessening of our neighbor's reputation, is an act of
injustice towards him. For if he is really guilty of some secret sin,
still he has not lost the good opinion of others, and of this we rob
him if we publish his misdeeds. We are not justified in robbing a
man of the esteem he enjoys, even though he has no right to it, any
more than in taking from him money which he has gained unjustly.
!Nor must we speak evil of the dead. Let nothing but what is good be
said of the departed. Some people, like hyenas, who tear from their
graves and devour /lead bodies, deface the memory of the dead by
their malicious words and bring to light faults long since forgotten.
•Like insects which alight, not on the sound part of the apple, but on
the decayed portion, detractors do not enlarge on the virtues of the
deceased, but they pitilessly dwell upon their faults. They may be
compared to dogs who prefer carrion to fresh meat, for they pass over
the good which they cannot help seeing in their neighbor, and care
to keep alive the remembrance of his failings. The sin of detrac-
tion is one most frequently met with. " Rarely," says St. Jerome,
" do we find any one who is not ready to blame his neighbor's con-
duct." This comes from pride, for many people imagine they exalt
themselves in proportion as they decry others. Detraction is a
hateful sin. It is an ugly and shameless thing to do, if one goes to
a stranger's house and spies into every corner ; but how much
more so to scrutinize and criticize our neighbor's course of life!
404
The Commandments.
Mud should be covered over, not stirred up, for no one can touch it
without defiling himself. " O fool ! " exclaims St. Alphonsus. " Thou
dost declaim against the sin of another, and meanwhile, by evil
speaking, dost commit a far greater sin than that thou blamest in
thy neighbor." Besides the detractor in disclosing the faults of
another, discloses his own, for he shows that he has no charity. How-
ever, to speak of another man's sin is not wrong, unless one has the
intention of lowering him in the eyes of others; it is not detraction
to tell some one else of it in order to prevent a repetition of the sin.
One may also blame the fault of another, if this may be useful to
a third person; but it must be done from a sense of duty, and the
Sin rather than the sinner is to be condemned. The crime of any
malefactor who has been brought to justice may be freely spoken of,
as it is already made public. Tale-telling is a form of detraction;
it consists in repeating to another what a third person has said of
him. Tale-telling ruins the peace of families, and is a fruitful
source of feuds. It is worse than ordinary detraction because it
not only destroys the reputation of one's neighbor, but puts an
end to friendly relations and brotherly love. Therefore God says :
" The whisperer and double-tongued are accursed " (Ecclus. xxviii.
15).
3. Slander consists in attributing to one's neighbor faults
of which he is not guilty. If the accusation is made publicly
it is called a libel.
Slander or calumny is taking away a man's good name. Puti-
phar's wife accused Joseph to her lord of having attempted to lead
her astray (Gen. xxxix.). The Jews accused Our Lord before Pilate
of having perverted the nation and forbidden to give tribute to the
emperor (Luke xxiii. 2). Exaggeration of another's fault also comes
under the head of calumny. The motives that actuate the slanderer
are generally revenge, hatred or ingratitude; his sin is twofold, for
he lies, and at the same time destroys his neighbor's reputation.
" He that backbiteth secretly is like a serpent that biteth in silence."
Some slanderers accompany their calumnies with a jest, or accentuate
them with a witty or amusing speech. This is the greatest cruelty
of all, for the slander which might have passed in at one ear and
out at the other, is then firmly lodged in the mind of all who hear it.
Again, slanders that are prefaced by words of eulogy make more
impression on the hearer, just as an arrow flies with more force and
penetrates more deeply if the bow be drawn back first. Of such
persons David says : " The poison of asps is under their lips " (Ps.
xiii. 3).
4. Abuse consists in making public the low opinion which
one has of another.
In evil speaking one makes known a man's fault behind his back,
abuse utters it in his presence. Abuse therefore stands in the same
relation to detraction as robbery to theft. While detraction and
slander undermine the good opinion others have of a man, abuse
aims at depriving him of the outward respect that is shown him.
Semei reviled King David; he called him a man of Belial, and threw
The Ten Commandments of God, 405
stones at hiin (2 Kings xvi. 5). The Jews reviled Our Lord; they
called Him a Samaritan, and said He had a devil (John viii. 48).
If two men quarrel, the one who is in the wrong usually resorts to
abuse. The one who is in the right does not need such weapons ;
truth conquers of itself. Sneers and sarcasms are a form of this
sin. Their object is to make a man ridiculous before others and put
him to confusion. By such unkind speeches one may deeply wound
one's neighbor, and fill him with bitter resentment. " The stroke of
a whip maketh a blue mark, but the stroke of the tongue will break
the bones " (Ecclus. xxviii. 21).
5. He who takes pleasure in listening to detraction commits
the same sin as the speaker to whom he listens.
He who asperses his neighbor's good name kindles a fire, and he
who listens to him throws fuel on it. Were it not for the latter, the
former would soon be silent. St. Ignatius says we should not talk
about our neighbor's faults did we not find eager listeners. St. Ber-
nard says he cannot decide which is more blameworthy, the man who
slanders his neighbor, or he who lends his ear to the slanderer; the
only difference is that one serves the devil with his tongue, the other
with his ear. What do I care to know that such a one is a wicked
man? The knowledge only does me harm. How much better to spend
one's pains on scrutinizing one's own conduct. Our Lord exhorts us
to do this : " Cast first the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou
shalt see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother's eye " (Luke
vi. 42). It is those who are blind to their own faults who are most
keenly alive to the faults of others. Never listen to detraction. St.
Augustine had these words inscribed upon his dining-table : " There
is not place at this table for those who love to defame their neighbor."
" Hedge in thy ears with thorns, hear not a wicked tongue " (Ecclus.
xxviii. 28). Slander is a three-edged sword; at one blow it inflicts
three wounds; it wounds the slanderer, for he commits a sin; it
wounds the slandered, because he is robbed of his good name; it
-wounds the hearer, for he also falls into sin. And since the slan-
derer injures the soul of him who listens to his calumny, he imitates
the serpent, whose poisoned words were the means of driving Eve
out of paradise.
4. He who has injured his neighbor's reputation is strictly
bound to restore his good name; either by apologizing, if the
offence was committed in private, or by publicly retracting his
words, if they were spoken before others.
Any one who has unjustly diminished his neighbor's reputation,
is bound to make satisfaction, according to the nature of the offence.
It is not enough to draw the arrow out of the wound, the hurt must
be healed; nor is it enough to desist from evil-speaking; the injury
done must be set right. That is bitter to human nature, for it re-
quires no slight self-humiliation. Moreover, it is almost impossible
fully to make amends for calumny; it is easy to break a seal,
but difficult to repair it so that no one can perceive that it has been
broken. An ink-spot is soon made on a sheet of paper, but no efforts
will remove all traces of the blot.
40fi
The Commandments.
5. Those who do not endeavor to repair the harm they have
done by slandering their neighbor, cannot obtain pardon from
God, nor absolution from the priest.
What are the Reasons which should Deter us from Injuring
our Neighbor's Good Name ?
1. He who is severe in his judgment of his neighbor, will in
his turn be judged severely by God.
Our Lord says : " Judge not, that you may not be judged " (Matt.
vii. 1). "For with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to
you again " (v. 2). " Condemn not and you shall not be condemned "
(Luke vi. 37). A monk who on account of delicate health had not
been very regular in the performance of his religious duties, dis-
played great cheerfulness when his death drew near. On being asked
the cause of this, he replied : " I have never judged any one, even when
I had just cause for complaint; therefore I hope that God will not
judge me."
2. To judge one's fellow-man is to commit an offence against
God, for it is an usurpation of His rights.
" There is one Lawgiver and Judge; but who art thou that judgest
thy neighbor?" (Jas. iv. 12.) "Who art thou that judgest another
man's servant? " (Rom. xiv. 4.) Only He Who is omniscient can claim
the right to judge others, for the intrinsic evil of an action depends
upon the intention of the heart, and that is hidden from man.
3. He who robs another of his good name is often severely
punished by God upon earth; not unfrequently he is overtaken
by the same calamity which he sought to bring on his neighbor.
A man of evil tongue shall not be established upon the earth
(Ps. cxxxix. 12). Jezabel, the wife of King Achab, suborned two
wicked men to falsely accuse JNTaboth, who would not- give up his
vineyard to the king, of blasphemy. Retribution eventually fell
upon her; she was thrown from the palace window, trampled upon
by horses and eaten by dogs (3 Kings xxi.). It is now no uncommon
thing for the slanderer to meet with the self -same fate which he
prepared for another, as the following story shows : St. Elizabeth.
Queen of Portugal, had a favorite page, who used to distribute her
alms. One of the king's servants, who was jealous of the large share
of the queen's favor enjoyed by that page, calumniated him to the
king, one day when he was out hunting. The king believed the
calumny; and going up to a lime-kiln which he saw in the forest, he
said to the proprietor : " To-morrow I shall send a young man hither,
who will ask you whether you have executed the king's orders; seize
him instantly and cast him into the kiln." On the following morning
the king dispatched the queen's page to the lime-burner with the
message agreed upon. On his way thither the young man passed, a
church, and as the bell was ringing for Mass, he went in ann
assisted at the holy sacrifice. Meanwhile the servant who had slan-
dered him, curious to know his fate, followed him, as he thought, to
The Ten Commandments of God. 107
the lime-kiln, and on arriving, eagerly asked if the king's orders had
been executed. Almost before he had uttered the question, he was
thrown into the furnace. When the queen's page shortly made his
appearance, he was told that the royal behest had been obeyed, and
the workmen expected a reward. On his return to the palace, the
king was astonished and horrified, and saw clearly that he had been
foully deceived. " He hath opened a pit and dug it, and he is fallen
into the hole he made " (Ps. vii. 16).
4. He who indulges a habit of detraction is in danger of
losing his soul.
The pulse does not always correctly indicate the progress of a
fatal disease, but if the tongue becomes black, it is a sure sign of
approaching dissolution. So many people are assiduous in their
prayers, are diligent churchgoers, and are considered to be pious,
but their tongue, wherewith they blacken the character of others,
infallibly indicates the mortal disease of their soul. To blast a
man's reputation is a great sin, because his good name is better than
great riches (Prov. xxii. 1). It is a kind of murder, because it de-
stroys a man's life as a citizen, i.e., his social standing, which de-
pends on the repute in which he is held. It is also sinful because
thereby one causes distress to one's neighbor. The man of honor
values his good name above everything. He would rather part with
his money, with all he possesses, with life itself, than lose his honor.
Hence we may conclude how grievous a sin is detraction. " Railers
shall not possess the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. vi. 10). "Detractors
. . . are worthy of death " (Rom. i. 32). " Whosoever shall say to his
brother, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire " (Matt. v. 22). The
magnitude of sins against one's neighbor depends upon the harm that
is done. On account of this, it matters greatly who the individual is
who slanders his neighbor; if he be a man of position and respecta-
bility, the sin he commits is liable to be grievous, for the esteem in
which he is held gives weight to his words. In the case of one who is
known to be a tattler, on the other hand, the sin is slight. Again it
makes a difference who the individual is whose name is aspersed.
The higher his position, and the greater the respect due to him, the
worse is the sin. It is but a venial sin to speak against one who
has already lost his character. But let the evil speaker beware, for
if he has not already fallen into mortal sin, he is on the high road
to it.
2. THE COMMAND AGAINST UNTRUTHFULNESS.
God is truth itself; consequently He forbids every kind of
falsehood, especially lying, hypocrisy, and flattery.
God is true (John iii. 33). It is impossible for God to lie (Heb.
vi. 18). Our Lord says: "I am the way and the truth and the life"
(John xiv. 6). Hence God commands: "You shall not lie" (Lev.
xix. 11). " Putting away lying, speak ye the truth every man to his
neighbor" (Eph. iv. 25). Let your conversation be upright and
408
The Commandments.
truthful, if you would show yourselves to be the children of Him
Who is the Father of truth and truth itself.
1. He is guilty of lying who says what is not true with the
intention of deceiving others.
Lying is a misuse of speech. Speech was not given to man in
order that he might deceive others, but as a means whereby he might
communicate to them his thoughts. The conditions under which
lies are commonly told are these: Under stress of circumstances, to
avert some evil from one's self or from others, as when St. Peter in
the outer court of the high priest's palace said : " I know not the
man" (Matt. xxvi. 72) ; in jest, to amuse others; or for the sake of
injuring some one, as Jacob did when he deceived his father in order
to obtain his paternal benediction (Gen. xxvii.). But to relate a fic-
titious narrative, or make use of a fable for the instruction of others
is no untruth, for it is done without an intention to deceive. Our
Lord Himself employed parables in teaching. A liar is like counter-
feit coin, which appears to be what it is not.
2. Hypocrisy or dissimulation is acting a lie; we commit
this sin when we speak or act differently to what we think and
feel.
Judas kissed Our Lord in the Garden of Olives, as if he were His
greatest friend, but he only did so to betray Him (Matt. xxvi. 49).
King Herod said to the three kings : " When you have found the
Child bring me word again, that I also may come and adore Him "
(Matt. ii. 8). But he thought in his heart that when he knew where
the Child was, he would have Him put to death. Those are hypo-
crites who make an outward profession of piety while in reality their
lives are far from irreproachable. They are like Satan, who can
assume the form of an angel of light. To feign sanctity in this
manner is worse than to sin openly. Some appear very devout in
church, they cross themselves and smite their breasts, but all the
while their thoughts are far away; they are dissemblers. The
hypocrite is like a dunghill covered with snow, which hides what it
really is. Our Lord compared such men to whited sepulchres, out-
wardly beautiful, but within full of foulness and dead men's bones
(Matt, xxiii. 27) ; also to wolves in sheep's clothing (Matt. vii. 15).
3. Mattery consists in praising another immoderately to his
face, against one's own conviction for the sake of advantage.
King Herod Agrippa was highly gratified by the flattery of the
Tyrians and Sidonians, when they exclaimed, on hearing his oration:
" It is the voice of a god and not of a man." But the angel of the
Lord forthwith struck him, and he was eaten by worms (Acts xii. 22,
23). Flatterers speak contrary to their conviction; they deride a man
behind his back while they praise him to his face. The flatterer only
seeks his own advantage. He is like the cat which purrs, and the
dog which fawns on his master to get a piece of meat. Crafty people
cringe to others if they think anything can be gained. Flatterers
frequent the presence of the rich, for from the poor they get
nothing; they are like the locusts which do not come in the winter.
The Ten Commandments of God. 409
or where the laud is barren, but they alight in cultivated places, where
there is plenty for them to devour. Flatterers praise immoderately,
i.e., they ascribe excellences to a man which he does not possess,
or they exaggerate his good qualities and palliate his misdeeds. They
are dangerous acquaintances, because they hide a man's faults, in-
stead of endeavoring, as a true friend would, to correct them. It is a
matter of indifference to them whether they do harm or good, if they
only get themselves into favor; they are like a cook who cares not
whether the dishes he prepares are wholesome or the contrary, so
long as they are tasty and please the palate. Flattery feeds sin as
oil feeds a flame; it is a nursery of vice. Isaias exclaims, addressing
flatterers : " Woe to you that call evil good and good evil " (Is. v. 20).
Let us therefore be on our guard, if any one appears unusually com-
plaisant and begins to praise us. Our Blessed Lady was troubled at
the salutation of the angel.
What are the Reasons that should make us Refrain from Un-
truthfulness ?
1. The liar is like the devil and displeasing to God.
' He who forfeits the confidence of his fellow-men causes a
great deal of harm and is capable of committing all manner of
evil deeds.
The liar resembles the devil, for the devil is a liar and the father
thereof (John viii. 44). Remember how the serpent in paradise lied
to Eve. Liars are children of the devil, not by nature, but by imita-
tion. The liar is displeasing to God. God is truth itself, and there-
fore He abhors the liar. Our Lord did not speak as sharply of any
one as of the Pharisees. And why? Because they were hypocrites
(Matt, xxiii. 27). From every class of sinners He gave an example
of one who was saved; e.g., Zacheus among usurers, the good thief
among highwaymen, Magdalen and the Samaritan at Jacob's well
among profligate women, Saul among persecutors of the Church,
but not one single individual among liars and hypocrites did He
mention as having sought and found pardon. Many a time God
punished liars severely ; witness Ananias and his wife Saphira, who
for their falsehood fell dead at St. Peter's feet (Acts v.) and Giezi,
the servant of Eliseus, who was struck with leprosy for his lies and
avarice (4 Kings V.). "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord"
(Prov. xii. 22). The liar forfeits the trust of his fellow-men. The
shepherd who cried " Wolf " when no wolf was near, found he was
not believed when his flock was really attacked; his comrades had
been so often deceived that they did not heed his cries. A liar is not
trusted when he speaks the truth; he is hated by God and man. Liars
often do a great deal of harm. The spies who went to view the
Promised Land deceived the Israelites bv their false report, and
alarmed them so that they blasphemed God, wanted to stone the
two spies who spoke the truth, and clamored to return to Egypt. See
what mischief those men wrought: God declared His intention to
destroy the peonle (Numb. xiii.). Jacob deceived his father and ob-
tained his blessing fraudulently; his brother Esau threatened to kill
him and Jacob was obliged to take to flight. " He that hath no guard
410
The Commandments.
on his speech shall meet with evils" (Prov. xiii. 3). The liar falls
into many other sins. " Show me a liar and I will show you a
thief." Where you find hypocrisy, you find cheating and all manner
of evil practices. A liar cannot possibly be God-fearing. The Holy
Spirit will flee from the deceitful (Wisd. i. 5). All the piety and
devotion of one whose words serve to conceal, not to express his
thoughts, is a mere sham; do not associate with such a one, lest he
corrupt you with his ungodly ways. " Lying men are without honor "
(Ecclus. xx. 28). " The just shall hate a lying word " (Prov. xiii. 5).
2. The pernicious habit of lying leads a man into mortal sin
and to eternal perdition.
Lying is in itself a venial sin; but it can easily become a mortal
sin if it is the means of doing great harm, or causing great scandal.
He who indulges the habit of lying runs no small risk of losing his
soul, for God withdraws His grace from those who deceive their
neighbor. "The mouth that belieth killeth the soul" (Wisd. i. 11).
A thief is not so bad as a liar, for the thief can give back what he
has stolen, whereas the liar cannot restore his neighbor's good name,
of which he has robbed him. " A thief is better than a man that is
always lying; but both of them shall inherit destruction" (Ecclus.
xx. 27). A lie is a foul blot in a man (v. 26). The soul of the liar
is like a counterfeit coin, stamped with the devil's effigy ; when at the
Last Day, the Judge shall ask : " Whose image is this ? " the answer
will be " the devil's ; " and He will then say : " Render unto the devil
the things that are his" (St. Thomas Aquinas). The Lord will
destroy all that speak a lie (Ps. v. 7). Liars shall have their portion
in the lake burning with fire (Apoc. xxi. 8). Our Lord uttered a ter-
rible denunciation of the Pharisees because of their hypocrisy (Matt,
xxiii. 13).
Lying is consequently forbidden, even if it may be the means
of effecting much good.
St. Augustine says it is just as wrong to tell a lie for your neigh-
bor's advantage as to steal for the good of the poor. Not even to save
one's own life or the life of another, is a falsehood justifiable. St.
Anthimus, Bishop of Nicomedia, would not allow the soldiers who
were sent to arrest him, and who were enjoying his hospitality, to
save him by a lie; he preferred to suffer martyrdom. We must not
do evil that there may come good (Rom. iii. 8). The end does not
justify the means. The enemies of the Jesuits allege that they teach
and act upon the principle that the end justifies the means, but this
has never been proved against them. It was the philosopher Voltaire
who proclaimed that doctrine, for he said : " Lying is only reprehen-
sible when it causes mischief; it is a virtue when it is a means of
effecting good."
A falsehood told in jest is not wrong if every one can see
at once that it is not meant in earnest.
If any one says : " How delightfully mild it is to-day ! " when the
cold is exceptionally severe, no one will call this a sin. But if a
foolish joke produces lamentable results, the case is different. A
The Ten Commandments of Hod. 411
gentleman once told a peasant who was at a distance from home,
that he had heard his cottage and half the village where he lived
was burned down ; he only meant to make an " April fool " of him,
but the poor man took the news so much to heart that he fell
down dead. As a rule it may be said that every lie, however trifling
it may appear, injures either ourselves or our neighbor, for it is a
departure from truth and uprightness; there is always a certain
duplicity about it, even if it be only a joke. Let your speech be
truthful and honest, as becomes children of Him Who is truth
itself.
It is, however, lawful to give an evasive answer to one who
causes us embarrassment by asking a question he has no right to
ask.
We are under no obligation to answer a question which another
has no right to ask. We may return an evasive or an ambiguous reply,
or refuse to give any at all. St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria,
was concealed in a vessel on the Nile, when the soldiers of the
Emperor Julian overtook and stopped it. On their inquiring where
Athanasius was, his servant replied : " He is not gone far, if you
make haste you will soon take him." The soldiers went onward on
their quest, and the bishop escaped. The archangel Raphael himself
told Tobias that he was Azarias, the son of a distinguished Jew,
whose form he had assumed (Tob. v. 18), because, had he revealed his
true nature, he could not have fulfilled the commission intrusted to
him by God. If an impertinent person presumes to ask a professional
secret of us, we make reply unceremoniously " I do not know," i.e.,
" it is not mine to tell." In this sense Our Lord stated that He did
not know when the Day of Judgment would be (Mark xiii. 32). If
any one whom we cannot trust wants to borrow money of us, we are
justified in saying : " I have not any," that is, " to lend you." Again
we may return an evasive answer if some one in authority, in the
absence of proof, tries to force a confession of guilt from us, for no
man is obliged to incriminate himself. In many cases we should
refuse to give an answer. St. Firmus, Bishop of Tagasta, concealed
in his house two young men, whom the emperor had unjustly con-
demned to death. The officers of justice came to the bishop, and
demanded to be told where the young men were hidden. The prelate
refused to answer; he was put to torture, but this availed nothing:
" I can die," he said, " but I cannot make others miserable." The
emperor hearing of his heroic conduct, pardoned the young men.
Our Lord did not answer all the questions Pilate put to Him. It will
be understood that ambiguous replies must only be given when con-
siderations of the glory of God, the good of our neighbor, or the ex-
igencies of our own position renders them necessary. When our
neighbor has a right to the truth, we must answer simply and openly,
in buying and selling, for instance, or drawing up an agreement. It
would be grossly unjust if persons about to marry were to deceive one
another by equivocating about money matters and other things.
3. Whoso is really upright is like almighty God, is pleasing
in His sight, and is esteemed by his fellow-men.
412
The Commandments.
Christ says: " I am the truth " (John xiv. 6). Therefore the lover
of truth is like unto Him. The lover of truth is well pleasing to
God. Our Lord said in praise of Nathanael that he was : " An
Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile" (John i. 47). The lover of
truth is esteemed by his fellow-men. On one occasion when Caesar
Augustus was making a triumphal entry into Home, he happened to
hear that among the captives there was a heathen priest, who had
never been convicted of a lie. Immediately he ordered him to be
liberated. St. John Cantius was once stopped by robbers who, after
taking his purse, asked if he had any more money about him. The
saint replied that he had not. After he had gone a few steps on his
way, he remembered that he had some pieces of gold sewn up in his
clothes; he hastened after the robbers and gave them to them. The
thieves were so astonished that they restored all that they had taken
from him. See how highly pagans and robbers esteem truthfulness !
Thus it is always best to acknowledge one's fault freely, for thereby
one obtains forgiveness, or at least a mitigation of the punishment
due to it. It is said that Washington, when a boy, hacked with a
chopper a beautiful cherry-tree which his father greatly prized. His
father was extremely angry when he saw what was done, and asked
the boy if he was the culprit. He replied : " Yes, father. I will not tell
a lie. I did it." This candor pleased his father so much that he did
not punish the boy. We may, perhaps, sometimes have to suffer
through speaking the truth, but the suffering is far outweighed by
the approval of a good conscience. " He that walketh sincerely,
walketh confidently" (Prov. x. 9). Our Lord exhorts us to be simple
as doves (Matt. x. 16). Guile is not half so profitable as simplicity.
It is therefore our wisest course to be candid and truthful.
THE MEANS OF PREVENTING SINS OF THE
TONGUE.
It is the opinion of the Fathers of the Church that a third part
of all the sins committed in the world are sins of the tongue.
Sins of the tongue can be best avoided by checking talkative-
ness, and being guarded in our speech; moreover by making
excuses for those whom we hear spoken against, and not repeat-
ing what is said of them.
We must not indulge the love of talking too freely. St. Augus-
tine says that silence is the best preventive of sins of the tongue.
He who knows how to keep silence will speak wisely. " He that keep-
eth his mouth, keepeth his soul; but he that hath no guard on his
speech shall meet with evils" (Prov. xiii. 3). "In the multitude of
words there shall not want sin" (Prov. x. 19). While all the organs
of the senses are open to sight, God has enclosed the tongue behind a
double wall, the lips and the teeth, to warn us to be circumspect in our
speech. You should bo as careful in choosing the words you speak,
as in selecting the food you eat. Holy Scripture compares the tongue
to a sharp knife, because we ought to be as cautious in our use of it as
the surgeon in the use of his knife, when he has to perform an oper-
The Ten Commandments of God. 413
ation on the human body. We should speak with all the more delibera-
tion because what is once said cannot be as if it had not been said.
We can no more recall the words we have spoken than we can the
arrow we have let fly from the bow. Our Lord says : " Every idle word
that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the
Day of Judgment" (Matt. xii. 36). Nay, He will even judge us by
our words, for He adds : " By thy words thou shalt be justified, and
by thy words thou shalt be condemned " (v. 37). " Death and life are
in the power of the tongue" (Prov. xviii. 21). Furthermore, if any
one is spoken evil of in our presence, we ought to life up our voice
in his defence. Holy Scripture says : " Open thy mouth for the
dumb" (Prov. xxxi. 8), that is, for him who, being absent, cannot
defend himself. If therefore, you hear the misdeeds of another
spoken of, endeavor to show that he did not act from a bad motive;
if that is impossible, then make excuses for the act on the plea of
violent temptation, ignorance, or human frailty, and thus, at any rate,
mitigate the harshness of the judgment passed on it. Or one may
mention something to the credit of the person in question. This was
St. Teresa's invariable practice, and no one dared in her presence to
utter a word of detraction. One may also express one's disapproval
by looking very grave, and thus putting the detractor to shame. It
will have the effect of shooting arrows at a rock, the shaft will re-
bound upon the marksman. " The north wind driveth away rain,
as doth a sad countenance a backbiting tongue" (Prov. xxv. 23). It
is also advisable at once adroitly to change the conversation, and thus
prevent the calumniator from pursuing the subject. By tolerating
detraction one participates in the sin. We should never repeat any-
thing depreciatory which we hear said of our neighbor. " Hast thou
heard a word against thy neighbor ? Let it die within thee, trusting
that it will not, burst thee. As an arrow that sticketh in a man's
thigh, so is a word in the heart of a fool " (Ecclus. xix. 10, 12). Be
very cautious in speaking of your neighbor, lest unawares you may
blight his whole future.
TLIE NINTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
See what is said concerning the Sixth Commandment; and re-
specting tne Sacrament of Matrimony ; also the words of Our Lord in
Matt. v. 28, and of St. Paul, 1 Cor. x. 6.
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.
In the Tenth Commandment God forbids us to endeavor to pos-
sess ourselves of the property of another by unlawful means.
In God's sight the will is equivalent to the deed. Evil desires are
sinful as well as evil deeds, as the act is accomplished in will. There-
fore transgressions of this commandment must not be omitted in
confession (Council of Trent, 14, ch. 5).
414 The Commandments,
1. SOCIALISM.
1. In our own day a large proportion of the so-called Socialists
or social democrats aim at depriving their fellow-men of their
private property by unjust means.
Social democracy, or the rule of the people (Demos) proposes to re-
construct human society. It is of recent origin, being first started in
Germany in 1840, and propagated some ten years later by the notor-
ious Jew, Marx. In 1862 another Jew named Lasalle was very suc-
cessful in spreading socialistic doctrines, so much so that in 1878,
a special law was passed for the suppression of Socialism. Associa-
tions and meetings were prohibited, publications advocating its prin-
ciples were seized, and the leading agitators were banished from sev-
eral of the large towns. From that time forward the work of propa-
gation was carried on covertly, in the workshop and clubroom, meet-
ings being held in the woods, and pamphlets circulated privately.
In 1880 a Socialistic Congress was held in Zurich, attended by
members from all the countries of Europe to arrange a general
programme for the universal upheaval of society and subversion of
the existing order of things. Since then the system has made steady
progress, and assumed a revolutionary character. Those who resort
to open acts of violence in order to accelerate the disintegration of
society are called anarchists. Switzerland is a hot-bed of Socialism,
and there the principal organs of the society are printed. Socialism
has gained ground chiefly on the continent of Europe.
1. The object of Socialists is this: They want all private
property to be confiscated by the State, and capital and labor
equally distributed among the members of the State; moreover
many of them would do away with religion, authority, social
order, and family life.
The fundamental principle of Socialism is: All property has
been unjustly acquired. Consequently in the new republic no one is
to possess personal property, but is to be provided for out of the public
funds. Every one must work, and with the proceeds of his labor pur-
chase what he needs. In the new republic of the extreme Socialists
there is to be ni Dieu ni maitre, neither the ordinances of religion
nor the institutions of law. These men openly declare themselves
to be atheists and republicans; they say religion concerns the indi-
vidual alone. The intercourse of man and woman is to take the
place of wedlock; the children are to belong, not to their parents,
but to the State, to be educated at the public expense ; a public kitchen
is to supersede the domestic hearth. Prisons will not be needed,
for there will be no criminals, since all crime comes from the posses-
sion of private property. These principles have spread chiefly among
the irreligious, who care only for the gratification of their appetites,
and the lower orders, the proletariate, who, in the division of prop-
erty, have nothing to lose and all to gain. They are mostly held by
certain ones of the laboring class who have been thrown by peculiar
circumstances into the arms of Socialism.
The Ten Commandments of God. 415
2. The origin and development of Socialism is chiefly to be
ascribed to the increasing poverty of the working classes, the
greed of gain and immoderate craving for enjoyment among the
rich, and finally, the decrease of religious feeling in all classes
of society.
As in the human body disorders for the most part originate in the
stomach, so discontent among the people generally arises from ma-
terial want. The prevailing destitution among the lower orders is
partly due to the employment of machinery. Machines can produce,
in a few days, more than a hundred workmen can in a month, and
goods can be manufactured at a far cheaper rate by machinery than
when made by hand. Consequently hundreds are thrown out of
employment. Through the introduction of machinery, wealth has
accumulated in the hands of the manufacturers, and the number of
the poor and discontented has increased, from day to day, swelling the
ranks of Socialism. The employers, striving to make larger profits,
in many cases do not treat their workpeople according to the maxims
of the Gospel; they reduce their wages to a scanty pittance (the
market value of labor being so low) ; they require them to work for a
lengthened period; they heed not the bodily health of those they
employ, and even destroy their sense of religion and morality. These
and other evils naturally have the effect of rendering the workmen
irreligious and discontented. Factory hands, employed constantly
in working machinery, are apt to lose their mental vigor and indepen-
dence, they perform their task mechanically, and are easily beguiled
and misled. The exhaustion produced by long hours of labor disin-
clines them to raise their hearts to God, thus they neglect their
prayers. The wretched state of their homes, where several families
live crowded together on account of poverty caused by the low rate of
wages, adds to their moral degradation. Moreover, the sight of the
rich man's greed of money on the one hand, and his extravagant
expenditure and love of luxury on the other, excites the envy of the
poor man, and arouses in him the desire to satisfy his idea of hap-
piness at the cost of the capitalist. Thus God punishes the rich in
the way that they have sinned ; the Socialist is the scourge wherewith
He chastises them. In the present day the Christian faith is more
and more undermined by an irreligious press, by godless associa-
tions— notably the Freemasons — and in some lands by antichristian
legislation; witness the exclusion of religious instruction from the
schools. What wonder if the belief in God and a future life grows
dim, the divine commandments are unheeded, and the people, craving
for happiness in this life, seek to wrest his wealth from their richer
neighbor !
3. If the dangers wherewith Socialism threatens us are to be
averted, the condition of the laboring classes must be ameli-
orated; the rich must be liberal towards the poor, and religion
must regain her place in the hearts of the people.
Coercive measures will do no more good to the Socialist than
random blows will correct a naughty child. If anything is to be
done for him, it must be done through kindness. Above all, the em-
416 The Commandments.
ployer must deal with his workpeople according to the principles of
Christianity and justice. Ketteler is right when he says: " If for one
day we all acted in conformity with the teaching of the Gospel, all
social evils would be at once swept away." The employer must pay
his men properly, that is, their wages must be sufficient to support
a Christian family suitably to their station, provided they are thrifty,
industrious, and virtuous. The position of the workman must be
secured; he must not be treated as a chattel, only to be employed as
long as a good profit is to be got out of him. As the workman pays
taxes, he is entitled to the privilege of the franchise. Opportunities
of improving his mind should be afforded to him by the institution of
libraries, evening classes, and the formation of workingmen's clubs,
which the Holy Father strongly advocates. Legislation must also in-
terfere to prevent the undue growth of the proletariate, through the
absorption of lesser industries by the manufactories, and the accumu-
lation of capital in the hands of a few plutocrats. The rich ought, as
the Apostle says, " to give easily and communicate to others " (1 Tim.
vi. 18). Now more than ever the rich are bound to give alms, other-
wise they will be rigorously judged. But religion affords the most
effectual means of combating Socialism. Social democracy is too often
nothing but the absence of religious belief. Its chief dogma is the
non-existence of God and of a future life, its chief commandment
the gratification of the senses. Moreover, religion alone can give the
poor the spirit of contentment, so essential to their happiness.
4. Some of the socialistic theories could not possibly be
realized; others might indeed be carried out, but they would
be attended by fatal consequences.
The universal equality which Socialists propose to bring about,
is an utterly impracticable idea, especially in regard to property.
For if the State apportioned to every one the exact amount required
for his livelihood, what more probable than that one would spend it
all, and another put a part by. Thus an inequality would immediately
arise ; and to enforce the surrender of a man's savings would be sheer
tyranny. The same endless variety which we see in nature, exists
among mankind. Differences of age, of sex, of health, of physical
power and mental endowments, above all of character' and of man-
ners cannot be effaced, and from these, differences of position and of
possessions are inseparable. Just as in an army all the soldiers
cannot be officers nor all privates, so all members of society cannot
stand on the same level. Some must manage the business of the
State, or occupy themselves with military affairs, and they must
naturally hold a higher rank than the other members of the State,
because they work more exclusively for the common weal. The hap-
piness the Socialist dreams of is not attainable upon earth. What-
ever the exertions that may be made to ameliorate the lot of man
here below, none can succeed in eliminating from it suffering, sick-
ness, and death. Sorrow and suffering are the portions of mankind ;
a life of peace and enjoyment is not for this world. True happiness
is not to be found in sensual pleasures, but in God. While the whole
world lasts, crime, vice and poverty cannot be banished from it. Our
Lord says: "The poor you have always with you" (John xii. 8).
The Ten Commandments of God. 417
And in regard to the proposed absorption of individual property by
the State, this could not be accomplished without serious disturb-
ances, for who would be willing to surrender his property without
a struggle? And were community of goods once introduced, tran-
quillity would not be attained; the oppressed minority would, out of
revenge, commit fearful outrages. Besides, laborious and industrious
individuals would not be content, as they would gain nothing by their
industry; thus the working classes would lose instead of gaining.
Socialistic theories could only be realized if men were like the lower
animals, destitute of the love of liberty and the desire for improve-
ment. Socialism would cast a blight upon culture and destroy all
stimulus, all motive for the exercise of inventive genius. Few would
exert themselves to make progress and aim at perfection if they knew
their achievements would bring them no reward. In the socialistic
republic all would be slaves. JSTo man would exert himself to do better
than another, if he knew all was provided for him; there would be a
premium upon slothfulness and negligence. Experience has shown
the evils brought upon mankind by the example of communities
which have had their goods in common, and which have been noted
for their crimes and have come to an ignominious end. But although
the dreams of the Socialist are mere fantasies of the brain, yet, like
much else that is undesirable, they are not without a certain use.
As a hurricane tears down what is rotten and crazy, so Socialism
points out the weak points in the social structure, and compels our
rulers to institute the needful reforms. Attention has been drawn
pre-eminently to the exploitation of the laborer by the capitalist, and
the claims of the poor have been brought into notice. Yet the harm
done by Socialism is far greater than any possible good it may in-
directly produce.
2. All who endeavor by unlawful means to deprive their neigh-
bor of his personal property, live in a state of mortal sin.
The mere fact of coveting what belongs to another is a sin. We
know that all sins bring others in their train, and this is no excep-
tion to the rule. St. Paul says that the inordinate desire of money
is the root of all evils (1 Tim. vi. 10), and the utterances of Socialists
at their gatherings prove the truth of these words. Their speeches
often abound with virulent attacks upon all in authority, on the Pope,
on priests, and civil magistrates. Some go so far as to assert that
perjury in a court of law is permissible, if it furthers their own
interests. We know the crimes of which anarchists have been
guilty, dynamite outrages and assassinations. Let it not be said in
behalf of their principles that the early Christians had all things in
common, for the voluntary sharing of goods is quite different to what
the Socialists propose to enforce. The fundamental principle of
Christian charity, which urges to almsgiving is this : " Brother, what
is mine is thine;" whereas the Socialist says : " Brother, what is thine
is mine." Again, the Socialists point to the religious Orders, where
all is the property of the community; they say what is possible for
them is possible in the State of the future. There is, however, no an-
alogy between the two; for voluntary poverty and obedience form
the basis of the religious life, while in the State of the future sensual
gratifications are to be encouraged and enjoyed.
418 The Commandments.
XL THE WORKS OF MERCY.
1. THE VALUE OF EARTHLY GOODS AND THE USE
TO BE MADE OF THEM.
1. Earthly riches do not of themselves make us better in God's
sight.
It is not the possession, but the good use of earthly goods which
makes us truly rich. It is in his moral qualities, in virtue and not
in his wealth, that man's real dignity and greatness consist. Let not
the rich man arrogate anything to himself because of the abundance
of the goods he possesses. The grave teaches us the worthlessness
of earth's treasures, for we can Carry nothing with us out of the
world (1 Tim. vi. 7). When Croesus, the rich king, showed all his
treasures to the sage Solon and asked if he did not consider him a
happy man, the sage replied : " ]STo man is to be pronounced happy
before his death." Croesus was displeased by this answer, but when,
defeated and a prisoner, he stood beside the funeral pyre, he acknowl-
edged the truth of the words. Let us not therefore strive eagerly
to acquire riches on earth, but obey the injunction of Our Lord : " Lay
not up to yourselves treasures on earth, where the rust and moth
consume and where thieves break through and steal" (Matt. vi. 19).
How admirable is Solomon's prayer: ''Give me neither beggary nor
riches; give me only the necessaries of life" (Prov. xxx. 8). St.
Paul says : " Having food and wherewith to be covered, with these
we are content" (1 Tim. vi. 8). Remember Christ teaches us to a6k
day by day our daily bread.
2. Earthly goods have their value, however, because with
them we can earn eternal felicity.
On the one hand earthly riches contribute to our temporal wel-
fare; they relieve us of many cares and anxieties, may render our
life pleasant, and give us a certain ascendancy over our fellow-men.
The man of wealth is a small potentate. They are also a means of
salvation. This may be inferred from the words Our Lord will ad-
dress to those on His right hand at the Day of Judgment (Matt. xxv.
34). "Your property was not given you," says St. John Chrysostom,
" that you might live in luxury and revelry, but that you may help
the poor." Money should therefore be regarded as a means of doing
good, for it is only good when turned to good account.
3. God is the Lord of all earthly riches; we are only His
stewards.
" The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof" (Ps. xxiii. 1).
" The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of hosts "
(Agg. ii. 9). Thus when we give alms, we distribute what belongs to
another, not to ourselves.
4. Earthly riches should consequently only be employed in
accordance with the commands of God.
The Works of Mercy. 419
We are not even at liberty to make what use we choose of the
senses and members of our body; we must employ them as God or-
dains. It is exactly the same with our property. And how are we
to employ our property according to the will of God ? We must em-
ploy it to His glory and for the welfare of our fellow-men. As the
steward has to give an account to his master, so we shall have to
give an account to God; He will reckon with us concerning the use
of the talents entrusted to us (Matt. xxv. 14). At our death He will
say to us : " Give an account of thy stewardship " (Luke xvi. 2).
2. THE PRECEPT TO PERFORM WORKS OF MERCY.
1. Christ has strictly enjoined upon us to assist our neighbor
who is in need with our earthly goods; for He will only grant
everlasting happiness to those who have helped their fellow-men
who were in need.
At the Last Judgment Our Lord will, as He tells us, set some men
on His right hand and others on His left. To those on His right He
will say: " Come, ye blessed of My Lather, possess you the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was
hungry and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me to
drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in, naked and you covered
Me ; sick and you visited Me ; I was in prison and you came to Me."
Then shall the just answer Him, saying : " Lord, when did we see Thee
hungry or thirsty or a stranger, and ministered to Thee ? " And Our
Lord shall answer them : " Amen I say to you, as long as you did to
one of these, My least brethren, 3tou did it to Me." And to those on
His left hand He shall say : " Depart from Me, you cursed, into ever-
lasting fire ! For I was hungry and you gave Me not to eat; I was
thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink." Then they also shall answer
Him in like manner as the just. And He shall answer them : " As long
as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me "
(Matt. xxv. 31-46). The poor must win heaven by patience, the rich
by works of mercy. One gladly parts with the lesser for the sake of
keeping the greater; one submits to have a foot or an arm ampu-
tated in order to save one's life. So must you give up the lesser, in
order not to lose 'the greater, which is eternal felicity.
1. The rich are chiefly bound to assist the needy.
To whom much is given, of him much shall be required (Luke xii.
48). The rich ought of their abundance to supply the wants of the
poor (2 Cor. viii. 14). They ought to sustain the poor, as the elm
supports the vine. The elm is a stately tree, but it produces no fruit ;
the vine is a creeping plant, and unless it clings to something, its
branches trail on the ground and its fruit is apt to be spoiled. But
if it casts its tendrils rormd the elm. and clings to its trunk, it will
grow un and flourish. The rich man is like the elm; his wealth
alone gives him no claim to an eternal reward, but by the help he ren-
ders to the poor he will purchase for himself everlasting treasures.
But if the rich do not give willingly, they imperil their eternal sal-
420 The Commandments.
vation. Our Lord says: "It is easier for a camel to pass through
the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
heaven" (Matt. xix. 24). The rich run risk of shipwreck, like a
vessel that is too heavily freighted. They are reluctant to part with
their money because they think the enjoyment of the present is real
happiness; they mistake the shadow for the reality, and value the
false more than the true. In the hour of death they will discover
their sad mistake, as a bird resting upon a limed bough only finds
that he is a captive when he attempts to fly away. The rich man,
when the moment comes for him to pass from time into eternity,
will feel how bitter has been his deception, like one who awakens
from a delightful dream to find his happiness a delusion (Ps. lxxv.
6). Therefore God has made the way to the attainment of riches
a difiicult and thorny path, as a farmer plants a quickset hedge
round the field that he does not want trodden down.
2. Even the poor man can help his neighbor who is in need.
Tobias says : " If thou hast much, give abundantly ; if thou hast
little, take care to bestow willingly a little" (Tob. iv. 9). If any
one gives a cup of cold water out of charity to his neighbor, provided
that is all he can give, it will count for as much as when Zacheus the
publican gave the half of his goods to the poor. The poor widow in
the Temple gave more with her two mites, than all the rich who cast
their gifts into the treasury (Luke xxi.). The widow of Sarephta
gave Elias the last remainder of her oil (3 Kings xvii. 12).
3. He who has not helped his neighbor who is in need, will
find no mercy with God.
St. James says : " Judgment without mercy to him that hath not
done mercy" (Jas. ii. 13). The rich man was buried in hell, because
he gave no alms. " He that stoppeth his ear against the cry of
the poor shall also cry and not be heard" (Prov. xxi. 13). He who
refuses to relieve the necessitous defrauds them of their own. St.
John Chrysostom says the rich man who is hard-hearted is no better
than a thief, for he stores in his chests treasures that belong to
others. He who keeps exclusively to himself the gifts Providence
has bestowed on him, creates himself the murderer of those who
perish from want. It is not enough to say we have never wronged
the poor. By not giving alms we incur the penalty due to those who
take from their neighbor that which is his.
2. The assistance we give to the needy, of whatever nature
it may be, is an alms, or work of mercy.
These works are called works of mercy, because in performing
them we are actuated by feelings of compassion or mercy.
3. The works of mercy are either spiritual or corporal, accord-
ing as the necessities we relieve are spiritual or corporal.
The corporal wants of our neighbor are: Food, drink, clothing,
phelter, liberty, health, or life. What can we do to supply him with
these? His spiritual wants, the needs of the soul, are: The knowl-
edge of the truth (for which instruction or counsel is required) ;
a good will, through lack of which he offends God or his fellow-man
The Works of Mercy. 421
(which calls for correction, patient endurance or forgiveness) ; a
joyful spirit (in lack of which he needs consolation). If we can
do little or nothing to succor and solace our neighbor, we must pray
for him, that God may come to his aid.
3. THE SEVERAL WORKS OF MERCY.
1. The corporal works of mercy are: (1), To feed the hungry;
(2), To give drink to the thirsty; (3), To clothe the naked; (4),
To harbor the stranger; (5), To visit the sick; (6), To ransom
the captive; (7), To bury the dead.
(1), To feed the hungry. Abraham entertained the three men;
Christ fed five thousand people; St. Elizabeth of Hungary gave all
the contents of her granaries to the poor in a time of famine; St.
Louis of France provided a dinner daily for a hundred and twenty
poor men, and sometimes waited on them himself. (2), To give drink
to the thirsty. The Samaritan woman gave Our Lord water to drink
at Jacob's well ; Rebecca drew water for Eleazar. Wine and medicine
come under this category. (3), To clothe the naked. Tabitha at
Joppe made garments for destitute widows; St. Martin gave half his
cloak to a beggar; Christmas gifts to poor schools are works of
mercy. (4), To harbor the stranger. Hospitality is a duty enjoined
upon us by St. Paul when he says : " Hospitality do not forget ; for by
this some, not being aware of it, have entertained angels " (Heb. xiii.
2). Both Abraham and Lot were privileged to receive angels in
human form beneath their roof. The Good Samaritan took the man
who had been wounded by robbers to an inn. Martha and Mary
received Our Lord into their house as their guest. The monks of St.
Bernard perform a work of mercy when they rescue travellers who
have met with accidents, and carry them to their hospice, where
they nurse them until they recover. When travelling was more dan-
gerous than at present, they were the means of saving many lives.
(5), To ransom innocent captives. Abraham delivered Lot out of the
hands of the robbers ; the Christians in Damascus rescued St. Paul
out of prison ; in the Middle Ages the Order of Ransom was founded
for the release of Christians taken prisoner and held in slavery by
the Turks. More than a million Christian slaves regained their lib-
erty on the payment of a sum of money, or by others taking their
place. Cardinal Lavigerie also established a guild for the liberation
of slaves in Africa.
(6), To visit the sick is enly to be reckoned as a work of
mercy, when the object of the visit is to afford spiritual or tem-
poral relief to the sufferer.
The visit Job's friends paid him was no work of mercy. That of
the Samaritan to the wounded Jew was on the other hand, most
meritorious. Several religious Orders have been founded for the ex-
press object of nursing the sick in hospitals or elsewhere; witness that
of the Christian Brothers, founded by St. John of God (1617), and
that of the Sisters of Charity, founded about the same time by St.
Vincent of Paul. The self-sacrifice of Catholic priests in taking the
422 The Commandments.
last sacraments to the dying, especially at the time of an epidemic, is
most emphatically a work of mercy. We read of the Emperor Joseph
II. that he was asked one day by a poor boy in the street for a florin,
that he might get a doctor for his mother. The emperor gave him the
money, and asked where he lived. He then went to see the sick woman,
who took him for a doctor, and he wrote a prescription for her. Shortly
after his departure the doctor whom the boy had called in made his
appearance. On opening the paper to look at the supposed prescrip-
tion, he read these words : " Woman, your visitor was the emperor.
Take this paper to the palace, and fifty ducats will be paid you."
(7), To bury the dead. It is a particuarly meritorious work
of mercy to provide the dead with decent burial, to follow the
body to the grave, or to erect a stone to his memory.
Tobias used to bury the dead at the time of the persecution of
the Jews under Sennacherib. The inhabitants of the city of Nairn
accompanied the bier on which the young man was carried to the
grave. Joseph of Arimathea and ISTicodemus laid the body of Our
Lord in the sepulchre. In burying the dead we do him a service
which he can never requite. " We ought," says St. Augustine, " to
show respect to the bodies of Christian people, because they have
been the instrument employed by the soul." In some localities the
pernicious custom prevails of making funerals an occasion for feast-
ing and revelry. This is most unseemly, and a waste of money which
might be spent for the benefit of the soul of the deceased. Besides
it is the means of stifling the grace of God, which exercises a salu-
tary influence on the soul through the solemn ceremonies of an inter-
ment.
In addition to the seven corporal works of mercy already
enumerated, there are others, e.g., the distribution of money,
the rescue of one in danger of death, giving assistance in case
of accidents, etc.
King Pharao's daughter performed a work of mercy when she
saved the life of the infant Moses ; so did Veronica when she gave her
veil to wipe Our Lord's countenance. In fact every kind word or
act, if spoken or done to our neighbor because we see Our Lord in
him, is a meritorious work. Our Lord Himself says that a cup of
cold water given in His name shall not go unrewarded (Mark ix. 40).
2. The spiritual works of mercy are: (1), To instruct the
ignorant; (2), To counsel the doubtful; (3), To admonish sin-
ners; (4), To bear wrong's patiently; (5), To forgive offences
willingly; (6), To comfort the afflicted; (7), To pray for the
living and the dead.
One may instruct the ignorant either in religion or other useful
knowledge either by word of mouth or by writing good books. The
holy apostles, and the evangelizers of the different nations, performed
a work of mercy, as in the present day do all the missionaries to
heathen lands, besides all preachers, catechists, confessors, Christian
writers and teachers. To co-operate with God for the salvation of
The Works of Mercy. 423
souls is the highest of all works. Those who impart religious in-
struction to others will have a more exalted place, and enjoy a
greater degree of glory in heaven. Daniel says : " They that instruct
many to justice shall shine as stars for all eternity" (Dan. xii. 3).
Those who collect money for foreign missions also perform a work of
mercy. To counsel the doubtful is another of the spiritual works of
mercy; but the counsel given must previously be maturely consid-
ered, and not forced upon one's neighbor. Joseph gave good advice
to Pharao ; Christ to the rich youth ; Gamaliel to the council.
We ought to admonish the sinner, provided we can do so
without prejudice to ourselves, and provided a good result may
be anticipated.
He would indeed be cruel, who seeing a blind man on the brink
of a precipice, did not warn him of his danger; and yet more blame-
worthy would be he who, having it in his power to save his brother
from everlasting death, will not take the trouble to rescue him.
God will require us to give an account for the soul of our neighbor,
if we omit anything we might have done to further the work of his
salvation. " We call a man's attention," says St. John Chrysostom,
" to a stain upon his clothes, but we do not tell him of stains upon
his soul; which, if not washed away, will be his eternal ruin." Noe
preached penance to the Nmivites. The good thief admonished his
fellow culprit. Admonition is like salt; it makes the wound smart
more, but it heals it. Thus reproof is not agreeable but useful.
If by administering a rebuke we shall bring trouble on ourselves,
we are not obliged to give it ; no one is required to love his neighbor
more than himself. (It is however the bounden duty of those who
are in authority to admonish those under them of their faults;
justice, not charity, requires it.) Nor are we called upon to correct
others if no good will come of it. Who would be so unwise as to
rebuke a man who was intoxicated? Rebuke him by all means, but
wait until he is sober.
In admonishing sinners we should observe the rule Christ
gave us.
First we are told to rebuke ©ur brother when we are alone with
him. If he will not hear us, we must rebuke him in the presence of
two or three witnesses. If that is useless, we are to tell his superiors
(Matt, xviii. 15-1?).
We must admonish our neighbor with gentleness and
charity.
The greater the gentleness and tact wherewith a reprimand is
administered, the more effect it produces. If our admonition is to be
of use, it must fall on the heart like a gentle rain upon the earth;
for it is the still, quiet rain that sinks into and fertilizes the soil,
whereas a violent, sudden downpour only breaks up the surface of the
ground and rushes away. The bitterness of the reproof should be
tempered with kindness and charity, as sour fruit is sweetened with
sugar and cooked to render it digestible. Before rebuking any one,
it is well to mention something praiseworthy in his conduct, and
afterwards to speak a word of encouragement. If the rebuke is harsh
424 The Commandments.
and severe, it will do no good, only harm. Rough reproaches will
not bring a man to a better mind, any more than kicks will put a
wanderer in the right road. They will only drive him in the opposite
direction. The sinner will not resolve to amend his ways unless he
feels that the admonisher has his welfare sincerely at heart. The
Christian must treat his erring brother as the coachman treats a
timid horse, which is not to be managed by the violent use of the whip,
but by a gentle hand on the rein.
" He who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of
his ways shall save his soul from death, and cover a multitude
of sins" (Jas. v. 20).
We are told that the Evangelist St. John took the greatest
trouble to save an unhappy youth whom he had converted, and who
afterwards became a highwayman. He went after him to the moun-
tain fastnesses, and called to him : " Why, my son, do you fly from
your father, from a defenceless old man? Fear not; I will myself
implore pardon for you of God, and make satisfaction for you."
These kind words touched the heart of the prodigal. We cannot
offend Christ more deeply than by robbing Him of the souls He has
redeemed; nor can we honor Him more than by bringing back to
Him those which have gone astraj^. There is nothing upon earth
to compare with the value of a soul. " If thou wert to give vast sums
to the poor," says St. John Chrysostom, " the merit would be nothing
in comparison with that of having converted one sinner." He who
converts a sinner deserves an infinitely greater reward than he who
rescues a king's son from death; for he saves a son of the King of
heaven, and saves him not from temporal, but from eternal death.
When we bear wrongs patiently, we benefit not ourselves
only, but also our fellow-man; we prevent him from going to
greater lengths, and make it easier to bring him to a sense of his
wrongdoing.
David bore Semei's abuse patiently, and after a time he acknowl-
edged his sin and implored the king to pardon him. We lose nothing
if we suffer wrong patiently, for when our innocence is proved, our
forbearance will be richly rewarded. It is also most meritorious, as
St. Teresa says, not to justify one's self when one is blamed. Unhap-
pily too many people are like the hedgehog, which rolls itself into a
prickly ball the moment it is touched, for at the first fault-finding
word they break out into excuses and exculpations. However it is in-
cumbent upon us to protect ourselves from false accusations, when to
bear the injustice in silence would be productive rather of evil than of
good. Slight affronts should not be heeded, but one ought not to
allow a heinous crime to be falsely laid to one's charge.
By forgiving offences willingly is meant that we do not seek
to avenge ourselves on those who offend against us, but treat
them kindly, and are ready to confer upon them any benefit
within our power.
Joseph's conduct towards his brethren affords a beautiful example
of this virtue; instead of revenging himself on them, he embraced
The Works of Mercy. 425
them and kissed them and loaded them with gifts. If we willingly
forgive those who trespass against us, God will forgive our trans-
gressions, as we are told in the fifth clause of the Our Father.
We can comfort the afflicted by showing them heartfelt sym-
pathy, by suggesting grounds of consolation, or by succoring
them in need.
Evincing sympathy towards those in trouble is called condoling
with them. We may suggest comfort to the poor and afflicted by
reminding them of the watchful care of God's providence, of the hap-
piness that awaits them in heaven ; to the sinner we may speak of the
divine mercy and compassion. We shall do still better, if we relieve
them in their distress. Thus Our Lord comforted the widow of Nairn,
and the sisters of Lazarus. Grief is a mental malady : " The sadness
of a man consumeth the heart " (Prov. xxv. 20) . To console the sor-
rowing is as much a good work as to nurse the sick. Words of com-
fort in a time of affliction are as welcome as rain in the time of
drought.
To pray for the living and the dead is a work well pleasing
in God's sight. It benefits at the same time both them and us.
God enjoins upon us especially to pray for our parents and bene-
factors, for the Pope, and the ruler of our country, for the
bishops and clergy, and also finally for our enemies.
St. Paul declares that it is good and acceptable in the sight of
God, that prayers be made for all men, for kings particularly, and
those that are in high stations (1 Tim. ii. 2, 3). Furthermore we read
in Holy Scripture : " It is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray
for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins " (2 Mach. xii.
46). Far from being losers, we are greatly the gainers if we offer
prayer to God for others, for we thereby increase our merit, and
draw down upon ourselves the blessing of God. Before Judas Macha-
beus gained the decisive victory over Nicanor, he caused sacrifices to
be offered for the warriors who should fall in battle. Prayers offered
for others sometimes seem to be fruitless. On one occasion when
St. Gertrude complained that no improvement was discernible in
the persons for whom she prayed, Our Lord said to her : u No sincere
prayers are in vain, although the effect they produce may be imper-
ceptible to the eve of man." Abraham interceded for Sodom, Moses
for the people, the Christians for St. Peter when he was in prison.
At the Last Supper Our Lord prayed for His disciples and for the
whole Church, and on the cross He prayed for His enemies. Let us
follow the example He gave us. When we recite the Our Father we
pray for all men ; we say, " Give us our daily bread, etc.''
k. IN WHAT SPIRIT SHOULD THE WORKS OF MERCY
BE PERFORMED ?
1. We ought not to do good to our neighbor in order to be
seen and praised by men, for in that case we have our reward
on earth (Matt. vi. 1).
426 The Commandments.
]\'or should we do good to our neighbor in the hope that he
will requite our kindness (Luke xiv. 12).
Our Lord says : " When thou dost give alms, let not thy left
hand know what thy right doth " (Matt. vi. 3). The saints, as a rule,
gave alms secretly. St. Nicholas threw money to the poor out of his
window at night ; others performed works of mercy under cover of the
darkness. The less reward we get on earth for our good works, the
greater will be our recompense after death. Hence, as Christ ex-
horts us, we should do good by preference to those who cannot repay
us: the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind (Luke xiv. 13). Nor
must we expect to be thanked. God is repaid with ingratitude and so
are the charitable among men. Yet we ought not on this account to
desist from doing good, for it is in showing kindness to the unthank-
ful that true charity consists.
2. We must do good to our neighbor for Christ's sake.
Christ lives in His people. This we learn from His own words
at the Day of Judgment. Thus we must see God in our neighbor.
St. Magdalene of Pazzi placed works of mercy before prayer : " When
I engage in mental prayer," she said, " God assists me ; but when I
do good to my neighbor, I assist God, for He regards what I do to
my neighbor as done to Him."
3. We should do good to our neighbor promptly and pleas-
antly.
We ought not to postpone giving alms until the morrow, if we
can do it at once (Prov. iii. 28). What is given promptly has a double
value. He that showeth mercy, let him do it with cheerfulness (Rom.
xii. 8). God loveth a cheerful giver (2 Cor. ix. 7). We ought not
to upbraid the poor (Ecclus. xviii. 18). Those who are harsh
to the poor are like a surgeon who in healing one wound makes
another. We ought not to question the poor at too great length;
we should rather give of our own accord, without waiting to be
asked. ISTcr ought we to hold ourselves aloof from the poor. If
almighty God permits us to proffer our petitions to Him at all times,
and is always ready to grant them, surely we who are but dust and
ashes, ought not to do less for our brethren. The Emperor Rudolph
of Hapsburg used to say : " Every one can have access to my presence.
I was not chosen emperor that I might live in seclusion."
4. We are only required to give alms of our superfluity.
In no wise are we bound to deprive ourselves of what is necessary
for our subsistence or to keep up our position. Our Lord says:
"Yet of that which remaineth give alms" (Luke xi. 41). Theo-
logians are of opinion that it is sufficient to give a small percentage
of one's yearly savings.
5. We must only give alms out of what is our own, and only
give to those who are really poor or who are unable to work.
Some people think they will give alms at another's expense; they
take from one what they give to another. Such almsgiving, which
is an act of injustice, is abhorrent to God. Therefore let a
The Works of Mercy. 427
i
man who is in debt pay his creditors, instead of giving alms to the
poor. Justice comes before generosity. u How manifestly unjust it
would be to take the coat off one man's back to give it to another;
it is no less unjust to give in alms money which thou owest to another "
(St. John Chrysostom). As well might a thief, when brought to
trial, offer the judge a part of the stolen property; he would only
insure his conviction. " And canst thou hope to gain the favor of
God by giving alms of what is not thy own?" (St. Augustine.)
To give to those who are known to be idle and addicted to drink, is
to encourage them in sin ; but it is better to err on the side of charity
than of severity. When the Master of the house is so liberal, it ill
becomes His steward to be niggardly. As all shipwrecked sailors
without distinction are received in a port, so we should not sit in
judgment upon those who have fallen into poverty, but hasten to
help them in their misfortune.
6. In giving alms, preference should be shown to our rela-
tives, our fellow Catholics, and those who are in the greatest
need.
St. Paul exhorts us : " Let us do good to all men, but especially
to those who are of the household of the faith" (Gal. vi. 10). For
what we give to the poor we give to God, as we know from Christ's
own words. The money bestowed in alms is lent to the Lord and He
will repay it with high interest.
5. OF WHAT BENEFIT ABE THE WORKS OF MEBCY
TO US?
1. Almsgiving obtains for us the remission of our sins; that
is to say the sinner obtains the grace of repentance, while the
just man receives the pardon of venial sin, and the remission of
the temporal penalty.
) Our Lord therefore says : " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy" (Matt. v. 7). "Water quencheth a flaming fire and
alms resisteth sins" (Ecclus. iii. 33). St. Ambrose exhorts the sin-
ner to employ his money to ransom his soul. Daniel gives similar
counsel to King ISTabuchodonosor (Dan. iv. 24). By almsgiving the
sinner obtains actual graces, which gradually bring about his conver-
sion, or sometimes he obtains extraordinary graces. Cornelius, a
heathen centurion at Csesarea, was the recipient of great graces as the
reward of his prayers and alms; an angel was cent to him, and he was
converted by the preaching of St. Peter. " A merciful man doeth
good to his own soul " (Prov. xi. 17) : almsgiving is a moans whereby
we may escape eternal perdition. The archangel Raphrel expressly
told Tobias: " Alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not
suffer the soul to go into darkness " (Tob. iv. 11). " He who has made
the poor man happy," says St. John Chrysoston, "will not himself
suffer misery." God will not allow a man who has shown mercy
to be lost; He will grant him the graces necessary for his conversion.
St. Jerome declares that he has never known one who in his lifetime
was liberal to the poor, to make a bad end; for the charitable have
many to intercede for them. The just man obtains the remission
428 The Commandments.
of what is due to his sins by almsgiving; for St. Thomas Aquinas
says the satisfaction made by alms is greater than that which is
effected by prayer and fasting.
2. By almsgiving we obtain an eternal recompense, provided
that at the time we are in a state of grace.
It is related of the German Emperor Louis II. that he lost his way
in a forest when hunting one day. Late at night he reached a vil-
lage presbytery, and begged the priest to give him a night's lodging.
The priest entertained the stranger most hospitably; the next day
the latter took leave, after thanking his host. Some weeks later a
messenger presented himself at the priest's humble dwelling, and
handed him a letter stamped with the imperial seal; it announced
his nomination to the see of Miinster. In like manner your heavenly
King will reward your alms hereafter in a manner which you little
anticipate. Alms are like seed cast into the ground; they are not
lost, but yield an abundant harvest. The ant lays up a store for the
winter ; by giving alms we lay up treasures for the life to come. Thus
we exchange what is temporal for what is eternal ; we purchase ever-
lasting possessions with our earthly pelf. Success in trade consists in
buying cheap and selling dear; we too are engaged in commerce, and
for a mere trifle, a piece of bread, even a cup of cold water, we pur-
chase for ourselves heaven. When the new continent was discovered,
the aborigines exchanged silver and gold for things of no value to the
Europeans who landed on their shores. So we obtain the good
things of God in return for the worthless goods of earth. " Give,
then, to the poor that which thou canst not keep, in order to obtain
that which thou canst not lose" (St. Augustine). Even in this life
almsgiving produces a feeling of happiness. A youth was one day
walking through a wood with his tutor, when he saw a pair of boots
which a woodcutter at work at a little distance had taken off. The
boy wanted to hide them, but his tutor suggested that rather than
do that, he should put a piece of money in each. When the poor man
went back to get his boots, he found the coins, and falling on his
knees, thanked God and invoked blessings on the unknown benefactor
who had helped him in dire distress. The money was the exact
sum he needed to pay his rent. The boy, who had watched what
occurred, turned to his tutor and exclaimed : " I never felt so happy
in all my life." Truly a blessing attends works of mercy.
3. Almsgiving brings down upon lis temporal blessings: God
increases our means and gives us bodily health.
"He that is inclined to mercy, shall be blessed" (Prov. xxii. 9).
"The blessing of the Lord maketh men rich" (Prov. x. 22). God
declares that he that giveth to the poor shall not want (Prov. xxviii.
27). Our Lord says: " Give, and it shall be given to you " (Luke vi.
38). The widow of Sarephta gave generously to Elias. For this she
got back far more than she gave to the prophet, for her little store
of meal and of oil was not diminished until the time of scarcity was
over (3 Kings xvii. 14). A nobleman of Granada, who had bestowed
a large alms on St. John of God, went to him the same day disguised
as a mendicant, and asked for money. The saint gave him all that he
had received from him a few hours before. Thereupon the noble-
Hie Duty of Gratitude. 429
man restored ten times the amount, and was his greatest benefactor
during the rest of his life. God acts in a similar way; if we give to
the poor even a portion of what He has bestowed on us, we shall
receive it again with interest. A tree grows all the better for being
pruned; so the rich will increase in goods if they part with some of
their wealth, in acts of charity. St. Paula gave a great deal to the
poor, though she was the mother of five children; when her relatives
remonstrated with her, she said : " The best inheritance I can be-
queath to my children is the blessing of heaven, which almsgiving
draws down on us." God gives bodily health to those who are boun-
tiful to the poor. The archangel Raphael was sent to heal Tobias
because he had performed so many works of mercy (Tob. xii. 14).
Tabitha was raised from the dead by St. Peter because of the good
works and almsdeeds which she did (Acts ix. 36, seq.). David ex-
claims : " Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy
and the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the evil day" (Ps. xl. 1).
Throughout the Scriptures we constantly find instances of blessings
being the reward of almsgiving.
4. Almsgiving is a means of obtaining a speedy answer to
prayer.
The angel said to Cornelius : " Thy prayers and thy alms are
ascended for a memorial in the sight of God" (Acts x. 4). Listen to
the voice of the poor, if you would have God listen to your voice.
By nothing do we gain access to God so readily as by showing mercy.
Alms, like fasting, is one of the wings on which prayer soars to
heaven.
5. By almsgiving we make the poor our friends; they pray
for us, and their prayers have great power with God.
The ancients of the Jews besought Our Lord on behalf of the
centurion at Capharnaum who had built them a synagogue; and
immediately He complied with their request (Luke vii. 3-5). The
poor of Joppe prayed for Tabitha; she was restored to life (Acts ix.
39). God Himself declares that the prayer of the poor is always
heard (Ps. xxi. 25; lxviii. 34). The petitions of those who are in
heaven are, however, more effectual. Thus Our Lord bids us : " ]\Iake
unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall
fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings " (Luke xvi. 9).
Therefore never "refuse an alms to the poor.
XII. THE DUTY OF GRATITUDE.
Our Lord says : " It is better to give than to receive." And why ?
Because the one who receives is bound to give thanks, whereas the
giver has a right to a reward.
1. For every act of mercy done to us, we are bound to render
thanks first to God and then to our benefactor; for God requires
of us that we should be grateful for the benefits we receive.
It is our duty to be grateful ; i.e., to show our sense of the benefit
conferred upon us, and to endeavor to repay our benefactor. Grati-
430 The Commandments.
tude is due to almighty God in the first place, because from Him
comes down every best gift and every perfect gift (Jas. i. 17). Men
are His servants, the instruments He employs; therefore we owe
thanks to them in the second place. Whenever Our Lord received a
favor from His heavenly Father He raised His eyes to heaven, and
said : " Father, I thank Thee." This He did at the raising of Lazarus
(John xi. 41). lie never rose from table without giving thanks;
after the Last Supper a hymn was said. All the saints did the
same. David exclaims : " What shall I render to the Lord for all
the things that He hath rendered unto me?" (Ps. cxv. 3.) The
first words Tobias uttered when he was cured of his blindness were
these : " I bless Thee, O Lord God of Israel, because Thou hast
chastised me and Thou hast saved me" (Tob. xi. 17). Koe's first
act when he came out of the ark was to build an altar to the Lord
and offer sacrifice (Gen. viii.). Columbus, when he beheld the con-
tinent of America, gave thanks to God; and in gratitude to Him
he gave the name of San Salvador to the first island on which he
set foot, and erected a cross on its shores. Accustom yourself to
repeat the words Deo gratias or the Gloria Patri whenever any
benefit is conferred on you. It is also incumbent on y to return
thanks to your human benefactors as well as to God. 'javid wished
to take with him to Jerusalem and entertain at his court the wealthy
old man who provided him with sustenance in the canvp during the
period of Absalom's rebellion. And on Berzellai declining the
honor, on account of his advanced age, the king took h:s sons with
him instead, and showed them every kindness; and on his death-bed
he bade Solomon to be mindful of his obligations to their father,
and let them eat at his table (3 Kings ii. 7). Tobias wished St.
Raphael to accept half of all the things they had brought back from
their journey (Tob. xii. 5). Even brute beasts show gratitude: wit-
ness the well-known story of Androcles and the lion. It is the will
of God that we should in all things give thanks (1 Thess. v. 18).
Our Lord was much displeased with the nine lepers because they did
not turn back to thank him (Luke xvii. 17). Almighty God fre-
quently complains by the mouth of the prophets of the ingratitude
of mankind : " The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's
crib; but Israel hath not known Me" (Is. i. 3). St. Paul repeatedly
exhorts the Christians to give thanks (Eph. v. 20; Col. iii. 15).
2. By our gratitude we obtain fresh favors, whereas ingrati-
tude brings misfortunes upon us.
The husbandman scatters fresh seed in the fertile soil, knowing
that it will yield an abundant harvest. God acts in a similar
manner: nothing pleases Him more than thankfulness for His bene-
fits. Gratitude for past favors prepares us for favors to come. God
notices and takes especial care of those who acknowledge and appre-
ciate His gifts (Ps. xlix. 23). Ingratitude, on the other hand, dams
up the stream of divine grace; he deserves no fresh favors who is
not at the pains to return thanks for those he has received already.
Ingratitude is a hindrance to salvation; St. Bernard expresses the
opinion that nothing is so displeasing to God as unthankfulness,
especially on the part of His own favored children. He that ren-
dereth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house (Prov. xvii.
The Poverty of the Christian. 431
13). Judas had received the greatest kindness from Our Lord, yet
he betrayed Him, and how terrible was his end ! The grateful soul
is a friend of God; whereas the devil takes possession of the thank-
less.
Ingratitude is a mark of ill-breeding and a bad disposition.
It is vain to look for gratitude from the world; its votaries take
as their right the benefits conferred on them; they repay them with
ingratitude, nay, more, they return evil for good. How thankless
was Achitophel, who after sitting at King David's table, and basking
in the royal favor, joined in Absalom's revolt! Of this David com-
plained bitterly (Ps. liv. 13 seq.). Those who are ungrateful to their
fellow-men are yet more so towards God. " He who loveth not his
brother whom he seeth, how can he love God Whom he seeth not?"
(1 John iv. 20.) However trifling the gift may be, show yourself
thankful for it.
XIII. THE POVEETY OF THE CHRISTIAN.
God does not distribute talents to all alike; to one He gives five,
to another two, to a third only one (Matt. xxv). It is in wisdom
that He thus acts ; for if the same were given to all, every one could
stand alone, and there would be no need of mutual good offices.
What opportunity would there be for the exercise of brotherly love,
what occasions of merit?
1. Poverty is no disgrace in God's sight; to be poor in vir-
tue and in good works is the only thing of which one need be
ashamed, for it leads to eternal damnation.
In the eyes of eternal Truth poverty is not the slightest shame
(Lev. xiii.). Our Lord Himself being rich, became poor (2 Cor. viii.
9). He Who was the King of heaven and of earth passed His life
in constant privations; He had not where to lay His head (Luke ix.
58). What could exceed the poverty of His birthplace! A man
may be poor in this world's goods and exceedingly rich before God;
and on the other hand, a man may be rich in earthly possessions and
utterly destitute before God (Luke xii. 21). "The fear of God is
the glory of the rich" (Ecclus. x. 25). Virtues, not earthly
treasures, constitute true riches. " He," says St. Augustine, " is not
rich who possesses chests full of silver and gold, but he in whom
God dwells, who is the temple of the Holy Ghost."
2. The poor save their souls more easily than the rich.
Our Lord declares that it is easier for a camel to pass through
the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom
of heaven (Matt. xix. 24). Wealth affords its possessor the means
of gratifying every inordinate desire. It is otherwise with the poor;
they have not this occasion of sin. Just as a traveller goes on his way
more easily if he is not encumbered with baggage, so the poor man
is less impeded on his journey to the goal whither he is bound. The
pugilist overthrows his opponent with greater facility when he is
stripped to the waist; so the poor man is better prepared to resist
432 Tlie Commandments.
the temptations of the devil. Consequently many of the poor will
have a higher place in the kingdom of heaven than their richer
brethren. Christ says : " Many that are first shall be last, and the
last first" (Mark x. 31). Lazarus after his death was carried to
Abraham's bosom, while Dives was buried in hell.
3. God often sends poverty upon a man for his salvation.
Many, if they were rich, would misuse their wealth, lead a vicious
life, and be eternally lost. This God foresees, and therefore He takes
their earthly possessions from them. " Poverty and riches are from
God" (Ecclus. xi. 14). St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, saw
angels descending and ascending around a certain house; on hearing
that the inmates were a poor widow with three daughters, he made
them a liberal allowance. Later on he saw evil spirits coming and
going about that same house ; he made inquiries and learned that the
people he had assisted now led an idle and dissolute life. Thereupon
he immediately withdrew his gift. God deals in like manner with us.
What does the schoolmaster do if he sees one of his scholars playing
with a toy instead of learning his lesson? Or a father, if he sees
a knife in the hand of a very young child?
4. The poor are beloved by God.
Those who are unhappy and forsaken in this world are especially
dear to God. Christ calls the poor blessed (Matt. v. 3). He invites
all that labor and are burdened to come to Him, that He may re-
fresh them (Matt. xi. 28) ; the oppressed and persecuted are the
objects of His peculiar favor (Matt. v. 10). These truths ought to
serve as an encouragement to the poor, and repress the pride of the
opulent and powerful. To the poor first of all the Gospel is preached
(Matt. xi. 5). The offerings of the poor are more acceptable to God
than those of the rich. Our Lord said the widow's mite was of
greater value than all the gifts that the rich cast into the treasury
(Mark xii. 41-43). God promises to hear the cry of the oppressed
(Jas. v. 4). The poor shepherds were privileged to see the Infant
Christ, not the rich Pharisees and Scribes. There is no respect of
persons with God (Rom. ii. 11). Poor and rich are alike His chil-
dren (Prov. xxii. 2).
5. The poor man who leads an upright life will never be
forsaken by God; nay, more, he will enjoy happiness and con-
tentment in this world.
God Who feeds the birds of the air, and clothes the lilies and grass
of the field, will also provide for man, who is of so much more value
than they (Matt. v. 25-30). God does not allow the just to want the
necessaries of life. Our Lord says : " Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His justice, [i.e., be solicitous for your salvation and keep
the commandments] and all these things [i.e., the wherewithal to
live] shall be added unto you" (Matt. vi. 33). David says: "I have
been young, and now am old, and I have not seen the just forsaken,
nor his seed seeking bread" (Ps. xxxvi. 25). When we read that by
God's permission, just men, such as Job, Tobias, Joseph, fell into
destitution and distress, we also read tnat in God's good time they
The Poverty of the Christian. 433
were restored to ease and plenty. Virtue is generally attended by
temporal blessings here below (Ps. cxi. 2-3). A poor man may
be very happy despite his poverty. Happiness by no means consists
in the abundance of things that one possesses (Luke xii. 15), but in
interior peace and content, and these the just man enjoys, whether
he be rich or ooor. St. Paul speaks of himself as having nothing,
and yet possessing all things (2 Cor. vi. 10).
6. The poor are not warranted in wresting from the rich the
alms which they have a right to expect; they should rather
bear their lot patiently and rely on help from God.
The duty of giving alms is not required by jus tic e, except in
cases of dire necessity. It is a duty of Christian charity, conse-
quently no man can lawfully be compelled to give. The Fathers
of the Church constantly exhorted the rich to give alms. " Thou art
master of thy property, and canst give or not give at thy will," St.
Jerome said to the rich : " Distribute a portion of thy wealth. But if
thou refusest, I cannot force thee. I can only entreat." The poor
can however demand that their labor be sufficiently remunerated.
Doubly indeed is that poor man to be commiserated who forsakes
God and transgresses His law; for in that case he has nothing
in this life, and after death everlasting perdition awaits him.
B. GOOD WORKS, VIRTUE,
SIN, VIOF.
Hitherto the will of God (the commandments) has been the sub-
ject treated of. In the following pages we shall speak of the ful-
filment of the divine will and the transgression thereof. Good works
are the result of the accomplishment of the divine will; sin is the
result of the violation of it. By the repeated performance of good
works the habit of virtue is formed ; by repeated acts of sin, the habit
of vice.
I. GOOD WORKS.
1. The name of good works is given to such voluntary actions
on the part of man as are in conformity with the will of God,
are performed for the love of God, and consequently will be re-
warded by God.
No action, however excellent, is to be called a good work unless it
is voluntary. The compulsory fast of a criminal in prison is not a
good work ; nor in fact is any action which is not in accordance with
the will of God. To spend one's time in reciting long prayers* in-
stead of accomplishing the duties of one's station, is not a good
work, but a sin. Nor do works which fail in any one particular to
correspond to the will of God deserve to be called good works, or to
receive a reward. Those actions again, which are not performed for
the love of God are not good works. God requires a pure motive on
our part. For instance, to give an alms to an importunate beggar
merely to get rid of him is not wrong, but it is not a perfect good
work. It is an imperfect or natural good work, because it is done
from natural motives. But an action performed for God's sake, be-
cause it is the will of God, for love of Christ, in view of an eternal
reward or for fear of everlasting punishment, is a perfect, or super-
natural good work, and will bear fruit, because it is done in union
with Christ (as the branch bears fruit that abides in the vine, John
xv. 4), and participates in His merits. A plain woollen cloth has a
certain worth, but if it be dyed a rich purple color, its value is
greatly enhanced. So the good works we perform are of little worth
unless they are done for God's sake. Then they are crimsoned with
434
Good Works. 435
the blood of Christ, precious in God's sight, and deserving of a celes-
tial recompense.
Actions, although good, if performed for merely natural mo-
tives, are worthless in God's sight.
The Pharisees in Christ's time are a striking instance of this,
for they did good works to be seen of men and praised by men. Our
Lord blames them for this, and says : " They have received their
reward" (Matt, vi. 2). If a man subscribes to some charitable ob-
ject, in order to get his name into the papers, or to get some office
of trust, he does not perform a good work, or one deserving of reward.
Such works are like a great, empty package which, when put into
the balance at the Judgment Day, will have no weight at all. " Man
seeth those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart " (1
Kings xvi. 7). It is the intention to which one must look, not the
external act ; this may appear to be good, but if it is not done in some
way in view of our final end, it is worse than useless. He who seeks
his own glory in what he does is a thief, for he robs God of what is
His due. Some people say we ought to do good for its own sake.
They are mistaken, for the act itself is not our highest aim, but a
means towards the attainment of that end. We ought to do good
for God's sake.
A good work has all the more value in God's sight, the less
it is done in hope of earthly reward.
He who does good to the poor who cannot requite him, does a work
which is great in God's eyes, however contemptible it may be in the
eyes of the world, because it is done for God. Good works which cost
us a great sacrifice are more valuable than others. For this reason
Abraham's obedience in promptly offering his only son at God's
command was so highly praised. Therefore what we do in spite of
outward contradiction or inward opposition has more worth before
God. Thus the value of our works depends entirely upon whether
they are or are not done for the love of God. He does not consider
the magnitude of the work, but the amount of love wherewith it is
performed.
2. The good works most pleasing in God's sight are these:
Prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds.
By these works the centurion Cornelius merited the praise of the
angel (Acts x.), and Tobias the approval of Raphael (Tob. xii. 8).
In the sermon on the mount Our Lord lays special stress on these
works (Matt. vi.). Prayer includes every kind of divine worship,
the reception of the sacraments, hearing Mass, attending sermons,
etc. Fasting is not merely abstaining from food, or some sort of
food, but the repression of sensual desires in general, e.g., restrain-
ing curiosity, the avoidance of idle conversation, denying one's self
some pleasure. As alms may be reckoned every service rendered to
one's neighbor, pre-eminently the spiritual and corporal works of
mercy.
Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are the principal means of
436 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
attaining perfection, because they combat the three evil appe-
tites, the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the
eyes, and the pride of life; and thus the soul is enabled to rise
more freely to God.
By prayer the pride of life is suppressed, by fasting the craving
for sensual enjoyment, by almsgiving the desire for earthly riches.
Thus by prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds, more than by anything else,
we shake off the bonds of earth and consequently draw nearer to God.
3. Even the most trifling works are pleasing to God if they
are done with the intention of promoting His glory.
St. Paul exhorts ns : " Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else
you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. x. 31). This includes
work, recreation, sleep, etc. Midas, King of Phrygia, is said to have
asked of the gods that whatsoever he touched might be turned to gold.
This power is granted to the Christian ; for by purity of intention all
his good works do in reality become golden, i.e., supernatural, and
consequently highly valuable and meritorious. The intention deter-
mines the worth of every action. Witness the kiss Judas gave Our
Lord; a kiss is a token of love and friendship, but his evil intention
made it a vile action. The intention is to the action what the root
is to the tree. If the root is healthy the tree flourishes and its fruit
is good; but if the root is unsound, the sap does not circulate or the
fruit mature. The decorations of the streets when a monarch makes
his entry into a city, are a matter of no moment to him, except in so
far as they display the affection and loyal devotion of his subjects.
So it is with the actions we perform for the glory of God. Be care-
ful therefore to direct your intention every morning, and renew it
occasionally throughout the day. An action without a good inten-
tion is like a body in which the life is extinct.
4. Good works are necessary to salvation.
Our Lord says : " Every tree that doth not yield good fruit shall
be cut down and cast into the fire" (Matt. iii. 10). At the Last
Judgment He will require good works of us. Remember the parable
of the barren fig-tree (Luke xiii. 6) ; of the ten virgins (Matt, xxv.),
and of the talents (v. 16). God is not satisfied with mere integrity
of life (which consists in not being guilty of murder, or theft, or.
cheating, or evil practices of any kind) . At the Last Judgment many
will be sentenced to everlasting misery, not because they have done
what is evil, but because they have not done what is good. St. John
Chrysostom says that to do . no good is tantamount to doing evil.
Heaven is the recompense of labor; he that has done no work can
claim no guerdon. If you had a servant who did not indeed steal
your goods, but who neglected his work, would you not dismiss him?
Look to it, therefore, that you appear not before God with empty hands.
Every man has three friends: (1), Money, which is taken from him
by death; (2), Relatives, who part from him at the grave; (3), Good
works, which alone follow him to the judgment seat of God (Apoc.
xiv. 13). By good works we may make sure our calling and election
(2 Pet, i. 10). Good works are like bulwarks which protect the city
Good Works. 437
from hostile incursions. On account of our good works God grants
us the grace of perseverance, or, if we fall into grievous sin, actual
graces to bring us to repentance (2 Par. xix. 3). The prophet
Nathan was sent to David after he fell into sin; Our Lord looked
with compassion on St. Peter after his fall.
5. Through good works the sinner obtains the actual graces
which are necessary for his conversion; the just man obtains an
increase of sanctifying grace, eternal felicity, and the remission
of the temporal penalty of sin ; furthermore his prayers are heard,
and sometimes earthly blessings are bestowed on him.
The good works performed by the sinner contribute to his conver-
sion. When our hemisphere is turned towards the sun, we experi-
ence light and warmth. So it is with the sinner; when by good works
he turns from creatures to the Creator his mind is enlightened, his
heart is softened, and he enters upon a new life. The prayer of the
sinner, although without merit, earns the grace of pardon; it has
power with God, not on account of the merit of the petitioner, but on
account of the divine promise: "Every one who asketh receiveth."
The good works of the sinner will not in themselves be rewarded here-
after, but are only conducive to his conversion. By his good works
the just man obtains an increase of sanctifying grace and eternal
felicity. Our Lord says : " Every branch in Me that beareth fruit,
My Father will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit "
(John xv. 2). " To every one that hath shall be given, and he shall
abound" (Luke xix. 26). By these words Christ signifies that the
sanctifying grace which he already possesses will be increased. He
also receives new actual graces. Christ promises as the reward of
good works a hundredfold and life eternal. As the good works of
the just are rewarded hereafter they are called living works. The
more good works he has done in time, the greater will be his felicity
to all eternity. Our Lord says : " The Son of man shall come in the
glory of His Father with His angels, and then will be rendered to
every man according to his works" (Matt. xvi. 27). St. Paul de-
clares : " He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly " (2 Cor.
ix. 6). The Council of Florence asserts that all the redeemed in
heaven enjoy the beatific vision of the triune God, but in a different
degree of perfection, according as their merits are greater or less.
Good works cancel the penalty due to sin, because on account of
original sin it is difficult to man to perform them, and the devil seeks
to deter him from them. The monks of a certain convent, having risen
early xo pray, beheld to their astonishment a number of demons ap-
proaching, who said to them : " If you will but betake yourselves to
your beds again, we will immediately go away." Inasmuch as good
works are onerous to perform, they make satisfaction for sin, and
appease the retributive justice of God; inasmuch as they conduce to
the honor of God and the welfare of our fellow-men, they are meri-
torious, and serve to glorify the remunerative justice of God. They
also exalt the loving kindness of God, for they procure for us a gra-
cious answer to our petitions. The temporal reward of good deeds
consists generally in the increase* of riches, the improvement of
health, the prolongation of life, the esteem of men, and above all
interior peace and joy, etc.
438 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
He who commits a mortal sin, loses the merit of the good
works he has done in the past.
" If the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do ini-
quity, all his justices that he hath done shall not be remembered"
(Ezech. xviii. 24). But when the sin has been washed away in the
Sacrament of Penance, the good works of the past are revivified, as the
leaves come out again in the spring sunshine. It is not so with sins ;
once forgiven, they are effaced completely. How great is the mercy
of our God !
6. We can apply to others, either to the living or to the dead,
the merit of our good works.
Thus we can offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass, communion,
fasts or almsdeeds for others. In this manner the good work, inas-
much as it be satisfactory or propitiatory, benefits another ; the merit
of it, however, remains with the doer. E"or is it wholly lost to us as a
satisfaction for sin, for in applying it to another we perform a work
of mercy, and works of mercy procure for us remission of sin and
entitle us to an eternal reward. Hence we see that in applying good
works to others they are of twofold value.
7. We ought to let our good works be seen of men, in order
to set them a good example.
In the life of St. Pachomius we see how powerful is the effect of
good example. When a soldier, he was quartered in a Christian
family. Here he was treated with the greatest kindness, and the
behavior of all the members of the household was so exemplary,
that he was vastly impressed by it, and was led to inquire into and
finally embrace the Christian religion. Pachomius was an active
promoter of monasticism in Egypt. Our Lord admonishes us to let
our light shine before men, so that they may see our good works, and
glorify Our Father Who is in heaven (Matt. v. 16). It is His will
that our influence should make itself felt by those around us ; that by
our light we should illumine the darkness, and become teachers and
guides to our brethren. The Christian should not only be a burning
but also a shining light, that he may be of use to others. At the same
time all works of an extraordinary nature should be hidden, such as
praying with one's arms outspread, rigorous fasting, etc. All singu-
larity is to be avoided, it is a fault whereby piety is made ridiculous
and contemptible. But those works which are binding on all, such as
the reception of the sacraments, should not be done in secret. If
Christ denounced those who give scandal, what a rich blessing must
be in store for those who by their edifying and virtuous life lead
others into the right way !
8. We ought to make diligent use of our earthly riches, as
well as of our life here below, for the performance of good
works.
We ought to make friends by means of our wealth, that after our
death they may receive us into everlasting dwellings (Luke xvi. 9).
On how short a span of this transitory life our whole eternity de-
Virtue. 439
pends! (St. Jerome.) "We ought to work while it is day; the night
cometh when no man can work" (John ix. 4). The period of mans
existence upon earth is his seed-time. The lost in hell would give up
all the treasures of the. world, for one short moment to spend as they
please in which to reconcile themselves with God. How foolish are
those who pursue sensual pleasures instead of doing good works !
They are like men who, in a gold mine, pick up stones and earth in-
stead of the precious metal. You are sorry if perchance you have
spent a small sum of money unwisely, but you consider it no matter
for regret to have wasted a whole day in the service of the devil. The
hour will come when we shall become alive to the inestimable value
of time, but alas, it will come too late!
II. VIRTUE.
1. Virtue consists in proficiency in the practice of good works
and the tendency of the will towards what is good, resulting from
persevering exercise.
By good deeds is meant whatever is done in obedience to the will of
God, or is pleasing in His sight. By practice in writing, painting,
athletic and other sports, etc., proficiency and dexterity is attained,
and the will becomes disposed towards the action in question. Prac-
tice makes perfect. Habit is second nature. It is difficult to break
off any habit to which we have accustomed ourselves. One or two
isolated good deeds do not constitute virtue, any more than two or
three vines constitute a vineyard.
Certain good qualities or propensities, the gift either of na-
ture or of grace, are often called by the name of virtue.
There are natural, inborn good qualities, dispositions or virtues.
Many men are naturally meek, obedient, liberal or honorable. Hence
it is that some of the heathen were distinguished for their virtues.
There are also supernatural dispositions, which are imparted by the
Holy Spirit when we receive sanctifying grace, that is, the Sacrament
of Baptism or of Penance. The Holy Spirit renders us capable of
accomplishing what is good for the love of God. This supernatural
capability is something more than a mere qualification for the per-
formance of what is good; a certain inclination thereto is also given
us. But this disposition or inclination is not the same as proficiency or
ease in the exercise of virtue; the latter must be won by practice.
The capabilities imparted by the Holy Ghost stand in the same rela-
tion to actual virtue as the seed does to the plant, or the gift of one
of the senses, e.g., the sense of sight, to the use of that sense. The
good dispcsiticns imparted by the Holy Spirit are also called infused
virtue, and the proficiency attained through practice is called
acquired virtue. The powers imparted by the Holy Spirit do not at
once cause us to act aright; it is requisite for us to employ them
frequently in order to gain proficiency in virtue.
2. It is only perfect virtue, i.e., those acts of virtue which
are performed for the glory of God, which will be rewarded after
death.
440 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice,
God does not merely require of us good deeds, but a good inten-
tion in accomplishing those deeds. Only when done with good in-
tention, with a view to His glory, are they pleasing to Him, and en-
titled to a reward. Without the love of God there is no true virtue.
The actions we perform for the love of God are acts of perfect,
supernatural, Christian virtue. There are, as we have seen, natural
virtues, which are inspired by earthly motives and are not done with
a view to the glory of God. These only receive a temporal recom-
pense (Matt. vi. 2), and have no value for the kingdom of heaven
(Matt. v. 20). The difference between natural and supernatural
virtues may be compared to the difference which exists between
objects which are merely gilt, and those that are fashioned out of
solid gold.
3. Virtue can only be acquired and increased by dint of strug-
gle and self-conquest ; for many obstacles have to be encountered,
inward hindrances, the evil proclivities of the human heart, and
outward hindrances, the contempt and persecution of men.
JSTothing else is wanted to cause a boat which is launched on a fast-
flowing river, to be carried away by the stream and swallowed up
in the waters, than that the rowers should cease to ply their oars;
but if the boat is going against the current, strenuous exertion on the
part of the crew is required to bring it to its destination. So it is
with man; he needs but to give way to the frailty of his corrupt
nature to be borne to eternal perdition; but to contend against the
force of his passions, the seductions of the world, and the tempta-
tions of the devil, and guide his bark to the haven of everlasting feli-
city, calls for no slight effort on his part. " The kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence" (Matt. xi. 12). The path of virtue is a difficult
ascent, not an easy descent. Virtue is won not in times of peace,
but of warfare. Many appear to be virtuous, but are not so in
reality, because their virtue costs them nothing. Those who desire
to attain proficiency in an art, or dexterity in a trade, must give
themselves much trouble in learning it. Only in proportion as you
do violence to yourself will you make progress in virtue. The most
formidable obstacles have to be overcome at first, afterwards advance-
ment becomes more easy. And as we advance in virtue, it brings
happiness, and thus we are stimulated to greater efforts. But suffer-
ing is inseparable from virtue ; wherefore he who shrinks from suf-
ferings and persecution will never be rich in virtue. " He who fears
the world," says St. Ignatius, " will never accomplish anything
worthy of God's acceptance; for nothing great can be done in God's
service without provoking the enmity of the world." He who strives in
earnest to attain to virtue, will necessarily be humble, for he will
feel his own frailty, as one who climbs a steep ascent becomes con-
scious of his bodily weakness. Consequently the most virtuous are
the most humble.
4. Virtue procures for us real happiness both in time and in
eternity.
The Greeks related of Heracles, one of their heroes, that at a spot
where two roads met he found two maidens awaiting him. Pleasure
and Virtue. The former spoke flattering words to him and promised
Virtue. 441
him a life of enjoyment. The latter gravely warned him that many
sorrows awaited him, but they would be followed by an everlasting
reward. Heracles wisely followed where this one guided him. Sin,
although it leads to perdition, is unquestionably most alluring; virtue
is difficult and laborious, but it is attended with blessings. The fear
of the Lord, the practice of virtue, is the way to attain true happiness
even on earth (Ps. cxxvii. 1). "Much peace have they that love Thy
law" (Ps. cxviii. 165). Above all, the virtuous man will have joy
at his latter end (Ecclus. vi. 29). How joyfully St. Paul spoke of his
approaching dissolution (2 Tim. iv. 7). Nothing can really harm one
who loves God; all things, however adverse they appear, work
together unto good (Rom. viii. 28). Many temporal blessings are
bestowed on him (Ps. cxxvii. 4) ; he is compared by the Psalmist to
a tree planted by running waters. A virtuous life contributes to
one's physical well-being ; the practice of virtue, moreover, enlightens
the understanding, and gives intelligence of the teaching of Christ.
He Himself says : " If any man will do the will of God, he shall
know of the doctrine whether it be of God" (John vii. 17). The
practice of virtue entitles us to eternal salvation (Ps. xxxvi. 29).
Godliness has promise of the life that now is and of that which is to
come (1 Tim. iv. 8). Virtue makes us rich and honorable in God's
sight. She is to be preferred before kingdoms and thrones, and
riches are nothing in comparison with her (Wisd. vii. 8). It is a
treasure which cannot decay or be stolen from us (Matt. vi. 20).
Noble ancestry, high position, does not make us renowned before God ;
virtue alone procures for us immortal honors, eternal riches, never-
ending felicity.
5. Virtue makes us resemble God, and admits us to the
friendship of God.
If we are humble, gentle, generous, and otherwise virtuous, we
shall be like to almighty God, in Whom is the perfection of every
virtue. We should therefore be careful to study the divine attri-
butes, that we may imitate them and become true children of our
heavenly Father. The virtuous man is a friend of God, for Our
Lord says : " Whosoever shall do the will of My Father that is in
heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother" (Matt. xii. 50).
Similarity of tastes and feelings makes men friends. Virtue renders
us beautiful in God's sight. Physical beauty is deceitful and vain
(Prov. xxxi. 30) ; true beauty is that of the heart. All the glory of
the king's daughter is within (Ps. xliv. 14). This loveliness is not
apparent now, but it will be made visible one day. In winter all
the trees are bare, though they are not lifeless, but when the sum-
mer comes they are clothed with verdant foliage. So the virtuous
now appear insignificant and contemptible, for their true glory,
their inner life, is hidden from human ken. But when this life is
done, those who were counted dead shall shine as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father (Matt. xiii. 43), while the wicked who were
deemed happv shall mourn and weep. Virtue alone makes us true
Christians. The seal of Baptism is not enough, nor even the sacer-
dotal robe. A Christian without virtue is a husk without a kernel,
a spring without water, a vine without grapes.' In vain do we call
ourselves Christians, if we are not imitators of Christ.
442 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
The Different Kinds of Christian Virtue.
One and the self -same virtue has reference to different ob-
jects and consequently receives different names.
Many virtues, such as liberality or prudence, are lauded by men
of the world; others, such as meekness, humility, love of one's ene-
mies, are regarded by them with contempt. In some virtues the
understanding is the chief factor, as in faith; in others, the will, as
in temperance.
1. The virtues that unite our soul to God are the three theo-
logical virtues : Faith, Hope, Charity.
These three virtues are symbolized by a flame; faith is signified
by the light it emits, hope by its upward tendency, and charity by the
heat it radiates. A tree is also an emblem of these virtues: faith is
its root, hope its stem, charity its fruit. Faith lays the foundation
of the temple of God, hope raises the walls, and charity crowns the
structure. The cross is a symbol of faith, the anchor of hope, while
charity is denoted by a burning heart. The greatest of these virtues
is charity (1 Cor. xiii. 13). Without charity, faith and hope are
valueless, for God only grants eternal felicity to those that love
Him.
1. The three theological virtues are manifested in the fol-
lowing manner:
The effect produced by the virtue of Faith is to make us be-
lieve in the existence of God and in His divine perfections.
The effect of the virtue of Hope is to make us look for eternal
salvation from God, as well as the means that are necessary for
its attainment.
The virtue of Charity causes us to find satisfaction in God,
and to seek to please Him by keeping His commandments.
2. These virtues are fitly termed theological, because God
Himself is their object, their motive, and their Author.
God is the object of faith; that is to say, we believe what God
has revealed, and all that has reference to God Himself, to His bei^?,
His attributes, His works and His will. God is the motive of faith,
for we believe that which He has revealed because He is omniscient
and the highest truth. God is the object of hope; for we hope for
eternal happiness after death, to see God and enjoy Him forever.
God is the motive of hope, for we hope for eternal felicity because
He is almighty, most bountiful, and faithful to His promises. God
is the object of charity, for all our love centres in Him. God is the
motive of charity, since we love Him because He is supreme beauty
and sovereign goodness. God is also the Author of the three theo-
logical virtues, as the following reasons demonstrate:
3. We receive the three theological virtues to render us
Virtue. 443
capable of performing good works simultaneously with sancti-
fying grace.
When the Holy Spirit enters into the soul, He transforms the
powers of the mind, so that it can rise to God with greater facility.
When He comes and imparts to us sanctifying grace, a light shines
in our heart that awakens faith and hope (2 Cor. iv. 6), and a fire
is ignited, that kindles a flame of charity (Rom. v. 5). This action
of the Holy Ghost within the soul is called the infusion of the three
theological virtues. The three theological virtues are infused into
the soul (Council of Trent, 6, ch. 7). The infusion of these virtues
has a similar effect as have the rays of the sun in imparting light
and warmth to the atmosphere. God does not force these virtues upon
us ; the freedom of the will is in no wise interfered with. The power
of exercising the three theological virtues is imparted in Baptism,
and if it be lost, it is given again in the Sacrament of Penance. As
the seed lies dormant in the bosom of the earth, until, under the
influence of sun and rain, it germinates and grows, so the three
theological virtues at first lie dormant in the soul of the child until
he attains the use of reason, and through the action of grace and
religious instruction they are developed and come to sight (in works).
The baptized child resembles one who is asleep, who possesses the
power of sight, but sees nothing, until he awakens from sleep and
makes use of that power. So the power to exercise faith, hope, and
charity are latent in the soul of the child, until with the use of
reason they are brought into play, and their existence is made ap-
parent.
4. We ought to make acts of the three theological virtues
frequently in the course of our life, especially before approach-
ing the sacraments and at the hour of death.
The means of making acts of the three theological virtues is to
place before the mind the object and the motive of these virtues. In
doing so, it is well not to employ the usual formula, but to express
one's self in one's own words. Every time we make the sign of the
cross, utter a prayer, or do a good deed, we make implicitly at least,
an act of one or more of these virtues.
2. Those virtues which have the effect of bringing our actions
into conformity with the moral law, are called moral virtues.
These we gain for ourselves by our own exertions and the assist-
ance of divine grace, after we have received sanctifying grace.
These virtues are called moral virtues, because they order our
actions in a manner pleasing to God. As the three theological vir-
tues perfect our interior being, so the moral virtues perfect our ex-
terior. The three theological virtues have immediate reference to
God, the moral virtues bear in the first place upon our neighbor or
upon ourselves. Liberality, for instance, has reference to our neigh-
bor; temperance in eating and drinking to ourselves exclusively. The
three theological virtues were infused into us with sanctifying grace,
whereas we have to gain for ourselves the moral virtues at the cost
of our own labor, and with the timely aid of divine grace. At Bap-
444 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
tism, it is true, our will is disposed by the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost to the practice of the moral virtues ; yet the habit of their prac-
tice must be acquired by repeated good deeds, and the conquest
of our evil proclivities. At Baptism the seed of moral virtue was
implanted in the field of our heart; we must diligently cultivate
that field if the seed is to bear fruit. At the same time we need the
sun of God's grace, the vivifying influence of the Holy Spirit, or our
labor will be in vain.
3. The principal moral virtues are the seven capital virtues:
Humility, obedience, meekness, liberality, temperance, chastity,
diligence in what is good.
Humility concerns our honor, obedience our liberty, meekness and
patience the attitude of the soul, liberality has reference to our
property, temperance in eating and drinking and chastity to our
bodies, diligence in what is good to our work. Among these virtues
meekness and liberality ought pre-eminently to mark the Christian,
and for this reason Christ speaks of His followers as sheep or lambs,
because the sheep is the most patient and harmless of animals. The
seven capital virtues are opposed to the seven capital or deadly sins.
4. All the moral virtues proceed from the four cardinal vir-
tues: Prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude (Wisd. viii. 7).
The four fundamental virtues are called cardinal virtues, from
the word car do, a hinge, because all our moral actions turn on them
as a door turns upon its hinges. They are called fundamental virtues
because the whole fabric of virtue rests upon them; they are the
cornerstones of the edifice of Christian virtue. The four cardinal
virtues are inseparable parts of each and every virtue; on them all
the moral virtues rest, for instance moderation in eating and drink-
ing and meekness spring from temperance, diligence is what is good
from fortitude, etc. These four virtues may be said to be the parents
of every other virtue. Prudence is a virtue of the understanding,
justice of the will. Temperance and fortitude support the will. Pru-
dence fixes its gaze upon heaven; temperance seeks what is eternal
and employs temporal things only as a means of attaining what it
seeks; fortitude allows no obstacles to hinder it from attaining its
goal. The philosophers of antiquity recognized the value of temper-
ance and fortitude; they asserted that to renounce and to endure
was the compendium of all worldly wisdom, for they considered that
the practice of these two virtues would preserve a man from sin
and conduct him to supreme felicity.
1. Prudence is the capacity of the intellect to apprehend the
good things of eternity and the means of attaining to them.
That is the truest prudence which can best distinguish what is
divine from what is human. The prudent man always looks to his
final end. Like a wise merchant who thinks continually of what
profit he can make, the Christian's thoughts are fixed upon gaining
riches for eternity. The serpent looks out afar, and exposes its body
if only it can shield its head ; so the Christian keeps the end of life
always in view, and scorns earthly things in order to preserve its true
Virtue. 445
treasure. Our Lord bids us "Be wise as serpents" (Matt. x. 16).
How cleverly the saints contrived to carry out their undertakings and
obtain the end they desired! St. Paul displayed this prudence when
he made use of the superscription he saw at Athens : " To the un-
known God," to afford him an opportunity of preaching the Gospel
(Acts xvii.). Prudence is a most important virtue, for the will is
guided by the reason. If the understanding is not capable of judging
between good and evil, the will deviates from the right way and
transgresses the commandments. Prudence is said to be the eye of
the soul (St. Thomas Aquinas). Without the light of the eye we
cannot find our way, nor without prudence can we discern the path to
heaven. Without the eye we cannot make full use of our limbs, nor
without prudence can we practice virtue aright. Prudence is the rud-
der that directs the course of the vessel; without it we shall make
shipwreck of virtue. The contrary of prudence is worldly wisdom
(Luke xvi. 8), or the wisdom of the flesh. The wisdom of this world
consists in discerning what will bring a man temporal advantage
or sensual enjoyment; this wisdom is foolishness with God (1 Cor. iii.
19),
2. Justice is the steadfast inclination of the will towards
that which is just.
Justice makes us willing to walk in the narrow path of the com-
mandments; the just man dreads the slightest deviation from it.
The foster-father of Christ was termed a just man. (The word just
is often used to signify that one is in a state of grace, but in this
sense it is not employed here.) The just man is upright, he gives
to every one his due; to God he gives worship, to the authorities
obedience; to his subordinates he metes out rewards and punish-
ments; to his equals he shows fraternal charity. But as both from
within and without he encounters opposition and obstacles, he needs
temperance and fortitude to sustain him and regulate his actions.
3. Through temperance man only makes use of temporal
good things, in so far as is necessary for the attainment of those
"which are eternal.
For instance, a man does not eat or drink more than he needs
to support life and preserve health and fulfil his duties. He does not
strive with excessive eagerness after honors, pleasures, or other sen-
sual enjoyments. He is like the eagle, that has its eyrie on the
heights, and only descends to the valley in search of food. We
should use this world as if we used it not (1 Cor. vii. 31). Would
that every one could say with St. Francis of Sales : " I desire very
little, and that little I desire but little." Temperance does not, how-
ever, consist in refusing one's self what is necessary, and thus un-
fitting one's self for good works; such temperance lacks prudence.
4. Fortitude enables a man to make sacrifices willingly for
the sake of attaining eternal riches.
He who possesses the virtue of fortitude does not allow himself
to be intimidated by ridicule, threats, or persecution. He is ready
even, if need be, to suffer death. On the other hand he endures
446 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
patiently all the afflictions that come upon him. In this he resembles
the diamond that no stone can break. Fortitude is more strikingly-
displayed in bearing great suffering than in undertaking great
achievements, for suffering is more difficult than doing. An example
of heroic fortitude is given us by the mother of the Machabees
with her seven children, who " esteemed torments as nothing " (2
Mach. vii. 12) ; by Abraham, who was ready to offer up his son Isaac;
by Pope Leo the Great, who fearlessly went to meet Attila, the King
of the Huns. No saint was ever a coward. The holy martyrs
showed fortitude in its highest degree. There is the spurious for-
titude of the reprobate; when a man cannot be made to desist from
the love of transitory things by the chastisements of the Creator
and pursues them at the cost of his life.
5. All perfect virtues spring from the love of God and are in-
separably united together by that same love (1 Cor. xiii.).
As all the different branches of a tree grow from the same root,
so the various virtues spring from the love of God. All virtue is
rooted and grounded in charity (Eph. iii. 17). Charity may be called
the queen of virtues, because it incites the will to the performance
of good deeds ; as flowers of various hues are bound together to form
a wreath, so the different virtues form a harmonious whole ; only
they cannot be severed one from the other, and the bond that unites
them so closely is charity.
Therefore he who is devoid of charity towards God does not
possess a single perfect virtue; while he who has charity pos-
sesses them all, if not all in the same degree.
The love of God may "fitly be compared to the sunshine. When in
winter the sun withdraws its rays, the face of nature loses its beauty ;
so in the absence of charity, virtue loses its supernatural beauty.
But it is quite possible to possess imperfect, natural virtue without
the love of God. For every man has by nature a certain inherent
knowledge of what is good, and a desire for what is good, by reason
of which he can perform many a good action and by habit acquire
ease in the performance of it. One may also possess imperfect
moral virtues without the love of God; this was the case with the
pagans of antiquity, and now we often meet with people who are
naturally gentle, abstemious, liberal, etc. Moreover, one may even
possess imperfect theological virtues without the love of God. For
faith can exist without hope, and both faith and hope without
charity (Council of Trent, 6, 7, 23). For faith and hope can only
be lost by falling into the sins opposed to them ; faith is lost through
unbelief, hope by despair. But he who possesses the love of God
possesses all and every virtue, if not all in an equal degree. As
soon as the. sun shines upon the earth, the flowers, the meadows, all
things are once more decked in their former beauty; so when charity
fills the soul, it will be adorned with all virtues ; supernatural divine
virtues, worthy of an eternal recompense. All the saints possessed
every single perfect virtue that there is, but they excelled in one
more than in the others. Job possessed patience in a high degree,
David the virtue of forgiveness, Abraham obedience, St. Aloysius was
Virtue. 447
remarkable for purity, St. Francis of Sales for meekness, St. Ignatius
for zeal.
He who is lacking in one single perfect virtue is devoid also
of all the others, for he has not the love of God. And he who pos-
sesses but one single perfect virtue, possesses all. ■
One virtue alone is either no virtue at all, or an imperfect one.
For instance, a man who is given to anger possesses neither the
virtue of meekness, nor of liberality, nor of humility, nor any
other. It is only natural virtues that are alone. For instance one
may meet with an avaricious man who is gentle and meek.
6. The greatest and noblest of all the virtues is charity.
Because it alone unites man to God, it alone gives value to
the other virtues, and it alone will last beyond the grave.
The three theological virtues hold the highest place among the
virtues because they have direct relation to God. Charity is the
greatest of them, as St. Paul declares (1 Cor. xiii. 13). It takes
precedence of all the rest, as fire does of the other elements, as gold
of the other metals, as the seraphim do of the other angelic choirs —
charity unites man to God. Our Lord says : " He that loveth Me
shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him; we will come to
him and will make our abode with him" (John xiv. 21, 23). Again,
St. John says : " He that abideth in charity, abideth in God and God
in him" (1 John iv. 16). Charity alone gives value to the other
virtues. St. Paul declares that to speak with tongues, to possess all
knowledge, to have the gift of prophecy and of miracles, to perform
almsdeeds and austerities, profits nothing, for all these are worth-
less unless inspired by charity (1 Cor. xiii. 1-3). Charity lasts beyond
the grave; St. Paul tells us: "Charity never falleth away" (v. 8).
Faith on the other hand passes into the vision of God; hope into
the enjoyment of God. The moral virtues do indeed remain in the
life to come, but in another and more excellent manner, for eternal
blessedness does not destroy the perfection human nature has
attained.
7. The virtues can always be increased.
Virtue resembles an estate, situated on the highest point of a
mountain. He who is ascending this mountain is sometimes nearer,
sometimes farther from the summit, and there are many travellers
before and many behind him. For we do not always possess the
same degree of virtue, neither do all men possess it in an equal
measure. If any one has attained so high a degree of virtue that
his state approximates to that of the blessed in heaven — nay more,
if to a certain extent he becomes like unto God, that virtue is termed
heroic. Heroes, among the ancients, were men who had achieved more
than ordinary mortals could accomplish. For the beatification or
canonization of any individual it is necessary to prove that he prac-
tised the three theological and the four cardinal virtues in the ful-
filment of the duties of his calling in an heroic degree. Heroic virtue
is neither understood nor appreciated, but rather contemned by those
who do not live a godly life,
448 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
The three theological virtues are increased through the in-
crease of sanctifying grace.
That the increase of the three theological virtues is possible, we
learn from the collect of the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, in
which the Church prays : " Almighty and everlasting God, give unto
us an increase of faith, hope, and charity." If the atmosphere re-
ceives more light and heat from the sun, we see more clearly and ex-
perience more warmth. In like manner when grace is augmented in
the soul, the power of belief becomes stronger and we are stimulated
to the exercise of charity. We also find that frequent acts of the
three theological virtues serve to increase them ; or if they do not im-
mediately produce this effect, they dispose the soul to growth in vir-
tue.
The moral virtues are increased by frequently performing
good actions, and also by the increase of sanctifying grace.
Frequent acts will increase the facility in the practice of good,
while the increase of grace will render the will more disposed towards
what is good. The more proficiency we attain and the greater the
measure of sanctifying grace we receive, the greater will be our moral
virtues. We should endeavor to increase at least in one virtue, for
the increase of one will be accompanied by the increase of all the
rest. We can and ought to cultivate more especially that virtue for
the exercise of which our circumstances afford most opportunity,
or for which we have a particular admiration. The more we advance
in our favorite virtue, the greater progress we make in every other
virtue.
8. All perfect virtue is lost immediately upon falling into
mortal sin, for thereby the love of G-od is lost, without which
there can be no perfect virtue.
He who suffers shipwreck (1 Tim. i. 19), loses all that he has;
and so the man who falls into mortal sin loses all the perfection in
virtue and all the merits he has acquired. However great the pro-
ficiency attained in the practice of virtue, the freedom of the will
is not impaired ; man is always liable to sin. " He that thinketh him-
self to stand, let him take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. x. 12). Re-
member how David sinned, and St. Peter fell. Virtue is far more
easily lost than won. How swiftly a stone rolls down hill, and yet
how slowly it is rolled up ! One single mortal sin suffices to obliterate
virtue, just as one string out of tune in an instrument spoils the
melody. Yet suffering is not of itself calculated to destroy virtue.
Virtue is like a precious pearl, which if it falls into the mud retains
its pristine beauty unmarred. In fact virtue stands out in stronger
relief in the season of affliction ; just as the stars shine at night and
are not seen by day, or spices give out their aroma most freely when
they are crushed. The outward semblance of virtue often remains
when one has committed a grievous sin, but it then resembles a corpse,
for the soul, the life, has departed from it. One may, therefore, be
extremely pious, and yet corrupt at heart.
The perfect virtues will be diminished if one desists from the
practice of good.
Sin. 449
He who makes a parade of his virtues is in danger of losing them.
The man who carries his treasures openly on the highway is sure to
be robbed of them. As the display of gold or costly apparel invites
the thief, so the display of virtue attracts the devil, who seeks to take
it from us. Moreover, sweet-scented things lose their perfume if
they are exposed to the air. Consequently, if we cannot avoid doing
good in the sight of man, let our only desire be to please God. Unless
we are constant and persevering, we shall gradually fall off in virtue.
Trees that are continually transplanted cannot grow properly, much
less bear fruit; on the contrary, they are likely to wither and die.
So continual change of place, of position, of office, is highly preju-
dicial to progress in virtue.
III. SIK
1. He who wittingly and willingly transgresses one of God's
commandments is guilty of sin.
Adam and Eve in paradise transgressed the commandment of
God ; they knew it well, and no one, not even the serpent, compelled
them to violate it. Thus they committed a sin. The commandments
of God are principally the Ten Commandments, and the precept to
do works of mercy, besides all other precepts enjoined upon us in
God's name. The commandments either enjoin or prohibit some act,
therefore they are divided into sins of commission and sins of omis-
sion. As the divine law is for the safeguarding of the majesty of
God, or for our own welfare or the good of our neighbor, we sin
in transgressing that law, either against God, our neighbor, or our-
selves. Sin is nothing else but revolt against and disobedience to
God (Rom. iv. 15; 1 John iii. 4). The sinner throws off the yoke of
God, saying: "I will not serve" (Jer. ii. 20). He attacks God, he
would fain destroy Him, that He might no longer see and punish his
transgressions. When we commit sin, we take up arms against God,
we crucify again the Son of God (Heb. vi. 6), by making the Re-
deemer's blood of no avail. The malice of the sinner pains Our Lord
more deeply than all the sufferings of His Passion, just as the loss of
his wages is more grievous to the workingman than all the toil he has
gone through. How foolish it would be of any one in the world to
offend an individual on whom his whole future happiness depended ;
how much more foolishly then do we act, when we make Him our
enemy Whose aid is indispensable to us for all things and at all times,
and on Whom our eternal salvation depends. If your life was at
another man's mercy, would you venture to insult that man? Re-
member your existence depends entirely upon the will of God; it
hangs as by a thread, at any moment He could cast you back into the
nothingness whence you came, and yet you do not fear to provoke
His anger. Miserable mortals that we are, we cannot tolerate the
slightest indignity offered us by our fellow-men, who are our equals,
and yet we ourselves show the utmost disrespect to the Lord of
heaven !
It is not counted as a sin if we commit an evil action, of the
sinfulness of which we are ignorant, through no fault of our
own, nor if our will does not consent to the evil deed.
450 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
jSToe's intoxication was guiltless, because he was not aware of
the inebriating qualities of wine. If one eat meat on Friday, forget-
ting that it is Friday, it is no sin. But it is quite otherwise if it is
in consequence of a long-continued habit of sin that one fails to see
the guilt of an action, or if one's ignorance of its sinfulness is due
to culpable negligence. " It is one thing," says St. Gregory, " not to
know, another to wish not to know ; for he who closes his eyes that he
may not see the truth is a despiser of the law." . Those who in the
present day avoid hearing sermons will have no excuse before God.
We do not commit sin so long as we do not consent to what is evil.
The early Christians had incense forcibly thrust into their hands,
and were compelled to cast it upon the altar; were they to blame?
Evil thoughts are suggested by the devil, but if we do not consent to
them, we commit no sin, any more than we are responsible for what
we do in our dreams. We should not allow these thoughts to disquiet
us, but simply put them out of our minds. But actions done with-
out our will most certainly are sinful, if we are to blame for the cause
of those actions. The misdeeds of a drunken man are unquestionably
sins, if in any way he foresees them as a consequence of his intoxi-
cation.
2. Sin is in its essence an unlawful turning towards the crea-
ture and turning away from God.
St. Bonaventure says that turning towards creatures is the sdurce
of all sin. Earthly creatures are only a means for the attainment of
everlasting felicity; they are in no wise the final end of man. It is
with them as with drugs; used in moderation they are beneficial,
but used immoderately they are injurious and a hindrance in the way
of our salvation. Therefore God only allows us to use creatures within
a certain limit, and in fact only in so far as they are necessary or
helpful to our eternal happiness ; for instance, He permits us to take
such nourishment as is needful for the support of nature, but forbids
excess in eating and drinking; He permits us to have possessions of
our own, but not to take what belongs to our neighbor. He who uses
creatures to a greater extent, or otherwise than God ordains (doing
violence to the creature, Rom. viii. 22), wanders away from God
and from his final end; he prefers transient joys to eternal bliss
(Wisd. ii. 1-9). Thus a child, if a lump of sugar and a piece of gold
be offered him, chooses the sugar. The sinner forsakes God, the foun-
tain of living waters, and digs to himself broken cisterns that can
hold no water (Jer. ii. 13). Sin is a species of idolatry; for the sinner
worships the creature in the place of the Creator; his sin is his god.
By sin man becomes the servant of the creature, he becomes depend-
ent upon creatures; he is like a fish caught upon a hook, and held
fast by it. Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin (John
viii. 34). He is worse than a servant, for a servant can run away;
but the servant of sin cannot escape from sin; he carries it with
him whithersoever he goes.
3. Sin is the one only evil upon earth; it robs man of the
supernatural beauty of the soul, it makes him resemble the
devil, and brings misery upon him even while he is on earth.
Sin. 451
Sin is the one only evil in the world. We mortals are accustomed
to regard the sufferings and contradictions of this life as evils,
whereas they are graces in reality; since, far from separating us
from God, they bring us nearer to Him. Through sin man becomes
worthless in God's sight; through sin, he, who is made of nothing,
returns to his original nothingness. St. John Chrysostom says:
" Many consider eternal damnation to be the greatest of all evils ;
but for my part, I always assert that to offend Jesus Christ is a far
greater evil." Sin is a greater evil than the annihilation of the
world, nay, of a million worlds, with their countless inhabitants.
Sin is the only real disgrace. When it was said to St. Francis Xavier,
the apostle of the Indies, who bore the title of Apostolic Legate, that
it was a degradation to him to wash his own linen, he replied:
" Nothing degrades the Christian except sin." Through sin the
supernatural beauty of the soul is lost. As a white robe is soiled and
stained if it comes into contact with the mud of the streets, so the
soul loses her supernatural beauty, which consists in sanctifying
grace, and contracts a hideous stain, through the inordinate love of
creatures. On some one observing to St. Francis Chantal, when she
was nursing a leper, that she might easily take the disease, she an-
swered : " I fear no leprosy but the leprosy of sin." Sin renders
man like to the devil. Sinners are imitators and followers of the
devil (Wisd. ii. 25). They are made one with him by sin. " He that
committeth sin is of the devil " (1 John iii. 8). They even become his
children by sin (v. 10). Our Lord said to the Pharisees in the Tem-
ple : " You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father
you will do" (John viii. 44). Sin makes the misery of man even
while he is on earth. If the heavenly bodies forsook their orbits, they
would be dashed to pieces ; if the train becomes derailed, a catastrophe
ensues. So God's rational creatures, the human race, are overtaken
by disaster if they transgress the law God has laid down for them.
The sinner rebels against the rules of his own reason, the rules of
society, the rules that govern the universe; for this he has to endure
the reproaches of conscience, the penalties of the law, and the chastise-
ments of God.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SIN.
A house does not fall all at once ; at first a few drops of rain that
are scarcely noticed soak into the walls, soften the mortar and
loosen the stones ; presently the whole building collapses. The devil
sets to work in a similar way to destroy the soul. We learn from
Eve's example how sin begins.
Sin arises generally in the following manner:
1. First of all an evil thought comes into the mind, which
in itself is not sinful. (Temptation.)
Within the heart there are two masters, whose characters are dia-
metrically opposed ; what one praises, the other blames. One of these
is concupiscence, the other conscience. Hence when an evil thought
comes into the mind, a struggle immediately arises: conscience ad-
monishes and holds us back, concupiscence incites and urges us to
evil. We can no more prevent bad thoughts from coming into the
452 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice,
mind, than an island in mid-ocean can prevent the waves irom dash-
ing on its shores; but as the island resists the force of the breakers,
so we can withstand the assaults of temptation. We must instantly
turn our thoughts elsewhere ; by means of prayer, or the remembrance
of death or of judgment. " In all things remember thy last end,
and thou shalt never sin" (Ecclus. vii. 40). Or we may recall to
mind the terrible consequences of sin. What is of the greatest impor-
tance is to turn one's thoughts at once; a fire just lighted is easily
extinguished, a disease may be arrested in its first stage. Slay your
enemy while he is young and feeble. Stifle evil thoughts at their
birth; banish them the moment they present themselves.
2. If evil thoughts are not instantly expelled, they awaken
in the mind complacency in what is evil, and that is already a
venial sin.
Complacency or satisfaction in what is evil, may also be a mortal
sin if we willingly take pleasure in something which is forbidden
under pain of mortal sin. The evil thoughts which the devil puts
into our mind may be compared to eggs; as after a period of incu-
bation the young bird is produced from the egg, so sin is produced
from evil thoughts if they are cherished in the breast and regarded
with complacency. " When concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin" (Jas. i. 15). "Evil thoughts are an abomination to the
Lord" (Prov. xv. 26). Forget not that God is omniscient; He sees
all your thoughts. He knows them better than you do yourself, and
at the judgment they will every one be disclosed.
3. The evil desire next arises; this has a turpitude corre-
sponding to that of the sinful action towards which it is directed.
An evil desire is an act of the will, or deliberate consent. That
which proceeds from the heart (i.e., the will), that is sin (Matt. xv.
19). Before God the will to sin counts as the deed of sin. He who
entertains an evil desire has committed the sin already in his heart
(Matt. v. 28). He who has consented to a mortal sin is like a stag,
fatally wounded by the huntsman, which, if it escapes capture, cannot
escape death. Evil desires may be compared to the little worms
which perforate the keel of a vessel and render it unseaworthy, if
they do' not cause it to sink. So evil desires arrest the course of the
good and pious on their voyage to the celestial haven, or even cause
them to sink into the nethermost abyss. Many evil desires are mortal
sins (Council of Trent, 14, c. 5). He who knows not how to tame
his evil lusts, is like a rider whose horse takes fright and bolts, drag-
ging him through bogs and morasses, for he will be drawn into mortal
sin and finally cast into hell. How unhappy are you, if you cherish
sinful desires in your heart !
4. Finally comes the resolution to commit the sin.
The evil concupiscence was merely a wish or longing for the
sinful object. The resolution is a final decision to adopt the means
necessary to the attainment of that object. Up to this point the
sin is still an interior sin.
5. If occasion then presents itself for the sin, the exterior
act is committed.
Sin. 453
An exterior sin is attended by worse consequences than an in-
terior sin; it augments the malice of the will, destroys the sense of
shame, often gives scandal, brings misery on the sinner, and is more
severely punished by God. A king has intrusted the defence of a
fortress to his general. A messenger is sent in disguise to this gen-
eral, bearing a letter, in which a large sum of money is offered
him if he will surrender the fortress. Three courses of action are
open to the general; either he will reject the offer and have the
messenger hanged for a spy; or he may enter into negotiations with
him at first, and presently break them off; or he may open the gates
to the enemy. Our soul is that fortress; we are its commandant and
our adversary is the devil. He sends out envoys seeking by all man-
ner of promises and representations to estrange us from God. If we
indignantly reject his advances, our loyalty to God is thereby con-
firmed; if we take pleasure in his suggestions, we begin to fail in
fidelity to God and deserve punishment; but if we commit the sin,
we surrender our soul to the devil, who enters in with all his satel-
lites. After mortal sin, the soul is in a state of sin. When water is
once frozen, it remains a block of ice, until it is melted by heat.
Thus it is with the man who falls into mortal sin ; he continues in a
state of sin until he is brought to repentance. Hence we say: That
man lives in sin, or, he died in his sins, etc.
6. By the repetition of exterior sins the habit of sin, or vice,
is contracted.
If mortal sin be repeated many times the habit of sin is formed;
that is to say the sinner acquires a certain proficiency in wickedness,
and the will is permanently inclined to evil. The Fathers point to
the three instances in which Christ raised the dead as exemplifying
mortal sin in its three stages : interior sin, exterior sin, and the habit
of vice. Whoso only sins in his heart, is like the daughter of Jairus,
who lay dead within the house; he who commits sin outwardly, is like
the young man at Nairn, who was carried out of the city gates;
while he who is given up to vice is like Lazarus, who had lain several
days in the grave. In the first two instances Our Lord merely bade
the dead arise, in the last He was troubled in spirit, He wept, He
caused the stone to be removed and called loudly into the interior
of the sepulchre. This He did to signify the great difficulty of re-
awakening one who is sunk in vice to the life of the Spirit.
7. Every outward sin and every vice brings, as its own
punishment, other sins and vices of a different nature in its
train.
The grace of God departs from every man who has fallen into
mortal sin. Not so temptation. In fact the evil enemy bestirs him-
self the more to bind his captive more tightly. Now since temptation
cannot be overcome without God's grace, the sinner falls lower and
lower, from one sin to another. The sins which follow upon a sin
may therefore be called the chastisement of sin. Holy Scripture
expresses the withdrawal of grace in words such as these: "God
blinded the eyes, or hardened the heart of the sinner" (e.g., Pharao).
"God delivered him up to a reprobate sense" (Rom. i. 28).
454 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
S. If any vice is firmly rooted in the soul, it oftentimes
brings after it sins of the worst type, and those that are said to
cry to Heaven for vengeance; finally it produces complete ob-
duracy in the sinner. j
He who has for a lengthened period been given over to a life of
sin, does not shrink from the greatest excesses. And just as perfec-
tion in virtue procures for mortal man upon earth happiness which
is almost that of heaven, and exalts him to union with God, so there
ore different grades in vice, by which the soul descends to the condi-
tion of the reprobate and her complete separation from God is con-
summated. Finally he who is the slave of vice is often inspired by
a bitter hatred against God, and wilfully and of set purpose resists
the influence and action of the Holy Spirit; and at last by final im-
penitence commits the sin against the Holy Ghost which cannot be
forgiven.
THE KINDS OF SIN.
There are different kinds of sin.
Circumstances which alter the nature of a sin must be specified in
confession (Council of Trent, 14, 5).
All those sins which violate different commandments, or
which are opposed to different virtues, are distinct in their nature
one from the other; as also are those sins by which one and the
same commandment is transgressed, or which are opposed to
one and the same virtue, in different ways.
For instance, theft and lying are two different kinds of sins, be-
cause by theft the Seventh, by lying the Eighth Commandment, is
broken. Pride and avarice are sins of a different kind, because they
are opposed to two different virtues, humility and liberality. Theft
and cheating are two sins of a different nature because they violate
the Seventh Commandment in two several ways. Presumption of
God's mercy and despair are two sins of a different nature, because
they are opposed to the virtue of hope in two different ways.
1. Sins are generally divided into sins of word, of thought,
and of deed.
Hatred and murder are two different kinds of sin, because the
Fifth Commandment is transgressed by them in two different ways,
by thought and by deed. Boasting in speech and ostentation in dress
are two different kinds of sin, because they offend against the virtue
of humility in two different ways, by word and by deed.
2. A distinction also exists between our own sins, and the sins
in which we co-operate.
Our own sins are those which we ourselves commit,
The sins in which we co-operate are those which we do not
indeed commit ourselves, but for which we are to blame. TTe
may be accessory to another's sin by command, counsel, consent,
Sin. 455
praise, assistance, defence; by provocation or by silence, or by
abstaining from punishing the ill done, although, we might and
ought to have prevented it.
The sinner is like a man with the leprosy; he leads others into sin
as the leper infects others with his loathsome disease. In that case
the guilt of their sin lies at his door. If a man sets fire to a house,
he is to blame for the conflagration; if he gives his neighbor poison,
he is answerable for his neighbor's death. The same is trne of us
if we lead any one into sin, or even if we do not endeavor to prevent
the sin. To leave a crime unpunished is to teach others to commit
it. If the bodyguard of an emperor were to hear that an attempt had
been made on the person of their imperial master, they would be
sorely alarmed, for they would know that to allege that they had
no part in it would be of no avail as an excuse; in like manner we
shall have good cause for apprehension, if through our cowardice or
negligence an affront has been offered to the divine majesty. He who
might prevent an evil deed and does not do so, is to blame for that
deed. In illustration of this remember how Herod commanded the
murder of the holy innocents. Aaron consented to the Israelites'
demand and made the golden calf. The Jews were pleased because
Herod had put the Apostle James to death ; this induced him to appre-
hend St. Peter, with the intention of executing him also (Acts xii.).
Saul assisted the men who stoned Stephen, by taking care of their
garments. Job's wife provoked her husband to anger and impa-
tience ; Tobias' wife did the same. Heli, the high priest, did not re-
buke his sons for their misdeeds nor correct them ; for this God repri-
manded him by Samuel's mouth (1 Kings iii.). Those, too, who,
being members of a council, through human respect do not protest
against the passing of unjust decrees, are guilty of sin; the prophet
compares such persons to dumb dogs, not able to bark (Is. lvi. 10).
Earthly potentates, legislative bodies, parents and superiors,
employers of labor, editors of periodicals, and publishers, may
easily render themselves guilty of the sin of others.
If the ruler of a nation enters upon an unjust war, is he not
answerable for all the crimes which are perpetrated in that war?
Who is to blame when laws are passed antagonistic to religion, where-
by the salvation of many is imperilled? Who is to blame when the
daily papers are the means of stirring up national and religious ani-
mosities and rousing the spirit of persecution ? Whose in such cases
is the greater sin?
He who is to blame for another man's sin deserves punish-
nent quite as much as if he had committed the sin himself.
He who tempts another to sin is perhaps the more blameworthy
of the two. Remember that God punished Eve more severely than
Adam, because she led him into sin. Even to this day the conse-
quences of original sin weigh more heavily upon the weaker than
upon the sterner sex. To tempt others to sin is also a sin against
charity. It is like the devil who. not content with being evil him-
self, seeks to make others evil. For this reason Our Lord exclaims:
456 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
" Woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh. It were better for
him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he
should be drowned in the depth of the sea " (Matt, xviii. 6).
THE COMPARATIVE MAGNITUDE OF SIN.
1. All sins are not equally great.
Our Lord compares some sins to camels, others to gnats (Matt,
xxiii. 24) ; or again He compares some to motes, others to beams
(Matt. vii. 3) ; He contrasts the depth of ten thousand talents with
that of a hundred pence (Matt, xviii. 23 seq.). He said to Pilate:
" He that hath delivered Me to thee hath the greater sin " (John. xix.
11).
1. A sin is all the greater the more important is the object
it injures, the clearer the knowledge of the sinfulness of the
deed, and the greater the liberty of action enjoyed by the doer.
In the first place, much depends on the value and importance of
the object against which the evil act is directed. If God is thereby
offended, it is much more sinful than if the offence were against one
of our fellow-men. Or if it be directed against a man's life, it is
worse than if his property alone was attacked. A great deal depends
also on the knowledge possessed of the sinfulness of the action.
Sin is much greater in a Christian than in a heathen. If a priest
commits a sin, it is worse for him than for an ordinary man,
little versed perhaps in religious matters, because the priest has a
closer knowledge of the will of God. Our Lord says : " The servant
who knew the will of his lord and did not according to his will, shall
be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did things
worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes " (Luke xii. 47, 48).
The greater your knowledge, the more rigorously will you be judged,
if your life is not holy in proportion to your knowledge. The more
abundant the graces bestowed on you, the more heinous your trans-
gression. Finally much depends upon whether a man has or has not
been a perfectly free agent. Any one who was intimidated, or who
was exposed to fierce temptation, is far less culpable than one who
was free to act as he pleased. St. Peter's denial was consequently
a lesser sin than Judas' betrayal of Our Lord.
2. Circumstances of person, cause, time, place, means, ob-
ject, or the evil consequences of a sin may enhance its guilt.
For instance : it is worse for a monarch to sin openly than for one
of his subjects ; offences committed in the presence of several persons
are graver than if they were done in secret ; to work hard all day long
on Sunday is more sinful than to work for one hour only. Robbery
with violence is a greater sin than surreptitious purloining; to take
from a poor man is a greater sin than to steal from a rich man. It
is far more wrong to steal in church than out of it.
2. Many sins are so great that they separate us entirely from
God, and deprive us of His friendship; they are called mortal or
deadly sins. Sins of lesser moment are called venial sins.
Sin. 457
Some diseases only weaken the bodily strength, others destroy life.
It is the same with sin ; some sins only impede the soul in her efforts
to attain her final end, others again extinguish within her sanctifying
grace, the life of the soul. In our intercourse with our friends, it
often happens that some difference arises ; if the offence is but slight,
it does not seriously affect our friendship; if it is grave, it puts an
end to the friendship. Holy Scripture speaks of some sins whereby
the grace of God is completely lost (as David's sin), and of others into
which the just man may fall seven times, that is frequently (Prov.
xxiv. 16), without ceasing to be a just man (Council of Trent, 6, 11).
x\gain, it speaks of sins which exclude from heaven, by which eternal
punishment is incurred, and of others which have not these fatal con-
sequences. St. Paul reckons among mortal sins, idolatry, murder,
covetousness, drunkenness, etc. (1 Cor. vi. 9; Gal. v. 19.) In the
present day there is no sin so grievous but it finds some ready to
palliate and excuse it. Beware lest you be led astray by the false
maxims of the world; hold fast by the word of God, the teaching of
the Church. God, not the world, will one day be your judge. Mortal
sin is so called because it causes the death of the soul; the soul does
not, it is true, cease to exist, but it loses the presence of the Holy
Ghost. As the body dies when the soul departs from it, so the soul
dies when God departs from it. Thus mortal sin may to a certain ex-
tent be said to be spiritual suicide. Venial sin is so called, because it
is easily forgiven. Yet venial sin must not be underrated. It cannot
withdraw us from the way which leads to God, but it can arrest our
progress in that way. Venial sin is, moreover, an offence against the
infinite majesty of God. St. Jerome says no offence against Our Lord
God, however slight, is to be thought of little moment. The destruc-
tion of the heavens and the earth would be a lesser calamity than one
venial sin. Many theologians assert that the blood of all the martyrs
and all their merits would not suffice to make satisfaction to the
divine majesty for one venial sin; only the precious blood of Christ
can do this.
Mortal and venial sin differ essentially from each other.
Mortal sin is like a severe wound, from which a man rarely re-
covers, whereas venial sin is a slight wound, which at the most makes
him ill. By mortal sin the axe is laid to the root of the tree ; by venial
sin a cut is made in the bark, which may perhaps prove prejudicial to
its growth.
It is an exceedingly difficult and dangerous matter to decide
whether a sin is mortal or venial. Only one thing is certain :
Mortal sin is not possible unless God is no longer the final
end towards which our intention is directed.
It is difficult and dangerous to decide what is mortal and what is
venial sin. It is often impossible to determine about any act whether
it is a mortal or a venial sin. "Let no one presume," says St. Al-
phonsus, " to assert any sin to be mortal, unless he is quite certain of
it; otherwise he may lead men to despair, and even cast them into
hell; instead of raising them out of the mire of sin, he will plunge
them the deeper into it." ~No man can be guilty of mortal sin, unless
458 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
God has ceased to be the centre towards which all his affections con-
verge. Mortal sin is a turning away of our whole being from God,
and a turning to creatures as our ultimate end.
3. He commits a mortal sin who consciously and of his own
free will does grievous dishonor to God or wrong to his neighbor
in a weighty matter; who does injury to his own life, or to the
life, the property, or the reputation of his neighbor.
Idolatry, heresy, blasphemy, perjury, serious desecration of Sun-
days and holydays, come under the category of mortal sins, because
they are a direct affront to the majesty of God. To injure one's
health slightly through thoughtlessness is a venial sin; suicide is a
mortal sin. A man who beats his neighbor commits a venial sin,
but if he injures his body to any great extent, it is a mortal sin. To
steal a halfpenny is a venial sin, to defraud one's neighbor of a
large sum of money is a mortal sin. To disclose the faults of another
without necessity is a venial sin, but to lodge a false accusation
against him is a mortal sin, because in that case the wrong done him
is in an important matter. We cannot commit a mortal sin, unless
we are conscious of the sinfulness of the act. Thus children who
have no conception of the abominable nature of some act which as a
rule is a mortal sin, cannot be guilty of grievous sin. It is also requi-
site that a man should act of his own free will. One who perhaps
does a very sinful deed under the mastery of intense fear, having been
intimidated by threats, can scarcely be said to have committed mortal
sin. A man may also be so distracted in consequence of illness that
he scarcely knows wnat he does. Beware then how you pass judgment
upon your neighbor's misdeeds ; you are not omniscient !
4. He commits a venial sin who only injures something of
trifling consequence; or who, though he injures something of
great importance, injures it very slightly, or does so almost uncon-
sciously and to some extent unwittingly.
Yet that which is ordinarily only a venial sin, may become
a mortal sin; if, that is to say, great scandal is given thereby,
or great harm done, or if the venial sin is committed out of
contempt for the law.
Attacks upon religion or upon a man's good name in the public
journals can scarcely be reckoned as venial sins, as they give rise to
great scandal and occasion no small mischief. If a man were to do
wrong and say boastingly, I do it precisely because it is forbidden,
he is guilty of grievous sin.
Venial sins if repeated may become mortal, if they are the
means of doing great harm.
He who steals a trifling sum time after time from the same per-
son does very wrong, if the small sums mount up to a considerable
figure. As water that gradually filters through a tiny leak in the
vessel finally causes it to sink, so venial sins affect the destruction of
the soul. Many fibres of hemp twisted together form a strong rope
Sin. 459
fit to hold back a mighty ship; so a number of venial sins form a
cord that keeps the soul back from journeying towards heaven.
5. All mortal sins are not of equal magnitude, nor are all
venial sins of the same importance. The most heinous sins are
the sins against the Holy Ghost, and those that cry to heaven for
vengeance.
6. He commits a sin against the Holy Ghost who persistently
and wilfully resists the action of the Holy Ghost.
It often occurs in the course of one's life, that the Holy Spirit in-
cites us to prayer or other good works, and by reason of distractions
or the cares of this world we do not obey His voice. This is not,
however, the sin against the Holy Ghost. That sin is only com-
mitted when a man persistently and wilfully withstands the inspira-
tions of the Holy Ghost and dies in an attitude of resistance to Him.
The Pharisees and Scribes were perfectly aware that Christ was the
Messias ; they were convinced of it by the miracles He worked, by
the excellence of His doctrine, by the sanctity of His life, by the
fulfilment of the prophecies, by His own utterances, but their arro-
gant pride did not allow them to recognize Him, for then they would
have been obliged to alter their lives. Although they knew better,
they declared Him to be possessed of the devil (John viii. 48), His
works to be the work of the devil (Matt. xii. 24), and persecuted Him
as much as was within their power. Thus they resisted the known
truth. King Pharao knew the exit of the Israelites from Egypt to
be the will of the true God, from the intrepid conduct of Moses and
the wonders he wrought • yet in spite of Moses' admonitions he ad-
hered to his own will. He hardened his heart against salutary ex-
hortations. Freemasons will not allow a priest to approach them
when they are on their death-bed. " They stop their ears, not to hear,
and make their heart as the adamant stone" (Zach. vii. 11). They
persist of set purpose in impenitence. The Holy Ghost acts like a
man who finds his enemy asleep in the snow, and wakes him, lest he
should die of cold. But the sleeper, far from being grateful for this
act of kindness, thrusts away his benefactor, and settles himself
again to sleep. Thus he who sins against the Holy Ghost, refuses to
be aroused from his spiritual torpor by the influence of grace. He
may also be likened to a sick man, who not only will not have his
wounds healed, but accelerates his own death.
The sin' against the Holy Ghost is for the most part the re-
sult of a wicked course of life.
It belongs essentially to mortal sin to darken the understanding,
and alienate the will from God. The more sins a man commits,
the more his understanding is darkened, and the more his will,
already estranged from God, is hardened, until at length he finds
himself in a deplorable state of blindness and impenitence. The soul
is like a room of which the shutters are closed ; sin prevents the light
of the Holy Spirit from penetrating into it. Holy Scripture says of
Pharao that God hardened his heart (Exod. ix. 12). That is, He al-
lowed his heart to become obdurate, as the penalty of his rins. Like
ill weeds, which not merely continue what they are in spite of fair
weather and fertilizing rains, but grow all the more rank on account
460 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
of these favorable conditions, the wicked only become worse under
the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit. A pillar that is straight
stands all the firmer if a weight be placed upon it, but if once it
leaves the perpendicular, pressure upon it will cause it to fall. So
if the heart is upright, the teaching of wisdom confirms it in in-
tegrity, but the depraved heart only sinks lower in vice. A neglected
education, bad books, or pride, are often the cause of the heart being
closed against the action of the Holy Spirit. The heathen persecute
missionaries and put them to death, because they are so blinded
by idolatry that they will not renounce their foolish ideas. Anti-
Christian periodicals are the means of prejudicing many of their
readers against the doctrine and practice of holy Church. Pride
caused the so-called Old Catholics to refuse to accept the dogma of
Papal Infallibility when it was defined by the Vatican Council in
1870.
Whosoever has committed the sin against the Holy Ghost
cannot obtain forgiveness of sin from God, and for this reason:
Because he thrusts from him the grace of conversion.
Our Lord says : " The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not
be forgiven, neither in this world or in the world to come " (Matt,
xii. 32). The sick man cannot be cured of his malady if he refuses to
take the remedy which is known to be unfailing; nor can the soul
recover from its sickness if it reject grace, the infallible means of
cure. Final impenitence is the only offence which God will not par-
don; it is a greater insult to Him than sin itself.
Those who sin against the Holy Ghost often come to a miser-
able end here, and are consigned to eternal damnation hereafter.
The sin against the Holy Ghost is not a sin of frailty, it is a sin
of diabolical malice, and therefore it is deserving of more severe pun-
ishment. King Pharao, with all his army, was drowned in the Red
Sea (Exod. xiv.) ; the Jews, who rejected and even killed the prophets
(Matt, xxiii. 37), had to expiate their impenitence bitterly in the
year 70, on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, when there
came upon them the tribulation Our Lord predicted, " such as had
not been from the beginning of the world, neither shall be " (Matt,
xxiv. 21). A clever physician continues to prescribe for his patient
although his medicines produce no immediate improvement, trying to
save him by every expedient his skill can devise; but if the patient
cannot be induced to swallow the drugs, and even goes so far as to
throw them out of the window, the physician discontinues his visits.
God acts in a similar manner towards the sinner who resists actual
grace; He forsakes him entirely. To him may be applied the words
the prophet Samuel addressed to King Saul : " Because thou hast
rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath rejected thee " (1 Kings
xv. 26). He who has committed the sin against the Holy Ghost
cannot be saved, because at the hour of death he is without the in-
dwelling of the Holy Spirit and sanctifying grace. His spiritual con-
dition is that of the reprobate.
7. Sins that cry to heaven for vengeance are sins of great
Sin. 461
malice. They are : wilful murder, oppression of the poor, defraud-
ing laborers of their wages, and the sin of Sodom.
These sins are of so abominable a nature, that every man's feel-
ings must revolt against them. When Cain killed his brother Abel,
God said to him : " The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to Me
from the earth " (Gen. iv. 10). Every nation on the face of the earth
punishes murder with exceptional severity, generally by the execution
of the criminal. The oppression of the helpless Israelites in Egypt
was a sin that cried to heaven (Exod. iii. 7). The Pharisees were
guilty of this sin; they oppressed the poor and prayed long prayers
(Matt, xxiii. 14). God expressly forbade the Jews to injure the
widow and orphan (Exod. xxii. 22; Ecclus. xxxiv. 26). To keep
back the wages of the needy (Deut. xxiv. 14), is a sin that cries to
heaven, also on some pretext or other to defraud them of the whole
amount (Jas. v. 4). In the Middle Ages an action brought by a
working man took precedence of all others in the law courts, and judg-
ment was given within three days. The sin of Sodom takes its name
from the inhabitants of Sodom, who were guilty of unnatural sins,
by reason of which they were destroyed by God, Who rained down
upon them brimstone and fire (Gen. xix. 24). The Dead Sea is still
a mournful memorial of their sin; one so shameful that it must not
be named among us.
In the present day sins that cry to heaven are sometimes
committed by employers, in their conduct towards their defence-
less workpeople.
Many employers make iheir people work in unhealthy and over-
crowded rooms, unheated in winter time; they do not allow them a
proper interval for rest and for their meals; they do not pay them
enough to enable them to live decently; they require of them more
work than they can do, and of a kind which they have no right to de-
mand of them. The exploitation and oppression of the laborer has
in our day given rise to the abuses of social democracy.
8. A distinction must be made between venial sins and imper-
fections. Imperfections are faults which are due not to a bad will,
but to human frailty.
Uncivil manners, lies told in joke, involuntary distractions in
prayer, etc.,, are imperfections. " Venial sins," says St. Francis of
Sales, " arise from a bad will, imperfections do not." But, although
imperfections are not actually sins, yet they are wrong and ought to
be avoided.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.
Mortal sin makes a man supremely unhappy. Many are the
scourges of the sinner (Ps. xxxi. 10). God calls to the sinner, say-
ing : " Know thou and see that it is an evil and bitter thing for thee
to have left the Lord thy God" (Jer. ii. 19). A man who has for-
saken God meets with a similar fate to the man who went from Jeru-
salem— the dwelling-place of the living God — down through rough
462 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
ways to Jericho. The punishment of sin follows immediately upon
it, although the Day of Judgment is not yet come.
1. Mortal sin deprives a man of sanctifying grace, and delivers
him into the power of the devil.
The Holy Ghost departs immediately from one who has committed
a mortal sin. As the dove will not remain in unclean places, so the
Holy Ghost will not remain in a heart that is denied by mortal sin.
The ungodly say to God: "Depart from us" (Job xxii. 17). Mortal
sin is a thief, for if it gains access to the soul, it robs it of grace, its
most precious treasure. It is the death of the soul ; a man killeth in-
deed through malice (Wisd. xvi. 14). Sin when it is completed, be-
getteth death (Jas. i. 15). Thus there are men who live and yet are
dead. " Sinners," says St. John Chrysostom, " are dead while they
live, and the just live after they are dead." " Thou dost weep," says
St. Augustine, " over a body from which the soul has departed, but
not over a soul from which God has withdrawn Himself." When God
abandons the soul, the devil enters into it. By mortal sin the temple
of the Holy Ghost is transformed into a den of robbers, the sister of
the angels into the companion of fallen spirits. As a ship that has
lost her rudder is driven about at the mercy of the current, so the
soul that has lost divine grace is driven by Satan into perdition.
Sin gives the devil power over the soul, for through sin man places
himself under servitude to obey the devil (Rom. vi. 16). As every
one thinks he may treat a widow as he chooses, as she has no one to
protect her, so the demons do not hesitate to set upon the sinner;
they cry : " God hath forsaken him ; pursue him and take him, for
there is none to deliver him" (Ps. lxx. 11). The loss of sanctifying
grace entails upon the sinner the following terrible consequences:
(1) He loses the supernatural beauty of the soul and becomes un-
clean before God; (2) He loses charity towards God and towards
his neighbor; (3) His understanding is completely darkened, and his
will immensely weakened; (4) He loses the merit of all the good
works he had previously performed, and none of those which he does
in a state of mortal sin gain for him a reward hereafter; (5) Finally,
he is liable to fall into other mortal sins.
Through mortal sin we lose the supernatural beauty of the
soul and become unclean before God.
Mortal sin is to the soul what decay is to an apple; the rotten-
ness destroys the color, the scent, the flavor of the fruit, all, in short,
that gives it worth and beauty ; so sin robs the soul of all that makes
it fair and precious. It would be a sore blow to a bride if she were
to be so much disfigured by a severe illness as to become an object of
repulsion to her betrothed; it is much the same with the soul that is
guilty of mortal sin; she is thereby so much disfigured that Christ,
her Spouse, regards her with aversion. Through mortal sin charity
to God and to one's neighbor is lost. When the earth travels away
from the sun, winter sets in ; so the heart of man becomes cold when
it is estranged from God by mortal sin; the flame of charity is then
extinguished. The understanding is completely darkened by mortal
sin. As heavy clouds hide the light of the sun from our sight and
involve us in darkness, so mortal sin obscures the eye of reason, and
Sin. 463\
renders us incapable of perceiving the brightness of the Sun of
justice. A man who has fallen into mortal sin perceiveth not, as the
Apostle says, the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. ii. 14).
As a mirror covered with mildew no longer reflects the objects pre-
sented to it, so the soul which is sunk in sin can no longer receive
the impressions of divine grace. The sinner is blinded, and fails as
fully to see the misery and danger of his condition as one who
wanders in the darkness of night beside a quarry; were the sinner
in a state of grace, and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, he would be
no less startled and alarmed at his spiritual condition than the
traveller would be on perceiving in the daylight what a perilous
path he had trodden. By reason of this blindness sinners are often
gay and light-hearted in spite of their deplorable state. As the
maniac laughs frantically while he tears his own flesh, so our erring
brethren make merry while in their madness they inflict serious in-
jury on their soul. A living body feels the prick of a needle ; not so
a corpse. Thus it is with the soul: As long as it preserves its life,
it is sensitive to the least sin; but if it be dead, it experiences no
stings of conscience, even if it be guilty of grievous crimes.
Through mortal sin the will is immensely weakened. When the cold
is extreme one's limbs are benumbed and paralyzed; so by mortal
sin man loses the power to do what is good. He is held captive by
mortal sin, as a bird is by bird-lime. Through mortal sin we lose the
merit of all the good works we have previously performed. God
says by the mouth of His prophet : " If the just man turn himself
from his justice and do iniquity, all his justices which he hath done
shall not be remembered" (Ezech. xviii. 24). The just man who
falls into mortal sin, may be compared to a merchant who has accu-
mulated great treasures, and whose vessel founders just as he enters
the harbor. Mortal sin sweeps away at one stroke all our good works
and our merits, as a sharp frost cuts off all the fair flowers in one
night, or as a hailstorm ruins the crops of a whole year. He who falls
into mortal sin earns no reward in heaven for the good works he per-
forms while in a state of sin. As a branch cut off from the vine
withers away and bears no fruit, so a man who has lost sanctifying
grace can do no works that are meritorious. The apostles labored
all night and took nothing; so the sinner during the night of sin
cannot, in spite of his utmost exertions, gain any merit for heaven.
The soul of a sinner is like a desert where nothing grows, but which
is the haunt of reptiles and beasts of prey. How desolate is that
spot where God is not! how parched without the dew of heaven, how
sterile without the vivifying Sun of grace ! One mortal sin makes it
easy to commit others. When the soul has left the body, decomposi-
tion begins; and spiritual decay soon sets in when the Holy Spirit
has departed from the soul. A grievous sin which has not been
effaced by penance is the precursor of many others, which follow it
as its punishment. " The man," says St. Augustine, " who persists in
his iniquity, adds sin to sin."
2. Mortal sin brings down upon the sinner both eternal
damnation and temporal chastisement.
By mortal sin we incur eternal damnation. As one throws away
an apple that is rotten throughout, so God repudiates the soul that
4G4 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
is stained with mortal sin. He who has fallen into mortal sin has
lost the wedding garment, i.e., sanctifying grace; he will be cast
into the exterior darkness (Matt. xxii. 13). Mortal sin is an act of
high treason against the King of kings. This crime of high treason
is punished on earth by a long term of imprisonment; as the majesty
of God infinitely exceeds that of any earthly monarch, the punishment
of mortal sin is of eternal duration. The man who commits mortal
sin is as foolish as Esau, who for one mess, sold his first birthright
(Heb. xii. 16), since for the sake of a momentary gratification he re-
linquishes his title to the kingdom of heaven. Blessed Thomas More,
when sentenced to death, would not be persuaded to acknowledge
the royal supremacy, for he said : " How foolish should I be, were I
to barter everlasting honor and felicity for the transient happiness
of a few fleeting years." Mortal sin brings temporal chastisements
upon the sinner. God sends earthly punishments to restore the spir-
itual health of the sinner. The temporal penalty most certain to
follow upon mortal sin is interior disquietude. Mortal sin destroys
the serenity, the cheerfulness of the soul, as a high wind disturbs and
ruffles the smooth surface of a lake. " The wicked are like the
raging sea, that cannot rest" (Is. lvii. 20). Apprehension and terror
follow mortal sin like its shadow. He who lives in mortal sin, car-
ries hell about with him (St. John Chrysostom). Remember the fate
of the fratricide Cain (Gen. iv. 14). The sinner's evil conscience
daily calls to him: "Where is thy God?" (Ps. xli. 4.) What peace
can the sinner enjoy when he knows that an almighty arm is uplifted
against him ? A flash of lightning, a peal of thunder, affects the sin-
ner as much as the devout prayers of the faithful; in every sound he
thinks to hear his sentence of condemnation. God has ordained that
inordinate passions should be their own punishment. Spiritual con-
solations and sensual gratifications can no more co-exist than fire can
mingle with water. Those who delight in worldly vanities are not
capable of tasting spiritual joys. Mortal sin, moreover, brings tem-
poral misfortunes on the sinner. Of this our first parents afford a
striking example. They were driven out of paradise, condemned to
labor in the sweat of their face, and made subject to death, because
of their sin. The most ordinary consequence of sin is sickness;
hence Our Lord said to the man whom He had cured : " Sin no
more, lest some worse thing happen unto thee" (John v. 14).
Want is sometimes the punishment of sin; witness the prodigal son
(Luke xv.). The loss of property and of reputation are also conse-
quences of sin, as is the case with thieves and drunkards. The guar-
dian angels cease to protect those who give themselves up to sin. St.
Basil says that as smoke drives away bees, so sin causes our good
angel to depart. If a slave betrays his master, not his master alone,
but all the members of his master's household are enraged with him.
As David's servants were angry with Semei, who threw stones at the
king, so the holy angels are displeased with the sinner who offends
God. How great is man's folly! He is afraid of eating anything
deadly, but he does not fear deadly sin, which causes the death of
the soul.
Sin. 465
THE CONSEQUENCES OF VENIAL SIN.
Veniax un is a slight thing in itself, but it deprives us of much
that is good; just as a hair, if it gets into the pen, spoils the best
handwriting.
1. Venial sin gradually leads to mortal sin, and eventuates
in the loss of sanctifying grace.
Venial sin makes mortal sin easy. As a spot of decay in an apple
gradually spreads until the whole fruit is rotten, so the man who
does not heed venial sins will soon fall into mortal sin. As sick-
ness precedes death, so venial sins precede mortal. He who begins
by neglecting trifling faults, will end by committing grievous sins.
Venial sins may be compared to the dust which settles on our clothes,
and if it be not brushed off will spoil them in the end; it is the moth
that frets away the garment of sanctifying grace. God permits
those who make light of venial sin to fall into mortal sin as the
chastisement of their negligence. " Avoid small sins," says St. John
Chrysostom, " for they will grow into great sins." " He that is un-
just in that which is little is unjust also in that which is greater "
(Luke xvi. 10). As one who wants to cleave a log of wood makes
a small incision, and then drives in the wedge, so the devil tempts us
first to commit slight offences, and gradually leads us to greater trans-
gressions. J Venial sin is all the more dangerous because it deprives
us of many actual graces, without which we cannot overcome the as-
saults of temptation. A mirror when covered with dust cannot
reflect an image clearly, and the mirror of the soul, if its surface be
obscured by the dust of venial sin, is almost impervious to the rays
of the Sun of justice. A personage of distinction cannot be expected
to approach a man who is frightfully disfigured by some cutaneous
disease, much less to embrace him, or even suffer him to kiss his
hand; so God will not admit you to His friendship or delight you
with His consolations if your soul is defaced by venial sin. Venial
sin lessens our diligence in the pursuit of what is good. A trifling in-
disposition often incapacitates us for the performance of the duties
of our calling; in like manner venial sin weakens the will and in-
disposes it for good works. It diminishes the force of charity, and
makes a man lukewarm in the service of God. To him may be ap-
plied the words of Holy Scripture : " Because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My
mouth" (Apoc. iii. 16).
2. There are temporal penalties due to venial sin, and these
will come down upon us either on earth or after death in pur-
gatory.
Zachary was struck dumb because he would not believe the
message of the angel (Luke i. 20) ; Moses was not allowed to enter
the Promised Land because of his incredulity (Numb. xx. 12).
Ananias and Saphira fell dead at St. Peter's feet in consequence of
the deception they practised. Those who at their death are in a state
of venial sin, will have to pass through the fires of purgatory in order
to expiate them before gaining admittance to heaven, On this ac-
466 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
count the saints inflicted severe penalties upon themselves for the
least sin. Venial sin must needs be a great evil, since God, Who is
a merciful and gracious Father, punishes it with such rigor, namely
by temporary exclusion from His kingdom, and prolonged suffering
in purgatory.
IV. VICE.
1. Vice is proficiency in the practice of evil, and the confirmed
tendency of the will towards evil which is acquired by habitual
sin.
Everything is evil which is contrary to the will of God. A horse
when put into harness for the first time, tries to shake off the collar. By
degrees he became accustomed to it, and in time, when led out of
the stable, he goes of his own accord to be placed between the shafts,
although he has to undergo toil and fatigue. So man becomes ac-
customed to the servitude of sin. A dog who is trained to the chase
will in his eagerness outrun his master ; so the man who is habituated
to sin, makes more haste to sin than the devil does to incite him
thereto.
The habit of vice is easily formed, but it requires a great
struggle to give it up, and the longer a man has indulged in
vice, the more difficult that struggle becomes.
Nothing is so easy to learn and so difficult to unlearn, as are
vicious practices. The vicious drift down with the stream, the vir-
tuous swim against the current. Good works are arduous to perforin,
but it is easy enough to do evil. To cast off the yoke of vice re-
quires a hard battle. It is easier to fall into a pit than to get out of
it again. The devil entangles the sinner in his toils, as the spider
makes the fly fast in his web. When the sinner tries to shake him-
self free, he finds the flimsy web has become a heavy chain. As a
vessel which has got loose from its moorings in a river is swept
downwards, snapping like threads the ropes that hold it, so neither
admonitions nor any considerations whatever prevail to arrest the
downward course of a man who is addicted to vice, when he is carried
away by his passions. The longer he goes on in sin, the stronger will
be the habit formed, and the more difficult his conversion. The
deeper a nail is knocked in, the harder it is to pull out ; so the longer
a man persists in sin, the greater the effort needed to break off the
habit. Those who shrink from jumping over the stream while it is
a mere rivulet, will find themselves unable to cross when it has be-
come a wide river. The repetition of a sin forms a habit, the habit
becomes a necessity, and ere long it is impossible of eradication.
This impossibility leads to despair and eternal damnation (St. Augus-
tine).
A man who is addicted to vice cannot amend of his own
power; he needs the mighty assistance of divine grace. Nor
can he amend all at once; a long and strenuous exertion of the
will is required to achieve his conversion. Furthermore he must
Vice. 467
commence by combating one fault only^ that very one to which
he is most prone.
The snows do not melt unless the warm breath of spring passes
over them, nor can man rise superior to his sins without divine
grace. Those who have fallen into the pit of sin can only be lifted
out of it by the help of God's grace. An old tree whose roots
have run deep into the soil, cannot be torn up or bent down by ordi-
nary means, so powerful graces are needed to effect the conversion of
a hardened sinner. Remember the circumstances of St. Paul's con-
version. For eighteen years St. Monica continued to weep and pray
for her son's conversion. The sinner must first of all implore the aid
of divine grace, or he will never be able to reform; better still if
others will intercede for him. A man cannot all at once throw off
the yoke of vice ; constant and persevering exercise of the will is nec-
essary. Habit must be overcome by habit. A physical ailment of
long standing takes a long course of treatment for its cure, and the
maladies of the soul can only be removed by patient resolution. For
even after the Sacrament of Penance, a propensity to the long-in-
dulged sin still remains; evil passions are ready to spring up again
unless one is ever on one's guard. If one who is addicted to vice de-
sires to reform, he must grapple first with one fault; and precisely
that one which has most dominion over him. A bundle of wood
cannot be broken unless the sticks are drawn out one after another
and broken separately ; the same course must be pursued in regard to
our vices. If one is overcome, all the others are in great measure
subdued. A military commander who is about to fall upon a hostile
army, makes the attack at the point where the enemy is strongest,
because if he takes that position, the conquest of the remainder will
be an easy matter. Thus, if we overcome our dominant fault, we
shall soon obtain the mastery over the lesser ones. If every year we
rooted out one vice, we should soon become perfect men. Unhappily
too many Christians only correct their lesser failings and allow their
dominant fault to grow and flourish; or they rid themselves of one
vice and become enthralled by another, like servants who leave one
master only to take service with another.
2. Habitual sin makes a man supremely unhappy, because it
deprives him completely of sanctifying grace, subjects him en-
tirely to the dominion of the devil, and brings down on him many
temporal judgments as well as eternal damnation.
The Holy Spirit does not dwell in the heart where vice reigns.
Respectable people will not enter a tavern which is the resort of the
drunken and dissolute, for the good have no fellowship with the evil.
God will not make His abode in the sin-stained soul of the sinner.
As one would rather live in the humble cottage, provided it be clean,
than in a palace that was unclean and infected, so God will not visit
the soul which is defiled and infected with the pestilence of sin. The
vicious are completely under the dominion of the devil. The Roman
emperor Valerian, having been taken prisoner by the King of Persia,
was forced by the latter to make himself his footstool when he dis-
mounted from his horse. Thus man, the son of the King of heaven,
falls under the thraldom and servitude of the devil by the practice of
468 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
vice. The just man is ever free, though he wear the chains of a
slave; the sinner is ever enslaved, even on the throne; and every vice
in which he indulges adds one more to his degrading fetters. A
course of vice brings great misery upon a man in this life; loss of
property, of health, of reputation; besides anxiety, discontent, etc.
Sometimes God sends public calamities for the chastisement of
nations that have sinned. Sin makes nations miserable (Prov. xiv.
34). Was not Attila, the King of the Huns, surnamed " the scourge
of God " ? Those who are the servants of vice shall not possess the
kingdom of God (1 Cor. vi. 9, 10). "If you live according to the
flesh, you shall die " (Kom. viii. 13). They who do the works of the
flesh shall not obtain the kingdom of God (Gal. v. 19). When the
fatal results of sin come upon the sinner, he makes good resolutions;
but before long he is again led astray. Each time he repeats his sin
his power of resisting it is lessened. Finally it works his ruin both
for time and for eternity.
The wicked do not possess sanctifying grace, consequently
their understanding is greatly obscured, and their will greatly
weakened.
The understanding of the sinner is completely clouded. As cata-
ract destroys the bodily sight, so vice obscures the eye of the soul.
The passions which make their home in the heart of the sinner cloud
his spirit and darken his intellect. As one who looks through a
colored glass sees everything colored, so one who is the slave of his
passions cannot judge of things aright ; he views them in a false light.
Nor can he attain a true knowledge of himself; his mind is like
troubled water, which reflects one's countenance in a distorted man-
ner. The habitual sinner is so blinded that he regards abhorrent
vices as virtues, and is angry if his attention is drawn to his evil
habits, their disgraceful nature, and their fatal consequences. Rea-
son is, however, never completely dethroned by the rebellious pas-
sions. The will of the sinner is greatly weakened ; he becomes power-
less for good. The more a man sins, the weaker he becomes. If one
who has. fallen into a deep sleep is called to awake or otherwise roused,
he opens his eyes, and makes an effort to rise up; but overcome by
drowsiness, he sinks back on his pillow. So it is with one who is sunk
in the slumber of sin. He may be seriously admonished ; death, hell,
judgment, and eternity, set before him; he listens to it all, acknowl-
edges it to be true, and makes some slight effort to amend; but the
habit of sin and the love of the world hold him captive; he presently
relapses into sin. It is almost as impossible for one who lives in
habitual sin to do good as for the Ethiopian to change his skin (Jer.
xiii. 23). The habitual sinner ceases to struggle against sin. One is
annoyed to see the first spot on a white garment ; but after a second
and a third and many others, one considers it as soiled, and one does
not care what stains it contracts.
3. The most ordinary sins are the seven capital sins: Pride,
disobedience, anger, avarice, intemperance in eating and drinking,
unchastity, sloth.
These are the seven sinful proclivities of the human heart, which
are the origin of every sin, All other sins take their rise from them.
;
The Forgiveness of Sin. 469
as from their source. They are called vices, because they are produc-
tive of permanent disorder in the soul. They are also simply called
sins, because their outward manifestation may be venial or mortal
sin, according as the offence is in a more or less weighty matter.
One isolated act of a sin does not prove that sin to be habitual.
They are called capital sins, because each one of these propensities
is the head or centre whence other sins proceed. They are like com-
manding officers, who come at the head of a whole army of sins to
lay waste the heart. Each one is a poisonous root which will bear
deadly fruit. The seven deadly sins in their turn originate in temp-
tations to ambition, avarice, and luxury (1 John ii. 16). A full
enumeration of the principal sins is not possible, because the dis-
positions of every individual are utterly different, and the evil ten-
dencies vary no less. Some reckon melancholy and vain-glory to be
capital sins; envy is often placed among them, or again it is not
mentioned as being the offspring of covetousness. Pride is univer-
sally acknowledged to be the queen of sins; to it is given the prece-
dence over all the other sins. He who is under the permanent
dominion of a capital sin is a server of idols (Eph. v. 5), because he
makes a creature (self, a fellow-being, gold, the pleasures of the
table, etc.), his final end. Such a one serves Mammon and not God
(Matt. vi. 24). As the seven deadly sins close the portals of heaven
against us, they may be compared to the seven nations which opposed
the entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Promise (Deut. vii.
1). They are the seven devils whom Our Lord cast out of Mary
Magdalen (Mark xvi. 9) ; the seven wicked spirits who enter into
the man who has lost sanctifying grace (Luke xi. 26) ; they are the
seven fatal diseases of the soul, which end in death. Pride resembles
madness, disobedience blood poisoning, anger fever, covetousness con-
sumption, intemperance dropsy, unchastity the plague, sloth par-
alysis. He who will be a friend of God must divest himself of these
vices. Before we lay out a beautiful garden, the thorns and weeds
must be rooted up. So those who desire their own sanctification
must first eradicate their faults.
V. THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN".
1. There is no man upon earth without sin; consequently
there is none who does not need the forgiveness of sin.
" If we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us " (1 John i. 8).
The just man falls seven times (Prov. xxiv. 16). God permits us
to fall into venial sin again and again, to keep us humble. As we
sin daily, we must daily ask for the forgiveness of sin in the Our
Father. Only by reason of an exceptional privilege, such as was
bestowed by God upon His blessed Mother, can mortal man pass
the period of his sojourn upon earth without committing venial sin
(Council of Trent, 6, 23) ; nay more, without the succor of special
grace it is impossible to avoid venial sin for any length of time. The
highest perfection of which human frailty is capable is this : Not to
commit any sin, even venial sin, with deliberate intention.
2. We can obtain forgiveness of sin, because Christ merited it
470 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice. ,- * - •
for us by the death of the cross; and because He gave power to
forgive sins to His apostles and their successors.
There is nothing more consoling' for mankind upon earth than the
forgiveness of sins, for nothing causes us more misery than sin.
Even in pagan times Socrates looked forward hopefully to the advent
of a mediator who would teach mankind in what manner remission
of sins was to be obtained. Christ earned the grace of forgiveness
for us by His sacred Passion and death upon the cross (Council of
Trent, 6, 7). Christ is the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sins
of the world (John i. 29). In Him we have redemption through His
blood, the remission of sins (Col. i. 14). Christ is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole
world (1 John ii. 2) . Christ conferred the power to forgive sins only upon
the apostles and their successors. He Himself exercised this power
in the case of Mary Magdalen, Zacheus, the good thief; when He
healed the paralytic He said expressly : " That you may know that the
Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, I say unto thee,
Arise, take up thy bed, and go" (Matt. ix. 6). This same power
which He possessed Our Lord gave to the holy apostles, when, after
His resurrection He said to them : " Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, and whose sins
you shall retain, they are retained" (John xx. 23). He therefore
who would have his sins forgiven must address himself to the bishop
or to the priests whom Christ has appointed. In the Catholic Church
alone is remission of sins, for she alone has received the Holy Ghost
as a pledge of this grace (St. Augustine).
3. Mortal sin is remitted by Baptism and penance, venial sin,
and the temporal penalties due to it, by good works done in a
state of grace. These good works are: Prayer, fasting, alms-
giving, hearing holy Mass, receiving holy communion, use of the
sacramentals, gaining indulgences, forgiving offences.
Baptism is the ship in which we embark on our voyage to heaven ;
if we commit mortal sin we are like men who are shipwrecked. The
only hope for them of being saved is in laying hold of a plank, and
clinging firmly to it; so for the Christian, the only means of reach-
ing the port of eternal salvation is through the Sacrament of Pen-
ance. Not prayer, fasting, nor almsgiving in itself can procure for
man the forgiveness of mortal sin ; these can only lead to penance,
by which sin is washed away. Angels and archangels have no power
to alter this ; nay, " The Redeemer Himself does not forgive sin
without penance" (St. Augustine). Good works, do, however, avail
for the expiation of venial sin. Thus St. Augustine declares : "A
single Pater Noster said from the heart, will obliterate the venial
sins of a whole day." Venial sins can also be remitted by the use
of holy water, indulgences, prayers, communion, the blessing of a
bishop, etc.
4. There is no sin too great for God to forgive here below, if
it be sincerely repented of and humbly confessed.
God makes this promise to the contrite sinner : " If your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow; and if they be red as
Temptation. 471
crimson, they shall be white as wool" (Is. i. 18). God makes no dis-
tinction between sinners; He permits the priest to forgive every sin
without exception. Therefore no man is so godless and wicked but
he may yet hope to obtain forgiveness, provided he is sincerely sorry
for his transgressions. In fact God receives the sinner more gra-
ciously the greater his sin has been, just as a fisherman pursues his
work more gladly, the bigger the fish he catches. The sin against the
Holy Ghost is the only one which admits of no forgiveness, because
the man who sins against the Holy Ghost is the man who will not
amend. The fault does not rest with God, but with the man ; for even
if he acknowledges his sin he will not abandon it, and consequently
does not bewail it. Without contrition and change of heart there is
no forgiveness.
5. A sin once forgiven is effaced forever, even if the sinner
falls again into mortal sin.
This is not the case with good works. They are reckoned again
to a man's account, if he makes his peace with God. See how mer-
ciful is God almighty !
VI. TEMPTATION.
1. Temptation is the action of the evil spirit upon our soul,
in order to induce us to sin; he excites within us the concupis-
cence of the eyes, or the pride of life.
Remember the temptation of Eve in paradise, and the threefold
temptation of Our Lord in the desert. All the saints were greatly
tempted: St. Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, was tempted to blaspheme;
St. Erancis of Sales was tempted to despair; St. Francis of Assisi
was tormented by suggestions of impurity. Some saints experienced
temptations against the faith; some temptations lasted for years.
God tempteth no man (Jas. i. 13) ; He simply permits man to be
tempted. It is the devil who hammers at you when you are tempted.
" Our wrestling is against the spirits of wickedness in high places "
(Eph. vi. 12). On earth we are surrounded by robbers; many of us
are overcome and wounded by them. The conflict with the spirit of
evil is a more critical struggle ; it is carried on covertly, and against
a more powerful adversary — one who spares no pains and knows no
shame; who, when he is repulsed, returns all the more defiantly to the
attack. For six thousand years he has tempted mankind; such long
practice has made him perfect. He excites within us concupiscence
of the flesh, or concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life (1 John
ii. 16). In this threefold manner he tempted Our Lord. Many
temptations Come upon a man through no fault of his own (witness
Job) ; some are the result of culpable negligence (witness Eve). The
evil enemy as a rule attacks our weak point, our affection for crea-
tures. Like a fowler, he attracts the birds to his net by offering them
the food they like best. Physical infirmities give the devil more
power over us; everv one knows how apt the sick are to be fretful,
impatient and exacting. The devil sets to work craftilv. He trans-
forms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. xi. 14) ; that is, he de-
472 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, rice.
ceives us by assuming an appearance of candor and piety. His arti-
fices prove his weakness; lie would not resort to them were he power-
ful enough to do without them.
Temptation is not in itself sinful, only acquiescence in the
suggestions of the tempter is sin.
Hence we ought not to be alarmed and uneasy when we feel the
incentive to sin, but we should trust in God's help, saying : " O Lord,
make haste to help me ! Jesus and Mary be my help ! " To tremble
in the hour of temptation betrays a want of confidence in the divine
assistance ; the devil will assail the fearful soul only the more fiercely.
Unless we remain calm, we cannot possibly conquer. Those who lose
their composure are like a bird caught in the net ; the more it flutters
and tries to escape, the more it becomes entangled in the meshes.
Our Lord promises us : " In your patience you shall possess your
souls" (Luke xxi. 19). The good Christian is like a soldier, who as
a rule rejoices when war breaks out, in the prospect of gaining rich
booty.
2. God allows us to be tempted out of mercy, for the good
of our souls.
As the schoolmaster examines his scholars in order to give them
a good testimonial, so God deals with the souls of men; He allows
us to be tried by temptation to give us the opportunity of manifest-
ing our loyalty to Him, and acquiring a claim to the recompense He
promises us. Thus He has only our welfare in view. The tempter
however, the evil enemy, means no good to us; he aims at our ruin,
as the history of Job testifies. Temptations may therefore be said to
be a mark of the divine favor. The archangel Raphael said to
Tobias : " Because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary
that temptation should prove thee" (Tob. xii. 13). God sends temp-
tations to those whom He trusts ; hence it is that those who fear Him
are more sorely tempted than other men. The devil does not tempt
those who are already in his power, but those whom he fears will
elude his grasp or who may be injurious to him. St. Ephrem in a
vision saw a large city, the inhabitants of which were very corrupt;
only one devil was sitting on the wall, and he was half asleep. But
in the desert he saw a whole swarm of devils busily engaged within
the cell of a hermit. Thus the fact that a man is greatly tempted
proves him to be a friend of God, and a stranger to, an enemy of
the devil. Pirates do not attack an empty ship, but one which they
know to be returning home with a valuable cargo. A king does not
take up arms against loyal subjects, but against rebels who resist
his authority. Temptations have besides the following advantages:
They rouse us from a state of tepidity (they are what the spur
is to the horse) ; they cleanse us from imperfections, as the stormy
sea throws out foreign substances ; they make us humble, by acquaint-
ing us with our frailty; they increase our strength, as a high wind
makes the tree strike deeper root; they augment our charity, as the
breeze makes the flame burn more fiercely; they afford us a means
of expiating sin in this life; finally, they add to our glory hereafter,
as the beauty of a jewel is enhanced by polishing. Thus we see that
the tempter does us good service, and his temptations are steps in the
Temptation. 4?3
ladder which leads to heaven. Therefore let him who is tempted
rather pray for strength to resist the temptation than for its entire
removal. We read that St. Paul thrice besought the Lord that the
angel of Satan might depart from him, and asked in vain (2 Cor. xii.
8).
God permits every man to be tempted, but He never per-
mits us to be tempted beyond our strength.
Temptations must come to every man. No one can be crowned
unless he has conquered; no one can conquer unless he fight, and no
one can fight without an adversary. Hence temptations must come.
For this reason God subjected the angels to a probation, and also our
first parents. And subsequently to the Fall trials have been the lot
of mankind (witness Job and Tobias). " The life of man upon earth
is a warfare " (Job vii. 1). The Apostle compares the Christian to one
who runs in a race (1 Cor. ix. 25). "Yet God will not suffer us to
be tempted above that which we are able to bear" (1 Cor. x. 13).
The devil can only tempt man within the limit God sets him, as we
learn from the history of Job. And when God permits violent temp-
tations to assail us, He gives grace sufficient to enable us to withstand
them (2 Cor. xii. 9). The stronger the temptation, the more abun-
dant is the grace ; the greater the danger, the more potent the divine
assistance. JSTo sinner can venture to say as his excuse that the
temptation was too great for him to resist.
3. We ought to protect ourselves from temptation by assiduous
work, by keeping our thoughts fixed upon God, and by continual
self -conquest.
In order to hold a fortress against the enemy two things are
necessary: (1) Strong fortifications and well-guarded gates; (2) In
case of attack valiant defence. In like manner we must protect our
soul, to prevent the entrance of the evil enemy. Our fortifications
will be : Continual occupation ; this is the surest means of holding
temptations aloof. Thieves do not break into a house where work
is going on. Idleness is the parent of crime. We shall also find it
easy to resist temptation, if we keep our mind fixed on God. A trav-
eller journeying towards a fixed destination meets with few difficul-
ties on his way, whereas the vagrant, wandering hither and thither,
is sure to get in trouble. So it is with the Christian who makes God
his final end, and one who has no aim in life. Hence Christ exhorts
us : " Watch ye and pray, that you enter not into temptation " (Matt.
xxvi. 41). Wolves do not approach a watch fire and the devil leaves
those alone who are on their guard. When Moses stood with arms up-
lifted to God, Israel was victorious; but when through weariness he
let them fall, that moment the enemy prevailed. The majority of the
sins good people commit come from f orgetf ulness of God's presence ;
the habit of self-control also greatly helps us to conquer temptation.
He who is accustomed to repress his impulses is like a soldier, well
trained in the use of arms before he goes to battle. Practice in self-
conquest strengthens the will. But attachment to creatures makes a
man an easy prey to the devil; just as one who carries a heavy load
cannot run away when robbers attack him.
474 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
4. When we are tempted we ought to betake ourselves imme-
diately to prayer, or think of our last end, or of the evil conse-
quences of sin.
If the enemy dares to attack the fortress in spite of the ramparts
raised about it, it behooves us to defend it manfully. When assailed
we must instantly assume the defensive ; for of all things it is most
important to repulse the first onslaught. The greater our determina-
tion, the sooner will our adversary be discouraged. If we falter, he
will force an entrance, and gain the mastery over our imagination.
He acts like soldiers, who when they have taken the enemy's guns,
instantly turn them upon him. St. Jerome says that he who does not
resist immediately is already half conquered. A conflagration can
be extinguished at the outset, but not later on. A young tree is easily
bent, not an old one. But since we can do nothing in our own
strength, we must strive to obtain divine grace. Wherefore let him
who is tempted have recourse to prayer; let him imitate the apostles
when a storm arose on the sea of Genesareth; or the child who,
when he sees a large dog coming, runs to his mother. He who
neglects prayer in the time of temptation is like a general, who, when
surrounded by the enemy, does not ask for reinforcements from his
monarch. Adam fell into sin because when he was tempted he did not
look to God for help. We should say a Hail Mary, or at least de-
voutly utter the holy names of Jesus and Mary. " These holy
names," St. John Chrysostom declares, " have an intrinsic power over
the devil, and are a terror to hell." At the name of Mary the devils
tremble with fear; when she is invoked their power forsakes them as
wax melts before the fire. Prayer is the weapon wherewith to ward
off the assaults of our spiritual foe; it is more potent than all the
efforts of the demons because by prayer we procure the assistance
of God, and nothing can withstand His might. Prayer is exactly op-
posed to temptation for it enlightens the understanding and fortifies
the will. The sign of the cross and holy water have also great effi-
cacy against the spirit of evil. He flies from the cross as a dog flies
at the sight of the whip. Holy water derives its efficacy from the
prayers of the Church. St. Thomas Aquinas and many other saints
frequently made use of the sign of the cross with excellent results.
St. Teresa on the other hand constantly employed holy water. It is
well to sprinkle the sick and dying with holy water, and we should
never omit to take it on entering a church. A second means of con-
quering temptations is to turn our thoughts elsewhere, above all to
think of the last things: of death, of the judgment, of eternal pun-
ishment. " Remember thy last end and thou shalt never sin "
(Ecclus. vii. 40). Or we may consider the terrible consequences of
sin. The Romans used to say : " Whatever thou doest, act wisely and
think of the end." In some cases, especially when temptations
against the faith or against purity present themselves, the wiser
course is to despise the temptation rather than grapple with it.
Proud people, like the devil, are soonest got rid of by ignoring them
altogether. If the passer-by takes no notice of the dog, he soon leaves
off barking. If one keeps still the bees do not harm him, but if one
drives them off, then they sting. Again, we may follow Our Lord's
example, and resolutely forbid the tempter to remain. Christ re-
Occasions of Sin. 475
pulsed him with the words: "Begone, Satan" (Matt. iv. 10). St.
James bids us : " Resist the devil and he will fly from you " ( Jas.
iv. 7). The devil is like an angry woman, who blusters if she sees
that her husband is afraid of her, but who gives way directly if he
exerts his authority. One may also retort upon the tempter by quot-
ing the word of God, as Our Lord did (Eph. vi. 17). St. Peter says:
"Whom resist ye, strong in faith" (1 Pet. v. 9). Another means of
overcoming temptation is by humbling ourselves before God. " To
the humble He giveth grace" (1 Pet. v. 5). St. Augustine in the
hour of temptation was accustomed to exclaim : " Thou knowest, O
Lord, that I am but dust and my frailty is great." When we are
pressed hard by temptation, it is well to confess to the priest those
sins of our past life of which we are most ashamed; this is a sure
means of repelling the severest temptations. It is advisable to ac-
quaint one's confessor with all one's temptations. Satan would have
us keep silence concerning them, whereas it is God's will that we
should discover them to our superiors and spiritual guides, for if
sinful thoughts are disclosed, the temptation is already half over-
come. To open its griefs gives, moreover, great relief to the troubled
heart.
5. He who has conquered temptation will receive more
graces from God.
When we have driven away the spirit of evil, the holy angels come
and console us. We read that when the tempter had left Our Lord
angels came and ministered to Him (Matt. iv. 11). Fierce tempta-
tions are generally the precursors of special marks of the divine
favor. Therefore, let us see that we make a good use of tempta-
tions, one and all. They are like examination at a school; exam-
inations are not held every day, so the opportunity of gaining a prize
does not come within the reach of the pupils every day.
VII. OCCASIONS OF SIN".
1. By occasions of sin are meant such places, persons, or things
which as a rule are the means of leading ns into sin, if we go in
quest of them.
For instance, the society of the dissolute, the perusal of anti-
religious books are an occasion of sin to every one ; so is the drinking-
saloon to the drunkard. Occasions of sin may be compared to a
plague-stricken person, who gives the contagion to all who approach
him; or to fire, which burns all that it touches, or to a stone in the
way, which causes many to stumble.
Occasions of sin may be voluntary or involuntary.
The drinking-saloon is a voluntarv occasion of sin to the ineb-
riate, because nothing obliges him to frequent it; but to the landlord
himself it is an involuntary one.
2. To expose one's self heedlessly to an occasion of sin, is in it-
self a sin; it entails the loss of divine grace and leads to mortal
sin.
476 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
Every one knows it is wrong to carry a burning torch into a place
where hay, straw, and other inflammable materials are stored. To
delight in occasions of evil and to fall into sin, St. Augustine de-
clares to be one and the same thing. St. Peter sought the company
of the enemies of Christ in the high priests' palaces and he fell, for
God withdrew His grace. " He that loveth danger shall perish in it "
(Ecclus. iii. 27). "He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled with it"
(Ecclus. xiii. 1).
3. He who finds himself in circumstances which are an occa-
sion of sin to him, and does not instantly leave them, although it
is in his power to do so, commits a sin ; he will be deprived of the
assistance of divine grace and will fall into mortal sin.
In paradise Eve sinned by not going away from the tree. St.
Augustine says our first parents ought not to have so much as
touched the forbidden fruit. Cleomenes, King of Sparta, was once
urged by a foreign prince to betray his country for a large sum of
money. The king's little daughter, hearing what was proposed, ex-
claimed : " Father, go quite away or the stranger will corrupt thee."
The king instantly left the room and would not suffer the stranger to
enter his presence again. Let us be equally prompt in forsaking occa-
sions of sin.
4. He who refuses to give up what is to him an occasion of sin,
cannot expect to obtain pardon of sin here, or eternal salvation
hereafter.
One who so acts has no contrition, that determinate turning away
from creatures and turning to God, which is an indispensable con-
dition for forgiveness of sin. Hence one who might give up an
occasion of sin without great difficulty and does not do so, must not
expect absolution from the priest. It is otherwise if giving up the
occasion of sin involves loss of reputation, of property, of the means
of livelihood; but even then he must promise either to abstain from
the sin, or avoid the occasion of it. We know from Our Lord's words
that hell awaits those who will not forsake the occasions of sin : " If
thy hand or thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off and cast it from thee.
It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, than having two
hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire" (Matt, xviii. 8);
that is to say, although any object be as dear to you as your hand or
your foot, you must separate yourself from it, if it is an occasion of
sin to you, or hell will be your portion. " What sacrifices men will
make," says St. Augustine, " to preserve their mortal life ; they shrink
from no expense, no humiliation; yet they will make no sacrifice for
life immortal." As a man consents to the amputation of his hand or
foot if it is a question of saving his life, so the sinner must detach
himself from what he loves best, in order to save his soul. Traders
will cast all their merchandise into the sea to save the ship and their
own lives from destruction ; so we must part with all to which our
heart clings most fondly, rather than imperil our eternal salvation.
Hence even the greatest saints did not venture lightly to
expose themselves to the danger of sin.
Their watchword was: " Safety is in flight," It is said that St.
Occasions of Sin. 477
Peter on the outbreak of the persecution, fled from Rome, fearing lest
he should again be tempted to deny Christ; not until Our Lord ap-
peared to him outside the city gates did he venture to expose him-
self to the danger. And shall those who are the slaves of their
senses consider vigilance to be superfluous? Will one who cannot
swim dare to plunge into the water?
Those, however, who by reason of their calling or any other
necessity, are compelled to expose themselves to occasions of
sin, must put their trust in the protection of the Most High.
Officials, priests, doctors and others are often compelled by the
duties of their office to incur many dangers. If they do not tempt
God by presumption, thev may count upon the assistance of His
grace; but not so those who in an uncalled-for manner and with-
out just cause expose themselves to the risk of sin.
5. The most common and the most dangerous occasions of sin
are : liquor saloons, dancing saloons, bad theatres, bad periodicals,
and bad novels.
Some one may perhaps ask: Is one expected to live like a recluse
or a misanthropist ? St. Augustine answers this question : " Better
and holier people than thou have forsworn those amusements ; canst
not thou do the same ? The Christian's pleasures are not taken from
him, they are changed and ennobled." Again he says : " How sweet it
i,s to renounce the vain enjoyments of the world! I shrank from the
obligation to forego them, and now I rejoice in having lost them."
" The worldling," says St. Bernard, " sees our afflictions, but he
knows not our consolations." Those are no true joys which are not in
God.
1. The liquor saloon is principally dangerous for those who
go thither every day, and spend a long time there.
There is nothing sinful in frequenting a saloon as a recreation
after the day's work; in fact taverns are necessary for the enter-
tainment of travellers. But one ought to be careful as to the charac-
ter of the house one frequents, so as not to associate with hard
drinkers, or men whose conversation is unseemly. Unfortunately
those who spend much of their time in the saloon are apt to acquire
the habit of drinking and gambling, to be involved in quarrels, and
to neglect the duties of their calling.
2. The dancing saloon is chiefly a source of danger to those
who carry dancing to an excess, or who have already been led
into sin by it.
In the art of dancing there is nothing evil or reprehensible;
it is in itself nothing more or less than an innocent means of enjoy-
ment and relaxation, and of promoting good feeling and friendly in-
tercourse among men. Among the Jews the dance was often made
a part of divine worship ; we read that when the Ark of the Covenant
was removed, David danced with all his might before the Lord (2
Kings vi. 14). The Hebrew maidens performed round or processional
dances on many religious festivals ( Judg. xxi. 21 ; Exod. xv. 20) ;
478 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
and St. Basil and St. Gregory the Great state as their opinion that
the angels move in the solemn measures of the dance before the
throne of God in heaven. However the rule must be strictly observed
of not dancing at prohibited times (in Advent or Lent) nor with per-
sons of improper character (as is often the case at public balls), and
of not taking part in dances which outrage modesty and decorum,
as some do in the present day. Young people must, however, be
warned against indulging in this amusement inordinately, as it has
a tendency to arouse sensuality, to excite the passions, and lessen the
sense of Christian modesty. Living as they did in heathen times,
the Fathers of the Church denounced dancing in no measured terms.
On the occasions of weddings, entertainments, or family gather-
ings, when dancing is proposed as the evening's amusement, it would
be unfriendly to refuse to take part. But those for whom dancing has
often proved an occasion of sin, must if possible eschew it for the
future; they may allege as an excuse that it is injurious to them. ^
3. The theatre is a source of danger to those who frequent it,
because some theatres are a school of vice rather than of virtue.
When dramas of an elevating and edifying nature are put upon the
stage, plays in which virtue and innocence triumph, and heroic devo-
tion to religion, the love of one's country, the love of one's neighbor,
are held up to admiration, and the misery and shame attendant upon
crime depicted in its true colors, the theatre becomes a school of
morals. But good plays are rare : they ill suit the taste of the present
day; and often they would be acted to an empty house. The majority,
of plays, more especially on the continent of Europe, are of a ques-
tionable tendency; in France, in Italy, vice — some illicit affection —
is often represented upon the stage as attractive and delightful, while
virtue is uninteresting and despicable. Even the freethinker Kous-
seau says that in the theatre our evil propensities are too often fos-
tered and encouraged, our power to resist the force of our passions
is diminished, we learn to regard work as irksome, and useful employ-
ment as distasteful. Moreover, it cannot be denied that the heated
atmosphere of a crowded house and the late hours are prejudicial to
the health of the habitual play-goer.
4. Bad periodicals are dangerous to all who read them ; their
effect is to gradually undermine the faith and awaken discontent
in the minds of those who read them regularly; and whoever
takes such journals, declares himself an enemy to religion.
The society papers of the day pander to the popular taste. Scan-
dals in high iife, political feuds, animadversions on the conduct of
prominent persons, sneers at religious ordinances, the defence of
wrong-doers, such is the pabulum too often provided for the render.
The writers in such papers are frequently those who have fallen low
in the social scale, and the editors are in many cases Jews. The
Holy Father has said that a large proportion of the countless evils
of the day and the unhappy condition of society are to be ascribed
to the journals that issue from the press, and he exhorts the faith-
ful to endeavor to counteract their corrupting influence by upholding
those that are of an opposite tendency. Not only may this be done
by subscribing to some Christian periodical, lending it to others.
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Princival Vices. 470
asking for it at reading-rooms and hotels, but by contributing letters
and sending advertisements to journals of whose principles we ap-
prove. He who underrates the importanee of the press displays little
knowledge of the times in which he lives. The press is a gigantic
power, especially since it has taken the telegraph and telephone into
its service, and can thus supply the reader with the latest intelli-
gence from all parts of the world. The daily papers are therefore
taken in and eagerly read by all classes of society. And since, in
addition to the latest news, they pronounce a verdict upon all ques-
tions of the day, concerning religion, politics, science, art, commerce,
etc., the press is the great educator of the masses, the source whence
the people derive their information and form their opinions. The
press may well be said to be the organ of public opinion. Even as
early as the commencement of the present century, when the press first
began to be developed, the Emperor Napoleon spoke of it as a sixth
great European power. He expressed himself thus because he was
sensible of the influence exercised by the Rhine Mercury, which had
just been started by Gorres. Hence we learn how important a duty
it is to support and encourage the Catholic press.
5. Bad novels are dangerous to all, for the novel-reader ac-
quires a false and exaggerated, view of life.
Indiscriminate novel-reading must be avoided, for a large propor-
tion of works of fiction present poison in a golden goblet. Crime
and vice, sins of immorality, are not only justified; they are arrayed
in the most fascinating garb, depicted in the most charming colors.
Thus they rouse and inflame the dormant passions of the human
heart. A novelist once while being shown over a prison, was ad-
dressed by two young fellows. " You ought to be wearing these hand-
cuffs instead of us," they said to him, " for it was through you that
we got here." Many works of fiction are, it is true, of a perfectly
harmless character. But even at the best the habitual reader of
romances is transported into an unreal world, and is rendered in-
capable of judging justly of the world of actuality. Books of general
interest, such as the lives of saints and of distinguished personages
are far preferable to romances, for the facts they contain bear the
stamp of truth, and are much more improving to the mind than fic-
tion is.
VIII. THE SEVEN PRINCIPAL VIRTUES AND THE
SEVEN PRINCIPAL VICES.
1. HUMILITY.
1. The humble man. is he who acknowledges his own nothing-
ness and the nothingness of all earthly things, and comports him-
self in accordance with this conviction.
The heathen centurion at Capharnaum displayed great humility
when he said to Our Lord : " Lord, I am not worthy that Thou
shouldst enter under my roof, but only say the word and my servant
shall be healed" (Matt. viii. 8). Notwithstanding his position, his
480 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
wealth, his good works — he had built the Jews a synagogue —he
thought nothing of himself. Humility is twofold; it consists of
humility of the understanding, by which a man becomes conscious
of his own abjection, and humility of the will, which causes him to
manifest his consciousness in his conduct; he humbles himself, and
takes the lowest place. That would be false humility which was
merely external, not heartfelt. St. Bonaventure defines humility as
voluntary self-abasement resulting from the knowledge of our own
frailty.
We learn humility by the consideration of the infinite
majesty of God and the transitory nature of earthly things.
The poor man feels his poverty most keenly when he compares
himself with his opulent neighbor. St. Augustine prayed for the
knowledge of God, that he might thereby know himself. The majesty
of God is most apparent in creation. In the firmament of heaven
are many million orbs far surpassing in magnitude our earth, which
is but a speck of dust in the universe. How insignificant then is
each individual man! Must not the pride of every one be humbled
at the sight of the endless myriads of worlds that people space, and
which no man can count? And what is one single man among the
hundreds of millions that inhabit the earth, not to speak of those that
have lived in the past, and will live in the future. All earthly things
pass away like a shadow and have no value before God. " The grave,"
says St. John Chrysostom, " is the school wherein we learn humility."
Let no man pride himself on his riches; he may lose them in a
single night; he must lose them at his death. Let no man pride
himself on his physical beauty, for it may be disfigured by disease,
and after death will be the prey of worms. Let no man pride him-
self upon his knowledge; how soon he forgets what he has learned,
and how immeasurable is the amount of what he does not know ! A
philosopher of antiquity used to say : " All I know is that I know
nothing." " If it seem to thee that thou knowest many things and
understandest them well enough, know at the same time that there
are many more things of which thou art ignorant " (Imitation, Book
1, ch. 2). Besides all our knowledge is ignorance compared with the
infinite wisdom of God. Let no man pride himself upon earthly
honor, for to-day the people cry " Hosanna," and to-morrow " Crucify
him." How shortlived is the power and prestige of earthly potentates
(witness Napoleon). Let no man pride himself even upon the
graces he has received from God, for they may be withdrawn at any
moment, and they increase his responsibility. Neither let him pride
himself upon his good works, for God has no need of his goods (Ps.
xv. 2). After we have done all, we are unprofitable servants (Luke
xvii. 10). Whatever therefore a man may possess, he in reality pos-
sesses nothing or next to nothing. The humble man is no hypocrite ;
he only forms a just estimate of things.
The humble man conducts himself in the following man-
ner: He delights in abasement, he does not attach his heart to
transitory good things, he trusts wholly in God, and does not
fear man.
Tlie Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 481
The humble man delights in abasement; he never unnecessarily
attracts attention to himself, i.e., he avoids ostentation and singu-
larity in his demeanor and deportment, in his conversation, his ges-
tures, at prayer, in dress, at table. He never seeks to make his
humility conspicuous by downcast eyes, a slouching gait, a dejected
mien; he is humble of heart, like Our Lord; he only allows his
humility to be observed when occasion requires, and then only simply
and unaffectedly. He is not always calling himself the chief of sin-
ners; uncalled for self -blame generally betokens pride. Furthermore
he hides his talents, for he knows that what man reveals God con-
ceals, and what man disclaims, God proclaims. St. Anthony of
Padua concealed his great erudition until God made it known. The
humble man does not think himself better than others; he esteems
others above himself (Phil. ii. 3). He does not publish the failings
of others, he does not choose the highest place (Luke xiv. 10) ; on the
contrary, he rejoices in being slighted, despised, humiliated, knowing
that for this God will exalt him (Luke xiv. 10). Thus it was with
the publican in the Temple (Luke xviii. 13) ; the humble man aspires
only after eternal treasures, and does not attach his heart to what
is transitory. Earthly good things, riches, dignities, pleasures, the
praise of men, do not allure him; he is aware that he is none the
better for them in God's sight, and they may prove his ruin. Earthly
sufferings, contempt, reproaches, ridicule, persecution, do not dis-
hearten him; he glories in them, because they enable him to earn
heaven. He despises contempt, because it cannot harm him. Thus
St. Paul writes : " To me it is a very small thing to be judged by
you, or by man's day " (1 Cor. iv. 3). The humble man trusts in God
alone. Conscious of his own weakness he does not confide in his
own strength, but only in the aid of divine grace; as Joseph did
when required to interpret Pharao's dream (Gen. xli. 16). He does
not take to himself the credit even of his virtues and good works,
but ascribes all to God, knowing that it is God Who worketh in Him ;
as the sun calls vegetable life into being upon the earth. Yet he is
ready to acknowledge the favors God confers on him, saying with the
blessed Mother of God : " He that is mighty hath done great things
to me" (Luke i. 49). The recognition of these favors makes him
grateful to God and increases his love of God. " No one," says St.
Teresa, " will do great things for God, who does not know that God
has done great things for him." The humble man does not fear men,
because, far from being cast down by any humiliation he may meet
with at their hands he rejoices in it. Besides he knows that he is in
God's safekeeping, and to them that love God all things work
together for good (Rom. viii. 28). Discouragement and pusillanimity
are not characteristics of true humility.
2. Christ gave us in Himself the grandest example of humility,
for He, being the Son of God, took the form of a servant, chose to
live in great lowliness, was most condescending in His intercourse
with men, and finally, voluntarily endured the ignominious death
of the cross.
Christ emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, i.e., human
nature (Phil. ii. 7). In the Sacrament of the Altar He even takes
the form of bread. And at the baptism of Our Lord the Holy Spirit
182 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
assumed the shape of an animal, the dove. The prophets, in predict-
ing the coming of Christ spoke of Him nnder the designation of the
Lamb of God. Thus we see how almighty God humbles Himself.
Our Lord lived in great lowliness; He chose for His birthplace not
a royal palace but a stable; for His Mother, not a queen but a poor
maiden ; for His foster-father a humble carpenter ; for His dwelling-
place an obscure town; for His apostles, not the philosophers and
sages of the world, but simple and unlearned fishermen. In His
intercourse with men Our Lord was most condescending; He encour-
aged children to approach Him, He even conversed with sinners (e.g.,
the Samaritan woman, Mary Magdalen, the woman taken in adul-
tery) ; at the Last Supper He washed His disciples' feet, and made
not the slightest objection to go to the house of the centurion, when
the latter entreated Him to cure his servant (Matt. viii. 7). Cruci-
fixion was at that time the most ignominious death by which a man
could die, yet Christ chose that very death for Himself; showing by
His own actions that humility is the royal road to God.
In His teaching also Our Lord exhorts us constantly to the
practice of humility. " He that is the greatest among yon shall
be your servant7' (Matt, xxiii. 11), and again: "When you
shall have done all these things that are commanded yon say:
We are unprofitable servants " (Luke xvii. 10).
Moreover He commends humility in the parable of the Pharisee
and the publican (Luke xviii. 13). On one occasion he took a child
and said : " Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, he is
the greater in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt, xviii. 4). He presents
Himself to us as a pattern of this virtue : " Learn of Me, because I
am meek and humble of Heart, and you shall find rest to your souls "
(Matt. xi. 29). Finally, He promises that the humble shall be ex-
alted (Luke xiv. 11), and shall enter into the kingdom of heaven
(Matt. v. 3).
3. Humility leads to great sanctity, to exaltation, and to
everlasting felicity.
Furthermore through it we obtain enlightenment of the un-
derstanding, true peace of mind, forgiveness of sin, a speedy
answer to prayer, and are enabled to overcome temptation with-
out difficulty.
God is with the humble. If any one has a lowly opinion of him-
self, and considers himself inferior to others, it is an unfailing proof
that the Holy Spirit dwells within him. In the first place the
humble man attains a high degree of perfection. The more humble
he is the more perfect he is, and vice versa. Well-filled ears of corn bend
downwards, the thin ears hold their heads aloft. Empty vessels make
the most sound. " He who thinks much of himself," says St. Teresa,
"thinks much of little; he who thinks little of himself, thinks little
of much." Humility is the surest test of sanctity. St. Philip Neri
was once sent by the Holy Father to a convent in the vicinity of
Eome one of whose inmntes enjoyed a reputation for sanctity, in
order to test the truth of that report. As soon as he entered the
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 483
parlor, he requested the nun in question to clean his boots, which
were covered with mud. She replied in no very courteous manner
that she was unaccustomed to such work. St. Philip returned to the
Pope and said : " She is no saint and works no miracles, for she
lacks what is most essential, humility." Humility leads to exalta-
tion. Our Lord says : " Every one that exalteth himself shall be
humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted " (Luke xiv.
11). No man can ascend who has not first descended. "Be
humbled in the sight of God and He will exalt you" (Jas. iv. 10).
The blessed Mother of God attributed all the graces she received
from God to her humility : " He hath regarded the humility of His
handmaiden; for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call
me blessed" (Luke i. 48). Honor pursues him who flies from her,
humility leads to everlasting felicity. Our Lord says : " Blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. v. 3).
The gate of heaven is narrow, and only little ones, i.e., the humble,
can pass through. Humility is also a means of obtaining enlighten-
ment of the mind through the Holy Spirit. The humble alone can
enter into the spirit of Our Lord's teaching. He Himself says : " I
confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed
them to little ones" (Matt. xi. 25). St. Peter says: "God resisteth
the proud, but to the humble He giveth graces " (1 Pet. v. 5). The
communications of the Most High are with the simple (Prov. iii.
32), that is, He enlightens his mind. Hence it is that the poor and
unlearned sometimes have a truer knowledge of the things of God
than the learned. The shepherds were informed of Christ's birth,
the Scribes and Pharisees were not. He must stoop who desires to
draw water out of the fountains of God's grace. St. Teresa says
that one day in which we humble ourselves before God is more fruit-
ful in graces than many days spent in prayer. The humble man
attains true peace of mind. Our Lord says : " Learn of Me, for I am
meek and lowly of Heart, and you shall find rest to your souls " (Matt,
xi. 29). The humble are not lifted up by prosperity nor cast down
by adversity. The humble man obtains forgiveness of sins. The
publican who smote upon his breast and said : " God, be merciful to
me a sinner," went down to his house justified (Luke xviii. 13). The
humble man obtains a speedy answer to prayer. " The prayer of him
that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds" (Ecclus. xxxv. 21).
The humble man<overcomes temptation without difficulty. Humility
is the most powerful weapon wherewith to vanquish the devil. It is
the virtue he most fears, for it is the only one which he is unable to
imitate.
2. THE OPPOSITE OF HUMILITY : PRIDE.
1. He is proud who overestimates his own worth, or the value
of his earthly possessions, and shows openly that he does so.
The giant Goliath was proud; he exalted himself overmuch
(1 Kings xvii.). Many a one overrates the worth of his body, is
proud of his fine physique, the beauty of his features; others over-
rate the worth of their wealth, their learning, their birth, the
484 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
virtues they imagine themselves to possess, etc. The proud man re-
sembles the devil, or a drunkard, for pride is a kind of intoxication
which fills one with strange fancies and makes one talk in a foolish
manner and do irrational things. Pride is like a bubble that looks
large, but whose size is deceptive; it is a color which fades in the
sun, for the proud will appear in all their native vileness when, after
death, they stand in the light of the Sun of justice. They are like
the frog in the fable who puffed himself out in the hope of appearing
as large as the ox.
The proud man manifests the undue opinion he has of him-
self in the following manner: He tries to attract notice by his
conversation and his dress, he strives after honor, distinctions,
and earthly riches, he despises the assistance and grace of God,
and relies only on himself and on earthly things.
Pride is a mimicry of God. The proud* man desires to appear
greater than he is. If he has done anything good, he boasts loudly of
it, as a hen cackles when she has laid an egg. Sometimes he speaks
depreciatingly of himself, but only in the hope of hearing others
praise him the more. He slanders others and thinks evil of them,
as the Pharisee did in the Temple (Luke xviii. 11). Pride makes
itself manifest in dress; the proud dress above their station, they
dress showily, in the latest fashion, and wear a great many unneces-
sary ornaments. The people who attach so much importance to dress
are not as a rule the most virtuous. They are extravagant, hard-
hearted to the poor, and deceitful, for by dressing unsuitably to their
class they give themselves out for what they are not. Love of dress often
leads to worse sins, for those who spend so much care on the adorn-
ment of their person lose sight of their final end, and lead a godless
life. He who stands well in God's sight has no need of choice and
costly apparel; good and holy people have generally dressed in a
simple, quiet manner. The Emperor Heraclius found that he could
not carry the true cross, which had been recovered from the Saracens,
back to Jerusalem, until he had laid aside his rich garments ; an un-
seen hand held him back. One ought however to dress properly and
suitably to one's position, and have a strict regard to cleanliness.
The proud pursue honors as boys hunt after butterflies; and wL n
they have gained them, they exult as loudly as if they had achieved
something wonderful, although they have nothing to boast of in
reality ; for the honor and applause of men are like the morning dew,
glittering with rainbow tints, but quickly disappearing in the sun,
or like smoke which the wind carries away. How foolish are they
who covet earthly glory ! The proud man despises the help and grace
of God, and relies upon himself alone, trusting in the things of earth.
He is his own deity. " The beginning of the pride of man is to fall
off from God" (Ecclus. x. 14). The proud neglect, prayer and the
ordinances of religion; they are not sensible of their own sinfulness
and misery, or if they are they will not apply to the physician, but
try to heal themselves. Hence it, is that God is the enemy of the
proud. "God resisteth the proud" (1 Pet. v. 5). Pride is hateful
before God and man (Ecclus. x. 7).
2. Pride leads to all manner of vices, to degradation here and
The Seven Principal Virtues ancl the Seven Principal Vices. 485
eternal damnation hereafter ; it also destroys the value of all our
good works.
Pride leads to all manner of vices. Pride is the beginning of all
sin (Ecclus. x. 15), the parent of vice; many and evil are her progeny.
Pride leads more especially to disobedience (witness Absalom) ; to
cruelty (as in Herod's case, to the murder of the innocents), to
apostasy (as with Luther, who was offended because he was slighted
at Rome) ; to strife, envy, ingratitude and impurity. God punishes
secret pride by open sin. He permits the proud to fall into sin in
order that they may be humbled and amend. He who has vanquished
pride has vanquished all other vices. When Goliath fell, the Philis-
tines took to flight ; when the root is torn up the tree withers. Pride
leads to degradation. " He that exalteth himself shall be humbled "
(Luke xiv. 11). The lightning strikes what is highest; a lofty tree
is often struck down by the bolt. Apply that to the proud. Aman,
the chief minister of the King of Persia, persecuted the Jews and
arrogated to himself regal honors ; he ended by being hung on a gib-
bet (Esth. vii. 10). King Herod was delighted at being called a god;
he was eaten of worms and died (Acts xii. 22). God hath over-
turned the thrones of proud princes (Ecclus. x. 17). He often chas-
tises the pride of nations, and even destroys them altogether (witness
the fall of the Roman empire). God even abolishes the memory of
the proud (Ecclus. x. 21) (witness the destruction of the tower of
Babel). Abasement and disgrace follow in the footsteps of pride.
Pride also leads to eternal damnation. It was the cause of the
angels being cast out of heaven, and our first parents being expelled
from paradise. As one scale in a balance drops as the other rises,
so those will be abased in the world to come who exalt themselves
in this world. Pride destroys the value of our good works. The
proud have received their reward already (Matt. vi. 5). Pride pulls
down the structure that justice raises. As a drop of gall spoils the
flavor of the most delicious wine, so pride ruins virtue. It is like the
little worm that caused Jonas' ivy to wither. Whatever good a man
may have done, if he pride himself upon it, he is utterly destitute.
3. OBEDIENCE.
1. Obedience consists in being ready to fulfil the behest of
one's superior.
Thus obedience does not merely consist in doing what is com-
manded, but in being ready and willing to do what is commanded.
Many obey, but obey grudgingly ; in that case obedience is no virtue.
Moreover obedience is not a virtue unless it is for God's sake that one
subjects one's will to that of another. Abraham was a pattern of
obedience when he offered up Isaac. The Son of- God Himself prac-
tised obedience, for He was subject to two of His creatures, Mary
and Joseph. The Creator of all thing's obeyed an artisan, the Lord of
glorv a lowly maiden. Who ever heard or saw anything to compare
with that? Christ was moreover obedient to His heavenly Father
even to the death of the cross (Phil. ii. 8). By the obedience of one
486 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
many shall be made just (Rom. v. 19). " I admire," says St. Francis
of Sales, "the Infant of Bethlehem; He is all-powerful, and yet does
.whatever He is told without a word."
1. Children are required to obey their parents, or those who
hold the place of parents to them, wives their husbands, servants
their masters, and all men those who are placed in authority over
them, whether ecclesiastical or secular rulers.
In order to unite all His creatures to a harmonious whole God has
established a certain relationship between them, and mutual depend-
ence. The moon revolves round the earth and the planets of our
solar system around the sun. The angels stand in the same relation-
ship to one another as men do on earth. In the Fourth Command-
ment God enjoins upon children obedience to their parents; this is
due to them as being God's representatives. St. Paul says : " Chil-
dren, obey your parents in all things" (Col. iii. 20). And again:
" Those who are disobedient to parents are worthy of death " (Rom.
i. 30). Teachers are the parents' representatives. Wives must obey
their husbands, for so God has appointed. He said to Eve after the
Fall : " Thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have
dominion over thee" (Gen. iii. 16). The very origin of the woman
proves her subjection to man, for she was made of his flesh, and thus
belongs to him. As a mark of inferiority the woman's head must be
covered (1 Cor. xi. 7). St. Peter teaches servants their duty towards
their masters in the following words : " Servants, be subject to your
masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the
froward " (1 Pet. ii. 18). Our Lord admonishes us to obey our eccles-
iastical superiors, saying : " Whoso will not hear the Church, let him
be to thee as the heathen and the publican" (Matt, xviii. 17). Be-
cause of the obedience required of Christians, he calls them sheep
and those who are set over them pastors. We ought also to obey the
secular authorities, because they have their power from God. St.
Paul says : " There is no power but from God, and those that are, are
ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power, resisteth the
ordinance of God " (Rom. xiii. 1, 2).
2. Yet obedience has certain limits; we are not required to
obey our superiors in matters that are not within their jurisdic-
tion, and we ought not to obey them if they command us to do
what the law of God forbids.
(This subject is fully treated of under the head of the Fourth
Commandment. )
2. Obedience is the most difficult and at the same time the
most excellent of all the moral virtues (St. Thomas Aquinas).
Obedience is the most difficult of virtues because all men are
naturally inclined to command, and disinclined to obey. " Obedi-
ence," says St. Bonaventure, " is the sacrifice of one's own will, and it
is a great sacrifice for man, when what is commanded is contrary
to his inclination and to his advantage." By obedience the under-
standing does penance; it is a kind of moral martyrdom. Original
Tlie Seven Principal Virtues and' the Seven Principal Vices. 487
sin is the cause why men are nnder the yoke and dominion of one
another. Where sin enters freedom is dethroned, and servitude takes
its place. Obedience is the most excellent of all virtues. Man can
offer to almighty God nothing greater than the submission of his
will to that of another for God's sake. Obedience is the most accept-
able burnt-offering that we can sacrifice to God upon the altar of the
heart. Obedience is better than sacrifices (1 Kings xv. 22) ; and for
this reason, in a sacrifice we offer the flesh of another; in obedience
the oblation is our own will, our own self.
3. By our obedience we accomplish the will of God most surely,
and we attain certainly and quickly to a high degree of perfection.
By obedience we accomplish the will of God most surely, for our
superiors are God's representatives, therefore their commands are
God's commands. Thus we serve as to the Lord and not to men
(Eph. v. 7). We ought not to> consider who it is who issues the
behest, but only the will of God which is made known to us by the
mouth of our superior. He who obeys will not be required to give
an account of what he has done; the one who commands has to do
that. Obedience gives value to all that we do. The simplest action
done out of obedience has greater value in God's sight than the most
austere works of penance. Eating and sleeping, if done in obedience
to the will of God, are more pleasing to him than the voluntary fasts
and vigils of the hermit. By obedience we attain certainly and
quickly to a high degree of perfection. Obedience is the means of
avoiding many sins. It is the antidote to pride. By the practices of
the other virtues we combat the spirits of evil, by obedience we van-
quish them. And this is just, for since they fell through disobedience,
by our obedience we show our superiority to them. St. Augustine
calls obedience the greatest of virtues; it is the parent and source of
every other virtue. St. Teresa declares that no path leads so quickly
to the summit of perfection as the path of obedience; hence the evil
enemy endeavors by all means to deter us from the practice of this
virtue. Obedience is the key that opens the portals of heaven, the
ship that carries us into the celestial harbor. Disobedience closed
heaven and opened hell; obedience on the other hand opens heaven
and closes hell. " Learn," says St. Francis of Sales, " to comply
willingly with the wishes of thy equals, and thus thou wilt learn to
fulfil cheerfully the commands of thy superiors." Above all, when
you have to obey, obey promptly, do not stop to deliberate; for
reasoning is only a hindrance to obedience. Remember that Eve
began to waver as soon as she allowed herself to argue about the
divine command.
Jf. DISOBEDIENCE.
1. Disobedience consists in not fulfilling the commands of one's
superiors.
Our first parents in paradise are an instance of disobedience. He
who does not obey his superiors, is like a palsied limb, which does not
move as the will commands.
488 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice*
2. Disobedience brings temporal misfortune and eternal misery
upon man.
Even in this world misery is the result of disobedience. Think of
the fatal consequences of original sin! Adam's offence was the
means of bringing evil upon all his posterity. Pharao's disobedience
brought sad calamities upon himself and his subjects; remember
the plagues of Egypt and the destruction of the king and his army in
the Red Sea. The prophet Jonas had bitter cause to rue his dis-
obedience. Eternal perdition is also the consequence of disobedience.
God rejects the disobedient, as the money-changer rejects a counter-
feit coin. The disobedient must expect a severe sentence in the Day
of Judgment, for in despising their superiors, they have despised,
not them, but Him Whose representatives they are. Disobedience de-
prives us of all merit. No virtue is acceptable to God if it is marred
by the stain of disobedience; it then is changed from a virtue to a
vice. Disobedience also deprives us of many graces which we might
have obtained through obedience.
5. PATIENCE, MEEKNESS, PEACEABLENESS.
PATIENCE.
1. Patience consists in preserving one's serenity of mind amid
all the contrarieties of this life for the love of God.
Some persons are patient in order to make themselves admired.
Many on the other hand, accept cheerfully only a part of their suffer-
ing : e.g., they will endure sickness patiently, but they cannot endure
to be a burden to others on account of it. That is not being truly
patient. Our Lord affords us the most exalted example of patience
in His Passion. Our heavenly Eather also exhibits Himself to us as
a model of patience, for He bears with sinners, even with those who
provoke His justice, as perjurers and blasphemers do. Job and
Tobias were remarkable for their patience. The patient man is like
a rock in the ocean, on which the waves break. Again, he may be
compared to a lamb, which does not utter a sound when it is slain.
The trials of life in which it specially behooves us to main-
tain our tranquillity of mind are: Sickness and reverses, relapse
into sin, the pressure of many and onerous duties appertaining to
our calling.
Sickness and reverses are not really calamities; they are graces.
God sends them upon us for the good of our souls. We ought there-
fore to welcome them. We must not be irritated with ourselves if
by reason of our frailty we relapse into our old sins, and thus are
forced to acknowledge that there is more of the human than of the
angelic nature about us. We must have as much patience with our-
selves ns with our fellow-men. Our Lord says* "Bring forth fruit
in patience" (Luke viii. 15). We must not lose our equanimity
when our work is pressing and difficult. Excitement creates haste,
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 480
and hastiness always does harm, just as an overflowing stream, or
violent rain, destroys and devastates. We ought to imitate the angel's
who minister to man without disquiet or hurry. We ought also to
wait with patience for the end of our life and our entrance upon eter-
nal felicity (Rom. viii. 25).
Tranquillity of mind is displayed by not yielding to anger,
or to sadness, or complaining to any great extent and calling for
the commiseration of others.
We ought not to yield to anger. Anger obscures the reason and
makes an act unjustly. " The anger of man worketh not the justice
of God" (Jas. i. 20). Nor ought the tribulations of this life to
render us sad. There is indeed a sadness which is pleasing to God,
that which is caused by the loss of eternal things. Our Lord
says : " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted "
(Matt. v. 5). But the sorrow of the world, i.e., that of the world-
ling over the loss of mundane things, worketh death (2 Cor. vii. 10).
" Sadness hath killed many, and there is no profit in it " (Ecclus.
xxx. 25). It is, however, allowable to complain on account of severe
physical or mental suffering, so long as we submit to the will of God.
Our Lord uttered complaints upon the cross; our heavenly Father
frequently complained of the conduct of sinners by the mouth of
the prophets. But a medium must be observed; we must not lament
over trifles, nor let our complaining be prolonged or exaggerated;
to do so is to evince selfishness or cowardice. Complain to God as
long and as loudly as you will, for your complaints are an appeal to
Him for help, and consequently are pleasing to Him. But if you fill
a fellow-creature's ear with the sad tale of all your care, he will
soon weary of your conversation. Not so God; He is ever ready to
hear you, and to impart to you such consolation as will cause you to
forget all your sorrow. Our Lord says : " Come unto Me, all you that
labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you" (Matt. xi. 28).
2. Patience produces many virtues and leads to salvation.
St. Teresa says that if we bear slight things patiently, we shall
acquire courage and strength to bear great things. The patient man
displays fortitude equal to that of the martyrs. Patience is the
guardian of all the virtues, for there are obstacles to be encountered
in every good work, and they can only be overcome by patience.
St. Gregory the Great declares that by unwavering patience the
crown of martyrdom may be acquired without the sword. The
patient man is greater than he who works miracles. Patience leads
to salvation. " In your patience you shall possess your souls " (Luke
xxi. 19). Fragile things are not so likely to be broken if they are
wrapped in wool, nor are our souls so likely to be lost if they are safe-
guarded by patience. The patient man is like a ship at anchor in a
peaceful harbor, protected from the stormy waves of the ocean.
3. If we would bear with patience the trials of life, let us
place Our Lord's Passion before our eyes; let us also consider
that sufferings are a favor from God.
Think upon the Passion of Christ. He drank of the bitter cup,
in order to overcome our repugnance to drink of it ; He suffered first,
490 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
that we might not fear suffering. Frequently think of Christ cruci-
fied ; your sufferings cannot be compared with His, either in intensity
or in number. A soldier scarcely feels his hurt, if he sees his general
to be severely wounded. " Let the sick man," says St. Francis of
Sales, " offer his pains to God, and pray Him to accept them in union
with the sufferings of Christ." Remember the words the archangel
Raphael said to Tobias : " Because thou wast acceptable to God, it
was necessary that temptation should prove thee" (Tob. xii. 14).
Without suffering there is no salvation, for " through many tribula-
tions we must enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts xiv. 21). As
the bitter pill is coated with sugar to render it palatable, so when we
look forward to the rich recompense in store for us the chalice of
suffering loses its bitterness. The laborer could not labor all day long
without the anticipation of the wages to be paid him, and the
thought of our eternal reward enables us to bear the trials of life
with patience. Think of the martyrs, and of others who have
greater afflictions than you, and your thorns will lose their sharp-
ness. Beware of losing merit by impatience; remember that you
must suffer, either willingly or unwillingly; if you suffer willingly,
you will earn great merit; if unwillingly, you do not diminish, but
only add to your suffering. Patience is displayed pre-eminently by
meekness and peaceableness.
MEEKNESS.
1. Meekness consists in showing, for the love of God, no irrita-
tion when wrong is done us.
Many persons are meek through timidity or for convenience'
sake, but that is no virtue. One who is meek does not excite himself
when he is wronged, i.e., he bears injustice in silence, and is polite
and obliging to the offender. There is something divine in meek-
ness. God Himself is infinitely long-suffering ; He does not exert His
almighty power against transgressors. He bears with the sinner,
and gives him ample time for repentance. God appeared to Moses in
the burning bush (Exod. in.), to Elias He spoke by the whistling
of a gentle wind (3 Kings xix. 12). This was not without a deep
significance. The Holy Spirit also assumed the form of a dove, and
Our Lord proclaimed Himself by the mouth of the prophets to be the
Lamb of God (Jer. xi. 19). Who can fail to be astonished at the
meekness of God when we behold the Redeemer upon the cross?
Meekness is agreeable to the Lord (Ecclus. i. 35). God chose Moses
on account of his meekness and sanctified him (Ecclus. xlv. 4).
2. By meekness we gain power over our fellow-men, we attain
peace of mind, and eternal salvation.
Our Lord says: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess
the land" (Matt. v. 4), that is they shall gain command over others.
Those who are meek gain the affections of their fellow-men, and
render them kindly disposed. If one who is incensed against another
is met with meekness, his anger vanishes as darkness is dispelled on
the rising of the sun. A mild answer breaketh wrath (Prov. xy. 1).
Bad men may be won by kindness. He who subdues anger within
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 491
himself will be able to conquer it in others also. A good example
of the effect of meekness is given by the conduct of Blessed Clement
Hofbauer when he was collecting alms for orphan children in War-
saw. Going up to a group of men at a card table in an hotel he asked
them for a donation. One of the card-players spat in his face. Hof-
bauer quietly wiped his face, and said : " That, sir, was for myself ;
I ask you now for something for my poor children." The man was
greatly ashamed, and gave Hofbauer all the money he had about
him; what is more, a few days later he went to him and made a
general confession. St. Francis Xavier was stoned by the Indians
while he was preaching. He went on without taking the slightest
notice. The Indians who had thrown the stones were so amazed
at his meekness that they were the first to be baptized. He who has
complete mastery over himself will find all the world subject to
him. Far more is done by meekness than by anger. " One catches
niore flies," says St. Francis of Sales, "with an ounce of honey, than
with tons of vinegar." If two hard substances strike against one
another, a loud crash ensues, but if a hard substance comes against
what is soft, scarce a sound is heard. One must bear with the irate
as one bears with the sick, for anger is a moral malady. "Anger
resteth in the bosom of a fool" (Eccles. vii. 10). By meekness we
gain peace of mind. For Our Lord says : " Learn of Me, for I am
meek and lowly of Heart, and you shall find rest to your souls " (Matt.
xi. 29). Consequently the meek are always cheerful. By meekness
we gain eternal salvation. The land promised by Christ to the meek
is heaven (Ps. xxxvi. 11). There was a servant who could not con-
trol his angry temper, despite all his master's rebukes and admoni-
tions. One day the latter promised him half a dollar if he would
not utter an angry word all day long. The man refrained from a
single outburst, although his fellow-servants were extremely pro-
voking. When his master gave him the half dollar at night, he said :
" If you can conquer yourself for the sake of so paltry a sum, how is it
that you cannot do so in view of an eternal reward ? " These words
had the effect the speaker desired ; he had no cause to complain of the
man in future.
3. Meekness can only be acquired by the diligent practice
of self-control.
St. Francis of Sales, naturally of a choleric temperament, at-
tained in the course of twenty years such perfect mastery over him-
self that he was thought to be phlegmatic by nature.
4. We ought to behave with meekness towards those with
whom we live, and superiors ought to be gentle towards their
inferiors.
It is especially incumbent upon us to be meek in our intercourse
with those with whom we live. Some do not observe this rule; they
are angels abroad and devils at home. Superiors ought to show
meekness towards their subordinates; but meekness in them is called
gentleness. More is done by gentleness than by severity. For the
human mind is so constituted that it resists force and yields to
mildness. Superiors should be rigorous to themselves and lenient
492 Good Works, Virtue , Sin, Vice*
towards those under them. Meekness was the chief characteristic
of the apostles. Our Lord said to them : " Behold, I send you as
sheep in the midst of wolves " (Matt. x. 16). It ought also to be the
chief characteristic of the Christian; for Christ speaks of the faith-
ful as sheep (John x. 1), or lambs (John xxi. 15) ; both these animals
are remarkably gentle.
PEACEABLJENE88.
1. Peaceableness consists in willingly making a sacrifice for
the sake of remaining at peace with one's neighbor, or reconciling
one's self with him.
Abraham was content to take the worst portion of the land, in
order to keep the peace with Lot's servants (Gen. xiii.). St. Francis
of Sales was unjustly expelled from a lodging he had taken in Rome;
he quitted it without a murmur, and the next night a hurricane de-
stroyed the house. St. Ignatius of Loyola, when returning from
Palestine, was rudely refused a passage in the ship on which he
wished to embark. That vessel sank on its way to Europe; the one
in which he sailed got safely to port. Peace is invaluable to mankind.
The angels who announced the birth of Christ could wish nothing
better to man (Luke ii. 14). Our Lord promised to give His peace
to His apostles (John xiv. 27), and He saluted them with the words:
"Peace be to you" (John xx. 26). This was also the salutation He
placed upon their lips when He sent them forth to preach (Matt. x.
12). All the good things of this world cannot please us, if we are
not at peace, for without peace we can enjoy nothing. Peacemakers
are like God; He is not the God of dissension, but of peace (1 Cor.
xiv. 33). He' is the Lord of peace (2 Thess. iii. 16). The prophets
foretold His coming as the Prince of peace (Is. ix. 6). And at the
birth of Christ the temple of Janus was closed, because peace reigned
everywhere.
2. Peacemakers enjoy the special protection of God, and receive
a hundredfold as the reward of all that they give up for the sake
of peace.
Our Lord says : " Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called the children of God" (Matt. v. 9). God will replace a hun-
dredfold all that we surrender for the sake of peace. We have seen
how St. Francis of Sales and St. Ignatius were saved from disaster
and death through their love of peace. Not only in this world, but also
in the life to come, does God reward us for all that we do for His
sake (Mark x. 29). Forgiveness and forbearance are better than
contention and complaining.
3. Hence every one ought to be willing to make concessions
for the sake of peace, and as far as lies in his power, to avoid all
that may engender strife.
We ought to put up with a great deal for the sake of peace.
"Bear ye one another's burdens" (Gal. vi. 2). Manv people are
peaceable as long as no one interferes with them, and all goes on in
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 493
accordance with their will; but the slightest contradiction irritates
them terribly. Such people are like stagnant water, which is all well
enough as long as it is left alone; but stir it up, and it emits a most
unpleasant odor. We ought also carefully to avoid everything that
may stir up contention. One should never contradict any one without
a good reason. St. Teresa bids us never to enter upon a strife of
words about matters of no importance, especially at one's own fire-
side. A ship in which the timbers are not well joined will sink; so
every community will fall to pieces whose members are not welded
together with the bonds of love. However, one must not for the sake
of peace omit or give up anything which God commands; that is
not the peace God desires ; hence Our Lord says : " Do not think that
I came to send peace upon earth; I came not to send peace but the
sword" (Matt. x. 34). Some people will not let you be at peace with
them unless you acquiesce in their evil deeds, such peace is un-
lawful.
6. THE OPPOSITE OF MEEKNESS: WRATH.
1. Wrath consists in exciting one's self about something at
which one is displeased.
The man who is in a rage is more like a beast than a man. His
countenance is distorted, he gnashes his teeth, raises his voice, ges-
ticulates wildly, stamps with his feet and knocks things over, etc.
Were he to look in the glass, he would hardly know himself. Those
who are of a choleric temperament carry their anger about with
them everywhere, as the viper does its venom; they are like a surly
dog which barks and bites if you do but touch him; like flint that
gives out sparks when it is struck; like an empty vessel which cracks
when put on the fire. Were the vessel full of water, it would not
break; were the heart full of grace, its patience would not give way.
Angry people always put the blame of their anger on others, but
experience proves that they give way to irritability when they are
alone. Zeal for God's glory is called just anger; such was the anger
Our Lord displayed, when He drove the sellers of doves and the
money changers out of the Temple (John ii.), or Moses, when, re-
turning from the Mount, he saw the people worshipping the golden
calf. Just anger is not really anger; it is the offspring of charity,
and like charity, is patient, kind, calm, and not actuated by hatred.
Just anger is quite lawful. "Be ye angry and sin not" (Ps. iv. 5).
That anger alone is sinful which desires to take personal revenge.
2. Those who indulge anger injure their health, temporarily
lose the use of reason, make themselves hated, and incur the
danger of losing eternal salvation.
How foolishly those act who are transported with anger! They
punish themselves for another man's fault. Anger is prejudicial
to the health and shortens one's life. It causes the gall to overflow,
and poisons the blood. The man who is in a rage is like the angry
bee which loses its sting, or like a volcano, that widens its crater and
burns itself out. Anger exhausts the body in every part. When a
man is in a rage, he trembles in every limb, his heart beats high, his
494 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
tongue falters, his face burns, his eyes glow like fire, he shouts
aloud. Anger cherished in the breast destroys life as the worm at the
root of a tree. " Envy and anger shorten a man's days " (Ecclus.
xxx. 26). Many men have had a stroke brought on by anger, some
have fallen down dead through rage. If anger is so hurtful to the
body, what must it be to the soul! Anger temporarily deprives a
man of the use of reason. Every violent emotion troubles the under-
standing. The mind of an angry man is like the surface of the sea
when lashed into fury by the waves; it reflects nothing distinctly.
Aristotle compares the effect of anger on the mind to that of smoke
in the eyes, or it may be compared to a fog, through which it is im-
possible to see things in their true proportions. Anger is an intoxica-
tion, a temporary madness; for one who is thoroughly enraged is
not master of his own actions. Hence St. Francis of Sales, speaking
of one who was mad with anger, said : " Lord, forgive him ; he knows
not what he does." Thus in his anger a man will act most unjustly ;
he will do what he afterwards regrets. Ths anger of man worketh
not the justice of God. Men in their anger are worse than wild
beasts, for the lion when he is enraged does not fall upon his compan-
ion lions, whereas the irate man vents his wrath upon his fellow-men.
He is worse than the evil spirits, for they live in amity with one
another, although they are the authors of all dissension. And how
men rage against one another! Whence come blows, murders, feuds,
lawsuits? A man who is easily provoked to anger is hated by his
fellow-men; he is as little welcome as a hurricane or a waterspout;
every one avoids an angry man as every one gets out of the way of a
mod dog. He has no friends : " Be not a friend to an angry man,
and do not walk with a furious man" (Prov. xxii. 24). Men are
easily led by calm reason, but they resist if an angry man attempts
to domineer over them. It is easier to deal with a brute beast than
with a man who is prone to anger, for the beast may be tamed, but
with the wrathful man one is never safe. He who gives way to
wrath is in danger of eternal damnation, for he deprives himself
of grace. The Holy Spirit does not dwell in the heart where anger
abides, for where anger is there is no peace. As the inhabitant of a
house constructed of wood is in constant danger of having it burnt
down, so the choleric man is in constant danger of injuring his soul
and being cast into everlasting fire. In fact hell has already begun
for him, since he is a prey to unceasing agitation and unrest.
3. Anger must be overcome in the following manner: We
must never speak or act when we are angry, but if possible, be-
take ourselves to prayer. If in our anger we have injured any
one, we should make amends for the wrong done without delay.
One must never speak nor act when one is angry. One should
do as mariners do; when a storm arises they cast anchor, and wait
until the tempest is over. St. Francis of Sales, on being asked how
he could remain so imperturbably placid in regard to persons who
were raging with anger, replied : " I have made an agreement with
my tongue never to utter a word while my heart is excited." A
heathen philosopher once counselled the Emperor Augustus to repeat
the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet when he felt within him
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 495
the ebullition of angry passions. " Let every man be slow to speak
and slow to anger" (Jas. i. 19). Silence is an act of patience; this
enables one to conquer. When the excitement is allayed, one can act as
one thinks best. Prayer is very efficacious as a means of dispelling
anger. When we feel the rising of passion within us, we should do as
the apostles did when a storm arose on the lake. They went to Our
Lord for succor. If we do so, God will command the waves of anger
to he still, and calm will ensue. The saints counsel us to repeat
silently an Ave Maria as a means of driving away the devil who
tempts us. Or one may recite the Gloria Patri; at any rate we must
have recourse to prayer immediately, for if we delay, our anger will
gain ground, and will not be easily quelled. If we have offended any
one in our anger, we should make amends by extreme politeness.
"Let not the sun go down upon your anger" (Eph. iv. 26). Wrath
frequently begets hatred. " It is better," says St. Francis of Sales,
''never to let anger into thy heart, than to keep it within the bounds
of prudence and moderation; for it is like a viper which if it once
gets its head through a hole, slips its whole body through; and once
admitted, it is no easy matter to drive it out."
7. LIBERALITY.
1. Liberality consists in being ready and willing, for the love
of God, to give pecuniary assistance to those who are in need.
He who relieves the needy in order to elicit the praise of others
has no claim to the virtue of liberality, for he is not actuated by the
love of God. Even the poor may be liberal, for liberality does not
depend upon giving largely, but upon giving with a good will; it is
the disposition of the giver that makes the gift great or small. The
liberal man is like God, for by showing mercy we resemble our
heavenly Father, Whose mercy is perfect and infinite. The heathen
sage Seneca used to say : " He resembles the gods who distributes to
the poor."
2. By liberality we obtain forgiveness of sin, an eternal re-
ward, and temporal blessings, besides a speedy answer to prayer
and the friendship of our fellow-men.
This subject has already been considered. The liberal man rejoices
those on whom he bestows his gifts, as the sun gladdens the earth
with its rays. Christ could not employ a more forcible argument to
urge us to perform works of mercy than by saying that what was
given to the poor was given to Him.
8. THE OPPOSITE OF LIBERALITY : AVARICE.
1. Avarice consists in an inordinate craving for riches, which
makes a man not only strive after them, but refuse to give any
portion of his goods to the poor.
We call it an inordinate desire for riches when a man strives
to gain far more than he really requires for himself and his family,
496 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
and is never content, however much he possesses. Thus he is cove-
tous. He is like a vessel without a bottom, that is never full, however
great the quantity of liquid that is poured into it. He is like the
wolf that is always hungry; like the fire, that ever requires a fresh
supply of fuel; like hell, which is never satisfied. Avarice does not
consist only in acquiring fresh riches with eagerness, but in greedily
retaining what one already has. He who clings tenaciously to the
property he has accumulated, is niggardly or penurious; he who
grudges every little outlay, is a miser. We meet with covetous per-
sons both among rich and poor. Among the wealthy one often finds
money without avarice, and among the poor avarice without money.
"The covetous is a worshipper of idols" (Eph. v. 5), for gold is his
god. To this deity he devotes all his thoughts and all his care, all
his efforts and aspirations, the sweat of his face; he even sacrifices
to it his spiritual welfare and his eternal salvation. As the angels
find their highest felicity in the contemplation of the Godhead, so
the rich delight in nothing more than in handling and counting their
money. How great a sin is this, which subjects us to the dominion
of those things which were created for our service !
2. The avaricious are miserable both in time and in eternity;
for the sake* of money they commit all manner of sins, they lose
the faith and their peace of mind, they are cruel to themselves
and hardhearted to their neighbor, and finally perish eternally.
The desire of money is the root of all evils (1 Tim. vi. 10). The
devil hides behind money-bags as a snake conceals himself in a
hedge; and he bites you with his venomous fangs when you greedily
clutch at gold. He who accumulates riches and does not give to
the poor is like a fount, which, if no water is drawn from it,
becomes foul ; for a man s wealth will not benefit him if no portion of
it is distributed to the needy. They that will become rich fall
into temptation and into the snare of the devil, and into many un-
profitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and
perdition (1 Tim. vi. 9). For the sake of money the covetous fall
into all manner of sins. " Such a one setteth even his own soul for
sale" (Ecclus. x. 10). Greed of money fills the houses with thieves,
the market with cheats, the law courts with perjurers, the eyes of
the poor with tears, the prisons with criminals and hell with the
reprobate. For money Judas betrayed his Lord and Master. Not
until the Judgment Day will it be revealed how many lives have been
sacrificed to this false god. The covetous love their faith. St. Leo
the Great says that the greatest of all the evil arising from covetous-
ness is the destruction of faith. The avaricious are so absorbed in
the pursuit of material gain that they cannot give a thought to
their spiritual welfare. You cannot serve God and mammon (Luke
xvi. 13). A rich merchant lay on his death-bed, and a priest stood
at his side, urging him to repentance. After setting before him the
gravity of his state, the priest held up a silver crucifix before him.
The dying man fixed his eyes upon it with a softened expression,
and the priest rejoiced, thinking the man's heart was touched. But
no ; the only words that escaped his lips were these : " What do you
consider that cross to be worth?" The covetous loses his peace of
mind,; he lives in perpetual anxiety lest he should lose his wealth.
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 497
If riches increase, they are a burden to their owner ; if they decrease,
they torture him. The covetous is cruel to himself; the miser
grudges himself the necessaries of life; he often endures the greatest
privations. " He consumes his own soul, drying it up " (Ecclus. xiv.
9). He is like the oxen who carry the corn to the garner, and them-
selves feed on hay and straw. The justice of God often avenges on
the miser the tears of the destitute by bringing him to poverty.
The covetous is hardhearted towards his neighbor. He has no feel-
ing for the suffering of others, he shows no compassion, he gives them
no succor. His heart is as hard as the anvil, which is not softened by
all the blows rained down upon it; for however great the need of his
neighbor, the miser is never moved to pity. The covetous only think
of what they can get from every one; as the shark devours all the
fish that come in his way, so the covetous man ruins his neighbors.
" He that gathereth together by wronging his own soul gathereth
for others" (Ecclus. xiv. 4), who will squander his riches. The
miser is an object of hatred to others. Calif as, King of Baby-
lon, had stored a vast quantity of gold, silver, and precious stones in
a tower ; when he refused to part with a portion of these for the bene-
fit of his army, the soldiers shut him up in the tower, bidding him
satisfy his hunger and quench his thirst with the treasures he had
been so eager to amass. The covetous will be eternally damned. The
Apostle includes them among those who will not possess the king-
dom of heaven (1 Cor. vi. 10). Our Lord says: "It is easier for a
camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of heaven " (Matt. xix. 24). It is a remarkable fact
that the ancient poets identified Pluto, the god who reigned supreme
in the infernal regions, with Plutus, the god of riches, as if to show
that avarice leads to hell. The lover of money gets no good to him-
self; he undertakes long journeys, he exposes himself to labor and
perils for the sake of gain, and when death comes what has he of it
all? For all his wealth he has nothing but a shroud, a few planks,
and a few feet of earth; while he leaves his property to his smiling
heirs, who ridicule the contemptible parsimony he practised.
3. The surest means whereby the avaricious can conquer
the greed of gain, is by forcing themselves to give alms. They
ought besides to meditate frequently on the poverty of Christ,
and the ephemeral nature of earthly possessions.
Since the best method of correcting a vice is by exercising the
opposite virtue, avarice will be cured by liberality. " What," asks
St. Augustine, " can so effectually counteract avarice as the poverty
of the Son of God ? Consider, O miser, that thy Lord and thy God,
Who came down to earth from heaven, would not possess any of the
riches at which thou dost clutch so eagerly. He loved poverty and
lived in poverty ; and, thinkest thou, ought a miserable mortal to de-
sire ardently what the Lord of all creation despised ? " Remember
also that we must part with all our earthly possessions at our death.
We brought nothing into this world, and certainly we can carry
nothing out (1 Tim. vi. 7). That which you leave behind at your
death will pass into the hands of others, who will perchance make a
bad use of it to their own damnation. " The most effectual medicine
498 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
for the disease of avarice," says St. Augustine, " is to think daily of
death." True riches are not earthly possessions, but virtues; pursue
them (1 Tim. vi. 11), for they are treasures which thieves cannot steal
or moth and rust corrupt. Why, then, busy one's self about the ac-
quisition of evanescent treasures?
9. TEMPERANCE IN EATING AND DRINKING.
1. Temperance consists in not eating and drinking more than
is necessary, and not being either too greedy or too dainty in
regard to the nourishment one takes.
Temperance teaches us not to eat or drink more than is need-
ful to support life. A sage of antiquity used to say : " We do not live
to eat, but we eat to live." One who is temperate does not fully sat-
isfy his appetite, or take what is injurious to his health; he has reg-
ular, fixed hours for his meals. He eats such things as are set before
him (Luke x. 8), and is not angry when a dish is badly served.
What concerns him most is to have food which suits his digestion
and gives him strength for his work.
2. Temperance is highly advantageous to soul and body; it
improves the health, lengthens life, strengthens the faculties of
the mind, fosters virtue and leads to everlasting life.
Moderation at table is advantageous both to body and soul and
is the source of many virtues. We are travellers on earth, and we
shall expedite our arrival in the celestial country, if we only make
such use of the things of this world as is indispensable to enable us
to proceed on our journey.
3. Diligent meditation on the truths of our holy religion will
assist us to form a habit of temperance.
He who sustains his mind with spiritual aliments will not care
greatly for the food of the body; for fleshly desires are suppressed
when the love of celestial things fills the heart. As Our Lord said :
" ~Not in bread alone doth man live," etc. Let us lift our eyes up to
heaven, lest we should be allured by the baits of earth. Above all,
think on the privations many of the poor endure, of the privations
Our Lord endured. There are thousands of poor who think them-
selves fortunate if they only have sufficient bread and water to still
their hunger and quench their thirst. How kind God has been to
you in giving to you so much more than to them, and how ungenerous
it would be on your part, if you abused His liberality for the grati-
fication of your palate. If He vouchsafed for your sake to feel the
pangs of hunger, how much the more ought you to be abstemious for
your own interest.
10. INTEMPERANCE IN EATING AND DRINKING.
1. Intemperance consists in eating and drinking much more
than is necessary, and in being greedy or dainty in regard to
one's food,
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 499
"Food ought to be looked upon as a medicine to sustain the
body," says St. Augustine, and by no means made use of for the
gratification of the palate. Intemperance is displayed by sump-
tuous feasting (witness Dives); excess in drinking, e.g., Baltassar;
greediness, e.g., Esau in regard to the pottage of lentils; daintiness,
e.g., the Israelites in the wilderness, who longed for the flesh-pots of
Egypt (Exod. xvi. 3). The glutton and the drunkard are more con-
temptible than brute beasts, for the latter leave off eating when they
have had enough, and the glutton does not do this. Those who eat with
great avidity are like birds of prey, which in their voracity swoop
down upon their victim the moment they decry it. Intemperance is
productive of much harm. We must not forget that had the apple
not been attractive to the appetite death would not have come upon
the human race.
2. By intemperance a man injures his health, weakens his
mental faculties, destroys his reputation, and reduces himself to
poverty; falls into vice, often comes to a miserable end, and is
eternally lost.
Intemperance destroys the health. The fire goes out when too
much coal is heaped upon it, and the stomach is ruined when it is
overloaded with food. Excess in drink is as prejudicial to the system
as excessive rain is to agricultural districts. Dyspepsia, loss of appe-
tite, dropsy, apoplexy, are the results of want of moderation in eating
and drinking. Many lose their reason by indulgence in strong
drinks, and end their days in a madhouse. By surfeiting many
have perished (Ecclus. xxxvii. 34). Over-indulgence in the pleasures
of the table has a bad effect on posterity. Physicians assert that
there is an innate weakness in those that are the offspring of drunk-
ards. Intemperance weakens the mental faculties. Intoxication ob-
scures the mind as a fog obscures the sun. The intemperate cannot
raise their hearts to God, any more than a bird that has gorged itself
with food can soar aloft to the sky. Intemperance also weakens the
will ; it renders us incapable of resisting temptation and avoiding sin,
just as a ship too heavily laden cannot outride a storm. It also
destroys a man's reputation; Eoe, when drunk with wine, became an
object of derision to his own son. Thus a man when in liquor makes
a fool of himself, talks nonsense, and is mocked even by children.
The Lacedemonians used to show drunken Helots to young people
that they might learn to despise this degrading vice. Intemperance
reduces men to poverty. The drunkard squanders in one day the
wages earned by many days of work, and renders himself incapable
of labor. " A workman that is a drunkard shall not be rich " (Ecclus.
xix. 1). Intemperance leads to all kinds of sins, to immorality and
godlessness. As in a morass all manner of weeds grow rank, so evil
lusts grow and flourish in an over-fed body. Those who eat and
drink immoderately waste their money, feel disinclined to prayer at
nighty on account of the inertia produced by excess, and in the
morning because of headache and sensations of discomfort ; they miss
Mass on Sundavs, contract debts, live in discord with their families,
and fall into sins of imrmrity. Eemember that Herod had been
feasting wben he caused John the Baptist to be beheaded; Baltassar
had been drinking deeply when he desecrated the sacred vessels of
500 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
the sanctuary; the rich man in the Gospel who refused a morsel of
bread to Lazarus fared sumptuously every day. Intemperance leads
to uncleanness and godlessness; the glutton and drunkard forget
their final end; they have no understanding for the truths of
religion ; " the sensual man perceiveth not those things that are
of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. ii. 14). A sudden and miserable end
often overtakes those who indulge in strong drink. Our Lord thus
warns such persons : " Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your
hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares
of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly" (Luke xxi. 34).
As we live, so we die. Holofernes was asleep, exceedingly drunk,
when Judith cut off his head (Judith xiii.) ; the voluptuous Baltassar
was sleeping off the effect of his revels when the enemy made their
way into the city (Dan. v.). The death of individuals who perish in
this manner is all the more deplorable because they die unrepentant
and without the last sacraments. Those who are addicted to excess
seldom correct themselves; they may amend and abstain for a time,
but too often they relapse into their former sins, and eternal perdi-
tion is their fate. The rich man was buried in hell. Our Lord says :
"Woe to you that are filled for you shall hunger" (Luke vi. 25).
Drunkards shall not possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. vi. 10).
" He that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption "
(Gal. vi. 8). Think of the flames of hell, and you will be able fully
to subdue the impulses of nature. Resolve never to omit a short
prayer before and after meals ; to take what is set before you so as to
check daintiness, and never to eat to satiety.
11. CHASTITY.
1. Chastity consists in preserving the mind and body free from
everything that might stain their innocence.
St. Stanislaus Kostka left the room instantly if a single objec-
tionable word was uttered in his presence. St. Aloysius did the
same. Many persons have given up all they had, even their life, in
order to preserve the virtue of chastity; witness Joseph in Egypt,
St. Agnes, St. Agatha, and other saints. Chastity is a superhuman
perfection; it is divine in its origin, for God brought it to earth
from heaven. Those who practise this virtue are like the lily (Cant. ii.
1). Every tiny insect that rests upon the snowy petals of the lily
mars its dazzling whiteness and disfigures its beauty; so the mere
thought of evil is a stain upon the mind of the man who lives
chastely. Rough handling spoils the fair lily and causes it to wither,
so the man who lives chastely suffers from indiscriminate intercourse
with those around him. The lily grows upright, straight and slender;
so the man who lives chastely must ever look upwards and tend
towards heaven. The lily fills the whole house with its fragrance;
so the man who lives chastely edifies all with whom he associates by
his good example.
Those who lead a chaste life resemble the angels and are
most pleasing in God's sight,
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 561
Those whose life is pure are angels in human form. Chastity is
an angelic virtue; by it men become like the angels. Chaste souls
are in fact superior to the angels, because they have the flesh to
combat, which the angels have not; they preserve angelic purity in
spite of the continual temptations of the devil. What differentiates
the angels from men is not their virtue, but their bliss. The purity
of the angels is more blissful; that of man is stronger because it is
the result of struggle. We learn from the lives of the saints that
angels delight in the company of chaste mortals, thus proving that
they regard them as their equals. The devils know that through
chastity man recovers the angelic dignity which he lost, hence they
strive assiduously to instil impure thoughts into his mind. Men
who live chastely are extremely pleasing to God. Christ when on
earth showed a predilection for chaste souls ; He chose a pure virgin
for His Mother, a man of angelic purity for His foster-father; the
Baptist, who was purified in his mother's womb, was His precursor ;
the chaste John was His favorite disciple, privileged at the Last
Supper to rest upon His breast; at the foot of the cross two pure
souls stood; and He loved little children because of their innocence.
" He that loveth cleanness of heart shall have the King for his
friend" (Prov. xxii. 11). God calls the chaste soul by the endearing
title of friend, of sister, of spouse (Cant. iv. 6-8). The Son of God
so delighted in virginity that He chose to be born of a virgin, and to
give to man an example of it in His own person. The pure also
enjoy the esteem of their fellow-men in a high degree. Even the
heathen respected chastity. The Romans had their vestal virgins,
who during their service in the temple, a period of thirty years,
lived in celibacy. When they appeared in the streets, public honor
was shown them, and if they chanced to meet a criminal on the way
to execution, he was immediately pardoned. If pagans respected those
of their daughters who preferred virginity to the married state,
ought the Christian to look with contempt on the virgin who from
supernatural motives does not marry ? " O how beautiful is the
chaste generation with glory, for the memory of it is immortal:
because it is known both with God and with men" (Wisd. iv. 1).
2. Those who lead a life of chastity possess the sanctifying
grace of the Holy Spirit in abundant measure ; they will be happy
here on earth, and will enjoy special distinction in heaven here-
after.
Purity of heart is health to the soul; it also gives light to the
understanding. The chaste are like a crystal without flaw, or a clear,
gently-flowing stream, in which the face of heaven is mirrored.
Purity of heart, interior brightness and angelic freedom aid to the
attainment of wisdom; it imparts knowledge to savants and teachers,
to philosophers and theologians. It was through his spotless purity
that St. John the Divine penetrated so deeply into the sublime mys-
teries of the faith, that, in the commencement of his Gospel, he soared
as on eagle's pinions, to gaze upon the Godhead. Purity enables a
man to gaze undazzled upon the Sun of justice. It also endows the
soul with heroic courage. Judith, a weak woman, displayed such
heroism at the siege of Bethulia, that she went into the enemy's
camp and beheaded Holofernes. Holy Scripture says of her, " For
502 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
thou hast done manfully and thy heart has been strengthened, be-
cause thou hast loved chastity" (Judith xv. 11). The pure of heart
easily acquire other virtues ; they are happy»even in this world. Chas-
tity possesses an indescribable attraction and intrinsic sweetness;
it affords enjoyments far more delightful than sensual pleasures.
Purity is also health to the body; virginal purity is an earnest and
foretaste of the immortality of the glorified body. He who lives
chastely generally enjoys better health and lives to an advanced
age. Sometimes God in His wise providence withdraws pure souls
from earth in their youth; if so, He takes them away lest wicked-
ness should alter their understanding or deceit beguile their souls
(Wisd. iv. 11). Those who lead a chaste life ./ill enjoy special dis-
tinction in heaven. Virginal souls will be near to the throne of God ;
they will stand around the Lamb and follow Him whithersoever He
goeth. They will sing a new canticle that no man could say (Apoc.
xiv.). God will crown the chaste souls (Cant. iv. 8), that is, He
will confer upon them a special and singular glory. The chaste gen-
eration triumpheth forever (Wisd. iv. 2). Virginal souls will have
their portion with the Blessed Virgin. Even here on earth God
chooses them as the recipients of His revelations, to them He dis-
closes His secrets, to their petitions He turns a gracious ear. Queen
Esther obtained from her royal consort all that she asked because
of her fidelity and attachment to him; so the heavenly Spouse grants
the petitions of all chaste souls.
3. It is the bounden duty of every man to preserve chastity
inviolate until he embraces the married state.
This is enjoined by God in the Sixth Commandment of the
Decalogue. Among the Jews a breach of chastity was punished by
stoning (Deut. xxii. 21). The Romans buried alive any vestal virgin
who violated the vow of virginity. See how severe a penalty the law
of Jews and pagans inflicted upon those who outraged chastity !
4. The following means should be employed for the preser-
vation of chastity: We should be temperate, accustom ourselves
to exercise self-control, receive the sacraments frequently,, pray
devoutly to the Mother of God, love to meditate upon the truths
of religion, especially upon the presence of God and the four
last things; finally we should observe moderation in frequenting
the ballroom and the theatre, and be guarded in our intercourse
with persons of the opposite sex.
St. Augustine declares that the preservation of chastity is the
greatest victory achieved by the Christian, and requires the hardest
struggle. The Fathers of the Church call it a martyrdom; a blood-
less martyrdom, it is true, but; not on that account the less sublime.
For the martyr's agony is short, and admits him immediately to
celestial glory; whereas the safe-guarding of chastity demands a
prolonged, a lifelong conflict. Self-control has been enlarged upon
under the head of the means of attaining perfection in general.
We may particularize the necessity of bridling the tongue and ob-
serving custody of the eyes. St. Augustine says that tattlers and
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 503
busy-bodies are in great danger of losing their purity. Death comes
up into the soul through the window of the eyes (Jer. ix. 21). The
lion is said to be tamed by blindfolding him; so we can subdue our evil
proclivities by strict custody of the eyes. Fasting is another aid to
the preservation of purity; the flesh is tamed, just as animals are,
by depriving them of food. " Be not drunk with wine," says the
Apostle, "wherein is luxury" (Eph. v. 18). "Feasting fosters
fleshly lusts," says St. Ambrose, " and wine heats the blood and in-
flames the passions of young men." Prayer and the sacraments are
means of grace without which it is impossible to conquer one's self.
" It is a mistake," says St. John Chrysostom, " to imagine that one
can in one's own strength vanquish concupiscence and preserve
purity; by God's mercy alone can the passions of nature be con-
trolled." No man can otherwise be continent, unless God give it
him (Wisd. viii. 21). Through confession and communion the will
is strengthened and man is enabled to avoid sin. The Adorable
Sacrament of the Altar is the corn of the elect, and a wine springing
forth virgins (Zach. ix. 17). The wine of earth is prejudicial to
purity, the wine of heaven produces purity. Devotion to the Mother
of God is also most efficacious; to how many young people has it
proved the means of maintaining themselves in innocence, like the
angels! Segneri speaks of a dissolute youth whom a priest in the
confessional told to recite three Ave Marias every morning in honor
of the immaculate purity of Our Lady; after some years the young
man returned to the priest, and informed him that to this practice
he owed his complete conversion. Meditation upon the truths of
religion destroys the taste for sensual pleasures. " Walk in the
Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh" (Gal. v. 16).
Those who delight themselves in God care for no other joys; after
tasting spiritual joys, those of earth are insipid and even abhorrent.
He who remembers that God is present everywhere and sees everything
will not do what is displeasing in His sight. Witness the conduct of
Joseph (Gen. xxxix. 9), and Susanna (Dan. xiii. 35). Do not de-
ceive yourself with the hope that your sin will remain hidden,
for God is omnipresent, and from Him nothing can be con-
cealed. " In all thy works remember thy last end and thou shalt
never sin" (Ecclus. vii. 40). If the flame of impurity blazes up
within you, think of the eternal fire, and that thought will quench it.
St. Martinian, a hermit in Palestine, when tormented by temptations,
thrust his feet into the fire ; and when he screamed with the pain, he
asked himself, since he could not bear that feeble flame, how could he
endure the everlasting burning of hell-fire? The subject of dancing
and theatre-going has already been treated of. Unrestrained and
familiar intercourse with persons of the opposite sex is to many a
source of danger. Undue familiarity between young men and women
is as likely to inflame the passions as straw is to blaze up when
brought into contact with fire. One cannot be too careful in this re-
spect. Love your own fireside. " If the candle is to be kept alight,"
says St. Thomas Aquinas, "it must be put into a lantern; so if you
mean to live chastely, beware of going too much abroad."
504 Good Works, Virtue, Mm, Vic&.
12. UNCHASTITY.
1. TInchastity consists in thoughts, words, or deeds, which are
destructive of innocance.
If the chaste resemble the lily, the unchaste resemble a thorn-
bush, which tears one to pieces. It was in order to expiate sins of
impurity that the Redeemer of the world suffered Himself to be
cruelly scourged, and crowned with thorns.
Unchaste persons are like the brute beasts; they are unlike
God and displeasing to Him, and are regarded with contempt
by man.
Impurity degrades man to the level of the brute beast. The un-
chaste prefer the gratification of their lusts to the joys of paradise.
To them the words of the Psalmist may be applied : " Man when he
was in honor did not understand ; he hath been compared to senseless
beasts, and made like to them" (Ps. xlviii. 21). Pride is the sin of
angels, avarice is the sin of man, and lasciviousness that of the brute.
It is most degrading to humanity, which is brought so near to the
Deity by the Incarnation of the Son of God, to be unduly subject to
any dominion but that of God. By unchastity man loses his likeness
to God. Through this sin man defiles the image of God in which
he was created and commits a grievous offence against the Most
High. It is because no other sin defiles a man as this does, that it
is called by the name of impurity, or uncleanness. The unchaste
are extremely displeasing to God. In primitive ages, when mankind
fell into various sins, even that of idolatry, God bore with them
patiently; but when they fell into impurity and sank even deeper in
that vice, their wickedness was so abhorrent to Him, that it repented
Him that He had made man upon the earth (Gen. vi. 6). St. Philip
Neri possessed the gift of discerning the chaste from the unchaste
by the sense of smell; to the former a sweet odor attached, whereas
the latter, stunk in his nostrils. Those who violate their chastity are
thus spoken of by the prophet Jeremias : " How is the gold become
dim, the finest color is changed. The noble sons of Sion, they were
clothed with the best gold, now they are esteemed as earthen vessels.
They that were fed delicately have died in the streets " (Lam. iv.
1, 2, 5). The unchaste lose the esteem of their fellow-men; "they
are trodden upon as dung in the way" (Ecclus. ix. 10).
2. Unchaste persons do not possess the sanctifying grace of the
Holy Ghost, they are severely chastised by God in this life, and
after death are condemned to eternal perdition.
The indulgence of evil lusts is a bait the devil throws out, and
those who swallow the alluring morsel are drawn by him to destruc-
tion. The end of this sin is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-
edged sword (Prov. v. 4). St. Jerome declares that the fruits of this
sin are more bitter than gall. Since the unchaste are without the
light of the Holy Spirit, their understanding is completely darkened.
When man descends to the level of the beasts, he loses that intelli-
The Seven Principal Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices. 505
gence which distinguishes him from the brute; he becomes like the
horse and mule, which have no understanding (Ps. xxxi. 9). "The
sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of
God" (1 Cor. ii. 14). Through yielding to this sin, King Solomon
lost his wisdom, and was so blinded by folly that he turned aside to
follow the gods of the heathen (3 Kings xi.). The will is weakened
by the sin of impurity; it creates a sort of paralysis in regard to
good works, and thus amendment is rendered most difficult. The
unchaste is a prisoner who has forged iron fetters for himself. Im-
purity is a snare of the devil, and those who are caught in this net
can hardly escape ever from its meshes. It leads moreover into many
other sins: Jealousy, hatred, murder, etc. The terrible consequences
of this sin are seen in the case of Henry VIII. ; it was the cause of
his rupture with Rome, and the apostasy of the English people.
Unchastity is severely punished in this life; peace of mind is lost,
the bodily health is impaired. " Every sin that a man doth is without
the body, but he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own
body " (1 Cor. vi. 18). The voluptuary soon loses the bloom of youth,
and becomes prematurely aged. Special chastisements, moreover,
overtake those who violate chastity; the Deluge was sent on the
earth on account of that sin (Gen. vi. 7), and the Lord rained down
brimstone and fire upon Sodom and Gomorrha because the trans-
gressions of the inhabitants in the same respect had become exceed-
ingly grievous (Gen. xviii. 20). And if in the present day God does
not visit impurity with the same condign punishment, it is because an
infinitely fiercer fire, an infinitely more rigorous chastisement, is
reserved for sinners of our own time. Fornicators, we are told, shall
not possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. vi. 9). "Neither fornicators
nor unclean hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God "
(Eph. v. 5). Of the heavenly Jerusalem it is said there shall not
enter into it anything defiled (Apoc. xxi. 27). The soul of the for-
nicator shall be taken away out of the number (Ecclus. xix. 3). If
you live according to the flesh you shall die (Rom. viii. 13). The grat-
ification is momentary, the penalty is eternal.
3. The best means of avoiding the sin of impurity is flight.
Remember how Joseph acted (Gen. xxxix.). There are other
means of avoiding this sin, such as the reception of the sacraments,
devotion to the Mother of God; yet the best of all is instant flight
from temptation.^ The Apostle says that we ought to resist all temp-
tations to sin, but from impurity he bids us flee — fly fornication (1
Cor. vi. 18). In battling with sensual temptations cowards gain the
victory; they seek safety in flight.
13. ZEAL IN WHAT IS GOOD.
1. Zeal in what is good consists in working out one's salvation
with all earnestness and fervor.
Unless zeal springs from the love of God it is valueless. It must
also be discreet, or it will do more harm than good. He whose zeal
is without discretion is like a man who is gathering up the cockle
5 06 Good Works y Virtue, Sin, Vice.
in a field, roots up the wheat together with it (Matt. xiii. 29). Blind
zeal is only pernicious. If Alexander the Great performed such
great achievements for the sake of earthly renown, what ought not
we to do, who aspire to eternal glory ! We ought each day so to serve
God as if it were the first day of our consecration to His service.
We should be like the merchant, who never thinks he has made
enough money, but is continually on the watch for fresh gains;
or like the traveller who does not look back upon the way he has trav-
ersed but only onward to the goal before him. He who is zealous
in what is good avails himself as far as he can of the means of grace
the Church affords for his sanctification ; he is assiduous at prayer,
he frequently approaches the sacraments, he listens attentively to the
Word of God, and reads spiritual books. He neglects no opportunity
of doing good works; he never refuses an alms to the poor man, he
conscientiously observes the fasts of the Church, he devotes his free
time to prayer. Moreover he who is zealous in what is good cheer-
fully makes sacrifices for God ; he is glad when he is ridiculed or perse-
cuted for his faith; he rejoices in the sufferings that come to him
from God; he will give up anything rather than commit sin; he is
even ready to lay down his life for Christ, if need be. He who is
zealous in what is good exerts himself also for the salvation of others.
He strives to deter his subordinates, his friends, his relatives, from
sin; he admonishes them and prays for them; he prays besides for
the conversion of heretics and sinners; how much the saints did in
this way! Zeal is like fire which spreads to all around, both far and
near.
2. Without zeal in what is good we cannot be saved, for the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.
Our Lord says : " JSFot every one that saith to Me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. vii. 21), and in
another place He says : " The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent bear it away" (Matt. xi. 12). Of those who run in
a race only he who perseveres will receive the prize (1 Cor. ix. 24).
Let us not imagine that it is an easy matter to be saved. Eternal
felicity is spoken of as a kingdom, the city of God, the house of God,
paradise, a crown. All these things can only be acquired by a fierce
battle, or for a large sum. Only those who. have had a long training
can obtain a high salary. Yet the kingdom of heaven is bought
cheaply; the price paid for it comes infinitely short of its value.
Without zeal and energy nothing good can be accomplished. God
allows obstacles to be placed in the way of every good work, to test our
will. ISTo good work can be performed without some sacrifice ; no vir-
tue can be gained without a struggle. " The greater violence thou
offerest to thyself, the greater progress thou wilt make " (Imitation,
Book 1, ch. 25). We cannot expect our prayers to be heard, unless
we persevere in spite of all hindrances. Remember the example of St.
Monica, and the blind man by the wayside (Luke xviii. 35).
The Seven Principal .Virtues and the Seven Principal Vices, 50'
U. THE OPPOSITE OF ZEAL : SLOTH.
1. Sloth consists in shunning everything that conduces either
to our temporal or eternal well-being, provided it be toilsome.
Sloth displays itself either by indolence, dislike of work, and
the non-fulfilment even of the duties of one's calling; or by tepidity
in and indifference to what is good and conducive to one's spiritual
welfare. The slothful man displays distaste for all good works. We
find life and movement and activity in all nature ; the celestial hosts
laud and magnify the Most High continually; the heavenly
bodies revolve unceasingly in space; trees and herbs grow to their
appointed size ; the tiny ant lays up a store in summer, the busy bees
make honey and do not suffer drones to live; and shall man alone
be an idler, an exception to all creatures whom instinct teaches to.
abhor idleness ? " Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways "
(Prov. vi. 6). The indolent postpone all work to a future day, and
only pursue sensual pleasures. To-morrow, to-morrow, not to-day, is
their cry. The lukewarm Christian wills and does not will ; he would
fain have the wages God gives, but he will not work for Him; as
soon as it is a question of putting force upon himself he shrinks
back. Yet the slothful think they do more than others, for while the
fervent look at those who do better than themselves, to learn humil-
ity, they on the contrary look at the good, not in others but in them-
selves. Hence the slothful never attain perfection. Great sinners
have been known to become great saints, but the lukewarm never.
2. Idleness leads to all kinds of vice; it brings misery in this
life and eternal damnation in the life to come.
Idleness hath taught much evil (Ecclus. xxxiii. 29) ; it is in fact
the source of every evil habit. Man is like the earth: if a field be
not sown with good seed, a crop of weeds spring up and grow apace;
so if man has no useful occupation, his natural activity turns to all
manner of mischief. Iron rusts when it is not used; water when
stagnant becomes foul; and man, corrupted by idleness, becomes the
abode of evil passions, and falls into manifold temptations. The
busy man is assailed by one demon, the unemployed by a hundred.
Idleness ruins the young, for it destroys all that is good in them.
The man who does nothing all day long is like the trunk of a tree,
without foliage and without fruit. Idleness brings misery in this
life. Holy Scripture says of the slothful : " Want shall come upon
thee and poverty" (Prov. vi. 11). St. John Chrysostom declares
idleness to be the parent of poverty and the root of despair. It also
brings a man to eternal damnation. Idleness is in itself a sin. A
servant may not steal, or drink, or be insolent; but if he has the
fault of being lazy, his master will dismiss him from his service. God
acts in the same manner. " Every tree that bringeth not forth good
fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire" (Matt. vii. 19). The
servant who refuses to trade with the talents his lord has confided to
him, shall be cast into the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth (Matt. xxv. 30). The idler cannot indeed hope
that heaven will be his portion, for Our Lord says : " Call the laborers
b08 Good Works, Virtue, Sin, Vice.
and give them their hire." God does not love those who love their
own ease. He expressly states that those who are lukewarm, neither
cold nor hot, He will vomit out of His mouth (Apoc. iii. 16), that is
to say, He is disgusted with them. Our God is a consuming fire,
and He delights in the adoration of the seraphim, who are inflamed
with burning love. An open unbeliever is less abhorrent to Him
than a tepid Christian.
3. Those who are inclined to indolence should think fre-
quently of the reward, both temporal and eternal, of industry,
and thus they will overcome their distaste for work.
" Look not, 0 Christian," says St. Augustine, " on the labor that it
costs thee; look rather to the rest and the joys which God promises
thee ; see how infinitely they outweigh all thy toil." " In doing good
let us not fail; for in due time we shall reap, not failing" (Gal.
vi. 9).
C. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION.
I. THE ASPIKATION AFTEK CHRISTIAN PEKFECTION.
"No builder leaves an edifice half-finished. If he has begun to
construct a house, he does not rest until it is completed. An artist
does not hand in the portrait he has painted until every feature is
faithfully delineated. Let the Christian do likewise; when once he
has undertaken the work of his own sanctification, and is in a state
of grace, let him strive to bring the edifice of virtue to completion,
and form himself to a true image of God. Our aim should be to
make progress every day.
1. God requires of all the just that they should aspire to Chris-
tian perfection.
God desires the sinner to be converted, the just to strive after
perfection. The duty of aspiring after perfection is included in the
precept of charity, for it requires us to love God with all our strength.
And what else does that mean but continual advancement in the
path of virtue? "He that is just let him be justified still, and he
that is holy let him be sanctified still" (Apoc. xxii. 11). Our Lord
lays this injunction upon us : " Be you therefore perfect, as also
your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. v. 48). The will of God
is none other than our sanctification. He who does not aim at the
attainment of -Christian perfection, is in danger of losing his soul.
The vessel that does not stem the stream will drift downwards.
Where there is no progression there is retrogression; no man can
stand still on the path of virtue. " As soon," says St. Augustine,
" as thou art content with thyself, and thinkost thou hast done enough,
thou art lost." We should aim at the highest degree of sanctity,
imitating the trader, who is wont to ask the highest possible price
for his wares.
2. The most sublime example of Christian perfection is found
in Our Lord. After Him, the saints are also patterns of perfection.
Christ says : " I am the way, the truth and the life " (John xiv.
6). When the rich youth asked Our Lord what he was to do in order
to pe perfect, the answer given him was : " Follow Me " (Matt, xix,
509
510 Christian Perfection.
21) . St. Paul bids us : " Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ " (Kom.
xiii. 14). As an apprentice watches his master at work, that he may
learn to work like him, so we ought to keep our eyes fixed on our
Master Christ. The saints meditated unceasingly on the life and
Passion of Our Lord. He is the Christian's pattern. The saints are
also examples of perfection, for they imitate Christ; their life is a
copy of His life. St. Paul exhorts the Corinthians : " Be ye followers
of me" (1 Cor. iv. 10), and he enjoins on the Hebrews the necessity
of imitating the saints (Heb. vi. 12). The Church commemorates
one or more of the saints on each day of the ecclesiastical year, in
order to incite us to their imitation. The saints stand in the same
relation to Christ as the stars do to the sun; He surpasses them all
in perfection. Thus it is easier for us to imitate the saints ; we know
that it is impossible for us ever to attain to the perfection of which
Christ sets us the example, but the sanctity of the saints is within
our reach. And here it must be remarked that almost every saint
excelled in the practice of one particular virtue. Also that the ac-
tions of each were suited to and in conformity with the circum-
stances, the environment in which they were placed; e.g., their call-
ing, their means, their bodily strength and natural temperament.
Every one ought to choose for his model a saint whose position and
calling were similar to his own.
3. The perfection of the Christian consists in charity towards
God and his neighbor, and in detachment of heart from the things
of this world.
"Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. xiii. 10). Charity is
the bond of perfection (Col. iii. 14). St. Augustine, when asked how
sanctity of life was to be attained, answered : " Love God, and do as
thou wilt ; " meaning that he who truly loves God will do nothing
that displeases Him. St. Francis of Sales says that the only true
perfection is to love God with our whole heart and our neighbor as
ourselves; all other perfection is spurious. St. Thomas Aquinas
defines sanctity as the fervent surrender of one's self to God. Sanc-
tity does not consist in the outward observances of religion, in long
prayers, in fasting and almsgiving; these are but means to its attain-
ment. Nor does sanctity consist in complete freedom from sin ; it is
evinced rather by constant and energetic resistance to sin. For God
frequently permits even saints to fall into sin to keep them humble.
Least of all does sanctity consist in extraordinary works, which the
world regards with astonishment and admiration. We do not read
of the Mother of God ever having performed extraordinary works,
or St. Joseph, the foster-father of Christ. In the ranks of the saints
a great number will be found who never shone in the sight of the
world; their life was hid with Christ in God (Col. iii. 3). The love
of God is always accompanied by hatred of the world, abhorrence of
its sinful, sensual delights. If any man love the world, the charity
of the Father is not in Him (1 John ii. 15). The love of God and the
love of the world are like the scales of a balance; as one rises the
other falls. As charity increases in the heart sinful affections die
out. As one who would climb to the top of a tower must ascend the
steps that lead to it, so if we would reach the summit of perfection,
we must detach our hearts as completely as possible from earthly
The Aspiration after Christian Perfection. 511
things. The greater our hatred of the world, and our proportionate
charity towards God and our neighbor, the greater the degree of per-
fection we have attained.
4. He who makes Christian perfection his aim will attain it
surely but slowly.
Our Lord says : " Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
justice for they shall have their fill" (Matt. v. 6). A sincere desire
for perfection and an untiring effort to attain it will not be unsuc-
cessful. The desire for it is already half the battle ; for an energetic
desire gives force and courage, makes labor light, daunts the enemy,
makes a man pleasing to God and obtains grace. On St. Thomas
Aquinas being asked how one could make sure of attaining sanctity,
he replied : " By a resolute will." ISTo one has ever attained sanctity
without fervently desiring it, any more than proficiency in an art or
science has ever been acquired by one whose wishes were not eagerly
set upon it. But progress towards Christian perfection is very slow.
Our sanctification is not the work of a single day. ISTo one, unless
he be peculiarly privileged by God, can reach perfection in a short
time. It is the same in the spiritual as in the natural order : A plant
does not spring up and blossom in a night, the infant does not grow
to man's estate in a single day. The process of healing is a slow one ;
indeed the slower the surer. So it is with our sanctification. There are
three degrees in the way of perfection; that of the beginners, who
still retain a strong affection for mortal sin; that of the advanced,
who cannot abstain from venial sin, and who, because of attachment
to earthly things, are still in a state of warfare; and the perfect,
whose heart is completely detached from earth and given to God,
and who consequently are entirely at peace within themselves. These
three degrees are also known as the purgative, the illuminative, and
the unitive way. They correspond in the supernatural life to the three
stages of man's natural life ; childhood, the period of mental and
physical weakness ; adolescence, the period of development ; and man-
hood, the period of maturity. St. Ignatius enjoins upon beginners
meditation on the four last things ; on the advanced, consideration of
the Passion of Our Lord ; on the perfect, contemplation of the divine
goodness and of celestial joys. There is no end to the way of perfec-
tion, for the love of God is without limit. " He who is just, let him
be justified still, and he that is holy, let him be sanctified still "
(Apoc. xxii. 11). ' It is, however, within the power of man to approach
very near, while still on earth, to the state of the blessed in heaven.
5. There is no state or calling of life in which Christian per-
fection is not possible.
Saints are formed in every class, from the highest to the lowest.
To love God and one's neighbor is within every one's power. " How
easy a thing it is," savs St. Bonaventure, "to love God; there is
nothing laborious, nothing disagreeable involved in it." In fact
nothing is more delightful to the heart than to love God. From
other good works a man may excuse himself, saying: "I cannot
fast; I have not the means to give alms; " but no one can say: "I
cannot love." Pious practices must be proportioned to the powers
and adapted to the occupations and duties of the individual, St,
512 Christian Perfection.
Francis of Sales compares piety to a fluid, which takes the shape of
the vessel in which it is contained.
II. GENERAL MEANS FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF
PERFECTION.
In order to make sure of attaining Christian perfection, the
following means should be adopted.
1. Fidelity in small things.
By this greater graces are obtained and grave sins more
easily avoided.
In the natural order we see how great things are evolved out of
what is apparently insignificant. How small the acorn is, and yet it
contains the germ of a mighty oak! So it is in the spiritual order.
Pay heed, therefore, to small things; do not despise even the least;
be careful to avoid every untrue word, every word that may give
offence; never utter lightly the name of God. To him who is faith-
ful in small things God gives great graces; to him Our Lord says:
" Well done, good and faithful servant ; because thou hast been
faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things "
(Matt. xxv. 21). He who, on the other hand, is unfaithful in small
things, loses many graces and is punished by God. Moses was not
permitted to enter the Promised Land because he doubted God's
promise, and Zacharias was struck dumb for his incredulity. Many
of the saints were deprived of consolations, and visited by aridity,
because of slight faults. He who is faithful in small things is not
as likely to fall into heinous sins ; for Our Lord says : " He that is
faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which is
greater; and he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in
that which is greater" (Luke xvi. 10). Hence whosoever is attentive
to small things makes rapid progress in virtue. " If thou wouldst
become great," says St. Augustine, " begin with that which is little."
Grains of sand form a mountain, a number of trees make a forest.
" He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little "
(Ecclus. xix. 1). Little infidelities to grace often cause great mis-
chief, and embitter a man's whole life. A spark will occasion a vast
conflagration, and a small leak will cause a ship to founder. So it
is with small sins. Judas began with purloining, and ended by be-
coming a traitor and a suicide; Cain first gave way to jealousy and
then slew his brother. Contempt of trifles shows secret pride.
2. A habit of self-control.
We should not encourage curiosity, nor stare out of windows;
we should avoid useless or loud talking, refrain from complaining
of the weather or of our health; from eating between our meals,
from finding fault with what is provided for us, from too long indul-
gence in sleep, from eagerness to join in conversation, from speaking
of ourselves, from contradicting others. These and similar acts of
mortification cost no great effort. The saints nractised far more
severe ones, but in this they are not to be imitated by all. St. John the
Baptist led a life of extreme self-denial. St. Paul says of himself:
General Means for the Attainment of Perfection. 513
"I chastise my body and bring it into subjection; lest perhaps when
I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway "
(1 Cor. ix. 27). Self-control is a sort of abstinence; it is far more
profitable than merely abstaining from food. He who can rule him-
self is a king; for instead of being led captive by his passions, he
dominates them. Self-conquest is the mark of a true Christian.
Our Lord says : " If any man will follow Me, let him deny him-
self " (Mark viii. 34) ; that is to say, he that will be My disciple
must practise self-abnegation. St. Paul also says : " They that are
Christ's have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences "
(Gal. v. 24). A fish that is alive swims against the current; a dead
one is carried along by it. Hence you can easily ascertain whether
you have the life of the Spirit in you, or whether you are dead; ask
yourself whether you stem the tide of your sinful desires, or if you
are carried away by it.
By the practice of self-control the understanding is en-
lightened, the will strengthened, and the soul finds peace.
" We have a law in our members fighting against the law of
our mind" (Rom. vii. 23). Our members that are upon the earth
must accordingly be mortified (Col. iii. 5). The flesh is continually
at war with the spirit, and we must continually be at warfare with
the flesh. He who does all that is allowed, will soon proceed to do
what is not allowed (St. Augustine). But if we deny ourselves what
is lawful, it will be easy for us to abstain from what is unlawful.
The most perfect among us will fall into sin if he ceases to practise
self-denial, as a field that is uncultivated produces a crop of weeds.
Self-control enlightens the understanding. All that we deny to our
carnal senses is repaid a hundredfold to our spiritual senses. " Let
us," says St. Basil, " stifle our fleshly desires, in order that our spir-
itual sense may become keener, and our interior vitality and peace
be augmented." Self-control fortifies the will. If the will be strong,
carnal impulses are quickly subdued, and the temptations of the devil
easily overcome. Mortify yourself in matters that are apparently of
little moment; you will thereby learn to conquer where great things
are at stake. The mortified man is like an oak, which will break, but
will not bend; the unmortified is like a reed, shaken with the wind
(Matt. xi. 7). By self-control we acquire true peace of mind. There
is no quiet in a house the door of which stands open to all comers, and
there is no peace' in the soul if the senses are not kept in custody.
Our disorderly affections are like a storm at sea ; they raise a tempest
in the soul and perturb the mind. But if you know how to command
the winds of passion, a marvellous peace and great calm will ensue.
He who for the love of God has renounced all carnal lusts will enjoy
the sweetest consolations of the Holy Spirit. He who is master of
himself will not easily be provoked to wrath. Self-control is the
parent of meekness and patience.
3. Abstinence from all that is superfluous, especially in regard
to eating and drinking.
Among superfluities we reckon splendid dress, costly furniture,
theatre-going, giving and taking part in entertainments, banquets, etc.
Those who take great delight in such things will never attain perfec-
514 Christian Perfection.
tion; the Holy Ghost will not dwell in a heart that is filled with the
love of earthly things. He who would enter upon the path of virtue
and perfection must begin by diligent mortification of his appetite.
No gourmand can be a good soldier of Christ. Those who eat and
drink more than is necessary are in danger of losing grace and suc-
cumbing to temptation. Hence Our Lord says: "Woe to you that
are filled" (Luke vi. 25). And St. Peter exhorts the faithful thus:
" Be sober and watch ; because your adversary the devil as a roaring
lion goeth about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet. v. 8).
Talkativeness is also to be avoided. An unrestrained tongue is a
sign of conceit and folly. As a doctor judges of a man's bodily health
by the state of his tongue, so one may judge of the health of the soul
by the words the tongue utters. From the ring of a vessel one can
perceive whether it is full or empty; so by the conversation of a
man it may be seen whether his mind is empty or well-stored. He
that setteth bounds to his tongue is knowing and wise ; a fool multi-
plieth words. The temperature of a room is speedily reduced if the
door be left open ; so the love of God cools in the heart of one whose
lips are ever unclosed for idle gossip, and the sanctifying grace of
the Holy Spirit departs from the soul. Incontinence of speech is a
fruitful source of contention. " If any man offend not in tongue, the
same is a perfect man" (las. iii. 2). Mortification of the tongue
is indispensable to the attainment of sanctity. "If any man bridle
not his tongue, that man's religion is vain" (Jas. i. 26), even
though he seem to be God-fearing. "He that hath no guard on his
speech shall meet with evils" (Prov. xiii. 3). For this reason St.
Paul bids us: " Shun profane and vain babblings" (2 Tim. ii. 16).
Speech is silver; silence is gold. Yet we must beware of being too
chary with our words, or our silence might appear contemptuous. In
this as in all else, a wise medium should be observed.
4. Order and regularity.
For this is conducive to peace of mind and rapid advance-
ment in sanctity.
" Let all things be done decently and according to order " (1 Cor.
xiv. 40). It is well to have a fixed time for rising and retiring to
rest, for meals, for work, for recreation, etc. We should endeavor to
keep order in all around us, for thus we shall save much time and
trouble. St. Augustine says that order leads to God, for all that He
ordains is regulated in perfect order. Behold the beautiful order
that reigns in the starry firmament. Order must be maintained in
all institutions, schools, convents, etc. It is remarkable how many
men who have had military training have reached an eminent degree
of sanctity.
5. Unremitting prayer.
By this means many temptations are held aloof, and graces
in abundant measure obtained.
As fortifications defend a garrison against the attacks^ of the
enemy, so prayer without ceasing protects us from the devil. Our
Lord admonishes us : " Watch and pray, that ye enter not into tempta-
General Means for the Attainment of Perfection. 515
tion" (Matt. xxvi. 41). St. Paul bids the faithful: "Pray without
ceasing" (1 Thess. v. 17). Unremitting prayer is a sure means of
drawing down the Holy Ghost from on high. The more a plant en-
joys the sunshine, the better it will grow and the more luxuriantly
will it blossom; in like manner the more often the soul draws near
in prayer to the sun of divine grace, the greater will be its increase
in perfection. All the saints were instant in prayer. Blessed Clement
Hofbauer was accustomed to recite the Rosary while walking through
the streets of Vienna. St. Alphonsus used to say that the saints
owed their sanctity more to their prayers than to their works. Habitu-
ate yourself to ejaculatory prayer; it will refresh you and help you on
your way as an occasional draught of wine does the traveller.
6. Frequent confession and communion.
Sins once properly confessed, are, it is true, forgiven; yet
it is advisable, though not obligatory upon us, to accuse ourselves
of them repeatedly.
The saints used to confess again and again the mortal sins of
which they had been guilty. The confession of the sins of our past
life serves to keep us humble. And if, after confession, we frequently
approach the holy table, we shall increase in perfection, as a tree
which is planted near running waters grows to great height. We
admire the sanctity of the early Christians ; let us remember that they
communicated daily. It is said of them that they persevered in the
communication of the breaking of bread (Acts ii. 42).
7. Reading attentively the life of Our Lord and the lives of
the saints, and meditation on the truths of religion.
By reading the lives of the saints we shall feel ourselves power-
fully incited to imitate their example. We shall ask ourselves, as
St. Augustine asked himself : " If these and those could do so much,
wherefore canst not thou do the same ? " The saints loved to study
the lives of the saints and to imitate them; so a draughtsman looks
long and often at the picture he is about to copy. However, we must
not imagine that with our love of God, so poor, so faint, we can all
at once imitate the sublime actions of the saints, or it will be as if a
crow were to attempt to imitate the song of the nightingale. The
most profitable plan is for us to read the life of a saint whose position
corresponded to our own, and learn from it practical lessons. The
lives of the saints are the maxims of the Gospel put in practice.
Meditation on the truths of religion is supremely useful; it enlightens
our understanding, stimulates the will to the pursuit of what is good,
and gives us peace of mind. The truths of religion are like a fire,
standing near which we receive light and warmth. They impart
nourishment to our souls; they are a food that satisfies. Remember
Our Lord's words to the Samaritan woman (John iv. 13). The world
would not be as bad as it is if there were not so few who consider
the truths of religion in their heart (Jer. xii. 11). Through medita-
tion the saints attained sanctity.
8. Love of solitude.
In solitude we obtain many actual graces ; we are preserved
from temptation and from sin, and growT in virtue.
516 Christian Perfection.
Our Lord was wont to take Himself to solitary places, to a moun-
tain (John vi. 15), to the desert (Luke v. 16), or the Mount of Olives
(John viii. 1), where He spent a long time in prayer. Until He was
thirty years of age He led a hidden life. We know also that many
holy men withdrew into solitude and devoted themselves to spiritual
exercises. St. Benedict passed three years in a cavern among the
mountains. St. Ignatius of Loyola dwelt for a considerable time in
the cave of Manresa. Those who are now unknown, whose life is hid
with Christ in God, will one day appear with Him in glory (Col. iii.
3, 4). St. John Chrysostom says the life of the recluse is that of an
angel upon earth. In solitude we obtain many graces ; there the Holy
Spirit speaks to the heart (Osee ii. 14). One cannot hear a sweet
melody in the midst of din and tumult; God's voice can only be heard
by those who flee from jlie world. The further the soul lives from all
worldly tumult, the more familiar does she become with her Creator
(Imitation, Book 1, ch. 20). In solitude alone is true contentment to
be found. Were the recluse to leave his cell, he would perceive that
the world is a field in which more vexation than pleasure is to be
reaped. Solitude is a preservative from temptation and sin, as the
harbor shelters the mariner from storm and shipwreck. While Adam
was alone he did not sin; it was after he had Eve for a companion.
The sage Seneca used to say : " As often as I have been among men,
I have returned less a man." Solitude helps to maintain and increase
virtue. Choice spices only retain their aroma when shut up; they
lose it if exposed to the air. Virtue is more easily preserved in soli-
tude than amid the noise and bustle of the world. He who frequents
the drinking saloon, who goes to every place of amusement, who, in a
a word, enjoys life, will not enjoy true peace of heart, will not attain
perfection. But however great the advantages of seclusion, we must
not be unsociable, and withdraw altogether from the society of our
fellow-men; we must mix with them freely whenever duty bids, or
charity calls upon us to do so. Our Blessed Lady visited her cousin
Elizabeth, to congratulate her. Let us hold aloof from the world in
spirit, not in bodily presence.
III. SPECIAL MEANS FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF
PERFECTION.
1. He who aspires to a higher degree of perfection must follow
the three evangelical counsels : Perfect obedience, perpetual chas-
tity, and voluntary poverty.
These three virtues are called counsels because they were not en-
joined upon us by Our Lord as a command, but as a counsel. There
is no sin incurred in not following them. It befits the law of the New
Testament to contain counsels as well as precepts, for in it God makes
Himself the Friend of man, and in this character He does not com-
mand but commend. The New Law is a law of liberty, the Old Law
was one of servitude. By following the evangelical counsels we offer
an oblation to God of our will, our body, our property. They are
the three arms of the cross on which we are crucified with Christ. To
follow them is a lifelong martyrdom ; a martyrdom less terrible than
Special Means for the Attainment of Perfection. 51?
that of the sword, but more painful because of its duration. Those
who follow these counsels will attain a higher degree of glory. That
which is done voluntarily, not under compulsion, deserves a greater
reward.
1. Perfect obedience consists in the complete subjection of
one's will to that of a superior.
Christian obedience, that is, obedience to the ecclesiastical and
secular authorities, is binding upon every man. But this obligation
does not extend to all our actions ; it leaves us free in many respects.
For instance, the spiritual authority requires us to hear Mass on
Sundays and holydays, to approach the sacraments at Easter, etc.;
but it leaves us at liberty to fulfil our duty in what church and at
what hour we please. Perfect obedience, on the contrary, requires
us to obey in everything. This voluntary obedience is the greatest
sacrifice we can make for God; if we fast, give alms, or sacrifice our
reputation for God's sake, we give to God only a part of ourselves.
But he who sacrifices his will has nothing more to give ; he immolates
himself to God. Obedience to a superior is neither irrational nor
degrading to man, for he subjects himself voluntarily once and for-
ever to the will of one who is placed over him by the will of almighty
God; he is like a traveller who unquestioningly proceeds in the di-
rection to which the signpost points. It is a difficult matter to know
one's self, but it is easy for another to know and guide one.
2. Lifelong chastity consists in abstaining from marriage
and from all unclean desires.
The Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue obliges every one to
subdue his evil concupiscences. This counsel requires those who
follow it to abstain from wedlock; they lead on earth an angel's life.
In fact in this respect man surpasses the angels in excellence, for
the latter have no carnal impulses to combat. The Council of Trent (C.
24, 10), declares the single state to be higher than the married state;
it is therefore better to be unmarried (1 Cor. vii. 38). The reason
of this is because conjugal intercourse fosters man's lower nature, and
the care of providing for a family engrosses him in material interests.
3. Voluntary poverty consists in the renunciation of all
earthly possessions.
To give of one's own to the needy is the bounden duty of all.
But it is an immeasurably greater sacrifice if, for the love of God,
we renounce all earthly possessions and voluntarily embrace poverty,
to which so many hardships are attached. The voluntary poverty
of the Christian bears no resemblance to the voluntary poverty of
the pagan philosophers. The latter despised riches from earthly con-
siderations; they wished to be quit of the cares attending them.
The Christian on the other hand makes himself poor in order to
serve God better, and thus attain more* surely to the possession of
eternal treasures. There is, besides, involuntary poverty, when a man
is destitute, or in straitened circumstances. Again there is poverty
of spirit, which is required of all men; it consists in acknowledging
that whatever wealth, distinctions, or learning we may possess, we
518 Christian Perfection.
are poor in the sight of God. But now we are speaking of volun-
tary poverty; he who is poor for Christ's sake is exceeding rich (St.
Jerome).
2. These three counsels are called the evangelical counsels ; be-
cause Our Lord gave them to us when He preached the Gospel, and
followed them Himself.
Our Lord counselled perfect obedience in His conversation
with the rich young man; perpetual chastity in His discourse
on the indissolubility of marriage; voluntary poverty in the
afore-mentioned conversation with the rich young man.
We read that Christ said to the rich young man : " Come and
follow Me " (Matt. xix. 21) ; i.e., come and let your conduct be
guided by Me completely. This is perfect obedience. And when
He was speaking about the indissolubility of marriage, He said that
there were some who remained unmarried for the kingdom of heaven's
sake; adding: "He that can take it let him take it" (Matt. xix. 12).
By these words He counselled perpetual chastity. Finally He said
to the young man : " If thou will be perfect, go, sell what thou hast
and give to the poor" (Matt. xix. 21). This was voluntary poverty.
Our Lord Himself practised the counsels; for He sought
not His own will but did the will of Him that sent Him (John
v. 30). He led a life of celibacy and extreme poverty.
The poverty of Christ was perfect ; He chose a stable for His birth-
place, a poor virgin for His Mother, a lowly artisan for His foster-
father; He had nowhere to lay His head (Matt. viii. 20).
3. The evangelical counsels lead to higher perfection, because
by their means the three evil concupiscences in man are completely
destroyed and the chief obstacles in the way of his salvation are
removed.
In following the evangelical counsels, we do not combat this or
that evil tendency ; we tear up all bad passions by the root, and lay
a solid foundation for the edifice of virtue. All sins spring from
the threefold concupiscence : The concupiscence of the eyes, the con-
cupiscence of the flesh, and the pride of life; i.e., the inordinate long-
ing for riches, for sensual gratifications, and for honor (1 John ii. 16).
As in medicine some remedies are drastic and others mild, so it is
with the remedies for these evil concupiscences. Prayer is a cure for
pride, fasting for sensuality, almsgiving for avarice; these are mild
remedies. But let him who desires a radical cure adopt the three
evangelical counsels. By obedience pride will be thoroughly sub-
dued: concupiscence of the flesh by chastity, concupiscence of the
eyefi by poverty. The counsels are a means of removing the chief
obstacles in the way of our salvation. By following them we shake
off the fetters of earth, and thus advance more swiftly towards our
final end.' That earthly possessions are a formidable hindrance to
those who would follow Christ, we gather from the story of the rich
young man (Matt. xix.). Socrates compares riches to a long robe,
Special Means for- the Attainment of Perfection. 519
which prevents one from walking quickly because one's feet get en-
tangled in it. The traveller proceeds on his way much more rapidly
if he has nothing to carry. What is said about riches is equally true
in reference to wedlock. He that is married is solicitous for the
things of the world, that he may please men; he that is unmarried
is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may
please God (1 Cor. vii. 32). He who is detached from earthly things
can fix his eyes on heaven and contemplate the Sun of justice with
unclouded vision, and gain a more profound knowledge of divine
things. Let no one say that the wealthy can do more good to his
fellow-men, and gain more merit, than one who embraces voluntary
poverty. The former gives but a part, the latter gives the whole.
And consider what immense good has been done, in spite of their
poverty, by those who have given up all.
The evangelical counsels are, however, not in themselves
perfection, they are but a means towards its attainment.
The highest perfection is the highest degree of charity towards
God. To adopt the counsels does not make a man perfect, for it is
possible to pledge one's self solemnly to do something and then not
fulfil one's promise. A certain man sent his two sons to work in his
vineyard. The one said : " I will not," but afterwards being moved
with repentance he went. The other said : " I go, sir," and he went
not (Matt. xxi. 28-30). There are many in a state of perfection
who are very much the reverse of perfect. And those who profess to
follow the counsels, and yet give way to love of eating, to anger,
avarice, love of ease, or other sins, are all the more culpable; just as
a messenger would be who, although he had no weight to carry, dallied
on his way, and made no attempt to reach his destination.
4. Not every one is called of God to follow the evangelical
counsels ; for Our Lord says : " All men take not this word, but
they to whom it is given" (Matt. xix. 11).
Those are called to whom God gives the desire of this grace, and
who are ready to make any effort to obtain it. Let not those who are
not called to follow them hold the evangelical counsels in contempt.
" If the ring does not fit thy finger," says St. Francis of Sales, " do
not on that account cast it into the mire."
5. The members of religious Orders are bound to follow the
evangelical counsels, and likewise all persons living in the world
who have taken a vow to do so.
As a servant has to serve his master by reason of the duties he
has taken upon himself, so the Religious is bmmd to strive after the
highest perfection by following the counsels, by reason of the vows he
has made. The religious Orders originated in this wise : St. Anthony
the Great assembled around him in the Thebaid a number of disciples,
who lived in separate cells, and occupied themselves with nrayer and
manual work, and followed the evangelical counsels. St. Pachomius
(348 a.d.) collected these anchorites under one roof, and gave them
a fixed rule. Thus the first cloister was established upon an island
near the mouth of the Nile. The monastic life was introduced into
Palestine and Syria by the Abbot Hilarion, whose disciples numbered
520 Christian Perfection.
some three thousand, and into Asia Minor by St. Basil (379 a.d.),
Archbishop of Caesarea. St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, and St.
Benedict, were the founders of monasticism in the West in the fifth
and sixth centuries. Thus the Orders arose for men and women;
communities who led a regular life in accordance with the teaching
of Christ. The men were called monks, from the Greek monachoi,
hermits; the women nuns, i.e., virgins. The principal Orders are:
The Franciscans, founded by St. Francis of Assisi (1226) ; the Do-
minicans, by St. Dominic (1216) ; the Jesuits, by St. Ignatius of
Loyola (1556) ; the Order of Mercy, by St. John of God (1550) ; the
Lazarists, by St. Vincent of Paul (1660) ; the Redemptorists, by St.
Alphonsus Liguori (1787), besides many others. Each Order has its
special mission: the care of the sick, the instruction of youth, for-
eign missions, etc. Beligious are under the obligation of remain-
ing in one place, either in a particular house (monastery) or a part
of a house (enclosure). They are all subject to a superior, who is
generally elected for three yea*rs. Each Order has a habit peculiar
to itself. Admission to the Order is by profession, i.e., taking the
vows; previous to being professed, a novitiate of at least one year
has to be passed through. The religious Orders are very numerous
at the present time in America and still more in Europe, excepting
Germany, whence they are banished for the most part. It is an act
of tyranny on the part of the State to forbid community life; it is
depriving subjects of their natural rights. Besides, the religious
Orders are not merely an ornament to the Church, they are an
essential part of the Christian commonwealth. The suppression of
the religious Orders by the secular power is a mutilation of the body
corporate. The religious state affords more security of salvation than
a secular life ; the means of grace can be employed more easily, more
regularly; the religious are safeguarded from many occasions of sin
which cannot be avoided in the world, through the supervision of the
superior and also by the habit they wear. But those who do not live
up to their religious profession, nor keep their vows, fall into a dis-
orderly life and go swiftly to perdition. It is a mortal sin not to
keep the vows. This causes St. Augustine to say : " As I have never
met with a better man than a really good monk, so I have never seen
a more wicked man upon earth than a bad Religious." Most of the
Orders have, as history proves, done great work for humanity,
especially by works of mercy and the encouragement of learning. The
Benedictines in the Middle Ages cut down the primeval forests and
cultivated the untilled soil. The contemplative Orders also con-
tributed much to the furtherance of godliness and piety by their
valuable writings. All the monastic houses were noted for their
liberality to the poor, it cannot be denied that in some conventual
houses in the Middle Ages laxity and self-indulgence prevailed, but
on these the scourge of God fell. Persons living in the world often
take a vow of chastity. Remember the example of St. Agnes; she
suffered torture and martyrdom rather than break her vow by marry-
ing the son of the Proconsul. The other two evangelical counsels are
not suited for those who live in the world.
The secular clergy are pledged to obey their bishop and
lead a life of celibacy.
The Eight Beatitudes. 521
The secular clergy are bound to obey their bishop ; this obligation
is imposed on them when they are admitted to the sub-diaconate ; aa
also is the obligation of reciting the Breviary. The celibacy of the
clergy was first made obligatory at the Synod of Elvira, in 306.
During the three first centuries there was no need of this law, because
priests voluntarily abjured marriage, out of respect for the sacredness
of their office. Only at times when the lack of priests was most
keenly felt, were married men admitted to the priesthood; but after
ordination no one was permitted to marry. Only in isolated and
very rare instances, for weighty reasons, has the Pope been known to
dispense priests from their vow; and then they had to give up their
benefices, and were debarred from all exercise of their sacerdotal
functions. Yet they were required to recite the Breviary until death.
In the Middle Ages Pope Gregory VII. made a determined stand
against the marriage of priests, prohibiting those who had wives from
performing any ministerial work. The Council of Trent (24, 9),
declared the marriage of priests to be invalid. The apostles, after
their vocation, left all they had; the great prophets, Elias, Eliseus,
Jeremias, St. John Baptist, lived a celibate life. A parish priest must
devote himself wholly to the salvation of souls; he must administer
the sacraments to the sick at the risk of his life, he must assist the
poor, admonish his flock, and offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass with
a pure heart.
IV. THE EIGHT BEATITUDES.
Those who scrupulously keep God's commandments are
happy even on earth. Hence Our Lord (Matt. v. 3-10), pro-
nounces the following beatitudes:
1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
This is the meaning of these words: Blessed are they who,
however great their wealth, their dignity, their health, their
learning, acknowledge that before God they are poor, for in this
life they enjoy celestial peace and after death are partakers of
eternal felicity.
The poor in spirit are not the fools, but the humble. They are
those who have the spirit of a little child. The rich in spirit are the
proud, who think much of themselves because of all they possess.
Yet the rich man may be poor in spirit, if he acknowledges that all
his riches are valueless in God's sight. And a poor man is not poor
in spirit if he pride himself on some quality or other that he pos-
sesses. But as a rule, the rich are not, and the poor are, poor in
spirit. The poor in spirit enjoy celestial peace, for Our Lord declares
that theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They are like rocks, externally
barren and unproductive, but containing within rich veins of pure
gold; for while they appear to the eye of man bereft of all joys they
possess consolations of which the world knows nothing. The poor
in spirit are admitted to eternal felicity. Heaven belongs to the
poor in spirit, as the pearl belongs to the man who has purchased it
522 Christian Perfection.
at a goodly price; for the poor in spirit, by their renunciation of all
earthly things, have bought heaven at the cost of all they possessed.
2. Blessed are the meek; for they shall possess the land.
The meaning of these words is this: Blessed are they who
preserve their composure (are not provoked to anger by the
wrong done to them) ; for they will rule their fellow-men (they
will conquer the hearts of men) and after death they will enter
into heaven.
(See the instruction on meekness.)
3. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
The meaning of these words is this: Blessed are they who
lament but little over the loss of transitory things, for God will
impart to them such consolation that they will forget their sor-
row; and after death He will bestow upon them celestial and
eternal joys.
They that mourn are therefore not those who mourn over the loss
of earthly things, e.g., the enjoyment of some pleasure. Sorrow such
as that is a sign that the heart is not detached from the things of
earth; it profits us no more than a plaster would heal a wound if it
were laid beside, instead of on it. Sorrow is only a cure for sin. Un-
less our sorrow is on account of sin, it will only be harmful; as a
moth doth by a garment and a worm by the wood, so the sadness of
a man consumeth the heart (Prov. xxv. 20). Sadness incapacitates
the soul for action; it has the same benumbing effect upon it as ex-
cessive cold has upon the body. A season of gloom and depression
is an opportune moment for the devil ; he avails himself of it to tempt
us and make us fall, as birds of prey go out by night in quest of spoil.
Hence Holy Scripture exhorts us to be cheerful. The joyfulness of
the heart is the life of a man, and a never-failing treasure of holiness
(Ecclus. xxx. 23). But sorrow for sin, whether our own or that of
others, is pleasing to God, and is succeeded by joy and gladness.
What happiness awaited the prodigal son when he returned home,
after deeply deploring his sin ! What joy the penitent thief ex-
perienced when Our Lord promised him paradise ! What joy Mag-
dalen felt when Christ pardoned her and commended her love! and
David when, after he had bewailed his transgression (Ps. 1.), the
prophet announced to him that he was forgiven ! Mourning for
sin can hardly be called sadness, because it is not incompatible with
interior gladness. St. Jerome says : " In spite of penitential tears and
heart-rending sighs I am sometimes so joyous that I fancy myself
already with the angels." Nor is sorrow on account of the trials Provi-
dence sends us reprehensible; it too leads to joy and consolation.
This was the sorrow Our Lord felt on the Mount of Olives, at the
approach of His Passion ; and an angel appeared to Him, strengthen-
ing Him. This was the sorrow the widow of Nairn felt when her
son was carried out for burial ; and Our Lord consoled her grief by
restoring him to life. The auostles mourned when Christ left them
and ascended into heaven, and immediately two angels came to com-
fort them. When God has happiness in store for us. He invariably
The Eight Beatitudes. 523
sends some trial first to make us more humble, more grateful for
His gifts ; thus light is more welcome after darkness, health is better
appreciated after sickness. They that mourn will also be comforted
hereafter. " God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and death
shall not be any more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow " (Apoc.
xxi. 4). " They that sow in tears shall reap in joy" (Ps. cxxv. 5).
4. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice; for
they shall be filled.
The meaning of these words is this: Blessed are they who
strenuously strive after truth and moral perfection, for they
shall attain it, and shall be satisfied by the beatific vision of God
in heaven.
The centurion Cornelius sought after truth with prayer, fasting,
and alms ; God instructed him first by an angel, and subsequently by
the mouth of St. Peter. The pagan philosopher Justinus made a
careful study of all the systems of philosophy in order to discover the
truth, and God employed an old man on the banks of the Tiber to
teach him the doctrines of Christianity. He who strives earnestly after
sanctity will surely attain it. Clement Hofbauer, a baker's appren-
tice, set his heart upon becoming a priest; he attained his end in
spite of all hindrances, and has been beatified. A man who is tor-
mented by hunger or thirst will do anything to obtain relief, as
Esau relinquished his birthright; the saints acted in like manner,
counting no exertion too great, no sacrifice too costly, in order to sat-
isfy the hunger of their soul. This spiritual hunger and thirst, the
craving for increase of knowledge and growth in holiness is attended
by joy and causes no uneasiness to the soul. The aspiration after
justice renders us fit to receive the communication of divine grace,
for by fervent desires our heart is enlarged. Eternal felicity also
awaits those who strive after justice; here below they never think
they have reached their goal, they never say they have done enough.
They hunger continually; and a never-ending hunger merits never-
ending satisfaction.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
The meaning of these words is this: Blessed are they who
help their neighbor who is in need, for they will obtain from
God pardon of their sins, and will be leniently judged at their
death.
(See what has been said on the usefulness of works of mercy.)
6. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.
The meaning of these words is this: Blessed are they whose
heart does not cling to the things of earth, for they will have
a clearer perception of God in their lifetime, and after death will
behold Him face to face (1 Cor. xiii. 12).
The proud, the covetous, the intemperate, are not clean of heart,
for the things of time and sense, honors, riches, the pleasures of the
table, hold a place in their heart. Only those who are conscious of
no habitual sin can be said to be clean of heart. What enabled St.
524 Christian Perfection.
John the Evangelist to penetrate so deeply into the mysteries of re-
ligion, to gaze upon the sublimity of the Godhead ? " The sensual
man perceiveth not these things that are of the spirit of God " (1 Cor.
ii. 14). "Wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in
a body subject to sins" (Wisd. i. 4). Truth does not reveal itself
to the unclean, but from a pure heart it cannot be hid (St. Bernard).
As a sheet of paper must be clean, upon which one is about to write,
so that heart must be pure from carnal desires upon which God will
set His seal by the action of the Holy Ghost.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the
children of God.
The meaning of these words is this: Blessed are they who
make sacrifices for the sake of peace, and who promote peace
among others; for here below they enjoy the special protection
of God, and hereafter they will receive the reward of their self-
conquest.
(See the instruction upon peaceableness.)
8. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake;
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The meaning of these words is this: Blessed are they who
have to suffer at the hands of their fellow-men for the sake of
their faith^ or of some Christian virtue; for even in this life
they will be filled with interior joy, and after death a high de-
gree of felicity will be theirs.
What indescribable happiness St. Stephen felt while he was being
stoned ; he saw the heavens opened and Christ standing in the glory
of God (Acts vii. 55). St. Lawrence, who was broiled upon a red-hot
gridiron in Rome, must have experienced similar consolations, for
while he was enduring the torture he joked, saying to the pagan
governor : " I am roasted enough on this side ; now turn me over to
the other." St. Paul declares : " I exceedingly abound with joy in
all our tribulation" (2 Cor. vii. 4). How could the martyrs have
suffered torments so terrible with such equanimity, unless they had
been mingled with celestial consolations? Our Lord says of those
who suffer for His sake : " Your reward is very great in heaven "
(Matt. v. 12). Persecutions are the precious stones wherewith the
crowns of the saints are adorned in heaven. You must suffer with
Christ here, if you would reign with Him thereafter. There is no
greater honor upon earth than to suffer for God. The order in which
the beatitudes are enumerated indicates the existence of three de-
grees, or stages, in the spiritual life. (1), All sinful inclinations
must be combated, by means of humility, meekness, sorrow for sin;
(2), Our sanctification must be effected by means of striving after
perfection and the practice of works of mercy; (3), We must be
united to God, by cleanness of heart, by peaceableness, and patient en-
durance of suffering. The beatitudes begin with the promise of
the kingdom of heaven, and with it they end. This is to signify that
eternal felicity is the reward of all the intervening beatitudes. ~ What
The Eight Beatitudes. 525
is promised to the poor in spirit as their reward under the name of
the kingdom of heaven, is the same as the land which the meek are
to possess, the comfort promised to those who mourn, the satisfaction
which is to be the portion of those who hunger and thirst after
justice, the mercy to be obtained by the merciful, the contemplation
of God which the clean of heart are to enjoy, the adoption of the
peacemakers as the children of God, and the kingdom of heaven which
belongs to the persecuted. The Church has appointed the eight
beatitudes to be read as the Gospel on the feast of All Saints, because
it was the prospect of this eternal reward which urged the saints on-
ward on the path of virtue.
The worldling counts those as fools whom Christ declares
to be blessed.
The world has its own maxims, which are utterly opposed to
those of the Gospel. (1), Riches constitute the greatest happiness,
poverty is the greatest misery. If a man has anything at all, he must
make a show with it, or the world will not think much of him; (2),
One ought not to put up with anything; (3), Happy is the man who
is free from care and sorrow; (4), One must look to it that one makes
a lot of money; (5), Let every one study his own advantage; (6), Let
us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die; (T), One must take up arms
in one's own defence, whenever one is wronged; (8), Blessed are they
who have nothing to suffer. Well indeed might St. Paul say : " The
wisdom of this world is foolishness with God " (1 Cor. iii. 19).
PART III.: THE MEANS OF
GRACE.
I. THE HOLY SACKIFICE OF THE MASS.
1. ON SACRIFICE IN GENERAL.
Since the most important of all the means of grace, the holy-
Mass, is a sacrifice, it is necessary first of all to speak of sacrifice in
general. The word " to sacrifice " means to offer something valuable
to some person as a token of affection for, or dependence on that per-
son; or to surrender something that we prize for the sake of another.
If a father gives all he has to his sons to enable them to pursue their
studies, and himself lives in straitened circumstances, he is said
to make a great sacrifice for his children. When a soldier marches
to battle for the defence of his country at the risk of life and limb,
he is said to sacrifice himself for his country. By a sacrifice to God
is signified something given up to God. Out of love to Him the
poor widow cast into the treasury the last two mites which she
possessed; in doing this she made a great sacrifice for God's sake
(Mark xii. 43). Tobias did the same, when in captivity he dis-
tributed alms to his poorer fellow-countrymen, and at peril of his
own life buried the bodies of the slain (Tob. i.). The Jews made a
sacrifice, when after the giving of the law, they brought gold, silver,
precious stones, purple, etc., to Moses for the making of the tabernacle
(Exod. xxxv.). We are told in Holy Scripture that to keep the com-
mandments, to depart from injustice, and to do mercy, is to offer sacri-
fice (Ecclus. xxxv. 2-4). The essential part of a sacrifice is the surren-
der or renunciation of some object which we highly prize. Of old, if
any one desired to accentuate his surrender of the object he valued,
he used to destroy it completely; thus rendering it impossible for
him ever to recover possession of it. The sacrifices offered by Cain,
Abel, and Xoe, were of this nature. Abel slaughtered and burned
the firstlings of his flock; his brother Cain offered of the fruits of
the earth gifts unto the Lord (Gen. iv. 3, 5). Noe, on leaving the ark,
took some of the animals and offered them as holocausts upon the
altar he had built (Gen. viii. 20).
1. Hence the word sacrifice signifies the voluntary surrender
526
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 527
or the destruction of an object which we value, to give honor to
God as our supreme Lord.
It is no uncommon thing among men to present a valuable present
to some one as a sign of respect or an act of homage. Subjects not
unfrequently offer the best produce of their land or their skill to their
monarch. So we ought to give to God what we most value. And
as in a State there are certain honors which it is the exclusive pre-
rogative of the ruler to receive, so the offering of sacrifice is an act
of homage which can oe paid only to God.
2. There are bloody and unbloody sacrifices.
As may be seen from the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, the oblation
offered in sacrifice varied according to the nature of the possessions
of him who offered it. Either a victim, such as an ox, a lamb, a dove,
was taken from the animal kingdom (this was a bloody sacrifice,
because the blood of the victim was shed), or an oblation was taken
from the vegetable kingdom, some species of food, such as flour or
fruit, or drink, wine, for instance (this was an unbloody sacrifice,
because it was without shedding of blood). The animals used to be
slaughtered, their blood poured upon the altar, and their flesh either
consumed entirely by fire, or eaten in part by the priests and Levites.
The fruits of the earth were either burned or eaten; wine was
poured as a libation on or before the altar.
3. The intention of a sacrifice may be to give honor to God,
to give thanks to Him, to entreat a favor, or make propitiation.
The offering of a sacrifice gives outward expression to the feelings
of the heart. The man who has a due knowledge of God, who knows
Him to be the almighty Creator, the wise and bountiful Preserver
and Ruler of the world, will be penetrated with sentiments of respect,
of gratitude, of confidence, and of contrition. And since it belongs
to the nature of man to manifest outwardly what he feels inwardly,
he will evince these sentiments by the surrender, — the renunciation
or destruction — of some object that he values. These sentiments are
essential to a sacrifice — without them it would be mere hypocrisy —
consequently the sentiment of compunction is of itself sometimes
designated a sacrifice (Ps. 1. 19). Sacrifices of praise used to be
offered daily in the Temple; Noe's sacrifice was a sacrifice of thanks-
giving, while the sacrifices which Judas Machabeus caused to be
offered before going to battle were deprecatory sacrifices; those
offered for the warriors who fell in the fight were expiatory sacrifices
(2 Mach. xii. 43).
4. The custom of offering sacrifices has existed in all times
and among all nations of the world.
Sacrifices have been customary from time immemorial. They were
offered by Cain and Abel, the children of the first man and the first
woman. They are found among Jews and Gentiles. The Jewish high
priest offered an oblation morning and evening in the name of the
people; first he burned incense upon the altar, then he offered an
unbloody sacrifice consisting of flour, oil and frankincense (Lev. vi.
528 The Means of Grace.
14), and finally a sacrifice in which was shedding of blood, the victim
being a lamb of one year old, without blemish, together with an
oblation of food and drink (Exod. xxix. 38). On the Sabbath day
two lambs of a year old, together with bread and wine, were immolated
in addition to the daily oblation (Numb, xxviii. 9). Special sacrifices
were also appointed for certain feasts. The heathen nations also offered
sacrifices, but their ideas on the subject were perverted, for they
offered human sacrifices, and not to the true God, but to idols. Hence
St. Paul says : " The things which the heathen sacrifice, they sacrifice
to devils and not to God" (1 Cor. x. 20). We read in Holy Scripture
that the King of Moab took his oldest son and offered him for a
burnt-offering upon the wall, in order to obtain help against the
Israelites (4 Kings iii. 27). The Phoenicians and other Asiatic
people used yearly to immolate young children to their god Moloch,
the brazen statue of the deity being made red-hot, and the children
cast into its arms. The custom of offering human sacrifices formerly
prevailed to a great extent in Mexico; it is said that the number of
victims slaughtered yearly amounted to no less than twenty thousand.
Human sacrifices are not yet entirely abolished, they are still cus-
tomary among savages, notably among some African and Indian
tribes. How sad is the condition of man without the Christian faith !
5. The chief motives which urge mankind to offer sacrifice
are: The consciousness of sin and the desire for reconciliation
with God and because God often required or sanctioned the
sacrifice.
The consciousness of sin was a powerful incentive to man to offer
sacrifices. St. Paul says : " In them there is made a commemoration
of sins every year" (Heb. x. 3), and again: "Without shedding of
blood there is no remission" (Heb. ix. 22). God not unfrequently
showed His approbation of sacrifice; He testified His acceptance of
Abel's offering (Gen. iv. 4). Of Noe's (Gen. viii. 21), of the holocaust
offered by the prophet Elias, which was consumed by fire from heaven
(3 Kings xviii. 38). On many occasions God required a sacrifice, as
that of Isaac (Gen. xxii.). He gave minute directions concerning
the sacrificial offerings to the Jews by Moses' lips (Lev. i.-vii. ; xvi. ;
xxii.). The knowledge that God approved of and even demanded
sacrifices from man was a potent motive inducing him to offer them.
6. The sacrifices of the Jewish nation, more particularly that
of the paschal lamb and the victim of expiation, were typical
of the great sacrifice that the Kedeemer was to offer on Mount
Calvary.
In the Old Testament everywhere there is shedding of blood ; this
was typical of the blood of Christ, whereby we are purified. On the
great Day of Atonement one of the ceremonies consisted in this : The
high priest laid both his hands upon the head of one of the goats
which were to be offered up for the people, confessing at the same
time the iniquities of the children of Israel, and praying that they
might light upon the head of the animal ; thereupon the goat was
turned out into the desert, to express symbolically that the sins of the
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 529
people were taken away out of God's sight. Since the Jewish sacri-
fices were but a foreshadowing of Our Lord's expiatory sacrifice, they
ceased after this was offered, as had been foretold by the prophets
(Dan. ix. 27; Osee iii. 4). Nor were the sacrifices of the heathen
anything more or less than a seeking after the true sacrifice of atone-
ment ; the victims were without blemish, a pure and spotless oblation ;
moreover everywhere the persuasion seemed to prevail that " it is
impossible that with the blood of oxen and goats sin should be taken
away" (Heb. x. 4), or that the Deity should be propitiated by any
other similar victims. A victim of infinite value was needed to
reconcile God with man.
2. THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST UPON THE CROSS.
1. The sacrifice which reconciled God with man was that
which Christ offered upon the cross.
The life of Our Lord upon earth may be said to have been one
uninterrupted sacrifice. This sacrifice was commenced at the In-
carnation, for then He divested Himself of His divine dignity that
was His as Son of God, and took the form of a servant (Phil. ii. 7).
He gave up His free will, becoming obedient to His heavenly Father
unto death, even to the death of the cross (v. 8). This sacrifice was
continued throughout His whole life. He relinquished all earthly
possessions ; He Himself says : " The foxes have holes and the birds
of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His
head " (Matt. viii. 20). He often denied Himself the food of the body;
for instance, on the occasion of His converse with the Samaritan
woman, He said to His disciples, when they pressed Him to take some
refreshment : " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, that
I may perfect His work" (John iv. 34). Even when wearied with
His apostolic labors He denied Himself rest; we read that not un-
frequently He went up into a mountain, and passed the whole night
in prayer to God (Luke vi. 12). He willingly renounced honor, say-
ing: "I seek not My own glory" (John viii. 50). He bore scorn
and derision in silence, especially when brought before His judges
(Luke xxiii. 11). He allowed Himself to be put on a par with mur-
derers, and crucified between two thieves (Mark xv. 27). He suffered
a notorious criminal to be preferred to Him (Matt, xxvii. 17).
Finally, upon the cross, He surrendered all that He had, even His life
itself, for He said : " Greater love than this no man hath, that a
man lay down His life for His friends" (John xv. 13). Well might
He exclaim immediately before His death : " It is consummated ! "
The actual sacrifice of propitiation began with Our Lord's Passion,
and ended with His death upon the cross. On the cross He gave His
body to be offered up. It was not, it is true, slain, divided and
burned with fire like the bodies of other victims, but it was
cruelly tortured and deprived of life. While hanging upon the cross
the Redeemer might echo the words of the Psalmist : " I am a worm
and no man. I am poured out like ^ater, and all My bones are scat-
tered " (Ps. xxi. 7, 15). It was in reference to this expiatory sacrifice
made by the Redeemer that the prophet spoke of the Messias as a
530 The Means of Grace.
lamb brought to the slaughter. When John the Baptist saw Christ
approaching, he exclaimed : " Behold the Lamb of God ; behold Him
Who taketh away the sins of the world! " (John i. 29.) And St. Paul
says : " Christ, our Pasch, is sacrificed."
The sacrifice of the cross is, however, differentiated from
every other sacrifice by the fact that in it the officiating Priest
is the Victim Himself; also because the value of this sacrifice
is infinite.
Christ Himself, as St. Augustine says, was both Priest and Victim.
The soldiers were only instruments of which it pleased Him to make
use. Had He willed otherwise, they would have had no power at all
over Him. This He made manifest on Mount Olivet, for at the word:
" I am He," they fell to the ground. The soldiers could not indeed
have been the sacrificers, because by putting Christ to death they did
not perform a work pleasing to God, but committed one of the greatest
of all crimes. Christ was immolated, because it was His will to be
immolated (Is. liii. 7). Not all the sacrifices offered under the Old
Testament had power to reconcile God and man; their value was but
finite. St. Paul says : " It is impossible that with the blood of oxen
and goats sin should be taken away" (Heb. x. 4). These sacrifices
could only serve as a means of recalling sin to men's minds, and
awakening compunction; they had no cleansing power. With the
sacrifice Christ offered it is quite otherwise.
2. The sacrifice of Christ upon the cross was a vicarious sacri-
fice for the sins of all mankind, and a sacrifice of superabundant
value.
Christ suffered in our stead. Of Him the prophet spoke when he
said : " He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our
sins" (Is. liii. 5). Christ, the second Adam, the Head of the human
race, suffered for His members. The Good Shepherd gave His life
for the sheep (John x. 15). We know by the experience of daily life
that vicarious atonement is possible. Not only property, but disgrace
or glory may be bequeathed to posterity. A family, nay more, a
whole nation, will be proud of a great man born in their midst, and
on the other hand, nations are sometimes severely chastised for the
sins of a single individual. Original sin has become the heritage of
humanity, and in like manner the merits of one man may become
the heritage of all mankind. Christ made atonement for the sin of
the whole human race, original as well as actual sin. The apostle
says : " He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but
also for those of the whole world" (1 John ii. 2). Christ is the true
Paschal Lamb, the sacrifice of which did not liberate one nation from
the yoke of Pharao, but the whole human race from the servitude of
Satan. Although Christ died for all, yet all do not receive the benefit
of His death; only those to whom the merit of His Passion is com-
municated (Council of Trent, C. 6, 3). Christ's atonement was more
than sufficient; He suffered beyond what was necessary. A single
drop of Plis blood would have sufficed to wash away the sins of all
mankind, for He is very God, and the least of His actions is of in-
finite value. Christ suffered more than it is possible for any human
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 531
being to suffer. Hence He cried aloud upon the cross : " My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? "
Our Lord suffered so much in order to show how. much He
loves us, and how greatly God is offended by sin.
A single word of Christ would have fully sufficed to redeem us,
but it was not enough to make manifest the love of God. It is be-
cause of the great love Christ displays towards us, that we venerate
the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The heart is the centre of the phys-
ical life; from it the blood flows into every part of the body, main-
taining its vitality. And since there is an intimate connection be-
tween body and soul, the heart is spoken of as the centre of the spir-
itual life, whence all the thoughts and feelings take their rise. Hence
we say: "My heart rejoiced, my heart is grieved, etc." The heart
is regarded pre-eminently as the seat of love. When we venerate the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, we call to mind His exceeding great love
for us, and are stimulated to return love for love. God made use
of a French nun at Paray-le-Monial, named Margaret Mary Ala-
coque, to propagate this devotion. Our Lord appeared to her re-
peatedly, showing her His Heart pierced by the lance, emitting flames
of fire, surrounded by a crown of thorns — to signify the pain sinners
cause to Our Saviour — and surmounted by a shining cross. Our
Lord intimated His desire that pictures of this Heart should be ex-
posed for veneration, and promised signal blessings to all who should
practice this devotion. He also commanded the festival of the
Sacred Heart to be kept on the Friday after the octave of Corpus
Christi. This day is a most appropriate one, for it was on a Friday
that Our Lord by His death gave the greatest possible proof of His
love, and His Heart was pierced by the lance. Moreover the Ador-
able Sacrament of the Altar affords abundant testimony to the love
of the Saviour, for as the sun's rays are f ocussed in a lens, so the rays
of the sun of divine love are concentrated in the Sacrament of the
Altar. Hence the feast of Corpus Christi is a special memorial of
the love of Christ for man. The devotion to the Sacred Heart, op-
posed at the outset, as are all works that are of God, spread rapidly
over all the earth, and was attended by signal blessings. Another
reason why Our Lord suffered so much was that He might be a
pattern to us in suffering : " Christ suffered for us, leaving you an
example" (1 Pet. ii. 21). He Himself said: "I have given you an
example " (John xiii. 15).
3. The graces which Christ merited for us by His death are
communicated to us by the means of grace; that is to say, the
holy sacrifice of the Mass, the sacraments, the sacramentals, and
prayer.
The means of grace are the channels whereby the divine Re-
deemer conveys to us the graces He merited for us upon the cross.
His side was opened that the means of grace might thence flow out.
Tt is because the Church, through the medium of the appointed means
of grace, communicates to the faithful the graces flowing from the
cross of Christ, that in dispensing them she always makes use of the
sign of the cross.
532 The Means of Grace.
He who neglects the use of the means of grace cannot be
saved, in spite of Christ's death.
Medicine cannot work . a cure unless the sick man swallows it.
" He Who made thee without thyself," says St. Augustine, " will not
save thee without thyself." The devil makes strenuous efforts to de-
prive men of the means of grace. He acts like the General Holo-
fernes, who when besieging the town of Bethulia cut off the aque-
ducts, in order to reduce the inhabitants through want of water; for
he deters the faithful from drinking from the channels of grace, by
inspiring them with indifference or aversion towards them.
3. THE INSTITUTION, NATURE, AND PRINCIPAL
PARTS OF THE MASS.
At the Last Supper the Son of God changed bread into His
body, and wine into His blood; He then gave both to the apos-
tles, bidding them eat and drink the same.
We are told that after the washing of the feet Our Lord sat down
at the table, took bread in His hands, looked up to heaven, gave
thanks, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His apostles, saying : " Take
ye and eat; this is My bodv." And after the apostles had received
the body of Christ, He took the chalice in which was wine, gave
thanks, blessed it, and gave it to His disciples, saying : " Drink ye
all of this, for this is My blood; the blood of the new, the eternal
covenant, the mystery of faith (a mystery for the trial of our faith),
which shall be shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.
Do this for a commemoration of Me." (These are known as the
words of consecration.)
After the consecration, the species or appearance of the
bread and wine still remained the same.
The body of Christ had not the appearance of flesh, but the ap-
pearance of bread ; it had the smell, the taste, the color, the weight,
etc., of bread; the species was in fact retained. Nor did the blood of
Christ bear the appearance of blood, but of wine; it had the smell,
the taste, the color, etc., the ordinary appearance of wine. (This sub-
ject will be enlarged upon in the instructions concerning the Adorable
Sacrament of the Altar.)
1. The Son of God offered a sacrifice at the Last Supper, be-
cause He grave His body and blood to be offered up, in order to
reconcile His heavenly Father with man.
At the Last Supper our blessed Lord instituted a visible sacrifice,
in order thereby to represent the bloody sacrifice which was. to be
offered once upon the cross, and to preserve the memory thereof unto
the end of the world. Our Lord indicated to us that He intended at
the Last Supper to institute a sacrifice, by choosing for this act the
very time when the paschal lamb was slain and eaten. Moreover the
words He made use of were almost identical with those which Moses
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, 533
spoke on the institution of the Old Covenant. We read that Moses,
after the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, slaughtered an animal,
and sprinkled the blood upon the people, saying : " This is the blood
of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you " (Exod. xxiv.
8). As Our Lord's words were similar to these, it follows that in His
ease also there was a sacrifice. Again it is a significant fact that Our
Lord caused His Passion and death to follow immediately after the
Last Supper ; by this He would have us know that they were one and
the same act. The sacrifice begins with the consecration, when Christ
assumes the form of bread and wine; for He then divests Himself of
the splendor of His divine glory, and conceals His infinite majesty.
Nay, more, not only does He conceal His divine grandeur, He also
conceals His human presence. " Christ, the King of heaven and of
earth, reduces Himself by the words of consecration to a condition
of abasement which is almost equivalent to annihilation. Not even
a trace can be perceived of that regal dignity with which His hu-
manity was invested, and which inspired men with reverence and awe.
At His birth at Bethlehem He was at least in the likeness of man, but
here He seems to be nothing but a morsel of bread." By this pro-
found self-abasement Our Lord reconciles us to His Father, Who is
justly angry with us; for there is no better means of appeasing one
whom we have offended than by humbling ourselves before him.
King Achab averted the punishment of which he was warned by the
prophet Elias, by humbling himself before God (3 Kings xxi. 27) ;
the Ninivites did the same. The sacrifice is not consummated until
the species of bread and wine are consumed. Thus it was with the
sacrifice Our Lord made upon the cross; He suffered first, His body
being torn and mangled ; then death came, and His human existence
was ended. The sacrifice was accomplished; He spoke the words:
" It is consummated ! " Hence it will be seen that the unbloody
sacrifice of the altar is in every respect a faithful representation and
a true repetition of the bloody sacrifice of the cross. What the death
of Christ was then, the reception of the sacred elements is now. Thus
St. Paul says that those who eat this bread and drink the chalice
show the death of the Lord (1 Cor. xi. 26). Moreover the separate
forms of bread and wine symbolize the destruction of Christ's human
nature, for the body and blood of Christ are separated one from the
other. upon the altar, as they were upon the cross, when the blood
flowed out of His body through the countless wounds. We also
gather that the object of this unbloody sacrifice is the reconciliation
of man with God, from the words Our Lord uttered at the Last Sup-
per. " This is Mv blood," He said, " which is shed for the remission of
sin." This unbloody sacrifice is therefore like the sacrifice of the
cross, truly a propitiatory sacrifice (Council of Trent, 22, 2). We are
not, indeed, redeemed anew by it, for we are redeemed by the bloody
sacrifice, but the fruits of redemption are applied to our souls bv this
unbloody sacrifice. Nor is this unbloody sacrifice of itself sufficient
to reconcile men to God without their own co-operation; but it has
the effect of awakening them to a sense of sin, exciting them to con-
trition, inducing them to confess their sins and avoid them in future.
1. The apostles had, and their successors have, the power of
offering the same sacrifice, for the Son of God at once com-
534 The Means of Grace.
manded and empowered them to do so, when He said: " Do
this for a commemoration of Me" (Council of Trent, 22; 1).
When Christ gave His twelve apostles His flesh to eat and His
blood to drink, He commanded them to immolate Him in lieu of the
usual sacrificial victims. God had enjoined upon the Jews to slay a
paschal lamb every year, in remembrance of their deliverance from
Egyptian slavery, and in like manner it was His will that a special
sacrifice should be offered in commemoration of the death of Christ
upon the cross, and the redemption of mankind from the servitude of
the devil (Council of Trent, 22, 1).
2. This sacrifice was foretold in the Old Testament both by
types and prophecies.
Several sacrifices in the Old Testament were types of the true
sacrifice; the offering made by Abel, to which the Lord had respect
(Gen. iv. 4), because it was offered by faith in the future Redeemer
and His true oblation (Heb. xi. 4) ; the sacrifice of Abraham, who in
obedience to God's command offered his son Isaac upon Mount Moria,
without shedding his blood (Gen. xxii.), and above all, the sacrifice
of Melchisedech, the King of Salem (i.e., the king of peace), who
offered bread and wine (Gen. xiv. 18). These three sacrifices are
mentioned in the Mass, immediately after the consecration, when the
priest beseeches God to look propitiously upon our gifts, as He was
graciously pleased to accept the gifts of Abel, Abraham, and Mel-
chisedech. The holy Mass was also foretold by prophecies. David
predicted that the Messias would be a priest forever, according to the
order of Melchisedech (Ps. cix. 5). The prophet Malachias foretold
the holy Mass to the Jews who, after their return from captivity,
performed the sacrificial ceremonies in a careless manner, saying:
" I have no pleasure in your sacrifices, saith the Lord of hosts ; I will
not receive a gift of your hands. For from the rising of the sun
even to the going down, My name is great among the Gentiles; and
in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a
clean oblation" (Mai. i. 10, 11).
3. This sacrifice was offered by the apostles, and it has since
been offered by their successors, the bishops and priests of the
Church.
Even in apostolic times the Christians were accustomed to as-
semble together, on Sunday particularly, for breaking of bread (Acts
xx. 7, 11). St. Paul repeatedly mentions the chalice of benediction
which was blessed and given to the faithful, and the bread whereof they
partook (1 Cor. x. 16; xi. 26). He says: "We have an altar whereof
they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle" (Heb. xiii. 10).
It is recorded that the Apostle Andrew when urged by the pro-
consul to offer to the gods, said to him : " I offer daily to the almighty
and true God, not the flesh of oxen or the blood of rams, but the im-
maculate Lamb of God ; and when all the congregation of the faithful
have received His sacred body, the same Lamb that was immolated
is still unconsumed and lives forevermore." St. Justin, in one of
the apologetic writings he addressed to the Roman emperor, speaks
of the different parts of the Christian sacrifice, the reading and ex-
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 535
planation of Holy Scripture, the oblation of bread and wine, the
consecration and transformation of the sacred elements, and their dis-
tribution to the people. The oldest of the Fathers of the Church
mention the sacrifice of the Mass. St. Irenaaus, Bishop of Lyons
(202 a.d.), says : " The oblation of the New Covenant is the Lord's Sup-
per; Christ instituted it as at once a sacrifice and a sacrament, and
throughout all the world the Church offers this sacrifice." St. Cyp-
rian, Bishop of Carthage (258 a.d.), says: "In the Church the priest
offers the same sacrifice which Christ Himself offered," and again:
" Day by day, in times of persecution and of peace, we offer the sacri-
fice whereby the faithful are prepared to give themselves as sacrificial
victims by a martyr's death." Pope Leo the Great says : " The one
oblation of the body and blood of Christ is substituted for all the
former sacrifices." The frescoes in the Catacombs bear witness to
the offering of the holy sacrifice, likewise the most ancient liturgies,
the altars, chalices and vestments, which would not have been needed
had not the Mass been celebrated. Some of these are still preserved,
among them the wooden altar at which St. Peter and his successors
for nearly three centuries said Mass. Until the tenth century no
heretic dared to impugn the holy sacrifice. Luther attacked it most
vehemently, at the instigation of the devil, as he himself confessed.
2. We call the sacrifice instituted by Our Lord at the Last
Supper holy Mass, or the sacrifice of the Mass.
In the first centuries of Christianity the catechumens and peni-
tents used to be sent away out of the church at the commencement of
the sacrifice. The Latin for dismissal is missio (missa) * Hence it
came to pass that the ceremonies consequent to the dismissal of the
catechumens were called the missa, the Mass. This expression is
used by Pope Pius I. as early as the second century; it also occurs
frequently in the writings of St. Augustine and St. Ambrose. An-
other explanation of the word missio (mission) is that it denotes the
sending of Our Lord from heaven to earth at the moment of the
consecration, and again the sending of the sacred Victim up to heaven
by the faithful in the hands of angels; as St. Bonaventure says:
" First of all God sends His Son down to us upon the altar, then the
Church sends Him up to the Father, to make intercession for sin-
ners." The sacrifice of the Mass must be clearly distinguished
from the Sacrament of the Altar. In the latter Christ is present as
an object of our worship and as our spiritual sustenance; in the
former He is also our Victim and the means of our salvation.
1. The -sacrifice of the Mass is the chief and central act of
Catholic worship.
Several of the sacraments and the sacramentals can only be ad-
ministered in connection with the Mass. It stands in the same rela-
tion to the other services of the Church as a jewel does to its setting.
It is a reservoir wherein the streams of grace are collected which flow
from the sacrifice of the cross, and whence they are poured out upon
mankind through the channels of the sacraments. The holy Mass is
* The true derivation of the word missa is wrapped in obscurity. The
derivations given in the text are conjectural.
536 • TJie Means of Grace.
the sun of grace, day by day rising upon the world, the bright rays of
which, in the prismatic colors of the seven sacraments, form the fair
rainbow, the emblem of peace, the connecting link between heaven's
riches and earth's poverty. The dignity of holy Mass surpasses by
many degrees that of the sacraments, for they are only vessels of
mercy for the living, whereas the Mass is an inexhaustible ocean of
divine liberality for the living and the dead. In the holy Mass man
has a foretaste of heaven upon earth, for in the sacred Victim he has
before him the Creator of heaven and of earth, he even holds Him in
his hands. The sacrifice of the Mass contains in itself as many mys-
teries as there are drops in the ocean, stars in the firmament, flowers
upon the earth. Take this sacrifice away from the Catholic Church
and you leave nothing but unbelief and error. Were holy Mass not of
such surpassing excellence the devil would not have aroused so many
enemies against it among heretics.
2. The sacrifice of the Mass is a catholic sacrifice in the true
sense of the word, for it is and will be offered unceasingly
throughout the whole earth until the end of time.
At the present time some 350,000 Masses are celebrated daily on
our globe ; there is not an hour in the day in which Mass is not being
said. Thus the words of the prophet are literally fulfil led : " From
the rising of the sun until the going down, in every place there is
sacrifice" (Mai. i. 10). Mass will be celebrated until the Day of
Judgment (1 Cor. xi. 26). Not any or all of the adversaries of the
Church, not Antichrist himself, will be able to suspend the offering
of the holy sacrifice. The last Mass said will be on the last day of this
world's existence. This is what Our Lord meant when He said : " I
am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world " (Matt,
xxviii. 20).
3. What takes place in the sacrifice of the Mass is this: The
priest at the altar, as the representative of Christ, offers up bread
and wine to almighty God; he changes these substances into the
body and blood of Christ, and destroys them by consuming them.
Thus it is not the priest, but Christ Himself, Who in the
Mass is the sacrificing Priest.
From the words of the consecration it is evident that the priest
is only an instrument of which Our Lord makes use, for the priest
says: "This is My body, this is My blood," although he does not
change the bread and wine into his own body and blood. It is not
the man who causes the oblation upon the altar to be changed into
the body and blood of Our Lord, it is Christ Himself; Christ, our
High Priest, Who is holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners,
purer than all the celestial spirits (Heb. vii. 26). Hence the sacrifice
of the Mass does not lose its value, supposing the officiating priest
should be living in sin. The Council of Trent declares that the sacri-
fice of the Mnss cannot bp defiled through the unworthiness or malice
of him who offers it. " This oblation is holy," says St. John Chrysos-
tom, "be the priest what he may; for man does not consecrate, but
Christ."
Christ is also the Victim which is immolated in the Mass.
Tlie Holy Sacrifice of tlie Mass. 53?
Christ is the Priest Who offers the sacrifice, and He is likewise the
Victim which is offered. The Priest and the Victim are one and the
same. Christ our Paschal Lamb, once immolated upon the cross, is
daily immolated anew upon our altars. Christ offered Himself, be-
cause among- all the treasures of heaven and of earth He could find
nothing that could serve as a worthy oblation to be offered to the
Blessed Trinity. The sacred humanity of Our Lord is the most
precious, the most perfect work of God. Even the inexpressible
beauty of the Mother of God is, in comparison to the humanity of
Christ, as a flaming torch beside the noonday sun. Even the graces
and prerogatives which God has bestowed upon the angels and the
saints, all taken together, fall far short of the graces and excellences
appertaining to the sacred humanity of Christ. By reason of its
intimate union with the Godhead it is enriched with boundless treas-
ures and endowed with infinite dignity.
4. There are three distinct parts in the sacrifice of the Mass:
the offertory, the consecration, and the communion.
The sanctuary bell is rung at the consecration and the com-
munion, and also between the offertory and the consecration, at the
Sanctus.
1. What takes place at the offertory is this : Bread and
wine are offered to God and blessed.
The priest takes the paten whereon the Host is placed, and elevates
it, offering the Host to God. Then he takes the chalice, pours into
it wine and a little water, elevates it, and offers it likewise to God.
He next invokes the Holy Spirit and blesses the oblation with his
hand. This is called the offertory, because the actual sacrificial act
does not begin until the consecration. Eor if the priest who was
celebrating should chance to fall sick, or any accident should occur,
if it was before the consecration he could break off the Mass, but
not after the consecration; in that case he must take the communion
immediately, and then leave the altar. And supposing the priest
were to die after having consecrated, another priest must proceed with
the Mass, even were he not fasting ; but if the priest who was celebrat-
ing died before the consecration, it would not be necessary to go on
with the Mass. What does this prove ? The name of offertory is
given to this part of the Mass because in early times the offerings of
bread and wine w'ere made by the faithful. The bread is prepared
from wheaten flour; it is unleavened, because the bread Our Lord
used was unleavened, and also because it denotes the purity of the
body of Christ; it is round in shape, to symbolize the eternal nature
of Christ, without beginning and without end. A large Host must be
used at Mass, unless only small ones can be had. The wine must be
prepared from the juice of grapes ; a little water is mixed with it,
because this was done by Christ. The water and the wine are also in
commemoration of the water and blood which flowed from His riven
side.
2. What takes place at the consecration is this: The bread
is changed into the body, and the wine into the blood of Christ;
and they are then elevated in the sight of the people.
538 The Means of Grace.
The consecration is effected by means of the words Oar
Lord uttered at the Last Supper.
At the consecration something similar occurs to that which oc-
cured when Elias offered sacrifice on Mount Carmel, when the fire of
the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust (3 Kings xviii.) ; in that
case however the agent was natural fire, whereas at Mass it is the
supernatural fire of the Holy Ghost. As natural fire changes wood
into glowing embers, so the Holy Spirit effects the transubstantiation
of the oblation by words of fire. Hence from the earliest times it was
customary in the East — as we learn from ancient liturgies — to call
upon the Holy Ghost to come and effect the change. At the moment
of consecration the heavens are opened at the word of the priest, and
Christ, the King of heaven, descends from above with His courtiers,
the angels, who wait upon their Monarch. He descends from heaven
upon our altars as swiftly as the eyes on being opened perceive at once
the most distant objects. At the moment of consecration, the Incar-
nation of the Son of God takes place anew, and in the same manner
as when, at the salutation of the angel, Mary was overshadowed by
the Holy Ghost. As the Blessed Virgin then spoke but a few words,
so now the priest utters but a few words, and the Son of God comes
down from heaven at his summons. It is because Christ becomes
man again in the Mass, that at the conclusion the words : " The Word
was made flesh, and dwelt among us," are read; and when the Credo
is sung at High Mass, special emphasis is given to the sentence:
Incarnatus est, de Spiritu Sancto, ex Maria Virgine; et homo f actus
est. The birth of Christ is also repeated in the Mass, with this dif-
ference, that Christ is not born corporally, as at Bethlehem, but
spiritually; that He is not now clad in mortal flesh, but arrayed in
His glorified body, resplendent with the five sacred wounds. It is
on account of this spiritual birth that the Church appoints the Gloria
in excelsis, the song of praise sung by the angels at Bethlehem, to
form part of the Mass, and that Our Lord has appeared many times
after the consecration under the form of an infant. An appearance
of this kind is said to have been the means of converting the Saxon
chief Wittekind, who, when at war with the Emperor Charlemagne,
entered the enemy's camp in disguise, and was present when Mass
was said. The same announcement may be made to us Christians
as was made by the angels to the shepherds of yore : " Behold, I bring
you glad tidings of great joy, for to-day is born to you a Saviour."
3. What takes place at the communion is this: The priest
receives the body and blood of Christ, and oftentimes adminis-
ters the body of Christ to the faithful.
Before the priest communicates the people, the Conflteor is re-
peated and at the end he absolves and blesses the faithful ; then tak-
ing the sacred vessel containing the Hosts in his hand, he holds one
up in the sight of the people, saying: "Behold the Lamb of God,
behold Him Who taketh away the sins of the world ;" and then repeats
three times: " Lord, I am not worthy that Th^u shouldst enter under
my roof ; say but the word and my soul shall be healed." To each of
the communicants, when administering holy communion to him, he
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 539
says : " May the body of Our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy soul to
life everlasting, Amen ; " having previously made the sign of the
cross over him with the sacred Host, to signify that it is the crucified
Redeemer Whom he gives to him. The Hosts that remain after the
communion of the people are reserved in the ciborium, which is placed
in the tabernacle. In each of these Hosts which were consecrated in
the Mass Our Lord remains present. They are used to give com-
munion at other times than in the Mass. Communion may be given
at any time when it is allowable to say Mass; but not on Good
Friday, nor on Holy Saturday until after the communion of the
priest. If there should not be enough Hosts for the intending com-
municants, the priest may divide them, or in extreme cases, a particle
may be broken off the large Host.
4. THE CEREMONIAL OF THE MASS.
1. In the course of time many ceremonies of deep significance
grouped themselves around the holy sacrifice of the Mass, which
were not to be omitted without absolute necessity.
As early as the third century, certain prayers and ceremonies were
added to the essential part of the sacrifice of the Mass. The service
began with psalms sung by the people (at the present time the priest
says the psalm Judica me at the foot of the altar) ; this was followed
by the petition for mercy (the priest now recites the Confiteor at the
foot of the altar, and the Kyrie Eleison standing in front of the
altar). Then came the thanksgiving for the pardon of sin (now the
Gloria is said immediately after the Kyrie). The officiating bishop
next turned to the people and pronounced the salutation : Do minus
vohiscum, " the Lord be with you," and then with extended arms
offered a prayer in the name of the people (the collect). After this
one of the acolytes read a portion of one of the epistles, then a portion
taken from one of the gospels, as is done in the present day, the con-
gregation standing meanwhile, and the bishop gave a short explana-
tion of the gospel of the day. When this was ended, one of the
ministers, generally the deacon, called upon the catechumens (i.e.,
the Jews or heathen who were under instruction for Baptism) to
leave the church ; if he did not feel sure about any one who remained,
he required the watchword of him, that is, he made him repeat the
confession of faith, that was known only to the Christians. This
division of the Mass, up to the Creed, was the preparatory part, and
used to be called the Mass of the catechumens. At this point the
actual sacrifice of the Mass began. The faithful presented offerings
of bread and wine, from which the deacons took what was required
for the Mass; this the bishop then offered to God and blessed (the
offertory). He then washed the fingers with which he had touched
the bread, and one of the acolytes called upon the people to pray for
the catechumens who had just departed, for the clergy and the Church
in general, for friends and for foes. (The Orate Fratres is now said
by the priest.) Then followed a prayer of thanksgiving, in imitation
of Our Lord, Who gave thanks before consecrating the elements (the
preface of the present day, which ends with the Sanctus, an ascrip-
540 The Means of Grace.
tion of praise to the Holy Trinity), and all present prayed, as had
been enjoined upon them, for the Pope, the bishop, the emperor, invok-
ing the intercession of the Mother of God, of the apostles and holy
martyrs. Then came the consecration, the ceremonial for which was
the same as it is now; the people prostrating themselves in lowly
adoration at the elevation of the Host and of the chalice. The prayer
for the dead came next, some of the martyrs being commemorated;
the Pater Noster was said aloud, and the Agnus Dei three times:
" O Lamb of God, Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have
mercy upon us." Upon this the communion followed, the bishop
received the body and blood of Christ, and gave communion to the
faithful; they crossed their hands, the sacred Host being placed on
the palm of the left hand. During the communion appropriate psalms
were sung (the priest now recites some verses from the psalms at the
right hand side of the altar, which are called the post-communion).
The Hosts that remained over were placed in a chest, or a vessel in
the shape of a dove beside the altar. After a concluding prayer, the
bishop saluted the people with the words, Dominus vobiscum, and
dismissed them, saying: Ite, missa est: "Depart, the Mass is ended."
The blessing being given, the commencement of St. John's Gospel
was generally read, in which occur the words : " The Word was made
flesh," and : " He came unto His own, and His own received Him not,"
the former being an allusion to the presence of Our Lord in the holy
sacrifice, the latter having reference to the sin of those who, without
good reason, absent themselves from Mass. In the course of the
Mass, which, if a low Mass, lasts from twenty-five to thirty minutes,
the celebrant has to observe no less than five hundred ceremonies,
such as bowing down, smiting his breast, making the sign of the cross,
etc. All this ceremonial is intended to impress the faithful more
deeply with the majesty of so great a sacrifice; also to incite them
to the contemplation of those most sublime things that are hidden
in the Mass (Council of Trent, 22, 5). Each of the ceremonies has
its own special meaning.
2. The whole story of the Redemption is symbolically repre-
sented by the ceremonies of the Mass.
The opening prayers, said by the priest at the foot of the altar,
and at a little distance from it, are emblematic of the 4000 years during
which man was comparatively far from God, and looking for the re-
demption. The Kyrie, repeated nine times, and the Gloria, signify
the book of Christ, and the song of praise sung by the nine choirs of
angels at Bethlehem; the Orationes, the youth of Our Lord, which
was passed in prayer and seclusion from the world. The Epistle, the
carrying across of the missal, the Gospel and the Creed, are to re-
mind us that the Gospel was first preached to the Jews, and being
rejected by them, was proclaimed to the Gentiles, many of whom be-
lieved and were baptized. The offertory represents Our Lord's
preparation for His Passion and His willingness to surrender His
life. The preface, which ends with the words : " Blessed is He that
cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest," represents
Christ's entry into Jerusalem; the prayer for the living, His prayer
for the Church before the Last Supper. The five crosses which the
priest makes over the oblation are symbolical of the five times that
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 541
Our Lord was mocked, before Annas, Caiphas, Herod, Pilate, and
once again before Herod. The elevation of the bread and wine, of
His lifting up on the cross; the five crosses made from time to time
over the elements, of the five sacred wounds. The seven petitions of
the Lord's Prayer represent the seven wounds upon the cross; the
breaking of the Host, the death of Christ, when His soul and body
were parted. When the priest says the Agnus Dei and strikes hia
breast, it recalls the action of the soldiers and others present upon
Calvary, who, amazed at the stupendous convulsions of nature, struck
their breasts, while the centurion exclaimed : " Indeed this man was
the Son of God ! " (Luke xxiii. 48 ; Mark xv. 39.) The communion
represents the burial of Christ; the Dominus vobiscum, twice re-
peated, His salutation of the apostles on His twofold appearance to
them after His resurrection ; the words of dismissal, Ite, missa est, His
ascension, when He sent His apostles forth to evangelize the world,
and blessed them for the last time ; and the Last Gospel, the propaga-
tion of the Gospel after the descent of the Holy Ghost. Thus the
Mass is seen to be a brief compendium of Our Lord's life ; in one half
hour all is depicted which He did during thirty-three years upon
earth (Cochem).
5. THE RELATION WHICH THE MASS BEARS TO THE
SACRIFICE OF THE CROSS.
1. The sacrifice of the Mass is a living renewal of the sacrifice
of the cross, for in the Mass, as upon the cross, Christ immolates
Himself.
Only in the Mass He sacrifices Himself in an unbloody man-
ner under the appearance of bread and wine, whereas on the
cross He sacrificed Himself in a bloody manner as man.
Since it is impossible for the faithful to be present at Our Lord's
sacrifice of Himself upon the cross, He has provided a means whereby
they can at least assist at the repetition of that sacrifice, and gain the
same merit that would have been theirs had they actually stood be-
neath the cross on Calvary. The Son of God foresaw that, despite
all His bitter Passion, many millions of mankind would not be saved ;
for their sake He -offered Himself to His heavenly Father, expressing
His readiness to hang upon the cross, not for three hours only, but
until the Last Day; and as this could not be, He devised in His
wisdom a plan whereby He could daily suffer anew in a mystical
manner, in the holv sacrifice of the Mass, and anew move His Father
to compassion. The Mass is consequently no mere image of the
sacrifice of the cross; it is not a bare memorial of it, it is the self-
same sacrifice which was consummated on Calvary (Council of Trent,
22, 3), and accordingly it is of tbe self -same value and of the self-
same efficacy. In the Mass the Passion and death of the Son of
God take place again in a mystic manner, His blood is shed afresh.
Tn it He displays His wounds to His heavenly Father, to save man
from perdition; He sets before Him tbe bitter anguish He endured
at His death as vividly as if His Passion were but just ended. To
542
The Means of Grace.
say Mass therefore, is to immolate the Son of God anew in a mystic
manner. The principal ceremonies of the Mass demonstrate, as we
have seen, that the oblation once offered upon the cross is renewed
upon the altar.
2. In the sacrifice of the Mass all the sacrifices made by Our
Lord are also renewed.
In the Mass Christ does not only sacrifice His humanity, as upon
the cross, but with it He offers all that He did and suffered during
the thirty-three years of His life on earth, placing it all forcibly
before the Holy Trinity, though with all lowliness. The prayers
which He sent up to heaven while on earth are all repeated and
summarized, as it were, in the Mass, and presented to God the Father
with the same urgency as if they were but just uttered. All this He
offers for the salvation of each individual who is present at the Mass.
Our Lord said once to St. Mechtilde : " I alone know and fully under-
stand how I offer Myself daily upon the altar; it surpasses the com-
prehension of the seraphim and cherubim, and all the heavenly
hosts."
6. THE PROFIT TO BE DERIVED FROM THE HOLY
SACRIFICE OF THE MAS8.
1. By means of the holy sacrifice of the Mass the fruits of the
sacrifice of the cross are applied to us in most abundant measure;
more particularly we obtain thereby forgiveness of sin, certitude
that our prayers are heard, temporal blessings, and eternal re-
wards.
Every Mass is productive of the same fruits, the same profit to the
soul as that which resulted from the death of Our Lord on Good
Friday. And since the sacrifice of the Mass is identical with the
sacrifice of the cross, it follows as a necessary consequence that its
effects are the same (Cochem). The death and Passion of Christ are
the treasury, the Mass is the key that unlocks it. The cross is the
tree of life laden with celestial fruits, and by the Mass those fruits
are given to us. In the sacrifice of the Mass we are made partakers
of the merits of Christ; they are, it is true, applied to us by the
other means of grace, but far less freely and abundantly. At the
time of Mass God gives lavishly ; from no other source do the streams
of grace flow so copiously as from the altar. In the Mass, the Son of
the most high God comes down from the gardens of paradise, bringing
to us from thence celestial riches and treasures of infinite value. In
the Mass the heavenly Father gives us His Son ; " and hath He not
with Him, also given us all things?" (Rom. viii. 32.) If you, O
Christian, knew how to profit by the Mass, by it you might become
richer than all the creatures of God can make you ! One must be
in a state of grace in order to receive most of the sacraments, other-
wise one cannot share in Christ's merits, and one incurs the guilt of
mortal sin; but it is not necessary to be in a state of grace to hear
Mass; the sinner does not commit a fresh sin by doing so; on the
contrary he gains the grace of conversion.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 543
1. The forgiveness of sins consists in this: Through the sac-
rifice of the Mass sinners obtain the grace and gift of penitence
(Council of Trent, 22, 2), while the just obtain the remission
of venial sin, and of the temporal penalty due to sin.
That remission of sin is effected by the Mass, we learn from Our
Lord's words when He consecrated the chalice (Matt. xxvi. 28). The
Mass is above all a propitiatory sacrifice; thereby it is differentiated
from the Old Testament sacrifices. They only cleansed from legal
impurities, not from sin (Heb. x. 1) ; the oblation of the New Testa-
ment alone has power to remit sin (Heb. ix. 9). Upon the cross
Christ cried: "Father, forgive them" (Luke xxiii. 34), and at Mass
He utters the same petition on behalf of all who are present. As the
blood of Abel cried to heaven for vengeance, so the blood of Christ
calls to heaven in the Mass for mercy, and the voice of His well-
beloved Son has more power with God than that of Abel had (Heb.
xii. 24). In the Mass Christ is our Advocate with the Father, the
propitiation of our sins (1 John ii. 1). Our Lord once said to St.
Mechtilde : " My condescension in the Mass is so great, that there
is no sinner, however great, there present, to whom I will not gladly
grant forgiveness, if only he asks Me for it." Just as men are pacified
by a gift, and induced thereby to condone offences committed against
them — remember how Jacob on returning home approached his
brother Esau with a present, to allay his wrath — (Gen. xxxii. 20) — so
God allows His anger to be appeased by the oblation of holy Mass.
That holy sacrifice rescues the sinner from eternal perdition. As the
sun disperses the clouds and makes the face of nature bright, so holy
Mass gladdens the Church of God. The effect of holy Mass upon the
sinner is not immediately perceived ; God brings about his conversion
in an opportune moment, when his heart is open to the influence of
grace. At the time of Our Lord's crucifixion few were moved to
repentance; not until Pentecost, when the hearts of many were soft-
ened by the preaching of Peter, did the effect of the sacrifice of the
cross become apparent. Many are gradually converted through divine
grace, without knowing that this is owing to the power of holy Mass.
The Holy Ghost acts upon the hearts of those who assist at Mass
as He acted upon the centurion and some others who stood beside the
cross of Christ, and who acknowledged : " Indeed this man was the
Son of God." The lights about the altar are emblematical of the
graces of the Holy Spirit, which are communicated in rich abundance
to those who hear Mass devoutly. It would not be meet for one who
had served at the table of a monarch to go away hungry, and it
cannot be supposed that one who had heard Mass piously should be
allowed to depart without spiritual nourishment. As when the mouth
eats the whole body is refreshed, so the faithful communicate spirit-
ually at the communion of the priest, although they do not actually
receive the Lord's body. The just obtain remission of venial sin
through the sacrifice of the Mass, because the treasures of the infinite
satisfaction Our Lord made to His heavenly Father are offered for
them in it. " Venial sins," says Cochem, " melt away at Mass like
wax before the fire." The Council of Trent (22, 1), declares that by
the sacrifice of the Mass we obtain the remission of the sins we daily
544 The Means of Grace.
commit. If, as St. Augustine asserts, one Our Father said from the
heart will expiate the venial sins of a whole day, how much the more
are they expiated by the holy Mass? The Mass is also a sacrifice of
atonement for sins of which we are not conscious. Father Cochem
tells us that one Mass will do more to pay the temporal penalty due
to sin than the severest penances. Moreover the divine chastisements
are averted by holy Mass. When God sent a pestilence upon Israel
during David's reign, and seventy thousand of the people died, the
prophet told the sorrowing king to offer a holocaust and burnt-offer-
ings to appease the anerer of God. N^ sooner was this done than the
plague was stayed. "Now if the sacrifice of oxen and sheep availed
to arrest the divine judgments, what cannot the sacrifice of the Mass
effect ? " If," says Cochem, " thou dost often hear Mass, thou mayst
hope that thy purgatory will be short and not severe, because by fre-
quently assisting devoutly at holy Mass, thou hast to a great extent
expiated thy sins." Consider how quickly the penitent thief, who
witnessed the sacrifice of Our Lord upon the cross, was admitted to
heaven.
2. The prayers we offer during Mass will surely be heard,
because they are aided by the prayer of Our Lord and of the
angels who are present.
When we hear Mass, our prayers are strengthened by Our Lord's
prayers, and His prayers are never offered in vain, for the Father
heareth Him always (John xi. 42). The holy angels await the time of
Mass, in order to proffer their petitions on our behalf with greater
urgency and more hope of success. As the sacrifice of the Mass is
more excellent than any other act of worship, so the prayers offered
during Mass are more efficacious than any others. St. Francis of
Sales says that prayers offered in union with the divine Victim have
an inexpressible power; favors can be obtained at the time of Mass
which can be obtained at no other. " Let him who is always com-
plaining that he cannot pray aright," says Cochem, " go to Mass, that
Christ may pray for him and instead of him, and supply what is
wanting to his prayers." How foolishly those act who say at home the
prayers they might say at Mass!
3. Through the holy sacrifice of the Mass temporal blessings
are obtained, especially these: God protects us from misfortune,
assists us in our work, and blesses us in our temporal substance.
He who has heard Mass devoutly will succeed in all things during
the remainder of the day. The favorite servant of Queen Elizabeth
of Portugal escaped apparently certain death through hearing Mass.
St. Philip ISTeri was accustomed to offer the holy sacrifice before com-
mencing any important undertaking, because he therebv insured its
success. You are strengthened to meet the troubles of the whole day,
if you have been near your Redeemer in the morning at holy Mass.
God assists those in their work who have heard Mass with devotion
in the early morning. St. Isidore, a farm-servant at Madrid, used to
rise daily at a verv early hour, in order to hear Mass before going to
his work. When his master, at the instigation of his fellow servants,
TJie Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 545
blamed him for doing this, he replied : " If you find that I get through
less work than the others, take something off my wages." The master
observed him narrowly, and was soon convinced that Isidore did a
great deal more than the other men, for an angel at his side assisted
him in his labor; and thenceforward he did not attempt to hinder
him from going daily to Mass. God also adds to the worldly posses-
sions of those who make a point of hearing Mass. By increasing
their property He gives them the occasion of earning more merits.
He does not fail to recompense even unrepentant sinners who go to
Mass. Since they are not in a position to receive an eternal reward,
God, Who of His infinite bounty does not permit the least good
work to go unrewarded, either confers some good fortune upon them,
or protects them from misfortune.
4. We cannot obtain an eternal recompense through hearing
Mass unless we are in a state of grace.
" Every Mass thou nearest," says Father Cochem, " perceptibly in-
creases thy future felicity." As one who is mounting a flight of
stairs comes higher at each step, so he who hears Mass ascends one
degree higher in heaven. The higher he mounts, the nearer he comes
to God; the more clearly he knows Him, the more dearly he loves
Him, the more ineffable is his enjoyment of Him. And for all the
hardships you have to endure by reason of going to Mass, early ris-
ing, exposure to cold, etc., you will be abundantly requited in heaven.
A man who had given up going to Mass on week-days for some time,
on account of the distance, once beheld in a dream an angel follow-
ing him on the way to the church, and counting every step he took,
in view of his future reward. After he had that dream, he again at-
tended Mass regularly. How unwise are those who neglect the holy
sacrifice of the altar ! The early Christians valued holy Mass aright,
and were ready to lay down their lives rather than be deprived of it.
What a responsibility for us, now that it is such an easy matter, that
it costs us nothing to go to Mass. The burnt-offerings of the Jews
were costly ; they were required to sacrifice at once a sheep and a goat,
or if poor, two doves ; and we have an all-efficacious sacrifice without
price. " Let us therefore go with confidence to the throne of grace "
(Heb. iv. 16).
2. Those who participate in the fruits of the holy sacrifice of
the Mass are: First, the individual for whom it is celebrated;
then the priest and all who are present; finally, all the faithful,
both living and dead; moreover the holy sacrifice gives joy to all
the angels and saints.
First and foremost, the individual for whom the Mass is said
benefits most by it. The priest is at liberty to apply the actual fruit
of the Mass to whomsoever he will. From time immemorial it has
been customary in the Church to give a fixed sum to the priest, that
he may say the Mass for a certain intention. The money is not given
to pay for the Mass, for the value of the Mass is beyond all price,
but as an alms towards the maintenance of the priest, and to defray
the expenses of divine worship ; to pay the server, to purchase candles,
etc. In earlv times the priest was not paid in money, but in kind;
546 The Means of Grace.
the people brought him wine, oil, bread, etc.; not until the Middle
Ages did it become usual to give money. The amount to be given is
fixed by the bishop ; it varies in different countries. No priest is al-
lowed to ask more, unless the Mass is wanted at a very early hour,
or a sung Mass is desired, or the priest has to go a long distance. The
priest who celebrates Mass derives greater benefit from it than do
those who hear it, because of his closer proximity to the Author of
all grace. A monarch pays more attention to the envoy of his sub-
jects than he would to one of the people who have deputed him to
speak for them; and God, in like manner, regards the priest at the
altar not as a sinful mortal, but as the ambassador empowered to
speak in the name of the Church and as the representative of His
Son; consequently his prayer has more power with God. All who
are present at Mass are spiritually sprinkled with the blood of Christ.
Could you see the beauty and the brilliancy of a soul thus sprinkled
with His blood, you would be ready to fall down and adore it. By
reason of the communion of saints, the whole Church is benefited by
the holy sacrifice. It is an embassy to the Holy Trinity, bringing a
gift of inestimable value. If a deputation from a town offers a
present to their monarch, all the inhabitants take part in offering it.
So all Christendom has its share in the Mass, although at the sacri-
ficial act its representatives are few in number; on this account the
priest says in the prayers of the Mass that he offers up this sacrifice
of praise for the whole Church, for all who pay their vows to the
eternal, living and true God (prayer after the Sanctus). Every
priest offers the sacrifice of the Mass for the salvation of the whole
world; without it, destruction would long ago have come upon the
earth by reason of the multitude of man's transgressions. The
faithful departed benefit more particularly by holy Mass. Our
Lord's death upon the cross was of immediate profit to the dead, for
He directly went down to limbo, to set free many who were there.
Il is the same now; whenever a Mass is said, several souls are released
from purgatory; the angels hasten to open for them the gate of their
prison. Moreover the holy sacrifice gives joy to the angels and saints.
Since the blessed desire above all things the glory of God and the
salvation of mankind, they experience inexpressible delight when they
see, that in the Mass highest honors are paid to the Holy Trinity,
and the spiritual welfare of man is powerfully promoted. The angels
and saints also rejoice because their names occur in the holy Mass;
they exult with the exultation of warriors who, having been compan-
ions of their monarch in the fight, are not forgotten in the triumph
of his victory. And if even from the Jewish sacrifices a most sweet
odor rose up to heaven (Numb, xxviii. 2), how much more must this
be the case with the oblation of Christ. The fragrance of His blood
goes up on high to refresh and invigorate the blessed denizens of
heaven. For this reason the angels descend from the realms above
to assist at Mass ; as on Christmas night they came down to Bethle-
hem, singing songs of praise, to adore the new-born Infant in the
manger, so now they stand around the altar at the time of Mass, be-
cause the only-begotten Son of God is again made flesh. When God
brought in the first begotten into the world, He said : " Let all the
angels of God adore Him" (Heb. i. 6). Remember, when you hear
Mass, that you are in the company of countless celestial spirits.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 54"
7. THE CELEBRATION OF HOLY MASS.
1. The holy sacrifice of the Mass is only offered to God; it may
be offered to Him with a fourfold intention; by way of atone-
ment, of petition, of praise, or of thanksgiving.
When we offer sacrifice, we acknowledge that He to Whom we
offer it is the Author of all being, the sovereign Lord of all things,
and that we consequently owe Him homage. The sacrificial act is
therefore an act of adoration, which can be offered to no created
being, be he saint or angel. ~No one has ever offered sacrifice except
to the true God, or to one whom he erroneously supposed to be the
true God. Under the Old Dispensation there were various sacri-
fices : Sin-offerings, burnt-offerings, sacrifices of praise, etc. ; we have
but one sacrifice, which answers all these ends. To make atonement is
pre-eminently the object of the sacrifice of the Mass ; this is the chief
intention for which it is celebrated. The sacrifice of the Mass has
also an immense potency if we would ask for anything ; no gift or
favor is too great to be obtained by means of it. For what we im-
plore is something finite, something created, whereas what we offer,
is something divine, something infinite. It cannot be imagined that
God, Who is so generous that He richly rewards a cup of cold water
given in His name, will not reward us when we offer Him the chalice
containing the blood of His divine Son. St. Bonaventure says : " If
a commander is taken prisoner, he is not liberated until a large sum
has been paid for his ransom ;" now in holy Mass we can say : " Be-
hold, O eternal Father, Thy only-begotten Son, Whom all the earth
cannot contain, is now a prisoner in our hands; we will not release
Him until that which we earnestly implore of Thee has been granted
to us for His sake." The holv sacrifice of the Mass is also a sacrifice
of praise. That alone can be praised which is praiseworthy; the
more good there is in a man, the more praise can be given to him.
God is the supreme and infinite Good; all the creatures He has made
cannot praise Him enough. " Glorify the Lord, exalt Him as much
as you can, for He is above all praise " (Ecclus. xliii. 32). Yet there
is one means whereby we can worthily praise God, and that is bv the
sacrifice of the Mass. Upon the altar Christ nraises the Godhead
as He ought to be praised, as neither angel nor saint, much less mortal
man, is able to praise Him. One single Mass gives more glory to God
than ail the angels and saints in heaven are capable of rendering
Him; the glory given Him is as much greater as God is more exalted
than His creatures (Cochem). In no way can God be more honored
tban by the spotless Victim upon the altar; Christ instituted the
Mass for this end, to enable the Church to give glory to God. An-
other intention for which Mass may be celebrated is to give God
thanks. " If any one has done thee a kindness," says Cochem, " thou
art bound to make him a fitting return, unless thou wouldst appear
ungrateful." ]STow consider wV>at countless benefits we have received
from God; think how admirably He has made the earth, fashioned
man ; how He provides continually for our sustenance. Think, above
all, of the work or redemption, the institution of the sacraments,
and of the many graces He has conferred on us. Will we not
548 The Means of Grace.
say with Tobias : " What wages shall we give Him, or what can be
worthy of His benefits ? " (Tob. xii. 2.) See, you have the sacrifice of
the Mass ; therefore it is in your power to make a worthy return for
the divine benefits. For as Our Lord gave thanks to God at the Last
Supper, so He now gives thanks in the Mass ; and the thanksgiving of-
fered by God is infinite, surpassing in value that of all angels and
all mankind. If the whole company of heaven and all good men
on earth were to unite with you in one unceasing act of thanksgiv-
ing, you would not give God as much thanks as is rendered to Him
in one Mass by His divine Son. How great is the love of God
towards us ! Not only does He lavish innumerable benefits upon us.
but at the same time He places within our reach an excellent means
of repaying worthily the great blessings we have received.
2. The holy sacrifice of the Mass may also be offered in honor
of the angels or saints.
When we offer holy Mass in honor of the saints, it is the same
as when a play is acted in honor of a prince. Although no allusion
may be made in it to the prince, yet he accepts it graciously. Even
so the blessed take special delight in the Mass when it is celebrated
in their honor, although the Passion of Christ alone is re-enacted in
it, and it is offered solely to God (Cochem). When offered in honor
of the saints, the Mass is essentially a sacrifice of thanksgiving and of
petition; for we give thanks to God for the graces bestowed on the
saints, and beseech Him to grant us grace through their intercession.
When Mass is celebrated with this intention, the accidental glory
of the saints is increased, but not the degree of happiness they enjoy.
St. Gertrude often had Mass said in honor of the saints, and they
generally appeared to her to thank her. During the Mass she was
permitted to see them shining in greater glory, arrayed in garments
more resplendent. The renewed presence of her Son upon earth
also gives the Mother of God a thousand times more joy than all the
psalms, litanies, prayers, you could recite in her honor; and doubt-
less she will show you special favor if you hear or celebrate Mass in
her honor.
3. The holy sacrifice of the Mass can also be offered for the
soiils of the departed, who have been members of the Catholic
Church, and have not died in a state of mortal sin.
The Council of Trent expressly declares that the sacrifice of the
Mass may be offered for the dead (C. 22, 2). It is unquestionably
true that the departed may be assisted by holy Mass; that God is
thereby induced to deal with them more leniently than their sins
deserve (St. Augustine). From the earliest ages of Christianity it
was customary to offer the holy sacrifice for the faithful departed,
and give them a memento in every Mass, as is done now after the
consecration. Tertullian states that this was the practice of the
apostles themselves. We know that Monica begged St. Augustine to
remember her at the altar of God after her departure. " She was not
concerned," says St. Augustine, " about the embalming cr preparing
of her body for burial ; she was not solicitous about her sepulchre or
the monument to be raised to her memory ; her only anxiety was that
intercession should be made for her at the altar." What a contrast
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 549
to Christians in the present day! Holy Mass may not be publicly
celebrated for non-Catholics, such as Jews and Protestants, after
their death. " We cannot," says Pope Innocent III., " hold commun-
ion after their death with those with whom we held no communion
during their life." To offer the holy sacrifice for such persons by
name, as we do for Catholics, would be out of harmony with Cath-
olic teaching. It is, however, permitted to offer up holy Mass pri-
vately even for non-Catholics, and it will avail them if they were free
from mortal sin at the time of their death.
4. The holy sacrifice of the Mass can, however, be offered for
the living, whether Catholics or non-Catholics.
Holy Mass may be said for the living; we know that it is well to
pray for our brethren when we are present at the holy sacrifice, and
in every Mass a memento is made for the living. Father Cochem
tells us that prayer for others is far more efficacious if offered during
Mass, and we can even obtain the conversion of sinners by saying
Mass, or having Mass said for them. No better assistance than this
can be given to the sick and dying. We may also offer the holy sacri-
fice for unbelievers during their lifetime, because Christ died for
all men, and the Church intercedes for infidels, e.g., on Good Friday.
The greater the number of persons for whom a Mass is said, the less
profit does each individual derive from it. For this reason priests
are strictly forbidden to accept more than one gratuity for one Mass.
From time immemorial Mass has been offered for individuals, for it
could not be supposed that a Mass which is said for hundreds or
thousands of people could profit each one as much as if it were said
for him alone.
5. ISTot the priest alone, but all the faithful who are present
at Mass, may offer the holy sacrifice for a special intention.
The people who are present when Mass is celebrated offer it with
the officiating priest. The priest offers the sacrifice in his own per-
son, the people offer it by his hands. Hence St. Peter speaks of
Christians as a kingly priesthood (1 Pet. ii. 9), and the Jews of old
were called a priestly kingdom (Exod. xix. 6). In the prayers of the
Mass the priest includes the people with himself as those who offer
the oblation (Orate Fratres) ; in fact the priest must of necessity
have some one to offer it with him, for on no account is it permitted
to say Mass without a server, who represents the people. And as
those who assist at Mass are fellow-sacrificers with the priest, it fol-
lows that their prayers have the same power as his. The faithful
ought therefore, whenever they hear Mass, to offer it for some definite
intention. This may be done either at the commencement of the
Mass, or at the offertory, or immediately after the consecration.
Take heed, O Christian, that in the Mass you frequently offer up
the divine Victim to His heavenly Father ; the more often you do this,
the more abundantly will you be enriched. Those who neglect thus
to offer the holy Mass in word or in thought, lose much that they
might gain. The due blessing of Mass does not consist in merely
being present at it, but in uniting one's self in spirit to the priest
who offers it.
550 The Means of Grace.
8. THE VALUE OF THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.
1. As the holy sacrifice of the Mass is an oblation of infinite
value, to celebrate or to hear Mass is a good work which surpasses
all other good works in excellence.
An oblation is nothing else than a gift we offer to God. Now the
value of a gift is proportionate to the dignity of the giver and the
costliness of the gift. Thus it is with a sacrifice; the more holy the
sacrificer and the more precious the victim, the greater is its im-
portance in God's sight. Hence it is that the value of the sacrifice
of the Mass is infinite, for the priest and victim are none other
than He of Whom God the Father said : " This is My beloved Son,
in AVhoni I am well pleased " (Matt. iii. 17). The glory given to God
in the Mass is greater than that which accrues to Him from all the
good works of the saints, for the glory they give Him is finite, whereas
the glory He receives in the Mass is infinite ; it is an honor paid not
by angels or men, but by Christ Himself. " Christ alone," says
Cochem, " knows the greatness of the divine majesty ; He alone knows
what is due to the Most High ; He alone is capable of rendering to the
divine majesty the honor that appertains to Him ; all that angels and
men can do for the glory of God scarcely deserves notice in com-
parison with what Christ does." ISTo sacrifice is an act of such pro-
found abasement as the sacrifice of the Mass, for in it the all-glorious
Son of God abases Himself to the utmost upon the altar, making Him-
self appear less than man. In presence of the sacrifice of the Mass,
all the sacrifices of the Old Testament vanish as do the stars when the
sum rises, for those sacrifices were only acceptable to God inasmuch
as they foreshadowed the oblation of Christ on the cross, with which
the Mass is identical. Therefore to hear or celebrate Mass is a good
work of greater excellence than any other. As the sun exceeds the
planets in radiance and vivifying power, so to hear Mass devoutly
is much more important, more profitable to us, than any other good
work. " If," says St. Laurence Justinian, " you place all your good
works, prayers, fasts, alms, mortifications in one scale, and a single
Mass in the other, you will find the latter far outweighs the former."
For .by the practice of penance we offer to God gifts that are purely
human, but when we hear Mass with due devotion, we offer Him
gifts that are divine; we offer Him the body of Christ, the blood of
Christ, the wounds of Christ, the Passion of Christ — nay, the only-
begotten Son of God Himself. The Council of Trent declares that
no more holy and divine act can be performed by the faithful than
the sacrifice of the Mass. To hear Mass, as a good work, is more
profitable than mental prayer, which is the highest form of prayer,
because in meditation we represent to ourselves Christ as present,
whereas in the Mass He is really present in person.
2. Offering or hearing Mass has more value as a good work
in proportion to the worthiness and devotion of priest and people.
The sacrifice of the Mass has a twofold virtue. The one it has of
itself, quite independently of the worthiness of the priest. By the
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 551
sacrifice of the Mass the virtues of Christ's Passion and His merits are
applied to our souls in a totally different manner to that of any other
works. Hence a man in no wise loses the fruit of the holy sacrifice
if it is offered for him by a priest who is unworthy. Just as the effi-
cacy of the sacraments does not depend upon the character of the
priest who dispenses, so the oblation of a bad priest has the same in-
trinsic value as that of a good priest (St. Thomas Aquinas). Yet
on the other hand, the Mass regarded as a good work performed by
a believing Christian, has a secondary virtue which depends upon the
sanctity and fervor of priest and people. The holier the priest, the
more profound his devotion, the more acceptable is the sacrifice he
offers, and the greater is the benefit accruing from it. Thus it is far
preferable to hear the Mass of a good priest than of a careless one,
for the piety and sanctity both of the minister himself, and the
faithful who join with him in offering the sacred oblation, enhance
its beneficial effect as a good work and incite those present to greater
devotion.
9. DEVOTION AT HOLY MASS.
When we are conversing with any one, we give him our whole
attention, and do not think of other people. So when we hear Mass,
when we are in the presence of God, we should fix our thoughts on
Him, and for the time forget everything else. This we should do all
the more because to hear Mass is the highest and holiest act of wor-
ship we can perform, and if we do this carelessly, it will be without
benefit to ourselves.
We ought to be very devout at Mass; that is, we ought to
banish from our minds all that may cause distraction, and en-
deavor to unite our supplications to those of the priest, especially
in the three principal parts of the Mass.
As it is only at the cost of great toil that miners extract precious
stones from the bowels of the earth, so we cannot make the hidden
treasures of grace contained in the Mass our own unless we take
pains to assist at it with the utmost attention and devotion.
1, Whispering, laughing, looking about at the time of Mass
must be carefully avoided; moreover it is unseemly to come to
Mass overdressed.
It may be said of our churches, where God is present upon our
altars, what God said to Moses out of the burning bush : " The place
whereon thou standest in holy ground" (Exod. iii. 5). We gather
from the indignation Our Lord manifested in regard to those that
bought and sold in the Temple (Matt. xxi. 13), how abhorrent to Him
is indecorous behavior in the house of God. The house of God is a
house of prayer. You would not allow yourself to chatter and laugh,
nor even to sit down in the presence of an earthly monarch; with
how much greater awe and reverence ought you to behave in the
presence of Him Who is above all kings and emperors, the Son of the
most high God ! Seven hundred priests and Levites ministered in the
552 The Means of Grace.
Jewish Temple of old; they slaughtered victims daily for the burnt-
offerings; and all went on in silence so profound that it might have
been imagined that one priest only was in the Temple. Alexander the
Great once was offering sacrifice to one of the heathen gods ; a young
nobleman stood by holding a lighted torch; before the function was
ended the torch burned down and scorched his hand, but such was his
reverence for the act of sacrifice that he would not allow himself to
fling it away. How much more ought Christians to avoid everything
that would disturb the solemnity of this sublime sacrifice ! The early
Christians remained motionless at Mass, so that it was as still as if
no one were in the church. It has always been customary to kneel
during Mass, at any rate from the consecration until after the com-
munion. A pious empress, who was in the habit of kneeling through-
out the Mass, was once begged not to fatigue herself in this manner :
" What," she replied, " would you have me sit in the presence of my
Lord and God, when my servants do not venture to sit in my pres-
ence ? " St. Elizabeth of Hungary used always to remove her crown
while she heard Mass. Those who behave irreverently at the holy
sacrifice deserve condign punishment; they certainly derive no profit
from it. It is also most unseemly to come to Mass dressed to excess,
in the height of the fashion. St. John Chrysostom animadverts
severely upon women who apparently go to Mass to attract attention,
and show off their fine clothes. " Thou popinjay! is this finery," he
says, " befitting a contrite sinner, who comes to entreat pardon ? Such
garments are more suitable for the ballroom than the church." St.
Ambrose says the more admiration such persons gain from men, the
more they are despised by God. Some Popes and holy bishops have
ordained that women should come veiled to church: St. Paul seems
to have made the same rule for his converts, remarking that nature
provided them with a veil, by giving them long hair (1 Cor. xi. 5, 14).
2. When assisting at the holy sacrifice, we ought to unite our
supplications to those of the priest, but it is not necessary to use
the same prayers as he does.
Meditation upon Our Lord's Passion is the best method of
hearing Mass, because in holy Mass the sacrifice of the cross is
re-enacted, and it was instituted as a commemoration of the
death of the Redeemer.
Those do wrong who repeat the prayers of the Mass out of a
prayer-book in a formal manner, with their lips, not with their heart.
There is nothing reprehensible in refraining altogether from vocal
prayer during Mass if we substitute for it mental prayer. Those
who repeat vocal prayers must take care not to disturb others by
whispering. The five sorrowful mysteries of the Kosary are a very
suitable devotion for Mass, because Our Lord's Passion is thus set
before us.
It is well to have a little singing during Mass, as it is con-
ducive to devotion, is in itself a prayer, and promotes the glory
of God.
Sacred music is most useful in exciting devotion. St. Augustine
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 553
Says : " How many tears I have shed, when hymns and canticles were
sung to Thee, O my God! What emotions were aroused within me,
when the church re-echoed with sweet melodies ! Each note fell upon
my ear like soothing balm, carrying conviction of Thy truth to my
heart, and kindling within me the ardor of devotion." Music is, more-
over, an efficacious prayer; it is a heartfelt and fervent prayer, for
the feelings of the heart gain force when the voice expresses them in
song. The Fathers of the Church cannot say enough in commenda-
tion of the use of vocal music in church; they say that it appeases
the wrath of God, drives away the spirits of evil, attracts the angels,
and leads the Holy Spirit to visit the heart of the singers; that on
the wings of song the soul is aided to soar on high, that the voice of
song awakens in the mind a longing for heavenly things, that it melts
the heart and causes the sinner to shed tears of contrition aiid com-
punction. Vocal music is also an appropriate accompaniment to the
sacrifice of the Mass ; for it affords a means of expressing and manifest-
ing the intense feeling, the deep emotions evoked by an attentive con-
sideration of what is being enacted upon the altar. And since it is in
song that the heart gives vent to her inmost feelings most freely and
touchingly, it is the most perfect and fitting means of honoring the di-
vine majesty. As often as Holy Scripture speaks of giving glory to God
by the lips of angels or saints, it is described as a sublime and exalted
song of praise. Therefore vocal music may almost be said to be an inte-
gral part of the solemn celebration of the holy sacrifice; the Church
could more readily dispense with magnificent structures, rich coloring,
costly vestments, precious vessels, than with singing, for it is the
language in which utterance is given to her prayers. We read that
at the Last Supper Our Lord and His apostles sang a hymn, after
which they went out unto Mount Olivet (Matt. xxvi. 30). And we
know, from the testimony of the earliest writers, that the Christians
of primitive times were wont to sing during the celebration of holy
Mass ; for the first Christian annalists employ the expression : " Sing
to Christ a canticle of praise," as synonymous with offering the
holy sacrifice. In the present day some parts of the Mass are ap-
pointed to be sung by the priest. It is, however, important that the
singing at Mass should be as far as possible in harmony with the
prayers recited by the priest and with the festival of the day; for
congregational singing is not a mere accompaniment to, an accessory
of the Mass, but a means whereby the people take part in the service
and join with the priest who officiates at the altar. But the singing
should not be continuous, for this is disturbing to devotion. The
Holy See has expressly forbidden the singing to go on during some
parts of the liturgy, as at the consecration, and when benediction is
given with the Blessed Sacrament.
3. At the three principal parts of the Mass we should to a
certain extent suspend our private devotions, and fix our attention
upon what is done upon the altar.
It is evidently the intention of the Church that we should dis-
continue our private prayers or singing during the canon of the
Mass and at the communion, as a bell is rung to call our attention to
it. At the offertory the priest says: "We offer unto Thee, 0 Lord,
554 The Means of Grace.
the chalice of salvation/' and the faithful ought on their part to make
an act of offering, to verify his words.
In the course of the Mass we are required to do as follows:
When the priest commences the Mass, we should make the sign
of the cross, and direct our intention.
The priest also offers the Mass for a definite intention. Ask your-
self for what intention you should offer the holy sacrifice. In some
places it is customary for the people to stand when the priest goes up
to the altar, as a mark of reverence to him as Christ's representa-
tive.
At the Gospel all stand up, out of respect for the word of
God; we should at the same time cross ourselves on forehead,
lips, and breast, to testify our belief in, and our readiness to
confess and follow the teaching of the crucified Redeemer.
At the offertory we ought to offer to God the oblations upon
the altar, ourselves, and all that we possess.
At the Sanctus we ought to give praise to God, and hail the
coming of the Son of God Who is about to descend upon the
altar. The words of the Sanctus are like the thrice holy of the
angels (Is. vi. 3), and the cries of the people at Our Lord's entry
into Jerusalem (Matt. xxi. 9).
At the consecration we ought to kneel and adore the Re-
deemer Who comes down from heaven upon the altar.
Imitate at the consecration what you see the priest do ; he falls upon
his knees, and reverently adores the Lord and God Whom he holds in
his hands. Do as the three kings did in presence of the Infant Christ,
or as the apostles on Mount Thabor. When the priest elevates the
Host, look upon it with veneration; Our Lord once revealed to St.
Gertrude that those who did so would have greater joy hereafter in
the contemplation of God. If looking upon a brazen serpent in the
wilderness brought healing (Numb, xxi. 9), what must it not do for
us to gaze in faith upon the sacred Host! It is not well to drop
one's head immediately, as if one would hide one's self. For what
purpose does the priest elevate the sacred Host and hold it up on
high but that we may behold it ? Every one should remain perfectly
silent, in trembling awe, when the King of kings comes to be immo-
lated for the faithful and given to them as their spiritual sustenance.
Before Him the choirs of angels move, covering their faces, singing
songs of praise with great jubilation. " The Lord is in His holy tem-
ple; let all the earth keep silence before Him" (Hab. ii. 20). Some
ueople keep cold and unmoved at the consecration, just as if Our
Lord were not present ; they are like a man who, when a friend comes
from a distance to visit him, does not so much as bid him welcome
on his arrival, but leaves him standing as if he were a stranger. The
whole court of heaven makes preoaration for the consecration, and
we miserable mortals look on with indifference, scarcely seeming to
heed what is enacted upon the altar. Oh! did God but open the
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 555
eyes of our soul, what marvels would be disclosed to our spiritual
sight ! But because we do not perceive with our senses the abasement
of the Son of God, we think little of it, whereas the angels gaze on
it with trembling.
4. It is an excellent practice immediately after the consecra-
tion to make to our heavenly Father a definite act of offering of
His divine Son sacrificed upon the altar, and of His Passion and
death.
The priest officiating at the altar recites a prayer of offering. We
may use some such words as these : " I offer Thee, O heavenly Father,
Thy well-beloved Son, here present upon the altar; I offer Thee His
sufferings and cruel death, beseeching Thee to have compassion upon
the souls in purgatory " (or any other intention, such as the recovery
of a sick person, or in thanksgiving for favors received). How
pleasing it is to the eternal Father, when you honor Him in this man-
ner! How rich a return will He make for the gift you present to
Him! If any man possessed the whole world, and offered it to al-
mighty God, he would not give Him so great a gift as when he
humbly offers to Him His beloved Son in the Mass. The power of
Christ's precious blood is all-prevailing to appease the wrath of God;
by it we can obtain the conversion of sinners and the deliverance
of souls from purgatory. Even the most grievous sinner may hope
to obtain pardon, if he offers up the Passion and death of Christ to
His divine Father. This may be done at other times than at Mass,
but with less efficacy.
5. At the communion if we do not communicate actually, we
ought to do so spiritually.
The early Christians communicated daily ; but now few Christians
lead so perfect a life as to be able to communicate daily. When the
priest gives the blessing we should cross ourselves, at the same time
imploring the blessing of God and giving thanks for the graces we
have received. At the Last Gospel we should do the same as at the
first.
6. It is not possible to hear two or more Masses at the same
time; therefore when in church we ought to follow one Mass
attentively, and not more than one.
We should endeavor, if we are present when several Masses are
being said, to hear the one which is said where we can see it best, and
follow that alone. In some dioceses it is the rule that if several
Masses are celebrated simultaneously, the bell should be rung at one
altar only, and that the principal, or at any rate the most conspicuous
one. Yet though we cannot hear more than one Mass at the same
time, if we are where several are being said, we profit in a certain
measure by all, since every priest prays for all who are present.
556 The Means of Grace,
10. THE OBLIGATION OF HEARING MASS.
1. Every Catholic is bound, under pain of mortal sin, to hear
the whole of one Mass devoutly every Sunday and holyday of
obligation.
(See the second commandment of the Church.)
1. Those persons who could not go to church without great
injury to themselves, or who have some urgent work of mercy
to perform, are excused from hearing Mass.
Those are dispensed from hearing Mass who by going to chnrch
would incur serious personal injury. Thus the sick who cannot go
to church are excused, likewise those whose health is so delicate that
they cannot go without at least the risk of falling ill; or those who
by going would be in danger of being set upon by ruffians; others
again who live more than three miles from a church, or at too great
a distance to go in bad weather. A king once observed that on a
stormy December morning the church was almost empty, whereas
in the evening, though the snow was falling heavily, the theatre was
crowded. " Alas," he exclaimed, " people are ready enough to make
sacrifices for pleasure, but for God they will make none." Working-
people are also excused if they would lose their employment by leav-
ing their work to hear Mass, or they may stay away occasionally, if
by going they have great disagreeables to put up with from the people
they live with, though they should endeavor rather to bring them to
a better mind. One member of a household may remain at home to
keep the house; those, again, are excused from attendance at Mass
who have works of mercy to perform, such as nursing the sick, taking
care of young children, preparing the meals for other inmates of the
house, etc.
2. We have not heard a whole Mass, unless we have been
present in the church during the three principal parts of one
and the same Mass.
It is requisite to be present at the three principal parts of the
Mass ; if one of these is omitted through negligence, the obligation is
not fulfilled; if, for instance, we do not come in before the offertory,
or if we leave before the communion. It does not suffice to hear one
Mass from the consecration to the end, and another from the com-
mencement to the consecration. What Christ has joined together,
let not the Christian put asunder. He who comes in after the
offertory must stay for the whole of another Mass. Moreover one
must be present inside the church; it will not suffice to sit or stand
outside, unless the church should be so overcrowded that it is im-
possible to get inside. How potent is the prayer of an assembled
multitude; for where two or three are gathered together in Christ's
name, there is He in the midst of them (Matt, xviii. 20). St. John
the Almoner, Patriarch of Alexandria in the seventh century,
put a stop to the bad habit his flock had contracted of remaining out-
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 557
side during Mass-time. One Sunday, instead of vesting for Mass,
he went out and sat with the people outside the church, to their great
astonishment. " Where the sheep are, there the shepherd must be,"
he observed. " While you stay here, I shall do the same ; if you go
in, I will go too." After this rebuke no one was to be seen outside the
church at Mass-time.
3. Those only can be said to hear Mass devoutly who banish
from their mind all that may cause them distraction, and who
unite their petitions to those of the priest, especially at the three
principal parts of the Mass.
4. It is permissible to assist at the holy sacrifice of the Mass
on Sundays and holydays in any church; but it is desirable to
go to one's parish church.
The Council of Trent admonishes the faithful to be frequent in
their attendance at their parish church, at least on Sundays and the
greater festivals. On those days the priest offers the holy sacrifice
for all his parishioners, both living and dead, and adapts his sermons
to the needs of his flock; furthermore in the parish church notices are
given out of marriages, of fast days, of ecclesiastical festivals and
ordinances. The faithful ought to become acquainted with their
parish priest, who is their pastor and spiritual father, in the house
of God. There is however no law which makes it binding upon
Catholics to hear Mass in their parish church.
2. To hear Mass on week-days, if possible, is a highly com-
mendable practice, for it may be the means of gaining the greatest
graces.
If the holy sacrifice were celebrated in only one place in the world,
and offered only by one priest, with what longing would Christian
people hasten to that spot! But now that there are many priests,
and Christ is daily offered up in many places, how much is our luke-
warmness and negligence to be deplored, which has thereby arisen
(Imitation, Book iv., ch. 1). Some people consider the half hour they
take from their work to hear Mass as a loss of time ; this is, however,
not S0j for they do their work better and more quickly through having
been to Mass. Has not Our Lord said : " Seek first the kingdom of
God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you "
(Matt. vi. 33) ? " If," says Cochem, " a shower of gold fell from the
clouds, thou wouldst surely leave thy work and hasten into the street
to gather up the coins. Only a fool would stop indoors. And thou
art a fool if thou dost through indifference or negligence omit to hear
Mass, when a stream of heavenly treasures is poured out from on high.
Through neglecting holy Mass one loses far more than one would gain
by a whole day's work. Arrange thy business therefore, if thou canst,
so as to allow of thy hearing Mass daily. And if it is impossible for
thee to go thyself, give an alms to some poor person to hear Mass for
thee; be will do so gladly, and thou wilt reap the greater benefit."
For, as is the case with every good work, we may apply to others the
merit of hearing Mass without being losers ourselves. For the priest,
in the canon of the Mass, supposes that those who are present who
558 The Means of Grace.
with him offer up the holy sacrifice, do so for their families and
friends as well as for themselves. Do not allow human respect to
keep you from serving Christ, for if you are ashamed of Him, He will
also be ashamed of you (Luke ix. 26). When King Louis of France
was told that people talked about his habit of hearing one or even
more than one Mass daily, he replied : " How careful people are about
my time; if I spent twice as long at play or out hunting, they would
not have a word to say about it." The Blessed Thomas More was
accustomed to say, in connection with hearing Mass daily, that he
esteemed it his greatest honor to render that mark of respect to the
King of kings.
11. THE TIME WHEN MAS 8 IS TO BE CELEBRATED.
1. The holy sacrifice of the Mass is generally to be celebrated
between sunrise and noon, and at midnight on Christmas Eve.
Mass may be said before sunrise under exceptional circumstances,
such as the priest's going on a journey, or in order to give working-
people the opportunity of hearing Mass before commencing the day's
labor; or it may happen that after the consecration of a church, or
a confirmation, the holy sacrifice is not commenced before twelve
o'clock (noon). The early Christians celebrated Mass at night, in
order to escape the persecution of the heathen. And in later years it
was customary to offer the holy sacrifice during the night several
times in the course of the year; at Christmas, on Holy Saturday,
on St. John Baptist's Day, and on Ember days.
2. On Sundays and holy days of obligation the holy sacrifice
of the Mass is offered at a convenient hour in all parish churches,
and almost always on week-days also.
Every Catholic priest is bound to say Mass on Sundays and holy-
days (Council of Trent, 23, 14). Those who have the care of souls
are, in virtue of their office, under the obligation of offering the holy
sacrifice every Sunday and holyday for their parishioners, both living
and dead. These Masses which are binding on those who have the
cure of souls are called parochial Masses, and must be said at the
hour when the parishioners are best able to come to church.
3. ISTo priest may, as a rule, say Mass more than once daily;
but on Christmas Day all priests are alloAved to say three Masses.
And by the permission of the bishop some parish priests who
have a large congregation are allowed to duplicate, that is, say
two Masses on the same day.
In the commencement of the Middle Ages it was customary for
priests sometimes to say one Mass after another, but this gave rise to
many abuses. By a decree of Pope Innocent III. the clergy were for-
bidden to say more than oue Mass daily, except on Christmas Day,
when three might be said. It is not, however, obligatory on priests to
say three Masses on Christmas Day, any more than it is upon the
laity to hear three. Priests who have a large parish obtain permission
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 559
from the bishop to duplicate, if the church is too small for all the
parishioners to hear one and the same Mass.
On the other hand no priest may say Mass on Good Friday.
And on Holv Thursday and Holv Saturday only one solemn
Mass is to be celebrated in the parish church.
The only exception to this rule is made when the feast of the
Annunciation falls on Thursday in Holy Week. If it falls on Good
Friday or Holy Saturday, it is transferred to the Monday in Low
Week.
12. THE PLACE WHERE MASS IS TO BE CELEBRATED.
1. The apostles offered the holy sacrifice on a table in a
dwelling-house.
(See Acts ii. 46; Col. iv. 15.) To this day the table whereon St.
Peter offered the holy sacrifice may be seen in the Church of St. John
Lateran in Rome. The Council of Xice (325), speaks of the holy
table on which the priest immolates without bloodshed the Lamb of
God, Whose body and blood is the spiritual food of Christians. A
table was used because it was on a table that the holy Mass was in-
stituted by Our Lord on Holy Thursday; that table, made of cedar-
wood, is still preserved in Rome. Another reason for using a table
was that it could be easily hidden or removed in times of persecution.
2. In the time of the great persecution of the Christians,
the holy sacrifice was offered on the tombs of the martyrs in
subterranean passages (the Catacombs).
It is from this that the altar to this day has the form of a tomb,
and that relics of the saints are deposited in it. Another reason
why relics are placed in the altars is to denote the communion we
hold with the saints in heaven, and it is on account of the relics being
' there that the priest frequently kisses the altar. When the Church
had emerged from the Catacombs, the churches were erected by pref-
erence upon the spots where the saints and martyrs were interred
(witness St. Peter's in Rome), and eminent ecclesiastics were buried
in the crypts. Hence arose the custom at funerals of having the body
in the church when the requiem is sung. And the lights which are
burned during divine worship date from the time when the Chris-
tians assembled to hear Mass in dark, subterranean chambers. The
burning lights also symbolize divine grace, which enlightens and
vivifies, and which is communicated at no time so freely as during
holy Mass. The candles upon tH altar signify, furthermore, the
presence of Him Who is the Light of the world, the God-man, Who
enlightens us by His word.
3. When the period of persecution was over, the holy sacri-
fice of the Mass was offered in churches upon altars of stone.
In old times a table or mound was formed of stone, and decked
as an altar. Xoe, on coming out of the ark, built an altar, and the
560 The Means of Grace.
other patriarchs did the same. In the Temple at Jerusalem there were
two altars, the altar of burnt-offering in the outer court, and the
altar of incense in the sanctuary. Altars must be either composed
entirely of stone, or a stone, blessed by the bishop and containing
relics, must be let into the top. On this the chalice and paten are
placed, to signify that Christ is the foundation and cornerstone on
which the Church rests (Ps. cxvii. 22), and a threefold linen cloth
must be spread upon the altar, both because Our Lord was wrapped
in a linen cloth when He lay in the sepulchre, and also to absorb any
drops of the precious blood that might perchance fall from the
chalice. On every altar there must be a cross, because the sacrifice of
the cross is renewed there, and also two candlesticks with wax
tapers. The altar is generally placed so that the officiating priest
looks towards the east; the reason of this is because when he cele-
brates the Mass he lifts his heart and hands to Him Who is the
source of spiritual light. The altar is raised, both to denote its
dignity, to enable all who are in the church to see the ceremonies,
and also because the great oblation of our redemption was offered
upon an eminence visible from afar.
Churches are usually built on a height, or in the centre of
a township. The styles of ecclesiastical architecture are many
and varied.
A hill, or some eminence, used to be selected as the site of a
church, because of old high places were considered sacred; under the
Old Dispensation God frequently manifested Himself to mortals on
a mountain; Our Lord often withdrew to a mountain to pray, and
the Temple of Jerusalem, the type of the Christian Church, was
situated upon a mountain. On an eminence one is more disposed
for prayer and recollection; one is further aloof from the noise of
the busy world, one feels nearer to God. Christ Himself said His
Church was to be built upon a rock, and He was crucified upon Mount
Calvary. When churches are situated in the centre of a town or
village, it should remind us that in the Blessed Sacrament the Good
Shepherd loves to dwell in the* midst of His sheep. The Church of
St. Peter in Pome is the largest basilica in the world.
Both the external and internal arrangements of churches
are adapted to awaken and aid devotion.
In regard to the exterior, the church is larger and higher than or-
dinary dwelling-houses, because it is the house of the most high God.
It looks toward the east, because it is destined for the worship of
the Sun of justice. It is built in the form of a cross, because the
sacrifice of the cross is re-enacted within its walls, and the doctrine
of the Crucified preached. It has a spire, pointing to heaven, our
home, to admonish us to " seek those things that are above " (Col.
iii. 1). Bells are hung in the tower to summon us to divine worship
or call us to prayer; the spire is surmounted by a cross, the emblem
of salvation, whereby God is reconciled with man. The interior of
the church is divided into three parts; the porch, where in former
days the catechumens and penitents used to kneel, and which ought
to remind us of the preparation necessary before entering the church ;
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 561
the nave, which is the part appropriated to the faithful, wherein, as
in Noe's ark, they are saved from eternal perdition; and the choir,
where the singers formerly sat, but which is now set apart for the
clergy. It is separated from the body of the church by a rail or
communion table. At the entrance of the church we see the holy
water stoup, reminding us that we ought to approach God with pure
hearts; in the interior is one or more altars; over the high altar is
the tabernacle wherein the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, and before
which the sanctuary lamp is kept perpetually burning, to symbolize
the Light of the world there present. There are also pictures and
statues of saints and angels, who assist unseen at the sacred offices,
besides the font, and all the other furniture of a church, with which
every Catholic is familiar. The " dim religious light " that pervades
the building, owing to the colored glass of the windows, reminds us
that here below we understand the things of God only in a dark man-
ner. Those people who say that it is unnecessary to go to church,
because they can say their prayers anywhere, should consider that
in the churches Our Lord is actually present upon our altars, that
the atmosphere of the sacred edifice disposes us to recollection, and
that petitions offered there have more power than those offered else-
where.
The consecration of a church is performed by the bishop,
but a church can, with the permission of the bishop, be em-
ployed for divine service without consecration.
-a By God's command Moses had to anoint the tabernacle with the
oil of unction (Exod. xl. 9), and Solomon's Temple was dedicated
by that monarch himself. When King Antiochus had profaned the
Temple by setting up idols within it, it had to be cleansed and dedi-
cated anew; this was the origin of the feast of the Dedication (1
Mach. iv. 54). It appertains to the office of a bishop alone to con-
secrate churches, but he may give leave for Mass to be said in any
building set apart for the purpose. The principal ceremonies of the
consecration of a church are as follows: The bishop first prostrates
himself before the principal entrance, and recites the Litany of the
Saints ; then rising up, he goes three times around the outside of the
building, sprinkling the walls with holy water; each time that he
passes the door he knocks upon it with his crozier; finally he makes
the sign of the cross upon the threshold with the crozier to signify
that nothing can resist the force of the cross, and enters the church,
where he falls on his knees and invokes the Holy Spirit. He then
draws the letters of the Greek and Latin alphabets upon the pavement
of the church, which is strewn with ashes, to signify that all the
nations of the earth are called into the Church of Christ; next he
goes round the interior of the building three times, sprinkling the
walls with holy water, and three times up the centre and across it;
this is in honor of the Holy Trinity, and of the crucifixion of Christ ;
afterwards he anoints the walls in twelve places, where lighted
tapers are affixed, in memory of the twelve apostles who spread abroad
the light of the Gosoel, and then proceeds to consecrate the altar.
From time immemorial the anniversary of the dedication of a church
formed a yearly festival in the parish, but abuses having crept in,
one festival was appointed for the whole Church, the third Sunday
662
The Means of Grace.
in October, to be kept as the feast of the Dedication. If any grievous
crime is committed in a church, such as murder, or suicide, and it
is known publicly, the sacred edifice must be instantly closed and
dedicated anew. This must also be done if a church is rebuilt, either
wholly or to such an extent that the walls are in great part pulled
down. Only under most exceptional circumstances, in time of war,
or if a church is burned down, or at open-air festivals, may Mass be
said outside the church, and express permission from the bishop
must invariably be obtained. For saying Mass on board ship, the sanc-
tion of the Holy See is necessary. On such occasions a portable
altar, blessed by the bishop, is used ; that is, a square stone slab, large
enough to admit of the chalice and Host being placed upon it.
THE VESTMENTS AND SACRED
USED AT MASS.
VESSELS
He who is granted an audience of an earthly monarch dresses
himself in full dress out of respect to that monarch; and the priest,
when he appears before the King of kings at the altar, is arrayed in
suitable vestments. These vestments show that he does not act of
his own power, but as the representative of Christ. God Himself gave
directions concerning the vestments which were to be worn by the
priests under the Old Testament (Exod. xxviii. 4). The vestments
to be worn by the Christian priests were prescribed by the apostles.
1. The vestments which the priest wears in the celebration
of Mass consist of (1), the amice; (2), the alb; (3), the girdle;
(4), the maniple; (5), the stole; (6), the chasuble.
The amice is a white linen cloth laid about the head and shoul-
ders. Formerly it used to be placed over the head like a hood, to
keep the priest from distractions at Mass. The alb is a white linen
garment, reaching from head to foot. In the East it was customary
to wear a white robe on festival occasions, as for instance, when in-
vited to a wedding. In the parable of the marriage-feast, Our Lord
makes mention of the "wedding garment" (Matt. xxii. 12). The
girdle is a cord which fastens the alb together, so that it may not
inconvenience the priest in walking. It is said of the young Tobias,
when he was seeking a companion for his journey, that he found a
young man, standing girded, as it were ready to walk (Tob. v. 5).
Our Lord also says: "Let your loins be girt" (Luke xii. 35). The
maniple was at first a linen cloth which was worn on the left arm,
representing the cloth wherewith Our Lord's countenance was wiped.
The stole is a long band of silk which hanp-s down from the neck and
is crossed on the breast. It is the special sign of the sacerdotal
office, therefore the priest wears it whenever he exercises his priestly
functions. The chasuble is a garment which covers the priest before
and behind, reaching down to the knees ; in early times it was a kind
of mantle, with only one opening, through which the head was passed,
whence came the name casula, a little house. At other times than at
Mass the priest wears a short alb or surplice, or a cope. At High
Mass the deacon and sub-deacon wear special vestments, called dal-
matics.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 563
2. The various portions of the sacerdotal vestments are com-
memorative of Our Lord's Passion, and also serve to remind the
priest of the duties of his office.
The amice represents the cloth with which the soldiers muffled
Our Lord's face when they struck Him; the alb represents the white
robe in which Herod arrayed Him in mockery; the girdle, the cords
wherewith He was bound ; the maniple, Veronica's handkerchief ; the
stole, the rope laid about Our Lord's neck after His condemnation;
the chasuble, on the back of which is a cross, the cross He bore on His
shoulders. The amice reminds the priest to observe custody of the
eyes; the alb betokens purity of heart; the girdle, abstemiousness,
purity, and self-control ; while the stole signifies his dignity as a priest,
and the chasuble the heavy responsibilities that rest upon him.
3. The principal things which are used in saying Mass are:
The chalice, the paten, and the missal.
The upper part of the chalice must be of gold, or silver, gilt in-
side. The paten is a small plate, whereon the sacred Host is laid;
it must be gold or silver-gilt. Both chalice and paten must be
blessed by the bishop. The missal eontains the prayers that are said
in every Mass, and those which vary according to the seasons and
days of the ecclesiastical year. The ciborium somewhat resembles a
chalice; it has a cover, and in it the consecrated Hosts are reserved
for the communion of the faithful. The monstrance is sometimes used
for the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Some worldlings are
inclined to say as Judas did, when Magdalen anointed Our Lord's
feet : " To what purpose is this waste ? " when they see the care and
money expended by Catholics on the sacred vessels and furniture of
their churches. They should, however, consider how greatly the
beauty of God's house impresses the beholder and conduces to devo-
tion ; and that it is, moreover, only right to give what is most precious
and beautiful for the service of God. Why should the house of
God be less richly adorned than the mansions of the wealthy ?
U. THE COLORS OF THE VESTMENTS.
The Jews made sacerdotal vestments of various colors by God's
injunction for use in the Temple, white, scarlet and purple being the
prevailing colors.' Among the heathen the priests wore garments of
dazzling whiteness, hence the Christians, who were converts partly
from Judaism, partly from paganism, wished to provide similar col-
ored vestments for divine worship. Besides, from the revelations of
St. John, the Church learned that the celestial spirits who serve God
in heaven standing about the throne, are arrayed in brilliant hues, so
as to resemble a rainbow (Apoc. iv.). Thus the Church Militant imi-
tates the Church Triumphant in the use of colors in her services. And
again, as the face of nature changes with the varying seasons, so the
different emotions evoked by the various seasons of the ecclesiastical
year find expression in the use of different colors.
1. In the vestments worn by the priest at Mass, the Church
makes use of five colors : white, red, green, purple, and hlack.
564 The Means of Grace.
White is emblematic of innocence and purity, and of the eternal
bliss to be enjoyed hereafter; red, the color of fire and of blood, be-
tokens love and martyrdom. Green signifies hope, and violet or
purple, faith and penance. Black is an emblem of death.
1. White is the color used on the feasts of Our Lord, of the
Blessed Virgin, of the angels, and of confessors.
Christ is the Light of the world and perfect purity; the Mother
of God was free from the stain of original sin. The angels dwell in
everlasting light and perfect sanctity; the confessors let the light
of their good works shine before men. On the nativity of St. John
Baptist white vestments are worn, although he was martyred, be-
cause he was sanctified before his birth.
2. Red is the color used at Pentecost and on the feasts of
martyrs.
At Pentecost the Holy Ghost, Who kindles the fire of charity in
our hearts, came down upon the apostles in tongues of fire. The
martyrs shed their blood for Christ, and thus manifested the great-
ness of their love for Him. Red is also used on the feasts of the holy
cross, because Our Lord shed His blood upon the cross.
3. Green is used on the Sundays after the Epiphany and
after Pentecost on which nothing special is commemorated.
On the Sundays after Epiphany the Church commemorates the
youth of Christ, and His entrance upon His public ministry, which
brought hope to the world; after Pentecost she celebrates her own
springtime, the germination of the grain in the kingdom of God.
4. Purple is used in Advent and Lent, and upon vigils and
Ember days.
Advent is the season in which faith looks for the coming of the
Saviour; Lent is the time of fasting and penance. Purple is worn
in administering the Sacrament of Penance, Extreme Unction, and
Baptism, until after the anointing of the person to be baptized.
5. Black is used on Good Eriday and at Masses for the dead.
There is generally some white about black vestments, to indicate
that the souls of the departed will soon enter upon eternal joys. At
the obsequies of young children white is used because they die in
innocence.
2. These colors not only depict the course of Our Lord's life
on earth, but serve as a constant admonition to us to lead a pious
life.
The colors in use in the Church, which, as we have seen, coincide
with each event commemorated as it recurs in the cycle of the
ecclesiastical year, are, besides, a continual lesson to the Christian.
Let the white vestments remind you that the Church calls on her
children to strive after holiness ; let the sight of the red kindle in you
the love of God, while the green bids you raise your heart and fix your
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 565
hopes on heaven. The sight of the purple will remind you that you
must do penance; the black will recall the thought of death, urging
you to prepare for your last end and also to pray for your departed
friends.
15. THE LANGUAGE OF THE MASS.
In celebrating the holy sacrifice of the Mass the Church
makes use of the Latin language.
1. The Latin language is well adapted for the services of the
Church, because it is both venerable and mysterious.
The Latin language is venerable on account of its origin and its
antiquity; it is the language in which the praises of God resounded
from the lips of Christians during the first centuries. It is a sublime
and solemn thought that the holy sacrifice is now offered in the same
language, nay, with the very same words as it was offered in times
long past in the obscurity of the Catacombs. There is also an ele-
ment of mystery about the Latin tongue; it is a dead language, not
understood by the people. The use of an unknown tongue conveys
to the mind of the vulgar that something is going on upon the altar
which is past their comprehension, that a mystery is being enacted.
In the first centuries of Christianity a curtain used to be drawn
during the time from the Sanctus to the communion, to conceal the
altar from the sight of the worshippers. This is now no longer done,
but the use of an unknown tongue has something of the same effect,
by inspiring awe into the minds of the common people. It is a
striking fact that Jews and pagans made use, in the worship of the
Deity, of a language with which the multitude were not conversant.
The Jews made use of the ancient Hebrew, the language of the
patriarchs; we do not find Our Lord or the apostles censuring this
practice. The Greek Church, both orthodox and schismatical, em-
ploys the old form of the Greek language for divine service, not
that spoken at present. The same language is in use in the Russian
(so-called orthodox) Church, not the vernacular, which is a Slavonic
dialect.
2. The use of the Latin language in her services is most ad-
vantageous for the Church; it serves to maintain her unity and
preserve her from many evils.
The use of Latin is a means of maintaining unity in the Church,
as well as uniformity in her services, for the use of one and the same
language in Catholic churches all over the surface of the globe, is a
connecting link binding them to Rome, and making one nations which
are separated by diversity of tongues. Latin, as the language of the
Church, unites all nations, making them members of God's family,
of Christ's kingdom. The altar on earth is a type of the heavenly
Jerusalem where a great multitude of all peoples and tongues stand
around the throne, praising God. If Latin were not the official
language of the Church, deliberations and discussions among bishops
assembled at the councils, the mutual exchange of opinions between
566 The Means of Grace.
theologians would be impossible. Moreover, the use of Latin, the
language of ancient Rome, is a constant reminder of our dependence
on the Holy Roman Church ; it recalls to our minds involuntarily the
fact that thence, from the Mother Church, the first missionaries
came who brought the faith to our shores. The use of a dead lan-
guage is a safeguard against many evils; it is not subject to change,
but remains the same to all time. Languages in daily use undergo a
continual process of change ; words drop out, or their meaning is
altered as years go on. If a living language were employed in divine
worship heresies and errors would inevitably creep into the Church,
and sacred words would be employed in an irreverent or mocking
manner by the unbeliever. This is prevented by the use of Latin,
at any rate as far as the unlearned are concerned. Yet the Church
is far from desiring to keep the people in ignorance of the meaning
of her religious services; the decrees of the Council of Trent (22,
8), strictly enjoin upon priests to explain frequently the mysteries
and ceremonies of the Mass to the children in schools, and to adults
from the pulpit. But as a matter of fact, it is by no means necessary
for the people to understand every detail of the ceremonial of the
Mass. " If," says St. Augustine, " there are some present who do not
understand what is being said or sung, they know at least that all is
said and sung to the glory of God, and that is sufficient for them to
join in it devoutly." Moreover, experience teaches that the fact of
the prayers being in Latin does not at all hamper or interfere with
the devotion of the faithful, or lead them to absent themselves from
the services of the Church. Besides, the sermons are always deliv-
ered in the vernacular; it is often used at the opening services and
to some extent in administering the sacraments. The reason why
the whole of the Mass is in Latin is because it is a sacrifice, not an
instruction for the people. The greater part of the prayers are said
by the priest secretly, so that were they in the mother tongue, they
would be inaudible to the people. Furthermore, the celebration of
Mass consists more in action than in words. The actions of the
priest, the whole ceremonial, speaks a language intelligible to all.
And if, as some would wish, all the services were conducted in the
language of the country, persons of another nationality, not con-
versant with other languages, might be led to drop their religion on
leaving their own land. Another evil consequent upon such a change
Avould be a lessening of the respect felt for the holy sacrifice, as
was proved at the time of the reformation, when the prayers of the
Mass were, to a great extent, translated into German and English.
16. SINGING AT MASS.
1. The singing of which the Church makes use as an accom-
paniment to the Mass, is what is known as the Gregorian chant.
This may be heard at High Mass, when the priest sings the
preface or the Pater Noster, and when he begins the Gloria or Credo.
This style of music is called Gregorian, because it was brought to
perfection and introduced into general use by Pope St. Gregory the
Great. It is believed that it was by divine inspiration or through
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 56?
direct revelation that the saint did so much in the interests of Church
music. This chant is marked by extreme gravity, tranquil solemnity,
majestic dignity. It is free from all rapid movements, florid passages,
all striving after effect. It is the language of another, a higher
sphere, it is truly the voice of prayer and of praise. In the Gregorian
style special attention is paid to the text, the words of which are
plainly audible; the beautiful, subdued melody holds a secondary
place. This style of chanting is not hampered by restrictions of time
and measure, and that gives it the irresistible power it possesses
over the feelings, as an eloquent discourse carries away the heart.
Gregorian music undergoes no change; like Latin, the language of
the Church, it is always and everywhere the same. Hence it admira-
bly corresponds to the nature and characteristics of the Church, par-
ticularly her unity and universality. Many devout Christians prefer
this style of singing to any other, because it is a stimulus to recollec-
tion and devotion.
2. In addition to the Gregorian chant we have in our
churches congregational singing, hymns in which the people
join. Instrumental music, as an accompaniment to the singing,
is played on the organ, violin, or other musical instruments.
Congregational singing had its origin in the first centuries, when
the vernacular was the language of religion, and the people joined
in some portions of the liturgy that was chanted. But when, in the
fifth century, the Teutonic tribes overran Italy, and the national
languages took a new form, and the people could no longer join in
those parts of the liturgy which were sung in Latin, hymns to be sung
in the vulgar tongue were introduced. The singing of hymns and
canticles was more popular in Germany than elsewhere. Hymns full
of sterling piety for processions, pilgrimages, and anthems in honor
of Our Lady were composed and set to simple but splendid melodies.
Luther was the ruin of Church music. He took advantage of the
national love of psalmody and employed it as a means of propagating
his erroneous tenets; it is said that he perverted more Catholics by
his psalm-singing than by his preaching. The " chorales " to which
he gave the principal place in divine worship were of so exciting a
nature that it is said that while singing them, many a one felt himself
urged to use his fists as well as his voice in spreading the new teach-
ing. The Catholics of that period met Luther on his own ground;
they too composed hymns in defence of the doctrines he attacked.
This was the cause of a lamentable deterioration both in the spiritual
songs themselves, and in the time and measure of the melodies to
which they were sung, an effect which is felt to this day. Con-
gregational singing during Mass should only be allowed in modera-
tion, so as to leave every worshipper free to enter into the spirit of
the holy mysteries, and not interfere with the private devotions of
any one present. Instrumental music in churches enables us to lift
ud the heart to God with greater facility. Delight in the melody
dispones the mind of the weaker brethren to deeper devotion, and is
an aid in raising the thoughts from the natural to the supernatural.
It must, however, be remembered that instrumental music is only an
accessory; it is an accompaniment to vocal music, and serves to
568 TJie Means of Grace.
accentuate the words that are sung. In divine worship the simple
words of prayer alone, or in their more solemn form of sacred music,
are of main importance, because they are the outcome of the heart;
the orchestral accompaniment is an accessory that can well be dis-
pensed with. The playing ought never to drown the singing, or ren-
der the words sung unintelligible. Still less ought the instrumental
music be calculated rather to please the ear than to touch the heart
and awaken pious emotions, for in that case it would be a hindrance,
not a help to prayer. For the earthly-minded Jews instrumental
music was necessary on account of their weakness; for only through
the pleasures of the senses could they be stimulated to strive after
nobler aims. In the early days of Christianitv no instrumental music
was heard at the time of divine worship, for the Christians would not
have their prayers mingle with the notes of instruments which were
associated with pagan dances and idolatrous ceremonies. Organs
were first used in churches in the eighth century; in the sixteenth
century, when kings and princes who were patrons of music had
orchestras attached to their courts, we find instruments of various
kinds, violins, flutes, etc., in the churches. Later on, professional
bandmasters were engaged to conduct the choirs in churches, and
unfortunately they introduced secular melodies into the house of
God, and in the performance of these compositions no heed was paid
to the sacred words of the liturgy. Among those who contributed
most to the reform of Church music was Palestrina, the Papal choir-
master in the Vatican; he composed several Masses of a solemn and
dignified character, in which due prominence was given to the words.
His name is immortalized by the Missa Papce Marcelli. A contem-
porary of his of Dutch origin, Orlando di Lasso, choirmaster of the
Lateran Church in Rome, asserted himself in the same direction.
He was called the " king of composers," and was the author of eight
hundred secular compositions, besides fifteen hundred sacred
works. The finest of the latter is the seven penitential psalms
arranged for five voices, in which the feelings of penitence and com-
punction are expressed in a masterly manner. Gabrieli, organist of
St. Mark's in Venice, and Allegri, are also celebrated composers. The
Miserere (for Holy Week), written by the last named, with nine
parts and a double score is much esteemed. These masters promoted
vocal music without an accompaniment, more than instrumental
music, for which they did little. Instrumental music owes much to
the composer Bach, a native of Eisenach (1750), whose sacred
music is distinguished by its serious, religious tone. Towards the
close of the eighteenth century instrumental music was brought to
great perfection by Haydn, an Austrian, who composed fifteen Masses ;
he died in 1809 in Vienna; Mozart, a native of Salzburg, who at-
tracted attention as a hoj by his musical talent, composed fifteen
Masses before he was eighteen years old; he died at the age of
thirty-five in Vienna; and Beethoven, a native of Bonn, who wrote
two Masses of prodigious length ; he died in 1827 in Vienna. The
works of these composers cannot be considered as models of what
sacred music ought to be ; they do not reflect the spirit of the Church
in the Gregorian music. They may express feelings of devotion,
otherwise they differ little from secular compositions, and bear
the stamp of the age in which they were written. In recent times
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 569
much has been done for the improvement of Church music by the
Society of St. Cecilia, founded in 1867 at Pegensburg, the object
of which is to train choirs, to raise congregational singing to a higher
level, and introduce instrumental music of a nature to correspond
with the liturgy of the Church. The rules of this Society were con-
firmed by Pope Pius IX. in 1870.
17. HEARING THE WORD OF GOD.
At the miraculous multiplication of the loaves, Our Lord caused
the bread to be distributed to the people by His disciples (Matt. xv.
36). And now He employs His ministers to dispense to the faithful
the spiritual bread, the word of God. This bread is given to them
freely (2 Cor. xi. 7).
1. The word of God is said to be the food of the soul, because
it sustains the life and strength of the soul, as bread does that of
the body.
The Fathers of the Church speak of the word of God as the food
of the soul. Our Lord Himself says : " ISTot in bread alone doth man
live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God "
(Matt. iv. 4). The manner in which the word of God acts upon the
soul is by enlightening the understanding and inciting the will to
do what is good. In the darkness of this life it shows us the path to
heaven, as a lantern enables the traveller to find his way by night.
The word of God reveals to us the stains upon our soul, as a mirror
shows us the marks upon our countenance. When St. Augustine had
attended the sermons of St. Ambrose at Milan, he said : " That man
opened my eyes." The word of Gcd stimulates the will to what i3
good. The fable tells us that Orpheus played the lyre with such a
wonderful charm, that the sounds he drew from it fascinated the
most savage mortals, tamed wild beasts, and even recalled the dead
to life. This is true of the word of God; by it whole nations sunk
in heathendom, degraded below the level of the beasts, have been
converted, and civilized, and rescued from eternal death. St.
Anthony the hermit embraced the life of an anchorite in consequence
of having heard a sermon on Our Lord's -words to the rich young
man. "Are not 'My words as a hammer that breaketh the rock in
pieces ? " ( Jer. xxiii. 29.) The word of God strikes the heart like
a thunderbolt. The thunder of the divine menaces awakens those
asleep in sin, indifferent as to their salvation. The word of God
banishes sin. " It acts on the soul," says St. Jerome, " as a plough
on the soil, loosening the hardened surface, rooting up the thistles of
vice." The word of God kindles the flame of charity in the heart
of man ; like fire, it consumes the rust of sin, it promotes the growth
of virtue; or it may be compared to the gentle rain that cometh
down from heaven to soak the earth and water it, and make it to
spring, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater (Is. Iv. 10).
He who shows indifference towards the word of God exposes
himself to the risk of spiritual death and eternal damnation.
5?0 The Means of Grace.
Just as a man who refuses to take food will surely die, so those
who do not hear the word of God, which is the food of the soul, incur
spiritual death. In this life we are travellers on the long and dan-
gerous journey from time to eternity; and as the traveller who walks
by night without a lantern strays from the right road, so we shall not
reach the end of our journey without the light of God's word to
illumine our mind and guide us to our final end. The word of God
is the sun of the soul, without which the spiritual life will droop and
fail, as nature would if deprived of the vivifying warmth and radiance
of the sun.
2. Hence it is the duty of every Christian either to hear ser-
mons frequently, or to read spiritual books and make a practical
application of what he hears or reads.
The Council of Trent orders that there should be a sermon in
every parish church on Sundays and festivals. As it has long been
customary to have the sermon after the Gospel, all who go to Mass
on those days hear a sermon as a matter of course. Consequently
there is no special injunction to hear sermons. Preaching was the
principal occupation of Our Lord and the apostles (Luke iv. 43;
Hark xvi. 20), and the greatest saints have generally been able and
zealous preachers. The preached word has more force and effect than
what is read in books. The Bible history, the lives of the saints, or
books of meditation are much to be recommended ; these are preachers
to whom we may listen at any hour. Spiritual books are a mirror
in which we discern our own feelings, and the virtues of which we
stand most in need. Experience shows how much good may be done
by reading them; witness the well-known conversion of St. Ignatius
Loyola, or of St. John Columbinus, a nobleman and burgomaster of
Sienna. One day, returning home from the town-council at noon,
he found dinner was not quite ready. His wife gave him a volume
of the lives of the saints to while away the time of waiting; at first
he threw it aside, but presently opening it, he read the history of St.
Mary of Egypt. This touched him so deeply that he became a
changed man; from thenceforth he led an austere and saintly life.
If we would profit by what we read, we must read with deliberation,
and not too much at a time; and above all, be careful in the choice
of books. Many books are like fungi, not food, but poison; " evil com-
munications corrupt good manners" (1 Cor. xv. 33). Moreover one
must make a practical application of what one hears or reads. As
food only nourishes the body when it is properly digested, so the word
of God does not profit the hearer unless it be received into the heart
and meditated upon. And as when we have been walking in a beautiful
garden, inhaling the perfume of the flowers, we like to take away
with us a few fragrant blossoms, so after spiritual reading we should
retain a few thoughts as a spiritual bouquet to refresh us during the
day. Unfortunately people do not think over what they hear or read ;
they are like a man who beholds his own countenance in a glass and
goes his way, presently forgetting what manner of man he is (Jas. i.
23, 24). This is so because either they are distracted by worldly
cares (the seed falls on the wayside), or they are prejudiced against
the word of God (the seed falls upon a rock), or their hearts are full
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 571
of corrupt inclinations and unruly passions (the seed falls among
thorns) (Luke viii.).
To apply the word of God to another, not to one's self, is
reprehensible; or to listen to a preacher as the Pharisee did,
merely in a critical spirit; or again to refuse to obey the word
of God, because the example of the preacher does not correspond
to his teaching.
We ought to apply the sermons we hear to ourselves. Some are
so busy in apportioning what they hear to others, that they leave
nothing for themselves. It is recorded in the life of St. Anthony
of Padua, and those of other saints, that when they preached against
the follies of the day, gambling and love of dress, men brought their
cards and dice, women their cosmetics and finery, and burned them
in the presence of the preacher. It is not eloquence, but truth, that
should attract us in a preacher. If we listen to the simplest discourse
in a docile spirit, we are sure to learn something from it. Others will
not obey the word of God because the preacher does not practise what
he teaches. St. Augustine compares those who will not follow the
counsels of a preacher because he himself does not act upon them, to
travellers who, coming to a wooden guide-post, will go no further on
the road pointed out to them because the guide-post itself is station-
ary. The preacher is but the instrument of which the divine husband-
man makes use to sow His celestial seed. Look not at the poverty of
the vessel containing the seed, but at the excellence of the grain, and
the majesty of the husbandman.
3. Those who are assiduous in hearing sermons or reading
spiritual books, will not have great difficulty in attaining eternal
salvation.
Our Lord says : " He that is of God, heareth the words of God "
(John viii. 47). "Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and
keep it " (Luke xi. 28). We delight to hear men speak of those whom
we love; therefore, if we rejoice to hear of God, we must have the
love of God in our hearts, and those who have divine charity are in
a state of grace. Appetite is a sign of health; so the desire for
spiritual nourishment is a sign that the soul is in a healthy condition,
that is, in a state of grace. A disgust for food shows the body to be
sick, and a distaste for the word of God indicates a bad state of the
soul.
The profit to be derived from a sermon is proportioned to the
enlightening grace of the Holy Spirit present in the hearts of
the preacher and his hearers.
This is why the assistance of the Holy Ghost is invoked before the
sermon. It is God, not the preacher, Who speaks to the heart. The
preacher planteth only and watereth, it is God Who giveth the increase
(1 Cor. iii. 7). However splendid the equipments of a ship, she
cannot sail unless the wind is favorable; so it is with the preacher;
however great his erudition and eloquence, unless the Holy Spirit
imparts unction to his words, they avail nothing. An officer of dis-
572 The Means of Grace.
tinction, who had heard all the best preachers of France, once went
to hear the sermon of a simple but pious village priest, the Cure
d'Ars. When asked what he thought of the discourse, he answered:
" Hitherto I have only been pleased with the orator, now I am dis-
pleased with myself." It is said that St. Francis of Sales converted
seventy thousand heretics by his preaching. When we see a beauti-
fully executed piece of penmanship, we do not praise the pen, but the
hand that guided it; in like manner it is not to the preacher who
delivers an excellent discourse that praise is due, but to the Holy
Ghost Who spoke by his lips. The word of God does not always bear
fruit immediately, it is like the grain of mustard-seed (Matt, xiii.),
which after a considerable time grew up and became a large tree.
Sometimes it produces no fruit at all. Our Lord speaks of three cases
in which the seed perished and only one in which it bore fruit; when
it bears fruit the amount is not always the same.
II. THE SACRAMENTS.
On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit manifested His coming
by a visible and audible sign ; the tongues of fire indicated the enlight-
enment of the apostles and the gifts of tongues; the mighty wind
the power imparted to them. In like manner, it is the good pleasure
of Our Lord to convey graces to us by means of sensible signs. He
ordained for the communication of graces the use of such words
and objects as clearly signify the grace bestowed; for the washing
away of original sin He ordained that water should be poured on
the head (because water cleanses) and at the same time a form of
words used which indicates that it is done by the power of the Holy
Trinity. In order to impart to us the gifts of the Holy Spirit, light
and fortitude, He instituted the laying on of hands, with prayer
and anointing with oil (oil being used to give light and warmth).
1. The sacraments are sensible signs instituted by Christ, by
means of which the graces of the Holy Spirit are communicated
to us.
In every sacrament there is: An appropriate ceremony, called
the matter, and a form of words, which accompanies the sign or cere-
mony; and besides, there is the grace conveyed. The sign, or visible
part of the sacrament, not only signifies what is effected in the sacra-
ment, but effects what is signified. They are, therefore, practical
signs ; they may also be termed instruments, and the graces conveyed
through them the effect of those instruments. The signs of the
sacraments are like Our Lord's humanity, and the graces conveyed like
the Godhead concealed beneath this humanity. The word sacrament
(sacramentum) means something holy and also mysterious, because
in early times holy things were hidden from the knowledge of the
heathen.
Sensible si2;ns were instituted by Our Lord for this purpose:
that the graces conferred by their means might be made duly
apparent, and thus recognized by man.
The Sacraments. 573
As water cleanses from impurity and extinguishes fire, the use
of water signifies that our souls are cleansed and the fire of hell is
quenched for us. As oil gives light and strengthens the body, its use
in Confirmation indicates plainly that our souls are enlightened and
fortified by the Holy Spirit. Thus the practical effect of the sacra-
ment may be known by the sensible sign. Our Lord made use of
distinct signs in conferring graces and benefits, although a thought,
a word on His part, ' would have sufficed ; He touched the eyes of
the blind man (Matt. ix. 29) ; He touched the leper (Matt. viii. 3) ;
He breathed on the apostles and said to them : " Receive ye the Holy
Ghost" (John xx. 22). Under the Old Dispensation likewise, God
bestowed His favors through signs; witness Moses' rod, the brazen
serpent, the gall of the fish wherewith Tobias' sight was restored, the
cure of JNTaaman by washing in the Jordan. Sensible signs were
instituted by Our Lord for the purpose of humbling the pride of
man. Man, who aspired to be as God, is now dependent for the re-
covery of the grace he lost upon what is lowest in creation, lifeless
matter. As for the sake of what is sensible man renounced heaven,
it is meet that by use of what is sensible he should rise again to that
which is suprasensible. Sensible signs are, in fact, required by the
nature of man. If we were pure spirits we could dispense with
corporal signs for the communication of spiritual gifts, but as we are
composed of body and soul, we have need of them.
In addition to the signs instituted by Christ, certain cere-
monies have been appointed by the Church, in order to indicate
still more perceptibly the graces conferred, and to increase the
devotion of those who dispense and those who receive the sacra-
ments.
The various significant ceremonies are like a mirror, wherein a
man sees the reflection of what goes on within his soul. The benefits
God bestows on us are more deeply impressed upon our minds by
the accompanying ceremonial; it also deepens the devotion of both
the dispenser and the recipient of the sacrament. If an earthly mon-
arch is seen by his subjects in all the grandeur of his regal dignity,
attended by the grandees of his court, they think more of him than
when he is in ordinary attire. The sacraments are not dispensed in
a bare and informal manner, but are accompanied by the accessories
of a rich and solemn ceremonial ; this is not only to make a greater im-
pression upon mortals, but to give greater glory to God. The cere-
monies also constitute a certain preparation for the reception of the
sacraments; they prepare the soil of the heart, that the good seed
may bear more abundant fruit. The ritual is not precisely the same
in all dioceses, local custom having added some rites which cannot
well be abolished, but the Roman ritus is the one universally followed.
The ceremonies of the Church may be omitted in case of necessity,
as in Baptism when there is danger of death.
2. Christ instituted seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation,
Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and
Matrimony.
The doctrine of the seven sacraments is as old as the Church
574 The Means of Grace.
herself. All the sects that fell away from the Church in the early
centuries retained the seven sacraments, as did the Greeks and
Romans at a later period. The institution of seven sacraments is, it
is true, not mentioned in Holy Scripture, but it is not said that there
were more or less. On this point Tradition is sufficient authority. The
seven sacraments answer exactly to the needs of the soul, which re-
semble to a certain extent the exigencies of the body. The life of
the soul begins at Baptism, it is fortified by Confirmation, brought to
perfection by the Holy Eucharist; if the life of the soul be lost, it
is restored by Penance and Extreme Unction; it is kept up by Holy
Orders and Matrimony from generation to generation.
Through the seven sacraments we receive divine grace at
the very time of our life when we are most in need of it.
These times occur at birth, at our entrance into youth, when we
have lost the friendship of God, when we embrace a new state of
life, and at the hour of death. As at sea there are islands and har-
bors, where the mariner can cast anchor and take in supplies; as
there are roadside inns where the traveller can pause to rest and
recruit his strength, so on the weary journey of life the sacraments
are provided to afford support and refreshment now and again to
the pilgrim.
3. By the three sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy
Orders, there is imprinted upon the soul a certain spiritual and
indelible mark or character, on account of which they cannot be
repeated (Council of Trent, 7, 9).
The indelible mark or character consists in a special consecration
and dedication to Christ. By this mark the angels know whether a
man is one of God's family, and if so, they give him particular pro-
tection. This mark is not effaced by mortal sin, it never can be re-
moved from the soul. Consequently these three sacraments can never
be received a second time, not even by one who has apostatized from
the faith and has been received back into the Church. These three
sacraments will be like a seal upon the soul in a future life; they
will be a cause of eternal glory and rejoicing to the blessed; to the
reprobate they will be a source of shame and confusion.
4. Two of the sacraments, Baptism and Penance, are instituted
principally with the object of conferring sanctifying grace where
it was not already given; the five others with the object of in-
creasing that gift.
The holy sacraments are the wine and oil of the Samaritan in
the Gospel, for the maintenance and restoration of the health of the
soul. Baptism and Penance are called sacraments of the dead, of
those who are spiritually dead, because they were instituted for those
whose spiritual life is destroyed by mortal sin. The five others are
sacraments of the living, because they were instituted for those who
are in a state of grace. It is, however, possible for sanctifying grace
to be incrensed by Baptism and Penance, if through earnest amend-
ment of life and heartfelt contrition a man has merited to receive
the Holy Ghost previous to Baptism or confession, like the centurion
The Sacraments. 575
Cornelius, on whom, and on whose household, the Holy Ghost was
poured out while St, Peter was preaching (Acts x. 44). So also one
may go to confession without being guilty of mortal sin and thereby
acquire more grace.
Each sacrament has besides its own individual object, and
confers a grace peculiar to itself.
Thus Baptism confers the grace to live according to the pre-
cepts of the Gospel ; Confirmation, to confess the faith fearlessly ; the
Holy Eucharist, to make progress in the supernatural life; Penance
preserves us from relapse into sin; Extreme Unction is a remedy;
Holy Orders and Matrimony confer the graces appropriate to those
states in life. Such is the great practical efficacy of the sacraments,
and yet how little we appreciate their value! What efforts, what
sacrifices, people make to keep or to regain their bodily health! And
yet they will not employ the simple, easy means within their reach
for preserving the health of their soul, which is far more important.
5. Due preparation must be made before receiving the sacra-
ments, in order to obtain the graces they convey.
Any one who approaches the Sacrament of Baptism or Pen-
ance without a thorough change of heart, or who receives the
other sacraments in a state of mortal sin, commits the terrible
sin of sacrilege, and will not obtain the graces of the Holy Spirit
until the hindrance to grace has been removed.
On this account in the early ages of Christianity a two years'
probation was required before admission to Baptism, the object of
this being to give the heathens time to reform their life. St. Peter
in his preaching insisted on the necessity of penance and sincere con-
version (Acts ii. 38; iii. 19). To this day the Church requires those
who approach holy communion to go to confession first. How repre-
hensible is the conduct of those who, from force of habit, or because
of some special indulgence, go to confession without purposing a
serious amendment of life ! " The sacraments," St. Augustine says,
" are the salvation of those who use them aright, the damnation of
those who misuse them." That which is meat to the healthy is poison
to the sick. Infant baptism is the only case in which no previous
preparation is necessary. And if any one is so unhappy as to receive
one of the sacraments sacrilegiously he may yet participate in the
grace of the sacrament, if the obstacle to it be removed. The sacra-
ments are like the sunshine; it cannot penetrate into a room of
which the shutters are closed, but as soon as they are opened, it
streams in, warming it and illumining it. In like manner a sacra-
ment, if received unworthily, need not be received again ; on amend-
ment of life, its gracious influences are freely exercised. This rule
does not hold good in regard to the Holy Eucharist ; if it be received
by one who is in mortal sin, the grace of it is lost, even if the sinner
returns to a state of grace. The more worthy the recipient, the
greater the graces conferred by the sacrament. The drier the wood,
the more freely it burns. If the vessel taken to the spring be clean,
the water contained in it will be pure.
576 The Means of Grace.
There are two indispensable conditions which the Church
imposes on those who approach the sacraments: They must be
qualified to receive them, and desirous to receive them.
The power of assimilating food is dependent upon certain organs
of the human body ; even so certain qualifications are necessary for
the reception of the sacraments. An unbaptized person is incapable
of receiving any of the other sacraments; a child who has not
reached the age of reason cannot receive the Sacrament of Penance;
Extreme Unction cannot be given to one who is in robust health ; no
one under the age of twenty-three can receive Holy Orders. If a
sacrament is administered to any one against his will, it is invalid.
The Church has never sanctioned the action of secular rulers who
have compelled their subjects to be baptized, as was done in early
times. Thus now at Baptism the question is asked : " Wilt thou be
baptized ? " The last rites of the Church are, it is true, administered
to persons who are unconscious, before death; but only if it be sup-
posed that they would have wished for the sacraments had they been
conscious. The baptism of infants is justified on these grounds.
6. Supposing the priest who administers the sacrament to be
unworthy, the graces of the Holy Spirit will still be communicated
by means of the sacrament.
The entire efficacy of the sacraments is derived from the merits
of Christ, not those of the priest who dispenses them. It is out of the
power of man to confer what is divine. The sacraments are essenti-
ally holy in themselves, not because they are administered by one
who is holy. Nor is the grace of the sacraments lessened by the evil
life of the priest. God is wont to make use of unworthy instruments.
The minister is but the dispenser of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. iv.
1). A leper can act as porter as well as a healthy man, provided he
has the key of the door. A judge may be, as a man, worse than the
criminal before him, yet he can pass sentence on him. The coin of
the realm has the same value in the hand of a bad as of a good man.
The wine is the same, whether it be drunk out of an ordinary glass
or a gold goblet. So it is with the sacraments; the Donatists, who
asserted the contrary, were heretics. If the sacraments could only be
administered aright by good priests, one would never have any cer-
tainty in regard to them.
The Church imposes two indispensable conditions on those
who administer the sacraments: they must make use of the
prescribed sensible sign without any essential alteration at the
same time as the form of words, and thev must have the in-
tention to do what the Church does.
If wine, for instance, were employed instead of water for baptiz-
ing, the visible sign would be essentially changed, and it would be
no baptism at all. Or if one were to say : " I baptize thee in the
name of Christ," the audible sign would be essentially changed, and
it would be no baptism. But the wrong pronunciation of some word
— by a foreigner perhaps — would not interfere with the efficacy of
The Sacraments. 577
the sacrament. Ii the prescribed form of words is pronounced some
time before or after the water is poured upon the head of the person
to be baptized, the baptism is not valid; the two actions must be
simultaneously performed. When Protestants baptize, their baptism
is valid, if they have the intention to do what the (true) Church does,
and are careful to adhere to what is prescribed.
1. BAPTISM.
Even heathen nations, such as the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans,
made use of water to cleanse their souls and render them pleasing
to the Deity. The Jewish law enjoined purifications, to cleanse from
various legal uncleannesses (Lev. xii.-xv.). Before the giving of the
Ten Commandments the people were to be sanctified and wash their
garments (Exod. xix. 10). John the Baptist baptized in the desert
those who promised amendment of life, to signify the remission of
sins which they would gain by their penitential works. The baptism
of Christ is of a different nature; it has a transforming power,
for it washes away sin and confers the gift of the Holy Ghost (Matt,
iii. 11).
1. This is what takes place at Baptism: Water is poured upon
the head of the person to be baptized, and at the same time the
words appointed by Our Lord are repeated; the person is thereby
cleansed from original sin and all other sins, he is gifted with,
habitual and sanctifying grace, and becomes a child of God, an
heir of heaven, and a member of the Church.
At our baptism much the same takes place as at Our Lord's
baptism : like Him, we have water poured upon our head, and certain
words are spoken ("I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ") ; the Lloly Ghost descends upon
us (although not in the form of a dove), we are made temples of the
Holy Ghost and endowed with sanctifying grace; God the Father
says: " This is My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased " (we are
made children of God), and the heavens are* opened (we are made
heirs of immortality). Again, much the same takes place at our
baptism as at the cleansing of Naaman (4 Kings v. 14) ; we are
washed with water,, and delivered from the leprosy of sin, both orig-
inal and actual. So again much the same takes place at our baptism
as at the passage of the Israelites through the Jordan (1 Cor. x. 2) ;
we pass through the water of Baptism into the promised land, the
Church of which we become members. Those on whom sanctifying
grace has been bestowed, are in virtue of that bestowal children of
God and heirs of heaven. Only the baptized have the right to call
God their Father, hence in early times the Lord's Prayer was not
taught to the unbaptized. St. Louis of France used to sav : " I think
more of the private chapel where I was baptized, than of the Cathe-
dral of Rheims where I was crowned; for the dignity of a child of
God, which was bestowed on me at Baptism, is greater than that of
the ruler of a kingdom. The latter I shall lose at death : the other
will be my passport to everlasting glory." It is because man is
578 The Means of Grace.
cleansed from sin by baptism that St. Paul exclaims : " There is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus "
(Eom. viii. 1). The words of St. Peter on the Day of Pentecost show
what is the effect produced by Baptism : " Do penance, and be
baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the re-
mission of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost" (Acts ii. 38). St .Paul speaks of Baptism as "the laver of
regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost," whereby " being
justified by His grace we may be heirs according to hope of life
everlasting" (Titus iii. 5, 7). Again he says: "In one spirit were
we all baptized into one body " (1 Cor. xii. 13).
Baptism was instituted by Our Lord at His own baptism and
enjoined upon the Church at His ascension.
Our Lord caused Himself to be baptized in the Jordan in order to
sanctify water and impart to it a cleansing power. The manifesta-
tion of all the three persons of the Holy Trinity at the time of His
baptism showed that the sacrament was to be administered in the
name of the three divine persons. Christ also told His apostles at
His ascension to go, " baptizing all nations in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt, xxviii. 19).
2. Baptism acts spiritually as water does materially.
It cleanses us from the stains of sin, it extinguishes for us
the flames of hell and of purgatory; it imparts to us a new life,
it quenches the thirst of the soul, it gives us strength to fulfil
the commandments, causes us to bring forth fruit to life eternal,
and makes us members of Christ's mystical body.
Every one knows that in the natural order water cleanses the body,
puts out fire, and recalls to consciousness one who has fainted; that
it invigorates the human frame and gives fertility to the soil. The
water of Baptism does the same in the spiritual order. Every new-
born infant has the stain of original sin attaching to him, and every
adult has, in addition, that of actual sin. These sins vanish at the
laver of regeneration as a spark disappears if it falls into the ocean.
Oh this account no penance is enjoined on the newly-baptized. Any
one dying immediately after baptism, goes straight to heaven if he
has at the time no attachment to venial sin, thus escaping purgatory
and hell. And since the person baptized receives the Holy Ghost,
and with Him sanctifying grace, a new life begins for him, the life
in God. Thus Baptism is the birth of the soul, whereas the other
sacraments are its food or its medicine. Baptism is also called
regeneration, because it is the commencement of another and a new
life. When the water is poured upon the exterior, an interior change
takes place; the individual becomes a new creature — from sinful he
becomes just. In Baptism true peace of mind is acquired through
the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. The early Christians used to feel
the same interior happiness after baptism that we feel after making
a good confession. It may truly be said that the water of Baptism
quenches the thirst of the soul. Furthermore, when the Holv Ghost
enters into the soul at Baptism, He enlightens the understanding and
The Sacraments. 579
justifies the will. When Saul, the persecutor of the Christians, was
baptized, there fell from his eyes as it were scales (Acts ix. 18), in-
dicating that his spiritual blindness was at an end. Baptism also
confers strength to resist the temptations of the evil enemy. Yet the
corrupt proclivity remains, and man is ever subject to temptations,
as the Hebrews, when they had escaped from servitude by the
passage of the Red Sea, were still exposed to the attacks of their
adversaries in the desert. As the will is fortified by Baptism, we are
better able to perform good works. He who has received the Holy
Ghost possesses divine charity (Council of Trent, 6, 7), and by charity
we abide in God, and are closely united to Him (John xiv. 23 ; 1 John
iv. 16). Hence, having received the Holy Ghost and with Him divine
charity, we are in Baptism made one with Christ (Gal. iii. 27) ; we
are united to Christ as members to the head ; " your members are the
members of Christ" (1 Cor. vi. 15). We are made members of the
one great body of which Christ is the head and the life; all the
graces which we receive as members of the Church proceed from
Christ. Hence He is rightly termed the lifegiving Head of the
Church, for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body (1 Cor.
xii. 13, 15). In Baptism we are cut off from the stock cf the old
sinful Adam, and grafted into Christ as new creatures; we are no
longer of the posterity of the old Adam, but of the posterity of Christ.
Baptism is compared to the door of Noe's ark. See how marvellous
are the effects of this sacrament ! The grace of Baptism is of all the
gifts of God the most excellent, the most exalted, the most precious.
Who, being unbaptized, would not desire Baptism ?
3. Baptism is indispensably necessary to salvation. Hence
children who die unbaptized cannot enter heaven (Council of
Trent, 7, 5).
Our Lord says : " Unless a man be born again of water and of
the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven " (John
iii. 5). He makes no exception, not even in the case of infants. St.
Basil says Baptism is the vessel wherein we embark for the celestial
port. Baptism is no less indispensable in the spiritual order than
water in the natural order, and since it is so indispensable, God has
made it very easy. Nothing is absolutely necessary but water, which
may be had everywhere ; every one can baptize in case of need ; new-
born infants may be baptized; and for adults the simple desire is
sufficient, if actual baptism is impossible. And since Baptism is of
such urgent necessity for salvation, it follows that infants dying
unbaptized cannot attain eternal felicity. For every child coming
into the world has the taint of original sin, and has not sanctifying
grace, without which no man can enter heaven. Yet, although in-
fants dying without baptism are excluded from participation in celes-
tial joys, the divine Judge does not consign them to the torments of
hell, because they have never committed actual sin; they enjoy a cer-
tain natural happiness without physical suffering or mental sadness;
they are cheerful as those are with whom all goes well on earth.
But the happiness which is their portion bears much the same relation
to everlasting felicity as the feeble light of a candle does to the bril-
liance of the noonday sun. Thus parents who through negligence
allow their children to die unbaptized have much to answer for. The
580 The Means of Grace.
eternal salvation of the infant is entirely dependent on the free will
of its fellow-man, especially near relatives. St. Augustine mentions
the relics of St. Stephen having been efficacious in restoring to life
a dead child in order that it might leceive Baptism.
4. Hence it follows that parents ought to have their children
baptized immediately after their birth, because new-born infants
hover between life and death.
Infant baptism has been customary since apostolic times. St.
Alphonsus says that if parents, without an urgent reason, neglect
to have their children baptized within ten days after their birth,
they incur the guilt of mortal sin.
5. In case of necessity any one can administer baptism, and
without the usual ceremonies.
Nurses often baptize weakly infants. The baptism by Jews and
heretics is valid, provided it is correctly administered, that is, if water
be poured on the child's head (or some other portion of the body) and
at the same moment the formula is repeated : " I baptize thee, etc." If
the child lives, he should be taken to the church later on for the
usual ceremonies. If it be surmised that through overhaste, or
some other cause, the first baptism was not properly performed, the
priest must baptize the child again, conditionally.
In the majority of cases only priests should administer Bap-
tism, and that in the church with the prescribed ceremonial.
In the early ages of Christianity only the bishop, or a priest whom
he empowered to act for him, had the right to baptize. But when
the dioceses became larger, and it was impossible for the bishop to
go about continually to administer that sacrament, the power to
baptize was made a part of the priests' office. As a matter of fact in
the present day only the priest of the parish possesses this right,
unless he authorizes another to act in his stead. Originally Bap-
tism, was only administered in baptistries, or small stone chapels
containing all that was necessary for baptism, situated either in
close proximity to the principal church of the diocese, or in the in-
terior of the building. About the seventh century infant; baptism be-
came universal, and adult baptism of rare occurrence ; fonts contain-
ing blessed water were then placed in the church where the bishop
officiated. Baptism in private houses was strictly forbidden, but in
the case of the children of kings and princes it might be administered
in the palace-chapel. So sacred and solemn a ceremony ought to be
performed in a consecrated place. In the present day the bishop's
permission must*be obtained for the administration of Baptism in a
private house.
6. If baptism by water is impossible, it may be replaced by
the baptism of desire, or by the baptism of blood, as in the case
cf those who suffer martyrdom for the faith of Christ.
The Emperor Valentin ian II. was on the way to Milan to be bap-
tized when he was assassinated; St. Ambrose said of him that his
desire had been the means of his cleansing. The patriarchs, prophets.
The Sac7*aments. 581
and holy men of the Old Testament had the baptism of desire ; their
love of God was ardent, and they wished to do all that He commands.
God accepts the will for the deed; in this He manifests His super-
abundant loving kindness. But all the temporal penalties of sin are
not remitted by the baptism of desire. Martyrdom for Christ's sake
is the baptism of blood. This the holy innocents received, and the
Church commemorates them as saints. All unbaptized persons who
suffer martyrdom for the Christian faith, for some act of Christian
virtue, or the fulfilment of a Christian duty, also received the baptism
of blood. Witness St. John Baptist; or St. Emerentiana, who, while
yet a catechumen, was found by the pagans praying at St. Agnes'
tomb, and was put to death by them. The Church does not pray for
the unbaptized who suffer death for Christ; for He Himself says:
" He that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it " (Matt. x. 39).
7. In the early ages of the Church solemn Baptism was ad-
ministered on three days of the year: Holy Saturday, the eve of
Whitsunday, and in the East on the eve of the Epiphany.
Baptism used to be administered in the night preceding Easter
and Whitsunday. It was administered at Easter, because it is a
spiritual resurrection, and therefore appropriate to the season; at
Pentecost, because on the first day of Pentecost three thousand per-
sons were baptized, and because the Holy Spirit is given in Baptism ;
on the eve of the Epiphany because the Church commemorates the
baptism of Our Lord in the Jordan on that day. Individuals were
also baptized at other times, the sick, for instance, or converts who
were thoroughly versed in Christian doctrine. The water to be used
in Baptism is solemnly blessed on Holy Saturday and on the eve of
Pentecost to this day; the ceremonial is elaborate and impressive; it
is accompanied by prayers and chants, and many beautiful symbolical
ceremonies, such as the mixing of the chrism, breathing upon the
water, dipping the paschal candle into it, etc.
In the first ages of Christianity, religious instruction pre-
ceded Baptism; the candidates for Baptism were called cate-
chumens.
Any one who desired to become a Christian had to present him-
self to the bishop, who questioned him closely, and if he thought him
worthy admitted him into the number of the catechumens. He laid
his hands upon him, as a sign that he was soon to receive the Holy
Ghost; he made the sign of the cross upon his forehead and breast,
to signify that he must believe the teaching of our crucified Lord,
and shape his life thereby; finally he put salt on his lips, to denote
preservation from the temptation of sin. The candidate was then a
catechumen of the first class; for two years he was instructed in
biblical history, the Ten Commandments, the precepts of charity, and
allowed to be present at Mass until the creed. At the end of the
second year, he became a catechumen of the second class : that is, he
was obliged to fast in Lent, to hear sermons, to confess his sins in
public and undergo various exorcisms, anointings and other sym-
bolical ceremonies. In the last week before Baptism was adminis-
tered, after Palm Sundav, that is, the candidates were taught the
582 The Means of Grace.
doctrine of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Apostles' Creed and
the Lord's Prayer. All these ceremonies previous to Baptism have
been retained until the present day.
Immediately before Baptism the candidate had to take a
solemn vow to believe and follow the teachings of Christ. (The
baptismal vow or covenant.)
Standing with his face towards the west, he renounced the devil
and all his works (the worship of idols and the corrupt practices of
the heathen), and the pomps and vanities of the world. Then turn-
ing towards the east, he promised to believe and follow the teaching
of Christ. This promise is known as the baptismal vow; it is also
called a covenant, because God at the same time promises the assist-
ance of His grace to fulfil the promise made, and to reward those
who keep it with eternal felicity after death. The baptismal vow
resembles the military oath taken by the soldier, for at baptism we
are enrolled under the banner of Christ, and promise to fight against
the adversaries of God. The baptismal vow also resembles the mar-
riage treaty concluded between those who are wedded at the altar,
for the soul then promises fidelity and love to her celestial Bride-
groom. It is well for those who have been baptized in their infancy
to renew their vows at certain times after they have attained the age
of reason, particularly before approaching the sacraments. St. John
Chrysostom used to renew his vows in the hours of temptation, say-
ing : " I renounce the devil and give myself wholly to Christ." In
the time of persecution the early Christians were accustomed to
solemnly renew their vow once a year, to strengthen themselves in
the faith. One could wish that this was done now. Christians who
have been unfaithful to their vows will, at the Last Judgment, hear
from the lips of Our Lord the appalling words : " Thou wicked servant,
out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee, by the promise thou
didst once solemnly make to Me."
Formerly baptism was generally by immersion, but often-
times water was sprinkled or poured upon the individual.
The priest and the godfather, or in the case of women, the god-
mother, led the person to be baptized by the hand down the steps, and
plunged him three times under the water, while the priest pronounced
the words prescribed by Our Lord. The threefold immersion was in
honor of the most Holy Trinity; it was also in commemoration of
the burial of Christ and His rising again, and was intended to sig-
nify that the old, sinful man was buried, and the new man had arisen
(Rom. vi. 3, 11). In the later centuries baptism by immersion was
abolished, and the custom of sprinkling almost exclusively adopted.
The name of a saint was given to every one at the baptismal
font; this was his baptismal or Christian name.
The individual baptized was placed under the special protection of
a saint or angel, who was to serve him as a model. Socrates of old
used to advise parents to give the names of virtuous persons to their
children in order to encourage them to imitate their example. Alex-
ander the Great used to say to soldiers who had the same name as
The Sacraments. 583
himself : " Either take another name, or see that thou dost credit
to my name." The addition of the name of some saint was to indi-
cate that the person baptized had been made a child of God, and in-
corporated into the company of the saints. On occasions when God
bestowed particular favors on one of His servants, the name was some-
times altered; as Abram became Abraham, Simon was called Peter,
Saul was changed to Paul. The Church does not approve of heathen
or fantastical names being given to children. Priests cannot give
such names in Baptism, though they enter them in the register.
The name of a saint may often prove an incentive to him who bears it,
to lead a Christian life.
When Baptism is administered with the usual ceremonies,
which is called solemn Baptism, the person baptized must have
a godfather or godmother, or one of each, but not more.
The obligation of a sponsor is to see that the person baptized
keeps the faith and leads a Christian life. In appointing sponsors,
the Church acts like a man who lends money; he requires securities.
A child when born into the world, requires a nurse to bring it up ; so
one who is baptized needs some one to watch over his spiritual
growth. The sponsors have also to provide for the Christian instruc-
tion of their godchild, if the parents neglect their duty in this re-
spect, or are removed by death. JSTow that children receive regular
religious teaching at school, the responsibilities of the sponsor are
virtually almost nothing ; still he should endeavor to influence his god-
child for good, if necessary. A spiritual affinity is contracted between
the sponsors and the person baptized and his natural parents, which
the Church regards as an impediment to marriage. Hence the num-
ber of godparents is limited to two, to prevent difficulties arising.
One sponsor is indispensably necessary. If a man, he must be at
least fourteen years old; if a woman, twelve is the lowest age ad-
missible; the sponsor, if there be but one, must be of the same sex
as the person baptized, and a Catholic (non-Catholics can only be
allowed as witnesses). The sponsor ought to have been confirmed,
and be known to lead a good life; the parents of the child cannot
possibly act as his sponsors, nor members of a religious Order, be-
cause they cannot, if necessary, replace the parents. At baptism the
sponsor, holding the infant on his right arm, awaits at the entrance
of the baptistry the coming of the priest, who asks the name the child
is to receive, and' interrogates him by name thus : " What dost thou
ask of the Church of God ?" The answer is : " Paith and life everlast-
ing, which it obtains for me." The priest then performs the same
ceremonies as were prescribed for the reception of a catechumen;
afterwards he lays his stole upon the child (as a sign of his eccles-
iastical powers), and admits both him and his sponsor into the church,
when the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer are recited. Next
the person to be baptized, or if he be an infant, his sponsor, takes
the baptismal vows; to the three first questions addressed to him he
replies: "I renounce them," and to the three last, "I believe." The
baptism then takes place, and presently the priest dismisses the party
with a valedictory benediction : " Go in peace and the Lord be with
you."
584 Tfie Means of Grace.
The beautiful ceremonies following upon Baptism denote
the dignity conferred upon the newly baptized, and the obliga-
tions resting upon him.
The priest anoints the person or child on the top of the head with
chrism in the form of a cross, to remind him that he is now a
Christian, an anointed one. This unction also recalls his royal dig-
nity as a son of the King of heaven; it admonishes him to overcome
the concupiscences of the flesh (Gen. iv. 7). Moreover oil, being a
mild substance, reminds him to practice meekness, and exercise the
works of mercy; it also signifies the illuminating and justifying
grace of the Holy Spirit. In former times the newly-baptized used
to put on a white robe which they wore in the church for a week, until
Low Sunday, as a symbol of the robe of baptismal innocence, and
of the wedding-garment of sanctifying grace, which they were to
keep unspotted until death. On the present day a white cloth is laid
upon the newly-baptized. A lighted candle is then given to the per-
son baptized (or to the sponsor, if an infant). This is to denote the
light of the Holy Spirit, which he has received, and recalls the words
of Our Lord : " So let your light shine before men, that they may
see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in heaven "
(Matt. v. 16). It also indicates that the portals of the city of eternal
light are opened to him. All these ceremonies have a sanctifying
influence, and consecrate him who receives them to be a fitting temple
of the Holy Ghost.
Formerly the person baptized was confirmed immediately
afterwards, and admitted to holy communion.
He was also fully instructed in the doctrine of holy Mass, the
sacraments, and prayer, the so-called disciplina arcani. Previous to
Baptism he would not have understood them, as he was without the
enlightening presence of the Iloly Ghost, ^ee how great the esteem
in which religious instruction was held!
2. CONFIRMATION.
Confirmation is so-called from its effect, which is to confirm and
strengthen in the faith those who receive it; it is also spoken of as
the laying on of hands (Acts viii. 17), from the nature of the cere-
monies. Our Lord had given the Holy Spirit to His apostles before
His ascension, yet they were timid and fearful, and did not lose this
timidity until the Day of Pentecost, when the plenitude of the Spirit
was poured out upon them. So we receive the Holy Ghost at our
baptism, but not in all Flis fulness; this we receive at our Confirma-
tion. On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Ghost came down upon the
apostles under sensible signs, tongues as of fire and a mighty wind ; so
in Confirmation the visible sign is the imposition of hands, the audi-
ble sign the prayers repeated by the bishop. At Pentecost the apostles
received the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, pre-eminently the gift ^ of
fortitude, and the extraordinary gift of tongues; it is the same with
us at Confirmation, only the gift of tongues is not now given. What
The Sacrantents. 585
the Day of Pentecost was to the apostles, Confirmation is to the
Christian.
1. The ceremonial of Confirmation is as follows: The bishop
lays his hands upon the candidates and anoints each one severally
with chrism upon the forehead, with prayer; and those who are
so anointed receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, especially courage
to profess their faith.
The bishop extends his hands over the persons to be confirmed,
while he invokes the Holy Spirit with His sevenfold gifts, to indicate
that a supernatural power is communicated to them; he then goes
to each one separately, and laying upon his head four fingers of his
right hand, with the thumb of the same hand he makes the sign of
the cross with chrism on the forehead of the person to be confirmed,
giving him thereby to understand that he must never be ashamed to
profess himself the disciple of a crucified Saviour, saying meanwhile :
" I sign thee with the sign of the cross and I confirm thee with the
chrism of salvation. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost, Amen." Then he gives him a slight blow upon
the cheek, to teach him that he must be ready to suffer persecution
for the faith, saying : " Peace be with thee." In conclusion the bishop
gives to all his blessing. The chrism is composed of olive oil and
balm of Gilead; it is solemnly blessed by the bishop in the cathedral
church on Maundy Thursday.
The apostles administered Confirmation, as at Samaria and
Ephesus.
The holy apostles Peter and John laid their hands on the Chris-
tians at Samaria, and they received the IToly Ghost (Acts viii. 11-17).
St. Paul did the same at Ephesus. At that time when Confirmation
was administered, it was generally accompanied by extraordinary
gifts of the Holy Ghost, such as the gift of tongues and of prophecy
(Acts xix. 6). At the laying on of hands the Holy Ghost was wont
to manifest His coming by visible signs, so that the apostles needed
not to make use of chrism. Originally oil alone was employed; not
until the sixth century was balm mingled with it. The oldest writers
and Eathers of the Church speak of the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Pope Urban, in the third century, says : " All the faithful ought,
after baptism, to receive the Holy Ghost by imposition of hands, in
order that they may become perfect Christians." St. Augustine re-
marks that it must not be concluded, because the gift of tongues is
no longer given, that the Holy Ghost is not communicated by imposi-
tion of hands. It was only given in early times for the more rapid
propagation of the Gospel. The Council of Trent expressly declares
Confirmation to be a true sacrament, not a mere rite, which formerly
was appended to Baptism, nor a public profession of faith in presence
of the faithful.
2. The supernatural effect of Confirmation is similar to the
natural effect of oil.
It creates within us a spirit of meekness; it increases, that
586 The Means of Grace,
is, our charity towards God and our neighbor, it enlightens
our understanding, strengthens our will, preserves our soul
from the corruption of sin, and fills us with the sweet odor of
virtue.
Oil softens what is hard, it adds vigor to the frame, it diffuses
an agreeable light. Balm is a preservative against putrefaction, and
emits a fragrant smell. Confirmation increases our charity towards
God and our neighbor, or, in other words, it increases sanctifying
grace, and imparts to us the fulness of the divine Spirit. Hence
Confirmation is the complement of Baptism ; in Baptism we are made
the temples of the Holy Ghost, in Confirmation we receive Him in
all His plenitude of graces. In Baptism we are made soldiers of
Christ; at Confirmation our weapons are handed to us. Those who
have been confirmed enjoy a greater degree of glory in heaven than
the unconfirmed. This is why, in early times, Confirmation was ad-
ministered to infants. The enlightenment of the mind consists in
giving man a sense of the worthlessness of the goods and pleasures of
this world, and inspiring him with an abhorrence of them. By Con-
firmation our thoughts and aspirations are directed towards heaven;
from earthly, man becomes heavenly, from sensual, spiritual; he be-
comes a perfect Christian. By Confirmation timidity is dispelled
and courage imparted. Before the Day of Pentecost the apostles were
faint-hearted as children ; after that day they were bold as lions. The
Holy Spirit produces a like change in those who are confirmed : they
can say :. " I can do all things in Him Who strengtheneth me " (Phil.
iv. 13). St. Vincent is of opinion that at the end of the world Anti-
christ will spare no effort to deter Christian people from receiving
the Sacrament cf Confirmation, as in that case they would more read-
ily apostatize from the faith. And since Confirmation confirms the
will, it makes it easier for those who have received it to resist tempta-
tion, and thus avoid sin. If such a one should fall into mortal sin,
he will incur a rigorous chastisement, like a soldier who deserts to
the enemy's camp. And the stronger the will, the less difficult does
the practice of virtue become. Confirmation tends especially to ren-
der us humble and meek, as the oil and balm denote : for balm sinks
into the liquid into which it is poured, symbolizing humility, and oil
always floats on the surface, teaching man to rise superior to the
vexations of life by unfailing meekness. Holy Scripture speaks of
virtue as a good odor (2 Cor. ii. 15), because those who are virtuous
are as pleasing to God as a sweet perfume is to us.
3. Christians ought to be confirmed at the age when they pass
from childhood to youth, because at that period temptations
thicken around them, and they need strength of will to resist
them.
It is not well to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation before
a child has attained the age of seven years, and the use of reason.
The most suitable age is about twelve; it should not be deferred
longer than the age of fourteen, but it is impossible to fix an exact
time, as in large dioceses the bishop can only visit the more remote
parishes at long intervals.
The Sacraments. 587
It is a grievous sin wilfully to omit to receive the Sacrament
of Confirmation.
To do this is to act like a traveller who, having to pass along a
dangerous road, refuses to accept the means of defence offered to him ;
what wonder if he have to pay a high price for his folly! Although
Confirmation is not absolutely necessary to salvation, yet God
punishes contempt of this sacrament severely. The Fathers of the
Church ascribe all the misery of Novatus, who became a teacher of
heresy and ended his days in wretchedness, to his having neglected
to be confirmed. In early times parents who did not have their chil-
dren confirmed had to do penance for three years. Let it be enough
for us to know that it is Christ's will that all should be filled with the
Spirit (John vii. 37).
4. The candidate for Confirmation ought previously to go to
confession and, if possible, to holy communion ; for to receive this
sacrament one must be in a state of grace.
For any one in mortal sin to receive Confirmation is as if a pre-
cious and delicate substance were poured into an unclean vessel. It
it not obligatory on one who is unquestionably in a state of grace to
go to confession before Confirmation. In the early ages of the
Church it was the custom to confirm very young children, as is now
done in Greece and in Spain. In many dioceses children are con-
firmed before they make their first communion, provided they are
eight years old and have been to confession, in order that they may
not lack the graces Confirmation imparts at the time when they most
need them. St. Charles Borromeo established this rule throughout
his diocese.
The candidate for Confirmation must be well instructed in
the doctrines of the faith, and prepare himself to receive the
Holy Ghost by retirement and prayer.
He should in this respect imitate the apostles, who spent the ten
days before Pentecost in persevering prayer (Acts i. 14). On this ac-
count several Synods decreed that candidates for Confirmation should
be placed under instruction for a week previously; that each day in
that week they should repeat seven Our Fathers and seven Hail
Marys in honor of the Holy Ghost, and that they should keep the eve
of their Confirmation day as a fast. Every one must be provided by
his parish priest with a certificate, to certify that he is properly pre-
pared for the reception of this sacrament. Without this the bishop
will not confirm him.
5. Confirmation is usually administered about Whitsuntide, as
the bishop visits the whole of his diocese at intervals of a few
years.
In the first centuries of the Church Confirmation was, as a rule,
administered at Easter and Pentecost, because it followed imme-
diately upon Baptism. St. Jerome relates that in his time (about the
commencement of the fifth century), the bishops used to take long
journeys for the purpose of confirming those who had been baptized
588 The Means of Grace.
by a priest or a deacon. An ordinary priest cannot administer Con-
firmation unless he be expressly authorized and empowered to do
so by the authority of the Pope ; they are thus empowered in mission-
ary dioceses, which are of too great extent for the bishop to tra-
verse, and where the converts would be in danger of relapsing into
paganism unless they were confirmed in the faith as soon as possible.
As in erecting a building the whole of the work is done by the work-
men, the finishing touch alone being put by the architect, so in the
spiritual fabric it devolves upon the bishop to administer Confirma-
tion, whereby the top-stone is put to the edifice (St. Thomas Aquinas).
This sacrament appears more imposing when administered by the
bishop in person.
The person confirmed receives the name of some saint at his
Confirmation.
When Confirmation followed immediately upon Baptism, no other
name was added to that given in baptism. But when in after years,
the convert got into the habit of retaining his heathen name after
Baptism, he was made to take the name of some saint at his Con-
firmation, on whom he was to look as his model in the spiritual war-
fare, as a soldier looks to his general. And he whom he chose for
his pattern on earth he was to invoke as his intercessor in heaven.
Besides this heavenly guide, the Christian has at Confirmation an
earthly guide.
The person to be confirmed must also have a godfather or
godmother.
The gladiator who is about to enter the arena requires some one
to instruct him in swordsmanship and assist him with his counsel;
so it is at Confirmation. In all the difficulties of life the godparent
ought to be ready to support and help his godchild; he ought to do
his utmost to induce him to keep within the paths of virtue ; and the
godchild ought to feel that he must not rely too much on his own
powers, but must seek counsel from others. A spiritual relationship
exists between the two, which constitutes an ecclesiastical hindrance
to marriage. The sponsor chosen ought to be one who has himself
been confirmed, a person of blameless life, older than the one to be
confirmed, and of the same sex; not, if it can be avoided, the same
who stood sponsor for him at the baptismal font.
Those who present themselves to the bishop to be confirmed
must be simply and suitably dressed.
The Holy Spirit does not take up His abode in the heart that is
enslaved by the pride of life. God resisteth the proud (1 Pet. v. 5).
Some, on going to be confirmed, think more of their dress than of the
sacrament they are about to receive. It is no longer required of the
candidates for Confirmation that they should be fasting, in fact, this
would not be possible now, as the ceremony often lasts a long time.
They should be dressed simply, their forehead being uncovered ; each
one should have a prayer-book, and the necessary certificate. Adults
kneel, children either stand or kneel, to receive the sacrament; be-
hind each one stands the sponsor, his right hand on the right shoul-
The Sacraments. 589
der of his godchild. All must be present in the church before the
bishop extends his hands over all in general, after that the door is
closed and no one else admitted. Nor must any one depart before the
bishop gives the final blessing, although it does not constitute an
integral part of the sacrament. After receiving Confirmation, on®
must be careful not to drive away the Holy Spirit by feasting and
diversions. " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God " (Eph. iv. 30). The
chief reason why the faith of Christians is so cold in the present day
is because so little is now thought of the Sacrament of Confirmation.
8. THE HOLY EUCHARIST.
Institution and Nature of the Holy Eucharist.
Our Lord promised the Jews at Capharnaum that He would
give them His flesh to eat and His blood to drink (John vi.).
After the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes the
people went in search of Christ, and found Him in the synagogue at
Capharnaum. They wanted Him to give them bread again; but He
promised to give them the bread of immortality. When they asked
Him for it, He answered : " The bread that I will give is My flesh."
And when they refused to believe His words, He added : " Except you
eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not
have life in you. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood,
hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day. For
My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed" (John vi.
52-56).
Our Lord fulfilled this promise at the Last Supper; He
changed the bread into His body, and the wine into His blood
and gave it to the apostles (Matt. xxvi. 28).
The apostles did not, however, see the body of Christ under the
appearance of flesh, for the accidents of the bread remained, i.e., its
color, taste, smell, weight. Nor did they see His blood otherwise than
as wine, because the accidents of the wine were retained; the sub-
stance only was changed. So the shell of an egg remains the same
while what is contained within it is changed into a living bird.
1. The body of Christ under the appearance of bread, and the
blood of Christ under the appearance of wine, is called the Most
Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Here again we find the three essentials of a sacrament. The visi-
ble sign is the form of bread and of wine, the audible sign is the
words of Christ ; the invisible grace is the reception of the body and
blood of Christ; the institution of this sacrament took place at the
Last Supper. The visible form portrays the invisible grace: the
bread prepared with water and the flour of wheat, and baked with
fire, represents the body of Christ which was subjected to cruel suf-
fering; the wine, the juice nressed from the grape, represents the
blocd of Christ, which flowed from the wounds of His sacred body.
590 The Means of Grace,
The bread is unleavened, to denote the purity of Christ's body; it
is round in shape, because it conceals Him Who is without beginning
and without end (Heb. vii. 3). Water is mixed with the wine, to
signify the intimate union of the Godhead and manhood in His per-
son. Bread and wine being the principal means of nourishment for
the body, signify that the body and blood of Christ are the chief
sustenance of the soul. This Sacrament is called the Most Holy Sac-
rament of the Altar, because the change of substance takes place
upon the altar; it is called the Blessed Sacrament, because in it not
only are the graces of the Sacrament received, but the Author and
Giver of all grace; and it is besides the most exalted and sublime
of all the sacraments. It is called the Bread of heaven, the Bread
of angels, because Our Lord comes down from heaven to be our food,
a food which makes men like to angels.
We speak of this Sacrament as the Sacrament of the Altar,
because the priest, standing at the altar, does the same by
Christ's command which He Himself did at the Last Supper.
Our Lord commanded the apostles : " Do this for a commemora-
tion of Me " (Luke xxii. 19). On this account the priest pronounces
exactly the same words over the bread and wine which Our Lord
uttered at the Last Supper, thereby changing the bread into the body,
and the wine into the blood of Christ.
The Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is reserved in the
tabernacle in every parish church.
The tabernacle, which stands in the middle of the high altar, is
made of wood, marble or brass, gilt inside, and lined with white silk
curtains. In earlier times it was situated beside, not above the altar.
The name of tabernacle, or tent, is given to it, from the sacred tent
of the Israelites ; and the mysterious cloud that accompanied them on
their journey, was a type of the tabernacle of God in which He dwells
with men (Apoc. xxi. 3). A lamp is kept burning continually in the
sanctuary before the tabernacle, to indicate the place where the
Blessed Sacrament is reserved, and also to symbolize the Light of the
world. It is, besides, emblematic of the perpetual adoration the angels
pay to the God present upon the altar. In the Temple at Jerusalem
there was a candlestick with seven branches in which lights burned
continually. Our divine Lord is thus ever present with mortal men;
as He Himself declares : " I am with you all days, even to the con-
summation of the world" (Matt, xxviii. 20). He is as truly present
with us as with the saints in heaven ; the only difference is that they
behold Him face to face, whereas He is hidden from our sight be-
neath the eucharistic veils. The manna preserved in the ark was a
type of the hidden God present in our tabernacles (Exod. xvi. 33).
2. The presence of the body and blood of Christ under the ap-
pearance of bread and wine is a mystery, because our feeble
reason cannot comprehend it.
Our Lord conceals Himself under the appearance of bread and
wine in order to test our faith, whether we believe His words rather
than the testimony of our senses. If we saw what we believe, faith
Tlie Sacraments. 591
would have no merit. Moreover, if we were to behold Our Lord in
all the majesty of His glorified body, radiant with light, we should
be struck with alarm, and dazzled, as those are dazzled who look with
the naked eye on the noonday sun. Even the apostles could not bear
the unveiled brilliance of the glorified body at Our Lord's transfigura-
tion, for they fell to the ground upon their faces. And Moses cov-
ered his face, when God appeared to him in the burning bush. We
cannot trust our senses even in natural things, for they often deceive
us. For instance, an oar half in the water looks as if it were broken ;
objects seen from a distance appear quite small. Faith teaches us to
believe that as the food we eat is assimilated to our body, as the moist-
ure of the earth is changed into the sap of the vine and the juice of
the grape, even so, and far more, by the power of His word, can Christ
change bread into the substance of His body, and wine into His blood.
He, Who by His almighty power can create things out of nothing,
can surely effect a change in what already exists. He Who can cause
the earth to bring forth bread, can change that bread into His own
body. Many different heretics have contested the truth of this doc-
trine of the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar,
and endeavored to attach a different meaning to Our Lord's words:
" This is My body." But in the course of centuries almighty God
has worked many striking miracles in confirmation of the truth.
Consecrated Hosts have remained unconsumed in the midst of fire;
they have remained suspended in the air without support; the place
where they were concealed has been disclosed by a bright light hover-
ing around it; blood has flowed from the sacred Host during Mass;
Our Lord has appeared in it in the form of an infant, etc.
It has been the firm belief of Christians in all ages that the
bread and wine are converted into the body and blood of Christ.
St. Augustine says : " Our Lord held Himself in His own hands,
when He gave His body to the disciples." St. Cyril : " If Christ
changed water into wine on one occasion, He can also change wine
into His blood." And when He asserts that it is His body, who shall
dare to gainsay it? It was a calumny commonly brought against
Christians by the heathen that they killed and ate the flesh of a child
at their ceremonies.
3. It is most true that under the species of bread, as also under
the species of wine, Christ is present, God and man, whole and
entire.
Where the body and blood of Christ are, there He must be present,
not in part, but in His whole person ; for now He hath risen from the
dead to die no more, and consequently the body can no more be
separated from the blood than the body and blood can be separated
from the soul of Christ. Our Lord's words : " This is My body which
is given for you," and : " This is My blood, which shall be shed for
many," demonstrate that it is His living body, His living blood, that
are present under the appearance of bread and wine, and therefore
the living, not the dead Christ Who is nresent upon the altar. As a
whole landscape may be seen in the pupil of the eye, so Christ is con-
tained whole and entire in the sacred Host.
592 The Means of Grace.
4. Our Lord is present in every particle, however minute, of
the consecrated bread and wine.
We have seen that Christ is present in every Host, and when the
priest breaks the Host, He is equally present in every fragment of it.
If a magnet be broken in pieces, each part forms a separate magnet
with the property of pointing to the north. And if a mirror is
broken, in each portion one's face is reflected. But the body of Christ
is not multiplied; His body is but one, animated and pervaded by
His divinity, which fills all space. It is not increased by each fresh
consecration, nor diminished by the numbers who receive it. As the
light of a candle is not lessened, however many other candles are
lighted at its flame, so Our Lord's body suffers no diminution when it
is given to thousands of communicants. Thus St. Andrew said to
the proconsul at Achaia : " I daily offer upon the altar to the al-
mighty and true God the immaculate Lamb of God. And when all
the faithful have received His sacred body, the Victim that was slain
is yet alive and unconsumed."
5. Christ is present in the consecrated elements as long as the
accidents of bread and wine remain.
Our Lord is not only present in the Sacrament of the Altar at
the moment of communion, but both before and after the Host is
consumed. Had this been otherwise, He would not have said : " Take
and eat this, for this is My body." And He is present in those who
'receive the sacred Host as long as the accidents of bread remain
unconsumed. Thus after communion we bear in our body the body
of Christ.
6. The duties of the Christian in regard to the Holy Sacrament
of the Altar are these: He ought to visit it frequently, to adore
it, and to receive it.
We ought to visit the Blessed Sacrament frequently. In this re-
spect the shepherds and the three kings, who came to worship the
Infant Saviour in the manger, set us an excellent example. The
saints spent many hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
Cardinal Bellarmine, when a student, was accustomed whenever he
passed by a church to go in and say an Our Father. When asked
why ho did this, he replied : " It would be ill manners to go by a
friend's house without a word of greeting." He was distinguished
while yet a youth for his great wisdom. Access to Our Lord is not
denied us; the church door stands open, and from the tabernacle the
voice of Our Lord calls to us : " Come unto Me, all you that labor and
are burdened, and I will refresh you" (Matt. xi. 28). St. Teresa
declares that Our Lord in the Adorable Sacrament of the Altar
affords us far more satisfaction than can be derived from the whole
world, with its festivities and pleasures. In His presence the sor-
rowful are comforted, the foolish learn wisdom, the feeble are
strengthened, and the poor are enriched. Wheresoever the body shall
be, there shall the eagles also be gathered tog-ether; and in like man-
ner the faithful should hasten to the Blessed Sacrament, the food of
the soul. The saints loved to drink of this river of paradise, as the
hart pants to quench his thirst at the fountains of water. Unwise in-
The Sacraments. 593
deed are they who in the hour of need, choose rather to seek human
aid, to pour their troubles into a human ear ; they do not betake them-
selves to the church, to Christ, Who is so willing, so able to help them.
The Church admonishes us to pay homage to the Holy Sacra-
ment of the Altar by the sanctuary lamp; by the bell rung at
Mass and when the Viaticum is carried to the sick, by the proces-
sions of Corpus Christi, and by frequent Expositions of the
Blessed Sacrament.
It is customary on entering or leaving a church to genuflect be-
fore the Blessed Sacrament; to kneel down reverently at the consecra-
tion, and when benediction is given with the Blessed Sacrament. In
former times people used to kneel whenever they met a priest carry-
ing the sacred Host to the sick; it is related cf Rudolph of Haps-
burg that once when he was out hunting, he met a priest going to
give communion to a dying man; immediately he dismounted, and
kneeling by the roadside, gave his horse to the priest; nor would he
allow the animal to be again used except in the service of the Church.
Before receiving holy communion, we ought to make an act of adora-
tion of the Blessed Sacrament. Unhappily many among us possess
no living faith; they pass by the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar
with cold indifference. The procession of Corpus Christi was insti-
tuted by Pope Urban IV. in 1264, with a view to increase our faith in
the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and the Exposition
of the Forty Hours has the same object. The Confraternity of the
Perpetual Adoration is intended to keep up the worship of the Blessed
Sacrament uninterruptedly; each member has to spend at least one
hour every month in adoration before the altar. This Sacrament
was instituted by Our Lord immediately before His death in order to
give it greater importance in our eyes, as we treasure more the last
gift of a dying friend. If the Jews were not permitted to behold,
much less to touch, the Ark of the Covenant, which was a type of
the Adorable Sacrament of the Altar, what dread ought we not to
feel in presence of the reality !
Chris't invites us to receive the Most Holy Sacrament of the
Altar when He says : " Except you eat the flesh of the Son of
Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you " (John
vi. 54).
The reception of this Sacrament is known as communion, that is,
union with Christ. In communion we receive Our Lord, as Zacheus
did, into our house. In the Scriptures there are many types of the
Holy Eucharist ; for instance, the tree of life in the midst of paradise,
which gave immortality to our first parents ; the manna ; the paschal
lamb ; the bread that gave Elias strength to go the forty days' journey
to Mount Horeb; the miraculous multiplication of the loaves; the
water made wine at the marriage of Cana. And holy communion is
itself an earnest of the spiritual food wherewith we shall be nour-
ished in heaven.
The faithful receive the Holy Eucharist under the form of
594 The Means of Grace.
bread only; the priest alone, at Mass, receives it under both
kinds.
The priest at the altar offers an oblation, the very same as the one
Christ offered on Calvary. On the cross Christ shed almost all His
blood, so that His body and blood were separated one from the other.
The two several species of bread and wine in the Mass signify this
separation of Our Lord's body and blood. The faithful, on the other
hand, do not sacrifice the Victim, but receive the Sacrament ; it is un-
necessary for them to receive the chalice, as Our Lord is contained
wholly under either species. He Himself says : " He that eateth
this bread shall live forever " (John vi. 59). There are many reasons
for withholding the chalice from the laity; the precious blood might
easily be spilled in passing from one to another ; there is the difficulty
of procuring wine in some places; the difficulty of reserving it and
bearing it to the sick ; and some people cannot bear the taste of wine.
Communion in both kinds was, it is true, enjoined on the laity by
the Holy See in the fifth century, but this was only done to combat
the error of the Manichees, who declared wine to be an invention of
the devil and wholly to be avoided. And in 1433 the chalice was for a
time given to the laity, to induce the followers of Huss to return to
the unity of the Church.
The Necessity of Holy Communion.
1. The Holy Sacrament of the Altar is the nourishment of our
souls.
Consequently the reception of this Sacrament is an indis-
pensable means whereby to attain spiritual perfection or sanctity
here, and eternal life hereafter.
The Holy Eucharist is the nourishment of our souls; on it our
spiritual life is dependent. Our Lord says : " He that eateth Me,
the same also shall live by Me ;" and again : " Except you eat the
flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you shall not*have life
in you" (John vi. 58, 54). Holy communion is therefore essential
to our progress in sanctity, and to the final attainment of eternal
life. As the bodily health cannot be maintained without nourishing
food, so spiritual health cannot be acquired and preserved without
holy communion. St. Francis of Sales tells us that there are two
classes of men who need holy communion : the perfect, that they may
not decline in perfection, and the imperfect, that they may become
perfect ; the strong, that they may maintain their strength, and the
weak, that they may acquire strength. The early Christians com-
municated daily, and this it was that gave them constancy, and forti-
tude to suffer martyrdom. As a rule the saints communicated fre-
quently. Yet it must not be supposed that frequent communion is in
any way a mark of sanctity, or the reward of sanctity; it is only a
means of acquiring it.
Therefore those who rarely receive holy communion will
not make rapid progress in perfection.
TJie Sacraments. 595
The consciousness that even after confession we are unworthy to
receive Our Lord, ought not to deter us from going to communion.
The Church puts the words of the heathen centurion upon the lips of
the intending communicant. No mortal can ever be worthy to receive
a God. Yet it must be remembered that Christ did not institute the
Holy Sacrament of the Altar for angels, but for men. Those who are
conscious of their own misery, and desire to remedy it, will feel the
need of frequent communion. Our daily failings ought not to hold
us back; on the contrary, they ought to incite us to approach the
holy table, that we may be delivered from them. For holy com-
munion purines the soul from venial sin, and weakens the force of
evil concupiscence. ISTor ought the absence of sweetness and con-
solation deter us from communicating ; " how unwise would be the
man," says St. Ignatius, " who refused to eat his bread, and chose to
die of hunger, because it was not spread with honey." Again, who
would wait until he was warm before going to the fire ? " He who
censures the practice of frequent communion," says Segur, " does
the devil's work." The saints have always advocated frequent com-
munion, and it has been urged on the faithful repeatedly by the
Holy See.
Those who wilfully neglect holy communion for a length-
ened period, incur the risk of spiritual death here and eternal
damnation hereafter.
. The soul cannot live without food any more than the body. Yet
as certain saints have existed without taking any corporal sustenance,
so others have lived for years without holy communion. St. Mary
of Egypt, for instance, who spent forty years in the desert; and sev-
eral anchorites, such as St. Paul and St. Anthony. The Holy Spirit,
who led them into the wilderness, replaced all that holy communion
could have been to them. Yet most, if not all, were communicated
before their death. Every one, however, if he be prevented from re-
ceiving communion, is bound to make a spiritual communion; that
is, he must desire to communicate, and must do so actually, whenever
opportunity offers.
2. We are bound under pain of mortal sin to communicate at
least once a year, and that at Easter; also in case of dangerous
illness. It is, moreover, the wish of the Church that the faithful
should, if possible, receive holy communion on Sundays and holy-
days.
In the first ages of Christianity the Christians communicated
daily. About the middle of the third century it became necessary to
enjoin upon the faithful to communicate three times a year, at the
three great festivals. In the Middle Ages people grew careless, some
absented themselves from the holy table for years; consequently in
the Lateran Council (1215) the Church decreed that every Catholic
who had come to the age of reason, should receive holy communion
at least once in the year, and that at Easter ; those who failed to obey
this precept were to be deprived of Christian burial. Children are to
be admitted to holy communion as soon as they can distinguish the
heavenly food from the earthly, and it can confidently be assumed that
596 The Means of Grace.
they will receive this Holy Sacrament with due reverence and devo-
tion. It is not well to postpone the first communion until children
have reached the age of fourteen years, as it is most important that it
should take place while their innocence is still unstained. In the
Middle Ages children were allowed to make their first communion
when they were seven years old. The Christian is also bound to re-
ceive holy communion if he be in danger of death. Hence the com-
munion given to the sick is called the Viaticum, the sustenance of the
traveller on his last journey. The sacred Host must not be admin-
istered to any one who cannot swallow, or who is subject to vomiting.
If the illness is of prolonged duration, the sick man may receive
communion two or three times during its course, if he desire to do so.
Holy communion may also be given to children who are in danger
of death, provided they have attained the use of reason (seven years
of age), although they have not previously approached the sacraments.
The priest must briefly instruct them in the chief truths of the faith,
and the sacraments they are about to receive. Furthermore, it is
the desire of the Church that the faithful should, in as far as is possi-
ble, communicate on all Sundays and holydays. The Council of Trent
would fain indeed that at each Mass the faithful who are present
should communicate, not only in spiritual desire, but also by sacra-
mental participation of the Eucharist, that thereby a more abundant
fruit might be derived to them from this holy sacrifice (Council of
Trent, 22, 6). Now it is of obligation that every Catholic should
hear Mass on all Sundays and holydays, hence it may be inferred that
they should receive holy communion on all those days at the least.
Many Fathers and Doctors of the Church urge frequent communion
on the faithful. " We give our bodies nourishment several times a
day," says St. Charles Borromeo, " and shall our souls receive nourish-
ment only once a year 1 " It is the duty of those who have the cure
of souls to exhort the faithful to the practice of frequent, if not daily
communion, as the soul, like the body, will languish without nourish-
ment.
The confessor must not, however, recommend frequent com-
munion to all indiscriminately; he must have due regard to the
spiritual state and the manner of life of each individual.
St. Alphonsus says that there are but few who may not be ad-
mitted to communion once a month. Weekly communion must only
be permitted to those who keep themselves free from mortal sin, and
give no scandal in their daily life; who, that is to say, have not the
character of being tattlers, slanderers, quarrelsome, etc. Weekly
communion is sometimes almost a necessity for persons who are con-
stantly tempted to mortal sin, for by it they obtain the power to
resist. Daily communion must only be granted to those who are
earnestly striving after perfection, who courageously resist venial
sin, and who ardently desire holy communion. Such persons should
seek to lead a blameless life; they must have sufficient time at their
command to make their preparation and their thanksgiving with due
deliberation, and they must have intelligence of divine things. The
daily communicant is not obliged to go to confession every day, for
holy communion cleanses from venial sin; it is only obligatory upon
The Sacraments, 597
him to go to confession previously if he is conscious to himself of
mortal sin (Council of Trent, 13, 7), but as a rule he is expected to avoid
all such sins. For one who leads a worldly, life, or who is not bent upon
overcoming his faults, such as irascibility, vanity, love of gossip, etc.,
frequent communion would be exceedingly hurtful; for holy com-
munion is like a fire, which, if it does not purify, consumes every-
thing in its flame.
The priest must not administer holy communion to persons
who are not able to distinguish this supersubstantial bread from
ordinary food, or of whom it may be surmised that they will
receive it without reverence and devotion.
Thus children who have not attained the use of reason are not
admitted to holy communion. If exceptions to this rule have been
made in former days, it was because of the exigencies of the times.
Children must also be thoroughly instructed in faith and morals be-
fore making their first communion. Idiots and lunatics are incapable
of communicating; the latter may, however, have lucid intervals, or
recover their reason at the approach of death.
The Effects of Holy Communion.
Holy communion is of great benefit both for the soul and the
body. " The divine King," says St. Alphonsus, " is accustomed to
reward royally all those who entertain Him well."
Holy communion acts spiritually, as bread and wine act ma-
terially.
Bread and wine, i.e., material food, (1), Assimilates itself to the
body; (2), Maintains life, promotes growth; (3), Dispels fatigue and
weakness and imparts strength to the body; (4), Affords a certain
satisfaction by pleasing the palate; (5), And influences the mind by
the medium of the body. In a similar way the action of holy com-
munion upon the soul may be described.
1. By holy communion we are united most closely to Christ.
Our Lord says : " He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood,
abideth in Me, and I in him " (John vi. 57) .
Holy communion is, as it were, a continuation of the Incarnation.
By His Incarnation Our Lord united Himself to mankind in general,
by holy communion He unites Himself to each individual member of
the human race. As two pieces of wax when melted are amalgamated
with each other, so completely does Our Lord make Himself one with
us in holy communion. He is in us and we are in Him. St. Augus-
tine says that those who receive Our Lord frequently assume His
nature, are, as it were, transformed into Him. By communion Christ
changes our nature into His own, as leaven changes a quantity of
flour. There is this difference between the spiritual food we receive
in communion and the ordinary food of the body; the latter is less
powerful than our nature, and is assimilated by it ; the former is more
powerful than our nature, and consequently it converts that nature
598 The Means of Grace.
into its own. Our nature is ennobled by communion, as a wild tree
is ennobled by being grafted with a cultivated tree. Holy communion
also unites us to one another; all Catholics by means of it are made
one body, as St. Paul says : " For we, being many, are one bread, one
body, all that partake of one bread" (1 Cor. x. 17). The Fathers
speak of communion as the general union of all the faithful in
Christ and with one another {communis, unio). Hence it is called
" the sign of unity, the bond of charity, the symbol of concord "
(Council cf Trent, 13, 8).
2. Holy communion imparts actual graces, and also maintains
and increases sanctifying grace in the soul.
At each communion fresh actual graces are obtained, that en-
lighten the understanding and strengthen the will. Holy communion
acts like the rising sun, dispelling darkness and bringing light. It
imparts strength as did the bread of which Elias partook (3 Kings
xix.) ; and power to withstand temptation and to practice virtue.
Holy communion gives to the timid the courage of lions; St. John
Chrysostom says that the devils tremble when they see lips reddened
with the blood of the Lord. Those who have great trials and suffer-
ings to endure ought to communicate often to acquire strength. It
was because the early Christians were so cruelly persecuted that they
used to fortify themselves so often by receiving holy communion;
thence they gained courage to confront martyrdom. Whenever they
knew that some danger had to be encountered, they approached the
Holy Sacrament of the Altar, for they were conscious that otherwise
their force would fail them. Those also who are exposed to violent
temptations ought to communicate often, for holy communion has
even more power than had the blood of the paschal lamb sprinkled
on the doorposts, to deliver from the destroyer. Holy communion
preserves the life of the soul, as bread and wine do that of the body;
for it maintains within us sanctifying grace, which gives vitality to
the soul. Hence Our Lord says : " He that eateth Me, the same also
shall live by Me ;" and again : " If any man eat of this bread, he shall
not die " (John vi. 50, 58), that is to say, he will not fall into mortal
sin, and thus destroy the life of the soul. Holy communion is also
the means of keeping us from relapse into mortal sin ; it is an antidote
against the poison of sin (Council of Trent, 13, 2). Those who com-
municate frequently persevere in grace ; for where God is often pres-
ent, the enemy of God can find no permanent abode. Holy com-
munion also increases sanctifying grace in the soul; and since the
degree of felicity we shall enjoy hereafter is dependent on the measure
of sanctifying grace we possess here, it follows that holy communion
conduces to the augmentation of our eternal happiness.
3. The force of evil concupiscence is lessened by holy com-
munion, and we are freed from venial sin by means of it.
Physicians order nourishing food for those who are infirm, that
they may gain strength. There is an aliment cf surpassing excellence
well calculated to remove spiritual infirmities and impart vigor to
the soul. He who communicates frequently will feel less sharply the
stimulus of anger, envy, uncleanness, and other evil propensities.
Holy communion quenches the flame of concupiscence; it is the corn
The Sacraments. 599
of the elect and the wine springing forth virgins (Zach. ix. 17). It
cleanses us from venial, but not from mortal sin ; like fire which con-
sumes wood and straw, but does not burn stone or iron. It is the
food and the medicine of the soul; now food and medicine are bene-
ficial to the sick, but in no wise to the dead. Therefore if after
confession we commit some venial sin, it is not necessary to go to
confession again before approaching holy communion.
4. Holy communion often affords much refreshment to the soul.
The manna is said to have had a pleasant taste, like honey. In
holy communion, St. Thomas Aquinas says we taste sweetness at its
true source. In the prayer said before benediction is given with the
Blessed Sacrament, it is declared to contain within itself all sweet-
ness (Wisd. xvi. 20). The greater the worthiness of the communi-
cant the greater is the sweetness he experiences in holy communion ;
but sometimes God withdraws all consolation, even from the saints.
5. Holy communion sanctifies the body, and implants in it
the germ of a future glorious resurrection.
The temporal penalties of sin are cancelled by holy communion ac-
cording to the measure of our devotion. If those who did but touch
the hem of Our Lord's garment were cured of whatever infirmities
they labored under, how much the more shall we be healed of our
spiritual sickness, who have the privilege of receiving Christ into
our breast ? St. Louis Bertrand used to advise the sick to receive
holy communion as a means of recovering bodily health. Our Lord
says : " He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, hath eternal
life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day" (John vi. 55). The
body of Christ is the seed of immortality for our flesh. Communion
represents to us the tree of life, which stood in the midst of Eden.
The graces above named are the portion of those who re-
ceive holy communion frequently, and prepare themselves care-
fully for it.
The best means of learning to receive Our Lord well is to receive
Him often, for in everything it is practice that makes perfect.
T reparation for Holy Communion.
1. We must make a suitable preparation of body and soul be-
fore receiving holy communion.
We must endeavor, before approaching holy communion, to render
ourselves as much like Our Lord as possible ; for unless we resemble
Him spiritually no union between Him and us will be practicable.
Liquids cannot mingle one with another, without they are of the
same nature; thus wine and water can be mixed, but not water and
oil. The better our preparation for holy communion, the more
plentiful the graces we receive from it. Those who make a bad
preparation for communion, or none at all, draw down on them-
selves the divine anger. Such persons lose all reverence for the Holy
Sacrament of the Altar; in fact their faith in the presence of Our
600 The Means of Grace.
Lord under the eucharistic veils dies out altogether. He who ap-
proaches holy communion merely from force of habit, cannot expect
to receive anything from God.
2. The manner in which we should prepare our soul is this:
We must cleanse our souls from mortal sin by confession, perform
good works, and adorn ourselves with the virtues.
When a monarch visits a town it is previously cleansed and dec-
orated. We should do the same when the King of kings comes to
us; we should purify our conscience by confession and adorn our
soul by good works. St. Paul says : " Let a man prove himself, and
so let him eat of that bread and drink of that chalice " (1 Cor. xi.
28). We must examine* our conscience before approaching holy com-
munion, and that not merely in regard to greater transgressions, but
also minor offences. The apostles laid their garments upon the ass.
before they made Our Lord sit thereon; so we should deck ourselves
with virtues when we prepare to receive Him in communion. Some
people think more of communicating upon certain festivals, than of
purifying their hearts by confession, although this is of far greater
importance. Wherefore it is not he who communicates often, or he
who communicates seldom, who should be esteemed, but he who com-
municates with a clean heart.
To receive holy communion when one is conscious of having
committed a mortal sin, is to incur the guilt of sacrilege.
He who receives holy communion in a state of mortal sin profanes
the Holy Sacrament; he is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord
(1 Cor. xi. 27), that is, his sin is the same as if he had put Our
Lord to death. The unworthy communicant acts like the Philis-
tines, who took possession of the ark and placed it close to the image
of their god Dagon, for he introduces Christ where Satan is. Holy
communion is like the light, which is salutary to good eyes, but
hurtful to those that are diseased; so the Lord's body is a medicine,
giving spiritual health to the pure of heart, but spiritual death to the
unclean and evil. Holy communion is like the pillar of the cloud,
enlightening the Israelites but enveloping the Egyptians in dark-
ness (Exod. xiv. 20). Wherefore if any man call to mind a mortal
sin before he communicates, let him go to confession at once, if by
any means he can do so. If it be impossible, he may communicate,
but he must confess the sin in question the next time he goes to con-
fession ; for as it was not wilfully omitted, it was remitted with the
rest by the sacerdotal absolution.
The consequences of a sacrilegious communion are very ter-
rible; it produces spiritual blindness, obduracy of heart, and
brings upon the sinner chastisements both temporal and eternal.
Satan enters into the unworthy communicant, as he did into
Judas after his sacrilegious communion (John xiii. 27). If the pos-
session of the ark brought such grievous afflictions upon the Philis-
tines; if the profanation of the sacred vessels by Bnltassar was so
bitterly expiated (Dan. v.), what must be the punishment of those
who lay violent hands on the body of the Lord ? The Apostle tells us
The Sacraments. 60i
that infirmities and death are no unusual chastisements of unworthy
communicants (1 Cor. xi. 30). Kemember the awful fate of Judas.
Terror, despair, hatred of God, the torments the lost suffer in hell,
begin on earth for the unworthy communicant. He who comes to the
marriage feast (holy communion) without a wedding garment (sanc-
tifying grace), shall be cast into e^erior darkness (Matt. xxii). St.
Paul warns the Christians of communicating unworthily when he
says : " He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh
judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body " (1 Cor. xi. 29).
All that is absolutely required for the worthy reception of
holy communion is to be in a state of grace; but it is greatly to
be desired that all unruly attachment to earthly things should
be completely given up before approaching the Holy Sacrament
of the Altar.
" If you are in a state of grace," says St. John Chrysostom, " why
do you not go to communion, which was instituted with the object of
enabling you to continue in that state ? " The more we are detached
from earthly things the greater will be our charity, and the greater
our charity the more abundant will be the graces we receive in com-
munion. Thus the avaricious, the ambitious, the intemperate, all
who indulge their evil tendencies, will derive little benefit from holy
communion. A pure heart is the only fit dwelling for the God of
purity.
Prayer, acts of self-denial, the works of mercy, are the good
works which we ought to practise before going to communion.
At least half an hour ought to be spent in prayer before holy com-
munion. It is advisable to hear Mass first. On the previous day we
should be specially abstemious at table, deny ourselves worldly pleas-
ures and amusements, avoid idle conversation, etc. It is well also to
perform some works of mercy. " If thou givest earthly food to Christ
(in the person of His poor)," says St. Augustine, " He will in return
give thee celestial food."
Those who receive holy communion ought to possess these
virtues in particular: Faith, hope, charity, humility, and meek-
ness.
It is usual before communion to make acts of the three theological
virtues and also of contrition. The Church herself seeks to awaken
these sentiments in the heart of the communicant; for after the
Cortfiteor has been said by the sinner, the priest implores the pardon
of God, and when elevating the sacred Host he repeats the words of
St. John Baptist : " Behold the Lamb of God, etc.," as well as those
of the centurion : " Lord, I am not worths etc." Children generally
are made to renew their baptismal vows before making their first com-
munion. Before communicating we ought to make an act of faith,
for Our Lord always required a lively faith in those on whom He
bestowed graces and for whose sake He worked miracles. Thus we
read that He said to the blind men: "Do you believe that I can do
this unto you ? " and until they answered in the affirmative He did
6 02 The Means of Grace.
not heal them. We ought also to make an act of hope before com-
municating. When Our Lord was on earth He never sent any one
away empty who came to Him in trustful confidence. The woman
who had been afflicted for twelve years was made whole immediately
upon touching the hem of His garment in faith (Matt. ix. 20). We
ought also to make an act of charity before communicating; for the
greater our love to God, the greater is His generosity towards us. He
must be received with love Who out of love gives Himself to us.
" Love Him," says St. Augustine, " Who for love of thee comes to
unite thy mortality to His immortality." We ought also to humble
ourselves before God before communicating, considering His majesty
and our misery, and deploring our sinfulness, for God resisteth the
proud, but to the humble He gives grace (1 Pet. v. 5). Meekness is
also necessary in those who communicate, for without it we cannot be
pleasing to the Lamb of God.
3. Our body must be prepared for holy communion by fasting
from midnight; by dressing in a neat and suitable manner, and
by a reverent deportment at the time of communion.
The heavenly food must be taken before the earthly, for precedence
is always given to the noblest and most excellent. The body of Our
Lord when taken down from the cross was laid in a sepulchre wherein
never yet had any man been laid. Our bodies must also be cleansed ;
Christ washed the apostles' feet before giving them communion. The
Israelites were even commanded to wash their clothes before the Ten
Commandments were delivered to them. External cleanliness is sup-
posed to represent inward purity. The guests at a marriage have to
appear in wedding garments, and shall we come to the Lord's Supper
in soiled apparel? At the table of an earthly monarch a certain
etiquette has to be observed; how much the more should we behave
with reverence when approaching holy communion.
Only in the case of those who are in danger of death may
holy communion be received after taking food.
Necessity knows no law. Those who are dangerously ill may re-
ceive holy communion repeatedly by way of Viaticum ; but those who
are sick, and not in danger of death, must communicate fasting.
It is necessary to obtain an express permission from the Pope
for any one who is not dangerously sick to take anything before
communicating.
The permission in question is only granted to kings and emperors
before their coronation ; to aged and infirm priests who are obliged to
say Mass, and yet cannot fast without serious injury to their health ;
to sick priests who are not under the obligation of celebrating Mass,
but yet are allowed to do so two or three times in the week ; and cer-
tain of the laity who are sick, but in this case the permission only ex-
tends to five cr at most six times in a month. For this privilege
application must be made to the Holy See through the bishop of the
diocese, and the permission as a rule, applies to liquid, not solid food.
If any one inadvertently eats or drinks anything before going to com-
munion, he must not communicate on that day.
The Sacraments, 603
Our dress should, be clean and suited to our station when we
go to communion; that is to say, we should put on better things
than those in daily wear, but not dress showily.
To attach importance to dress when approaching the holy table,
would lead us to overlook what is essential, and mar devotion. Shabby-
clothes are no shame to the wearer; Christ was poor and He loves
the poor. He looks at the interior, not the exterior of a man.
Our demeanor should be reverent when we go to com-
munion; we should avoid singularity and everything prejudicial
to devotion.
When the priest repeats the words: Domine non sum dignus, the
intending communicant should strike his breast, and rising from his
knees, go slowly up to the altar-rails without looking about him;
when the priest advances to give him the sacred Host, let him raise
his head, close his eyes, open his mouth, and put his tongue forward
as far as the underlip ; then let him swallow the Host as soon as pos-
sible, and after a few moments' pause return reverently to his place.
Behavior after Receiving Holy Communion.
After receiving communion we should make our thanksgiving,
and proffer our petitions to almighty God, praying for the Pope,
for the authorities, secular and ecclesiastical, for our relatives,
friends, and benefactors, and for the holy souls in purgatory.
Our thanksgiving ought to last at least a quarter of an hour.
Priests recite the Benedicite after Mass. To leave the church after
communion without thanksgiving would be a very rude act; how ill-
mannered would he be thought who, when invited to the table of one
far above him in rank, did not so much as thank his host ! To do so
is to be like Judas who, after receiving communion, immediately went
out. St. Philip Neri once sent two acolytes with burning tapers to
accompany a person whom he observed thus hurrying from the church.
We ought also to present our petitions to God after communion.
Queen Esther pleaded with King Assuerus on behalf of the Jewish
people after the banquet, for she knew this was the most favorable
moment to make her request, and it was granted her (Esther vii.).
There is no better time for us to hold converse with God than when
He is present with us as our Guest. Our prayers have far more weight
with God after communion than at any other time, because they are
sanctified by the presence of Our Lord. We have not Him always
with us (Mark xiv. 7). " How much those lose," exclaims St. Alphon-
sus, " who neglect to implore graces after receiving holy com-
munion ! "
No food should be taken until at least a quarter of an hour
after receiving communion, when the species of bread are con-
sumed.
It is not well to indulge in worldly amusements on the day of
604 The Means of Or act.
communion, for by doing so we lose the graces we have received.
We shall do better if we go to a church, and thus return the visit
Our Lord has graciously vouchsafed to pay us.
Spiritual Communion.
Spiritual communion consists in awakening within the heart a
lively desire to receive holy communion.
To make a spiritual communion is a matter of no difficulty; it is
enough to recollect one's self for a few minutes, to place one's self in
spirit before the tabernacle, and to say : " Lord Jesus, come, I beseech
Thee, into my heart."
We ought to make a spiritual communion during Mass, more
particularly at the communion of the priest, and also when we
pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament.
We may even communicate spiritually every hour of the day, the
oftener the better. For this there is no need to fast beforehand, nor
to obtain permission from our confessor.
Spiritual communion is the means of enriching the soul with
many and precious graces.
Actual communion is compared to a golden, spiritual communion
to a silver vessel. Our Lord, when on earth, did not heal those only
to whom He went in person, but those also who were absent, and who
ardently desired Llis presence. Remember how He acted in regard
to the centurion's servant; He does the same now as He did then
(Cochem). The Council of Trent says (13, 8): "Those who eat in
desire that heavenly bread, are by a lively faith which worketh by
charity, made sensible of the fruit and usefulness thereof." Spirit-
ual communion is the best preparation for sacramental communion.
Our Lord did not come to earth until His advent was ardently de-
sired; and in like manner He is reluctant to visit the soul that does
not earnestly long to receive Him.
4. THE SAC FAME NT OF PENANCE.
The Nature and the Necessity of Penance.
As soon as the fish swallows the bait, he feels the smart. So it
is with the sinner. Yet what God has laid upon us as a chastisement
He has made the means of our salvation; He sends suffering as the
chastisement of sin ; but by suffering we can be delivered from sin.
Interior sorrow for sin, accompanied by sincere turning from
creatures and turning to God, is generally called penance.
As a matter of fact, our whole life ought to be one continued uen-
ance. Our Lord says: "Unless you shall do penance, you shall all
likewise perish" (Luke xiii. 3). And again: "Woe to you that now
The Sacraments, 605
laugh, for you shall mourn and weep" (Luke vi. 25). He often
threatens those who only desire to enjoy life, with eternal perdition
(John xii. 25). No man, even should he not be conscious of any sin,
ought to depart out of this world without doing penance (St. Augus-
tine). St. Jerome says we can no more attain everlasting life without
penance, than we can get at the kernel of a nut without breaking the
shell. The greatest saints used to perform severe penances for their
slightest faults.
Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of Penance on the day
of His resurrection, when He spoke these words to His apostles:
" Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose
sins you shall retain, they are retained " (John xx. 23).
With these words Christ on the one hand imparted to the apostles
the power to remit sins, and on the other laid upon the faithful the
injunction to confess their sins to a priest in order to obtain the re-
mission of them. The conditions under which forgiveness of sins is
to be obtained, are indicated in the following instances: (1), the cure
of the man sick of the palsy (Matt, ix.) ; sin is a spiritual paralysis ;
when sin is forgiven, a penance is imposed on the penitent, as the
paralytic was commanded to carry his bed; (2), The cleansing of
the leper (Matt, viii.) ; sin is a spiritual leprosy; the sinner must
show himself to the priest, who will declare him to be clean by God's
authority; (3), The absolving of the penitent Magdalen, who cast
herself at Our Lord's feet, and heard from His lips the words : " Thy
sins are forgiven thee" (Luke vii.). The sinner now acts as she did;
filled with contrition, he casts himself at the feet of Christ's repre-
sentative, and obtains the pardon of his transgressions.
1. In the Sacrament of Penance the repentant Christian con-
fesses his sins to a duly authorized priest, who, standing in the
place of God, pronounces the absolution by means of which they
are forgiven.
The method of confession is this: The penitent, kneeling down
in the confessional, makes the sign of the cross and receives the
priest's blessing. He recites the first part of the Confiteor, then ac-
cuses himself of his sins, and repeats the concluding part. The
priest asks him any questions that may be necessary, gives him a short
instruction, sets him a penance, gives him absolution and dismisses
him with his blessing. The penitent then withdraws to one of the
benches to say his penance, and prepare for communion, if he is
about to communicate. The words of the sacerdotal absolution are
these : " I absolve thee from thy sins in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The absolution is a judicial act
(Council of Trent, 14, 9). Like the lightning, it consumes the sin
at a flash. Even when the priest withholds the absolution, he gives
the blessing. A crucifix always hangs in the confessional, sometimes
a picture is added, calculated to excite contrition, such as the prodigal
son, the repentant Magdalen, the sorrowing Peter, etc. In very old
confessionals one may sometimes see a rose carved, as an emblem of
the silence which is binding upon the confessor. The ancient
Romans used to suspend a rose over the dining-table, to warn their
606 The Means of Grace.
guests not to indulge in any confidential conversation in the presence
of strangers.
2. The Sacrament of Penance is indispensably necessary for
those who have fallen into sin after Baptism, for without this
sacrament they are unable to recover the justice they have lost
(Council of Trent, 14, 1; 6, 29).
" The Sacrament of Penance is, for those who have fallen after
Baptism, as necessary unto salvation as Baptism itself is for those
who have not yet been regenerated " (Council of Trent, 14, 2). Hence
the Fathers term this sacrament : " the second baptism," or " the
plank after shipwreck." By Baptism we embark upon the ship that
is bound for the port of salvation. By mortal sin we are shipwrecked ;
and in this case our only hope of rescue is by clinging to a plank.
The Sacrament of Penance is that plank. JSTo one who has been
bitten by the old serpent, the devil, can be cured, unless he discovers
his hurt to the physician. Through pride the sinner places himself
at a distance from God ; only by humility can he return to God.
The man who has fallen into mortal sin ought to approach
the Sacrament of Penance as speedily as possible.
A dislocated limb must be set right at once; if not, a swelling
forms and the cure becomes difficult. If a vessel leaks, the pumps
must be set at work immediately, or the water will cause the ship to
sink; if a house is on fire, the conflagration must be got under
promptly, or the house will be burned down. If any one has taken
poison, he must swallow an emetic forthwith, or he will lose his life.
So it is with mortal sin. The Church does not appoint a fixed time
for the forgiveness of sin; the sinner may at any time make his
peace with God. Do not presume upon the long-suffering of the Most
High! The longer you postpone your penance, the more rigorously
will you be judged; the more severe will be your punishment. Those
who put off repentance until the hour of death, often have no oppor-
tunity allowed them to reconcile themselves with their Maker (Job
xxii. 16). It is the just penalty of sin that he who would not do what
is right when he could, cannot do it when he will. Our Lord says:
" You shall seek Me and shall not find Me " (John vii. 34). No one
knows how soon the time of grace may end. It is a sorry thing when
a man begins to buy what he needs just as the yearly market is over.
One of the thieves upon the cross was forgiven, that nobody might
despair; but only one, that nobody might presume, and put off re-
pentance until the hour of death. St. Bernard declares death-bed
repentances to be, not examples, but miracles of grace. Those who
postpone repentance will meet with the fate of the fig-tree which
Our Lord, finding no fruit on it, cursed. " Trust not," says St.
Augustine, " to the morrow ; for thou knowest not whether there will
be any morrow for thee." Contrition, moreover, is of little value
when a man has no more opportunity to sin; in that case you do not
abandon sin, but sin abandons you. Finally, on the approach of death,
the sinner in his alarm becomes bewildered and frightened ; he is like
a traveller who, just as night closes down, discovers that he has lost
his way. Besides this, the long habit of sin deprives a man of the
The Sacraments. 607
power to do penance ; he is like one who has slept heavily, and, though
he wishes to get up, cannot pull himself together and rise from his
bed. Iso one considers it safe to sleep in a half-ruined house, yet,
frail as is your body, you do not scruple to live on, for weeks, months,
nay, years, in a state of mortal sin.
3. Let no one be deterred by a feeling of shame from confess-
ing his sins; the priest dare not, under any pretext, reveal what
is said in the confessional, and he is ever ready to receive the
contrite sinner kindly.
Furthermore, let him who is ashamed to confess to the priest
now, remember that one day he will be put to confusion before
the wmole world, and condemned to endless misery.
The priest dare not, even to save his life, disclose the secrets of
the confessional. We shall speak further on of the seal of confes-
sion. The penitent is always received with kindness by the priest.
Some one who had confessed several grievous sins to St. Francis of
Sales, afterwards said to him: "What can you think of me now?"
The saint replied : " I think you must be a very holy person, for only
the saints have made so good a confession." aSTothing gives a priest
greater joy than to see that a penitent has made a full and sincere
confession of all his misdeeds, for then he knows that his conversion
is real. The priest is like a fisherman, who, the bigger the fish he
catches, the better pleased is he. God frequently calls those who
have themselves been great sinners to the care of souls, in order
that they may deal more gently with transgressors. For he who
knows himself to be guilty of heinous offences will be lenient towards
those who have also offended. Shrink not, therefore, from confessing
your sins to one who is himself a sinner ; who perhaps is more deeply
stained than you are. Christ did not give the power of the keys to
angels, but to men. He who is ashamed of confessing to the priest
will one day be put to confusion before the whole world, and be con-
demned to endless misery. To such a one God says : " I will show thy
nakedness to the nations, and thy shame to kingdoms " (Nahum iii.
5). Far better is it to confess one's misdeeds to the servant of God,
who has compassion with the sinner, than to be put to shame in the
sight of all men ; far better willingly to acknowledge them once for
all, than to do so compulsorily throughout all eternity. What man
conceals, God reveals; what man confesses, God suppresses. Who
would not rather go to confession here, than burn forever in hell?
It is the devil who makes us timid and shamefaced in regard to con-
fession. When we are about to sin he takes all fear from us, but
when it is a question of acknowledging our offences, he inspires us
with alarm and embarrassment. How else can it be explained that
men who on the battle-field face death without fear, tremble on ap-
proaching the confessional? The early Christians did not hesitate
to confess their sins openly before all the faithful; St. Augustine
wrote a book of confessions, in which he acquaints all the world with
his transgressions. As the sick man, if he has any sense, will gladly
swallow the bitter potion which he hopes will restore him to health,
so he who is spiritually sick ought not to shrink from the penance,
however severe, which will cure the malady of his soul.
608 The Means of Grace.
4. He who from a sense of shame conceals a mortal sin in
confession, does not obtain forgiveness, but only adds to his other
sins that of sacrilege; and exposes himself to the grave risk of
dying impenitent.
Moreover all his subsequent confessions are invalid, so long
as he does not confess over again all the sins of which he has
been guilty since his last valid confession.
The devil acts like the wolf, who seizes the lamb by the throat,
that it may not cry out; the devil stops the sinner's mouth, that he
may not confess his misdeeds. He who conceals one mortal sin in
confession does not obtain forgiveness. If all the locks on a door
are unfastened except one, the door cannot be opened; so it is with
the soul; unless every mortal sin, those locks of the soul, are sub-
jected to the power of the keys, wielded by the priest, the door of
reconciliation cannot be unclosed. Moreover, to conceal a mortal
sin in confession is to commit the grievous sin of sacrilege, which is
a profanation and contempt of divine things. By concealing one sin,
a man also embitters his life. Sin unconfessed is like indigestible
food, which lies in the stomach and ruins the health. " Sin con-
cealed," says St. Augustine, " scourges the conscience, lacerates the
heart, and fills the soul with anguish and terror." Whoso lies in the
confessional deceives himself, not God. To conceal a mortal sin in
confession is to merit the danger of dying impenitent. Sin con-
cealed is fatal to the life of the soul ; it is like a wound which bleeds
inwardly and causes death. St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence,
speaks of a woman who purposely omitted a mortal sin in confession,
and then made a sacrilegious communion; later on she repeatedly
went to confession with the intention of revealing that sin, but every
time failed to do so, through a false shame. Even when she lay on
her deathbed, she could not prevail upon herself to mention the
long-concealed sin. Just before breathing her last, she shrieked
aloud : " I am damned, for ever since my youth I have concealed a
mortal sin ! " What a terrible thing it is, thus to abuse the
Sacrament of Penance ! One sacrilegious confession renders all sub-
sequent ones invalid. In order to return to a state of grace, under
such circumstances, it is necessary not only to confess the sin wit-
tingly concealed, but all the other sins mentioned in the first invalid
confession, as well as all that have been subsequently committed,
whether they have been confessed or not. It is the same with con-
fession as with a sum in arithmetic. If one has made the omission
of a single figure in the first row, the total will be wrong, and the
whole must be reckoned up over again. In the same way, if a man
has buttoned his coat wrong at the top, all the other buttons must
be undone to set that one right. Hence St. Bonaventure gives this
advice : " Begin with the sin which it costs thee most to confess, and
afterwards all the rest will come easy to thee." When once the gen-
eral is slain, the whole army will speedily be routed. If you find it
very difficult to confess any sin in particular, say at least to the
confessor : " There is something more, but I cannot bring myself to
tell it."
TJie Sacraments. 609
The Confessor.
1. No priest can give absolution who has not received the
faculties for hearing confessions from the bishop of the diocese.
To none but the apostles and their successors did Our Lord give
the power to forgive sins. To them alone did He say after His
resurrection : " Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall
forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain,
they are retained" (John xx. 23). He commanded the apostles to
loose the bands of Lazarus, after he had risen from the grave, to in-
dicate that to them was given the power to unbind. This power is
called the power of the keys, because by it the gates of heaven, closed
against the sinner, are reopened to him. Thus the confessor is the
doorkeeper of heaven. The bishops can confer the right to forgive
sins to such priests as they deem fitted to hear confession. A priest,
as a rule, has faculties for the whole diocese in which the bishop has
given him an appointment.
*2. Priests who are duly authorized to hear confessions have
not power to absolve from all sins, since there are certain sins
which the Pope or the bishop has reserved to himself for judgment.
(Council of Trent, 14, 11).
They can only absolve from these sins if jurisdiction be de-
livered to them by the Holy See or the bishop of the diocese.
These' are called reserved cases. The bishops are accustomed to
reserve to themselves the absolution from more heinous crimes, such
as apostasy, perjury, murder, arson; the object of this is to deter the
faithful more effectually from the commission of such crimes. Secular
magistrates cannot pass sentence on all criminals; many cases
have to be sent up to a higher court for judgment. But
at the point of death all priests may absolve all penitents whatever
from every kind of sin or censure (Council of Trent, 14, 7). In places
of pilgrimage the priests can usually absolve in cases reserved for the
bishop;, and in many dioceses they are empowered to do so during
missions, at Easter, or when a general confession is made.
3. In the confessional the priest stands in the place of God;
therefore the penitent is bound to yield him obedience.
If Our Lord Himself sat in one confessional, and an ordinary
priest in another, the one would not remit sins more fully than the
other. Why is this? We call the priest who hears confessions
" Father " because he represents our heavenly Father. For the same
reason he deals with the penitent gently and indulgently, like a
father. We must obey the confessor, for it is not a man whom we obey
in his person, but God, Who has said : " He that heareth you, heareth
Me." If we obey our confessor, we may be sure that we shall not have
to give account of our actions to God; for should the confessor be
at error, there is no blame attaching to the penitent; he cannot do
wrong in obeying. Those who would make progress in perfection
610 The Means of Grace.
should obey their confessor as they would obey the voice of God, even
should the practice of some devotion or penance be forbidden them.
St. John of the Cross says that to rebel against the dictum of the
confessor manifests pride and want of faith.
In the confessional the priest exercises three functions : The
office of a teacher, a physician, and a judge.
In his office of teacher the priest has to instruct the penitent if
he perceives that he is in ignorance of something important for him
to know. Like a guardian angel, he directs the traveller in the right
way. In his office of physician he listens to the penitent, who is sick
with the disease of sin, while he gives an account of his condition,
as the physician listens to the patient describing his bodily pains.
He gives him the remedy to effect his spiritual cure, as the physician
prescribes medicines for those who are sick in body. In his office of
judge, he must decide whether the penitent is or is not to be absolved;
in the former case he gives him absolution, in the latter he with-
holds it.
4. Under no possible conditions may the priest repeat anything
out of the confessional.
This obligation to secrecy is called the seal of confession. Not
even to save his life may the priest reveal what has been said in con-
fession. St. John Nepomucene could not be prevailed upon either by
menaces or torture to disclose the queen's confession to King Wen-
ceslas. That monarch accordingly ordered him to be thrown into
the Moldau, and five lights floating over the water marked the spot
where his corpse lay. Not even to avert a terrible calamity may the
priest reveal what has been said in confession. A king once asked
the court chaplain whether, if any one confessed that he intended to
assassinate the king, he would make it known. " On no account," the
clergyman replied. " Then," said the king, " my life is not safe."
" It would be less so," the priest rejoined, " but for confession, and
the seal of confession." The obligation of secrecy also exists in re-
gard to the penitent. A priest's servant once confessed to him that
he had stolen his corn; the priest was obliged to leave the key in
the barn-door the same as before. The seal of confession must be
observed no less strictly in a court of justice, for the divine law is
higher than human law. The penalty for violating the seal is depriva-
tion for the remainder of the priest's life, besides severe ecclesiastical
punishments. We hear from time to time of bad priests who aposta-
tize, but never has one been known to fall so low as to break the seal
of confession. The obligation of secrecy is for the protection of the
penitent as well as to safeguard the Sacrament of Penance. The peni-
tent may give the priest permission to make use of what he has told
him in confession, but the confessor must be very chary of availing
himself of that permission. He must only do so when something
really important is at stake, and there is no risk of thereby bringing
confession into discredit. The seal of confession does not bind the
priest if any one speaks outside the confessional of what he has pre-
viously confessed.
The Sacraments. 611
5. Every Catholic is perfectly free to choose his own confessor.
The slightest coercion in regard to confession is forbidden, for
fear of leading any one to conceal a sin. St. Teresa says : " Oh, what
mischief the evil one is enabled to do, if force is put upon any one in
regard to confession ! " Accordingly no one is obliged to go to confes-
sion to his parish priest (unless it be at Easter, as is the rule in some
places) ; every one is at liberty to approach the sacraments wherever
he chooses, and the priest may not refuse to hear any man's confession
because he belongs to another parish. Monks are required to go to
confession to a member of their Order. Nuns have their confessor ap-
pointed by the bishops ; yet besides the ordinary confessor, the bishop
or other superior has to offer them twice or thrice a year an extra-
ordinary confessor whose duty it is to hear them (Council of 'Trent,
25, 10). No one can prevent them from making their confession to
him.
Whoso desires to make progress in perfection must place
himself under the guidance of some particular confessor (St.
Philip Neri).
If a man wants to learn a profession or trade, he must have a
master to instruct him; how much more he who wishes to acquire
that most difficult of all professions, Christian perfection! He who
would ascend a high mountain must have an experienced guide ; how
much more he who would scale the heights of Christian perfection!
Choice should not be made of a confessor without mature deliberation
and fervent prayer. For twenty years St. Teresa failed to find a
spiritual Father who understood her; she persevered in prayer, and
St. John of Avila was sent to her. A wise confessor should be chosen ;
one would not consult the first doctor one met with about one's bodily
ailments; nor in legal difficulties would one take the advice of any
but a good solicitor. And should one use less precaution in a matter
on which one's eternity depends? One must also choose a confessor
in whom one has entire confidence. The devil ruins many souls by
sowing distrust between the penitent and his confessor. One's con-
fessor should not be changed without good reason, any more than one
would leave a doctor who has attended one for long, and who knows
one's constitution. It is, however, well to go to some one else oc-
casionally, so as not to get into servile subjection to one individual.
The Effects of Penance.
It is not any easy matter to do penance; confession, the sincere
acknowledgment of sins of which we are ashamed, in itself requires
great self-conquest. On this account penance is liberally rewarded
by God. Confession is, moreover, an act of profound humility, and
to the humble God giveth grace (1 Pet. v. 5).
By worthily receiving the Sacrament of Penance we obtain
the following graces:
1. The guilt of sin is remitted and the debt of eternal punish-
612 The Means of Grace.
ment; yet there remains the debt of temporal punishment to be
discharged (Council of Trent, 6, 30; 14, 12).
God says in Holy Scripture : " If the wicked do penance for all
the sins which he hath committed, he shall live, and not die. I will
not remember all his iniquities that he hath done " (Ezech. xviii. 21).
Thus Our Lord said to Magdalen : " Thy sins are forgiven thee "
(Luke vii. 48). To those who confess their sins Christ is not a judge,
but an advocate and protector. In the Last Judgment the sins that
have been expiated by penance will be no more remembered against
the sinner; they alone will be hidden, when all else is revealed.
Seneca used to say : " He who repents of the wrong he has done is no
longer guilty.''" Through the absolution the debt of eternal punish-
ment i& changed into a temporal debt. God acts like the monarch
who commutes capital punishment into imprisonment for a term of
years. Holy Scripture furnishes many examples in which God im-
posed a penalty for sin forgiven : He forgave Adam, yet He cast him
out of paradise and laid severe penances upon him. Moses, who
offended God by not believing His word, was pardoned, but not per-
mitted to enter the Land of Promise (Numb. xx. 12). The Jews
who murmured in the wilderness were forgiven upon Moses' interces-
sion, but were condemned to die in the desert (Numb. xiv.). David
was forgiven when he had committed two mortal sins, but the child that
was born to him died (2 Kings xii. 14). No sin is left unpunished;
either we punish ourselves by doing penance, or God lays chastise-
ments upon us. For every sin satisfaction must be made either in
this world or in purgatory; the more we have sinned here, the more
we shall suif er hereafter. Our transgressions are rightly called debts ;
as debts must be paid, so sins must be blotted out.
The debt of temporal punishment for sin must be discharged
either in this world or in purgatory.
In this world we make satisfaction by performing the penances
enjoined on us by the priest in confession; by works voluntarily un-
dertaken, such as prayer, fasting, almsdeeds, or other pious acts, and
also by bearing patiently the punishments inflicted on us by God ;
for instance, accepting death willingly, and finally by gaining in-
dulgences (Council of Trent, 14, 13).
God in His v\7isdom never leaves sin wholly unpunished, lest
we should think lightly of it (St. Augustine).
At baptism all the punishment due to sin is remitted, but in the
Sacrament of Penance this is not so. Sin committed after baptism
is much more grievous than that which is committed before; those
who sin before baptism sin in ignorance, but after baptism in malice,
for they have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and consequently
have a better knowledge of sin. Those who are regenerate, more-
over be it remembered, when they sin knowingly violate the temple
of God (1 Cor. iii. 17), and are guilty of breaking their promise;
for by sin on the one hand they banish the Holy Ghost Who dwells
within them, and on the other hand they break the solemn vows
taken at baptism. A good father forgives his child's disobedience
The Sacraments. 613
the first time, if he promises amendment; but if the child repeats the
offence, his father forgives him, but does not this time let him go
unpunished. God acts in a similar manner; at baptism He remits
both the sin and its penalty, but afterwards He is not so indulgent
to the transgressor.
The more perfect our contrition, the greater will be the
amount of the punishment remitted to us.
" Many sins are forgiven her, for she loved much," Our Lord
said of Magdalen. Sometimes God touches the heart of man so
profoundly that his contrition avails for the complete remission both
of sin and its penalty.
2. The Holy Spirit returns to the repentant sinner, and im-
parts to him sanctifying grace; and the merits of all the good
works he formerly performed while in a state of grace are re-
stored to him again.
The contrite sinner, like the prodigal son, receives a beautiful
robe, sanctifying grace, and a ring is placed on his finger, a token of
divine charity. Traces of our sins will, it is true, always be apparent
on the white robe of sanctifying grace, but having been washed out
by penance, they will not disfigure its beauty. Penance is a ladder
whereby we may ascend again to the place whence we have fallen.
The heart that is full of sin is the habitation of swine; by penance
it becomes the dwelling-place of the Most High. Penance is a
crucible wherein base metal is changed to silver. It would indeed
be a miracle, if by a single word some one were to make the black
skin of the negro white. Yet a greater wonder is worked by the
words of absolution, spoken over the penitent sinner, for thereby
the soul, which through sin was black as ink, becomes white as snow.
When the sinner is restored to a state of grace, as a matter of course
he is again a child of God, an heir of heaven, capable of performing
meritorious works. Another effect of penance is that the merit of
all good works done formerly in a state of grace is recovered. For
the merit of all those works was lost through mortal sin (Ezech. xviii.
24) ; not because God withdrew their merit on account of the
mortal man, but because man made them of no effect. So a meadow,
parched by long drought, recovers its verdure under the influence of
gentle rain and soft sunshine.
If before confession we are already in a state of grace, we
receive an increase of grace.
Any one who is free from mortal sin, or who has perfect contri-
tion, is in a state of grace before confession. The greater the de-
gree of sanctifying grace we possess here, the higher will be our
degree of glory hereafter; hence let no one say it is useless for him
to go to confession, as he has no mortal sin on his conscience. Those
who speak thus are, alas ! too often living in mortal sin.
3. Through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost we obtain great
peace of mind, nay, great consolations, if our conversion be sincere.
614 The Means of Grace.
Penance gives us peace of mind. The Holy Ghost is a com-
forter (John xiv. 26). When we have relieved our soul by confession,
a deep peace ensues, as the sea became calm as soon as the sinful
prophet Jonas had been cast out of the ship. The Sacrament of
Penance distils balm on. the wounds of the soul; it relieves us of a
heavy burden. The restoration of one's peace of mind often has a
beneficial effect upon the body, and contributes to the recovery of
health. Hence the saints used to exhort the sick to receive the
sacraments. To the contrite sinner great consolations are often
given. Our Lord says : " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall
be comforted" (Matt. v. 5). On the return of the prodigal son,
his father caused the fatted calf to be killed, and a merry banquet
was held, with music and dancing (Luke xv.). Thus God acts with
regard to the repentant sinner whose conversion is real; He makes
him to abound in consolations and spiritual delights. In fact the
grievous sinner seems in reality to fare better than the just man;
remember what the elder son said to his father respecting the re-
ception given to the prodigal (Luke xv. 29). By these consolations
God encourages us to walk more resolutely in the toilsome path of
virtue ; for the penitent has a sharp conflict to wage with his corrupt
nature. When first we enter upon the way of holiness, God lavishes
these consolations upon us; later on He withdraws them, lest they
should prove prejudicial to us. Therefore we ought to render Him
thanks when He deprives us of them.
4. The Holy Spirit imparts to us the strength necessary to
overcome sin.
The converted sinner is like one recovering from an illness; his
former strength has to be regained. By penance the broken limb is
set, and its power restored. The might of the Holy Spirit is com-
municated to the newly-converted, to enable him to resist evil.
Confession serves to keep us from falling into sin in future, as well
to cleanse us from past offences. Converted sinners are generally
faithful and zealous servants of God. On this account Our Lord
says that " there is joy in heaven upon one that doth penance, more
than upon ninety-nine just persons" (Luke xv. 7). Which is to be
preferred, the soldier who has evaded the battle, or the one who has
fled, from the field, but returns to the attack, to repair his fault, and
has valiantly routed the enemy? The former is the tepid Christian,
the latter the fervent penitent.
Yet these graces are only given if the Sacrament of Penance
is received worthily; they are given abundantly if the sacra-
ment is received frequently.
The more often a house is purified the cleaner it is; so it is with
the soul of the Christian. The more frequently he goes to con-
fession, the more thoroughly he casts off the yoke of the devil; for
as a bird does not generally return to build its nest again in a place
whence it has been driven away, so the evil one is not so prompt to
molest the soul whence he has been expelled by confession. Confes-
sion once a year suffices to make one a member of the Catholic
Church, but it is not sufficient for the welfare of the soul. As well
The Sacraments. 615
might one expect a house to be clean that was only swept out once
a year. The Christian who only goes annually to confession is like
Absalom, who only had his hair polled once a year (2 Kings xiv. 26) ;
in the hour of temptation he is in danger of being caught and held
fast, as Absalom was in the branches of the oak.
The Worthy Reception of the Sacrament of Penance.
ISTo rule can be laid down here, as in regard to holy communion,
concerning the time to be employed in preparation. The reality of
our contrition, not the length of our previous preparation, is what
is of true importance. However, a few minutes are not enough.
" Noe was a hundred years building the ark," says St. Thomas
Aquinas, " and thinkest thou in a brief moment to construct the ark
which is to save thee from temporal and eternal perdition ? "
In order to receive the Sacrament of Penance worthily, we
must do as follows:
Since we sin in our heart, by our lips, and in our actions, we
must atone for it by the sorrow which is felt in the heart, expressed
by the lips, accomplished in our actions. We must do as the prodigal
did: as soon as he experienced the gracious operation of the Holy
Ghost, he thought over his misdeeds, and acknowledged Ihem (exam-
ination of conscience). He saw how ungrateful he had been towards
his father, and was truly grieved at heart (contrition). He deter-
mined to return to his father and begin a fresh life at home (resolu-
tion of amendment). He went back to his father, fell at his feet,
confessed his fault and implored forgiveness (confession). He said
he would no longer take the place of a son, but of a servant (satis-
faction). The father fell on his neck and kissed him (absolution).
Then followed a joyous repast (communion).
1. We must examine our conscience, i.e., we must carefully
. consider what sins we have committed and not yet confessed.
We must make as careful a scrutiny as if we were immediately
to appear before the judgment seat of God. If our examination is
insufficient, the Sacrament of Penance may conduce to our damna-
tion, rather than to our salvation. Yet we must not be over-anxious,
as some scrupulous persons are, for God does not require from us
what is out of our power. The examination of conscience is most
important, for by it we learn to know ourselves, and this is the be-
ginning of all improvement. One can no more acknowledge and
overcome a fault of which one is not aware, than one can cure a
malady of the existence of which one is ignorant. Most men are
wanting in self-knowledge. There are many who search into the
secrets of nature, who observe the course of the stars and the laws
of motion, but who know nothing about themselves, and never look
into their own heart. They are to be commiserated, despite their
learning and their fame, because they pay no heed to their most
glaring faults. The Creator has placed a book in the hands of every
man, his conscience; study this book diligently, for of all your li-
G16 The Means of Grace.
brary it is the only one which you can take with you into eternity.
Self-knowledge leads to the knowledge of God.
Before examination of conscience let us invoke the aid of the
Holy Spirit, that He may enlighten us.
We can find a thing that is in a dark room much more quickly
if we bring a light with us; and it is the same when we search out
our sins. When the sun shines into a room we notice a thousand
motes which were unobservable before; so the soul, when illuminated
by the Spirit of God, sees the slightest imperfections. Self-knowl-
edge is a gift of God, which we can obtain by prayer alone. The
eye sees everything but itself ; it is the same with our spiritual sight ;
it is quick in discerning the faults of others, and slow to see its
own. It is well to examine one's conscience in solitude, for there
the Holy Spirit speaks to the heart (Osee ii. 14).
When examining our conscience we must put aside self-love
and earnestly endeavor to acquaint ourselves with our faults.
Many sick people will not allow that there is anything serious the
matter with them, and sinners often do the same. This arises from
self-love, and self-complacency, on account of the advantages they
imagine themselves to possess, both natural and acquired. Some
even count their faults as virtues; they think arrogance to be man-
liness, deceitfulness to be prudence, etc., like some mothers who are
so infatuated about their children that they think all their faults to
be praiseworthy qualities. In examining his conscience, let a man
look on himself as his own enemy; enemies have a sharp eye for one
another's feelings.
In examining our conscience, it is well to go through the
Ten Commandments, the precepts of the Church, and the deadly
sins.
Children may ask themselves: (1), Have I forgotten my prayers
or been inattentive at them? (2), Have I uttered the name of God,
or spoken of holy things irreverently, or said any bad words? (3),
Have I done servile work on Sundays or holydays of obligation?
have I missed hearing Mass, or behaved badly in church ? or eaten
meat on Fridays? (4), Have I been rude or disobedient to my pa-
rents? (5), Have I been unkind to others, struck them, or led them
to do wrong? provoking them to anger? (6), Have I indulged any
thought, or spoken any words or done any deeds of impurity? (7),
Have I ever taken what was not mine, and if so, given it back to the
owner? have I injured or deceived any one? (8), Have I told a false-
hood, accused any one wrongly, abused any one, or told of his faults?
(9 and 10), Have I coveted another person's goods? or been proud,
given way to anger, or greediness, or been idle at school or at work ?
In regard to mortal sins, we must remember how often we
have been guilty of them.
All the mortal sins of which the penitent is conscious after a
diligent examination of himself, must needs be enumerated in confes-
The Sacraments. 617
sion (Council of Trent, 11, 5, 7). If the exact number of times cannot
be remembered the approximate number must at least be stated.
It is not necessary, though it is advisable, to examine one's
self in regard to venial sins.
Venial sins, though rightly and profitably declared in confession,
may be omitted without guilt (Council of Trent, 14, 5). The most
usual defect in the examination of conscience is that the penitent
keeps back certain shameful sins, and is careful to search out slight-
er ones. Such persons are like the Pharisees, who strain out a gnat
and swallow a camel (Matt, xxiii. 24). Hence it is that many do not
benefit at all from frequent confession. How many apparently pious
people will take their sins with them to eternity !
We must also consider whether there are circumstances
which alter or aggravate the sin we confess.
All those circumstances which change the quality and nature of
the sin are to be explained in confession (Council of Trent, 14, 5).
For instance, if a man has taken another's goods by violence, it is not
enought to say : " I stole ;" for robbery with violence and theft are
two different sins. If anything was stolen in a church, this must also
be mentioned.
We ought to examine our conscience every evening in order
to render our examination easier before confession.
If a man will not do the necessary repairs of his house as they are
wanted, it will become dilapidated and require thorough renovation;
so it is with the soul, if its condition is not continually seen to and
amended. If a master looks through his steward's accounts daily,
they do not get into disorder, and we must do the same with our con-
science if we would keep it right. Daily examination is very profit-
able ; it guards us from falling into mortal sin. If a merchant makes
up his debit and credit account every day, he is not liable to get
deeply into debt. Daily examination keeps our conscience pure, and
conduces to moral perfection. St. Ignatius asserts it to be more im-
portant than prayer. If a king knew that his enemies were con-
cealed in a certain quarter of his dominions, he would assuredly
search out their hiding-place and frustrate their schemes. You have
foes within you, your unruly passions; search them out daily, and
vanquish them with the sword of sorrow. It is not enough merely
to gain a knowledge of our faults, we ought earnestly to deplore them
and endeavor to overcome them by good resolutions.
2. We must truly repent of our sins, that is, we must grieve
from our heart that we have offended God by them, and the
thought of offending Him must be abhorrent to us.
As instances of true contrition, we may mention Magdalen, who
fell at Our Lord's feet weeping (Luke vii.) ; St. Peter, who after
he had denied Christ, went out and wept bitterly (Matt. xxvi. 75) ;
David, who when the prophet Nathan had awakened him to a senses
618 The Means of Grace.
of sin, lay upon the ground and did neither eat nor drink (2 Kings
xii.), but cried: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great
mercy; and according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot
out my iniquity. A contrite and humbled heart, O God, Thou will
not despise" (Ps. 1.). Repentance, unless accompanied by trust in
God's mercy, would be despair. Remember Judas' repentance. True
contrition is also sorrow of soul. An external action alone, such as
the recitation of a certain formula of prayer, wailing like that of
the Jewish women, rending of garments (Joel ii. 13), do not consti-
tute repentance. Exterior grief without inward grief is mere hyp-
ocrisy. But interior heartfelt contrition shows itself exteriorly,
for we mortals can rarely prevent all outward manifestation of what
we feel inwardly. True repentance has reference to God; hence we
call it supernatural, because it proceeds from faith in an unseen,
supernatural world. Sorrow for sin because of its disastrous conse-
quences is no true contrition ; it is a natural sentiment, without merit
before God. The cruel King Antiochus Epiphanus bewailed his
wicked deeds when he was eaten by worms; but not because he had
offended God (2 Mach. ix. 13). In like manner a gambler, a
drunkard, a criminal who is arrested, may regret his folly when he
perceives the evil resulting from it. Temporal calamities may be the
occasion, but not the motive of our sorrow. True repentance implies
profound detestation of sin, or a complete abandonment of sin; it
is more a matter of the will than of the feeling. " If," says St. Augus-
tine, " that which formerly caused thee joy and pleasure, now fills thy
soul with bitterness, and that which formerly thou didst enjoy is now
a torture to thee, then know that thy repentance is real." That is
true conversion when a man turns to God with his whole heart, and
detaches himself completely from earthly things. Penance is worth-
less if it produces no amendment. To him who is truly penitent, the
thought of offending God is abhorrent. Repentance is not real if
every evil affection without exception is not given up. What does it
profit thee to break every other chain, if one remains, binding thee to
hell? (St. Augustine.)
True contrition often manifests itself in tears.
It was so in the case of Magdalen in Simon's house (Luke vii. 38),
and of St. Peter when he had denied Our Lord (Matt. xxvi. 75). The
apostle's sorrow was lifelong ; it is said that his tears made two fur-
rows on his cheeks. Penitential tears are not indispensable, but they
are very efficacious; they render forgiveness more sure. The tears
of the penitent are the most forcible language he can use ; they com-
pel God to forgive him. Penitential tears wash away the stains of
sin ; they are a kind of baptism, only the cleansing waters come from
within, not from without. They enlighten the mind, as rain clears
the sky. The more we weep for sin the more clearly we perceive its
turpitude, and our tears lead to a fundamental amendment of life.
As medicinal springs heal bodily sickness, so tears cure the maladies
of the soul. They brine interior consolation ; they refresh the soul
as dew does the plant. The tears of the penitent give joy to the angels
and drive away the devils; they have much the same effect on them
as holy water has.
The Sacraments. 619
The means of awakening true contrition is to reflect that by
our sins we have grievously offended the infinite majesty of God,
and have displeased our loving Father, our greatest Benefactor.
Contemplate the myriad stars in the firmament of heaven, con-
sider the countless number of human beings upon earth, the innumer-
able hosts of spirits in the realms of space, and thence conclude how
infinite is the divine greatness. And you have offended this sovereign
Lord ! Consider furthermore the greatness of your heavenly Father's
love for you, in that He gave what was dearest to Him, His only-be-
gotten Son for you. How shameful to offend so loving a father ! Re-
member also all that the Son of God suffered in your stead. Consider
too, the innumerable benefits which throughout your life you have
received from God; health, food, clothing, etc., all these things are
His gifts, which, when He sees fit, He withdraws from the ungrateful ;
how instead of showing your thankfulness to God, you have often
grieved Him, and repaid His benefits with ingratitude.
The contrition which arises from the love of God is called
perfect contrition. Perfect contrition reconciles man with God
immediately, before the Sacrament of Penance be actually re-
ceived (Council of Trent, 14, 4).
Let us suppose that a father sends his two boys into a town to
make some purchases. They loiter and play on the way, and are late
by several hours. On reaching home, they are frightened; one of
them begins to cry, because he is afraid he will be whipped for his
negligence; the other boy cries because he knows he has vexed his
father. The second boy is an example of perfect contrition, the first
of imperfect. He only has perfect contrition who is sorry for his
sin because he has thereby offended God. Of this we find examples in
David, St. Peter, Magdalen, the publican in the Temple; all these
transgressors were speedily forgiven. Perfect contrition is, as may
be gathered from Our Lord's words to Magdalen (Luke vii. 47), as
a matter of fact, nothing more or less than fervent charity towards
God, the operation of the Holy Spirit dwelling in man; and he in
whom the Holy Spirit dwells, possesses sanctifying grace and is free
from mortal sin. The least degree of perfect contrition suffices in-
stantly to cancel the debt of sin (St. Thomas Aquinas). And if one
who is not in mortal sin awakens perfect contrition, the effect is to
increase sanctifying grace and remit the temporal punishment due to
sin. Perfect contrition is accompanied by the desire of confession;
yet it is not necessary to go to confession at once ; it is enough to do
so when the precept of the Church enjoins this upon one. In fact,
it is not indispensable to perfect contrition that the desire for con-
fession should be explicit; it is enough that the penitent should be
ready to go to confession when the obligation arises.
We should make an act of perfect contrition from time to
time in the course of our life, particularly in the hour of death,
or if our life is in danger.
If, in travelling by land or sea, we should perceive an accident to
be imminent, let our first thought be to make an act of perfect con-
620 The Means of Grace.
trition, and our reconciliation with God will be complete. It hap-
pened once that the father of a family broke a blood-vessel. A mes-
senger was instantly dispatched to summon a priest, but meanwhile
the youngest child, who had recently made his first communion, per-
ceiving- that his father's life was fast ebbing away, took a crucifix
from the wall, and holding it before the dying man's eyes, repeated
aloud an act of perfect contrition. Tears filled the father's eyes; he
expired before the priest came, but he was safe for all eternity. It
is probable that at the time of the Deluge, and the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrha, some persons were saved from eternal perdi-
tion by an act of perfect contrition. If you should have the mis-
fortune to offend God grievously, make an act of contrition imme-
diately. Do not go to rest at night, or begin the day's work, or start
on a journey, without in this manner making your salvation sure.
It is no difficult matter to awaken true contrition, if one has a good
will. Under the Old Dispensation it was the only means of obtaining
remission of sin; and every Christian is bound, under pain of mortal
sin, to make an act of perfect contrition in the hour of death, in case
he is conscious of sin and cannot go to confession again. Only those
find it hard who neglect all the ordinances of religion; they are like
a clock which will not go, even when wound up by sanctifying grace,
because the works are rusty from disuse. A special interposition of
Providence, or a miracle of grace is needed to enable such persons
to awaken perfect contrition. Cardinal Franzelin was so impressed
with the immense value of perfect contrition, that he declared were
he to go as a preacher from land to land, it should be the principal
theme of his discourses.
The consideration that we must expect the just judgments
of God on account of our sins, also disposes us to true contrition.
Remember the punishment of the rebel angels, of our first parents,
of the population of Sodom, of Noe's contemporaries, etc. Reflect
upon the awful pains of hell. And even if you do escape hell, there
is the fire of purgatory to be endured ; there the least punishment far
exceeds all that one can suffer on earth, even the tortures inflicted
on the martyrs. None but great saints have been exempted from
this , chastisement. How then can you expect to elude it? How
terrible a thing it is to offend God !
The contrition which arises from fear of God is called attri-
tion, or imperfect contrition. When the contrition of the peni-
tent is imperfect, forgiveness of sin is only obtained through
sacerdotal absolution.
The contrition of the Ninivites was imperfect, when, smitten with
fear at the preaching of Jonas, they did penance (Council of Trent,
14, 4). The penitent who is actuated by fear alone, retains a certain
attachment to sin, though he may abstain from the outward act.
Hence his repentance is less efficacious. Imperfect contrition is like a
tiny spark, which must be fanned by confession and the priest's
absolution, before it consumes the chaff of sin.
TJie Sacraments. 621
Confession without contrition does not obtain the divine for-
giveness.
Whoso goes to confession without sorrow of mind, detestation of
sins committed, and the purpose of not sinning in future, but merely
from force of habit and not from consciousness of sin, derives no
benefit from the act. The husbandman who scatters seed on untilled
soil, labors in vain; in like manner the words of absolution are in-
efficacious in regard to one whose heart is unprepared, and who will
not renounce sin. Confession without contrition is like a gun loaded
without shot, an ear of corn empty of grain ; it is like the barren fig-
tree Our Lord cursed; for on the tree of penance confession is but
the leaves, while contrition is the fruit. St. John Chrysostom com-
pares the man who gees to confession without contrition to an actor
in a play. From the story of the prodigal we gather that confession
alone is not everything; the father scarcely heeded what his son
said, but as soon as he perceived his heart was changed, he hardly
let him finish speaking, but clasped him in his arms.
3. We must make a firm resolution, that is, we must stead-
fastly determine with the help of God to desist from all sin, and
to avoid the occasions of sin for the future.
The purpose of amendment is an essential part of true contrition
(Council of Trent, 14, 4). The resolution to sin no more arises
out of contrition, as water issues from a spring. So long as the will
retains its attachment to sin, neither mortal nor venial sin can be
remitted. All men are not thus resolute, for many do not adhere to
their resolutions. They act like a woman, who, when her husband
dies, makes a terrible outcry, extolling loudly the excellent qualities
of the deceased, and protesting vehemently that she will never marry
again; but in a very short time, oblivious of her asseverations, she
gives her hand to another man. Those who in time of illness or of
adversity form good resolutions, but do not carry them out, are like
the wolf who retreats to the wood when he hears the dogs bark and
the shepherds cry out, but remains a wolf none the less. A good
resolution is like a nail driven fast into a wall; but the resolutions
of too many resemble a nail badly knocked in, which falls out as
soon as anything is hung upon it. The way to hell is paved with
good resolutions, which have not been carried out. All men will
not determine to renounce every sin. St. Sebastian promised to heal
the proconsul if he would destroy all the idols in Rome ; the pro-
consul did this, with the exception of a little idol of gold, an heir-
loom in his family, which he concealed. The saint consequently
could not cure him, and he told him the reason. Many sinners do
the same; there is one darling sin which they will not give up, and
therefore they cannot break away from the devil and become the
friends of God; for God's sake everything must be renounced. The
penitent must also seriously avoid all occasions of sin. The man
who merely dislikes his neighbor, contents himself with eschewing
his company ; but if he has a thoroughgoing hatred for him, he gets
rid of everything that can remind him of him; he holds aloof from
his friends and relatives, he destroys his portrait, the presents he
has received from him, etc. Thus must the penitent act who has a
622 The Means of Grace.
real detestation of sin; he must avoid all and everything that leads
to sin, or that reminds him of sin. Those who wish to do better, but
will not avoid the occasion of sin, are like one who sweeps away the
cobweb, but does not kill the spider; thus a fresh web is soon spun.
Or he is like a gardener who cuts off the weeds and does not root them
up; in a little time they are greener- than ever. Too often sinners
who confess their sins but will not give up the occasion of sin
transgress more deeply than before. If you would keep the flies from
your table, you must remove the sweet dishes that attract them ; so if
you would keep free from sin, you must keep far from you the oc-
casions of sin. Good resolutions are no use without the divine assist-
ance, any more than the corn can fructify without rain and sun-
shine. Hence we must not trust to our own strength, but in the
grace of God.
Our resolution should have reference to one particular sin,
and that the one to which we are most attached.
It is impossible to carry out many resolutions at a time. To at-
tempt this is like endeavoring to roll several large stones up hill all
at once; we shall succeed with none. It is enough if we set our-
selves resolutely to overcome one fault, for in doing so we shall
combat all the others, just as while curbing one restive horse, we check
the others who are harnessed with it. If we did but root out one
vice every year, we should soon become perfect men.
4. We are under the obligation of confessing our sins, that is,
we must secretly to the priest enumerate all the mortal sins of
which we are conscious, accurately, simply and humbly; with
the number of times we have committed them, besides all that
is necessary to make known the nature of the sin (Council of
Trent, 14, 5, 7).
It is not necessary, but it is salutary and profitable to confess
venial sins.
If a mortal sin has been forgotten in confession, it must be
mentioned the next time.
Confession must be made secretly, that is, we must speak in so
low a tone that no one near, besides the priest, shall hear what is
said. Confession must be accurate. We should avoid the use of
general terms ; for instance, it is not right to say : I have transgressed
the Third, Fifth or Seventh Commandment ; I have not loved God
with my whole heart; I have sinned in thought, word and deed.
Such phrases are unmeaning. Yet, while entering into particulars,
everything should be told as briefly as possible, every superfluous de-
tail being avoided. Any one who has been accessory to our sin is
not to be mentioned by name. Simple : Ambiguous expressions, at-
tempts at self-justification, cannot be allowed in confession ; the peni-
tent must be simple and candid, as a crystal is clear and transparent.
To seek to justify one's self is to act like our first parents in para-
dise, who shifted the blame from their own shoulders, and were pun-
ished more severely for it. " Accuse thyself, and God will excuse
TJie Sacraments. 623
thee; excuse thyself and God will accuse thee" (St. Augustine).
Humble: The penitent must not take offence if the confessor re-
proves or questions him. In the confessional the priest is in the
place of God, the penitent is but a miserable sinner. King Louis IX.
once said to a priest, who timidly addressed him as " Your Majesty " ;
" I am not a king here, nor are you a subject; I am a child, and you
are a father." The Empress Constantia once sent for the Abbot
Joachim, and wanted him to hear her confession while she remained
seated on her throne. But the abbot said : " If thou art to be in the
place of Magdalen, and I in that of Christ, thou must leave thy
throne and kneel at my feet; otherwise I will go away at once." If
the priest perceives that the confession is not entire and complete,
he asks questions; just as the customs officer, if he thinks that a
traveller has articles on which duty has to be paid, does not satisfy
himself with yes or no, but searches his luggage. If the penitent is
unable to speak, for instance, if he is deaf and dumb, or extremely ill,
he must make his confession by signs, or the deaf-mute may make it
in writing. Absolution can never be given to any one at a distance,
though it is besought by letter or by a messenger. It is enough if
all mortal sins are confessed. For if the beams are burned away,
the planks will probably be consumed with them, but the reverse is
not the case. Unfortunately, people are too apt to confess venial
and conceal mortal sins. Yet it is profitable to confess venial sins,
for thereby a portion of the temporal penalty is cancelled, and greater
peace of mind is acquired, since in regard to some sins we cannot
decide with certainty whether they are mortal or venial. Those who
cannot accuse themselves of any mortal sin, must at least confess
some venial sins, or a sin of their past life, otherwise they cannot
receive absolution. All mortal sins must be declared, unless under
exceptional circumstances, such as the penitent being at the point of
death, in imminent danger (on a sinking ship), too ill to speak more
than a few words, or in a hospital where his confession may be over-
heard. In such cases an incomplete confession is permissible. All
the mortal sins of which we are conscious must, as has been said,
be enumerated in confession ; yet it may occur that one is forgotten ;
- if so, it must be mentioned next time, and we need not distress our-
selves if we do not remember it until after communion, for our
confession was not sacrilegious. We must also declare as nearly
as possible how often any mortal sin has been committed.
5. Satisfaction, must be made: i.e., we must perform the pen-
ance enjoined upon us by the confessor.
The debt of temporal punishment is in no wise remitted by the
Sacrament of Penance. For God is not more merciful than He is
just ; therefore works of penance are imposed on the penitent, whereby
he may discharge the debt of temporal punishment due to his sins.
Works of penance are not only for the punishing or avenging of past
sins, they are also a medicine. The sinner is like a wounded warrior ;
it is not enough to extract the bullet from the wound ; bandages and
balsam must be applied to heal it. The priest does not merely deliver
the penitent from the guilt of sin, he enjoins on him suitable and
salutary satisfaction, which shall act as a remedy against relapse.
As a rule, he imposes on him penances exactly opposed to his evil
624: The Means of Grace.
propensities; almsdeeds on the avaricious, fasting on the intem-
perate, and so forth. Nothing is more efficacious in eradicating sin
than prayer, almsgiving, and fasting, because the concupiscence of
the eyes, the concupiscence of the flesh, and the pride of life, are
overcome by the practice of the opposite virtues.
The confessor generally enjoins upon the penitent, prayer, alms-
deeds, and fasting, as works of penance, in order that he may
thereby discharge the temporal penalties, and weaken the power
of evil tendencies (Council of Trent, 14, 8).
In former times most rigorous penances were imposed; e.g., fast-
ing on bread and water, abstinence from meat and wine, the non-
reception of holy communion, and the like. These penances were not
for a few days, they lasted months and even years, nay, many were
lifelong. Some penitents withdrew to the desert to live a life of
penance, as did St. Mary of Egypt. Nor were these penances only
imposed for grievous sins, but for comparatively slight transgressions,
such as the omission of Mass, neglect of the rule of fasting, misbe-
havior in church, etc. Nowadays the penances imposed are very dif-
ferent; they bear no possible proportion to the punishment we have
merited. It is well therefore to undertake some voluntary penances,
that we may not suffer in purgatory hereafter, as will be shown pres-
ently.
The confessor also directs reparation to be made for any
injury that has been done, and the suppression of all that may
cause scandal.
He obliges those who have stolen other people's goods to make
restitution; those who have wronged others by slander to retract
their words and make an apology. He deals gently with the penitent,
and does not require from him what he cannot or will not perform.
The works of penance imposed by the confessor ought to be
conscientiously performed in union with the satisfaction of Our
Lord Jesus Christ.
By the performance of our sacramental penance (that enjoined
by the priest), we discharge more of our debt than by works volun-
tarily undertaken. The former have the virtue of obedience; they
would lose their value if they were knowingly altered, therefore they
must be done with scrupulous exactitude. If they cannot be per-
formed, this must be told to the priest in the next confession. They
must also be performed without delay, for they have no efficacy in
remitting sin or earning grace unless the penitent is in a state of
grace, and this is most certain immediately after confession. Still
there is no obligation to say one's penance before approaching holy
communion, but we must not put off saying it until there is a danger
of our forgetting it. Whoso neglects to perform his sacramental pen-
ance loses many graces, and violates the obedience he owes to the
priest as God's representative; but he does not thereby render his
confession invalid. He is like a sick man who, when the physician
has gene, will not take the medicine he prescribed. He shows more-
The Sacraments. 625
over, that he does not think seriously of amending his life. All our
works of penance are of themselves without merit ; they derive their
sufficiency from the merit of the satisfaction made by Christ. For
this reason the Church concludes all her petitions with the words:
Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. Our works cannot, never-
theless, be dispensed with, for Christ has only merited for us what
was beyond our reach ; He has opened heaven to us again, it behooves
us through the satisfaction we make to appropriate to ourselves what
He merited for us. We know that only if we suffer with Him shall
we also be glorified with Him (Rom. viii. IT).
We should, besides, make satisfaction by punishments volun-
tarily undertaken of ourselves; and also by bearing patiently the
temporal scourges inflicted of God (Council of Trent, 14, 9).
We ought to perform voluntary penances as well as those enjoined
on us. The man who owes a thousand dollars does not deem himself
out of debt when he has paid three or four hundred; he cannot rest
until the whole debt is paid off. So we must labor continually to dis-
charge our debt. Divine justice can only be satisfied by long and
continuous penance. " Chastise thyself," says St. Augustine, " if thou
wouldst not have God chastise thee." By a little labor here we can
avert great pains hereafter. The whole life of the Christian ought
to be a perpetual penance (Council of Trent, 14, 9). "Attach no
credit," says St. John of the Cross, " to the man who decries penance,
although he may have the gift of miracles." While we do penance,
we may count upon the assistance of grace. Patience under suffering
is an effectual means of making satisfaction; the merit of suffering
does not consist in the amount we bear, but the manner in which we
bear it. Comparatively slight afflictions borne patiently will have
far more value as expiation for sin than much greater works under-
taken of our own free will. Happy those to whom it is given to expiate
their sins on earth, for the fires of purgatory are infinitely worse than
anything we suffer here, and they do not contribute to our future
felicity; they are simply punitive, not meritorious. Another most
profitable means of making satisfaction is the willing acceptance of
death at the hand of God. Since Christ died for us, death is not now
regarded so much in the light of a chastisement, and by nothing can
we merit so greatly as by accepting it willingly.
The works of penance which we perform and the sufferings
we bear patiently' do not only cancel the temporal punishment
due to our sins, but they contribute to the increase of our eternal
happiness.
The satisfaction we make here obtains not only pardon from God,
but also a reward. All suffering is the penalty of sin, but by God's
mercy it is also a ladder whereby we may ascend to heaven. How
vast is the mercy and loving kindness of God !
General Confession.
1. By a general confession is meant the confession of all the
sins we have committed within a considerable period of time.
626 The Means of Grace.
Dwelling-houses are swept and cleaned every week, but at longer
intervals a thorough cleansing is necessary; the ceilings are white-
washed, the floors are scrubbed. It is the same with our soul; we
cleanse it frequently during our lives by confession, but occasionally
we purify it more fully by a general confession.
2. A general confession is profitable because it produces in
us greater self-knowledge, deeper humility, increased tranquil-
lity of conscience, and obtains many graces from God.
It produces greater self-knowledge, because it brings many hidden
sins to light. If we fish' with a rod or a net, not many fishes are
caught, for they shelter themselves under the banks; but if all the
water is drawn off the pond, all the fish come to sight. The difference
between ordinary confession and a general confession is much the
same. It also deepens humility. A small troop of soldiers attacking
the enemy has not the same force as the whole army; so the sins we
confess from time to time have not the same power to humble our
pride as the whole array when disclosed by a general confession. It
increases tranquillity of conscience. When a steward has to make up
his accounts to his master, he is afraid lest some error should be de-
tected; but when they are all looked over and found correct, his
mind is at rest. So it is with confession. It also obtains great graces
from God. Just as a beggar excites more commiseration if he tells
the full tale of his woes, so man appeals more strongly to the com-
passion of God, and obtains more graces from Him, if he humbles
himself by the acknowledgment of all his misery and frailty. With
many persons a general confession has inaugurated a new life.
Hence we may conclude that it is a means of obtaining a large meas-
ure of grace.
3. A general confession is indispensable, if an invalid con-
fession has once been made; it is also advisable in the case of
persons who are entering upon a new state of life, or who are in
danger of death.
What has already been said upon concealment of sins in confession
need not be repeated here. People about to be married, or clerics on
the eve of ordination, ought to make a general confession. What
consolation for the dying to know that the affairs of their soul are
all well-ordered! Scrupulous persons should be forbidden to make
a general confession ; for them the practice of obedience is more
salutary.
Confession a Divine Institution.
1. Confession of sins was instituted by Our Lord, and has been
the practice of the Church in all centuries.
Confession was practised under the Old Dispensation, not indeed
as a sacrament, but as foreshadowing the sacrament. The first
confession was made in paradise ; God was the Confessor, Adam and
Eve were the penitents. God called upon Cain to make a confession ;
The Sacraments. 627
he refused to do so and was cursed in consequence. David confessed
his sin and was forgiven. Under the law of Moses a certain form of
confession was customary among the Jews (Numb, v.-vii.). The people
who came to John the Baptist to be baptized confessed their sins
(Mark i. 5). Christ, Who did not come to destroy the law, but to
fulfil it (Matt. v. 17), confirmed and perfected the existing practice
of confession, and attached many graces to it.
1. On the day of His resurrection Our Lord gave to the
apostles and their successors the power to forgive and to retain
sins. It is obvious that in order that this power may be exer-
cised aright, it is necessary for the sinner to reveal the state
of his soul.
The words of Our Lord are these : " Whose sins you shall forgive,
they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are
retained " (John xx. 23).
2. Even in the apostles' time the Christian converts came to
them, " confessing and declaring their deeds."
Thus they came to St. Paul in Ephesus (Acts xix. 18). St. John
also states that by confession of sin pardon may be obtained (1
John i. 9).
3. In the writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church
in the first centuries Christians are frequently exhorted to con-
fess their sins, many appropriate and beautiful similes being
made use of in illustration.
Tertullian, St. Basil, St. Gregory the Great and others compare
the sinner to a sick man, who, if he would be cured, must declare
his symptoms or exhibit his festering sore to a skilful and experi-
enced physician. So the sinner must apply to the dispenser of the
divine mysteries and confess his sins that he may obtain remission.
St. Augustine says : " It is not enough that a man acknowledge his
sins to God, from Whom nothing is hidden; he must also confess
them to the priest, God's representative." Pope Leo I. censured the
custom of public confession as too rigorous, asserting that secret con-
fession was quite sufficient. It is noteworthy how often the Fathers
warn Christians against concealing a sin in confession. Even Prot-
estants cannot contest the fact that confession was practised both
in the first centuries of Christianity and in the Middle Ages; in
regard to the latter, history affords abundant evidence, for the very
names of the confessors of distinguished Christian rulers are recorded.
4. Confession was also retained by the earlier heretical sects
wliich fell away from the Church.
This fact affords unquestionable proof of the antiquity of con-
fession. But we find the practice in a perverted form among sec-
taries; for instance, it is said that in the Russian Church the priest
is bound to inform against any one who confesses crimes of a Nihil-
istic character. What a contrast to the rules of the Catholic Church !
628 The Means of Grace.
5. It is impossible to prove confession to be of human insti-
tution.
The name of the inventor or originator is generally attached to
every human institution or discovery. But those who deny the di-
vine origin of confession, cannot say in what land and at what epoch
this custom — than which none other is so difficult and wearisome, and
at the same time so unremunerative for the priest — was first intro-
duced. Protestants do, it is true, allege that it was introduced at
the Lateran Council in 1215, when confession once a year was made
obligatory for the faithful; but who would be so foolish as to con-
clude, because a father bade his son pay him a visit regularly once
every year, that until then he had not been in the habit of ever vis-
iting him?
2. The institution of confession affords us proof of the infinite
mercy and wisdom of God.
How easy it is for us, who on account of our sins are like crim-
nals condemned to death, to obtain pardon from God ! He does
not require of us severe sufferings, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or
the like ; nothing but the confession of our sins to any one of His min-
isters whom we may select, and who is pledged to strictest secrecy.
No earthly monarch was ever so indulgent to transgressors. What
exertions a prisoner confined in a subterranean dungeon will make to
regain his liberty! For a whole year he wTill work at filing through
a bar or loosening a stone. The spiritual prisoner need take no such
pains to recover his freedom; such is the unfathomable bounty and
mercy of God. The infinite wisdom of God is also exhibited in the
institution of confession. The skill of an experienced physician
is shown by the fact that he not only relieves the patient, but by
the employment of a remedy opposed to the disease, eliminates its
cause. Now we know that all transgressions come from pride; it is,
as St. Thomas Aquinas declares, the source of all sin; confession is
diametrically opposed to pride, it is a humiliation for the sinner.
Thus God manifests His wisdom by appointing a practice easy and
simple in itself, and yet most painful to human nature ; for confession
requires no slight conquest of self.
The Advantages of Confession.
Confession is extremely useful both to individuals and to so-
ciety in general.
1. Confession is profitable to the individual inasmuch as he
derives from it self-knowledge, delicacy of conscience, interior
peace, strength of character, and moral purity.
By comparing all that he has done or left undone with the law
of God's commandments, the penitent learns to know his own heart.
TTis conscience also speaks more clearly. By frequent confession
the law of God is more deeply impressed on the heart of man; when
tempted to sin, the commandment he is about to break presents
j
The Sacraments. 629
itself to his mind. The mere thought of confession also acts as a de-
terrent from sin; some persons abstain from sin because they could
not bear to tell it to the priest. Experience proves how great a relief
confession is to the mind of one who has committed a grievous sin.
The impulse to confess one's misdeeds is inherent in human nature ;
confession answers to this feeling, and the assurance of pardon af-
fords the greatest consolation. Confession also increases strength of
character, for by it we learn to overcome ourselves. Moreover the
Holy Spirit enlightens our understanding and fortifies our will, and
the more steadfastly the will is inclined to what is good, the more
strength of character we shall possess. Confession, being in itself
an act of humility, cannot fail to make a man humble, and humility
is the foundation of all moral perfection. Proud people have the
greatest aversion to confession. It is a means of freeing ourselves
from the fetters of the devil, for by telling the truth when it would
be so easy to deceive, and the temptation to conceal is often experi-
enced, we throw off the yoke of the father of lies, and turn to Him
Who is eternal Truth. And the less power the devil has over a man,
the more easily he will draw nigh to God. The first step in amend-
ment of life is to go to confession. •" Before applying thyself to good
deeds," says St. Augustine, " confess thy misdeeds."
2. Confession is profitable to society at large because it is
a means whereby disputes are settled, stolen property is re-
stored, crimes are prevented, and vice effectually suppressed.
Absolution is not given to the penitent who refuses to forgive his
neighbor or make restitution of property wrongfully obtained. The
reason why non-Catholics often prefer Catholic servants and are
willing to let them go to confession is apparent. The priest in the
confessional spares no pains to dissuade those who come to him from
carrying out any evil designs they may have formed, and tells them
what measures they must take to master their passions. More is
done in the confessional than in the pulpit for the furtherance of
morality, for what is said in private has more effect that what is
said in public. Pope Pius V. used to say : " Give me good confessors
and I will reform the whole world." If the discovery were made that
confession was practised by one of the pagan nations of antiquity, too
much could not be said in praise of so excellent and wise an institu-
tion; but because, it is practised in the Catholic Church, and ap-
pointed by the living God, it is termed foolish, tyrannical, and de-
grading.
The Sin of Relapse.
When the Ark of the Covenant, we are told, was carried to the
brink of the Jordan, the water left off flowing downwards, and stood
together in a heap. But no sooner had the ark passed over, than the
waters returned into their channel and ran on as they were wont
before (Josue iii.). So it is with many a Christian. When they
have received the sacraments, they restrain their passions a little;
but before long they again give them free rein, and sin even more
deeply than ever. "Many," says St. Jerome, "begin well, but few
630 The Means of Grace.
persevere." " They put their hand to the plough and then look
back" (Luke ix. 62). They are to be compared to the sow that was
washed and returns to her wallowing- in the mire (2 Pet. ii. 22), or
to the dog that returneth to his vomit (Prov. xxvi. 11).
1. He who after his conversion relapses into mortal sin, is in
danger of dying impenitent, because the devil acquires great power
over him, and the influence of the Holy Spirit is lessened.
It is impossible for those who were once illuminated, and were
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and are fallen away, to be re-
newed again to penance (Heb. vi. 4). The backslider finds it difficult
to regain the right road. Relapse into sin is like the relapse of a
convalescent; the disease from which he suffered has more hold on
him than before. Our Lord says of such a one that the unclean spirit
returns to him and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked
than himself (Luke xi. 26). The devil deals with the backslider as
a prudent warder does with a prisoner who has once escaped; he
guards him more watchfully than before. The backslider grieves the
Holy Spirit of God (Eph. iv. 30) ; nay he drives Him away, and vio-
lates the temple of God (1 Cor. iii. 17). Thus the sin of relapse
renders a man unworthy of the assistance of divine grace. He
does not deserve to be cured who opens his wounds afresh. A prince
will not readily readmit a man to his favor, who despite all protesta-
tions of fidelity has proved himself a traitor. The sin of relapse
is severely punished by God. Our Lord said to the man whom He
had healed : " Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee "
(John v. 14).
2. If any one should relapse into mortal sin, let him forthwith
repent and go to confession; for the longer penance is delayed,
the more difficulty the more uncertain conversion will be.
The backslider ought to act as St. Peter did when he had denies
Christ; he went out and wept bitterly (Matt. xxvi. 75). If fire
breaks out in a house, it can be extinguished at once if help is at
hand; and if the backslider does penance immediately, his sin may
be pardoned; nay more, his fall may even obtain for him a greater
measure of grace. In the case of some saints, their fall produced in
therii a greater accession of fervor, and the depth of their contrition
obtained for them a higher degree of grace. But the longer penance
is postponed, the worse it will fare with the sinner. It is the opinion
of the Fathers that as almightv God has appointed beforehand the
number of talents to be confided to every individual, so He has fixed
the number of sins which shall be forgiven to each ; when this num-
ber is complete, there is no more pardon to be found. St. Augustine
says that the long-suffering of God bears with the sinner up to a cer-
tain point ; after that he cannot obtain 'forgiveness. In his first ill-
ness the infidel Voltaire repented; but he presently fell into greater
wickedness than before, and his end was a dreadful one.
3. If, through frailty, we fall into venial sin, we must not be
disquieted on that account, but humble ourselves before God.
To be vexed and out of temper with one's self shows pride; we can-
not tolerate the sight of our own imperfections. It is of no use to
TJie Sacraments. 631
be angry because we are men, not angels; in that way we only per-
petuate our faults. "If," as St. Francis of Sales says, "we are
angry with ourselves for being angry with another, we feed our
anger instead of stifling it." No one is able throughout his whole
life to avoid all sins, except by a special privilege from God, as the
Church holds in regard of the Blessed Virgin (Council of Trent, 6,
23). God permits us to fall into venial sins to keep us humble. He
does like the mother who lets her child run alone in a soft meadow,
where a fall will do him no harm; but on a rough road she carries
him in her arms. So God upholds us in great dangers by His al-
mighty hand, but in slight matters He leaves us more to ourselves.
Hence we must act like children, when they fall; they cry a little
and get up again; so we must at once bewail our fault, acknowledge
our misery, renew our trust in God, and go on as before. Thus our
sins may be made of profit to us ; they ought to humble, not to dis-
courage us (St. Francis of Sales). It is impossible to keep the linen
we wear perfectly clean, but we can have it washed when it is soiled.
It is equally impossible to keep our soul free from all stains, yet
it is in our power to cleanse it when we have fallen into sin. The
just man falls seven times, but he shall rise again seven times (Prov.
xxiv. 16).
4. Since we cannot possibly continue in a state of grace until
death without the special assistance of the Holy Spirit, let us
fervently implore of God the grace of final perseverance.
In addition to sanctifying grace the just man needs actual grace,
in order to persevere in justice. As the most healthy eye cannot see
without the light of the sun, so the best of men cannot live aright
without the operation of grace. The justified are not able to per-
severe in justice received without the special help of God (Council
of Trent, 6, 22). Without the assistance of grace we should quickly
relapse into our former sins, and into yet worse ones, just as crea-
tion would fall back into nothing if not preserved in existence by
God. The gift of final perseverance is the greatest gift we can re-
ceive from God, for all other graces are valueless without it. " He
that shall persevere unto the end, he," and he only, " shall be saved "
(Matt. xxiv. 13). It is useless to lay the foundation of a house if
the structure is not to be finished. " The Christian," says St.
Augustine, " will,not be questioned about the commencement, but the
end of his life." St. Paul made a bad beginning, but a good end.
Judas began well, and ended by betraying Our Lord, to his own
damnation. The gift of final perseverance will not be denied to him
who humbly implores it.
By good works also we may make sure our calling and elec-
tion (2 Pet. i. 10). Unremitting prayer, and heartfelt devotion
to the Mother of God are besides excellent means to enable us
to persevere in justice.
The more good work we have done the less need we fear damna-
tion. Hence the prophet said to Josaphat, the King of Israel : " Thou
didst deserve indeed the wrath of God, but good works are found in
632 The Means of Grace.
thee" (2 Par. xix. 3). Why were David and St. Peter treated by
God with such favor and indulgence after their fall? Because of
the good works they had previously performed. Unremitting prayer
is also an excellent means of persevering in justice. As birds con-
tinually move their wings in the air, to keep from falling to the
ground, so we should soar to God on the pinions of prayer, lest we
fall into mortal sin. Our Lord enjoins on us " always to pray "
(Luke xviii. 1). There is nothing more certain to preserve us through-
out our life in the grace of God than unceasing prayed. Hot water
does not get cold if it be placed close to the fire, neither does the
warmth of divine charity die out of our heart if we keep it near to
God by frequent ejaculatory prayers. And since all graces come to us
through the hands of the Mother of God, we cannot doubt that the
gift of final perseverance, the greatest of all graces, will only be ob-
tained through her intercession on our behalf. " If thou dost enjoy
Mary's favor," St. Bernard declares, " thou art sure of salvation."
INDULGENCES.
It has already been explained that by the Sacrament of Penance
the debt of eternal punishment due to the sinner is remitted, but
not the temporal. This he must discharge either in this world by
sickness, adversity, temptation, persecution, voluntary works of pen-
ance, and the like, or in the fires of purgatory after death. This is
exemplified by the holy penitent, Mary of Egypt. For seventeen
years she led a sinful life; after her conversion she did penance in
the desert for seventeen years. Her penance consisted in horrible
temptations, in hunger and thirst, in sufferings from exposure to cold
and heat. It was the same with other penitents.
1. God has granted to the Church the power, after the recon-
ciliation of the sinner with God, of changing the punishments
yet remaining due to sin into works of penance, or of remitting
them altogether.
Our Lord conferred on St. Peter in particular, and on all the
apostles in general, the power to remove whatever hindered the ad-
mission of the penitent to heaven. To St. Peter He said : " Whatso-
ever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed in heaven " (Matt,
xvi. 19), and to the apostles Lie said: "Whatsoever you shall loose
on earth shall be loosed also in heaven " (Matt, xviii. 18). Now since
mortal sin excludes from heaven permanently, and the temporal pen-
alty of sin temporarily, power to remit both one and the other is
vested in the Head of the Church and in the bishops. We read that
certain. Christians of Corinth, who had been excommunicated for
their vices, were pardoned by St. Paul in the name of Christ (2 Cor.
ii. 10), after they had testified to the sincerity of their compunction.
When the Church remits temporal penalties, she does not cancel them
altogether; she supplies what is lacking from the treasury of the
infinite merits of Christ and of the saints. Many members of the
Church have performed penances over and above what was due to
their sins, and the store of their merits, owing to the satisfaction
The Sacraments. 633
made by Christ, is so vast in extent, that it far exceeds the penalties
due to the sins of all living (St. Thomas Aquinas). In these merits
all participate who belong to the communion of saints; and the dis-
tribution of them was entrusted by the Son of God to St. Peter, who
is the doorkeeper of heaven. Thus it will be seen that no one is act-
ually exempted from the payment of his debt, since what is still due
is paid out of the treasury of the Church.
1. Hence at the time of the great persecutions, the Church
used to lay upon repentant sinners public penances for the ex-
piation of the temporal punishment of sin, and afterwards com-
mute them into lesser ones, or remit them altogether, if the peni-
tent manifested a sincere intention of amendment, or a martyr
interceded for him.
The Christians of early ages were mostly recent converts from
heathenism, and needed rigorous treatment. Public penance gener-
ally consisted in exclusion from the company of the faithful; the
excommunicate were only allowed to kneel in the vestibule of the
Church and hear the first portion of the Mass; they were not per-
mitted to receive holy communion, and as a rule, were not absolved
until the expiration of their term of penance. During that time on
fixed days they had to fast on bread and water. This public penance
usually lasted seven years; it was only imposed for grave offences,
such as apostasy, giving the Holy Scriptures into the hands of pagans,
etc. ; for heinous crimes such as murder, the period was still longer.
For lesser transgressions a fast of forty days was the ordinary pen^
ance. But the Church knew that the design of God is not so much
to chastise the sinner as to detach him from earthly affections and
lead him to amend ; thus, if the penitent showed by his conduct that
his conversion was not superficial, but real, it was deemed unneces-
sary for him to do further penance. Consequently the penitential
works were in some cases partially or wholly remitted. JSTow since
Christians form one body among themselves, the communion of
saints, they can make satisfaction for one another ; hence the martyrs
pleaded on behalf of the penitents. St. Thomas Aquinas says that
what friends do for us we do in a measure for ourselves, since by
reciprocity of affection two are made one.
2. In later times, when public penances were abrogated, the
Church permitted the contrite sinner to discharge the debt of
temporal punishment due to sin by means of almsdeeds, crusades,
or pilgrimages.
Formerly the penitent had to apply for dispensation or mitiga-
tion; later on it was offered by the Church to the faithful. In the
Middle Ages there were good reasons for remitting penances on the
payment of a sum of money, for in those days greed and avarice pre-
vailed, and we know that every vice is best extirpated by its opposite
virtue. The money thus collected was expended in the erection of
churches and cathedrals for the most part ; this is how the funds were
raised to build St. Peter's at Rome. At the Council of Clermont in
634 The Means of Grace,
1095, a total dispensation from works of penance, i.e., a plenary in-
dulgence, was granted to all who took part in the crusades themselves,
or in later years provided men or money to carry them on. These
indulgences were extended to the near relatives of the crusaders.
Crusades were also undertaken on the same conditions against here-
tics and the adversaries of the Church. In the tenth century we find
pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome and Compostella mentioned as means
of discharging the temporal debt due to sin. When the Holy Land
came into the power of the Turks, and pilgrimages could no longer
be made to Jerusalem, Pope Boniface VIII. granted full remission
of temporal punishment to all who, during the year 1300, should for
fifteen successive days visit the basilica of the apostles in Rome.
This was the origin of the Jubilee indulgence; it was repeated fifty
years later, the condition of a visit to the Lateran Church being
added. In that year three million pilgrims are said to have journeyed
to the Eternal City. The interval between the granting of these
indulgences was reduced by later Pontiffs to thirty-three years, in
honor of the period of Our Lord's life on earth ; again it was short-
ened to twenty-five years. Furthermore it was decreed that the same
indulgence might be gained by the inhabitants of certain large cities,
provided they visited their cathedral church and gave a sum equal
to the cost of a journey to Rome, to the preachers of the indulgence,
or collectors of alms. This gave rise to great abuses. The collectors
who were principally Dominican or Franciscan monks, were some-
times guilty of extravagances, and the Council of Trent had to sup-
press their office altogether (Council of Trent, 21, 9).
3. In more recent times the Church permitted the substitu-
tion of works more easy of accomplishment, such as prayer and
the reception of the sacraments, for the more rigorous works of
penance, as a means of satisfaction.
In this manner the Church endeavors to incite her children to
greater fervor; to induce them to approach the sacraments (this
supposes conversion and amendment), to be diligent in prayer, to
enrol themselves in confraternities, to recite the Rosary, to increase
in devotion to saints and relics, etc. She acts like a mother who
mingles sweets with the bitter physic, to induce the child to swallow
it. The ancient rule of discipline formerly in force in the Church,
is the standard whereby the measure of punishment to be remitted
is estimated; thus when it is said that three years' indulgence is
granted for the recital of a certain prayer, the meaning is that the
penitent by repeating that prayer, does as much in expiation of his
sins as would formerly have been done by three years of canonical
penance. The object of this is both to testify to the Church's rever-
ence for ancient ordinances, and also by reminding them of the severe
requirements of former days, to make the faithful perform cheer-
fully the easy task they are now called upon to accomplish.
2. The remission of the temporal punishment due to us on
account of our sins is called an indulgence, and is obtained by the
performance, while in a state of grace, of certain good works en-
joined on us by the Church.
The Sacraments. 635
An indulgence (pardon or remission) is therefore a kind of ab-
solution from the temporal penalty of sin, after absolution from the
guilt and eternal punishment. An indulgence is very similar to an
amnesty; if this is granted by a monarch, a free pardon, or mitiga-
tion of sentence, is accorded, on account of their good conduct, to
some criminals among others, who, though condemned to death, have
had their verdict commuted to a term of incarceration. An indul-
gence is by no means a remission of mortal sin and the eternal pun-
ishment due to it; these must already be remitted before an indul-
gence can be gained. It is not absolution from sin, but the remission,
partial or plenary, of satisfaction due to sin. It is not a means of
evading the Sacrament of Penance and rendering sin easy; on the
contrary it obliges us to a real conversion of life.
Indulgences only remove those temporal sufferings which
do not conduce to our eternal salvation.
An indulgence only exempts us from such sufferings as are ex-
clusively primitive; it does not remove those which God sends upon
us for our advancement in holiness, or to prevent our relapse into
sin; for suffering such as these no satisfaction can be made, as we
see in the case of David. When the death of his child was foretold
to him, as the punishment of his sin, he besought the Lord for the
child and kept a fast (2 Kings xii.), but God would not accept this
satisfaction; the child died. Nor do indulgences deliver us from
sufferings which are a probation, or are intended to enhance our
eternal felicity; in that case they would be prejudicial to salvation,
not beneficial. Without suffering no man can be saved; even the
immaculate Mother of God, who was free from all sin, had no small
measure of suffering as her lot on earth.
It is necessary for gaining an indulgence to be in a state of
grace; otherwise good works can only conduce to the conversion
of him who performs them, and are valueless for the remission
of temporal punishment.
As a member of the human body, if it be dead, can derive no
benefit from the action of the other living members, so the living
members of the Church are powerless to aid, by the application of the
satisfaction they have made, the soul of one who is spiritually dead,
i.e., in mortal sin.
The Church grants indulgences for the recital of certain
prayers, for visiting certain holy places, for the use of certain
sacred things, besides personal indulgences.
The heavenly treasures of the Church are not administered for
gain, but godliness (Council of Trent, 21, 8). As instances of indul-
genced prayers we may mention the acts of the three theological
virtues, the Angelus, the usual prayers of Mass, etc. These prayers
must be vocal ; it is not necessary to repeat them kneeling, unless this
should be definitely specified. They may be recited in any language,
provided the translation is approved by the bishop. Not a single word
636 The Means of Grace.
must be omitted or altered, and the prescription as to time, place, etc.,
must be strictly observed; but the indulgence is not lost on account
of some trifling mistake. The indulgence attached to some prayers
may be gained each time they are repeated (toties quoties) ; in the
case of others, only once a day. As instances of places where indul-
gences may be gained, we may mention the Via Crucis in Jerusalem,
and the stations wherever they are canonically erected. The Scala
Santa in Rome, the stairway, that is, in Pilate's house up and down
which Our Lord was dragged. It consists of twenty-eight marble
steps, and was brought from Jerusalem to Home by the Empress
Helena in 326. By ascending this staircase on one's knees, meditat-
ing meanwhile on Our Lord's Passion, an indulgence of nine years
for every step may be gained. Large indulgences are also granted
for visiting the tomb of the holy apostles, the stations in Rome
(churches where remarkable relics are preserved), the Chapel of the
Portiuncula at Assisi, the sepulchre of St. James at Compostella,
besides many others. As instances of holy things and sacred objects
to which indulgences may be attached, we may mention: Crucifixes,
medals, rosaries, pictures, statues, etc., provided they are not made of
very fragile material. These objects must be blessed by the Sovereign
Pontiff, or some priest possessing the powers. The indulgence is
lost if the object to which it is attached is more than half destroyed;
if, that is to say, the greater part of the beads of a rosary are worn
away, or more than half of the crosses have fallen from a set of
stations, also if a blest object is sold, or lent to another person for the
sake of gaining the indulgence, but not if it is given away after being
blessed. More than one indulgence may be attached to the same
rosary; a crucifix can likewise be indulgenced for the hour of death,
and for the stations; but one and the same prayer will not avail to
gain all the indulgences attached to any one object. Partial indul-
gences may be gained daily; and plenary very frequently if the usual
conditions are fulfilled. All crosses or rosaries brought from Pales-
tine, which have touched the holy places, have the Papal blessing at-
tached to them. The members of confraternities and some seculai
priests have personal indulgences granted to them.
3. An indulgence is either plenary, when a full and entire re-
mission of all the temporal punishment due to sin is gained, or
partial, when only a portion of the temporal punishment is re-
mitted.
Indulgences are ordinarily greater or less in proportion to the
prescribed works; for a small work, a small indulgence, for a work
of difficulty a large indulgence is granted. Let no one imagine that
it is an easy thing to gain a plenary indulgence. For he who retains
any undue attachment to earthly things, is not altogether free from
the guilt of sin; nor consequently from the penalty of sin, and he
yet needs purification by suffering. Only in as far as the offence
against God is hateful to the penitent, does God remit the chastise-
ment due to His justice.
Plenary indulgences ar^ granted by the Church, provided
that we approach the sacraments and pray for the Holy Father's
The Sacraments. 637
intention besides performing the prescribed works; sometimes
the condition of visiting a church is added.
For instance : For daily acts of the three theological virtues, a
plenary indulgence may be gained on any one day in the month on
the usual conditions. The same privilege is attached to several other
prayers and ejaculations, such as : " Sweetest Heart of Jesus, I im-
plore, that I may ever love Thee more and more." Those who are in
the habit of going to confession every week can gain any
indulgence in the course of the week without going again to
confession, except the Jubilee indulgence. More than one plenary
indulgence may be gained at one and the same communion, provided
the works prescribed for each severally be accomplished. If a visit
to a church or public chapel is enjoined, it must be made on a separate
occasion. Infirm persons are only required to go to confession; in-
stead of receiving communion and visiting a church, if these be the
conditions, they can gain the indulgence by performing some other
work prescribed by their confessor. All who by illness or other un-
avoidable circumstances are prevented from visiting a church, do not
lose the indulgence, if they fulfil all the conditions within their
power. Prayers for the intention of the Church are left to every one's
discretion. In general, five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys are
considered sufficient ; they must be repeated audibly, either before or
after communion, and offered up for the peace of Christian princes,
the extirpation of heresy, and the exaltation of the Church.
The most important plenary indulgences are the Jubilee in-
dulgence, the indulgence of the Portiuncula, and that of the
Papal benediction.
The Jubilee indulgence is granted every twenty-five years to the
whole Church, and lasts for the whole year. The Jews kept the
fiftieth year as a year of jubilee, or rejoicing. We have already ex-
plained how this custom was introduced into the Church. The con-
ditions for gaining it are: The reception of the sacraments and the
visit to a church, besides at least one day of fasting and an alms.
In the Jubilee year all other indulgences for the living are suspended
(except that of the Angelus and for the hour of death), but if applied
to the dead they continue in force. As a rule, the Jubilee indulgence
can only be gained once, and that for one's self; but sometimes it is
otherwise. Occasionally an extra Jubilee is proclaimed by the Sov-
ereign Pontiff under special circumstances, such as his accession to
the Papal throne, the opening of a council, etc. The indulgence of
the Portiuncula can be gained repeatedly on the second of August,
and on the evening before ; as often, in fact, as any one who has been
to confession and communion visits the Portiuncula Chapel, or any
other public chapel of the Franciscans or Poor Clares, and prays for
the intentions of the Holy Father. The indulgence originated in this
wise : AVhile St. Francis was praying in his favorite church near
Assisi, Our Lord appeared to him, with His blessed Mother and sev-
eral saints. Francis entreated Our Lord to grant a plenary indulgence
to all who after approaching the sacraments, should visit that church.
Our Lord consented, bidding him go to the Pope, who would ratify
o38 The Means of Grace,
the privilege. Francis accordingly repaired to Rome; the Holy
Father granted the indulgence, fixing it for the second of August.
Later Pontiffs extended it to all public chapels of the Franciscan
Order, and some others. This indulgence can only be gained once
for one's self; if gained more often, it must be applied to
some one else. The communion need not necessarily be made in a
church of the Order. A plenary indulgence may be gained by all who,
after confession and communion, and prayer for the intention of the
Church, receive the Papal benediction. Previous to the year 1870
this used, to be solemnly given after High Mass on great festivals
from the balcony of St. Peter's. Bishops and priests are now and
again authorized to give the Papal blessing to their flocks on special
occasions, such as the close of a mission.
A plenary indulgence may be gained in the hour of death
by those who, haying received the sacraments and invoked the
holy name, receive the Papal blessing, or keep beside them some
object blessed by the Holy Father; also by the members of most
confraternities, and by all who have daily recited the three acts
of faith, hope and charity, or some other similarly indulgenced
prayer.
If a sick man, desirous of gaining a plenary indulgence, should
find it impossible to receive the sacraments, he may at least make
an act of contrition; if he cannot utter the name of Jesus with his
lips, he can at any rate invoke it in his heart. In any case perfect
conformity to the will of God is essential. The majority of priests
are empowered to give the papal benediction to the dying. Those
who have received the necessary faculties can indulgence crosses, med-
als and the like for the hour of death. It is enough if the faithful
keep objects thus blessed in their houses, to enable them to gain the
indulgence. Indulgences for the hour of death are also attached to
membership of various confraternities. They may also be gained
by making acts of faith, hope, and charity daily, in one's own words
or otherwise. The same applies to several other short prayers, such
as " Angel of God," etc. Indulgences obtained in the hour of death
are , purely personal ; they cannot even be applied to the souls in
purgatory. As the dying cannot, with the best of wills, perform
works of penance, the Church almost entirely exempts them from the
obligation of trying to discharge the temporal debt of punishment
due to their sins.
The partial indulgences granted by the Church are generally
a quadragena, or forty days; or for a period of a hundred days,
a year, five or seven years, very rarely for thirty or a hundred
years. Those fixed periods do not mark the number of days or
years by which the purgatorial fires are abridged; they do but
indicate that as much of the temporal punishment of sin is re-
mitted as would have been remitted by a corresponding period
of the canonical penances formerly imposed on penitents.
TJie Sacraments. 639
4. The Pope alone has power to grant indulgences which are
for the whole Church; for in him alone jurisdiction over the whole
Church is vested, and he is the steward of the Church's treasures.
Bishops have the power to grant partial indulgences, but only
for those in their own diocese; just as secular magistrates can only
judge cases which come within the sphere of their jurisdiction.
Bishops are sometimes authorized by the Holy See to grant indul-
gences of a year, or forty days, on such occasions as the dedication
of a church.
5. Indulgences may also he applied by way of suffrage to the
suffering souls in purgatory, if this he expressly stated respecting
the indulgence; a plenary indulgence is gained for them every
time the holy sacrifice of the Mass is offered on a privileged altar.
The communion of saints enables us to assist the holy souls in
purgatory by applying to them our good works; those good works,
that is, to which the remission of temporal punishment is attached.
If we desire to gain an indulgence for the faithful departed we
must see that we are ourselves in a state of grace. " Let him who
would help to deliver the holy souls from purgatory," says St. Francis
Xavier, " first see that he delivers- his own soul from hell." The ap-
plication of indulgences to the souls of the departed is by way of
suffrage, not of absolution. It is by no means certain that the in-
dividual for whom a plenary indulgence is gained will be forthwith
released from purgatory; the amount of punishment thereby re-
mitted to him rests entirely with God to determine. The indulgence
of the privileged altar consists in this, that whenever Mass is cele-
brated at that particular altar a plenary indulgence is given from
the treasures of the Church to one of the souls in purgatory. In
every cathedral there is one such altar, and in many parish churches
or churches of an Order; the altars thus privileged are generally
indicated by the inscription altare privilegiatum, and black vest-
ments must be used when Mass is said at one of them, if the rubrics
allow of it on that day. The privilege must be renewed by applica-
tion to the bishop every seven years. The indulgence can be gained
for one individual only, and for that one the Mass must be offered,
but the priest may include in his intention other persons deceased.
The intention of the priest is not necessary to the gaining of the
indulgence; it will'be seen that bv no other means is a plenary in-
dulgence so surely gained as by this, since it depends entirely upon
the offering of the holy sacrifice, not upon the spiritual state of any
individual. But whether the Mass celebrated at the privileged altar
effects the complete deliverance of the soul from the pains of pur-
gatory cannot be known, as it depends solely on the mercy of God.
Priests who have made the heroic act of charity for the holy souls
have the same privilege in their own person.
6. The gaining of indulgences is most salutary (Council of
Trent, 25), because we thereby keep far from us temporal evils,
and are stimulated to the accomplishment of good works.
The indulgences we gain avert from us sickness, calamities,
temptations, etc., which, if no indulgence be gained, come upon us
640 The Means of Grace.
as the temporal punishment of sin. Thus those who neglect this
practice, may be compared to a traveller who although he might,
reach his destination by a short and easy route, prefers to take
a long and toilsome road; he is his own worst enemy. Some people
take exception at the doctrine of indulgences, but this is because they
do not understand it; others condemn it, because of the abuses in
the Middle Ages. Was there ever a good and holy thing which was
not misused by the wicked ? The abuse of a thing does not diminish
its usefulness. Therefore do not despise indulgences, for by despising
them many have fallen into error and perdition.
5. EXTREME UNCTION.
Christ is the Good Samaritan, for by the hands of His- repre-
sentative, the priest, He pours into the wounds of the sick oil to effect
his spiritual and physical cure.
1. In administering Extreme Unction the priest anoints the
Christian who is in danger of death with the holy oils upon the
organs of his five senses, and prays over him ; by means of which
the spiritual and not unfrequently the bodily malady of the sick
man is cured.
The priest anoints the sick man with consecrated oil in the form
of a cross on his five senses, which have been instrumental to his sins
(eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands and feet) ; at every unction he re-
peats the following form of prayer : " Through this holy unction and
through His most tender mercy, may the Lord pardon thee whatever
sins thou hast committed by seeing, hearing, etc." If the sick man
is actually expiring, the priest only anoints his forehead; but he
continues to anoint the other parts, so long as life has not departed.
Extreme Unction is also called the last sacrament, because it is
generally the last which is administered to the dying.
Extreme Unction is mentioned by St. James in his epistle.
We read : " Is any man sick among you ? Let him bring in the
priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him
with oil in the name of the Lord ; and the prayer of faith shall save
the sick man, and the Lord shall raise him up : and if he be in sins,
they shall be forgiven him" (Jas. v. 14, 15). Pope Innocent I., in
the fourth century, expressly declared that these words referred to
the Sacrament of Extreme Unction; and in the sixth century St.
Csesarius, Bishop of Aries, exhorts Christians in case of serious
illness, to receive the Lord's body and be anointed with oil for their
bodily restoration and the forgiveness of their sins. The sacred
unction of the sick was instituted by Our Lord as a true sacrament
of the New Law (Council of Trent, 14, 4). It confers grace, remits
sin, and comforts the sick.
2. Extreme Unction acts spiritually as oil does materially; it
strengthens, heals, and aids the soul to attain eternal salvation.
The Sacraments. 641
Oil strengthens the body (pugilists or wrestlers are rubbed with
oil to give them greater power, and render it difficult for their ad-
versary to grasp them) ; it possesses a healing power (witness the
Good . Samaritan, who poured oil on the wounds of the man who
had fallen among thieves) ; and it imparts suppleness and flexibility.
1. Extreme Unction strengthens the sick because it confers
on him grace to bear more easily the inconveniences and pains
of sickness, and enables him more readily to resist temptation of
all kinds.
A complete change is sometimes wrought in the sick by the re-
ception of this sacrament; whereas they were previously impatient
and in great dread of death, they become tranquil and patient and
resigned to the will of God. At the close of life the adversary of
our souls strains all the powers of his craft to ruin us utterly if he
can, and make us fall from our trust in the mercy of God (Council
of Trent, 14). Extreme Unction banishes the demon. It is recorded
of St. Eleazar that on the near approach of death, his countenance
became distorted, and he cried out that the devil was tormenting
him; but after he had been anointed, peace and joy returned to him.
2. Extreme Unction is for the healing of the soul, and often-
times of the body; it effects the remission of mortal sins, which
through infirmity of mind or body the sick man has not been
able to confess, as well as the remission of some temporal punish-
ment. And besides, at times it obtains bodily health, when ex-
pedient for the welfare of the soul.
Extreme Unction compensates for all that, through no fault of
his own, the sick man left incomplete in the Sacrament of Penance.
It is thus the completion of the Sacrament of Penance, or the penance
of the sick. By reason of physical and mental weakness the sick are
rarely capable of making a good confession or doing penance; there-
fore the Church deals leniently with them, and by this unction com-
mends them to the mercy of God. This anointing cleanses away
sin, if there be any still to be expiated, and cancels a part of the
penalty of sin, in proportion to the contrition and devotion where-
with the sacrament is received. Extreme Unction often obtains
restoration to health. If God foresees that the sick man, if he re-
cover, will make a' good use of the remainder of his days for his
spiritual advancement, He restores him to health, granting him a
reprieve, as it were, that he may prepare himself better for death.
But if He foresees that it will be otherwise, He takes him out of the
world. As a rule, the sick experience some alleviation after re-
ceiving Extreme Unction; this is not to be explained on natural
grounds; the peace of mind produced by confession and reconcilia-
tion with God acts beneficially upon the body. And in some cases
by the interposition of divine power health is restored when human
skill could do nothing. How foolish are those who imagine that if
they receive Extreme Unction it will be their death warrant !
3. Extreme Unction facilitates our salvation, by increasing
in us sanctifying grace and divine charity.
642 The Means of Grace.
In common with all the other sacraments Extreme Unction im-
parts a higher degree of sanctifying grace. This is of more im-
portance to us at our death than at any other moment, for the degree
of our future felicity depends on the degree of sanctifying grace we
possess. And the greater our love of God, the more capable shall we
be of the enjoyment of eternal bliss. Thus this holy sacrament
cleanses away all that is an impediment to our eternal salvation.
3. Extreme Unction can only be administered to persons who
are in danger of death; and they ought to receive it without de-
lay for the sake both of their physical and spiritual health.
Only in cases of serious illness, that is, when there is danger of
death, can the sick receive Extreme Unction. A soldier cannot re-
ceive it before going into action, nor a criminal condemned to death.
Exception may be made in regard to very aged persons; their ad-
vanced age renders them constantly liable to death. The administra-
tion of the holy oils should not be postponed until the last moment,
for if the sick man be unconscious, they will profit him little; since,
as has been already remarked, the utility of this sacrament to the
soul depends upon the contrition and devotion with which it is re-
ceived. And the body cannot profit by it, if the vital spark be all but
extinct. It is little use calling out the fire engine when the house is al-
most burnt down. He who enters upon the journey from time to
eternity without fortifying himself with the last sacraments, is like
a traveller who starts on his way with an empty purse. Nor can there
be contempt of so great a sacrament without heinous sin and an in-
jury to the Holy Ghost Himself (Council of Trent, 14, 9).
Those who have not yet received the Sacrament of Penance
cannot receive Extreme Unction since it is the completion of
penance.
To this class belong idiots, and children who have not yet attained
the age of reason. It must not, however, be supposed that this in-
cludes all children under seven, for children of five years of age have
been known on their death-bed to ask for a priest, because they were
conscious of having sinned against their parents.
Extreme Unction can only be administered to the sick once
in the same illness; but if the sick person recovers temporarily,
and then has a relapse, he may be anointed again.
4. Before being anointed the sick man ought to confess his
sins, and receive holy communion ; and afterwards the Papal bless-
ing is generally given to him.
Confession should precede Extreme Unction, because the recipient
of the sacrament must be in a state of grace. Extreme Unction is a
remedy ; and as medicine is for the living, not the dead, so this sacra-
ment is of no utility to those who are spiritually dead. Every priest who
has been duly authorized by the bishop, may give the Papal benedic-
tion, or general absolution, provided he makes use of the prescribed
The Sacraments. 643
formula. The sick man must call upon the holy name of Jesus (the
priest usually repeats some ejaculatory prayer to him, in which the
name of Jesus occurs) verbally, if he can still speak, if not, mentally,
and the crucifix is offered him to be kissed, otherwise the indulgence
is not gained.
It is the duty of relatives, and of those who are in attendance
upon the sick, to see that he receives the last sacraments in due
time.
This responsibility rests partly with the doctor, who, as a matter
of course, ought to apprise the friends of a sick person of his condi-
tion when it becomes serious. Catholics ought therefore if possible
to secure the services of a Christian physician. Sometimes the at-
tendants on a sick man fear to agitate him by mentioning the last
sacraments to him. This is indeed mistaken kindness, for they
cannot thereby retard the approach of death. Such false friends
resemble people who do not warn a blind man that he is nearing a
precipice, lest they should frighten him. Their cowardice will give
them much to answer for. The friends of the sick man should set the
room in order, and have everything that is needed in readiness for the
administration of the last sacraments. A table should be covered
with a white linen cloth, with a crucifix and two lighted tapers upon
it, besides a vessel containing holy water, because the priest has to
sprinkle both the chamber and the bystanders, and also a glass con-
taining a little clean water, for the priest to wash his fingers and give
the ablutions to the sick man after communion. Some cotton wool
must also be provided to wipe the parts that have been anointed.
While the sick man makes his confession let all leave the room, as
the priest may have to speak above a whisper.
6. HOLY ORDERS.
At the time of His ascension, Our Lord lifted up His hands,
blessed His apostles, and sent them forth into the world to preach the
Gospel and dispense the sacraments (Luke xxiv. 50). The bishop
does much the same when he ordains priests. (The imposition of
hands signifies that something is given, since gifts are distributed
with the hand.)
1. At the administration of Holy Orders the bishop lays his
hands on the candidates for ordination, calls down upon them the
Holy Ghost, anoints their hands, and presents the sacred vessels
to them.
They thereby receive, in addition to a plenitude of grace,
the sacerdotal powers; more especially the power to offer the
holy sacrifice and to forgive sins.
Holy Orders are administered during the celebration of Mass.
The candidates for ordination first prostrate themselves upon their
faces before the altar; then the bishop lays his hands upon the head
644 The Means of Grace.
of each one severally, the priests present doing the same. He next
arrays them in the sacerdotal vestments; the Veni Sancte Spiritus
is sung, and he anoints the hands of each one in turn with the sacred
chrism in the form of a cross. He then gives the chalice and paten
into their hands, thereby conferring on them the power to offer the
holy sacrifice; after which he addresses to them the words of Our
Lord : " Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose sins you shall forgive, they
are forgiven, etc." Finally the newly-ordained are required to promise
respect and obedience to the bishop. The ceremony of anointing the
hands, and presenting the sacred vessels is only an accessory; it was
not in use until the ninth century, and now has no place in the Greek
ritual. Not only supernatural powers, but graces are imparted in the
Sacrament of Orders. By this sacred ordinance the Holy Ghost is
given (Council of Trent, 13, 2).
The Sacrament of Holy Orders was administered in the time
of the apostles.
We read that the apostles consecrated Paul and Barnabas with
prayer and imposition of hands (Acts xiii. 3), and in like manner
St. Paul consecrated Timothy (2 Tim. i. 6). St. Augustine speaks
of Orders as a sacrament when he inveighs against the Donatists,
who asserted that while Baptism confers what can never be lost, the
right of administering Baptism may be lost. " Both," he declares,
" are sacraments, and can only be received once." The Sacrament of
Orders was unquestionably instituted by Our Lord at the Last
Supper.
2. The office of the priesthood, to which a man is raised by
Holy Orders, is one of great dignity, but likewise one of no slight
difficulty and of vast responsibility.
The priesthood is the highest dignity upon earth. It surpasses
that of kings and emperors, nay, even of the angels themselves. " For,"
as St. John Chrysostom remarks, " the power of kings is only over the
bodies of men, whereas that of the priest is over their souls." On
the priest are conferred powers not accorded to angels; for to what
angel was it ever given to convert bread into the body of the Lord by
his word? and not all the angels together could grant pardon for a
single sin. By his office a priest is only concerned with heavenly
things ; he stands between God and man ; he lays our petition before
the Most High and conveys divine graces to us. He is a mediator
between God and man, the angel of the Lord of hosts (Mai. ii. 7),
the messenger of God to make known His will to men. He is God's
representative, His ambassador, His plenipotentiary; therefore what-
soever honor we show to the priest, we. pay to God Himself. Does
not Our Lord Himself say : " He that heareth you, hearetb Me ; and
he that despiseth you, despiseth Me" (Luke x. 16)? In fact, St.
Peter Damian says, God actually follows the priest, for what he de-
clares on earth is ratified in heaven; and at his word the Second
Person of the Holy Trinity becomes flesh beneath his hand as at the
Incarnation. Hence we do well to address the nriest as " your rever-
ence." St. Francis of Assisi used to say that if he met an angel and
a priest at the same time he should salute the priest first. The
sacerdotal office is also one of great difficulty ; the obligations resting
Tlie Sacraments. 645
upon the priest are neither few nor light. He has to recite the
breviary daily, which cannot be done under an hour and a quarter;
he is pledged to lifelong celibacy ; he has to visit the sick at any hour
of the day or night when he may be called upon; he has to take the
last sacraments to the dying, however contagious the disease from
which they are suffering; he has often to sit for long hours in the
confessional, to fast late, on account of the late Masses; he is bound
to renounce all worldly amusements (such as dancing), to be liberal
towards the poor, and much more besides. Priests ought to be the
salt of the earth (Matt. v. 13). Nor must it be overlooked that zealous
priests are in the present day frequently the objects of suspicion and
persecution, and their apostolic labors are ill-rewarded. The votaries
of the world are inclined to treat their priests like the dog in the
fable, who bit the hand that was stretched out to save him from
drowning. The priestly office is besides one of immense responsi-
bility. If the wolf comes and rends the sheep, the shepherd is taken
to task. So it is with the priests; they have to render an account of
the souls committed to their charge (Heb. xiii. 17). " The duties of
those who will have to give account for souls," says St. Bernard, " are
heavy and onerous." On the day of his ordination St. John Chrysos-
tom said : " I now need your prayers a thousandfold more, lest in
the Day of Judgment I should be cast into the exterior darkness."
Since the sacerdotal office is in itself an office of such great
dignity, we owe profound respect to the priest on account of
his office, even if his life should not correspond to it.
Nothing can take away the dignity attaching to the priestly
office, not even an ungodly life; therefore we ought always to enter-
tain great reverence for it. Even pagan monarchs have been known
to manifest deep veneration for the priests of the true God. When
Alexander the Great was about to make a triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, the high priest went out to meet him with all the priests
arrayed in festal vestments, in order to ask a favor of him. Alex-
ander dismounted from his horse, and instantly granted all that he
asked. And when the general of the army expressed his surprise,
Alexander replied : " It is not the high priest to whom I pay homage,
but to the true God, Whose servant he is." Attila also, the terrible
King of the Huns, when advancing upon Rome to plunder the city,
allowed himself to be prevailed upon by Pope Leo the Great, to desist
from his purpose. ' Yet almighty God permits His priests to be en-
compassed with infirmity, in order that they may have the more
compassion on them that are ignorant and that err (Heb. v. 2). St.
Prancis of Sales said of priests : " I will close my eyes to their faults,
and only see in them God's representatives." How blameworthy
are those who publish far and wide the misdeeds of a priest ! " Are
we," asks St. Augustine, "to think slightingly of Christ and the
apostles, because there was a Judas among them? Who will show
me any body of men upon earth who are without faults ? "
Since the office of the priesthood is one of much labor and
grave responsibilities, no man ought to take Holy Orders who is
not called to the sacerdotal state.
646 The Means of Grace.
Let no man become a priest who feels no attraction for the sacred
ministry; who has no longing to save souls, who leads an irregular
life, or who only thinks of the priesthood as a means of gaining a
living easily, and enjoying a comfortable competence. Parents are
greatly to blame who force their sons to take Orders without a voca-
tion, for those who enter the priesthood without a true vocation are
unhappy and discontented all their life long. They neglect the
duties of their calling, give scandal, and finally too often lose their
souls. For this reason many eminent saints positively refused to
receive Holy Orders or to be raised to the episcopate. St. Francis
of Assisi remained a deacon to the end of his days. St. Cyprian
concealed himself when he was to be appointed Bishop of Carthage;
St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil acted in a similar manner. They
all considered themselves unworthy of the dignity offered them, and
only accepted it when they recognized it to be the will of God that
they should do so. Almighty God calls to the priesthood whom He
will ; witness Our Lord's words to the apostles : " You have not chosen
Me, but I have chosen you " (John xv. 16).
3. The Sacrament of Holy Orders only confers the perpetual
power, not the right, to exercise the functions of a priest. The
newly ordained cannot therefore make use in any place of their
sacerdotal powers, until they have received ecclesiastical authori-
zation.
The qualification for the sacred ministry consists in the trans-
mission of the powers appertaining to the sacerdotal office: those of
a teacher, a priest and a pastor. In the Old Testament the priestly
powers were hereditary in Aaron's family (Exod. xxviii.) ; in the New
Testament they are handed down by spiritual descent by means
of Holy Orders. Besides these powers, the priest receives at ordina-
tion abundant graces belonging to his state. Outwardly he may ap-
pear the same, but inwardly he is a changed man. An indelible
character is imprinted upon his soul by that ordinance; the powers
he has received can never be lost, into whatever sins he may fall.
He who has once been a priest cannot again become a layman (Coun-
cil of Trent, 23, 4) ; a priest who has apostatized and been recon-
ciled to the Church is not re-ordained. All the sacerdotal acts of a
priest who has seceded from the Church are valid, only he cannot
forgive sins (except in the case of the dying, when no other priest
can be had). Priests of the schismatic Greek Church are not or-
dained again, if they return to the allegiance of the Catholic Church;
but the Protestant clergy most certainly are. Ecclesiastical juris-
diction is given to the priest by his bishop; the bishops receive it
from the Pope. The secular authorities have no power to grant
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, for it is not theirs to give. Even in the
time of the apostles the deacons were not nominated by the people;
the apostles ordained those who had been chosen and appointed them
to the work (Acts vi. 3, 6). St. Timothy was consecrated to the
episcopate by the imposition of the hands of the priesthood (1 Tim.
i. 14). Consequently the apostles called themselves the "ministers
of Christ" (1 Cor. iv. 1). Any one who should attempt to exercise
sacerdotal functions without the authorization of the bishop, would.
The Sacn* agents. 647
as Our Lord says, be a thief and a robber, because " he entereth not
by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth in some other way" (John
x. 1). A priest must have faculties for hearing confessions, from
the bishop of the diocese where he happens to be. This is separate
from the pastoral office. A catechist, or teacher, who imparts re-
ligious instruction should also have the episcopal authorization.
Any one who should be so daring as to exercise any priestly func-
tions without having been admitted to Holy Orders or without epis-
copal authorization, would, in Catholic countries, be punished by
the secular government; at any rate, terrible chastisements would
fall on him from God. King Ozias presumed, in spite of the warn-
ing of the priests, to burn incense on the altar of incense; he was
immediately struck with leprosy, and was a leper until the day of
his death (2 Par. xxvi.). In the time of Moses, Core, with two
hundred and fifty of the leading men of the synagogue, rebelled
against Moses and presumed to offer incense in the tabernacle; they
were destroyed by fire from the Lord, and the earth swallowed up
the three ringleaders (Numb. xvi.).
4. No one can be admitted to priest's Orders who has not at-
tained the age of twenty-four years (Council of Trent, 23, 12).
The Holy See has the right of dispensing candidates for the
priesthood if they are within twenty months of the required age.
Besides the prescribed ages, those who are to be raised to the priest-
hood must possess the following qualifications: They must have
the knowledge suited to, and necessary for, the due discharge of
their functions; they must be conspicuous for piety and chastity;
they must have been born in wedlock and be free from physical de-
fects which might excite derision in others. Men who have been
married twice are disqualified for the priesthood, although those
who have been married once may, under certain conditions, be re-
ceived. All men cannot be priests (Eph. iv. 11; 1 Cor. xii. 29). Yet
we frequently find all the faithful spoken of as priests (1 Pet. ii.
9), inasmuch as they ought to accomplish to the glory of God good
works which are in a certain measure a spiritual oblation; they are
priests inasmuch as they immolate themselves in the service of
God as spiritual victims. In the same sense the faithful in general
are spoken of as kings, because they ought to rule over their fleshly
lusts.
5. Six other Orders of ministry precede the priesthood, four
lesser and two greater.
By these several and divers Orders, as by certain steps, advance
is made unto the priesthood (Council of Trent, 23, 4). This is to
emphasize the dignity of the priesthood. For the same reason a
fixed period of time must intervene between the reception of the dif-
ferent degrees of higher orders. The first preparation for Orders
is the reception of the tonsure, by which a man is taken into the
ranks of the clergy, and becomes a cleric, no longer a layman. In
giving the tonsure, the bishop cuts off some of the hair from the top
of the candidate's head. After this the four minor Orders are
given, which impart to him who receives them the right to minister
648 The Means of Grace.
to the priest by virtue of his office. The first of the three greater
Orders, the subdiaconate, follows. This was formerly reckoned
among the minor Orders, but is classed by the Council of Trent
among the major Orders; it confers the right to arrange everything
in the sanctuary, and serve the priest at the altar, and pledges the
recipient to celibacy and to the recitation of the breviary. The
bishop may empower an ordinary priest to administer the tonsure
and the four minor Orders, but not so the greater.
6. There are three degrees in the Sacrament of Orders: The
consecration of deacons, priests, and bishops. These three con-
stitute but one sacrament.
The second of the greater Orders is the diaconate, which was in-
stituted by the apostles for the relief of the poor. It confers the
power to preach, to baptize, and to dispense holy communion. The
three most celebrated deacons mentioned in the annals of the Church
are St. Stephen, who was stoned by the Jews; St. Lawrence, who
was broiled upon a gridiron in Rome; and St. Francis of Assisi, the
founder of the Franciscan Order, who bore in his body the sacred
stigmata. One year after the acceptance of the diaconate follows
ordination proper, the priesthood, whereby the power is given to
offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and to forgive sins. There is
one degree higher than the priesthood, and that is the episcopate.
By this power is conferred to ordain priests, to administer Confirma-
tion and to rule the Church of God. For the consecration of a
bishop three bishops must take part. These three ordinations form
but one sacrament. The consecration of deacons appertains vir-
tually to the Sacrament of Holy Orders, because it confers an inferior
part of the sacerdotal powers, and is administered with imposition
of hands and prayer. St, Paul mentions deacons together with bish-
ops and priests; the Fathers speak of them with the utmost rever-
ence, as the " ministers of God," and the Council of Trent reckons
them of the ecclesiastical hierarchy (Council of Trent, 23, 6). The
consecration of priests appertains to the Sacrament of Orders, be-
cause by it the greater part of the sacerdotal powers are conferred.
The consecration of bishops is the completion of the Sacrament of
Orders ; by it the plenitude of the sacerdotal power is communicated.
The principal distinction between a bishop and a priest is that the
former can ordain priests and the latter cannot. When at the
Council of Alexandria in 319, the Arians accused St. Athanasius,
who was then bishop of that town, of having treated a priest named
Ischyras with undue severity, the Synod dismissed the charge on
the ground that Ischyras was not a priest, since he had been ordained
by a priest, not a bishop.
7. It is the duty of the faithful to pray God to send them
good priests.
Our Lord says : " Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He send
lorth laborers into His harvest" (Matt. ix. 38). Remember that a
priest is the salvation or the perdition of his flock. In the Old Testa-
ment we read that when ether scourges were of no avail to turn the
The Sacraments. 649
people, hardened in sin, from their evil ways, God sent npon them the
heaviest scourge of all, wicked and corrupt priests. Let us therefore
make it our continual prayer, that we may have good priests. The
Ember days are appointed for this purpose. Special prayer should be
offered to the Holy Ghost, for unless a priest is enlightened by the
Holy Spirit we may apply to him the words : " If the blind lead the
blind, both fall into the pit" (Matt. xv. 14).
7. MATRIMONY.
The Institution and Nature of Matrimony.
"What food is to the individual, matrimony is to humanity in gen-
eral. For as food serves to maintain the life of the individual, so
marriage serves to maintain the life of the human race. Since the
principal object of marriage, the right training of children, can only
be attained when a man and a woman are united together by an in-
dissoluble bond, the wise Creator in the beginning only created two
human beings, saying : " They two shall be one in flesh " (Gen. ii.
24).
1. God Himself instituted matrimony in the beginning of the
world, for the procreation of the human race, and the mutual as-
sistance of husband and wife.
Matrimony was instituted by God for the propagation of the hu-
man race ; for He said to our first parents : " Increase and multiply
and fill the earth " (Gen. i. 28). St. Francis of Sales calls matrimony
the nursery-ground of Christianity, destined to fill the earth with
believers, and complete the number of the elect in heaven. It was
also instituted for the mutual support of the parties contracting it,
for God said before Eve was created : " It is not good for man to be
alone, let us make him a help like unto himself" (Gen. ii. 18). The
.woman being the weaker, needs some one on whom to lean; the man
needs some one to care for him. The man is characterized by greater
strength and energy ; he seeks a sphere of activity in the world. The
woman's nature is cast in a softer mould ; her sphere of work is beside
the domestic hearth. Thus the two complete each other, and each acts
beneficially on the 'other. Matrimony has also a third object, that
of preventing the sin of which the Apostle speaks in the first Epistle
• to the Corinthians (1 Cor. vii. 2). He who would set marriage aside,
would give free rein to impurity. Many take a low view of marriage ;
they consider it as affording a legitimate means of indulging their
lusts. Such persons will not be happy or contented, and will neglect
the duties of their state. The happiness of matrimony depends to
a great extent on taking an exalted view of its object.
Matrimony is a divine and by no means a human institution.
It is because matrimony was ordained of God that the Church
calls it a " holy and godly state." The opinion of the Manichees,
that marriage was to be rejected, was condemned by the Church.
650 The Means of Grace.
Even the most uncivilized nations considered matrimony to be a
divine institution, for they practised religious ceremonies of some
kind on the occasion of a marriage, offering sacrifices or prayers. God
Himself appointed the laws of marriage first through Moses and after-
wards by Our Lord.
2. Christian marriage is a contract between man and woman,
binding them to an undivided and indissoluble partnership, and
conferring on them at the same time grace to fulfil all the duties
required of them.
Marriage is therefore not merely a contract; it is at the same
time an act by which grace is conferred. This contract is not con^
eluded in the presence of a minister of the Church solely for the sake
of obtaining the ecclesiastical benediction upon the betrothed couple,
but in order that they may be truly united together before God in
wedlock. It was this covenant, entered into in presence of a minister
of the Church, which Our Lord raised to the dignity of a sacrament.
Marriage contracted without the solemnities required by the Church
hi all countries where the decree of the Council of Trent has
been duly promulgated is invalid and null (Council of Trent, 24, 1).
A contract which is invalid cannot become a sacrament, any more
than wine, if it be not really wine, can be converted in the Mass into
the blood of Christ. Matrimony is a type of the union between Christ
and the Church (Eph. v. 32). As the Church, the Bride of Christ is
one, so the man has but one wife. As Christ and the Church are in-
separably united, so the union of the married is perpetual and indis-
soluble. As the union of Christ and the Church is a covenant of grace,
so also is the union of husband and wife. Christ is the Head of the
Church, and the man is the head of the woman. The Church is sub-
ject to Christ, so the wife is obedient to the husband. Christ and
the Church are animated by one spirit, and so it should be with hus-
band and wife. Christ never abandons the Church, and the Church
can never be unfaithful to Christ; so married people must never be
unfaithful to one another.
Matrimony is declared to be a sacrament by St. Paul, and the
early Fathers of the Church.
St. Paul calls matrimony a great sacrament, because it is typical
of the union of Christ with the Church (Eph. v. 32), a union by which
grace is imparted. St. Augustine says that the superiority of mar-
riage among the people of God consists in the sanctity of the sacra-
ment. " The heathens," says St. John Chrysostom, " estimated the
happiness of marriage by the number of children, whereas the Chris-
tian considers rather the sanctity of the sacrament." Some of the
Fathers are of opinion that Christ raised matrimony to a sacrament
at the marriage of Cana. At any rate the Church expressly declares
that it is truly and properly one of the seven sacraments of the evan-
gelical law instituted by Christ (Council of Trent, 24, 1).
3. Civil marriage is to be distinguished from Christian mar-
riage, inasmuch as it is no sacrament, and consequently in the
sight of God no true and real marriage for Catholics.
The Sacraments. 651
Civil marriage may be said to have originated with Luther, for
he prepared the way for the State to legislate concerning marriage.
What he began, the French revolution completed; for marriage was
then declared to be a civil contract, concluded before a government
official. Civil marriage is obligatory or compulsory when, as is the
case in some countries, the marriage is otherwise not recognized by
the State; it is optional, when the parties are free to choose whether
the ceremony shall be civil or religious, as in America; finally it is
unavoidable, if on account of the priest being debarred from marry-
ing them through political reasons, or on other obvious grounds, the
persons desirous of being married cannot be united otherwise than by
the secular authorities. Civil marriage is not a sacrament, because
it is not contracted in the manner ordained by God and the Church;
it is nothing ,more or less than a legal form, which must be gone
through in order that the marriage may be recognized by the State,
and Catholics must submit to it, if there is no other means of having
their union recognized by the State. They should, however, see that
the ecclesiastical ceremony takes place as soon after as possible; for
until their marriage has been solemnized by the Church, they are
bound to live apart, as in the sight of God they are not really husband
and wife. Catholics who contract a civil marriage and are not after-
wards married in a church, cannot obtain absolution, and are excluded
from the sacraments until they obtain the sanction of God and of
the Church upon their union, or give it up altogether. Catholics
who prefer civil marriage when it is optional, or content themselves
with it when it is unavoidable, are excommunicated. The Holy See
condemns civil marriages in no measured terms; Pope Pius IX. de-
clares that the union of man and woman, if not a sacrament, is a
shameful concubinage, although perfectly legal according to the civil
code.*
Civil marriage has disastrous results for the State, for it
undermines faith, authority, and morals.
The Holy Father asserts civil marriage to be a fatal institution.
To render it compulsory is to overthrow the law of God, for it is tan-
tamount to asserting that Christian marriage as ordained by God is
invalid, that a union blessed by the Church is contrary to law. What
would be said if stealing, or any other crime forbidden by the divine
command, were enforced by the law of the land? Rebellion such as
this against God cannot fail to undermine faith in God and respect
for His commandments; and experience proves that the government
which undermines the divine authority brings about its own down-
fall. Civil marriages are also detrimental to morality. Divorce is
* What is said in this paragraph respecting the invalidity of civil or
clandestine marriage is only true in those countries where the decree Tametsi
of the Council of Trent has been duly promulgated. In England, Scotland,
and most of the United States of America marriage contracted between two
baptized Catholics without the sanction of the Church is a valid marriage and
a sacrament, although an unlawful and sacrilegious act. In all cases where
there is any doubt about the validity of a marriage the parish priest or the
bishop of the diocese should be consulted.
652 The Means of Grace.
an easy matter for persons who have been married by the registrar;
on a comparatively slight disagreement or offence they are separated'
each being free to contract a second marriage. What is the conse-
quence? The flood-gates are opened to admit unbridled license, the
so-called free-love advocated by the Socialist. This is proved by the
number cf divorce cases following on the introduction of civil mar-
riage; nor need we wonder, for in a civil marriage no promise of
mutual love, no vow of fidelity is required from the contracting
parties.
The Characteristics of Matrimony.
According to the ordinance of Christ, Christian marriage is
strictly a union of two persons only, and it is indissoluble.
Matrimony was raised by Our Lord to the dignity of a state of
evangelical perfection, to which weightier responsibilities and more
laborious duties were attached than in the ages preceding His advent.
He therefore granted greater graces to those who should enter into
wedlock.
1. Christian marriage consists of the union of one man and
one woman only.
By creating only one man and one woman, God manifested it to
be His will that marriage should be the union of two persons only.
Our Lord pointed out that in the beginning this was so (Matt. xix.
4). The marriage that does not answer to this description cannot
possibly be a true and lasting partnership; domestic strife must in-
fallibly ensue. Yet in the earliest times God permitted polygamy,
to prevent greater evils. A plurality of wives is forbidden by Our
Lord (Luke xvi. 18), consequently it is prohibited most strictly by
the law of the Church. Polygamy is unlawful, and a violation of
the natural law (Council of Trent, 23, 2). It continues, however, to
exist among Mohammedans, and among Jews in the East; but in
the West ever since the Middle Ages the Jews have given it. up, in
deference to the code of morality observed by European nations.
2. Christian marriage is indissoluble; that is to say, neither
husband nor wife can contract a second marriage during the life-
time of the other.
The principal object of matrimony is to provide for the proper
bringing up of children, an obiect which could not be attained if tbe
nuptial tie were dissoluble. What would become of the children if
the parents were free to separate at their pleasure? Our Lord
strictly forbids any one to marrv again as long as the partner of his
or her first marriage is living (Matt. v. 32; Mark x. 11). Under thn
law of Moses, the Jews were, it is true, permitted under exceptional
circumstances to put away their wives ; but this was only by reason of
the hardness of their hearts, and to prevent worse evils (Matt. xix.
8). Christ withdrew this permission; He says expressly: "What
The Sacraments. 653
God hath joined together, let no man put asunder" (Matt. xix. 4-9).
Hence the Popes have never allowed one of two lawfully married per-
sons to contract a second marriage during the lifetime of the other
party. Not even for the sake of averting the most serious calamities
could they consent to such a thing. It is well known that King
Henry VIII. of England could not wring from the Holy See per-
mission to divorce his rightful wife, and marry another. That even
in consideration of the services he had rendered to the cause of re-
ligion, and of the fearful consequences which would ensue upon the
introduction of the Lutheran heresy into England could Clement
VII. be prevailed upon to give any other reply than this : " Non
possumus ; I have no authority to set aside the divine law." " Matri-
mony," says St. Augustine, " is an iron chain." A man can sell a
house which he has bought if it does not suit him ; but once married,
he cannot get rid of his wife. The soul can separate from the body
sooner than the husband from the wife. And if either party should
contract a second marriage while the other is still alive, he or she
commits a mortal sin, and the marriage is invalid. It is, however,
possible for a married couple to be separated, provided there are suffi-
cient grounds for separation. If either party is guilty of adultery,
the separation may be for life, since by the violation of a contract
the rights conferred by that contract are lost ; yet neither can enter
upon fresh espousals (Matt. v. 32). Dissolute conduct, or cruelty
on either side, would afford a reason for a temporary separation,
which must be judicial. And if the parties agree to cohabit again
they can do so at will.
The Graces Conferred in Matrimony.
The Sacrament of Matrimony confers upon Christians who
embrace that state both an increase of sanctifying grace, and in
addition the special graces necessary to enable them to discharge
the duties required of them.
The special graces annexed to this sacrament are: (1), The mu-
tual affection of those who receive it is confirmed and sanctified; (2),
Strength is given them to preserve inviolable fidelity to one another,
and bear with patience the ills of life. For as soon as a man is
married, he is no longer free as when single; no longer absolute
master of his will, his time, his goods, his person, but he is in a
measure dependent on the will of his wife ; he wears the yoke, " for
marriage," as St. Ambrose says, " is a yoke, a double yoke which rests
on the neck of both husband and wife, obliging them to pull to-
gether." _ To this is added many trials such as ill health, the faults
and failings of the other, which must be borne with; troubles with
the children, etc. Finally grace is given to discharge the most
important duty of all, that of bringing up their children in the fear
and love of God. " Unhappy those," says Pope Gregory XVI., " who
enter upon the married state from merely earthly motives, or for
sensual gratification, and do not think of the graces and mysteries
which this sacrament confers and represents."
654 The Means of Grace.
Impediments to Matrimony.
A marriage can only be concluded in the absence of all im-
pediments to it. The impediments may be such as nullify mar-
riage, or such as render it unlawful.
1. Those that render marriage null or invalid, are: Coer-
cion, defect of age, consanguinity, and affinity, a previous mar-
riage tie still existing, the greater degrees of Holy Orders, sol-
emn vows, the prohibition concerning the marriage of Catholics
with unbaptized persons.
Coercion: If undue stress is brought to bear on a man, if he is
forced into marrying some one against his will by threats of per-
sonal injury, or fear of being disinherited, his marriage is invalid.
Defect of age : Boys under fourteen, girls under twelve cannot enter
into wedlock. Consanguinity : A Papal dispensation is required
for the marriage of first cousins; in the case of more remote re-
lationship an episcopal dispensation is sufficient. The voice of na-
ture condemns the union of persons nearly related to one another,
and their offspring are not unfrequently physically or mentally af-
flicted. Affinity is the result of a previous marriage; the survivor
cannot espouse the blood-relations of the deceased party; that is, a
man cannot marry the mother, sister, or daughter (by a former hus-
band) of his deceased wife, and vice versa. But no affinity exists
between the blood-relations of the several parties; for instance, a
man may marry the sister of his brother's wife. Previous marriage :
It has already been explained that one of the parties to a marriage
cannot marry again during the lifetime of the other. Should a
woman, believing her husband to be dead, have married again, she
must immediately leave her second husband, if she discover the
first to be still living. Holy Orders and religious vows : Clerics who
have received deacon's or subdeacon's orders, and monks and nuns
who have taken a vow of celibacy, cannot enter upon the married
state. Difference of creed : A Christian cannot, without a dis-
pensation from the Holy See, be married to a Jew, a Mohammedan,
or any other unbeliever. There are besides, impediments of a purely
ecclesiastical nature, such as spiritual affinity contracted in Bap-
tism or Confirmation. These are not recognized by the State, and
therefore the Church readily grants a dispensation if required.
2. The impediments that render marriage unlawful, are:
The prohibition in regard to certain times, diversity of re-
ligious belief, betrothal, simple vows, complete ignorance of
religious truth.
The times when marriages cannot be celebrated are from the
beginning of Advent until the Epiphany, and from Ash Wednesday
until Low Sunday (see the fifth precept of the Church). Diversity
of religious belief: Marriages between Catholics and non-Catholics
(Protestants, Old Catholics, non-uniate Greeks), can only be per-,
The Sacraments. 655
mitted under certain conditions. Betrothed: Any one who has
pledged his troth to one person cannot marry another until the
previous engagement is broken off. Simple vows: Vows which are
not solemn, vows of perpetual chastity, of celibacy; the vow to enter
a religious Order or become a priest, are a hindrance to marriage.
Ignorance of religious truth: Those who are about to marry must,
if they are ignorant of the fundamental truths of religion, place
themselves under instruction for some time previously, otherwise
they will be unable to teach their children the elements of the Chris-
tian religion. Hence it is usual for the priest to question those who
announce to him their purpose of marrying, about the truths of
religion, and if necessary instruct them in the duties and obliga-
tions of the married state.
3. Impediments of a purely civil nature, such as minority,
military service, recent widowhood.
In some States minors cannot marry without the consent of their
father, or if he be dead, of the magistrate. Soldiers, the term of
whose military service has not expired, must have the sanction of
the government officials ; widows and widowers should allow a -certain
interval to elapse before concluding a second matrimonial alliance.
The civil regulations in regard to matrimony must be observed, not
from fear of the penalties incurred by violating them, but for God's
sake, since the secular powers are ordained of God (Rom. xiii. 1).
This rule would not hold good if the decrees of the legislature were
opposed to the commandments of God.
4. The ecclesiastical authorities are accustomed to dispense
from matrimonial impediments where good reasons exist; the
secular authorities do likewise.
The Pope alone can dispense from some impediments, such as
near blood-relationship, or affinity by marriage; from others the
bishop can grant dispensations, either in virtue of his office, or em-
powered by the Holy See. There are some natural impediments from
which not even the Supreme Pontiff can grant a dispensation; nor
is one ever granted to step-fathers and step-daughters, to fathers-
in-law and daughters-in-law. Very rarely can a dispensation be
obtained from solemn vows, or the greater Orders; nor in the case
of one party being unbaptized, of spiritual affinity contracted in
Baptism, or in the relations of uncle and niece, aunt and nephew.
Purely ecclesiastical impediments allow much more readily of a dis-
pensation.
5. If a marriage to which any impediment rendering it in-
valid exists, should have been contracted, it must either be dis-
solved, or the impediment must be removed by means of a dis-
pensation, and the ceremony performed over again.
If the invalidity of the marriage is known publicly, the nuptial
contract must be renewed in the church, in presence of the parish
priest and two witnesses; if not, it can be renewed privately. If
one onlv of the parties to the marriage is aware of the impediment,
656 The Means of Grace.
and if the other, should it come to his knowledge, would make use
of it to dissolve the marriage, or if it would destroy the conjugal hap-
piness of both, the Pope has power to dispense from the renewal of the
matrimonial contract, and declare the union valid. It is advisable,
in order to bring to light any impediments that may exist to their
marriage, that the parties intending to be united in wedlock should
be subjected to an interrogation by the clergyman in presence of two
witnesses. It is a grievous sin on the part of betrothed persons wil-
fully to conceal any impediment which would annul their marriage.
It is for the sake of ascertaining whether any such hindrances exist
that the banns of marriage are published three times in the church.
The Celebration of Matrimony.
1. Marriage must be preceded by betrothal, by the publication
of the banns, and by the reception of the Sacraments of Penance
and of the Altar.
1. Betrothal consists in this: An unmarried man and an
unmarried woman, after due reflection, pledge their troth to one
another, promising each to marry the other at the time agreed
upon between them.
Eash and hasty engagements always turn out badly, therefore
young people should not take this step without mature deliberation.
They ought also to ask advice of their parents, or trusted friends.
Listen to the exhortations of Holy Scripture : " My son, do thou
nothing without counsel, and thou shall not repent what thou hast
done" (Ecclus. xxxii. 24). They ought also to make it a subject of
prayer, for a prudent wife is properly from the Lord (Prov. xix. 14).
A matter so important as the tying of the nuptial knot, which can
never be unloosed, must not be done without prayer. In making
choice of a partner for life, advantages of wealth, high birth, and
the like, ought not to be as much considered as virtue and piety. The
fear of God, the love of virtue, are the best marriage portion for
Christians; for a man who does not love God will not love his wife.
" Let him who desires happiness in the married state," says St.
Augustine, '" not choose for his bride one who has a large dowry, but
one who is proficient in virtue ; let him look to the beauty of the
heart, to the nobility of a pure life." Personal beauty, if not accom-
panied by interior loveliness, may captivate for a time, but its power
is not lasting. Yet no man is to be blamed who has an eye to such
attractions in his wife as beauty, wealth, and rank, for these in no
wise interfere with the sanctity of the marriage bond. A virtuous
man will surely have a partner worthy of him. A good wife is the
portion of those that fear God, and is given to a man for his good
deeds (Ecclus. xxvi. 3). During the interval between the betrothal
and the conclusion of the marriage, the affianced parties ought seri-
ously to reflect upon the step they are about to take, and make the
best possible preparation for wedded life. Let them avoid all associa-
tion on familiar terms with other suitors, and conduct themselves in
The Sacraments, 657
general with great decorum; the holy Synod exhorts the bridegroom
and bride not to live in the same house until they have received the
sacerdotal benediction which is given in the Church (Council of
Trent, 24, 1). "Happy the young men and maidens," says St. John
Chrysostom, " who come to the nuptial altar with a pure heart ! How
true will be their mutual love! how sincere their mutual esteem!
how firm their mutual friendship! how tenderly will that man
cherish his wife who has never bestowed his affections on another ! "
Those who have formed illicit connections before marriage will
quickly tire of one another, their love will change to hatred. Those
who are betrothed ought to acknowledge frankly to one another, with-
out attempt at concealment or misrepresentation, any circumstances
which it may be advisable or necessary to make known before the
marriage is consummated. Those who resort to deception or false-
hood only prepare for themselves annoyance, embitterment, misery in
the future. If after betrothal, the conviction is borne in on either of
the affianced parties that their union will not be productive of happi-
ness, let the engagement be broken off by mutual consent; moreover
one party is warranted in withdrawing from the contract if the other
should be found guilty of any grave delinquency, such as breach of
promise, treachery, theft, or the like; or if his circumstances should
be altered by any unforeseen event of importance, such as the com-
plete loss of property, severe illness, etc.
2. The publication of banns is as follows: The names of
the contracting parties between whom the marriage is to be con-
cluded, shall be announced publicly three times in the parish
church during the solemnization of Mass on three successive
Sundays or festival days (Council of Trent, 24, 1).
The name, calling, birthplace and place of residence of the affi-
anced couple are proclaimed at the publication of their banns. The
purpose of the announcement is to ascertain whether any impediment
exists to their lawful union, and to announce to the parishioners the
intended nuptials, that no scandal may be caused by their cohabita-
tion. The marriage must on no account take place until after the day
of the third announcement, but if it is not celebrated within six
months of that time, the publication of the banns must be repeated.
Only in exceptional cases is the publication of banns to be omitted,
and the omission must be sanctioned by the bishop of the diocese.
3. It is also enjoined on persons intending to marry to ap-
proach the Sacraments of Penance and of the Altar, because it
is indispensable that they should be in a state of grace, in order
to participate in the graces conferred in the Sacrament of Matri-
mony.
All who are about to marry are exhorted, at least three days before
the consummation of their marriage carefully to confess their sins
and receive devoutly the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar (Council
of Trent, 24, 1). The confession should be general, embracing the
whole life, because it will then have the effect of awakening greater
658 The Means of Grace.
contrition, and of setting the conscience more fully at rest. Our
Lord, Who condescended to be present at the marriage at Cana, must
also be invited to come to the bridgroom and bride, to sanctify them,
and bestow His grace and blessing on their nuptials. Happy those
who prepare a fitting dwelling in their heart for the divine Guest!
Without presumption on their part, they may hope that He will re-
main with them until death, and impart to them the gift of His grace
in abundant measure. But those who do not approach the sacraments
worthily, and enter upon the matrimonial state in mortal sin, deprive
themselves of grace, and call down on themselves the curse of God.
They who thus act are like warriors going to the fight without armor
and without arms.
2. The Church expressly commands that the marriage be con-
cluded in the presence of the priest of the parish, and two wit-
nesses; or the parish priest may authorize another priest to act
in his place.
The decree to this effect was issued by the Council of Trent. The
marriage ceremony must therefore be a public and an ecclesiastical
ceremony. In early times it took place in presence of the bishou. St.
Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, says : " It is right that affianced persons
should conclude their nuptials only with the knowledge and sanction
of the bishop, that thus their union may be in accordance with the
will of God." " It was God," says St. Francis of Sales, " Who gave
Eve to Adam, and He it is Who must bind the marriage bond." Those
who shall attempt to contract marriage otherwise than in the pres-
ence of their parish priest, and in presence of two or three witnesses,
consequently not in accordance with the Tridentine decree, form a
contract which is null and void (Council of Trent, 24, 1).*
3. Marriages are, as a rule, celebrated in the forenoon, in the
house of God, with solemn ceremonies, and Mass is usually said at
the time.
Entrance into the state of matrimony is an event of great moment,
one which influences the whole life. St. Paul terms matrimony " a
great sacrament." Hence the affianced couple ought to conduct
themselves with the utmost reverence, and not hasten out of the
church the moment the ceremony is ended, but remain a while kneel-
ing before the altar to make their thanksgiving. Thus Tertullian
declares that the early Christians sealed their marriage contract
with prayers, and ratified it with the holy sacrifice. In the missal a
special Mass pro sponso et sponsa, is provided. For the celebration
of nuptials in secret, in the presence of trusted witnesses only, the
episcopal sanction must be obtained, and also for the celebration of
marriage in the afternoon.
The ceremonial for the celebration of matrimony is signifi-
cant of the duties of the married and of the graces in which
they participate.
See note on page 651.
Hie Sacraments. 659
The bride usually comes to the altar wearing a wreath, which is
emblematical of the victory she has won in the preservation of her
innocence. The bridegroom stands on the right of the altar, the bride
upon the left, the witnesses stand behind them. The priest then asks
each separately if with their free will and consent they enter into
wedlock, and on their answering in the affirmative with an audible
voice, they join hands, each holding the right hand of the other (to
confirm their promise as by an oath) ; they pledge their troth, re-
peating the formula after the priest, in which they each promise
separately to have and to hold the other for better, for worse, for
richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do part them.
The priest then placing his stole round their joined hands (to indicate
the indissolubility of the nuptial tie), unites them in the name of the
Holy Trinity, and sprinkles them with holy water. This done, the
bridegroom places upon the book the ring, which the priest blesses
and gives back to the bridegroom, who places it on the thumb of the
bride, saying: "In the name of the Father;" then on the second
finger, saying : " and of the Son ;" then on the third, saying : " and
of the Holy Ghost ;" lastly on the fourth, saying : " Amen." After
this, some prayers are recited over the newly married couple, and if
the nuptial benediction is to be given, Mass is said, at which it is
usual for them to communicate. In conclusion the solemn benedic-
tion is given, in which peace, happiness, long life, are besought for
them. On their return home, a wedding-feast is prepared. In this
there is nothing blameworthy; we know that Our Lord honored such
a festivity with His presence. The newly-married should, however,
be careful to spend the day in such a manner as not to lose the bless-
ing which they received in the morning, as they would do were they
to profane it by dissipation or sinful diversions.
The Duties of the Married.
The following are the duties incumbent on married persons:
1. It is the duty of the wife to obey her husband, as the man
is the head of the family, the representative of God.
That the man is superior .to the woman is shown by the fact that
he was created first, and the woman was only created of his flesh,
and as a helper for him (I Cor. xi. 9). The man being the head
of the family, the woman is subservient to him, as the members of
the body are to the head. The Apostle says : " As the Church is sub-
ject to Christ, so also let the wife be to the husband in all things "
(Eph. v. 24). The woman is commanded to cover her head in the
church, to indicate that she is under the dominion of the man; whereas
the man uncovers his head, because there is no one over him but
God (1 Cor. xi. 10). The wife ought to fear her husband (Eph. v.
33), that is show him the deference due to him. After the Fall God
ordained that the woman should be under her husband's power, and
should yield him obedience (Gen. iii. 16), because Eve lusted after
power, and ate the apple first. The husband therefore has every
right to rule his wife, but he ought to rule with kindness, gentleness
660 The Means of Grace.
and leniency, for she is in one sense his equal, having been made
out of flesh taken from his side. Therefore St. Ambrose bids the
husband remember that his wife is not to be treated as a servant,
that he must not make his authority felt to be a burden. Besides the
woman, being the weaker, can claim to be gently treated (1 Pet. iii.
7). It is more shame for the man than for the woman, if he resorts
to blows to enforce his authority. As the representative of God, the
husband has the right of controlling the household. The angel did
not appear to Mary, but to Joseph, when the flight to Egypt was to
be made, because the husband's duty is to rule and govern.
2. The husband and wife owe to each other love, fidelity,
and mutual aid in all circumstances of their life.
Husbands ought to love their wives as Christ loves the Church
(Eph. v. 25), as their own bodies (v. 28), as themselves (v. 33).
The love of husband and wife ought not to be a purely natural
love, like that of the lower animals, nor a purely human love, like
that of the heathen, but a holy and supernatural affection, like that
of Christ for the Church, and of the Church for Christ. Hence they
ought each to bear with the infirmities of the other patiently and
indulgently, or generously close their eyes to them. An example
of this is given by the Greek philosopher Socrates, whose wife was a
perfect virago. When she stormed at him, he took no more notice
of it than of the rattling of a passing vehicle. One day when he
was seated before the house with his scholars, from a window above
she rated him soundly, and finally threw a jug of water over him.
Socrates rose and changed his place, remarking with a smile : " I
might have known that the storm would have ended with a thunder
shower." The wife will influence her husband for good far more
effectually by silence, meekness and prayer than by reproaches. St.
Augustine tells us that his mother did more for the conversion of
her husband Patricius by the saintliness of her life, than by her
words. Dissensions between husband and wife ruin their happiness;
without peace at home nothing pleases, even amid all the luxuries
wealth can command. Married people owe fidelity to one another
(Heb. xiii. 4). They ought scrupulously to guard against every
appearance of unfaithfulness, and avoid familiar intercourse with
persons of the other sex. For where jealousy enters, all conjugal
happiness is at an end. St. John Chrysostom is of opinion that the
direst poverty, the most incurable malady, fire even and sword, are
lesser evils than jealousy. The Jews used to stone the unfaithful
husband or wife, for they considered adultery a no less heinous
crime than murder (Lev. xx. 10). St. Paul declares everlasting
damnation to be the portion of adulterers (Eph. v. 5). The married
must not defraud one another of their conjugal rights (1 Cor. vii.
1-5), but they must abstain from excesses inconsistent with the sanc-
tity of their state (Tob. vi. 17), and only keep in view the object
indicated by the angel to Tobias (v. 22), otherwise the devil will
prevail over them (v. 16). To the duty of mutual aid it appertains
that husband and wife should live together, and that neither the
one nor the other should avail himself or herself, if contrarieties or
calamities overtake them, of any pretext to leave the other; they are
bound to assist each other in the training of their children, to sue-
The Sacraments. 661
cor each other in illness, to aid each other to bear more easily the
ills of life, and to perform their religious duties with greater facility.
Eve was created for the sole purpose of helping Adam ; for God said :
u It is not good for man to be alone, let us make him a help like
unto himself" (Gen. ii. 18). It is, however, a sad misfortune when
the wife is not a support but a cross to her husband; when instead
of lightening his burdens, she only adds to their weight. Almighty
God declares that a really good woman is a treasure of inestimable
price (Prov. xxxi. 10), far above the most costly jewels. Jewels
serve to adorn their owner, and that which is to him a brilliant orna-
ment in the day of prosperity, is to him in adversity a timely aid.
So a good wife is in herself a source of riches, a valuable jewel
which retains its worth amid all the vicissitudes of life.
3. It is the duty of both husband and wife to provide for
their children, and train them in the fear and love of God.
Children are no more the property of their parents than riches
are; they are a gift from God (Ps. cxxvi. 3). They are His crea-
tures, destined to be happy with Him forever; they are the children
of their Father in heaven, and are only given in trust by Him to their
parents, to be brought up in His service. Thus parents are only
servants, bound to carry out the will of God in regard to their off-
spring.
The duties which parents have to discharge towards their
children are these: They have to safeguard them from every-
thing which would be prejudicial to their health; they have to
supply them with their daily sustenance; they have also to pro-
vide for their future.
It is the duty of parents to deny themselves everything which
might prove injurious to the health of their children. They must
refrain from giving way to their passions, or indulging in excesses,
lest they transmit a heritage of disease or sin to their offspring.
Like father, like child, the proverb says. Parents ought not to give
themselves up to the pursuit of pleasure and amusements, to the
neglect of their young children. Let them remember how distressed
Mary and Joseph were when the Child Jesus was lost, how for three
days they sought Him, sorrowing (Luke ii. 48). Let them learn a
lesson from the birds ; they do not leave the nest until their young
are fully fledged, they are indefatigable in supplying them with food,
they teach them to fly. Parents ought to work for the daily bread
of their family ; even wild beasts take the utmost care of their young,
yet some parents are, as Holy Scripture says, " cruel as the ostrich
in the desert" (Lam. iv. 3), which lays her eggs in the sand and
heeds them no more. C " Children ought not to lay up for the
parents, but the parents for the children" (2 Cor. xii. 14). They
ought to provide for their children's future by laying by a certain
amount of money to bequeath to them; by sending them to school;
by fitting them to follow the calling most in accordance with their
inclinations and capabilities ; above all by training them in the fear
of God, which is the surest means of promoting their temporal as well
662 The Means of Grace.
as their spiritual welfare ; (David declares : " I have been young and
now am old, and I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed
begging bread," Ps. xxxvi. 25); finally it is the bounden duty of
parents to pray for their children, and thus call down on them the
blessing of God. Job offered holocausts daily for every one of his
children, lest perchance they should have sinned against God (Job
i. 5). St. Monica prayed fervently for her son, and with the hap-
piest results. " Parents," says St. Francis of Sales, " ought often to
speak of God to their children, but yet more often to speak to God
of their children."
In regard to the bringing up of their children it is the duty
of parents to have them baptized immediately after their birth,
to give them their first religious teaching, to set them a good
example in all respects, and to treat them with kindness rather
than severity.
St. Charles Borromeo says that training children means bringing
them to Christ. Parents ought to have their new-born infant bap-
tized as soon as possible; to defer baptism for more than ten days
after the birth of a child, without good reason, is a sin. They ought
to instruct their children early in the fundamental truths of religion;
to teach them that there is a God in heaven ; that He knows and sees
everything, that if we obey Him, He will take us to Himself in
heaven, etc. They should beware of frightening their children by
threats of hell and of the devil, lest they inspire them with a repul-
sion for religion, also of allowing them to imbibe false ideas, for if
later on they find they have been deluded, they will not believe any-
thing. Parents must instruct their children in the law of God, as
Tobias did. Pie taught his son from his infancy to fear God and to
abstain from sin (Tob. i. 10), and when he thought his death was
near, he gave him godly admonitions (Tob. iv.). They should en-
deavor to stifle evil propensities in their children, and bring them up
in the discipline and correction of the Lord (Eph. vi. 4). They
should teach them to pray, beginning with the sign of the cross and
the invocation of the holy name, and proceeding to the Our Father,
Hail Mary, and the Creed. The children's daily prayers should be
very short, so as not to become wearisome to them. Furthermore
parents should set their children a good example. We all know how
much more influential example is than precept, and that what is seen
makes a far more lasting impression than what is heard. The actions
of the father and mother are the lesson books of their children; how
careful should they therefore be not to let them see them do any-
thing blameworthy, and also to warn the servants not to say or do
anything in the presence of the children which they ought not to see
or hear. For the imitative faculty is strong in children; they are
sure to do what they see their elders do. Let parents remember Our
Lord's words : " He that shall scandalize one of these little ones
that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone should be
hanged about his neck and that he should be drowned in the depth
of the sea " (Matt, xviii. 6). Those who neglect this warning will have
reason to tremble, for if the soul of the child is lost through the par-
ents' fault, they will hear the voice of God saying : " I will require
The Sacraments. 663
his blood of thy hand " (Ezech. xxxiii. 8). In training their children
parents should combine kindness and firmness. Too great severity
is a fault ; for rebukes and punishments are a medicine, which if ad-
ministered too frequently or in too strong doses, does harm instead
of good. It is not by incessant beating with the hammer that the
goldsmith fashions the most elegant ornaments. To be always find-
ing fault is a great mistake, but it is no less a one to let the chil-
dren's wrong-doing pass unpunished, to pamper and spoil them
through ill-regulated affection and false kindness. He that spareth
the rod hateth his son (Prov. xiii. 24). "Give thy son his way, and
he shall make thee afraid" (Ecclus. xxx. 9). To allow a child to have
his own will in all things is highly reprehensible; he should be firmly,
not sternly compelled to yield.
Of all parental duties, that of training their children in the
fear of God is the most important; for on the manner in which
it is discharged the temporal and eternal happiness both of par-
ents and children will depend.
The education of their children ought to be for parents a matter
of such moment, that nothing should grieve them so much as to see
them turn out badly, or rejoice them so much as to see them walking
in truth (2 John i. 4). The religious training of the child devolves
principally on the mother, as his earliest years are spent at her knee.
The father, engaged in the occupations of his calling, has little time
and less inclination for the work of instruction. The father and
mother supplement each other. The father, by his position of com-
mand and force of character, represents the divine power and justice ;
the mother, with her gentle kindness and tender love, represents the
divine attributes of bounty and compassion. It is the part of the
father to confirm with his paternal authority what the mother teaches,
and enforce the orders she gives. The future happiness of the child
depends upon the early training he receives ; for, as a rule, what he
is in his youth that he is in his old age. Just as out of a piece of
soft wax one may model an angel or a devil, so it is with the charac-
ter of a young child. The first impressions are always the most last-
ing; they are never wholly effaced from the soul, any more than
marks made in the bark of a young tree ever disappear; they do but
widen with its growth. In later years the character cannot be
moulded afresh; as the sapling is bent, the tree is inclined. The land,
if it is to yield a harvest in autumn, must be tilled in the early spring,
not left uncultivated until the summer. The great majority of crim-
inals in houses of correction are those whose training has been
neglected in their childhood. Can it be supnosed that if the souls of
these culprits are lost, their parents are not to blame for it ? Consider, O
parents, what a responsibility rests upon your shoulders! Those who
pay no heed to the bringing up of their children are more culpable
than those who put them to death; for the latter only take the life
of the body, whereas the former cause the destruction of the soul.
Some parents are at great pains to amass wealth to bequeath to their
children, but they do not care in the least how they are brought up.
The temporal and eternal happiness of the parents also depends in
a great measure on the training they give to their children. Those
664 The Means of Grace.
who bring them up badly are generally severely chastised by God in
this world, and often it is their own children who are their scourge.
By that wherein they have sinned, by that same they are punished.
King David, through an exaggerated fondness for his son Absalom,
did not correct him for his faults; and in after years he had cause
bitterly to regret his weakness, when Absalom rebelled against him
(2 Kings xviii.). Heli, the high priest, was too indulgent towards
his wicked sons, and the chastisement foretold to him by God through
the mouth of Samuel speedily overtook him; his two sons were slain
in battle, and the old man, on hearing the sad tidings of Israel's de-
feat, fell off his seat and died (1 Kings iv. 18). Nor can negligent
parents expect to fare better in another world, for the Apostle com-
pares them to unbelievers : "If any man have not care of his own,
and especially those of his house, he hath denied the faith and is
worse than an infidel" (1 Tim. v. 8). On the other hand, a rich re-
ward is promised hereafter to those who have brought up their chil-
dren well. The eternal felicity of a mother depends on the manner
in which she has trained her offspring (1 Tim. ii. 15). The father of
a good son will not be sorrowful at the approach of death, neither will
he be confounded before his enemies (Ecclus. xxx. 5). Good parents
who have conscientiously fulfilled their duties will, when they appear
before God, be able to say : " Behold, those whom Thou gavest me I
have kept, and none of them is lost " (John xvii. 12).
Mixed Marriages.
1. Mixed marriages, by which, is understood the marriage of
Catholics to non-Catholics, have always been disapproved of by the
Church.
(1), Because in such marriages the proper training of the
children is a matter of great difficulty, if not altogether impos-
sible; (2), Because such unions are productive of no concord,
no true happiness; (3), Because the Catholic is in great danger
of losing his or her faith; (4), And besides, the non-Catholic
may at any time obtain a divorce, leave his or her Catholic
partner, and contract another marriage.
Even in the Old Testament mixed marriages were prohibited ; the
Jews were not permitted to make marriages with the Chanaanites
(Deut. vii. 3), nor indeed with the Samaritans, although they kept
the law of God and had the books of Moses, because of the heathen
ceremonies they observed. In like manner in the present day the
Church discourages the marriage of Catholics to non-Catholics, who,
though they call themselves Christians, hold doctrines which are at
variance with the teaching of Christ. The Church warns her chil-
dren against such alliances, just as a loving father might warn his
son against undertaking some journey which he knows will expose
him to great perils. In early times parents who gave their daughter
in marriage to a heretic were subjected to a five years' penance. The
dangers attendant on mixed marriages are these: The non-Catholic
The Sacraments. G65
party, whether a Protestant or not a Christian, far from assisting in
the education of the children, will be an obstacle to it, and will per-
haps throw scorn and ridicule on Catholic faith and practice. And
even if this is not the case, the example of the unbelieving parent
will have the worst consequences for the children. And not unfre-
quently it happens that the non-Catholic, urged by the ministers of
his religion, or by his relatives, who represent that it will be pre-
judicial to their temporal interests if his children are brought up as
Catholics, yields to their persuasions, and departs from his promise
that they should be so brought up. And what becomes of the chil-
dren if their Catholic parent dies, and the other espouses a member
of his or her own religion? A Catholic cannot do his children a
more cruel wrong than by marrying one who is not of his own re-
ligion. Moreover, true happiness can hardly exist in such a marriage,
where there is not union on the most important of all matters. Heart-
felt affection and confidence between husband and wife are scarcely
possible if they differ on a point which is all-important, namely re-
ligion. Mixed marriages are, moreover, fraught with no slight
danger to the salvation of those who contract them. The wise and
enlightened King Solomon took to himself heathen wives in his old
age, and they prevailed over him so far, that from a worshipper of
the true God he became an idolater, and allowed temples of the false
gods to be erected in his kingdom. The influence of heretics who call
themselves Christians is often more perilous than that of open un-
believers. If reading heretical books is apt to mislead, how much
more is continual and close contact with heretics to be dreaded ! Be-
sides, we are far more ready to adopt the opinions of one to whom we
are attached, for we are blinded by affection. The Holy Father de-
clares that mixed marriages have the effect of obliterating the
distinction between truth and error, and fostering the idea that all
religions are equally good. Furthermore mixed marriages are most
unfair for the Catholic party. The non-Catholic may at any time
obtain a divorce and marry again ; whereas the Catholic is bound not
to take a second partner as long as the former lives. What an
equivocal position is that of a divorced woman ! She is married, and
yet she has no husband; she has the mortification of seeing her right-
ful husband with another wife, while she is condemned to live a
lonely life, looked down upon perhaps by the world; and worst of all,
to be separated from some, if not all, of her children. Well then may
the Church exhort Christian people to beware of entering into matri-
mony with those who are aliens to the faith they hold !
2. The Church tolerates mixed marriages on three conditions:
(1), Both parties must promise that their children shall be
brought up as Catholics; (2), The Catholic must promise to en-
deavor to bring the non-Catholic to the knowledge of the truth;
(3), The non-Catholic must promise to allow the Catholic liberty
for the free exercise of his or her religion. Without these three
conditions the Church will not sanction a mixed marriage.
By tolerating or permitting mixed marriages the Church does not
approve them; on the contrary she strongly disapproves of them;
G66 The Means of Grace.
and she insists so forcibly on the children being brought up in the
Catholic faith, because this is the main object of matrimony. It has
already been shown that the chief end of marriage is to train up
children in the knowledge and fear of God; the aim of the Christian
parent should rather be to leave behind him inheritors of the king-
dom of heaven than heirs of his earthly possessions. Consequently
it is the first duty of a Catholic, who has wedded one who does not
hold the faith, to insure his child's salvation in as far as he can.
How deeply is that parent to be commiserated who destroys the soul
of her offspring, by allowing the poison of error to be instilled into
its mind ! When the first glamour of an ill-regulated affection fades
away, and conscience again makes its voice heard, the path of wedded
life is beset with thorns. The birth of the first child, which ought to
be an occasion of glad rejoicing, is a source of anxiety to the mother,
for she fears that it will be taught to regard the true faith with hos-
tility. How her conscience reproaches her! And each successive
child, which ought to be welcomed as a blessing from the hand of God,
is a fresh accuser, calling to mind her treachery. The Catholic party
is also bound to bring the non-Catholic to the knowledge of the truth,
not by coercion or persuasion, for proselytizing only adds to the
number of nominal Catholics, not of the loyal children of the Church,
and is abhorrent to the Catholic Church, who only desires the
erring to be brought to her fold of their own free will, and through
full conviction. Let them be won by prayer and good example : " Let
the unbelieving husbands be won by the conversation of the wives "
(1 Pet. iii. 1). If the Catholic wife is seen to be modest, yielding,
patient, faithful, etc., the non-Catholic husband will be led to reflect,
anl consider whether he may not judge of the tree by its fruits. At
any rate he will gradually divest himself of all his former prejudices
against our holy religion. He must not be pressed with arguments
and instructions, but rather every word should be carefully avoided
that might wound his susceptibilities. For those who are outside
the Church are not to blame because they have not had the privilege
of being born and brought up in the true faith. Furthermore the
Catholic party must fearlessly observe his or her religious duties;
the other will respect such observance. A man who is not devoid of
good feeling will have no wish to oppose the pious practices of his
wife; he will know himself to be a gainer, not a loser by them. Some-
times Protestants assert that they agree with Catholics on the funda-
mental truths of religion, and only differ in non-essentials; this is
utterly false. What the Catholic holds most sacred, the Protestant
despises ; witness the holy sacrifice of the Mass, which Protestants
regard as an act of idolatrous worship. In the face of differences
so deep-rooted all idea of unity is a mockery.
3. The Catholic who contracts a mixed marriage without the
benediction of the Church commits a mortal sin, and cannot be
admitted to the sacraments.
Catholics who act thus are declared to be guilty of mortal sin,
because they sin through disobedience, by refusing to conform to the
precepts of the Church ; they give great scandal, and deny the faith ;
they turn their back upon the sacraments of the true Church and
The Sacraments. 66?
receive the rites of an heretical sect. Thus they give the preference
to a false Church, or at least allow its equality with the true one.
They cannot be re-admitted to the sacraments unless they manifest
sincere contrition on account of their sinful union, and are ready
to comply with the requirements of the Church. Many a one takes
a just view of his conduct on his death-bed. Conscience often slum-
bers, like a volcano, which for long years shows no signs of activity,
then suddenly bursts into flame; so conscience awakens at last, and
the unhappy soul is consumed by the flames of remorse and despair.
~No one who firmly believes the Catholic to be the only true and saving
faith will be content to see his children brought up in soul-destroying
error; and it may safely be affirmed, that in the majority of cases,
those who contract mixed marriages sooner or later heartily regret
the step they have taken.
The Unmarried State.
1. The unmarried state is better than the married, because
those who do not marry have far more opportunity for attending
to their spiritual welfare, and can attain a higher degree of glory
hereafter.
It is better and more blessed to remain in virginity or in celi-
bacy than to be united in matrimony (Council of Trent, 24, 10). The
state of virginity surpasses the married state in excellence as much
as angels surpass men. It is as far above matrimony as the heavens
are above the earth ; it is as much superior to it as the som is to the
body. Marriage is honorable, but virginity is far more honorable.
Such is the opinion of the Fathers. The heathen entertained a
great respect for those who voluntarily embraced a life of celibacy
and chastity; witness the reverence shown by the Romans for the
vestal virgins. The richer and nobler the bridegroom, the more a
bride is congratulated upon her espousals. How much the more
.ought those to be deemed happy, who by the practice of chastity have
chosen Christ for their Spouse; and for His sake, like St. Agnes of
old, despised every earthly suitor, however wealthy and powerful.
The unmarried are more free to study the concerns of their soul ; St.
Paul says : " He that is without a wife is solicitous how he may please
God; but he that is with a wife is solicitous how he may please his
wife; and he is divided" (1 Cor. vii. 32-34). The unmarried also
can attain a higher degree of glory. St. John beheld a multitude
" before the throne, who sang a new canticle, that no man could say
but those a hundred forty and four thousand ; for they were virgins "
(Apoc. xiv. 1-5).
2. Our Lord when on earth commended the state of virginity
both by precept and example.
Our Lord says that there are some who renounce matrimony for
the kingdom of heaven's sake, adding : " He that can take, let him
take it" (Matt. xix. 12). St. Paul also says: "He that giveth his
daughter in marriage doth well, but he that giveth her not doth
668 The Means of Grace.
better" (1 Cor. vii. 38). And again, speaking of widows, " mors
blessed shall she be if she so remain " (v. 40) . The apostles did not
marry, and many of the saints took vows of perpetual virginity; of
this the greatest example is given us in the blessed Mother of God,
as we learn from her own words to the angel (Luke i. 34) ; it is also
the opinion of the Fathers that St. Joseph did the same. Some of
the saints, especially in the early ages of the Church, endured the
most agonizing tortures and a cruel death rather than break their
vow of virginity. It is related of St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, who
before he received Holy Orders had been married and had a daugh-
ter, that while he was in exile he received a letter from his daughter,
telling him she was grown up, and was about to be married. He
wrote in answer to say that he was soon returning home, and would
bring the portrait of another suitor; she could compare the two and
choose between them. On his arrival he gave her a crucifix, and
exhorted her to consecrate herself to Christ by a vow of virginity.
This she did, and shortly after died a holy death. Just before she
expired her father said to her : " Behold your celestial Spouse ; He
has come to take you to your eternal nuptials." In the pages of
hagiology we read of many saints who, although married, led a life
of chastity.
in. THE SACBAMENTALS.
Sacramentals are rites which have some outward resem-
blance to the sacraments instituted by Christ, but which are not
of divine institution. The name is applied both to the blessing or
consecration given by the Church, and to the objects blessed or
consecrated.
Our Lord gave the apostles power over unclean , spirits, to cast
them out, and to heal all manner of diseases (Matt. x. 1). The
Church makes use of this power; by means of her ministers she
blesses or consecrates certain objects, praying that God would render
these objects efficacious in banishing evil spirits and healing sick-
nesses. That is to say, the priest implores the blessing of God the
Father, for the averting of evils both corporal and spiritual. At the
same time he makes use of visible signs, such as the sign of the
cross, the holy water, the sacred oils, etc. A light is kindled, to
signify the Saviour, the Light of the world. Incense if often used,
to indicate that the sacramentals must be employed with pious dis-
positions. Sacramentals are called by this name because of their
resemblance to a sacrament. In both there is a sign and form of
words which possess a supernatural power and represent the invisible
grace. But the sacraments have incomparably more power than
the sacramentals; the latter are not necessary to salvation, whereas
the former are. Sacramentals are means of grace of the second
class.
The blessing consists in this, that the minister of the Church
invokes the divine benediction upon certain persons or things.
The Sacramentals. 669
The divine blessing is quite distinct from divine grace. The
latter has the effect of beautifying the soul, the former averts earthly
ills and promotes temporal welfare. Thus objects are only blessed
for the sake of the persons who use them, or on whose behalf they
are used.
The following are the benedictions which are customarily
conferred on persons: The blessing at the conclusion of the
Mass, the blessing given to communicants, the nuptial benedic-
tion, the benediction after childbirth, the last blessing, and the
blessing of the remains of the departed.
It is usual for women after childbirth to go to the church to
implore the blessing of God upon their child, and receive the bene-
diction of the priest. This custom was observed in the Old Testa-
ment; every mother had to present herself in the Temple with her
infant forty days after its birth if it was a boy, and eighty if it was
a girl. The Mother of God herself conformed to this rule.
Exorcism belongs also to the blessings conferred on persons.
It consists in commanding the devil to depart, in the name of
Christ, from possessed persons or things.
The evil effects of original sin rest upon every creature (Rom.
viii. 20), and upon the whole of inanimate nature (Gen. iii. 17). It
is this that renders the blessings of the Church and her exorcisms
necessary. The power granted by Our Lord to His apostles to cast
out unclean spirits is employed in the exorcism at baptism and when
holy water is blessed. Cases of possession or obsession rarely occur
in the present day ; the exorcism can only be performed by a bishop,
or by a priest with his permission. Only one who is himself ani-
mated by a firm faith and whose life is pure, can exorcise, and even
then the exorcism will be of no avail if the person exorcised per-
severes in his evil dispositions, or if God wills that His elect should
be delivered into the power of the devil for their sanctification.
For the sacramentals do not remove afflictions which are for the
spiritual welfare of the individual.
1= Consecration by the Church consists in this: That the
ecclesiastic empowered for this purpose sets apart some person or
some object, and dedicates him or it to the exclusive service of God.
The persons whom it is customary to consecrate in a solemn
manner are: The Pope, kings and emperors, abbots, monks, and
nuns.
The consecration of priests, be it remembered, is a sacrament.
The things which it is customary to bless are: Holy water,
the water to be used in Baptism (this is blessed on Holy Satur-
day and on the eve of Pentecost) ; candles (on the Purification,
670 The Means of Grace.
and the Paschal candle at Easter); ashes (on Ash Wednesday);
palms (on Palm Sunday); the holy oils (on Maundy Thursday
in the cathedrals), besides crosses, images, rosaries, medals, ban-
ners; places also are blessed, such as churches, chapels, altars,
cemeteries.
The Church blesses everything which appertains to divine service.
2. Our Lord sanctioned the use of sacramentals, but the rite^
themselves are an institution of the Church.
Our Lord while on earth blessed the loaves and fishes (Matt.
xiv. 19) ; He blessed the young children who were brought to Him
(Mark x. 16) ; He gave His blessing to His apostles before His ascen-
sion (Luke xxiv. 50). We read moreover that God blessed our first
parents (Gen. i. 28) ; that ISToe blessed his two sons (Gen. ix. 26) ;
Isaac blessed Jacob (Gen. xxvii. 27) ; Jacob when dying blessed his
twelve sons (Gen. xlix. 28) ; and Moses the tribes of Israel (Deut.
xxxiii.). Aaron and the priests that succeeded him gave their bene-
diction every morning and evening to the people in the outer court
of the Temple; stretching forth their hands over them, they blessed
them, invoking the name of the Lord three times over the children
of Israel (Numb. vi. 23).
The ceremony of blessing or consecrating is generally per-
formed by the priests.
Several acts of consecration appertain to the episcopal office,
and may only be performed by a priest with the authorization of the
bishop, as for instance, the dedication of churches and altars, the
blessing of bells, chalices, etc. The laity can bless, but not in the
name of the Church; parents frequently bless their children, and the
more pious they are, the more effect has their blessing.
3. The use of blessed or consecrated objects is profitable; for
if used with pious dispositions, they increase our fear and love of
God, remit venial sins, and preserve us from many temptations
and from bodily harm ; excepting such temptations and ills of the
body as are for our spiritual welfare.
The sacramentals remit venial sin, and deliver us from some of
the evil consequences of sin. They help us in the hour of temptation ;
St. Teresa cannot say enough concerning the power of holy water
to drive away the devil. They are also of use in bodily ills and in-
firmities; the apostles anointed with oil many who were sick and
healed them (Mark vi. 13). They are thus a remedy and a shield.
Is it superstition on the part of the soldier who carries with him a
blessed crucifix when he goes to battle, hoping that by God's mercy
it may be his protection? By no means. !N"or is the sick man to
blame if he sprinkles himself frequently with holy water, thinking
thus to accelerate his recovery. But we must beware of trusting too
much to the efficacy of sacramentals; or imputing to them more
power than the prayer of the Church imparts to them; they are not
Prayer, 671
like the sacraments. The sacraments confer upon those who receive
them the grace of the Holy Spirit; the sacramentals only purify
the soul, and render it more fit for the reception of sanctifying grace.
The sacramentals derive all their power from the prayers of the
Church; it is in the name of the Church that the priest blesses them.
The petitions of the Church have immense power, for they are united
to the prayer of Our Lord and to the supplications of the saints.
4. The sacramentals can, however, only be used with profit
by persons who are free from mortal sin, and who use them in
a spirit of ifaith and confidence.
The effect of the sacramentals depends upon the worthiness and
the pious dispositions of the individual who uses them. Those who
live in mortal sin will derive no more benefit from wearing some
blessed object, or from the use of holy water, than the Jews did from
bringing the Ark of the Covenant on to the field of battle, when they
had incurred God's wrath by their sins (1 Kings iv.). Nor will they
profit one who places no confidence in them, any more than prayer
profits the man who does not ask in faith, nothing wavering (Jas. i.
6). Our Lord abstained from working many miracles in some places,
because of the unbelief of the inhabitants (Matt. xiii. 18). Remem-
ber what He said to the woman who touched Him : " Thy faith hath
made thee whole" (Mark v. 34). We find that devout Christians
always reverence sacramentals and use them diligently. They wear
blessed objects on their person, they frequently take holy water, they
like to say their prayers in consecrated places, knowing that prayer
offered in a church is more efficacious than what is offered elsewhere.
In times of temptation or of sickness above all, we should have re-
course to the assistance afforded by sacramentals.
IV. PRAYER.
1. THE NATURE OF PRAYER.
1. Prayer is the elevation of the heart to God.
When we are engaged in conversation with any one, we forget
everything else. This is what we should do when we talk with God,
that is, when we pray. In prayer, we must direct all the powers of the
soul to God; the understanding, for we must think of Him; the
memory, for we must forget the things of earth; the affections, for
we must delight in Him. The mere thought of God is no prayer ; the
devils think of God, but they do not pray to Him. Let Our Lord's
ascension be to us a symbol of prayer; so are the clouds of incense
that float upwards on the air ; the lark that soars aloft as she warbles
her song. It is recorded of some saints that the elevation of their
souls in prayer was made manifest by external signs ; they were raised
from the ground, they were surrounded by a supernatural radiance,
ftt. John Chrysostom says that to be permitted to talk with his
Creator and hold familiar intercourse with Him, is the greatest honor
672 The Means of Grace.
and privilege mortal man can enjoy. Who can fail to admire and
wonder at the gracious condescension of the Most High, that He not
only permits, but commands us to converse with Him?
When we pray it is customary to employ external signs of
devotion, such as kneeling down, folding the hands, striking the
breast, etc.
By kneeling down we acknowledge our own littleness in God's
sight; by folding our hands, we signify that we are helpless, bound
by the chains of sin; by striking the breast, that we are deserving of
stripes. Sometimes we prostrate ourselves upon the ground, to testify
our sense of our nothingness before God; this Judith did, before she
went into the enemy's camp (Judith x. 1). Our Lord did the same on
Mount Olivet (Matt. xxvi. 39). So does the priest at the foot of the
altar on Good Friday. When prayer is very fervent and importunate,
the hands are lifted up and the arms outstretched ; thus Moses .prayed
during the battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites (Exod.
xvii. 12), and Solomon at the dedication of the Temple (2 Par. v. 12).
The priest often does the same during the celebration of holy Mass.
The Jews of old turned their faces towards the Temple at the time of
prayer; we may do likewise. David worshipped towards the holy
Temple (Ps. v. 8), and so did Daniel (Dan. vi. 10). God needs not
these outward signs, for He reads the heart of man; but we thereby
excite ourselves to greater activity and more humility in prayer.
These postures are not a necessary adjunct to prayer; they may be
dispensed with on account of weariness, sickness, or in the presence
of others. One may even pray while walking abroad, as pilgrims do,
or if we happen to hear the Angelus rung while we are in the streets
of a town.
2. We may pray either in spirit onlyi or with the, lips as well.
One may raise one's heart in prayer to God without those who are
around us perceiving it ; this is mental prayer. Vocal prayer is both
useful and necessary. Man consists of soul and body, and with both
he must yield homage to God (Osee xiv. 3). It is, moreover, natural
to express in words the thoughts of the heart (Matt. xii. 34). In the
absence of vocal prayer the Christian religion would lack its main-
stay. Vocal prayer quickens the attention of the mind, and inflames
the devotion of the suppliant himself as well as of others. Vocal
or common prayer is more efficacious with God ; Our Lord says :
" Whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done unto them by My Father
Who is in heaven" (Matt, xviii. 19).
Prayer with the lips only, and not with the spirit, is worth-
less.
Our Lord complains of the Pharisees : u This people honoreth Me
with their lips, but their heart is far from Me" (Matt. xv. 8). St.
Augustine says many call upon God with the voice of the body, not
with the vcice of the soul. All attitudes and gestures too, which are
merely formal have no value. God is a spirit, and they that adore
Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth (John iv, 24).
Prayer. 673
We can also pray with the voice of song.
Hymns and spiritual canticles are an excellent form of prayer,
which the Apostle admonishes the Colossians to practise. It is a
powerful factor in raising the heart to God. St. Ambrose and Pope
Gregory the Great did much to promote the custom of singing in
churches.
In our prayers we may either make use of the authorized
forms of prayer, or address God in the words our own heart will
It is well to recite the usual well-known prayers, such as the Our
Father and Hail Mary, but not to keep slavishly to the use of forms.
We should speak to God from time to time in our own words; He
loves to hear us address Him with filial confidence. The three chil-
dren in the furnace of Babylon cried to Him in their own language.
There is no need to employ well-turned phrases; how much better
to speak to God simply and straightforwardly. The plainest language
is the language of the heart, and it is not the words which God re-
gards, but the desires of the heart. Nor need one make long prayers
(Matt. vi. 7). Our petitions are not valued on account of their length,
but of their fervor. How richly was the brief supplication of the
good thief rewarded !
We may either pray alone, or in union with others.
Our Lord exhorts us to pray to Our Father in secret (Matt. vi.
5), and also to offer our petitions in common with others.
3. Our prayers have a threefold object: That of praise, of
supplication, and of thanksgiving.
We ought to praise God on account of His infinite perfections.
The Church gives praise to Him unceasingly; the Gloria and the
Sanctus in the Mass, the Te Deum which is sung on great festivals,
the Gloria Patri which we repeat so often, are all ascriptions of
praise. The thrice holy of the seraphim (Is. vi. 3), the song the
angels sung at Our Lord's birth (Luke ii. 14), are hymns of praise.
We read in the Apocalypse that the principal occupation of the happy
denizens of heaven is to give honor and glory to the Lord their God
(Apoc. iv.), and by praising Him we may while still on earth join in
their ceaseless song. The Magnificat uttered by the Blessed Virgin
is a canticle of praise. It is God's will that we should implore of
Him all that we need. God gives nothing to those who ask nothing
of Him (Jas. i. 5). "He who asks not," says St. Teresa, "receives
not." Kay more, God desires that our petitions should be fervent and
importunate; that we should not merely ask, but compel Him to
hear us. The Lacedemonians used to place the bread for their chil-
dren on a high beam, and force them to fetch it down for themselves ;
thus God would have us earn what we beseech of Him. He is not,
it is true, ignorant of our needs (Matt. vi. 32), and He could supply
them without our telling Him of them ; but He will have us ask for
what we want, that we may not accept His gifts as a matter of course.
674 TJie Means of Grace.
but may recognize our dependence upon Him, and learn to be humble
and thankful. The prayer of Our Lord in the garden and on the
cross was a prayer of supplication; as was that of the apostles on the
sea of Galilee, that of the Christians for St. Peter when he was in
prison. Prayer for the forgiveness of sin is a penitential prayer ;
witness the Miserere (Ps. 1.). Furthermore it is God's will that we
thank Him for the benefits we receive from His hand (1 Thess. v. 18).
Remember what Our Lord said to the leper who was healed (Luke
xvii.). Gratitude is the surest means of obtaining fresh favors from
God. The holocaust Noe offered was a sacrifice of thanksgiving (Gen.
viii. 20). God withdraws many blessings from man because he takes
no heed of them and neglects to render thanks to the Giver; He also
sends calamities as a chastisement upon the unthankful.
2. THE UTILITY AND NECESSITY OF PRAYER.
1. By means of prayer we can obtain all things from God;
but He does not always grant our petitions immediately.
We have Our Lord's promise: Ask and it shall be given you
(Matt. vii. 7), and again: "All things whatsoever you shall ask in
prayer, believing, you shall receive" (Matt. xxi. 22). St. John
Chrysostom declares that by prayer man becomes almost omnipotent.
St. Augustine terms prayer the key that unlocks the treasury of the
divine riches. As a man can get almost anything from his fellow-
men for gold, so he can obtain almost anything from God by means
of prayer. Let him therefore who is in affliction call upon God for
succor. If he fail to do this, let him blame his own indolence and
folly, not complain of his misery. Who would have patience with a
beggar, half-starved with cold and hunger, if he would not apply for
aid to a rich man who had promised to help him? The apostles
prayed when the storm arose on the lake, and it was calmed. God
does not always grant our petitions at once. One must knock long
and loudly at the gate of this sovereign Lord, before it is opened to
us. Monica prayed for her son's conversion for eighteen years.
God keeps us waiting for an answer to our prayer, both to try us,
whether we are really in earnest, and also to make us value His gifts
more when we do obtain them. He who is truly in earnest perseveres
with more insistence than ever, the longer the answer to his prayer
is delayed. So the blind man by the wayside on the road to Jericho
cried out much more when Our Lord appeared to pay no heed to his
cry: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me" (Luke xviii. 39).
" Thou dost delay, O Lord," says St. Augustine, " to give us what
we ask, that we may learn how to pray." Sometimes God does not
grant us what we implore, because Lie knows it would be prejudicial,
not beneficial to us.
Our prayers obtain a speedier answer if they are accom-
panied by fasting, almsdeeds, a promise, or if we invoke the
intercession of the saints on our behalf; a petition is sooner
granted if it is proffered by several persons at the same time;
also if the suppliant is of the number of the just.
Prayer. 6?5
Fasting and almsdeeds are said to be the wings of prayer. Re-
member the prayer of the centurion Cornelius (Acts x.). That
prayer receives a speedier answer in which several persons join. Our
Lord promises : " If two of you shall consent upon earth concerning
anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by My
Father Who is in heaven" (Matt, xviii. 19). "When the Christians
assemble together in large numbers to pray," says Tertullian, " they
are like a great army, which compels almighty God to grant their
petition." Wood burns more fiercely if several logs are piled to-
gether, for one kindles the other. In the time of the Roman emperor,
Marcus Aurelius, a Christian legion was surrounded by the enemy,
and the supply of water cut off. In dire distress the Christian sol-
diers prayed fervently for rain; and before many hours had passed,
a storm came up, and there was a heavy downpour. The united
prayer of the Church for St. Peter was the cause of his deliverance
from prison. How great is the power of united prayer ! This is why
processions are held in times of calamity. The prayer of the just,
moreover, obtains a speedier answer. The continual prayer of a just
man availeth much (Jas. v. 16). The prayer of the prophet Elias
for rain was quickly granted (3 Kings xvii.).
Oftentimes God turns a deaf ear to our petition and the
reason is generally because He will not give us what would be
harmful for us; or because we do not deserve that our prayer
should be granted.
God acts like a wise physician who for the good of his patient
will not allow him to have what would be injurious to him. If God
sees that we shall employ His gifts amiss, He of His mercy with-
holds them from us (St. Augustine). St. Monica earnestly implored
almighty God to prevent her son from going to Italy. Her prayer
was not granted, because God designed that the preaching of St.
Ambrose should be the means of Augustine's conversion. St. Augus-
tine himself at a later period exclaims : " Thou didst then deny my
mother's request, O Lord, in order to grant that which had long been
her continual prayer." God often does not grant our entreaty be-
cause we do not deserve that grace. Those who pray without devotion
and without faith (Jas. i. 7), or who are in mortal sin, and will not
renounce their evil ways, are unworthy of being heard (John ix. 31).
Many persons do not obtain what they ask, because they do not per-
severe in prayer, their whole heart is not in their petition. Yet no
prayer is offered in vain; if God does not give what is asked, He be-
stows on the suppliant something else, something better; like a parent
who gives his child a rosy apple instead of the knife he is clamoring
for. Even the sinner does not pray in vain, for by his prayers he
earns the graces necessary for his conversion. When you pray, and
your petition is not granted, do not ascribe this to unwillingness on
God's part, but to the imperfection of your prayer, or to the poor use
you would perhaps make of the grace if it were bestowed on you.
Act thus, and if you have "prayed aright, God will give you some
other gift far more worth having than that which you asked for.
God is able to do all things more abundantly than we desire or un-
derstand (Eph. iii. 20).
676 The Means of Grace.
2. By means of prayer sinners become just, and the just are
enabled to continue in a state of grace.
By prayer sinners obtain forgiveness. The penitent thief said
only these few words : " Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come
into Thy kingdom" (Luke xxiii. 42), and immediately Our Lord
pardoned him. The publican in the Temple did but strike his breast,
saying : " O God, be merciful to me a sinner," and he went down to
his house justified (Luke xviii. 13). As soon as David heard Na-
than's rebuke, he exclaimed: "I have sinned against the Lord," and
the prophet immediately assured him that the Lord had taken away
his sin (2 Kings xii. 13). "When a man begins to pray," says St.
Augustine, " he ceases to sin ; when he ceases to pray, he begins to
sin." Mortal sin is incompatible with the habit of prayer. Prayer
transforms the character; by it the blind become enlightened, the
weak become strong, sinners become saints.
By prayer sinners become just, because it earns for thern
the graces of contrition and amendment.
By prayer we draw down upon us the Holy Spirit, we obtain ac-
tual grace. As the nearer the earth approaches the sun, the greater
the light and heat she derives from it, so the nearer we draw to Christ,
the Sun of justice, the more our soul will be enlightened and
strengthened. We have said that the soul is enlightened by prayer ;
she learns to estimate more justly the majesty and goodness of God,
to perceive more clearly the final end of man, the will of God, the
worthlessness of earthly things and her own poverty. In the case of
some saints this inward illumination manifested itself externally.
The countenance of Moses shone, after he had been conversing with
God on the Mount. Our Lord, while He prayed, was transfigured
(Luke ix. 29). Many saints are known to have been surrounded
with an aureola of glory while at prayer. By prayer we gain strength
and power to endure the ills of life. Prayer is like a celestial dew ;
as the earth is refreshed at night by the dew from heaven, so the soul
is revived and fortified by prayer. Thus we should have recourse to
prayer when our work is ended and before we commence anything of
importance. Our Lord when on earth often spent the night in
prayer, and before His Passion He prayed long and earnestly. The
man who is given to prayer will never be a coward.
Prayer enables the just to continue in a state of grace, be-
cause it is a safeguard against temptation and sin.
Prayer is an antidote to the poison of temptation. The assaults
of the devil darken the understanding and weaken the will; prayer
does the very opposite ; it enlightens the understanding and strength-
ens the will. It acts upon temptation as water does on fire; it is
a shield which the fiery darts of the evil one cannot pierce; it is an
anchor to the tempest-tossed vessel. It banishes sadness; the Holy
Ghost is a comforter, He imparts joy to the heart. Our Lord prom-
ises to refresh all who labor and are burdened, if they come to Him
(Matt. xi. 28). St. James says: "Is any among you sad? let him
pray" (las. v. 13). During prayer, sometimes, a foretaste is given
Prayer. 67?
us of the joys of heaven. Prayer affords to the troubled heart such
solace as a child may find, who pours out his sorrows on the breast
of a compassionate father. " O taste and see," says the Psalmist,
"that the Lord is sweet" (Ps. xxxiii. 9). One day spent in prayer
is better than years devoted to the pleasures and distractions of the
world. By prayer the just man acquires many virtues. Pray aright,
and you will live aright. Between those who are much together a
certain resemblance may be perceived ; thus if we are much with God,
we shall become like to Him. Prayer is to the soul what the sun-
shine is to a plant; it makes it grow and bear fruit abundantly.
3. By prayer we obtain the remission of the temporal penalty
due to sin, and merit an eternal recompense.
When prayer ascends to heaven, the mercy of God descends; it
prevents the outburst of the divine wrath (St. Augustine). By
every prayer we repeat some indulgence is gained, even though one
is not definitely attached to it by the Holy See. Our Lord says :
" When thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the
door, pray to thy Father in secret ; and thy Father, Who seeth in
secret, will repay thee" (Matt. vi. 6). Prayer is a work which can-
not be accomplished without toil and conflict, for the spirits of evil
employ all their wiles to distract those who pray, by suggesting
irrelevant thoughts to their mind. Hence those who preserve their
recollection in spite of the assaults of the devil, and the hindrances
he casts in their way, expiate many sins and merit a reward.
4. He who never prays cannot save his soul; for without
prayer he will fall into grievous sins.
A servant who never saluted or spoke to his master would not
long be retained in his service. Were one to look into hell, we should
see that the majority of souls have been lost through neglect of
prayer. " If Our Lord," says St. Ambrose, " spent whole nights in
prayer, what ought not we poor mortals to do to save our souls ? " He
who does not pray is powerless to resist in the hour of temptation;
he may be compared to a warrior without weapons, a bird without
wings, a ship without sails or rudder ; he is a reed, driven to and fro
by every blast of wind. St. John Chrysostom says one who does not
pray has no life in him, he has ceased to breathe. As corn must be
stored in barns, not left lying on the damp ground, or it will grow
mouldy and decay, so the heart of man must not continually rest
upon earthly things; it must be lifted up to God, or it will lose its
purity. Hence Our Lord bids us watch and pray (Matt. xxvi. 41).
All nations of the world worship some deity or other; the obligation
to pray is imprinted upon the human heart.
3. HOW OUGHT WE TO PRAY ?
By praying we learn to pray. In this the proverb holds good:
Practice makes perfect. Pray often, and you will find delight in
prayer; pray seldom, and it will appear to you irksome and weari-
some. God does not regard the length of our supplications but their
fervor.
678 The Means of Grace.
If prayer is to be of utility to us, we must pray:
1. In the name of Jesus; that is, we must ask what is in ac-
cordance with Our Lord's desires.
(T
Our Lord desires whatever promotes the glory of God and the
salvation of souls. If we pray for what is opposed to our spiritual
welfare, we do not pray in the name of Christ; e.g., if we pray for
earthly riches or honors, for the acquisition of superfluities. But
we pray in the name of Christ, that is, in union with His intention, in
His spirit, if we ask for such things as the means of earning our
daily bread, for succor in the time of tribulation, for the conversion
of a sinner. The Church prays in the name of Christ, for all her
petitions conclude with the words : " Through Jesus Christ Our
Lord." " If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give
it to you" (John xvi. 23). Such is Our Lord's promise. What
monarch could refuse the petition of one who said he was authorized
to present it by the king's own royal son ?
2. We must pray with devotion; that is, we must fix our
thoughts on God when we pray.
In our prayers we hold intercourse with God. When we hold inter-
course with our fellow-mortals, we give them our whole attention;
how much more when we converse with God, should we fix our mind
on Him alone! Some people honor God with their lips, while their
heart is far from Him (Matt. xv. 8). Their thoughts wander, they
think of their earthly employments, they do not heed what they say.
Prayers that are so tepid and distracted avail nothing with God.
Who, when pleading before an earthly judge, would turn to those
about him and begin to talk to them? He would be put out of court
for his disrespectful behavior. How can we expect God to heed our
prayers if. we do not heed them ourselves? He who prays without
devotion and yet looks for an answer to his prayer, is like a man who
sows bad grain, and anticipates a crop of first-rate wheat. It is not,
however, necessary to have sensible devotion, to experience extra-
ordinary consolation and delight in prayer. That is a supernatural
gift, bestowed by God generally as a recompense; it does not add to
the value of our prayers. Nor are they necessarily the worse, if we
feel' distaste and aridity. St. Teresa says that prayer under such
circumstances may even be more meritorious because it is painful to
nature. That prayer which costs us an effort, which we have to com-
pel ourselves to offer, is perhaps the most acceptable in God's sight.
Do not therefore give up prayer on account of aridity and the dis-
inclination for it. The evil enemy seeks by this means to withdraw
us from prayer, and God permits this trial to come upon us, in order
that we may feel our own weakness and humble ourselves on account
of it. And if during the whole time of prayer we do nothing else
but resist temptations and distractions, let us not think we have
prayed badly ; God looks to our good will, in that He takes pleasure.
In order to pray devoutly we must prepare ourselves before-
hand, and during the time of prayer we must guard our senses
and see that we do not assume an irreverent posture.
Prayer. 679
" Before prayer prepare thy soul, be not as a man that tempteth
God" (Ecclus. xviii. 23). The harper tunes his harp before begin-
ning to play, lest there should be any discord in the melody. How
carefully those who are admitted to an audience of some earthly
monarch perform their toilet ! Before commencing our prayer, we
should place ourselves in the presence of God, endeavoring to realize
that we stand in His sight, and then banish from our thoughts all
worldly cares and interests. Let us imitate the patriarch Abraham,
who when about to offer up his son Isaac on Mount Moria, left his
servants, his ass, and all that was not wanted for the sacrifice, at the
foot of the mountain, saying : " When we have worshipped, we will
return unto you." As Our Lord drove those that sold out of the
Temple, so we must banish all worldly affairs from our heart, when
it is made a temple of prayer. Yet the distractions that are involun-
tary are not sinful, only they must be repulsed and withstood. At
prayer we must close the door, that is keep custody of the eyes, and
withdraw into the secret chamber of the soul. The use of a prayer-
book often keeps the eyes from wandering. As a rule one prays with
more recollection before the statue of a saint, or in a holy place, where
all around breathes an atmosphere of devotion. Our attitude during
prayer should not be lacking in reverence; as far as possible we
should remain upon our knees as an aid to devotion.
3. We must pray with perseverance, that is, we ought not to
desist from prayer, if our petition is not immediately granted.
We should take example from children, who will not leave off
clamoring until they get what they want. We mortals are apt to
grow angry if a suppliant is too persistent, but it is not so with God ;
He is pleased when we " batter the gates of heaven with storms of
prayer." Remember the parable of the importunate friend, who con-
tinued knocking (Luke xi. 5). God sometimes puts the endurance of
the suppliant to a severe test, as was the case with the woman of
Chanaan (Matt. xv.). The Jews in Bethulia prayed all night, desir-
ing help of the God of Israel, when Holofernes besieged their city,
but the more they prayed, the more desperate the situation appeared.
Yet they held out, and God sent them a deliverer in Judith. We have
already said that for eighteen long years St. Monica ceased not to
pray for her son's conversion, and how richly her constancy was re-
warded ! For God loves to come to our aid when our need is greatest.
Let us not then be' discouraged, as some are, and cease to pray if our
prayers are not answered; the wise course would be to pray more
earnestly the longer God delays granting our petition. For the longer
He keeps us waiting, the more will His succor surpass our expecta-
tions. He is able to do abundantly more than we desire or under-
stand (Eph. iii. 20). "We have to wait a whole year," says St.
Francis of Sales, "before the seed we sow in the ground bears fruit;
and are we more impatient in regard to the fruit of our prayers ? "
4. We must pray with a pure heart; that is, our conscience
must be free from grievous sin, or at any rate we must be in
penitential dispositions.
680
The Means of Grace.
The man whose heart is not clean has not power to raise his soul
to God, for when he begins to pray, thoughts and images of sin crowd
in upon his mind, and hold it captive upon earth. He who prays with
an impure heart is like a man who enters the presence of royalty
with mud-stained garments, to implore a favor. It is only just that
he who will not conform to the divine precepts should be excluded
from a share in the divine benefactions. Listen to the commands of
God, if you would have Him listen to your supplications. But as
soon as the sinner is sincerely contrite, he may hope to obtain a hear-
ing; God will receive his petitions as graciously as if he had never
offended Him. In this He is unlike men, who are prone to cast
former offences in the teeth of those who ask a favor of them. God
looks at the present intention, not at the past actions of a man. Re-
member how the prayer of the penitent publican in the Temple was
accepted (Luke xviii. 13).
5. We roust pray with humility; that is, we must acknowl-
edge our own weakness and unworthiness.
The prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds
(Ecclus. xxxv. 21). How lowly is the obeisance of one who approaches
one of the magnates of the earth to present a petition! Prayer is
in itself an act of humility, for by it we testify a sense of our de-
pendence upon the Lord of heaven and of earth; we take the position
of beggars, knocking at the door of the great Father of mankind.
6. We must pray with confidence, that is, with a firm con-
viction that of His infinite mercy God will grant what we ask,
provided it will tend to His glory and to the true welfare of our
souls.
The prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds
of what the prayer of faith ought to be (3 Kings xviii.). Our Lord
says : " All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you
shall receive " (Matt. xxi. 22). Confidence hath a great reward (Heb.
x. 35). Let not him that wavereth think that he shall receive any-
thing of the Lord (Jas. i. 1).
7. We must pray with resignation to the will of God; that
is, we must leave the granting of our petition entirely to God's
good pleasure.
"Not My will, but Thine be done " (Luke xxii. 42), was Our Lord's
prayer on the Mount of Olives. God knows best what is for our
good; we ought no more to dictate to Him than a sick man, who
knows nothing of the healing art, ought to tell the physician what
drugs he is to give him. A certain mother once was importunate in
prayer for the recovery of her sick child. The priest told her she
would do better to ask that God's will might be done. " No," she
exclaimed indignantly, " God must grant me my desire." The child
was restored to health, took to evil ways, and at last came to the
gallows. Happy would it have been for that man had he died in his
childhood ! How much wiser it is to leave all in the hands of God,
for He knows the future.
Prayer. 681
4. WHEN OUGHT WE TO PRAY?
1. As a matter of fact we ought to pray continually, for Our
Lord requires of us " always to pray and not to faint " (Luke xviii.
1).
The Apostle bids us: "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. v. 17).
We may approach God at any moment; there is no sentry before His
door to turn us back; we have but to call upon Him by His name
of Father, and His ear is open to us at once. " He who seeks God,"
says St. Alphonsus, " will find Him at all times and in every place."
If our heart is continually raised to Him in prayer, we shall be like
the angels who continually behold His countenance. If we are unceas-
ing in prayer, we shall obtain our requests from God without diffi-
culty, and we shall be preserved from many temptations. Our Lord
says : " Watch ye and pray, that ye enter not into temptation," (Matt,
xx vi. 41). The habit of constant prayer may be compared to a ram-
part against the malign foe; to a breastplate from which his arrows
rebound ; to a harbor, in which the rough waves cannot reach us. We
are liable at any moment to the assaults of the devil, wherefore let
us ever be ready, armed with prayer, as those who are exposed to the
danger of fire always have water at hand in case a conflagration
should break out. By continuing in prayer, we shall have a surer
hope of maintaining ourselves in the grace of God until our life's
end.
It is, however, by no means required of us, nay, it would be
impossible for us to remain constantly upon our knees; what
we are to do is to pray while wTe work.
Martha's vocation, that of active work for one's neighbor, ought
to be united to Mary's vocation, that of contemplation and prayer.
St. Bernard says Martha's employment was good, Mary's was better,
but a combination of the two is best of all. Christ, Who is in all
things our Model, united a life of activity to a life of prayer. While
we are in this world, work must oft-times be our prayer; hereafter,
when there is no more occasion for work, the contemplation of the
divine majesty will be our only occupation. He who gives up work
for the sake of prayer, deserves not, according to the dictum of the
Apostle, to have bread to eat (2 Thess. iii. 10).
While engaged in our work we can utter ejaculatory prayers,
and we ought on commencing our work to direct our intention
so as to do all to the glory of God.
St. Teresa had in her cell a picture of Our Lord at Jacob's well;
when her eyes fell upon it she said : " Lord, give me that living
water." St. Ignatius frequently exclaimed : " All for the greater
glory of God." Let us accustom ourselves to say from time to time :
" Lord, remember me in Thy kingdom." He who raises his heart to
God ever and anon by ejaculatory prayers, will keep calm and recol-
lected amid the turmoil and distractions of life, for ejaculations are
682 The Means of Grace.
no weak weapons of defence; their brevity, too, enables them to be
said with greater fervor than longer prayers. St. Francis of Sales
recommends the frequent and fervent repetition of the same ejacula-
tion. Our Lord on the Mount of Olives prayed using the same words.
St. Francis of Assisi spent the whole night repeating the words:
" My God and my all." St. Paul bids us : " Whether ye eat or drink,
or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God " (1 Cor. x.
31). It is well to direct one's intention in the morning, and renew
it before every undertaking of any importance.
We should do well to employ our leisure time in prayer.
Blessed Clement Hofbauer answered a man who complained that
his time hung heavy on his hands, with the words : " Well, then, you
can pray." The saints spent as much time as they could in prayer;
it is recorded of St. James that through being constantly on his
knees, callosities formed on them. The Christian need not pray
in a manner to be observed by others, but he can always pray in
spirit, whatever his occupations may be. The saints used to make
use of visible things to raise their thoughts to what is unseen; nat-
ural objects suggested to them thoughts of the supernatural. St.
Gregory ]STazianzen, seeing the shells washed up on the seashore and
the immovable rocks that resisted the shock of the waves, compared
the former to men who had no mastery over themselves, and the
latter to those whom no temptation could seduce. The sight of a
lamb led St. Francis of Assisi to speak of the meekness of the Re-
deemer; to other saints the sight of a flower, a picture, a church, was
enough to inspire holy thoughts and practical reflections. This is
no wonder, for all visible objects should recall to our mind the om-
nipotence and bounty of the Creator, and invite us to pay Him
homage. Our life ought to be one uninterrupted prayer; for our
mind ought to be detached from earthly things, and our conversation
in heaven.
2. We ought to pray more especially every morning and eve-
ning, before and after meals, and when we hear the Angelus.
1. In the morning we ought to give thanks to God for hav-
ing preserved us during the night, and beseech Him to protect
us during the day from misfortune and from sin, and to give us
what is needful for our bodily sustenance.
The morning prayer should be said kneeling, and before we
take our breakfast. The birds set us an example in this respect;
they warble their morning song before they seek to satisfy their
hunger. " We ought to prevent the sun to bless Thee, and adore
Thee at the dawning of the light" (Wisd. xvi. 28). A particular
blessing rests upon our morning prayer. As the Israelites could
only gather the manna before the sun was up, so we cannot expect
God's blessing on the day if we do not consecrate its earliest hours
to Him by prayer. As a well-spent youth influences a man's whole
life, so the manner in which the day is begun influences all its later
hours. In the morning God is more easily found : " They that in
the morning early watch for Me shall find Me " (Prov. viii. 17). The
Prayer. 683
early Christians used to meet together at daybreak for divine wor-
ship. He who on rising- neglects to pray, and gives his attention
at once to temporal concerns, cannot expect God's blessing on his
day's work. If the foundation of a house is unsound, the super-
structure will soon fall in.
2. At night we ought to give thanks to God for the benefits
we have received during the day, and beseech Him to pardon the
sins we have committed in its course, and to protect us during
the coming night.
At our night prayers we ought to make an examination of con-
science. Every merchant at the close of the day reckons up his
gain or loss, although only temporal profits are in question; how
much more ought the Christian to make a careful scrutiny of the
transactions which affect his spiritual interests. Priests and relig-
ious have to recite the breviary at seven different times in the day.
David says : "Seven times a day have I given praise to Thee " (Ps.
cxviii. 164). The early Christians used to pray at midnight (Acts
xvi. 26), and at the hours of the Passion: When Our Lord was con-
demned (nine o'clock), crucified (noon), when He died (three o'clock),
and when He was laid in the grave (sunset). These are the fixed
hours for reciting the divine office, but priests are not obliged to
adhere to them strictly.
3. Before and after meals we ought to give thanks to God
for our nourishment, and implore His grace to avoid such sins
as are committed at table.
"When thou shalt have eaten and art full, take heed diligently
lest thou forget the Lord" (Deut. vi. 12, 13). Daniel when in the lion's
den thanked God for the dinner that He sent to him (Dan. xiv. 37).
Those who do not give thanks before and after their meals are like
the beasts of the field. King Alfonso of Aragon, observing that
his courtiers did not give thanks either before or after their repasts,
gave them a practical lesson in this respect. He invited a beggar
to his royal table, forbidding him most strictly either to make an
obeisance on entering the dining hall, or to express his gratitude to
the king when departing. The man obeyed his orders, and went
away without a word or sign. The courtiers were highly incensed;
but the king checked their wrath, saying: "Is not this exactly how
you act towards your heavenly King? You neither ask a blessing
nor return thanks; has He not as much reason to be indignant with
you as you have with this ignorant mendicant ? " The courtiers
acknowledged the justice of the rebuke and never after omitted to
say grace before and after meals. The sins committed at table usu-
ally are sins of intemperance, anger (if all is not to our liking), and
detraction. And when the appetite is satisfied, there comes the
temptation to sloth and self-indulgence.
4. We ought also to pray when the Angelus rings, calling
upon us three times a day, morning, noon, and evening, to say
the Angelic Salutation; and if we are near a church, when we
684
The Means of Grace.
hear the bell for the consecration, or for benediction of the
Blessed Sacrament.
3. Furthermore we ought to pray in the hour of affliction, dis-
tress, or temptation, when entering upon an important undertak-
ing, and when we feel an inspiration and desire to pray.
We ought to pray in times of distress, for God enjoins this upon
us : " Call upon Me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee and
thou shalt glorify Me" (Ps. xlix. 15). How did the apostles act
when the storm arose on the lake? Too often in their troubles men
seek after human aid. In temptation we ought also to have recourse
to prayer. " Watch ye and pray, that ye enter not into temptation "
(Matt. xxvi. 41). St. Francis of Sales says that when we are as-
sailed by temptation we should do as little children do if they are
frightened by the approach of some animal; they run to their father
or mother. On commencing any important undertaking we ought
to pray. Tobias exhorts his son : " Desire of God to direct thy
ways " (Tob. iv. 20). Our Lord passed the whole night in prayer to
God before He chose the twelve apostles (Luke vi. 12) ; He prayed
before the raising of Lazarus (John xi. 41), and before He went
to His Passion (Luke xxii. 41). The apostles prayed before they
chose Matthias by lot (Acts i. 23). St. Peter prayed before he re-
called Tabitha to life (Acts ix. 40). St. Jerome admonishes us to
arm ourselves by prayer at our outgoing, and on our incoming to let
prayer be our first action. We should also make use of those mo-
ments when we feel moved to pray. The mariner hastens to put
to sea when he finds the wind is favorable; so we, when we perceive
the impulse of the Holy Spirit, must follow His gracious inspirations.
Unhappily those moments are too often allowed to slip by, or dis-
traction is sought in worldly amusements. Of this the entertain-
ments held after weddings, and on great festivals of the Church,
the feasts the poor make after funerals, etc., afford abundant evi-
dence. How much those who thus act will have one day to answer
for ! Such solemn times should be times of greater devotion.
5. WHERE OUGHT WE TO PRAY ?
1. We can and ought to pray in every place, because God is
everywhere present.
Our Lord Himself prayed, not only in the Temple at Jerusalem,
and in the synagogues, but also in the desert, on the mountains, in
the cenacle, in the Garden of Olives, on the cross. Jacob prayed
in the open country, Jonas in the belly of the whale, Job on the
dunghill, Daniel in the lion's den, Manasses in prison. Paul and
Silas lying bound in a dungeon, prayed and praised God, so that
the foundations of the prison were shaken. We can only speak
with God when He is present, and He is present everywhere (Acts
xvii. 24). Remember Our Lord's words to the woman of Samaria
(John iv. 23). God does not regard the place in which we pray,
but the dispositions with which we pray.
Prayer. 685
2. The house of God is the place specially set apart for prayer.
The house of God is the house of prayer (Matt. xxi. 13). Some
say there is no need to go to church, because the whole earth is the
temple of God. This is false; Go'd enjoins upon us by the mouth
of the Church to go to His house on Sundays and festivals. Our
Lord Himself set us an example in this respect, for He was often to
be found in the Temple at Jerusalem. Petitions offered in a church
have greater efficacy, because the place is consecrated, and we can also
pray with more devotion, because our surroundings are an aid to
recollection, and we can put aside our daily cares. Besides, the
prayers we offer in church are heard more quickly because Our Lord
is present there under the eucharistic veils; He has promised that:
" Where there are two or three gathered together in My name, there
am I in the midst of them," and He will help us to pray aright.
However it must not be thought that true piety consists in spending
long hours in the church.
3. A solitary place is also suitable for prayer.
Our Lord was accustomed to withdraw into solitude for prayer.
He prayed in the desert (Luke v. 16), on mountains, in the Garden
of Olives (Luke xxii. 39). He bids us retire into our chamber and
shut the door (Matt. vi. 6), for in solitude one is less likely to be dis-
tracted, and one can pray more fervently.
6. FOR WHAT OUGHT WE TO PRAY ?
1. We ought to implore of God many things and great things;
benefits not appertaining to time so much as to eternity.
Supposing a king said to you: "Ask what you will;" would you
not ask a great favor of him ? Well, it is nothing more than what
God says to you. We ought to ask great things of God, because we
have to do with One Who is infinitely rich and powerful. Let us not be
contented with what we have already received, but ever beg for more.
God is more ready to give than we to receive. Let us not ask so much
for temporal and transitory benefits, but rather for those that are
eternal. ~No one would presume to ask of an emperor what was use-
less and worthless ; , much less should we venture to implore the Lord
of heaven and earth for the things of time and sense. It is the act
of a fool to treasure up worthless shells and cast away precious pearls ;
to choose glittering tinsel rather than pure gold. Let us therefore
pray for the joys of heaven, and for whatsoever will help us to attain
them.
2. We ought more especially to beseech almighty God to grant
us such things as are conducive to His glory, and to our salvation,
and in no wise to ask for what will only serve to gratify our
earthly desires.
To those who pray Our Lord says : " Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His justice, and all these things shall be added to you"
686
The Means of Grace.
(Matt. v. 33). Hence we may conclude that if we ask for the good
things of eternity, those of time will also be bestowed on us. King
Solomon prayed for wisdom to govern his people aright; God gave
him a wise and understanding heart and in addition earthly riches
and glory in abundance (3 Kings iii.). It is not right to ask of God
what is only calculated to gratify our earthly concupiscences; such
prayers are not granted (Jas. iv. 3). " There are many," says St.
Augustine, " who, in what they ask, do not seek God's glory, but their
own sensual pleasures; they would degrade God to be their servant,
the servant of their covetousness, their pride, their avarice, their
luxury." King Jeroboam's hand was withered, because he stretched
it out against the man of God. He prayed that his hand might be
restored, not that his sin might be forgiven (3 Kings xiii. 6). Many
people do likewise; in their prayers they think only of the needs of
the body, not those of the soul. Let us never pray that our will, but
that God's will be done; let us not wish for the accomplishment of
those desires which arise from our fallen nature, but of those with
which the Holy Spirit inspires our soul.
7. MEDITATION.
1. Meditation, i.e., contemplative prayer, consists in dwell-
ing upon the truths of religion, in order to awaken within our
minds good resolutions.
Costly spices give out their aroma most freely when they are
bruised in a mortar; so the truths of religion have most influence
upon the soul that ponders on them. One who meditates upon holy
things is like a man striking fire with flint and steel; he strikes the
stony heart with the keen edge of the understanding until sparks
fly out, that is, good resolutions are elicited from the will. Medita-
tion is only difficult until the Holy Spirit makes His gracious action
felt. Like a vessel that must be propelled by toilsome rowing until a
favorable wind springs up and inflates her sails, then the oar is no
longer needed, for she runs swiftly before the breeze — so in meditation
the powers of the mind must be exercised laboriously, until the Holy
Ghost breathes upon the soul, guiding it and elevating it. If we
strive to elicit a succession of beautiful thoughts and elaborate mean-
ings, this is not prayer, but study. When once we have struck fire,
let us toil no more, but forthwith kindle the torch.
2. Meditation is a most excellent method of prayer, but it
must not be pursued to the exclusion of vocal prayer.
By mental prayer we imitate on earth the occupation of the
angels who constantly contemplate the face of God, and meditate on
His perfections. The saints have bequeathed to us many books of
meditations; if we read these attentively it is equivalent to prayer.
Mental prayer must alternate with vocal prayer; these two methods
of prayer are the two feet that carry us forward on the way to heaven.
Meditation is a necessary preliminary to prayer; without it prayer
will be imperfect, the needful devotion will be lacking.
The Most Important Prayers. 687
3. By means of meditation we obtain actual graces, and ad-
vance rapidly on the path of perfection.
We obtain many actual graces in meditation; for as we receive
light and warmth when we stand by a fire, so by meditation upon the
truths of religion the mind is enlightened to see the worthlessness of
earthly things, the end of man, the rigor of the divine judgments,
and the heart is inflamed with the love of justice. It is a furnace
wherein the fire of divine charity is kindled, a door whereby divine
grace enters into the heart of man. A soul that practises meditation
is like a cultivated field which produces abundant fruit, a well-
watered garden in which flowers bloom luxuriantly. He who neglects
to ponder upon the truths of religion knows nothing of their force;
his spiritual sight is dimmed, he is engrossed with the things of earth.
With desolation is all the land made desolate, because there is none
that considereth in his heart (Jer. xii. 11). The subjects chosen for
meditation ought to be those which have most power to attract and
influence us, and to these we should frequently recur. Thus bees
alight upon the flowers which contain the sweet juice whence they
make their honey. Meditation is a means of attaining perfection.
St. Ambrose says daily meditation is the antidote for tepidity. It was
the foundation of the conversion of St. Ignatius and other saints.
St. Teresa declares that mental prayer and mortal sin are incom-
patible; they exclude one another; one or the other must of neces-
sity be given up.
THE MOST IMPORTANT PRAYERS.
THE OUR FATHER.
The Our Eather is also known as the Lord's Prayer, because
it was taught us by Christ Our Lord Himself.
1. The Our Father takes precedence of all other prayers; it
is especially distinguished by its power, its simplicity and its
comprehensiveness.
There is no more holy and excellent prayer than the Our Father.
It has greater cogency than any other prayer, because in it we do not
merely pray in the name of Jesus, but in His own words. Of this
prayer more than of any other Our Lord's promise holds good : " If
you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you "
(John xvi. 23). It is the simplest of all prayers; its words are few,
but it is rich in meaning. It is so simple that a child's lips may utter
it devoutly; yet the theologian seeks in vain to sound its depths; it
is suited to every class and condition of men. In the Lord's Prayer
we ask for all things that are needful for our soul and our body; it
comprises all for which we ought to pray; nothing that can be found
in the most excellent of prayers is lacking in it. It is an epitome of
the holy Gospel. Not only does it teach us the things for which we
ought to ask, but the rig:ht order in which to ask for them.
688
The Means of Grace.
The Our Father consists of an address, seven petitions, and the
word Amen.
2. The address places the soul in the right disposition for
prayer; it awakens within us confidence in God and raises our
thoughts to Him.
The word " Father " awakens confidence in God, the words " Who
art in heaven " raise onr thoughts to Him. Thus at the very com-
mencement of this prayer we make acts of faith, hope, and charity.
We call God Father, because He created us to His image
(Gen. i. 27), because the Son of God became our Brother by His
Incarnation (Eph. i. 5), and because at baptism the Holy Spirit
took up His abode within us, and made us the children of God
(Rom. viii. 15).
In approaching the great ones of the earth, we are doubtful by
what title we ought to address them; it is not so with God. We ad-
dress Him as Father, and this familiar title pleases Him better than
any other. ~No mortal would have dared to call the almighty Ruler
of the universe by the name of Father, had not His only-begotten Son
given us permission to do so. God would not have us address Him
as our Creator, Lord, or King, because these titles convey an idea of
severity, and inspire fear. He would have us call Him Father, be-
cause this is a title which bespeaks affection, and love is a far more
exalted feeling than fear.
"We call God Our Father because we, as brethren, ought to
pray for one another.
In the Lord's prayer the individual prays for all, and all for the
individual, hence it is the common prayer of all Christians. Our
own needs compel us to pray for ourselves ; fraternal charity urges us
to pray for others. Our Lord Himself says : " All you are brethren "
(Matt, xxiii. 8), and calls the apostles His brethren (Matt, xxviii. 10).
The apostles spoke of the faithful as their brethren (Rom. i. 13;
xii. 1). Those may rightly be called brethren, who have but one
Father in heaven.
We say: " Who art in heaven," because although God is
present everywhere, heaven is His throne, and there only is He
beheld face to face (1 Cor. xiii. 12).
3. In the first petition we pray that God may be glorified.
The meaning of the first petition is this: Grant, O God, that
we may acknowledge and revere Thy majesty more and more.
To give glory to God is the end of creation, and consequently
it is the highest aim of every creature.
4. In the next three petitions we ask for these blessings : Eter-
nal salvation, grace to fulfil the divine will, and the possession of
The Most Important Prayers. 689
those things which are indispensable to the maintenance of our
earthly existence.
The meaning of the second petition is this: Give unto us
eternal life after death.
The meaning of the third petition is this: Give us grace to
fulfil Thy will as perfectly on earth as the angels do in heaven.
The meaning of the fourth petition is this: Bestow upon us
all that is necessary for the maintenance of life, such as food,
clothes, money, health.
5. In the next three petitions we pray that three evils may
be averted from us: The evil of sin, the evil of temptation, and
those evils which are prejudicial to life.
The meaning of the fifth petition is this: Forgive us our
sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
The meaning of the sixth petition is this: Deliver us from
those temptations to which we should succumb.
The meaning of the seventh petition is this: Avert from us
all things which are injurious to life, such as famine, pestilence,
war, etc.
The evils mentioned in the last three petitions are exactly
opposed to the blessings enumerated above.
Eternal happiness is opposed to sin, which makes us eternally
wretched.
The grace of God is opposed to temptation; for grace en-
lightens the understanding and fortifies the will, whereas temp-
tation darkens the understanding and weakens the will.
The things which are necessary for the maintenance of our
life are opposed to those which are injurious to it.
The seven petitions may therefore be divided into three di-
visions, of which the first has reference to God, the two others to
ourselves.
6. The word Amen is the answer of God to the suppliant; in
this place it is equivalent to the words: Be assured that thy
prayer is heard.
In other prayers the meaning of the word Amen is " So be
it," or: We entreat most earnestly that our prayer may be
granted.
As in the Lord's Prayer the word Amen is to be considered as
God's answer, whenever it occurs in the Mass the priest says it,
speaking in God's name; but at the conclusion of the other prayers
and collects of the Church, the server says Amen. Our Lord often
employed the word Amen, principally as an asseveration.
690 The Means of Grace.
The Our Father has from time immemorial been in use in the
Church, both in holy Mass and almost all other public acts of wor-
ship.
THE AVE MARIA.
The principal prayers to the Mother of God which are in
common use are (1), The Ave Maria or the Angelical Salutation;
(2), The Angelus; (3), The Rosary; (4), The Litany of Loretto
and the Salve Regina.
Catholics almost invariably add the Ave Maria to the Pater
Noster.
It has always been customary among Christians to imitate the
example of the archangel Gabriel, and salute our blessed Lady in
his words. The devotion to Mary was not introduced by the decree
of a council, nor at the behest of any Pope ; at all times the faithful
have been wont to pay their devout homage to the Queen of heaven.
She herself foresaw that this would be so; that all generations would
call her blessed (Luke i. 48).
The Ave Maria is also called the Angelical Salutation, be-
cause it commences with the words of the archangel.
1. The Ave Maria consists of three parts: The salutation of
the archangel Gabriel, the greeting of Elizabeth, and the words of
the Church.
The salutation of the archangel runs thus : " Hail, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou among women " (Luke i.
28). The greeting of Elizabeth is this: "Blessed art thou among
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (v. 42). The remain-
ing words were added by the Church. The first and second parts are
an ascription of praise, the third part is a supplication. The first
and second parts were recited by the faithful in the earliest ages
of Christianity in their present form, while the concluding words
were varied. St. Athanasius used to add : " Pray for us, Patron and
Lady, Queen and Mother of God." From the time of Luther it was
customary to end with the words : " Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray
for us." The final clause now in use dates from the reign of Pope
St. Pius V., who directed it to be printed in all the authorized prayer-
books. After the heretic Nestorius denied the right of the Blessed
Virgin to the title of Mother of God, the Ave Maria was more fre-
quently on the lips of Christians than it was in earlier times. And
when, in the thirteenth century, other sects arose who refused to
give the saints the veneration due to them, the devotion to Our
Lady assumed a more and more prominent place, and from that
time forth the Ave Maria became an invariable adjunct to the Pater
Nosier in all the public services of the Church.
2. The Ave Maria is a most potent prayer, and one which is
full of meaning.
The Most Important Prayers, 691
The Ave Maria is especially efficacious in time of temptation;
many saints recommend the faithful to recite it, when evil thoughts
assail them.
By the words: " Hail Mary" we testify our reverence for
the Mother of God.
It is the part of the inferior to salute the superior. Mary is the
Mother of the King of kings, she is the Queen of angels and saints,
and yet our Mother also. The highest adoration of angels and men
is due to her, and therefore we ought reverently to salute her. The
words Ave Maria indicate that Mary is a second, a happier Eve; she
is the Mother of mankind. Ave is a play on the name Eva, the
order of the letters being reversed. Thus the words of the arch-
angel seem to signify : " Eve was full of sin, thou art full of grace ;
the devil was with Eve, God is with thee; Eve was cursed among
women, thou art blessed among women ; Eve gave birth to the ac-
cursed Cain, whereas the fruit of thy womb is the blessed Jesus."
The words : " full of grace " have this signification : " Thou
hast received the graces of the Holy Spirit in a higher degree
than all the saints together."
^ As the moon gives more light than all the hosts of stars, so the
Mother of God possesses the supernatural light of the Holy Spirit to
a greater extent than all the saints. The full plenitude of grace
was poured out on her, whereas it was bestowed but partially on
all the other saints. So richly was Mary endowed with grace that
she approaches more nearly than any other being to the Author of
all grace. God might have created a greater heaven, a greater earth,
but a greater Mother than Mary He could rot create. The name
Mary means sea; she is indeed an ocean of grace. The angel said
to her : " Thou hast found grace with God." Only that which was
lost can be found : Mary had not lost grace, therefore she found what
man had lost. Let those then who have by their sins lost the grace
of God, hasten to Mary, that they may recover it at her hands.
The words: " The. Lord is with thee," have this signification:
" Thou art united, body and soul with God in the closest union."
In the Temple at Jerusalem, which was outwardly of a dazzling
whiteness, and inwardly overlaid with gold, God was continually
present in a luminous cloud. The Temple was a type of the Mother
of God, for in her the incarnate God dwelt, making her the temple of
the Deity. In celebrating Holy Mass the priest turns seven times to
the people with the words: Do minus vobiscum; thus wishing them
the closest union with the Godhead, through the sanctifying grace
of the Holy Spirit. Of old such forms of greeting were customary;
Saul made use of similar words when dismissing David before his
contest with Goliath (1 Kings xvii. 37) : David when dying, ad-
dressed Solomon in the same manner (1 Par. xxii. 11) ; and Tobias
did the same when his son was starting on his journey (Tob. v. 21).
The words: "Blessed art thou among women, and "blessed
is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus," have this signification: " Thou
692 The Means of Grace.
art the most blessed among women because thy child Jesus was
supremely blessed."
As a tree is considered good if it bears good fruit, so Mary is
lauded for the sake of her Son. She is the tree of life in paradise,
and Christ is the fruit of that tree. All the angels of God adore
the Child that was born of her (Heb. i. 6). Mothers who have had
good children have always been called blessed; witness the woman,
who after listening to Our Lord's discourse, lifted up her voice to
extol His Mother (Luke xi. 27). It is not because Mary was blessed
that her Child was blessed, but the contrary. He, the Author and
Source of all grace, filled her with benediction. Christ is not said
to be blessed among men, as Mary is among women, because He
is the Creator of all men, and cannot be placed in comparison with
His creatures. When Judith appeared before King Ozias after
slaying Holofernes, he declared her to be blessed above all women
on the earth (Judith xiii. 23). How much more does Mary merit
this praise, since she co-operated in the redemption of the whole
human race! Both the archangel and St. Elizabeth addressed the
same words to her to indicate that she was to receive homage alike
from angels and men.
At the close of the Ave Maria we entreat the Mother of
God to pray for us in the hour of death, for then above all other
times we have most need of assistance.
At the hour of death, in addition to physical suffering, we shall
perhaps have to sustain violent assaults of temptation. " How ve-
hemently," exclaims St. Bonaventure, " does the devil attack man
in his last hour, and for this reason, because so short a time is left
for him to accomplish his work." The uncertanty of our salvation
also causes us terrible anxiety at the hour of death. In all these
tribulations Mary is our surest helper, for she is " the Health of the
sick, the Comforter of the afflicted, the Refuge of sinners." When
she appears beside the dying, all evil enemies take to flight. Many
a one who was devout to the Mother of God, owed it to her that he
was reconciled with God on his death-bed, that he had the last sacra-
ments, or received other supernatural aid. She even appeared in
person to several saints. " Mary," says St. Jerome, " assists her
faithful servants in death; she goes to meet them on their way to
heaven, she prevails upon the Judge of all men to give them a mer-
ciful sentence."
We speak of ourselves as sinners, to render the Mother of
God more inclined to listen to us.
Mary is most ready to interest herself on behalf of sinners; she
knows what it cost her divine Son to redeem mankind and restore
to our fallen race the graces we had lost. It would seem as if Mary
did not estimate at its true value the sacrifice of Christ, if she
had no great love for sinners. There is no sinner fallen so low that
the Mother of God would not willingly befriend him were he to
invoke her aid with a real intention to amend. God has committed
judgment to His Son, grace and mercy to His Mother's hands.
The Most Important Prayers. 695
THE ANGELUS.
If the Mohammedan three times a day turns his face towards
Mecca, and calls upon God and His prophet Mohammed, how much
more ought the Christian frequently to look up to heaven during
the day, and invoke the divine Redeemer and His blessed Mother.
The Angelus is a prayer which is to be recited morning, noon,
and night, when the bell rings, in honor of the Mother of God
and in adoration of the mystery of the Incarnation.
The words are as follows: (1), The angel of the Lord (the arch-
angel Gabriel) announced unto Mary (the birth of the Saviour), and
she conceived of the Holy Ghost (through the operation of the Holy
Ghost she became the Mother of Christ) ; (2), Behold the hand-
maid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word (by
these words Mary drew down from above the Son of God) ; (3), And
the Word (the Son of God) was made flesh, and dwelt among us (for
thirty- three years He lived on earth).
The cutsom of ringing the Angelus bell three times a day
dates from the period of the crusades (1095).
At first the bell was only rung twice a day, half an hour before
sunrise and half an hour after sunset, to call upon the faithful to
pray God for the successor of the crusaders' arms. The midday bell
was added about three centuries and a half later. At first the prayer
said consisted only of a Pater Nosier, afterwards the Ave Maria
was added. The manner of ringing three separate times at the in-
terval of about a minute, an Ave Maria being said each time, was
introduced later by order of the Holy See, the object of the prayer
being to entreat the Mother of God to exterminate the heresies that
had arisen. The Angelus as it is now said is of more recent date.
In some places after the evening Angelus the bell sounds
again to admonish the faithful to pray for the souls in purgatory.
Pope. Clement XII. granted an indulgence of one hundred days
to all who, hearing the bell, should recite kneeling one Our Father
and Hail Mary, wi,th the versicle : " Eternal rest give to them, O
Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them."
THE ROSARY.
The suppliant who prays fervently is wont to repeat over and
over again words which come from the depth of the heart. Our Lord
did this on Mount Olivet ; David in Psalm cxxxv., exclaims no less
than twenty-seven times " His mercy endureth forever," and St.
Francis of Assisi spent whole nights repeating : " My God and my
all." The devout servants of Mary used to address her frequently in
the words of the archangel, adding one Ave Maria to another, as
one places roses in a wreath.
694 The Means of Grace.
1. The Rosary is a prayer in which the Our Father, followed
by ten Hail Marys, is repeated five or fifteen times, accompanied
by meditation on the life, the Passion, and the exaltation of the
Redeemer.
We begin the Rosary with the Creed and three Hail Marys, for
the increase within us of the three theological virtues. While
reciting the Rosary every one must hold his own rosary in his hand,
and touch the beads as he says the prayers; but if several persons
join in saying it, it is only necessary for one to hold the rosary, in
order thereby to regulate the number of the prayers. The Rosary
is divided into the joyful, the sorrowful and the glorious mysteries;
in the first we honor God the Father Who sent us the Saviour; in
the second, God the Son Who redeemed us; in the third God the
Holy Ghost, Who sanctifies us.
2. The Rosary owes its origin to St. Dominic.
The hermits of the first centuries, who could not read the psalter,
used to recite one Our Father and one Hail Mary in the place of
every psalm; and in order to note the number they had said, they
made use of small stones, or of seeds strung on a cord. St. Dominic
was the first who made the custom general of substituting one hun-
dred and fifty Hail Marys for the one hundred and fifty psalms;
hence the rosary used to be called the Psalter of Mary. When, about
the year 1200, the heresies of the Albigenses wrought great mischief
in the south of France and the north of Italy, St. Dominic was com-
missioned by the Pope to preach in refutation of their erroneous
tenets. His efforts availed little, and he besought the aid of the
Mother of God. She appeared to him, and bade him make use of the
rosary as a weapon against her enemies. He accordingly introduced
it everywhere, and before long it had effected the conversion of more
than a hundred thousand heretics. The use of the Rosary soon
spread throughout Christendom, and it became a most popular devo-
tion. It is a method of prayer at once simple and sublime ; the
prayers are so easy that a child can repeat them, and the mysteries
. are so profound that they supply a subject for meditation to the most
learned theologians. It is a prayer of contemplation as well as a
prayer of supplication, for it places before the mind the principal
truths of the faith. The Rosary is a compendium of the Gospels; a
complete and practical manual of instruction wherein the chief points
of Christian doctrine are presented under the guise of prayer. By
meditation on the events of Our Lord's life faith and charity are in-
creased; from the example of our divine Redeemer we learn to be
humble, gentle, obedient; we are incited to imitate the virtues which
the mysteries teach, to strive after what they ''promise us. Moreover
the union of vocal and mental prayer makes the Rosary easy, pleasant,
and profitable. As a method of prayer it is unrivalled; the longer and
more devoutly it is practised, the more one appreciates its excellence
and becomes convinced of its supernatural origin.
3. The Rosary is well pleasing to God, because of its hu-
mility, and because it is an imitation of the unceasing song of
praise sung by the angels.
The Most Important Prayers. 695
The Rosary is the prayer of the humble, for in it well-known
truths. are simply stated and constantly repeated. The proud despise
it, but God, Who looks down on the low things (Ps. cxii. 6), ap-
proves it. It is an imitation of the angel's song: we read in Holy
Scripture that the angelic choirs cry to one another : " Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God of hosts; all the earth is full of His glory" (Is. vi.
3). And when we recite the Rosary, we praise the Mother of God
in a similar manner. It is beyond a doubt that this form of prayer
is most acceptable to the Mother of God, for when she appeared at
Lourdes she had a rosary in her hand. Pope Pius IX. unhesitatingly
asserts that it is her gift to men, and she loves no other prayer as
well.
4. The Rosary is a most useful devotion, for by it we ob-
tain great graces and sure help in time of trouble; many in-
dulgences are besides attached to it.
The Rosary is a very treasury of graces. Many sinners owe their
conversion to it. It possesses marvellous power to banish sin and
restore the transgressor to a state of grace. By it the just grow in
virtue. All the saints who have lived subsequently to the institution
of the Rosary have been assiduous in its use, and this may have con-
tributed largely to their sanctification. Several holy bishops and
servants of God are known to have pledged themselves by vow to recite
it daily; St. Charles Borromeo, despite the numerous and pressing
duties of his position, recited it every day with the seminarists and
the members of his household. Blessed Clement Hofbauer was ac-
customed to say the Rosary while passing through the streets of
Vienna, and rarely did he recite it in vain for the conversion of a
sinner. It is recorded of several distinguished officers and victorious
commanders that they never engaged in battle without first saying
the Rosary, and to this they attributed their military successes. The
Rosary has been called "the thermometer of Christianity," for the
reason that where it is diligently recited faith is ardent, and good
works are manifest ; and where it is neglected religion is at a low
ebb. In seasons of general calamity, miraculous aid has been granted
to Christendom by means of the Rosary; this was especially the case
in wars with the Turks, the victory of Lepanto (1571), the deliverance
of Vienna (1683), the victory of Belgrade were all owing to the power
of the Rosary. It, was said that the beads of the chaplet did more
execution than the bullets of the soldiers. It was in thanksgiving
for these victories that the Holy See instituted the feast of the
Holy Rosary on the first Sunday in October. Pope Sixtus IV. de-
clared that many dangers which threatened the world are averted,
and the wrath of God is appeased by the prayers of the Rosary. Our
Holy Father Leo XIII. says that, as in St. Dominic's time the Rosary
proved a sure remedy for the evils of the age, so it may now effect
much towards the amelioration of the ills that afflict society. Every
one who recites the Rosary must feel its supernatural power; there
is no prayer which n fiords more consolation in affliction, more tran-
quillity to the troubled breast. It soothes in sorrow, it imparts the
peace spoken of in the Gospel. Another proof of its excellence is the
hatred and contempt wherewith unbelievers regard it. The devil in-
69G The Means of Grace.
cites them to decry what is a fruitful source of grace to the Christian,
and by which souls are wrested from his grasp. The Rosary has been
richly indulgenced by the Holy See, and the recital of it strongly
urged upon the faithful. An indulgence of a hundred days may be
gained for every Pater and Ave, if five consecutive decades be said,
on a properly indulgenced rosary. Our Holy Father Leo XIII. has
decreed that every day during the month of October, the Rosary,
together with the litany of Loretto, be said in church either during
the parish Mass, or in the afternoon, with the Blessed Sacrament
exposed. For every time of assisting at this devotion seven years
and seven quarantines are granted. Pope Pius IX. bequeathed, as
a legacy to the faithful, this admonition : " Let the Rosary, this
simple, beautiful method of prayer, enriched with many indulgences,
be habitually recited of an evening in every household. These are
my last words to you; the memorial I leave behind me." Again he
said : " In the whole of the Vatican there is no greater treasure than
the Rosary."
THE LITANY OF LORETTO AND THE SALVE BEGIN A.
The Litany of Loretto is a form of prayer in which the most
glorious titles are given to the Mother of God, and her inter-
cession is unceasingly implored.
The litany of Loretto takes its origin and its name from the place
of pilgrimage in Italy, Loretto, where the holy house of Nazareth
now stands. In this litany first of all God is called upon for mercy,
as in the Kyrie Eleison of the Mass. This is followed by the invo-
cation of the most Holy Trinity. Then the Blessed Mother of God
is invoked, and her intercession is besought. These invocations may
be divided into six groups: (1), The first three invocations express
her special prerogatives: her sanctity, her divine maternity, her
immaculate virginity; (2), Then her perfections as a Mother are
enumerated: Mother of Christ; (3), She is next extolled in virtue
of her virginity: Virgin most prudent, etc.; (4), Her glories are
then depicted under a number of figures and types : Mirror of justice,
etc. ; (5), Mary is next shown in her relation to the Church Militant :
Health of the sick, etc.; (6), And finally in her relation to the
Church triumphant: Queen of angels, etc. At the conclusion of the
litany, confiding in the mediation of our Advocate, we appeal to her
divine Son, beseeching Him to spare, to hear, to have mercy upon us.
Several of the invocations have been added by the Holy See in the
course of centuries ; for instance, " Help of Christians " after the
victory over the Turks ; "Queen conceived without original sin," after
the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception; and
recently, " Queen of the most holy Rosary," on the introduction of
the custom of reciting the Rosary in public during the month of
October. An indulgence of three hundred days may be gained for
each recital of this litany. The Salve Regina or " Hail, holy Queen,"
as it is also called, was composed in 1009 by Blessed Herman, and in
1146 the illustrious St. Bernard added to it the sweet words : " O
clement, 0 pious, 0 sweet Virgin Mary."
The Principal Devotional Exercises. 697
THE PRINCIPAL DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES.
1. There are ordinary and extraordinary practices of devotion.
The former take place at regular, appointed times; the lat-
ter only on special occasions,
2. The regular services held in the parish church on Sundays
and holydays both in the forenoon and the afternoon, as well as
week-day services, belong to the ordinary practices of devotion.
On Sundays and festivals, in all parish churches, one Mass or
several Masses, according to the size of the parish and the number
of priests, are said one after another, at one of which a short ser-
mon is generally preached. In the afternoon or evening, either the
Rosary and a litany are said (the Litany of the Saints, the Litany of
the Holy Name, the Litany of Loretto and the Litany of the Sacred
Heart are approved by the Holy See for the public services of the
Church, no other being allowed without the permission of the
bishop) ; or Vespers are sung, with Benediction of the Blessed Sacra-
ment. On week-days in almost every parish church a parochial Mass
ir said daily with afternoon or evening services, consisting generally
of the Rosary or some other devotion, and Benediction, on one or
more days in the week.
3. Processions, pilgrimages, the Way of the Cross, Exposition
of the Blessed Sacrament, and Missions, belong to the extraordi-
nary practices of devotion.
Christian burial services come under the class of processions, and
the Way of the Cross is in fact nothing more or less than visiting
the scenes of Our Lord's Passion at Jerusalem, without leaving our
own country.
PROCESSIONS.
1. Processions are a solemn religious ceremony, during which
prayers are recited in common by those who take part in them.
Processions were customary under the Old Dispensation. We
read of the Ark of the Covenant being carried round about the city
of Jericho ( Josue vi.) ; of the ark being brought in solemn procession
to Mount Sion by King David (2 Kings vi.), and thence transferred
to the Temple built by Solomon (3 Kings viii.) ; Our Lord also made
a solemn entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Matt. xxi.).
The ceremonial observed in our Christian processions is in-
tended to portray the truth that we have not here a lasting city,
but we seek one to come (Heb. xiii. 14).
The procession issues (proceeds, hence the name procession) from
the church and returns thither, to show that we must enter the
698
The Means of Grace.
Church on earth if we would reach the Church in heaven. The cross
is carried first, because in this life we can never be wholly free from
crosses and sufferings, if we follow the maxims of Our Lord. The
banners are to remind us that we are warriors, because here below
we have constantly to contend against the malignant foe and our
own evil proclivities. Those who walk in the procession go two and
two, to signify the twofold precept of charitv, especially that of
charity to our neighbor. The children take the lead, because their
greater innocence renders them more pleasing to God; the adults
follow, first the men, with the priest in their midst, and finally the
women. Processions, if possible, are held in the open air. The
prayers recited vary according to the object of the procession; on
Rogation days the Litany of the Saints is sung. By rights the men
ought to walk bareheaded, but not so the clergy and persons in of-
ficial dress ; this is to show the respect due to authorities both ecclesi-
astical and civil. In the procession of Corpus Christi all heads are
uncovered, by reason of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
2. The Church holds processions either for the purpose of set-
ting before us more forcibly certain events in the life of Christ,
certain doctrines of the faith, or in order to obtain speedy help
from God; on these occasions an opportunity is afforded us of
testifying in a public manner our faith and our loyalty to the
Church.
The object the Church proposes in setting before us more vividly
certain events in Our Lord's life, or certain doctrines of the faith,
is to confirm our beliefs. Processions are a means of obtaining more
speedy assistance from on high, because God inclines His ear more
readily to petitions offered in common; and experience proves that
processions are most efficacious modes of supplication. The proces-
sions on Candlemas Day and on Palm Sunday are in remembrance
of events in Our Lord's life; those on Holy Saturday and on the
feast of Corpus Christi are illustrative of doctrines of the faith;
the processions of St. Mark and of the Rogation days are for the
purpose of entreating the divine help.
3. The following processions form part of the ritual of the
Church everywhere:
The procession on the feast of the Purification.
At this lighted tapers are carried round the church, be-
cause on that day the aged Simeon declared the Child Jesus to
be " a light to the revelation of the Gentiles " (Luke ii. 32).
The wax tapers are emblematic of Christ, the Light of the world.
The wax betokens His manhood, the flame His Godhead ; as the light
shines forth from the taper, so the divinity of Christ shines forth
from His sacred humanity by His teaching and His miracles; and
as the taper is consumed, while illuminating all around, so the
human nature of Our Lord was sacrificed for the sake of enlighten-
ing mankind. Christ is in very truth the Light of the world, since
by His teaching He dispels the darkness of ignorance and error. -
The Principal Devotional Exercises, 699
The procession on Palm Sunday.
When blessed palms are carried round the church, in mem-
ory of the day of Our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
The palm branches borne by the Jews were symbols of victory —
the victory that Christ was to gain by His death over the devil, the
prince of this world. Our procession is significant of the Chris-
tian's triumphal entry into heaven. The priest knocks three times at
the door of the church with the processional cross, then it is opened,
to show that only through trials and tribulation can we enter the
gate of heaven, and be admitted to the realms of bliss.
The procession on Holy Saturday.
When the Blessed Sacrament is solemnly taken from the
place where it was deposited, and borne by the priest, attended
by the clergy, back to the high altar.
This procession is significant of our future resurrection. The
ceremony ought by rights to take place at daybreak on Easter Day,
but as few could then be present, it is anticipated on the eve of the
feast.
, The procession on the feast of Corpus Christi.
When the Blessed Sacrament is carried to one or more altars
of repose, to testify publicly our faith in the presence of Our
Lord in the Adorable Sacrament of the Altar.
The festival of Corpus Christi (the body of Christ) is on the
Thursday following Trinity Sunday, consequently in the second week
after Pentecost, because soon after the descent of the Holy Ghost
the apostles began to dispense holy communion to the faithful. This
festival was instituted some six centuries ago. It was first cele-
brated in Belgium, by order of the Bishop of Liege, in consequence of
a revelation made to a nun, Blessed Juliana (1250), and shortly
after Pope Urban IV. decreed that it should be kept throughout the
whole Church. In this procession the sacred Host is carried in a
monstrance beneath a canopy, flowers are strewn on the way, and
censers swung; the altars of repose are beautifully decorated with
lights and flowers in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. In some
places four altars are erected, and a pause is made at each, and one
of the accounts of the institution of the Blessed Sacrament given
by the four Evangelists is read. The four altars signify the four
quarters of the world. After the reading of the Gospel, a prayer is
added for protection against lightning and tempest, and for a good
harvest. This solemn ceremony, which is generally terminated by
the Te Deum in the church, cannot fail to impress every beholder,
and lead the non-Catholic to inquire what it is towards which such
profound reverence and veneration is displayed.
The procession on St. Mark's Day.
'00
The Means of Grace.
When, in Catholic countries, the priest goes out to bless
the fields, and prays God to grant the fruits of the earth in due
season.
St. Mark is commemorated on the twenty-fifth of April. The
procession on this day owes its origin to Pope St. Gregory the Great
about the year 600. At the time when the plague raged in Rome,
St. Gregory ordered the procession to be held for the purpose of
imploring the mercy of God; and immediately after the pestilence
was stayed.
The procession on the three Rogation days.
The object of which is to ask of God the blessing of an
abundant harvest.
The Rogation days are the three days preceding the ascension
of Our Lord. The processions were first introduced by St. Mamertus,
Bishop of Vienne in France, about the year 470, at a season when a
failure of crops and the damage occasioned by earthquakes had
brought about great scarcity and destitution.
In addition to the processions above named, there are local
processions held yearly in honor of the patron saint of the place,
or to some shrine in the vicinity. Sometimes processions arc,
ordered by the Pope or the bishop of the diocese, as for instance,
on occasion of a jubilee, or in seasons of great calamity.
When the bishop visits a church, the clergy go in procession to
meet and receive him; processions are also formed at funerals.
Prayer is the soul of processions; he who does not go to join in the
supplication had better remain at home.
CHRISTIAN BURIAL.
1. Christian burial is a solemn service accompanied by special
ceremonies, in which the remains of a departed Catholic are car-
ried in procession to the place of interment.
As is usual in every procession, the cross is carried first, to denote
that our prayers are offered in the name of the crucified Redeemer.
The bells are tolled, psalms and funeral hymns are sung.
2. The special ceremonies customary at Christian obsequies
are all significant of our prayer that God may have mercy on
the soul of the deceased.
The lighted tapers express the desire that the departed may
be admitted into the realms of perpetual light; the holy water sprin-
kled on the coffin expresses the desire that his soul may^ be cleansed
from sin; the incense that is burned expresses the desire that our
prayers on his behalf may ascend to the throne of the Most High,
The Principal Devotional Exercises. 701
even as the clouds of smoke roll upward. A requiem Mass is generally
celebrated at funerals, and sometimes an oration is delivered, to invite
the mourners to pray for the departed. If the body is not present, a
catafalque occupies the place of the coffin. The ceremonies observed at
the obsequies of a child under seven years of age are such as express joy
and gladness; white vestments are worn by the priest. The wreaths
placed on the coffin are supposed to represent the victor's crown
gained by the departed. The present custom of loading the coffin
and covering the grave with costly floral decorations of every size
and shape is greatly to be deprecated; it is a waste of money that
had far better be given to the poor, or expended on Masses for the
repose of the departed. St. Augustine expressly says that unneces-
sary display should be avoided at funerals. The soul of the de-
parted can surely reap no benefit from what is reprehensible.
3. Christian obsequies are conducted with so much solem-
nity, because it is well pleasing to God that we should show
reverence to the mortal remains of those who have departed this
life in the grace of God.
It is becoming to treat the human body with respect after death,
for during our lifetime our bodies are sacred, as being the abode and
instrument of the soul which is made to God's image. They are also
the temple of the Holy Ghost, and to be held in honor for God's sake.
Moreover the burial of the dead is a work of mercy which is not with-
out its reward. Remember how Tobias acted. In the early days of
Christianity persons of the highest position, even Popes, did not con-
sider it demeaning themselves to carry the remains of the martyrs
in their arms to the graves, and bury them with their own hands.
In the days of persecution the place of burial was in the Catacombs,
where the holy sacrifice was offered. Hence it came to pass that in
later times the dead were buried in the crypts of churches, or in the
ground surrounding the church, which is called the churchyard. This
custom is now abolished, on sanitary grounds, cemeteries being situ-
ated on the outskirts of towns for the most part. An exaggerated idea
as to the unhealthiness of intramural sepulture has contributed to
the introduction of the unnatural and pagan custom of cremation.
No danger to the living may be apprehended from the proximity of
a burial-ground, provided the graves are of a proper depth, for earth
is known to be the best possible disinfectant.
4. Cremation is condemned by the Church as being an
abominable abuse.
Originally the custom of interring the dead in the ground was
common to all nations, for the most ancient human remains that have
been discovered bear no signs of having been subjected to fire. Vaults
containing skeletons have also been met with, closed by a slab of stone.
We know that the Jews buried their dead ; Holy Scripture constantly
speaks of the burial of kings and prophets. That his corpse should
be left unburied was a chastisement threatened to the transgressor
(Deut. xxviii. 26). Only during a time of pestilence were the Jews
allowed to burn individual corpses (Amos vi. 10). The Romans in
702 The Means cf Grace.
earlier times buried their dead. Cicero tells us that their graves were
considered as sacred, and the profanation of a tomb was severely
punished, even by the loss of a hand. Bodies were often deposited in
sarcophagi, where they were reduced to dust. Pliny records that the
Romans only burned their dead when they feared they might be out-
raged by the enemy. In later times when manners became corrupt,
cremation was practised among them. The custom of embalming the
dead prevailed among the Egyptians. It is a noteworthy fact that
all barbarous nations, who in an uncivilized state burned their dead,
substituted the grave for the funeral pyre as soon as civilization shed
its light in their land. Christianity did, in fact, abolish cremation.
But in these days, when Christian faith is on the decrease, crema-
tion is once more becoming the fashion. St. Augustine denounces
the practice as horrible and barbarous. It offends our Christian in-
stincts. For we are taught to regard death as a sleep ; the dead sleep
in Christ (1 Cor. xv. 18), for they will rise again; they are laid to
rest in peace, and the idea of the repose they enjoy is connected with
the churchyard, not with the crematorium. When we commit our
dead to the kindly earth, we tacitly express our belief that our body
is like a seed, which is cast into the ground, to germinate and spring-
up. "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption " (1 Cor.
xv. 42). As Christians we have a higher esteem for the soul, which
partakes of the divine nature, and consequently for the body, which
is the servant and tool of the soul. No true Christian can fail to
shrink from the horrors of cremation; only those who are lost to all
sense of the dignity of human nature, to all belief in the truths of
religion, can desire it for themselves. Let us remember that Christ,
our great Exemplar, was laid in the tomb and rose again. For
pagans such considerations naturally have no weight; they disliked
the sight of the sepulchral monument, the mound raised over the
dead, because it reminded them of death, which would put an end
to their earthly enjoyments. For the same reason unbelievers in our
own day advocate cremation. Burial suggests to them too strongly
the immortality of the soul, whereas cremation appears to promise
the annihilation that they desire as their portion after death. Yet
let no one imagine that the Christian dreads the destruction of the
body by fire as an impediment to its future resurrection, for God
can effect the reintegration of the body after it has been dissolved into
gaseous elements. In the interests of justice destruction of the
body by fire is highly reprehensible, since, if a body is buried, it can
be afterwards exhumed if this is necessary for the detection of a crime,
such as murder. By this means many a murderer has been brought
to justice; after cremation this is impossible. Those therefore who
speak in favor of cremation befriend criminals, inasmuch as they aid
in the removal of all traces of their crime.
5. Christian burial is denied to the unbaptized, to non-Cath-
olics, and to Catholics who are known to have died in mortal
sin.
Catholics to whom Christian burial is denied are: Suicides (un-
less they are insane at the time of death and therefore irresponsible) ;
duellists, and any persons who obstinately refuse to receive the last
The Principal Devotional Exercises. 703
sacraments, or who have not for years past fulfilled the Easter precept.
In the two last cases the matter is generally laid before the bishop.
The denial of Christian burial to bad Catholics is not intended as a
sentence of damnation, but merely as the public expression of abhor-
rence of their sin, and for the purpose of deterring others from falling
into the same sin. An association would be little thought of if one
of its members followed to the grave a fellow-member who had been
a disgrace to that society; so it would be derogatory to the Church
and her ministers if she were to celebrate the obsequies of an un-
faithful Catholic. The Church also refuses ecclesiastical burial to
non-Catholics, because she holds to the principle expressed by Pope
Innocent III. in the words : " It is impossible for us to hold com-
munion after their death with those who have not been in communion
with us during their life. To do so would give rise to the idea that all
religions were alike. It would destroy the prestige of the Church,
and injure the souls of men. The maxim of the Church is that the
ground she has consecrated is the last resting-place of her children,
and none but members of her family have a right to be interred
therein." Yet she permits non-Catholic relatives to be laid in a
family vault. For suicides a portion of the cemetery which has not
been consecrated is set apart.
PILGRIMAGES.
1. Pilgrimages are journeys made to sacred places, where God
oftentimes vouchsafes to give miraculous assistance to the sup-
pliant.
The Jews were accustomed to make pilgrimages; on the three
principal solemnities of the year, the Paschal feast, the feast of
Weeks, and the feast of Tabernacles, all the men had to go up to the
Temple at Jerusalem. Thus we read that Our Lord, when twelve
years old, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Luke ii. 41).
2. The places of pilgrimage are either the holy places in
Palestine, spots sacred to the holy apostleSj or shrines of the
blessed Mother of God.
The principal places of pilgrimage in the Holy Land are:
The scene of the crucifixion and the holy sepulchre on Calvary
at Jerusalem; the place where Christ was born in Bethlehem,
and the place of the annunciation at Nazareth.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is situated on Mount Calvary;
it consists of three separate churches, called respectively the Church
of the Crucifixion, the Church of the Ascension, and that of the
Invention of the True Cross; all are under one roof. The early
Christians journeyed thither in great numbers ; in order to deter them
from doing this, the Emperor Hadrian erected a heathen temple in
the holy places, about one hundred years after Our Lord's death.
About the year 325 the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the
Great, discovered the cross of Christ; this gave a fresh impetus to
704 The Means of Grace.
the pilgrimages. The Emperor Charlemagne erected a hospice close
to the Holy Sepulchre for the accommodation of pilgrims to Jerusa-
lem. In the ninth century the Saracens conquered the Holy Land;
the crusades undertaken to recover it from them were nothing less
than heroic pilgrimages. In the fifteenth century pilgrimages to the
Holy Land again became frequent, but in Luther's time the number
of those whose piety prompted them to undertake what was then a
long and toilsome journey greatly diminished.
The principal places of pilgrimage in honor of the holy apos-
tles are: The tomb of the princes of the apostles in Rome, and
the tomb of St. James at Compostella.
The remains of St. Peter rest in the Church of St. Peter in
Rome, the largest church in Christendom, of world-wide renown; it
was a hundred and ten years in building, and was finished in 1626.
The remains of St. Paul are laid in the church dedicated to him
outside the walls of the city.
Some of the principal places of pilgrimage sacred to the
Mother of God are: Lourdes in France, Loretto in Italy, Maria-
Zell in Hungary, Einsiedeln in Switzerland, Altotting in Ba-
varia, Kevelaer in the Rhineland.
Lourdes is situated in the south of France on the slope of the
Pyrenees. It was there that, in 1858, the Mother of God appeared
in a grotto to a little peasant girl named Bernadette, and intimated
to her her desire that a church should be built on the spot, and that
pilgrims should go thither in procession. Our Lady proclaimed
herself to be the Immaculate Conception. From that time forward
a spring has flowed out of the grotto, the water of which has been
the means of healing thousands of sick persons. ]STo less than one
hundred and twenty thousand bottles of this water are annually sent
out into all parts of the world ; and the number of pilgrims who visi t
the shrine can only be counted by millions. They come from the
remotest quarters of the world. Loretto in Ancona has, since 1295,
possessed the holy house of Nazareth, where our blessed Lady. lived.
This lowly house was seen in the year 1252 by St. Louis in Nazareth ;
forty years later it suddenly appeared at Tersato in Dalmatia ; thence
it was miraculously transferred to Ancona, and finally found a per-
manent resting-place at Loretto. There is no doubt that it was
carried to these various spots by the angels. An altar which was
miraculously conveyed thither at the same time, is supposed to be that
upon which St. Peter offered the holy sacrifice. The statue of Our
Lady which stands on that altar, carved in cedar-wood, three feet
in height, is said to be the work of St. Luke. A spacious church
has been erected over the holy house; copies of the latter have been
made, and are seen in several places. At Loretto Pope Pius in his
youth was cured of apoplexy. The most eminent saints are known
to have made pilgrimages thither; and the number of pilgrims who
visit it yearly is computed at five hundred thousand. The place of
pilgrimage known as Maria-Zell owes its origin to the Benedictine
monks. About the commencement of the thirteenth century atten-
The Principal Devotional Exercises. 705
tion was attracted to it by the miracles wrought there. King Louis
I. of Hungary built a large church at Maria-Zell, in thanksgiving
for the victory he gained over the Turks in 1363, with an army im-
mensely inferior in numbers, which he attributed to the intercession
of Our Lady. Einsiedeln was originally the humble dwelling of the
hermit St. Meinrad, a priest and Benedictine, a scion of the house
of Hohenzollern. In 861 he was slain in his forest solitude by rob-
bers; later on a church was built on the site of his hermitage, in
which an ancient and venerated image of Our Lady was preserved.
While the bishop who came to consecrate the church was watching
in the sacred edifice during the night preceding the appointed day,
he beheld Our Lord Himself perform the ceremony, attended by
saints and angels, amid the chanting of celestial choirs. In conse-
quence of this vision, both he, and his successors in the see, with the
Papal sanction, desisted from any attempt to consecrate the church.
This circumstance, together with the canonization of Meinrad, whose
remains were interred at Einsiedeln, and the numerous miracles
which were wrought there, brought the spot into great repute as a pil-
grimage. During the French revolution the church was burned
down, the miraculous image alone escaping injury. The shrine at
Altotting dates from a somewhat earlier period, the church having
been built by St. Rupert, the Apostle of Bavaria, in 700. A Bene-
dictine monastery was afterwards erected there. Thousands of pil-
grims visits the shrine. That of Kevelaer on the Rhine was built in
1642 by a citizen of Geldern, who while at prayer heard a voice com-
manding him to raise a sanctuary in honor of Our Lady. The num-
ber of pilgrims, principally from the adjacent country, who annually
visit Kevelaer is also very great.
3. The object for which, as a rule, Christian people visit places
of pilgrimage, is to beseech the divine assistance in season of deep
affliction, or to fulfil a vow.
When Dom Bosco was cruelly persecuted on account of his efforts
to instruct the neglected youth of Turin, and he was at a loss what
course to pursue, he made a pilgrimage, and obtained the aid he
sought in an unexpected and marvellous manner. God hears our
petitions more quickly in places of pilgrimage ; they are the audience
chamber of the King of kings; there graces are lavishly bestowed.
Many sick persons make a vow to undertake a pilgrimage if they are
restored to health; the number of ex votos on the walls of these sanc-
tuaries afford evidence of the frequency with which suppliants ob-
tain their cure.
4. A visit to some place of pilgrimage leads many to a com-
plete amendment of life.
The pilgrim on his way to a shrine forgets his worldly cares, and
is more diligent in prayer; when he arrives at his destination he
makes his confession to a strange priest, and under the influence of
the Holy Spirit, makes perhaps a better confession. Pilgrimages
are works of penance ; they are fatiguing and often expensive. They
are also public professions of faith, for no one would undertake them
without deep religious convictions. Thus many actual graces are
706
The Means of Grace.
obtained by the devout pilgrim. In former times they were fre-
quently enjoined as penances; sometimes indeed they were abused,
and made occasions of sinning" more freely, hence the saying : " The
more of a pilgrim, the less of a saint." But what is in itself good
must not be rejected because it is sometimes abused; who would
condemn the use of wine, because occasionally a man gets drunk?
St. Jerome says : " It is no great praise to have seen Jerusalem, but
it is very great praise to have offered pious and devout prayers within
its walls."
THE WAY OF THE CBOSS.
It is said that the Way of the Cross owes its origin to the
Mother of God.
Tradition says that the Blessed Mother of God was wont often to
walk in the steps of her Son to Calvary, pausing at the spots marked
by some special incident. The early Christians flocked in crowds
to the holy places to follow the Via Crucis. But when, in the Middle
Ages, the Holy Land fell into the hands of the infidels, and the de-
vout pilgrim could only visit the scenes of Our Lord's sufferings at
the risk of his life, the stations were erected in churches, and en-
riched by the Popes with large indulgences. St. Francis of Assisi
contributed greatly to spread this devotion.
1. The Way of the Cross is the name given to the fourteen
stations which depict the way along which Our Redeemer passed,
bearing His cross, from Pilate's palace to Mount Calvary.
The fourteen stations consist cf fourteen wooden cresses, to which
pictures and inscriptions are generally added. They are erected in
churches, sometimes in the open air, on the slope of a hill; occasion-
ally in cemeteries.
2. The manner of performing the Way of the Cross is to
go from one station to another, making meanwhile a meditation
on Our Lord's Passion.
It is not necessary to go from station to station in the church if
one stands up and kneels down as every station is being made. It
is enough to meditate on the Passion in general, without making a
special meditation at each station. An Our Father, Hail Mary, and
an act of contrition are generally recited at every one.
3. By performing the Way of the Cross large indulgences
may be gained; we also obtain contrition for sin and are in-
cited to the practice of virtue.
Daily meditation on the Passion of Christ is more profitable than
fasting every Friday in the year on bread and water, or taking the
discipline to blood. A single tear shed in compassion for Our Lord's
sufferings is of greater value in God's sight than a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land. We learn how acceptable meditation on His Passion is
Tlie Principal Devotional Exercizes. 707
to Our Lord, from the revelations of St. Bridget. Our Lord once
.appeared to her, with blood streaming from all His wounds. She
-asked what had reduced Him to this pitiable condition? He an-
swered : " It is the doing of those who never consider the great love
I manifested towards them by all I suffered upon the cross." It was
.as a continual memorial of His Passion that Our Lord instituted
the holy sacrifice of the Mass. The same indulgences are granted
for making the Way of the Cross as for visiting the corresponding
places in the Holy Land. What the indulgences are we do not know
precisely; let us be content to know that they are great and numer-
ous; they can however only be gained once in the day. The wooden
crosses must be blessed by a Franciscan, or some priest who has the
requisite powers, and the stations must be visited without any break.
The Way of the Cross is a means of obtaining the grace of contrition.
As the Israelites who were bitten by the fiery serpents were healed
by looking upon the brazen serpent, so sinners are healed of the deadly
wound of sin by frequent meditation on the Passion of Christ.
The Way of the Cross is also an incentive to the practice of virtue.
The saints often tell us that meditation on Our Lord's Passion im-
parts strength to suffer not merely with patience, but with joy. Our
arrogance, our avarice, our anger will be cured by the humility, the
poverty, the patience of the Son of God. If, O man, you would
progress from virtue to virtue, contemplate with all possible devotion
the sufferings of your Lord, for this is most conducive to sanctity.
4. If we are prevented from making the Way of the Cross,
we can gain the indulgence by reciting the Our Father, Hail
Mary, and the Gloria twenty times, holding meanwhile a cru-
cifix blessed for the stations in our hand.
The hindrances must be of a sufficient nature, such as long dis-
tance from a church, sickness, etc. The cross for performing the
stations at home must be of strong material, with the figure of the
Saviour attached to it, and must have been duly blessed for the pur-
pose. The indulgences are not gained if the crucifix is not the
property of the individual using it ; but if several persons perform the
devotion together, it is enough for one to hold in his hand the cross.
For the. sick it suffices to take the cross in the hand and make an act
of contrition. The Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be to the
Father are recited fourteen times for the fourteen stations, five times
in honor of the five wounds of Our Lord and once for the Holy
Father. If the cross has been blessed by a Redemptionist the prayers
need only be repeated fourteen times.
EXPOSITION OF THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT.
1. The solemn exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament con-
sists in placing the sacred Host in a monstrance, unveiled, at
some height above the altar for the adoration of the faithful.
In the early ages of Christianity the Blessed Sacrament was con-
cealed as much r.s possible from sight, lest the unbaptized might
708 The Means of Grace.
conceive contempt for the Christian mysteries. Public exposition
was not introduced until after the institution of the feast of Corpus
Christi. The number of lighted tapers must not be less than twelve.
The mere opening of the tabernacle is not a solemn exposition ; every
parish priest may do that on his own authority.
2. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament generally takes place
on these occasions: After the parochial Mass, at the afternoon
services on Sundays and festivals, on Holy Thursday on the
altar of repose, on the feast of Corpus Christi. The bishop of the
diocese often orders an exposition to be held for some reason
of local or general interest; such as a public calamity, the
dangerous sickness of the ruler of the land or of the Holy
Father, etc.
MISSIONS AND RET BE ATS.
1. Missions are a course of sermons and other religious exer-
cises conducted by able priests, for the purpose of giving a fresh,
impetus to the spiritual life of a community or congregation.
The home missions are quite distinct from foreign missions;
they are held for the most part by Religious, the Jesuit, Redemptor-
ist, or Lazarist Fathers, who are specially trained for the work, since
the constitutions of their Order specify giving missions as part of
the duties of their calling. These missions effect an immense amount
of good. Being something out of the common, they make more
impression on the parishioners, and the sermons coming close upon
one another, exercise a potent and gentle influence on the heart, as
a soft spring rain does upon the dry soil. The Holy Ghost speaking
through the mouth of His servants imparts to their words an unction
calculated to soften the hardest heart. Many persons also make their
confession more freely to a priest who is a complete stranger to them.
Missions are generally seasons of grace to a parish ; how many feuds
are ended, disputes settled, bad habits eradicated ; how often is resti-
tution made of property wrongfully acquired, how many souls are
won for God, sinners converted and just persons incited to progress
in virtue !
2. Retreats have much the same effect as missions.
Retreats, or the spiritual exercises, consist of a series of discourses
and religious services held in convents or any other place, for a
certain class of persons, whether priests, teachers, or men and
women living in the world. The retreat ends with the reception of
the sacraments. The exercises, which require the retreatant to labor
with greater fervor at the work of his salvation, conduce signally to
ouicken faith and inspire morals. A clock, although it is wound up
daily, after a time needs to be cleaned and repaired; it is the same
with the soul, it must ever and airm be stimulated to increased exer-
tion by the spiritual exercises. The saints wTere wont to withdraw
into solitude for a time; Our Lord Himself spent forty days in the
The Principal Devotional Exercises. 709
desert. The Holy See has frequently urged upon the faithful to make
diligent use of the spiritual exercises.
CATHOLIC CONGRESSES AND PASSION PLAYS.
Catholic congresses and Passion plays contribute largely in
the present day to the revival of faith in Christendom.
1. Catholic congresses are public meetings of Catholics for
the purpose of taking counsel together and passing resolutions
suited to the times and to the present needs of the Church.
These congresses are either general or provincial, according
as the Catholics of a whole kingdom or only of a single State
take part in them.
Ever since the year 1848 the Catholics of Germany have held
annual congresses in one or other of the chief towns of the land. In
other countries their example has been followed ; general congresses
are now a common occurrence both on the continent of Europe and
also in England and the United States of America. Provincial meet-
ings of a local interest are also frequently held in various places.
The object of Catholic congresses is not in any wise to con-
trol or take part in the government of the Church, but only to
support those Avhose office it is to govern her.
The bishops alone possess authority to rule the Church of God.
Hence those who proposed and arranged these assemblies of Catholics,
remembering the saying of St. Ignatius of Antioch : " Let nothing be
done without the bishop," took no steps without previously obtain-
ing the sanction and blessing of the Holy Eather and of the bishops
on their scheme. Nor have these congresses ever interfered with the
direction of ecclesiastical matters; they have merely been instrumen-
tal in carrying out Christian principles ; their members are a militia
under episcopal command. Consequently the bishops have always
highly approved of congresses and attended them in person.
These public meetings of Catholics are of great utility to the
Church; they have been instrumental in founding sodalities
adapted to meet the needs of the day, in promoting unity and
'concord among Catholics, in inspiring them with courage and
confirming their convictions, in increasing the prestige of the
Church, and gaining for her greater liberty of action.
Every one who has been present at a Catholic congress will have
perceived what enthusiasm is evoked by the forcible addresses of the
different speakers, how faith is kindled inwardly and manifested out-
wardly. And from the remarks of the anti-Catholic press, it may be
seen how these congresses win respect even from the enemies of the
Church by their vigorous protests and energetic action. The work
of these congresses has been said to be to pull down the edifice of
10
The Means of Grace.
modern paganism stone by stone, and" raise in its place a noble
basilica.
2. Passion play is the name given to the portrayal of Our
Lord's Passion, and other biblical events in a series of tableaux
vivants.
In the Middle Ages, before the invention of printing had placed
Holy Scripture within the reach of the people, it was customary to
present to their view the chief events of Our Lord's life in theatric
representations. For instance, St. Francis of Assisi obtained the'
Papal permission to construct a stable of brushwood and moss in the
midst of a pine-wood. In it he placed a real manger in which was
laid an image of the divine Infant, while figures representing Mary
and Joseph stood beside it. A real ox and an ass were tied up to a
stall outside the stable; inside an altar was erected, at which at mid-
night the Christmas Mass was solemnly celebrated, St. Francis serv-
ing as deacon, to the great edification of the crowds who flocked from
all parts round to witness the unwonted spectacle. From that time
forth the custom of making a crib in churches began to prevail. In
the Middle Ages, pains were taken to make representations of this
description as picturesque and true to nature as possible; scenes
from the life of Our Lord or other scriptural personages were repre-
sented on the stage in tableaux. The subject of these religious
dramas or miracle-plays as they were called, was generally adapted
to the season of the ecclesiastical year in which they were performed.
At first they were enacted in the church, the actors speaking in Latin ;
later on they were given in the open air, and the vernacular was used.
In the fourteenth century these sacred dramas were customary in al-
most every village in France and Germany, but owing to abuses hav-
ing arisen, they were strictly prohibited by the Holy See. In 1633
they were however revived at Oberammergau, in Bavaria, in conse-
quence of a vow made by the inhabitants to perform a Passion play
every ten years if they were delivered from a pestilence which was
ravaging the village. This Passion play, as well as two others in the
Tyrol,. has acquired a world-wide renown. It is performed with won-
derful skill by the peasants, and in a spirit of heartfelt piety and
recollection. Experience proves that far from being, as some allege,
a profanation of holy things, the representation of the solemn scenes
of Our Lord's sacred Passion has the effect of impressing and touch-
ing the spectators, inspiring feelings of devotion, and elevating the
heart so that the actors are forgotten in the entrancing interest of
the scenes enacted. Besides, the gracious answer to the petition of the
people of Oberammergau ought to silence the objector, for that cannot
be reprehensible of which God manifests His approval in so signal a
manner.
RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS.
The Church makes use of religious associations as a further
means of promoting the salvation of souls.
Religious Associations. 711
In the present day, when the enemies of the Church are so numeri-
cally strong, it behooves her loyal children to form, as it were, into
ranks, and with united forces to withstand the foe. Only in this
wise can victory be ensured. " Few men," says Mirabeau, " acting
conjointly, can make a hundred thousand isolated individuals trem-
ble." This language may appear somewhat exaggerated, but there
is much truth in it. Union is strength. We cannot raise a weight
with a single thread ; but a twisted cord is not easily broken.
1. Religious associations are voluntary societies formed
among' the faithful, with the object of furthering their own
salvation or the salvation of their fellow-men.
Religious associations have much the same aim as secular associa-
tions; the object of the latter is to promote their own earthly advan-
tage or the public weal; that of the former to promote in the first
place their own spiritual interests or those of their fellow-men, and
for the most part, as a secondary consideration, the temporal welfare
of their neighbor.
2. Religious associations may be divided into confraternities
or sodalities, and charitable societies.
Confraternities are, as a rule, exclusively for purposes of
devotion; charitable societies are for the relief of the spiritual
and temporal needs of others.
Thus the members of confraternities make their own spiritual ad-
vancement their primary aim, while charitable societies seek the
good of their neighbor. Religious societies have nothing to do
with politics; but friendly intercourse and innocent amusements
are encouraged as a means of promoting the main object of the
association, and preventing the members from taking part in undesir-
able dissipation.
3. Religious associations are in all spiritual matters subject
to episcopal authority; in some countries the legislature exer-
cises a certain control over them.
In all that concerns religion, the Church has exclusive right over
confraternities and sodalities. Only the bishop, or the general of
an Order has power to erect them; and their rules must be sub-
mitted to him for approval, unless they have been already approved
by the Holy See. To the bishop it belongs to direct the devotional
exercises of the confraternity, to prohibit anything peculiar or ex-
traordinary. It is for him to prescribe the manner in which funds
are to be raised, and how they are to be expended when collected. He
can attend their meetings or send some one to represent him ; he can
also appoint the parish priest to be director of the confraternity. It is
also necessary to obtain ecclesiastical sanction for the forming of
charitable societies.
4. The formation of religious associations has always been
highly commended by the Holy See, and large indulgences have
712
The Means of Grace.
been granted to them, because they are of great benefit both to
the individual members and to the community in general.
Our Holy Father, Leo XIII., in his encyclicals of 1884 and 1891,
expressed high approval of religious associations, especially of the
Society of St. Vincent of Paul, and the guilds of artisans and work-
ingmen. Pope Pius IX. says they are an army set in battle array,
to combat the adversaries of the faith, not with the clash of arms,
but with the silent weapons of prayer. Confraternities may be com-
pared to Noe's ark, because persons living in the world seek in them
a refuge from the rising tide of crime and corruption. The members
of these confraternities, as a rule, lead a more devout and well-ordered
life than the rest of the world. They are not as apt to neglect prayer,
because their rule prescribes certain prayers to be recited daily; they
approach the sacraments more frequently, because days are marked
for them on which a plenary indulgence may be gained; they learn
obedience because they submit to the decisions of their director. They
spend more time in religious exercises than in running after excite-
ment and worldly amusements, and the observance of the regulations
cultivates in them a salutary habit of self-restraint. They tend to
keep up a high standard of faith and morals in the parish to which
they belong, and by their good example lead others to frequent the
sacraments. They assist in the diffusion of good and useful books ;
they all contribute their mite for ecclesiastical purposes; for the
most part, they discharge the obligations of their calling with con-
scientious regularity, and the parish priest often finds them a great
help in the duties of this office. And if some members give scandal,
the rules of the confraternity are not to blame, but the neglect of
them; and it must be remembered that cockle always grows among
the wheat. Charitable societies are also most useful. Through com-
bined action with those who are likeminded with themselves, the
members are encouraged to profess their faith openly and carry into
practice the maxims of the Gospel, and be ready to take part in all
good works. It is remarked that in parishes where there are no con-
fraternities or sodalities, religion is generally at a low ebb.
5. There is this advantage in such associations, that the rules
enjoining the performance of certain good works are not bind-
ing under pain of sin.
St. Francis of Sales was a member of several confraternities; he
gave as a reason for this that one might gain much from them, and
lose nothing. However, if the rules are not observed, the indul-
gences and graces are lost ; this is often the case if one joins too
many confraternities. Let no one think it is a mark of predestination
to be inscribed in the books of a number of societies, for by a holy
life alone can we hope for heaven.
6. Third Orders are, however, in every way more important
than ordinary religious associations.
The Third Order is not to be classed with confraternities, as it
is affiliated to one of the great monastic Orders. " The religious
Religious Associations. 713
state," says St. Alphonsus, " is preferable to all the dignities and
riches of the world."
THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS.
1. The Third Order was founded by St. Francis of Assisi
for the sake of seculars, in order that, by the observance of cer-
tain rules, they might, while still living in the world, attain
speedily and easily to sanctity of life.
After St. Francis of Assisi had already founded the Orders of
the Friars Minor and of the Poor Clares, he was requested by a
wealthy Italian merchant to furnish him with a rule, by following
which he would be enabled to lead a holy life, although his calling
obliged him to hold constant intercourse with men of the world.
The saint gave him a rule, which was soon adopted by other per-
sons. Thus the Third Order of St. Francis originated about the year
1220. Its members lived in the world and wore a gray habit fas-
tened round the waist by a cord. This Third Order was, with some
alterations, confirmed by the Holy See, and spread rapidly throughout
Christendom. It is intended for those who live in the world and
are not of the world.
2. The Third Order is distinguished from ordinary confra-
ternities by the fact that its members are entitled to wear a
habit, and are subject to a religious superior.
Tertiaries, i.e., members of the Third Order, wear a small scapular
under their upper garment, as a part of the religious dress, and a
cord as a girdle, a token of penance. These things are given to the
postulant when he is clothed ; no one is admitted before the completion
of the fourteenth year of his age; he must also be of good morals
and a peaceful disposition. After a year of probation, he is pro-
fessed ; that is he takes a solemn promise to keep the law of God and
' the rule of the Order with all fidelity. The director of the Third
Order is a Franciscan monk, appointed to the office by the general of
the Franciscan Order. This post, which gives power to receive new
members, to give dispensations, to examine aspirants, to exercise
supervision over the professed, may also be filled by a secular priest,
appointed by the provincial. In every parish there is a Zelator,
whose duty it is to see that the members live conformably to the
spirit of the rule.
3. The Third Order is distinguished from the First and
Second Orders, because it does not impose the obligation of
keeping the evangelical counsels, but only the commandments
of the Gospel ; moreover the rules of the Order are not binding
under pain of sin.
The obligations of the rule are verv light. They were consid-
erably mitigated in 1883 by Pope Leo XIII. and adapted to the re-
quirements of the times. The rule enjoins upon the tertiaries:
714
The Means of Grace.
" To obey Gcd's commandments and the precepts of the Church; to
avoid faction and quarrelling, to observe moderation in food, drink
and clothing; to avoid luxury, to refrain as far as they can from the
dangerous seductions of dances and the theatre." They are also
required to fast on the eve of the feast of St. Francis and of the
Immaculate Conception, to approach the sacraments every month,
to recite twelve Paters, Aves and Glorias daily, to hear Mass, if
possible, every day, to attend the monthly meetings, to assist those
of their fellow-members who are sick or destitute, and to pray for
deceased members. Any one who is unable to perform one or more
of these obligations can be dispensed. Special privileges are con-
ceded to priests.
4. The members of the Third Order have greater graces
within their reach than the members of almost any other exist-
ing confraternity.
They can gain a plenary indulgence, on the ordinary conditions,
cnce a month on any day they may choose, on the day of the monthly
meeting, besides some other days, and in the hour of death. Once
a month, by reciting six Pater Nosters, Ave Marias and Glorias, they
may obtain the indulgences of the holy places in Rome, Jerusalem,
Compostella and the Portiuncula. These, and many other rich in-
dulgences attached to various prayers and good works, are all ap-
plicable to the souls in Purgatory. Every Mass said for a departed
member has the indulgence of a privileged altar. The Third Order
enjoys the benefit of the intercession of many eminent saints be-
longing to the Order, especially that of their holy father, St. Fran-
cis; the members are all assisted by the prayers of the numerous
saints of the Franciscan Order and of the Poor Clares before the
throne of God.
5. The Third Order has counted among its members many
distinguished personages and eminent saints.
It would be impossible to enumerate in these pages the crowned
heads, the saints and servants of God whose names are familiar to
all Christians, who have been enrolled in the Third Order of St.
Francis. Our Holy Father Leo XIII. is, and his predecessor in the
Chair of Peter was, a tertiary of this Order. " If this Order were
once more to flourish among us as it did in days of yore," are the
words of our Holy Father, "the lawless greed for temporal things
would be weakened, men would obey their lawful rulers, they would
learn to conquer their natural propensities to evil, they would out-
rage no one's rights, and the relations between rich and poor would
be satisfactorily arrangpd." Py means of the Third Order of St.
Francis the kingdom of God would triumph upon earth, and the
kingdom of Satan be overthrown.
TEE MOPE WIDESPREAD CONFPATEPNTTTES.
~No confraternity can be established in a parish without the per-
mission of the bishop; affiliation to an archconfraternity is also
necessarv.
Religious Associations. 715
1. The object of the Society for the Propagation of the
Faith is to aid and support the work of missions to the heathen
by means of prayer and alms.
The members of this confraternity are required to recite one Our
Father and Hail Mary daily with the invocation : " St. Francis
Xavier, pray for us!" and to pay a small weekly or monthly sum.
Among the indulgences granted to the members of this confraternity,,
the principal is a plenary indulgence on any two days in the month
which they may choose, and one in the hour of death. This work
was founded in 1822 in Lyons, where it still has its centre. The con-
tributions amount to nearly two million dollars annually, half of
which sum is collected in France, chiefly from the working classes.
In the course of forty years no less than one hundred and fifty epis-
copal sees have been erected in different parts of the world and mil-
lions of heathen have been converted to the faith of Christ. Some
say : " There are plenty of poor at home." Let these remember that
there is no work so meritorious as one which contributes to the sal-
vation of souls, or one to which such abundant blessings are prom-
ised.
2. The object of the Confraternity of the Child Jesus is
to provide funds to enable missioners to receive and educate
in a Christian manner heathen children who are abandoned by
their parents.
The members of this association are required to recite a Hail
Mary daily, with the prayer : " O Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us
and for the unhappy heathen children." No one is admitted into this
association who is not under twenty-one years of age. Oftentimes
a mother will enrol her child in this confraternity, and herself per-
form the obligations attached to it; thus by helping to rescue an
unknown child from eternal destruction, she obtains a special bless-
ing for her own offspring. This association was originally founded
in China, where sickly children or those of whom their parents
would fain be rid, are ruthlessly exposed and left to perish.
3. The object of the Confraternity of St. Michael is to as-
sist the Supreme Pontiff by the prayers and alms of the faithful.
The members of this association are required to recite one Our
Father, one Hail Mary and the Creed daily for the intentions of
the Holy Father, and to contribute not less than twenty-five cents
yearly to the Peter's Pence. This confraternity is under the pro-
tection of the archangel St. Michael. A plenary indulgence is
granted to the members in the hour of death.
4. The object of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament
is the adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
In the present dav the Confraternity of the Pemetual Adoration
is being widely propagated. Each member pledges himself to spend
an hour every month in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The
TIG The Means of Grace.
members watch in turn, generally on Sundays or hoiydays. The
chief indulgences are a plenary indulgence once a month, the day
being optional; on the first Thursday in the month; on the feast of
Corpus Christi or in the octave; on the five principal feasts of Our
Lady, besides other festivals, and in the hour of death. It is meet
that Our Lord, present under the eucharistic veils, should be per-
petually adored. Just as there is no hour of the day or night in
which in some place on earth the holy sacrifice is not offered, and as
in heaven the hosts of angels and the company of the redeemed un-
ceasingly sing the Tersanctus, so it is right that on earth the ascrip-
tion of praise should incessantly resound : " O Sacrament most holy,
O Sacrament divine! All praise and all thanksgiving be every mo-
ment Thine." In addition to the Confraternity of Perpetual Adora-
tion there are besides in every town, tabernacle or altar societies,
the object of which is to honor the Adorable Sacrament of the Altar
by doing the sacristy work, and providing altar linen, vestments, etc.,
for poor churches. Each member of these societies pledges herself
to spend an hour in church every month in watching before the
Blessed Sacrament.
5. The object of the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus is to venerate and adore the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, and
participate in the abundant graces He promises to those who
practise this devotion.
The members of this confraternity are required to recite an Our
Father, Hail Mary, and the Creed daily, with the prayer : " O sweet-
est Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may ever love thee more and
more ; " they are moreover to approach the sacraments every month,
if possible on the first Sunday or Friday of the month; to keep the
feast of the Sacred Heart (on the Friday or Sunday after the octave
of Corpus Christi) with all solemnity, and to pray for the members
of the association both living and dead. Many rich indulgences are
attached to this confraternity; among others, an indulgence of sixty
days is granted for every good work performed during the day. In
order to belong to this confraternity, it is not necessary that it should
be erected in the place where one lives ; any one who is once en-
rolled can gain all the indulgences by complying with the obligations
imposed on the members. When Our Lord appeared to Blessed Mary
Alacoque,. He made known to her the great and abundant graces
vouchsafed to all who honor His Sacred Heart with particular de-
votion.
6. The object of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary is
to promote the devotion of the Rosary.
To form the " living rosary " fifteen individuals unite every month
to apportion among themselves (generally by drawing lots) the fifteen
decades of the Rosary; each one recites the decade which falls to his
share daily throughout the month ; thus between them they recite the
whole Rosary every day. This confraternity is under the direction
of the Dominicans. A plenary indulgence may be gained by the
members on the third Sunday of every month, on Trinity Sunday,
Religious Associations. 717
on the principal feasts of Our Lord and of His blessed Mother. The
recitation of the Rosary is also indulgenced in a special manner. The
Confraternity of the Holy Rosary was established in the lifetime
of St. Dominic; the members are required to recite all the fifteen
decades of the Rosary every week, but not all on one and the self-
same day. This confraternity is affiliated to the Dominican Order;
its members share in the good works of the whole Order, and are
placed under the special protection of Our Lady. A plenary indul-
gence is granted on the first Sunday of the month, on all feasts of
Our Lady, on the three great festivals of the Church, and in the hour
of death.
7. The object of the Confraternity of the Holy Scapular is
to implore the protection and intercession of the blessed Mother
of God in all the perils of this life, in the hour of death, and
in the flames of purgatory.
This confraternity was founded in 1250 by St. Simon Stock, then
general of the Carmelite Order. The Mother of God appeared to
him and gave him a scapular, with the promise that every one who
wore it, and lived piously, should escape eternal death, should
experience her protection in seasons of danger, and should be
speedily released from purgatory. An aspirant will be admitted
into the confraternity by a priest who has the necessary faculties from
the provincial of the Carmelites; his name will be entered in the
register of the confraternity and the scapular hung round his neck.
This scapular consists of two small pieces of brown cloth, fastened
together by braid, so that one piece hangs on the breast, the other o»
the back; this must be worn night and day. Members of the Third
Order of Mount Carmel are obliged to recite the little ofiice of Our
Lady (which may, if necessary, be commuted to a certain number of
Paters and Aves), to fast on every Friday throughout the year, be-
sides other specified days ; to make a daily meditation of at least half
an hour, and observe certain other rules. Plenary indulgences may
be gained by members of the confraternity on all the festivals of Our
Lady, and on days when the principal saints of the Order are com-
memorated, on the usual conditions, with a visit, if possible, to a
church or chapel of the Order. There are four other scapulars : that
of the Holy Trinity, of the seven dolors, of the Immaculate Concep-
tion, and of the Passion. The five are often worn all together. For each
of these certain prayers are prescribed to be repeated daily. Our
blessed Lady acts towards her children as Rebecca did to her favorite
son Jacob ; she arrayed him in the garments of his brother Esau, in
order that he might obtain the blessing of his father ; so Mary clothes
us with the scapular, the livery of her divine Son, to render us accept-
able in the sight of our heavenly Father and obtain for us His
benediction.
8. The object of the Confraternity of the Bona Mors is to
obtain for its members who are yet on earth the privilege of a
happy death, and for the departed a speedy release from the
cleansing fires.
718 The Means of Grace.
The members of this confraternity are bound to have a Mass said
once every year for the intention of their fellow-members, that the
•one who is the next to die may have a happy death, and those who are
already gone before may experience a mitigation of the pains of pur-
gatory. They are also exhorted to approach the sacraments fre-
quently, to entertain a special devotion to the Immaculate Concep-
tion, to St. Joseph, the patron of a good death, and often to make
acts of the theological virtues and of contrition. This confraternity
is very richly indulgenced. For every visit to a sick person, twenty
years; for every meditation of half-an-hour's length, sixty years;
for every visit to a church, seven years, etc. All these indulgences
are applicable to the souls in purgatory.
9. The object of the Confraternity of the Holy Ghost is to
beseech the Holy Ghost to multiply the number of priests, and
enlighten them with His divine light.
The members of this confraternity are required to repeat daily
seven Glorias and one Ave for this intention, also to make a novena
hefore Pentecost and receive the sacraments frequently. Among other
indulgences they may gain one hundred days for every good work
they perform, a plenary indulgence at Pentecost and on the An-
nunciation (or in the octaves of these feasts) and in the hour of
-death.
THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER.
This is a league of prayers in union with the Sacred Heart
of Jesus.
The Apostleship of Prayer is not a confraternity or sodality, but
a pious organization, whose object is to give an apostolic character
and power to all our prayers, work, and sufferings. This object it
attains by the union of its members with the unceasing pleading
of the Sacred Heart in the sacrifice of the Mass: and this union is
effected by the morning offering, which constitutes the First Degree
Of the Apostleship of Prayer and the only essential duty of its mem-
bers. The morning offering is thus worded : " O Jesus, through the
immaculate heart of Mary, I offer Thee the prayers, work, and suffer-
ings of this day in union with the intentions of Thy Divine Heart
in the holy Mass."
Two things are necessary for membership:
(1), Registration of one's name by a local director in an affiliated
centre; (2), A certificate of admission. Centres are affiliated by
diplomas from the director general (a father of the Society of Jesus,
residing at Toulouse, France) and transmitted to them by the
diocesan directors, whom, with the license and in accordance with the
nomination of the Ordinary, he has appointed for that purpose. The
second degree consists in the daily recital of one Our Father and ten
Hail Marys for the monthly intention approved bv the Holy Father;
and the third degree in offering a communion of atonement to the
Sacred Heart, once a week, or at least once a month on a day or days
Religious Associations, 71.9
fixed by arrangement with a promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer.
The organ of the association is called " The Messenger of the Sacred
Heart" published by the authorized editors in various countries under
the direction of the director general. There are thirty-seven distinct
editions of the Messenger. The members of the Apostleship of Prayer
in the whole world number some twenty to thirty millions.
CHARITABLE SOCIETIES.
1. The Society of St. Vincent of Paul is very widespread;
its object is to seek out the destitute and afford them spiritual
and temporal relief.
The work of the active members of this society is to visit the
poor in their own dwellings, to assist them with money and the
necessaries of life, and to make use of every means to ameliorate
their moral and spiritual condition. They also collect voluntary
donations and subscriptions from those who are interested in the
work. Conferences of the members are held every week, as a rule,
for consultation respecting the most necessitous cases and the most
necessary works of mercy. For visiting the poor, for every alms dis-
tributed to them, as well as for everything that is done in their
service, a large indulgence is granted. This society was started in
Paris in 1830 by eight students, after imploring the help and guid-
ance of St. Vincent of Paul, whose remains rest in the Church of
St. Lazare. It has spread with astonishing rapidity throughout all
the countries of Europe, and it is impossible to estimate the amount
of good effected by its means.
2. Mention may also be made of the Society of St. Boniface,
the object of which is to preserve German Catholics living in
Protestant surroundings from losing their faith, by providing
them with priests of their own nation, and establishing schools
for the education of their children.
3. The Society of St. Raphael, instituted for the purpose of
affording counsel and protection to German subjects emigrating
to America.
It is not intended to encourage and promote emigration; on the
'contrary, many persons are deterred from it, and the intending
emigrant is warned of the dangers awaiting him in a strange land.
He is exhorted to go to his religious duties before starting on the
voyage, and on his arrival in the United States he is provided with
suitable shelter, and often employment is found for him.
4. The Catholic Society for Friendless Youths.
This proposes as its object to lead young workingmen to follow
a religious and upright life, to encourage a spirit of industry and
brotherly kindness among them. A priest presides over this society;
the youths are assembled of an evening for innocent entertainment,
720 The Means of Grace.
reading, and religious instruction. They are assisted in sickness or
poverty, and every endeavor is made to render them useful members
of society.
5. The Workingman's Guild.
This association, as well as the one spoken of above, was orig-
inated in Germany by Adolf Kolping, the so-called " apostle of the
working-classes," who began life as a shoemaker's apprentice, and
through diligent study and pious perseverance, fitted himself for
the office of the priesthood. A great number of friendly societies
and charitable works for the improvement of the laboring classes,
and for the promotion of kindly feeling between employers and em-
ployed, owe their establishment to him.
Various societies suited to the needs of the people.
It would be difficult to enumerate the various associations, suited
to the exigencies of the day in different countries, and corresponding
to the special needs of the different classes of men and women, which
the charity of Catholics has instituted. The Catholic Truth Society
has for its object to supply instructive and useful literature at a low
price ; its work is rapidly extending, and is productive of most satis-
factory results. " In the present day," as one of our bishops remarks,
" the need is strongly felt for combination and centralization in all
great undertakings in the field of politics, commerce and finance. Let
us then, who are Catholics, unite to form a healthy body, powerful to
promote and maintain the spirit of Christianity in our families.
The striving after union, now so strongly marked in every depart-
ment of social life, surely ought to play a no less prominent part in
our religious life."
PRINTED BY BENZIGER BROTHERS, NEW YORK.
I
SEP 28 1899
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